Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume16 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 6===

They were returned to their cells.

They were given no freedom.

After a short rest, the sentence would be carried out.

Hamazura Shiage couldn’t understand why they were given this rest. With people so deficient in emotion, everything felt malicious. He began to suspect they hadn’t killed Narthex on the spot because locking them up where they were helpless to do anything to stop the inevitable execution would draw out as much fear as possible before the execution.

This was the least fair part of it all.



He would stay in his cell like it was a hotel for 30 days and then be set free?

Narthex would be executed this very day?



It was crazy. Completely insane. If their crime was siding with Coronzon, then why was the outcome so different? Hamazura couldn’t celebrate his own result. There was no way this was a fair trial. Coronzon was gone. He knew that, but abandoning Narthex and returning alone to Japan would be no different from spitting on her grave!

It was true prison existed so people could atone for their crimes.

But it was also meant to help people remove the burden of those crimes from their shoulders and get a second chance at life. So they wouldn’t be crushed under the weight of too great a crime! This musty collection of stone was missing something. Something fundamental. Was this place really built and run by the state? It felt more like a cruel lynch mob!!

(Is there nothing I can do?)

He didn’t think there was any way of winning a not guilty verdict in that bizarre trial. Trying to win in court had been the wrong tactic from the start.

Because it was actually true that they had committed a crime. Siding with Coronzon in that situation probably had been wrong. Listing out the accurate information and measuring the weight of their crimes was fine with him. But they hadn’t even been given a proper trial.

They weren’t even given a chance to reject the most oppressive errors.

He had no obligation to go along with that.

Not if the law wasn’t functioning properly here.

He couldn’t let Narthex be consumed by this rogue form of justice.

He wanted to know the exact means by which the death sentence would be carried out. At the very least, he doubted it would be done behind these metal bars. She would be taken to some other place. There might be an opening then.

(I need something. Anything!! I need to at least get Narthex out of this…Tower of London, was it? She’s the sister Coronzon left behind. She’s the kind of person who knows who Coronzon really is and doesn’t call her a great demon!! I need to find some way of getting her out of here!)

“Ha…mazura…”

Narthex looked so small curled up and trembling within the metal bars across the corridor.

Seeing her now, it was hard to believe this was the villain who had used both science and magic to cause so much trouble in District 23.

Hamazura was reminded of a baby bird falling from its nest and dying in silence.

They wouldn’t even need to execute her at this rate.

“I know. I won’t let this stand! There was no justice in that trial! And with that not working right, I have to get you out of here. I’m coming up with a way to do that now, so give me a little longer, Narthex!!”

“You can’t. You’re being released, so trying anything now will only add to your charges and get your release withdrawn.”

“I don’t care!! You don’t call Coronzon a great demon! You’re a living witness of the real Coronzon, not the twisted and distorted version everyone talks about!! So I won’t let you die. Coronzon is dead, but I won’t let what she left behind be taken too!”

“Don’t worry…about that.”

She spoke gently.

Why had she accepted this absurd death sentence?

He had to stop her from talking.

He sensed something.

Something tremendously wrong here.

“I have a trick up my sleeve.”

“Does this look like the kind of cell where you can pick the lock with a wire?”

“You don’t need to grieve mother’s loss anymore. You can hear her name without spitting or weeping, so you need to be happy. So I will make that happen.”

“Hey?”

Something wasn’t adding up.

Something was out of place in a way that filled him with a strange sense of disgust.

Why was Narthex so calm?

She had been unfairly sentenced to death while the Asian arrested for the same crime was being set free. She could easily have felt betrayed and like she had been abandoned in the depths of hell.

Just then, he heard footsteps.

“Kh.”

Many footsteps.

A crowd of them.

It was that incomprehensible group. The atmosphere pushed in at him like an invisible wall or pressure.

Something bad was happening.

That certainty filled his chest.

“You again, Eleven Court Officers?”

“Indeed,” replied Tsumoru Judicial.

There were thorns in Narthex’s voice.

Understandable when they had spat on her “mother” and given her a death sentence.

“What do you want now? I assume you’re already preparing to carry out your idea of justice.”

“Of course,” stated Frank.

It didn’t sound like they were preparing a last meal for the death row prisoner.

“But the most important topic of debate for this court is the existence of Sitra Achra. That is, do the remnants and influence of Great Demon Coronzon still linger in this world? It is our duty in the Anglican Church to manage the magic world and protect the people’s peace, so we must reject every piece of that great demon’s influence. For justice.”

“So executing me isn’t enough? What are you hoping to torture me into confessing?”

“Narthex Coded Cathedral.” This time it was Fourier who spoke. “Unlike that grimoire library, you are a foolish collection of power that failed to contribute to the state, to society, and to the people. You must admit to the fact that you were raised by Great Demon Coronzon and you failed to contribute to society…in other words, ''that you are not a necessary evil''. You failed to improve upon the role given to you and thus the power you bear can only distort our beautiful world. You must admit that you were educated in a unique way and yet you used that power to selfish ends and harmed many people.”

“…”

The redheaded white woman named Sheila took over here.

As if the eleven were a single wriggling mass.

“And as the child of Coronzon, you must admit that the Sitra Achra that are the great demon’s remnants are an impurity that can only harm this divinely-created world and that the survival of even a single fragment would cause many malfunctions in a world that should function flawlessly.”

“And as a criminal, you must contribute to society by fully eliminating that Sitra Achra,” summed up the Asian-looking Tsumoru.

They made it all so overblown, overbearing, and overcomplicated that Hamazura had a hard time working out what they were actually saying.

Hamazura saw Narthex give a quiet snort of laughter.

That was when he realized they were telling her to spit on the grave of her mother.

Great Demon Coronzon was dead.

The dead could not be physically attacked.

The Eleven Court Officers found that so terribly frustrating they had decided to insult Coronzon’s dignity instead. Were they demanding Coronzon’s “child” spit on her grave to take something precious from her and prevent the dead from resting in peace?

But Narthex sounded unimpressed as she spoke from behind the bars.

“Do you really think I can do that?”

“No matter the circumstances, we will acquire the necessary confession from the suspect. That is our job and duty as the Eleven Court Officers.”

“So you’re meant to get a politically and diplomatically convenient confession no matter what the truth might be?”

Narthex’s response to Noel’s answer carried a tone of self-deprecation.

Her young eyes may have been viewing the entire Anglican Church ''including herself''.

“But it’s meaningless. I am Narthex Coded Cathedral. I am a grimoire coder whose job and duty is to prevent the spread of chaos through the world by applying advanced and complex encryption to the unneeded knowledge scattered across the world. I wouldn’t be very good at my job if a little torture was enough for me to cough up the decryption key. The boot, the rack, the cat’s paw – it doesn’t matter what you use. It won’t change my mind.”

The sound of clenching teeth was audible from Hamazura’s cell.

“Besides, I will never accept that mother’s lingering power could destroy the world. And I will never eliminate every last fragment of it. Mother is already gone. I will not let you defile her slumber.”

“Narthex Coded Cathedral – impure egg hidden in the great demon’s hand.” Asian Tsumoru Judicial replied more flatly than a machine. “While we are torture device specialists, we never said we would be using them on you.”

“…? ''You don’t mean''!?”

The small girl’s shoulders shook as if struck and she turned toward Hamazura for some reason.

He didn’t understand.

He heard a metallic click. And felt a metallic chill on his thumbs. Only then did he realize his hands had been pulled together by a steel device positioned around his thumbs.

There hadn’t been anyone in his cell.

And yet.

Two metal panels about the size of a stick of gum were linked by a nut and bolt.

His thumbs were held in the narrow space between the metal panels.

“?”

At first.

Hamazura thought it was a kind of handcuffs. Academy City did in fact have tiny handcuffs that immobilized the wearer’s arms by binding their thumbs together. So he thought this was similar.



But it wasn’t.

He thought it had zapped him.



The thick nut connecting the two panels rotated on its own and incredible pain raced through his thumbs.

Bone pain was unique. It wasn’t like taking a simple punch or kick.

Hamazura was reminded of the pain he felt when he forgot to pull his fingertips out of the way while lowering a heavy wooden box to the floor and caught his fingers between the box and the floor. But this was far worse.

If he had reached his hand into a small gap to try and stop a collapsing stone wall and had his fingers pinched between the stones, this is probably the kind of pain he would have felt.

“Gah!!”

“The thumbscrew is a standard torture device used during witch trials. It was considered so mild it was not even recorded as torture in the official records,” explained Frank with a know-it-all air. “There is less risk of the suspect dying before they can confess than with the strangling garrote or with Lissa's iron coffin that crushes the full body, so you could call it a torture device with greater assurance of confession. ''Even if the thumb bones shatter like glass,'' it will not directly cause death. And the screw can continue to be tightened even after the bones have broken and the flesh has been crushed.”

“Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Gyahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Unable to bear the pain, Hamazura fell to the side and rolled on the floor.

It hurt. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt!! Were his thumbs now nothing more than pain producers!?

No matter how hard he tried to pull his thumbs out from the two metal panels, they wouldn’t budge. And he could see the thick nut continuing to turn all on its own. The panels closed further. He screamed and slammed his hands against the floor, but that did nothing to free him. It only caused a further explosion of pain.

No flashy explosions or dismemberment were needed to cause pain and agony.

The fingers.

They were no more than the furthest extremities of the body. Those small bits of flesh and bone couldn’t account for even 1% of his full body weight. Yet this was enough to feel like his entire body was breaking apart. It shouldn’t have been as bad as being punched and kicked on the pavement, yet this explosion of pain was something else entirely. This caused the maximum pain with the minimum action, it couldn’t be escaped, and the victim wasn’t even allowed to die. This was how the pros caused pain. It wasn’t just a physical matter. It was meant to force a confession. It was a controller that twisted their will and made them speak the words you wanted.

He shouted.

He flailed his legs meaninglessly. All wasted effort.

The quiet straining sound would not stop. No matter what.

“–––––––!!!!”

He could hear Narthex shouting something in the distance. But with the bars in the way, she couldn’t reach him.

The Eleven Court Officers observed his ugly state without batting an eye.

None of them would save him.

His vision blurred.

It took him a moment to realize he was shedding large tears.

He didn’t even have time to feel pathetic. He was well past the point of being able to mentally suppress that. The tears would not stop, as if he had taken poison gas to the face.

This was considered mild? It didn’t even count as torture?

The straining sound was accompanied by his thumb bones being hit by a pain dozens of times worse than a dental cavity. The disturbing pulsation was probably his blood going wild once it had nowhere to go thanks to the crushed blood vessels. His incomprehensible screams would not stop. He could not escape the pain and agony. No matter what he did.

He even considered biting his tongue.

But his jaw was trembling too much to move it.

It was only his thumbs being squeezed, yet his entire body ignored his commands like he was being zapped by electricity. He rolled on the floor and wildly kicked his legs.

“Your encryption saves the innocent people from magicians? Absurd. It is you who are making one of those people suffer here, Narthex.”

“Kh.”

“We eleven have chosen to free Hamazura Shiage. We said so at the start. So the only reason for his suffering is your unnecessary stubbornness.”

''Don’t listen to them,'' willed Hamazura.

You don’t have to listen.

They’re guiding your thoughts. They’re removing all your other options and giving you a shove forward to get you to walk down the path you didn’t want to take. This is the worst form of mind control that changes living people into puppets.

Yet Narthex frantically raised her voice.

“Wait! This is an internal Anglican problem, so stop hurting Hamazura! He isn’t one of us! He isn’t even a magician!!”

“So what?”

“Isn’t the Tower of London meant to accuse wicked magicians!? You have no reason to inflict violence on Hamazura Shiage who isn’t a part of the magic world and isn’t even a British citizen!”

“What does that have to do with our job and duty as the Eleven Court Officers?”

“What happened to your human hearts!?”

“''Oh, that?''”

Hamazura saw something odd in his tear-blurred vision.

Tsumoru Judicial brought a hand to his ear.

No.

To the worm-like scar behind his ear.

Yes.

It wasn’t unfair. They had been shown this once before.

“''We eleven had already had that removed to ensure impartiality in our work and duty.''”

Hamazura heard a gasp.

Narthex now knew they wouldn’t listen on a fundamental level.

This wouldn’t end with just his thumbs.

They would destroy Hamazura’s body one part at a time without batting an eye.

They wouldn’t stop.

Not until Narthex confessed.

(No.)

Hamazura was superfluous.

If he weren’t here, Narthex could have preserved her pride.

(It’s probably over once she speaks. It will trigger the end and there will be no taking it back. I don’t want to be a burden on anyone. That’s the last thing I want. Someone help me. Cover Narthex’s mouth right this instant!! Hanzou…Kuruwa… Takitsubo. Anyone!!)

Thomasia chuckled before continuing.

She had a smile on her lips, yet she didn’t appear to carry any human emotion at all.

“Hurry up and confess or this Japanese boy will never use his hands again. He will be reminded of you constantly in his everyday life. Whenever he can’t hold a glass, write with a pen, or even zip up his pants. He will regret ever letting his feelings get the better of him and assisting a villain.”

“Kh.”

“Or the shock of the pain could cause him to bite his tongue. After all, the pressure of the metal panels on his bones sends any external impact there directly to the bone and nerves. He knows that, but with pain this severe he will be unable to stop writhing. People have no way of enduring pain they have never imagined or experienced before. The pain should be several times worse than drilling into a severe dental cavity. And he has not gone through special anti-torture training where he is exposed to as many varieties of pain as possible to expand his repertoire of experience there. He is not you. I doubt your average person off the street could endure this.”

“So you admit it, Eleven Court Officers. The person you are torturing isn’t even a magician – he’s a normal person!!”

“You are the one torturing him, Narthex Coded Cathedral – you impure leftover of Great Demon Coronzon. You and your wickedness have made him a part of this. We are no more than one face of good. Necessary measures are only necessary as long as something necessitates them.”

“Khh. Then…I’ll say…it.”

Narthex’s face plainly displayed an uncertainty not seen there before.

People have no way of enduring pain they have never imagined or experienced before.

Tsumoru Judicial was right.

If the girl named Narthex had been raised alone by Coronzon, that meant Coronzon had designed her so she would be strongest while alone.

Now that she wasn’t alone, the young girl’s bulwarks had crumbled.

This was a vulnerability Narthex had never had before.

Just like with the thumbscrew, people could not resist a type of pain they had no experience with.

It wasn’t the Eleven Court Officers.

Hamazura was the one who had pushed the girl to this point.

He had supported her.

And thus defiled her soul.

Or so it seemed to him.

Frank did not react in the slightest.

“What exactly will you say?”

“Kh. ''I confess to every thing you want me to say, even if it’s nothing but lies''!!”

“''Excellent.''”

It happened the very next moment.

It truly was less than a second later. It happened so smoothly.

There was a weird noise.



“Gyu!?”



It came from Narthex.

Hamazura looked her way without thinking, but she wasn’t there. Had she suddenly vanished from her cell? No, she hadn’t. He looked up. There she was. Her small body had floated upwards.

It took him a moment to realize the truth.

''She was hanged. She was hung up by her neck.



And to repeat.

It was Hamazura who had pushed her to this point.