Difference between revisions of "Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume11 Chapter4"
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A low straining sound reached them. |
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Latest revision as of 02:02, 12 March 2025
Chapter 4: I’d Wanted To Do This With You – Duel_and_Struggle,_XXX.Revenge.[edit]
Part 1[edit]
Kamijou Touma and Christian Rosencreutz.
The result of a direct battle between the two of them should have had an obvious result. Before, Academy City had gathered all its forces to oppose that man and Kamijou had relied on the Dragon Strike emerging from his right arm, but he had still failed to fully defeat him and Alice Anotherbible had needed to deliver the finishing blow.
He was that much of a monster.
If a mere high school boy faced him, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be turned to mincemeat in less than a second.
And yet.
Pop!!!
The instant Kamijou swung his right hand horizontally, something in the empty air burst and vanished.
Everything about this hell was twisted and wrong.
The right hand that acted as a reference point negated and destroyed the magic of the living that was considered out of place by that negative world.
In that moment, it wasn’t Kamijou Touma whose eyes widened in surprise. It was Christian Rosencreutz who had held his palm straight out from a short distance away.
The puny boy was a step ahead of CRC.
That alone should have been impossible.
“!!”
Rosencreutz slashed his fingers through the air a few more times, but still he could not hit.
Kamijou swung his right hand in the same way, negating each extraordinary piece magic just before it hit.
They were evenly matched.
They were fighting on equal footing.
Was it Imagine Breaker?
No, that wasn’t enough to explain this.
The boy shouted at his opponent.
“What’s next, CRC? Citrinitas? Or maybe the Pneuma-less Shell!?”
“!?”
A giant silver sphere slammed down behind the red-clad young man. Kamijou’s prediction was correct. Rosencreutz finally realized that his actions were being predicted. He panicked as he reached behind himself and rotated the round handle to randomly produce one of the world’s oldest causes of death.
It produced a thin tree branch.
That was the world’s oldest whip. But that cause of death had to have more openings than uranium or plutonium.
Did bad luck tend to stack?
Conversely, the momentum and trend were tilting in Kamijou’s favor. Which was unusual thanks to his misfortune.
That meant something other than luck was controlling this.
CRC clicked his tongue and tossed the tree branch aside.
“What did you do? Boy, nothing about your body has changed. Or is this old man expected to believe that a boy with no knowledge of magic manipulated this entire hell to produce something to your advantage!?”
That wasn’t the answer.
Kamijou couldn’t possibly control hell.
The answer was much simpler, which may have been why that overthinking expert had missed it.
“We walked through hell together, didn’t we?”
That brief explanation was his immediate answer.
“You haven’t forgotten, have you, Rosencreutz? When we fought you in Academy City, it was our first time seeing any of it. None of us knew who the legendary CRC was or what he could do. It was new to us. So we had no choice but to run defenseless into it all! …But that’s changed. I’ve seen all your spells. And more than that, I know you’re actually Johann Valentin Andreae! I know how you use everything at your disposal and I know how you use familiar attacks to trap us!! No matter how strong you are, this isn’t the same as our last battle!!!”
And it wasn’t just Kamijou who had drawn out Rosencreutz’s various methods of attack back in Academy City.
Anti-Skill had been there. And Judgment.
Misaka Mikoto, Aradia, Index, and Aleister had all been there.
Kamijou had to remember the home he was to return to.
The life he still had ahead of him.
The people waiting for him in Academy City.
Kamijou could only stand here now because of the cards they had each flipped over.
He now understood both CRC’s tactics and Johann’s way of thinking.
No longer did he have to agonize over this game of concentration.
Once it was his turn, he could take all the cards for himself!!
“No…”
CRC audibly gulped.
He couldn’t believe it, but he also couldn’t deny what was happening here.
Because he was wiser than anyone else.
“You cannot make up for your inferior skill that way. You are no more than a high school boy, while this old man is the Christian Rosencreutz of legend. Nothing can ever fill the endless gap between us!”
Kingsford then spoke to the shocked-looking silver-haired young man in red.
As if returning to the start of the boy’s words.
“Have you forgotten, CRC?”
“…”
“You left after Alice ☠️ed you and have spent the rest of your ⌚ holed up in your false hell preparing for your resurrection, but ❌ so for him. He lived on after that. It was ❌ for long, but in that ⌚, Kamijou Touma defeated Alice Anotherbible.”
“He…what?”
“On his own. Without relying on 🐉 Strike.”
He finally fell silent.
Common reality had surpassed his imagination.
“Kamijou Touma has already done one thing that CRC could ❌. Do you 💭 he gained nothing from that?”
The benevolent expert was unshaken.
The simple act of living was precious in and of itself.
Those words would sound so cheesy coming from an ordinary person, but Kingsford properly understood their meaning. So even as she easily crossed between life and death, Anna Kingsford would never treat lives and souls with anything but the utmost care.
“The ☠️ are forever stuck in place, but the living are always growing. A puny boy? Do ❌ assume he is the same as he was when you ⚔️ him.”
On his own, Kamijou Touma might have understood this intellectually, but his body wouldn’t have kept up.
But he had that benevolent expert with him.
Kingsford supported and realized the inexperienced boy’s ideas.
And the opposite, the expert who brought only death and destruction, responded.
While cynically returning to the same starting point.
“But did you forget, boy?”
Part 2[edit]
Kamijou heard a low rumbling.
And felt a tremor.
Th entire hell shrouded in darkness began to shake vertically.
Christian Rosencreutz spread his arms wide and made an announcement.
With great force.
“This old man built this hell on his own. The two of you are no more than unwelcome visitors. So this old man can control this false hell at will!!”
According to Kingsford, this was not the “real” hell.
Christian Rosencreutz – or Johann Valentin Andreae – had constructed this temporary collection of images in order to forcibly shove this dead soul back into the living world. That was the purpose of this hell.
So it was best to assume he could freely control anything here.
Which meant…
With a great crash, something fell straight down as if from heaven to earth.
For an instant, Kamijou thought it was holy divine punishment.
But that had no place in hell.
It was something like an ultra-high pressure water jet.
If Kingsford hadn’t immediately pushed him aside, Kamijou would have been bisected before he could even think. Bisected vertically.
“The Acheron, the Styx, and the Phlegethon – you have redirected the rivers flowing through the levels of hell to use them as a weapon, haven’t you? Those special rivers act as the border between life and ☠️ and prevent the living or the ☠️ from reaching the wrong side. By forcibly increasing the pressure for use as a direct attack, the 🌊s work their way deep inside the target, allowing you to make use of their ‘division into two parts’ power.”
“Sorry, Kingsford-sensei, but can you just tell me what I’m supposed to be looking out for as I fight!? If something like that hits me, it’s all over, but I don’t know what kind of initial action to look out for to dodge it. Hurry, Sensei!”
“This is only the beginning. Much more is coming.”
“Yes, of course that was only the beginning!!” roared Rosencreutz.
“You stupid geniuses move too fast! Stop skipping three steps in your head and actually explain everything one step at a time!!”
Kamijou’s tearful shouting received a gentle sigh from Kingsford.
“You do ❌ understand?” asked the glasses woman.
“Understand what!?”
“Hell is shaped like a mortar that narrows in toward the center. So if hell as a whole shakes violently, all the giant objects that appeared on the various levels along the slope will come rolling down to the bottom.”
“Wait, are you serious?”
“You should assume that every single level of hell you have seen thus far will now be your enemy.”
It wasn’t just the one thing.
A big stone gate dropped like a meteor. Was that the gate into hell? If that happened to hit Kamijou, he would be smashed into little pieces. And it wasn’t just structures. The bull-headed minotaur and Nyx-chan slinging around dark sludge came tumbling down as well.
This was worse than just falling rocks.
A single hit from any of this would mean instant death.
…Or wait. Would he remain conscious even after being smashed into a pulp? But if he couldn’t move, then CRC could torment him at his leisure.
And he would have no way of stopping CRC from climbing the spiral staircase back to life.
“Whoa!?” shouted Kamijou as a whole bunch of objects fell in front of him.
Something else came rolling down the mortar-shaped hell. And if it came from the higher levels, it had to be something he had seen during their journey here.
It was a giant breast.
“Now this is divine punishment!!!”
He leaped aside to dodge it.
He had forgotten that his worldly thoughts had caused that to appear on a higher level of hell. And thinking back, they had just left it there, hadn’t they?
He had just about been killed by his own sin.
But diving once wasn’t enough to make him safe. He scrambled back to his feet and ran full speed away from there, but this wasn’t like a round soccer ball. The mountain-sized breast was much more dangerous in how it bounced every which way as it rolled.
It was going to kill him.
He was going to be killed by a giant breast.
But once he started running, he couldn’t stay on the ground forever. This was the bottom of the mortar-shaped hell, so there was only so much space.
He had no choice but to trust in the sturdiness of the thick layer of ice and head out onto the frozen lake in the center.
Ironic that he had to trust in something about this hell that was thoroughly unkind to anyone inside it.
“I-I just have to go for it… I’m sure there’s still plenty of stuff still caught up on the higher levels. Oh, right. I forgot about Kingsford’s armpit and giant butt. I don’t want to be crushed to death by those, so I have to risk the ice!! Isn’t that right, Sensei!!?”
“…”
This was an exceedingly serious situation with their lives and the outcome of the battle on the line, yet the benevolent expert did not agree with him as she held a hand to her cheek with a smile frozen on her face. She looked as gentle as ever, but the pressure radiating from her was terrifying.
But that wasn’t his biggest concern.
With so many things falling from higher up in the mortar-shaped hell, they couldn’t stay on the outer edge forever. So they had to walk out onto the thick frozen lake. That much he knew.
But that layer of ice was not just ice.
There was a lord there.
“Hey, Kingsford?”
“Yes, what is it?”
“So, uh, since Rosencreutz can control and attack us with everything in this hell, is that giant thing lurking in the shadows going to attack us too!?”
“The six-🪽ed being at the center of the 🧊 is known as the 👑 of the 👿s or the 👑 of hell. Some 💬 he is Satan, some 💬 Beelzebub, and others 💬 Lucifer.”
“I don’t care what his name is! Besides, those are all top-level star players, aren’t they!?”
“Well, he is the big boss at the bottom of hell.”
Fair point.
Finding a tiny goblin or pixie awaiting them all the way down here would be terrifying in its own way. Because that monster would probably be extremely high level.
A low straining sound reached them.
Coming from the beyond the veil of shadow.
From the lord – or core – of hell.
Seeing that would be deadly.
Kamijou was certain of it despite the fact that you couldn’t die in hell, even if your whole body were burned to a crisp or you were skewered through. He could tell that seeing that thing was the one exception and a single attack would be enough to shatter his soul.
And for some reason, Christian Rosencreutz had his arms spread as he leaped forcefully toward those shadows.
And a loud voice came from the shadows.
“Fus☆ion!”
“Ahhhh!! Someone stop that childish old maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!”
Kingsford slammed her fist down in empty air and (however it worked) Rosencreutz crashed down into the ice lake while only a meter away from the lord of demons.
That was a close one.
His transformation sequence had been stopped before he cast off his clothing.
The birth of Demon Lord Girl Belzebu-tan – who had transcended both age and gender – had been prevented.
Part 3[edit]
The lord of demons remained in the shadows.
Kingsford and Rosencreutz’s clash began before he could slowly start to move. Something exploded. Kingsford fought evenly with Rosencreutz while sometimes sending her fingertips racing through empty air and sometimes using a single hand to grab and swing around a large tree or castle wall pouring down from above.
Kamijou could only watch.
“Hee hee! You’ll need more than that!!”
CRC took a few steps back to put some distance between them.
She had not managed a clean hit so far, but Kingsford did not look concerned as her opponent escaped beyond her range.
She wasn’t fixated on a quick resolution.
She had prioritized keeping Rosencreutz away from the lord of demons.
“As if that could control this old man.”
“I did ❌ 💭 that would be enough.”
“This old man won’t let you forget who created this hell.”
All of a sudden, a thick shadow bared its fangs and engulfed Kingsford from the head down. That was not the veil of kind shadow protecting Kamijou by obscuring his view.
That was Nyx.
More than just inanimate objects were rolling down from the higher levels of the mortar-shaped hell.
“Adonai Melekh Ne’eman.”
Anna Kingsford crossed herself.
That was all.
Some self-styled specialists might scoff and say that wasn’t even a spell. In Christian regions, people even prayed before meals, so crossing oneself was a mystical act known even to elementary school children.
But a true expert did not neglect the fundamentals.
By mastering them to the extreme, they could elevate every spell they knew to deadly levels.
The amorphous silhouette of reddish white and sludgy black was blown straight back up just before contacting her. Afterwards, it slithered away as if to avoid Kingsford. Almost like a slug that had finally realized it had leapt at a pile of purifying salt.
“Hell and the 👿 world seem like similar concepts, but they are ❌,” said the benevolent expert.
Kingsford had not lost her shine even in the depths of such darkness.
“Hell is not where the 👿s gather their strength while waiting for a chance to rebel. It is a righteous device created by god to eternally torment the sinners he has damned there. The 👑 of the 👿s resides in Judecca at the very bottom of hell, but there he only gnaws on the greatest sinners in the 🌍. …That makes him a part of god’s plan, so the glory of god can be found even in the very depths of hell.”
The color red twinkled overhead.
In countless places.
That fiery snow would burn away the body if it came in contact, but it oddly never seemed to reach Kingsford. She wasn’t actually doing anything. The fiery snow avoided the benevolent expert.
“Like I 💬d, hell is a part of god’s plan. Past the forest of suicide is the wasteland of scorching sand. That hell of 🔥y ❄️ is used to punish the sinners who violated the providence of god or the laws of nature. So if you have ❌ stained your ✋s with heretical acts, you need ❌ fear punishment.”
Kamijou’s ignorance prevented him from even thinking of heretical spells, so he too had made it through unharmed.
Which meant…
“CRC.”
“Kh.”
The tides were changing.
Past the fiery snow was Rosencreutz who had supposedly set this in motion.
(Can he not control it?)
Kamijou groaned.
A benevolent expert and a deadly expert.
It was like a massive device. Had they begun fighting over control of hell below the surface?
“This is ❌ the real hell. It is undoubtedly a phase you forcibly inserted. But even if you are its creator, you still need to be careful. Haven’t you already had a bad experience with your own creation turning against you?”
“You would mock this old man!? You, the false expert whose blind belief has led to nothing but stagnation!!?” roared the silver-haired young man in red.
Something responded.
Kingsford was not fazed. When the minotaur swung its massive axe in from the side, she stopped it with two fingers, swung it around herself, and tossed the minotaur away such that the three-headed cerberus was taken out as well.
She had an overwhelming advantage.
But the situation was still in motion.
The thick ice below their feet cracked.
“Kh!!”
Kamijou tried to stay in place, but after noticing something, Rosencreutz held his palm out this way.
A few explosions followed.
If the orbs of light were flying toward him, Kamijou could have negated them with his right hand, but that wasn’t enough for this.
This attack struck the thick ice.
Had Rosencreutz not meant to hit Kamijou?
Then what? Was sending a stray shot down into the thick ice of the frozen lake supposed to accomplish something?
(Oh, no.)
“Kh!!”
Kamijou braced his legs the best he could.
The ice below him slanted.
He couldn’t afford to stop running, so he kept jumping from foothold to foothold as giant fissures ran through the ice. Unlike Kingsford, who he had a feeling could fly through the sky if she wanted, he had to keep his feet on the ground, meaning this was a matter of life or death.
More and more of the thick ice shattered, some pieces sinking down and others jutting up.
If he carelessly contacted any of that, his leg could get caught and broken.
He was afraid that one of the fissures would end up too wide, but a cliff like height difference would be just as bad. Choosing the wrong place to stand would leave him stranded with nowhere to move and then Rosencreutz could concentrate his fire on him.
This was Judecca, the very bottom of hell.
That frozen lake wasn’t just ordinary ice. It was a negative holy ground created to eternally torment the three greatest sinners in the world.
This footing was only temporary.
Kamijou couldn’t imagine what would happen to him if he fell from the edge of this thick ice. He could guess it would be worse than being chewed by the great maw formed by two giant pieces of ice.
Not knowing was a form of fear.
He would have been less concerned fighting over a pool of lava.
And…
(Damn, where’d Kingsford go? We got separated in the darkness!!)
He was panicking, but the situation wasn’t going to wait for him to catch up.
The enemy was directly in front of him.
He was afraid that even moving his gaze around his surroundings would give CRC extra information.
And in that instant of hesitation…
“!!”
Something grazed the side of his head as it flew past.
He felt scorching heat from it.
He had to change his focus. If Kingsford wasn’t here, he had to do this on his own.
He was willing to give up an ear.
He probably wouldn’t die in hell even if his heart was gouged out or his head was blown off. This territory was thoroughly unkind to humans, so it wouldn’t provide an easy way out like the comfort of death.
So Kamijou had only one thing to focus on.
If his body was smashed to a pulp, the wrong person would climb the spiral stairs back to the realm of the living. He would only be able to watch as it happened. Come to think of it, what had happened to CRC’s body after Alice killed him? Or would Rosencreutz’s soul enter Kamijou Touma’s body to be revived? Either way, the threat of Christian Rosencreutz would appear within Academy City once more. Academy City had yet to recover after the first time, so it probably couldn’t stop a second attack.
Index was there.
So was Misaka Mikoto, Aogami Pierce, Komoe-sensei, Aradia, Aleister, and Accelerator.
How could he let that happen?
No one else needed to die and experience this.
So even if it meant the destruction of his body or soul, he would stop Rosencreutz here.
No matter what.
If Kamijou Touma climbed the spiral staircase even one step ahead of him, CRC’s resurrection could be stopped!!
“Hee hee. It would seem this old man cannot end this so easily with direct attacks, boy.”
“Kh.”
“But what about less direct methods? That right hand lacks the power to destroy illusions without touching them first!!”
CRC directed his palm overhead.
That hand held an eternal lamp that’s light would never be extinguished.
The bright light shined into the emptiness. However, no fiery rain poured down like a cloudburst and no massive explosion consumed all the oxygen in the vicinity.
This was much worse.
Did you forget?
Kamijou had only managed to maintain his sanity here in the depths of hell because of the thick veil of darkness so kindly protecting him. The lord of demons, the lord of hell, Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer. He went by many names, but Kamijou had been spared from seeing that being without a known identity or settled name.
What if a powerless signal flare had just been launched here? But was that really so harmless? Even if it was nothing more than a bright and gentle light, what would happen when the thick shadows at the bottom of hell were thoughtlessly swept away, revealing that which was hidden behind them!?
“Take this, uncultured boy!! You need not even touch it. Simply observing or speaking of this blot upon the world is considered a sin. Knowing his wicked nature is enough to corrode your very being!!!”
Part 4[edit]
The darkness was pulled back.
Everything was exposed to the light.
The lord of demons, the lord of hell, Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer. He had many important-sounding names, but what was he really? Not knowing the answer had to be the better choice in this case, but the answer was presented to Kamijou against his will.
“!!?”
He seriously considered crushing his own eyes before anything could happen.
But he didn’t have the time or the resolve. His sensibilities from his time alive got in the way.
The wicked light swept aside the kind darkness before he could do anything.
Yes.
There was nothing there?
“Wha-?”
The expression of shock actually came from Rosencreutz.
A rumbling sound followed.
The tremor thundered out and the thick ice shattered in a chain reaction.
But it wasn’t that CRC had miscalculated. Something clearly unnatural lay before them. There was a gap in the center of the frozen lake. Located past the source of the mystery impact. It was located unnaturally far away from the center of the giant piece of ice.
There was no point in discussing who had done it.
There were only so many experts who could handle a direct battle with the true lord of hell who could shatter souls just by being seen.
She had done it empty handed.
Her arms were spread wide.
And she hadn’t hesitated.
“Anna Kingsford!? Did you directly challenge him without a second thought? He is the very core of hell, a part of the almighty god’s plan!!”
Now that the ultimate attack had ended in a dud, nothing remained to stop Kamijou.
He once more stepped toward CRC.
Powerfully.
Rosencreutz immediately slashed his fingers through the air.
Kamijou was faster.
His right fist shattered the magic and the tip of the silver-haired young man in red’s fingernail split. Producing a single drop of blood
It was 1-on-1.
Kamijou refused to rely on the reckless Dragon Strike which required cutting off his own arm, but he had still hung on this far. The young man’s face twisted at that fact and Kamijou Touma whispered to him.
“I might not have been able to win if you were Christian Rosencreutz.”
“Boy, what are you-”
“But right now, you aren’t the CRC who attacked Academy City.”
Yes.
That was it.
Something had felt off. He had thought hell was such hopeless place that there was no entertainment here, but it had still been odd.
CRC was somehow different from when he had fought in Academy City.
“You showed an interest in everything and made all sorts of detours. You cried at the drop of a hat and displayed empathy which led you to readily destroy an entire country or the whole world.”
“Kh.”
“That was the unmanageable disaster named Christian Rosencreutz!! But I’ve been watching you throughout our journey in hell. You never complained to our guide Kingsford and you just followed the standard path. You can’t afford to play around now that you’re in hell, can you? Rosencreutz was selfish and capricious, which made him hard to predict, but that identity’s been stripped away, leaving only Johann Valentin Andreae!!”
The hints had been found all throughout hell.
None of it had been a waste. You could not lie to yourself.
The path here had shown Kamijou the answer.
“You might have the same cards in your deck, but now the more responsible Johann Valentin Andreae is in charge. You’re easy to predict. I know all your cards and you have a terrible poker face, so you have no chance of winning!!”
Kamijou wouldn’t let him escape.
Kamijou wouldn’t allow another tragedy.
Kamijou wouldn’t let anyone else cry.
This one attack would save him and the world.
He had a tightly-clenched fist.
He was already in range.
Whatever CRC thought of that fact, he let out a roar.
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
No, that was not Christian Rosencreutz.
It was Johann Valentin Andreae.
That dangerous expert had to know that his odds of defeating Kamijou would be higher if he stuck to playing the selfish, capricious, and unpredictable CRC.
But in that final moment, he was not Rosencreutz.
Johann came to the forefront.
As Kamijou Touma exposed his entire being and moved in for the attack, the man who had once been a 15-year-old boy may have wanted to also attack as himself.
Even if his coldly calculating side knew that would reduce his odds.
One of them spoke.
“I want to go back…”
“Yes,” agreed the other. “I want to go back.”
And they shouted as one as they reached each other.
“I want to go back!!!” “I want to go back!!!”
A dull impact exploded out.
Kamijou Touma’s right fist caught the young man’s cheekbone and pushed in.
