Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume16 Ending
Eventually.
An eerie windy noise echoed down the stone prison corridor.
The Unconvicted Prisoner Holding Ward of the Special Examination Building was strictly guarded even for the Tower of London. It was not built sloppily enough to allow in a draft.
So this was something other than actual wind.
It may have been closer to a failed attempt at whistling.
It came from Hamazura Shiage’s lips.
The Eleven Court Officers recognized it. Really, any professional magician would know it all too well.
The boy holding Narthex in his arms had begun an imitation of the real thing. He had started interfering with his life force using his respiration and circulation.
Which meant he was refining magic power.
Sheila Judicial of the eleven opened her mouth.
“Where are the Necessarius executioners?”
“They are here in London, but it will still be five to ten minutes before they arrive. We only need to buy that much time. No, it would be faster if we just slaughtered him ourselves,” replied an exasperated Frank.
A solid footstep sounded.
Hamazura had not moved forward or back.
He showed no intention of fleeing.
He whispered to Narthex while preventing any other use of his hands by holding her.
That seemed like suicide.
“Listen, Narthex.”
He spoke from his lowered head.
The eleven were mildly surprised to find he was not begging for his life.
“This has just gotten complicated and we don’t have time to talk it out, so I have just one thing to say: you don’t have to cry anymore. You have nothing to worry about. Do you want to go to school? Do you want to be an idol? Do you want a peaceful life? Do you want to make friends and hang out with them? It doesn’t matter what it is – just picture some goal like that in your head. Whatever it is, coming up with a way of making it happen and actually doing it…is a job for a magician like me.”
Was it Noel Judicial who scoffed?
He was talking to Narthex?
In that state, there was no way she could understand a word he was saying.
So what if he had stopped the eruption of minuscule black and red fish eggs? She had been ejecting Sitra Achra, the source of evil, from her body. It was horrifying to even imagine the state of that young body on the inside. Plus, Narthex may not have escaped the influence of the Sitra Achra. The Japanese boy ignorantly holding that dangerous object could be consumed a moment later, his entire body engulfed by the black and red sandy stuff.
Not to mention.
That boy had chosen the wrong thing to rely on in front of the Eleven Court Officers who judged magical crimes.
They hadn’t been able to touch him before.
Yet Hamazura had now made himself a valid target.
Now that he was using wicked magic, they need not hold back.
Hamazura hung his head, dropped his gaze to the polluted thing in his arms, and whispered.
“I didn’t understand.”
His voice was terribly dry.
His voice was terribly melancholy.
But there was a glint of hope there. He wasn’t out of options. This was the voice of someone who had noticed the choice remaining to him.
“Before becoming a magician, I didn’t understand how it worked. And I was afraid of what I didn’t understand. I saw it as an unexplainable supernatural power suddenly appearing and taking people’s lives. So, Eleven Court Officers, I feared you from the bottom of my heart. But not so now that I’m a magician and now that I understand. I understand now: you aren’t important. You’re just a bunch of jobbers.”
Frank Judicial snorted with laughter.
Let the boy talk.
He had apparently received enough of a hint to refine his life force into magic power. So what? He had no grimoire knowledge or a spiritual item fine-tuned over a long time. He might have magic power now, but he couldn’t do anything without any spells. He was a freak who was getting all excited messing with a lithium battery even though he didn’t know how to actually use it.
“If,” said Frank. Giving death sentences no one else wanted to give was one duty given to the eleven. “If you think you can use Great Demon Coronzon’s knowledge against us, you are sorely mistaken. We Anglicans are specialists in anti-magician combat. Every spell Coronzon has ever used has been meticulously recorded. Thus, relying on Coronzon is not enough to defeat us.”
“And,” continued Thomasia Judicial. No matter which one announced it, only death and doom awaited those two fools. “We know a great many things of which you are ignorant. Like this for example.”
Thomasia Judicial was not holding any obvious weapons.
There were no incantations and no magic circles.
Nothing at all provided any hint to the exact spell being used.
She simply extended her thumbs and index fingers and formed a frame out of the two L shapes.
And she trapped Hamazura inside the frame.
That was all.
Something audibly sliced through the air.
But there was no visible blade. Not only was there no steel blade, but there was no wind blowing even a single hair on his head.
He didn’t understand.
His comprehension couldn’t keep up.
So there was nothing he could do.
The sound sliced through.
Something unseen flew in to slice through Hamazura’s neck, torso, and arms.
With tremendous speed.
It passed right through him.
The delinquent boy didn’t shed a single drop of blood.
In fact, even Narthex in his arms remained unscathed.
“Wha-?”
Did Thomasia Judicial really have time to express surprise?
Who had granted her that?
Hamazura’s hands were full. He truly hadn’t been able to move a finger in that moment.
And yet.
Boom!!!
The right half of Thomasia’s body was engulfed in fire. She had burst into flame. This wasn’t like a flambe where brandy is poured into a heated frying pan to produce a brief blaze. It persisted. The sound of burning hair and scorching skin were plain to hear. Her skin burst and the moisture and fat within could be heard popping from the heat.
Of course, this wasn’t enough to kill one of the Eleven Court Officers.
The guardians of the law had to remain impartial at all times. Giving into internal or external threats or violence and altering a verdict was simply out of the question. Thus, they had been distanced from death. You could say the Eleven Court Officers were those who had these human aspects removed so they could “justly” maintain order in their country and the world from a magical viewpoint and so they could maintain a pure focus on their job. Merely carbonizing 50% of their body weight could not possibly lead to their death. But it was still plenty to leave those magic experts speechless.
What was that?
When Tsumoru Judicial spoke, his voice was quaking with fear.
And this was the same asshole who hadn’t batted an eye at sentencing someone to death.
“What the hell did you do?”
“I used one of the methods that fills the gap between my objective and the result.”
“Silly word games will be viewed as wicked perjury. Answer me: what did you just do here!?”
That foolish question already contained one answer.
They didn’t understand. They couldn’t comprehend.
Hamazura Shiage was an amateur among amateurs, yet not one of those eleven magic experts could say what he had done.
Not even the Eleven Court Officers lurking in the depths of the Anglican Church could reveal the logic of what happened! What was that? Gathering a small amount of magic power in his grasp couldn’t have activated in some kind of fluke. Magic was a strict field of study. It operated on an intricate logic ruled by formulae, laws, and definitions! So an uneducated boy couldn’t just start using it!! And yet he had snatched a specialized spell from somewhere without a grimoire or sorcerer to guide him? And the Tower of London had world-class specialization for imprisoning magicians, so how had this unauthorized spell activated without any attenuation? They were confident that not even Great Demon Coronzon’s spells could have done that!!!
“Heh…”
Meanwhile, Hamazura had just one response.
He had no ventilator, no AED, and no epinephrine. So why hadn’t they realized something was up from the moment Narthex had so easily regained consciousness in his arms after her vital functions had stopped from her hanging? Had they not asked how Hamazura had managed to destroy the metal bars?
Of course, the Eleven Court Officers weren’t the only problem. Defeating them was not enough to save Narthex. There were the headaches plaguing her, her second brain, and those tiny fish egg things that corrupted the world. Coronzon’s Sitra Achra. The source of evil. Once they learned Narthex was in this state, the Anglican Church as a whole and Necessarius in particular weren’t just going to ignore it. And there might be other forces beyond the UK who would become a threat in their desire to claim weakened Narthex for themselves. The two of them were on their own, yet more and more problems kept appearing from new angles.
He couldn’t solve them all at once.
But throwing in the towel was out of the question.
The people who truly needed help couldn’t always ask for it so easily. Hamazura knew that all too well. So he would never abandon Narthex. It no longer mattered if the girl in his arms spoke the words or not. He didn’t want to regret his actions. He was sick of foolishly mourning a lost life after letting other people’s ideas of good and justice take charge.
So what if she was evil?
So what if she was powerful?
So what if she was special?
Other people’s assessments didn’t matter. He would decide for himself whether or not he would save her.
He would risk his life to choose for himself.
…It was fine if he was weak. No longer would he wish for a special power he could never have. But that didn’t mean he had to let that deficiency crush him. He would start as one of the untalented who looked up with longing. He would build his way up from the very bottom, step by step. Until the heavens were finally in reach.
He was a magician.
He would follow his own will and live a life he would not regret.
So Hamazura Shiage had decided.
If countless problems were tangled around Narthex, then he would just have to undo that tangle one thread at a time. That was simple enough. He raised his head and glared straight ahead again. At the Eleven Court Officers who stood in the prison corridor, blocking the way to the exit and thus freedom.
He would deal with the easiest problem first.
With that look in his eyes, he gave his answer.
“What do you think I did?”
Untalented Hamazura had made one of his wishes come true.
He would speak his mind.
That amounted to a declaration of war from this magician.
Now.
Listen up, you eleven who abuse justice for your own personal reasons and unfairly doom people to die.
You’re no more than an ugly and meaningless hurdle that torments the weak and untalented to the point of death.
Well now it’s your turn to have no idea what’s happening.
Takitsubo Rikou lay in a dark, unrecorded place.
She groaned softly and slowly opened her eyes.
The track suit girl spoke without even sitting up.
“…Hamazura?”
It was pressing in on her like a ripple.
A danger signal that only she could recognize.