Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume9 Chapter4
Chapter 4: At the Center – Duel_and_Struggle,CRC.
Part 1
The hospital’s 1st floor hallway was a straight path to the ICU where Anna Sprengel slept.
“Heh heh.”
The red-clad silver young man’s shoulders shook with laughter.
He mocked the foolishness of Kamijou Touma whose shoulder was gushing blood where his arm should be.
“I wondered what trump card you would rely on in the end, but all you did was break the glass container? That one normally sleeps within his coffin, but he naturally awakens when he locates the disease plaguing this world and returns to his coffin once he is no longer needed. Producing the world-healing elixir is all well and good, but how long can you last like this? Given the rate of blood loss, I would guess 10 minutes at the mo-”
Kamijou Touma wasn’t listening.
A single step covered all the necessary distance. He softly sent the translucent dragon emerging from his right shoulder toward CRC.
It didn’t feel like punching with a fist or biting and tearing with great jaws.
It was probably a miniscule attack like a forehead flick.
A mass of compressed sound erupted a moment later.
That was all it took to launch Rosencreutz several dozen meters down the hospital hallway.
“Oh, ohh!”
This result shouldn’t have been possible.
Misaka Mikoto, the other #5 girl, Academy City’s next-gen weaponry, the Transcendents of the Bridge Builders Cabal, the grimoire library, the Magic God, and even legendary magicians like Aleister and Kingsford had failed to achieve this.
This was the very first clean hit against him.
And it happened almost too easily.
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!?”
He bounced repeatedly, producing the sounds of physical destruction, the screams of muscle and bone, and the wet hacking of bloody coughs.
But none of that explained CRC’s trembling.
He was looking down at his own left hand.
Still seated on the floor, the silver young man viewed his own hand pressed against the floor and he trembled.
“You made this old man…touch the floor?”
This was a first.
It hadn’t been allowed to happen even once before now.
He had always stood tall on the battlefield. His march across Academy City had continued unabated even during the satellite’s heavy metal bombing and the Hula Hoop’s largescale particle accelerator cannon. With that in mind, just how much power had this small result required?
This far surpassed human limits.
The boy had chosen to cross that line.
Because he had sworn he would save the greatest wicked woman who could only wait for death.
“…”
Kamijou Touma provided no response.
He did not speak up in triumph and he kept his head lowered, hiding his expression.
A change came over the boy’s own shadow at his feet.
It flickered.
Unnaturally, like a dying fluorescent light.
What had this power cost him?
It was like the boy, who supposedly had a physical body, was shifting into the realm of shapeless and weightless illusion.
“………………………………………………………………………”
He took another step.
That was enough for the world to distort and strain. The space around him definitely sank. If he had stepped with greater purpose, it might have triggered an inwards gravitational collapse in that space, creating an irreparable hole.
The wordless action conveyed a single purpose.
Kamijou Touma was stepping forward to approach CRC once more.
This wasn’t over.
He wouldn’t let it end with just the one attack.
He would tear CRC apart, chew him up, and fully eliminate him from the world. He would save the people he considered important, even if it meant staining his hand with blood.
He had made the decision.
“I see.”
Rosencreutz did not speak at length here.
When taken to their absolute limit, formulas became beautifully simple.
Just like E=mc2, CRC’s conclusion was a concise one.
Cracking sounds came from all across his body as he stood back up. He lifted his hips from the floor, placed a hand on the wall, and allowed himself all the unsightly actions it required.
“I admit it. You have convinced this old man: this world is a fascinating place☆ Eh heh heh heh! I truly did not think it had anything left to satisfy my playfulness and eliminate my frustrations. Ah hee hee hee!?”
His eyes were directed straight at the dragon boy.
Drowning in his own passions, the holy man finally viewed that single boy as an enemy.
Kamijou Touma and Christian Rosencreutz.
A clash between superhumans had begun.
Part 2
The air was strongly compressed.
There was no need to hold anything back.
Kamijou approached from straight ahead, so Christian Rosencreutz held out his palm.
That was an invisible attack capable of destroying anything.
That brutal spell was clearly magic, but not even Kamijou’s Imagine Breaker could have stopped it and it would have torn the arm off instead.
The compression of the air passed a certain point and it rumbled out like an explosion.
But Kamijou did not speak a word.
He instructed what lay beyond his nonexistent right arm and the invisible dragon moved slightly. That was enough to overturn all the assumptions.
The dragon’s maw – and its razor-sharp teeth – bit a black object, stopping it in its tracks.
The object was a bit larger than a golf ball.
“A…projectile?” muttered Aradia, her eyes widened in shock as she watched from the sidelines.
This was the identity of the extremely powerful magic that supposedly made defense impossible.
There was no mystery or miracle there. In fact, if a projectile was given a lethal amount of destructive force, it would naturally be moving too quickly to see with the naked eye. That unchangeable rule remained the same even when magic had influenced the logic. It was only a common parlor trick.
Kamijou did not bother with mockery. For that matter, he showed no human reaction at all. He only swung his arm dragon horizontally, tossing the annoyance of an object aside.
Why waste time on ordinary emotion when he could dedicate that time to devouring his prey?
That was the only thought behind his actions.
“Hee hee. So you can finally fight back and let me have some fun.”
Rosencreutz continued firing.
Annoyed and irritated by the identical attacks, Kamijou’s dragon released a deafening roar.
It was possible the boy couldn’t control it himself. The sloppily swung jaws deflected CRC’s projectiles to the side, sending them ricocheting toward hospital rooms with no connection to the fight.
The silver young man grinned.
As if to say he had guided things in that direction.
But the fearsome attacks vanished into thin air before contacting the wall.
“Oh?” breathed CRC in fascination.
He had sensed something worthy of his interest.
“You eliminated my attacks without permission? No, this is a simple matter of willpower. Any attack launched without a powerful intent to kill will be swallowed up and destroyed. And any attack that misses its mark swiftly loses all meaning.”
“…”
“After experiencing an improbably uniform amount of misfortune, you loathe lucky shots from your enemy. And this old man loathes all coincidental actions that go against my passions and playfulness. I see. Our clashing wills have distorted space on the macro level. But,” said Rosencreutz with a mocking grin. He held his palm out to the side, casually aiming at the wall there. “Kee hee hee, ee hee, hwa ha ha ha ha ha!! That leaves me plenty of room to play. As long as this old man directs his intent to kill toward those strangers, I can still hit them!”
Space was immediately sliced through over a distance of more than 100m.
But not because CRC had sliced through the innocent hospital patient beyond that wall.
A moment before he could, Kamijou Touma jabbed his dragon jaws forward and had it exhale a violent beam of light. Then he swung the jaws straight up to slice CRC’s right arm off at the shoulder.
Rosencreutz showed no interest in his own right arm spinning through the air.
“Mend.”
As soon as he spoke that one word, the nearby rubble gathered around and formed something like the smooth arm of a mannequin to stop his bleeding. This was not a resurrection that returned him to normal. He was only mending by creating something new. After traveling the world, gathering all sorts of knowledge, and going around teaching people the secret art to create a human from scratch inside a still, this was a simple task for him. He didn’t even bother checking the movement of the arm that was lither and more beautiful than a real human arm. Instead, he raised his gaze straight up.
The ceiling had split.
But not because it had been sliced through.
Like custard or gelatin, the hospital’s walls and ceiling had separated themselves to the left and right to avoid Kamijou’s attack. Including the beds, the medical equipment, and the wiring in the walls. It all forgot its original texture, spread apart at the center like a slime, and then reconnected like nothing had happened.
It was like the building itself had a mind and a life of its own.
Christian Rosencreutz drew on his vast wisdom to instantly explain it.
This was not creation or destruction.
It was…
“Did you command it? The intimidation of the crowned dragon king can command all living things, but also all inanimate objects?”
Those words carried deeper meaning than it initially seemed. And not just the silly risk of CRC himself obeying the command if he got careless.
Stray shots, hostages, other’s lives?
With this ultimate power, Kamijou wouldn’t have to worry about any of that.
Which meant…
There truly was no one in the world who could stop Kamijou Touma after this monstrous transformation!!
He attacked again. But this time, it wasn’t just a beam flying from the dragon’s jaws.
The dragon itself detached from his right shoulder and flew out.
“Hwa ha ha hah!!”
CRC laughed loud, swung his body upwards, and dodged by breaking through the ceiling.
He had reacted to the real threat rather than let it hit him and see what happened. And at this point, he had finally quit relying on magic. He had needed to move faster than he could put together a spell.
The battlefield spread beyond the one long hallway.
They moved to a rehabilitation room, a break room, an operating room, and finally a nurse station on one of the higher floors.
It all looked the same, so Kamijou couldn’t tell what floor he was on. But the boy taking a step beyond humanity did see a familiar face down the hallway.
It was Aogami Pierce.
He was a powerless high school boy. But he was standing protectively in front of a small girl in pajamas who was holding a picture book. His legs were shaking, but he hadn’t frozen in place. He had purposefully chosen to stand there.
Whether he was more interested in the young girl or her mother was unclear, though.
Right and wrong didn’t matter here. He wasn’t bound by that.
Seeing that his awful friend had meant what he said, the boy who had partially fallen into illusion briefly smiled like he always did in the classroom, but then he renewed his resolve. Kamijou Touma forced his gaze away and viewed his powerful foe instead.
CRC – Christian Rosencreutz.
He could not let that monster go free and focus on that boy and girl.
No matter what.
“Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
“Oh? Kee hee hee, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”
They clashed head on.
Kamijou swung the silver young man to the side.
He kicked him away and then tossed him up into the floor above.
He didn’t stop there, of course. He had already begun his next action.
The air froze.
The giant maw gnashed its teeth intermittently, creating a disturbing sound not even a guillotine or bear trap could have mimicked.
“Kh.”
While clinging magnetically to the hospital’s outside wall and trying to pursue the fight up to the upper floors, Mikoto found her feet pinned to the outside of a window. Pinned by fear. Her instincts were running wild and weighing heavily on her reason.
“What…is this? A psychological form of paralysis?” gasped the blonde girl with her arms around the #3’s hips.
If they would ensure that even the next attack would hit no matter how long the leadup, then the intimidation of those gnashing fangs could be called a surefire attack.
But it didn’t work on the silver young man.
An unpleasant sweat wet his brow, but he was still smiling
He acted out of playfulness and a desire to blow off some steam, so this could not bind him. After all, not even the #5 power had worked on him when it was used by its mysterious owner. CRC was a monster with the mentality needed to continue smiling in this situation.
And Kamijou didn’t care.
Something flew from the dragon maw like a whip. It was a long, chameleon-like tongue. CRC stepped back before it could ensnare him, but then he realized something.
“Hm?”
He was gone.
Kamijou Touma had disappeared in the brief moment CRC’s eyes were off the boy.
But he could sense him.
A great pressure was approaching from the front!!
“You are a poikilotherm – that is, you have the ability to blend into the surrounding environment. But did you really think that would work against this old man?”
CRC swung a single arm, not hesitating to strike a point of empty space.
A cross with several sharp rose vines tangled around appeared there. It was more than a meter tall and it was entirely made of heavy gold.
It didn’t matter. A disturbing sound of bending metal rang out.
Kamijou and the dragon maw appeared out of thin air. The fangs and the cross struck each other.
The result was a series of snapping sounds.
“Kh.”
Seeing the cross bending, CRC kicked a nearby stretcher into the shutting jaws. It could be hard to tell since they were made so light for greater portability, but the stretcher was made of sturdy stainless steel to ensure it didn’t drop a critical patient. It wasn’t going to break in a crocodile’s jaws or in a brown bear’s grasp.
But the jaws were not slowed.
They closed at the exact same speed, the row of fangs approaching Rosencreutz’s hand holding the cross.
That cross was not magic.
Nor was it an illusion, but the arm jaws still chewed it up and erased the intruding wreckage from the world.
Those jaws would destroy even unshakable reality.
This was a new power Kamijou Touma had acquired at the cost of his own destruction.
It was an attack that allowed no response.
And most likely, it was a tragic power gained when someone gave up on someone else.
“I see.”
Rosencreutz smiled while dripping with a sweat of both tension and a desire to fight.
That smile contained an unusual heat as he shouted.
“Tell me. Why go to such lengths to protect Anna Sprengel? Hee hee, how much longer do you have left? What did you discover by accepting your own assured destruction?”
Only now did human language leave Kamijou Touma’s lips.
In a situation which screamed that doing so was the abnormality here.
“I will…protect Anna.”
But these were definitely his words.
Because…
“I…wrong to…search out…reason…excuse to fight…”
That was the final humanity left inside the boy who had become a monster.
It was like a tiny stone rattling around inside him, but it was something he couldn’t afford to lose.
So he refused to lose it.
That ordinary boy would never again hang his head and overlook a magical atrocity.
“Interesting – kee hee – but not good enough!”
Rosencreutz held his empty palm out toward the boy’s face.
While their weapons were locked.
That attack had already been identified as a projectile. But in this moment, the invisible dragon could not move to stop the point-blank projectile attack.
With the unpleasant sound of the air being compressed, Kamijou Touma’s entire head was obliterated.
He didn’t even have time to blink.
Kamijou took another step forward like nothing had happened. His head had already regenerated. A dragon tail appeared out of thin air and twirled away as a substitute. That was likely a lizard’s tail that would take on any damage he took. But Kamijou knew without being told that it was a move he could only use once.
Now that he knew he had that option, he wished he had held onto it for longer.
His gaze shifted to the side. The action showed some lingering regret. It all felt like it was happening to someone else. Single use and not knowing the effect until you used it was a devastatingly bad combination.
And with his eyes still in that direction, he casually sent the Dragon Strike straight toward CRC.
“Tch.”
Rosencreutz immediately fell back.
He escaped beyond the reach of the snapping jaws, but Kamijou did not bat an eye.
The entire surface of the invisible dragon jaws erupted. All its razor-sharp scales shot out. They rushed out to pummel Rosencreutz’s entire body like a point-blank shotgun blast.
“Ohhhhh!” shouted CRC just before a white steam explosively filled the space.
In the Rosicrucian cabal, clouds were an important symbol of covering up wisdom and truth to prevent the unworthy from viewing it. Inside that cloud, no attack could hit him even if made from 0cm away. The entire space could be filled with a dense scattershot, but it would be as useless as trying to attack a cat that may or may not be there because no one could observe it.
Kamijou swept the dragon horizontally to tear the thick cloud apart in an instant and then the color red sprayed out.
The cloud didn’t matter at all.
The dragon released its breath.
It looked like a sharp purple-shining blade, but was that actually the poison stored in an evil dragon’s body being released at extreme pressure?
The box was shredded, the cat was forced out to establish its existence, and then it was killed.
“Kee hee.”
CRC laughed and took immediate evasive action, but also ignored the deadly toxin traveling through his bloodstream.
That silver young man had many legends told of him, but he was an alchemist at heart. He used alchemy as a starting point for all of his miracles, from the artificial life within the crystal to the red elixir.
So…
“You would use a nonexistent toxin against this old man? All poisons and harmful substances can be converted into medicines and beneficial substances if handled properly. Just like radiation can induce the cancerization of cells, but it is also used to treat cancer. It would be rude to not present you with my own wisdom in return!!”
Rosencreutz produced a deck of cards in his hand.
He fanned them out and went on to rotate them in a full circle in violation of gravity.
“The secret spell of Rota can be flipped around to make Taro, thus it can be converted into the cards that indicate the 10 spheres and the 22 pathways. Awaken, 78 cards. You are the one and only proper entrance to the light pouring down from beyond the tree – that is, the Ain Soph Aur, Ain Soph, Ain!!”
A violent white light exploded from the emptiness at the center of the card circle.
A beam of light sharper than a razor scorched the air as it rushed toward Kamijou’s right arm. The all-destroying dragon maw was split in two. While he was dragged around by the chaotically thrashing dragon, even more blood gushed from the boy’s shoulder.
The toxic red splattered across the floor and walls.
Christian Rosencreutz scoffed at the colorful artwork.
“Hee hee hee hee hee! How much longer now? Feeling lightheaded? Can’t stop the cold sweat? Worried by your pulse pounding in your chest? Nothing you do can reach this old man!! Even if you wring out every last drop from the depths of your heart!!”
A moment later, beams of light rushed out from seemingly every direction.
“Wha-!?”
CRC realized the boy’s bloodstains had drawn out strange patterns.
The instant he gasped in realization of what those patterns meant, the magic circles glowed with a disturbing light.
The floor and walls bubbled redly. It wasn’t just the white beams. Crimson serpents that should have been controlled by a lamp emerged, as did the yellow Citrinitas sand that had engulfed Los Angeles.
They surrounded CRC and came at him all at once.
His right arm was already fake, so he sacrificed that while backing away from the deadly chaos, his eyes widening at witnessing what shouldn’t have been possible.
“A scientific esper like you has entered the realm of magic?”
That was no longer CRC’s exclusive territory. Kamijou had intruded on the legend of the rose and the cross.
But how could this be?
Christian Rosencreutz was no ordinary magician. His very existence had become a legend. He refused to accept that even a Rosicrucian expert could understand and immediately make use of the spells he used.
But the fact remained that the red blood splattered on the walls and floor crawled, glowed, and bubbled.
It all drew out secret texts and magic circles known only to CRC. Even though these were the most secret of spells that he had never even shared with the others at the House of the Holy Spirit where they had all shared so much knowledge like they were sharing a meal. Not even the grimoire library would have been able to find these spells if she searched for them.
Had Kamijou Touma already evolved into a monster who could access the world itself and automatically use the magic he found there?
Something occurred to Rosencreutz once he considered that possibility.
…Known only to CRC?
“I get it now. This is a Rorschach test.”
He should have caught on quicker.
An esper like Kamijou was using magic but showing no side effects.
“The magic knowledge did not come from within this broken esper. He showed this old man indistinct bloodstains, which I interpreted as the secret texts and magic circles I knew, unwittingly drawing out their magic!”
But however it had been done, the magic known only to Rosencreutz had still bared its fangs against him. Knowing the logic behind it did not stop his mind from imagining those shapes when he saw the bloodstains.
Of course, there was risk to Kamijou as well. He had no way of guiding what Rosencreutz imagined when he saw the bloodstains. This was a double-edged sword that could just as easily capture Kamijou himself in a powerful magical blast.
“Trithemius!!” shouted CRC, intricately moving his fingers.
Immediately, the magic light approaching him froze in place and stopped moving. He had made use of the encryption method that Westcott had coincidentally discovered. Rosencreutz had applied a random encryption to the bloodstains which had become secret texts and magic circles, eternally locking them so they could never be used. Much like ransomware encrypting a hard drive.
Rosencreutz felt a sizzling sensation at his temple.
This wasn’t like before. This emotion was anger.
The silver young man’s internal state had shifted up a gear.
“You dare force this old man to use magic out of something other than passion or playfulness? You continue to prove yourself to be my greatest nemesis!!!”
So what?
Kamijou ignored that and took action.
Something grew from the base of the great jaws that had replaced his right arm. It resembled a giant cape, but it was actually a sinister bat wing. The single wing gathered the air and then flapped.
The air became a solid mass and then became an extraordinary projectile that flew through the hospital.
At the same time, all the windows frosted over, the air electrified, and thick bolts of lightning rushed toward Rosencreutz from every direction. Was this what would happen to someone if they were thrown inside a large, swollen cumulonimbus cloud?
“You have not just created wind. The air pressure obeys your will, allowing you to control the weather!?”
This was well within divine territory, making it a legit miracle.
It could be blessed rain, or it could be electric divine punishment.
And CRC could also control clouds. He brought two fingers to his mouth and blew between them. One cloud struck the other, the weather conditions were forcibly altered, and the lightning changed course.
Kamijou Touma was already there.
He had rapidly covered the space between them, arriving right in front of Rosencreutz.
“Kh.”
The silver young man split the floor below him and broke through every floor below that, ending up in the hospital’s basement.
He wasn’t afraid of a normal punch.
He only realized after the fact that this had been a downwards strike from directly above.
But the hospital itself hadn’t been damaged. All of the floors in the way had parted like gelatin all on their own. After dragon-tamer Kamijou jumped down after him, the holes silently closed back up on their own too.
CRC held his palm out toward a thick metal door.
“The red elixir can conquer all deadly disease and even manipulate the lifespan!”
With a series of solid clanking sounds, the door, a cart, a scanning device larger than a fridge, and various other things gathered together and took the shape of a giant doll. It didn’t matter that they were all inorganic items. A liquid nitrogen tank must have burst because a thick white frost covered it all.
But Kamijou took action before it could actually do anything. In fact, Kamijou had punched Rosencreutz down here because he wanted something down here: the medical waste incinerator.
That special electric furnace could reach temperatures as high as 3500 degrees Celsius.
“…”
The wall right next to Kamijou audibly broke.
The following crunching sounds did not come from the invisible dragon maw.
Kamijou Touma was chewing it in his own mouth.
And the boy raised his right arm. The front-facing dragon jaws opened as wide as possible. This was something new. Something massive and brutal filled the depths of that mouth with a dangerous light.
He didn’t hesitate to unleash it.
Magnetron Dragon Breath.
All the dust and moisture in the air burned as a fearsome white torrent tore away at Christian Rosencreutz.
Another taboo was revealed and that monster was backed even further into a corner.
Part 3
Light was compressed, sound was released in all directions, and yet no third party was affected.
Not one.
The girls had their hands full simply keeping up with the constantly moving battlefield. Misaka Mikoto moved freely along the hospital’s outer wall with her magnetism and Shokuhou Misaki held onto Mikoto’s hips, but both of them could only watch the intense fighting play out. That had to be the same for Aradia and the Bologna Succubus who were probably outside flying in the sky. No one could intervene in this direct clash between superhumans. Attempting to would cause it all to fall apart. Just like any stimulus to calmly simmering water could cause an explosive boil. No, that wasn’t it. That was only an excuse for their own inaction. Their real reasons were nothing so noble.
(It was me.)
Mikoto clenched her teeth at the thought.
She was staring pale-faced at where the boy’s right arm should have been.
(I pulled the final trigger!)
She was simply afraid to do anything more.
She felt a deep aversion, like she were facing an unknown curse. But this wasn’t a gloomy curse born of an individual’s grudge or hatred. She was overpowered by the same sense of wrongness people had toward viewing or touching something holy and inviolable.
“What am I supposed to do about this?” she muttered distractedly.
This may have been the same feeling Level 0 Kamijou Touma had felt when it was Anti-Skill, Judgment, the Level 5s, and the Transcendents doing the fighting.
Their roles had reversed.
Now that boy alone had complete control of the battlefield.
Only he could face this enemy.
Titles had lost all meaning.
And the situation was still underway. This was no time to be stuck at a standstill. Kamijou was not a fount of unlimited possibility. Nor did he have a hidden power or special ability.
His shadow was flickering unsteadily. This power was bought at the cost of his own destruction.
Which meant there had to be a time limit.
Part 4
Kamijou and Rosencreutz clashed head on and the boy broke through a wall, flying across the hallway leading to the elevator. He was knocked up the elevator shaft and rolled along the floor before coming to a stop.
He found himself in a large cafeteria.
He felt an unpleasant sensation below him.
He could barely see it without straining his eyes, but the culprit was yellow sand.
The color of defeat had permeated the area.
Even though a hospital needed to be as clean and sterile as possible.
“…”
Kamijou Touma silently stood up and then wobbled to the side.
As if he were struggling to support the weight of the massive jaws.
Blood was still gushing from the shoulder where his arm had been torn away. He was not going to last long like this. In just a few more minutes, he would collapse from blood loss and he would not be getting back up again.
He stared at CRC. At that man driven by playfulness and curiosity who was now smirking with sweat soaking his face.
“Oh.”
So.
Kamijou didn’t care what happened to himself. His own destruction had been part of the plan from the beginning.
He had to find some way of ending this before he ran out of time.
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
Guessing a major attack was coming, CRC grabbed something out of thin air.
Whatever it was, it glowed red.
“The ruby’s shine points to the pure red of the rose. That female symbol is a pair to the cross and can produce anything and everything. So mass-produce monsters of death and destruction here and now!!”
A tremor ran through the building.
And not just one. More and more 2m silver orbs known as Pneuma-less Shells appeared, until they had filled the space.
The giant silver bubbles all opened at once. Not even Rosencreutz knew what would emerge. Still holding the mother device – the symbol of the red rose – CRC only laughed.
These things absorbed mystical power like a shaman.
They mechanically decoded it.
And they released it into the world.
“Stone tools – the oldest form of deadly bludgeoning. Wooden sticks – the oldest form of deadly whipping. Uranium – the oldest form of radiation poisoning. The oldest form of drowning. The oldest form of deadly gunshot. The oldest form of deadly burning. The oldest form of vigilante killing. The oldest form of hanging. The oldest form of decapitation, of skewering, of deadly vibration, of crushing, of electrocution, of poisoning, of vehicular homicide, of karoshi, of mincemeat death, of explosive death, of death from being buried alive!!!”
They split open.
Kamijou clenched his teeth.
And he released a brutal purple breath from the dragon.
Mutual death was fine by him.
“Gahhhhhhh!?”
There were legends of that sort.
For example, Norse mythology told of a great serpent that had grown until it could surround the entire world. During the final battle of Ragnarok, that dragon even managed to defeat the #2 god at the cost of its own life.
“Jormungand from…Norse mythology? Did you use the weight that not even Thor could lift to forcibly crush your own wound and stanch the bleeding?”
Kamijou didn’t understand any of that.
And it didn’t matter if he did or not.
There was precedent. In exchange for losing a possibly deadly amount of blood, this dragon that emerged from his right hand had robbed all power from a girl after she became a lightning god.
“Kh.”
The right arm – the invisible dragon – gained further control over the boy.
The shadow at his feet flickered unsteadily. It looked ready to flicker out permanently at any moment.
But an iron will of “that’s fine with me” could be seen within the boy.
If he could protect Anna Sprengel and the people who had helped try and save her, he was willing to move beyond the boundaries of humanity here.
So when Kamijou Touma raised his head, the light in his eyes did not waver one iota.
“~ ~ ~!”
Tears formed in Rosencreutz’s eyes.
He had not succumbed to fear.
CRC took an objective view of his own crisis and was moved to tears like he was watching a movie.
“Ha ha.”
And that cheap and irresponsible emotion was what allowed that passion-driven wicked holy man to draw on his greatest power.
“Ah ha ha ha ha ha!! Incredible, simply incredible☆ This old man has actually being driven into a corner? Death has drawn so close? Hee hee. This is where it all begins. Once this old man pulls off a miraculous comeback and escapes alive, I will truly drown in my tearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs!!!”
That was like a trigger.
No matter how twisted and rotten he was, his playful side could resist the temptation of achieving mutual destruction with his nemesis.
And once he shifted fully toward survival, only one option remained.
Namely…
“Run away!!!”
He didn’t hesitate.
He broke a still-intact window and jumped out through it.
As much power as Kamijou now possessed, he had lost a lot of blood from his severed arm. There was no need to actually fight him. By moving far away, CRC could wait until Kamijou ran out of time and collapsed.
Kamijou would die on his own as things were and, if he were to try to use first aid to recover, CRC only had to slice off the boy’s head or tear out his heart.
Rosencreutz never would have allowed this before. Not because he was too proud. His playfulness and desire to blow off steam simply wouldn’t have accepted it.
But his objective had already changed.
Pride was just one form of enjoyment. Now that he had changed his objective from “victory” to “survival” and he longed for the pleasure of achieving that, he knew fleeing was the best option.
“Hee ha ha!! We will meet again after the barrier of time has crushed you and stolen everything from you!!” he shouted.
The very next moment, something exploded.
Rosencreutz was forced back inside the hospital.
It wasn’t a mysterious barrier or a never-before-seen ultimate attack spell.
It was no more than a 45cm piece of plastic.
An isosceles triangle flew just outside the window. It was a Snakehead drone and it wasn’t alone. A large group of them flew together like a flock of starlings or bats. The writhing mass of machines looked like a black serpent flying through the sky.
These were by no means elite crafts. All they did was locate their target, ignite their solid fuel, tackle their target at high speed, and detonate their internal explosives.
But they had still stopped Rosencreutz’s escape.
These were only mass-produced weapons, but CRC was only human. If he didn’t respond in some way, his body would be obliterated and he would lose his life. This wasn’t a decisive blow, but it still forced him to respond, limiting his options.
A voice spoke from their small speakers.
“Don’t try to carry the fate of this city on your own, you monstrous freak.”
This wasn’t about catching up or standing on the same field.
A group of disposable pawns was enough.
“You’re still human and one of Academy City residents I’m responsible for as Board Chairman. Don’t you dare forget that!!”
More and more drones ignited.
Each blast was no more powerful than a shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket and they didn’t do any real damage to CRC. But this was never meant to defeat that man. He had to throw out his pride as the #1. If these seemingly useless attacks could keep Rosencreutz still long enough for Kamijou Touma to deliver his own attack, that was more than enough of a win.
Part 5
It all began there.
Without that one act, they probably never would have had another opportunity.
Shokuhou Misaki bit her lip, made a decision, and aimed her TV remote.
“Don’t underestimate the power of a girl in love.”
She didn’t have to catch up.
But she still decided to make herself a part of this battle.
“Category 909: Preserve Consciousness. I will support you as much as it takes☆ So I’ll never forgive you if you relinquish your mind ability over something as silly as blood loss!!”
Kamijou Touma had been wobbling unsteadily side to side, but now he stood straight and solid.
This may not have had much of an effect on the boy when he had his right hand, but things had changed.
The Bologna Succubus joined in too.
“Oops, you beat me to it. But I’ll just add my rad Cold Mistress on top of that. The pleasures of death and resignation will reach you as the most excruciating pain, so don’t let your guard down, kid!!”
“Again she’s stealing my bit.”
“I have no idea what you mean♪”
Something had clearly shifted.
It was all turning against Christian Rosencreutz.
Maybe none of them could defeat him. They couldn’t carry such a major role. But stopping his cowardly flight was another matter. As long as it would lead to the ending that boy had shortened his own lifespan to achieve.
They still had options.
And that realization ignited the hearts of everyone there.
They gathered all their power here to make sure his spirit would not be broken!!
“Tch!!”
Rosencreutz clicked his tongue in that antlion pit of a situation.
If he stropped struggling and was swept toward the center, those uniquely deadly jaws awaited him.
“What’s this, CRC?”
Ashamed of herself for relying on this, Witch Goddess Aradia danced as if sliding along the floor. Her bare feet mixed the ointment needed to prepare her Triple Reload.
“You seem awfully angry for someone who planned to slaughter us Transcendents to stave off boredom. Is that because the world you find before you is anything but boring? Yes, this is a colorful world of powerful stimuli where anything is possible – life, death, victory, and defeat.”
“!?”
“In the end, you are the kind of holy man who can only talk big when he has an overwhelming advantage. Someone like that can never understand that boy’s depths,” whispered Good, Old Mary. That Transcendent’s resurrection spell would mean she had seen all the many ways people met their deaths. “In truth, he is not all that powerful. In fact, he lost his life several times on the way here. But each of those deaths was the end result of living his life to its fullest – not once did he pull his punches when it came to living. He was constantly struggling to win, but when he did lose, he would pick up the pieces and continue forward anyway. He could not be more different from you, who grew bored with his strength but still clung shamefully to your current status.”
A quiet metal clink sounded.
Misaka Mikoto had flicked an arcade coin into the air.
When it landed back on her thumbnail, she took aim.
And she roared.
“I’m shooting a Railgun. Everyone, clear the line of fire!!!”
The air was compressed.
This normally would have been no threat to CRC. But in this one moment, the silver young man definitely frowned. He was annoyed. Which meant this was effective.
Altogether, they couldn’t have bought more than a minute of time.
But that was enough. Without a word, Kamijou Touma approached once more.
Half-dragging the giant dragon maw with him.
And…
Part 6
In the ICU, little Anna Sprengel was lying in a bed and surrounded by cold, hard machinery. Her expression looked peaceful at first, but it would have burdened a medical expert with great anxiety. She was not being given any kind of anesthesia, so the lack of response to the pain was not a good sign.
The color red flowed through several clear tubes.
There were a lot more of those tubes than normal.
“How is the dialysis going?” asked the frog-faced doctor with uncharacteristic tension in his voice.
“The process itself is going smoothly.”
Anna’s hair was unnaturally damaged. Blood did not flow through the hairs themselves, but they still received oxygen and nutrients to stay healthy.
That meant something was wrong with the patient’s blood.
“The processing of the blood before it is returned to her body is working too. Her blood type is being temporarily altered.”
The technician and a nurse were busily working even now.
Providing someone with the wrong blood type would put them in critical condition. That was undeniable. But it was also true that some people’s blood type had changed after a transplant for the bone marrow that created the blood.
So if all of the blood was changed and not just a portion of it, there was a chance of survival.
“This so-called ‘curse’ carries out its fatal attack after identifying an individual by their blood.”
The frog-faced doctor was a science-side physician.
But even if he couldn’t explain it with his own knowledge, he was not the kind of person to tell a suffering and dying patient that their pain couldn’t be real because none of the medical texts described anything like it.
He would save everyone suffering from disease.
Even if the disease had not yet been written down in any medical texts.
“So if the blood type flowing through her veins changes, this ‘curse’ should lose sight of its target and cease to function. I just hope that ends this.”
The word “curse” gave it an archaic and exaggerated impression, but he only had to think of it like a form of pollen allergy that reacted to an individual’s face or name.
(I do hope this “curse” can’t last forever without a target.)
Bacteria harmed people in order to survive and toxins harmed people because they took the place of a necessary substance. So if they could not function correctly, they would eventually be broken down, ejected from the body, and naturally disappear. They were neither good nor evil. It was no more than a struggle for survival.
“At this rate,” muttered the frog-faced doctor.
That was when a dull tremor shook the building.
And the overhead lights flickered.
While this wasn’t a complete blackout, it was highly unusual. The hospital always had multiple power sources to ensure the survival of its critical patients. So instead of a problem with the power generation facility itself, this had to be something wrong with the wiring in the wall or ceiling.
Something had changed.
Critically changed.
Part 7
Kamijou Touma slowly collapsed forward.
No one could stop it.
He had lost too much blood.
His time limit had always been 10 minutes at the longest.
Not even Shokuhou Misaki and the Bologna Succubus’s psychological support could get him around the limits of his physical body.
The only trump card capable of defeating Rosencreutz had broken.
He fell to the floor.
The dragon vanished into thin air.
“Ha ha.”
Laughter echoed out.
Of course, it came from none other than Christian Rosencreutz.
“Now your defeat is assured,” said the silver young man, looking down to the floor. Calmly. “There never was an answer. You never could have found a way of defeating this old man. But this result is still a doom born of your own choices. You sought strength as a human, but you still grasped at inhuman power once you were desperate. Everyone watching this must have thought the same thing: ‘Oh, Kamijou Touma has deviated from his usual ways.’ And that deviation is what brought this result. You made a mistake and you were never going to find real power in that mistake. None at all.”
Wicked violence had won out in the end.
And.
Death swept out.
The Bologna Succubus was blasted away like an artillery shell and Witch Goddess Aradia was embedded in a wall. Misaka Mikoto’s microwave radar wasn’t enough to detect what caused her to spin through the air and slam into the floor. Shokuhou Misaki pressed a TV remote against her own temple, but something impacted the back of her head before she could boost her eye movement. This wasn’t like someone being knocked out in a movie or drama. Something unseen clearly broke and split inside her head.
Accelerator could only watch while remotely controlling the Snakehead drone swarm.
Their time was up and defeat led to this.
“Kee hee, ee hee. Hee ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
Death.
Killing.
And red.
“Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! …Whew.”
Christian Rosencreutz once more appeared from the background. No, he had finally come to a stop after moving so fast he had become no more than flowing lines.
His only remaining enemy was Good, Old Mary.
Had he intentionally left her until last, or was it only a coincidence? It could also be that she had partially defended against his attack.
“Now, joker. Who will you resurrect with that single-use trump card?”
“…”
“Do not expect this old man to sit idly by and watch. You will only be able to resurrect one of them at the cost of your own life. …And, Good, Old Mary, I seriously doubt you can defeat this old man on your own. Your only value is in your resurrection. So who will you entrust your dreams with? Who will you choose to turn this all around?”
Would it be Misaka Mikoto or Shokuhou Misaki?
Or would it be Aradia or the Bologna Succubus?
Each of them possessed tremendous power. Not one of them was an ordinary human. With the Ace, the Queen, and so many others with varied talents available, who would Good, Old Mary choose?
“Take your time and think about it.”
He laughed.
He scoffed.
Because the answer was obvious from the start.
“Hee ha ha!! But there is no real answer! No matter who you bring back to life, they cannot defeat this old man. If human death were absolute, you could have given up. But because you possess that resurrection trump card, you are now trapped in my prison, kitchen alchemist. Will you agonize over it for eternity, or will the pressure be too much to bear so you make a careless choice only for this old man to tear you both to shreds!? Watch as your own actions reveal just whose side you have taken and who you have made your enemy. Kee ha ha ha ha ha. Regret your own choices as you search in vain for an answer!!!”
In response, the final remaining Transcendent breathed a soft sigh.
And Good, Old Mary spoke.
“No one.”
“?”
“I will not bother resurrecting anyone at this point. You are the one who has run out of time. A second before, you might have managed it. But you lost sight of what truly matters here, you continued to ignore the life you should have been focused on taking, and you carelessly crossed the final crossroads. It is too late to put things back the way they were. No matter how much you try.”
He tilted his head.
CRC expressed pure confusion.
But the silver young man should have shuddered in fear at that simple truth. He was drawing a blank. He could not come up with anything that fit the situation presented to him. But if whatever it was could slip his mind, how much of a threat could it really be?
He still didn’t understand, so Good, Old Mary pointed elsewhere.
The answer was there.
Aleister Crowley.
The magician CRC had defeated and proceeded to ignore had stood back up.
He was badly injured.
It was incredible he was still alive.
If he had feigned death, he might have had a greater chance at survival.
But he had instead clenched his teeth and stood up. Who out there had inspired him to do that? Why could that human challenge CRC over and over with the golden retriever by his side?
Who did that human really, truly aspire to emulate?
“I don’t care…how many times you fail.”
Words spilled from his cracked lips.
The person he had entrusted this fight to had already collapsed.
And as a result, 99% of the people who had trusted that boy enough to gather here were now dead.
That was a defeat.
Kamijou Touma had failed to meet their expectations.
But despite the red and black stains covering his body, that human’s spirit was not broken.
Because…
“I will not lose hope in you, no matter how many times you lose or fall. I swear it. Thinking back, it was rare that you found an easy victory from beginning to end. But you always made sure to collect someone’s life before it was lost. That was no illusion. So I will believe in you. …You expect me to accept that a little thing like defeat is enough for you to give up? No matter how many times you fall to your knees, I know for a fact you will stand back up again.”
“Young one?”
“So consume me if need be. Great Demon Coronzon! Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass!! You monsters were always too much for a constant failure like me to handle. But just this once, support me. Help me buy the time we need. Give me the power to uphold my promise!!”
“You think he will get back up? Based on nothing? That loser is soaking in his own bloody vomit and you would still place all your hopes in him? Good, Old Mary could perhaps resurrect at least one person here if she were willing to sacrifice herself to my attack, but you won’t even do that!?”
“That is not what it means to believe in someone,” stated Good, Old Mary. She directly cut down that unbeatable adversary’s words. “You do not believe in someone because it is logical or because the odds are favorable. Human beings believe in and pray to the people they truly want to believe in. You were once a target of that sort of belief. If you have forgotten this, then you really are unworthy. Unfortunately, the savior that mama and the rest of the Transcendents prayed to was not at all what we hoped for.”
So Good, Old Mary had chosen to believe in that boy instead.
Truly believe.
If she sacrificed herself to resurrect one person here, it ended there. Once she died, her resurrection could never be used again. But if she was patient, survived, and believed that this deadly battle would be overcome without choosing the easy option of self-sacrifice, she could use her resurrection on each and every one of them. Only then was the possibility of saving everyone available.
That was what it meant to believe in someone.
Such belief was never spoken of in terms of “at least”.
Not everything came down to superhuman actions. There were options that became available if you wished for them hard enough.
No one was discussing logic or odds. The thread of possibility was so very thin, but Good, Old Mary chose to believe in the future she most wanted to believe in. Because she knew the foolish compromise of forcing herself to believe in something she didn’t want to believe in would never lead to a gentle and happy world.
“And no matter how absurd it might seem, there are times when our selfish expectations and beliefs are answered. There are people who will crawl through the mud and do whatever it takes to make that happen, no matter how poor their chances. And sometimes they will ultimately reach what they were struggling for.”
“…”
“People value such things as miracles. CRC, I am certain you were once capable of that. You might have done so even in the modern world. But while you let your passions and playfulness guide you, you passed the final crossroads and reached a point from which you can never return.”
In the very corner of his vision, Christian Rosencreutz saw something rise up.
Whatever it was, it was stained red and black. It was someone who should not have still been alive.
The answer was obvious.
This was what the living and the dead had all believed in.
Kamijou.
Kamijou Touma.
“Impossible…” blankly muttered Christian Rosencreutz, suddenly trembling. “You never had a chance to use your resurrection. This old man would never have missed it.”
“True. But mama did not use it on anyone. Not even him.”
“Then this can’t be happening! A normal human had his arm severed and was left to bleed out for 10 minutes. Do you have any idea how much blood he would have lost in that time!? The answer is in liters! And you expect me to believe he overcame that because of some nonsense about believing in him!?”
“Should you really be spouting nonsense at the moment, CRC? Need I remind you that you are the corpse the Bridge Builders Cabal once believed in?” solemnly stated Good, Old Mary. “He answered our call. Unlike you, he did not run from the power of belief. The rules have changed. You completely missed the crossroads you couldn’t afford to cross and you walked right on through. The legend so many people believed in and prayed to is long gone. You are no more than bait now. Bait used to show off a new legend that has accepted the power of belief and is working to create a better future. You allowed yourself to be reduced to this, CRC.”
Kamijou made a horizontal swing of his nonexistent right arm.
The invisible dragon burst out.
It emerged once more.
That was the answer.
Kamijou Touma and Aleister Crowley stood side by side, both bloody and battered. They didn’t need to exchange any words. This team up should have been impossible, but it was possible within the legend of this moment.
There was no cue.
Aleister simply gave a thoughtful look.
A moment later, they both raced forward.
Straight toward their greatest enemy – Christian Rosencreutz.
“Ohhh!!” “Ohhh!!”
In response, CRC gulped and calmly worked out the answer in his head.
“The scientific angel Kazakiri Hyouka and the artificial demon Qliphah Puzzle 545.”
And the person behind those two.
New Board Chairman Accelerator.
“That particle accelerator cannon that gathered all the city’s power was not aimed at this old man.”
Using the Hula Hoop particle accelerator to launch a deadly attack within the city was all well and good, but what happened at the other end? They couldn’t have it pierce through the outer wall on the opposite side of the city and then burn down Shinjuku and Yokohama beyond. This group was too soft to accept that level of sacrifice. So what had they done?
His miniature model was useful for running searches, but there was one thing he had to watch out for.
It only provided the information he actively worked to search for.
Which meant he could miss something.
Especially when it came from a blind spot he hadn’t considered.
“You were holding two nonhumans in reserve, but you knew they could not defeat this old man if you simply sent them after me. So you found a way to inject them with a massive amount of energy without me noticing. Angels and demons are effectively collections of energy, so this boosted their raw strength and energized them?”
They had sided with Kamijou Touma.
Realizing they couldn’t defeat CRC even in their boosted forms, had the scientific angel and magical demon instead opted to assist Kamijou?
As the leader at the top, the question for Accelerator wasn’t who achieved the victory. As long as he could eliminate the threat of Rosencreutz and bring peace back to the city, nothing else mattered.
It wasn’t an issue of logic or odds.
People believed in the person they wanted to believe in.
So while he wasn’t physically present, the #1 had not hesitated to focus on that particular trump card.
“Did you use the absence of his right hand to sneak them into his body? So that their invisible hands could squeeze his stopped heart and start it beating once more!?”
Thus, it wasn’t just two people approaching Rosencreutz.
Far more people had believed in that boy. They had entrusted him with their lives, their futures, and the fates of Academy City and the world.
“Rosencreutz. It doesn’t matter how hopeless a reality you are.”
“Yes, and it doesn’t matter how much of this world you destroy.”
Kamijou Touma would not run away.
He carried all those things on his back as he poured all his strength into the invisible dragon.
“If you insist we can’t save anyone here…”
“Yes, and if you insist the good and the wicked cannot be equally saved…”
The hits landed simultaneously.
“Then we will destroy that illusion!!!”
The God Purifying Demon Destroyer and the Conqueror of the Battle of Blythe Road.
Two inhuman fists flew and mercilessly launched Christian Rosencreutz beyond District 7’s borders.
Part 8
When the little wicked woman opened her eyes, she had no idea where she was. She saw a white ceiling, detected a chemical scent in the air, and noticed a great quantity of medical equipment surrounding her. The hard plastic mask over her lower face irritated her. But she was hesitant to move. She didn’t think she even could move right away and, given the tugging sensation from beneath her skin, she could guess she had several needles piercing her blood vessels and had tubes and electric cords attached all across her body.
Nevertheless, she was alive.
Anna Sprengel was alive.
“Where…am I?”
Peering down at her was a doctor with a froggy face.
He gave her a gentle smile.
This doctor had lived up to the belief a certain boy had placed in him.
Heaven Canceler spoke in the same way he always did.
“You’re going to be fine. It’s all over now.”
Some who saw this might have praised it as a miracle.
The commonplace miracle of life.
Between the Lines 4
“Ugh, is this for real, mistress?”
“Yes. As much as I would prefer not to believe it, it appears so.”
