Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume8 Chapter2

==Chapter 2: Transcendent Mut Thebes – The_Death_Penalty_WH.==

===Part 1===

It was all right there in her head.

When you got down to it, the old R&C Occultics magic database was no more than a collection of notes jotted down by Anna Sprengel herself. So journeying to District 15 and searching the database would only turn up Anna’s own knowledge.

The lights were off inside the cold metal box and the little wicked woman didn’t look away from the screen as she whispered to someone.

“What do you want, Aiwass?”

“Nothing really. Just noting how uncharacteristically patient you’re being.”

“Come to see me because I haven’t stepped on you recently, fool?”

After that, little Anna laughed but otherwise ignored him.

So only the unknown being’s voice continued.

“You finally have your body back from Madame Horos, so you can perceive this world as you like and go wherever you desire within it. I assumed you would be rejoicing in your newfound freedom, so I found this odd.”

Miss Sprengel clenched and unclenched her little hand.

“In this body?”

“You don’t seem all that fixated on fully reclaiming your original power and form.”

“Hmph,” snorted Anna.

Bull’s eye.

That being was meant to deliver divine knowledge to humanity, after all.

She wanted something else.

Something not found inside her.

“I will start with the Bridge Builders Cabal.”

“Not with Anna Kingsford?”

“I am starting with what I know I can do.”

She knew the Bridge Builders Cabal’s plan and was in the unique position to stop it, so she could negotiate (or threaten) them.

Furthermore, Academy City needed her for the same reason.

So traveling to District 15 was her best option.

On the other hand…

“I currently ''have no countermeasure for Kingsford.'' Even with the full power of my Secret Chief.”

Aiwass was supposed to be her trump card, but he hadn’t been enough to defeat Kingsford. What would have happened if she confidently used him to escape her human film canister form? The thought sent a small chill down her spine.

However…

“Maybe I can’t do it, but maybe that cabal of Transcendents can. And unlike Kingsford, I can take control of them. Either by manipulating Alice or by using the Shrink Drink that contains a portion of her power. They’ve left me a lot of openings for such a powerful group.”

“I see. Just as wicked a plan as I would expect from you.”

‘I wish I could have sent Alice Anotherbible against that woman, but how would that have influenced my current partnership with Kamijou Touma? Still, there are other Transcendents with bizarre specialties. Perhaps one of them is such a poor match for Kingsford that she goes down easily to them. Like a necromancer or a machine killer. Giving up doesn’t improve my situation, so my best bet is to keep struggling no matter how ugly it gets.”

So she would start with what she knew she could do.

She most likely had her Bridge Builders Cabal countermeasure constructed in her mind.

But that was why she wanted absolute certainty.

That meant comparing the idea in her mind with the database she had created.

She felt some nagging doubt because of how extraordinary the cabal’s plan was.

Even seen through Miss Sprengel’s eyes.

“Do you think they can pull it off?” asked Aiwass.

“I don’t know. But it’s never a good idea to immediately reject something because it sounds crazy. That reflex isn’t about a lack of validation or credibility – it’s you trying to deny the worst case scenario. When there is a very real threat out there, what could be more foolish than letting your fear take hold and shutting yourself away for peace of mind?”

That was why she wanted more than her own thoughts and emotions – why she wanted to rely on the cold, hard data.

She wanted objective corroboration that her prediction was in fact correct. Even if it was so horrifying that even a wicked woman like her didn’t want to think about it.

To repeat, Anna most likely had the answer already.

Now she only needed the final confirmation.

Then she only had to download it onto a physical medium she could present to a third party.

“It’s times like this that I curse my lack of a perfect memory.”

“It seems to me that would bring its own problems.”

Whether a disk or nonvolatile memory, all physical media deteriorated and eventually grew unreadable as time passed, but if she kept the information in her own mind, the pressure of her own self-restricting questions would distort the answer. And unlike someone with a perfect memory, her memories provided no objective trust or proof.

She knew their plan.

She was familiar with all of their Achilles heels, so she could crush them at any time.

“But you can’t negotiate with the cabal’s Transcendents unless you can ''objectively'' prove it,” said Aiwass.

“Isn’t that your specialty? You are a messenger who provides oracles while pretending to be some secret divine messenger. It all began when you borrowed Rose’s mouth. That message was then written down in a form anyone could read. And it became known as the Book of the Law.”

“But that was all a new seed you had me plant because you were so disgusted by the Golden cabal’s rapid decline after the Battle of Blythe Road. But…”

“Yes, fool.” Miss Sprengel sighed. “Negotiation is not my primary goal here.”

“That plan must not be brought to fruition. In your mind, anyway. I am honestly mildly surprised you see any room for negotiation left.”

That was why she had installed a backdoor in that unseen organization so she could throw them into disarray and crush them from within. All she had to do was tell Alice Anotherbible the “personal legend” of Kamijou Touma and make sure the girl adored him like a character from a children’s book.

(So what am I doing now?)

“Keep in mind I can hear your thoughts, Miss Sprengel. Because I am your Secret Chief and you are my priestess.”

She kicked her little foot at that.

But Aiwass was right. If she were focused primarily on destroying the cabal’s extremely dangerous plan, negotiation would be meaningless. It would be much faster to slash their Achilles heels without warning.

Was she here to save the world? Nonsense.

She had only just reclaimed her physical freedom from one of the greatest frauds in the history of Modern Western Magic. The little wicked woman should have been living it up and greedily taking everything she wanted from the world around her. So her battle against the cabal and her drive to crush their plan could not be classified as good deeds.

So what did she hope to protect?

What did she want most?

“My king,” whispered Anna Sprengel.

===Part 2===

January 4. Early morning.

Kamijou Touma awoke to a light slap on his cheek.

He first thought the calico cat had play swatted him, but he quickly realized that couldn’t be it.

It was Aradia.

“Wake up.”

“Ugh.”

He opened his eyes to find they were at a gas station. There was no clerk there thanks to the martial law, so they had refueled and he had taken a nap on the bench by the vending machines. Aradia was crouching next to the wooden bench and teasing him, so her face was a lot closer than strictly necessary. Her silver hair spilled down and tickled his cheek.

But that aside…

“It’s already 5:30. Based on the work schedule posted in the office, a manager normally arrives at about this time. If the concept of martial law is enough to make the ordinary citizens nervous, the manager might drop by to make sure their workplace is safe.”

“Wah, wamh, ah, arh?”

“Are you trying to be cute?”

He was simply so sleepy his tongue wasn’t working right, but she coldly criticized him for it.

(It’s January 4 and I’m being told it’s “already” 5:30 in the morning? Has the world gone crazy?)

“Hurry up. Your mind will clear once you get up.”

“Mhh.”

If she said he had to get up, that’s what he would have to do.

But right as he did, Aradia stuck her lithe hand between his back and the bench.

The timing was unfortunate.

Kamijou’s lips contacted something: Aradia’s cheek, which had moved unexpectedly close.

At first, he thought he had to still be dreaming.

“Hm? H-huh!? Wait, did I really just do that!?”

The fog in his mind instantly cleared away.

He doubted she would be kind enough to let him off with a simple head chomp. This was the Great Aradia who had already killed him more than once on December 31.

And yet…

“Relax. That was clearly an accident.”

“?”

Confused, Kamijou froze with his arms crossed in front of his face.

Aradia was avoiding his gaze a bit, but that was all.

The lack of any repercussions scared him in a different way. Like he was building up an unseen debt somewhere.

“You still need to get up. We can’t stick around here forever.”

They were on the run.

He had chosen this path for himself, so he couldn’t complain now.

His head felt super heavy, but he somehow managed to get up on his own. Thanks to the wooden bench, he ached all over. He left the vending machine area which had a blind pulled down over it and was greeted by the biting cold. He saw a white haze outside.

“Why do you seem wide awake at this hour, Aradia? I don’t know what country you came from, but are you jetlagged?”

“Witches follow a strict schedule and receive the blessings of nature – I just haven’t been able to do so recently because you had me tied up. It shouldn’t surprise you to see me up before sunrise.”

Aradia threw the response at him like a slap.

Then the witch goddess winked.

“What? You look like you have several things to say.”

That wasn’t true at all, but if Aradia had read too deep into his expression and opened the door to questions, he couldn’t pass up the chance.

Because wait.

Did this mean he could have her clear up the mysteries surrounding the Transcendents and the Bridge Builders Cabal?

“Um, uh! I-if you insist!!”

“Calm down. I’m not going anywhere, so relax your shoulders and try that again, boy.”

“A-are you actually a red android?”

“You’re starting there!? I suppose it’s best to be careful, but still!!” shouted Aradia, bristling at his question.

But she no longer had that air of a cool witch lady. Didn’t she seem more open to anything, and even a bit indulgent?

“Um, then to cover a more immediate issue, what do you know about Mut Thebes? I could be killed without knowing that. But I understand if you don’t want to give up info on a fellow cabal member.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. Not anymore anyway.” Aradia shrugged and sighed, the breath appearing white in the January morning. “Then I will start with the basics. Mut is a goddess found in Egyptian mythology.”

“Right.”

He was pretty sure H. T. Trismegistus had told him that at the consulate.

He wanted to know more than that.

“She is a war goddess who uses the vulture as her symbol. While the other gods promise happiness in a vaguely defined afterlife, she is a ‘physical goddess’ who actually fought on Earth and protected her people from their enemies. She is specifically said to have defended the ancient city of Thebes from an outside enemy.”

“Seriously? So she’s a god who specializes in war ''and nothing else''?”

“It was believed that was one of the many abilities of a protective mother,” Aradia subtly corrected. “Mut was special in that she was both a goddess and the wife of the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh. Technically, the queen and Mut were seen as one and the same. Of course, that would mean each pharaoh’s wife was Mut again, which would make her the pharaoh’s mother, wife, and daughter all at once.”

That sounded very confusing, but Kamijou decided it was silly to apply a modern conception of romance to Ancient Egypt which existed millennia ago.

“Also, some suspect that she was created later on because Amun, the top god, needed a wife. Of course, I’m Aradia, so I’m not one to talk there.”

“…?”

That was something that had bothered him for a while now.

Index had said the goddess Aradia was thought to have been invented by an Italian witch. Then what was this Aradia here?

What was the point of borrowing the name of someone who never even existed?

Had the witch actually been telling the truth, but the story had been so extraordinary that the man writing it down hadn’t recorded it properly?

“What’s wrong?” asked Aradia.

“Nothing…”

Why did he hesitate? She was willing to answer his questions. And even if she refused to answer, the fact that she had openly refused could act as a major hint.

Or was he afraid of receiving confirmation?

He felt like the temporary peace they had established would crumble before his eyes.

Anna walked in from outside and grinned as soon as she saw the witch.

“''Nice ankle.''”

“''I don’t want a word out of you.''”

“?” Kamijou tilted his head.

Come to think of it, why was she still doing that? Thanks to Kamijou’s hesitation, Aradia had switched modes. And given how prickly she was being now, he doubted she would answer even if he asked.

The fuel pumps were dangerous since they worked with gasoline. And they were located outside, so they would have been locked down separately to the office. But that hadn’t been much of an obstacle to Anna Sprengel’s technology.

The wicked woman gave a snort of laughter.

“In the end, single use passwords and two factor authentication are still patterns. Once you decode the pseudorandom number generator, it might as well not be locked at all. At least they seem aware that biometric data like fingerprint or eye scans are a lot less safe given how high quality cameras are these days.”

“I’m suddenly glad my dorm room uses an old-fashioned analog key.”

“Trying to set a new record for foolishness? That’s an even simpler combination of patterns. The best security system a fool like you can manage is being too poor to own anything worth stealing.”

Meanwhile…

Kamijou spotted an old-fashioned payphone nearby.

Even a high schooler like him knew using his phone was a bad idea while on the run, but since a payphone wouldn’t leave a record of who made the call, couldn’t he contact Index or Misaka Mikoto that way?

Little Anna glared up at him.

“Again, don’t even think about it, fool. Get us in trouble by trying it and I will kick your ass headfirst into a doghouse.”

“Alright, alright.”

It looked like he had to abandon that idea. She refused to explain why, but this must have been riskier than he thought. Anna had singlehandedly built up R&C Occultics as a global IT company, so he doubted he could outdo her when it came to computer knowledge. Academy City technology was 20 or 30 years ahead of the outside world, but Kamijou hadn’t designed that technology himself.

(I hope they’re okay. It’s so frustrating when they’re in the same city as me.)

He had to believe that the pursuers’ attention on him meant less focus on Index, Mikoto, and the others.

The mobile combat vehicle stood out thanks to its 8 wheels and swiveling tank gun, but they had shoved it inside the carwash on Anna’s suggestion. Apparently no one would notice it as long as it fit inside.

Little Anna unfolded a large paper map on the concrete ground. She and Aradia stared at the map through a magnifying glass they had found somewhere.

“Let’s see. Based on my scrying, it should look something like this.”

“Anyone’s spell would reveal the same thing. And it seems to be showing water-based danger on the horizon.”

They didn’t seem to be reading miniscule text or setting down small game pierces to simulate the enemy(?) formation. This sounded like occult divination. When Aradia slid the magnifying glass across the map, Kamijou noticed small flashes of light dancing inside the distorted lens.

“Don’t be shy. If you want to see the map, move in closer.”

Still crouching, Aradia scooted a bit aside.

Kamijou did as she suggested, but he still couldn’t tell what he was supposed to be seeing. He just didn’t want to be standing behind her because he felt guilty seeing her butt while she crouched like that.

The oblivious woman was still focused on the map.

“I’m using crystal divination. It’s a common enough technique in Wicca. You stare into the crystal and ''decode'' the information you want from the vision you see within. This is a variation on it. I bet you didn’t know the crystal doesn’t actually have to be a ball, did you?”

He was more interested in what she had discovered than the method she was using.

Aradia removed the magnifying glass from the map and raised it like an old-fashioned detective.

“Lend me your right hand.”

“?”

Kamijou held out his hand as asked and she touched the rim of the magnifying glass to it. It made a high-pitched cracking sound.

Aradia was apparently done with the magnifying glass now, so she spun it in her hand and brought her lips to the rim like it was a giant lollipop she was about to lick.

“Imagine Breaker makes this so much easier.”

“It does,” agreed Anna. “It lets you omit the entire process for exorcising the summoned power. And you don’t have to worry about the backlash if you screw up. The Golden cabal was a sorry excuse for a cabal that kept growing more bloated until it ruptured, but I can see why they had it stored deep within Blythe Road as a last resort.”

Kamijou wasn’t sure how to interpret this assessment. Should he view this like the young woman next door asking him to get a stubborn lid off of a bottle?”

…If so, he wasn’t going to complain.

“Wipe that smirk off your face, fool. And we should keep the divination to a minimum. Academy City might not know much about magic, but Mut Thebes or Kingsford might notice and use it to track us down. Like suddenly noticing a presence in some abandoned ruins.”

Little Anna pouted her lips and swiftly folded up the map.

“We are in District 6 now, so we still need to cross Districts 5 and 7. So, fool, let’s continue on toward District 15.”

“I get that,” said Kamijou while climbing for the hatch on top of the gun.

The interior was still cramped and the seats even more so. There was a reason they had refused to spend the night inside there.

“But I still can’t believe we got an armored vehicle inside the amusement park district. I would have thought they had a solid gate at the entrance to make sure no one gets in without a ticket.”

“You really are a fool. This is a mobile combat vehicle.” Anna made sure to correct him every time. “If you refuse to learn, I’ll start shoving the vocabulary sticks up your asshole.”

“…”

What was a vocabulary stick?

Whatever the case, he got the feeling she would also get furious over the debate regarding whether corn was a grain or a vegetable.

“Also, fool. Amusement parks have industrial vehicle entrances located out of sight of the guests. How do you think they receive all the food and souvenirs they sell across the entire park? Or what about replacing the heavy metal rails and thick wires for upkeep of the thrill rides? You didn’t think it was all carried in by hand, did you?”

“That’s not what I meant. District 6 is one giant amusement park, right? It just feels like the end of the world to see a military vehicle intruding on this land of hopes and dreams.”

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Do not interrupt me again.”

“Most fairy tales are more like horror stories if you follow them back to their roots,” added Aradia.

Was that supposed to be helpful?

Also, the expert on witch stories spoke down from above the other two. The nature-loving mountain girl couldn’t stand being cooped up in that tin can all day, so she had her upper body sticking out of the hatch to enjoy the breeze. Which meant she had one leg on the ladder up to the hatch.

“Bwah, Aradia!? Have you no sense!? Don’t just show off that angle!!”

“?”

“If she isn’t aware, don’t bother her. And it’s her decision to do it or not. I know you are a hopeless fool, but you don’t have to tackle every single problem you come across with fists flying.”

A skirt-wearing girl version of a kasa-obake was staring down at them from above, but Anna Sprengel seemed a lot more interested in trying the mentaiko, corn, and mayo bread she had bought at a bread vending machine earlier. Even though they had stocked up inside the vehicle just yesterday. She was also enjoying a health drink that claimed to contain a trillion lactobacilli, which sounded to Kamijou like a battle manga with so much power level inflation nothing had any meaning anymore.

Generally, the other two let Anna operate the Predator Octopus.

Kamijou was still in high school, so he wouldn’t know how to operate a steering wheel. And this used a touchscreen, so it didn’t even have a steering wheel. Aradia was skeptical of technology, so she was out of the question too. That meant Anna was the one swiping her hand across the console monitor in front of the commander’s seat.

Kamijou Touma continued to pour all of his willpower into ignoring Aradia’s crotch that seemed unnecessarily conspicuous only a meter over his head. (Was this some kind of mental training!?)

“So is the plan for today the same as yesterday: look out for Mut Thebes while avoiding Anti-Skill’s checkpoints?”

“Thank you for pointing out the obvious, fool. Do I need to shove enough things up your asshole you look like a restaurant’s chopstick holder?”

She may have been even more foulmouthed than that human.

Kamijou couldn’t help but sigh, but…

“I notice you failed to mention Aleister’s group who have been concerningly silent. Do you want to die?”

The mood clearly changed when she mentioned Aleister.

Surprisingly, the majority of the tension came from Anna herself.

“Unlike a fool like you, Anna Kingsford seeks certainty. She goes beyond never making a wasted move. If any of her moves fails to accomplish anything, she will change her point of view to transform it into a useful card in her deck,” whispered Anna.

That little wicked woman was revealing her own weakness to someone else.

Kamijou didn’t see that as regression. It was only one step, but she was making progress.

“Even if she does locate us through divination, she wouldn’t launch an attack on that alone. She will increase the certainty of her information by relying on multiple sources, work out the most meaningful move she can make, and then make that move.”

“You mean…?”

“Yes, fool. We fought a highly conspicuous artillery battle to escape Mut Thebes last night. Word of that must have spread through Academy City. Assuming she intercepted those reports and has been analyzing the situation based on them, ''it won’t be long now.'' Kingsford will make her move soon.”

===Part 3===

Aleister Crowley, Anna Kingsford, and Kihara Noukan.

Since they looked like a foreign nun and a mysterious near-future glasses woman out walking a large dog (after martial law was declared), they had to make for quite a bizarre sight. Except they didn’t. When they walked right in front of an armed Anti-Skill group, not one person demanded they stop.

Was it Kihara Noukan who had said they were bound to be caught if they snuck into Academy City again?

Aleister sighed.

(This simple recognition manipulation won’t work on anyone with a deep knowledge of magic. That of course applies to the Transcendents, but also to the artificial demon working for Academy City – Qliphah Puzzle 545.)

He could imagine all this so easily, but he could never make sense of the human mind.

He was constantly making mistakes.

Meanwhile, Anna Kingsford curiously viewed the vehicles parked on the curb. The tanks and armored vehicles were all painted dark because they were meant for use in an urban environment.

They were closer than expected. Much too close.

The great knowledge goddess took small steps up to within a meter of one, looking just like a tourist with one of the red guards at a certain English palace.

If not for their magic, they would have been instantly discovered and forced to fight.

“Oh, how fun. It’s like a parade.”

“Don’t place too much faith in that preserved corpse. It might look just like a living body, but it’s still only a corpse being forced into motion. You can’t use any magical defenses, so if you were held in place by the ground collapsing below your feet or exposure to a high voltage current, an ordinary tank gun could blast you to smithereens.”

“Then am I relatively safe from the ones ❌ in a vehicle?”

“How did you find a way to ‘look on the bright side’ of that warning?”

When Kingsford pointed at an Anti-Skill group from less than a meter away, Aleister shut an eye and held a hand to his forehead.

That she went unnoticed was proof that she was the spell expert Aleister was not.

A true expert did not neglect these fundamental of magic.

Or rather, it was all part of a single large system. There were no unnecessary gears in the world of magic.

So instead of learning a single special move, you increased your overall strength by thoroughly honing your skills in all the most common spells until they were their own special moves.

An expert like Kingsford probably resented the very act of designing a spell exclusively for killing.

The golden retriever sniffed at the cigarette smoke exhaled by an Anti-Skill officer on break and reacted with disgust when he detected the vanilla additive.

”Explain it to her, Aleister. I would understand if you had explained it over and over and she refused to learn, but she can’t be blamed for her ignorance.”

“I know that, but still.”

The great knowledge goddess’s knowledge stopped in the 1800s, so while her magic knowledge was unmatched, she didn’t know much about the threat posed by science. The lack of knowledge wasn’t necessary a problem, but her inability to appreciate the threat was. She was too innocent, like a young child who had never touched a hot kettle.

Eventually, Aleister pointed up into the early morning sky.

“Academy City has developed 200mm self-propelled grenade launchers and multistage rocket launchers with a range of more than 30km. They can accurately drop a grenade on you anywhere in the city. And if they don’t care about damage to civilian facilities, a single Anti-Skill officer can give a signal by radio, laser, or even smoke to summon a downpour of explosives. A single volley of the rocket launchers will cover the designated area with ten thousand bomblets. Do you still feel safe?”

A sound like an electric shaver passed by overhead.

This one was not for aerial photography.

The 45cm plastic isosceles triangle was joined by hundreds more clustered together like a flock of starlings. From a distance, they appeared to undulate like a great serpent. These were self-destruct drones designed to spread out in the sky, locate their target, gather overhead, lock on, ignite their solid fuel, drop toward their target, and explode.

Aleister sighed.

“Each of those Snakeheads is loaded with as much explosive as an anti-tank rocket. The sky above is the hardest place for a ground vehicle to attack, so if those things attack from there, the tanks and armored vehicles don’t stand a chance. A person outside of a vehicle even less so.”

“My, my. The 🌍 has become a very ☠️ place in my absence.”

Anna Kingsford held a hand to her cheek and elegantly tilted her head.

She had lived in the late 1800s. That was before World War One, which meant a world without tanks, aircraft, and poison gas, so some might call it a nice place to live. Especially in an age where war without nuclear weapons sounded like something from an impossible fantasy world.

Of course, small drones commonly lost control and crashed due to signal interference and crosswinds. What would happen if those armed explosives were constantly flying through the city? As the numbers went up, what seemed like small odds of an accident would rise as well. Instead of launching a missile or artillery shell in response to a threat, explosives were ''already'' filling the sky above. Instead of avoiding the small odds of an accident, the city had ordered its people to stay home to avoid anyone coming to harm by the accidents. These next-generation weapons could only be used with martial law in place.

“What’s the plan for today?” asked Aleister right in front of the enemy.

“I 💭 it is about ⏰ to take this seriously☆”

===Part 4===

Kamijou’s group slowly drove the mobile combat vehicle through the District 6 amusement park.

There was a biting chill outside, but the cramped vehicle was filled with the sweet warmth of girls.

In the commander’s seat, Anna made occasional adjustments to the self-driving while she messed with the communications. Kamijou thought she was accessing a civilian frequency to listen to the radio, but she was apparently watching an online TV station displayed in a corner of the touchscreen. How much could she access with that thing?

“Today is January 4. Good morning and welcome to the Children’s Q&A Advice Show. You’re in for a treat because today’s New Year’s special is two hours long☆ Now, our first Scype call is a question from Azumi-chan, a 2nd grader from District 13. Happy New Year, Azumi-chan. What is it you want to know?”

“H-Happy New Year. Um, why do you catch a cold when it’s cold out?”

“That’s actually a really interesting question, Azumi-chan. But first I need to correct a misunderstanding there. It’s hard to tell because they’re too small to see, but colds are caused by germs you can find floating in the air any time of year. We see more cold patients in the winter because the air is drier. See, people have something called an immune system and…”

“Hee hee,” someone laughed.

It was Anna Sprengel with her hand over her mouth. It was an unusually gentle laugh for her how harsh she tended to be. It lacked her usual edge.

“Excellent. She honestly asks the question on her mind and then listens to the answer. She earns a perfect 100 as a student.”

“Really?”

“You need to be careful, you dull fool. All of you fools like to ask the question before even trying to think for yourselves. Instead, you need to listen, work to comprehend what you have learned, and – if you still do not understand – gather up what you know, put it in your own words, and feel no shame about asking. That is what I call perfect.”

So did he have to learn to act like a 7 or 8 year old to please Miss Sprengel? That honestly sounded way too hard.

“The problem isn’t how much or how little knowledge you have.”

Anna elegantly crossed her legs in the highest seat, rested her elbow on the armrest, and her head in her hand.

And she whispered in Demon Lord mode.

“Knowledge you never use grows rusty. If you avoid writing a word for fear of misspelling it, you really will forget how to spell it before long. So the greatest barrier to true knowledge is the silly pride that believes you are too good to study and master the fundamentals. Feel no shame, learner. The textbook lies before you. It might look intimidating, but your predecessors have proven that you will eventually achieve mastery if you take it slow and complete each step in turn. You must not skip past the basics and immediately attempt the practical side. Even worse is to fail to realize you have given up on thinking, fail to learn a single thing, and find all you have left is an inflated sense of pride.”

This advice had arrived unexpectedly.

He needed to listen, work to comprehend, and if he still didn’t understand, gather his knowledge, put it in his own words, and ask without shame.

Kamijou decided to put Anna’s advice to practice.

“So…what were you hoping to accomplish?”

“I didn’t have a lofty goal like guiding all of humanity in the right direction.”

Miss Sprengel’s thoughts had been transported elsewhere while she listened to that innocent exchange on the radio.

And the words spilled from her lips now.

“I wanted to share what I had if it could quench people’s thirst for knowledge. But only if they sought that knowledge in the proper way. In the end, that never came to pass. The incomplete knowledge I brought them only created hopeless conflict and self-proclaimed geniuses who arrogantly mocked everyone they met.”

“Let’s see,” continued the radio show. “Next we have Shunta-kun, a 4th grader from District 7.”

“Gyah! Wah!!”

“U-um, Shunta-kun? Shunta-kuuun?”

“What- ah ha ha! Wait, it’s about to start- (wham thud!!) Did you hear that!? Kya ha ha! Ah ha ha ha!!”

“…”

“You don’t have to get that upset!” shouted Kamijou. “It’s not like he’s your kid!!”

Kamijou quickly restrained little Anna who looked so furious she might utter a mysterious curse that not even the Anglicans were familiar with.

“That pissed me off almost as much as those self-proclaimed geniuses in the Golden cabal.”

“I’m really not sure what to say about that, but should I update my mental image of them?”

“Pant, pant. M-Miss Host,” said a new voice on the radio. “I’m a 47-year-old baby. Hee hee. C-can you tell me where babies come from? Bweh heh heh heh.”

“Yikes!” shouted the host. “H-how did this call get past the screening!? Producer!!”

“Anna? Him you can curse,” said Kamijou, staring into the distance and feeling very glad he didn’t have to deal with a live broadcast.

Maybe everyone just had too much time on their hands while forced to stay home all day. Choosing to stay home during the holiday and being told you couldn’t leave the house were two very different things.

(This martial law thing is scary. I never thought being able to go where you want could feel like a luxury.)

Anna wasn’t driving their vehicle at full speed, but not because she was focused on the online TV show playing on the screen.

“I don’t trust the quality of the pavement on private property. Worse, this looks like tile, not asphalt. I hope we don’t break through all of a sudden.”

“Break through to where?”

“That question earns you 0 points. You didn’t even try to think first.” The little wicked woman’s voice was ice cold. “There is more to an amusement park than what meets the eye. There is a lot built underground like the giant motors and industrial power transformers for the thrill rides. For example…yes. Just imagine it, fool. Have you ever seen an amusement park with power lines strung up overhead? Any realistic equipment that would break the illusion are buried underfoot.”

Was that how it worked?

Kamijou took a look at the monitor Anna was messing with.

“But it looks like the Ferris wheel and the other rides are all stopped. Is it just too early in the morning?”

“You have a fool’s imagination. The attractions are put through test runs before the park opens to ensure safety, so amusement parks are actually quite busy early in the morning.”

Anna poked at the touchscreen as she answered. The exasperated sigh was quickly becoming her default state. She was probably making an adjustment to the self-driving, but the lack of a steering wheel made it hard to think of her as operating a vehicle.

Their motionless surroundings made it look like the giant amusement park had frozen in the winter cold.

But did that mean the martial law was to blame? The amusement park was district-wide private property, so if the people at the top – the management? – decided to shut it down, it could be shut down in a matter of seconds.

“But aren’t there a lot of people here? This has facial recognition boxes popping up all over!”

“Do not breathe on me in your panic, fool. Do it again and I will shove yellow mustard paste down your dickhole.”

“I would’ve thought a wicked woman would understand male anatomy better than that! Do that and it would explode!!”

“It makes sense to me,” said Aradia, also sounding exasperated.

Kamijou bristled at the thought of her shoving something in there too, but that wasn’t what she was talking about.

“You can demand people stay home all you want, but some people are going to head out regardless.”

It was before the park even opened, so these people weren’t breaking the rules to enjoy a day at this land of dreams. They appeared to be here for work. About half seemed to be park staff and half seemed to be truckers. The sudden declaration of martial law hadn’t shut down District 17’s unmanned factories (because no one had to show up for work there) and what were they supposed to do about the cakes, twisted donuts, and other park exclusive foods they had prepared the day before? Maybe it was a good thing Kamijou’s group had left the gas station early on Aradia’s suggestion.

Anna shut off the online TV show and displayed the outside footage on the full monitor.

“Wow. Hey, Anna, what are things like outside? The lack of windows scares me.”

“Foolish fool. There is a periscope linked with a camera at your seat. That is the loader’s seat, so it has secondary 360-degree observation equipment separate from the gunner’s.”

“If you say so.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………You’re the one who asked.”

“Wait, no, put that yellow tube away! You lost me at the peri-whatever part!! And unlike with my phone, I can’t exactly learn how this equipment works through trial and error! I could press the wrong button and launch some weapon or another!!”

“It’s called a periscope. You know, like on a submarine? Oh, are my words converting properly here?”

Aradia was actually speaking a mystery language called “common tones” rather than Japanese, but she still helped him out like a kind older sister. The way he could actually hear her saying two different things at once was kind of scary.

“Coddle him like that and his foolishness will only grow.”

“I didn’t start it. You can blame a certain Magic God for that one.”

Anna had no interest in a child with no drive to learn, so she ended up doing everything on her own. She poked her fingers boredly at the thin touchscreen from the commander’s seat.

“I’m still scared, Anna. Can’t you let me see outside too?”

“Sigh. Do you never shut up, fool? Here.”

Anna stood up from the commander’s seat and let him take it. He was worried about her leaving the controls, but she seemed fine reaching in from the side to make the necessary adjustments.

So the spiky-haired boy sat in the warm commander’s seat.

Then something happened.

Little Anna sat down in his lap.

What now? He was seriously unsure where to put his hands.

He ended up holding them overhead.

She also seemed weirdly smooth, so he looked down to discover she only had her baggy dress held up at her chest. This was more than he could have imagined. Her defenses from the rear were as nonexistent as with a naked apron!

His eyes widened further when Miss Sprengel did not hesitate to lean back against him.

“Um, Anna-san?”

“I’m kind of busy right now, so stay still. I don’t have time for questions. Besides, I doubt a fool like you would learn much from looking at the screen.”

“I thought you were being unusually accommodating, but you’re still upset, aren’t you?”

“Oh? Finally figured something out on your own, did you? Good job. I’ll have you know I am the type to hold a grudge.”

Kamijou felt a kick at the base of the seat bolted to the floor.

He looked over to see Aradia refusing to look his way. Nothing he did got any reaction out of her.

But he had bigger worries.

He took a look at the screen past Anna’s head and noticed a shocking development.

Ice filled his stomach.

“Those aren’t workers, are they? I knew Anti-Skill would be here. Yikes, that’s a lot!! And they have tanks!!”

The deep rumble of diesel engines approached from up ahead. One would be bad enough, but this was several lined up in a column.

Little Anna sighed in a bored way.

“Those are not tanks. They are infantry fighting vehicles.”

“What’s the difference? And that longer name sounds stronger if you ask me!”

“How many times must I remind you to think before you ask a question, fool? These are only about half the weight of a tank and they only use smaller guns with barrels the size of a clothesline pole. Those are 35mm autocannons. They might as well be peashooters compared to a 120mm. And the armor is aluminum to keep them lightweight enough for air transport.”

“Y-you mean they’re lower grade than ordinary tanks?”

“Yes, I do. Although they can still punch right through the Predator Octopus’s armor since it’s only armored vehicle class.”

“So I should still be terrified!!”

A sweet tremor ran through small Anna’s back while she sat in his lap. The wicked woman was apparently willing to be riddled with bullets if it let her torment Kamijou like this.

A convoy of tanks(?), armored vehicles, and military trucks arrived from up ahead. But they must have already been here. If not for the many military vehicles driving around this private property like they owned the place, the Predator Octopus would have aroused suspicion among the workers.

If Kamijou’s group was discovered, it would mean a battle, but the amusement park employees were all around. Not to mention that the Anti-Skill officers were all teachers.

If that deep siren began to sound, it was all over.

Aradia rubbed her bare feet together while still occupying the gunner’s seat. That was how she used her magic. The look on her face said she was willing to take action at a moment’s notice.

Kamijou gulped, but Anna casually flashed the headlights. Drawing attention to themselves like that sent ice down Kamijou’s spine, but the other vehicles returned the greeting in kind.

And they continued on.

The siren remained silent.

Apparently their identity wasn’t apparent from the vehicle’s exterior.

Did that mean it was better to move around like they belonged than to sneak in the shadows like a ninja?

Kamijou took another look around and saw a lot of Anti-Skill beyond the fixed checkpoints. They were stopping their vehicles in the area and receiving large artillery shells from the gunless tanks.

“Those are specialized ammo supply vehicles, fool. I believe they reused the same frame.”

“I feel like it would be more efficient to do this in the city.”

Was the risk of accidents lower if they kept things simple?

Anti-Skill was also gathering carts loaded with the kind of metal trays seen at all-you-can-eat buffets. More than hold food, they appeared to also heat the food with a heating element, allowing for cooking. The adults were gathering around and receiving breakfast from a strange vehicle that Anna smugly explained was a field kitchen. Unlike the students at school, they formed an orderly line without any fighting. ''This martial law thing is just like being at war,'' thought Kamijou (one of their prime targets), which would have angered certain people had they heard it. Anti-Skill really did look more like soldiers than schoolteachers here.

After nonchalantly driving by, Anna bit her thumbnail in his lap.

“Don’t relax yet, fool. They will discover who we are eventually. A military vehicle not found on the central datalink’s timetable is wandering around and loaded with live ammunition, after all.”

And there was no real reason they had to get through this without being discovered.

The fuse had already been lit. They only had to reach District 15 before the explosion.

“?”

The Predator Octopus came to a slow stop.

Not even Kamijou had to ask why.

He lowered Anna from his lap and grabbed the ladder. He opened the hatch and poked his head out to view the 50m-wide obstacle blocking their way.

“A river.”

“Failing to find the right answer while looking right at it is unusual indeed, fool. That is technically a canal since it was intentionally dug by the amusement park.”

Anna’s voice pursued him through the hatch smaller than a manhole.

River or canal, the 20tn mobile combat vehicle could not float in water. Crossing would require using one of the bridges and bridges were crucial for transportation. There was of course more than one, but even from here he could tell Anti-Skill had checkpoints set up on all of them.

They had built barricades from steel beams and barbed wire and they were shining large construction site lights. They also had the firepower of tanks and armored vehicles at their disposal. Were those stacks of boxes full of ammunition?

Approaching any of those bridges would be a bad idea.

Kamijou looked down into the vehicle which had become an oddly warm and sweet girl zone.

“Could we drive right by them in this vehicle like we did before?”

“That may have looked simple to an ignorant fool, but that was a risky gamble. And at an official checkpoint, they will not even let their own people through without an ID check for the vehicle and its occupants. Try it there and we will be exposed and forced to fight. …Which will lead the Bridge Builders Cabal and Kingsford right to us.”

Anna was right. If they could drive right through, they wouldn’t have had such a hard time last night either.

“If they’re watching all the bridges…oh, I know. Could we create a floating bridge or something?”

“With some wooden boxes and ropes we find lying around? I do appreciate the attempt to think for yourself, but anything sturdy enough to allow a 20tn vehicle across would be extremely conspicuous, fool.”

Aradia seemed unusually happy given he was letting the cold air in through the open hatch.

“Ugh, I can’t resist any longer. Move aside so I can get some fresh air too.”

“Wait, Aradia, there’s no room!”

With two of them, the small hatch was cramped indeed. There was only one ladder to stand on, so it was a lot like having two people crammed onto the same side of a kotatsu. What was she, a kind but weirdly careless big sister?

They were practically in each other’s arms while Aradia took a deep breathe of the chilly air.

But…

“What are you looking at, Aradia?”

“The park workers. They do us a great service by giving witches a positive image of magic and dreams, so I need to make sure they’ll be alright.”

''But you don’t care about Anti-Skill?'' wondered Kamijou, but did that mean he was too distracted by their surroundings? When he thought about it, if a normal person came to the amusement park, they wouldn’t be here to see the armed enemy force.

“For me, people watching is more than just a hobby.”

“?”

Kamijou looked puzzled, so Aradia changed the subject to the main topic at hand.

“Couldn’t we abandon this vehicle, cross the river on our own, and steal a different military vehicle on the opposite bank? This 8-wheeled thing can be remotely controlled to an extent, can’t it? We can send it into one of those dangerous bridge checkpoints as a diversion.”

“That can be our last resort,” said Anna. “I want to avoid stealing another vehicle if possible to reduce the odds of them noticing I hacked the datalink. Both because it robs us of transportation and because I don’t want to give them even the slightest hint that our goal is data related – that is, accessing the magic database in District 15.”

Kamijou felt they should also spend some time addressing the fact that crossing the river without a bridge during the middle of winter meant jumping into water that was near freezing and giving off a white steam. And wasn’t this river more than 50m across? The Transcendents might be fine going for a celebratory New Year’s swim since they were walking around in what might as well have been swimsuits, but an ordinary high school boy like Kamijou would freeze and be swept away before he made it across.

Amma kicked the ladder with her small foot as a warning, so the other two ducked back down and shut the hatch.

Kamijou heard the rhythmic sound of a Six Wings helicopter passing by overhead.

“We need to think up a way to safely cross the river.”

“I already told you it’s a canal. Get it right or I’ll drag you around town with a nose hook, fool.”

The other two tilted their heads with “what’s a nose hook?” written on their faces and Anna cleared her throat for some reason.

The girl(?) had stepped on the gas a little too hard, so she stammered a bit before continuing.

“But Academy City aren’t the only ones we have to worry about. Let’s just hope Mut Thebes and Kingsford are polite enough to wait for us to find a solution.”


===Part 5===

“Brr.”

Mut Thebes bent over, wrapped her arms around her shoulders, and shivered.

She was generally the strongest, but she was also a girl who couldn’t stand the cold.

She hated seeing her breath.

During her time in the cabal consulate, she had loved staying indoors and curling up next to the fireplace to keep warm. In fact, she had only ever gone outside to welcome Alice. Before going to bed, she would soak in the tub to warm her body, perform a thorough stretching routine to further increase her body temperature, drink some hot milk, cover her bed with three layers of blanket, and even set the air conditioner to 28 degrees. Not at all environmentally friendly.

(How are the Bologna Succubus and Aradia fine walking around dressed like that? Have they developed an insulation spell to keep themselves warm? And they didn’t tell me? No fair.)

She was in District 6.

But not because she had located the enemy here.

“You can move closer to the heater if you want, miss. Don’t be shy!”

“Thanks.”

“Are you part of the parade? I know it’s important to take the rehearsals seriously, but you’ll catch cold dressed like that this early. Make sure to wear your staff coat during off time! Y’know, the fluffy waterproof one!!”

“If you say so.”

“Oh, I know. Want some hot cocoa?”

“I would love some.”

[[Image:GT_Index_v08_BW2.jpeg|thumb]]

The Transcendent made sure to bow politely to the man with the gravelly voice of a smoker.

The board chairman at the top had declared martial law, but since it was a holiday, not everyone had been able to contact their employer. And employees couldn’t afford to be late the way students could. Thus, a decent number of employees and truckers had arrived at the amusement park for work and were now stuck there. Mut Thebes had joined one of the small groups that had formed across District 6. The people were gathered around an outdoor heater someone had dragged out from the back of storage. It was a giant metal umbrella containing the kind of compressed gas cylinder used for a portable stove and it was likely meant to be placed at a café’s outdoor tables or alongside the lines for the popular attractions.

“I’m a trucker myself, but I can sympathize with your situation. How can they declare martial law like this? How are you supposed to do your job if no one can reach the park, right!?”

“Well, I don’t actually work in the park…”

“Want some mochi? I have some left over from the holiday.”

“I will take four.”

“Oh, you’ve got an appetite. That’s what I like to see!”

The man shouted for someone to bring over a metal mesh. But how did a truck driver manage to cook these on January 1?

Mut Thebes dunked the fresh-cooked mochi in her hot cocoa for something resembling cocoa shiruko and enjoyed the multicultural flavor before looking into the sky above.

A giant craft flew by at surprisingly low altitude.

It looked like a large passenger plane with a giant plate on its head.

“An AWACS plane.”

The man appeared to be more traditional. He poured some soy sauce on a small plate and added sugar from a café-style packet to achieve the perfect tare sauce.

“It’s probably flying so low because District 23 is so close, but what’s the point of that thing in such a small city? Feels like a waste of tech, but maybe it shows how panicked the board of directors is. What’s the point of the martial law, for that matter? I’m not even sure who we’re supposed to be fighting.”

“What is an AWACS plane?”

“Basically a giant reconnaissance plane.”

“I’m not even sure what reconnaissance means.”

“Hm. It really just means you send it out to find the enemy. With the Academy City HsAWACS-05, that plate-like radome has a range of 1000km. It also has a big server and computer aboard, so it can order around its unit based on the data it receives. It can perfectly track more than 1500 enemy and ally craft and share lock info on 500 of them so its allies can attack them. If it gets a lock from afar, the fighters don’t even need to circle behind the enemy craft and carefully take aim. The thing is, it’s only meant to secure air superiority by circling the airspace in question from a distance. Oh, and I only know all this from video games. I love me some flight simulators! Lately, there’s been some great ones even on cheap smartphone VR.”

“Hm.” Mut Thebes looked overhead while poking her fork into and stretching the mochi she had dropped in her sweet mug.

This hobbyist had given her quite the lengthy lecture.

She hadn’t understood even half of it, but she didn’t need to understand every little thing.

The Bologna Succubus’s divination only worked once. She had already played that card. That meant her biggest necessity now was locating the enemy.

And she did not need to fly up into the sky and directly tear the parts from the craft.

It was early morning.

The holy sun had appeared in the eastern sky once more.

Its low altitude was convenient too. The AWACS plane’s large shadow was already moving across the ground and rapidly approaching her.

The brown girl crouched down and lovingly held the steaming mug between her hands. She took a sip of the sweet hot cocoa she had forcibly dunked her mochi in.

“Yes, this combination is a winner.”

===Part 6===

The first to feel a tremor up her spine was Anna Sprengel whose legs were gracefully crossed in the command seat.

A moment later, the Predator Octopus’s interior lighting switched to red.

“A radar signal? But wait – how wide range is it? You’re kidding. This entire area is awash with microwaves!?”

''Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

That din played outside again.

Academy City had detected something amiss. That siren signaled imminent death.

Kamijou paled.

“Can I speak? Explain to me exactly what the hell is happening and why!!”

Anna did not answer the idiot.

The 8-wheel mobile combat vehicle rapidly accelerated. They had been keeping their speed low to avoid suspicion, but that ended now.

Anna finally opened her mouth while glaring at the LCD touchscreen.

“Short answer: someone figured out where we are, fool. But that is a powerful signal… The worst part is we don’t know exactly who it was!”

“That’s not much of an answer! You’re only talking to yourself there!”

“Shut up. If you aren’t going to use your head to think, how about I squash your face below my butt?”

She had mentioned radar.

That would suggest Academy City since they were the science side, but Kamijou’s limited knowledge of the Transcendents was enough to know that wasn’t the only possibility.

Mut Thebes could absorb an object’s power by contacting its shadow with her own.

(And if Academy City noticed, they would have sent word by radio and Anti-Skill would move in from all of the checkpoints.)

Aradia frantically placed her hands on Kamijou’s shoulders, pushing him gently into his seat.

“We need to run because some dangerous tech is after us, right? But we can’t keep going because we can’t cross that large canal?”

That was correct.

So Anna was limited to the road running alongside the canal. By climbing the small bump and sending the entire 20ton vehicle onto the road.

But that wasn’t enough.

They knew some unseen person had located them and was closing in on them, but they couldn’t pull away from that pursuer and escape.

If this kept up, they would be caught eventually.

But if they charged across one of the bridges, Anti-Skill would notice them.

Anti-Skill had enough firepower to blow away their thinly-armored military vehicle in a single attack. The Predator Octopus had a tank gun atop 8 wheels, but it would have a hard time breaking through on the confines of the narrow bridge. They would have no escape from the concentrated fire coming from the checkpoint on the opposite bank. And if Anti-Skill blew out the bridge itself before the mobile combat vehicle’s full speed could get it across, they were done for no matter what its specs were. They wanted to avoid being trapped inside the thick tin can while it sank to the bottom of the frigid water.

Kamijou’s eyes widened.

“Anna, what’s the direction and distance of the enemy!?”

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe they’re from science and maybe they’re from magic, but they’re using microwave radar, aren’t they!? If they’re sending such powerful EM waves over such a wide area, ''they must be at the center point''!!”

Anna quickly jabbed her index finger at the touchscreen.

She updated the online map data. Like a typhoon prediction map, a large red circle was displayed with an X in the center.

“That was well done for a fool. I will reward you by gently stepping on you later.”

“Didn’t you threaten that as a punishment earlier?”

This wasn’t moving like an airborne AWACS plane. It was on the surface and moving along a District 6 street.

“So is it a truck?”

“It’s too powerful for that. This is at least AWACS level, but that would mean the size of a large passenger plane. It makes no sense for it to be on the ground.”

That settled it.

And she was close too.

“Mut Thebes!!” shouted Kamijou.

Something rounded a corner behind them with the movements of a speed skater.

It was white.

It looked like a giant object.

But it wasn’t. That was a girl with brown skin and long wavy blonde hair. The Transcendent was leaning forward and sliding along the ground with a massive rotating radome growing from her back. It was 9m across. That made it larger than a small bus, so her slight forward lean was enough for it almost entirely hide her from view.

Anna Sprengel was about as self-centered as they came, but she was left nearly speechless by this.

“It really is an AWACS. That radar rivals an antiair cruiser’s system and she’s really using it in heavily populated area at an altitude of 90m? It’s not as bad as a microwave oven, but that will at least burn anyone outside. It could even blind them.”

Explosive shockwaves shook the 20ton vehicle.

But not because someone was shooting at them

It was more like accidental explosions were occurring elsewhere all of a sudden.

“The powerful EM waves are setting off the artillery shells packed in boxes at the checkpoints. The exposed electric fuses are reacting.”

Aradia clenched her teeth at that.

Burns, blinding, and exploding ammo cases.

The witch goddess, who was bound by her conditions for salvation, gave a roar.

“Mut Thebes. You don’t deserve the title of punishment expert if you would cause this much collateral damage!!”

“Anna. Aradia too. We have to do this. We have to fight and stop her!!”

The 8-wheels continued racing along while the gun turned to face backwards.

Did Mut Thebes’s smooth movement come from using wheels she absorbed from a drum-shaped security robot? She gave a jerk of realization while she pursued them. With that radome larger than she was, she could see every movement their vehicle made.

“That isn’t going to hit, “ said Aradia. She was on the magic side, but she must have picked up on something.

They couldn’t afford to miss here.

The explosions triggered by the powerful microwaves were a serious threat. If even one shell detonated, the rest in the stacks of wooden boxes could go with it. That could easily kill some of the Anti-Skill officers or even the ordinary park staff.

“Don’t aim at her!” shouted Kamijou. “Aim at the road in front of her!!”

With a loud boom, the vehicle was hit by a sharp kick of recoil it couldn’t fully neutralize. Mut Thebes had been ready to dodge to one side or the other, so when a wide section of pavement was torn from the ground like a large wave, she stared with her jaw dropped before crashing right into it.

If she could predict their actions, their best bet was to create a wall fanned out in front her so there was no escape.

But that was unlikely to kill her.

Kamijou didn’t hesitate here because he had developed an odd trust in her.

But much to his surprise, the brown girl did not pursue.

Of course, this wasn’t because the attack had been effective. Something had crashed sharply into her from the side. A series of sharp crashing sounds arrived shortly after as she bounced several dozen meters along the road, taking her away from the canal. The vehicle’s interior lighting returned to white, suggesting the radar signal was gone.

That hadn’t been a metal artillery shell. Nor had it been a magic beam.

It looked like…a person.

“…”

Kamijou heard a small shaking sound.

It came from Anna Sprengel who had a cold sweat pouring down her brow.

“……………………………………………………………………………………………”

“Anna? Hey, Anna!!”

Kamijou quickly reached over and grabbed the thin touchscreen.

The Predator Octopus was currently racing alongside the District 6 canal at more than 100km/h. But he had no idea how to drive it without a physical wheel or lever.

He had leaned in toward the command seat, so he was nearly pressed up against Anna Sprengel. This let him hear her whisper.

She had seen something out there.

And the sight had broken her violent and arrogant pride.

“Anna…Kingsford?”

===Part 7===

Anna Kingsford’s method was quite simple.

She had not actually defeated Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass the day before. After fighting him enough to make it convincing, she had intentionally avoided a finishing blow and let him escape.

He belonged to Miss Sprengel.

By tracing his path, he would guide her right to Anna Sprengel.

“My, my.”

And Kingsford opted to spare the Predator Octopus for now and instead attack Mut Thebes first.

She had a clear and simple reason for this.

“You must ❌ do this, Transcendent. I don’t know what these ‘micro🌊’ things are, but you must ❌ harm the ordinary people who know nothing of 🪄.”

“What?”

Mut Thebes’s back was embedded in the side of a smashed tank and the white radome caught between her and the solid armor cracked before breaking apart.

Freed from the weight on her back, the brown girl extracted herself from the tank.

“Did you seriously pick a fight with a Transcendent over something like that?”

“🪄 was originally meant as a 🧰 to serve those around you,” replied Kingsford with a smile.

She was willing to bet her life on “something like that”.

Because she remained as dedicated to her magic name now as she had been a century before.

“…”

Mut Thebes’s silence did not mean she was overwhelmed by the great goddess of knowledge.

Her area of expertise was punishment.

And Transcendents could be heartless when someone did not fit their conditions for salvation.

She could separate herself from her emotions and present condition in order to coldly gather information on her target. In this case, she heard the rumble of a diesel engine driving away.

She used that to estimate her target’s location.

(I can’t use the AWACS anymore. And I don’t have direct line of sight, so I have to rely on sound. I will lose them if I can’t resume the pursuit within three minutes.)

“That is ❌ a good idea.”

Kingsford’s soft but smooth voice interrupted Mut Thebes’s thoughts.

She placed her finger on her slender chin.

“Do ❌ ignore the immediate threat to focus on your distant 🎯. For that matter, what makes you 💭 you can win this at all?”

“Are you Anna Kingsford?”

“I am indeed☆”

“''The original''?”

“''Of course ❌.''”

She didn’t even try to claim otherwise.

Casually abandoning that legend may have been something Miss Sprengel could never do.

“I am well past worrying about that. She too is an original. She has done a splendid job of achieving what I can ❌. Although she seems unaware of that fact. So I am willing to let her be the main ‘Anna’ in the history of Modern Western 🪄. I am ❌ more than a spell user. As long as I can serve those around me, I am ❌picky about what form that takes or what people call me.”

“Hm.”

Transcendent Mut Thebes’s behavior was unchanged.

With a dull sound, the color white burst from her right shoulder. She had absorbed the tank she had crashed into, so a 120mm gun suddenly emerged.

“I absorbed the shadows of the laser targeting and microwave radar this time.”

''Kaboom!!'' She didn’t hesitate to fire.

The shell tore through the air and was compressed to the absolute limit before its course veered to the side in front of Anna Kingsford. It looked so natural Mut Thebes nearly overlooked how odd it really was.

“?”

“True understanding is ❌ found in ⚔️.”

Anna Kingsford shook her head.

With that large witch hat on her head.

She was not bragging. The eyes behind her glasses displayed the look of a teacher marking a question wrong on her student’s test.

“Sadly, all you will find there is misunderstanding. I did ❌ do a thing. It was you that missed the shot, Transcendent, ❌ me.”

“Nonsense. That kind of pedantic argument can’t alter my spell.”

“My. My. We are both wielding the uncertain system of techniques known as 🪄, so how can you claim anything is reproducible or absolute, Transcendent?”

That meant Mut Thebes either had to overwhelm her with enough attacks or physically tackle her to break through whatever barrier had sent the shell off course.

But Mut Thebes was a moment too slow.

Kingsford clapped her hands together in front of her large chest.

“'' 🪄 power.''”

That was all.

There was no light, sound, color, or shape. But the brown girl sensed something – an unseen, unknowable field of oppressive density – appear between the two of them.

Anna Kingsford did not use flashy special attacks.

She took the common magic and ceremonies that even the beginners were sick and tired of and she honed them past the limit.

No more than that. But no one else could achieve this, so it allowed her to overwhelm all others.

It even let her gather up and harness the immorality, tragedy, and misfortune found all throughout this incomplete world.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing really. Hee hee. This rebuilt body appears to be more fragile than my original one. If I refined 🪄 power at my full 💪, it would destroy the ⚙️ parts. So I emit all the excess energy outside my body, which makes it easier for ‘nonexistent things’ to manifest. Think of it like how ⬆️-ing the humidity with a humidifier makes it easier for frost to form on the 🪟.”

A true expert did not normally say much.

So when the 2nd Anna did so, she was doing it for her opponent’s benefit.

The brown girl still didn’t understand, so the expert gave her a look of pity.

“''In other words, it is ❌ me who will defeat you.''”

A heavy footstep rang out.

It came from a blonde woman in a beige habit. …But was that really who this was? If so, how was her footstep powerful enough to shake the world around her?

The unknown entity approached with head lowered and radiating a bestial aura.

She held her hand straight out.

“Your number is 333, your nature is dispersion. You obstruct all bonds and I ask that you mercilessly tear apart this force building a tower of immorality and sacrifice.”

Something beat hard against the air.

A pair of bat wings had emerged from her back.

She slowly raised her head to pierce all with her gaze.

“Lend me your identity, ''Great Demon Coronzon''!!!”

“Kee kee ee ha ha! You would willingly use me, human? That’s quite the taboo you’re breaking. Feeling like naming yourself the wickedest man in the world again, Aleister!!?”

A series of bright lights and explosions followed.

An even more colorful spectacle had to be playing out in a territory invisible to human eyes.

===Part 8===

Kamijou Touma jumped within the mobile combat vehicle.

He had heard that explosion even through the Predator Octopus’s armor. It had sounded like a nearby lightning strike.

“D-did one of them get the other? But which one got which!?”

“That’s no cause for celebration! Once this three-way battle ends, the winner will be after us!! And they’ll have just proven they’re the most dangerous of the bunch!!” snapped back Aradia.

Anna Sprengel remained dazed. She had met that woman – Kingsford? – yesterday too, but her reaction today was entirely different. Her head rocked with the movement of the vehicle, almost look like a doll.

The tiny arrogant wicked woman was nowhere to be found.

(Aiwass, was it?)

Kamijou Touma desperately grabbed at the touchscreen inside the moving vehicle.

(She used her final trump card, but Kingsford is still walking around just fine. She doesn’t even seem injured. That means Anna’s secret weapon didn’t work at all! ''She had her worst fears proven correct''!! So the dread she was feeling turned to actual fear all at once!!!)

She had been turned into a face on a film canister – with no arms, legs, or even a torso.

In fact, there had to be something between the two Annas going back ''before that''. Something involving their overwhelming difference in power.

But for now, Kamijou had to gain control of the vehicle or it would plunge right into the freezing canal. Whether Mut Thebes or Kingsford emerged victorious, they would catch up the instant they resumed their pursuit if the vehicle wasn’t across the 50m width of the canal first.

But a high school boy like Kamijou didn’t know how to operate the vehicle using the flat touchscreen. He didn’t even know how to apply the brakes. He could guess it probably worked similar to a 3D game, but he was terrified of touching the wrong thing and firing the gun. Things never ended well when Mr. Misfortune left matters up to luck.

“Anna…”

He clenched his teeth and shouted into the little wicked woman’s ear.

“This isn’t over yet!! I don’t know what happened between you and Kingsford, but it’s not too late to turn things around!! But if you’re going to get over this, you have to make the attempt yourself. So wake up, Anna Sprengel!!!”

“To hell with this!!” shouted Aradia, fed up with it all.

But she moved to the ladder, not the commander’s seat.

“What are you doing!?”

“I’m not interested in figuring out this hunk of tech. But we’re in trouble, so I have to do something about it! And I can only think of one way!!”

Aradia shouted back her answer before pushing up the hatch.

The icy wind of their 100km/h movement rushed inside and the witch goddess climbed on out.

A yellow warning appeared on the edge of the console monitor. A laser emitter had detected an error. It was meant to detect slight deviations in the gun barrel caused by the heat distribution when firing and Kamijou couldn’t make heads or tails of the displayed message.

When he returned his attention to the external footage on the screen, he saw Aradia straddling the gun barrel.

Just like a witch might ride a broom.

“A witch’s life is at risk here.”

“Aradia?”

“Don’t you dare underestimate the goddess of all witches!!!”

The 20 ton mass began to float.

[[Image:GT_Index_v08_BW3.jpeg|thumb]]

In Shibuya on December 31, Kamijou had seen Aradia fly on a crosswalk signal. But still. Nothing could have mentally prepared him for her flying on the entire vehicle with him inside. He made sure to bite his right hand. He felt he deserved some credit for remembering to avoid touching the walls or floor.

If the LCD monitor was to be believed, the 8-wheel mobile combat vehicle had crossed the 50m canal. They hadn’t used a bridge, so they had slipped past Anti-Skill’s checkpoint network.

Aradia was right outside, but he heard her voice coming through the screen.

That helped it seem all the more unreal.

“Ah ha ha!! How about that, Kamijou Touma? This is a witch’s spell – the essence of witchcraft! It’s a liberating power that frees all men and women’s hearts from the world’s bonds!!”

“Hey, are you sure this is safe? Hey! Being this high up is terrifying!!”

Kamijou felt the same tension as if a cramped elevator had stopped unexpectedly.

But the witch goddess was in complete control, so she basked in the elation of soaring through the sky. These things were a lot easier for the one holding the reins.

“Hey. We’re already flying, so do we even need to land on the opposite bank? Seems to me flying all the way to District 15 would be faster.”

Now that she mentioned it, maybe she was right.

And now that they were this high up, the fear of heights vanished. Had they risen 400m? The average building rooftop was below them at this point.

Kamijou Touma was just starting to entertain the idea when the vehicle’s interior lighting went red again.

That meant radar.

The fast approaching sounds of rotors came from an entire group of Six Wings unmanned attack helicopters.

“Take us down right this instant, Aradia, you stupid sexy banana woman!! The airport radar detected us and decided we’re an enemy aircraft!!!”

“Uh, oh! Will this city’s stupid tech never give us a break!?”

===Between the Lines 3===

Mut Thebes’s right half was embedded in a wall. And not close to the ground either. That wall was on the side of a bungee jump platform.

Aleister and Kingsford had already moved on.

Academy City’s focus must have followed them because the siren had stopped.

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

The brown girl cracked her neck as she extracted herself from the wall and used the simple elevator to reach the ground.

(Ordinary airbags are surprisingly useful.)

She tore away the deflated white shape tangled around her skinny frame.

A difference in strength was a nonissue. ''No matter who she was up against, she would eventually fill the gap in strength with a snowball effect.'' She was a Transcendent of the Bridge Builders Cabal. That meant she used a broken spell that could singlehandedly achieve victory against the entirety of the magic side if used right.

So more than that, she felt surprise from the side of her that was a punishment expert.

(She didn’t even check to see if her defeated enemy was dead? That Anna Kingsford must be ''too'' strong. A strange concept.)

“Brr, it’s cold.”

Mut Thebes shivered and held herself. She wanted to get this job done with and head back home where it was warm. Hopefully the consulate still existed.

The commotion had grown a lot.

Those Anti-Skill people had decided their checkpoints weren’t working and had started to spread out more. They used tanks, armored vehicles, and what were those other ones called? Whatever they were, Mut Thebes doubted those ''puny tools'' would be enough to repel Kingsford.

That woman was not Mut Thebes’s target, but it was worth coming up with a plan for her if she insisted on interfering with this punishment job.

Needless to say, Kingsford did not fit the brown girl’s conditions for salvation.

(But this could be a problem. Kingsford isn’t a Transcendent, so the Shrink Drink won’t work on her the way it will for the other Anna.)

She could protect something by killing. It was all for a free and fair society.

Mut Thebes fought to protect whatever she had decided was her territory. ''For now'', she was the goddess and queen who did everything in her power to protect the Bridge Builders Cabal from external threats.

Which was also why she had made no move to stop the internal conflict between the cabal members in the consulate.

“Hm,” muttered the girl as she took a look around. Was there anything here she could use?

She wanted something larger and more bizarre. She wanted something on an irreversibly large scale.

This amusement park district was lacking in reality. She spotted something while walking alongside the canal. Something was moored to the side of the canal by several chains thicker than her arm.

Was this an amusement park attraction? But it didn’t appear to be a movie replica.

A nearby sign gave the specs of the new prototype being displayed.



Next Generation Aircraft Cruiser – Fugaku

Length: 300m

Full Load Displacement: 106,000 tons

Speed: 50 knots

Power System: fluid dynamic power generator + support diesel engine (Output: 45,000 kW)

Based on a “bigger is better” philosophy, the ship produces unrivalled firepower and extraordinary long range with 35cm guns and large cruise missiles. But it does not end there. All excess rear firepower was removed to make room for an electromagnetic catapult. This allows it to also carry 40 HsF/A-49 Sharp Frame single-seater multipurpose stealth fighter craft. The latest version is also equipped with 200 laser attack units, allowing it to fully neutralize any airborne objects, including enemy aircraft and ballistic or cruise missiles.

The fluid dynamic power generator is exactly what it sounds like. The resistance of traveling through a fluid such as the air or the seawater is utilized to generate energy. A cargo ship weighing tens of thousands of tons can be broken in two by a storm or large wave if the containers are loaded poorly. This demonstrates the unimaginable power carried by waves, so by harnessing that power, limitless power can be acquired while effectively only floating in the ocean.

The aircraft cruiser classification went out of style for a while, but it has been revived as the world’s most powerful warship using the latest Academy City technology, which allows for direct and indirect attack and defense using its various armaments. In particular, the antiair radar and ballistic prediction supercomputer provides the ship with strategic-level missile interception infrastructure even if it is cut off from the central datalink by an attack on the land facilities or by high-level electronic warfare.



“Hmm.”

The sign was exceedingly long, so Mut Thebes didn’t bother reading past the 4th line before nodding.

“300m. It should at least catch them by surprise, right?”

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