Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume7 Chapter1

==Chapter 1: Happy New Hell, Another Year of Panic – KOTATU_Syndrome.==

===Part 1===

“Yes, I’m back! Huh, did my room always smell like this?”

“I don’t notice anything different. And my memory is perfect, so I know I’m right!”

Kamijou may have been feeling the same thing anyone did after returning from a trip.

Regardless, he set down the ''luggage'' he had been lugging around over his shoulder bandit style and then got into the kotatsu.

However…

“Why is it cold!? What, is someone using this kotatsu to store Hokkaido salmon!?”

“Yawn. Human, salmon is usually salted so it can be stored without refrigeration.”

15cm Othinus would be entirely buried by the blanket around the kotatsu, so she curled up on the table instead. When the heater was switched on, the table apparently felt like a heated floor. Which was why carelessly placing your laptop on the kotatsu could lead to it overheating.

“Index, plug that cable into the wall. Then I just have to flip this switch.”

“Ugh…”

“Don’t complain just because it’s a machine. You’re the closest to the outlet and we’ll never get warm unless someone does it.”

He wanted to take it easy on January 1.

When he had said he couldn’t bear doing a shrine visit right away after everything, Kumokawa Seria had wandered off somewhere. That upperclassman girl remained strong on New Year’s despite all the danger she had survived the day before.

Once inside the kotatsu up to his shoulders, Kamijou lay on the floor and grabbed the TV remote, but nothing happened no matter what he pressed. They had only just returned from a trip, so he hadn’t turned the main power back on. He grumbled about misfortune as he emerged from the kotatsu, hit the button, and returned.

The TV turned on to a program introducing Shinto shrines across Japan with pleasant music in the background. It was less meant for its content and more meant as background noise to help you drift off to sleep. It was perfect for the new year. Who needed some shocking footage putting a strain on your heart first thing New Year’s morning?

“Index, are you okay with doing the shrine visit after lunch?”

“I’m taking a nap, Touma. And I hope you understand how bad things are if I’m choosing to skip a meal for sleep.”

“Welcome to the 5-minute Short News. For our top story, the anti-elite Winter Cleaning unofficially held inside and outside of Academy City is continuing to spread under a new name.”

But someone else was not onboard with the “relaxing New Year’s morning” plan.

The luggage placed on the wood flooring groaned loudly and rolled side to side. That was in fact Transcendent Aradia tied up with duct tape.

The witch goddess apparently had something to say. Did she want inside the kotatsu? It was January and she was wearing a modified bikini that made her look like a dancer. She was like that one kid in every class who insisted on wearing shorts year round. You know, like Kanzaki.

Aradia was a Transcendent from the Bridge Builders Cabal.

She acted like she was the leader of this group called the Wiccans, but it wasn’t clear if that was really true. The Transcendents like the Bologna Succubus all had their origins in fictional stories or reports and Index had said the history of a goddess named Aradia stood on pretty shaky ground.

Was she a human magician who had wanted to use the fictional goddess’s reputation?

Or was she a being so powerful humans had failed to accurately record her existence?

(I need to get a straight answer about that later.)

That thought came to Kamijou’s mind while he enjoyed the kotatsu. Index was on another side of the square kotatsu, so she was sort of lying on top of him down where no one could see.

“Hey, Touma? Are you sure it was a good idea to put Aradia on the floor?”

“She mixes her witch’s ointment using her bare feet on the ground, right? Her legs are bound and her feet are wrapped in duct tape up to the ankles, so she can’t directly touch the floor. We’ll be fine…I hope.”

“Human, if this is going to be a problem, why not use that duct tape to hang her from the ceiling? You can tie her up all sexy like and trap her in essentially a giant spider web.”

Aradia raised a muffled protest. She bent her knees to try and protect her stomach while lying on her side, but she didn’t seem to realize that just emphasized her butt. It wasn’t much of a defense.

“Then why did you cover her mouth?” asked Index with a tilt of the head.

“Wait, why did I do that? It isn’t like she uses incantations.”

He tore the duct tape from the tied-up goddess’s mouth. After all her resistance earlier, she proved to be quite obedient when he was removing some of her restraints.

“Pwah.”

She started by sucking in as much oxygen as she could get.

“What do you people plan on doing with me!? How dare you treat the goddess of all witches this way! Don’t you know I am Transcendent Aradia of the Bridge Builders Cabal? I will never forget what you did to me today!!”

Her ankles and her hands behind her back were still bound by the duct tape, so as threatening as she tried to sound, she was still flopping around like a mermaid caught by a fisherman.

Kamijou turned back toward the kotatsu that Index still occupied.

“Hey, Index. I don’t think she’s going to tell us much.”

“Yawn. Well, she’s being loud, so why not tape her mouth up again?”

“Othinus?”

“Magic researcher who dares disturb my divine slumber, I hope the human ties you up with some sexy bondage and stuffs you in the closet or in the below-floor kitchen storage. All using that super-strong foreign tape he bought at a discount store.”

“W-w-w-wait!?”

Aradia began to panic. Index and Othinus were only interested in getting some sleep, so they didn’t seem too concerned with what might become of her.

Kamijou removed the cover from the below-floor storage and then noticed something.

“Huh? Oh, right. I forgot all about this.”

“Why are you actually opening the storage space!? Barbarian clinging to the trappings of civilization, you need to embody the grace of god!! Or at least consider my free will!!”

Aradia paled and bristled. She loathed Christianity, so mentioning the grace of god had to be a major compromise on her part, but the pointy-haired high school boy didn’t know enough about religion to notice her determination.

Kamijou Touma next opened the refrigerator’s giant door.

“I was right.”

“Eh? Uh, oh. You aren’t thinking of stuffing me in there, are you? And that white mist escaping tells me that door is to the freezer, not the crisper!”

Aradia was at a loss for words with clear drops forming in her eyes, but the pointy-haired boy was not interested in eating a homemade witch goddess sherbet made with brown sugar syrup and rice dumplings to fit the New Year’s season.

“This isn’t good. I managed to earn some money, but I didn’t go shopping. We’re still completely out of food and on the verge of starving to death!!”

“Settle down, human. Academy City is an urban area in Japan’s capital of Tokyo. They have stores open on New Year’s these days.”

“Maybe, but are you absolutely certain the local supermarket is open? I can just imagine walking around seeing nothing but closed shutters with signs saying they’re closed for the holiday. Starving to death with a wallet full of money is an absurd level of misfortune, but that’s exactly why I can see it happening to me!”

“Zzz… Don’t worry, Touma. We have Aradia if worse comes to worst…”

“Time out,” interrupted Aradia. “Where did this extreme survival situation come from? Why do I feel like every second brings me closer to being turned into an unwilling noble sacrifice!?”

Aradia’s throat was entirely dry now, but she still couldn’t move.

Wiccan spells were all about an ointment made by mixing a variety of chemicals with oil. That Transcendent was powerful enough to rival the entire magic side on her own when the conditions were right, but she was only a weak (and sexily dressed) young woman when the conditions were not right.

Index, Othinus, and the cat showed no sign of leaving the kotatsu.

After they fell asleep in the kotatsu, woke back up, and were overcome by enough hunger to forget their humanity, Magical Girl Aradia-chan would meet her end. The rules of the world would not apply in this small room where starving stomachs ruled all.

Goddess Aradia would be devoured by them all, and not in the sexy way☆

Whether they were wild spells people were forbidden from even mentioning or they were slanderous inventions of the Christian church, Aradia had detailed knowledge of ancient rituals from around the world. At times, being an avid learner had its drawbacks.

“W-w-w-wait, you there! Kamijou Touma!! Go grocery shopping right this instant! Isn’t that the obvious solution here!?”

“Yeah, but I need to recharge my motivation first. I might be used to misfortune, but not even I could bear to head out into the cold when I’m this sleepy and find nothing but closed shutters greeting me.”

“The more you refuse to challenge yourself, the lower my odds of survival!! Food isn’t going to magically appear if you stay here. Besides, can’t you check if the store is open on your phone!?”

Could you do that?

Kamijou was shoulder deep in the kotatsu again (much to the displeasure of Index who had briefly had the entire space to herself) and now he reached for his phone. But a smartphone beginner like him could only find their ordinary weekday and weekend hours. Stare as he might at the small screen, he couldn’t find anything about New Year’s in particular.

Lying on his stomach, he lowered his head, kissed the floor, and groaned.

The old folk’s smartphone slipped from his hand.

“I can’t do it. I’m too sleepy and hungry to think. I don’t even have the willpower to do a search.”

“There’s a popup for a New Year’s sale flashing on the screen right now, so they’re obviously open today!! Please don’t give up, Kamijou Touma!! You’re the only one left who can hear me and actually do something about it!!!”

===Part 2===

At the insistence of the sexy crybaby, they set off for some emergency grocery shopping. Mostly because sleeping in the kotatsu was impossible with her making such a racket.

Kamijou decided it would be a good idea to get the shrine visit done with while they were out. He was getting his new year off to a somewhat guilty start since he felt bad going so soon after telling Kumokawa he wouldn’t be.

“Ugh, I’m too tired to move.”

“And I don’t have it in me to cook. Hey, Index, how about we buy some ingredients and then grab something we can eat right away? It’s New Year’s, so they must have food stands set up near the shrine.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Touma. Anything you can buy at a food stand counts as a snack. I demand three full meals!”

“You always ask for croquettes and yakisoba at the shopping district, so I think your definition of snack is too broad. A set of four takoyaki I would understand, but an entire okonomiyaki is a meal!”

Kamijou’s group sluggishly left the dorm room.

But one of them still wasn’t satisfied.

“…”

Transcendent Aradia scowled down at her left hand.

It was written clear on her face that she appreciated not having her hands duct taped behind her back anymore and she could live with the makeshift duct tape shoes covering her feet, but she did not like having Imagine Breaker tightly grasping her hand. A lot to fit on the beautiful goddess’s small face.

The Transcendent spoke with her voice pitched terrifyingly low.

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………What is this?”

“An Aradia countermeasure. What else?”

Her unimaginably icy voice only got a confused look from Kamijou.

Were Transcendents just too far removed from humans? This hot-blooded boy would get in the bath with the Bologna Succubus if necessary for a battle and he didn’t seem bothered by this either.

“The idea that you can’t use magic as long as you can’t make your ointment makes a lot of sense, but only duct taping your feet doesn’t feel like enough. I wanted a little more insurance.”

“Don’t I get a say!? And how about showing some tact regarding me being a woman? You’re even intertwining our fingers like we’re lovers!!”

“Ow, ow, ow!! How did you even twist your hand like that!? You’re bending all my fingers the wrong way!!!”

Aradia twirled like she was ballroom dancing to hit Kamijou with a Broken Heart Finger Smasher, but Kamijou couldn’t even let go, fell onto his butt, and writhed around on the same sidewalk he normally used to get to school. It looked a lot like the beautiful aikido moves that Anti-Skill used and even a graceful young woman could pull off.

Aradia hissed at him like a snake and Othinus sighed after managing to avoid falling from Kamijou’s shoulder.

“What a pain. Transcendent Aradia, you should have noticed something now that you’ve tried moving around.”

“…”

“You’re furious with him, but ''this is all you managed''. But the way things were yesterday, you would have torn through this human’s torso with your bare hand if he so much as irritated you.”

Aradia quietly clicked her tongue.

And her hand remained in his grasp. She could bend his hand using her finger joints, but she could not tear the hand from his wrist or break the arm from his shoulder.

Although this difference in the superhuman’s power was lost on Kamijou as he wept in pain on the ground.

“Hmph. So what is this about a shrine visit?”

“?”

“No matter how silly it is, it is worth my time to know your plans. So I can plan a counterattack or an escape.”

“Is she openly telling her enemy that because she’s some confusingly high-level form of tsundere?” Othinus whispered in his ear, but he had no way of judging that.

“D-District 12,” he replied. “Even Academy City has a district where all the mythology and religion research is done.”

Othinus had suggested they use more duct tape to wrap Aradia up like a mummy and toss her in the bathroom, but that idea had scared Kamijou. Even if she was somewhat neutralized at the moment, she was still a Transcendent of the Bridge Builders Cabal. If she managed to get the tape off her feet and made some ointment while they were away, things would get quite literally out of hand.

He honestly didn’t want to let her out of his sight. He knew firsthand she would not hesitate to kill if it would advance her goals.

He hesitantly looked over and the witch goddess responded in a sulky voice.

“What do you want?”

And so they set out.

The train schedule was different for the holiday. When they arrived at the station, they saw a kadomatsu decoration at the entrance. There was also a kagami mochi display in the employee waiting room next to the ticket gates. And even though it was early morning during winter break, one of the platforms was lightly crowded with students. That was of course the platform for the line leading to District 12. The crowd included a lot of brightly dressed girls.

“…”

The pointy-haired boy viewed his companions one at a time: Index, Othinus, Aradia, and Sphinx.

“(With a group like this, I should just throw out any hope of making any adolescent memories today. Ha ha ha.)”

“Human, what kind of hope did you just give up on?”

He ended up with the 15cm god tugging on his ear. But no matter what any of them said, a nun, a god, a witch, and a cat were not the appropriate party for a New Year’s quest. None of them would look at home wearing a furisode. If they had to choose one thing to bring with them to a desert island, they would seriously choose something like a musty old grimoire or a sketchy ointment, so a swimsuit vacation or a seasonal event was too much to ask of them.

The LCD ads covering the sides of the trains were in full New Year’s mode. They were playing ads for a New Year’s sale at a fancy department store or for an AR campaign to win New Year’s money by going to different parts of Academy City with your phone in hand. Interspersed among the ads were the occasional horoscope or a headline seemingly taken from the top online news stories.

“A social phenomenon some are calling an entrance exam boycott is showing signs of growing,” read one story. “Academy City has rejected the recommendation to adopt the less alarming name of kotatsu syndrome.”

“Ugh…”

“Index, stop trying to read the scrolling text if you aren’t used to it. Some people get motion sickness from it.”

“Why is it so hot and humid in here? It’s like this gross invisible haze is coming up from below us.”

He had thought Index was being unusually well-behaved, but apparently she had been hit by the mysterious heating effect of trains.

“…”

Meanwhile, Aradia was looking somewhat upwards while still holding his hand in the crowd. He thought maybe she was nervous around modern technology since she too was from the magic side, but he realized her focus was on the fluorescent light near the door.

Or more accurately, on the 2mm security camera hidden on the fluorescent light’s joint. Kamijou’s eyes widened too.

“Huh? When did they install those?”

“They must be to increase security on the trains. In other words, to catch pickpockets and molesters. …Interesting. This boy insists on holding my hand, which keeps his dominant hand hidden within the crowd. If I scream and say he’s molesting me when the door opens at a station, I might just have a chance to escape.)”

“Don’t you dare turn preserving my social standing into an impossible challenge!”

Academy City covered about 1/3 of Tokyo.

That was too much to cover on foot, but it didn’t take long to cover on a train.

The train soon arrived in District 12 and the view outside the window entirely changed.

“Impressive,” said Othinus from Kamijou’s shoulder.

Giant pyramids and Greek-style temples were lined up in between the skyscrapers made of thick concrete and glass. One temple had various color patterns applied to it with projection mapping, perhaps to research the theory that the Parthenon wasn’t originally white. There were plenty of enormous stone monuments and goddess statues. The colors washing down the river were not fallen leaves or flower petals – they were origami dolls designed to decompose naturally. A herd of deer wandered happily along an elevated street which was closed to traffic. More than a research institute for mythology and religion, the place felt like a theme park full of replicas of famous tourist locations from around the world.

Kamijou had rarely ever visited the district, but he knew the basics.

“It isn’t that they actually believe in any gods. The idea is to research why humans believe in gods and what is needed to keep people in the special psychological state known as ‘belief’ long term. Most of the research is in the fields of philosophy, psychology, and architecture.”

“Hmph.” “Hmph.”

Othinus and Aradia both sounded less than pleased. Unsurprising when they were both known as gods.

“(I probably shouldn’t tell them this is the headquarters of Academy City’s analysis of all things unscientific and supernatural and that it’s commonly known as the Occult Denial Society.)”

“We heard all of that.” “We heard all of that.”

The two divine ones were suddenly the best of friends as they responded in perfect unison, but that was when the train arrived in the District 12 station.

Kamijou’s group followed the crowd exiting onto the platform. The train actually tilted to one side so many people were leaving. Most of these people were here for their New Year’s shrine visit.

“Touma, where exactly are we going?”

“I’m not sure, but we should reach a popular shrine if we follow the crowd, right?”

The mythology focus showed through even in the station’s exit signs. They said things like “A9, Great Pyramid Area Exit” or “This way to Tree Worship, Megalith Culture, and Near Death Experience Labs”.

Kamijou was intensely curious what the pyramids of Egyptian mythology did on New Year’s, but today was the day for a Shinto shrine visit. He followed the crowd containing a lot of furisode girls through the ticket gate.

And…

“…”

They were still out in front of the station, but Aradia stared up at something in astonishment. A skyscraper covered on all sides with glass rose more than 50 stories.

“W-wait a second.”

“C’mon, Aradia. Let’s get to the shrine.”

“When you said shrine, I thought you meant your country’s unique religious structures! With torii, offering boxes, and komainu!! Why are all those kimono girls entering a high-tech skyscraper!?”

“Hurry up.”

The large entrance area contained a lot of people. There were more than 20 elevators to reach the higher floors, but there was still a line.

There was a building guide in the center of the floor, explaining what could be found on each floor.

Floors 1-5: General Information and Shopping Area. Floor 6: Christian – Latin Relief Cathedral. Floor 7: Museum. Floor 8: Egyptian Mythology – Nile Nome Temple. Floor 9: Buddhism – Great Red Lotus Temple. Floor 10: Shinto – Daybreak Shrine. Floor 11: Folk Belief, Folktale, and Multipurpose Fortunetelling. And so on.

Needless to say, the Shinto shrine and Christian cathedral found here had none of the things that mattered to the magic side. They were only shallow recreations made from the scientific perspective of Academy City. Their research wasn’t even asking why people believed in Shinto fortune slips. They asked what psychological conditions led people to pay money for fortune slips when the outcomes were determined by nothing more than random chance.

The witch goddess’s eyes widened in disbelief. How many times in history had that miracle occurred?

“This can’t be real.”

“If there’s one thing Academy City can’t spare, it’s land. They can’t have big shrines and temples sprawled out along the ground. That’s why each one is built in a huge garden on a floor of these buildings. It’s all indoors, but I’ve heard you can even meditate under a waterfall if you want. Since each floor has no interior walls, they have even more space than your average school campus.”

Index just about wandered off to where they were giving out grilled mochi for free, so Kamijou grabbed her by the back of the collar. Take one step from the elevator line and they would have to return to the very back of the line.

This one building was not a special case.

Most of the skyscrapers sticking up from District 12 like bamboo shoots were the same. Any one building did not contain just one type of religious or mythological facility, so the people (well, the university research team) that wanted a type of temple or cathedral just struck it where there was an opening like leasing a room in a multi-tenant building. In District 12, it wasn’t unusual for the ground floor to hold a discount store and the 2nd floor to contain a church.

“This is unusual, Touma. Why do you know so much about the occult here?”

The answer to that was a secret Kamijou had sworn to take to his grave. In truth, Aogami Pierce had once gone here on an ascetic journey to rid himself of all worldly thoughts, but instead found the shrine maiden so cute that professional warrior monks from the neighboring temple had to be called in as reinforcements and the boy was thrown out and banned from ever entering the district again. Then when the idiot had wanted to recover the contents of the hard drive he had wiped in his short-lived zeal, he had ended up writhing in pain in a back alley junk shop where a villainous professor had nearly digitized his brain and DNA. The story made Kamijou suspect that such heavily concentrated desire was like a dark crystal carrying a form of power all its own.

Eventually, it was Kamijou’s group’s turn.

They crammed themselves into the fairly large elevator and rode it up. The elevator was so crowded, they couldn’t even reach the buttons, but they knew they would still reach the floor containing a giant Shinto shrine.

The gentle acceleration suddenly stopped.

The doors slid open to reveal what lay beyond.

===Part 3===

She was running late.

That was Misaka Mikoto’s first impression.

The real problem was ending up in the hospital right at the end of the year. She had only been there for a few days to make sure nothing was wrong, but she hadn’t managed to rework her schedule during all the confusion and the new year had caught up to her before she was ready. All hope was lost. She had accomplished nothing and now the winter of her 14th year had ended without any real drama. Your second year of middle school only came once (not that she wanted a second chance from getting held back a year) and she had wasted it! How could she lie there in bed staring at her phone’s tiny screen!? All that noise outside was the fireworks for the countdown to midnight! Listen to them shout happy new year. That was how it was supposed to be. Wasn’t that kind of wild partying with no thought to the consequences what being a teenager was all about!?

The 14-year-old was seriously reconsidering her life.

So once midnight of January 1 arrived, Misaka Mikoto entered battle mode.

She of course broke several dorm rules by jumping right out the window.

“Pant, pant. O-Onee-sama, isn’t it about time we take a break?”

“It’s only been about 8 hours since midnight. New Year’s is all about endurance. Watching the sunrise, drinking amazake, paying hanetsuki, doing calligraphy, getting New Year’s money, eating the traditional food, pounding mochi, and visiting a shrine! I’m cramming as much of it into this one day as I can!!”

The twintails underclassman could teleport, but Mikoto was magnetically leaping from building to building with such speed even Shirai Kuroko was out of breath. In her brightly colored furisode, she looked like a neon shooting star.

And…

“Someone has far too much energy for first thing in the morning on New Year’s. Does Academy City’s Miss Thunder keep rumbling all year long?”

Mikoto’s eyebrows twitched when she heard a familiar voice.

The bottoms of her zori were drawn toward a balcony railing sticking out from the 10th floor of a skyscraper towering over 50 floors tall.

“And what are you doing here in that gaudy kimono? Let’s see, this floor is the Shinto shrine, isn’t it?”

The balcony contained a small café space. A bench covered in scarlet felt and a large tea ceremony umbrella were set up within a beautiful gravel garden (probably maintained by a cleaning robot with a special attachment resembling a giant comb). Shokuhou used both hands to hold a teacup with whitish contents – probably amazake. It must have met the queen’s strict standards for food and drink.

The balconies for the higher floors must have been on different sides of the building, so the view above was clear.

The girl who had gone to the trouble of visiting such a chilly location on New Year’s morning had it in her to wink for some reason.

“Your schedule might be wide open, Misaka-san, but those of us with lots of friends have plenty of events to attend during the holidays. Such as praying for my clique members to pass their entrance exams.”

“Really? You’re sure it isn’t that your plans to head home during the holiday weren’t ruined by spending time in the hospital with me?”

“Gh. My planning ability is not as poor as yours, so I did not wait until the last second to make my plans. I chose to remain in Academy City because my clique wanted me to.”

“(She’s like those apartment women who force their hobbies onto others without realizing no one else is enjoying it.)”

“You said that out loud on purpose, didn’t you?”

The Level 5s showed their support of the SDGs by producing sparks without any fuel even if it meant breaking the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Meanwhile, the twintails underclassman and the ringlets upperclassman exchanged a polite New Year’s greeting. Come to think of it, the ringlets girl was in the third year, so she had entrance exams to worry about. Tokiwadai was said to spend three years creating people who could make it in the real world.

Mikoto heard a metallic noise and looked over.

Her eyes immediately widened.

The girl there had short brown hair, pale skin, a thick coat that stood out among all the colorful furisode, an assault rifle with grenade launcher attachment worn over the shoulder, and a face identical to Mikoto’s. And she wasn’t alone. Three or four of them were in the shrine area at the same time.

Those were the mass-produced military clones created from a DNA map of Academy City’s #3.

They were known as the Sisters.

“Wh-what are you doing here out in the open!?”

The identical girls tilted their heads in the exact same way with no change of expression. They were so perfectly synchronized they looked like heads of wheat blowing in the wind.

“Misaka is providing security for the New Year’s shrine visitors, succinctly replies Misaka #10998.”

“This Misaka is on janitorial duty. What are you doing here, Original? asks Misaka #14979 with a tilt of her head.”

“Misaka is blowing off her duties in the District 2 museum to visit the shrine, reports Misaka #19090 with a cute upturned look.”

“Hm. Misaka was doing some people watching, but now she notices a lovely aroma coming from the free amazake area over there, says Misaka #10777, showing off her observational skills.”

“This is Misaka’s chance to participate in some economic activity, says Misaka #15850 while detecting a chance to cause some trouble. Like this!”

The Sisters were already getting off track all on their own.

Meanwhile, Shirai Kuroko was trembling.

“What!? S-so many Onee-samas. Am I already having my first dream of the year?”

The passersby all reacted in their own ways. Some curiously aimed their phone cameras at the clones that had been recently revealed to exist. Others walked right past the identical girls to line up for the offering box. They reacted about how they might for an unusual new design for a security robot.

“But they just aren’t the same as the real one. They lack that intangible divinity! They don’t have the aura of a goddess!!”

Shirai Kuroko still came to cling to Mikoto, so Mikoto intercepted her with a fist and pondered what was happening.

People were accepting those girls.

They were allowed to just be another part of the scenery – a harmless piece of the city.

Just like any of the students or teachers walking through here.

“…”

Misaka Mikoto narrowed her eyes as she watched it.

Maybe this was nothing more than an ordinary New Year’s scene.

But who could have imagined this could ever happen?

Shokuhou Misaki whispered in Mikoto’s ear with her cup of amazake held between her hands.

''Mikoto didn’t know the actual story behind it,'' but she had heard enough to guess this girl had established her own bond with the Sisters.

“Aren’t you glad you got to see this in your lifetime, Misaka-san?”

“It irks me I didn’t make it happen myself, but that’s a me problem and doesn’t mean anything to them.”

“It won’t all go this well. The people are still mostly just unsure what to make of this new revelation ability. The loving and righteous bashing will come once they’ve had time to process this☆”

“I’m well aware, social media queen. I don’t intend to sit back and let someone else handle it all.”

Twenty thousand Sisters had been made, but not even half of that remained.

She doubted she would ever forgive the person who had caused that, but she felt like she could accept that his remorse and his efforts toward atonement were genuine.

And…

“Hey, Misaka. Are you here for the shrine visit too?”

“I’m hungry, I’m hungry! Ohhhh!! There’s shiruko, zoni, and a mochi pounding festival!!”

She heard some familiar voices.

She looked over to see the pointy-haired boy and his strange companions approaching through the crowd. She could guess the usual nun had insisted they go to the balcony where they were giving out various New Year’s foods. First thing in the new year, that wasn’t enough to rattle her or Shokuhou.

However…

“(Who is that exhibitionist wearing a modified bikini in the middle of winter!? And why are those two holding hands when I’ve never even seen her before!!??)”

For once, Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki were in perfect sync. They had to be careful because, with Kamijou Touma, falling behind by even a day could make it just as hard to catch up as with a weekly battle manga.

Was she a fortuneteller? A dancer maybe? Given District 12’s scientific focus on mythology and religion, just about anything seemed possible. Strangely, the woman kept giving him murderous looks (but never tried to let go of his hand).

And then…

“Um…''have we met''?”

When the pointy-haired boy’s gaze wandered next to Mikoto, he hesitantly bowed his head, unsure what to do.

Shokuhou Misaki only smiled.

“Hm? What’s going on here?”

Misaka Mikoto was confused.

She couldn’t figure out why he was acting like he didn’t know Shokuhou.

The electric furisode middle schooler tilted her head until a look of realization appeared on her face.

“Oh, you’re implying you didn’t recognize her because the furisode and special hairstyle made her look more adult, aren’t you? Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m wearing a kimono too!!”

“Wait, why are you going nuts all of a sudden, electric girl? Can’t you at least give me a break from this nonsense on New Year’s!?”

“Hadn’t you heard that kimonos look bad on people with big boobs!?”

“That line of reasoning is only going to hurt you in the long- gyahhhh!?”

The shrine here was not dedicated to a god of thunder, yet lightning struck him all the same. That was a good summary of how Mr. Misfortune’s year was going.

===Part 4===

Kamijou’s biggest mistake had been using his right hand for the Aradia countermeasure. He was firmly holding her hand, but the high-voltage current running through his body was negated when it reached his wrist and none of it reached the Transcendent.

The pointy-haired boy was twitching on the gravel when one of the expressionless Sisters addressed him.

“Um.” In fact, she crouched down, grabbed at his jacket, and refused to let go. “Misaka heard about a New Year’s custom from another Misaka over the Misaka Network. Specifically, #10032, hints Misaka #10998 while fidgeting nervously.”

“Misaka wants to do that too, says Misaka #10777 to ask for a lovely memory.”

“Misaka wants in too, says Misaka #15009 while making sure you don’t get away.”

Kamijou looked puzzled.

For the Sisters, this truly was their first ever New Year’s. He had no reason to turn them away if they wanted to enjoy the holiday. There was hanetsuki, flying kites, and maybe karuta? He could think of a few New Year’s activities that a high schooler wouldn’t be all that into.

“Wait, #10032? You mean Misaka’s Sister? What did she tell you?”

Maybe it was their brainwaves being synchronized for the network, but they all nodded at once.

He shouldn’t have let his guard down. These were cursed words he had to avoid hearing at all costs.

But the gates of hell were already opening.

“Misaka #10032 told the Misakas about the custom of receiving New Year’s money, say the Misakas, bringing up the filthy topic of money.”

Kamijou was petrified.

Come to think of it. As his life started flashing before his eyes, he saw #10032 working as a guard at the east gate. It was true he had paid her a bribe to let him through while carrying tied-up Aradia and he had indeed claimed it was only a gift of New Year’s money, but did this mean every one of the Sisters knew about that thanks to the Misaka Network!?

The clone girls were inching closer with yen signs and dollar signs dancing ominously in their emotionless eyes.

“Wait, wait, wait!! N-New Year’s money? I get what you mean, but how many of you are there!? Even if I gave each of you 500 yen, there are almost 10 thousand of you, so…eh? Wouldn’t that be enough money to buy a car!?”

“Even an elementary schooler would click her tongue at her kindly grandfather if she opened the envelope and only found a single 500-yen coin in this day and age, warns Misaka #18000 with a glare.”

“Why are new numbers popping up!? C-can’t we simplify this by focusing on how much I’m giving to the Sisters as a whole? And you can share memories and experiences through the Misaka Network, so don’t I only need to give it to one of you?”

“But that wouldn’t be fair, says Misaka #19518 while pouting her lips to look cute.”

“Another new number… How many Sisters are wandering around this shrine!?”

“To begin with, the amount #10032 was given at the east gate was-”

He quickly reached his arms around the expressionless girl and covered her mouth with both hands.

“(Stop it, you idiot! That super-serious-looking twintails girl over there is wearing a Judgment armband, so please don’t let her know I smuggled Aradia into the city!!)”

But that choice backfired.

The various currency signs vanished from the Sisters’ eyes as they found something new to focus on.

“Misaka too.”

“Misaka wants to be held like that too, begs Misaka #10777.”

“Is the surprise New Year’s hug another Japanese custom? asks Misa-”

Kamijou’s pleas fell on deaf ears.

Mikoto took Shirai Kuroko’s hand and Shokuhou took Hokaze Junko’s and they swiftly escaped outside the encirclement.

Letting go of Aradia’s hand while being zapped had been a mistake. When the real possibility of death showed itself, she casually put some distance between them.

Index was too busy stuffing her face with free dangos to notice what was happening.

The Sister in charge of security here would have received an important warning when she was being trained in how to handle lost children, what to do with suspicious abandoned bags, and whether to call Anti-Skill or an ambulance first when someone needed emergency assistance for alcohol poisoning or whatever else.

Namely, she would have been told to avoid a domino effect when guiding people.

When more than 100 people fell in the same direction, the pressure could be destructive enough to crush a light truck.

An unpleasant squashing noise echoed across the New Year’s scene.

Imagine Breaker was powerless against the pressure caused by a crowd of girls.

===Part 5===

In a way, this was the most dangerous prison in the already unruly District 10.

Or it should have been.

“Tah dah!! Happy new year! says Misaka as Misaka gives the standard greeting!!”

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………What the hell are you doing here?”

[[Image:GT_Index_v07_BW1.png|thumb]]


The atmosphere in the visitation room was entirely off.

Accelerator briefly thought the thick glass had been made too thick and his voice hadn’t reached the other side, but apparently it had.

The girl who looked to be around 10 was celebrating even after hearing every word. She was so overexcited she was hopping around.

“Misaka is here to visit you because you must be lonely all on your own, says Misaka as Misaka explains the purpose of her visit.”

“Huh?”

“It was Yomikawa’s idea.”

He glared over Last Order’s head, but the gym teacher with her long black hair worn in a ponytail only grinned at him. Her arm was in a sling after breaking it in the mess with the dark side, but that hadn’t dampened her spirits any.

“C’mon, what’s the harm?”

“Go to hell, Yomikawa. You too, Yoshikawa. I see you trying to look inconspicuous back there.”

The adult in a lab coat clicked her tongue despite being too old for that kind of thing. But best not to let her hear you call her “too old” for anything if you wanted to keep out of trouble.

“Accelerator, we understand that you’re a prisoner now. And we understand you need to set an example for Academy City.” Yomikawa Aiho shrugged out of habit and winced when it moved the arm in the sling. “But that means you need to use the rights given to you as a prisoner. You’re allowed visitors. Forcing yourself to suffer unnecessarily would be setting a bad example too, wouldn’t it?”

Now it was Accelerator’s turn to click his tongue.

Either Last Order didn’t notice what this was about or she pretended not to notice.

“So why the hell are you wasting your New Year’s holiday here?”

“Misaka knows what happens after she says happy new year: she gets New Year’s money!!”

“Talk to the grownups.”

Yomikawa Aiho and Yoshikawa Kikyou looked the other way at the exact same moment. They had clearly known each other a long time because they even whistled the same tune.

Meanwhile, Last Order pulled out a large box wrapped in cloth.

“Look, look, says Misaka as Misaka shows this off to you. Let’s eat this New Year’s food together.”

“Did you fail to notice the thick bulletproof glass between us, brat? Visitors aren’t allowed to share food with prisoners!!”

“Ehh?” came the cry of disappointment.

When his perfectly reasonable observations were answered with protest, he just had to accept that the just deserts of his highly unprecedented life were boomeranging back to hit him.

Last Order tilted her head and continued in obvious displeasure.

She opened the lid and looked inside as she did so.

“And after we stayed up late last night making New Year’s food, says Misaka as Misaka puts on a disappointed face.”

“…”

Accelerator noticed the food was mishappen in a way that said it wasn’t premade. Not only did the kobumaki and datemaki look wrong, but the kamaboko was cut unevenly and that only required using a knife. (It was a mystery how Yoshikawa, who preferred experimental beauty devices over cooking equipment, and Yomikawa, who cooked everything in rice cookers, had made this food,) but) Last Order likely hadn’t been allowed to use a knife while she helped. The crushed edges of the herring roe suggested she had used a pair of dull kitchen scissors instead.

Accelerator hated that he was spending his peaceful New Year’s analyzing what type and size of blade had been used based on the shape of the cut.

He sighed and made a suggestion.

“Then head to the general reception on the 1st floor.”

“?”

“All the paperwork should be there. Including the request form for ''gifting a prisoner food''.”

Last Order’s face lit up and she ran off.

Yomikawa and Yoshikawa’s laughter made Accelerator click his tongue.

===Part 6===

Academy City was a unique city that had been built using the western third of Tokyo.

That meant some of the city beyond the tall walls could be seen from the top of the taller buildings in neighboring Shinjuku.

The administrative area was actually less busy on January 1.

''They'' were gathered atop one of the tall buildings there.

That included Magician Anna Kingsford and the golden retriever Kihara Noukan.

“Now, now, 🐕. You know 🚬 is bad for your health.”

“Please leave this old dog with one of the few things that makes worth living. And since it is New Year’s, I am in the mood to smoke a Japanese kiseru instead of a cigar.”

“No, that will ❌ do at all. Have some Muru☆”

“Wait, stop!! You can’t just give a dog or a cat that secret weapon of a treat! Gwahhhh!!”	

Given something (in delicious wagyu flavor) which may as well have been like a cutting-edge science version of catnip, the golden retriever stood on his hind legs and went to town licking at the opening in the stick-shaped package held by the founder magician. He clearly wasn’t happy about it, but he couldn’t stop licking either.

Meanwhile.

A metal disk larger than a record was slowly flipping from one side to the other.

That was a film canister used for movies. It was currently held between the hands of a blonde nun in a beige habit.

A human face was plastered to the outside of the disk.

The face belonged to Anna Sprengel.

Instead of a simple drawing, this face blinked and breathed. And if the film canister’s owner asked it questions, it had the intelligence needed to provide a response.

“What a pain. If only defeating you was enough to call it a day,” said that owner.

“You noticed Alice back on the 29th, didn’t you? And you realized she was too dangerous to ignore, whether or not she was good or evil.”

That was true enough.

Miss Sprengel was not like Aleister. She may have been the type to push people away by speaking the truths no one wanted to hear.

“This can only mean one thing.”

Aleister, the magician hijacking a great demon’s body, took a deep breath.

He was flanked on either side by a golden retriever and Anna Kingsford, who had been revived by machinery after 100 years.

The human protected by the inhuman stated his conclusion.

“Does the Bridge Builders Cabal have more than one base of operations?”

“For risk reduction purposes, almost certainly. The Transcendents of that cabal know exactly how strong they are. So perhaps it would be more accurate to say they know better than to let Alice Anotherbible’s interest stay in one place for too long.”

Their incredible charisma had influenced a great many people while they remained hidden from the world. That had to be how they had caused the massive riot across Shibuya.

“I have no idea how you reached that conclusion, but I don’t understand any of this magic stuff anyway,” said Noukan.

“Hee hee. Do ❌ worry, 🐕. He will sum it all up for you afterwards. It seems every 🧙 since the 🥇 cabal really likes to hear themselves 🗣️.”

Alice was something born from Crowley’s brand of Magick.

“Who could have created Alice? Not that I expect them to still be alive. I doubt anyone could safety control that capricious thing for long.”

“Oh? You think death is the worst case scenario there? How naïve of you. Especially when you have a fate worse than death literally in your hands right now.”

Cruel laughter left the film canister.

Aleister thought for a moment.

“That R&C Occultics company you started was a model meant to analyze the Bridge Builders cabal, wasn’t it? To gain a deeper understanding of that mysterious enemy organization, you built a similar organization and did some roleplaying to work out its internal structure and, more importantly, discover its vulnerabilities.”

To put it another way, the Bridge Builders Cabal had caused similar harm in the past.

Either to advance the Transcendents’ interests or on some innocent whim of Alice herself.

They had just been less openly cruel than R&C Occultics, so their harm had remained hidden below the surface.

“You really are shortsighted. This is why you should have left me to it for a while longer.” The film canister laughed, pointing toward Aleister Crowley’s constant failures. “My ''short-term goal'' is the destruction of that harmful organization that has taken root in the hidden part of the world. Revealing the Bridge Builders Cabal’s structure and weaknesses isn’t worth it if I can’t supply enough damage to take them down. All I did was unleash Alice to throw some chaos into their little group. That would have taken a much more amusing turn if you had left it alone.”

“For you, maybe. It would have been an unmitigated disaster for everyone else.”

Just remember what happened in Academy City and Los Angeles.

Even in the Shibuya riot, she had tried to turn everything around in the very, very end by pitting a certain boy against Alice.

Of course, just because the Bridge Builders Cabal had multiple bases around the world did not mean they were helpless here. If there were 100 such bases, they only had to crush every last one of them. Even if they didn’t find anyone at a particular base, the documents and other evidence left at the hideout would help them pursue Alice and the Transcendents.

Meanwhile, something still bothered Noukan.

“Setting aside everything about magic, are you saying R&C Occultics was a false organization created to learn how the Bridge Builders Cabal is structured? In other words, it was intentionally designed to resemble the cabal?”

“👍, very good. Have a 🎁 of Muru as a reward☆”

“Please, no more of that cursed substance!! No, don’t tear open the packet with a smile! Noooooooooo!!”

This conclusion may have been hard to reach for the children clenching their fists and fighting on the front line.

This was a job for Aleister who worked behind the scenes.

Anna Kingsford asked a question while petting the golden retriever who had abandoned his pride to lick at the treat in a bipedal pose.

“Does that mean Alice and the Transcendents are ❌ just an indiscriminate gang of 😈 armed with superior occult weapons?”

“Hm. Are you suggesting they also have a powerful enough ''source of funding'' to influence the global economy?”

===Part 7===

“…”

In truth, Kamijou Touma had two keys to the hidden side of the world.

The first was of course Transcendent Aradia. If he wanted to know about Alice Anotherbible’s Bridge Builders Cabal, the best option was to ask Aradia. He just had to figure out how to get her to talk when she was supposedly powerful enough to rival the entire magic side on her own.

Then there was the second key.

The pointy-haired boy’s thoughts turned to the old folk’s smartphone in his pocket.

(Kumokawa-senpai hid a GPS tracker on the Bologna Succubus’s clothes. I don’t know how many hideouts they have around the world, but this lets us ignore that question and know exactly where Alice and the others are hiding.)

On the other hand, once he had that answer, he would be throwing himself back into the fighting. The peaceful New Year’s spread out before his eyes would fall apart.

“Touma, this sign says an Eastern god will do you a favor if you throw money in here, whether or not you follow their religion!”

“That’s one way of putting it, I suppose.”

Was it really okay for an Anglican nun like Index to pray at a Shinto shrine? Well, this was a District 11 facility meant to scientifically analyze religion, so it had no connection to the real occult stuff Stiyl and Kanzaki worked with. It probably wasn’t an issue.

Othinus, who was just as disconnected from Shinto, whispered something from his shoulder.

“(Who do these people think they’re praying to if they know this is an empty shrine without a god inside?)”

“What, sad they aren’t all praying to you, Miss God?”

Kamijou’s rejoinder earned him a hard tug on the ear. Apparently a mere human wasn’t allowed comments like that.

Also, he doubted anyone in Academy City gave any thought to whether or not there was a god there. Mikoto and ''some unfamiliar girl'' were lined up in their furisodes, but the looks on their faces suggested this was just a seasonal event for them. Maybe it was like how you didn’t need to believe in ghosts to enjoy Halloween. Or how people would throw coins into concrete fountains with nothing remotely mystical about them. Even if you knew there was some kind of jinx involved with coins and fountains, it was the same as someone praying as a last resort when in trouble: they didn’t have any specific god in mind when they did it.

Meanwhile, there was one thing about this large crowd that bothered Kamijou.

“Aradia.”

“…”

“Please promise me you won’t try to run away when I shut my eyes and clap my hands to pray.”

He made a whispered plea to Witch Goddess Aradia who was looking for a chance to run off. He didn’t want this to count as his once-a-year New Year’s prayer, but where did he put his offering?

While he was dealing with that, someone else stepped up alongside him.

The ringlets girl threw a generous 500 yen in to the offering box, clapped her hands, shut her eyes, and made her prayer. Maybe she thought she was keeping it inside, but it escaped her adorable lips in a whisper.

Kamijou was close enough to hear it.

“''Please do not let me pass my entrance exams.''”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Eh?)

He forgot to breathe for a moment.

When the ringlets girl opened her eyes and saw him staring, she tilted her head.

Apparently she hadn’t meant that as a joke for him to hear.

“Excuse me.”

The honey blonde girl was just as confused and hesitantly spoke up.

She approached this as cautiously as someone defusing a bomb.

“Hokaze, what was that about?”

“''Oh, that?''” The ringlets girl smiled and explained without a moment’s hesitation. “''I don’t want to move on to high school for no other reason than ‘it’s time’ when I could instead stay home and spend years seriously considering what path in life would best serve you, my Queen.''”

“Hoka-”

The honey blonde girl started to reply, but couldn’t find the words.

In their stunned silence, Kamijou’s group was ejected to the side of the line. They ended up a bit outside the shrine’s grounds and they saw something else unusual there.

The ringlets girl wasn’t the only one.

The ema, on which the shrine visitors wrote their wishes, included some shocking examples.

“Keep my parents and teachers off my case about passing my exams.” “Please don’t let my System Scan results improve because I don’t want to stand out.” “I don’t need any New Year’s money.” “I want to give up.” “Don’t let anyone get mad at me when I don’t study.” “I want an easy life.” “Why should I care if I get held back?” “I’m so tired.” “FML”

“What the hell is this?” groaned Kamijou.

It didn’t look like a prank. They were all written with different handwriting and different pens. So instead of a single person spreading negativity, this was the result of each individual person writing out their thoughts.

“Kotatsu syndrome, huh? Quite the social phenomenon for such a pleasant-sounding term.” Othinus sighed from his shoulder. “And this is especially bad news for a city of schools like Academy City. For better or for worse, this city is built on the competition between students. If enough people stop caring if they have bad grades and don’t mind if they get suspended or expelled, the teachers lose all power over the students.”

How had this happened?

The anti-elite Winter Cleaning that had sprung up near the end of the year had supposedly been a naturally-occurring social phenomenon caused by Accelerator’s guilty verdict coming at the same time as the collapse of R&C Occultics. And as the new year began, it had apparently transformed into this kotatsu syndrome.

Shirai and Mikoto were holding their own discussion of the issue.

“What do we do about this?”

“It doesn’t look good. Assuming this isn’t a prank by the #5 over there, anyway.”

Without anyone directly harming anyone, the structure Academy City used to prop up a minority of elites was collapsing from the bottom up.

(Since this all goes back to R&C Occultics, could Anna Sprengel be involved?)

Kamijou had no idea where Anna was or what she was doing.

And knowing her, she might have set things up so events would continue playing out how she wanted even if she were somehow taken out of action.

(Anna belongs to the Bridge Builders Cabal, so could this be a plot run by them?)

He couldn’t preserve the peace by sitting around doing nothing.

If he didn’t do something about it, he could only watch as an invisible hand crept ever closer and crushed Academy City in its grasp.

Kamijou Touma focused on his pocket.

His phone was linked to the GPS tracker planted on the Bologna Succubus’s clothing. That was Kumokawa Seria’s special present to him. It was the only way to immediately locate Alice Anotherbible’s cabal hideout.

If he was going to use it, now had to be the time.

He made up his mind and reached into his pants pocket.

===Part 8===

One of the skyscrapers in Shinjuku gave an especially decent view over the wall into neighboring Academy City.

Inside, Human Aleister placed a large film canister on the polished floor.

“What are you doing?” asked the seated golden retriever, tilting his head.

This was not a cruel prank played at immobilized Anna Sprengel’s expense. Aleister surrounded the film canister with a complex pattern of white chalk based on some precise calculations.

“Are you trying to use me to backtrace the Bridge Builders Cabal headquarters?”

Even now, Miss Sprengel scoffed.

Aleister knew several people who knew no other way to communicate: Westcott, Mathers, and Aleister himself to name a few.

“Are you certain they have such a strong connection with me?”

“You don’t need all that much camaraderie for this to work. For better or for worse, you have tampered with Alice’s nature. Whether anyone wanted it or not, that had an unfathomable influence on the cabal, didn’t it? That creates an inseverable bond.”

So he would make use of it.

Throughout his life, Aleister had never been what you could call “well-liked”, so he found these methods easier.

“So this will tell me where Alice and her cabal are located,” said Aleister.

“I see,” was Kihara Noukan’s brief response. He was focusing on lighting his long, narrow kiseru while Mrs. Kingsford wasn’t looking, so he was probably only half listening to this talk of magic.

“Anna Kingsford.”

“Yes, what do you need?”

The film canister clearly shook.

The female magician herself only smiled gently.

“You do the honors. I have given up performing magic when I don’t have to.”

The true founder did not need any fancy poses or incantations.

Mrs. Kingsford simply held out her palm.

With a burning sound, one direction and a few of the letters of the complex white chalk pattern gained a scorched black coloration.

Deciphering that would provide the answer.

Aleister Crowley frowned.

He had a knack for drawing the unlucky straw at times like this.

“What in the-?”

===Part 9===

Kamijou Touma was surrounded by indistinct voices.

No, his brain’s processing power had reached its limit, so he couldn’t analyze each individual voice, causing him to perceive it as a meaningless mass of sound.

That was unavoidable given what he saw approaching him now.

The crowd of peacefully smiling boys and girls seemed to part before his eyes.

One look at the old folk’s smartphone in his hand would tell him where the Bridge Builders Cabal was located.

But he already knew the answer.

It was right there, not 5m away from him.

“I’ve come to play, teacher☆”

That was Alice Anotherbible.

He was now painfully aware of just how extraordinary she was.

Everything he had set up was meant to let him track down where she was.

But all of that fell apart after a single, unplanned action by that young girl.

===Between the Lines 1===

Once upon a time, there was a small girl.

Unlike now, she failed in everything she did. Everything she tried backfired and she grew to hate who she was.

The most frustrating part of it all was the presence of an actual correct answer.

She wasn’t dealing with a trick question without a real answer.

Maybe that answer was as miniscule as the eye of a needle, but if you did choose the correct options from the mountain of possibilities and combined them appropriately, it was possible to bring happiness to everyone. But it didn’t turn out that way. She felt like she was being presented with the fact that it wasn’t the world that was cruel – it was her.

It pained her.

It pained her.

It pained her.

She clenched her teeth, failed to accomplish anything, walked across the desolate earth in her bare feet, and wore herself down, covered in soot and dust.

Eventually, a being called out to her.

She heard that voice so clearly.

“Are you prepared to do what it takes to make your dream come true?”

Saying yes to that was simple enough.

It may not have taken any courage or thought at all.

So the next question was what approached the crux of the issue.

“''Are you prepared to remake yourself into a vessel to accomplish that?''”

That is what this story is about.

That small girl would go on to be known as a Transcendent, but where was it that she took a wrong turn?

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