Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume15 Chapter1

Chapter 1: A Deadly Misunderstanding – New_Weapon_ZONE.

Part 1

Hamazura Shiage was trapped.

He was inside a small, cramped silver box.

According to his phone’s broken screen, it was just before 4 PM on January 9.

The space was a die-like cube with two or three meter sides. It was probably no more than a cargo container with a lock attached so it would function as a prisoner transfer cell. Transporting humans like cargo was in violation of aviation law and international law, but Hamazura had apparently been arrested by the British government(?). When treaties between nations were involved, apparently the rules could be easily bent.

Justice was cheap.

From individuals to entire populations, interpretations of it were easily changed by circumstances and convenience. In light of that, Coronzon trying to destroy the world based on the vague ideas of good and evil didn’t seem all that bad.

…Or maybe that was why. Coronzon had taken the side of evil, which had allowed her to accurately sniff out the deception. Had she wanted to stabilize the world by focusing on an absolute value system that existed separate from good and evil?

But more people than she had expected had rejected that.

Maybe Coronzon really had been a great demon.

But the world was aflood with small evils, wasn’t it? When brought together, there may have been enough to kill and surpass a great demon.

“Kh.”

He held a cheap smartphone with a broken screen.

That small device contained the AI named Aneri.

He wasn’t just a Level 0.

So no longer could he use his lack of power and talent as an excuse to ignore the choice to fight.

He must have been angry.

He must have felt it was unforgivable.

…His feelings were directed at the entire world that hadn’t hesitated to kill Coronzon to reclaim balance.

A trump card had undeniably found its way into Hamazura’s hand. He knew that. How he made use of this one-time-only opportunity would greatly change what happened afterwards. He could sense that he stood at a crossroads.

He couldn’t bring himself to accept something here.

They had called Coronzon a great demon, ganged up on her to attack as a group, and celebrated a world without her. They had rejoiced the return of a peaceful age. Maybe no one getting hurt was a good thing, but that didn’t meant he could fully accept what had happened.

(But…)

He hung his head.

Aneri was waiting. Like a well-trained butler or maid. If he gave the word – if he relied on Aneri – it would likely do anything for him. It wouldn’t hesitate even if that meant breaking Japan’s laws or Academy City’s rules.

However.

That was the thing.

Going on a meaningless rampage to break everything around him wouldn’t satisfy him. This couldn’t be solved by indiscriminately attacking innocent people.

He hated this world.

But he had a feeling that method wouldn’t satisfy him.

Coronzon had tried to create a better world.

A new world filled with just, kind, and beautiful things.

Her methods may have been extreme, but ultimately she had loved this ridiculous and imperfect world. So taking the easy and indiscriminate path of evil felt wrong here.

(Then what exactly do I want to do with this world? I have a reason to change it and I’ve been given the power to do that…but what exactly should I do with Aneri? What the hell would be best to honor Coronzon’s memory!?)

So to make it very clear, Hamazura Shiage had not actually arrived at a decision. Without a goal in mind, he hadn’t had any intention of ordering AI Aneri to do anything.

And yet…

Clatter clatter.

The delinquent boy heard a sound.

A weird sound that had no connection to his own will.

The tightly locked cell door suddenly opened. More specifically, the metal shutter for the die-shaped air cargo container opened straight up.

But no one was there.

All he saw outside the cell was what appeared to be an indoor space awash with artificial light.

Hamazura stared past the steel door he hadn’t asked to open into the visible slice of a bright world and asked a question.

“Aneri, did you do that?”

His phone buzzed twice. As if shaking its head no.

Apparently Aneri hadn’t done anything.

…Then why had this happened? This cubic container had been modified into a cell, so it would never open all on its own. Or had the Brits in charge of the cell opened it on purpose? Were they itching to shoot him dead as a fugitive once he took even one step outside?

“No, I must be overthinking this…” he told himself.

Yes. Going that far was overthinking it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t afraid. Coincidence or not, he knew thoughtlessly leaving the cell would only exacerbate his situation.

The question wasn’t where he would go. It was why he would leave.

“…”

He needed a goal.

What could he do for Coronzon?

Even with Aneri, he shouldn’t make any kind of move without a goal in mind.

(Will they blame me for this too? Damn, what a pain. Well, I know those ‘righteous heroes’ are conspiring to get me found guilty, so what’s another charge or two?)

That offhand line of thought was interrupted.

“Wah!!”

He heard a dull whump.

In the container yard where ordinary travelers weren’t allowed.

Was she lost?

A small girl of around 13 had tripped and fallen just outside the open door. She must have been wearing an adult size because the sleeves fully hid her hands and it came down to her ankles, making it hard to balance. The chestnut-haired girl wore a fluffy oversized coat.

But she didn’t complain of the pain or start crying.

She didn’t even get back up as she stared at a certain point.

The girl’s terrified eyes weren’t directed inside the open cell. She was looking at something Hamazura couldn’t see from his position.

The clacking noises he heard clearly weren’t human footsteps.

“N-no… Help.”

It slowly approached the trembling and frozen girl.

Hamazura could finally see it.

Was it a police dog, or a more specialized drug-sniffing dog? Either way, one of the large Dobermanns used for airport security was wandering around off its leash. And it wasn’t alone. There were five of them. At that point, they were a pack of wild animals.

To make matters worse, the girl’s baggy sleeves were shaking.

Fear wasn’t something you could suppress through sheer force of will. But when those trained dogs saw the “threat” of her moving arms, they would react by biting at them and dragging her to the floor. A thoroughly trained Dobermann’s jaws could cause critical damage to that small girl’s thin arms.

Hamazura was certain of it after being chased by Anti-Skill dogs through Academy City’s back alleys.

He knew all too well what would happen if no one intervened.

And he had encountered the situation a second before it happened.

…It was time to decide what was good and what was evil.

The question wasn’t whether or not the metal shutter was open.

If he was going to obey the rules, then staying in the cell was unquestionably the correct choice.

No additional circumstances changed the fact that Hamazura Shiage was a criminal and the rules said he couldn’t leave this cell without permission from Academy City or the United Kingdom who had custody of him.

Even if a Dobermann’s sharp fangs sank into the 13-year-old girl’s arm and dragged her to the floor and even if the pack of dogs tore her to pieces like she was an old rag. Even then, the correct choice was to stay put and wait until whoever was in charge showed up.

That would prove he was a rule follower, the world managed by justice would gradually accept him once more, his crimes would be forgiven to an extent, and he would be able to return to society sooner.

He would be able to live as one more harmless and heartless “good person”.

“To hell with that.”

A dull “thunk!!” sounded.

The source came from within the open cell. Hamazura Shiage had thrown his phone, scoring a direct hit on the Dobermann’s face. It probably goes without saying at this point, but if you weren’t afraid of bricking it, a smartphone made for a decently heavy and solid weapon. They weren’t compared to bricks for no reason.

For a brief moment, they flinched.

Not just the muscular Dobermanns, but the scared and trembling girl as well.

Hamazura slowly emerged from the cubic cell.

After being rejected by society and living in the filthy back alleys, he knew flinching like this would freeze an opponent in place like they were paralyzed, but it wouldn’t last forever. If you actually wanted to save someone and not just put on a tear-jerking performance, a single blow wasn’t enough.

So…

“Go.”

He kept it short.

And he moved to stand between the Dobermanns and the girl whose name he didn’t know.

“Hurry.”

He heard an “au” sound that could have been a word or a breath.

Her staggering escape was unsteady. He could have caught up to her at a brisk walk. For that matter, what was she even running from? The pack of large dogs, or the dangerous criminal who had emerged from the cell?

(As if it matters.)

She wouldn’t be mistaken if she thought of him as a villainous criminal.

He had lost all interest in what was “right”.

He didn’t want to amass good deeds so he could be known as a good person.

For that matter, these Dobermanns wandering the airport off their leashes weren’t even an absolute evil in his mind. This was all needless pain and violence. If the airport workers who managed the justice of this place had actually done their jobs, these dogs wouldn’t need to be disparaged as evil in the first place.

“…”

There was something there.

Hamazura felt a small but unpleasant stimulus deep in his mind.

Because this reminded him of Coronzon who had lamented that the world couldn’t function without someone like her to tear people’s bonds apart.

An electronic alarm sounded from a short distance away. From his phone lying on the floor.

Aneri was sending him a warning.

Just as his attention focused there, the Dobermanns made their move.

Maybe they weren’t even looking at him at all. It looked to him like their legs were trying to carry them toward the fleeing girl’s back.

He shouted to the cracked phone lying on the floor.

“Aneri!!”

→PK→→PGP←→KKPKT

The industrial LCD screens on the walls and pillars were all hacked at once.

(P and K I get, but G? And what is T? Throw maybe!?)

Whatever the case, he had the optimal answer.

He only had to memorize it and follow it.

It was less like gritting his teeth and duking it out with an enemy and more like playing an arcade dancing game. He moved his hands and feet as the instructions told him and found the powerful Dobermanns had already been brought to the floor.

It was refreshing how the dull impacts seemed to reach him only after the fact.

“Oh, sorry…”

The five Dobermanns had all been knocked out in just three seconds. That was less than a second per dog.

If only Coronzon had been stopped like this. If only someone had done that.

He knew it was a silly hypothetical, but still.

“…”

And he couldn’t forget that this was AI Aneri’s power, not his own.

“I get the feeling you’ll be overclocking my brain one of these days.”

He was answered by a short buzz.

He wasn’t sure how to react to a response of “Yes, shall I do so now?”

The immediate threat of the Dobermanns had been neutralized and the girl who had been unfortunately targeted had escaped. There was nothing else for him to do.

Returning to the die-like cell would be the right thing to do…probably.

He collected his phone from the floor and hid behind a different container.

Not even he was sure why he had done so.

The next change had already begun.

Part 2

“Kamijou-chaaaan, you really are going to be held back this time.”

The 135cm teacher named Tsukuyomi Komoe smiled at him.

Inside the faculty room after school.

Kamijou Touma was sweating profusely.

“Wow, congratulations. I’m so flattered you so wanted to spend more time studying with me that you would set your entire life back by a year.”

“Wait, wait, please wait!! Stop upping the scale of the problem here. I have a more grounded question I’d like to ask. I’m being held back? Like, that’s for sure? Then why did I even bother dying and coming back to life to protect the world!? It sure as hell wasn’t to have this happen!!”

“Try to confuse me all you like, Kamijou-chan, but I am a civil servant. Government jobs where paperwork is everything can be heartless, but you really won’t be able to avoid being held back if you don’t fix this immediately. Do you remember how you were officially considered dead and we even had a funeral for you?”

“Yeah, but I got the frog-faced doctor to confirm I’m alive!!”

“The document saying so never arrived here. What did you do with such an important document? Without that, I can’t count your attendance even if you are in class. We don’t run a ghost school where the dead are allowed to take classes.”

“But I sent it.”

“It never arrived.”

“I stuck it in one of those big document envelopes, covered it in stamps, and shoved it inside the mailbox!!”

“And I’m telling you it never arrived. Also, you shouldn’t cram one of those thick document envelopes inside the red mailboxes on the side of the road. You’re supposed to drop it off at the post office.”

…Did this mean what he thought it did?

Kamijou had sent the important document, but it had gotten lost during the delivery process and never arrived at the school?

“H-how am I even supposed to find it now? Ahhhh, why don’t they let you search for the GPS location of your delivery like they do with packages from online stores.”

He had had a bad feeling about it from the moment he learned it was a paper document. Ever since smartphones became the norm, physical documents began to feel weird. When he could have submitted it online in seconds, why did they still use such an outdated system!? The government should really think more about the feelings of people who had just dealt with dying, journeying through hell, and coming back to life!!

But Komoe-sensei didn’t seem all that concerned.

“It’s probably in District 23, don’t you think?”

“Huh? That’s where the airport and rocket launch pads are, right? Why would it be there?”

“Because the most high tech cargo and mail management system is located there. And customs processing too. They have machines read the labels and automatically sort the mail, but I’ve heard any that can’t be read and get lost will end up in that district. Occasionally they keep trying to deliver one of my packages when I’m not home and I have to go pick it up there.”

Yes. That was why Kamijou Touma paid a visit to District 23 after school.

…Which leads back to him capturing two dangerous girls in the supposedly ultra safe international airport.

Part 3

“Tatemiya-san.”

“Yeah?”

Exceptionally large Tatemiya Saiji casually raised a hand to greet the small nun who wore special sandals with soles more than 20cm thick.

They were in the employees only area of the massive international airport.

Specifically, in the air cargo container yard.

“He got us good. I thought for sure he would wait until we were outside Academy City if he was going to try and escape…but maybe you can’t expect a fugitive to think rationally when they have nothing left to lose. We won’t be able to predict what he’ll do next.”

It only looked like a silver die with two or three meter sides at first glance, but it was in fact a cell made of the finest Anglican techniques. Even professional magicians like Tatemiya and Agnese weren’t confident they could escape on their own if they were locked inside…yet the metal shutter had easily been opened.

Agnese Sanctis put a hand on her hip.

“He’s just some high school boy led astray by Coronzon. …When I first heard about it, I thought witch hunt grade was overkill for the cell. I mean, the keyhole uses a twisted loop lock to keep it shut in a Möbius shape. Trying to break that would only be an endless waste of time.”

“And yet he managed to escape. Do you really think an ‘ordinary high schooler’ could do that?”

Tatemiya watched as Itsuwa, Nomozaki, and the other Amakusas slowly circled around the die-like container. They drew out a large circle on the floor with fine salt, erecting a barrier around the container.

They had intentionally made the barrier extremely weak.

Any trace of magic power would break the barrier, allowing them to detect its presence.

A reading here would at least tell them which direction he had fled in…but their hopes weren’t high.

Fleeing of his own free will meant Hamazura Shiage had no intention of receiving a fair trial. They had to assume he would act hostilely toward the Anglicans.

The question was what harm his negative emotions would lead to.

“I did what research I could into Hamazura Shiage after he sided with Coronzon, but he’s nothing special. Using science’s terms, he’s a Level 0, which means he can’t do anything on his own. And as a Level 0, the changes to his body prevent him from using magic. In that sense, he isn’t too much of a threat.”

“Do not underestimate Level 0s.”

The look on Agnese’s face said she knew a very obvious example of why that was a bad idea.

“Yeah, that’s the thing, isn’t it?”

Tatemiya sighed softly.

Although that pointy-haired boy was such an outlier he probably wasn’t a useful data point.

“The problem is, ultimately, Coronzon.”

“But she’s supposed to already be dead. …Are you suggesting he’s come down with Stockholm syndrome and is still trying to help her?”

“It’s worse than that.” Tatemiya readily rejected that idea. “It’s easy to overlook it since being a demon with a physical body made her an extreme exception, but on a fundamental level, angels and demons are collections of energy.”

“Sitra Achra.”

The material that was the root of all evil.

The remnants of the old world that remained in the current world which had supposedly been perfectly designed. Their very presence caused the world to malfunction and brought about all sorts of misfortune and tragedy.

Agnese had heard that Great Demon Coronzon herself had mentioned the term. Although then it had looked like a small crystal and she had used it like a stun grenade.

Tatemiya Saiji nodded.

“And Telesma can be infused within all forms of matter in the physical world. In talismans, amulets, clothing, magic circles, buildings…and even people.”

The tension in the air didn’t just come from Agnese.

She was a leader with nearly 250 former Catholics under her command. She had to avoid reacting too much and spreading excess confusion to the others.

So she asked a cautious question.

“You mean her Sitra Achra was imbued within Hamazura Shiage?”

“I don’t know.” Tatemiya shook his head. “After all, the records show this wasn’t his first contact with Coronzon. To be honest, I don’t think she had time for any extra detours with everything else going on in Academy City. Not to mention that the two of them could only have been in physical contact for about an hour.”

“But…”

“Yes, what if she had set this up back when they were together in the UK? That would change things.”

The analogy was far from perfect, but it was like hypnotism.

Once a long time had been spent setting things up in the target’s head, only a snap of the fingers was needed to produce the desired effect. In that case, any time restrictions were irrelevant.

Hamazura Shiage had spent a significant period of time with Great Demon Coronzon in England and Scotland. Not even the Anglicans knew what the two of them had discussed during that time. It was possible he had received something from her during that unobserved time.

And Hamazura himself might not have even been aware of it.

“If Coronzon’s Telesma – her Sitra Achra – was placed inside Hamazura Shiage, it changes the threat level considerably. He can’t fire Adikalika with only Coronzon’s power…but if he filled in some of the holes in his abilities, it could become possible.”

Espers couldn’t use magic.

…Or so they said, but it was more accurate to say the differences in espers’ bodies meant the process used to refine their life force into magic power would cause malfunctions and side effects that shredded their blood vessels and nerves.

So it wasn’t a sure thing.

With a separate energy source like Coronzon, he wouldn’t need to use his own life force at all. So the possibility remained that he could use a superhuman demon spell without any of the side effects.

Not to mention that, if Hamazura chose to self-destructively use a powerful piece of magic, he might be able to push past the side effects regardless.

That would lead to a world-destroying spell activating at the cost of a single boy’s life.

Agnese sighed.

“Even if he’s a Level 0, if an Academy City student launched an attack on the Vatican using Adikalika, we’d be right back where we were. No, it might actually be worse than when an outside force like Coronzon had hijacked the city.”

Sitra Achra acted like a computer virus you thought you had fully expunged from the system but returned after the recovery process was complete. They had defeated Coronzon themselves, but the threat of Adikalika persisted.

A continuous vague threat was not a good environment for diplomacy.

“That said…we did defeat Coronzon once. Even if Hamazura Shiage had received a portion of her power as Sitra Achra, he can’t be any worse than she was, can he?”

“Don’t be so sure.”

Agnese seemed to be trying to force a positive spin on the idea, but Tatemiya shot it down. In fact…

“That may have been Coronzon’s limit as a purely magical being, but Hamazura Shiage might have more knowledge of the science side than she did. He’s drawing on a different knowledge source. If the mixture of magic and science triggers some bizarre chemical reaction, his simple power ranking might not mean much.”

The sample size was too small to say anything for sure.

And Tatemiya wouldn’t be the only one who wanted to fill the blanks with pessimistic predictions as a defensive measure.

“Besides…it was practically a miracle we defeated Coronzon the first time around. How many different groups and plans do you think were at work that night? Are you confident we can intentionally gather all that around Kamijou Touma a second time?”

Think of it like summer homework. That had been the absolute peak of their ability, so their long-term plans would fall apart if they assumed that as the baseline.

They had to act on the assumption that wouldn’t happen again.

Agnese was also an outsider underling, so she must have caught the scent of some dirty work. She grimaced.

“Then we have to deal with the escaped prisoner…like that?”

“I doubt our Priestess will give that sort of order.”

That was just the kind of person the leader of the Amakusas was.

One look at Kanzaki Kaori’s Magic Name was enough to know she would never allow killing. The wicked were no exception there.

However.

Who said that was any reason to relax?

Tatemiya Saiji’s eyes were on another two standing a short distance away.

Stiyl Magnus and Isabella Theism.

Their atmosphere…no, their world was different.

“Those two are genuine Necessarius members. So they probably will order a witch hunt. …In other words, to kill him once we find him.”

Part 4

“Aneri, do you know what they’re talking about?”

The cracked phone buzzed twice.

Meaning no.

“I can’t tell either.”

Hamazura Shiage was in the container yard.

He was hiding behind a nearby container.

Who were those two? Nuns and street-style girls had joined them in a hurry. They appeared to be a mixture of ethnicities and nationalities.

At any rate, this told him what the UK’s policy was concerning him.

Kill him once we find him.

“…”

They seemed to think he was an unprecedented villain. Even though, since Aneri hadn’t done anything, he had no idea how the cell’s door had opened.

It didn’t look like they would be willing to hear what he had to say.

If he put his hands in the air and surrendered, he was pretty sure they would just put a bullet between his eyes.

(The material that acts as the root of all evil. Sitra Achra. Coronzon’s power, huh?)

He repeated the ideas in his head.

And then smiled self-deprecatingly.

(I’d appreciate it if I really was holding a special ticket like that…but this is the real world. A Level 0’s not gonna be given a convenient overpowered insta-win ability without even having to work for it. They’re reading too much into this.)

He was a thorn in their side. He could risk his life and he could rescue a stranger, but the arbiters of justice didn’t care. They could causally kill the “runaway criminal” with impunity and some VIP might even give them a medal for it. With a word of thanks for saving them the trouble of spending the people’s taxes on keeping him in prison.

He felt two vibrations in his hand.

Coming from his cracked phone. AI Aneri was asking for new instructions.

(If I surrender, they’ll just kill me. So what am I supposed to do?)

He didn’t have a goal in mind.

He had escaped the cell and was free to act once more, but what exactly could he do?

Go home?

Would he find a peaceful life there?

For that matter, was a peaceful life even what he really wanted?

He had to consider what it was he wanted.

…Yes, that’s right. He only wanted one thing: to figure out what he could do with his remaining life for Coronzon now that she had died. If he had any freedom at all, he needed to fight and search for that answer.

Part 5

She was eating curry.

Were all the people walking by on their way to or from one of the cooperative institutions? Among all the businessmen moving to and fro, Leivinia Birdway was eating beef curry in the international airport lounge.

Kamijou Touma couldn’t keep up with her.

“Why curry rice? Two dangerous people traveled all the way to Japan and something’s clearly about to happen, and you’re eating curry rice!?”

“It’s not my fault Japanese airports have great curry rice for some reason! And this is a Japanese specialty, just like sushi and tempura. You can’t find curry rice in India and you can search far and wide across Europe without finding this ‘European-style’ curry they only make in Japan!!”

Lessar was really into it too. She had ordered the seafood curry. She was making a valiant defense of her plate whenever Birdway’s spoon approached to steal some.

Did their government plane not serve an in-flight meal?

“Without Mark and the others with me, I need someone else at my beck and call. You can shirk that duty if you want, but if my fools decide you were rude to their cabal boss, you might just receive a ‘thank you visit’ from a group in black suits and sunglasses, so be careful.”

How could he react to that except to tremble?

…But why was it Kamijou’s duty to serve Birdway anyway? Hadn’t Lessar been sent with her for that kind of thing???

But then Lady Birdway’s face went blank.

And she spoke with her voice pitched horrifyingly low.

“if you don’t want to, that’s fine. I can always make do on my own. Hmm, I see how it is.”

“Eh? Wait, where did this terrifying atmosphere come from, Birdway-san? C-c’mon, stop puffing out your cheeks and pouting your lips and look at me. Now can you smile for me?”

“Don’t provoke her. If the boss of the infamous Dawn-Colored Sunlight decides to take this seriously and goes all out, this entire area will be reduced to rubble!”

“Wait!? But all the mail lost across Academy City is supposed to end up here in District 23. If you include the packages containing a single bar of soap people ordered online, that’s tens of thousands a day! If I have to search each building, room, shelf, and box for the document proving I’m alive, I’ll never find it. If I can’t check their giant computer for it, it’ll be lost forever, so don’t destroy it! My life will be overrrrrrrrrr!!”

“Hmph.”

The curry-eating girl wouldn’t look him in the eye, much less smile.

This meant she had more or less taken his future hostage! Thoughts raced through Kamijou’s mind. …Birdway and Lessar were essentially a pair of little bombs and he couldn’t afford to let them out of his sight. It would be best to stay with them until he had that document in his grasp.

Lessar cackled like this had nothing to do with her.

“By the way, Kamijou-san, where are your usual companions today? Y’know, the big-headed nun and the big-headed god.”

“Don’t let them hear you say that…”

“”What, you want us to start keeping secrets just between the two of us? Welcome to the start of a sordid and immoral new life!!”

Kamijou had only come to District 23 because Komoe-sensei had suddenly given him the “held back” death sentence at school and he needed to get her to reconsider. He had come here directly after school without even stopping by his dorm where Index and Othinus were waiting.

With a look of dawning realization, the joking light vanished from Lessar’s eyes.

“…Wait, you mean this is a real opportunity?”

“Hey, those eyes are terrifying.”

Getting her to look after Birdway was looking like a far distant dream.

Birdway herself poked curiously some red fukujinzuke with her spoon as she spoke.

“So Hamazura Shiage, you say? Quite an interesting piece to appear on the board.”

She said it like she was enjoying rolling a piece of hard candy around in her mouth.

And with a thin smile.

She had met Hamazura before, hadn’t she? In Kamijou’s dorm and elsewhere.

…The name was beginning to gain some real significance for Kamijou as well.

Hamazura Shiage had witnessed the moment of Great Demon Coronzon’s death. In the shipyard containing a sliced drone carrier, he had shouted “wait”. And Kamijou hadn’t done so.

Kamijou had killed Coronzon to protect the world.

But what was the world for Hamazura?

“So he really was the criminal they were handing over. …What about him?”

“Well, he certainly is a threat. After all, he knows things about Coronzon no one else does. Maybe she was a cute, lonely, and pure girl. If he started spreading and disseminating information about Coronzon, she might start gaining supporters. No, in that case, it would be called proselytizing and evangelizing, wouldn’t it? Heh heh. For the Church of Coronzon, perhaps? You can see why the Anglicans are so on edge they built a special cell for him.”

“…Really?”

This was sharply diverging from his expectations.

The Church…of Coronzon?

Coronzon’s death had turned Hamazura into a threat. …Kamijou had assumed that was a scientific and physical issue like the possibility of him directly starting a firefight or setting off a bomb.

Birdway shrugged.

“You didn’t think killing Coronzon herself would immediately clean up all the problems she was spreading around, did you? A human’s influence on the world doesn’t vanish the instant they die. And here we’re talking about a great demon straight out of myth. It wouldn’t surprise me if her death actually caused her presence to grow. …And in every era, there is a subset of the population who are fed up with their lives. If those people start gathering around the banner of Coronzon, it could lead to an apocalyptic ideology spreading around the world. You can imagine the Anglicans and Academy City aren’t fond of that idea.”

“Are you sure? From a business standpoint, a global crisis seems like a great chance to win yourself some believers. Ha ha ha. The apocalypse is the ultimate opportunity!”

With her usual penchant for inappropriate comments, Lessar appeared to have $ signs in her eyes. But wait. Did they even use dollars in the UK?

“Hamazura Shiage took Coronzon’s side. That brought some very real disadvantages for him and got him treated as a criminal, but his psychological stance hasn’t changed. That makes him living proof that people can worship an absolute evil. If one person has done it, then there’s a chance more will as long as the conditions are right.”

There are no pure demons. “Demon” is a word people use when they want to deride the gods of people they dislike.

…According to Index, that had been Aleister’s theory.

Coronzon was known as a great demon, but based on that theory, she may have the traits necessary to draw people to her outside of a certain mythology.

The seeds planted in Hamazura were bad news whether he sowed them around or let them sprout within him.

In a way, they were even more dangerous than Adikalika or Dakshina Kalika.

Part 6

Hamazura Shiage gulped.

The row of metal detectors and luggage scanners were just like he had seen on TV and in movies.

“Kh.”

(Not good. I must be at the immigration gate for international flights.)

Security here would be tighter than anywhere else in the international airport. He would be in deadly trouble if he didn’t stop running around at random and actually memorize the airport’s layout. AI Aneri’s general stance was to help him with whatever he wanted to do, so it couldn’t sound the alarm at the stage of where he was going or what he was doing.

Still, this was bad. He had to get somewhere else fast.

He of course had no idea what exactly he would do after escaping. But for now he didn’t want to be caught and killed by those Brits.

What could he do for the late Coronzon?

The green light of an emergency exit caught his eye.

If only there was a door that let him escape his entire life.

An exit that would let him and his girlfriend Takitsubo escape danger and live on some distant tropical island.

“Wait!!”

A loud voice called to him from behind. A familiar girl’s voice.

“Kh.”

At times like this, someone he didn’t know might have been better.

Hamazura stiffly turned around and spoke, his voice scratchy.

“Dion…Fortune?”

“That’s right, Hamazura.”

The short girl accepted his gaze head on and nodded.

“Can you tell how dangerous a position you’ve put yourself in? No, sorry. You wouldn’t have done something so reckless if you could. Running away of all things was like offering up your head and asking to be killed. This country has the phrase about grasping at straws too, right? I know how you must feel, but you’re just running around without a clue where to go, aren’t you?”

He couldn’t answer.

She was right…but he wasn’t sure if he should let her know that.

“I can show you the way. I will act as your steady ship and solve all of this for you.”

“…But you’re with them. You’re one of those Englicans or whatever.”

“I am. And my point is I can protect you as the top of the Anglicans.”

“Protect me?”

“I am the leader of their organization. Their Archbishop. Maybe it’s just for show and only meant to be temporary, but I can use real authority for as long as I sit in that seat. That means I won’t let my many subordinates lay a finger on you. …If there’s anything you’re still uncertain of concerning Coronzon’s death, I can use all the Anglican Chruch’s resources to investigate it for you. Hamazura, do you have a better way of turning your vague dissatisfaction into a concrete goal?”

“…”

“Then come with me!! Leaving your cell and running around is like asking to be killed. And if you’re going to accomplish anything, you first need to make sure you’re safe. I can do that for you. You have me, Dion Fortune, as your trump card! Not the Anglicans or Academy City!”

Her reassuring words just about had him grab her outstretched hand.

Until he was interrupted by some ear-splitting beeping.

Coming from his cracked phone.

AI Aneri had triggered the maximum alarm.

Hamazura instinctually pulled his right hand back a little.

Fwoosh!!!

Immediately, something sharp shot by between him and Fortune. It looked like an arrow made of light.

And when he glanced over, he saw them.

It was hard to tell at first because they looked like the street type, but he was being watched by a malicious-eyed group keeping their distance. And it looked like they were ready to snipe him with…an esper power? Magic? Well, some kind of paranormal power that didn’t rely on guns.

A young woman with her black hair worn in a ponytail held her palm out toward him.

He was pretty sure she was with the Anglicans.

Was he just pure evil in their eyes? Dion Fortune must have been able to see his feelings rapidly drifting away from her because she shouted frantically to him.

“N-no, Hamazura! I don’t know what happened! I didn’t order them to do that!!”

“Sorry, Fortune…”

Dion Fortune wasn’t a bad person. He knew that much.

But he did not take her outstretched hand. Because he would be killed if he did.

The girl’s shocked expression was engraved into the back of his mind.

But he still said it.

“I’m through relying on justice’s claims of righteousness.”

Part 7

Hamazura Shiage had run away.

Dion Fortune watched him go.

With her untaken hand still held out in the empty air.

Even though he had once risked his life to save her when she had come apart into a deck of cards.

His actions here…made him an enemy of the Anglican Church, the member of the three great Christian sects that specialized in battling human magicians. It was a foolish, amateurish, and suicidal choice. A clever professional magician would have hidden any hostility they might have had.

In other words, Hamazura was not behaving like a professional.

So was he really the person the Anglican Church and its collection of professionals from around the globe should be pursuing?

What were they doing to one of the ordinary people they were meant to save?

(And on that note…)

Dion Fortune snapped at Kanzaki for acting without permission.

“What the hell are you people doing!? Have you forgotten I’m the Archbishop at the very top of the Anglican Church? I won’t let any of you kill Hamazura! I’ll use every last bit of my authority to ensure it!!”

“That’s the problem, though, isn’t it?”

The gloomy voice that interrupted belonged to Necromancer Isabella Theism.

Dion Fortune hadn’t been asking for opinions. Interrupting the Archbishop was itself disrespectful, but she didn’t seem to care.

“You’re going too far in supporting him. Whose going to follow the orders of a leader who can’t keep an objective and impartial view thanks to her personal feelings? Especially among us Anglicans who protect the world from wicked magicians.”

“Wha-?”

“For that matter, aren’t you an original grimoire taking the form of tarot cards? You’re a Golden magician manufactured by Great Demon Coronzon herself. It wouldn’t surprise me if you had been manipulated to subconsciously support Hamazura Shiage…or rather, Coronzon’s remains.”

So she was bringing that up.

Dion Fortune’s thoughts were her own, but insisting so would be meaningless against someone who opposed her. Isabella knew that, so she sneered thinly. While watching her boss’s downfall.

It appeared Isabella wasn’t the only one to hold this opinion.

Despite the many people gathered here, not one of them moved to defend Fortune. In the end, was she nothing more than an outsider to them?

Stiyl Magnus glanced over at the “no smoking” sign on the wall and lit a new cigarette as he spoke.

“Influential members of the Royal Family and the Knights have been expressing concerns too. That means you no longer have the backing of the adults. …It’s time, Dion Fortune. You were put in place as a temporary figurehead to prevent chaos in the absence of an Archbishop after Lola Stuart’s downfall. I’ve heard you suggested the idea yourself and convinced Her Majesty the Queen. So you should make yourself scarce before you start causing chaos yourself.”

She had no interest in political power. She had known from the start she would eventually lose it.

But Hamazura Shiage was a different matter.

He was not a magician, so he shouldn’t be killed by the rules of the magic world. She couldn’t let these people give up on him for their own convenience like this.

She couldn’t as the Archbishop, even if she was an interim figurehead.

She couldn’t as one of the original Golden magicians who had laid the foundation of the magic system that existed to this day.

…And more than anything, she couldn’t as his friend.

So she scoffed.

“As if you could stop me, fool.”

“Then die.”

Stiyl didn’t hesitate to respond.

The place burst into motion.

Sister Lucia held a giant wooden wheel in front of her and it burst on its own. The sharp splinters formed a scattershot wall that rushed toward Dion Fortune. And bags of gold coins – which were heavier than hammers – used glowing wings to weave between the gaps of the splinters to fly toward Fortune’s head and solar plexus. Those were Angelene’s.

But she was unharmed.

Dion Fortune only had to hold out her right hand.

It held a black box.

“Translate, simplify, and create anew.”

It was swallowed up.

Both the wall of scattershot splinters and the flying coin bags.

“Archetype Processor. …I can’t believe you would try to take me on with ordinary magic without any kind of twist to it. Don’t underestimate an original member of the Golden cabal, little girls!!”

Crash!!

When the lid reopened on its own, filthy mud rushed out as if from a hose. And this mud contained a mountain of metal shards the size of guitar picks that would strip the flesh from the bone of anyone it touched. If Kanzaki hadn’t laid out countless wires to set up a barrier, that is exactly what would have happened.

(Honestly, why couldn’t you direct that tear-jerking spirit of charity toward the amateur lamb who was manipulated by a great demon without any knowledge of the magic world?)

If they couldn’t manage that, Dion Fortune would have to beat them down and confiscate their right to wield justice.

Using her duty and authority as Archbishop of the Anglican Church.

She bared her teeth and roared.

“Unlike a certain right hand I could mention, this spiritual item doesn’t just safely and comfortably negate your magic. It randomly transforms it and not even I can predict what form it will take. Peek inside the open box at your peril. There you will find the very sin and karma you directed at others!!”

Since it was completely random, there was only one reason why Fortune wasn’t caught in the explosion and killed too: pure luck. And that sort of incalculable factor was the most frightening thing in combat.

And.

Dark-skinned Necromancer Isabella Theism whispered under her breath while paying no heed to the harm that had come to her allies. She looked perfectly relaxed.

Her words formed an obvious curse.

“Thou art the dark king who rules all below the horizon. Thou art the ruler of the house that welcomes the sun god. Thou art the mighty manager of the night and thus the ruler of half the day – and therefore half the world. Thou art the god who may always be resurrected if the proper ritual is performed even if thy body is destroyed, torn to pieces, and scattered across the land. Thou art the great king of death, equality, justice, and of thy own sacrifice. I am prepared to welcome thee here.”

Cold sweat poured down Dion Fortune’s brow.

This…this one was truly bad.

This was one of the mythological symbols that even the Magician Crowley had valued highly. The Aeon of Isis, the Aeon of Osiris, and the Aeon of Horus… Even a middle or high school student who had perused the R&C Occultics homepage a bit would be familiar with those terms.

More than that, Dion Fortune herself had once met a woman calling herself Magic God Nephthys in London. It wasn’t that she had been no match for her. The difference had been so overwhelming she couldn’t even work up the will to try and fight. And this god was ranked higher even than Nephthys in the ancient myths.

Dion Fortune shouted, wide-eyed.

She named the nemesis who stood in her way.

“Underworld God Osiris!?”

Part 8

The two small girls, Lessar and Birdway, walked to the souvenir shops in the duty-free area near the lounge. Their eyes landed on a certain product shelf with great interest.

“Wow, they’ve got so many different kinds of condoms.”

“Well, Japan is known as the king of rubbers. I’ve heard their silicone technology is impressive. Seems like a frivolous use of technology to me. Could this be why their birthrate is so low?”

“…”

They travel all the way to Japan and this is what they choose to focus on? Kamijou couldn’t follow their reasoning.

Lessar trembled a little.

“But why would anyone need one in an airport? …Gasp!! D-do they all use them on the plane? Now there’s an exciting idea!!”

“Okay, this conversation ends now.”

Birdway toyed with a pair of binoculars, although it was unclear what use they would be in an airport.

But her attention shifted elsewhere.

“Hm, something is happening here.”

“See, I told you this would happen.”

“?”

Kamijou frowned.

Told her what would happen?

The plan was for Hamazura Shiage to be handed over, right? These two had taken a British government plane to Academy City, but they hadn’t joined the Anglicans. Was this related to why they were acting on their own?

“Hey… This isn’t funny. All the lost mail in Academy City ends up here. If a bunch of big macho magicians go nuts here in District 23, I won’t be able to search for my document!!”

“If that’s the worst of your worries, you can count yourself lucky.”

He didn’t like the sound of that.

Did that mean they were about to enter a phase where he had even bigger things to worry about!?

Birdway snatched a five-color permanent marker set from a shelf and addressed him.

“Listen, Kamijou Touma. Today is going to be a busy day. A lot of things you didn’t expect are going to happen. But no matter what might happen, remember this one thing.”

She provided a much too ominous prophecy.

“Our quarry is a magician. Capturing Hamazura Shiage is unfortunately not enough to settle this.”

Part 9

He ran away.

Refusing Dion Fortune’s proffered hand.

Now Hamazura Shiage really was on his own. While still a fugitive who could be killed as a villain at any time.

And while he couldn’t work with Fortune, she was, in a way, correct. So correct that her words had pierced him sharply.

…A drowning man will grasp at straws.

That perfectly described what was currently driving Hamazura. Maybe anyone would do the same when their life was on the line, but he needed to do something about the thought process leading him to act so haphazardly. If he really wanted to survive, it wasn’t the straws floating on the water’s surface he needed to grasp when doing so meant using up one of the few action tickets he had left. He needed to evacuate to a firmer and sturdier goal, like a boat, island, or continent.

But what exactly was there?

It would sadden his girlfriend if he died. Now that he had chosen to act, he had to make it worth it.

“Aneri, search for a path to an open lobby!”

His cracked phone buzzed twice. Apparently Aneri was concerned he would be seen by too many people. But the negative vibration did not change Hamazura’s mind.

There was no perfectly safe route here.

“Sure, no one’ll see me if I go hide in a narrow, deserted dead end, but that’s just offering myself on a platter to be killed. I need more innocent observers around so they can’t get at me!!”

He was working from the baseline of not wanting to die.

Since the Anglicans planned to kill him on sight, he couldn’t just approach them with his hands in the air. They would simply kill him as planned.

In that case…

“Getting arrested by Academy City law enforcement like Anti-Skill or Judgment would be best. For me.”

The cracked phone buzzed twice.

Aneri was apparently asking why.

“Like I said, I doubt those Brits will even hesitate to kill me if they find me and there’s no one else around,” said Hamazura. “But what if other people are watching? Academy City must have accepted some kind of explanation for handing me over to Britain. They expect the Brits to give me a fair trial. So can they choose to give me a summary execution here just cause it would be easier? By placing an Academy City resident between me and the Brits, they won’t be able to kill me even if they want to.”

And while the Brits were sitting around trying to figure out what to do, Hamazura could enter a cell and let himself be arrested. That would rob the UK of their justification of killing him because he was a dangerous fugitive.

Enemies from a major power could be frightening, but that also meant they had to obey the rules of their home country. And they didn’t have the right to kill an appropriately managed criminal on their own discretion.

(Sounds like Aneri doesn’t know much about politics and diplomacy. Well, that makes sense for an AI that only has to be correct. When all you have is data to understand a world full of imprecise things like conjecture and reading the room, making precise predictions can’t be easy.)

“So what’s the quickest way I can get Anti-Skill to arrest me? The immigration gate for international flights? No, that’s where Fortune was. I can’t go back there. Other than that, maybe the office that handles drug enforcement? Anyway, Ane-”

He started to give a command, but his mouth froze mid-word.

He noticed a smell that didn’t belong in a public facility. He caught a faint whiff of cigarette smoke.

Puzzled, he looked around…and his eyes were drawn to a decorative column.

“What is that card?”

Something was pasted there. The smooth laminated object was about the size of an ordinary credit card. But what was that drawn on it? It looked kind of like a letter composed of straight lines, but he could tell it wasn’t English at least.

The card wasn’t alone.

He saw a second and a third. …No, they were pasted all over the lobby. On the floor, on the walls, and even on the ceiling located higher up than in a gym!? He might not have given it much thought with just the one, but the sheer quantity made it creepy. What the hell were they?

And that wasn’t the only thing out of the ordinary.

This was the spacious lobby of an international airport, yet he hadn’t seen a single other person for a while now!?

The cracked phone suddenly played its loudest alarm.

“Aneri, what is this!?” he shouted, already getting down.

He had already developed a habit of obeying Aneri before asking what was happening, which proved fortunate for him in this case.

It would have been at his neck height otherwise.

Something orange raced by horizontally, burning the air and exploding. Flames erupted in a single direction like a fiery avalanche. Empty air was scorched. If Hamazura had remained standing, he wouldn’t just have lost his head – his charred mincemeat would have been scattered across the area.

He would swear no one had been there a second earlier.

Hamazura frantically rolled away along the floor. He had his hands full staying alive, so he didn’t care how this made him look.

“Eek!?”

Someone appeared as if from thin air.

Without any warning whatsoever, they appeared less than three meters away from him.

Right in the middle of the giant airport lobby with nothing at all to hide behind.

He heard a gloomy voice.

“Thermo? No, was it that phone’s signal? Did you spot me with a makeshift anti-personnel radar using microwaves? …Honestly, this is what makes Academy City so strange and disturbing.”

(That wasn’t meta materials!? Did he use heat or something to expand the air and bend the light!?)

Simply put, a mirage.

While Hamazura was familiar with the natural phenomenon, it was still uncanny seeing someone make such skilled use of it. Something felt so badly off his skin tingled.

Was that 2m guy…a priest? He had long hair dyed red, a barcode tattoo under one eye, and a cigarette in his mouth. None of those things seemed very priestly, but it was his eyes that most clashed with that identity. This clearly wasn’t the sort of person who kindly listened to people’s worries and provided advice. Those were the eyes of a predator.

“Well, at least the people clearing field is up. Now we don’t have to worry about any normal people getting mixed up in it. So let’s enjoy this, enemy of all creation who chose to stray from the righteous path.”

(This disturbing feeling… I can’t be sure, but I don’t think he’s even an esper!!)

“Kh!! Aneri, a little help!”

A booming sound dully and deeply stirred up the air.

The scene ahead of Hamazura was obscured from right to left by an enormous, thick steel wall extending like a police baton. A fire shutter. The ceiling here was even higher up than in a gym, but the airport had to protect its guests from the threat of fire and smoke. This thick wall worked much like a maintenance hangar’s giant shutter as it cut off the space between Hamazura and the big guy.

“Okay, I need to get out of here before that guy can find a way around! Aneri!!”

This was an international airport. They dealt with jet fuel here, so the fire shutter was blessedly thick.

Or so Hamazura thought.

Until he heard some kind of…unpleasant…and very sticky sound.

“…”

The fire shutter built to aviation accident standards turned orange and melted before his eyes. Like it had been thrown into a blast furnace.

A large hole formed.

And the tall priest didn’t hesitate to step through with red and blue flame swords in his hands.

“You have got to be kidding!” shouted Hamazura, wide-eyed.

A moment later…

Crash!!!

It came from the side.

A 10-ton tanker truck crashed through the airport wall and slammed into Stiyl Magnus.

Maybe it was out of habit, but the redhead priest swung a flame sword toward the incoming object on reflex…and only then recalled it was a tanker truck.

He stopped the motion, but it was too late.

And this was a special vehicle loaded with the special kind of jet fuel used at international airports.

It exploded.

Hamazura was watching from a good distance away, but even he was thrown horizontally when the wall of compressed air hit him. He knew he had to have slammed into the floor less than a second later, but his sense of pain was just gone.

He ignored the intense ringing in his ears and gathered all this strength to shout into his cracked phone from the floor.

“Aneeeri!!!?”

He felt two buzzes.

He looked to the cracked screen to see a photo of the tanker truck moments before it exploded. Aneri was probably trying to show him there wasn’t anyone in the driver’s seat, but that wasn’t his only concern.

That priest hadn’t died, had he?

Hamazura was struggling to his feet and worrying about the possibility of secondary and tertiary explosions when the sea of flames swelled out from within and exploded again.

“Come forth, Innocentius.”

His heart froze.

He heard something. He thought he heard a voice from beyond the orange flames.

He saw a dark figure. A big one. No human was that size! Maybe the lighting was creating an optical illusion, but he didn’t have time to confirm that!

“Forget worrying if a stranger survived!! I’m getting out of here!!”

Was that guy a magician? They were honestly too much for Hamazura. After living in Academy City’s back alleys, he knew scientific espers were bad enough, but those magicians were something else entirely. They inspired a nastier fear that couldn’t be explained by cracking open a physics or chemistry textbook. The fear of taboos, of curses, of divine punishment, of hexes.

But.

No, maybe “so” was the better word.

All of a sudden, she was there.

He didn’t even have time to blink.

Quite literally so. The next thing he knew, a woman with a long black ponytail was running alongside him. But this wasn’t a case of her ignoring the distance between them by teleporting in. The explosive blast of wind that blew in a moment later was undeniably the sonic boom created by her compressing and pushing the air out of her way.

In other words, she had broken the sound barrier.

Without using any kind of gear. If the textbooks he never read anyway couldn’t explain these people, could someone tell him what he could rely on to understand them!?

“This is bullsh-”

He didn’t even have time to complain to the world how unfair this was.

Her sword flashed.

The fact that she was wearing a nearly 2m katana at her hip in a supposedly safe airport was bad enough, but now she was attacking too fast for his eye to follow. He couldn’t even hope to dodge or defend. Before he even knew what was happening, the world seemed to spin around him and his back slammed into the floor.

How had she used a sword to flip him around?

He wished someone could at least explain that to him.

“Gah!!”

It knocked the breath from him. The flow of time returned to normal, but he wasn’t at all happy about it. He wasn’t used to feeling pain and agony from inside his body instead of at the skin level. In other words, he was terrified. The idea of an out-of-body experience was starting to sound awfully nice.

Gasping for breath, Hamazura used what little air was in his lungs to shout.

“Do it, Aneri!! I don’t care what, just do it now!”

Another empty tanker truck crashed in from the outside world.

It changed nothing.

The ponytail woman didn’t even swing her ridiculously long katana. She artlessly held her empty hand out to grab the 10-ton vehicle barreling toward her and stopped it. Easily.

With a thunderous “thoom!!”, the large truck’s bumper and engine grill dented deeply in. The wipers bent and the windshield shattered. Meanwhile, the katana woman didn’t seem to have a scratch on her.

…She was on another level entirely.

Even Aneri fell silent. The AI would smoothly answer any question the human asked, so he had never even considered the possibility of it not having an answer. How much of a monster was that woman!?

Hamazura couldn’t rely on Aneri anymore.

Those dangerous people had been unleashed. Dion Fortune claimed to be in control of the Brits, but where was she now? He seriously doubted she was safe.

What could Hamazura do on his own?

He couldn’t escape.

Part of that was his inability to make full use of AI Aneri’s abilities. …But in the end, the biggest problem of all was that he didn’t have clear idea of what he wanted to do now that he had left his cell.

What could he do for Coronzon by gritting his teeth and surviving?

He could never defeat anyone if he hadn’t settled on a goal.

(Dammit.)

What was he doing?

That fundamental and critical question rose in the back of his mind.

This entire incident wouldn’t have happened if he had stayed put. No one would have had to wield any kind of deadly power. This slapstick comedy of meaningless slaughter wouldn’t help anyone out there.

He wanted to live. To survive.

The more he wished for that, the more confusion and chaos he spread through the world. The more trouble he brought people, the more they hated him, and the more he was pushed to the outskirts of the world.

…Just like happened with Great Demon Coronzon.

(Dammit!!)

He didn’t know what this invisible “something” was. What kind of mine had he stepped on here? He could definitely feel the outlines of something unfair and unreasonable, but his underdeveloped vocabulary couldn’t produce the words he needed to tell him what it was!!

Hamazura didn’t even have the strength left to shut his eyes in the final moment.

That was when it happened.

He heard a dull, dull impact.

He was dumbfounded.

Hamazura was accustomed to violence as the recipient, but even he froze.

That was not a sound a human being made when punched. The heavy metallic tone was more like the peal of a giant bell.

And the ponytail katana woman who had presented such an insurmountable threat suddenly flew straight to the side. That monster had stopped a 10-ton tanker truck with a single hand…but some other monster had knocked her back well over 15m with a single punch?

“Hwa ha ha☆”

It was a girl.

The excessively thin blonde girl wore an apron and a thick blast-resistant coat covered with sheet copper. Did her sweet aroma come from the terrarium of various flowers contained on the inside of her coat? The metallic tone had apparently been the result of punching someone with the coat’s overlarge sleeves. They appeared to move independently even without her arms in them.

Hamazura didn’t know her name.

But another boy who Hamazura loathed would have recognized her immediately.

She was one of the Transcendents.

Specifically, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.

Hamazura had shown up late to the battle against Great Demon Coronzon, so he didn’t know everything that went on there. Still, hadn’t that girl been working with Kamijou Touma? Wouldn’t that make her one of those who hunted Coronzon down, calling her a Great Demon!?

“What the hell!? Whose side are you on!?”

“Huhh? Did you think I was on someone else’s side? Ah ha ha! I very clearly just saved you, but you still can’t believe it? You must be really hated to have trust issues like that!”

Even Hamazura could tell she was talking down to him.

And that she had the power to back up that attitude.

After all, the focus here had completely shifted away from the katana woman. The entire world had accepted that she was the star of this scene.

Apparently she could joke around in such a hopeless situation because she even blew him a kiss.

“To be honest, Coronzon was fairly tempting too, but she was actually rejecting the love she was given. If not for that, I could have protected her along with the rest of the world’s hated people. I did let the amateurs handle things that night, but that doesn’t mean I grant that resolution a perfect score or anything.”

“Wha-?”

“If you want to know why I was fighting by Kamijou Touma’s side yesterday, well, that’s why. I just wanted to stop that ridiculous mess from harming the many unknown hated people on the other side of the world who wouldn’t even have been counted among the statistics. So all I wanted was to prevent the end of the world. I didn’t actually hate Coronzon so much I wanted her dead. But now Coronzon no longer exists as the greatest threat to the world. I say that wipes the slate clean on your threat level too. And if the world is still going to unfairly hate a harmless leftover like you…well, then this is a job for me. I hope you’re ready, world, cause I’ve got a light, happy, and comical lesson to teach you. Don’t think you can stay so cold and heartless forever☆”

Hamazura was speechless.

This was ridiculous.

It was goddamn ridiculous, but Hamazura still felt himself trembling.

There was still someone left in the world who would talk fairly about Coronzon instead of just calling her a Great Demon!

“I have just one salvation condition: someone thoroughly hated by the world as a whole.”

She held a finger to her lips.

The emaciated girl whispered alluringly. With a melting look on her face that felt at odds with her appearance.

That monster explained her primary purpose in life.

“A boy who sided with a great demon, lost, and still can’t bring himself to spit on the person he bet on? A human being who decided to stick to his guns even if it makes the rest of the world loathe him? …Now there’s a way of life I can get behind. So I now recognize you as passing my Transcendent salvation condition. The isolation your choices have brought you may be self-inflicted, but I, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, will show you that it was neither meaningless nor worthless☆”

Part 10

The airport lobby had been thoroughly destroyed.

More than a hundred footsteps thundered together. Anglicans, Amakusas, former Roman Catholics – various groups adjusted their formations with spiritual items in hand. They rearranged their positions to place Blodeuwedd the Bouquet at the center.

Unsteadily, but definitely under her own power, Kanzaki Kaori stood back up.

She was one of the fewer than twenty Saints in the world.

“Kh, I am willing…to overlook that.”

“Ohh? You’re fine after taking a Transcendent attack to the head? You’ve got one solid cranium, don’t you? Or is it your brains? Do you just have more muscle packed inside your head?”

“Hand Hamazura Shiage over to us. Do so and you need not be harmed.”

“Hey, now! I just provoked you. Don’t act like this is a polite conversation.”

“You fought alongside us to protect the world from Great Demon Coronzon. We may not know who you Transcendents are, but I would still feel bad cutting you down the very next day.”

“Oh? …You think you’re better than me?”

Hamazura gulped and looked up at Blodeuwedd the Bouquet from where he sat on the floor.

Yes, she was ultimately one of those who had gathered to hunt down Coronzon.

The monster herself sighed at his look of fear. With the face of a wounded girl. As if to say his gaze hurt her more than the armed group surrounding her.

Kanzaki continued speaking.

“As a Saint and a Transcendent, we are both extraordinary magicians. We have too little data to predict what will happen if we clash head on. What if Hamazura Shiage, who you are attempting to illegitimately protect, is harmed by the side effects of our battle?”

It was a touching attempt at persuasion.

But grinning Blodeuwedd the Bouquet didn’t miss that Kanzaki Kaori had her hand on the hilt of the sword at her hip. And careful observation also showed that her fingertips were precisely manipulating thin wires rather than the sword.

“You act all benevolent, but you’re just distracting me so you can launch a supersonic surprise attack.”

“Your accusations mean nothing.”

(Hmm. Is this why that Hamazura guy bloodlessly flipped around and fell to the floor when she attacked with her sword? She must be able to capture you with the wires and throw you. I bet she used a similar trick to stop that tanker truck with a single hand.)

Apparently Kanzaki Kaori was willing to handle the dirty work if it meant she could keep the enemy from dying. Very noble, but Blodeuwedd the Bouquet had no patience for a leader so beloved by her followers.

“Making people hate you like that isn’t bad, but weren’t you paying attention? I’m siding with Hamazura Shiage right now.”

So.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet took a step forward.

Casually.

Fwoosh!!!

Blackness roared out.

That blackness was in fact thousands, or tens of thousands, of crows shattering the tempered glass to break in through the large windows. In a bird strike, the crow sucked into the passenger plane’s engine could even cause the plane to crash, making them hated at international airports – even though the crows didn’t do it intentionally.

The encirclement specialized for anti-magician combat collapsed.

The Anglicans had had an overwhelming advantage in numbers, but in this moment they became the minority.

A rapid shift came over the state of the battle.

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was a Transcendent. Her mere presence changed everything.

The Anglicans were blotted out.

Of course, the Anglicans weren’t just going to take it.

“Tch!”

“No hard feelings if I take out more than necessary! My time scavenging for food in the back alleys didn’t leave me with many good memories regarding crows and rats.”

Flames shot from Tatemiya Saiji’s large flamberge sword and Agnese swung down her Lotus Wand to bring down a distant group of crows like they were hit by a hammer.

These were only crows, after all. Their numbers were overwhelming, but each individual one was weak. Deadly magic could easily eliminate the threat. However…

“Are you sure that kind of shortsighted thinking can get you through this? You’re free to kill, but don’t forget that all life is considered equal.”

She cackled.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet looked down at the Anglicans with an obvious sneer on her lips.

“Each life you take will be added to your list of sins, so do be careful. The count is accurate. You can’t cheat it. The most dangerous of the deadly risks out there are the ones where the threat isn’t apparent at first glance. And once you’re trapped, it’s too late to work up a countermeasure☆”

When you curse someone, dig two graves.

That phrase might sound like a fair system on par with the law of action and reaction, but there was actually a loophole. …When the number of lives on one side was far greater, the system ceased to be fair.

Badump!!

There was an odd sound like a heartbeat. No, maybe it really was a heartbeat.

The magicians’ and nuns’ faces changed color.

From red to blue and then to purple.

Hamazura didn’t have the specialist knowledge to know what was happening deep inside them.

But he could see their eyes opening wide.

He didn’t know what was happening, but even an idiot like him could tell those people were suffering. He couldn’t celebrate that his helper was so overpowered with this going on!

A person’s face wouldn’t turn that color even if you strangled them with a thick rope.

It was of course Blodeuwedd the Bouquet who Hamazura shouted at.

“Hey!! All you have to do is keep me safe. I didn’t ask you to kill them!”

The Transcendent tilted her head.

She was confused. She really did seem to find this puzzling.

“Umm, but they’re seriously trying to kill you.”

“So what?”

“They made no attempt to find out what kind of person you are and just decided to kill you because you had an evil friend.”

“Again, so what!? I don’t want to see people die. Is that so wrong? They may be dumb as hell, but that doesn’t mean we have to think on their level! So just stop this!! You said you were taking my side, didn’t you!?”

He heard a quiet sound.

No, it was laughter.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet…was it? The emaciated girl doubled over and her shoulders shook with laughter.

“Ohh…good, good. Siding with you was so the right decision. I may have stumbled onto a real prize this time.”

When she raised her head again, the short girl’s flushed face displayed a hint of inappropriate sensuality.

“I love that sort of hated person☆”

The density of the black color increased.

Apparently his attempt had severely backfired.

But a thick pressure pushed back against the black storm of crows.

Was it that katana woman?

“Nwa ha ha! Go, Hamazura!! Let the magician handle that magician. I’ll see it through! Besides, I don’t like the way those supposedly righteous Anglicans are dragging an amateur into the ring, ganging up on him before he can even figure out the rules, and declaring victory for themselves!!”

“Are you saying those Anglicans or whatever can still turn this around? But they see me as a villain. And there’s no reason you have to go that far to help me!”

He couldn’t let Blodeuwedd the Bouquet handle it all. He was officially known as a filthy fugitive. He appreciated that she didn’t look down on Coronzon as a great demon and her support had tears welling up in his eyes, but if she lent him a hand, it could end up with her being on the run too.

“Hey, if you stay here, you’ll just get hit by a stray shot and killed. Probably anyway.”

He decided to run away.

Part 11

Itsuwa of the Amakusa Church paled as she leaned on her spear.

She gulped.

But not because of Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s spell that made one pay for a life with a life.

She had caught sight of something inexplicable out the corner of her eye.

How long had she been there?

How had she gotten this close without any of the professional Anglican magicians noticing?

The next thing Itsuwa knew, she was standing there.

She was an exceptionally tall woman. She had long, long blonde hair and she wore a loose white dress and a large wide-brimmed hat.

She was the Transcendent known as Good, Old Mary.

“Hm. I thought for sure mama’s role would be to side with that lonely boy, but it would appear the situation has changed.”

What was she doing here? No one had an answer.

How had she suddenly appeared here? Again, no answer.

“He has continued his escape with assistance from an unusually capable AI that even makes deductions in the field of magic despite the limited learning material, and now he has drawn the interest of a Transcendent to provide him with a special magical fighter. The boy is rapidly leaving mama’s salvation condition. Which means…while it will be the complete opposite of my original plan, mama may take this side instead.”

She spoke.

Calmly.

She said it didn’t matter at all to her if she went with the complete opposite of her original plan.

Transcendents dressed up as gods to draw on those gods’ power.

Their theater and divine summoning spells were no more than a method. That wasn’t the core of who they were.

So perhaps this was the most frightening thing about them.

…There was no reason it had to be Hamazura Shiage.

As long as they met their salvation condition, a Transcendent would assist anyone unconditionally.

That was true of Good, Old Mary and it was true of Blodeuwedd the Bouquet who was currently assisting Hamazura. Anyone who wanted the assistance of a Transcendent’s immense power had to accept one powerful limitation: they could not leave that individual Transcendent’s salvation condition. Otherwise, their immensely powerful ally would attack and kill them.

“A group of inconsequential individuals who have boosted their strength by applying several different special conditions, which has in turn eliminated their own standing. A collection of individuals who could not acquire those unfair special conditions and thus had their own beliefs and justice denied.”

And so, she – Good, Old Mary of the Transcendents – whispered.

“Perfect. Mama recognizes you Anglicans as passing my Transcendent salvation condition. …Do not assume miracles are granted only to a chosen few, world.”

Part 12

It sounded like bursting carbonation.

Except this was more brutal.

The thousands or tens of thousands of crows that looked like a pitch black wall went limp and fell to the airport floor. Blodeuwedd the Bouquet frowned and, for the first time, focused on a single individual within the enemy group.

“That was gas.”

Good, Old Mary.

The beautiful lips below the wide-brimmed hat parted to speak. One of her hands toyed with a multi-tool knife.

“Elementary, isn’t it? If killing them adds to your sins and seals your movements, I only need to stop them non-lethally. Mama mixes potions in the kitchen. I am the Transcendent who uses equipment based in ordinary reality to mix up potions that can produce any phenomenon, including the mysteries of life. If I lack something, I need only create it. A simple solution.”

“Ohh? So you’re taking that side?”

“Is that wrong?”

“No, not really. I just don’t get risking your life to protect some giant faceless power structure. Seems like an ultra-boring salvation condition to me.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was answered by a tremor shaking the entire international airport.

Some kind of fine dust fell from the ceiling.

No, it went beyond that.

Were insults to her salvation targets that big a deal to Good, Old Mary?

“Risk 4: Releasing the single seal – leaving human territory.”

The change couldn’t have been more obvious.

At more than 200m tall, the colossal thing would have towered over a domed stadium, but here it was visible outside thanks to the international airport’s outer wall and a portion of its ceiling collapsing.

The three-legged still was a piece of lab equipment that used to seal the secret arts of life.

The emaciated girl put a hand on her hip and looked up at it.

“The Tribikos, huh?”

But her reaction was not what Good, Old Mary had expected.

Even now, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was smiling.

Grinning even.

“A big lab that lets you mix anything on the front line is a threat to be sure…but do you actually know how to use it? I feel like you’ve just started slamming it into stuff to show off how destructive a heavy object can be.”

Good, Old Mary ignored that and gave a command to the Tribikos.

It lifted one of its three legs. Tearing through the airport building as it did so.

The world itself shook.

But…

“?”

“Don’t tell me this is enough to surprise you.”

It had stopped.

The end of the Tribikos’s leg had stopped less than 100cm above Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s head. A straining sound reached Good, Old Mary’s ears, as if something unseen were blocking its way.

This wasn’t right.

From a purely physical perspective, the Tribikos was as large as a domed stadium. How many tens of thousands of tons was that? And that weight was all being concentrated on a single point like with a high heel. How could one of its three legs be stopped this way? Who in the world could pull off something like that!?

“I am the Transcendent who loves all the hated.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was sneering.

This smile held a very different meaning from the one she directed Hamazura’s way.

“The word all is key. …We already saw Telesma kneaded and molded to artificially summon Underworld God Osiris. You didn’t think my salvation was only for pests that can be physically explained in this world, did you?”

A dull bubbling sound followed.

From the floor at the emaciated girl’s feet. The airport’s clean floor grew discolored and peeled back. Almost like a rotten stew giving off a noxious gas as it boiled.

What emerged was not of this world.

These were clearly otherworldly beings who had crossed over from another phase.

“Sathariel, Penemue, Satanael, Armaros, Kokabiel, Tamiel, Baraqiel, Azazel, and Demon Lord Shemhaza!! Grigori fallen angels who were judged an absolute evil for no more than falling in love with humans, marrying them, revealing this secret to your families, and bearing children with them! Though you are derided as the reason heaven inflicted Noah’s flood upon the earth, I grant you love for your decision to seek a modicum of happiness even if no one else would understand. Lend my your bygone strength!!!”

The red and black feathers scattering through the air were far more sinister than the crows’. Something of indeterminate number and form covered up the Tribikos all at once. The colossal object resembled a domed stadium with three legs, but it was swallowed whole.

Spells that made use of Telesma weren’t unusual, but using so many varied powers at once and releasing it without first sealing it in an object was highly abnormal even for the magic side.

Were she alone, Good, Old Mary may have been able to fall back to a safe distance and resume the fight there. The Tribikos was not her only lab equipment. She could have sacrificed that one to buy her enough time to summon another.

But she had chosen to save the Anglicans.

For a Transcendent, that carried more weight than her own life.

“Kh!! I see! You used Sathariel to seal mama’s Tribikos and hold it in place, didn’t you? Blodeu-!!”

“Hah hahh hahh!! Good, Old Mary, you really are no more than a boring healer. Sure, you have some weird exceptions like swinging around a heavy mace and some insta-death attacks, but you’re biggest selling point is your limited resurrection, right? Looks like you don’t have what it takes to defeat a true fighter and summoner like me who excels at providing a single powerful damage source!!!”

Part 13

Kamijou and the girls felt the entire international airport shake vertically.

They were at a large counter where the path branched off to the different lobbies. Kamijou sensed something like ominous ripples in the air.

Leivinia Birdway clicked her tongue.

“Those idiots prefer to flex their muscles than use their heads. And now they’ve exceeded the limits of their own people clearing field. Magic is meant to be done quietly and in secret. People will question England’s reputation as a country of proper ladies and gentlemen at this rate. Have those diplomatic amateurs forgotten there’s a government plane at this airport?”

“It may not be the Anglicans doing this though.”

Who else could it be?

Whoever it was, Kamijou couldn’t ignore a commotion like this.

He fought the current of the fleeing crowd to run toward the center of the blast. He passed by a girl in a fluffy coat on the way.

“You have to be kidding me! If they bring the entire airport down, what happens to my important missing document!? I’ll be held back if I don’t get that proof of life to school!”

“Ehh? Does that even matter at this point? Seems trivial by comparison.”

“A year of school isn’t trivial for a high schooler, Lessar. I’ll stick out like a sore thumb. My life is in as much of a crisis as the world is! I’m at the brink!!”

Now, Kamijou didn’t want to be part of this crisis if he didn’t have to be.

But when he knew serious harm was imminent, he couldn’t just ignore it.

Academy City had only just begun to recover.

If something serious happened now, right as he was getting back on his feet, how long a detour would he need to take before he could reclaim his ordinary life!?

Lessar sounded disinterested.

“Sounds like the Anglicans are engaged in some kind of crazy battle. I’m intercepting as much of their communications as I can and it seems like that Hamazura guy made a real mess of things.”

“Wait, what did he do?”

“Hamazura Shiage isn’t who matters,” said Birdway. “There’s a separate problem here. And with everyone’s focus on Hamazura, no one is watching the real threat. That leaves the real target free to do whatever they want. We need to fix that before it’s too late.”

Part 14

The vertical tremor was noticeable even here.

How many times was that now?

He had run away.

He had put a lot of distance between himself and the fighting.

Hamazura Shiage was currently in…what was this room even called? It was part of the airport’s “backstage” zone. All around him and even overhead, narrow conveyor belts branched out in all directions. He assumed this was where the suitcase tags were mechanically read and the suitcases were routed. Which meant whenever your luggage ended up traveling to some other country without you, this was where it went wrong. In that sense, he couldn’t help but dislike all this cold, precision machinery.

Another tremor.

“…”

Hamazura knew it was meaningless, but he couldn’t help but look back the way he had come. Over and over again.

…Was Blodeuwedd the Bouquet alright?

There were people with special power. There were monsters with power beyond anything Hamazura could imagine. But he also knew that strength was not absolute. Even Coronzon had been an individual who could lose her life if she took it too far.

He relied on others because he was afraid.

And that fear led other people to lose their lives instead of him.

That way of thinking probably felt insolent to those with ridiculous strength, but still.

“Yo☆”

Someone popped out next to him.

It was Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. She looked to his face and grinned.

“What are you still doing here, Hamazura? I thought you’d have escaped the airport by now. Wait, don’t tell me. Did you wait cause you were worried about me? Ha ha ha. How cute!!”

He didn’t have it in him to deal with her teasing.

Hamazura shouted, wide-eyed.

“Wait, but, um, what happened with that katana woman!? And all the others too!?”

Even now, the low tremors shaking the entire airport continued intermittently in the distance. With the intensity of an artillery battle. But if Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was hanging around here, then who were the Anglicans fighting?

He soon had his answer.

“You mean that Saint and Good, Old Mary? Well, I expect they’re fighting a whole bunch of hair thinking they’re fighting me. The Hanged Man happened to be among the hated beings who emerged. He’s said to be the villain who gave vanity and makeup to human women. Perfect for a deception spell☆”

“Aneri, explain.”

He only got a double buzz of refusal.

The AI must not have understand what she was talking about either.

(Hair monsters, huh?)

Hamazura started to recall someone else.

Apparently those things were still fighting. Which meant…

“So not even a monster like you could actually defeat the enemy. …So there’s that katana woman and…Good, Old Mary? Is she really that dangerous a final boss?”

“Her attacks aren’t all that impressive. She’s primarily a healer, so she’s a real pain in the ass if you have to keep fighting her and she keeps buying time. The best plan with her is to find a way to stop fighting and get out of there.”

…So the tremors shaking the entire airport didn’t qualify as “impressive”? They apparently lived in a very different world from Hamazura.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet cutely tilted her head.

“There’s no real reason you have to say here in the airport, is there? The Anglicans are backed by the country of England. Give them time and they will overwhelm you with numbers. That means sealing off all the exits and searching through the entire locked room they created. If you don’t want me to kick your ass for worrying so much about the enemy’s lives, I recommend escaping before those idiots can set up a perimeter.”

His cracked phone buzzed twice. To reject that idea? No, AI Aneri may have been upset at being beaten to making that recommendation. Could data even feel upset?

Hamazura didn’t want to be caught by those Anglican people either.

But what was he supposed to do?

“I’d love to escape, but where am I supposed to go in this giant airport?”

“Hmm? If you don’t have any ideas of your own, I could always break through one of these walls for you. With a nice, solid punch.”

“Help me, Aneri! Peacefully!!”

He was reliant on someone else either way. …Assuming Aneri counted as a “someone” that is.

Aneri displayed a map of the airport taken (illicitly) from somewhere and added recommendation arrows to it. Instead of just showing the shortest route, it provided the route least likely to be watched or guarded. However, they came across a door with an electronic lock along the way.

He held his phone up to the reader on the wall and the sturdy door opened as if this were a cheap magic trick. This actually worried Hamazura more. Wasn’t an airport supposed to have especially strict physical security to prevent terrorist attacks? This seemed awfully lax.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet gave the cracked screen an impressed look.

“Huh. I feel silly only asking now, but does that phone do security cameras too?”

“I don’t know how it works, so ask Aneri.”

He felt like Academy City was overflowing with things where he had no idea how they worked. …This was hardly a new state of affairs and, for better or for worse, there may have been things no one could explain the inner workings of.

They opened a few more electronic locks, passed through a back area lined with plastic boxes…and finally arrived at a small back entrance for staff. The door had another smart card reader. It didn’t even take three seconds.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet gave him a puzzled look.

“What’s the matter? Get on out of here, Hamazura.”

“But…”

It hadn’t been very…smooth.

There had been a slight pause or “hiccup” when opening this door’s lock compared to the others. It hadn’t even lasted a full blink of the eye, but that was why it stood out so vividly, like a lagging video.

Aneri was using a loophole – a vulnerability – the airport staff had completely forgotten existed.

That meant the airport would never use the loophole.

Yet some other data had been flowing through it, conflicting with Aneri’s command?

“…”

Hamazura considered it for a moment.

“Aneri. Where’s the closest access point to here? A big international airport like this must have dozens of them.”

The exit was right there, but this amateur suddenly decided on a change of plans. However, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet didn’t protest. She was likely confident in her ability to slaughter any pursuers if it came to it.

They turned back and electronically forced open another door.

The chilly room beyond was lined with computers the size of vending machines. He didn’t even need to hook up the phone with a cable. Once through the door that jammed EM signals, a wireless connection was enough to exchange data.

The flood of internal data didn’t tell Hamazura much.

So he had AI Aneri flag any information requiring a closer look.

“What the hell?”

Hamazura frowned as he viewed the cracked smartphone screen.

Black_Oneday.

He had no idea what that English text meant. That one unnatural phrase was scrawled within the otherwise orderly script.

Could it be?

“Is someone other than us hacking in here too?”

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Dengeki Island: A Girl’s Battle (Still Growing) Kamijou Touma Visits Another World Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch Crossover SS Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch X Heavy Object Crossover SS I Still Want to Do a Summer Fair A Certain Collaboration Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 Kamachi Crossover Illustrations - Preface - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - A.E. 02 - Afterword Durarara Crossover Preface - Academy City Chapter - Ikebukuro Chapter	Next