Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume10 Ending

He woke up in an empty white space.

He sat up.

White – everything was white. Not even the concept of a horizon existed in this silent place.

It was like a bad joke.

Still sitting, ''Kamijou Touma'' looked down at his hands, at his surroundings, and thought.

What was this place?

Was there really more after what he went through?

He hadn’t seen this any of the times Othinus had killed him.

He had thought death was a lot emptier – that what came apart could never be repaired, preventing any hope of salvation.

Yet he found himself…somewhere.

He saw no damage or red stains on his clothes. He tried moving his body around but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. This wasn’t just his sense of pain numbing over. As far as he could tell, he didn’t have a scratch on him. Which, in this case, was odd. Hadn’t he been so badly beaten even his bones and organs were damaged?

Kamijou Touma was here.

But it didn’t feel real. He didn’t feel like a physical being. Weight, thickness, warmth, scent, or color… He was definitely here, but he just couldn’t accept this as reality.

Almost like he had become one of the illusions he had spent so much time negating. He realized it was painfully silent here, but he couldn’t hear his heartbeat. Or his breaths.

He glanced down at his right hand.

What had happened to ''that''?

Was it still in there?

Aleister had said it moved from host to host whenever the old one died or was destroyed. Before him, it had been in an arrow created from a holy man’s right hand.

Imagine Breaker.

What if, hypothetically, he no longer existed? Was an illusion allowed to possess it?

“Could this be…?”

Maybe it was strange for Kamijou to suggest this since he was from a city of science and his worldview was formed there, but the thought naturally came to mind.

(''The afterli-'')

“My, my.”

He heard a graceful voice.

He didn’t know her directly, but she had made the occasional appearance at some important scenes.

Just as Kamijou was wearing his clothes, she was wearing a hodgepodge of clothing including an ancient witch’s hat and something like a modern racing swimsuit. She even had glasses on.

He didn’t know how it worked, but it would have been awkward if they were both naked.

She stood in this white void like she belonged there.

How abnormal was that?

She made it look so natural it was hard to tell, but she must have broken the rules in a big way to pull it off.

The woman who was fixed in this place spoke to the boy who was fixed in this place.

“It is ❌ ⌚ for you to be here yet, is it?”

“Aren’t you the other one? Um, Kings…oh, right. Anna Kingsford?”

“🎯.”

Why was she here?

Was this place really so easily accessible?

“I quite like that you view me as ‘the other one’. You do ❌ see either of us as superior. You naturally view us both as a real Anna. Seeing it that way might save her more than anything, while also tormenting her more than anything. But you saved her in a way I could ❌. I am impressed, benevolent one.”

Each question that came to mind led to another, quickly saturating his brain. Thinking about this normally wasn’t going to work. While his eyes widened, Kingsford elegantly held a hand to her mouth and laughed.

“Did you forget?”

“Forget what?”

“Or perhaps you did ❌ know in the first place.”

The other Anna neatly laid out the information.

She seemed like a calm and gentle teacher.

As a high school boy, she made him think of a liberal arts teacher, but not quite like an English teacher.

“I am ❌ more than a preserved corpse rigged up to move. Thus, I have ❌ forced my way in here – this is where I belong. So by stopping the ⚙️ parts and bidding a 😢 goodbye to the 🌍 of the living, I can visit here any time I want. ...First I come back from the ☠️, then I get killed, then I put his mind at ease, and now I’m saying goodbye again – I have put Aleister through a lot. Well, he should accept it since it is for you. Besides, I am meant to be ☠️.☆”

“…”

“And I predicted this outcome from the beginning.”

She said it so easily.

He had struggled so hard to reach this ending within the psychedelic world of unpredictable Alice, but this other Anna came out and said this was well within her expectations.

He was glad she was a good person. She would make the worst kind of evil villain. And if she was a detective, he would definitely punch her for letting so much crime go unpunished. When someone had brought trouble to other people’s lives, Kamijou wasn’t the type to let them off easy just because they were a girl. This woman might make the perfect dorm manager, but he would harden his heart and do it anyway!!

“❌ one can escape their own choices. You had already passed the final branch before I was even brought back as a preserved corpse, so not even I could have intervened. You had ❌ choice but to ☠️.”

The expert spoke to speechless Kamijou.

She seemed to be viewing his life and scoring it.

“But at the same time, all people deserve to be set free once they have received their punishment. Simply put, you made a mistake, but you do ☠️ deserve to be criticized for it now that you have ☠️ed for it. You have atoned for your sin.”

“I...have?”

“You have indeed, Kamijou Touma. Even as your life slipped away, you did ❌ hesitate to try your very best to save Alice Anotherbible even though she was the cause of it all. That service was truly praiseworthy. I, Magician Anna Kingsford, guarantee it. And I am ❌ strong willed enough to sit idly by when someone is ❌ rewarded for their efforts.”

“What are you talking about?”

“How long are you going to hold it all inside? As you can see, this place is ‘outside it all’. After everything you have been through, I would expect you to be searching out god to give him a 🧩 of your mind. Are you just going to accept that you ☠️ed? Seeing you be this obedient is honestly pissing me off. 😠.”

“Hold on. Don’t just make decisions for me! I sense some kind of great power in you. Which is giving me a really bad feeling about this!!”

“Besides, first years in high 🏫 are only 16 in your country, aren’t they? You seem awfully accepting for someone right smack in the middle of their rebellious phase. Isn’t there anything you still want to do?”

“Oh, come to think of it, it is almost my birthday.”

“Which would mean you’re still only 15! Then you definitely should ❌ be giving up so soon!! How sad. This isn’t just an outdated 19th century way of thinking, is it!?”

“I said wait! Nothing you say can change the fact that I’m dead, can it!? What are you even trying to do in this literal dead end!?”

“I am trying to serve those around me.”

She brought her hands in front of her large chest and pushed just the tips of the fingers together.

The expert smiled as she spoke.

“As an expert, I have a secret technique you could call a Hell Tour.”

“…”

“My, my. If that does ❌ mean much to you, what if I called it a Jailbreak?”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………Wait, really?”

“Yes, really. If the 🌍 cheats you, you cheat it right back. That is how magicians did things in the 19th century. Have things really changed that much?”

He was speechless.

It couldn’t be.

Was this woman really saying she could manipulate ''this place'' as she pleased?

Could magic really do that?

In that empty world of white, Anna Kingsford reached a slender hand out toward Kamijou who was still seated.

Her right hand.

“Now, how about you kick out this shitty predetermined ending and join me in making comeback?”

…So what part of this was a lie?

The unfortunate boy refused to fully believe this offer. To him, it sounded far too good to be true.

[[Image:GT Index v10 BW8.png|thumb]]

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