Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume15 Chapter3

==Chapter 3: Justice Doesn’t Have a Monopoly on Peace – Justice_Another.==

===Part 1===

If they could only capture Hamazura Shiage, the situation wouldn’t continue to deteriorate.

Takitsubo Rikou believed that. Strongly.

It was January, so it would get dark shortly after 6 PM. Although District 23 would be lit up by stadium-style lighting due to all its airports and runways.

She was in one corner of the Hotel Town where the arrangement of retired aircraft had greatly collapsed.

She was staring at the tracking data spread out on the hood of a car when Kanzaki spoke to her from behind.

“Have you figured out anything as our scientific tracker?”

“…This mobility device bothers me,” said Takitsubo while staring at the map and a photo.

She was checking over even the smallest vehicle fleeing from the Hotel Town.

“You might not think much of someone stealing one, but those work vehicles are linked to the airport’s internal network. They aren’t like ordinary cars where you can record the unlock signal sent by the key and then open the door with a tablet. I don’t know who was riding it, but Hamazura couldn’t have done that on his own. His usual MO is to stick wires through the door’s keyhole or window and break in that way, but that wouldn’t work here. …Could he have gotten Aneri’s help?”

“Yes. There is apparently a hacking tool called Black_Oneday out there. It’s specialized for the aerospace industry.”

“Wait.”

Takitsubo immediately interrupted after hearing this new information from Kanzaki.

What was this? Where had this information come from?

Not to mention…

“Black_Oneday? If there is a specialized hacking tool like that, it changes all our assumptions. We can’t just suspect Hamazura and AI Aneri anymore!”

“Why not? What is there to consider? All the hacking in District 23 is being done by Hamazura Shiage and AI Aneri.”

“But then how do you explain that mobility device?”

“What is there to explain about it? And if it needs an explanation, that’s your job.”

“…”

There was a disconnect.

She wasn’t getting through.

They were using the same words, but she couldn’t grasp the actual thoughts at the root of the conversation. Someone other than Hamazura was involved in this mess. …But when Takitsubo tried to say so, Kanzaki and the rest of the Anglicans reacted oddly.

Kanzaki smiled as she continued.

“Hamazura Shiage carries Great Demon Coronzon’s power inside him. That Sitra Achra is extremely dangerous. And Hamazura Shiage has been tainted by Coronzon’s way of thinking, so he could spread her apocalyptic ideology. We are fighting to save the world here.”

Takitsubo wanted to curse herself for not noticing something was off while speaking with them until now.



“Honestly.”



With that word, someone else suddenly appeared nearby.

She was a very tall figure.

Good, Old Mary now stood between Takitsubo and Kanzaki.

She was holding a sandwich toaster for some reason.

(That…wasn’t teleportation. …Did she divert the attention of a tracking expert like me enough that I didn’t even see her?)

“I hadn’t liked the look of things earlier, but now I see what’s going on. The hunters have been hijacked by the hunted, turning it all into a charade. That explains why the chase never seems to end.” Good, Old Mary looked disgusted. “But is this brainwashing? No, this feels more like an intentional bias has been applied to a portion of their thought processes.”

“A-a bias?”

“You in the track suit. How would you describe that Amakusa woman’s personality?”

Takitsubo had briefly worked with the Anglicans during pursuit of Coronzon the other day.

As a dark side tracker, she could profile someone after only a short interaction.

“She has a high level of skill, but she is the cautious type. That caution comes from deep-rooted self-recrimination and guilt. She has a complex about her great physical strength and she values her ability to apply the brakes with her rational side. She has a particularly strong aversion to killing.”

“Does she? But when Dion Fortune attempted to contact Hamazura Shiage, Kanzaki Kaori was the first one to launch a ''lethal'' attack spell at him from a distance.”

“?”

“And when Blodeuwedd the Bouquet showed up, she said she would ''feel bad cutting her down the very next day''.”

That didn’t fit.

Good, Old Mary tilted her head, her large hat shaking atop it.

“There is an intentional bias to the information in her head. This prevents her thoughts from reaching any information inconvenient to ''someone''. She has become a puppet who will pursue Hamazura Shiage forever without ever paying any attention to the true villain. What part of you was sealed away, Anglicans?”

The Anglican magicians dispatched to Academy City currently lacked the part of them that would protect the people from wicked magicians.

Good, Old Mary adjusted her position to protect Takitsubo, the only other one who was thinking clearly.

With an enemy group, Good, Old Mary could have swept them all aside, but she had accepted the Anglicans as her salvation targets.

(What a pain. That means I can’t abandon these puppets. This righteous mama has her work cut out for her.)

Takitsubo kept right by tall Good, Old Mary’s side.

“W-wait, what are you going to do? Can you fix this!?”

“If their thoughts are being biased by an external source, the symptoms are similar to a charm or confusion effect. Those aren’t particularly unusual in the magic world. In fact, they’re fairly orthodox. Shooting fire from your hand or moving at the speed of sound are supposed to be special exceptions. I should be able to whip up a recovery potion for them. Or if I have to, I could even kill them and resurrect them.”

There was no signal.

Tatemiya wielding a large sword, Itsuwa holding a spear, and many others all rushed in at once. The density of the attack mattered more than their individual skills. It was a surefire method available for a group where avoiding any one attack would lead to a lethal blow from another blade.

So there was no dodging.

Several blades sliced through Good, Old Mary’s neck and pierced her chest.

Not a single drop of blood was shed.

“That was an illusion projected on a cloud.”

Good, Old Mary stood three meters to the right. Holding Takitsubo in her arms.

With a few odd sounds of bursting air, Tatemiya and Itsuwa crumbled to the ground.

“And moisture can guide lightning.”

A decoy and a mine. She had combined evasion and attack into single deceptive maneuver.

But it wasn’t invincible.

The next attack came from behind. Brilliant light and heat scorched the air and stripped away the veil of cloud protecting Good, Old Mary. With the moisture in the air gone, she could no longer bend light and sound.

(Oops. Now they all know how mama appears and disappears so mysteriously.)

While regretting her actions, she turned around to see Stiyl Magnus smoothly emerge. Despite his size, she could not sense his presence right in front of her. She was mildly impressed. Perhaps this was what it took to be an expert witch hunter.

After a soft breath, she whispered to Takitsubo next to her.

“Oh, dear. Get behind mama.”

“Kenaz.” (Fire)

(Hm. Right now I want the hot and dry of the Fifth House which symbolizes summer. In other words, the eighth of the major arcana and the Hebrew letter Tet, so-)

“Thurisaz Naudiz Gebo!!” (Grant the giant a gift of pain)

The tall priest was three steps faster than her, producing a roaring red flame sword and blue flame sword in his hands.

And Stiyl Magnus did not hesitate.

He swung the red flame sword directly toward Good, Old Mary while sweeping the blue flame sword horizontally and triggering an explosion. Even if his target moved away to escape, the explosive blast of 2000+ degree flames would burn and melt them.

Good, Old Mary was an alchemist, so she could extract the basic elements (fire, water, wind, earth, etc.) from any object and use it as an ingredient to create various potions. Even if she could only make something basic at first, she could repeat the mixing process to respond to any situation.

Her greatest advantage was her ability to make the optimal potion for any enemy or problem she faced. But that meant she could be defeated if her enemy kept up the attack and never gave her a chance to mix a potion.

Except…you didn’t actually think that was how it worked, did you?

(Well, it’s technically not wrong.)

''But. However. Nevertheless.

“The Prince of Swords – in other words, the wind of wind. Keep him away.”

“!?”

Something unseen surpassed Stiyl’s speed.

Good, Old Mary’s palm produced a compressed mass of air more destructive than a meter-wide wrecking ball.

Its speed was unthinkable. The Bain-marie was an excellent mixing tool, but she still should have needed at least another three steps before she could launch Stiyl back five meters.

''She had skipped those three strict steps.

Lucia’s eyes widened in surprise.

“That was fast…”

“You have time to spare to praise mama? You’ll make me blush.”

The next wind wrecking ball splintered Lucia’s wooden wheel. And the nun holding it was thrown through the air. If the north wind and the sun decided to settle their argument by force from the start, it probably would have ended up something like this.

“Eek!?”

Panicked by the sight of her friend sprawled out before her, Angelene launched all of her golden-winged coin bags. Instead of trying to beat her target to death, it felt more like she was frantically raising her hands to guard her face from the ball flying toward her.

(Gold is the seventh circle – that is, the sun – the 19th card of the major arcana, and the Hebrew letter Resh. For the iron ingredient, Helios shall- no, Ra would be easier to use here. Yes, I’ll go with that.)

“Thank you for the gift.”

“Ah!? Wait, Angelene, don’t attack! She ''incorporates her enemy’s attacks into her spell, letting her skip steps''!! The more we help her along…”

The more ''her processing speed skyrocketed.

Agnese realized what was happening and raised a frantic shout, but it was too late. Good, Old Mary couldn’t complete the complex mixing steps in time on her own, but she could skip three of those steps if she had the enemy help her through the most troublesome parts. She had reached a state similar to a special sauce made by letting a mixture of ingredients sit for half an hour.

(With all their pro spiritual items, pro magicians are like a treasure trove of rare ingredients. Steal, steal, rob, rob…and it’s ready.)

“The Queen of Wands – in other words, the water of fire. Crush her.”

After supplying her coin bags as a mixing ingredient, Angelene was crushed to the ground. Like an invisible false ceiling had fallen on her. It was actually a mass of steam expanding to several hundred times its size in mere moments.

With a burst of quick movements, the magicians encircling Good, Old Mary and Takitsubo shifted their positions. To put a bit more distance between them and the center point.

“Hm.”

When Good, Old Mary held her palm out from a distance, the Anglican who jumped the most was Necromancer Isabella Theism. Which made sense. That dark-skinned girl used various Voodoo poisons and medicines, so Good, Old Mary had to see her like a kid’s meal piled high with child-friendly foods.

Osiris, Hades, or maybe King Enma?

Whoever the necromancer made use of, a divine fistfight would only play right into Good, Old Mary’s hand. That was the perfect field for the Transcendent.

(They’re under the enemy’s control, but they still tense up in fear of pain, terror, failure, and defeat. They wouldn’t care about physical damage if they were affected by complete remote control or internal possession. …So was I correct to think they have ''only'' had one portion of their thoughts manipulated?)

Thinking about it wasn’t going to turn up any objective proof. It wasn’t like they had an obvious magic charm attached to their forehead.

While Good, Old Mary repeated those worthless predictions, Takitsubo hid behind her back and asked a question.

“Wh-what now?”

“Mama will do everything necessary to ensure your safety.”



But.



There was no warning.

No light or sound. Good, Old Mary had not let her guard down. And yet the most dangerous magician had ''already'' arrived right in front of her.

Kanzaki Kaori.

As one of the world’s fewer than twenty Saints, she could move at supersonic speeds for short times.

(My, is she fast!! But if I mix the necromancer’s poisons and medicines…)

That was when Good, Old Mary froze. Her mixing process was halted. Something unseen sliced through her sleeve and tangled around her arm enough to dig into her skin, restricting the movement of her dominant hand.

(What? Seven…wires!?)

Good, Old Mary was unfamiliar with the name Nanasen.

She immediately used her other hand to burn through the wires with a potion, but that slowed her by a step.

And that one step created a critical opening.

Kanzaki Kaori’s fingers touched the hilt of the long sword at her hip.

Good, Old Mary felt an odd chill on the side of her neck. The blade had yet to be freed from its scabbard, but the sensation of her impending death reached her in advance.

This time, Kanzaki Kaori was not manipulating thin wires.

She truly did grab the katana’s hilt and draw it from its scabbard.



And ''a single light flashed out.



“G-”

Good, Old Mary’s voice was hoarse.

Because she was aware she could not ignore this damage.

“''God.'' Is that a god-slaying power''?”

That attack could mercilessly cut down Christian archangels or some of the polytheistic gods.

It was a hopelessly bad matchup for a Transcendent.

Because they were the highly irregular magicians who dressed up like a god to try and draw on specs equivalent to the god’s own. Good, Old Mary had become a resident of the divine myths, albeit an artificial one, so you could say she had made sure this god-slaying power could affect her.

So she should have died instantly.

“I see,” said Kanzaki Kaori, sounding somewhat impressed.

Given her Magic Name, she would never choose to kill. She had just used Yuisen against a human, yet that was ''the one thing'' she didn’t question here.

“Did you combine the Philosopher’s Egg, which can create a potion of immortality, with the Sphere of Sensation, the aura field everyone subconsciously emits much like their body heat or scent? By ensuring new life would well up endlessly within you, you made sure I could not fully kill you.”

But Good, Old Mary was out of the fight now.

Surviving Yuisen was a praiseworthy feat for a resident of divine myth, but this was a last resort like turning your body to stone to deflect an enemy blade. She had lost any chance to move her own body for the time being.

And…

“Ah, ah…”

With Good, Old Mary defeated Takitsubo was now surrounded and alone. Isolated. Because everyone around her was Anglican.

Kanzaki Kaori spoke from directly ahead.

With her usual calm smile.



“Now, let us track down Hamazura Shiage and bring peace back to the world.”

===Part 2===

Even Hamazura could tell the situation had greatly changed.

If the Black_Oneday user really had brainwashed all of the Anglicans, his girlfriend Takitsubo would be in the enemy’s grasp. And she was a tracking expert with a high chance of approaching the truth of the matter. He doubted the villain would leave her be for long.

(And if Takitsubo of all people doesn’t realize she’s surrounded by enemies… Is this happening outside the world of science? I guess even Takitsubo’s nose for these things can be fooled by magic.)

He couldn’t rest in the small antenna tower forever.

Hamazura needed to rescue Takitsubo somehow, but…

“It’s not possible.”

“Why not!?”

“Because the Amakusas work for the Anglicans.”

He had no idea what Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was getting at.

Who were the Amakusas? She explained.

“They are a sect based on the Hidden Christians who were badly persecuted during the Sakoku era. No one else in the world would be better than them when it comes to running and hiding for a righteous purpose. When they decide to go into hiding, we won’t be able to find them no matter how hard we search. Attempting to chase them down will only give them information on us. And if that happens…”

“Takitsubo really will be in trouble while surrounded by the enemy…” groaned Hamazura like it was a curse.

He most hated his own stupidity. If he had known this sooner, his top priority would have been to stop Takitsubo from meeting with the Anglicans even if he had to use Aneri to find her. Why hadn’t he seen the danger? Because the Anglicans had a monopoly on justice. It should have been obvious even Takitsubo wouldn’t question it if they asked for assistance from their righteous position!!

He had to think.

It didn’t matter how cheap and greedy it was. Everyone could call him evil if they wanted.

He had to think of some way of saving his girlfriend from this crisis!!

“Hey, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. The Anglicans at least need Takitsubo’s tracking ability to follow me, right?”

“I suppose.”

“That means they have to treat Takitsubo carefully until they kill me. …Killing her will come after that.”

To put it another way, ''Taktsubo’s life was assured as long as he wasn’t caught.

In that case, he just had to continue running away.

Even if it meant following the path of evil.

“Hmm, that should work. And if we’re being optimistic here, let’s say the Anglicans are being manipulated by the real villain. Defeating that villain will free them from their brainwashing, meaning they won’t be a threat anymore. Won’t that also save your precious girlfriend?”

“…”

Then he knew what he had to do.

It was best to have Takitsubo continue tracking him down. However, he couldn’t let the Anglicans actually catch him. And he had to find and defeat the Black_Oneday user before they caught him.

He knew that.

But he still clenched his fist tight.

Neither Blodeuwedd the Bouquet nor AI Aneri had time to stop him before a dull thud burst out. The boy too stupid and pathetic to be a hero had punched himself in the face.



He had just placed his girlfriend second in his priority list.

He knew that wasn’t right.

It was a despicable decision, but that was the only way he could realistically protect her!!

===Part 3===

Meanwhile.

Gym-sized maintenance hangars were lined up in an area a short distance north of the Hotel Town.

“Hmm…”

“They attacked us too. Well, nothing happening inside Academy City can trigger a war, so I suppose we can think of it as just barely not crossing the line.”

Birdway and Lessar were speaking to each other while looking at the ground.

Noticing Kamijou’s gaze, Dion Fortune shook her head.

“Don’t expect a detailed explanation from me on this mechanical stuff. Handle that yourself.”

A mess of scrap metal lay on the ground. Shortly before, it had been a 3m multi-rotor drone zipping through the air. Even as scrap, the triple-barreled Gatling gun and short-range SAM pod were still verrrry recognizable. The thing had sent a downpour of bullets from the sky to kill Kamijou and the others.

“This isn’t the direction that boxy mobility device went, is it? Could this be a diversion?”

“Or they just had a spare drone hidden over here.”

Kamijou was sick of it all. He shouted at the top of his lungs.

“What happened to the villain being a magician!? We were just attacked by a drone! And you all saw what happened at the Hotel Town, didn’t you!? The enemy must be from the science side!!”

He didn’t see how he could be wrong.

A hacking tool was being used to cause trouble in District 23 and they were being attacked by machines. There was no room for the magic side there. Wasn’t this a cyber crime committed by someone from the science side – or more specifically, from Academy City?

But.

Birdway shot back at him with absolute confidence.



“Oh? ''Who ever said magicians can’t hack''?”

===Part 4===

It was evening already?

Once it started to get dark, the winter night arrived fast.

Hamazura knew Takitsubo was in danger, but he had chosen to identify the Black_Oneday user instead of going to her rescue. He didn’t want to waste a moment of time.

“Ugh.”

Next to him, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet glanced at a sign with a simple map. This was apparently a workshop where the cargo containers arriving by plane were loaded onto trucks after inspection. The cargo containers were the dice-like air cargo type, so there was no need for the enormous gantry cranes used at harbors. Here, they used forklifts and loaders instead.

“You suspect the drone airbase, right? …Will a dangerous macho place like that even be on the map?”

“You can’t hide something that size. Trying to hide it when everyone can see it will only worry people more. They won’t release a detailed layout of the interior of course.”

That was when they heard a strange “thunk!!”

A thumb-sized hole had appeared in the metal sign.

Hamazura recognized the distinctive noise of an electric motor instead of a gasoline engine. They were being targeted by one of those small eight-wheeled things with two machineguns.

(An anti-air drone! Is this Black_Oneday again!?)

“What now, Hamazura?”

“Kh. There are still a bunch of innocent workers here. We can’t get them caught up in this!!”

Just because someone didn’t take his side didn’t make them evil.

That would be a messed-up basis to screw up someone else’s life!

Hamazura shouted so the workers could hear him over the gunfire.

“Get down!! Behind that loader! Not even machinegun fire can pierce that huge snow-removal bucket, so it’ll work as a shield!!”

A middle-aged man in an airport security uniform only stared in shock without moving, so Hamazura shoved him behind a cargo container to just barely protect him from the path of gunfire.

While he was at it, he borrowed the automatic 9mm handgun from the man’s holster and returned fire. That drone would be made of alloy and plastic. An ordinary firefight couldn’t defeat it, but he could destroy its important camera lenses. If it couldn’t aim accurately, he wouldn’t need to fear it’s machineguns.

He responded with unbelievable accuracy.

(I’m still alive… What was that about my senses sharpening the closer I approach death? Risk isn’t something you can see, though!!)

You didn’t have to be a force of good or justice to save people.

If a villain moved their body, they could shield someone from a bullet. Saving people was no more than a physical action, the psychological conditions and questions of good or evil didn’t play a role.

So…

“I’m fine being a villain,” growled Hamazura, like he was speaking a curse. “There’s no rule saying only good people can save people. Goodness and justice may have abandoned me, but that doesn’t mean I have to stand back and let everyone else go first.”

This was an alternate approach Coronzon hadn’t considered.

If she had followed this path and saved a great many people with her power, perhaps she wouldn’t have been known as a great demon.

…So why hadn’t she considered it?

Coronzon was smart. Far smarter than a delinquent like Hamazura. It wouldn’t surprise him if she had already thought up anything he could come up with. So why had this one thing slipped her mind?

Some preconception must have gotten in the way, but ''where had it come from?

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet blinked.

“Did you just awaken to a different kind of justice from Kamijou Touma?”

“Are you crazy? I’m fighting with a gun I stole from ordinary airport security. He’s a normal worker. He could be fired from his job for losing it.”

Hamazura Shiage was not Kamijou Touma.

He would never take the same path of justice as him.

===Part 5===

Magicians could hack?

So claimed Leivinia Birdway, but it felt wrong from Kamijou’s science side viewpoint. Watermelon and curry were both tasty, but you wouldn’t want to pour curry over your watermelon. Could you really pull off a combination like that?

“For one, the Dawn-Colored Sunlight doesn’t wholly reject science.”

“?”

“But that’s not important.”

Instead of joining the Anglicans at the Hotel Town, Kamijou’s group was staying in a maintenance area further north. They had wanted somewhere safe to speak.

“Also…even if it didn’t last long, Anna Sprengel did start up R&C Occultics online. Shouldn’t you be more open minded after that? But you’re not… That line between magic and science a certain idiot embedded in the world sure is a pesky thing.”

Birdway sighed in an exasperated way.

And then…

“I shall remove your collar. Listen, isn’t there a more familiar example?”

“Hm??? Like what?”

“Grimoires. The original ones.”

The pointy-haired boy gasped.

Grimoires.

That was a familiar and yet mysterious term for him.

“Most grimoires are encrypted so you won’t receive much data if you read them as is. That is partially meant to protect the reader from an original’s toxin…but more than that it’s a security measure to keep their knowledge from the unauthorized,” said Birdway.

Encrypted, data, and security?

“But there are third parties who decrypt grimoires against the author’s wishes and steal the knowledge stored within. You are quite familiar with one, aren’t you? The biggest example would be Grimoire Library Index Librorum Prohibitorum. She has gathered at least 103,001 grimoires, after all. That is on another level entirely. And she uses all of that knowledge as countermeasures against criminal magicians, so you could call her the world’s greatest white-hat hacker.”

…Was she saying the magic side had always had the concept of breaking someone else’s code to steal their data? And it had been there for millennia?

“The thing is, magic side codes are ''whimsical''. With alchemy symbols and coded images, the exact same mark can have a different meaning for each person who made it. You have to read between the lines and guess what the creator was thinking.” Lessar let out a cruel “nee hee hee” of laughter. “If you want another example, there’s the Egyptian pyramids and the ancient ruins of Central America. I mean the grave robbers, of course. They break through the security to steal the treasures away from their rightful owners.”

“You sound like you know a lot about that.”

“Because I’ve done it before. Who did you think dug up Curtana Original and transported it to London, leading to that mess that shook the entire UK to its core?”

Lessar brought up yet another dangerous topic.

If she knew how dangerous it was, Kamijou wished she was also smart enough to not do it in the first place.

“In a way, that girl right there is another simple example.”

“Hm? Me?”

Birdway was (rudely) pointing at Dion Fortune.

“Fortune specializes in a logic that mixes ancient magic with the psychology that was new at the time. Her texts include several methods of using the psychological world to reveal people’s secrets. Without the victim noticing, of course. If she can really do that, that’s a form of hacking beyond anything a computer can manage.”

“What do you mean ‘if’ I can do it!? Do I need to demonstrate it on you?” belligerently shouted Fortune, requiring Kamijou to calm her down.

There was no doubting it now.

Even if they didn’t use terms like “hacking” or “cyber attack”, the magic side had similar concepts. And had for a long time.

Maybe the only difference was whether it referred to physically navigating a labyrinth, breaking a grimoire’s textual and numerical code…or accessing electronic data.

===Part 6===

Hamazura thought they had walked a good distance from the antenna tower.

But could you really call this a walkable distance?

“Kh.”

“Uh, oh. The Anglicans are here.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was right.

Hamazura hid behind a nearby metal drum while observing the distant group.

They were on a flat asphalt surface with nowhere to hide. A group of men and women in street clothing were wandering around defenselessly.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, whose metal coat meant crouching didn’t do much to hide her, didn’t seem too worried.

“What are they doing in this dreary place?”

“Waiting for us, probably.”

Those remnants of justice were now pawns of the Black_Oneday user.

A familiar face was completely surrounded at the very center of that group.

Takitsubo Rikou.

“Kh.”

…Charging in blindly wouldn’t save his girlfriend. There were swords and spears all around her.

Besides, where were they again?

A drone airbase.

Hamazura used a cheap pair of binoculars to get a look even further away.

“It does look completely different than what I expected. I was expecting a tougher version of a normal airport, with runways, a control tower, and a maintenance hangar.”

To start with, there were no runways.

Only a few 100m cannon-like objects jutting out horizontally. Those were probably launchers…but were they electromagnetic mass drivers, or did they explosively launch the drones?

Large cloths a lot like yacht sails were raised all over the base…but were those meant to catch the drones to retrieve them? The design philosophy was a lot like a bug-catching net. Drones didn’t have any of the safety standards meant to keep a pilot alive, so their operation could be a lot sloppier.

Hamazura was afraid to approach.

He spoke up while observing through the binoculars.

“I can’t see the entire security system from here. But it’s an airbase. I don’t like the idea of walking straight in where it’s open. We might get a warm welcome from automated machineguns or self-destructing drones.”

“?” Blodeuwedd the Bouquet tilted her head.

But not because she didn’t understand what he meant.

“Then how did the villain get inside the base?”

“The mobility device is there.”

It was that one-person vehicle that looked like three small wheels attached to a bathtub-sized box. It had been abandoned quite nearby. That suggested it hadn’t been a decoy and the villain really had used it to escape the Hotel Town.

There was a red flammability warning sign in the same place.

Which told Hamazura what the manhole there was.

“They used Black_Oneday, didn’t they?”

“What do you mean, Hamazura?”

“This is a fuel transport pipe. It’s thick enough that someone could walk through it if they crouched. If they used their hacking tool to remove all the jet fuel first, they would have a direct underground route into the drone airbase.”

“Ugh… They’d really go that far?”

“There aren’t any security cameras or human sensors in the pipe, so it seems like a good route in to me.”

Of course, Hamazura and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet couldn’t follow the villain in that way. If the villain knew what they were doing, they would only need to fill the pipe with jet fuel again to drown the two of them.

They needed some other way into the drone airbase.

And without warning, they heard a deafening distorted noise.

“Hey.”

Hamazura’s heart hurt.

This was District 23 full of runways and launch pads. The disaster response speakers there were designed to be heard over all sorts of loud noises.

“The program-controlled rapid-fire guns can obliterate you there,” said the new Board Chairman. “The 127mm ones can fire more than 120 rounds a minute. The Transcendent might survive, but you will die before you make it three steps.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet pouted her lips right next to him.

“Is that even true? The Anglicans are wandering around the danger zone just fine.”

“Then they must have been added to the white list. If you aren’t and you enter that zone, the response will be instantaneous. So if you are going to do this, think it through first.”

That wasn’t what Hamazura was worried about. Which was only natural when he was speaking to someone far more dangerous than those 127mm rapid-fire guns.

“That drone airbase is one of your city’s prized possessions, right? I thought you’d be trying to stop me from getting in.”

“I don’t need any military weapons. It’s all overkill. Why does a city need enough power to destroy humanity several times over? I’m really hoping you give me an excuse to scrap it all.”

…If that was true, then was Academy City actually changing for the better?

This was convenient for Hamazura at least.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet clearly wanted to say something, but he held out a hand to stop her.

“Do you know anything about this, Mr. Great Board Chairman? You’ve got a better view of it all than some Level 0 crawling down on the ground.”

“About what?”

“The system.”

At first, that term was so simple it seemed detached from the reality before him.

''But it wasn’t.

“I can’t see it. I’m not even sure that’s the right word. But Coronzon said she had been given a ‘function’ and the world wouldn’t work without it. The way she talked about it like drawing the short end of the stick, hers can’t be the only one. It sounded like there are several ‘functions’ that support the world. …But what is all that? What pushed Coronzon to the point she resorted to destroying the world? There has to be something that pushed her in that direction, but what is it really?”

There had to be a cause for the effect he had seen.

You could even say Coronzon had proven its existence with her death.

There was a system that had driven wicked Coronzon to her doom.

“You’re wasting your time.”

The Board Chairman’s response was immediate and a rejection.

It was almost painful how much Hamazura had expected this. And it was the perfect 100% correct answer for the ''leader of the science side'' where the occult and the mystical had no place.

“You’re talking about a conspiracy theory. There is no grand system running the world. Functions? Illusions? Miracles? Misfortune? You can’t just flip a giant switch to change those things. This world is run by a collection of billions of individual thoughts. Like a beanbag. When you look up at it all, it can look like it all forms giant gears, but there isn’t actually some strange system making all the decisions.”

“A perfect model answer.”

It’s all humanity’s fault. It’s all your friends’ fault. It’s all your fault.

Common sense said it wasn’t possible.

And as long as their thoughts were bound by what was ''realistic'', no one would dig any deeper.

“Any misfortune and disaster in the world is brought about by people. Power turns people into monsters. That’s why I’m serving as Board Chairman to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

But then they wouldn’t reach the truth of the system.

Which was awfully convenient for the mysterious system running every last part of the world.

Hamazura was a Level 0 at the bottom of the hierarchy. He didn’t think he was smarter than the #1 Level 5. There was no way Accelerator couldn’t understand any idea he had.

Unless…were smarter people more easily affected and influenced by the unseen system?

If so, he could redefine his existence as a Level 0 as not so useless after all.

Hamazura suddenly wanted to talk with Kamijou Touma. That Level 0 had gone on ahead of him. Even though Hamazura knew he was the very one who had called Coronzon a great demon and killed her.

That boy had faced Coronzon and seen something inside her.

A pressure with no outlet burst inside Hamazura like a piece of unexploded ordnance.

“Then are you saying that collection of individuals just happened to coincidentally kill Coronzon? Yeah, right!! I won’t place the blame on all of them. I bet most people out there have never even heard of Coronzon! They wouldn’t create that kind of concrete malice. So! There must be a greater system out there that wanted to kill Coronzon and did so!! This isn’t a fantasy or figure of speech!! It’s real and it’s out there!!!”

Hamazura and Accelerator had reached an impasse.

The #1 had the scent of evil on him, but he was clearly different from Hamazura and Coronzon.

He had the confidence of the privileged.

“''I’ll reveal it'',” quietly said Hamazura.

He spoke in a low growl, like a wounded animal.

What could he do for Coronzon after carelessly surviving? That vague idea suddenly came into sharp focus.

“That’s it. I’ve made my own decision… There is a great system that decided Coronzon was a great demon of absolute evil and finally sent her to her death. I don’t care how cleverly it’s hidden itself – I will reveal it for all to see!!”

That was the end. With a click, the disaster response speakers went silent.

…

“Huh? You’re moving, Hamazura?”

“What else can I do?”

The great Board Chairman at the top of the city knew where he was. Hamazura had no idea ''how much'' that boy knew. He wanted to believe he wasn’t that foolish, but he couldn’t get careless. If the Board Chairman was still being buddy-buddy with the Anglicans, all that information would be passed right on to them.

Staying here was too dangerous.

He had to find another route to get close to the drone airbase.

===Part 7===

Hamazura and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet made sure to give the drone airbase a wide berth.

So they took a circle with the base as the center point.

The Black_Oneday user had to be hiding in the drone airbase waiting for their next chance to act. Whatever their ultimate objective was, it wouldn’t be something anyone else would enjoy.

Hamazura and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet knew that, but they were hesitant to act right away because they didn’t want a repeat of the Hotel Town.

The Anglicans wandering around the danger area were a nuisance. If they were simply ignorant, reconciliation and negotiation may have been an option, but not so if they were all traitors. Hamazura had to assume they were his enemy.

“Then what exactly are you going to do?”

“Aneri,” bluntly said Hamazura. “First, check to see if the Board Chairman was telling the truth about the rapid-fire guns. After that, give me a list of any other defense weapons you expect around the airbase.”

“You’re a real power user, huh?☆”

Was that even a compliment? He was really just getting the AI to think for him.

Less than ten seconds later, the phone’s cracked screen displayed the answer he was dreading.

“So not even Aneri can find a convenient loophole.”

“But you can’t just break in by brute force, right? What’s the last defense weapon you want to run across?”

“Not those rapid-fire guns. It’s this: the Boom Wall.”

That anti-air weapon used a large amount of explosives all at once to send an amplified shockwave wall from the giant trumpet-shaped barrel. It didn’t require any detailed guidance calculations because the thick wall could be sent over an area several kilometers across. It was meant as a low budget way to shoot down a saturation attack or swarm without missing anything.

“Um, let me get this strait.” Blodeuwedd the Bouquet held a finger to her narrow chin and began counting on her fingers. “If we approach the base, we get hit by those hundred-twenty-something millimeter rapid-fire guns. But if we approach in an airplane or helicopter, we’ll be shot down by dense anti-air fire. And all the underground loopholes like the fuel pipe have been blocked. …Then how do we get in?”

“…”

Not even Aneri had provided an answer to that. Maybe there wasn’t a correct solution here.

Hamazura no longer placed his hopes in the righteousness of justice. He would force his way through with cheap, underhanded tactics, even if it that counted as evil.

After a moment of silence, he answered.

“No matter how brutal it is, the Boom Wall is an anti-air weapon. That means it isn’t designed to target the ground. If we skim around five meters above the surface, the barrel shouldn’t be able to aim at a low enough angle.”

“Even if you drive full speed in a car, I think like you’ll still get shot up by those rapid-fire guns.”

“What if we were moving faster? Like Mach 10 or higher?”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet blinked.

This was unusual. He had surprised that condescending Transcendent.

“What I mean, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, is that. Why not use that?”

He pointed to the side.

They had already brought it up in conversation several times.



The Morning Star above ground mass driver.



Instead of using an underground silo, this one looked just like a cannon the size of a broadcast tower.

It wasn’t like a chemical rocket that flew to space using fuel and an oxidant. Electromagnetic induction was used to launch a projectile outside the atmosphere.

“Are you serious?”

Even Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was dumbfounded by this one.

“That can slip past both the surface and anti-air weapons, right? Aneri, can you hack it?”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! That’s meant to launch things into space. Can it even be used along a line only 5m from the ground? Screw it up and we’ll crash ''into'' the ground!!”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“…”

“We’re not talking about a plane or rocket here. A mass driver is basically a giant railgun, so it apparently has a lot of freedom of movement. So it’s no different from a gun. …We can use the ricochet. ''If we intentionally hit the ground at a shallow angle, we should be able to fly just off the ground''.”

“……………………………………………………………………………”

It was like skipping a rock on the water’s surface.

And the drone airbase had equipment resembling giant yacht sails. They were meant to catch flying drones.

Hamazura would just have to hit one of those in something like a billiards shot.

“Umm, I have one last question.”

“Yes? Hurry it up.”

“How many Machs is escape velocity? Even at a shallow angle, we’ll be hitting the ground at extreme speed, right? I don’t care how tough the mass driver’s payload fairing is – won’t we be smashed to bits by the impact!?”

Hamazura couldn’t answer right away.

He asked a serious question.

“Hey, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. …You survived that exoatmospheric shuttle’s gigantic engine blast, right?”

“…Wait.”

“Can I get you to do that one last time?”

“I am supposed to be the weak but clever summoner! Not the tough and heavy tank!!”

She could complain, but this really did seem to be their only option.

Using that, he was pretty sure they could survive the hit with the ground.

It was fortunate there weren’t any workers or a security team at the drone airbase. He didn’t know how big a crater the ricochet would create, but he at least didn’t need to worry about hurting any living humans in the process.

“Aneri, let’s get started. Hack the Morning Star mass driver and give me control! Please!!”

===Part 8===

Leivinia Birdway looked up at a dull tremor in the distance.

“…Something just happened.”

“Enough self-absorption. We need to come up with an actual plan.”

Lessar’s comment shattered the mood so much it made Kamijou flustered.

Dion Fortune walked over to look at the map Lessar had unfolded.

“Decided on our next objective?” asked Kamijou.

Birdway pouted her lips and pointed at a point on the map. Maybe she hadn’t been too fond of the legendary Japanese portable food: cup noodles. If that damn rich British girl had a problem with it, she should have just poured in fancy tea instead of hot water and waited three minutes for the flavor to change.

“Here.”

She indicated a special airbase used for Academy City’s unmanned anti-air weaponry like the Six Wings attack helicopter.

That was one of the last facilities they wanted the Black_Oneday user to take over.

Kamijou frowned.

“Yeah, that would be dangerous…but what makes you so sure it’s here specifically?”

“Did the villain give themselves away somehow?” asked Dion Fortune next to Kamijou.

Lessar frowned.

“We can follow the actions of the villain…or really the people they’re manipulating.”

“Hm? Why would you do that, Lessar?”

“You know how delinquents who drive modified cars will intercept police radio and know where all the speed cameras are locate? This is the magic version of that.”

After explaining that, Lessar (who was really enjoying the junk food), pointed at a point on the map.

“The Anglicans are always trying to crack down on us ‘bad’ magicians, so we know exactly how they do things.”

“!?”

So Kanzaki, Stiyl, and the others?

“It would be one thing if they were acting alone, but when working as a group, they tend to use voice communication spiritual items. Even when speaking with one of their own people less than 2 meters away. We just have to track the faint magic power this uses.”

“That’s true enough… Academy City is a big place, but not many people here use magic. London or Rome would be one thing, but we can detect even faint magic over a distance in this city of science,” added Dion Fortune.

…It hadn’t seemed so easy during the Coronzon battle yesterday. Maybe it helped that these shady magicians had gathered a lot of data on the Anglicans. Just like you would have a hard time searching for an unfamiliar stray cat, but could find your own cat right away.

Lessar wagged her index finger.

“Looks like the area around the drone base is an off-limits zone. There are cameras and sensors everywhere and entering it without permission will get you filled with holes by the defense program. Yet the Anglicans are having a picnic there without getting shot. Unnatural, right?”

“The Black_Oneday user is controlling them using money, faith, brainwashing, or whatever else, so the Anglicans are useful pawns. The Black_Oneday user must not want to lose them so easily. We need to assume the drone airbase and its defense program have been taken over. The Anglicans are only safe because they’ve been added to the white list.” Birdway seemed curious about the earlier tremor, but her tone remained light. “If the Anglicans are being used to pursue and kill Hamazura Shiage, then either he’s hiding somewhere around here, or he will be here soon. Both the villain and Hamazura are here. If we want to end this, we need to visit that drone airbase.”

(Hm. I still don’t know how the Anglicans are tracking Hamazura. Could they be getting information out of someone from the science side they captured?)

Kamijou observed Birdway, but it didn’t seem like that possibility had occurred to her.

Really, that just made her seem more like an ordinary person.

“…We’ll be shot if we’re detected, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then we need a plan! That smug grin isn’t going to stop bullets!! These stupid magicians are so focused on attacking they’re not even thinking about defense. We’ll be riddled with bullets before I even have a chance to think!”

===Part 9===

That wasn’t actually a concern.

Because the mass driver attack stabbed right into the center of the drone airbase.



More specifically, it was caught by one of the giant “sails” meant to catch drones.

A piece of metal the size of a van shallowly struck the ground ''very close by'' at a tremendous speed of more than 12km/s, ricocheted, and pierced into the base. It slipped just below the anti-air defenses at extreme speed.

“Ugh, cough.”

Something emerged from the giant bullet-like vehicle made of thick heat-resistant and shock-resistant material.

That something was a thick metal coat.

There was no attack from the rapid-fire guns or the Boom Wall.

They weren’t designed to fire into the base…but that wasn’t the main reason.

“Wow…I think we destroyed like half the base.”

“Of course we did.” Hamazura crawled out from within the metal coat. “Even if it was a shallow angle, we still hit the ground right in front of the base to ricochet. At escape velocity. A normal bullet makes sparks when it hits a concrete wall, right? When a mass this large contacts the ground at that speed, it will send an explosive blast and a shockwave ahead with the force of an avalanche. And it fans out.”

“You knew this would happen? But if the base is half destroyed, you couldn’t know if the yacht sail thing’s support would break and not be there to catch us!”

“But we made it. We won the gamble, so why waste time complaining?”

“Y-you idiot, you really are on fire today. …And do you think this also killed the villain?”

“This is military base, remember? The important central stuff will be deep underground. Blowing away the stuff visible on the surface won’t damage the heart of the base.”

Even so, preventing all the unmanned weapons from taking off or landing meant a lot.

Hamazura looked out past the wreckage-strewn base.

“So what are those Anglicans doing?”

“They avoided it. They were apparently scattered along the perimeter on the other side, so the shockwave that blew away this half of the base wouldn’t have hit them.”

…So even after all this, they might attack. Still, that was better than if he had hurt his girlfriend Takitsubo.

“Aneri search for the entrance to the underground part of the base and force open the electronic lock!”

They were in.

Yes, Hamazura Shiage and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet had made it inside the drone base.

Now they only had determine which room of this drone-development air base the Black_Oneday user was hiding in.

“I doubt anyone is placing any trust in security cameras when both sides have hacking tools.”

Aneri gave two buzzes of protest. Apparently to say it was not primarily meant for hacking.

“Hey, hey. How about you rely on the magic side for once? Do I need to turn into the pain-in-the-ass kind of girlfriend who’s jealous of the porn on your phone? I might just know how to find which room it is.”

“How?”

“Because I’m the Transcendent who loves the hated☆ …The villain might be someone who looks like they wouldn’t hurt a fly, but that doesn’t mean they actually wouldn’t kill a fly or a moth if it flew in front of them, right? And those things can easily multiply inside an unmanned base.”

“…”

His phone buzzed again. That was a positive signal from Aneri. Based on its hacking of the base’s local network, the chemical weapon sensors in one section had picked up faint signs of insecticide components. That kind of chemical wouldn’t be needed in a base without any people around.

“That settles it. They’re in…the underground command center? That’s the first place I should have guessed. Argh, why did I have to overcomplicate it!?”

“It’s easy to claim you had it figured out after you’ve been spoiled. Did you think you were a genius, or something?”

They used Aneri’s support to travel through the base without getting caught.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet had said the base was unmanned…and apparently they really had reduced the number of human workers to the very limit because they didn’t run into anyone on the way. But since the place had a command center deep underground, the control couldn’t be completely automatic, could it?

“Is that it, Aneri?” asked Hamazura, facing a tungsten steel door as thick as a bank vault door. He guessed the underground command center was built as sturdily as a nuclear shelter.

But this was a problem.

He was usually the criminal trying to run and hide.

He didn’t know the proper way to break in like this.

“This is the very center of the base, right? This door has to be crazy solid, so how do we unlock it? How are we supposed to get insi-”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet destroyed the door with a single punch from her metal coat’s giant sleeve. It scared Hamazura that it didn’t even surprise him. He was getting too accustomed to her bizarre power.

The room beyond was larger than the average indoor pool.

But it didn’t feel spacious. Thanks to all the computers crammed inside. But there was more than just LCD monitors in there. There were also devices that displayed a wide variety of data on giant pieces of clear glass like what you would see inside a submarine in a movie. Hamazura didn’t know what a lot of the equipment was even called.

But he didn’t have time to pay much attention to all that.

He thought his heart would stop.

The first thing Hamazura saw were the Anglicans. They were armed with dangerous bladed and blunt weapons and had the same unquestioning looks in their eyes.

And he saw someone else surrounded by them and unmoving: Takitsubo Rikou.

“H-Hamazu- Hama-”

“!!”

He wanted to call her name, but he knew ''that'' would be the most dangerous thing he could do. No good came of letting them know the value of their hostage.

He had to stay on the path of evil.

He had already decided he could only protect his girlfriend by placing her second.

Shaking off that urge was so hard he thought he would cough up blood…but he managed to face ''the other oddity'' here.

“Hold on. What are you doing here?”

He faced the mastermind behind it all.

She was a girl with chestnut hair. And he had heard her voice before.

''“N-no… Help.”

She was a small girl of around 13. He recognized the fluffy adult coat that came down to her ankles and hid her hands in the sleeves.

''“Go.”

''“Hurry.”

He didn’t want to believe it.

But his own memory didn’t lie.



“The girl I saved…from the Dobermanns…way back at the start?”



Come to think of it, he had never solved the initial mystery.

The Anglicans had made that cell by modifying a die-like air cargo container. The door had been locked up tight – the metal shutter had used some kind of special magical lock – so why had it suddenly opened even though he and Aneri hadn’t done a thing?

Had he been in the palm of her hand since then?

“That’s right, Hamazura. I saved you.”

The girl smiled a little while holding a plush bear in her arm.

Aneri gave two buzzes of warning.

…It wasn’t a phone or a computer. ''Was that'' the device used to give instructions to Black_Oneday? The plush bear had a trackball, keyboard, and other devices installed on and in it.

“But…why? Why did you have to take it so far? I mean, you were in a position to brainwash the Anglicans who were after you, right!? Every last one of them!! So you didn’t even need to free me from my cell to confuse them!”

“?”

In response, the girl tilted her head in utter confusion.

He also heard a sigh of exasperation from Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.

“Yeah, uh, Hamazura, I don’t think that’s what it was.”

“What?”

“That villain simply ''let you escape because she wanted to let you escape''. I’m sure of it. It was a whim with no connection to any master plan related to confusing the Anglicans or starting a global war using Black_Oneday.”

“Wait, but…the Black_Oneday user really tried to kill me! I mean, what about at the Hotel Town? She fired on me with that eight-wheeled anti-air drone and she tried to blow me away with vaporized jet fuel…”

“But ''you didn’t actually die. You’re a Level 0, yet you survived all those flashy attacks. Seems unnatural, doesn’t it''?”

It couldn’t be…

“Are you saying the Black_Oneday user intentionally ''adjusted the difficulty'' so I could get through it? Like making sure someone doesn’t die when playing a game!?”

She had wanted to free Hamazura ''separate from'' whatever else she was doing.

…That was all it was? Really???

But if she wanted to save Hamazura, why had she gotten Takitsubo involved?

The girl pulled out a headband and used it to keep her bangs out of her eyes.

“What? Were you trying to save that track suit girl?”

“…Yeah.”

“''Okay. If that’s what you want, I’ll free her.''”

Several thudding sounds overlapped each other. They were the sounds of bodies hitting the floor. Kanzaki Kaori, Stiyl Magnus, and the rest of the Anglican magicians collapsed like a switch had been thrown. The only one left standing was Takitsubo Rikou.

Was that all it took?

Saying that had ''really'' been enough to save her?

“Hold on…what’s going on here?” muttered Hamazura in a daze.

He was glad Takitsubo was safe, but he had trouble believing it was true. He was worried something even worse awaited him.

Besides, how had it even turned out like this?

Even if this girl really was behind everything, today was the first time he had met her. She shouldn’t have any obligation to help him out.

“Because our circumstances are similar. So I don’t get anything out of it. I just felt like helping you is all.”

“Eh?”

“You don’t want people calling that person a great demon, right?”

That was true.

But why was she bringing that up here?

“I am one of several anti-magic combat plans developed in parallel on former Archbishop Lola Stuart’s command. But Grimoire Library Index Librorum Prohibitorum was ultimately chosen, so I am no more than a scrapped model forgotten as a phantom project.”

The name Lola Stuart wasn’t too familiar to Hamazura, but he was pretty sure it had been one of Coronzon’s pseudonyms.

Meaning…

“I am Narthex Coded Cathedral. …I suppose you could call me one of the ''products'' raised by Coronzon.”

===Part 10===

Narthex Coded Cathedral.

A sister project and rival to Index Librorum Prohibitorum.



The small girl never had any intention of trapping or attacking Hamazura Shiage.

But that didn’t mean she carried no malice.

In fact, Narthex had another true target.

“Kh.”

Someone else groaned.

With the surface of the drone airbase torn to shreds, he must not have had to worry about the defense weapons.

Kamijou had entered the underground command center late, but he too had learned the villain’s identity.

“You made it, Kamijou Touma.”

The girl’s voice had seemed unfocused before, but now it carried a definite will and emotion.

The emotions of anger and hatred.

“My mother’s killer.”

She was an expert at building and cracking codes. She was a pro at reading the idiosyncrasies in people’s techniques and their psychologies.

Numbers, writing, magic circles, artwork, music – it could be anything.

“If I had arrived in time last night…I would have stopped you.”

Grimoire Library Index Librorum Prohibitorum used her perfect memory to contain innumerable grimoires in her brain to manage them there. You could say she had mastered the art of literary memorization, but this special girl took a completely different approach for plotting the elimination of wicked magicians.

“So is she like a stealth fighter that’s rival was officially adopted instead?”

“I doubt it even had to do with her skill level. She had to be kept a secret because she violates the treaty between magic and science. ''She grew too much'', so her specs are not inferior.”

Lessar and Birdway gave their cynical thoughts.

“I notice Index’s name is Latin, but Narthex’s is English… Dammit, Coronzon. Did you intentionally throw them into different environments so they could grow in different ways?”

“Why do I get the feeling there are plenty more of these girls lurking in the shadows of the world. Maybe with a French name or a German name?”

As if in response…



Narthex threw open the front of her thick coat as if undoing a seal.



Her clothing was ''transparent''. The overall silhouette resembled a nun’s habit, but it was made of pure gold and woven into a fine net, allowing her lace-white skin to show through. Below that, she wore something like a bikini. Although there may have been other way of interpreting it.

It was far too vulgar and degrading to call her a nun.

But that wasn’t what made Birdway frown. She was focused on the coat’s lining. A sticky light resembling glow-in-the-dark paint wavered irregularly there.

“''A second brain'', huh? I have heard the human brain would be as large as a newspaper page if you flattened out all the wrinkles. Hey, is that true, Kamijou Touma of the city of science?”

But it was Kamijou who was most shocked by this.

That was fundamentally different from Index’s Walking Church.

What even was that coat really? It wasn’t actually ''that'', was it!?

“If you’re externally boosting your specs like that, then your supposed encryption expertise is no bluff. …But this means your ego and soul were fundamentally distorted, turning you into a tool and a device. Did you not hate the great demon for doing that to you?”

“''You just referred to my mother as a great demon, didn’t you''?”

“Yeah, she’s pretty twisted. But who knows what she’s hiding,” said Lessar, sounding exasperated.

Yes.

This was familiar to Kamijou too.

This combination of endlessly innocent yet somehow twisted.

…''The collar.

Hadn’t Index had her memories and thoughts externally restricted to control her? This girl had been manufactured by the same person. Narthex Coded Cathedral was the result of a parallel project, so she could always have a similar safety device.

And based on the way Narthex was acting, her safety device may still have been functioning even after Coronzon’s death. How sad if true.

Lessar’s interest was directed in a less appropriate direction.

“Does that outfit incorporate the symbols of a trance priestess? Seems like the polar opposite of a Christian nun’s pursuit of asceticism. Oh, but I guess she might not be limited to Christianity. I mean, she’s a magician created from the ground up by Great Demon Coronzon. That opens up everything from Norse mythology in the west to Indian mythology in the east. Really, any kind of religious ritual that invites people to the supernatural world, puts them in a trance so they can hear the voice of god, and accepts the power of sexuality.”

Something audibly sliced through the air.

Lessar didn’t even blink. But there was a slight cut on her cheek now.

Apparently she wasn’t going to get away with calling Coronzon a great demon a second time.

Narthex Coded Cathedral immediately took action.

Calmly.

(Her mother, hm?)

What had her relationship with Lola Stuart – with Coronzon – really been? Kamijou’s imagination couldn’t keep up, but he got the feeling that relationship had been closer than Coronzon’s with Index.

Or.

Had that different relationship been one of the changes included in the parallel projects, along with the naming rule?

Narthex had said her project was run at the same time as Index’s. So were they around the same age?

…Wait, how old was Index exactly?

If they had been customized with all of Coronzon’s power, it was possible those girls’ bodies were far from ordinary.

Lessar and Birdway quietly prepared for battle, but Narthex didn’t seem worried.

“What, you’re going to fight? Index’s job is to crack a grimoire’s code and record its contents in her brain, but mine is the opposite. I am an expert at applying a strange and complex encryption to exposed knowledge, sealing it away in an unreadable state. Incantations, talismans, weapons – whatever form you use to try and get around it, ''no magician can defeat me.''”

Was that why Kanzaki, Stiyl, and the other Anglican magicians were acting so weirdly?

“Sealing away” a small portion of their thought processes would keep them from reacting to a specific situation. So even with a hint before their eyes, they couldn’t see it. They had been so busy pursuing Hamazura Shiage they were unable to notice the real villain.

But this had seemed odd even taking that into account.

They were from Necessarius, the 0th Parish of the Anglican Church. They were the best of the best in anti-magician combat, so it was unusual for them to all get brainwashed so easily. …But it made more sense if it had been done by an insider who knew all about them. Just like a hacker might not be able to hack in from outside the building, but they would have no trouble if they stuck a USB drive directly into a computer on the inside.

“You would go this far…? What were you hoping to accomplish here in Academy City by betraying an organization as big as the Anglican Church!?”

“To bring back my mother. What else?”

She made it sound so similar.

But Coronzon was already dead.

Kamijou had done it.

Wasn’t that why Narthex was driven by such fury? So…had she not noticed the contradiction in her own claims?

“What contradiction? It’s been done before. …By one Kamijou Touma who truly died and returned after a trip through hell.”

“Kh.”

“My mother can be physically revived to this world in the same way. Wait a while longer, Hamazura. This will be a blessing for you. I will make sure it happens.”

The shocked gasp did not come from Kamijou.

Did that breath contain a hint of hope? It rang with the expectation represented by the words “is that really possible?” If Coronzon could return to this world, it would turn his view of this situation around 180 degrees.

Those two really did stand in a position fundamentally different from Kamijou and the rest.

“Simple, isn’t it? What happened in hell, a different phase separate from this physical world? No matter how impregnable a maze hell may be, I can break open your skull, stick electrodes in your brain, and suck out all the memory data within to give myself a walkthrough. My mother can be brought back by human hands.”

Was the disappearance of his important document really a coincidence? Or had he been lured out here?

“I have already acquired my mother’s dead body. It is hidden somewhere in this city. I was worried because some time had passed since her death, but, well, it’s a good thing she isn’t human. …She is fundamentally a being of pure energy, so as long as I follow the appropriate steps to complete the ceremony, she can be summoned from that other phase, right?”

Birdway had a disgusted response to that.

“A demon summoning, huh? Unfortunately, there is a precedent there.”

“Yes. Magician Crowley did it back in 1909, didn’t he? And Mathers apparently did it unofficially even earlier. Plus, I have ''this''.”

An eerie light shined from within Narthex’s fluffy coat.

From the second brain.

And next thing they knew, Narthex Coded Cathedral held ''something'' in her hand.

Birdway of all people gasped.

“Kamijou Touma. What does that look like to you?”

“Huh? I’m not sure… It’s like an apple made of red crystal maybe? Looks like there’s a liquid inside it.”

“Lessar.”

“Umm, it looks like fish cooked on a skewer to me. Probably from Celtic mythology.”

…What?

People could have slightly different interpretations of what they were seeing, but confusing a translucent red apple for a fish on a skewer was a little much. This wasn’t a Rorschach test.

“To me it looks like a small bottle of clear crystal. Maybe the Norse spring of wisdom, or something alchemical? It might be a liquid elixir.”

Wait. Wait, wait.

Didn’t that mean no two of them were seeing the same thing!?

“What you’re seeing is probably the fruit that grew on the Tree of Knowledge. Apples are a motif used in several mythologies, but it must be that if it’s linked with knowledge. Now, I don’t know what it looks like to its user Narthex…but is she using that in a ceremony?”

For once, Birdway clenched her teeth as she spoke.

Lessar provided the verbal finishing blow.



“She means that’s a collection of knowledge ''before it’s turned into a grimoire''.  And this would make a dangerous original-class one, so don’t let your guard down, Kamijou-san!!”

===Part 11===

Kamijou didn’t need to be told that.

But Narthex’s specialty wasn’t grimoires. That was Index’s territory. Since they were rival projects run in parallel, Lola Stuart – that is, Great Demon Coronzon – must have designed her for a different specialty.

Also, Narthex Coded Sanctuary didn’t fight with just the magic side.

“This room could use more ventilation. And so could you!!”

The air in the room groaned. District 23 specialized in high-tech aerospace technology, so the Black_Oneday hacking tool could provide any number of weapons here.

Narthex pet the head of the plush bear in her small hand.

''Boom!!!

Immediately, the underground command center’s wall was torn down from the outside. The place had to be sturdier than a nuclear shelter, but she didn’t hesitate at all!?

Birdway shouted through clenched teeth.

“That must have been a drone. She’ll have plenty of bunker killer missiles based on the marine rockets used to dig into the ocean floor and retrieve samples. Hey, Kamijou Touma. Leave the command center. Otherwise you’ll be shredded to mincemeat before you can even try to fight her directly!!”

Narthex was still standing there.

She touched the plush bear to give her next command. Again with no hesitation.

She didn’t seem to see any value in the underground command center that acted as the heart of the base.

“Wh-what about Hamazura and the others!?”

“You don’t have time to worry about them! Move out in the open and you’ll be sprayed with bullets!!”

''If'' Narthex was being rational, she wouldn’t order an attack that would hit Hamazura. …But how much could he trust the thoughts of ''a Coronzon worshiper''?

Kamijou’s group didn’t have time to work out where would be safe.

More and more of the walls and ceiling were torn down. They would be buried alive if they stayed here, so they had to keep running.

“What is this place?”

They found themselves in a wide-open space. It wasn’t well lit, but the size was the main reason Kamijou couldn’t see to the other side.

Lessar sounded annoyed.

“Is this where Academy City’s fighters and attack helicopters are managed?”

While Kamijou was from Academy City, that didn’t mean he knew all about the interior of the city’s military facilities. Especially with a drone airbase.

And Lessar had just said something he couldn’t ignore.

“Wait… If this is where the drones are kept, does that mean they could come here!?”

“It would seem you all want to die.”

They heard a voice from the entrance. It was Narthex Coded Cathedral.

Heavy metallic noises came from a different direction.

A Six Wings attack helicopter emerged from the shadows.

This was an underground facility. As large as the room was, it wasn’t tall enough for an aircraft to fly around.

But it wasn’t flying.

The six wings it was named for were forcibly moving to let it ''crawl''. Its guns and autocannons were crushed below its own weight.

“Watch out for the floor. It seems to be reinforced with steel beams, but I can see something through the gaps.”

“Is this a multilevel hangar? That means we could ''break through'' if we overdo it. This isn’t getting any easier.”

Birdway clicked her tongue.

Narthex touched the plush bear…and operated the trackball installed within it.

She didn’t hesitate to speak.



“Do it.”



The 30ton mass charged forward.

That was deadly enough on its own given a large semi-truck or tanker truck weighed 10 tons, but it was too forceful. It was effectively robbing itself of its guns and missiles this way.

No.

That was an unmanned attack helicopter, so it would have no problem with crushing its own missiles or shells and exploding from within. Because the shockwave and shrapnel would shred Kamijou.

“Weakling,” spat Birdway.

“Hee hee. Once I win, make sure to use my name when you compliment me, you dumb-as-shit little girl.”

Lessar stepped forward and threw something. Even though Kamijou could have sworn she had been empty-handed a moment before.

A flat piece of stone even more precise than a ruler drew out an erratic course like a boomerang.

“Thou art valiant yet no match for the thunder god, but I shall even make use of thy defeat. Whetstone of Hrungnir, shatter and pierce!!”

Stone scattershot flew out 360 degrees around the point it hit.

The crawling Six Wings tilted unnaturally.

Lessar appeared to have thrown a projectile at the arm’s joint to prevent anything from detonating.

But even broken and off balance, the Six Wings did not stop. It was now in a position resembling a formal bow…which meant its main rotor was tilted diagonally toward them as it made its next move.

“Uh, oh,” groaned Kamijou.

The main rotor rotated with great force. Like a giant blender blade intent on slicing through everything in the world. It stirred up the air into a gale as the Six Wings, missing a few of its arms, scraped its fuselage against the floor in its forced approach.

“Run, run, run! Get behind a pillar or something!!”

“That pillar’s too skinny. That thing can slice right through a steel beam.”

Then did they have to destroy the Six Wings?

Despite what the term “aircraft” would suggest, attack helicopters were meant to attack tanks and armored trucks on the ground. So their engine was located at the point hardest to target from below.

And with the Six Wings approaching with its main rotor tilted toward them, ''that point was now right in front of them.'' They couldn’t stop the deadly rotating blade without destroying the engine, but a magical projectile from Lessar or Birdway would most likely cause the jet fuel to explode.

Imagine Breaker was the only card in Kamijou’s deck, so no one expected anything from him to begin with. He could only shout in a panic.

“Wh-what do we do!?”

“Eliminate the threat, obviously,” spat Birdway with a glance toward Lessar. “Hey, weakling. The cabal boss’s life is in your hands. If I die because you didn’t do your job, the Dawn-Colored Sunlight will be forced to head out on a hunting picnic, so be careful.”

“Gyehhh. This is why I didn’t want to be this selfish little girl’s bodyguard. Every part of the job is a deadly gamble!!”

Birdway already held some kind of metal wand. Kamijou hadn’t even seen her pull it out. And compressed flames hovered at the end of it.

If she carelessly launched that, it would cause everything to explode, blowing them all to smither-

“Hot and dry. That is, the fire of fire. I’ll blow you away Mathers-style, small fry!!”

There was nothing Kamijou could do. He could only watch as the orange fireball was launched.

And exploded.

But there wasn’t just one explosion. The jet fuel was dangerous enough, but the shells and missiles carried within the Six Wings detonated too.

The steel beams below their feet bent and a portion of the floor groaned. The movement of the smoke was odd. A slight breeze was blowing in from the lower level. The floor was designed for aircraft weighing dozens of tons, but this had caused it to collapse.

However…

“Magic is such a threat to science because it can brute force its way through these things.”

They were all unharmed.

Because Lessar had held out her palm and activated something.

It looked like a glowing translucent wall.

If they had a way to protect them all from a military weapon exploding at close range, they could blow away as many of those unmanned Six Wings as necessary. Magic really was a brute force power found by pursuing wisdom far enough.

''But.

“Hee hee.”

The magicians surviving the scientific Six Wings had not put a dent in Narthex’s composure.

Solid snapping sounds came from her.

Did they come from the back of her neck…or from her back?

Birdway grinned.

“That would be the branches. The physical connections are used to alter her second brain’s thought circuits.”

In other words, she could switch between using magical encryption or the scientific hacking tool.

She could switch between two modes corresponding to the two worlds.

“If you would prefer to be killed by one or the other, let me know soon.”

Narthex’s bewitching smile looked out of place on her small body.

But learning this external sign gave Kamijou’s side an advantage.

She held out her empty hand – the one not holding the plush bear.

Yes. Narthex Coded Cathedral could use more than just the scientific hacking tool.

Her lips formed a smile and then whispered.



“''Seal''.”



Leivinia Birdway stiffened.

She suddenly came to a stop in the middle of battle.

“!?”

“What’s wrong, Birdway!? If you have a trump card, use it now!!”

Kamijou shouted wide-eyed, but the small girl’s eyes remained lowered to her hands.

Birdway, the Dawn-Colored Sunlight’s boss, was trembling.

“…I can’t.”

“What?”

“I was just using spells without even thinking about it…but now I don’t know how. No, ''was the neural pathway sealed, temporarily preventing me from remembering how''!?”

“Wait, wait, wait. I don’t have the talent of a powerful cabal boss. You can’t take away the one or two things an average person like me can do! Then I’ll just be a normal human!”

Lessar blanched and abandoned the spell she had been frantically trying to compose.

Memories.

Was this the opposite of Index who kept having hers taken?

If the sealer could predict what card you would play before you used it, you could never use it again.

Narthex was designed for anti-magician combat. She was a different sort of wizard killer from Grimoire Library Index. She rejected the mystical side of her enemy.

Kamijou had known this wouldn’t be easy, but she was an even more dangerous foe than he had expected!

He couldn’t bear to look at Birdway and Lessar who had immediately been taken out of the fight. He frantically raised his voice.

“Wh-what do we do? If that’s magic, I can destroy it with Imagine Breaker, but do you have a weird magic circle on your body or something? What part of you am I supposed to touch to fix this!?”

“I don’t know! Just touch me all over and give me lots of head pats!!”

He had a feeling he couldn’t trust what panicked Lessar was saying. Since he couldn’t expect much from the magicians, was Imagine Breaker all he had?

Only that. …When the enemy had her pick of magic or science!

===Part 12===

“Nyah!?”

The underground command center’s walls and floor had collapsed.

Hamazura heard a panicked voice from nearby and looked over to see a flustered Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. It wasn’t that she had been suddenly pulled down. The emaciated girl was being crushed by her own weight.

Or more accurately, by the weight of her thick metal coat covered in copper panels that could move like an independent creature.

…Her ability to survive a hit from a 10-ton truck or launch the truck up from below apparently came from the metal coat. Was it like a powered suit? When the giant engine had blasted her with flames, had she protected her exposed face with magic or did the coat provide some kind of protective field? Whatever the case, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet herself must not have been particularly sturdy and tough.

“Th-this is bad… That Narthex girl sealed my metal coat. Will no one other than you accept me as their ally?”

She had sided with Kamijou and worked toward killing Coronzon not long ago, so maybe it was only natural Narthex resented her.

Kamijou and Narthex were fighting in a fairly distant location, but apparently they were still close enough for the effects to reach them here. With the thick walls and floor collapsed, there was no longer any division between rooms.

“So what now, Hamazura?”

“What now?”

Narthex Coded Cathedral was an unofficial Anglican nun weapon who could use magical and scientific technology with a focus on the concept of “sealing”. She was a forbidden trump card Coronzon hadn’t had a chance to play before she died. Level 0 Hamazura Shiage couldn’t think of a single way of hurting someone like that.

“No.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet must have known what the waver in his eyes meant because she immediately rejected his thoughts.

“You see how chaotic their battle is, right? He’s wide open right now. Your vengeance probably can’t reach Kamijou Touma if you attack head on, but you might be able to stab him in the side right now. That’s what I’m talking about.”

So.

Was she asking if he could see what Narthex Coded Cathedral had done today and guess what she was likely to do in the future…and still focus on attacking Kamijou Touma instead?

“Why are you here?”

That was the fundamental question.

And not just in this moment. It was a question he had asked himself over and over: when he saw Coronzon die, when he was trapped in that box, when the cell was unlocked, and after he was freed.

“To save the world and put smiles on everyone’s faces? Or to get back at Kamijou Touma!? …You need to actually face your own goal here, Hamazura. You need to stop blaming someone or something else, lamenting that your circumstances or environment are the problem without trying to fix them, and cursing the world as a whole. Neither Kamijou Touma nor Narthex Coded Cathedral are paying any attention to you. As you can see, I can’t move with control of my metal coat sealed. So whether you win, lose, save, or destroy, you’re the one who holds the choice in your hands, Hamazura Shiage!!”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was the Transcendent who loved the hated.

Good, evil, humanity, the world…and even her own life were secondary to that.

“None of those ridiculous conditions matter.”

So she smiled as she made a suggestion.

As a Transcendent, it was an extremely destructive suggestion.

And it was just like the one he had once given Coronzon.



“''Just do whatever it is you want to do,'' Hamazura.”

===Part 13===

Kamijou clenched his teeth.

Narthex Coded Cathedral could seal any magic she predicted before it was used, so any magician would be driven into a worse and worse position as the battle continued.

(It’s technically not a negation like my Imagine Breaker. It’s probably a mind control power that precisely messes with their brain, ''preventing them from remembering the necessary incantation''.)

If she could use that magic, did it mean she, unlike Index, could refine her life force into magic power?

…The worst part was that there was no penalty for Narthex if her prediction was wrong. It wasn’t like she could only seal away a maximum of five things at a time or that she lost some power each time she was wrong. That meant she could use it all she liked. She had no reason to hesitate. She could seal away any magician if she set up a perimeter by listing off the ten or twenty most likely candidates.

Kamijou would have to do it.

Imagine Breaker let him fight Narthex without worrying about her magic sealing!

“(Or we can use magic she doesn’t expect in the slightest for a cheap win. Either way, you move out and gather attention. Make us look like no more than ''useless bystanders''.)”

“(Because once Narthex isn’t paying attention to us, we’re free to act again. Even a spell that wouldn’t normally hit can do the trick if we launch it from a blind spot☆)”

Just then Narthex whispered a word.

“''Release''.”

That word was the opposite of a seal, making it the trigger to free something.

But free what?

Kamijou didn’t even have time to wonder.



“Come forth, knowledge. You are the Original Sin for which all mankind was expelled from paradise!!”



Lessar’s body tilted unnaturally to the side. Before a surprised Kamijou could even try to support her, Birdway collapsed to the floor. She was bleeding from the nose and mouth, but she did nothing to wipe it away. She had passed out.

(What? That wasn’t poison gas. It would’ve taken me out too. But then…)

Narthex sneered over at him from her distant position.

The hand not holding the plush bear was toying with a floating apple seemingly made of red crystal. No, that was only what it looked like to Kamijou. Whatever it was, it could take many forms.

“Did you forget I am holding the fruit hanging from the branches of the Tree of Knowledge? This is the ''raw'' forbidden knowledge before it is processed into a grimoire.”

So were those two in the same state they would be if they had received the toxic knowledge of an original grimoire!? No one other than Index could defend against that. And given a professional magician’s greed for knowledge, they may have had their souls absorbed and polluted even more than a normal person.

But what if attacking the magicians had delayed her by a step, creating an opening?

“!!”

Kamijou immediately grabbed a burner from the floor. It was probably a maintenance tool for the military weapons kept here.

Instead of targeting Narthex, he went for a thick power cable running alongside a steel pillar.

What if he burned through that and dropped the sliced end to the floor?

The cut power cable scattered bluish-white sparks and he rushed rapidly along the steel reinforcement beams arranged in a lattice pattern. He ran toward little Narthex!

An unpleasant “zap!!” rang out.

But Narthex Coded Cathedral did not fall.

Just beforehand, her lips and tongue had uttered a word.

“''Seal''.”

(She used magic to cut off the high-voltage current!?)

He slammed on the brakes. If this wouldn’t even act as a smokescreen, charging in like this would only get him killed.

“That seal isn’t just a psychological attack! It works on non-magical things too?”

“My mother did not see the magic side as her ''only'' enemy.”

Of course she didn’t. Great Demon Coronzon had ultimately intended to destroy all 7 or 8 billion humans, be they from magic or science.

“You can find seals in mythologies the world over, but the most dynamic would probably be from Greek mythology. After all, Cronus and Zeus both swallowed their pesky children to try and remove them from the world of myth. Of course, those gods were generally immortal, so it didn’t count as killing. It was seen as a seal because they would be back to normal once removed from their father’s belly. Ah ha ha. Doesn’t that remind you of that absurd Red Riding Hood story where she was eaten by a wolf but somehow still had a happy ending?”

Kamijou glared straight at Narthex while moving just his eyes to the sides. Was there anything he could use here? She could seal anything, but was there nothing that would let him use that against her!?

“So seals don’t actually negate the energy the way your Imagine Breaker does. They are much more ecological. They let me remove your deadly force, but I hold the right to release the seal. That means I can effectively steal my enemy’s power and use it myself. A lot like stealing a demon and using them as your servant.”

Narthex Coded Cathedral licked her lips with her little tongue.

And she gave a death sentence.

Before Kamijou could find anything capable of breaking free of this bind.

“So I can have fun like this. …Release!!”



''Crash!!!



Fearsome light and noise were released horizontally. It was the ultra-high-voltage current used to power the electromagnetic catapults that launched the drone airbase’s unmanned fighters into the sky. That deadly energy shot across the underground space.

''No, that wasn’t all.

Kamijou couldn’t even react.

“Wha-?”

“Even ordinary electricity can have its apparent power multiplied by gathering and sealing it. The capacitors used to amplify the voltage of stun guns are primarily made of ''insulators'' like paper or glass. Even a high schooler understands how that works, I hope?”

And it didn’t follow a straight line.

When Narthex swept her outstretched hand from right to left, the destructive energy did the same. The blinding light forming a great serpent of more than a hundred million volts shorted the metal pillars and thick power cables as it targeted Kamijou’s head!!

He could see now why Lola Stuart had kept Narthex a secret.

She was a taboo among taboos.

She was a combination of science and magic that had been treated as a failure for being ''too successful''.

“!!!?”

===Part 14===

Silence fell.

Even the scent of scorched air seemed to be considerately keeping its distance from people’s senses.

The electric current of more than a hundred million volts had been magically controlled, ensuring a hit.

But Kamijou Touma still wasn’t dead.

Because someone else had made themselves into a human shield.



“…''Hama''…''zura''…?”



Narthex Coded Cathedral spoke his name in surprise.

That boy hadn’t wanted to call Coronzon a great demon. He had felt the same way she did.

So why had he saved Coronzon’s killer?

Was that the thing he ''most'' wanted to risk his life for!?

“You could have done anything you wanted, so why would you waste it on something so stup- gah…ah…!?”

The girl’s head wobbled.

Something was wrong with the right half of her vision. She didn’t have time to check a mirror, but the capillaries in the white of the eye may have burst, turning the eye bloodshot.



“You aren’t Index.”



And.

Since Hamazura Shiage had shielded him, Kamijou remained standing.

And he could…clench his right fist.

“Kh.”

“So you don’t have an extreme resistance to a grimoire’s toxin. You said that knowledge was as toxic as an original grimoire, right? If you could’ve just used that as much as you wanted, you would’ve just started with that. The only reason you didn’t is because that trump card damages you too, doesn’t it? “

Narthex had the Black_Oneday hacking tool.

She could have used that to damage Academy City and then spread that damage across the world, but she hadn’t.

She launched her cyber attacks with the same decryption skill she would use for a grimoire’s symbolism or a magic circle’s layout.

But that had been a burden on her.

She hadn’t wanted to use it more than necessary.

Because she could tell it was threatening her life.

Otherwise, she would likely have already triggered a major war like Coronzon had attempted with Adikalika.

(It’s just like with Index… When Coronzon gives someone a power, it isn’t going to make them happy. It will destroy their life and transform them into a living secret weapon.)

That great demon could only tear people’s bonds apart. She couldn’t actually save people no matter how hard she tried.

This had so bothered her that she had tried to destroy the world over it, so it did seem a lot like her.

“So you should stop here. The ordinary fear of death is catching up to you, isn’t it? But you see your ability to do these unusual things as your bond with Coronzon, so you don’t want to stop. But it’s not like your memories of her will vanish if you do things normally.”

“Shut up,” snapped Narthex Coded Cathedral. “I loved my mother. I truly respected her… I know so much about her you never knew. She tore people’s bonds apart and obstructed their evolution? That was all she could do? That isn’t true and I’ll prove it… That’s enough of a reason to risk my life.”

She looked around 13 – although her actual age was unknown – but her face was a portrait of fury, hatred, humiliation, scorn, and frustration. Every negative emotion aside from sorrow was contained there.

“You killed my mother.”

Kamijou had no memory before a certain day during summer break.

He knew he had saved Index during that time, but he felt like he hadn’t actually experienced it himself.

Even so, he could tell.

This girl…was an Index who hadn’t met Kamijou Touma.

So she had relied on someone else. Such as viewing her own creator as a parent.

For one, it was the person who had shattered her cage of misfortune. For the other, it was the person who had created her cage of misfortune.

It had all branched out from there.

“But that wasn’t enough, so now you’re going to rob her of the possibility of being reborn and getting a second chance at life? Kamijou Touma. You don’t have the right!! No one does!!!”

Maybe not.

But…

“I might be plagued by ''misfortune'',” said Kamijou.

He didn’t avert his gaze even as he was called a murderer.

Because…

“But I’m still not as ''miserable'' as you. Because I had the freedom to overcome my misfortune.”

“Kh.”

“Narthex, your circumstances weren’t your fault. You were made to be that way for someone else’s purposes and benefit. That much is obvious. …And that Great Demon Coronzon did that to you is all the more reason something had to be done about her.”

“My life is none of your business! Don’t barge in and act like you know if I’m happy or not. All that mattered to me was that my mother wasn’t alone!! But you and your smug self-righteousness took everything from her! Including her life!!!”

The girl screamed at him.

With tears in her eyes.

“For so long she called herself the Anglican archbishop! She said her name was Lola Stuart! She couldn’t tell anyone who she really was. Not even her real name!! Because she would be killed if the truth got out! You would know all about that since you’re the one that actually did it. And all because you’d decided getting the whole damn world to gang up on her and attack her was the ‘right thing to do’! …I was the only one she had. I was the only one who knew her name was Coronzon and accepted her for who she was. Only I could save her!!”

That had to be Narthex Coded Cathedral’s true feelings

She had to be coming up with these words on her own.

Looking at this alone, her story sounded like a moving one.

Kamijou Touma’s heart should have ached as the one who fought Coronzon as a great demon and let her die.

''But he couldn’t let himself forget.

Narthex had been ''created'' by Coronzon. And unlike Index, she hadn’t broken free of Coronzon’s control…so she had never been saved. Just like Index had several layers of security built into her without her consent.

In that case.

Narthex referred to Coronzon as her “mother”.

That was a title of love and respect. Those feelings were likely real. If she had started saying that without being ordered to by her puppeteer, the great demon hadn’t corrected her. And even if it was a mistake or bug her creator hadn’t intended, Kamijou still felt some sympathy for the lonely demon who had wanted to hear that word.

…But he would never be moved by Narthex’s devotion.

Coronzon must never have imagined she would die.

Of course she hadn’t when she had fought to the very end under the wholehearted belief that she would win.

The unintended cage she left behind with her death had to be broken here.

This was a misfortune that not even Coronzon had wanted.

“…I’ll kill you.”

The girl must have realized her words weren’t reaching him.

With a low growl of a voice, Narthex stuck her small hand in the rear of the plush bear. Did it contain a keyboard or a touchscreen? Either way, she must have decided the track ball on its face wasn’t enough.

“You are the one person in this world I swear I will kill! I will smash you into tiny little pieces! …I don’t need your brain to get knowledge of your return from hell when Anna Kingsford’s preserved corpse exists. The border between life and death can be crossed! And I don’t need you to create a vessel for summoning my mother back to this world!!”

But the Six Wings around her did not respond.

“Someone already hacked them and expelled all their fuel?”

Come to think of it, someone had gone missing partway through this battle.

Narthex’s eyes darted around the area.

“Dion Fortune? What has she been doing on this base!?”

But she couldn’t afford to split her focus at the moment.

Insulting someone who wasn’t even present would change nothing. And Kamijou was currently stepping toward her.

“Ohhh!!”

“Hm? No…”

A loud “slap!” rang out.

Kamijou had knocked the plush bear to the floor with his palm. Now she couldn’t use her hacking tool to send commands to the science side weapons.

“Tch!!”

Narthex held out the red apple of knowledge in her other hand. That thing had knocked out Birdway and Lessar, but a moment later it shattered with a solid sound of impact.

Courtesy of Imagine Breaker.

Now the girl couldn’t use science or magic.

And Kamijou Touma had already clenched his right fist.

Tightly.

“If you are convinced Great Demon Coronzon’s death was a mistake. If the remnants of Coronzon still lingering inside you are mechanically making you say that!!”

“Kh.”

(Hey, Coronzon.)

It was like he wanted to show that girl how the great demon had met her end since she hadn’t been there to see it herself.

He threw his words and his fist at her.

(This rampage isn’t the downfall you wanted to see, is it!? So it’s time you gave that girl’s life back!!!)

“Then!! I’ll destroy that illusion!!!”

===Part 15===

A dull crash.

===Part 16===

She had fallen.

Narthex Coded Cathedral lay unmoving on the hard floor.

A wet splat came from her.

Kamijou had grabbed something from her back and pulled it away. It was a clear tube…no, several of them. He had physically broken her connection to her second brain. The tubes crumbled away.

Narthex…had lost.

Coronzon would never come back to life.

Hamazura clenched his back teeth. He had stopped her by shielding Kamijou. That was true…but why had that been the only option their side had?

The people who sided with the hated were always, always labeled evil and defeated.

Because what they were doing “wasn’t right”.

Was that so wrong? So much so that the only option was to throw their lives in the gutter?

“Phew…”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet sighed a short distance away.

This was an aircraft hangar. The underground space was so large it could be easy to forget that.

She seemed to be dragging along a great weight. The seal on her metal coat should have been released, but was she still not back at 100%? She was at least doing better than Birdway and Lessar who were still unable to move after being hit by toxic knowledge on the level of an original grimoire.

The emaciated girl sighed.

(It almost feels like everyone else was intentionally taken out of the fight. I guess the only person left who ''I need to keep away from here'' is Dion Fortune, wherever she is on the base.)

“Hamazura, are you alive?”

“Even though I doubt anyone in the world wants me to be,” sulked Hamazura.

He knew he was actually lucky to have his girlfriend and a Transcendent on his side.

So. Was he supposed to just accept the world’s idea of what was “right” and head home?

“I feel bad saying this Hamazura, but Coronzon herself really was evil. I don’t think you’re going to convince anyone otherwise.”

“I know.”

Hamazura wasn’t going to deny that any longer.

But…

“I still wanted to be her friend. What’s wrong with that?”

“Heh. That look on your face is more like it. Then I’ll let you handle the rest.”

Narthex had been defeated. Hamazura didn’t know what she had been planning, but it wasn’t going to happen now. Coronzon was dead and nothing would change that. He felt like something unseen was holding his head down and had placed a thick lid over him.

“…”

Takitsubo Rikou…was safe.

But Hamazura didn’t run over to her.

He couldn’t return yet. He hadn’t ended this yet.

So.

After shaking free of Blodeuwedd the Bouquet who weakly waved her hand, he firmly changed direction.

To face someone else: Kamijou Touma.

“Narthex Coded Cathedral was trying to destroy the world for Coronzon and she wanted to crack open your head and bring her back. …I’ve been trying to figure out what I can do for Coronzon now that she’s dead, but I didn’t think either of those things would do that. That’s why I helped you. I’m still not sure I should have and I kind of wish I hadn’t.”

“I see…”

“But this doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you for killing Coronzon.”

He couldn’t.

No matter what. It wasn’t a matter of right or wrong.

“Coronzon chose for herself to take the path of evil, so you had no choice?”

What a joke.

There were people who couldn’t do the right thing.

They wanted to and they admired those who did more than anyone, but they believed someone as wretched as them couldn’t…and so they pulled back the hand they actually wanted to reach out.

Hamazura wouldn’t let anyone say otherwise.

Because that had been him.

When he was labeled a Level 0 and then crushed by the pressure of being the new leader of Skill Out. He had rotted to the core back then, but he hadn’t crawled back out on his own. Only after running across Item, meeting people like Mugino and Takitsubo, and overcoming a great battle had he finally found himself. Yes, it had taken a collection of factors he normally never could have hoped to encounter.

Had Coronzon been given a chance like that?

She had always been alone.

The entire world had labeled her an absolute evil.

She hadn’t had a chance to crawl back out and no one had held out their hand.

Instead, they had gathered around, forced her into even worse circumstances, and called her evil for not figuring out her mistake all on her own. Was that how this world worked!?

Pain. Fear. Agony. Suffering.

It was true Coronzon had never uttered a word of it on that red snowy night.

Being who she was, Coronzon must have proudly stuck to her role as the powerful enemy to the very end.

''But…

“Are you kidding me, Kamijou Touma? The people who are suffering and in pain can’t even ask for help. It might seem easy to you!! But they’ve been pushed to the point they’ve lost sight of what’s normal. So they try to act bad, they turn their back on you, and they convince themselves it’s better that way!”

Even as he shouted the words, Hamazura realized this really was the side for him.

This was a risk.

He could tell he was tumbling further down the slope.

This temporary awakening didn’t come from evil. He knew this was no more than a power that brought him closer to death, but still he did it.

It was time to draw a line in the sand.

They could call him evil if they wanted. He didn’t need justice or righteousness here!!

“She couldn’t say it. Coronzon couldn’t manage to get the words out. But that doesn’t excuse you for killing her!!!”

On his way here today, Hamazura had opposed goodness and justice in a number of ways. But that didn’t mean all evil was destructive and deadly. He must have gotten a blow or two in on the existing idea of goodness by saving some strangers along the way.

Between good and evil, Coronzon had been evil.

But preferring evil didn’t mean she had to destroy humanity.

''Villains could be kind to people in their own evil way.

If someone had taught her that, maybe she could have developed her evil in that direction and grown into something else. If the world had been willing to compromise with her, maybe she could have found a place for herself and lived there.

But no one had.

Everyone had stubbornly refused to do so!

On that night, even Hamazura had spoken in support of the destruction she was plotting. He had acted like he was on her side, but he had really been pushing her away by calling her a harmful being who would destroy the world!

What had Coronzon really wanted him to say?

Had it actually devastated her when she had heard him speak up in support of her destructive plan using Adikalika?

What if he had insisted she was too kind a person to destroy the world?

Yes, that was it.

He had already known he was stupid, so why hadn’t he been able to say that stupid thing!?

Even if it wasn’t true, wouldn’t Coronzon have wanted to hear someone say it to her? He knew it was a silly thing to consider. Maybe proud Coronzon was shouting resentfully up at him from the pit of hell, saying not to twist his memories to reduce her to something so weak. …But what if that really had been ''all it was''? If so, then the one who had ultimately cut her lifeline and shoved her off the cliff was none other than Hamazura himself!!

Coronzon hadn’t figured out how to use evil.

If she wanted to save someone, she had been free to do so from the side of evil.

What had kept her from realizing that?

And who had killed her before she could realize it?

(That’s obvious.)

He couldn’t run away.

What could he do for Coronzon? He had come all this way in search of an answer.

So Hamazura Shiage would not run away from here.

The rest of the world had called Coronzon a great demon, thrown stones at her, and spat on her.

But.

There were 8 billion people out there. So couldn’t there be just one idiot who clenched his fist for her?

(I encouraged her and you killed her to stop her. We share the blame for believing too much in our own ridiculous ideas of what’s right!!)

===Part 17===

Kamijou Touma.

I will never, ever forgive you!!!

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