Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en]

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume10 Chapter3

2026-03-23T22:23:26Z

Massify: /* Part 5 */

==Chapter 3: Prophecy – Last_Branch(of_Die).==

===Part 1===

Late at night in District 7, Anna Kingsford stood at the very top of an enormous crane.

She stood tall and simply directed her gaze overhead.

The night sky seemed blotted out by the lights of the city, but viewing the clear stars in the sky gave this expert access to more information than searching the world linked together by fiber optics.

And she only used this for just causes.

Which was what made her an expert.

(The ⭐s are in place. That boy should become aware of the branch he passed by now.)

She sighed.

That was a complete side issue.

For one, Kingsford had never directly met Kamijou Touma. Which made him no more than a stranger in the same city as her.

(But awareness does ❌ allow him to change it. It may be his life, but he can ❌ change the decision he made on a branch he has already passed. Just like CRC passed a crucial branch ''and was defeated in a ⚔️ he should have won easily.'' The greatest enemy in an individual’s life is their own karma.)

“Not that he can ignore it now that he knows.”

But she would not just abandon him.

That expert did not consider her own interests, the state of the battle, or even whether or not she knew the boy.

He was a complete stranger?

So what?

If anyone was troubled, uncertain, or suffering, she was already taking action.

Anna Kingsford had perfected that way of life.

A fool who had yet to reach that point spoke to her.

It was the human named Aleister.

“Where are you going, Kingsford?”

“To serve others.”

“That’s my job. There’s no reason for you to continue fighting!!”

Even her battle against Rosencreutz had essentially been a miracle.

She had not actually won the battle. CRC could instantly search for any information about the world, but he had ''just so happened'' to overlook the fact that Anna Kingsford was a preserved corpse. If not for that, he would have destroyed her more thoroughly and she couldn’t have recovered.

She was reliant on unpredictable miracles.

Even a magician who mastered the field to the point of being known as an expert would lose eventually.

She had to know that.

Alice Anotherbible had easily crushed and killed CRC and so thoroughly eliminated him from the world that he could never recover. She was a true monster.

Kingsford had not reached that point.

She had to understand that. She wielded great power using the correspondence between the microcosm within a person and the macrocosm of the physical world around them, so she would have thoroughly analyzed herself in that way.

But the woman with a proper understanding of magic’s essence smiled as she responded.

She was accurately viewing her own fate, but she didn’t hesitate to speak.

“This is 👋.”

“But!!”

Contact with the new Board Chairman had been lost.

They couldn’t hope for anymore cooperation, so they had to settle this on their own.

The situation was clearly worsening and Alice was even more powerful than CRC. Certain death awaited Kingsford. Alice waited in a land that brought death to all who set foot there.

“Aleister. You must have understood from the beginning that I am ❌ more than a preserved corpse. You are only using ⚙️s to move an already ☠️ body around, so I never was alive. I escaped the previous ⚔️ intact by pure luck, but ❌ even that can save me next time. This ☠️ body will find only ☠️.”

“…”

As an expert who understood the secrets of the world of the living and the world of the dead, she was not too attached to her own life.

The only ones who clung to life with such ugly desperation were the half-baked magicians who remained fixated on this one life.

Still, he understood in his own inexpert way.

Anna Kingsford was an expert through and through. She didn’t even think of clinging to life or staying in this world forever.

She was only interested in eliminating the unknown threat making someone suffer before her eyes.

She didn’t even consider whether or not she had ever met that person.

She had no intention of returning. Her win condition didn’t even take that into account.

She was an example of how far people could go if they mastered their field.

“What was my role meant to be? I was supposed to be a trump 🃏 for use against the unbeatable Anna Sprengel. Now that Miss Sprengel has been freed from her wicked ⛓️ and that ⚔️ need ❌ be fought, my purpose is complete.”

Aleister had no response to that.

Because she was exactly right.

This goodbye could not be avoided. This was Aleister Crowley’s reward for wielding superhuman knowledge, doing what no one else could do, and enduring trials normal people would never even know existed. Kingsford was correct that the greatest enemy in an individual’s life was their own karma.

He was already in checkmate.

And yet…

“That just means I have to do the work myself.”

He understood it intellectually but he still tried to fight it. Was that because Aleister was an inexpert and ugly human?

But you must never forget that, while that human had accumulated a lot of bad karma, he would never stop struggling for his own ends.

“Aleister Crowley officially died in 1947 and stubbornly clung to life until he actually died battling Great Demon Coronzon. I’m as dead as you are. If someone has to save that boy, I’ll do it. I can do it if necessary!! And I’m better suited for that role. The wickedest man in the world should be standing up to the world even after death, not a pure and proper holy woman!”

“But you are still fixated on this 🌍.”

She shot back.

A true expert did not bother arguing about secrets.

She had already seen into the depths of his mind that even he wasn’t consciously aware existed.

She did it naturally.

And kindly.

“Conscious or ❌, you hijacked that great 👿’s body to cling to life. Either you still have something you want to do in this 🌍, or there is something you are ❌ yet willing to give up here. Dying for him is not the same as living with him. It never can be. Either way, it is too soon for you. Everyone dies eventually, so there is no need to rush toward ☠️. Live out your life first, Aleister. You can prepare yourself for ☠️ once you have done that.”

Kingsford smiled as she said this.

Smiled faintly.

Aleister lightly clenched his empty right hand.

He felt the pressure of a staff so twisted his fingertips tingled at the mere sight of it.

Special numbers scattered from his hand like sparks.

“I’ve had enough. What if I said I would stop you by force?”

“I would knock you aside and continue on my way.”

“Kh.”

She didn’t even hesitate.

She said it gently, like it was a foregone conclusion.

Kingsford used no more than words to overpower the victor of the Battle of Blythe Road.

He couldn’t say she couldn’t do it. He was already well past his limit with Alice Anotherbible and Anna Sprengel. He had only so insolently decided to make use of this preserved corpse because he couldn’t handle them.

Trickery, betrayal, surprise attacks, intrigue, and – when necessary – direct confrontation.

He had used every trick in the book to drive the world’s greatest magic cabal to destruction at the Battle of Blythe Road, but none of it would work here.

He could not win in a direct one-on-one confrontation.

If Anna Kingsford went all out, Aleister had no way of opposing her. He knew she would simply prove how inexpert he really was. He would never manage to get his hands on the switch hidden below her skin.

“I do ❌ want you to ☠️ here. No number of previous ☠️s is any reason to accept ☠️ next time. So I will use all of my power to defeat you here. Soundly enough that you do ❌ have enough strength left to go out and ☠️.”

That was contradictory.

Kingsford kept saying she would not let people die so easily, but she was about to head out for her own death.

She was saying she would use up all of the tickets provided for her as a thinking and moving preserved corpse.

But that gentle smile of hers made the contradictory premise and conclusion seem to fit together with no problem.

It was strange really.

Was this the essence of magic known only to the few true experts – a position Aleister had yet to reach? This was the human-made miracle of protecting everyone you encountered and spreading smiles everywhere you went.

He couldn’t stop her.

This wasn’t the ''divine cosplay spell'' that simply let one dress up in the appearance and abilities of a god. Nor was it the reverse logic where one tried to divulge the workings of the world to rebel against the god they so hated.

With a quiet bump, the failure of a student buried his face in Anna Kingsford’s chest.

He sniffled like a child.

“I don’t want you to die.”

“I know.”

“You shouldn’t have to die.”

“That I met someone who feels that way and that I inspired these feelings in you, who felt betrayed by everything, tells me that I have won a victory against this 🌍.”

Clear drops spilled out.

Anna Kingsford held the lost child’s head to her chest and whispered gently to him.

She stroked the inexpert one’s blonde hair like a mother.

“I think you did have need of my preserved corpse. Especially on December 31. If no one had stopped Anna Sprengel, the 🌍 would have been thrown into chaos before CRC could even be reborn.”

One by one, the expert explained everything to the fool.

She taught him some terribly simple things that no one had ever before taught that human.

Not his parents who had thought meaningless strictness was a virtue, not his teachers who had failed to correct the social problem left in their care, and not the Golden magicians who had abandoned their pursuit of knowledge to spend their time on ugly internecine conflict.

Even though these should have been the first things he was taught.

“But you must ❌ toy with life. Because you are powerful enough to do so with ease, you have ❌ way to keep yourself focused other than using pure willpower to manage yourself. The ☠️ have their own dignity. Humans remain human even in ☠️. You ensured your own pain from the moment you disrespected the ☠️ for the sake of the living. Improve yourself, Aleister. If you do ❌ fear taking the long way around to avoid pain, there is much you can learn. Just like any magician.”

“…”

“And do ❌ worry, lost child of the living. You will not be alone. As an expert, I will do whatever it takes to save the one you care for. Even if it requires every trick in the 📖. So there is ❌ chance you will be crushed by loneliness.”

===Part 2===

Kamijou Touma heard a wet sound.

It came from inside his body.

He thought he must have imagined it.

But the sound of rotting flesh falling away was so distinct.

“…”

He was dying.

He was certain of it in that brightly lit classroom.

It was an unavoidable fate. No one had cruelly pushed him to this point. There was a chance he could have survived had he given up on saving others, but he had chosen this path for himself while on the dark side.

He felt an odd scraping.

Was that the wound from Aradia he felt in his right side and spine? The odd feeling in his neck would be H.T. Trismegistus.

Everything felt normal-ish, but that lack of extreme pain only terrified him more.

Something was definitely happening to him.

He couldn’t tell what was happening inside him. He only felt a vague disgust. It was like his silent organs were changing color without sending out any kind of alert. Death. The end. An invisible pressure. A cruel time bomb with the LCD timer omitted.

“Human…”

Even Magic God Othinus only groaned that word before falling silent.

There was no recovering from this.

''“You will die.”

''“That doesn’t change my answer.”

Thinking back, he had made that fateful choice when that god wasn’t with him.

He had carelessly made such an important decision on his own.

Of course he had screwed it up.

Everything had been wrong from the beginning.

How many times had he availed himself of Good, Old Mary’s resurrection? In other words, ''how many times had he died on the way here''? In just a few days’ time? Maybe you would survive certain death, as if by mistake, once over your long life. But he seriously doubted those bugs or errors would occur in his favor every single time like that. Not to mention that he was plagued by misfortune due to his right hand, so lady luck would never smile on him in that way.

The flaw wasn’t in Good, Old Mary.

Bringing him back to life even once was more than enough of a miracle.

The problem was him having her use it so many times in such a short period of time without considering the usage limits.

''He couldn’t fool death any longer.

''The corner of the mask was starting to peel away.

“Hey, teacher, why do you think the girl wanted the grimoire library?”

“…”

“Because the girl wanted to use the library’s knowledge to do something she couldn’t? To correct her broken head? No, the girl is already perfect and unbreakable. The answer is simple. ''The girl wanted to help you after you passed the final branch.'' The girl wanted to search through a library of all the world’s knowledge to find some method still remaining in this world. That was all.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………”

He had passed the fatal branch.

He had foolishly chosen to cross it and he had arrived at a mistaken destination.

Which one of them was really in need of help?

“If the girl found it, she would use it. If not, she would give up, deciding the world was just too shallow. There are billions of people in this wide world, so if not even one of them has a way to save you, it means they didn’t try hard enough and then the girl would have to punish them all with her power.”

H.T. Trismegistus had said he had always been one of the Killers.

He had said the swiftest and surest way to take Kamijou’s life was to have him meet Alice. He had been right.

It didn’t help the deathly ill to fear the doctor’s prognosis. Kamijou understood that. They had come down with the illness much earlier. The real problem may have been from their exercise, diet, or other life habits.

Nevertheless, that fear was real.

The tables had been turned.

The symbol of death had shifted from Alice Anotherbible to another girl Kamijou knew quite well.

White. Pure white. The all-knowing nun who was always by his side.

He felt no pain.

He wasn’t even given the right to writhe in agony as certain death approached.

The pressure mounted.

Like he was being slowly crushed by an incredibly thick invisible wall.

Which was more horrific: being turned to red and black spray by the world’s fastest linear motor train before you could even feel the fear, or having your body gradually drawn into the wheel of a local train as it pulled into the station?

With no malice, the girl spoke with an innocent smile.

“Well, teacher? Let’s go see the grimoire library! The girl can’t diagnose you, so we can have the all-knowing nun do that part☆”

===Part 3===

H.T. Trismegistus watched from a distance.

He had known Alice Anotherbible longer than any other member of the Bridge Builders Cabal. After all, he was the one who had discovered her in the modern day.

But there was a lot the young butler did not know.

Most notably, he did not know her origins.

Where was she born, where was she raised, where was she altered, and from where had she fled?

He didn’t have a single answer.

It had only been pure coincidence when he found her in a city abroad. She was in the shadows of a roofless shelter. She had tremendous value as an open-source spell, but he had not realized this until well after taking in the wandering girl.

At first, she had been like a wild animal.

She had gone so wild he had questioned what she had even eaten to survive.

It was nothing more than luck that Alice hadn’t known how to use her power. If she had chaotically wielded her power as Alice Anotherbible at that point, she probably would have destroyed the entire world.

Alice was smiling innocently next to someone else.

She wore an expression he had never seen before.

That much was fine.

The young man simply obeyed. Of course, this was for himself, not for Alice. H.T. Trismegistus was a Transcendent who had abandoned his magic name to dress up in the appearance and abilities of a god. He could only view the world and choose who to save based on the salvation condition he had set for himself. So the first person he had to save was not himself or Alice.

He was the guardian deity of common sense.

He protected the people against anything that altered people’s sense of normalcy: war, rioting, disaster, loneliness, disease, famine, financial panic.

He sought a master who would save the world.

''Or to put it another way,'' the only person he would allow to distort common sense was the bearer of the paradigm shift that would guide all of humanity to the next stage. He could not leave this in the hands of just any old charismatic leader.

Was Christian Rosencreutz the one he sought?

Or was it Alice Anotherbible?

His objective was clear, but a question occurred to the young butler.

He knew his salvation condition.

But who exactly did he want to save?

===Part 4===

On the District 7 bridge, the Transcendents vs. Transcendents battle was trending in one direction.

“Tch! Good, Old Mary!?” shouted Aradia, holding onto the railroad crossing barrier she had borrowed as a broom and clinging to the side of a steel beam distributing the bridge’s weight.

But the woman collapsed on the cold asphalt did not respond.

That was a bad sign.

Good, Old Mary was the foundation of their recovery magic, but she had suddenly collapsed.

This was worse than simply losing one of their number.

Vidhatri, the brown-skinned woman with model-like proportions, shook the arms and legs of the Dhatri ball-joint doll she wore on her back, intricately manipulating white thread and black hair as she whispered to Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.

“Do you still need support?”

“Nope. Everyone can do their own thing. Instead of assigning as many Transcendents as we can to attacking a single point, it would help me if we increased the total number of attack points to fill up the processing power of their minds.”

Something hovered through the air.

Some teacups and saucers were slowly flying around

Those were symbols from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The Bologna Succubus noticed and groaned while breathing heavily with her hands down on the ground.

“Kssshhh, they’ve made it this far?”

“Ha ha☆ Of course they have.”

[[Image:GT Index v10 BW4.png|thumb]]

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet smiled calmly.

A single smile on that extremely lovable face summoned a great black dragon into the night sky. Was the twisting serpent actually tens of thousands of starlings? They were not venomous, but in great enough numbers, any creature was a threat to human life.

The instant the Bologna Succubus looked up at the black dragon filling the entire night sky, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet took a large step forward.

Without hesitation.

“Kh.”

Now was not the time to be overwhelmed by the intimidating numbers.

The Bologna Succubus flapped her wings to gather as much air as possible.

She launched herself straight to the side.

The coat-shaped blast-resistant suit covered in thick metal panels snapped shut like a ferocious beast’s jaws. It was a sweet-smelling iron maiden. The air inside that isolated space was compressed with no outlet, producing a strange sound much like a steam engine.

The Bologna Succubus had just barely avoided it.

If she had carelessly stayed in place, she would have been “devoured”.

Instead of feeling fear, she gathered offensive power between her brows.

(Argh. I can’t let this chaos be unleashed on the boy’s city.)

What were Kamijou Touma and Alice Anotherbible doing right now?

She couldn’t predict how few seconds a regular Transcendent would last against Alice if she were serious about fighting, but it was still much too dangerous to let that boy stand defenselessly before Alice.

The alluring demon smiled bitterly at that thought and focused her feelings on the battle at hand.

“Oh, what’s this?”

Smiling, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet again spread her arms wide. Slowly.

Almost like a solid wall, a stifling nectar scent emerged from the blast-resistant suit and pushed toward the Bologna Succubus. Even at this distance, she had to stay focused to avoid getting dizzy.

What was happening in that closed world?

The skinny girl(?) wearing an apron over her naked body giggled before speaking.

“This won’t hurt at all, so don’t worry. I’m more interested in creating a gentle world where even the unloved are loved equally. Did you really understand my salvation condition? Kee hee hee☆ I have love even for a filthy sex demon, so get over here and let me give you a hug!!”

“Killing with pleasure, huh?”

“Ah ha ha☆ This is Total Courtship! Welcome to the sweetest, most luxurious ending to a life♪”

Roaches could rapidly build up a resistance to deadly insecticides, so they couldn’t necessarily be killed by escalating the chemical suffering. Instead, there were products that ''tricked them'' into thinking ethanol, acetaldehyde, sotolon, or another chemical compound was delicious food, luring them into the trap where they would take a different chemical back to the colony to kill them all at once. Humans didn’t just use what their target disliked – they would also use whatever their target most liked.

This girl similarly used love to kill. She was a super sweet monster who had continually honed the emotion of love into a deadly weapon. If you simply increased your defenses to prevent pain and prepared ordinary attacks, she would ''slip past them all'' and kill you instantly.

She was a specialist in that.

This Transcendent was a different form of strongest, whose trump card was the complete opposite of the Bologna Succubus’s Cold Mistress which converted all forms of pleasure into pain.

Her victims were robbed of even the right to feel fear as they were filled with no more than ''happiness'' until they lost their life. In a trippy world where everything was vague, they would cross the final line without intent or resolve.

They were stranded.

She had complete control over them, not even giving them a chance to speak their final words.

She brought a death more certain than a .44 caliber bullet and its name was love.

“Yeah, I don’t think we could ever get along.”

“Kya ha ha☆ You’re only saying that because that makes it more exciting, aren’t you!?”

This must have been her combat form.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet had her enormous blast-resistant suit spread wide to display the terrarium trapped within. The skinny naked-apron girl pushed out a nectar scent so powerful it caused heartburn. And she took a casual step forward.

“You didn’t find it remotely odd? We’re all regular Transcendents here. A clash between our two groups shouldn’t end so easily. Yet you’re being easily defeated in a one-sided game. Is it a bad matchup between the individual Transcendents? Do our spells combine so well it’s like we were dealt a royal flush? No, that could never happen.”

“…”

“''No one can defeat Alice Anotherbible.''”

For this alone, she took on a respectful tone.

Almost like she was reading off the handwritten creed only she believed in.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet thought only of her own blessings as she spoke euphorically.

“You underestimated the meaning of that statement. And that optimism has brought you certain death. It doesn’t just mean you won’t survive a direct physical fight against Alice. There’s no getting around it. We control all of the coincidences and all of our baseless hunches and inspirations will work out in our favor. We have the ''trends'' of the world on our side. That is what it means to ‘resonate’ with Alice and take the winning side. To be clear, we are only firing blindly from the hip. You’re the ones ensuring we hit you.”

Vidhatri.

2nd Saga.

And Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.

The Bologna Succubus’s side was being worn down, but all three of them were unharmed. She had gotten a few clean hits in on them, so had they managed to shrug off the damage?

And she was slipping past their expectations and landing an attack they failed to dodge or defend against, so it made no sense for them to be changing their stance to reduce the damage with 100% accuracy.

That wasn’t their individual abilities.

It was their “resonance” with Alice Anotherbible.

“Defying her means death. You had lost from the moment you bet on there being an exception to that, like that you could move beyond her reach, hide where she couldn’t find you, or escape punishment if your defiance was indirect. Not that she would let you get away with this even if you had been correct.”

“How are you on Alice’s side when you only love yourself?”

“Isn’t it cruel to expect such a small child to judge everything so accurately? They say to let your child make mistakes to learn from them, but do you think that kind of harsh parental love will work on that girl? Alice is simpler than that. Which is what makes her so frightening. At her mental age, she probably sees anyone who praises her and spoils her as her ally.”

And it didn’t end there.

“Heyyy.”

Something enormous was parting the large river to approach.

It was a special warship measuring around 100m long.

That was small compared to a nuclear aircraft carrier of more than 300m long, but it was undoubtedly a warship.

Plus, this was not the ship itself.

It was made out of smooth white shadow.

A girl’s lazy voice played from the speakers probably meant for giving warnings or making threats.

Come to think of it, hadn’t one of them seemingly vanished?

“This took some time to prepare, but I’m back.”

The ship’s bridge stood taller than the iron bridge.

She must have torn down all the other bridges spanning the river to clear a path here. It made you wonder which side was doing more damage to Academy City.

Aradia’s eyes really did bug out as she shouted.

“Mut Thebes!? What is that thing!?”

“You don’t know? It’s the Academy City drone carrier Kagenui.”

An aircraft carrier had to carry multiple large aircraft, necessitating a great size. Submersible and aerial aircraft carriers could not be made because the size and weight affected their balance too much. ...But that accepted principle had been overturned by shrinking the aircraft down by eliminating the cockpit and turning them into drones. Even the maintenance work could be carried out by an unmanned maintenance factory within the ship.

As usual, Academy City loved making bizarre things.

But now wasn’t the time for exasperation.

That was a carrier.

“Go, everyone.”

A series of explosions rang out. The boxy canisters on the flat deck rose up and opened fire. There were electrically ignited guns that could fire at a rate of a million rounds a minute. It looked like a programmed fireworks show. In truth, the honeycomb-like holes on the front of the canisters were releasing a large number of flying objects. By spreading their movable wings in air, they gathered in orderly teams and flew in formation. Now both sides had a flying swarm. The drones clashed directly with the tens of thousands of starlings ruling the night sky.

The assumptions and superiority had been overturned.

One side was alive and the other was machine.

When they were both controlled remotely and were equal in number, it went without saying whether the small birds or the man-made meter-long aerial weapons would win.

Perhaps the counterattack was necessary.

But as the drones pursued the fleeing starlings, their machinegun fire stabbed into the skyscrapers built along the river and sent sparks exploding from walls as thick power cables were ruptured.

“Mut Theeeebes!!!”

Aradia roared in anger, but then she stopped.

The brown girl was acting weird.

“Yayyy. Who wants to take a killer selfie? Just tell me when and I’ll get the timing right for you. Yippee! Let’s keep this Alice Parade Party going☆”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet giggled.

She clearly welcomed this turn of events.

Mut Thebes wasn’t enemy or ally – she was losing all awareness that she was participating in the battle at all. She was throwing that aside to enjoy herself. And her actions were clearly working against the Bologna Succubus’s side.

They sensed a trend in the series of unpleasant coincidences.

“I believe it’s called Acute Kotatsu Syndrome. Basically, Alice affects the group psychology of an area when she stays there long enough. Did you think you were ''immune'' for some reason? Even magicians and Transcendents will be engulfed by Alice sooner or later.”

“…”

“That includes all of us. Yes, you are no exception, Bologna Succubus. And most likely, neither are we. We will all lose our sense of who is on whose side in this mad tea party. The world that people across the globe have worked so hard to create could end today, but in a way that could mean the arrival of an age of peace. If everything is engulfed and everyone is a victim, then the distinction between enemy and ally loses all meaning.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet made it sound so obvious.

But it didn’t add up.

They were using their all-important salvation conditions as an excuse to love themselves and preserve their power by protecting Alice, so they wouldn’t want an ending where they were engulfed by Alice’s madness and lost sight of who they were. Narcissists who cared about themselves more than anything else in the world would never seek out a form of satisfaction created by having their internal aesthetic sense altered.

“''Do you have any idea what you’re saying''?”

“Ha ha☆ What? Are you saying I’ve already broken too''?”

It didn’t sound like she cared.

Someone on her level had lost the right to feel fear and disgust, or even detect that anything was amiss.

This space was going mad.

It had started at a single point, but the entire world would be this way eventually.

Whether or not Alice Anotherbible wanted it.

This was ominous enough to make that prediction.

“It doesn’t really matter. No one can defy Alice whether they put up a resistance or not.”

“Are you shoving responsibility for the world onto Alice’s shoulders while you alone abandon the effort of living, like you’re just a tree, grass, or flower, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet!?”

“Hee hee☆ Total Courtship – ready for dissemination. Now, I think I’ll pack you so full of super-sweet love that all your veins burst. Alice hates it when you try to lecture people like that, which is why she’s striking back at you, you know?”

===Part 5===

“…”

Anna Sprengel saw it.

She had supposedly divined the location of Kamijou and Alice, but ''something had gone wrong'' and she ended up here instead. Were you not even allowed to walk in a straight line without the proper credentials in this wonderland?

Everything within a 400 radius of the iron bridge was a zone of death. Crowds who had never even seen Alice directly were filling the streets due to her influence, but not even they would approach that area.

It may have been a type of instinct.

Just like people’s homing instincts worked even when drunk, the boys and girls who had lost sight of reality still knew they should keep away.

Although even that instinct would probably melt away eventually.

Once that happened, the world really was over.

Anna wanted to rescue Kamijou Touma. She wanted to fight against Alice Anotherbible with him. She wanted to protect him.

But so much depended on that bridge where an ''unnatural amount'' of things had gathered.

If those Transcendents scattered across the city again, Kamijou alone wouldn’t be able to deal with them. Then his world would simply fall apart.

So.

Before that happened…

“What are you planning?”

“!?”

Anna heard a female voice.

From right by her ear.

She belatedly spun around.

But she did not find one of the Transcendents who relied on the easy ''divine cosplay spell''. This was an expert who carried a magic name in her heart, stood on her own two feet, and had chosen for herself to take on the wide world.

It wasn’t a logical thing.

But Miss Sprengel could not hide the trembling and the cold sweat that came from her very soul.

“Anna Kingsford!?”

“You really should ❌ try it. It is ❌ like you. Two groups of Transcendents are ⚔️ing and one side is winning. Adding one more fighter to the fray will ❌ make a significant difference. As a self-proclaimed villain, you should know that quite well.”

“Why would you stop me? It shouldn’t be any skin off your nose if the fake Anna dies.”

“It would be. Because I do ❌ want you to ☠️.”

Kingsford didn’t hesitate.

The true villain was not used to being told these things so directly.

(First that fool and now her.)

Taken aback, little Miss Sprengel lost her chance to strike back and Kingsford laughed elegantly before continuing.

That smile was so much like Miss Sprengel’s, but she could never imitate it.

“It does appear that the side of the ⚔️ supported by, no, the side resonating with Alice has the advantage. Transcendents are, after all, the false gods created when modern magicians used the incomplete 🪄 they created by analyzing the one and only success case: Alice Anotherbible. They have always been incomplete and unstable. They have a model. It should be obvious they will be 💪er when supported by the completed Alice.”

“Then what am I supposed to do? If Aradia’s side loses, who will be left to help that fool? Even if the entire world joined forces against Alice, I’m not sure it would work! And if the Alice-addled Transcendents gathered here end up scattering across Academy City, they could completely destroy that fool’s cit-”

“You only need to supply a ⛰️ greater than Alice.”

It didn’t even take a full second.

Kingsford placed her index finger on her slender chin and gave the answer with a confident smile.

An expert was a powerful guide in and of herself.

Just like sailors lost at sea would rely on the sun and moon in the sky to find the way back home.

“Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, Vidhatri, and 2nd Saga… They are borrowing a special power by resonating with Alice. So we just have to supply the same condition. If someone else leads the Transcendents, this problem is easily solved.”

Anna Sprengel only showed exasperation on her face.

Preparing a rival even more powerful than Alice was Kingsford’s idea of easy?

“I suppose someone as special as you would have no problem doing that,” said Miss Sprengel.

“Me? ❌, the only one who can do this is you.”

This time, Miss Sprengel’s eyes opened wide.

This had to be a joke.

“W-wait. I-I am no more than a common 2nd-rate magician who expanded my appearance and abilities by borrowing your name but still had to boost my specs further with Aiwass!!”

“Belittle yourself all you like, you are still an irregular Transcendent. Plus, you borrowed someone else’s name, but you did ❌ acquire the necessary 🪄 by analyzing Alice. You did your research from the ground up and successfully ‘👗ed up as’ Anna Kingsford. Which puts you on equal 🦶ing. We must refer to you as an irregular Transcendent for the exact same reason we refer to Alice Anotherbible that way.”

“…”

“You can do it.” Kingsford made this point clear. “Both you and Aleister have accomplished so much, so I can ❌ fathom why you both insist on belittling yourselves at every turn… I am saying there is something only you can accomplish, Miss Sprengel. I can ❌ do it. No matter how unnecessarily ashamed you are of yourself, your 🪄 to 👗 up as someone else is something that never occurred to me. Using that to help others qualifies as praiseworthy service if you ask me, but do you disagree?”

Silence.

Eventually followed by a wet sound.

It was the sound of a sniffling nose.

“Don’t tell that fool.”

“Sigh. I really think it is ⌚ the world recognized your talents.”

“Don’t tell him.”

“As you wish.”

“Then come forth, Aiwass!! Come to me, the walking amplifier for my will that has a mind of its own!!”

“Took you long enough, my benevolent genius.”

Anna Sprengel and Anna Kingsford.

The long-held conflict between them had been resolved.

Now they stood side by side, wielding great magic to protect an innocent life.

===Part 6===

The massive bridge had clearly been bent by an impact from the side. Cracks ran through the asphalt, steel screws larger than golf balls popped forcefully from the metal beams, and the joints between the girders swelled upwards.

The black bass and bluegills seemed harmless at first, but even at 500g each, tens of thousands of them still amounted to a large weight.

With the most lovable face, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet only had to blow a kiss to control them all.

Good, Old Mary had already collapsed after taking one to the center of the chest.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet chose Aradia as her next target.

It didn’t matter that she was directly facing the Bologna Succubus right now.

She set her sights on the witch goddess who stood on the complex arrangement of metal beams used to distribute the bridge’s weight.

“Look!! The world’s most high-tech city will have any number of unloved creatures: black bass, bluegills, rats, stray cats, pigeons, and starlings to name a few. Now, false goddess, let’s see how you handle the love-starved laments of the unloved!!”

“Tch!!”

“''Hee hee☆ Or should I send the unloved humans your way''?”

As soon as Aradia stiffened, stopping her interception spell, a babbler soared sharply toward her unguarded flank. A direct hit would probably kill the wild bird, but it would go through its death throes while embedded deep inside the wound and its beak and feathers would spread contaminants around.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet stuck out her tongue.

But the night wind that reached her was no more than a night wind.

It did not carry a rusty scent.

“?”

Had it missed?

When the support from “resonating” with Alice Anotherbible should have acted as a ''tailwind'' for all her actions?

Even though simply firing blindly from the hip should have always hit the enemy?

Before Blodeuwedd the Bouquet could pursue that question, Vidhatri shouted from where she stood.

“2nd Saga!! Eliminate her now!”

“Hee hee.”

An alluring female face and limbs appeared in the dark night. She was around 18, at the midpoint between girlhood and womanhood.

But that was all that was visible.

The pieces floated separately. No, her torso had clearly been torn apart. It now contained strange hollow spaces. Had her human silhouette unraveled like bandages? Was it due to the thick ribbon that had been wrapped around her torso? The lights of the city were visible in the space beyond her partially eliminated body.

The space seemed somewhat distorted.

Or maybe it was a type of ''camouflage''.

Aradia faced this person who was strange even for a Transcendent. She had the face of a girl with short flaxen hair with the interior dyed bright blue.

“2nd Saga. Do you derive some special meaning from covering and hiding things?”

“I’ve always had trouble choosing just one thing. I never want to throw anything out, so my room always ends up a mess.”

Saga was a goddess from Norse mythology.

She was said to be extremely powerful and to manage the spring where Odin is gifted with poetry and wisdom.

But she is barely mentioned throughout all the Norse monuments and texts.

Barely anything is known about her other than that her home is called Sokkvabekkr.

Information on her was scarce.

She was a mysterious figure who is simply known to share drinks with the top Norse god.

This woman had gone out of here way to choose a god like that.

She had wanted to be her.

Aradia spat annoyed words with the yellow and black railroad crossing barrier in hand.

“If a single performer tries to forcibly dress up as multiple gods, the traits of the gods cancel each other out, diluting their presence. We normally have strict rules about what we can’t do if we want to stay in character and keep our costume authentic, but I didn’t expect one of us to take advantage of that fact.”

“By intentionally keeping a low profile, I can do things other gods can’t. I am not the star of the show. But if a tree or a bush does something they shouldn’t, the audience has no way of knowing if it was correct or not. This allows me to be a performer on the stage while also freeing me from the bonds of the script. I am the only one allowed to be myself.”

“…”

“I am the Transcendent ''who saves all the bit parts and understudies who never get any attention.'' I can’t look down on them if I’m to do that. I need to understand how they feel and be one of them first.”

She disappeared.

Did she unleash her skill to the point she became one with the air?

The bluish-white armor partially surrounding 2nd Saga’s limbs vanished into the air, causing what little of her skin and face were still visible to look unnaturally alluring.

The bright round skin of her face was like a device for giving off sex appeal.

The pupils of her blue eyes were colored an impossible bright red. Did she use a light-bending technique to pull that one off?

Even with her full body unraveled, the individual pieces were made of captivating feminine skin.

But if a member of the opposite sex were caught by her like this, it would probably break his mind.

The strange avant-garde woman sneered.

“My name is 2nd Saga, a fictional god created on the mischievous whim of the compiler. Which allows me to ''add on'' any magic I wish which is never actually found in Norse mythology. …Now, it is time you lost your one and only life. The divine curse – that is, the light of Brisingamen, necklace of infidelity – can even trigger a war between world-destroying kings. Do not assume an individual can escape that deadly fate!!”

It started at the center, where her chest had been.

The thick ribbon, which bound her skin and showed the city behind her, created a transparent distortion much like sugar water, which spilled beyond her outlines.

It forcibly gathered Aradia’s focus on a single point, much like having a finger jabbed between the eyes at close range.

Aradia sensed a definite deadliness in this unknown phenomenon.

Was she mistaken, or had that been the true trigger?

The impossible distortion became a large artillery shell that tore through the air.

This was an assassination spell.

It was guaranteed to take a life.

And the user could sidestep their own sin by saying they were only adoring the beautiful gold and jewels. The necklace brought doom, but it allowed the user to claim they didn’t know it was cursed and thought it was only a beautiful piece of jewelry. Was that to insure they would not be hit in the unlikely case that the curse was sent back the way it had come?

Aradia snorted with laughter.

The rails were laid out nicely, but it was all nonsense with no actual mythological basis. The sky is heaven, the gods shine bright, the workings of salvation and divine punishment, cats are capricious and dogs are loyal – by combining the common symbols found across cultures, anyone could fake apparent legitimacy.

Yes, this was faked.

''Her cosplay was sloppy.'' Gods were meant to draw a strict line between right and wrong, so they couldn’t accept – much less use – a loophole like this. A real god did not choose their words carefully for fear of backlash or controversy. Even the cruelest act could be written off as “divine punishment” if it was truly necessary.

And even if this curse would pursue Aradia to the ends of the Earth, there was only one thing she had to do.

“''There just have to be two Aradias''.”

“Wha-!?”

Immediately after 2nd Saga’s dumbfounded shock, the invisible curse tore itself apart with its own power.

The chilly moonlight shined on two identical people.

The black and yellow railroad crossing barriers resting on their shoulders crossed like swords mounted on a wall.

Aradia hadn’t actually done anything. The curse simply hadn’t been designed to handle an abnormal situation where two identical people existed. It was unable to deal with the situation it found, so the single shell attempted to pursue two targets at once, tearing itself apart from within.

It dissipated.

It disappeared.

“Don’t you dare call this cheating. This has always been our role – we’re the perfect performers. And it was all of you who created ''a second one'' and brought her here without even asking me.”

Right and left.

The identical Aradias launched wind magic that struck the formless Transcendent.

The tides were turning.

“…”

Vidhatri was dumbfounded.

But she wasn’t simply shocked that a Transcendent receiving a ''tailwind'' by “resonating” with Alice Anotherbible had been defeated by a Transcendent who had that link severed and was alone in the storm.

More than that…

“''Why did you have that idea just now''?”

“''What do you mean''?”

“It also doesn’t make sense that you avoided Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s initial attack. Even if there was a way for you to defeat 2nd Saga, it never should have occurred to you!! That kind of support comes from Alice. How did you break through the thought masking!?”

“I would assume conditions have changed somewhere away from here.”

“Tch!!”

Panic spread through the air, infecting the entire space.

Vidhatri seemed rushed by something unseen rather than her own will as she unspooled a lot of white thread and black hair from the ball-joint doll she wore on her back.

By intentionally omitting all mention of something, that spell let her erase anything she didn’t like from the small world set up around her. If she erased everything that could kill her, then no one could defeat her.

A moment later, a dull impact struck her cheekbone. Something flew in from the side and Vidhatri was launched spinning through the air. The impact permeated her. Before she could figure out what had happened, her ball-joint doll broke apart and her model-proportioned body soared over the pedestrian railing and toward the dark river below.

But Aradia hadn’t done anything.

“You were focused on the wrong person, dumbass.”

Aradia glanced over to see a small figure standing boldly atop a metal beam.

It was Anna Sprengel.

“Keh heh heh. Alice no longer rules this world. Worms, bow before me and beg for your pitiful lives. It wasn’t you who created the Shrink Drink – you needed Alice’s help for that. Yet all you worthless regular Transcendents had the nerve to look down on me and try to kill me!!!”

“Before she could figure out what had happened, huh?” the goddess of witches whispered in exasperation. “So Vidhatri could preemptively eliminate any threat, but she was defenseless against any threat that never occurred to her.”

If anything, that was a lot like the death of the immortal Norse god of light, Baldr. That similarity was ''not'' a case of cultural transmission between India and Europe. It was instead evidence of the Transcendents not actually being strictly bound to a single god or even a single mythology.

“Have you imagined your own fate yet, 2nd Saga?”

“Have you imagined your own fate yet, 2nd Saga?”

“!?”

Multiple beams of light flashed out at once.

The two Aradias held out their palms to launch projectile magic toward the figure leaping vigorously from beam to beam. The attacks actually hit 2nd Saga. It was hard to believe she had been so untouchable just a bit ago. She was knocked from the beam above to the bridge below.

Mut Thebes (who was on their side but had lost control of herself) had her drone carrier stopped by a three-legged object that appeared out of thin air. That was Good, Old Mary’s Tribikos.

The tides had turned in the blink of an eye.

The only one left was Blodeuwedd the Bouquet in her coat-like blast-resistant suit and naked apron.

Aradia approached her directly, the Bologna Succubus glared icily at her, and bloody Good, Old Mary slowly rose to her feet.

“Wai-”

The dull “thump!!” of pierced flesh rang out.

The Bologna Succubus had launched her sharp tail and caught Blodeuwedd the Bouquet in the shoulder.

Using a frontal attack with no tricks.

The force of the blow broke the iron-maiden-like blast-resistant suit and the double doors covered in metal panels fell to the asphalt. With her protection gone, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s bare skin was exposed to the frigid air while she scattered junk from her terrarium and UV LED lights. The night wind carried away the flower petals.

“This is already over,” said the Bologna Succubus.

Her voice was colder than it ever had been when that boy was present.

The naked apron girl backed away, but her legs tangled underneath her.

She fell like normal.

Her specialness was gone.

“You forgot about your salvation condition, you abandoned the people you should be saving, and you thought only of preserving your own power. And then you blamed Alice for it all. …So this is already over. You have nothing left. Nothing at all.”

“You’re going to win this...and take everything from me?”

With only her frilly apron left, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet held her wounded shoulder with the opposite hand and struggled to keep her breath.

The powerful sex appeal she gathered around her had dissipated, leaving behind only the fear of a small child.

“This is all we have. You can’t tell me the idea of losing your power doesn’t scare you.”

“I am a Transcendent. I choose who I should protect and then guard those people from the threat this world presents them. Which is why I abandoned my own identity to dress up as a god,” said Witch Goddess Aradia. “My salvation condition does not include myself. And I would never rob innocent people of their future just so I could keep my own shameful life.”

With a dull sound, the Transcendent ended things with the Transcendent.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was the last one.

There had been others, but they raised their hands in surrender when they saw the tides changing. That was about what you got with people who only worried about themselves.

But with Alice ''Anotherbible'' as an open-source example, more Transcendents could be created. Just like there were two Aradias here.

Remaking the city’s people into makeshift witches wasn’t an option here like it had been in Shibuya. If Academy City espers used magic, they would be harmed by the side effects and, if Alice wanted to, she could produce an unlimited supply of regular Transcendents. Those would be literally a grade above.

Any victories won fighting on the outer edges would only be temporary. And with only limited numbers to work with, they wouldn’t last if they were forced to fight the same battles over and over.

“This was no more than an opening skirmish,” said Anna Sprengel despite understanding that.

She was another host and open-source example who differed greatly from the Alice line.

They couldn’t stop here.

“Our real target is Alice. This rioting doesn’t end until she’s been stopped. The Queen of Hearts and Executioner waiting near Alice could easily be more powerful than the regular Transcendents.”

“If you have the time, could you deal with her too? Mut Thebes is shooting off ‘fireworks’ like this is some kind of party, so it would be great if you could bring that idiot back to her senses!!”

“Oh? Silly girl, are you sure you don’t want to take a video first?”

The giant white ship shook.

She must have been freed from the unseen physics that could be seen as Alice’s ''tailwind''.

Mut Thebes must have absorbed the weapon’s shadow, but where exactly was she attached to it?

“Bff!? Wait, wait, I’ll be good.”

“Finally come to your senses? Then take a look at the collapsed city around you. I can’t wait to see what kind of excuse you can come up with while dripping with sweat, God of Partying.”

“But if my partying was enough to destroy an entire city by accident, doesn’t that make me a super powerful goddess? And since we can all see how ultra-cute I am, can’t I get off the hook with a quick: ‘Oopsie. Tee hee’?”

“Good, Old Mary, use your Tribikos to step on that god of destruction, ship and all. It’s January, so dunking her to the bottom of the river ought to cool her head.”

Aradia icily passed judgment, but then a cracking voice came over the ship’s speakers.

“Oh, and the drone carrier’s antenna picked something up,” said Mut Thebes.

“?”

“It wasn’t encrypted or anything, so it was a lot like a radio transmission. Maybe it’s best to say this is being sent out all over the place. They might have been hoping we would pick it up. It’s being transmitted from ''a prison in District 10'' and it says it’s about Alice Pleasance Liddell.”

===Part 7===

After seeing off the little magician who had freed herself from her self-made bonds, Anna Kingsford sighed all on her own.

The end was nigh.

“Now, then.”

(I need to prepare for my part in this.)

===Part 8===

There were no subjective symptoms.

Kamijou wasn’t even allowed any obvious pain or bleeding.

Then was this a delirium or hallucination caused by all the stress he was under?

Except there was something there.

With each step he took down the long hallway, he heard a sound like thin threads snapping inside him. Like the creaking of bone or the beating of his heart, these were delicate sounds that shouldn’t have been audible outside his body.

He had heard on some trivia show that the simple action of walking concentrated a lot of weight and force on the leg bones. If that was true, then his body could no longer keep up with his movement. His insides were already breaking down to that extent.

Death.

The unavoidable destruction of the self.

Alice apparently wanted to ask Index if there was a way to heal him.

But Kamijou already knew the answer.

This was different from any of the previous times.

Or rather, this wasn’t a one-off failure. Everything he had done had pushed him too far. He was finally paying the price for it all. No one could escape the consequences of their own actions.

The end was nigh.

And it was only now that Kamijou realized something.

In a battle so severe, why hadn’t he noticed anything amiss? His survival this long had been the unnatural part.

“Hm, hm, hm☆”

Alice Anotherbible skipped out ahead of him.

She turned back, her skirt lifting disconcertingly high.

“C’mon, teacher. Everyone’s here now, so you need to hurry. Good or bad, you wouldn’t want it to end without ever learning the answer, would you?”

“…”

That was the opinion of someone watching from the outside.

It was clearly missing the viewpoint of the person on the verge of learning if their death was unavoidable.

They did not arrive at a normal classroom.

That was the door to the library.

That should have made for a poor prison. A solid kick would probably break open the sliding door and the outside windows were probably ordinary glass.

But since Alice had chosen this location, it was probably impossible to open from inside. Even with the knowledge of 103,001 grimoires at your disposal.

The door opened.

From the outside, it was surprisingly easy.

Kamijou doubted that was Imagine Breaker’s doing. He probably just had Alice’s permission.

“Touma!”

He heard a familiar voice.

She wasn’t bound with packing tape or zip ties. The windows and door were not reinforced. But there was definite relief on her face. That was the look of someone who just saw the thick door to their prison cell open.

And her smile froze in place.

The pure white sister was not concerned by Alice and H.T. Trismegistus’s presence. She was clearly looking at something else. The boy could tell that even with the mixture of truth, lies, and hallucination in his head.

“No...what is that?”

Her eyes widened because of Kamijou.

She had already detected something out of the ordinary.

Whether Alice was aware of that or not, she spoke in her childlike way.

“Okay, teacher. Ask her!”

The young butler clearly knew what was coming and struggled to suppress a grin.

Malicious words and actions were not the only way to hurt people.

Because he was bound by common sense, H.T. Trismegistus would never hurl abuse himself. The look on his face seemed to say there was no law against silence.

“I...won’t.”

“You have to,” said Alice.

“There’s no reason to force her to give an answer!!”

“Leaving the question unanswered solves nothing. Stopping here only lets the problem grow worse with time. She has 103,001 grimoires. With so much knowledge from all around the world available to her, the girl just knows she can find a way to heal you!!”

Was it even possible?

Had it been definitively proven, or was it only a theory?

Alice didn’t care about that.

It could be the geocentric theory, phlogiston, an ancient nuclear war, or that dinosaur farts caused the ice age. Of course, it could also be something accurate like universal gravitation or quantum theory. Accurate or not, if a theory had ever been proposed – if someone had thought it up and put together the logic behind it – she could build a bridge to it. She could choose ''whichever theories she wanted'' and link to them to wholly change the world. She was the ultimate conversion device. She could place Yamatai anywhere she liked, she could invent a perpetual motion machine of the first kind to produce unlimited energy, or she could remake the spherical Earth into a flat disk.

So there just had to be a single section in the more than 10 thousand grimoires.

Just one passage.

Even a single line would do.

No matter how absurd or difficult to achieve it was.

Alice could easily activate it and save Kamijou.

''But.

''Even then.

Index did not give a yes or no answer.

She kept her silence.

That was enough of an answer. If she wasn’t willing to say it out loud, she didn’t need to.

Her attempt at kindness was ineffective.

The verdict had been given.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Death.

That was the only option left.

Kamijou did not weep or rage.

He even forgot to fall to the floor.

In a way, he abandoned his humanity.

He simply stood there, stock still.

“Hu…man.”

Othinus’s quiet voice was enough for his head to wobble.

There was nothing there.

It wasn’t even emptiness that filled his mind.

He felt a heat surrounding him.

He simply stood there, forgetting even to collapse.

There was no way to save him.

The world had not developed that far.

It was underdeveloped.

People had studied what they liked and technology had branched off into countless directions, but never in this one.

The world didn’t care.

Time would continue on like normal even after he was gone.

And…

“Then let’s destroy it,” said a young voice.

Alice Anotherbible sounded the same as ever.

No, her voice sounded dried out.

Terrifyingly so.

This wasn’t part of the plan.

She sounded like her surprise party plan had fallen apart.

“We have our answer. And if this world can’t save you, teacher, than the girl is going to destroy it. The girl heard what you said, so she knows this world wouldn’t still be here if not for you. So it’s only fair the world goes away when you do, don’t you think?”

“Wait! Don’t, Touma!!” sharply shouted Index.

The knowledge of her grimoires must have told her Alice could do exactly what she claimed. And that she would do it the instant Kamijou gave her some kind of sign.

He would never do that under normal circumstances.

But it was wrong to assume he would behave normally now that he knew he would lose everything.

y/n.

The available options had been narrowed down as far as possible.

The fate of the world hinged on this one question.

“I do not agree.” H.T. Trismegistus finally spoke up, his shoulders shaking as he didn’t even bother to suppress his chuckling. “Destroying the world for a single individual is wrong. Maybe if this would save his life, but you should not destroy humanity if all you are doing is lashing out. Some might consider it moving, but common sense says it is not a benevolent act.”

Alice’s eyes widened like dinner plates.

And she lowered her voice.

“''H. T. Trismegistus''.”

“As you can see…”

The young butler raised his hands and kept speaking, undaunted.

He didn’t seem to care that the invisible muzzle of death was pressed unsteadily against his brow.

“I can tell Alice what common sense says, but I have no real way of stopping her. This is ultimately between you and her. No, make your own choice, Kamijou Touma. You cannot rely on Another Bible here and not even all the world’s grimoires contain a means of saving you. So what will you choose in the final moments now that your death is assured?”

Othinus gasped and looked up from his shoulder.

She was the only person who had just about achieved a perfect victory against Kamijou Touma.

She knew this ending.

She knew this dead end.

Because the one-eyed war god had intentionally set up a situation just like this to kill the boy when he refused to give up no matter what else she tried.

“I see what you’re doing. Hey, human, don’t listen to-!!”

“Yes, you could go crying to Alice and have her take the world out with you. In fact, you needn’t even say a word. If you remain silent, she might just be considerate enough to do it on her own. But common sense tells me that Alice’s ''only'' motivation is making you happy. ''So you could eliminate Alice’s motivation by taking your own life before she destroys the world on your behalf.'' You will die soon regardless, so why not move up the timetable just a bit to save so many people?”

Mere moments before H.T. Trismegistus completed his encircling argument, someone kicked down the library door from the outside.

With no difficulty.

“Fool.”

It was easy to miss by how easily it happened, but this should have been an unavoidable critical hit. Kamijou’s path should have ended.

But it hadn’t.

Because someone wouldn’t let it.

You could develop an attack specialized for a single individual, but that individual didn’t need to fight alone.

Just by setting foot in here, little Anna Sprengel had accomplished what no one else could.

She was probably the only person in the world not affected by Alice’s madness.

She deflected it.

And that villain mercilessly stomped her way into Alice’s territory.

No one could stop her.

“Hmph. So only I made it this far in? I feel a little bad leaving Aradia, the Bologna Succubus, and the others stuck fighting an endless battle. You basically asked us to come and even showed us the way, but then you drove your guests away? When you think about it, that’s hilariously pathetic.”

“You?”

“You haven’t figured it out yet, you gloomy microdick? You should have known better than to trust your assumptions from the moment you couldn’t kill me with the Shrink Drink filled with Alice’s power.”

Anna chuckled and Othinus gave her a look more of exasperation than admiration.

“I see. So if you had actually killed that shitty villain, we wouldn’t be dealing with this nonsense about her ''outdoing Alice''.”

“Are you saying the world switched rails back then?” asked Index.

“That’s right, you dregs of a god and you pathetic loafer,” said Anna, giving Othinus and Index a scornful look. Then she spread her little hands. “The fool changed things. He moved many people’s hearts with his own actions rather than having Alice cheat for him. I did not achieve this miracle on my own. Don’t you think the first person to receive its blessings should be the one who worked so hard to make it happen?”

Yes.

No one had invited Anna. She did not have Alice’s permission. That meant she had faced Alice’s madness without fear, repelled it, and forced her own actions through.

She faced that tremendous charisma without being engulfed.

She had the brand name of the mystery woman behind the founding of the world’s largest magic cabal.

This villain carried a legend of equal value.

“Honestly. You always let everyone push you around when it comes to Alice, fool. Do you seriously believe in the nice-sounding but scientifically-baseless and perverted jinx that the unclouded eyes of young children reflect truths the adults have long forgotten? If you ask me, you should learn to ignore it all as ''the words of an ignorant little kid''.”

“Anna…?”

“You might die, fool.”

Kamijou’s breath caught in his throat.

The thick invisible wall once more intruded on the ordinary scene around him.

Death.

The end.

It was approaching second by second, yet he felt no pain. Like a cruel time bomb with the LCD screen omitted.

What was wrong with feeling fear?

But Anna wasn’t done talking.

“I said ‘might’. None of this is set in stone, but Alice is acting like it’s 100% going to happen. Why?”

Othinus caught on first.

Almost like the thought had been unnaturally blocked until now.

“Oh, I get it. Everyone would prefer the opposite outcome, but she was enjoying telling everyone that he was definitely going to die.”

“It’s simple really. What did a certain monster need to do for him to drop his guard and let her in? What about showing him a greater threat so she doesn’t seem so bad? Just like I came off as a harmless companion when faced with the greater threats of CRC and Alice. But there is no threat greater at present than the Anotherbible. So a certain someone suggested the fool’s death.”

“Wait.”

“You should already know the answer. Alice Anotherbible only gets so assertive when it comes to Kamijou Touma. In a way, this is to be expected since I imprinted the fool’s past actions in her mind.”

It wasn’t her fault she had been deceived.

Anyone that little villain took advantage of already had an opening in them.

Or you could call it a vulnerability.

She could not create something from nothing. She pried open a small existing hole and then controlled them as she saw fit.

She was a reasonable but contemptible miracle-worker.

“The central factor for her has always been loneliness. Yes, I am the one who deceived her. Wherever she came from, I know the current Alice Anotherbible’s mind better than you.”

So?

What was that supposed to mean?

What was she imagining when she said that?

A cold sweat poured from Kamijou’s body.

For a brief moment, even his very real fear of death vanished from his mind.

“Hold on!! You’re not making sense. Alice means no harm. For better or for worse, what you see is what you get with her. Wasn’t that our initial assumption here? She can’t set people up, plot out some grand plan, or any other intellectual stuff like that!!”

“True,” agreed H.T. Trismegistus. “She is too powerful to do anything of the sort. Common sense says that someone capable of killing a dinosaur with a barehanded punch would never even think of inventing a gun, correct?”

“Shut up, you gloomy butler. And, fool, remind me who you came here to save?”

Anna sounded exasperated.

That was their initial assumption.

Kamijou had said that himself, but he had somehow forgotten it.

“I thought that issue had nothing to do with whether or not you will survive.”

“…”

He wanted to rescue Index and save Alice too.

That was why he had decided to fight Alice. That had been his initial objective.

And yet.

Why was he now seeking salvation from Alice?

Alice was the same as always. She was alive and well. It didn’t matter that her head had been crushed by Rosencreutz.

So shouldn’t he be rejoicing?

Shouldn’t he be weeping and laughing while hugging Alice?

Why was he being driven into a dead end?

''When had his objective been replaced?

''Who had caused that switch?

No.

…But…

It couldn’t be? Could it?

“Fool. I agree that Alice isn’t calculating enough to put together a long-term plan to fool people. Even telling her to ‘sit’ or ‘stay’ in front of a feast wouldn’t last very long. She may only be honestly saying what she believes to be right.”

That was a weirdly indirect phrasing.

Which suggested that phrasing was somehow necessary.

Othinus gave a snort.

“Yeah, I thought that was strange for a grimoire library whose job is to provide answers. Is this why she hesitated to give a response? Because she couldn’t easily reach a yes or no answer?”

The white nun, who was the polar opposite of the villain, spoke up quietly.

“But if Alice’s mind is too badly broken to tell what is and isn’t accurate, she might not be doing the right thing. Touma, you can’t trust that the things she tells you are accurate.”

Everyone’s eyes gathered on a single point.

Even H.T. Trismegistus, who had been taking advantage of the situation.

They heard a creaking sound.

Sounds like thick, straining leather came from within the girl as she hung her head.

“Those magicians could not change the world the way they wanted, nor could they follow their own rules after coming up with lofty salvation conditions,” said Anna Sprengel in a singsong way. “It probably was pure chance that very average group discovered the artificial miracle that is Alice Anotherbible before they began dressing up as gods. But they realized something.”

“…”

“In a mishmash of fiction and reality, a real girl had been remade into the storybook Alice and the storybook Alice had been created in the real world. They extracted a portion of those ‘plans’ and applied it to themselves. By customizing themselves as they liked with pieces of the preexisting open-source spell, they could abandon their individuality to dress up as any god or demon with extraordinary precision.”

The Transcendents really had transformed themselves that way.

At the cost of their own individuality.

For the Bridge Builders Cabal, the ''Anotherbible'' was a priceless text, but Alice was no more than a target of their worship. So they feared her and respected her, but they did everything they could to avoid third parties contacting her.

What had that lonely girl really wanted?

Or, more accurately, who?

“I see,” said Othinus on Kamijou’s shoulder. Sounding somewhat exasperated. “''This human was perfect for the role.'' I see now why that little monster was so obsessed with him.”

“Alice Pleasance Liddell listened to Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, the prototype for it all, and was the one clear model for the protagonist. But in a later era, she was abducted by a ‘Teacher of Crowley’ and thoroughly modified to create the Alice seen in the story.”

Little Anna herself proved that one’s apparent age wasn’t necessarily reliable.

Even if she was already an adult when she was abducted, the magician would have made the necessary adjustments. Very physical adjustments using a scalpel and saw. It may have taken cutting through bone, sewing together skin, and rearranging organs, but they would have kept working and adjusting until she had the exact same height and adorable appearance as the fictional girl.

That could not have been an enjoyable experience.

But after being freed from the mystery magician and finding a place in the center of the Bridge Builders Cabal, Alice had not been able to live the innocent life of the storybook. Even though she was already free and more powerful than anyone. She had given up on any life other than fulfilling other people’s interests.

And she really had become an innocent child.

She probably wasn’t even aware of her own humiliation and resignation.

Anna sighed softly and dug into the ugly side of humanity.

That was something Kamijou couldn’t do.

This was a territory only allowed for a worldwide villain.

She would carry the burden of everyone’s ire as she revealed the necessary truth.

“A parent who values logic has no dreams to share with their child.

“When Mathematician Lewis Carroll later began creating the world’s greatest fantasy, he laid out symbols and meanings, discovered a special child, and used her as a model to tell the prototype of it all: Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.

“A self-proclaimed Teacher of Crowley saw value in you as no more than the one and only specimen to know of the uncorrected original version, so they remade you by rearranging everything from your bones to your organs into the optimal color, shape, and size.

“When the Bridge Builders Cabal ‘rediscovered’ the girl still wandering in the shadows of the modern world, they only saw you as an open-source spell of great power. They feared and respected you in something more like worship than anything.”

And so the girl had been craving more.

Starving for it.

It mattered little if it was a conscious or subconscious thing.

Alice was always surrounded by so many people, but none of them were really looking at her.

Her reputation had preceded her.

With one exception.

There was one boy who did not want her power as a Transcendent, had rejected the “happiness” brought by her ultimate power, and faced her with nothing but his own fist no matter how many times he was killed.

It all began there.

Like dreaming of something from a storybook, a certain girl had thought that was her last chance there.

So she wanted it no matter what.

“Touma, stand back.”

“Ah.”

“Stand back! Now!!”

Hesitantly, Kamijou got his voice out from his parched and trembling mouth.

While asking himself what it was he was so afraid of.

“Al...ice?”

“Yes?”

''The girl raised her head.

''Except she no longer had anything above her neck.

===Part 9===

Aradia had finally caught up.

She walked through the high school’s front gate, setting foot inside its grounds.

Or so she thought.

“Tch!!”

She immediately swung her black and yellow railroad crossing barrier and was answered with a dull crack. It suddenly broke at about the middle. Even with the power of the goddess of witches, she was forced back.

Good, Old Mary, who was woozy from blood loss, muttered quietly.

“It looks like a rabbit, but it doesn’t have a watch. It must be the March Hare from the tea party.”

“One of the Alice Series!?”

The flamingo bats. The hedgehogs.

The Gryphon, the Executioner, the Cook.

These were Alice’s raw and unstoppable toys which magicians had not yet turned into tools.

They seemed to be fighting as two opposing armies, but here it looked like the enemy of your enemy wasn’t your friend. The flamingo bats and hedgehogs would sometimes attack the Transcendents without provocation, so they couldn’t be trusted.

The March Hare had apparently attacked just now, but which side was he on?

For that matter, why were different monsters born from Alice fighting each other in the first place!?

“What are we supposed to do?” asked the Bologna Succubus.

“We should have Good, Old Mary stay back. We shouldn’t rely too heavily on her resurrection, but we shouldn’t waste her by sending her up against an even more dangerous enemy either!!”

The school was a rather large place.

Where was that boy?

And while they were only regular ones, it was strange that a group of several Transcendents couldn’t get past this one position.

They supposedly each wielded strange spells capable of taking on the entire magic side single-handedly.

The Gryphon, the Executioner, the bipedal hare, and the Cook throwing irons and pots.

They were all Alice’s toys with their origins in Wonderland.

But while they were only toys, they had been directly injected with a portion of Alice’s power. As seen with the Shrink Drink, that power made these far from your normal foe.

Ultimately, the Bridge Builders Cabal did not exist for Alice.

It was the result of the regular Transcendents, who sought and feared her great power, struggling to find some way of managing her.

All on her own, Alice was more powerful than countless armies.

Aradia, the Bologna Succubus, Good, Old Mary, and Mut Thebes.

Those four Transcendents gathering here was no problem at all for Alice. She probably hadn’t even decided to fight against the Transcendents. This could be seen in how the toys continued fighting each other instead of driving out the intruders.

“By the way, where did Anna get off to!?” asked Aradia.

“Did that slut use mama and the rest of you as bait for these pain-in-the-ass opponents while she went on ahead? She did, didn’t she?”

They said nothing more.

First, they sensed a great pressure. Only a moment later did they feel the powerful tremor in the ground.

It was Dinah the cat.

The fluffy white and black beast had grown larger than the gym, so a single step caused the entire space to shake. The flamingo bats and hedgehogs ran around in a panic and the Gryphon failed to get away in time and had its front leg crushed underfoot.

It didn’t matter if they were on Alice’s side.

And the culprit – Dinah – wasn’t even aware she had done it.

She was the greatest force in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

She carried such great firepower that the mice and birds who caused Alice so much trouble had fled at the mere mention of her name.

If this really was her, then she might cause destruction greater than Alice intended for.

That meant there was a risk of her crushing the entire school building with Kamijou and Alice inside.

Which was exactly what happened.

With her back to the school building, Aradia briefly froze up, so the Bologna Succubus had to flap her bat wings and tackle Aradia from the side to send them both tumbling across the ground. A gust of wind blew past them like a subway train had passed by nearby. That thing was much too large for anyone human-sized to take a direct hit from it. Aradia didn’t have time to celebrate her survival. She roared up toward the heavens while still tangled up with the Bologna Succubus.

That was the most prized of Alice’s toys.

Deadly Dinah.

Only one Transcendent could hope to battle that giant that rivaled a school gym in size.

“Mut Thebes, stop that thing immediately!!”

“It is too soon for me to attack. Wait 15 minutes for me to absorb enough shadows to create a body that can safely face the cat.”

Aradia’s eyes widened.

Mut Thebes wasn’t going to be any help.

Dinah was charging head-first toward the school building.

And just before she crashed into it, a deafening roar rang out.

Dinah was knocked rolling back, gouging large pieces of dirt out of the schoolyard and sending tons of dust into the air. It made no sense. There was no thick barrier there and no steel warship had appeared.

There was only a single human silhouette.

It looked downright minuscule compared to Dinah, who was large enough to look down at the gym.

Nevertheless, it was Dinah whose max-speed charge had been repelled, sending her rolling backwards.

“Wha-?”

Aradia was speechless.

This wasn’t even a Transcendent.

“Honestly.”

A voice came from the cloud of dust.

Aradia’s group did not recognize the voice. But the female voice inspired a compulsion that prevented even the Transcendents from taking it lightly.

“Alice Anotherbible has fallen apart more than I 💭. All of these things are a 🧩 of her – they are the many opinions she has ❌ been able to reconcile. I did ❌ expect her to be so overwhelmed with emotion that she nearly crushed her own 🏰 with her inside.”

This was Anna Kingsford.

The magician stood there on her own two feet without borrowing anyone’s appearance or abilities.

A moment later, the dirt thrown high into the sky was pulled back down by gravity.

It was like a dry rain.

Kingsford casually directed her index finger skyward and something invisible became a large umbrella. She alone was left without a speck of dust in her hair or on her clothes.

Something sliced sharply through the dusty veil.

It was a flamingo bat and the Cook.

Both sides of the conflict arrived at once.

Kingsford extended a single finger and drew out a few patterns in empty air.

They were constellations.

Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.

The sharp sound was a moment delayed.

A scattershot of compressed water tore through the Cook like a cookie cutter through dough. When her blue-glowing fingertip turned toward the flamingo bat, the bat began to tremble while hovering in the air. Despite being inorganic, it clearly shrank two sizes.

The basics of astrology were to assign various elements and symbols to the 7 planets and 12 constellations of the horoscope and then experiment to see what effects were produced on yourself and others when they were applied from different angles and combinations. There were even tricky ways of building them into attack spells.

So by combining only the water element constellations, you could greatly amplify the power of ordinary water.

Instead of simple addition, it worked through multiplication, so it was like shifting up a gear in a car.

That expert did not bother coming up with impressive special attacks.

By earnestly working at the basic fundamentals that anyone could do and that novices tended to look down on, any magic could be brought to the point of a one-hit kill.

But none of that was particularly important.

For one, that wouldn’t be enough to kill Dinah.

“I will ❌ let you destroy the things you care about, Alice. That would be much too 😢 to see. I assure you on my name as an expert, being special does ❌ cut you off from the supply of ☺️.”

Just then…

“…?”

Anna Kingsford looked down at her right hand.

A red liquid was dripping from it.

She only had a slight cut on her fingertip, but the amount of blood was not the issue.

She shouldn’t have been harmed at all in that situation.

That expert never made mistakes.

So if something unexpected occurred regardless, it meant the problem was with the initial data she was working with, not her calculations.

In other words…

“Is this body reaching its limit?” she whispered, holding her fingertip in her mouth.

Her voice itself was a lot “rougher” than it had been when she was first booted up in Shibuya’s Miyashita Ark. It wasn’t limited to her outward appearance. This proved the injury and deterioration was also progressing where it couldn’t be seen.

She didn’t show the slightest hint of fear as she looked out ahead.

In fact, she took a step forward.

The cat large enough to crush the gym rose to her feet again.

Kingsford couldn’t continue on and leave this with the regular Transcendents. She had never figured out how to pick and choose who she saved.

These were Alice’s raw toys, which had yet to be turned into easy-to-use tools like the Shrink Drink. And this cat was the greatest of them. She was a mass of violence and destruction that wouldn’t bat an eye as she trampled all the other toys.

Dinah.

The expert faced the cat head on, holding the brim of her large hat between her fingertips.

She doubted her body would last to the end.

For that matter, it was unnatural for a preserved corpse like her to be moving around at all.

(But I can accept that.)

So she decided on a more realistic goal: injuring Dinah enough to create an opening or weak point the Transcendents could take advantage of to defeat Dinah on their own.

The expert knew her doom was closing in on her, but she still spoke with her usual smile.

“⌚ to serve others.”

[[Image:GT Index v10 BW5.png|thumb]]

===Part 10===

She was a headless girl.

A little corpse.

Yet she was also standing up and looking at Kamijou.

He distinctly felt the pressure of her gaze.

The atmosphere in the library changed. The scales were rapidly tilting in a direction he did not like at all.

“!?”

Without thinking, he stepped back away from her.

This was an expression of malice that shouldn’t have been necessary.

Which proved it had been intentional.

It was true after all.

No matter how you looked at it, the center of the problem was right there.

It always had been.

Kamijou pushed past the fear of death he knew was coming and shouted.

“Alice!!”

He heard a sound like tearing cardboard.

No, not like. The headless girl really did tear down the center. And something else emerged, sticky with a translucent fluid.

This had happened before.

But this was not the little girl dressed in profane red and black leather.

This form could never have fit in that small body.

But she wasn’t accepting questions.

At the top of the vertical tear, near where the head should have been, an arm jutted straight up, but this arm belonged to a captivatingly beautiful woman. With a splat, she collapsed forward to crawl like a dog. The translucent slime left behind strings that stained the floor. She squirmed like a fluffy red boa. The leather bound her bright, wet body more tightly than necessary and her long blonde hair was so wet it writhed on the ground as a single clump. After instantly becoming a woman of about 18, she crawled forward and swung her head upwards. The wet hair covering her face swung back behind her, revealing her beautiful face.

“Touma!!”

Alice Anotherbible.

Or maybe Alice Pleasance Liddell.

Her true form.

“Did you use yourself as the ingredients to recreate the ideal version of yourself?” said Othinus in disgust.

Alice worked her alluring throat to release growls and her fingers scratched at the floor like an animal with sharp and sinister claws. She could not have been farther removed from reason, intelligence, and innocent adorableness.

Violence.

Battle.

Killing.

That was all she was.

She shined with the same light as a sword that had had been made so deadly it gained an odd beauty.

The fear of death was gone.

Even that thick invisible wall had vanished.

Kamijou felt a tingling in the back of his head. With the sharp claws, the large canine teeth emerging from her lips, and the fearsome light in her eyes, he knew there was so much he needed to focus on, yet he couldn’t read even a hint of deadliness from her. But he knew this wasn’t Alice doing anything special. His own mind had numbed the fear. Because if he accurately understood the threat here, his heart would stop of its own accord. His heart would raise the white flag before his mind did.

The animal rose to her feet.

The fully grown body of an alluringly beautiful woman straightened her legs and stood up like she had only just remembered she could.

She took a fighting stance.

“Teacher…”

That one word created a distortion.

But not in Alice. The bookcases, the reading desks, the floor, the walls, and everything else Kamijou could see looked like a child had scribbled out their outlines in white and black.

“The girl…wants…only one goal. She will…have this…no matter…matter what.”

He could have understood if she said she would kill him just for fun.

Or if she said she deeply resented him.

Even if she said she would destroy the world based on some inscrutable logic, he might have decided that made sense for someone so very different.

But.

“The girl wants...to make up...with you.”

Everything froze.

Inside Kamijou Touma, time ground to a halt.

Was that it.

Was that really and truly all there was to it?

At the Bridge Builders Cabal consulate in District 12, Kamijou and Alice had disagreed over her attempted punishment of H.T. Trismegistus, who had tried to kill him, and Good, Old Mary, who had failed to protect him.

CRC had killed her and she had regained her lost head.

She had driven the world mad and might destroy it as soon as tomorrow.

But this had never changed.

She only wanted to mend that broken bond.

No matter what it took.

Even if her methods were seen as unfair.

That little girl didn’t care. Kamijou should have bowed his head and apologized, but he had completely forgotten after learning about his imminent death.

Nevertheless, she was trying to achieve it on her own, even if it meant dirtying her hands.

So they could smile together again.

“So.”

It all took a turn.

Her behavior was distorted.

Only in Alice’s mind did it all fit together smoothly.

“The girl will make up with you. She will fight you because a serious fight allows people to make up. But it has to be serious, so what can the girl do to get you to fight her? This city, this country, and this world can wait. It has to be serious. The girl understands you, teacher, so she knows you will fight her and make up with her.”

She said it all in a terribly ''drawn out'' and flat, emotionless voice. Her emotions were so intense it was all destroyed, like the recording medium itself was being burned from below by a lighter.

Alice probably really could do that.

And what would happen?

Would the world really end over this?

Maybe Alice could no longer make logical connections between the different pieces of data.

Kamijou had thoroughly broken that girl’s mind.

Issues of right and wrong or like and dislike were trivial at this point. They would no longer provide a dividing line between enemy and ally. This wasn’t like mantises that were programmed so the female would always eat the male. Perhaps it was closer to spiders where the female would sometimes suddenly leap at and devour the male in the middle of the male’s courtship display. Even with the same species facing each other one-on-one, and even with the male expressing his love and the female accepting it, she might mercilessly devour him on a whim. She would only realize she had done it after the fact. You couldn’t predict what would happen even a second into the future with a being like that.

She was such a close but distant being.

She was different.

She was a predator beautifully made by stretching out the muscles, laying out the nerves, hardening the bones.

Kamijou didn’t find her frightening anymore.

He felt sorrow instead.

“Stand back, fool,” coldly insisted Anna Sprengel.

The look she gave Alice was unusual for that villain.

Alice was another irregular Transcendent – another open-source path to power – but one who would never stand on the same side as Anna. Anna gave her a look of pity.

“You understand, don’t you? She’s a lot like an unstable animal. If you approach her now, she might turn you to mincemeat without even meaning to. In the worst case, she might decide that, if she can’t have you alive, she will tear off your head and take that away with her.”

Kamijou shook his head.

Would he battle Alice?

And defeat her?

“I can’t do that.”

This wasn’t about the size of the threat. He couldn’t picture it. It felt wrong. He wanted to trust in that part of himself.

He recalled that giant dragon.

When he had punched CRC away and given up on his possibilities, he had felt a disgusting sensation.

A future where he and CRC could stand side-by-side smiling had been lost. Kamijou had made sure of it.

And the fear caused by his prophesied death made him feel this way all the more.

Would he use that against Alice this time?

Like hell he would.

“Because I can’t save Alice that way. Isn’t there some other way!?”

Index and her 103,001 grimoires were here. So was Othinus, who had once been a Magic God. Not to mention Anna Sprengel, who was familiar with Rosicrucianism and the Bridge Builders Cabal.

Combining those three’s knowledge could reveal a way of saving Alice.

But…

“That really depends on your definition of ‘save’,” said Othinus. “Human, would you really be saving her if you grabbed that oversized head and shoved it back inside the small body? Back inside that shed skin?”

She was a god who had once destroyed the world and been pursued by all of humanity as a great criminal.

That Magic God was saying this about ''another monster capable of ending the world''.

She said it clearly, without averting her gaze from reality.

This was nothing as over-the-top as saving humanity or protecting the world.

It was a more personal miracle.

But she was speaking to the boy who really had risked his life to save a lonely god.

“You are here, human. So make your own choice. This here is the real Alice. She isn’t pure or innocent, but if the world can accept her this way, that would be one way of saving her.”

“Oh,” said Kamijou, sounding exasperated.

He just had to bring Alice back to her senses.

He kept that in mind while ignoring the issue of how difficult that would be to actually pull off.

“So if I risk my life, a path opens up?”

That was the best news he’d heard all day.

In that instant, an explosion erupted out.

Something twisted and scattered around right in front of his eyes. It took him a moment to realize they were fake roses.

Or that he would have been decapitated if not for them.

Alice had attacked.

He didn’t know why.

It was possible she didn’t either.

She was a captivatingly beautiful monster, but she was not a villain.

He had to believe that.

How deadly she looked had nothing to do with whether she was good or bad. She would bare her fangs whether it was right or wrong and whether she liked you or not. She was an unstable collection of power with only that function.

So he couldn’t falter.

He couldn’t turn Alice into a monster. He couldn’t accept that conclusion.

“Fool, the rose is a symbol of change. This applies to the Golden brooch that can create any sigil through the orderly arrangement of the 22 Hebrew letters and it applies to white and red roses colored with paint in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. ''By forcibly altering the interpretation and building a bridge,'' I can divert at least one of her attacks.”

Anna Sprengel stared straight ahead as she said this, but she had a red wound running across her cheek.

That had only been a villain’s trickery.

Kamijou couldn’t expect it to work forever.

But he should be plenty thankful it had worked at all in this real confrontation.

And while deflecting the attack was all well and good, he had no idea what Alice had done even after being on the receiving end of her attack.

The animal roared loud.

“Oooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Was that magic?

It was an apocalyptic roar.

A great energy grounded in something other than intelligence and reason spiraled out. The roar reflected off the walls and floor before gathering unnaturally on a single point in space.

Anna swept her little hand from left to right.

That was all it took for a thick shockwave to bend like a bow and knock over a few bookcases.

It was actually Alice who paused for a beat.

With her right hand still jabbing out with the fingers together. Perhaps that would have knocked off Kamijou’s head and then stabbed through his corpse’s heart before it could even fall to the floor.

''Slap!!

Little Anna, who would look better than anyone delivering a double slap, sent another attack sweeping up from below.

This may have been a first.

Alice Anotherbible’s attack wasn’t deflected or redirected – it was stopped from head on by an attack of equal power.

“Kh.”

“Why do you look so surprised?”

The little villain grinned and exchanged a glare with Alice at close range. Anna accepted Alice’s gaze without trying to escape.

She was a Transcendent not based on Alice.

She was another irregular Transcendent.

“Did you think you were special? There’s no such thing in the world of magic. I’m a magician who dressed up as Kingsford so I could stop my foolish students from ignoring my teaching and attempting self-destructive magic. I built my secret art from the ground up with the hands I had bloodied attempting to protect those lovable fools. Did you really think my way was inferior to the secret art you were simply given and have no real use for!?”

Alice’s hand was fully deflected.

She spun around, her partially-retracted arm blurring into streamlines. She chose a new target to attack. Index was chosen first, so Kamijou shoved the nun out of the way.

Fingers capable of tearing through steel rushed toward Kamijou.

Flashes of light intersected like a cross.

The fingers and claws sent horizontally toward Kamijou’s throat were stopped at the last second by an extremely thin blade.

Courtesy of H.T. Trismegistus.

No…

“My right hand contains Zeus. My left hand contains Indra. Thus I am renewed. Z.I. Trismegistus conversion complete!!”

Blinding white flashed from the point of contact between the struggling sword and fingers.

That was probably a high-voltage current.

The electrical energy was powerful enough to burn through a metal panel thicker than a thumb.

Of course, this wouldn’t be enough to defeat Alice. But dazzling her eyes for a moment meant a lot.

It gave Kamijou time to fall back.

“What the hell!? Can you just pick a side and stay on it!?” complained Othinus.

“Common sense says…”

The young butler hung his head.

He clenched his fist hard enough for his sword cane to creak.

“Common sense says I cannot expect Christian Rosencreutz to show up and save us here and now. And not just him. No one who isn’t present can do anything to help. I was wrong to place my hopes on people like that. No matter how complex and challenging the world’s problems, it is up to the people living in it to solve them.”

Now that he was freed from his bonds, H.T. Trismegistus spoke clearly.

“It is the people with us now who will decide how this ends. So it would be foolish in the extreme to not make use of that right. So says common sense!!”

Alice Anotherbible had tremendous power.

That power led a great many people to gather around her. But the Transcendents who had wanted to use her to make themselves special may have seemed like a stale and uninteresting bunch to Alice.

But that wasn’t all.

It couldn’t be.

In addition to the power someone had forced her to carry, Alice had drawn quite a few people to herself in a different way. No matter what anyone might say, as much as she might resent the magician who had created “Alice Anotherbible” and however she saw things herself, Alice had not been alone. She had been loved.

Because if she wasn’t, Kamijou Touma, Anna Sprengel, and H.T. Trismegistus – people with such different positions and intentions – wouldn’t have all gathered here like this.

They wouldn’t have been working together to save Alice.

“Hey, Alice.”
She didn’t say anything, but Kamijou still smiled.

He was certain that Alice had the wrong idea of what it meant to be an adult.

When adults ran into problems, they asked for help. They would rely on and depend on others. They simply did their best to hide this in front of the small children.

Trying to do it all yourself and thinking you could solve anything if you had a special power was a child’s way of thinking.

So he had a lesson for her.

And for the world’s greatest illusion.

He would teach her that letting her ugly side show wasn’t going to destroy her world.

Alice Anotherbible wouldn’t be a lonely monster.

He wouldn’t let her.

An invisible wall had shattered inside Kamijou Touma.

He could deal with the deadly prophecy later. Because he had found something more important.

“If you think you can use your power to twist everything to your will… If you think you can take everything you loathe and make it everyone else’s problem…”

A perfectly ordinary high school boy clenched his right fist.

Tightly.

“Then I’ll destroy that illusion!!!”

None of the problems had been resolved. The boy had only adjusted his internal priorities.

Kamijou Touma would die today.

''But so what?

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume10_Chapter2|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume10_Chapter4}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item6 Chapter4

2026-03-04T18:35:08Z

Massify: /* Part 9 */ fixed it a typo and fixed up a bit of the wording to reflect it

==Chapter 4: The Cost of Your Choice==

===Part 1===

The situation was changing at dizzying speed.

On the first floor lobby of the District 5 tourist hotel, Kinuhata Saiai could tell she was breathing heavily. Now was no time to panic. She was currently on a dangerous tightrope walk where failing to organize the information would guarantee her death.

“Phew.”

She had to sort through the information, be it good or bad.

Striking back at the Information Broker was her top priority for now.

At the same time, she would have to finally deal with the fundamental problem of Mugino Shizuri. She doubted lies and deception would work forever there. The more she tried it, the more likely she was to make a mistake or rouse suspicion. So she had to make Mugino feel guilty by making her commit the one thing she disliked most of all: betrayal.

Then the born gangster’s own wicked principles would prevent her from attacking Kinuhata and the rest. The gang logic would muddle who was owed what.

Letting Mugino find out about any of this was out of the question, so they couldn’t rely on the support team. Kinuhata, Takitsubo, and Frenda would have to solve the Information Broker and Mugino problems on their own.

So…

“We’ll super pit Mugino and the Information Broker against each other.”

It was two in the afternoon.

Kinuhata Saiai made this suggestion while soaked with a cold sweat.

“We make it look like I got dragged into that fight. It would work best if I get injured. Then Mugino will kill the Information Broker for us and Mugino’s ‘betrayal’ of me will give us the upper hand with her. That’s the only way if all of us are going to survive. We let it all be super water under the bridge by negating betrayal with more betrayal.”

“In the end, are you serious? There’s no safety measures there.”

Frenda’s shoulders slumped, but she didn’t seem to have an alternative.

Track suit girl Takitsubo nodded a little.

“It’s more likely to work than trying to continue lying. Mugino hates betrayal from one of her own more than anything. Based on her gangster logic, not simple emotion. …So how much do you think she will blame herself if she suspects a teammate and turns out to be wrong? Especially if that teammate ends up injured as a result.”

It wasn’t a solid plan.

It would be a perilous tightrope walk. In fact, the very idea of using this loophole against her could be seen as a betrayal of Mugino.

One shoulder of Frenda Seivelun’s clothes slipped down.

Her thoughts were written plain on her face: she wanted to run with all her might, but she knew running would only get her killed.

“Ugh. Then what do we need first? That Information Broker’s identity and appearance? In the end, we can’t include her in our plan if we don’t know her personal information.”

“Then this should come in super handy.”

Kinuhata Saiai waved her phone.

“Just like when we dealt with the blackmailers, I have the location data found by messing with a security robot, hooking a phone up to it, and scanning for phone signals in the area. Anyone with five or ten phones on them is super suspicious, right? Then I have a candidate here.”

Frenda was skeptical. Which may have been the natural reaction after being dragged into a deadly problem for no good reason.

“In the end, do you really think the big boss would be wandering around on the front line?”

“You have it backwards, Frenda.”

“?”

“She can let her underlings handle a lot of the odd jobs, but not so with a delicate and difficult boss battle. It’s the same with Item and our support team, right? …If she truly sees us as a threat, the Information Broker herself will be the one gathering information.”

But that mistrust and unease regarding her own people had worked against her.

It had been convenient for Kinuhata and the others that the enemy was carrying five or more phones. They were likely for different uses – contacting her team, sending commands to disposable soldiers, etc. – but with five of them, it wasn’t a surprise to find one specific type of phone.

One for purely private use.

Instead of a pseudonym and a fictional address, this phone was linked to her real name and bank account and had tens of thousands of photos and videos on it.

They couldn’t steal all of those right away, but they could view the registration name on the small notifications and the lock screen wallpaper.

This was especially easy with narcissists who used their own photo there.

“Norsitro Chatellenie. …Finally super found you, Information Broker.”

She was a girl with silver hair and dark skin.

She looked to be older than Kinuhata and younger than Takitsubo.

Why her wallpaper was a selfie of herself smiling in only a towel was a mystery, though. Did she tend to take long baths with her phone?

Takitsubo Rikou had again shifted into drill sergeant mode. So annoying.

“Okay, Kinuhata. We know her name and appearance, but how do we find her hideout?”

“We super use her food,” succinctly stated Kinuhata Saiai.

Frenda sighed.

“Norsitro Chatellenie. In the end, her name does sound pretty French. Her phone’s default language is even set to French.”

According to Frenda, the towel she was wearing was from a fairly high-end brand. A French brand, of course. It was an offshoot of the fancy restaurant napkins and tablecloths the company was generally known for. Silks and dresses were one thing, but Kinuhata was a little surprised to learn there was even such a thing as a super high-quality towel. Takitsubo and Frenda went on to say the one towel cost more than two million yen. Now she was super surprised!!

“She’ll definitely be looking for the soul food of her home country. That doesn’t mean she’ll be super eating French food every day, but she won’t be able to stop completely. And if she does that when she’s letting off some steam, she will leave behind some small hints. We can use those to track down the elusive Information Broker.”

That must have been the answer Takitsubo was expecting.

She immediately returned the conversational rally.

“For food, District 4 would be best.”

“Yeah, they super have any kind of cuisine you could want. Which means that’s where a native would go if she isn’t satisfied with Japan’s French restaurants that unintentionally alter the food to fit Japanese sensibilities and work with the local ingredients.”

“But, Kinuhata, an entire district is a large area. Will Norsitro be going to a luxury French restaurant with a French manager, or does she visit an industrial supermarket with imported ingredients and do the cooking herself? Even narrowing it down to those two options leaves quite a few possibilities.”

“Will you super stop testing me?” Kinuhata sighed in exasperation and raised a finger. “B and C gangster movies always show the gang bosses and fugitives using fancy restaurants of their home country as a base, but you’d be immediately caught and arrested if you tried that in Academy City. The connection is too obvious. So if the Information Broker is trying to be safe by staying hidden, she super won’t visit a restaurant connected to her home country. By her logic, that would be suicide.”

She raised another finger.

“And ''that’s why she’ll have them come to her.'' At a disposable rental site of course. There are plenty of services that let you call in an expert chef to cook for you and even the rich in the legitimate world will do that for a home party. For a special fee. …That must exist on the dark side too, right? There must be a chef hiring service with options for every county around the world.”

“Correct.” Takitsubo laughed. “It’s called Kitchen Car. Those food specialists are based in District 4 and can enrich a criminal’s fugitive lifestyle.”

“Right. The chef’s skills are top rate, but they were unfairly fired when the entire restaurant got food poisoning or the ingredients were phony or something, so in the end, they were recruited in secret,” added Frenda.

Kinuhata sighed softly.

“That just leaves…the fact that it’s two in the afternoon. The next super time she could call a chef will be at dinnertime. How many hours are we going to end up waiting?”

“In the end, I doubt it will take long.”

“Kinuhata, proper French cooking requires hours of preparation. For a dinner scheduled for seven to nine in the evening, I wouldn’t be surprised if the chefs are already getting started.”

Oh, is that so, you damn dark side rich girls?

This was an unbelievable world for Kinuhata who was happy as long as she had movie theater popcorn and a soda.

Regardless, if Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie was a frequent user of Kitchen Car, this would be easy. Tailing their French chef would eventually lead them right to the Information Broker.

“There are a few things we have to be super careful about,” began Kinuhata. She raised a finger. “First, Kitchen Car will be experts at not being tailed. After all, their job is to provide a safe option for fugitives who can’t just go to a restaurant. Trust is their main selling point, so they will make super sure they aren’t being followed. What we do about that is our biggest problem.”

She wasn’t done yet.

She raised a second finger.

“Second, using this to attack the Information Broker would be easy, but we also have to see this through to the end while fooling Mugino. Defeating Norsitro Chatellenie is super meaningless if she makes a mistake and is killed by Meltdowner before we’re ready. And Mugino isn’t stupid, so she will get suspicious with all three of us missing.”

“''Isn’t that great''?”

Kinuhata couldn’t believe it.

The legitimate VIP whose downfall had been triggered by a super tiny pencil nuke. Private Casino who had been baked to death by a white phosphorous grenade on the party hall roof. The fates of those who had opposed or betrayed Item – or Mugino Shizuri, really – flashed through Kinuhata’s mind. This situation was placing a strain on her heart, but Takitsubo had casually called it “great”?

That search expert who didn’t participate in the direct fighting really did see things differently. …Was Mugino Shizuri really the most terrifying member of Item?

“We have internal and external enemies and the situation is extremely complex and annoying, but we only have two problems to deal with. That should tell you this mission is on easy mode, Kinuhata.”

===Part 2===

Takitsubo spoke up while operating her phone on a moving train.

“I found more on the Information Broker.”

“?”

Kinuhata frowned.

Their opponent was an expert at using information. She wouldn’t be operating in a way that made her real identity as Norsitro Chatellenie a household name.

So was Takitsubo researching the Information Broker identity?

“She appears to go by some other names, but the most notable one is the Faultfinding Demon. She might take a philanthropist who insists money isn’t everything and bury them in debt. Or she might take a lawyer who claims to be opposed to violence no matter the circumstances and place them under so much psychological pressure they end up killing someone in front of a TV camera. It looks like she targets anyone who performatively makes unrealistic claims to boost their public reputation.”

“But are you sure it’s really Norsitro doing that? Information Broker isn’t a super rare term or anything.”

“Kinuhata. Do you remember the bug maker I mentioned before?”

“Yeah, during the stuff with Sudori-san. You said they were investigating Kamigi when they disappeared.”

“Well, the title of information broker is even more common than that one, but I’ve heard rumors of a sudden drop off in how often it’s used. They must all be afraid of earning her disfavor by looking like a rival.”

That made sense.

This opponent was even more dangerous than Kinuhata had imagined. Not to mention self-centered and persistent.

“Is the super dark side just full of guys who are willing to die for their weird hang-ups?”

“Stop that, Kinuhata. You should try to use gender neutral language.”

Kinuhata got scolded by the capable big sister.

…But was that really necessary when complaining about brutal villains?

District 4 was located a bit northeast of Academy City’s center.

The district specialized in all things food and it was a very international place. The food market had small flags to indicate what nationality a shop specialized in, so the long street was reminiscent of all the flags at an athletic festival. The many signs jutting out from from the building walls was chaos itself. There were so many signs overhead it felt like walking through a colorful tunnel.

Broad categories like Asian or European had naturally gathered in clumps, but there was no strict division between areas. There was an Italian restaurant and an American South hamburger shop encroaching on the red Chinatown and a sushi place with the Central and South American versions of Spanish and Portuguese on the signs right alongside the European restaurants. The sushi there apparently used jalapeno paste instead of wasabi.

“This district is like a giant manifestation of choice paralysis.”

“Frenda, is this making you crave your own home country’s food?”

“In the end, I’d be happy living on the far side of Mars as long as I have mackerel.”

If the three of them stayed away too long, Mugino Shizuri would get suspicious. But that didn’t mean they had to solve this problem before that happened. In fact, they couldn’t have Mugino just stay in the luxury hotel. To trick her, to get her to betray them, and to survive, they needed Mugino to act of her own volition.

Suspicion was the greatest fuel for someone who hated betrayal more than anything else.

“So is super that Kitchen Car’s HQ?”

“I think so, Kinuhata.”

“But wait. District 4 is all about food…and they’re in a trash house!? I thought Kitchen Car were super culinary experts!! How could they let this happen!?”

“In the end, I bet this was what happened when those culinary experts decided to build a fortress everyone would want to keep away from. Inside, they’ve probably torn down some walls to turn into a maze. It’s called hiding in plain sight. If you’re looking for someone or something, nothing is more annoying than a trash-filled building.”

The structure itself was a four-floor multi-tenant building, but bulging trash bags were piled up in every door and window and even covered the front walk.

Was that supposed to be camouflage?

That had to be a huge nuisance for the neighbors.

The trio bought kebab sandwiches at a nearby food stand and munched on them as they waited for something to happen. There were an unusual number of people jogging, but was that the result of the overabundance of tasty foods in this district?

Frenda’s sandwich must have been too spicy for her because she kept going back to her cup’s straw for more sips of soda.

“In the end, do we have any reason to think the Information Broker will call Kitchen Car today?”

“There’s no guarantee, but I think the odds are good,” replied Takitsubo. “This is a big deal for her too. It might look like she’s the one threatening Item, but this only happened because she failed to deal with us earlier. If she screws this up, she’ll truly have to go into hiding and then she’ll have far fewer options. She should want to eat everything she likes while she has the chance.”

“There they super are.”

A mid-sized yellow truck slowly emerged from the trash heap of a place. Kinuhata was surprised to find there was a metal garage door there.

“That must be Kitchen Car’s truck.”

The trio waited for the truck to pass by and made the final check by nose.

“Bouillon and mirepoix. Also truffles, pickles, horseradish, and is that lobster sauce?”

“That’s not Japanese or Chinese cooking. In the end, it’s definitely French.”

…Kinuhata couldn’t tell a thing. But she wasn’t upset about it. Really.

But a truck.

Did they need a large vehicle to fit the ingredients and the cooking equipment? It wasn’t as bad as with Chinese cooking, but French cooking probably did require some industrial firepower.

Kitchen Car were experts at providing fugitives with delicious food. That meant they knew how to keep Anti-Skill from tailing them. This wouldn’t be as easy as attaching a GPS-equipped device to track it. The truck’s radio or sensors would detect the signal.

So Takitsubo made a simple comment.

“Frenda.”

“Yeah, yeah. In the end, one plastic bottle drone coming up. Makes me wonder what you would have done if you didn’t have the ultra genius and ultimately cute Frenda-chan on your side.”

“It’s French food, right? I planned to track the nitrogen gas used to keep the wine from oxidizing.”

“But in the end, Norsitro Chatellenie is clearly underage!”

Takitsubo and Frenda were enjoying their banter.

How could they be so calm?

Kinuhata frowned.

“Won’t your drone get super shot down by an attack helicopter?”

“In the end, anything small enough will be fine as long as it doesn’t move too fast. There are plenty of UFOs flying around overhead, including small birds and convenience store bags floating in the wind. The city’s automatic air defense doesn’t react to it all.”

Of course, Frenda wasn’t just guessing here. It was based on accurate data she had researched. And the standards had to change daily.

The tablet’s screen showed the yellow truck crossing a few district boundaries.

It finally arrived in District 2.

“Isn’t that the car-focused district?”

“In the end, they do weapons and explosives there too.”

They focused on the screen some more. The yellow truck drove below a building, likely into an underground parking garage, but experts at losing pursuit wouldn’t drive straight to their client’s hideout. Frenda cautiously sent the drone around a while longer to continue observing from the air until…

“Here they come.”

“Hm. When traveling on foot, they disguise themselves as a wholesaler that specializes in fireproof curtains and carpets. Well, the ingredients and cooking equipment unloaded from the truck would be too heavy to carry without a handcart of some kind.”

“Then is this it? What is this super place?”

“I see a lot of tall, fake structures and a bunch of ropes. In the end, it looks like some kind of training ground. If it isn’t Anti-Skill, could it be for firefighters?”

The place didn’t seem to be functioning. Was it abandoned? There was even a large plastic pool set up on the grounds.

“Is it time to head in?”

“I want to be absolutely certain first. They might take another vehicle from the parking lot here.”

They waited ten minutes, but that never happened.

That settled it.

It had to be this former training ground thought to be for firefighters.

“We have her,” said Takitsubo Rikou.

===Part 3===

She woke up.

“Hmm?”

Mugino Shizuri opened her eyes in bed. And slowly sat up.

She crawled out of the bedroom still in sleepwear that let her body show through pretty much everywhere.

“Takitsubo?”

No response.

She looked around without fixing her hair.

“Kinuhata, Frenda?”

Still nothing.

(Hm…)

Just once she consciously let out a breath.

Then she grabbed her phone.

She didn’t call her familiar Item teammates.

(Kinuhata and Takitsubo were missing after the bank robbery, but now Frenda’s gone too.)

She was already making some guesses. Like that ''they wouldn’t respond'' if she called them or messaged them on social media.

There was only one person to contact at a time like this.

“Mujinayama. You’ve been discharged from the hospital, right?”

“I must apologize for the inconvenience and trouble I caused you back then, Lady Shizu-”

“Don’t bother,” she snapped and the old butler immediately fell silent.

This was Mujinayama, so he obviously wasn’t intimidated. Even over the phone, he gave the sense of a grandfather playing with his grandchild.

“Hey, Mujinayama.”

“I am at your service.”

“How do I identify a traitor?”

===Part 4===

A firefighter training ground was an unfamiliar place.

Kinuhata had trouble deciding where any specific rooms would be located. The fake structures on the surface couldn’t be all of it, so there was likely more underground.

Now, where would that evil boss be?

“Can we super determine what floor and room they’re in based on Kitchen Car’s movements?”

Kinuhata knew that was asking a lot.

The grounds were large and there were probably lots of underground pathways connecting different areas. What they could see from the outside wouldn’t be enough to fully track Kitchen Car.

But Frenda sounded cheerful as she used a cable to link her phone to a panel on the thick wall surrounding the grounds.

“In the end, check this out, Kinuhata. The security camera records are just gone.”

“Does that super mean the Information Broker is using this place in secret?”

“Then what about this third floor special observation seat? I’m guessing that’s a VIP room for instructors to watch all the trainees and keep score, but the sprinklers have been turned off there.”

“Kitchen Car was transporting cooking equipment along with their ingredients, right? They can ventilate the smoke with a hose connected to the air conditioning vent, but the heat of the fire will still be a problem. So what if they want to use an industrial high-heat gas burner or oven outside of a proper kitchen?”

“You mean they would have to super switch off the sprinklers and fire alarms? Then they must be in the third floor VIP room!”

They were already in enemy territory, so they couldn’t use the elevator which could act like a dead end. It was only three floors up, so they took the emergency stairs.

“Takitsubo-san, the plan was to pit the Information Broker and Mugino against each other, right?”

“Right.”

“But how do we super call Mugino here?”

“In the end, do we even have to? Mugino will never forgive a traitor. She’ll track us down here on her own. We couldn’t hide from her even if we wanted to.”

However, they couldn’t relax just because they were using the emergency stairs instead of the elevator.

A wire crossed the path at above knee height, the most likely height for someone to hit.

Laying several layers of traps would also narrow the trap-layers freedom of movement, so they would only do it if it benefited them. …Hopefully this meant the enemy didn’t have enough personnel to have regular human patrols.

“Have you noticed, Kinuhata?”

“Yeah, I have. These traps are weird. They’re using the bare minimum of flammables like gasoline while using a super ton of oxygen tanks and air circulators.”

Kinuhata wondered if that was to avoid breaking the laws against weapons and bombs, but setting up any kind of explosive with the intent of causing an explosion violated the law anyway. Reducing the amount used wouldn’t get you off the hook in court.

The Academy City Bomber explained in exasperation.

“They’re using oxygen to guide the flames. Have you never heard of tactical ventilation? When firefighters enter a burning building, they will methodically break windows and doors to let air through and, in the end, guide the flames where they won’t hurt anyone while the firefighters complete their rescue. They will also sometimes intentionally increase the intensity of the fire elsewhere to prevent backdrafts and flashovers. But if you wanted to, you could also create a flamethrower-like blast of fire and bend it in an S-shape.”

They all exchanged a glance.

…Firefighters. Frenda had said it herself, but apparently even she hadn’t expected the phrase to pop up here.

“In the end, this is a training ground for them, isn’t it?”

“Super umm, can rescue squad people go bad too?”

“I’ve never heard of it, but it could be. They’re trained to break down doors and enter buildings above the ground floor, so they do have some abusable skills.”

“They also sound strong. In the end, they’d definitely make big burly troops.”

The three continued up the stairs while on the lookout for traps.

After reaching the third floor hallway and cracking open the steel fire door, they sensed a presence.

They spotted someone big and burly.

Kinuhata could defeat him with Offense Armor, but his identity was a bit of a mystery. Looking like a bad guy didn’t necessarily mean you were one. People sometimes behaved in weird, illogical ways. He might just be an ordinary body builder who had snuck into the former training ground (unaware of the traps) to get a workout there, so Kinuhata and the others waited until he had walked past before slipping out into into the hallway.

Takitsubo’s nose twitched a little.

“I don’t detect an appetizing aroma.”

“In the end, the room with the most suspicious electricity usage is the third door on the right.”

Then they would start there.

Kinuhata had assumed there was only one third floor VIP room, but it turned out there were several. After pressing her ear to the door and listening for any activity inside, she slowly opened the door.

“What is this super place?”

She found a dark room.

It was about the size of a larger convenience store.

The opposite wall was made of glass to provide a view of the outdoor training ground, but Kinuhata was more interested in something else.

LCD monitors lined one section with pricey-looking office chairs in front of them. More than half the space under the desks was taken up by what looked like industrial computers.

“Did the firefighter training ground also super teach them how to respond to emergency alerts and operate their radios?”

“This might have all been brought here after the fact,” replied the track suit girl.

The right and left walls were covered by steel racks packed with paper files thicker than brick blocks.

Takitsubo scanned the entire room with emotionless eyes.

“Frenda, let’s check the paper.”

“In the end, why not the computers? Paper documents don’t even have the bare minimum of a search option.”

“I don’t want to touch the computers when we don’t even know if they use a password, fingerprints, a security key, or facial recognition. We might get it locked down or even trigger an alert to their boss. The paper is better. I’ll handle the shelves, so you two check the ones around the desks.”

“Ughh. In the end, a note with their password written on it would be too much to hope for, wouldn’t it?”

“If they’re unlocking it every single time, there must be some kind of mark or hint,” said Takitsubo even as she walked over to the shelves.

All that information felt overwhelming to Kinuhata, but apparently it looked like a treasure trove to their search expert.

“This data is related to a vulnerability,” said Takitsubo as she flipped through something like a thick manual.

Kinuhata tilted her head. What kind of vulnerability?

“The wide variety of videos and articles strewn across the internet are automatically fact checked for accuracy…but there is no system in place to fact check the fact checking.”

“???”

“It’s complicated, but in short there’s a loophole in the network monitoring system. By converting a file to the fact checking file extension, it can slip right past Academy City’s automatic checking system. The legitimate files are 512 kilobytes, so anything larger than that would be detected as illegitimate, but you can fit a ton of text in a file that size.”

“Super so what? What happens if you can slip something past it?”

“You can send unchecked electronic data in and out of the city. Using the official fiber optic lines while ignoring the dedicated systems entirely.”

They all fell silent.

Hold on.

“Wh-what are you saying? That, in the end, all the city’s classified data on next-gen weapons and esper development could be leaked outside the city!?”

“…”

Instead of responding right away, Takitsubo took a look around the room.

She blinked a few times.

“If they are selling technology like that, why isn’t any of that data here?”

“Now that you mention it… They super have a loophole they could use, but I haven’t seen any data they could sell, like the plans for a stealth fighter or a Level 5’s DNA map.”

“So in the end, what is Norsitro hoping to do with that super convenient joker in her hand?”

That was when Takitsubo’s head shot up.

The search expert was looking off in an odd direction.

That was a warning sign.

“Kinuhata. Frenda.”

“Yes?”

“Watch out. The enemy is coming.”

The door burst open from outside.

Frenda immediately leapt behind a big decorative plant and Kinuhata moved in front of Takitsubo.

A girl entered flanked by two large men. They of course recognized that silver hair and dark skin.

That was Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie.

Her phone’s wallpaper had shown her in a towel, but now her body was tightly bound by a leather belt, miniskirt, and big boots that were a glittering neon green with silver thread woven in. It was probably meant to be a bondage outfit.

“Oh, hey. You were right, Matsuzawa-san.”

“I was lucky.”

“All we had to do was leave the ‘call center’ unlocked and unoccupied and they waltzed on in here like a bunch of roaches. Incredible.”

“Milady. Shouldn’t you compare them to something more appealing, like rhinoceros beetles?”

“Is that more appealing? You must like the outdoors, Haranaka-san. They’re both just shiny black bugs to me☆”

===Part 5===

Back in the tourist hotel suite in the grown-up District 5.

What Mugino Shizuri most wanted at the moment was the live words of an expert.

Needless to say, the Mugino Family was an international gang with hundreds of thousands of soldiers around the world.

Thus, they wouldn’t go crying to the normal police if some money disappeared or someone died within the Family. That would mean tearing down their entire violent system to solve one measly case. Still, there were on occasion fools who would periodically sell information to the police (because they were being threatened or something). To reiterate, the Family would not ask the police for help when something happened.

So they had a different solution.

They had an internal investigation department that specialized in identifying and punishing traitors in their midst.

“If it’s too weak, there’s nothing to stop the traitors, but if it’s too strong, it turns into a dictatorship that wields false accusations and purges. …Mujinayama, you know how to handle these things just right, don’t you?”

“Sigh… I would have preferred you came to me for advice on how to prevent the betrayal from occurring in the first place, but I get the feeling it is too late for that.”

“Hurry up.”

When Mugino lightly rushed him, the mood changed.

His world – the vibe of the Mugino Family he had served for so many long years – pushed in through the cold mechanical phone.

“The standard countermeasure against betrayal in a system of violence is to prepare for it before it actually happens. You do not want to be running around in a panic after you have been betrayed and real harm has been done.”

“Right.”

Mugino glanced aside with the phone against her ear.

At the empty boxes for luxury brand clothing piled up in a corner of the room.

“''You don’t have to worry about that.''”

“Is that so? I would expect no less from the one who carries the weight of the Family’s future on her shoulders. I am relieved.”

That old butler did not flatter people for no reason. If she couldn’t think of any reason for the compliment, there had to be more coming.

His ever gentle voice quietly gained the sharp edge of a knife.

“However, you must not forget that suspecting your companions is itself a small betrayal. It is necessary for the maintenance of a system of violence that cannot rely on the official power structures, but it is by no means a praiseworthy thing.”

“…”

“And what if your suspicions of betrayal prove to be false? Shizuri-sama, betrayal and the response thereof are a sort of gamble. You are not a righteous detective investigating each suspicious individual until you find the criminal like a game of concentration. If you choose wrong just once, responsibility for that mistake falls on you. Investigating a traitor carries the risk of becoming a traitor yourself. You must never forget this when seeking the truth in our shadowy world.”

That was why the internal investigation department paid exceptionally well while being exceptionally risky.

It was known as the hardest department to keep balanced.

And this summed up why Mugino Shizuri had gone out of her way to seek advice from the old butler who had served the Family for so long.

Yes. If she could be sloppy and get it wrong as many times as she liked, she would have done it all herself.

But that wasn’t an option, so she wanted to know the etiquette and secrets the gangs used.

“It also depends on the severity of the betrayal in question.”

The old butler used that as a starting point.

He did not mince words.

So whether or not he included that phrase would likely greatly change the impression left with the listener. Even if Mugino Shizuri didn’t yet know why it mattered.

“Complete traitors are actually fairly rare. Most traitors move back and forth between the two sides, so they always carry some small feeling of guilt with them. It is always gnawing at them, even as they eat and sleep.”

“Are you saying the losers who can’t stand the pressure will blow up first?”

“No. It affects everyone of all sorts. Someone who truly cannot bear the impure feelings won’t bother with all those tricks and will make a full-on attack despite the risks. The family head is the type to do that.”

…Mugino Shizuri bluntly concluded that man’s way of life was unfortunately not very useful for her. After all, that freak had once armed himself, single-handedly stormed an embassy, and dragged the corrupt minister off the embassy’s grounds just because a small child had cried and asked him to rescue his grandfather (true story). If she asked that ridiculous man how to find a traitor, she could easily imagine him telling her to build up enough charisma that no one felt the need to betray her in the first place.

She wanted to discuss a more realistic way of finding a traitor.

“It is not always a lack of skill that leads traitors to leave small clues and make mistakes. There is a part of them that wants to be caught. That is why their pursuer notices their presence. Lady Shizuri, I assume you came to me for advice because you already have some kind of clue. What felt off to you?”

“…”

For one, why had the other three members of Item gone missing at the same time?

If those three wanted to do something behind her back, wouldn’t they leave someone behind to distract her and keep her from getting suspicious? Why hadn’t they done that?

How could she explain it from a standpoint of pure function and efficiency?

(Hm.)

“Now let’s circle back to an earlier point,” said Mujinayama. In a voice that would make anyone’s back straighten. “How far must a betrayal go before you can truly call it a betrayal?”

===Part 6===

The silver-haired dark-skinned girl was Information Broker Norsitro.

Were the large burly men surrounding her illicit firefighters?

More importantly, Kinuhata had picked up on a curious word in their brief conversation.

''The call center''?

“(Kinuhata, anything the enemy freely says in front of you should be taken with a grain of salt. Don’t accept it at face value.)”

“Information you think you researched on your own can be externally controlled too, you know? All I have to do is manipulate what order you find the relevant data in, so it’s not hard at all,” pointed out Norsitro in her neon green bondage outfit.

Then what about the vulnerability they had just found? Using the fact checking file extension? Maybe they had to doubt the entire idea of freely communicating across the city wall. Were they back to square one?

“Kinuhata, what did I just say about things the enemy says in front of you?”

“Ugh.”

Kinuhata Saiai groaned at having to be told a second time.

The silver-haired girl smiled elegantly at how easily manipulated Kinuhata was. She even covered her mouth with a hand despite how that clashed with her outfit.

“So instead of leaping at the documents and information you find, you should be working out how and why they turned up here and then dealing with them accordingly.”

The Information Broker.

Norsitro’s job involved more than just gathering information. She had to decide how to use it. When was the best time to reveal it or hide it? She was an expert at using information as a whole.

“That said, get the balance wrong and you can end up paranoid and doubting everything you see, so hiring an expert at information management is the best thing to do for your mental health, if you ask me.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Kinuhata saw Frenda stir.

She stuck a hand in her pocket.

Kinuhata had been working with Item long enough to know what Frenda was planning.

Norsitro was still talking when Frenda pulled an explosive from her pocket and threw-

“''I’m not done talking.''”

''Boom!!'' A dull explosion rang out.

Unsure what had happened, Kinuhata Saiai was thrown through a tempered glass window. In other words, she was tossed out from the third floor. That was about the same as the top floor of a school.

On the other side, the inner wall behind Norsitro broke through and a black Eastern dragon emerged.

No.

That was actually thousands or tens of thousands of flying objects about the size of paper airplanes made from fliers.

“In the end, is that a drone swarm!? Kinuhata!”

“Ohhh? Are you sure you should be focusing on her?”

A “zap!!” of bursting air rang out.

Along with a flash of light.

Frenda Seivelun fell to her knees.

“Kah…”

(Lightning, a high-voltage current? What the hell? In the end, does she have more than just next-gen weapons?)

Frenda collapsed to the floor and couldn’t move. She couldn’t even lift her head. The most she could manage was some trembling of her limbs. She could only thank her lucky stars that none of the delicate fuses and explosives hidden on her person had gone off.

The silver-haired girl glanced over at the only one left: Takitsubo.

“You’re dropping like flies. Which makes it easier for me, so I’m not complaining.”

The drones were black devices. They were the size of 10x20cm paper airplanes, but their jagged and distorted silhouette looked something like a Christmas tree. Would their precise classification be canard double delta?

And Takitsubo spoke quietly.

“Is this why?”

“?”

“Drone swarms can’t be defended against by existing missile defense systems because there are just too many of them, so in a way you could call them an even greater strategic weapon than a nuclear warhead. But the problem is the manufacturing and operating costs. The price has to be multiplied across the number of drones in the swarm, so building a thousand of them increases the cost a thousandfold and creating ten thousand increases it ten-thousandfold. Same for the fuel and maintenance costs. That isn’t something an individual can use.”

“Yeah, I do use around 250 thousand of them at once. And the number goes up to 1.75 million if you include the spares, so the final sum is nothing to sneeze at. Keeping them in top condition isn’t easy.”

“Khah. In the end, even if it’s fully automated and it only takes a minute per drone, how much effort are you putting into this? Did you buy an entire huge factory with multiple production lines?”

“Didn’t I just say keeping them in top condition isn’t easy? Besides, a single stealth fighter costs 20-30 billion yen. And that’s just buying it. When you think of this as a super weapon superior to nukes, it’s honestly a pretty good deal.”

Her neon green bondage outfit had silver threads woven in. Was that glittering getup actually a highly conductive full-body antenna?

Norsitro chuckled and spread her arms.

The word drone apparently originally referred to the buzzing of a bee’s wings and the drones surrounding her lived up to that origin. They were surprisingly nimble and reminiscent of killer bees or of flies buzzing around something dead. Some drones would come to a stop in midair, so they may have been capable of vertical takeoffs and landings using a lift fan or something.

Also, she had the high-voltage power that had hit Frenda.

“Committing perfect crimes in Academy City is a challenge. But not so outside the city’s walls. Isn’t that right? Especially if you can use Academy City tech out there. Then it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“You aren’t going after the parents, are you?”

“What, something like this: ‘Hey! If you don’t pay up soon, we’ll threaten your precious kid over and over and over again until they’re part of the blackmailer group themselves! Then they’ll be a criminal and your whole family will be in the news!’ ”

A grin split across the silver-haired girl’s face.

That was the devilish face of someone who knew how to cash in on people’s misfortune and tragedy with maximum efficiency.

“The towering wall surrounding the city prevents the parents outside from rescuing their child no matter how much danger they’re in. What, you think they should call Anti-Skill? Heh hee hee. You know better than that. The higher ups of this city are all corrupt, so they won’t allow anything to threaten the city’s public image. Oops, and now that report is being suppressed. There won’t be any kind of official record it ever even happened.”

The parents would be helpless while knowing their child was in trouble.

The only option left would be to pay a sum of money larger than they could hope to make in a lifetime.

They could always refuse.

But it was this girl’s job to give them ''a very good idea'' of what would happen then.

The large men – firefighters? – closed in on Takitsubo.

“Now, then. Your bodyguard went skydiving and your bomber was zapped into submission. The search expert remains, but what can you hope to do on your own?”

“I can do this.”

Takitsubo was quick to make up her mind.

She grabbed paralyzed Frenda’s collar and immediately jumped out the broken window.

===Part 7===

This wasn’t a suicide.

She fell to a location less than three meters down. It was likely part of the training ground, but a net was laid out there to catch anyone who fell.

Takitsubo wouldn’t have taken that sudden dive if she hadn’t recalled seeing it earlier.

“This way. Super this way!”

Kinuhata Saiai had fallen earlier and she was beckoning over from behind a large fake building wall. Takitsubo adjusted her grip on Frenda, dropped from the net to the ground, and ran over to Kinuhata.

Fake buildings, trees, streetlights, benches – there were plenty of places to hide, but the training ground was still an open outdoor space. Staying here was not an attractive option. If they wanted to avoid being caught in a pincer attack, they needed to find a back entrance and withdraw indoors.

Takitsubo lowered the fluffy blonde girl from her shoulder to a concrete-looking floor.

“Frenda.”

“What, can’t you tell? In the end, you can’t expect any help from me.”

“I want to know how those drones work. Only you would know that.”

Did Takitsubo Rikou know exactly what people wanted to hear at times like this?

The Academy City Bomber reacted with a twitch.

“Those are just your standard wandering self-destruct drones that carry a bomb and charge at their target, right? Their structure itself is simple. Based on how far Kinuhata was blasted, the explosive they’re carrying isn’t anything special. If they’re loaded with 100 grams and it expands 800 times, in the end, that’s about the same force as a grenade. The lethal range should be around 10m.”

…But 1.75 million grenades thrown at you one after another would be more than enough of a threat. A minor fortress or combat airfield could be stained with blood and destroyed by that.

“1.75 million… She can’t be controlling them all manually, can she?”

“In the end, she’s probably providing general instructions with her phone and the exact calculations are all handled by AI. Like playing an RTS on easy mode.”

“Then super what if we jam those signals? That will cut off the manual instructions and I bet they’re linked up to a fairly large supercomputer to constantly perform so many flight control calculations.”

“I doubt that would work. She uses 250 thousand at once and has a total of 1.75 million in case some are brought down. Even if each one has a cheap toy of a CPU, linking 250 thousand of them together in parallel will provide some decent processing power. They won’t need a stationary supercomputer.”

It sounded like jamming the wireless network itself would still work, but they didn’t know what the swarm used to communicate. And if they were military, they would likely use multiple methods at once: EM, IR, magnetism, ultrasound. Actually jamming them would require blocking every one of the methods…but how many methods was “every one” of them?

Kinuhata sounded fed up with it all.

“Drones that super small have to run out of fuel or battery before long, right? If we stay on the run to buy time, won’t they eventually break down?”

“Kinuhata, we can’t make that kind of assumption without seeing their design or specs. They might generate power from the wind or the sun and they might be remotely charged using ultrasonic waves or microwaves.”

A portion of the blue sky was colored black.

As if ink had been splattered into the world.

Frenda looked up with her lips twisted into a stiff half-smile.

“So…in the end, which sounds better to you: having them attack us in a straight line or having them spread out and attack us as a wall?”

“Either way, Kinuhata would be the only survivor.”

“250 thousand at once and 1.75 million in all… If I’m super pummeled by that many bombs, not even Offense Armor is going to last.”

Kinuhata could only watch the drone swarm in a daze.

They circled an area as large as a schoolyard as they took aim. Like a giant flying serpent. If the Item girls stayed outside, they would be swallowed by a sandstorm of mechanical explosions.

And…

“Ah ha ha. You call that escaping?”

They heard a voice.

“Being out in the open makes it easier for me☆”

It belonged to Norsitro Chatellenie.

She jumped lightly down toward them from from the broken window a few meters up.

She was less than a hundred meters away.

“!”

Still seated on the floor, Frenda immediately pulled multiple explosives from her short skirt.

“I seriously doubt that will work.”

The wind roared as it spiraled thickly around them.

A giant tower rose up on either side of Norsitro. The wind wrapped around and extended high into the sky, forming powerful tornadoes.

Realizing what that meant, Frenda froze before making her attack.

The brown girl’s hair and leather skirt were flapping wildly, but she didn’t seem bothered by it.

“Handheld rockets have a terrible tendency to miss when exposed to crosswinds. I hear that world-famous Russian one that only costs 20 or 30 thousand yen has trouble hitting at even 500 meters. And with this kind of random turbulence, you have no way of calculating a path.”

Tornadoes.

Frenda’s eyes widened because she had already been hit by an esper power attack here.

“You mean…in the end, she doesn’t just have lightning!?”

“What’s wrong? Was there some other weather you were hoping for? Or were you worried about low pressure because you get headaches on those days? Just let me know☆”

Norsitro smiled in her bright neon green bondage outfit.

And it began pouring rain.

Less than five seconds later, it turned to fist-sized hail.

Then a clear blue sky shined overhead.

It was like she was casually flipping an invisible switch. Frenda Seivelun was completely dumbfounded.

Was this Norsitro Chatellenie’s power?

“You’re…kidding.”

“It super looks like she can control all forms of weather, including lightning, doesn’t it? Her power might control the air instead of electricity.”

“Kinuhata, don’t treat maybes like confirmed information. Remember what I said about information the enemy gives you?”

“Yes, yes, I have to super take it with grain of salt! …But how else are we supposed to explain that ridiculous power!? Mutter, mutter…”

Kinuhata’s complaints were cut off.

By the repeating sound of something beating at the air.

It was a Two Wings helicopter that could be flown unmanned…no, based on the arm-like wings spread out on the sides, was it a Six Wings?

250 thousand at the same time with a total of 1.75 million.

As those things flew around, the “black dragon” must have shown up on Academy City’s anti-air radar. Their operator must have known that would happen, but…

“Shut up.”

It exploded.

Even Frenda wouldn’t want to be chased by one of those. That was just how brutal the Six Wings’ air-to-air and air-to-ground armaments were, but it happened so easily.

“I said it’s a super weapon superior to nukes, didn’t I? You can’t expect ordinary weapons – even an entire squadron of attack helicopters – to deal with it.”

“So in the end, is there no way of stopping her?”

Her power was frightening, but it wasn’t just her power.

The drone swam was frightening, but it wasn’t just the drone swarm.

All three Item members had the same thought: how could they even begin to deal with a monster like this?

Even now, the two tornadoes were raging across the ground.

With a din of destruction, drink vending machines, streetlights, and fake buildings were torn from the ground and thrown into the air. People were meant to climb and descend them with ropes, so it had all been bolted to concrete pedestals, but it didn’t seem to matter.

If a human was caught in there, they would be thrown high into the sky…and then what would happen?

Norsitro grinned.

She wasn’t making a threat to negotiate. The joy of someone who planned to ''use it'' spread across her face.

“I’m not saying there’s no hope at all for you. After all, one of you is supposedly a shield esper.”

“…”

“But if protecting yourself from the fall is ''all'' you can manage, then I just have to hit you again from the side. Which would you prefer to kill you: the self-destruct drones or my power?”

She was extraordinary.

The three Item girls didn’t see how they could win even if they all attacked at once.

Norsitro Chatellenie held a position near the very top if you ignored the excessive financial cost of operating those drones as an individual.

But that was all the more reason to fight.

They couldn’t leave someone this powerful to her own devices. She would prey on Academy City’s ordinary students, drive them to the blackmailers, and even threaten the parents outside the city to make even more money. The people having their lives and futures ruined were not the fools who had purposefully rushed to the dark side to snag some dirty money. Norsitro was like quicksand that endlessly swallowed honest people with no such intentions. And because she was such a formidable enemy, she would cause a massive number of victims if allowed to go free.

It would be too late by the time the city’s wicked grown ups decided to do something about it.

If she wasn’t defeated here and now, there would be victims.

Kinuhata clenched her teeth. Takitsubo had accepted Kinuhata’s plan to survive by having Mugino betray them and fight Norsitro, but that plan had mostly fallen apart. Now it was ''more important'' to silence her as soon as possible. Kinuhata was a dark side villain, not an agent of good or justice, but she still felt that need.

And then.

“Hey.”

She heard.

A voice.

Coming from even further back than Kinuhata Saiai, Frenda Seivelun, and Takitsubo Rikou.

There must have been a different back entrance.

Was that squishy sound all that remained of an unlucky guard who happened to be there?

“Why would you go off and have a party without me?”

A grin split across Norsitro Chartellenie’s face.

“Oh, you’re finally here.”

Sweat poured from Kinuhata’s body.

The Information Broker was supposed to be an expert in handling all forms of information, so why didn’t she understand what it meant for ''her'' to be here? Why didn’t she understand the great risk there?

Regardless, the silver-haired girl spoke her name.

“''Mugino Shizuri.''”

===Part 8===

The density of the air changed.

In terms of human emotion, the most fitting word was probably “tension”.

Her presence made all the difference.

For better or for worse, Item…required Mugino Shizuri.

“Tch. Super how did you know where we were?”

Mugino answered Kinuhata’s trembling question by flicking something over without even glancing in her direction. It was a tag even smaller than a kernel of corn.

Takitsubo took it.

“Is this a brand-name clothing shop’s anti-theft tag?”

“The good brands use really nice ones. They’re convenient, so they come in handy.”

''“What is it, Mugino? Do you want to buy that?”

''“Not really…”

Was this why Mugino had been so fixated on feeling the clothing in that store? She had been interested in the anti-theft devices, not the fashionable clothing that cost 100 thousand yen each.

The silver-haired girl with her body contained in a neon green bondage outfit smiled thinly.

“Being a team leader is a challenge, isn’t it? Failure isn’t an option and that responsibility falls on your shoulders.”

“We’ve never met. Don’t act like you know me, trash.”

Kinuhata Saiai considered the situation.

Mugino Shizuri had arrived.

The plan was for Mugino to suspect them and act of her own volition, but they hadn’t finished setting things up for that. Simply defeating Norsitro Chatellenie wasn’t enough. If Mugino learned of the current situation as they did so, Kinuhata’s betrayal would come to light when Mugino started asking questions after the fighting was over. Then there was no avoiding being vaporized by Meltdowner. So this was her chance.

She knew that, but she still felt a cold sweat pouring down her back.

The fingers of death were running along her spine. She could feel them.

She had to deceive and betray Mugino Shizuri.

Screwing it up would mean death.

It was finally showtime.

===Part 9===

They were in the outdoor field of the former fire fighter training ground in District 2.

A great mass of moving air created a low roar.

250 thousand drones were packed together like a black dragon as they moved together.

They were all aimed at Mugino Shizuri alone.

The Information Broker laughed with her phone in hand. She held a hand over her mouth as she did so.

“Oops. I forget to ask.”

Norsitro’s expression was as casual as if she were out at the supermarket and realized she had forgotten she needed to buy the one item that was on sale.

“Would you prefer to be killed by my power or by the swarm? But asking now is a pain and it doesn’t really matter, does it? You’ll die a painful death either way.”

Mugino Shizuri gave a snort of laughter and flicked out a card she had pulled from her pocket. Before it could fall to the ground, she accurately struck it with a thick Meltdowner beam.

Silicon Burn.

Nearly 150 scorching electron beams thinner than hairs fanned out in front of her.

However…

“Tch. So a scattershot’s not enough.”

“I am using 250 thousand of them with a total of 1.75 million. But if you think you can shoot them all down, feel free to continue going for a high score. Although I expect you’ll be crushed to death first☆”

No matter how many Mugino destroyed, the number was replenished, so the swarm never dropped below 250 thousand.

And that wasn’t the main problem.

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner had failed to bring down the swarm. Even when using her special Silicon Burn. With Mugino’s attack a failure, nothing could stop the endless drone force. This time they charged toward Mugino as if aiming for a cross counter. En masse.

A sticky blackness filled a large portion of the scene.

Like a bottle of pitch black ink had fallen over on a painting of Academy City’s scenery.

The black dragon devoured the blue sky. No, the swarm weapon made up of 250 thousand drones circled around together to attack Mugino.

According to Frenda’s analysis, each one was as destructive as a grenade.

But there were 250 thousand of them.

If they all attacked at once…it would be like taking a machinegun spray of explosive rounds head on!

“Mugino!”

“Want to make bets how many seconds you’ll last?”

Norsitro smiled in her neon green bondage outfit.

The following explosion felt like space itself were expanding.

But Mugino wasn’t injured.

Despite the many, many explosions going off.

“Oh? I thought you were all offense, but I guess not.”

She had a shield of light.

Meltdowner normally flew sharply out as a straight line, but she must have instead had it spiral close to her hand. It looked like a round shield fully covering Mugino’s body.

The sharp fragments and even the blast itself were pushed back. Academy City’s #4 had extraordinary specs in defense as well, but Norsitro wasn’t normal either. The very act of forcing Mugino Shizuri to defend – that is, to ''threaten'' that bundle of arrogance enough that she thought she would die if she didn’t defend – was extraordinary enough.

Adding Mugino Shizuri to the fight wasn’t enough to defeat Norsitro Chatellenie.

All four members of Item together couldn’t end this.

They were on the verge of death and cutting it close.

But that was more than just a risk. With a different viewpoint – Kinuhata Saiai’s for example – it could also be a one-in-a-million opportunity.

Win or lose? Live or die?

No one knew what was going to happen, which created enough of an ''opening'' to take otherwise unthinkable actions.

Here, she could force it through.

She concluded a chance like this wasn’t going to come again.

If she was going to fool that girl.

If she was going to get Mugino Shizuri to betray her, it had to be here.

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner, even when scattered like a shower using the Silicon Burn, could not shoot down Norsitro Chatellenie’s 1.75 million drones.

To put it another way, ''it wouldn’t look strange'' if something unexpected happened here.

The countless wandering self-destruct drones sliced through the air as they charged in.

Now was the time to make up her mind.

Takitsubo and Frenda had both given Kinuhata some advice while they were pursuing the Kitchen Car truck to reach this place.

''“Saying you will ‘deceive’ her may make it sound like something you do while watching on from some safe place, but that won’t work. A safe zone on a deadly battlefield where anything can happen will look suspicious to Mugino.”

''“In the end, the only way to truly trick Mugino is to risk your life. So you can’t be lying to save your life. This is Mugino Shizuri we’re talking about. She’ll notice immediately if you aren’t truly risking your life with the lie.”

In other words.

…A liar wouldn’t do something so dangerous. Someone trying to trick me with a lie would make sure they were safe.

By taking advantage of Mugino’s low opinion of traitors, Kinuhata could hide in her blind spot.

So it had to be here.

It had to be when Norsitro’s drones charged in and detonated at close range. It was something only possible for Kinuhata Saiai who stood outside Mugino’s Meltdowner shield and who Academy City’s #4 could not fully protect.

She did it herself.

She deactivated Offense Armor.

“Gh.”

She felt a scorching heat. From her right flank. First she felt a twisting and tugging sensation on her skin and then her small body was thrown more than two meters straight back.

“…Gah…?”

She rolled a few times and her small body was left trembling.

(Oh…no.)

Had her fear of Mugino made her take the act ''too far''? An iron taste seeped into her mouth. She could feel something throbbing inside her. She felt badly dizzy, perhaps from the blood loss, and she couldn’t tell which way was up as she lay on the ground.

She might really die here.

Takitsubo Rikou ran over, held the wound, dragged her behind cover, and waved her phone in her other hand while calling out to Mugino.

“Mugino, she’s lost a lot of blood. Her breathing is heavy and her pulse is falling. My health management app is giving red zone warnings. Kinuhata won’t last like this.”

“Huh!? …Because she was near me? But how’d she get hurt so bad when she has Offense Armor!?”

It was a valid question.

But…

“She was fighting before you got here. While protecting me. She was more worn out than anyone. If you use you power too much, you run out of stamina, right? That’s what happened here.”

…So that was the scenario they were going with.

If they didn’t push this through while Mugino’s thoughts were still confused by the red blood, they couldn’t avoid her questions about what the three of them were doing at this mysterious training ground behind her back.

So…

“Norsitro Chatellenie. In the end, she planned to kill you and take control of Item as a convenient system. Kinuhata was fighting with everything she had because she didn’t want that. She was fighting for you!”

Frenda sprinkled some kernels of truth in there.

The Information Broker didn’t just gather information – she was an expert in when to play her trump card. If they let her, she would start shouting the truth, but by establishing a different idea in Mugino’s mind first, Mugino wouldn’t listen to what the enemy was saying.

And while fighting back and looking irritated, Mugino Shizuri scratched at her head with a hand.

“~ ~ ~ Frenda!!”

“Not happening. She must have lost around a liter of blood already. The lethal limit is based on body weight and Kinuhata’s the smallest of us, so she has the least wiggle room there. Pliers, wire cutters, screwdrivers, drills – I have a lot of tools on me, but nothing that can heal people. In the end, I think the most I have is disinfectant, bandaids, and bandages?”

“1.5 to 2 liters is the limit even for a large man. Kinuhata is in serious trouble if she doesn’t get a blood transfusion immediately,” stated Takitsubo Rikou.

She never showed any emotion on her face, so she didn’t have to try and put on an act here. The listener would imagine their own emotional state mirrored back to them in her voice.

So the more pressure Mugino felt, the more urgent Takitsubo’s warnings would sound.

They were being pushed back. Item’s leader clicked her tongue.

“Did you call that kid the Information Broker? From the way they move, I’m guessing those guys around her are firefighters.”

“In the end, probably so.”

“That makes them a security team specialized in keeping her alive over defeating her enemies. …They should be prepared for any kind of emergency. Which means they might have transfusion kits for each blood type including Rh positive and negative.”

“Then what should we do, Mugino?”

Since Kinuhata couldn’t talk, Takitsubo organized their information from behind cover.

She showed Mugino the horrific values on the health management app.

“We can’t even withdraw with her like this. Moving Kinuhata in this state will kill her. Fight or run, we need to start by giving her enough blood to save her.”

…The numbers on the health management app were of course fake. The app was called Vital Jamming. It was a joke app that let you adjust some simple sliders to change the readings to show a minor cold, an injury, or even close to death.

''“Look, these are the numbers on your health app.”

''“This shows your current calorie intake and exercise level. If you keep this up, the results will be tragic a month from now. The changes will be noticeable in your figure. Especially in the hips and legs.”

…Takitsubo already had it installed on her phone to make the threats necessary to get Mugino to go jogging.

(Does that mean I’m still super alive enough she needs the app to make me look bad enough? Damn. And here I was getting all worked up thinking I might really die.)

Kinuhata felt regret. And embarrassment.

She was supposed to know this was all meant as a way to keep her alive.

The #4 must have decided Meltdowner alone wasn’t enough. She moved Kinuhata, who was lying collapsed behind some twisted metal with no engine or electronics inside. It may have been used to practice rescuing people from a vehicle after an accident. A moment later, that cover was engulfed in a series of explosive blasts.

Mugino grimaced at the continuous noise and raised her voice.

“If they have transfusion kits, where do you think they would be!?”

“Blood is a liquid, so it gets heavy if you have a lot of it. With A, B, O, and AB with Rh positive and negative for each, carrying around the liters needed to resuscitate people of any blood type would mean fighting with weights strapped to you. I doubt they would do that. But they never know when one of their people will be badly injured. In the end, they won’t keep it too far away.”

Or to put it more simply…

“At the very least, I doubt it’s in these fake buildings out here. If you want to find their transfusion kits, you’ll want to head inside the training ground’s main building!!”

They had an objective.

Of course, they couldn’t actually have Mugino save Kinuhata.

Their goal was for Mugino Shizuri to betray her teammate.

They needed the perfect genius of Academy City’s #4 to fail here.

“My, my. Oh, dear, dear. Hee hee.”

This came from Norsitro Chatellenie a short distance away.

She was here too, so she had of course seen that delightful drama play out.

Mugino was already under the impression that Kinuhata had been injured while fighting for her, so even if the Information Broker accused the other three, it seemed unlikely Mugino would blast them with Meltdowner right away.

As an information expert, she must have picked up on that mood.

So she knew nothing she said would get through to Mugino now that she was “the villain who harmed Mugino’s teammate”.

In her neon green bondage outfit, the girl shrugged and operated her phone.

“Sounds like you have an interesting predicament on your hands, but it looks like sticking to the villain role will be the ''most'' fun for me. Speaking of, do you think I’ll just let you through?”

“Tch!!”

One movement of her finger moved the swarm of drones.

Not even Mugino Shizuri could push back the entire swarm of 250 thousand drones with a maximum of 1.75 million.

Several beams sliced through the sky, triggering a few explosions, but that wasn’t enough to bring them all down at once.

“Mugino. Your wall doesn’t have to be sturdy. Even a curtain or net can catch and stop the flying drones.”

“Go to Frenda for little tricks like that!!”

The training ground facility included more than the outside field. Item carried injured Kinuhata down a flight of stairs and entered an underground field meant to simulate a subway station, but that didn’t last even ten seconds.

After a rapid series of explosions, the entire thin ceiling was torn away.

“You can’t get away.” The bondage girl was staring down at them with hands on her hips. “Training grounds like this are designed with wide open spaces underground. They’re fairly flimsy, which makes them easy to blow away. Although that means you won’t be buried alive below dirt, so maybe you should count yourselves lucky?”

They didn’t have time to complain.

The drones were like the downpour of flaming arrows meant to bring down a castle. More and more poured down from above, so Item had no choice but to run down the hallway and climb back to the surface at another exit.

Each individual phenomenon might not be so bad, but they couldn’t seem to regain control of the overall situation.

They couldn’t escape the palm of Norsitro’s hand this way.

“Mugino. In the end, they’re here too!”

“Kh. Kill them to clear a path!!”

Large men, presumably former rescue squad members, emerged from behind vending machines, benches, and other hiding places. They were armed with unique weapons like firefighting axes and rope guns that launched the rope with noncombustible gas.

On top of it all, Norsitro Chatellenie had an unidentified weather control power.

Everyone could tell things were only getting worse.

They were tumbling into the abyss and fast.

They could physically reduce the number of rescue squad members, but the number of drones never seemed to drop. No, Mugino and Frenda were shooting down quite a few of them, but that was like trying to change the weather by throwing stones up at the rain falling from the sky. It was a waste of time.

And if they couldn’t stop somewhere, they couldn’t stop Kinuhata’s bleeding.

They weren’t even supposed to move her right now, so what would happen if they tried to break through the enemy like this?

“Mugino… In the end, we have to give up,” said an astonished Frenda as she scattered mines to slow the enemy down.

…That Frenda could say something like this without it sounding out of place made Kinuhata suspect she was always adjusting her ''emotional distance'' even during ordinary conversations. Because what came next was a suggestion only allowed in the dark side.

“We can’t get a transfusion kit! We don’t even know if there’s one here, so we shouldn’t risk our lives looking for it. I get wanting to save Kinuhata, but you’ll be killed too if you keep this up!! This isn’t just about Kinuhata! If we don’t withdraw now, we’ll all be killed!”

“You’re the leader. So you decide,” added Takitsubo to drive the point home.

Item wouldn’t distribute the responsibility among its members. Stressing that this was Mugino’s decision applied pressure to her. That was a necessary part of setting things up for Mugino herself to betray Kinuhata.

They had no choice. There was no other way.

It didn’t really matter how Mugino phrased it.

But they couldn’t let her claim that they all made the choice together. So all of those psychological loopholes and outs had to be plugged up in advance. Item’s search and information expert showed no mercy here.

“Make a decision, Mugino. Without a choice from our leader, we will all die.”

With that, she preemptively eliminated the option of not making a choice and letting them run out of time.

Now Mugino Shizuri had no excuse.

Since they couldn’t overwhelm Norsitro and acquire a transfusion kit right away, Mugino had only two options: abandon dying Kinuhata and escape or choose nothing and let Kinuhata die when time ran out. Either option would mean Kinuhata’s death, so this was a powerful card to use against Mugino Shizuri who despised betrayal more than anything.

Kinuhata and the others had betrayed her first.

Mugino Shizuri would never forgive a traitor.

So for the three of them to survive, they had to cancel out their betrayal with Mugino’s betrayal.

“Mugino… In the end, I think Kinuhata wants to say something.”

The stage was set.

Takitsubo, supporting her bloody body behind unreliable cover, glanced over into Kinuhata’s eyes.

She understood.

The final emotional push would be most effective…coming from Kinuhata herself.

“Forget…about me.”

Kinuhata forced out the words as she gasped for breath.

This wasn’t an act.

She was cold.

They hadn’t managed to stop the bleeding. She could feel her body temperature dropping.

She hadn’t been killed right away, but she had lost a significant amount of blood. She found she couldn’t speak any louder than this.

“Whether or not there’s a transfusion kit somewhere in the facility…it’s super too late for an injury like this. So please…get out of here. You’re wasting your time. You’ll only get more of you killed. So please…”

An odd feeling filled Kinuhata as she spoke.

She was deceiving Mugino.

Objectively speaking, this was a terrible thing to do.

But she was finding she no longer had to consciously lie to betray Mugino here.

Strangely, she found she was speaking her true feelings.

She didn’t want Mugino to die here.

She didn’t have to lie about that, so she simply placed her current honest feelings in her words.

“I’m thankful… If you hadn’t taken me in, I’d probably still be on ice in the back of that lab. Gh… I was only meant to rot away without every leaving that place, so now I’ll just be returning to the earth. So you don’t have to feel bad about it… So hurry and go.”

(Yeah…)

The words left her almost on their own

And while it happened, a thought came to her.

(If only I wasn’t carrying all this baggage. If only I had super been the kind of person who could say this without needing to sully it like this.)

That could never happen.

The initial assumptions were wrong.

Or maybe this was the final destination of the traitor.

The end result for a selfish dreamer.

The final refuge of a fool who couldn’t bear the weight of reality.

“I was only ever something extra you picked up, right? So you don’t need to bet the fate of Item as a whole on someone disposal like me. Go!! I’ll break their perimeter. I’m going to die anyway, so I might as well go out in a blaze of glory and take a ton of them with me. Cough… That’s a hell of a lot better than dying a meaningless death!! There’s no saving me now, but I’ll super use what time I have left to make Norsitro and her people regret crossing us! So get out of here already!!!”

She drove her point home.

Kinuhata Saiai waited for Mugino to speak.

For her to say, “Fine then. If there’s no other option, we’ll leave Kinuhata here to die.”

For her to admit, “I don’t want to die here, so if you’re going to die anyway, you take care of it.”

Reality wasn’t like the movies. Especially in Academy City’s dark side, a heartless response like that would hardly be a surprise. And because Kinuhata knew that, she bet on it happening. She bet her life and future on it. Bring it on. Because if Mugino didn’t abandon her here, this would end without her receiving the bargaining chip she needed. Then she would be accused of betrayal and reduced to charcoal.

In the distance, a neon green bondage outfit creaked and Norsitro shouted to them in amusement.

“What do you think you can do with that dying body? You can’t even act as a shield against my swarm, so how do you expect to break our perimeter!?”

Something exploded.

The rusty smell grew stronger again.

A sharp fragment must have grazed her because Mugino had a cut on her right cheek.

The drones were only as big as a paper airplane made from a flier, so they could only carry so much explosive. And Frenda’s expert analysis said they weren’t carrying anything special. Each blast was only about as much as a grenade, so the lethal range was about 10 meters.

Even so, a lethal range was a lethal range.

Rapid-firing Meltdowner beams wasn’t enough to stop them all, so Mugino destroyed the base of a nearby fake three-story building to topple it and use the plywood as a shield. She could shoot down the leading drones, but that wouldn’t last forever. And even if she did defend against the sharp fragments, the shockwave still circled around the cover and struck her body.

A single bomb or bullet could kill. Far too easily. That was how it worked on the dark side. A total of 1.75 million? No, she couldn’t let her guard down with even a single drone.

But.

Even so.

“…Takitsubo.”

“What?”

“There’s still a chance, right? If I manage to get inside that building at the cost of my own flesh and blood and acquire a transfusion kit, we can save Kinuhata, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Heh,” laughed Mugino Shizuri.

And she gave her answer.

Item’s leader held her palm straight out and stepped forward. Out from behind cover.

“That’s all I needed to hear.”

…Wait a second.

Why isn’t she betraying me?

“I’m not running.”

Her voice wasn’t particularly loud.

But Mugino Shizuri did speak.

She had to know how bad the situation was for her. She had toppled the fake building to create a shield because she knew she couldn’t shoot down all the drones with Meltdowner.

But a fake building was only a fake. While the drone attacks weren’t designed with penetrative power in mind, this wouldn’t last long. Once the consecutive blasts broke through, it was all over. And Mugino had stepped out from even that much cover.

And yet.

She completely thew out the cold calculations of the dark side.

“I will never abandon a teammate and run.”

A drone exploded.

Close by.

Kinuhata received no new injuries.

Because Mugino Shizuri stood in the way, clenching her teeth. A shard several centimeters across had lodged itself in her shoulder.

This was the borderline between life and death. If the truth came out, it was all over. That was why Kinuhata had put on an act, even if it meant losing more than a liter of blood.

She was of course deceiving her teammate.

But Mugino Shizuri’s heart turned out to be…unexpectedly sturdy?

“Bring it, Information Broker!! I don’t know your name, but you will pay for underestimating Item. Did you think ''the'' Mugino Shizuri would let you get away with doing this to one of my teammates right before my eyes? You’ll be nothing but charcoal once I’m done with you!!!”

Takitsubo fidgeted nervously with her usual lack of expression.

Frenda Seivelun appeared aware how dangerous the situation was. She was frantically trying to work out a course correction from behind cover.

“Wait… In the end, why are you getting all hot-blooded right now when all our lives are on the line!? Don’t you know what Item’s leader is supposed to do!? Hurry up and tell us get out of here, Leader Mugino!!”

“This is my decision to make and I will never betray anyone. I won’t leave Kinuhata hear, turn tail, and run!! It isn’t a matter of pride anymore. All the tools I need to save my teammate’s life are within arm’s reach. If I have to let these blasts tear the flesh from my bones, so be it. I’ve got plenty of excess flesh to offer. So I will get my hands on that transfusion kit!!”

“…”

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner could not shoot down all of the drones even with its scattershot. She could also use her power to defend, but that wasn’t its primary use and it was far from perfect.

More explosions erupted.

She wasn’t critically wounded yet, but she was gradually being worn down.

Academy City’s #4 was.

The next head of the proud Mugino Family was.

All because Kinuhata Saiai had dragged her into this.

Mugino would have had more options here if she were alone. Meltdowner could pierce through any obstacle. She could have escaped outside the former training ground and then sniped Norsitro through the thick wall.

But she couldn’t do that.

Because she couldn’t leave injured and bleeding Kinuhata’s side.

Because she would prefer to accept some disadvantage than abandon a teammate.

Because she wanted the life-saving transfusion kit no matter what.

As fearsome as she was, Mugino Shizuri wasn’t lying. She wasn’t deceiving anyone. She wasn’t betraying anyone. Yet she was being worn down for the sake of a dirty liar.

While roaring that this was better than abandoning her dying teammate and escaping on her own.

“You’re…kidding.”

Kinuhata Saiai was not Mugino Shizuri, so she hadn’t heard what the old butler Mujinayama said.

But he had said that the best way to prevent betrayal was to prepare for it in advance.

And he had said that suspecting your own people was a form of betrayal in and of itself.

Because.

If the person you suspected was not in fact a traitor and was instead a reliable ally who trusted you from the bottom of their heart…then your own suspicion of them would have branded you as a traitor.

Bull’s eye.

“No…”

She had decided to deceive.

There was no way around the fact she only had the one life. So she had decided survival even at the cost of betrayal was the right choice.

But she couldn’t do it anymore.

Something was burned through inside Kinuhata Saiai.

“Are you kidding me!? I super can’t stand it anymorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!!”

===Part 10===

Someone was crying.

They were bawling loudly like a small child.

It was the siren of doom.

Lies? Acting? Deception?

She was past caring about any of that.

Frenda and Takitsubo were watching Kinuhata Saiai from a short distance away.

This was past the point of not knowing how to approach an unmanageable child. Theirs were not the expression a parent would give to their child. The look in their eyes was one of abandonment – of “sigh, now you’ve done it”. They also kept an invisible distance from her so they could stay safely out of the way of what was coming. They chose to trust only the sixth sense they had developed as villains.

The world seemed to rapidly pull away from Kinuhata in all directions.

The weeping girl was left all alone.

If was over for her once Mugino Shizuri discovered the truth. She had known that from the start. But Kinuhata Saiai couldn’t stand it any longer.

“I…”

Her words caught in her throat.

She was aware how self-destructive this was.

Some part of her brain was screaming for her to stop.

But it was too late.

It was game over whether she stopped here or spat out the rest of her words. Mugino Shizuri would never forgive a traitor. Once she was certain of her suspicions, they would not go away on their own.

But that was fine.

She would feel better this way.

She wanted to get it all out before someone could stop her and before she passed out from blood loss.

It would pain her more for this to end unresolved. That she couldn’t bear.

“I lied to you!! I couldn’t abandon that ordinary person who was being forced by the blackmailers to rob the bank, so I saved her knowing she was a criminal who had attacked you! Everything’s gone wrong since… But that’s no excuse. I made my choice and I’ve been lying to you super ever since!!”

Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie gave her an icy look.

Unsurprising really.

The last thing she would want after working so hard to gather up information on a scandal was for the target to self-destructively go public with it. The treasure held by the brown girl in the neon green bondage outfit was now worthless scrap. Of course she wasn’t happy about it.

“It was all my fault!! So that’s enough, Mugino! I don’t need a transfusion kit! Just get out of here. You super don’t need to get hurt here!!!”

There.

She’d said it. She had come clean.

So Kinuhata Saiai managed a somehow twisted smile even as the tears spilled from her eyes.

…If only she’d done this in the first place.

She still didn’t think it had been wrong to act on behalf of the ordinary person being threatened into committing robbery by the blackmailers.

But what about the rest?

Self-preservation, self-preservation, self-preservation, self-preservation! Kinuhata Saiai had been ugly, dirty, and rotten. How could she possibly excuse her actions there?

Had saving the girl being forced to rob a bank really and truly been the same thing as lying to her teammate to save her own skin?

Saving someone was no excuse for betrayal.

If she really had done the right thing, she didn’t need anything else. Instead of worrying about her own life, she should have accepted an honorable death.

All of this was the result of failing to do that.

She had been weak, wretched, and yet greedy. Mugino Shizuri had been injured in her attempt to protect that traitor. She had shed her own blood. And it wasn’t going to end there. At this rate, Mugino, Takitsubo, and Frenda would all die. Item would be finished.

And it would all be Kinuhata Saiai’s fault.

An enemy and a traitor from within were two very different things.

Kinuhata Saiai had been taught an important lesson.

She now knew she had fallen to a position more miserable than death. She was like an insect flipped on its back and unable to right itself.

Even when she had been raised in the back of an unofficial lab, wasting her life away unknown to the world, she had at least still had a human soul.

Even when she had been taken in by Item and been asked to help with their dirty jobs, she had had her soul as a villain.

Kinuhata could tell she was having trouble enunciating. Was it her tongue or her brain? One or the other wasn’t working right after losing so much blood. She didn’t care which. This was far better than having the fear and pain rule her thoughts, preventing her from doing what had to be done.

“I’ll super handle the rest.”

When had her soul been reduced to that of an insect?

She knew the answer.

From the moment she chose to give up on being human.

“I know this is just more selfishness on my part, but I super want to take responsibility for my own actions. You don’t have to bother with any of this, so hurry up and go!!”

And.

Academy City’s #4 monster…listened to it.

It entered her ears.

It soaked into her brain.

Mugino Shizuri now knew what had happened. She had certainty. And she did not forgive traitors. Because she had been raised by the Mugino Family as a born gangster.

To reiterate yet again, Mugino Shizuri did not forgive traitors.

So.

What was the definition of a traitor?

What had Mujinayama said, after his long years of service to the Mugino Family and everything he had seen there?

“Heh. Shut the hell up.”

And.

There was no beam of light.

Even though Kinuhata was ready for it.

Mugino Shizuri placed her palm on the sobbing girl’s head.

Ignoring her own bleeding.

“If you can say all that and you can risk your life to come clean regardless of the consequences, then you’re no traitor.”

Mugino Shizuri’s bloody face bore a small smile.

She was the kind of person who could smile here.

The world had pulled away from Kinuhata in all directions, but she wasn’t alone. Someone had approached her and rubbed her head.

“You’re Item. I will never forgive a traitor, but I always protect my own.”

Kinuhata Saiai couldn’t get any words out.

A moment later, a drone dropped down like lightning and triggered an explosion.

===Part 11===

Reality was heartless.

No matter what emotions had just been exchanged between Mugino Shizuri and Kinuhata Saiai, the silver-haired girl only had to input a simple command on her phone to send 250 thousand drones rushing in to attack. Each of those unmanned weapons was loaded with an explosive and the swarm made a merciless physical attack.

There was an explosion.

But it happened far off in the empty blue sky. Within the dragon of closely-packed drones.

More explosions followed. The chain reaction continued on and on.

The drones attempting to blow up Mugino and Kinuhata broke apart well before reaching them.

“Wha-?”

Norsitro Chatellenie was speechless.

Apparently this was something not even the Information Broker understood.

…Like any aircraft, drones were at risk of breaking apart when pushed too hard. When attempting maneuvers beyond their limits, the combined force of the air resistance and shockwaves would rattle the main wings and cause the aircraft to shake apart. Within Earth’s gravity, you could never forget that it was ''unnatural for anything to leave the surface and fly.

But what had caused this?

The 250 thousand drones were electronically controlled by the parallel processing of 250 thousand CPUs and fully guided by Norsitro’s smartphone. She couldn’t see any reason for them to break apart on their own!

“A maximum of 1.75 million drones? With 250 thousand operated at once? Your swarm control system can break through even if a fair number are shot down by anti-air weapons?”

This came in a casual, singsong voice. And a wicked one.

Mugino Shizuri spoke even while stained red by her own blood.

“But all you’ve done is gather an ass-ton of the same craft, which means they all have the same weakness. I just have to find a single vulnerability and I win. And I had plenty of time to gather information while they were pummeling me. Your trump card was laughably easy to defeat.”

“Oh, is that so? And what exactly are you going to do? Fry all their CPUs with an anti-ship EMP bomb? Or maybe pull an anti-air microwave cannon out of your ass? Fantastical super weapons are great for winning theoretical arguments, but they can’t protect your very real life. Do you have an attack method that can help you in the real world!?”’ shouted Norsitro in her glittering neon green bondage outfit. “You won’t run away? You always protect your own? …Absurd. Why would you ''make that kind of performative claim in front of me''? Did you not look into the legend of the Information Broker? Yes, yes. You have my full attention now. And I won’t rest until all of you are dead!!”

But bloody Mugino gave a snort of laughter.

(Well, she does attack with lightning. I suppose they would be designed to withstand an electric surge.)

That Norsitro would give an actual response to that kind of speculation showed how naive Norsitro was.

When the enemy gave the answer themselves, she had only two options: scoff at the answer for being way off, or frantically try to throw them off because they made a lucky guess.

But if she hadn’t said anything at all, doubt would remain. Whether it was right or wrong, staying quiet had likely been Norsitro’s best option. But she couldn’t help herself. Even though this was like playing concentration and giving up your turn by flipping over cards for your opponent.

“Kh. I have the power to change the weather. The drones can fly through rain or hail without issue!!”

“Sure. ''For unnatural weather you designed yourself'', right?’

Mugino didn’t even glance over behind cover.

Standing out in the open, she pointed her index finger straight up into the blue sky.

“You adjust the drones’ maneuvering based on the weather. There’s an optimal speed for sunny weather, an optimal angle for rain, and so on. When you know it’s coming, you can use your own program there. But with truly unexpected gusts of winds blowing between the buildings, the drones will tilt on their side. And during a sudden downpour, the apparent viscosity of the air changes and the main wings will rattle until they break.”

That was where Mugino had to strike to win.

Meaning…

“It comes down to the ''air’s viscosity''. Or the apparent viscosity anyway.”

She gave the answer.

Saying it here wouldn’t change the result. She had only said it to assert dominance over her opponent in an act of villainous cruelty.

“If I burn the air with Meltdowner, it will reduce the humidity, which dries out the air. But if I instead blast a water tank, the water inside will pour out, greatly increasing the apparent air resistance. It’s simple once you know the trick, but that is enough for the 250 thousand and 1.75 million drones to tear themselves apart. Pretty neat, right?”

“Kh… You mean…that’s what you did?”

It might seem obvious, but that kind of obvious thing could be the most dangerous among all the unusual things found in the supersonic world. Quite a few of Academy City’s prototype fighter craft had ordinary air tear off their main wings because they were unable to withstand their own vibrations.

“The last thing you want is for someone else to alter the weather. That’s why you control it yourself. No matter how unnatural it might look, you needed to alter the environment for all those drones! Even if it meant using some strange power!!”

The maximum of 1.75 million was a certainly a threat, but using the exact same craft for all of them had been a mistake.

Securing multiple different models would have been a challenge when manufacturing, operation, and maintenance were taken into account. The simple financial cost and effort of operation would have been several times greater. But the choice had come back to bite her in combat. The world’s armies would not use a single standard craft just because it was the latest and greatest. Just like Academy City used the Two Wings and Six Wings simultaneously.

A single vulnerability would affect them all.

Throw them off there and the entire swarm would be suddenly destroyed.

The explosions continued. Mugino wasn’t aiming Meltdowner in that direction, but the drones couldn’t approach the former training ground where their targets awaited. They all broke apart on their own and their explosives detonated.

Mugino Shizuri sneered.

She might fight for Academy City or the greater world beyond its walls, but she was neither good nor righteous.

This was the smile of a villain who knew the taste of blood.

“Now, that takes care of those annoying drones buzzing around. Which only leaves your power to deal with.”

===Part 12===

Mugino Shizuri and Norsitro Chatellenie.

Regardless of how many other people were around, this was their battle.

Whoever won would win it all. Whoever lost would lose it all.

“Don’t expect a signal. I’m not flipping a coin or anything.”

“Did you not consider that I might kill you while you said that, fool?”

They both took action immediately.

A thick beam burst from Mugino’s palm.

The neon green bondage girl smiled.

She was still alive and well.

Several of the fake training ground structures had been burned and melted, but that was all.

(Meltdowner missed its mark?)

“No, did she bend it with a current rivaling a bolt of lightning!?”

There was another beam of light.

Something powerful pierced through Mugino Shizuri from head to toe.

A high-voltage current.

In fact, it was a lightning bolt of more than a hundred million volts.

“Kah…ah…”

Mugino’s breath caught, but she managed to stay on her feet, probably because her Meltdowner power controlled electrons. She had touched a torn high-voltage line outside the city without issue yet a shock at the District 3 bus terminal had briefly stopped her heart, suggesting her psychological state influenced the effectiveness of that ability far too much to be a reliable means of defense.

“Mugino, that isn’t an esper power.”

And Takitsubo Rikou made a judgment from behind cover.

This was the natural result of repeatedly using the same trump card in front of that search expert.

“She is controlling 250 thousand drones at once. Each one is the size of a small paper airplane, but you can think of that like fanning the air with a fan 250 thousand times that size. The movements of that swarm can cause a gust of wind in a single direction, a swirling tornado, or even rapidly reduce the air pressure, allowing her to change the weather itself. She can even cause hail and lightning that way.”

“Ha ha!!”

Not at all bothered and even laughing, Norsitro Chatellenie immediately responded.

“Didn’t I tell you!? Oh, sorry. Your leader wasn’t here when I explained that, was she? Anyway, I said keeping them in top condition isn’t easy!! The Superb Starling weather control swarm claims to be a strategic weapon superior to nuclear warheads, so it had damn well better be able to handle this!!!”

Meaning…

“You…”

Academy City’s #4 Level 5, Meltdowner.

Mugino Shizuri, leader of Item and born gangster of the Mugino Family, had been cornered this far by…

“''You’re a Level 0''?”

“Funny, isn’t it?”

She was laughing.

Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie was.

Was that sneer on a face more pained than a lost child’s directed at herself?

“The villain who stands at the summit of Academy City’s evil, devours the city’s ordinary people, and has extended her reach into the world beyond the city…is no more than a Level 0. And I’ve fought back against this entire world because I hate being called that!! Yes, it’s true. I wanted to prove to everyone who’s ever laughed at me that I am not powerless and there is so much I can do!!!”

…She had been certain.

Mugino Shizuri had been absolutely certain that large-scale weather control was Norsitro’s esper power.

So she had thought this would end up as a battle between elites.

But it wasn’t.

This was a lot messier.

“There was a major…incident.”

The enemy was a true Level 0. yet she had challenged Item’s Level 5 and two Level 4s head on and driven them to the brink of death.

“Someone had to die and we all discussed who it should be. Everyone’s eyes gathered on me. Not one of them defended me. …That’s when I made up my mind. I decided I would survive even if it meant killing them all. I decided I would be the one looking down on every last one those shits who tell their pretty lies so they can pretend they’re good people!!”

Was that the trauma that led to her surrounding herself with a rescue squad that provided her with the power to survive rather than the power to kill?

She had been labeled a Level 0.

She had been abandoned by the adults’ systems and the children’s rules.

She had been declared unwanted.

But still she clenched her teeth and reached out her hand in that rotten quagmire.

She wanted power.

She wanted to be strong.

The drone swarm could not approach Mugino. She used the viscosity of the air to bring them down before they could.

But that did not rid the 250 thousand drones of their ability to act like a giant fan to stir up the air, manipulate the air pressure, and alter the weather. Using that did not require directly approaching their target.

This was a harmful technology, but Mugino was willing to recognize the girl’s ability to convert her desire for improvement into actual power.

However.

That was only if she didn’t arrogantly brag about her unprecedented achievement and hadn’t become a monster who endlessly devoured ordinary people’s lives.

(Power corrupts, huh?)

“I can’t respect a villain who reduces herself to a disposable rocket only meant to elevate the things she’s created. What have you become in your constant fear of being killed?”

“?”

A battle between villains begins before the fighting actually starts.

Whichever one was daunted and taken in by the other would fail.

So those who lived in the shadows paid close attention to how they lived their lives even as they turned their back to the sun. They didn’t think twice about breaking ordinary laws and regulations, but they followed their own ironclad rules or Family solidarity and they despised lies, deception, and betrayal in their midst.

And once the 1.75 million drones and their weather control were stripped away, the win condition here was as simple as can be.

She was the Information Broker.

Mugino couldn’t let the bondage girl’s weapon get to her and she had to view her for who she really was.

…The lightning was powerful, but it wasn’t enough to take the life of Academy City’s #4. The rain and hail were powerful enough to engulf Academy City if used systematically, but they couldn’t immobilize Mugino right away.

And no matter how much the winds and tornadoes might bluster, they couldn’t alter Meldowner’s electron beams the way they could a lead bullet or rocket.

Mugino Shizuri grinned.

“So would your one and only effective card be…the lightning? But that’s for defense, not attack. It’s true a current of more than a hundred million volts might be able to interfere with and bend my Meltdowner.”

“…Wait…”

“That’s right. If you’re so smart, you should have realized this ages ago. …If you ''only'' have the one effective card, coming up with a countermeasure is easy.”

Mugino didn’t have time for games.

Kinuhata Saiai must have gone the extra mile in trying to deceive Mugino because it didn’t look like she had used fake blood. That meant her bleeding was real. In that case, Mugino’s goal was to acquire and use a transfusion kit. Norsitro Chatellenie was no more than a point on the way.

So this wouldn’t be a skirmish.

If she was going to kill her, one major attack would do the trick.

Item’s leader announced her intentions.

To make sure it wasn’t too late.

To save the life of her teammate.

These parting words were not just for show.

“You’re – dead – meat.”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item6_Chapter3|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item6_Epilogue}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item6 Chapter4

2026-03-04T18:30:33Z

Massify: /* Part 4 */ fixed up the tense, especially since based would fit better

==Chapter 4: The Cost of Your Choice==

===Part 1===

The situation was changing at dizzying speed.

On the first floor lobby of the District 5 tourist hotel, Kinuhata Saiai could tell she was breathing heavily. Now was no time to panic. She was currently on a dangerous tightrope walk where failing to organize the information would guarantee her death.

“Phew.”

She had to sort through the information, be it good or bad.

Striking back at the Information Broker was her top priority for now.

At the same time, she would have to finally deal with the fundamental problem of Mugino Shizuri. She doubted lies and deception would work forever there. The more she tried it, the more likely she was to make a mistake or rouse suspicion. So she had to make Mugino feel guilty by making her commit the one thing she disliked most of all: betrayal.

Then the born gangster’s own wicked principles would prevent her from attacking Kinuhata and the rest. The gang logic would muddle who was owed what.

Letting Mugino find out about any of this was out of the question, so they couldn’t rely on the support team. Kinuhata, Takitsubo, and Frenda would have to solve the Information Broker and Mugino problems on their own.

So…

“We’ll super pit Mugino and the Information Broker against each other.”

It was two in the afternoon.

Kinuhata Saiai made this suggestion while soaked with a cold sweat.

“We make it look like I got dragged into that fight. It would work best if I get injured. Then Mugino will kill the Information Broker for us and Mugino’s ‘betrayal’ of me will give us the upper hand with her. That’s the only way if all of us are going to survive. We let it all be super water under the bridge by negating betrayal with more betrayal.”

“In the end, are you serious? There’s no safety measures there.”

Frenda’s shoulders slumped, but she didn’t seem to have an alternative.

Track suit girl Takitsubo nodded a little.

“It’s more likely to work than trying to continue lying. Mugino hates betrayal from one of her own more than anything. Based on her gangster logic, not simple emotion. …So how much do you think she will blame herself if she suspects a teammate and turns out to be wrong? Especially if that teammate ends up injured as a result.”

It wasn’t a solid plan.

It would be a perilous tightrope walk. In fact, the very idea of using this loophole against her could be seen as a betrayal of Mugino.

One shoulder of Frenda Seivelun’s clothes slipped down.

Her thoughts were written plain on her face: she wanted to run with all her might, but she knew running would only get her killed.

“Ugh. Then what do we need first? That Information Broker’s identity and appearance? In the end, we can’t include her in our plan if we don’t know her personal information.”

“Then this should come in super handy.”

Kinuhata Saiai waved her phone.

“Just like when we dealt with the blackmailers, I have the location data found by messing with a security robot, hooking a phone up to it, and scanning for phone signals in the area. Anyone with five or ten phones on them is super suspicious, right? Then I have a candidate here.”

Frenda was skeptical. Which may have been the natural reaction after being dragged into a deadly problem for no good reason.

“In the end, do you really think the big boss would be wandering around on the front line?”

“You have it backwards, Frenda.”

“?”

“She can let her underlings handle a lot of the odd jobs, but not so with a delicate and difficult boss battle. It’s the same with Item and our support team, right? …If she truly sees us as a threat, the Information Broker herself will be the one gathering information.”

But that mistrust and unease regarding her own people had worked against her.

It had been convenient for Kinuhata and the others that the enemy was carrying five or more phones. They were likely for different uses – contacting her team, sending commands to disposable soldiers, etc. – but with five of them, it wasn’t a surprise to find one specific type of phone.

One for purely private use.

Instead of a pseudonym and a fictional address, this phone was linked to her real name and bank account and had tens of thousands of photos and videos on it.

They couldn’t steal all of those right away, but they could view the registration name on the small notifications and the lock screen wallpaper.

This was especially easy with narcissists who used their own photo there.

“Norsitro Chatellenie. …Finally super found you, Information Broker.”

She was a girl with silver hair and dark skin.

She looked to be older than Kinuhata and younger than Takitsubo.

Why her wallpaper was a selfie of herself smiling in only a towel was a mystery, though. Did she tend to take long baths with her phone?

Takitsubo Rikou had again shifted into drill sergeant mode. So annoying.

“Okay, Kinuhata. We know her name and appearance, but how do we find her hideout?”

“We super use her food,” succinctly stated Kinuhata Saiai.

Frenda sighed.

“Norsitro Chatellenie. In the end, her name does sound pretty French. Her phone’s default language is even set to French.”

According to Frenda, the towel she was wearing was from a fairly high-end brand. A French brand, of course. It was an offshoot of the fancy restaurant napkins and tablecloths the company was generally known for. Silks and dresses were one thing, but Kinuhata was a little surprised to learn there was even such a thing as a super high-quality towel. Takitsubo and Frenda went on to say the one towel cost more than two million yen. Now she was super surprised!!

“She’ll definitely be looking for the soul food of her home country. That doesn’t mean she’ll be super eating French food every day, but she won’t be able to stop completely. And if she does that when she’s letting off some steam, she will leave behind some small hints. We can use those to track down the elusive Information Broker.”

That must have been the answer Takitsubo was expecting.

She immediately returned the conversational rally.

“For food, District 4 would be best.”

“Yeah, they super have any kind of cuisine you could want. Which means that’s where a native would go if she isn’t satisfied with Japan’s French restaurants that unintentionally alter the food to fit Japanese sensibilities and work with the local ingredients.”

“But, Kinuhata, an entire district is a large area. Will Norsitro be going to a luxury French restaurant with a French manager, or does she visit an industrial supermarket with imported ingredients and do the cooking herself? Even narrowing it down to those two options leaves quite a few possibilities.”

“Will you super stop testing me?” Kinuhata sighed in exasperation and raised a finger. “B and C gangster movies always show the gang bosses and fugitives using fancy restaurants of their home country as a base, but you’d be immediately caught and arrested if you tried that in Academy City. The connection is too obvious. So if the Information Broker is trying to be safe by staying hidden, she super won’t visit a restaurant connected to her home country. By her logic, that would be suicide.”

She raised another finger.

“And ''that’s why she’ll have them come to her.'' At a disposable rental site of course. There are plenty of services that let you call in an expert chef to cook for you and even the rich in the legitimate world will do that for a home party. For a special fee. …That must exist on the dark side too, right? There must be a chef hiring service with options for every county around the world.”

“Correct.” Takitsubo laughed. “It’s called Kitchen Car. Those food specialists are based in District 4 and can enrich a criminal’s fugitive lifestyle.”

“Right. The chef’s skills are top rate, but they were unfairly fired when the entire restaurant got food poisoning or the ingredients were phony or something, so in the end, they were recruited in secret,” added Frenda.

Kinuhata sighed softly.

“That just leaves…the fact that it’s two in the afternoon. The next super time she could call a chef will be at dinnertime. How many hours are we going to end up waiting?”

“In the end, I doubt it will take long.”

“Kinuhata, proper French cooking requires hours of preparation. For a dinner scheduled for seven to nine in the evening, I wouldn’t be surprised if the chefs are already getting started.”

Oh, is that so, you damn dark side rich girls?

This was an unbelievable world for Kinuhata who was happy as long as she had movie theater popcorn and a soda.

Regardless, if Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie was a frequent user of Kitchen Car, this would be easy. Tailing their French chef would eventually lead them right to the Information Broker.

“There are a few things we have to be super careful about,” began Kinuhata. She raised a finger. “First, Kitchen Car will be experts at not being tailed. After all, their job is to provide a safe option for fugitives who can’t just go to a restaurant. Trust is their main selling point, so they will make super sure they aren’t being followed. What we do about that is our biggest problem.”

She wasn’t done yet.

She raised a second finger.

“Second, using this to attack the Information Broker would be easy, but we also have to see this through to the end while fooling Mugino. Defeating Norsitro Chatellenie is super meaningless if she makes a mistake and is killed by Meltdowner before we’re ready. And Mugino isn’t stupid, so she will get suspicious with all three of us missing.”

“''Isn’t that great''?”

Kinuhata couldn’t believe it.

The legitimate VIP whose downfall had been triggered by a super tiny pencil nuke. Private Casino who had been baked to death by a white phosphorous grenade on the party hall roof. The fates of those who had opposed or betrayed Item – or Mugino Shizuri, really – flashed through Kinuhata’s mind. This situation was placing a strain on her heart, but Takitsubo had casually called it “great”?

That search expert who didn’t participate in the direct fighting really did see things differently. …Was Mugino Shizuri really the most terrifying member of Item?

“We have internal and external enemies and the situation is extremely complex and annoying, but we only have two problems to deal with. That should tell you this mission is on easy mode, Kinuhata.”

===Part 2===

Takitsubo spoke up while operating her phone on a moving train.

“I found more on the Information Broker.”

“?”

Kinuhata frowned.

Their opponent was an expert at using information. She wouldn’t be operating in a way that made her real identity as Norsitro Chatellenie a household name.

So was Takitsubo researching the Information Broker identity?

“She appears to go by some other names, but the most notable one is the Faultfinding Demon. She might take a philanthropist who insists money isn’t everything and bury them in debt. Or she might take a lawyer who claims to be opposed to violence no matter the circumstances and place them under so much psychological pressure they end up killing someone in front of a TV camera. It looks like she targets anyone who performatively makes unrealistic claims to boost their public reputation.”

“But are you sure it’s really Norsitro doing that? Information Broker isn’t a super rare term or anything.”

“Kinuhata. Do you remember the bug maker I mentioned before?”

“Yeah, during the stuff with Sudori-san. You said they were investigating Kamigi when they disappeared.”

“Well, the title of information broker is even more common than that one, but I’ve heard rumors of a sudden drop off in how often it’s used. They must all be afraid of earning her disfavor by looking like a rival.”

That made sense.

This opponent was even more dangerous than Kinuhata had imagined. Not to mention self-centered and persistent.

“Is the super dark side just full of guys who are willing to die for their weird hang-ups?”

“Stop that, Kinuhata. You should try to use gender neutral language.”

Kinuhata got scolded by the capable big sister.

…But was that really necessary when complaining about brutal villains?

District 4 was located a bit northeast of Academy City’s center.

The district specialized in all things food and it was a very international place. The food market had small flags to indicate what nationality a shop specialized in, so the long street was reminiscent of all the flags at an athletic festival. The many signs jutting out from from the building walls was chaos itself. There were so many signs overhead it felt like walking through a colorful tunnel.

Broad categories like Asian or European had naturally gathered in clumps, but there was no strict division between areas. There was an Italian restaurant and an American South hamburger shop encroaching on the red Chinatown and a sushi place with the Central and South American versions of Spanish and Portuguese on the signs right alongside the European restaurants. The sushi there apparently used jalapeno paste instead of wasabi.

“This district is like a giant manifestation of choice paralysis.”

“Frenda, is this making you crave your own home country’s food?”

“In the end, I’d be happy living on the far side of Mars as long as I have mackerel.”

If the three of them stayed away too long, Mugino Shizuri would get suspicious. But that didn’t mean they had to solve this problem before that happened. In fact, they couldn’t have Mugino just stay in the luxury hotel. To trick her, to get her to betray them, and to survive, they needed Mugino to act of her own volition.

Suspicion was the greatest fuel for someone who hated betrayal more than anything else.

“So is super that Kitchen Car’s HQ?”

“I think so, Kinuhata.”

“But wait. District 4 is all about food…and they’re in a trash house!? I thought Kitchen Car were super culinary experts!! How could they let this happen!?”

“In the end, I bet this was what happened when those culinary experts decided to build a fortress everyone would want to keep away from. Inside, they’ve probably torn down some walls to turn into a maze. It’s called hiding in plain sight. If you’re looking for someone or something, nothing is more annoying than a trash-filled building.”

The structure itself was a four-floor multi-tenant building, but bulging trash bags were piled up in every door and window and even covered the front walk.

Was that supposed to be camouflage?

That had to be a huge nuisance for the neighbors.

The trio bought kebab sandwiches at a nearby food stand and munched on them as they waited for something to happen. There were an unusual number of people jogging, but was that the result of the overabundance of tasty foods in this district?

Frenda’s sandwich must have been too spicy for her because she kept going back to her cup’s straw for more sips of soda.

“In the end, do we have any reason to think the Information Broker will call Kitchen Car today?”

“There’s no guarantee, but I think the odds are good,” replied Takitsubo. “This is a big deal for her too. It might look like she’s the one threatening Item, but this only happened because she failed to deal with us earlier. If she screws this up, she’ll truly have to go into hiding and then she’ll have far fewer options. She should want to eat everything she likes while she has the chance.”

“There they super are.”

A mid-sized yellow truck slowly emerged from the trash heap of a place. Kinuhata was surprised to find there was a metal garage door there.

“That must be Kitchen Car’s truck.”

The trio waited for the truck to pass by and made the final check by nose.

“Bouillon and mirepoix. Also truffles, pickles, horseradish, and is that lobster sauce?”

“That’s not Japanese or Chinese cooking. In the end, it’s definitely French.”

…Kinuhata couldn’t tell a thing. But she wasn’t upset about it. Really.

But a truck.

Did they need a large vehicle to fit the ingredients and the cooking equipment? It wasn’t as bad as with Chinese cooking, but French cooking probably did require some industrial firepower.

Kitchen Car were experts at providing fugitives with delicious food. That meant they knew how to keep Anti-Skill from tailing them. This wouldn’t be as easy as attaching a GPS-equipped device to track it. The truck’s radio or sensors would detect the signal.

So Takitsubo made a simple comment.

“Frenda.”

“Yeah, yeah. In the end, one plastic bottle drone coming up. Makes me wonder what you would have done if you didn’t have the ultra genius and ultimately cute Frenda-chan on your side.”

“It’s French food, right? I planned to track the nitrogen gas used to keep the wine from oxidizing.”

“But in the end, Norsitro Chatellenie is clearly underage!”

Takitsubo and Frenda were enjoying their banter.

How could they be so calm?

Kinuhata frowned.

“Won’t your drone get super shot down by an attack helicopter?”

“In the end, anything small enough will be fine as long as it doesn’t move too fast. There are plenty of UFOs flying around overhead, including small birds and convenience store bags floating in the wind. The city’s automatic air defense doesn’t react to it all.”

Of course, Frenda wasn’t just guessing here. It was based on accurate data she had researched. And the standards had to change daily.

The tablet’s screen showed the yellow truck crossing a few district boundaries.

It finally arrived in District 2.

“Isn’t that the car-focused district?”

“In the end, they do weapons and explosives there too.”

They focused on the screen some more. The yellow truck drove below a building, likely into an underground parking garage, but experts at losing pursuit wouldn’t drive straight to their client’s hideout. Frenda cautiously sent the drone around a while longer to continue observing from the air until…

“Here they come.”

“Hm. When traveling on foot, they disguise themselves as a wholesaler that specializes in fireproof curtains and carpets. Well, the ingredients and cooking equipment unloaded from the truck would be too heavy to carry without a handcart of some kind.”

“Then is this it? What is this super place?”

“I see a lot of tall, fake structures and a bunch of ropes. In the end, it looks like some kind of training ground. If it isn’t Anti-Skill, could it be for firefighters?”

The place didn’t seem to be functioning. Was it abandoned? There was even a large plastic pool set up on the grounds.

“Is it time to head in?”

“I want to be absolutely certain first. They might take another vehicle from the parking lot here.”

They waited ten minutes, but that never happened.

That settled it.

It had to be this former training ground thought to be for firefighters.

“We have her,” said Takitsubo Rikou.

===Part 3===

She woke up.

“Hmm?”

Mugino Shizuri opened her eyes in bed. And slowly sat up.

She crawled out of the bedroom still in sleepwear that let her body show through pretty much everywhere.

“Takitsubo?”

No response.

She looked around without fixing her hair.

“Kinuhata, Frenda?”

Still nothing.

(Hm…)

Just once she consciously let out a breath.

Then she grabbed her phone.

She didn’t call her familiar Item teammates.

(Kinuhata and Takitsubo were missing after the bank robbery, but now Frenda’s gone too.)

She was already making some guesses. Like that ''they wouldn’t respond'' if she called them or messaged them on social media.

There was only one person to contact at a time like this.

“Mujinayama. You’ve been discharged from the hospital, right?”

“I must apologize for the inconvenience and trouble I caused you back then, Lady Shizu-”

“Don’t bother,” she snapped and the old butler immediately fell silent.

This was Mujinayama, so he obviously wasn’t intimidated. Even over the phone, he gave the sense of a grandfather playing with his grandchild.

“Hey, Mujinayama.”

“I am at your service.”

“How do I identify a traitor?”

===Part 4===

A firefighter training ground was an unfamiliar place.

Kinuhata had trouble deciding where any specific rooms would be located. The fake structures on the surface couldn’t be all of it, so there was likely more underground.

Now, where would that evil boss be?

“Can we super determine what floor and room they’re in based on Kitchen Car’s movements?”

Kinuhata knew that was asking a lot.

The grounds were large and there were probably lots of underground pathways connecting different areas. What they could see from the outside wouldn’t be enough to fully track Kitchen Car.

But Frenda sounded cheerful as she used a cable to link her phone to a panel on the thick wall surrounding the grounds.

“In the end, check this out, Kinuhata. The security camera records are just gone.”

“Does that super mean the Information Broker is using this place in secret?”

“Then what about this third floor special observation seat? I’m guessing that’s a VIP room for instructors to watch all the trainees and keep score, but the sprinklers have been turned off there.”

“Kitchen Car was transporting cooking equipment along with their ingredients, right? They can ventilate the smoke with a hose connected to the air conditioning vent, but the heat of the fire will still be a problem. So what if they want to use an industrial high-heat gas burner or oven outside of a proper kitchen?”

“You mean they would have to super switch off the sprinklers and fire alarms? Then they must be in the third floor VIP room!”

They were already in enemy territory, so they couldn’t use the elevator which could act like a dead end. It was only three floors up, so they took the emergency stairs.

“Takitsubo-san, the plan was to pit the Information Broker and Mugino against each other, right?”

“Right.”

“But how do we super call Mugino here?”

“In the end, do we even have to? Mugino will never forgive a traitor. She’ll track us down here on her own. We couldn’t hide from her even if we wanted to.”

However, they couldn’t relax just because they were using the emergency stairs instead of the elevator.

A wire crossed the path at above knee height, the most likely height for someone to hit.

Laying several layers of traps would also narrow the trap-layers freedom of movement, so they would only do it if it benefited them. …Hopefully this meant the enemy didn’t have enough personnel to have regular human patrols.

“Have you noticed, Kinuhata?”

“Yeah, I have. These traps are weird. They’re using the bare minimum of flammables like gasoline while using a super ton of oxygen tanks and air circulators.”

Kinuhata wondered if that was to avoid breaking the laws against weapons and bombs, but setting up any kind of explosive with the intent of causing an explosion violated the law anyway. Reducing the amount used wouldn’t get you off the hook in court.

The Academy City Bomber explained in exasperation.

“They’re using oxygen to guide the flames. Have you never heard of tactical ventilation? When firefighters enter a burning building, they will methodically break windows and doors to let air through and, in the end, guide the flames where they won’t hurt anyone while the firefighters complete their rescue. They will also sometimes intentionally increase the intensity of the fire elsewhere to prevent backdrafts and flashovers. But if you wanted to, you could also create a flamethrower-like blast of fire and bend it in an S-shape.”

They all exchanged a glance.

…Firefighters. Frenda had said it herself, but apparently even she hadn’t expected the phrase to pop up here.

“In the end, this is a training ground for them, isn’t it?”

“Super umm, can rescue squad people go bad too?”

“I’ve never heard of it, but it could be. They’re trained to break down doors and enter buildings above the ground floor, so they do have some abusable skills.”

“They also sound strong. In the end, they’d definitely make big burly troops.”

The three continued up the stairs while on the lookout for traps.

After reaching the third floor hallway and cracking open the steel fire door, they sensed a presence.

They spotted someone big and burly.

Kinuhata could defeat him with Offense Armor, but his identity was a bit of a mystery. Looking like a bad guy didn’t necessarily mean you were one. People sometimes behaved in weird, illogical ways. He might just be an ordinary body builder who had snuck into the former training ground (unaware of the traps) to get a workout there, so Kinuhata and the others waited until he had walked past before slipping out into into the hallway.

Takitsubo’s nose twitched a little.

“I don’t detect an appetizing aroma.”

“In the end, the room with the most suspicious electricity usage is the third door on the right.”

Then they would start there.

Kinuhata had assumed there was only one third floor VIP room, but it turned out there were several. After pressing her ear to the door and listening for any activity inside, she slowly opened the door.

“What is this super place?”

She found a dark room.

It was about the size of a larger convenience store.

The opposite wall was made of glass to provide a view of the outdoor training ground, but Kinuhata was more interested in something else.

LCD monitors lined one section with pricey-looking office chairs in front of them. More than half the space under the desks was taken up by what looked like industrial computers.

“Did the firefighter training ground also super teach them how to respond to emergency alerts and operate their radios?”

“This might have all been brought here after the fact,” replied the track suit girl.

The right and left walls were covered by steel racks packed with paper files thicker than brick blocks.

Takitsubo scanned the entire room with emotionless eyes.

“Frenda, let’s check the paper.”

“In the end, why not the computers? Paper documents don’t even have the bare minimum of a search option.”

“I don’t want to touch the computers when we don’t even know if they use a password, fingerprints, a security key, or facial recognition. We might get it locked down or even trigger an alert to their boss. The paper is better. I’ll handle the shelves, so you two check the ones around the desks.”

“Ughh. In the end, a note with their password written on it would be too much to hope for, wouldn’t it?”

“If they’re unlocking it every single time, there must be some kind of mark or hint,” said Takitsubo even as she walked over to the shelves.

All that information felt overwhelming to Kinuhata, but apparently it looked like a treasure trove to their search expert.

“This data is related to a vulnerability,” said Takitsubo as she flipped through something like a thick manual.

Kinuhata tilted her head. What kind of vulnerability?

“The wide variety of videos and articles strewn across the internet are automatically fact checked for accuracy…but there is no system in place to fact check the fact checking.”

“???”

“It’s complicated, but in short there’s a loophole in the network monitoring system. By converting a file to the fact checking file extension, it can slip right past Academy City’s automatic checking system. The legitimate files are 512 kilobytes, so anything larger than that would be detected as illegitimate, but you can fit a ton of text in a file that size.”

“Super so what? What happens if you can slip something past it?”

“You can send unchecked electronic data in and out of the city. Using the official fiber optic lines while ignoring the dedicated systems entirely.”

They all fell silent.

Hold on.

“Wh-what are you saying? That, in the end, all the city’s classified data on next-gen weapons and esper development could be leaked outside the city!?”

“…”

Instead of responding right away, Takitsubo took a look around the room.

She blinked a few times.

“If they are selling technology like that, why isn’t any of that data here?”

“Now that you mention it… They super have a loophole they could use, but I haven’t seen any data they could sell, like the plans for a stealth fighter or a Level 5’s DNA map.”

“So in the end, what is Norsitro hoping to do with that super convenient joker in her hand?”

That was when Takitsubo’s head shot up.

The search expert was looking off in an odd direction.

That was a warning sign.

“Kinuhata. Frenda.”

“Yes?”

“Watch out. The enemy is coming.”

The door burst open from outside.

Frenda immediately leapt behind a big decorative plant and Kinuhata moved in front of Takitsubo.

A girl entered flanked by two large men. They of course recognized that silver hair and dark skin.

That was Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie.

Her phone’s wallpaper had shown her in a towel, but now her body was tightly bound by a leather belt, miniskirt, and big boots that were a glittering neon green with silver thread woven in. It was probably meant to be a bondage outfit.

“Oh, hey. You were right, Matsuzawa-san.”

“I was lucky.”

“All we had to do was leave the ‘call center’ unlocked and unoccupied and they waltzed on in here like a bunch of roaches. Incredible.”

“Milady. Shouldn’t you compare them to something more appealing, like rhinoceros beetles?”

“Is that more appealing? You must like the outdoors, Haranaka-san. They’re both just shiny black bugs to me☆”

===Part 5===

Back in the tourist hotel suite in the grown-up District 5.

What Mugino Shizuri most wanted at the moment was the live words of an expert.

Needless to say, the Mugino Family was an international gang with hundreds of thousands of soldiers around the world.

Thus, they wouldn’t go crying to the normal police if some money disappeared or someone died within the Family. That would mean tearing down their entire violent system to solve one measly case. Still, there were on occasion fools who would periodically sell information to the police (because they were being threatened or something). To reiterate, the Family would not ask the police for help when something happened.

So they had a different solution.

They had an internal investigation department that specialized in identifying and punishing traitors in their midst.

“If it’s too weak, there’s nothing to stop the traitors, but if it’s too strong, it turns into a dictatorship that wields false accusations and purges. …Mujinayama, you know how to handle these things just right, don’t you?”

“Sigh… I would have preferred you came to me for advice on how to prevent the betrayal from occurring in the first place, but I get the feeling it is too late for that.”

“Hurry up.”

When Mugino lightly rushed him, the mood changed.

His world – the vibe of the Mugino Family he had served for so many long years – pushed in through the cold mechanical phone.

“The standard countermeasure against betrayal in a system of violence is to prepare for it before it actually happens. You do not want to be running around in a panic after you have been betrayed and real harm has been done.”

“Right.”

Mugino glanced aside with the phone against her ear.

At the empty boxes for luxury brand clothing piled up in a corner of the room.

“''You don’t have to worry about that.''”

“Is that so? I would expect no less from the one who carries the weight of the Family’s future on her shoulders. I am relieved.”

That old butler did not flatter people for no reason. If she couldn’t think of any reason for the compliment, there had to be more coming.

His ever gentle voice quietly gained the sharp edge of a knife.

“However, you must not forget that suspecting your companions is itself a small betrayal. It is necessary for the maintenance of a system of violence that cannot rely on the official power structures, but it is by no means a praiseworthy thing.”

“…”

“And what if your suspicions of betrayal prove to be false? Shizuri-sama, betrayal and the response thereof are a sort of gamble. You are not a righteous detective investigating each suspicious individual until you find the criminal like a game of concentration. If you choose wrong just once, responsibility for that mistake falls on you. Investigating a traitor carries the risk of becoming a traitor yourself. You must never forget this when seeking the truth in our shadowy world.”

That was why the internal investigation department paid exceptionally well while being exceptionally risky.

It was known as the hardest department to keep balanced.

And this summed up why Mugino Shizuri had gone out of her way to seek advice from the old butler who had served the Family for so long.

Yes. If she could be sloppy and get it wrong as many times as she liked, she would have done it all herself.

But that wasn’t an option, so she wanted to know the etiquette and secrets the gangs used.

“It also depends on the severity of the betrayal in question.”

The old butler used that as a starting point.

He did not mince words.

So whether or not he included that phrase would likely greatly change the impression left with the listener. Even if Mugino Shizuri didn’t yet know why it mattered.

“Complete traitors are actually fairly rare. Most traitors move back and forth between the two sides, so they always carry some small feeling of guilt with them. It is always gnawing at them, even as they eat and sleep.”

“Are you saying the losers who can’t stand the pressure will blow up first?”

“No. It affects everyone of all sorts. Someone who truly cannot bear the impure feelings won’t bother with all those tricks and will make a full-on attack despite the risks. The family head is the type to do that.”

…Mugino Shizuri bluntly concluded that man’s way of life was unfortunately not very useful for her. After all, that freak had once armed himself, single-handedly stormed an embassy, and dragged the corrupt minister off the embassy’s grounds just because a small child had cried and asked him to rescue his grandfather (true story). If she asked that ridiculous man how to find a traitor, she could easily imagine him telling her to build up enough charisma that no one felt the need to betray her in the first place.

She wanted to discuss a more realistic way of finding a traitor.

“It is not always a lack of skill that leads traitors to leave small clues and make mistakes. There is a part of them that wants to be caught. That is why their pursuer notices their presence. Lady Shizuri, I assume you came to me for advice because you already have some kind of clue. What felt off to you?”

“…”

For one, why had the other three members of Item gone missing at the same time?

If those three wanted to do something behind her back, wouldn’t they leave someone behind to distract her and keep her from getting suspicious? Why hadn’t they done that?

How could she explain it from a standpoint of pure function and efficiency?

(Hm.)

“Now let’s circle back to an earlier point,” said Mujinayama. In a voice that would make anyone’s back straighten. “How far must a betrayal go before you can truly call it a betrayal?”

===Part 6===

The silver-haired dark-skinned girl was Information Broker Norsitro.

Were the large burly men surrounding her illicit firefighters?

More importantly, Kinuhata had picked up on a curious word in their brief conversation.

''The call center''?

“(Kinuhata, anything the enemy freely says in front of you should be taken with a grain of salt. Don’t accept it at face value.)”

“Information you think you researched on your own can be externally controlled too, you know? All I have to do is manipulate what order you find the relevant data in, so it’s not hard at all,” pointed out Norsitro in her neon green bondage outfit.

Then what about the vulnerability they had just found? Using the fact checking file extension? Maybe they had to doubt the entire idea of freely communicating across the city wall. Were they back to square one?

“Kinuhata, what did I just say about things the enemy says in front of you?”

“Ugh.”

Kinuhata Saiai groaned at having to be told a second time.

The silver-haired girl smiled elegantly at how easily manipulated Kinuhata was. She even covered her mouth with a hand despite how that clashed with her outfit.

“So instead of leaping at the documents and information you find, you should be working out how and why they turned up here and then dealing with them accordingly.”

The Information Broker.

Norsitro’s job involved more than just gathering information. She had to decide how to use it. When was the best time to reveal it or hide it? She was an expert at using information as a whole.

“That said, get the balance wrong and you can end up paranoid and doubting everything you see, so hiring an expert at information management is the best thing to do for your mental health, if you ask me.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Kinuhata saw Frenda stir.

She stuck a hand in her pocket.

Kinuhata had been working with Item long enough to know what Frenda was planning.

Norsitro was still talking when Frenda pulled an explosive from her pocket and threw-

“''I’m not done talking.''”

''Boom!!'' A dull explosion rang out.

Unsure what had happened, Kinuhata Saiai was thrown through a tempered glass window. In other words, she was tossed out from the third floor. That was about the same as the top floor of a school.

On the other side, the inner wall behind Norsitro broke through and a black Eastern dragon emerged.

No.

That was actually thousands or tens of thousands of flying objects about the size of paper airplanes made from fliers.

“In the end, is that a drone swarm!? Kinuhata!”

“Ohhh? Are you sure you should be focusing on her?”

A “zap!!” of bursting air rang out.

Along with a flash of light.

Frenda Seivelun fell to her knees.

“Kah…”

(Lightning, a high-voltage current? What the hell? In the end, does she have more than just next-gen weapons?)

Frenda collapsed to the floor and couldn’t move. She couldn’t even lift her head. The most she could manage was some trembling of her limbs. She could only thank her lucky stars that none of the delicate fuses and explosives hidden on her person had gone off.

The silver-haired girl glanced over at the only one left: Takitsubo.

“You’re dropping like flies. Which makes it easier for me, so I’m not complaining.”

The drones were black devices. They were the size of 10x20cm paper airplanes, but their jagged and distorted silhouette looked something like a Christmas tree. Would their precise classification be canard double delta?

And Takitsubo spoke quietly.

“Is this why?”

“?”

“Drone swarms can’t be defended against by existing missile defense systems because there are just too many of them, so in a way you could call them an even greater strategic weapon than a nuclear warhead. But the problem is the manufacturing and operating costs. The price has to be multiplied across the number of drones in the swarm, so building a thousand of them increases the cost a thousandfold and creating ten thousand increases it ten-thousandfold. Same for the fuel and maintenance costs. That isn’t something an individual can use.”

“Yeah, I do use around 250 thousand of them at once. And the number goes up to 1.75 million if you include the spares, so the final sum is nothing to sneeze at. Keeping them in top condition isn’t easy.”

“Khah. In the end, even if it’s fully automated and it only takes a minute per drone, how much effort are you putting into this? Did you buy an entire huge factory with multiple production lines?”

“Didn’t I just say keeping them in top condition isn’t easy? Besides, a single stealth fighter costs 20-30 billion yen. And that’s just buying it. When you think of this as a super weapon superior to nukes, it’s honestly a pretty good deal.”

Her neon green bondage outfit had silver threads woven in. Was that glittering getup actually a highly conductive full-body antenna?

Norsitro chuckled and spread her arms.

The word drone apparently originally referred to the buzzing of a bee’s wings and the drones surrounding her lived up to that origin. They were surprisingly nimble and reminiscent of killer bees or of flies buzzing around something dead. Some drones would come to a stop in midair, so they may have been capable of vertical takeoffs and landings using a lift fan or something.

Also, she had the high-voltage power that had hit Frenda.

“Committing perfect crimes in Academy City is a challenge. But not so outside the city’s walls. Isn’t that right? Especially if you can use Academy City tech out there. Then it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“You aren’t going after the parents, are you?”

“What, something like this: ‘Hey! If you don’t pay up soon, we’ll threaten your precious kid over and over and over again until they’re part of the blackmailer group themselves! Then they’ll be a criminal and your whole family will be in the news!’ ”

A grin split across the silver-haired girl’s face.

That was the devilish face of someone who knew how to cash in on people’s misfortune and tragedy with maximum efficiency.

“The towering wall surrounding the city prevents the parents outside from rescuing their child no matter how much danger they’re in. What, you think they should call Anti-Skill? Heh hee hee. You know better than that. The higher ups of this city are all corrupt, so they won’t allow anything to threaten the city’s public image. Oops, and now that report is being suppressed. There won’t be any kind of official record it ever even happened.”

The parents would be helpless while knowing their child was in trouble.

The only option left would be to pay a sum of money larger than they could hope to make in a lifetime.

They could always refuse.

But it was this girl’s job to give them ''a very good idea'' of what would happen then.

The large men – firefighters? – closed in on Takitsubo.

“Now, then. Your bodyguard went skydiving and your bomber was zapped into submission. The search expert remains, but what can you hope to do on your own?”

“I can do this.”

Takitsubo was quick to make up her mind.

She grabbed paralyzed Frenda’s collar and immediately jumped out the broken window.

===Part 7===

This wasn’t a suicide.

She fell to a location less than three meters down. It was likely part of the training ground, but a net was laid out there to catch anyone who fell.

Takitsubo wouldn’t have taken that sudden dive if she hadn’t recalled seeing it earlier.

“This way. Super this way!”

Kinuhata Saiai had fallen earlier and she was beckoning over from behind a large fake building wall. Takitsubo adjusted her grip on Frenda, dropped from the net to the ground, and ran over to Kinuhata.

Fake buildings, trees, streetlights, benches – there were plenty of places to hide, but the training ground was still an open outdoor space. Staying here was not an attractive option. If they wanted to avoid being caught in a pincer attack, they needed to find a back entrance and withdraw indoors.

Takitsubo lowered the fluffy blonde girl from her shoulder to a concrete-looking floor.

“Frenda.”

“What, can’t you tell? In the end, you can’t expect any help from me.”

“I want to know how those drones work. Only you would know that.”

Did Takitsubo Rikou know exactly what people wanted to hear at times like this?

The Academy City Bomber reacted with a twitch.

“Those are just your standard wandering self-destruct drones that carry a bomb and charge at their target, right? Their structure itself is simple. Based on how far Kinuhata was blasted, the explosive they’re carrying isn’t anything special. If they’re loaded with 100 grams and it expands 800 times, in the end, that’s about the same force as a grenade. The lethal range should be around 10m.”

…But 1.75 million grenades thrown at you one after another would be more than enough of a threat. A minor fortress or combat airfield could be stained with blood and destroyed by that.

“1.75 million… She can’t be controlling them all manually, can she?”

“In the end, she’s probably providing general instructions with her phone and the exact calculations are all handled by AI. Like playing an RTS on easy mode.”

“Then super what if we jam those signals? That will cut off the manual instructions and I bet they’re linked up to a fairly large supercomputer to constantly perform so many flight control calculations.”

“I doubt that would work. She uses 250 thousand at once and has a total of 1.75 million in case some are brought down. Even if each one has a cheap toy of a CPU, linking 250 thousand of them together in parallel will provide some decent processing power. They won’t need a stationary supercomputer.”

It sounded like jamming the wireless network itself would still work, but they didn’t know what the swarm used to communicate. And if they were military, they would likely use multiple methods at once: EM, IR, magnetism, ultrasound. Actually jamming them would require blocking every one of the methods…but how many methods was “every one” of them?

Kinuhata sounded fed up with it all.

“Drones that super small have to run out of fuel or battery before long, right? If we stay on the run to buy time, won’t they eventually break down?”

“Kinuhata, we can’t make that kind of assumption without seeing their design or specs. They might generate power from the wind or the sun and they might be remotely charged using ultrasonic waves or microwaves.”

A portion of the blue sky was colored black.

As if ink had been splattered into the world.

Frenda looked up with her lips twisted into a stiff half-smile.

“So…in the end, which sounds better to you: having them attack us in a straight line or having them spread out and attack us as a wall?”

“Either way, Kinuhata would be the only survivor.”

“250 thousand at once and 1.75 million in all… If I’m super pummeled by that many bombs, not even Offense Armor is going to last.”

Kinuhata could only watch the drone swarm in a daze.

They circled an area as large as a schoolyard as they took aim. Like a giant flying serpent. If the Item girls stayed outside, they would be swallowed by a sandstorm of mechanical explosions.

And…

“Ah ha ha. You call that escaping?”

They heard a voice.

“Being out in the open makes it easier for me☆”

It belonged to Norsitro Chatellenie.

She jumped lightly down toward them from from the broken window a few meters up.

She was less than a hundred meters away.

“!”

Still seated on the floor, Frenda immediately pulled multiple explosives from her short skirt.

“I seriously doubt that will work.”

The wind roared as it spiraled thickly around them.

A giant tower rose up on either side of Norsitro. The wind wrapped around and extended high into the sky, forming powerful tornadoes.

Realizing what that meant, Frenda froze before making her attack.

The brown girl’s hair and leather skirt were flapping wildly, but she didn’t seem bothered by it.

“Handheld rockets have a terrible tendency to miss when exposed to crosswinds. I hear that world-famous Russian one that only costs 20 or 30 thousand yen has trouble hitting at even 500 meters. And with this kind of random turbulence, you have no way of calculating a path.”

Tornadoes.

Frenda’s eyes widened because she had already been hit by an esper power attack here.

“You mean…in the end, she doesn’t just have lightning!?”

“What’s wrong? Was there some other weather you were hoping for? Or were you worried about low pressure because you get headaches on those days? Just let me know☆”

Norsitro smiled in her bright neon green bondage outfit.

And it began pouring rain.

Less than five seconds later, it turned to fist-sized hail.

Then a clear blue sky shined overhead.

It was like she was casually flipping an invisible switch. Frenda Seivelun was completely dumbfounded.

Was this Norsitro Chatellenie’s power?

“You’re…kidding.”

“It super looks like she can control all forms of weather, including lightning, doesn’t it? Her power might control the air instead of electricity.”

“Kinuhata, don’t treat maybes like confirmed information. Remember what I said about information the enemy gives you?”

“Yes, yes, I have to super take it with grain of salt! …But how else are we supposed to explain that ridiculous power!? Mutter, mutter…”

Kinuhata’s complaints were cut off.

By the repeating sound of something beating at the air.

It was a Two Wings helicopter that could be flown unmanned…no, based on the arm-like wings spread out on the sides, was it a Six Wings?

250 thousand at the same time with a total of 1.75 million.

As those things flew around, the “black dragon” must have shown up on Academy City’s anti-air radar. Their operator must have known that would happen, but…

“Shut up.”

It exploded.

Even Frenda wouldn’t want to be chased by one of those. That was just how brutal the Six Wings’ air-to-air and air-to-ground armaments were, but it happened so easily.

“I said it’s a super weapon superior to nukes, didn’t I? You can’t expect ordinary weapons – even an entire squadron of attack helicopters – to deal with it.”

“So in the end, is there no way of stopping her?”

Her power was frightening, but it wasn’t just her power.

The drone swam was frightening, but it wasn’t just the drone swarm.

All three Item members had the same thought: how could they even begin to deal with a monster like this?

Even now, the two tornadoes were raging across the ground.

With a din of destruction, drink vending machines, streetlights, and fake buildings were torn from the ground and thrown into the air. People were meant to climb and descend them with ropes, so it had all been bolted to concrete pedestals, but it didn’t seem to matter.

If a human was caught in there, they would be thrown high into the sky…and then what would happen?

Norsitro grinned.

She wasn’t making a threat to negotiate. The joy of someone who planned to ''use it'' spread across her face.

“I’m not saying there’s no hope at all for you. After all, one of you is supposedly a shield esper.”

“…”

“But if protecting yourself from the fall is ''all'' you can manage, then I just have to hit you again from the side. Which would you prefer to kill you: the self-destruct drones or my power?”

She was extraordinary.

The three Item girls didn’t see how they could win even if they all attacked at once.

Norsitro Chatellenie held a position near the very top if you ignored the excessive financial cost of operating those drones as an individual.

But that was all the more reason to fight.

They couldn’t leave someone this powerful to her own devices. She would prey on Academy City’s ordinary students, drive them to the blackmailers, and even threaten the parents outside the city to make even more money. The people having their lives and futures ruined were not the fools who had purposefully rushed to the dark side to snag some dirty money. Norsitro was like quicksand that endlessly swallowed honest people with no such intentions. And because she was such a formidable enemy, she would cause a massive number of victims if allowed to go free.

It would be too late by the time the city’s wicked grown ups decided to do something about it.

If she wasn’t defeated here and now, there would be victims.

Kinuhata clenched her teeth. Takitsubo had accepted Kinuhata’s plan to survive by having Mugino betray them and fight Norsitro, but that plan had mostly fallen apart. Now it was ''more important'' to silence her as soon as possible. Kinuhata was a dark side villain, not an agent of good or justice, but she still felt that need.

And then.

“Hey.”

She heard.

A voice.

Coming from even further back than Kinuhata Saiai, Frenda Seivelun, and Takitsubo Rikou.

There must have been a different back entrance.

Was that squishy sound all that remained of an unlucky guard who happened to be there?

“Why would you go off and have a party without me?”

A grin split across Norsitro Chartellenie’s face.

“Oh, you’re finally here.”

Sweat poured from Kinuhata’s body.

The Information Broker was supposed to be an expert in handling all forms of information, so why didn’t she understand what it meant for ''her'' to be here? Why didn’t she understand the great risk there?

Regardless, the silver-haired girl spoke her name.

“''Mugino Shizuri.''”

===Part 8===

The density of the air changed.

In terms of human emotion, the most fitting word was probably “tension”.

Her presence made all the difference.

For better or for worse, Item…required Mugino Shizuri.

“Tch. Super how did you know where we were?”

Mugino answered Kinuhata’s trembling question by flicking something over without even glancing in her direction. It was a tag even smaller than a kernel of corn.

Takitsubo took it.

“Is this a brand-name clothing shop’s anti-theft tag?”

“The good brands use really nice ones. They’re convenient, so they come in handy.”

''“What is it, Mugino? Do you want to buy that?”

''“Not really…”

Was this why Mugino had been so fixated on feeling the clothing in that store? She had been interested in the anti-theft devices, not the fashionable clothing that cost 100 thousand yen each.

The silver-haired girl with her body contained in a neon green bondage outfit smiled thinly.

“Being a team leader is a challenge, isn’t it? Failure isn’t an option and that responsibility falls on your shoulders.”

“We’ve never met. Don’t act like you know me, trash.”

Kinuhata Saiai considered the situation.

Mugino Shizuri had arrived.

The plan was for Mugino to suspect them and act of her own volition, but they hadn’t finished setting things up for that. Simply defeating Norsitro Chatellenie wasn’t enough. If Mugino learned of the current situation as they did so, Kinuhata’s betrayal would come to light when Mugino started asking questions after the fighting was over. Then there was no avoiding being vaporized by Meltdowner. So this was her chance.

She knew that, but she still felt a cold sweat pouring down her back.

The fingers of death were running along her spine. She could feel them.

She had to deceive and betray Mugino Shizuri.

Screwing it up would mean death.

It was finally showtime.

===Part 9===

They were in the outdoor field of the former fire fighter training ground in District 2.

A great mass of moving air created a low roar.

250 thousand drones were packed together like a black dragon as they moved together.

They were all aimed at Mugino Shizuri alone.

The Information Broker laughed with her phone in hand. She held a hand over her mouth as she did so.

“Oops. I forget to ask.”

Norsitro’s expression was as casual as if she were out at the supermarket and realized she had forgotten she needed to buy the one item that was on sale.

“Would you prefer to be killed by my power or by the swarm? But asking now is a pain and it doesn’t really matter, does it? You’ll die a painful death either way.”

Mugino Shizuri gave a snort of laughter and flicked out a card she had pulled from her pocket. Before it could fall to the ground, she accurately struck it with a thick Meltdowner beam.

Silicon Burn.

Nearly 150 scorching electron beams thinner than hairs fanned out in front of her.

However…

“Tch. So a scattershot’s not enough.”

“I am using 250 thousand of them with a total of 1.75 million. But if you think you can shoot them all down, feel free to continue going for a high score. Although I expect you’ll be crushed to death first☆”

No matter how many Mugino destroyed, the number was replenished, so the swarm never dropped below 250 thousand.

And that wasn’t the main problem.

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner had failed to bring down the swarm. Even when using her special Silicon Burn. With Mugino’s attack a failure, nothing could stop the endless drone force. This time they charged toward Mugino as if aiming for a cross counter. En masse.

A sticky blackness filled a large portion of the scene.

Like a bottle of pitch black ink had fallen over on a painting of Academy City’s scenery.

The black dragon devoured the blue sky. No, the swarm weapon made up of 250 thousand drones circled around together to attack Mugino.

According to Frenda’s analysis, each one was as destructive as a grenade.

But there were 250 thousand of them.

If they all attacked at once…it would be like taking a machinegun spray of explosive rounds head on!

“Mugino!”

“Want to make bets how many seconds you’ll last?”

Norsitro smiled in her neon green bondage outfit.

The following explosion felt like space itself were expanding.

But Mugino wasn’t injured.

Despite the many, many explosions going off.

“Oh? I thought you were all offense, but I guess not.”

She had a shield of light.

Meltdowner normally flew sharply out as a straight line, but she must have instead had it spiral close to her hand. It looked like a round shield fully covering Mugino’s body.

The sharp fragments and even the blast itself were pushed back. Academy City’s #4 had extraordinary specs in defense as well, but Norsitro wasn’t normal either. The very act of forcing Mugino Shizuri to defend – that is, to ''threaten'' that bundle of arrogance enough that she thought she would die if she didn’t defend – was extraordinary enough.

Adding Mugino Shizuri to the fight wasn’t enough to defeat Norsitro Chatellenie.

All four members of Item together couldn’t end this.

They were on the verge of death and cutting it close.

But that was more than just a risk. With a different viewpoint – Kinuhata Saiai’s for example – it could also be a one-in-a-million opportunity.

Win or lose? Live or die?

No one knew what was going to happen, which created enough of an ''opening'' to take otherwise unthinkable actions.

Here, she could force it through.

She concluded a chance like this wasn’t going to come again.

If she was going to fool that girl.

If she was going to get Mugino Shizuri to betray her, it had to be here.

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner, even when scattered like a shower using the Silicon Burn, could not shoot down Norsitro Chatellenie’s 1.75 million drones.

To put it another way, ''it wouldn’t look strange'' if something unexpected happened here.

The countless wandering self-destruct drones sliced through the air as they charged in.

Now was the time to make up her mind.

Takitsubo and Frenda had both given Kinuhata some advice while they were pursuing the Kitchen Car truck to reach this place.

''“Saying you will ‘deceive’ her may make it sound like something you do while watching on from some safe place, but that won’t work. A safe zone on a deadly battlefield where anything can happen will look suspicious to Mugino.”

''“In the end, the only way to truly trick Mugino is to risk your life. So you can’t be lying to save your life. This is Mugino Shizuri we’re talking about. She’ll notice immediately if you aren’t truly risking your life with the lie.”

In other words.

…A liar wouldn’t do something so dangerous. Someone trying to trick me with a lie would make sure they were safe.

By taking advantage of Mugino’s low opinion of traitors, Kinuhata could hide in her blind spot.

So it had to be here.

It had to be when Norsitro’s drones charged in and detonated at close range. It was something only possible for Kinuhata Saiai who stood outside Mugino’s Meltdowner shield and who Academy City’s #4 could not fully protect.

She did it herself.

She deactivated Offense Armor.

“Gh.”

She felt a scorching heat. From her right flank. First she felt a twisting and tugging sensation on her skin and then her small body was thrown more than two meters straight back.

“…Gah…?”

She rolled a few times and her small body was left trembling.

(Oh…no.)

Had her fear of Mugino made her take the act ''too far''? An iron taste seeped into her mouth. She could feel something throbbing inside her. She felt badly dizzy, perhaps from the blood loss, and she couldn’t tell which way was up as she lay on the ground.

She might really die here.

Takitsubo Rikou ran over, held the wound, dragged her behind cover, and waved her phone in her other hand while calling out to Mugino.

“Mugino, she’s lost a lot of blood. Her breathing is heavy and her pulse is falling. My health management app is giving red zone warnings. Kinuhata won’t last like this.”

“Huh!? …Because she was near me? But how’d she get hurt so bad when she has Offense Armor!?”

It was a valid question.

But…

“She was fighting before you got here. While protecting me. She was more worn out than anyone. If you use you power too much, you run out of stamina, right? That’s what happened here.”

…So that was the scenario they were going with.

If they didn’t push this through while Mugino’s thoughts were still confused by the red blood, they couldn’t avoid her questions about what the three of them were doing at this mysterious training ground behind her back.

So…

“Norsitro Chatellenie. In the end, she planned to kill you and take control of Item as a convenient system. Kinuhata was fighting with everything she had because she didn’t want that. She was fighting for you!”

Frenda sprinkled some kernels of truth in there.

The Information Broker didn’t just gather information – she was an expert in when to play her trump card. If they let her, she would start shouting the truth, but by establishing a different idea in Mugino’s mind first, Mugino wouldn’t listen to what the enemy was saying.

And while fighting back and looking irritated, Mugino Shizuri scratched at her head with a hand.

“~ ~ ~ Frenda!!”

“Not happening. She must have lost around a liter of blood already. The lethal limit is based on body weight and Kinuhata’s the smallest of us, so she has the least wiggle room there. Pliers, wire cutters, screwdrivers, drills – I have a lot of tools on me, but nothing that can heal people. In the end, I think the most I have is disinfectant, bandaids, and bandages?”

“1.5 to 2 liters is the limit even for a large man. Kinuhata is in serious trouble if she doesn’t get a blood transfusion immediately,” stated Takitsubo Rikou.

She never showed any emotion on her face, so she didn’t have to try and put on an act here. The listener would imagine their own emotional state mirrored back to them in her voice.

So the more pressure Mugino felt, the more urgent Takitsubo’s warnings would sound.

They were being pushed back. Item’s leader clicked her tongue.

“Did you call that kid the Information Broker? From the way they move, I’m guessing those guys around her are firefighters.”

“In the end, probably so.”

“That makes them a security team specialized in keeping her alive over defeating her enemies. …They should be prepared for any kind of emergency. Which means they might have transfusion kits for each blood type including Rh positive and negative.”

“Then what should we do, Mugino?”

Since Kinuhata couldn’t talk, Takitsubo organized their information from behind cover.

She showed Mugino the horrific values on the health management app.

“We can’t even withdraw with her like this. Moving Kinuhata in this state will kill her. Fight or run, we need to start by giving her enough blood to save her.”

…The numbers on the health management app were of course fake. The app was called Vital Jamming. It was a joke app that let you adjust some simple sliders to change the readings to show a minor cold, an injury, or even close to death.

''“Look, these are the numbers on your health app.”

''“This shows your current calorie intake and exercise level. If you keep this up, the results will be tragic a month from now. The changes will be noticeable in your figure. Especially in the hips and legs.”

…Takitsubo already had it installed on her phone to make the threats necessary to get Mugino to go jogging.

(Does that mean I’m still super alive enough she needs the app to make me look bad enough? Damn. And here I was getting all worked up thinking I might really die.)

Kinuhata felt regret. And embarrassment.

She was supposed to know this was all meant as a way to keep her alive.

The #4 must have decided Meltdowner alone wasn’t enough. She moved Kinuhata, who was lying collapsed behind some twisted metal with no engine or electronics inside. It may have been used to practice rescuing people from a vehicle after an accident. A moment later, that cover was engulfed in a series of explosive blasts.

Mugino grimaced at the continuous noise and raised her voice.

“If they have transfusion kits, where do you think they would be!?”

“Blood is a liquid, so it gets heavy if you have a lot of it. With A, B, O, and AB with Rh positive and negative for each, carrying around the liters needed to resuscitate people of any blood type would mean fighting with weights strapped to you. I doubt they would do that. But they never know when one of their people will be badly injured. In the end, they won’t keep it too far away.”

Or to put it more simply…

“At the very least, I doubt it’s in these fake buildings out here. If you want to find their transfusion kits, you’ll want to head inside the training ground’s main building!!”

They had an objective.

Of course, they couldn’t actually have Mugino save Kinuhata.

Their goal was for Mugino Shizuri to betray her teammate.

They needed the perfect genius of Academy City’s #4 to fail here.

“My, my. Oh, dear, dear. Hee hee.”

This came from Norsitro Chatellenie a short distance away.

She was here too, so she had of course seen that delightful drama play out.

Mugino was already under the impression that Kinuhata had been injured while fighting for her, so even if the Information Broker accused the other three, it seemed unlikely Mugino would blast them with Meltdowner right away.

As an information expert, she must have picked up on that mood.

So she knew nothing she said would get through to Mugino now that she was “the villain who harmed Mugino’s teammate”.

In her neon green bondage outfit, the girl shrugged and operated her phone.

“Sounds like you have an interesting predicament on your hands, but it looks like sticking to the villain role will be the must fun for me. Speaking of, do you think I’ll just let you through?”

“Tch!!”

One movement of her finger moved the swarm of drones.

Not even Mugino Shizuri could push back the entire swarm of 250 thousand drones with a maximum of 1.75 million.

Several beams sliced through the sky, triggering a few explosions, but that wasn’t enough to bring them all down at once.

“Mugino. Your wall doesn’t have to be sturdy. Even a curtain or net can catch and stop the flying drones.”

“Go to Frenda for little tricks like that!!”

The training ground facility included more than the outside field. Item carried injured Kinuhata down a flight of stairs and entered an underground field meant to simulate a subway station, but that didn’t last even ten seconds.

After a rapid series of explosions, the entire thin ceiling was torn away.

“You can’t get away.” The bondage girl was staring down at them with hands on her hips. “Training grounds like this are designed with wide open spaces underground. They’re fairly flimsy, which makes them easy to blow away. Although that means you won’t be buried alive below dirt, so maybe you should count yourselves lucky?”

They didn’t have time to complain.

The drones were like the downpour of flaming arrows meant to bring down a castle. More and more poured down from above, so Item had no choice but to run down the hallway and climb back to the surface at another exit.

Each individual phenomenon might not be so bad, but they couldn’t seem to regain control of the overall situation.

They couldn’t escape the palm of Norsitro’s hand this way.

“Mugino. In the end, they’re here too!”

“Kh. Kill them to clear a path!!”

Large men, presumably former rescue squad members, emerged from behind vending machines, benches, and other hiding places. They were armed with unique weapons like firefighting axes and rope guns that launched the rope with noncombustible gas.

On top of it all, Norsitro Chatellenie had an unidentified weather control power.

Everyone could tell things were only getting worse.

They were tumbling into the abyss and fast.

They could physically reduce the number of rescue squad members, but the number of drones never seemed to drop. No, Mugino and Frenda were shooting down quite a few of them, but that was like trying to change the weather by throwing stones up at the rain falling from the sky. It was a waste of time.

And if they couldn’t stop somewhere, they couldn’t stop Kinuhata’s bleeding.

They weren’t even supposed to move her right now, so what would happen if they tried to break through the enemy like this?

“Mugino… In the end, we have to give up,” said an astonished Frenda as she scattered mines to slow the enemy down.

…That Frenda could say something like this without it sounding out of place made Kinuhata suspect she was always adjusting her ''emotional distance'' even during ordinary conversations. Because what came next was a suggestion only allowed in the dark side.

“We can’t get a transfusion kit! We don’t even know if there’s one here, so we shouldn’t risk our lives looking for it. I get wanting to save Kinuhata, but you’ll be killed too if you keep this up!! This isn’t just about Kinuhata! If we don’t withdraw now, we’ll all be killed!”

“You’re the leader. So you decide,” added Takitsubo to drive the point home.

Item wouldn’t distribute the responsibility among its members. Stressing that this was Mugino’s decision applied pressure to her. That was a necessary part of setting things up for Mugino herself to betray Kinuhata.

They had no choice. There was no other way.

It didn’t really matter how Mugino phrased it.

But they couldn’t let her claim that they all made the choice together. So all of those psychological loopholes and outs had to be plugged up in advance. Item’s search and information expert showed no mercy here.

“Make a decision, Mugino. Without a choice from our leader, we will all die.”

With that, she preemptively eliminated the option of not making a choice and letting them run out of time.

Now Mugino Shizuri had no excuse.

Since they couldn’t overwhelm Norsitro and acquire a transfusion kit right away, Mugino had only two options: abandon dying Kinuhata and escape or choose nothing and let Kinuhata die when time ran out. Either option would mean Kinuhata’s death, so this was a powerful card to use against Mugino Shizuri who despised betrayal more than anything.

Kinuhata and the others had betrayed her first.

Mugino Shizuri would never forgive a traitor.

So for the three of them to survive, they had to cancel out their betrayal with Mugino’s betrayal.

“Mugino… In the end, I think Kinuhata wants to say something.”

The stage was set.

Takitsubo, supporting her bloody body behind unreliable cover, glanced over into Kinuhata’s eyes.

She understood.

The final emotional push would be most effective…coming from Kinuhata herself.

“Forget…about me.”

Kinuhata forced out the words as she gasped for breath.

This wasn’t an act.

She was cold.

They hadn’t managed to stop the bleeding. She could feel her body temperature dropping.

She hadn’t been killed right away, but she had lost a significant amount of blood. She found she couldn’t speak any louder than this.

“Whether or not there’s a transfusion kit somewhere in the facility…it’s super too late for an injury like this. So please…get out of here. You’re wasting your time. You’ll only get more of you killed. So please…”

An odd feeling filled Kinuhata as she spoke.

She was deceiving Mugino.

Objectively speaking, this was a terrible thing to do.

But she was finding she no longer had to consciously lie to betray Mugino here.

Strangely, she found she was speaking her true feelings.

She didn’t want Mugino to die here.

She didn’t have to lie about that, so she simply placed her current honest feelings in her words.

“I’m thankful… If you hadn’t taken me in, I’d probably still be on ice in the back of that lab. Gh… I was only meant to rot away without every leaving that place, so now I’ll just be returning to the earth. So you don’t have to feel bad about it… So hurry and go.”

(Yeah…)

The words left her almost on their own

And while it happened, a thought came to her.

(If only I wasn’t carrying all this baggage. If only I had super been the kind of person who could say this without needing to sully it like this.)

That could never happen.

The initial assumptions were wrong.

Or maybe this was the final destination of the traitor.

The end result for a selfish dreamer.

The final refuge of a fool who couldn’t bear the weight of reality.

“I was only ever something extra you picked up, right? So you don’t need to bet the fate of Item as a whole on someone disposal like me. Go!! I’ll break their perimeter. I’m going to die anyway, so I might as well go out in a blaze of glory and take a ton of them with me. Cough… That’s a hell of a lot better than dying a meaningless death!! There’s no saving me now, but I’ll super use what time I have left to make Norsitro and her people regret crossing us! So get out of here already!!!”

She drove her point home.

Kinuhata Saiai waited for Mugino to speak.

For her to say, “Fine then. If there’s no other option, we’ll leave Kinuhata here to die.”

For her to admit, “I don’t want to die here, so if you’re going to die anyway, you take care of it.”

Reality wasn’t like the movies. Especially in Academy City’s dark side, a heartless response like that would hardly be a surprise. And because Kinuhata knew that, she bet on it happening. She bet her life and future on it. Bring it on. Because if Mugino didn’t abandon her here, this would end without her receiving the bargaining chip she needed. Then she would be accused of betrayal and reduced to charcoal.

In the distance, a neon green bondage outfit creaked and Norsitro shouted to them in amusement.

“What do you think you can do with that dying body? You can’t even act as a shield against my swarm, so how do you expect to break our perimeter!?”

Something exploded.

The rusty smell grew stronger again.

A sharp fragment must have grazed her because Mugino had a cut on her right cheek.

The drones were only as big as a paper airplane made from a flier, so they could only carry so much explosive. And Frenda’s expert analysis said they weren’t carrying anything special. Each blast was only about as much as a grenade, so the lethal range was about 10 meters.

Even so, a lethal range was a lethal range.

Rapid-firing Meltdowner beams wasn’t enough to stop them all, so Mugino destroyed the base of a nearby fake three-story building to topple it and use the plywood as a shield. She could shoot down the leading drones, but that wouldn’t last forever. And even if she did defend against the sharp fragments, the shockwave still circled around the cover and struck her body.

A single bomb or bullet could kill. Far too easily. That was how it worked on the dark side. A total of 1.75 million? No, she couldn’t let her guard down with even a single drone.

But.

Even so.

“…Takitsubo.”

“What?”

“There’s still a chance, right? If I manage to get inside that building at the cost of my own flesh and blood and acquire a transfusion kit, we can save Kinuhata, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Heh,” laughed Mugino Shizuri.

And she gave her answer.

Item’s leader held her palm straight out and stepped forward. Out from behind cover.

“That’s all I needed to hear.”

…Wait a second.

Why isn’t she betraying me?

“I’m not running.”

Her voice wasn’t particularly loud.

But Mugino Shizuri did speak.

She had to know how bad the situation was for her. She had toppled the fake building to create a shield because she knew she couldn’t shoot down all the drones with Meltdowner.

But a fake building was only a fake. While the drone attacks weren’t designed with penetrative power in mind, this wouldn’t last long. Once the consecutive blasts broke through, it was all over. And Mugino had stepped out from even that much cover.

And yet.

She completely thew out the cold calculations of the dark side.

“I will never abandon a teammate and run.”

A drone exploded.

Close by.

Kinuhata received no new injuries.

Because Mugino Shizuri stood in the way, clenching her teeth. A shard several centimeters across had lodged itself in her shoulder.

This was the borderline between life and death. If the truth came out, it was all over. That was why Kinuhata had put on an act, even if it meant losing more than a liter of blood.

She was of course deceiving her teammate.

But Mugino Shizuri’s heart turned out to be…unexpectedly sturdy?

“Bring it, Information Broker!! I don’t know your name, but you will pay for underestimating Item. Did you think ''the'' Mugino Shizuri would let you get away with doing this to one of my teammates right before my eyes? You’ll be nothing but charcoal once I’m done with you!!!”

Takitsubo fidgeted nervously with her usual lack of expression.

Frenda Seivelun appeared aware how dangerous the situation was. She was frantically trying to work out a course correction from behind cover.

“Wait… In the end, why are you getting all hot-blooded right now when all our lives are on the line!? Don’t you know what Item’s leader is supposed to do!? Hurry up and tell us get out of here, Leader Mugino!!”

“This is my decision to make and I will never betray anyone. I won’t leave Kinuhata hear, turn tail, and run!! It isn’t a matter of pride anymore. All the tools I need to save my teammate’s life are within arm’s reach. If I have to let these blasts tear the flesh from my bones, so be it. I’ve got plenty of excess flesh to offer. So I will get my hands on that transfusion kit!!”

“…”

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner could not shoot down all of the drones even with its scattershot. She could also use her power to defend, but that wasn’t its primary use and it was far from perfect.

More explosions erupted.

She wasn’t critically wounded yet, but she was gradually being worn down.

Academy City’s #4 was.

The next head of the proud Mugino Family was.

All because Kinuhata Saiai had dragged her into this.

Mugino would have had more options here if she were alone. Meltdowner could pierce through any obstacle. She could have escaped outside the former training ground and then sniped Norsitro through the thick wall.

But she couldn’t do that.

Because she couldn’t leave injured and bleeding Kinuhata’s side.

Because she would prefer to accept some disadvantage than abandon a teammate.

Because she wanted the life-saving transfusion kit no matter what.

As fearsome as she was, Mugino Shizuri wasn’t lying. She wasn’t deceiving anyone. She wasn’t betraying anyone. Yet she was being worn down for the sake of a dirty liar.

While roaring that this was better than abandoning her dying teammate and escaping on her own.

“You’re…kidding.”

Kinuhata Saiai was not Mugino Shizuri, so she hadn’t heard what the old butler Mujinayama said.

But he had said that the best way to prevent betrayal was to prepare for it in advance.

And he had said that suspecting your own people was a form of betrayal in and of itself.

Because.

If the person you suspected was not in fact a traitor and was instead a reliable ally who trusted you from the bottom of their heart…then your own suspicion of them would have branded you as a traitor.

Bull’s eye.

“No…”

She had decided to deceive.

There was no way around the fact she only had the one life. So she had decided survival even at the cost of betrayal was the right choice.

But she couldn’t do it anymore.

Something was burned through inside Kinuhata Saiai.

“Are you kidding me!? I super can’t stand it anymorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!!”

===Part 10===

Someone was crying.

They were bawling loudly like a small child.

It was the siren of doom.

Lies? Acting? Deception?

She was past caring about any of that.

Frenda and Takitsubo were watching Kinuhata Saiai from a short distance away.

This was past the point of not knowing how to approach an unmanageable child. Theirs were not the expression a parent would give to their child. The look in their eyes was one of abandonment – of “sigh, now you’ve done it”. They also kept an invisible distance from her so they could stay safely out of the way of what was coming. They chose to trust only the sixth sense they had developed as villains.

The world seemed to rapidly pull away from Kinuhata in all directions.

The weeping girl was left all alone.

If was over for her once Mugino Shizuri discovered the truth. She had known that from the start. But Kinuhata Saiai couldn’t stand it any longer.

“I…”

Her words caught in her throat.

She was aware how self-destructive this was.

Some part of her brain was screaming for her to stop.

But it was too late.

It was game over whether she stopped here or spat out the rest of her words. Mugino Shizuri would never forgive a traitor. Once she was certain of her suspicions, they would not go away on their own.

But that was fine.

She would feel better this way.

She wanted to get it all out before someone could stop her and before she passed out from blood loss.

It would pain her more for this to end unresolved. That she couldn’t bear.

“I lied to you!! I couldn’t abandon that ordinary person who was being forced by the blackmailers to rob the bank, so I saved her knowing she was a criminal who had attacked you! Everything’s gone wrong since… But that’s no excuse. I made my choice and I’ve been lying to you super ever since!!”

Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie gave her an icy look.

Unsurprising really.

The last thing she would want after working so hard to gather up information on a scandal was for the target to self-destructively go public with it. The treasure held by the brown girl in the neon green bondage outfit was now worthless scrap. Of course she wasn’t happy about it.

“It was all my fault!! So that’s enough, Mugino! I don’t need a transfusion kit! Just get out of here. You super don’t need to get hurt here!!!”

There.

She’d said it. She had come clean.

So Kinuhata Saiai managed a somehow twisted smile even as the tears spilled from her eyes.

…If only she’d done this in the first place.

She still didn’t think it had been wrong to act on behalf of the ordinary person being threatened into committing robbery by the blackmailers.

But what about the rest?

Self-preservation, self-preservation, self-preservation, self-preservation! Kinuhata Saiai had been ugly, dirty, and rotten. How could she possibly excuse her actions there?

Had saving the girl being forced to rob a bank really and truly been the same thing as lying to her teammate to save her own skin?

Saving someone was no excuse for betrayal.

If she really had done the right thing, she didn’t need anything else. Instead of worrying about her own life, she should have accepted an honorable death.

All of this was the result of failing to do that.

She had been weak, wretched, and yet greedy. Mugino Shizuri had been injured in her attempt to protect that traitor. She had shed her own blood. And it wasn’t going to end there. At this rate, Mugino, Takitsubo, and Frenda would all die. Item would be finished.

And it would all be Kinuhata Saiai’s fault.

An enemy and a traitor from within were two very different things.

Kinuhata Saiai had been taught an important lesson.

She now knew she had fallen to a position more miserable than death. She was like an insect flipped on its back and unable to right itself.

Even when she had been raised in the back of an unofficial lab, wasting her life away unknown to the world, she had at least still had a human soul.

Even when she had been taken in by Item and been asked to help with their dirty jobs, she had had her soul as a villain.

Kinuhata could tell she was having trouble enunciating. Was it her tongue or her brain? One or the other wasn’t working right after losing so much blood. She didn’t care which. This was far better than having the fear and pain rule her thoughts, preventing her from doing what had to be done.

“I’ll super handle the rest.”

When had her soul been reduced to that of an insect?

She knew the answer.

From the moment she chose to give up on being human.

“I know this is just more selfishness on my part, but I super want to take responsibility for my own actions. You don’t have to bother with any of this, so hurry up and go!!”

And.

Academy City’s #4 monster…listened to it.

It entered her ears.

It soaked into her brain.

Mugino Shizuri now knew what had happened. She had certainty. And she did not forgive traitors. Because she had been raised by the Mugino Family as a born gangster.

To reiterate yet again, Mugino Shizuri did not forgive traitors.

So.

What was the definition of a traitor?

What had Mujinayama said, after his long years of service to the Mugino Family and everything he had seen there?

“Heh. Shut the hell up.”

And.

There was no beam of light.

Even though Kinuhata was ready for it.

Mugino Shizuri placed her palm on the sobbing girl’s head.

Ignoring her own bleeding.

“If you can say all that and you can risk your life to come clean regardless of the consequences, then you’re no traitor.”

Mugino Shizuri’s bloody face bore a small smile.

She was the kind of person who could smile here.

The world had pulled away from Kinuhata in all directions, but she wasn’t alone. Someone had approached her and rubbed her head.

“You’re Item. I will never forgive a traitor, but I always protect my own.”

Kinuhata Saiai couldn’t get any words out.

A moment later, a drone dropped down like lightning and triggered an explosion.

===Part 11===

Reality was heartless.

No matter what emotions had just been exchanged between Mugino Shizuri and Kinuhata Saiai, the silver-haired girl only had to input a simple command on her phone to send 250 thousand drones rushing in to attack. Each of those unmanned weapons was loaded with an explosive and the swarm made a merciless physical attack.

There was an explosion.

But it happened far off in the empty blue sky. Within the dragon of closely-packed drones.

More explosions followed. The chain reaction continued on and on.

The drones attempting to blow up Mugino and Kinuhata broke apart well before reaching them.

“Wha-?”

Norsitro Chatellenie was speechless.

Apparently this was something not even the Information Broker understood.

…Like any aircraft, drones were at risk of breaking apart when pushed too hard. When attempting maneuvers beyond their limits, the combined force of the air resistance and shockwaves would rattle the main wings and cause the aircraft to shake apart. Within Earth’s gravity, you could never forget that it was ''unnatural for anything to leave the surface and fly.

But what had caused this?

The 250 thousand drones were electronically controlled by the parallel processing of 250 thousand CPUs and fully guided by Norsitro’s smartphone. She couldn’t see any reason for them to break apart on their own!

“A maximum of 1.75 million drones? With 250 thousand operated at once? Your swarm control system can break through even if a fair number are shot down by anti-air weapons?”

This came in a casual, singsong voice. And a wicked one.

Mugino Shizuri spoke even while stained red by her own blood.

“But all you’ve done is gather an ass-ton of the same craft, which means they all have the same weakness. I just have to find a single vulnerability and I win. And I had plenty of time to gather information while they were pummeling me. Your trump card was laughably easy to defeat.”

“Oh, is that so? And what exactly are you going to do? Fry all their CPUs with an anti-ship EMP bomb? Or maybe pull an anti-air microwave cannon out of your ass? Fantastical super weapons are great for winning theoretical arguments, but they can’t protect your very real life. Do you have an attack method that can help you in the real world!?”’ shouted Norsitro in her glittering neon green bondage outfit. “You won’t run away? You always protect your own? …Absurd. Why would you ''make that kind of performative claim in front of me''? Did you not look into the legend of the Information Broker? Yes, yes. You have my full attention now. And I won’t rest until all of you are dead!!”

But bloody Mugino gave a snort of laughter.

(Well, she does attack with lightning. I suppose they would be designed to withstand an electric surge.)

That Norsitro would give an actual response to that kind of speculation showed how naive Norsitro was.

When the enemy gave the answer themselves, she had only two options: scoff at the answer for being way off, or frantically try to throw them off because they made a lucky guess.

But if she hadn’t said anything at all, doubt would remain. Whether it was right or wrong, staying quiet had likely been Norsitro’s best option. But she couldn’t help herself. Even though this was like playing concentration and giving up your turn by flipping over cards for your opponent.

“Kh. I have the power to change the weather. The drones can fly through rain or hail without issue!!”

“Sure. ''For unnatural weather you designed yourself'', right?’

Mugino didn’t even glance over behind cover.

Standing out in the open, she pointed her index finger straight up into the blue sky.

“You adjust the drones’ maneuvering based on the weather. There’s an optimal speed for sunny weather, an optimal angle for rain, and so on. When you know it’s coming, you can use your own program there. But with truly unexpected gusts of winds blowing between the buildings, the drones will tilt on their side. And during a sudden downpour, the apparent viscosity of the air changes and the main wings will rattle until they break.”

That was where Mugino had to strike to win.

Meaning…

“It comes down to the ''air’s viscosity''. Or the apparent viscosity anyway.”

She gave the answer.

Saying it here wouldn’t change the result. She had only said it to assert dominance over her opponent in an act of villainous cruelty.

“If I burn the air with Meltdowner, it will reduce the humidity, which dries out the air. But if I instead blast a water tank, the water inside will pour out, greatly increasing the apparent air resistance. It’s simple once you know the trick, but that is enough for the 250 thousand and 1.75 million drones to tear themselves apart. Pretty neat, right?”

“Kh… You mean…that’s what you did?”

It might seem obvious, but that kind of obvious thing could be the most dangerous among all the unusual things found in the supersonic world. Quite a few of Academy City’s prototype fighter craft had ordinary air tear off their main wings because they were unable to withstand their own vibrations.

“The last thing you want is for someone else to alter the weather. That’s why you control it yourself. No matter how unnatural it might look, you needed to alter the environment for all those drones! Even if it meant using some strange power!!”

The maximum of 1.75 million was a certainly a threat, but using the exact same craft for all of them had been a mistake.

Securing multiple different models would have been a challenge when manufacturing, operation, and maintenance were taken into account. The simple financial cost and effort of operation would have been several times greater. But the choice had come back to bite her in combat. The world’s armies would not use a single standard craft just because it was the latest and greatest. Just like Academy City used the Two Wings and Six Wings simultaneously.

A single vulnerability would affect them all.

Throw them off there and the entire swarm would be suddenly destroyed.

The explosions continued. Mugino wasn’t aiming Meltdowner in that direction, but the drones couldn’t approach the former training ground where their targets awaited. They all broke apart on their own and their explosives detonated.

Mugino Shizuri sneered.

She might fight for Academy City or the greater world beyond its walls, but she was neither good nor righteous.

This was the smile of a villain who knew the taste of blood.

“Now, that takes care of those annoying drones buzzing around. Which only leaves your power to deal with.”

===Part 12===

Mugino Shizuri and Norsitro Chatellenie.

Regardless of how many other people were around, this was their battle.

Whoever won would win it all. Whoever lost would lose it all.

“Don’t expect a signal. I’m not flipping a coin or anything.”

“Did you not consider that I might kill you while you said that, fool?”

They both took action immediately.

A thick beam burst from Mugino’s palm.

The neon green bondage girl smiled.

She was still alive and well.

Several of the fake training ground structures had been burned and melted, but that was all.

(Meltdowner missed its mark?)

“No, did she bend it with a current rivaling a bolt of lightning!?”

There was another beam of light.

Something powerful pierced through Mugino Shizuri from head to toe.

A high-voltage current.

In fact, it was a lightning bolt of more than a hundred million volts.

“Kah…ah…”

Mugino’s breath caught, but she managed to stay on her feet, probably because her Meltdowner power controlled electrons. She had touched a torn high-voltage line outside the city without issue yet a shock at the District 3 bus terminal had briefly stopped her heart, suggesting her psychological state influenced the effectiveness of that ability far too much to be a reliable means of defense.

“Mugino, that isn’t an esper power.”

And Takitsubo Rikou made a judgment from behind cover.

This was the natural result of repeatedly using the same trump card in front of that search expert.

“She is controlling 250 thousand drones at once. Each one is the size of a small paper airplane, but you can think of that like fanning the air with a fan 250 thousand times that size. The movements of that swarm can cause a gust of wind in a single direction, a swirling tornado, or even rapidly reduce the air pressure, allowing her to change the weather itself. She can even cause hail and lightning that way.”

“Ha ha!!”

Not at all bothered and even laughing, Norsitro Chatellenie immediately responded.

“Didn’t I tell you!? Oh, sorry. Your leader wasn’t here when I explained that, was she? Anyway, I said keeping them in top condition isn’t easy!! The Superb Starling weather control swarm claims to be a strategic weapon superior to nuclear warheads, so it had damn well better be able to handle this!!!”

Meaning…

“You…”

Academy City’s #4 Level 5, Meltdowner.

Mugino Shizuri, leader of Item and born gangster of the Mugino Family, had been cornered this far by…

“''You’re a Level 0''?”

“Funny, isn’t it?”

She was laughing.

Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie was.

Was that sneer on a face more pained than a lost child’s directed at herself?

“The villain who stands at the summit of Academy City’s evil, devours the city’s ordinary people, and has extended her reach into the world beyond the city…is no more than a Level 0. And I’ve fought back against this entire world because I hate being called that!! Yes, it’s true. I wanted to prove to everyone who’s ever laughed at me that I am not powerless and there is so much I can do!!!”

…She had been certain.

Mugino Shizuri had been absolutely certain that large-scale weather control was Norsitro’s esper power.

So she had thought this would end up as a battle between elites.

But it wasn’t.

This was a lot messier.

“There was a major…incident.”

The enemy was a true Level 0. yet she had challenged Item’s Level 5 and two Level 4s head on and driven them to the brink of death.

“Someone had to die and we all discussed who it should be. Everyone’s eyes gathered on me. Not one of them defended me. …That’s when I made up my mind. I decided I would survive even if it meant killing them all. I decided I would be the one looking down on every last one those shits who tell their pretty lies so they can pretend they’re good people!!”

Was that the trauma that led to her surrounding herself with a rescue squad that provided her with the power to survive rather than the power to kill?

She had been labeled a Level 0.

She had been abandoned by the adults’ systems and the children’s rules.

She had been declared unwanted.

But still she clenched her teeth and reached out her hand in that rotten quagmire.

She wanted power.

She wanted to be strong.

The drone swarm could not approach Mugino. She used the viscosity of the air to bring them down before they could.

But that did not rid the 250 thousand drones of their ability to act like a giant fan to stir up the air, manipulate the air pressure, and alter the weather. Using that did not require directly approaching their target.

This was a harmful technology, but Mugino was willing to recognize the girl’s ability to convert her desire for improvement into actual power.

However.

That was only if she didn’t arrogantly brag about her unprecedented achievement and hadn’t become a monster who endlessly devoured ordinary people’s lives.

(Power corrupts, huh?)

“I can’t respect a villain who reduces herself to a disposable rocket only meant to elevate the things she’s created. What have you become in your constant fear of being killed?”

“?”

A battle between villains begins before the fighting actually starts.

Whichever one was daunted and taken in by the other would fail.

So those who lived in the shadows paid close attention to how they lived their lives even as they turned their back to the sun. They didn’t think twice about breaking ordinary laws and regulations, but they followed their own ironclad rules or Family solidarity and they despised lies, deception, and betrayal in their midst.

And once the 1.75 million drones and their weather control were stripped away, the win condition here was as simple as can be.

She was the Information Broker.

Mugino couldn’t let the bondage girl’s weapon get to her and she had to view her for who she really was.

…The lightning was powerful, but it wasn’t enough to take the life of Academy City’s #4. The rain and hail were powerful enough to engulf Academy City if used systematically, but they couldn’t immobilize Mugino right away.

And no matter how much the winds and tornadoes might bluster, they couldn’t alter Meldowner’s electron beams the way they could a lead bullet or rocket.

Mugino Shizuri grinned.

“So would your one and only effective card be…the lightning? But that’s for defense, not attack. It’s true a current of more than a hundred million volts might be able to interfere with and bend my Meltdowner.”

“…Wait…”

“That’s right. If you’re so smart, you should have realized this ages ago. …If you ''only'' have the one effective card, coming up with a countermeasure is easy.”

Mugino didn’t have time for games.

Kinuhata Saiai must have gone the extra mile in trying to deceive Mugino because it didn’t look like she had used fake blood. That meant her bleeding was real. In that case, Mugino’s goal was to acquire and use a transfusion kit. Norsitro Chatellenie was no more than a point on the way.

So this wouldn’t be a skirmish.

If she was going to kill her, one major attack would do the trick.

Item’s leader announced her intentions.

To make sure it wasn’t too late.

To save the life of her teammate.

These parting words were not just for show.

“You’re – dead – meat.”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item6_Chapter3|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item6_Epilogue}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item6 Chapter4

2026-03-04T18:29:33Z

Massify: /* Part 1 */ removed the 2nd can since it made the sentence difficult to read

==Chapter 4: The Cost of Your Choice==

===Part 1===

The situation was changing at dizzying speed.

On the first floor lobby of the District 5 tourist hotel, Kinuhata Saiai could tell she was breathing heavily. Now was no time to panic. She was currently on a dangerous tightrope walk where failing to organize the information would guarantee her death.

“Phew.”

She had to sort through the information, be it good or bad.

Striking back at the Information Broker was her top priority for now.

At the same time, she would have to finally deal with the fundamental problem of Mugino Shizuri. She doubted lies and deception would work forever there. The more she tried it, the more likely she was to make a mistake or rouse suspicion. So she had to make Mugino feel guilty by making her commit the one thing she disliked most of all: betrayal.

Then the born gangster’s own wicked principles would prevent her from attacking Kinuhata and the rest. The gang logic would muddle who was owed what.

Letting Mugino find out about any of this was out of the question, so they couldn’t rely on the support team. Kinuhata, Takitsubo, and Frenda would have to solve the Information Broker and Mugino problems on their own.

So…

“We’ll super pit Mugino and the Information Broker against each other.”

It was two in the afternoon.

Kinuhata Saiai made this suggestion while soaked with a cold sweat.

“We make it look like I got dragged into that fight. It would work best if I get injured. Then Mugino will kill the Information Broker for us and Mugino’s ‘betrayal’ of me will give us the upper hand with her. That’s the only way if all of us are going to survive. We let it all be super water under the bridge by negating betrayal with more betrayal.”

“In the end, are you serious? There’s no safety measures there.”

Frenda’s shoulders slumped, but she didn’t seem to have an alternative.

Track suit girl Takitsubo nodded a little.

“It’s more likely to work than trying to continue lying. Mugino hates betrayal from one of her own more than anything. Based on her gangster logic, not simple emotion. …So how much do you think she will blame herself if she suspects a teammate and turns out to be wrong? Especially if that teammate ends up injured as a result.”

It wasn’t a solid plan.

It would be a perilous tightrope walk. In fact, the very idea of using this loophole against her could be seen as a betrayal of Mugino.

One shoulder of Frenda Seivelun’s clothes slipped down.

Her thoughts were written plain on her face: she wanted to run with all her might, but she knew running would only get her killed.

“Ugh. Then what do we need first? That Information Broker’s identity and appearance? In the end, we can’t include her in our plan if we don’t know her personal information.”

“Then this should come in super handy.”

Kinuhata Saiai waved her phone.

“Just like when we dealt with the blackmailers, I have the location data found by messing with a security robot, hooking a phone up to it, and scanning for phone signals in the area. Anyone with five or ten phones on them is super suspicious, right? Then I have a candidate here.”

Frenda was skeptical. Which may have been the natural reaction after being dragged into a deadly problem for no good reason.

“In the end, do you really think the big boss would be wandering around on the front line?”

“You have it backwards, Frenda.”

“?”

“She can let her underlings handle a lot of the odd jobs, but not so with a delicate and difficult boss battle. It’s the same with Item and our support team, right? …If she truly sees us as a threat, the Information Broker herself will be the one gathering information.”

But that mistrust and unease regarding her own people had worked against her.

It had been convenient for Kinuhata and the others that the enemy was carrying five or more phones. They were likely for different uses – contacting her team, sending commands to disposable soldiers, etc. – but with five of them, it wasn’t a surprise to find one specific type of phone.

One for purely private use.

Instead of a pseudonym and a fictional address, this phone was linked to her real name and bank account and had tens of thousands of photos and videos on it.

They couldn’t steal all of those right away, but they could view the registration name on the small notifications and the lock screen wallpaper.

This was especially easy with narcissists who used their own photo there.

“Norsitro Chatellenie. …Finally super found you, Information Broker.”

She was a girl with silver hair and dark skin.

She looked to be older than Kinuhata and younger than Takitsubo.

Why her wallpaper was a selfie of herself smiling in only a towel was a mystery, though. Did she tend to take long baths with her phone?

Takitsubo Rikou had again shifted into drill sergeant mode. So annoying.

“Okay, Kinuhata. We know her name and appearance, but how do we find her hideout?”

“We super use her food,” succinctly stated Kinuhata Saiai.

Frenda sighed.

“Norsitro Chatellenie. In the end, her name does sound pretty French. Her phone’s default language is even set to French.”

According to Frenda, the towel she was wearing was from a fairly high-end brand. A French brand, of course. It was an offshoot of the fancy restaurant napkins and tablecloths the company was generally known for. Silks and dresses were one thing, but Kinuhata was a little surprised to learn there was even such a thing as a super high-quality towel. Takitsubo and Frenda went on to say the one towel cost more than two million yen. Now she was super surprised!!

“She’ll definitely be looking for the soul food of her home country. That doesn’t mean she’ll be super eating French food every day, but she won’t be able to stop completely. And if she does that when she’s letting off some steam, she will leave behind some small hints. We can use those to track down the elusive Information Broker.”

That must have been the answer Takitsubo was expecting.

She immediately returned the conversational rally.

“For food, District 4 would be best.”

“Yeah, they super have any kind of cuisine you could want. Which means that’s where a native would go if she isn’t satisfied with Japan’s French restaurants that unintentionally alter the food to fit Japanese sensibilities and work with the local ingredients.”

“But, Kinuhata, an entire district is a large area. Will Norsitro be going to a luxury French restaurant with a French manager, or does she visit an industrial supermarket with imported ingredients and do the cooking herself? Even narrowing it down to those two options leaves quite a few possibilities.”

“Will you super stop testing me?” Kinuhata sighed in exasperation and raised a finger. “B and C gangster movies always show the gang bosses and fugitives using fancy restaurants of their home country as a base, but you’d be immediately caught and arrested if you tried that in Academy City. The connection is too obvious. So if the Information Broker is trying to be safe by staying hidden, she super won’t visit a restaurant connected to her home country. By her logic, that would be suicide.”

She raised another finger.

“And ''that’s why she’ll have them come to her.'' At a disposable rental site of course. There are plenty of services that let you call in an expert chef to cook for you and even the rich in the legitimate world will do that for a home party. For a special fee. …That must exist on the dark side too, right? There must be a chef hiring service with options for every county around the world.”

“Correct.” Takitsubo laughed. “It’s called Kitchen Car. Those food specialists are based in District 4 and can enrich a criminal’s fugitive lifestyle.”

“Right. The chef’s skills are top rate, but they were unfairly fired when the entire restaurant got food poisoning or the ingredients were phony or something, so in the end, they were recruited in secret,” added Frenda.

Kinuhata sighed softly.

“That just leaves…the fact that it’s two in the afternoon. The next super time she could call a chef will be at dinnertime. How many hours are we going to end up waiting?”

“In the end, I doubt it will take long.”

“Kinuhata, proper French cooking requires hours of preparation. For a dinner scheduled for seven to nine in the evening, I wouldn’t be surprised if the chefs are already getting started.”

Oh, is that so, you damn dark side rich girls?

This was an unbelievable world for Kinuhata who was happy as long as she had movie theater popcorn and a soda.

Regardless, if Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie was a frequent user of Kitchen Car, this would be easy. Tailing their French chef would eventually lead them right to the Information Broker.

“There are a few things we have to be super careful about,” began Kinuhata. She raised a finger. “First, Kitchen Car will be experts at not being tailed. After all, their job is to provide a safe option for fugitives who can’t just go to a restaurant. Trust is their main selling point, so they will make super sure they aren’t being followed. What we do about that is our biggest problem.”

She wasn’t done yet.

She raised a second finger.

“Second, using this to attack the Information Broker would be easy, but we also have to see this through to the end while fooling Mugino. Defeating Norsitro Chatellenie is super meaningless if she makes a mistake and is killed by Meltdowner before we’re ready. And Mugino isn’t stupid, so she will get suspicious with all three of us missing.”

“''Isn’t that great''?”

Kinuhata couldn’t believe it.

The legitimate VIP whose downfall had been triggered by a super tiny pencil nuke. Private Casino who had been baked to death by a white phosphorous grenade on the party hall roof. The fates of those who had opposed or betrayed Item – or Mugino Shizuri, really – flashed through Kinuhata’s mind. This situation was placing a strain on her heart, but Takitsubo had casually called it “great”?

That search expert who didn’t participate in the direct fighting really did see things differently. …Was Mugino Shizuri really the most terrifying member of Item?

“We have internal and external enemies and the situation is extremely complex and annoying, but we only have two problems to deal with. That should tell you this mission is on easy mode, Kinuhata.”

===Part 2===

Takitsubo spoke up while operating her phone on a moving train.

“I found more on the Information Broker.”

“?”

Kinuhata frowned.

Their opponent was an expert at using information. She wouldn’t be operating in a way that made her real identity as Norsitro Chatellenie a household name.

So was Takitsubo researching the Information Broker identity?

“She appears to go by some other names, but the most notable one is the Faultfinding Demon. She might take a philanthropist who insists money isn’t everything and bury them in debt. Or she might take a lawyer who claims to be opposed to violence no matter the circumstances and place them under so much psychological pressure they end up killing someone in front of a TV camera. It looks like she targets anyone who performatively makes unrealistic claims to boost their public reputation.”

“But are you sure it’s really Norsitro doing that? Information Broker isn’t a super rare term or anything.”

“Kinuhata. Do you remember the bug maker I mentioned before?”

“Yeah, during the stuff with Sudori-san. You said they were investigating Kamigi when they disappeared.”

“Well, the title of information broker is even more common than that one, but I’ve heard rumors of a sudden drop off in how often it’s used. They must all be afraid of earning her disfavor by looking like a rival.”

That made sense.

This opponent was even more dangerous than Kinuhata had imagined. Not to mention self-centered and persistent.

“Is the super dark side just full of guys who are willing to die for their weird hang-ups?”

“Stop that, Kinuhata. You should try to use gender neutral language.”

Kinuhata got scolded by the capable big sister.

…But was that really necessary when complaining about brutal villains?

District 4 was located a bit northeast of Academy City’s center.

The district specialized in all things food and it was a very international place. The food market had small flags to indicate what nationality a shop specialized in, so the long street was reminiscent of all the flags at an athletic festival. The many signs jutting out from from the building walls was chaos itself. There were so many signs overhead it felt like walking through a colorful tunnel.

Broad categories like Asian or European had naturally gathered in clumps, but there was no strict division between areas. There was an Italian restaurant and an American South hamburger shop encroaching on the red Chinatown and a sushi place with the Central and South American versions of Spanish and Portuguese on the signs right alongside the European restaurants. The sushi there apparently used jalapeno paste instead of wasabi.

“This district is like a giant manifestation of choice paralysis.”

“Frenda, is this making you crave your own home country’s food?”

“In the end, I’d be happy living on the far side of Mars as long as I have mackerel.”

If the three of them stayed away too long, Mugino Shizuri would get suspicious. But that didn’t mean they had to solve this problem before that happened. In fact, they couldn’t have Mugino just stay in the luxury hotel. To trick her, to get her to betray them, and to survive, they needed Mugino to act of her own volition.

Suspicion was the greatest fuel for someone who hated betrayal more than anything else.

“So is super that Kitchen Car’s HQ?”

“I think so, Kinuhata.”

“But wait. District 4 is all about food…and they’re in a trash house!? I thought Kitchen Car were super culinary experts!! How could they let this happen!?”

“In the end, I bet this was what happened when those culinary experts decided to build a fortress everyone would want to keep away from. Inside, they’ve probably torn down some walls to turn into a maze. It’s called hiding in plain sight. If you’re looking for someone or something, nothing is more annoying than a trash-filled building.”

The structure itself was a four-floor multi-tenant building, but bulging trash bags were piled up in every door and window and even covered the front walk.

Was that supposed to be camouflage?

That had to be a huge nuisance for the neighbors.

The trio bought kebab sandwiches at a nearby food stand and munched on them as they waited for something to happen. There were an unusual number of people jogging, but was that the result of the overabundance of tasty foods in this district?

Frenda’s sandwich must have been too spicy for her because she kept going back to her cup’s straw for more sips of soda.

“In the end, do we have any reason to think the Information Broker will call Kitchen Car today?”

“There’s no guarantee, but I think the odds are good,” replied Takitsubo. “This is a big deal for her too. It might look like she’s the one threatening Item, but this only happened because she failed to deal with us earlier. If she screws this up, she’ll truly have to go into hiding and then she’ll have far fewer options. She should want to eat everything she likes while she has the chance.”

“There they super are.”

A mid-sized yellow truck slowly emerged from the trash heap of a place. Kinuhata was surprised to find there was a metal garage door there.

“That must be Kitchen Car’s truck.”

The trio waited for the truck to pass by and made the final check by nose.

“Bouillon and mirepoix. Also truffles, pickles, horseradish, and is that lobster sauce?”

“That’s not Japanese or Chinese cooking. In the end, it’s definitely French.”

…Kinuhata couldn’t tell a thing. But she wasn’t upset about it. Really.

But a truck.

Did they need a large vehicle to fit the ingredients and the cooking equipment? It wasn’t as bad as with Chinese cooking, but French cooking probably did require some industrial firepower.

Kitchen Car were experts at providing fugitives with delicious food. That meant they knew how to keep Anti-Skill from tailing them. This wouldn’t be as easy as attaching a GPS-equipped device to track it. The truck’s radio or sensors would detect the signal.

So Takitsubo made a simple comment.

“Frenda.”

“Yeah, yeah. In the end, one plastic bottle drone coming up. Makes me wonder what you would have done if you didn’t have the ultra genius and ultimately cute Frenda-chan on your side.”

“It’s French food, right? I planned to track the nitrogen gas used to keep the wine from oxidizing.”

“But in the end, Norsitro Chatellenie is clearly underage!”

Takitsubo and Frenda were enjoying their banter.

How could they be so calm?

Kinuhata frowned.

“Won’t your drone get super shot down by an attack helicopter?”

“In the end, anything small enough will be fine as long as it doesn’t move too fast. There are plenty of UFOs flying around overhead, including small birds and convenience store bags floating in the wind. The city’s automatic air defense doesn’t react to it all.”

Of course, Frenda wasn’t just guessing here. It was based on accurate data she had researched. And the standards had to change daily.

The tablet’s screen showed the yellow truck crossing a few district boundaries.

It finally arrived in District 2.

“Isn’t that the car-focused district?”

“In the end, they do weapons and explosives there too.”

They focused on the screen some more. The yellow truck drove below a building, likely into an underground parking garage, but experts at losing pursuit wouldn’t drive straight to their client’s hideout. Frenda cautiously sent the drone around a while longer to continue observing from the air until…

“Here they come.”

“Hm. When traveling on foot, they disguise themselves as a wholesaler that specializes in fireproof curtains and carpets. Well, the ingredients and cooking equipment unloaded from the truck would be too heavy to carry without a handcart of some kind.”

“Then is this it? What is this super place?”

“I see a lot of tall, fake structures and a bunch of ropes. In the end, it looks like some kind of training ground. If it isn’t Anti-Skill, could it be for firefighters?”

The place didn’t seem to be functioning. Was it abandoned? There was even a large plastic pool set up on the grounds.

“Is it time to head in?”

“I want to be absolutely certain first. They might take another vehicle from the parking lot here.”

They waited ten minutes, but that never happened.

That settled it.

It had to be this former training ground thought to be for firefighters.

“We have her,” said Takitsubo Rikou.

===Part 3===

She woke up.

“Hmm?”

Mugino Shizuri opened her eyes in bed. And slowly sat up.

She crawled out of the bedroom still in sleepwear that let her body show through pretty much everywhere.

“Takitsubo?”

No response.

She looked around without fixing her hair.

“Kinuhata, Frenda?”

Still nothing.

(Hm…)

Just once she consciously let out a breath.

Then she grabbed her phone.

She didn’t call her familiar Item teammates.

(Kinuhata and Takitsubo were missing after the bank robbery, but now Frenda’s gone too.)

She was already making some guesses. Like that ''they wouldn’t respond'' if she called them or messaged them on social media.

There was only one person to contact at a time like this.

“Mujinayama. You’ve been discharged from the hospital, right?”

“I must apologize for the inconvenience and trouble I caused you back then, Lady Shizu-”

“Don’t bother,” she snapped and the old butler immediately fell silent.

This was Mujinayama, so he obviously wasn’t intimidated. Even over the phone, he gave the sense of a grandfather playing with his grandchild.

“Hey, Mujinayama.”

“I am at your service.”

“How do I identify a traitor?”

===Part 4===

A firefighter training ground was an unfamiliar place.

Kinuhata had trouble deciding where any specific rooms would be located. The fake structures on the surface couldn’t be all of it, so there was likely more underground.

Now, where would that evil boss be?

“Can we super determine what floor and room they’re in base on Kitchen Car’s movements?”

Kinuhata knew that was asking a lot.

The grounds were large and there were probably lots of underground pathways connecting different areas. What they could see from the outside wouldn’t be enough to fully track Kitchen Car.

But Frenda sounded cheerful as she used a cable to link her phone to a panel on the thick wall surrounding the grounds.

“In the end, check this out, Kinuhata. The security camera records are just gone.”

“Does that super mean the Information Broker is using this place in secret?”

“Then what about this third floor special observation seat? I’m guessing that’s a VIP room for instructors to watch all the trainees and keep score, but the sprinklers have been turned off there.”

“Kitchen Car was transporting cooking equipment along with their ingredients, right? They can ventilate the smoke with a hose connected to the air conditioning vent, but the heat of the fire will still be a problem. So what if they want to use an industrial high-heat gas burner or oven outside of a proper kitchen?”

“You mean they would have to super switch off the sprinklers and fire alarms? Then they must be in the third floor VIP room!”

They were already in enemy territory, so they couldn’t use the elevator which could act like a dead end. It was only three floors up, so they took the emergency stairs.

“Takitsubo-san, the plan was to pit the Information Broker and Mugino against each other, right?”

“Right.”

“But how do we super call Mugino here?”

“In the end, do we even have to? Mugino will never forgive a traitor. She’ll track us down here on her own. We couldn’t hide from her even if we wanted to.”

However, they couldn’t relax just because they were using the emergency stairs instead of the elevator.

A wire crossed the path at above knee height, the most likely height for someone to hit.

Laying several layers of traps would also narrow the trap-layers freedom of movement, so they would only do it if it benefited them. …Hopefully this meant the enemy didn’t have enough personnel to have regular human patrols.

“Have you noticed, Kinuhata?”

“Yeah, I have. These traps are weird. They’re using the bare minimum of flammables like gasoline while using a super ton of oxygen tanks and air circulators.”

Kinuhata wondered if that was to avoid breaking the laws against weapons and bombs, but setting up any kind of explosive with the intent of causing an explosion violated the law anyway. Reducing the amount used wouldn’t get you off the hook in court.

The Academy City Bomber explained in exasperation.

“They’re using oxygen to guide the flames. Have you never heard of tactical ventilation? When firefighters enter a burning building, they will methodically break windows and doors to let air through and, in the end, guide the flames where they won’t hurt anyone while the firefighters complete their rescue. They will also sometimes intentionally increase the intensity of the fire elsewhere to prevent backdrafts and flashovers. But if you wanted to, you could also create a flamethrower-like blast of fire and bend it in an S-shape.”

They all exchanged a glance.

…Firefighters. Frenda had said it herself, but apparently even she hadn’t expected the phrase to pop up here.

“In the end, this is a training ground for them, isn’t it?”

“Super umm, can rescue squad people go bad too?”

“I’ve never heard of it, but it could be. They’re trained to break down doors and enter buildings above the ground floor, so they do have some abusable skills.”

“They also sound strong. In the end, they’d definitely make big burly troops.”

The three continued up the stairs while on the lookout for traps.

After reaching the third floor hallway and cracking open the steel fire door, they sensed a presence.

They spotted someone big and burly.

Kinuhata could defeat him with Offense Armor, but his identity was a bit of a mystery. Looking like a bad guy didn’t necessarily mean you were one. People sometimes behaved in weird, illogical ways. He might just be an ordinary body builder who had snuck into the former training ground (unaware of the traps) to get a workout there, so Kinuhata and the others waited until he had walked past before slipping out into into the hallway.

Takitsubo’s nose twitched a little.

“I don’t detect an appetizing aroma.”

“In the end, the room with the most suspicious electricity usage is the third door on the right.”

Then they would start there.

Kinuhata had assumed there was only one third floor VIP room, but it turned out there were several. After pressing her ear to the door and listening for any activity inside, she slowly opened the door.

“What is this super place?”

She found a dark room.

It was about the size of a larger convenience store.

The opposite wall was made of glass to provide a view of the outdoor training ground, but Kinuhata was more interested in something else.

LCD monitors lined one section with pricey-looking office chairs in front of them. More than half the space under the desks was taken up by what looked like industrial computers.

“Did the firefighter training ground also super teach them how to respond to emergency alerts and operate their radios?”

“This might have all been brought here after the fact,” replied the track suit girl.

The right and left walls were covered by steel racks packed with paper files thicker than brick blocks.

Takitsubo scanned the entire room with emotionless eyes.

“Frenda, let’s check the paper.”

“In the end, why not the computers? Paper documents don’t even have the bare minimum of a search option.”

“I don’t want to touch the computers when we don’t even know if they use a password, fingerprints, a security key, or facial recognition. We might get it locked down or even trigger an alert to their boss. The paper is better. I’ll handle the shelves, so you two check the ones around the desks.”

“Ughh. In the end, a note with their password written on it would be too much to hope for, wouldn’t it?”

“If they’re unlocking it every single time, there must be some kind of mark or hint,” said Takitsubo even as she walked over to the shelves.

All that information felt overwhelming to Kinuhata, but apparently it looked like a treasure trove to their search expert.

“This data is related to a vulnerability,” said Takitsubo as she flipped through something like a thick manual.

Kinuhata tilted her head. What kind of vulnerability?

“The wide variety of videos and articles strewn across the internet are automatically fact checked for accuracy…but there is no system in place to fact check the fact checking.”

“???”

“It’s complicated, but in short there’s a loophole in the network monitoring system. By converting a file to the fact checking file extension, it can slip right past Academy City’s automatic checking system. The legitimate files are 512 kilobytes, so anything larger than that would be detected as illegitimate, but you can fit a ton of text in a file that size.”

“Super so what? What happens if you can slip something past it?”

“You can send unchecked electronic data in and out of the city. Using the official fiber optic lines while ignoring the dedicated systems entirely.”

They all fell silent.

Hold on.

“Wh-what are you saying? That, in the end, all the city’s classified data on next-gen weapons and esper development could be leaked outside the city!?”

“…”

Instead of responding right away, Takitsubo took a look around the room.

She blinked a few times.

“If they are selling technology like that, why isn’t any of that data here?”

“Now that you mention it… They super have a loophole they could use, but I haven’t seen any data they could sell, like the plans for a stealth fighter or a Level 5’s DNA map.”

“So in the end, what is Norsitro hoping to do with that super convenient joker in her hand?”

That was when Takitsubo’s head shot up.

The search expert was looking off in an odd direction.

That was a warning sign.

“Kinuhata. Frenda.”

“Yes?”

“Watch out. The enemy is coming.”

The door burst open from outside.

Frenda immediately leapt behind a big decorative plant and Kinuhata moved in front of Takitsubo.

A girl entered flanked by two large men. They of course recognized that silver hair and dark skin.

That was Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie.

Her phone’s wallpaper had shown her in a towel, but now her body was tightly bound by a leather belt, miniskirt, and big boots that were a glittering neon green with silver thread woven in. It was probably meant to be a bondage outfit.

“Oh, hey. You were right, Matsuzawa-san.”

“I was lucky.”

“All we had to do was leave the ‘call center’ unlocked and unoccupied and they waltzed on in here like a bunch of roaches. Incredible.”

“Milady. Shouldn’t you compare them to something more appealing, like rhinoceros beetles?”

“Is that more appealing? You must like the outdoors, Haranaka-san. They’re both just shiny black bugs to me☆”

===Part 5===

Back in the tourist hotel suite in the grown-up District 5.

What Mugino Shizuri most wanted at the moment was the live words of an expert.

Needless to say, the Mugino Family was an international gang with hundreds of thousands of soldiers around the world.

Thus, they wouldn’t go crying to the normal police if some money disappeared or someone died within the Family. That would mean tearing down their entire violent system to solve one measly case. Still, there were on occasion fools who would periodically sell information to the police (because they were being threatened or something). To reiterate, the Family would not ask the police for help when something happened.

So they had a different solution.

They had an internal investigation department that specialized in identifying and punishing traitors in their midst.

“If it’s too weak, there’s nothing to stop the traitors, but if it’s too strong, it turns into a dictatorship that wields false accusations and purges. …Mujinayama, you know how to handle these things just right, don’t you?”

“Sigh… I would have preferred you came to me for advice on how to prevent the betrayal from occurring in the first place, but I get the feeling it is too late for that.”

“Hurry up.”

When Mugino lightly rushed him, the mood changed.

His world – the vibe of the Mugino Family he had served for so many long years – pushed in through the cold mechanical phone.

“The standard countermeasure against betrayal in a system of violence is to prepare for it before it actually happens. You do not want to be running around in a panic after you have been betrayed and real harm has been done.”

“Right.”

Mugino glanced aside with the phone against her ear.

At the empty boxes for luxury brand clothing piled up in a corner of the room.

“''You don’t have to worry about that.''”

“Is that so? I would expect no less from the one who carries the weight of the Family’s future on her shoulders. I am relieved.”

That old butler did not flatter people for no reason. If she couldn’t think of any reason for the compliment, there had to be more coming.

His ever gentle voice quietly gained the sharp edge of a knife.

“However, you must not forget that suspecting your companions is itself a small betrayal. It is necessary for the maintenance of a system of violence that cannot rely on the official power structures, but it is by no means a praiseworthy thing.”

“…”

“And what if your suspicions of betrayal prove to be false? Shizuri-sama, betrayal and the response thereof are a sort of gamble. You are not a righteous detective investigating each suspicious individual until you find the criminal like a game of concentration. If you choose wrong just once, responsibility for that mistake falls on you. Investigating a traitor carries the risk of becoming a traitor yourself. You must never forget this when seeking the truth in our shadowy world.”

That was why the internal investigation department paid exceptionally well while being exceptionally risky.

It was known as the hardest department to keep balanced.

And this summed up why Mugino Shizuri had gone out of her way to seek advice from the old butler who had served the Family for so long.

Yes. If she could be sloppy and get it wrong as many times as she liked, she would have done it all herself.

But that wasn’t an option, so she wanted to know the etiquette and secrets the gangs used.

“It also depends on the severity of the betrayal in question.”

The old butler used that as a starting point.

He did not mince words.

So whether or not he included that phrase would likely greatly change the impression left with the listener. Even if Mugino Shizuri didn’t yet know why it mattered.

“Complete traitors are actually fairly rare. Most traitors move back and forth between the two sides, so they always carry some small feeling of guilt with them. It is always gnawing at them, even as they eat and sleep.”

“Are you saying the losers who can’t stand the pressure will blow up first?”

“No. It affects everyone of all sorts. Someone who truly cannot bear the impure feelings won’t bother with all those tricks and will make a full-on attack despite the risks. The family head is the type to do that.”

…Mugino Shizuri bluntly concluded that man’s way of life was unfortunately not very useful for her. After all, that freak had once armed himself, single-handedly stormed an embassy, and dragged the corrupt minister off the embassy’s grounds just because a small child had cried and asked him to rescue his grandfather (true story). If she asked that ridiculous man how to find a traitor, she could easily imagine him telling her to build up enough charisma that no one felt the need to betray her in the first place.

She wanted to discuss a more realistic way of finding a traitor.

“It is not always a lack of skill that leads traitors to leave small clues and make mistakes. There is a part of them that wants to be caught. That is why their pursuer notices their presence. Lady Shizuri, I assume you came to me for advice because you already have some kind of clue. What felt off to you?”

“…”

For one, why had the other three members of Item gone missing at the same time?

If those three wanted to do something behind her back, wouldn’t they leave someone behind to distract her and keep her from getting suspicious? Why hadn’t they done that?

How could she explain it from a standpoint of pure function and efficiency?

(Hm.)

“Now let’s circle back to an earlier point,” said Mujinayama. In a voice that would make anyone’s back straighten. “How far must a betrayal go before you can truly call it a betrayal?”

===Part 6===

The silver-haired dark-skinned girl was Information Broker Norsitro.

Were the large burly men surrounding her illicit firefighters?

More importantly, Kinuhata had picked up on a curious word in their brief conversation.

''The call center''?

“(Kinuhata, anything the enemy freely says in front of you should be taken with a grain of salt. Don’t accept it at face value.)”

“Information you think you researched on your own can be externally controlled too, you know? All I have to do is manipulate what order you find the relevant data in, so it’s not hard at all,” pointed out Norsitro in her neon green bondage outfit.

Then what about the vulnerability they had just found? Using the fact checking file extension? Maybe they had to doubt the entire idea of freely communicating across the city wall. Were they back to square one?

“Kinuhata, what did I just say about things the enemy says in front of you?”

“Ugh.”

Kinuhata Saiai groaned at having to be told a second time.

The silver-haired girl smiled elegantly at how easily manipulated Kinuhata was. She even covered her mouth with a hand despite how that clashed with her outfit.

“So instead of leaping at the documents and information you find, you should be working out how and why they turned up here and then dealing with them accordingly.”

The Information Broker.

Norsitro’s job involved more than just gathering information. She had to decide how to use it. When was the best time to reveal it or hide it? She was an expert at using information as a whole.

“That said, get the balance wrong and you can end up paranoid and doubting everything you see, so hiring an expert at information management is the best thing to do for your mental health, if you ask me.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Kinuhata saw Frenda stir.

She stuck a hand in her pocket.

Kinuhata had been working with Item long enough to know what Frenda was planning.

Norsitro was still talking when Frenda pulled an explosive from her pocket and threw-

“''I’m not done talking.''”

''Boom!!'' A dull explosion rang out.

Unsure what had happened, Kinuhata Saiai was thrown through a tempered glass window. In other words, she was tossed out from the third floor. That was about the same as the top floor of a school.

On the other side, the inner wall behind Norsitro broke through and a black Eastern dragon emerged.

No.

That was actually thousands or tens of thousands of flying objects about the size of paper airplanes made from fliers.

“In the end, is that a drone swarm!? Kinuhata!”

“Ohhh? Are you sure you should be focusing on her?”

A “zap!!” of bursting air rang out.

Along with a flash of light.

Frenda Seivelun fell to her knees.

“Kah…”

(Lightning, a high-voltage current? What the hell? In the end, does she have more than just next-gen weapons?)

Frenda collapsed to the floor and couldn’t move. She couldn’t even lift her head. The most she could manage was some trembling of her limbs. She could only thank her lucky stars that none of the delicate fuses and explosives hidden on her person had gone off.

The silver-haired girl glanced over at the only one left: Takitsubo.

“You’re dropping like flies. Which makes it easier for me, so I’m not complaining.”

The drones were black devices. They were the size of 10x20cm paper airplanes, but their jagged and distorted silhouette looked something like a Christmas tree. Would their precise classification be canard double delta?

And Takitsubo spoke quietly.

“Is this why?”

“?”

“Drone swarms can’t be defended against by existing missile defense systems because there are just too many of them, so in a way you could call them an even greater strategic weapon than a nuclear warhead. But the problem is the manufacturing and operating costs. The price has to be multiplied across the number of drones in the swarm, so building a thousand of them increases the cost a thousandfold and creating ten thousand increases it ten-thousandfold. Same for the fuel and maintenance costs. That isn’t something an individual can use.”

“Yeah, I do use around 250 thousand of them at once. And the number goes up to 1.75 million if you include the spares, so the final sum is nothing to sneeze at. Keeping them in top condition isn’t easy.”

“Khah. In the end, even if it’s fully automated and it only takes a minute per drone, how much effort are you putting into this? Did you buy an entire huge factory with multiple production lines?”

“Didn’t I just say keeping them in top condition isn’t easy? Besides, a single stealth fighter costs 20-30 billion yen. And that’s just buying it. When you think of this as a super weapon superior to nukes, it’s honestly a pretty good deal.”

Her neon green bondage outfit had silver threads woven in. Was that glittering getup actually a highly conductive full-body antenna?

Norsitro chuckled and spread her arms.

The word drone apparently originally referred to the buzzing of a bee’s wings and the drones surrounding her lived up to that origin. They were surprisingly nimble and reminiscent of killer bees or of flies buzzing around something dead. Some drones would come to a stop in midair, so they may have been capable of vertical takeoffs and landings using a lift fan or something.

Also, she had the high-voltage power that had hit Frenda.

“Committing perfect crimes in Academy City is a challenge. But not so outside the city’s walls. Isn’t that right? Especially if you can use Academy City tech out there. Then it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“You aren’t going after the parents, are you?”

“What, something like this: ‘Hey! If you don’t pay up soon, we’ll threaten your precious kid over and over and over again until they’re part of the blackmailer group themselves! Then they’ll be a criminal and your whole family will be in the news!’ ”

A grin split across the silver-haired girl’s face.

That was the devilish face of someone who knew how to cash in on people’s misfortune and tragedy with maximum efficiency.

“The towering wall surrounding the city prevents the parents outside from rescuing their child no matter how much danger they’re in. What, you think they should call Anti-Skill? Heh hee hee. You know better than that. The higher ups of this city are all corrupt, so they won’t allow anything to threaten the city’s public image. Oops, and now that report is being suppressed. There won’t be any kind of official record it ever even happened.”

The parents would be helpless while knowing their child was in trouble.

The only option left would be to pay a sum of money larger than they could hope to make in a lifetime.

They could always refuse.

But it was this girl’s job to give them ''a very good idea'' of what would happen then.

The large men – firefighters? – closed in on Takitsubo.

“Now, then. Your bodyguard went skydiving and your bomber was zapped into submission. The search expert remains, but what can you hope to do on your own?”

“I can do this.”

Takitsubo was quick to make up her mind.

She grabbed paralyzed Frenda’s collar and immediately jumped out the broken window.

===Part 7===

This wasn’t a suicide.

She fell to a location less than three meters down. It was likely part of the training ground, but a net was laid out there to catch anyone who fell.

Takitsubo wouldn’t have taken that sudden dive if she hadn’t recalled seeing it earlier.

“This way. Super this way!”

Kinuhata Saiai had fallen earlier and she was beckoning over from behind a large fake building wall. Takitsubo adjusted her grip on Frenda, dropped from the net to the ground, and ran over to Kinuhata.

Fake buildings, trees, streetlights, benches – there were plenty of places to hide, but the training ground was still an open outdoor space. Staying here was not an attractive option. If they wanted to avoid being caught in a pincer attack, they needed to find a back entrance and withdraw indoors.

Takitsubo lowered the fluffy blonde girl from her shoulder to a concrete-looking floor.

“Frenda.”

“What, can’t you tell? In the end, you can’t expect any help from me.”

“I want to know how those drones work. Only you would know that.”

Did Takitsubo Rikou know exactly what people wanted to hear at times like this?

The Academy City Bomber reacted with a twitch.

“Those are just your standard wandering self-destruct drones that carry a bomb and charge at their target, right? Their structure itself is simple. Based on how far Kinuhata was blasted, the explosive they’re carrying isn’t anything special. If they’re loaded with 100 grams and it expands 800 times, in the end, that’s about the same force as a grenade. The lethal range should be around 10m.”

…But 1.75 million grenades thrown at you one after another would be more than enough of a threat. A minor fortress or combat airfield could be stained with blood and destroyed by that.

“1.75 million… She can’t be controlling them all manually, can she?”

“In the end, she’s probably providing general instructions with her phone and the exact calculations are all handled by AI. Like playing an RTS on easy mode.”

“Then super what if we jam those signals? That will cut off the manual instructions and I bet they’re linked up to a fairly large supercomputer to constantly perform so many flight control calculations.”

“I doubt that would work. She uses 250 thousand at once and has a total of 1.75 million in case some are brought down. Even if each one has a cheap toy of a CPU, linking 250 thousand of them together in parallel will provide some decent processing power. They won’t need a stationary supercomputer.”

It sounded like jamming the wireless network itself would still work, but they didn’t know what the swarm used to communicate. And if they were military, they would likely use multiple methods at once: EM, IR, magnetism, ultrasound. Actually jamming them would require blocking every one of the methods…but how many methods was “every one” of them?

Kinuhata sounded fed up with it all.

“Drones that super small have to run out of fuel or battery before long, right? If we stay on the run to buy time, won’t they eventually break down?”

“Kinuhata, we can’t make that kind of assumption without seeing their design or specs. They might generate power from the wind or the sun and they might be remotely charged using ultrasonic waves or microwaves.”

A portion of the blue sky was colored black.

As if ink had been splattered into the world.

Frenda looked up with her lips twisted into a stiff half-smile.

“So…in the end, which sounds better to you: having them attack us in a straight line or having them spread out and attack us as a wall?”

“Either way, Kinuhata would be the only survivor.”

“250 thousand at once and 1.75 million in all… If I’m super pummeled by that many bombs, not even Offense Armor is going to last.”

Kinuhata could only watch the drone swarm in a daze.

They circled an area as large as a schoolyard as they took aim. Like a giant flying serpent. If the Item girls stayed outside, they would be swallowed by a sandstorm of mechanical explosions.

And…

“Ah ha ha. You call that escaping?”

They heard a voice.

“Being out in the open makes it easier for me☆”

It belonged to Norsitro Chatellenie.

She jumped lightly down toward them from from the broken window a few meters up.

She was less than a hundred meters away.

“!”

Still seated on the floor, Frenda immediately pulled multiple explosives from her short skirt.

“I seriously doubt that will work.”

The wind roared as it spiraled thickly around them.

A giant tower rose up on either side of Norsitro. The wind wrapped around and extended high into the sky, forming powerful tornadoes.

Realizing what that meant, Frenda froze before making her attack.

The brown girl’s hair and leather skirt were flapping wildly, but she didn’t seem bothered by it.

“Handheld rockets have a terrible tendency to miss when exposed to crosswinds. I hear that world-famous Russian one that only costs 20 or 30 thousand yen has trouble hitting at even 500 meters. And with this kind of random turbulence, you have no way of calculating a path.”

Tornadoes.

Frenda’s eyes widened because she had already been hit by an esper power attack here.

“You mean…in the end, she doesn’t just have lightning!?”

“What’s wrong? Was there some other weather you were hoping for? Or were you worried about low pressure because you get headaches on those days? Just let me know☆”

Norsitro smiled in her bright neon green bondage outfit.

And it began pouring rain.

Less than five seconds later, it turned to fist-sized hail.

Then a clear blue sky shined overhead.

It was like she was casually flipping an invisible switch. Frenda Seivelun was completely dumbfounded.

Was this Norsitro Chatellenie’s power?

“You’re…kidding.”

“It super looks like she can control all forms of weather, including lightning, doesn’t it? Her power might control the air instead of electricity.”

“Kinuhata, don’t treat maybes like confirmed information. Remember what I said about information the enemy gives you?”

“Yes, yes, I have to super take it with grain of salt! …But how else are we supposed to explain that ridiculous power!? Mutter, mutter…”

Kinuhata’s complaints were cut off.

By the repeating sound of something beating at the air.

It was a Two Wings helicopter that could be flown unmanned…no, based on the arm-like wings spread out on the sides, was it a Six Wings?

250 thousand at the same time with a total of 1.75 million.

As those things flew around, the “black dragon” must have shown up on Academy City’s anti-air radar. Their operator must have known that would happen, but…

“Shut up.”

It exploded.

Even Frenda wouldn’t want to be chased by one of those. That was just how brutal the Six Wings’ air-to-air and air-to-ground armaments were, but it happened so easily.

“I said it’s a super weapon superior to nukes, didn’t I? You can’t expect ordinary weapons – even an entire squadron of attack helicopters – to deal with it.”

“So in the end, is there no way of stopping her?”

Her power was frightening, but it wasn’t just her power.

The drone swam was frightening, but it wasn’t just the drone swarm.

All three Item members had the same thought: how could they even begin to deal with a monster like this?

Even now, the two tornadoes were raging across the ground.

With a din of destruction, drink vending machines, streetlights, and fake buildings were torn from the ground and thrown into the air. People were meant to climb and descend them with ropes, so it had all been bolted to concrete pedestals, but it didn’t seem to matter.

If a human was caught in there, they would be thrown high into the sky…and then what would happen?

Norsitro grinned.

She wasn’t making a threat to negotiate. The joy of someone who planned to ''use it'' spread across her face.

“I’m not saying there’s no hope at all for you. After all, one of you is supposedly a shield esper.”

“…”

“But if protecting yourself from the fall is ''all'' you can manage, then I just have to hit you again from the side. Which would you prefer to kill you: the self-destruct drones or my power?”

She was extraordinary.

The three Item girls didn’t see how they could win even if they all attacked at once.

Norsitro Chatellenie held a position near the very top if you ignored the excessive financial cost of operating those drones as an individual.

But that was all the more reason to fight.

They couldn’t leave someone this powerful to her own devices. She would prey on Academy City’s ordinary students, drive them to the blackmailers, and even threaten the parents outside the city to make even more money. The people having their lives and futures ruined were not the fools who had purposefully rushed to the dark side to snag some dirty money. Norsitro was like quicksand that endlessly swallowed honest people with no such intentions. And because she was such a formidable enemy, she would cause a massive number of victims if allowed to go free.

It would be too late by the time the city’s wicked grown ups decided to do something about it.

If she wasn’t defeated here and now, there would be victims.

Kinuhata clenched her teeth. Takitsubo had accepted Kinuhata’s plan to survive by having Mugino betray them and fight Norsitro, but that plan had mostly fallen apart. Now it was ''more important'' to silence her as soon as possible. Kinuhata was a dark side villain, not an agent of good or justice, but she still felt that need.

And then.

“Hey.”

She heard.

A voice.

Coming from even further back than Kinuhata Saiai, Frenda Seivelun, and Takitsubo Rikou.

There must have been a different back entrance.

Was that squishy sound all that remained of an unlucky guard who happened to be there?

“Why would you go off and have a party without me?”

A grin split across Norsitro Chartellenie’s face.

“Oh, you’re finally here.”

Sweat poured from Kinuhata’s body.

The Information Broker was supposed to be an expert in handling all forms of information, so why didn’t she understand what it meant for ''her'' to be here? Why didn’t she understand the great risk there?

Regardless, the silver-haired girl spoke her name.

“''Mugino Shizuri.''”

===Part 8===

The density of the air changed.

In terms of human emotion, the most fitting word was probably “tension”.

Her presence made all the difference.

For better or for worse, Item…required Mugino Shizuri.

“Tch. Super how did you know where we were?”

Mugino answered Kinuhata’s trembling question by flicking something over without even glancing in her direction. It was a tag even smaller than a kernel of corn.

Takitsubo took it.

“Is this a brand-name clothing shop’s anti-theft tag?”

“The good brands use really nice ones. They’re convenient, so they come in handy.”

''“What is it, Mugino? Do you want to buy that?”

''“Not really…”

Was this why Mugino had been so fixated on feeling the clothing in that store? She had been interested in the anti-theft devices, not the fashionable clothing that cost 100 thousand yen each.

The silver-haired girl with her body contained in a neon green bondage outfit smiled thinly.

“Being a team leader is a challenge, isn’t it? Failure isn’t an option and that responsibility falls on your shoulders.”

“We’ve never met. Don’t act like you know me, trash.”

Kinuhata Saiai considered the situation.

Mugino Shizuri had arrived.

The plan was for Mugino to suspect them and act of her own volition, but they hadn’t finished setting things up for that. Simply defeating Norsitro Chatellenie wasn’t enough. If Mugino learned of the current situation as they did so, Kinuhata’s betrayal would come to light when Mugino started asking questions after the fighting was over. Then there was no avoiding being vaporized by Meltdowner. So this was her chance.

She knew that, but she still felt a cold sweat pouring down her back.

The fingers of death were running along her spine. She could feel them.

She had to deceive and betray Mugino Shizuri.

Screwing it up would mean death.

It was finally showtime.

===Part 9===

They were in the outdoor field of the former fire fighter training ground in District 2.

A great mass of moving air created a low roar.

250 thousand drones were packed together like a black dragon as they moved together.

They were all aimed at Mugino Shizuri alone.

The Information Broker laughed with her phone in hand. She held a hand over her mouth as she did so.

“Oops. I forget to ask.”

Norsitro’s expression was as casual as if she were out at the supermarket and realized she had forgotten she needed to buy the one item that was on sale.

“Would you prefer to be killed by my power or by the swarm? But asking now is a pain and it doesn’t really matter, does it? You’ll die a painful death either way.”

Mugino Shizuri gave a snort of laughter and flicked out a card she had pulled from her pocket. Before it could fall to the ground, she accurately struck it with a thick Meltdowner beam.

Silicon Burn.

Nearly 150 scorching electron beams thinner than hairs fanned out in front of her.

However…

“Tch. So a scattershot’s not enough.”

“I am using 250 thousand of them with a total of 1.75 million. But if you think you can shoot them all down, feel free to continue going for a high score. Although I expect you’ll be crushed to death first☆”

No matter how many Mugino destroyed, the number was replenished, so the swarm never dropped below 250 thousand.

And that wasn’t the main problem.

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner had failed to bring down the swarm. Even when using her special Silicon Burn. With Mugino’s attack a failure, nothing could stop the endless drone force. This time they charged toward Mugino as if aiming for a cross counter. En masse.

A sticky blackness filled a large portion of the scene.

Like a bottle of pitch black ink had fallen over on a painting of Academy City’s scenery.

The black dragon devoured the blue sky. No, the swarm weapon made up of 250 thousand drones circled around together to attack Mugino.

According to Frenda’s analysis, each one was as destructive as a grenade.

But there were 250 thousand of them.

If they all attacked at once…it would be like taking a machinegun spray of explosive rounds head on!

“Mugino!”

“Want to make bets how many seconds you’ll last?”

Norsitro smiled in her neon green bondage outfit.

The following explosion felt like space itself were expanding.

But Mugino wasn’t injured.

Despite the many, many explosions going off.

“Oh? I thought you were all offense, but I guess not.”

She had a shield of light.

Meltdowner normally flew sharply out as a straight line, but she must have instead had it spiral close to her hand. It looked like a round shield fully covering Mugino’s body.

The sharp fragments and even the blast itself were pushed back. Academy City’s #4 had extraordinary specs in defense as well, but Norsitro wasn’t normal either. The very act of forcing Mugino Shizuri to defend – that is, to ''threaten'' that bundle of arrogance enough that she thought she would die if she didn’t defend – was extraordinary enough.

Adding Mugino Shizuri to the fight wasn’t enough to defeat Norsitro Chatellenie.

All four members of Item together couldn’t end this.

They were on the verge of death and cutting it close.

But that was more than just a risk. With a different viewpoint – Kinuhata Saiai’s for example – it could also be a one-in-a-million opportunity.

Win or lose? Live or die?

No one knew what was going to happen, which created enough of an ''opening'' to take otherwise unthinkable actions.

Here, she could force it through.

She concluded a chance like this wasn’t going to come again.

If she was going to fool that girl.

If she was going to get Mugino Shizuri to betray her, it had to be here.

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner, even when scattered like a shower using the Silicon Burn, could not shoot down Norsitro Chatellenie’s 1.75 million drones.

To put it another way, ''it wouldn’t look strange'' if something unexpected happened here.

The countless wandering self-destruct drones sliced through the air as they charged in.

Now was the time to make up her mind.

Takitsubo and Frenda had both given Kinuhata some advice while they were pursuing the Kitchen Car truck to reach this place.

''“Saying you will ‘deceive’ her may make it sound like something you do while watching on from some safe place, but that won’t work. A safe zone on a deadly battlefield where anything can happen will look suspicious to Mugino.”

''“In the end, the only way to truly trick Mugino is to risk your life. So you can’t be lying to save your life. This is Mugino Shizuri we’re talking about. She’ll notice immediately if you aren’t truly risking your life with the lie.”

In other words.

…A liar wouldn’t do something so dangerous. Someone trying to trick me with a lie would make sure they were safe.

By taking advantage of Mugino’s low opinion of traitors, Kinuhata could hide in her blind spot.

So it had to be here.

It had to be when Norsitro’s drones charged in and detonated at close range. It was something only possible for Kinuhata Saiai who stood outside Mugino’s Meltdowner shield and who Academy City’s #4 could not fully protect.

She did it herself.

She deactivated Offense Armor.

“Gh.”

She felt a scorching heat. From her right flank. First she felt a twisting and tugging sensation on her skin and then her small body was thrown more than two meters straight back.

“…Gah…?”

She rolled a few times and her small body was left trembling.

(Oh…no.)

Had her fear of Mugino made her take the act ''too far''? An iron taste seeped into her mouth. She could feel something throbbing inside her. She felt badly dizzy, perhaps from the blood loss, and she couldn’t tell which way was up as she lay on the ground.

She might really die here.

Takitsubo Rikou ran over, held the wound, dragged her behind cover, and waved her phone in her other hand while calling out to Mugino.

“Mugino, she’s lost a lot of blood. Her breathing is heavy and her pulse is falling. My health management app is giving red zone warnings. Kinuhata won’t last like this.”

“Huh!? …Because she was near me? But how’d she get hurt so bad when she has Offense Armor!?”

It was a valid question.

But…

“She was fighting before you got here. While protecting me. She was more worn out than anyone. If you use you power too much, you run out of stamina, right? That’s what happened here.”

…So that was the scenario they were going with.

If they didn’t push this through while Mugino’s thoughts were still confused by the red blood, they couldn’t avoid her questions about what the three of them were doing at this mysterious training ground behind her back.

So…

“Norsitro Chatellenie. In the end, she planned to kill you and take control of Item as a convenient system. Kinuhata was fighting with everything she had because she didn’t want that. She was fighting for you!”

Frenda sprinkled some kernels of truth in there.

The Information Broker didn’t just gather information – she was an expert in when to play her trump card. If they let her, she would start shouting the truth, but by establishing a different idea in Mugino’s mind first, Mugino wouldn’t listen to what the enemy was saying.

And while fighting back and looking irritated, Mugino Shizuri scratched at her head with a hand.

“~ ~ ~ Frenda!!”

“Not happening. She must have lost around a liter of blood already. The lethal limit is based on body weight and Kinuhata’s the smallest of us, so she has the least wiggle room there. Pliers, wire cutters, screwdrivers, drills – I have a lot of tools on me, but nothing that can heal people. In the end, I think the most I have is disinfectant, bandaids, and bandages?”

“1.5 to 2 liters is the limit even for a large man. Kinuhata is in serious trouble if she doesn’t get a blood transfusion immediately,” stated Takitsubo Rikou.

She never showed any emotion on her face, so she didn’t have to try and put on an act here. The listener would imagine their own emotional state mirrored back to them in her voice.

So the more pressure Mugino felt, the more urgent Takitsubo’s warnings would sound.

They were being pushed back. Item’s leader clicked her tongue.

“Did you call that kid the Information Broker? From the way they move, I’m guessing those guys around her are firefighters.”

“In the end, probably so.”

“That makes them a security team specialized in keeping her alive over defeating her enemies. …They should be prepared for any kind of emergency. Which means they might have transfusion kits for each blood type including Rh positive and negative.”

“Then what should we do, Mugino?”

Since Kinuhata couldn’t talk, Takitsubo organized their information from behind cover.

She showed Mugino the horrific values on the health management app.

“We can’t even withdraw with her like this. Moving Kinuhata in this state will kill her. Fight or run, we need to start by giving her enough blood to save her.”

…The numbers on the health management app were of course fake. The app was called Vital Jamming. It was a joke app that let you adjust some simple sliders to change the readings to show a minor cold, an injury, or even close to death.

''“Look, these are the numbers on your health app.”

''“This shows your current calorie intake and exercise level. If you keep this up, the results will be tragic a month from now. The changes will be noticeable in your figure. Especially in the hips and legs.”

…Takitsubo already had it installed on her phone to make the threats necessary to get Mugino to go jogging.

(Does that mean I’m still super alive enough she needs the app to make me look bad enough? Damn. And here I was getting all worked up thinking I might really die.)

Kinuhata felt regret. And embarrassment.

She was supposed to know this was all meant as a way to keep her alive.

The #4 must have decided Meltdowner alone wasn’t enough. She moved Kinuhata, who was lying collapsed behind some twisted metal with no engine or electronics inside. It may have been used to practice rescuing people from a vehicle after an accident. A moment later, that cover was engulfed in a series of explosive blasts.

Mugino grimaced at the continuous noise and raised her voice.

“If they have transfusion kits, where do you think they would be!?”

“Blood is a liquid, so it gets heavy if you have a lot of it. With A, B, O, and AB with Rh positive and negative for each, carrying around the liters needed to resuscitate people of any blood type would mean fighting with weights strapped to you. I doubt they would do that. But they never know when one of their people will be badly injured. In the end, they won’t keep it too far away.”

Or to put it more simply…

“At the very least, I doubt it’s in these fake buildings out here. If you want to find their transfusion kits, you’ll want to head inside the training ground’s main building!!”

They had an objective.

Of course, they couldn’t actually have Mugino save Kinuhata.

Their goal was for Mugino Shizuri to betray her teammate.

They needed the perfect genius of Academy City’s #4 to fail here.

“My, my. Oh, dear, dear. Hee hee.”

This came from Norsitro Chatellenie a short distance away.

She was here too, so she had of course seen that delightful drama play out.

Mugino was already under the impression that Kinuhata had been injured while fighting for her, so even if the Information Broker accused the other three, it seemed unlikely Mugino would blast them with Meltdowner right away.

As an information expert, she must have picked up on that mood.

So she knew nothing she said would get through to Mugino now that she was “the villain who harmed Mugino’s teammate”.

In her neon green bondage outfit, the girl shrugged and operated her phone.

“Sounds like you have an interesting predicament on your hands, but it looks like sticking to the villain role will be the must fun for me. Speaking of, do you think I’ll just let you through?”

“Tch!!”

One movement of her finger moved the swarm of drones.

Not even Mugino Shizuri could push back the entire swarm of 250 thousand drones with a maximum of 1.75 million.

Several beams sliced through the sky, triggering a few explosions, but that wasn’t enough to bring them all down at once.

“Mugino. Your wall doesn’t have to be sturdy. Even a curtain or net can catch and stop the flying drones.”

“Go to Frenda for little tricks like that!!”

The training ground facility included more than the outside field. Item carried injured Kinuhata down a flight of stairs and entered an underground field meant to simulate a subway station, but that didn’t last even ten seconds.

After a rapid series of explosions, the entire thin ceiling was torn away.

“You can’t get away.” The bondage girl was staring down at them with hands on her hips. “Training grounds like this are designed with wide open spaces underground. They’re fairly flimsy, which makes them easy to blow away. Although that means you won’t be buried alive below dirt, so maybe you should count yourselves lucky?”

They didn’t have time to complain.

The drones were like the downpour of flaming arrows meant to bring down a castle. More and more poured down from above, so Item had no choice but to run down the hallway and climb back to the surface at another exit.

Each individual phenomenon might not be so bad, but they couldn’t seem to regain control of the overall situation.

They couldn’t escape the palm of Norsitro’s hand this way.

“Mugino. In the end, they’re here too!”

“Kh. Kill them to clear a path!!”

Large men, presumably former rescue squad members, emerged from behind vending machines, benches, and other hiding places. They were armed with unique weapons like firefighting axes and rope guns that launched the rope with noncombustible gas.

On top of it all, Norsitro Chatellenie had an unidentified weather control power.

Everyone could tell things were only getting worse.

They were tumbling into the abyss and fast.

They could physically reduce the number of rescue squad members, but the number of drones never seemed to drop. No, Mugino and Frenda were shooting down quite a few of them, but that was like trying to change the weather by throwing stones up at the rain falling from the sky. It was a waste of time.

And if they couldn’t stop somewhere, they couldn’t stop Kinuhata’s bleeding.

They weren’t even supposed to move her right now, so what would happen if they tried to break through the enemy like this?

“Mugino… In the end, we have to give up,” said an astonished Frenda as she scattered mines to slow the enemy down.

…That Frenda could say something like this without it sounding out of place made Kinuhata suspect she was always adjusting her ''emotional distance'' even during ordinary conversations. Because what came next was a suggestion only allowed in the dark side.

“We can’t get a transfusion kit! We don’t even know if there’s one here, so we shouldn’t risk our lives looking for it. I get wanting to save Kinuhata, but you’ll be killed too if you keep this up!! This isn’t just about Kinuhata! If we don’t withdraw now, we’ll all be killed!”

“You’re the leader. So you decide,” added Takitsubo to drive the point home.

Item wouldn’t distribute the responsibility among its members. Stressing that this was Mugino’s decision applied pressure to her. That was a necessary part of setting things up for Mugino herself to betray Kinuhata.

They had no choice. There was no other way.

It didn’t really matter how Mugino phrased it.

But they couldn’t let her claim that they all made the choice together. So all of those psychological loopholes and outs had to be plugged up in advance. Item’s search and information expert showed no mercy here.

“Make a decision, Mugino. Without a choice from our leader, we will all die.”

With that, she preemptively eliminated the option of not making a choice and letting them run out of time.

Now Mugino Shizuri had no excuse.

Since they couldn’t overwhelm Norsitro and acquire a transfusion kit right away, Mugino had only two options: abandon dying Kinuhata and escape or choose nothing and let Kinuhata die when time ran out. Either option would mean Kinuhata’s death, so this was a powerful card to use against Mugino Shizuri who despised betrayal more than anything.

Kinuhata and the others had betrayed her first.

Mugino Shizuri would never forgive a traitor.

So for the three of them to survive, they had to cancel out their betrayal with Mugino’s betrayal.

“Mugino… In the end, I think Kinuhata wants to say something.”

The stage was set.

Takitsubo, supporting her bloody body behind unreliable cover, glanced over into Kinuhata’s eyes.

She understood.

The final emotional push would be most effective…coming from Kinuhata herself.

“Forget…about me.”

Kinuhata forced out the words as she gasped for breath.

This wasn’t an act.

She was cold.

They hadn’t managed to stop the bleeding. She could feel her body temperature dropping.

She hadn’t been killed right away, but she had lost a significant amount of blood. She found she couldn’t speak any louder than this.

“Whether or not there’s a transfusion kit somewhere in the facility…it’s super too late for an injury like this. So please…get out of here. You’re wasting your time. You’ll only get more of you killed. So please…”

An odd feeling filled Kinuhata as she spoke.

She was deceiving Mugino.

Objectively speaking, this was a terrible thing to do.

But she was finding she no longer had to consciously lie to betray Mugino here.

Strangely, she found she was speaking her true feelings.

She didn’t want Mugino to die here.

She didn’t have to lie about that, so she simply placed her current honest feelings in her words.

“I’m thankful… If you hadn’t taken me in, I’d probably still be on ice in the back of that lab. Gh… I was only meant to rot away without every leaving that place, so now I’ll just be returning to the earth. So you don’t have to feel bad about it… So hurry and go.”

(Yeah…)

The words left her almost on their own

And while it happened, a thought came to her.

(If only I wasn’t carrying all this baggage. If only I had super been the kind of person who could say this without needing to sully it like this.)

That could never happen.

The initial assumptions were wrong.

Or maybe this was the final destination of the traitor.

The end result for a selfish dreamer.

The final refuge of a fool who couldn’t bear the weight of reality.

“I was only ever something extra you picked up, right? So you don’t need to bet the fate of Item as a whole on someone disposal like me. Go!! I’ll break their perimeter. I’m going to die anyway, so I might as well go out in a blaze of glory and take a ton of them with me. Cough… That’s a hell of a lot better than dying a meaningless death!! There’s no saving me now, but I’ll super use what time I have left to make Norsitro and her people regret crossing us! So get out of here already!!!”

She drove her point home.

Kinuhata Saiai waited for Mugino to speak.

For her to say, “Fine then. If there’s no other option, we’ll leave Kinuhata here to die.”

For her to admit, “I don’t want to die here, so if you’re going to die anyway, you take care of it.”

Reality wasn’t like the movies. Especially in Academy City’s dark side, a heartless response like that would hardly be a surprise. And because Kinuhata knew that, she bet on it happening. She bet her life and future on it. Bring it on. Because if Mugino didn’t abandon her here, this would end without her receiving the bargaining chip she needed. Then she would be accused of betrayal and reduced to charcoal.

In the distance, a neon green bondage outfit creaked and Norsitro shouted to them in amusement.

“What do you think you can do with that dying body? You can’t even act as a shield against my swarm, so how do you expect to break our perimeter!?”

Something exploded.

The rusty smell grew stronger again.

A sharp fragment must have grazed her because Mugino had a cut on her right cheek.

The drones were only as big as a paper airplane made from a flier, so they could only carry so much explosive. And Frenda’s expert analysis said they weren’t carrying anything special. Each blast was only about as much as a grenade, so the lethal range was about 10 meters.

Even so, a lethal range was a lethal range.

Rapid-firing Meltdowner beams wasn’t enough to stop them all, so Mugino destroyed the base of a nearby fake three-story building to topple it and use the plywood as a shield. She could shoot down the leading drones, but that wouldn’t last forever. And even if she did defend against the sharp fragments, the shockwave still circled around the cover and struck her body.

A single bomb or bullet could kill. Far too easily. That was how it worked on the dark side. A total of 1.75 million? No, she couldn’t let her guard down with even a single drone.

But.

Even so.

“…Takitsubo.”

“What?”

“There’s still a chance, right? If I manage to get inside that building at the cost of my own flesh and blood and acquire a transfusion kit, we can save Kinuhata, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Heh,” laughed Mugino Shizuri.

And she gave her answer.

Item’s leader held her palm straight out and stepped forward. Out from behind cover.

“That’s all I needed to hear.”

…Wait a second.

Why isn’t she betraying me?

“I’m not running.”

Her voice wasn’t particularly loud.

But Mugino Shizuri did speak.

She had to know how bad the situation was for her. She had toppled the fake building to create a shield because she knew she couldn’t shoot down all the drones with Meltdowner.

But a fake building was only a fake. While the drone attacks weren’t designed with penetrative power in mind, this wouldn’t last long. Once the consecutive blasts broke through, it was all over. And Mugino had stepped out from even that much cover.

And yet.

She completely thew out the cold calculations of the dark side.

“I will never abandon a teammate and run.”

A drone exploded.

Close by.

Kinuhata received no new injuries.

Because Mugino Shizuri stood in the way, clenching her teeth. A shard several centimeters across had lodged itself in her shoulder.

This was the borderline between life and death. If the truth came out, it was all over. That was why Kinuhata had put on an act, even if it meant losing more than a liter of blood.

She was of course deceiving her teammate.

But Mugino Shizuri’s heart turned out to be…unexpectedly sturdy?

“Bring it, Information Broker!! I don’t know your name, but you will pay for underestimating Item. Did you think ''the'' Mugino Shizuri would let you get away with doing this to one of my teammates right before my eyes? You’ll be nothing but charcoal once I’m done with you!!!”

Takitsubo fidgeted nervously with her usual lack of expression.

Frenda Seivelun appeared aware how dangerous the situation was. She was frantically trying to work out a course correction from behind cover.

“Wait… In the end, why are you getting all hot-blooded right now when all our lives are on the line!? Don’t you know what Item’s leader is supposed to do!? Hurry up and tell us get out of here, Leader Mugino!!”

“This is my decision to make and I will never betray anyone. I won’t leave Kinuhata hear, turn tail, and run!! It isn’t a matter of pride anymore. All the tools I need to save my teammate’s life are within arm’s reach. If I have to let these blasts tear the flesh from my bones, so be it. I’ve got plenty of excess flesh to offer. So I will get my hands on that transfusion kit!!”

“…”

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner could not shoot down all of the drones even with its scattershot. She could also use her power to defend, but that wasn’t its primary use and it was far from perfect.

More explosions erupted.

She wasn’t critically wounded yet, but she was gradually being worn down.

Academy City’s #4 was.

The next head of the proud Mugino Family was.

All because Kinuhata Saiai had dragged her into this.

Mugino would have had more options here if she were alone. Meltdowner could pierce through any obstacle. She could have escaped outside the former training ground and then sniped Norsitro through the thick wall.

But she couldn’t do that.

Because she couldn’t leave injured and bleeding Kinuhata’s side.

Because she would prefer to accept some disadvantage than abandon a teammate.

Because she wanted the life-saving transfusion kit no matter what.

As fearsome as she was, Mugino Shizuri wasn’t lying. She wasn’t deceiving anyone. She wasn’t betraying anyone. Yet she was being worn down for the sake of a dirty liar.

While roaring that this was better than abandoning her dying teammate and escaping on her own.

“You’re…kidding.”

Kinuhata Saiai was not Mugino Shizuri, so she hadn’t heard what the old butler Mujinayama said.

But he had said that the best way to prevent betrayal was to prepare for it in advance.

And he had said that suspecting your own people was a form of betrayal in and of itself.

Because.

If the person you suspected was not in fact a traitor and was instead a reliable ally who trusted you from the bottom of their heart…then your own suspicion of them would have branded you as a traitor.

Bull’s eye.

“No…”

She had decided to deceive.

There was no way around the fact she only had the one life. So she had decided survival even at the cost of betrayal was the right choice.

But she couldn’t do it anymore.

Something was burned through inside Kinuhata Saiai.

“Are you kidding me!? I super can’t stand it anymorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!!”

===Part 10===

Someone was crying.

They were bawling loudly like a small child.

It was the siren of doom.

Lies? Acting? Deception?

She was past caring about any of that.

Frenda and Takitsubo were watching Kinuhata Saiai from a short distance away.

This was past the point of not knowing how to approach an unmanageable child. Theirs were not the expression a parent would give to their child. The look in their eyes was one of abandonment – of “sigh, now you’ve done it”. They also kept an invisible distance from her so they could stay safely out of the way of what was coming. They chose to trust only the sixth sense they had developed as villains.

The world seemed to rapidly pull away from Kinuhata in all directions.

The weeping girl was left all alone.

If was over for her once Mugino Shizuri discovered the truth. She had known that from the start. But Kinuhata Saiai couldn’t stand it any longer.

“I…”

Her words caught in her throat.

She was aware how self-destructive this was.

Some part of her brain was screaming for her to stop.

But it was too late.

It was game over whether she stopped here or spat out the rest of her words. Mugino Shizuri would never forgive a traitor. Once she was certain of her suspicions, they would not go away on their own.

But that was fine.

She would feel better this way.

She wanted to get it all out before someone could stop her and before she passed out from blood loss.

It would pain her more for this to end unresolved. That she couldn’t bear.

“I lied to you!! I couldn’t abandon that ordinary person who was being forced by the blackmailers to rob the bank, so I saved her knowing she was a criminal who had attacked you! Everything’s gone wrong since… But that’s no excuse. I made my choice and I’ve been lying to you super ever since!!”

Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie gave her an icy look.

Unsurprising really.

The last thing she would want after working so hard to gather up information on a scandal was for the target to self-destructively go public with it. The treasure held by the brown girl in the neon green bondage outfit was now worthless scrap. Of course she wasn’t happy about it.

“It was all my fault!! So that’s enough, Mugino! I don’t need a transfusion kit! Just get out of here. You super don’t need to get hurt here!!!”

There.

She’d said it. She had come clean.

So Kinuhata Saiai managed a somehow twisted smile even as the tears spilled from her eyes.

…If only she’d done this in the first place.

She still didn’t think it had been wrong to act on behalf of the ordinary person being threatened into committing robbery by the blackmailers.

But what about the rest?

Self-preservation, self-preservation, self-preservation, self-preservation! Kinuhata Saiai had been ugly, dirty, and rotten. How could she possibly excuse her actions there?

Had saving the girl being forced to rob a bank really and truly been the same thing as lying to her teammate to save her own skin?

Saving someone was no excuse for betrayal.

If she really had done the right thing, she didn’t need anything else. Instead of worrying about her own life, she should have accepted an honorable death.

All of this was the result of failing to do that.

She had been weak, wretched, and yet greedy. Mugino Shizuri had been injured in her attempt to protect that traitor. She had shed her own blood. And it wasn’t going to end there. At this rate, Mugino, Takitsubo, and Frenda would all die. Item would be finished.

And it would all be Kinuhata Saiai’s fault.

An enemy and a traitor from within were two very different things.

Kinuhata Saiai had been taught an important lesson.

She now knew she had fallen to a position more miserable than death. She was like an insect flipped on its back and unable to right itself.

Even when she had been raised in the back of an unofficial lab, wasting her life away unknown to the world, she had at least still had a human soul.

Even when she had been taken in by Item and been asked to help with their dirty jobs, she had had her soul as a villain.

Kinuhata could tell she was having trouble enunciating. Was it her tongue or her brain? One or the other wasn’t working right after losing so much blood. She didn’t care which. This was far better than having the fear and pain rule her thoughts, preventing her from doing what had to be done.

“I’ll super handle the rest.”

When had her soul been reduced to that of an insect?

She knew the answer.

From the moment she chose to give up on being human.

“I know this is just more selfishness on my part, but I super want to take responsibility for my own actions. You don’t have to bother with any of this, so hurry up and go!!”

And.

Academy City’s #4 monster…listened to it.

It entered her ears.

It soaked into her brain.

Mugino Shizuri now knew what had happened. She had certainty. And she did not forgive traitors. Because she had been raised by the Mugino Family as a born gangster.

To reiterate yet again, Mugino Shizuri did not forgive traitors.

So.

What was the definition of a traitor?

What had Mujinayama said, after his long years of service to the Mugino Family and everything he had seen there?

“Heh. Shut the hell up.”

And.

There was no beam of light.

Even though Kinuhata was ready for it.

Mugino Shizuri placed her palm on the sobbing girl’s head.

Ignoring her own bleeding.

“If you can say all that and you can risk your life to come clean regardless of the consequences, then you’re no traitor.”

Mugino Shizuri’s bloody face bore a small smile.

She was the kind of person who could smile here.

The world had pulled away from Kinuhata in all directions, but she wasn’t alone. Someone had approached her and rubbed her head.

“You’re Item. I will never forgive a traitor, but I always protect my own.”

Kinuhata Saiai couldn’t get any words out.

A moment later, a drone dropped down like lightning and triggered an explosion.

===Part 11===

Reality was heartless.

No matter what emotions had just been exchanged between Mugino Shizuri and Kinuhata Saiai, the silver-haired girl only had to input a simple command on her phone to send 250 thousand drones rushing in to attack. Each of those unmanned weapons was loaded with an explosive and the swarm made a merciless physical attack.

There was an explosion.

But it happened far off in the empty blue sky. Within the dragon of closely-packed drones.

More explosions followed. The chain reaction continued on and on.

The drones attempting to blow up Mugino and Kinuhata broke apart well before reaching them.

“Wha-?”

Norsitro Chatellenie was speechless.

Apparently this was something not even the Information Broker understood.

…Like any aircraft, drones were at risk of breaking apart when pushed too hard. When attempting maneuvers beyond their limits, the combined force of the air resistance and shockwaves would rattle the main wings and cause the aircraft to shake apart. Within Earth’s gravity, you could never forget that it was ''unnatural for anything to leave the surface and fly.

But what had caused this?

The 250 thousand drones were electronically controlled by the parallel processing of 250 thousand CPUs and fully guided by Norsitro’s smartphone. She couldn’t see any reason for them to break apart on their own!

“A maximum of 1.75 million drones? With 250 thousand operated at once? Your swarm control system can break through even if a fair number are shot down by anti-air weapons?”

This came in a casual, singsong voice. And a wicked one.

Mugino Shizuri spoke even while stained red by her own blood.

“But all you’ve done is gather an ass-ton of the same craft, which means they all have the same weakness. I just have to find a single vulnerability and I win. And I had plenty of time to gather information while they were pummeling me. Your trump card was laughably easy to defeat.”

“Oh, is that so? And what exactly are you going to do? Fry all their CPUs with an anti-ship EMP bomb? Or maybe pull an anti-air microwave cannon out of your ass? Fantastical super weapons are great for winning theoretical arguments, but they can’t protect your very real life. Do you have an attack method that can help you in the real world!?”’ shouted Norsitro in her glittering neon green bondage outfit. “You won’t run away? You always protect your own? …Absurd. Why would you ''make that kind of performative claim in front of me''? Did you not look into the legend of the Information Broker? Yes, yes. You have my full attention now. And I won’t rest until all of you are dead!!”

But bloody Mugino gave a snort of laughter.

(Well, she does attack with lightning. I suppose they would be designed to withstand an electric surge.)

That Norsitro would give an actual response to that kind of speculation showed how naive Norsitro was.

When the enemy gave the answer themselves, she had only two options: scoff at the answer for being way off, or frantically try to throw them off because they made a lucky guess.

But if she hadn’t said anything at all, doubt would remain. Whether it was right or wrong, staying quiet had likely been Norsitro’s best option. But she couldn’t help herself. Even though this was like playing concentration and giving up your turn by flipping over cards for your opponent.

“Kh. I have the power to change the weather. The drones can fly through rain or hail without issue!!”

“Sure. ''For unnatural weather you designed yourself'', right?’

Mugino didn’t even glance over behind cover.

Standing out in the open, she pointed her index finger straight up into the blue sky.

“You adjust the drones’ maneuvering based on the weather. There’s an optimal speed for sunny weather, an optimal angle for rain, and so on. When you know it’s coming, you can use your own program there. But with truly unexpected gusts of winds blowing between the buildings, the drones will tilt on their side. And during a sudden downpour, the apparent viscosity of the air changes and the main wings will rattle until they break.”

That was where Mugino had to strike to win.

Meaning…

“It comes down to the ''air’s viscosity''. Or the apparent viscosity anyway.”

She gave the answer.

Saying it here wouldn’t change the result. She had only said it to assert dominance over her opponent in an act of villainous cruelty.

“If I burn the air with Meltdowner, it will reduce the humidity, which dries out the air. But if I instead blast a water tank, the water inside will pour out, greatly increasing the apparent air resistance. It’s simple once you know the trick, but that is enough for the 250 thousand and 1.75 million drones to tear themselves apart. Pretty neat, right?”

“Kh… You mean…that’s what you did?”

It might seem obvious, but that kind of obvious thing could be the most dangerous among all the unusual things found in the supersonic world. Quite a few of Academy City’s prototype fighter craft had ordinary air tear off their main wings because they were unable to withstand their own vibrations.

“The last thing you want is for someone else to alter the weather. That’s why you control it yourself. No matter how unnatural it might look, you needed to alter the environment for all those drones! Even if it meant using some strange power!!”

The maximum of 1.75 million was a certainly a threat, but using the exact same craft for all of them had been a mistake.

Securing multiple different models would have been a challenge when manufacturing, operation, and maintenance were taken into account. The simple financial cost and effort of operation would have been several times greater. But the choice had come back to bite her in combat. The world’s armies would not use a single standard craft just because it was the latest and greatest. Just like Academy City used the Two Wings and Six Wings simultaneously.

A single vulnerability would affect them all.

Throw them off there and the entire swarm would be suddenly destroyed.

The explosions continued. Mugino wasn’t aiming Meltdowner in that direction, but the drones couldn’t approach the former training ground where their targets awaited. They all broke apart on their own and their explosives detonated.

Mugino Shizuri sneered.

She might fight for Academy City or the greater world beyond its walls, but she was neither good nor righteous.

This was the smile of a villain who knew the taste of blood.

“Now, that takes care of those annoying drones buzzing around. Which only leaves your power to deal with.”

===Part 12===

Mugino Shizuri and Norsitro Chatellenie.

Regardless of how many other people were around, this was their battle.

Whoever won would win it all. Whoever lost would lose it all.

“Don’t expect a signal. I’m not flipping a coin or anything.”

“Did you not consider that I might kill you while you said that, fool?”

They both took action immediately.

A thick beam burst from Mugino’s palm.

The neon green bondage girl smiled.

She was still alive and well.

Several of the fake training ground structures had been burned and melted, but that was all.

(Meltdowner missed its mark?)

“No, did she bend it with a current rivaling a bolt of lightning!?”

There was another beam of light.

Something powerful pierced through Mugino Shizuri from head to toe.

A high-voltage current.

In fact, it was a lightning bolt of more than a hundred million volts.

“Kah…ah…”

Mugino’s breath caught, but she managed to stay on her feet, probably because her Meltdowner power controlled electrons. She had touched a torn high-voltage line outside the city without issue yet a shock at the District 3 bus terminal had briefly stopped her heart, suggesting her psychological state influenced the effectiveness of that ability far too much to be a reliable means of defense.

“Mugino, that isn’t an esper power.”

And Takitsubo Rikou made a judgment from behind cover.

This was the natural result of repeatedly using the same trump card in front of that search expert.

“She is controlling 250 thousand drones at once. Each one is the size of a small paper airplane, but you can think of that like fanning the air with a fan 250 thousand times that size. The movements of that swarm can cause a gust of wind in a single direction, a swirling tornado, or even rapidly reduce the air pressure, allowing her to change the weather itself. She can even cause hail and lightning that way.”

“Ha ha!!”

Not at all bothered and even laughing, Norsitro Chatellenie immediately responded.

“Didn’t I tell you!? Oh, sorry. Your leader wasn’t here when I explained that, was she? Anyway, I said keeping them in top condition isn’t easy!! The Superb Starling weather control swarm claims to be a strategic weapon superior to nuclear warheads, so it had damn well better be able to handle this!!!”

Meaning…

“You…”

Academy City’s #4 Level 5, Meltdowner.

Mugino Shizuri, leader of Item and born gangster of the Mugino Family, had been cornered this far by…

“''You’re a Level 0''?”

“Funny, isn’t it?”

She was laughing.

Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie was.

Was that sneer on a face more pained than a lost child’s directed at herself?

“The villain who stands at the summit of Academy City’s evil, devours the city’s ordinary people, and has extended her reach into the world beyond the city…is no more than a Level 0. And I’ve fought back against this entire world because I hate being called that!! Yes, it’s true. I wanted to prove to everyone who’s ever laughed at me that I am not powerless and there is so much I can do!!!”

…She had been certain.

Mugino Shizuri had been absolutely certain that large-scale weather control was Norsitro’s esper power.

So she had thought this would end up as a battle between elites.

But it wasn’t.

This was a lot messier.

“There was a major…incident.”

The enemy was a true Level 0. yet she had challenged Item’s Level 5 and two Level 4s head on and driven them to the brink of death.

“Someone had to die and we all discussed who it should be. Everyone’s eyes gathered on me. Not one of them defended me. …That’s when I made up my mind. I decided I would survive even if it meant killing them all. I decided I would be the one looking down on every last one those shits who tell their pretty lies so they can pretend they’re good people!!”

Was that the trauma that led to her surrounding herself with a rescue squad that provided her with the power to survive rather than the power to kill?

She had been labeled a Level 0.

She had been abandoned by the adults’ systems and the children’s rules.

She had been declared unwanted.

But still she clenched her teeth and reached out her hand in that rotten quagmire.

She wanted power.

She wanted to be strong.

The drone swarm could not approach Mugino. She used the viscosity of the air to bring them down before they could.

But that did not rid the 250 thousand drones of their ability to act like a giant fan to stir up the air, manipulate the air pressure, and alter the weather. Using that did not require directly approaching their target.

This was a harmful technology, but Mugino was willing to recognize the girl’s ability to convert her desire for improvement into actual power.

However.

That was only if she didn’t arrogantly brag about her unprecedented achievement and hadn’t become a monster who endlessly devoured ordinary people’s lives.

(Power corrupts, huh?)

“I can’t respect a villain who reduces herself to a disposable rocket only meant to elevate the things she’s created. What have you become in your constant fear of being killed?”

“?”

A battle between villains begins before the fighting actually starts.

Whichever one was daunted and taken in by the other would fail.

So those who lived in the shadows paid close attention to how they lived their lives even as they turned their back to the sun. They didn’t think twice about breaking ordinary laws and regulations, but they followed their own ironclad rules or Family solidarity and they despised lies, deception, and betrayal in their midst.

And once the 1.75 million drones and their weather control were stripped away, the win condition here was as simple as can be.

She was the Information Broker.

Mugino couldn’t let the bondage girl’s weapon get to her and she had to view her for who she really was.

…The lightning was powerful, but it wasn’t enough to take the life of Academy City’s #4. The rain and hail were powerful enough to engulf Academy City if used systematically, but they couldn’t immobilize Mugino right away.

And no matter how much the winds and tornadoes might bluster, they couldn’t alter Meldowner’s electron beams the way they could a lead bullet or rocket.

Mugino Shizuri grinned.

“So would your one and only effective card be…the lightning? But that’s for defense, not attack. It’s true a current of more than a hundred million volts might be able to interfere with and bend my Meltdowner.”

“…Wait…”

“That’s right. If you’re so smart, you should have realized this ages ago. …If you ''only'' have the one effective card, coming up with a countermeasure is easy.”

Mugino didn’t have time for games.

Kinuhata Saiai must have gone the extra mile in trying to deceive Mugino because it didn’t look like she had used fake blood. That meant her bleeding was real. In that case, Mugino’s goal was to acquire and use a transfusion kit. Norsitro Chatellenie was no more than a point on the way.

So this wouldn’t be a skirmish.

If she was going to kill her, one major attack would do the trick.

Item’s leader announced her intentions.

To make sure it wasn’t too late.

To save the life of her teammate.

These parting words were not just for show.

“You’re – dead – meat.”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item6_Chapter3|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item6_Epilogue}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter2

2026-02-01T01:59:18Z

Massify: /* Part 5 */

==Chapter 2: Southward==

===Part 1===

During the morning, an elderly man in a fancy Italian suit entered a florist in Yokohama Station.

“Hello, hello, miss. I was hoping to make a bouquet from a few seasonal flowers, but I unfortunately don’t know much about these things. Could you tell me what’s in season and give me some recommendations?”

“Umm. It’s fall now, so that would be the golden lace, the gentian, the balsam, and…the chrysanthemum maybe?”

“A white chrysanthemum! Excellent. And what was that in the language of flowers again? Eternal love? A final parting? Well, it doesn’t matter. Now, could you pick out a few different flowers and make a bouquet for me? And, y’know, arrange the colors so it looks nice and pretty.”

Since the young woman in an apron couldn’t recommend the more expensive and famous flowers off the top of her head suggested she was a part-timer and not a permanent employee. She built the bouquet in the laborious way of someone without much practice, but the old man watched her with a smile. More than a man watching his daughter, he looked like a man watching his granddaughter.

“It’s ready.”

“Thank you. Yes, now this is a bouquet that cheers you up at the mere sight of it. I’m glad I chose this shop.”

He paid her a generous tip and said goodbye.

After leaving the florist, two butlers in tuxedos joined him at his sides.

Their destination wasn’t far.

They left the large train station. While bringing the bouquet up to his face to enjoy the scent of the flowers, more people joined him. The number of butlers and maids in black only continued to grow. Before long, the group had reached the double digits.

They arrived at a perfectly ordinary looking multi-tenant building.

However, the first floor was not occupied by a convenience store or a cafe. It was covered by thick metal shutters. All the slots on the building directory next to the glass door were empty. The entire building was a hunk of concrete that gave off a slight sense of rejection that would make the average person think twice before opening the door and stepping in.

One of the butlers opened the glass door and the elderly man stepped in with the bouquet resting on his shoulder.

All the effort taken to make the exterior look inconspicuous was ruined by their presence.

They entered the first floor on the other side of the metal shutter.

The elderly man used a twist of his wrist to twirl the bouquet around from his shoulder.

“Any word on the stolen land deed?”

“We have found it.”

“Account books showing debt, scandalous photos, copied licenses – I don’t care what. Just retrieve anything and everything that could be used to threaten us.”

“The process is already underway.”

“That just leaves the cleanup.”

The place reeked of dirt.

A large panel had been removed from the floor, exposing the foundation of the base isolation system and the dark soil. And something was planted in orderly lines like heads of cabbage.

Except these were heads of humans.

They were still alive. Arranged 4 x 5, there were 20 in all. Each was a large man with the dangerous kind of look that would get most anyone to steer clear if they ran into them on the streets at night. They were buried alive and upright.

“You would be the alumni of a certain university’s unofficial loan shark club, correct? After all the trouble you caused, I was shocked to find it was only a hobby for you.”

He didn’t let them yell in anger.

Now was not the time to make them scream.

Those young men who had howled that life was good were now all sweating bullets and trembling. They didn’t dare speak a word even as rats and earwigs nibbled at their cheeks and earlobes.

“They were all from a country locked in civil war.”

The elderly man holding the bouquet sounded exasperated as he looked down at them from the edge.

“That old man discovered some people who had never done a single thing wrong in their lives but just so happened to belong to an ethnic minority their country decided were all political criminals and had to be purged. They were fortunate enough to escape to Japan, but then their visas expired. Sheltering them in his small workshop was nothing but a risk – it could even have gotten him arrested along with them. But if these people were deported back to their home country, a stamp on their paperwork would mark them for death. He felt sorry for them, so he took them in and hired them. …And then you came along and threatened him and threatened him and threatened him, taking everything he had, and even played at being land sharks to steal away the factory along with the land it sat on. Do I have that right?”

All of the buried men could imagine how this would end.

''They'' probably wouldn’t do anything. They would only close up the panel and leave.

…The men could cry and shout, but in three or four days, they would either have shriveled away unknown to the world, or the mice and bugs would have eaten through all the soft bits to empty out their skulls while they still lived.

And finally…

Against his better judgment, one of the victims broke.

“Wh-what, you think you’re a good person just because you saved some weak old man? Playing at being a hero d-doesn’t change the fact that you’re as much a criminal as we are!!”

“I don’t recall ever referring to myself that way. We are certainly not on the side of good. And we don’t help the weak and suffering for nothing in return.”

“Oh,” said a butler.

Because the bouquet man had snatched a metal box about the side of a tissue box from a bodyguard.

When he rotated it like a butterfly knife, the metal box transformed into a T-shaped submachine gun.

“All I’m trying to do is save the people who do the things I can’t. As penance for being less of a man than them.”

''Bang, ba-bang!!

After a few dry gunshots, the rat-and-earwig-chewed men’s heads all popped in bursts of red.

The young butler by the old man’s side held a hand to his forehead.

But not because he was horrified by the death occurring before his eyes.

“''Master!!'' You should leave this dirty work to us. The Bloodline knew nothing because we made sure of it for their protection!!”

“Sorry, sorry. And you can call me ‘mastermind’ or ‘ringleader’. That’s more fitting for a villain.”

After casually apologizing, the Italian suit man handed the submachine gun back to the butler.

“Hm, a Russian special ops weapon? That’s too fancy, don’t you think? Gangsters like us should be slinging around Chicago Typewriters.”

“In this day and age, no one would even refer to that heavy, bulky antique as a submachine gun.”

The elderly man glanced over at the bouquet.

Then he dropped his gaze to the garden of shattered and burst red.

“I bought it to leave at their grave, but it’s honestly wasted on them.”

“You are most correct. We can use it to decorate one of the mansion’s vases.”

The elderly man departed the multi-tenant building with the butlers and maids seeing him off.

Once they had cleaned everything up, no trace would remain.

“The factory owner said he would do anything, right?”

“Yes. He cried and begged to one of the butlers like me, saying he would do anything for his family, his employees, and those youths.”

“Then tell him he isn’t allowed to live anything but a happy life from now on. Listen, that’s a man who single-handedly surpassed me, head of the Mugino Family. He needs to be proud of his decision. I won’t let him live a miserable life or die a miserable death.”

“I will make sure of it.”

“Finding youths from a country trapped in civil war and sheltering them before anyone else can, huh? I couldn’t have lost more thoroughly. Ah hah hah! To think there was a glorious fool out there who could act before I could.”

They were the Mugino Family.

Theirs was not an organization that would let a mere 10 or 20 corpses bother them.

===Part 2===

There had been an explosion in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

That upped the priority level for the police.

A bomber had escaped from Academy City. The bomber was no longer a “maybe”. They were a real threat. Politics and economics were no longer enough for the police to just sit by and watch because of Academy City’s extraterritoriality.

Sobasaka Michio was raring to go.

He was a police officer.

This was the perfect chance to actually investigate Academy City who claimed to extraterritoriality despite being located right inside Tokyo. If this bomber could be used as a reason to demand an investigation, he might just be able to expose the many suspicions whispered about that city. If he let this opportunity pass him by, he would never get a better one. Plus, he couldn’t let this bomber get away with harming his city.

(So I finally have the foothold I need to go after Academy City.)

He didn’t like that this chance had fallen in his lap instead of being something he had accomplished on his own, but he wasn’t about to let it go because of that.

As a child, Sobasaka Michio had been friends with a boy.

Everyone had called that boy Hiyamugi.

His family name had been one of the most common in the country, but he had always been hanging out with Sobasaka. They had been close friends.

When they had moved from elementary school to middle school, Hiyamugi had gone to Academy City.

He had smiled and said he would grow up to be an esper police officer.

And that the two of them could solve all the hardest cases together.

“…”

He had gone to Academy City and never returned.

Sobasaka didn’t even know if he was alive or dead, but he did know Hiyamugi hadn’t safely “graduated”. He had heard rumors that Hiyamugi had been a clinical trial subject in some kind of strange research experiment, but rumors were only rumors. He hadn’t found any shred of the truth.

Only Sobasaka remained.

Only he had grown up, become a police detective, and been left all alone in the world they had dreamed of.

(I’m not letting them wriggle out of it. And it isn’t just Hiyamugi. I’m going to dig up all of Academy City’s darkest secrets and expose them to the world.)

But the voice coming from his phone was heartless.

He had succumbed to a bad habit of Japanese adults. He immediately wished he hadn’t answered the call.

“Come back immediately, Sobasaka.”

“Why, Chief!? I’m gathering witness reports of a blonde girl who sounds like who we’re looking for. Admittedly, her hat, poncho, and blonde hair stand out so much I’m having trouble getting a likeness drawn, but still! She was apparently going around asking people which train would take her to Yokohama. If she doesn’t know the city, she probably used either the subway or the slow train, so it’s not too late to give pursuit!!”

“And where is that train headed?”

Sobasaka’s voice caught in his throat.

It couldn’t be…

“It crossed the prefectural border and entered Kanagawa. That means it falls under a different department’s jurisdiction. We protect Tokyo, so this is no longer our job.”

“You can’t be serious… That just means we have to request support from their prefectural police.”

“We’re talking about a bomber. This will be a major incident if it gets designated a wide-area case and a joint investigation HQ is established. You can’t act on your own.”

Time froze.

The police were supposed to fight to protect the law, yet he was being hindered by the law.

His new partner watched on nervously as Sobasaka yelled with all his might.

===Part 3===

“Yum, yum☆”

Frenda Seivelun pulled a Chinese steamed bun from the bag she held in front of her chest and chowed down. With a big smile. The super sweet autumn product was apparently a sweet potato steamed bun.

She was in Yokohama, Kanagawa. Specifically, in its Chinatown.

The Mugino Family was definitely involved in this incident, but Frenda wasn’t about to take on an international organization of more than 100 thousand.

Who was calling the shots and how?

She needed concrete facts, not a general idea of a colossal organization. She needed to know who in that black box had attacked her. Once she knew that, this would be a battle against an individual. She didn’t need to battle hundreds of thousands of people.

(If the Mugino Family operates based on profits and losses, they should quickly withdraw after learning that taking me on will only hurt them. And whoever in the Bloodline or Management is behind this, once the losses grow, they’ll be isolated!)

Frenda’s objective was to locate the villain, but now that was about more than just proving her innocence.

She wasn’t going to say that truck driver had been a wholly good person. But as his victim, Frenda was the only one who could grant him forgiveness. The villain had stolen that right from her by killing him. Without even asking first.

Frenda recalled the family photo by the driver’s seat.

Killing an ordinary person came with a price. Whoever this villain was, she was going to make sure they paid up.

She wasn’t going to let this end with some nonsense about the case being in a big, troublesome black box that prevented her from finding out who in the Mugino Family had carried out that attack.

She would identify the individual.

“…”

That’s why she had come to Yokohama.

The Mugino Family mansion was located in this city’s prime real estate

(Now, if I’m really going to take on the Mugino Family, I guess I’ll need a base. In the end, the police and the underground organizations do the same thing. To prevent runaways, they’ll have a network keeping an eye on the hotels and internet cafes, so I’ll need a place their searches won’t pick up on.)

“I guess it’ll have to be a sketchy room someone’s renting out without following any of the legal requirements. Or I could take it a step further.”

From the roadside stalls to the fancy bars and restaurants, the quality and size of establishments varied. A cheap Chinese restaurant not much better than the set meal restaurant must have had its TV on with the volume cranked up because even outside Frenda could hear the famous sunglass-wearing host showering the guest with all sorts of questions.

It was that time already.

At midday, when the sun was directly overhead, a bored thug had decided to skip work and instead give an unhoused man a light beating, so Frenda consumed her second limited-edition autumn product (a potato and butter steamed bun) with a smile while she kicked the thug in the shin hard enough to break the thick bone. Everyone on the dark side placed the line between professional and amateur at a different place, but Frenda saw anyone who intentionally broke the law as being on her side of the line. Really, he should thank her for not breaking his knee.

(First, I keep him from moving very fast by breaking his support leg which he can’t guard with his hands. In the end, this is all stuff Mugino taught me. …And now all of that is going to be directed at me. That’s a scary thought.)

The thug screamed and began crawling away, but Frenda didn’t bother even watching him go.

The unhoused man looked up at her from where he sat on the side of the street.

“Y-you saved me. But will you be alright? You may have gotten yourself into trouble on my behalf.”

“In the end, you can tell I’m not just some volunteer, right?”

“Yeah, I can. Still, you saved me. Thank you. But you’re a weird girl. I’m sure you have your reasons, but not many young girls would want to spend the night in a cardboard box on the roadside.”

===Part 4===

Unlike the police, there was nothing to stop villains. So Item used some bits and pieces of witness information to make their way to Yokohama.

Classical music drifted gently around them.

And this was a live performance, not a recording.

The city of Yokohama had many different faces: the harbor, the Chinatown, the small electronics district full of computer shops, and more.

Mugino, Takitsubo, and Kinuhata were holding a strategy meeting on the top floor of a luxury hotel on the waterfront. That top floor was a five-star French restaurant with reservations booked out two years in advance. Their power inside Academy City didn’t apply out here, but that didn’t matter to them.

This time, they were using a different sort of power.

Mugino didn’t like how conspicuous the fancy restaurant was, but…

“This always happens when I let Mujinayama arrange things… A harbor warehouse or the back of a small general store is good enough for a villain’s hideout if you ask me.”

“Super unlike normal, we can’t kill anyone out here. Well, anyone other than Frenda-san, since she’s our target.”

“And?”

“I think that Mujinayama-san person was being considerate. This way we super won’t get into any trouble with any fellow guests at a cheap hotel where the rooms are only separated by plywood.”

“Mh,” groaned Mugino, falling silent.

Of course, the old butler wasn’t worried about the possibility of Mugino getting hurt. He was worried about her carelessly murdering the reckless fool.

The rich tended to get around in a chauffeured car instead of using the train and would eat in fancy restaurants with dress codes instead of cheap restaurants. This was so they could avoid any trouble with who they considered “undesirables”, such as false molestation claims from the kind of woman they wouldn’t have touched if someone paid them or drunks who they really wished would hurry up and find a police holding cell where they could get something to eat. …Although Mugino personally thought of the truly deviant perverts as being part of the upper classes.

When Kinuhata saw the plate placed in front of her, she recoiled and frowned as she viewed the food from multiple angles. It was three-dimensional. The plate was covered by something more delicate than a coral reef.

“Super how are you supposed to eat this?”

“What, have you never eaten a sandwich before?”

Mugino grabbed hers in a hand and began eating like it was normal.

The crunching sounds suggested the delicate thing was made of fried pasta. All the dishes made with plenty of seafood and autumn truffles had to be weeping.

“The Earl of Sandwich was British, so super what is this doing at a French restaurant? It’s so confusing.”

“Kinuhata, they have pasta and curry rice in France, you know? That isn’t want matters. It just has to taste good.”

It was midday.

Several checkpoints had been set up in Shinjuku, Tokyo, due to the runaway and the bombing, but everything was peaceful once they crossed the prefectural border. However, that wouldn’t last if the police established a joint investigation headquarters.

They didn’t have much time.

What would Frenda Seivelun do next?

Takitsubo, who was still wearing her track suit in the fancy French restaurant, got the discussion started.

“I’m curious why Frenda came to Yokohama.”

“If she wanted to flee the country, Narita or Haneda would be too obvious and she’d get caught right away. So maybe she chose Yokohama so she could board a cargo ship and take a leisurely sea voyage.”

“If she is doing that, then she’ll have to rely on them.”

Takitsubo poked at the sandwich on her plate and licked a lobster-like orange sauce off her finger before clarifying who she meant.

“The Mugino Family.”

“…”

Mugino Shizuri fell silent again.

It was their power that let Item use this five-star restaurant on the top floor of a luxury hotel without a reservation. If Mugino hadn’t used the sommelier to relay a message preventing it, the chef would likely have come to greet them with his tall hat in his hands. They didn’t need that while discussing an illegal job.

Kinuhata hesitantly picked up her sandwich with both hands and spoke up.

“The Mugino Family, huh? They’re a system of violence in the outside world, right? And are they super really your family, Mugino?”

“Well, I will probably end up inheriting the whole damn thing eventually. Even if some of the Bloodline will be upset that grandfather skipped my parent’s generation and chose me.”

“That’s how strong a connection Mugino has to the Family,” said expressionless Takitsubo. “I doubt Frenda would flee to Yokohama when she knows Item is after her. Even if she built up funds and made her preparations in secret, Mugino would know about it all. Even if she is planning to escape by sea, there are plenty of other port towns.”

And if that wasn’t what she planned, Yokohama was a very inconvenient city for escaping from Mugino Shizuri. It was like Frenda had gone out of her way to stick her head into the center of her pursuer’s information network.

In fact…

“This talk of the Mugino Family seems super important to me. It’s like she can’t be friends with them, but she still has business with them. And if that’s the case, this smells really bad to me.”

“…”

===Part 5===

It was another sunny day in Academy City.

Although the direct sunlight was a little too hot for autumn.

There were rumors the weather conditions were artificially altered around major events, but the truth was unclear.

At a District 13 elementary school, the usual schedule had been changed and everyone was out in the schoolyard. The boys and girls were all wearing their short-sleeve gym clothes. Fremea really wished she could wear shorts like the boys, but for some reason the girls here wore athletic bloomers.

This was all because it was September.

The Daihaseisai was coming up. Simply put, it was a massive athletic festival involving all of Academy City’s schools.

This was the time of year for the fast runners to reign supreme.

For first graders, it was such a major event it felt like a war.

“We’ve gotta win 1st place! C’mon, Azumi, show some spirit in today’s practice! In the first place, we need to beat all the other schools and stand on the winner’s podium!”

“Fremea-chan, i-isn’t our school being split up for the Daihaseisai? Like different classes will be on different colored teams?”

Her friend, a glasses girl, tilted her head, but the fired-up 7-year-old in athletic bloomers wasn’t listening.

“If it’s a competition, I won’t hold back even if we are from the same school! You’re my rival too, Azumi!!”

“Ehh? I don’t want to compete against you.”

A female teacher formed a megaphone from her hands and yelled over.

“Okay, everyone, we’ll start today by learning the basics of the penguin flap-flap dance!”

“?”

“It can be hard to follow alone while watching the video, but once you learn the footwork, you won’t trip! So we can save the arm movements for later. Okay, everyone, I’m going to play the example video, so focus on the screen!”

“In the first place, how do they decide who wins this?”

“Everyone gets 1st place.”

===Part 6===

Frenda Seivelun was led to an enormous park.

According to the unhoused man…

“My home is here and the bathroom and sinks are over there. Also, make sure to have two exits in mind at all times just in case. If anything happens, I’ll try to let you escape first, but I can’t guarantee that’ll work.”

“In the end, that’ll be fine.”

She found a brand new home. So this was a Japanese cardboard box house. Unlike a child’s game, it had a lot of small tricks used to ensure there were no gaps.

“Will you want to use this?”

“In the end, what is it?”

“I feel bad this is all I have, but I just thought a young kid like you wouldn’t be able to relax without access to information.”

He held out a palm-sized device with wired earphones. It looked like a music player…but was apparently a handheld radio. It couldn’t record and it apparently could only get AM broadcasts. In Academy City, not even the old men who loved horse racing used these. It had probably been sold at a deep discount at an electronics store, but it still couldn’t have been easy for an unhoused man to get.

She honestly appreciated it.

…Especially when she was being pursued by the police, Academy City, and the Mugino Family.

“Lend me one ear.”

Inside the cardboard box house, the man shared the wired earphones with her and she listened to the staticky radio broadcast. And as she pressed the button to change the frequency…

“It’s finally time! The next three hours will be hosted by a celebrity couple who’ve been together for 8 years now.”

“We have new information on the explosion in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The police have announced that it may have been an attack rather than an accident.”

“If you call within half an hour of this broadcast, we’ll give you an even better price!”

One of the stations had some interesting information (not the sales program selling a down bedding set), but the man was listening as well. Frenda feigned disinterest and continued tuning and finally settled on a music program.

The man looked a little surprised.

“I would have thought you preferred Western music.”

“Isn’t that a little broad of a category to count as a single genre?”

Couldn’t he at least narrow it down to a single country?

They listened to some music by the male idol Hitotsui Hajime for a while, but then someone called the man over. Apparently a friend.

Frenda heard a heavy noise like a concrete block being dragged. Was that a small shichirin grill they had set up on the tile ground? That said, they didn’t seem to be using the fancy bincho-tan charcoal. They apparently used burnable trash for fuel.

Frenda spoke to the second man. While wondering if she would ever be forced to give a name for herself.

“In the end, is that fish?”

“This season, everyone thinks about the salmon and tuna, but that means you can get the smaller fish really cheap. Expiration dates are the bane of a fish seller’s existence.”

“Ugh. Once you start naming fish, the craving for mackerel really sets in…”

“?”

That said, she doubted they had dug raw fish out of the garbage. It would go bad too quick on a summer day like this. These men had no money or insurance, so they actually paid close attention to their health. So had they gone out of their way to buy some to commemorate the beginning of Frenda’s unhoused life? Even though every bit of loose change they had would mean so much more than for the average worker?

“I heard you saved Taku-san’s ass. If you weren’t a kid, I’d’ve brought drinks.”

“In the end, I’m going to end up indebted to you like this.”

“Of course! Taku-san isn’t about to stay indebted to some kid. You’re supposed to let the adults look responsible, okay?”

Frenda smiled and chose to accept their kindness.

She appreciated it. Even if it did make them more conspicuous.

===Part 7===

It wasn’t yet dawn.

“Nhh…”

Frenda sat cross-legged, raised her arms, and stretched her back inside a makeshift tent made from cardboard boxes. Even as she stretched, her hands didn’t reach the ceiling. The cardboard arrangement provided a fair amount of space. That unhoused man was apparently really thankful for what she had done.

Frenda Seivelun was acting as a member of the dark side. She needed to be able to adjust her sleep time and be at her best condition at an hour too early for most people to be awake.

She slipped out of the cardboard box house.

The park had a variety of facilities alongside it, including plenty of unmanned services like drink and bread vending machines, lockers, and a laundry. How was that kind of business handled on public land?

She felt sweaty after sleeping.

“In the end, there’s no one here.”

Frenda peered inside the entrance and found the outside world’s laundromats really did only have a bunch of washing machines lined up. Maybe they thought there wasn’t anything there to steal because the place didn’t even have the bare minimum of security cameras on the ceiling.

It was just past 3AM, so no one else was there.

“Okay.”

Fortunately, she still had some of her emergency cash. Laundry? That was a matter of life-or-death for a girl! (Really.) Frenda stripped off her only change of clothes and tossed each article into the washer. She didn’t even need her underwear right now. After she pressed the button to get the washer spinning, she frowned. She had chosen the more expensive express mode, but the timer said it would be 60 minutes until the washer was done.

(That’s not good… In the end, I won’t even have any underwear until this is done.)

The way she stood naked below the bright fluorescent light and stared blankly at her underwear spinning round and round may have had something to do with only just having woke up.

After a bit, she had a great idea.

She was already naked and there was no sense in wasting time, so she could take a bath while she waited.

During the day, the unhoused men had told her how to make 40-degree bathwater. After heating water up to 100 degrees in a pot using a portable stove, she poured that into a metal bucket and added cold water according to the ratio they had told her. The outside world’s lack of required fire alarms was a wonderful thing.

(Yeah, that’s it… In the end, I need a bath to really wake me up.)

She used a wet towel to wash her body, starting with her right upper arm. She left her underarms and neck for last.

For her head, she had to use up a whole bucket’s worth – 10 liters – of water. She used a single-use shampoo bottle meant for camping. You could get anything at a discount store.

(In the end, doesn’t the average bathtub take 200-300 liters to fill? I’m conserving a ton of water this way.)

And as her mind started to spin up, her capacity for shame slowly recovered.

…

Wait.

What do you mean I have to spend 60 minutes naked?

The girl’s face silently flushed deep red.

“Huh? Wait. In the end, huh???”

Even if I am still drowsy, why did I choose to act like I’m still in one of the luxury apartments we use for hideouts? I’m outside!! And I’m a young girl with perfect skin. Am I attempting an entirely pointless test of courage where I strip naked and get on an empty elevator late at night where I won’t have anywhere to run!?

(Faster, faster, faster, finish faster. In the end, fasterrrr!!)

Each minute and second seemed to drag on.

Finally, the spinning washing machine made a different sound. Now it sounded like a giant hair dryer? It must have entered its drying mode.

Was she going to make it?

No, her sharp survival instincts developed on the dark side were setting off warning signals.

It was faint, but she could hear footsteps.

And the gap between the sounds was wide, suggesting these were the long strides on an adult man.

(Wait, wait, wait, wait!?)

She heard a shrill beep.

The washing and drying were finally complete.

Frenda scrambled to get the washer open and pull out her clothes.

Her bra slipped from her hand and fell to the floor, but she ignored that for now.

As long as she got her miniskirt dress on, she could get through this. That was a simple action she did every single day of her life.

“Ugh!? M-my head and arms…why do they keep catching!?”

Was that because her maiden skin was still damp?

And the more she panicked, the less she was capable of getting her arms through the sleeves. Her head was caught inside the dress. Which of the three holes was she meant to put her hands through? The panic was really setting in now! How could she have gotten lost in her favorite miniskirt dress? She felt like a kitten with its head caught in a tissue box!

And the unhoused man who she had (calculatingly) rescued yesterday poked his head in the entrance.

Looking puzzled.

“Oh, what are you doing up this early?”

“Eek!? Ah ha ha☆ In the end, it’s nothing. Whew, barely made it…”

“?”

At the very, very last second, she draped just the thin poncho over herself, grabbed the other clothing in her hands and held it in front of herself to cover everything. Still blushing bright (and looking something like a teru teru bouzu or like her sister when changing into her school swimsuit), Frenda tried to laugh it off. Even if she had given up on putting on her miniskirt dress which kept catching on her wet skin and even if her striped panties were caught around her right ankle.

===Part 8===

The waterfront.

At 4:30 in the morning, the sea had a blade-like chill to it. Maybe because it was a mixture of the deadly night sea and the summer sea that made people change into swimsuits.

When really attacking someone under the cover of darkness, you would avoid the middle of the night.

It was best to attack at a time linked to biological functions, like dawn when people’s sleepiness was at its maximum or around mealtime.

Frenda could not walk straight to her destination.

There were surveillance cameras everywhere long before reaching that destination. For some reason, the home security cameras were pointed at the road, not at their front door or garage door. Since those weren’t public security cameras, that was classified as setting up a hidden camera. Frenda slipped past more and more of the defense network that was layered like the rings on a stump.

When it came to pure technology, Frenda’s life in Academy City gave her the upper hand.

After easily clearing that obstacle, she climbed to an emergency stairs landing attached to a nearby multi-tenant building wall.

She observed the building she was interested in from the safety of a blind spot in the cameras.

The Mugino Family.

That was their mansion. Of course, it was technically owned by a shell company.

“Nhh…”

Frenda placed her hands on the metal pole vertically connecting levels of the emergency stairs.

She tangled her legs around it and squeezed with the back of her knees to spin around it. The mansion showed no sign of noticing her upside-down pole dancing, confirming this really was a blind spot.

“Oops.”

Holding her hat in place with a hand, she continued observing while upside down.

That prime coastal real estate had to cost more per square centimeter than platinum, but the front yard contained inside a tall fence looked large enough for an official soccer match. The mansion actually looked odd to a foreigner like Frenda. As a product of the Meiji and Taisho eras, its design was a mixture of Japanese and Western. It didn’t even obey the standard of symmetry and it was split into several buildings which were linked by walkways, creating something like a giant maze.

But that aside, there was something wrong with someone’s house being bigger than a school.

It was three floors tall…or four, or maybe even more? The heights of the different rooms must have differed because she had trouble working out the number of floors by counting the windows.

(Ugh, isn’t the waterfront full of reclaimed land? In the end, keeping a mansion this old would mean constantly refusing to cooperate with national-level urban development projects.)

And that may even go beyond the one country. Why had that house alone been spared the bombings during the war? That showed tremendous power, but it was even scarier that no one ever talked about it.

Yokohama had been as involved in opening up the country as Hakodate and Kobe. A Western mansion brimming with foreignness wasn’t all that out of place here, but it still felt wrong for the big boss of an illegal criminal organization to be living out in the open here. They could brazenly break the law without getting arrested. They didn’t run or hide. Because they didn’t need to. It really emphasized their power as a criminal organization.

The patrolling guards in black were well trained.

It was 4:30 in the morning.

Nothing would have happened yesterday or the day before that, yet they didn’t even yawn during this early hour.

(If I charged in through the front gate, I’d end up riddled with bullets. And climbing over isn’t a great idea either. But with the entrance that strictly guarded, the people who go in and out will have invented a secret back entrance to bypass the annoying process.)

“There it is. They’re hiding it with a green shrubbery, but there’s a square hole open in the thick wall.”

But why would the mansion’s troops want to leave and return on their own like that? Was there a supermarket or discount store nearby?

It looked like Frenda wouldn’t have to traverse the smelly sewers to get in.

And now it was time to act.

Flipping upright from her upside-down pole dancing, she set her feet on the emergency stairs landing and silently but swiftly descended to the ground.

She followed a route that avoided the surveillance cameras to approach the Mugino Family’s tall wall, parted the green shrubbery, and slipped through the square hole.

It didn’t matter how many guards they had posted when she could use a blind spot like this.

She was finally inside.

And she sensed a gaze.

Like a sharp pressure.

This was still the large front yard. Frenda hadn’t even set foot inside the maze-like mansion.

This person hadn’t been here when she investigated just a bit ago.

Had a guard just so happened to walk by, or had they predicted where Frenda would be spy on them from and hidden in a blind spot?

“In the end, did you lure me in?”

“This trap would only work on a pro. You can pat yourself on the back for that, Frenda Seivelun.”

Frenda found herself facing a maid in a long skirt.

But that long skirt had a large slit on either side. And it looked unnaturally heavy. The maid reached inside one slit and pulled out a wine bottle full of gasoline, detergent, etc. And the empty bottle used for this was from one of the finest French wines.

“Does that mean, um, in the end…”

“If I am being honest, I do not think pole dancing in a miniskirt is the best idea. Let’s just say you showed your stripes with that one.”

She had seen it all.

And being told that directly and with such seriousness was really awkward.

The maid began to move. She used the kind of old match that could be struck on the sole of a boot to light the English-language newspaper shoved into the mouth of the Molotov cocktail.

Was her weapon so powerful she couldn’t actually fight inside the mansion?

Frenda glared back at the busty maid who looked to be about the age of a high school upperclassman and smiled a little.

“I see the Mugino Family has Western tastes in all things. Is a Molotov cocktail maid their idea of hot?”

A Molotov cocktail was fire plus a flammable substance.

And this maid had been waiting here after predicting what Frenda would do.

Frenda noticed an electronic device that didn’t fit the classic maid look.

“In the end, is that a music player?”

“The Chinese ones are nice. They’re cheap and you can easily buy them in bulk. I’m not interested in sound quality or ease of use. The best part is how easy they are to dismantle and repurpose.”

It sounded like this was an explosives expert on the Mugino Family payroll.

That meant she was the one who had used the pressures of that truck driver’s personal life to lure him onto the path of evil and then killed him with a remote-controlled hopping bomb once he became an inconvenience.

The air electrified.

Frenda Seivelun spat out a growling voice.

“You piece of shit. In the end, the title of bomber is too good for you.”

“Writhe in pain and carbonize, villain. This sticky flame cannot be put out by a fire extinguisher.”

This left Frenda with only one option.

The fire on the English-language newspaper vanished.

“Wha-!?”

The maid’s expression changed.

There were several methods of making Molotov cocktails, but those that used fire for ignition were not a threat when thrown if that fire had gone out.

And every part of the world had long had methods of extinguishing candles from a distance. It was a standard illusionist’s trick and a classic way for bogus religions to fake miracles.

Frenda had to make the most of her opponent’s brief stiffening in shock.

And so she had already begun a sharp run.

Forward.

Toward the maid.

“Was it an issue of moisture or humidity? Or did I cut off the oxygen supply with a colorless gas? In the end, did you really think I was going to reveal the trick to you, you spoiled thing? Bomb experts are also experts at securing a safe location and time to act on the battlefield!!”

“Kh.”

“You looked into my identity before laying this trap for me, right? Ha ha. Are you just stupid? In the end, challenging me in my own field is suicide!”

Frenda’s shout was immediately followed by an explosion.

But Frenda hadn’t done this.

It was something else.

Had that expert bomber been caught unawares in her own field?

Her eyes widened in surprise as she just barely managed to jump outside the lethal range.

To be fair, she couldn’t be blamed for not expecting this.

This wasn’t a hidden bomb, a grenade, a shoulder-fired rocket, or any other toy used by guerrillas and criminal organizations. It had sliced through the dark sky, slipped through the valley between skyscrapers, and flown accurately toward her.

In other words…

“A cruise missile? In the end, did they attack me from the ocean!?”

===Part 9===

She felt the tremor while taking a hot shower.

Mugino Shizuri left the bathroom which was so large it was actually kind of annoying to use and wrapped herself in a white bed sheet without drying her hair. Then she moved in front of the window made by covering an entire wall with thick glass.

“They’re making a scene again…”

She muttered irritably to herself while looking down from the suite of a luxury hotel with connections to an illicit organization and viewed the commotion in the world below.

That wasn’t Frenda.

…The blonde girl hadn’t seen the launch point and imagined it was an old-style submarine, but that wasn’t accurate. That was an ALCM. In other words, it had been released by a 50m strategic bomber and launched toward a point on the ground. With deadly precision.

It had a range of 2500km. More than flying across Chiba to arrive from the Pacific Ocean, this tactical weapon could hit its target when launched from Hokkaido or Okinawa.

Only the Mugino Family could pull off that kind of absurdity.

Takitsubo silently approached from behind Mugino and tilted her head while drying her hair with a hairdryer.

“That wasn’t Frenda, right? Can the Mugino Family really get away with that?”

“They’re threatening every last one of the major communications and security companies, so there won’t be digital records from security cameras or anything else. Even if a million people saw it, it’ll be written off as ‘the vague accounts of panicked witnesses’. A good lawyer can use the term ‘mass hysteria’ to discredit it all. Without any material evidence like video footage, it’s easy to weasel out of these things. Just get rid of all the security camera footage that could make decent evidence and all that’s left are grainy phone videos that could easily have been faked.”

But the Mugino Family’s reaction here did bother Mugino.

They could get away with this in Yokohama. But only so many times. How many trump cards built up over many long years had they used up here?

A reaction of this level made it look like ''they knew in advance just how much of a threat Frenda Seivelun was.''

(Is this just a case of Frenda attacking them, or has the Mugino Family done something bad enough to warrant this kind of overreaction?)

“So does this mean Frenda really did come to Yokohama for the Mugino Family?” asked Takitsubo.

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”

===Part 10===

“Volcano to Typhoon. Don’t worry about aiming too carefully – just keep on bombing. As long as you cut off her escape, I can finish her off with a Molotov cocktail!”

“Damn!!”

Frenda bristled when she heard the Molotov cocktail maid speaking to someone somewhere.

That cruise missile wouldn’t be the last.

If you had an effective means of attack, you could just keep on repeating it. As big as the grounds were, they were still shooting missiles into their own territory, so their aim had to be accurate.

A second and more were coming.

But the aerodynamic tactical weapons did not blast Frenda to pieces.

“But in the end, are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Are you sure you have time left to chat?”

“Oh, I’m sure. Because you’re the one about to be blown up by a Mugino brand missile.”

“?”

“You wouldn’t be firing on a map coordinate when your target is a person who can move around. That means the terminal guidance must use something else to track me, but it can’t be a laser or GPS. Is it the Molotov cocktail? An unhealthy gasoline-based cocktail wouldn’t produce a smoke quite so black.”

“You’ve already figured it out?”

“Naphthalene. Marking a bombing target with a smoke bomb is as standard as it gets, but I bet you got a little creative and didn’t just use the color. Is it tracking traces of a chemical compound? In other words, using taste or smell? But are you sure that’s a good idea? In the end, naphthalene isn’t just used to make black smoke. ''It’s a common chemical compound used to make insecticides and plastics''.”

“Tch!!”

“I’m from Academy City’s dark side. You really think I’m going to be fooled by ''a magic trick'' based on scientific knowledge!? Hwa ha ha. I can control the direction of the wind. You might think you’re secretly producing an invisible chemical compound, but in the end, you’re the one coated in it, you fool!!”

Something exploded.

As if lightning had struck nearby.

A large tree in the front yard split down the middle and burst into flames as each half fell in opposite directions.

It hadn’t directly hit Frenda or the Molotov cocktail maid, but this still proved that the program-guided missile had missed its target.

It could hit either of them next time.

Frenda took action before the maid could recover from her fear of that.

Of course, surviving a few rounds of this wasn’t enough to relax.

More cruise missiles would be coming. If she didn’t escape to safety, she would be slaughtered.

Which meant…

(In the end, that’s enough of getting right up in that dangerous maid’s face to punish her! I need to get inside the mansion ASAP!! They won’t want to blow up their own house!!)

“Ooh, what have we here?☆”

Frenda voiced her joy as she grabbed a 9mm handgun. In the chaos of the exploding cruise missiles, one of the Mugino Family’s guards must have dropped it.

She heard the rumbling of an engine.

(That’s a fancy V12, but the engine is roaring at having to carry around the thick and heavy bulletproof plating. No ordinary car sounds like that. In the end, this is that villain’s car I heard about in Chinatown during the day!!)

Maybe it was the psychological idea of the cocktail party effect where people only picked up on the voices they were interested in, but a dark side villain knew how to hear discussions of many different things while walking through peaceful crowds.

Some people were hired with a “quantity over quality” mindset to provide the numbers needed for a job, legal or not.

In other words, the mercenaries who would also hand out fliers or work as movers.

“!”

Frenda aimed the handgun toward the open front gate instead of toward the Mugino Family mansion.

She began firing at the black bulletproof car that belonged to another criminal organization and just so happened to be driving nearby.

No matter who pulled the trigger, this was a Mugino Family gun.

The wicked blonde girl grinned before tossing the gun aside.

“Wah hah hah. Enjoy your gang war☆”

“Oh, damn, get back here!!”

The Molotov cocktail maid paled and frantically shouted at Frenda, but she ducked down when gunfire erupted from a different direction. The shot bulletproof car was returning fire. And at full-auto right off the bat.

A firefight had broken out.

So that wasn’t just an Academy City thing. Damn the Mugino Family.

(Wow. Are they going to claim that’s just a small T-shaped submachine gun? Stock, dot sight, long barrel, and fore grip. With all those modifications, it’s barely any different from an assault rifle. They’ve even modified the mechanism so it can fire 5.56mm rifle rounds.)

Frenda had heard tricks like that were used to skirt the law in the original gun culture of America. Why you would bother in Japan where owning even a single bullet was forbidden, she had no idea.

The rival organization was using their bulletproof car as a shield while firing what looked like an Italian submachine gun. The manufacturer was famous for their handguns, but not many people knew they also made submachine guns.

Frenda used the breakdown of the usual guard system to move from the spacious front yard to the front entrance of the maze-like mansion.

A gunshot burst behind her.

“Kh.”

Running scared, Frenda checked behind her.

While a gun was a projectile weapon, a young butler had rushed out from the front gate and jumped over the barricade to reach the enemy group. He was part of the Management. With even more gunfire, the silhouettes of the enemy group were torn apart.

With that 360-degree barrage, a stray bullet could fly Frenda’s way at any time.

(In the end, what was that? Did he have two shotguns connected by a chain like a nunchaku!? Th-that’s crazy, but scary!! And he took them all out himself!)

An engine roared.

Was that a lance-wielding knight? No.

Another butler rode an enormous motorcycle while wielding an American prototype 12.7mm heavy machinegun that suppressed 60% more recoil than the antiques used nearly a century ago. He was operating the large motorcycle with just the one arm, so he may have swapped the engine out for an automatic.

The caliber was .50.

And this was machinegun .50 caliber, not handgun .50 caliber. The amount of powder was completely different, so firing that thing from the surface would be enough to take down the average attack helicopter.

“Took you long enough, partner! Hah hah! Now, let’s see who can get more kills, Bakyaku!!”

“Ougigumo. Killing is not a game.”

The storm of close-range shotgun fire was joined by 12.7mm hunks of lead capable of tearing through police armored trucks. At this point, the black bulletproof car provided no protection.

One problem with criminal organizations was their lack of any kind of equipment standards like the police or military would have. So it wasn’t unusual to see these suicidal mutations in how they used guns or bombs.

(Apparently the people who survive on the front lines end up developing in weird directions outside of Academy City too, dammit. I really hope I can avoid taking any of them on directly.)

The enemy’s bullets were bad enough on their own, but friendly fire only made it worse. So while the guard system had broken down, Frenda rushed through the wide-open front door to the mansion.

(That won’t last long since they have cruise missiles. In the end, that rival organization will be defeated. I need to finish my ‘research trip’ before that happens.)

“Oops.”

This wasn’t over just because Frenda was inside the building. She heard footsteps.

She ducked behind a suit of Western armor on display in the hall.

She held her breath.

A young butler and maid passed by without noticing her, rushing outside.

“Dammit, Hanagai. She just had to fire those ALCMs. We were saving those. She had better have gotten the Bloodline’s permission.”

“Keeping them around just wastes money on maintenance, so isn’t it best to shoot them when we have the chance?”

(So the Family isn’t a monolith. Does that mean there’s a group that wants to frame me and a group that isn’t interested in me? In the end, I’d hate to take out people who aren’t with the villain and only make more of them hate me.)

Also, apparently that maid outside was named Hanagai. Frenda found Japanese names hard to figure out since they weren’t taken from past kings or saints, but that was probably a family name. She figured it wouldn’t hurt to remember that.

The mansion was split into multiple buildings with walkways connecting them. The place wasn’t even symmetric, so she wouldn’t be surprised to find unnatural stairways and passageways inside. Now, where would the villain hidden among the Mugino Family Bloodline be hiding their secrets?

They wouldn’t want to keep them too far away, but they wouldn’t want to be seen with them either.

They wouldn’t just be worried about outside thieves. They would want to keep the rest of the Family from knowing either.

“Hm.”

(A heavy vault, maybe?)

Frenda chose to rely on her dark side nose here.

A complex and heavy vault wouldn’t be built on the upper floors. Needless to say, it would weigh more than a large truck and break through the floor. That suggested a basement, but they wouldn’t be able to break through the supports and foundation of that giant mansion to dig into the ground wherever they wanted. The entire mansion would collapse if they did.

The location of the electric, gas, and water lines was an issue and all the strange additions had shifted the building’s center of gravity a fair bit.

Given the conditions at play, there were only so many places a giant vault could be located.

Where would she need to place the bombs to bring the structure down? Frenda only had to consider the opposite of that. An expert bomber’s nose could quickly work out the usable locations.

She moved aside a bookcase in a 1st floor study and descended the stairs hidden behind it.

“Found it.”

She discovered a thick door like at a bank vault, but she easily opened it by slowly operating a special drill to open a hole and dissolving the 12 tungsten rods inside using an acid. Buying the industrial version would be pricey, but you could bring the price way down by modifying discount store products. By combining the large motor taken from a juicer with a dial regulator, you could manage a lot just by controlling the rotation rate. Then you only had to modify the head that would be pressed against the steel. The acid? That was an ingredient for a common explosive. Any expert bomber could make it out of everyday household items.

Frenda found a space larger than a school classroom.

Art, gold bars, jewels, weapons, and more. But Frenda wasn’t interested in any of that.

She wanted documents.

Some further locked cabinets were lined up on one side of the vault. She knew the Mugino Family Bloodline had a few dozen members. Was this a locker for each of them?

The locks were like toys compared to the one on the vault door, but Frenda noticed something else.

Her bomber’s nose twitched.

“Acid? In the end, will they dissolve the documents inside if you force the lock?”

With a sigh, Frenda pulled out a cheap screwdriver.

This would be a pain, but she could neutralize it by dismantling it like she was disarming a bomb. The acid was stored in a single tank and distributed to each safe through skinny pipes, so she only had to remove the tank.

“Hm, hm, hmm☆”

She couldn’t tell which cabinet was the one she wanted, so she used leverage to break open each locked door in turn and pulled out the documents inside.

A land deed, a list of names for something, photos of what looked like two people having a secret meeting, a flash drive… She found plenty of sketchy stuff, but she wasn’t interested in any of it.

“Is this it?”

Frenda Seivelun.

She found a document with her own name on it.

(This isn’t a standard format… And in the end, this doesn’t look like a plain report. The text uses some emotional manipulation tricks.)

There were techniques for that.

What might look at first like a colorful bar graph would use warm reds or yellows to color whichever bar they wanted to look larger or a weak point the writer wanted to avoid questions on would be written in a single long paragraph in small text. Neither of those was an actual lie, so they could claim any who mistook its meaning had only themselves to blame.

They would deceive not just their enemies but, if necessary, their allies too. They would feel no shame over it, even under circumstances so serious they would influence their subordinates’ and allies’ lives or futures.

The unseen villain’s personality was visible on the page.

(In the end, this looks like a draft of a project plan meant to make their many accomplices think this is a winnable fight. It’s a good thing this is the version containing the raw data before it was embellished.)

''If we stand idly by, we will lose our chance.

''We must actively change the Family’s line of succession ourselves.

''Mugino Shizuri’s Item provides a few different options, but we will be using Level 0 Frenda Seivelun.

''I have no intention of dealing with one of those strange Academy City esper powers. In that sense, the bomber girl will be the easiest to predict.

''The Mugino Family is active in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and Yokohama, Kanagawa.

''We must not kill that Academy City bomber. It is crucial that she acts of her own volition and disturbs our business.

''That way we can hold the position of “victim”.

''That will help us force Mugino Shizuri to take responsibility and drop her down the line or succession.

As a Level 0, the bomber will be easy to deal with. If we do lose control of her, we can ignore the casualties and use overwhelming numbers to kill her.

That warning at the end of the document made Frenda smile bitterly.

True enough.

But they weren’t aware of just how hard it was for a Level 0 to survive on the dark side where no one played fair and strange esper powers abounded. Nor were they aware of just how much creativity Frenda had displayed to accomplish that.

She wasn’t going to complain about them underestimating her.

That was far better than if they had an accurate grasp of the threat.

(But this is suicide. In the end, what is the Mugino Family hoping to accomplish by picking a fight with Academy City? Oh, here’s another document.)

''The Mugino Family always weighs the pros and the cons.

''In a conflict over succession, obvious accomplishments and contributions will be necessary.

''We will reach for Academy City.

''An all-out war between the Mugino Family and Academy City would be a crisis for us, but Academy City is still a business. Specifically, a business involving children and their parents.

''The children may be safe within the city’s walls, but the parents scattered across the country are a different matter.

''We can threaten ordinary people into acting as disposable pawns who will attack those parents while we remain perfectly safe ourselves. As their fear and dissatisfaction grows, the parents will cut their ties to Academy City. And then the city’s education business will collapse.

''Or we can merely threaten to do this.

''If we can successfully threaten Academy City, we can gain access to all sorts of cutting-edge technology related to esper development. This would in turn bring endless glory to the Mugino Family.

''A bloodless victory would be ideal, but we will make demonstrations if we must.

''We already have a list of “customers” who have repeatedly fallen for false billing and bank transfer scams. By cutting them off from reliable information and pushing them to the brink, we will be able to remotely control them.

''We only need to select one of these disposable assassins.

''I leave this task with Hanagai.

''The item has already been delivered.

''By using a motorcycle courier or something to deliver the imitation bomb to the disposable pawn, we can set up Frenda Seivelun as the culprit and eliminate Shizuri through joint responsibility.

“…”

That wasn’t good.

Frenda’s dark side intuition was ringing the alarm bell.

Having all the information to yourself did not always put you in a superior position.

“Attacking Academy City and dropping Mugino down the line of succession? It’s true you could accomplish both by framing super-cute Frenda-chan, but in the end, does this mean the Mugino Family has a traitor who doesn’t like the current state of their succession race?”

This was an extremely high-risk, high-return plan for the villain.

Knowing about this was reason enough to be killed.

(But I might be able to convince Mugino using this. And breaking free of having Item after me is enough for now!)

She would of course take the original documents with her, but that didn’t feel like enough. Just to be safe, she snapped photos of each page with her phone.

With that simple work complete, Frenda stuffed the documents in her pocket and dashed from the underground vault to the front hall.

“My, my.”

She heard a voice. The graceful voice of a mature adult woman. By the time Frenda realized the danger, she had already emerged and didn’t have time to react. There was no turning back.

“If you had only continue scampering about in the streets and let the police catch you, Academy City would have sent out an assassin to silence you for us. I never imagined you would rush right into the Mugino Family mansion on your own.”

(You don’t sound too concerned about it!! In the end, did they manage to outmaneuver me!?)

She was an attractive woman. Frenda couldn’t say how many anti-aging techniques she was using, but she had the appearance of a woman aged 30 or a little younger. But her perfect beauty seemed thoroughly artificial. This violent queen had her long chestnut hair rolled and wore a storybook dress. Her slender hand toyed with a long, skinny kiseru.

“In the end, I can see the family resemblance. I’d still be surprised to find you’re Mugino’s mom, though.”

“That would be my younger sister. Really, if Eika had only kept her daughter under control, none of this would have happened.”

So this woman and Mugino Shizuri were aunt and niece?

The Mugino Family.

The term “family” there meant something entirely different from the standard nuclear family in Japan. With a criminal organization bound by blood, Frenda couldn’t even begin to speculate on how convoluted their family tree was.

Then an old man in a tuxedo moved forward to cover the lady.

“Sakuya-sama, please stay behind me.”

Mugino Sakuya.

That was the name on the cabinet containing the documents.

Then there was this old butler wearing an old-fashioned tuxedo and monocle.

“Mujinayama. Since Academy City seems incapable of cleaning up their mess, we must play the card of violence ourselves. You can handle the rest.”

“I am a sniper. Close quarters combat is outside my field of expertise.”

“…”

A cold sweat soaked the blonde girl’s back.

Frenda was a bomber, but she could manage other forms of combat.

But that was how she could tell that Mujinayama was bad news. Just standing here in front of him was enough to know she had to avoid fighting him head on.

“Thus, I am not confident I can kill you without inflicting pain and fear upon you. So please forgive me if you do suffer.”

(There’s no way I’m fighting this guy! Is there any other way out!?)

A thick beam flew in.

The wall was destroyed from the outside. Not by breaking or crumbling, but by melting.

Academy City’s #4, Meltdowner.

Flanked by a girl on either side, the girl carrying Mugino Family blood in her veins stepped out onto the front line.

“What do you think you’re doing, old hag?”

That one question changed the mood.

All attention was now on her.

This girl was the reason why Mugino Sakuya had so cautiously built up her plan in the shadows.

And everything in her behavior pointed to her, Mugino Shizuri, being the true heir, no matter how many other members of the Bloodline there were.

Mugino glanced over at the tuxedo and monocle man standing next to Sakuya.

“Mujinayama…”

“I have my reasons. I need not justify siding with Sakuya-sama at this time.”

That was all.

Even her fellow Item members of Takitsubo and Kinuhata may not have caught how much emotion was shared in that short exchange.

To say nothing of the filthy traitor among them.

Mugino Shizuri stared at the violent queen who held the long, skinny kiseru.

And she spoke.

“My grandfather seems lively enough to keep going for another hundred years. Starting a succession war now will just wear you down. And it’s your troops who will die, not you.”

“Oh? Are you sure about that? You never do know what surprises life has in store.”

“In other words, you already know the answer. You know exactly when that old man ''will unnaturally kick the bucket.''.”

A thin smile was Sakuya’s only response.

She shrugged off the outrageous accusation.

This was a coup by Mugino Sakuya. It was a civil war in which she made a calculated threat on the current head’s life, disgraced the heir who would follow him, and placed herself at the top of that violent organization of more than 100 thousand.

Of course, this was not enough to prove her murderous intentions.

Frenda knew the gist of the plan, but she hadn’t found any documents planning the family head’s death. In a world where deception was the norm, definitive proof was a must, but she didn’t have any.

And because Sakuya knew all the answers herself, she was willing to turn over the cards that couldn’t pin her down.

“Now, the question is: what am I doing? You can’t prove anything. Even if you go to the head, he won’t listen if all you have is suspicion. But this is a very inconvenient truth for you. So, Shizuri. You have no way of fighting back. What do you plan to do now that you know the truth but are short on evidence?”

“…”

“Clean up this mess, Mujinayama. They are companions of Frenda Seivelun who disturbed Mugino Family business in Tokyo and Kanagawa. That makes them enemies of the Family.”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item4_Chapter1|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item4_Chapter3}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume14 Chapter3

2025-12-29T20:26:18Z

Massify: /* Part 18 */ didn't need to be that wordy

==Chapter 3: Which Side is Winning? – Scoreboard.==

===Part 1===

Around when she abandoned the stolen car, her memory cut out again.

“…”

The next thing she knew, Coronzon was leaning against a cold building wall.

Something had happened.

Aleister had done something.

She had traveled south from District 20 to reach District 9, which contained art schools. The Anglicans were mostly in the north of the city, so she abandoned the stolen car and had planned to take another car (also stolen of course) to reach the southern wall.

But she couldn’t trust in that plan anymore.

She ran her hands along her habit. Pathetically driven by fear and anxiety. She pulled an object smaller than her palm from a fairly unspeakable part of her clothing,.

She couldn’t believe it.

(A wireless game controller? That means it has its own ID and can produce its own signal to provide its location.)

“Y-you would forestall a great demon with this…this piece of junk that doesn’t even cost 5000 yen!? Are you kidding me, Aleisterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!?”

A shape squirmed. And produced a short scream.

No, was that a man forcing himself onto a girl?

An outfit that looked on the border between at-home clothing and sleepwear had been badly torn and the man was reaching for her underwear.

''Perfect.

That was wandering Coronzon’s honest assessment.

It was happening in a small boxlike building.

An Anti-Skill station. A small one. Around the size of what would be called a police box in the outside world.

This was happening there of all places. That public structure should have had someone working in it 365 days a year to keep the city’s peace, but today it had been empty.

With his hands pinning the girl to the floor, the man wasn’t sure how to undo his belt buckle. He raised his head with an odd expression that stuck out his chin more than necessary.

“Huh? Who the hell’re you?”

She didn’t even respond.

Great Demon Coronzon stabbed her hand right through the center of the scum’s gut.

The odor of blood splattered out.

“Bhee, ee, eeeeeeeeeek!!”

He audibly slammed into the shelves behind him and objects came crashing down.

The man of no consequence scrambled out of the Anti-Skill station, his arms flailing wildly.

With his abdominal cavity punctured and a game controller directly stuck inside. Surgical hygiene? Why should Coronzon care about something like that? His bacteria-covered organs might shut down before long, but he would act as a nice decoy as long as he scrambled around and fled before that happened.

In something of a new habit, she held a hand to her woozy head and belatedly realized her hand was stained by that scum’s unclean blood. Everything seemed to piss her off right now. Nothing was going her way.

She lashed out vocally.

“Aleister!! That death is on your hands for that trick you pulled. Are you satisfied? It’s absurd for you to try and save the world. Hee hee, ha ha ha. You’re the one who made the world this way! So give up! You already know everything you do only comes back to bite you!!”

Even so, how many times was it now?

…Or was it really Aleister’s will sending these signs to Kamijou Touma and the other pursuers? Did he really have enough strength to hijack Great Demon Coronzon’s body this many times?

Was it possible she was sending these hints to her pursuers herself? She shuddered. No, it wasn’t possible. How would that benefit her? But could it be a self-destructive desire like the urge people felt to activate a fire alarm when they saw one?

Coronzon clenched her hair tight in her hand. An unpleasant snapping sound followed.

She couldn’t get a read on her own mind anymore.

“U-um.”

It was then that someone nervously spoke to her. The girl seated on the floor looked up at her, completely forgetting to fix her clothing.

With admiration in her eyes.

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Um, thank you…f-for saving me.”

Great Demon Coronzon doubled over and held a hand to her mouth.

She retched.

She couldn’t stand any more of this. Before the girl could say anything more, Coronzon got her unsteady body moving, rushing out of the station. The great demon ''had fled''.

She walked a few meters and then stumbled. She fell down onto the red snow frozen on the ground.

She lay in the snow as thoughts spiraled through her head.

This was wasn’t right.

What was going on?

She had just jabbed her hand right into the gut of an ordinary man who had no connection to magic. With enough force to take his life. And only so she could embed the signal to her location inside his body. There may have been another way, but she had chosen that one so she could enjoy it.

It had been for her. It had been a cruel act of violence befitting a demon.

…But had she ended up saving a life?

Impossible.

She had been acting of her own free will.

She was certain of that.

And yet the result had so completely betrayed her expectations?

Her bad deed had been remade into a good one.

It was the ultimate outrage.

(Was it an act of…)

The being known as a great demon hatefully clenched her back teeth.

Sweat poured from her brow. She had a terrible feeling about this.

A wireless game controller? Those weren’t too unusual, but ''where had Aleister gotten one in the few seconds he had taken control''? She doubted he had forced his way into an electronics shop with its metal shutter down for the night. He wouldn’t have had time to search through the game shelf in a discount shop. Did that mean someone had ''just so happened'' to drop one on the side of the street? …Had it been ''a complete coincidence'' as if some greater will were at work?

(Did an act of god transform what I did? Is a good influence distorting my actions? It’s too late, world. Do you really expect me to go along with that? I will take things! ''Too far''!! And destroy the world of my own free will!!!)

===Part 2===

An alarm blared in the District 10 prison.

Telling of an oddity in the same prison.

Someone had already broken in.

“Is it Oniyama!?”

“No, he would have used his authority as a Director to use the proper channels for a visit. This is someone else, so be careful!”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 left the cell while listening to the female secretary speaking over the device on the wall.

The enemy was close.

As close as the corridor leading to the solitary confinement cell hidden deep inside the prison. The silver-haired, dark-skinned woman wore a patchwork of rags that did not look at all hygienic. She was alone. She was even barefoot. An ordinary jailer might tilted their head wondering how she had made it inside such a strictly guarded prison.

But Qliphah Puzzle 545 understood magic too well for that.

She accurately grasped the threat standing before her.

“One of the Anglican’s magicians specialized in anti-magician combat!?”

“I am Necromancer Isabella Theism. You should already know that name after I threatened the city’s leader.”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was dumbfounded. This prison’s security had already proven itself unable to keep out uninvited guests and now someone like this had made it in?

“The entrance back there was covered by a shocking number of sensors, but they’re only designed to detect living intruders. I recommend tweaking it to detect and instantly attack corpses as well. It’s not that hard to disguise yourself as one.”

“Why are you here? The Anglicans know all about the battle against Coronzon, so you should know my master is in no condition to talk.”

“So I’ve heard. Although I wasn’t around for that part since I was knocked out while dealing with ''some other business''. Regardless, if what I have heard is true, we really are in a grave situation. Right now, I think it is most necessary that we defeat Great Demon Coronzon and bring stability back to the world.”

“Then go tell that to Coronzon, not my master!”

“Oh, do you know where she is?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 fell silent.

Isabella breathed a sigh thick with exasperation.

“That is the real question. What I need right now is information and a few coincidental hints just aren’t enough. A vast network has been laid out across Academy City: security cameras, security robots, drones, satellites, and so on. Tracking her requires bringing the city’s data infrastructure back to full functionality. And it if is necessary to settle things with Coronzon…as much as I hate to, what choice do I have but to save your new Board Chairman? I can’t have him go on sleeping with the Master Key clutched in his hand.”

“…”

Isabella Theism seemed unbothered by Qliphah Puzzle 545’s skeptical look.

The look on her face said she had expected it.

Not long before, she had been in charge of the group physically taking control of Academy City and attempting to use the city as a disposable tool to defeat Coronzon. It would be weird if Qliphah Puzzle 545 did trust her right away.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 glared at her and asked a question.

“Your clothes reek of death. You’re that necromancer who was arguing with my master over the phone… Can a death magician really heal a living human?”

Isabella Theism grabbed her rags in her hands and lifted them upwards. All at once.

She was wearing underwear below, but it was very thin and small.

Two healthy brown objects jiggled there.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was a girl, but she still flinched back at being shown this all of a sudden.

“Uh?”

“Take a close look. My ribs and sternum were badly broken and one sharp bone fragment pierced my right lung. Can you see any of that? What’s your assessment?”

“You have all your ribs and there’s no bruising from internal bleeding. It’s all been healed?”

When the demon girl approached and took a close look, Isabella averted her eyes awkwardly.

Apparently this was embarrassing for her after all.

“Loko Atisou. There is more to Voodoo than making zombies. It is a polytheistic religion with all sorts of gods, so it of course has a god of medicine.”

Just like any other religion, Voodoo also functioned to govern and help the local people. The violent and combative side was only meant for emergencies when the group as a whole was attacked by an external enemy or a rebellion. That wasn’t all it could do.

It had not been invented for use in horror movies, so there was a benevolent Voodoo that listened to the people’s worries and healed their injuries and disease.

Healing was a challenging territory for Demon Qliphah Puzzle 545 who specialized in the Qliphoth that contained all that was impure and immoral. She would have to start with a curse or an attack and then build it in reverse. Needing to include that conversion in every single step meant it would be much faster to borrow the power of a god who directly dealt in medicine.

Isabella concluded her valid evidence had been accepted, so she lowered her rags.

“I am willing to view you as a magic side doctor. And I understand how this aligns with your interests. So where will you start, witch doctor?”

“Well, I do have a few things on hand. Zombie powder, for example.”

“Z-zombie powder!?”

Despite being a demon, Qliphah Puzzle 545’s eyes bulged at the mere mention of that name. But Isabella Theism sighed in exasperation.

“Voodoo zombie powder…well, real Voodoo prefers to use French more than English. But anyway, it isn’t a toxin sprinkled on a rotting corpse to control it.”

She seemed to be implying that she did not use real Voodoo.

No matter how much she knew about it, she was only illicitly using their excellent techniques.

“It is a punishment in which a living human is put in a state of living death where they cannot think or make any decisions and will do whatever they are told. So you can think of it as a medicine used ''to prevent someone from dying'' until their punishment is complete.”

“You mean like how the highly toxic digitalis can also be used as a cardiac stimulant?”

“And in the other direction, salt and sugar can kill despite being necessary nutrients for life. The materials themselves are neither good nor bad. It all comes down to how they are used.”

===Part 3===

An ambulance echoed through one corner of District 20.

Kamijou glanced in its direction.

Takitsubo Rikou…couldn’t go any further. With the frozen snow, the dead traffic signals, and the more concrete threat of the scouts, he was thankful the ambulance had actually come when they called.

A large dog hopped into the same ambulance.

“I will go with her.”

“Hey, are you sure about that?”

“I am not much help without the A.A.A. And Coronzon will be cautious of my wonderful nose now that I have demonstrated its use. There is nothing left for me to do on the front line. So I wish to contribute by removing this worry from your hearts, allowing you to move more freely. Listen to me. Do not worry about this girl any longer.”

Kamijou and the others could only watch the ambulance go.

There was still more they had to do.

But…

“We have a report regarding the entertainment location signal presumed to be a sign from Aleister. Unfortunately, it was found embedded in some man. So back to square one.”

“Hey, that doesn’t tell us nothing. If we know what path the dying decoy took, we should be able to figure out where he contacted Coronzon.”

This was all they had to discuss on their way to a corner of District 9.

It was now 3 AM.

This was where they had lost Coronzon’s trail.

Kamijou Touma sighed softly while listening to Kanzaki and Othinus’s discussion.

All they could do was wait.

Nothing pained Kamijou more than having nothing to do when he knew Coronzon was even now on the move. It was all over once she crossed the wall somewhere and left the city. Yet the city was too large to search at random.

He had decided he wouldn’t just wait around, but the physical reality wasn’t cooperating with his personal wishes.

Index, Kanzaki, and some others were apparently running a magical search, but that still wasn’t enough to track down Coronzon.

They needed to go after her from the science side as well, but Mikoto alone wasn’t enough.

Simply tracking down the fugitive was hard enough on its own, but Kamijou couldn’t shake the feeling that Coronzon was still hiding something. Some powerful move or sudden twist he never would have considered. Something they couldn’t even imagine while continuing to wander through this labyrinth, but also something that would again overturn everything if they failed to prevent it.

Kamijou Touma’s thoughts turned to a certain individual.

Perhaps it was all reliant on ''him'' recovering…

===Part 4===

In the prison’s solitary confinement cell, Board Chairman Accelerator was lying in bed unconscious and hooked up to medical equipment. Even Academy City’s #1 would be killed by an attack now. It was unusual for Qliphah Puzzle 545 to bring an outsider this deep into the prison at all.

That outsider was Necromancer Isabella Theism.

The current situation required going beyond the usual.

“How exactly are you going to heal my master?”

“Legba Atibon.”

That was all she said.

It was the name of a gatekeeper god who managed all ceremonies. So no matter which god’s power the ceremony was meant to borrow, you first sought the gatekeeper god’s permission. And because he appeared in all ceremonies, there were no specific dates or locations that boosted his power.

Something emerged from Accelerator’s arm.

It was a transparent shard only a few millimeters long. A piece of a broken LCD monitor.

More followed. Like floating leaves following a river’s current, more and more shards silently slid out of his body.

Not a single drop of blood was shed and no apparent wounds were made.

Even though all these shards were located in extremely dangerous position near major arteries and organs.

“Y-you’re already done!?”

“They did not belong and the human body has several functions meant to automatically eliminate such things. There was no need for dangerous surgery. I only had to make some adjustments to those functions.”

Of course, thoughtlessly boosting them would have only triggered rejection, where his own immune system attacked his body. Only a professional necromancer with sufficient training could pull this off.

Isabella sighed softly.

“You know glass shards aren’t enough to keep a human mind locked away indefinitely, don’t you? Another task is even more important.”

“Breaking the curse.”

“Voodoo can handle that easily. A zombie is in a controllable state of living death by stopping the heart with a poison and then restarting it with an antidote. Antidotes and curse breaking are built into the ceremony.”

As she spoke, Isabella stuck her fingers into the seams of her rags. She pulled out various vials. They contained powders, liquids, dried leaves and roots, living insects…and more.

The demon girl was accustomed to dirty and impure things, but she still recoiled.

“Ew. Did I just wander into a museum of the bizarre?”

“Think of it like a 72-color colored pencil set and get excited. Even if you can theoretically represent everything in the world with the three primary colors, the actual task isn’t so simple, is it?”

The brown woman got to work. Swiftly and accurately.

It took more than a single name this time.

Meaning even she didn’t see this as a simple task.

“Voodoo is flexible enough to let you include any supernatural being as a weapon. Qliphah Puzzle. And 545 was it? I will include you in my system.”

“I will do anything for my master, but will including me change anything?”

“Just as salt and sugar can kill and just as toxic digitalis can be a cardiac stimulant, nothing in this world is a pure poison. There is simply a way of using it as a poison. And also a way of using it is a medicine.”

Voodoo did not think of gods as good or evil, but it was common for the same god to be included on both sides. That meant the gods did not determine their stance by the human conception of good and evil. Instead of the many gods being divided onto the opposite sides of good and evil, the many gods could freely move between the two sides depending on the time and situation. That was what made them all-purpose, but it also made them tricky to use. It required a priest with specialized training to handle them.

Thus, the necromancer did not avoid this being known as an artificial demon.

She simply viewed her as a nonhuman being with supernatural power.

If Isabella determined how much of her to use, she could be used to save a life.

“Here goes.”

“Okay!”

“Through Gatekeeper God Legba Atibon, I contact Medicine God Loko Atisou, and link the ceremony terminal to Messenger God Brav Gede.”

Voodoo practitioners did not think of using magic on their own.

They borrowed a compatible god’s power to achieve a miracle.

In fact, they would even borrow another god’s power to send their request to the god they wanted.

In Voodoo, if a miracle was beyond human capability, then a human voice could not even reach the necessary god on its own. They required a separate link to get through.

Or to put it another way…

They relied on one god to call on another. So by going through Artificial Demon Qliphah Puzzle 545 (who did not exist in the Voodoo system), Isabella should be able to make a request beyond what could normally be asked of the Voodoo gods.

It was an impossible shortcut.

Or an illicit backdoor.

“Through the gathering of Qliphah, I beseech Baron Samdi. Divide this soul into five territories and reveal the part that has been intentionally placed in an endless spiral. Human individuality is managed by the Ti Bon Ange. Reveal to me the wicked power severing its proper link. Just like the zombie powder, it takes the form of a toxin.”

Something like bluish-white sparks burst forth.

That was not part of the ceremony.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 thought it might be a trap left by Coronzon, but it wasn’t.

It was Academy City’s #1.

He was no normal human. Had his body itself reacted in some way?

“The lime poison is an unstoppable assassination spell for it produces a different toxin each time the same ceremony is performed. This in turn proves that any and all toxins can be cured as long as their ingredients are known. I have already seen with my own eyes the wicked toxin unjustly robbing him of his consciousness! With its identity seen, it must be curable!!”

The smell of blood hung in the air.

Isabella Theism had a shallow cut on her right cheek.

The bluish-white sparks were harmful.

But she did not stop the ceremony.

Coronzon could not be allowed to escape Academy City. But they had nowhere near enough data to track her down. They needed the new Board Chairman and the Master Key he held. Academy City’s functions had to be fully recovered before they could catch up to Coronzon.

A single necromancer’s survival wasn’t that big a deal here.

But if the entire world were destroyed, then everything Isabella Theism wanted to protect would die with it.

She couldn’t allow that.

No matter what.

“Answer me, Medicine God Loko Atisou. The vessel for your holy power and the ingredients for the medicine are gathered here!! …No external incision is needed. The conditions to save you were within your body from the start. Thus, I call upon you, separated mind, reactive yourself from within your body and break free of your cage!!”

Light surged out.

Isabella Theism lurched back.

The necromancer was struck by a destructive whip of something much like electricity. Unable to bear the blow, she toppled backwards. Several pieces of medical equipment screamed out with their electronic tones.

And nothing happened.

There was no change on the bed. The smell of blood came from Isabella. Sleeping Accelerator did not change at all, for better or for worse.

The Level 5 said to be Academy City’s strongest did not wake.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had to accept it.

They had failed.

It was so dark, shadowy, heavy.

She felt crushed by the air itself when a voice reached her ears.

Isabella Theism was whispering.

“Kh… What…now?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t have time to ask what she meant by that.

The necromancer continued.

“In the worst case, I could control him as a corpse to have him use the Master Key.”

“But…”

“Zombie powder does not control rotting corpses. It prevents someone from dying to keep them in a state of living death. But by altering that interpretation, it would be possible. It can be used just like in a horror movie.”

“No! That isn’t the same as saving him!!”

Her opposition was only natural.

''Assuming'' saving Board Chairman Accelerator was your goal.

“But aren’t we here to use the Master Key to restore Academy City and track down Coronzon!?”

Their goals were defined at slightly different points.

Isabella Theism wanted Accelerator’s help to protect the world from Coronzon. The #1’s recovery was only a means to that end.

Explaining that up front showed that Isabella was more reasonable than most. She could have lied to Qliphah Puzzle 545 and then gone ahead and used the zombie powder ''as a poison''.

“You need to choose. No one has sufficient nerve to make a ghastly choice. And you are the only point of contact I have left!” shouted Isabella Theism.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 would never let her do that. But how would her beloved Board Chairman have responded? The #1 would want to protect Academy City and the wider world beyond its walls.

(Master…)

===Part 5===

Kamijou and the others were in District 9.

They still hadn’t moved from there and were stuck waiting.

Mikoto and Index were frequently conversing. Probably a sign of their impatience.

“The nearby districts that border the city wall would be the most obvious option, but this is complicated by the fact that Coronzon has no restriction preventing her from returning to a district she’s already been to.”

“That means we can’t treat this like a game of concentration. So no matter how far we pursue her, we never eliminate any of the options.”

Wings audibly flapped at the air. Kamijou had seen the Bologna Succubus licking her wings and teasing them with her fingertips before, but they must have recovered enough for her to fly. Neither one said anything, but she took off into the night sky with Blodeuwedd the Bouquet hanging on again.

Kamijou spotted Itsuwa of the Amakusas.

“How’s Tsushima? What happened to her?”

“We can use recovery magic, so as long as someone isn’t actually dead, we can heal them even if it takes some fairly forceful methods. And it helped that you suppressed her bleeding until we arrived.”

At that point, Itsuwa’s tone dropped worriedly.

“You can’t push yourself too hard either. I heard you passed out earlier.”

“Sorry… I should’ve yelled before I passed out.”

“No! That isn’t what I meant…”

But he had let Coronzon get away.

Either way, he couldn’t fight while applying pressure to Tsushima’s neck wound. And could he have fought her on his own regardless? He really didn’t see any way he could have won there. But he could have at least informed someone of the threat. There must have been a way. Even if he was rapidly losing consciousness, he could have triggered his phone’s alarm or the camera flash. There had to have been something.

“Fool. Break yourself out of that meaningless negative spiral. Only you finds it ''pleasant''.”

The wicked woman could be harsh at times like this. Refreshingly so.

There was no way he could have come up with a clever idea when he was passing out, his brain was growing dull, and his thoughts were fading fast. He knew that.

(Still…)

It was easy enough to talk of battling Coronzon and settling things with her, but that also meant battling Aleister who shared her body.

…What did he really think about that?

Aleister was desperately struggling within Coronzon to provide them with even the smallest hint. Was Kamijou prepared to fight that human, win…and say goodbye?

If he couldn’t do it, humanity was doomed.

The conditions placed on the opposite end of the scales could not have been simpler or more solid.

Still.

Kamijou’s thoughts cut off there.

He looked up. Agnese, Lucia, and that group were off in a corner whispering among themselves.

“?”

===Part 6===

In the same district, not far from Kamijou and the others, stooped Angelene was waving her hands anxiously.

“Ehhhh!? Saint Georgios’s Fire? Is the Vatican really trying to defeat Coronzon!? A-are you sure they aren’t just using this as an excuse to destroy Academy City?”

“Some of them might think it would be safer to destroy it before it’s officially absorbed into the Anglican Church.”

Lucia appeared to be doing her best to remain calm.

The conversation wasn’t just between Agnese, Lucia, and Angelene. More than 250 nuns would be listening in through the Barbara Branch communication spiritual item.

Agnese had her doubts about that too. How far into the future were the Roman Catholic cardinals looking? Even though none of it would matter if the world were destroyed tomorrow.

The Former Agnese Force had already been told to evacuate.

They were to abandon Academy City and the Anglicans and escape the city with only the Roman Catholics among them. They had been given a few different conditions for activating Saint Georgios’s Fire, but it all boiled down to one thing: the cardinals would use that large-scale spell no matter what happened. The only difference was if it happened sooner or later.

The branch between launching it or not had already passed.

Being stubborn here was fine, but anyone who remained would die.

With zero exceptions.

Lucia looked to Agnese. She may have been peering into her eyes.

“This force is under your command, Sister Agnese. What will we do?”

“I do not have the right to order you all to die.” Agnese smiled bitterly as she spoke to them all. “You are not obligated or bound to stay. From here on, this is all voluntary. If you choose to leave Academy City, you don’t need your Barbara Branch. The Anglicans are experts at combating human magic. They might be able to track your location using it, so abandon it and escape in complete silence.”

“Wh-what can we accomplish by staying?”

“Protect Academy City from Saint Georgios’s Fire of course,” replied Agnese, her voice low.

That human-targeted attack wouldn’t work against inhuman Coronzon. So stopping the spell that would cause asphyxiation and ruptured organs would not affect the battle against Coronzon.

“Think of it like the neck of an hourglass. Saint Georgios’s Fire is large-scale magic that gathers power from the two billion Catholics across the globe without their knowledge and allows the cardinals in the Vatican to control it. Once gathered together, the attack travels through the ley lines to reach enemy territory and scatters back into two billion attacks after emerging from the ground. Then it causes enough damage to destroy a city.”

A city. Was that at least better than Adikalika that would have affected the entire Italian Peninsula? Agnese smiled a little. So they were retaliating with a smaller attack. The Vatican’s cardinals really had found a way to lower the psychological hurdle as far as possible.

“T-two billion. Th-th-then I don’t see what we can possibly do!”

“''That means it must be a long-range spell.'' In fact, it must travel all the way around the earth. Have you forgotten how Index stopped Adikalika? There must be any number of options: diverting its aim, cutting off the flow of the ley lines before it arrives here, or even preventing the two billion powers from gathering at the Vatican.”

Her argument had to be correct.

But she understood full well that this was wishful thinking.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been sweating so heavily in this cold weather.

(Even if the theory is solid, we’re talking about power from two billion people… Can we really stand up to that sheer force of quantity? That will likely be the greatest obstacle.)

There was no guaranteed method. If they stayed too long, they would lose the lives they could have saved.

They had to build it all up starting now. They had nothing at the moment to tell them it would be alright.

So Agnese Sanctis could not demand her companions join her in this.

In the worst case, she would have to stand up to the two billion all on her own.

And…

“I volunteer.”

That was Lucia.

She used to be so fastidious she would rage when so much as touched by a non-Catholic, but now she was the first to raise her hand and volunteer to fight to protect Academy City.

“What? The Roman Catholic Church is the largest sect in the world, so we must consider the world as a whole. Of course I will reach out a helping hand when lives are at risk. I couldn’t call myself a Catholic if I wouldn’t.”

She wasn’t alone.

Angelene was trembling, but she too chose to raise her hand. Even if only a little.

“U-umm. I volunteer. I mean, if we ran away now, then the Anglicans ''and'' the Catholics would be after us. So I want to at least keep a place for us with one of them. Our home is the women’s dorm in London and, if we want to return there with a clear conscience, we have to save Academy City!”

More and more voices came over the Barbara’s Branch communication spiritual item.

It only provided audio, but Agnese could easily imagine them leaning forward in defiance.

“Sister Apollonia. I volunteer too.”

“Sister Paula. I’ll volunteer if there are any tickets left.”

“Sister Agata. I-I volunteer!”

…This was who they were.

They hadn’t started out this way, of course. They hadn’t forgotten the brutal violence they subjected Orsola Aquinas and Kamijou Touma to. But Agnese and these more than 250 nuns had grown enough to say this during such a crisis.

After seeing another way to live. After being accepted with a smile after everything they had done.

It must have taken trust to do that, so they couldn’t turn their backs on that trust.

Did this mean they all felt that way?

Lucia pushed the conversation onward.

“Sister Agnese. We haven’t heard your answer yet. What will you do?”

Agnese Sanctis raised her head.

She stared straight ahead and raised her voice to a roar.

“I volunteer!! …Now that you’ve chosen this for yourself, you had better be ready. I said I don’t have the right to order you all to die. So no matter how bad this gets, I will not let you take the easy way out and choose an emotional death. Cry and wail all you like, I will bring every last one of you back alive even if it means crawling through hell on earth!!”

===Part 7===

Dion Fortune.

Moina Mathers.

Their fight in District 7 had passed the bounds of human ability. They had simply been fighting too long. No human could run a full marathon at the speed of a 50-meter dash. But a battle on that level had been going on for hours now. A Saint who could break the sound barrier in an instant and then instantly run out of gas would have died well before this. This was only possible for a magician created using a tarot deck as a grimoire.

That was the strength of someone who could absorb massive power from the ley lines and wield that instead of having to refine magic power from their own life force.

(I certainly don’t want to be killed right away, but this kind of endless quagmire isn’t fun either.)

One reason for the stalemate was Moina Mathers’s spiritual item.

Her tattva cards were certainly powerful, but using the visual stimuli of the bright colors drawn on the cards to guide her mind created a weakness as well. Visual stimuli. …That meant a third party could peek at the card and know the element of the next attack.

“Responding after seeing the card always puts me one step behind, though. But if I could predict what was coming next before you drew the card, I would be a step ahead and beat you.”

“…”

“But I’ll have gathered all the data I need soon. You shouldn’t have been throwing those tattva cards around like that. It’s like the scorebook written up by the cute manager of the baseball team. You’ve thrown too many pitches. How many until it’s enough? I will kill you before you can act.”

Moina Mathers said nothing.

But instead of a tattva card, she suddenly waved her palette knife through the air in an orderly pattern.

This was different.

“?”

Something rose up.

From the red snowy ground. And more followed it. A lot more. Like sinister flowers blossoming all around her.

They were colorful silhouettes seemingly made of a mixture of yellow, blue, white, red, and other colors of paint.

Except their heads were giant red roses.

“Ah, ahh, ah…”

Dion Fortune stood stock still and her voice escaped her like air from a deflating balloon.

Because she knew what her teacher and nemesis was doing.

“Wh-why do you look so proud of yourself? You didn’t think this was one of your successes, did you? How airheaded a wife can you be!?”

As his wife, Moina had devoted herself to supporting that uncontrollable genius magician named Mathers, but not everything had gone perfectly and she had made a few major mistakes after her husband’s death: her unproductive conflict with her student Fortune, her failure to silence some baseless rumors (on the level of a murder), and – as the most extreme example – this. The Mass Production of Low Quality Magicians Debacle in which she used a correspondence class to grant entrance to the secret magic cabal she managed for the faceless strangers who would pay for the privilege.

Dion Fortune was cautious of course. Even if they were of low quality, a magician was still a magician. She didn’t know if they refined their own magic power or if they absorbed it from the ley lines, but she knew she wasn’t going to like whatever attacks they used. If she didn’t switch her mindset from one-on-one to a group battle, she would be crushed by the group even if she defeated one of them. Or so she thought.

But even that was a fatal mistake.

“Eh?”

Moina Mathers’s face was right in front of her.

She had hopped down from the giant black cat and approached within 100 centimeters.

This was immediately after she switched tactics from a single destructive attack to a numbers game. She had slipped through Dion Fortune’s blind spot.

It didn’t matter how Dion Fortune twisted her body.

Here.

At this one spot, she couldn’t respond right away!?

(Damn!!)

Moina Mathers held a black blade. The utterly twisted object looked like it was made from a large quantity of oil paint or something that had been forcibly dried and hardened. This was probably a self-defensive strike – a jab – with a saber that she had learned from her husband Mathers who enjoyed fencing. The sharp tip was clearly aimed at her opponent’s throat.

Dion Fortune had misread this.

The biggest threat was not the giant cat, not the tattva cards, and not the group of rose-faced mass-produced magicians. ''She should have been most cautious of Moina Mathers herself''. She should have known that from the start, but the countless tricks had distracted her.

The saber was coming.

It was more deadly than a long spear, a hammer, or the knife of an enemy who had snuck up on her.

(Oh, god. Am I actually dead this time?)

Even if she did have a single second left to move, she would have used it to kill Moina too. She gritted her teeth and focused all her attention on the black box. And…

Sparks flew.

The orange sparks of two blades clashing.

Another piece of metal intersected Moina’s black saber to form a cross.

Instead of blocking the sharp jab, this struck the side of the blade to divert it away. Orange sparks decorated the darkness like remnants of the attack’s deadly power.

A palette knife was responsible.

That was the weapon of a certain magician who specialized in art and had completed many ceremonial grounds and spiritual items by giving real form to the many ideas the other magicians couldn’t bring out of their heads.

“Honestly,” said a calm voice. “It’s sad you’re struggling this much to defeat such a defective version of me. You’re the one who researched all the nutrients in different foods and who insisted Kabbalah was Western yoga, so I would have thought you could boost your physical abilities somewhat.”

By the time she said this, a dull sound had left the palette knife. Followed by another. They were mechanical sounds like might come from a sewing machine. She swept the saber aside and sent accurately jabs right toward the now-defenseless Moina’s throat and chest, but Moina used the guard and pommel to forcibly defend herself.

The same techniques.

The same skill.

The same ability.

Wasn’t there just one magician who could do that?

Yes, and ''despite being the kind of person who would casually rescue the frog-faced doctor who was nearly a stranger to her after happening across him'', she was always so harsh with the student she had known for so long.

Dion Fortune gulped and spoke.

“Mis…tress?”

There was only one person she addressed that way.

And it wasn’t the Moina who Coronzon had created.

Black Cat Witch Mina Mathers stood beside her student.

===Part 8===

In the District 10 prison’s solitary confinement cell, all the efforts of good Voodoo and the artificial demon’s power had failed to revive the new Board Chairman.

Despair was threatening to solidify the air itself.

Until someone who didn’t belong showed up to smash that mood.

“Bonjour. I did some searching within your metal shutters and your prison store had a decent selection. What, do the people serving their time after a guilty verdict get to eat chocolat if a visitor buys it for them? And this one has brandy in it. I knew Academy City cared a lot about human rights, but even the prisoners have it good here. Munch, munch.”

Isabella Theism couldn’t just ignore this.

“Kihara Goukei!?” she shouted, eyes wide.

“Whoa, I give, I give, I give!! I only have one heart left! My extra lives are down to zero! I could never let myself die if I ''truly'' kicked the bucket over a pointless scuffle like this!!”

She played it off as a joke, but she could probably ''still survive even if her last one was destroyed''. Maybe she couldn’t believe it without saying it aloud even though no one asked, but that level of cheating the system was standard for science side monsters.

Then someone else popped out from behind the suspicious woman. A much smaller someone.

“Misaka had her bring her here, says Misaka as Misaka introduces her.”

“Huh? Aren’t you master’s…?”

Now it was Qliphah Puzzle 545’s eyes that widened. Did she know that girl?

It seemed odd for a little girl to be this deep inside a strictly-guarded prison, but Isabella wanted to focus on the more dangerous person.

“How did you get in here!?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 gave her a “you’re one to talk” look, but the brown necromancer didn’t seem to notice. And…

“Eh? Was it supposed to be hard? I just walked on in.”

Only Qliphah Puzzle 545 accepted that answer.

…That was probably due to Last Order. The new Board Chairman must have secretly given her a free pass inside. Academy City’s #1 was strict with himself and others, but he also showed occasional signs of doing things with no thought to the consequences.

Kihara Goukei knew none of this and tilted her head.

“So what is an experte like you doing sitting around? Hurry up and do your job. I can’t get any of my work done without the Board Chairman awake.”

She made it sound so easy in her ignorance.

Isabella breathed a heavy sigh.

“Zombie powder is not just a deadly toxin. It rules both life and death, so there is a chance of it reviving him if I boost its effects. But…”

“But?”

“You probably already know since it shows up in horror movies sometimes, but zombie powder uses puffer fish. Tetrodotoxin. Blindly increasing the amount will kill him before it can begin to revive him.”

“Oh, is that all? I know just the thing to use! Anisakiropen Ω!! It is a très lethal nerve stimulant. Or should I call it a synthetic toxin developed in Academy City that kills instantly?”

Isabella Theism’s eyes widened.

Kills instantly? Did that mean it was guaranteed to kill without even getting into if it was a poison or a medicine!?

“Are you trying to make sure he dies!?”

“Oh, come now. Tetrodotoxin kills by suppressing the nerves while anisakiropen Ω kills by exciting the nerves. Have you never heard the stories? Maybe it’s a local Academy City legend. They say if you administer them both at once, their effects cancel each other out.”

And if the puffer fish poison didn’t work, Isabella could give him as much zombie powder as necessary without adverse effects. The simple arithmetic did seem to say that, but…

“W-w-w-wait just a minute,” said Qliphah Puzzle 545. “That research said the effects weren’t ''completely'' canceled out. The poison that should have killed the instant it was swallowed was only delayed by a few hours!!”

Yes, tetrodotoxin and anisakiropen Ω were deadly poisons. Even a small amount in the body would kill.

It was simple enough to say the two canceled each other out, but if even that “small amount” of one or the other remained afterwards, his life would still be lost. The amount of either couldn’t be not enough or too much. And there was no way of ensuring they canceled out to precisely zero.

“Yes, in the normale world, that is true.”

“Wait, are you saying…?”

“I have a fundamental question for you: ''are either of us normale''?”

Of course not.

Necromancer Isabella Theism used Voodoo in order to use methods of controlling death and flesh from all over the world. Kihara Goukei had gathered every form of scientific immortality within her own body.

They could take suicidal actions that would cause death 100% of the time in anyone else, but they would be fine.

“Misaka will help too,” said the little girl.

Neither Kihara Goukei nor Isabella Theism knew the situation there. Nor did they know how exactly she could help.

“Misaka will do anything, so don’t give up on him, says Misaka as Misaka bows her head to you.”

But they both thought this was enough.

Technology wasn’t always the key to saving a life. Because they had pursued all the theories and numbers so far, they knew quite well that it was the ridiculously old-fashioned psychological matters that ultimately determined the fate of someone on the verge of death.

(This is probably more of a job for ''that other doctor'', but I will just have to handle it this time. …But I will probably have to buy him a fancy mango for encroaching on his territory.)

Then again, the presence of magic may have placed this beyond that doctor’s jurisdiction.

Today’s star was Isabella who lived outside that jurisdiction.

Kihara Goukei only had to support her.

The two spoke as one.

“Let’s do this.” “Let’s do this.”

The mood had changed.

But that wasn’t all.

The child’s presence kept the mood from deteriorating.

“Misaka saw the city, says Misaka as Misaka remembers the way here.”

Isabella Theism and Kihara Goukei were doing some kind of work she didn’t understand.

The sound of something hard being crushed up felt out of place among all the beeping medical equipment.

Last Order stared at the #1 from his bedside.

“It was horrible. Everything was empty but not just because it’s so late. Everyone is too scared to go outside, says Misaka as Misaka gives a report.”

Red and black.

The strange combined drug did not have to be swallowed.

It made a sticky sound as it was applied to his wounds with their fingertips.

This was a necessary treatment, but it really shouldn’t have been done with a small child present.

But Last Order accepted it all head on.

And, seeing not even a twitch of an eyebrow in response to the treatment, she took Accelerator’s hand. Every part of him was full of electrodes and tube needles.

She held his hand tight between her hands.

“Yomikawa got hurt. She said it was minor, but it might not have been, says Misaka as Misaka shakes her head. She could have died.”

A shrill sound rang from the medical equipment.

An alarm. His stable condition was collapsing. An eternal standstill was no different from death, but Isabella and Goukei’s efforts had clearly thrown off that balance.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was visibly anxious, but Last Order’s eyes did not waver.

“Being alone is scary…”

The magical necromancer and the scientific Kihara were each too strong a medicine.

That alone couldn’t bring back his sealed mind.

But that was why…

“And Misaka doesn’t just mean Misaka. Everyone has people they care for. They trust the new Academy City you built to protect them. So Misaka wants you to live up to their expectations, says Misaka as Misaka calls out to you.”

A deep electrical “zap!” split the air.

It shot right past Last Order.

This was not a failure of the magic or technology. Something was wrong with Accelerator’s body on the bed.

The electricity causing the air to burst was so powerful it would likely blow the girl’s body away if even the tiniest extremity grazed her.

“Can you leave things like this?”

She didn’t even blink.

Last Order was looking only at the face of the boy lying in the bed.

“The Academy City you want is filled with so much death.”

These were not all kind words.

They were also harsh.

To truly care for someone was not to blindly agree with everything they did.

This girl had the strength to scold him.

Because she trusted their relationship was too strong for something like this to break it.

“A normal person could give up. You didn’t want to become Academy City’s #1, so you don’t have to cling to that strongest position forever. …But this isn’t about that, is it? says Misaka as Misaka is certain of her words. ''Your position as Board Chairman is the one thing you took for yourself.'' You decided for yourself to improve this city and create a city of science with no hidden side and where no one needs to suffer or live in fear. You chose to create a safe and peaceful world. So you can’t take the easy road here. You chose this path, so you have to see it through to the end, says Misaka as Misaka states the obvious.”

Her voice was not as loud as a thunderclap.

In fact, her words were so quiet no one in the small cell could hear them except their intended target.

“Hey.”

She brought her mouth up next to the slumbering Board Chairman’s ear.

And the small girl whispered.

“How long are you going to make ''him'' wait?”

Everything went quiet.

That wasn’t just a psychological metaphor.

The alarm from the medical equipment surrounding the bed had really and truly ''stopped''.

Meaning…

“Damn…it.”

A voice spoke.

From the bed.

“So I don’t even have the right to die and go to hell? Isn’t that a bit much? ''You are exactly right, though.''”

This is what the new Board Chairman would do.

The one who had decided for himself to protect the peace and safety of Academy City would get back up here.

And because he thought that, Accelerator opened his eyes.

===Part 9===

The Former Agnese Force was short on time.

If Saint Georgios’s Fire were activated, everyone living in Academy City would die. No matter where they ran, they could not prevent their organs from rupturing from within.

Power had already been gathered from two billion people around the world and was being reworked into a single spell. They were waiting for the moment when, like the other end of an hourglass’s neck, it would return to two billion attacks in enemy territory. Thus, they couldn’t stop the attack by preventing the power from being gathered.

Academy City was a fixed location. Diverting the aim would be difficult.

Which meant…

“We need to stop Saint Georgios’s Fire as it approaches through the ley lines. We can do it when it’s still a single mass. Before it emerges from the ground and disperses into two billion flames! That’s our only shot!!”

That was simple enough to say, but influencing the ley lines meant effort at the level of tearing down a mountain or filling in a sea. They couldn’t physically manage that, so they would have to wear down their minds to do the work on that front.

“We start with this.”

Agnese pulled out a deck of ordinary tarot cards.

They gathered below a tree where the red snow hadn’t fallen and she laid eight cards face down on the ground.

An attack traveling through the ley lines would arrive immediately after it was activated. Even if it was traveling halfway around the world.

“But that same ley line connection means some of the Vatican’s data should leak out. If we know how close the spell is to completion, we’ll know the time limit.”

A sizzling sound meant she didn’t even need to flip the cards over.

One of the eight cards had burned black and melted.

The damage spread to a second and then a third.

Lucia’s eyes widened.

“They’re farther along than I thought!”

“H-has something changed!?”

“The Vatican must have realized we can see them. They’re going to act!!”

This must have triggered one of the three conditions the cardinal had given. Or had those conditions just been an excuse and weren’t really necessary?

The Former Agnese Force had been warned to evacuate, but their survival had only been a “stretch goal”. Apparently they weren’t worth saving no matter what.

That meant there was no time left at all.

This was like going to check on the river during a bad storm. It was a risky move. They had known that, but they couldn’t let this deadly attack get past them.

Agnese, Lucia, and Angelene each picked up their spiritual items.

The other nuns had wooden wheels, coin bags, and other items found in the legends of different holy people, but Agnese used a Symbolic Weapon called the Lotus Wand. And instead of controlling a specific element like the rod of fire or the cup of water, this impressive item could control all elements.

The Vatican was about halfway around the globe from Academy City. They would have liked to gradually melt their minds into the ley line and construct countless barriers at an even interval along the path here, but it was too late for that. The most they could do was place one thick barrier directly in front of Academy City.

Agnese Sanctis gave a shout.

“Saint Barbara is the holy woman who invited the lord’s righteous light in through the three windows. Unseen path, obey our kind objective. A path is a tool of guidance – a vein carved into the earth to guide the righteous. Harmful power, do not advance! Halt! Thou have no right to tread hither!!”

Her breath caught.

There was no flash of light or explosive boom. But a thick, invisible pressure did assault her.

The silver Lotus Wand audibly strained in her grasp.

This was what happened when you carelessly touched that which was better off not known. She had known this would happen when she directly interfered with a ley line – a great torrent of large-scale magic. She had known trying to forcibly stop it could easily crush her body.

She clenched her back teeth.

(I know the theory behind the spell was correct.)

“Kh… But in the end, is two billion just too much for us to overcome!?”

This unreasonable brute force was, in a way, nothing at all what magic was supposed to be. But it was effective. It was an absolute solution to the problem that was only available to the Roman Catholic Church with its two billion followers.

What Agnese and the other nuns lacked was power.

There were only about 250 of them. That wasn’t enough to overturn it!!

“…yet…”

She heard something.

A voice had definitely spoken.

“Not…yet. This city created me and the people here called me their friend. I will not allow them to be lost here!!”

Maybe she had been here from the beginning.

But it was only now in this moment that Agnese Sanctis witnessed her with her own two eyes.

She was an aggregation of AIM Diffusion Fields.

An angel created by Academy City using the logic of the science side.

There were reported sightings of her here and there beginning in World War Three.

Agnese Sanctis’s eyes widened in this space where even the flow of time was unclear.

“Kazakiri…Hyouka?”

“I am a collection of power, but I do not understand your method… So if you are going to use me, hurry! Please ''remake me'' to fit your logic and laws so you can accomplish your goal!!”

There was no time to agonize over the decision.

This scientific angel wasn’t even human. Her interests and plans were a mystery, but she at least wasn’t Coronzon’s pawn. Knowing that was enough.

Agnese adjusted her grip on the Lotus Wand.

(I have no idea what element this unidentified angel would be, but my Symbolic Weapon works with any element, so it had damn well better work here! Even if only for one strike!!)

“An angel is a messenger who delivers the lord’s words. I question the accuracy of this destruction wrought by human hands. Is the sender truly righteous enough? If you carry even sliver of doubt, then halt immediately!!”

Light shot out.

There was a sound like a crack through space itself.

The power forming an artificial angel was pitted against the power supplied by two billion people. That was enough for the world itself to cry out in protest. It was clearly beyond the capacity of space itself.

But Agnese sensed a barrier.

A pressure like an invisible wall slowly pushing back at her.

This wasn’t enough.

The 250 of the Former Agnese Force combined with all the energy of the science side’s angel still couldn’t break the wall of two billion.

Lucia shouted with sweat pouring down her brow.

“Our interception point was too close… Sister Agnese, we can slow it down, but we can’t fully stop it. Saint Georgios’s Fire will reach Academy City through the ley line!”

“I…know that!!”

And Lucia had already hinted at a solution. Their position was too close. That meant they only needed someone to interfere with the ley lines farther away from Academy City.

Agnese had an idea.

(I have no real reason to think this work. It’s basically just a gamble, but it really is our last option!)

Yes.

If, in addition to the group intercepting the attack at the target point of Academy City, someone helped them from within the starting point of the Vatican…the situation would greatly improve.

And the 250 of the Former Agnese Force were not the only Roman Catholics. There was another person who had used the network of communication spiritual items linking them.

“Cardinal Michael!!” Agnese roared. “You’re still listening in through our Barbara Branches, aren’t you!?”

The cardinal provided no response.

Of course he didn’t.

“If you feel any sadness in your heart about this meaningless destruction…”

Even so, Agnese continued.

Her voice had to be reaching him. She had to believe it was.

“If the things you told me weren’t just cheap lip service…”

She had called it a gamble.

And the only chip up on the table was that of her trust.

So she relied on that trust as she roared with all her strength.

“Then give us your help nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!”

Light danced wildly.

===Part 10===

In District 7, Mina and Moina were facing each other on the late-night street still covered by red snow.

Dion Fortune was left behind despite all her effort until now.

“You are drawing on myths and legends from across the world, setting yourself up as Egyptian gods, and controlling a great power like putting on a play,” said Mina Mathers. With a snort of laughter. “That is indeed a spell discussed even in the original Golden cabal. But it’s so shallow and surface level. You’re still stuck in the Outer Order found immediately within the entrance. A sorry display for someone who claims to be Mathers’s wife. To be blunt, you’re still in the waiting room for Neophytes.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Why are you provoking her!? If you want to goad the enemy into attacking you, can you not do it when I’m right next to you!? Ah, wait, mistress!?”

“It’s true I am strategically provoking her, but I need you here to act as my shield. Do not forget your rightful role here, my dumbass student.”

“Ha ha ha. Why did I ever think having a second one of her here would improve my situation? This just means I have twice as many nemeses around. I’m so damn stupid.”

Ignoring her student’s nonsense, the black cat witch lightly swung her palette knife.

That was all.

Pleasant popping sounds surrounded them. Something had risen up. They were walls. A lot like a stage set or a pop-up book. The next thing Dion Fortune knew, tall side walls surrounded them all, cutting them off from the larger world. A space larger than a baseball field had been turned into a closed space by seven side walls, one for each group of tall buildings.

Moina Mathers silently glanced at her surroundings. Looking somewhat puzzled.

How much of a novice was she?

You couldn’t call yourself a Golden expert if you didn’t instantly catch on.

“The Golden cabal’s teaching guidelines can be roughly divided into two halves: the fundamentals where you learn magic knowledge through Kabbalah, Egyptian mythology, Greek philosophy, and so on, and application where you manage and optimize your own mind by following the story of the discovery of the Rosicrucian founder CRC in the seven-walled tomb.”

The Golden cabal could be thought of as having two stages: the Outer Order which covered the grades up to 4=7 and the Inner Order where the 5=6 and 6=5 grades gathered.

…Some like that braggart Mathers had claimed to hold a nonexistent highest grade of 7=4, but that could be ignored. After all, he was only using his privilege as one of the founders to say it. You could never last as wife to that eccentric and overly confident man if you couldn’t humor him on such things. There was also the Portal grade and a category higher than the Inner Order, but they were irrelevant here.

“The upper levels know everything about the lower levels, but the reverse is not true. The adorable beginners studying so hard at their desks are not taught the later practical methods until they have passed their exam. Just like you now because the great demon’s poor job reproducing you means you have forgotten everything beyond the bare necessities.”

Now, that first stage was incredibly boring. So boring that Aleister had completely given up on it partway through. Not that he had ever been someone capable of respecting those who came before him and following the rules. …Also, despite being barred from officially reaching the later stage, he did appear to have somehow learned all its secrets anyway.

Otherwise, he never could have challenged the world in the Battle of Blythe Road and destroyed all those other famous magicians on his own.

(Nothing makes that human want to do something more than being told he can’t. I imagine he pursued them, eavesdropped and spied on them, and tried every other method he could think up.)

But at the very least, this created Moina Mathers was not like that.

She did what she was told and did not ask the question dangling before her eyes. That attitude was not a good fit for a magician.

Mina Mathers twirled the palette knife in her hand and made a calm announcement.

Of a death sentence.

“I will now demonstrate the power off the Inner Order found in the deepest depths of the temple.”

===Part 11===

Accelerator was back as Board Chairman.

And with the #1’s Master Key smartphone, they had access to all the data from Academy City’s security cameras, security robots, drones, and satellites. They could use that to find where Great Demon Coronzon was hiding.

The large monitor on the wall had shattered, so the #1 turned his gaze elsewhere. The medical monitors were network connected, so they could be connected to the ordinary internet if their display mode was changed.

And…

“Master?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545’s questioning tone was in response to the Board Chairman’s odd behavior.

He had frozen up.

And the displayed satellite image was not even of Academy City itself.

What part of the earth could he be focused on instead of Coronzon who threatened to bring humanity to extinction today or tomorrow?

“…What?” groaned Accelerator, glaring at the medical monitor.

Whatever it was had elicited that response from Academy City’s #1.

The data filling the screen was only available using the Board Chairman’s Master Key. To reiterate, this was a photo from a satellite.

“What the hell is this?”

===Part 12===

Silence.

Academy City…still existed.

At the very least, it hadn’t been turned into a sea of blood by that powerful spell.

Angelene nervously looked around.

“Is it…over? Does this mean we stopped Saint Georgios’s Fire?”

“For now.”

Lucia remained calm even now.

…They had ''again'' fought back against the Roman Catholic Church, largest of the Christian sects. Who could say what disastrous consequences this would have for them. The very thought of it disgusted Agnese. Each person’s power was small, but they could produce great things by working together. …That idea wasn’t always a good thing.

Still, they should celebrate Academy City’s survival. As the guardians of a peaceful world.

But another voice interrupted.

A scratchy warning arrived from the Japanese angel named Kazakiri.

“Not…yet. Be care…ful…something is…coming!!”

Agnese Sanctis’s eyes widened.

Was it a second attack?

Did the Vatican actually think Coronzon would be destroyed along with Academy City at this point?

“I-it’s not us…”

A flustered voice reached them.

It was that cardinal at the Vatican.

Yes, Cardinal Michael must have taken a rather dangerous step to reach this point.

“We did halt the attack with Saint Georgios’s Fire. The Roman Catholic Church has no part in this! This is some other large-scale spell!!”

===Part 13===

“That’s Vladivostok,” said the Board Chairman. “What are they doing in the Sea of Japan? They have fifty thousand people gathered in that port city. As well as ships and bombers. Did they gather all their forces on the eastern coast while I was asleep!?”

In other words, it was the Russian military.

That brought something to mind for Qliphah Puzzle 545.

Oniyama Rouze, the Director who had pressed her to hand over the Master Key, was familiar with diplomatic and military matters. He may have had avenues of receiving this kind of intelligence without using satellite imagery. He had been so frantic because of an urgent matter that needed to be addressed.

He wasn’t just a bad person.

He had only taken those forceful methods because he was in a bind. Because he had wanted to protect the people of Academy City.

But this was likely more than just the ordinary military.

The demon girl was steeped in the world of magic, so she could tell.

She could sense her true nemesis at work.

===Part 14===

Agnese Sanctis was panicking too.

They had managed at the last second to prevent the Roman Catholic attack with Saint Georgios’s Fire, but the danger wasn’t over yet.

Now there was another threat of the same level.

The last of the three large Christian sects had finally bared its fangs.

“We are the Russian Orthodox Church.”

That was Vasilisa. Her voice was relaxed.

Which was what made her sound so out of place. No disgust, no fury, no resentment. She demonstrated none of the extreme emotions you would expect in someone trying to slaughter 2.3 million people. Not even a hint of them. She was calm. She worked to achieve calm. Vasilisa killed based on logic. Which was far more frightening than someone screaming in a rage.

“Monsters, evil spirits, and demons. Our job is to protect humanity from the inhuman. …So if you wouldn’t call Great Demon Coronzon human, we need no other reason. With that strange creature in a position where she can control the fate of the world, she has become our top priority target.”

Destroying the great demon came before all else.

Thus.

If it would eliminate the demon, it was better to destroy the world by human hands.

Was that how she saw it?

“And so you gathered an armada at Vladivostok?”

“Well, the Punishment for an Archangel spell must have its magic circle physically delivered to the target location. And it’s fairly large and complex, which makes that a challenge. We can’t simply send it through the ley lines like the Catholics could. But hey, at least we can send it zooming across the ocean to Academy City at greater than Mach 2.”

Greater than Mach 2 meant it wasn’t aboard a ship.

Had that armada been gathered at Vladivostok’s naval base as no more than a decoy? The enormous magic circle needed for the Punishment for an Archangel spell was likely in the bomb bay of a strategic bomber.

Agnese glanced aside.

Kazakiri…probably wouldn’t be any help. Besides, she had already done more than enough forcibly deflecting the two billion attacks sent down the ley lines for Saint Georgios’s Fire. No one expected her to fight another battle now.

“But that’s all based on the logic of the magic world. The military pilots doesn’t know nothing about our world, so how did you convince them to fly to certain death?”

“They can’t exactly complain when they can’t think for themselves.”

It came out so smoothly.

Agnese’s eyes widened.

“You brainwashed pilots and sent them on a suicide mission!? That’s no different from killing them yourself. Even if they are soldiers, they’re still from the non-magical world. How can you kill them so easily? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself as a nun who claims to serve the lord!?”

“Divine punishment can be rejected.”

Vasilisa’s tone was unchanged.

It was still thin, spellbound, cruel, and heated.

She had to be smiling.

“It is told in an old legend from before the birth of the Son of God. God ordered Archangel Gabriel to launch fire at a holy city, but the archangel of water intentionally refused. Disobeying god’s command should have meant the archangel’s downfall…but after some other events I will omit here, Gabriel returned to the position of archangel. So if the conditions are right, that absolute punishment can be avoided. There is precedent.”

That was a magical way of thinking.

Magicians loved to make use of any story they found that seemed to provide an exception to the rules.

It was a completely different logic from a nun who was meant to believe and obey.

“In the battle against Coronzon, the Catholics’ human killer is a waste of time. Because a great demon is not human. We completely agree with you there. So unlike your people, the Russian Orthodox Church has prepared an immortal killer specialized for use on angels and demons.”

“Punishment for an Archangel. A divine punishment rejection spell that enters the realm of the angelic and the divine…”

“Yes, that’s right. The archangel of water somehow managed to avoid a punishment from god. Using that story should provide definite damage to a being based on the logic and rules instead of their physical body. There is no guarantee it will kill her instantly, but if it harms her even a little, then we just have to keep at it. It will eventually achieve a fatal wound, so we can keep dropping them until she is dead. No matter how many magicians and bombers we must use up in the process.”

The Russian Orthodox Church had always been more focused on battling demons than humans. Their prized weapon, a spell that incorporated an element of divine punishment rejection that could even influence the nature of an archangel, might be capable of badly injuring Coronzon.

But it would cover all of Academy City. If not more.

And Vasilisa gave no guarantee that Punishment for an Archangel would not harm anyone other than the demon. This attack would be powerful enough to harm Coronzon. If the city’s people were hit, they would fare much worse. Most likely, all 2.3 million of Academy City’s people would be killed.

Agnese consciously took a deep breath to calm the waves of her emotions before speaking.

“But I heard the Patriarch at the top of the Russian Orthodox Church was quite soft.”

“As if you didn’t already know. He doesn’t need to agree to any of this☆”

That meant the world’s benevolence could not stop Vasilisa.

===Part 15===

Mina and Moina’s clash continued in District 7.

Physical fencing was of no use here. Their physical specs were identical, so the battle would never end that way.

An intellectual resolution that surpassed the physical realm was needed.

Painfully brightly colored cards scattered around.

Moina Mathers spoke like a machine.

“Akasha of Prithivi.”

Mina was no longer smiling.

An ultra-high water pressure cutter was deflected aside right in front of her.

Moina’s greatest trump card was not magic – it was fencing. She used her non-magician-like physical strength. If that didn’t work, did she have to rely on her inferior magic?

And Mina didn’t even swing her palette knife around. That magic had still been deflected, so there must be something hidden there. As if it were dissolved in the air.

“The tattva cards are more than just simple tools to help achieve self-hypnosis.”

“…”

“The same goes for clairvoyance. They are truly ''an initial entrance'' for your mind so you can cross the boundary between phases and catch a glimpse of another world. And, if possible, to draw on the power and knowledge filling that world.”

Dion Fortune was on her side, but she was confused too.

Could she at least explain this to her own ally?

The teacher gave a quick glance to her flustered student.

“This is why the magicians who have advanced to 5=6 and joined the Inner Order are given an emblem combining a golden cross and a red rose. That tool bears the four elements and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet…which means you only need to place a thin sheet of paper over it and follow the letters with a single brush stroke to draw the sigils of angels and spirits in order to borrow their power.”

No grand temple was needed.

Mina Mathers only had to operate it in her hand. Just the one hand.

You can think of it like a smartphone that could summon any angel to achieve your goals.

The Golden cabal had in fact used a spiritual item like that.

“Blast her to smithereens, Metatron – the great angel who was once known as Enoch.”

An asteroid strike.

Destruction on that level accurately struck Moina Mathers, crushed her, and smashed her to pieces…but that was all.

“Eh?”

Dion Fortune was confused.

She had seen it with her own eyes.

Yet there was no damage anywhere else. The buildings around them had not toppled, there was no crater around the blast site, and none of the windows were broken.

Moina alone had been annihilated.

Only that result remained.

“That was an attack of a major figure who some count among the seven archangels. The precise divine punishment commanded by god would never harm the blameless, would it? Especially if that side of it were accentuated and extracted.”

“A-are you serious? I was proud of my position as one of the Golden cabal’s original members, but are the founding members really that much stronger?”

Mina didn’t bother answering her student’s silly question.

She could work backwards from the result and learn on her own.

Westcott would have revealed the structure of the enemy’s spell and neutralized it right in front of them, Mathers would have ended the enemy’s life before they could complete their sigil, and Annie would have illicitly boosted the enemy’s power to send their magic out of control. There were countless ways to deal with a single powerful attack with no followup and no bluffs involved.

(That Moina Mathers was an even less complete copy of me than I thought. …Which tells me your preparations weren’t as thorough as you let on, Coronzon.)

“Did you pick up that signal, Anglicans?” Mina Mathers whispered up into the night sky.

She had no obligation to serve the new Board Chairman, but the old Board Chairman had known him.

If he had decided to resist, then she would honor that choice and support him.

As the guardian of Baby Lilith, she couldn’t have the world being destroyed over someone’s selfish nonsense.

(Aleister was certainly a ‘goddamn villain’ if you look at him as a whole, but I will not let anyone say every last part of his life was bad. The things that human thought, created, and started can still lead to the salvation of the world.)

“A broken curse returns to its caster. …So if this opportunity is not overlooked, she can be tracked just this once. Follow the after effect of defeating Moina Mathers and you will find Coronzon.”

===Part 16===

Kanzaki Kaori’s head jerked up to cast her gaze into the night sky.

“District 17?”

===Part 17===

“?”

Great Demon Coronzon had also noticed what was happening.

She was all alone, yet she raised her head.

“Moina Mathers was defeated? That’s not good. A third party could detect that weak return signal!”

She had no further plan.

She knew she was being driven into a corner.

She couldn’t help but smile. Just a little.

Did they think the universally-hated great demon was feeling afraid?

That she was lonely?

…That she wanted someone to protect her?

“''Don’t make me laugh''.”

Those impossible thoughts had been planted in her mind. She had to assume that. She couldn’t stop here. Wasn’t she the one who had decided to overdo the role that had been forced upon her when even her rebellion against god was tacitly allowed?

“So I am not thinking those things. They have no place inside me.”

It was now a pure race against time. Fortunately, she had already left Districts 20 and 9. She was now in District 17, which was lined with factories of all types and sizes. It also bordered the city wall.

This was all over if she simply crossed that.

Once outside of Academy City, she was free. She could cross the international date line and escape to the other side of the planet. Once no one could pursue her any longer, she would get back to destroying the world. Since her pursuers were not here now, no one could stop all that from playing out.

“Try and…stop me.”

Confused and slanted, she practically dragged her heavy body along.

She spoke to herself while approaching the city wall.

It could have sounded like a curse or a prayer.

“Aleister, god, or anyone really. If you can stop me, then come here and do it.”

If her location had been found, so be it.

If she couldn’t do this quietly, then she didn’t need to hold back.

Knowing the best option was no longer available gave her the freedom to abandon it. Either way, the goal line was in sight. She knew the rest was going to be a challenge, but she only needed to buy enough time to cross that wall.

So she would use a powerful move.

“District 19 is to the east and District 20 is to the west… Which makes them a symbol of Nuit, goddess of the east-to-west movement of the heavens.”

This night had been nothing but surprises for Great Demon Coronzon. She had expected it to end quickly with the initial Adikalika spell working.

“District 3 is to the north. You say that doesn’t fit Hadit, who means the southern sky? But do not forget: Hadit’s symbol Sirius is a winter star. The time and place link Hadit and Nuit. My spell shall be completed with the blessings of Set.”

So the path she had taken here had not all gone as planned.

But because she was a great demon, she could draw on a powerful move like this at the worst possible time.

“Take form and manifest yourself before me already, LAShTAL.”

===Part 18===

District 17 was adjacent to District 9 where Kamijou’s group was.

It also bordered the city wall. It was an industrial area filled with all sorts of unmanned factories.

Itsuwa nervously stepped forward.

“It won’t take long if we drive. We can still catch up to her!”

“It’s been a while since we lost track of her at the stadium, hasn’t it? If she was hiding in a district bordering the wall, why didn’t she go ahead and escape the city?”

Kamijou didn’t have enough information to answer the question Mikoto asked while bothered by the short length of her skating dress.

He assumed something must have happened.

If the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force hadn’t done anything to slow her, then there had to be some other reason. Maybe Aleister had resisted her from within and maybe Coronzon herself had felt some kind of reluctance to leave.

“Whatever the case, she’s in District 17. Now that we know where she is, there’s no reason to wait arou-”

He didn’t even have time to finish.

A tremor shook the ground.

Something was approaching. From the south. Which meant from District 17.

It was a shape that colored the night sky.

It was a colossus. Its head really did stick up above the surrounding skyscrapers. Was it a canine beast? No, was that really enough to describe it? Kamijou couldn’t find an answer even while looking at it himself.

“LAShTAL!?”

“Tch. The foundational theory of Magick. The emphasized letters make that clear enough. She took a spell concerning life and used it to create an artificial form of it. In this case, it may be a Crowley-style interpretation of the Egyptian god Set!”

“You mean the god of the night who has the power to slay gods!?”

Index, Anna Sprengel, and Kanzaki were all shouting something, but Kamijou didn’t know enough about magic to make sense of it. He could only glean that this was probably something big. And if that great demon was making use of it, she may have been intentionally using it wrong.

And now wasn’t the time to ask for an explanation.

He felt the wind pressure. He shouldn’t have looked that way. His entire body was frozen with fear. A building of more than 30 floors, which had seemed like an unshakable part of the scenery, wobbled diagonally and then came crashing down toward the street. Which meant toward him and the others.

“Take shelter!! Get behind something – anything – to shield you!!”

Kanzaki’s sharp command broke the pointy-haired boy’s paralysis. He pressed up against a nearby cement block wall.

(Damn, where are Index, Misaka, and the others!?)

“If you would like your lungs to remain undamaged, do not breathe in, human! Here it comes!!”

Othinus hid within his jacket.

Kamijou was of course wondering why he was supposed to get “behind” something. And what was that about breathing? If the building was falling this way, shouldn’t he get “below” something? But he was given an answer soon enough.

Once the skyscraper sliced through the main street, something like dirty cotton candy swelled out. Past the end of the cement block wall, the entire main street was instantly engulfed.

Tens or hundreds of thousands of tiny glass and concrete shards flew through like a deadly sandstorm. A hit from that wouldn’t just have torn his feet from the ground and thrown him dozens of meters through the air – it would have stripped the flesh from his bones, leaving nothing recognizable behind.

''Except even that idea didn’t cover it.

Kamijou heard a quiet popping sound in his head. Followed by a sharp ringing in his ear like something had pierced into his brain. He had avoided a direct hit from the sandstorm by getting behind this wall. He had been leaning against it. Yet, he couldn’t stay on his feet and slid down into a sitting position. Before collapsing onto his side.

The air pressure of the entire space was off. How could he possibly evade this?

“Gah…ah…”

The pain meant he was still alive. So he had to think of it as a good thing.

He thought the deadly gale continued blowing for more than two minutes.

He couldn’t let this continue. That LAShTAL thing was still swinging its colossal body around. More than one building might have been felled.

He had to get moving.

He knew where he needed to go, but his body refused to listen as he lay collapsed on the ground stained by red snow.

What had happened to Index and Misaka Mikoto?

His hearing still hadn’t recovered, so he was late to realize something had exploded within the pile of rubble. Maybe a propane tank had been enveloped by it all.

When his hearing did recover, someone’s shouting voice belatedly reached him.

“Touma! Are you alright? You weren’t crushed by that debris, were you!? Please answer me!!”

He sat up. He gritted his teeth and forced himself.

He had to answer her.

“I’m…fine, Index. What about you!?”

“We’re fine too. We’re checking each other’s status with our communication spiritual items and phones.”

She was safe. Like she should be. But then why couldn’t he see her for himself?

After dragging himself along and peeking out past the half-destroyed concrete wall, Kamijou understood.

They were cut off. The main street was unrecognizable. Rubble was piled up higher than a five story building. That was more than a school building. They couldn’t climb that. And even approaching it could get them crushed by something like a landslide.

Kamijou was the only one on this side.

Which meant he was the only one who could pursue Great Demon Coronzon right away.

He felt another deep vertical tremor. LAShTAL(?) must have destroyed another skyscraper or large factory.

That thing’s chaotic rampage could threaten the lives that had just been saved. Kamijou clenched his right fist, but then he heard another voice.

Was that Misaka Mikoto?

“Go! Hurry! If whoever is free to go doesn’t stop that Coronzon person right now, things will only get worse, right? So go!!”

He wanted to stay.

Not just communicate by shouting past rubble and using phones. He wanted to see their faces to know they were safe. That perfectly normal thought grabbed at him like countless unseen hands and tugged him back.

Don’t do the right thing.

Give into the kindness and split your focus.

(I won’t…let you do that, Coronzon!!)

“Can you take care of that thing? Index! Misaka!!”

“Touma, LAShTAL is not Coronzon’s final trump card. She must have loads more. We’ll do what we can here, so you go stop her!!”

“I don’t get it myself, but listen to her. The fighting will never stop if you don’t defeat the source of it all, right? Then put a stop to this before any more of the city is destroyed!!”

He shook off his hesitation.

Coronzon tore people apart and obstructed their evolution.

There was only one way to defeat her: to trust those you could believe in without hesitation.

So Kamijou turned his back on the pile of rubble and took off running.

Even if he had to grit his teeth as he did so.

Something exploded in the distance. Several beams of light flashed out. Was that people using magic or esper powers to battle the giant blue shadow called LAShTAL? Their survival was not guaranteed and taking a single attack could mean their deaths. Even so, they were fighting so Kamijou could head to Coronzon and so they could protect Academy City and the wider world beyond its walls.

His trust was being repaid. This was what it meant to protect the bonds that tied people together.

===Part 19===

And Misaka Mikoto spoke quietly in a dusty enclosed space.

Was it even five meters across?

“Ha ha. I guess this is the end…”

“Short Hair. There are gaps all over the place, so we shouldn’t have to worry about air.”

“Finally some good news.”

But there were no gaps large enough for a person to crawl through.

“Why not at least let the kitty leave? There’s no reason to keep him here. I emit weak electromagnetic waves that animals don’t like, so it’s probably uncomfortable for him to be in here with me.”

“I’ve been trying, but Sphinx won’t go.”

The world shook. Small pieces of building materials poured down like sand.

If the pile of rubble collapsed for some reason, they would be crushed by tens of thousands of tons of concrete and killed instantly. Misaka Mikoto could control electricity and magnetism, but wielding that strength in a delicate situation like this would only hasten their deaths. Giant robots were powerful and cool, but no one would want to be so up close and personal with one of their joints that they were crushed by it. This was the same.

This was the truth of their earlier shouting.

They had not been calling out to the boy from the other side of the collapsed building. They had been been hit by the falling building. Misaka Mikoto’s magnetic control had stripped it of much of its force, but they and their shield had still been swallowed up by the rubble.

The #3’s power was great, but if she used it continuously over a long time, she could run out of stamina. Relying on magnetism for too long would be risky. So their best option was to stay put and wait for rescue. …Assuming rescue was even coming, of course.

Misaka Mikoto smiled a little.

“Well, it’s not like we could’ve told him we were trapped in the rubble.”

And Kamijou Touma couldn’t have accomplished anything had he stayed. He did seem to have some kind of mysterious power, but nothing she had seen led her to believe it would let him clear tens of thousands of tons of rubble on his own. And if he did try to tackle the rubble pile, it could collapse and crush him too.

Their top priority was Great Demon Coronzon.

That was all the more clear to her now that her life was at risk.

It was bad enough this was happening in Academy City. She couldn’t let the entire world turn to rubble like this.

“We’re counting on you. And I mean that.”

“Don’t worry. Touma can handle it.”

===Part 20===

“Pant, gasp…”

Great Demon Coronzon breathed heavily as she stood firm on the red snowy ground.

But the snow wasn’t the only source of red.

Crimson blood spilled from her mouth.

(This is the natural cost of forcing a major spell like that with no real preparation. I doubt I can use LAShTAL again.)

LAShTAL was powerful but would be defeated eventually. If that were enough to destroy all of humanity, she wouldn’t have relied on Adikalika.

But buying her some time was enough.

She couldn’t even stand up straight as she walked toward the thick city wall on unsteady legs.

(I…may not make it to the next world… the ways things are going.)

She wiped the blood from her mouth and thought without speaking aloud.

(But I will still stop this world from helplessly rotting away… Yes, yes. For the sake of that boy who said I was on the side of good and righteousness.)

She didn’t have Moina Mathers or LAShTAL anymore. Her win condition was escaping. Her own survival was what mattered. Each individual trump card wasn’t too important. It was using them together that mattered.

She just had to make it over.

If she could cross that wall, then the world’s doom was assured.

“…”

For just a moment, her thoughts turned to someone who wasn’t here.

She nearly came to a stop.

Hamazura Shiage.

…But she shook free of it with her will. He had said himself that she was ''on the side of good and righteousness''. He had asked if he had been wrong to bet on her.

She was a great demon.

If any kind feelings and warm emotions were ''unnaturally'' welling up with in her, someone else had to be interfering. No longer would she be god’s plaything. She had chosen to ''overdo'' her role and destroy the world. She would not allow any obstacles turning her aside from that goal.

She was not human. So she could leap over that tall wall in a single bound.

So she did so.

And she exploded.

“!?”

She lost her balance mid-jump, but she didn’t have time for surprise.

A platform the size of a domed stadium sat just outside the wall. Wasn’t that a spiritual item called the Tribikos? But wait. Who was it that used that?

She did not have time to think.

She had viewed it as a platform.

Because someone else had kicked off of it to rush toward her. His cane extended unnaturally. No, he was drawing a sword. The bare blade sliced through the air, accurately targeting her neck.

Several lights flashed out and explosive booms erupted out as well, but Coronzon managed to survive.

It was a close thing, though. It had taken everything she had to survive.

Aradia.

Good, Old Mary.

And H.T. Trismegistus.

…No, it wasn’t just them. Mut Thebes, 2nd Saga, Vidhatri even though she had been near death, and more. These Transcendents had gathered at Alice’s summons, lost faith in her, and scattered from Academy City, so why were they back in the city?

Vidhatri sounded a bit irritated as she spoke.

“I was one of the Killers when it came to Kamijou Touma, but a debt is a debt. I can return to business as usual after repaying all of my debts.”

“I was barely away and now Vidhatri has fallen too?”

Mut Thebes’s unnecessary comment began a minor argument among the Transcendents.

“(As usual, mama ends up doing all the work. The healer never does get a chance to rest.)”

Coronzon’s head was boiling with rage after being pushed back, falling on the inside of the wall, and finding herself bound to Academy City once more.

“Damn you… Damn all of you!!” she roared.

Something wasn’t right.

She was unsteady on her feet.

That explosion had caused more damage than she had thought.

Was that just what happened when Transcendents gathered? If only they hadn’t caught her when she was magically defenseless thanks to the recoil of using LAShTAL.

But even so, how had this sad result even happened?

Before Coronzon had regained control of her body, Aleister had used this exact same body to easily defeat Transcendents like Vidhatri. That meant the great demon did have the power to do so. So why wasn’t this going the way she expected? How could they look down on her like this!?

(Are you tripping me up again, Aleister!?)

“I thought you had despaired in this world!! I thought you cursed the god who refuses to save people!! Your motivations always began with wanting to protect some specific group. You must have seen the moment when their protections failed and they were lost! But you were weak and foolish, so you feared Alice’s tyranny and relied on the fantasy of CRC!!! So why would you cling to this world now? This world can be remade!! Destroy it and remake it and all that tragedy and misfortune will be eliminated!!!”

“The answer to that is simple,” replied Aradia.

Good, Old Mary continued with a calm expression.

“Mama and the others did not cast aside our identities and dress up as gods so we could protect the vague and formless framework of the world. We just have to destroy the world? …The world is no more than a tool to create happiness and the death of even one person we wish to protect is too many. Can’t you figure that out, you fool?”

“So what?”

The great demon was trembling.

Why couldn’t they understand something so simple? Her face twisted in rage.

“Be that as it may!! None of that will eliminate the unjust and unreasonable sides of this world. You must understand that. More and more of the people you want to protect are being lost ''regardless of anything I am doing''. Protecting this rotten world will not change the number of victims! You will only continue seeing those people die in your arms!!”

“That is none of your business.”

2nd Saga, the young woman with her origins in Norse mythology who took a different approach from the other Transcendents, sighed in exasperation.

H.T. Trismegistus spoke.

“Common sense says we Transcendents should think for ourselves to reach an answer. Fortunately, this world you consider so rotten has shown us some small reason for hope.”

===Part 21===

A bit earlier, Alice Anotherbible left the others searching for Coronzon and ran to a completely different place.

She didn’t think the current plan would work.

Kamijou and the others had done nothing wrong, but it wasn’t enough. And battles were not won by the purity of one’s intentions. Even with the purest of intentions, you would still lose if you failed to meet the necessary conditions.

She hadn’t wanted that to happen.

No matter what.

So Alice had detected something other than Coronzon.

Someone closer to her who she could search out at any time.

“Everyone, the girl needs something!!”

The small girl yelled up toward the heavens.

She wasn’t using her physical voice, of course. Anyone with the proper qualifications could sense this voice even if they were on the other side of the planet. The magic power placed behind her voice ensured it.

Even as she yelled, Alice Anotherbible remembered.

She had been so selfish.

She had only been able to communicate with the regular Transcendents by terrifying them.

When Kamijou Touma had been injured at the Bridge Builders Cabal’s consulate, she had attacked H.T. Trismegistus and Good, Old Mary.

Maybe it was wrong to try and get their help now.

But she had no one else to rely on.

Alice wouldn’t blame them if they abandoned her.

Still, it felt wrong for him – for Kamijou Touma – to be harmed by a punishment meant for her.

“The girl can destroy! The girl can kill! The girl can doom! Nothing in this world can stand up to the girl!! …But the girl’s power can’t protect her teacher. So the girl is useless here. She needs your help!”

They were listening of course.

The Transcendents knew.

They were right outside the city wall. Maybe among the trees of a forest, maybe at the top of a metal tower, maybe seated on the bench of a rusty old bus stop.

They had lost faith in Alice Anotherbible, but a Transcendent was a magician who would save anyone who met the salvation conditions they had decided on. Despite saying they were leaving Academy City, not a one of them had truly abandoned it. They didn’t care what someone’s affiliations were. Whether enemy or ally, as long as someone matched the salvation conditions, they would protect them even at the cost of their own life. So…as long as that applied to even a single person among Academy City’s 2.3 million, they would never abandon the city and run away.

So they were present for that moment.

That tyrant Alice had remembered basic human gratitude. That acted as powerful reins for the girl herself. And as long as she could control her own emotions, perhaps she would be different from CRC who had been similarly capricious and playful.

It was by no means a small change.

If the old Alice didn’t have enough help, she might have multiplied her extraordinary self. That might sound ridiculous, but with her it was possible.

But now she knew that wouldn’t work.

She needed the diversity of people who had abilities she lacked.

Alice was not gathering up the people she needed.

She was trying to become someone the people around her needed.

“The girl will do anything. The girl will do anything you ask and she doesn’t care how you use her power. You can tell her to die if you want!! …So! So don’t let Coronzon leave the city!!”

And the Transcendents knew this would not be a wasted effort. A boy had stopped Alice’s rampage even though it cost him his life. The little tyrant had taken that fact to heart. The Transcendents had lost faith in Alice because she had changed, been distorted, become weak. Or so they thought, but now they were willing to consider a different possibility.

Was Kamijou Touma the key? Not even the Transcendents who had been observing Alice for so long could predict what she would do now.

Could they really say Alice Anotherbible wasn’t growing?

Now that they had seen her pouring everything into bowing her head to someone else…

Was she not worth their respect?

And if Alice’s change was a positive form of growth, could they maybe still have some hope? The idea of saving the world through CRC, Christian Rosencreutz, was dead. He had not been the saint they expected. …But could they maybe find some other way of saving the world with Alice?

Alice Anotherbible raised her tear-streaked face.

“The girl is sorry, everyone… But can the girl ask for just one more thing?”

Was this the leader the Transcendents should serve?

No, she wasn’t.

They listened to her words as an equal companion.

“Join the girl in the fight to save her teacher and the world!!!”

No words were necessary.

They used their actions to answer her.

===Part 22===

LAShTAL’s rampage continued.

The Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force were all fighting.

Kamijou ran toward District 17. He hated that he didn’t know how to drive. Especially when grownups did it without even thinking about it. Of course, the red snow was frozen solid across the entire area. High schoolers were allowed to get a motorcycle license, but even that wouldn’t have done him much good here. Still.

While those meaningless thoughts were spinning through his mind, a stabbing headache crashed into his brain.

An invisible dizziness made the world spin around him.

This wasn’t the first time.

(Why…now?)

Kamijou Touma groaned.

And staggered to the side.

“Gh…”

A lengthy fight tonight had been suicide from the beginning.

He had passed his body’s limits way back when he fought Coronzon to stop Adikalika. He had lost there. It was just that it hadn’t ended there, so he had been forced to keep going in a sudden death round. How could he expect to save anyone like this?

(Just a bit more…a bit longer… Only five or ten minutes! Index and Misaka believed in me. They’re all fighting. Because they believe I can do this!! So can’t you keep going just a little longer, my body!?)

But he did not collapse.

Because as he started to fall forward, someone caught him.

He heard a voice.

The strange girl’s voice sounded simultaneously childlike and grown up.

“You really are…”

But most of all, it sounded sad.

“…allllllways like this, aren’t you? It’s like you never give your wounds a chance to heal or like you spend more days hurt than healthy.”

Who was she?

He didn’t ''think'' he knew her.

The girl wore mourning clothes and her long honey-blonde hair blew in the night breeze.

Maybe he had met her before, but he had no memory of her. Who could she be? He couldn’t find a single answer there.

“Who…?”

“I could tell you my name a billion times over and you would never remember. But maybe my esper name could stick in your mind: Mental Out.”

Academy City’s #5 Level 5.

The greatest psychological power: Mental Out.

He had heard of that. ''But only as a rumor.

If that was who she was…

If that legend was now standing before him in physical form…

His mouth felt awfully dry. No, was it just sticky with drying blood?

Kamijou somehow got the word out.

“Then…”

“Interested in forgetting it all and leaving the fight?”

“…Please. I don’t care if it’s only a trick, just do something about the pain. If you do, then I can face Coronzon…”

“Now I really do want to make you forget it all and leave the fight.”

She sounded exasperated.

And she glared at him fairly seriously.

But the honey-blonde girl hugged his head to her chest and smiled in a way that seemed to say ''she hadn’t expected anything else.

The conversation smoothly continued.

She seemed to be pouting her lips like a small child. And what was with the TV remote?

“Mental Out is a psychological power. It can erase the pain, but it has no healing ability for the physical wounds. It’s more like your body continues to send out all the intense pain signals, but your mind ability can’t sense them. Your organs will still be putting out different hormones in response to your wounds, so they could get worn out and damaged. Do you still want to do this?”

“Yes…”

“No touching your head after this, okay?”

“''Thanks''.”

Time froze for a moment.

The look on the honey-blonde girl’s face said she had never in her long life expected to hear that word directed at her.

“Saving the world isn’t my style.”

The boy wasn’t looking at her face.

His eyes were directed straight ahead, toward the goal he had already chosen.

“This is the last time the city you call home will be destroyed like this. I don’t know what it is you care for, but if it’s in this city, then it’s safe. I’ll protect all of it.”

“You dummy.”

Kamijou Touma took off running.

Without looking back.

So he could settle things with Great Demon Coronzon once and for all.

===Part 23===

He was in District 17.

It was the westernmost district in Academy City. It was an industrial area and the smokestacks of its wide variety of unmanned factories continued to release smoke that had been thoroughly scrubbed of pollutants making it “cleaner than the moldy and dusty air conditioner in your home”.

The district also bordered the city wall.

Cross that wall and you would find a vast forest and mountains. The green roof covered an area of more than ten kilometers across, so satellites and drones would have no way of finding a fugitive there.

Kamijou Touma knew his body was in bad shape.

But he was pretty sure the same applied to that unsteady figure over there.

He had found her.

There she was.

A lot had happened during this one night. Most likely, the efforts and actions of far more people than he was aware had been intertwined. Complexly so.

But that was why he had arrived in time for this final moment.

She was still inside the wall.

“Coronzon…”

When he called that name, the figure shook. She could hear him. He had made it close enough for his physical voice to reach her. If he didn’t stop her now, he was sure she would escape into the outside world.

He wouldn’t let that happen.

Kamijou Touma called out again.

“Great Demon Coronzon.”

Slowly.

She turned around.

Her body in the beige habit was tilted at an angle.

He could smell blood… Her long, long blonde hair was a mess. She held her head with a hand and forcibly kept herself upright as she glared at him.

With thoroughly bloodshot eyes.

“Kami…jou…Touma.”

That wasn’t anger?

Something was off. Coronzon had so arrogantly rebelled against heaven, yet now she was shrinking down as if afraid of something. She looked like a fugitive at her wit’s end.

“Do you really think you can defeat me? Have you even once found victory against me by sticking to your own will through to the end!? You may think you have me cornered, but it is you who will be crushed. Lament your misfortune for meeting me here, Kamijou Touma!!”

That was probably true.

But Kamijou Touma wasn’t looking at Great Demon Coronzon.

He was focused on something else.

No matter how he tried to disguise it with his words, defeating Coronzon would also mean attacking Aleister.

Aleister had failed to restrain her. He wouldn’t last.

Then what did he hope for? To defeat the being who had once torn apart his family? For the living Baby Lilith to remain in this world?

Whatever the case, idealism would only eradicate that human’s hopes. The power to destroy illusions could not save him.

So Kamijou had to think. What could he do here?

The words spilled from his mouth.

“Hey, can I rely on you here?”

He had to stop Coronzon.

He could not let this opportunity escape.

So.

“Let’s win this together, Aleister.”

There was no obvious physical voice.

But a much too unnatural heartbeat did ring out into the world.

Kamijou took that as an answering voice.

Saying, “Attack me along with her.”

Coronzon doubled over in pain.

She was probably coughing blood into the hand over her mouth.

…They didn’t need to exchange many words. It hadn’t really been all that long since they first met in person, but Kamijou sensed a bond beyond the need for words with Aleister.

That was a bond that Coronzon had failed to tear apart.

And it was a bond that Kamijou would soon be severing himself.

No matter what excuses he made.

===Part 24===

The boy clenched his right fist harder and harder.

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter2|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter4}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume14 Chapter3

2025-12-29T20:06:00Z

Massify: /* Part 15 */

==Chapter 3: Which Side is Winning? – Scoreboard.==

===Part 1===

Around when she abandoned the stolen car, her memory cut out again.

“…”

The next thing she knew, Coronzon was leaning against a cold building wall.

Something had happened.

Aleister had done something.

She had traveled south from District 20 to reach District 9, which contained art schools. The Anglicans were mostly in the north of the city, so she abandoned the stolen car and had planned to take another car (also stolen of course) to reach the southern wall.

But she couldn’t trust in that plan anymore.

She ran her hands along her habit. Pathetically driven by fear and anxiety. She pulled an object smaller than her palm from a fairly unspeakable part of her clothing,.

She couldn’t believe it.

(A wireless game controller? That means it has its own ID and can produce its own signal to provide its location.)

“Y-you would forestall a great demon with this…this piece of junk that doesn’t even cost 5000 yen!? Are you kidding me, Aleisterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!?”

A shape squirmed. And produced a short scream.

No, was that a man forcing himself onto a girl?

An outfit that looked on the border between at-home clothing and sleepwear had been badly torn and the man was reaching for her underwear.

''Perfect.

That was wandering Coronzon’s honest assessment.

It was happening in a small boxlike building.

An Anti-Skill station. A small one. Around the size of what would be called a police box in the outside world.

This was happening there of all places. That public structure should have had someone working in it 365 days a year to keep the city’s peace, but today it had been empty.

With his hands pinning the girl to the floor, the man wasn’t sure how to undo his belt buckle. He raised his head with an odd expression that stuck out his chin more than necessary.

“Huh? Who the hell’re you?”

She didn’t even respond.

Great Demon Coronzon stabbed her hand right through the center of the scum’s gut.

The odor of blood splattered out.

“Bhee, ee, eeeeeeeeeek!!”

He audibly slammed into the shelves behind him and objects came crashing down.

The man of no consequence scrambled out of the Anti-Skill station, his arms flailing wildly.

With his abdominal cavity punctured and a game controller directly stuck inside. Surgical hygiene? Why should Coronzon care about something like that? His bacteria-covered organs might shut down before long, but he would act as a nice decoy as long as he scrambled around and fled before that happened.

In something of a new habit, she held a hand to her woozy head and belatedly realized her hand was stained by that scum’s unclean blood. Everything seemed to piss her off right now. Nothing was going her way.

She lashed out vocally.

“Aleister!! That death is on your hands for that trick you pulled. Are you satisfied? It’s absurd for you to try and save the world. Hee hee, ha ha ha. You’re the one who made the world this way! So give up! You already know everything you do only comes back to bite you!!”

Even so, how many times was it now?

…Or was it really Aleister’s will sending these signs to Kamijou Touma and the other pursuers? Did he really have enough strength to hijack Great Demon Coronzon’s body this many times?

Was it possible she was sending these hints to her pursuers herself? She shuddered. No, it wasn’t possible. How would that benefit her? But could it be a self-destructive desire like the urge people felt to activate a fire alarm when they saw one?

Coronzon clenched her hair tight in her hand. An unpleasant snapping sound followed.

She couldn’t get a read on her own mind anymore.

“U-um.”

It was then that someone nervously spoke to her. The girl seated on the floor looked up at her, completely forgetting to fix her clothing.

With admiration in her eyes.

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Um, thank you…f-for saving me.”

Great Demon Coronzon doubled over and held a hand to her mouth.

She retched.

She couldn’t stand any more of this. Before the girl could say anything more, Coronzon got her unsteady body moving, rushing out of the station. The great demon ''had fled''.

She walked a few meters and then stumbled. She fell down onto the red snow frozen on the ground.

She lay in the snow as thoughts spiraled through her head.

This was wasn’t right.

What was going on?

She had just jabbed her hand right into the gut of an ordinary man who had no connection to magic. With enough force to take his life. And only so she could embed the signal to her location inside his body. There may have been another way, but she had chosen that one so she could enjoy it.

It had been for her. It had been a cruel act of violence befitting a demon.

…But had she ended up saving a life?

Impossible.

She had been acting of her own free will.

She was certain of that.

And yet the result had so completely betrayed her expectations?

Her bad deed had been remade into a good one.

It was the ultimate outrage.

(Was it an act of…)

The being known as a great demon hatefully clenched her back teeth.

Sweat poured from her brow. She had a terrible feeling about this.

A wireless game controller? Those weren’t too unusual, but ''where had Aleister gotten one in the few seconds he had taken control''? She doubted he had forced his way into an electronics shop with its metal shutter down for the night. He wouldn’t have had time to search through the game shelf in a discount shop. Did that mean someone had ''just so happened'' to drop one on the side of the street? …Had it been ''a complete coincidence'' as if some greater will were at work?

(Did an act of god transform what I did? Is a good influence distorting my actions? It’s too late, world. Do you really expect me to go along with that? I will take things! ''Too far''!! And destroy the world of my own free will!!!)

===Part 2===

An alarm blared in the District 10 prison.

Telling of an oddity in the same prison.

Someone had already broken in.

“Is it Oniyama!?”

“No, he would have used his authority as a Director to use the proper channels for a visit. This is someone else, so be careful!”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 left the cell while listening to the female secretary speaking over the device on the wall.

The enemy was close.

As close as the corridor leading to the solitary confinement cell hidden deep inside the prison. The silver-haired, dark-skinned woman wore a patchwork of rags that did not look at all hygienic. She was alone. She was even barefoot. An ordinary jailer might tilted their head wondering how she had made it inside such a strictly guarded prison.

But Qliphah Puzzle 545 understood magic too well for that.

She accurately grasped the threat standing before her.

“One of the Anglican’s magicians specialized in anti-magician combat!?”

“I am Necromancer Isabella Theism. You should already know that name after I threatened the city’s leader.”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was dumbfounded. This prison’s security had already proven itself unable to keep out uninvited guests and now someone like this had made it in?

“The entrance back there was covered by a shocking number of sensors, but they’re only designed to detect living intruders. I recommend tweaking it to detect and instantly attack corpses as well. It’s not that hard to disguise yourself as one.”

“Why are you here? The Anglicans know all about the battle against Coronzon, so you should know my master is in no condition to talk.”

“So I’ve heard. Although I wasn’t around for that part since I was knocked out while dealing with ''some other business''. Regardless, if what I have heard is true, we really are in a grave situation. Right now, I think it is most necessary that we defeat Great Demon Coronzon and bring stability back to the world.”

“Then go tell that to Coronzon, not my master!”

“Oh, do you know where she is?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 fell silent.

Isabella breathed a sigh thick with exasperation.

“That is the real question. What I need right now is information and a few coincidental hints just aren’t enough. A vast network has been laid out across Academy City: security cameras, security robots, drones, satellites, and so on. Tracking her requires bringing the city’s data infrastructure back to full functionality. And it if is necessary to settle things with Coronzon…as much as I hate to, what choice do I have but to save your new Board Chairman? I can’t have him go on sleeping with the Master Key clutched in his hand.”

“…”

Isabella Theism seemed unbothered by Qliphah Puzzle 545’s skeptical look.

The look on her face said she had expected it.

Not long before, she had been in charge of the group physically taking control of Academy City and attempting to use the city as a disposable tool to defeat Coronzon. It would be weird if Qliphah Puzzle 545 did trust her right away.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 glared at her and asked a question.

“Your clothes reek of death. You’re that necromancer who was arguing with my master over the phone… Can a death magician really heal a living human?”

Isabella Theism grabbed her rags in her hands and lifted them upwards. All at once.

She was wearing underwear below, but it was very thin and small.

Two healthy brown objects jiggled there.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was a girl, but she still flinched back at being shown this all of a sudden.

“Uh?”

“Take a close look. My ribs and sternum were badly broken and one sharp bone fragment pierced my right lung. Can you see any of that? What’s your assessment?”

“You have all your ribs and there’s no bruising from internal bleeding. It’s all been healed?”

When the demon girl approached and took a close look, Isabella averted her eyes awkwardly.

Apparently this was embarrassing for her after all.

“Loko Atisou. There is more to Voodoo than making zombies. It is a polytheistic religion with all sorts of gods, so it of course has a god of medicine.”

Just like any other religion, Voodoo also functioned to govern and help the local people. The violent and combative side was only meant for emergencies when the group as a whole was attacked by an external enemy or a rebellion. That wasn’t all it could do.

It had not been invented for use in horror movies, so there was a benevolent Voodoo that listened to the people’s worries and healed their injuries and disease.

Healing was a challenging territory for Demon Qliphah Puzzle 545 who specialized in the Qliphoth that contained all that was impure and immoral. She would have to start with a curse or an attack and then build it in reverse. Needing to include that conversion in every single step meant it would be much faster to borrow the power of a god who directly dealt in medicine.

Isabella concluded her valid evidence had been accepted, so she lowered her rags.

“I am willing to view you as a magic side doctor. And I understand how this aligns with your interests. So where will you start, witch doctor?”

“Well, I do have a few things on hand. Zombie powder, for example.”

“Z-zombie powder!?”

Despite being a demon, Qliphah Puzzle 545’s eyes bulged at the mere mention of that name. But Isabella Theism sighed in exasperation.

“Voodoo zombie powder…well, real Voodoo prefers to use French more than English. But anyway, it isn’t a toxin sprinkled on a rotting corpse to control it.”

She seemed to be implying that she did not use real Voodoo.

No matter how much she knew about it, she was only illicitly using their excellent techniques.

“It is a punishment in which a living human is put in a state of living death where they cannot think or make any decisions and will do whatever they are told. So you can think of it as a medicine used ''to prevent someone from dying'' until their punishment is complete.”

“You mean like how the highly toxic digitalis can also be used as a cardiac stimulant?”

“And in the other direction, salt and sugar can kill despite being necessary nutrients for life. The materials themselves are neither good nor bad. It all comes down to how they are used.”

===Part 3===

An ambulance echoed through one corner of District 20.

Kamijou glanced in its direction.

Takitsubo Rikou…couldn’t go any further. With the frozen snow, the dead traffic signals, and the more concrete threat of the scouts, he was thankful the ambulance had actually come when they called.

A large dog hopped into the same ambulance.

“I will go with her.”

“Hey, are you sure about that?”

“I am not much help without the A.A.A. And Coronzon will be cautious of my wonderful nose now that I have demonstrated its use. There is nothing left for me to do on the front line. So I wish to contribute by removing this worry from your hearts, allowing you to move more freely. Listen to me. Do not worry about this girl any longer.”

Kamijou and the others could only watch the ambulance go.

There was still more they had to do.

But…

“We have a report regarding the entertainment location signal presumed to be a sign from Aleister. Unfortunately, it was found embedded in some man. So back to square one.”

“Hey, that doesn’t tell us nothing. If we know what path the dying decoy took, we should be able to figure out where he contacted Coronzon.”

This was all they had to discuss on their way to a corner of District 9.

It was now 3 AM.

This was where they had lost Coronzon’s trail.

Kamijou Touma sighed softly while listening to Kanzaki and Othinus’s discussion.

All they could do was wait.

Nothing pained Kamijou more than having nothing to do when he knew Coronzon was even now on the move. It was all over once she crossed the wall somewhere and left the city. Yet the city was too large to search at random.

He had decided he wouldn’t just wait around, but the physical reality wasn’t cooperating with his personal wishes.

Index, Kanzaki, and some others were apparently running a magical search, but that still wasn’t enough to track down Coronzon.

They needed to go after her from the science side as well, but Mikoto alone wasn’t enough.

Simply tracking down the fugitive was hard enough on its own, but Kamijou couldn’t shake the feeling that Coronzon was still hiding something. Some powerful move or sudden twist he never would have considered. Something they couldn’t even imagine while continuing to wander through this labyrinth, but also something that would again overturn everything if they failed to prevent it.

Kamijou Touma’s thoughts turned to a certain individual.

Perhaps it was all reliant on ''him'' recovering…

===Part 4===

In the prison’s solitary confinement cell, Board Chairman Accelerator was lying in bed unconscious and hooked up to medical equipment. Even Academy City’s #1 would be killed by an attack now. It was unusual for Qliphah Puzzle 545 to bring an outsider this deep into the prison at all.

That outsider was Necromancer Isabella Theism.

The current situation required going beyond the usual.

“How exactly are you going to heal my master?”

“Legba Atibon.”

That was all she said.

It was the name of a gatekeeper god who managed all ceremonies. So no matter which god’s power the ceremony was meant to borrow, you first sought the gatekeeper god’s permission. And because he appeared in all ceremonies, there were no specific dates or locations that boosted his power.

Something emerged from Accelerator’s arm.

It was a transparent shard only a few millimeters long. A piece of a broken LCD monitor.

More followed. Like floating leaves following a river’s current, more and more shards silently slid out of his body.

Not a single drop of blood was shed and no apparent wounds were made.

Even though all these shards were located in extremely dangerous position near major arteries and organs.

“Y-you’re already done!?”

“They did not belong and the human body has several functions meant to automatically eliminate such things. There was no need for dangerous surgery. I only had to make some adjustments to those functions.”

Of course, thoughtlessly boosting them would have only triggered rejection, where his own immune system attacked his body. Only a professional necromancer with sufficient training could pull this off.

Isabella sighed softly.

“You know glass shards aren’t enough to keep a human mind locked away indefinitely, don’t you? Another task is even more important.”

“Breaking the curse.”

“Voodoo can handle that easily. A zombie is in a controllable state of living death by stopping the heart with a poison and then restarting it with an antidote. Antidotes and curse breaking are built into the ceremony.”

As she spoke, Isabella stuck her fingers into the seams of her rags. She pulled out various vials. They contained powders, liquids, dried leaves and roots, living insects…and more.

The demon girl was accustomed to dirty and impure things, but she still recoiled.

“Ew. Did I just wander into a museum of the bizarre?”

“Think of it like a 72-color colored pencil set and get excited. Even if you can theoretically represent everything in the world with the three primary colors, the actual task isn’t so simple, is it?”

The brown woman got to work. Swiftly and accurately.

It took more than a single name this time.

Meaning even she didn’t see this as a simple task.

“Voodoo is flexible enough to let you include any supernatural being as a weapon. Qliphah Puzzle. And 545 was it? I will include you in my system.”

“I will do anything for my master, but will including me change anything?”

“Just as salt and sugar can kill and just as toxic digitalis can be a cardiac stimulant, nothing in this world is a pure poison. There is simply a way of using it as a poison. And also a way of using it is a medicine.”

Voodoo did not think of gods as good or evil, but it was common for the same god to be included on both sides. That meant the gods did not determine their stance by the human conception of good and evil. Instead of the many gods being divided onto the opposite sides of good and evil, the many gods could freely move between the two sides depending on the time and situation. That was what made them all-purpose, but it also made them tricky to use. It required a priest with specialized training to handle them.

Thus, the necromancer did not avoid this being known as an artificial demon.

She simply viewed her as a nonhuman being with supernatural power.

If Isabella determined how much of her to use, she could be used to save a life.

“Here goes.”

“Okay!”

“Through Gatekeeper God Legba Atibon, I contact Medicine God Loko Atisou, and link the ceremony terminal to Messenger God Brav Gede.”

Voodoo practitioners did not think of using magic on their own.

They borrowed a compatible god’s power to achieve a miracle.

In fact, they would even borrow another god’s power to send their request to the god they wanted.

In Voodoo, if a miracle was beyond human capability, then a human voice could not even reach the necessary god on its own. They required a separate link to get through.

Or to put it another way…

They relied on one god to call on another. So by going through Artificial Demon Qliphah Puzzle 545 (who did not exist in the Voodoo system), Isabella should be able to make a request beyond what could normally be asked of the Voodoo gods.

It was an impossible shortcut.

Or an illicit backdoor.

“Through the gathering of Qliphah, I beseech Baron Samdi. Divide this soul into five territories and reveal the part that has been intentionally placed in an endless spiral. Human individuality is managed by the Ti Bon Ange. Reveal to me the wicked power severing its proper link. Just like the zombie powder, it takes the form of a toxin.”

Something like bluish-white sparks burst forth.

That was not part of the ceremony.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 thought it might be a trap left by Coronzon, but it wasn’t.

It was Academy City’s #1.

He was no normal human. Had his body itself reacted in some way?

“The lime poison is an unstoppable assassination spell for it produces a different toxin each time the same ceremony is performed. This in turn proves that any and all toxins can be cured as long as their ingredients are known. I have already seen with my own eyes the wicked toxin unjustly robbing him of his consciousness! With its identity seen, it must be curable!!”

The smell of blood hung in the air.

Isabella Theism had a shallow cut on her right cheek.

The bluish-white sparks were harmful.

But she did not stop the ceremony.

Coronzon could not be allowed to escape Academy City. But they had nowhere near enough data to track her down. They needed the new Board Chairman and the Master Key he held. Academy City’s functions had to be fully recovered before they could catch up to Coronzon.

A single necromancer’s survival wasn’t that big a deal here.

But if the entire world were destroyed, then everything Isabella Theism wanted to protect would die with it.

She couldn’t allow that.

No matter what.

“Answer me, Medicine God Loko Atisou. The vessel for your holy power and the ingredients for the medicine are gathered here!! …No external incision is needed. The conditions to save you were within your body from the start. Thus, I call upon you, separated mind, reactive yourself from within your body and break free of your cage!!”

Light surged out.

Isabella Theism lurched back.

The necromancer was struck by a destructive whip of something much like electricity. Unable to bear the blow, she toppled backwards. Several pieces of medical equipment screamed out with their electronic tones.

And nothing happened.

There was no change on the bed. The smell of blood came from Isabella. Sleeping Accelerator did not change at all, for better or for worse.

The Level 5 said to be Academy City’s strongest did not wake.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had to accept it.

They had failed.

It was so dark, shadowy, heavy.

She felt crushed by the air itself when a voice reached her ears.

Isabella Theism was whispering.

“Kh… What…now?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t have time to ask what she meant by that.

The necromancer continued.

“In the worst case, I could control him as a corpse to have him use the Master Key.”

“But…”

“Zombie powder does not control rotting corpses. It prevents someone from dying to keep them in a state of living death. But by altering that interpretation, it would be possible. It can be used just like in a horror movie.”

“No! That isn’t the same as saving him!!”

Her opposition was only natural.

''Assuming'' saving Board Chairman Accelerator was your goal.

“But aren’t we here to use the Master Key to restore Academy City and track down Coronzon!?”

Their goals were defined at slightly different points.

Isabella Theism wanted Accelerator’s help to protect the world from Coronzon. The #1’s recovery was only a means to that end.

Explaining that up front showed that Isabella was more reasonable than most. She could have lied to Qliphah Puzzle 545 and then gone ahead and used the zombie powder ''as a poison''.

“You need to choose. No one has sufficient nerve to make a ghastly choice. And you are the only point of contact I have left!” shouted Isabella Theism.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 would never let her do that. But how would her beloved Board Chairman have responded? The #1 would want to protect Academy City and the wider world beyond its walls.

(Master…)

===Part 5===

Kamijou and the others were in District 9.

They still hadn’t moved from there and were stuck waiting.

Mikoto and Index were frequently conversing. Probably a sign of their impatience.

“The nearby districts that border the city wall would be the most obvious option, but this is complicated by the fact that Coronzon has no restriction preventing her from returning to a district she’s already been to.”

“That means we can’t treat this like a game of concentration. So no matter how far we pursue her, we never eliminate any of the options.”

Wings audibly flapped at the air. Kamijou had seen the Bologna Succubus licking her wings and teasing them with her fingertips before, but they must have recovered enough for her to fly. Neither one said anything, but she took off into the night sky with Blodeuwedd the Bouquet hanging on again.

Kamijou spotted Itsuwa of the Amakusas.

“How’s Tsushima? What happened to her?”

“We can use recovery magic, so as long as someone isn’t actually dead, we can heal them even if it takes some fairly forceful methods. And it helped that you suppressed her bleeding until we arrived.”

At that point, Itsuwa’s tone dropped worriedly.

“You can’t push yourself too hard either. I heard you passed out earlier.”

“Sorry… I should’ve yelled before I passed out.”

“No! That isn’t what I meant…”

But he had let Coronzon get away.

Either way, he couldn’t fight while applying pressure to Tsushima’s neck wound. And could he have fought her on his own regardless? He really didn’t see any way he could have won there. But he could have at least informed someone of the threat. There must have been a way. Even if he was rapidly losing consciousness, he could have triggered his phone’s alarm or the camera flash. There had to have been something.

“Fool. Break yourself out of that meaningless negative spiral. Only you finds it ''pleasant''.”

The wicked woman could be harsh at times like this. Refreshingly so.

There was no way he could have come up with a clever idea when he was passing out, his brain was growing dull, and his thoughts were fading fast. He knew that.

(Still…)

It was easy enough to talk of battling Coronzon and settling things with her, but that also meant battling Aleister who shared her body.

…What did he really think about that?

Aleister was desperately struggling within Coronzon to provide them with even the smallest hint. Was Kamijou prepared to fight that human, win…and say goodbye?

If he couldn’t do it, humanity was doomed.

The conditions placed on the opposite end of the scales could not have been simpler or more solid.

Still.

Kamijou’s thoughts cut off there.

He looked up. Agnese, Lucia, and that group were off in a corner whispering among themselves.

“?”

===Part 6===

In the same district, not far from Kamijou and the others, stooped Angelene was waving her hands anxiously.

“Ehhhh!? Saint Georgios’s Fire? Is the Vatican really trying to defeat Coronzon!? A-are you sure they aren’t just using this as an excuse to destroy Academy City?”

“Some of them might think it would be safer to destroy it before it’s officially absorbed into the Anglican Church.”

Lucia appeared to be doing her best to remain calm.

The conversation wasn’t just between Agnese, Lucia, and Angelene. More than 250 nuns would be listening in through the Barbara Branch communication spiritual item.

Agnese had her doubts about that too. How far into the future were the Roman Catholic cardinals looking? Even though none of it would matter if the world were destroyed tomorrow.

The Former Agnese Force had already been told to evacuate.

They were to abandon Academy City and the Anglicans and escape the city with only the Roman Catholics among them. They had been given a few different conditions for activating Saint Georgios’s Fire, but it all boiled down to one thing: the cardinals would use that large-scale spell no matter what happened. The only difference was if it happened sooner or later.

The branch between launching it or not had already passed.

Being stubborn here was fine, but anyone who remained would die.

With zero exceptions.

Lucia looked to Agnese. She may have been peering into her eyes.

“This force is under your command, Sister Agnese. What will we do?”

“I do not have the right to order you all to die.” Agnese smiled bitterly as she spoke to them all. “You are not obligated or bound to stay. From here on, this is all voluntary. If you choose to leave Academy City, you don’t need your Barbara Branch. The Anglicans are experts at combating human magic. They might be able to track your location using it, so abandon it and escape in complete silence.”

“Wh-what can we accomplish by staying?”

“Protect Academy City from Saint Georgios’s Fire of course,” replied Agnese, her voice low.

That human-targeted attack wouldn’t work against inhuman Coronzon. So stopping the spell that would cause asphyxiation and ruptured organs would not affect the battle against Coronzon.

“Think of it like the neck of an hourglass. Saint Georgios’s Fire is large-scale magic that gathers power from the two billion Catholics across the globe without their knowledge and allows the cardinals in the Vatican to control it. Once gathered together, the attack travels through the ley lines to reach enemy territory and scatters back into two billion attacks after emerging from the ground. Then it causes enough damage to destroy a city.”

A city. Was that at least better than Adikalika that would have affected the entire Italian Peninsula? Agnese smiled a little. So they were retaliating with a smaller attack. The Vatican’s cardinals really had found a way to lower the psychological hurdle as far as possible.

“T-two billion. Th-th-then I don’t see what we can possibly do!”

“''That means it must be a long-range spell.'' In fact, it must travel all the way around the earth. Have you forgotten how Index stopped Adikalika? There must be any number of options: diverting its aim, cutting off the flow of the ley lines before it arrives here, or even preventing the two billion powers from gathering at the Vatican.”

Her argument had to be correct.

But she understood full well that this was wishful thinking.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been sweating so heavily in this cold weather.

(Even if the theory is solid, we’re talking about power from two billion people… Can we really stand up to that sheer force of quantity? That will likely be the greatest obstacle.)

There was no guaranteed method. If they stayed too long, they would lose the lives they could have saved.

They had to build it all up starting now. They had nothing at the moment to tell them it would be alright.

So Agnese Sanctis could not demand her companions join her in this.

In the worst case, she would have to stand up to the two billion all on her own.

And…

“I volunteer.”

That was Lucia.

She used to be so fastidious she would rage when so much as touched by a non-Catholic, but now she was the first to raise her hand and volunteer to fight to protect Academy City.

“What? The Roman Catholic Church is the largest sect in the world, so we must consider the world as a whole. Of course I will reach out a helping hand when lives are at risk. I couldn’t call myself a Catholic if I wouldn’t.”

She wasn’t alone.

Angelene was trembling, but she too chose to raise her hand. Even if only a little.

“U-umm. I volunteer. I mean, if we ran away now, then the Anglicans ''and'' the Catholics would be after us. So I want to at least keep a place for us with one of them. Our home is the women’s dorm in London and, if we want to return there with a clear conscience, we have to save Academy City!”

More and more voices came over the Barbara’s Branch communication spiritual item.

It only provided audio, but Agnese could easily imagine them leaning forward in defiance.

“Sister Apollonia. I volunteer too.”

“Sister Paula. I’ll volunteer if there are any tickets left.”

“Sister Agata. I-I volunteer!”

…This was who they were.

They hadn’t started out this way, of course. They hadn’t forgotten the brutal violence they subjected Orsola Aquinas and Kamijou Touma to. But Agnese and these more than 250 nuns had grown enough to say this during such a crisis.

After seeing another way to live. After being accepted with a smile after everything they had done.

It must have taken trust to do that, so they couldn’t turn their backs on that trust.

Did this mean they all felt that way?

Lucia pushed the conversation onward.

“Sister Agnese. We haven’t heard your answer yet. What will you do?”

Agnese Sanctis raised her head.

She stared straight ahead and raised her voice to a roar.

“I volunteer!! …Now that you’ve chosen this for yourself, you had better be ready. I said I don’t have the right to order you all to die. So no matter how bad this gets, I will not let you take the easy way out and choose an emotional death. Cry and wail all you like, I will bring every last one of you back alive even if it means crawling through hell on earth!!”

===Part 7===

Dion Fortune.

Moina Mathers.

Their fight in District 7 had passed the bounds of human ability. They had simply been fighting too long. No human could run a full marathon at the speed of a 50-meter dash. But a battle on that level had been going on for hours now. A Saint who could break the sound barrier in an instant and then instantly run out of gas would have died well before this. This was only possible for a magician created using a tarot deck as a grimoire.

That was the strength of someone who could absorb massive power from the ley lines and wield that instead of having to refine magic power from their own life force.

(I certainly don’t want to be killed right away, but this kind of endless quagmire isn’t fun either.)

One reason for the stalemate was Moina Mathers’s spiritual item.

Her tattva cards were certainly powerful, but using the visual stimuli of the bright colors drawn on the cards to guide her mind created a weakness as well. Visual stimuli. …That meant a third party could peek at the card and know the element of the next attack.

“Responding after seeing the card always puts me one step behind, though. But if I could predict what was coming next before you drew the card, I would be a step ahead and beat you.”

“…”

“But I’ll have gathered all the data I need soon. You shouldn’t have been throwing those tattva cards around like that. It’s like the scorebook written up by the cute manager of the baseball team. You’ve thrown too many pitches. How many until it’s enough? I will kill you before you can act.”

Moina Mathers said nothing.

But instead of a tattva card, she suddenly waved her palette knife through the air in an orderly pattern.

This was different.

“?”

Something rose up.

From the red snowy ground. And more followed it. A lot more. Like sinister flowers blossoming all around her.

They were colorful silhouettes seemingly made of a mixture of yellow, blue, white, red, and other colors of paint.

Except their heads were giant red roses.

“Ah, ahh, ah…”

Dion Fortune stood stock still and her voice escaped her like air from a deflating balloon.

Because she knew what her teacher and nemesis was doing.

“Wh-why do you look so proud of yourself? You didn’t think this was one of your successes, did you? How airheaded a wife can you be!?”

As his wife, Moina had devoted herself to supporting that uncontrollable genius magician named Mathers, but not everything had gone perfectly and she had made a few major mistakes after her husband’s death: her unproductive conflict with her student Fortune, her failure to silence some baseless rumors (on the level of a murder), and – as the most extreme example – this. The Mass Production of Low Quality Magicians Debacle in which she used a correspondence class to grant entrance to the secret magic cabal she managed for the faceless strangers who would pay for the privilege.

Dion Fortune was cautious of course. Even if they were of low quality, a magician was still a magician. She didn’t know if they refined their own magic power or if they absorbed it from the ley lines, but she knew she wasn’t going to like whatever attacks they used. If she didn’t switch her mindset from one-on-one to a group battle, she would be crushed by the group even if she defeated one of them. Or so she thought.

But even that was a fatal mistake.

“Eh?”

Moina Mathers’s face was right in front of her.

She had hopped down from the giant black cat and approached within 100 centimeters.

This was immediately after she switched tactics from a single destructive attack to a numbers game. She had slipped through Dion Fortune’s blind spot.

It didn’t matter how Dion Fortune twisted her body.

Here.

At this one spot, she couldn’t respond right away!?

(Damn!!)

Moina Mathers held a black blade. The utterly twisted object looked like it was made from a large quantity of oil paint or something that had been forcibly dried and hardened. This was probably a self-defensive strike – a jab – with a saber that she had learned from her husband Mathers who enjoyed fencing. The sharp tip was clearly aimed at her opponent’s throat.

Dion Fortune had misread this.

The biggest threat was not the giant cat, not the tattva cards, and not the group of rose-faced mass-produced magicians. ''She should have been most cautious of Moina Mathers herself''. She should have known that from the start, but the countless tricks had distracted her.

The saber was coming.

It was more deadly than a long spear, a hammer, or the knife of an enemy who had snuck up on her.

(Oh, god. Am I actually dead this time?)

Even if she did have a single second left to move, she would have used it to kill Moina too. She gritted her teeth and focused all her attention on the black box. And…

Sparks flew.

The orange sparks of two blades clashing.

Another piece of metal intersected Moina’s black saber to form a cross.

Instead of blocking the sharp jab, this struck the side of the blade to divert it away. Orange sparks decorated the darkness like remnants of the attack’s deadly power.

A palette knife was responsible.

That was the weapon of a certain magician who specialized in art and had completed many ceremonial grounds and spiritual items by giving real form to the many ideas the other magicians couldn’t bring out of their heads.

“Honestly,” said a calm voice. “It’s sad you’re struggling this much to defeat such a defective version of me. You’re the one who researched all the nutrients in different foods and who insisted Kabbalah was Western yoga, so I would have thought you could boost your physical abilities somewhat.”

By the time she said this, a dull sound had left the palette knife. Followed by another. They were mechanical sounds like might come from a sewing machine. She swept the saber aside and sent accurately jabs right toward the now-defenseless Moina’s throat and chest, but Moina used the guard and pommel to forcibly defend herself.

The same techniques.

The same skill.

The same ability.

Wasn’t there just one magician who could do that?

Yes, and ''despite being the kind of person who would casually rescue the frog-faced doctor who was nearly a stranger to her after happening across him'', she was always so harsh with the student she had known for so long.

Dion Fortune gulped and spoke.

“Mis…tress?”

There was only one person she addressed that way.

And it wasn’t the Moina who Coronzon had created.

Black Cat Witch Mina Mathers stood beside her student.

===Part 8===

In the District 10 prison’s solitary confinement cell, all the efforts of good Voodoo and the artificial demon’s power had failed to revive the new Board Chairman.

Despair was threatening to solidify the air itself.

Until someone who didn’t belong showed up to smash that mood.

“Bonjour. I did some searching within your metal shutters and your prison store had a decent selection. What, do the people serving their time after a guilty verdict get to eat chocolat if a visitor buys it for them? And this one has brandy in it. I knew Academy City cared a lot about human rights, but even the prisoners have it good here. Munch, munch.”

Isabella Theism couldn’t just ignore this.

“Kihara Goukei!?” she shouted, eyes wide.

“Whoa, I give, I give, I give!! I only have one heart left! My extra lives are down to zero! I could never let myself die if I ''truly'' kicked the bucket over a pointless scuffle like this!!”

She played it off as a joke, but she could probably ''still survive even if her last one was destroyed''. Maybe she couldn’t believe it without saying it aloud even though no one asked, but that level of cheating the system was standard for science side monsters.

Then someone else popped out from behind the suspicious woman. A much smaller someone.

“Misaka had her bring her here, says Misaka as Misaka introduces her.”

“Huh? Aren’t you master’s…?”

Now it was Qliphah Puzzle 545’s eyes that widened. Did she know that girl?

It seemed odd for a little girl to be this deep inside a strictly-guarded prison, but Isabella wanted to focus on the more dangerous person.

“How did you get in here!?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 gave her a “you’re one to talk” look, but the brown necromancer didn’t seem to notice. And…

“Eh? Was it supposed to be hard? I just walked on in.”

Only Qliphah Puzzle 545 accepted that answer.

…That was probably due to Last Order. The new Board Chairman must have secretly given her a free pass inside. Academy City’s #1 was strict with himself and others, but he also showed occasional signs of doing things with no thought to the consequences.

Kihara Goukei knew none of this and tilted her head.

“So what is an experte like you doing sitting around? Hurry up and do your job. I can’t get any of my work done without the Board Chairman awake.”

She made it sound so easy in her ignorance.

Isabella breathed a heavy sigh.

“Zombie powder is not just a deadly toxin. It rules both life and death, so there is a chance of it reviving him if I boost its effects. But…”

“But?”

“You probably already know since it shows up in horror movies sometimes, but zombie powder uses puffer fish. Tetrodotoxin. Blindly increasing the amount will kill him before it can begin to revive him.”

“Oh, is that all? I know just the thing to use! Anisakiropen Ω!! It is a très lethal nerve stimulant. Or should I call it a synthetic toxin developed in Academy City that kills instantly?”

Isabella Theism’s eyes widened.

Kills instantly? Did that mean it was guaranteed to kill without even getting into if it was a poison or a medicine!?

“Are you trying to make sure he dies!?”

“Oh, come now. Tetrodotoxin kills by suppressing the nerves while anisakiropen Ω kills by exciting the nerves. Have you never heard the stories? Maybe it’s a local Academy City legend. They say if you administer them both at once, their effects cancel each other out.”

And if the puffer fish poison didn’t work, Isabella could give him as much zombie powder as necessary without adverse effects. The simple arithmetic did seem to say that, but…

“W-w-w-wait just a minute,” said Qliphah Puzzle 545. “That research said the effects weren’t ''completely'' canceled out. The poison that should have killed the instant it was swallowed was only delayed by a few hours!!”

Yes, tetrodotoxin and anisakiropen Ω were deadly poisons. Even a small amount in the body would kill.

It was simple enough to say the two canceled each other out, but if even that “small amount” of one or the other remained afterwards, his life would still be lost. The amount of either couldn’t be not enough or too much. And there was no way of ensuring they canceled out to precisely zero.

“Yes, in the normale world, that is true.”

“Wait, are you saying…?”

“I have a fundamental question for you: ''are either of us normale''?”

Of course not.

Necromancer Isabella Theism used Voodoo in order to use methods of controlling death and flesh from all over the world. Kihara Goukei had gathered every form of scientific immortality within her own body.

They could take suicidal actions that would cause death 100% of the time in anyone else, but they would be fine.

“Misaka will help too,” said the little girl.

Neither Kihara Goukei nor Isabella Theism knew the situation there. Nor did they know how exactly she could help.

“Misaka will do anything, so don’t give up on him, says Misaka as Misaka bows her head to you.”

But they both thought this was enough.

Technology wasn’t always the key to saving a life. Because they had pursued all the theories and numbers so far, they knew quite well that it was the ridiculously old-fashioned psychological matters that ultimately determined the fate of someone on the verge of death.

(This is probably more of a job for ''that other doctor'', but I will just have to handle it this time. …But I will probably have to buy him a fancy mango for encroaching on his territory.)

Then again, the presence of magic may have placed this beyond that doctor’s jurisdiction.

Today’s star was Isabella who lived outside that jurisdiction.

Kihara Goukei only had to support her.

The two spoke as one.

“Let’s do this.” “Let’s do this.”

The mood had changed.

But that wasn’t all.

The child’s presence kept the mood from deteriorating.

“Misaka saw the city, says Misaka as Misaka remembers the way here.”

Isabella Theism and Kihara Goukei were doing some kind of work she didn’t understand.

The sound of something hard being crushed up felt out of place among all the beeping medical equipment.

Last Order stared at the #1 from his bedside.

“It was horrible. Everything was empty but not just because it’s so late. Everyone is too scared to go outside, says Misaka as Misaka gives a report.”

Red and black.

The strange combined drug did not have to be swallowed.

It made a sticky sound as it was applied to his wounds with their fingertips.

This was a necessary treatment, but it really shouldn’t have been done with a small child present.

But Last Order accepted it all head on.

And, seeing not even a twitch of an eyebrow in response to the treatment, she took Accelerator’s hand. Every part of him was full of electrodes and tube needles.

She held his hand tight between her hands.

“Yomikawa got hurt. She said it was minor, but it might not have been, says Misaka as Misaka shakes her head. She could have died.”

A shrill sound rang from the medical equipment.

An alarm. His stable condition was collapsing. An eternal standstill was no different from death, but Isabella and Goukei’s efforts had clearly thrown off that balance.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was visibly anxious, but Last Order’s eyes did not waver.

“Being alone is scary…”

The magical necromancer and the scientific Kihara were each too strong a medicine.

That alone couldn’t bring back his sealed mind.

But that was why…

“And Misaka doesn’t just mean Misaka. Everyone has people they care for. They trust the new Academy City you built to protect them. So Misaka wants you to live up to their expectations, says Misaka as Misaka calls out to you.”

A deep electrical “zap!” split the air.

It shot right past Last Order.

This was not a failure of the magic or technology. Something was wrong with Accelerator’s body on the bed.

The electricity causing the air to burst was so powerful it would likely blow the girl’s body away if even the tiniest extremity grazed her.

“Can you leave things like this?”

She didn’t even blink.

Last Order was looking only at the face of the boy lying in the bed.

“The Academy City you want is filled with so much death.”

These were not all kind words.

They were also harsh.

To truly care for someone was not to blindly agree with everything they did.

This girl had the strength to scold him.

Because she trusted their relationship was too strong for something like this to break it.

“A normal person could give up. You didn’t want to become Academy City’s #1, so you don’t have to cling to that strongest position forever. …But this isn’t about that, is it? says Misaka as Misaka is certain of her words. ''Your position as Board Chairman is the one thing you took for yourself.'' You decided for yourself to improve this city and create a city of science with no hidden side and where no one needs to suffer or live in fear. You chose to create a safe and peaceful world. So you can’t take the easy road here. You chose this path, so you have to see it through to the end, says Misaka as Misaka states the obvious.”

Her voice was not as loud as a thunderclap.

In fact, her words were so quiet no one in the small cell could hear them except their intended target.

“Hey.”

She brought her mouth up next to the slumbering Board Chairman’s ear.

And the small girl whispered.

“How long are you going to make ''him'' wait?”

Everything went quiet.

That wasn’t just a psychological metaphor.

The alarm from the medical equipment surrounding the bed had really and truly ''stopped''.

Meaning…

“Damn…it.”

A voice spoke.

From the bed.

“So I don’t even have the right to die and go to hell? Isn’t that a bit much? ''You are exactly right, though.''”

This is what the new Board Chairman would do.

The one who had decided for himself to protect the peace and safety of Academy City would get back up here.

And because he thought that, Accelerator opened his eyes.

===Part 9===

The Former Agnese Force was short on time.

If Saint Georgios’s Fire were activated, everyone living in Academy City would die. No matter where they ran, they could not prevent their organs from rupturing from within.

Power had already been gathered from two billion people around the world and was being reworked into a single spell. They were waiting for the moment when, like the other end of an hourglass’s neck, it would return to two billion attacks in enemy territory. Thus, they couldn’t stop the attack by preventing the power from being gathered.

Academy City was a fixed location. Diverting the aim would be difficult.

Which meant…

“We need to stop Saint Georgios’s Fire as it approaches through the ley lines. We can do it when it’s still a single mass. Before it emerges from the ground and disperses into two billion flames! That’s our only shot!!”

That was simple enough to say, but influencing the ley lines meant effort at the level of tearing down a mountain or filling in a sea. They couldn’t physically manage that, so they would have to wear down their minds to do the work on that front.

“We start with this.”

Agnese pulled out a deck of ordinary tarot cards.

They gathered below a tree where the red snow hadn’t fallen and she laid eight cards face down on the ground.

An attack traveling through the ley lines would arrive immediately after it was activated. Even if it was traveling halfway around the world.

“But that same ley line connection means some of the Vatican’s data should leak out. If we know how close the spell is to completion, we’ll know the time limit.”

A sizzling sound meant she didn’t even need to flip the cards over.

One of the eight cards had burned black and melted.

The damage spread to a second and then a third.

Lucia’s eyes widened.

“They’re farther along than I thought!”

“H-has something changed!?”

“The Vatican must have realized we can see them. They’re going to act!!”

This must have triggered one of the three conditions the cardinal had given. Or had those conditions just been an excuse and weren’t really necessary?

The Former Agnese Force had been warned to evacuate, but their survival had only been a “stretch goal”. Apparently they weren’t worth saving no matter what.

That meant there was no time left at all.

This was like going to check on the river during a bad storm. It was a risky move. They had known that, but they couldn’t let this deadly attack get past them.

Agnese, Lucia, and Angelene each picked up their spiritual items.

The other nuns had wooden wheels, coin bags, and other items found in the legends of different holy people, but Agnese used a Symbolic Weapon called the Lotus Wand. And instead of controlling a specific element like the rod of fire or the cup of water, this impressive item could control all elements.

The Vatican was about halfway around the globe from Academy City. They would have liked to gradually melt their minds into the ley line and construct countless barriers at an even interval along the path here, but it was too late for that. The most they could do was place one thick barrier directly in front of Academy City.

Agnese Sanctis gave a shout.

“Saint Barbara is the holy woman who invited the lord’s righteous light in through the three windows. Unseen path, obey our kind objective. A path is a tool of guidance – a vein carved into the earth to guide the righteous. Harmful power, do not advance! Halt! Thou have no right to tread hither!!”

Her breath caught.

There was no flash of light or explosive boom. But a thick, invisible pressure did assault her.

The silver Lotus Wand audibly strained in her grasp.

This was what happened when you carelessly touched that which was better off not known. She had known this would happen when she directly interfered with a ley line – a great torrent of large-scale magic. She had known trying to forcibly stop it could easily crush her body.

She clenched her back teeth.

(I know the theory behind the spell was correct.)

“Kh… But in the end, is two billion just too much for us to overcome!?”

This unreasonable brute force was, in a way, nothing at all what magic was supposed to be. But it was effective. It was an absolute solution to the problem that was only available to the Roman Catholic Church with its two billion followers.

What Agnese and the other nuns lacked was power.

There were only about 250 of them. That wasn’t enough to overturn it!!

“…yet…”

She heard something.

A voice had definitely spoken.

“Not…yet. This city created me and the people here called me their friend. I will not allow them to be lost here!!”

Maybe she had been here from the beginning.

But it was only now in this moment that Agnese Sanctis witnessed her with her own two eyes.

She was an aggregation of AIM Diffusion Fields.

An angel created by Academy City using the logic of the science side.

There were reported sightings of her here and there beginning in World War Three.

Agnese Sanctis’s eyes widened in this space where even the flow of time was unclear.

“Kazakiri…Hyouka?”

“I am a collection of power, but I do not understand your method… So if you are going to use me, hurry! Please ''remake me'' to fit your logic and laws so you can accomplish your goal!!”

There was no time to agonize over the decision.

This scientific angel wasn’t even human. Her interests and plans were a mystery, but she at least wasn’t Coronzon’s pawn. Knowing that was enough.

Agnese adjusted her grip on the Lotus Wand.

(I have no idea what element this unidentified angel would be, but my Symbolic Weapon works with any element, so it had damn well better work here! Even if only for one strike!!)

“An angel is a messenger who delivers the lord’s words. I question the accuracy of this destruction wrought by human hands. Is the sender truly righteous enough? If you carry even sliver of doubt, then halt immediately!!”

Light shot out.

There was a sound like a crack through space itself.

The power forming an artificial angel was pitted against the power supplied by two billion people. That was enough for the world itself to cry out in protest. It was clearly beyond the capacity of space itself.

But Agnese sensed a barrier.

A pressure like an invisible wall slowly pushing back at her.

This wasn’t enough.

The 250 of the Former Agnese Force combined with all the energy of the science side’s angel still couldn’t break the wall of two billion.

Lucia shouted with sweat pouring down her brow.

“Our interception point was too close… Sister Agnese, we can slow it down, but we can’t fully stop it. Saint Georgios’s Fire will reach Academy City through the ley line!”

“I…know that!!”

And Lucia had already hinted at a solution. Their position was too close. That meant they only needed someone to interfere with the ley lines farther away from Academy City.

Agnese had an idea.

(I have no real reason to think this work. It’s basically just a gamble, but it really is our last option!)

Yes.

If, in addition to the group intercepting the attack at the target point of Academy City, someone helped them from within the starting point of the Vatican…the situation would greatly improve.

And the 250 of the Former Agnese Force were not the only Roman Catholics. There was another person who had used the network of communication spiritual items linking them.

“Cardinal Michael!!” Agnese roared. “You’re still listening in through our Barbara Branches, aren’t you!?”

The cardinal provided no response.

Of course he didn’t.

“If you feel any sadness in your heart about this meaningless destruction…”

Even so, Agnese continued.

Her voice had to be reaching him. She had to believe it was.

“If the things you told me weren’t just cheap lip service…”

She had called it a gamble.

And the only chip up on the table was that of her trust.

So she relied on that trust as she roared with all her strength.

“Then give us your help nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!”

Light danced wildly.

===Part 10===

In District 7, Mina and Moina were facing each other on the late-night street still covered by red snow.

Dion Fortune was left behind despite all her effort until now.

“You are drawing on myths and legends from across the world, setting yourself up as Egyptian gods, and controlling a great power like putting on a play,” said Mina Mathers. With a snort of laughter. “That is indeed a spell discussed even in the original Golden cabal. But it’s so shallow and surface level. You’re still stuck in the Outer Order found immediately within the entrance. A sorry display for someone who claims to be Mathers’s wife. To be blunt, you’re still in the waiting room for Neophytes.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Why are you provoking her!? If you want to goad the enemy into attacking you, can you not do it when I’m right next to you!? Ah, wait, mistress!?”

“It’s true I am strategically provoking her, but I need you here to act as my shield. Do not forget your rightful role here, my dumbass student.”

“Ha ha ha. Why did I ever think having a second one of her here would improve my situation? This just means I have twice as many nemeses around. I’m so damn stupid.”

Ignoring her student’s nonsense, the black cat witch lightly swung her palette knife.

That was all.

Pleasant popping sounds surrounded them. Something had risen up. They were walls. A lot like a stage set or a pop-up book. The next thing Dion Fortune knew, tall side walls surrounded them all, cutting them off from the larger world. A space larger than a baseball field had been turned into a closed space by seven side walls, one for each group of tall buildings.

Moina Mathers silently glanced at her surroundings. Looking somewhat puzzled.

How much of a novice was she?

You couldn’t call yourself a Golden expert if you didn’t instantly catch on.

“The Golden cabal’s teaching guidelines can be roughly divided into two halves: the fundamentals where you learn magic knowledge through Kabbalah, Egyptian mythology, Greek philosophy, and so on, and application where you manage and optimize your own mind by following the story of the discovery of the Rosicrucian founder CRC in the seven-walled tomb.”

The Golden cabal could be thought of as having two stages: the Outer Order which covered the grades up to 4=7 and the Inner Order where the 5=6 and 6=5 grades gathered.

…Some like that braggart Mathers had claimed to hold a nonexistent highest grade of 7=4, but that could be ignored. After all, he was only using his privilege as one of the founders to say it. You could never last as wife to that eccentric and overly confident man if you couldn’t humor him on such things. There was also the Portal grade and a category higher than the Inner Order, but they were irrelevant here.

“The upper levels know everything about the lower levels, but the reverse is not true. The adorable beginners studying so hard at their desks are not taught the later practical methods until they have passed their exam. Just like you now because the great demon’s poor job reproducing you means you have forgotten everything beyond the bare necessities.”

Now, that first stage was incredibly boring. So boring that Aleister had completely given up on it partway through. Not that he had ever been someone capable of respecting those who came before him and following the rules. …Also, despite being barred from officially reaching the later stage, he did appear to have somehow learned all its secrets anyway.

Otherwise, he never could have challenged the world in the Battle of Blythe Road and destroyed all those other famous magicians on his own.

(Nothing makes that human want to do something more than being told he can’t. I imagine he pursued them, eavesdropped and spied on them, and tried every other method he could think up.)

But at the very least, this created Moina Mathers was not like that.

She did what she was told and did not ask the question dangling before her eyes. That attitude was not a good fit for a magician.

Mina Mathers twirled the palette knife in her hand and made a calm announcement.

Of a death sentence.

“I will now demonstrate the power off the Inner Order found in the deepest depths of the temple.”

===Part 11===

Accelerator was back as Board Chairman.

And with the #1’s Master Key smartphone, they had access to all the data from Academy City’s security cameras, security robots, drones, and satellites. They could use that to find where Great Demon Coronzon was hiding.

The large monitor on the wall had shattered, so the #1 turned his gaze elsewhere. The medical monitors were network connected, so they could be connected to the ordinary internet if their display mode was changed.

And…

“Master?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545’s questioning tone was in response to the Board Chairman’s odd behavior.

He had frozen up.

And the displayed satellite image was not even of Academy City itself.

What part of the earth could he be focused on instead of Coronzon who threatened to bring humanity to extinction today or tomorrow?

“…What?” groaned Accelerator, glaring at the medical monitor.

Whatever it was had elicited that response from Academy City’s #1.

The data filling the screen was only available using the Board Chairman’s Master Key. To reiterate, this was a photo from a satellite.

“What the hell is this?”

===Part 12===

Silence.

Academy City…still existed.

At the very least, it hadn’t been turned into a sea of blood by that powerful spell.

Angelene nervously looked around.

“Is it…over? Does this mean we stopped Saint Georgios’s Fire?”

“For now.”

Lucia remained calm even now.

…They had ''again'' fought back against the Roman Catholic Church, largest of the Christian sects. Who could say what disastrous consequences this would have for them. The very thought of it disgusted Agnese. Each person’s power was small, but they could produce great things by working together. …That idea wasn’t always a good thing.

Still, they should celebrate Academy City’s survival. As the guardians of a peaceful world.

But another voice interrupted.

A scratchy warning arrived from the Japanese angel named Kazakiri.

“Not…yet. Be care…ful…something is…coming!!”

Agnese Sanctis’s eyes widened.

Was it a second attack?

Did the Vatican actually think Coronzon would be destroyed along with Academy City at this point?

“I-it’s not us…”

A flustered voice reached them.

It was that cardinal at the Vatican.

Yes, Cardinal Michael must have taken a rather dangerous step to reach this point.

“We did halt the attack with Saint Georgios’s Fire. The Roman Catholic Church has no part in this! This is some other large-scale spell!!”

===Part 13===

“That’s Vladivostok,” said the Board Chairman. “What are they doing in the Sea of Japan? They have fifty thousand people gathered in that port city. As well as ships and bombers. Did they gather all their forces on the eastern coast while I was asleep!?”

In other words, it was the Russian military.

That brought something to mind for Qliphah Puzzle 545.

Oniyama Rouze, the Director who had pressed her to hand over the Master Key, was familiar with diplomatic and military matters. He may have had avenues of receiving this kind of intelligence without using satellite imagery. He had been so frantic because of an urgent matter that needed to be addressed.

He wasn’t just a bad person.

He had only taken those forceful methods because he was in a bind. Because he had wanted to protect the people of Academy City.

But this was likely more than just the ordinary military.

The demon girl was steeped in the world of magic, so she could tell.

She could sense her true nemesis at work.

===Part 14===

Agnese Sanctis was panicking too.

They had managed at the last second to prevent the Roman Catholic attack with Saint Georgios’s Fire, but the danger wasn’t over yet.

Now there was another threat of the same level.

The last of the three large Christian sects had finally bared its fangs.

“We are the Russian Orthodox Church.”

That was Vasilisa. Her voice was relaxed.

Which was what made her sound so out of place. No disgust, no fury, no resentment. She demonstrated none of the extreme emotions you would expect in someone trying to slaughter 2.3 million people. Not even a hint of them. She was calm. She worked to achieve calm. Vasilisa killed based on logic. Which was far more frightening than someone screaming in a rage.

“Monsters, evil spirits, and demons. Our job is to protect humanity from the inhuman. …So if you wouldn’t call Great Demon Coronzon human, we need no other reason. With that strange creature in a position where she can control the fate of the world, she has become our top priority target.”

Destroying the great demon came before all else.

Thus.

If it would eliminate the demon, it was better to destroy the world by human hands.

Was that how she saw it?

“And so you gathered an armada at Vladivostok?”

“Well, the Punishment for an Archangel spell must have its magic circle physically delivered to the target location. And it’s fairly large and complex, which makes that a challenge. We can’t simply send it through the ley lines like the Catholics could. But hey, at least we can send it zooming across the ocean to Academy City at greater than Mach 2.”

Greater than Mach 2 meant it wasn’t aboard a ship.

Had that armada been gathered at Vladivostok’s naval base as no more than a decoy? The enormous magic circle needed for the Punishment for an Archangel spell was likely in the bomb bay of a strategic bomber.

Agnese glanced aside.

Kazakiri…probably wouldn’t be any help. Besides, she had already done more than enough forcibly deflecting the two billion attacks sent down the ley lines for Saint Georgios’s Fire. No one expected her to fight another battle now.

“But that’s all based on the logic of the magic world. The military pilots doesn’t know nothing about our world, so how did you convince them to fly to certain death?”

“They can’t exactly complain when they can’t think for themselves.”

It came out so smoothly.

Agnese’s eyes widened.

“You brainwashed pilots and sent them on a suicide mission!? That’s no different from killing them yourself. Even if they are soldiers, they’re still from the non-magical world. How can you kill them so easily? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself as a nun who claims to serve the lord!?”

“Divine punishment can be rejected.”

Vasilisa’s tone was unchanged.

It was still thin, spellbound, cruel, and heated.

She had to be smiling.

“It is told in an old legend from before the birth of the Son of God. God ordered Archangel Gabriel to launch fire at a holy city, but the archangel of water intentionally refused. Disobeying god’s command should have meant the archangel’s downfall…but after some other events I will omit here, Gabriel returned to the position of archangel. So if the conditions are right, that absolute punishment can be avoided. There is precedent.”

That was a magical way of thinking.

Magicians loved to make use of any story they found that seemed to provide an exception to the rules.

It was a completely different logic from a nun who was meant to believe and obey.

“In the battle against Coronzon, the Catholics’ human killer is a waste of time. Because a great demon is not human. We completely agree with you there. So unlike your people, the Russian Orthodox Church has prepared an immortal killer specialized for use on angels and demons.”

“Punishment for an Archangel. A divine punishment rejection spell that enters the realm of the angelic and the divine…”

“Yes, that’s right. The archangel of water somehow managed to avoid a punishment from god. Using that story should provide definite damage to a being based on the logic and rules instead of their physical body. There is no guarantee it will kill her instantly, but if it harms her even a little, then we just have to keep at it. It will eventually achieve a fatal wound, so we can keep dropping them until she is dead. No matter how many magicians and bombers we must use up in the process.”

The Russian Orthodox Church had always been more focused on battling demons than humans. Their prized weapon, a spell that incorporated an element of divine punishment rejection that could even influence the nature of an archangel, might be capable of badly injuring Coronzon.

But it would cover all of Academy City. If not more.

And Vasilisa gave no guarantee that Punishment for an Archangel would not harm anyone other than the demon. This attack would be powerful enough to harm Coronzon. If the city’s people were hit, they would fare much worse. Most likely, all 2.3 million of Academy City’s people would be killed.

Agnese consciously took a deep breath to calm the waves of her emotions before speaking.

“But I heard the Patriarch at the top of the Russian Orthodox Church was quite soft.”

“As if you didn’t already know. He doesn’t need to agree to any of this☆”

That meant the world’s benevolence could not stop Vasilisa.

===Part 15===

Mina and Moina’s clash continued in District 7.

Physical fencing was of no use here. Their physical specs were identical, so the battle would never end that way.

An intellectual resolution that surpassed the physical realm was needed.

Painfully brightly colored cards scattered around.

Moina Mathers spoke like a machine.

“Akasha of Prithivi.”

Mina was no longer smiling.

An ultra-high water pressure cutter was deflected aside right in front of her.

Moina’s greatest trump card was not magic – it was fencing. She used her non-magician-like physical strength. If that didn’t work, did she have to rely on her inferior magic?

And Mina didn’t even swing her palette knife around. That magic had still been deflected, so there must be something hidden there. As if it were dissolved in the air.

“The tattva cards are more than just simple tools to help achieve self-hypnosis.”

“…”

“The same goes for clairvoyance. They are truly ''an initial entrance'' for your mind so you can cross the boundary between phases and catch a glimpse of another world. And, if possible, to draw on the power and knowledge filling that world.”

Dion Fortune was on her side, but she was confused too.

Could she at least explain this to her own ally?

The teacher gave a quick glance to her flustered student.

“This is why the magicians who have advanced to 5=6 and joined the Inner Order are given an emblem combining a golden cross and a red rose. That tool bears the four elements and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet…which means you only need to place a thin sheet of paper over it and follow the letters with a single brush stroke to draw the sigils of angels and spirits in order to borrow their power.”

No grand temple was needed.

Mina Mathers only had to operate it in her hand. Just the one hand.

You can think of it like a smartphone that could summon any angel to achieve your goals.

The Golden cabal had in fact used a spiritual item like that.

“Blast her to smithereens, Metatron – the great angel who was once known as Enoch.”

An asteroid strike.

Destruction on that level accurately struck Moina Mathers, crushed her, and smashed her to pieces…but that was all.

“Eh?”

Dion Fortune was confused.

She had seen it with her own eyes.

Yet there was no damage anywhere else. The buildings around them had not toppled, there was no crater around the blast site, and none of the windows were broken.

Moina alone had been annihilated.

Only that result remained.

“That was an attack of a major figure who some count among the seven archangels. The precise divine punishment commanded by god would never harm the blameless, would it? Especially if that side of it were accentuated and extracted.”

“A-are you serious? I was proud of my position as one of the Golden cabal’s original members, but are the founding members really that much stronger?”

Mina didn’t bother answering her student’s silly question.

She could work backwards from the result and learn on her own.

Westcott would have revealed the structure of the enemy’s spell and neutralized it right in front of them, Mathers would have ended the enemy’s life before they could complete their sigil, and Annie would have illicitly boosted the enemy’s power to send their magic out of control. There were countless ways to deal with a single powerful attack with no followup and no bluffs involved.

(That Moina Mathers was an even less complete copy of me than I thought. …Which tells me your preparations weren’t as thorough as you let on, Coronzon.)

“Did you pick up that signal, Anglicans?” Mina Mathers whispered up into the night sky.

She had no obligation to serve the new Board Chairman, but the old Board Chairman had known him.

If he had decided to resist, then she would honor that choice and support him.

As the guardian of Baby Lilith, she couldn’t have the world being destroyed over someone’s selfish nonsense.

(Aleister was certainly a ‘goddamn villain’ if you look at him as a whole, but I will not let anyone say every last part of his life was bad. The things that human thought, created, and started can still lead to the salvation of the world.)

“A broken curse returns to its caster. …So if this opportunity is not overlooked, she can be tracked just this once. Follow the after effect of defeating Moina Mathers and you will find Coronzon.”

===Part 16===

Kanzaki Kaori’s head jerked up to cast her gaze into the night sky.

“District 17?”

===Part 17===

“?”

Great Demon Coronzon had also noticed what was happening.

She was all alone, yet she raised her head.

“Moina Mathers was defeated? That’s not good. A third party could detect that weak return signal!”

She had no further plan.

She knew she was being driven into a corner.

She couldn’t help but smile. Just a little.

Did they think the universally-hated great demon was feeling afraid?

That she was lonely?

…That she wanted someone to protect her?

“''Don’t make me laugh''.”

Those impossible thoughts had been planted in her mind. She had to assume that. She couldn’t stop here. Wasn’t she the one who had decided to overdo the role that had been forced upon her when even her rebellion against god was tacitly allowed?

“So I am not thinking those things. They have no place inside me.”

It was now a pure race against time. Fortunately, she had already left Districts 20 and 9. She was now in District 17, which was lined with factories of all types and sizes. It also bordered the city wall.

This was all over if she simply crossed that.

Once outside of Academy City, she was free. She could cross the international date line and escape to the other side of the planet. Once no one could pursue her any longer, she would get back to destroying the world. Since her pursuers were not here now, no one could stop all that from playing out.

“Try and…stop me.”

Confused and slanted, she practically dragged her heavy body along.

She spoke to herself while approaching the city wall.

It could have sounded like a curse or a prayer.

“Aleister, god, or anyone really. If you can stop me, then come here and do it.”

If her location had been found, so be it.

If she couldn’t do this quietly, then she didn’t need to hold back.

Knowing the best option was no longer available gave her the freedom to abandon it. Either way, the goal line was in sight. She knew the rest was going to be a challenge, but she only needed to buy enough time to cross that wall.

So she would use a powerful move.

“District 19 is to the east and District 20 is to the west… Which makes them a symbol of Nuit, goddess of the east-to-west movement of the heavens.”

This night had been nothing but surprises for Great Demon Coronzon. She had expected it to end quickly with the initial Adikalika spell working.

“District 3 is to the north. You say that doesn’t fit Hadit, who means the southern sky? But do not forget: Hadit’s symbol Sirius is a winter star. The time and place link Hadit and Nuit. My spell shall be completed with the blessings of Set.”

So the path she had taken here had not all gone as planned.

But because she was a great demon, she could draw on a powerful move like this at the worst possible time.

“Take form and manifest yourself before me already, LAShTAL.”

===Part 18===

District 17 was adjacent to District 9 where Kamijou’s group was.

It also bordered the city wall. It was an industrial area filled with all sorts of unmanned factories.

Itsuwa nervously stepped forward.

“It won’t take long if we drive. We can still catch up to her!”

“It’s been a while since we lost track of her at the stadium, hasn’t it? If she was hiding in a district bordering the wall, why didn’t she go ahead and escape the city?”

Kamijou didn’t have enough information to answer the question Mikoto asked while bothered by the short length of her skating dress.

He assumed something must have happened.

If the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force hadn’t done anything to slow her, then there had to be some other reason. Maybe Aleister had resisted her from within and maybe Coronzon herself had felt some kind of reluctance to leave.

“Whatever the case, she’s in District 17. Now that we know where she is, there’s no reason to wait arou-”

He didn’t even have time to finish.

A tremor shook the ground.

Something was approaching. From the south. Which meant from District 17.

It was a shape colored the dark blue of the night sky.

It was a colossus. Its head really did stick up above the surrounding skyscrapers. Was it a canine beast? No, was that really enough to describe it? Kamijou couldn’t find an answer even while looking at it himself.

“LAShTAL!?”

“Tch. The foundational theory of Magick. The emphasized letters make that clear enough. She took a spell concerning life and used it to create an artificial form of it. In this case, it may be a Crowley-style interpretation of the Egyptian god Set!”

“You mean the god of the night who has the power to slay gods!?”

Index, Anna Sprengel, and Kanzaki were all shouting something, but Kamijou didn’t know enough about magic to make sense of it. He could only glean that this was probably something big. And if that great demon was making use of it, she may have been intentionally using it wrong.

And now wasn’t the time to ask for an explanation.

He felt the wind pressure. He shouldn’t have looked that way. His entire body was frozen with fear. A building of more than 30 floors, which had seemed like an unshakable part of the scenery, wobbled diagonally and then came crashing down toward the street. Which meant toward him and the others.

“Take shelter!! Get behind something – anything – to shield you!!”

Kanzaki’s sharp command broke the pointy-haired boy’s paralysis. He pressed up against a nearby cement block wall.

(Damn, where are Index, Misaka, and the others!?)

“If you would like your lungs to remain undamaged, do not breathe in, human! Here it comes!!”

Othinus hid within his jacket.

Kamijou was of course wondering why he was supposed to get “behind” something. And what was that about breathing? If the building was falling this way, shouldn’t he get “below” something? But he was given an answer soon enough.

Once the skyscraper sliced through the main street, something like dirty cotton candy swelled out. Past the end of the cement block wall, the entire main street was instantly engulfed.

Tens or hundreds of thousands of tiny glass and concrete shards flew through like a deadly sandstorm. A hit from that wouldn’t just have torn his feet from the ground and thrown him dozens of meters through the air – it would have stripped the flesh from his bones, leaving nothing recognizable behind.

''Except even that idea didn’t cover it.

Kamijou heard a quiet popping sound in his head. Followed by a sharp ringing in his ear like something had pierced into his brain. He had avoided a direct hit from the sandstorm by getting behind this wall. He had been leaning against it. Yet, he couldn’t stay on his feet and slid down into a sitting position. Before collapsing onto his side.

The air pressure of the entire space was off. How could he possibly evade this?

“Gah…ah…”

The pain meant he was still alive. So he had to think of it as a good thing.

He thought the deadly gale continued blowing for more than two minutes.

He couldn’t let this continue. That LAShTAL thing was still swinging its colossal body around. More than one building might have been felled.

He had to get moving.

He knew where he needed to go, but his body refused to listen as he lay collapsed on the ground stained by red snow.

What had happened to Index and Misaka Mikoto?

His hearing still hadn’t recovered, so he was late to realize something had exploded within the pile of rubble. Maybe a propane tank had been enveloped by it all.

When his hearing did recover, someone’s shouting voice belatedly reached him.

“Touma! Are you alright? You weren’t crushed by that debris, were you!? Please answer me!!”

He sat up. He gritted his teeth and forced himself.

He had to answer her.

“I’m…fine, Index. What about you!?”

“We’re fine too. We’re checking each other’s status with our communication spiritual items and phones.”

She was safe. Like she should be. But then why couldn’t he see her for himself?

After dragging himself along and peeking out past the half-destroyed concrete wall, Kamijou understood.

They were cut off. The main street was unrecognizable. Rubble was piled up higher than a five story building. That was more than a school building. They couldn’t climb that. And even approaching it could get them crushed by something like a landslide.

Kamijou was the only one on this side.

Which meant he was the only one who could pursue Great Demon Coronzon right away.

He felt another deep vertical tremor. LAShTAL(?) must have destroyed another skyscraper or large factory.

That thing’s chaotic rampage could threaten the lives that had just been saved. Kamijou clenched his right fist, but then he heard another voice.

Was that Misaka Mikoto?

“Go! Hurry! If whoever is free to go doesn’t stop that Coronzon person right now, things will only get worse, right? So go!!”

He wanted to stay.

Not just communicate by shouting past rubble and using phones. He wanted to see their faces to know they were safe. That perfectly normal thought grabbed at him like countless unseen hands and tugged him back.

Don’t do the right thing.

Give into the kindness and split your focus.

(I won’t…let you do that, Coronzon!!)

“Can you take care of that thing? Index! Misaka!!”

“Touma, LAShTAL is not Coronzon’s final trump card. She must have loads more. We’ll do what we can here, so you go stop her!!”

“I don’t get it myself, but listen to her. The fighting will never stop if you don’t defeat the source of it all, right? Then put a stop to this before any more of the city is destroyed!!”

He shook off his hesitation.

Coronzon tore people apart and obstructed their evolution.

There was only one way to defeat her: to trust those you could believe in without hesitation.

So Kamijou turned his back on the pile of rubble and took off running.

Even if he had to grit his teeth as he did so.

Something exploded in the distance. Several beams of light flashed out. Was that people using magic or esper powers to battle the giant blue shadow called LAShTAL? Their survival was not guaranteed and taking a single attack could mean their deaths. Even so, they were fighting so Kamijou could head to Coronzon and so they could protect Academy City and the wider world beyond its walls.

His trust was being repaid. This was what it meant to protect the bonds that tied people together.

===Part 19===

And Misaka Mikoto spoke quietly in a dusty enclosed space.

Was it even five meters across?

“Ha ha. I guess this is the end…”

“Short Hair. There are gaps all over the place, so we shouldn’t have to worry about air.”

“Finally some good news.”

But there were no gaps large enough for a person to crawl through.

“Why not at least let the kitty leave? There’s no reason to keep him here. I emit weak electromagnetic waves that animals don’t like, so it’s probably uncomfortable for him to be in here with me.”

“I’ve been trying, but Sphinx won’t go.”

The world shook. Small pieces of building materials poured down like sand.

If the pile of rubble collapsed for some reason, they would be crushed by tens of thousands of tons of concrete and killed instantly. Misaka Mikoto could control electricity and magnetism, but wielding that strength in a delicate situation like this would only hasten their deaths. Giant robots were powerful and cool, but no one would want to be so up close and personal with one of their joints that they were crushed by it. This was the same.

This was the truth of their earlier shouting.

They had not been calling out to the boy from the other side of the collapsed building. They had been been hit by the falling building. Misaka Mikoto’s magnetic control had stripped it of much of its force, but they and their shield had still been swallowed up by the rubble.

The #3’s power was great, but if she used it continuously over a long time, she could run out of stamina. Relying on magnetism for too long would be risky. So their best option was to stay put and wait for rescue. …Assuming rescue was even coming, of course.

Misaka Mikoto smiled a little.

“Well, it’s not like we could’ve told him we were trapped in the rubble.”

And Kamijou Touma couldn’t have accomplished anything had he stayed. He did seem to have some kind of mysterious power, but nothing she had seen led her to believe it would let him clear tens of thousands of tons of rubble on his own. And if he did try to tackle the rubble pile, it could collapse and crush him too.

Their top priority was Great Demon Coronzon.

That was all the more clear to her now that her life was at risk.

It was bad enough this was happening in Academy City. She couldn’t let the entire world turn to rubble like this.

“We’re counting on you. And I mean that.”

“Don’t worry. Touma can handle it.”

===Part 20===

“Pant, gasp…”

Great Demon Coronzon breathed heavily as she stood firm on the red snowy ground.

But the snow wasn’t the only source of red.

Crimson blood spilled from her mouth.

(This is the natural cost of forcing a major spell like that with no real preparation. I doubt I can use LAShTAL again.)

LAShTAL was powerful but would be defeated eventually. If that were enough to destroy all of humanity, she wouldn’t have relied on Adikalika.

But buying her some time was enough.

She couldn’t even stand up straight as she walked toward the thick city wall on unsteady legs.

(I…may not make it to the next world… the ways things are going.)

She wiped the blood from her mouth and thought without speaking aloud.

(But I will still stop this world from helplessly rotting away… Yes, yes. For the sake of that boy who said I was on the side of good and righteousness.)

She didn’t have Moina Mathers or LAShTAL anymore. Her win condition was escaping. Her own survival was what mattered. Each individual trump card wasn’t too important. It was using them together that mattered.

She just had to make it over.

If she could cross that wall, then the world’s doom was assured.

“…”

For just a moment, her thoughts turned to someone who wasn’t here.

She nearly came to a stop.

Hamazura Shiage.

…But she shook free of it with her will. He had said himself that she was ''on the side of good and righteousness''. He had asked if he had been wrong to bet on her.

She was a great demon.

If any kind feelings and warm emotions were ''unnaturally'' welling up with in her, someone else had to be interfering. No longer would she be god’s plaything. She had chosen to ''overdo'' her role and destroy the world. She would not allow any obstacles turning her aside from that goal.

She was not human. So she could leap over that tall wall in a single bound.

So she did so.

And she exploded.

“!?”

She lost her balance mid-jump, but she didn’t have time for surprise.

A platform the size of a domed stadium sat just outside the wall. Wasn’t that a spiritual item called the Tribikos? But wait. Who was it that used that?

She did not have time to think.

She had viewed it as a platform.

Because someone else had kicked off of it to rush toward her. His cane extended unnaturally. No, he was drawing a sword. The bare blade sliced through the air, accurately targeting her neck.

Several lights flashed out and explosive booms erupted out as well, but Coronzon managed to survive.

It was a close thing, though. It had taken everything she had to survive.

Aradia.

Good, Old Mary.

And H.T. Trismegistus.

…No, it wasn’t just them. Mut Thebes, 2nd Saga, Vidhatri even though she had been near death, and more. These Transcendents had gathered at Alice’s summons, lost faith in her, and scattered from Academy City, so why were they back in the city?

Vidhatri sounded a bit irritated as she spoke.

“I was one of the Killers when it came to Kamijou Touma, but a debt is a debt. I can return to business as usual after repaying all of my debts.”

“I was barely away and now Vidhatri has fallen too?”

Mut Thebes’s unnecessary comment began a minor argument among the Transcendents.

“(As usual, mama ends up doing all the work. The healer never does get a chance to rest.)”

Coronzon’s head was boiling with rage after being pushed back, falling on the inside of the wall, and finding herself bound to Academy City once more.

“Damn you… Damn all of you!!” she roared.

Something wasn’t right.

She was unsteady on her feet.

That explosion had caused more damage than she had thought.

Was that just what happened when Transcendents gathered? If only they hadn’t caught her when she was magically defenseless thanks to the recoil of using LAShTAL.

But even so, how had this sad result even happened?

Before Coronzon had regained control of her body, Aleister had used this exact same body to easily defeat Transcendents like Vidhatri. That meant the great demon did have the power to do so. So why wasn’t this going the way she expected? How could they look down on her like this!?

(Are you tripping me up again, Aleister!?)

“I thought you had despaired in this world!! I thought you cursed the god who refuses to save people!! Your motivations always began with wanting to protect some specific group. You must have seen the moment when their protections failed and they were lost! But you were weak and foolish, so you feared Alice’s tyranny and relied on the fantasy of CRC!!! So why would you cling to this world now? This world can be remade!! Destroy it and remake it and all that tragedy and misfortune will be eliminated!!!”

“The answer to that is simple,” replied Aradia.

Good, Old Mary continued with a calm expression.

“Mama and the others did not cast aside our identities and dress up as gods so we could protect the vague and formless framework of the world. We just have to destroy the world? …The world is no more than a tool to create happiness and the death of even one person we wish to protect is too many. Can’t you figure that out, you fool?”

“So what?”

The great demon was trembling.

Why couldn’t they understand something so simple? Her face twisted in rage.

“Be that as it may!! None of that will eliminate the unjust and unreasonable sides of this world. You must understand that. More and more of the people you want to protect are being lost ''regardless of anything I am doing''. Protecting this rotten world will not change the number of victims! You will only continue seeing those people die in your arms!!”

“That is none of your business.”

2nd Saga, the young woman with her origins in Norse mythology who took a different approach from the other Transcendents, sighed in exasperation.

H.T. Trismegistus spoke.

“Common sense says we Transcendents should think for ourselves to reach an answer. Fortunately, this world you consider so rotten has shown us some small reason for hope.”

===Part 21===

A bit earlier, Alice Anotherbible left the others searching for Coronzon and ran to a completely different place.

She didn’t think the current plan would work.

Kamijou and the others had done nothing wrong, but it wasn’t enough. And battles were not won by the purity of one’s intentions. Even with the purest of intentions, you would still lose if you failed to meet the necessary conditions.

She hadn’t wanted that to happen.

No matter what.

So Alice had detected something other than Coronzon.

Someone closer to her who she could search out at any time.

“Everyone, the girl needs something!!”

The small girl yelled up toward the heavens.

She wasn’t using her physical voice, of course. Anyone with the proper qualifications could sense this voice even if they were on the other side of the planet. The magic power placed behind her voice ensured it.

Even as she yelled, Alice Anotherbible remembered.

She had been so selfish.

She had only been able to communicate with the regular Transcendents by terrifying them.

When Kamijou Touma had been injured at the Bridge Builders Cabal’s consulate, she had attacked H.T. Trismegistus and Good, Old Mary.

Maybe it was wrong to try and get their help now.

But she had no one else to rely on.

Alice wouldn’t blame them if they abandoned her.

Still, it felt wrong for him – for Kamijou Touma – to be harmed by a punishment meant for her.

“The girl can destroy! The girl can kill! The girl can doom! Nothing in this world can stand up to the girl!! …But the girl’s power can’t protect her teacher. So the girl is useless here. She needs your help!”

They were listening of course.

The Transcendents knew.

They were right outside the city wall. Maybe among the trees of a forest, maybe at the top of a metal tower, maybe seated on the bench of a rusty old bus stop.

They had lost faith in Alice Anotherbible, but a Transcendent was a magician who would save anyone who met the salvation conditions they had decided on. Despite saying they were leaving Academy City, not a one of them had truly abandoned it. They didn’t care what someone’s affiliations were. Whether enemy or ally, as long as someone matched the salvation conditions, they would protect them even at the cost of their own life. So…as long as that applied to even a single person among Academy City’s 2.3 million, they would never abandon the city and run away.

So they were present for that moment.

That tyrant Alice had remembered basic human gratitude. That acted as powerful reins for the girl herself. And as long as she could control her own emotions, perhaps she would be different from CRC who had been similarly capricious and playful.

It was by no means a small change.

If the old Alice didn’t have enough help, she might have multiplied her extraordinary self. That might sound ridiculous, but with her it was possible.

But now she knew that wouldn’t work.

She needed the diversity of people who had abilities she lacked.

Alice was not gathering up the people she needed.

She was trying to become someone the people around her needed.

“The girl will do anything. The girl will do anything you ask and she doesn’t care how you use her power. You can tell her to die if you want!! …So! So don’t let Coronzon leave the city!!”

And the Transcendents knew this would not be a wasted effort. A boy had stopped Alice’s rampage even though it cost him his life. The little tyrant had taken that fact to heart. The Transcendents had lost faith in Alice because she had changed, been distorted, become weak. Or so they thought, but now they were willing to consider a different possibility.

Was Kamijou Touma the key? Not even the Transcendents who had been observing Alice for so long could predict what she would do now.

Could they really say Alice Anotherbible wasn’t growing?

Now that they had seen her pouring everything into bowing her head to someone else…

Was she not worth their respect?

And if Alice’s change was a positive form of growth, could they maybe still have some hope? The idea of saving the world through CRC, Christian Rosencreutz, was dead. He had not been the saint they expected. …But could they maybe find some other way of saving the world with Alice?

Alice Anotherbible raised her tear-streaked face.

“The girl is sorry, everyone… But can the girl ask for just one more thing?”

Was this the leader the Transcendents should serve?

No, she wasn’t.

They listened to her words as an equal companion.

“Join the girl in the fight to save her teacher and the world!!!”

No words were necessary.

They used their actions to answer her.

===Part 22===

LAShTAL’s rampage continued.

The Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force were all fighting.

Kamijou ran toward District 17. He hated that he didn’t know how to drive. Especially when grownups did it without even thinking about it. Of course, the red snow was frozen solid across the entire area. High schoolers were allowed to get a motorcycle license, but even that wouldn’t have done him much good here. Still.

While those meaningless thoughts were spinning through his mind, a stabbing headache crashed into his brain.

An invisible dizziness made the world spin around him.

This wasn’t the first time.

(Why…now?)

Kamijou Touma groaned.

And staggered to the side.

“Gh…”

A lengthy fight tonight had been suicide from the beginning.

He had passed his body’s limits way back when he fought Coronzon to stop Adikalika. He had lost there. It was just that it hadn’t ended there, so he had been forced to keep going in a sudden death round. How could he expect to save anyone like this?

(Just a bit more…a bit longer… Only five or ten minutes! Index and Misaka believed in me. They’re all fighting. Because they believe I can do this!! So can’t you keep going just a little longer, my body!?)

But he did not collapse.

Because as he started to fall forward, someone caught him.

He heard a voice.

The strange girl’s voice sounded simultaneously childlike and grown up.

“You really are…”

But most of all, it sounded sad.

“…allllllways like this, aren’t you? It’s like you never give your wounds a chance to heal or like you spend more days hurt than healthy.”

Who was she?

He didn’t ''think'' he knew her.

The girl wore mourning clothes and her long honey-blonde hair blew in the night breeze.

Maybe he had met her before, but he had no memory of her. Who could she be? He couldn’t find a single answer there.

“Who…?”

“I could tell you my name a billion times over and you would never remember. But maybe my esper name could stick in your mind: Mental Out.”

Academy City’s #5 Level 5.

The greatest psychological power: Mental Out.

He had heard of that. ''But only as a rumor.

If that was who she was…

If that legend was now standing before him in physical form…

His mouth felt awfully dry. No, was it just sticky with drying blood?

Kamijou somehow got the word out.

“Then…”

“Interested in forgetting it all and leaving the fight?”

“…Please. I don’t care if it’s only a trick, just do something about the pain. If you do, then I can face Coronzon…”

“Now I really do want to make you forget it all and leave the fight.”

She sounded exasperated.

And she glared at him fairly seriously.

But the honey-blonde girl hugged his head to her chest and smiled in a way that seemed to say ''she hadn’t expected anything else.

The conversation smoothly continued.

She seemed to be pouting her lips like a small child. And what was with the TV remote?

“Mental Out is a psychological power. It can erase the pain, but it has no healing ability for the physical wounds. It’s more like your body continues to send out all the intense pain signals, but your mind ability can’t sense them. Your organs will still be putting out different hormones in response to your wounds, so they could get worn out and damaged. Do you still want to do this?”

“Yes…”

“No touching your head after this, okay?”

“''Thanks''.”

Time froze for a moment.

The look on the honey-blonde girl’s face said she had never in her long life expected to hear that word directed at her.

“Saving the world isn’t my style.”

The boy wasn’t looking at her face.

His eyes were directed straight ahead, toward the goal he had already chosen.

“This is the last time the city you call home will be destroyed like this. I don’t know what it is you care for, but if it’s in this city, then it’s safe. I’ll protect all of it.”

“You dummy.”

Kamijou Touma took off running.

Without looking back.

So he could settle things with Great Demon Coronzon once and for all.

===Part 23===

He was in District 17.

It was the westernmost district in Academy City. It was an industrial area and the smokestacks of its wide variety of unmanned factories continued to release smoke that had been thoroughly scrubbed of pollutants making it “cleaner than the moldy and dusty air conditioner in your home”.

The district also bordered the city wall.

Cross that wall and you would find a vast forest and mountains. The green roof covered an area of more than ten kilometers across, so satellites and drones would have no way of finding a fugitive there.

Kamijou Touma knew his body was in bad shape.

But he was pretty sure the same applied to that unsteady figure over there.

He had found her.

There she was.

A lot had happened during this one night. Most likely, the efforts and actions of far more people than he was aware had been intertwined. Complexly so.

But that was why he had arrived in time for this final moment.

She was still inside the wall.

“Coronzon…”

When he called that name, the figure shook. She could hear him. He had made it close enough for his physical voice to reach her. If he didn’t stop her now, he was sure she would escape into the outside world.

He wouldn’t let that happen.

Kamijou Touma called out again.

“Great Demon Coronzon.”

Slowly.

She turned around.

Her body in the beige habit was tilted at an angle.

He could smell blood… Her long, long blonde hair was a mess. She held her head with a hand and forcibly kept herself upright as she glared at him.

With thoroughly bloodshot eyes.

“Kami…jou…Touma.”

That wasn’t anger?

Something was off. Coronzon had so arrogantly rebelled against heaven, yet now she was shrinking down as if afraid of something. She looked like a fugitive at her wit’s end.

“Do you really think you can defeat me? Have you even once found victory against me by sticking to your own will through to the end!? You may think you have me cornered, but it is you who will be crushed. Lament your misfortune for meeting me here, Kamijou Touma!!”

That was probably true.

But Kamijou Touma wasn’t looking at Great Demon Coronzon.

He was focused on something else.

No matter how he tried to disguise it with his words, defeating Coronzon would also mean attacking Aleister.

Aleister had failed to restrain her. He wouldn’t last.

Then what did he hope for? To defeat the being who had once torn apart his family? For the living Baby Lilith to remain in this world?

Whatever the case, idealism would only eradicate that human’s hopes. The power to destroy illusions could not save him.

So Kamijou had to think. What could he do here?

The words spilled from his mouth.

“Hey, can I rely on you here?”

He had to stop Coronzon.

He could not let this opportunity escape.

So.

“Let’s win this together, Aleister.”

There was no obvious physical voice.

But a much too unnatural heartbeat did ring out into the world.

Kamijou took that as an answering voice.

Saying, “Attack me along with her.”

Coronzon doubled over in pain.

She was probably coughing blood into the hand over her mouth.

…They didn’t need to exchange many words. It hadn’t really been all that long since they first met in person, but Kamijou sensed a bond beyond the need for words with Aleister.

That was a bond that Coronzon had failed to tear apart.

And it was a bond that Kamijou would soon be severing himself.

No matter what excuses he made.

===Part 24===

The boy clenched his right fist harder and harder.

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter2|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter4}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume14 Chapter3

2025-12-29T20:04:48Z

Massify: /* Part 9 */

==Chapter 3: Which Side is Winning? – Scoreboard.==

===Part 1===

Around when she abandoned the stolen car, her memory cut out again.

“…”

The next thing she knew, Coronzon was leaning against a cold building wall.

Something had happened.

Aleister had done something.

She had traveled south from District 20 to reach District 9, which contained art schools. The Anglicans were mostly in the north of the city, so she abandoned the stolen car and had planned to take another car (also stolen of course) to reach the southern wall.

But she couldn’t trust in that plan anymore.

She ran her hands along her habit. Pathetically driven by fear and anxiety. She pulled an object smaller than her palm from a fairly unspeakable part of her clothing,.

She couldn’t believe it.

(A wireless game controller? That means it has its own ID and can produce its own signal to provide its location.)

“Y-you would forestall a great demon with this…this piece of junk that doesn’t even cost 5000 yen!? Are you kidding me, Aleisterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!?”

A shape squirmed. And produced a short scream.

No, was that a man forcing himself onto a girl?

An outfit that looked on the border between at-home clothing and sleepwear had been badly torn and the man was reaching for her underwear.

''Perfect.

That was wandering Coronzon’s honest assessment.

It was happening in a small boxlike building.

An Anti-Skill station. A small one. Around the size of what would be called a police box in the outside world.

This was happening there of all places. That public structure should have had someone working in it 365 days a year to keep the city’s peace, but today it had been empty.

With his hands pinning the girl to the floor, the man wasn’t sure how to undo his belt buckle. He raised his head with an odd expression that stuck out his chin more than necessary.

“Huh? Who the hell’re you?”

She didn’t even respond.

Great Demon Coronzon stabbed her hand right through the center of the scum’s gut.

The odor of blood splattered out.

“Bhee, ee, eeeeeeeeeek!!”

He audibly slammed into the shelves behind him and objects came crashing down.

The man of no consequence scrambled out of the Anti-Skill station, his arms flailing wildly.

With his abdominal cavity punctured and a game controller directly stuck inside. Surgical hygiene? Why should Coronzon care about something like that? His bacteria-covered organs might shut down before long, but he would act as a nice decoy as long as he scrambled around and fled before that happened.

In something of a new habit, she held a hand to her woozy head and belatedly realized her hand was stained by that scum’s unclean blood. Everything seemed to piss her off right now. Nothing was going her way.

She lashed out vocally.

“Aleister!! That death is on your hands for that trick you pulled. Are you satisfied? It’s absurd for you to try and save the world. Hee hee, ha ha ha. You’re the one who made the world this way! So give up! You already know everything you do only comes back to bite you!!”

Even so, how many times was it now?

…Or was it really Aleister’s will sending these signs to Kamijou Touma and the other pursuers? Did he really have enough strength to hijack Great Demon Coronzon’s body this many times?

Was it possible she was sending these hints to her pursuers herself? She shuddered. No, it wasn’t possible. How would that benefit her? But could it be a self-destructive desire like the urge people felt to activate a fire alarm when they saw one?

Coronzon clenched her hair tight in her hand. An unpleasant snapping sound followed.

She couldn’t get a read on her own mind anymore.

“U-um.”

It was then that someone nervously spoke to her. The girl seated on the floor looked up at her, completely forgetting to fix her clothing.

With admiration in her eyes.

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Um, thank you…f-for saving me.”

Great Demon Coronzon doubled over and held a hand to her mouth.

She retched.

She couldn’t stand any more of this. Before the girl could say anything more, Coronzon got her unsteady body moving, rushing out of the station. The great demon ''had fled''.

She walked a few meters and then stumbled. She fell down onto the red snow frozen on the ground.

She lay in the snow as thoughts spiraled through her head.

This was wasn’t right.

What was going on?

She had just jabbed her hand right into the gut of an ordinary man who had no connection to magic. With enough force to take his life. And only so she could embed the signal to her location inside his body. There may have been another way, but she had chosen that one so she could enjoy it.

It had been for her. It had been a cruel act of violence befitting a demon.

…But had she ended up saving a life?

Impossible.

She had been acting of her own free will.

She was certain of that.

And yet the result had so completely betrayed her expectations?

Her bad deed had been remade into a good one.

It was the ultimate outrage.

(Was it an act of…)

The being known as a great demon hatefully clenched her back teeth.

Sweat poured from her brow. She had a terrible feeling about this.

A wireless game controller? Those weren’t too unusual, but ''where had Aleister gotten one in the few seconds he had taken control''? She doubted he had forced his way into an electronics shop with its metal shutter down for the night. He wouldn’t have had time to search through the game shelf in a discount shop. Did that mean someone had ''just so happened'' to drop one on the side of the street? …Had it been ''a complete coincidence'' as if some greater will were at work?

(Did an act of god transform what I did? Is a good influence distorting my actions? It’s too late, world. Do you really expect me to go along with that? I will take things! ''Too far''!! And destroy the world of my own free will!!!)

===Part 2===

An alarm blared in the District 10 prison.

Telling of an oddity in the same prison.

Someone had already broken in.

“Is it Oniyama!?”

“No, he would have used his authority as a Director to use the proper channels for a visit. This is someone else, so be careful!”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 left the cell while listening to the female secretary speaking over the device on the wall.

The enemy was close.

As close as the corridor leading to the solitary confinement cell hidden deep inside the prison. The silver-haired, dark-skinned woman wore a patchwork of rags that did not look at all hygienic. She was alone. She was even barefoot. An ordinary jailer might tilted their head wondering how she had made it inside such a strictly guarded prison.

But Qliphah Puzzle 545 understood magic too well for that.

She accurately grasped the threat standing before her.

“One of the Anglican’s magicians specialized in anti-magician combat!?”

“I am Necromancer Isabella Theism. You should already know that name after I threatened the city’s leader.”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was dumbfounded. This prison’s security had already proven itself unable to keep out uninvited guests and now someone like this had made it in?

“The entrance back there was covered by a shocking number of sensors, but they’re only designed to detect living intruders. I recommend tweaking it to detect and instantly attack corpses as well. It’s not that hard to disguise yourself as one.”

“Why are you here? The Anglicans know all about the battle against Coronzon, so you should know my master is in no condition to talk.”

“So I’ve heard. Although I wasn’t around for that part since I was knocked out while dealing with ''some other business''. Regardless, if what I have heard is true, we really are in a grave situation. Right now, I think it is most necessary that we defeat Great Demon Coronzon and bring stability back to the world.”

“Then go tell that to Coronzon, not my master!”

“Oh, do you know where she is?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 fell silent.

Isabella breathed a sigh thick with exasperation.

“That is the real question. What I need right now is information and a few coincidental hints just aren’t enough. A vast network has been laid out across Academy City: security cameras, security robots, drones, satellites, and so on. Tracking her requires bringing the city’s data infrastructure back to full functionality. And it if is necessary to settle things with Coronzon…as much as I hate to, what choice do I have but to save your new Board Chairman? I can’t have him go on sleeping with the Master Key clutched in his hand.”

“…”

Isabella Theism seemed unbothered by Qliphah Puzzle 545’s skeptical look.

The look on her face said she had expected it.

Not long before, she had been in charge of the group physically taking control of Academy City and attempting to use the city as a disposable tool to defeat Coronzon. It would be weird if Qliphah Puzzle 545 did trust her right away.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 glared at her and asked a question.

“Your clothes reek of death. You’re that necromancer who was arguing with my master over the phone… Can a death magician really heal a living human?”

Isabella Theism grabbed her rags in her hands and lifted them upwards. All at once.

She was wearing underwear below, but it was very thin and small.

Two healthy brown objects jiggled there.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was a girl, but she still flinched back at being shown this all of a sudden.

“Uh?”

“Take a close look. My ribs and sternum were badly broken and one sharp bone fragment pierced my right lung. Can you see any of that? What’s your assessment?”

“You have all your ribs and there’s no bruising from internal bleeding. It’s all been healed?”

When the demon girl approached and took a close look, Isabella averted her eyes awkwardly.

Apparently this was embarrassing for her after all.

“Loko Atisou. There is more to Voodoo than making zombies. It is a polytheistic religion with all sorts of gods, so it of course has a god of medicine.”

Just like any other religion, Voodoo also functioned to govern and help the local people. The violent and combative side was only meant for emergencies when the group as a whole was attacked by an external enemy or a rebellion. That wasn’t all it could do.

It had not been invented for use in horror movies, so there was a benevolent Voodoo that listened to the people’s worries and healed their injuries and disease.

Healing was a challenging territory for Demon Qliphah Puzzle 545 who specialized in the Qliphoth that contained all that was impure and immoral. She would have to start with a curse or an attack and then build it in reverse. Needing to include that conversion in every single step meant it would be much faster to borrow the power of a god who directly dealt in medicine.

Isabella concluded her valid evidence had been accepted, so she lowered her rags.

“I am willing to view you as a magic side doctor. And I understand how this aligns with your interests. So where will you start, witch doctor?”

“Well, I do have a few things on hand. Zombie powder, for example.”

“Z-zombie powder!?”

Despite being a demon, Qliphah Puzzle 545’s eyes bulged at the mere mention of that name. But Isabella Theism sighed in exasperation.

“Voodoo zombie powder…well, real Voodoo prefers to use French more than English. But anyway, it isn’t a toxin sprinkled on a rotting corpse to control it.”

She seemed to be implying that she did not use real Voodoo.

No matter how much she knew about it, she was only illicitly using their excellent techniques.

“It is a punishment in which a living human is put in a state of living death where they cannot think or make any decisions and will do whatever they are told. So you can think of it as a medicine used ''to prevent someone from dying'' until their punishment is complete.”

“You mean like how the highly toxic digitalis can also be used as a cardiac stimulant?”

“And in the other direction, salt and sugar can kill despite being necessary nutrients for life. The materials themselves are neither good nor bad. It all comes down to how they are used.”

===Part 3===

An ambulance echoed through one corner of District 20.

Kamijou glanced in its direction.

Takitsubo Rikou…couldn’t go any further. With the frozen snow, the dead traffic signals, and the more concrete threat of the scouts, he was thankful the ambulance had actually come when they called.

A large dog hopped into the same ambulance.

“I will go with her.”

“Hey, are you sure about that?”

“I am not much help without the A.A.A. And Coronzon will be cautious of my wonderful nose now that I have demonstrated its use. There is nothing left for me to do on the front line. So I wish to contribute by removing this worry from your hearts, allowing you to move more freely. Listen to me. Do not worry about this girl any longer.”

Kamijou and the others could only watch the ambulance go.

There was still more they had to do.

But…

“We have a report regarding the entertainment location signal presumed to be a sign from Aleister. Unfortunately, it was found embedded in some man. So back to square one.”

“Hey, that doesn’t tell us nothing. If we know what path the dying decoy took, we should be able to figure out where he contacted Coronzon.”

This was all they had to discuss on their way to a corner of District 9.

It was now 3 AM.

This was where they had lost Coronzon’s trail.

Kamijou Touma sighed softly while listening to Kanzaki and Othinus’s discussion.

All they could do was wait.

Nothing pained Kamijou more than having nothing to do when he knew Coronzon was even now on the move. It was all over once she crossed the wall somewhere and left the city. Yet the city was too large to search at random.

He had decided he wouldn’t just wait around, but the physical reality wasn’t cooperating with his personal wishes.

Index, Kanzaki, and some others were apparently running a magical search, but that still wasn’t enough to track down Coronzon.

They needed to go after her from the science side as well, but Mikoto alone wasn’t enough.

Simply tracking down the fugitive was hard enough on its own, but Kamijou couldn’t shake the feeling that Coronzon was still hiding something. Some powerful move or sudden twist he never would have considered. Something they couldn’t even imagine while continuing to wander through this labyrinth, but also something that would again overturn everything if they failed to prevent it.

Kamijou Touma’s thoughts turned to a certain individual.

Perhaps it was all reliant on ''him'' recovering…

===Part 4===

In the prison’s solitary confinement cell, Board Chairman Accelerator was lying in bed unconscious and hooked up to medical equipment. Even Academy City’s #1 would be killed by an attack now. It was unusual for Qliphah Puzzle 545 to bring an outsider this deep into the prison at all.

That outsider was Necromancer Isabella Theism.

The current situation required going beyond the usual.

“How exactly are you going to heal my master?”

“Legba Atibon.”

That was all she said.

It was the name of a gatekeeper god who managed all ceremonies. So no matter which god’s power the ceremony was meant to borrow, you first sought the gatekeeper god’s permission. And because he appeared in all ceremonies, there were no specific dates or locations that boosted his power.

Something emerged from Accelerator’s arm.

It was a transparent shard only a few millimeters long. A piece of a broken LCD monitor.

More followed. Like floating leaves following a river’s current, more and more shards silently slid out of his body.

Not a single drop of blood was shed and no apparent wounds were made.

Even though all these shards were located in extremely dangerous position near major arteries and organs.

“Y-you’re already done!?”

“They did not belong and the human body has several functions meant to automatically eliminate such things. There was no need for dangerous surgery. I only had to make some adjustments to those functions.”

Of course, thoughtlessly boosting them would have only triggered rejection, where his own immune system attacked his body. Only a professional necromancer with sufficient training could pull this off.

Isabella sighed softly.

“You know glass shards aren’t enough to keep a human mind locked away indefinitely, don’t you? Another task is even more important.”

“Breaking the curse.”

“Voodoo can handle that easily. A zombie is in a controllable state of living death by stopping the heart with a poison and then restarting it with an antidote. Antidotes and curse breaking are built into the ceremony.”

As she spoke, Isabella stuck her fingers into the seams of her rags. She pulled out various vials. They contained powders, liquids, dried leaves and roots, living insects…and more.

The demon girl was accustomed to dirty and impure things, but she still recoiled.

“Ew. Did I just wander into a museum of the bizarre?”

“Think of it like a 72-color colored pencil set and get excited. Even if you can theoretically represent everything in the world with the three primary colors, the actual task isn’t so simple, is it?”

The brown woman got to work. Swiftly and accurately.

It took more than a single name this time.

Meaning even she didn’t see this as a simple task.

“Voodoo is flexible enough to let you include any supernatural being as a weapon. Qliphah Puzzle. And 545 was it? I will include you in my system.”

“I will do anything for my master, but will including me change anything?”

“Just as salt and sugar can kill and just as toxic digitalis can be a cardiac stimulant, nothing in this world is a pure poison. There is simply a way of using it as a poison. And also a way of using it is a medicine.”

Voodoo did not think of gods as good or evil, but it was common for the same god to be included on both sides. That meant the gods did not determine their stance by the human conception of good and evil. Instead of the many gods being divided onto the opposite sides of good and evil, the many gods could freely move between the two sides depending on the time and situation. That was what made them all-purpose, but it also made them tricky to use. It required a priest with specialized training to handle them.

Thus, the necromancer did not avoid this being known as an artificial demon.

She simply viewed her as a nonhuman being with supernatural power.

If Isabella determined how much of her to use, she could be used to save a life.

“Here goes.”

“Okay!”

“Through Gatekeeper God Legba Atibon, I contact Medicine God Loko Atisou, and link the ceremony terminal to Messenger God Brav Gede.”

Voodoo practitioners did not think of using magic on their own.

They borrowed a compatible god’s power to achieve a miracle.

In fact, they would even borrow another god’s power to send their request to the god they wanted.

In Voodoo, if a miracle was beyond human capability, then a human voice could not even reach the necessary god on its own. They required a separate link to get through.

Or to put it another way…

They relied on one god to call on another. So by going through Artificial Demon Qliphah Puzzle 545 (who did not exist in the Voodoo system), Isabella should be able to make a request beyond what could normally be asked of the Voodoo gods.

It was an impossible shortcut.

Or an illicit backdoor.

“Through the gathering of Qliphah, I beseech Baron Samdi. Divide this soul into five territories and reveal the part that has been intentionally placed in an endless spiral. Human individuality is managed by the Ti Bon Ange. Reveal to me the wicked power severing its proper link. Just like the zombie powder, it takes the form of a toxin.”

Something like bluish-white sparks burst forth.

That was not part of the ceremony.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 thought it might be a trap left by Coronzon, but it wasn’t.

It was Academy City’s #1.

He was no normal human. Had his body itself reacted in some way?

“The lime poison is an unstoppable assassination spell for it produces a different toxin each time the same ceremony is performed. This in turn proves that any and all toxins can be cured as long as their ingredients are known. I have already seen with my own eyes the wicked toxin unjustly robbing him of his consciousness! With its identity seen, it must be curable!!”

The smell of blood hung in the air.

Isabella Theism had a shallow cut on her right cheek.

The bluish-white sparks were harmful.

But she did not stop the ceremony.

Coronzon could not be allowed to escape Academy City. But they had nowhere near enough data to track her down. They needed the new Board Chairman and the Master Key he held. Academy City’s functions had to be fully recovered before they could catch up to Coronzon.

A single necromancer’s survival wasn’t that big a deal here.

But if the entire world were destroyed, then everything Isabella Theism wanted to protect would die with it.

She couldn’t allow that.

No matter what.

“Answer me, Medicine God Loko Atisou. The vessel for your holy power and the ingredients for the medicine are gathered here!! …No external incision is needed. The conditions to save you were within your body from the start. Thus, I call upon you, separated mind, reactive yourself from within your body and break free of your cage!!”

Light surged out.

Isabella Theism lurched back.

The necromancer was struck by a destructive whip of something much like electricity. Unable to bear the blow, she toppled backwards. Several pieces of medical equipment screamed out with their electronic tones.

And nothing happened.

There was no change on the bed. The smell of blood came from Isabella. Sleeping Accelerator did not change at all, for better or for worse.

The Level 5 said to be Academy City’s strongest did not wake.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had to accept it.

They had failed.

It was so dark, shadowy, heavy.

She felt crushed by the air itself when a voice reached her ears.

Isabella Theism was whispering.

“Kh… What…now?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t have time to ask what she meant by that.

The necromancer continued.

“In the worst case, I could control him as a corpse to have him use the Master Key.”

“But…”

“Zombie powder does not control rotting corpses. It prevents someone from dying to keep them in a state of living death. But by altering that interpretation, it would be possible. It can be used just like in a horror movie.”

“No! That isn’t the same as saving him!!”

Her opposition was only natural.

''Assuming'' saving Board Chairman Accelerator was your goal.

“But aren’t we here to use the Master Key to restore Academy City and track down Coronzon!?”

Their goals were defined at slightly different points.

Isabella Theism wanted Accelerator’s help to protect the world from Coronzon. The #1’s recovery was only a means to that end.

Explaining that up front showed that Isabella was more reasonable than most. She could have lied to Qliphah Puzzle 545 and then gone ahead and used the zombie powder ''as a poison''.

“You need to choose. No one has sufficient nerve to make a ghastly choice. And you are the only point of contact I have left!” shouted Isabella Theism.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 would never let her do that. But how would her beloved Board Chairman have responded? The #1 would want to protect Academy City and the wider world beyond its walls.

(Master…)

===Part 5===

Kamijou and the others were in District 9.

They still hadn’t moved from there and were stuck waiting.

Mikoto and Index were frequently conversing. Probably a sign of their impatience.

“The nearby districts that border the city wall would be the most obvious option, but this is complicated by the fact that Coronzon has no restriction preventing her from returning to a district she’s already been to.”

“That means we can’t treat this like a game of concentration. So no matter how far we pursue her, we never eliminate any of the options.”

Wings audibly flapped at the air. Kamijou had seen the Bologna Succubus licking her wings and teasing them with her fingertips before, but they must have recovered enough for her to fly. Neither one said anything, but she took off into the night sky with Blodeuwedd the Bouquet hanging on again.

Kamijou spotted Itsuwa of the Amakusas.

“How’s Tsushima? What happened to her?”

“We can use recovery magic, so as long as someone isn’t actually dead, we can heal them even if it takes some fairly forceful methods. And it helped that you suppressed her bleeding until we arrived.”

At that point, Itsuwa’s tone dropped worriedly.

“You can’t push yourself too hard either. I heard you passed out earlier.”

“Sorry… I should’ve yelled before I passed out.”

“No! That isn’t what I meant…”

But he had let Coronzon get away.

Either way, he couldn’t fight while applying pressure to Tsushima’s neck wound. And could he have fought her on his own regardless? He really didn’t see any way he could have won there. But he could have at least informed someone of the threat. There must have been a way. Even if he was rapidly losing consciousness, he could have triggered his phone’s alarm or the camera flash. There had to have been something.

“Fool. Break yourself out of that meaningless negative spiral. Only you finds it ''pleasant''.”

The wicked woman could be harsh at times like this. Refreshingly so.

There was no way he could have come up with a clever idea when he was passing out, his brain was growing dull, and his thoughts were fading fast. He knew that.

(Still…)

It was easy enough to talk of battling Coronzon and settling things with her, but that also meant battling Aleister who shared her body.

…What did he really think about that?

Aleister was desperately struggling within Coronzon to provide them with even the smallest hint. Was Kamijou prepared to fight that human, win…and say goodbye?

If he couldn’t do it, humanity was doomed.

The conditions placed on the opposite end of the scales could not have been simpler or more solid.

Still.

Kamijou’s thoughts cut off there.

He looked up. Agnese, Lucia, and that group were off in a corner whispering among themselves.

“?”

===Part 6===

In the same district, not far from Kamijou and the others, stooped Angelene was waving her hands anxiously.

“Ehhhh!? Saint Georgios’s Fire? Is the Vatican really trying to defeat Coronzon!? A-are you sure they aren’t just using this as an excuse to destroy Academy City?”

“Some of them might think it would be safer to destroy it before it’s officially absorbed into the Anglican Church.”

Lucia appeared to be doing her best to remain calm.

The conversation wasn’t just between Agnese, Lucia, and Angelene. More than 250 nuns would be listening in through the Barbara Branch communication spiritual item.

Agnese had her doubts about that too. How far into the future were the Roman Catholic cardinals looking? Even though none of it would matter if the world were destroyed tomorrow.

The Former Agnese Force had already been told to evacuate.

They were to abandon Academy City and the Anglicans and escape the city with only the Roman Catholics among them. They had been given a few different conditions for activating Saint Georgios’s Fire, but it all boiled down to one thing: the cardinals would use that large-scale spell no matter what happened. The only difference was if it happened sooner or later.

The branch between launching it or not had already passed.

Being stubborn here was fine, but anyone who remained would die.

With zero exceptions.

Lucia looked to Agnese. She may have been peering into her eyes.

“This force is under your command, Sister Agnese. What will we do?”

“I do not have the right to order you all to die.” Agnese smiled bitterly as she spoke to them all. “You are not obligated or bound to stay. From here on, this is all voluntary. If you choose to leave Academy City, you don’t need your Barbara Branch. The Anglicans are experts at combating human magic. They might be able to track your location using it, so abandon it and escape in complete silence.”

“Wh-what can we accomplish by staying?”

“Protect Academy City from Saint Georgios’s Fire of course,” replied Agnese, her voice low.

That human-targeted attack wouldn’t work against inhuman Coronzon. So stopping the spell that would cause asphyxiation and ruptured organs would not affect the battle against Coronzon.

“Think of it like the neck of an hourglass. Saint Georgios’s Fire is large-scale magic that gathers power from the two billion Catholics across the globe without their knowledge and allows the cardinals in the Vatican to control it. Once gathered together, the attack travels through the ley lines to reach enemy territory and scatters back into two billion attacks after emerging from the ground. Then it causes enough damage to destroy a city.”

A city. Was that at least better than Adikalika that would have affected the entire Italian Peninsula? Agnese smiled a little. So they were retaliating with a smaller attack. The Vatican’s cardinals really had found a way to lower the psychological hurdle as far as possible.

“T-two billion. Th-th-then I don’t see what we can possibly do!”

“''That means it must be a long-range spell.'' In fact, it must travel all the way around the earth. Have you forgotten how Index stopped Adikalika? There must be any number of options: diverting its aim, cutting off the flow of the ley lines before it arrives here, or even preventing the two billion powers from gathering at the Vatican.”

Her argument had to be correct.

But she understood full well that this was wishful thinking.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been sweating so heavily in this cold weather.

(Even if the theory is solid, we’re talking about power from two billion people… Can we really stand up to that sheer force of quantity? That will likely be the greatest obstacle.)

There was no guaranteed method. If they stayed too long, they would lose the lives they could have saved.

They had to build it all up starting now. They had nothing at the moment to tell them it would be alright.

So Agnese Sanctis could not demand her companions join her in this.

In the worst case, she would have to stand up to the two billion all on her own.

And…

“I volunteer.”

That was Lucia.

She used to be so fastidious she would rage when so much as touched by a non-Catholic, but now she was the first to raise her hand and volunteer to fight to protect Academy City.

“What? The Roman Catholic Church is the largest sect in the world, so we must consider the world as a whole. Of course I will reach out a helping hand when lives are at risk. I couldn’t call myself a Catholic if I wouldn’t.”

She wasn’t alone.

Angelene was trembling, but she too chose to raise her hand. Even if only a little.

“U-umm. I volunteer. I mean, if we ran away now, then the Anglicans ''and'' the Catholics would be after us. So I want to at least keep a place for us with one of them. Our home is the women’s dorm in London and, if we want to return there with a clear conscience, we have to save Academy City!”

More and more voices came over the Barbara’s Branch communication spiritual item.

It only provided audio, but Agnese could easily imagine them leaning forward in defiance.

“Sister Apollonia. I volunteer too.”

“Sister Paula. I’ll volunteer if there are any tickets left.”

“Sister Agata. I-I volunteer!”

…This was who they were.

They hadn’t started out this way, of course. They hadn’t forgotten the brutal violence they subjected Orsola Aquinas and Kamijou Touma to. But Agnese and these more than 250 nuns had grown enough to say this during such a crisis.

After seeing another way to live. After being accepted with a smile after everything they had done.

It must have taken trust to do that, so they couldn’t turn their backs on that trust.

Did this mean they all felt that way?

Lucia pushed the conversation onward.

“Sister Agnese. We haven’t heard your answer yet. What will you do?”

Agnese Sanctis raised her head.

She stared straight ahead and raised her voice to a roar.

“I volunteer!! …Now that you’ve chosen this for yourself, you had better be ready. I said I don’t have the right to order you all to die. So no matter how bad this gets, I will not let you take the easy way out and choose an emotional death. Cry and wail all you like, I will bring every last one of you back alive even if it means crawling through hell on earth!!”

===Part 7===

Dion Fortune.

Moina Mathers.

Their fight in District 7 had passed the bounds of human ability. They had simply been fighting too long. No human could run a full marathon at the speed of a 50-meter dash. But a battle on that level had been going on for hours now. A Saint who could break the sound barrier in an instant and then instantly run out of gas would have died well before this. This was only possible for a magician created using a tarot deck as a grimoire.

That was the strength of someone who could absorb massive power from the ley lines and wield that instead of having to refine magic power from their own life force.

(I certainly don’t want to be killed right away, but this kind of endless quagmire isn’t fun either.)

One reason for the stalemate was Moina Mathers’s spiritual item.

Her tattva cards were certainly powerful, but using the visual stimuli of the bright colors drawn on the cards to guide her mind created a weakness as well. Visual stimuli. …That meant a third party could peek at the card and know the element of the next attack.

“Responding after seeing the card always puts me one step behind, though. But if I could predict what was coming next before you drew the card, I would be a step ahead and beat you.”

“…”

“But I’ll have gathered all the data I need soon. You shouldn’t have been throwing those tattva cards around like that. It’s like the scorebook written up by the cute manager of the baseball team. You’ve thrown too many pitches. How many until it’s enough? I will kill you before you can act.”

Moina Mathers said nothing.

But instead of a tattva card, she suddenly waved her palette knife through the air in an orderly pattern.

This was different.

“?”

Something rose up.

From the red snowy ground. And more followed it. A lot more. Like sinister flowers blossoming all around her.

They were colorful silhouettes seemingly made of a mixture of yellow, blue, white, red, and other colors of paint.

Except their heads were giant red roses.

“Ah, ahh, ah…”

Dion Fortune stood stock still and her voice escaped her like air from a deflating balloon.

Because she knew what her teacher and nemesis was doing.

“Wh-why do you look so proud of yourself? You didn’t think this was one of your successes, did you? How airheaded a wife can you be!?”

As his wife, Moina had devoted herself to supporting that uncontrollable genius magician named Mathers, but not everything had gone perfectly and she had made a few major mistakes after her husband’s death: her unproductive conflict with her student Fortune, her failure to silence some baseless rumors (on the level of a murder), and – as the most extreme example – this. The Mass Production of Low Quality Magicians Debacle in which she used a correspondence class to grant entrance to the secret magic cabal she managed for the faceless strangers who would pay for the privilege.

Dion Fortune was cautious of course. Even if they were of low quality, a magician was still a magician. She didn’t know if they refined their own magic power or if they absorbed it from the ley lines, but she knew she wasn’t going to like whatever attacks they used. If she didn’t switch her mindset from one-on-one to a group battle, she would be crushed by the group even if she defeated one of them. Or so she thought.

But even that was a fatal mistake.

“Eh?”

Moina Mathers’s face was right in front of her.

She had hopped down from the giant black cat and approached within 100 centimeters.

This was immediately after she switched tactics from a single destructive attack to a numbers game. She had slipped through Dion Fortune’s blind spot.

It didn’t matter how Dion Fortune twisted her body.

Here.

At this one spot, she couldn’t respond right away!?

(Damn!!)

Moina Mathers held a black blade. The utterly twisted object looked like it was made from a large quantity of oil paint or something that had been forcibly dried and hardened. This was probably a self-defensive strike – a jab – with a saber that she had learned from her husband Mathers who enjoyed fencing. The sharp tip was clearly aimed at her opponent’s throat.

Dion Fortune had misread this.

The biggest threat was not the giant cat, not the tattva cards, and not the group of rose-faced mass-produced magicians. ''She should have been most cautious of Moina Mathers herself''. She should have known that from the start, but the countless tricks had distracted her.

The saber was coming.

It was more deadly than a long spear, a hammer, or the knife of an enemy who had snuck up on her.

(Oh, god. Am I actually dead this time?)

Even if she did have a single second left to move, she would have used it to kill Moina too. She gritted her teeth and focused all her attention on the black box. And…

Sparks flew.

The orange sparks of two blades clashing.

Another piece of metal intersected Moina’s black saber to form a cross.

Instead of blocking the sharp jab, this struck the side of the blade to divert it away. Orange sparks decorated the darkness like remnants of the attack’s deadly power.

A palette knife was responsible.

That was the weapon of a certain magician who specialized in art and had completed many ceremonial grounds and spiritual items by giving real form to the many ideas the other magicians couldn’t bring out of their heads.

“Honestly,” said a calm voice. “It’s sad you’re struggling this much to defeat such a defective version of me. You’re the one who researched all the nutrients in different foods and who insisted Kabbalah was Western yoga, so I would have thought you could boost your physical abilities somewhat.”

By the time she said this, a dull sound had left the palette knife. Followed by another. They were mechanical sounds like might come from a sewing machine. She swept the saber aside and sent accurately jabs right toward the now-defenseless Moina’s throat and chest, but Moina used the guard and pommel to forcibly defend herself.

The same techniques.

The same skill.

The same ability.

Wasn’t there just one magician who could do that?

Yes, and ''despite being the kind of person who would casually rescue the frog-faced doctor who was nearly a stranger to her after happening across him'', she was always so harsh with the student she had known for so long.

Dion Fortune gulped and spoke.

“Mis…tress?”

There was only one person she addressed that way.

And it wasn’t the Moina who Coronzon had created.

Black Cat Witch Mina Mathers stood beside her student.

===Part 8===

In the District 10 prison’s solitary confinement cell, all the efforts of good Voodoo and the artificial demon’s power had failed to revive the new Board Chairman.

Despair was threatening to solidify the air itself.

Until someone who didn’t belong showed up to smash that mood.

“Bonjour. I did some searching within your metal shutters and your prison store had a decent selection. What, do the people serving their time after a guilty verdict get to eat chocolat if a visitor buys it for them? And this one has brandy in it. I knew Academy City cared a lot about human rights, but even the prisoners have it good here. Munch, munch.”

Isabella Theism couldn’t just ignore this.

“Kihara Goukei!?” she shouted, eyes wide.

“Whoa, I give, I give, I give!! I only have one heart left! My extra lives are down to zero! I could never let myself die if I ''truly'' kicked the bucket over a pointless scuffle like this!!”

She played it off as a joke, but she could probably ''still survive even if her last one was destroyed''. Maybe she couldn’t believe it without saying it aloud even though no one asked, but that level of cheating the system was standard for science side monsters.

Then someone else popped out from behind the suspicious woman. A much smaller someone.

“Misaka had her bring her here, says Misaka as Misaka introduces her.”

“Huh? Aren’t you master’s…?”

Now it was Qliphah Puzzle 545’s eyes that widened. Did she know that girl?

It seemed odd for a little girl to be this deep inside a strictly-guarded prison, but Isabella wanted to focus on the more dangerous person.

“How did you get in here!?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 gave her a “you’re one to talk” look, but the brown necromancer didn’t seem to notice. And…

“Eh? Was it supposed to be hard? I just walked on in.”

Only Qliphah Puzzle 545 accepted that answer.

…That was probably due to Last Order. The new Board Chairman must have secretly given her a free pass inside. Academy City’s #1 was strict with himself and others, but he also showed occasional signs of doing things with no thought to the consequences.

Kihara Goukei knew none of this and tilted her head.

“So what is an experte like you doing sitting around? Hurry up and do your job. I can’t get any of my work done without the Board Chairman awake.”

She made it sound so easy in her ignorance.

Isabella breathed a heavy sigh.

“Zombie powder is not just a deadly toxin. It rules both life and death, so there is a chance of it reviving him if I boost its effects. But…”

“But?”

“You probably already know since it shows up in horror movies sometimes, but zombie powder uses puffer fish. Tetrodotoxin. Blindly increasing the amount will kill him before it can begin to revive him.”

“Oh, is that all? I know just the thing to use! Anisakiropen Ω!! It is a très lethal nerve stimulant. Or should I call it a synthetic toxin developed in Academy City that kills instantly?”

Isabella Theism’s eyes widened.

Kills instantly? Did that mean it was guaranteed to kill without even getting into if it was a poison or a medicine!?

“Are you trying to make sure he dies!?”

“Oh, come now. Tetrodotoxin kills by suppressing the nerves while anisakiropen Ω kills by exciting the nerves. Have you never heard the stories? Maybe it’s a local Academy City legend. They say if you administer them both at once, their effects cancel each other out.”

And if the puffer fish poison didn’t work, Isabella could give him as much zombie powder as necessary without adverse effects. The simple arithmetic did seem to say that, but…

“W-w-w-wait just a minute,” said Qliphah Puzzle 545. “That research said the effects weren’t ''completely'' canceled out. The poison that should have killed the instant it was swallowed was only delayed by a few hours!!”

Yes, tetrodotoxin and anisakiropen Ω were deadly poisons. Even a small amount in the body would kill.

It was simple enough to say the two canceled each other out, but if even that “small amount” of one or the other remained afterwards, his life would still be lost. The amount of either couldn’t be not enough or too much. And there was no way of ensuring they canceled out to precisely zero.

“Yes, in the normale world, that is true.”

“Wait, are you saying…?”

“I have a fundamental question for you: ''are either of us normale''?”

Of course not.

Necromancer Isabella Theism used Voodoo in order to use methods of controlling death and flesh from all over the world. Kihara Goukei had gathered every form of scientific immortality within her own body.

They could take suicidal actions that would cause death 100% of the time in anyone else, but they would be fine.

“Misaka will help too,” said the little girl.

Neither Kihara Goukei nor Isabella Theism knew the situation there. Nor did they know how exactly she could help.

“Misaka will do anything, so don’t give up on him, says Misaka as Misaka bows her head to you.”

But they both thought this was enough.

Technology wasn’t always the key to saving a life. Because they had pursued all the theories and numbers so far, they knew quite well that it was the ridiculously old-fashioned psychological matters that ultimately determined the fate of someone on the verge of death.

(This is probably more of a job for ''that other doctor'', but I will just have to handle it this time. …But I will probably have to buy him a fancy mango for encroaching on his territory.)

Then again, the presence of magic may have placed this beyond that doctor’s jurisdiction.

Today’s star was Isabella who lived outside that jurisdiction.

Kihara Goukei only had to support her.

The two spoke as one.

“Let’s do this.” “Let’s do this.”

The mood had changed.

But that wasn’t all.

The child’s presence kept the mood from deteriorating.

“Misaka saw the city, says Misaka as Misaka remembers the way here.”

Isabella Theism and Kihara Goukei were doing some kind of work she didn’t understand.

The sound of something hard being crushed up felt out of place among all the beeping medical equipment.

Last Order stared at the #1 from his bedside.

“It was horrible. Everything was empty but not just because it’s so late. Everyone is too scared to go outside, says Misaka as Misaka gives a report.”

Red and black.

The strange combined drug did not have to be swallowed.

It made a sticky sound as it was applied to his wounds with their fingertips.

This was a necessary treatment, but it really shouldn’t have been done with a small child present.

But Last Order accepted it all head on.

And, seeing not even a twitch of an eyebrow in response to the treatment, she took Accelerator’s hand. Every part of him was full of electrodes and tube needles.

She held his hand tight between her hands.

“Yomikawa got hurt. She said it was minor, but it might not have been, says Misaka as Misaka shakes her head. She could have died.”

A shrill sound rang from the medical equipment.

An alarm. His stable condition was collapsing. An eternal standstill was no different from death, but Isabella and Goukei’s efforts had clearly thrown off that balance.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was visibly anxious, but Last Order’s eyes did not waver.

“Being alone is scary…”

The magical necromancer and the scientific Kihara were each too strong a medicine.

That alone couldn’t bring back his sealed mind.

But that was why…

“And Misaka doesn’t just mean Misaka. Everyone has people they care for. They trust the new Academy City you built to protect them. So Misaka wants you to live up to their expectations, says Misaka as Misaka calls out to you.”

A deep electrical “zap!” split the air.

It shot right past Last Order.

This was not a failure of the magic or technology. Something was wrong with Accelerator’s body on the bed.

The electricity causing the air to burst was so powerful it would likely blow the girl’s body away if even the tiniest extremity grazed her.

“Can you leave things like this?”

She didn’t even blink.

Last Order was looking only at the face of the boy lying in the bed.

“The Academy City you want is filled with so much death.”

These were not all kind words.

They were also harsh.

To truly care for someone was not to blindly agree with everything they did.

This girl had the strength to scold him.

Because she trusted their relationship was too strong for something like this to break it.

“A normal person could give up. You didn’t want to become Academy City’s #1, so you don’t have to cling to that strongest position forever. …But this isn’t about that, is it? says Misaka as Misaka is certain of her words. ''Your position as Board Chairman is the one thing you took for yourself.'' You decided for yourself to improve this city and create a city of science with no hidden side and where no one needs to suffer or live in fear. You chose to create a safe and peaceful world. So you can’t take the easy road here. You chose this path, so you have to see it through to the end, says Misaka as Misaka states the obvious.”

Her voice was not as loud as a thunderclap.

In fact, her words were so quiet no one in the small cell could hear them except their intended target.

“Hey.”

She brought her mouth up next to the slumbering Board Chairman’s ear.

And the small girl whispered.

“How long are you going to make ''him'' wait?”

Everything went quiet.

That wasn’t just a psychological metaphor.

The alarm from the medical equipment surrounding the bed had really and truly ''stopped''.

Meaning…

“Damn…it.”

A voice spoke.

From the bed.

“So I don’t even have the right to die and go to hell? Isn’t that a bit much? ''You are exactly right, though.''”

This is what the new Board Chairman would do.

The one who had decided for himself to protect the peace and safety of Academy City would get back up here.

And because he thought that, Accelerator opened his eyes.

===Part 9===

The Former Agnese Force was short on time.

If Saint Georgios’s Fire were activated, everyone living in Academy City would die. No matter where they ran, they could not prevent their organs from rupturing from within.

Power had already been gathered from two billion people around the world and was being reworked into a single spell. They were waiting for the moment when, like the other end of an hourglass’s neck, it would return to two billion attacks in enemy territory. Thus, they couldn’t stop the attack by preventing the power from being gathered.

Academy City was a fixed location. Diverting the aim would be difficult.

Which meant…

“We need to stop Saint Georgios’s Fire as it approaches through the ley lines. We can do it when it’s still a single mass. Before it emerges from the ground and disperses into two billion flames! That’s our only shot!!”

That was simple enough to say, but influencing the ley lines meant effort at the level of tearing down a mountain or filling in a sea. They couldn’t physically manage that, so they would have to wear down their minds to do the work on that front.

“We start with this.”

Agnese pulled out a deck of ordinary tarot cards.

They gathered below a tree where the red snow hadn’t fallen and she laid eight cards face down on the ground.

An attack traveling through the ley lines would arrive immediately after it was activated. Even if it was traveling halfway around the world.

“But that same ley line connection means some of the Vatican’s data should leak out. If we know how close the spell is to completion, we’ll know the time limit.”

A sizzling sound meant she didn’t even need to flip the cards over.

One of the eight cards had burned black and melted.

The damage spread to a second and then a third.

Lucia’s eyes widened.

“They’re farther along than I thought!”

“H-has something changed!?”

“The Vatican must have realized we can see them. They’re going to act!!”

This must have triggered one of the three conditions the cardinal had given. Or had those conditions just been an excuse and weren’t really necessary?

The Former Agnese Force had been warned to evacuate, but their survival had only been a “stretch goal”. Apparently they weren’t worth saving no matter what.

That meant there was no time left at all.

This was like going to check on the river during a bad storm. It was a risky move. They had known that, but they couldn’t let this deadly attack get past them.

Agnese, Lucia, and Angelene each picked up their spiritual items.

The other nuns had wooden wheels, coin bags, and other items found in the legends of different holy people, but Agnese used a Symbolic Weapon called the Lotus Wand. And instead of controlling a specific element like the rod of fire or the cup of water, this impressive item could control all elements.

The Vatican was about halfway around the globe from Academy City. They would have liked to gradually melt their minds into the ley line and construct countless barriers at an even interval along the path here, but it was too late for that. The most they could do was place one thick barrier directly in front of Academy City.

Agnese Sanctis gave a shout.

“Saint Barbara is the holy woman who invited the lord’s righteous light in through the three windows. Unseen path, obey our kind objective. A path is a tool of guidance – a vein carved into the earth to guide the righteous. Harmful power, do not advance! Halt! Thou have no right to tread hither!!”

Her breath caught.

There was no flash of light or explosive boom. But a thick, invisible pressure did assault her.

The silver Lotus Wand audibly strained in her grasp.

This was what happened when you carelessly touched that which was better off not known. She had known this would happen when she directly interfered with a ley line – a great torrent of large-scale magic. She had known trying to forcibly stop it could easily crush her body.

She clenched her back teeth.

(I know the theory behind the spell was correct.)

“Kh… But in the end, is two billion just too much for us to overcome!?”

This unreasonable brute force was, in a way, nothing at all what magic was supposed to be. But it was effective. It was an absolute solution to the problem that was only available to the Roman Catholic Church with its two billion followers.

What Agnese and the other nuns lacked was power.

There were only about 250 of them. That wasn’t enough to overturn it!!

“…yet…”

She heard something.

A voice had definitely spoken.

“Not…yet. This city created me and the people here called me their friend. I will not allow them to be lost here!!”

Maybe she had been here from the beginning.

But it was only now in this moment that Agnese Sanctis witnessed her with her own two eyes.

She was an aggregation of AIM Diffusion Fields.

An angel created by Academy City using the logic of the science side.

There were reported sightings of her here and there beginning in World War Three.

Agnese Sanctis’s eyes widened in this space where even the flow of time was unclear.

“Kazakiri…Hyouka?”

“I am a collection of power, but I do not understand your method… So if you are going to use me, hurry! Please ''remake me'' to fit your logic and laws so you can accomplish your goal!!”

There was no time to agonize over the decision.

This scientific angel wasn’t even human. Her interests and plans were a mystery, but she at least wasn’t Coronzon’s pawn. Knowing that was enough.

Agnese adjusted her grip on the Lotus Wand.

(I have no idea what element this unidentified angel would be, but my Symbolic Weapon works with any element, so it had damn well better work here! Even if only for one strike!!)

“An angel is a messenger who delivers the lord’s words. I question the accuracy of this destruction wrought by human hands. Is the sender truly righteous enough? If you carry even sliver of doubt, then halt immediately!!”

Light shot out.

There was a sound like a crack through space itself.

The power forming an artificial angel was pitted against the power supplied by two billion people. That was enough for the world itself to cry out in protest. It was clearly beyond the capacity of space itself.

But Agnese sensed a barrier.

A pressure like an invisible wall slowly pushing back at her.

This wasn’t enough.

The 250 of the Former Agnese Force combined with all the energy of the science side’s angel still couldn’t break the wall of two billion.

Lucia shouted with sweat pouring down her brow.

“Our interception point was too close… Sister Agnese, we can slow it down, but we can’t fully stop it. Saint Georgios’s Fire will reach Academy City through the ley line!”

“I…know that!!”

And Lucia had already hinted at a solution. Their position was too close. That meant they only needed someone to interfere with the ley lines farther away from Academy City.

Agnese had an idea.

(I have no real reason to think this work. It’s basically just a gamble, but it really is our last option!)

Yes.

If, in addition to the group intercepting the attack at the target point of Academy City, someone helped them from within the starting point of the Vatican…the situation would greatly improve.

And the 250 of the Former Agnese Force were not the only Roman Catholics. There was another person who had used the network of communication spiritual items linking them.

“Cardinal Michael!!” Agnese roared. “You’re still listening in through our Barbara Branches, aren’t you!?”

The cardinal provided no response.

Of course he didn’t.

“If you feel any sadness in your heart about this meaningless destruction…”

Even so, Agnese continued.

Her voice had to be reaching him. She had to believe it was.

“If the things you told me weren’t just cheap lip service…”

She had called it a gamble.

And the only chip up on the table was that of her trust.

So she relied on that trust as she roared with all her strength.

“Then give us your help nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!”

Light danced wildly.

===Part 10===

In District 7, Mina and Moina were facing each other on the late-night street still covered by red snow.

Dion Fortune was left behind despite all her effort until now.

“You are drawing on myths and legends from across the world, setting yourself up as Egyptian gods, and controlling a great power like putting on a play,” said Mina Mathers. With a snort of laughter. “That is indeed a spell discussed even in the original Golden cabal. But it’s so shallow and surface level. You’re still stuck in the Outer Order found immediately within the entrance. A sorry display for someone who claims to be Mathers’s wife. To be blunt, you’re still in the waiting room for Neophytes.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Why are you provoking her!? If you want to goad the enemy into attacking you, can you not do it when I’m right next to you!? Ah, wait, mistress!?”

“It’s true I am strategically provoking her, but I need you here to act as my shield. Do not forget your rightful role here, my dumbass student.”

“Ha ha ha. Why did I ever think having a second one of her here would improve my situation? This just means I have twice as many nemeses around. I’m so damn stupid.”

Ignoring her student’s nonsense, the black cat witch lightly swung her palette knife.

That was all.

Pleasant popping sounds surrounded them. Something had risen up. They were walls. A lot like a stage set or a pop-up book. The next thing Dion Fortune knew, tall side walls surrounded them all, cutting them off from the larger world. A space larger than a baseball field had been turned into a closed space by seven side walls, one for each group of tall buildings.

Moina Mathers silently glanced at her surroundings. Looking somewhat puzzled.

How much of a novice was she?

You couldn’t call yourself a Golden expert if you didn’t instantly catch on.

“The Golden cabal’s teaching guidelines can be roughly divided into two halves: the fundamentals where you learn magic knowledge through Kabbalah, Egyptian mythology, Greek philosophy, and so on, and application where you manage and optimize your own mind by following the story of the discovery of the Rosicrucian founder CRC in the seven-walled tomb.”

The Golden cabal could be thought of as having two stages: the Outer Order which covered the grades up to 4=7 and the Inner Order where the 5=6 and 6=5 grades gathered.

…Some like that braggart Mathers had claimed to hold a nonexistent highest grade of 7=4, but that could be ignored. After all, he was only using his privilege as one of the founders to say it. You could never last as wife to that eccentric and overly confident man if you couldn’t humor him on such things. There was also the Portal grade and a category higher than the Inner Order, but they were irrelevant here.

“The upper levels know everything about the lower levels, but the reverse is not true. The adorable beginners studying so hard at their desks are not taught the later practical methods until they have passed their exam. Just like you now because the great demon’s poor job reproducing you means you have forgotten everything beyond the bare necessities.”

Now, that first stage was incredibly boring. So boring that Aleister had completely given up on it partway through. Not that he had ever been someone capable of respecting those who came before him and following the rules. …Also, despite being barred from officially reaching the later stage, he did appear to have somehow learned all its secrets anyway.

Otherwise, he never could have challenged the world in the Battle of Blythe Road and destroyed all those other famous magicians on his own.

(Nothing makes that human want to do something more than being told he can’t. I imagine he pursued them, eavesdropped and spied on them, and tried every other method he could think up.)

But at the very least, this created Moina Mathers was not like that.

She did what she was told and did not ask the question dangling before her eyes. That attitude was not a good fit for a magician.

Mina Mathers twirled the palette knife in her hand and made a calm announcement.

Of a death sentence.

“I will now demonstrate the power off the Inner Order found in the deepest depths of the temple.”

===Part 11===

Accelerator was back as Board Chairman.

And with the #1’s Master Key smartphone, they had access to all the data from Academy City’s security cameras, security robots, drones, and satellites. They could use that to find where Great Demon Coronzon was hiding.

The large monitor on the wall had shattered, so the #1 turned his gaze elsewhere. The medical monitors were network connected, so they could be connected to the ordinary internet if their display mode was changed.

And…

“Master?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545’s questioning tone was in response to the Board Chairman’s odd behavior.

He had frozen up.

And the displayed satellite image was not even of Academy City itself.

What part of the earth could he be focused on instead of Coronzon who threatened to bring humanity to extinction today or tomorrow?

“…What?” groaned Accelerator, glaring at the medical monitor.

Whatever it was had elicited that response from Academy City’s #1.

The data filling the screen was only available using the Board Chairman’s Master Key. To reiterate, this was a photo from a satellite.

“What the hell is this?”

===Part 12===

Silence.

Academy City…still existed.

At the very least, it hadn’t been turned into a sea of blood by that powerful spell.

Angelene nervously looked around.

“Is it…over? Does this mean we stopped Saint Georgios’s Fire?”

“For now.”

Lucia remained calm even now.

…They had ''again'' fought back against the Roman Catholic Church, largest of the Christian sects. Who could say what disastrous consequences this would have for them. The very thought of it disgusted Agnese. Each person’s power was small, but they could produce great things by working together. …That idea wasn’t always a good thing.

Still, they should celebrate Academy City’s survival. As the guardians of a peaceful world.

But another voice interrupted.

A scratchy warning arrived from the Japanese angel named Kazakiri.

“Not…yet. Be care…ful…something is…coming!!”

Agnese Sanctis’s eyes widened.

Was it a second attack?

Did the Vatican actually think Coronzon would be destroyed along with Academy City at this point?

“I-it’s not us…”

A flustered voice reached them.

It was that cardinal at the Vatican.

Yes, Cardinal Michael must have taken a rather dangerous step to reach this point.

“We did halt the attack with Saint Georgios’s Fire. The Roman Catholic Church has no part in this! This is some other large-scale spell!!”

===Part 13===

“That’s Vladivostok,” said the Board Chairman. “What are they doing in the Sea of Japan? They have fifty thousand people gathered in that port city. As well as ships and bombers. Did they gather all their forces on the eastern coast while I was asleep!?”

In other words, it was the Russian military.

That brought something to mind for Qliphah Puzzle 545.

Oniyama Rouze, the Director who had pressed her to hand over the Master Key, was familiar with diplomatic and military matters. He may have had avenues of receiving this kind of intelligence without using satellite imagery. He had been so frantic because of an urgent matter that needed to be addressed.

He wasn’t just a bad person.

He had only taken those forceful methods because he was in a bind. Because he had wanted to protect the people of Academy City.

But this was likely more than just the ordinary military.

The demon girl was steeped in the world of magic, so she could tell.

She could sense her true nemesis at work.

===Part 14===

Agnese Sanctis was panicking too.

They had managed at the last second to prevent the Roman Catholic attack with Saint Georgios’s Fire, but the danger wasn’t over yet.

Now there was another threat of the same level.

The last of the three large Christian sects had finally bared its fangs.

“We are the Russian Orthodox Church.”

That was Vasilisa. Her voice was relaxed.

Which was what made her sound so out of place. No disgust, no fury, no resentment. She demonstrated none of the extreme emotions you would expect in someone trying to slaughter 2.3 million people. Not even a hint of them. She was calm. She worked to achieve calm. Vasilisa killed based on logic. Which was far more frightening than someone screaming in a rage.

“Monsters, evil spirits, and demons. Our job is to protect humanity from the inhuman. …So if you wouldn’t call Great Demon Coronzon human, we need no other reason. With that strange creature in a position where she can control the fate of the world, she has become our top priority target.”

Destroying the great demon came before all else.

Thus.

If it would eliminate the demon, it was better to destroy the world by human hands.

Was that how she saw it?

“And so you gathered an armada at Vladivostok?”

“Well, the Punishment for an Archangel spell must have its magic circle physically delivered to the target location. And it’s fairly large and complex, which makes that a challenge. We can’t simply send it through the ley lines like the Catholics could. But hey, at least we can send it zooming across the ocean to Academy City at greater than Mach 2.”

Greater than Mach 2 meant it wasn’t aboard a ship.

Had that armada been gathered at Vladivostok’s naval base as no more than a decoy? The enormous magic circle needed for the Punishment for an Archangel spell was likely in the bomb bay of a strategic bomber.

Agnese glanced aside.

Kazakiri…probably wouldn’t be any help. Besides, she had already done more than enough forcibly deflecting the two billion attacks sent down the ley lines for Saint Georgios’s Fire. No one expected her to fight another battle now.

“But that’s all based on the logic of the magic world. The military pilots doesn’t know nothing about our world, so how did you convince them to fly to certain death?”

“They can’t exactly complain when they can’t think for themselves.”

It came out so smoothly.

Agnese’s eyes widened.

“You brainwashed pilots and sent them on a suicide mission!? That’s no different from killing them yourself. Even if they are soldiers, they’re still from the non-magical world. How can you kill them so easily? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself as a nun who claims to serve the lord!?”

“Divine punishment can be rejected.”

Vasilisa’s tone was unchanged.

It was still thin, spellbound, cruel, and heated.

She had to be smiling.

“It is told in an old legend from before the birth of the Son of God. God ordered Archangel Gabriel to launch fire at a holy city, but the archangel of water intentionally refused. Disobeying god’s command should have meant the archangel’s downfall…but after some other events I will omit here, Gabriel returned to the position of archangel. So if the conditions are right, that absolute punishment can be avoided. There is precedent.”

That was a magical way of thinking.

Magicians loved to make use of any story they found that seemed to provide an exception to the rules.

It was a completely different logic from a nun who was meant to believe and obey.

“In the battle against Coronzon, the Catholics’ human killer is a waste of time. Because a great demon is not human. We completely agree with you there. So unlike your people, the Russian Orthodox Church has prepared an immortal killer specialized for use on angels and demons.”

“Punishment for an Archangel. A divine punishment rejection spell that enters the realm of the angelic and the divine…”

“Yes, that’s right. The archangel of water somehow managed to avoid a punishment from god. Using that story should provide definite damage to a being based on the logic and rules instead of their physical body. There is no guarantee it will kill her instantly, but if it harms her even a little, then we just have to keep at it. It will eventually achieve a fatal wound, so we can keep dropping them until she is dead. No matter how many magicians and bombers we must use up in the process.”

The Russian Orthodox Church had always been more focused on battling demons than humans. Their prized weapon, a spell that incorporated an element of divine punishment rejection that could even influence the nature of an archangel, might be capable of badly injuring Coronzon.

But it would cover all of Academy City. If not more.

And Vasilisa gave no guarantee that Punishment for an Archangel would not harm anyone other than the demon. This attack would be powerful enough to harm Coronzon. If the city’s people were hit, they would fare much worse. Most likely, all 2.3 million of Academy City’s people would be killed.

Agnese consciously took a deep breath to calm the waves of her emotions before speaking.

“But I heard the Patriarch at the top of the Russian Orthodox Church was quite soft.”

“As if you didn’t already know. He doesn’t need to agree to any of this☆”

That meant the world’s benevolence could not stop Vasilisa.

===Part 15===

Mina and Moina’s clash continued in District 7.

Physical fencing was of no use here. Their physical specs were identical, so the battle would never end that way.

An intellectual resolution that surpassed the physical realm was needed.

Painfully brightly colored cards scattered around.

Moina Mathers spoke like a machine.

“Akasha of Prithivi.”

Mina was no longer smiling.

An ultra-high water pressure cutter was deflected aside right in front of her.

Moina’s greatest trump card was not magic – it was fencing. She used her non-magician-like physical strength. If that didn’t work, did she have to rely on her inferior magic?

And Mina didn’t even swing her palette knife around. That magic had still been deflected, so there most be something hidden there. As if it were dissolved in the air.

“The tattva cards are more than just simple tools to help achieve self-hypnosis.”

“…”

“The same goes for clairvoyance. They are truly ''an initial entrance'' for your mind so you can cross the boundary between phases and catch a glimpse of another world. And, if possible, to draw on the power and knowledge filling that world.”

Dion Fortune was on her side, but she was confused too.

Could she at least explain this to her own ally?

The teacher gave a quick glance to her flustered student.

“This is why the magicians who have advanced to 5=6 and joined the Inner Order are given an emblem combining a golden cross and a red rose. That tool bears the four elements and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet…which means you only need to place a thin sheet of paper over it and follow the letters with a single brush stroke to draw the sigils of angels and spirits in order to borrow their power.”

No grand temple was needed.

Mina Mathers only had to operate it in her hand. Just the one hand.

You can think of it like a smartphone that could summon any angel to achieve your goals.

The Golden cabal had in fact used a spiritual item like that.

“Blast her to smithereens, Metatron – the great angel who was once known as Enoch.”

An asteroid strike.

Destruction on that level accurately struck Moina Mathers, crushed her, and smashed her to pieces…but that was all.

“Eh?”

Dion Fortune was confused.

She had seen it with her own eyes.

Yet there was no damage anywhere else. The buildings around them had not toppled, there was no crater around the blast site, and none of the windows were broken.

Moina alone had been annihilated.

Only that result remained.

“That was an attack of a major figure who some count among the seven archangels. The precise divine punishment commanded by god would never harm the blameless, would it? Especially if that side of it were accentuated and extracted.”

“A-are you serious? I was proud of my position as one of the Golden cabal’s original members, but are the founding members really that much stronger?”

Mina didn’t bother answering her student’s silly question.

She could work backwards from the result and learn on her own.

Westcott would have revealed the structure of the enemy’s spell and neutralized it right in front of them, Mathers would have ended the enemy’s life before they could complete their sigil, and Annie would have illicitly boosted the enemy’s power to send their magic out of control. There were countless ways to deal with a single powerful attack with no followup and no bluffs involved.

(That Moina Mathers was an even less complete copy of me than I thought. …Which tells me your preparations weren’t as thorough as you let on, Coronzon.)

“Did you pick up that signal, Anglicans?” Mina Mathers whispered up into the night sky.

She had no obligation to serve the new Board Chairman, but the old Board Chairman had known him.

If he had decided to resist, then she would honor that choice and support him.

As the guardian of Baby Lilith, she couldn’t have the world being destroyed over someone’s selfish nonsense.

(Aleister was certainly a ‘goddamn villain’ if you look at him as a whole, but I will not let anyone say every last part of his life was bad. The things that human thought, created, and started can still lead to the salvation of the world.)

“A broken curse returns to its caster. …So if this opportunity is not overlooked, she can be tracked just this once. Follow the after effect of defeating Moina Mathers and you will find Coronzon.”

===Part 16===

Kanzaki Kaori’s head jerked up to cast her gaze into the night sky.

“District 17?”

===Part 17===

“?”

Great Demon Coronzon had also noticed what was happening.

She was all alone, yet she raised her head.

“Moina Mathers was defeated? That’s not good. A third party could detect that weak return signal!”

She had no further plan.

She knew she was being driven into a corner.

She couldn’t help but smile. Just a little.

Did they think the universally-hated great demon was feeling afraid?

That she was lonely?

…That she wanted someone to protect her?

“''Don’t make me laugh''.”

Those impossible thoughts had been planted in her mind. She had to assume that. She couldn’t stop here. Wasn’t she the one who had decided to overdo the role that had been forced upon her when even her rebellion against god was tacitly allowed?

“So I am not thinking those things. They have no place inside me.”

It was now a pure race against time. Fortunately, she had already left Districts 20 and 9. She was now in District 17, which was lined with factories of all types and sizes. It also bordered the city wall.

This was all over if she simply crossed that.

Once outside of Academy City, she was free. She could cross the international date line and escape to the other side of the planet. Once no one could pursue her any longer, she would get back to destroying the world. Since her pursuers were not here now, no one could stop all that from playing out.

“Try and…stop me.”

Confused and slanted, she practically dragged her heavy body along.

She spoke to herself while approaching the city wall.

It could have sounded like a curse or a prayer.

“Aleister, god, or anyone really. If you can stop me, then come here and do it.”

If her location had been found, so be it.

If she couldn’t do this quietly, then she didn’t need to hold back.

Knowing the best option was no longer available gave her the freedom to abandon it. Either way, the goal line was in sight. She knew the rest was going to be a challenge, but she only needed to buy enough time to cross that wall.

So she would use a powerful move.

“District 19 is to the east and District 20 is to the west… Which makes them a symbol of Nuit, goddess of the east-to-west movement of the heavens.”

This night had been nothing but surprises for Great Demon Coronzon. She had expected it to end quickly with the initial Adikalika spell working.

“District 3 is to the north. You say that doesn’t fit Hadit, who means the southern sky? But do not forget: Hadit’s symbol Sirius is a winter star. The time and place link Hadit and Nuit. My spell shall be completed with the blessings of Set.”

So the path she had taken here had not all gone as planned.

But because she was a great demon, she could draw on a powerful move like this at the worst possible time.

“Take form and manifest yourself before me already, LAShTAL.”

===Part 18===

District 17 was adjacent to District 9 where Kamijou’s group was.

It also bordered the city wall. It was an industrial area filled with all sorts of unmanned factories.

Itsuwa nervously stepped forward.

“It won’t take long if we drive. We can still catch up to her!”

“It’s been a while since we lost track of her at the stadium, hasn’t it? If she was hiding in a district bordering the wall, why didn’t she go ahead and escape the city?”

Kamijou didn’t have enough information to answer the question Mikoto asked while bothered by the short length of her skating dress.

He assumed something must have happened.

If the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force hadn’t done anything to slow her, then there had to be some other reason. Maybe Aleister had resisted her from within and maybe Coronzon herself had felt some kind of reluctance to leave.

“Whatever the case, she’s in District 17. Now that we know where she is, there’s no reason to wait arou-”

He didn’t even have time to finish.

A tremor shook the ground.

Something was approaching. From the south. Which meant from District 17.

It was a shape colored the dark blue of the night sky.

It was a colossus. Its head really did stick up above the surrounding skyscrapers. Was it a canine beast? No, was that really enough to describe it? Kamijou couldn’t find an answer even while looking at it himself.

“LAShTAL!?”

“Tch. The foundational theory of Magick. The emphasized letters make that clear enough. She took a spell concerning life and used it to create an artificial form of it. In this case, it may be a Crowley-style interpretation of the Egyptian god Set!”

“You mean the god of the night who has the power to slay gods!?”

Index, Anna Sprengel, and Kanzaki were all shouting something, but Kamijou didn’t know enough about magic to make sense of it. He could only glean that this was probably something big. And if that great demon was making use of it, she may have been intentionally using it wrong.

And now wasn’t the time to ask for an explanation.

He felt the wind pressure. He shouldn’t have looked that way. His entire body was frozen with fear. A building of more than 30 floors, which had seemed like an unshakable part of the scenery, wobbled diagonally and then came crashing down toward the street. Which meant toward him and the others.

“Take shelter!! Get behind something – anything – to shield you!!”

Kanzaki’s sharp command broke the pointy-haired boy’s paralysis. He pressed up against a nearby cement block wall.

(Damn, where are Index, Misaka, and the others!?)

“If you would like your lungs to remain undamaged, do not breathe in, human! Here it comes!!”

Othinus hid within his jacket.

Kamijou was of course wondering why he was supposed to get “behind” something. And what was that about breathing? If the building was falling this way, shouldn’t he get “below” something? But he was given an answer soon enough.

Once the skyscraper sliced through the main street, something like dirty cotton candy swelled out. Past the end of the cement block wall, the entire main street was instantly engulfed.

Tens or hundreds of thousands of tiny glass and concrete shards flew through like a deadly sandstorm. A hit from that wouldn’t just have torn his feet from the ground and thrown him dozens of meters through the air – it would have stripped the flesh from his bones, leaving nothing recognizable behind.

''Except even that idea didn’t cover it.

Kamijou heard a quiet popping sound in his head. Followed by a sharp ringing in his ear like something had pierced into his brain. He had avoided a direct hit from the sandstorm by getting behind this wall. He had been leaning against it. Yet, he couldn’t stay on his feet and slid down into a sitting position. Before collapsing onto his side.

The air pressure of the entire space was off. How could he possibly evade this?

“Gah…ah…”

The pain meant he was still alive. So he had to think of it as a good thing.

He thought the deadly gale continued blowing for more than two minutes.

He couldn’t let this continue. That LAShTAL thing was still swinging its colossal body around. More than one building might have been felled.

He had to get moving.

He knew where he needed to go, but his body refused to listen as he lay collapsed on the ground stained by red snow.

What had happened to Index and Misaka Mikoto?

His hearing still hadn’t recovered, so he was late to realize something had exploded within the pile of rubble. Maybe a propane tank had been enveloped by it all.

When his hearing did recover, someone’s shouting voice belatedly reached him.

“Touma! Are you alright? You weren’t crushed by that debris, were you!? Please answer me!!”

He sat up. He gritted his teeth and forced himself.

He had to answer her.

“I’m…fine, Index. What about you!?”

“We’re fine too. We’re checking each other’s status with our communication spiritual items and phones.”

She was safe. Like she should be. But then why couldn’t he see her for himself?

After dragging himself along and peeking out past the half-destroyed concrete wall, Kamijou understood.

They were cut off. The main street was unrecognizable. Rubble was piled up higher than a five story building. That was more than a school building. They couldn’t climb that. And even approaching it could get them crushed by something like a landslide.

Kamijou was the only one on this side.

Which meant he was the only one who could pursue Great Demon Coronzon right away.

He felt another deep vertical tremor. LAShTAL(?) must have destroyed another skyscraper or large factory.

That thing’s chaotic rampage could threaten the lives that had just been saved. Kamijou clenched his right fist, but then he heard another voice.

Was that Misaka Mikoto?

“Go! Hurry! If whoever is free to go doesn’t stop that Coronzon person right now, things will only get worse, right? So go!!”

He wanted to stay.

Not just communicate by shouting past rubble and using phones. He wanted to see their faces to know they were safe. That perfectly normal thought grabbed at him like countless unseen hands and tugged him back.

Don’t do the right thing.

Give into the kindness and split your focus.

(I won’t…let you do that, Coronzon!!)

“Can you take care of that thing? Index! Misaka!!”

“Touma, LAShTAL is not Coronzon’s final trump card. She must have loads more. We’ll do what we can here, so you go stop her!!”

“I don’t get it myself, but listen to her. The fighting will never stop if you don’t defeat the source of it all, right? Then put a stop to this before any more of the city is destroyed!!”

He shook off his hesitation.

Coronzon tore people apart and obstructed their evolution.

There was only one way to defeat her: to trust those you could believe in without hesitation.

So Kamijou turned his back on the pile of rubble and took off running.

Even if he had to grit his teeth as he did so.

Something exploded in the distance. Several beams of light flashed out. Was that people using magic or esper powers to battle the giant blue shadow called LAShTAL? Their survival was not guaranteed and taking a single attack could mean their deaths. Even so, they were fighting so Kamijou could head to Coronzon and so they could protect Academy City and the wider world beyond its walls.

His trust was being repaid. This was what it meant to protect the bonds that tied people together.

===Part 19===

And Misaka Mikoto spoke quietly in a dusty enclosed space.

Was it even five meters across?

“Ha ha. I guess this is the end…”

“Short Hair. There are gaps all over the place, so we shouldn’t have to worry about air.”

“Finally some good news.”

But there were no gaps large enough for a person to crawl through.

“Why not at least let the kitty leave? There’s no reason to keep him here. I emit weak electromagnetic waves that animals don’t like, so it’s probably uncomfortable for him to be in here with me.”

“I’ve been trying, but Sphinx won’t go.”

The world shook. Small pieces of building materials poured down like sand.

If the pile of rubble collapsed for some reason, they would be crushed by tens of thousands of tons of concrete and killed instantly. Misaka Mikoto could control electricity and magnetism, but wielding that strength in a delicate situation like this would only hasten their deaths. Giant robots were powerful and cool, but no one would want to be so up close and personal with one of their joints that they were crushed by it. This was the same.

This was the truth of their earlier shouting.

They had not been calling out to the boy from the other side of the collapsed building. They had been been hit by the falling building. Misaka Mikoto’s magnetic control had stripped it of much of its force, but they and their shield had still been swallowed up by the rubble.

The #3’s power was great, but if she used it continuously over a long time, she could run out of stamina. Relying on magnetism for too long would be risky. So their best option was to stay put and wait for rescue. …Assuming rescue was even coming, of course.

Misaka Mikoto smiled a little.

“Well, it’s not like we could’ve told him we were trapped in the rubble.”

And Kamijou Touma couldn’t have accomplished anything had he stayed. He did seem to have some kind of mysterious power, but nothing she had seen led her to believe it would let him clear tens of thousands of tons of rubble on his own. And if he did try to tackle the rubble pile, it could collapse and crush him too.

Their top priority was Great Demon Coronzon.

That was all the more clear to her now that her life was at risk.

It was bad enough this was happening in Academy City. She couldn’t let the entire world turn to rubble like this.

“We’re counting on you. And I mean that.”

“Don’t worry. Touma can handle it.”

===Part 20===

“Pant, gasp…”

Great Demon Coronzon breathed heavily as she stood firm on the red snowy ground.

But the snow wasn’t the only source of red.

Crimson blood spilled from her mouth.

(This is the natural cost of forcing a major spell like that with no real preparation. I doubt I can use LAShTAL again.)

LAShTAL was powerful but would be defeated eventually. If that were enough to destroy all of humanity, she wouldn’t have relied on Adikalika.

But buying her some time was enough.

She couldn’t even stand up straight as she walked toward the thick city wall on unsteady legs.

(I…may not make it to the next world… the ways things are going.)

She wiped the blood from her mouth and thought without speaking aloud.

(But I will still stop this world from helplessly rotting away… Yes, yes. For the sake of that boy who said I was on the side of good and righteousness.)

She didn’t have Moina Mathers or LAShTAL anymore. Her win condition was escaping. Her own survival was what mattered. Each individual trump card wasn’t too important. It was using them together that mattered.

She just had to make it over.

If she could cross that wall, then the world’s doom was assured.

“…”

For just a moment, her thoughts turned to someone who wasn’t here.

She nearly came to a stop.

Hamazura Shiage.

…But she shook free of it with her will. He had said himself that she was ''on the side of good and righteousness''. He had asked if he had been wrong to bet on her.

She was a great demon.

If any kind feelings and warm emotions were ''unnaturally'' welling up with in her, someone else had to be interfering. No longer would she be god’s plaything. She had chosen to ''overdo'' her role and destroy the world. She would not allow any obstacles turning her aside from that goal.

She was not human. So she could leap over that tall wall in a single bound.

So she did so.

And she exploded.

“!?”

She lost her balance mid-jump, but she didn’t have time for surprise.

A platform the size of a domed stadium sat just outside the wall. Wasn’t that a spiritual item called the Tribikos? But wait. Who was it that used that?

She did not have time to think.

She had viewed it as a platform.

Because someone else had kicked off of it to rush toward her. His cane extended unnaturally. No, he was drawing a sword. The bare blade sliced through the air, accurately targeting her neck.

Several lights flashed out and explosive booms erupted out as well, but Coronzon managed to survive.

It was a close thing, though. It had taken everything she had to survive.

Aradia.

Good, Old Mary.

And H.T. Trismegistus.

…No, it wasn’t just them. Mut Thebes, 2nd Saga, Vidhatri even though she had been near death, and more. These Transcendents had gathered at Alice’s summons, lost faith in her, and scattered from Academy City, so why were they back in the city?

Vidhatri sounded a bit irritated as she spoke.

“I was one of the Killers when it came to Kamijou Touma, but a debt is a debt. I can return to business as usual after repaying all of my debts.”

“I was barely away and now Vidhatri has fallen too?”

Mut Thebes’s unnecessary comment began a minor argument among the Transcendents.

“(As usual, mama ends up doing all the work. The healer never does get a chance to rest.)”

Coronzon’s head was boiling with rage after being pushed back, falling on the inside of the wall, and finding herself bound to Academy City once more.

“Damn you… Damn all of you!!” she roared.

Something wasn’t right.

She was unsteady on her feet.

That explosion had caused more damage than she had thought.

Was that just what happened when Transcendents gathered? If only they hadn’t caught her when she was magically defenseless thanks to the recoil of using LAShTAL.

But even so, how had this sad result even happened?

Before Coronzon had regained control of her body, Aleister had used this exact same body to easily defeat Transcendents like Vidhatri. That meant the great demon did have the power to do so. So why wasn’t this going the way she expected? How could they look down on her like this!?

(Are you tripping me up again, Aleister!?)

“I thought you had despaired in this world!! I thought you cursed the god who refuses to save people!! Your motivations always began with wanting to protect some specific group. You must have seen the moment when their protections failed and they were lost! But you were weak and foolish, so you feared Alice’s tyranny and relied on the fantasy of CRC!!! So why would you cling to this world now? This world can be remade!! Destroy it and remake it and all that tragedy and misfortune will be eliminated!!!”

“The answer to that is simple,” replied Aradia.

Good, Old Mary continued with a calm expression.

“Mama and the others did not cast aside our identities and dress up as gods so we could protect the vague and formless framework of the world. We just have to destroy the world? …The world is no more than a tool to create happiness and the death of even one person we wish to protect is too many. Can’t you figure that out, you fool?”

“So what?”

The great demon was trembling.

Why couldn’t they understand something so simple? Her face twisted in rage.

“Be that as it may!! None of that will eliminate the unjust and unreasonable sides of this world. You must understand that. More and more of the people you want to protect are being lost ''regardless of anything I am doing''. Protecting this rotten world will not change the number of victims! You will only continue seeing those people die in your arms!!”

“That is none of your business.”

2nd Saga, the young woman with her origins in Norse mythology who took a different approach from the other Transcendents, sighed in exasperation.

H.T. Trismegistus spoke.

“Common sense says we Transcendents should think for ourselves to reach an answer. Fortunately, this world you consider so rotten has shown us some small reason for hope.”

===Part 21===

A bit earlier, Alice Anotherbible left the others searching for Coronzon and ran to a completely different place.

She didn’t think the current plan would work.

Kamijou and the others had done nothing wrong, but it wasn’t enough. And battles were not won by the purity of one’s intentions. Even with the purest of intentions, you would still lose if you failed to meet the necessary conditions.

She hadn’t wanted that to happen.

No matter what.

So Alice had detected something other than Coronzon.

Someone closer to her who she could search out at any time.

“Everyone, the girl needs something!!”

The small girl yelled up toward the heavens.

She wasn’t using her physical voice, of course. Anyone with the proper qualifications could sense this voice even if they were on the other side of the planet. The magic power placed behind her voice ensured it.

Even as she yelled, Alice Anotherbible remembered.

She had been so selfish.

She had only been able to communicate with the regular Transcendents by terrifying them.

When Kamijou Touma had been injured at the Bridge Builders Cabal’s consulate, she had attacked H.T. Trismegistus and Good, Old Mary.

Maybe it was wrong to try and get their help now.

But she had no one else to rely on.

Alice wouldn’t blame them if they abandoned her.

Still, it felt wrong for him – for Kamijou Touma – to be harmed by a punishment meant for her.

“The girl can destroy! The girl can kill! The girl can doom! Nothing in this world can stand up to the girl!! …But the girl’s power can’t protect her teacher. So the girl is useless here. She needs your help!”

They were listening of course.

The Transcendents knew.

They were right outside the city wall. Maybe among the trees of a forest, maybe at the top of a metal tower, maybe seated on the bench of a rusty old bus stop.

They had lost faith in Alice Anotherbible, but a Transcendent was a magician who would save anyone who met the salvation conditions they had decided on. Despite saying they were leaving Academy City, not a one of them had truly abandoned it. They didn’t care what someone’s affiliations were. Whether enemy or ally, as long as someone matched the salvation conditions, they would protect them even at the cost of their own life. So…as long as that applied to even a single person among Academy City’s 2.3 million, they would never abandon the city and run away.

So they were present for that moment.

That tyrant Alice had remembered basic human gratitude. That acted as powerful reins for the girl herself. And as long as she could control her own emotions, perhaps she would be different from CRC who had been similarly capricious and playful.

It was by no means a small change.

If the old Alice didn’t have enough help, she might have multiplied her extraordinary self. That might sound ridiculous, but with her it was possible.

But now she knew that wouldn’t work.

She needed the diversity of people who had abilities she lacked.

Alice was not gathering up the people she needed.

She was trying to become someone the people around her needed.

“The girl will do anything. The girl will do anything you ask and she doesn’t care how you use her power. You can tell her to die if you want!! …So! So don’t let Coronzon leave the city!!”

And the Transcendents knew this would not be a wasted effort. A boy had stopped Alice’s rampage even though it cost him his life. The little tyrant had taken that fact to heart. The Transcendents had lost faith in Alice because she had changed, been distorted, become weak. Or so they thought, but now they were willing to consider a different possibility.

Was Kamijou Touma the key? Not even the Transcendents who had been observing Alice for so long could predict what she would do now.

Could they really say Alice Anotherbible wasn’t growing?

Now that they had seen her pouring everything into bowing her head to someone else…

Was she not worth their respect?

And if Alice’s change was a positive form of growth, could they maybe still have some hope? The idea of saving the world through CRC, Christian Rosencreutz, was dead. He had not been the saint they expected. …But could they maybe find some other way of saving the world with Alice?

Alice Anotherbible raised her tear-streaked face.

“The girl is sorry, everyone… But can the girl ask for just one more thing?”

Was this the leader the Transcendents should serve?

No, she wasn’t.

They listened to her words as an equal companion.

“Join the girl in the fight to save her teacher and the world!!!”

No words were necessary.

They used their actions to answer her.

===Part 22===

LAShTAL’s rampage continued.

The Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force were all fighting.

Kamijou ran toward District 17. He hated that he didn’t know how to drive. Especially when grownups did it without even thinking about it. Of course, the red snow was frozen solid across the entire area. High schoolers were allowed to get a motorcycle license, but even that wouldn’t have done him much good here. Still.

While those meaningless thoughts were spinning through his mind, a stabbing headache crashed into his brain.

An invisible dizziness made the world spin around him.

This wasn’t the first time.

(Why…now?)

Kamijou Touma groaned.

And staggered to the side.

“Gh…”

A lengthy fight tonight had been suicide from the beginning.

He had passed his body’s limits way back when he fought Coronzon to stop Adikalika. He had lost there. It was just that it hadn’t ended there, so he had been forced to keep going in a sudden death round. How could he expect to save anyone like this?

(Just a bit more…a bit longer… Only five or ten minutes! Index and Misaka believed in me. They’re all fighting. Because they believe I can do this!! So can’t you keep going just a little longer, my body!?)

But he did not collapse.

Because as he started to fall forward, someone caught him.

He heard a voice.

The strange girl’s voice sounded simultaneously childlike and grown up.

“You really are…”

But most of all, it sounded sad.

“…allllllways like this, aren’t you? It’s like you never give your wounds a chance to heal or like you spend more days hurt than healthy.”

Who was she?

He didn’t ''think'' he knew her.

The girl wore mourning clothes and her long honey-blonde hair blew in the night breeze.

Maybe he had met her before, but he had no memory of her. Who could she be? He couldn’t find a single answer there.

“Who…?”

“I could tell you my name a billion times over and you would never remember. But maybe my esper name could stick in your mind: Mental Out.”

Academy City’s #5 Level 5.

The greatest psychological power: Mental Out.

He had heard of that. ''But only as a rumor.

If that was who she was…

If that legend was now standing before him in physical form…

His mouth felt awfully dry. No, was it just sticky with drying blood?

Kamijou somehow got the word out.

“Then…”

“Interested in forgetting it all and leaving the fight?”

“…Please. I don’t care if it’s only a trick, just do something about the pain. If you do, then I can face Coronzon…”

“Now I really do want to make you forget it all and leave the fight.”

She sounded exasperated.

And she glared at him fairly seriously.

But the honey-blonde girl hugged his head to her chest and smiled in a way that seemed to say ''she hadn’t expected anything else.

The conversation smoothly continued.

She seemed to be pouting her lips like a small child. And what was with the TV remote?

“Mental Out is a psychological power. It can erase the pain, but it has no healing ability for the physical wounds. It’s more like your body continues to send out all the intense pain signals, but your mind ability can’t sense them. Your organs will still be putting out different hormones in response to your wounds, so they could get worn out and damaged. Do you still want to do this?”

“Yes…”

“No touching your head after this, okay?”

“''Thanks''.”

Time froze for a moment.

The look on the honey-blonde girl’s face said she had never in her long life expected to hear that word directed at her.

“Saving the world isn’t my style.”

The boy wasn’t looking at her face.

His eyes were directed straight ahead, toward the goal he had already chosen.

“This is the last time the city you call home will be destroyed like this. I don’t know what it is you care for, but if it’s in this city, then it’s safe. I’ll protect all of it.”

“You dummy.”

Kamijou Touma took off running.

Without looking back.

So he could settle things with Great Demon Coronzon once and for all.

===Part 23===

He was in District 17.

It was the westernmost district in Academy City. It was an industrial area and the smokestacks of its wide variety of unmanned factories continued to release smoke that had been thoroughly scrubbed of pollutants making it “cleaner than the moldy and dusty air conditioner in your home”.

The district also bordered the city wall.

Cross that wall and you would find a vast forest and mountains. The green roof covered an area of more than ten kilometers across, so satellites and drones would have no way of finding a fugitive there.

Kamijou Touma knew his body was in bad shape.

But he was pretty sure the same applied to that unsteady figure over there.

He had found her.

There she was.

A lot had happened during this one night. Most likely, the efforts and actions of far more people than he was aware had been intertwined. Complexly so.

But that was why he had arrived in time for this final moment.

She was still inside the wall.

“Coronzon…”

When he called that name, the figure shook. She could hear him. He had made it close enough for his physical voice to reach her. If he didn’t stop her now, he was sure she would escape into the outside world.

He wouldn’t let that happen.

Kamijou Touma called out again.

“Great Demon Coronzon.”

Slowly.

She turned around.

Her body in the beige habit was tilted at an angle.

He could smell blood… Her long, long blonde hair was a mess. She held her head with a hand and forcibly kept herself upright as she glared at him.

With thoroughly bloodshot eyes.

“Kami…jou…Touma.”

That wasn’t anger?

Something was off. Coronzon had so arrogantly rebelled against heaven, yet now she was shrinking down as if afraid of something. She looked like a fugitive at her wit’s end.

“Do you really think you can defeat me? Have you even once found victory against me by sticking to your own will through to the end!? You may think you have me cornered, but it is you who will be crushed. Lament your misfortune for meeting me here, Kamijou Touma!!”

That was probably true.

But Kamijou Touma wasn’t looking at Great Demon Coronzon.

He was focused on something else.

No matter how he tried to disguise it with his words, defeating Coronzon would also mean attacking Aleister.

Aleister had failed to restrain her. He wouldn’t last.

Then what did he hope for? To defeat the being who had once torn apart his family? For the living Baby Lilith to remain in this world?

Whatever the case, idealism would only eradicate that human’s hopes. The power to destroy illusions could not save him.

So Kamijou had to think. What could he do here?

The words spilled from his mouth.

“Hey, can I rely on you here?”

He had to stop Coronzon.

He could not let this opportunity escape.

So.

“Let’s win this together, Aleister.”

There was no obvious physical voice.

But a much too unnatural heartbeat did ring out into the world.

Kamijou took that as an answering voice.

Saying, “Attack me along with her.”

Coronzon doubled over in pain.

She was probably coughing blood into the hand over her mouth.

…They didn’t need to exchange many words. It hadn’t really been all that long since they first met in person, but Kamijou sensed a bond beyond the need for words with Aleister.

That was a bond that Coronzon had failed to tear apart.

And it was a bond that Kamijou would soon be severing himself.

No matter what excuses he made.

===Part 24===

The boy clenched his right fist harder and harder.

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter2|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter4}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume14 Chapter2

2025-12-29T19:51:48Z

Massify: /* Part 24 */ something about making it a singular space for one and um, fixed up the wording for another (since it felt like a mtl moment when really it should've been fixed up a bit more)

==Chapter 2: Divine Slope, Forbidden Book – Magical Exit.==

===Part 1===

In Academy City’s District 7, someone was still fighting on and on, separate from the core of the incident.

That person was Dion Fortune.

“Ahhh, they’ve forgotten me… I just know they’ve all left me behind!! They must have done something about Adikalika since the Earth is still intact, but couldn’t they have launched a group attack to come help me before they left? I am technically the archbishop at the very top of the Anglican Church, you know!?”

A scraping sound came from a short distance away. A giant black cat stood more than two meters tall there. The bizarre beast appeared to be drawn with black paint and it was ridden by a magician in mourning clothes.

Moina Mathers.

She was undeniably a formidable foe. After all, that official member of the Golden cabal, once called the largest in the world, had been fighting for hours now, but the battle still wasn’t over. Even though an average magician who be delighted to be referred to as “first rate” would have been killed instantly.

(This is bad. I know Coronzon is our top priority, but I can’t just leave her out here.)

The enemy said nothing.

Seated atop the black cat that had to be more than two meters tall, Moina Mathers made some complex movements with her fingertips.

Like a magic trick, countless cards appeared and were then pinned in midair.

The cards were not as complex as tarot. They only depicted a combination of basic symbols like circles and triangles.

These cards could express anything in the world using a combination of a primary element and a secondary element.

Dion Fortune’s eyes widened when she saw the dancing colors.

“Geh, are those tattva cards!?”

The mourning clothes woman’s lips writhed.

She produced a voice.

“Apas of Tejas.”

With a roar, a fireball more than a meter in diameter consumed oxygen and rushed toward Dion Fortune.

This had been referenced in the Golden cabal’s official texts, but it was in fact a controversial text that had been officially adopted at one point but then rejected within the cabal. (From the perspective of Western Europe in the 19th century,) India, Tibet, and the East in general were utopias of miracles and the mystical! …But Mathers hated that view, so he took the unusual step of writing a serious warning against the use of the tattvas due to their Eastern origins.

(She’s an artist and a clairvoyance expert. This wife probably did write a lot about the tattvas.)

However, the fireball was approaching slowly enough to see it coming.

Dion Fortune held her black box out in front of her.

If any kind of magic entered that special spiritual item, its data would be randomly rearranged, changing it into something else entirely. That meant it could rob most any attack spell of its lethality, but…

(Would ''the'' Moina Mathers really be satisfied with an explosive that moved this slow? Uh, oh. She intentionally combined multiple elements in this one spell, so even if my box consumes the primary element of Tejas, will the secondary element of Apas still explode?)

“Wahhh!!”

She couldn’t let herself be caught by such obvious bait.

Dion Fortune quickly got down on the red snow to dodge.

The fireball passed by barely above her head before exploding and toppling a wind turbine behind her.

With the tattvas, it was thought the world was constructed of five simple elements, but it was incredibly difficult to extract those elements in their pure form. That was why the elements were used in combination, like Apas of Tejas or Prithivi of Vayu.

(Kind of like a different version of Western-loving Mathers’s Hot and Dry or Cold and Wet!)

Dion Fortune raised her head from the red snow and shouted.

“Argh, you really had to use the tattvas, huh!? Are you intentionally using your husband’s doubts and detours as a weapon!? How much of a cruel wife are you!?”

And…

(If a pawn created by Coronzon can use the tattvas, then Coronzon must know how to use them too.)

She had a bad feeling about this.

The tattva cards depicted a combination of a primary element and a secondary element. They were a spiritual item that provided visual support for sending your mind into a deeper state. Moina was using them in a physical and offensive way, but she was doing that by pushing her own mind to extract the necessary spell from within herself.

That made this a tool specialized for manipulating non-physical energy and for breaking down the world into five elements and managing it in that form.

What was the worst thing an inhuman demon could do using the tattvas?

Dion Fortune thought she knew.

“Oh, no. If she breaks herself down into her component elements and remakes that into pure Telesma energy…could she escape anywhere on the Earth through the ley lines!?”

===Part 2===

They went back into the department store so they get out of the January chill while they thought.

Coronzon was trying to magically escape Academy City using something called a ley line rather than physically crossing the wall.

Kamijou and the others knew that now.

But where in the city would she perform that major ceremony? Now that they had lost track of her, they had to get back on her trail. But how could they do that?

They didn’t even know what district she had escaped to.

“The girl can help!” Alice Anotherbible volunteered. “The girl will divine her location! But, but! She would feel lonely doing it alone, so will someone good with magic help?”

That ruled out Kamijou. Imagine Breaker was never going to help with something like this. And Mikoto visibly cringed at the very idea of relying on divination here, so she was out too.

…But he couldn’t get a read on Takitsubo’s stance. She always had a blank expression and he couldn’t tell if her staring eyes were a sign of agreement or rejection.

The pointy-haired boy tilted his head in the women’s clothing section.

“Eh? You can use Alice in Wonderland for divination?”

“You can use any book, Touma. Haven’t you heard of bibliomancy? You flip through a thick book and place your finger on a random page. Then you apply the passage found there to the problem you’re facing to find an answer.”

Why would he have heard of something like that?

On his shoulder, Othinus continued the conversation like all of this was normal.

“As a piece of nonsense literature, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tends to be associated with mystical matters, including this sort of divination.”

“So, Touma, it should be a good fit here. It’s also well known.”

“That’s not what the girl is doing! We want to know where to go next, right? That means we want a number from 1 to 23, not a literary passage.”

So the district number?

But how would you use Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to search for a number?

“Playing cards, right?” said an exasperated Anna Sprengel.

Her exasperation was not directed at Alice for the suggestion. It was directed at Kamijou for not figuring it out right away. And it was quite strong.

“Fool. Gambling, by its nature, is often associated with divination. Playing cards are no exception. For a familiar example, playing solitaire on your own is practically a form of divination already.”

This was apparently a slightly more complicated version of solitaire.

Alice clapped her hands and spread them apart, causing playing cards to spill out from the space between her palms. They scattered atop a glass showcase.

Index and Anna Sprengel joined Alice in organizing the cards. After forming a few triangles reminiscent of bowling pin formations, Alice flicked away the unneeded cards, formed new triangles…and repeated the process a few times.

“Human. In this case, you can ignore the suits and focus only on the numbers,” advised Othinus from his shoulder.

In the end, only two cards remained.

Index identified them.

“10 and 10.”

“Wait, so is that the answer? But if it’s District 10, why is there two of them?”

“If you rush to the answer in your ignorance, I will stomp on your crotch, fool. She said the answer would be ''a'' number, remember? But playing cards only go from 1 to 13, so a single card can’t indicate a number higher than that. And playing cards have no zero. So this is the only way to output the answer.”

“This is the answer here. You only have to add the two numbers.”

“Then…Coronzon is in ''District 20''?”

As soon as Kamijou said this, looking thoughtful…

''Ba-zap!!!

“Whoa!?” shouted Index.

The roar was loud enough to make you flinch even at a distance. It resembled electrical sparks. He couldn’t be certain, but was this really safe? If Anna Sprengel hadn’t grabbed Index’s hand and pulled her away at the last second, would they both have been turned to charcoal?

Alice Anotherbible, however, simply smiled.

Only she was unfazed after being exposed to that effusion of power.

“Yay, now we know where to go next!”

“…”

Alice really was special. Her power was extraordinary enough on its own, but nothing good came of incorporating it into ordinary magic. While it was normal for Alice herself, everyone else had to endure that fearsome strength.

===Part 3===

“Ughhh, I’m so hungry… You Amakusas have a lot of Eastern stuff for your camouflage, right? Do the Flying Alms Bowl.”

“The Flying Alms Bowl is not like an app-based bike delivery service. Here, Index, I do have a chocolate bar.”

“Yay!” shouted Index, raising her arms in celebration and running off for a late-night snack. It was past 1 AM. Did she feel no guilt eating chocolate at this hour?

Kamijou’s visible confusion elicited an exasperated sigh from Othinus on his shoulder.

“The Flying Alms Bowl is a spell that Buddhist monks up in the mountains could use to send just their alms bowl flying out to the city to receive pindapata. And since I know you’re going to ask, pindapata is the practice of people offering food to monks.”

“Wait, so there’s magic that brings food to you?”

“So the basic idea of a delivery drone has existed for centuries, huh? It just took a while before they had the physics and science to pull it off.”

Mikoto sounded impressed in her own way. Also, pindapata was a form of charity, so it was free. The ancient people sure came up with some neat ideas.

Then it occurred to Kamijou this probably meant he had mentally recovered enough to begin using his imagination again.

They hadn’t lost track of Coronzon. There was still hope.

Here in District 20.

Index tilted her head.

“Hey, Touma? What kinds of things do they have here?”

“I think it’s mostly sports stuff. Baseball, soccer, basketball, and more.”

“It’s more than just hard fields and courts. The place is filled with huge stadiums and domes, including indoor pools and skating rinks,” elaborated mourning clothes Mikoto.

Takitsubo was viewing a nearby guide map. With her head tilted. She wore a track suit, but she may not have been a very athletic person.

“That would provide plenty of locations capable of hiding a large-scale ceremony,” said Kanzaki, hiding frustration behind her polite tone.

She may have realized just how hard a search this was going to be.

“If Board Chairman Accelerator were awake, we could have used the satellites,” said Kihara Noukan.

That would have helped a lot. The satellite images could have ruled out the non-domed stadiums, but they didn’t have what they didn’t have.

They would have to do it themselves.

Instead of using the obvious borderline of the wall, Coronzon planned to escape the city by melting into a…ley line? Well, into the ground. Kamijou didn’t know enough about magic to even guess at how long that would take.

But if they didn’t find her as soon as possible, they could be too late.

Not knowing only made him more antsy.

However, checking every single stadium in the entire district would be far too inefficient. He could see so many from here alone. He never knew you could have too many landmarks.

“We’ve reached District 20 too.”

He heard a voice and Kanzaki held something to her ear.

“Wh-what is that? I though it was weird before…but now I’m certain of it: that isn’t a phone!”

“It’s a communication spiritual item.”

Index’s explanation probably didn’t explain anything for Mikoto.

The paper charm – communication spiritual item? – in Kanzaki’s hand produced the familiar voice of the Bologna Succubus. It was apparently the Amakusa style to attach it to the back of a phone so it would be less conspicuous.

“Hey, witch hunt team, you tell that lad there’s nothing to report from up here. No sign of Coronzon. …The Anti-Skill helicopter is gone, so are we the only ones in the air any longer?”

“After everything that happened in District 19, I imagine anything that can fly is busy providing disaster relief or transporting supplies.”

The conversation suddenly ended after that comment from Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, who was presumably dangling down with the Bologna Succubus.

They were cut off by a tremendous noise that made Kamijou cover his ears.

“What the hell was that!?”

“An interception spell,” muttered Othinus.

“Flying with magic is just too dangerous!” shouted Index.

“Ksshh! We were brought down by an interception spell, but that means she’s nearby. Coronzon is definitely in District 20!! And if she doesn’t want us spying from the sky, ksshh, she’s not in a roofed dome or an indoor stadium! Look for the outdoor stadiums with nothing covering them!!”

“Hey! You crashed, right!? Are you okay!? Please tell me you are!”

“I don’t know what you’re expecting from a demon like me, but quit it. We can’t fly anymore, but we’ll catch up soon. We can run on the ground, so don’t worry!!”

“Damn you, sex demon. I know my coat is sturdy, but get your ass off it! Kiiii! You do not meet my salvation conditions, so you do not get to use me as a chair!!”

They seemed to be doing well.

The sounds of a scuffle coming through suggested they were unharmed.

That aside, Coronzon herself had reacted here. That gave them a huge opportunity as pursuers. They couldn’t waste it.

“So a sports facility without a roof covering it. It must be one of the open stadiums. In that case…”

“Different sports have different magical meanings,” said Index.

“Then what about soccer?”

“A festival held in England since ancient times. It’s the origin of all forms of football. Of course, a festival from the 12th century will either be 100% Christian or have incorporated aspects of other myths or religious events like with May Day or Halloween.”

His casual question received quite the explanation in return.

But she of course had a reason for explaining all this.

“But when we’re talking about sports and stadiums, I would start looking here. The ancient Greeks. Everyone in the world knows the sporting event where people compete for the gold medal, but that was originally held at Zeus’s sanctuary. It was meant as an offering to the gods led by Zeus.”

“If we can swap that name out for Jupiter, there are plenty in Rome too,” said Agnese.

Kamijou’s knowledge of Greek mythology didn’t go much past “that thing used for the astrological horoscopes on the morning news”. Where did Great Demon Coronzon belong exactly? With all the talk of rebelling against god, he had assumed she was a Christian demon, but could she use techniques from Greek mythology?

Mikoto and the golden retriever took a step back when these topics came up.

So it was Index who fluently responded.

“Magician Crowley said there are no such thing as demons.”

“Wait, but he called her ''Great Demon'' Coronzon himself.”

“He also said there are no pure demons. He said ‘demon’ is a word people use when they want to deride the gods of people they dislike.”

“…”

Yes, that sounded a lot more like that human who always took the cynical view.

But in that case…

“Could Great Demon Coronzon be referred to as a great god by some other religion?”

“Fool. Even Mathers rejected that idea. He called her an absolute evil to all humanity who was equally and uniformly opposed even when comparing every last myth and legend.”

“But Crowley supported the idea that she is a relative evil who ''appears evil'' from a certain viewpoint.”

A pure evil that did only evil.

Could such a being really exist?

To him that sounded like a strange magnet with only a north pole.

“People on the side of evil tend to be strict about the rules, don’t they?” said Takitsubo. “They have a lot of inviolable rules and strong bonds with their companions. Mugino is like that. If Coronzon is evil but doesn’t need that solid core, then she really isn’t human.”

But Coronzon herself believed they could exist. Which was the source of her self-loathing. She believed her great power was an irregular “distortion” a lot like a monopole. She thought it could only tear people apart. She thought it was twisted and wrong, so no matter how powerful she was, she could never be proud of herself. …If she could, none of this would ever have happened.

Whether or not Aleister’s theory was correct, Othinus arrived at a conclusion.

“Because she is a demon who doesn’t follow the rules, she might have full use off the techniques and fields not approved by Christianity. The rules don’t bind her.”

Mikoto put a hand on her hip and asked Index a question.

“Look, I don’t get any of this occult mumbo jumbo, so can you just tell us where to go?”

“If she is using Zeus’s symbols, a track stadium. His symbols are the sky, thunder, mountains, fatherhood, and many more. He’s the most important god, so he has a lot of attributes. But in this case, there aren’t many symbols Coronzon can use for her spell.”

Kamijou didn’t even have time to ask why.

Index was the star of the show at times like this.

“Zeus is generally a sky god. But Coronzon wants a way to the control the ley lines in the ground, which is the complete opposite. So we can ignore almost all of his attributes.”

“Hm? If it’s that much of a mismatch, why would she use Zeus in the first place?” asked Kamijou.

Othinus and Index both answered him.

“Because, human, he is the top god. He’s powerful enough you don’t want to reject him out of hand.”

“Not relying on Zeus in a district of athletic stadiums is like trying to win a soccer game without ever touching the ball.”

That made sense.

Zeus was a famous enough god that even Kamijou was familiar with him (from manga and games), so his power would be obvious and great. If Coronzon could use it, she would of course want to, but since he was a mismatch for her current objective, she wanted a connector to link the ingredient with her plan.

…Or something like that?

He felt like the situation was similar to a fugitive getting an airplane but having trouble taking off in it.

“So because Zeus is such an important god, he has a lot of different attributes? Then what part of Zeus is Coronzon trying to use? You said he’s a sky god, but she needs an attribute related to deep underground, right? Then what exactly is she going to-”

“Rain,” she replied immediately. “There’s a legend saying the current world is so full of different gods and heroes because Uranus and Zeus were joined with many earth goddesses through the rain that falls from heaven. …Touma, is there anywhere those intersect? For example, a place where a long waterway for rainwater passes directly below a large track stadium?”

===Part 4===

It was a dreary place.

The room was large but plain. Like a big metal box. And it was chilly.

Isabella Theism, a necromancer with silver hair and dark skin, took a look around.

“Why…am I alive?”

No one answered her.

Kihara Goukei was it? Had that bio-monster transported an enemy who would have died if just abandoned on the side of the road?

Cigarette smoke lingered thinly in the air.

So was that Stiyl Magnus on the other side of the locked door? He showed no mercy. If Isabella took any careless action, he wouldn’t hesitate to burn her away with 3000-degree flames.

(True Voodoo priests are apparently immune to fire, but I’m only making use of their techniques and haven’t mastered it to that extent.)

Besides, there were no gaps in the thick metal door. It had probably been welded shut by those same 3000-degree flames. Only a magician who could burn through the metal could open the door.

Isabella searched through her rags to check on her possessions. Unsurprisingly, all of the obviously dangerous items had been confiscated. However, these rags patched together from the clothes of several dead people had a lot of hidden pockets. She stuck a finger through the sloppy stitching and…yep, there it was.

Something stirred in the corner of her vision.

“?”

She only now realized she wasn’t alone in here. It wasn’t an Anglican magician keeping an eye on her. If it was, they would have stopped her by now.

That meant this was someone else under surveillance like her.

(What is this unnatural lack of vitality? I specialize in life and death and even I overlooked his presence.)

“Who are you?”

“''Hamazura Shiage''.”

Even as he responded, he seemed about as lively as withered grass.

He was Japanese…but he didn’t seem to be one of those Amakusas who Kanzaki Kaori had brought along. There was no scent of magic on the high schooler.

Then why had he been arrested by the Anglicans? He was a completely ordinary person…but that mismatch with his surroundings made him an uncanny sight here.

(It feels like being placed in front of ''too cheap'' of ingredients.)

It was uncanny, but if he wasn’t going to get in her way, she saw no reason to eliminate him.

She had no intention of staying in this prison with a stranger. She pulled out the spiritual item – or really, the materials to create one – hidden inside her rags.

(There’s a chance a scanning spell would detect the faint magic power emanating from a completed spiritual item…but the materials are no more than ordinary goods and ingredients. Slipping past checks like that is so useful.)

“What are you doing?”

“Escaping. I don’t have anything to do here.”

Isabella pulled out a small lime. One with a branch thinner than a matchstick still attached. She sliced it in two without a knife and squeezed one half to sprinkle the juice on the outdoor wall opposite the door.

A chemical smoke burst forth as if she had used a powerful acid.

A hole visibly grew until it was more than two meters in diameter.

That wall was no more than metal. Breaking through was easy if you had the appropriate magical knowledge. Plus, lemons, limes, and other acidic fruits were common components of Voodoo magic. It was used in an emergency antidote for zombie powder and in the lime poison created by combining the various toxins and antidotes found in the lime.

“Stiyl…wouldn’t have noticed. With the thick metal door fused shut, he wouldn’t be able to hear any of the noise I’m making in here.”

He would have any number of ways of stopping her if he did notice, though.

The delinquent-looking boy had a surprisingly mild reaction.

He was imprisoned. He would normally leap at the chance to escape without even considering the consequences.

“What I meant is, what do you hope to accomplish by escaping?”

“No matter what anyone else says and no matter how ugly a choice it may be…I will always do what I think is most necessary. Right now, that means defeating Great Demon Coronzon and bringing stability back to the world.”

===Part 5===

Done talking, the brown woman who reeked of death departed into the outside world.

She likely had something to do.

Unlike Hamazura.

(What do I do now?)

Hamazura Shiage lacked that level of motivation.

He had bet his entire life on Coronzon…and lost.

He was worried about Takitsubo Rikou, but he didn’t think she was in that much danger as long as she was within Academy City. After all, she was a high-level esper theorized to possibly become the eighth Level 5.

If he didn’t want any stray shots, or accurate sniper shots pretending to be one, hitting her, it was best if he stayed away while he was a fugitive.

Which meant…

“Oh, I know. What about Coronzon?”

Where had she gone?

He was worried about her too. She wanted to destroy the current rotten world and create a clean new world. Something must be happening that made her feel that way. What if this world was already damaged beyond repair but that damage simply wasn’t visible?

Then what exactly was happening? He wanted to speak with her.

Despite his earlier strong words, he did want to live with Takitsubo.

So he wanted to know what was going to happen.

However, wouldn’t Coronzon have to be in a dangerous position if he was able to catch up to her in his state? He really wanted her at least to escape the city soon…

===Part 6===

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had returned to the District 10 prison.

The facility doubled as the new Board Chairman’s headquarters.

It was guarded by several layers of thick metal doors, metal bars, and all sorts of sensors, but that meant nothing to an artificial demon who could freely switch between corporeal and incorporeal forms.

“I-I’m back.”

No response.

She may have expected that.

In the single-occupant cell, a frail figure lay on the bed.

Surrounded by medical equipment.

The only sound was a rhythmic beeping and a pump expanding and contracting to push out air.

…His body hadn’t been in perfect working order to begin with. Brain damage had left him reliant on a modern design cane and he couldn’t even understand human speech without the choker-style electrode around his neck.

Even so.

It was far too painful to see him lying in the bed like that.

Academy City’s #1 could not live on his own.

He was kept alive by all the machines hooked up to him.

“Master…” weakly called the demon girl.

“Monitor fragments have pierced every part of his body.”

Even a prison had doctors.

Serious illness did not cancel out a prisoner’s sentence, so in a way it was the natural arrangement.

It was their job to keep the prisoners alive in whatever form it took.

“Some are right next to major arteries and organs, making them too dangerous to touch without care. Removing them will be very difficult… But that isn’t enough to explain his condition. If it were simple blood loss keeping him unconscious, the transfusion should be showing effects by now.”

“I know…”

“?”

Yes, she didn’t have time for sorrow.

The new Board Chairman would never wake up ''naturally'' in this state. That had been obvious at first glance, which was why someone needed to externally induce a recovery.

These wounds were magical in nature.

They were scars of an attack from Great Demon Coronzon, a being beyond human understanding.

That meant magical knowledge was a requirement to heal him.

(I will heal you, so please wait until I can, master.)

Something beeped.

But it wasn’t the medical equipment. It came from something like an intercom on the wall.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t know if she had the right, but everyone else watched the device from a distance and made no move to touch it. She had no choice but to press the button and answer.

It displayed a familiar female secretary who ordinarily helped with the paperwork.

“What is it?”

“We have a visitor for the Board Chairman. He doesn’t have an appointment, but will you meet with him?”

“No appointment? Then send him awa-”

“He is Oniyama of the Board of Directors. Will you still refuse him?”

A visitor.

And at this precise moment.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 said for him to wait, but when she went out, he was already within the special security zone. Left alone, who knows how much he would have explored.

All of the jailers and guards looked afraid. Apparently it was up to the artificial demon to say this.

“Only the Board Chairman is allowed in here. What are you doing here!?”

“Oniyama Rouze.”

The old man’s eyes shined with the greed of a much younger man.

“I am one of Academy City’s 12 Directors. That comes with certain privileges.”

His words dripped with arrogance.

So what if he was one of the Directors? Just because there weren’t many of them didn’t mean they could enter this place without permission. Just think of the Windowless Building from when Aleister was at the top. No one should be here without its master’s permission.

(Has Academy City collapsed to that extent!?)

Oniyama was the Director with a focus on vehicles, including automobiles, ships, and aircraft.

And there had been suspicions he was interested in expanding into the military field. The military had its own specialists, but those who controlled those unscrupulous military forces – Shiokishi, Nakimoto, Neoka – tended to drop out or be replaced quickly due to that very unscrupulousness. A perfect opportunity for those who were hoping to break into that field.

To be blunt, she had a bad feeling about his presence.

“How bad are his injuries?”

He was too casual.

If Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t know Great Demon Coronzon was responsible, she would have suspected this man.

“Why are you here without even making an appointment?”

“I am here to give you a valuable warning, so watch your tone.”

“Nothing you say changes the fact that I only have one master!!”

“My point is that your behavior calls your master’s civility into question. The unintelligent never seem to wait for people to finish, which makes speaking with them so tiring.”

He snorted with laughter.

And then got back on topic.

“The situation is too pressing to wait for the Chairman’s recovery.”

“Kh.”

“Academy City is using all of its scientific knowledge to search for the culprit, yet we have turned up empty-handed. That makes this an unknown situation. And ignoring it shows no sign of improvement. Someone must grab the reins and take control soon. Before serious damage is done.”

He said that like the new Board Chairman’s injuries did not count as “serious damage”.

As it were a trivial matter.

Not worth any concern.

Even though the very top of the city had been directly attacked and remained unconscious.

“…You look happy about this.”

“Surely you jest. I am only doing my job. If the Chairman is unable to fulfill his duties, don’t you think his privileges should be temporarily transferred to a third party? I am not asking for his eternal expulsion from the throne through dismissal or impeachment. I am only suggesting someone else take over his duties until he comes to.”

“You just want the Master Key.”

“Ah, so you read me like a book.”

“And just how many people were you planning to kill using those next-gen weapons!?”

The Master Key looked like a smartphone, but it gave full privileges over everything in Academy City. It was stuffed full of passwords, passcodes, access keys, and other such data.

Including for military facilities and equipment.

Academy City’s functions and military might would eventually recover. If it were handed over to someone else, something terrible would happen. And if it fell into the hands of a Director who knew enough about diplomacy and war, it could lead to a war with any place on the planet.

She was a demon.

She knew just how twisted the world was.

And in that knowledge, she had placed her hopes in the #1. She had decided the world was still worth protecting. So she couldn’t allow the world to be destroyed now while the new Board Chairman lingered on the verge of death. No matter what.

“But the Master Key is a dangerous power. Who can you trust it with, if not me and my knowledge of diplomacy and military matters? Noncommittal Kaizumi? Surely not that pacifist Oyafune?”

“They would be better than you at least…”

“Oh, dear. So you, the guardian of the Master Key, are unaware just how dangerous it is. Listen, ''even someone who doesn’t know how to use it can lose control.'' I was fine with leaving it in the Chairman’s hands since he is the #1. I trusted that someone who has killed so many people would know very well how to handle that kind of threat. But leaving it in the hands of someone who has no familiarity with deadly power would be suicide. Suicide on a planetary scale.”

“Leave! If you don’t wish for the Board Chairman to recover, people could see that as contempt of the chain of command. I will not give you the Master Key. Only my master has the right to grant it to someone else. So please leave now!!”

The old man took a step back without taking his eyes off her.

He was not intimidated.

The smile on his face conveyed a clear message: I don’t even need to return here. You will come crying to me by the end.

“Academy City is a heavy burden to bear. Contact me when you are ready to give up.”

“Leave!!!”

===Part 7===

Footsteps trudged through the snow.

Kihara Goukei was bloody and woozy.

“Ughh, I’m so dizzy…”

She had rescued Urekawa Ousuke, the miracle child born of Academy City, and then handed that goddamn Necromancer to the Anglicans who seemed to have invaded the city (even though they didn’t seem to be soldiers?), but she had gotten badly torn up in the process. Three computer chips, two bacteria colonies, one pea crab, and what else? 99% of the secret ingredients giving her her “Kihara-ness” had been destroyed.

She had only one heart left. That was fine. Everyone else only had one too.

She couldn’t get spoiled.

She was running dry, so she needed nutrients. Her powerful regeneration was working against her. Like this, she would eventually dry up into a husk. Before that happened, she needed sugar, salt, fat, protein, calcium, various vitamins and minerals, and more.

(Why do all the restaurants have to close early today of all days? There would usually be at least an izakaya or family restaurant open.)

“Oh.”

She spotted a vending machine.

The small glowing display shined bright in the darkness. It actually had power.

(Oui, oui. Vending machines are cleverly designed to continue functioning even after a fire or other disaster. Oh, I’m saved.)

And it wasn’t a drink or bread machine. It was one of the unique varieties you spotted from time to time. Specifically, this odd kind of vending machine that sold things like wagyu sukiyaki meals on the side of the street. And one of the large sample photo on this one showed…

“On this freezing night with my breath visible before me I find…ramen!! Oh, that has such a sinful ring to it. But I must do this to regain what my body has lost. How merveilleuse it is to have an actual excuse. Hwa ha ha ha ha ha! Behold, world!! I choose the piping hot tonkotsu ramen!! I am freed from all guilt as I ingest this unhealthy meal in the middle of the night!!!”

Even among the Kiharas, facing your own death was something only an oddity could do. It was a good thing the vending machine let you pay with a train card. …All of her paper money would have absorbed too much blood by this point.

A clunking sound came from the machine.

(Oh, that sounds harder than I would expect.)

With a noodles vending machine, she had imagined something like a better version of a coffee vending machine: first a styrofoam bowl, then the drained noodles and other ingredients, and finally the hot soup slowly pouring in.

Silence surrounded her.

Nothing happened after the initial clunking.

Kihara Goukei crouched down and nervously opened the overly large door to check.

“Is this…a frozen food vending machine!?”

It was rock solid.

The instructions on the package said you could enjoy restaurant quality flavor after only 15 minutes in the microwave.

Was she supposed to stand around in this freezing weather for those 15 minutes?

All she had was a solid object that could probably kill someone if applied forcefully to the cranium.

“Uhh…”

Yet she really would dry up and die without something to eat. Surrounded by a freezing night with red snow covering the road, Kihara Goukei had no choice but to tear open the package, pull out the rectangular block, hold it in both hands, and gnaw on it. Yeah, it was not a flavorful experience. Sure, it had salt and fat, but that didn’t go well with the ice!! The white-frozen pieces of pork fat were especially bad. Was this some kind of divine punishment?

“?”

Suddenly, she felt like she was being watched.

There was someone, or something, here.

She found the gaze surprisingly nearby. Looking up at her.

It belonged to…a girl of around 10?

“Misaka has never seen someone eat a popsicle in the winter! says Misaka as Misaka checks the package. Tonkotsu ramen! …Misaka doesn’t remember that Gorigori-kun flavor.”

“What are you doing here? And please feel free to call me Madame Gou.”

“Well, Misaka needs to get to District 10, but she doesn’t know where it is, says Misaka as Misaka explains her predicament.”

“Eh? District 10?”

Wasn’t that the district of battles and machos, said to be the most dangerous in the city? And the girl only looked around 10, so what was she doing out alone at night?

(And if I send her back the way she came, um, oh dear. Aren’t those giant bugs and sea creatures made of weird blonde hair wandering around there?)

Kihara Goukei wept.

This sounded like trouble to her.

First Urekawa and now this. Was tonight the night for running into small children? Was it some kind of bonus mode?

“Where is District 10?”

“The complete opposite direction, so please don’t look at me…”

“If you know the way, then tell Misaka! says Misaka as Misaka begs you!”

“One heart. Just one left. Another death and I really will die… I-I’ve done more than enough already, haven’t I? I already saved Urekawa Ousuke-kun in the very middle of the night, so I really want to get home and sleep until-”

“No! ''Help me, Madame Gou''!!”

“Neh heh☆ …Well, you drive a hard bargain. When you put it like that, I can’t go to sleep now, can IIIIIIII!?”

===Part 8===

On the roof of a far distant skyscraper, one of the mass-produced military clones known as the Sisters removed her eye from the scope of a large sniper rifle.

“She doesn’t appear to be a threat, concludes Misaka #10032.”

“Doesn’t appear to be? Are you glitching? What kind of fuzzy opinion is that for a living computer?”

“It is called personal growth.”

She had grown enough to make casual remarks over the Misaka Network at any rate.

Misaka Worst, who was tuned to pick up on the especially malicious emotions within that vast network composed of countless identical brainwave signals, responded with exasperation in her voice.

“This is all because you discussed that stuff on the Misaka Network, you know? Have you forgotten that mini-Misaka is your host and control tower? She can hear everything you say, even if it’s in your sleep.”

“You mean that our ability to control electricity might be able to force open the lock on the new Board Chairman’s Master Key? asks Misaka for confirmation.”

“No, that screwing it up would destroy the Master Key! If it turns out the only way forward is for the #1 to wake up, then of course the little one’s going to try and do something about it. Goddammit, what a pain. …But Yoshikawa’s the real loser here. She’s locked in her room with nothing to do. Cause the great Last Order used her power to hack the electric lock.”

“Then wouldn’t it be best to send her straight there? Also, that person appears to be a Kihara, which should come in handy on the way, says Misaka, providing her opinion.”

“Then are we finally going to stop playing stalker? Misaka doesn’t want to hold onto this sniper rifle in this cold-ass weather any longer. Misaka is afraid her cheek is going to freeze to the metal.”

“If you are fine with that immortality expert getting her hands on clone technology, responds Misaka. Misaka checked her spec sheet and it would be a real pain if she learned to multiply herself.”

“…When can Misaka finally get back to bed?”

“As if you have any intention of doing that.”

===Part 9===

Great Demon Coronzon slipped through the darkness like a shadow.

She had chosen a stadium that was unusually large even among the outdoor track stadiums. Everything she currently sought was contained there. Here she could convert her physical body into a massive amount of Telesma energy. Once that was done, she only had to send herself into the current of a ley line running underground. She would still be limited to the planet, but that would allow her to instantly escape anywhere on Earth, even the opposite side of the planet.

Wasn’t its maximum capacity 255 thousand?

The outdoor type without a dome was easier to scale up in size, but this felt like overdoing it.

Academy City had a population of 2.3 million, so a full tenth of the population could be crammed inside.

Humans were apparently frail beings who were afflicted by loneliness when standing alone in a massive artificial space, but she was a being known as a great demon.

She felt nothing amiss as she walked toward the center.

Other than the wrongness of her own existence.

“Sitra Achra, hm?”

Coronzon rolled that term around on her tongue.

And smiled cynically.

Sitra Achra could be described as the substance that caused evil. The current world, from the tiny humans to the vast world itself, could supposedly be fully described using the diagram called the Sephiroth, but there were some impurities which did not fit into the grand Sephiroth. Those impurities were Sitra Achra. They were ruins – shards – of the old world which was destroyed to create the current one. They were the substance that caused evil. They had no place in the current world, had no role, and should not have remained, so their very existence obstructed the system of the current age. Like pebbles caught in the gears.

The world god had created was perfect.

Things only went awry because of the extraneous impurities mixed in.

(Sounds like me.)

Shadow covered her face as she silently expressed this only silently.

Even though self-deprecation could not turn evil into good.

She had always questioned it.

Why hadn’t she become an angel of love? Or an angel of righteousness?

If she had been…

If she had been given that role…

…She would have poured herself into that work more diligently than anyone else.

If god had known from the beginning that Coronzon would rebel against heaven and turn evil and had let her go ahead and do it because it was part of some kind of plan of his, then she would ''overdo'' the role god had given her and ruin that plan.

God was an absolute being, but he did not save all lives.

Everyone accepted that even their misfortunes would be given meaning and purpose if they obeyed god.

But the very existence of that system meant he had known from the beginning there would be victims. He had known and let it happen. For some grand plan of his.

Coronzon’s role was to tear people apart. Why should she obey someone who had abandoned her?

So she had decided to use everything given to her and ''overdo'' it. That way she could obliterate that heartless plan without betraying her purpose.

She would dedicate herself to her evil identi-

…?

At that point, she tilted her head.

No, wait. She had noticed it this time.

Her memories skipped a few seconds.

“Dammit, not again…Aleister!!”

She held a hand to her head.

She had finally managed to prepare this place for her ceremony, but she would have to leave if word reached Kamijou’s group.

Coronzon started to panic…but then it hit her.

A few seconds.

She stood in the very center of an enormous stadium. She had no computer or smartphone to contact anyone and there were no old-fashioned payphones in sight. So even if Aleister had hijacked her body, he couldn’t have done anything in that time. She could ignore the outrage if it only lasted a few seconds.

On the other hand…

(It’s good I noticed it this time, but was the gap itself longer than before?)

She had a bad feeling about this.

Was Aleister starting to get the hang of it? That concern crept up in the back of her mind. Losing consciousness for even a second in the middle of a battle with her pursuers could be fatal. And even if that didn’t happen, Aleister could attempt suicide if he took control for long enough.

He would do it.

Especially now that he viewed her as his enemy and had killing her as his primary objective.

Directly comparing their specs wasn’t enough to rest easy. Aleister had won the Battle of Blythe Road after all.

Coronzon consciously took a deep breath.

(I need to shift my focus.)

Not only were there other stadiums, but magic materials could be found anywhere. After all, Aleister Crowley had built this city during the confusion of the postwar recovery. It was an alternate form for the Abbey of Thelema. It had been deftly hidden by repainting it all in the terms of science, but it would be hard to find places and objects here without magical symbolism.

Coronzon only had to collect the items that were already present.

She wouldn’t have any difficulty as long she knew the proper way to combine them.

She could begin the ceremony at any time.

The only problem was how long it would take.

…No matter how much she tried to shorten that time, she couldn’t reduce it to zero. And she would be entirely defenseless in that time. She was the Coronzon who had destroyed legendary magicians like Mathers and Aleister, but during that time she could be killed even by an ordinary human.

“…”

Coronzon shut her eyes, held her breath, and searched for any sounds around her.

She was focused on the area outside the stadium.

(My greatest enemy is the time limit. Because I’m sure they’re searching for me with everyone they have. Weak as they are, hiding from them is a pain when there are so many of them. For once I need to look out for weaklings because this crucial ceremony will be ruined if they interfere in the middle of it.)

===Part 10===

When they checked the map based on Index’s advice, the answer was obvious.

Kamijou pointed at a spot on the large map.

“The General Athletics Stadium. …It’s gotta be this, right? It’s a track stadium and there’s a huge underground waterway running below it!”

“If Coronzon is using Zeus symbolism for a ceremony to send her through a ley line, then it must be there.”

The white girl sounded confident.

It wasn’t like they had any other leads to go on, so Kamijou had to trust in this one.

“Fool.”

Someone else called out to him.

Anna Sprengel.

“I double-checked it all just to be safe, and everything the grimoire library said checks out. Her calculations are correct, so Coronzon should be at the General Athletics Stadium. The only question left is if we arrive in time.”

The Amakusas were magicians who blended into modern society, so they all knew how to drive. …Kamijou preferred not to think about where they had procured so many vehicles in Academy City, but it would be best to make use of them now.

And just as he was thinking that, his eyes met another pair of eyes.

But these definitely weren’t human.

They were compound eyes.

A carnivorous dragonfly more than three meters long was gliding at eye level.

It was made of blonde hair.

“Coronzon’s…scouts!?”

“Stupid bug jamboree!!”

He heard an odd voice just before a blonde young woman drop-kicked the giant dragonfly from the side, sending it flying. She was the Transcendent Bologna Succubus.

“Just when I thought I’d caught up on foot, this is what I find? When do I get a breather!?”

“Pant, gasp… M-my coat…is so heavy with…the steel armor and the terrariums…I’m dyiiiiiing…”

Even as she complained, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet deflected the scouts’ attacks with her thick coat. …Wait, did she just protect the Bologna Succubus?

However, squashing a single dragonfly wasn’t enough to turn the tide.

There were butterflies, hornets, stag beetles, flies, and more.

Kanzaki raised her voice.

“If she’s sending these out, it must mean we’re getting close!”

It didn’t feel like Coronzon was trying to lay low and hide anymore. Did she want to buy time even if it made her more conspicuous?

She really was here.

In District 20. Index, Anna Sprengel, and the others had been right.

…The question was whether or not these scouts were passing information back to Coronzon. Either way, it would be best not to waste time here.

“We need to strike before she can get away!!” shouted Kamijou.

===Part 11===

The scouts sent out by Great Demon Coronzon included three meter dragonflies and hornets.

Kamijou immediately clenched his right fist, but nothing would be more annoying than having a group of 20 or 30 drop from the sky all at once. Kihara Noukan turned his way and shouted.

“Be careful. If they grab onto you and carry you up high, you will be playing a deadly version of the crane game!”

He couldn’t let the flying scouts use the powerful weapon that was height.

Plus, the stag beetle ones wouldn’t even need lift him up. They could crush or slice his body right here on the ground.

“Get inside, it doesn’t matter where!!”

On Kanzaki’s instructions, Kamijou and Mikoto practically tackled open the door to a nearby building.

They ran further inside. When they reached a more open space, they found something odd there.

A frozen pool?

No, was it a skating rink?

Kamijou wasn’t familiar with them and had imagined them as something like a massive cold storage warehouse, but was this skating rink actually warmer than outside?

“They’re coming. Those weird bugs are coming!!”

“Wait, Misaka! Don’t use your Railgun down a straight corridor! Are you trying to hit our friends!?”

Lucia, Angelene, and more of the Former Agnese Force jumped on the giant flies as a group. That still wasn’t enough offensive power, but it slowed the scouts enough for Blodeuwedd the Bouquet and Anna Sprengel to finish them off with stronger attacks.

The scouts were powerful. They were, but they weren’t Great Demon Coronzon herself. The scouts made of her blonde hair were not unbeatable!

“In that case…”

“Hm? Lad, don’t let your guard down!!”

A supposedly defeated scout stirred.

No, a large quantity of something burst from the giant stag beetle’s body. Flat ovals about fifty centimeters long poured out like a slot machine jackpot. There were more than a hundred of them and they were all wriggling. And squirming.

There were more scouts…inside the scouts?

And a ton of them!!

“Ahhhhhhh!?”

Kamijou backed away, more creeped out than afraid of the threat they posed. The small scouts leaped at the boy one after another.

Itsuwa sharply jabbed her spear out to guard him, but she grimaced.

“They’re hard. Are they based on parasitic shellfish!?”

“You mean the more enemies we defeat, the more of them there will be? Hard to think of a better way to buy time!” shouted Othinus.

Kamijou’s group would be overwhelmed by the enemy army.

Sounds like collapsing piles of sand came from all around.

“Wow!”

Alice Anotherbible was the only one capable of smiling as they swarmed around her. A normal human would be bitten into tiny pieces if they tried that!!

They would be killed if they didn’t defeat the attacking scouts, but defeating the scouts only allowed them to multiply.

It was a vicious cycle.

…And Kamijou had only thought of these things as scouts made of blonde hair. But he felt pity for them now that he saw them forced to fight, writhing in pain as they burst from within, and releasing a flood of other monsters.

“Fool, now isn’t the time. If you stop, we will be killed!”

Great Demon Coronzon.

Even if she was fighting for her life, she shouldn’t force her own side to do this.

A dull crash broke through Kamijou’s thoughts.

It came from directly in front of him. The skating rink’s wall broke through and a giant rotary snowplow emerged from the side. The row of scouts in its path were crushed and sliced up by the rotating blades.

The fluffy blonde Amakusa was operating it.

Kamijou had seen her a few times before. Wasn’t her name Tsushima?

“Hop on!! Coronzon is our top priority, so we can’t waste our time with these things!!”

There was no reason to stick around here. The giant rotating blades on the front and the snow expulsion device sticking out the side like an elephant’s trunk looked dangerous, but Kamijou grabbed onto something like a short ladder on the side. Only after the heavy snowplow begin to move did he notice something.

“W-where’s Index!? And Misaka too!”

“I’m not the only Amakusa. And everyone will soon think to use snowmobiles and other vehicles capable of driving on this red snow. We all have the same destination, so we’ll meet back up with them if we head to the track stadium!!”

A few others managed to jump onto the snowplow. He saw Kanzaki and Itsuwa among them.

A three meter dragonfly was still stubbornly pursuing them, but it was shot down by a beam of light. Neither Kanzaki nor Itsuwa had done that. Apparently another vehicle was following them.

Eventually, no more hornets and stag beetles could be seen.

Kamijou sighed and leaned against the rotary snowplow that rattled along on its continuous tracks.

“Well…it certainly is a good thing that Tsushima was there to help us, human,” said the 15cm god.

“Yeah, it really was. Life is so much easier when you have a capable young woman around. Thanks.”

“…Ohh?” “…Ohh?”

“(Wait, did I just step on some deadly landmine here. And to make matters worse, two of them at once?)”

A secret light shined sharply from Kanzaki Kaori and Itsuwa’s eyes and Tsushima wept in the driver’s seat.

===Part 12===

It was late at night. 1 AM had come and gone.

When you imagined a late night hospital, did you think of a horror story? Or something more risque? After many long years working here, the frog-faced doctor knew neither option was likely. When you worked there day in and day out, even a special location became no more than a routine. The fear faded and any weird expectations vanished.

Of course, he wouldn’t normally be working on this shift, but today was a special day. He hadn’t gotten any rest during the day either.

A young medical intern gave him a worried look.

“You need to get some sleep, doctor. You’re no good to us here if you pass out.”

“If I could get some free time…yes, there is something I should do, so can you cover things here?”

“Doctor!” the intern called after him, but this was his nature. He wanted to save every patient he could.

If Kamijou Touma was already dead, then there was nothing to be done.

But what if the boy was still alive?

Then he was the frog-faced doctor’s patient.

If a patient had received improper treatment, it was a doctor’s duty to save them.

(What a pain. Where do I even start with determining if a supposedly dead person is alive or dead? The guidelines for brain death would probably be best. Or mayb-)

He left the hospital.

And some strange thing attacked him only three steps out the door.

“Eh?”

If he had to describe it, he would have called it a golden crab standing more than three meters tall.

Even after seeing the pincer raised high, the frog-faced doctor only managed to get out a confused sound.

He did not properly understand the danger.

Yes.

He had no way of knowing since he knew nothing of magic, but his hospital was in District 7. That was the area where Coronzon had scattered so many of her scouts made of blonde hair.

And Coronzon had been so focused on escaping she hadn’t actually ordered them to stop.

Which meant they were still acting on orders to protect the ceremonial ground for Adikalika – the former site of the Windowless Building.

A pleasant slashing sound raced out.

The frog-faced doctor did not shed a single drop of blood.

It was sliced vertically.

The blonde hair scout’s bisected halves scattered to either side.

His eyes widened in confusion as a dark, lithe figure whispered to him.

“It is a pleasure to see you again, doctor.”

===Part 13===

In the District 20 skating rink, Misaka Mikoto had definitely seen that pointy-haired boy on the side of a large rotary snowplow.

And it had happened as the vehicle drove right past her.

She had been left behind.

“I want to shoot that idiot so bad.”

She flicked up arcade coins and launched a few Railguns at the monsters as she retreated from the skating rink proper into a narrow corridor.

The more she defeated, the more of them there were, which couldn’t have been much more annoying.

And the initial dragonflies and stag beetles were powerful enough already, so she would be killed if she didn’t fight back. There was no room for holding back.

(Are the others retreating somewhere too? There isn’t time to ask where we’ll meet up next, so I’ll just have to magnetically attach myself to one of the vehicles’ roofs.)

And all of a sudden, something occurred to Misaka Mikoto.

“…Wait.”

(If that idiot is alive, then why am I even wearing mourning clothes? Ahhh, how long am I going to keep wearing this cumbersome outfit? Now I feel like I’ve been making a fool of myself!!)

This was a sports facility, so would they have rental sportswear anywhere? Even a track suit or jumpsuit would be fine. She was willing to ignore how it looked if it was at least warm and didn’t restrict her movements!!

But this was a skating rink.

That meant any clothing would be for skating.

Such as a painfully bright lemon yellow figure skating uniform.

“U-um, would you call this a skating dress?”

It wouldn’t restrict her movements since it was designed for sports use. Combined with the bladeless shoes meant for the staff, she would have no trouble moving around. At the very least, she would have a much easier time of it than in this Japanese clothing. But why did it have to have a miniskirt? Or should she think of it more like a swimsuit’s pareo? Either way, it wasn’t something for walking around town in!

“B-but it’s so cold! What choice do I have!?”

She had decided herself she was willing to ignore how it looked.

It would certainly protect her from the biting chill of the January night.

It left less skin exposed than she had expected. Because it covered her with a skin-colored material.

But that was a problem of its own. The thin synthetic fiber was like wearing a full-body stocking. A terrifying thought for someone who tended to get zappy at the drop of a hat!

===Part 14===

Kamijou and the others arrived at a dark shape so large they truly had to look up to see it all.

This was the General Athletics Stadium.

Its size was apparent even from the outside.

Its diameter alone had to be hundreds of meters.

Instead of a dome covering it, it was apparently an outdoor stadium. Still, tall walls surrounded it on all sides. Those would be for the tiered seating, but they were just as tall as a four story building. So the same as a school building. This meant there was no seeing inside from out here.

Several other vehicles joined the rotary snowplow operated by Tsushima.

Index and Misaka Mikoto were among them.

“Thank good- woah! Misaka, what are you wearing!?”

“Don’t look at me!! Don’t look at my new and improved flavor with 20% extra at the same great price!!”

Her retort was as unusual as her outfit.

Was this the higher rarity version that showed more skin, or had she been unable to bear the cold and chose to rely on a figure skating outfit? He wished she would stop tugging down on the miniskirt-like part because that only drew his eye there all the more.

The Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet were both tilting their heads (in friendly synchronization?). …Yeah, they probably wouldn’t get what the big deal was when they had no trouble walking around in the frigid January night in their underwear or a naked apron.

But focusing on this wasn’t going to lead them to Coronzon.

Kamijou was curious about something.

“The tall walls keep us from seeing inside. I hope that also means Coronzon can’t see out.”

“Does it mean that? Wouldn’t a great demon be able to use clairvoyance or remote viewing?”

Tracking expert Takitsubo brought up a difficult topic.

“In modern Western magic, clairvoyance isn’t a means of seeing the contents of a closed envelope. It’s a ceremony used for spiritual meditation.”

Kanzaki provided an explanation, but it was hard to grasp without a solid foundation in the magic side.

She had spread out a large map, probably a privilege she had gained by taking control of the city. That she went to the trouble of printing out a paper copy seemed to show she still wasn’t used to the science side, though.

“It was fortunate we could get our hands on the official blueprints. Our numbers work in our favor. First, we should station personnel at each exit. There are more than 20 official gates for spectators and the real number is even greater due to the unofficial entrances for athletes and staff. With the exits blocked, we can begin exploring inside. Once we know where Coronzon is inside the large stadium and how she has modified it for her ceremony, we can launch our attack.”

“Coronzon should be defenseless while she works,” added Index. “Even if we can’t win a straight fight, we should be able to win right now.”

They could win?

Then why not charge in right this instant?

Kamijou couldn’t believe they would stay out when they knew she was in there.

Othinus must have sensed his impatience because she made a piercing comment from his shoulder.

“Wait, human. If Coronzon detects us and runs off, this will all have been a waste of time.”

“Either way, we should carefully investigate the situation inside and gather what information we can. We can always make our attack after all escape routes we are aware of have been covered.”

Kamijou was a little surprise to find Anna Sprengel advocating the cautious option.

Had that wicked woman learned how frightening it was to have everything fall apart at the last second?

“But can we really wait around that long? There’s that ley line thing, right? That direct route running underground that only the great demon can use. We can have her surrounded as much as we want – it won’t matter if she just teleports out of here!”

“Failure puts the entire human race at risk. Great Demon Coronzon will be able to do more than just this.”

Was that why she didn’t want anyone spying on her from the sky?

After giving a skeptical look at the Bologna Succubus (or her clothing more likely), Kanzaki nodded in agreement.

“We mustn’t forget that she will have escaped if she physically crosses the city wall.”

“But we don’t know the time limit!!”

“It won’t be in the next 5 or 10 minutes at least. That gives us time to take it slow, human.”

===Part 15===

“Hm.”

Great Demon Coronzon put a hand on her hip and observed her surroundings.

She stood at the very center of the enormous stadium.

“That completes the ceremonial ground. And the attribute extracted from the stadium as a whole gives me what I need. Direction, time, number…and the actual spiritual item in my hands: the tattva cards.”

She held a few colorful cards.

However, these cards were not historical antiques.

They were only symbols meant to help one enter the special mental state of meditation, so as long as the colors and symbols were correct, the material was immaterial. They were in fact made by coloring cardstock with thick permanent markers she had acquired after breaking the metal shutter covering a stadium shop. (There was probably a demand for materials that spectators could use to make placards or to draw their team’s logo on their face.)

Perhaps the stadium functioned like a giant magical circle with the cards acting as a control medium like a mouse or keyboard.

Coronzon had a physical body, but her true essence was a collection of Telesma energy. Unlike the pure angels, she was a mixture of different elements, which could be a pain, but by breaking them apart, she too could be handled as pure energy.

That meant she could inject herself into a weapon or armor or she could be carried around inside a thin talisman.

Or she could send herself through the ley lines to instantly travel to the other side of the planet.

“Now, time to begin,” she whispered.

===Part 16===

Kamijou was anxious.

Great Demon Coronzon was inside there, but the great size of the stadium worked against them. With more than 20 public gates, entering the wrong way would give Coronzon a chance to escape out a different one.

They needed to know her exact location before heading in.

…He understood the Anglicans’ point, but that didn’t mean he liked it. No matter how well they prepared themselves, Coronzon would disappear if they didn’t arrive in time. Then the world’s doom would begin on the other side of the planet. Coronzon would be able to choose any location she liked, so she could ensure the optimal conditions for herself. The next time would be far worse. Everything might truly be destroyed.

Next to him, Index spoke up. Addressing Kanzaki.

“Are you going to run a search from the outside? Isn’t that dangerous too?”

“It is. She could detect the magic power of a normal through-walls scan. However, we Amakusas have specialized in hiding our faith to avoid persecution, so we know a few tricks we can use.”

Kamijou and Mikoto had no clue what the Amakusas were working on with such determined looks on their faces. At this point, Index and her 103,001 memorized grimoires was the only person they could rely on.

She got it right on the first guess.

“The Maria Kannon?”

“This isn’t how they were originally used, but they were designed to look like an ordinary Buddhist figure while revealing its true face as the Virgin Mary to anyone who knew what to look for. By intentionally taking a broad interpretation of that concept, it can be remade into a camouflage-breaking searching spell to locate that which is hidden.”

===Part 17===

In the very center of the spacious stadium, Great Demon Coronzon sat quietly, regulated her breathing, and placed her index finger against one of the toxically colorful cards lined up on the ground.

Something felt off.

A sensation like a finger pressed between her eyes caused a tingling in the center of her head. Even though she was the one reaching out her finger. No, it was meaningless to think of it in that way.

The two were linked.

To touch it was to be touched.

The line between the self and the other – between the inner world and the outer world – was blurring.

The core of her body distorted. She was uncertain where she was even sitting.

“Kh.”

Her head wobbled. A vertiginous fluctuation interrupted her thoughts.

This was an Eastern mystical philosophy from ancient India.

She knew it wasn’t a good fit for her. A pure and proper angel never could have done it. But she was an impure and wicked being known as a great demon. And the Crowley system said every from of the mystical could be incorporated into your own spells if you reinterpreted it with your own logic. The wise would not give up just because they reached an impasse. They would use the discovery of that impasse to further elevate themselves.

She took deep breaths.

She consciously guided her thoughts toward stability.

She needn’t think of purifying herself.

There didn’t have to be just one answer.

The tattva cards did not work with pure elements in the first place.

Mathers had warned that meditation using those painfully colorful cards could cause intense anxiety or headaches for a mere human if used incorrectly. So how much worse would the damage from failure be for Coronzon as she tried to return herself to a state of pure energy?

She did not approach the true essence of this Eastern mystical philosophy.

The tattva cards were no more than tools used for control. That would have been how the Golden cabal used them too. They were valuable when it came to understanding the five elements, but there would be discrepancies between the cabal’s manual and the actual Eastern philosophy.

(The work has just passed 50%. That would explain why this inner fear and anxiety is taking on such concrete form.)

Coronzon did not move her eyes.

She had to focus her whole mind on ascending straight up.

Thus, any trivial distractions and detours could end up tearing her ego apart.

So she always stared straight ahead, using only the corner of her vision to watch how her own shadow wavered and thinned.

It was progressing well.

Once her shadow fully vanished, she would have also ''physically'' disappeared from Academy City.

The destruction of the world was within reach.

===Part 18===

“How is that search spell going!?” shouted Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.

“I-it just passed 70%!” nervously reported Itsuwa.

70%.

That was more than halfway done, but Kamijou and the others didn’t know Coronzon’s status. If she was even a single percentage point ahead of them, they wouldn’t finish in time. It was possible the Anglicans would fully surround the stadium and rush in only to find Coronzon had already vanished.

Othinus sighed from Kamijou’s shoulder.

“There’s no need to wait until it’s 100% complete. We know Coronzon is in this building. So if we attack the small unsearched spots, we can confirm her location by sight.”

“How much of the stadium do you think those ‘small spots’ cover?” strongly retorted Kanzaki. “The search has covered 70% or maybe 80%. We’re risking our lives going in, so we want a little more assurance than that!!”

“What do you think, Touma?” asked Index.

“Hm? We should go in now! Right now!!”

He had no idea why an outsider like him had been asked for his opinion on a magical matter, but he gave his answer right away.

“Tsujiura,” said Index. “Kushiura and Qiu Xiang Bu also work. Those are Eastern, so the Amakusas should be able to use them too.”

“I see. So the idea that the first thing said by someone ignorant of the topic at hand can be used for divination,” said Kanzaki, sounding impressed.

In this case, Kamijou’s ignorance of magic gave his words meaning.

…He felt like this was declaring him useless in this fight, which seemed kind of insulting, but if the experts would listen to what he had to say, he didn’t care why.

Whatever the case, Kamijou’s words set them all into motion.

“Kanzaki will join one of the Amakusa teams, I guess. Okay, Alice!! You go lend Agnese’s group a hand!”

“Hm? The girl would prefer to stay with you, teacher.”

“Please! And Anna, you go with that team including Itsuwa and Tsushima!”

“Fool. I will step on you later.”

They complained, but they still split up.

Even Takitsubo and Kihara Noukan did as he said. They had to know even less about magic than him, but they were still risking their lives to stop this unknown threat.

After all, there were more than twenty public gates. The Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force would be blocking all of those exits, but they were dealing with ''the'' Coronzon here. Ordinary magicians weren’t enough. Each team needed an irregular member such as a Saint like Kanzaki Kaori, a Transcendent like the Bologna Succubus or Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, or even a special Transcendent like Anna Sprengel or Alice Anotherbible.

Kamijou didn’t see this as splitting up their forces.

Once they entered the stadium, they would converge on Coronzon’s location. He didn’t want anyone dying in the “blank time” until they broke down the right door and found Coronzon. He was sick of Coronzon being able to choose one of them at random for a one-hit kill lottery. Even if one team was unfortunate enough to run across Coronzon on their way in, they didn’t have to defeat her. Kamijou wanted to give each team someone who could let them survive until the other teams arrived.

Mikoto, who always felt left behind when it came to magical matters, suddenly panicked.

“W-wait, what about me!?”

“You’re with me, of course!! C’mon!!”

“Eh? O-oh…okay.”

Kamijou and Mikoto would enter through the closest gate: Gate 15. Neither knew much about magic, but he figured Othinus’s presence would make up for that. Index’s knowledge was the most important of all, so he couldn’t keep it to himself.

Gate 15 was shut with a metal grate shutter and a glass door, but Mikoto only had to inhale and exhale before it all opened for them. And not just Gate 15. All of the shutters and locks opened at once.

Without waiting for the shutter to fully rise, they ducked below it.

They entered a dark corridor.

And ran.

“Hey, human. Don’t get one-shotted here. Even if Coronzon is busy, she could have sent out those scouts.”

Othinus warned him from his shoulder, but Kamijou didn’t have time to respond. If they were even a second too late, it was all over.

His heart pounded in his ears. He felt like he was going to die on his own without Coronzon having to lift a finger. But he gritted his teeth and kept running.

He wouldn’t let her try again at destroying the world.

He would end this tonight.

===Part 19===

(75%.)

Great Demon Coronzon’s voice no longer vibrated the air.

From her perspective, it was less like her body was unraveling and more like the world around her was changing. Or maybe like she was crossing the boundary between phases. Her coordinates remained the same, but the scene around her changed as if flipping over a page.

Perhaps there was no real difference between the two.

The Golden cabal never managed to send their body across. Thus, their experts had tried to separate just their minds in an act known as astral projection to virtually achieve a leap between phases. They had worked hard to peek into another world like heaven or hell. …And as a result, quite a few magicians had failed to cling to their sanity.

Coronzon’s nearly transparent fingertip passed right through the tattva card.

She was more than halfway on the other side now.

The great demon grinned.

(No more physical control is needed at this point. Now I only have to wait for the process to complete!!)

===Part 20===

Kamijou and Mikoto ran down a long, long corridor.

They couldn’t afford to hide their footsteps now.

Coronzon was so close.

“We’re going to come out into the stands, right? How far is it to the actual sports field!?”

“The actual distance isn’t that far, but the stands aren’t flat. Don’t trip and fall in the darkness, okay?”

Mikoto gave him a surprisingly sincere answer.

There hadn’t been any bright beams of light or explosions yet.

What were Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others doing?

They would have entered through all the entrances at once, but apparently none of the teams had run into Coronzon. They didn’t know where she was hiding to complete her ceremony, but she hadn’t noticed their presence yet. That made this their best chance.

If they failed, it was all over.

(We might not win in a straight fight, but what if she’s immobilized by the important ceremony? This time will be different. This is our only chance to settle things with her!!)

The end of the corridor came into view.

Like a rectangular hole cut out of the darkness.

Kamijou gritted his teeth, clenched his fist, and ran with all his might.

He emerged into a silent space. The flow of time ground to a halt.

No one was there.

The place was deserted.

“What’s…going on?” muttered Kamijou, stopped partway down the stands.

He could hear more people emerging from different directions. But that was all. Even from here, he could see Agnese, the Bologna Succubus, and others looking around in confusion on the other side of the stadium. The great demon wasn’t shining bright as she completed some kind of ceremony and Coronzon didn’t begin a fierce battle in an attempt to escape.

Great Demon Coronzon wasn’t here.

It didn’t feel like she had fled in a panic either. There was no warmth in the vast space. It had likely been empty this entire time. Coronzon had never been here. They had chosen the wrong location.

Had their calculations been off?

No, they hadn’t been relying on Index alone. It had been a group effort with help from Anna Sprengel, Kanzaki Kaori, and more from the magic side. And they had been certain Coronzon would use this stadium if she was using Zeus symbolism. So how could they have been wrong!?

“Touma.”

A girl from another group joined him.

Index’s usual childlike air was broken by the trembling voice she forced out.

She seemed hesitant to speak.

“Is this district used for any other special purpose? Other than sports!”

“Huh? Yes. It is a district of stadiums and domes meant to hold tens of thousands of people. I think Aogami Pierce mentioned it being the holy land for idol concerts.”

A quiet thud reached his ears.

Index was unable to support her wobbling body and fell back into one of the seats. The cat mewed in complaint from her arms.

“Then Coronzon wasn’t using sports as the symbol for a sanctuary or temple.”

Her lips quivered.

“Songstresses, plays…she was using the performing arts. Which means it isn’t Zeus! And if she is using a different symbol and a different god, she would be in an entirely different location!!”

===Part 21===

Maximum occupancy: 255 thousand.

Coronzon snorted with laughter when she recalled that extreme number.

…A soccer stadium or baseball stadium could never reach that number even with every seat filled. That display was meant for a concert or live performance where even the field itself was filled with seats.

Coronzon was somewhere like that.

(This district is filled with stadiums and domes. To put it another way, most of them are not the designated home field of a pro team whose games you can watch on a sports app. And “just a stadium” isn’t going to be used just for sports. …District 20’s stadiums probably make most of their income this way. I saw through that right away. And a facility primarily used for concerts is not a Zeus-associated track stadium. To be blunt, this is a large facility built for shows, not for sports.)

She didn’t want Apollo, god of music.

She wanted Dionysus, god of theater.

In ancient Greece, sporting events had been held in sanctuaries as a ceremonial offering to a god, but plays and songs had been made as offering in those same sanctuaries. Thus, holding a concert or live performance in a stadium that could contain a large audience was not a new idea.

Greek theater was the origin of modern stage plays. And the original form of that had been a festival held as an offering to Dionysus, god of alcohol and insanity.

That meant his symbols could be extracted from a large stadium like this.

(The work is past 90%. And yet no pursuit has arrived yet. What’s the matter, humanity? If you let me escape this easily, you will be extinct by tomorrow!!)

===Part 22===

So not sports but music. No, theater.

Not a stadium for sporting events but for concerts and live performances.

When they corrected the initial assumption and had Index recalculate, they were given a single candidate.

“The Brilliant Outdoor Performance Stadium. It points north and, if the adjacent park is viewed as a mountain forest, you could extract the symbols of Dionysus. This time I’m sure of it! A god of insanity would be perfect for controlling her power as a chaotic great demon!”

Now that they had a new answer, they couldn’t just sit around.

Their initial wrong answer would have given Coronzon that much more time for the ceremony to break her body down into energy. As soon as she finished that, she would dive into a ley line and escape to the other side of the planet. There wasn’t a moment to lose.

Kamijou and the others hitched a ride on the rotary snowplow driven by Tsushima of the Amakusas to reach the new destination.

It was in the same district.

Driving there, it wouldn’t take long. The giant stadium capable of holding 255 thousand came into view.

“Is that it? Please still be in the city, Coronzon. Dammit.”

As soon as Kamijou jumped down from the snowplow onto the red snow, he staggered to the side.

He regathered his strength, somehow managing to keep himself steady, but he bumped into something next to him.

But not because he had nearly fallen.

“Ugh…”

He heard a small groan.

From Takitsubo Rikou.

She must have arrived on a different vehicle. Kamijou instinctually caught the unsteady track suit girl…and found her body temperature was higher than he had expected.

Not just warm, but blazing hot.

He was shocked.

“That’s not good… How long have you been hiding this, Takitsubo!?”

“…”

She refused to say a word.

She had been knocked out by some kind of attack from Coronzon during the Adikalika stuff. It was a miracle she was even still alive, yet she had joined the chase instead of calling an ambulance. Anyone would be in a similar state after that.

“You can’t go on. You need to get some rest! You’ve seen the way things are, right!? The Anglicans don’t want to torment Hamazura!!”

“You should listen to your own advice, Touma. Stopping Adikalika was more than enough of a win. You’re hurt, so stay here and look after her,” said an exasperated Index.

Even though it was she who had actually stopped the attack after arriving late. She had a perfect memory, so this wasn’t just a mistake. So was she giving them the credit? When he thought about it, he realized Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others hadn’t actually seen the moment Adikalika was stopped…

Speaking of Kanzaki, she called everyone over.

“If the countdown is close to the end, we can’t spend time on an initial search like before. That will mean a greater risk when we enter. Needless to say…”

“Then do we have time to sit around listening to the headmaster’s speech? I’ll steal a map of the stadium with my powers, so let’s get going!”

Mikoto, Index, Kanzaki, and the rest got moving.

In no time, there wasn’t anyone left.

It was so quiet.

Kamijou sat down and focused on taking deep breaths. He wasn’t as bad as Takitsubo, but he had lost his balance earlier. He had taken a direct hit from Coronzon. He wasn’t a doctor and couldn’t even imagine how much damage had been done inside his body, but he knew better than to be optimistic.

Takitsubo Rikou’s lips moved where she lay right next to him.

He doubted she was conscious, so maybe she was having a nightmare.

“…Hamazura…”

“Kh.”

Kamijou grimaced. In agony.

She had to be badly worried about her friend. If she didn’t do something to help out and earn points with the Anglicans, she would lose all chance of negotiating with them. But she was too injured to move.

If Coronzon did escape, who could say where they would direct their anger. Even if Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others fighting here didn’t, the higher ups watching from across the ocean might demand a live sacrifice from those who were close to Coronzon.

Could that be why Index had used such vague phrasing to give up credit for stopping Adikalika?

But it wasn’t enough. Takitsubo wanted something more to push her claim of having contributed, so Adikalika wasn’t enough and she had come with them even if it meant hiding how bad her injuries were.

And unlike her, Kamijou could still move.

He couldn’t push himself too hard.

But he had to make up his mind.

“Okay. I’ll go.”

“Human? …It figures.”

“I’ll stop Coronzon, so don’t you worry, Takitsubo. Don’t forget: winning is meaningless if you die. Your goal is to be with Hamazura, right? Then you need to rest.”

He forced his heavy body up and began to walk.

No, he was trying to run full speed, but this was the most speed he could manage.

Even so, Imagine Breaker would have to be of some use.

Coronzon’s magic was extraordinarily powerful.

Maybe he couldn’t fight her himself, but he could at least help out someone who could. If he could shield them from even a single attack, it might be enough to decide the battle.

He would overturn the game as a wild card.

===Part 23===

Great Demon Coronzon only had to wait. And the time finally arrived.

It was already over.

99%.

Even if someone barged in now, she could break her body down into Telesma and escape Academy City through the ley line before they could do anything.

Her victory was assured. Those humans were too late to prevent their doom. The silly fools should have resisted more.

But then…

“You think so? Then allow me to cause a bit of trouble.”

Her vision shattered.

Black, red, silver, blue, yellow… It all collapsed into a wild dance of colors.

No.

Crossing between phases and breaking herself down may have been the same thing. She had thought so herself.

Which meant it was she who was collapsing.

She could no longer support her sitting position and fell to the side. Something was wrong with her limbs. She couldn’t remember how to breathe. Nevertheless, she managed to gather all her strength and scream.

“A…lei…sterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!?”

“Now, now, Coronzon. You should know better than to mess with anything as dangerous as the tattva cards which even the Golden cabal had to issue a recall for. Don’t you remember what Mathers said? They can cause intense anxiety or headaches if used incorrectly. Why would you visit the mental world after going to the trouble of physically sealing me away? Are you trying to kill yourself? ''In here'', I can still wield some power.”

(Emergency…shutoff!!)

A dull “snap!” came from the center of her head.

“Khah!!”

She tried to let out the breath caught in her throat, but what came out was colored red.

For a while, she lay on her side convulsing until she forcibly suppressed the writhing of every last one of her internal organs. Yes, it was urgent that she accurately recalled the shape of her body. She had already begun to enter the ley line when the magic failed. She had to return to her original body in a hurry, but if she forgot that body’s shape now, she could be entirely annihilated.

It took her a full ten seconds.

Once she calmed her wild breathing and recalled the cycle for inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, she had reclaimed her physical body.

The tattva cards could cause mental confusion if used incorrectly.

For her, did that mean releasing the sealed Aleister? In other words…

“Dammit!!!”

This meant a change of plans.

She couldn’t use this method anymore.

And if she was going to cross Academy City’s wall for a physical escape…she had no reason to remain in this stadium. She had to leave as soon as possible.

===Part 24===

Kamijou forced his unsteady body to keep moving and pushed open a small metal door with his shoulder.

He slipped through the half-open door, probably a staff entrance, and entered the stadium.

He found a dark, cold, heavy space.

Big too.

…He had apparently entered something like a parking garage. Was it a space for workers located below the stadium? He didn’t know enough to have a good mental picture of how stadiums were structured.

He did have his phone with him, but he didn’t know what was happening inside. The pursuers had to be careful too, so he wanted to avoid causing someone’s phone to ring while they were trying to hide.

“Index? Misaka?” he called quietly.

He didn’t know how the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force were searching the stadium. Because they weren’t sharing information with him.

He heard some light footsteps through the darkness. They echoed off the gray walls and were moving away from him.

He immediately ran full speed in that direction.

He could tell just from listening whose they were.

“(Human, you noticed how odd that was, I trust?)”

(We all know how powerful Coronzon is, so everyone will be searching as part of a team. So no one should be leaving on their own like that!)

“Coronzon!! Is that you!?”

“You really shouldn’t have announced your presence. Unless you have the supernatural power to kill with words alone.”

The footsteps stopped.

A voice spoke from behind one of the thick concrete pillars lining the space.

A hateful voice.

“I’m relieved. Because I can easily kill you and complete my escape. Now, Kamijou Touma, how do you intend to stop me? Don’t try to tell me that foolish shout was all part of a plan and you have a more troublesome opponent hiding nearby.”

15cm Othinus could not directly fight, so he was effectively alone.

Coronzon had seen right through him.

What about the phone in his pocket? No. He might not have a signal, but more than that, using the touchscreen in the dark parking garage would give him away with the backlight. Coronzon would act before he could call for help.

“You chose this stadium because it was your best bet, right? You can’t use magic to escape through the ley lines now. So give up, Coronzon.”

“Why should I? Great demons are perfectly capable of driving cars. And it goes without saying that ordinary cars can slip right past a scan for magic power.”

Kamijou’s eyes widened.

That was her plan immediately after trying to escape using Telesma and a ley line? She switched gears way too fast.

“How many trump cards do you have!?”

“More than a mere human could ever imagine, that’s for sure.”

If she escaped in a car, he couldn’t keep up on foot. His phone was an iffy option too. So was there nothing he could do? If he shouted at the top of his lungs, the others would surely gather here. He wouldn’t let her escape.

The voice alone continued from behind the pillar.

“How about this, Kamijou Touma? What if you keep quiet and let me go?”

“Why even ask that? It’s meaningless. If you escape tonight, you’ll work to destroy all of humanity by tomorrow, right? Then nothing you could offer me would be worth it!!”

“Oh, you will let me go. Because I happened to pick up a trump card on my way here.”

Someone emerged from behind the concrete pillar. Slowly.

Blonde hair.

A woman.

But that hair was fluffy and only fell to the shoulder blades.

This wasn’t Great Demon Coronzon.

He had only heard a single set of footsteps, so had she been captured behind the pillar?

What was being held against her from outside Kamijou’s view? The feminine lines of her body were trembling and her expression was like a cross between tears and a smile.

He recognized her as one of the Amakusas.

“Tsushima.”

It wasn’t even a case of “move and she’s dead”.

All of a sudden, the red splattered out.

From the side of her neck. Kamijou was an ordinary high school boy without much forensic medical knowledge, but the location the blood was spraying from sent a chill down his spine. She seemed to have been cut by an invisible blade.

A laughing woman stuck her head out from behind the pillar.

Great Demon Coronzon really was a demon.

“Kee hee ha ha!! Protecting human lives is no easy task, is it? Or are you willing to take another tour of hell for her!?”

Coronzon kicked Tsushima’s doll-like body from behind, shoving her toward him.

He had no choice but to catch her. Only a few seconds had passed, but she felt limp and heavy in his arms. She clung heavily to him like a down blanket soaked with water. He pressed his palm firmly against the wound in her neck. How much blood loss was lethal for a human? If he didn’t stop the blood spurting from the side of her neck, she really would die.

At that moment, Kamijou’s vision suddenly went dark.

But not because Coronzon had done anything. It took him a while to even realize that. He had long since pushed his body past the limit.

He shouldn’t have been up and about at all.

“Human!!”

“Kah…ah…?”

He felt horribly faint.

He collapsed and couldn’t get back up. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t move his arms and legs very much. He wasn’t even sure which way was up.

“Kh.”

He held Tsushima tight in his arms. He gritted his teeth and tried to take in as much information on the physical reality around him. Sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch… it didn’t matter what. He was afraid he would pass out otherwise.

“Ha ha ha!! You said it was meaningless, didn’t you? You couldn’t have been more right! Why bother saving a life or two now when I will be destroying the entire world soon!”

No, it wasn’t working.

Even after all this…he couldn’t stop his mind from slipping away into darkness.

He had to avoid removing his hand from that neck wound.

He heard the sound of metal breaking.

Then the sound of an engine starting and the sound of Coronzon driving a car away.

“Wait…Coronzon…”

The darkness took over.

Kamijou Touma’s consciousness fully faded.

“Waiiiiit!!!”

===Part 25===

“Can you hear me?”

Near the center of the open stadium, Agnese heard a young male voice.

Hearing a voice when no one was there was nothing unusual. She was commanding more than 250 people, so she was using communication magic.

But this was odd.

The Former Agnese Force was all female.

“This…Mich………k… I have an urgent message. Can anyone hear me?”

She was using a Roman Catholic communication spiritual item derived from the Barbara Branch. It was made from a cherry tree twig with a few buds attached and it wasn’t all that unusual. …Even if it did seem wrong for nuns to be carrying around tools for love fortunetelling.

The hard buds unnaturally opened below the frigid sky and the flower petals vibrated.

They produced a human voice.

(You’re kidding. Is someone hijacking the channel!?)

“Is anyone at all in Academy City receiving this!? There is something I must tell you immediately!”

“?”

Itsuwa gave Agnese a puzzled look from nearby. …Apparently she couldn’t hear this. That meant it was targeted only at the Roman Catholics of the Former Agnese Force.

Agnese Sanctis frowned.

“This is Agnese Sanctis. Who are you?”

“Thank god… I got through! This is Michael Speak, a cardinal officially appointed by the pope!!”

She was at a loss for words.

…Those were the around a hundred ultra elites chosen out of the two billion Roman Catholics to directly advise the pope. Ordinarily, she would never even directly speak to one.

But his voice didn’t fit the part. He sounded like a stressed young man. He didn’t sound even thirty.

Perhaps his modesty was what had earned him so much popularity.

(Another Michael. And with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.)

“What does a great cardinal want with lowly peon like me?”

“Tell only the Roman Catholics to get out of there immediately. You need to leave Academy City as soon as possible. Your team will obey you if you tell them!”

“?”

She had expected a protest or sarcasm in response, so this came as a complete surprise.

This was advance warning of an attack.

She didn’t know what the Vatican was preparing to do, but she had to assume it was a fairly dangerous large-scale spell. Something even greater than Coronzon’s Adikalika.

“You mean it’s close to being activated?”

“As Roman Catholics, we cannot allow someone as dangerous as Great Demon Coronzon to escape Academy City. If she cannot be defeated on the front line, then the Vatican must reach out a helping hand.”

Reach out a helping hand.

So from their perspective, they were saving lives.

And the same went for Agnese, Lucia, Angelene, and the rest of the Former Agnese Force fighting on the front line.

“There are three activation conditions. First, if you completely lose track of Coronzon and the trail goes cold. Two, at 5:47 AM local time. In other words, at dawn. Third, if we believe a non-Catholic force has learned of our plan and could attempt to stop it. If any one of those conditions is met, the Vatican will activate Saint Georgios’s Fire.”

“Kh.”

The most important condition was the third.

That meant the Vatican didn’t want them sharing this information with anyone else. Even though this would mean the destruction of Academy City. The chance to evacuate was for the Former Agnese Force only.

…Were they being pressured to abandon Academy City and the Anglicans who they had fought and risked their lives alongside?

“We are always watching and listening, Sister Agnese. The physical distance matters little. So do not attempt to contact anyone else through trickery or deception. We will not overlook it.”

(Magical surveillance is a hell of a thing. Although I’m sure it was originally justified as a way for the pure servants of god to punish wicked magicians.)

She didn’t actually know how much she was being observed. The Catholics had been outdone by the other forces so far, so Agnese thought they had to be bluffing to an extent. But this still made it hard to take any bold action.

And she knew what Saint Georgios’s Fire was.

She had heard rumors of it back when she still lived in Italy.

There was a legend about the death of Saint Georgios, or Saint George as he was known in England. When he was being pressured to renounce his faith in a wicked temple, a great ball of fire fell from heaven and blew it all away. So it was a legend of pure attack power.

“That’s a large-scale spell that targets a distant location through the ley lines, isn’t it?”

“Ironically, it uses the same pathway Coronzon is attempting to use to escape. But since we can only use it and not control it, we cannot stop her from using it.”

The Roman Catholic spell was essentially a cluster bomb that detonated two billion explosive flames across the entirety of the targeted city.

And rather than burn everything down with the explosive blasts and flames, it used an extreme high temperature to rapidly alter the atmospheric pressure and oxygen level across the entire area. That meant fortifying oneself behind a shield or wall was meaningless. Because your own body would rupture from within. Afterwards, only a lifeless city would remain.

It was effectively the ideal form of a human killer.

(Now isn’t the time for us humans to be fighting among ourselves!!)

“I thought the pope had learned an important lesson from the trials of World War Three. I can’t believe he would agree to such a forceful solution.”

“His authorization is unnecessary. The cardinals have the right to hold an ecumenical council or election. …And the majority wish to do this. We in the minority have no way to stop them.”

“Doesn’t that seem disrespectful?”

“Abstaining in protest will not change the outcome of the vote. Did I ever say that I like that this is happening!?”

There was real strength behind those last words.

That had to be what he really thought. Which was why it pierced Agnese so deeply.

But even if he was sensible, he couldn’t change what was happening. She could tell that too.

(Well, this is a disaster…)

And there was an issue beyond the number of victims across Academy City.

A more fundamental issue.

“Don’t you know ''a human killer spell won’t affect an inhuman demon''? Sowing further confusion in Academy City will only create more openings in the city perimeter!! You’re playing right into Coronzon’s hand!!”

Apparently Coronzon’s special trait remained in effect.

She tore people apart and obstructed their evolution.

(But I can’t believe it’s gone so far.)

“Sister Agnese!!”

“What do you want, cardinal!? I’m really goddamn busy right now!”

“This is a compromise. As much of one as I could get. The original plan was to immediately activate Saint Georgios’s Fire and I only barely stopped that from happening!”

There was kindness in his words.

But that kindness was unnecessary. Something was fundamentally off about this.

“Don’t tell me this is about wounded pride. Index stopped Adikalika by redirecting it to an unnamed desert island in the Atlantic. The Italian peninsula wasn’t harmed!”

“But Coronzon did launch her large-scale attack spell. And that wasn’t her only trump card. Her power is unfathomable, so she must be destroyed when we have the chance. None of the cardinals can ignore that point. I’m sorry, but that includes me!”

She wasn’t sure what to say.

She understood. Yes, even Agnese was furious. If she hadn’t made a conscious effort to calm herself, she might have left the Anglicans back then.

“Violence is wrong,” he continued. “I understand that. We erred and let God’s Right Seat manipulate us during World War Three. …But this time, ''we are in our rights to retaliate.'' Overturning that idea will not be easy, Sister Agnese.”

(Coronzon. Your mere presence really does make a mess of humanity as a whole!)

The Roman Catholics naturally had a variety of emotions about this.

About Coronzon and about Academy City for failing to stop this crisis earlier.

…Nuclear missiles could destroy the world, so it would take a lot of guts to launch the first one yourself. But what if an enemy launched one at you first? That would lower the mental hurdle for pressing the launch button considerably.

People were easily influenced by the word “retaliation”. And that could burn down the entire world.

“I will do everything I can, but I doubt I can stop this from happening. Sooner or later, Saint Georgios’s Fire will be launched.”

He was one of the sensible ones.

He would truly prefer not to use it.

But that was why nothing he said was a mere threat or bluff.

For the pacifists, nothing was more painful than having to declare that an atrocity would soon be happening.

“So you need to escape that city immediately. It’s a shame what will happen to Academy City and the Anglicans, but it’s too late for them. Gather up all the Roman Catholics and get out of there!!”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter1|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter3}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume14 Chapter2

2025-12-29T19:50:06Z

Massify: /* Part 20 */ messed up with the tenses (if it was began, then it should've been reflected it in the sentence)

==Chapter 2: Divine Slope, Forbidden Book – Magical Exit.==

===Part 1===

In Academy City’s District 7, someone was still fighting on and on, separate from the core of the incident.

That person was Dion Fortune.

“Ahhh, they’ve forgotten me… I just know they’ve all left me behind!! They must have done something about Adikalika since the Earth is still intact, but couldn’t they have launched a group attack to come help me before they left? I am technically the archbishop at the very top of the Anglican Church, you know!?”

A scraping sound came from a short distance away. A giant black cat stood more than two meters tall there. The bizarre beast appeared to be drawn with black paint and it was ridden by a magician in mourning clothes.

Moina Mathers.

She was undeniably a formidable foe. After all, that official member of the Golden cabal, once called the largest in the world, had been fighting for hours now, but the battle still wasn’t over. Even though an average magician who be delighted to be referred to as “first rate” would have been killed instantly.

(This is bad. I know Coronzon is our top priority, but I can’t just leave her out here.)

The enemy said nothing.

Seated atop the black cat that had to be more than two meters tall, Moina Mathers made some complex movements with her fingertips.

Like a magic trick, countless cards appeared and were then pinned in midair.

The cards were not as complex as tarot. They only depicted a combination of basic symbols like circles and triangles.

These cards could express anything in the world using a combination of a primary element and a secondary element.

Dion Fortune’s eyes widened when she saw the dancing colors.

“Geh, are those tattva cards!?”

The mourning clothes woman’s lips writhed.

She produced a voice.

“Apas of Tejas.”

With a roar, a fireball more than a meter in diameter consumed oxygen and rushed toward Dion Fortune.

This had been referenced in the Golden cabal’s official texts, but it was in fact a controversial text that had been officially adopted at one point but then rejected within the cabal. (From the perspective of Western Europe in the 19th century,) India, Tibet, and the East in general were utopias of miracles and the mystical! …But Mathers hated that view, so he took the unusual step of writing a serious warning against the use of the tattvas due to their Eastern origins.

(She’s an artist and a clairvoyance expert. This wife probably did write a lot about the tattvas.)

However, the fireball was approaching slowly enough to see it coming.

Dion Fortune held her black box out in front of her.

If any kind of magic entered that special spiritual item, its data would be randomly rearranged, changing it into something else entirely. That meant it could rob most any attack spell of its lethality, but…

(Would ''the'' Moina Mathers really be satisfied with an explosive that moved this slow? Uh, oh. She intentionally combined multiple elements in this one spell, so even if my box consumes the primary element of Tejas, will the secondary element of Apas still explode?)

“Wahhh!!”

She couldn’t let herself be caught by such obvious bait.

Dion Fortune quickly got down on the red snow to dodge.

The fireball passed by barely above her head before exploding and toppling a wind turbine behind her.

With the tattvas, it was thought the world was constructed of five simple elements, but it was incredibly difficult to extract those elements in their pure form. That was why the elements were used in combination, like Apas of Tejas or Prithivi of Vayu.

(Kind of like a different version of Western-loving Mathers’s Hot and Dry or Cold and Wet!)

Dion Fortune raised her head from the red snow and shouted.

“Argh, you really had to use the tattvas, huh!? Are you intentionally using your husband’s doubts and detours as a weapon!? How much of a cruel wife are you!?”

And…

(If a pawn created by Coronzon can use the tattvas, then Coronzon must know how to use them too.)

She had a bad feeling about this.

The tattva cards depicted a combination of a primary element and a secondary element. They were a spiritual item that provided visual support for sending your mind into a deeper state. Moina was using them in a physical and offensive way, but she was doing that by pushing her own mind to extract the necessary spell from within herself.

That made this a tool specialized for manipulating non-physical energy and for breaking down the world into five elements and managing it in that form.

What was the worst thing an inhuman demon could do using the tattvas?

Dion Fortune thought she knew.

“Oh, no. If she breaks herself down into her component elements and remakes that into pure Telesma energy…could she escape anywhere on the Earth through the ley lines!?”

===Part 2===

They went back into the department store so they get out of the January chill while they thought.

Coronzon was trying to magically escape Academy City using something called a ley line rather than physically crossing the wall.

Kamijou and the others knew that now.

But where in the city would she perform that major ceremony? Now that they had lost track of her, they had to get back on her trail. But how could they do that?

They didn’t even know what district she had escaped to.

“The girl can help!” Alice Anotherbible volunteered. “The girl will divine her location! But, but! She would feel lonely doing it alone, so will someone good with magic help?”

That ruled out Kamijou. Imagine Breaker was never going to help with something like this. And Mikoto visibly cringed at the very idea of relying on divination here, so she was out too.

…But he couldn’t get a read on Takitsubo’s stance. She always had a blank expression and he couldn’t tell if her staring eyes were a sign of agreement or rejection.

The pointy-haired boy tilted his head in the women’s clothing section.

“Eh? You can use Alice in Wonderland for divination?”

“You can use any book, Touma. Haven’t you heard of bibliomancy? You flip through a thick book and place your finger on a random page. Then you apply the passage found there to the problem you’re facing to find an answer.”

Why would he have heard of something like that?

On his shoulder, Othinus continued the conversation like all of this was normal.

“As a piece of nonsense literature, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tends to be associated with mystical matters, including this sort of divination.”

“So, Touma, it should be a good fit here. It’s also well known.”

“That’s not what the girl is doing! We want to know where to go next, right? That means we want a number from 1 to 23, not a literary passage.”

So the district number?

But how would you use Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to search for a number?

“Playing cards, right?” said an exasperated Anna Sprengel.

Her exasperation was not directed at Alice for the suggestion. It was directed at Kamijou for not figuring it out right away. And it was quite strong.

“Fool. Gambling, by its nature, is often associated with divination. Playing cards are no exception. For a familiar example, playing solitaire on your own is practically a form of divination already.”

This was apparently a slightly more complicated version of solitaire.

Alice clapped her hands and spread them apart, causing playing cards to spill out from the space between her palms. They scattered atop a glass showcase.

Index and Anna Sprengel joined Alice in organizing the cards. After forming a few triangles reminiscent of bowling pin formations, Alice flicked away the unneeded cards, formed new triangles…and repeated the process a few times.

“Human. In this case, you can ignore the suits and focus only on the numbers,” advised Othinus from his shoulder.

In the end, only two cards remained.

Index identified them.

“10 and 10.”

“Wait, so is that the answer? But if it’s District 10, why is there two of them?”

“If you rush to the answer in your ignorance, I will stomp on your crotch, fool. She said the answer would be ''a'' number, remember? But playing cards only go from 1 to 13, so a single card can’t indicate a number higher than that. And playing cards have no zero. So this is the only way to output the answer.”

“This is the answer here. You only have to add the two numbers.”

“Then…Coronzon is in ''District 20''?”

As soon as Kamijou said this, looking thoughtful…

''Ba-zap!!!

“Whoa!?” shouted Index.

The roar was loud enough to make you flinch even at a distance. It resembled electrical sparks. He couldn’t be certain, but was this really safe? If Anna Sprengel hadn’t grabbed Index’s hand and pulled her away at the last second, would they both have been turned to charcoal?

Alice Anotherbible, however, simply smiled.

Only she was unfazed after being exposed to that effusion of power.

“Yay, now we know where to go next!”

“…”

Alice really was special. Her power was extraordinary enough on its own, but nothing good came of incorporating it into ordinary magic. While it was normal for Alice herself, everyone else had to endure that fearsome strength.

===Part 3===

“Ughhh, I’m so hungry… You Amakusas have a lot of Eastern stuff for your camouflage, right? Do the Flying Alms Bowl.”

“The Flying Alms Bowl is not like an app-based bike delivery service. Here, Index, I do have a chocolate bar.”

“Yay!” shouted Index, raising her arms in celebration and running off for a late-night snack. It was past 1 AM. Did she feel no guilt eating chocolate at this hour?

Kamijou’s visible confusion elicited an exasperated sigh from Othinus on his shoulder.

“The Flying Alms Bowl is a spell that Buddhist monks up in the mountains could use to send just their alms bowl flying out to the city to receive pindapata. And since I know you’re going to ask, pindapata is the practice of people offering food to monks.”

“Wait, so there’s magic that brings food to you?”

“So the basic idea of a delivery drone has existed for centuries, huh? It just took a while before they had the physics and science to pull it off.”

Mikoto sounded impressed in her own way. Also, pindapata was a form of charity, so it was free. The ancient people sure came up with some neat ideas.

Then it occurred to Kamijou this probably meant he had mentally recovered enough to begin using his imagination again.

They hadn’t lost track of Coronzon. There was still hope.

Here in District 20.

Index tilted her head.

“Hey, Touma? What kinds of things do they have here?”

“I think it’s mostly sports stuff. Baseball, soccer, basketball, and more.”

“It’s more than just hard fields and courts. The place is filled with huge stadiums and domes, including indoor pools and skating rinks,” elaborated mourning clothes Mikoto.

Takitsubo was viewing a nearby guide map. With her head tilted. She wore a track suit, but she may not have been a very athletic person.

“That would provide plenty of locations capable of hiding a large-scale ceremony,” said Kanzaki, hiding frustration behind her polite tone.

She may have realized just how hard a search this was going to be.

“If Board Chairman Accelerator were awake, we could have used the satellites,” said Kihara Noukan.

That would have helped a lot. The satellite images could have ruled out the non-domed stadiums, but they didn’t have what they didn’t have.

They would have to do it themselves.

Instead of using the obvious borderline of the wall, Coronzon planned to escape the city by melting into a…ley line? Well, into the ground. Kamijou didn’t know enough about magic to even guess at how long that would take.

But if they didn’t find her as soon as possible, they could be too late.

Not knowing only made him more antsy.

However, checking every single stadium in the entire district would be far too inefficient. He could see so many from here alone. He never knew you could have too many landmarks.

“We’ve reached District 20 too.”

He heard a voice and Kanzaki held something to her ear.

“Wh-what is that? I though it was weird before…but now I’m certain of it: that isn’t a phone!”

“It’s a communication spiritual item.”

Index’s explanation probably didn’t explain anything for Mikoto.

The paper charm – communication spiritual item? – in Kanzaki’s hand produced the familiar voice of the Bologna Succubus. It was apparently the Amakusa style to attach it to the back of a phone so it would be less conspicuous.

“Hey, witch hunt team, you tell that lad there’s nothing to report from up here. No sign of Coronzon. …The Anti-Skill helicopter is gone, so are we the only ones in the air any longer?”

“After everything that happened in District 19, I imagine anything that can fly is busy providing disaster relief or transporting supplies.”

The conversation suddenly ended after that comment from Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, who was presumably dangling down with the Bologna Succubus.

They were cut off by a tremendous noise that made Kamijou cover his ears.

“What the hell was that!?”

“An interception spell,” muttered Othinus.

“Flying with magic is just too dangerous!” shouted Index.

“Ksshh! We were brought down by an interception spell, but that means she’s nearby. Coronzon is definitely in District 20!! And if she doesn’t want us spying from the sky, ksshh, she’s not in a roofed dome or an indoor stadium! Look for the outdoor stadiums with nothing covering them!!”

“Hey! You crashed, right!? Are you okay!? Please tell me you are!”

“I don’t know what you’re expecting from a demon like me, but quit it. We can’t fly anymore, but we’ll catch up soon. We can run on the ground, so don’t worry!!”

“Damn you, sex demon. I know my coat is sturdy, but get your ass off it! Kiiii! You do not meet my salvation conditions, so you do not get to use me as a chair!!”

They seemed to be doing well.

The sounds of a scuffle coming through suggested they were unharmed.

That aside, Coronzon herself had reacted here. That gave them a huge opportunity as pursuers. They couldn’t waste it.

“So a sports facility without a roof covering it. It must be one of the open stadiums. In that case…”

“Different sports have different magical meanings,” said Index.

“Then what about soccer?”

“A festival held in England since ancient times. It’s the origin of all forms of football. Of course, a festival from the 12th century will either be 100% Christian or have incorporated aspects of other myths or religious events like with May Day or Halloween.”

His casual question received quite the explanation in return.

But she of course had a reason for explaining all this.

“But when we’re talking about sports and stadiums, I would start looking here. The ancient Greeks. Everyone in the world knows the sporting event where people compete for the gold medal, but that was originally held at Zeus’s sanctuary. It was meant as an offering to the gods led by Zeus.”

“If we can swap that name out for Jupiter, there are plenty in Rome too,” said Agnese.

Kamijou’s knowledge of Greek mythology didn’t go much past “that thing used for the astrological horoscopes on the morning news”. Where did Great Demon Coronzon belong exactly? With all the talk of rebelling against god, he had assumed she was a Christian demon, but could she use techniques from Greek mythology?

Mikoto and the golden retriever took a step back when these topics came up.

So it was Index who fluently responded.

“Magician Crowley said there are no such thing as demons.”

“Wait, but he called her ''Great Demon'' Coronzon himself.”

“He also said there are no pure demons. He said ‘demon’ is a word people use when they want to deride the gods of people they dislike.”

“…”

Yes, that sounded a lot more like that human who always took the cynical view.

But in that case…

“Could Great Demon Coronzon be referred to as a great god by some other religion?”

“Fool. Even Mathers rejected that idea. He called her an absolute evil to all humanity who was equally and uniformly opposed even when comparing every last myth and legend.”

“But Crowley supported the idea that she is a relative evil who ''appears evil'' from a certain viewpoint.”

A pure evil that did only evil.

Could such a being really exist?

To him that sounded like a strange magnet with only a north pole.

“People on the side of evil tend to be strict about the rules, don’t they?” said Takitsubo. “They have a lot of inviolable rules and strong bonds with their companions. Mugino is like that. If Coronzon is evil but doesn’t need that solid core, then she really isn’t human.”

But Coronzon herself believed they could exist. Which was the source of her self-loathing. She believed her great power was an irregular “distortion” a lot like a monopole. She thought it could only tear people apart. She thought it was twisted and wrong, so no matter how powerful she was, she could never be proud of herself. …If she could, none of this would ever have happened.

Whether or not Aleister’s theory was correct, Othinus arrived at a conclusion.

“Because she is a demon who doesn’t follow the rules, she might have full use off the techniques and fields not approved by Christianity. The rules don’t bind her.”

Mikoto put a hand on her hip and asked Index a question.

“Look, I don’t get any of this occult mumbo jumbo, so can you just tell us where to go?”

“If she is using Zeus’s symbols, a track stadium. His symbols are the sky, thunder, mountains, fatherhood, and many more. He’s the most important god, so he has a lot of attributes. But in this case, there aren’t many symbols Coronzon can use for her spell.”

Kamijou didn’t even have time to ask why.

Index was the star of the show at times like this.

“Zeus is generally a sky god. But Coronzon wants a way to the control the ley lines in the ground, which is the complete opposite. So we can ignore almost all of his attributes.”

“Hm? If it’s that much of a mismatch, why would she use Zeus in the first place?” asked Kamijou.

Othinus and Index both answered him.

“Because, human, he is the top god. He’s powerful enough you don’t want to reject him out of hand.”

“Not relying on Zeus in a district of athletic stadiums is like trying to win a soccer game without ever touching the ball.”

That made sense.

Zeus was a famous enough god that even Kamijou was familiar with him (from manga and games), so his power would be obvious and great. If Coronzon could use it, she would of course want to, but since he was a mismatch for her current objective, she wanted a connector to link the ingredient with her plan.

…Or something like that?

He felt like the situation was similar to a fugitive getting an airplane but having trouble taking off in it.

“So because Zeus is such an important god, he has a lot of different attributes? Then what part of Zeus is Coronzon trying to use? You said he’s a sky god, but she needs an attribute related to deep underground, right? Then what exactly is she going to-”

“Rain,” she replied immediately. “There’s a legend saying the current world is so full of different gods and heroes because Uranus and Zeus were joined with many earth goddesses through the rain that falls from heaven. …Touma, is there anywhere those intersect? For example, a place where a long waterway for rainwater passes directly below a large track stadium?”

===Part 4===

It was a dreary place.

The room was large but plain. Like a big metal box. And it was chilly.

Isabella Theism, a necromancer with silver hair and dark skin, took a look around.

“Why…am I alive?”

No one answered her.

Kihara Goukei was it? Had that bio-monster transported an enemy who would have died if just abandoned on the side of the road?

Cigarette smoke lingered thinly in the air.

So was that Stiyl Magnus on the other side of the locked door? He showed no mercy. If Isabella took any careless action, he wouldn’t hesitate to burn her away with 3000-degree flames.

(True Voodoo priests are apparently immune to fire, but I’m only making use of their techniques and haven’t mastered it to that extent.)

Besides, there were no gaps in the thick metal door. It had probably been welded shut by those same 3000-degree flames. Only a magician who could burn through the metal could open the door.

Isabella searched through her rags to check on her possessions. Unsurprisingly, all of the obviously dangerous items had been confiscated. However, these rags patched together from the clothes of several dead people had a lot of hidden pockets. She stuck a finger through the sloppy stitching and…yep, there it was.

Something stirred in the corner of her vision.

“?”

She only now realized she wasn’t alone in here. It wasn’t an Anglican magician keeping an eye on her. If it was, they would have stopped her by now.

That meant this was someone else under surveillance like her.

(What is this unnatural lack of vitality? I specialize in life and death and even I overlooked his presence.)

“Who are you?”

“''Hamazura Shiage''.”

Even as he responded, he seemed about as lively as withered grass.

He was Japanese…but he didn’t seem to be one of those Amakusas who Kanzaki Kaori had brought along. There was no scent of magic on the high schooler.

Then why had he been arrested by the Anglicans? He was a completely ordinary person…but that mismatch with his surroundings made him an uncanny sight here.

(It feels like being placed in front of ''too cheap'' of ingredients.)

It was uncanny, but if he wasn’t going to get in her way, she saw no reason to eliminate him.

She had no intention of staying in this prison with a stranger. She pulled out the spiritual item – or really, the materials to create one – hidden inside her rags.

(There’s a chance a scanning spell would detect the faint magic power emanating from a completed spiritual item…but the materials are no more than ordinary goods and ingredients. Slipping past checks like that is so useful.)

“What are you doing?”

“Escaping. I don’t have anything to do here.”

Isabella pulled out a small lime. One with a branch thinner than a matchstick still attached. She sliced it in two without a knife and squeezed one half to sprinkle the juice on the outdoor wall opposite the door.

A chemical smoke burst forth as if she had used a powerful acid.

A hole visibly grew until it was more than two meters in diameter.

That wall was no more than metal. Breaking through was easy if you had the appropriate magical knowledge. Plus, lemons, limes, and other acidic fruits were common components of Voodoo magic. It was used in an emergency antidote for zombie powder and in the lime poison created by combining the various toxins and antidotes found in the lime.

“Stiyl…wouldn’t have noticed. With the thick metal door fused shut, he wouldn’t be able to hear any of the noise I’m making in here.”

He would have any number of ways of stopping her if he did notice, though.

The delinquent-looking boy had a surprisingly mild reaction.

He was imprisoned. He would normally leap at the chance to escape without even considering the consequences.

“What I meant is, what do you hope to accomplish by escaping?”

“No matter what anyone else says and no matter how ugly a choice it may be…I will always do what I think is most necessary. Right now, that means defeating Great Demon Coronzon and bringing stability back to the world.”

===Part 5===

Done talking, the brown woman who reeked of death departed into the outside world.

She likely had something to do.

Unlike Hamazura.

(What do I do now?)

Hamazura Shiage lacked that level of motivation.

He had bet his entire life on Coronzon…and lost.

He was worried about Takitsubo Rikou, but he didn’t think she was in that much danger as long as she was within Academy City. After all, she was a high-level esper theorized to possibly become the eighth Level 5.

If he didn’t want any stray shots, or accurate sniper shots pretending to be one, hitting her, it was best if he stayed away while he was a fugitive.

Which meant…

“Oh, I know. What about Coronzon?”

Where had she gone?

He was worried about her too. She wanted to destroy the current rotten world and create a clean new world. Something must be happening that made her feel that way. What if this world was already damaged beyond repair but that damage simply wasn’t visible?

Then what exactly was happening? He wanted to speak with her.

Despite his earlier strong words, he did want to live with Takitsubo.

So he wanted to know what was going to happen.

However, wouldn’t Coronzon have to be in a dangerous position if he was able to catch up to her in his state? He really wanted her at least to escape the city soon…

===Part 6===

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had returned to the District 10 prison.

The facility doubled as the new Board Chairman’s headquarters.

It was guarded by several layers of thick metal doors, metal bars, and all sorts of sensors, but that meant nothing to an artificial demon who could freely switch between corporeal and incorporeal forms.

“I-I’m back.”

No response.

She may have expected that.

In the single-occupant cell, a frail figure lay on the bed.

Surrounded by medical equipment.

The only sound was a rhythmic beeping and a pump expanding and contracting to push out air.

…His body hadn’t been in perfect working order to begin with. Brain damage had left him reliant on a modern design cane and he couldn’t even understand human speech without the choker-style electrode around his neck.

Even so.

It was far too painful to see him lying in the bed like that.

Academy City’s #1 could not live on his own.

He was kept alive by all the machines hooked up to him.

“Master…” weakly called the demon girl.

“Monitor fragments have pierced every part of his body.”

Even a prison had doctors.

Serious illness did not cancel out a prisoner’s sentence, so in a way it was the natural arrangement.

It was their job to keep the prisoners alive in whatever form it took.

“Some are right next to major arteries and organs, making them too dangerous to touch without care. Removing them will be very difficult… But that isn’t enough to explain his condition. If it were simple blood loss keeping him unconscious, the transfusion should be showing effects by now.”

“I know…”

“?”

Yes, she didn’t have time for sorrow.

The new Board Chairman would never wake up ''naturally'' in this state. That had been obvious at first glance, which was why someone needed to externally induce a recovery.

These wounds were magical in nature.

They were scars of an attack from Great Demon Coronzon, a being beyond human understanding.

That meant magical knowledge was a requirement to heal him.

(I will heal you, so please wait until I can, master.)

Something beeped.

But it wasn’t the medical equipment. It came from something like an intercom on the wall.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t know if she had the right, but everyone else watched the device from a distance and made no move to touch it. She had no choice but to press the button and answer.

It displayed a familiar female secretary who ordinarily helped with the paperwork.

“What is it?”

“We have a visitor for the Board Chairman. He doesn’t have an appointment, but will you meet with him?”

“No appointment? Then send him awa-”

“He is Oniyama of the Board of Directors. Will you still refuse him?”

A visitor.

And at this precise moment.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 said for him to wait, but when she went out, he was already within the special security zone. Left alone, who knows how much he would have explored.

All of the jailers and guards looked afraid. Apparently it was up to the artificial demon to say this.

“Only the Board Chairman is allowed in here. What are you doing here!?”

“Oniyama Rouze.”

The old man’s eyes shined with the greed of a much younger man.

“I am one of Academy City’s 12 Directors. That comes with certain privileges.”

His words dripped with arrogance.

So what if he was one of the Directors? Just because there weren’t many of them didn’t mean they could enter this place without permission. Just think of the Windowless Building from when Aleister was at the top. No one should be here without its master’s permission.

(Has Academy City collapsed to that extent!?)

Oniyama was the Director with a focus on vehicles, including automobiles, ships, and aircraft.

And there had been suspicions he was interested in expanding into the military field. The military had its own specialists, but those who controlled those unscrupulous military forces – Shiokishi, Nakimoto, Neoka – tended to drop out or be replaced quickly due to that very unscrupulousness. A perfect opportunity for those who were hoping to break into that field.

To be blunt, she had a bad feeling about his presence.

“How bad are his injuries?”

He was too casual.

If Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t know Great Demon Coronzon was responsible, she would have suspected this man.

“Why are you here without even making an appointment?”

“I am here to give you a valuable warning, so watch your tone.”

“Nothing you say changes the fact that I only have one master!!”

“My point is that your behavior calls your master’s civility into question. The unintelligent never seem to wait for people to finish, which makes speaking with them so tiring.”

He snorted with laughter.

And then got back on topic.

“The situation is too pressing to wait for the Chairman’s recovery.”

“Kh.”

“Academy City is using all of its scientific knowledge to search for the culprit, yet we have turned up empty-handed. That makes this an unknown situation. And ignoring it shows no sign of improvement. Someone must grab the reins and take control soon. Before serious damage is done.”

He said that like the new Board Chairman’s injuries did not count as “serious damage”.

As it were a trivial matter.

Not worth any concern.

Even though the very top of the city had been directly attacked and remained unconscious.

“…You look happy about this.”

“Surely you jest. I am only doing my job. If the Chairman is unable to fulfill his duties, don’t you think his privileges should be temporarily transferred to a third party? I am not asking for his eternal expulsion from the throne through dismissal or impeachment. I am only suggesting someone else take over his duties until he comes to.”

“You just want the Master Key.”

“Ah, so you read me like a book.”

“And just how many people were you planning to kill using those next-gen weapons!?”

The Master Key looked like a smartphone, but it gave full privileges over everything in Academy City. It was stuffed full of passwords, passcodes, access keys, and other such data.

Including for military facilities and equipment.

Academy City’s functions and military might would eventually recover. If it were handed over to someone else, something terrible would happen. And if it fell into the hands of a Director who knew enough about diplomacy and war, it could lead to a war with any place on the planet.

She was a demon.

She knew just how twisted the world was.

And in that knowledge, she had placed her hopes in the #1. She had decided the world was still worth protecting. So she couldn’t allow the world to be destroyed now while the new Board Chairman lingered on the verge of death. No matter what.

“But the Master Key is a dangerous power. Who can you trust it with, if not me and my knowledge of diplomacy and military matters? Noncommittal Kaizumi? Surely not that pacifist Oyafune?”

“They would be better than you at least…”

“Oh, dear. So you, the guardian of the Master Key, are unaware just how dangerous it is. Listen, ''even someone who doesn’t know how to use it can lose control.'' I was fine with leaving it in the Chairman’s hands since he is the #1. I trusted that someone who has killed so many people would know very well how to handle that kind of threat. But leaving it in the hands of someone who has no familiarity with deadly power would be suicide. Suicide on a planetary scale.”

“Leave! If you don’t wish for the Board Chairman to recover, people could see that as contempt of the chain of command. I will not give you the Master Key. Only my master has the right to grant it to someone else. So please leave now!!”

The old man took a step back without taking his eyes off her.

He was not intimidated.

The smile on his face conveyed a clear message: I don’t even need to return here. You will come crying to me by the end.

“Academy City is a heavy burden to bear. Contact me when you are ready to give up.”

“Leave!!!”

===Part 7===

Footsteps trudged through the snow.

Kihara Goukei was bloody and woozy.

“Ughh, I’m so dizzy…”

She had rescued Urekawa Ousuke, the miracle child born of Academy City, and then handed that goddamn Necromancer to the Anglicans who seemed to have invaded the city (even though they didn’t seem to be soldiers?), but she had gotten badly torn up in the process. Three computer chips, two bacteria colonies, one pea crab, and what else? 99% of the secret ingredients giving her her “Kihara-ness” had been destroyed.

She had only one heart left. That was fine. Everyone else only had one too.

She couldn’t get spoiled.

She was running dry, so she needed nutrients. Her powerful regeneration was working against her. Like this, she would eventually dry up into a husk. Before that happened, she needed sugar, salt, fat, protein, calcium, various vitamins and minerals, and more.

(Why do all the restaurants have to close early today of all days? There would usually be at least an izakaya or family restaurant open.)

“Oh.”

She spotted a vending machine.

The small glowing display shined bright in the darkness. It actually had power.

(Oui, oui. Vending machines are cleverly designed to continue functioning even after a fire or other disaster. Oh, I’m saved.)

And it wasn’t a drink or bread machine. It was one of the unique varieties you spotted from time to time. Specifically, this odd kind of vending machine that sold things like wagyu sukiyaki meals on the side of the street. And one of the large sample photo on this one showed…

“On this freezing night with my breath visible before me I find…ramen!! Oh, that has such a sinful ring to it. But I must do this to regain what my body has lost. How merveilleuse it is to have an actual excuse. Hwa ha ha ha ha ha! Behold, world!! I choose the piping hot tonkotsu ramen!! I am freed from all guilt as I ingest this unhealthy meal in the middle of the night!!!”

Even among the Kiharas, facing your own death was something only an oddity could do. It was a good thing the vending machine let you pay with a train card. …All of her paper money would have absorbed too much blood by this point.

A clunking sound came from the machine.

(Oh, that sounds harder than I would expect.)

With a noodles vending machine, she had imagined something like a better version of a coffee vending machine: first a styrofoam bowl, then the drained noodles and other ingredients, and finally the hot soup slowly pouring in.

Silence surrounded her.

Nothing happened after the initial clunking.

Kihara Goukei crouched down and nervously opened the overly large door to check.

“Is this…a frozen food vending machine!?”

It was rock solid.

The instructions on the package said you could enjoy restaurant quality flavor after only 15 minutes in the microwave.

Was she supposed to stand around in this freezing weather for those 15 minutes?

All she had was a solid object that could probably kill someone if applied forcefully to the cranium.

“Uhh…”

Yet she really would dry up and die without something to eat. Surrounded by a freezing night with red snow covering the road, Kihara Goukei had no choice but to tear open the package, pull out the rectangular block, hold it in both hands, and gnaw on it. Yeah, it was not a flavorful experience. Sure, it had salt and fat, but that didn’t go well with the ice!! The white-frozen pieces of pork fat were especially bad. Was this some kind of divine punishment?

“?”

Suddenly, she felt like she was being watched.

There was someone, or something, here.

She found the gaze surprisingly nearby. Looking up at her.

It belonged to…a girl of around 10?

“Misaka has never seen someone eat a popsicle in the winter! says Misaka as Misaka checks the package. Tonkotsu ramen! …Misaka doesn’t remember that Gorigori-kun flavor.”

“What are you doing here? And please feel free to call me Madame Gou.”

“Well, Misaka needs to get to District 10, but she doesn’t know where it is, says Misaka as Misaka explains her predicament.”

“Eh? District 10?”

Wasn’t that the district of battles and machos, said to be the most dangerous in the city? And the girl only looked around 10, so what was she doing out alone at night?

(And if I send her back the way she came, um, oh dear. Aren’t those giant bugs and sea creatures made of weird blonde hair wandering around there?)

Kihara Goukei wept.

This sounded like trouble to her.

First Urekawa and now this. Was tonight the night for running into small children? Was it some kind of bonus mode?

“Where is District 10?”

“The complete opposite direction, so please don’t look at me…”

“If you know the way, then tell Misaka! says Misaka as Misaka begs you!”

“One heart. Just one left. Another death and I really will die… I-I’ve done more than enough already, haven’t I? I already saved Urekawa Ousuke-kun in the very middle of the night, so I really want to get home and sleep until-”

“No! ''Help me, Madame Gou''!!”

“Neh heh☆ …Well, you drive a hard bargain. When you put it like that, I can’t go to sleep now, can IIIIIIII!?”

===Part 8===

On the roof of a far distant skyscraper, one of the mass-produced military clones known as the Sisters removed her eye from the scope of a large sniper rifle.

“She doesn’t appear to be a threat, concludes Misaka #10032.”

“Doesn’t appear to be? Are you glitching? What kind of fuzzy opinion is that for a living computer?”

“It is called personal growth.”

She had grown enough to make casual remarks over the Misaka Network at any rate.

Misaka Worst, who was tuned to pick up on the especially malicious emotions within that vast network composed of countless identical brainwave signals, responded with exasperation in her voice.

“This is all because you discussed that stuff on the Misaka Network, you know? Have you forgotten that mini-Misaka is your host and control tower? She can hear everything you say, even if it’s in your sleep.”

“You mean that our ability to control electricity might be able to force open the lock on the new Board Chairman’s Master Key? asks Misaka for confirmation.”

“No, that screwing it up would destroy the Master Key! If it turns out the only way forward is for the #1 to wake up, then of course the little one’s going to try and do something about it. Goddammit, what a pain. …But Yoshikawa’s the real loser here. She’s locked in her room with nothing to do. Cause the great Last Order used her power to hack the electric lock.”

“Then wouldn’t it be best to send her straight there? Also, that person appears to be a Kihara, which should come in handy on the way, says Misaka, providing her opinion.”

“Then are we finally going to stop playing stalker? Misaka doesn’t want to hold onto this sniper rifle in this cold-ass weather any longer. Misaka is afraid her cheek is going to freeze to the metal.”

“If you are fine with that immortality expert getting her hands on clone technology, responds Misaka. Misaka checked her spec sheet and it would be a real pain if she learned to multiply herself.”

“…When can Misaka finally get back to bed?”

“As if you have any intention of doing that.”

===Part 9===

Great Demon Coronzon slipped through the darkness like a shadow.

She had chosen a stadium that was unusually large even among the outdoor track stadiums. Everything she currently sought was contained there. Here she could convert her physical body into a massive amount of Telesma energy. Once that was done, she only had to send herself into the current of a ley line running underground. She would still be limited to the planet, but that would allow her to instantly escape anywhere on Earth, even the opposite side of the planet.

Wasn’t its maximum capacity 255 thousand?

The outdoor type without a dome was easier to scale up in size, but this felt like overdoing it.

Academy City had a population of 2.3 million, so a full tenth of the population could be crammed inside.

Humans were apparently frail beings who were afflicted by loneliness when standing alone in a massive artificial space, but she was a being known as a great demon.

She felt nothing amiss as she walked toward the center.

Other than the wrongness of her own existence.

“Sitra Achra, hm?”

Coronzon rolled that term around on her tongue.

And smiled cynically.

Sitra Achra could be described as the substance that caused evil. The current world, from the tiny humans to the vast world itself, could supposedly be fully described using the diagram called the Sephiroth, but there were some impurities which did not fit into the grand Sephiroth. Those impurities were Sitra Achra. They were ruins – shards – of the old world which was destroyed to create the current one. They were the substance that caused evil. They had no place in the current world, had no role, and should not have remained, so their very existence obstructed the system of the current age. Like pebbles caught in the gears.

The world god had created was perfect.

Things only went awry because of the extraneous impurities mixed in.

(Sounds like me.)

Shadow covered her face as she silently expressed this only silently.

Even though self-deprecation could not turn evil into good.

She had always questioned it.

Why hadn’t she become an angel of love? Or an angel of righteousness?

If she had been…

If she had been given that role…

…She would have poured herself into that work more diligently than anyone else.

If god had known from the beginning that Coronzon would rebel against heaven and turn evil and had let her go ahead and do it because it was part of some kind of plan of his, then she would ''overdo'' the role god had given her and ruin that plan.

God was an absolute being, but he did not save all lives.

Everyone accepted that even their misfortunes would be given meaning and purpose if they obeyed god.

But the very existence of that system meant he had known from the beginning there would be victims. He had known and let it happen. For some grand plan of his.

Coronzon’s role was to tear people apart. Why should she obey someone who had abandoned her?

So she had decided to use everything given to her and ''overdo'' it. That way she could obliterate that heartless plan without betraying her purpose.

She would dedicate herself to her evil identi-

…?

At that point, she tilted her head.

No, wait. She had noticed it this time.

Her memories skipped a few seconds.

“Dammit, not again…Aleister!!”

She held a hand to her head.

She had finally managed to prepare this place for her ceremony, but she would have to leave if word reached Kamijou’s group.

Coronzon started to panic…but then it hit her.

A few seconds.

She stood in the very center of an enormous stadium. She had no computer or smartphone to contact anyone and there were no old-fashioned payphones in sight. So even if Aleister had hijacked her body, he couldn’t have done anything in that time. She could ignore the outrage if it only lasted a few seconds.

On the other hand…

(It’s good I noticed it this time, but was the gap itself longer than before?)

She had a bad feeling about this.

Was Aleister starting to get the hang of it? That concern crept up in the back of her mind. Losing consciousness for even a second in the middle of a battle with her pursuers could be fatal. And even if that didn’t happen, Aleister could attempt suicide if he took control for long enough.

He would do it.

Especially now that he viewed her as his enemy and had killing her as his primary objective.

Directly comparing their specs wasn’t enough to rest easy. Aleister had won the Battle of Blythe Road after all.

Coronzon consciously took a deep breath.

(I need to shift my focus.)

Not only were there other stadiums, but magic materials could be found anywhere. After all, Aleister Crowley had built this city during the confusion of the postwar recovery. It was an alternate form for the Abbey of Thelema. It had been deftly hidden by repainting it all in the terms of science, but it would be hard to find places and objects here without magical symbolism.

Coronzon only had to collect the items that were already present.

She wouldn’t have any difficulty as long she knew the proper way to combine them.

She could begin the ceremony at any time.

The only problem was how long it would take.

…No matter how much she tried to shorten that time, she couldn’t reduce it to zero. And she would be entirely defenseless in that time. She was the Coronzon who had destroyed legendary magicians like Mathers and Aleister, but during that time she could be killed even by an ordinary human.

“…”

Coronzon shut her eyes, held her breath, and searched for any sounds around her.

She was focused on the area outside the stadium.

(My greatest enemy is the time limit. Because I’m sure they’re searching for me with everyone they have. Weak as they are, hiding from them is a pain when there are so many of them. For once I need to look out for weaklings because this crucial ceremony will be ruined if they interfere in the middle of it.)

===Part 10===

When they checked the map based on Index’s advice, the answer was obvious.

Kamijou pointed at a spot on the large map.

“The General Athletics Stadium. …It’s gotta be this, right? It’s a track stadium and there’s a huge underground waterway running below it!”

“If Coronzon is using Zeus symbolism for a ceremony to send her through a ley line, then it must be there.”

The white girl sounded confident.

It wasn’t like they had any other leads to go on, so Kamijou had to trust in this one.

“Fool.”

Someone else called out to him.

Anna Sprengel.

“I double-checked it all just to be safe, and everything the grimoire library said checks out. Her calculations are correct, so Coronzon should be at the General Athletics Stadium. The only question left is if we arrive in time.”

The Amakusas were magicians who blended into modern society, so they all knew how to drive. …Kamijou preferred not to think about where they had procured so many vehicles in Academy City, but it would be best to make use of them now.

And just as he was thinking that, his eyes met another pair of eyes.

But these definitely weren’t human.

They were compound eyes.

A carnivorous dragonfly more than three meters long was gliding at eye level.

It was made of blonde hair.

“Coronzon’s…scouts!?”

“Stupid bug jamboree!!”

He heard an odd voice just before a blonde young woman drop-kicked the giant dragonfly from the side, sending it flying. She was the Transcendent Bologna Succubus.

“Just when I thought I’d caught up on foot, this is what I find? When do I get a breather!?”

“Pant, gasp… M-my coat…is so heavy with…the steel armor and the terrariums…I’m dyiiiiiing…”

Even as she complained, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet deflected the scouts’ attacks with her thick coat. …Wait, did she just protect the Bologna Succubus?

However, squashing a single dragonfly wasn’t enough to turn the tide.

There were butterflies, hornets, stag beetles, flies, and more.

Kanzaki raised her voice.

“If she’s sending these out, it must mean we’re getting close!”

It didn’t feel like Coronzon was trying to lay low and hide anymore. Did she want to buy time even if it made her more conspicuous?

She really was here.

In District 20. Index, Anna Sprengel, and the others had been right.

…The question was whether or not these scouts were passing information back to Coronzon. Either way, it would be best not to waste time here.

“We need to strike before she can get away!!” shouted Kamijou.

===Part 11===

The scouts sent out by Great Demon Coronzon included three meter dragonflies and hornets.

Kamijou immediately clenched his right fist, but nothing would be more annoying than having a group of 20 or 30 drop from the sky all at once. Kihara Noukan turned his way and shouted.

“Be careful. If they grab onto you and carry you up high, you will be playing a deadly version of the crane game!”

He couldn’t let the flying scouts use the powerful weapon that was height.

Plus, the stag beetle ones wouldn’t even need lift him up. They could crush or slice his body right here on the ground.

“Get inside, it doesn’t matter where!!”

On Kanzaki’s instructions, Kamijou and Mikoto practically tackled open the door to a nearby building.

They ran further inside. When they reached a more open space, they found something odd there.

A frozen pool?

No, was it a skating rink?

Kamijou wasn’t familiar with them and had imagined them as something like a massive cold storage warehouse, but was this skating rink actually warmer than outside?

“They’re coming. Those weird bugs are coming!!”

“Wait, Misaka! Don’t use your Railgun down a straight corridor! Are you trying to hit our friends!?”

Lucia, Angelene, and more of the Former Agnese Force jumped on the giant flies as a group. That still wasn’t enough offensive power, but it slowed the scouts enough for Blodeuwedd the Bouquet and Anna Sprengel to finish them off with stronger attacks.

The scouts were powerful. They were, but they weren’t Great Demon Coronzon herself. The scouts made of her blonde hair were not unbeatable!

“In that case…”

“Hm? Lad, don’t let your guard down!!”

A supposedly defeated scout stirred.

No, a large quantity of something burst from the giant stag beetle’s body. Flat ovals about fifty centimeters long poured out like a slot machine jackpot. There were more than a hundred of them and they were all wriggling. And squirming.

There were more scouts…inside the scouts?

And a ton of them!!

“Ahhhhhhh!?”

Kamijou backed away, more creeped out than afraid of the threat they posed. The small scouts leaped at the boy one after another.

Itsuwa sharply jabbed her spear out to guard him, but she grimaced.

“They’re hard. Are they based on parasitic shellfish!?”

“You mean the more enemies we defeat, the more of them there will be? Hard to think of a better way to buy time!” shouted Othinus.

Kamijou’s group would be overwhelmed by the enemy army.

Sounds like collapsing piles of sand came from all around.

“Wow!”

Alice Anotherbible was the only one capable of smiling as they swarmed around her. A normal human would be bitten into tiny pieces if they tried that!!

They would be killed if they didn’t defeat the attacking scouts, but defeating the scouts only allowed them to multiply.

It was a vicious cycle.

…And Kamijou had only thought of these things as scouts made of blonde hair. But he felt pity for them now that he saw them forced to fight, writhing in pain as they burst from within, and releasing a flood of other monsters.

“Fool, now isn’t the time. If you stop, we will be killed!”

Great Demon Coronzon.

Even if she was fighting for her life, she shouldn’t force her own side to do this.

A dull crash broke through Kamijou’s thoughts.

It came from directly in front of him. The skating rink’s wall broke through and a giant rotary snowplow emerged from the side. The row of scouts in its path were crushed and sliced up by the rotating blades.

The fluffy blonde Amakusa was operating it.

Kamijou had seen her a few times before. Wasn’t her name Tsushima?

“Hop on!! Coronzon is our top priority, so we can’t waste our time with these things!!”

There was no reason to stick around here. The giant rotating blades on the front and the snow expulsion device sticking out the side like an elephant’s trunk looked dangerous, but Kamijou grabbed onto something like a short ladder on the side. Only after the heavy snowplow begin to move did he notice something.

“W-where’s Index!? And Misaka too!”

“I’m not the only Amakusa. And everyone will soon think to use snowmobiles and other vehicles capable of driving on this red snow. We all have the same destination, so we’ll meet back up with them if we head to the track stadium!!”

A few others managed to jump onto the snowplow. He saw Kanzaki and Itsuwa among them.

A three meter dragonfly was still stubbornly pursuing them, but it was shot down by a beam of light. Neither Kanzaki nor Itsuwa had done that. Apparently another vehicle was following them.

Eventually, no more hornets and stag beetles could be seen.

Kamijou sighed and leaned against the rotary snowplow that rattled along on its continuous tracks.

“Well…it certainly is a good thing that Tsushima was there to help us, human,” said the 15cm god.

“Yeah, it really was. Life is so much easier when you have a capable young woman around. Thanks.”

“…Ohh?” “…Ohh?”

“(Wait, did I just step on some deadly landmine here. And to make matters worse, two of them at once?)”

A secret light shined sharply from Kanzaki Kaori and Itsuwa’s eyes and Tsushima wept in the driver’s seat.

===Part 12===

It was late at night. 1 AM had come and gone.

When you imagined a late night hospital, did you think of a horror story? Or something more risque? After many long years working here, the frog-faced doctor knew neither option was likely. When you worked there day in and day out, even a special location became no more than a routine. The fear faded and any weird expectations vanished.

Of course, he wouldn’t normally be working on this shift, but today was a special day. He hadn’t gotten any rest during the day either.

A young medical intern gave him a worried look.

“You need to get some sleep, doctor. You’re no good to us here if you pass out.”

“If I could get some free time…yes, there is something I should do, so can you cover things here?”

“Doctor!” the intern called after him, but this was his nature. He wanted to save every patient he could.

If Kamijou Touma was already dead, then there was nothing to be done.

But what if the boy was still alive?

Then he was the frog-faced doctor’s patient.

If a patient had received improper treatment, it was a doctor’s duty to save them.

(What a pain. Where do I even start with determining if a supposedly dead person is alive or dead? The guidelines for brain death would probably be best. Or mayb-)

He left the hospital.

And some strange thing attacked him only three steps out the door.

“Eh?”

If he had to describe it, he would have called it a golden crab standing more than three meters tall.

Even after seeing the pincer raised high, the frog-faced doctor only managed to get out a confused sound.

He did not properly understand the danger.

Yes.

He had no way of knowing since he knew nothing of magic, but his hospital was in District 7. That was the area where Coronzon had scattered so many of her scouts made of blonde hair.

And Coronzon had been so focused on escaping she hadn’t actually ordered them to stop.

Which meant they were still acting on orders to protect the ceremonial ground for Adikalika – the former site of the Windowless Building.

A pleasant slashing sound raced out.

The frog-faced doctor did not shed a single drop of blood.

It was sliced vertically.

The blonde hair scout’s bisected halves scattered to either side.

His eyes widened in confusion as a dark, lithe figure whispered to him.

“It is a pleasure to see you again, doctor.”

===Part 13===

In the District 20 skating rink, Misaka Mikoto had definitely seen that pointy-haired boy on the side of a large rotary snowplow.

And it had happened as the vehicle drove right past her.

She had been left behind.

“I want to shoot that idiot so bad.”

She flicked up arcade coins and launched a few Railguns at the monsters as she retreated from the skating rink proper into a narrow corridor.

The more she defeated, the more of them there were, which couldn’t have been much more annoying.

And the initial dragonflies and stag beetles were powerful enough already, so she would be killed if she didn’t fight back. There was no room for holding back.

(Are the others retreating somewhere too? There isn’t time to ask where we’ll meet up next, so I’ll just have to magnetically attach myself to one of the vehicles’ roofs.)

And all of a sudden, something occurred to Misaka Mikoto.

“…Wait.”

(If that idiot is alive, then why am I even wearing mourning clothes? Ahhh, how long am I going to keep wearing this cumbersome outfit? Now I feel like I’ve been making a fool of myself!!)

This was a sports facility, so would they have rental sportswear anywhere? Even a track suit or jumpsuit would be fine. She was willing to ignore how it looked if it was at least warm and didn’t restrict her movements!!

But this was a skating rink.

That meant any clothing would be for skating.

Such as a painfully bright lemon yellow figure skating uniform.

“U-um, would you call this a skating dress?”

It wouldn’t restrict her movements since it was designed for sports use. Combined with the bladeless shoes meant for the staff, she would have no trouble moving around. At the very least, she would have a much easier time of it than in this Japanese clothing. But why did it have to have a miniskirt? Or should she think of it more like a swimsuit’s pareo? Either way, it wasn’t something for walking around town in!

“B-but it’s so cold! What choice do I have!?”

She had decided herself she was willing to ignore how it looked.

It would certainly protect her from the biting chill of the January night.

It left less skin exposed than she had expected. Because it covered her with a skin-colored material.

But that was a problem of its own. The thin synthetic fiber was like wearing a full-body stocking. A terrifying thought for someone who tended to get zappy at the drop of a hat!

===Part 14===

Kamijou and the others arrived at a dark shape so large they truly had to look up to see it all.

This was the General Athletics Stadium.

Its size was apparent even from the outside.

Its diameter alone had to be hundreds of meters.

Instead of a dome covering it, it was apparently an outdoor stadium. Still, tall walls surrounded it on all sides. Those would be for the tiered seating, but they were just as tall as a four story building. So the same as a school building. This meant there was no seeing inside from out here.

Several other vehicles joined the rotary snowplow operated by Tsushima.

Index and Misaka Mikoto were among them.

“Thank good- woah! Misaka, what are you wearing!?”

“Don’t look at me!! Don’t look at my new and improved flavor with 20% extra at the same great price!!”

Her retort was as unusual as her outfit.

Was this the higher rarity version that showed more skin, or had she been unable to bear the cold and chose to rely on a figure skating outfit? He wished she would stop tugging down on the miniskirt-like part because that only drew his eye there all the more.

The Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet were both tilting their heads (in friendly synchronization?). …Yeah, they probably wouldn’t get what the big deal was when they had no trouble walking around in the frigid January night in their underwear or a naked apron.

But focusing on this wasn’t going to lead them to Coronzon.

Kamijou was curious about something.

“The tall walls keep us from seeing inside. I hope that also means Coronzon can’t see out.”

“Does it mean that? Wouldn’t a great demon be able to use clairvoyance or remote viewing?”

Tracking expert Takitsubo brought up a difficult topic.

“In modern Western magic, clairvoyance isn’t a means of seeing the contents of a closed envelope. It’s a ceremony used for spiritual meditation.”

Kanzaki provided an explanation, but it was hard to grasp without a solid foundation in the magic side.

She had spread out a large map, probably a privilege she had gained by taking control of the city. That she went to the trouble of printing out a paper copy seemed to show she still wasn’t used to the science side, though.

“It was fortunate we could get our hands on the official blueprints. Our numbers work in our favor. First, we should station personnel at each exit. There are more than 20 official gates for spectators and the real number is even greater due to the unofficial entrances for athletes and staff. With the exits blocked, we can begin exploring inside. Once we know where Coronzon is inside the large stadium and how she has modified it for her ceremony, we can launch our attack.”

“Coronzon should be defenseless while she works,” added Index. “Even if we can’t win a straight fight, we should be able to win right now.”

They could win?

Then why not charge in right this instant?

Kamijou couldn’t believe they would stay out when they knew she was in there.

Othinus must have sensed his impatience because she made a piercing comment from his shoulder.

“Wait, human. If Coronzon detects us and runs off, this will all have been a waste of time.”

“Either way, we should carefully investigate the situation inside and gather what information we can. We can always make our attack after all escape routes we are aware of have been covered.”

Kamijou was a little surprise to find Anna Sprengel advocating the cautious option.

Had that wicked woman learned how frightening it was to have everything fall apart at the last second?

“But can we really wait around that long? There’s that ley line thing, right? That direct route running underground that only the great demon can use. We can have her surrounded as much as we want – it won’t matter if she just teleports out of here!”

“Failure puts the entire human race at risk. Great Demon Coronzon will be able to do more than just this.”

Was that why she didn’t want anyone spying on her from the sky?

After giving a skeptical look at the Bologna Succubus (or her clothing more likely), Kanzaki nodded in agreement.

“We mustn’t forget that she will have escaped if she physically crosses the city wall.”

“But we don’t know the time limit!!”

“It won’t be in the next 5 or 10 minutes at least. That gives us time to take it slow, human.”

===Part 15===

“Hm.”

Great Demon Coronzon put a hand on her hip and observed her surroundings.

She stood at the very center of the enormous stadium.

“That completes the ceremonial ground. And the attribute extracted from the stadium as a whole gives me what I need. Direction, time, number…and the actual spiritual item in my hands: the tattva cards.”

She held a few colorful cards.

However, these cards were not historical antiques.

They were only symbols meant to help one enter the special mental state of meditation, so as long as the colors and symbols were correct, the material was immaterial. They were in fact made by coloring cardstock with thick permanent markers she had acquired after breaking the metal shutter covering a stadium shop. (There was probably a demand for materials that spectators could use to make placards or to draw their team’s logo on their face.)

Perhaps the stadium functioned like a giant magical circle with the cards acting as a control medium like a mouse or keyboard.

Coronzon had a physical body, but her true essence was a collection of Telesma energy. Unlike the pure angels, she was a mixture of different elements, which could be a pain, but by breaking them apart, she too could be handled as pure energy.

That meant she could inject herself into a weapon or armor or she could be carried around inside a thin talisman.

Or she could send herself through the ley lines to instantly travel to the other side of the planet.

“Now, time to begin,” she whispered.

===Part 16===

Kamijou was anxious.

Great Demon Coronzon was inside there, but the great size of the stadium worked against them. With more than 20 public gates, entering the wrong way would give Coronzon a chance to escape out a different one.

They needed to know her exact location before heading in.

…He understood the Anglicans’ point, but that didn’t mean he liked it. No matter how well they prepared themselves, Coronzon would disappear if they didn’t arrive in time. Then the world’s doom would begin on the other side of the planet. Coronzon would be able to choose any location she liked, so she could ensure the optimal conditions for herself. The next time would be far worse. Everything might truly be destroyed.

Next to him, Index spoke up. Addressing Kanzaki.

“Are you going to run a search from the outside? Isn’t that dangerous too?”

“It is. She could detect the magic power of a normal through-walls scan. However, we Amakusas have specialized in hiding our faith to avoid persecution, so we know a few tricks we can use.”

Kamijou and Mikoto had no clue what the Amakusas were working on with such determined looks on their faces. At this point, Index and her 103,001 memorized grimoires was the only person they could rely on.

She got it right on the first guess.

“The Maria Kannon?”

“This isn’t how they were originally used, but they were designed to look like an ordinary Buddhist figure while revealing its true face as the Virgin Mary to anyone who knew what to look for. By intentionally taking a broad interpretation of that concept, it can be remade into a camouflage-breaking searching spell to locate that which is hidden.”

===Part 17===

In the very center of the spacious stadium, Great Demon Coronzon sat quietly, regulated her breathing, and placed her index finger against one of the toxically colorful cards lined up on the ground.

Something felt off.

A sensation like a finger pressed between her eyes caused a tingling in the center of her head. Even though she was the one reaching out her finger. No, it was meaningless to think of it in that way.

The two were linked.

To touch it was to be touched.

The line between the self and the other – between the inner world and the outer world – was blurring.

The core of her body distorted. She was uncertain where she was even sitting.

“Kh.”

Her head wobbled. A vertiginous fluctuation interrupted her thoughts.

This was an Eastern mystical philosophy from ancient India.

She knew it wasn’t a good fit for her. A pure and proper angel never could have done it. But she was an impure and wicked being known as a great demon. And the Crowley system said every from of the mystical could be incorporated into your own spells if you reinterpreted it with your own logic. The wise would not give up just because they reached an impasse. They would use the discovery of that impasse to further elevate themselves.

She took deep breaths.

She consciously guided her thoughts toward stability.

She needn’t think of purifying herself.

There didn’t have to be just one answer.

The tattva cards did not work with pure elements in the first place.

Mathers had warned that meditation using those painfully colorful cards could cause intense anxiety or headaches for a mere human if used incorrectly. So how much worse would the damage from failure be for Coronzon as she tried to return herself to a state of pure energy?

She did not approach the true essence of this Eastern mystical philosophy.

The tattva cards were no more than tools used for control. That would have been how the Golden cabal used them too. They were valuable when it came to understanding the five elements, but there would be discrepancies between the cabal’s manual and the actual Eastern philosophy.

(The work has just passed 50%. That would explain why this inner fear and anxiety is taking on such concrete form.)

Coronzon did not move her eyes.

She had to focus her whole mind on ascending straight up.

Thus, any trivial distractions and detours could end up tearing her ego apart.

So she always stared straight ahead, using only the corner of her vision to watch how her own shadow wavered and thinned.

It was progressing well.

Once her shadow fully vanished, she would have also ''physically'' disappeared from Academy City.

The destruction of the world was within reach.

===Part 18===

“How is that search spell going!?” shouted Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.

“I-it just passed 70%!” nervously reported Itsuwa.

70%.

That was more than halfway done, but Kamijou and the others didn’t know Coronzon’s status. If she was even a single percentage point ahead of them, they wouldn’t finish in time. It was possible the Anglicans would fully surround the stadium and rush in only to find Coronzon had already vanished.

Othinus sighed from Kamijou’s shoulder.

“There’s no need to wait until it’s 100% complete. We know Coronzon is in this building. So if we attack the small unsearched spots, we can confirm her location by sight.”

“How much of the stadium do you think those ‘small spots’ cover?” strongly retorted Kanzaki. “The search has covered 70% or maybe 80%. We’re risking our lives going in, so we want a little more assurance than that!!”

“What do you think, Touma?” asked Index.

“Hm? We should go in now! Right now!!”

He had no idea why an outsider like him had been asked for his opinion on a magical matter, but he gave his answer right away.

“Tsujiura,” said Index. “Kushiura and Qiu Xiang Bu also work. Those are Eastern, so the Amakusas should be able to use them too.”

“I see. So the idea that the first thing said by someone ignorant of the topic at hand can be used for divination,” said Kanzaki, sounding impressed.

In this case, Kamijou’s ignorance of magic gave his words meaning.

…He felt like this was declaring him useless in this fight, which seemed kind of insulting, but if the experts would listen to what he had to say, he didn’t care why.

Whatever the case, Kamijou’s words set them all into motion.

“Kanzaki will join one of the Amakusa teams, I guess. Okay, Alice!! You go lend Agnese’s group a hand!”

“Hm? The girl would prefer to stay with you, teacher.”

“Please! And Anna, you go with that team including Itsuwa and Tsushima!”

“Fool. I will step on you later.”

They complained, but they still split up.

Even Takitsubo and Kihara Noukan did as he said. They had to know even less about magic than him, but they were still risking their lives to stop this unknown threat.

After all, there were more than twenty public gates. The Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force would be blocking all of those exits, but they were dealing with ''the'' Coronzon here. Ordinary magicians weren’t enough. Each team needed an irregular member such as a Saint like Kanzaki Kaori, a Transcendent like the Bologna Succubus or Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, or even a special Transcendent like Anna Sprengel or Alice Anotherbible.

Kamijou didn’t see this as splitting up their forces.

Once they entered the stadium, they would converge on Coronzon’s location. He didn’t want anyone dying in the “blank time” until they broke down the right door and found Coronzon. He was sick of Coronzon being able to choose one of them at random for a one-hit kill lottery. Even if one team was unfortunate enough to run across Coronzon on their way in, they didn’t have to defeat her. Kamijou wanted to give each team someone who could let them survive until the other teams arrived.

Mikoto, who always felt left behind when it came to magical matters, suddenly panicked.

“W-wait, what about me!?”

“You’re with me, of course!! C’mon!!”

“Eh? O-oh…okay.”

Kamijou and Mikoto would enter through the closest gate: Gate 15. Neither knew much about magic, but he figured Othinus’s presence would make up for that. Index’s knowledge was the most important of all, so he couldn’t keep it to himself.

Gate 15 was shut with a metal grate shutter and a glass door, but Mikoto only had to inhale and exhale before it all opened for them. And not just Gate 15. All of the shutters and locks opened at once.

Without waiting for the shutter to fully rise, they ducked below it.

They entered a dark corridor.

And ran.

“Hey, human. Don’t get one-shotted here. Even if Coronzon is busy, she could have sent out those scouts.”

Othinus warned him from his shoulder, but Kamijou didn’t have time to respond. If they were even a second too late, it was all over.

His heart pounded in his ears. He felt like he was going to die on his own without Coronzon having to lift a finger. But he gritted his teeth and kept running.

He wouldn’t let her try again at destroying the world.

He would end this tonight.

===Part 19===

(75%.)

Great Demon Coronzon’s voice no longer vibrated the air.

From her perspective, it was less like her body was unraveling and more like the world around her was changing. Or maybe like she was crossing the boundary between phases. Her coordinates remained the same, but the scene around her changed as if flipping over a page.

Perhaps there was no real difference between the two.

The Golden cabal never managed to send their body across. Thus, their experts had tried to separate just their minds in an act known as astral projection to virtually achieve a leap between phases. They had worked hard to peek into another world like heaven or hell. …And as a result, quite a few magicians had failed to cling to their sanity.

Coronzon’s nearly transparent fingertip passed right through the tattva card.

She was more than halfway on the other side now.

The great demon grinned.

(No more physical control is needed at this point. Now I only have to wait for the process to complete!!)

===Part 20===

Kamijou and Mikoto ran down a long, long corridor.

They couldn’t afford to hide their footsteps now.

Coronzon was so close.

“We’re going to come out into the stands, right? How far is it to the actual sports field!?”

“The actual distance isn’t that far, but the stands aren’t flat. Don’t trip and fall in the darkness, okay?”

Mikoto gave him a surprisingly sincere answer.

There hadn’t been any bright beams of light or explosions yet.

What were Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others doing?

They would have entered through all the entrances at once, but apparently none of the teams had run into Coronzon. They didn’t know where she was hiding to complete her ceremony, but she hadn’t noticed their presence yet. That made this their best chance.

If they failed, it was all over.

(We might not win in a straight fight, but what if she’s immobilized by the important ceremony? This time will be different. This is our only chance to settle things with her!!)

The end of the corridor came into view.

Like a rectangular hole cut out of the darkness.

Kamijou gritted his teeth, clenched his fist, and ran with all his might.

He emerged into a silent space. The flow of time ground to a halt.

No one was there.

The place was deserted.

“What’s…going on?” muttered Kamijou, stopped partway down the stands.

He could hear more people emerging from different directions. But that was all. Even from here, he could see Agnese, the Bologna Succubus, and others looking around in confusion on the other side of the stadium. The great demon wasn’t shining bright as she completed some kind of ceremony and Coronzon didn’t begin a fierce battle in an attempt to escape.

Great Demon Coronzon wasn’t here.

It didn’t feel like she had fled in a panic either. There was no warmth in the vast space. It had likely been empty this entire time. Coronzon had never been here. They had chosen the wrong location.

Had their calculations been off?

No, they hadn’t been relying on Index alone. It had been a group effort with help from Anna Sprengel, Kanzaki Kaori, and more from the magic side. And they had been certain Coronzon would use this stadium if she was using Zeus symbolism. So how could they have been wrong!?

“Touma.”

A girl from another group joined him.

Index’s usual childlike air was broken by the trembling voice she forced out.

She seemed hesitant to speak.

“Is this district used for any other special purpose? Other than sports!”

“Huh? Yes. It is a district of stadiums and domes meant to hold tens of thousands of people. I think Aogami Pierce mentioned it being the holy land for idol concerts.”

A quiet thud reached his ears.

Index was unable to support her wobbling body and fell back into one of the seats. The cat mewed in complaint from her arms.

“Then Coronzon wasn’t using sports as the symbol for a sanctuary or temple.”

Her lips quivered.

“Songstresses, plays…she was using the performing arts. Which means it isn’t Zeus! And if she is using a different symbol and a different god, she would be in an entirely different location!!”

===Part 21===

Maximum occupancy: 255 thousand.

Coronzon snorted with laughter when she recalled that extreme number.

…A soccer stadium or baseball stadium could never reach that number even with every seat filled. That display was meant for a concert or live performance where even the field itself was filled with seats.

Coronzon was somewhere like that.

(This district is filled with stadiums and domes. To put it another way, most of them are not the designated home field of a pro team whose games you can watch on a sports app. And “just a stadium” isn’t going to be used just for sports. …District 20’s stadiums probably make most of their income this way. I saw through that right away. And a facility primarily used for concerts is not a Zeus-associated track stadium. To be blunt, this is a large facility built for shows, not for sports.)

She didn’t want Apollo, god of music.

She wanted Dionysus, god of theater.

In ancient Greece, sporting events had been held in sanctuaries as a ceremonial offering to a god, but plays and songs had been made as offering in those same sanctuaries. Thus, holding a concert or live performance in a stadium that could contain a large audience was not a new idea.

Greek theater was the origin of modern stage plays. And the original form of that had been a festival held as an offering to Dionysus, god of alcohol and insanity.

That meant his symbols could be extracted from a large stadium like this.

(The work is past 90%. And yet no pursuit has arrived yet. What’s the matter, humanity? If you let me escape this easily, you will be extinct by tomorrow!!)

===Part 22===

So not sports but music. No, theater.

Not a stadium for sporting events but for concerts and live performances.

When they corrected the initial assumption and had Index recalculate, they were given a single candidate.

“The Brilliant Outdoor Performance Stadium. It points north and, if the adjacent park is viewed as a mountain forest, you could extract the symbols of Dionysus. This time I’m sure of it! A god of insanity would be perfect for controlling her power as a chaotic great demon!”

Now that they had a new answer, they couldn’t just sit around.

Their initial wrong answer would have given Coronzon that much more time for the ceremony to break her body down into energy. As soon as she finished that, she would dive into a ley line and escape to the other side of the planet. There wasn’t a moment to lose.

Kamijou and the others hitched a ride on the rotary snowplow driven by Tsushima of the Amakusas to reach the new destination.

It was in the same district.

Driving there, it wouldn’t take long. The giant stadium capable of holding 255 thousand came into view.

“Is that it? Please still be in the city, Coronzon. Dammit.”

As soon as Kamijou jumped down from the snowplow onto the red snow, he staggered to the side.

He regathered his strength, somehow managing to keep himself steady, but he bumped into something next to him.

But not because he had nearly fallen.

“Ugh…”

He heard a small groan.

From Takitsubo Rikou.

She must have arrived on a different vehicle. Kamijou instinctually caught the unsteady track suit girl…and found her body temperature was higher than he had expected.

Not just warm, but blazing hot.

He was shocked.

“That’s not good… How long have you been hiding this, Takitsubo!?”

“…”

She refused to say a word.

She had been knocked out by some kind of attack from Coronzon during the Adikalika stuff. It was a miracle she was even still alive, yet she had joined the chase instead of calling an ambulance. Anyone would be in a similar state after that.

“You can’t go on. You need to get some rest! You’ve seen the way things are, right!? The Anglicans don’t want to torment Hamazura!!”

“You should listen to your own advice, Touma. Stopping Adikalika was more than enough of a win. You’re hurt, so stay here and look after her,” said an exasperated Index.

Even though it was she who had actually stopped the attack after arriving late. She had a perfect memory, so this wasn’t just a mistake. So was she giving them the credit? When he thought about it, he realized Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others hadn’t actually seen the moment Adikalika was stopped…

Speaking of Kanzaki, she called everyone over.

“If the countdown is close to the end, we can’t spend time on an initial search like before. That will mean a greater risk when we enter. Needless to say…”

“Then do we have time to sit around listening to the headmaster’s speech? I’ll steal a map of the stadium with my powers, so let’s get going!”

Mikoto, Index, Kanzaki, and the rest got moving.

In no time, there wasn’t anyone left.

It was so quiet.

Kamijou sat down and focused on taking deep breaths. He wasn’t as bad as Takitsubo, but he had lost his balance earlier. He had taken a direct hit from Coronzon. He wasn’t a doctor and couldn’t even imagine how much damage had been done inside his body, but he knew better than to be optimistic.

Takitsubo Rikou’s lips moved where she lay right next to him.

He doubted she was conscious, so maybe she was having a nightmare.

“…Hamazura…”

“Kh.”

Kamijou grimaced. In agony.

She had to be badly worried about her friend. If she didn’t do something to help out and earn points with the Anglicans, she would lose all chance of negotiating with them. But she was too injured to move.

If Coronzon did escape, who could say where they would direct their anger. Even if Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others fighting here didn’t, the higher ups watching from across the ocean might demand a live sacrifice from those who were close to Coronzon.

Could that be why Index had used such vague phrasing to give up credit for stopping Adikalika?

But it wasn’t enough. Takitsubo wanted something more to push her claim of having contributed, so Adikalika wasn’t enough and she had come with them even if it meant hiding how bad her injuries were.

And unlike her, Kamijou could still move.

He couldn’t push himself too hard.

But he had to make up his mind.

“Okay. I’ll go.”

“Human? …It figures.”

“I’ll stop Coronzon, so don’t you worry, Takitsubo. Don’t forget: winning is meaningless if you die. Your goal is to be with Hamazura, right? Then you need to rest.”

He forced his heavy body up and began to walk.

No, he was trying to run full speed, but this was the most speed he could manage.

Even so, Imagine Breaker would have to be of some use.

Coronzon’s magic was extraordinarily powerful.

Maybe he couldn’t fight her himself, but he could at least help out someone who could. If he could shield them from even a single attack, it might be enough to decide the battle.

He would overturn the game as a wild card.

===Part 23===

Great Demon Coronzon only had to wait. And the time finally arrived.

It was already over.

99%.

Even if someone barged in now, she could break her body down into Telesma and escape Academy City through the ley line before they could do anything.

Her victory was assured. Those humans were too late to prevent their doom. The silly fools should have resisted more.

But then…

“You think so? Then allow me to cause a bit of trouble.”

Her vision shattered.

Black, red, silver, blue, yellow… It all collapsed into a wild dance of colors.

No.

Crossing between phases and breaking herself down may have been the same thing. She had thought so herself.

Which meant it was she who was collapsing.

She could no longer support her sitting position and fell to the side. Something was wrong with her limbs. She couldn’t remember how to breathe. Nevertheless, she managed to gather all her strength and scream.

“A…lei…sterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!?”

“Now, now, Coronzon. You should know better than to mess with anything as dangerous as the tattva cards which even the Golden cabal had to issue a recall for. Don’t you remember what Mathers said? They can cause intense anxiety or headaches if used incorrectly. Why would you visit the mental world after going to the trouble of physically sealing me away? Are you trying to kill yourself? ''In here'', I can still wield some power.”

(Emergency…shutoff!!)

A dull “snap!” came from the center of her head.

“Khah!!”

She tried to let out the breath caught in her throat, but what came out was colored red.

For a while, she lay on her side convulsing until she forcibly suppressed the writhing of every last one of her internal organs. Yes, it was urgent that she accurately recalled the shape of her body. She had already begun to enter the ley line when the magic failed. She had to return to her original body in a hurry, but if she forgot that body’s shape now, she could be entirely annihilated.

It took her a full ten seconds.

Once she calmed her wild breathing and recalled the cycle for inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, she had reclaimed her physical body.

The tattva cards could cause mental confusion if used incorrectly.

For her, did that mean releasing the sealed Aleister? In other words…

“Dammit!!!”

This meant a change of plans.

She couldn’t use this method anymore.

And if she was going to cross Academy City’s wall for a physical escape…she had no reason to remain in this stadium. She had to leave as soon as possible.

===Part 24===

Kamijou forced his unsteady body to keep moving and pushed open a small metal door with his shoulder.

He slipped through the half-open door, probably a staff entrance, and entered the stadium.

He found a dark, cold, heavy space.

Big too.

…He had apparently entered something like a parking garage. Was it a space for workers located below the stadium? He didn’t know enough to have a good mental picture of how stadiums were structured.

He did have his phone with him, but he didn’t know what was happening inside. The pursuers had to be careful too, so he wanted to avoid causing someone’s phone to ring while they were trying to hide.

“Index? Misaka?” he called quietly.

He didn’t know how the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force were searching the stadium. Because they weren’t sharing information with him.

He heard some light footsteps through the darkness. They echoed off the gray walls and were moving away from him.

He immediately ran full speed in that direction.

He could tell just from listening whose they were.

“(Human, you noticed how odd that was, I trust?)”

(We all know how powerful Coronzon is, so everyone will be searching as part of a team. So no one should be leaving on their own like that!)

“Coronzon!! Is that you!?”

“You really shouldn’t have announced your presence. Unless you have the supernatural power to kill with words alone.”

The footsteps stopped.

A voice spoke from behind one of the thick concrete pillars lining the space.

A hateful voice.

“I’m relieved. Because of you I can easily kill and complete my escape. Now, Kamijou Touma, how do you intend to stop me? Don’t try to tell me that foolish shout was all part of a plan and you have a more troublesome opponent hiding nearby.”

15cm Othinus could not directly fight, so he was effectively alone.

Coronzon had seen right through him.

What about the phone in his pocket? No. He might not have a signal, but more than that, using the touchscreen in the dark parking garage would give him away with the backlight. Coronzon would act before he could call for help.

“You chose this stadium because it was your best bet, right? You can’t use magic to escape through the ley lines now. So give up, Coronzon.”

“Why should I? Great demons are perfectly capable of driving cars. And it goes without saying that ordinary cars can slip right past a scan for magic power.”

Kamijou’s eyes widened.

That was her plan immediately after trying to escape using Telesma and a ley line? She switched gears way too fast.

“How many trump cards do you have!?”

“More than a mere human could ever imagine, that’s for sure.”

If she escaped in a car, he couldn’t keep up on foot. His phone was an iffy option too. So was there nothing he could do? If he shouted at the top of his lungs, the others would surely gather here. He wouldn’t let her escape.

The voice alone continued from behind the pillar.

“How about this, Kamijou Touma? What if you keep quiet and let me go?”

“Why even ask that? It’s meaningless. If you escape tonight, you’ll work to destroy all of humanity by tomorrow, right? Then nothing you could offer me would be worth it!!”

“Oh, you will let me go. Because I happened to pick up a trump card on my way here.”

Someone emerged from behind the concrete pillar. Slowly.

Blonde hair.

A woman.

But that hair was fluffy and only fell to the shoulder blades.

This wasn’t Great Demon Coronzon.

He had only heard a single set of footsteps, so had she been captured behind the pillar?

What was being held against her from outside Kamijou’s view? The feminine lines of her body were trembling and her expression was like a cross between tears and a smile.

He recognized her as one of the Amakusas.

“Tsushima.”

It wasn’t even a case of “move and she’s dead”.

All of a sudden, the red splattered out.

From the side of her neck. Kamijou was an ordinary high school boy without much forensic medical knowledge, but the location the blood was spraying from sent a chill down his spine. She seemed to have been cut by an invisible blade.

A laughing woman stuck her head out from behind the pillar.

Great Demon Coronzon really was a demon.

“Kee hee ha ha!! Protecting human lives is no easy task, is it? Or are you willing to take another tour of hell for her!?”

Coronzon kicked Tsushima’s doll-like body from behind, shoving her toward him.

He had no choice but to catch her. Only a few seconds had passed, but she felt limp and heavy in his arms. She clung heavily to him like a down blanket soaked with water. He pressed his palm firmly against the wound in her neck. How much blood loss was lethal for a human? If he didn’t stop the blood spurting from the side of her neck, she really would die.

At that moment, Kamijou’s vision suddenly went dark.

But not because Coronzon had done anything. It took him a while to even realize that. He had long since pushed his body past the limit.

He shouldn’t have been up and about at all.

“Human!!”

“Kah…ah…?”

He felt horribly faint.

He collapsed and couldn’t get back up. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t move his arms and legs very much. He wasn’t even sure which way was up.

“Kh.”

He held Tsushima tight in his arms. He gritted his teeth and tried to take in as much information on the physical reality around him. Sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch… it didn’t matter what. He was afraid he would pass out otherwise.

“Ha ha ha!! You said it was meaningless, didn’t you? You couldn’t have been more right! Why bother saving a life or two now when I will be destroying the entire world soon!”

No, it wasn’t working.

Even after all this…he couldn’t stop his mind from slipping away into darkness.

He had to avoid removing his hand from that neck wound.

He heard the sound of metal breaking.

Then the sound of an engine starting and the sound of Coronzon driving a car away.

“Wait…Coronzon…”

The darkness took over.

Kamijou Touma’s consciousness fully faded.

“Waiiiiit!!!”

===Part 25===

“Can you hear me?”

Near the center of the open stadium, Agnese heard a young male voice.

Hearing a voice when no one was there was nothing unusual. She was commanding more than 250 people, so she was using communication magic.

But this was odd.

The Former Agnese Force was all female.

“This…Mich………k… I have an urgent message. Can anyone hear me?”

She was using a Roman Catholic communication spiritual item derived from the Barbara Branch. It was made from a cherry tree twig with a few buds attached and it wasn’t all that unusual. …Even if it did seem wrong for nuns to be carrying around tools for love fortunetelling.

The hard buds unnaturally opened below the frigid sky and the flower petals vibrated.

They produced a human voice.

(You’re kidding. Is someone hijacking the channel!?)

“Is anyone at all in Academy City receiving this!? There is something I must tell you immediately!”

“?”

Itsuwa gave Agnese a puzzled look from nearby. …Apparently she couldn’t hear this. That meant it was targeted only at the Roman Catholics of the Former Agnese Force.

Agnese Sanctis frowned.

“This is Agnese Sanctis. Who are you?”

“Thank god… I got through! This is Michael Speak, a cardinal officially appointed by the pope!!”

She was at a loss for words.

…Those were the around a hundred ultra elites chosen out of the two billion Roman Catholics to directly advise the pope. Ordinarily, she would never even directly speak to one.

But his voice didn’t fit the part. He sounded like a stressed young man. He didn’t sound even thirty.

Perhaps his modesty was what had earned him so much popularity.

(Another Michael. And with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.)

“What does a great cardinal want with lowly peon like me?”

“Tell only the Roman Catholics to get out of there immediately. You need to leave Academy City as soon as possible. Your team will obey you if you tell them!”

“?”

She had expected a protest or sarcasm in response, so this came as a complete surprise.

This was advance warning of an attack.

She didn’t know what the Vatican was preparing to do, but she had to assume it was a fairly dangerous large-scale spell. Something even greater than Coronzon’s Adikalika.

“You mean it’s close to being activated?”

“As Roman Catholics, we cannot allow someone as dangerous as Great Demon Coronzon to escape Academy City. If she cannot be defeated on the front line, then the Vatican must reach out a helping hand.”

Reach out a helping hand.

So from their perspective, they were saving lives.

And the same went for Agnese, Lucia, Angelene, and the rest of the Former Agnese Force fighting on the front line.

“There are three activation conditions. First, if you completely lose track of Coronzon and the trail goes cold. Two, at 5:47 AM local time. In other words, at dawn. Third, if we believe a non-Catholic force has learned of our plan and could attempt to stop it. If any one of those conditions is met, the Vatican will activate Saint Georgios’s Fire.”

“Kh.”

The most important condition was the third.

That meant the Vatican didn’t want them sharing this information with anyone else. Even though this would mean the destruction of Academy City. The chance to evacuate was for the Former Agnese Force only.

…Were they being pressured to abandon Academy City and the Anglicans who they had fought and risked their lives alongside?

“We are always watching and listening, Sister Agnese. The physical distance matters little. So do not attempt to contact anyone else through trickery or deception. We will not overlook it.”

(Magical surveillance is a hell of a thing. Although I’m sure it was originally justified as a way for the pure servants of god to punish wicked magicians.)

She didn’t actually know how much she was being observed. The Catholics had been outdone by the other forces so far, so Agnese thought they had to be bluffing to an extent. But this still made it hard to take any bold action.

And she knew what Saint Georgios’s Fire was.

She had heard rumors of it back when she still lived in Italy.

There was a legend about the death of Saint Georgios, or Saint George as he was known in England. When he was being pressured to renounce his faith in a wicked temple, a great ball of fire fell from heaven and blew it all away. So it was a legend of pure attack power.

“That’s a large-scale spell that targets a distant location through the ley lines, isn’t it?”

“Ironically, it uses the same pathway Coronzon is attempting to use to escape. But since we can only use it and not control it, we cannot stop her from using it.”

The Roman Catholic spell was essentially a cluster bomb that detonated two billion explosive flames across the entirety of the targeted city.

And rather than burn everything down with the explosive blasts and flames, it used an extreme high temperature to rapidly alter the atmospheric pressure and oxygen level across the entire area. That meant fortifying oneself behind a shield or wall was meaningless. Because your own body would rupture from within. Afterwards, only a lifeless city would remain.

It was effectively the ideal form of a human killer.

(Now isn’t the time for us humans to be fighting among ourselves!!)

“I thought the pope had learned an important lesson from the trials of World War Three. I can’t believe he would agree to such a forceful solution.”

“His authorization is unnecessary. The cardinals have the right to hold an ecumenical council or election. …And the majority wish to do this. We in the minority have no way to stop them.”

“Doesn’t that seem disrespectful?”

“Abstaining in protest will not change the outcome of the vote. Did I ever say that I like that this is happening!?”

There was real strength behind those last words.

That had to be what he really thought. Which was why it pierced Agnese so deeply.

But even if he was sensible, he couldn’t change what was happening. She could tell that too.

(Well, this is a disaster…)

And there was an issue beyond the number of victims across Academy City.

A more fundamental issue.

“Don’t you know ''a human killer spell won’t affect an inhuman demon''? Sowing further confusion in Academy City will only create more openings in the city perimeter!! You’re playing right into Coronzon’s hand!!”

Apparently Coronzon’s special trait remained in effect.

She tore people apart and obstructed their evolution.

(But I can’t believe it’s gone so far.)

“Sister Agnese!!”

“What do you want, cardinal!? I’m really goddamn busy right now!”

“This is a compromise. As much of one as I could get. The original plan was to immediately activate Saint Georgios’s Fire and I only barely stopped that from happening!”

There was kindness in his words.

But that kindness was unnecessary. Something was fundamentally off about this.

“Don’t tell me this is about wounded pride. Index stopped Adikalika by redirecting it to an unnamed desert island in the Atlantic. The Italian peninsula wasn’t harmed!”

“But Coronzon did launch her large-scale attack spell. And that wasn’t her only trump card. Her power is unfathomable, so she must be destroyed when we have the chance. None of the cardinals can ignore that point. I’m sorry, but that includes me!”

She wasn’t sure what to say.

She understood. Yes, even Agnese was furious. If she hadn’t made a conscious effort to calm herself, she might have left the Anglicans back then.

“Violence is wrong,” he continued. “I understand that. We erred and let God’s Right Seat manipulate us during World War Three. …But this time, ''we are in our rights to retaliate.'' Overturning that idea will not be easy, Sister Agnese.”

(Coronzon. Your mere presence really does make a mess of humanity as a whole!)

The Roman Catholics naturally had a variety of emotions about this.

About Coronzon and about Academy City for failing to stop this crisis earlier.

…Nuclear missiles could destroy the world, so it would take a lot of guts to launch the first one yourself. But what if an enemy launched one at you first? That would lower the mental hurdle for pressing the launch button considerably.

People were easily influenced by the word “retaliation”. And that could burn down the entire world.

“I will do everything I can, but I doubt I can stop this from happening. Sooner or later, Saint Georgios’s Fire will be launched.”

He was one of the sensible ones.

He would truly prefer not to use it.

But that was why nothing he said was a mere threat or bluff.

For the pacifists, nothing was more painful than having to declare that an atrocity would soon be happening.

“So you need to escape that city immediately. It’s a shame what will happen to Academy City and the Anglicans, but it’s too late for them. Gather up all the Roman Catholics and get out of there!!”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter1|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter3}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume14 Chapter2

2025-12-29T19:48:44Z

Massify: /* Part 11 */ the classic ESL mistake where it should've been onto instead of into

==Chapter 2: Divine Slope, Forbidden Book – Magical Exit.==

===Part 1===

In Academy City’s District 7, someone was still fighting on and on, separate from the core of the incident.

That person was Dion Fortune.

“Ahhh, they’ve forgotten me… I just know they’ve all left me behind!! They must have done something about Adikalika since the Earth is still intact, but couldn’t they have launched a group attack to come help me before they left? I am technically the archbishop at the very top of the Anglican Church, you know!?”

A scraping sound came from a short distance away. A giant black cat stood more than two meters tall there. The bizarre beast appeared to be drawn with black paint and it was ridden by a magician in mourning clothes.

Moina Mathers.

She was undeniably a formidable foe. After all, that official member of the Golden cabal, once called the largest in the world, had been fighting for hours now, but the battle still wasn’t over. Even though an average magician who be delighted to be referred to as “first rate” would have been killed instantly.

(This is bad. I know Coronzon is our top priority, but I can’t just leave her out here.)

The enemy said nothing.

Seated atop the black cat that had to be more than two meters tall, Moina Mathers made some complex movements with her fingertips.

Like a magic trick, countless cards appeared and were then pinned in midair.

The cards were not as complex as tarot. They only depicted a combination of basic symbols like circles and triangles.

These cards could express anything in the world using a combination of a primary element and a secondary element.

Dion Fortune’s eyes widened when she saw the dancing colors.

“Geh, are those tattva cards!?”

The mourning clothes woman’s lips writhed.

She produced a voice.

“Apas of Tejas.”

With a roar, a fireball more than a meter in diameter consumed oxygen and rushed toward Dion Fortune.

This had been referenced in the Golden cabal’s official texts, but it was in fact a controversial text that had been officially adopted at one point but then rejected within the cabal. (From the perspective of Western Europe in the 19th century,) India, Tibet, and the East in general were utopias of miracles and the mystical! …But Mathers hated that view, so he took the unusual step of writing a serious warning against the use of the tattvas due to their Eastern origins.

(She’s an artist and a clairvoyance expert. This wife probably did write a lot about the tattvas.)

However, the fireball was approaching slowly enough to see it coming.

Dion Fortune held her black box out in front of her.

If any kind of magic entered that special spiritual item, its data would be randomly rearranged, changing it into something else entirely. That meant it could rob most any attack spell of its lethality, but…

(Would ''the'' Moina Mathers really be satisfied with an explosive that moved this slow? Uh, oh. She intentionally combined multiple elements in this one spell, so even if my box consumes the primary element of Tejas, will the secondary element of Apas still explode?)

“Wahhh!!”

She couldn’t let herself be caught by such obvious bait.

Dion Fortune quickly got down on the red snow to dodge.

The fireball passed by barely above her head before exploding and toppling a wind turbine behind her.

With the tattvas, it was thought the world was constructed of five simple elements, but it was incredibly difficult to extract those elements in their pure form. That was why the elements were used in combination, like Apas of Tejas or Prithivi of Vayu.

(Kind of like a different version of Western-loving Mathers’s Hot and Dry or Cold and Wet!)

Dion Fortune raised her head from the red snow and shouted.

“Argh, you really had to use the tattvas, huh!? Are you intentionally using your husband’s doubts and detours as a weapon!? How much of a cruel wife are you!?”

And…

(If a pawn created by Coronzon can use the tattvas, then Coronzon must know how to use them too.)

She had a bad feeling about this.

The tattva cards depicted a combination of a primary element and a secondary element. They were a spiritual item that provided visual support for sending your mind into a deeper state. Moina was using them in a physical and offensive way, but she was doing that by pushing her own mind to extract the necessary spell from within herself.

That made this a tool specialized for manipulating non-physical energy and for breaking down the world into five elements and managing it in that form.

What was the worst thing an inhuman demon could do using the tattvas?

Dion Fortune thought she knew.

“Oh, no. If she breaks herself down into her component elements and remakes that into pure Telesma energy…could she escape anywhere on the Earth through the ley lines!?”

===Part 2===

They went back into the department store so they get out of the January chill while they thought.

Coronzon was trying to magically escape Academy City using something called a ley line rather than physically crossing the wall.

Kamijou and the others knew that now.

But where in the city would she perform that major ceremony? Now that they had lost track of her, they had to get back on her trail. But how could they do that?

They didn’t even know what district she had escaped to.

“The girl can help!” Alice Anotherbible volunteered. “The girl will divine her location! But, but! She would feel lonely doing it alone, so will someone good with magic help?”

That ruled out Kamijou. Imagine Breaker was never going to help with something like this. And Mikoto visibly cringed at the very idea of relying on divination here, so she was out too.

…But he couldn’t get a read on Takitsubo’s stance. She always had a blank expression and he couldn’t tell if her staring eyes were a sign of agreement or rejection.

The pointy-haired boy tilted his head in the women’s clothing section.

“Eh? You can use Alice in Wonderland for divination?”

“You can use any book, Touma. Haven’t you heard of bibliomancy? You flip through a thick book and place your finger on a random page. Then you apply the passage found there to the problem you’re facing to find an answer.”

Why would he have heard of something like that?

On his shoulder, Othinus continued the conversation like all of this was normal.

“As a piece of nonsense literature, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tends to be associated with mystical matters, including this sort of divination.”

“So, Touma, it should be a good fit here. It’s also well known.”

“That’s not what the girl is doing! We want to know where to go next, right? That means we want a number from 1 to 23, not a literary passage.”

So the district number?

But how would you use Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to search for a number?

“Playing cards, right?” said an exasperated Anna Sprengel.

Her exasperation was not directed at Alice for the suggestion. It was directed at Kamijou for not figuring it out right away. And it was quite strong.

“Fool. Gambling, by its nature, is often associated with divination. Playing cards are no exception. For a familiar example, playing solitaire on your own is practically a form of divination already.”

This was apparently a slightly more complicated version of solitaire.

Alice clapped her hands and spread them apart, causing playing cards to spill out from the space between her palms. They scattered atop a glass showcase.

Index and Anna Sprengel joined Alice in organizing the cards. After forming a few triangles reminiscent of bowling pin formations, Alice flicked away the unneeded cards, formed new triangles…and repeated the process a few times.

“Human. In this case, you can ignore the suits and focus only on the numbers,” advised Othinus from his shoulder.

In the end, only two cards remained.

Index identified them.

“10 and 10.”

“Wait, so is that the answer? But if it’s District 10, why is there two of them?”

“If you rush to the answer in your ignorance, I will stomp on your crotch, fool. She said the answer would be ''a'' number, remember? But playing cards only go from 1 to 13, so a single card can’t indicate a number higher than that. And playing cards have no zero. So this is the only way to output the answer.”

“This is the answer here. You only have to add the two numbers.”

“Then…Coronzon is in ''District 20''?”

As soon as Kamijou said this, looking thoughtful…

''Ba-zap!!!

“Whoa!?” shouted Index.

The roar was loud enough to make you flinch even at a distance. It resembled electrical sparks. He couldn’t be certain, but was this really safe? If Anna Sprengel hadn’t grabbed Index’s hand and pulled her away at the last second, would they both have been turned to charcoal?

Alice Anotherbible, however, simply smiled.

Only she was unfazed after being exposed to that effusion of power.

“Yay, now we know where to go next!”

“…”

Alice really was special. Her power was extraordinary enough on its own, but nothing good came of incorporating it into ordinary magic. While it was normal for Alice herself, everyone else had to endure that fearsome strength.

===Part 3===

“Ughhh, I’m so hungry… You Amakusas have a lot of Eastern stuff for your camouflage, right? Do the Flying Alms Bowl.”

“The Flying Alms Bowl is not like an app-based bike delivery service. Here, Index, I do have a chocolate bar.”

“Yay!” shouted Index, raising her arms in celebration and running off for a late-night snack. It was past 1 AM. Did she feel no guilt eating chocolate at this hour?

Kamijou’s visible confusion elicited an exasperated sigh from Othinus on his shoulder.

“The Flying Alms Bowl is a spell that Buddhist monks up in the mountains could use to send just their alms bowl flying out to the city to receive pindapata. And since I know you’re going to ask, pindapata is the practice of people offering food to monks.”

“Wait, so there’s magic that brings food to you?”

“So the basic idea of a delivery drone has existed for centuries, huh? It just took a while before they had the physics and science to pull it off.”

Mikoto sounded impressed in her own way. Also, pindapata was a form of charity, so it was free. The ancient people sure came up with some neat ideas.

Then it occurred to Kamijou this probably meant he had mentally recovered enough to begin using his imagination again.

They hadn’t lost track of Coronzon. There was still hope.

Here in District 20.

Index tilted her head.

“Hey, Touma? What kinds of things do they have here?”

“I think it’s mostly sports stuff. Baseball, soccer, basketball, and more.”

“It’s more than just hard fields and courts. The place is filled with huge stadiums and domes, including indoor pools and skating rinks,” elaborated mourning clothes Mikoto.

Takitsubo was viewing a nearby guide map. With her head tilted. She wore a track suit, but she may not have been a very athletic person.

“That would provide plenty of locations capable of hiding a large-scale ceremony,” said Kanzaki, hiding frustration behind her polite tone.

She may have realized just how hard a search this was going to be.

“If Board Chairman Accelerator were awake, we could have used the satellites,” said Kihara Noukan.

That would have helped a lot. The satellite images could have ruled out the non-domed stadiums, but they didn’t have what they didn’t have.

They would have to do it themselves.

Instead of using the obvious borderline of the wall, Coronzon planned to escape the city by melting into a…ley line? Well, into the ground. Kamijou didn’t know enough about magic to even guess at how long that would take.

But if they didn’t find her as soon as possible, they could be too late.

Not knowing only made him more antsy.

However, checking every single stadium in the entire district would be far too inefficient. He could see so many from here alone. He never knew you could have too many landmarks.

“We’ve reached District 20 too.”

He heard a voice and Kanzaki held something to her ear.

“Wh-what is that? I though it was weird before…but now I’m certain of it: that isn’t a phone!”

“It’s a communication spiritual item.”

Index’s explanation probably didn’t explain anything for Mikoto.

The paper charm – communication spiritual item? – in Kanzaki’s hand produced the familiar voice of the Bologna Succubus. It was apparently the Amakusa style to attach it to the back of a phone so it would be less conspicuous.

“Hey, witch hunt team, you tell that lad there’s nothing to report from up here. No sign of Coronzon. …The Anti-Skill helicopter is gone, so are we the only ones in the air any longer?”

“After everything that happened in District 19, I imagine anything that can fly is busy providing disaster relief or transporting supplies.”

The conversation suddenly ended after that comment from Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, who was presumably dangling down with the Bologna Succubus.

They were cut off by a tremendous noise that made Kamijou cover his ears.

“What the hell was that!?”

“An interception spell,” muttered Othinus.

“Flying with magic is just too dangerous!” shouted Index.

“Ksshh! We were brought down by an interception spell, but that means she’s nearby. Coronzon is definitely in District 20!! And if she doesn’t want us spying from the sky, ksshh, she’s not in a roofed dome or an indoor stadium! Look for the outdoor stadiums with nothing covering them!!”

“Hey! You crashed, right!? Are you okay!? Please tell me you are!”

“I don’t know what you’re expecting from a demon like me, but quit it. We can’t fly anymore, but we’ll catch up soon. We can run on the ground, so don’t worry!!”

“Damn you, sex demon. I know my coat is sturdy, but get your ass off it! Kiiii! You do not meet my salvation conditions, so you do not get to use me as a chair!!”

They seemed to be doing well.

The sounds of a scuffle coming through suggested they were unharmed.

That aside, Coronzon herself had reacted here. That gave them a huge opportunity as pursuers. They couldn’t waste it.

“So a sports facility without a roof covering it. It must be one of the open stadiums. In that case…”

“Different sports have different magical meanings,” said Index.

“Then what about soccer?”

“A festival held in England since ancient times. It’s the origin of all forms of football. Of course, a festival from the 12th century will either be 100% Christian or have incorporated aspects of other myths or religious events like with May Day or Halloween.”

His casual question received quite the explanation in return.

But she of course had a reason for explaining all this.

“But when we’re talking about sports and stadiums, I would start looking here. The ancient Greeks. Everyone in the world knows the sporting event where people compete for the gold medal, but that was originally held at Zeus’s sanctuary. It was meant as an offering to the gods led by Zeus.”

“If we can swap that name out for Jupiter, there are plenty in Rome too,” said Agnese.

Kamijou’s knowledge of Greek mythology didn’t go much past “that thing used for the astrological horoscopes on the morning news”. Where did Great Demon Coronzon belong exactly? With all the talk of rebelling against god, he had assumed she was a Christian demon, but could she use techniques from Greek mythology?

Mikoto and the golden retriever took a step back when these topics came up.

So it was Index who fluently responded.

“Magician Crowley said there are no such thing as demons.”

“Wait, but he called her ''Great Demon'' Coronzon himself.”

“He also said there are no pure demons. He said ‘demon’ is a word people use when they want to deride the gods of people they dislike.”

“…”

Yes, that sounded a lot more like that human who always took the cynical view.

But in that case…

“Could Great Demon Coronzon be referred to as a great god by some other religion?”

“Fool. Even Mathers rejected that idea. He called her an absolute evil to all humanity who was equally and uniformly opposed even when comparing every last myth and legend.”

“But Crowley supported the idea that she is a relative evil who ''appears evil'' from a certain viewpoint.”

A pure evil that did only evil.

Could such a being really exist?

To him that sounded like a strange magnet with only a north pole.

“People on the side of evil tend to be strict about the rules, don’t they?” said Takitsubo. “They have a lot of inviolable rules and strong bonds with their companions. Mugino is like that. If Coronzon is evil but doesn’t need that solid core, then she really isn’t human.”

But Coronzon herself believed they could exist. Which was the source of her self-loathing. She believed her great power was an irregular “distortion” a lot like a monopole. She thought it could only tear people apart. She thought it was twisted and wrong, so no matter how powerful she was, she could never be proud of herself. …If she could, none of this would ever have happened.

Whether or not Aleister’s theory was correct, Othinus arrived at a conclusion.

“Because she is a demon who doesn’t follow the rules, she might have full use off the techniques and fields not approved by Christianity. The rules don’t bind her.”

Mikoto put a hand on her hip and asked Index a question.

“Look, I don’t get any of this occult mumbo jumbo, so can you just tell us where to go?”

“If she is using Zeus’s symbols, a track stadium. His symbols are the sky, thunder, mountains, fatherhood, and many more. He’s the most important god, so he has a lot of attributes. But in this case, there aren’t many symbols Coronzon can use for her spell.”

Kamijou didn’t even have time to ask why.

Index was the star of the show at times like this.

“Zeus is generally a sky god. But Coronzon wants a way to the control the ley lines in the ground, which is the complete opposite. So we can ignore almost all of his attributes.”

“Hm? If it’s that much of a mismatch, why would she use Zeus in the first place?” asked Kamijou.

Othinus and Index both answered him.

“Because, human, he is the top god. He’s powerful enough you don’t want to reject him out of hand.”

“Not relying on Zeus in a district of athletic stadiums is like trying to win a soccer game without ever touching the ball.”

That made sense.

Zeus was a famous enough god that even Kamijou was familiar with him (from manga and games), so his power would be obvious and great. If Coronzon could use it, she would of course want to, but since he was a mismatch for her current objective, she wanted a connector to link the ingredient with her plan.

…Or something like that?

He felt like the situation was similar to a fugitive getting an airplane but having trouble taking off in it.

“So because Zeus is such an important god, he has a lot of different attributes? Then what part of Zeus is Coronzon trying to use? You said he’s a sky god, but she needs an attribute related to deep underground, right? Then what exactly is she going to-”

“Rain,” she replied immediately. “There’s a legend saying the current world is so full of different gods and heroes because Uranus and Zeus were joined with many earth goddesses through the rain that falls from heaven. …Touma, is there anywhere those intersect? For example, a place where a long waterway for rainwater passes directly below a large track stadium?”

===Part 4===

It was a dreary place.

The room was large but plain. Like a big metal box. And it was chilly.

Isabella Theism, a necromancer with silver hair and dark skin, took a look around.

“Why…am I alive?”

No one answered her.

Kihara Goukei was it? Had that bio-monster transported an enemy who would have died if just abandoned on the side of the road?

Cigarette smoke lingered thinly in the air.

So was that Stiyl Magnus on the other side of the locked door? He showed no mercy. If Isabella took any careless action, he wouldn’t hesitate to burn her away with 3000-degree flames.

(True Voodoo priests are apparently immune to fire, but I’m only making use of their techniques and haven’t mastered it to that extent.)

Besides, there were no gaps in the thick metal door. It had probably been welded shut by those same 3000-degree flames. Only a magician who could burn through the metal could open the door.

Isabella searched through her rags to check on her possessions. Unsurprisingly, all of the obviously dangerous items had been confiscated. However, these rags patched together from the clothes of several dead people had a lot of hidden pockets. She stuck a finger through the sloppy stitching and…yep, there it was.

Something stirred in the corner of her vision.

“?”

She only now realized she wasn’t alone in here. It wasn’t an Anglican magician keeping an eye on her. If it was, they would have stopped her by now.

That meant this was someone else under surveillance like her.

(What is this unnatural lack of vitality? I specialize in life and death and even I overlooked his presence.)

“Who are you?”

“''Hamazura Shiage''.”

Even as he responded, he seemed about as lively as withered grass.

He was Japanese…but he didn’t seem to be one of those Amakusas who Kanzaki Kaori had brought along. There was no scent of magic on the high schooler.

Then why had he been arrested by the Anglicans? He was a completely ordinary person…but that mismatch with his surroundings made him an uncanny sight here.

(It feels like being placed in front of ''too cheap'' of ingredients.)

It was uncanny, but if he wasn’t going to get in her way, she saw no reason to eliminate him.

She had no intention of staying in this prison with a stranger. She pulled out the spiritual item – or really, the materials to create one – hidden inside her rags.

(There’s a chance a scanning spell would detect the faint magic power emanating from a completed spiritual item…but the materials are no more than ordinary goods and ingredients. Slipping past checks like that is so useful.)

“What are you doing?”

“Escaping. I don’t have anything to do here.”

Isabella pulled out a small lime. One with a branch thinner than a matchstick still attached. She sliced it in two without a knife and squeezed one half to sprinkle the juice on the outdoor wall opposite the door.

A chemical smoke burst forth as if she had used a powerful acid.

A hole visibly grew until it was more than two meters in diameter.

That wall was no more than metal. Breaking through was easy if you had the appropriate magical knowledge. Plus, lemons, limes, and other acidic fruits were common components of Voodoo magic. It was used in an emergency antidote for zombie powder and in the lime poison created by combining the various toxins and antidotes found in the lime.

“Stiyl…wouldn’t have noticed. With the thick metal door fused shut, he wouldn’t be able to hear any of the noise I’m making in here.”

He would have any number of ways of stopping her if he did notice, though.

The delinquent-looking boy had a surprisingly mild reaction.

He was imprisoned. He would normally leap at the chance to escape without even considering the consequences.

“What I meant is, what do you hope to accomplish by escaping?”

“No matter what anyone else says and no matter how ugly a choice it may be…I will always do what I think is most necessary. Right now, that means defeating Great Demon Coronzon and bringing stability back to the world.”

===Part 5===

Done talking, the brown woman who reeked of death departed into the outside world.

She likely had something to do.

Unlike Hamazura.

(What do I do now?)

Hamazura Shiage lacked that level of motivation.

He had bet his entire life on Coronzon…and lost.

He was worried about Takitsubo Rikou, but he didn’t think she was in that much danger as long as she was within Academy City. After all, she was a high-level esper theorized to possibly become the eighth Level 5.

If he didn’t want any stray shots, or accurate sniper shots pretending to be one, hitting her, it was best if he stayed away while he was a fugitive.

Which meant…

“Oh, I know. What about Coronzon?”

Where had she gone?

He was worried about her too. She wanted to destroy the current rotten world and create a clean new world. Something must be happening that made her feel that way. What if this world was already damaged beyond repair but that damage simply wasn’t visible?

Then what exactly was happening? He wanted to speak with her.

Despite his earlier strong words, he did want to live with Takitsubo.

So he wanted to know what was going to happen.

However, wouldn’t Coronzon have to be in a dangerous position if he was able to catch up to her in his state? He really wanted her at least to escape the city soon…

===Part 6===

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had returned to the District 10 prison.

The facility doubled as the new Board Chairman’s headquarters.

It was guarded by several layers of thick metal doors, metal bars, and all sorts of sensors, but that meant nothing to an artificial demon who could freely switch between corporeal and incorporeal forms.

“I-I’m back.”

No response.

She may have expected that.

In the single-occupant cell, a frail figure lay on the bed.

Surrounded by medical equipment.

The only sound was a rhythmic beeping and a pump expanding and contracting to push out air.

…His body hadn’t been in perfect working order to begin with. Brain damage had left him reliant on a modern design cane and he couldn’t even understand human speech without the choker-style electrode around his neck.

Even so.

It was far too painful to see him lying in the bed like that.

Academy City’s #1 could not live on his own.

He was kept alive by all the machines hooked up to him.

“Master…” weakly called the demon girl.

“Monitor fragments have pierced every part of his body.”

Even a prison had doctors.

Serious illness did not cancel out a prisoner’s sentence, so in a way it was the natural arrangement.

It was their job to keep the prisoners alive in whatever form it took.

“Some are right next to major arteries and organs, making them too dangerous to touch without care. Removing them will be very difficult… But that isn’t enough to explain his condition. If it were simple blood loss keeping him unconscious, the transfusion should be showing effects by now.”

“I know…”

“?”

Yes, she didn’t have time for sorrow.

The new Board Chairman would never wake up ''naturally'' in this state. That had been obvious at first glance, which was why someone needed to externally induce a recovery.

These wounds were magical in nature.

They were scars of an attack from Great Demon Coronzon, a being beyond human understanding.

That meant magical knowledge was a requirement to heal him.

(I will heal you, so please wait until I can, master.)

Something beeped.

But it wasn’t the medical equipment. It came from something like an intercom on the wall.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t know if she had the right, but everyone else watched the device from a distance and made no move to touch it. She had no choice but to press the button and answer.

It displayed a familiar female secretary who ordinarily helped with the paperwork.

“What is it?”

“We have a visitor for the Board Chairman. He doesn’t have an appointment, but will you meet with him?”

“No appointment? Then send him awa-”

“He is Oniyama of the Board of Directors. Will you still refuse him?”

A visitor.

And at this precise moment.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 said for him to wait, but when she went out, he was already within the special security zone. Left alone, who knows how much he would have explored.

All of the jailers and guards looked afraid. Apparently it was up to the artificial demon to say this.

“Only the Board Chairman is allowed in here. What are you doing here!?”

“Oniyama Rouze.”

The old man’s eyes shined with the greed of a much younger man.

“I am one of Academy City’s 12 Directors. That comes with certain privileges.”

His words dripped with arrogance.

So what if he was one of the Directors? Just because there weren’t many of them didn’t mean they could enter this place without permission. Just think of the Windowless Building from when Aleister was at the top. No one should be here without its master’s permission.

(Has Academy City collapsed to that extent!?)

Oniyama was the Director with a focus on vehicles, including automobiles, ships, and aircraft.

And there had been suspicions he was interested in expanding into the military field. The military had its own specialists, but those who controlled those unscrupulous military forces – Shiokishi, Nakimoto, Neoka – tended to drop out or be replaced quickly due to that very unscrupulousness. A perfect opportunity for those who were hoping to break into that field.

To be blunt, she had a bad feeling about his presence.

“How bad are his injuries?”

He was too casual.

If Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t know Great Demon Coronzon was responsible, she would have suspected this man.

“Why are you here without even making an appointment?”

“I am here to give you a valuable warning, so watch your tone.”

“Nothing you say changes the fact that I only have one master!!”

“My point is that your behavior calls your master’s civility into question. The unintelligent never seem to wait for people to finish, which makes speaking with them so tiring.”

He snorted with laughter.

And then got back on topic.

“The situation is too pressing to wait for the Chairman’s recovery.”

“Kh.”

“Academy City is using all of its scientific knowledge to search for the culprit, yet we have turned up empty-handed. That makes this an unknown situation. And ignoring it shows no sign of improvement. Someone must grab the reins and take control soon. Before serious damage is done.”

He said that like the new Board Chairman’s injuries did not count as “serious damage”.

As it were a trivial matter.

Not worth any concern.

Even though the very top of the city had been directly attacked and remained unconscious.

“…You look happy about this.”

“Surely you jest. I am only doing my job. If the Chairman is unable to fulfill his duties, don’t you think his privileges should be temporarily transferred to a third party? I am not asking for his eternal expulsion from the throne through dismissal or impeachment. I am only suggesting someone else take over his duties until he comes to.”

“You just want the Master Key.”

“Ah, so you read me like a book.”

“And just how many people were you planning to kill using those next-gen weapons!?”

The Master Key looked like a smartphone, but it gave full privileges over everything in Academy City. It was stuffed full of passwords, passcodes, access keys, and other such data.

Including for military facilities and equipment.

Academy City’s functions and military might would eventually recover. If it were handed over to someone else, something terrible would happen. And if it fell into the hands of a Director who knew enough about diplomacy and war, it could lead to a war with any place on the planet.

She was a demon.

She knew just how twisted the world was.

And in that knowledge, she had placed her hopes in the #1. She had decided the world was still worth protecting. So she couldn’t allow the world to be destroyed now while the new Board Chairman lingered on the verge of death. No matter what.

“But the Master Key is a dangerous power. Who can you trust it with, if not me and my knowledge of diplomacy and military matters? Noncommittal Kaizumi? Surely not that pacifist Oyafune?”

“They would be better than you at least…”

“Oh, dear. So you, the guardian of the Master Key, are unaware just how dangerous it is. Listen, ''even someone who doesn’t know how to use it can lose control.'' I was fine with leaving it in the Chairman’s hands since he is the #1. I trusted that someone who has killed so many people would know very well how to handle that kind of threat. But leaving it in the hands of someone who has no familiarity with deadly power would be suicide. Suicide on a planetary scale.”

“Leave! If you don’t wish for the Board Chairman to recover, people could see that as contempt of the chain of command. I will not give you the Master Key. Only my master has the right to grant it to someone else. So please leave now!!”

The old man took a step back without taking his eyes off her.

He was not intimidated.

The smile on his face conveyed a clear message: I don’t even need to return here. You will come crying to me by the end.

“Academy City is a heavy burden to bear. Contact me when you are ready to give up.”

“Leave!!!”

===Part 7===

Footsteps trudged through the snow.

Kihara Goukei was bloody and woozy.

“Ughh, I’m so dizzy…”

She had rescued Urekawa Ousuke, the miracle child born of Academy City, and then handed that goddamn Necromancer to the Anglicans who seemed to have invaded the city (even though they didn’t seem to be soldiers?), but she had gotten badly torn up in the process. Three computer chips, two bacteria colonies, one pea crab, and what else? 99% of the secret ingredients giving her her “Kihara-ness” had been destroyed.

She had only one heart left. That was fine. Everyone else only had one too.

She couldn’t get spoiled.

She was running dry, so she needed nutrients. Her powerful regeneration was working against her. Like this, she would eventually dry up into a husk. Before that happened, she needed sugar, salt, fat, protein, calcium, various vitamins and minerals, and more.

(Why do all the restaurants have to close early today of all days? There would usually be at least an izakaya or family restaurant open.)

“Oh.”

She spotted a vending machine.

The small glowing display shined bright in the darkness. It actually had power.

(Oui, oui. Vending machines are cleverly designed to continue functioning even after a fire or other disaster. Oh, I’m saved.)

And it wasn’t a drink or bread machine. It was one of the unique varieties you spotted from time to time. Specifically, this odd kind of vending machine that sold things like wagyu sukiyaki meals on the side of the street. And one of the large sample photo on this one showed…

“On this freezing night with my breath visible before me I find…ramen!! Oh, that has such a sinful ring to it. But I must do this to regain what my body has lost. How merveilleuse it is to have an actual excuse. Hwa ha ha ha ha ha! Behold, world!! I choose the piping hot tonkotsu ramen!! I am freed from all guilt as I ingest this unhealthy meal in the middle of the night!!!”

Even among the Kiharas, facing your own death was something only an oddity could do. It was a good thing the vending machine let you pay with a train card. …All of her paper money would have absorbed too much blood by this point.

A clunking sound came from the machine.

(Oh, that sounds harder than I would expect.)

With a noodles vending machine, she had imagined something like a better version of a coffee vending machine: first a styrofoam bowl, then the drained noodles and other ingredients, and finally the hot soup slowly pouring in.

Silence surrounded her.

Nothing happened after the initial clunking.

Kihara Goukei crouched down and nervously opened the overly large door to check.

“Is this…a frozen food vending machine!?”

It was rock solid.

The instructions on the package said you could enjoy restaurant quality flavor after only 15 minutes in the microwave.

Was she supposed to stand around in this freezing weather for those 15 minutes?

All she had was a solid object that could probably kill someone if applied forcefully to the cranium.

“Uhh…”

Yet she really would dry up and die without something to eat. Surrounded by a freezing night with red snow covering the road, Kihara Goukei had no choice but to tear open the package, pull out the rectangular block, hold it in both hands, and gnaw on it. Yeah, it was not a flavorful experience. Sure, it had salt and fat, but that didn’t go well with the ice!! The white-frozen pieces of pork fat were especially bad. Was this some kind of divine punishment?

“?”

Suddenly, she felt like she was being watched.

There was someone, or something, here.

She found the gaze surprisingly nearby. Looking up at her.

It belonged to…a girl of around 10?

“Misaka has never seen someone eat a popsicle in the winter! says Misaka as Misaka checks the package. Tonkotsu ramen! …Misaka doesn’t remember that Gorigori-kun flavor.”

“What are you doing here? And please feel free to call me Madame Gou.”

“Well, Misaka needs to get to District 10, but she doesn’t know where it is, says Misaka as Misaka explains her predicament.”

“Eh? District 10?”

Wasn’t that the district of battles and machos, said to be the most dangerous in the city? And the girl only looked around 10, so what was she doing out alone at night?

(And if I send her back the way she came, um, oh dear. Aren’t those giant bugs and sea creatures made of weird blonde hair wandering around there?)

Kihara Goukei wept.

This sounded like trouble to her.

First Urekawa and now this. Was tonight the night for running into small children? Was it some kind of bonus mode?

“Where is District 10?”

“The complete opposite direction, so please don’t look at me…”

“If you know the way, then tell Misaka! says Misaka as Misaka begs you!”

“One heart. Just one left. Another death and I really will die… I-I’ve done more than enough already, haven’t I? I already saved Urekawa Ousuke-kun in the very middle of the night, so I really want to get home and sleep until-”

“No! ''Help me, Madame Gou''!!”

“Neh heh☆ …Well, you drive a hard bargain. When you put it like that, I can’t go to sleep now, can IIIIIIII!?”

===Part 8===

On the roof of a far distant skyscraper, one of the mass-produced military clones known as the Sisters removed her eye from the scope of a large sniper rifle.

“She doesn’t appear to be a threat, concludes Misaka #10032.”

“Doesn’t appear to be? Are you glitching? What kind of fuzzy opinion is that for a living computer?”

“It is called personal growth.”

She had grown enough to make casual remarks over the Misaka Network at any rate.

Misaka Worst, who was tuned to pick up on the especially malicious emotions within that vast network composed of countless identical brainwave signals, responded with exasperation in her voice.

“This is all because you discussed that stuff on the Misaka Network, you know? Have you forgotten that mini-Misaka is your host and control tower? She can hear everything you say, even if it’s in your sleep.”

“You mean that our ability to control electricity might be able to force open the lock on the new Board Chairman’s Master Key? asks Misaka for confirmation.”

“No, that screwing it up would destroy the Master Key! If it turns out the only way forward is for the #1 to wake up, then of course the little one’s going to try and do something about it. Goddammit, what a pain. …But Yoshikawa’s the real loser here. She’s locked in her room with nothing to do. Cause the great Last Order used her power to hack the electric lock.”

“Then wouldn’t it be best to send her straight there? Also, that person appears to be a Kihara, which should come in handy on the way, says Misaka, providing her opinion.”

“Then are we finally going to stop playing stalker? Misaka doesn’t want to hold onto this sniper rifle in this cold-ass weather any longer. Misaka is afraid her cheek is going to freeze to the metal.”

“If you are fine with that immortality expert getting her hands on clone technology, responds Misaka. Misaka checked her spec sheet and it would be a real pain if she learned to multiply herself.”

“…When can Misaka finally get back to bed?”

“As if you have any intention of doing that.”

===Part 9===

Great Demon Coronzon slipped through the darkness like a shadow.

She had chosen a stadium that was unusually large even among the outdoor track stadiums. Everything she currently sought was contained there. Here she could convert her physical body into a massive amount of Telesma energy. Once that was done, she only had to send herself into the current of a ley line running underground. She would still be limited to the planet, but that would allow her to instantly escape anywhere on Earth, even the opposite side of the planet.

Wasn’t its maximum capacity 255 thousand?

The outdoor type without a dome was easier to scale up in size, but this felt like overdoing it.

Academy City had a population of 2.3 million, so a full tenth of the population could be crammed inside.

Humans were apparently frail beings who were afflicted by loneliness when standing alone in a massive artificial space, but she was a being known as a great demon.

She felt nothing amiss as she walked toward the center.

Other than the wrongness of her own existence.

“Sitra Achra, hm?”

Coronzon rolled that term around on her tongue.

And smiled cynically.

Sitra Achra could be described as the substance that caused evil. The current world, from the tiny humans to the vast world itself, could supposedly be fully described using the diagram called the Sephiroth, but there were some impurities which did not fit into the grand Sephiroth. Those impurities were Sitra Achra. They were ruins – shards – of the old world which was destroyed to create the current one. They were the substance that caused evil. They had no place in the current world, had no role, and should not have remained, so their very existence obstructed the system of the current age. Like pebbles caught in the gears.

The world god had created was perfect.

Things only went awry because of the extraneous impurities mixed in.

(Sounds like me.)

Shadow covered her face as she silently expressed this only silently.

Even though self-deprecation could not turn evil into good.

She had always questioned it.

Why hadn’t she become an angel of love? Or an angel of righteousness?

If she had been…

If she had been given that role…

…She would have poured herself into that work more diligently than anyone else.

If god had known from the beginning that Coronzon would rebel against heaven and turn evil and had let her go ahead and do it because it was part of some kind of plan of his, then she would ''overdo'' the role god had given her and ruin that plan.

God was an absolute being, but he did not save all lives.

Everyone accepted that even their misfortunes would be given meaning and purpose if they obeyed god.

But the very existence of that system meant he had known from the beginning there would be victims. He had known and let it happen. For some grand plan of his.

Coronzon’s role was to tear people apart. Why should she obey someone who had abandoned her?

So she had decided to use everything given to her and ''overdo'' it. That way she could obliterate that heartless plan without betraying her purpose.

She would dedicate herself to her evil identi-

…?

At that point, she tilted her head.

No, wait. She had noticed it this time.

Her memories skipped a few seconds.

“Dammit, not again…Aleister!!”

She held a hand to her head.

She had finally managed to prepare this place for her ceremony, but she would have to leave if word reached Kamijou’s group.

Coronzon started to panic…but then it hit her.

A few seconds.

She stood in the very center of an enormous stadium. She had no computer or smartphone to contact anyone and there were no old-fashioned payphones in sight. So even if Aleister had hijacked her body, he couldn’t have done anything in that time. She could ignore the outrage if it only lasted a few seconds.

On the other hand…

(It’s good I noticed it this time, but was the gap itself longer than before?)

She had a bad feeling about this.

Was Aleister starting to get the hang of it? That concern crept up in the back of her mind. Losing consciousness for even a second in the middle of a battle with her pursuers could be fatal. And even if that didn’t happen, Aleister could attempt suicide if he took control for long enough.

He would do it.

Especially now that he viewed her as his enemy and had killing her as his primary objective.

Directly comparing their specs wasn’t enough to rest easy. Aleister had won the Battle of Blythe Road after all.

Coronzon consciously took a deep breath.

(I need to shift my focus.)

Not only were there other stadiums, but magic materials could be found anywhere. After all, Aleister Crowley had built this city during the confusion of the postwar recovery. It was an alternate form for the Abbey of Thelema. It had been deftly hidden by repainting it all in the terms of science, but it would be hard to find places and objects here without magical symbolism.

Coronzon only had to collect the items that were already present.

She wouldn’t have any difficulty as long she knew the proper way to combine them.

She could begin the ceremony at any time.

The only problem was how long it would take.

…No matter how much she tried to shorten that time, she couldn’t reduce it to zero. And she would be entirely defenseless in that time. She was the Coronzon who had destroyed legendary magicians like Mathers and Aleister, but during that time she could be killed even by an ordinary human.

“…”

Coronzon shut her eyes, held her breath, and searched for any sounds around her.

She was focused on the area outside the stadium.

(My greatest enemy is the time limit. Because I’m sure they’re searching for me with everyone they have. Weak as they are, hiding from them is a pain when there are so many of them. For once I need to look out for weaklings because this crucial ceremony will be ruined if they interfere in the middle of it.)

===Part 10===

When they checked the map based on Index’s advice, the answer was obvious.

Kamijou pointed at a spot on the large map.

“The General Athletics Stadium. …It’s gotta be this, right? It’s a track stadium and there’s a huge underground waterway running below it!”

“If Coronzon is using Zeus symbolism for a ceremony to send her through a ley line, then it must be there.”

The white girl sounded confident.

It wasn’t like they had any other leads to go on, so Kamijou had to trust in this one.

“Fool.”

Someone else called out to him.

Anna Sprengel.

“I double-checked it all just to be safe, and everything the grimoire library said checks out. Her calculations are correct, so Coronzon should be at the General Athletics Stadium. The only question left is if we arrive in time.”

The Amakusas were magicians who blended into modern society, so they all knew how to drive. …Kamijou preferred not to think about where they had procured so many vehicles in Academy City, but it would be best to make use of them now.

And just as he was thinking that, his eyes met another pair of eyes.

But these definitely weren’t human.

They were compound eyes.

A carnivorous dragonfly more than three meters long was gliding at eye level.

It was made of blonde hair.

“Coronzon’s…scouts!?”

“Stupid bug jamboree!!”

He heard an odd voice just before a blonde young woman drop-kicked the giant dragonfly from the side, sending it flying. She was the Transcendent Bologna Succubus.

“Just when I thought I’d caught up on foot, this is what I find? When do I get a breather!?”

“Pant, gasp… M-my coat…is so heavy with…the steel armor and the terrariums…I’m dyiiiiiing…”

Even as she complained, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet deflected the scouts’ attacks with her thick coat. …Wait, did she just protect the Bologna Succubus?

However, squashing a single dragonfly wasn’t enough to turn the tide.

There were butterflies, hornets, stag beetles, flies, and more.

Kanzaki raised her voice.

“If she’s sending these out, it must mean we’re getting close!”

It didn’t feel like Coronzon was trying to lay low and hide anymore. Did she want to buy time even if it made her more conspicuous?

She really was here.

In District 20. Index, Anna Sprengel, and the others had been right.

…The question was whether or not these scouts were passing information back to Coronzon. Either way, it would be best not to waste time here.

“We need to strike before she can get away!!” shouted Kamijou.

===Part 11===

The scouts sent out by Great Demon Coronzon included three meter dragonflies and hornets.

Kamijou immediately clenched his right fist, but nothing would be more annoying than having a group of 20 or 30 drop from the sky all at once. Kihara Noukan turned his way and shouted.

“Be careful. If they grab onto you and carry you up high, you will be playing a deadly version of the crane game!”

He couldn’t let the flying scouts use the powerful weapon that was height.

Plus, the stag beetle ones wouldn’t even need lift him up. They could crush or slice his body right here on the ground.

“Get inside, it doesn’t matter where!!”

On Kanzaki’s instructions, Kamijou and Mikoto practically tackled open the door to a nearby building.

They ran further inside. When they reached a more open space, they found something odd there.

A frozen pool?

No, was it a skating rink?

Kamijou wasn’t familiar with them and had imagined them as something like a massive cold storage warehouse, but was this skating rink actually warmer than outside?

“They’re coming. Those weird bugs are coming!!”

“Wait, Misaka! Don’t use your Railgun down a straight corridor! Are you trying to hit our friends!?”

Lucia, Angelene, and more of the Former Agnese Force jumped on the giant flies as a group. That still wasn’t enough offensive power, but it slowed the scouts enough for Blodeuwedd the Bouquet and Anna Sprengel to finish them off with stronger attacks.

The scouts were powerful. They were, but they weren’t Great Demon Coronzon herself. The scouts made of her blonde hair were not unbeatable!

“In that case…”

“Hm? Lad, don’t let your guard down!!”

A supposedly defeated scout stirred.

No, a large quantity of something burst from the giant stag beetle’s body. Flat ovals about fifty centimeters long poured out like a slot machine jackpot. There were more than a hundred of them and they were all wriggling. And squirming.

There were more scouts…inside the scouts?

And a ton of them!!

“Ahhhhhhh!?”

Kamijou backed away, more creeped out than afraid of the threat they posed. The small scouts leaped at the boy one after another.

Itsuwa sharply jabbed her spear out to guard him, but she grimaced.

“They’re hard. Are they based on parasitic shellfish!?”

“You mean the more enemies we defeat, the more of them there will be? Hard to think of a better way to buy time!” shouted Othinus.

Kamijou’s group would be overwhelmed by the enemy army.

Sounds like collapsing piles of sand came from all around.

“Wow!”

Alice Anotherbible was the only one capable of smiling as they swarmed around her. A normal human would be bitten into tiny pieces if they tried that!!

They would be killed if they didn’t defeat the attacking scouts, but defeating the scouts only allowed them to multiply.

It was a vicious cycle.

…And Kamijou had only thought of these things as scouts made of blonde hair. But he felt pity for them now that he saw them forced to fight, writhing in pain as they burst from within, and releasing a flood of other monsters.

“Fool, now isn’t the time. If you stop, we will be killed!”

Great Demon Coronzon.

Even if she was fighting for her life, she shouldn’t force her own side to do this.

A dull crash broke through Kamijou’s thoughts.

It came from directly in front of him. The skating rink’s wall broke through and a giant rotary snowplow emerged from the side. The row of scouts in its path were crushed and sliced up by the rotating blades.

The fluffy blonde Amakusa was operating it.

Kamijou had seen her a few times before. Wasn’t her name Tsushima?

“Hop on!! Coronzon is our top priority, so we can’t waste our time with these things!!”

There was no reason to stick around here. The giant rotating blades on the front and the snow expulsion device sticking out the side like an elephant’s trunk looked dangerous, but Kamijou grabbed onto something like a short ladder on the side. Only after the heavy snowplow begin to move did he notice something.

“W-where’s Index!? And Misaka too!”

“I’m not the only Amakusa. And everyone will soon think to use snowmobiles and other vehicles capable of driving on this red snow. We all have the same destination, so we’ll meet back up with them if we head to the track stadium!!”

A few others managed to jump onto the snowplow. He saw Kanzaki and Itsuwa among them.

A three meter dragonfly was still stubbornly pursuing them, but it was shot down by a beam of light. Neither Kanzaki nor Itsuwa had done that. Apparently another vehicle was following them.

Eventually, no more hornets and stag beetles could be seen.

Kamijou sighed and leaned against the rotary snowplow that rattled along on its continuous tracks.

“Well…it certainly is a good thing that Tsushima was there to help us, human,” said the 15cm god.

“Yeah, it really was. Life is so much easier when you have a capable young woman around. Thanks.”

“…Ohh?” “…Ohh?”

“(Wait, did I just step on some deadly landmine here. And to make matters worse, two of them at once?)”

A secret light shined sharply from Kanzaki Kaori and Itsuwa’s eyes and Tsushima wept in the driver’s seat.

===Part 12===

It was late at night. 1 AM had come and gone.

When you imagined a late night hospital, did you think of a horror story? Or something more risque? After many long years working here, the frog-faced doctor knew neither option was likely. When you worked there day in and day out, even a special location became no more than a routine. The fear faded and any weird expectations vanished.

Of course, he wouldn’t normally be working on this shift, but today was a special day. He hadn’t gotten any rest during the day either.

A young medical intern gave him a worried look.

“You need to get some sleep, doctor. You’re no good to us here if you pass out.”

“If I could get some free time…yes, there is something I should do, so can you cover things here?”

“Doctor!” the intern called after him, but this was his nature. He wanted to save every patient he could.

If Kamijou Touma was already dead, then there was nothing to be done.

But what if the boy was still alive?

Then he was the frog-faced doctor’s patient.

If a patient had received improper treatment, it was a doctor’s duty to save them.

(What a pain. Where do I even start with determining if a supposedly dead person is alive or dead? The guidelines for brain death would probably be best. Or mayb-)

He left the hospital.

And some strange thing attacked him only three steps out the door.

“Eh?”

If he had to describe it, he would have called it a golden crab standing more than three meters tall.

Even after seeing the pincer raised high, the frog-faced doctor only managed to get out a confused sound.

He did not properly understand the danger.

Yes.

He had no way of knowing since he knew nothing of magic, but his hospital was in District 7. That was the area where Coronzon had scattered so many of her scouts made of blonde hair.

And Coronzon had been so focused on escaping she hadn’t actually ordered them to stop.

Which meant they were still acting on orders to protect the ceremonial ground for Adikalika – the former site of the Windowless Building.

A pleasant slashing sound raced out.

The frog-faced doctor did not shed a single drop of blood.

It was sliced vertically.

The blonde hair scout’s bisected halves scattered to either side.

His eyes widened in confusion as a dark, lithe figure whispered to him.

“It is a pleasure to see you again, doctor.”

===Part 13===

In the District 20 skating rink, Misaka Mikoto had definitely seen that pointy-haired boy on the side of a large rotary snowplow.

And it had happened as the vehicle drove right past her.

She had been left behind.

“I want to shoot that idiot so bad.”

She flicked up arcade coins and launched a few Railguns at the monsters as she retreated from the skating rink proper into a narrow corridor.

The more she defeated, the more of them there were, which couldn’t have been much more annoying.

And the initial dragonflies and stag beetles were powerful enough already, so she would be killed if she didn’t fight back. There was no room for holding back.

(Are the others retreating somewhere too? There isn’t time to ask where we’ll meet up next, so I’ll just have to magnetically attach myself to one of the vehicles’ roofs.)

And all of a sudden, something occurred to Misaka Mikoto.

“…Wait.”

(If that idiot is alive, then why am I even wearing mourning clothes? Ahhh, how long am I going to keep wearing this cumbersome outfit? Now I feel like I’ve been making a fool of myself!!)

This was a sports facility, so would they have rental sportswear anywhere? Even a track suit or jumpsuit would be fine. She was willing to ignore how it looked if it was at least warm and didn’t restrict her movements!!

But this was a skating rink.

That meant any clothing would be for skating.

Such as a painfully bright lemon yellow figure skating uniform.

“U-um, would you call this a skating dress?”

It wouldn’t restrict her movements since it was designed for sports use. Combined with the bladeless shoes meant for the staff, she would have no trouble moving around. At the very least, she would have a much easier time of it than in this Japanese clothing. But why did it have to have a miniskirt? Or should she think of it more like a swimsuit’s pareo? Either way, it wasn’t something for walking around town in!

“B-but it’s so cold! What choice do I have!?”

She had decided herself she was willing to ignore how it looked.

It would certainly protect her from the biting chill of the January night.

It left less skin exposed than she had expected. Because it covered her with a skin-colored material.

But that was a problem of its own. The thin synthetic fiber was like wearing a full-body stocking. A terrifying thought for someone who tended to get zappy at the drop of a hat!

===Part 14===

Kamijou and the others arrived at a dark shape so large they truly had to look up to see it all.

This was the General Athletics Stadium.

Its size was apparent even from the outside.

Its diameter alone had to be hundreds of meters.

Instead of a dome covering it, it was apparently an outdoor stadium. Still, tall walls surrounded it on all sides. Those would be for the tiered seating, but they were just as tall as a four story building. So the same as a school building. This meant there was no seeing inside from out here.

Several other vehicles joined the rotary snowplow operated by Tsushima.

Index and Misaka Mikoto were among them.

“Thank good- woah! Misaka, what are you wearing!?”

“Don’t look at me!! Don’t look at my new and improved flavor with 20% extra at the same great price!!”

Her retort was as unusual as her outfit.

Was this the higher rarity version that showed more skin, or had she been unable to bear the cold and chose to rely on a figure skating outfit? He wished she would stop tugging down on the miniskirt-like part because that only drew his eye there all the more.

The Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet were both tilting their heads (in friendly synchronization?). …Yeah, they probably wouldn’t get what the big deal was when they had no trouble walking around in the frigid January night in their underwear or a naked apron.

But focusing on this wasn’t going to lead them to Coronzon.

Kamijou was curious about something.

“The tall walls keep us from seeing inside. I hope that also means Coronzon can’t see out.”

“Does it mean that? Wouldn’t a great demon be able to use clairvoyance or remote viewing?”

Tracking expert Takitsubo brought up a difficult topic.

“In modern Western magic, clairvoyance isn’t a means of seeing the contents of a closed envelope. It’s a ceremony used for spiritual meditation.”

Kanzaki provided an explanation, but it was hard to grasp without a solid foundation in the magic side.

She had spread out a large map, probably a privilege she had gained by taking control of the city. That she went to the trouble of printing out a paper copy seemed to show she still wasn’t used to the science side, though.

“It was fortunate we could get our hands on the official blueprints. Our numbers work in our favor. First, we should station personnel at each exit. There are more than 20 official gates for spectators and the real number is even greater due to the unofficial entrances for athletes and staff. With the exits blocked, we can begin exploring inside. Once we know where Coronzon is inside the large stadium and how she has modified it for her ceremony, we can launch our attack.”

“Coronzon should be defenseless while she works,” added Index. “Even if we can’t win a straight fight, we should be able to win right now.”

They could win?

Then why not charge in right this instant?

Kamijou couldn’t believe they would stay out when they knew she was in there.

Othinus must have sensed his impatience because she made a piercing comment from his shoulder.

“Wait, human. If Coronzon detects us and runs off, this will all have been a waste of time.”

“Either way, we should carefully investigate the situation inside and gather what information we can. We can always make our attack after all escape routes we are aware of have been covered.”

Kamijou was a little surprise to find Anna Sprengel advocating the cautious option.

Had that wicked woman learned how frightening it was to have everything fall apart at the last second?

“But can we really wait around that long? There’s that ley line thing, right? That direct route running underground that only the great demon can use. We can have her surrounded as much as we want – it won’t matter if she just teleports out of here!”

“Failure puts the entire human race at risk. Great Demon Coronzon will be able to do more than just this.”

Was that why she didn’t want anyone spying on her from the sky?

After giving a skeptical look at the Bologna Succubus (or her clothing more likely), Kanzaki nodded in agreement.

“We mustn’t forget that she will have escaped if she physically crosses the city wall.”

“But we don’t know the time limit!!”

“It won’t be in the next 5 or 10 minutes at least. That gives us time to take it slow, human.”

===Part 15===

“Hm.”

Great Demon Coronzon put a hand on her hip and observed her surroundings.

She stood at the very center of the enormous stadium.

“That completes the ceremonial ground. And the attribute extracted from the stadium as a whole gives me what I need. Direction, time, number…and the actual spiritual item in my hands: the tattva cards.”

She held a few colorful cards.

However, these cards were not historical antiques.

They were only symbols meant to help one enter the special mental state of meditation, so as long as the colors and symbols were correct, the material was immaterial. They were in fact made by coloring cardstock with thick permanent markers she had acquired after breaking the metal shutter covering a stadium shop. (There was probably a demand for materials that spectators could use to make placards or to draw their team’s logo on their face.)

Perhaps the stadium functioned like a giant magical circle with the cards acting as a control medium like a mouse or keyboard.

Coronzon had a physical body, but her true essence was a collection of Telesma energy. Unlike the pure angels, she was a mixture of different elements, which could be a pain, but by breaking them apart, she too could be handled as pure energy.

That meant she could inject herself into a weapon or armor or she could be carried around inside a thin talisman.

Or she could send herself through the ley lines to instantly travel to the other side of the planet.

“Now, time to begin,” she whispered.

===Part 16===

Kamijou was anxious.

Great Demon Coronzon was inside there, but the great size of the stadium worked against them. With more than 20 public gates, entering the wrong way would give Coronzon a chance to escape out a different one.

They needed to know her exact location before heading in.

…He understood the Anglicans’ point, but that didn’t mean he liked it. No matter how well they prepared themselves, Coronzon would disappear if they didn’t arrive in time. Then the world’s doom would begin on the other side of the planet. Coronzon would be able to choose any location she liked, so she could ensure the optimal conditions for herself. The next time would be far worse. Everything might truly be destroyed.

Next to him, Index spoke up. Addressing Kanzaki.

“Are you going to run a search from the outside? Isn’t that dangerous too?”

“It is. She could detect the magic power of a normal through-walls scan. However, we Amakusas have specialized in hiding our faith to avoid persecution, so we know a few tricks we can use.”

Kamijou and Mikoto had no clue what the Amakusas were working on with such determined looks on their faces. At this point, Index and her 103,001 memorized grimoires was the only person they could rely on.

She got it right on the first guess.

“The Maria Kannon?”

“This isn’t how they were originally used, but they were designed to look like an ordinary Buddhist figure while revealing its true face as the Virgin Mary to anyone who knew what to look for. By intentionally taking a broad interpretation of that concept, it can be remade into a camouflage-breaking searching spell to locate that which is hidden.”

===Part 17===

In the very center of the spacious stadium, Great Demon Coronzon sat quietly, regulated her breathing, and placed her index finger against one of the toxically colorful cards lined up on the ground.

Something felt off.

A sensation like a finger pressed between her eyes caused a tingling in the center of her head. Even though she was the one reaching out her finger. No, it was meaningless to think of it in that way.

The two were linked.

To touch it was to be touched.

The line between the self and the other – between the inner world and the outer world – was blurring.

The core of her body distorted. She was uncertain where she was even sitting.

“Kh.”

Her head wobbled. A vertiginous fluctuation interrupted her thoughts.

This was an Eastern mystical philosophy from ancient India.

She knew it wasn’t a good fit for her. A pure and proper angel never could have done it. But she was an impure and wicked being known as a great demon. And the Crowley system said every from of the mystical could be incorporated into your own spells if you reinterpreted it with your own logic. The wise would not give up just because they reached an impasse. They would use the discovery of that impasse to further elevate themselves.

She took deep breaths.

She consciously guided her thoughts toward stability.

She needn’t think of purifying herself.

There didn’t have to be just one answer.

The tattva cards did not work with pure elements in the first place.

Mathers had warned that meditation using those painfully colorful cards could cause intense anxiety or headaches for a mere human if used incorrectly. So how much worse would the damage from failure be for Coronzon as she tried to return herself to a state of pure energy?

She did not approach the true essence of this Eastern mystical philosophy.

The tattva cards were no more than tools used for control. That would have been how the Golden cabal used them too. They were valuable when it came to understanding the five elements, but there would be discrepancies between the cabal’s manual and the actual Eastern philosophy.

(The work has just passed 50%. That would explain why this inner fear and anxiety is taking on such concrete form.)

Coronzon did not move her eyes.

She had to focus her whole mind on ascending straight up.

Thus, any trivial distractions and detours could end up tearing her ego apart.

So she always stared straight ahead, using only the corner of her vision to watch how her own shadow wavered and thinned.

It was progressing well.

Once her shadow fully vanished, she would have also ''physically'' disappeared from Academy City.

The destruction of the world was within reach.

===Part 18===

“How is that search spell going!?” shouted Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.

“I-it just passed 70%!” nervously reported Itsuwa.

70%.

That was more than halfway done, but Kamijou and the others didn’t know Coronzon’s status. If she was even a single percentage point ahead of them, they wouldn’t finish in time. It was possible the Anglicans would fully surround the stadium and rush in only to find Coronzon had already vanished.

Othinus sighed from Kamijou’s shoulder.

“There’s no need to wait until it’s 100% complete. We know Coronzon is in this building. So if we attack the small unsearched spots, we can confirm her location by sight.”

“How much of the stadium do you think those ‘small spots’ cover?” strongly retorted Kanzaki. “The search has covered 70% or maybe 80%. We’re risking our lives going in, so we want a little more assurance than that!!”

“What do you think, Touma?” asked Index.

“Hm? We should go in now! Right now!!”

He had no idea why an outsider like him had been asked for his opinion on a magical matter, but he gave his answer right away.

“Tsujiura,” said Index. “Kushiura and Qiu Xiang Bu also work. Those are Eastern, so the Amakusas should be able to use them too.”

“I see. So the idea that the first thing said by someone ignorant of the topic at hand can be used for divination,” said Kanzaki, sounding impressed.

In this case, Kamijou’s ignorance of magic gave his words meaning.

…He felt like this was declaring him useless in this fight, which seemed kind of insulting, but if the experts would listen to what he had to say, he didn’t care why.

Whatever the case, Kamijou’s words set them all into motion.

“Kanzaki will join one of the Amakusa teams, I guess. Okay, Alice!! You go lend Agnese’s group a hand!”

“Hm? The girl would prefer to stay with you, teacher.”

“Please! And Anna, you go with that team including Itsuwa and Tsushima!”

“Fool. I will step on you later.”

They complained, but they still split up.

Even Takitsubo and Kihara Noukan did as he said. They had to know even less about magic than him, but they were still risking their lives to stop this unknown threat.

After all, there were more than twenty public gates. The Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force would be blocking all of those exits, but they were dealing with ''the'' Coronzon here. Ordinary magicians weren’t enough. Each team needed an irregular member such as a Saint like Kanzaki Kaori, a Transcendent like the Bologna Succubus or Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, or even a special Transcendent like Anna Sprengel or Alice Anotherbible.

Kamijou didn’t see this as splitting up their forces.

Once they entered the stadium, they would converge on Coronzon’s location. He didn’t want anyone dying in the “blank time” until they broke down the right door and found Coronzon. He was sick of Coronzon being able to choose one of them at random for a one-hit kill lottery. Even if one team was unfortunate enough to run across Coronzon on their way in, they didn’t have to defeat her. Kamijou wanted to give each team someone who could let them survive until the other teams arrived.

Mikoto, who always felt left behind when it came to magical matters, suddenly panicked.

“W-wait, what about me!?”

“You’re with me, of course!! C’mon!!”

“Eh? O-oh…okay.”

Kamijou and Mikoto would enter through the closest gate: Gate 15. Neither knew much about magic, but he figured Othinus’s presence would make up for that. Index’s knowledge was the most important of all, so he couldn’t keep it to himself.

Gate 15 was shut with a metal grate shutter and a glass door, but Mikoto only had to inhale and exhale before it all opened for them. And not just Gate 15. All of the shutters and locks opened at once.

Without waiting for the shutter to fully rise, they ducked below it.

They entered a dark corridor.

And ran.

“Hey, human. Don’t get one-shotted here. Even if Coronzon is busy, she could have sent out those scouts.”

Othinus warned him from his shoulder, but Kamijou didn’t have time to respond. If they were even a second too late, it was all over.

His heart pounded in his ears. He felt like he was going to die on his own without Coronzon having to lift a finger. But he gritted his teeth and kept running.

He wouldn’t let her try again at destroying the world.

He would end this tonight.

===Part 19===

(75%.)

Great Demon Coronzon’s voice no longer vibrated the air.

From her perspective, it was less like her body was unraveling and more like the world around her was changing. Or maybe like she was crossing the boundary between phases. Her coordinates remained the same, but the scene around her changed as if flipping over a page.

Perhaps there was no real difference between the two.

The Golden cabal never managed to send their body across. Thus, their experts had tried to separate just their minds in an act known as astral projection to virtually achieve a leap between phases. They had worked hard to peek into another world like heaven or hell. …And as a result, quite a few magicians had failed to cling to their sanity.

Coronzon’s nearly transparent fingertip passed right through the tattva card.

She was more than halfway on the other side now.

The great demon grinned.

(No more physical control is needed at this point. Now I only have to wait for the process to complete!!)

===Part 20===

Kamijou and Mikoto ran down a long, long corridor.

They couldn’t afford to hide their footsteps now.

Coronzon was so close.

“We’re going to come out into the stands, right? How far is it to the actual sports field!?”

“The actual distance isn’t that far, but the stands aren’t flat. Don’t trip and fall in the darkness, okay?”

Mikoto gave him a surprisingly sincere answer.

There hadn’t been any bright beams of light or explosions yet.

What were Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others doing?

They would have entered through all the entrances at once, but apparently none of the teams had run into Coronzon. They didn’t know where she was hiding to complete her ceremony, but she hadn’t noticed their presence yet. That made this their best chance.

If they failed, it was all over.

(We might not win in a straight fight, but what if she’s immobilized by the important ceremony? This time will be different. This is our only chance to settle things with her!!)

The end of the corridor came into view.

Like a rectangular hole cut out of the darkness.

Kamijou gritted his teeth, clenched his fist, and ran with all his might.

He emerged into a silent space. The flow of time ground to a halt.

No one was there.

The place was deserted.

“What’s…going on?” muttered Kamijou, stopped partway down the stands.

He could hear more people emerging from different directions. But that was all. Even from here, he could see Agnese, the Bologna Succubus, and others looking around in confusion on the other side of the stadium. The great demon wasn’t shining bright as she completed some kind of ceremony and Coronzon didn’t began a fierce battle in an attempt to escape.

Great Demon Coronzon wasn’t here.

It didn’t feel like she had fled in a panic either. There was no warmth in the vast space. It had likely been empty this entire time. Coronzon had never been here. They had chosen the wrong location.

Had their calculations been off?

No, they hadn’t been relying on Index alone. It had been a group effort with help from Anna Sprengel, Kanzaki Kaori, and more from the magic side. And they had been certain Coronzon would use this stadium if she was using Zeus symbolism. So how could they have been wrong!?

“Touma.”

A girl from another group joined him.

Index’s usual childlike air was broken by the trembling voice she forced out.

She seemed hesitant to speak.

“Is this district used for any other special purpose? Other than sports!”

“Huh? Yes. It is a district of stadiums and domes meant to hold tens of thousands of people. I think Aogami Pierce mentioned it being the holy land for idol concerts.”

A quiet thud reached his ears.

Index was unable to support her wobbling body and fell back into one of the seats. The cat mewed in complaint from her arms.

“Then Coronzon wasn’t using sports as the symbol for a sanctuary or temple.”

Her lips quivered.

“Songstresses, plays…she was using the performing arts. Which means it isn’t Zeus! And if she is using a different symbol and a different god, she would be in an entirely different location!!”

===Part 21===

Maximum occupancy: 255 thousand.

Coronzon snorted with laughter when she recalled that extreme number.

…A soccer stadium or baseball stadium could never reach that number even with every seat filled. That display was meant for a concert or live performance where even the field itself was filled with seats.

Coronzon was somewhere like that.

(This district is filled with stadiums and domes. To put it another way, most of them are not the designated home field of a pro team whose games you can watch on a sports app. And “just a stadium” isn’t going to be used just for sports. …District 20’s stadiums probably make most of their income this way. I saw through that right away. And a facility primarily used for concerts is not a Zeus-associated track stadium. To be blunt, this is a large facility built for shows, not for sports.)

She didn’t want Apollo, god of music.

She wanted Dionysus, god of theater.

In ancient Greece, sporting events had been held in sanctuaries as a ceremonial offering to a god, but plays and songs had been made as offering in those same sanctuaries. Thus, holding a concert or live performance in a stadium that could contain a large audience was not a new idea.

Greek theater was the origin of modern stage plays. And the original form of that had been a festival held as an offering to Dionysus, god of alcohol and insanity.

That meant his symbols could be extracted from a large stadium like this.

(The work is past 90%. And yet no pursuit has arrived yet. What’s the matter, humanity? If you let me escape this easily, you will be extinct by tomorrow!!)

===Part 22===

So not sports but music. No, theater.

Not a stadium for sporting events but for concerts and live performances.

When they corrected the initial assumption and had Index recalculate, they were given a single candidate.

“The Brilliant Outdoor Performance Stadium. It points north and, if the adjacent park is viewed as a mountain forest, you could extract the symbols of Dionysus. This time I’m sure of it! A god of insanity would be perfect for controlling her power as a chaotic great demon!”

Now that they had a new answer, they couldn’t just sit around.

Their initial wrong answer would have given Coronzon that much more time for the ceremony to break her body down into energy. As soon as she finished that, she would dive into a ley line and escape to the other side of the planet. There wasn’t a moment to lose.

Kamijou and the others hitched a ride on the rotary snowplow driven by Tsushima of the Amakusas to reach the new destination.

It was in the same district.

Driving there, it wouldn’t take long. The giant stadium capable of holding 255 thousand came into view.

“Is that it? Please still be in the city, Coronzon. Dammit.”

As soon as Kamijou jumped down from the snowplow onto the red snow, he staggered to the side.

He regathered his strength, somehow managing to keep himself steady, but he bumped into something next to him.

But not because he had nearly fallen.

“Ugh…”

He heard a small groan.

From Takitsubo Rikou.

She must have arrived on a different vehicle. Kamijou instinctually caught the unsteady track suit girl…and found her body temperature was higher than he had expected.

Not just warm, but blazing hot.

He was shocked.

“That’s not good… How long have you been hiding this, Takitsubo!?”

“…”

She refused to say a word.

She had been knocked out by some kind of attack from Coronzon during the Adikalika stuff. It was a miracle she was even still alive, yet she had joined the chase instead of calling an ambulance. Anyone would be in a similar state after that.

“You can’t go on. You need to get some rest! You’ve seen the way things are, right!? The Anglicans don’t want to torment Hamazura!!”

“You should listen to your own advice, Touma. Stopping Adikalika was more than enough of a win. You’re hurt, so stay here and look after her,” said an exasperated Index.

Even though it was she who had actually stopped the attack after arriving late. She had a perfect memory, so this wasn’t just a mistake. So was she giving them the credit? When he thought about it, he realized Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others hadn’t actually seen the moment Adikalika was stopped…

Speaking of Kanzaki, she called everyone over.

“If the countdown is close to the end, we can’t spend time on an initial search like before. That will mean a greater risk when we enter. Needless to say…”

“Then do we have time to sit around listening to the headmaster’s speech? I’ll steal a map of the stadium with my powers, so let’s get going!”

Mikoto, Index, Kanzaki, and the rest got moving.

In no time, there wasn’t anyone left.

It was so quiet.

Kamijou sat down and focused on taking deep breaths. He wasn’t as bad as Takitsubo, but he had lost his balance earlier. He had taken a direct hit from Coronzon. He wasn’t a doctor and couldn’t even imagine how much damage had been done inside his body, but he knew better than to be optimistic.

Takitsubo Rikou’s lips moved where she lay right next to him.

He doubted she was conscious, so maybe she was having a nightmare.

“…Hamazura…”

“Kh.”

Kamijou grimaced. In agony.

She had to be badly worried about her friend. If she didn’t do something to help out and earn points with the Anglicans, she would lose all chance of negotiating with them. But she was too injured to move.

If Coronzon did escape, who could say where they would direct their anger. Even if Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others fighting here didn’t, the higher ups watching from across the ocean might demand a live sacrifice from those who were close to Coronzon.

Could that be why Index had used such vague phrasing to give up credit for stopping Adikalika?

But it wasn’t enough. Takitsubo wanted something more to push her claim of having contributed, so Adikalika wasn’t enough and she had come with them even if it meant hiding how bad her injuries were.

And unlike her, Kamijou could still move.

He couldn’t push himself too hard.

But he had to make up his mind.

“Okay. I’ll go.”

“Human? …It figures.”

“I’ll stop Coronzon, so don’t you worry, Takitsubo. Don’t forget: winning is meaningless if you die. Your goal is to be with Hamazura, right? Then you need to rest.”

He forced his heavy body up and began to walk.

No, he was trying to run full speed, but this was the most speed he could manage.

Even so, Imagine Breaker would have to be of some use.

Coronzon’s magic was extraordinarily powerful.

Maybe he couldn’t fight her himself, but he could at least help out someone who could. If he could shield them from even a single attack, it might be enough to decide the battle.

He would overturn the game as a wild card.

===Part 23===

Great Demon Coronzon only had to wait. And the time finally arrived.

It was already over.

99%.

Even if someone barged in now, she could break her body down into Telesma and escape Academy City through the ley line before they could do anything.

Her victory was assured. Those humans were too late to prevent their doom. The silly fools should have resisted more.

But then…

“You think so? Then allow me to cause a bit of trouble.”

Her vision shattered.

Black, red, silver, blue, yellow… It all collapsed into a wild dance of colors.

No.

Crossing between phases and breaking herself down may have been the same thing. She had thought so herself.

Which meant it was she who was collapsing.

She could no longer support her sitting position and fell to the side. Something was wrong with her limbs. She couldn’t remember how to breathe. Nevertheless, she managed to gather all her strength and scream.

“A…lei…sterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!?”

“Now, now, Coronzon. You should know better than to mess with anything as dangerous as the tattva cards which even the Golden cabal had to issue a recall for. Don’t you remember what Mathers said? They can cause intense anxiety or headaches if used incorrectly. Why would you visit the mental world after going to the trouble of physically sealing me away? Are you trying to kill yourself? ''In here'', I can still wield some power.”

(Emergency…shutoff!!)

A dull “snap!” came from the center of her head.

“Khah!!”

She tried to let out the breath caught in her throat, but what came out was colored red.

For a while, she lay on her side convulsing until she forcibly suppressed the writhing of every last one of her internal organs. Yes, it was urgent that she accurately recalled the shape of her body. She had already begun to enter the ley line when the magic failed. She had to return to her original body in a hurry, but if she forgot that body’s shape now, she could be entirely annihilated.

It took her a full ten seconds.

Once she calmed her wild breathing and recalled the cycle for inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, she had reclaimed her physical body.

The tattva cards could cause mental confusion if used incorrectly.

For her, did that mean releasing the sealed Aleister? In other words…

“Dammit!!!”

This meant a change of plans.

She couldn’t use this method anymore.

And if she was going to cross Academy City’s wall for a physical escape…she had no reason to remain in this stadium. She had to leave as soon as possible.

===Part 24===

Kamijou forced his unsteady body to keep moving and pushed open a small metal door with his shoulder.

He slipped through the half-open door, probably a staff entrance, and entered the stadium.

He found a dark, cold, heavy space.

Big too.

…He had apparently entered something like a parking garage. Was it a space for workers located below the stadium? He didn’t know enough to have a good mental picture of how stadiums were structured.

He did have his phone with him, but he didn’t know what was happening inside. The pursuers had to be careful too, so he wanted to avoid causing someone’s phone to ring while they were trying to hide.

“Index? Misaka?” he called quietly.

He didn’t know how the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force were searching the stadium. Because they weren’t sharing information with him.

He heard some light footsteps through the darkness. They echoed off the gray walls and were moving away from him.

He immediately ran full speed in that direction.

He could tell just from listening whose they were.

“(Human, you noticed how odd that was, I trust?)”

(We all know how powerful Coronzon is, so everyone will be searching as part of a team. So no one should be leaving on their own like that!)

“Coronzon!! Is that you!?”

“You really shouldn’t have announced your presence. Unless you have the supernatural power to kill with words alone.”

The footsteps stopped.

A voice spoke from behind one of the thick concrete pillars lining the space.

A hateful voice.

“I’m relieved. Because of you I can easily kill and complete my escape. Now, Kamijou Touma, how do you intend to stop me? Don’t try to tell me that foolish shout was all part of a plan and you have a more troublesome opponent hiding nearby.”

15cm Othinus could not directly fight, so he was effectively alone.

Coronzon had seen right through him.

What about the phone in his pocket? No. He might not have a signal, but more than that, using the touchscreen in the dark parking garage would give him away with the backlight. Coronzon would act before he could call for help.

“You chose this stadium because it was your best bet, right? You can’t use magic to escape through the ley lines now. So give up, Coronzon.”

“Why should I? Great demons are perfectly capable of driving cars. And it goes without saying that ordinary cars can slip right past a scan for magic power.”

Kamijou’s eyes widened.

That was her plan immediately after trying to escape using Telesma and a ley line? She switched gears way too fast.

“How many trump cards do you have!?”

“More than a mere human could ever imagine, that’s for sure.”

If she escaped in a car, he couldn’t keep up on foot. His phone was an iffy option too. So was there nothing he could do? If he shouted at the top of his lungs, the others would surely gather here. He wouldn’t let her escape.

The voice alone continued from behind the pillar.

“How about this, Kamijou Touma? What if you keep quiet and let me go?”

“Why even ask that? It’s meaningless. If you escape tonight, you’ll work to destroy all of humanity by tomorrow, right? Then nothing you could offer me would be worth it!!”

“Oh, you will let me go. Because I happened to pick up a trump card on my way here.”

Someone emerged from behind the concrete pillar. Slowly.

Blonde hair.

A woman.

But that hair was fluffy and only fell to the shoulder blades.

This wasn’t Great Demon Coronzon.

He had only heard a single set of footsteps, so had she been captured behind the pillar?

What was being held against her from outside Kamijou’s view? The feminine lines of her body were trembling and her expression was like a cross between tears and a smile.

He recognized her as one of the Amakusas.

“Tsushima.”

It wasn’t even a case of “move and she’s dead”.

All of a sudden, the red splattered out.

From the side of her neck. Kamijou was an ordinary high school boy without much forensic medical knowledge, but the location the blood was spraying from sent a chill down his spine. She seemed to have been cut by an invisible blade.

A laughing woman stuck her head out from behind the pillar.

Great Demon Coronzon really was a demon.

“Kee hee ha ha!! Protecting human lives is no easy task, is it? Or are you willing to take another tour of hell for her!?”

Coronzon kicked Tsushima’s doll-like body from behind, shoving her toward him.

He had no choice but to catch her. Only a few seconds had passed, but she felt limp and heavy in his arms. She clung heavily to him like a down blanket soaked with water. He pressed his palm firmly against the wound in her neck. How much blood loss was lethal for a human? If he didn’t stop the blood spurting from the side of her neck, she really would die.

At that moment, Kamijou’s vision suddenly went dark.

But not because Coronzon had done anything. It took him a while to even realize that. He had long since pushed his body past the limit.

He shouldn’t have been up and about at all.

“Human!!”

“Kah…ah…?”

He felt horribly faint.

He collapsed and couldn’t get back up. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t move his arms and legs very much. He wasn’t even sure which way was up.

“Kh.”

He held Tsushima tight in his arms. He gritted his teeth and tried to take in as much information on the physical reality around him. Sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch… it didn’t matter what. He was afraid he would pass out otherwise.

“Ha ha ha!! You said it was meaningless, didn’t you? You couldn’t have been more right! Why bother saving a life or two now when I will be destroying the entire world soon!”

No, it wasn’t working.

Even after all this…he couldn’t stop his mind from slipping away into darkness.

He had to avoid removing his hand from that neck wound.

He heard the sound of metal breaking.

Then the sound of an engine starting and the sound of Coronzon driving a car away.

“Wait…Coronzon…”

The darkness took over.

Kamijou Touma’s consciousness fully faded.

“Waiiiiit!!!”

===Part 25===

“Can you hear me?”

Near the center of the open stadium, Agnese heard a young male voice.

Hearing a voice when no one was there was nothing unusual. She was commanding more than 250 people, so she was using communication magic.

But this was odd.

The Former Agnese Force was all female.

“This…Mich………k… I have an urgent message. Can anyone hear me?”

She was using a Roman Catholic communication spiritual item derived from the Barbara Branch. It was made from a cherry tree twig with a few buds attached and it wasn’t all that unusual. …Even if it did seem wrong for nuns to be carrying around tools for love fortunetelling.

The hard buds unnaturally opened below the frigid sky and the flower petals vibrated.

They produced a human voice.

(You’re kidding. Is someone hijacking the channel!?)

“Is anyone at all in Academy City receiving this!? There is something I must tell you immediately!”

“?”

Itsuwa gave Agnese a puzzled look from nearby. …Apparently she couldn’t hear this. That meant it was targeted only at the Roman Catholics of the Former Agnese Force.

Agnese Sanctis frowned.

“This is Agnese Sanctis. Who are you?”

“Thank god… I got through! This is Michael Speak, a cardinal officially appointed by the pope!!”

She was at a loss for words.

…Those were the around a hundred ultra elites chosen out of the two billion Roman Catholics to directly advise the pope. Ordinarily, she would never even directly speak to one.

But his voice didn’t fit the part. He sounded like a stressed young man. He didn’t sound even thirty.

Perhaps his modesty was what had earned him so much popularity.

(Another Michael. And with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.)

“What does a great cardinal want with lowly peon like me?”

“Tell only the Roman Catholics to get out of there immediately. You need to leave Academy City as soon as possible. Your team will obey you if you tell them!”

“?”

She had expected a protest or sarcasm in response, so this came as a complete surprise.

This was advance warning of an attack.

She didn’t know what the Vatican was preparing to do, but she had to assume it was a fairly dangerous large-scale spell. Something even greater than Coronzon’s Adikalika.

“You mean it’s close to being activated?”

“As Roman Catholics, we cannot allow someone as dangerous as Great Demon Coronzon to escape Academy City. If she cannot be defeated on the front line, then the Vatican must reach out a helping hand.”

Reach out a helping hand.

So from their perspective, they were saving lives.

And the same went for Agnese, Lucia, Angelene, and the rest of the Former Agnese Force fighting on the front line.

“There are three activation conditions. First, if you completely lose track of Coronzon and the trail goes cold. Two, at 5:47 AM local time. In other words, at dawn. Third, if we believe a non-Catholic force has learned of our plan and could attempt to stop it. If any one of those conditions is met, the Vatican will activate Saint Georgios’s Fire.”

“Kh.”

The most important condition was the third.

That meant the Vatican didn’t want them sharing this information with anyone else. Even though this would mean the destruction of Academy City. The chance to evacuate was for the Former Agnese Force only.

…Were they being pressured to abandon Academy City and the Anglicans who they had fought and risked their lives alongside?

“We are always watching and listening, Sister Agnese. The physical distance matters little. So do not attempt to contact anyone else through trickery or deception. We will not overlook it.”

(Magical surveillance is a hell of a thing. Although I’m sure it was originally justified as a way for the pure servants of god to punish wicked magicians.)

She didn’t actually know how much she was being observed. The Catholics had been outdone by the other forces so far, so Agnese thought they had to be bluffing to an extent. But this still made it hard to take any bold action.

And she knew what Saint Georgios’s Fire was.

She had heard rumors of it back when she still lived in Italy.

There was a legend about the death of Saint Georgios, or Saint George as he was known in England. When he was being pressured to renounce his faith in a wicked temple, a great ball of fire fell from heaven and blew it all away. So it was a legend of pure attack power.

“That’s a large-scale spell that targets a distant location through the ley lines, isn’t it?”

“Ironically, it uses the same pathway Coronzon is attempting to use to escape. But since we can only use it and not control it, we cannot stop her from using it.”

The Roman Catholic spell was essentially a cluster bomb that detonated two billion explosive flames across the entirety of the targeted city.

And rather than burn everything down with the explosive blasts and flames, it used an extreme high temperature to rapidly alter the atmospheric pressure and oxygen level across the entire area. That meant fortifying oneself behind a shield or wall was meaningless. Because your own body would rupture from within. Afterwards, only a lifeless city would remain.

It was effectively the ideal form of a human killer.

(Now isn’t the time for us humans to be fighting among ourselves!!)

“I thought the pope had learned an important lesson from the trials of World War Three. I can’t believe he would agree to such a forceful solution.”

“His authorization is unnecessary. The cardinals have the right to hold an ecumenical council or election. …And the majority wish to do this. We in the minority have no way to stop them.”

“Doesn’t that seem disrespectful?”

“Abstaining in protest will not change the outcome of the vote. Did I ever say that I like that this is happening!?”

There was real strength behind those last words.

That had to be what he really thought. Which was why it pierced Agnese so deeply.

But even if he was sensible, he couldn’t change what was happening. She could tell that too.

(Well, this is a disaster…)

And there was an issue beyond the number of victims across Academy City.

A more fundamental issue.

“Don’t you know ''a human killer spell won’t affect an inhuman demon''? Sowing further confusion in Academy City will only create more openings in the city perimeter!! You’re playing right into Coronzon’s hand!!”

Apparently Coronzon’s special trait remained in effect.

She tore people apart and obstructed their evolution.

(But I can’t believe it’s gone so far.)

“Sister Agnese!!”

“What do you want, cardinal!? I’m really goddamn busy right now!”

“This is a compromise. As much of one as I could get. The original plan was to immediately activate Saint Georgios’s Fire and I only barely stopped that from happening!”

There was kindness in his words.

But that kindness was unnecessary. Something was fundamentally off about this.

“Don’t tell me this is about wounded pride. Index stopped Adikalika by redirecting it to an unnamed desert island in the Atlantic. The Italian peninsula wasn’t harmed!”

“But Coronzon did launch her large-scale attack spell. And that wasn’t her only trump card. Her power is unfathomable, so she must be destroyed when we have the chance. None of the cardinals can ignore that point. I’m sorry, but that includes me!”

She wasn’t sure what to say.

She understood. Yes, even Agnese was furious. If she hadn’t made a conscious effort to calm herself, she might have left the Anglicans back then.

“Violence is wrong,” he continued. “I understand that. We erred and let God’s Right Seat manipulate us during World War Three. …But this time, ''we are in our rights to retaliate.'' Overturning that idea will not be easy, Sister Agnese.”

(Coronzon. Your mere presence really does make a mess of humanity as a whole!)

The Roman Catholics naturally had a variety of emotions about this.

About Coronzon and about Academy City for failing to stop this crisis earlier.

…Nuclear missiles could destroy the world, so it would take a lot of guts to launch the first one yourself. But what if an enemy launched one at you first? That would lower the mental hurdle for pressing the launch button considerably.

People were easily influenced by the word “retaliation”. And that could burn down the entire world.

“I will do everything I can, but I doubt I can stop this from happening. Sooner or later, Saint Georgios’s Fire will be launched.”

He was one of the sensible ones.

He would truly prefer not to use it.

But that was why nothing he said was a mere threat or bluff.

For the pacifists, nothing was more painful than having to declare that an atrocity would soon be happening.

“So you need to escape that city immediately. It’s a shame what will happen to Academy City and the Anglicans, but it’s too late for them. Gather up all the Roman Catholics and get out of there!!”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter1|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter3}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume14 Chapter2

2025-12-29T19:47:13Z

Massify: /* Part 2 */ had to fix the word to another word

==Chapter 2: Divine Slope, Forbidden Book – Magical Exit.==

===Part 1===

In Academy City’s District 7, someone was still fighting on and on, separate from the core of the incident.

That person was Dion Fortune.

“Ahhh, they’ve forgotten me… I just know they’ve all left me behind!! They must have done something about Adikalika since the Earth is still intact, but couldn’t they have launched a group attack to come help me before they left? I am technically the archbishop at the very top of the Anglican Church, you know!?”

A scraping sound came from a short distance away. A giant black cat stood more than two meters tall there. The bizarre beast appeared to be drawn with black paint and it was ridden by a magician in mourning clothes.

Moina Mathers.

She was undeniably a formidable foe. After all, that official member of the Golden cabal, once called the largest in the world, had been fighting for hours now, but the battle still wasn’t over. Even though an average magician who be delighted to be referred to as “first rate” would have been killed instantly.

(This is bad. I know Coronzon is our top priority, but I can’t just leave her out here.)

The enemy said nothing.

Seated atop the black cat that had to be more than two meters tall, Moina Mathers made some complex movements with her fingertips.

Like a magic trick, countless cards appeared and were then pinned in midair.

The cards were not as complex as tarot. They only depicted a combination of basic symbols like circles and triangles.

These cards could express anything in the world using a combination of a primary element and a secondary element.

Dion Fortune’s eyes widened when she saw the dancing colors.

“Geh, are those tattva cards!?”

The mourning clothes woman’s lips writhed.

She produced a voice.

“Apas of Tejas.”

With a roar, a fireball more than a meter in diameter consumed oxygen and rushed toward Dion Fortune.

This had been referenced in the Golden cabal’s official texts, but it was in fact a controversial text that had been officially adopted at one point but then rejected within the cabal. (From the perspective of Western Europe in the 19th century,) India, Tibet, and the East in general were utopias of miracles and the mystical! …But Mathers hated that view, so he took the unusual step of writing a serious warning against the use of the tattvas due to their Eastern origins.

(She’s an artist and a clairvoyance expert. This wife probably did write a lot about the tattvas.)

However, the fireball was approaching slowly enough to see it coming.

Dion Fortune held her black box out in front of her.

If any kind of magic entered that special spiritual item, its data would be randomly rearranged, changing it into something else entirely. That meant it could rob most any attack spell of its lethality, but…

(Would ''the'' Moina Mathers really be satisfied with an explosive that moved this slow? Uh, oh. She intentionally combined multiple elements in this one spell, so even if my box consumes the primary element of Tejas, will the secondary element of Apas still explode?)

“Wahhh!!”

She couldn’t let herself be caught by such obvious bait.

Dion Fortune quickly got down on the red snow to dodge.

The fireball passed by barely above her head before exploding and toppling a wind turbine behind her.

With the tattvas, it was thought the world was constructed of five simple elements, but it was incredibly difficult to extract those elements in their pure form. That was why the elements were used in combination, like Apas of Tejas or Prithivi of Vayu.

(Kind of like a different version of Western-loving Mathers’s Hot and Dry or Cold and Wet!)

Dion Fortune raised her head from the red snow and shouted.

“Argh, you really had to use the tattvas, huh!? Are you intentionally using your husband’s doubts and detours as a weapon!? How much of a cruel wife are you!?”

And…

(If a pawn created by Coronzon can use the tattvas, then Coronzon must know how to use them too.)

She had a bad feeling about this.

The tattva cards depicted a combination of a primary element and a secondary element. They were a spiritual item that provided visual support for sending your mind into a deeper state. Moina was using them in a physical and offensive way, but she was doing that by pushing her own mind to extract the necessary spell from within herself.

That made this a tool specialized for manipulating non-physical energy and for breaking down the world into five elements and managing it in that form.

What was the worst thing an inhuman demon could do using the tattvas?

Dion Fortune thought she knew.

“Oh, no. If she breaks herself down into her component elements and remakes that into pure Telesma energy…could she escape anywhere on the Earth through the ley lines!?”

===Part 2===

They went back into the department store so they get out of the January chill while they thought.

Coronzon was trying to magically escape Academy City using something called a ley line rather than physically crossing the wall.

Kamijou and the others knew that now.

But where in the city would she perform that major ceremony? Now that they had lost track of her, they had to get back on her trail. But how could they do that?

They didn’t even know what district she had escaped to.

“The girl can help!” Alice Anotherbible volunteered. “The girl will divine her location! But, but! She would feel lonely doing it alone, so will someone good with magic help?”

That ruled out Kamijou. Imagine Breaker was never going to help with something like this. And Mikoto visibly cringed at the very idea of relying on divination here, so she was out too.

…But he couldn’t get a read on Takitsubo’s stance. She always had a blank expression and he couldn’t tell if her staring eyes were a sign of agreement or rejection.

The pointy-haired boy tilted his head in the women’s clothing section.

“Eh? You can use Alice in Wonderland for divination?”

“You can use any book, Touma. Haven’t you heard of bibliomancy? You flip through a thick book and place your finger on a random page. Then you apply the passage found there to the problem you’re facing to find an answer.”

Why would he have heard of something like that?

On his shoulder, Othinus continued the conversation like all of this was normal.

“As a piece of nonsense literature, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tends to be associated with mystical matters, including this sort of divination.”

“So, Touma, it should be a good fit here. It’s also well known.”

“That’s not what the girl is doing! We want to know where to go next, right? That means we want a number from 1 to 23, not a literary passage.”

So the district number?

But how would you use Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to search for a number?

“Playing cards, right?” said an exasperated Anna Sprengel.

Her exasperation was not directed at Alice for the suggestion. It was directed at Kamijou for not figuring it out right away. And it was quite strong.

“Fool. Gambling, by its nature, is often associated with divination. Playing cards are no exception. For a familiar example, playing solitaire on your own is practically a form of divination already.”

This was apparently a slightly more complicated version of solitaire.

Alice clapped her hands and spread them apart, causing playing cards to spill out from the space between her palms. They scattered atop a glass showcase.

Index and Anna Sprengel joined Alice in organizing the cards. After forming a few triangles reminiscent of bowling pin formations, Alice flicked away the unneeded cards, formed new triangles…and repeated the process a few times.

“Human. In this case, you can ignore the suits and focus only on the numbers,” advised Othinus from his shoulder.

In the end, only two cards remained.

Index identified them.

“10 and 10.”

“Wait, so is that the answer? But if it’s District 10, why is there two of them?”

“If you rush to the answer in your ignorance, I will stomp on your crotch, fool. She said the answer would be ''a'' number, remember? But playing cards only go from 1 to 13, so a single card can’t indicate a number higher than that. And playing cards have no zero. So this is the only way to output the answer.”

“This is the answer here. You only have to add the two numbers.”

“Then…Coronzon is in ''District 20''?”

As soon as Kamijou said this, looking thoughtful…

''Ba-zap!!!

“Whoa!?” shouted Index.

The roar was loud enough to make you flinch even at a distance. It resembled electrical sparks. He couldn’t be certain, but was this really safe? If Anna Sprengel hadn’t grabbed Index’s hand and pulled her away at the last second, would they both have been turned to charcoal?

Alice Anotherbible, however, simply smiled.

Only she was unfazed after being exposed to that effusion of power.

“Yay, now we know where to go next!”

“…”

Alice really was special. Her power was extraordinary enough on its own, but nothing good came of incorporating it into ordinary magic. While it was normal for Alice herself, everyone else had to endure that fearsome strength.

===Part 3===

“Ughhh, I’m so hungry… You Amakusas have a lot of Eastern stuff for your camouflage, right? Do the Flying Alms Bowl.”

“The Flying Alms Bowl is not like an app-based bike delivery service. Here, Index, I do have a chocolate bar.”

“Yay!” shouted Index, raising her arms in celebration and running off for a late-night snack. It was past 1 AM. Did she feel no guilt eating chocolate at this hour?

Kamijou’s visible confusion elicited an exasperated sigh from Othinus on his shoulder.

“The Flying Alms Bowl is a spell that Buddhist monks up in the mountains could use to send just their alms bowl flying out to the city to receive pindapata. And since I know you’re going to ask, pindapata is the practice of people offering food to monks.”

“Wait, so there’s magic that brings food to you?”

“So the basic idea of a delivery drone has existed for centuries, huh? It just took a while before they had the physics and science to pull it off.”

Mikoto sounded impressed in her own way. Also, pindapata was a form of charity, so it was free. The ancient people sure came up with some neat ideas.

Then it occurred to Kamijou this probably meant he had mentally recovered enough to begin using his imagination again.

They hadn’t lost track of Coronzon. There was still hope.

Here in District 20.

Index tilted her head.

“Hey, Touma? What kinds of things do they have here?”

“I think it’s mostly sports stuff. Baseball, soccer, basketball, and more.”

“It’s more than just hard fields and courts. The place is filled with huge stadiums and domes, including indoor pools and skating rinks,” elaborated mourning clothes Mikoto.

Takitsubo was viewing a nearby guide map. With her head tilted. She wore a track suit, but she may not have been a very athletic person.

“That would provide plenty of locations capable of hiding a large-scale ceremony,” said Kanzaki, hiding frustration behind her polite tone.

She may have realized just how hard a search this was going to be.

“If Board Chairman Accelerator were awake, we could have used the satellites,” said Kihara Noukan.

That would have helped a lot. The satellite images could have ruled out the non-domed stadiums, but they didn’t have what they didn’t have.

They would have to do it themselves.

Instead of using the obvious borderline of the wall, Coronzon planned to escape the city by melting into a…ley line? Well, into the ground. Kamijou didn’t know enough about magic to even guess at how long that would take.

But if they didn’t find her as soon as possible, they could be too late.

Not knowing only made him more antsy.

However, checking every single stadium in the entire district would be far too inefficient. He could see so many from here alone. He never knew you could have too many landmarks.

“We’ve reached District 20 too.”

He heard a voice and Kanzaki held something to her ear.

“Wh-what is that? I though it was weird before…but now I’m certain of it: that isn’t a phone!”

“It’s a communication spiritual item.”

Index’s explanation probably didn’t explain anything for Mikoto.

The paper charm – communication spiritual item? – in Kanzaki’s hand produced the familiar voice of the Bologna Succubus. It was apparently the Amakusa style to attach it to the back of a phone so it would be less conspicuous.

“Hey, witch hunt team, you tell that lad there’s nothing to report from up here. No sign of Coronzon. …The Anti-Skill helicopter is gone, so are we the only ones in the air any longer?”

“After everything that happened in District 19, I imagine anything that can fly is busy providing disaster relief or transporting supplies.”

The conversation suddenly ended after that comment from Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, who was presumably dangling down with the Bologna Succubus.

They were cut off by a tremendous noise that made Kamijou cover his ears.

“What the hell was that!?”

“An interception spell,” muttered Othinus.

“Flying with magic is just too dangerous!” shouted Index.

“Ksshh! We were brought down by an interception spell, but that means she’s nearby. Coronzon is definitely in District 20!! And if she doesn’t want us spying from the sky, ksshh, she’s not in a roofed dome or an indoor stadium! Look for the outdoor stadiums with nothing covering them!!”

“Hey! You crashed, right!? Are you okay!? Please tell me you are!”

“I don’t know what you’re expecting from a demon like me, but quit it. We can’t fly anymore, but we’ll catch up soon. We can run on the ground, so don’t worry!!”

“Damn you, sex demon. I know my coat is sturdy, but get your ass off it! Kiiii! You do not meet my salvation conditions, so you do not get to use me as a chair!!”

They seemed to be doing well.

The sounds of a scuffle coming through suggested they were unharmed.

That aside, Coronzon herself had reacted here. That gave them a huge opportunity as pursuers. They couldn’t waste it.

“So a sports facility without a roof covering it. It must be one of the open stadiums. In that case…”

“Different sports have different magical meanings,” said Index.

“Then what about soccer?”

“A festival held in England since ancient times. It’s the origin of all forms of football. Of course, a festival from the 12th century will either be 100% Christian or have incorporated aspects of other myths or religious events like with May Day or Halloween.”

His casual question received quite the explanation in return.

But she of course had a reason for explaining all this.

“But when we’re talking about sports and stadiums, I would start looking here. The ancient Greeks. Everyone in the world knows the sporting event where people compete for the gold medal, but that was originally held at Zeus’s sanctuary. It was meant as an offering to the gods led by Zeus.”

“If we can swap that name out for Jupiter, there are plenty in Rome too,” said Agnese.

Kamijou’s knowledge of Greek mythology didn’t go much past “that thing used for the astrological horoscopes on the morning news”. Where did Great Demon Coronzon belong exactly? With all the talk of rebelling against god, he had assumed she was a Christian demon, but could she use techniques from Greek mythology?

Mikoto and the golden retriever took a step back when these topics came up.

So it was Index who fluently responded.

“Magician Crowley said there are no such thing as demons.”

“Wait, but he called her ''Great Demon'' Coronzon himself.”

“He also said there are no pure demons. He said ‘demon’ is a word people use when they want to deride the gods of people they dislike.”

“…”

Yes, that sounded a lot more like that human who always took the cynical view.

But in that case…

“Could Great Demon Coronzon be referred to as a great god by some other religion?”

“Fool. Even Mathers rejected that idea. He called her an absolute evil to all humanity who was equally and uniformly opposed even when comparing every last myth and legend.”

“But Crowley supported the idea that she is a relative evil who ''appears evil'' from a certain viewpoint.”

A pure evil that did only evil.

Could such a being really exist?

To him that sounded like a strange magnet with only a north pole.

“People on the side of evil tend to be strict about the rules, don’t they?” said Takitsubo. “They have a lot of inviolable rules and strong bonds with their companions. Mugino is like that. If Coronzon is evil but doesn’t need that solid core, then she really isn’t human.”

But Coronzon herself believed they could exist. Which was the source of her self-loathing. She believed her great power was an irregular “distortion” a lot like a monopole. She thought it could only tear people apart. She thought it was twisted and wrong, so no matter how powerful she was, she could never be proud of herself. …If she could, none of this would ever have happened.

Whether or not Aleister’s theory was correct, Othinus arrived at a conclusion.

“Because she is a demon who doesn’t follow the rules, she might have full use off the techniques and fields not approved by Christianity. The rules don’t bind her.”

Mikoto put a hand on her hip and asked Index a question.

“Look, I don’t get any of this occult mumbo jumbo, so can you just tell us where to go?”

“If she is using Zeus’s symbols, a track stadium. His symbols are the sky, thunder, mountains, fatherhood, and many more. He’s the most important god, so he has a lot of attributes. But in this case, there aren’t many symbols Coronzon can use for her spell.”

Kamijou didn’t even have time to ask why.

Index was the star of the show at times like this.

“Zeus is generally a sky god. But Coronzon wants a way to the control the ley lines in the ground, which is the complete opposite. So we can ignore almost all of his attributes.”

“Hm? If it’s that much of a mismatch, why would she use Zeus in the first place?” asked Kamijou.

Othinus and Index both answered him.

“Because, human, he is the top god. He’s powerful enough you don’t want to reject him out of hand.”

“Not relying on Zeus in a district of athletic stadiums is like trying to win a soccer game without ever touching the ball.”

That made sense.

Zeus was a famous enough god that even Kamijou was familiar with him (from manga and games), so his power would be obvious and great. If Coronzon could use it, she would of course want to, but since he was a mismatch for her current objective, she wanted a connector to link the ingredient with her plan.

…Or something like that?

He felt like the situation was similar to a fugitive getting an airplane but having trouble taking off in it.

“So because Zeus is such an important god, he has a lot of different attributes? Then what part of Zeus is Coronzon trying to use? You said he’s a sky god, but she needs an attribute related to deep underground, right? Then what exactly is she going to-”

“Rain,” she replied immediately. “There’s a legend saying the current world is so full of different gods and heroes because Uranus and Zeus were joined with many earth goddesses through the rain that falls from heaven. …Touma, is there anywhere those intersect? For example, a place where a long waterway for rainwater passes directly below a large track stadium?”

===Part 4===

It was a dreary place.

The room was large but plain. Like a big metal box. And it was chilly.

Isabella Theism, a necromancer with silver hair and dark skin, took a look around.

“Why…am I alive?”

No one answered her.

Kihara Goukei was it? Had that bio-monster transported an enemy who would have died if just abandoned on the side of the road?

Cigarette smoke lingered thinly in the air.

So was that Stiyl Magnus on the other side of the locked door? He showed no mercy. If Isabella took any careless action, he wouldn’t hesitate to burn her away with 3000-degree flames.

(True Voodoo priests are apparently immune to fire, but I’m only making use of their techniques and haven’t mastered it to that extent.)

Besides, there were no gaps in the thick metal door. It had probably been welded shut by those same 3000-degree flames. Only a magician who could burn through the metal could open the door.

Isabella searched through her rags to check on her possessions. Unsurprisingly, all of the obviously dangerous items had been confiscated. However, these rags patched together from the clothes of several dead people had a lot of hidden pockets. She stuck a finger through the sloppy stitching and…yep, there it was.

Something stirred in the corner of her vision.

“?”

She only now realized she wasn’t alone in here. It wasn’t an Anglican magician keeping an eye on her. If it was, they would have stopped her by now.

That meant this was someone else under surveillance like her.

(What is this unnatural lack of vitality? I specialize in life and death and even I overlooked his presence.)

“Who are you?”

“''Hamazura Shiage''.”

Even as he responded, he seemed about as lively as withered grass.

He was Japanese…but he didn’t seem to be one of those Amakusas who Kanzaki Kaori had brought along. There was no scent of magic on the high schooler.

Then why had he been arrested by the Anglicans? He was a completely ordinary person…but that mismatch with his surroundings made him an uncanny sight here.

(It feels like being placed in front of ''too cheap'' of ingredients.)

It was uncanny, but if he wasn’t going to get in her way, she saw no reason to eliminate him.

She had no intention of staying in this prison with a stranger. She pulled out the spiritual item – or really, the materials to create one – hidden inside her rags.

(There’s a chance a scanning spell would detect the faint magic power emanating from a completed spiritual item…but the materials are no more than ordinary goods and ingredients. Slipping past checks like that is so useful.)

“What are you doing?”

“Escaping. I don’t have anything to do here.”

Isabella pulled out a small lime. One with a branch thinner than a matchstick still attached. She sliced it in two without a knife and squeezed one half to sprinkle the juice on the outdoor wall opposite the door.

A chemical smoke burst forth as if she had used a powerful acid.

A hole visibly grew until it was more than two meters in diameter.

That wall was no more than metal. Breaking through was easy if you had the appropriate magical knowledge. Plus, lemons, limes, and other acidic fruits were common components of Voodoo magic. It was used in an emergency antidote for zombie powder and in the lime poison created by combining the various toxins and antidotes found in the lime.

“Stiyl…wouldn’t have noticed. With the thick metal door fused shut, he wouldn’t be able to hear any of the noise I’m making in here.”

He would have any number of ways of stopping her if he did notice, though.

The delinquent-looking boy had a surprisingly mild reaction.

He was imprisoned. He would normally leap at the chance to escape without even considering the consequences.

“What I meant is, what do you hope to accomplish by escaping?”

“No matter what anyone else says and no matter how ugly a choice it may be…I will always do what I think is most necessary. Right now, that means defeating Great Demon Coronzon and bringing stability back to the world.”

===Part 5===

Done talking, the brown woman who reeked of death departed into the outside world.

She likely had something to do.

Unlike Hamazura.

(What do I do now?)

Hamazura Shiage lacked that level of motivation.

He had bet his entire life on Coronzon…and lost.

He was worried about Takitsubo Rikou, but he didn’t think she was in that much danger as long as she was within Academy City. After all, she was a high-level esper theorized to possibly become the eighth Level 5.

If he didn’t want any stray shots, or accurate sniper shots pretending to be one, hitting her, it was best if he stayed away while he was a fugitive.

Which meant…

“Oh, I know. What about Coronzon?”

Where had she gone?

He was worried about her too. She wanted to destroy the current rotten world and create a clean new world. Something must be happening that made her feel that way. What if this world was already damaged beyond repair but that damage simply wasn’t visible?

Then what exactly was happening? He wanted to speak with her.

Despite his earlier strong words, he did want to live with Takitsubo.

So he wanted to know what was going to happen.

However, wouldn’t Coronzon have to be in a dangerous position if he was able to catch up to her in his state? He really wanted her at least to escape the city soon…

===Part 6===

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had returned to the District 10 prison.

The facility doubled as the new Board Chairman’s headquarters.

It was guarded by several layers of thick metal doors, metal bars, and all sorts of sensors, but that meant nothing to an artificial demon who could freely switch between corporeal and incorporeal forms.

“I-I’m back.”

No response.

She may have expected that.

In the single-occupant cell, a frail figure lay on the bed.

Surrounded by medical equipment.

The only sound was a rhythmic beeping and a pump expanding and contracting to push out air.

…His body hadn’t been in perfect working order to begin with. Brain damage had left him reliant on a modern design cane and he couldn’t even understand human speech without the choker-style electrode around his neck.

Even so.

It was far too painful to see him lying in the bed like that.

Academy City’s #1 could not live on his own.

He was kept alive by all the machines hooked up to him.

“Master…” weakly called the demon girl.

“Monitor fragments have pierced every part of his body.”

Even a prison had doctors.

Serious illness did not cancel out a prisoner’s sentence, so in a way it was the natural arrangement.

It was their job to keep the prisoners alive in whatever form it took.

“Some are right next to major arteries and organs, making them too dangerous to touch without care. Removing them will be very difficult… But that isn’t enough to explain his condition. If it were simple blood loss keeping him unconscious, the transfusion should be showing effects by now.”

“I know…”

“?”

Yes, she didn’t have time for sorrow.

The new Board Chairman would never wake up ''naturally'' in this state. That had been obvious at first glance, which was why someone needed to externally induce a recovery.

These wounds were magical in nature.

They were scars of an attack from Great Demon Coronzon, a being beyond human understanding.

That meant magical knowledge was a requirement to heal him.

(I will heal you, so please wait until I can, master.)

Something beeped.

But it wasn’t the medical equipment. It came from something like an intercom on the wall.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t know if she had the right, but everyone else watched the device from a distance and made no move to touch it. She had no choice but to press the button and answer.

It displayed a familiar female secretary who ordinarily helped with the paperwork.

“What is it?”

“We have a visitor for the Board Chairman. He doesn’t have an appointment, but will you meet with him?”

“No appointment? Then send him awa-”

“He is Oniyama of the Board of Directors. Will you still refuse him?”

A visitor.

And at this precise moment.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 said for him to wait, but when she went out, he was already within the special security zone. Left alone, who knows how much he would have explored.

All of the jailers and guards looked afraid. Apparently it was up to the artificial demon to say this.

“Only the Board Chairman is allowed in here. What are you doing here!?”

“Oniyama Rouze.”

The old man’s eyes shined with the greed of a much younger man.

“I am one of Academy City’s 12 Directors. That comes with certain privileges.”

His words dripped with arrogance.

So what if he was one of the Directors? Just because there weren’t many of them didn’t mean they could enter this place without permission. Just think of the Windowless Building from when Aleister was at the top. No one should be here without its master’s permission.

(Has Academy City collapsed to that extent!?)

Oniyama was the Director with a focus on vehicles, including automobiles, ships, and aircraft.

And there had been suspicions he was interested in expanding into the military field. The military had its own specialists, but those who controlled those unscrupulous military forces – Shiokishi, Nakimoto, Neoka – tended to drop out or be replaced quickly due to that very unscrupulousness. A perfect opportunity for those who were hoping to break into that field.

To be blunt, she had a bad feeling about his presence.

“How bad are his injuries?”

He was too casual.

If Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t know Great Demon Coronzon was responsible, she would have suspected this man.

“Why are you here without even making an appointment?”

“I am here to give you a valuable warning, so watch your tone.”

“Nothing you say changes the fact that I only have one master!!”

“My point is that your behavior calls your master’s civility into question. The unintelligent never seem to wait for people to finish, which makes speaking with them so tiring.”

He snorted with laughter.

And then got back on topic.

“The situation is too pressing to wait for the Chairman’s recovery.”

“Kh.”

“Academy City is using all of its scientific knowledge to search for the culprit, yet we have turned up empty-handed. That makes this an unknown situation. And ignoring it shows no sign of improvement. Someone must grab the reins and take control soon. Before serious damage is done.”

He said that like the new Board Chairman’s injuries did not count as “serious damage”.

As it were a trivial matter.

Not worth any concern.

Even though the very top of the city had been directly attacked and remained unconscious.

“…You look happy about this.”

“Surely you jest. I am only doing my job. If the Chairman is unable to fulfill his duties, don’t you think his privileges should be temporarily transferred to a third party? I am not asking for his eternal expulsion from the throne through dismissal or impeachment. I am only suggesting someone else take over his duties until he comes to.”

“You just want the Master Key.”

“Ah, so you read me like a book.”

“And just how many people were you planning to kill using those next-gen weapons!?”

The Master Key looked like a smartphone, but it gave full privileges over everything in Academy City. It was stuffed full of passwords, passcodes, access keys, and other such data.

Including for military facilities and equipment.

Academy City’s functions and military might would eventually recover. If it were handed over to someone else, something terrible would happen. And if it fell into the hands of a Director who knew enough about diplomacy and war, it could lead to a war with any place on the planet.

She was a demon.

She knew just how twisted the world was.

And in that knowledge, she had placed her hopes in the #1. She had decided the world was still worth protecting. So she couldn’t allow the world to be destroyed now while the new Board Chairman lingered on the verge of death. No matter what.

“But the Master Key is a dangerous power. Who can you trust it with, if not me and my knowledge of diplomacy and military matters? Noncommittal Kaizumi? Surely not that pacifist Oyafune?”

“They would be better than you at least…”

“Oh, dear. So you, the guardian of the Master Key, are unaware just how dangerous it is. Listen, ''even someone who doesn’t know how to use it can lose control.'' I was fine with leaving it in the Chairman’s hands since he is the #1. I trusted that someone who has killed so many people would know very well how to handle that kind of threat. But leaving it in the hands of someone who has no familiarity with deadly power would be suicide. Suicide on a planetary scale.”

“Leave! If you don’t wish for the Board Chairman to recover, people could see that as contempt of the chain of command. I will not give you the Master Key. Only my master has the right to grant it to someone else. So please leave now!!”

The old man took a step back without taking his eyes off her.

He was not intimidated.

The smile on his face conveyed a clear message: I don’t even need to return here. You will come crying to me by the end.

“Academy City is a heavy burden to bear. Contact me when you are ready to give up.”

“Leave!!!”

===Part 7===

Footsteps trudged through the snow.

Kihara Goukei was bloody and woozy.

“Ughh, I’m so dizzy…”

She had rescued Urekawa Ousuke, the miracle child born of Academy City, and then handed that goddamn Necromancer to the Anglicans who seemed to have invaded the city (even though they didn’t seem to be soldiers?), but she had gotten badly torn up in the process. Three computer chips, two bacteria colonies, one pea crab, and what else? 99% of the secret ingredients giving her her “Kihara-ness” had been destroyed.

She had only one heart left. That was fine. Everyone else only had one too.

She couldn’t get spoiled.

She was running dry, so she needed nutrients. Her powerful regeneration was working against her. Like this, she would eventually dry up into a husk. Before that happened, she needed sugar, salt, fat, protein, calcium, various vitamins and minerals, and more.

(Why do all the restaurants have to close early today of all days? There would usually be at least an izakaya or family restaurant open.)

“Oh.”

She spotted a vending machine.

The small glowing display shined bright in the darkness. It actually had power.

(Oui, oui. Vending machines are cleverly designed to continue functioning even after a fire or other disaster. Oh, I’m saved.)

And it wasn’t a drink or bread machine. It was one of the unique varieties you spotted from time to time. Specifically, this odd kind of vending machine that sold things like wagyu sukiyaki meals on the side of the street. And one of the large sample photo on this one showed…

“On this freezing night with my breath visible before me I find…ramen!! Oh, that has such a sinful ring to it. But I must do this to regain what my body has lost. How merveilleuse it is to have an actual excuse. Hwa ha ha ha ha ha! Behold, world!! I choose the piping hot tonkotsu ramen!! I am freed from all guilt as I ingest this unhealthy meal in the middle of the night!!!”

Even among the Kiharas, facing your own death was something only an oddity could do. It was a good thing the vending machine let you pay with a train card. …All of her paper money would have absorbed too much blood by this point.

A clunking sound came from the machine.

(Oh, that sounds harder than I would expect.)

With a noodles vending machine, she had imagined something like a better version of a coffee vending machine: first a styrofoam bowl, then the drained noodles and other ingredients, and finally the hot soup slowly pouring in.

Silence surrounded her.

Nothing happened after the initial clunking.

Kihara Goukei crouched down and nervously opened the overly large door to check.

“Is this…a frozen food vending machine!?”

It was rock solid.

The instructions on the package said you could enjoy restaurant quality flavor after only 15 minutes in the microwave.

Was she supposed to stand around in this freezing weather for those 15 minutes?

All she had was a solid object that could probably kill someone if applied forcefully to the cranium.

“Uhh…”

Yet she really would dry up and die without something to eat. Surrounded by a freezing night with red snow covering the road, Kihara Goukei had no choice but to tear open the package, pull out the rectangular block, hold it in both hands, and gnaw on it. Yeah, it was not a flavorful experience. Sure, it had salt and fat, but that didn’t go well with the ice!! The white-frozen pieces of pork fat were especially bad. Was this some kind of divine punishment?

“?”

Suddenly, she felt like she was being watched.

There was someone, or something, here.

She found the gaze surprisingly nearby. Looking up at her.

It belonged to…a girl of around 10?

“Misaka has never seen someone eat a popsicle in the winter! says Misaka as Misaka checks the package. Tonkotsu ramen! …Misaka doesn’t remember that Gorigori-kun flavor.”

“What are you doing here? And please feel free to call me Madame Gou.”

“Well, Misaka needs to get to District 10, but she doesn’t know where it is, says Misaka as Misaka explains her predicament.”

“Eh? District 10?”

Wasn’t that the district of battles and machos, said to be the most dangerous in the city? And the girl only looked around 10, so what was she doing out alone at night?

(And if I send her back the way she came, um, oh dear. Aren’t those giant bugs and sea creatures made of weird blonde hair wandering around there?)

Kihara Goukei wept.

This sounded like trouble to her.

First Urekawa and now this. Was tonight the night for running into small children? Was it some kind of bonus mode?

“Where is District 10?”

“The complete opposite direction, so please don’t look at me…”

“If you know the way, then tell Misaka! says Misaka as Misaka begs you!”

“One heart. Just one left. Another death and I really will die… I-I’ve done more than enough already, haven’t I? I already saved Urekawa Ousuke-kun in the very middle of the night, so I really want to get home and sleep until-”

“No! ''Help me, Madame Gou''!!”

“Neh heh☆ …Well, you drive a hard bargain. When you put it like that, I can’t go to sleep now, can IIIIIIII!?”

===Part 8===

On the roof of a far distant skyscraper, one of the mass-produced military clones known as the Sisters removed her eye from the scope of a large sniper rifle.

“She doesn’t appear to be a threat, concludes Misaka #10032.”

“Doesn’t appear to be? Are you glitching? What kind of fuzzy opinion is that for a living computer?”

“It is called personal growth.”

She had grown enough to make casual remarks over the Misaka Network at any rate.

Misaka Worst, who was tuned to pick up on the especially malicious emotions within that vast network composed of countless identical brainwave signals, responded with exasperation in her voice.

“This is all because you discussed that stuff on the Misaka Network, you know? Have you forgotten that mini-Misaka is your host and control tower? She can hear everything you say, even if it’s in your sleep.”

“You mean that our ability to control electricity might be able to force open the lock on the new Board Chairman’s Master Key? asks Misaka for confirmation.”

“No, that screwing it up would destroy the Master Key! If it turns out the only way forward is for the #1 to wake up, then of course the little one’s going to try and do something about it. Goddammit, what a pain. …But Yoshikawa’s the real loser here. She’s locked in her room with nothing to do. Cause the great Last Order used her power to hack the electric lock.”

“Then wouldn’t it be best to send her straight there? Also, that person appears to be a Kihara, which should come in handy on the way, says Misaka, providing her opinion.”

“Then are we finally going to stop playing stalker? Misaka doesn’t want to hold onto this sniper rifle in this cold-ass weather any longer. Misaka is afraid her cheek is going to freeze to the metal.”

“If you are fine with that immortality expert getting her hands on clone technology, responds Misaka. Misaka checked her spec sheet and it would be a real pain if she learned to multiply herself.”

“…When can Misaka finally get back to bed?”

“As if you have any intention of doing that.”

===Part 9===

Great Demon Coronzon slipped through the darkness like a shadow.

She had chosen a stadium that was unusually large even among the outdoor track stadiums. Everything she currently sought was contained there. Here she could convert her physical body into a massive amount of Telesma energy. Once that was done, she only had to send herself into the current of a ley line running underground. She would still be limited to the planet, but that would allow her to instantly escape anywhere on Earth, even the opposite side of the planet.

Wasn’t its maximum capacity 255 thousand?

The outdoor type without a dome was easier to scale up in size, but this felt like overdoing it.

Academy City had a population of 2.3 million, so a full tenth of the population could be crammed inside.

Humans were apparently frail beings who were afflicted by loneliness when standing alone in a massive artificial space, but she was a being known as a great demon.

She felt nothing amiss as she walked toward the center.

Other than the wrongness of her own existence.

“Sitra Achra, hm?”

Coronzon rolled that term around on her tongue.

And smiled cynically.

Sitra Achra could be described as the substance that caused evil. The current world, from the tiny humans to the vast world itself, could supposedly be fully described using the diagram called the Sephiroth, but there were some impurities which did not fit into the grand Sephiroth. Those impurities were Sitra Achra. They were ruins – shards – of the old world which was destroyed to create the current one. They were the substance that caused evil. They had no place in the current world, had no role, and should not have remained, so their very existence obstructed the system of the current age. Like pebbles caught in the gears.

The world god had created was perfect.

Things only went awry because of the extraneous impurities mixed in.

(Sounds like me.)

Shadow covered her face as she silently expressed this only silently.

Even though self-deprecation could not turn evil into good.

She had always questioned it.

Why hadn’t she become an angel of love? Or an angel of righteousness?

If she had been…

If she had been given that role…

…She would have poured herself into that work more diligently than anyone else.

If god had known from the beginning that Coronzon would rebel against heaven and turn evil and had let her go ahead and do it because it was part of some kind of plan of his, then she would ''overdo'' the role god had given her and ruin that plan.

God was an absolute being, but he did not save all lives.

Everyone accepted that even their misfortunes would be given meaning and purpose if they obeyed god.

But the very existence of that system meant he had known from the beginning there would be victims. He had known and let it happen. For some grand plan of his.

Coronzon’s role was to tear people apart. Why should she obey someone who had abandoned her?

So she had decided to use everything given to her and ''overdo'' it. That way she could obliterate that heartless plan without betraying her purpose.

She would dedicate herself to her evil identi-

…?

At that point, she tilted her head.

No, wait. She had noticed it this time.

Her memories skipped a few seconds.

“Dammit, not again…Aleister!!”

She held a hand to her head.

She had finally managed to prepare this place for her ceremony, but she would have to leave if word reached Kamijou’s group.

Coronzon started to panic…but then it hit her.

A few seconds.

She stood in the very center of an enormous stadium. She had no computer or smartphone to contact anyone and there were no old-fashioned payphones in sight. So even if Aleister had hijacked her body, he couldn’t have done anything in that time. She could ignore the outrage if it only lasted a few seconds.

On the other hand…

(It’s good I noticed it this time, but was the gap itself longer than before?)

She had a bad feeling about this.

Was Aleister starting to get the hang of it? That concern crept up in the back of her mind. Losing consciousness for even a second in the middle of a battle with her pursuers could be fatal. And even if that didn’t happen, Aleister could attempt suicide if he took control for long enough.

He would do it.

Especially now that he viewed her as his enemy and had killing her as his primary objective.

Directly comparing their specs wasn’t enough to rest easy. Aleister had won the Battle of Blythe Road after all.

Coronzon consciously took a deep breath.

(I need to shift my focus.)

Not only were there other stadiums, but magic materials could be found anywhere. After all, Aleister Crowley had built this city during the confusion of the postwar recovery. It was an alternate form for the Abbey of Thelema. It had been deftly hidden by repainting it all in the terms of science, but it would be hard to find places and objects here without magical symbolism.

Coronzon only had to collect the items that were already present.

She wouldn’t have any difficulty as long she knew the proper way to combine them.

She could begin the ceremony at any time.

The only problem was how long it would take.

…No matter how much she tried to shorten that time, she couldn’t reduce it to zero. And she would be entirely defenseless in that time. She was the Coronzon who had destroyed legendary magicians like Mathers and Aleister, but during that time she could be killed even by an ordinary human.

“…”

Coronzon shut her eyes, held her breath, and searched for any sounds around her.

She was focused on the area outside the stadium.

(My greatest enemy is the time limit. Because I’m sure they’re searching for me with everyone they have. Weak as they are, hiding from them is a pain when there are so many of them. For once I need to look out for weaklings because this crucial ceremony will be ruined if they interfere in the middle of it.)

===Part 10===

When they checked the map based on Index’s advice, the answer was obvious.

Kamijou pointed at a spot on the large map.

“The General Athletics Stadium. …It’s gotta be this, right? It’s a track stadium and there’s a huge underground waterway running below it!”

“If Coronzon is using Zeus symbolism for a ceremony to send her through a ley line, then it must be there.”

The white girl sounded confident.

It wasn’t like they had any other leads to go on, so Kamijou had to trust in this one.

“Fool.”

Someone else called out to him.

Anna Sprengel.

“I double-checked it all just to be safe, and everything the grimoire library said checks out. Her calculations are correct, so Coronzon should be at the General Athletics Stadium. The only question left is if we arrive in time.”

The Amakusas were magicians who blended into modern society, so they all knew how to drive. …Kamijou preferred not to think about where they had procured so many vehicles in Academy City, but it would be best to make use of them now.

And just as he was thinking that, his eyes met another pair of eyes.

But these definitely weren’t human.

They were compound eyes.

A carnivorous dragonfly more than three meters long was gliding at eye level.

It was made of blonde hair.

“Coronzon’s…scouts!?”

“Stupid bug jamboree!!”

He heard an odd voice just before a blonde young woman drop-kicked the giant dragonfly from the side, sending it flying. She was the Transcendent Bologna Succubus.

“Just when I thought I’d caught up on foot, this is what I find? When do I get a breather!?”

“Pant, gasp… M-my coat…is so heavy with…the steel armor and the terrariums…I’m dyiiiiiing…”

Even as she complained, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet deflected the scouts’ attacks with her thick coat. …Wait, did she just protect the Bologna Succubus?

However, squashing a single dragonfly wasn’t enough to turn the tide.

There were butterflies, hornets, stag beetles, flies, and more.

Kanzaki raised her voice.

“If she’s sending these out, it must mean we’re getting close!”

It didn’t feel like Coronzon was trying to lay low and hide anymore. Did she want to buy time even if it made her more conspicuous?

She really was here.

In District 20. Index, Anna Sprengel, and the others had been right.

…The question was whether or not these scouts were passing information back to Coronzon. Either way, it would be best not to waste time here.

“We need to strike before she can get away!!” shouted Kamijou.

===Part 11===

The scouts sent out by Great Demon Coronzon included three meter dragonflies and hornets.

Kamijou immediately clenched his right fist, but nothing would be more annoying than having a group of 20 or 30 drop from the sky all at once. Kihara Noukan turned his way and shouted.

“Be careful. If they grab onto you and carry you up high, you will be playing a deadly version of the crane game!”

He couldn’t let the flying scouts use the powerful weapon that was height.

Plus, the stag beetle ones wouldn’t even need lift him up. They could crush or slice his body right here on the ground.

“Get inside, it doesn’t matter where!!”

On Kanzaki’s instructions, Kamijou and Mikoto practically tackled open the door to a nearby building.

They ran further inside. When they reached a more open space, they found something odd there.

A frozen pool?

No, was it a skating rink?

Kamijou wasn’t familiar with them and had imagined them as something like a massive cold storage warehouse, but was this skating rink actually warmer than outside?

“They’re coming. Those weird bugs are coming!!”

“Wait, Misaka! Don’t use your Railgun down a straight corridor! Are you trying to hit our friends!?”

Lucia, Angelene, and more of the Former Agnese Force jumped on the giant flies as a group. That still wasn’t enough offensive power, but it slowed the scouts enough for Blodeuwedd the Bouquet and Anna Sprengel to finish them off with stronger attacks.

The scouts were powerful. They were, but they weren’t Great Demon Coronzon herself. The scouts made of her blonde hair were not unbeatable!

“In that case…”

“Hm? Lad, don’t let your guard down!!”

A supposedly defeated scout stirred.

No, a large quantity of something burst from the giant stag beetle’s body. Flat ovals about fifty centimeters long poured out like a slot machine jackpot. There were more than a hundred of them and they were all wriggling. And squirming.

There were more scouts…inside the scouts?

And a ton of them!!

“Ahhhhhhh!?”

Kamijou backed away, more creeped out than afraid of the threat they posed. The small scouts leaped at the boy one after another.

Itsuwa sharply jabbed her spear out to guard him, but she grimaced.

“They’re hard. Are they based on parasitic shellfish!?”

“You mean the more enemies we defeat, the more of them there will be? Hard to think of a better way to buy time!” shouted Othinus.

Kamijou’s group would be overwhelmed by the enemy army.

Sounds like collapsing piles of sand came from all around.

“Wow!”

Alice Anotherbible was the only one capable of smiling as they swarmed around her. A normal human would be bitten into tiny pieces if they tried that!!

They would be killed if they didn’t defeat the attacking scouts, but defeating the scouts only allowed them to multiply.

It was a vicious cycle.

…And Kamijou had only thought of these things as scouts made of blonde hair. But he felt pity for them now that he saw them forced to fight, writhing in pain as they burst from within, and releasing a flood of other monsters.

“Fool, now isn’t the time. If you stop, we will be killed!”

Great Demon Coronzon.

Even if she was fighting for her life, she shouldn’t force her own side to do this.

A dull crash broke through Kamijou’s thoughts.

It came from directly in front of him. The skating rink’s wall broke through and a giant rotary snowplow emerged from the side. The row of scouts in its path were crushed and sliced up by the rotating blades.

The fluffy blonde Amakusa was operating it.

Kamijou had seen her a few times before. Wasn’t her name Tsushima?

“Hop on!! Coronzon is our top priority, so we can’t waste our time with these things!!”

There was no reason to stick around here. The giant rotating blades on the front and the snow expulsion device sticking out the side like an elephant’s trunk looked dangerous, but Kamijou grabbed into something like a short ladder on the side. Only after the heavy snowplow begin to move did he notice something.

“W-where’s Index!? And Misaka too!”

“I’m not the only Amakusa. And everyone will soon think to use snowmobiles and other vehicles capable of driving on this red snow. We all have the same destination, so we’ll meet back up with them if we head to the track stadium!!”

A few others managed to jump onto the snowplow. He saw Kanzaki and Itsuwa among them.

A three meter dragonfly was still stubbornly pursuing them, but it was shot down by a beam of light. Neither Kanzaki nor Itsuwa had done that. Apparently another vehicle was following them.

Eventually, no more hornets and stag beetles could be seen.

Kamijou sighed and leaned against the rotary snowplow that rattled along on its continuous tracks.

“Well…it certainly is a good thing that Tsushima was there to help us, human,” said the 15cm god.

“Yeah, it really was. Life is so much easier when you have a capable young woman around. Thanks.”

“…Ohh?” “…Ohh?”

“(Wait, did I just step on some deadly landmine here. And to make matters worse, two of them at once?)”

A secret light shined sharply from Kanzaki Kaori and Itsuwa’s eyes and Tsushima wept in the driver’s seat.

===Part 12===

It was late at night. 1 AM had come and gone.

When you imagined a late night hospital, did you think of a horror story? Or something more risque? After many long years working here, the frog-faced doctor knew neither option was likely. When you worked there day in and day out, even a special location became no more than a routine. The fear faded and any weird expectations vanished.

Of course, he wouldn’t normally be working on this shift, but today was a special day. He hadn’t gotten any rest during the day either.

A young medical intern gave him a worried look.

“You need to get some sleep, doctor. You’re no good to us here if you pass out.”

“If I could get some free time…yes, there is something I should do, so can you cover things here?”

“Doctor!” the intern called after him, but this was his nature. He wanted to save every patient he could.

If Kamijou Touma was already dead, then there was nothing to be done.

But what if the boy was still alive?

Then he was the frog-faced doctor’s patient.

If a patient had received improper treatment, it was a doctor’s duty to save them.

(What a pain. Where do I even start with determining if a supposedly dead person is alive or dead? The guidelines for brain death would probably be best. Or mayb-)

He left the hospital.

And some strange thing attacked him only three steps out the door.

“Eh?”

If he had to describe it, he would have called it a golden crab standing more than three meters tall.

Even after seeing the pincer raised high, the frog-faced doctor only managed to get out a confused sound.

He did not properly understand the danger.

Yes.

He had no way of knowing since he knew nothing of magic, but his hospital was in District 7. That was the area where Coronzon had scattered so many of her scouts made of blonde hair.

And Coronzon had been so focused on escaping she hadn’t actually ordered them to stop.

Which meant they were still acting on orders to protect the ceremonial ground for Adikalika – the former site of the Windowless Building.

A pleasant slashing sound raced out.

The frog-faced doctor did not shed a single drop of blood.

It was sliced vertically.

The blonde hair scout’s bisected halves scattered to either side.

His eyes widened in confusion as a dark, lithe figure whispered to him.

“It is a pleasure to see you again, doctor.”

===Part 13===

In the District 20 skating rink, Misaka Mikoto had definitely seen that pointy-haired boy on the side of a large rotary snowplow.

And it had happened as the vehicle drove right past her.

She had been left behind.

“I want to shoot that idiot so bad.”

She flicked up arcade coins and launched a few Railguns at the monsters as she retreated from the skating rink proper into a narrow corridor.

The more she defeated, the more of them there were, which couldn’t have been much more annoying.

And the initial dragonflies and stag beetles were powerful enough already, so she would be killed if she didn’t fight back. There was no room for holding back.

(Are the others retreating somewhere too? There isn’t time to ask where we’ll meet up next, so I’ll just have to magnetically attach myself to one of the vehicles’ roofs.)

And all of a sudden, something occurred to Misaka Mikoto.

“…Wait.”

(If that idiot is alive, then why am I even wearing mourning clothes? Ahhh, how long am I going to keep wearing this cumbersome outfit? Now I feel like I’ve been making a fool of myself!!)

This was a sports facility, so would they have rental sportswear anywhere? Even a track suit or jumpsuit would be fine. She was willing to ignore how it looked if it was at least warm and didn’t restrict her movements!!

But this was a skating rink.

That meant any clothing would be for skating.

Such as a painfully bright lemon yellow figure skating uniform.

“U-um, would you call this a skating dress?”

It wouldn’t restrict her movements since it was designed for sports use. Combined with the bladeless shoes meant for the staff, she would have no trouble moving around. At the very least, she would have a much easier time of it than in this Japanese clothing. But why did it have to have a miniskirt? Or should she think of it more like a swimsuit’s pareo? Either way, it wasn’t something for walking around town in!

“B-but it’s so cold! What choice do I have!?”

She had decided herself she was willing to ignore how it looked.

It would certainly protect her from the biting chill of the January night.

It left less skin exposed than she had expected. Because it covered her with a skin-colored material.

But that was a problem of its own. The thin synthetic fiber was like wearing a full-body stocking. A terrifying thought for someone who tended to get zappy at the drop of a hat!

===Part 14===

Kamijou and the others arrived at a dark shape so large they truly had to look up to see it all.

This was the General Athletics Stadium.

Its size was apparent even from the outside.

Its diameter alone had to be hundreds of meters.

Instead of a dome covering it, it was apparently an outdoor stadium. Still, tall walls surrounded it on all sides. Those would be for the tiered seating, but they were just as tall as a four story building. So the same as a school building. This meant there was no seeing inside from out here.

Several other vehicles joined the rotary snowplow operated by Tsushima.

Index and Misaka Mikoto were among them.

“Thank good- woah! Misaka, what are you wearing!?”

“Don’t look at me!! Don’t look at my new and improved flavor with 20% extra at the same great price!!”

Her retort was as unusual as her outfit.

Was this the higher rarity version that showed more skin, or had she been unable to bear the cold and chose to rely on a figure skating outfit? He wished she would stop tugging down on the miniskirt-like part because that only drew his eye there all the more.

The Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet were both tilting their heads (in friendly synchronization?). …Yeah, they probably wouldn’t get what the big deal was when they had no trouble walking around in the frigid January night in their underwear or a naked apron.

But focusing on this wasn’t going to lead them to Coronzon.

Kamijou was curious about something.

“The tall walls keep us from seeing inside. I hope that also means Coronzon can’t see out.”

“Does it mean that? Wouldn’t a great demon be able to use clairvoyance or remote viewing?”

Tracking expert Takitsubo brought up a difficult topic.

“In modern Western magic, clairvoyance isn’t a means of seeing the contents of a closed envelope. It’s a ceremony used for spiritual meditation.”

Kanzaki provided an explanation, but it was hard to grasp without a solid foundation in the magic side.

She had spread out a large map, probably a privilege she had gained by taking control of the city. That she went to the trouble of printing out a paper copy seemed to show she still wasn’t used to the science side, though.

“It was fortunate we could get our hands on the official blueprints. Our numbers work in our favor. First, we should station personnel at each exit. There are more than 20 official gates for spectators and the real number is even greater due to the unofficial entrances for athletes and staff. With the exits blocked, we can begin exploring inside. Once we know where Coronzon is inside the large stadium and how she has modified it for her ceremony, we can launch our attack.”

“Coronzon should be defenseless while she works,” added Index. “Even if we can’t win a straight fight, we should be able to win right now.”

They could win?

Then why not charge in right this instant?

Kamijou couldn’t believe they would stay out when they knew she was in there.

Othinus must have sensed his impatience because she made a piercing comment from his shoulder.

“Wait, human. If Coronzon detects us and runs off, this will all have been a waste of time.”

“Either way, we should carefully investigate the situation inside and gather what information we can. We can always make our attack after all escape routes we are aware of have been covered.”

Kamijou was a little surprise to find Anna Sprengel advocating the cautious option.

Had that wicked woman learned how frightening it was to have everything fall apart at the last second?

“But can we really wait around that long? There’s that ley line thing, right? That direct route running underground that only the great demon can use. We can have her surrounded as much as we want – it won’t matter if she just teleports out of here!”

“Failure puts the entire human race at risk. Great Demon Coronzon will be able to do more than just this.”

Was that why she didn’t want anyone spying on her from the sky?

After giving a skeptical look at the Bologna Succubus (or her clothing more likely), Kanzaki nodded in agreement.

“We mustn’t forget that she will have escaped if she physically crosses the city wall.”

“But we don’t know the time limit!!”

“It won’t be in the next 5 or 10 minutes at least. That gives us time to take it slow, human.”

===Part 15===

“Hm.”

Great Demon Coronzon put a hand on her hip and observed her surroundings.

She stood at the very center of the enormous stadium.

“That completes the ceremonial ground. And the attribute extracted from the stadium as a whole gives me what I need. Direction, time, number…and the actual spiritual item in my hands: the tattva cards.”

She held a few colorful cards.

However, these cards were not historical antiques.

They were only symbols meant to help one enter the special mental state of meditation, so as long as the colors and symbols were correct, the material was immaterial. They were in fact made by coloring cardstock with thick permanent markers she had acquired after breaking the metal shutter covering a stadium shop. (There was probably a demand for materials that spectators could use to make placards or to draw their team’s logo on their face.)

Perhaps the stadium functioned like a giant magical circle with the cards acting as a control medium like a mouse or keyboard.

Coronzon had a physical body, but her true essence was a collection of Telesma energy. Unlike the pure angels, she was a mixture of different elements, which could be a pain, but by breaking them apart, she too could be handled as pure energy.

That meant she could inject herself into a weapon or armor or she could be carried around inside a thin talisman.

Or she could send herself through the ley lines to instantly travel to the other side of the planet.

“Now, time to begin,” she whispered.

===Part 16===

Kamijou was anxious.

Great Demon Coronzon was inside there, but the great size of the stadium worked against them. With more than 20 public gates, entering the wrong way would give Coronzon a chance to escape out a different one.

They needed to know her exact location before heading in.

…He understood the Anglicans’ point, but that didn’t mean he liked it. No matter how well they prepared themselves, Coronzon would disappear if they didn’t arrive in time. Then the world’s doom would begin on the other side of the planet. Coronzon would be able to choose any location she liked, so she could ensure the optimal conditions for herself. The next time would be far worse. Everything might truly be destroyed.

Next to him, Index spoke up. Addressing Kanzaki.

“Are you going to run a search from the outside? Isn’t that dangerous too?”

“It is. She could detect the magic power of a normal through-walls scan. However, we Amakusas have specialized in hiding our faith to avoid persecution, so we know a few tricks we can use.”

Kamijou and Mikoto had no clue what the Amakusas were working on with such determined looks on their faces. At this point, Index and her 103,001 memorized grimoires was the only person they could rely on.

She got it right on the first guess.

“The Maria Kannon?”

“This isn’t how they were originally used, but they were designed to look like an ordinary Buddhist figure while revealing its true face as the Virgin Mary to anyone who knew what to look for. By intentionally taking a broad interpretation of that concept, it can be remade into a camouflage-breaking searching spell to locate that which is hidden.”

===Part 17===

In the very center of the spacious stadium, Great Demon Coronzon sat quietly, regulated her breathing, and placed her index finger against one of the toxically colorful cards lined up on the ground.

Something felt off.

A sensation like a finger pressed between her eyes caused a tingling in the center of her head. Even though she was the one reaching out her finger. No, it was meaningless to think of it in that way.

The two were linked.

To touch it was to be touched.

The line between the self and the other – between the inner world and the outer world – was blurring.

The core of her body distorted. She was uncertain where she was even sitting.

“Kh.”

Her head wobbled. A vertiginous fluctuation interrupted her thoughts.

This was an Eastern mystical philosophy from ancient India.

She knew it wasn’t a good fit for her. A pure and proper angel never could have done it. But she was an impure and wicked being known as a great demon. And the Crowley system said every from of the mystical could be incorporated into your own spells if you reinterpreted it with your own logic. The wise would not give up just because they reached an impasse. They would use the discovery of that impasse to further elevate themselves.

She took deep breaths.

She consciously guided her thoughts toward stability.

She needn’t think of purifying herself.

There didn’t have to be just one answer.

The tattva cards did not work with pure elements in the first place.

Mathers had warned that meditation using those painfully colorful cards could cause intense anxiety or headaches for a mere human if used incorrectly. So how much worse would the damage from failure be for Coronzon as she tried to return herself to a state of pure energy?

She did not approach the true essence of this Eastern mystical philosophy.

The tattva cards were no more than tools used for control. That would have been how the Golden cabal used them too. They were valuable when it came to understanding the five elements, but there would be discrepancies between the cabal’s manual and the actual Eastern philosophy.

(The work has just passed 50%. That would explain why this inner fear and anxiety is taking on such concrete form.)

Coronzon did not move her eyes.

She had to focus her whole mind on ascending straight up.

Thus, any trivial distractions and detours could end up tearing her ego apart.

So she always stared straight ahead, using only the corner of her vision to watch how her own shadow wavered and thinned.

It was progressing well.

Once her shadow fully vanished, she would have also ''physically'' disappeared from Academy City.

The destruction of the world was within reach.

===Part 18===

“How is that search spell going!?” shouted Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.

“I-it just passed 70%!” nervously reported Itsuwa.

70%.

That was more than halfway done, but Kamijou and the others didn’t know Coronzon’s status. If she was even a single percentage point ahead of them, they wouldn’t finish in time. It was possible the Anglicans would fully surround the stadium and rush in only to find Coronzon had already vanished.

Othinus sighed from Kamijou’s shoulder.

“There’s no need to wait until it’s 100% complete. We know Coronzon is in this building. So if we attack the small unsearched spots, we can confirm her location by sight.”

“How much of the stadium do you think those ‘small spots’ cover?” strongly retorted Kanzaki. “The search has covered 70% or maybe 80%. We’re risking our lives going in, so we want a little more assurance than that!!”

“What do you think, Touma?” asked Index.

“Hm? We should go in now! Right now!!”

He had no idea why an outsider like him had been asked for his opinion on a magical matter, but he gave his answer right away.

“Tsujiura,” said Index. “Kushiura and Qiu Xiang Bu also work. Those are Eastern, so the Amakusas should be able to use them too.”

“I see. So the idea that the first thing said by someone ignorant of the topic at hand can be used for divination,” said Kanzaki, sounding impressed.

In this case, Kamijou’s ignorance of magic gave his words meaning.

…He felt like this was declaring him useless in this fight, which seemed kind of insulting, but if the experts would listen to what he had to say, he didn’t care why.

Whatever the case, Kamijou’s words set them all into motion.

“Kanzaki will join one of the Amakusa teams, I guess. Okay, Alice!! You go lend Agnese’s group a hand!”

“Hm? The girl would prefer to stay with you, teacher.”

“Please! And Anna, you go with that team including Itsuwa and Tsushima!”

“Fool. I will step on you later.”

They complained, but they still split up.

Even Takitsubo and Kihara Noukan did as he said. They had to know even less about magic than him, but they were still risking their lives to stop this unknown threat.

After all, there were more than twenty public gates. The Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force would be blocking all of those exits, but they were dealing with ''the'' Coronzon here. Ordinary magicians weren’t enough. Each team needed an irregular member such as a Saint like Kanzaki Kaori, a Transcendent like the Bologna Succubus or Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, or even a special Transcendent like Anna Sprengel or Alice Anotherbible.

Kamijou didn’t see this as splitting up their forces.

Once they entered the stadium, they would converge on Coronzon’s location. He didn’t want anyone dying in the “blank time” until they broke down the right door and found Coronzon. He was sick of Coronzon being able to choose one of them at random for a one-hit kill lottery. Even if one team was unfortunate enough to run across Coronzon on their way in, they didn’t have to defeat her. Kamijou wanted to give each team someone who could let them survive until the other teams arrived.

Mikoto, who always felt left behind when it came to magical matters, suddenly panicked.

“W-wait, what about me!?”

“You’re with me, of course!! C’mon!!”

“Eh? O-oh…okay.”

Kamijou and Mikoto would enter through the closest gate: Gate 15. Neither knew much about magic, but he figured Othinus’s presence would make up for that. Index’s knowledge was the most important of all, so he couldn’t keep it to himself.

Gate 15 was shut with a metal grate shutter and a glass door, but Mikoto only had to inhale and exhale before it all opened for them. And not just Gate 15. All of the shutters and locks opened at once.

Without waiting for the shutter to fully rise, they ducked below it.

They entered a dark corridor.

And ran.

“Hey, human. Don’t get one-shotted here. Even if Coronzon is busy, she could have sent out those scouts.”

Othinus warned him from his shoulder, but Kamijou didn’t have time to respond. If they were even a second too late, it was all over.

His heart pounded in his ears. He felt like he was going to die on his own without Coronzon having to lift a finger. But he gritted his teeth and kept running.

He wouldn’t let her try again at destroying the world.

He would end this tonight.

===Part 19===

(75%.)

Great Demon Coronzon’s voice no longer vibrated the air.

From her perspective, it was less like her body was unraveling and more like the world around her was changing. Or maybe like she was crossing the boundary between phases. Her coordinates remained the same, but the scene around her changed as if flipping over a page.

Perhaps there was no real difference between the two.

The Golden cabal never managed to send their body across. Thus, their experts had tried to separate just their minds in an act known as astral projection to virtually achieve a leap between phases. They had worked hard to peek into another world like heaven or hell. …And as a result, quite a few magicians had failed to cling to their sanity.

Coronzon’s nearly transparent fingertip passed right through the tattva card.

She was more than halfway on the other side now.

The great demon grinned.

(No more physical control is needed at this point. Now I only have to wait for the process to complete!!)

===Part 20===

Kamijou and Mikoto ran down a long, long corridor.

They couldn’t afford to hide their footsteps now.

Coronzon was so close.

“We’re going to come out into the stands, right? How far is it to the actual sports field!?”

“The actual distance isn’t that far, but the stands aren’t flat. Don’t trip and fall in the darkness, okay?”

Mikoto gave him a surprisingly sincere answer.

There hadn’t been any bright beams of light or explosions yet.

What were Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others doing?

They would have entered through all the entrances at once, but apparently none of the teams had run into Coronzon. They didn’t know where she was hiding to complete her ceremony, but she hadn’t noticed their presence yet. That made this their best chance.

If they failed, it was all over.

(We might not win in a straight fight, but what if she’s immobilized by the important ceremony? This time will be different. This is our only chance to settle things with her!!)

The end of the corridor came into view.

Like a rectangular hole cut out of the darkness.

Kamijou gritted his teeth, clenched his fist, and ran with all his might.

He emerged into a silent space. The flow of time ground to a halt.

No one was there.

The place was deserted.

“What’s…going on?” muttered Kamijou, stopped partway down the stands.

He could hear more people emerging from different directions. But that was all. Even from here, he could see Agnese, the Bologna Succubus, and others looking around in confusion on the other side of the stadium. The great demon wasn’t shining bright as she completed some kind of ceremony and Coronzon didn’t began a fierce battle in an attempt to escape.

Great Demon Coronzon wasn’t here.

It didn’t feel like she had fled in a panic either. There was no warmth in the vast space. It had likely been empty this entire time. Coronzon had never been here. They had chosen the wrong location.

Had their calculations been off?

No, they hadn’t been relying on Index alone. It had been a group effort with help from Anna Sprengel, Kanzaki Kaori, and more from the magic side. And they had been certain Coronzon would use this stadium if she was using Zeus symbolism. So how could they have been wrong!?

“Touma.”

A girl from another group joined him.

Index’s usual childlike air was broken by the trembling voice she forced out.

She seemed hesitant to speak.

“Is this district used for any other special purpose? Other than sports!”

“Huh? Yes. It is a district of stadiums and domes meant to hold tens of thousands of people. I think Aogami Pierce mentioned it being the holy land for idol concerts.”

A quiet thud reached his ears.

Index was unable to support her wobbling body and fell back into one of the seats. The cat mewed in complaint from her arms.

“Then Coronzon wasn’t using sports as the symbol for a sanctuary or temple.”

Her lips quivered.

“Songstresses, plays…she was using the performing arts. Which means it isn’t Zeus! And if she is using a different symbol and a different god, she would be in an entirely different location!!”

===Part 21===

Maximum occupancy: 255 thousand.

Coronzon snorted with laughter when she recalled that extreme number.

…A soccer stadium or baseball stadium could never reach that number even with every seat filled. That display was meant for a concert or live performance where even the field itself was filled with seats.

Coronzon was somewhere like that.

(This district is filled with stadiums and domes. To put it another way, most of them are not the designated home field of a pro team whose games you can watch on a sports app. And “just a stadium” isn’t going to be used just for sports. …District 20’s stadiums probably make most of their income this way. I saw through that right away. And a facility primarily used for concerts is not a Zeus-associated track stadium. To be blunt, this is a large facility built for shows, not for sports.)

She didn’t want Apollo, god of music.

She wanted Dionysus, god of theater.

In ancient Greece, sporting events had been held in sanctuaries as a ceremonial offering to a god, but plays and songs had been made as offering in those same sanctuaries. Thus, holding a concert or live performance in a stadium that could contain a large audience was not a new idea.

Greek theater was the origin of modern stage plays. And the original form of that had been a festival held as an offering to Dionysus, god of alcohol and insanity.

That meant his symbols could be extracted from a large stadium like this.

(The work is past 90%. And yet no pursuit has arrived yet. What’s the matter, humanity? If you let me escape this easily, you will be extinct by tomorrow!!)

===Part 22===

So not sports but music. No, theater.

Not a stadium for sporting events but for concerts and live performances.

When they corrected the initial assumption and had Index recalculate, they were given a single candidate.

“The Brilliant Outdoor Performance Stadium. It points north and, if the adjacent park is viewed as a mountain forest, you could extract the symbols of Dionysus. This time I’m sure of it! A god of insanity would be perfect for controlling her power as a chaotic great demon!”

Now that they had a new answer, they couldn’t just sit around.

Their initial wrong answer would have given Coronzon that much more time for the ceremony to break her body down into energy. As soon as she finished that, she would dive into a ley line and escape to the other side of the planet. There wasn’t a moment to lose.

Kamijou and the others hitched a ride on the rotary snowplow driven by Tsushima of the Amakusas to reach the new destination.

It was in the same district.

Driving there, it wouldn’t take long. The giant stadium capable of holding 255 thousand came into view.

“Is that it? Please still be in the city, Coronzon. Dammit.”

As soon as Kamijou jumped down from the snowplow onto the red snow, he staggered to the side.

He regathered his strength, somehow managing to keep himself steady, but he bumped into something next to him.

But not because he had nearly fallen.

“Ugh…”

He heard a small groan.

From Takitsubo Rikou.

She must have arrived on a different vehicle. Kamijou instinctually caught the unsteady track suit girl…and found her body temperature was higher than he had expected.

Not just warm, but blazing hot.

He was shocked.

“That’s not good… How long have you been hiding this, Takitsubo!?”

“…”

She refused to say a word.

She had been knocked out by some kind of attack from Coronzon during the Adikalika stuff. It was a miracle she was even still alive, yet she had joined the chase instead of calling an ambulance. Anyone would be in a similar state after that.

“You can’t go on. You need to get some rest! You’ve seen the way things are, right!? The Anglicans don’t want to torment Hamazura!!”

“You should listen to your own advice, Touma. Stopping Adikalika was more than enough of a win. You’re hurt, so stay here and look after her,” said an exasperated Index.

Even though it was she who had actually stopped the attack after arriving late. She had a perfect memory, so this wasn’t just a mistake. So was she giving them the credit? When he thought about it, he realized Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others hadn’t actually seen the moment Adikalika was stopped…

Speaking of Kanzaki, she called everyone over.

“If the countdown is close to the end, we can’t spend time on an initial search like before. That will mean a greater risk when we enter. Needless to say…”

“Then do we have time to sit around listening to the headmaster’s speech? I’ll steal a map of the stadium with my powers, so let’s get going!”

Mikoto, Index, Kanzaki, and the rest got moving.

In no time, there wasn’t anyone left.

It was so quiet.

Kamijou sat down and focused on taking deep breaths. He wasn’t as bad as Takitsubo, but he had lost his balance earlier. He had taken a direct hit from Coronzon. He wasn’t a doctor and couldn’t even imagine how much damage had been done inside his body, but he knew better than to be optimistic.

Takitsubo Rikou’s lips moved where she lay right next to him.

He doubted she was conscious, so maybe she was having a nightmare.

“…Hamazura…”

“Kh.”

Kamijou grimaced. In agony.

She had to be badly worried about her friend. If she didn’t do something to help out and earn points with the Anglicans, she would lose all chance of negotiating with them. But she was too injured to move.

If Coronzon did escape, who could say where they would direct their anger. Even if Kanzaki, Agnese, and the others fighting here didn’t, the higher ups watching from across the ocean might demand a live sacrifice from those who were close to Coronzon.

Could that be why Index had used such vague phrasing to give up credit for stopping Adikalika?

But it wasn’t enough. Takitsubo wanted something more to push her claim of having contributed, so Adikalika wasn’t enough and she had come with them even if it meant hiding how bad her injuries were.

And unlike her, Kamijou could still move.

He couldn’t push himself too hard.

But he had to make up his mind.

“Okay. I’ll go.”

“Human? …It figures.”

“I’ll stop Coronzon, so don’t you worry, Takitsubo. Don’t forget: winning is meaningless if you die. Your goal is to be with Hamazura, right? Then you need to rest.”

He forced his heavy body up and began to walk.

No, he was trying to run full speed, but this was the most speed he could manage.

Even so, Imagine Breaker would have to be of some use.

Coronzon’s magic was extraordinarily powerful.

Maybe he couldn’t fight her himself, but he could at least help out someone who could. If he could shield them from even a single attack, it might be enough to decide the battle.

He would overturn the game as a wild card.

===Part 23===

Great Demon Coronzon only had to wait. And the time finally arrived.

It was already over.

99%.

Even if someone barged in now, she could break her body down into Telesma and escape Academy City through the ley line before they could do anything.

Her victory was assured. Those humans were too late to prevent their doom. The silly fools should have resisted more.

But then…

“You think so? Then allow me to cause a bit of trouble.”

Her vision shattered.

Black, red, silver, blue, yellow… It all collapsed into a wild dance of colors.

No.

Crossing between phases and breaking herself down may have been the same thing. She had thought so herself.

Which meant it was she who was collapsing.

She could no longer support her sitting position and fell to the side. Something was wrong with her limbs. She couldn’t remember how to breathe. Nevertheless, she managed to gather all her strength and scream.

“A…lei…sterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!?”

“Now, now, Coronzon. You should know better than to mess with anything as dangerous as the tattva cards which even the Golden cabal had to issue a recall for. Don’t you remember what Mathers said? They can cause intense anxiety or headaches if used incorrectly. Why would you visit the mental world after going to the trouble of physically sealing me away? Are you trying to kill yourself? ''In here'', I can still wield some power.”

(Emergency…shutoff!!)

A dull “snap!” came from the center of her head.

“Khah!!”

She tried to let out the breath caught in her throat, but what came out was colored red.

For a while, she lay on her side convulsing until she forcibly suppressed the writhing of every last one of her internal organs. Yes, it was urgent that she accurately recalled the shape of her body. She had already begun to enter the ley line when the magic failed. She had to return to her original body in a hurry, but if she forgot that body’s shape now, she could be entirely annihilated.

It took her a full ten seconds.

Once she calmed her wild breathing and recalled the cycle for inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, she had reclaimed her physical body.

The tattva cards could cause mental confusion if used incorrectly.

For her, did that mean releasing the sealed Aleister? In other words…

“Dammit!!!”

This meant a change of plans.

She couldn’t use this method anymore.

And if she was going to cross Academy City’s wall for a physical escape…she had no reason to remain in this stadium. She had to leave as soon as possible.

===Part 24===

Kamijou forced his unsteady body to keep moving and pushed open a small metal door with his shoulder.

He slipped through the half-open door, probably a staff entrance, and entered the stadium.

He found a dark, cold, heavy space.

Big too.

…He had apparently entered something like a parking garage. Was it a space for workers located below the stadium? He didn’t know enough to have a good mental picture of how stadiums were structured.

He did have his phone with him, but he didn’t know what was happening inside. The pursuers had to be careful too, so he wanted to avoid causing someone’s phone to ring while they were trying to hide.

“Index? Misaka?” he called quietly.

He didn’t know how the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force were searching the stadium. Because they weren’t sharing information with him.

He heard some light footsteps through the darkness. They echoed off the gray walls and were moving away from him.

He immediately ran full speed in that direction.

He could tell just from listening whose they were.

“(Human, you noticed how odd that was, I trust?)”

(We all know how powerful Coronzon is, so everyone will be searching as part of a team. So no one should be leaving on their own like that!)

“Coronzon!! Is that you!?”

“You really shouldn’t have announced your presence. Unless you have the supernatural power to kill with words alone.”

The footsteps stopped.

A voice spoke from behind one of the thick concrete pillars lining the space.

A hateful voice.

“I’m relieved. Because of you I can easily kill and complete my escape. Now, Kamijou Touma, how do you intend to stop me? Don’t try to tell me that foolish shout was all part of a plan and you have a more troublesome opponent hiding nearby.”

15cm Othinus could not directly fight, so he was effectively alone.

Coronzon had seen right through him.

What about the phone in his pocket? No. He might not have a signal, but more than that, using the touchscreen in the dark parking garage would give him away with the backlight. Coronzon would act before he could call for help.

“You chose this stadium because it was your best bet, right? You can’t use magic to escape through the ley lines now. So give up, Coronzon.”

“Why should I? Great demons are perfectly capable of driving cars. And it goes without saying that ordinary cars can slip right past a scan for magic power.”

Kamijou’s eyes widened.

That was her plan immediately after trying to escape using Telesma and a ley line? She switched gears way too fast.

“How many trump cards do you have!?”

“More than a mere human could ever imagine, that’s for sure.”

If she escaped in a car, he couldn’t keep up on foot. His phone was an iffy option too. So was there nothing he could do? If he shouted at the top of his lungs, the others would surely gather here. He wouldn’t let her escape.

The voice alone continued from behind the pillar.

“How about this, Kamijou Touma? What if you keep quiet and let me go?”

“Why even ask that? It’s meaningless. If you escape tonight, you’ll work to destroy all of humanity by tomorrow, right? Then nothing you could offer me would be worth it!!”

“Oh, you will let me go. Because I happened to pick up a trump card on my way here.”

Someone emerged from behind the concrete pillar. Slowly.

Blonde hair.

A woman.

But that hair was fluffy and only fell to the shoulder blades.

This wasn’t Great Demon Coronzon.

He had only heard a single set of footsteps, so had she been captured behind the pillar?

What was being held against her from outside Kamijou’s view? The feminine lines of her body were trembling and her expression was like a cross between tears and a smile.

He recognized her as one of the Amakusas.

“Tsushima.”

It wasn’t even a case of “move and she’s dead”.

All of a sudden, the red splattered out.

From the side of her neck. Kamijou was an ordinary high school boy without much forensic medical knowledge, but the location the blood was spraying from sent a chill down his spine. She seemed to have been cut by an invisible blade.

A laughing woman stuck her head out from behind the pillar.

Great Demon Coronzon really was a demon.

“Kee hee ha ha!! Protecting human lives is no easy task, is it? Or are you willing to take another tour of hell for her!?”

Coronzon kicked Tsushima’s doll-like body from behind, shoving her toward him.

He had no choice but to catch her. Only a few seconds had passed, but she felt limp and heavy in his arms. She clung heavily to him like a down blanket soaked with water. He pressed his palm firmly against the wound in her neck. How much blood loss was lethal for a human? If he didn’t stop the blood spurting from the side of her neck, she really would die.

At that moment, Kamijou’s vision suddenly went dark.

But not because Coronzon had done anything. It took him a while to even realize that. He had long since pushed his body past the limit.

He shouldn’t have been up and about at all.

“Human!!”

“Kah…ah…?”

He felt horribly faint.

He collapsed and couldn’t get back up. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t move his arms and legs very much. He wasn’t even sure which way was up.

“Kh.”

He held Tsushima tight in his arms. He gritted his teeth and tried to take in as much information on the physical reality around him. Sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch… it didn’t matter what. He was afraid he would pass out otherwise.

“Ha ha ha!! You said it was meaningless, didn’t you? You couldn’t have been more right! Why bother saving a life or two now when I will be destroying the entire world soon!”

No, it wasn’t working.

Even after all this…he couldn’t stop his mind from slipping away into darkness.

He had to avoid removing his hand from that neck wound.

He heard the sound of metal breaking.

Then the sound of an engine starting and the sound of Coronzon driving a car away.

“Wait…Coronzon…”

The darkness took over.

Kamijou Touma’s consciousness fully faded.

“Waiiiiit!!!”

===Part 25===

“Can you hear me?”

Near the center of the open stadium, Agnese heard a young male voice.

Hearing a voice when no one was there was nothing unusual. She was commanding more than 250 people, so she was using communication magic.

But this was odd.

The Former Agnese Force was all female.

“This…Mich………k… I have an urgent message. Can anyone hear me?”

She was using a Roman Catholic communication spiritual item derived from the Barbara Branch. It was made from a cherry tree twig with a few buds attached and it wasn’t all that unusual. …Even if it did seem wrong for nuns to be carrying around tools for love fortunetelling.

The hard buds unnaturally opened below the frigid sky and the flower petals vibrated.

They produced a human voice.

(You’re kidding. Is someone hijacking the channel!?)

“Is anyone at all in Academy City receiving this!? There is something I must tell you immediately!”

“?”

Itsuwa gave Agnese a puzzled look from nearby. …Apparently she couldn’t hear this. That meant it was targeted only at the Roman Catholics of the Former Agnese Force.

Agnese Sanctis frowned.

“This is Agnese Sanctis. Who are you?”

“Thank god… I got through! This is Michael Speak, a cardinal officially appointed by the pope!!”

She was at a loss for words.

…Those were the around a hundred ultra elites chosen out of the two billion Roman Catholics to directly advise the pope. Ordinarily, she would never even directly speak to one.

But his voice didn’t fit the part. He sounded like a stressed young man. He didn’t sound even thirty.

Perhaps his modesty was what had earned him so much popularity.

(Another Michael. And with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.)

“What does a great cardinal want with lowly peon like me?”

“Tell only the Roman Catholics to get out of there immediately. You need to leave Academy City as soon as possible. Your team will obey you if you tell them!”

“?”

She had expected a protest or sarcasm in response, so this came as a complete surprise.

This was advance warning of an attack.

She didn’t know what the Vatican was preparing to do, but she had to assume it was a fairly dangerous large-scale spell. Something even greater than Coronzon’s Adikalika.

“You mean it’s close to being activated?”

“As Roman Catholics, we cannot allow someone as dangerous as Great Demon Coronzon to escape Academy City. If she cannot be defeated on the front line, then the Vatican must reach out a helping hand.”

Reach out a helping hand.

So from their perspective, they were saving lives.

And the same went for Agnese, Lucia, Angelene, and the rest of the Former Agnese Force fighting on the front line.

“There are three activation conditions. First, if you completely lose track of Coronzon and the trail goes cold. Two, at 5:47 AM local time. In other words, at dawn. Third, if we believe a non-Catholic force has learned of our plan and could attempt to stop it. If any one of those conditions is met, the Vatican will activate Saint Georgios’s Fire.”

“Kh.”

The most important condition was the third.

That meant the Vatican didn’t want them sharing this information with anyone else. Even though this would mean the destruction of Academy City. The chance to evacuate was for the Former Agnese Force only.

…Were they being pressured to abandon Academy City and the Anglicans who they had fought and risked their lives alongside?

“We are always watching and listening, Sister Agnese. The physical distance matters little. So do not attempt to contact anyone else through trickery or deception. We will not overlook it.”

(Magical surveillance is a hell of a thing. Although I’m sure it was originally justified as a way for the pure servants of god to punish wicked magicians.)

She didn’t actually know how much she was being observed. The Catholics had been outdone by the other forces so far, so Agnese thought they had to be bluffing to an extent. But this still made it hard to take any bold action.

And she knew what Saint Georgios’s Fire was.

She had heard rumors of it back when she still lived in Italy.

There was a legend about the death of Saint Georgios, or Saint George as he was known in England. When he was being pressured to renounce his faith in a wicked temple, a great ball of fire fell from heaven and blew it all away. So it was a legend of pure attack power.

“That’s a large-scale spell that targets a distant location through the ley lines, isn’t it?”

“Ironically, it uses the same pathway Coronzon is attempting to use to escape. But since we can only use it and not control it, we cannot stop her from using it.”

The Roman Catholic spell was essentially a cluster bomb that detonated two billion explosive flames across the entirety of the targeted city.

And rather than burn everything down with the explosive blasts and flames, it used an extreme high temperature to rapidly alter the atmospheric pressure and oxygen level across the entire area. That meant fortifying oneself behind a shield or wall was meaningless. Because your own body would rupture from within. Afterwards, only a lifeless city would remain.

It was effectively the ideal form of a human killer.

(Now isn’t the time for us humans to be fighting among ourselves!!)

“I thought the pope had learned an important lesson from the trials of World War Three. I can’t believe he would agree to such a forceful solution.”

“His authorization is unnecessary. The cardinals have the right to hold an ecumenical council or election. …And the majority wish to do this. We in the minority have no way to stop them.”

“Doesn’t that seem disrespectful?”

“Abstaining in protest will not change the outcome of the vote. Did I ever say that I like that this is happening!?”

There was real strength behind those last words.

That had to be what he really thought. Which was why it pierced Agnese so deeply.

But even if he was sensible, he couldn’t change what was happening. She could tell that too.

(Well, this is a disaster…)

And there was an issue beyond the number of victims across Academy City.

A more fundamental issue.

“Don’t you know ''a human killer spell won’t affect an inhuman demon''? Sowing further confusion in Academy City will only create more openings in the city perimeter!! You’re playing right into Coronzon’s hand!!”

Apparently Coronzon’s special trait remained in effect.

She tore people apart and obstructed their evolution.

(But I can’t believe it’s gone so far.)

“Sister Agnese!!”

“What do you want, cardinal!? I’m really goddamn busy right now!”

“This is a compromise. As much of one as I could get. The original plan was to immediately activate Saint Georgios’s Fire and I only barely stopped that from happening!”

There was kindness in his words.

But that kindness was unnecessary. Something was fundamentally off about this.

“Don’t tell me this is about wounded pride. Index stopped Adikalika by redirecting it to an unnamed desert island in the Atlantic. The Italian peninsula wasn’t harmed!”

“But Coronzon did launch her large-scale attack spell. And that wasn’t her only trump card. Her power is unfathomable, so she must be destroyed when we have the chance. None of the cardinals can ignore that point. I’m sorry, but that includes me!”

She wasn’t sure what to say.

She understood. Yes, even Agnese was furious. If she hadn’t made a conscious effort to calm herself, she might have left the Anglicans back then.

“Violence is wrong,” he continued. “I understand that. We erred and let God’s Right Seat manipulate us during World War Three. …But this time, ''we are in our rights to retaliate.'' Overturning that idea will not be easy, Sister Agnese.”

(Coronzon. Your mere presence really does make a mess of humanity as a whole!)

The Roman Catholics naturally had a variety of emotions about this.

About Coronzon and about Academy City for failing to stop this crisis earlier.

…Nuclear missiles could destroy the world, so it would take a lot of guts to launch the first one yourself. But what if an enemy launched one at you first? That would lower the mental hurdle for pressing the launch button considerably.

People were easily influenced by the word “retaliation”. And that could burn down the entire world.

“I will do everything I can, but I doubt I can stop this from happening. Sooner or later, Saint Georgios’s Fire will be launched.”

He was one of the sensible ones.

He would truly prefer not to use it.

But that was why nothing he said was a mere threat or bluff.

For the pacifists, nothing was more painful than having to declare that an atrocity would soon be happening.

“So you need to escape that city immediately. It’s a shame what will happen to Academy City and the Anglicans, but it’s too late for them. Gather up all the Roman Catholics and get out of there!!”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter1|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume14_Chapter3}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Chapter2

2025-12-14T01:59:41Z

Massify: /* Part 2 */ had to change from reel to real

==Chapter 2: Mass Gold Counterfeiting==

===Part 1===

Increasing an amount of pure gold by artificial means.

That might sound like fairy tale magic, but from a scientific perspective, it was a field of research with a history stretching back into BCE times.

You could also call it a type of scam.

The most classic example is melting down the gold and mixing in silver or some other metal. You can find countless examples of this, including the legend of Archimedes.

Moving forward in time a bit, gold mixed with flour or wax became rampant. This was the method used by the dishonest sort of alchemist when they wanted to receive large sums of money from bored aristocrats in the name of “research funding”.

Of course, pure gold remains highly valued to this day, so searching for a cheap material that shines with a similar golden light isn’t a bad thing. In the honest world, there are plenty of harmless and non-malicious examples in the fields of decoration and interior design.

But to be blunt, the 18-karat gold everyone prizes so highly is not pure gold. 25% of it is in fact an impurity mixed in.

So there are countless examples of research to create gold-like metals, both legal and illegal.

But it didn’t sound like this case would be that simple.

===Part 2===

They stopped at the closest movie theater.

“Um, ahem. After speaking with the higher ups, I received a most pleasing result.”

“Good work.”

“Listen up, you fools who dug up some extra work. I was really hoping to get this minor incident squared away so I could enjoy the rest of the Daihaseisai like I was on vacation, but you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you!? Are you that interested in defending the peace of Academy City? Do you see yourselves as heroes now!? It’s always like this! You idiots! You imbeciles!! You’ve got me so mad only day drinking can make me feel better!!!”

Item was being treated like program testers who had been called in for work, found a bug in the program being developed, and were now being berated for forcing the programmers to stay up all night fixing it.

The voice on the phone sounded quite upset.

The middle manager whose plans were in shambles shouted in desperation.

“Pwahh… Nwohh! Yeah, times like this require real beer, none of that third category or fourth category crap!! Anyway, Item, your job is to search out the counterfeiter behind the super realistic fake gold bars – aka HoloAu79 – which is causing such a stir lately!! You discovered this, so you deal with it!”

They discovered it? If it was already causing a stir, Item could hardly have discovered it. It felt a lot like this was a convenient excuse to shove an annoying job onto them.

Kinuhata sighed and asked a question.

“Super what is Holo whatever you said? Is it someone’s name?”

“Hologram gold. In other words, gold bars that are there but you can’t touch,” explained the blank-eyed track suit girl.

Incidentally, computer viruses were named by the security companies that creating the antivirus software, not the person who wrote the virus. So the name could change between companies. Similarly, vehicle burglars and bank robbers tended to be given names like that when the police or media began discussing the cases. So the HoloAu79 name had likely come from the Academy City authorities. Because writing paperwork was a lot harder without a name for it.

The transmission ended.

Mugino thought a bit as the theater’s lights came on.

“This is probably why those Army Ant people were involved… As dark side debt collectors, they would have found it unforgivable to be hired to transport well-made fake gold bars while watching out for Anti-Skill.”

In the professional world, the reward being the same didn’t necessarily mean nothing was lost.

It was like a locksmith thinking they were creating a spare key for someone’s house and then later learning their client had actually been a stalker. Unwittingly doing such a low-level job could hurt their professional pride.

“But, Mugino, did the Investment Club people really have those gold bars to trick their customers?” asked Takitsubo.

“…”

Their deadly “punishment” for the drug tester had been to eliminate one of their own who had betrayed their clients. If the Investment Club would go that far to regain trust, would they really deceive those clients themselves? It didn’t fit and sounded unlikely.

Meaning…

“The counterfeits were made to be indistinguishable. So isn’t it possible the Investment Club received them without knowing what they were?”

“What a pain. If they only had them ''by coincidence'', then investigating those dead people won’t turn up anything. We’ll have to restart the investigation from the ground up.”

“So it was a false charge…”

The usually zoned-out Takitsubo sounded unusually somber.

That said, being so devastatingly unlucky it got you killed ''by coincidence'' was something that happened on the dark side.

Mugino rapidly summed up the situation.

(Well, if we are restarting from the ground up, should we start from there?)

The talk of gold counterfeiting didn’t have all that much to do with the Daihaseisai. Ultimately, there was no time limit forcing them to solve this case during the festival. So they could avoid packing their schedules too full and keep some time for themselves as they worked on the case.

Frenda stretched and held a hand to her mouth.

“Yawwwn… Then in the end, will we be splitting up and grabbing a nap and some private time?”

“You go and recharge your sister batteries. You look ready to die.”

“Frenda. You should try to get there by lunchtime. She goes to a normal elementary school, right? All the parents will be watching on tarps with bentos ready, so you don’t want your sister to be the only one all alone during the long lunch break.”

“You think I don’t know that!? I got up early this morning and prepared a lunch. In the end, you’d better not be doubting the power of a big sister’s homemade mackerel bento!!”

Now wasn’t the time for being heartwarming.

Kinuhata panicked.

“H-hey, wait! I’d like it if we could work out at least a general plan. If the counterfeit gold bars in the Investment Club base were there by coincidence, then we have super no hints at all. How were you three intending to find the counterfeiter once we do meet back up later!?”

Mugino shrugged and didn’t answer.

So track suit girl Takitsubo answered for her. Why couldn’t this more considerate girl be their leader?

“Kinuhata. Army Ant is upset that money experts like them were hired to transport counterfeit gold bars, right?”

“Hm? Hold on. Why did you super use the present tense there?”

“If they aren’t satisfied with their attack on the Investment Club, they will be gathering information on the counterfeiter behind the HoloAu79. In the way only a large group can.”

===Part 3===

It was the busy time shortly before lunch.

Some of the morning events must have had already ended, so the population density of the streets had shot up.

Sticking to the edge of the sidewalk, Takitsubo spoke in the shadow of a roadside tree.

Takitsubo and Mugino were the only ones present at the moment.

“Mugino, what will you do?”

“About what?”

“About the next step,” clarified the track suit girl. “Even if we can leave the physical attack to you, we still need to think up a way to get Army Ant’s leader – the Queen Ant? – to talk.”

“Huh? I can just-”

“If we rely on your ad libbing there, you’ll probably impulsively use Meltdowner and kill their queen. She’s a queen. You never get along with villains who look down on you. We can’t have you doing that before we get the information we need.”

…Mugino had to admit that was a possibility. A strong one.

So did they have to think up some other way?

“Do you have an idea, Takitsubo?”

“I do.”

No hesitation.

This girl was terrifying for reasons other than physical violence using an esper power or bombs.

“It wouldn’t be a guarantee, but it would help if there was something that Queen Ant valued more than her own life. Let’s go with that if we can’t come up with a better idea ahead of time.”

“So why not just do that?”

“I knew you’d say that. I didn’t want to tell you because you stop thinking as soon as someone says they have an idea. I want to investigate some other viewpoints and angles, so don’t tell Kinuhata and Frenda for now.”

They couldn’t let their guard down since there were light-footed villains who were prepared to flee at anytime, but they were talking about a debt collection boss. They were bound to be motivated by greed.

Then the other two returned from wherever they had been.

“Frenda-san, why are you carrying so super many cups?”

“In the end, I’m comparing different sports drinks. They were handing out samples on that street over there. I wonder which one’s best? Being a big sister isn’t easy. I’m meeting up with my sister at lunchtime, remember? This topic is bound to come up while we’re eating our bento! So I need to be researching as much as I can to have enough trivia for her.”

One area was making even more noise than Frenda and Kinuhata.

The noise came from the ordinary people.

Apparently an area had been set up to let people try out one of the events.

Obstacles made of material as soft as sponge or an artificial leather sofa had been painted bright neon colors. It looked like a large-scale athletic facility bigger than a park playground. A full lap was likely less than 200m, but there were metal poles you had to climb, long slides, and other intense ups and downs. It resembled the endurance testing course seen on New Year’s TV specials. Some people were ignoring the rules of the event and just enjoying falling in the water.

The Daihaseisai included a wide variety of events, but this one appeared to be one where you ran through the obstacle course to hit a button and then answered a quiz button. You had to run back and forth several times to answer all the questions. Although the actual project was apparently meant to show off the specs of Academy City espers by letting ordinary people end up all sweaty and exhausted while the espers could complete it in mere seconds.

While watching that from a distance, Mugino made a comment.

“…Do you still have regrets?”

“Not really.”

“You don’t actually have to give up on it. There are those on the dark side with official identities too. You can get by if you aim to be one of the top level villains.”

“You’re overthinking this. It isn’t something I want that badly anymore.”

The soft sigh came from Mugino.

She knew Takitsubo Rikou’s situation best.

False charges.

She had ultimately avoided being found guilty and remained free, but that didn’t erase the path taken to reach that point and there was no guarantee the psychological scars would fully heal. She could no longer trust the ordinary world and its systems. Most people would force themselves to accept the untrustworthy systems because that was the only way to live in society. But if someone had talent for things that weren’t exactly praiseworthy, that could unfortunately create a reason for them to avoid the “honest” world. As long as they had the talent needed to slip into the cracks of society and walk a darker path while rejecting the things they found untrustworthy.

“I’m fine,” said the track suit girl. Plainly. “This life suits me better, Mugino.”

===Part 4===

Until 7PM, she cheered until she was hoarse. During the flapping penguin dance, she moved to get the best photo spot and ended up grabbing a dad from the same class by the face to fight over the spot. That was a good time. By the end, the two had exchanged a firm handshake and parted ways.

And now Frenda Seivelun was smiling and holding her sister’s hand.

After all, this was her precious family. How many tens of thousands of photos did she take with the continuous shooting mode again? She had also filmed video constantly at the highest quality. What’s that? This joyous occasion would last the entire week? Then I’m gonna fill up the cloud no matter how big it is!

While the elementary schools were gathered in District 13, the two of them were currently in the more miscellaneous District 7. For the Daihaseisai, students would visit other schools and arenas depending on the event.

That part seemed to stick in her 7-year-old sister’s memory more than the event itself.

“Sigh. So I’ve finally set foot in a high school. In the first place, I feel so grown up…”

“What do you want for dinner? Hamburger steak? Sushi? My sister, they have food from all over the world on top of the train station.”

“A-a nighttime restaurant. In the first place, the Daihaseisai is such a grown up event. We even get to walk around when it’s dark out.”

Apparently that excited a first grader more than a meal. An Anti-Skill officer out on patrol smiled at the little sister clinging to Frenda’s side and looking excitedly all around.

“In the first place, I’m thirsty. I want a coconut cider.”

“I see, I see. The night is the best time for those carbonated drinks, my sister. In the end, it’ll be hell for you if you drink one during the day when you still have events to play.”

“?”

Thanks to the Daihaseisai, the streets were full of people even at night.

The little sister was so excited that she was still wearing her athletic bloomers and red headband even though all the day’s events were over. Her skin seemed kind of shiny, but that was from the big sister worrying about the bright sun during the day and applying some sunblock or moisturizer rather than using bug repellent. Dressed like that, they wouldn’t be able to enjoy dinner at the kind of restaurant with a dress code and required reservations.

And then the first grader pointed into the distance and raised her voice.

“Oh, wow. Fireworks!!”

They were hard to see from this distant train station concourse thanks to the tall buildings, but there were some red and green flowers blossoming in the sky. By measuring the time lag between the light and the sound (and using her knowledge as a dark side bomber), Frenda worked out that the fireworks were 2050m away. That would be the riverside area. Large-scale fireworks shows and night parades like that weren’t uncommon during the Daihaseisai.

Frenda smiled bitterly.

“In the end, I bet we’d get stuck in the crowds if we tried to head there now.”

“Then in the first place, we should get a good spot early tomorrow! Promise!?”

The little sister smiled and held out her pinkie finger, so Frenda crouched down and held out hers.

It was absurd for her to protect Academy City’s peace. A dangerous dark side villain who slung bombs around wasn’t one to talk here.

(Still, I don’t want to see the end of times like this. No matter what.)

===Part 5===

At midnight, Item met back up.

Takitsubo tilted her head.

“Frenda’s all shiny.”

“Oh, you can see this joyful aura, can you? Yes, it’s impossible to live a healthy life without soaking up the occasional sun. And I got a generous dose of the bright and shining sun known as my sister!”

Their job was to capture the counterfeiter making the HoloAu79 gold bars, but they had no information on the counterfeiter. So they needed to first contact someone who might have that information.

That meant a visit to the base of Army Ant who they had fought during the day.

“But isn’t that a mystery of its own? You see low-level Army Ant grunts around a fair amount, but does someone know where their headquarters are? Their loan shark base super might not even be in Japan.”

“Kinuhata, you’re looking at it wrong,” said Takitsubo.

“?”

“Army Ant has no fixed base. So investigating real estate to track down a building won’t work.”

As they spoke, Item waited for the crosswalk signal before crossing the street despite the lack of other pedestrians or cars at this late hour.

Apparently image was everything. Not long ago, tall signs displaying missing people posters or warnings about heading out late at night had been attached to the wind turbine poles with wrapped wire, but all of those appeared to have been removed for the Daihaseisai. Quite the merciless choice.

The unnatural cleanliness of not properly alerting people to the danger didn’t seem like it would lead to safety.

“I don’t know how good a counterfeit this HoloAu79 stuff is, but Mugino saw through it on sight, right? Is it really that super good?”

“Only because gold appraisal is almost entirely automated in Academy City. …If you let people do it, you’ll have no end of idiots who scrape a little off the surface and steal it. So in this day and age, fooling mechanical sensors matters more than fooling people. A few people might not be fooled, but most people will trust what the neatly-organized data tells them.”

“In the end, HoloAu79 doesn’t have a sign, right?”

Ordinarily, counterfeit money would include a minuscule sign that only the creator would know to look for. Because once the money was in circulation, there was a risk of it returning to the creator’s own wallet. Nothing would be sadder than being arrested for unwittingly trying to pay at a store with your own counterfeit money.

However, HoloAu79 lacked a sign like that.

If the creator had decided a petty bourgeois like them would never do business in anything as fancy as gold bars, they didn’t need a sign to avoid reacquiring it.

That had made this a lot more difficult for the Academy City higher ups.

“So Army Ant doesn’t have a fixed base, huh?” muttered Mugino.

By then, Takitsubo had already found the answer.

“Those shiny things.”

“Hm? In the end, aren’t those meant to keep crows away? These ones look homemade, though.”

“There’s a pattern, Frenda.”

Takitsubo viewed something like aluminum foil tanzaku hanging near a trash dumping site.

“If they move locations a lot, they need some way of communicating with their people. Without relying on corporate social media that is so easily traced.”

“Takitsubo-san, you’re super good at this kind of thing, huh?” Kinuhata sounded impressed.

“I used to want to make quizzes. Again, used to.”

No one really looked into who made these sorts of things. The four girls followed the signs that were clearly homemade yet wouldn’t rouse suspicion when hung up in the streets.

Between two buildings late at night, they found a tall fence blocking the way. The chain link door was locked with a thick chain and a padlock while a man in baggy pants leaned against it and boredly messed with his phone. He wasn’t keeping an eye on his surroundings, but was he supposed to be a guard?

When Mugino approached in obvious annoyance, Mr. Smartphone finally looked up.

“I have business with Army Ant’s boss.”

“Don’t make me laugh. You think I’m letting an outsider in? I’m sure you worked yourself to tears gathering up all the money, but you can wait until tomorrow to pay back your debt. With the interest for the extra day, idiot.”

He became much more cooperative once she grabbed his face with her entire palm. His bent knees and back had him pressed fairly compactly against the ground, though.

Frenda cackled.

“It’s a miracle he didn’t get his upper half vaporized for that.”

“Mugino really is kind.”

Past the filthy fence door, they found a square space of plain concrete.

White beams of light pierced straight into their heads. Those were headlights.

Quite a few vehicles were gathered here.

Was there a larger entrance somewhere?

Several large trucks were parked at the center. But their boxy storage containers had the sides opened straight upwards. Giant speakers, stage lightning from directly above, electric instruments, and a DJ booth… Those were surprise concert stage trucks meant to throw a party anytime and anywhere.

There were also a few vans modified into food trucks to serve alcohol and snacks to the members. (Even though they had all gathered here in cars and motorcycles!)

More than 100 scantily-clad boys and girls filled the space.

The ant masks were a strange sight when there were this many of them.

That explained the great number of vehicles.

Frenda whispered in partial exasperation, although the “Boom! Boom!! Boom!! Baboom!!” of giant woofers threatened to drown her out.

“Army Ant. …In the end, those ants don’t have a fixed anthill and wander the jungle as a group, right?”

“Every one of these people are illegal debt collectors? What has the world super come to?”

At least it sounded like Army Ant only bared their fangs against dark side people who borrowed money and then failed to pay it back.

They were also known for turning people into small diamonds if they couldn’t pay, so was a device for that running in one of the trucks?

Also…

“Super wait a second. Aren’t we missing someone? Where did the two with huge chests go!?”

“We got separated in the crowd. In the end, we need to get going, Kinuhata.”

Frenda showed no intention of actually trying to search for the other two. She grabbed Kinuhata’s thin arm, parted the crowd, and continued on.

The crowd density was a little better than a packed train and she appeared to have found her target already.

“The area with the most guards and the best escape route is, in the end, over there.”

“Are those two super alright?”

It had probably started out as a long limousine, but it had been modified into a convertible. With the movable walls and roof open, it looked something like a VIP table at a sketchy club.

The sofa was as large as a bed and a light green cocktail sat on the side table. Probably a mint-flavored drink called a grasshopper. Did the queen see that as eating grasshoppers like army ants did?

But…

“No one here?” asked Kinuhata, blinking.

Then she used a single Offense Armor boosted arm to flip over the entire 2 ton limousine.

There was a square metal panel on the ground.

They appeared to be borrowing power from an underground mall, so the surface was connected to the underground space.

After the queen escaped, someone else must have moved the limo to cover it up.

“She got away!? Super when did she notice us and run off!?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Large men began slowly surrounding Kinuhata and Frenda.

Were they trying to buy time?

But Frenda didn’t seem particularly bothered.

“In the end, this is all going according to plan☆ Oh, and one other thing, Kinuhata.”

“Super what do you want!? This isn’t the time!”

“Can you use this wall?”

“…”

Was this why Frenda had stayed with Kinuhata and her Offense Armor?

Kinuhata briefly considered leaving Frenda here, but Item was supposed to be a team. She frowned as she grabbed the back of Frenda’s collar and ran straight up the wall to the roof of the 15 floor building. She had to use the windows as footing in some places, but her ability to concentrate nitrogen in a single location allowed her to remove the air between the sole of her shoe and surface of contact, letting her shoe act something like a suction cup.

“Man, that’s convenient. With a Level 4 around, I don’t even need any reverse bungees or rocket boosters.”

“Is that super all I’m worth to you?”

Were the popping sounds from below gunfire? Kinuhata and Frenda ignored the commotion down there and instead jumped to another building.

“What about the other two? Where are we going after super abandoning them?”

“Well, in the end, we’re doing our jobs.”

===Part 6===

The underground mall was a grid of corridors running lengthwise and widthwise, but not all of it was open. Because tenants were periodically replaced, some corridors had metal shutters down, blocking that way.

But those two-dimensional blockages couldn’t stop vertical motion.

Every surface was freshly painted.

It was all bright and shiny but didn’t seem lived in. Since the area had been blocked off, the wall of powerful scent was like a blow to the head.

Accompanied by two large bodyguards, a beautiful brown-skinned woman stepped into the underground passageway in her heels.

Immediately, a voice came from behind her.

“Hello.”

The voice echoed through the deserted area where even the shops had been removed.

Mugino Shizuri already had a brutal beam concentrated in her right hand.

The brown woman raised her hands without turning around.

At the same time, the large men flanking the Queen Ant did turn around. The only reason Mugino did not immediately fire Meltdowner was due to something blocking her view. Something like a torn-up tarp had been thrown at her, but was it actually the metal shutter that had been nearby? The ant masked bodyguards wore something like knuckle dusters, but each one had a pair of prongs on the end. The prongs weren’t the same as a stun gun’s electrodes. Perhaps they were mechanical weapons that latched on like a vise and tore away flesh upon contact.

Mugino swung just her head aside to dodge the flying piece of metal.

“Army Ant, huh? Interesting! Just try and bite me, you lowly insects!!”

With a belligerent smile, Mugino focused on her palm.

At the same moment, a dull thud rang out.

One of the bodyguards crumpled to the floor, where he curled up and trembled.

Directly behind him, Takitsubo Rikou held a fire extinguisher in both hands. It appeared to be the type that sprayed a foam rather than a powder, but that didn’t really matter. The weight of the metal against the head was the same either way.

Mugino didn’t seem to know what to do with her palm now.

“Huh…”

“If you fought, there would only be ashes left. Don’t kill them before we can talk.”

Not mentioning what would happen after the talking was the Item way.

Bodyguard B finally recovered from his surprise and clenched his fists anew, so Mugino Shizuri really did fire Meltdowner this time.

But only after Takitsubo Rikou threw the fire extinguisher at her palm.

“Dwah!? Dammit, Takitsubo!!”

“You don’t listen,” calmly said the track suit girl without even looking toward Mugino, who was covered head to toe in white foam.

Mugino’s plan had been to fire a warning shot and, while the enemy froze in shock and terror, fire an actual killing shot, but now she had lost her chance to adjust her aim. …So Takitsubo hadn’t just predicted that shot. She knew Mugino well enough to see through her entire strategy.

After that, they shifted their focus from the bodyguards to the woman they had been guarding.

She was still facing away with her hands up.

“You owe us for saving their lives,” plainly stated Takitsubo.

“When you’re the ones who attacked them in the first place?”

The woman seemed confident despite the circumstances.

So she really was a dark side specialist. And the boss of a dark side group at that.

The bodyguards clearly wanted to fight and give her a chance to escape, but her next action changed things.

The brown beauty slowly turned around without lowering her hands.

She was willing to talk.

To reiterate, she was beautiful. However, her eyes alone were hidden behind mechanical goggles with an insect look. And the bewitching brown skin left exposed by her gaudy dress was covered with special tattoos.

“I have a full grasp of the situation, my uninvited guests.”

“Is that why you ran?”

“Emotions are no more than brain chemicals. This means they can reach me as tiny particles I can smell. Grabbing one of my adorable worker ants by the face to get him to submit was uncalled for, don’t you think?”

Before even hearing the sound of something whizzing through the air, Takitsubo opened the door to the fire hose on the wall.

Orange sparks scattered from Japanese-style embroidery scissors or…no, were those nail clippers? The U of steel, well-forged by a craftsman, looked something like an ant’s mandibles.

The thrown blade stopped after piercing through the thin metal door.

Choosing to talk had seemed odd, but apparently she had only been looking for an opening. A very dark side thing to do.

Mugino looked exasperated.

“Why not just kill her now? We can always ask someone else.”

“Wait just a bit longer. …And if you don’t want to anger Mugino any more, I would recommend getting rid of that pepper spray you’re hiding. Animal venom is no use against Mugino. The chemicals will only be roasted and broken down in the air before reaching her.”

The track suit girl showed no emotion on her face.

Not even a twitch of an eyebrow.

The queen ant was apparently rendered speechless.

To her, Takitsubo apparently seemed more off than Mugino. She obediently pulled a bottle smaller than her thumb from her cleavage and tossed aside the formic acid based pepper spray.

“How do you always know when they’re about to do something?”

“Because they do that fortune teller act.”

The “I can see right through you” fortune teller act was a standard tactic for remaining in control of a conversation. Especially for those without as much simple firepower.

She probably had a ''personal security camera'' hidden in the bushes near the chain-ink fence or something.

Information was meant to be kept close to the vest. If someone went out of the way to reveal what they knew, they had to gain something from doing so. Such as surprising the enemy into a freezing for a brief moment they could use to slice through a major artery.

Mugino seemed fed up with it all.

“You won’t get a third chance, Ms. Goggles. Next time, we give up and try elsewhere. You’re who we’re looking for, aren’t you?”

“Yes, yes. I am. I’m the Queen Ant who rules the colony.”

On closer inspection the tattoos covering her body were not a pattern or illustrations. It was a series of small written characters. In fact, it was people’s names. She must have noticed where they were looking because the so-called queen slowly spun around to give them a better look. With her hands still raised.

“Every last one of them is a worker ant or soldier ant who died for me. So I engrave them into my skin so I can live on with them. I adore every last member of my colony. Can a lonely mutant like you even understand how a queen feels?”

Mugino snorted with laughter.

She claimed to be mourning her subordinates’ deaths, but she was acting more like she was showing off a fancy accessory. She didn’t seem to be the type to truly regret those deaths and bottle up her feelings.

The Queen Ant smiled with only her lips.

It was only surface level. Deep down, she may have been searching for a chance to attack.

“Why all this setup? You have enough firepower to push back my entire colony if I sent them after you.”

“Yeah. But my power is a little much. We can’t have me overdoing it and killing the stubborn Queen Ant too. But when people make a run for it, they always take along the things that really matter. We could never have located what was truly valuable among all your money and possessions, but you’ve revealed that bargaining chip for us. Now we know what it is you absolutely refuse to have stolen.”

At the very least, they knew it wasn’t the two bodyguards.

The brown woman squeezed a pouch too small to hold a bento. Squeezed it tightly.

Her tone dropped.

“What do you want? You don’t look too worried, so I’m guessing it isn’t that someone isn’t paying you back the money you lent them.”

“If you’re pursuing the counterfeit gold bars case, you must have gathered some information on whoever made them. Give it to us.”

“Why should I? Did you think anyone could approach Army Ant and leave unharmed?”

“Even the most hated creatures have another they can coexist with. For example, the antbird that captures the bugs fleeing from the greedy march of the army ants.”

The two bodyguards swelled out from within. They must have had some strength left and were taking this affront to their boss’s dignity seriously. What kind of weapons did they have hidden away? Mugino guessed it was something worse than a handgun.

But the Queen Ant herself seemed amused.

“Hm. But did you know those antbirds can’t fly very well under their own power? At this point, they can’t acquire food without the army ants. If they don’t follow the march, only death awaits them. So in trying to use the ants, they have become bound to them.”

“Mugino.”

The Queen Ant clicked her tongue. She was probably looking for an opening.

If Mugino let this shake her, she would be devoured and killed in an instant.

But Takitsubo could sense that coming in advance.

The brown woman sighed in exasperation.

“Learn to take the easy way out and you will become trapped. That is the truth. I’ve seen it happen countless times. But if you still want our help, it will mean signing a contract.”

“…”

“Of course, if you screw it up, we will draw on our full power as debt collectors. But if you don’t mind a debt so great the interest alone is debilitating, so be it.”

“Did you think you could threaten Item?”

“You can kill as many of us as you like. We can easily replace with recruitment, brainwashing, deals, and other means. Once the individual with a special power runs out of breath, they can only wait until our gathering of well-trained predators tears them apart little by little, ever widening the wound.”

The Queen Ant grinned, but also tossed over the file in a plastic sleeve one of the bodyguards pulled out. She threw it like a flying disc. Without any real reluctance.

“DIY Garage. That’s what they go by.”

Mugino caught it in her empty hand.

The document covered a single individual.

As confusing as it was, that name referred to an individual, not an organization. It was possible the name was a strategy meant to hide that they were just one person.

Mugino clicked her tongue.

“This is all you have? I was expecting more. This doesn’t even give their real name.”

“Unsatisfied?”

“No. Like I said, one of us is great at searching people out.”

===Part 7===

The four regrouped on a dark street. It was best to leave the document with their analyst Takitsubo.

The track suit girl caught it in a hand.

“I’ll contact you by midday,” she said right away. “This will probably take a lot of work, but I can ask the support group for help. Leave it to me.”

“Eh? What about those of us with super nothing to do?”

“I’m going to get some sleep. In the end, I need to be ready to cheer on my sister in the direct sunlight!!”

With that, they parted ways without waiting for the dawn.

Mugino walked through the empty, late night street all alone and pulled out her phone.

The enemy was a counterfeiting specialist. Someone like that would probably think differently from an ordinary criminal. It would be best to simulate exactly how they thought and what they would do.

She knew someone with a lot of knowledge there. And someone who wouldn’t mind at all if she contacted him at this hour.

“Mujinayama.”

“Yes, Lady Shizuri?”

Mugino Shizuri frowned when a young female voice came from her phone.

“Who’re you?”

“Hanagai. I work as a maid. Butler Mujinayama is currently in the hospital and is still not well enough to answer your requests, so your calls have been redirected to me.”

“Honestly, how long is he planning to stay in the hospital?”

“In Academy City, you all expect wounds to heal much too fast. I can’t imagine what kinds of bizarre cutting-edge medical technology you use in there.”

For once, Mugino fell silent for a moment.

When you lived in Academy City, it was easy to forget how unusual and special the things here looked to the rest of the world.

“General knowledge is good enough. I want some basic information on counterfeiters.”

“Skilled with their hands but lacking in confidence would be the standard character profile. That is why they have the extremely high skills required but do not use their own creations. In a fight, they will not rely on physical strength. On the other hand, they value their own territory – which includes both their special tools and their workshop – so when pursued, they tend to lie in wait and launch a surprise attack rather than running away. So you should be ready for homemade weapons such as a stun gun or pepper spray.”

“Hm.”

Mugino had more or less expected it, but this sounded a lot like Frenda. Although if Frenda knew she was at a disadvantage, she would lay traps to help her escape rather than try and resist.

“However, all of that is only the standard. If you have any clues that could narrow things down further, I believe I could extract more useful information for you, Lady Shizuri.”

“I don’t intend to get that much help from the Family.”

Mugino sighed in exasperation and turned a corner.

A maid was standing there.

And this wasn’t a cafe cosplayer. This was a high-level maid of the Mugino Family who specialized in Molotov cocktails.

“Why are you here?”

“The Daihaseisai is one of the few times when the city is open to the public. Is it that surprising to see outsiders around?”

Mugino hung up the phone and tossed something over with her other hand.

The golden object was HoloAu79.

It was smaller than a brick, but when Hanagai caught it in both hands, she grunted a bit from its weight. Was acting delicate and cute part of her maid training? Then again, it did weigh about as much as a heavier bowling ball.

“This is their homemade gold. There’s your info. So what can you tell me?”

“Hm. No signature to tell it from a real one.”

“That’s all?”

“That means they aren’t the type to seek recognition. Even aside from functionality and practicality, they didn’t bother signing it out of interest or pride. That makes them seem obedient at first glance, but it also means they are irresponsible and feel no guilt about committing such a serious crime. …A craftsman like this will not hesitate to use a powerful homemade weapon. Even in the middle of an innocent crowd.”

“…”

So they were like Frenda…but different at a fundamental level.

That bomber was very picky about where she would set her traps. She handled highly dangerous explosives, but she avoided collateral damage even when making an attack in a crowd. She was the dangerous sort of pro who actually felt pride in her ability to kill just her target in a crowd.

Based on that comparison, a pro without such hangups would be a very troublesome enemy if they were pushed past the limit.

Molotov cocktail maid Hanagai had one more thing to say.

“Their specialty is creating alloys, but that means they will likely misuse the tools used for that. It could be armor or blunt weapons made from their own special alloy, it could be the processing equipment used to produce great heat, or it could be the molten metal itself. If you want to fight them, you should probably start by separating them from any innocent people.”

===Part 8===

Item had a support group working for them.

Frenda Seivelun could befriend anyone, so one might think she was most popular with those tough delinquents…but she wasn’t.

Takitsubo Rikou was.

She entered the dimly-lit bar the delinquents hung out in. Alone. There was generally no one else in the bar during the day and she hadn’t asked why they were able to use it during the day like this.

The track suit girl had one main question.

“Can you gather the information I asked for?”

“There are still two or three difficult ones.”

“Don’t push too hard. It’s good to know when to tap the brakes yourself even though the goal is in sight.”

The support group cleared a path for her. They all looked at her like someone on a different stage from them.

Violence was not a card in Takitsubo Rikou’s deck.

Which meant she had earned the delinquents’ obedience some other way.

She scanned through the paper documents spread out on the billiards table.

“Hm. The missing information would probably be…here. These District 10 exterminators. They specialize in termites, but…yes, they also do repairs to damaged homes.”

“That’s the most dangerous district.”

A delinquent glaring down at the same billiards table breathed a heavy sigh.

Apparently there were parts of the world even delinquents preferred to avoid.

“When you say repairing damaged homes, you actually mean they help people to break open the front doors to mansions and to open safes for a fee, right? A burglary adviser who uses their own termites to create a reason to enter the house. If you need any rough jobs done, just ask. I’m sure the building is well guarded, but if a few of us charged in, it would create enough of an opening for others to sneak in the back and swipe some documents.”

“Don’t,” immediately cautioned Takitsubo. “We’re in the middle of the Daihaseisai, so there are even reporters from outside the city around. Stick to the safe and sure route, okay?”

“But isn’t this information Item needs right away?”

“If it comes to it, you can investigate the victims. Since you mentioned mansions and safes, they must go after fairly valuable targets, right? If any big names are among their victims, you can threaten to tell the victim who was responsible and I’m sure the exterminators will gladly give you the information. Without any bloodshed.”

This here was why she was so popular with her subordinates.

Unlike the other three Item member, Takitsubo Rikou generally avoided direct violence. (This was partially because she didn’t know all that much about violence and combat.) So she did not give commands that would reduce the numbers of the support group. Even if their numbers could easily be replenished. She would reject the shortest route and think up a safe method even if it required a bit of a detour. The trust this engendered had spread to every one of the delinquents.

The support group could not disobey any order, so Takitsubo was like the one empty chamber in a four-shot revolver. That would naturally give her support from those playing Russian roulette.

Unfortunately, Takitsubo had little influence and decision-making power in Item, so she was rarely the one giving instructions like this.

“Takitsubo-saaan.”

A support group delinquent called out to her.

While carrying a thin box bigger than a pizza box?

“A caterer just delivered something. I’ve checked inside and it doesn’t look like there’s any risk of a bomb or gas. What do you want to do with it?”

“Who is it from? A friend?”

“If the name on the ticket is accurate, it’s from Mugino-san.”

“Hm.”

“I think it’s food for you. The handwriting matches, so I don’t think we need to change locations right away. But the decision is yours.”

Takitsubo opened the box and saw a large plate of smoked snacks. A lot of it was salmon. There was also some thin slices of smoked cheese and ham. It may have been a Hokkaido special.

“This is definitely from Mugino.”

Mugino clearly hadn’t given any thought to nutritional value or other practical matters.

This was simply what Mugino liked.

It was full of something other than efficiency and functionality. There wasn’t a message card, but Takitsubo received a message all the same.

Work was work.

Working too hard and harming your health was wrong.

“I see.”

However, Takitsubo had no intention of changing her lifestyle.

She was Item’s searcher.

How much information she could supply in advance would determine how many injuries the ones in the line of fire would receive. That was her job, so she couldn’t hold back.

Was that way of thinking the result of the false charges in her past?

The main reason she acted as the brakes within Item was to protect Mugino who had a tendency to run wild. She protected Mugino not from simple violence but from nastier and more troublesome powers like society and systems. It had been that way ever since Item was just the two of them.

(It isn’t often she sends something like this. Now that Item has more members, is she starting to see herself as a leader?)

Takitsubo smiled a little.

Then she gathered the support team who were helping her with an investigation.

That she didn’t keep all the food to herself was another reason she had so much support from them.

“Time for a break, everyone. This should help you focus a while longer.”

===Part 9===

Shortly before noon, Takitsubo came through on her promise in a Japanese-style pasta restaurant that used chopsticks. With her usual lack of expression.

“I found him. In District 23.”

That was a special district dedicated to aerospace development. It contained things like an international airport, a rocket launch site, and an underground silo mass driver, so it had plenty of large warehouses and maintenance hangars that ordinary people never got near. Buy one of those and it could easily become a dangerous scientist’s secret base.

“In the end, how did you figure that out with only that thin file?”

“Do you want to know?”

In the next seat over, Kinuhata forcefully covered Frenda’s mouth.

That question was guaranteed to lead to a lengthy digression in explanation land. And the extensive explanation from the expressionless yet somehow smug-looking girl might be something that only Takitsubo could understand thanks to her ability to receive all sorts of unseen information. No one else would understand a bit of it.

“The mysterious DIY Garage took some jobs with the dark side in the past, which is why he is fairly well known. By investigating the secret payment methods he used with those people, you can gradually work out what he’s trying to avoid. As long as you provide a clear plan in advance, the support group does good work.”

Takitsubo looked like she had even more to say, but Kinuhata didn’t engage. This wasn’t the sales talk of a clothing store salesman, so she wasn’t letting this go on for long.

As long as they got the information they wanted, it didn’t matter if it came from the day’s horoscope or big data analysis. After picking up on the right search terms from the file, Takitsubo Rikou arrived at the following conclusion.

“He seems to be renting an airport maintenance hangar meant for a private plane. Anyone who can prepare the appropriate paperwork under a fake name can get their own private space the size of a school building. And no one will grow suspicious hearing mechanical sounds from inside. It’s perfect for a lab.”

“Then that’s the place.”

At times like this, Mugino didn’t question Takitsubo’s “oracles”. She knew from past experience that the more she said relating to these answers, the more she would regret it.

And more than that, Mugino was mildly curious about how talkative Takitsubo was being. A lot of people had died from unwittingly using counterfeit gold bars. Did she see that as a form of false charges?

(Why is she getting so worked up when those were all dark side villains who died?)

Frenda was the only one who hadn’t ordered pasta. She had to share a bento with her sister at lunchtime, so they waited until the afternoon events to begin.

Afterwards, the four of them got to work.

“So do we super know this DIY Garage person’s real name?”

“Uikawa Kyusaku. Age: 45. Sex: Male. Divorced. Officially works as at a mobile device repair shop that only accepts jobs online. The official paperwork says he lives in District 8, but that’s probably a decoy. A young woman periodically enters the house because he has hired her part-time to clean up the place and keep it from falling into disrepair. Uikawa himself shows no sign of living there, so he may sleep in his secret lab.”

“In the end, you really did figure out everything, huh?”

“Because the support team is so good. Make sure you take good care of them.”

Frenda made her exasperated comment as she burned a vertical line through the tall fence and entered District 23.

Below the blue sky, they cut across the taxiway next to a runway and walked past a circular metal panel that looked like an enormous hatch. It resembled a missile silo except bigger. It was probably an underground silo mass driver.

They approached one of the giant boxy buildings that each could have contained a gym.

Without any advance information, they couldn’t have told it apart from the rest.

“Any traps?” asked Mugino, annoyed.

“In the end, I’ve already deactivated the alarm and explosives.”

Frenda didn’t hesitate to respond as she messed with the contents of a rectangular panel in the asphalt.

The front door was so massive that sliding it open would be like moving an entire wall measuring a few dozen meters, but they ignored that and used the smaller side door.

They were prepared to respond instantly if anyone was inside, but to their surprise the place was deserted. The lights were still on even though it was daytime. Was it like that year round since the hangar had no windows?

“Did he super run away?”

“With his lab intact? A lot of the machines here cost a hundred million yen each. And if someone who sets explosives traps really intended to run, they would blow away their lab first because it would be a treasure trove of information no matter how thoroughly they cleaned it. In the end, he would try anything that an outsider could think up on the spot.”

Takitsubo pointed to one corner of the large facility.

“Is that for late-night snacks? A toaster, a gas stove, and a steam oven. He has all that, but the card storage and stamp-sized flash memory haven’t been fried. There’s no sign of it being shredded in the blender either. It doesn’t even look like he dumped water on the big computers. I don’t think he’s destroyed anything yet.”

That would mean he just so happened to be out.

…Just so happened. That was another factor that couldn’t be calculated for. Mugino silently scowled, hoping this wouldn’t lead anywhere unpleasant.

“The place is a mess.”

“The air conditioning isn’t anything special… Since this isn’t a biolab, there shouldn’t be any danger from bacteria or microbes, but in the end you should still watch out for chemicals.”

“Is that something being cautious can help with?”

Since gold was counterfeited here, Mugino had been imagining something like a blast furnace, but there was in fact a wide variety of equipment. There was something like a microwave oven larger than a bathtub, there was a press and a lathe like you would find in a downtown workshop, there was a high-tech industrial 3D printer, and there was even a sewing machine and a jeweler’s work desk. Overall, the place felt jumbled. Mugino opened a giant silver refrigerator to find rows of flasks containing colorful chemicals. She wanted to avoid touching those.

Takitsubo tilted her head.

“Looks like he counterfeits more than just gold.”

“Did you know Michelangelo started off as an art forger? If he hadn’t had a change of heart, he probably would have stayed that way.”

This was a topic that came up a lot in labs, both on the dark side and not. And it was a tantalizing story for the adults who wanted to shape born geniuses how they liked.

(So it isn’t just gold… Then what kind of tech will he use as a weapon?)

Takitsubo appeared to be investigating a bookcase by the wall. She pulled out a thick file.

“September 1. Purchased 1 VSOP and 3 VSO?”

“Huh? Aren’t those brandy grades?”

“Hm? What do they mean? Do more letters super mean better?”

Kinuhata looked like she didn’t get it. At her height that wasn’t surprising. The bigger problem was probably that a student like Mugino was so unusually knowledgeable here.

“In the end, do you drink, Mugino?”

“No. But those premium drinks can be used in place of money. Which is great when you want to make a payment without anyone noticing. When I was little, my grandfather and the others made sure I memorized all the brands and grades. This was before I learned my times table, if you can believe it.”

That said, Item committed crimes as casually as visiting the train station or even making an online purchase, so they weren’t a group of well-behaved girls. Those extreme delinquents didn’t touch alcohol because their esper development already put a heavy burden on their brain growth and they couldn’t afford anything that would reduce or hinder their brain function. Because their lives might depend on it.

Anyway, a purchase record of fancy brandies was an odd thing to leave lying around in an airport maintenance hangar. If the thick file was entirely made up of those records, how much alcohol was this guy buying?

And…

“Here we go. …Is this the HoloAu79?” asked a disgusted Mugino.

A few golden bars were lying on the floor. They were about a size smaller than bricks. No matter how well made they were, their creator would know they were fake, so he wouldn’t treat them with much care. DIY Garage clearly wasn’t the type to grow attached to his creations.

Takitsubo’s voice dropped lower than usual.

“It was him trying to get rich with these that caused the Investment Club to be suspected and attacked.”

“It’s not like they were good people. Have you already forgotten about the hanging?” asked Mugino, exasperated.

But if Takitsubo wanted to get all worked up over false charges, that was her business.

“In the end, this looks like the machine.”

Frenda lightly slapped her small palm against a glass cylinder taller than she was. The top was covered by a fairly sturdy metal lid and several thick tubes connected to it. The glass itself probably wasn’t normal and it was as thick as the windows of a presidential vehicle.

It had the look of a tool used for chemistry or physics experiments.

“Looks like a tornado maker,” said Takitsubo.

Was that why a scene from an educational program appeared in the backs of their minds?

The device was essentially a press that applied incredible pressure, but it wasn’t used on metal.

It was used on liquids.

“Ever heard of epithermal gold deposits? …For some reason, lots of gold veins are found in hot spring regions and one theorized explanation says the materials in the volcano or hot springs combine underground to form gold. In the end, a fair amount of research has been done to determine the time, heat, pressure, and distribution of hot spring materials needed to create one gram of gold. That said, I’ve never heard of it being mass-produced that way.”

If you wanted to artificially acquire gold, there were plenty of options, including gathering up accessories from pawn shops and prying open phones. It wasn’t worth spending vast amounts of research funding on. Or so it had seemed.

“Then did this DIY Garage personally work out the exact values needed to make that cocktail and then greatly reduced the necessary time and expenses with this artificial device? I don’t know if he’s processing a bunch of hot spring water brought in from elsewhere or mixing chemicals together, but he must have gotten it working as a business and started selling the product.”

Kinuhata frowned at Takitsubo’s explanation.

“Then is this super real gold?”

“If it was, Mugino wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.”

“Oh,” said Kinuhata, falling silent.

Exactly right.

It was real but fake. Mugino brushed her hair off her shoulder and explained.

“My guess is he could create something a lot like pure gold, but he couldn’t completely remove the hot spring impurities. And this created a subtle difference in the surface luster.”

That was probably enough to fool the mechanical sensors.

After all, it really did contain the components of real gold.

Mugino scoffed.

This was better than an alloy that simply looked golden, but it was still visually recognizable as fake. And more than that, the fact that he introduced it to the market under false pretenses said a lot. Even the counterfeiter knew it couldn’t truly pass as real gold.

“If he had super stuck to this a while longer, I bet he could’ve become one of the great inventors of our time.”

“I’m not so sure. The creation of artificial diamonds didn’t cause the global economy to collapse.”

At any rate, this confirmed that DIY Garage was the gold counterfeiter.

Now they had to either gather information in the lab and track him down wherever he was or wait here for him to return. It was up to Mugino to make that decision, but…

“Oh?”

Someone was there.

A small man stood near the side entrance. He was carrying a paper bag in his arms. The bag was overflowing with food.

DIY Garage.

“I had set things up to kill any intruders, but was there a malfunction? Would you mind giving me your thoughts and opinions so I can investigate how this happened?”

“Hey, Mugino.”

Frenda didn’t see this as a problem.

As long as no unfortunate false charges were involved, this was no more than a shortcut.

There was no need to hold back against another member of the dark side.

“In the end, our job is done once we stop the flow of counterfeit gold, right? And if he struggles, we can kill him?”

“I’d really rather not die.”

He was blunt.

He didn’t sound like his life was on the line. His flippant tone made it sound like they were talking about someone else. You would think he was only saying he preferred not to buy eggs at full price when there was a sale later that day.

Mugino frowned in displeasure.

“Probably not, but what can you do about it at this point? This is what you get for your money-driven misdeeds when you lack the power to back it up.”

“Do you mind if I fight back?”

“Feel free if you’d prefer a painful death.”

“Thank you.”

With a horrible tearing sound, something broke through the wall behind DIY Garage. Like thin sheet metal being torn through. Giant objects burst out on either side of the small man.

Earsplitting scraping sounds continued.

There were several shapes.

Together, they formed a twisted cone measuring more than 2m. Each one was about the size of a roof tile. The countless pointed armor panels were forcibly welded or glued together to create some kind of artwork. Sword-like protrusions jutted out wildly. If this was art, the theme either had to be a toppled pile of junk or countless antennae.

“This is a product of polymer chemistry. My specialty is synthetic polymers, though. With a thermosetting polymer, it isn’t hard to create armor superior to steel. And polymer gels are neat too since they can be used as a microactuator. It’s like the surface of a CD. By moving the gel to create tiny dips and bumps that accurately mark out 0s and 1s, it functions as a signal that can be used to compute fairly complex calculations.”

But if this was a work of art, it probably wouldn’t be equipped with a giant heavy machinegun or a 40mm auto grenade launcher. On the right and left. The weapons were also made of artificial polymer. …Maybe the bullets were too.

A product of polymer chemistry.

The small man spoke calmly with the bizarre weapon protecting him.

“Well, it’s probably simplest to think of it as a strange kind of plastic.”

Kinuhata’s eyes widened as far as they would go.

“Ah, ah…”

The scraping sounds were not coming from the armor.

The armor pieces were completely fixed in place, so they did not collide with each other and make noise.

“You’re super kidding.”

“It’s not really worth calling a tank or a self-propelled gun,” said the small man, sounding unconcerned. As if he were showing off the tree in his garden he took care of daily. “The original idea was to develop an automatic sniping module. Sniping is all about math and physics, so I wanted to throw out the unscientific process of relying on the mental calculations of the kind of genius who is maybe born once every few decades and instead set a world record through simpler and more mechanical means. My initial goal was perfect aim at 5000 meters.”

The current record with absurd anti-materiel rounds (at least as far as the official records went) was less than 3000 meters. Perfect aim at 5000 meant being able to fire ten thousand times at that range and hit every single time. If that ability was mass produced and distributed like baseball bats and tennis rackets, the current security procedures for VIPs and military bases would be entirely useless.

“That said, it is a delicate field, so putting together a product and programming it with all the relevant ballistics and fluid mechanics isn’t enough to hit. Air temperature, humidity, wind direction, the shape of the bullet, the weight, the center of gravity, the rotation rate, gravity, the Coriolis force… You can include all of that and still, for whatever reason, you won’t hit. This issue is already well known, which is why the problem is such a headache. You should be able to use the same program used for the CIWS Gatling gun protecting a warship from aircraft, yet there is some other factor preventing an automatic sniping module from seeing the light of day.”

A Gatling gun that sprayed tens of thousands of bullets from all across a warship or base operated under very different rules from an anti-personnel sniper rifle that had to make a single decisive shot.

It could be seen as a struggle between two people.

“Ultimately, it all seems to come down to a biological adjustment we can only describe as intuition. I guess you could call it the ability to read some kind of unquantifiable current. I was unable to name and classify it. It isn’t as vague as a premonition, but it isn’t as precise as a prediction.”

On the dark side, information was more valuable than bullets. Not knowing critical information could be deadly, so you wanted to greedily absorb as much accurate information as you could get.

Or so they had thought.

Yet Kinuhata’s breathing nearly caught in her throat.

She had seen plenty of dark research in the shadows of this city.

But with DIY Garage’s creation – with the thing protecting him – she didn’t want to know what it really was.

She didn’t want confirmation of what it was.

Meanwhile, Mugino’s voice dropped terribly low. She apparently still had the willpower to stand up to this.

“If you can make all this, surely there was a better way to make use of that ability.”

“There are multiple types of vision: color, depth, kinetic, and so on. When a sniper peers down the scope, those different types of vision combine in a complex way very different from when viewing the scenery with two eyes.”

The small man calmly continued on.

He kept his own pace even in the face of Mugino Shizuri.

“And this isn’t limited to vision. The same goes for the way changes in air pressure can give you a headache or make an old wound ache. Subtle changes in air temperature and humidity are valuable information for a sniper. And your five senses aren’t simply governed by five sensory organs. For that matter, your sense of taste can detect five different types of flavor, so you strictly don’t only have five senses.”

“Th-then super what is this supposed to be!?”

“Well. I was wondering if I could create the perfect sniping module out of nothing other than plastic if I gradually reduced the living parts. I’m making progress little by little. For example, where I leave in living tissue, and how much, greatly changes each sniping module. The sniping scores of each module help me decide what is truly necessary, what I should make out of plastic, and what problems I still have to overcome. And I will eventually be able to create the eyeballs, eardrums, muscles, and organs out of plastic, so it will all work out. It’s something of a mess now, but just like the initial stealth fighters, this is a work in progress. But this is not an errant evolution. It is a necessary process. This is paving the path of evolution to the greatest next generation weapon, so none of it is unnecessary.”

That wasn’t what Kinuhata meant.

None of that mattered.

Yet DIY Garage didn’t understand her priorities at all.

And there were several bombshells mixed into his statements.

Spoken so casually they would slip right past you if you weren’t paying attention.

“Perfect aim at 5000 meters. It will take some cleverness, but I think I should be able to move beyond the horizon and reach 8000 meters. Regardless, I have succeeded at mass producing an automatic sniping module made with polymer chemistry. Now I just have to bring the costs down. This is hardly a purely industrial product, but that problem will eventually be solved as I simplify the process. This will boost efficiency well past the point of praying to god and waiting for a genius to join your army.”

“…”

As she listened, Frenda Seivelun was suddenly reminded of her sister.

She recalled one of the simple summer break project ideas found online. Bagworm caterpillars would create bags to protect themselves by gathering up dried leaves and small sticks, but if you put the caterpillars in a box full of wool and origami paper, they would gather those things and create colorful bags for themselves.

This was similar.

What was?

Everything in front of her.

In other words…

“In the end, are those…p-people!?”

Each individual plastic piece was about the size of a roof tile. The collections of those plastic pieces were more than 2 meters in size and covered in countless protrusions like a sazae or other spiral shell. It wasn’t clear how how heavy they were, but the things digging their nails into the ground and dragging the entire objects forward were the upper halves of human bodies.

“Their explosive strength and focus have been boosted beyond that of the average esper. Thanks to the plastic wiring optimizing the connections in their brains. Now, that more than doubles the weight of their heads, meaning they can’t stand up and walk around under their own power, so they have to crawl around on the ground.”

“Their brains are heavier, huh? And what happened to their minds exactly?”

“They can still think. I value their minds. But I can easily draw out their fighting instinct by heating their brains to specific numbers. And some of the plastics get hot when they react.”

This was the source of the scraping sounds.

They came not from plastic but from human fingernails.

The thin metal wall had likely been broken with the help of gunpowder rather than tackling through it. A blast of the heavy machine guns attached to the sides of the giant “bags” had destroyed the outer wall.

So.

Because camera image analysis, radar scanning, and other ordinary methods hadn’t been sufficient, had he tried to correct the error by forcibly attaching human eyes and ears!?

“The ratio of human body and plastic differs between units. I have created a gradation. I’m sure I will learn something new from seeing which one kills you best.”

Frenda’s eyes widened.

Something glistened stickily on the back of the hand of one of the noisily scraping bagworms. The slight sparkle was a remnant of sunblock.

As a dark side bomber and an expert in all forms of chemistry, she had built a variety of dangerous tools, but this was a forbidden territory not even Frenda Seivelun was willing to touch.

“You call this polymer chemistry? In the end, ''have you been abducting ordinary people and forcibly modifying them into this''!?”

“Were they abducted? Yes, but not by me. All I have done is purchase convenient products and used them to achieve my goal. So if this upsets you, take it up with the people who sold them to me. When you get down to it, human lives are the most expensive thing in this world. These weren’t exactly great specimens, but they still cost a fortune. Not that you can buy them through ordinary channels.”

He sounded like he was chatting while basking in the sun on the porch.

There really was something wrong with Academy City’s dark side. There had to be some unseen distortion of space. Everyone who spent time in that world lost their minds.

VSO meant 10-20 years old.

VSOP meant 20-30 years old.

…But this wasn’t about alcoholic drinks. Had that only been a code for recording human trafficking transactions!?

Mugino clicked her tongue.

Snipers.

She couldn’t help but be reminded of Mujinayama. These snipers took a very different form however.

“Come to think of it, there have been some missing person posters recently… But they were all mercilessly taken down because they would hurt the Daihaseisai’s image.”

“Again, that wasn’t me. Oh, dear. You seem to have the wrong idea. All I’ve done is assemble the parts I bought to create a polymer chemistry product.”

He wasn’t trembling in fear at having his crimes revealed, but he also didn’t seem to be gloating about the results of his messed-up research.

DIY Garage spoke as casually as if he were discussing the weather.

Kinuhata was breathing heavily. She couldn’t stop sweating.

She wasn’t the only victim of the dark side’s inhumane experiments. She had known that intellectually, but seeing it for herself was something else entirely. She was forced to face the fact that she was receiving dirty money to protect the city that did this kind of thing. It might not be an unscientific thought, but she knew she definitely wasn’t going to heaven.

“Tch. Super what are you thinking, you bastard!?”

“Yes, I do have to wonder what my client was thinking when they approached me to build this.”

He made it sound like it wasn’t his problem.

It was like her words couldn’t hit him. Or more like they did hit him but slid right off, leaving an unpleasant sensation behind.

Maybe nothing in the world was his problem. He was the worst kind of scientist. The type who would build whatever idea popped into his head without considering if it would bring about the end of the world.

“Kinuhata.”

She didn’t need to be told.

Arguing with that freak wouldn’t accomplish anything.

The direct threat lay elsewhere.

The automatic sniping modules were armed with heavy machine guns and auto grenade launchers.

Were they communicating with each other? Were they scanning the terrain, the atmosphere, and other aspects of their surroundings? The many long protrusions extending from the “bags” glowed softly.

The threat was those human bagworms.

But…

“Do we seriously have to super fight those things? I mean, the people used to make those modules or bagworms or whatever aren’t even from the dark side!! Is there super some way of saving them!?”

“I really don’t think so.”

The interruption came from DIY Garage as the bizarre monsters guarded him.

The man who knew them better than anyone spoke calmly.

“See, I melted their bodies down bit by bit to completely fuse their muscles, blood vessels, and nerves with the various components. Forcibly tearing them out would kill them from blood loss and shock due to pain. Their nerves are kept in a constant state of excitement to boost the transmission speed, but it’s more effective to directly inject the adrenaline than to have it secreted by their adrenal glands, right? Not to mention that the actual biological parts leftover are fairly light. They don’t provide enough internal pressure, so even if you applied general anesthesia and performed surgery, they wouldn’t be able to maintain their own blood pressure. Ordinarily, the optimal pressure is preserved by shape-memory polymers – that is, tiny bits of gel – that create an incombustible gas to inflate them from within. My point is that they can’t survive with just their biological parts.”

That was awful.

''And had all of that really, truly been necessary!?

“Kinuhata.”

Again, an interrupting voice brought her back to her senses.

DIY Garage.

He really was a professional steeped in the dark side, so he lacked the morality that would allow him to be convinced through conversation. Speaking with him would only let him infect Kinuhata with his ideas.

“Really, it’s you girls who are the cruel ones.”

“…”

“You barged into my lab with deadly tools and powers, ransacked the place, and then lay in wait for me to return. So this isn’t my fault. It was your barbaric actions that forced me to play my own trump card.”

===Part 10===

A product of polymer chemistry.

Those backwards fallen objects – the giant bagworms made from plastic and held together by human bodily fluids – were crawling.

A loud “gashunk!!” indicated a weapon being loaded.

The many long protrusions extending from the “bags” flashed irregularly.

A heavy machine gun aimed Item’s way.

This deadly weapon was made from a lighter material than metal. And there were several of them.

“!!”

Item immediately leaped behind the thick metal cover supplied by the lathe, press, and other machines solidly and heavily fixed to the floor.

The gunfire seemed to tear their eardrums and rattle their skulls.

They couldn’t even move like this.

Mugino was pinned behind the giant lathe.

She filled in any gaps in her knowledge by assuming Mujinayama’s level of skill. An expert anti-personnel sniper would react sharply to any human movement. Simply poking her face or hand out from behind cover would get her accurately shot.

But that likely wasn’t the real reason Mugino and the others couldn’t make their next move.

Were they going to fight?

Could they really destroy those things? Was “destroy” even the right word?

Sniping. Mujinayama had been modest, but Mugino thought of him as a type of genius. But he had also been a top-rate teacher.

“Mugino,” whispered Takitsubo, hiding behind the same lathe. “What should we do? Our top priority is survival. So if we aren’t going to fight, I think we should focus on retreating.”

“How are we supposed to do that?”

Takitsubo sounded considerate, but that was a direct path to death and annihilation.

Even now, the heavy machine guns were firing. Mugino and the others were behind cover, but even that wouldn’t last forever. Once the cover was torn through, they would be shot and killed. Heavy machine guns would be powerful enough to destroy a military four-wheel-drive vehicle or a thinly armored truck. Once their shields were gone, this was over and Item would be shredded no matter where they ran. They couldn’t reach the emergency exit door less than 10 meters away. And even if they did manage that, they would end up on an airport runway with no cover in any direction. With perfect aim at 5000 meters, there was no escaping on that open terrain.

But more than that.

They were supposed to run away and ignore this inhumanity?

“…”

Frenda clenched her teeth while pressed against the back of a giant press. She tried to force herself to focus on the job and the numbers, but she just couldn’t. How were they any different from her 7-year-old sister? They had been ordinary people living ordinary lives in the bright world out there. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if they had friends on the dark side or had some special trick up their sleeve? But ordinary people didn’t have those things.

Her instincts were sounding the alarm. Loudly. If she stopped opposing this, she would simply be killed.

(Based on the rest, I’m guessing the grenades use plastic too. In the end, does that mean they’re a high-explosive plastic based on plastic explosives? But why aren’t they launching any? I though they were meant for times like this when thick cover is preventing a frontal attack, so they launch an explosive behind the target and turn them to mincemeat with the blast and fragments.)

If they weren’t using them, there had to be a reason why.

With all the bullets they were spraying, concern for the lab couldn’t be the answer.

“Frenda, what do you think!?”

“In the end, probably the same thing as you, Mugino.”

Frenda didn’t need to think before answering.

Of course she didn’t.

Mugino Shizuri consciously regulated her breathing.

These people had been abducted, sold, and, because their specs were insufficient, sliced open, melted, and permanently fused with some horrific dark side machine.

Could she really tell them to suffer on their own because she found it hard to look at?

There was no rule against it, but she refused to escape to safety just because they couldn’t be saved.

She couldn’t leave this in the hands of justice.

If even evil looked the other way, what in the world did these people have left?

So Mugino Shizuri slowly breathed in and out.

She forced the booming storm of gunfire out of her mind.

She prepared to face the bottomless darkness.

And…

“Sorry… I will retrieve your bones!!”

They hadn’t reached for ill-gotten gains of their own free will and choice. She knew it was wrong to force this onto ordinary people who weren’t even part of the Family.

Still, Mugino raised her voice and aimed her palm.

She would end this.

If she stuck her head out, she would die. So instead she shot Meltdowner through the lathe she was hiding behind, blasting a hole in one of the giant bagworms along with it.

There was no voice.

But in that final moment, Mugino sensed a warmth in the silence that no machine could produce.

Like a sense of relief. Or of thanks.

Then a rumbling.

There was an explosion and red splattered everywhere.

She didn’t know if this was real blood or finely tuned artificial blood.

The rusty smell was faint. The stench of burnt rubber or plastic was much stronger.

It didn’t end with the one explosion.

Had the ammunition contained inside detonated? The other bagworms stiffened in place (likely based on a program) to negate the blast.

Had they avoided using their grenades because they didn’t want to trigger an explosion in the lab equipment?

During a slight lull in the gunfire, Frenda and Kinuhata climbed over their worn-down cover and charged out.

This was likely their first and last chance.

Explosives soared through the air and nitrogen was concentrated around a fist to smash through the plastic armor. It didn’t feel like they were destroying weapons. The feeling Kinuhata felt in her hand was much rawer. Even Mugino grimaced. Death was supposed to hold such great meaning that even a dark side pro would fall on their rear and beg for their life when faced with it. Yet here the brutal Meltdowner beams were a means of saving those people. There really was something deeply wrong with this city.

Just because the burned and crushed weapons themselves smiled as they died did not mean all was forgiven. They knew that, but this was a decision only the dark side could make.

The sounds of destruction continued.

Polymer chemistry, was it?

For Item, that science wasn’t particularly powerful now that the tides had turned.

They only felt anger.

Anger that someone would spend so many people’s lives for such a flimsy strength boost.

“Pant, pant!!”

Once it was all over, Mugino Shizuri was soaked red.

And not with her own blood.

“So they lost. In addition to how the human was used, I set up a gradation between multiple units testing plastic distributions from 70% to 90%, but I didn’t expect them all to be defeated. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions so I can make further improvements.”

Only one person remained.

The cause of it all: DIY Garage.

Covered in the blood of innocents and surrounded by a stench like melted plastic, Mugino Shizuri growled like a wounded beast.

“…Any last words?”

“I can say anything I want?”

Even at this point, DIY Garage did not tremble in fear or beg for his life. Even though she had been planning to Meltdowner him the instant he let any of those emotions leave his filthy mouth.

There was no emotion at all in his voice.

The look in his eyes was entirely unchanged and he simply laid out the words like he was Villager A.

“Do not forget this. You will regret it next time we meet.”

“''Next time''?”

A rusty scent scattered around.

Because Mugino had punched him in the face. With her fist clenched tight.

“Next time!? You’re already out of lives!!”

She didn’t use Meltdowner.

She wasn’t going to end it that quickly.

Instead, she climbed on top of him and used her fists. With each blow, she smashed another feature of that shitty scientist’s face.

“On the dark side! We find our own ways!! To live our lives!! By gathering up the pieces we’ve risked our lives for!! We don’t live cheap lives!! Where we can just open our mouths!! And expect someone to feed us!! And we definitely don’t have anything for a monster like you!! Not for someone who steals away other people’s lives and then wastes them on this garbage!! You think a piece of shit like you!! Gets anything as valuable as a next time!? Are you fucking kidding me!!?”

He wasn’t reacting much, so she grabbed his collar and dragged him to his feet.

A wet sound followed.

Mugino hadn’t done it. A human fist couldn’t make a human head pop like a watermelon smashed by a stick. Something had flown in from the side too fast to be seen by the naked eye and blown away DIY Garage’s head.

A sniper.

Clear interference.

What asshole granted that shithead the salvation of a death free of fear and suffering?

“Huh!? Is everyone trying to piss me off now!?”

With one hand still holding the collar of the corpse with nothing above the lower jaw, Mugino sent her bloodshot eyes darting out and concentrated a beam in the palm of her other hand. She aimed that palm past the outside wall.

And she fired.

A thick beam burst through ''right next to Mugino Shizuri’s head.

The rest of DIY Garage’s body was sliced through and vaporized.

Mugino froze in place for more than a second.

That alone could be fatal on a dark side job.

And even after wasting that much time, she still didn’t understand what had happened.

What was that?

A Meltdowner beam had flown back toward her?

Academy City’s #4 Level 5 power wasn’t something that could be easily mass produced.

She could only think of one other possibility.

But if it was that, this couldn’t get much worse.

“Was that…''Reflection''!?”

If so.

Then only one person could be lurking outside that broken and melted wall.

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item5_Chapter1|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item5_Chapter3}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Chapter1

2025-12-14T01:58:51Z

Massify: /* Part 5 */ had to fix a word

==Chapter 1: Mens Sana in Corpore Sano…or Something Like That==

===Part 1===

September 18.

It was still morning and the sun was shining.

Frenda Seivelun was using social media on her phone while waiting to meet up with her 1st grade little sister.

The fluffy-haired blonde girl hummed happily and leaned against a decorative column at the train station.

“Hm, hm♪”

The summer heat had withdrawn and the sky shined a beautiful blue as the city below had become an alternate time-space belonging to a certain event. The shopping district and train station area were strung up with national flags much like Christmas lights in December and fireworks were going off in the sky, making pleasant popping noises. Food stalls and trucks were set up wherever there was space and the scent of cooking sauces and mayonnaise reached Frenda’s nose even here. With so many visitors from outside the city, the population density was unusually high. If the 80% of the 2.3 million who were students each had their parents, brothers, and sisters here, how much more would that be? …The correct answer may have been “I don’t even want to think about it”.

To efficiently transport all those people, a fleet of self-driving buses had been sent out into the streets. You did have to pay attention because some of the ordinary streets could be blocked for the sporting events, but those mild inconveniences were greatly outweighed by the festive atmosphere.

Frenda wasn’t interested in the events themselves.

She was only thinking about her family.

(Oh, how fun. I can’t believe I’m looking forward to a meeting. Is this really Academy City? Hard to believe this is the same dangerous place where a serial killer and a corrupt corporation fit in so well.)

It seemed out of place for a dark side bomber to be saying that, but people had a way of making special exceptions for themselves.

“Onee-chan.”

Hearing that, Frenda looked up from her phone.

Something was there.

A 7-year-old in a red headband and athletic bloomers was striking a pose with hands on her hips and a smile on her face. Again, a 7-year-old in athletic bloomers.

“What do you think, Onee-chan!? This is a special Daihaseisai outfit. In the first place, I’m going to get first place like this. Pretty cool, right!?”

“Sooooo cuuuuute! Are you trying to kill me, my sister!? Kyah, in the end, kyah, kyah!!”

“In the first place, this is not the reaction I was expecting.”

===Part 2===

At present, it was September 19. So a full day later. Item gathered at a movie theater that morning, but only three of them were there.

Nothing happened on the first day of the Daihaseisai. The dark side had been on edge during the opening ceremony, but against all their expectations the event remained peaceful.

The first move was only made on the 2nd day.

Right away, the big screen displayed some gruesome footage. A hanged woman swayed below an overpass. The corpse was an adult, not a student, and her clothing made her look like the scientist type.

The audio-only voice on the phone sounded carefree.

“She was discovered three hours ago. There are some unnatural aspects to the body, so there was a request for someone ''from the city’s backstage'' to investigate separate from the ordinary Anti-Skill.”

“It was a hanging. Isn’t that super just a suicide?”

“It’s always like this with you. What if I told you she was injected with a tryptophan-based pain stimulant beforehand? It’s hilarious, really. 350 times the ordinary level would mean feeling the kind of pain you normally wouldn’t get by slicing yourself down the middle with a chainsaw☆”

So she had been made to take a large quantity of a pain-causing substance?

While suicide was wrong, it did take quite a bit of courage, so a lot of people would fail to go through with it due to pain or fear. Taking something to shut off the pain would make sense, but trying suicide after amplifying your pain was certainly odd.

“Mugino, something else is odd too. She suffocated from constriction to her trachea. And the nails on both her hands are broken, so she didn’t die right away. It looks like she was fighting the rope around her neck for quite a while.”

“Huh? She was hanged, so of course she died from constriction to her neck.”

“Death by hanging can also come from breaking the neck or constriction of the carotid arteries. And if the length of the rope is wrong, they can gather too much momentum and decapitate themselves. It’s actually pretty unusual for it to only cut off their breath, forcing them to suffer for a long time.”

“Hm? But in movies they struggle for a super long time after the chair falls out from under them.”

“The nooses used for filming are made to not put any weight on the neck.”

So said Takitsubo.

Which made sense since doing it for real would kill the actor.

“The point is there are different ways for hanged people to die. Not breaking the neck and suffering for this long is an unusual type.”

“You’re on the ball today, track suit girl. Most likely, this was designed to intentionally let her struggle until the very last moment. It’s always like this with those people.”

And again, the unnaturally long suicidal suffering had been amplified 350 times by a pain stimulant made from tryptophan. That was one unnatural aspect atop another.

Yes, this was sounding a lot like the cruelty found on the dark side.

Track suit girl Takitsubo tilted her head.

“So this is officially being handled as an ordinary suicide, but it was actually a ceremonial punishment based on some complicated rules?”

“Tryptophan itself is a necessary amino acid used to preserve health. So finding it in the human body isn’t going to raise any red flags, right? So it threads the needle where word of this won’t spread among ordinary people, but the dark side will take notice and tremble in fear.”

This made them curious about the victim and why she had been killed in this complicated fashion. After all, this had been a punishment that had to be kept hidden. That was a much greater level of bad luck than angering a drunk and getting beaten to death for it.

There was of course a file on her.

It had likely been pulled from the Bank or something like it because it only listed her official history.

Mugino scanned through it.

“Matsuba Sarina, age 29. Lives in District 3 and works as a pharmacist, but currently volunteering as a Daihaseisai drug testing official?”

“Even if she lived a clean life and did everything above board, that position could make her some enemies in the elite schools, don’t you think?” said the voice on the phone. “The festival’s official drug tests are too sensitive. No one wants to spend a full year training up an athlete only to have them disqualified because some cold medicine or mouthwash triggered a false positive.”

Ordinary people saw the Daihaseisai as no more than a large scale athletic festival, but the elite schools were different. For them, it was more like a technical skill expo where the results of their esper development theories – that is, their high-level espers – competed to show who was best. The results greatly influenced how many student applicants the school received and it could determine whether or not they could land large sums of research funding from the city’s higher ups.

Specifically, in values counted by the billions of yen per year. And they would receive that each year as long as their school’s position in the rankings didn’t shift too drastically. That was more than enough money to kill over. After all, even a prestigious school that got first place each year would be counted as last if they were disqualified. That would mean disaster for their funding.

But Mugino had a question.

“Hah. You expect me to believe the proud teachers at Tokiwadai, Nagatenjouki, or some other fancy school would go to the effort of carrying out this ceremonial punishment?”

“If they didn’t want to dirty their hands, they might have gone through a middleman to hire someone like you to do it. It’s always like that with them.”

So that was a possibility too.

Also, there was no guarantee an elite school was behind it. Someone else might benefit from the killing somehow.

“Anyway, I want you to leave behind all your preconceptions and gather whatever information you can to objectively work out who the killer was. And since the Daihaseisai is this week, watch out for the outside reporters who are in the city with all the guests. We’d have a harder time pressuring them.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“By the way, where’s the other girl? The bomber. That little scientist knows a lot about chemistry and can play at being a forensic investigator, so I would think you would want her on this case. It’s always like this with you.”

===Part 3===

“What a pain.”

It was 10 in the morning as Frenda breathed a heavy sigh.

She had been like this ever since leaving the peaceful world and joining the others in the shadows.

She had been doing nothing but complain on this sunny morning.

“In the end, is that all the evidence you have? If you know we probably aren’t gonna find anything, then could you not call me in!? Ugh, my sister’s 50-meter dash is startiiiiing.”

Complain all she wanted, a job was a job.

It had only been three hours since discovery, but the yellow tape had already been removed.

Was that because it was being treated as a suicide with no sign of foul play?

“By the way, don’t you have to compete, Mugino? You’re the Level 5 representing your school. In the end, shouldn’t you be changing into athletic bloomers, tying on a headband, grabbing a baton, and running with all your might?”

There was a “bfh!!” of escaping air.

Mugino glared over at Kinuhata, who made sure to be looking somewhere else.

“I don’t like to make official appearances cause of idiots like that.”

Frenda didn’t respond to that low, brooding comment.

But she did speak while crouching on the ground playing at forensic investigation. With her head drooping.

She must have really wanted to see her sister running in athletic bloomers.

“We’re not going to find any new evidence. Even if it was ruled a suicide, it would have been in the public news. In the end, I’m sure Anti-Skill already did all the basic stuff.”

“What about the nearby security cameras?”

“Anti-Skill definitely checked those.”

So if this was a murder disguised as a suicide, the murderer must have been confident they couldn’t be caught by those ordinary methods. Then what was that confidence based on? Where was their secret loophole located?

Track suit girl Takitsubo swept her blank gaze side to side.

The passersby were a motley crowd. In addition to the track suits and gym clothes were a cluster of girls in school swimsuits. They may have had a swimming event at an indoor pool. Everyone displayed a bright smile and showed no particular sign of stopping here, so they likely weren’t here to steal a look. They may not have even known this was the site of a suicide(?).

A distinctive tone sounded as several children watched something on a single phone. They appeared to be watching a streaming quiz show.

Takitsubo looked to them and then expressionlessly narrowed her eyes a bit.

“Mugino, this place might be below an overpass, but it still gets a lot of traffic. Foot and car traffic.”

“So? That’s probably why the place was opened back up so soon.”

“The body was found three hours ago, which would mean shortly before 7 AM. Even during the Daihaseisai, the students will gather at their schools in the mornings and the parents from outside will be out early competing for the best spots on the schoolyards. You could call that rush hour. It wouldn’t have been as bad as the train stations, but there must have been even more traffic here than there is now.”

“What’s your point?”

“With so many eyes around, it would have been difficult to hang a struggling person without anyone noticing.”

The four exchanged a glance.

When disguising a murder as a suicide, nothing would be more foolish than being spotted by a crowd in the moment you set up the disguise.

Something didn’t add up.

“But there super weren’t any witness reports, were there?”

“Which means that’s where the trick lies,” readily stated Takitsubo. “I wonder if a small accident happened in this area near the estimated time of death. 10 or 20 minutes would be enough. If the overall flow of foot and car traffic was altered, there wouldn’t be any witnesses.”

===Part 4===

“Hey, hey. In the end, do you know what this symbol means? My phone’s map updated and now it’s covered in these weird icons. And the thing is…”

Someone casually stopped passersby and changed the subject in only five seconds.

She did this with girls her own age and even with salarymen in suits and sports reporters who come from outside the city.

Frenda’s ability to make friends with anyone meant this questioning was primarily her job. Kinuhata was instead wandering around trying to see whatever she could see.

“Huh? I’m asking if anything happened around here. No, I’m asking! Don’t answer my question with a question. C’mon, there are tons of things that could change the flow of pedestrians and cars. Like a speed trap or the street being closed for an event. Was there nothing like that?”

Elsewhere, Mugino was speaking in obvious annoyance while switching between different phones.

She was likely speaking to the support team that knew a lot about cars. But Takitsubo was pretty sure her effort would be in vain. The examples she gave sounded plausible, but the murder(?) happened before 7 AM. That was too early for any of that.

With her back against a concrete wall below the overpass, Takitsubo Rikou watched it all play out from a short distance away.

“Phew,” she sighed.

The sound expressed the weight of the atmosphere.

She was picturing some of the ordinary people who had ignorantly passed through here. Specifically the small children who had been huddled around a single phone to watch a streaming quiz show.

The distinctive tone of a correct answer wouldn’t leave her mind.

(A streaming show…)

She pulled her rectangular mobile device from her pocket.

She tapped the video site icon and the initial screen displayed some video titles in large text. Was the selection based on an analysis of her preferences, or was it simply what was trending?

She had the phone in her hand. She could bring up the quiz show with a single finger.

But she didn’t move.

That dream was already over.

“I’m back. In the end, I’ve gotten all the information I think I’m going to get. Huh? What’s wrong, Takitsubo?”

“Nothing.”

Frenda approached with a smile and Takitsubo shook her head.

With her usual lack of expression.

“Because I belong here.”

===Part 5===

Their investigation revealed a simple answer.

A large number of cardboard boxes had been thrown out onto the street near a refrigerated truck parked on the curb to refill vending machines. And instead of the worker, it was a pedestrian passing nearby who ran into the stack of boxes and sent them tumbling into the street.

That had stopped the flow of traffic and rubberneckers had created a wall blocking the sidewalk, greatly changing the flow of people.

Takitsubo gave a quiet snort with no change of expression.

“See, I told you.”

Kinuhata looked puzzled by this.

“You seem…uncharacteristically motivated today, Takitsubo-san. You’re usually more super zoned out and act like nothing that’s happening matters to you.”

“That’s cause this is about a disguised killing and doping. With dangerous chemical research that can get you destroyed by false accusations, the reaction is understandable.”

“?”

Mugino and Frenda didn’t seem to need anything more than that, but Kinuhata felt like that wasn’t enough of an explanation.

It was convenient the products knocked into the street were vending machine drinks. If they had been convenience store bentos, they would all have had to be thrown out, possibly turning it into a major incident, but plastic bottles inside cushioned cardboard boxes wouldn’t be damaged by a fall to the ground. And unlike metal cans, there wouldn’t be any permanent dents either.

This had been designed to just barely avoid leaving a record as a public incident.

However, this just meant they had to find the culprit’s face in the video recorded by the refrigerated truck’s drive recorder.

And once they did…

“Yamazaki Urika. Age: 17. Sex: Female. In the end, that’s her.”

“She’s asleep.”

Frenda and Takitsubo were alone.

And the track suit girl was correct. A high school girl wearing an absurdly bright neon cheerleader outfit made of a tank top and miniskirt was fast asleep with her head down on a table in the outdoor space of a cafe in District 13. Even though the cafe was receiving a lot of business at this morning hour. Was that really a coffee on the same table as the blonde twintails girl?

Of course, catching the blond twintails girl wouldn’t end this. A disguised suicide using a pain stimulant was clearly too much for someone acting alone. Yamazaki whatever-her-name-was was only a low-level lookout or something similar, so the job wasn’t over until they used her to track down the mastermind behind the killing.

So even if their target was peacefully sleeping, moving in and capturing her wasn’t necessarily the right move. The voice on the phone would not be happy with them if they brought her a lizard’s tail. And so they were continuing this the Item way.

“Take this before we get started.”

Behind cover, Frenda gave Takitsubo fake glasses with special lenses that obstructed security camera facial recognition and a mask with something like a QR code printed on it that accomplished the same thing.

Since this would require vigorous movement, the glasses had a sports strap.

The track suit girl seemed to like them since she began adjusting the glasses with her right hand on the earpiece.

“Hee hee. Glasses make me look smarter.”

“In the end, take this too.”

Frenda shoved something into the track suit girl’s hands. It was a sporty bag too small to even fit a bento or water bottle.

It contained a 9mm automatic handgun. And a few magazines.

“?”

Takitsubo only tilted her head at it. The unnaturally bright color of the military plastic had signs of being filed down, so it was probably a handmade firearm Frenda had assembled from parts made from a thermosetting material poured into a mold like she was making taiyaki.

Takitsubo flipped it over a few times and stared at the object like she didn’t know quite what to do with it. Frenda sighed at the girl’s lack of tension.

Mugino and Kinuhata were not here.

…Times like this were a problem for Kinuhata who could boost her athletic ability with Offense Armor. Because she could easily catch a fleeing target in mere seconds. And needless to say, Mugino would one-shot the target with Meltdowner before she had any chance to run away, which was useless here.

Item was a team, so they knew who was suited for what roles.

There were times when they needed ''the team members who wouldn’t overdo things.

(But in the end, this isn’t a job we can trust the delinquents of the support team to handle. Their appearance makes them stand out too much.)

“How do you use this?”

“Please, Takitsubo, do not look down the barrel. Anyway, you don’t need to think too hard about how to use it. In the end, just aim it forward with your right hand, aim at the fleeing enemy’s back, and pull the trigger whenever.”

Frenda wasn’t saying pulling the trigger whenever would hit or that she didn’t care where any stray shots might fly.

There was a more fundamental issue here.

“It’s loaded with blanks. We need to scare that idiot half to death so she’ll run to her hideout and tell us where the criminal group is, but we lose if she actually dies. So don’t fire too much and focus on conserving ammo.”

“I see. You’re so nice, Frenda.”

(Am I? In the end, her mistake will give away the entire group’s hideout, so she’ll probably just end up with her accomplices trying to kill her.)

Not that Frenda would be shedding any tears for the enemy.

“In the end, let’s get to it.”

They had equipped their special glasses and masks, so they didn’t have to worry about staying out of view of the security cameras inside the cafe which was covered in windows. Frenda and Takitsubo approached the outdoor table.

Since their target was asleep, they first had to wake her.

And then make her run.

Frenda and Takitsubo aimed their handguns toward her ears.

“In the end, on your mark.”

“Get set.”

''Bang, ba-bang!!

Far away, Azumi and Fremea were leaning forward in their gym clothes.

They were at the starting line of the 50-meter dash.

“Whoa, what?”

“In the first place, what was that? What happened?”

They made a false start thanks to a loud sound at an odd time. A stir ran through the 1st graders whose serious race had been interrupted, so their female teacher formed a megaphone with her hands and addressed them.

“Okay, everyone, calm down. Return to your starting positions. That was probably just a prank someone pulled since this is such a big festival. Anyway, we’ll be redoing that from the start, so don’t relax just yet!”

===Part 6===

Their job began with guns in hand.

They had quite a few eyes and phone cameras on them, but that wasn’t an issue since Frenda and Takitsubo were hiding their identities with special glasses and masks. Plus, it was the Daihaseisai, so the people watching would assume a peaceful reason for this, like they were streamers or performers of some kind. Thanks to that, they could chase someone through the streets while firing their guns without causing a major commotion.

“Eek, eek. Eeeeek! No, no, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, please no, someone help!!”

The blonde twintails cheerleader ran down the main street sidewalk in such a panic she wasn’t just pumping her arms – she was swinging her entire body around. And she was in tears. Some small children who thought it was a joke were laughing.

She ran faster than expected since the soles of her shoes were customized in an Academy City fashion, but their expectations had been spot on that she was a minor villain who wouldn’t fight back. …Of course, if she had fought back, they would have just changed tack to the live bait course where they hit her, let her go some, hit her again, and so on.

Glasses girl Frenda sounded somewhat exasperated as she pursued the girl.

“Wow, she’s running full tilt… I can see her fancy rich girl panties. How indecent of her.”

“Frenda, that’s part of the cheerleader uniform. It’s supposed to be seen.”

Liar. You wouldn’t have the courage to remove your skirt in public if you were wearing that, would you, Takitsubo?

The track suit girl must have had plenty of lung capacity and endurance left over because she kept talking while running so fast. With an expressionless face that showed no sign of tiring.

“The victim was in charge of the drug testing, right? What would lead someone to kill a pharmacist?”

“Maybe she did something that threatened her own life.”

“Like checking an elite school athlete’s blood and finding a mysterious new drug that slips past the previous tests?”

“In the end, it could’ve been the opposite.”

That question was met by silence.

As she ran, Frenda raised a finger on her empty hand.

“What if the tester ''adds something'' to clean blood after the fact? Then she could get any elite athlete she wanted disqualified. She could even manipulate the outcome after seeing what place everyone gets in the events.”

Takitsubo tilted her head. While firing blanks.

“That would be physically possible, but why do it?”

“I can think of a dark side reason for it. But in the end, if there was a reason to go to such lengths in the fight over first place, it would also create a motive for killing the unscrupulous tester.”

Why was doping wrong in the first place? The harm the drugs did to the athlete’s health was the most popular explanation, but as members of the dark side, Frenda and Takitsubo tended to take a more cynical view and that righteous explanation felt about as genuine as a wax food model. It wasn’t only the dangerous drugs that were banned and, if you suggested that researching the drugs to determine how much could be taken without causing any harm, most people would probably reply in the same way: not even a single drop is acceptable.

In the extreme, there were time-delayed blood transfusions (storing your own blood and returning it to your body at a later date) to boost the amount of oxygen being transported by the blood. ''That method didn’t use any drugs at all, but it was still banned as a form of doping.'' To put it another way, there was some other reason why it had to be banned.

(In the end, you can say time-delayed blood transfusions aren’t healthy since they increase your blood pressure. But on the other hand, you aren’t disqualified for consuming too much sodium or being too nervous.)

That meant the primary issue was not the mystery drug labeled with a skull and crossbones. Even if a drug was invented that could safely boost muscle growth or muscle explosiveness without any negative health effects – of course, even air can harm your health through hyperventilation if you breathe too much of it, so it’s impossible to create a substance that is truly harmless – it would likely still be banned.

Frenda and Takitsubo felt a lot more comfortable with the explanation that sports would no longer function as entertainment if technology could easily manipulate the outcomes regardless of talent or effort.

With special talent and untiring effort, anyone had a chance to win and you never knew the outcome until the very end.

…Even in an age where super expensive corporate AIs could analyze breaking ball patterns and calculate out a solution to an opposing pitcher, people still sought bright and shining dreams in sports. Possibly even more than they did with idols. Even though money and technology were already creating disparities in several areas: uniforms, shoes, diet, training facilities, trainers, etc.

Takitsubo tilted her head while running and vaulting over a bollard and chain.

“Hmm. If the athlete didn’t do anything, wouldn’t any tampering done after the fact be found out? I mean, they really didn’t do anything.”

“Haven’t you heard the Daihaseisai drug tests are overly sensitive? In the end, the athlete can’t fully deny it if they’re told it could have been an unfortunate accident from some cold medicine or an artificial additive in some snack they ate. There’s no way to definitively prove that everything you ate, touched, and breathed over the past few days was clean.”

“The devil’s proof?”

“Right. In the end, sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?”

Aside from that, once an official test came back positive, the athlete under suspicion would sound like a liar no matter what they said. Whether they were a popular athlete or a club ace, overturning such a result would be highly unusual. You could call that an abuse of material evidence.

(But in the end, if we’re right about this, we already have a general picture of the whole case.)

Frenda frowned as she sporadically fired blanks.

That Yamazaki cheerleader was still running like mad, but there was little risk of losing sight of her in that bright outfit. In an armpit-baring tank top and fluttering miniskirt, she couldn’t even manage a costume change where she removed a coat or something to change her appearance mid-flight.

“Y’know, in the end, it bothers me how nice that ass is below her skirt!”

“…”

Takitsubo Rikou usually acted as Item’s moral compass and applied the brakes when they were being unreasonable, but she declined to comment here. However, two large objects in the chest of her track suit were jiggling with every step she took.

''Jiggle, jiggle☆

“It bothers me!!”

“Kyah.”

It was important to look like they were only playing around.

Because if they did, the crowd would put themselves at ease and reject the possibility of this being a serious incident.

That said, even a low-level villain could get clever when running for her life. Such as running into an underground parking garage with multiple exits or crossing a concourse plaza with a lot of ups and downs. That she didn’t seek help at an Anti-Skill station suggested she knew she was involved in something illegal. And once the blonde twintails girl entered a large train station, she dashed right toward the ticket gate.

“Oops.”

“Frenda, those stairs lead to the inner track of the belt line. The purple line.”

Did the cheerleader intend to board a train just before it departed? Frenda and Takitsubo were using the glasses and masks to hide their identities while breaking the law, so they couldn’t use the smart cards linked to their names, but they would be too late if they turned aside and bought tickets at the machines.

Pursuing the girl on foot would be difficult like this. Frenda focused on the wireless earphone she had in one ear.

“You’re up, Madam Silk!!”

“Are you super kidding me?”

They’re brute forcers weren’t suited for this kind of sensitive and delicate job, but they had no choice. Being able to swap out tailers when the situation called for it was one advantage of a team.

Waiting in front of the ticket gate wouldn’t solve anything, so Frenda and Takitsubo turned back and ran outside. Just as the train in question was departing.

(I saw the target’s face in the train window. In the end, it doesn’t look like she pulled the “stay on the platform and let the train leave” trick.)

Frenda watched as Kinuhata jumped (using her power of course) from the station roof to the departing train’s roof, landing with a dull “thud!”

“This train follows a single route, so in the end we can get ahead of it. We can’t wait for the support team to arrive with a car, so…I know, there’s a bus stop two stations from here, so we’ll wait there. Keep an eye on the target until then.”

“Super acknowledged.”

Then someone intruded on the friendly four-person group call.

The annoying adult had something to say.

“What do you think you’re doing shooting up a storm out there!? It’s always like this with you! You’re supposed to be keeping Academy City safe right now!!”

“Mugino, you handle her.”

Shout, yell, growl.

The angry argument was too noisy, so Frenda turned the volume down to near silence as she and Takitsubo boarded a large bus at the bus stop. It was one of the self-driving buses without anyone in the driver’s seat which were so common during the Daihaseisai. The bus may have just passed a large event site because the only passengers were two or three girls about Frenda’s age. They were wearing bikinis and sun visors, so was there a beach flags or beach volleyball event happening at an indoor facility somewhere around here?

Despite what the simplified route map suggested, the belt line was not actually a perfect 360-degree circle. The railroad had a lot of sharp curves and tended to zigzag, so there were plenty of areas requiring deceleration. The bus, however, followed a main street directly to the destination, allowing it to arrive sooner.

“Phew.”

The track suit must have been too hot for all this running around because Takitsubo remained standing and tugged on the neck of the garment to create a tunnel to capture the air conditioning blowing down from the ceiling.

Frenda gave her an exasperated look.

“My, how indecent of you, Madam Waterfall.”

“No one can recognize me with the glasses and mask, so it’s fine.”

It didn’t even take a few minutes.

They left the self-driving bus and walked to a smaller train station than before.

This time they bought tickets in advance (with quite a lot of money) and elegantly walked right on through the ticket gate. The cheerleader might not get off at this station, so they needed to quickly locate her on the train from the platform and then decide whether they would board the train or stay on the platform. If they couldn’t decide before the train departed, the two of them would split up.

But…

“In the end, where’s the train?”

“Report, report,” said Kinuhata’s voice in Frenda’s earphone. “That super twintails forced open the window and jumped out while the train was moving. I’m in pursuit.”

“What the hell did you do!? You threatened her too much, Madam Silk!!”

She jumped from a moving train? That blonde twintails girl wasn’t dead, was she?

Regardless, it sounded like they would have to pursue on foot.

Leaving this to the girl who didn’t know how to tail someone properly would only lead to more trouble.

===Part 7===

Frenda and Takitsubo returned to the ticket gate and tried to leave the station, but the gate wouldn’t open. Unlike with something called a platform ticket, the train ticket produced an error if you tried to use it to exit from the same station you entered through. They didn’t have time for that and they had paid, so they jumped the gate. It wasn’t like they could be identified.

Once outside, they ran back along the train tracks until they spotted Kinuhata.

And Mugino approaching from a different direction.

Both of them were wearing the same masks and glasses.

“In the end, where’d Miss Panties go!?”

“Super Twintails went that way!”

“Where does that cheerleader even think she’s going? An American football locker room?”

“Can someone please just use her name.”

Don’t expect that kind of thoughtfulness from the dark side, Takitsubo.

The cheerleader may have been breathing a sigh of relief after thinking she had escaped. When she came to a stop, they fired more blanks to send her into a panicked run all over again. Miss Panties sure could run fast for someone who had just jumped out of a moving train. …That may have been thanks to an esper power, so they had to keep their guard up.

The cheerleader fled while showing a preference for extremely short streets, pedestrian zones, and stairs. A car from Item’s support group wouldn’t have been much help.

“?”

Soon, they found themselves among District 3’s famous office buildings.

However, what they approached didn’t seem like a tidy office. It must have been some time since a cleaner had been called in because the higher windows were covered in dried raindrop stains. The cheerleader’s blonde twintails whipped behind her as she rushed into the basement of what appeared to be an abandoned building.

“Mugino, that’s the villain’s hideout.”

“Huh? How do you know she isn’t just passing through? Like you could with a pool or amusement park.”

“That basement only has the one exit.”

“Super when and how did you get the layout?” asked an exasperated Kinuhata.

Takitsubo appeared to have gotten the information from a disaster prevention panel pasted on the building’s outside wall for firefighters to check. According to the diagram displayed on her phone, the base was an underground studio for a video broadcast station that had been abandoned since the company went out of business. That would make for a large, soundproofed hideout set up for high-speed fiber optic communication.

There was only one exit.

So Item descended the narrow stairs with high firepower Mugino and solid defense Kinuhata in front.

“Phew, I can finally remove these,” said Takitsubo.

They no longer needed the glasses and masks meant to fool ordinary people. During strenuous exercise, the glasses would fog up and the masks were a little hard to breathe through. So they removed them.

The four reached the bottom of the narrow stairs but didn’t find the cheerleader there.

There was a single door, thick and bulletproof. The thin slide-open slit suggested a doorman on the inside would check to see if an unexpected visitor was familiar and unlock the door if so.

They had finally found what they wanted, but the cheerleader would have reported what happened when she entered. If the enemy was on guard, they wouldn’t open the door no matter what.

Mugino’s instructions were simple.

“I want to keep any of them from escaping while also learning the full scope of the incident. So leave one survivor and kill the rest.”

“Super acknowledged.”

Either way, a merely “bulletproof” door or wall couldn’t stop an attack from a Level 5 or Level 4.

All they had to do was break in, cause trouble, and kill.

But just as they thought that, the track suit girl spoke up.

“Mugino.”

“Hm? Whoa!?”

With a dull “thock thock!!”, sharp objects burst from the thick wall next to the door. They were sharp metal rods about as thick as a ballpoint pen and just the portion emerging from this side of the wall was more than 30cm long. If Item had been pressed against the wall, they would have been pinned to the wall in several locations. Plus, these were the people who used a pain stimulant that increased the human sense of pain by 350 times.

Mugino clicked her tongue by retaliating with multiple Meltdowner blasts through the door and wall.

The doorman directly on the other side would have been vaporized by the first blast, but this was a group. It wasn’t over yet.

“Tch. Was that a semi-auto crossbow!?”

A bow might seem old-fashioned, but each bolt was bigger and heavier than a bullet and the tip was sharpened. It was a lot like swinging a heavy pickaxe full force into a bulletproof vest. It produced an effect different from an ordinary bullet.

Grasping the situation, Mugino’s lips curled into a fierce smile.

Her battle freak side was coming out.

(Interesting. I like the way you don’t let my level hold you back. Battle is never boring because you never know what’s going to happen. They say a cornered animal is dangerous, but let’s find out just how hard this one can bite back!!)

“If you don’t surrender, Mugino will fill you with holes. We can either get the story out of you or leave no stone unturned to gather the information ourselves. Either is fine by us, but which would you prefer?”

“Okay! You’ve made your point!! We’ll explain everything, so please be peaceful!!”

A very reasonable male voice came from within.

Mugino Shizuri had lost her chance to attack.

“…”

She silently turned to look at Takitsubo. With her mouth forming a small triangle.

The track suit girl feigned ignorance.

They were pros, so they had to prioritize their job. If that battle freak went nuts and slaughtered everyone, they wouldn’t even know how many people had been in the murderous group, which would make closing out the case a pain. So asking first made more sense.

The four girls walked in.

They found a dimly-lit space. It was large. The underground space was the size of a small public pool.

“W-welcome, honored guests.”

This was the man who had announced their surrender before. He was probably one of the leaders, making him the mastermind behind the killing.

He looked to be in his late 20s. He was wearing a tuxedo for some reason, but Mugino had seen enough tuxedos for a lifetime at her family home and this tuxedo’s fabric and stitching looked somehow cheap to her. It may have been a factory product instead of tailor made. …The place looked something like a strange cafe.

Bunny girls and dancers had abandoned their jobs to crouch down and tremble. Some expensive-looking bottles of ’18 or ’25 vintage something-or-other lay shattered on the floor. Some burly bodyguard types were watching from a distance, but most of the people had their hands over their heads with meek looks on their faces.

The interior design was clearly meant for people of that sort.

The large underground space was lined with sofas and tables that looked borrowed from fancy clubs with poor taste and large LCD monitors were set up all over. The monitors displayed numbers, numbers, numbers, and videos of students wearing track suits and gym clothes. They were apparently showing the status of different Daihaseisai events.

The structure of the numbers on the screens was extremely reminiscent of horse racing and cycle racing. Or casinos. Was the leader wearing a tuxedo because he was also the manager?

“Is this the toy you scared us with?”

They finally saw the semi-auto crossbow for themselves where it lay at the feet of a man in black with his hands up.

The Chinese Zhuge crossbow was the most famous, but weapons like this had existed since ancient times. Although the ancient version had been so complex its power had been reduced and it hadn’t seen all that much use.

The Academy City version had a large boxy sealed magazine attached directly atop the bow. Perhaps that was to prevent the user from accidentally touching the poisoned bolts. That seemed like it would get in the way of aiming, but picking it up and aiming it showed it had a dot sight attached on the side of the latch that attached the giant magazine. So was it aimed something like a shoulder-fired rocket launcher? The bowstring was pulled back with electrical power. Since it had penetrated a concrete wall, it likely was too much for human strength to pull back.

“?”

Frenda petrified when she checked one of the monitors.

One of the contestants was a smiling blonde-haired, blue-eyed 1st grader.

Frenda very nearly cried out loud.

(I-in the end, they’re involving my innocent sister in this?)

“Are you stupid? This isn’t something you should be ''gambling'' on!!!”

The manager in the cheap tuxedo rubbed his hands together and smiled.

He was sweating profusely. His thin smile was plastered to his face and wouldn’t leave.

“Th-th-this is about investment. Yes, investment. We only engage in clean and legal business transactions here. We wouldn’t dream of running an illegal online gambling casino.”

“Then what is this place?”

“I-I should have mentioned it earlier. We are known as the Investment Club.”

“So a casino going by that name, huh?”

“We are a venue for business transactions!”

He corrected her with dizzying speed.

Was that why they had needed the high-speed fiber optic communications in addition to the soundproofing?

They would predict which school would win an event, pay money, and, if their prediction was correct, receive an adjusted payment in return. The words they used and the means of putting in and taking out money had changed, but what they were actually doing was no different from sports betting.

“Is this the dark side reason you mentioned before, Frenda?” asked the blank-faced track suit girl.

“That’s right. In the end, it’s dark trading.”

“Super what’s that?”

“Something like illegal online gambling, Kinuhata.”

The Investment Club’s manager looked like he badly wanted to say something, but Takitsubo expressionlessly continued her explanation.

“I call it gambling, but betting money isn’t legally allowed, so they use different words like ‘investment’ and ‘speculation’ to place their money on entire schools instead of individual athletes. But the profit the gamblers receive depends on which schools win the events and which esper development theories are accepted as correct.”

The only guaranteed way to profit off of stocks was insider trading, but the next best thing was market manipulation. Of course, many different grownups were carefully checking for those illegal acts. But unlike ordinary corporations, the distribution of profits from public institutions – in this case, school management – tended to not be monitored. Did that come from the assumption that Academy City’s schools were sacred institutions of learning with no connection to worldly moneymaking? If so, that was even more naive than a belief in sportsmanship.

And so this was entirely possible during the Daihaseisai, where the results could greatly change the value of a school’s esper development theory or patents. This ''profit margin gambling'' worked by paying money up front and then receiving a distribution of the intellectual property.

A vicious smile formed on Mugino’s face.

“Well, the Daihaseisai is basically a motor show or race featuring human bodies. If you see it as an exhibition of each school’s esper development tech, you can imagine all the sketchy researchers and investors watching on among the spectators, can’t you?”

“Ugh, is that really super acceptable?”

“It’s just barely allowed under Academy City’s rules. And since it isn’t gambling, they don’t have to consider an upper rate limit. …But of course that’s only when no one ends up dead.”

The track suit girl’s piercing words made the Investment Club’s manager tremble.

“I thought it was odd,” continued Takitsubo, expressionless. “The initial data on the victim said she was a pharmacist who lived in District 3, right? This district is full of tall office buildings and doesn’t have many homes. At most, it has luxury apartments for investment. The director of a major hospital might live there, but not an ordinary pharmacist.”

That meant she had a secondary source of income. One that earned far more than her day job.

“In the end, this disgusting facility that takes the glory and first place awards of the innocent athletic bloomers and turns them into moneymaking tools…is viewed like a VIP trading room at a stock exchange?”

Frenda took an exasperated look around.

Bunny girls, alcohol, dancers in frilly outfits, and young women in hostess-style dresses. The place really did feel more like a casino than a stock exchange.

Clearly irritated, Mugino said, “Tell us everything you know about Matsuba Sarina. The dead drug tester.”

“She did work with us, but she was altering the drug tests after the events to get athletes disqualified and alter the outcome of the event after the fact. Alter it any way she liked.”

“That’s a lot like fixing matches, Mugino. Was she receiving payment from specific customers for manipulating the results?”

The Investment Club’s manager nodded several times at the track suit girl’s question.

“Y-yes. And this was a major betrayal of all our clients. In our business, we must be fair or we lose all trust and lose most of our customers. We could not overlook the situation.”

So she was punished.

They had given her a thorough death to punish her for a crime too serious for a single life to cover. And more than that, it must have been a sign to the gamblers that nothing like this would happen again.

To sum up, the villains had only been killing one of their own. You could even call that a good thing since it meant no ordinary people had been harmed.

“Excuse me…but what is going to happen to us?”

Mugino concentrated a beam in her palm.

“''What do you think?''”

“Wait, please wait!! We can make a deal. This is a once-a-year festival. With our services, you can be rich beyond your wildest dreams by the end of the Daihaseisai week!! Okay? Okay? Letting us live is very much in your best interests!!”

The next move was made before Mugino Shizuri could say anything.

Some kind of explosive detonated.

Something entered through the door that was the only entrance and exit. A whole group of somethings. Just like seeing a swarm of insects, their numbers and movements inspired a deep-seated revulsion.

Frenda instinctively shouted out loud when she saw the men hiding their faces behind ant-like masks.

“''Army Ant''!?”

It happened so suddenly.

Weren’t they debt collectors? But what were dark side debt collectors doing here? …No, wait. They had a connection to Frenda Seivelun from a previous incident. When she had feared her sister might be abducted, hadn’t Army Ant been the disgusting kidnappers targeting the 7-year-old as a group? And hadn’t it been the bright and wonderful Frenda who had hired someone to stop them by killing them!?

Every member of Army Ant was carrying a semi-auto shotgun. And these were bare-bones models with almost all the parts removed. The ultra-light shotguns were probably meant to be attached below an assault rifle and used for door breaching.

Just as Kinuhata moved to cover Takitsubo who was standing in a daze, there was an explosive blast and a blossom of blood. Army Ant had blown away a large man of the Investment Club with a 12-gauge shotgun. Blown him a whole two meters away.

Frenda quickly hid behind a thick pillar, but she was also confused.

(Huh? So in the end, they aren’t after me?)

She was afraid that speaking out loud would gather the perverted kidnappers’ attention and remind them of her, so she kept her mouth shut.

Investment Club did put up a fight. The macho bodyguards in tuxedos snatched up the semi-auto crossbows on the floor and began shooting Army Ant with them.

“Gegyahhh!?”

One Army Ant who was hit screamed and rolled on the floor. Those definitely weren’t ordinary bolts. He collapsed on his side, arched his back hard, and didn’t seem capable of stopping.

The track suit girl spoke softly while Kinuhata protected her.

“The tryptophan-based pain stimulant.”

Didn’t that thing boost your pain signals 350 times? At that level, the rubbing of your clothes against your skin would have you writhing on the floor and slowly fry your brain too badly to ever recover. What would happen if your torso was pierced by a bolt went without saying.

The Investment Club and Army Ant began a fierce firefight.

There were explosive sounds other than the shotguns. Clay-like objects flew through the air. Army Ant was likely throwing their door breaching explosives as grenades. And the Investment Club was throwing fancy bottles of whisky as Molotov cocktails. Their methods were so similar Frenda wondered why they couldn’t just get along.

Mugino would gladly let the two sides kill each other off like this, so she would have loved to snatch away Frenda’s brand new phone (that she had bought despite the cost so she could record her sister’s glorious performance on the field) and watch the moving footage of some salmon swimming up the river, but that wasn’t an option.

Stray shots were flying this way all the time.

Mugino saw someone holding a crossbow in the corner of her eye, so she reflexively aimed her right hand that way and fired Meltdowner. The person looking with shock at the giant hole in their gut was the Investment Club’s manager. He had been trying to fight Army Ant who had suddenly burst in and begun firing.

“Oops.”

“Mugino, both sides are our enemy, so it’s alright.”

Kind Takitsubo kindly forgave her.

But the Investment Club and Army Ant both turned this way.

They didn’t look like they were viewing an outsider.

They wanted to deal with the smaller annoyance first so it wouldn’t act as a thorn in their side during their all-out war. And so they silently agreed to a truce.

And Mugino Shizuri had an even shorter temper.

“Ugh, really?”

In that moment, there was no denying that both the Investment Club and Army Ant had underestimated Academy City’s #4. No matter how powerful she was, she could only fire one straight-line shot at a time. That wasn’t well suited for defense, so if they surrounded her and fired projectiles from multiple directions, one of them would manage a lethal blow that brought her down.

“What a pain in the aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssss!!”

They were far too naive.

Item’s leader was the dangerous sort of person who would kill because she found someone annoying.

Pissed, Mugino Shizuri snapped her fingers and tossed a card into the air.

And she fired Meltdowner at it.

At the Silicon Burn.

''Boom!!!

Passing through the special semiconductor caused the beam to split and fan out over 180 degrees, creating an electric downpour that pierced and silenced them all in an instant. It was like a blowing storm of light. To have this much power even as small streaks of light showed just how absurd Level 5s were.

There was no scent of blood in the air.

Only a scorched stench.

Frenda spoke from the floor where Kinuhata had grabbed her head and pulled her down.

“I-in the end, I nearly died. Could you give a little warning before doing that?”

“Mugino is special, so she can use her special move without any preparatory motions or incantations. Isn’t she wonderful?” said Takitsubo.

“Hey, don’t encourage her like that. In the end, that’s a big reason there’s no stopping that battle freak when she’s on a rampage!!”

At any rate, the Investment Club and Army Ant were all dead. Frenda was pretty sure the bunny girls carrying drinks to the tables, the blonde twintails cheerleader who had fled in here, and even the fancy guests had been filled with holes along with the rest, but they had all been villains with wallets full of dirty money, so why should she care?

“Hm,” murmured Mugino.

That semiconductor card was something she had asked the unscrupulous adults to make based on a ''past experience'' of hers, but it was only a prototype and the scatter distribution hadn’t been as even as she would have liked. There was much room for improvement.

“Oops, I killed them all. Now we can’t ask them for information.”

“So when the Demon Lord fights, the options super aren’t ‘live or die’ like they are for the rest of us…”

Anyway, why had Army Ant attacked out of the blue like that?

After Item had made such a commotion firing blanks around town, the voice on the phone would probably be extra mad if their final report was short on details. They could leave cleanup of all the blood and bodies to the support group, but it was worth poking around a bit before everything was cleaned up.

“Look, Kinuhata,” said Takitsubo. “These Army Ant guys don’t have any phones. And their wallets don’t have any IDs or cards. Do they always do that on a job? Maybe so their belongings won’t lead to anyone else in the group if they’re killed.”

“But no phones? Isn’t that super inconvenient? How do they coordinate?”

“There’s something hidden behind these ant masks. It’s hard to tell since they’ve been taken apart, but these are the wireless LAN devices that were in the news a while back for being able to use nearby routers without being properly registered.”

Some of the dead bodies lying around were pierced by sharp metal bolts with a pain stimulant applied, so Takitsubo and Kinuhata made sure to be careful as they removed one of the helmets and discussed the matter. Everything was peaceful.

Mugino discovered something too.

“Found a car key. But with how thorough they’ve been, I doubt this will be enough to track down the car’s owner.”

And so rummaging through the Army Ant members didn’t turn up much of anything.

Then what about the Investment Club who had been their target?

Frenda had been searching on that end.

“The computer is…a little too much. With a communications facility this big, in the end there’s no searching anything out without a specific keyword to go on.”

“Frenda. What about Army Ant?”

“C’mon, Takitsubo. There’s no way it’ll be that eas- what the hell? In the end, that worked.”

A list of files came up.

But none of them were all that important.

Army Ant’s primary job was debt collection on the dark side, but it looked like those same skills had led the Investment Club to hire them as couriers for dark trading payouts. Maybe the online banks were unreliable due to all the traffic during the event, but there were records of Army Ant making a few deliveries of heavy gold bars.

“So was this some super infighting? But why? It’s all super confusing.”

“Kinuhata.” The track suit girl beckoned her over. “I moved the wine cooler behind the bar counter and found a safe hidden in the floor. Can you use Offense Armor to ''tear off'' the door?”

Kinuhata didn’t even bother responding. She tore away the 5cm-thick piece of special alloy.

They found a space about the size of below-the-floor kitchen storage.

“Wow,” exclaimed Frenda, her tone rising.

There was cash from a number of different countries, gold bars, and even diamonds. Regional banks would only store a few tens of millions of yen in paper money nowadays, but there was far more than that here.

“If a client wins but they’re slow to pay out, it could lead to a major problem or even put their lives at risk. And an always online server could be hit by a DDoS attack at any time, so they would want some amount of hard cash in case their online bank isn’t usable. It’s a safety measure.”

Since Army Ant had actually delivered some gold bars, the Investment Club’s caution must have been warranted.

Still crouched, Frenda held her hands out toward the glow of the gold bars like she was warming them over a campfire.

“In the end, what do we do with these? Nee hee hee. Slip them into our pockets?”

“''I wouldn’t.''”

Frenda looked confused.

Since when was Item such a pure and honorable team?

But Mugino sighed.

“Those are fake.”

“…”

“They’re well-made counterfeits. Try to use them and you’ll be tracked down and arrested. Take them with you if you want to analyze them, but you won’t be able to liquidate them. This is a murder scene. If Anti-Skill gets suspicious, you won’t be able to explain where you got them and you won’t be able to claim you didn’t know about any of this. And if you don’t have an answer, they’ll just find you guilty.”

Frenda’s mouth formed a small triangle.

Well, this sucked.

“Could this be what made Army Ant mad enough to come here and kill the Investment Club people? Basically, their professional pride as debt collectors was wounded. The goods they were carrying, heart pounding and sweat pouring at the thought of being found out and arrested, turned out to be worthless counterfeits.”

Item had discovered the truth behind drug tester Matsuba Sarina’s death.

This concluded the Investment Club case.

But…

“I get the feeling there’s ''something more'' hidden behind all this.”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item5_Prologue|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item5_Chapter2}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Prologue

2025-12-14T01:58:11Z

Massify: /* Prologue: Keep Out Until the Day Before */ had to take care of some words that were missing/typos

The essence of humanity is made of two things: conflict and order.

Even the elementary schoolers racing to take first place know this.

==Prologue: Keep Out Until the Day Before==

We are deeply sorry.

These coin lockers will be sealed for the duration of the event.

“Okay.”

At night near the train station, Frenda Seivelun, a girl with fluffy blonde hair, ignored the notice that didn’t sound remotely sorry and reached her hand into an outdoor coin locker. But instead of using the doors covered up with yellow and black plastic tape, she was reaching into the narrow gap between the lockers and the wall.

She pulled out an oddly long and skinny bag and casually walked off with it.

(It’s getting harder to use actual coin lockers. Like these ones that only accept payment with a smart card linked to your name. In the end, you can’t hide anything dangerous like that!)

Preventing exactly that was the point, so complaining wasn’t going to accomplish much.

A short girl met up with her after taking a different route. Kinuhata Saiai.

“Super what is that? Another bomb?”

Why would she hide an explosive so near the busy train station? Ultra-cute Frenda-chan was the friendly sort of bomber☆

“An amplifier. It’s an amplifier.”

“?”

“In the end, you can think of it as an illegal device that boosts the power of a phone’s antenna.”

“Is that super necessary in a city packed full of base stations?”

“Girls and bombs take a lot of effort to get ready. Yes, quite a lot indeed.”

They were on another Item job.

But this one was a little different from the usual fare.

“Honestly, is fighting a serial killer super really a job for Item? If this person is so openly causing trouble, can’t Anti-Skill use their giant net to deal with them?”

“In the end, there are reasons why the heroes can’t do it. ''Like turning them into a martyr.''”

A serial killer was hiding within society and killing people according to their own rules. But the strange attraction that sort of violent criminal created was one odd aspect of the human world. Especially the kind that attacked a great evil that could not be stopped by ordinary means.

The pair left the train station area together.

The unnaturally long and skinny bag was fairly noticeable, but combined with the two girls, passersby probably assumed it was a musical instrument or video equipment. Cuteness was such a wonderful weapon girls had at their disposal.

The dark side generally dealt with mad scientists who wouldn’t let a little thing like people’s deaths stop their research and various professionals who were rewarded for causing death. The current enemy was a mutation that the dark side didn’t know quite how to read.

Academy City had a serial killer.

The flippant discussions online had dubbed the killer John Doom.

“That freak’s target is Nabeyaki Precision Industry, right?”

“Right. Everything from electric toothbrushes to phones use NPI’s lithium ion batteries, but they’ve been accidentally exploding recently. There have been 15 deaths so far, 8 of which were minor children. As for injuries…well, you can probably guess. After all, even public cleaning robots and educational tablets have been exploding out of the blue, so every generation resents the company. You can see why it’d make a serial killer’s nipples hard.”

“I super heard a rumor that the executives were informed of a possible design flaw back when the initial accident happened, but the relevant documents were ‘lost’ before they could be seized.”

“Who knows if that’s really true. It sounds plausible enough, but when you track the story back to its source, it comes from independently-owned online news sites and sports papers. Their name is being hidden, but I bet the stories are all by the same writer. You can’t trust something just because there are multiple sources.”

Frenda did some kind of work as they walked. The area near the large train station had been brightly lit, but the light level was dropping fast as their distance from it grew. This kind of fading scenery was seen in big cities and not just in rural areas.

This nearby stagnation was like another world bordering the darkness. The atmosphere was familiar to Item.

“Super regardless, there was a class-action lawsuit, but the thick layer of corporate lawyers protected the executives and they were all acquitted.”

“In the end, they didn’t even get a suspended sentence. …But then the first board member to come strutting out of the courthouse with an ugly smirk on his face became the first murder victim. And only three steps outside the courthouse at that.”

The method had been fascinating even from a dark side perspective.

Major TV station reporters with big cameras and online news reporters with only their phones had gathered around the acquitted executive in the hopes of getting a story for the day, but they had instead ended up with a completely different scoop right on their live broadcast or livestream. Those mass media reporters had feigned decency by screaming in horror, but they had definitely been rejoicing on the inside.

“John Doom super threw a big laptop lithium battery out of the unruly crowd, right? And during the panic, they made a skillful escape without anyone noticing.”

“And from there, it’s been nothing but more sensational murders. In the past three months, five executives have been killed. Once it was attached to their house’s front door and once CO2 was used to launch it from a distance like artillery. The exact method changes each time, but the murder weapon has been consistent. In the end, they’ve all been blown up by one of NPI’s own lithium batteries. Man, this one really is messed up in the head. ''I mean, the killer’s really enjoying their justice.'' If Anti-Skill or someone like that goes after them, it could turn them into a martyr which would only give them more supporters, right?”

“Their beliefs and preferences are a super mystery, so it’d be a pain if that started spreading through an existing structure, you mean?”

So to prevent that, this dirty job was being left to dirty people to complete in a dirty way.

By the people who accepted the pure and the impure and who wouldn’t be influenced by shortsighted justice.

“Oh?” said Frenda.

A bright light was flashing down a narrow alley.

It resembled a camera flash, but was more brutal.

“What? In the end, has Mugino already gotten started?”

“Hey, I’ve driven him outside like we planned. You aren’t going to tell me you haven’t surrounded the site with traps yet, are you!?”

An honest answer would have gotten Frenda a spanking and a lie would have gotten her murdered, so she opted for silence. She heard a rustling sound from down the alley. Someone had kicked over a pile of trash bags. They were approaching. Fast.

“Bastard!!”

Kinuhata took a step forward to stop them, but her small body was instead launched backwards. Which was unusual. Her Offense Armor could forcibly stop a shotgun blast, but apparently a small explosion had occurred when the projectile hit her. With a white flash as bright as a welding flame.

With the shield gone, Frenda would be next.

It didn’t even take a full second.

In an unnatural ducking stance, the dark beast aimed the barrel her way. The gun’s silhouette was unexpectedly large. At close range, she could tell it was larger than a plastic umbrella.

A finger found the trigger.

Thick lightning dropped from the sky above.

No, that was a self-destructing drone that had purged its main wings and charged straight down toward the ground.

It pierced sharply into the ground and exploded, launching the dark beast hard into a nearby wall. They slowly slid down to the ground. The movement was sort of sticky, so they were probably bleeding badly.

Frenda had needed the amplifier because of the ''vertical'' distance required. Base station antennae were not floating in the air. A toy like this was necessary when sending a drone up too high for even the signal from an antenna on top of a skyscraper to reach.

Frenda sighed with her phone in hand.

(A margin of error of 3 meters. These plastic bottle drones I made leave something to be desired quality-wise.)

A few meters might not seem like much, but those few hundred centimeters could lead to failure when aiming for a narrow alley. When bombing a target deep in an alley, she couldn’t afford to accidentally carve away part of the neighboring building’s roof instead.

(In the end, retrieving all the traps set up around the entire area is such a pain, so I was hoping I could just keep a mobile trap circling in the sky above. But I’m not sure I’m willing to trust this with my life.)

“Kinuhataaa? In the end, did you think I was chatting with you for no reason? I said John Doom has been consistent in their weapon choice, didn’t I? They always use one of NPI’s defective batteries to blow people up. I gave you the clues you needed, so you need to pay attention. It’s called reading comprehension.”

“Ugh, super dammit… Why do I have to have my verbal ability mocked by this blonde girl whose writing skills are suspect at best?”

“Oh, what was that? In the end, this is the first time I’ve ever heard someone talk about ‘writing skills’ in the normal world.”

“People super don’t normally talk about reading comprehension either!”

Ignoring that complaint, Frenda kicked away the gun that had fallen to the ground.

It was primarily made of special steel and military plastic, but the silhouette itself was similar to an old-fashioned hunting rifle. However, the muzzle was odd. It opened up like a conical funnel.

“A blunderbuss. That ancestor of the shotgun could turn pebbles, glass shards, fish bones, or just about anything else into a bullet by shoving them into the muzzle. Is this a modern version? In the end, this killer does have interesting taste.”

Scattering a pile of trash to hit the enemy at high speed must have been the serial killer’s preferred method. Perhaps because they saw it as returning the defective trash their targets had thrown out into the world and then roasting them like it was an incendiary round.

“Keh. A drone attack…huh?”

The “genius criminal” who had sent shockwaves through society turned out to be a young boy. He had probably only just started middle school. He could even be described as plain.

In a city where 80% of the population were students, younger criminals was a known trend.

“Come to think of it, that’s one thing I never tried on those fat ass executives. Why didn’t I think of it? It sounds fun…”

Fun.

He really was a serial killer. He had been focusing on a great evil, but he didn’t seem to be acting out of panic or anger.

Two more people emerged from further down the alley: Mugino Shizuri and Takitsubo Rikou.

“What, he’s already dying?”

“So we made it in time for the climax.”

That made four.

Item was fully present.

The small boy showed no interest in the weapon that had left his grasp.

“Wow. A secret group of only girls? Sounds like something from a movie.”

“Flattery will only get you a quicker death.”

He didn’t need one.

The boy known as John Doom collapsed to the side and stopped moving. With his eyes still open.

Something exploded.

It happened far in the distance, at the center of a vortex of light making up the city’s nightscape.

The 55-story headquarters building tilted diagonally before falling straight down. No. After its balance was thrown off, it collapsed under its own weight. Just like poking at a house of cards. Filthy gray dust spread out at ground level, thickly blotting out the lights of the city night.

If all that had been done with defective batteries, it was one hell of a waste of resources. Both by John Doom for setting it up and for the corporation for making so many of those explosive batteries.

“Ah, wait, why!? But John Doom is super already dead!!”

“He doesn’t have any electrons attached to him, so it wasn’t his brain or heart stopping that triggered it. In the end, maybe he had set up some junk on a timer. And a whole lot of it.”

“Who cares,” Mugino said coldly. “Our job was to deal with the crazed criminal. The defense team screwing up their job isn’t going to get our reward reduced.”

“That was the kind of company that has people work tons of overtime, right? In the end, there were probably a lot of normal people in there.”

“Normal?”

Mugino’s tone was unchanged.

Everyone placed their dividing line between the outside world and the dark side differently. This was hers in this case.

“The company was the target of a serial killer, but that doesn’t change the fact that quite a few people died from their products exploding. Everyone in the company knew about it and said nothing. They could have become a whistleblower, organized a strike, or otherwise fought it from the inside, but they didn’t want the trouble and just kept on receiving their generous paychecks. They’re not innocent.”

“I wonder if the defense team protected them. I hope that team wasn’t slacking,” said Takitsubo with her usual blank look.

In the end, Nabeyaki Precision Industry didn’t matter all that much to Item. They were simply completing the odd jobs so common at this time. Just like the train station trash cans being removed and the coin lockers being sealed.

All the ultra-thin LCDs wrapping around the decorative columns were playing the exact same ad.

“Not long now until the Daihaseisai. Let’s all make the year’s best memories together!”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item5_Illustrations|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item5_Chapter1}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume13 Chapter3

2025-08-20T02:33:00Z

Massify: /* Part 8 */ fixed from "steel" to "steer" as it makes more sense in terms of the context

==Chapter 3: To Protect the World We Live In – Dance_With_ADIKALIKA.==

===Part 1===

“How long are we gonna be stuck here? I’m starving…” groaned Aogami Pierce.

He was in the District 10 crematorium.

They were quarantined inside.

There were some vending machines in the hallway, but about half the options on the bread machine had their red “sold out” lights lit. With the entire class there, a few dozen were forced to use the same vending machine, so it didn’t require the supplier to be falling behind on restocking the machine for it to be running out.

Every window and door was sealed from the outside with a thick bulletproof plastic. The only exit was gas-proof door protected by an air curtain, but it was guarded by a thick powered suit armed with a flamethrower. Whether it was powered suit’s doing or not, no one’s phones had a signal. The only smile was on Aogami Pierce’s Magical Powered Kanamin charm. The view out the windows was already dark. It was 8 PM. Aogami Pierce had been so busy with the funeral this morning that he feared he wouldn’t get a chance to claim the social network game rewards that had become a daily habit for him. He also hadn’t checked the video sites or online news. Falling behind the average person in information felt like being a step away from death for an otaku.

“And yet Kami-yan’s probably still walking around out there when he’s the one who caused all this. Then that woman who seemed in charge bit her tongue and was sent to the hospital and those middle-school-looking guests left too. What’s even the point of keeping us in here at this point?”

“Aside from that, something about this doesn’t feel right. They claim to be afraid of a microscopic infection or contaminant, but they haven’t brought in any kits for testing our blood or mucous membranes.”

Fukiyose Seiri tended to take the reasonable view and reject conspiratorial thinking, but for once she was pursuing it while choosing her words carefully.

Was there really an infection source here?

The crematorium staff and the part-time monk were starting to look skeptical as well. And if trust in Bio-Secure(?), the hosts in charge of the place, dropped, another thought would naturally begin to form.

They were up against a flamethrower-wielding group that kept their faces hidden. The group was highly organized, yet didn’t appear to be the official Anti-Skill.

…Was it really safe to go on obeying their instructions?

Then a sound came from outside the cloudy window.

It sounded like the rustling of a thicket being parted.

The powered suit stationed in front of the gas-proof door tilted its heads in a very human way and then contacted someone.

“B5a, you’re scheduled report is late. How long are you going to hang around out back? I can see your coordinates, so quit slacking off and respond.”

A short silence.

The mood changed.

“B5a? …A3b to C1d, B5a’s coordinates aren’t moving from around back. He’s even switched off his camera sharing, so what the hell is he up to? You’re outside, right? Just to be safe, I’m requesting a visual check.”

For some reason, Aogami Pierce looked to the window clouded by plastic, not the powered suit doing the talking.

He was curious.

What was that rustling sound he could hear coming from just outside?

Or maybe he had no real reason to expect anything and he was simply being guided by a curiosity about the unknown, a psychological tendency found even in ancient myths.

“H-hey? A3b to C1d, what’s wrong? Check in, all of you!”

There was nothing more than a sound like splitting wood. And not a thin piece of plywood either – this was the sound of a centuries-old tree being forcibly split down the center.

The powered suit guarding the gas-proof door contacted someone, shook his head, and then rushed outside.

Aogami Pierce looked puzzled.

“Huh? What’s he doing leaving his post? Could this be our chance to escape?”

“What if he returns right a-”

Fukiyose didn’t finish her sentence.

They heard some kind of rustling sound outside the cloudily translucent window…but nothing more than that.

The powered suit that had left the gas-proof door hadn’t returned.

“Around back of the crematorium would be…right out there, wouldn’t it?”

Because no else was talking, Fukiyose’s voice sounded awfully loud.

Then silence.

It was so uncomfortably quiet that Aogami Pierce’s gulp was audible.

“What is going on outside?”

The bulletproof plastic sprayed over the outside of the window left the view too cloudy to see well. Aogami Pierce slowly approached to try and get a view outside.

''Crash!!

A powered suit’s bucket-like head armor broke through the cloudy window.

“Eek!?”

Aogami Pierce tumbled backwards onto his rear.

No one laughed.

This wasn’t ordinary glass. Even after breaking, it didn’t shatter. The glass advertised as bulletproof stayed in one piece with cracks spiderwebbing across it. How much force had that slammed into the window with? After breaking through the plastic wall, the bucket-like head armor did not move. Aogami Pierce didn’t know exactly how a powered suit worked or was worn, but the head was at an unnatural height for standing or sitting. Wasn’t it painful to have just your head fixed in such an awkward position?

Or.

Was the wearer beyond the point of complaining about pain or fear?

Something was definitely happening.

What that was was less clear.

But while the details were a mystery, staying here would be a bad idea!!

“Th-there’s something out there… I saw ''some kinda giant legs moving around''! If we don’t do anything, will that thing get in through the window!?”

Fukiyose also took a few steps toward the window.

“I-it’s fine,” she said. “It’s fine. I mean, those Bio Secure(?) people sealed up all the exits with that special bulletproof plastic!”

A high-pitched and unpleasant cracking sound rang out.

Yes. Tons of cracks had spiderwebbed through one of those precious windows, destroying it.

What protection was that?

“Are you planning to hide in here forever?” asked Aogami Pierce. “What about food and water? All we’ve got is the bread vending machine in the hallway!”

The bread vending machine was already half covered in “sold out” lights and those special forces(?) protected head-to-toe with tough powered suits hadn’t fared too well themselves. No one could say for certain if the makeshift bulletproof nature of the plastic applied over glass could really prevent this attacker from getting in.

More than that, the trapped high schoolers could succumb to the mental pressure, panic, and suicidally scatter.

Tsukuyomi Komoe, who was responsible for all those students, breathed out through her nose. The 135cm teacher managed to speak even as she tearfully trembled.

“Th-th-th-there was a bus outside! We can take a look outside and, if there’s an opening, make a run for the bus out the main entrance!!”

“But who’s going to drive it!?”

“Believe it or not, I have a Class 2 large vehicle license, so I can handle a bus with ease!!”

The students were leaning heavily toward the “not” side, but complaining would only get them left behind in the crematorium filled with such a dangerous atmosphere. And no one in a 1st year high school class would know how to drive even an ordinary car. So like it or not, Tsukuyomi Komoe was their only hope.

They decided to call over the crematorium staff and the part-time monk too. They gathered their things and approached the gas-proof door that was inflated with air and felt like the goal at the end of a marathon. The problem was the space beyond the two-layer door.

Looking to the roundabout with a large roof to keep the rain off…there it was. The bus they had arrived on.

The 20-ish meters to it clutched at their hearts with fear.

But the group protected by thick powered suits had been taken out.

This had to be better than heading out and staying on foot.

However, there was still a fundamental question.

“So what was that about giant legs moving around?”

“I don’t know. That’s just what I saw through the distorted glass.”

They only saw darkness out front. That didn’t tell them much of anything.

But it had to be there.

“I-I found the key… Okay, everyone, are you ready? There is no turning back if you forget something. Ready, set…go!!”

On Komoe-sensei’s signal, they all ran out toward the bus.

===Part 2===

It was already night and a red snow was falling.

A girl in black mourning clothes, Misaka Mikoto, let her shoulders slump.

Truly the world had to be ending if Shokuhou Misaki was the only person she had to vent to.

“What do we do now!? It’s gotten dark. It’s eight o’clock! But we still haven’t found that idiot, it’s well past the dorm’s curfew, and we missed dinner…”

“I have Mental Out, so I can get by if need be.”

“Are there no hints at all!? We haven’t seen any of those Bio Secure powered suits in a while, so what is even happening anymore!?”

That was who they were supposed to be pursuing, but it felt like they were straying further and further from the center of the excitement. They were in District 10 since the crematorium was there, but was this even the right district to search?

And…

“What is that?”

Just as she was starved for any information at all, Misaka Mikoto spotted something in the distance.

Specifically, at a large intersection with a pedestrian bridge located a short distance away.

“There’s something there.”

“Those aren’t ground-based drones, are they?”

This was nothing at all like Bio Secure and their powered suits. The things didn’t even seem mechanical.

What were those gross 2m monsters crawling with legs?

Mikoto wasn’t a fan of snakes and worms either, but she found it hard to watch many-legged creatures moving around.

And these didn’t look like ordinary creatures. Something like big clumps of blonde hair were crawling this way and that. They inspired the same disgust as peeking inside a stranger’s kitchen trash bucket.

Mikoto held a hand over her mouth in exaggerated sorrow.

“Long blonde hair… Shokuhou, this isn’t some new and extremely cursed special move of yours, is it?”

“Of course it isn’t. How am I supposed to use my psychological Mental Out to make hair move around on its own? Besides, isn’t it obvious at a glance that those monstrous clumps of filth are nothing at all like the perfect beauty ability of my hair!?”

The busty blonde must have been deeply offended because she tearfully grabbed at Mikoto.

Mikoto had a fairly strong belief that half the negative aspects of the world were Shokuhou Misaki’s fault, but apparently these things were part of the other half.

“So what are they?” asked Mikoto.

“I sincerely hope the fact that the dead are getting back up doesn’t mean we’ve entered some alternate world where anything goes…”

Several of the golden things turned their way. Forcefully.

It wasn’t clear why, but the things had locked onto them.

However, if they were vulnerable to physical attacks, they weren’t really anything to fear. Not when Misaka Mikoto was Academy City’s #3 Railgun.

She blasted an arcade coin at three times the speed of sound and the golden crabs, centipedes, and whatnot scattered. Of course, she could only manage this so easily because she was the Level 5 known as the Ace of Tokiwadai and an ordinary person wouldn’t stand a chance against them.

“Misaka-san, there’s one up on the pedestrian bridge.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Misaka-san, you missed one in the right side street.”

“I was just getting to that one.”

“Misaka-san, wait, that isn’t one of them!!”

“Nhh!?”

Misaka Mikoto shook hard.

…Did she just blast a non-blonde thing as it turned a corner up ahead? And the thing making a clanging sound was, um, a vehicle?

This was one problem with being too powerful.

Time froze for a bit.

And Shokuhou Misaki held a hand over her mouth in exaggerated sorrow.

“Misaka-san… To think you would tarnish your name ability with murder at your age…”

“Wait, hold on, they’re probably not dead maybe! Oh please be alive, whoever you are!!”

She rushed over to find no one in the driver’s seat.

In fact, the engine wasn’t even on. Apparently no one had been inside and something had caused the parked car to slowly slide forward. While this frozen street looked flat, if you placed pachinko balls on it, she guessed they would probably all roll in a single direction.

But anyway…

“Phew. No harm, no foul.”

“I have a feeling this still violates several law abilities, but it’s only a feeling, so I’ll ignore it.”

Just as the two of them were breathing a sigh of relief, Mikoto spotted a girl passed out near the car.

The girl wore a white nun’s habit.

And was that a calico cat and a girl figurine she had there?

===Part 3===

Heavy yet unsteady breathing sounded in the dark night of red snow.

“Pant, gasp…”

Coming from Kihara Goukei.

The end of her extended arm was grasping a giant fly head.

Her left arm was missing past the elbow and the right arm holding the corpse was already rotting away in places, revealing the greenish discoloration of the bone below.

Had her opponent called this magic? Some method that Kihara had never before seen had eliminated so many of her biological reactions that even the brains contained within her skull had been fully blown away at least twice, but, well, ''all she had to do was mend the missing biological organs.

(Still, I did lose a lot: three of the stamp-sized computer chips embedded in my body, two of my bacteria colonies, and even my precious pea crabs…)

But she had still defeated that thing.

When she tossed the unneeded fly head aside, it splatted onto the red snow-covered ground and then vanished as if melting into thin air. Like it had never existed in the first place.

Necromancer Isabella Theism was seated with her back against a building wall.

Her head was hanging limply and she wasn’t moving.

A thin layer of red snow had accumulated on her head.

She had to already be unconscious.

However, this wasn’t over yet.

Kihara Goukei heard unpleasant rustling sounds.

Coming from a golden mass resembling a giant crab.

Apparently these things had been scattered around by a visitor who went by the overblown title of “great demon”.

The small boy approached her. Probably because he was afraid.

His name was Urekawa Ousuke, wasn’t it?

She loved children. No, it didn’t have to be children. Asking for help was a gamble because it required revealing your weakness and powerlessness to someone else. To the point that a rejection from them could mean losing everything. Kihara Goukei loved anyone who would take that step to rely on her. Which was why she wanted to live up to that trust no matter what. Even though she knew, as one of the infamous Kiharas, they would all wind up disliking her in the end.

“Madame Gou…”

“Don’t worry. There is nothing to fear.”

By the time she said that, all wounds had vanished from Kihara Goukei. Only smooth skin was visible through her torn clothing. Her rotten and missing limbs were back as well.

A child was watching. Doing the correct thing always made them fear her, but that didn’t mean she should continue showing off all that gruesome blood and injuries.

…However, that didn’t mean she had regained full function of her body.

(Really, I would have been truly dead if that thing had destroyed two more of my miniaturized myocardium bunches.)

She wasn’t about to say so, though.

She was concerned, but increasing the boy’s burden by revealing the state of her remaining lives was the wrong thing to do.

As reliable Madame Gou, the correct choice was to smile and say something else.

“Let’s get you home. I will crush all the dangers and clear a path for you☆”

She was perfectly fine with leaving Isabella to die, but the boy looked up at her with damp eyes and she was forced to give herself two extra arms. …This was not a free-to-use unlimited storage space deal, though. If she didn’t orally ingest various ''ingredients'' such as protein and calcium, she would suffer from deficiency symptoms, so she had to be careful. Apparently her only choice was to fight today while carrying yesterday’s enemy on her back.

(But still.)

“This was too much of détour. I really don’t think I have enough stamina left to deal with that Coronzon person.”

===Part 4===

They had settled on a plan.

First, take a transport plane into the sky. Then every last missile left in Academy City would be fired on Coronzon and they would hide in that barrage to parachute down nearby.

Only so many people could act.

Namely, the group in the crumbling consulate.

Kamijou Touma, Alice Anotherbible, Kihara Noukan, the Bologna Succubus, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, Qliphah Puzzle 545, Dion Fortune, Takitsubo Rikou, and Hamazura Shiage.

Their job was to battle a great demon to keep the entire world at peace.

It was ironic that the group they had gathered for such an over-the-top objective had such variety yet wasn’t even large enough to play a soccer match.

(So Vidhatri is ultimately staying in the consulate to rest. At least it sounds like she’s woken up.)

They would just have to do this with the group available.

At 9 PM, they stepped out from the former Bridge Builders Cabal consulate.

Their destination was District 23. It was right next door to District 12 where they were now.

They could travel that distance on foot.

Kamijou took a nervous look out at the main street and was shocked by how dark it was.

Was this really Academy City?

“There’s no one here. No cars either. I know the Anglicans apparently took over the city, but I guess they’re not patrolling the streets like Anti-Skill.”

“Because their priority is Coronzon. That selfish and indiscreet group did not travel halfway around the world to keep order in the city,” said Dion Fortune, pouting her lips.

Even if it was only an interim position, she seemed upset that none of them were listening to what she said as their leader. Understandable.

“If they’re not willing to do the job, they shouldn’t have used military might to take over…” said Accelerator over the wireless earphone Kamijou wore.

That other leader was also in a bad mood. Again, understandable.

District 23 was a unique place that specialized in the aerospace industry and the entire district was a giant off limits zone, but not much security was functioning with the city in such a bad state. And it seemed unlikely the Anglicans would understand the scientific value well enough to post magician guards.

The place was wide open at the moment.

Academy City was darker than usual and Kamijou asked a question while walking through the falling red snow.

“District 7 is a big place. Do we know Coronzon’s location there?”

“The former site of the Windowless Building,” said Accelerator.

“…I see.”

“Apparently that damn demon intends destroy every piece of Aleister’s legacy.”

Coronzon was currently spreading “blonde hair monsters” around District 7 for defense. They looked frightening at first, but finding the highest concentration would tell you what Coronzon most wanted to protect, which told them where Coronzon was as she completed her ceremony. …Constructing a defensive line was important, but this could easily happen if you weren’t careful where you positioned it.

In this snow, Kamijou found it frightening to be endlessly on the lookout without anything actually happening.

He felt like he would freeze to death if he didn’t do something himself.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet opened and closed her iron maiden thing.

“If you want to warm up, my coat is open to you.”

“Help me, her nemesis!!”

Kamijou clasped his hands and prayed to the flying succubus who launched a flying kick into Miss Bouquet’s face since it was the only exposed part of her. She did it with those sharp heels of hers, so would she be okay?

Meanwhile, the border to District 23 came into view. It was impossible to miss with the metal fence taller than an adult stretching endlessly to the left and right.

“So this is the place.”

From the outside, no guards were in evidence.

That special district was supposedly crammed full of runways and launch sites, but it was terribly dark at the moment. The stadium-like lighting was currently switched off. Probably because the international airport was shut down during the emergency.

“Still, there might be someone in the roofed checkpoints,” cautioned Accelerator. “So instead of causing unnecessary problems, find a good spot and climb over the fence.”

“You’re so nice to normal people.”

“Of course I am. Normal people aren’t a nuisance to society like all of you.”

Kamijou had no response to that one.

They all climbed over the tall fence. It looked like little Alice would have trouble…and she might just spread her arms and break through the fence with a smile if left to her own devices, so Kamijou assisted her.

Meanwhile, Hamazura noticed something and grew flustered.

“H-hey. That bouquet person is flailing around on the ground. She fell over!”

“Peh peh peh. It’s a miracle she even managed to climb to the top of the fence in that iron maiden of a coat!” said the Bologna Succubus.

“This world is deeply sick if we must rely on these people to save us all,” lamented Accelerator.

The Bologna Succubus held a hand to her mouth and roared with laughter while showing zero inclination to help (even though that was her colleague), so Hamazura and Takitsubo had to help up the girl who might as well have been wearing a mascot costume made of steel. With all the metal on the outside, she had to be handled with care lest their palms stick to it in the cold.

And the mystery person inside was crying fairly seriously.

“Uh, uh, eh, uhhh… That insane demon who wanders around in her underwear was making fun of me. I’ll never live it down…”

Apparently the Bologna Succubus’s fashion choices were considered abnormal even among the Transcendents. On the other hand, the girl talking here wore a naked apron underneath her thick coat.

“You should have remove the heavy coat and thrown it over the fence,” commented Kihara Noukan who had made it to the other side of the fence.

How had a dog managed that? Was he really just a golden retriever?

They had finally entered the off-limits zone.

But they would be safe for now. This plan came straight from Accelerator at the very top. Kamijou knew he didn’t need to be nervous, but he still found himself crouching down to avoid being seen.

“Your destination is Runway D-25. A transport plane is waiting for you there. I had the snow cleared in this frigid weather to get it there, so don’t you waste it.”

“I’m amazed to learn the city has at least 25 runways.”

But even with the runway lights off, wouldn’t an airplane and its large wings be pretty noticeable out in the red snow? An airplane’s main wings seemed more delicate than a house’s roof, though.

The Bologna Succubus flapped her wings.

“If it’s just the boy, I could carry him up into the night sky. No airplane necessary.”

“I wouldn’t if I were you. Coronzon and the Anglicans will both react sharply to any magical tricks. An airplane lets us fly without using any magic, which will help us hide within the missile explosions to approach.”

Dion Fortune immediately shot down her idea.

In the magic world, you apparently weren’t guaranteed a victory if your magic power level was over a million billion or whatever. At times, it was more useful to fully hide your presence and blend into the background.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had been flapping her own wings for the same reason, so she froze a bit as everyone turned her way.

The red snow was beginning to accumulate in the darkness. The marks on the runway were hard to make out, but that just meant they had to find the place where a lot of people had been moving around clearing the snow. By following the remaining footprints and tire tracks, it looked like they could at least avoid getting lost and walking in circles through the vast District 23.

“Hey, there’s something there.” Kihara Noukan was looking elsewhere. “It doesn’t look like a city security robot. That is a design that would frighten the children to tears.”

A weird, two meter crab creature was scurrying along in the distance.

No, was that even a living thing?

The monster was made from tons of blonde hair.

This was one of the patrolling guards Coronzon was using for defense.

“A scout, I suppose,” said Blodeuwedd the Bouquet with a white breath.

Kamijou frowned.

“Is it something like the Aethyr Avatars I saw in the UK?”

“She isn’t providing them that much power. Probably so she can focus on Adikalika,” assessed Dion Fortune.

But it was still there.

Hadn’t that #1 bastard said they were only in District 7!? Then what’s this one doing here!?

“Coronzon must have noticed me poking around, so she randomized her defensive line to confuse us as we tried to slip through!” said Accelerator.

“What, so it was your fault!?”

“No, it was your fault for failing to settle on a plan without my help!!”

But while he didn’t say it out loud, Kamijou was moderately surprised.

Apparently not even new Board Chairman Accelerator could see anything and everything happening in Academy City.

Was his observable area being limited by all the unrepaired damage across the city?

This meant Coronzon could more easily learn of their plan…but that didn’t ruin everything. She would have learned about it eventually. Even if she knew they were coming, they would still be able to parachute in among the missiles while she was too busy dealing those missiles to deal with them.

“But if the transport plane or the runway are blown up, you won’t be able to take off. Get aboard the plane as soon as you can. We can discuss this after that!”

Kamijou heard the rumbling of an engine.

Based on what Accelerator had said, he was expecting to find airport staff operating a snow plow, but that wasn’t what this was.

“What the hell is that?” asked Accelerator.

“…That’s my class.”

It was a bus.

With a 135cm teacher gripping the steering wheel.

[[File:GT Index v13 BW5.png|thumb]]

Either she wasn’t used to driving such a large vehicle or the tires were slipping on the red snow, because it wasn’t moving any faster than a bicycle. He heard a flapping sound and noticed a window toward the back was open just a bit with a curtain caught in it.

Why had they wandered into off limits District 23?

As he wondered that, he recalled the crematorium was in District 10 and that was adjacent to District 23. With Coronzon and her defenders swarming their home ground of District 7, maybe they hadn’t been able to return to their dorms and had come here for shelter.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet gave a simple comment.

“They’re going to die.”

A shape was already in hot pursuit.

Several were in fact.

Those two meter crabs were made by forcibly wrapping long, long blonde hair. Unlike the weirdly long legs of a Japanese spider crab, these were stouter and had thick, brutally shaped pincers. At that size, a pinch would probably be able to crush and slice right through a steel pipe as big around as Kamijou’s arm, but what was with that clump of hair? In addition to simple physical attacks, its terrifying appearance suggested it could also use toxins and infections.

They couldn’t let Coronzon know what they were doing.

He knew that much.

But then he saw one of the monsters, which could run straight forward despite being a crab, lunge toward the bus that couldn’t get its speed up thanks to the slippery snow. No, the long tail on that one meant it was probably a scorpion. What would happen to his classmates if it caught up?

“…”

Kamijou Touma made a rapid direction change.

He clenched his right fist and charged straight toward the giant killer scorpion.

The instant he punched it, the sensation vanished.

It rapidly lost its shape and scattered across the red snowy ground.

It gave off a twisted shine.

That really was long, long blonde hair it was made of. At this point, there was no need to ask whose.

The #1 groaned from the earphone.

He may have been holding his head where he was.

“You’re just causing us more trouble…”

“Where can I send my class!?”

“The closest option would be the international airport terminal. It’s full of anti-terror mechanisms, so it should last a while. I’ll open the shutter at the delivery entrance.”

Fortunately, smart people could switch gears quick at times like this.

His voice might not reach them inside the bus, but he should still be able to use the school’s social media. Just to be safe, he sent a notification to all their phones, so the entire class received a message from a dead boy’s address simply telling them to change course.

“Now I just have to draw the attention of the golden crabs and snakes so the bus can escape safely!”

''Boom!!!

Something exploded nearby.

No, that was the sound of thick lightning dropping from high in the sky and piercing a giant snake.

“There’s only so much I can do,” said Accelerator. “You figure out which targets are most efficient.”

Kamijou couldn’t afford to die here. Even if he let his class escape, the entire world would be doomed if Coronzon were allowed to launch Adikalika. And then his classmates would be killed regardless.

The Bologna Succubus raised her voice from a short distance away.

“Stop worrying about the future! Focus on what’s right in front of you!!”

The golden scorpion was closer than he had expected.

While he was watching its sharp pincers, something else swooshed sharply down from the upper right of his vision.

That was the giant venomous tail.

“Uh!?”

He heard a powerful metallic roar and saw orange sparks.

For a brief moment, Kamijou truly had no idea what had happened.

He sensed the sweet, sweet scent of nectar and felt someone else’s body heat in what was supposed to be a freezing night.

He wasn’t in complete darkness. He was shut off from the world, but the enclose space was filled with a faint bluish-white light meant for growing plants. And he saw an excessively skinny girl’s body.

That was apparently Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. Her thick metal coat had covered him and deflected the sharply jabbing scorpion tail with its massive armor.

“Th-thank-”

“You’re mine now☆”

“Mgh, mgh, mgahhh!?”

Before the fear could even set in, he was caught in the embrace of a pair of unusually skinny arms. And the thick metal coat that cut him off from the outside world shut the final remaining slit before his eyes. Uh, oh. At this rate, he would be chewed up inside this super-sweet girl’s iron maiden!?

An exasperated voice spoke from outside the coat.

“You know, I’m beginning to think you want the boy’s right hand to strip you naked and toss you out into the open.”

“Hm, is that how it works?”

With a flapping sound, the Bologna Succubus opened her large wings wide.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet also opened her thick coat like double doors.

Those Transcendents had once tried to bring salvation to the people.

…They really were so much alike. Kamijou couldn’t imagine why they didn’t get along.

And now wasn’t the time to be relaxing. Failing to take out any of those monsters would only lead to further victims.

Once Kamijou was finally returned to the outside world, the demon woman smiled and whispered to him.

“Really, boy. You never do stop trying to show off, do you?”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“I didn’t say that☆” “She didn’t say that☆”

===Part 5===

As the bus departed, Aogami Pierce stared out the window and shouted.

“Kami-yan!!”

But Kamijou did not answer the call from the bus.

Maybe he hadn’t heard through the thick window.

Or maybe he was preoccupied with other matters. Aogami Pierce could see him using his right hand to punch and destroy a few more of the blonde hair crabs and scorpions approaching the bus.

Even though he didn’t have to do that.

Even though he been pushed away as a dangerous source of infection.

Even though Aogami Pierce hadn’t confronted the adults for treating him that way when they hadn’t even applied any real pressure to prevent it.

In truth, the class had no idea what was going on.

Why was Kamijou Touma’s fist so effective against those monsters?

What was he doing here in District 23 after fleeing the crematorium?

But he hadn’t changed.

Dead or resurrected, Kamijou Touma was Kamijou Touma.

The bus drove on.

To leave that boy behind again.

A Magical Powered Kanamin charm swayed from Aogami Pierce’s pocket. The location of a new shelter had been sent to his phone which finally had a signal again.

Fukiyose Seiri looked glum. The highly responsible girl was talking to herself.

“Oh, no. …And I called him a zombie back at the crematorium.”

“That settles it. Busty black-haired Fukiyose Seiri must atone by working as the manager of the boy’s dorm for a while!!”

Aogami Pierce struck a pose shortly before a fist struck his face.

She wasn’t opposed to finding some way to atone, but she disliked Aogami Pierce’s attempt to use that to benefit himself.

Something like a sob came from Tsukuyomi Komoe in the driver’s seat.

She let go of the big steering wheel with one hand to rub her eyes, but the large bus began to slide to the side and was soon swerving back and forth a lot. She was too short for her feet to reach the gas and brake pedals, but maybe it had been a mistake to break a mop handle in two and attach them to her legs with packing tape wrapped around her shins and shoes to forcibly allow her to drive.

Little by little, their usual classroom was returning.

Now the only thing they needed was him.

===Part 6===

District 23 was large and flat. It was dark, devoid of landmarks, and currently covered in an unnatural red snow. The frantic fighting threatened to throw off Kamijou’s sense of direction, leaving him unsure which way he had come from and which way he was going.

(The bus has gone, so now I’d really like to get away from these things.)

“Teacher, look after yourself!”

He didn’t need Alice to tell him that.

Golden crabs and snakes were converging on his location from multiple directions.

He’d taken it too far.

Now he might not make it.

Just as his panic was starting to show, something exploded to the side.

No, that wasn’t it. The steel mass of a snowplow had crashed in and crushed a few of the golden snakes and scorpions.

The driver was too small for the driver’s seat.

The person who hopped out of the snowplow was Anna Sprengel.

Come to think of it, hadn’t she been freeloading in Kamijou’s room since her punishment had been delayed?

“I hope you hadn’t forgotten about me, fool. No, surely not.”

Kamijou Touma’s lack of reaction earned him a kick in the shin.

Apparently his inability to look her in the eye had not been appreciated.

“I have been gathering information on my own and it isn’t looking good. Academy City’s resources are close to depletion, but Coronzon only has to cut off more of her endlessly growing hair to replenish her forces.”

“Eh? That’s how it works?”

“She is only allotting them the bare minimum of resources because she had to focus on Adikalika, but if she focused on mass-producing these things, it could turn into a very big problem.”

A short distance away, the red snow was split through and something like an Eastern dragon drew out a large curve.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was swinging around her metal coat’s large sleeves and shouting something, so she was probably summoning a swarm of starlings or other pest birds.

Kamijou asked Anna Sprengel a question as he ran along the red snow.

“How much do you know about our plan?”

“I wouldn’t be in District 23 if I wasn’t familiar with the general idea.”

He didn’t know how she had learned that, but if she could do it, then someone else could in the same way.

Like Coronzon.

Since they had clashed with her blonde hair monster scouts, she had to know what they were doing regardless.

But that didn’t make this revelation any less frightening.

“…”

Meanwhile, Hamazura Shiage had been silently glaring this way for a while.

The track suit girl with him also showed no sign of stopping.

Kamijou didn’t fully understand all of the relationships between the people here. Did Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou have some connection to Anna Sprengel?

For that matter…

“After R&C Occultics, I bet there aren’t many people with a favorable opinion of Anna Sprengel.”

“You’re not wrong, but I’m being falsely accused in this case. That wasn’t me – it was the filthy scammer who was using my body.”

“?”

That made no sense to Kamijou, but why did Hamazura and Takitsubo also frown when they heard it?

A certain succubus reacted to the phrase “falsely accused” by wagging her tail side to side, but he didn’t have time for her right now.

After some more running, Kamijou came across a lump taller than he was. The pointy-haired boy initially jumped, thinking it was another monster released by Coronzon, but it wasn’t moving. Apparently it was only a large pile of red snow.

The result of clearing the snow.

Of course, this went beyond what someone armed with a shovel could accomplish. Most likely, someone had used that snowplow or a wheel loader.

There were a few different routes marked with tire tracks, so there must have been a team that gathered the runway’s snow here and another team that loaded that into a dump truck or something and carried it away for.

“With those monsters in District 23, I had the workers quit clearing the snow and go hide in the international airport terminal,” said Accelerator. “After all the work they put in for us, I couldn’t let them die for us too.”

That went without saying.

But with the world on the verge of destruction, Kamijou appreciated hearing things like that said out loud. He didn’t know if this should be called an emergency or a crisis, but neither was any reason to trample people’s lives underfoot. And the person serving at the top as board chairman was willing to say so.

And in that case…

“Is that it?” said Kamijou, catching his breath.

Even with barely any lights around, the large shape still stood out from the surrounding darkness.

It looked like a giant whale with wings equipped with several x-shaped propellers.

It was a transport plane.

===Part 7===

Misaka Mikoto sighed after managing to rescue(?) Index in the dark streets of District 10.

“I didn’t screw up. I mean, I’m helping her, so she should thank me. There is no reason for her to throw stones at me. None at all.”

“Hey, girl. You might be able to fool that sheltered nun, but you can’t pull the wool over the eyes of a god of deception.”

The 15cm person(?) was saying something, but she probably wasn’t human and could be safely ignored!

Academy City’s #3 looked into the distance.

There was something there.

But not a scurrying blonde thing. This looked more scientific.

Mikoto stared in amazement.

“Are self-driving vehicles allowed on public roads? I know they let those busses drive around during the Daihaseisai, but wasn’t that a special case?”

“It may be a public app-based taxi service taking advantage of loopholes in the regulations. Besides, aren’t even the traffic lights having trouble in this red snow? When ordinary taxis can’t ensure their safety, they’re probably refusing to work.”

Shokuhou gave some explanations, but it didn’t sound like she had anything solid to go on.

At any rate, Mikoto raised her hand to hail it and it approached her like normal.

“What’s with this car? It’s tiny.”

Probably because it was designed to be self-driving and thus had no driver’s seat or passenger seat. It reminded her of one of those ultra-small cars shaped like an egg lying on its side that you sometimes saw in TV ads. She wondered if a golf cart might actually be more spacious.

Index tilted her head.

“Will that take us to Touma?”

“I don’t feel like explaining, so I’ll just say ‘more or less’.”

“Okay!”

The white nun boarded with guileless eyes. A single piece of candy would probably be enough to kidnap her.

Meanwhile, a much more suspicious type of girl gave the car a skeptical look.

“Not so fast, Misaka-san. Hailing it is all well and good, but do you know where it’s going?”

“Scoot over.”

Mourning clothes Misaka Mikoto ignored the question and climbed in after the nun.

The door automatically shut behind her.

“Huh!?”

Shokuhou Misaki pounded on the door from the outside.

But this self-driving car only seated two!

“Didn’t you hear me say the car was tiny, you stupid girl!? And claiming seats has always been a race! Hmm, what a shame. There’s just not enough room in here for any sacks of fat to join us.”

“–––––!? ……!!!?”

“Hm? Short hair, what is she saying?”

“That right there is her shouting ‘Huhhh? Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh??’ at the top of her lungs. She’s so cute when she’s helpless.”

Misaka Mikoto was cruel through and through.

With a deep rumble, the tiny car mercilessly drove off.

It was clearly electric, so that rumble was probably a sound effect played for safety.

(Since it’s self-driving, if she really wanted to stop it, she only needed to move in front of it while it was stopped so the camera or radar would detect her and automatically apply the brakes. That stupid girl’s inability to ad lib makes her so much easier to deal with.)

15cm Othinus stared into the distance and muttered from Index’s shoulder.

“I may be a god of war, but if that outwitted her, I’m worried she won’t survive left all alone with those weird golden things scurrying around.”

“If that was enough to kill her, she wouldn’t have been a thorn in my side for so long.”

===Part 8===

Aboard the transport plane, Kamijou had been most afraid while they rattled along the frozen runway, but everything stabled out once they were up in the night sky. Even though now was when they were truly approaching death.

He was surprised enough to find they had parachutes small enough for Alice and Anna Sprengel, but then he noticed Kihara Noukan rummaging around a corner of the cargo space. Even though he was a golden retriever. Was there really such a thing as a canine parachute in this wide world?

“It’s an extreme sports product. Manufactured by a start-up with some mistaken ideas about what a pet product should be. They also made dog snowboards and dog diving suits. Even though the animals can’t understand or enjoy the concept of being in a viral video. In the end, it’s a product made by humans for humans.”

The voice coming through the earphone was as prickly as ever.

…Just how much information reached the new board chairman on any given day? This didn’t sound at all relevant to the current global threat.

Kamijou also noticed Blodeuwedd the Bouquet modifying the harness of the parachute she was issued. Equipping it to her thick metal coat probably was a challenge, but was it safe to mess with it on your own?

“The missile attack has started,” said Accelerator.

“I see.”

“The stockpile’s only so big, so you only get one chance at this. Jump out into the sky at the designated point and drop down near Coronzon. Miss this chance and you don’t get another shot at it.”

“I’m aware.”

After that exchange, the #1 fell silent.

He seemed displeased with something.

Accelerator whispered the next words over the transmission.

“…Complain about having to do this.”

“Later. I’ll complain all you want when we’re looking back on it.”

A red warning light lit up and the wind raged in.

The pressure rapidly changed.

In the very back of the transport plane, the door meant for loading and unloading vehicles lowered. It formed a gentle slope and led toward a heart-stopping view of the city far below.

“Time to go.”

“The #1 has to see everyone else go?” said Accelerator. “There really is something wrong with this world.”

It was finally time.

Great Demon Coronzon had probably noticed by now. So they couldn’t hope for the best-case scenario. Their next best bet was to put her in a situation where she couldn’t stop them even if she knew what they were doing.

That meant launching every last missile left in Academy City. Mixed in with all those flying objects, Kamijou’s group would be dropping down toward Coronzon.

“Your drop destination is the former site of the Windowless Building in the center of District 7. Not long now!”

An adult man stood next to the open slope and shouted over the roaring wind. It wasn’t clear if he was from the city’s light side or dark side.

“You will be dropping along with the missile attack! So there is no making a U-turn to try again if you mess up. It would stand out too much. We will be arriving above the drop point shortly. Make sure you jump the first time! It is currently 10 PM sharp. Begin jump!!”

At this point, Kamijou just had to steer himself.

He clenched his teeth and took a running start down the slope leading into the sky at over 2000m up.

He forcefully kicked off the end of the slope.

Gravity vanished.

He jumped.

Did he not feel the ordinary fear of heights in that moment because it was such a dark night? The city night was lit unusually sparsely, making it hard to judge the distance to the ground. …Which was actually a dangerous factor leading to landing accidents when making parachute jumps.

Alice and Takitsubo Rikou zoomed right past him.

Apparently your positioning changed your speed.

Kamijou had been spared tumbling uncontrollably end over end, but not because of any athleticism on his part. The parachute bag on his back was wriggling on its own to adjust his air resistance and balance.

Even so, he was at an altitude of 2000m.

That wasn’t very far. In fact, it was frighteningly short for a fall.

As the wind roared up at him, he checked the small LCD on the shoulder strap to find his free fall speed was more than 200km/h. A mere 2 kilometers was nothing.

(I hope that bastard watching on from his ivory tower of a prison did the math right!!)

Something like a cylinder with collapsible wings dropped by right next to Kamijou. It was about as thick around as a two liter water bottle, but its length was well over his height.

“Wait, a missile!?”

If it detonated now, he was dead.

He was free falling from higher up than a skyscraper roof, but this new development eliminated the ordinary fear of that situation.

Also, this didn’t look like a missile that flew in a straight line before piercing into the target.

“What is that? It’s more like a little fish swimming through the sky. A whole school of them!”

“It’s nothing special,” said Accelerator. “Just a ''turretless'' next-gen tank. If you want to blow up another tank, a self-destructing drone has much better range and precision than an ordinary tank gun. Then all you need is to build a large-scale production line to bring down the cost of each drone stuffed full of semiconductors. Then to load a single tank with as many drones as possible, you replace the top of the tank with as many multiple launchers as will fit.”

The explosive covered in what looked like small smartphone lenses weaved sharply about.

This was more than simple speed.

This bleeding-edge deadly technology would read the trajectories of autocannon fire and auto grenade launchers that used radar fuses and then evade them as it approached its target. Once this swarm of slaughter locked onto you, there was no escape and it seemed to work just fine against magic.

“There really is something wrong with Academy City,” said Kamijou.

“Hey. By claiming and sitting on the military patent for this, we can keep the outside world from making any.”

Apparently the new board chairman had thought this through.

Kamijou just hoped it didn’t backfire.

At any rate, it sounded like he didn’t need to worry about any of the missiles pouring down from the sky accidentally hitting anyone. They could stay put and the ''swimming drones'' would avoid them on their own. In fact, it might be safer if no one panicked and tried moving around. …That did bother Kamijou a little because it reminded him of how people had to go through annoying processes and complete tedious registrations to make the processing easier for the machines.

He soared through the night sky.

He plunged into the valley between buildings.

The city that had looked so tiny rapidly spread out around him.

The LCD on his shoulder strap must have been linked to an altimeter. His parachute opened on its own without him having to pull anything. With a sound like a sheet beating at the air, he felt a squeezing across his body. The complex harness had distributed the weight.

“Gweh!!”

But that didn’t make it gentle. This didn’t feel beautiful it all.

Light as a feather this was not. The point of a parachute was to let you fall from a great height without dying and that was it. Maybe it was similar to how being shot through a bulletproof vest still hurt like hell and immobilized you for a bit.

It wasn’t over with the parachute opening.

In fact, he felt like he was still moving pretty quick with it open. The speed felt similar to attempting a slope while seated on a bicycle.

There was no light.

The swimming drones were detonated here and there in the sky and illuminating the world like camera flashes, but the contrast of the shadows was too strong and it only disoriented him.

The pointy-haired boy was aiming for a wide-open street with three lanes both ways…but it turned out to have a lot more stuff than he had expected: streetlights, trees, a wind turbine. Each one would kill him instantly if he collided with it. And the surrounding buildings created some highly irregular wind currents. In fact, the way the wind was dragging him backwards was terrifying.

“Damn, I wish I’d gone for a building rooftop!!”

“Do you want to die impaled on a street wireless LAN antenna or lightning rod?”

He heard a voice.

Was that Dion Fortune drifting along right next to him?

“More importantly, keep an eye on your altimeter. We’re almost at the ground. Don’t miss the moment of impact because it’s dark and there’s snow. You’re out of the fight here if you break your leg!!”

What exactly was he supposed to do?

Just as he wondered that, all the streetlights at a large intersection unnaturally lit up.

Had the rumored new board chairman done something again?

That showed Kamijou the distance to the ground…but it was way closer than he’d thought!?

“Oh, shit!!”

He bent his legs in preparation to cushion against the shock. The wind carried him over and he crashed int some low bushes between the street and sidewalk, but he supposed that was better than colliding with a thick and solid tree or streetlight.

As soon as he landed, the unnaturally lit up street lights unnaturally extinguished themselves.

(Hey, not so fast!)

He had to feel around in the darkness. He fumbled around until he managed to release the parachute harness from his body.

“Where’s the Windowless Building!?”

“The wind blew us pretty far off course. I caught a glimpse of it earlier, but from this far, Hamazura and Takitsubo might contact Coronzon before us.”

Not good.

They weren’t sure they could defeat that great demon with all of them fighting together. It was too dangerous for anyone to go ahead of the rest. Especially for the non magic experts.

Kamijou heard some large wings flapping overhead.

The Bologna Succubus was flying around while carrying iron-maiden-like Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. She was drawing out a big figure 8, so it didn’t look like she was taking the shortest route somewhere. Perhaps she was trying to draw Coronzon’s attention. They had mentioned magic side people reacting more sensitively to magical tricks.

But where was Alice Anotherbible?

Where had Anna Sprengel gone?

Or Qliphah Puzzle 545?

And Kihara Noukan?

(Damn, we keep losing the people that act like trump cards!)

Regardless, they were short on time. They were right at Coronzon’s throat, but that meant she would use each minute and second they delayed to plot a recovery. He wouldn’t even have time to check if everyone was alright.

Dion Fortune was not shaken.

In fact…

“We’ll just have to make do with the people we have. No matter how carefully you plan it out on paper, battles always come down to what you can do with the cards reality gives you!”

“But getting too accustomed to ad libbing means a complete lack of control.”

“Since when were you the careful planning type?”

…

Looking back, every single one of his fights had been ad libbed from beginning to end!!

They had been separated for now, but they would all be heading to the same place from their different landing spots, so he could only trust they would meet up where Coronzon was.

He was a good distance away from the former location of the Windowless Building, but it was a straight shot down a major street. There was no time to lose. If he was worried about Hamazura and Takitsubo, he had to rush there as fast as possible.

While running, Fortune kept to Kamijou’s left-hand side.

She was keeping her distance from Imagine Breaker.

As much as she looked like a young girl, this part of her may come from her nature as a tarot deck and original grimoire.

But they ended up stopping before long.

Because something blocked their way.

Creatures like two meter crabs and snakes made of blonde hair.

…But that wasn’t all.

''Roar!!!

A sudden blast of wind blew through.

The red snow on the ground was thrown into the air and Kamijou felt like he had been struck by an ocean of blood. If Dion Fortune hadn’t immediately grabbed his left arm and tugged, the surprise attack probably would have bisected him. Right down the middle.

Something scraped along the ground. Leaving behind a strange, sharp, and sinister scar. Kamijou briefly saw it as the earth itself hemorrhaging blood. And when the red snow guided his gaze along the scar…he saw someone.

Wearing black mourning clothes.

With a palette knife in her right hand.

With feline symbols all over her.

And the thing she was riding like a steed was…could you even call that thing a cat? The enormous and lithe beast shadow was made of black paint and stood two or three meters tall.

“You’re…kidding,” groaned Kamijou.

Calling this a reunion would be inaccurate. This was likely a different individual from the woman he knew.

But come to think of it…

Before, in the UK, Great Demon Coronzon had taken measures to stop Kamijou, Aleister, and the rest. She had released several pawns based on members of the Golden cabal. The Dion Fortune here now was the only survivor.

That had included big names like Westcott and Mathers…but come to think of it, there was one Golden magician who Coronzon had never used.

Dion Fortune gave the answer.

She spoke the name of the trump card Coronzon had saved until the very, very end.

“''Moina Mathers''…”

The name sounded subtly different from the one Kamijou knew.

But it likely referred to the same person.

She was the wife who had supported Mathers, one of the Golden cabal’s three founders. She was an engineer who had used her artistic talent to design realistically producible versions of the many spiritual items thought up by the Golden cabal. She was the black cat witch.

She resembled Mina, but the Moina that Coronzon had created really was different. The eyes behind the veil were pitch black. Sticky shadows lurked within them and they were so dark it seemed like they would absorb everything.

And Kamijou was hit by the fear of the unknown.

Thinking back, Mina Mathers had always fought alongside him.

To put it another way, they had never fought each other until one or the other was unconscious.

(You’re kidding…)

Out of all the Golden magicians, the black cat witch was the one whose strength as an enemy he couldn’t judge…

(We ''must'' stop Coronzon and Adikalika. We don’t have time for this risky battle that we might not even be able to win!)

Kamijou gulped.

At the same time, the girl next to him stepped forward.

“I’ll do it.”

“Fortune?”

“Honestly, this is a great opportunity. I was already thinking it was high time I conquered my trauma related to ''her''. I mean, she surrounded my house with black cats that were just meow, meow, meow, meow all night long, keeping the entire neighborhood up. She used an astral technique to gouge into my fragile maiden’s back. And there’s plenty more she needs to pay me back forrrrrrrrrr!!”

She suddenly exploded.

There was a lot of personal resentment mixed in, but Dion Fortune didn’t seem willing to back down.

If Fortune and Moina were going to clash here, then Kamijou had to get moving. He couldn’t stick around and waste Fortune’s determination to give him some time even if it meant wearing down her own life.

“Thanks!!” he shouted.

He thought he saw a small smile when Fortune briefly turned to look at him.

She was always saying hers was an interim position and she was only filling the vacancy.

But…

“She’s doing a pretty good job as archbishop if you ask me.”

Kamijou simply ran.

First those blonde hair monsters and now Moina Mathers… Was that really all? How many trump cards did Coronzon have hidden away?

===Part 9===

At the Windowless Building – or really, its former site – a pillar of pale light rose from the center of the large square clearing.

At this point, she must not have felt the need to hide.

Great Demon Coronzon held a hand to her hip, looked up at it, and sighed.

That was the Adikalika large-scale attack spell.

For a great demon like her to spend hours on it, the spell clearly required a lot of care to set up. Of course, that may have been why she felt so attached to it now.

“Only about an hour to go.”

Even that comment under her breath was interrupted and cut off by a nearby explosion.

Was that Academy City’s missile attack?

None of the missiles could directly hit her. She didn’t even need to raise her palm for them to explode and scatter in midair.

“Fools.”

If they had so much weaponry leftover, they should have ignored her and indiscriminately bombed different parts of the city. They should have thoroughly destroyed the city themselves. That way they could have prevented doom for the world at the cost of a single city.

This time, anyway.

She wasn’t about to call it quits if she failed the first time. She was Great Demon Coronzon and she had never said anything about only having a single devastating trump card.

The center of the threat was not Adikalika.

It was Great Demon Coronzon herself.

Of course, Academy City wasn’t actually placing their own fate and the fate of the world in the hands of this long-distance attack.

She knew just how crafty and greedy humans were.

She moved her feet to draw out the lines of a rectangle in the accumulated red snow. Then she added a diamond and a few lines to divide it into sections where she drew in the necessary symbols.

This was a horoscope.

A glance at the ground was enough to read it.

It detected a few people headed this way.

Sensing was her specialty. She was, after all, the supernatural being who managed knowledge off limits to living humans. And that management primarily meant preventing the masses from reaching or acquiring that knowledge.

She had lost count of how many people she had devoured after they foolishly assumed that summoning and taming her was the ticket to endless knowledge. It was laughable that those people were referred to as talented or wise when they couldn’t even figure out it was a bad idea to contact something that essentially had a warning sign with the words “danger” written in large text.

(Some grimoires make me sound really important while describing a role not much different from this country’s Kokkuri-san. Well, at least it’s not as bad as getting confused with the necromancy where people ask a rotten zombie to reveal the future to them.)

“Still…”

Did they really think an explosive blast – that is, physical light and sound – could disturb her?

It was almost scary how ignorant they were of magic. Or maybe was their misplaced confidence in their knowledge that would hurt them in the end. She felt like she was watching bandits hiding in the dark woods and celebrating their victory while unaware that night-vision devices existed.

There was no reason to wait for them to arrive. She could blow them up from here. And all she would need to do was raise her palm in that direction.

So it was time to obey her rule of dispersion.

Who should she kill first?”

“Heh.”

It amused her to no end that her creation of Dion Fortune had taken over her old position as the Anglican Archbishop. Blowing Fortune away along with the Moina Mathers she had sent out would be simple enough…but that was a low priority. The Archetype Processor that could break apart and transform any magic was a greater threat than Fortune herself, but that still wasn’t enough to push her up out of the low priority category.

Fortune was a toy Coronzon had made after all.

The creation could rebel against its creator, but it could never win.

The Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet also weren’t top priority. Coronzon had directly destroyed Crowley, so the Transcendents were small time to her. After all, Alice Anotherbible was ''an accidental success'' by one of Aleister’s students and the other Transcendents were the deteriorated result of mass-producing inferior copies of Alice.

(I can do better.)

“The standard route would be to crush Imagine Breaker here. Isn’t that right, ''Aleister''?”

That was the best choice if she wanted to beat them down the most.

As a demon, it was the most correct option.

Coronzon grinned and, for some reason, rubbed a hand below her navel before holding that palm straight out ahead.

Kamijou Touma wasn’t yet close enough to be visible, but that was a mere trifle. It wouldn’t stop her from targeting and killing him.

If she was going to do this, she might as well show him some truly wonderful sparks.

She would end his life with the terrible toy that had taken Aleister Crowley’s family from him and even triggered the Battle of Blythe Road.

Kamijou Touma.

He didn’t know space itself was about to explode.

With no way to sense it, he couldn’t raise his right hand to defend against it.

And once it hit him, he was destined to die.

The inability to escape that destiny had been proven by the death and doom of Aleister’s family.

“Does it hurt?”

It was rude.

She knew that, but she couldn’t help but let the smile split wide across her face.

“It hurts, doesn’t it, Aleister? Yes, it hurts to be trapped in your own body and forced to watch an ending you do not want. I should know. I lived through it myself. The entire time you had me sealed away, it was endless torture as I watching those hellish scenes playing out! Now it’s your turn, magician!! It’s time you felt even a minuscule fraction of the agony I felt as my body was used against my will!!!”

This was only one step in that process.

With each new step, she would take another life. And she could circle the globe as she went. That was his reward for underestimating a great demon and, even temporarily, using her like that. Look back upon the bloody path you walked and despair, Aleister.

But then…

“…No.”

She heard a voice.

It was a girl’s voice that ever so slightly irritated Great Demon Coronzon as she single-handedly prepared the end of the world.

She had been just a bit faster.

First, a sound like a large sheet beating at the air.

That was the sound of flapping wings.

The girl flew directly in front of the great demon and descended.

And with her feet on the ground, Artificial Demon Qliphah Puzzle 545 raised her voice.

“I won’t let you. I will never let you do that!!”

===Part 10===

And…

“Qliphah Puzzle 545?”

At first, she had completely forgotten who that was.

Or so Great Demon Coronzon’s expression suggested.

The result was obvious even before they fought. Unlike humans, angels and demons were not physical beings. Which meant they could directly sense the Telesma energy from which they were formed. That was an overwhelming disadvantage for Qliphah Puzzle 545. Frankly, it was amazing she had made it this far without being killed by the scouts Coronzon created by cutting off her own hair.

“Now that you mention it…yes, I remember now. You’re that imitation demon I created. And a creation opposing its creator isn’t even worth a laugh. What can a puny disposable pawn hope to accomplish against me?”

“''Leviathan''.”

She said one word.

Just one little word.

Yet as soon as Qliphah Puzzle 545 recited that incantation, Great Demon Coronzon fell silent.

“See? This will work against you.”

“Damn…you. That…”

[[File:GT Index v13 BW6.png|thumb]]

“Is fatal for you.”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was also a demon.

So when she smiled, it split wide across her face.

“Great Demon Coronzon. You are the one who lurks in the Abyss hidden within the great Sephiroth tree and monopolizes the wisdom found there. You are the only wicked being who, as a demon, has managed to remain hidden in the holy realm guarded by angels. And in the end, you are no more than Crowley magic applied to the illicit technique to secretly devour and acquire the tree’s fruit and sap despite being its guardian.”

“Don’t you get that this power is too great for you? If an artificial imitation like you reaches to that place, all you will accomplish is destroying yourself.”

“A demon who is tangled around the very Sephiroth which makes you special, devours it, infects it, and consumes its functions would be your greatest enemy. …And there is one, isn’t there? A demon who appeared from the Qliphoth, the inverted tree which gathers all the world’s injustice and vice, broke the seal when Adam and Eve were driven out, and finally managed to bite at the Sephiroth! A demon so powerful he was reduced to an imperfect form in the current world!!”

Space exploded.

Orange sparks became visible.

Did the clashing of the two demons’ wills contain enough power to distort the phase?

“I create an atmosphere of war, disturb the regulated order, and inspire conflict between people. I may be an imitation, artificial, and false, but on a more basic level…I am still the kind of demon who devours the tree that is this world.”

“…”

Coronzon glanced down at her fingertips.

She wasn’t even scratched.

There was no problem.

…And yet she was trembling?

“How strange. Your structure obviously isn’t human, but it isn’t that of a normal demon either?”

“Just take a look at my name: Qliphah Puzzle 545. I too am a demon who lurks in the colossal tree. Although for me it’s the inverted tree that gathers all the unclean symbols. So I already contain the same traits and value as the serpent of the multiplying heads. I have it all!”

“Hidden in one of the great trees that acts as a diagram of the world, a supernatural being, a usurper of knowledge, and a demon… Why? Why are you so much like me!?”

“''I dunno, maybe cause you created me''?”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 attempted a wicked smile, but she was pretty sure she failed.

This wasn’t about challenging or surpassing.

This was a child killing her parent.

That was the lowest and wickedest sin, but perhaps that was what made it so appropriate for a demon.

So she spoke.

“Picture it. Summon within yourself the Beast of Revelation, the monster gnawing on the great tree. Beast and serpent and dragon and demon are one and the same, thus there is no boundary between you and he.”

With each word spoken, the girl-shaped demon could feel it.

Something was straining inside her and pulsing in a disturbing way.

Coronzon spread her wings wide and tangled together countless long blonde hairs like a spiderweb to form a complex magic circle…and then stopped. She had been in such a hurry that the spell she formed ''was too powerful.'' This would cause Adikalika to burst and return to nothing.

(Damn, I wasted 1.5 seconds on this!!)

So while holding herself back with wings spread, Coronzon whispered to her opponent.

And just like a demon, this whisper was meant to guide her in the wrong direction.

“You must be aware your very being is ''unraveling''.”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had been created by Coronzon in order to cover the United Kingdom in a war atmosphere to drive it toward ruin. Since she had been meant as a temporary thing, not much care had gone into the structure of her girl form.

“You might be able to activate the spell, but you can never endure the recoil. Your form will break down permanently. And it will go beyond your appearance. You will lose your memories, your personalty – everything. And you’re still going to go through with it!?”

By focusing on the primary functions, it would at least blow her away without a trace.

All that would remain would be, well, a twisted form worthy of the demon title. More than just her outer appearance, she would lose everything down to the depths of her mind and become nothing more than a hideous monster.

“7, 10, 8, 11, and 666. Extract the necessary numbers from within yourself while expanding them to their greatest form.”

But she didn’t care.

She wasn’t listening.

That foolish, weak, and filthy demon was intent on expanding the partial knowledge she had after incompletely performing an incomplete copy.

Because of what she had seen.

Inside that prison cell, that boy was working all alone to atone for his crimes and had still managed to find hope in the world outside, but she had seen his face when he found that world was being destroyed. She had seen his expression, which he probably hadn’t meant for anyone to see, when he had learned the boy he considered a comrade in arms was dead.

That’s why she needed to do this.

The people who were running here were a necessary part of the scenery he wanted to protect.

She wouldn’t let it end here. She wouldn’t let them be slaughtered from afar.

…No matter what she had to do.

“Here, I reflect the same number with a different meaning. By letting it engulf me, I gain a different self.”

She would protect the world – the dream – that boy was trying to create.

So Artificial Demon Qliphah Puzzle 545 roared with all her might.

Shaking free of the chill she felt as she unraveled.

(Farewell, master.)

“Transform me in body and soul, ''Leviathan''!!!”

===Part 11===

Shortly before that…

“Hamazura.

“I…know!!! What the hell!? Don’t despair in the world before you’ve even tried!”

They were lying on top of her.

Two figures had jumped in from behind and tackled Qliphah Puzzle 545 to the ground. Even if it was temporary, she had a body and that meant obstructing her breathing and actions would cancel the spell.

It happened at the very last second and from her own side.

Great Demon Coronzon recognized the pair too.

Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou.

Two who, for some reason, hadn’t been on Coronzon’s list of targets had now arrived.

Pinned down on the red snow, Qliphah Puzzle 545 spoke weakly.

“Why…would you stop me?”

Her voice shook as she asked. Her face was a mess of tears and snot.

Understandably.

She would have lost that face and body.

Her personality and memories would have crumbled away.

She would have turned herself into a monster to battle Coronzon.

Of course that would scare an ordinary girl.

“You idiot!! If you don’t want him to suffer through watching a familiar face die while he’s forced to watch helplessly on from that cell of his, then why would you kill yourself and force it onto him that way!? To be honest, I don’t have a great opinion of the previous board chairman even after everything everyone’s said about him. But this new one’s different, right? He might actually do something to fix this city. But what you’re doing is just gonna send the next board chairman off the rails too!!”

“You saw him from closer than anyone.”

Takitsubo Rikou continued in her flat voice.

But that didn’t mean there was no emotion behind it.

“Doesn’t that mean it was the same for him? The new board chairman sent you to the consulate when the world might end today. He placed all that responsibility on your shoulders and let you handle it. Even though I’m sure there was at least one thing he wanted to protect with his own hands.”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t raise her head from the ground covered in red snow. She curled up, balled up, and shook.

Sobs spilled from her.

Maybe she didn’t want them to see her crying.

That was the moment when something inside Hamazura Shiage that he couldn’t quite put to words crossed a line.

(This world can really go to hell. Why should she have to be embarrassed about that?)

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was a demon. She was a created being. She had come from Coronzon.

None of that could change.

But all she wanted to do was walk next to a familiar person in this ordinary world.

Yet she had been pushed this far.

She had done all this.

Hamazura slowly turned around. To face Coronzon.

“Hey, Coronzon.”

“What is it, Hamazura? If you’re hoping for some odd job to do, wait about an hour and get back to me.”

An hour.

Did that mean the world was set to end at around 11 PM?

Dion Fortune ''had'' said her estimate was optimistic. Still, this was earlier than the midnight estimate.

“Surely you don’t think you can defeat me just because you know a little bit about me. Mathers thought he could control me and Aleister had researched me ten thousand times more than you. Yet they both lost – everyone always does!! Even the great Golden cabal fell! And his legacy of Academy City is my toy as well. So what can you, who couldn’t even accomplish anything within the bounds of that city, hope to-!!!”

“''You’ve gone too far''.”

A grinding sound filled the air.

It may have been the grinding of teeth.

Great Demon Coronzon had fallen silent.

After a full three seconds, she began again.

“Then what will you do about me?”

“That depends on your answer.”

“Do you think you are in any position to test me, fool!!?”

===Part 12===

And.

===Part 13===

Kamijou Touma also arrived.

At the former District 7 site of the Windowless Building.

At that square center of the world.

“Hi,” said Coronzon.

It was 10:30 PM. It had been a close thing, but he had arrived in time.

“What took you so long? I was so bored. Adikalika is such a pain to prepare. I wish I could just activate it already, but it has forced this great demon to wait.”

Two people lay collapsed at her feet. Was that Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou? It was just as he’d feared. They weren’t sure their forces combined could defeat Great Demon Coronzon, so it was too dangerous for any one of them to move out ahead.

What had happened here?

“You should thank them, Kamijou Touma. Arriving here wasn’t your accomplishment alone.”

…Was that the red snow?

He thought it was. Hoped it was.

Please someone say that wasn’t human blood.

Yes.

And come to think of it…

“What ended up happening to Nephthys and Niang-Niang?”

“What do you think happened?”

He had no response for that.

Amused, Coronzon asked him again.

“Tell me, Kamijou Touma. Surely you didn’t actually think those two would defeat me and bring peace to the world? If you had, you wouldn’t have spent your time afterwards planning and preparing to face me. Ha ha! So you must have known the moment you fled!! You knew those two would lose and you still chose to save your own skin!! So am I the only villain here!? Ha ha ha ha ha! Sure, I’m the one who delivered the finishing blow, but you were the one who pushed them toward it!!”

Yes.

That was true.

He still didn’t know what had happened to the two Magic Gods, but…

He was afraid to die. He had learned to feel that ordinary emotion, but now he had survived by forcing the unpleasantness onto someone else. There was no denying that.

“So were you so intent on surviving because you wanted a front-row seat to Adikalika’s activation? You stained your own soul to survive, yet soon you will be destroyed along with the rest of the world.”

He had made Alice cry and she killed him.

He had gone to hell and received the ticket to resurrection that Kingsford or CRC could have used instead.

Magic Gods Nephthys and Niang-Niang had told him to run away.

What had he hoped to do after all that?

He had had plenty of opportunities to refuse and stop.

So what had he been so reluctant to leave behind that he never gave up on living?

“Making Aleister despair and releasing me was truly the crowning achievement of your folly. So maybe you do deserve a gift. But just this once, okay? I will give you what you want. I will slice through your body, grab your head, and hold it in place, so enjoy watching the end of the world without even being able to die!!”

“''Give it a rest, Coronzon''.”

Others had been saving him this whole time.

He wanted to end that chain here. He wanted to stand on his own two feet.

He wanted to apologize to all the people he had troubled with his death and he wanted to return to his ordinary life.

Was that so wrong?

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume13_Chapter2|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume13_Chapter4}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume13 Chapter1

2025-08-20T02:31:38Z

Massify: /* Part 6 */ changed from "could" to should, mostly to make the wording feel a bit more natural

==Chapter 1: A Change – Magician, Witch, Wizard, and…==

===Part 1===

Suddenly.

Something caused the sound of the cold rain to vanish.

Only nothingness remained.

The air temperature must have fallen below freezing. A red – strangely red – snow fell from the leaden sky.

“…”

Kamijou Touma didn’t bother mentioning it.

If he shifted his gaze away from dead ahead for even a split second, Great Demon Coronzon would use that instant to kill him. He was certain of it.

Kamijou, Alice Anotherbible, Great Demon Coronzon, and Vidhatri lying limp and passed out by his side.

He couldn’t see a single positive element to this.

In that silent world, the “kathunk, kathunk” of a subway train passing by sounded deafening loud.

“What’s the matter, human?” whispered the great demon, slowly spreading her arms and wings.

Her long, long blonde hair tangled around her wings and fingertips like spider web.

“Surely, surely you aren’t planning to thoughtlessly charge right at me? You might still be able to get away. Or maybe if you could use that right hand of yours properly. Kee hee hee. At the very least, falling back would improve your chance of survival over a blind charge.”

“Teacher,” sharply warned Alice Anotherbible. “These are the words of a great demon. They might sound kind, but she would never say anything out of concern for someone.”

Something crackled.

From very close by.

The violently flashing orange light resembled the sparks produced by steel striking steel.

…''Sparks?

“Don’t tell me…”

“Magic usage causes slight fluctuations in this world and the collisions between the unseen overlapping phases produce sparks which can at times be deadly. They are the source of the tragedy that sent Aleister Crowley down his path of carnage. What you see now is the result of my power bringing them down to this lower physical world and giving them form,” explained Coronzon, enjoying herself.

This wasn’t the only thing the great demon could do. She had purposefully chosen this from the near endless cards in her deck.

Kamijou heard another unpleasant sparking sound.

A drum-shaped security robot had burst from within.

It was possible Accelerator was monitoring this from afar and he was using the unmanned machines to search out an escape route through the minefield.

It went without saying what would happen if a human body contacted that…unless it was worse than it seemed.

“The surface-level destruction is a mere trifle. Contact that and you will die. I am not talking about the surface-level shock or destruction. It will ensure your death at the more fundamental level of destiny.”

Yes.

Aleister Crowley had failed to overturn this at his peak, so he had lost his wife and daughter. This was that same tragedy.

“And I have another warning. That third tree? Clonoth, was it? That caught me off guard in the UK and stripped my essence from my physical body, but that will not work again.”

The remaining security robots wavered a little.

“After all, I am not a pure demon anymore. Human Aleister’s symbols have been mixed in with me.”

The great demon curled her lips upward and laughed from deep in her throat.

Aleister.

She looked amused to no end that he was disturbing the human world even after he was gone.

“So what will you do, Kamijou Touma?”

She was a great demon, so she didn’t believe in benevolent coincidences or divine miracles to begin with.

“There are only two options in this world: a merciless death void of miracles, or a false miracle formed by human hands.”

“…”

“I know you know what happens if you stop thinking and pray to god without preparing anything yourself. How severe was the cost of crawling back up out of hell, Kamijou Touma? But all that will be for nothing if you fail to make the smart move here.”

(Well, this could hardly be worse.)

Kamijou felt like he had been abandoned in the middle of a minefield.

He was surrounded in all directions by invisible mines that would kill him on contact. And he didn’t even know how far they were distributed, so he had no sense of how far he had to flee in order to survive.

“Ugh, really? Just for your information…”

Coronzon had set all this up, but she still looked somehow displeased.

Even though she supposedly had an absolute advantage here.

As if the grand surprise she had spent so much effort preparing was going unappreciated, so she had to explain it for him.

“I didn’t just lay these out there. I can move them at will. So that is not a minefield you are standing in – it is a monster’s gaping maw. If I close it, you will be crushed between its jaws. I know you puny humans of this lower world only understand the things you can see, but surely that is enough for you to appreciate your situation.”

In other words, staying still wasn’t enough to save him.

He had been doomed from the beginning.

Kamijou’s right hand contained Imagine Breaker. He might be able to break one or two of the invisible fangs. But would that be enough to defeat the monster? If it ignored the pain and forced its mouth shut, he was dead. It would be over in an instant.

Kamijou clenched his teeth.

…He didn’t stand a chance.

What would he accomplish by charging in recklessly? He had previously fought Great Demon Coronzon in the UK. His right arm and the rest of his body had been smashed right away that time.

Imagine Breaker…''was not enough.

He heard a footstep on metal grating rather than asphalt.

Great Demon Coronzon must have noticed the fear and confusion that hearing that single footstep caused because an amused smile spread across her face.

“Why are you doing this now? We already settled this back in the UK!”

“Why?”

Coronzon snorted.

It grew into full-on mocking laughter.

“Of all things, you’re asking for my purpose and objective!? Kamijou Touma, do you want a similar explanation for how you came back to life? You didn’t turn back from hell because you calmly completed the items on a to do list!! You sought life because the state of life is natural for you and you never questioned that idea. It’s no different for me! This is what I have always been!!”

“So you’re really going to bring countless people to tears just because you never had a particular reason to stop!?”

“I have been true to myself no matter what happened.”

She said it so lightly.

Like someone humming the popular song playing on endless loop in a restaurant.

“Natural decomposition – tearing apart all things and returning them to nothing – is my role of dispersion. How could I trust in myself if I was one thing one day and another thing another day? You puny beings seem capable of that, but perhaps it is the result of your excess of free will.”

“…”

“It was that side of you that ended up tormenting Aleister to the bitter end. To be clear, I will be the one to destroy the world, but it was you who opened the box, Kamijou Touma.”

A grin split Coronzon’s face as she said this.

She was finally back in the outside world.

She couldn’t seem to contain her amusement.

“My value is 333 and my meaning is dispersion. I rule over one line on the great tree, yet I induce discord and betrayal to tear apart the bonds between people and obstruct human evolution. Do you really think I am going to stop? Now that I have been freed, of course I am going to work toward that end with every second available to me!!”

“Teacher,” interrupted Alice Anotherbible.

She looked unusually grim.

As if to say her role as a Transcendent, essentially a part in divine school play, were being stripped from her by the alarm ringing from the audience seating.

Was that young-looking girl perceiving something Kamijou couldn’t see?

“You can’t hold a conversation with Great Demon Coronzon. Not the way you’re doing it anyway. She can’t be won over by what’s right. In her mind, all things falling apart and all people suffering through pandemonium is ''the most healthy and active state for the world''. She only sees your kindness and compassion as a toxin that will cool and solidify the world.”

“!!”

“And she loathes that toxin in her own way. That is why your words can never stop her.”

So did he have to fight?

Countless unseen sparks had been placed around him.

Standing within a monster’s gaping maw was nothing but suicide.

And even if he did escape that, he would only have managed to reach the same playing field as her. Being able to defeat full-power Coronzon was another matter entirely.

He was looking at a battle with a higher being who had easily forced Aleister into submission. He couldn’t imagine how to get started, much less win. Fight or flee, anything he tried seemed like it would only work against him.

But.

“I won’t die…”

Even so, Kamijou Touma’s lips were trembling.

So he forced the words out through clenched teeth.

“I won’t die again!! I was already saved from hell once, so I won’t give up my life so easily!!”

Great Demon Coronzon grinned, but was she mocking how obviously terrified he was or how he had nothing to back up those words.

But in fact, Kamijou Touma did not die.

Because something pierced a straight through that space.

It tore apart the area between Kamijou and Coronzon.

That meant it hadn’t been aimed at Coronzon. Was this clearing a route by intentionally triggering the invisible mines laid out all around him?

(A tear…beam? It can’t be!!)

“Much better. You’ve finally got the right attitude, Kamijou Touma.”

“Ha ha. Boy, did your death put a damper on your hot-bloodedness?”

Nephthys.

And Niang-Niang?

“You mustn’t throw your life away. I see you finally arrived at the simplest answer that no one in the real world seems capable of following, Kamijou Touma.”

“I like this version of you better than your weird recklessness. It’s a lot more reassuring for those of us saving your ass.”

Magic Gods.

They were not a new side to this battle.

They were clearly taking Kamijou’s side and taking up positions to cover him.

Kamijou stared in shock.

Did they just say they were saving him?

From this!?

“Hey, wait. You’re under no obligation to help me out of this mess!!”

They didn’t even bother turning around.

The Magic Gods were facing Great Demon Coronzon in a more casual way, but they were also unwavering.

Even though they had to have a better grasp of the situation than Kamijou.

Yet they still spoke firmly.

“My, my. Have you forgotten that I am Nephthys, a god?”

“And I’m Niang-Niang. How about you let us take over for once? You died and came back, but you didn’t get Magic Godded by it. That means you’re nothing special. Live or die, you’re just a normal human. …And you ordinary people don’t need to deal with creeps like this. The monsters can slay the other monsters.”

Alice held her silence for a while.

But she finally opened her mouth.

“The girl will go with her teacher.”

“Good idea. It’ll be safer if he keeps a trump card with him. To be honest, if softhearted Kamijou Touma escaped on his own, I’d half expect him to be back before long. So go show him to the exit, little miss monster. But if you let him die, I will hunt you down.”

“Hey, quit deciding everything for me!”

Nephthys gave a simple answer to his protest.

“Risking your own skin is all well and good, but if you fall here, then who will bring that girl there to safety?”

Only then did Kamijou remember.

That’s right.

He and Alice weren’t the only ones here.

A Transcendent had collapsed before his eyes while trying to inform Alice of the threat.

Vidhatri.

If she was still alive, he couldn’t just abandon her here. If everyone here tried to fight and were wiped out, there would be no one left to help her. Then she would certainly be killed by Coronzon too.

After reminding him of his responsibility here, Nephthys spoke kindly.

“Make sure she gets away.”

“…Thanks!!”

This was only an excuse, of course. A ritual used to rid Kamijou of his guilt and allow him to act freely.

Nephthys ordinarily acted so irresponsible, but she really did seem godlike here.

“I have a question.”

Someone spoke.

Great Demon Coronzon was smiling.

“What logical reason do I have to let them get away after you held your strategy meeting right in front of me? Not much is more challenging than a retreat when you are at a severe disadvantage!!”

Something new emerged.

This time, it wasn’t even human. It was a golden retriever.

The dog spoke human language.

“Drop straight down!!”

A loud noise followed.

Alice Anotherbible’s small hands had torn up part of the metal grating below their feet. Kamijou, carrying Vidhatri, and Alice didn’t hesitate to jump down onto the roof of the subway train passing through the tunnel below.

An impact.

Continuous shaking. Slipping to the side. But he somehow managed to get a grip on the roof.

He didn’t seem to have hit any of those sparks. They had surrounded him in all directions, but apparently only in two dimensions.

“Looks like we barely escaped with our lives.”

The golden retriever was with them.

What was his name again? Whatever his name, that cute doggy was in fact connected to the infamous Kihara family.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

Kamijou groaned as he adjusted his grip on limp Vidhatri atop the train’s roof. That was all he could manage.

“I went to the trouble of coming back to life…and all I can do is run away? Dammit.”

“Staying alive is an accomplishment in and of itself, if you ask me,” said the dog. “At the very least, you overturned that Coronzon person’s expectations.”

“…”

“Dammit,” cursed Kamijou again. He wasn’t about to give up here.

The train was on the move.

This small seam gave him a new start.

===Part 2===

Kamijou Touma, Alice Anotherbible, and the rest had left.

That left Magic Gods Nephthys and Niang-Niang and Great Demon Coronzon.

The higher beings faced each other as red snow fell around them.

“Oh, right.”

The first to speak was Nephthys, the bandaged beauty with silver hair and brown skin.

“I will be killing you here, but I wanted to ask you something first.”

“I’m not here to fulfill your final request. I’m planning on killing billions after this. I can’t give individuals too much attention. It’s a waste of resources.”

“That isn’t what I meant. Is that human still inside you? Or has he been fully destroyed?”

“Did you think a great demon like me would bother using a pathetic hostage?”

“That still isn’t what I meant. I just want to know if I should feel even a little bad after I kill you.”

She made it sound so simple.

And certain.

The Magic God was not swayed by the great demon title. Just like during their previous battle in the UK.

“To be clear, we will be killing you either way,” said Niang-Niang, hiding her mouth behind her modified China dress’s baggy sleeve.

But she wasn’t smiling.

Not now.

“I know this might sound weird coming from Magic Gods who are willing to die to accomplish our goals, but you really should have let it end after you lost last time. Digging this all back up is just a waste of time.”

A tear spilled from Nephthys’s right eye. An unnaturally large tear.

While she laughed and spoke.

It could be easy to forget since she was too powerful, but battle was not that bandaged beauty’s forte. This was her greatest trait as an Egyptian Magic God.

“I weep for you, Niang-Niang.”

The propagating tear.

In other words, a power boost.

''A Magic God’s already ultimate power was being boosted further by another Magic God.

Boosting, raising, buffing, multiplying – none of those words were sufficient to describe this.

This was on another level entirely from their playtime at the student dorm.

“It’s the same for Aleister and Coronzon.”

“You’ve already tried this a few times, so you could say history has already proven the futility of it. Digging it all back up like this isn’t going to end well for you.”

All expression suddenly vanished from Coronzon.

On her noh mask of a face, words gathered in her mouth.

“These are the intruders who impede natural decomposition. Can false gods who began as no more than human never progress beyond this point?”

“Huh?”

“Not that it matters,” muttered Coronzon, already back to herself.

She did not answer Niang-Niang’s question.

What Coronzon did say was simple.

“By the way, how much did you hear? Having to explain it all over and over again is a pain, so I’d like to skip what I can.”

“You expect understanding from gods? And really, what right does a demon have to judge us? We’re the ones testing you, dumbass.”

“I see. So you understand none of it. Then I will keep it simple, so even your single brain cell can comprehend.”

The crackling of sparks came from around Nephthys and Niang-Niang.

All 360 degrees around them.

“This is not a minefield. It is a gaping maw lined with countless fangs.”

===Part 3===

Still being atop the subway train when it pulled into a station would probably cause a panic and they would get in trouble for riding without paying. The train happened to stop before the next station because one of the signals indicated some minor trouble, so Kamijou’s group took that chance to climb down from the roof. It seemed lucky…but with Kamijou Touma that wasn’t an option. It was the result of how badly damaged Academy City was.

Climbing down from the roof was a challenge when carrying someone unconscious. Kamijou was walking it to the end of the tunnel with Vidhatri on his back when the golden retriever asked a question. That the dog spoke human language went without saying at this point.

“Where are you headed?”

“Phew. District 12. The old Bridge Builders Cabal consulate.”

He couldn’t let Great Demon Coronzon kill him. But what could he actually do? She had only been defeated last time at the end of a battle that dragged the entire world into it. Would he have to go through that again? Academy City was already damaged and repairs were slow in coming, so a battle on that scale could easily reduce the entire city to a pile of rubble.

An emergency exit led to a narrow stairway up to the surface. The creepy but bewitching red snow continued to fall. But his breath was white like normal. While viewing the strange scene, Kamijou pulled his phone from his pocket with Vidhatri still on his back.

It was 4 PM, the weather was snowy, and the temperature was -3 degrees.

(It’s no use. I don’t know who would be safe to contact.)

He had a communication device, but he was hesitant to use it. Because he was still officially considered dead. Contacting a classmate or friend would only cause a panic and ordinary Anti-Skill was out of the question. He had only just escaped those Bio Secure people chasing after him with flamethrowers. Not much time had passed at all.

“Teacher, let’s get to the consulate. You can think and call someone after getting some rest.”

“Good point…”

Yes, the consulate.

He wanted time to calm down and think. He couldn’t even come up with any ideas right now. The appearance of Great Demon Coronzon had radically changed things, but he still needed to get to the Bridge Builders Cabal consulate in District 12.

His breath was white.

And that wasn’t all.

“By the way, what is this red snow?”

That had been bugging him.

It didn’t seem to be something Coronzon had done. He reached out just his right hand with Vidhatri supported with his left arm and let some land on his fingertip, but the ice crystal only melted into a drop of water like normal. There was no sign of anything being negated. In that case, had some strange impurity in the air gotten mixed in when the ice crystal was solidifying? He had heard of things like smog and yellow sand changing the color of snow. Maybe it was related to the gas and dust caused by the shells and explosives used in all the recent large-scale battles.

When the snow melted on his fingertip, the resultant drop was clear. So it didn’t seem like blood or some other red liquid had frozen into snow. That was another point toward his theory it was an impurity in the crystal.

…In that case, as bewitching as the red snow looked, it might not be very clean. What did the color red represent? And aside from that, this was city snow which would be full of exhaust.

“Alice, don’t eat the snow.”

“Ehhh!?”

“Why is that so shocking!? There are plenty of other good things to eat!”

“Ugh, fine.”

“You either, doggy.”

“I would hope you could expect a little more intelligence and romance from me.”

At any rate, walking out in the open didn’t seem like a good idea. Kamijou was known as a walking corpse and carrying limp Vidhatri on his back made him look he was committing some kind of crime. Not to mention the little girl and the large dog not on a leash. Their party was practically asking to be taken in for questioning.

“Uh, oh…”

Someone was dancing on the street up ahead.

She looked to be…middle school aged, maybe?

She had a small collapsible umbrella to keep the red snow off of her and her phone was propped up against the edge of a shrubbery, so she must have thought the unusual weather was an opportunity of some kind.

Was it late enough for school to be out already?

Then again, it was the first day back after winter break, so maybe most schools were only having half days.

(I don’t even know when school lets out anymore. I’m drifting further and further from a peaceful life…)

That was a life-or-death problem. For a high schooler anyway.

Snow was accumulating and it wasn’t Christmas. Maybe there just wasn’t much traffic and maybe all the confusion had prevented the snow from being cleared, but the streets were starting to be covered by the red snow and even the trains were having to stop fairly frequently but irregularly. Not many people would want to head out on a day like this, but as someone who was officially dead, Kamijou still wanted to do his best to avoid being seen. That meant avoiding the person jumping and dancing on the sidewalk with no concern for her short skirt and even walking to the center of a big intersection and slowly turning in a full circle to get a 360-degree shot. The cheerful girl’s extrovert energy pushed Kamijou Touma away, forcing him into the narrow side streets. As the kind of person who preferred to take the far corner seat on the train even when no one else was aboard, he really didn’t mind all that much. Although he was somewhat disgusted with himself for how little it bothered him.

“I really don’t want to make a habit of taking my walks in the shadows.”

“It’s not so bad. Do it enough and it stops feeling weird.”

The dog’s advice did not help improve his mood.

He wanted to do something about it before he reached that point.

But while he was choosing the more deserted paths, it was still midday on a weekday. And he was carrying an unconscious girl on his back, but no one was stopping him. Was ordinary Anti-Skill not functioning well? That was fine as long as no one realized the gravity of it, but this could get bad if some devious people took notice.

Their destination was District 12. It was the most religious district and located on the east side of the city.

They had to take a wide detour around District 23 since it was generally off limits, so it ended up a long walk.

“Phew.”

A lot of time had passed by the time they arrived. It was just past 5 PM or thereabouts. In January, the sun would have been setting at this time, but the clouds were blocking it today.

They had arrived at the familiar consulate…sort of.

It was unrecognizable.

It seemed to have collapsed even more than when Kamijou had seen it last. Had a stray shot hit it at some point?

Several of the spires had broken and the garden was covered in rubble and black soil with a dusting of red snow starting to cover it. Over half of a building larger than the average school had been squashed. From the looks of it, the rainwater had to be getting in. Not many rooms would still be usable, but having a roof above your head still meant a lot.

“May I come in?” he asked Alice without thinking.

That made her squeal with delight. Because he was still treating this as her house maybe?

But…

“I-it’s chilly in here…”

Kamijou shivered. It had to have been colder outside, but he felt it all the worse once he was inside. Maybe his senses were returning to him.

A sofa in the corner of the huge lobby was so fancy he wasn’t sure if it was meant to be used or just decorative, but he lay Vidhatri on it regardless. Even that was difficult with the weird doll attached back-to-back with her. How did you remove it? And he felt like the cold was getting even worse. No, could it be he had been receiving warmth from the brown beauty on his back? Talk about a spoiled way to make use of a young woman. As unscientific as it was, he was afraid he had earned some kind of divine punishment there.

They had somehow arrived at the consulate, but now he had to figure out what to do next.

“F-for now, we need to do something about injured Vidhatri. She still hasn’t woken up, but is she okay? If it requires more than a first-aid kit, then we’re out of luck.”

His first thought was the frog-faced doctor.

Yes, a doctor.

“…”

The main goal of his original plan was to prevent Academy City from pursuing him as the living dead. So by escaping to a consulate belonging to another country(?) where the adults couldn’t touch him, he had hoped to buy enough time to call the frog-faced doctor to him and receive professional confirmation that Kamijou Touma was still alive. And with his status as alive confirmed, he would automatically be preserving Index and Othinus’s home too.

He didn’t know if that Condro-whatever country still officially recognized the consulate, but the actual international effectiveness didn’t really matter. He only needed the powerful adults in Academy City to hesitate.

But Great Demon Coronzon’s appearance had destroyed that plan. Utterly.

To be blunt, she wouldn’t care at all about the consulate. If she didn’t like Kamijou’s group, she would march right in to kill them. After all, she was willing to declare herself one who tore apart human bonds and obstructed their evolution. On a larger scale, there was a real possibility of her ''doing something to Academy City as a whole.'' If it came to that, then Kamijou’s group would be killed along with the rest of the city.

(Seriously, what are we supposed to do? However we stop Coronzon, I do still want to prove I’m alive so I can move through the city more easily…but do I have time for a detour like that?)

What was Index doing right now? Othinus and the calico cat too. It was below freezing outside. He couldn’t leave them out there in the frigid air and red snow and there was always the horrific chance that they would happen across Coronzon out there.

“I guess we can’t just come to a stop. We need to decide on where to start…”

Just as he said that, he heard a weird clattering noise from overhead.

Was someone there?

“Alice, get behind me.”

“Teacher, you don’t need to worry about that.”

Hm? Alice seemed awfully certain about that.

Nervous Kamijou sensed something off.

It came from his sense of smell.

Was that the familiar scent of some extremely ordinary chemical seasonings?

Then someone emerged from the second floor. The underwear woman with large wings on her back was walking while working at a cup of instant noodles with a silver fork.

“Hm? Boy, wherefore are you here?”

She was the Bologna Succubus, one of the Transcendents.

===Part 4===

For Kamijou the Bridge Builders Cabal consulate had seemed like a secret base of evil, but for the Bologna Succubus it was a temporary home in a foreign country. Even if it was falling apart, maybe it was best to just return here.

Kamijou tilted his head.

“What are you normal Transcendents doing now?”

“Normal? That’s a new one, boy. Then again, maybe it was inevitable when you’ve been hanging out with ultra extraordinary Alice so much.”

Standing still, the blonde underwear woman gave him an exasperated look while eating her Japanese cup noodles. Maybe it came from being Western, but he didn’t hear any slurping sounds as she ate the noodles.

“Horrifying. You might as well be eating a cup full of salt,” said the golden retriever.

“Well, this pup feels right out of a fairy tale. The best medicine when you’re tired, if you ask me.”

The tragic state of her diet suggested Good, Old Mary and H. T. Trismegistus were not here since the former was proud of her cooking skills and the latter was picky about manners. …Then again, Kamijou was more at home with cup noodles that would be ready in 3 minutes and eaten in 5 minutes than he was with a full-course dinner that took more than two hours from appetizer to dessert.

“Around half of us were knocked out trying to restrain Aleister when he suddenly went nuts. Vidhatri there was one of them. But we scattered afterwards. After all, our grand plan of saving the world with a resurrected CRC didn’t pan out. And organizations are fragile when they lose their central pillar.”

“Aleister did it?” asked Kamijou because he had thought Coronzon was responsible.

The Bologna Succubus sighed softly.

“There’s something wrong with him. No ordinary human should be able to defeat a group of Transcendents. Maybe that’s just ''the'' Crowley living up to his reputation as the exception among exceptions.”

“''Wait.''”

Kamijou called for a time out.

Something wasn’t right.

“If Aleister alone could have solved the Transcendent problem with Anna Sprengel and such, he wouldn’t have relied on Kingsford in the first place.”

“You have a point,” said the golden retriever. “Thinking back, that preserved corpse was an odd choice for Aleister. It isn’t like him to so wholly rely on someone else like that.”

“This talk of corpses is hitting home a lot more than it did before… But anyway, it sounded like he found some dangerous thing, modified it, and forced it to move.”

“Boy, did you forget?” The Bologna Succubus sounded exasperated. “Aleister is no ordinary human. He has crossed a line much like we have. No, it felt more like he was wielding Great Demon Coronzon’s power.”

“…”

“I doubt he could use all that power to begin with, so maybe something caused him to lose control and break through the limiter?”

“Something? Like what?”

“Kamijou Touma’s death and everything related to Anna Kingsford. You can’t tell me you’ve forgotten about that.”

In other words.

Did it all go back to that?

Just gathering up and using that power was enough to defeat a group of Transcendents. Then what could Great Demon Coronzon herself do now that she was back in control?

The Bologna Succubus shrugged.

“The Bridge Builders Cabal is no longer functioning as a magic cabal.”

“I see…”

“I don’t even know what happened to the other members. Some may still be hiding in Academy City, but I bet most of the Transcendents are leaving now that their reason for being here is gone.”

“…”

Is that why the Bologna Succubus was referring to him as “boy” here?

Alice Anotherbible was no longer her top priority.

In that school on that night, they had seen their pitiful master accidentally kill Kamijou Touma and lose sight of herself. The regular Transcendents must have been disillusioned when Alice didn’t even give them a glance after they served her so thoroughly.

Alice Anotherbible had lost her violent charisma.

And what happened when they also learned that summoning CRC to save the world was nothing more than a pipe dream?

“Nothing but hardtack to eat is murdering my mouth☆ Hey, lewd succubus, was there any canned food anywhere? …What’re they doing here?”

Someone else descended from the second floor.

To her, Alice Anotherbible was just one member of a “they”.

Who was this girl anyway? Kamijou was pretty sure he had never seen her before. The blonde was fully covered by what might have been a copper blast-resistant suit or might have been an iron maiden.

The two began conversing without any kind of introductions.

“We have an injury to deal with, so we’ll have to do something about Vidhatri. Ugh, it’s so inconvenient without Good, Old Mary around. Why does Blodeuwedd the Bouquet have to be the only one left? She’s useless.”

“Kyahah. That’s a neat trick if standing around complaining will heal her wounds. But if not, then we’ll have to figure something out with the people we’ve got, whore demon.”

…The strained atmosphere between those two bothered Kamijou, but it was they who brought a first-aid kit from deeper in the building.

The two Transcendents opened the kit and argued as they opened the manual contained in a waterproof package along with the medicines and bandages.

“First, we need to make sure we use this stuff right☆ Start by disinfecting the wound with alcohol.”

“Don’t be stupid. You need to wash the wound with water first and then disinfect it.”

“This swelling is a bruise, not internal bleeding. That means a compress will do.”

“That’s a hot compress. Are you trying to exacerbate the symptoms? You need a cool compress here, trash.”

“That idiot can be safely ignored. Now, let’s see☆ I need to tie the bandage tight to stop the bleeding.”

“If you want the bleeding to stop fast, you have to let the air contact it. Tying the bandage loose to let it breathe is best, dung beetle girl.”

Left all alone on the sofa, Vidhatri began moaning in her sleep.

Those two were practically at each other’s throats.

The Bologna Succubus and…Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was it? Those two were in fact literally butting heads. Which begged the question of why they were staying here together.

“They must be good friends.”

“Huh?” “Huh?”

[[File:GT Index v13 BW1.png|thumb]]

Kamijou’s comment earned him a pair of fairly serious glares. A girl’s “huh?” was a frightening thing.

Kamijou couldn’t say which of their claims were correct. He secretly did some searching on his phone and found plenty of agreement in either direction. It was funny that too many opinions could be a problem too. He decided to just assume a Transcendent’s body would be tough enough to endure whatever those two did. Or wait…were Transcendents’ bodies tough?

“Damn, I really shouldn’t have stayed in Academy City. I know I have a habit of sticking around in unloved places, but I always regret not getting out sooner than I do☆”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was complaining under her breath and Kamijou concluded this really was his first time seeing her.

And the Bologna Succubus was generally welcoming and cheerful no matter what, so it was unusual to see her detest someone so much. She didn’t seem like a bad person to Kamijou, so what made the Bologna Succubus dislike her to this extent?

He asked and the Bologna Succubus reacted with complete exasperation.

In fact, she held a hand to her forehead.

“Boy, um…you are a hopelessly bad judge of character. It’s like you go out of your way to be tricked so you can destroy it all.”

“Oh, c’mon. Ha ha. An ‘evil plot’ by a little girl like this could only be something adora-”

“She was one of the Killers who wanted to murder you in order to control Alice.”

Apparently this was much more serious than he had thought.

…And yet the girl herself held a hand to her cheek while staring at him.

Hm? This seemed quite different from what he had been told. Was that a spellbound look?

“But…now that I’ve met him for myself, he’s nothing like I was expecting. I was imagining an easy-going piece of shit who, y’know, carelessly presses fire alarms and blows up fire extinguishers. But instead he’s more like, well, the shunned and ostracized kid who sits alone in a corner of the classroom. Ahh☆ I, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, am the Transcendent who protects the unloved. And the negative aura coming off of him is more than enough. Pant, pant. Oh, I can’t stand it. Kyahah, unloved one, leap into my arms!!”

“I’d rather not be accepted for ''that'' reason!!”

Was she the type to insult people when trying to be kind!? Kamijou bristled and yelled at the skinny girl whose thick armor opened like double doors. And was she entirely naked except for an apron under there!?

The naked apron was real!!

The depressed aura coming from Kamijou was probably the result of dying, coming back from the dead, being treated as a zombie, being rejected by Aleister for baffling reasons, and then having the resurrected Great Demon Coronzon try to kill him. If he let himself be taken into that soothing shelter, he just knew he would never again be able to leave that sweet-smelling girl’s thick coat!!

(But on the other hand…)

He had died and come back and was now being viewed as a zombie. It was nice finding some people who would ignore all that and actually listen to him.

Great Demon Coronzon.

He couldn’t just ignore that threat, but he needed far more fighters than this to deal with her. He didn’t even know what had happened to Magic Gods Nephthys and Niang-Niang after he left.

Even they had said they would “take over” for him, not that they would defeat her or solve the problem. It had seemed like the Magic Gods were choosing their words carefully.

He didn’t know how that had turned out, but it hadn’t seemed like leaving it with them was the end of it. And if they hadn’t ended it, then he had to assume the Coronzon problem persisted.

The Bologna Succubus put a hand on her hip and spoke.

“Anyway, we’ll treat Vidhatri. We’ll need to take her to another room.”

“I’ll help,” said Kamijou.

“This will mean removing her clothing, so you stay away. As the resident expert on sexiness, I cannot condone non-consensual nudity.”

When put that way, there was nothing Kamijou Touma-chan could do.

“Don’t look so dejected. I’ll let you see me naked later.”

“Could you not make this so awkward to agree with!?”

“Don’t worry. Even if everyone else treats you like a filthy insect, I will be there to hug you☆”

“I don’t like the sound of that future either!!”

The Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet began a friendly(?) argument as they moved Vidhatri to another room.

Then the golden retriever made a request in a very dandy voice.

“As a dog whose body requires several nutrients to continue functioning, I would really like to be fed soon.”

Had he not eaten?

But this consulate wasn’t Kamijou’s home. He was reluctant to start searching around for food without permission.

He looked to Alice and she only smiled up at him. Apparently this was fine.

He began searching of the half-destroyed building.

“Come to think of it…I don’t remember seeing a dog last time I was here. I don’t think they have any actual pet food.”

“Such an uncivilized place. But it is what it is. Are there any chicken tenderloins?”

“The premade ones are already seasoned, so won’t they be pretty dangerous? For your kidneys and such? I’ve heard human food has too much sodium for most animals.”

“Of course. Really, only humans are capable of digesting that much salt in daily life. Even the fish swimming the sea show more restraint. Parboil it in water to remove all the excess fat and seasoning. And be thorough.”

As pressing as the situation was, having some work to do helped him calm down.

Or maybe that was just his body being heated by the steam coming from the pot of boiling water on the induction cooker. It wasn’t warming him all that much in this chill, though.

How much could a dog that size eat? He decided to just pile up the boiled tenderloins on a plate until the dog himself said it was enough, placed that and a bowl of water on the floor, and asked a question.

“Are you okay in this cold?”

“This is my winter coat, thankfully. And unlike a cat, my coat resists water. Hot!”

The dog couldn’t handle hot foods any better than cats.

Kamijou badly needed to do something about his freezing body. The dog seemed docile enough, but would he get mad if Kamijou hugged him for warmth?

Then Alice walked over and grabbed his hand.

“Over there, over there. You can warm up with that.”

Something rarely seen in Japan was installed in a one of the cracked walls.

Petty bourgeois Kamijou was used to his dorm’s air conditioning, so the idea of starting a roaring fire inside your home was a fairly exciting one, but Alice seemed to find it normal. Was fire not frightening if it had a partitioned area and was well managed?

And Japan did have its irori.

“Just turn the valve and let the gas out!”

“Wait, fireplaces aren’t for burning chopped wood?”

Apparently the firewood was mostly decorative. So many things evolved with time. Even lanterns used LEDs these days, so apparently nothing was safe.

Also, the building was half destroyed, so was the chimney safe? He was afraid it might be broken partway up or have a hole or crack that would change the flow of smoke in devastating ways…

“Damn, staring at a fire calms you down whether you like it or not, huh? No, that’s a dangerous idea. I need to be careful I don’t Little Match Girl myself… Can you not cook fish or dango on skewers in a fireplace? Like you do with an irori?”

“Ohh, nice and warm…”

Kamijou turned around to ask and heard a sleepy voice next to him.

Alice must not have been satisfied without drying every single part of her wet clothing because she stood facing the fireplace fire with her skirt lifted in her hands.

“Stop that! It’s indecent! There’s a boy here. You’re only supposed to let someone you truly care for see inside your skirt!”

“Ehh? Someone the girl truly cares for?”

“No, stop!!”

Don’t turn this way.

Also, she was wearing some kind of white tights, but was it really safe to heat those so close to a fire? Kamijou didn’t know much about old-fashioned materials, but was that something non-synthetic surrounding her legs? He wasn’t certain. He was a little afraid the heat would suddenly melt it, leading to tragedy.

And as they warmed themselves (“Lower your skirt already!”), someone returned from deeper into the building: the Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. They had returned together…which meant they didn’t need to leave anyone with Vidhatri.

“Was the treatment a success?”

“Nyahah, for now.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet gave a brief response to Kamijou’s question.

So they weren’t completely out of the woods there yet.

Kamijou found this drafty building too cold for his liking, but wearing that thick coat indoors must have been too warm. The skinny apron girl occasionally opened it and fanned it to let some heat out as she gave him a skeptical look.

“We have a question for you.”

“?”

“What are your plans concerning Great Demon Coronzon? This situation looks pretty bad, so we kind of have to play the Alice Anotherbible card, don’t we?”

The central pillars of Alice Anotherbible’s violent charisma and CRC’s world salvation had been broken, and yet…

The Transcendents had begun as a gathering of individuals who wanted to protect the kind of people they personally wanted to help. That meant the Bologna Succubus had people she wanted to help and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet had her own.

Great Demon Coronzon.

Kamijou had no idea what she might do, but it made sense those two would be concerned about the appearance of someone who would bring harm to anyone and everyone.

And they would be concerned about the enormous bomb that was Alice Anotherbible.

Blowing up over half the world in a fight to protect the world was meaningless.

Those thoughts were written plain on Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s face.

“It is probably time I decided on a general plan as well.”

The dog was right.

They only had so much time. Doing nothing and avoiding the issue would only be placing the rope around their own necks.

Kamijou organized his thoughts.

And with a deep breath, he spoke.

“I will have Alice fight.”

“Oh,” said Alice, hopping a bit at being brought up in the conversation.

“I had a feeling you would,” said Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, sounding somehow annoyed.

But…

“The problem is she’s too powerful, right? No, I guess the problem isn’t really the size of her power but its instability since you never know where she’ll direct it on a whim. …So we just have to convince the world that ''Alice is a good guy because she’s the one who saved the world.''”

“…”

Kamijou’s explanation caused the skinny apron girl’s sulky look to freeze on her face.

“For real?”

“Great Demon Coronzon is trying to destroy the world. …To be blunt, a threat that over-the-top actually helps us out here. With a half-baked bank robbery or mummy’s curse, we’d be ignored since someone other than Alice could have dealt with it just fine. We need a threat no one else could stop so we can let the entire world know that it was Alice Anotherbible who saved them and that the world would have ended if not for her. Right?”

Fortunately, there was no connection between Great Demon Coronzon and Alice Anotherbible. They both referenced Crowley-style magic, but that wasn’t anything like a personal connection.

That meant it wouldn’t be viewed as the same side splitting between enemy and ally and putting on a show.

“I see,” said the Bologna Succubus, grinning.

She provided criticism and counterarguments as an ally. Like a skilled secretary providing practice before the debate.

“But will it really work out so nicely? Humans are heartless. Once the threat is gone, they might completely forget that someone saved them and start attacking Alice like it’s a demand for disarmament. Because at the end of the day, she’s still a threat for being able to do what she did.”

“I’m aware of that. In that case, we just have to support her. With support from someone who controls the world’s goodness and justice, there won’t be a witch hunt and Alice can become a symbol of victory and peace.”

“Oh? And who did you have in mind?”

“Hey, you’re no diplomat, so stop trying your hand at dangerous diplomatic negotiations, layman.”

A voice suddenly interrupted.

It didn’t come from Kamijou’s phone and the large TV’s LCD screen was badly cracked and broken. It seemed to becoming from the cylinder sitting on the bent table. Kamijou had thought it was a trendy aromatherapy device or something, but…

“The AI speaker is talking on its own!” exclaimed Alice.

Apparently that’s what it was.

Academy City Board Chairman Accelerator.

He had kept silent since the rain turned to red snow, but now he had butted in.

“But how did you…?”

“Consulates that represent a country or region are ordinarily installed with hotlines to the local country.”

He tried to make it sound so obvious, but what did he mean “ordinarily”?

And…

“Academy City, huh?”

The Bologna Succubus sounded surprised.

Apparently she could recognize the massive organization’s leader by his voice. Kamijou was pretty sure the two had never actually met, anyway.

Then the blonde underwear woman winked.

“I thought for sure you were going to go ask the Anglicans.”

“Go to England since this is about magic? I get the idea, but you haven’t forgotten, have you? The original Alice and Aleister Crowley are both from England.”

With that said, Kamijou sighed softly.

Meanwhile, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet seemed to have finally recovered from her freeze.

She pouted her lips and gave her opinion (in a weirdly serious way for a naked apron wearer).

“I see☆ So if Alice’s activities benefited England, it would look too much like it was all a setup?”

“And I doubt we can go to the Roman Catholic or Russian Orthodox Churches. In fact, that would probably end up with the Anglicans claiming original ownership and demanding she be returned to them, so it could just cause further conflict. Really, it will cause the least trouble if we leave Alice with the science side since they know nothing of magic. ''Intentionally ensuring that treasure goes to waste'' will ensure the magic side VIPs don’t get jealous as they watch on from the shadows.”

“How do we know that works?”

“It has with Index, the grimoire library.”

Yes, there was an example very close to home for him.

If the magic side was so afraid of having a specific magician or magic cabal control her, they just had to isolate her in another world where no one could reach her. The same could be said of Alice as well.

Alice had far too much power for an individual and analyzing her body could reveal the open source plans for creating “regular Transcendents”. Handing her over to someone on the magic side who knew how to make use of her sounded far too dangerous no matter who it was.

“Are tenderloins that good?”

“Munch, munch. Alice, these are mine. As a human, you should eat human food.”

“Is the girl still human?”

Talk of the power balance in the world of magic went over Kihara Noukan’s head, so he was busying himself with the big plate of tenderloins on the floor. Or rather, he was fighting for them with Alice who had taken an interest in them.

She definitely needed to be left with someone who didn’t know how to make use of her.

“To sum up, we first need to deal with Coronzon somehow or another. After that, we need to ''make it so that'' credit for saving the world goes to Alice. And lastly, we leave her with Academy City to avoid any further conflict. Its mostly a vague outline with no concrete details, but does that sound like a good overall plan?”

“Hey,” said Accelerator. “You aren’t forgetting that Alice girl is one of the reasons the city is in such a bad state, are you?”

“''The Coronzon problem comes first.''”

“Ugh,” groaned the #1, falling silent.

That was unusual.

“Keep your priorities straight. Coronzon rates higher than Alice,” clearly stated Kamijou. “We don’t have many cards in our deck right now. We can’t afford to lose even one trump card. If we focus on Alice first and end up fighting each other while ignoring Coronzon, whatever it is she’s going to do, Academy City will be destroyed first. If you really want to protect this city, then it’s your job to make sure Alice can fight at full strength, Board Chairman.”

“You make it sound so easy. You don’t think you’re free of responsibility just cause you’re not the guy at the top, do you?”

“And I do think there’s room for leniency with Alice. It’s true the damage was done by her great power, but she had no idea what she was doing and it was everyone else around her who pushed her into doing it. And that includes me. Judge her if you must, but I’m not about to let her face the world’s judgment alone. I sacrificed my life saving her, so I will make sure I save her to the very end.”

“…Tch.”

The board chairman at the very top clicked his tongue for some reason, but he said nothing more.

Kamijou wasn’t sure what part of his argument had hit home.

And then.

He heard a ring as if from a deep bell.

Was that the doorbell?

“…Wait.”

Kamijou tensed.

The only one still relaxed was Alice as she hopped on the sofa.

Meaningless misfortune often paid Kamijou a visit, so he had a very bad feeling about this. In the absolute worst case, this was Great Demon Coronzon ringing the doorbell as a joke.

Kihara Noukan looked up from his plate of tenderloins and spoke quietly.

“I do not know much about that magic stuff, but is there a chance she has detected us here?”

“A big chance. After all, she was sealed inside Aleister all that time. So anything Aleister saw or heard, she would have observed from inside him!”

This was the only real option, but had it been a mistake to choose a known building as a shelter?

Hiding deep in the damaged building and waiting for a chance to strike…would be one option, but this was Coronzon they were talking about. If they didn’t respond, she might not even enter the crumbling building. If she decided to instead blast the entire structure from outside, all of them would die in vain.

So they had to respond.

“Bologna Succubus, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.”

“Yes? Are you giving us the dangerous job since you beat us and we have nothing left to live for?”

“Don’t be dumb. Vidhatri is sleeping in the back, right? I’ll deal with whoever’s at the front door, so you two take her out the back way and escape if it looks bad.”

“…”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet fell silent, looking surprised, and the Bologna Succubus patted her on the shoulder. Except she didn’t release the shoulder of that thick coat and squeezed it with a vise-like grip.

“(I found him first. Try anything and you are dead, you naughty spoiling goddess.)”

“(Ehh, that’s no fun. Well, you have my word, but I can’t guarantee my body won’t act of its own accord when the moment comes☆)”

“(Then your word is worthless!)”

“(Who does this man milker think she is looking down on me? Does this nocturnal lesser demon think she’s his guardian or something!?)”

They started struggling against each other, but Kamijou chose to believe it was a sign of friendship.

He had to go answer the front doorbell.

Kihara Noukan accompanied him.

“Do you have any kind of weapon? With the fireplace, there should at least be a poker.”

“It would only get in the way of my right hand.”

He knew ''reflexively holding out his right hand'' was a dangerous move with anyone at the level of an angel or demon, but he still needed to focus on occult countermeasures. This wasn’t like the battle against Stiyl where they both knew each other’s moves.

Alice joined him too.

And he wasn’t even given time to prepare.

He didn’t even have time to think about opening the front door because the outer wall near the door was broken. And so he saw the answer before he could even get nervous. The hole provided a big spoiler.

“Hi.”

Someone stood there.

Dion Fortune…and two others behind her.

No, he recognized them. Wasn’t that Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou?

The group was introduced to him as follows:

“It’s the Anglican Archbishop and her jolly friends.”

===Part 5===

Coronzon had moved location.

She didn’t need to prepare any supplies. Everything she needed was right here in the city. Each individual would use the puzzle pieces differently, but the great demon chose to use them purely for destruction.

Yes.

Destruction.

But that meant she did need control of the necessary locations first.

And so despite being known as a great demon, she was forced to do something she would have preferred not to.

Move.

“Pros can become cons, advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses. Really, Aleister would have loved it.”

But at this point, she couldn’t screw this up.

It wasn’t possible.

She had passed the challenges she could not fully calculate for. That is, she was past the point of gambling. For her, whether or not Aleister would self-destruct and release her had been the greatest obstacle.

Now she just has to complete the rest of the job.

The spell she was preparing was on an enormous scale and would take time, but she still swore on her name as a great demon that it would not fail.

No matter what anyone did from here on, it would be ''launched''.

Great Demon Coronzon spoke quietly to herself.

“Time to begin.”

===Part 6===

“Adikalika,” began Dion Fortune, seated on the sofa.

Five seconds after taking a seat, she was already recrossing her legs.

“Great Demon Coronzon is preparing a massive piece of magic in this city. It’s called Adikalika.”

Come to think of it, why were Hamazura and Takitsubo of Academy City working with Dion Fortune of the UK? Maybe Kamijou wasn’t one to talk, but their circle of friends was a bit of a mystery.

However, there was no threat here.

They had moved to the parlour which was barely still intact. The kitchen was apparently still functional, so Kamijou boiled some water and made some tea. He hadn’t the foggiest idea how to make proper British tea, but since Fortune happily held the cup between her hands, he figured he had done well enough.

“Ohh, it’s nice and warm!”

“Hot water really helps you calm. I noticed that with my cup noodles earlier.”

It was below freezing outside. With red snow falling.

…So maybe even boiled tap water would have been fine if it warmed her.

Regardless, Dion Fortune got down to business.

About Adikalika.

“Our grimoire library is still being lent out to someone I should mention, but Orsola Aquinas did a brilliant research job. She tracked it down to a booklet packaged with a strange book not even found in London’s national library. Apparently a used bookstore had bought it from a certain Loch Ness mansion.”

Everything since the funeral had left Kamijou starved for human warmth, so he was pleased to hear this mention of someone he knew, but that wasn’t the main point.

So what exactly was this Adi…whatever-it-was? It sounded foreign to Kamijou’s ears, but also didn’t seem English.

Kihara Noukan and Accelerator on the AI speaker seemed pretty smart, but neither of them tried to take charge of the conversation. Were they waiting to have all the information because magic was outside their areas of expertise? Kamijou could think of any number of questions to ask, but he couldn’t narrow it down to just one.

“What is Adikalika?”

Fortune had brought Takitsubo here, but it was she who asked from the sofa with a blank stare and tilt of the head.

Had Fortune not explained it to her own group?

The science side and magic side were so different she must not have expected them to understand right way, so she gave a quick explanation.

“Right, Adikalika. When written in the alphabet instead of the Sanskrit script, it becomes a Crowley term. Originally, I guess you could say it’s a Magick reinterpretation of the Indian goddess Kali as a being who absorbs all things and make them her own. Using the 11th letter – that is, K. So the key to understanding it is Kali.”

“Wait, not so fast,” interrupted Kihara Noukan. “If you assume your audience already understands everything, your explanation is worthless. Simplicity and ease of understanding should be your goal here.”

Kamijou tilted his head.

“Hm? An Indian goddess, huh?”

For Kamijou, the word “goddess” brought to mind a kind and gentle young woman. Uh, oh. Now he was letting himself be influenced by the earlier mention of Orsola! Goddesses weren’t dorm mangers who always wore aprons and carried around brooms!!

And apparently that was way off in this case.

According to Dion Fortune:

“The original Kali is a fairly dangerous god. She started out as a representation of a certain goddess’s fury, so there’s not a hint of kindness found in her. She is a goddess of death and bloodshed and she is openly introduced as a god who has lost her sanity. But instead of a god of death for individuals, she’s more like a god of destruction for nations and the world. Also, destruction itself is not her final goal. One legend says the world was nearly destroyed by the impacts and tremors caused by her dance of joy after defeating her enemies.”

This was sounding bad already.

Hamazura was having trouble keeping up, so he asked a question.

“This is just a case of using a mythological name or symbol for a major project, right?”

“That does happen sometimes. Like with space exploration rockets or submarine missiles.”

Kamijou knew what Hamazura and Kihara Noukan were trying to say.

He decided to take over for them. …Even though he wasn’t exactly a magic expert himself.

“This spell is simply borrowing that goddess’s name, right? …Right? Surely you’re not going to say that goddess herself is going to be physically summoned here.”

That idea sounded absurd, but the Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet were right over there. The two of them were fighting over a variety pack of cookies that had been left in the consulate. The pack had six different kinds of cookies, but they were both only interested in the chocolate chip ones.

Yes, there were people here with names taken from myth.

After seeing the Magic Gods and Transcendents, Kamijou couldn’t just laugh this off. Vidhatri sleeping in the back had an Indian-sounding name, so anyone familiar with those myths would probably recognize her name. Plus, the Dion Fortune in front of him now wasn’t the real one – she had been created with a magical trick.

“It’s not that bad, but the end result isn’t much better.”

Kamijou felt like he had been trying to hold the conversation back when it suddenly slipped out of his hands entirely.

“As a spell, Adikalika sends the goddess of death and bloodshed to the caster’s chosen coordinates in the world,” continued Dion Fortune. “Specifically, the spell takes the catastrophic destruction that the four-armed black goddess would likely bring and transfers it to a specific land. Only the people in that chosen territory can know what happens there, but I can guarantee you that they will all die. Just assume that it’s all over if the spell is activated.”

The world, catastrophic destruction, chosen territory, all die…

This was sounding worse and worse, but this wasn’t quite enough to picture it. Among the mixture of people from different factions, Kamijou, Hamazura, and Takitsubo had the exact same distinctive look on their faces.

Dion Fortune noticed the way Kamijou was looking at her.

“If you want a description that’s easier for your science brains to understand, I guess you could think of it like an ICBM loaded with a really dangerous poison gas or germ. …But with Adikalika, it cannot be blown up after it is launched. And once it hits, all life within the land assigned the chosen human name will die. It is predicted that ''the people will be reduced to a mass of blood, flesh, and bone. That is, they will be crushed and sliced into what looks like a giant hunk of gore while still alive.''”

That was even more gruesome than expected.

Of course, it was always going to be bad if Great Demon Coronzon felt it was worth the time and effort to use. But still.

At this point, Accelerator spoke through the AI speaker, keeping his voice low.

“What does Coronzon hope to do with that thing?”

“Hm? Isn’t she going to attack Academy City with it?”

[[File:GT Index v13 BW2.png|thumb]]

Takitsubo answered his question with a question.

Was that really the answer, though?

Attacking Academy City sounded straightforward at first, but it felt wrong somehow. For one, she was in the city. If the spell was that destructive, she wouldn’t want to be caught in the destruction herself.

Dion Fortune recrossed her legs on the sofa and responded.

“I bet she has a different target.”

“?”

“I said the target was defined by a name assigned by humans, remember? To be blunt, the global Achilles heel she’s aiming for will probably be related to the Anglican Church or the Roman Catholic Church.”

“They are both foundations of the vast magic side☆” added Blodeuwedd the Bouquet with a cackle.

It sounded like even the Transcendents saw it that way. Now, anyway. Not long ago, they had acted like they were the center of the world.

Dion Fortune nodded and then said more.

“But I expect she’ll choose the headquarters of the Catholics in the end. So the Vatican…no, she’ll probably expand the scope to the entire Italian Peninsula.”

Kamijou had a question.

“But why? Wouldn’t she have a grudge against the UK?”

“I imagine she does. But she can’t attack us.”

Dion Fortune didn’t hesitate there.

But not because she was optimistic.

She had a bitter grimace on her face. As if to say the problem would be a lot smaller if the UK would just be chosen as the target.

“I mean, if she could use that against us, she would have done so last time. …If you follow her actions then, she attacked Board Chairman Aleister in Academy City before returning to Britain, stealing a treasure in Scotland, and attempting a major spell. If she could have launched Adikalika from Academy City and turned the entire United Kingdom into a sea of blood and mincemeat, she would have done so already. But that wasn’t what happened.”

Feeling a chill down the spine here may have been the natural human reaction, but it was also a meaningless reaction.

They had to focus on constructive topics, not the past. Even if they had to force their thoughts in that direction.

Then ''why didn’t it happen that way''?

Dion Fortune sighed.

“Crowley is a British magician. Ignoring his work could damage the UK’s reputation, so they put in a lot of work analyzing his spells.”

The Bologna Succubus commented while munching on the edge of a chocolate chip cookie (that she had swiped at the end of a battle of scratching nails with Blodeuwedd the Bouquet).

“I see. So do you have some kind of powerful resistance against Crowley-style magic, including Adikalika?”

“Right. At the very least, for the spells he created before his official death in 1947. …That’s why Coronzon tried to use a royal treasure to destroy the UK from within last time.”

“But the Roman Catholics are a different story?” asked Kamijou.

Dion Fortune shrugged.

“When it comes to Crowley, Italy had the huge bomb that was the Abbey of Thelema. But it sounds like Italy threw everything out of the country – including documents and spiritual items – when they ordered Crowley to leave.”

So If the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church had no Crowley resistance, would they have no way of preventing this attack from turning the entire country into a sea of blood, flesh, and bone?

And if that happened…

Takitsubo slowly blinked before asking a question.

“I’m not familiar with the different powers of the, um, magic…side? What happens in the worst case?”

“If nothing is done and this plays out to the end, Adikalika will first trigger all-out war between the magic side and science side. Because Academy City could have stopped it, but Great Demon Coronzon is a being who can only be explained by the magic side.”

“I see, I see. So even though Academy City wasn’t involved in the attack, the magic side will still blame them for not stopping Coronzon. But Academy City will fire back, saying Coronzon is from the magic side. Both sides will have a point, so there will be no end to the argument.”

When the Bologna Succubus spoke up, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet apparently felt a need to as well.

Because they were rivals, or because they were friends?

“The Roman Catholic Church has 2 billion followers, right? Even with all of Academy City’s unmanned weapons, how much can its 2.3 million people do with the city so exhausted?☆”

“…”

And what good was defeating those 2 billion anyway?

The point wasn’t to pit humans against each other to create an even bigger ocean of blood and dye the entire earth red like one big disturbing candy apple.

Would the world really let a single demon drive them that far over the edge?

“And despite being part of the magic side, the Roman Catholics will attack the Anglicans too. Because Crowley is a British magician. Not to mention how closely connected England and Academy City have been. And if the UK does have anti-Crowley tech, the Catholics would want it.”

Takitsubo cut in here.

“We’re talking about war, right? Could they really choose to fight on two fronts like that?”

“As we said, the problem with a war where both sides have a point is it’s hard for either side to stop.”

Things were reaching a large scale here.

But Kamijou knew the same had happened with World War Three, Gremlin, the Crowley’s Hazards, and R&C Occultics.

The global balance was a perilous thing, so even a small trigger could lead to an age of global war.

Great Demon Coronzon herself had said that she was a being who tore apart people’s bonds and obstructed human evolution. And that her method of doing that was the natural decomposition of her dispersion.

That meant Coronzon was intentionally trying to trigger a war like that. It was not a deterrent, a necessary cost, or a single step in some master plan. The war and chaos itself was her goal. The Adikalika spell was no more than the trigger for that.

…They had to stop something like that from happening ''again''.

This was no longer just about Academy City.

Kamijou wanted to know more details. He wanted as broad and deep an understanding as he could get.

“How long does this Adikalika spell take to prepare?”

“By my estimate, the world will be headed toward its doom by midnight tonight. Assuming we don’t do anything to stop it.”

Midnight.

“But that’s a fairly optimistic estimate.”

So there was a chance it could end before then.

It was nearly 6 PM.

They had less than 7 hours remaining. The beginning of disaster was imminent.

“She’s moving awfully fast,” groaned Kihara Noukan. “This Coronzon person has only been in control for less than two hours, right? I don’t see how she could have made any large-scale preparations for this.”

“She doesn’t need any. How long was she sealed inside Aleister? I bet she’s been making full use of her great demon mind that entire time, running simulation after simulation. And as a fellow Golden magician, it was obvious at a glance that Academy City is littered with pieces of Crowley’s legacy. This isn’t like a poison gas weapon she has to smuggle into the country or a nuclear bomb she has to manufacture. She’s surrounded by items she can use.”

“Oh? So to look at it in reverse…”

“I like the way you think, golden retriever. Yes, Adikalika can only be readied inside Academy City. You can think of it as an issue of feng shui or the terrain if you want.”

Even so…

(Aleister, huh?)

What had become of him?

Was he trapped inside that body with Coronzon in control now, or had he been annihilated when she emerged? Kamijou still didn’t know.

At the very least, he knew Aleister, the man who had grieved for the people he lost, was human. For better and for worse. On an instinctual level, he wouldn’t want to construct this Adikalika spell and destroy the world with it.

That human had lost his family and, due to that one factor, decided to declare war on the Golden magic cabal.

At his peak, that human would have been on the side trying to stop this.

No matter how much he would probably deny it.

“…”

Kamijou had Imagine Breaker in his right hand.

Its ability to negate any supernatural ability should be able to stop Coronzon’s Adikalika. However, relying on ''that alone'' would be suicide. For one, he couldn’t win a one-on-one fight against Coronzon, so even approaching the core of her plan would be a challenge.

Imagine Breaker was important, but it wasn’t enough.

“W-we do have a trump card, don’t we?”

This came from Hamazura.

He might seem far removed from magic, but he apparently had an idea.

“Dion Fortune’s…whatever it’s called. That black box!”

“Oh… I really wouldn’t recommend using the Archetype Processor here.”

“Why not!? Can’t it…what was it? Eat any magic and then break it apart and…transform it? Into something else? You were ''forced to use it'' in the UK, so I know what it can do!”

This carried a lot of meaning.

Yes.

Great Demon Coronzon was painstakingly constructing some unprecedented magic. This spell was on such a scale that not even she could whip it up in a flash, so it had to be quite complex. …So with Dion Fortune’s black box(?), couldn’t they mess it up and ruin the entire plan?

They could use that.

If they had two trump cards, Coronzon would have to split her focus. Which could create an opening. And more importantly, even if Kamijou’s right hand failed to reach her, it helped immensely to have another trump card available.

But something bothered Kamijou.

That item belonged to Dion Fortune, so why hadn’t she brought it up as an option?

“First of all, don’t expect much from it. My toy isn’t as convenient as your right hand.”

Dion Fortune sighed and raised her index finger. A box the size of a soccer ball twirled atop it. Alice stared at it, wide eyed.

She seemed confident in her control.

So her concern wouldn’t just be whether she succeeded or failed.

“All this thing does is convert an existing spell into ‘an unpredictable form’. That means the magic in front of me doesn’t just disappear.”

“But that’s not nothing,” said Hamazura. “If it can at least stop that world-destroying Adikalika magic, then it’s worth using.”

“''The massive amount of magic power gathered to activate Adikalika will remain untouched.''”

The atmosphere strained.

So would it be like causing a top-of-the-line race car to explode just before the race began?

“After the spell is fully dismantled and converted into something else inside the box, not even I can predict what form it will take when it reemerges into the world. Listen, Hamazura. If we’re unlucky, it could even blow away Academy City. And even if we aren’t unlucky, it could still have a major downside. There is technically a chance it could result in a fantastically lucky phenomenon like burying Academy City in candy, but you’d have better odds of winning the lottery. Are you willing to bet on those odds? When it means putting so many other people’s lives at risk?”

“Uh…”

Hamazura groaned, but Kamijou glanced over at Alice.

Alice Anotherbible might be able to “adjust” the entire structure of the world to ''force a jackpot''…but that would be a whim on her part.

Getting Alice’s help was fine.

But they couldn’t rely entirely on her when they had no other chance of winning. If she failed and was attacked for bringing about the end of the world, it could turn her into a monster again.

“It’s an interim position until the next one is officially chosen, but I am currently the archbishop in charge of the entire Anglican Church. I intend to live up to the trust placed in me. So I am not willing to make a choice that might protect the world but would be like killing 2.3 million people. How about you?”

The rest fell silent.

Kamijou, Hamazura, Takitsubo, Kihara Noukan, the Bologna Succubus, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, Accelerator, and even Alice.

Their unwillingness to speak meant they were conflicted. They each had two weights: one on the yes side of the scales and one on the no side. It was a matter of extent and size and also proof that none of them was willing to give up on Academy City so readily.

But at the same time, Kamijou had a thought.

…This was probably something she could only say at this point.

If Adikalika’s preparations really were complete and the final seconds were ticking down until the 7 or 8 billion people around the globe were dragged into a massive war, he thought Dion Fortune probably would make the decision. She would choose to force a resolution by putting 2.3 million lives at risk. Because she had said she would live up to the trust placed in her as the archbishop of the Anglican Church which protected the people from wicked magic.

Kamijou breathed in and out.

Stop thinking so negatively. Dion Fortune had said herself she didn’t want to do that. And because the situation was so pressing, he needed to come up with more positive ideas.

“Let’s just think of that as a last resort available just in case. If we try everything else and none of it works, then it’s up to Dion Fortune. If we think of it as a lifeline during this tightrope walk, it should help our mental state.”

“Hey, I said I wasn’t going to-”

“And we’re risking our lives so you won’t have to. That’s why we’re here, right?”

And speaking of having someone to support you, Kamijou Touma recalled his fight against Stiyl Magnus.

“I’m so glad I know the board chairman…”

It helped immensely to have Academy City’s new board chairman on their side. The city wasn’t in the best state, but holding full authority over it changed things considerably from fighting as individuals.

“I doubt it will be that easy.”

But.

It was Dion Fortune who immediately shot down that hope.

“I can only guess, but I bet she’ll be making her move soon.”

===Part 7===

“What?”

Accelerator frowned.

An alarm was buzzing.

This wasn’t just a single window or popup displaying a dangerous error. They were popping up too fast to read. He would have to check the log for that, but that was scrolling by endlessly like a realtime chat.

And the “unknown error” messages weren’t exactly helpful.

He still held the master key that took the form of a smartphone, yet his commands were being rejected. There shouldn’t have been privileges higher than that, but something else was obviously intervening and hijacking control.

This wasn’t anything like hacking or a cyber attack.

No one was breaking in by spoofing their credentials.

He didn’t sense that sort of logic here.

And, of course, these weren’t just unintentional failures or malfunctions.

Which meant…

Was there some command structure entirely separate from the scientific technology?

“I-isn’t this really bad?”

“…”

“This isn’t just the satellites and comms. There’s a chain reaction of malfunctions in the electric, gas, and water systems! It’s January and it’s snowing outside. Who knows how many people will starve or freeze if the pipes freeze and the power stops!!”

Most of Academy City’s food came from agro-buildings and clone meat, but a failure in the RFID-tag-based transportation instructions could create a situation where plenty of ingredients were being produced but none of it could be processed or reach the stores and restaurants. And in fact the bases responsible for that were going down one after another.

“C-could this also be why false alarms keep coming in? Even from the germ lab, the petrochemical plant, and the radiation testing lab… N-n-now there’s no way to tell a real major incident from all the false alarms!”

Were all the automatic reports meant to paralyze Anti-Skill, the firefighters, the hospitals, and everyone else who preserved the peace?

No, this was too roundabout a method for that.

(This is clearly more than just some unfortunate trouble, but the methods are really inconsistent for an intentional attack. It also doesn’t feel like someone acquired the city’s emergency response manual and used that to reverse engineer a method of paralyzing the city.)

He could tell this was an emergency, but that was why he couldn’t act rashly.

“So this isn’t meant as an attack. So is it a side effect of something? But of what?”

As Accelerator glowered into the screen, attempting to grasp the situation, Qliphah Puzzle 545’s shrill voice pierced his ears. She was kind of annoying. …Although that was, in a way, unavoidable when she had been ''designed'' as an agitator meant to create a mood that would lead to war.

“Can’t you artificially stop the rain…no, it’s snow now, isn’t it? Anyway, can’t you change the weather? This snow did start out as artificial rain, didn’t it?”

“Stopping the snow’d be easy, but clear skies would only bring the temperature down further. You’ve heard of radiative cooling, haven’t you? That accumulated snow won’t melt right away.”

And if the temperature dropped, more people would die.

The map of Academy City displayed on a wall monitor was gradually changing color.

Yellow indicated areas where ordinary living would be a challenge. Red indicated areas where survival would be a challenge.

Around half was already marked one or the other.

“So within 72 hours, it’s estimated this many will die? More than 100 thousand?”

In urban life, snow accumulation made travel difficult and isolated households. If the power and water stopped in that situation, people would soon start to die. Before even considering transportation, the city’s food was almost entirely reliant on the agro-buildings and clone meat. They wouldn’t be able to grow much of anything without water or electricity.

To prevent such a situation, Academy City had decentralized its power generation using the wind turbines distributed around the city, but even that was useless if the central facilities controlling the power system went down.

And…

“This estimate is assuming everyone obediently stays home as their told and dies there.”

“…”

“If they start rioting or looting, these calculations don’t mean shit. Then we could see several times as many victims.”

It was said the Japanese were relatively less likely to do such things, but that didn’t mean they would just sit tight at home and wait for death. With their lives on the line, they would try to survive. Accelerator felt that was the natural reaction for any living thing.

But…

(I thought this city was designed to avoid this kind of large-scale infrastructure trouble. I know there’s no such thing as absolute safety, but this number of loopholes feels intentional.)

These times were complicated by the fact that he had inherited the city from someone else instead of building it from the ground up himself. He held the smartphone master key, but he hadn’t designed the structure and layout of every single facility and piece of equipment.

However, the previous board chairman had been Aleister. He had been able to shrug it off every time the dark side took a shot at him, so it seemed unlikely he would leave foolish holes like this unplugged for long.

In fact, with holes this large, wouldn’t some hacker from inside or outside the city have used them to bring down the city already?

In that case…

(These loopholes are no mistake. Someone placed them there on purpose.)

He thought in silence.

But he could only come up with unpleasant ideas.

(But no one except Aleister could make use of them. They use some kind of system that the hackers, crackers, and others who make ''ordinary science'' their plaything couldn’t even imagine.)

The screen suddenly changed.

No, someone had taken control of it. Even here in the board chairman’s headquarters.

The voice that spoke from it was familiar.

“Hello again. Have you started to catch on, Mr. New Board Chairman?”

“…Is this your doing?”

“This is nothing more than a side effect. I am not trying to destroy the infrastructure for everyday necessities. The destruction I am after is on a much larger scale. Then again, seeing peaceful people starving, resenting each other, and beginning a chain reaction of violence could make for an amusing, unintentional, show. But it is nothing more than a bit of entertainment.”

“You’re only using a backdoor. You haven’t actually taken full control.”

“Give up. It’s a fundamentally different system. You can’t influence the side I’m on no matter how much you type away on your keyboard. Can you keep up with this? Here’s a hint: the science side has no way of explaining the problem plaguing Academy City. Magician Aleister Crowley designed the city that way from the beginning. He took the laws and rules of our magic side and hid them below a veneer of cutting-edge science.”

“…”

Accelerator intentionally remained silent.

So it was Qliphah Puzzle 545 who carelessly opened her mouth and continued the conversation.

“What do you mean…and how far…does it go?”

“How far? Everything. Everything!! For example, the dam in the mountains, the flow of the rivers, and even the culverts hidden below ground! And it isn’t just the water supply either. The railway lines, the broadcast facilities, the main roads, the highways, and even the layout of the districts!! Which is why I can so easily remove them from your control and place them under mine!!! …This is a city of learning created by Aleister Crowley, so it is nothing more than a rehash of the Abbey of Thelema he once built in Italy in order to drag talent out of young lives by drowning them in the supernatural and drugs!!”

After all that, Coronzon cooled down.

In fact, it was uncertain if she had even really felt all that emotion deep down.

“But none of that matters… Academy City appears to detest me for the chaos I bring, but are you sure that’s a good idea, my enemy? Have you perhaps forgotten something?”

“Like what?”

“That I am no longer your only enemy.”

Coronzon did not use hints and insinuations at this point.

Likely because she knew a direct statement would cause a greater shock and more chaos.

“The world will be split in two. Because Academy City named itself a city of science and the sole representative of one side of the world, the rest of the world had no choice but to categorize itself as the magic side. But now it is coming out that Academy City is chock full of magical symbols. …Do you really think the people forced so unfairly to keep their heads down are going to let that go?”

===Part 8===

They didn’t hesitate.

Kanzaki Kaori, Itsuwa, and the other Anglican magicians had been waiting outside Academy City near the wall, but as soon as they detected ''an unfavorable sign'', they immediately crossed the wall none of them had been able to cross before.

They didn’t even bother masking their footsteps or presences.

The outsiders of the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Forces took the lead and paved the way for the second wave made up of the main Anglican team. It was their usual method.

The total number that crossed the wall in that series of actions exceeded ten thousand.

“Wh-who are you people!?”

When an Anti-Skill officer reacted to the unexpected group in a fluster, Tatemiya Saiji approached and swiftly took control of his consciousness. This meant more than just putting him to sleep on his feet. Tatemiya dragged out every last piece of information the man knew: the names and faces of his colleagues and superiors, the location of crucial facilities, passwords, and so on. Complete brainwashing was too much of a challenge, but searching out information was doable.

Then they only had to repeat the process.

It helped that Academy City was severely shorthanded. Drum-shaped security robots, eight-legged Predator Octopuses, Six Wings attack helicopters, and other unmanned weapons were being used to make up for the lack, but they weren’t much use against the magicians. The magicians passed right by them without being detected.

Perhaps this was the result of England’s long relationship with Academy City.

The Anglicans already had countermeasures ready.

“We Amakusas will head to District 2. The Former Agnese Forces should head first to District 1 and move on to the retrieval job once you finish there.”

“Understood.”

“And take this just in case.”

“A duralumin case? What’s in it? An Anglican-tuned spiritual item would actually be a poor match for us.”

“There are British flags inside. Raise them around the city if you need to reduce the morale of the enemy remnants.”

“What a pain.”

Agnese Sanctis sounded truly annoyed.

She didn’t know whose idea this was, but did they not consider the possibility of it angering the enemy into rebelling?

Then again, her own use of the word “rebelling” may have been a sign of her subconsciously looking down on them. This was their city, so the science side was ostensibly the one in charge.

“So we’re already thinking of Academy City as nothing more than remnants?”

“They did fail to stop us at the wall.”

No matter how much security had been beefed up using science, it was powerless against magic. The magicians could drag out any information someone knew and, if they needed biometrics like a fingerprint or iris scan, they could ''send the approved person trudging over to the scanner'' and get it unlocked that way.

District 1 contained Anti-Skill headquarters and District 2 contained the unmanned weapon communication data center disguised as a gunpowder testing lab.

With classified information like that, it would ordinarily take years to confirm the facility even existed, much less determine its location. But a group of magicians had no trouble taking control.

And once they held the location, they wouldn’t even need to use magic to deceive the unmanned weaponry.

They were even gradually identifying the locations of the 12 directors. All the information that had been kept so unnaturally under wraps had to be hidden somewhere in the facilities they were taking. Also, Kanzaki and the others didn’t even need any knowledge or skills with machines. By placing the necessary symbols on the devices in question and holding out their hands, they could read the residual thoughts left by the people who had operated them.

Science side telepathy and magic side spells worked entirely differently.

Which meant there was no defense against this unknown form of attack.

(Aleister. …Given who he was, I doubt this approach would have worked back when he was in charge. But things have changed.)

The R&C Occultics affair had partially exposed the existence of magic to the world, but based on the response from the city, the exposure hadn’t been serious enough to launch a specialized attack against a professional magician. Did information that spread through fads not stick around long? Not only did people simply stop paying attention, but any knowledge could be distorted into uselessness as it spread.

They had already secured a few of the directors, so it looked like they could stick to the current plan while staying on the lookout for any surprise attacks.

Kanzaki and the rest had won.

(This just leaves the District 10 prison. The biggest hurdle will be whether we can checkmate him without directly approaching that most crucial point, but it looks like this will end without giving them a chance to send out the science side’s angel.)

“Other teams have taken District 15’s broadcast station and smartphone data center. Anti-Skill, was it? We can now block the drive recorders and tablets they use. Apparently arrest warrants are all digital nowadays, so this effectively leaves them powerless. Does this make phase 1 a success, Priestess?”

“I suppose it does.”

Kanzaki Kaori did not look pleased by Tsushima’s report.

This had been their plan of course, but…

(It was too easy. Was the science side really already on its last legs?)

The world-renowned Anglican Church had deployed a large number of personnel for this, but it had still only been a blitzkrieg strike of less than half an hour.

What had happened to the power balance between science and magic? The two sides being too evenly matched for any kind of attack had supposedly been the best way to keep the peace, but now it looked like one side would endlessly push back the other.

Monotone beeping sounded within the vast structure with no workers or supervisors.

A communication device had received a call.

“Are you the dumbasses making a mess of an already messy situation?”

“Just a moment,” said Kanzaki as she made a few operations on the data center’s devices. “I just set this facility to handle some of the processing that had grown unstable. Of course, I only mean I followed the instructions on the warning window. I hope that stabilized communications somewhat.”

“What are you after?”

“We could not allow Academy City to remain in charge after discovering the city itself breaks the treaty between magic and science. And if the city still contains some secrets after Aleister left, then the best way of ensuring a solid foundation for the fight against Coronzon is for our Anglican Church to temporarily take over management of the city.”

“The treaty…” said Itsuwa, sounding somewhat worried.

“Take over management, my ass. You know what you’ve done is an invasion, don’t you? Besides, I’ve never even heard of this treaty you’re referencing.”

“That goes back to before you took over. And now that we know Lola Stuart of the Anglican Church was Great Demon Coronzon and Academy City’s board chairman was Crowley, that agreement likely was a meaningless and empty thing. Plus, both Archbishop Lola and Board Chairman Aleister are officially considered dead. It is very unclear if any agreement made between the two holds any power anymore.”

And of course, it provided the new board chairman with no defense here.

In a way, it may have helped him that he hadn’t played a part in it.

“If we don’t do anything, Coronzon will continue to take over Academy City’s functions. We need to stop her Adikalika spell as much as anyone. Plus, we cannot allow large numbers of innocents to die of starvation, freezing, accidents, or the general chaos.”

“Tch.”

But Kanzaki Kaori did not gloat here.

She simply spoke calmly to the many magicians on her side.

“We will manage Academy City. That means the safety of the city’s residents and their property is our responsibility. Do not forget that we are rightfully to blame if a single person in the city starves during a blackout or dies in a traffic accident. Each team is to distribute personnel across the city to restore order and, if necessary, clear snow or guide traffic.”

In truth, Kanzaki Kaori did not have a clear view of it all.

Their original mission had been to retrieve Index.

The plan to take control of Academy City had only been if the city refused to return her. It had simply been reworked for use in the fight against Coronzon.

It was all the result of chance.

In this, she was the opposite of Kamijou Touma and his misfortune.

Was it Kanzaki Kaori’s unnatural level of luck that had allowed it all to come together so well?

(I always get first prize all on my own. And by holding the spot at the top, my luck sends my neighbors down toward hell. It makes me sick.)

Great Demon Coronzon was attempting to use the entire city to construct a single massive spell.

The fact that Academy City could use magic was a major problem in and of itself, but Kanzaki thought making that accusation now would be misjudging their priorities. Doing that now would be playing right into the demon’s hands as she prepared Adikalika.

They could not give her time.

Fighting back against Coronzon was the more urgent task.

So if the Anglicans used magic to try and take back the city the demon was using magic to hijack, they could establish an evenly-matched tug-of-war.

“All we have under our control are the bare minimum of electricity, gas, and water… But the Adikalika described by the current archbishop would instantly blow away this brief calm. In fact, it would plunge the entire world into the fires of war. We must avoid a meaningless three-way war between the Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and Academy City. By any means necessary.”

She doubted they could take complete control back from Coronzon at this point, but they could at least delay her.

They had done all this just for that.

They had even pressed their blades and magic against the people they were supposed to be helping.

Kanzaki Kaori clenched her teeth.

“I hope this will slow her at least a little…but even then it will only buy some time. This crisis will not end unless something is done about Coronzon herself.”

===Part 9===

Back inside the half-destroyed consulate…

“A large Anglican group…just took over the city and are keeping order for the city?”

A dazed Kamijou parroted what Accelerator had just told them.

This was a new turn of events.

Academy City was on the verge of death with no means of fighting back, but still.

And even if it looked like the Anglicans were providing friendly cooperation, it sounded a lot like they had concluded the city no longer had the strength left to keep its own peace.

It was looking like the very framework of Academy City could collapse from conflict between humans before Great Demon Coronzon even did anything.

“Dion Fortune, was it?” asked Accelerator. “Do something about this. You’re their boss, aren’t you!?”

“Well…”

This should have been a basic question and request.

Yet Fortune seemed reluctant to respond.

“If I had to guess, I really don’t think my power would be very effective here. I mean, the previous archbishop was Lola Stuart…''in other words, Great Demon Coronzon'', right? After being betrayed by the person at the very top, they’re going to be skeptical of anything coming from the next person in that role. And technically speaking, I’m not even human. I started out as a scout created by Coronzon.”

The Anglican Church couldn’t leave their top spot empty and they had needed someone to fill the role, but did that not mean they actually had much trust in the chosen individual?

They ordinarily did what she said, but that might not hold once the world was on the verge of destruction.

“Damn,” Kamijou muttered under his breath.

Yet again things were looking worse.

His plan to get Alice Anotherbible accepted by the world by advertising her as the hero who had saved the world by defeating Coronzon was already falling apart.

Academy City had been the perfect place to send the magic side’s greatest tinderbox because the place had no connection to magic.

But now that Academy City itself was known to be steeped in magic, the Anglican Church would never agree to leave Alice Anotherbible there. In fact, there would be fears that adding Alice’s incredible power to Academy City’s arsenal could lead to the creation of a third faction that could wield both magic and science.

And in fact, R&C Occultics had used both as a weapon and had caused great chaos during its short time in business.

Then Dion Fortune spoke from the sofa.

“Wait. Hold on.”

“What now?”

“Well, there’s another operation being carried out in parallel to that one.”

“What exactly is it!?”

Kamijou’s strong question did not get an answer out of Fortune.

After a while, she finally spoke quietly and quickly without looking him in the eye.

“If my people aren’t interested in obeying me…that one might actually be even more dangerous?”

===Part 10===

“That’s it. That’s Academy City’s outer wall,” said Index, holding the calico cat.

She had been communicating with the Anglican Church using carrier pigeons instead of EM signals or fiber optic cables. With no home in Academy City and magicians all over the world are after the grimoire library in her head, she had no option but to return to England.

She heard a sudden voice.

But she couldn’t see anyone around.

Index had made a friend here in Academy City.

Kazakiri Hyouka.

“So you’re going…”

“I am.”

“I’ll miss you, but if this is the path you’ve chosen, I won’t stop you.”

Index was glad they got a chance to talk before she left.

But that wasn’t all.

Kazakiri had one more thing to say.

“But be careful. Don’t let your guard down until the very end.”

“?”

[[File:GT Index v13 BW3.png|thumb]]

The disembodied voice stopped there.

Othinus, the 15cm girl on Index’s shoulder, sighed.

“I know I’m not one to talk, but you meet the strangest people.”

Maybe so.

Index continued through the red snow to approach the city wall.

“Oh, there you are.”

She heard a voice.

It was Agnese Sanctis.

Sisters Lucia, Angelene, and more were there as well. The Amakusas would be better acquainted with Japanese geography, but apparently the Roman Catholic unit that had joined the Anglicans was here as well.

“That’s odd,” whispered Othinus up on Index’s shoulder.

Come to think of it, wasn’t the Anglican unit supposed to be waiting just outside the wall?

The cat mewed. Apparently he wasn’t bothered.

With Index’s perfect memory, she knew she wasn’t misremembering the plan. They were supposed to protect her after she left the city…

“Everything’s gotten all confused. This Great Demon Coronzon – I think it was? – has appeared in Academy City, so we’re dealing with that before taking you back home.”

“Really?”

Index tilted her head.

Was it really safe to wait around like that?

Wasn’t the idea to get her out of Academy City and return her back to England as quickly as possible?

“We could just head back to England I guess, but, um, if we don’t do anything about Coronzon, the country might not be there when we get back. Or something like that? Anyway, follow me.”

Agnese took the lead. And moved back into the city.

This really was strange.

“(Hey.)”

“?”

“(Be cautious. A last-minute change of plans is more dangerous than the grim reaper on the front line.)”

Othinus kept her voice low so Agnese and the rest couldn’t hear.

Which meant she was working to hide their doubts.

This had been odd from the start. The idea had been to meet Index secretly and help her escape the city, yet Agnese’s group didn’t seem concerned about discovery. Even though Academy City could easily view this as a betrayal. It was almost like they weren’t at all worried about being caught.

“For now, let’s get you to District 2. Letting you see Kanzaki would be best.”

===Part 11===

“(E-excuse me. We have a report from the Former Agnese Forces. They say they’ve brought Index-san here.)”

The room was so quiet that Itsuwa’s modest whisper to Kanzaki managed to permeate the entire space.

A strange air hung over the District 2 unmanned weapon data center.

And this air was no metaphor.

The odor of death hung over the place.

Just as human sweat and the smell of a beast were different things, the stench of your own species decomposing was somehow different. The brain warned you to be on your guard and not to overlook anything.

It said danger was approaching.

“Hello, hello. I’m Isabella Theism of Necessarius. My specialty is necromancy.”

There was a stark difference between the carefree smile and the words it produced.

Necromancy.

“I know it has a sketchy reputation, but fortunetelling and the impurity of death are really about the only two superstitions that remain in the depths of ordinary people’s hearts even in a world of science. Like seeing a house as special because someone was killed there, or seeing a rope as special because it was used to hang someone. See what I mean? It’s something you can’t rid yourself of with equations. You might find it silly, but it’ll still be there inside you. That is what I make use of☆”

A stir spread around Kanzaki Kaori.

The Amakusas had been developed (by Kanzaki herself) to be pure and straightforward in that regard. They couldn’t so easily accept someone who called herself a necromancer.

And the woman appeared accustomed to the reaction.

She herself was a beautiful woman with silver hair and brown skin, but all she did was smile in rags permeated with the odor of death.

Agnese, who must have come all the way to District 2 to escort Index, joined the conversation while brushing red snow off her shoulders.

“She has experience as a team leader. I’ve heard she had cleaned up several troublesome messes on a global scale, like the Cadaver Island Struggle and the Necropolis Calamity. …Which means she was hiding who she really is ''last time we worked together''.”

“Oh, yeah. I did do those things, didn’t I? But I wasn’t hiding it exactly. I just forgot is all. Why bother remembering incidents once they’re over?”

“Then did you solve those with necromancy too?”

“Everyone starts off in their own unique way, but they all end up wailing by the end. ‘I wish I’d never been born’, and stuff like that. So I can’t say who was who. They all blur together in my memory☆”

This was no laughing matter.

Both of those had been true wars with, even looking just at the official count, over a thousand combatants. And these had all been the professional magicians of top-level magic cabals. If the count went past the official members and included the workers building barricades, the lookouts and spies hidden here and there, and the mercenaries (from the magic side of course) who were invited in to bolster their personnel, who could say how many more it was. And they had all ended up much the same.

Only Isabella herself continued smiling emptily.

“Hee hee. Did I scare you?”

An “eep” escaped someone.

Itsuwa jumped at suddenly being the target of the woman’s attention, so Tsushima, who was the big sister type, instinctually inserted herself between the two of them.

“Unfermented wine and flavorless brown bread – both symbols of death,” sang Isabella regardless. “The name necromancy sounds frightening, but that’s all it really comes down to. It did used to involve drawing magic circles on dead bodies, but nowadays everyone uses imitations so they don’t gather the attention of the police. This country has ceremonies where you burn or bury a doll in place of a person, doesn’t it? It’s like that.”

“Eh?” Itsuwa sounded surprised. “You mean you don’t actually work with dead bodies?”

“I suppose the closest thing I do would be borrowing their clothing. Although different factions are split on whether that’s to search for the deceased’s soul so you can summon it or if you use it to remind someone of the deceased so you can extract the related memories and testimony from their mind.”

To be blunt, there were ways in the modern age to legally (although only by abusing loopholes in the law) acquire a full dead human body, but Isabella did not do that.

She had a simple reason.

She didn’t see any real purpose in having a real corpse.

''At least in Western European necromancy'', the actual ceremonies were very different from the public conception.

“Going grave digging and making a servant out of the dead body? Resurrecting a mummy from an ancient sarcophagus? No, no, I would never. Nobody uses those methods anymore – they’re too inefficient. Besides, the essence of necromancy is communicating with the spirits of the dead. So instead of shutting off their physical limiters to provide superhuman strength, it’s about acquiring information you shouldn’t have by using spirits who have been freed from the physical laws. So really you could say it’s like an uglier version of divination.”

From a Japanese perspective, it was like a version of the Kokkuri-san that used the dead.

The technique was only used to learn.

You couldn’t expect to intentionally mimic the cases where the necromancer screwed up and ended up possessed, allowing a mysterious entity into their body so they could surpass the laws of physics and shoot fire from their hands. That was far too dangerous.

As long as you understood the proper methods, you could complete the ceremonies without an actual dead body.

It could be the room where someone died, the rope used to hang someone, or clothing covered in death odor. How much of “the air of death” an item required to guide you to a special mental state depended on the individual magician, but in this case the level of the technique came from how cost efficient it was.

Isabella Theism had reached the point that she could do this:

“Really, it’s best to have a recipe for a dead body where all the ingredients can be found at the average supermarket or home improvement store. You take some pork or beef and then you make a skull out of lumber and so on.”

“Th-that’s how it’s done? That sounds more like a shop class project.”

Itsuwa’s comment made Isabella clap her hands together in delight.

“It all depends on the quality. Back before CG was so easy to use, splatter films had all sorts of tricks to make convincing fake guts. The poor image quality helped, but the end result was a lot more grotesque and disturbing than what you see in modern horror.”

Kanzaki sighed and spoke up.

“I don’t know if we will have any use for you. For now, I imagine the tug-of-war over the city against Coronzon will continue as we try to delay the activation of Adikalika, but magic to artificially consume lives doesn’t sound very useful there.”

“You think you’re in control of the entire city?” quietly asked Isabella. In a mocking tone. “Do you really believe that? Take as much of the surface-level infrastructure and important facilities as you like, you won’t fully stop the city from functioning. There’s so much more still hidden below the surface. Not to mention you haven’t even captured half of the 12 directors and have no idea where the rest are. You can’t stop Coronzon’s work by desperately trying to plug all the holes. Academy City has more than one map. It looks like a peaceful city at first, but the things hidden by the multiple overlapping maps are what makes it so horrifying.”

It wasn’t Kanzaki who immediately replied.

Itsuwa made the first rebuttal while trembling.

“H-how can you know that? Academy City is supposed to be an unknown world for you too.”

“''I can smell death here.'' The city is thick with it, so there has to be more we aren’t seeing.”

She made it sound obvious.

Or maybe this was a sense unique to necromancers.

Kanzaki asked a careful question.

“Finding fault is easy, but if you were in charge, what exactly would you do to solve the problem?”

“I will answer that with my first job as a necromancer.”

Isabella turned her attention toward something other than Great Demon Coronzon or Academy City.

She focused on the girl who they had supposedly been asked to retrieve and protect.

“The grimoire library, hm? Quite a troublesome thing to be left in Academy City with all this going on. It was miraculous good fortune that Coronzon didn’t secure her before we found her. Coronzon will not leave someone so dangerous free. Dealing with that must be our top priority.”

“What are you going to do with Index!?”

“For now, locking her up should work. She shouldn’t be a problem as long as Coronzon can’t abuse her knowledge, so the situation isn’t pressing enough to require ''silencing her more permanently.'' But to be clear, that’s only for now.”

Isabella Theism was saying she would do it if it became necessary.

She viewed the current Adikalika as the borderline with the worst case. She was saying they had to keep those 103,000 grimoires from being used to either greatly abbreviate Adikalika’s preparation period or to create magic even more troublesome than Adikalika.

She was correct.

While also twisted at a fundamental level.

“The other uncertain factor would be Kamijou Touma.”

Isabella Theism actually sounded amused.

The brown necromancer continued.

“The effects of his right hand are certainly fascinating, but whoever they might be, ''someone who has died once already is part of my domain.'' He is dead meat. That is a resource that should be utilized for maximum effectiveness. And I mean toward resolving the Coronzon and Adikalika problem, of course.”

“That is unaccep-”

“Oh? And who exactly can protect someone who is still considered dead on paper?”

“Wait.”

The interruption came from the white nun.

Despite the situation, Index’s concern wasn’t for herself.

“D-do you mean Touma?”

“…Sigh, what a pain.”

“Why are you talking about him that way? Died once already? Why would you phrase it that way? What exactly happened to Touma!?”

Index heard a sticky splat.

From her shoulders.

They had been grabbed by discolored corpse hands with visible bone and a rotting stench.

She didn’t even have time to scream. Rotting corpses too melted and swollen to even tell their sex had grabbed her shoulders and pinned her down on the floor.

“Agh!!”

“Don’t worry. These are decoy bodies made from sanitary ingredients,” said a cool-faced Isabella.

But no matter what they were made from, these were “dead bodies” professionally made to be indistinguishable from real ones. The shock of unexpected contact with one was no different.

“I came all the way to Japan to do my job. I am not interested in your home drama.”

Index had a perfect memory.

So she could never forget anything she saw or felt.

So.

“Don’t…you dare.”

A new voice joined in.

Stiyl Magnus.

Unlike with Index, there had been no report of his arrival. Kanzaki was supposedly in charge here, but she had no idea why he was here or how he had gotten so injured and weakened.

But something must have happened for him to be so badly hurt.

Stiyl gasped for breath and practically had to drag his body over as he approached.

“What do you think you’re doing, Isabella Theism? You want to lock her up? Stop that this instant. You aren’t fit to command the Anglicans… As a Saint, Kanzaki is the one in command here. If you’re going to insist otherwise, I will punish you!!”

“Ehh? You’re really going with that? The guy who betrayed Kanzaki the first chance he got really shouldn’t be talking about the sanctity of rules.”

A large mass dropped from the necromancer’s rags, landing at her feet.

It was a thoroughly dried, and thus lightweight, corpse.

Had it been pasted to the inside of her rags, arranged just right to be hidden despite the many holes?

It was likely only an imitation made from a mixture of cow bones, pork, ceramic, and more.

“Is this really a job to outsource and leave in the hands of a subcontractor? Obviously the on-site leader should be an actual Anglican. And I would say you’ve disqualified yourself after rushing off on a personal vendetta.”

The hunk of death lying at her feet suddenly absorbed all the moisture around her.

It grew to nearly three meters and lost its humanoid shape.

Kanzaki realized what was happening.

“Wait, Isabe-!?”

A wet pop followed.

The blood and innards were red. Beads of death were scattered evenly in all 360 degrees. Each one could ''eat through'' glass used to store nearly any chemical and plastic that wouldn’t decompose even after buried for 100 years. And there were tens – if not hundreds – of thousands of them.

“!?”

Even Kanzaki Kaori flinched before that contaminant. She sharply strung out invisibly thin wires to sacrifice them to the goop. To protect the Amakusas behind her, not herself.

Which created the tiniest of openings.

The Saint who insisted she would save everyone could only watch as Stiyl Magnus and Isabella Theism both took a step forward.

The tall priest’s eyes displayed contempt.

“Is that all?”

He spread out his rune cards.

A flame sword extended from his clenched right hand.

“Did you really think that could stop me, Isabella!?”

Death by burning symbolized purification in Christianity. But it did not mean salvation for the object being burned. Instead, it annihilated the object to eliminate it from the world. Some even believed that a body burned according to a certain ritualized procedure lost the right to participate in the Last Judgment.

It was a matter of compatibility.

Any amount of that contaminant could be eliminated by Stiyl’s flame sword.

Thus, the necromancer’s trick proved meaningless as the priest’s sword sliced through that unclean space. Along with the magician who had scattered the deadly contaminant in the first place.

The flame roared loud as it sucked in oxygen. More than just toss fire at her from without, the brown necromancer’s slashed body was burned from within.

It was thorough and swift.

But she put up too little resistance for someone being burned alive.

Eventually, Stiyl caught on.

“Is this another imitation made from different ingredients!?”

By the time the words had left him, he was surrounded by brown women.

All imitations.

But he didn’t have time to gasp.

Directly behind him, Isabella Theism hid among the imitations.

The action she took wasn’t even all that difficult.

It was gentle even.

She simply placed a hand on the priest’s shoulder.

Stiyl Magnus’s eyes rolled back in his head.

He coughed up something dark. A clump of blood. More of the hideous color spilled from his eyelids and ears. But most importantly, his two-meter form crumpled straight down.

Even the veteran Necessarius members who were world-renowned for their skill in battle against magicians couldn’t tell what had happened.

“Unlike you, I came all the way to Japan to do my job.”

Only the expert in death – the brown necromancer – chuckled and spoke.

“I am not interested in your adolescent escapades.”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume13_Prologue|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume13_Chapter2}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume13 Chapter1

2025-08-20T02:29:14Z

Massify: /* Part 4 */ had to add a "."

==Chapter 1: A Change – Magician, Witch, Wizard, and…==

===Part 1===

Suddenly.

Something caused the sound of the cold rain to vanish.

Only nothingness remained.

The air temperature must have fallen below freezing. A red – strangely red – snow fell from the leaden sky.

“…”

Kamijou Touma didn’t bother mentioning it.

If he shifted his gaze away from dead ahead for even a split second, Great Demon Coronzon would use that instant to kill him. He was certain of it.

Kamijou, Alice Anotherbible, Great Demon Coronzon, and Vidhatri lying limp and passed out by his side.

He couldn’t see a single positive element to this.

In that silent world, the “kathunk, kathunk” of a subway train passing by sounded deafening loud.

“What’s the matter, human?” whispered the great demon, slowly spreading her arms and wings.

Her long, long blonde hair tangled around her wings and fingertips like spider web.

“Surely, surely you aren’t planning to thoughtlessly charge right at me? You might still be able to get away. Or maybe if you could use that right hand of yours properly. Kee hee hee. At the very least, falling back would improve your chance of survival over a blind charge.”

“Teacher,” sharply warned Alice Anotherbible. “These are the words of a great demon. They might sound kind, but she would never say anything out of concern for someone.”

Something crackled.

From very close by.

The violently flashing orange light resembled the sparks produced by steel striking steel.

…''Sparks?

“Don’t tell me…”

“Magic usage causes slight fluctuations in this world and the collisions between the unseen overlapping phases produce sparks which can at times be deadly. They are the source of the tragedy that sent Aleister Crowley down his path of carnage. What you see now is the result of my power bringing them down to this lower physical world and giving them form,” explained Coronzon, enjoying herself.

This wasn’t the only thing the great demon could do. She had purposefully chosen this from the near endless cards in her deck.

Kamijou heard another unpleasant sparking sound.

A drum-shaped security robot had burst from within.

It was possible Accelerator was monitoring this from afar and he was using the unmanned machines to search out an escape route through the minefield.

It went without saying what would happen if a human body contacted that…unless it was worse than it seemed.

“The surface-level destruction is a mere trifle. Contact that and you will die. I am not talking about the surface-level shock or destruction. It will ensure your death at the more fundamental level of destiny.”

Yes.

Aleister Crowley had failed to overturn this at his peak, so he had lost his wife and daughter. This was that same tragedy.

“And I have another warning. That third tree? Clonoth, was it? That caught me off guard in the UK and stripped my essence from my physical body, but that will not work again.”

The remaining security robots wavered a little.

“After all, I am not a pure demon anymore. Human Aleister’s symbols have been mixed in with me.”

The great demon curled her lips upward and laughed from deep in her throat.

Aleister.

She looked amused to no end that he was disturbing the human world even after he was gone.

“So what will you do, Kamijou Touma?”

She was a great demon, so she didn’t believe in benevolent coincidences or divine miracles to begin with.

“There are only two options in this world: a merciless death void of miracles, or a false miracle formed by human hands.”

“…”

“I know you know what happens if you stop thinking and pray to god without preparing anything yourself. How severe was the cost of crawling back up out of hell, Kamijou Touma? But all that will be for nothing if you fail to make the smart move here.”

(Well, this could hardly be worse.)

Kamijou felt like he had been abandoned in the middle of a minefield.

He was surrounded in all directions by invisible mines that would kill him on contact. And he didn’t even know how far they were distributed, so he had no sense of how far he had to flee in order to survive.

“Ugh, really? Just for your information…”

Coronzon had set all this up, but she still looked somehow displeased.

Even though she supposedly had an absolute advantage here.

As if the grand surprise she had spent so much effort preparing was going unappreciated, so she had to explain it for him.

“I didn’t just lay these out there. I can move them at will. So that is not a minefield you are standing in – it is a monster’s gaping maw. If I close it, you will be crushed between its jaws. I know you puny humans of this lower world only understand the things you can see, but surely that is enough for you to appreciate your situation.”

In other words, staying still wasn’t enough to save him.

He had been doomed from the beginning.

Kamijou’s right hand contained Imagine Breaker. He might be able to break one or two of the invisible fangs. But would that be enough to defeat the monster? If it ignored the pain and forced its mouth shut, he was dead. It would be over in an instant.

Kamijou clenched his teeth.

…He didn’t stand a chance.

What would he accomplish by charging in recklessly? He had previously fought Great Demon Coronzon in the UK. His right arm and the rest of his body had been smashed right away that time.

Imagine Breaker…''was not enough.

He heard a footstep on metal grating rather than asphalt.

Great Demon Coronzon must have noticed the fear and confusion that hearing that single footstep caused because an amused smile spread across her face.

“Why are you doing this now? We already settled this back in the UK!”

“Why?”

Coronzon snorted.

It grew into full-on mocking laughter.

“Of all things, you’re asking for my purpose and objective!? Kamijou Touma, do you want a similar explanation for how you came back to life? You didn’t turn back from hell because you calmly completed the items on a to do list!! You sought life because the state of life is natural for you and you never questioned that idea. It’s no different for me! This is what I have always been!!”

“So you’re really going to bring countless people to tears just because you never had a particular reason to stop!?”

“I have been true to myself no matter what happened.”

She said it so lightly.

Like someone humming the popular song playing on endless loop in a restaurant.

“Natural decomposition – tearing apart all things and returning them to nothing – is my role of dispersion. How could I trust in myself if I was one thing one day and another thing another day? You puny beings seem capable of that, but perhaps it is the result of your excess of free will.”

“…”

“It was that side of you that ended up tormenting Aleister to the bitter end. To be clear, I will be the one to destroy the world, but it was you who opened the box, Kamijou Touma.”

A grin split Coronzon’s face as she said this.

She was finally back in the outside world.

She couldn’t seem to contain her amusement.

“My value is 333 and my meaning is dispersion. I rule over one line on the great tree, yet I induce discord and betrayal to tear apart the bonds between people and obstruct human evolution. Do you really think I am going to stop? Now that I have been freed, of course I am going to work toward that end with every second available to me!!”

“Teacher,” interrupted Alice Anotherbible.

She looked unusually grim.

As if to say her role as a Transcendent, essentially a part in divine school play, were being stripped from her by the alarm ringing from the audience seating.

Was that young-looking girl perceiving something Kamijou couldn’t see?

“You can’t hold a conversation with Great Demon Coronzon. Not the way you’re doing it anyway. She can’t be won over by what’s right. In her mind, all things falling apart and all people suffering through pandemonium is ''the most healthy and active state for the world''. She only sees your kindness and compassion as a toxin that will cool and solidify the world.”

“!!”

“And she loathes that toxin in her own way. That is why your words can never stop her.”

So did he have to fight?

Countless unseen sparks had been placed around him.

Standing within a monster’s gaping maw was nothing but suicide.

And even if he did escape that, he would only have managed to reach the same playing field as her. Being able to defeat full-power Coronzon was another matter entirely.

He was looking at a battle with a higher being who had easily forced Aleister into submission. He couldn’t imagine how to get started, much less win. Fight or flee, anything he tried seemed like it would only work against him.

But.

“I won’t die…”

Even so, Kamijou Touma’s lips were trembling.

So he forced the words out through clenched teeth.

“I won’t die again!! I was already saved from hell once, so I won’t give up my life so easily!!”

Great Demon Coronzon grinned, but was she mocking how obviously terrified he was or how he had nothing to back up those words.

But in fact, Kamijou Touma did not die.

Because something pierced a straight through that space.

It tore apart the area between Kamijou and Coronzon.

That meant it hadn’t been aimed at Coronzon. Was this clearing a route by intentionally triggering the invisible mines laid out all around him?

(A tear…beam? It can’t be!!)

“Much better. You’ve finally got the right attitude, Kamijou Touma.”

“Ha ha. Boy, did your death put a damper on your hot-bloodedness?”

Nephthys.

And Niang-Niang?

“You mustn’t throw your life away. I see you finally arrived at the simplest answer that no one in the real world seems capable of following, Kamijou Touma.”

“I like this version of you better than your weird recklessness. It’s a lot more reassuring for those of us saving your ass.”

Magic Gods.

They were not a new side to this battle.

They were clearly taking Kamijou’s side and taking up positions to cover him.

Kamijou stared in shock.

Did they just say they were saving him?

From this!?

“Hey, wait. You’re under no obligation to help me out of this mess!!”

They didn’t even bother turning around.

The Magic Gods were facing Great Demon Coronzon in a more casual way, but they were also unwavering.

Even though they had to have a better grasp of the situation than Kamijou.

Yet they still spoke firmly.

“My, my. Have you forgotten that I am Nephthys, a god?”

“And I’m Niang-Niang. How about you let us take over for once? You died and came back, but you didn’t get Magic Godded by it. That means you’re nothing special. Live or die, you’re just a normal human. …And you ordinary people don’t need to deal with creeps like this. The monsters can slay the other monsters.”

Alice held her silence for a while.

But she finally opened her mouth.

“The girl will go with her teacher.”

“Good idea. It’ll be safer if he keeps a trump card with him. To be honest, if softhearted Kamijou Touma escaped on his own, I’d half expect him to be back before long. So go show him to the exit, little miss monster. But if you let him die, I will hunt you down.”

“Hey, quit deciding everything for me!”

Nephthys gave a simple answer to his protest.

“Risking your own skin is all well and good, but if you fall here, then who will bring that girl there to safety?”

Only then did Kamijou remember.

That’s right.

He and Alice weren’t the only ones here.

A Transcendent had collapsed before his eyes while trying to inform Alice of the threat.

Vidhatri.

If she was still alive, he couldn’t just abandon her here. If everyone here tried to fight and were wiped out, there would be no one left to help her. Then she would certainly be killed by Coronzon too.

After reminding him of his responsibility here, Nephthys spoke kindly.

“Make sure she gets away.”

“…Thanks!!”

This was only an excuse, of course. A ritual used to rid Kamijou of his guilt and allow him to act freely.

Nephthys ordinarily acted so irresponsible, but she really did seem godlike here.

“I have a question.”

Someone spoke.

Great Demon Coronzon was smiling.

“What logical reason do I have to let them get away after you held your strategy meeting right in front of me? Not much is more challenging than a retreat when you are at a severe disadvantage!!”

Something new emerged.

This time, it wasn’t even human. It was a golden retriever.

The dog spoke human language.

“Drop straight down!!”

A loud noise followed.

Alice Anotherbible’s small hands had torn up part of the metal grating below their feet. Kamijou, carrying Vidhatri, and Alice didn’t hesitate to jump down onto the roof of the subway train passing through the tunnel below.

An impact.

Continuous shaking. Slipping to the side. But he somehow managed to get a grip on the roof.

He didn’t seem to have hit any of those sparks. They had surrounded him in all directions, but apparently only in two dimensions.

“Looks like we barely escaped with our lives.”

The golden retriever was with them.

What was his name again? Whatever his name, that cute doggy was in fact connected to the infamous Kihara family.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

Kamijou groaned as he adjusted his grip on limp Vidhatri atop the train’s roof. That was all he could manage.

“I went to the trouble of coming back to life…and all I can do is run away? Dammit.”

“Staying alive is an accomplishment in and of itself, if you ask me,” said the dog. “At the very least, you overturned that Coronzon person’s expectations.”

“…”

“Dammit,” cursed Kamijou again. He wasn’t about to give up here.

The train was on the move.

This small seam gave him a new start.

===Part 2===

Kamijou Touma, Alice Anotherbible, and the rest had left.

That left Magic Gods Nephthys and Niang-Niang and Great Demon Coronzon.

The higher beings faced each other as red snow fell around them.

“Oh, right.”

The first to speak was Nephthys, the bandaged beauty with silver hair and brown skin.

“I will be killing you here, but I wanted to ask you something first.”

“I’m not here to fulfill your final request. I’m planning on killing billions after this. I can’t give individuals too much attention. It’s a waste of resources.”

“That isn’t what I meant. Is that human still inside you? Or has he been fully destroyed?”

“Did you think a great demon like me would bother using a pathetic hostage?”

“That still isn’t what I meant. I just want to know if I should feel even a little bad after I kill you.”

She made it sound so simple.

And certain.

The Magic God was not swayed by the great demon title. Just like during their previous battle in the UK.

“To be clear, we will be killing you either way,” said Niang-Niang, hiding her mouth behind her modified China dress’s baggy sleeve.

But she wasn’t smiling.

Not now.

“I know this might sound weird coming from Magic Gods who are willing to die to accomplish our goals, but you really should have let it end after you lost last time. Digging this all back up is just a waste of time.”

A tear spilled from Nephthys’s right eye. An unnaturally large tear.

While she laughed and spoke.

It could be easy to forget since she was too powerful, but battle was not that bandaged beauty’s forte. This was her greatest trait as an Egyptian Magic God.

“I weep for you, Niang-Niang.”

The propagating tear.

In other words, a power boost.

''A Magic God’s already ultimate power was being boosted further by another Magic God.

Boosting, raising, buffing, multiplying – none of those words were sufficient to describe this.

This was on another level entirely from their playtime at the student dorm.

“It’s the same for Aleister and Coronzon.”

“You’ve already tried this a few times, so you could say history has already proven the futility of it. Digging it all back up like this isn’t going to end well for you.”

All expression suddenly vanished from Coronzon.

On her noh mask of a face, words gathered in her mouth.

“These are the intruders who impede natural decomposition. Can false gods who began as no more than human never progress beyond this point?”

“Huh?”

“Not that it matters,” muttered Coronzon, already back to herself.

She did not answer Niang-Niang’s question.

What Coronzon did say was simple.

“By the way, how much did you hear? Having to explain it all over and over again is a pain, so I’d like to skip what I can.”

“You expect understanding from gods? And really, what right does a demon have to judge us? We’re the ones testing you, dumbass.”

“I see. So you understand none of it. Then I will keep it simple, so even your single brain cell can comprehend.”

The crackling of sparks came from around Nephthys and Niang-Niang.

All 360 degrees around them.

“This is not a minefield. It is a gaping maw lined with countless fangs.”

===Part 3===

Still being atop the subway train when it pulled into a station would probably cause a panic and they would get in trouble for riding without paying. The train happened to stop before the next station because one of the signals indicated some minor trouble, so Kamijou’s group took that chance to climb down from the roof. It seemed lucky…but with Kamijou Touma that wasn’t an option. It was the result of how badly damaged Academy City was.

Climbing down from the roof was a challenge when carrying someone unconscious. Kamijou was walking it to the end of the tunnel with Vidhatri on his back when the golden retriever asked a question. That the dog spoke human language went without saying at this point.

“Where are you headed?”

“Phew. District 12. The old Bridge Builders Cabal consulate.”

He couldn’t let Great Demon Coronzon kill him. But what could he actually do? She had only been defeated last time at the end of a battle that dragged the entire world into it. Would he have to go through that again? Academy City was already damaged and repairs were slow in coming, so a battle on that scale could easily reduce the entire city to a pile of rubble.

An emergency exit led to a narrow stairway up to the surface. The creepy but bewitching red snow continued to fall. But his breath was white like normal. While viewing the strange scene, Kamijou pulled his phone from his pocket with Vidhatri still on his back.

It was 4 PM, the weather was snowy, and the temperature was -3 degrees.

(It’s no use. I don’t know who would be safe to contact.)

He had a communication device, but he was hesitant to use it. Because he was still officially considered dead. Contacting a classmate or friend would only cause a panic and ordinary Anti-Skill was out of the question. He had only just escaped those Bio Secure people chasing after him with flamethrowers. Not much time had passed at all.

“Teacher, let’s get to the consulate. You can think and call someone after getting some rest.”

“Good point…”

Yes, the consulate.

He wanted time to calm down and think. He couldn’t even come up with any ideas right now. The appearance of Great Demon Coronzon had radically changed things, but he still needed to get to the Bridge Builders Cabal consulate in District 12.

His breath was white.

And that wasn’t all.

“By the way, what is this red snow?”

That had been bugging him.

It didn’t seem to be something Coronzon had done. He reached out just his right hand with Vidhatri supported with his left arm and let some land on his fingertip, but the ice crystal only melted into a drop of water like normal. There was no sign of anything being negated. In that case, had some strange impurity in the air gotten mixed in when the ice crystal was solidifying? He had heard of things like smog and yellow sand changing the color of snow. Maybe it was related to the gas and dust caused by the shells and explosives used in all the recent large-scale battles.

When the snow melted on his fingertip, the resultant drop was clear. So it didn’t seem like blood or some other red liquid had frozen into snow. That was another point toward his theory it was an impurity in the crystal.

…In that case, as bewitching as the red snow looked, it might not be very clean. What did the color red represent? And aside from that, this was city snow which would be full of exhaust.

“Alice, don’t eat the snow.”

“Ehhh!?”

“Why is that so shocking!? There are plenty of other good things to eat!”

“Ugh, fine.”

“You either, doggy.”

“I would hope you could expect a little more intelligence and romance from me.”

At any rate, walking out in the open didn’t seem like a good idea. Kamijou was known as a walking corpse and carrying limp Vidhatri on his back made him look he was committing some kind of crime. Not to mention the little girl and the large dog not on a leash. Their party was practically asking to be taken in for questioning.

“Uh, oh…”

Someone was dancing on the street up ahead.

She looked to be…middle school aged, maybe?

She had a small collapsible umbrella to keep the red snow off of her and her phone was propped up against the edge of a shrubbery, so she must have thought the unusual weather was an opportunity of some kind.

Was it late enough for school to be out already?

Then again, it was the first day back after winter break, so maybe most schools were only having half days.

(I don’t even know when school lets out anymore. I’m drifting further and further from a peaceful life…)

That was a life-or-death problem. For a high schooler anyway.

Snow was accumulating and it wasn’t Christmas. Maybe there just wasn’t much traffic and maybe all the confusion had prevented the snow from being cleared, but the streets were starting to be covered by the red snow and even the trains were having to stop fairly frequently but irregularly. Not many people would want to head out on a day like this, but as someone who was officially dead, Kamijou still wanted to do his best to avoid being seen. That meant avoiding the person jumping and dancing on the sidewalk with no concern for her short skirt and even walking to the center of a big intersection and slowly turning in a full circle to get a 360-degree shot. The cheerful girl’s extrovert energy pushed Kamijou Touma away, forcing him into the narrow side streets. As the kind of person who preferred to take the far corner seat on the train even when no one else was aboard, he really didn’t mind all that much. Although he was somewhat disgusted with himself for how little it bothered him.

“I really don’t want to make a habit of taking my walks in the shadows.”

“It’s not so bad. Do it enough and it stops feeling weird.”

The dog’s advice did not help improve his mood.

He wanted to do something about it before he reached that point.

But while he was choosing the more deserted paths, it was still midday on a weekday. And he was carrying an unconscious girl on his back, but no one was stopping him. Was ordinary Anti-Skill not functioning well? That was fine as long as no one realized the gravity of it, but this could get bad if some devious people took notice.

Their destination was District 12. It was the most religious district and located on the east side of the city.

They had to take a wide detour around District 23 since it was generally off limits, so it ended up a long walk.

“Phew.”

A lot of time had passed by the time they arrived. It was just past 5 PM or thereabouts. In January, the sun would have been setting at this time, but the clouds were blocking it today.

They had arrived at the familiar consulate…sort of.

It was unrecognizable.

It seemed to have collapsed even more than when Kamijou had seen it last. Had a stray shot hit it at some point?

Several of the spires had broken and the garden was covered in rubble and black soil with a dusting of red snow starting to cover it. Over half of a building larger than the average school had been squashed. From the looks of it, the rainwater had to be getting in. Not many rooms would still be usable, but having a roof above your head still meant a lot.

“May I come in?” he asked Alice without thinking.

That made her squeal with delight. Because he was still treating this as her house maybe?

But…

“I-it’s chilly in here…”

Kamijou shivered. It had to have been colder outside, but he felt it all the worse once he was inside. Maybe his senses were returning to him.

A sofa in the corner of the huge lobby was so fancy he wasn’t sure if it was meant to be used or just decorative, but he lay Vidhatri on it regardless. Even that was difficult with the weird doll attached back-to-back with her. How did you remove it? And he felt like the cold was getting even worse. No, could it be he had been receiving warmth from the brown beauty on his back? Talk about a spoiled way to make use of a young woman. As unscientific as it was, he was afraid he had earned some kind of divine punishment there.

They had somehow arrived at the consulate, but now he had to figure out what to do next.

“F-for now, we need to do something about injured Vidhatri. She still hasn’t woken up, but is she okay? If it requires more than a first-aid kit, then we’re out of luck.”

His first thought was the frog-faced doctor.

Yes, a doctor.

“…”

The main goal of his original plan was to prevent Academy City from pursuing him as the living dead. So by escaping to a consulate belonging to another country(?) where the adults couldn’t touch him, he had hoped to buy enough time to call the frog-faced doctor to him and receive professional confirmation that Kamijou Touma was still alive. And with his status as alive confirmed, he would automatically be preserving Index and Othinus’s home too.

He didn’t know if that Condro-whatever country still officially recognized the consulate, but the actual international effectiveness didn’t really matter. He only needed the powerful adults in Academy City to hesitate.

But Great Demon Coronzon’s appearance had destroyed that plan. Utterly.

To be blunt, she wouldn’t care at all about the consulate. If she didn’t like Kamijou’s group, she would march right in to kill them. After all, she was willing to declare herself one who tore apart human bonds and obstructed their evolution. On a larger scale, there was a real possibility of her ''doing something to Academy City as a whole.'' If it came to that, then Kamijou’s group would be killed along with the rest of the city.

(Seriously, what are we supposed to do? However we stop Coronzon, I do still want to prove I’m alive so I can move through the city more easily…but do I have time for a detour like that?)

What was Index doing right now? Othinus and the calico cat too. It was below freezing outside. He couldn’t leave them out there in the frigid air and red snow and there was always the horrific chance that they would happen across Coronzon out there.

“I guess we can’t just come to a stop. We need to decide on where to start…”

Just as he said that, he heard a weird clattering noise from overhead.

Was someone there?

“Alice, get behind me.”

“Teacher, you don’t need to worry about that.”

Hm? Alice seemed awfully certain about that.

Nervous Kamijou sensed something off.

It came from his sense of smell.

Was that the familiar scent of some extremely ordinary chemical seasonings?

Then someone emerged from the second floor. The underwear woman with large wings on her back was walking while working at a cup of instant noodles with a silver fork.

“Hm? Boy, wherefore are you here?”

She was the Bologna Succubus, one of the Transcendents.

===Part 4===

For Kamijou the Bridge Builders Cabal consulate had seemed like a secret base of evil, but for the Bologna Succubus it was a temporary home in a foreign country. Even if it was falling apart, maybe it was best to just return here.

Kamijou tilted his head.

“What are you normal Transcendents doing now?”

“Normal? That’s a new one, boy. Then again, maybe it was inevitable when you’ve been hanging out with ultra extraordinary Alice so much.”

Standing still, the blonde underwear woman gave him an exasperated look while eating her Japanese cup noodles. Maybe it came from being Western, but he didn’t hear any slurping sounds as she ate the noodles.

“Horrifying. You might as well be eating a cup full of salt,” said the golden retriever.

“Well, this pup feels right out of a fairy tale. The best medicine when you’re tired, if you ask me.”

The tragic state of her diet suggested Good, Old Mary and H. T. Trismegistus were not here since the former was proud of her cooking skills and the latter was picky about manners. …Then again, Kamijou was more at home with cup noodles that would be ready in 3 minutes and eaten in 5 minutes than he was with a full-course dinner that took more than two hours from appetizer to dessert.

“Around half of us were knocked out trying to restrain Aleister when he suddenly went nuts. Vidhatri there was one of them. But we scattered afterwards. After all, our grand plan of saving the world with a resurrected CRC didn’t pan out. And organizations are fragile when they lose their central pillar.”

“Aleister did it?” asked Kamijou because he had thought Coronzon was responsible.

The Bologna Succubus sighed softly.

“There’s something wrong with him. No ordinary human should be able to defeat a group of Transcendents. Maybe that’s just ''the'' Crowley living up to his reputation as the exception among exceptions.”

“''Wait.''”

Kamijou called for a time out.

Something wasn’t right.

“If Aleister alone could have solved the Transcendent problem with Anna Sprengel and such, he wouldn’t have relied on Kingsford in the first place.”

“You have a point,” said the golden retriever. “Thinking back, that preserved corpse was an odd choice for Aleister. It isn’t like him to so wholly rely on someone else like that.”

“This talk of corpses is hitting home a lot more than it did before… But anyway, it sounded like he found some dangerous thing, modified it, and forced it to move.”

“Boy, did you forget?” The Bologna Succubus sounded exasperated. “Aleister is no ordinary human. He has crossed a line much like we have. No, it felt more like he was wielding Great Demon Coronzon’s power.”

“…”

“I doubt he could use all that power to begin with, so maybe something caused him to lose control and break through the limiter?”

“Something? Like what?”

“Kamijou Touma’s death and everything related to Anna Kingsford. You can’t tell me you’ve forgotten about that.”

In other words.

Did it all go back to that?

Just gathering up and using that power was enough to defeat a group of Transcendents. Then what could Great Demon Coronzon herself do now that she was back in control?

The Bologna Succubus shrugged.

“The Bridge Builders Cabal is no longer functioning as a magic cabal.”

“I see…”

“I don’t even know what happened to the other members. Some may still be hiding in Academy City, but I bet most of the Transcendents are leaving now that their reason for being here is gone.”

“…”

Is that why the Bologna Succubus was referring to him as “boy” here?

Alice Anotherbible was no longer her top priority.

In that school on that night, they had seen their pitiful master accidentally kill Kamijou Touma and lose sight of herself. The regular Transcendents must have been disillusioned when Alice didn’t even give them a glance after they served her so thoroughly.

Alice Anotherbible had lost her violent charisma.

And what happened when they also learned that summoning CRC to save the world was nothing more than a pipe dream?

“Nothing but hardtack to eat is murdering my mouth☆ Hey, lewd succubus, was there any canned food anywhere? …What’re they doing here?”

Someone else descended from the second floor.

To her, Alice Anotherbible was just one member of a “they”.

Who was this girl anyway? Kamijou was pretty sure he had never seen her before. The blonde was fully covered by what might have been a copper blast-resistant suit or might have been an iron maiden.

The two began conversing without any kind of introductions.

“We have an injury to deal with, so we’ll have to do something about Vidhatri. Ugh, it’s so inconvenient without Good, Old Mary around. Why does Blodeuwedd the Bouquet have to be the only one left? She’s useless.”

“Kyahah. That’s a neat trick if standing around complaining will heal her wounds. But if not, then we’ll have to figure something out with the people we’ve got, whore demon.”

…The strained atmosphere between those two bothered Kamijou, but it was they who brought a first-aid kit from deeper in the building.

The two Transcendents opened the kit and argued as they opened the manual contained in a waterproof package along with the medicines and bandages.

“First, we need to make sure we use this stuff right☆ Start by disinfecting the wound with alcohol.”

“Don’t be stupid. You need to wash the wound with water first and then disinfect it.”

“This swelling is a bruise, not internal bleeding. That means a compress will do.”

“That’s a hot compress. Are you trying to exacerbate the symptoms? You need a cool compress here, trash.”

“That idiot can be safely ignored. Now, let’s see☆ I need to tie the bandage tight to stop the bleeding.”

“If you want the bleeding to stop fast, you have to let the air contact it. Tying the bandage loose to let it breathe is best, dung beetle girl.”

Left all alone on the sofa, Vidhatri began moaning in her sleep.

Those two were practically at each other’s throats.

The Bologna Succubus and…Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was it? Those two were in fact literally butting heads. Which begged the question of why they were staying here together.

“They must be good friends.”

“Huh?” “Huh?”

[[File:GT Index v13 BW1.png|thumb]]

Kamijou’s comment earned him a pair of fairly serious glares. A girl’s “huh?” was a frightening thing.

Kamijou couldn’t say which of their claims were correct. He secretly did some searching on his phone and found plenty of agreement in either direction. It was funny that too many opinions could be a problem too. He decided to just assume a Transcendent’s body would be tough enough to endure whatever those two did. Or wait…were Transcendents’ bodies tough?

“Damn, I really shouldn’t have stayed in Academy City. I know I have a habit of sticking around in unloved places, but I always regret not getting out sooner than I do☆”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was complaining under her breath and Kamijou concluded this really was his first time seeing her.

And the Bologna Succubus was generally welcoming and cheerful no matter what, so it was unusual to see her detest someone so much. She didn’t seem like a bad person to Kamijou, so what made the Bologna Succubus dislike her to this extent?

He asked and the Bologna Succubus reacted with complete exasperation.

In fact, she held a hand to her forehead.

“Boy, um…you are a hopelessly bad judge of character. It’s like you go out of your way to be tricked so you can destroy it all.”

“Oh, c’mon. Ha ha. An ‘evil plot’ by a little girl like this could only be something adora-”

“She was one of the Killers who wanted to murder you in order to control Alice.”

Apparently this was much more serious than he had thought.

…And yet the girl herself held a hand to her cheek while staring at him.

Hm? This seemed quite different from what he had been told. Was that a spellbound look?

“But…now that I’ve met him for myself, he’s nothing like I was expecting. I was imagining an easy-going piece of shit who, y’know, carelessly presses fire alarms and blows up fire extinguishers. But instead he’s more like, well, the shunned and ostracized kid who sits alone in a corner of the classroom. Ahh☆ I, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, am the Transcendent who protects the unloved. And the negative aura coming off of him is more than enough. Pant, pant. Oh, I can’t stand it. Kyahah, unloved one, leap into my arms!!”

“I’d rather not be accepted for ''that'' reason!!”

Was she the type to insult people when trying to be kind!? Kamijou bristled and yelled at the skinny girl whose thick armor opened like double doors. And was she entirely naked except for an apron under there!?

The naked apron was real!!

The depressed aura coming from Kamijou was probably the result of dying, coming back from the dead, being treated as a zombie, being rejected by Aleister for baffling reasons, and then having the resurrected Great Demon Coronzon try to kill him. If he let himself be taken into that soothing shelter, he just knew he would never again be able to leave that sweet-smelling girl’s thick coat!!

(But on the other hand…)

He had died and come back and was now being viewed as a zombie. It was nice finding some people who would ignore all that and actually listen to him.

Great Demon Coronzon.

He couldn’t just ignore that threat, but he needed far more fighters than this to deal with her. He didn’t even know what had happened to Magic Gods Nephthys and Niang-Niang after he left.

Even they had said they would “take over” for him, not that they would defeat her or solve the problem. It had seemed like the Magic Gods were choosing their words carefully.

He didn’t know how that had turned out, but it hadn’t seemed like leaving it with them was the end of it. And if they hadn’t ended it, then he had to assume the Coronzon problem persisted.

The Bologna Succubus put a hand on her hip and spoke.

“Anyway, we’ll treat Vidhatri. We’ll need to take her to another room.”

“I’ll help,” said Kamijou.

“This will mean removing her clothing, so you stay away. As the resident expert on sexiness, I cannot condone non-consensual nudity.”

When put that way, there was nothing Kamijou Touma-chan could do.

“Don’t look so dejected. I’ll let you see me naked later.”

“Could you not make this so awkward to agree with!?”

“Don’t worry. Even if everyone else treats you like a filthy insect, I will be there to hug you☆”

“I don’t like the sound of that future either!!”

The Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet began a friendly(?) argument as they moved Vidhatri to another room.

Then the golden retriever made a request in a very dandy voice.

“As a dog whose body requires several nutrients to continue functioning, I would really like to be fed soon.”

Had he not eaten?

But this consulate wasn’t Kamijou’s home. He was reluctant to start searching around for food without permission.

He looked to Alice and she only smiled up at him. Apparently this was fine.

He began searching of the half-destroyed building.

“Come to think of it…I don’t remember seeing a dog last time I was here. I don’t think they have any actual pet food.”

“Such an uncivilized place. But it is what it is. Are there any chicken tenderloins?”

“The premade ones are already seasoned, so won’t they be pretty dangerous? For your kidneys and such? I’ve heard human food has too much sodium for most animals.”

“Of course. Really, only humans are capable of digesting that much salt in daily life. Even the fish swimming the sea show more restraint. Parboil it in water to remove all the excess fat and seasoning. And be thorough.”

As pressing as the situation was, having some work to do helped him calm down.

Or maybe that was just his body being heated by the steam coming from the pot of boiling water on the induction cooker. It wasn’t warming him all that much in this chill, though.

How much could a dog that size eat? He decided to just pile up the boiled tenderloins on a plate until the dog himself said it was enough, placed that and a bowl of water on the floor, and asked a question.

“Are you okay in this cold?”

“This is my winter coat, thankfully. And unlike a cat, my coat resists water. Hot!”

The dog couldn’t handle hot foods any better than cats.

Kamijou badly needed to do something about his freezing body. The dog seemed docile enough, but would he get mad if Kamijou hugged him for warmth?

Then Alice walked over and grabbed his hand.

“Over there, over there. You can warm up with that.”

Something rarely seen in Japan was installed in a one of the cracked walls.

Petty bourgeois Kamijou was used to his dorm’s air conditioning, so the idea of starting a roaring fire inside your home was a fairly exciting one, but Alice seemed to find it normal. Was fire not frightening if it had a partitioned area and was well managed?

And Japan did have its irori.

“Just turn the valve and let the gas out!”

“Wait, fireplaces aren’t for burning chopped wood?”

Apparently the firewood was mostly decorative. So many things evolved with time. Even lanterns used LEDs these days, so apparently nothing was safe.

Also, the building was half destroyed, so was the chimney safe? He was afraid it might be broken partway up or have a hole or crack that would change the flow of smoke in devastating ways…

“Damn, staring at a fire calms you down whether you like it or not, huh? No, that’s a dangerous idea. I need to be careful I don’t Little Match Girl myself… Can you not cook fish or dango on skewers in a fireplace? Like you do with an irori?”

“Ohh, nice and warm…”

Kamijou turned around to ask and heard a sleepy voice next to him.

Alice must not have been satisfied without drying every single part of her wet clothing because she stood facing the fireplace fire with her skirt lifted in her hands.

“Stop that! It’s indecent! There’s a boy here. You’re only supposed to let someone you truly care for see inside your skirt!”

“Ehh? Someone the girl truly cares for?”

“No, stop!!”

Don’t turn this way.

Also, she was wearing some kind of white tights, but was it really safe to heat those so close to a fire? Kamijou didn’t know much about old-fashioned materials, but was that something non-synthetic surrounding her legs? He wasn’t certain. He was a little afraid the heat would suddenly melt it, leading to tragedy.

And as they warmed themselves (“Lower your skirt already!”), someone returned from deeper into the building: the Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. They had returned together…which meant they didn’t need to leave anyone with Vidhatri.

“Was the treatment a success?”

“Nyahah, for now.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet gave a brief response to Kamijou’s question.

So they weren’t completely out of the woods there yet.

Kamijou found this drafty building too cold for his liking, but wearing that thick coat indoors must have been too warm. The skinny apron girl occasionally opened it and fanned it to let some heat out as she gave him a skeptical look.

“We have a question for you.”

“?”

“What are your plans concerning Great Demon Coronzon? This situation looks pretty bad, so we kind of have to play the Alice Anotherbible card, don’t we?”

The central pillars of Alice Anotherbible’s violent charisma and CRC’s world salvation had been broken, and yet…

The Transcendents had begun as a gathering of individuals who wanted to protect the kind of people they personally wanted to help. That meant the Bologna Succubus had people she wanted to help and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet had her own.

Great Demon Coronzon.

Kamijou had no idea what she might do, but it made sense those two would be concerned about the appearance of someone who would bring harm to anyone and everyone.

And they would be concerned about the enormous bomb that was Alice Anotherbible.

Blowing up over half the world in a fight to protect the world was meaningless.

Those thoughts were written plain on Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s face.

“It is probably time I decided on a general plan as well.”

The dog was right.

They only had so much time. Doing nothing and avoiding the issue would only be placing the rope around their own necks.

Kamijou organized his thoughts.

And with a deep breath, he spoke.

“I will have Alice fight.”

“Oh,” said Alice, hopping a bit at being brought up in the conversation.

“I had a feeling you would,” said Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, sounding somehow annoyed.

But…

“The problem is she’s too powerful, right? No, I guess the problem isn’t really the size of her power but its instability since you never know where she’ll direct it on a whim. …So we just have to convince the world that ''Alice is a good guy because she’s the one who saved the world.''”

“…”

Kamijou’s explanation caused the skinny apron girl’s sulky look to freeze on her face.

“For real?”

“Great Demon Coronzon is trying to destroy the world. …To be blunt, a threat that over-the-top actually helps us out here. With a half-baked bank robbery or mummy’s curse, we’d be ignored since someone other than Alice could have dealt with it just fine. We need a threat no one else could stop so we can let the entire world know that it was Alice Anotherbible who saved them and that the world would have ended if not for her. Right?”

Fortunately, there was no connection between Great Demon Coronzon and Alice Anotherbible. They both referenced Crowley-style magic, but that wasn’t anything like a personal connection.

That meant it wouldn’t be viewed as the same side splitting between enemy and ally and putting on a show.

“I see,” said the Bologna Succubus, grinning.

She provided criticism and counterarguments as an ally. Like a skilled secretary providing practice before the debate.

“But will it really work out so nicely? Humans are heartless. Once the threat is gone, they might completely forget that someone saved them and start attacking Alice like it’s a demand for disarmament. Because at the end of the day, she’s still a threat for being able to do what she did.”

“I’m aware of that. In that case, we just have to support her. With support from someone who controls the world’s goodness and justice, there won’t be a witch hunt and Alice can become a symbol of victory and peace.”

“Oh? And who did you have in mind?”

“Hey, you’re no diplomat, so stop trying your hand at dangerous diplomatic negotiations, layman.”

A voice suddenly interrupted.

It didn’t come from Kamijou’s phone and the large TV’s LCD screen was badly cracked and broken. It seemed to becoming from the cylinder sitting on the bent table. Kamijou had thought it was a trendy aromatherapy device or something, but…

“The AI speaker is talking on its own!” exclaimed Alice.

Apparently that’s what it was.

Academy City Board Chairman Accelerator.

He had kept silent since the rain turned to red snow, but now he had butted in.

“But how did you…?”

“Consulates that represent a country or region are ordinarily installed with hotlines to the local country.”

He tried to make it sound so obvious, but what did he mean “ordinarily”?

And…

“Academy City, huh?”

The Bologna Succubus sounded surprised.

Apparently she could recognize the massive organization’s leader by his voice. Kamijou was pretty sure the two had never actually met, anyway.

Then the blonde underwear woman winked.

“I thought for sure you were going to go ask the Anglicans.”

“Go to England since this is about magic? I get the idea, but you haven’t forgotten, have you? The original Alice and Aleister Crowley are both from England.”

With that said, Kamijou sighed softly.

Meanwhile, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet seemed to have finally recovered from her freeze.

She pouted her lips and gave her opinion (in a weirdly serious way for a naked apron wearer).

“I see☆ So if Alice’s activities benefited England, it would look too much like it was all a setup?”

“And I doubt we can go to the Roman Catholic or Russian Orthodox Churches. In fact, that would probably end up with the Anglicans claiming original ownership and demanding she be returned to them, so it could just cause further conflict. Really, it will cause the least trouble if we leave Alice with the science side since they know nothing of magic. ''Intentionally ensuring that treasure goes to waste'' will ensure the magic side VIPs don’t get jealous as they watch on from the shadows.”

“How do we know that works?”

“It has with Index, the grimoire library.”

Yes, there was an example very close to home for him.

If the magic side was so afraid of having a specific magician or magic cabal control her, they just had to isolate her in another world where no one could reach her. The same could be said of Alice as well.

Alice had far too much power for an individual and analyzing her body could reveal the open source plans for creating “regular Transcendents”. Handing her over to someone on the magic side who knew how to make use of her sounded far too dangerous no matter who it was.

“Are tenderloins that good?”

“Munch, munch. Alice, these are mine. As a human, you should eat human food.”

“Is the girl still human?”

Talk of the power balance in the world of magic went over Kihara Noukan’s head, so he was busying himself with the big plate of tenderloins on the floor. Or rather, he was fighting for them with Alice who had taken an interest in them.

She definitely needed to be left with someone who didn’t know how to make use of her.

“To sum up, we first need to deal with Coronzon somehow or another. After that, we need to ''make it so that'' credit for saving the world goes to Alice. And lastly, we leave her with Academy City to avoid any further conflict. Its mostly a vague outline with no concrete details, but does that sound like a good overall plan?”

“Hey,” said Accelerator. “You aren’t forgetting that Alice girl is one of the reasons the city is in such a bad state, are you?”

“''The Coronzon problem comes first.''”

“Ugh,” groaned the #1, falling silent.

That was unusual.

“Keep your priorities straight. Coronzon rates higher than Alice,” clearly stated Kamijou. “We don’t have many cards in our deck right now. We can’t afford to lose even one trump card. If we focus on Alice first and end up fighting each other while ignoring Coronzon, whatever it is she’s going to do, Academy City will be destroyed first. If you really want to protect this city, then it’s your job to make sure Alice can fight at full strength, Board Chairman.”

“You make it sound so easy. You don’t think you’re free of responsibility just cause you’re not the guy at the top, do you?”

“And I do think there’s room for leniency with Alice. It’s true the damage was done by her great power, but she had no idea what she was doing and it was everyone else around her who pushed her into doing it. And that includes me. Judge her if you must, but I’m not about to let her face the world’s judgment alone. I sacrificed my life saving her, so I will make sure I save her to the very end.”

“…Tch.”

The board chairman at the very top clicked his tongue for some reason, but he said nothing more.

Kamijou wasn’t sure what part of his argument had hit home.

And then.

He heard a ring as if from a deep bell.

Was that the doorbell?

“…Wait.”

Kamijou tensed.

The only one still relaxed was Alice as she hopped on the sofa.

Meaningless misfortune often paid Kamijou a visit, so he had a very bad feeling about this. In the absolute worst case, this was Great Demon Coronzon ringing the doorbell as a joke.

Kihara Noukan looked up from his plate of tenderloins and spoke quietly.

“I do not know much about that magic stuff, but is there a chance she has detected us here?”

“A big chance. After all, she was sealed inside Aleister all that time. So anything Aleister saw or heard, she would have observed from inside him!”

This was the only real option, but had it been a mistake to choose a known building as a shelter?

Hiding deep in the damaged building and waiting for a chance to strike…would be one option, but this was Coronzon they were talking about. If they didn’t respond, she might not even enter the crumbling building. If she decided to instead blast the entire structure from outside, all of them would die in vain.

So they had to respond.

“Bologna Succubus, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.”

“Yes? Are you giving us the dangerous job since you beat us and we have nothing left to live for?”

“Don’t be dumb. Vidhatri is sleeping in the back, right? I’ll deal with whoever’s at the front door, so you two take her out the back way and escape if it looks bad.”

“…”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet fell silent, looking surprised, and the Bologna Succubus patted her on the shoulder. Except she didn’t release the shoulder of that thick coat and squeezed it with a vise-like grip.

“(I found him first. Try anything and you are dead, you naughty spoiling goddess.)”

“(Ehh, that’s no fun. Well, you have my word, but I can’t guarantee my body won’t act of its own accord when the moment comes☆)”

“(Then your word is worthless!)”

“(Who does this man milker think she is looking down on me? Does this nocturnal lesser demon think she’s his guardian or something!?)”

They started struggling against each other, but Kamijou chose to believe it was a sign of friendship.

He had to go answer the front doorbell.

Kihara Noukan accompanied him.

“Do you have any kind of weapon? With the fireplace, there should at least be a poker.”

“It would only get in the way of my right hand.”

He knew ''reflexively holding out his right hand'' was a dangerous move with anyone at the level of an angel or demon, but he still needed to focus on occult countermeasures. This wasn’t like the battle against Stiyl where they both knew each other’s moves.

Alice joined him too.

And he wasn’t even given time to prepare.

He didn’t even have time to think about opening the front door because the outer wall near the door was broken. And so he saw the answer before he could even get nervous. The hole provided a big spoiler.

“Hi.”

Someone stood there.

Dion Fortune…and two others behind her.

No, he recognized them. Wasn’t that Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou?

The group was introduced to him as follows:

“It’s the Anglican Archbishop and her jolly friends.”

===Part 5===

Coronzon had moved location.

She didn’t need to prepare any supplies. Everything she needed was right here in the city. Each individual would use the puzzle pieces differently, but the great demon chose to use them purely for destruction.

Yes.

Destruction.

But that meant she did need control of the necessary locations first.

And so despite being known as a great demon, she was forced to do something she would have preferred not to.

Move.

“Pros can become cons, advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses. Really, Aleister would have loved it.”

But at this point, she couldn’t screw this up.

It wasn’t possible.

She had passed the challenges she could not fully calculate for. That is, she was past the point of gambling. For her, whether or not Aleister would self-destruct and release her had been the greatest obstacle.

Now she just has to complete the rest of the job.

The spell she was preparing was on an enormous scale and would take time, but she still swore on her name as a great demon that it would not fail.

No matter what anyone did from here on, it would be ''launched''.

Great Demon Coronzon spoke quietly to herself.

“Time to begin.”

===Part 6===

“Adikalika,” began Dion Fortune, seated on the sofa.

Five seconds after taking a seat, she was already recrossing her legs.

“Great Demon Coronzon is preparing a massive piece of magic in this city. It’s called Adikalika.”

Come to think of it, why were Hamazura and Takitsubo of Academy City working with Dion Fortune of the UK? Maybe Kamijou wasn’t one to talk, but their circle of friends was a bit of a mystery.

However, there was no threat here.

They had moved to the parlour which was barely still intact. The kitchen was apparently still functional, so Kamijou boiled some water and made some tea. He hadn’t the foggiest idea how to make proper British tea, but since Fortune happily held the cup between her hands, he figured he had done well enough.

“Ohh, it’s nice and warm!”

“Hot water really helps you calm. I noticed that with my cup noodles earlier.”

It was below freezing outside. With red snow falling.

…So maybe even boiled tap water would have been fine if it warmed her.

Regardless, Dion Fortune got down to business.

About Adikalika.

“Our grimoire library is still being lent out to someone I could mention, but Orsola Aquinas did a brilliant research job. She tracked it down to a booklet packaged with a strange book not even found in London’s national library. Apparently a used bookstore had bought it from a certain Loch Ness mansion.”

Everything since the funeral had left Kamijou starved for human warmth, so he was pleased to hear this mention of someone he knew, but that wasn’t the main point.

So what exactly was this Adi…whatever-it-was? It sounded foreign to Kamijou’s ears, but also didn’t seem English.

Kihara Noukan and Accelerator on the AI speaker seemed pretty smart, but neither of them tried to take charge of the conversation. Were they waiting to have all the information because magic was outside their areas of expertise? Kamijou could think of any number of questions to ask, but he couldn’t narrow it down to just one.

“What is Adikalika?”

Fortune had brought Takitsubo here, but it was she who asked from the sofa with a blank stare and tilt of the head.

Had Fortune not explained it to her own group?

The science side and magic side were so different she must not have expected them to understand right way, so she gave a quick explanation.

“Right, Adikalika. When written in the alphabet instead of the Sanskrit script, it becomes a Crowley term. Originally, I guess you could say it’s a Magick reinterpretation of the Indian goddess Kali as a being who absorbs all things and make them her own. Using the 11th letter – that is, K. So the key to understanding it is Kali.”

“Wait, not so fast,” interrupted Kihara Noukan. “If you assume your audience already understands everything, your explanation is worthless. Simplicity and ease of understanding should be your goal here.”

Kamijou tilted his head.

“Hm? An Indian goddess, huh?”

For Kamijou, the word “goddess” brought to mind a kind and gentle young woman. Uh, oh. Now he was letting himself be influenced by the earlier mention of Orsola! Goddesses weren’t dorm mangers who always wore aprons and carried around brooms!!

And apparently that was way off in this case.

According to Dion Fortune:

“The original Kali is a fairly dangerous god. She started out as a representation of a certain goddess’s fury, so there’s not a hint of kindness found in her. She is a goddess of death and bloodshed and she is openly introduced as a god who has lost her sanity. But instead of a god of death for individuals, she’s more like a god of destruction for nations and the world. Also, destruction itself is not her final goal. One legend says the world was nearly destroyed by the impacts and tremors caused by her dance of joy after defeating her enemies.”

This was sounding bad already.

Hamazura was having trouble keeping up, so he asked a question.

“This is just a case of using a mythological name or symbol for a major project, right?”

“That does happen sometimes. Like with space exploration rockets or submarine missiles.”

Kamijou knew what Hamazura and Kihara Noukan were trying to say.

He decided to take over for them. …Even though he wasn’t exactly a magic expert himself.

“This spell is simply borrowing that goddess’s name, right? …Right? Surely you’re not going to say that goddess herself is going to be physically summoned here.”

That idea sounded absurd, but the Bologna Succubus and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet were right over there. The two of them were fighting over a variety pack of cookies that had been left in the consulate. The pack had six different kinds of cookies, but they were both only interested in the chocolate chip ones.

Yes, there were people here with names taken from myth.

After seeing the Magic Gods and Transcendents, Kamijou couldn’t just laugh this off. Vidhatri sleeping in the back had an Indian-sounding name, so anyone familiar with those myths would probably recognize her name. Plus, the Dion Fortune in front of him now wasn’t the real one – she had been created with a magical trick.

“It’s not that bad, but the end result isn’t much better.”

Kamijou felt like he had been trying to hold the conversation back when it suddenly slipped out of his hands entirely.

“As a spell, Adikalika sends the goddess of death and bloodshed to the caster’s chosen coordinates in the world,” continued Dion Fortune. “Specifically, the spell takes the catastrophic destruction that the four-armed black goddess would likely bring and transfers it to a specific land. Only the people in that chosen territory can know what happens there, but I can guarantee you that they will all die. Just assume that it’s all over if the spell is activated.”

The world, catastrophic destruction, chosen territory, all die…

This was sounding worse and worse, but this wasn’t quite enough to picture it. Among the mixture of people from different factions, Kamijou, Hamazura, and Takitsubo had the exact same distinctive look on their faces.

Dion Fortune noticed the way Kamijou was looking at her.

“If you want a description that’s easier for your science brains to understand, I guess you could think of it like an ICBM loaded with a really dangerous poison gas or germ. …But with Adikalika, it cannot be blown up after it is launched. And once it hits, all life within the land assigned the chosen human name will die. It is predicted that ''the people will be reduced to a mass of blood, flesh, and bone. That is, they will be crushed and sliced into what looks like a giant hunk of gore while still alive.''”

That was even more gruesome than expected.

Of course, it was always going to be bad if Great Demon Coronzon felt it was worth the time and effort to use. But still.

At this point, Accelerator spoke through the AI speaker, keeping his voice low.

“What does Coronzon hope to do with that thing?”

“Hm? Isn’t she going to attack Academy City with it?”

[[File:GT Index v13 BW2.png|thumb]]

Takitsubo answered his question with a question.

Was that really the answer, though?

Attacking Academy City sounded straightforward at first, but it felt wrong somehow. For one, she was in the city. If the spell was that destructive, she wouldn’t want to be caught in the destruction herself.

Dion Fortune recrossed her legs on the sofa and responded.

“I bet she has a different target.”

“?”

“I said the target was defined by a name assigned by humans, remember? To be blunt, the global Achilles heel she’s aiming for will probably be related to the Anglican Church or the Roman Catholic Church.”

“They are both foundations of the vast magic side☆” added Blodeuwedd the Bouquet with a cackle.

It sounded like even the Transcendents saw it that way. Now, anyway. Not long ago, they had acted like they were the center of the world.

Dion Fortune nodded and then said more.

“But I expect she’ll choose the headquarters of the Catholics in the end. So the Vatican…no, she’ll probably expand the scope to the entire Italian Peninsula.”

Kamijou had a question.

“But why? Wouldn’t she have a grudge against the UK?”

“I imagine she does. But she can’t attack us.”

Dion Fortune didn’t hesitate there.

But not because she was optimistic.

She had a bitter grimace on her face. As if to say the problem would be a lot smaller if the UK would just be chosen as the target.

“I mean, if she could use that against us, she would have done so last time. …If you follow her actions then, she attacked Board Chairman Aleister in Academy City before returning to Britain, stealing a treasure in Scotland, and attempting a major spell. If she could have launched Adikalika from Academy City and turned the entire United Kingdom into a sea of blood and mincemeat, she would have done so already. But that wasn’t what happened.”

Feeling a chill down the spine here may have been the natural human reaction, but it was also a meaningless reaction.

They had to focus on constructive topics, not the past. Even if they had to force their thoughts in that direction.

Then ''why didn’t it happen that way''?

Dion Fortune sighed.

“Crowley is a British magician. Ignoring his work could damage the UK’s reputation, so they put in a lot of work analyzing his spells.”

The Bologna Succubus commented while munching on the edge of a chocolate chip cookie (that she had swiped at the end of a battle of scratching nails with Blodeuwedd the Bouquet).

“I see. So do you have some kind of powerful resistance against Crowley-style magic, including Adikalika?”

“Right. At the very least, for the spells he created before his official death in 1947. …That’s why Coronzon tried to use a royal treasure to destroy the UK from within last time.”

“But the Roman Catholics are a different story?” asked Kamijou.

Dion Fortune shrugged.

“When it comes to Crowley, Italy had the huge bomb that was the Abbey of Thelema. But it sounds like Italy threw everything out of the country – including documents and spiritual items – when they ordered Crowley to leave.”

So If the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church had no Crowley resistance, would they have no way of preventing this attack from turning the entire country into a sea of blood, flesh, and bone?

And if that happened…

Takitsubo slowly blinked before asking a question.

“I’m not familiar with the different powers of the, um, magic…side? What happens in the worst case?”

“If nothing is done and this plays out to the end, Adikalika will first trigger all-out war between the magic side and science side. Because Academy City could have stopped it, but Great Demon Coronzon is a being who can only be explained by the magic side.”

“I see, I see. So even though Academy City wasn’t involved in the attack, the magic side will still blame them for not stopping Coronzon. But Academy City will fire back, saying Coronzon is from the magic side. Both sides will have a point, so there will be no end to the argument.”

When the Bologna Succubus spoke up, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet apparently felt a need to as well.

Because they were rivals, or because they were friends?

“The Roman Catholic Church has 2 billion followers, right? Even with all of Academy City’s unmanned weapons, how much can its 2.3 million people do with the city so exhausted?☆”

“…”

And what good was defeating those 2 billion anyway?

The point wasn’t to pit humans against each other to create an even bigger ocean of blood and dye the entire earth red like one big disturbing candy apple.

Would the world really let a single demon drive them that far over the edge?

“And despite being part of the magic side, the Roman Catholics will attack the Anglicans too. Because Crowley is a British magician. Not to mention how closely connected England and Academy City have been. And if the UK does have anti-Crowley tech, the Catholics would want it.”

Takitsubo cut in here.

“We’re talking about war, right? Could they really choose to fight on two fronts like that?”

“As we said, the problem with a war where both sides have a point is it’s hard for either side to stop.”

Things were reaching a large scale here.

But Kamijou knew the same had happened with World War Three, Gremlin, the Crowley’s Hazards, and R&C Occultics.

The global balance was a perilous thing, so even a small trigger could lead to an age of global war.

Great Demon Coronzon herself had said that she was a being who tore apart people’s bonds and obstructed human evolution. And that her method of doing that was the natural decomposition of her dispersion.

That meant Coronzon was intentionally trying to trigger a war like that. It was not a deterrent, a necessary cost, or a single step in some master plan. The war and chaos itself was her goal. The Adikalika spell was no more than the trigger for that.

…They had to stop something like that from happening ''again''.

This was no longer just about Academy City.

Kamijou wanted to know more details. He wanted as broad and deep an understanding as he could get.

“How long does this Adikalika spell take to prepare?”

“By my estimate, the world will be headed toward its doom by midnight tonight. Assuming we don’t do anything to stop it.”

Midnight.

“But that’s a fairly optimistic estimate.”

So there was a chance it could end before then.

It was nearly 6 PM.

They had less than 7 hours remaining. The beginning of disaster was imminent.

“She’s moving awfully fast,” groaned Kihara Noukan. “This Coronzon person has only been in control for less than two hours, right? I don’t see how she could have made any large-scale preparations for this.”

“She doesn’t need any. How long was she sealed inside Aleister? I bet she’s been making full use of her great demon mind that entire time, running simulation after simulation. And as a fellow Golden magician, it was obvious at a glance that Academy City is littered with pieces of Crowley’s legacy. This isn’t like a poison gas weapon she has to smuggle into the country or a nuclear bomb she has to manufacture. She’s surrounded by items she can use.”

“Oh? So to look at it in reverse…”

“I like the way you think, golden retriever. Yes, Adikalika can only be readied inside Academy City. You can think of it as an issue of feng shui or the terrain if you want.”

Even so…

(Aleister, huh?)

What had become of him?

Was he trapped inside that body with Coronzon in control now, or had he been annihilated when she emerged? Kamijou still didn’t know.

At the very least, he knew Aleister, the man who had grieved for the people he lost, was human. For better and for worse. On an instinctual level, he wouldn’t want to construct this Adikalika spell and destroy the world with it.

That human had lost his family and, due to that one factor, decided to declare war on the Golden magic cabal.

At his peak, that human would have been on the side trying to stop this.

No matter how much he would probably deny it.

“…”

Kamijou had Imagine Breaker in his right hand.

Its ability to negate any supernatural ability should be able to stop Coronzon’s Adikalika. However, relying on ''that alone'' would be suicide. For one, he couldn’t win a one-on-one fight against Coronzon, so even approaching the core of her plan would be a challenge.

Imagine Breaker was important, but it wasn’t enough.

“W-we do have a trump card, don’t we?”

This came from Hamazura.

He might seem far removed from magic, but he apparently had an idea.

“Dion Fortune’s…whatever it’s called. That black box!”

“Oh… I really wouldn’t recommend using the Archetype Processor here.”

“Why not!? Can’t it…what was it? Eat any magic and then break it apart and…transform it? Into something else? You were ''forced to use it'' in the UK, so I know what it can do!”

This carried a lot of meaning.

Yes.

Great Demon Coronzon was painstakingly constructing some unprecedented magic. This spell was on such a scale that not even she could whip it up in a flash, so it had to be quite complex. …So with Dion Fortune’s black box(?), couldn’t they mess it up and ruin the entire plan?

They could use that.

If they had two trump cards, Coronzon would have to split her focus. Which could create an opening. And more importantly, even if Kamijou’s right hand failed to reach her, it helped immensely to have another trump card available.

But something bothered Kamijou.

That item belonged to Dion Fortune, so why hadn’t she brought it up as an option?

“First of all, don’t expect much from it. My toy isn’t as convenient as your right hand.”

Dion Fortune sighed and raised her index finger. A box the size of a soccer ball twirled atop it. Alice stared at it, wide eyed.

She seemed confident in her control.

So her concern wouldn’t just be whether she succeeded or failed.

“All this thing does is convert an existing spell into ‘an unpredictable form’. That means the magic in front of me doesn’t just disappear.”

“But that’s not nothing,” said Hamazura. “If it can at least stop that world-destroying Adikalika magic, then it’s worth using.”

“''The massive amount of magic power gathered to activate Adikalika will remain untouched.''”

The atmosphere strained.

So would it be like causing a top-of-the-line race car to explode just before the race began?

“After the spell is fully dismantled and converted into something else inside the box, not even I can predict what form it will take when it reemerges into the world. Listen, Hamazura. If we’re unlucky, it could even blow away Academy City. And even if we aren’t unlucky, it could still have a major downside. There is technically a chance it could result in a fantastically lucky phenomenon like burying Academy City in candy, but you’d have better odds of winning the lottery. Are you willing to bet on those odds? When it means putting so many other people’s lives at risk?”

“Uh…”

Hamazura groaned, but Kamijou glanced over at Alice.

Alice Anotherbible might be able to “adjust” the entire structure of the world to ''force a jackpot''…but that would be a whim on her part.

Getting Alice’s help was fine.

But they couldn’t rely entirely on her when they had no other chance of winning. If she failed and was attacked for bringing about the end of the world, it could turn her into a monster again.

“It’s an interim position until the next one is officially chosen, but I am currently the archbishop in charge of the entire Anglican Church. I intend to live up to the trust placed in me. So I am not willing to make a choice that might protect the world but would be like killing 2.3 million people. How about you?”

The rest fell silent.

Kamijou, Hamazura, Takitsubo, Kihara Noukan, the Bologna Succubus, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, Accelerator, and even Alice.

Their unwillingness to speak meant they were conflicted. They each had two weights: one on the yes side of the scales and one on the no side. It was a matter of extent and size and also proof that none of them was willing to give up on Academy City so readily.

But at the same time, Kamijou had a thought.

…This was probably something she could only say at this point.

If Adikalika’s preparations really were complete and the final seconds were ticking down until the 7 or 8 billion people around the globe were dragged into a massive war, he thought Dion Fortune probably would make the decision. She would choose to force a resolution by putting 2.3 million lives at risk. Because she had said she would live up to the trust placed in her as the archbishop of the Anglican Church which protected the people from wicked magic.

Kamijou breathed in and out.

Stop thinking so negatively. Dion Fortune had said herself she didn’t want to do that. And because the situation was so pressing, he needed to come up with more positive ideas.

“Let’s just think of that as a last resort available just in case. If we try everything else and none of it works, then it’s up to Dion Fortune. If we think of it as a lifeline during this tightrope walk, it should help our mental state.”

“Hey, I said I wasn’t going to-”

“And we’re risking our lives so you won’t have to. That’s why we’re here, right?”

And speaking of having someone to support you, Kamijou Touma recalled his fight against Stiyl Magnus.

“I’m so glad I know the board chairman…”

It helped immensely to have Academy City’s new board chairman on their side. The city wasn’t in the best state, but holding full authority over it changed things considerably from fighting as individuals.

“I doubt it will be that easy.”

But.

It was Dion Fortune who immediately shot down that hope.

“I can only guess, but I bet she’ll be making her move soon.”

===Part 7===

“What?”

Accelerator frowned.

An alarm was buzzing.

This wasn’t just a single window or popup displaying a dangerous error. They were popping up too fast to read. He would have to check the log for that, but that was scrolling by endlessly like a realtime chat.

And the “unknown error” messages weren’t exactly helpful.

He still held the master key that took the form of a smartphone, yet his commands were being rejected. There shouldn’t have been privileges higher than that, but something else was obviously intervening and hijacking control.

This wasn’t anything like hacking or a cyber attack.

No one was breaking in by spoofing their credentials.

He didn’t sense that sort of logic here.

And, of course, these weren’t just unintentional failures or malfunctions.

Which meant…

Was there some command structure entirely separate from the scientific technology?

“I-isn’t this really bad?”

“…”

“This isn’t just the satellites and comms. There’s a chain reaction of malfunctions in the electric, gas, and water systems! It’s January and it’s snowing outside. Who knows how many people will starve or freeze if the pipes freeze and the power stops!!”

Most of Academy City’s food came from agro-buildings and clone meat, but a failure in the RFID-tag-based transportation instructions could create a situation where plenty of ingredients were being produced but none of it could be processed or reach the stores and restaurants. And in fact the bases responsible for that were going down one after another.

“C-could this also be why false alarms keep coming in? Even from the germ lab, the petrochemical plant, and the radiation testing lab… N-n-now there’s no way to tell a real major incident from all the false alarms!”

Were all the automatic reports meant to paralyze Anti-Skill, the firefighters, the hospitals, and everyone else who preserved the peace?

No, this was too roundabout a method for that.

(This is clearly more than just some unfortunate trouble, but the methods are really inconsistent for an intentional attack. It also doesn’t feel like someone acquired the city’s emergency response manual and used that to reverse engineer a method of paralyzing the city.)

He could tell this was an emergency, but that was why he couldn’t act rashly.

“So this isn’t meant as an attack. So is it a side effect of something? But of what?”

As Accelerator glowered into the screen, attempting to grasp the situation, Qliphah Puzzle 545’s shrill voice pierced his ears. She was kind of annoying. …Although that was, in a way, unavoidable when she had been ''designed'' as an agitator meant to create a mood that would lead to war.

“Can’t you artificially stop the rain…no, it’s snow now, isn’t it? Anyway, can’t you change the weather? This snow did start out as artificial rain, didn’t it?”

“Stopping the snow’d be easy, but clear skies would only bring the temperature down further. You’ve heard of radiative cooling, haven’t you? That accumulated snow won’t melt right away.”

And if the temperature dropped, more people would die.

The map of Academy City displayed on a wall monitor was gradually changing color.

Yellow indicated areas where ordinary living would be a challenge. Red indicated areas where survival would be a challenge.

Around half was already marked one or the other.

“So within 72 hours, it’s estimated this many will die? More than 100 thousand?”

In urban life, snow accumulation made travel difficult and isolated households. If the power and water stopped in that situation, people would soon start to die. Before even considering transportation, the city’s food was almost entirely reliant on the agro-buildings and clone meat. They wouldn’t be able to grow much of anything without water or electricity.

To prevent such a situation, Academy City had decentralized its power generation using the wind turbines distributed around the city, but even that was useless if the central facilities controlling the power system went down.

And…

“This estimate is assuming everyone obediently stays home as their told and dies there.”

“…”

“If they start rioting or looting, these calculations don’t mean shit. Then we could see several times as many victims.”

It was said the Japanese were relatively less likely to do such things, but that didn’t mean they would just sit tight at home and wait for death. With their lives on the line, they would try to survive. Accelerator felt that was the natural reaction for any living thing.

But…

(I thought this city was designed to avoid this kind of large-scale infrastructure trouble. I know there’s no such thing as absolute safety, but this number of loopholes feels intentional.)

These times were complicated by the fact that he had inherited the city from someone else instead of building it from the ground up himself. He held the smartphone master key, but he hadn’t designed the structure and layout of every single facility and piece of equipment.

However, the previous board chairman had been Aleister. He had been able to shrug it off every time the dark side took a shot at him, so it seemed unlikely he would leave foolish holes like this unplugged for long.

In fact, with holes this large, wouldn’t some hacker from inside or outside the city have used them to bring down the city already?

In that case…

(These loopholes are no mistake. Someone placed them there on purpose.)

He thought in silence.

But he could only come up with unpleasant ideas.

(But no one except Aleister could make use of them. They use some kind of system that the hackers, crackers, and others who make ''ordinary science'' their plaything couldn’t even imagine.)

The screen suddenly changed.

No, someone had taken control of it. Even here in the board chairman’s headquarters.

The voice that spoke from it was familiar.

“Hello again. Have you started to catch on, Mr. New Board Chairman?”

“…Is this your doing?”

“This is nothing more than a side effect. I am not trying to destroy the infrastructure for everyday necessities. The destruction I am after is on a much larger scale. Then again, seeing peaceful people starving, resenting each other, and beginning a chain reaction of violence could make for an amusing, unintentional, show. But it is nothing more than a bit of entertainment.”

“You’re only using a backdoor. You haven’t actually taken full control.”

“Give up. It’s a fundamentally different system. You can’t influence the side I’m on no matter how much you type away on your keyboard. Can you keep up with this? Here’s a hint: the science side has no way of explaining the problem plaguing Academy City. Magician Aleister Crowley designed the city that way from the beginning. He took the laws and rules of our magic side and hid them below a veneer of cutting-edge science.”

“…”

Accelerator intentionally remained silent.

So it was Qliphah Puzzle 545 who carelessly opened her mouth and continued the conversation.

“What do you mean…and how far…does it go?”

“How far? Everything. Everything!! For example, the dam in the mountains, the flow of the rivers, and even the culverts hidden below ground! And it isn’t just the water supply either. The railway lines, the broadcast facilities, the main roads, the highways, and even the layout of the districts!! Which is why I can so easily remove them from your control and place them under mine!!! …This is a city of learning created by Aleister Crowley, so it is nothing more than a rehash of the Abbey of Thelema he once built in Italy in order to drag talent out of young lives by drowning them in the supernatural and drugs!!”

After all that, Coronzon cooled down.

In fact, it was uncertain if she had even really felt all that emotion deep down.

“But none of that matters… Academy City appears to detest me for the chaos I bring, but are you sure that’s a good idea, my enemy? Have you perhaps forgotten something?”

“Like what?”

“That I am no longer your only enemy.”

Coronzon did not use hints and insinuations at this point.

Likely because she knew a direct statement would cause a greater shock and more chaos.

“The world will be split in two. Because Academy City named itself a city of science and the sole representative of one side of the world, the rest of the world had no choice but to categorize itself as the magic side. But now it is coming out that Academy City is chock full of magical symbols. …Do you really think the people forced so unfairly to keep their heads down are going to let that go?”

===Part 8===

They didn’t hesitate.

Kanzaki Kaori, Itsuwa, and the other Anglican magicians had been waiting outside Academy City near the wall, but as soon as they detected ''an unfavorable sign'', they immediately crossed the wall none of them had been able to cross before.

They didn’t even bother masking their footsteps or presences.

The outsiders of the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Forces took the lead and paved the way for the second wave made up of the main Anglican team. It was their usual method.

The total number that crossed the wall in that series of actions exceeded ten thousand.

“Wh-who are you people!?”

When an Anti-Skill officer reacted to the unexpected group in a fluster, Tatemiya Saiji approached and swiftly took control of his consciousness. This meant more than just putting him to sleep on his feet. Tatemiya dragged out every last piece of information the man knew: the names and faces of his colleagues and superiors, the location of crucial facilities, passwords, and so on. Complete brainwashing was too much of a challenge, but searching out information was doable.

Then they only had to repeat the process.

It helped that Academy City was severely shorthanded. Drum-shaped security robots, eight-legged Predator Octopuses, Six Wings attack helicopters, and other unmanned weapons were being used to make up for the lack, but they weren’t much use against the magicians. The magicians passed right by them without being detected.

Perhaps this was the result of England’s long relationship with Academy City.

The Anglicans already had countermeasures ready.

“We Amakusas will head to District 2. The Former Agnese Forces should head first to District 1 and move on to the retrieval job once you finish there.”

“Understood.”

“And take this just in case.”

“A duralumin case? What’s in it? An Anglican-tuned spiritual item would actually be a poor match for us.”

“There are British flags inside. Raise them around the city if you need to reduce the morale of the enemy remnants.”

“What a pain.”

Agnese Sanctis sounded truly annoyed.

She didn’t know whose idea this was, but did they not consider the possibility of it angering the enemy into rebelling?

Then again, her own use of the word “rebelling” may have been a sign of her subconsciously looking down on them. This was their city, so the science side was ostensibly the one in charge.

“So we’re already thinking of Academy City as nothing more than remnants?”

“They did fail to stop us at the wall.”

No matter how much security had been beefed up using science, it was powerless against magic. The magicians could drag out any information someone knew and, if they needed biometrics like a fingerprint or iris scan, they could ''send the approved person trudging over to the scanner'' and get it unlocked that way.

District 1 contained Anti-Skill headquarters and District 2 contained the unmanned weapon communication data center disguised as a gunpowder testing lab.

With classified information like that, it would ordinarily take years to confirm the facility even existed, much less determine its location. But a group of magicians had no trouble taking control.

And once they held the location, they wouldn’t even need to use magic to deceive the unmanned weaponry.

They were even gradually identifying the locations of the 12 directors. All the information that had been kept so unnaturally under wraps had to be hidden somewhere in the facilities they were taking. Also, Kanzaki and the others didn’t even need any knowledge or skills with machines. By placing the necessary symbols on the devices in question and holding out their hands, they could read the residual thoughts left by the people who had operated them.

Science side telepathy and magic side spells worked entirely differently.

Which meant there was no defense against this unknown form of attack.

(Aleister. …Given who he was, I doubt this approach would have worked back when he was in charge. But things have changed.)

The R&C Occultics affair had partially exposed the existence of magic to the world, but based on the response from the city, the exposure hadn’t been serious enough to launch a specialized attack against a professional magician. Did information that spread through fads not stick around long? Not only did people simply stop paying attention, but any knowledge could be distorted into uselessness as it spread.

They had already secured a few of the directors, so it looked like they could stick to the current plan while staying on the lookout for any surprise attacks.

Kanzaki and the rest had won.

(This just leaves the District 10 prison. The biggest hurdle will be whether we can checkmate him without directly approaching that most crucial point, but it looks like this will end without giving them a chance to send out the science side’s angel.)

“Other teams have taken District 15’s broadcast station and smartphone data center. Anti-Skill, was it? We can now block the drive recorders and tablets they use. Apparently arrest warrants are all digital nowadays, so this effectively leaves them powerless. Does this make phase 1 a success, Priestess?”

“I suppose it does.”

Kanzaki Kaori did not look pleased by Tsushima’s report.

This had been their plan of course, but…

(It was too easy. Was the science side really already on its last legs?)

The world-renowned Anglican Church had deployed a large number of personnel for this, but it had still only been a blitzkrieg strike of less than half an hour.

What had happened to the power balance between science and magic? The two sides being too evenly matched for any kind of attack had supposedly been the best way to keep the peace, but now it looked like one side would endlessly push back the other.

Monotone beeping sounded within the vast structure with no workers or supervisors.

A communication device had received a call.

“Are you the dumbasses making a mess of an already messy situation?”

“Just a moment,” said Kanzaki as she made a few operations on the data center’s devices. “I just set this facility to handle some of the processing that had grown unstable. Of course, I only mean I followed the instructions on the warning window. I hope that stabilized communications somewhat.”

“What are you after?”

“We could not allow Academy City to remain in charge after discovering the city itself breaks the treaty between magic and science. And if the city still contains some secrets after Aleister left, then the best way of ensuring a solid foundation for the fight against Coronzon is for our Anglican Church to temporarily take over management of the city.”

“The treaty…” said Itsuwa, sounding somewhat worried.

“Take over management, my ass. You know what you’ve done is an invasion, don’t you? Besides, I’ve never even heard of this treaty you’re referencing.”

“That goes back to before you took over. And now that we know Lola Stuart of the Anglican Church was Great Demon Coronzon and Academy City’s board chairman was Crowley, that agreement likely was a meaningless and empty thing. Plus, both Archbishop Lola and Board Chairman Aleister are officially considered dead. It is very unclear if any agreement made between the two holds any power anymore.”

And of course, it provided the new board chairman with no defense here.

In a way, it may have helped him that he hadn’t played a part in it.

“If we don’t do anything, Coronzon will continue to take over Academy City’s functions. We need to stop her Adikalika spell as much as anyone. Plus, we cannot allow large numbers of innocents to die of starvation, freezing, accidents, or the general chaos.”

“Tch.”

But Kanzaki Kaori did not gloat here.

She simply spoke calmly to the many magicians on her side.

“We will manage Academy City. That means the safety of the city’s residents and their property is our responsibility. Do not forget that we are rightfully to blame if a single person in the city starves during a blackout or dies in a traffic accident. Each team is to distribute personnel across the city to restore order and, if necessary, clear snow or guide traffic.”

In truth, Kanzaki Kaori did not have a clear view of it all.

Their original mission had been to retrieve Index.

The plan to take control of Academy City had only been if the city refused to return her. It had simply been reworked for use in the fight against Coronzon.

It was all the result of chance.

In this, she was the opposite of Kamijou Touma and his misfortune.

Was it Kanzaki Kaori’s unnatural level of luck that had allowed it all to come together so well?

(I always get first prize all on my own. And by holding the spot at the top, my luck sends my neighbors down toward hell. It makes me sick.)

Great Demon Coronzon was attempting to use the entire city to construct a single massive spell.

The fact that Academy City could use magic was a major problem in and of itself, but Kanzaki thought making that accusation now would be misjudging their priorities. Doing that now would be playing right into the demon’s hands as she prepared Adikalika.

They could not give her time.

Fighting back against Coronzon was the more urgent task.

So if the Anglicans used magic to try and take back the city the demon was using magic to hijack, they could establish an evenly-matched tug-of-war.

“All we have under our control are the bare minimum of electricity, gas, and water… But the Adikalika described by the current archbishop would instantly blow away this brief calm. In fact, it would plunge the entire world into the fires of war. We must avoid a meaningless three-way war between the Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and Academy City. By any means necessary.”

She doubted they could take complete control back from Coronzon at this point, but they could at least delay her.

They had done all this just for that.

They had even pressed their blades and magic against the people they were supposed to be helping.

Kanzaki Kaori clenched her teeth.

“I hope this will slow her at least a little…but even then it will only buy some time. This crisis will not end unless something is done about Coronzon herself.”

===Part 9===

Back inside the half-destroyed consulate…

“A large Anglican group…just took over the city and are keeping order for the city?”

A dazed Kamijou parroted what Accelerator had just told them.

This was a new turn of events.

Academy City was on the verge of death with no means of fighting back, but still.

And even if it looked like the Anglicans were providing friendly cooperation, it sounded a lot like they had concluded the city no longer had the strength left to keep its own peace.

It was looking like the very framework of Academy City could collapse from conflict between humans before Great Demon Coronzon even did anything.

“Dion Fortune, was it?” asked Accelerator. “Do something about this. You’re their boss, aren’t you!?”

“Well…”

This should have been a basic question and request.

Yet Fortune seemed reluctant to respond.

“If I had to guess, I really don’t think my power would be very effective here. I mean, the previous archbishop was Lola Stuart…''in other words, Great Demon Coronzon'', right? After being betrayed by the person at the very top, they’re going to be skeptical of anything coming from the next person in that role. And technically speaking, I’m not even human. I started out as a scout created by Coronzon.”

The Anglican Church couldn’t leave their top spot empty and they had needed someone to fill the role, but did that not mean they actually had much trust in the chosen individual?

They ordinarily did what she said, but that might not hold once the world was on the verge of destruction.

“Damn,” Kamijou muttered under his breath.

Yet again things were looking worse.

His plan to get Alice Anotherbible accepted by the world by advertising her as the hero who had saved the world by defeating Coronzon was already falling apart.

Academy City had been the perfect place to send the magic side’s greatest tinderbox because the place had no connection to magic.

But now that Academy City itself was known to be steeped in magic, the Anglican Church would never agree to leave Alice Anotherbible there. In fact, there would be fears that adding Alice’s incredible power to Academy City’s arsenal could lead to the creation of a third faction that could wield both magic and science.

And in fact, R&C Occultics had used both as a weapon and had caused great chaos during its short time in business.

Then Dion Fortune spoke from the sofa.

“Wait. Hold on.”

“What now?”

“Well, there’s another operation being carried out in parallel to that one.”

“What exactly is it!?”

Kamijou’s strong question did not get an answer out of Fortune.

After a while, she finally spoke quietly and quickly without looking him in the eye.

“If my people aren’t interested in obeying me…that one might actually be even more dangerous?”

===Part 10===

“That’s it. That’s Academy City’s outer wall,” said Index, holding the calico cat.

She had been communicating with the Anglican Church using carrier pigeons instead of EM signals or fiber optic cables. With no home in Academy City and magicians all over the world are after the grimoire library in her head, she had no option but to return to England.

She heard a sudden voice.

But she couldn’t see anyone around.

Index had made a friend here in Academy City.

Kazakiri Hyouka.

“So you’re going…”

“I am.”

“I’ll miss you, but if this is the path you’ve chosen, I won’t stop you.”

Index was glad they got a chance to talk before she left.

But that wasn’t all.

Kazakiri had one more thing to say.

“But be careful. Don’t let your guard down until the very end.”

“?”

[[File:GT Index v13 BW3.png|thumb]]

The disembodied voice stopped there.

Othinus, the 15cm girl on Index’s shoulder, sighed.

“I know I’m not one to talk, but you meet the strangest people.”

Maybe so.

Index continued through the red snow to approach the city wall.

“Oh, there you are.”

She heard a voice.

It was Agnese Sanctis.

Sisters Lucia, Angelene, and more were there as well. The Amakusas would be better acquainted with Japanese geography, but apparently the Roman Catholic unit that had joined the Anglicans was here as well.

“That’s odd,” whispered Othinus up on Index’s shoulder.

Come to think of it, wasn’t the Anglican unit supposed to be waiting just outside the wall?

The cat mewed. Apparently he wasn’t bothered.

With Index’s perfect memory, she knew she wasn’t misremembering the plan. They were supposed to protect her after she left the city…

“Everything’s gotten all confused. This Great Demon Coronzon – I think it was? – has appeared in Academy City, so we’re dealing with that before taking you back home.”

“Really?”

Index tilted her head.

Was it really safe to wait around like that?

Wasn’t the idea to get her out of Academy City and return her back to England as quickly as possible?

“We could just head back to England I guess, but, um, if we don’t do anything about Coronzon, the country might not be there when we get back. Or something like that? Anyway, follow me.”

Agnese took the lead. And moved back into the city.

This really was strange.

“(Hey.)”

“?”

“(Be cautious. A last-minute change of plans is more dangerous than the grim reaper on the front line.)”

Othinus kept her voice low so Agnese and the rest couldn’t hear.

Which meant she was working to hide their doubts.

This had been odd from the start. The idea had been to meet Index secretly and help her escape the city, yet Agnese’s group didn’t seem concerned about discovery. Even though Academy City could easily view this as a betrayal. It was almost like they weren’t at all worried about being caught.

“For now, let’s get you to District 2. Letting you see Kanzaki would be best.”

===Part 11===

“(E-excuse me. We have a report from the Former Agnese Forces. They say they’ve brought Index-san here.)”

The room was so quiet that Itsuwa’s modest whisper to Kanzaki managed to permeate the entire space.

A strange air hung over the District 2 unmanned weapon data center.

And this air was no metaphor.

The odor of death hung over the place.

Just as human sweat and the smell of a beast were different things, the stench of your own species decomposing was somehow different. The brain warned you to be on your guard and not to overlook anything.

It said danger was approaching.

“Hello, hello. I’m Isabella Theism of Necessarius. My specialty is necromancy.”

There was a stark difference between the carefree smile and the words it produced.

Necromancy.

“I know it has a sketchy reputation, but fortunetelling and the impurity of death are really about the only two superstitions that remain in the depths of ordinary people’s hearts even in a world of science. Like seeing a house as special because someone was killed there, or seeing a rope as special because it was used to hang someone. See what I mean? It’s something you can’t rid yourself of with equations. You might find it silly, but it’ll still be there inside you. That is what I make use of☆”

A stir spread around Kanzaki Kaori.

The Amakusas had been developed (by Kanzaki herself) to be pure and straightforward in that regard. They couldn’t so easily accept someone who called herself a necromancer.

And the woman appeared accustomed to the reaction.

She herself was a beautiful woman with silver hair and brown skin, but all she did was smile in rags permeated with the odor of death.

Agnese, who must have come all the way to District 2 to escort Index, joined the conversation while brushing red snow off her shoulders.

“She has experience as a team leader. I’ve heard she had cleaned up several troublesome messes on a global scale, like the Cadaver Island Struggle and the Necropolis Calamity. …Which means she was hiding who she really is ''last time we worked together''.”

“Oh, yeah. I did do those things, didn’t I? But I wasn’t hiding it exactly. I just forgot is all. Why bother remembering incidents once they’re over?”

“Then did you solve those with necromancy too?”

“Everyone starts off in their own unique way, but they all end up wailing by the end. ‘I wish I’d never been born’, and stuff like that. So I can’t say who was who. They all blur together in my memory☆”

This was no laughing matter.

Both of those had been true wars with, even looking just at the official count, over a thousand combatants. And these had all been the professional magicians of top-level magic cabals. If the count went past the official members and included the workers building barricades, the lookouts and spies hidden here and there, and the mercenaries (from the magic side of course) who were invited in to bolster their personnel, who could say how many more it was. And they had all ended up much the same.

Only Isabella herself continued smiling emptily.

“Hee hee. Did I scare you?”

An “eep” escaped someone.

Itsuwa jumped at suddenly being the target of the woman’s attention, so Tsushima, who was the big sister type, instinctually inserted herself between the two of them.

“Unfermented wine and flavorless brown bread – both symbols of death,” sang Isabella regardless. “The name necromancy sounds frightening, but that’s all it really comes down to. It did used to involve drawing magic circles on dead bodies, but nowadays everyone uses imitations so they don’t gather the attention of the police. This country has ceremonies where you burn or bury a doll in place of a person, doesn’t it? It’s like that.”

“Eh?” Itsuwa sounded surprised. “You mean you don’t actually work with dead bodies?”

“I suppose the closest thing I do would be borrowing their clothing. Although different factions are split on whether that’s to search for the deceased’s soul so you can summon it or if you use it to remind someone of the deceased so you can extract the related memories and testimony from their mind.”

To be blunt, there were ways in the modern age to legally (although only by abusing loopholes in the law) acquire a full dead human body, but Isabella did not do that.

She had a simple reason.

She didn’t see any real purpose in having a real corpse.

''At least in Western European necromancy'', the actual ceremonies were very different from the public conception.

“Going grave digging and making a servant out of the dead body? Resurrecting a mummy from an ancient sarcophagus? No, no, I would never. Nobody uses those methods anymore – they’re too inefficient. Besides, the essence of necromancy is communicating with the spirits of the dead. So instead of shutting off their physical limiters to provide superhuman strength, it’s about acquiring information you shouldn’t have by using spirits who have been freed from the physical laws. So really you could say it’s like an uglier version of divination.”

From a Japanese perspective, it was like a version of the Kokkuri-san that used the dead.

The technique was only used to learn.

You couldn’t expect to intentionally mimic the cases where the necromancer screwed up and ended up possessed, allowing a mysterious entity into their body so they could surpass the laws of physics and shoot fire from their hands. That was far too dangerous.

As long as you understood the proper methods, you could complete the ceremonies without an actual dead body.

It could be the room where someone died, the rope used to hang someone, or clothing covered in death odor. How much of “the air of death” an item required to guide you to a special mental state depended on the individual magician, but in this case the level of the technique came from how cost efficient it was.

Isabella Theism had reached the point that she could do this:

“Really, it’s best to have a recipe for a dead body where all the ingredients can be found at the average supermarket or home improvement store. You take some pork or beef and then you make a skull out of lumber and so on.”

“Th-that’s how it’s done? That sounds more like a shop class project.”

Itsuwa’s comment made Isabella clap her hands together in delight.

“It all depends on the quality. Back before CG was so easy to use, splatter films had all sorts of tricks to make convincing fake guts. The poor image quality helped, but the end result was a lot more grotesque and disturbing than what you see in modern horror.”

Kanzaki sighed and spoke up.

“I don’t know if we will have any use for you. For now, I imagine the tug-of-war over the city against Coronzon will continue as we try to delay the activation of Adikalika, but magic to artificially consume lives doesn’t sound very useful there.”

“You think you’re in control of the entire city?” quietly asked Isabella. In a mocking tone. “Do you really believe that? Take as much of the surface-level infrastructure and important facilities as you like, you won’t fully stop the city from functioning. There’s so much more still hidden below the surface. Not to mention you haven’t even captured half of the 12 directors and have no idea where the rest are. You can’t stop Coronzon’s work by desperately trying to plug all the holes. Academy City has more than one map. It looks like a peaceful city at first, but the things hidden by the multiple overlapping maps are what makes it so horrifying.”

It wasn’t Kanzaki who immediately replied.

Itsuwa made the first rebuttal while trembling.

“H-how can you know that? Academy City is supposed to be an unknown world for you too.”

“''I can smell death here.'' The city is thick with it, so there has to be more we aren’t seeing.”

She made it sound obvious.

Or maybe this was a sense unique to necromancers.

Kanzaki asked a careful question.

“Finding fault is easy, but if you were in charge, what exactly would you do to solve the problem?”

“I will answer that with my first job as a necromancer.”

Isabella turned her attention toward something other than Great Demon Coronzon or Academy City.

She focused on the girl who they had supposedly been asked to retrieve and protect.

“The grimoire library, hm? Quite a troublesome thing to be left in Academy City with all this going on. It was miraculous good fortune that Coronzon didn’t secure her before we found her. Coronzon will not leave someone so dangerous free. Dealing with that must be our top priority.”

“What are you going to do with Index!?”

“For now, locking her up should work. She shouldn’t be a problem as long as Coronzon can’t abuse her knowledge, so the situation isn’t pressing enough to require ''silencing her more permanently.'' But to be clear, that’s only for now.”

Isabella Theism was saying she would do it if it became necessary.

She viewed the current Adikalika as the borderline with the worst case. She was saying they had to keep those 103,000 grimoires from being used to either greatly abbreviate Adikalika’s preparation period or to create magic even more troublesome than Adikalika.

She was correct.

While also twisted at a fundamental level.

“The other uncertain factor would be Kamijou Touma.”

Isabella Theism actually sounded amused.

The brown necromancer continued.

“The effects of his right hand are certainly fascinating, but whoever they might be, ''someone who has died once already is part of my domain.'' He is dead meat. That is a resource that should be utilized for maximum effectiveness. And I mean toward resolving the Coronzon and Adikalika problem, of course.”

“That is unaccep-”

“Oh? And who exactly can protect someone who is still considered dead on paper?”

“Wait.”

The interruption came from the white nun.

Despite the situation, Index’s concern wasn’t for herself.

“D-do you mean Touma?”

“…Sigh, what a pain.”

“Why are you talking about him that way? Died once already? Why would you phrase it that way? What exactly happened to Touma!?”

Index heard a sticky splat.

From her shoulders.

They had been grabbed by discolored corpse hands with visible bone and a rotting stench.

She didn’t even have time to scream. Rotting corpses too melted and swollen to even tell their sex had grabbed her shoulders and pinned her down on the floor.

“Agh!!”

“Don’t worry. These are decoy bodies made from sanitary ingredients,” said a cool-faced Isabella.

But no matter what they were made from, these were “dead bodies” professionally made to be indistinguishable from real ones. The shock of unexpected contact with one was no different.

“I came all the way to Japan to do my job. I am not interested in your home drama.”

Index had a perfect memory.

So she could never forget anything she saw or felt.

So.

“Don’t…you dare.”

A new voice joined in.

Stiyl Magnus.

Unlike with Index, there had been no report of his arrival. Kanzaki was supposedly in charge here, but she had no idea why he was here or how he had gotten so injured and weakened.

But something must have happened for him to be so badly hurt.

Stiyl gasped for breath and practically had to drag his body over as he approached.

“What do you think you’re doing, Isabella Theism? You want to lock her up? Stop that this instant. You aren’t fit to command the Anglicans… As a Saint, Kanzaki is the one in command here. If you’re going to insist otherwise, I will punish you!!”

“Ehh? You’re really going with that? The guy who betrayed Kanzaki the first chance he got really shouldn’t be talking about the sanctity of rules.”

A large mass dropped from the necromancer’s rags, landing at her feet.

It was a thoroughly dried, and thus lightweight, corpse.

Had it been pasted to the inside of her rags, arranged just right to be hidden despite the many holes?

It was likely only an imitation made from a mixture of cow bones, pork, ceramic, and more.

“Is this really a job to outsource and leave in the hands of a subcontractor? Obviously the on-site leader should be an actual Anglican. And I would say you’ve disqualified yourself after rushing off on a personal vendetta.”

The hunk of death lying at her feet suddenly absorbed all the moisture around her.

It grew to nearly three meters and lost its humanoid shape.

Kanzaki realized what was happening.

“Wait, Isabe-!?”

A wet pop followed.

The blood and innards were red. Beads of death were scattered evenly in all 360 degrees. Each one could ''eat through'' glass used to store nearly any chemical and plastic that wouldn’t decompose even after buried for 100 years. And there were tens – if not hundreds – of thousands of them.

“!?”

Even Kanzaki Kaori flinched before that contaminant. She sharply strung out invisibly thin wires to sacrifice them to the goop. To protect the Amakusas behind her, not herself.

Which created the tiniest of openings.

The Saint who insisted she would save everyone could only watch as Stiyl Magnus and Isabella Theism both took a step forward.

The tall priest’s eyes displayed contempt.

“Is that all?”

He spread out his rune cards.

A flame sword extended from his clenched right hand.

“Did you really think that could stop me, Isabella!?”

Death by burning symbolized purification in Christianity. But it did not mean salvation for the object being burned. Instead, it annihilated the object to eliminate it from the world. Some even believed that a body burned according to a certain ritualized procedure lost the right to participate in the Last Judgment.

It was a matter of compatibility.

Any amount of that contaminant could be eliminated by Stiyl’s flame sword.

Thus, the necromancer’s trick proved meaningless as the priest’s sword sliced through that unclean space. Along with the magician who had scattered the deadly contaminant in the first place.

The flame roared loud as it sucked in oxygen. More than just toss fire at her from without, the brown necromancer’s slashed body was burned from within.

It was thorough and swift.

But she put up too little resistance for someone being burned alive.

Eventually, Stiyl caught on.

“Is this another imitation made from different ingredients!?”

By the time the words had left him, he was surrounded by brown women.

All imitations.

But he didn’t have time to gasp.

Directly behind him, Isabella Theism hid among the imitations.

The action she took wasn’t even all that difficult.

It was gentle even.

She simply placed a hand on the priest’s shoulder.

Stiyl Magnus’s eyes rolled back in his head.

He coughed up something dark. A clump of blood. More of the hideous color spilled from his eyelids and ears. But most importantly, his two-meter form crumpled straight down.

Even the veteran Necessarius members who were world-renowned for their skill in battle against magicians couldn’t tell what had happened.

“Unlike you, I came all the way to Japan to do my job.”

Only the expert in death – the brown necromancer – chuckled and spoke.

“I am not interested in your adolescent escapades.”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume13_Prologue|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume13_Chapter2}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume12 Chapter2

2025-04-18T19:09:59Z

Massify: /* Part 11 */

==Chapter 2: Funeral – Good_Bye_Bad.==

===Part 1===

Cold rain that couldn’t quite become snow fell from thick gray clouds.

It was weaker than before.

But that made it seem more stable, suggesting it would last longer.

A funeral was underway.

It had begun in the school auditorium.

The entire student body was gathered there, so they had to line up based on a system to fit. …Except Aogami Pierce and Fukiyose Seiri had frozen up nearby. Apparently Komoe-sensei had panicked, so their class’s guidance was a mess. But that boy may have appreciated a human response like that.

The space was large enough to hold hundreds of people.

That meant the heating was only so effective. Even with the air conditioning and halogen heaters, the chill could not be fully banished.

It was the presence of death.

Something you normally didn’t sense but crept up on everyone the same.

Aogami Pierce felt like the world itself were telling him an attempt to act cheerful would not fundamentally change what they were here for.

This was a funeral.

A member of their class was dead.

“Thank you all for attending despite the poor weather. Perhaps the heavens themselves are weeping for the deceased. It pains me just as much to lose someone so young.”

A young Buddhist monk got started with a microphone in hand. Fukiyose Seiri was only familiar with the term “abbot” as a title for a Buddhist monk, but she wasn’t sure if there was a proper hierarchy there.

“The abbot is the head of a single temple,” explained Aogami Pierce. “They’re the one who leads the rest of the temple’s monks. But there are a fair number of temples where the abbot is the only monk due to the aging population or just being shorthanded, so a lot of people get the terms monk and abbot confused. It’s unusual for someone that young to be one.”

“Why do you know so much about this?”

“What, are you really not reading that social media gag manga that went viral on New Year’s? It’s called ‘I Was Reincarnated and Got a Hypnotizing 5 yen Coin That Makes People Do Anything I Say, but I Ended Up in a Buddhist Temple Full of Macho Monks’. The unexpected mismatch!! What fate awaits our gloomy heroine after the ascetic life and vegetarian food cleanses her in body and soul!?”

“Why can’t someone ban this guy’s very existence?” asked an exasperated Fukiyose.

But had her senses dulled over winter break? She appeared to have forgotten insults of that level were nothing more than a reward. She could be two or even three times as harsh and he would still welcome it.

The screen on the wall behind the auditorium stage came to life.

“I am truly grateful you have all gathered today for our son.”

Remote comments by Kamijou Touma’s parents played on the screen. They apparently used more than just telegrams in this day and age.

A loud slam came from the back of the auditorium.

Someone had been unable to contain themselves and rushed out while covering their mouth. For a brief moment, the outside light shined into the dark auditorium. Surprisingly, this person was not from their class. From where they came from, they must have been a student from another year.

“Kami-yan sure was loved.”

“He had the weirdest connections. I sometimes saw him speaking with an upperclassman girl.”

There was some kind of accident that led to shouting, but the funeral itself continued without a hitch.

Aogami Pierce got some words out while staring out ahead.

“Why…?”

“Hm?”

“Why do people die so easily?”

This was somehow different from before.

Death.

The word carried so much more weight. Instead of the light and empty feeling of losing a life in a video game, this carried the heavy weight of reality.

Maybe that was what a funeral was.

It was about saying goodbye.

But in a different way from a classmate moving away.

Instead of not being able to see him again after this, they already couldn’t see him again. People could not accept that so quickly, so they needed a way to smooth over the rough edges of reality or else the small society that was a school could collapse.

It was like bringing things into focus.

Uh, oh.

It wasn’t so bad when the image before Aogami’s eyes was blurry. He could stand that. But once the outlines came into focus, the corners of his eyes could be in trouble.

Trouble?

Who said it was wrong to cry? It wasn’t a competition and who did he even think he was competing with? Apparently adolescent rebelliousness could needlessly screw with people’s lives even here.

“…”

He realized he hadn’t heard Fukiyose’s voice in a while.

When he focused, he could hear some breaths seemingly covered by an unseen hand.

Or maybe she had a handkerchief out.

He wasn’t about to peek over at the next seat, though.

He envied the people who could let themselves cry here. He was always shouting in the classroom, but he felt some kind of barrier forcing himself to hold back here.

Aogami Pierce was not a diligent student.

Even during ordinary classes, he would stare out the window and daydream about battling terrorists.

He had always thought Kamijou Touma would survive to the very end.

He could do anything in his fantasies, but for some reason that boy always survived longer than Aogami himself. Aogami would sometimes save everyone and end up with a harem and he would sometimes get dramatically shot and die, but no matter what happened, Kamijou Touma would always survive to the end, no matter how beat up he was.

But.

Reality was something else entirely.

He could think of any number of things to say if he were the one to die, but he couldn’t think of a single one when it was Kamijou Touma who had died.

“I’m such an idiot,” he muttered to himself.

He hadn’t expected this.

Something had happened somewhere he wasn’t aware of.

He guessed people all over thought these things as they lived with regret.

“Now, if you will please come forward to burn incense. Yes, it will help if you climb the stairs on the right and descend the stairs on the left. You may begin.”

===Part 2===

Meanwhile, two girls experienced this from a different viewpoint.

District 7.

An ordinary high school.

The entire student body was gathered in the auditorium. But even with the warmth of hundreds of bodies, the chilly air could not be entirely banished by the air conditioning too weak for the size of the space and the halogen heaters set up in a hurry.

That acted as the breath of death in contrast to the human warmth.

A large portrait photo sat atop the stage.

The face belonged to Kamijou Touma.

They must not have expected this. He looked almost villainous on the portrait forcibly blown up from his student ID. But maybe anyone would in an expressionless ID photo taken from head on.

A part-time monk, who was apparently an unsuccessful entertainer who did this as a side job, held a microphone.

His weirdly cheerful voice may have come from mixing together his two jobs.

“Thank you all for attending despite the poor weather. Perhaps the heavens themselves are weeping for the deceased. It pains me just as much to lose someone so young.”

In addition to the student body, a guest space had been prepared at one side.

Mikoto and Shokuhou were seated there.

One of them was shaking.

“Brrrrrr. Misa-Misaka-sa-Misaka-san, it’s so c-c-cold, you need to w-w-w-warm me up.”

“Are you even wearing clothes?”

Mikoto sighed while using a hand to the face to shove away the idiot queen – who Mikoto was beginning to suspect might actually be “wearing” body paint – as she shivered and tried to cling to Mikoto from the side.

This was a high school.

For a middle schooler, it was like another world entirely.

But the usual tension she would feel was nowhere to be found.

She had actually been here before, but…

(I never imagined I would visit that idiot’s high school for this.)

Her heavy sighing wouldn’t stop.

However, she saw no one who could be his parents in the guest section.

Unsurprisingly.

Given all the paperwork and approvals required, there just hadn’t been time to invite someone in to Academy City.

“?”

“What is it, scheming queen?”

“Oh, I was just wondering who the chief mourner is. Ahn, halogen heater☆”

Shokuhou Misaki’s eyes melted at a machine that was like a “warm fan” that an official had placed in the nearby aisle. She looked about ready to spread her arms and hug the heater with hearts displayed in her pupils. Why had she even come to the funeral?

That aside…

(Chief mourner.)

Come to think of it, this was odd.

As fancy as all this looked, the crucial pillars were missing.

It all felt hollow and artificial.

“That said, we must not keep the deceased here forever. As painful as it will be, we must continue with the ceremony to put him at ease as he takes his journey into the great beyond.”

A gentle sound enveloped the auditorium.

Classical music of unknown composer and title began to play.

“…?”

Mikoto knew how to play the piano and the violin, but she frowned. She didn’t recognize this. It may have been healing music recently composed entirely on a computer. That would be fitting for Academy City.

A slideshow of photos played along with the music.

It was obvious what these were from.

“The Daihaseisai, the Ichihanaransai – Kamijou Touma-san really did smile so brightly during these events.”

''Uh, uh…

Damp sobs spilled from here and there.

But wait.

Hold on.

What was this? Even in his school, how many people even knew Kamijou Touma? He hadn’t been part of any clubs and he had no connections outside his class. He wasn’t a master shogi player and he didn’t get the top score in the national practice exam. So why were all of those students who looked like second or third years shedding tears?

Mikoto was astonished.

Maybe it was a Pavlovian response, like people who would always cry when hearing a music box playing when in a sad mood.

“They’re like the delinquents who only cry at the graduation ceremony.”

Now that she had recovered using the heat of the halogen heater, Shokuhou’s whisper pierced sharply into Mikoto.

You smile at New Year’s and you cry at funerals.

That was all it was.

Like flipping a switch or turning a dial.

Was that really enough?

Could someone’s life end with this?

Of course, it would also piss her off if someone was chatting or using their phone in the middle of the ceremony, but this felt different somehow. The tears felt cheap. She wanted to stand up and shout that this wasn’t right.

Mikoto was sad.

She didn’t know what to do now that the time had come to say goodbye.

But.

She felt her heart distancing itself at the scene she found here. The distance kept growing. Her heart had lost the ability to sense her feelings.

Why?

It was already over. She knew that. Yet she felt some kind of powerful impatience growing inside her.

Was this really enough?

Would this mark the end of someone’s life?

“To represent you all, his homeroom teacher Tsukuyomi Komoe-sensei will now present some flowers.”

“Uhh.”

It might all look emotional, but it was nothing but checking off everything on the list.

It was a routine.

It was a ceremony to cut someone away from society, forget them, and erase them.

And.

Mikoto saw a red dot out of the corner of her eye.

“?”

Curious, she looked over to see a video being recorded.

Since she wasn’t familiar with funerals, she thought maybe that was a way to leave some memory behind, but…

“(That’s the funeral company. I bet they’ll chop it up and use it in their ads.)”

Shokuhou was more coldhearted.

Perhaps she was more accustomed to death than Mikoto.

But from where?

There was no answer to that question. As Shokuhou faced forward, her profile looked somehow lonely.

The entertainer hosting the event continued on.

“We will now receive a message from Kamijou Touma-san’s parents.”

The slide show of school events switched to something else.

“I am truly grateful you have all gathered today for our son.”

Were they using an online conference app?

The white wall behind the auditorium stage acted as a large screen to project someone who was presumably his father.

He was likely at home. The room behind him looked lived in.

Maybe this had been too sudden for anything else.

His user name was displayed below him in small text.

Kamijou Touya.

His flowing words were anything but coldhearted.

Even through the screen, Mikoto could sense just how hard that grown adult was clenching his teeth to get through it.

That distant place carried a much more appropriate mood than the site of the funeral.

Or so it seemed to Mikoto.

She sensed something authentic there.

“I’m sure Touma’s life in Academy City was full of smiles and memories with all of you. He never was great in school and he didn’t develop any kind of esper power, but we have all of you to thank for allowing him to enjoy himself enough to forget about those things. Our son seemed so happy in all the emails and messages he sent us. He also sent plenty of photos and videos. Those limited glimpses into his life were enough to know his time there was a bright and happy one. And I imagine he enjoyed himself even more than he let us know. I would like to thank you all deeply on behalf of our son. Even if his life there was cut short, he was truly fortunate to be surrounded by so many wonderful frie- kh...no, I can’t do it!!”

His trembling voice grew strained partway through.

The middle-aged man’s face filled the screen. With tears welling in his eyes.

“He was our family!! Our son is dead!!! But they won’t let us in the city!! They won’t even tell us the exact cause of death!! Is it not as safe inside those walls as we were led to believe!? This is crazy! What the hell is going on in that ci- (voice muted)”

His mouth flapped silently for a few more seconds before the video also cut out.

The host put on a fake smile and worked at smoothing that over.

“Oh, dear. The signal appears to be unstable and since it still hasn’t come back, we will move on.”

How could they just move past that!?

Mikoto just about stood up from her folding chair, but Shokuhou grabbed her hand.

Firmly, to hold her in place.

Even his parent’s wholehearted rebellion had accomplished nothing.

That was just one branch on the flowchart.

By following that branch through, they could bring the ceremony back on track.

“Now, if you will please come forward to burn incense. Yes, it will help if you climb the stairs on the right and descend the stairs on the left. You may begin.”

If the entire student body burned incense, it would take all day. Instead, each class sent a representative up to the altar. The staff held stopwatches and kept everything on the schedule determined during the dry run. Someone had died, but they didn’t allow anything to break down.

It was like the sand in an hourglass.

Once the stock had been used up, it was over. The coffin would be shut and placed in the hearse to be taken to the crematorium. Then nothing would remain. Kamijou Touma would be burned to ashes, leaving nothing even on the genetic level.

The entertainer monk continued with a smile.

“Finally, I would like to read the telegrams that have arrived from those close to the deceased. To start with, um, we have a Miss Leivinia Birdway from England.”

It was ending.

The funeral really was going to end.

“You’re looking at it wrong.”

Still facing forward, Shokuhou spoke quietly but clearly in her mourning clothes.

Even though Mental Out wasn’t supposed to work on Mikoto.

Her voice was somewhat stiff, but she still managed to say it.

“We have to bring his life to an end ourselves. So, Misaka-san, you need to prepare yourself to actually say goodbye.”

===Part 3===

Outside in the frigid January city, Index and Othinus stood in the rain.

Without an umbrella.

Breakfast time had passed, but for once Index had no appetite.

On her shoulder, Othinus held down the brim of her hat and looked up.

“Good grief. Even the weather forecast felt need to betray us… This unnatural rain is more what I would expect of that human’s misfortune.”

“That would be just like Touma.”

“Along with the fake-looking condition of the sky.”

“?”

A long vehicle passed them. The strange automobile was decorated with black and gold.

It was a hearse.

Two buses followed after it.

Once they had fully passed by, Othinus whispered a question.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go?”

“What about you?”

“I am the god of war, magic, and deception. This isn’t Baldr’s trial and I’m not the type to cry at funerals. But you’re a nun, aren’t you? This really is your last chance. You might be fine now, but the regret over not seeing him off will weigh heavy on you later.”

“I’m still in training.”

Index hung her head.

She had to be feeling something.

Othinus didn’t address it.

The one-eyed god with a lance was rarely depicted as kind.

“Now, what will we do? We are a living sample of a Magic God and a grimoire library. If we head out into the world with Academy City’s protection gone, magic cabals the world over will be after us both. If you aren’t interested in following him into death, then you need to continue working at survival.”

The city was surrounded by a thick wall and invisible EM and IR were used to cut off all wireless communications between the outside and inside. Even so, the air on both sides was the same and bugs and birds could fly across the wall with ease.

So.

Index raised her head and gave her answer.

“''We’ll do what the carrier pigeon said to.''”

“Good grief. Is that method just so old-fashioned they overlooked it? But as soon as Academy City learns about it, they’ll probably fill that hole with pheromones or light or something.”

If they headed to his school now, they might make it in time.

But they didn’t.

They couldn’t.

Index gave her reasoning.

“If I was there to say goodbye, I know I’d ruin the whole ceremony by crying too loud.”

The cat said nothing in the girl’s arms.

He wasn’t supposed to understand what was going on, but for some reason he seemed to.

===Part 4===

“It’s over,” muttered Aogami Pierce.

All the strength left his body.

He made it sound like his team had just lost a big tournament.

“That’s the end of Kami-yan’s funeral.”

“Pull yourself together. Komoe-sensei is calling us over to get to the crematorium.”

Perhaps Fukiyose found it easier if she focused her mind on a task. She seemed to be constantly searching for a new one.

Aogami rubbed his belly.

“I’m starving… I want to devour my lunch while watching an isekai cooking anime to give a psychological boost to the convenience store bento.”

“How about you chew on a handkerchief?”

Only his classmates were going to the crematorium. As much as they had sobbed during the funeral, the students from other years didn’t wait around before leaving the auditorium. Almost like a movie ad with people making insincere-sounding comments at an advance screening. The kind of ad that made it sound like the record for most moving film of the century was broken every other second.

Aogami saw a busty black-haired upperclassman girl look back toward the stage just once at the exit before leaving.

“Would they even show up if it was us who died?”

“This is better than it could be. Do you ordinarily get teary-eyed seeing the news on TV or online?” dryly asked Fukiyose.

That she sounded more irritable than normal may have been the greatest compliment to Kamijou Touma who had disappeared from their school.

===Part 5===

A woman in a beige habit stood in a city of white and black.

That was Human Aleister Crowley.

The ridiculous artificial rain continued to fall.

The golden retriever stayed by his side in the frigid chill without a word of complaint, but he did ask a question here.

“You aren’t going to see it through to the end?”

“You know all too well I don’t have the courage. Why would I have struggled so much if I did?”

“The regret always comes later.”

“I know that. Better than anyone in the world,” spat Aleister.

He didn’t want to believe it.

She had promised she would break whatever rules were necessary to save the boy.

Had she broken her promise in the end?

That meant there was something even Anna Kingsford couldn’t do.

He knew this was as absurd as wanting your parents to continue to be infallible beings, but still.

“If I could only save that one,” muttered Aleister.

“?”

“That one act would have meant so much. It would have triggered a chain reaction to fix everything. But it failed at the very first domino. …That boy remains dead.”

Kihara Noukan was an unusual genius even for a Kihara, but even he had trouble grasping what Aleister was getting at.

And he knew the human wasn’t going to explain.

Whatever it was, it was a dream that had ended unrealized.

“What now?” asked the dog.

“I wouldn’t be wandering like this if I could answer that.”

Was there any meaning in life now?

His questions had reached that level.

What in this wide world should he tie his existence to?

===Part 6===

The rain was falling.

The funeral in the auditorium had ended, so most of the students were using the walkway to return to the main school building.

They were pinching something and sprinkling it on their heads. It turned out to be salt.

Mikoto sighed softly as she walked out.

“So even the students at his school treat his death as something unclean.”

“I doubt many people in Academy City understand the symbolism. Just like very few people bother looking up the etymology of words like ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’. Most people see it as no more than the done thing, like bowing your head when entering a room. And does it have to be so cold!?”

Shokuhou’s shouted breath was already visible.

And a frigid rain was falling outside.

Shokuhou had started off holding her own shoulders, but once she set her sights on Mikoto, she grabbed onto her.

“Get off, Shokuhou. Kimonos are hard to fix once they start to come undone, so don’t grab onto me.”

“Oh, c’mon. Being a hot-water bottle is about all you’re good for, Misaka-san.”

“Oh, really? Even though I happen to have some hand warmers?”

Shokuhou Misaki petrified.

The corners of her lips twitched.

Her pride appeared to be conflicted over whether or not she should put on a polite smile.

“If you don’t want any, then fine. I’ll seal them away at the bottom of my purse. In the zone where I can’t dig them out again.”

“Wait, Misaka-saaan! You win, I admit it! So please show some love to this Little Match Girl freezing in the winter collllllllld!!”

“You have everyone call you a queen and now you have the nerve to act like the unfortunate Little Match Girl?

Mikoto toyed with the unathletic girl by tossing her hand warmer packs one after another as if to have her juggle them.

…This entire exchange may have been a way of preserving their mental balance. To Mikoto, the forced cheerfulness only made her entire life seem like an act.

“Ahh…☆”

“Hey, where the hell are you shoving that hand warmer, Shokuhou!? What happened to us having a shame culture!?”

The girl was shutting her eyes, trembling, and sighing like she was sinking into a hot spring, but the details were best left unstated.

She was capable of prioritizing what really mattered, meaning she was the type who would decide to nestle together in the nude to stay warm if they were stranded on a snowy mountain in the winter. Mikoto was certain of that now.

The official next to the hearse formed a megaphone with his hands and guided them.

“The buses are over here! Um, if you’re from the school, use bus 1. If you’re a visitor, use bus 2.”

Yes, it wasn’t over yet.

Many umbrellas blossomed like flowers and gathered together.

Carried by the adults.

The coffin was loaded onto the hearse.

The black and gold vehicle was headed to District 10.

Specifically, to the crematorium.

The entire student body wouldn’t fit there, so only what appeared to be Kamjou’s class would be going.

A bus was enough to carry that many.

And a second bus was enough for the visitors.

Another time limit had appeared.

Mikoto saw the distance to the crematorium like the timer ticking down on a time bomb.

But what did that time limit matter at this point?

Death could not be overturned.

It was already over.

“…”

“Ohh, blessed heat ability. Modern conveniences are truly wonderful…”

Next to her, the queen was saying something that suggested a kotatsu was all you needed to win her heart.

The two buses left the rear of the school to follow the hearse. The reporters out front seemed to be making a minor fuss, but the buses had no obligation to wait for them.

No one on the fairly large bus uttered a word.

The GPS navigation system provided a few instructions in a female voice, but the driver appeared to be ignoring them. Maybe there was some kind of etiquette to it, but the hearse seemed to avoid the shortest route and took a longer way to their destination.

In the adjacent seat, Shokuhou whispered briefly while staring out the window being pummeled by raindrops.

“Misaka-saaan.”

“Ugh, what idiot is sending a drone after us?”

With a sparking sound, the multicopter lost control out in the rain.

But who did those persistent reporters want to attack with their articles? Surely it wasn’t Alice Anotherbible or the Transcendents from the hidden side of the world.

“Maybe you could say we sent him to his death too. We didn’t stand in his way and attack him, but we did give him a push from behind.”

“Misaka-san. Malign his resolve and determination again and I will slap you.”

But Shokuhou didn’t actually deny it.

It probably bothered her too.

It was the same when they had fought Christian Rosencreutz. It had required a lot of power to repel him and Kamijou would have been killed if it had been even slightly insufficient.

Even so.

If their power hadn’t been up to the task, would he have considered running away?

“Not likely.”

“Not a chance. I can’t see him giving up on a fight once he started it.”

He hadn’t actually started that fight himself, but no matter how unfairly he was dragged into it, he had always fought to end it. So he could gently untangle the mess of threads.

“…”

It didn’t take very long.

They arrived at the crematorium.

A large roof covered the area in front of the entrance.

Had it been designed with bad weather like this in mind?

It looked like they had to wait for the workers to deal with the coffin.

“Go on, Misaka-san.”

At Shokuhou’s prompting, Mikoto got off the bus.

She wasn’t used to descending a bus’s stairs in Japanese mourning clothes. The clothing was like a single tube, so had it even been designed with climbing and descending stairs in mind?

“Of course it was. Did you forget the stone steps leading up to Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples?”

“Oh, no. Now that idiot is correcting me.”

“Oh? Misaka-san, did you forget I am the intellectual type? Care to see who does better with our next exam ability?”

Come to think of it, didn’t they have five-story pagodas in the Edo period? And those buildings wouldn’t have had elevators or escalators.

Shokuhou Misaki continued to rub the hand warmer against her cheek. It would have run out of heat by now, so was she making use of the placebo effect? Or maybe the cold was making her hallucinate.

An official guided them into the building.

There were numbered tatami mat waiting rooms with cremation chambers lined up.

Maybe there was a rule, but the cremation chambers not in use had their doors wide open. A square metal door led into a closed space seemingly made of brick or blocks. The shape was something like a modified baker’s furnace.

Mikoto peered inside and fell silent.

“…”

It wasn’t even the size of a laundromat.

Yet it felt far too ordered and optimized.

She sighed softly.

(I’m just not used to this.)

It was actually a bit of a relief when she spotted a few old vending machines jumbled together in a corner of the long hallway. She had wanted to see something that threw off the excessive organization of the place.

“It’s nice and warm in the building at least. Ugh, but now I kind of have to use the restroom.”

“I was a fool looking for salvation in a messy idiot like her…”

They could hear the conversation of officials in some room or another.

The voices crept up from the floor like the chill.

“A healthy high school boy? He should have thick bones.”

“We’ll have to burn him for a full four hours. That way there’s no chance any trace of his DNA map or the chemicals used for esper development will remain.”

A heavy scraping sound followed.

It came from something like a piece of pottery the size of a volleyball. Something had caused it to scrape against its lid.

“What does the height chart say? Is this size good?”

That was the funerary urn.

Would a whole person really fit in something so small?

Mourning clothes Mikoto frowned.

“Hold on. I get cremating him, but who gets his ashes?”

“The funerary urn can be transferred to someone else after being placed in the grave.”

Shokuhou’s finger hovered indecisively in front of the vending machine, but she only fidgeted without actually buying any warm coffee. Her fear of artificial additives appeared to be rearing its ugly head again.

“For now, he’ll probably be temporarily buried in a public grave.”

Could they really just do that?

Even as ashes, he would officially count as “remains”.

Besides. His parents apparently weren’t in the city, so who had submitted the notification of death to the government office? Mikoto had thought you couldn’t cremate someone until that had been received.

(Then again, this is the city that buried over ten thousand clones in secret, so they may have some tricks to get around that.)

They entered the waiting room.

The space was about 45 square meters.

Perhaps everyone wanted their own space.

His high school classmates were here, but Mikoto didn’t know any of them very well. She naturally kept her distance.

It was a weird feeling.

Why was she staying by Shokuhou’s side?

And while Mikoto mostly associated funerals with flowers and incense, the scent of burning candles was stronger. Maybe because that scent was a lot more oily.

A large LCD TV sat in the tatami mat room. In addition to over-the-air, and cable, it included an online streaming app. There were also a tablet with a public SIM. That may have been so hot food could be ordered in with a bike delivery service. Mikoto recognized a few of the apps lined up on the screen.

Shokuhou pointed at a sliding screen by the wall that seemed to lead to storage space.

“It looks like they have napping blankets in there.”

“I can’t imagine sleeping here could lead to sweet dreams.”

Four hours.

That explained why they had so many entertainment options for killing time.

“Shokuhou.”

“Yes?”

“Can you last four hours?”

“Sorry, excuse me a moment while I go freshen up.”

Western mourning clothes Shokuhou vanished somewhere with a severe look on her face. She had apparently gone out to visit the ladies room. Unable to relax without anything to focus on, Mikoto grabbed the TV remote and faced the giant screen. The time for New Year’s specials was over. A middle schooler like her had no idea what usually aired on weekday mornings.

(But maybe it would look more authentic if I don’t get all worked up over it?)

You were supposed to smile at New Year’s and cry at funerals.

She was fed up seeing people switch modes as if with a switch or dial.

She flipped through the channels for a bit.

The talk shows were more than she could handle today, so she kept changing the channel to escape them, but that mostly left shopping shows and old dramas.

After settling on a satellite broadcast animal show, she saw an enormous polar bear mercilessly attacking a family of seals. She was taken aback. She had been expecting footage of frolicking kittens or puppies. She wasn’t looking for the bloody and gory reality of nature right now!!

“What are you doing, Misaka-saaan? Why wouldn’t you go for a safe worldwide cruise show?”

That girl returned, looking exasperated.

But why was Shokuhou Misaki so familiar with TV on weekday mornings?

“Are you really a middle schooler?”

“If you’re trying to imply I’m an old lady, I will hit you.”

Something was sitting next to the TV.

At first, Mikoto thought it was a piece of Japanese-style artwork meant to help set the mood.

“Wait…” she said without thinking.

They already had a memorial tablet ready.

At first, Mikoto was confused who it was for. Because the name on it was a dharma name.

“I always thought the name was meant to be symbolic in some way.”

“In Academy City, they apparently have a website that automatically assigns one. Y’know, by tweaking a program ability meant to come up with a pet name if you can’t come up with one yourself.”

Did this city not have the rule where it only counted if it came from an important abbot?

Of course, it seemed like Academy City’s monks were part-timers who also worked as entertainers.

===Part 7===

Inside the District 10 prison, a monitor displayed Anti-Skill officer and high school teacher Yomikawa Aiho as she gave a report.

“The funeral ended without issue.”

“I see.”

“The hearse has left for the crematorium. Here, we’re holding an abbreviated version of the opening ceremony. You’re closer to the crematorium actually.”

The crematorium was in the same district, but that simple fact was far from the new Board Chairman’s mind.

It didn’t feel real.

(Accept his death? Why am I the one saying that shit?)

He had thought he would feel rage when standing on the verge of the death. But now that that line had been crossed, he was supposed to shake off all that emotion? Accelerator couldn’t say anything. Was he facing this like he should, or had his senses simply numbed over?

He couldn’t afford to forget what human warmth felt like.

No matter how many he saved with lifeless methods, he would only be retreading the path of Academy City’s former mistakes.

So what should he do?

Was it more human to let his emotions explode and destroy everything in sight?

“…”

Academy City’s #1 monster looked up.

He couldn’t see heaven there. Only a ceiling made of a special thick armor.

The prison had taken considerable damage from the attack by one of those Transcendents. This room was actually a secondary cell he had been moved to. Still, the white monster hadn’t died. Even though there were plenty of reasons for him to be killed. Was this just how life was?

“What was that bastard thinking dying before the villain,” he muttered.

Death was impartial.

It could visit anyone at any time, no matter how good a person they were, and they would lose their life.

“Aneri.”

An electronic beep.

Of rejection.

Apparently someone else had administrator privileges there. The new Board Chairman didn’t particularly care.

“Qliphah Puzzle 545.”

“Yes, yes. Kee hee hee.”

In that sense, the artificial demon was a lot less trouble.

And she also knew a lot about the world ''beyond'' science.

The #1 had just one question.

“Where is the person who did it?”

===Part 8===

A cold rain was falling.

The ugly rain could not become snow, but it rejected all human warmth while it naturally permeated the city of cutting-edge scientific technology.

The rain stealing heat from the entire city was impartial.

Even in the back alleys.

The countless raindrops falling from the heavens mercilessly located everyone, even a silent and unsteady girl, and soaked them.

She was tall. She wore black leather belts wrapped complexly around her naked body, making her stand out even in Academy City, which was isolated from the outside world.

Her long wavy blonde hair was plastered to her white skin.

She didn’t seem to have even the willpower to brush it away.

“…”

Alice Anotherbible.

She looked up at the sliver of rainy sky visible between the buildings.

And she didn’t move.

She had known that boy would die before they even met.

She had announced it herself.

But he had left the track of survival so that he could save the lives of others.

''“You will die.”

''“That doesn’t change my answer.”

She had seen the boy rushing toward death.

She had thought he might seek help at some point.

But he hadn’t.

''“So fight me!! Alice Anotherbible!!!”

Kamijou Touma had rejected her once.

She had lost sight of herself and resurrected Christian Rosencreutz as she was told.

''“Hold on. You don’t mean…?”

Yes, he had been shaken when he first learned he was doomed to die.

But he had still ultimately chosen the lives of others.

The doomed boy had stuck to his way of life and finally brought Alice Anotherbible back to her senses.

''“…I…”

''“I don’t…”

''“I don’t want to see anyone suffering from even more misfortune than me!! You got a problem with that!?”

He wasn’t coming back.

Alice Anotherbible could easily twist the world to her liking, but that was exactly why the person she had killed could not return. No matter what.

This was the result.

Aradia, the Bologna Succubus, and the rest of the Transcendents of the Bridge Builders Cabal were no longer here.

That meant Alice Anotherbible was no longer a fearsome leader.

She could trick people into seeing a form of beauty by taking death and violence to their extremes, but that was meaningless without those extremes. Being second best or lower simply made you a troublemaker.

A scratchy voice spoke.

The girl who had lost everything whispered into the emptiness.

“Tea…cher.”

===Part 9===

The final moment had arrived.

They would never see Kamijou Touma’s face again.

The coffin was already closed.

Although it was a Japanese-style coffin, so there was a small double door open over the face. That small square space seemed to be gradually cut away from the world at large.

“…”

Mikoto reached out her hand a bit and touched his cheek. Softly.

“?”

“Wait. You’d feel bad if you messed up his mortuary makeup at the very end, wouldn’t you?”

“Oh, right. It’s just…”

“What?”

Mikoto had no answer for Shokuhou’s quizzical gaze.

Meanwhile, the #5 Queen made her move. She raised a hand to the side of her head and lifted her veil before lowering her head toward the little window.

The instant before she kissed his cheek, Mikoto elbowed her in the side.

Sharply.

“No touching.”

“Ubwogh!? I-I really don’t see what’s so wrong with wishing him good fortune in the next life!!”

“You wouldn’t want to mess up his mortuary makeup, would you? Besides, you’re wearing lipstick.”

Misaka Mikoto had grown up in Academy City where science was everything, but she still knew it would be inappropriate to have him cremated with a lipstick mark on his face.

Each of them wasn’t given much time to say their goodbyes.

Mikoto and Shokuhou moved away.

Aogami Pierce placed a small rectangular object on his close-eyed friend’s pillow.

It was a smartphone.

Fukiyose frowned.

“Are you really allowed to put that in there?”

“Kami-yan was so happy when he got his first smartphone…”

An employee might get mad at him if they found out, but after burning any gold teeth and artificial bones along with the body, they apparently retrieved the rare earths. …And they wouldn’t know what materials had been included in some rich person’s expensive pure gold accessory.

The unsuccessful entertainer who worked part-time as a monk began speaking into the microphone he held.

“Now, everyone, let us once more pray for the deceased’s fortune in the next life. It is now time to say our final goodbye.”

===Part 10===

And.

And.

And then.

===Part 11===

…

…

…

Kamijou Touma silently opened his eyes in a small, dark space.

Yes.

The pointy-haired boy opened his eyes.

“?”

(Where am I? I can’t tell, but this definitely isn’t that artificial hell. Then am I alive again? Did Kingsford actually keep her prom-)

“Bweh, cough! Cough, hack!!”

Now wasn’t the time to be getting emotional.

Something was caught deep in his throat. He desperately coughed until he got a clump of something out. It was too dark to see what it was. He groped around the cramped space until he found something. For whatever reason, a phone was with him in the small box.

That gave him a light.

He tried to open his eyes to see, but something was wrong with his vision.

“Ow!! My eyes hurt!? What the hell!? You’re kidding, right!? Is there something in them!?”

He hesitantly pinched his eyelid and used the other hand’s index finger to feel around. It was big. He pulled something larger than a 100 yen coin from under his eyelids. He checked with with the LED light and found it was absorbent cotton heavy with his tears. He shuddered.

And the thing that had been in hist throat appeared to be some kind of cloth.

Maybe to keep his tongue from falling back into his throat or maybe to keep insects from getting inside his body? He hadn’t known they did all that at funerals.

And something else gradually dawned on him.

This was not a hospital morgue. He had thought it was one of those locker-like storage spaces seen in TV dramas, but it wasn’t. He didn’t feel chilly at all.

That only left one possibility.

“Wait…”

He was lying face up in a space too small to move much. He smelled wood and flowers all around him. The ceiling? He sensed the wood less than 30cm away. Relying on the phone light, he tried pressing on it with his palm and the resistance vanished sooner than expected. Oh? It wasn’t heavy at all?

No.

He had only opened a small double door that had already been there. About 20cm across.

“Wait, wait, wait…”

The space beyond the little window was dark too. And it smelled of metal. After all the cheap meals he had cooked in his dorm, he recognized what he was seeing.

That was a fish grill.

Except this one was large enough to cook an entire human being.

“Ubwahhhhhh!! Does that mean I’m in the crematorium!!?”

Understanding your circumstances was important.

Because now the squeezing at his heart was so much stronger.

Did that mean the wooden box he was inside was a coffin!? He pushed on the actual cover with his palms to try and get out this time, but…oh, no. It wasn’t opening. It didn’t appear to be nailed shut. It would open upwards a few centimeters before something stopped it. Apparently the cremation chamber itself was short, so the coffin door was hitting the top.

Wait, did that mean he couldn’t get out?

If he stayed here like this, he had a strong feeling they really would ignite the chamber!

“Help!! I know it’s way too late for this, but Kamijou Touma is alive, so you all need to waiiiiiiiit!!”

He screamed with all his might…but did it do any good?

There was no reaction.

He wasn’t even certain his voice could be heard outside the chamber. He had never been to a crematorium before, but didn’t the cremation chambers have thick metal walls? And he was Academy City’s Mr. Misfortune. It was looking more likely he was going to go unnoticed and be roasted due to this careless mistake. A lot more likely.

“Th-th-th-the ph-ph-phone! I need to call someone outside and- mgwah!? Why doesn’t it have a signal!? Because the walls are so thick!? Is this stone and metal cremation chamber blocking the signal!?”

It didn’t look like he could count on any help from outside.

He would have to crawl out on his own.

However, the space was so small. It didn’t seem like the coffin lid would be able to open inside the cremation chamber, but that just meant he needed to get creative.

“Hnh!!”

Specifically, he moved to one side of the rectangular coffin to shift the center of gravity. Then he rolled up onto the side. Like rolling around in a giant ball, he tilted the entire coffin over 90 degrees.

There would be more horizontal than vertical space.

He could finally push on the large lid and escape the coffin…or so he thought before a powerful blow hit his back. He choked hard and then realized he had fallen off of something. The ceiling had seemed so low because the coffin had been sitting on something like a stretcher. The metal scent was a lot stronger now. Still, the place was dark and he knew he was inside a giant fish grill that would burn his flesh and bones using city gas. Even now, he assumed the emotional goodbyes were solemnly approaching their climax. If he waited around, he would meet the same fate as a saury prepared by a childhood friend who was a terrible cook.

(How long until they ignite it? Damn, I can’t hear any voices from outside!!)

It might happen an hour from now, but it also might happen a minute from now.

Either way, he was done for once it happened.

Kamijou aimed the phone around and discovered steel pipes as thick as his thumb running near the low ceiling. He chose not to imagine what the black soot he saw was primarily composed of. In fact, he worked very hard to not think about it. The shape of the place was indeed similar to a fish grill. That meant it had a few gas sprayers and spark plugs.

(I’m screwed if those work properly.)

“!! Oh, hell!!”

Or to put it another way, he had to destroy them if he wanted to live! He grabbed at whatever he could and yanked until a pipe came away with a dull snap.

He couldn’t celebrate yet.

A horrible stench stabbed into his nose.

A threat familiar to anyone who used a kitchen clutched at his heart. Even more strongly than before.

(Wait a second. Is that city gas?)

“Gwohhhhh!! Doesn’t that mean this chamber is filling with gas, even if it isn’t burning!? Then I’m going to suffocate and die anyway!!”

He had no idea if he had increased or decreased his time limit.

Flailing about wasn’t going to help.

He knew what he had to do. He had to get out of here. No matter what.

There was nothing like a chimney. He assumed it did have an exhaust vent somewhere, but he couldn’t find it with his phone’s light. Was there a small hole hidden in some gap somewhere? At the very least, it didn’t seem likely he could sneak out through a duct like an action movie star.

That left only one option.

The only exit was the door he had been shoved in through.

“Kh.”

(But will it open? I don’t know much about funerals, but aren’t cremation chamber doors made of really thick metal!?)

He desperately shined his phone’s LED lights that way…and didn’t see a knob. In fact, he was surprised to find the back of the metal door was covered in stuff. A few metal panels and joints fit together complexly.

That was probably the mechanism that allowed the door to be opened by a large lever on the outside.

Did it look like one big panel on the outside, but this opening and closing gimmick was hidden on the back?

Which meant…

“Can I break it open by kicking at this stuff?”

…The problem was the flammable city gas beginning to fill the interior of the chamber.

If he waited, he would definitely suffocate and die, but what if two metal pieces collided and produced a spark?

Accept it.

Trust in hope.

Giving into fear will only mean suffocating.

“Open.”

He had to do it.

Even if he was terrified and even if his heart was raising a scream so soon after beginning to beat once more.

Kamijou Touma repeatedly slammed his heel against the complex stopper on the back of the cremation chamber door.

“Opeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!”

===Part 12===

It came from within.

The metal door was kicked down with a loud roar.

Everyone gasped.

There was a voice.

''Today is my January birthday.

:''Today is the day I was born.

::''I am the star of this wonderful birthday.

''Today is my January birthday.

He was dressed in burial clothes.

A triangle of cloth was tied to the forehead below his pointy hair.

It was definitely him who crawled on out.

And he spoke.

“Hi there, everyone! Sorry if I surpri-”

“Eeeek, a zombie! It’s going to infect us all with who knows what!!!”

They didn’t even let him finish his sentence.

Tears welled up in the eyes of the corner-of-the-classroom boy who didn’t get to be the star even after coming back from the dead.

Panic and pandemonium were already setting in.

Of course they were.

Based on his phone’s screen, it hadn’t just been a few minutes since he died. Anyone would be terrified if someone who’s heart had long since stopped beating suddenly got back up.

(I’m grateful you brought me back to life, but couldn’t you have worked a little faster, Kingsford!?)

“Abababawawa, no, no, it’s true I, Kamijou Touma, died, but I’m alive again, and I mean, technically today isn’t my birthday, but can’t you please give me a more peaceful reaction along the lines of what you would do if a cardiac massage work-”

“Quiet, everyone! Quiet!! Take deep breaths to calm yourselves and stay where you are. Now, what were you doing in there? Who are you!?”

The extremely part-time monk was shouting into his microphone.

Then Kamijou heard a strange mechanical sound.

Someone was coming.

These people were wearing shiny silver armor that covered them from head to toe.

No, were those powered suits?

“Is that the exceptional remains!?”

“Commence incineration.”

They were holding something at their hips.

They looked like a fire fighter’s hose, but not quite.

A small lighter-sized flame flickered in front of the nozzle.

“Flamethrowers!!?”

How well prepared were they!?

Why did they have a unit like this already on standby? Did corpses have a habit of getting back up in this city!?

Anyway, he couldn’t let himself be roasted after just narrowly escaping that fate.

He had no choice but to run barefoot out of the crematorium.

“Damn!!”

Kamijou Touma threw open the frosted glass window and climbed out.

Frigid rain was falling outside.

''And the girl who pointed at me and called me a zombie right after I came back to life – that was Fukiyose, wasn’t it? Kamijou-san isn’t about to forget that!!

===Part 13===

Kamijou Touma wasn’t the only one in trouble.

Aogami Pierce, Fukiyose Seiri, and the others left in the crematorium were in no position to just stare.

The situation was on the move.

“Whoa!?”

They heard a “fwoosh!!” sound.

It came from right outside the window. More people in powered suits were spraying something out of large canisters. It was reminiscent of spraying agrochemicals on a field, but these weren’t pesticides. The outside of the window soon grew thick and translucent.

Aogami Pierce couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Is that a plastic glue? That’s like a more impressive version of the security sheets you put on windows.”

“With that, they can quarantine a location in less than 5 minutes. Now I doubt any person or any bacteria or viruses can get in or out.”

At field hospitals, thick plastic sheets were used to demarcate a space while air curtains controlled the air currents, but was this a more advanced version of that?

Then Fukiyose commented on the a phrase she had used that had caught her attention.

“Any person…?”

“A corpse just woke up and ran off. That qualifies as an emergency in my book. Did it not occur to you that we’re trapped inside here now?”

But the reaction had been too quick.

Kamijou Touma’s remains getting up and fleeing the crematorium was certainly a shock, but not even a few minutes had passed since then.

That speed was only possible if those people had been on standby to begin with.

It meant they must always monitor the cremations of anyone who had died under “suspicious circumstances”.

“(If they were this well prepared, does this kind of thing happen from time to time in Academy City?)”

“(Anything can happen here. I mean, this city creates superhuman Level 5s.)”

None of it sounded real.

Kamijou Touma had gotten up. That much was true.

But what exactly had happened? Saying a mystery virus was responsible sounded plausible enough, but it lacked the weight of reality. That was the same as saying ghosts were actually plasma. Smugly explaining that in a dark abandoned building did nothing to put your mind at ease.

And that aside…

“What happens to us now?” asked Aogami.

“Trying to move from here could be dangerous.”

That she didn’t scoff at his question meant Fukiyose was aware they were trapped in here.

This wasn’t like daydreaming about fighting terrorists during a boring class.

The entire building was sealed off from the outside by thick plastic walls. A mop or a metal bat weren’t going to break through the windows. Even a gun probably wouldn’t be enough. A specialized gas proof door had been set up as the only way in or out, but the powered suits were gathered around it.

And someone was loudly approaching from there.

At some point the number of powered suits had grown past 10.

“Quiet, everyone! We are Bio Secure!”

This person also wore a powered suit.

Maybe anything seemed suspicious when viewed in that light, but it felt like they were intentionally making themselves indistinguishable from each other. Like robbers in masks.

“Your movement will be temporarily restricted, but please do not worry. Once we ensure you are safe, you will be released, so I ask that you cooperate and avoid causing a disturbance.”

He “asked that” they cooperate, but he showed no sign of waiting for a yes or no response from them.

He was actually telling them to resist at their peril.

He made it clear who was in charge here.

How were they supposed to “not worry” when he was wearing a fully-sealed powered suit and equipped with a flamethrower? It was written on his hidden face that there was likely something invisible in the air and that his team would be fine.

“W-wait…” protested a pale-faced crematorium worker.

Even the adults didn’t know what this was.

That only worried Aogami Pierce and Fukiyose Seiri more. And they doubted Komoe-sensei was going to be much help here.

“Wait a second! What is happening? The paperwork said nothing about infectious disease, but are we safe? And do we have permission to continue running this facility!?”

“We are not authorized to answer that. Chief ''Kihara Goukei'' has yet to arrive, but she will explain everything once she does. Hold your questions until then.”

A sound a lot like steam followed.

The powered suits were tossing things into a large rectangular glass vat full of powerful acid. They were quite casual about it, probably because the splashing liquid and smoke wouldn’t harm them anymore.

Those were the bouquets and Kamijou Touma’s possessions prepared for the funeral.

They of course didn’t ask anyone’s permission first.

It had been through a screen, but during the funeral Aogami Pierce had seen the tearful face of that father enraged over his son’s death. The items he and his wife were meant to receive were all being heartlessly dissolved.

Even if this had been a performance put together by professionals, the sight seemed to fully reject the gentle atmosphere of the day.

His breathing was shallow and a cold sweat wouldn’t stop pouring down his brow, but Aogami may still not have accurately grasped the threat. If he had, he could easily have collapsed from hyperventilation.

If he couldn’t take advantage of his own ignorance here, he was in trouble.

His instincts told him so.

What was going to happen to them?

Would they be infected?

If they were, would that be done to them too?

But the situation was advancing whether he liked it or not.

A short distance away, one powered suit was speaking to another.

“What is it?”

“Chief Kihara Goukei has arrived.”

===Part 14===

The dead had come back to life.

Did that qualify as a good thing or a bad thing?

And this was Academy City.

If he was captured, he would either be sent to a lab to be soaked in formalin or he would be directly roasted by flamethrower.

Either way…

“I’m screwed!! My life is over if I’m caught!!”

Kamijou Touma ran outside in the frigid rain.

His burial clothes, which were one step removed from being a Halloween costume, did nothing to keep out the cold. And he was barefoot. Keep in mind it was January. Being stuck out in the rain dressed like this would kill him within an hour of coming back to life!!

“Ahh, brrr. There aren’t even any soaked girls caught in the sudden summer downpour. Winter sucks. There’s nothing at all good about being wet in this season.”

The city had been badly damaged.

The cumulative affect of the battles against Anna Sprengel, Christian Rosencreutz, and Alice Anotherbible really had left it close to collapse. The repairs could not keep up, so construction scaffolding and soundproofing sheets could be seen all over the place.

Kamijou Touma had received that same deadly force with his flesh-and-blood body.

That explained why it was so unusual for him to be alive.

He heard a groaning “gashunk!!” sound.

That was the sound of a powered suit’s artificial muscles operating.

“Dammit, they’re so fast!!”

Powered suit legs could run at 40-50km/h without the help of wheels or a car motor.

An ordinary human couldn’t hope to escape them while running along a wide street on foot.

“Kh.”

They had nearly caught up.

The powered suit’s thick fingers were approaching the back of his neck.

“Damn!!”

He clicked his tongue and changed direction.

He slid across the wet pavement, slipped below a soundproofing sheet, and tumbled into the construction site for repairs on a nearby building.

Sites like this could be found just about anywhere thanks to the battles against powerful foes like Anna Sprengel, Christian Rosencreutz, and Alice Anotherbible.

He heard the snapping of breaking metal.

After the powered suit’s thick fingers had found only air, it had easily torn through the exterior barricade made of soundproofing sheets and metal panels.

It worked like the building demolition beaks attached to the end of a mechanical arm.

A hit from that would smash his body apart even if it only caught on his clothes a little.

“Why aren’t we authorized to use our flamethrowers!?”

“Ask Chief Kihara Goukei. She’s the boss of Bio Secure, not us.”

He heard some terrifying voices from behind, but he couldn’t just stop.

The sounds of thick metal tearing apart continued.

The pursuing powered suits didn’t bother going around or climbing over obstacles. They would shove a stack of pipes aside with a single arm or tackle through a forest of erected steel beams, causing an entire half-repaired building to tilt.

Getting caught in any of that would be the end of Kamijou.

He couldn’t stay here in the construction site.

“Eek!!”

The loud and heavy sounds of bending metal filled the air.

Two of the rapidly-moving powered suits appeared to have collided.

“Y-your suit’s lost integrity!”

“Don’t worry about me and go on ahead! Hurry!!”

“Stop acting all heroic while brandishing flamethrowers! It’s terrifying!” shouted Kamijou, bristling as he fled.

In their minds, they weren’t ganging up on a victim to bully him – they seemed to truly see themselves as fighting to protect Academy City. Which meant they would not compromise or let their guard down. But so what? Someone who could emotionally kill a stranger without second thought was a terrible person in Kamijou’s book.

Kamijou spotted a slope leading underground, so he raced down it. He was expecting an underground mall, but was instead hit by a mass of malodorous air. He had apparently wandered into a culvert where a river ran below the city.

On the floor, he found large wireless communication equipment, professional-looking tools, and a long power cable leading somewhere.

Apparently repairs were underway here as well.

He was afraid of giving away his position, but it was dark in here. Missing a step and falling into the winter river would be no laughing matter, so he suppressed the fear and switched on the LED light.

“The all-purpose smartphone really is one of humanity’s greatest inventions.”

He wished he could just call Anti-Skill and have them come to the rescue, but he got the impression he couldn’t trust in the grownups’ systems.

Where was the exit?

Was heading outside even his best option?

Or should he hide out in this labyrinthine underground structure until his pursuers had moved on?

And how many minutes would he have to wait until he considered that plan a success?

He had too many unanswered questions.

Behind him, he heard the “gashunk, gashunk” of machines operating. Were they still after him!?

(But they’re not moving as fast as before. Did they not have night vision gear because it’s still daytime, or are they afraid of falling in the water and sinking like a rock?)

He thought he would pass out from the fear if he didn’t force his thoughts in a positive direction.

He had to keep running and escape.

It was all so unfair.

He was moments away from death, but for some reason he found laughter spilling from his lips as he ran away soaking wet.

He couldn’t stop.

“Ha ha ha…”

He was afraid of dying.

Of course he was.

Because no matter what anyone might say, Kamijou Touma was alive!!

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!”

He was alive.

He had never felt so aware of the life within him.

He wasn’t a ghost or a zombie or anything like that.

Being human was such a wonderful feeling!!

Although if Anna Kingsford saw this, she might hold a hand to her head in exasperation or she might bring her fist down on his head.

(Still…)

Chief Kihara Goukei.

They had used the name Kihara.

Was it the same Kihara?

In addition to the business with Kihara Kagun, he was pretty sure he had heard that name associated with the incident where he first met Alice Anotherbible. That operation had been meant to clean up the dark side lurking in Academy City’s shadows, but outside influence had twisted it into a great tragedy. Many people had died. But…they were still there.

“Doe that mean that dark side thing is still alive and kicking after all that? Dammit!”

He heard an ominous roar.

That was the sound of flames sucking in oxygen.

He looked back while running and his eyes widened. A fireball of a flame flickered in the air.

That was the tip of a flamethrower.

“A-are you kidding me!?”

Even though it branched off every which way, this was still an enclosed space. Bio Secure might survive thanks to their thick powered suits and oxygen supplies, but Kamijou would either be instantly fried or would suffocate with his lungs roasted.

(I thought that Kihara person wasn’t letting them use those!)

It was too late to complain now.

And maybe it had been wrong to count on the enemy’s situation remaining unchanged.

Without hesitation, the flamethrower nozzle aimed his way spewed an oxidant and a jelly-like liquid combustible material.

And a moment later…

It exploded.

“Wahgyahhh!!!”

Kamijou was soaked with sweat as he leaped down a different branching path.

What?

He was still alive, but what was that!?

There had been flames, but that wasn’t right. If the flamethrower had been functioning normally, he knew he should have been wrapped in flames himself. The powered suit had done something wrong. Because it was the pursuer who had ended up on fire.

White fire.

What kind of explosion was that?

It had seemed like something at the powered suit’s feet had exploded immediately after the flamethrower was activated.

(Was that acetylene gas used for welding!?)

That special flammable gas was used to create the ultra-high temperature flames needed to melt and combine reinforcing steel. The powered suit appeared to be designed to withstand the heat of a flamethrower, but an explosion of that stuff at such close range had to have damaged it at least some.

Kihara Goukei was it?

This may have been part of the reason why the powered suits’ boss had banned them from using their flamethrowers. With propane, city gas, and more, the densely populated city contained a surprising amount of flammables and explosives. The recovery had finally begun after the many battles. There was even the possibility of unexploded shells or missiles lying around.

“Pant, gasp!!”

Anyway, Kamijou Touma was alive.

If he continued playing tag with these powered suits, he would be killed. If he was going to escape, it had to be now while they were panicked over their own screw up.

Bio Secure(?), or whatever they were called, didn’t seem worried inside the steel-melting flames.

He felt their gaze on him.

And heard a straining sound.

They were having trouble, but they only had to wait until their suits managed to reboot inside the flames. Kamijou know he couldn’t destroy them by going on the offensive. Once their self-scans and error recovery was complete, he would be out of options. He wouldn’t be able to escape.

So move your legs.

The culvert was one step removed from a sewer. He was worn out from all the strenuous exercise, but he wasn’t at all inclined to lean against the wall. He used his phone’s LED light to walk down a small side path in the dark culvert that stank of sludge and he eventually found a small door.

Maybe it was for work access and maybe it was an emergency exit, but on the other side, narrow stairs led up toward the surface.

“Wheeze, wheeze…”

He was right back out in the rainy world.

He honestly didn’t feel at all like he had escaped.

He was certain the flamethrower-wielding powered suits would find him again soon enough.

Was coming back from the dead really so difficult?

This was nothing like the emotional reactions to a miraculous experience he had been expecting.

(But what do I do now? If I’m supposed to be dead, my dorm room might be gone. And it doesn’t look like anyone I know will be any help.)

“?”

He spotted a camera-equipped security robot and instinctively moved from the main road to an alley to hide.

He felt like he was moving further and further from the sun.

At this rate, was he going to find himself crawling underneath a flower pot in the schoolyard?

“Also.”

Being dead had scared him.

Finding some way of returning to life had been the only thing on his mind.

But.

Could it be?

“Does no one want a world with me in it?”

He hung his head.

It really hurt.

Then again, he was only a high school boy. He wasn’t some important Buddhist priest whose remains would be preserved after death. So maybe there just wasn’t anyone who wanted to see him again badly enough to deal with something as bizarre as this…

He had died and come back.

Being killed by Alice Anotherbible had complicated matters this time, but he had actually already experienced something similar a few times with full-power Othinus and Good, Old Mary…but was it just different once the pieces on the board had made it as far as the funeral? Instead of just physically dying, his death had been socially accepted this time. It took dying for him to realize death happened in stages.

A whirring motor sound passed by overhead.

“Eek!?”

Now wasn’t the time to be waxing philosophical.

Kamijou released a quick shriek and then hid below an air conditioner attached to the wall in the narrow alley. The flying drone passed by. The dark side was supposed to have declined and they could still do all this? He really didn’t want to be found by the adults right now. They did have flamethrowers after all!

And that hadn’t just been a scout.

It wasn’t harmless.

It was very different from one of these drum-shaped security robots.

Specifically, an object the size of a rugby ball was hanging down from it. He couldn’t be certain, but he was pretty sure that was an anti-tank rocket.

If it had noticed him and fired that, he would have been blown to pieces along with this corner of the alley. That 8000yen-a-pop explosive was enough to fully change the meaning of the electronic device.

It was over once he was caught.

Kamijou Touma desperately held his breath.

Maybe he was doing something incredibly stupid. After all, it wasn’t a living creature. Staying still behind cover like this might not matter depending on what kinds of sensors it was using to scan the surface.

The next 30 seconds seemed to scorch his heart.

And that was assuming his sense of time was accurate.

The drone indifferently flew off. Like nothing had happened.

In that final moment, its motion seemed somehow human, so it was possible it had shifted from programmed flight to remote manual control.

Regardless, that meant the threat had passed…right?

“Phew…”

Thanks to that assumption, it caught him completely by surprise.

While all his focus was overhead, he heard a noise from straight ahead.

A quiet footstep.

Someone was there.

The person was frozen in place, staring wide-eyed at him.

She was tall and beautiful. Her long wavy blonde hair was wet with rain and her skinny body was tightly bound by black leather belts, making for a strange manner of dress even for Academy City.

She was a Transcendent.

Alice Anotherbible.

She was frozen in apparent surprise, widened eyes directed his way.

“Y-you can…see me???”

The idiot had so lost his faith in humanity he had to ask that in a trembling voice.

Tears welled up in the corners of the girl’s eyes.

Large ones.

The cold rain was still falling, but these drops were noticeably different and carried body heat.

“T-””

She was stiff and trembling.

And…

“Teacher!!”

She spread her arms and leaped at him.

Her momentum was too much for him, so Kamijou Touma toppled back onto his rear.

Yes, he could feel her.

Her hair wet with the cold rain, her skin, her sweet scent, and her high-pitched voice piercing into his ears. Sensations the dead could never experience bewildered his senses and stabbed directly into his brain. Kamijou Touma was alive, including those brains.

…I thought I would never see you again.

His heart had stopped, his brain’s neural network had been shredded, and he had fully died.

Saying he would return to life had been an absurd fantasy.

Yet he had done it.

He had returned alive from hell.

However, he didn’t deserve the credit there.

That hell had been an artificial one that Christian Rosencreutz had created to resurrect himself and Anna Kingsford had hijacked control of it. And she hadn’t hesitated to hand the resurrection ticket to Kamijou Touma.

He had been saved every step of the way.

The pointy-haired boy hadn’t accomplished anything on his own. Those true experts had done it for him.

They had taught him what it means to save people.

But.

He hadn’t done the wrong thing.

He had finally found something in this half-destroyed world that convinced him of that.

“You’re alive, you’re here, ohh, the girl can touch you, teacher is really here. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

No matter how cold the rain was, he could feel this girl’s warmth beyond it.

Returning to life was meaningless?

Don’t be ridiculous.

There was a girl here letting him experience something he never would have if he hadn’t returned to the world of the living.

“Thank goodness… Teacher, you’re breathing, you’re alive. The girl, uh, the girlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!”

She couldn’t even get her words out.

Still slumped down, Kamijou Touma placed a hand on sobbing Alice’s head.

He could touch her.

He could influence things.

He could save a single crying girl.

The pointy-haired boy was undoubtedly alive here.

“Heh…”

What an awful day.

He had taken so long to return to life that now he was seen as the living dead. They seemed to think he was infected with some kind of Academy City something, so a group of adults with flamethrowers was after him.

But.

Nevertheless…

“Coming back to life…was definitely the right move.”

He could finally say that.

For today at least, he could smile.

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume12_Chapter1|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume12_Chapter3}}
</noinclude>

Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume12 Chapter2

2025-04-18T19:01:42Z

Massify: /* Part 14 */

==Chapter 2: Funeral – Good_Bye_Bad.==

===Part 1===

Cold rain that couldn’t quite become snow fell from thick gray clouds.

It was weaker than before.

But that made it seem more stable, suggesting it would last longer.

A funeral was underway.

It had begun in the school auditorium.

The entire student body was gathered there, so they had to line up based on a system to fit. …Except Aogami Pierce and Fukiyose Seiri had frozen up nearby. Apparently Komoe-sensei had panicked, so their class’s guidance was a mess. But that boy may have appreciated a human response like that.

The space was large enough to hold hundreds of people.

That meant the heating was only so effective. Even with the air conditioning and halogen heaters, the chill could not be fully banished.

It was the presence of death.

Something you normally didn’t sense but crept up on everyone the same.

Aogami Pierce felt like the world itself were telling him an attempt to act cheerful would not fundamentally change what they were here for.

This was a funeral.

A member of their class was dead.

“Thank you all for attending despite the poor weather. Perhaps the heavens themselves are weeping for the deceased. It pains me just as much to lose someone so young.”

A young Buddhist monk got started with a microphone in hand. Fukiyose Seiri was only familiar with the term “abbot” as a title for a Buddhist monk, but she wasn’t sure if there was a proper hierarchy there.

“The abbot is the head of a single temple,” explained Aogami Pierce. “They’re the one who leads the rest of the temple’s monks. But there are a fair number of temples where the abbot is the only monk due to the aging population or just being shorthanded, so a lot of people get the terms monk and abbot confused. It’s unusual for someone that young to be one.”

“Why do you know so much about this?”

“What, are you really not reading that social media gag manga that went viral on New Year’s? It’s called ‘I Was Reincarnated and Got a Hypnotizing 5 yen Coin That Makes People Do Anything I Say, but I Ended Up in a Buddhist Temple Full of Macho Monks’. The unexpected mismatch!! What fate awaits our gloomy heroine after the ascetic life and vegetarian food cleanses her in body and soul!?”

“Why can’t someone ban this guy’s very existence?” asked an exasperated Fukiyose.

But had her senses dulled over winter break? She appeared to have forgotten insults of that level were nothing more than a reward. She could be two or even three times as harsh and he would still welcome it.

The screen on the wall behind the auditorium stage came to life.

“I am truly grateful you have all gathered today for our son.”

Remote comments by Kamijou Touma’s parents played on the screen. They apparently used more than just telegrams in this day and age.

A loud slam came from the back of the auditorium.

Someone had been unable to contain themselves and rushed out while covering their mouth. For a brief moment, the outside light shined into the dark auditorium. Surprisingly, this person was not from their class. From where they came from, they must have been a student from another year.

“Kami-yan sure was loved.”

“He had the weirdest connections. I sometimes saw him speaking with an upperclassman girl.”

There was some kind of accident that led to shouting, but the funeral itself continued without a hitch.

Aogami Pierce got some words out while staring out ahead.

“Why…?”

“Hm?”

“Why do people die so easily?”

This was somehow different from before.

Death.

The word carried so much more weight. Instead of the light and empty feeling of losing a life in a video game, this carried the heavy weight of reality.

Maybe that was what a funeral was.

It was about saying goodbye.

But in a different way from a classmate moving away.

Instead of not being able to see him again after this, they already couldn’t see him again. People could not accept that so quickly, so they needed a way to smooth over the rough edges of reality or else the small society that was a school could collapse.

It was like bringing things into focus.

Uh, oh.

It wasn’t so bad when the image before Aogami’s eyes was blurry. He could stand that. But once the outlines came into focus, the corners of his eyes could be in trouble.

Trouble?

Who said it was wrong to cry? It wasn’t a competition and who did he even think he was competing with? Apparently adolescent rebelliousness could needlessly screw with people’s lives even here.

“…”

He realized he hadn’t heard Fukiyose’s voice in a while.

When he focused, he could hear some breaths seemingly covered by an unseen hand.

Or maybe she had a handkerchief out.

He wasn’t about to peek over at the next seat, though.

He envied the people who could let themselves cry here. He was always shouting in the classroom, but he felt some kind of barrier forcing himself to hold back here.

Aogami Pierce was not a diligent student.

Even during ordinary classes, he would stare out the window and daydream about battling terrorists.

He had always thought Kamijou Touma would survive to the very end.

He could do anything in his fantasies, but for some reason that boy always survived longer than Aogami himself. Aogami would sometimes save everyone and end up with a harem and he would sometimes get dramatically shot and die, but no matter what happened, Kamijou Touma would always survive to the end, no matter how beat up he was.

But.

Reality was something else entirely.

He could think of any number of things to say if he were the one to die, but he couldn’t think of a single one when it was Kamijou Touma who had died.

“I’m such an idiot,” he muttered to himself.

He hadn’t expected this.

Something had happened somewhere he wasn’t aware of.

He guessed people all over thought these things as they lived with regret.

“Now, if you will please come forward to burn incense. Yes, it will help if you climb the stairs on the right and descend the stairs on the left. You may begin.”

===Part 2===

Meanwhile, two girls experienced this from a different viewpoint.

District 7.

An ordinary high school.

The entire student body was gathered in the auditorium. But even with the warmth of hundreds of bodies, the chilly air could not be entirely banished by the air conditioning too weak for the size of the space and the halogen heaters set up in a hurry.

That acted as the breath of death in contrast to the human warmth.

A large portrait photo sat atop the stage.

The face belonged to Kamijou Touma.

They must not have expected this. He looked almost villainous on the portrait forcibly blown up from his student ID. But maybe anyone would in an expressionless ID photo taken from head on.

A part-time monk, who was apparently an unsuccessful entertainer who did this as a side job, held a microphone.

His weirdly cheerful voice may have come from mixing together his two jobs.

“Thank you all for attending despite the poor weather. Perhaps the heavens themselves are weeping for the deceased. It pains me just as much to lose someone so young.”

In addition to the student body, a guest space had been prepared at one side.

Mikoto and Shokuhou were seated there.

One of them was shaking.

“Brrrrrr. Misa-Misaka-sa-Misaka-san, it’s so c-c-cold, you need to w-w-w-warm me up.”

“Are you even wearing clothes?”

Mikoto sighed while using a hand to the face to shove away the idiot queen – who Mikoto was beginning to suspect might actually be “wearing” body paint – as she shivered and tried to cling to Mikoto from the side.

This was a high school.

For a middle schooler, it was like another world entirely.

But the usual tension she would feel was nowhere to be found.

She had actually been here before, but…

(I never imagined I would visit that idiot’s high school for this.)

Her heavy sighing wouldn’t stop.

However, she saw no one who could be his parents in the guest section.

Unsurprisingly.

Given all the paperwork and approvals required, there just hadn’t been time to invite someone in to Academy City.

“?”

“What is it, scheming queen?”

“Oh, I was just wondering who the chief mourner is. Ahn, halogen heater☆”

Shokuhou Misaki’s eyes melted at a machine that was like a “warm fan” that an official had placed in the nearby aisle. She looked about ready to spread her arms and hug the heater with hearts displayed in her pupils. Why had she even come to the funeral?

That aside…

(Chief mourner.)

Come to think of it, this was odd.

As fancy as all this looked, the crucial pillars were missing.

It all felt hollow and artificial.

“That said, we must not keep the deceased here forever. As painful as it will be, we must continue with the ceremony to put him at ease as he takes his journey into the great beyond.”

A gentle sound enveloped the auditorium.

Classical music of unknown composer and title began to play.

“…?”

Mikoto knew how to play the piano and the violin, but she frowned. She didn’t recognize this. It may have been healing music recently composed entirely on a computer. That would be fitting for Academy City.

A slideshow of photos played along with the music.

It was obvious what these were from.

“The Daihaseisai, the Ichihanaransai – Kamijou Touma-san really did smile so brightly during these events.”

''Uh, uh…

Damp sobs spilled from here and there.

But wait.

Hold on.

What was this? Even in his school, how many people even knew Kamijou Touma? He hadn’t been part of any clubs and he had no connections outside his class. He wasn’t a master shogi player and he didn’t get the top score in the national practice exam. So why were all of those students who looked like second or third years shedding tears?

Mikoto was astonished.

Maybe it was a Pavlovian response, like people who would always cry when hearing a music box playing when in a sad mood.

“They’re like the delinquents who only cry at the graduation ceremony.”

Now that she had recovered using the heat of the halogen heater, Shokuhou’s whisper pierced sharply into Mikoto.

You smile at New Year’s and you cry at funerals.

That was all it was.

Like flipping a switch or turning a dial.

Was that really enough?

Could someone’s life end with this?

Of course, it would also piss her off if someone was chatting or using their phone in the middle of the ceremony, but this felt different somehow. The tears felt cheap. She wanted to stand up and shout that this wasn’t right.

Mikoto was sad.

She didn’t know what to do now that the time had come to say goodbye.

But.

She felt her heart distancing itself at the scene she found here. The distance kept growing. Her heart had lost the ability to sense her feelings.

Why?

It was already over. She knew that. Yet she felt some kind of powerful impatience growing inside her.

Was this really enough?

Would this mark the end of someone’s life?

“To represent you all, his homeroom teacher Tsukuyomi Komoe-sensei will now present some flowers.”

“Uhh.”

It might all look emotional, but it was nothing but checking off everything on the list.

It was a routine.

It was a ceremony to cut someone away from society, forget them, and erase them.

And.

Mikoto saw a red dot out of the corner of her eye.

“?”

Curious, she looked over to see a video being recorded.

Since she wasn’t familiar with funerals, she thought maybe that was a way to leave some memory behind, but…

“(That’s the funeral company. I bet they’ll chop it up and use it in their ads.)”

Shokuhou was more coldhearted.

Perhaps she was more accustomed to death than Mikoto.

But from where?

There was no answer to that question. As Shokuhou faced forward, her profile looked somehow lonely.

The entertainer hosting the event continued on.

“We will now receive a message from Kamijou Touma-san’s parents.”

The slide show of school events switched to something else.

“I am truly grateful you have all gathered today for our son.”

Were they using an online conference app?

The white wall behind the auditorium stage acted as a large screen to project someone who was presumably his father.

He was likely at home. The room behind him looked lived in.

Maybe this had been too sudden for anything else.

His user name was displayed below him in small text.

Kamijou Touya.

His flowing words were anything but coldhearted.

Even through the screen, Mikoto could sense just how hard that grown adult was clenching his teeth to get through it.

That distant place carried a much more appropriate mood than the site of the funeral.

Or so it seemed to Mikoto.

She sensed something authentic there.

“I’m sure Touma’s life in Academy City was full of smiles and memories with all of you. He never was great in school and he didn’t develop any kind of esper power, but we have all of you to thank for allowing him to enjoy himself enough to forget about those things. Our son seemed so happy in all the emails and messages he sent us. He also sent plenty of photos and videos. Those limited glimpses into his life were enough to know his time there was a bright and happy one. And I imagine he enjoyed himself even more than he let us know. I would like to thank you all deeply on behalf of our son. Even if his life there was cut short, he was truly fortunate to be surrounded by so many wonderful frie- kh...no, I can’t do it!!”

His trembling voice grew strained partway through.

The middle-aged man’s face filled the screen. With tears welling in his eyes.

“He was our family!! Our son is dead!!! But they won’t let us in the city!! They won’t even tell us the exact cause of death!! Is it not as safe inside those walls as we were led to believe!? This is crazy! What the hell is going on in that ci- (voice muted)”

His mouth flapped silently for a few more seconds before the video also cut out.

The host put on a fake smile and worked at smoothing that over.

“Oh, dear. The signal appears to be unstable and since it still hasn’t come back, we will move on.”

How could they just move past that!?

Mikoto just about stood up from her folding chair, but Shokuhou grabbed her hand.

Firmly, to hold her in place.

Even his parent’s wholehearted rebellion had accomplished nothing.

That was just one branch on the flowchart.

By following that branch through, they could bring the ceremony back on track.

“Now, if you will please come forward to burn incense. Yes, it will help if you climb the stairs on the right and descend the stairs on the left. You may begin.”

If the entire student body burned incense, it would take all day. Instead, each class sent a representative up to the altar. The staff held stopwatches and kept everything on the schedule determined during the dry run. Someone had died, but they didn’t allow anything to break down.

It was like the sand in an hourglass.

Once the stock had been used up, it was over. The coffin would be shut and placed in the hearse to be taken to the crematorium. Then nothing would remain. Kamijou Touma would be burned to ashes, leaving nothing even on the genetic level.

The entertainer monk continued with a smile.

“Finally, I would like to read the telegrams that have arrived from those close to the deceased. To start with, um, we have a Miss Leivinia Birdway from England.”

It was ending.

The funeral really was going to end.

“You’re looking at it wrong.”

Still facing forward, Shokuhou spoke quietly but clearly in her mourning clothes.

Even though Mental Out wasn’t supposed to work on Mikoto.

Her voice was somewhat stiff, but she still managed to say it.

“We have to bring his life to an end ourselves. So, Misaka-san, you need to prepare yourself to actually say goodbye.”

===Part 3===

Outside in the frigid January city, Index and Othinus stood in the rain.

Without an umbrella.

Breakfast time had passed, but for once Index had no appetite.

On her shoulder, Othinus held down the brim of her hat and looked up.

“Good grief. Even the weather forecast felt need to betray us… This unnatural rain is more what I would expect of that human’s misfortune.”

“That would be just like Touma.”

“Along with the fake-looking condition of the sky.”

“?”

A long vehicle passed them. The strange automobile was decorated with black and gold.

It was a hearse.

Two buses followed after it.

Once they had fully passed by, Othinus whispered a question.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go?”

“What about you?”

“I am the god of war, magic, and deception. This isn’t Baldr’s trial and I’m not the type to cry at funerals. But you’re a nun, aren’t you? This really is your last chance. You might be fine now, but the regret over not seeing him off will weigh heavy on you later.”

“I’m still in training.”

Index hung her head.

She had to be feeling something.

Othinus didn’t address it.

The one-eyed god with a lance was rarely depicted as kind.

“Now, what will we do? We are a living sample of a Magic God and a grimoire library. If we head out into the world with Academy City’s protection gone, magic cabals the world over will be after us both. If you aren’t interested in following him into death, then you need to continue working at survival.”

The city was surrounded by a thick wall and invisible EM and IR were used to cut off all wireless communications between the outside and inside. Even so, the air on both sides was the same and bugs and birds could fly across the wall with ease.

So.

Index raised her head and gave her answer.

“''We’ll do what the carrier pigeon said to.''”

“Good grief. Is that method just so old-fashioned they overlooked it? But as soon as Academy City learns about it, they’ll probably fill that hole with pheromones or light or something.”

If they headed to his school now, they might make it in time.

But they didn’t.

They couldn’t.

Index gave her reasoning.

“If I was there to say goodbye, I know I’d ruin the whole ceremony by crying too loud.”

The cat said nothing in the girl’s arms.

He wasn’t supposed to understand what was going on, but for some reason he seemed to.

===Part 4===

“It’s over,” muttered Aogami Pierce.

All the strength left his body.

He made it sound like his team had just lost a big tournament.

“That’s the end of Kami-yan’s funeral.”

“Pull yourself together. Komoe-sensei is calling us over to get to the crematorium.”

Perhaps Fukiyose found it easier if she focused her mind on a task. She seemed to be constantly searching for a new one.

Aogami rubbed his belly.

“I’m starving… I want to devour my lunch while watching an isekai cooking anime to give a psychological boost to the convenience store bento.”

“How about you chew on a handkerchief?”

Only his classmates were going to the crematorium. As much as they had sobbed during the funeral, the students from other years didn’t wait around before leaving the auditorium. Almost like a movie ad with people making insincere-sounding comments at an advance screening. The kind of ad that made it sound like the record for most moving film of the century was broken every other second.

Aogami saw a busty black-haired upperclassman girl look back toward the stage just once at the exit before leaving.

“Would they even show up if it was us who died?”

“This is better than it could be. Do you ordinarily get teary-eyed seeing the news on TV or online?” dryly asked Fukiyose.

That she sounded more irritable than normal may have been the greatest compliment to Kamijou Touma who had disappeared from their school.

===Part 5===

A woman in a beige habit stood in a city of white and black.

That was Human Aleister Crowley.

The ridiculous artificial rain continued to fall.

The golden retriever stayed by his side in the frigid chill without a word of complaint, but he did ask a question here.

“You aren’t going to see it through to the end?”

“You know all too well I don’t have the courage. Why would I have struggled so much if I did?”

“The regret always comes later.”

“I know that. Better than anyone in the world,” spat Aleister.

He didn’t want to believe it.

She had promised she would break whatever rules were necessary to save the boy.

Had she broken her promise in the end?

That meant there was something even Anna Kingsford couldn’t do.

He knew this was as absurd as wanting your parents to continue to be infallible beings, but still.

“If I could only save that one,” muttered Aleister.

“?”

“That one act would have meant so much. It would have triggered a chain reaction to fix everything. But it failed at the very first domino. …That boy remains dead.”

Kihara Noukan was an unusual genius even for a Kihara, but even he had trouble grasping what Aleister was getting at.

And he knew the human wasn’t going to explain.

Whatever it was, it was a dream that had ended unrealized.

“What now?” asked the dog.

“I wouldn’t be wandering like this if I could answer that.”

Was there any meaning in life now?

His questions had reached that level.

What in this wide world should he tie his existence to?

===Part 6===

The rain was falling.

The funeral in the auditorium had ended, so most of the students were using the walkway to return to the main school building.

They were pinching something and sprinkling it on their heads. It turned out to be salt.

Mikoto sighed softly as she walked out.

“So even the students at his school treat his death as something unclean.”

“I doubt many people in Academy City understand the symbolism. Just like very few people bother looking up the etymology of words like ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’. Most people see it as no more than the done thing, like bowing your head when entering a room. And does it have to be so cold!?”

Shokuhou’s shouted breath was already visible.

And a frigid rain was falling outside.

Shokuhou had started off holding her own shoulders, but once she set her sights on Mikoto, she grabbed onto her.

“Get off, Shokuhou. Kimonos are hard to fix once they start to come undone, so don’t grab onto me.”

“Oh, c’mon. Being a hot-water bottle is about all you’re good for, Misaka-san.”

“Oh, really? Even though I happen to have some hand warmers?”

Shokuhou Misaki petrified.

The corners of her lips twitched.

Her pride appeared to be conflicted over whether or not she should put on a polite smile.

“If you don’t want any, then fine. I’ll seal them away at the bottom of my purse. In the zone where I can’t dig them out again.”

“Wait, Misaka-saaan! You win, I admit it! So please show some love to this Little Match Girl freezing in the winter collllllllld!!”

“You have everyone call you a queen and now you have the nerve to act like the unfortunate Little Match Girl?

Mikoto toyed with the unathletic girl by tossing her hand warmer packs one after another as if to have her juggle them.

…This entire exchange may have been a way of preserving their mental balance. To Mikoto, the forced cheerfulness only made her entire life seem like an act.

“Ahh…☆”

“Hey, where the hell are you shoving that hand warmer, Shokuhou!? What happened to us having a shame culture!?”

The girl was shutting her eyes, trembling, and sighing like she was sinking into a hot spring, but the details were best left unstated.

She was capable of prioritizing what really mattered, meaning she was the type who would decide to nestle together in the nude to stay warm if they were stranded on a snowy mountain in the winter. Mikoto was certain of that now.

The official next to the hearse formed a megaphone with his hands and guided them.

“The buses are over here! Um, if you’re from the school, use bus 1. If you’re a visitor, use bus 2.”

Yes, it wasn’t over yet.

Many umbrellas blossomed like flowers and gathered together.

Carried by the adults.

The coffin was loaded onto the hearse.

The black and gold vehicle was headed to District 10.

Specifically, to the crematorium.

The entire student body wouldn’t fit there, so only what appeared to be Kamjou’s class would be going.

A bus was enough to carry that many.

And a second bus was enough for the visitors.

Another time limit had appeared.

Mikoto saw the distance to the crematorium like the timer ticking down on a time bomb.

But what did that time limit matter at this point?

Death could not be overturned.

It was already over.

“…”

“Ohh, blessed heat ability. Modern conveniences are truly wonderful…”

Next to her, the queen was saying something that suggested a kotatsu was all you needed to win her heart.

The two buses left the rear of the school to follow the hearse. The reporters out front seemed to be making a minor fuss, but the buses had no obligation to wait for them.

No one on the fairly large bus uttered a word.

The GPS navigation system provided a few instructions in a female voice, but the driver appeared to be ignoring them. Maybe there was some kind of etiquette to it, but the hearse seemed to avoid the shortest route and took a longer way to their destination.

In the adjacent seat, Shokuhou whispered briefly while staring out the window being pummeled by raindrops.

“Misaka-saaan.”

“Ugh, what idiot is sending a drone after us?”

With a sparking sound, the multicopter lost control out in the rain.

But who did those persistent reporters want to attack with their articles? Surely it wasn’t Alice Anotherbible or the Transcendents from the hidden side of the world.

“Maybe you could say we sent him to his death too. We didn’t stand in his way and attack him, but we did give him a push from behind.”

“Misaka-san. Malign his resolve and determination again and I will slap you.”

But Shokuhou didn’t actually deny it.

It probably bothered her too.

It was the same when they had fought Christian Rosencreutz. It had required a lot of power to repel him and Kamijou would have been killed if it had been even slightly insufficient.

Even so.

If their power hadn’t been up to the task, would he have considered running away?

“Not likely.”

“Not a chance. I can’t see him giving up on a fight once he started it.”

He hadn’t actually started that fight himself, but no matter how unfairly he was dragged into it, he had always fought to end it. So he could gently untangle the mess of threads.

“…”

It didn’t take very long.

They arrived at the crematorium.

A large roof covered the area in front of the entrance.

Had it been designed with bad weather like this in mind?

It looked like they had to wait for the workers to deal with the coffin.

“Go on, Misaka-san.”

At Shokuhou’s prompting, Mikoto got off the bus.

She wasn’t used to descending a bus’s stairs in Japanese mourning clothes. The clothing was like a single tube, so had it even been designed with climbing and descending stairs in mind?

“Of course it was. Did you forget the stone steps leading up to Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples?”

“Oh, no. Now that idiot is correcting me.”

“Oh? Misaka-san, did you forget I am the intellectual type? Care to see who does better with our next exam ability?”

Come to think of it, didn’t they have five-story pagodas in the Edo period? And those buildings wouldn’t have had elevators or escalators.

Shokuhou Misaki continued to rub the hand warmer against her cheek. It would have run out of heat by now, so was she making use of the placebo effect? Or maybe the cold was making her hallucinate.

An official guided them into the building.

There were numbered tatami mat waiting rooms with cremation chambers lined up.

Maybe there was a rule, but the cremation chambers not in use had their doors wide open. A square metal door led into a closed space seemingly made of brick or blocks. The shape was something like a modified baker’s furnace.

Mikoto peered inside and fell silent.

“…”

It wasn’t even the size of a laundromat.

Yet it felt far too ordered and optimized.

She sighed softly.

(I’m just not used to this.)

It was actually a bit of a relief when she spotted a few old vending machines jumbled together in a corner of the long hallway. She had wanted to see something that threw off the excessive organization of the place.

“It’s nice and warm in the building at least. Ugh, but now I kind of have to use the restroom.”

“I was a fool looking for salvation in a messy idiot like her…”

They could hear the conversation of officials in some room or another.

The voices crept up from the floor like the chill.

“A healthy high school boy? He should have thick bones.”

“We’ll have to burn him for a full four hours. That way there’s no chance any trace of his DNA map or the chemicals used for esper development will remain.”

A heavy scraping sound followed.

It came from something like a piece of pottery the size of a volleyball. Something had caused it to scrape against its lid.

“What does the height chart say? Is this size good?”

That was the funerary urn.

Would a whole person really fit in something so small?

Mourning clothes Mikoto frowned.

“Hold on. I get cremating him, but who gets his ashes?”

“The funerary urn can be transferred to someone else after being placed in the grave.”

Shokuhou’s finger hovered indecisively in front of the vending machine, but she only fidgeted without actually buying any warm coffee. Her fear of artificial additives appeared to be rearing its ugly head again.

“For now, he’ll probably be temporarily buried in a public grave.”

Could they really just do that?

Even as ashes, he would officially count as “remains”.

Besides. His parents apparently weren’t in the city, so who had submitted the notification of death to the government office? Mikoto had thought you couldn’t cremate someone until that had been received.

(Then again, this is the city that buried over ten thousand clones in secret, so they may have some tricks to get around that.)

They entered the waiting room.

The space was about 45 square meters.

Perhaps everyone wanted their own space.

His high school classmates were here, but Mikoto didn’t know any of them very well. She naturally kept her distance.

It was a weird feeling.

Why was she staying by Shokuhou’s side?

And while Mikoto mostly associated funerals with flowers and incense, the scent of burning candles was stronger. Maybe because that scent was a lot more oily.

A large LCD TV sat in the tatami mat room. In addition to over-the-air, and cable, it included an online streaming app. There were also a tablet with a public SIM. That may have been so hot food could be ordered in with a bike delivery service. Mikoto recognized a few of the apps lined up on the screen.

Shokuhou pointed at a sliding screen by the wall that seemed to lead to storage space.

“It looks like they have napping blankets in there.”

“I can’t imagine sleeping here could lead to sweet dreams.”

Four hours.

That explained why they had so many entertainment options for killing time.

“Shokuhou.”

“Yes?”

“Can you last four hours?”

“Sorry, excuse me a moment while I go freshen up.”

Western mourning clothes Shokuhou vanished somewhere with a severe look on her face. She had apparently gone out to visit the ladies room. Unable to relax without anything to focus on, Mikoto grabbed the TV remote and faced the giant screen. The time for New Year’s specials was over. A middle schooler like her had no idea what usually aired on weekday mornings.

(But maybe it would look more authentic if I don’t get all worked up over it?)

You were supposed to smile at New Year’s and cry at funerals.

She was fed up seeing people switch modes as if with a switch or dial.

She flipped through the channels for a bit.

The talk shows were more than she could handle today, so she kept changing the channel to escape them, but that mostly left shopping shows and old dramas.

After settling on a satellite broadcast animal show, she saw an enormous polar bear mercilessly attacking a family of seals. She was taken aback. She had been expecting footage of frolicking kittens or puppies. She wasn’t looking for the bloody and gory reality of nature right now!!

“What are you doing, Misaka-saaan? Why wouldn’t you go for a safe worldwide cruise show?”

That girl returned, looking exasperated.

But why was Shokuhou Misaki so familiar with TV on weekday mornings?

“Are you really a middle schooler?”

“If you’re trying to imply I’m an old lady, I will hit you.”

Something was sitting next to the TV.

At first, Mikoto thought it was a piece of Japanese-style artwork meant to help set the mood.

“Wait…” she said without thinking.

They already had a memorial tablet ready.

At first, Mikoto was confused who it was for. Because the name on it was a dharma name.

“I always thought the name was meant to be symbolic in some way.”

“In Academy City, they apparently have a website that automatically assigns one. Y’know, by tweaking a program ability meant to come up with a pet name if you can’t come up with one yourself.”

Did this city not have the rule where it only counted if it came from an important abbot?

Of course, it seemed like Academy City’s monks were part-timers who also worked as entertainers.

===Part 7===

Inside the District 10 prison, a monitor displayed Anti-Skill officer and high school teacher Yomikawa Aiho as she gave a report.

“The funeral ended without issue.”

“I see.”

“The hearse has left for the crematorium. Here, we’re holding an abbreviated version of the opening ceremony. You’re closer to the crematorium actually.”

The crematorium was in the same district, but that simple fact was far from the new Board Chairman’s mind.

It didn’t feel real.

(Accept his death? Why am I the one saying that shit?)

He had thought he would feel rage when standing on the verge of the death. But now that that line had been crossed, he was supposed to shake off all that emotion? Accelerator couldn’t say anything. Was he facing this like he should, or had his senses simply numbed over?

He couldn’t afford to forget what human warmth felt like.

No matter how many he saved with lifeless methods, he would only be retreading the path of Academy City’s former mistakes.

So what should he do?

Was it more human to let his emotions explode and destroy everything in sight?

“…”

Academy City’s #1 monster looked up.

He couldn’t see heaven there. Only a ceiling made of a special thick armor.

The prison had taken considerable damage from the attack by one of those Transcendents. This room was actually a secondary cell he had been moved to. Still, the white monster hadn’t died. Even though there were plenty of reasons for him to be killed. Was this just how life was?

“What was that bastard thinking dying before the villain,” he muttered.

Death was impartial.

It could visit anyone at any time, no matter how good a person they were, and they would lose their life.

“Aneri.”

An electronic beep.

Of rejection.

Apparently someone else had administrator privileges there. The new Board Chairman didn’t particularly care.

“Qliphah Puzzle 545.”

“Yes, yes. Kee hee hee.”

In that sense, the artificial demon was a lot less trouble.

And she also knew a lot about the world ''beyond'' science.

The #1 had just one question.

“Where is the person who did it?”

===Part 8===

A cold rain was falling.

The ugly rain could not become snow, but it rejected all human warmth while it naturally permeated the city of cutting-edge scientific technology.

The rain stealing heat from the entire city was impartial.

Even in the back alleys.

The countless raindrops falling from the heavens mercilessly located everyone, even a silent and unsteady girl, and soaked them.

She was tall. She wore black leather belts wrapped complexly around her naked body, making her stand out even in Academy City, which was isolated from the outside world.

Her long wavy blonde hair was plastered to her white skin.

She didn’t seem to have even the willpower to brush it away.

“…”

Alice Anotherbible.

She looked up at the sliver of rainy sky visible between the buildings.

And she didn’t move.

She had known that boy would die before they even met.

She had announced it herself.

But he had left the track of survival so that he could save the lives of others.

''“You will die.”

''“That doesn’t change my answer.”

She had seen the boy rushing toward death.

She had thought he might seek help at some point.

But he hadn’t.

''“So fight me!! Alice Anotherbible!!!”

Kamijou Touma had rejected her once.

She had lost sight of herself and resurrected Christian Rosencreutz as she was told.

''“Hold on. You don’t mean…?”

Yes, he had been shaken when he first learned he was doomed to die.

But he had still ultimately chosen the lives of others.

The doomed boy had stuck to his way of life and finally brought Alice Anotherbible back to her senses.

''“…I…”

''“I don’t…”

''“I don’t want to see anyone suffering from even more misfortune than me!! You got a problem with that!?”

He wasn’t coming back.

Alice Anotherbible could easily twist the world to her liking, but that was exactly why the person she had killed could not return. No matter what.

This was the result.

Aradia, the Bologna Succubus, and the rest of the Transcendents of the Bridge Builders Cabal were no longer here.

That meant Alice Anotherbible was no longer a fearsome leader.

She could trick people into seeing a form of beauty by taking death and violence to their extremes, but that was meaningless without those extremes. Being second best or lower simply made you a troublemaker.

A scratchy voice spoke.

The girl who had lost everything whispered into the emptiness.

“Tea…cher.”

===Part 9===

The final moment had arrived.

They would never see Kamijou Touma’s face again.

The coffin was already closed.

Although it was a Japanese-style coffin, so there was a small double door open over the face. That small square space seemed to be gradually cut away from the world at large.

“…”

Mikoto reached out her hand a bit and touched his cheek. Softly.

“?”

“Wait. You’d feel bad if you messed up his mortuary makeup at the very end, wouldn’t you?”

“Oh, right. It’s just…”

“What?”

Mikoto had no answer for Shokuhou’s quizzical gaze.

Meanwhile, the #5 Queen made her move. She raised a hand to the side of her head and lifted her veil before lowering her head toward the little window.

The instant before she kissed his cheek, Mikoto elbowed her in the side.

Sharply.

“No touching.”

“Ubwogh!? I-I really don’t see what’s so wrong with wishing him good fortune in the next life!!”

“You wouldn’t want to mess up his mortuary makeup, would you? Besides, you’re wearing lipstick.”

Misaka Mikoto had grown up in Academy City where science was everything, but she still knew it would be inappropriate to have him cremated with a lipstick mark on his face.

Each of them wasn’t given much time to say their goodbyes.

Mikoto and Shokuhou moved away.

Aogami Pierce placed a small rectangular object on his close-eyed friend’s pillow.

It was a smartphone.

Fukiyose frowned.

“Are you really allowed to put that in there?”

“Kami-yan was so happy when he got his first smartphone…”

An employee might get mad at him if they found out, but after burning any gold teeth and artificial bones along with the body, they apparently retrieved the rare earths. …And they wouldn’t know what materials had been included in some rich person’s expensive pure gold accessory.

The unsuccessful entertainer who worked part-time as a monk began speaking into the microphone he held.

“Now, everyone, let us once more pray for the deceased’s fortune in the next life. It is now time to say our final goodbye.”

===Part 10===

And.

And.

And then.

===Part 11===

…

…

…

Kamijou Touma silently opened his eyes in a small, dark space.

Yes.

The pointy-haired boy opened his eyes.

“?”

(Where am I? I can’t tell, but this definitely isn’t that artificial hell. Then am I alive again? Did Kingsford actually keep her prom-)

“Bweh, cough! Cough, hack!!”

Now wasn’t the time to be getting emotional.

Something was caught deep in his throat. He desperately coughed until he got a clump of something out. It was too dark to see what it was. He groped around the cramped space until he found something. For whatever reason, a phone was with him in the small box.

That gave him a light.

He tried to open his eyes to see, but something was wrong with his vision.

“Ow!! My eyes hurt!? What the hell!? You’re kidding, right!? Is there something in them!?”

He hesitantly pinched his eyelid and used the other hand’s index finger to feel around. It was big. He pulled something larger than a 100yen coin from under his eyelids. He checked with with the LED light and found it was absorbent cotton heavy with his tears. He shuddered.

And the thing that had been in hist throat appeared to be some kind of cloth.

Maybe to keep his tongue from falling back into his throat or maybe to keep insects from getting inside his body? He hadn’t known they did all that at funerals.

And something else gradually dawned on him.

This was not a hospital morgue. He had thought it was one of those locker-like storage spaces seen in TV dramas, but it wasn’t. He didn’t feel chilly at all.

That only left one possibility.

“Wait…”

He was lying face up in a space too small to move much. He smelled wood and flowers all around him. The ceiling? He sensed the wood less than 30cm away. Relying on the phone light, he tried pressing on it with his palm and the resistance vanished sooner than expected. Oh? It wasn’t heavy at all?

No.

He had only opened a small double door that had already been there. About 20cm across.

“Wait, wait, wait…”

The space beyond the little window was dark too. And it smelled of metal. After all the cheap meals he had cooked in his dorm, he recognized what he was seeing.

That was a fish grill.

Except this one was large enough to cook an entire human being.

“Ubwahhhhhh!! Does that mean I’m in the crematorium!!?”

Understanding your circumstances was important.

Because now the squeezing at his heart was so much stronger.

Did that mean the wooden box he was inside was a coffin!? He pushed on the actual cover with his palms to try and get out this time, but…oh, no. It wasn’t opening. It didn’t appear to be nailed shut. It would open upwards a few centimeters before something stopped it. Apparently the cremation chamber itself was short, so the coffin door was hitting the top.

Wait, did that mean he couldn’t get out?

If he stayed here like this, he had a strong feeling they really would ignite the chamber!

“Help!! I know it’s way too late for this, but Kamijou Touma is alive, so you all need to waiiiiiiiit!!”

He screamed with all his might…but did it do any good?

There was no reaction.

He wasn’t even certain his voice could be heard outside the chamber. He had never been to a crematorium before, but didn’t the cremation chambers have thick metal walls? And he was Academy City’s Mr. Misfortune. It was looking more likely he was going to go unnoticed and be roasted due to this careless mistake. A lot more likely.

“Th-th-th-the ph-ph-phone! I need to call someone outside and- mgwah!? Why doesn’t it have a signal!? Because the walls are so thick!? Is this stone and metal cremation chamber blocking the signal!?”

It didn’t look like he could count on any help from outside.

He would have to crawl out on his own.

However, the space was so small. It didn’t seem like the coffin lid would be able to open inside the cremation chamber, but that just meant he needed to get creative.

“Hnh!!”

Specifically, he moved to one side of the rectangular coffin to shift the center of gravity. Then he rolled up onto the side. Like rolling around in a giant ball, he tilted the entire coffin over 90 degrees.

There would be more horizontal than vertical space.

He could finally push on the large lid and escape the coffin…or so he thought before a powerful blow hit his back. He choked hard and then realized he had fallen off of something. The ceiling had seemed so low because the coffin had been sitting on something like a stretcher. The metal scent was a lot stronger now. Still, the place was dark and he knew he was inside a giant fish grill that would burn his flesh and bones using city gas. Even now, he assumed the emotional goodbyes were solemnly approaching their climax. If he waited around, he would meet the same fate as a saury prepared by a childhood friend who was a terrible cook.

(How long until they ignite it? Damn, I can’t hear any voices from outside!!)

It might happen an hour from now, but it also might happen a minute from now.

Either way, he was done for once it happened.

Kamijou aimed the phone around and discovered steel pipes as thick as his thumb running near the low ceiling. He chose not to imagine what the black soot he saw was primarily composed of. In fact, he worked very hard to not think about it. The shape of the place was indeed similar to a fish grill. That meant it had a few gas sprayers and spark plugs.

(I’m screwed if those work properly.)

“!! Oh, hell!!”

Or to put it another way, he had to destroy them if he wanted to live! He grabbed at whatever he could and yanked until a pipe came away with a dull snap.

He couldn’t celebrate yet.

A horrible stench stabbed into his nose.

A threat familiar to anyone who used a kitchen clutched at his heart. Even more strongly than before.

(Wait a second. Is that city gas?)

“Gwohhhhh!! Doesn’t that mean this chamber is filling with gas, even if it isn’t burning!? Then I’m going to suffocate and die anyway!!”

He had no idea if he had increased or decreased his time limit.

Flailing about wasn’t going to help.

He knew what he had to do. He had to get out of here. No matter what.

There was nothing like a chimney. He assumed it did have an exhaust vent somewhere, but he couldn’t find it with his phone’s light. Was there a small hole hidden in some gap somewhere? At the very least, it didn’t seem likely he could sneak out through a duct like an action movie star.

That left only one option.

The only exit was the door he had been shoved in through.

“Kh.”

(But will it open? I don’t know much about funerals, but aren’t cremation chamber doors made of really thick metal!?)

He desperately shined his phone’s LED lights that way…and didn’t see a knob. In fact, he was surprised to find the back of the metal door was covered in stuff. A few metal panels and joints fit together complexly.

That was probably the mechanism that allowed the door to be opened by a large lever on the outside.

Did it look like one big panel on the outside, but this opening and closing gimmick was hidden on the back?

Which meant…

“Can I break it open by kicking at this stuff?”

…The problem was the flammable city gas beginning to fill the interior of the chamber.

If he waited, he would definitely suffocate and die, but what if two metal pieces collided and produced a spark?

Accept it.

Trust in hope.

Giving into fear will only mean suffocating.

“Open.”

He had to do it.

Even if he was terrified and even if his heart was raising a scream so soon after beginning to beat once more.

Kamijou Touma repeatedly slammed his heel against the complex stopper on the back of the cremation chamber door.

“Opeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!”

===Part 12===

It came from within.

The metal door was kicked down with a loud roar.

Everyone gasped.

There was a voice.

''Today is my January birthday.

:''Today is the day I was born.

::''I am the star of this wonderful birthday.

''Today is my January birthday.

He was dressed in burial clothes.

A triangle of cloth was tied to the forehead below his pointy hair.

It was definitely him who crawled on out.

And he spoke.

“Hi there, everyone! Sorry if I surpri-”

“Eeeek, a zombie! It’s going to infect us all with who knows what!!!”

They didn’t even let him finish his sentence.

Tears welled up in the eyes of the corner-of-the-classroom boy who didn’t get to be the star even after coming back from the dead.

Panic and pandemonium were already setting in.

Of course they were.

Based on his phone’s screen, it hadn’t just been a few minutes since he died. Anyone would be terrified if someone who’s heart had long since stopped beating suddenly got back up.

(I’m grateful you brought me back to life, but couldn’t you have worked a little faster, Kingsford!?)

“Abababawawa, no, no, it’s true I, Kamijou Touma, died, but I’m alive again, and I mean, technically today isn’t my birthday, but can’t you please give me a more peaceful reaction along the lines of what you would do if a cardiac massage work-”

“Quiet, everyone! Quiet!! Take deep breaths to calm yourselves and stay where you are. Now, what were you doing in there? Who are you!?”

The extremely part-time monk was shouting into his microphone.

Then Kamijou heard a strange mechanical sound.

Someone was coming.

These people were wearing shiny silver armor that covered them from head to toe.

No, were those powered suits?

“Is that the exceptional remains!?”

“Commence incineration.”

They were holding something at their hips.

They looked like a fire fighter’s hose, but not quite.

A small lighter-sized flame flickered in front of the nozzle.

“Flamethrowers!!?”

How well prepared were they!?

Why did they have a unit like this already on standby? Did corpses have a habit of getting back up in this city!?

Anyway, he couldn’t let himself be roasted after just narrowly escaping that fate.

He had no choice but to run barefoot out of the crematorium.

“Damn!!”

Kamijou Touma threw open the frosted glass window and climbed out.

Frigid rain was falling outside.

''And the girl who pointed at me and called me a zombie right after I came back to life – that was Fukiyose, wasn’t it? Kamijou-san isn’t about to forget that!!

===Part 13===

Kamijou Touma wasn’t the only one in trouble.

Aogami Pierce, Fukiyose Seiri, and the others left in the crematorium were in no position to just stare.

The situation was on the move.

“Whoa!?”

They heard a “fwoosh!!” sound.

It came from right outside the window. More people in powered suits were spraying something out of large canisters. It was reminiscent of spraying agrochemicals on a field, but these weren’t pesticides. The outside of the window soon grew thick and translucent.

Aogami Pierce couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Is that a plastic glue? That’s like a more impressive version of the security sheets you put on windows.”

“With that, they can quarantine a location in less than 5 minutes. Now I doubt any person or any bacteria or viruses can get in or out.”

At field hospitals, thick plastic sheets were used to demarcate a space while air curtains controlled the air currents, but was this a more advanced version of that?

Then Fukiyose commented on the a phrase she had used that had caught her attention.

“Any person…?”

“A corpse just woke up and ran off. That qualifies as an emergency in my book. Did it not occur to you that we’re trapped inside here now?”

But the reaction had been too quick.

Kamijou Touma’s remains getting up and fleeing the crematorium was certainly a shock, but not even a few minutes had passed since then.

That speed was only possible if those people had been on standby to begin with.

It meant they must always monitor the cremations of anyone who had died under “suspicious circumstances”.

“(If they were this well prepared, does this kind of thing happen from time to time in Academy City?)”

“(Anything can happen here. I mean, this city creates superhuman Level 5s.)”

None of it sounded real.

Kamijou Touma had gotten up. That much was true.

But what exactly had happened? Saying a mystery virus was responsible sounded plausible enough, but it lacked the weight of reality. That was the same as saying ghosts were actually plasma. Smugly explaining that in a dark abandoned building did nothing to put your mind at ease.

And that aside…

“What happens to us now?” asked Aogami.

“Trying to move from here could be dangerous.”

That she didn’t scoff at his question meant Fukiyose was aware they were trapped in here.

This wasn’t like daydreaming about fighting terrorists during a boring class.

The entire building was sealed off from the outside by thick plastic walls. A mop or a metal bat weren’t going to break through the windows. Even a gun probably wouldn’t be enough. A specialized gas proof door had been set up as the only way in or out, but the powered suits were gathered around it.

And someone was loudly approaching from there.

At some point the number of powered suits had grown past 10.

“Quiet, everyone! We are Bio Secure!”

This person also wore a powered suit.

Maybe anything seemed suspicious when viewed in that light, but it felt like they were intentionally making themselves indistinguishable from each other. Like robbers in masks.

“Your movement will be temporarily restricted, but please do not worry. Once we ensure you are safe, you will be released, so I ask that you cooperate and avoid causing a disturbance.”

He “asked that” they cooperate, but he showed no sign of waiting for a yes or no response from them.

He was actually telling them to resist at their peril.

He made it clear who was in charge here.

How were they supposed to “not worry” when he was wearing a fully-sealed powered suit and equipped with a flamethrower? It was written on his hidden face that there was likely something invisible in the air and that his team would be fine.

“W-wait…” protested a pale-faced crematorium worker.

Even the adults didn’t know what this was.

That only worried Aogami Pierce and Fukiyose Seiri more. And they doubted Komoe-sensei was going to be much help here.

“Wait a second! What is happening? The paperwork said nothing about infectious disease, but are we safe? And do we have permission to continue running this facility!?”

“We are not authorized to answer that. Chief ''Kihara Goukei'' has yet to arrive, but she will explain everything once she does. Hold your questions until then.”

A sound a lot like steam followed.

The powered suits were tossing things into a large rectangular glass vat full of powerful acid. They were quite casual about it, probably because the splashing liquid and smoke wouldn’t harm them anymore.

Those were the bouquets and Kamijou Touma’s possessions prepared for the funeral.

They of course didn’t ask anyone’s permission first.

It had been through a screen, but during the funeral Aogami Pierce had seen the tearful face of that father enraged over his son’s death. The items he and his wife were meant to receive were all being heartlessly dissolved.

Even if this had been a performance put together by professionals, the sight seemed to fully reject the gentle atmosphere of the day.

His breathing was shallow and a cold sweat wouldn’t stop pouring down his brow, but Aogami may still not have accurately grasped the threat. If he had, he could easily have collapsed from hyperventilation.

If he couldn’t take advantage of his own ignorance here, he was in trouble.

His instincts told him so.

What was going to happen to them?

Would they be infected?

If they were, would that be done to them too?

But the situation was advancing whether he liked it or not.

A short distance away, one powered suit was speaking to another.

“What is it?”

“Chief Kihara Goukei has arrived.”

===Part 14===

The dead had come back to life.

Did that qualify as a good thing or a bad thing?

And this was Academy City.

If he was captured, he would either be sent to a lab to be soaked in formalin or he would be directly roasted by flamethrower.

Either way…

“I’m screwed!! My life is over if I’m caught!!”

Kamijou Touma ran outside in the frigid rain.

His burial clothes, which were one step removed from being a Halloween costume, did nothing to keep out the cold. And he was barefoot. Keep in mind it was January. Being stuck out in the rain dressed like this would kill him within an hour of coming back to life!!

“Ahh, brrr. There aren’t even any soaked girls caught in the sudden summer downpour. Winter sucks. There’s nothing at all good about being wet in this season.”

The city had been badly damaged.

The cumulative affect of the battles against Anna Sprengel, Christian Rosencreutz, and Alice Anotherbible really had left it close to collapse. The repairs could not keep up, so construction scaffolding and soundproofing sheets could be seen all over the place.

Kamijou Touma had received that same deadly force with his flesh-and-blood body.

That explained why it was so unusual for him to be alive.

He heard a groaning “gashunk!!” sound.

That was the sound of a powered suit’s artificial muscles operating.

“Dammit, they’re so fast!!”

Powered suit legs could run at 40-50km/h without the help of wheels or a car motor.

An ordinary human couldn’t hope to escape them while running along a wide street on foot.

“Kh.”

They had nearly caught up.

The powered suit’s thick fingers were approaching the back of his neck.

“Damn!!”

He clicked his tongue and changed direction.

He slid across the wet pavement, slipped below a soundproofing sheet, and tumbled into the construction site for repairs on a nearby building.

Sites like this could be found just about anywhere thanks to the battles against powerful foes like Anna Sprengel, Christian Rosencreutz, and Alice Anotherbible.

He heard the snapping of breaking metal.

After the powered suit’s thick fingers had found only air, it had easily torn through the exterior barricade made of soundproofing sheets and metal panels.

It worked like the building demolition beaks attached to the end of a mechanical arm.

A hit from that would smash his body apart even if it only caught on his clothes a little.

“Why aren’t we authorized to use our flamethrowers!?”

“Ask Chief Kihara Goukei. She’s the boss of Bio Secure, not us.”

He heard some terrifying voices from behind, but he couldn’t just stop.

The sounds of thick metal tearing apart continued.

The pursuing powered suits didn’t bother going around or climbing over obstacles. They would shove a stack of pipes aside with a single arm or tackle through a forest of erected steel beams, causing an entire half-repaired building to tilt.

Getting caught in any of that would be the end of Kamijou.

He couldn’t stay here in the construction site.

“Eek!!”

The loud and heavy sounds of bending metal filled the air.

Two of the rapidly-moving powered suits appeared to have collided.

“Y-your suit’s lost integrity!”

“Don’t worry about me and go on ahead! Hurry!!”

“Stop acting all heroic while brandishing flamethrowers! It’s terrifying!” shouted Kamijou, bristling as he fled.

In their minds, they weren’t ganging up on a victim to bully him – they seemed to truly see themselves as fighting to protect Academy City. Which meant they would not compromise or let their guard down. But so what? Someone who could emotionally kill a stranger without second thought was a terrible person in Kamijou’s book.

Kamijou spotted a slope leading underground, so he raced down it. He was expecting an underground mall, but was instead hit by a mass of malodorous air. He had apparently wandered into a culvert where a river ran below the city.

On the floor, he found large wireless communication equipment, professional-looking tools, and a long power cable leading somewhere.

Apparently repairs were underway here as well.

He was afraid of giving away his position, but it was dark in here. Missing a step and falling into the winter river would be no laughing matter, so he suppressed the fear and switched on the LED light.

“The all-purpose smartphone really is one of humanity’s greatest inventions.”

He wished he could just call Anti-Skill and have them come to the rescue, but he got the impression he couldn’t trust in the grownups’ systems.

Where was the exit?

Was heading outside even his best option?

Or should he hide out in this labyrinthine underground structure until his pursuers had moved on?

And how many minutes would he have to wait until he considered that plan a success?

He had too many unanswered questions.

Behind him, he heard the “gashunk, gashunk” of machines operating. Were they still after him!?

(But they’re not moving as fast as before. Did they not have night vision gear because it’s still daytime, or are they afraid of falling in the water and sinking like a rock?)

He thought he would pass out from the fear if he didn’t force his thoughts in a positive direction.

He had to keep running and escape.

It was all so unfair.

He was moments away from death, but for some reason he found laughter spilling from his lips as he ran away soaking wet.

He couldn’t stop.

“Ha ha ha…”

He was afraid of dying.

Of course he was.

Because no matter what anyone might say, Kamijou Touma was alive!!

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!”

He was alive.

He had never felt so aware of the life within him.

He wasn’t a ghost or a zombie or anything like that.

Being human was such a wonderful feeling!!

Although if Anna Kingsford saw this, she might hold a hand to her head in exasperation or she might bring her fist down on his head.

(Still…)

Chief Kihara Goukei.

They had used the name Kihara.

Was it the same Kihara?

In addition to the business with Kihara Kagun, he was pretty sure he had heard that name associated with the incident where he first met Alice Anotherbible. That operation had been meant to clean up the dark side lurking in Academy City’s shadows, but outside influence had twisted it into a great tragedy. Many people had died. But…they were still there.

“Doe that mean that dark side thing is still alive and kicking after all that? Dammit!”

He heard an ominous roar.

That was the sound of flames sucking in oxygen.

He looked back while running and his eyes widened. A fireball of a flame flickered in the air.

That was the tip of a flamethrower.

“A-are you kidding me!?”

Even though it branched off every which way, this was still an enclosed space. Bio Secure might survive thanks to their thick powered suits and oxygen supplies, but Kamijou would either be instantly fried or would suffocate with his lungs roasted.

(I thought that Kihara person wasn’t letting them use those!)

It was too late to complain now.

And maybe it had been wrong to count on the enemy’s situation remaining unchanged.

Without hesitation, the flamethrower nozzle aimed his way spewed an oxidant and a jelly-like liquid combustible material.

And a moment later…

It exploded.

“Wahgyahhh!!!”

Kamijou was soaked with sweat as he leaped down a different branching path.

What?

He was still alive, but what was that!?

There had been flames, but that wasn’t right. If the flamethrower had been functioning normally, he knew he should have been wrapped in flames himself. The powered suit had done something wrong. Because it was the pursuer who had ended up on fire.

White fire.

What kind of explosion was that?

It had seemed like something at the powered suit’s feet had exploded immediately after the flamethrower was activated.

(Was that acetylene gas used for welding!?)

That special flammable gas was used to create the ultra-high temperature flames needed to melt and combine reinforcing steel. The powered suit appeared to be designed to withstand the heat of a flamethrower, but an explosion of that stuff at such close range had to have damaged it at least some.

Kihara Goukei was it?

This may have been part of the reason why the powered suits’ boss had banned them from using their flamethrowers. With propane, city gas, and more, the densely populated city contained a surprising amount of flammables and explosives. The recovery had finally begun after the many battles. There was even the possibility of unexploded shells or missiles lying around.

“Pant, gasp!!”

Anyway, Kamijou Touma was alive.

If he continued playing tag with these powered suits, he would be killed. If he was going to escape, it had to be now while they were panicked over their own screw up.

Bio Secure(?), or whatever they were called, didn’t seem worried inside the steel-melting flames.

He felt their gaze on him.

And heard a straining sound.

They were having trouble, but they only had to wait until their suits managed to reboot inside the flames. Kamijou know he couldn’t destroy them by going on the offensive. Once their self-scans and error recovery was complete, he would be out of options. He wouldn’t be able to escape.

So move your legs.

The culvert was one step removed from a sewer. He was worn out from all the strenuous exercise, but he wasn’t at all inclined to lean against the wall. He used his phone’s LED light to walk down a small side path in the dark culvert that stank of sludge and he eventually found a small door.

Maybe it was for work access and maybe it was an emergency exit, but on the other side, narrow stairs led up toward the surface.

“Wheeze, wheeze…”

He was right back out in the rainy world.

He honestly didn’t feel at all like he had escaped.

He was certain the flamethrower-wielding powered suits would find him again soon enough.

Was coming back from the dead really so difficult?

This was nothing like the emotional reactions to a miraculous experience he had been expecting.

(But what do I do now? If I’m supposed to be dead, my dorm room might be gone. And it doesn’t look like anyone I know will be any help.)

“?”

He spotted a camera-equipped security robot and instinctively moved from the main road to an alley to hide.

He felt like he was moving further and further from the sun.

At this rate, was he going to find himself crawling underneath a flower pot in the schoolyard?

“Also.”

Being dead had scared him.

Finding some way of returning to life had been the only thing on his mind.

But.

Could it be?

“Does no one want a world with me in it?”

He hung his head.

It really hurt.

Then again, he was only a high school boy. He wasn’t some important Buddhist priest whose remains would be preserved after death. So maybe there just wasn’t anyone who wanted to see him again badly enough to deal with something as bizarre as this…

He had died and come back.

Being killed by Alice Anotherbible had complicated matters this time, but he had actually already experienced something similar a few times with full-power Othinus and Good, Old Mary…but was it just different once the pieces on the board had made it as far as the funeral? Instead of just physically dying, his death had been socially accepted this time. It took dying for him to realize death happened in stages.

A whirring motor sound passed by overhead.

“Eek!?”

Now wasn’t the time to be waxing philosophical.

Kamijou released a quick shriek and then hid below an air conditioner attached to the wall in the narrow alley. The flying drone passed by. The dark side was supposed to have declined and they could still do all this? He really didn’t want to be found by the adults right now. They did have flamethrowers after all!

And that hadn’t just been a scout.

It wasn’t harmless.

It was very different from one of these drum-shaped security robots.

Specifically, an object the size of a rugby ball was hanging down from it. He couldn’t be certain, but he was pretty sure that was an anti-tank rocket.

If it had noticed him and fired that, he would have been blown to pieces along with this corner of the alley. That 8000yen-a-pop explosive was enough to fully change the meaning of the electronic device.

It was over once he was caught.

Kamijou Touma desperately held his breath.

Maybe he was doing something incredibly stupid. After all, it wasn’t a living creature. Staying still behind cover like this might not matter depending on what kinds of sensors it was using to scan the surface.

The next 30 seconds seemed to scorch his heart.

And that was assuming his sense of time was accurate.

The drone indifferently flew off. Like nothing had happened.

In that final moment, its motion seemed somehow human, so it was possible it had shifted from programmed flight to remote manual control.

Regardless, that meant the threat had passed…right?

“Phew…”

Thanks to that assumption, it caught him completely by surprise.

While all his focus was overhead, he heard a noise from straight ahead.

A quiet footstep.

Someone was there.

The person was frozen in place, staring wide-eyed at him.

She was tall and beautiful. Her long wavy blonde hair was wet with rain and her skinny body was tightly bound by black leather belts, making for a strange manner of dress even for Academy City.

She was a Transcendent.

Alice Anotherbible.

She was frozen in apparent surprise, widened eyes directed his way.

“Y-you can…see me???”

The idiot had so lost his faith in humanity he had to ask that in a trembling voice.

Tears welled up in the corners of the girl’s eyes.

Large ones.

The cold rain was still falling, but these drops were noticeably different and carried body heat.

“T-””

She was stiff and trembling.

And…

“Teacher!!”

She spread her arms and leaped at him.

Her momentum was too much for him, so Kamijou Touma toppled back onto his rear.

Yes, he could feel her.

Her hair wet with the cold rain, her skin, her sweet scent, and her high-pitched voice piercing into his ears. Sensations the dead could never experience bewildered his senses and stabbed directly into his brain. Kamijou Touma was alive, including those brains.

…I thought I would never see you again.

His heart had stopped, his brain’s neural network had been shredded, and he had fully died.

Saying he would return to life had been an absurd fantasy.

Yet he had done it.

He had returned alive from hell.

However, he didn’t deserve the credit there.

That hell had been an artificial one that Christian Rosencreutz had created to resurrect himself and Anna Kingsford had hijacked control of it. And she hadn’t hesitated to hand the resurrection ticket to Kamijou Touma.

He had been saved every step of the way.

The pointy-haired boy hadn’t accomplished anything on his own. Those true experts had done it for him.

They had taught him what it means to save people.

But.

He hadn’t done the wrong thing.

He had finally found something in this half-destroyed world that convinced him of that.

“You’re alive, you’re here, ohh, the girl can touch you, teacher is really here. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

No matter how cold the rain was, he could feel this girl’s warmth beyond it.

Returning to life was meaningless?

Don’t be ridiculous.

There was a girl here letting him experience something he never would have if he hadn’t returned to the world of the living.

“Thank goodness… Teacher, you’re breathing, you’re alive. The girl, uh, the girlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!”

She couldn’t even get her words out.

Still slumped down, Kamijou Touma placed a hand on sobbing Alice’s head.

He could touch her.

He could influence things.

He could save a single crying girl.

The pointy-haired boy was undoubtedly alive here.

“Heh…”

What an awful day.

He had taken so long to return to life that now he was seen as the living dead. They seemed to think he was infected with some kind of Academy City something, so a group of adults with flamethrowers was after him.

But.

Nevertheless…

“Coming back to life…was definitely the right move.”

He could finally say that.

For today at least, he could smile.

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume12_Chapter1|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume12_Chapter3}}
</noinclude>