Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume8 Chapter2
Status: Incomplete
4/9 parts completed
Chapter 2: Transcendent Mut Thebes – The_Death_Penalty_WH.
Part 1
It was all right there in her head.
When you got down to it, the old R&C Occultics magic database was no more than a collection of notes jotted down by Anna Sprengel herself. So journeying to District 15 and searching the database would only turn up Anna’s own knowledge.
The lights were off inside the cold metal box and the little wicked woman didn’t look away from the screen as she whispered to someone.
“What do you want, Aiwass?”
“Nothing really. Just noting how uncharacteristically patient you’re being.”
“Come to see me because I haven’t stepped on you recently, fool?”
After that, little Anna laughed but otherwise ignored him.
So only the unknown being’s voice continued.
“You finally have your body back from Madame Horos, so you can perceive this world as you like and go wherever you desire within it. I assumed you would be rejoicing in your newfound freedom, so I found this odd.”
Miss Sprengel clenched and unclenched her little hand.
“In this body?”
“You don’t seem all that fixated on fully reclaiming your original power and form.”
“Hmph,” snorted Anna.
Bull’s eye.
That being was meant to deliver divine knowledge to humanity, after all.
She wanted something else.
Something not found inside her.
“I will start with the Bridge Builders Cabal.”
“Not with Anna Kingsford?”
“I am starting with what I know I can do.”
She knew the Bridge Builders Cabal’s plan and was in the unique position to stop it, so she could negotiate (or threaten) them.
Furthermore, Academy City needed her for the same reason.
So traveling to District 15 was her best option.
On the other hand…
“I currently have no countermeasure for Kingsford. Even with the full power of my Secret Chief.”
Aiwass was supposed to be her trump card, but he hadn’t been enough to defeat Kingsford. What would have happened if she confidently used him to escape her human film canister form? The thought sent a small chill down her spine.
However…
“Maybe I can’t do it, but maybe that cabal of Transcendents can. And unlike Kingsford, I can take control of them. Either by manipulating Alice or by using the Shrink Drink that contains a portion of her power. They’ve left me a lot of openings for such a powerful group.”
“I see. Just as wicked a plan as I would expect from you.”
‘I wish I could have sent Alice Anotherbible against that woman, but how would that have influenced my current partnership with Kamijou Touma? Still, there are other Transcendents with bizarre specialties. Perhaps one of them is such a poor match for Kingsford that she goes down easily to them. Like a necromancer or a machine killer. Giving up doesn’t improve my situation, so my best bet is to keep struggling no matter how ugly it gets.”
So she would start with what she knew she could do.
She most likely had her Bridge Builders Cabal countermeasure constructed in her mind.
But that was why she wanted absolute certainty.
That meant comparing the idea in her mind with the database she had created.
She felt some nagging doubt because of how extraordinary the cabal’s plan was.
Even seen through Miss Sprengel’s eyes.
“Do you think they can pull it off?” asked Aiwass.
“I don’t know. But it’s never a good idea to immediately reject something because it sounds crazy. That reflex isn’t about a lack of validation or credibility – it’s you trying to deny the worst case scenario. When there is a very real threat out there, what could be more foolish than letting your fear take hold and shutting yourself away for peace of mind?”
That was why she wanted more than her own thoughts and emotions – why she wanted to rely on the cold, hard data.
She wanted objective corroboration that her prediction was in fact correct. Even if it was so horrifying that even a wicked woman like her didn’t want to think about it.
To repeat, Anna most likely had the answer already.
Now she only needed the final confirmation.
Then she only had to download it onto a physical medium she could present to a third party.
“It’s times like this that I curse my lack of a perfect memory.”
“It seems to me that would bring its own problems.”
Whether a disk or nonvolatile memory, all physical media deteriorated and eventually grew unreadable as time passed, but if she kept the information in her own mind, the pressure of her own self-restricting questions would distort the answer. And unlike someone with a perfect memory, her memories provided no objective trust or proof.
She knew their plan.
She was familiar with all of their Achilles heels, so she could crush them at any time.
“But you can’t negotiate with the cabal’s Transcendents unless you can objectively prove it,” said Aiwass.
“Isn’t that your specialty? You are a messenger who provides oracles while pretending to be some secret divine messenger. It all began when you borrowed Rose’s mouth. That message was then written down in a form anyone could read. And it became known as the Book of the Law.”
“But that was all a new seed you had me plant because you were so disgusted by the Golden cabal’s rapid decline after the Battle of Blythe Road. But…”
“Yes, fool.” Miss Sprengel sighed. “Negotiation is not my primary goal here.”
“That plan must not be brought to fruition. In your mind, anyway. I am honestly mildly surprised you see any room for negotiation left.”
That was why she had installed a backdoor in that unseen organization so she could throw them into disarray and crush them from within. All she had to do was tell Alice Anotherbible the “personal legend” of Kamijou Touma and make sure the girl adored him like a character from a children’s book.
(So what am I doing now?)
“Keep in mind I can hear your thoughts, Miss Sprengel. Because I am your Secret Chief and you are my priestess.”
She kicked her little foot at that.
But Aiwass was right. If she were focused primarily on destroying the cabal’s extremely dangerous plan, negotiation would be meaningless. It would be much faster to slash their Achilles heels without warning.
Was she here to save the world? Nonsense.
She had only just reclaimed her physical freedom from one of the greatest frauds in the history of Modern Western Magic. The little wicked woman should have been living it up and greedily taking everything she wanted from the world around her. So her battle against the cabal and her drive to crush their plan could not be classified as good deeds.
So what did she hope to predict?
What did she want most?
“My king,” whispered Anna Sprengel.
Part 2
January 4. Early morning.
Kamijou Touma awoke to a light slap on his cheek.
He first thought the calico cat had play swatted him, but he quickly realized that couldn’t be it.
It was Aradia.
“Wake up.”
“Ugh.”
He opened his eyes to find they were at a gas station. There was no clerk there thanks to the martial law, so they had refueled and he had taken a nap on the bench by the vending machines. Aradia was crouching next to the wooden bench and teasing him, so her face was a lot closer than strictly necessary. Her silver hair spilled down and tickled his cheek.
But that aside…
“It’s already 5:30. Based on the work schedule posted in the office, a manager normally arrives at about this time. If the concept of martial law is enough to make the ordinary citizens nervous, the manager might drop by to make sure their workplace is safe.”
“Wah, wamh, ah, arh?”
“Are you trying to be cute?”
He was simply so sleepy his tongue wasn’t working right, but she coldly criticized him for it.
(It’s January 4 and I’m being told it’s “already” 5:30 in the morning? Has the world gone crazy?)
“Hurry up. Your mind will clear once you get up.”
“Mhh.”
If she said he had to get up, that’s what he would have to do.
But right as he did, Aradia stuck her lithe hand between his back and the bench.
The timing was unfortunate.
Kamijou’s lips contacted something: Aradia’s cheek, which had moved unexpectedly close.
At first, he thought he had to still be dreaming.
“Hm? H-huh!? Wait, did I really just do that!?”
The fog in his mind instantly cleared away.
He doubted she would be kind enough to let him off with a simple head chomp. This was the Great Aradia who had already killed him more than once on December 31.
And yet…
“Relax. That was clearly an accident.”
“?”
Confused, Kamijou froze with his arms crossed in front of his face.
Aradia was avoiding his gaze a bit, but that was all.
The lack of any repercussions scared him in a different way. Like he was building up an unseen debt somewhere.
“You still need to get up. We can’t stick around here forever.”
They were on the run.
He had chosen this path for himself, so he couldn’t complain now.
His head felt super heavy, but he somehow managed to get up on his own. Thanks to the wooden bench, he ached all over. He left the vending machine area which had a blind pulled down over it and was greeted by the biting cold. He saw a white haze outside.
“Why do you seem wide awake at this hour, Aradia? I don’t know what country you came from, but are you jetlagged?”
“Witches follow a strict schedule and receive the blessings of nature – I just haven’t been able to do so recently because you had me tied up. It shouldn’t surprise you to see me up before sunrise.”
Aradia threw the response at him like a slap.
Then the witch goddess winked.
“What? You look like you have several things to say.”
That wasn’t true at all, but if Aradia had read too deep into his expression and opened the door to questions, he couldn’t pass up the chance.
Because wait.
Did this mean he could have her clear up the mysteries surrounding the Transcendents and the Bridge Builders Cabal?
“Um, uh! I-if you insist!!”
“Calm down. I’m not going anywhere, so relax your shoulders and try that again, boy.”
“A-are you actually a red android?”
“You’re starting there!? I suppose it’s best to be careful, but still!!” shouted Aradia, bristling at his question.
But she no longer had that air of a cool witch lady. Didn’t she seem more open to anything, and even a bit indulgent?
“Um, then to cover a more immediate issue, what do you know about Mut Thebes? I could be killed without knowing that. But I understand if you don’t want to give up info on a fellow cabal member.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Not anymore anyway.” Aradia shrugged and sighed, the breath appearing white in the January morning. “Then I will start with the basics. Mut is a goddess found in Egyptian mythology.”
“Right.”
He was pretty sure H. T. Trismegistus had told him that at the consulate.
He wanted to know more than that.
“She is a war goddess who uses the vulture as her symbol. While the other gods promise happiness in a vaguely defined afterlife, she is a ‘physical goddess’ who actually fought on Earth and protected her people from their enemies. She is specifically said to have defended the ancient city of Thebes from an outside enemy.”
“Seriously? So she’s a god who specializes in war and nothing else?”
“It was believed that was one of the many abilities of a protective mother,” Aradia subtly corrected. “Mut was special in that she was both a goddess and the wife of the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh. Technically, the queen and Mut were seen as one and the same. Of course, that would mean each pharaoh’s wife was Mut again, which would make her the pharaoh’s mother, wife, and daughter all at once.”
That sounded very confusing, but Kamijou decided it was silly to apply a modern conception of romance to Ancient Egypt which existed millennia ago.
“Also, some suspect that she was created later on because Amun, the top god, needed a wife. Of course, I’m Aradia, so I’m not one to talk there.”
“…?”
That was something that had bothered him for a while now.
Index had said the goddess Aradia was thought to have been invented by an Italian witch. Then what was this Aradia here?
What was the point of borrowing the name of someone who never even existed?
Had the witch actually been telling the truth, but the story had been so extraordinary that the man writing it down hadn’t recorded it properly?
“What’s wrong?” asked Aradia.
“Nothing…”
Why did he hesitate? She was willing to answer his questions. And even if she refused to answer, the fact that she had openly refused could act as a major hint.
Or was he afraid of receiving confirmation?
He felt like the temporary peace they had established would crumble before his eyes.
Anna walked in from outside and grinned as soon as she saw the witch.
“Nice ankle.”
“I don’t want a word out of you.”
“?” Kamijou tilted his head.
Come to think of it, why was she still doing that? Thanks to Kamijou’s hesitation, Aradia had switched modes. And given how prickly she was being now, he doubted she would answer even if he asked.
The fuel pumps were of dangerous since they worked with gasoline. And they were located outside, so they would have been locked down separately to the office. But that hadn’t been much of an obstacle to Anna Sprengel’s technology.
The wicked woman gave a snort of laughter.
“In the end, single use passwords and two factor authentication are still patterns. Once you decode the pseudorandom number generator, it might as well not be locked at all. At least they seem aware that biometric data like fingerprint or eye scans are a lot less safe given how high quality cameras are these days.”
“I’m suddenly glad my dorm room uses an old-fashioned analog key.”
“Trying to set a new record for foolishness? That’s an even simpler combination of patterns. The best security system a fool like you can manage is being too poor to own anything worth stealing.”
Meanwhile…
Kamijou spotted an old-fashioned payphone nearby.
Even a high schooler like him knew using his phone was a bad idea while on the run, but since a payphone wouldn’t leave a record of who made the call, couldn’t he contact Index or Misaka Mikoto that way?
Little Anna glared up at him.
“Again, don’t even think about it, fool. Get us in trouble by trying it and I will kick your ass headfirst into a doghouse.”
“Alright, alright.”
It looked like he had to abandon that idea. She refused to explain why, but this must have been riskier than he thought. Anna had singlehandedly built up R&C Occultics as a global IT company, so he doubted he could outdo her when it came to computer knowledge. Academy City technology was 20 or 30 years ahead of the outside world, but Kamijou hadn’t designed that technology himself.
(I hope they’re okay. It’s so frustrating when they’re in the same city as me.)
He had to believe that the pursuers’ attention on him meant less focus on Index, Mikoto, and the others.
The mobile combat vehicle stood out thanks to its 8 wheels and swiveling tank gun, but they had shoved it inside the carwash on Anna’s suggestion. Apparently no one would notice it as long as it fit inside.
Little Anna unfolded a large paper map on the concrete ground. She and Aradia stared at the map through a magnifying glass they had found somewhere.
“Let’s see. Based on my scrying, it should look something like this.”
“Anyone’s spell would reveal the same thing. And it seems to be showing water-based danger on the horizon.”
They didn’t seem to be reading miniscule text or setting down small game pierces to simulate the enemy(?) formation. This sounded like occult divination. When Aradia slid the magnifying glass across the map, Kamijou noticed small flashes of light dancing inside the distorted lens.
“Don’t be shy. If you want to see the map, move in closer.”
Still crouching, Aradia scooted a bit aside.
Kamijou did as she suggested, but he still couldn’t tell what he was supposed to be seeing. He just didn’t want to be standing behind her because he felt guilty seeing her butt while she crouched like that.
The oblivious woman was still focused on the map.
“I’m using crystal divination. It’s a common enough technique in Wicca. You stare into the crystal and decode the information you want from the vision you see within. This is a variation on it. I bet you didn’t know the crystal doesn’t actually have to be a ball, did you?”
He was more interested in what she had discovered than the method she was using.
Aradia removed the magnifying glass from the map and raised it like an old-fashioned detective.
“Lend my your right hand.”
“?”
Kamijou held out his hand as asked and she touched the rim of the magnifying glass to it. It made a high-pitched cracking sound.
Aradia was apparently done with the magnifying glass now, so she spun it in her hand and brought her lips to the rim like it was a giant lollipop she was about to lick.
“Imagine Breaker makes this so much easier.”
“It does,” agreed Anna. “It lets you omit the entire process for exorcising the summoned power. And you don’t have to worry about the backlash if you screw up. The Golden cabal was a sorry excuse for a cabal that kept growing more bloated until it ruptured, but I can see why they had it stored deep within Blythe Road as a last resort.”
Kamijou wasn’t sure how to interpret this assessment. Should he view this like the young woman next door asking him to get a stubborn lid off of a bottle?”
…If so, he wasn’t going to complain.
“Wipe that smirk off your face, fool. And we should keep the divination to a minimum. Academy City might not know much about magic, but Mut Thebes or Kingsford might notice and use it to track us down. Like suddenly noticing a presence in some abandoned ruins.”
Little Anna pouted her lips and swiftly folded up the map.
“We are in District 6 now, so we still need to cross Districts 5 and 7. So, fool, let’s continue on toward District 15.”
“I get that,” said Kamijou while climbing for the hatch on top of the gun.
The interior was still cramped and the seats even more so. There was a reason they had refused to spend the night inside there.
“But I still can’t believe we got an armored vehicle inside the amusement park district. I would have thought they had a solid gate at the entrance to make sure no one gets in without a ticket.”
“You really are a fool. This is a mobile combat vehicle.” Anna made sure to correct him every time. “If you refuse to learn, I’ll start shoving the vocabulary sticks up your asshole.”
“…”
What was a vocabulary stick?
Whatever the case, he got the feeling she would also get furious over the debate regarding whether corn was a grain or a vegetable.
“Also, fool. Amusement parks have industrial vehicle entrances located out of sight of the guests. How do you think they receive all the food and souvenirs they sell across the entire park? Or what about replacing the heavy metal rails and thick wires for upkeep of the thrill rides? You didn’t think it was all carried in by hand, did you?”
“That’s not what I meant. District 6 is one giant amusement park, right? It just feels like the end of the world to see a military vehicle intruding on this land of hopes and dreams.”
“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Do not interrupt me again.”
“Most fairy tales are more like horror stories if you follow them back to their roots,” added Aradia.
Was that supposed to be helpful?
Also, the expert on witch stories spoke down from above the other two. The nature-loving mountain girl couldn’t stand being cooped up in that tin can all day, so she had her upper body sticking out of the hatch to enjoy the breeze. Which meant she had one leg on the ladder up to the hatch.
“Bwah, Aradia!? Have you no sense!? Don’t just show off that angle!!”
“?”
“If she isn’t aware, don’t bother her. And it’s her decision to do it or not. I know you are a hopeless fool, but you don’t have to tackle every single problem you come across with fists flying.”
A skirt-wearing girl version of a kasa-obake was staring down at them from above, but Anna Sprengel seemed a lot more interested in trying the mentaiko, corn, and mayo bread she had bought at a bread vending machine earlier. Even though they had stocked up inside the vehicle just yesterday. She was also enjoying a health drink that claimed to contain a trillion lactobacilli, which sounded to Kamijou like a battle manga with so much power level inflation nothing had any meaning anymore.
Generally, the other two let Anna operate the Predator Octopus.
Kamijou was still in high school, so he wouldn’t know how to operate a steering wheel. And this used a touchscreen, so it didn’t even have a steering wheel. Aradia was skeptical of technology, so she was out of the question too. That meant Anna was the one swiping her hand across the console monitor in front of the commander’s seat.
Kamijou Touma continued to pour all of his willpower into ignoring Aradia’s crotch that seemed unnecessarily conspicuous only a meter over his head. (Was this some kind of mental training!?)
“So is the plan for today the same as yesterday: look out for Mut Thebes while avoiding Anti-Skill’s checkpoints?”
“Thank you for pointing out the obvious, fool. Do I need to shove enough things up your asshole you look like a restaurant’s chopstick holder?”
She may have been even more foulmouthed than that human.
Kamijou couldn’t help but sigh, but…
“I notice you failed to mention Aleister’s group who have been concerningly silent. Do you want to die?”
The mood clearly changed when she mentioned Aleister.
Surprisingly, the majority of the tension came from Anna herself.
“Unlike a fool like you, Anna Kingsford seeks certainty. She goes beyond never making a wasted move. If any of her moves fails to accomplish anything, she will change her point of view to transform it into a useful card in her deck,” whispered Anna.
That little wicked woman was revealing her own weakness to someone else.
Kamijou didn’t see that as regression. It was only one step, but she was making progress.
“Even if she does locate us through divination, she wouldn’t launch an attack on that alone. She will increase the certainty of her information by relying on multiple sources, work out the most meaningful move she can make, and then make that move.”
“You mean…?”
“Yes, fool. We fought a highly conspicuous artillery battle to escape Mut Thebes last night. Word of that must have spread through Academy City. Assuming she intercepted those reports and has been analyzing the situation based on them, it won’t be long now. Kingsford will make her move soon.”
Part 3
Aleister Crowley, Anna Kingsford, and Kihara Noukan.
Since they looked like a foreign nun and a mysterious near-future glasses woman out walking a large dog (after martial law was declared), they had to make for quite a bizarre sight. Except they didn’t. When they walked right in front of an armed Anti-Skill group, not one person demanded they stop.
Was it Kihara Noukan who had said they were bound to be caught if they snuck into Academy City again?
Aleister sighed.
(This simple recognition manipulation won’t work on anyone with a deep knowledge of magic. That of course applies to the Transcendents, but also to the artificial demon working for Academy City – Qliphah Puzzle 545.)
He could imagine all this so easily, but he could never make sense of the human mind.
He was constantly making mistakes.
Meanwhile, Anna Kingsford curiously viewed the vehicles parked on the curb. The tanks and armored vehicles were all painted dark because they were meant for use in an urban environment.
They were closer than expected. Much too close.
The great knowledge goddess took small steps up to within a meter of one, looking just like a tourist with one of the red guards at a certain English palace.
If not for their magic, they would have been instantly discovered and forced to fight.
“Oh, how fun. It’s like a parade.”
“Don’t place too much faith in that preserved corpse. It might look just like a living body, but it’s still only a corpse being forced into motion. You can’t use any magical defenses, so if you were held in place by the ground collapsing below your feet or exposure to a high voltage current, an ordinary tank gun could blast you to smithereens.”
“Then am I relatively safe from the ones ❌ in a vehicle?”
“How did you find a way to ‘look on the bright side’ of that warning?”
When Kingsford pointed at an Anti-Skill group from less than a meter away, Aleister shut an eye and held a hand to his forehead.
That she went unnoticed was proof that she was the spell expert Aleister was not.
A true expert did not neglect these fundamental of magic.
Or rather, it was all part of a single large system. There were no unnecessary gears in the world of magic.
So instead of learning a single special move, you increased your overall strength by thoroughly honing your skills in all the most common spells until they were their own special moves.
An expert like Kingsford probably resented the very act of designing a spell exclusively for killing.
The golden retriever sniffed at the cigarette smoke exhaled by an Anti-Skill officer on break and reacted with disgust when he detected the vanilla additive.
”Explain it to her, Aleister. I would understand if you had explained it over and over and she refused to learn, but she can’t be blamed for her ignorance.”
“I know that, but still.”
The great knowledge goddess’s knowledge stopped in the 1800s, so while her magic knowledge was unmatched, she didn’t know much about the threat posed by science. The lack of knowledge wasn’t necessary a problem, but her inability to appreciate the threat was. She was too innocent, like a young child who had never touched a hot kettle.
Eventually, Aleister pointed up into the early morning sky.
“Academy City has developed 200mm self-propelled grenade launchers and multistage rocket launchers with a range of more than 30km. They can accurately drop a grenade on you anywhere in the city. And if they don’t care about damage to civilian facilities, a single Anti-Skill officer can give a signal by radio, laser, or even smoke to summon a downpour of explosives. A single volley of the rocket launchers will cover the designated area with ten thousand bomblets. Do you still feel safe?”
A sound like an electric shaver passed by overhead.
This one was not for aerial photography.
The 45cm plastic isosceles triangle was joined by hundreds more clustered together like a flock of starlings. From a distance, they appeared to undulate like a great serpent. These were self-destruct drones designed to spread out in the sky, locate their target, gather overhead, lock on, ignite their solid fuel, drop toward their target, and explode.
Aleister sighed.
“Each of those Snakeheads is loaded with as much explosive as an anti-tank rocket. The sky above is the hardest place for a ground vehicle to attack, so if those things attack from there, the tanks and armored vehicles don’t stand a chance. A person outside of a vehicle even less so.”
“My, my. The 🌍 has become a very ☠️ place in my absence.”
Anna Kingsford held a hand to her cheek and elegantly tilted her head.
She had lived in the late 1800s. That was before World War One, which meant a world without tanks, aircraft, and poison gas, so some might call it a nice place to live. Especially in an age where war without nuclear weapons sounded like something from an impossible fantasy world.
Of course, small drones commonly lost control and crashed due to signal interference and crosswinds. What would happen if those armed explosives were constantly flying through the city? As the numbers went up, what seemed like small odds of an accident would rise as well. Instead of launching a missile or artillery shell in response to a threat, explosives were already filling the sky above. Instead of avoiding the small odds of an accident, the city had ordered its people to stay home to avoid anyone coming to harm by the accidents. These next-generation weapons could only be used with martial law in place.
“What’s the plan for today?” asked Aleister right in front of the enemy.
“I 💭 it is about ⏰ to take this seriously☆”
Part 4
Kamijou’s group slowly drove the mobile combat vehicle through the District 6 amusement park.
There was a biting chill outside, but the cramped vehicle was filled with the sweet warmth of girls.
In the commander’s seat, Anna made occasional adjustments to the self-driving while she messed with the communications. Kamijou thought she was accessing a civilian frequency to listen to the radio, but she was apparently watching an online TV station displayed in a corner of the touchscreen. How much could she access with that thing?
“Today is January 4. Good morning and welcome to the Children’s Q&A Advice Show. You’re in for a treat because today’s New Year’s special is two hours long☆ Now, our first Scype call is a question from Azumi-chan, a 2nd grader from District 13. Happy New Year, Azumi-chan. What is it you want to know?”
“H-Happy New Year. Um, why do you catch a cold when it’s cold out?”
“That’s actually a really interesting question, Azumi-chan. But first I need to correct a misunderstanding there. It’s hard to tell because they’re too small to see, but colds are caused by germs you can find floating in the air any time of year. We see more cold patients in the winter because the air is dryer. See, people have something called an immune system and…”
“Hee hee,” someone laughed.
It was Anna Sprengel with her hand over her mouth. It was an unusually gentle laugh for her how harsh she tended to be. It lacked her usual edge.
“Excellent. She honestly asks the question on her mind and then listens to the answer. She earns a perfect 100 as a student.”
“Really?”
“You need to be careful, you dull fool. All of you fools like to ask the question before even trying to think for yourselves. Instead, you need to listen, work to comprehend what you have learned, and – if you still do not understand – gather up what you know, put it in your own words, and feel no shame about asking. That is what I call perfect.”
So did he have to learn to act like a 7 or 8 year old to please Miss Sprengel? That honestly sounded way too hard.
“The problem isn’t how much or how little knowledge you have.”
Anna elegantly crossed her legs in the highest seat, rested her elbow on the armrest, and her head in her hand.
And she whispered in Demon Lord mode.
“Knowledge you never use grows rusty. If you avoid writing a word for fear of misspelling it, you really will forget how to spell it before long. So the greatest barrier to true knowledge is the silly pride that believes you are too good to study and master the fundamentals. Feel no shame, learner. The textbook lies before you. It might look intimidating, but your predecessors have proven that you will eventually achieve mastery if you take it slow and complete each step in turn. You must not skip past the basics and immediately attempt the practical side. Even worse is to fail to realize you have given up on thinking, fail to learn a single thing, and find all you have left is an inflated sense of pride.”
This advice had arrived unexpectedly.
He needed to listen, work to comprehend, and if he still didn’t understand, gather his knowledge, put it in his own words, and ask without shame.
Kamijou decided to put Anna’s advice to practice.
“So…what were you hoping to accomplish?”
“I didn’t have a lofty goal like guiding all of humanity in the right direction.”
Miss Sprengel’s thoughts had been transported elsewhere while she listened to that innocent exchange on the radio.
And the words spilled from her lips now.
“I wanted to share what I had if it could quench people’s thirst for knowledge. But only if they sought that knowledge in the proper way. In the end, that never came to pass. The incomplete knowledge I brought them only created hopeless conflict and self-proclaimed geniuses who arrogantly mocked everyone they met.”
“Let’s see,” continued the radio show. “Next we have Shunta-kun, a 4th grader from District 7.”
“Gyah! Wah!!”
“U-um, Shunta-kun? Shunta-kuuun?”
“What- ah ha ha! Wait, it’s about to start- (wham thud!!) Did you hear that!? Kya ha ha! Ah ha ha ha!!”
“…”
“You don’t have to get that upset!” shouted Kamijou. “It’s not like he’s your kid!!”
Kamijou quickly restrained little Anna who looked so furious she might utter a mysterious curse that not even the Anglicans were familiar with.
“That pissed me off almost as much as those self-proclaimed geniuses in the Golden cabal.”
“I’m really not sure what to say about that, but should I update my mental image of them?”
“Pant, pant. M-Miss Host,” said a new voice on the radio. “I’m a 47-year-old baby. Hee hee. C-can you tell me where babies come from? Bweh heh heh heh.”
“Yikes!” shouted the host. “H-how did this call get past the screening!? Producer!!”
“Anna? Him you can curse,” said Kamijou, staring into the distance and feeling very glad he didn’t have to deal with a live broadcast.
Maybe everyone just had too much time on their hands while forced to stay home all day. Choosing to stay home during the holiday and being told you couldn’t leave the house were two very different things.
(This martial law thing is scary. I never thought being able to go where you want could feel like a luxury.)
Anna wasn’t driving their vehicle at full speed, but not because she was focused on the online TV show playing on the screen.
“I don’t trust the quality of the pavement on private property. Worse, this looks like tile, not asphalt. I hope we don’t break through all of a sudden.”
“Break through to where?”
“That question earns you 0 points. You didn’t even try to think first.” The little wicked woman’s voice was ice cold. “There is more to an amusement park than what meets the eye. There is a lot built underground like the giant motors and industrial power transformers for the thrill rides. For example…yes. Just imagine it, fool. Have you ever seen an amusement park with power lines strung up overhead? Any realistic equipment that would break the illusion are buried underfoot.”
Was that how it worked?
Kamijou took a look at the monitor Anna was messing with.
“But it looks like the Ferris wheel and the other rides are all stopped. Is it just too early in the morning?”
“You have a fool’s imagination. The attractions are put through test runs before the park opens to ensure safety, so amusement parks are actually quite busy early in the morning.”
Anna poked at the touchscreen as she answered. The exasperated sigh was quickly becoming her default state. She was probably making an adjustment to the self-driving, but the lack of a steering wheel made it hard to think of her as operating a vehicle.
Their motionless surroundings made it look like the giant amusement park had frozen in the winter cold.
But did that mean the martial law was to blame? The amusement park was district-wide private property, so if the people at the top – the management? – decided to shut it down, it could be shut down in a matter of seconds.
“But aren’t there a lot of people here? This has facial recognition boxes popping up all over!”
“Do not breathe on me in your panic, fool. Do it again and I will shove yellow mustard paste down your dickhole.”
“I would’ve thought a wicked woman would understand male anatomy better than that! Do that and it would explode!!”
“It makes sense to me,” said Aradia, also sounding exasperated.
Kamijou bristled at the thought of her shoving something in there too, but that wasn’t what she was talking about.
“You can demand people stay home all you want, but some people are going to head out regardless.”
It was before the park even opened, so these people weren’t breaking the rules to enjoy a day at this land of dreams. They appeared to be here for work. About half seemed to be park staff and half seemed to be truckers. The sudden declaration of martial law hadn’t shut down District 17’s unmanned factories (because no one had to show up for work there) and what were they supposed to do about the cakes, twisted donuts, and other park exclusive foods they had prepared the day before? Maybe it was a good thing Kamijou’s group had left the gas station early on Aradia’s suggestion.
Anna shut off the online TV show and displayed the outside footage on the full monitor.
“Wow. Hey, Anna, what are things like outside? The lack of windows scares me.”
“Foolish fool. There is a periscope linked with a camera at your seat. That is the loader’s seat, so it has secondary 360-degree observation equipment separate from the gunner’s.”
“If you say so.”
“…………………………………………………………………………………………You’re the one who asked.”
“Wait, no, put that yellow tube away! You lost me at the peri-whatever part!! And unlike with my phone, I can’t exactly learn how this equipment works through trial and error! I could press the wrong button and launch some weapon or another!!”
“It’s called a periscope. You know, like on a submarine? Oh, are my words converting properly here?”
Aradia was actually speaking a mystery language called “common tones” rather than Japanese, but she still helped him out like a kind older sister. The way he could actually hear her saying two different things at once was kind of scary.
“Coddle him like that and his foolishness will only grow.”
“I didn’t start it. You can blame a certain Magic God for that one.”
Anna had no interest in a child with no drive to learn, so she ended up doing everything on her own. She poked her fingers boredly at the thin touchscreen from the commander’s seat.
“I’m still scared, Anna. Can’t you let me see outside too?”
“Sigh. Do you never shut up, fool? Here.”
Anna stood up from the commander’s seat and let him take it. He was worried about her leaving the controls, but she seemed find reaching in from the side to make the necessary adjustments.
So the spiky-haired boy sat in the warm commander’s seat.
Then something happened.
Little Anna sat down in his lap.
What now? He was seriously unsure where to put his hands.
He ended up holding them overhead.
She also seemed weirdly smooth, so he looked down to discover she only had her baggy dress held up at her chest. This was more than he could have imagined. Her defenses from the rear were as nonexistent as with a naked apron!
His eyes widened further when Miss Sprengel did not hesitate to lean back against him.
“Um, Anna-san?”
“I’m kind of busy right now, so stay still. I don’t have time for questions. Besides, I doubt a fool like you would learn much from looking at the screen.”
“I thought you were being unusually accommodating, but you’re still upset, aren’t you?”
“Oh? Finally figured something out on your own, did you? Good job. I’ll have you know I am the type to hold a grudge.”
Kamijou felt a kick at the base of the seat bolted to the floor.
He looked over to see Aradia refusing to look his way. Nothing he did got any reaction out of her.
But he had bigger worries.
He took a look at the screen past Anna’s head and noticed a shocking development.
Ice filled his stomach.
“Those aren’t workers, are they? I knew Anti-Skill would be here. Yikes, that’s a lot!! And they have tanks!!”
The deep rumble of diesel engines approached from up ahead. One would be bad enough, but this was several lined up in a column.
Little Anna sighed in a bored way.
“Those are not tanks. They are infantry fighting vehicles.”
“What’s the difference? And that longer name sounds stronger if you ask me!”
“How many times must I remind you to think before you ask a question, fool? These are only about half the weight of a tank and they only use smaller guns with barrels the size of a clothesline pole. Those are 35mm autocannons. They might as well be peashooters compared to a 120mm. And the armor is aluminum to keep them lightweight enough for air transport.”
“Y-you mean they’re lower grade than ordinary tanks?”
“Yes, I do. Although they can still punch right through the Predator Octopus’s armor since it’s only armored vehicle class.”
“So I should still be terrified!!”
A sweet tremor ran through small Anna’s back while she sat in his lap. The wicked woman was apparently willing to be riddled with bullets if it let her torment Kamijou like this.
A convoy of tanks(?), armored vehicles, and military trucks arrived from up ahead. But they must have already been here. If not for the many military vehicles driving around this private property like they owned the place, the Predator Octopus would have aroused suspicion among the workers.
If Kamijou’s group was discovered, it would mean a battle, but the amusement park employees were all around. Not to mention that the Anti-Skill officers were all teachers.
If that deep siren began to sound, it was all over.
Aradia rubbed her bare feet together while still occupying the gunner’s seat. That was how she used her magic. The look on her face said she was willing to take action at a moment’s notice.
Kamijou gulped, but Anna casually flashed the headlights. Drawing attention to themselves like that sent ice down Kamijou’s spine, but the other vehicles returned the greeting in kind.
And they continued on.
The siren remained silent.
Apparently their identity wasn’t apparent from the vehicle’s exterior.
Did that mean it was better to move around like they belonged than to sneak in the shadows like a ninja?
Kamijou took another look around and saw a lot of Anti-Skill beyond the fixed checkpoints. They were stopping their vehicles in the area and receiving large artillery shells from the gunless tanks.
“Those are specialized ammo supply vehicles, fool. I believe they reused the same frame.”
“I feel like it would be more efficient to do this in the city.”
Was the risk of accidents lower if they kept things simple?
Anti-Skill was also gathering carts loaded with the kind of metal trays seen at all-you-can-eat buffets. More than hold food, they appeared to also heat the food with a heating element, allowing for cooking. The adults were gathering around and receiving breakfast from a strange vehicle that Anna smugly explained was a field kitchen. Unlike the students at school, they formed an orderly line without any fighting. This martial law thing is just like being at war, thought Kamijou (one of their prime targets), which would have angered certain people had they heard it. Anti-Skill really did look more like soldiers than schoolteachers here.
After nonchalantly driving by, Anna bit her thumbnail in his lap.
“Don’t relax yet, fool. They will discover who we are eventually. A military vehicle not found on the central datalink’s timetable is wandering around and loaded with live ammunition, after all.”
And there was no real reason they had to get through this without being discovered.
The fuse had already been lit. They only had to reach District 15 before the explosion.
“?”
The Predator Octopus came to a slow stop.
Not even Kamijou had to ask why.
He lowered Anna from his lap and grabbed the ladder. He opened the hatch and poked his head out to view the 50m-wide obstacle blocking their way.
“A river.”
“Failing to find the right answer while looking right at it is unusual indeed, fool. That is technically a canal since it was intentionally dug by the amusement park.”
Anna’s voice pursued him through the hatch smaller than a manhole.
River or canal, the 20tn mobile combat vehicle could not float in water. Crossing would require using one of the bridges and bridges were crucial for transportation. There was of course more than one, but even from here he could tell Anti-Skill had checkpoints set up on all of them.
They had built barricades from steel beams and barbed wire and they were shining large construction site lights. They also had the firepower of tanks and armored vehicles at their disposal. Were those stacks of boxes full of ammunition?
Approaching any of those bridges would be a bad idea.
Kamijou looked down into the vehicle which had become an oddly warm and sweet girl zone.
“Could we drive right by them in this vehicle like we did before?”
“That may have looked simple to an ignorant fool, but that was a risky gamble. And at an official checkpoint, they will not even let their own people through without an ID check for the vehicle and its occupants. Try it there and we will be exposed and forced to fight. …Which will lead the Bridge Builders Cabal and Kingsford right to us.”
Anna was right. If they could drive right through, they wouldn’t have had such a hard time last night either.
“If they’re watching all the bridges…oh, I know. Could we create a floating bridge or something?”
“With some wooden boxes and ropes we find lying around? I do appreciate the attempt to think for yourself, but anything sturdy enough to allow a 20tn vehicle across would be extremely conspicuous, fool.”
Aradia seemed unusually happy given he was letting the cold air in through the open hatch.
“Ugh, I can’t resist any longer. Move aside so I can get some fresh air too.”
“Wait, Aradia, there’s no room!”
With two of them, the small hatch was cramped indeed. There was only one ladder to stand on, so it was a lot like having two people crammed onto the same side of a kotatsu. What was she, a kind but weirdly careless big sister?
They were practically in each other’s arms while Aradia took a deep breathe of the chilly air.
But…
“What are you looking at, Aradia?”
“The park workers. They do us a great service by giving witches a positive image of magic and dreams, so I need to make sure they’ll be alright.”
But you don’t care about Anti-Skill? wondered Kamijou, but did that mean he was too distracted by their surroundings? When he thought about it, if a normal person came to the amusement park, they wouldn’t be here to see the armed enemy force.
“For me, people watching is more than just a hobby.”
“?”
Kamijou looked puzzled, so Aradia changed the subject to the main topic at hand.
“Couldn’t we abandon this vehicle, cross the river on our own, and steal a different military vehicle on the opposite bank? This 8-wheeled thing can be remotely controlled to an extent, can’t it? We can send it into one of those dangerous bridge checkpoints as a diversion.”
“That can be our last resort,” said Anna. “I want to avoid stealing another vehicle if possible to reduce the odds of them noticing I hacked the datalink. Both because it robs us of transportation and because I don’t want to give them even the slightest hint that our goal is data related – that is, accessing the magic database in District 15.”
Kamijou felt they should also spend some time addressing the fact that crossing the river without a bridge during the middle of winter meant jumping into water that was near freezing and giving off a white steam. And wasn’t this river more than 50m across? The Transcendents might be fine going for a celebratory New Year’s swim since they were walking around in what might as well have been swimsuits, but an ordinary high school boy like Kamijou would freeze and be swept away before he made it across.
Amma kicked the ladder with her small foot as a warning, so the other two ducked back down and shut the hatch.
Kamijou heard the rhythmic sound of a Six Wings helicopter passing by overhead.
“We need to think up a way to safely cross the river.”
“I already told you it’s a canal. Get it right or I’ll drag you around town with a nose hook, fool.”
The other two tilted their heads with “what’s a nose hook?” written on their faces and Anna cleared her throat for some reason.
The girl(?) had stepped on the gas a little too hard, so she stammered a bit before continuing.
“But Academy City aren’t the only ones we have to worry about. Let’s just hope Mut Thebes and Kingsford are polite enough to wait for us to find a solution.”
