Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume15 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

“Tatemiya-san.”

“Yeah?”

Exceptionally large Tatemiya Saiji casually raised a hand to greet the small nun who wore special sandals with soles more than 20cm thick.

They were in the employees only area of the massive international airport.

Specifically, in the air cargo container yard.

“He got us good. I thought for sure he would wait until we were outside Academy City if he was going to try and escape…but maybe you can’t expect a fugitive to think rationally when they have nothing left to lose. We won’t be able to predict what he’ll do next.”

It only looked like a silver die with two or three meter sides at first glance, but it was in fact a cell made of the finest Anglican techniques. Even professional magicians like Tatemiya and Agnese weren’t confident they could escape on their own if they were locked inside…yet the metal shutter had easily been opened.

Agnese Sanctis put a hand on her hip.

“He’s just some high school boy led astray by Coronzon. …When I first heard about it, I thought witch hunt grade was overkill for the cell. I mean, the keyhole uses a twisted loop lock to keep it shut in a Möbius shape. Trying to break that would only be an endless waste of time.”

“And yet he managed to escape. Do you really think an ‘ordinary high schooler’ could do that?”

Tatemiya watched as Itsuwa, Nomozaki, and the other Amakusas slowly circled around the die-like container. They drew out a large circle on the floor with fine salt, erecting a barrier around the container.

They had intentionally made the barrier extremely weak.

Any trace of magic power would break the barrier, allowing them to detect its presence.

A reading here would at least tell them which direction he had fled in…but their hopes weren’t high.

Fleeing of his own free will meant Hamazura Shiage had no intention of receiving a fair trial. They had to assume he would act hostilely toward the Anglicans.

The question was what harm his negative emotions would lead to.

“I did what research I could into Hamazura Shiage after he sided with Coronzon, but he’s nothing special. Using science’s terms, he’s a Level 0, which means he can’t do anything on his own. And as a Level 0, the changes to his body prevent him from using magic. In that sense, he isn’t too much of a threat.”

“''Do not underestimate Level 0s.''”

The look on Agnese’s face said she knew a very obvious example of why that was a bad idea.

“Yeah, that’s the thing, isn’t it?”

Tatemiya sighed softly.

Although that pointy-haired boy was such an outlier he probably wasn’t a useful data point.

“The problem is, ultimately, Coronzon.”

“But she’s supposed to already be dead. …Are you suggesting he’s come down with Stockholm syndrome and is still trying to help her?”

“It’s worse than that.” Tatemiya readily rejected that idea. “It’s easy to overlook it since being a demon with a physical body made her an extreme exception, but on a fundamental level, angels and demons are collections of energy.”

“''Sitra Achra.''”

The material that was the root of all evil.

The remnants of the old world that remained in the current world which had supposedly been perfectly designed. Their very presence caused the world to malfunction and brought about all sorts of misfortune and tragedy.

Agnese had heard that Great Demon Coronzon herself had mentioned the term. Although then it had looked like a small crystal and she had used it like a stun grenade.

Tatemiya Saiji nodded.

“And Telesma can be infused within all forms of matter in the physical world. In talismans, amulets, clothing, magic circles, buildings…and even ''people''.”

The tension in the air didn’t just come from Agnese.

She was a leader with nearly 250 former Catholics under her command. She had to avoid reacting too much and spreading excess confusion to the others.

So she asked a cautious question.

“You mean her Sitra Achra was imbued ''within Hamazura Shiage''?”

“I don’t know.” Tatemiya shook his head. “After all, the records show this wasn’t his first contact with Coronzon. To be honest, I don’t think she had time for any extra detours with everything else going on in Academy City. Not to mention that the two of them could only have been in physical contact for about an hour.”

“But…”

“Yes, ''what if she had set this up back when they were together in the UK''? That would change things.”

The analogy was far from perfect, but it was like hypnotism.

Once a long time had been spent setting things up in the target’s head, only a snap of the fingers was needed to produce the desired effect. In that case, any time restrictions were irrelevant.

Hamazura Shiage had spent a significant period of time with Great Demon Coronzon in England and Scotland. Not even the Anglicans knew what the two of them had discussed during that time. It was possible he had received ''something'' from her during that unobserved time.

And Hamazura himself might not have even been aware of it.

“If Coronzon’s Telesma – her Sitra Achra – was placed inside Hamazura Shiage, it changes the threat level considerably. He can’t fire Adikalika with ''only'' Coronzon’s power…but if he filled in some of the holes in his abilities, it could ''become possible''.”

Espers couldn’t use magic.

…Or so they said, but it was more accurate to say the differences in espers’ bodies meant the process used to refine their life force into magic power would cause malfunctions and side effects that shredded their blood vessels and nerves.

So it wasn’t a sure thing.

With a separate energy source like Coronzon, he wouldn’t need to use his own life force at all. So the possibility remained that he could use a superhuman demon spell without any of the side effects.

Not to mention that, if Hamazura chose to self-destructively use a powerful piece of magic, he might be able to push past the side effects regardless.

That would lead to a world-destroying spell activating at the cost of a single boy’s life.

Agnese sighed.

“Even if he’s a Level 0, if an Academy City student launched an attack on the Vatican using Adikalika, we’d be right back where we were. No, it might actually be worse than when an outside force like Coronzon had hijacked the city.”

Sitra Achra acted like a computer virus you thought you had fully expunged from the system but returned after the recovery process was complete. They had defeated Coronzon themselves, but the threat of Adikalika persisted.

A continuous vague threat was not a good environment for diplomacy.

“That said…we did defeat Coronzon once. Even if Hamazura Shiage had received a portion of her power as Sitra Achra, he can’t be any worse than she was, can he?”

“Don’t be so sure.”

Agnese seemed to be trying to force a positive spin on the idea, but Tatemiya shot it down. In fact…

“That may have been Coronzon’s limit as a purely magical being, but Hamazura Shiage might have more knowledge of the science side than she did. He’s drawing on a different knowledge source. If the mixture of magic and science triggers some bizarre chemical reaction, his simple power ranking might not mean much.”

The sample size was too small to say anything for sure.

And Tatemiya wouldn’t be the only one who wanted to fill the blanks with pessimistic predictions as a defensive measure.

“Besides…it was practically a miracle we defeated Coronzon the first time around. How many different groups and plans do you think were at work that night? Are you confident we can intentionally gather all that around Kamijou Touma a second time?”

Think of it like summer homework. That had been the absolute peak of their ability, so their long-term plans would fall apart if they assumed that as the baseline.

They had to act on the assumption that wouldn’t happen again.

Agnese was also an outsider underling, so she must have caught the scent of some dirty work. She grimaced.

“Then we have to deal with the escaped prisoner…like that?”

“I doubt our Priestess will give ''that sort'' of order.”

That was just the kind of person the leader of the Amakusas was.

One look at Kanzaki Kaori’s Magic Name was enough to know she would never allow killing. The wicked were no exception there.

''However.

Who said that was any reason to relax?

Tatemiya Saiji’s eyes were on another two standing a short distance away.

Stiyl Magnus and Isabella Theism.

Their atmosphere…no, their world was different.

“Those two are ''genuine'' Necessarius members. So they probably will order a witch hunt. …In other words, to kill him once we find him.”