Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume15 Chapter4

==Chapter 4: What the Fugitive Saw – Fumble.==

===Part 1===

They were in the aircraft hangar deep below the drone airbase.

It was time to take on Kamijou Touma.

They were the only two who could still move.

Hamazura Shiage and Kamijou Touma. …''Did you really think it would be a fair fight!?

“Aneri!!”

Hamazura shouted that name before their fists crossed and a powerful impact rang out.

It was already having an effect.

Kamijou’s fist found only air, but Hamazura had moved closer in and his fist accurately caught Kamijou on the cheekbone. He felt the dull, heavy, and unpleasant sensation.

But he didn’t stop there.

“→P” “←←K” “→TPK→←KK↓K” AI Aneri’s predictions really were accurate. Kamijou tried to punch, kick, grab, and bite, but none of it found its mark. Meanwhile, Hamazura’s attacks all seemed drawn straight toward him.

Simply following the instructions gave him clean and accurate movements.

“I decided I’d find something I can do for Coronzon. I still don’t know what that is, but that’s what I decided.”

A dull sound.

A heavy sensation.

It should have all been unpleasant.



“But I know one thing for sure… Making friends with you sure ain’t it!!”

===Part 2===

Over and over, dull impacts echoed through the giant underground space.

An iron flavor spread through Kamijou Touma’s world. Try as he might to defend and dodge, Hamazura Shiage’s punches and kicks mercilessly stabbed at him.

“Kh.”

Was anything allowable if it was “the right thing to do”?

Kamijou thought Hamazura had a point there.

But on the other hand…

(Not everything is allowable just because you can claim the other person was wrong or corrupt!!)

Hamazura was trying to overcome things like goodness and justice.

Kamijou could tell Hamazura so wanted to turn his back on the things that hadn’t saved him that he had overcorrected in the other direction. But that was the same as joining a criminal organization because you couldn’t trust the police. That would only lead you down the path of evil. You would only find a different kind of corruption, not a righteousness surpassing that of justice. And by the time you figured that out and tried to fix things, the normal path would no longer be available to you.

What would happen to Hamazura if he crossed that point of no return?

Would he reach a point where killing him was the only way to stop him?

Just like Coronzon?

No.

Kamijou couldn’t let that happen!!

(I’m not going to repeat that ending again and again!!)

“Gah!!”

He took another blow to the center of the face.

The iron flavor filled his mouth.

But he wouldn’t give up.

Hamazura had to be stopped here. This was happening to him because Kamijou had let Coronzon die. It had been necessary. The entire world would have continued down the path of doom if he hadn’t done it. He believed it and he knew it had been the right thing to do, but that didn’t mean he could just ignore the resentment it had created!

He knew what he had to do, but he couldn’t manage it.

Hamazura had that AI Aneri on his side.

Kamijou couldn’t defeat and stop Hamazura without an irregular ability rivaling that.

He only needed one.

Just one thing rivaling that!!



“''Then summon me already, partner.''”



A dull ''crack'' came from his right shoulder.

===Part 3===

It would be over after the next move, or the one after that.

Hamazura Shiage was sure of it. He wasn’t Kamijou Touma, so he wouldn’t choose to fight or happily hurt his enemy. He was sick of this already. Aneri’s predictions were wonderful, but this one-sided pummeling weighed him down with a weird sense of guilt.

But his advantage suddenly became a lot less absolute.

It happened right after a dull ''crack'' echoed across the vast underground space.

Kamijou made a sharp reversal to dodge Hamazura’s right hook.

Physically speaking, that was all it was.

Hamazura’s accuracy dropped from 100% to 99%. No more than that.

But…

(He outdid Aneri’s predictions with a physical action!?)

“Khahh!?”

Hamazura’s eyes widened just before the impact hit him. A body blow targeting his liver shot through him.

Kamijou had finally managed a clean hit.

And with that move, it all began to shift in an unpleasant direction.

So what?

Coronzon was dead.

Did that guy get to look down on him after taking someone’s life? Hamazura wasn’t letting that villain claim justice for himself!!

“Ah, kah…Aneri!!”

Hamazura shouted an instruction and then backed away.

But Kamijou must have predicted even that because he charged forward at the same moment, not letting Hamazura put any distance between them.

They were evenly matched.

A fierce rush of attacks began, with no clear winner.

“''Hey, AI slave''.”

No.

“''I’m not as kind or gentle as this guy. After all, I am the very power to destroy illusions''.”

This was entirely different from Kamijou Touma’s earlier movements.

“''You want to do something for Coronzon? Don’t make me laugh. You’re just letting an imaginary Coronzon tell you to do the things you already want to do so you don’t have to feel guilty about it. The dead tell no tales, right? Well, are you having fun playing with the sex doll you made out of that dead woman? I bet you think you’re so badass turning your back on goodness and justice. That’s the next illusion I’ll be destroying!!''”

“Damn you!!!”

Hamazura threw a furious punch, but Kamijou only had to lean back a bit to dodge it.

He avoided another Aneri-supported attack. Aneri’s calculations were no longer a trump card. But he wasn’t getting help from a program.

He had something rivaling Aneri.

But what was possessing him right now!?

===Part 4===

After dodging a few punches and kicks, Kamijou backed away from Hamazura. He adjusted the distance between them.

And he shook his head.

He consciously worked to stay conscious.

(“''Feel free to stay awake''.”)

He heard a voice with no distance to it.

His mouth wasn’t moving. This wasn’t a sound reverberating through the underground space. So where was it coming from?

(“''I’m not that count. I’m not gonna take over your body. Popping in and out at random will work better. That AI is watching your exterior and gathering detailed data to calculate out the next thing you’ll do. You’re fighting right in front of him, so there’s no preventing the AI from gathering data. But. If the Kamijou Touma folder contains a mix of data from more than one person, it can’t predict your personality, can it? So if we work together to mess with its calculations, his precious AI won’t be worth shit.''”)

“You…”

(“''Don’t you get mad. You’re not trying to be some bleach-white paragon of justice, are you? Provocation is a valid tactic. People’s lives are on the line here. At the end of the day, you want to save that idiot’s life, don’t you? Even if it means punching him a few times.''”)

“…”

(“''Well, if you want to win this, stop Hamazura, and save him, you can’t let yourself hesitate just cause it’s getting a little messy. Or are you a galge heroine who only ever speaks the whole truth? Yeah right, dumbass.''”)

Was this really a part of Kamijou? It felt like a bad joke that this foul-mouthed right arm had once mimicked his physical form and tried to take everything from him. And that its advice was efficient and sensible only annoyed Kamijou further. If it could make such sharp calculations, why couldn’t it predict how he would feel listening to it?

He tried arguing back with something other than numerical correctness.

“I want to be on the side of justice too. But I don’t need Hamazura to tell me that’s not possible. I’m well aware I disqualified myself from that as soon as my immediate response to any problem is to clench my fist!”

(“''Are you stupid? If you never want to doubt you’re doing the right thing, then let a Magic God, a Transcendent, or some other divinity decide for you. But you’re human. You’re the kind of ordinary high school boy you can find anywhere. Noncommittal hypocrisy is a lot more fitting, don’t you think?''”)

At any rate, that AI was the problem.

Kamijou couldn’t settle things with Hamazura without first doing something about Aneri’s power.

===Part 5===

He thought. Hamazura Shiage kept thinking through the entire fistfight.

Kamijou was dong ''something''.

That something was throwing off Aneri’s predictions. If this continued, he wouldn’t be able to rely on Aneri’s support.

But…

“Aneri. You don’t have to predict each individual punch and kick. Focus on figuring out ''what'' he’s doing. Taking a few hits is a small price to pay for figuring out his trick!!”

Ultimately, anything Kamijou did was a physical action located in this underground space. That made it a game of cat and mouse. And he had a limited number of cards in his deck. If Aneri could figure out his trick, Hamazura could fight back.

Meanwhile, Hamazura didn’t try to go on the attack and instead fended off Kamijou’s attacks to buy time. That had to be the least painful option, but Kamijou of course didn’t want his cheap trick to be discovered.

So he would try to end this while he still had an advantage!!

“!!”

Hamazura worked to guard his face while Kamijou charged at him. Was he going to rush in and unleash a flurry of attacks while prepared to take a few hits in return?

(I don’t have to play by your rules here!!)

Trying to fight back while Aneri’s predictions weren’t working would be foolish.

“An open space isn’t great for buying time. Aneri, do you have any spare resources? Get a list of every door in here, search out their locations, and unlock as many of them as you can!!”

The twin buzzes had a negative nuance, but he did hear the locks click open.

But why did ''this'' have to be the closest door?

Hamazura kicked a nearby toolbox to keep Kamijou back and used the brief opening to turn to the right.

He ran up some narrow stairs and slipped through an open door.

The space was about half the width of a classroom and more than twice as long. It was cluttered and better suited for hiding and launching surprise attacks than before, but…

All the doors suddenly slammed shut. And the locks engaged.

His phone sounded its loudest alarm. Aneri wanted his attention.

An artificial-sounding young woman’s voice played from all around.

Kamijou had done something again.

“Level 3 Authorization confirmed. Flight preparations complete. Takeoff route secured. Countdown beginning at January 9, 7:30 PM.”

Surprise colored Hamazura’s face, but it didn’t end there.

He heard a footstep.

Had Kamijou actually come in ''here'' with all this going on?

He could have won by launching Hamazura into the vacuum of space, but he hadn’t. Did he think Hamazura could get Aneri to take control of the craft and land it on the other side of the planet? Kamijou was afraid of losing track of Hamazura. He wanted to avoid living his life while Hamazura was hiding out on the other side of the planet and could launch a surprise attack at any time. So he wanted to end this here and now.

All doubt vanished from Hamazura. He gathered strength in his gut.

She was a great demon?

Don’t make me laugh. What right do you have to call her that? As if you have a perfect and spotless heart.

(Your ugly weakness is showing, you righteous good guy!!)

So what exactly was happening here?

===Part 6===

The Jumbo Dragonfly was a two-stage air-launched bullet space shuttle.

Their battlefield was preparing…to launch into space!?

===Part 7===

The tremendous acceleration weighed on Hamazura Shiage’s insides.

They had taken off.

(What kind of tunnels was that underground area connected to!?)

“Ane…ri… What are this thing’s specs!?”

All sorts of data appeared on the cracked screen.

The Jumbo Dragonfly took off from the ground by using a runway and gradually gaining altitude, much like an airplane.

But after stabilizing its flight, it would raise its nose to nearly vertical and accelerate. After nearly reaching the limits of an aircraft at an altitude of 30 thousand meters, the spaceship at the very front would separate from the rest. The bullet-shaped module would use its momentum to soar through the atmosphere and reach an altitude of 400km, which was known as low Earth orbit.

…As that explanation suggests, this was a civilian use of a satellite killer project that would launch a missile from a supersonic aircraft to blow up an enemy’s military satellite.

There were sturdy airtight doors between cabins to ensure no oxygen could escape in an emergency, but those were slowly opening from the outside.

And from the back of the long, narrow space…

Kamijou Touma emerged.

Hamazura was exposed to a crushing g-force that was clearly greater than Earth’s natural gravity, but a different question occupied his thoughts.

“Wait. How did he mess with the computers without an AI supporting him?”

If he had something equivalent to Aneri, what was it? After all, this spaceship tearing through the atmosphere was a collection of computers. Anything could become a weapon if operated incorrectly.

Hamazura raised his guard, but then it hit him.

“No, it wasn’t necessarily him!! ''The base’s infrastructure would activate if anyone in the base hit the switch''. It could have been Birdway or Fortune that helped him!”

Didn’t that mean that shifting the fight to the Jumbo Dragonfly was actually a bad thing for Kamijou? Then why do it? It wasn’t like Hamazura had been hiding Aneri’s presence.

No…

No!?

This situation did help Kamijou!!

(So that’s it…)

Hamazura belatedly realized Kamijou’s aim here.

But it was too late to do anything about it.

(If we leave the Earth in a spaceship with a broken antenna, Aneri will be cut off from everything on the surface. Is he trying to ''downgrade'' Aneri to no more than a smartphone!?)

“Aneri, answer me. Can you keep going!?”

He received an immediate buzz in response, but it wasn’t promising.

There was no next action – like “G→→PKT” – displayed on the screen. Even in Academy City, a single phone just didn’t have the processing power.

Meanwhile, he was up against Kamijou Touma and whatever it was that rivaled Aneri.

The situation had been completely reversed from when the fight began.

…So would Hamazura raise the white flag and return to the peaceful world that was glad Coronzon had died? Unharmed and with a silly grin on his face? Sucking up to their righteousness so they would share some of their happiness with him?

“''Immediately open all the spaceship’s doors, Aneri!! I don’t care what happens as long as I can kill him!!!''”

Aneri refused with two buzzes.

The AI’s victory condition was defined as Hamazura Shiage’s survival, not Kamijou Touma’s death. The damn thing had changed that setting on its own!!

(That means I can’t get Aneri to blow the spaceship away with the laser or mass driver back on the surface either!!)

Having that “insurance” in his back pocket just in case would help mentally bolster him, but the AI must not have understood that kind of ''abstract'' subtlety.

And his enemy wasn’t going to wait.

That “just in case” moment had arrived. That monster drenched in justice was coming this way!!

===Part 8===

Kamijou also regretted his choices.

Approaching from the rear of the spaceship had been necessary, but it may have been a mistake. As Hamazura attempted to keep his distance, he naturally backed toward the nose.

(That’s not good… That’s the bullet-shaped spaceship. If we end up flying outside the atmosphere, it’s all the more likely he’ll end up dead!)

What was this disturbing trend? Wasn’t this kind of misfortune supposed to gather around Kamijou? This felt like an invisible hand had grabbed Hamazura and was dragging him down into the murky depths.

The Jumbo Dragonfly was an aircraft, not a rocket, so it didn’t fly straight up toward space. Still, its nose was pointed very nearly vertically. Kamijou was forced to climb a steep slope to reach Hamazura.

And the Jumbo Dragonfly had two stages.

More than 70% of the sleek aircraft-like spacecraft would only fly up to the stratosphere before naturally descending and then flying back to the runway, but the remaining 30% was a different story.

(“''Your misfortune’s not gonna make it easy for you, so prepare yourself. If you really want to settle this, anyway. He’s ready at least. He’s honed himself in exchange for accepting the risk of death. You don’t have time to be falling behind when it comes to resolve.''”)

His right arm was talking to him.

And he couldn’t afford to wait until they left the atmosphere.

AI Aneri might not remain cut off forever. It was no more than technology. If communications recovered in some way, they would be back to evenly matched.

Thus…

“I’ll settle this while I can!!”

Kamijou forced himself to charge in.

Maybe it was due to constantly flying with its nose angled more sharply upwards than a normal passenger plane could, but the g-force inside the Jumbo Dragonfly was intense. Each step he took seemed to sap his strength.

Fist crossed fist and struck sharply into each other’s face.

He had no sense for how the g-force affected this.

Kamijou was just glad he hadn’t missed again. Aneri really couldn’t provide any support here. So he would never have a better chance at ending this than now!

That thought was cut off by something slamming into the bridge of Kamijou’s nose.

An iron flavor spread through his mouth.

“Gah!?”

(Dammit, Hamazura. Did he grab an AED or something from the wall and throw it!?)

Hamazura probably just hadn’t had time to charge it, but Kamijou was thankful he hadn’t been attacked by a high-voltage current.

Their fists weren’t their only weapons. They could strangle each other with the seat belts and the oxygen tanks larger than fire extinguishers could cause damage as a blunt weapon or an explosive.

But…

(This isn’t it. I don’t want a bloody ending like this!!)

Seeing Hamazura was shaking Kamijou’s view of Coronzon’s death.

Of course, it wasn’t necessarily possible to get all 8 billion people in the world to smile together right away. But he had fought a deadly battle against Coronzon because he hadn’t wanted that world to be destroyed. That much was true.

He had let Coronzon die, so he had to show her that, while the world was riddled with mistakes, it was headed in a happier direction, even if slowly.

So he couldn’t let Hamazura die here today!!

The “fwoosh!!” of escaping air sounded behind Kamijou. The emergency lock activated on the thick airlock he had just passed through. The second-stage bullet-shaped spaceship taking up nearly a third of the craft was preparing to break away.

This space was fairly large, but it felt somehow like a cockpit. Kamijou wasn’t familiar with the basic structure of a spaceship, so he couldn’t say if this was standard or unorthodox.

And just as Kamijou shook off the temptation to grab a weapon, Hamazura didn’t hesitate to grab a nearby metal pipe. It looked like a component for a crutch or stretcher. Were spaceship beds adapted from medical equipment?

The blunt weapon swung down toward Kamijou’s head, but…

“…!? ''It’s so light''!!”

That wide-eyed shout came from Hamazura as he made the attack.

His feet were floating a bit from the floor. The reaction of the attack sent him floating backwards.

Kamijou didn’t have time to glance out the window of course…but the Jumbo Dragonfly’s nose portion must have broken free of the Earth and arrived in space. Only the flat cone-like tip. So any attack with a weapon that relied on weight had been nearly neutralized. For the moment anyway!

A force was applied to their bodies again.

This space flight was actually a long ballistic trajectory that kept them just outside the atmosphere in low Earth orbit at an altitude of less than 40 kilometers. Flying so rapidly in an arc created a g-force in the outward direction, so they weren’t truly weightless.

If they did fall back to Earth, where on the planet would they end up?

That question honestly frightened Kamijou, but he didn’t have time to check.

His top priority right now was to rescue Hamazura who was spiraling down after being caught by ''something unseen''. Because Kamijou had set him on this path.

===Part 9===

The spaceship portion had broken free from the rest of the Jumbo Dragonfly.

It had flown away from the Earth.

Hamazura had imagined himself losing all sense of weight, floating around, and having trouble fighting…but the reality was completely different. He felt a little lighter than usual, which was weird, but he could still stand. He had weight. It was actually the centrifugal force or something, but there was gravity.

But it wasn’t normal.

His feet were standing on thick glass.

The seats were positioned at a weird angle, but that didn’t mean they were on the wall.

Hamazura was standing at a weird position.

“Kh.”

He clenched his teeth.

The guy who had called Coronzon a great demon and mercilessly killed her stood before him. He had to settle things with him.

(The power…to destroy illusions?)

Hamazura Shiage had shaken free of his admiration for goodness and justice by saving strangers from his position on the side of evil.

But Kamijou Touma, who hated him more than anyone, carried the power to negate illusions, anything supernatural, and even divine miracles.

They weren’t opposites.

Kamijou wasn’t a perfect form of justice. It was possible he too felt something off about the world and had attempted to fight that unseen thing.

But their paths had never crossed.

And they had definitively parted when he called Coronzon a great demon and killed her!!

“Gahhh!!”

They clashed again.

But without Aneri’s assistance, a Level 0 was only a Level 0.

Hamazura felt dull pain.

Sure enough, he was the one receiving a thrashing. As if to say he was the world’s designated loser.

(To hell…with that…)

Just then.

His cracked phone buzzed.

“→→K←PK→GPP←←K”

(Aneri’s processing power…is back!?)

Had Aneri found a way to communicate without using the broken antenna? No, maybe reaching space had simply brought them close enough to a satellite or space station.

Either way…

(We’re evenly matched again.)

“Go down. Already!!!”

“→P” “PKTK” “←→P” “K→PK” “KKPKGGPKKPP”

A dramatic change came over Hamazura’s movements. Now he could break free of Kamijou and whatever threat he was up against. He had been stuck on the defensive, but now he could swing his fists and throw kicks. He could now rejoin the fight for overall control of the situation.

And for a brief moment, his mind went blank.

AI Aneri provided no instructions.

No.

He was moving even faster than Aneri’s precise instructions. On his own. Was this what Blodeuwedd the Bouquet had been talking about? His body was moving at a speed of thought that surpassed the AI!

(Yes, that’s right.)

Hamazura filled the blank in his mind by thinking for himself.

This was one thing even Aneri likely couldn’t predict.

(You don’t have to be someone special. You can be a Level 0. It doesn’t matter If you’re a villain or hated. Everyone has the power to surprise people and change both the world and the future!!)

And the same probably applied to his opponent.

To Kamijou Touma.

He had started out as a Level 0, but he hadn’t stopped there.

And that bastard was speaking.

“Hey. Did you know Great Demon Coronzon?”

“Yeah. I knew her so much better than you.”

They approached each other.

They clenched their bloody fists and faced each other.

Kamijou knew a Coronzon that Hamazura hadn’t.

Hamazura knew a Coronzon that Kamijou hadn’t.

So.

They both roared at once.



“Tell me all about the Coronzon I never knew!!!” “Tell me all about the Coronzon I never knew!!!”



And Hamazura Shiage and Kamijou Touma chose to approach to critical range.

They exploded into a fistfight.

And shouted.



“In Edinburgh, Coronzon helped me save Dion Fortune! She went on and on about how it benefited her, but that didn’t meant she needed to do it. She could have abandoned me at any time, but she stuck with a weakling like me to the end!!”



“That great demon deceived the Anglican Church to hold the position of Archbishop while she secretly advanced her wicked ends. She despaired in the state of the world and tried to create a new one herself. With no thought to what kind of being would flourish in the coming age! She was an embodiment of evil, but she was also hopelessly tidy and fastidious!!”



“Kh. Coronzon told me to rest when I was worn out from running away for so long. She did these things because she wanted someone to accept her… But not for her power or her evil nature. She just wanted to be thanked for those ordinary things!!”



“When she screwed people’s lives up to the point of ''creating'' Index and Narthex? When she didn’t hesitate to slash Tsushima’s throat and kick her out into the open to achieve her goal? …Don’t make me laugh. She was a more powerful demon than that!”



“Coronzon was!! A lonely girl!!!”



“No!! That great demon was humanity’s greatest nemesis!!!”



The sounds of blows landing continued.

Kamijou spat blood from his mouth, but he had a smile on his fierce face.

He was proudly discussing Coronzon as if she were his greatest rival. Calling her powerful, great, and cool.

(Why?)

Hamazura clenched his teeth within the metallic flavor.

The person who pissed him off the most wasn’t Kamijou here. It was Hamazura himself.

He was just so pathetic. The more he said, the smaller it made Coronzon seem.

(Why do you know so much about Coronzon that I don’t!?)

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

===Part 10===

As he threw and took punches, even his sense of pain faded into a general sense of heat.

Red drops scattered through the spaceship like jewels.

But Kamijou kept working his woozy mind.

…Hamazura might want him to apologize. He might want Kamijou to cry and wail that killing Coronzon had been a mistake.

But if so…

“I’m not apologizing.”

Kamijou said it.

Clearly and in his own words.

“If there had been any other way, I wouldn’t have done it in the first place!! Great Demon Coronzon was a true nemesis who would have destroyed the entire world all on her own. She showed no mercy or weakness. I wouldn’t take someone’s life unless I absolutely had to!!!”

That ending was a bitter pill to swallow, wasn’t it?

So he wouldn’t let this boy reach the same ending as Coronzon.

Even if it meant hitting him. Even if it meant being hit by him.

He would stop him even if it meant not playing fair and being hated.

He would save Hamazura here!!

“Yeah, right…”

A splitting sound came from terribly close by.

Equally battered Hamazura had bit into his lip with his canine tooth.

His anger had passed its limit.

“If you really, truly felt bad about killing Coronzon, you’d stop clinging to your pathetic life and just go to hell already!!”

Kamijou accepted the words along with a tightly clenched fist.

In a world that tasted so much of iron, Kamijou actually smiled a little.

“I already know all about hell. And I know it’s where I belong.”

Which was why he had decided he wouldn’t let Hamazura go there.

If he had done the right thing…

If he hadn’t been wrong to kill Coronzon to save the world, then Kamijou would be able to crawl back out of hell even if he wound up there.

But…



“This time I’ll do it without sacrificing Kingsford and CRC.”



He didn’t need to doubt himself.

Kamijou Touma threw his fist.

===Part 11===

It was so very heavy.

The impact was different from the previous ones as it entered Hamazura through the bridge of his nose and rattled the core of his body.

His consciousness faded.

Who was most to blame?

That was obvious. It wasn’t Kamijou. At least when it came to Coronzon, that bastard wasn’t at the center of it. That central position belonged to someone else.

…In the end, ''Hamazura was most to blame for failing to stop Coronzon even if it meant punching her.

He was an idiot without a shred of medical knowledge, but he could still tell his body had passed some kind of line. He could feel the strength leaving his knees. Before long, his consciousness would follow. And once he lost that balance, everything would continue to tumble downhill.

Could he not do it?

A single phrase entered his mind: ''I knew it.

He had expected this result. And he had prepared a way to overturn it.

This really is the end. So clench your teeth, me.



“Let’s end this, Kamijou Touma.”



Hamazura pulled out a handgun.

But he didn’t aim it at Kamijou.

It was loaded with a single round. He couldn’t afford to use it on the fight.

Besides, he had decided he couldn’t accept that guy’s path. So he wouldn’t stoop to his level. No matter what.

Instead, Hamazura pressed the muzzle against his own temple.

Without hesitation.

(Yeah, that’s right.)

Kamijou’s eyes widened in surprise.

Hilarious. He must not have ever had a fight ''like this''.

(I knew from the start I couldn’t win a pleasant victory over you by just clenching my fists!!)

There was a great system running the world.

But it wasn’t the kind thing everyone thought it was.

…If it were, Coronzon wouldn’t have suffered so. Her function was to tear people’s bonds apart and obstruct their evolution. That was one of the gears built into that great system. She had tried to change the world because she hadn’t been willing to accept that. She had wanted to rebuild the world from the ground up into something that could run without her gear as a part of it.

If nothing he could do could defeat that system…

Then at least he could unveil it for all to see.

By proving that the current world would not save the weak.

Even if he had to use his own life to do it!!

And.

“Did you think you could save the world with violence, Kamijou Touma?”

At the same time, he couldn’t let justice belong that guy of all people.

And if he could steal “righteousness” from the guy who killed Coronzon…

''He was willing to give up his life.

“You win. You beat Coronzon and you beat me. I’ll give you that. But if you had done the right thing, Narthex Coded Cathedral never would have gone astray. Don’t think you’ve saved everyone… I’ll show you. And now it’s your turn to be punished as evil by the righteous. Your actions led to this. Live the rest of your life knowing that this kind of ruin is what taking a life leads to!!!”

Kamijou frantically clenched his first and charged in, but it was too late.

Live a long life.

As long as possible.

Cause I’m turning the rest of your life into a living hell.

No matter what you do, my finger is faster.

His awakening wasn’t fueled by evil. It had already been said several times that it was a power that brings him closer to death.

And he brought that to its final conclusion.

===Part 12===

He had pulled the trigger.

It was already a thing of the past.

===Part 13===

Silence.

The flow of time had stopped.

Or so the overwhelming silence made it seem.

And.

Hamazura Shiage’s eyes dropped to the gun he held.

Yes, Hamazura was not dead.

The bullet had not been fired.

… He was not holding a revolver. It was an automatic pistol that loaded each new round into the chamber from the magazine. So each pull of the trigger wasn’t a gamble. If there was a round in the chamber, the odds of firing should have been 100%.

(Did the weird gravity screw up the springs in the gun?)

Hamazura rejected his own speculation.

He was pretty sure he knew what it was.

(No, that isn’t it. The trigger feels weirdly hard against my finger… Did being in outer space change the gun oil so it hardened!?)

It was possible.

Hadn’t he heard that important spaceship components didn’t use liquid lubricant?

The gun hadn’t been designed for extraterrestrial use, so the manufacturer and factory wouldn’t have performed the relevant stress testing and durability testing. So he couldn’t deny the possibility.

But could he calculate the odds of the gun oil actually changing like that? The oil’s nature changing in such a short time was strange enough, but it had also happened in just the right way to jam up the gun’s components. The odds of that had to be less than 1 in a 100 million, right!?

Yet it had happened.

The unthinkable had unnaturally, unreasonably, and unfairly happened.

The supernatural, the paranormal, misfortune, the gears, the tendencies.

No. What was an illusion exactly?

Did ''the system that caused those things'' actually exist in this world!?

Hamazura could only speak in a daze at this point.



“Are you…kidding me?”



A moment later, Kamijou reached him.

A fist slammed into the center of his face, immediately removing his consciousness.

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