Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume15 Chapter3 (section)

===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.

[[Image:GT_Index_v15_BW7.jpg|thumb]]



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!!”