Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Endymion Chapter3 (section)

===Part 8===

Stiyl called Kamijou’s prepaid cell phone. As usual, he kept his number hidden, but he must have been expecting some kind of information to call back so quickly.

Kamijou stepped outside, leaving Index and Sozty Exica in the manga café.

He reported that it had most likely been a magician named Ureapaddy Exica that had destroyed the cabal. He also reported that the magician had a large-scale spiritual item called Brahma Astra.

“I see,” replied Stiyl. “I had thought it was odd for the Agni’s Festival Fire magic circles around Academy City to suddenly stop functioning. This Ureapaddy must have cut it off like a lizard’s tail. And she has something powerful enough for casting aside Agni’s Festival Fire to be worthwhile.”

“That’s this Brahma Astra that Sozty mentioned, right?”

“You said Ureapaddy currently uses a Shiva-related Astra, correct? Shiva is the god of wind, dance, war, and destruction. He has many different faces. And all of those could be said to be attributes of Shiva. A god with many different attributes could easily have many different Astras.”

“And Brahma Astra is one of those?”

“That is not a Shiva-related Astra. It is related to the god Brahma. Having the one Brahma-related Astra that does not fit in with the Shiva ones must mean it has some special meaning.” Stiyl spoke languidly over the phone. “In their mythology, I think it is supposed to be a special bow and arrow. The magic arrow has feathers of wind and an arrowhead of the sun. Once it is fired, it will be automatically guided to its target. It will pierce through any obstacles in the way and surely kill the target. Once the target is dead, it will return to its owner like a boomerang so that the enemy cannot capture it. It’s full of the type of abilities that feel like cheating that we’ve gotten so used to.”

Was it a person or a location?

It was unclear who or what Ureapaddy was trying to target, but if it actually existed, it would have no means of opposing the attack.

“It seems the project was treated as highly secret even within the cabal, so Sozty does not know the details. However, she does know the usage conditions for Brahma Astra are heavily related to shooting stars. It can only be used when three shooting stars are glittering in the sky at once.”

“It likely needs them to correct its aim. The god Brahma has a deep connection to outer space. It must act like a GPS and accurately calculate out the target’s coordinates from the shooting stars’ positions high in the atmosphere. …Wait a second.” Stiyl paused for a moment. “I just received a report from the Anglican unit working in India. It isn’t the Gate of the Gods Come from the Heavens’ headquarters, but they did find the remains of a large scale magical experimental grounds.”

“Did they find anything related to Brahma Astra?”

“Possibly. They have found a crater with a radius of about 50 meters. But the composition of the crater’s surface is simply crazy. For exactly 3 mm down, the ground has been crystallized.”

“…?”

“This was no normal explosion. It is unclear what effects it had, but it seems absolutely everything within range was torn away to form the crater.”

If that was true, this was no joking matter.

Compared to Agni’s Festival Fire which could roast an entire city, the level of destructive power did not seem that great. However, it depended on what the target was. If that destruction with an exactly 50 meter radius was used on the solid outer walls of an Academy City research facility, the magician could get inside.

“There appear to be a few different explosion sites, including one over 500 meters underground. The ground has been scooped out in a perfect sphere down there.”

“…What do you mean?”

“It appears to be able to pass through any obstacle and cause tremendous destruction only upon reaching its target. In other words, hiding in a shelter is useless.”

Of course, the magician did not even need to bother attacking Academy City’s research facilities. If she directly tried to kill the highest ranking officials of the city, no amount of security would help. As soon as she fired Brahma Astra, it would all be over.

Stiyl seemed to be making an effort to keep his voice calm.

“But the one bottleneck is its requirement of three simultaneous shooting stars. Brahma Astra’s range and accuracy may be unknown, but thankfully its usage conditions are quite restrictive. Shooting stars do not appear very frequently. Seeing three in the night sky at once must almost never happen. As long as some crazy coincidence doesn’t trip us up, we should be able to resolve this without much-…”

“…No, wait.”

Kamijou cut Stiyl off because something caught in the back of his mind.

There was something they could not stand to overlook.

“Whatever Ureapaddy’s ultimate objective is, it probably has to do with Brahma Astra. But no matter how much she could predict, would she really leave it all up to something coincidental like shooting stars?”

“It is possible she is simply overly confident in her own predictions. …But if Ureapaddy was planning to betray her comrades from the beginning, it does seem odd she would rely on a natural phenomenon that would ruin her plans if it was even slightly off.”

“She might have created an environment where such coincidences would occur more easily.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“What exactly is a shooting star? In the days before humanity had reached beyond the earth, the only option may have been chunks of ore about the size of your palm that came flying from a distant part of space. But things are different today. There is so much orbital debris cluttering things up that most shooting stars are the glow of broken satellites or rocket parts entering the atmosphere! What if those qualify for Brahma Astra’s usage requirements!?”

And the ideal international event for that was currently underway.

A contest for unmanned probes being sent to Venus.

Around 400 organizations and institutions both large and small were taking part in the event, so rockets were being launched from all over the world.

The odds of shooting stars would naturally go up just from the many unneeded parts that separate after launch. For these few days, the frequency of shooting stars would rise dramatically.

While Brahma Astra would normally only be usable once every few decades or once every few hundred years, it might be usable in relatively quick succession now.

“But that is still a bit uncertain,” said Stiyl after Kamijou explained the situation to him. “That is only a beginning. Ureapaddy would not rely on a coincidence when aiming for her true target. She likely has some trick prepared in case the coincidence does not play out.”

“Such as?”

“She could have set something up on a rocket that has yet to be launched. If she detonates the rocket in space, she can create shooting stars according to whatever schedule she likes.”

Kamijou did not know what the enemy was trying to accomplish.

For that reason, he could not head there ahead of time and wait with Imagine Breaker at the ready.

And once Brahma Astra was fired, the target would be destroyed with incredibly high odds.

“Once it has been fired, it is too late,” said Stiyl.

“But Ureapaddy will need to stop by the rocket launch facility before beginning her attack. She needs to prepare her insurance.”

“This is our final chance. If we cannot stop Ureapaddy here, destructive power worthy of the name of the god of destruction will sweep across Academy City.”

Academy City had only one rocket launch facility.

“District 23. That is where Ureapaddy will be headed!!”