To Aru Majutsu No Index Feats/Discussion/Analysis Thread - One Othinus To Rule Them All

Cryso Agori · Mar 1, 2022

Toaru Majutsu no Index (とある魔術の禁書目録インデックス Toaru Majutsu no Indekkusu?, lit. "A Certain Magical Index"), is a Japanese light novel series written by Kamachi Kazuma and illustrated by Haimura Kiyotaka; the series is edited by Miki Kazuma, designed by Watanabe Hirokazu and published by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imprint since April 2004.

The light novel series has been adapted into an anime series, which was animated by J.C. Staff. There are currently three season, with the first season airing between October 2008 and March 2009, the second season between October 2010 and April 2011, and the third season between October 2018 and April 2019. The series has been also adapted into an ongoing manga series, which began serialization in Monthly Shōnen Gangan in April 2007.

The light novels span for twenty-two volumes in the main story and two sidestory volumes, after which the series was released under the title Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index (新約とある魔術の禁書目録インデックス Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Indekkusu?, lit. "A Certain Magical Index: New Testament") with twenty-three volumes bearing this title. A further continuation, titled Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index (創約とある魔術の禁書目録インデックス Sōyaku Toaru Majutsu no Indekkusu?, lit. "A Certain Magical Index: Genesis Testament"), began publishing on February 7th 2020.[1]

Toaru Majutsu no Index is set in Academy City, a technologically advanced city located in western Tokyo which studies scientifically advanced superhuman students with powers, but is also set in a world where magic is real.

Kamijou Touma is a high school student in Academy City, with a power called the Imagine Breaker that can negate all magic, psychic, and divine powers, but also his own luck. One day he finds a young girl named Index hanging on the balcony railing of his dormitory room. She turns out to be a nun from the Anglican Church, and her mind has been implanted with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum — 103,000 magical texts that contain a wealth of information about magic. His encounter with her leads him to meet others from the secret world of science and magic and an adventure with his friends where science and magic collide. Touma's unusual power places him at the center of conflicts between magicians and science-based espers in Academy City. As Touma tries to help and protect his friends, he learns the people he knows are not as they appear and begins to attract the attention of magicians and espers alike as they try to unravel the secrets of Academy City and Index.

Warning: Series is filled with early 2000s fanservice humor, ecchi, and harem tropes, which aren't really that good or funny. If you can't ignore the bad jokes this series probably isn't for you.

Volume 1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Volume 2: TBA
Volume 3: TBA
Volume 4: TBA
Volume 5: TBA
Volume 6: TBA
Volume 7: TBA
Volume 8: TBA
Volume 9: TBA
Volume 10: TBA
Volume 11: TBA
Volume 12: TBA
Volume 13: TBA
Volume 14: TBA
Volume 15: TBA
Volume 16: TBA
Volume 17: TBA
Volume 18: TBA
Volume 19: TBA
Volume 20: TBA
Volume 21: TBA
Volume 22: TBA

Volume 1: TBA
Volume 2: TBA
Volume 3: TBA
Volume 4: TBA
Volume 5: TBA
Volume 6: TBA
Volume 7: TBA
Volume 8: TBA
Volume 9: TBA
Volume 10: TBA
Volume 11: TBA
Volume 12: TBA
Volume 13: TBA
Volume 14: TBA
Volume 15: TBA
Volume 16: TBA
Volume 17: TBA
Volume 18: TBA
Volume 19: TBA
Volume 20: TBA
Volume 21: TBA
Volume 22: TBA
Volume 22R: TBA

TBA

Explanation of Aleister Crowley's Spiritual Tripping by Astaro

Important Links:

To Aru Majutsu No Index Old Testament Baka-Tsuki Translations: http://web.archive.org/web/20140804...roject/index.php?title=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index

To Aru Majutsu No Index Old Testament Official Yen Press Translations: https://mega.nz/folder/vuIWAQpA#VCvYdb6lOAatLKcakGiN6A

To Aru Majutsu No Index New Testament Baka-Tsuki Translations:

Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament - Baka-Tsuki

web.archive.org

To Aru Majutsu No Index Genesis Testament Baka-Tsuki Translations: https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:_Genesis_Testament

Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/toarumajutsunoindex/

Discord: https://discord.gg/raildex

Wikipedia Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Certain_Magical_Index

Fandom Wiki: https://toarumajutsunoindex.fandom.com/wiki/Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index_Wiki

OutskirtsBattleDome Wiki: https://outskirtsbattledomewiki.com/index.php/14-fiction-profiles/4599-toaru

Calc thread by @Top59: https://www.fanverse.org/threads/toaru-feats-calculation.1231745/

Shoutout to @Mr.OMG for his Toaru Feats Thread: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/to-aru-majutsu-no-index-feats.968510/

Cryso Agori · Apr 1, 2022

Okay I fixed everything, deleted the parts I took from @Mr.OMG's thread and got them myself.

Anyway as I did before here's the source from Baka-Tsuki Translation: https://web.archive.org/web/2014080...ndex.php?title=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Volume1

The part and chapter titles also link to each part of the volume where I got the quotes so you can read it yourself.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Prologue: The Tale of the Illusion Killer Boy. The_Imagine-Breaker.

Touma can run for 2 kilometers straight but thinks that he can’t defeat more than three thugs.

“Ahh! Shit! Shit! God damn it! This is just too much misfortune!!”

Even as he realized his cries sounded rather strange, Kamijou Touma showed no sign of stopping his tremendous flight.

As he ran through back alleys late at night, he glanced over his shoulder.

There were eight of them.

He ran frantically all over for almost 2 kilometers, but there were still eight of them. Of course, Kamijou Touma had no way to win in a fight against that many unless he happened to be a former foreign unit’s cook or a cyber ninja that had survived to the present day. In a fight between high school students, anything beyond 1-on-3 was out of the question. That could be called “impossible” even before taking any skill he might have had into account.

Academy City is the size of a third of Tokyo.

Even if Academy City was as large as a third of Tokyo, he could see nothing but couples no matter where he looked.

Touma knows how to pace himself and bait thugs.

If he escaped the group of delinquents, they possibly would have used their phones to call in reinforcements and bikes. In order to simply run down their stamina, Kamijou Touma had been letting them catch occasional glimpses of him as bait so that they would continue to run and wear themselves out. It was akin to letting boxers hit you to weaken them.

Touma is confident in his running ability and manages to outpace the thugs.

Incidentally, Kamijou had confidence in his long distance running. On the other hand, his opponents had damaged their bodies with alcohol, cigarettes and were wearing boots with almost no real functionality. On top of that, running full speed for long distances without pacing one's self was impossible by its very nature.

As Kamijou alternated and weaved in and out through roads and back alleys while seemingly simply clumsily running about in a panic, he saw one and then another of the delinquents drop out of the chase, leaning forward with their hands on their knees. He felt his plan was the perfect way of resolving the situation without any injuries.

Touma runs another 2 kilometers.

He then heard one of the delinquents shouting from behind him.

“Hey!! You fucking brat! Stop, you master runner!!”

It only angered Kamijou more to receive such a violent love call.

“Shut up! You should be thanking me for not turning around and knocking you and your monkey-level IQ out cold!” Kamijou shouted back despite knowing it was just a waste of stamina.

(He really should thank me for going this far out of my way to keep him from getting injured.)

After another 2 kilometers of sweaty and teary running, he exited the urban area and came to a large river. A large metal bridge spanned the river, about 150 meters across, and no cars could be seen on it. Not lit up, the plain metal bridge was wrapped in an eerie darkness much like a midnight sea.

Touma already fought Misaka multiple times. But he always won.

July 19th. That was why he had grabbed a manga at the bookstore despite a glance at the cover telling him it was no good, entered a family restaurant to treat himself, for once, to a nice between-meals snack, found a middle school-aged girl surrounded by clearly drunk delinquents, and decided that some rescuing was in order. However, Kamijou had not a single thought about rescuing the girl. Instead, had tried to rescue the boys who had carelessly approached her.

Once again he sighed. The girl was always like that. He had seen her here and there sporadically for almost a month, but they had yet to learn each other’s names. In other words, they were by no means friends.

This time, the girl would arrogantly attack in an attempt to beat her opponent into a pulp and Kamijou would be the one to put up with it. Without a single exception, it went that way and he won every time.

If he actually lost, the girl would likely be satisfied, but Kamijou was a terrible actor. He once tried to fake his defeat and she chased him like a demon for the rest of the night.

The Esper Power Curriculum

“But you’re treating me like an idiot, too. I’m a Level 5.[a 1] Do you really think I would go all out against a powerless Level 0?[a 2] I do know how to handle the weak.”

In that city, the usual standard of a back alley delinquent being the strongest in a fight did not hold up. Those delinquents who could not keep up with the esper powers development Curriculum[a 3] were the Level 0s, the powerless.

Misaka has 1 in 328,571 level of talent.

“Yeah, about that, I do understand that you possess a talent that only 1 in 328,571 have. I really do. But if you want to live a long life, you should stop speaking to people so condescendingly.”

“Shut up. If you couldn’t bend a single spoon after having various crazy things done to you like have drugs injected directly into your blood vessels or have electrodes stabbed in through your ears and into the brain, what could it be but lack of talent?”

Some more information about the esper power curriculum.

That was indeed the kind of place Academy City was.

The other side of Academy City could be seen in how means of developing the brain had been calmly added into the Curriculum under the name of “documentation methods” or “memorization methods”.

Population of Espers and Level 0’s.

However, not all of the 2.3 million students living in Academy City had ceased to be human and became something like a manga protagonist.

Just under 60% of the whole population were utterly useless Level 0s who could only bend a spoon after focusing their brain to the point of blood vessel bursts.

Academy City’s sensors weren’t able to sense Imagine Breaker.

“If I need to bend a spoon, I can just use pliers, and if I need fire, I can just buy a cheap lighter. Also, what do I need telepathy for when I have a cell phone? Are esper powers really that great?”

Those were the words of Kamijou who had been branded as useless by Academy City’s physical examination sensors.

The ‘true objective’ of the Esper Curriculum.

“And everyone’s priorities are all messed up. They’re all rejoicing over the byproduct we call esper powers, but isn’t our real objective something beyond that?”

In response, the girl who was one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s twisted the edges of her lips.

“Hahh? …Oh, that. What was it again? Something like, ‘Humans cannot calculate god, so we need to acquire a body that exceeds humanity before we can arrive at god's answer’, right?” The girl gave a haughty laugh. “Hah. Don’t make me laugh. What is all this about the ‘brain of god’? Have you heard about the supposed military Sisters created based on an analysis of my DNA map? It seems to me these lucrative side effects are more important than that objective.”

Touma rejects Misaka’s philosophy by never losing to her.

“…For God's sake, those are the words of the strong.”

“Hah?”

“The strong. The strong. The strong. Those are the fearless and cruel words of a manga protagonist who was born with his abilities and does not understand the pain of arriving there on his own.”

The river below the bridge began to make an unsettling amount of noise.

A dark flame could be felt on the grit of her words that hinted at just how much of her humanity she had abandoned to arrive at the position of one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s.

Kamijou denied all of it with just a few words. Not even once did he turn around.

He did this by never losing.

More information about the Power Curriculum and its effectiveness.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! Take a look at the results of the annual physical examination. I’m a Level 0 and you’re a Level 5. Ask anyone you find out on the streets, and they’ll tell you who’s stronger!”

Academy City’s powers development heavily used things such as pharmaceutics, neuroscience, and cerebral physiology. It was a purely scientific endeavor. After undergoing the Curriculum to a certain extent, one could bend a spoon even without talent.

And yet Kamijou Touma could do nothing.

According to Academy City’s instruments, he was truly powerless.

Misaka’s Railgun.

“Zero, you say,” repeated the girl as if she was turning it over in her mouth. She stuck a hand in her skirt pocket and pulled out an arcade coin. “Have you ever heard the term Railgun?”[a 4]

“Ahn?”

“The idea behind it is the same as a linear motor train. It is a ship-borne weapon that uses powerful electromagnets to fire a metal projectile.”

The girl flicked the coin up into the air with her thumb. The coin rotated a few times before landing back onto her thumb.

“It refers to something like this.”

Just as she spoke, an orange spear of light suddenly and silently shot past Kamijou’s head. It was more like a laser than a spear. He could only tell it had originated from the girl’s thumb because the afterimage of light stretched back to it.

Almost like thunder, the noise rumbled in with a slight delay. As a shockwave tore through the air around his ears, Kamijou’s sense of balance was partially destroyed. He staggered and glanced over his shoulder.

The instant the orange light struck the road surface on the bridge, the asphalt was blown away like an airplane making an emergency landing on the ocean. Even after travelling a 30 meter path of utter destruction and stopping, the orange afterglow was still burning the air like an afterimage.

“Even a coin like this can be quite powerful when it's fired at three times the speed of sound. Of course, the coin melts after 50 meters because of air friction.”

That bridge made of steel and concrete swayed like an unreliable suspension bridge. Failing metal bolts could be heard occasionally.

“…!!”

Misaka shoots lightning at Touma. Said lightning is compared to light.

Kamijou felt chilled like dry ice was stuffed into his blood vessels.

He felt like all the moisture in his body had been turned to sweat and evaporated.

“Damn you. Don’t tell me you used that to drive them away!!”

“Don’t be stupid. I match my methods to my opponent. I don’t want to accidentally become a murderer.” As she spoke, sparks flew from the girl’s brown hair like an electrode. “This was enough for those Level 0s!”

Bluish-white sparks flew from the girl’s bangs like a horn and a spear-like line of lightning flew towards Kamijou.

There was no way to evade. After all, he was against a bluish-white lightning spear shot from a Level 5’s hair. It was an experience like watching a thundercloud fire a bolt at light speed and then trying to dodge it.

An explosive noise followed after a slight delay.

Kamijou immediately held up his right hand to protect his face and the lightning spear struck it. It rampaged through Kamijou’s body and sparks scattered in every direction and into the bridge's steel framework.

…Or so it had seemed.

The lightning Misaka shot was over a hundred million volts and powerful enough to melt the bridge, despite that Touma was able to move his right hand to block it.

“So, why are you completely unhurt?”

Her words seemed lighthearted enough, but the girl baring her canines was glaring at Kamijou.

The high voltage current that had scattered into the surroundings had been powerful enough to burn the steel framework of the bridge, yet,

Kamijou’s right hand had not been blown off by the direct hit. …In fact, it lacked even a single burn.

Kamijou’s right hand had erased the girl’s electrical strike that numbered a few hundred million volts.

Misaka explains how much of a failure Touma is.

“Honestly, what's with you? That power of yours isn’t listed in Academy City’s Bank.[a 5] If I’m a one in 328,571 genius, then you’re a one in 2,300,000 disaster,” the girl muttered in annoyance but Kamijou neglected to give even a single word in response. “If I pick a fight with an exception like that, I might be able to raise my level, don’t you think?"[1]

Touma again blocks a strike of lightning moving faster than sound.

“…But you always lose.”

He received a response in the form of more lightning that shot from her forehead, well over Mach 1 at that.

However, it scattered in every direction the instant it met Kamijou’s right hand.

It was very much like a water balloon bursting.

Explanation and weakness of Imagine Breaker.

Imagine Breaker.[a 6]

Esper powers ranged from the ones mocked on TV to the ones established with numerical formulas in Academy City. Anything using that kind of supernatural power, even if it were part of God’s system, would be negated without question by that supernatural power of his.[2]

As it was supernatural in origin, even that girl’s Railgun ability was no exception.

However, Kamijou’s Imagine Breaker only worked on the supernatural power itself. Simply, he could negate an esper’s fireball, but he was still vulnerable to the concrete shards broken by the fireball. Also, the effective range was only his right hand and wrist. If the fireball hit him anywhere else, he would be burned.

Touma himself believes that blocking Misaka's lightning bolts was a coincidence.

And yet…

(I really, really thought I was going to die there! Kyaahhh!!)

Kamijou Touma’s calm and composed expression stiffened awkwardly. Even with a right hand that could completely negate those light-speed lightning spears, it was sheer coincidence that they struck his right hand.

His heart was pounding in his chest as he desperately tried to force a mature smile onto his face.

“I guess you could say that was either some misfortune or you’re just unlucky.”

That was how Kamijou brought that day, July 19th, to an end.

With just one comment, he seemed to be lamenting everything in the world.

“You just really aren’t lucky at all.”

Chapter 1: The Magician Lands on the Tower. FAIR,_Occasionally_GIRL.

1.1 Part 1

Misaka's lightning took out 80% of electrical appliances.

It was July 20th, the first day of summer vacation.

Kamijou Touma was at a loss for words in his Academy City dorm room that was ruled by a boiling heat due to a broken air conditioner. Apparently, lightning had struck during the night and had taken out 80% of the electrical appliances, meaning that the contents of his fridge had been wiped out. When he tried to eat the cup yakisoba he kept as emergency rations, he had spilled the noodles all over the sink. With no other option, he decided to eat out, but he stepped on and broke his ATM card while searching for his wallet. When he spitefully crawled back into bed to cry himself to sleep, he was woken by a love call on the phone from his homeroom teacher saying, “Kamijou-chan, you’re an idiot, so you need supplementary lessons♪”

While Touma has super bad luck, his parents have good luck.

The horoscope was perpetually wrong and Kamijou never encountered a true good luck charm. It was simply everyday life for Kamijou Touma. He had believed that his fantastic misfortune ran in the family, but his father had won fourth prize, about 100,000 yen, in a lottery and his mother had won a vending machine roulette again and again without end. At times he wondered whether he was not blood related to them, but he could not enter the "heir to the throne" route without activating the little sister flag, so that kind of pointless foreshadowing would actually be a problem.

To sum it up, Kamijou Touma experienced nothing but misfortune to the extent that his life could in essence be called a running gag.

Some information about 'supplementary lessons.'

Kamijou scratched his head and looked around his room. As long as he had his bankbook, he could get a new card easily enough. The real problem was the fridge… or rather, breakfast. They called it supplementary lessons, but he was sure to be forced to take Methuselin pills and Elbrase powder for the sake of power development. Doing that on an empty stomach would not be a good idea.

Touma finds Index on his balcony railing

Voicing a sudden bad premonition he had, Kamijou trudged out the opened screen door and to the balcony.

He spotted a white futon already hanging there.

“?”

Though it was a school dormitory, the layout was exactly like a one-room apartment so Kamijou lived alone. As such, no one besides Kamijou Touma would hang a futon over the railing of his room’s balcony.

When he looked closer, he realized it was not a futon at all, but a girl wearing white clothes.

“Hahh!?”

The real futon fell from his hands.

It was a mystery. In fact, it was nonsensical. As if she had exhaustedly collapsed across a metal rod, the girl had her waist pressed up against the balcony railing and her body bent such that her arms and legs were dangling straight down.

1.2 Part 2

Index is part of the Anglican Church, and her magic name is Dedicatus545.

My name is Index.”

“That's clearly a fake name! What do you mean Index!? What are you, a table of contents!?”

“As you can see, I am from the Church. This is important. Oh, but I’m not from the Vatican. I’m from the Anglican Church.”

“I don’t know what that means and you're just going to ignore my questions!?”

“Hmm, is Index lacking? Well then, my magic name is Dedicatus545[a 1]—The devout lamb protects the knowledge of the strong.”[2]

Some information about Academy City's security.

(Come to think of it, where did this girl come from?)

Naturally, there were people from out of the country in Academy City. However, she did not have the characteristic “scent” of a resident. Nonetheless, it was also strange for someone to come in from outside.

Academy City was treated like a city made up of hundreds of schools, but it was more accurate to consider it like a city-sized boarding school. It was large enough to cover a third of Tokyo, but was surrounded by something akin to the Great Wall of China; though not as strict as a prison, it was still not a place one could simply wander into.

...Or so it had seemed. In reality, three satellites launched for experiments by a technical college were constantly monitoring the city. Every individual going in or out of the city was completely scanned and if any suspicious person for whom the gate records did not match, either Anti-Skill[a 2] or Judgment[a 3] from different schools would immediately intervene.

The thundercloud Misaka created may have kept Index hidden.

(But... that zapper of a girl reigned in that thundercloud yesterday. That might have hidden Index from the satellites.)

Index ended up on his balcony when she was running away.

“So why were you hanging out to dry on my balcony?” Kamijou asked the girl as he put soy sauce on the stir-fried vegetables-like dish he was making with purely ill intentions.

“I wasn’t hanging out to dry.”

“Then what were you doing? Were you blown over and landed there?”

“...Something like that.”

Kamijou meant it as a joke and stopped moving the frying pan as he turned around to face the girl.

“I fell. I was trying to jump from rooftop to rooftop.”

(Rooftop?)

Kamijou looked up at the ceiling.

Cheap student dorms lined the building level and even more of the same types of eight-story buildings were lined up. One glance out the balcony showed a gap of two meters between buildings. It was true that a running jump could get you from one rooftop to another. However...

“But that’s eight stories high? One wrong step and you’d be heading straight to hell.”

“Yes, you don’t even get a grave if you commit suicide,” said Index cryptically. “But I had no choice. I had no other means of escape.”

Index was shot in mid-air.

“Escape?”

Kamijou frowned at that ominous word.

“Yes,” said Index like a child. “I was being chased.”

“...”

Kamijou’s hand shaking the hot frying pan stopped moving once more.

“I made my jump fine, but I was shot in the back in midair.” The girl calling herself Index seemed to smile. “I apologize. It seems I was caught on your balcony as I fell.”

She tossed an innocent smile in Kamijou Touma’s direction without even a hint of self-deprecation or sarcasm.

“You were shot...?”

1.3 Part 3

Touma believes in Esper powers but not magic.

“…” Hearing so in English improved nothing. “What? What? Are you talking about some dangerous cult? Like a cult that says not believing in its leader will result in divine punishment and then proceed to give you LSD and brainwash you? That’s bad in more ways than one.”

“…Are you making fun of me?”

“…Sorry, I just can’t… I can’t accept magic. I may know all sorts of esper powers like Pyrokinesis[a 6] and Clairvoyance,[a 7] but I just can’t accept magic.”

“…?”

Index looked confused.

She had likely expected a believer in only science to deny that any kind of strange thing could exist in the world.

However, Kamijou’s right hand held a supernatural power.

It was called Imagine Breaker and could negate even the systems of god seen in myths in a single stroke so long as it was a supernatural power beyond the ordinary.

“Esper powers are pretty common here. Anyone’s brain can be ‘developed’ and have the pathways open up by having ‘esperin’ injected into their veins, electrodes attached to their neck, and certain rhythms played through headphones. It can all be explained scientifically, so it’s only natural to accept, right?”

“…I don’t really get it.”

“It’s normal! It’s completely normal, utterly normal. Is three times enough!?”

“…Then what about magic? Magic is normal.”

Index sulked like someone had insulted her pet cat.

“Umm… Well, take rock-paper-scissors for example. Wait, is rock-paper-scissors known worldwide?”

“…I think it’s from Japanese culture, but I do know it.”

“Okay, if you played rock-paper-scissors ten times in a row and lost each time, would there be a reason behind that?”

“…Mh.”

“There wouldn’t, right? But it’s human nature to think there is,” said Kamijou with little interest. “You’d think there’d be no way you would keep losing like that. You would assume there was some unseen rule, and once you start thinking like that, what happens when you factoring in things like horoscopes?”

“…You mean like, ‘you Cancers are unlucky, so you shouldn’t compete in any competitions’?”

“Right, that’s the occult’s true identity. Luck is just our dreaming for these invisible rules. While reality is just pathetic coincidence, our hearts mistake it as some great inevitability. That’s the occult.”[a 8]

For a bit, Index frowned like a displeased cat, but then said, “So you didn’t just deny it without giving any thought.”

“Right. And it’s because I’ve given it such serious thought that I can see why those musty old stories are no good. I can’t believe in some magician from a picture book. If we could raise the dead with the only cost being a bit of MP, no one would be developing these other powers. I simply can’t believe in the supernatural that has no connection to real science.”

He felt that people only saw esper powers as strange and mysterious because they were ignorant. The fact that those powers could be explained scientifically was common knowledge in that city.

Index talks about her Grimoires.

“…Magic exists.”

Kamijou sighed.

“Okay. For argument’s sake, let’s say that magic exists.”

“For argument’s sake?”

“If it does,” continued Kamijou, ignoring her. “Why are they after you? Does it have something to do with how you’re dressed?”

Kamijou was referring to the rather extravagant nun's habit that Index wore, made of pure white silk and golden thread embroideries. In other words, “Is this church related?”

“…It’s because I am the Index.”

“Hah?”

“They are likely after the 103,000 grimoires that I have.”

……………………………………………………………………

“…Once again, I don’t understand at all.”

“Why do you seem to lose motivation every time I explain something? Are you the fickle type?”

“Um, let’s go back over this. I’m not sure what these mentioned grimoires are, but I imagine it’s a book, like a dictionary.”

“Yes. The Book of Eibon, the Lemegeton,[a 10] Unaussprechlichen Kulten,[a 11] Cultes des Goules,[a 12] and the Book of the Dead are good examples. The Necronomicon[a 13] is so famous there are all sorts of imitations and fakes, so it isn’t very reliable.”

“No, I don’t really care about the contents.”

He wanted to add that it was “because it’s all a bunch of nonsense anyways”, but he held his tongue.

He instead asked, “So, where are these 100,000 books?”

He refused to back down on that point, one hundred thousand books were enough to fill an entire library.

“Do you mean you have a key to where they’re stored?”

“No.” Index shook her head. “I have every single one of the 103,000 grimoires with me.”

“Hah?” Kamijou frowned. “You aren’t going to say these are books idiots can’t see, are you?”

“You couldn’t see them even if you weren’t an idiot. There’d be no point if anyone could see them.”

Index’s words were so removed from reality that Kamijou felt he was being mocked. He glanced around, but could not see a single musty old book that may have been a grimoire. All he saw scattered on the floor were game magazines, manga, and the summer homework he had tossed into a corner.

“…Wahh.”

He had forced himself to listen up until then, but was at his limit.

Both the narrative and Touma say he could negate God's Miracles.

He began to wonder whether she had merely imagined being chased. If she had jumped from the eighth story rooftop, slipped on her own, and gotten caught on his balcony all due to a delusion, she was not someone he wanted to involve himself with any longer.

“Believing in esper powers but not in magic makes no sense,” Index said with a pout. “Are those esper powers really all that great? It isn’t right to make fun of people just because you have some kind of special power.”

…

“Well, yeah.” Kamijou gave a small sigh. “I agree. It’s not right. It’s wrong to think of yourself as above others just because you can pull off some little trick.”

Kamijou’s gaze dropped to his right hand.

No fire or lightning would come. It could not cause any beams of light or explosions, and no strange markings were going to appear on his wrist.

However, his right hand could negate all kinds of supernatural powers, disregarding if the power were good or evil or even the systems of God seen in myths.

“Well, for the people who live in this city, the power they have is like a part of their personality, so you should probably be a bit forgiving as far as that goes. In fact, I’m one of those espers, too.”

“Is that so, idiot. Hmph. You can always just bend a spoon with your hand instead of messing around inside your head.”

“…”

“Hmph, hmph. What’s so great about a guy who cast aside his natural shade to color himself artificially? Hmph.”

“…You don’t mind if I shut that mouth of yours along with that ridiculous pride, do you?”

“I-I won’t give in to terrorism. Hmph,” said Index like a displeased cat. “A-anyway, you say you’re an esper, but what can you do?”

“Umm, well, if you put it that way…”

Kamijou was a bit unsure of what to say.

It was not often that Kamijou explained his right hand to others. Also, since it only reacted to supernatural powers, it could not be explained without knowledge of the supernatural or esper powers.

“You see, it’s this right hand of mine. Oh, and in my case, it isn’t doping; I’ve had it from birth.”

“I see.”

“If I touch it with my right hand, any kind of supernatural power will be negated. That goes for A-bomb level fireballs, tactical railguns, or even the systems of God.”

“Eh?”

“Why does your face look like you just saw a good luck miracle stone in some magazine?”

“But… you don’t even know the God’s name, but yet you just said you can negate His miracles.” In surprise, Index dug her pinky into her ear while giving a scornful laugh.

Index believes she has no magic power.

“…But magic exists,” Index said as she pouted.

Most likely, magic was like a pillar supporting her heart, similar to Kamijou’s Imagine Breaker.

“Well, whatever. So, why are they chasing you?”

“Magic exists.”

“…”

“Magic exists!”

It seemed she obstinately wanted him to acquiesce.

“Th-Then what is magic? Can you shoot fire from your hands without undergoing our psychic curriculum? If so, I’d like to see it. I might believe you then.”

“I have no magic power, so I can’t do that.”

“…”

Kamijou felt like he had just met an esper failure that said they could not bend a spoon around a camera because it distracted them.

All the while, a rather complex feeling filled his chest.

He insisted that the occult did not exist and that magic was ridiculous, but he really knew nothing about the Imagine Breaker power that resided in his right hand. How did it work and what was going on that he could not see? Academy City was at the peak of the world’s powers development, but even its System Scan[a 9] failed to analyze his power. Consequently, he was labeled Level 0.

Also, that power had not appeared later due to a scientific timetable. It had resided in his right hand since birth.

He insisted the occult did not exist and yet he himself was a part of the supernatural that ignored the rules.

Regardless, he refused to accept the ridiculous reasoning that magic could easily exist simply because there were strange things in the world.

Index explains what her clothes are.

“…Kh. Th-This is really annoying. I kind of hate being made fun of by some kind of fake magical girl who claims magic exists but can’t prove it.”

That muttering of Kamijou Touma’s soul seemed to upset Index.

“I-I’m not a fake! Magic really exists!”

“Then show me something, Halloween girl! You aren’t going to believe my Imagine Breaker until I destroy something with my right hand anyway. C’mon, fantasy head!”

“Fine, I will!” Index threw both her hands above her head in annoyance. “Here! These clothes! They’re the highest quality of defensive barrier called the Walking Church!”

Index spread her arms to show off the teacup-like nun’s habit.

“Walking Church? What? You’re not making any sense! It’s not very nice to keep using these incomprehensible technical terms like Index and defensive barrier, y’know!? Explaining things means to tell them to someone who doesn’t understand in a form simple enough to become understandable. Do you not get that!?”

“Wha-? How dare you say that when you aren’t even making attempts to understand!?” Index swung her arms around in anger. “Fine, seeing is believing, right? Take a knife from the kitchen and stab me in the gut!!”

“Stab you!? Is this going to end up as a news story that says ‘it all started with a pointless argument’ or something?”

“Ah, you don’t believe me.” Index’s shoulders rose and fell as she breathed heavily. “These have the bare minimum of components required to make up a church: so, they are a church in the form of clothes. The way the cloth is woven, the way the threads are sewn, the way the embroideries decorate it… It’s all calculated. A knife won’t even put a scratch on it.”

“Yeah, right. What kind of idiot would just agree to stab you? He’d have to be an unprecedented kind of juvenile criminal.”

“Will you ever stop mocking me? This is an accurate copy of the Shroud of Turin, the cloth worn by the saint that was stabbed by the Lance of Longinus,[a 14] so its strength is pope-class. I guess you would say it’s something like a nuclear shelter. It turns aside or absorbs any attack, be it physical or magical. I told you I got caught on your balcony after getting shot, right? Well, I would have a giant hole in me if it wasn’t for the Walking Church. Do you understand now?”

Touma accidently derobes Index when he touches her clothes with his right hand.

(Shut up, idiot.)

Kamijou’s appreciation gauge toward Index rapidly dropped and he stared at her clothes with scorn.

“…Hmm. So if that really is a supernatural power, would it be torn to pieces if I touched it with my right hand?”

“Yes, but only if your power is real. Heh heh heh.”

“Perfect!!” shouted Kamijou as he grabbed Index’s shoulder.

As if he had grabbed a cloud, it strangely felt like the impact was absorbed by a soft sponge.

“Wait… huh?”

Kamijou cooled his head and thought.

What if everything Index was saying was true, as unlikely as that was, and this Walking Church really was sewn together with supernatural power?

Would negating that supernatural power truly rip her clothes to pieces?

“Huuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Kamijou reflexively yelled out at the sudden premonition he had that he was about to suddenly go up a few steps on the stairway to adulthood. But…

…

…

…?

“Ehhhhhhh? ...Huh?”

Nothing happened. Nothing happened at all.

(Oh, jeez, don’t make me worry like that.)

Kamijou just could not stand it.

“See? What was all this about your Imagine Breaker? Nothing at all happened. Heh heh.”

Index put her hands on her hips and puffed her small chest in pride.

But in the next instant, her clothes fell straight down like a gift’s ribbon.

The threads sewing her nun’s habit together had cleanly come apart, turning it all into mere pieces of cloth.

The hat-like, one-piece hood must have been an isolated item, because it alone remained. Having only her head covered made it seem all the more painful.

1.4 Part 4

Index doesn't realize her hood slipping off.

Index suddenly stopped moving, but since Kamijou did not seem to notice, she gave up and started once more inside the blanket. She was so focused on what was going on inside that she did not notice when her hood-like hat slipped off of her head.

Kamijou's bad luck strikes, Index explains that he may be negating 'the red string of fate.'

“Bh… myah! Myaahhh!!”

As Kamijou held his foot and let out that strange cry, Index turned around in shock. As Kamijou writhed around in great pain, his cell phone fell from his pocket. The moment he realized it, the LCD screen struck the hard floor and he heard the crack of a fatal blow.

“Uuuuhhhh! S-such misfortune.”

“I’d say that was clumsiness, not misfortune,” said Index with a slight smile. “But if this Imagine Breaker is real, it may be inevitable.”

“…What do you mean?”

“This is related to the world of magic, so I doubt you’ll believe me,” said Index with a giggle. “But if the divine protection of God and the red string of fate actually exist, then wouldn’t your right hand negate all of those?” Index shook her safety pin-covered nun’s habit and added, “The power of this Walking Church was a blessing of God after all.”

“Wait. What we call fortune and misfortune are just matters of probability and statistics. What you’re talking about is completely—…!”

As he said that, Kamijou’s finger touched the doorknob and was shocked by static electricity.

“Wha-!?” he cried out as his body twitched reflexively.

The odd way his muscles moved caused a cramp in his right calf.

“~~!!”

The agony left him incapacitated for about 600 seconds.

“……………………………Um, sister?”

“Yes?”

“……………………………Please explain.”

“There isn’t much to explain,” said Index as if it were obvious. “If what you said about your right hand is true, then merely having it is enough to be continually negating the power of fortune.”

“……………………………Do you mean what I think you mean?”

“Just by touching the air, your right hand is giving you more and more misfortune♪.”

“Gyaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!! S-such misfortuuuuuuuunnnneeeee!!” Kamijou did not believe in the occult, but things that were misfortune related matters were different. At any rate, Kamijou was the type of person for whom any venture he took never ended well. It was to the point that he felt that the entire universe conspired against him.

Meanwhile, a pure white nun gazed upon him with the smile of Virgin Mary. In her eyes was what people called an inviting look.

“Wouldn’t the real misfortune be having been born with that power♪?” The smiling nun brought tears to Kamijou’s eyes and he finally realized the conversation had gotten off track.

Index states that the Magicians chasing her are following her through the Walking Church.

“W-wait, that’s not it! Do you have somewhere to go once you leave? I don’t know what situation you’re in, but you can hide here if those magicians or whatever are nearby.”

“If I stay here, the enemies will come.”

“How can you be sure? If you just stay in my room and don’t draw any attention to yourself, there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“That’s not true.” Index pinched at the chest of her clothes. “This Walking Church functions using magical power. The church seems to call it ‘divine power’, but it’s the same mana. Simply put, the enemy seems to be searching for the magic power in the Walking Church.”

“Why do you wear tracking device clothes!?”

“I told you, its defensive power is pope-class, remember? You’re right hand tore it to pieces, though.”

“…”

“You tore it to pieces, though.”

“I said I was sorry, so don’t look so tearfully. …But, Imagine Breaker destroyed that Walking Church, right? So shouldn’t the tracking device-like functionality be gone too?”

“Even if it were, they’ll know the Walking Church was destroyed. As I said before, its defensive power is pope-class. Simply put, it’s like a fortress. If I were the enemy, I would make an appearance when that fortress was destroyed whatever the reason might be.”

“Wait a second. That’s all the more reason I can’t just let you go. I still don’t believe in the occult, but if someone’s after you, I can’t let you just leave.”

Index stared at him blankly. With just that look, she truly, truly seemed like nothing more than a normal girl.

“…Then, will you follow me to the depths of hell?”

Academy City is all of Western Tokyo and some more worldbuilding.

For just an instant, Kamijou thought about the power in his right hand.

“Hey! …If you’re ever in any trouble, you can stop by here again.”

That was all he could say.

He had the power to kill even God and yet that was all he could say.

“Sure. I’ll stop by if I’m hungry.”

Her sunflower-like smile was so perfect that Kamijou could say nothing in response.

Then, a cleaning robot passed by, having gone out of its way to avoid Index.

“Hyah!?”

That perfect smile was blown away in an instant. Index jumped as if she had a cramp in her leg and then tripped backwards. With a horrible sounding thud, her head struck the wall behind her.

“!! S-some weird thing just showed up like it’s nothing!”

Index had tears in her eyes, but completely forgot to even hold the back of her head as she shouted out.

“Don’t point at it and call it weird. It’s just a cleaning robot.”

Kamijou sighed.

Its size and shape were similar to a drum container (large trashcan). It had small tires on the bottom and a circular rotating mop similar to those on a street cleaner. It had cameras in order to avoid people and other obstacles. They were quite hated by girls in miniskirts.

“…I see. I had heard Japan was a leading nation in technology, but I didn’t know you had made mechanized Agathions.”[a 15][6]

“Hello?” Kamijou was a bit frightened by how impressed Index seemed. “This is Academy City. You can find those things all over the city.”

“Academy City?”

“Yes. It’s a city made by buying up the entire western area of Tokyo where development had slowed. The name comes from how it has dozens of universities and hundreds of elementary, middle, and high schools in it.” Kamijou sighed. “Eighty percent of the residents are students; all the apartment buildings you see are dorms.”

He omitted the fact that it had a hidden face where powers and bodies were developed alongside the studying.

“That’s why this city is a bit odd. The city is overflowing with university experiments like the automated disposal of kitchen waste, the wind turbines that function well enough to be practical, and the cleaning robots like this one. Thanks to all that, our level of technological culture is about 20 years ahead of anywhere else.”

“Hmm.” Index carefully examined the cleaning robot. “So are all the buildings here part of Academy City?”

“Yup. I guess it might be best to leave the city if you’re looking for an Anglican church. All the churches here are probably teaching institutions for theology or Jungian psychology.”

“Hm.”

Index nodded and then finally brought a hand up to the back of her head where she had hit the wall.

“Hyah!? H-huh? My hood is gone!?”

“Oh, you finally noticed? It fell off earlier.”

“Hyah?”

By “earlier”, Kamijou had meant when she was changing in the blanket, but Index seemed to mistake it for when she had tripped backwards in shock because of the cleaning robot. She started looking around on the floor and a question mark appeared over her head.

“Oh, I know! That electric Agathion!”

Still mistaken, she made a dash after the cleaning robot and disappeared around a corner of the hallway.

“…Ahh, what’s going on?”

Kamijou looked past the door to his room where Index’s hood was and then down the passageway. Index was nowhere to be seen. There had been no farewell, tearful or otherwise.

(From the looks of her, I get the feeling she’ll live on even if the world is destroyed.)

He had no proof of it, but that nevertheless was the thought he had.

Cryso Agori · Apr 2, 2022

1.5 Part 5

See-Through Lesson

“Okay, I have a handout for you. Follow along while we go through this supplementary lesson.”

Even after spending an entire term in that class, Kamijou still could not believe it.

The homeroom teacher of Year 1 Class 7, Tsukuyomi Komoe, was a ridiculous teacher who was so short that only her head could be seen when she stood behind her desk.

That little girl teacher was one of the school’s seven mysteries: at 135 cm tall, there was a legend saying she was refused a roller coaster ride due to safety concerns and looked to the world like a 12 year old who should be carrying a soprano recorder with a yellow hard hat and a red elementary school backpack.

“I won’t stop you from talking amongst yourselves, but you need to listen to what I say. I put a lot of effort into making a quiz, so if you do poorly on it, you will be punished with the See Through lesson.”

“Sensei, isn’t that where you play poker with a blindfold on!? That’s part of the Curriculum for Clairvoyance! I’ve heard you can’t leave until you win 10 times in a row despite not being able to see your cards, so wouldn’t we just be stuck here until morning!?” protested Kamijou Touma.

“Oh, but Kamijou-chan, you don’t have enough development credits, so you’ll be doing the See Through lesson regardless.”

“Ugh,” Kamijou was at a loss of words when faced with the salesman smile of a salaryman teacher.

Colombus Egg.

“You two over there! If you say a single word more, you’ll be stuck with Columbus’ Egg.”

Just as one would expect, Columbus’ Egg involved standing a raw egg upside down on a desk without anything supporting it. Those specializing in Psychokinesis could keep the egg from falling when they worked to the point of the blood vessels in their brain almost bursting. (It was actually an extremely difficult challenge because the egg would break if the Psychokinesis was too powerful.) As with the previous example, you would be stuck there until morning if you could not do it.

Teacher's don't have Esper powers in Academy City.

While Komoe-sensei loved being called “cute”, she became incredibly irate when called “small”.

However, she did not seem to mind being looked down on by the students. Part of it was just something inevitable within Academy City. The city was a veritable Neverland where over 80% of the population was students. The opposition to salaryman teachers was harsh even compared to a normal school, and more importantly, the “strength” of a student was based on both their academic ability and their power.

The teachers were the ones that developed the students, but the teachers themselves had no powers. Some, like the PE teachers and guidance counselors, seemed like they were from foreign units because they trained Level 3 monsters with their own fists. However, it would be cruel to expect that from a chemistry teacher like Komoe.

Robots in Academy City.

While it was called a supplementary lesson, they had been stuck there until the time when all students were supposed to have left school.

“…Such misfortune,” Kamijou muttered as he gazed at a wind turbine’s three propellers glittering in the sunset.

Any kind of nightlife was forbidden, so the last bus and train in Academy City were set to leave once the students were out of school.

Kamijou missed the last bus, so he was trudging along through the scorching shopping district that seemed to go on forever. A security robot passed by him as he did. It was also a drum on wheels and it functioned as something like a walking security camera. They were originally improved versions of robotic dogs, but children would gather around them and block their way. For that simple reason, the work robots were converted into drum container shapes.

Misaka approaches him while he was walking home, explanation of how they met.

“Ah, there you are, you bastard! Wait up… wait! You! I’m talking to you! Stop!!”

The summer heat had done Kamijou in and he just stared at the slowly moving security robot. He thought about how Index had run off after a cleaning robot and, finally, realized that a voice was calling him.

He turned around to figure out what was going on.

She was a middle school-aged girl with shoulder-length brown hair that glowed a flame-red in the sunset but her face was dyed even redder. She wore a gray pleated skirt, a short sleeve blouse, and a summer sweater… At that point, he suddenly realized who she was.

“…Oh, it’s you again, Biri Biri[8] middle schooler.”

“Don’t call me Biri Biri! I have a name! It’s Misaka Mikoto! Why don’t you learn it already!? You’ve been calling me Biri Biri since we first met!”

(Since we first met…?) Kamijou thought back. (Oh, right.)

When they first met, she had been surrounded by delinquents just like the other day. As the children approached her, he had thought that they were after her wallet and stepped forward in an Urashima Tarou-esque move.

However, for some reason, the girl was the one that became irritated, saying, “Shut up! Don’t get in the way of other people’s fights! Biri Biri!” Kamijou had of course blocked her Biri Biri with his right hand and she had responded with, “Huh? Why didn’t that work? Then what about this? Huh?” One thing had led to another, and things had ended up in their current relationship.

Touma states again that he never lost a fight with Misaka.

“…Huh? What? I’m not sad, so why am I crying, mom?”

“What’s with the distant look in your eyes?”

Kamijou was exhausted from the supplementary lesson and he decided not to give much thought in how to deal with the Biri Biri girl.

“The girl staring at Kamijou’s face with a stunned expression is the Railgun girl from yesterday. She’s so frustrated over losing a single fight that she has come back to Kamijou again and again to challenge him to rematches.”

“…Who’s that explanation for?”

“She’s strong-willed and hates to lose, but is actually quite a lonely person and is in charge of taking care of the class pet.”

“Don’t tack strange things to the setting!!”

Misaka is a Tokiwadai student, which is one of the five elite academies.

The girl, Misaka Mikoto, flailed her arms around and all focus on the street was drawn to her. It was not all that surprising, the completely normal summer uniform she wore was the uniform of Tokiwadai Middle School, one of the 5 most prestigious and elite schools in Academy City. For some reason, the explosively refined girls from Tokiwadai seemed to stand apart even in a station at rush hour, and it would strike anyone as odd to see one sitting on the floor of a train messing around with her cell phone like any other person.

Misaka releases an electric burst that shuts down everyone's cellphones, and the cable broadcast.

“Why you… Quit making fun of me!!”

The middle school girl stomped down on the tiles of the path.

At that exact moment, a tremendous noise came from the cell phones of the people walking along the area. Additionally, the cable broadcast in the shopping district cut out and a horrible noise came from the security robot.

The crackling sound of static electricity came from the middle school girl’s hair. That Level 5 girl, who used a Railgun with nothing but her own body, smiled such that her canines were bared like a beast’s.

Misaka's lightning burst didn't shut down the security robot.

“Message, message. Error No. 100231-YF. Offensive electromagnetic waves in violation of radio laws detected. System malfunction detected. As this is possible cyber terrorism, avoid using electronics.”

Imagine Breaker and Railgun hesitantly turned around.

A drum container was on its side on the footpath spewing smoke as it spoke to itself nonsensically.

In the next instant, the security robot began sounding a high-pitched alarm.

Touma and Misaka run away, argue and fight. With Touma winning.

Naturally, they ran away.

They entered a back alley, kicked over a dirty plastic bucket, and scared off a black cat as they continued running.

(Come to think of it, I didn’t do anything wrong. Why am I running away with her?)

Even while thinking that, he kept running. After all, he had heard on a talk show that those security robots cost 1.2 million yen each.

“Uuhh… S-Such misfortune. Why do I always get caught up in things related to her?”

“What do you mean by that!? And, my name is Misaka Mikoto!”

The two finally come to a stop in a back, back, back alley. One of the lined-up buildings must have been demolished because a rectangular area opened up there. It seemed a good place for street basketball.

“Shut up, Biri Biri! You’re the one that destroyed all of my electronics with that lightning yesterday! What could you possibly want after that!?”

“It’s your fault for pissing me off!”

“I don’t even understand what’s got you so mad! I’ve haven’t laid a finger on you!”

Following that exchange, Mikoto attacked Kamijou with her full arsenal, but Kamijou negated the whole with his right hand. This time, her attacks did not end with Railgun. Her offenses ranged from twisting together collected iron sand to create a whip-like sword of steel, to sending powerful electromagnetic waves to mess with internal organs, to even finishing with a blast of real lightning from the sky.

But, none were a match for Kamijou Touma.

As long as it was supernatural, Kamijou Touma could negate it.

Touma manages to scare Misaka. Says he fought her for over 2 hours without a scratch.

“You just keep coming at me and wearing yourself out! Don’t use your powers too much and then blame me when you don’t have the stamina to keep going, Biri Biri!”

“~~!!” Mikoto began to grind her back teeth. “Th-That didn’t count. It can’t count! You never attacked me so it’s a draw!!”

“Sigh… Fine, fine. It’s your win. Punching you isn’t going to fix my air conditioner.”

“Gah…! W-Wait a second! Take this seriously!!” shouted Mikoto as she flailed her arm.

Kamijou sighed.

“Are you sure you want me to take this seriously?”

“Ah…” Mikoto trailed off.

Kamijou lightly clenched his right fist and opened it again. A cold sweat began to pour from Misaka Mikoto’s entire body with his simple actions. She froze in place, unable to even take a step backwards.

Mikoto did not know what Kamijou’s power truly was, so to her, Kamijou was truly an unknown horror that sealed all of her trumps without breaking a sweat.

It was unsurprising. Kamijou Touma had challenged Misaka Mikoto’s attacks for over two hours straight without receiving a scratch. It was only natural for her to wonder what would happen if he were serious.

Kamijou sighed and averted his gaze.

As if the strings holding her in place had snapped, Mikoto finally staggered a few steps back.

“…What can I call this other than misfortune?” Kamijou was shocked at how frightened she was. “First my room’s electronics were done in, then a self-proclaimed magician in the morning, and now this Biri Biri esper in the evening.”

“Magician…? What?”

“…” Kamijou thought for a moment. “Yeah… That’s what I want to know.”

Normally, Mikoto would have likely shouted, “Are you making fun of me!? Is your head as messed up as that power!?” and then Biri Biri’d. However, she could only jump in fright that day whenever he gave her a look.

It was only a bluff to fool her, but the effectiveness caused him regret.

The narrative states Touma has the power to kill God.

(What was all that magician nonsense, anyway?)

Kamijou was reminded of what had happened that morning. The white nun had used the word readily enough, but now that he thought back, the term was definitely one removed from reality.

(I wonder why it didn’t feel out place with Index around.)

Had there been some mysterious something that made magic seem more believable?

“...Wait, what am I thinking?” muttered Kamijou while completely ignoring the Biri Biri girl named Misaka Mikoto who was fearfully trembling like a puppy.

He cut his ties with Index and whatever world she lived in. The world was a large place and it was unlikely he would run into her again in a meaningless coincidence. Thinking about magicians was entirely pointless.

Despite that, he was unable to force the thought out of his mind.

He still had the pure white hood she had forgotten in his room.

That one remaining connection continued to irritatingly prick at the edges of his mind.

Not even Kamijou Touma knew why he was thinking about it so much.

After all, he had the power to kill even God.

1.6 Part 6

Touma finds Index bleeding out in front of his dorm, tries to help Index but is unable to push the cleaning robots away. He again states that he has the power to kill God.

“…Ah…?”

The first thing he felt was confusion, not shock.

He was unable to see it previously because of the group of cleaning robots in the way. As she lay face down, he could see a single horizontal line near the bottom of her back. The wound was from a blade, but was so straight it looked like someone had used a ruler and a box cutter. The end of her waist-length silver hair had been cleanly cut off and that silver hair was dyed red by the liquid flowing from the wound.

For an instant, Kamijou failed to comprehend that it was human blood.

The difference in reality between the instant before and the instant after sent his thoughts into chaos. Red… red… ketchup? Did Index use her last strength to suck up ketchup just before she collapsed from hunger? With that pleasant image in his mind, Kamijou almost smiled.

He almost smiled, but he did not.

There was no way he could.

The three cleaning robots continued to move back and forth while making a clanking noise. They were cleaning the stain on the floor. They were cleaning the red substance spreading across the floor. They were cleaning the red substance flowing from Index’s body, like digging at a wound with a dirty rag: they were sucking out the blood inside Index’s body.

“St…op. Stop! Shit!!”

Kamijou’s eyes finally focused into reality. He frantically grabbed at the cleaning robots gathered around the seriously injured Index. He failed to do so because the robots were made necessarily heavy to prevent theft on top of relatively high horsepower.

In reality, the cleaning robots were only cleaning the continuously spreading stain on the floor and never actually touched Index’s wound. Even so, Kamijou saw them as bugs swarming a festering wound.

He was having difficulty moving aside even one of those heavy and powerful robots, much less three. While his focus was on one of them, the other two would head for the stain.

He was supposed to have the power to kill even God.

But, he was unable to move those toys out of the way.

Index said nothing.

Touma sees Stiyl and instinctively realizes what they are.

Her pale purple lips were so still he was unsure whether she was breathing.

“Shit, shit!!” Kamijou shouted out in confusion. “What happened? What the hell happened!? God damn it! Who the hell did this to you!?”

“Hm? That would be us magicians.”

A voice sounded from behind him, one that did not belong to Index.

Kamijou spun his entire body around as if meaning to rush in and punch the person. A man was standing there who had come from the… no, not from the elevator. It seemed he arrived from the emergency staircase next to the elevator.

The white man was over two meters tall, but his face seemed younger than Kamijou’s.

His age was… likely 14 or 15, similar to Index’s age. His great height was characteristic of foreigners, while his clothes were… a pure black version of the habits worn by church priests. However, it was unlikely you would find anyone who would call that man a priest even if you searched all over the world.

It may have been because he was standing upwind, but Kamijou could smell the horribly sweet perfume on him even though he was over 15 meters away. His shoulder-length blond hair had been dyed red like the sunset, silver rings glittered on all ten of his fingers like brass knuckles, poisonous earrings hung on his ears, a cell phone strap could be seen sticking out of his pocket, a lit cigarette moved at the edge of his mouth, and, as if to complete the image, he had a barcode-like tattoo underneath his right eye.

One could not call him a priest and yet, neither could one call him a delinquent.

In the passageway, the air around the man was clearly strange.

It was as if the area were being ruled by completely different rules than the ones that Kamijou had been accustomed to at that point. That strange feeling spread throughout the area like icy tentacles.

What Kamijou felt first was neither fear nor anger…

…But confusion and unease. It was a desperate loneliness akin to having his wallet stolen in a foreign country with an unfamiliar language. The icy, tentacle-like feeling crept into his body and froze his heart. It was then that Kamijou realized something:

This is a magician.

This has become a different world where strange things like magicians exist.

He could tell at first glance.

He still did not believe in magicians…

But, he could tell that this was definitely a resident of a place that existed beyond the world he lived.

LN Illustration

Touma realizes Index came back to his apartment to get her hood, and the reason the Magicians found her.

“Hm? Hm… hm… hm. She got her pretty good.” The magician looked around and the cigarette in the corner of his mouth waggled as he spoke. “I heard Kanzaki sliced her, but this is… I thought there wasn’t anything to worry about because there was no blood trail…”

The magician looked at the cleaning robots gathered behind Kamijou Touma.

Most likely, Index had been “sliced” elsewhere and had barely escaped there with her life before collapsing. She surely had left fresh blood as she went, but the cleaning robots had cleaned it all away.

“But… why?”

“Hm? You mean why she came back here? Who knows? Maybe she forgot something. Come to think of it, she had her hood when I shot her yesterday. Did she lose it somewhere?”

The magician standing in front of Kamijou had used the phrase “came back”.

In other words, he had been following Index’s actions all day. And he knew that she had lost the hood to her Walking Church nun’s habit.

Index had said something about the magicians searching for the magic power of her Walking Church.

That meant the magicians had been following Index by detecting the supernatural power in her Walking Church. They would have known the Walking Church was destroyed when the “signal” cut out… Index had mentioned that too.

But then, Index had to have known.

She had known, but she still seemed to have relied on the defensive powers of the Walking Church.

But why did she return? Why did she need to recover a portion of the destroyed and therefore useless Walking Church? Kamijou’s right hand had rendered the entire Walking Church useless so there was little point in recovering the hood.

—Then will you follow me to the depths of hell?

Suddenly, it all clicked.

Kamijou remembered; he had never touched the hood of the Walking Church that was left in his room. In other words, the hood still had magic power. She must have thought the magicians might detect it and headed there to retrieve it.

And so, Index had braved the danger and “came back”.

“…You idiot.”

There had been no need to do that. It was Kamijou’s clumsiness that had destroyed her Walking Church, and he had realized she had left her hood in his room yet left it there. And more importantly, Index lacked any obligation, duty, or right to protect Kamijou.

Even so, she could not help heading back.

Kamijou Touma was a complete stranger that she had met less than half an hour before.

She could not help but risk her life and return to prevent him from getting involved in a magician’s fight.

“You idiot!!”

Stiyl states that it would take something like St. George's Dragon to destroy a pope-class barrier.

Also, had Kamijou not carelessly touched her and destroyed her Walking Church nun’s habit, there would have been no need to return.

(No. Those kinds of excuses don’t matter.)

His right hand and the destruction of her Walking Church were not the reason she had felt the need to return.

Had Kamijou not wished for that one connection… Had he only returned her fallen hood that instant…

“Hm? Hm… hm… hm? C’mon, I can’t have you looking at me like that.” The cigarette in the corner of the magician’s mouth moved as he spoke. “It wasn’t me that sliced her and I doubt Kanzaki meant to turn this into something bloody. The Walking Church is supposed to be an absolute defense, after all. Really, she shouldn’t have been injured at all by that. …Honestly, what twist of fate led that to be destroyed? Unless St. George’s Dragon has come again, I don’t see how a pope-class barrier could be broken.”

That last bit was spoken to his self and his smile disappeared as he said it.

Stiyl explains Grimoires.

However, this lasted only an instant. The cigarette in the corner of his mouth twitched back up as if he had suddenly remembered to smile.

“Why?” Kamijou asked despite not expecting an answer. “Why? I don’t believe in the magic from fairy tales and I don’t really understand magicians or whatever you are. But aren’t there good and evil types of you? Aren’t there magicians that protect things and people?”

He knew very well that he had no right to be moralistic.

When Index had left, Kamijou Touma had let her go and returned to his normal life.

Yet he could not resist saying the words.

“You ganged up on this little girl, chased her all over the place, and then injured her this badly. Can you really say that you’re justice with this reality staring you in the face!?”

“Like I said, Kanzaki did this, not me.” The magician paused for a second. Kamijou’s words had not hit home with him in the slightest. “And whether she’s injured or not, we have to retrieve her.”

“Retrieve her?”

Kamijou did not understand what the magician meant.

“Hm? Oh, I see. You knew the word magician, so I assumed you were completely filled-in. I guess she was afraid of getting you involved.” The magician exhaled cigarette smoke. “Yeah, we need to retrieve her. Technically, it isn’t her we need to retrieve though; it’s the 103,000 grimoires she has.”

…There were those 103,000 grimoires again.

“I see, I see. This country isn’t very religious, so I guess you don’t understand,” said the magician in a bored sounding voice despite the fact that he was smiling. “The Index Librorum Prohibitorum[a 16] is a list created by the Church of all the evil books that will sully your soul just by reading them. Even if you were to announce that these dangerous books existed, people could still unknowingly acquire one, despite the fact that they don’t know its title. Thus, she has become something of a crucible of poisonous books with 103,000 such books. Oh, but be careful. Reading just one of the books she has would make a vegetable out of someone from an irreligious nation like this.”

Stiyl says Index has Eidetic memory and the Grimoires are in her mind.

Disregarding his words, Index owned not a single book. The lines of her body were clearly visible in that habit and would be obvious if she were to hide any books under her clothes. No need to even mention that not a single person could walk around carrying 100,000 texts, an entire library’s worth of books.

“D-Don’t be ridiculous! Just where exactly are these books!?”

“Oh, they’re there, in her memory,” the magician said as if it were obvious fact. “Do you know what an eidetic memory is? It seems to be the ability to memorize anything you see in an instant and never forget even a single sentence or letter. Simply put, it makes you a human scanner.”[9] The magician smiled disinterestedly. “It has nothing to do with our occult or your science fiction. It’s a natural condition. She has been to the British Museum,[a 17] the Louvre, the Vatican Library, the Pataliputra ruins,[a 18] Château de Compiègne, Mont Saint-Michel Abbey, and everywhere else that has grimoires that cannot be taken from where they are sealed. She stole them with her eyes and stores them as a grimoire library.”

He simply could not believe it.

He could not believe that these grimoires existed or that she had an eidetic memory.

However, what mattered was not its truth but the fact that someone believed it was true, and it resulted in the slicing of a girl’s back.

Stiyl states that Index can't use magic power.

“Well, she has no ability to refine magic power herself, so she’s harmless.” The cigarette in the corner of the magician’s mouth moved up happily. “But since that stopper was prepared, the Church must have some concerns. Well, that has nothing to do with a magician like me. At any rate, those 103,000 grimoires are quite dangerous, so I came to shelter her before anyone who would use them comes to take her away.”

“To… shelter her?”

Kamijou Touma was utterly astonished. What had that man just said in the face of such a blood-red scene?

“Yeah, that’s right. Shelter her. No matter how sensible and good hearted she may be, she cannot stand up to torture and drugs. The mere thought of handing a girl over to the likes of them hurts my heart, y’know?”

“…”

Kamijou’s body trembled.

Not pure anger: goosebumps covered his arm. The man before him only viewed himself as true; he lived ignoring his own mistakes. All of that put together sent a chill across Kamijou’s entire body like that of plunging into a bathtub filled to the brim with tens of thousands of slugs.

The term “mad cult” oozed into his brain.

The thought of magicians that hunted people based on groundless beliefs made him feel like the nerves of his brain were going to burst.

Touma crosses half of 15 meters in 3 steps.

“Who the hell, do you think you are!?”

His right hand felt engulfed in heat as if responding to his anger.

His two feet that had been planted to the ground shifted before he even thought about moving. His thick body of flesh and blood charged toward the magician like a bullet. He clenched his right fist so hard that he felt like he was smashing his fingers to pieces.

His right hand was of no use. It would not help him defeat even a single delinquent, would not raise his scores on tests, and would not make him popular with girls.

But his right hand could also be quite useful. After all, he could still use it to punch out the bastard standing before him.

“I would prefer to call myself as Stiyl Magnus, but I guess I’ll have to go with Fortis931.”

The magician was completely motionless except for the wagging of the cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

After muttering something under his breath, he spoke to Kamijou as if introducing the pet black cat he was proud of.

“That’s my magic name. Not familiar with those? It seems we magicians cannot give our true name when we use magic. It’s an old tradition, so I don’t really understand why myself.”

They were 15 meters apart.

Kamijou Touma filled half of that gap in just three steps.

Stiyl summons a flame sword.

“Fortis… I guess in Japanese it would mean ‘the strong’. Well, the etymology doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that I have given that name. For us magicians, it is less a magical name when spell casting and more like…”

Even as Kamijou Touma took two more steps down the passageway, the magician’s smile did not crumble. He seemed to be claiming that Kamijou was not an opponent even worth ridding his smile over.

“…a killing name, I guess.”

The magician named Stiyl Magnus grabbed the cigarette from his mouth and flicked it away to the side.

The lit cigarette flew horizontally, over the metal railing, and hit the wall of the neighboring building.

An orange line traced the cigarette’s path as an afterimage and sparks flew when it hit the wall.

“Kenaz (Flames).”[10]

The instant that Stiyl muttered, the orange line exploded.

A sword of flames appeared in a straight line as if someone had turned on a fire hose loaded with gasoline. The paint gradually changed color like a picture being scorched by a lighter.

He was not in contact with the fire but it still felt like his eyes were being burned just by watching it. Kamijou instinctually stopped running and brought his hands up to cover his face.

Touma doubt's if his hand could block the spell. Stiyl attacks.

Kamijou stopped so suddenly that it looked like his feet had been staked to the ground. A sudden question entered his mind.

Imagine Breaker could negate any kind of supernatural power in one blow. Not even the Level 5 Biri Biri girl’s Railgun, which could destroy a nuclear shelter in one strike, was an exception to that.

But the truth was…

Kamijou had yet to see any supernatural power whose nature was non-psychic.

In other words, he had never tested it.

He had never tested it on magic.

Would his right hand really work on the strange power known as magic?

“Purisaz Naupiz Gebo (A gift of pain for the giant.)”

Past the hands covering his face, Kamijou could see the magician smiling.

While smiling, Stiyl Magnus swung the blazing flame sword horizontally at Kamijou Touma.

The instant it touched him, it lost shape and exploded in all directions like an erupting volcano.

Heat waves, flashes of light, explosive noise, and black smoke burst in every direction.

Stiyl's attack had melted the railing and created a wall of flames, he states his flames are 3000 degrees celsius.

“Maybe I overdid it.”

Stiyl scratched at his head in front of what looked like the aftermath of a bombing. Just to be sure, he looked around to see if anyone was coming out to see what was going on. It was the first day of summer vacation, so most of the residents of that boy’s dorm would be out. However, it would be bad if some friendless shut-in was in one of the rooms.

He could not see ahead directly because of the screen of flames and smoke.

However, he did not need to check. That strike had created hellish flames of 3000 degrees Celsius. At temperatures above 2000 degrees Celsius, the human body would melt before it burned which meant the boy likely looked similar to the metal railing that had melted like a sugar sculpture. It was probable that he was splattered across the dorm wall like a used piece of gum.

Stiyl heaved a sigh as he reflected on how right he had been to get the boy away from Index. Things would have been a bit more difficult if the boy had used Index’s injured form as a shield.

But he could not retrieve Index as things were.

Stiyl sighed again. The wall of flames blocked him from heading to the other end of the passageway where Index was. If there was another emergency staircase on the other side of the passageway, he could manage. But, it would hardly be funny if Index got caught in the inferno while he took such a detour.

Stiyl shook his head in annoyance and spoke as he peered into the smoke one last time as if he could see through it.

Touma is unaffected by the heat of the flames.

“Thank you. Excellent work but too bad. Well, at that level, you couldn’t win even if you had a thousand tries.”

“Are you so sure I can’t win no matter how many times I try?”

For an instant, the magician froze in place at the voice coming from those hellish flames.

With a roar, the wall of flames and smoke swirled and was blown away.

It was as if a tornado[11] had appeared in the center of the flames and smoke and blew them all away.

Kamijou Touma stood there.

The metal railing had been melted like a sugar sculpture, the paint on the floor and walls had peeled, the fluorescent lights had melted and dripped down in the intense heat, but the boy had remained unharmed in the middle of those unworldly flames and scorching heats.

Touma negates Stiyl's magic flames and runs towards him.

“Honestly, what was I so afraid of?” asked Kamijou rhetorically with the sides of his mouth twisted in disinterest. “This is the same right hand that destroyed Index’s Walking Church.”

In reality, Kamijou knew nothing about what was called magic.

He did not know how it worked or what went on where his eyes could not reach. Most likely, he would only understand half of it if it were explained to him from start to finish.

Regardless, there was one thing even an idiot like him understood. In the end, it was just a supernatural power.

The crimson flames he had blown away had not been completely extinguished.

In a perfect circle around Kamijou, the scorching flames continued to burn. But…

“Out of the way.”

With that one statement, Kamijou touched the 3000 degree magical flames with his right hand and the rest of the fire vanished.

It was like the candles in a birthday cake had all been blown out at once.

Kamijou Touma looked at the magician standing before him.

The magician was as flustered as any normal human being facing an unexpected turn of events.

In fact, he was a normal human being.

If you punched him, he would feel pain, and if you cut him with a cheap knife, he would bleed red.

He was a mere human being.

Kamijou’s legs were no longer cramped with fear and his body was no longer frozen with nerves.

His arms and legs moved like normal.

He moved!

Touma blocks another of Stiyl's strikes.

“…Wha-?”

Meanwhile, Stiyl very nearly took a step backwards in shock of the incomprehensible phenomenon before him.

From what had become of the surroundings, that attack could not have been a dud. But did that mean that boy was powerful enough to withstand 3000 degrees? No, if so, he would not have been human.

Kamijou Touma paid no heed to Stiyl’s confusion.

He clenched his heated right fist as hard as a rock and took a step toward Stiyl who was swaying on his feet.

“Tch!!”

Stiyl swung his right hand horizontally. The flame sword that appeared followed suit and flew forcefully toward Kamijou.

It exploded. Flames and smoke flew about.

But after the flames and smoke were blown away, Kamijou Touma stood there just as before.

“…Could he be using magic?” Stiyl muttered under his breath, but he immediately rejected the idea.

There could not be any magicians in that country that knew more about Christmas than magic and only knew Christmas as a day of dating and sex.

Explanation about Magic Gods.

Also, if Index, despite lacking magic power, were to join forces with a magician, she would have had no reason to run. That… was how dangerous Index’s memories were.

The 103,000 grimoires were on a completely different scope even in comparison to the possessing of a nuclear weapon.

All living creatures eventually die, an apple dropped from above would fall down, and 1+1=2. You would be able to take those kinds of natural and unchangeable rules of the world, destroy them, rewrite them, and create new ones. You could make 1+1=3, make an apple dropped from below fall up, and make all dead creatures eventually be revived.

Magicians called such beings Magic Gods.

Not the god of the demon plane,[12] but a magician who had thoroughly mastered magic to the point of entering the domain of God.

Magic God.

But, Stiyl could not feel any magic power in the boy in front of him.

He would be able to tell at a glance if he was a magician. The boy did not have the “scent” of someone from the same world as him.

Then, why?

Touma easily shatters Stiyl's blade.

“!!”

To hide the shudder spreading through his body, Stiyl created another flame sword and attacked Kamijou. This time, it failed to even explode.

Kamijou swatted at the flame sword with his right hand like flyswatter and the flame sword shattered like glass and disappeared into thin air.

He shattered that 3000 degree flame sword with a right hand that had no magical reinforcements of any kind.

“…Ah.”

Abruptly, truly abruptly, something floated up in the back of Stiyl Magnus’s mind.

Index’s Walking Church nun’s habit was pope-class and its barrier rivaled a London cathedral in its power. It was absolutely impossible to destroy it unless the legendary dragon of St. George appeared.

But Index’s Walking Church had clearly been utterly destroyed since Kanzaki had sliced her.

Who had done it? And how?

Stiyl summons Innocentius.

“…………………………………………………”

By that point, Kamijou Touma had walked right up to Stiyl.

With one more step, he would be close enough to punch the magician.

“MTWOTFFTO. (One of the five great elements from which the world is constructed.) IIGOIIOF. (The great flame of the beginning.)”

An unpleasant sweat began to drip from Stiyl’s entire body. This was because the creature before him in a summer uniform had taken the form of a human. Stiyl’s spine trembled as he got the feeling that inside that boy’s skin was not flesh and blood but some strange oozing something.

“IIBOLAIIAOE. (It is a light of blessing that raises life and a light of judgment that punishes evil.) IIMHAIIBOD. (It is overflowing with calm blessings and with freezing misfortune that destroys cold darkness.) IINFIIMS. (Its name is fire and its role is the sword.) ICRMMBGP! (Be manifested and become the power that eats into my body!)”

The torso of Stiyl’s priest’s habit swelled out and forces from within popped off the buttons.

With the roar of flames sucking in oxygen, a giant mass of fire shot out from within his clothes.

It was not merely a mass of flames.

The crimson burning flames had something black and dripping like fuel oil at its core. It was in the form of a human. The thing was reminiscent of the seabirds dripping with black fuel oil after a tanker accident, and it was eternally burning.

Its name was Innocentius.[a 19] Its meaning was “I will surely kill you.”

The giant flame god who bore the meaning of certain death spread its arms and charged toward Kamijou Touma like a bullet.

Touma easily negates Innocentius.

“Out of the way.”

Kamijou used a backhanded blow with the annoyed attitude of someone brushing aside a spider web.

Kamijou Touma blew away Stiyl Magnus’s final trump card. As if he had stabbed a water balloon with a pin, the human-shaped fuel oil symbolizing the giant flame god burst into spray and scattered about the area.

However, Innocentius reforms.

“…?”

Kamijou Touma had no real reason for not taking his last step at that moment.

It was simply that Stiyl was still smiling despite having his final trump card destroyed. That expression was enough to make him hesitate before carelessly taking that last step.

The sound of a viscous liquid moving could be heard from all around.

“Wha-!?”

As Kamijou took a step back in surprise, the black spray returned from all directions, gathered in midair, and reformed into a human shape.

If Kamijou had taken that last step, he would certainly have been enveloped by flames from all directions.

Kamijou’s mind was thrown into disarray at the scene before his eyes. If his right hand could do what he was always saying it could, it could negate even the systems of God seen in myths in a single strike. If that had been the supernatural power known as magic, he should have been able to negate it with that one touch. And yet…

The oily fuel within the flames writhed, changed form, and now seemed to be holding a sword in both hands.

No, it was not a sword but a giant cross, over two meters long, of the crucifying type.

It lifted the cross up with both hands and aimed a downwards swing at Kamijou’s head like a pickaxe.

“…!!”

Kamijou immediately held up his right hand to receive the blow. Disregarding his right hand, Kamijou was a simple high school student. He lacked the battle skills needed to see through the attack and evade.

Touma states that Innocentius is being negated, but is being brought back faster than IB can negate.

The cross and his right hand clashed.

This time, it failed to even disappear. As if he were grasping a mass of rubber, Kamijou felt that he was going to be the one to lose that struggle. His opponent used both hands while he could only use his right hand. The flaming cross neared Kamijou’s face millimeter by millimeter.

Despite his confusion, Kamijou just narrowly managed to realize one fact: that mass of flames known as Innocentius was definitely reacting to his Imagine Breaker. However, it was being revived soon after annihilation. Most likely, the lag between annihilation and revival was less than a tenth of a second.

His right hand had been sealed.

If he let go for even an instant, he would likely be turned to ash by Innocentius in that instant.

Index's John's Pen mode activates.

“Runes.”

Kamijou Touma heard something.

Due to the danger in front of him, he could not turn around, but he certainly heard someone’s voice.

“Those twenty four characters used to indicate mysteries and secrets have been used as a magic language by Germanic tribes since the 2nd Century and are found in the roots of Old English.”

However, Kamijou could not believe it was Index’s voice despite knowing it was.

“Wha-…?”

Despite how beat up and bloody she was, how could she be speaking so calmly? He shakily thought.

“Attacking Innocentius will have no effect. Unless the rune engravings carved into the walls, floor, and ceiling are eliminated, it will revive as many times as necessary.”

Kamijou Touma supported his right wrist with his left hand and just barely managed to keep the cross from advancing any further.

Kamijou timidly turned around.

The girl was indeed collapsed there but Kamijou was unable to give “that” the name “Index”. Like a machine, her eyes were utterly lacking in emotion.

With each word she spoke, more blood flowed from the wound on her back.

She paid no heed and seemed to truly be nothing more than a system meant to explain magic.

“You’re… Index, right?”

“Yes. I am the grimoire library belonging to Necessarius,[a 20] the 0th Parish of the Anglican Church. My proper name is Index Librorum Prohibitorum, but that can be abbreviated to Index.”

The way that grimoire library named Index was acting, Kamijou almost forgot about the giant flame god trying to kill him. He experienced such a chill coming from her.

Explanation on how Innocentius can keep coming back even after being negated.

“With my introduction complete, I will return to my explanation of runic magic. Simply put, it is like a reflection of the moon in a lake at night. No matter how many times you strike the lake surface with a sword, it has no meaning. If you want to strike the moon in the lake surface, you must first turn your sword on the real moon floating in the night sky.”

After hearing that explanation, Kamijou finally remembered the enemy in front of him.

Did she mean that what stood before him was not the true form of the supernatural power? Was it something like a photograph and its negative? Would it continue to revive unless he destroyed a different supernatural power that was creating the giant flame god?

Even then, Kamijou did not completely believe what Index was saying.

No matter what was going on around him, the common understanding that magic did not exist refused to leave him.

But, with Innocentius sealing his right hand and preventing his movement, he could not test anything regardless. On top of that, it would have been difficult to ask Index to help him, given her bloody state

Stiyl uses the opportunity to attack.

“Ash to ash…”

Kamijou looked up in shock. From beyond the giant flame god, a flame sword had appeared in Stiyl’s right hand.

“...Dust to dust…”

Another one. A bluish-white burning flame sword extended silently from his left hand.

“…Squeamish Bloody Rood!”[a 21]

With those power-filled words, he swung the two flame swords horizontally so that they would slice straight through the giant flame god from left and right like a giant pair of scissors. With his right hand sealed by Innocentius,

Kamijou could block nothing else.

(Shit… I need to run!!)

Before Kamijou Touma could even shout out, the two flame swords struck the giant flame god and the forces morphed into one enormous, exploding bomb.

1.7 Part 7

Touma manages to escape.

When the flames and smoke cleared, the entire area looked like hell.

The metal railings had warped like sugar sculptures, and even the floor tiles had melted into something glue-like. The paint on the walls had peeled such that the concrete was visible.

The boy was nowhere to be seen.

However, Stiyl heard the footsteps of someone running along the passageway downstairs.

“…Innocentius,” he whispered and the flames spread out across the area returned to human form, went over the railing, and followed the footsteps.

Internally, Stiyl was astonished. Nothing all that amazing had happened. Just before the explosion, in the instant Stiyl had sliced through the giant flame god with the two flame swords, Kamijou had let go with his right hand and jumped over the railing.

As he fell, Kamijou had grabbed the railing one floor below and pulled himself up onto the passageway. He had no lifeline and had pulled it off with pure guts and courage, making the recklessness rather apparent.

“But…”

Stiyl gave a gentle smile. Kamijou now knew the weakness of the runes thanks to the knowledge of Index’s 103,000 grimoires. As she had said, the rune magic Stiyl used was activated by carved engravings. That also meant that getting rid of the engravings would negate even the most powerful magic.

“So what?” Stiyl’s expression showed no sign of concern. “You can’t do it. It is utterly impossible for you to completely get rid of the runes carved into this building.”

Touma finds the rune papers.

“I…! I really thought…! I really thought I was going to die back there!!”

After jumping over the railing on the 7th floor with no lifeline, Kamijou’s heart was still pounding in his chest.

As he ran along the straight passageway, he looked around. In some way, he doubted Index’s words. He had merely been trying to get away from Innocentius so that he could get some time to prepare himself.

“Damn it! What the hell is this!?”

But, Kamijou could not help but shout out when he saw what lay before him.

He did not need to wonder where the runes were carved into the large dorm building. In fact, he had already found them. They were on the floor, on the doors, and on the fire extinguisher. Scraps of paper about the size of telephone cards were stuck all over the building like Hoichi the Earless.

Based on Index’s advice (he did not like having to recall that doll-like face), he had guessed that the magic was something like a jamming signal called a barrier and the runes were like the antennae sending the signal. But could he even tear off every single one of the tens of thousands of “antennae”?

Innocentius chases him.

With the roar of oxygen being absorbed, a human-shaped inferno dropped down onto the opposite side of the metal railing.

“Shit!!”

If he were to be caught again, tearing off the runes would have been impossible. Kamijou immediately made a dash for the emergency staircase to his side. As he jumped further and further down, he could see scraps of paper taped to the corners of the staircase and ceiling with strange symbols that must have been runes written on them.

They had clearly been mass produced with a copy machine.

Kamijou almost shouted out “How’s a crappy copy like that supposed to work!?” but he then recalled that the appendix of a shoujo manga could be used for tarot divination and even the Bible was mass produced at a print shop.

(Y’know… the occult just isn’t fair.)

He felt like crying. Tens of thousands of those “rune engravings” were probably taped up all over the building. Could he find every single one of them? And, for all he knew, Stiyl was taping up new pieces of copy paper at that very moment.

As if to cut off his train of thought, Innocentius dropped down from farther up the staircase.

“Shit!”

Kamijou gave up on heading further down the staircase and ran out into the passageway to the side. When the giant flame god struck the floor, flames scattered about the area and it charged into the passageway even as it bounced up from hitting the ground.

The passageway was straight and Kamijou had no way to escape Innocentius when it came down to pure speed.

“…!”

Kamijou looked over to the entrance of the emergency staircase. According to the display, he was on the 2nd floor.

With a roar, Innocentius charged straight forward in order to arrest Kamijou’s right hand.

“O-Owah!!”

Instead of using his right hand or running away along the passageway, Kamijou jumped over the second floor railing.

Touma manages to land safely but hurt his ankle.

It was only after he jumped that he realized that the ground below was asphalt and that a number of bicycles were stopped there.

“Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!”

He just barely managed to land between two bicycles, but he still landed on hard asphalt. He tried to bend his knees to absorb the shock of impact, but he still heard an unpleasant noise come from his ankle. He had only jumped from the second story and it did not feel broken, but he had hurt his ankle a bit all the same.

Innocentius can't leave the building due to there being no runes outside.

He heard the roar of flames absorbing oxygen coming from above.

“!?”

Kamijou scrambled along the ground, kicking bicycles over as he did so, but nothing more happened.

“?”

Kamijou looked up with a puzzled expression.

Still making the roaring noise, Innocentius was clinging to the second story railing and staring at Kamijou, who was on the ground. It was almost like there was an invisible wall preventing it from following Kamijou.

Apparently, the runes had only been placed on the dorm building. Kamijou had managed to escape Stiyl’s flames by leaving the building.

Seeing that aspect of the runes made him feel like he now knew a bit about the invisible system of magic. He was not against a ridiculous opponent like the magicians in RPGs who could do anything by chanting a spell. Instead, his opponent acted based on set rules similar to the espers that Kamijou knew.

Touma considers running away, but turns back. Information about Anti-Skill as well.

He sighed.

Having been freed from any immediate threat to his life, strength left Kamijou’s body. He sat down on the ground without even thinking. He was not afraid. Instead, he was assaulted with a different feeling that was more like a languid exhaustion. He started to wonder if he could escape all danger if he just ran away.

“I know. The Anti-Skill,” Kamijou muttered.[13]

Why had he not thought of it before? Academy City’s Anti-Skill were something like an anti-esper special unit. Kamijou could just notify them rather than risk his own life.

Kamijou checked his pants pocket, but his cell phone had been crushed under his very own foot that morning.

Kamijou looked out toward the road and searched for a pay phone.

He was not doing it to run away.

He was not doing it to run away.

—Then will you follow me to the depths of hell?

And yet, those words still seemed to stab his chest.

He was doing nothing wrong. He was doing nothing wrong, but…

In that very same situation, Index had gone back for Kamijou Touma. Kamijou could not fathom going down to hell with a stranger that he had known for less than half an hour.

“Damn it. That’s right. If I don’t want to follow you to the depths of hell,” Kamijou smiled, “Then I’ll just have to drag you back out.”

He thought it was about time he understood it.

He did not know how magic worked, but he did not need to know the workings of what he could not see. He could, for example, send an email without knowing the circuit diagram of his cell phone.

“…Huh. Once you understand that, it’s really not that big of a deal.”

Stiyl thinks that Innocentius going out due to the fire alarm is laughable.

The fire alarms installed around the building all went off at once.

“!?”

Amid that storm of roaring noise that sounded as loud as a bombing raid, Stiyl looked up at the ceiling.

Without a second’s delay, the attached sprinklers sent out a typhoon-like manmade rain. Since having the firefighters called in would be a pain, Stiyl had written his orders for Innocentius such that it would not trigger the security sensors. This meant that Kamijou Touma had hit the fire alarm.

Did he think doing so would put out Innocentius’ flames?

“…”

The notion was almost laughably ridiculous, but the magician believed the blood vessels in his head would burst when he considered that he was getting soaked for such a foolish reason.

Stiyl stared at the red fire alarm on the wall in annoyance.

It was easy enough to set the alarm off, but he could not stop it himself. As it was summer break, most of the residents of the dorm were out, but the situation could turn bothersome should firefighters arrive.

“…Hm.”

Stiyl looked around the area and then quickly picked up Index to leave. His goal was simply to recover Index, so there was no reason to get caught up in killing Kamijou. Given how long it would take for the firefighters to arrive, he could leave Innocentius on auto-chase, and the boy would get a nice flaming embrace that would turn him into black charcoal or white ash.

(This doesn’t mean the elevator is stopped, does it?)

He had heard that elevators were made to stop during emergencies. That would be quite depressing for Stiyl. He was on the 7th floor. Even if she were a girl, carrying an unconscious person down stairs was tiring.

That was why Stiyl was initially relieved to hear the microwave oven-like “ding” come from behind him.

Then he came to his senses.

Who was it? Who was on the elevator?

It was the evening of summer vacation and he had already checked to make sure all of the students had left the dorm, leaving it deserted. So who was it, and why did they need the elevator?

The doors of the elevator clanked as they opened up. A single footstep on the floor wet from the sprinklers reverberated through the passageway.

Stiyl slowly turned around.

He had no idea why his body was trembling on the inside.

Kamijou Touma stood there.

Touma uses the water to damage the runes.

(What? What happened to Innocentius?)

Thoughts whirled around chaotically in Stiyl’s head. Innocentius was like a cutting edge missile loaded in a fighter. After it locked on, it could never be escaped. No matter where you ran or hid, it would use its 3000 degree flames to melt through walls or obstacles, even if they were made of steel, and continue its chase. It was not something that could be escaped just by running around a building.

Yet he stood there.

He stood there unfazed, unstoppable, unassailable, and most of all, an unequivocal natural enemy.

“Come to think of it, runes are supposed to be carved into the walls and the floor, right?” said Kamijou as the cold manmade rain poured down on him. “Really, you’re damn amazing. To be honest, I would’ve had no way to win if you had carved them with a knife. Feel free to brag about this all you want.”

As he spoke, Kamijou Touma raised his right arm and pointed above his head.

He pointed at the ceiling… at the sprinkler.

“…You can’t mean! Those 3000 degree flames couldn’t be put out by this!”

“Don’t be stupid. Not the flames. How can you put those things all over people’s homes?”

Stiyl then recalled the tens of thousands of rune papers he had set up on the dorm.

Paper was weak to water. Even kindergartners knew that.

By spraying water all over the building with the sprinklers, it did not matter if there were tens of thousands of the runes. He did not need to run around the building. Instead, he could press a single button and destroy all of the scraps of paper.

Stiyl states that Touma has genius fighting intellect but not enough experience, and resummons Innocentius due to the copy paper not being that damaged.

The muscles of the magician’s face spasmed.

“Innocentius!”

The instant he shouted that, the elevator door behind Kamijou melted like a sugar sculpture, and the giant flame god crawled out into the passageway.

Each time the raindrops hit its body of flames, they evaporated with the sound of a beast’s breathing.

“Ha ha ha. Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Amazing! You have the battle sense of a genius! But you lack experience. Copy paper is not the same as toilet paper. Just getting it a bit wet isn’t going to completely dissolve it!” The magician spread his arms while laughter exploded from his mouth and he shouted, “Kill him!”

Touma negates Innocentius one last time, he states that while the rune paper itself may not be damaged the water is causing the ink to run off.

Innocentius swung its arm like a hammer.

“Out of the way.”

Kamijou Touma made that one statement. He did not turn around.

His right hand touched the giant flame god with a backhand blow and Innocentius exploded into all directions with a laughably pathetic noise.

“Wha-!?”

Stiyl Magnus’s heart truly did stop for an instant out of shock.

After being blown away, Innocentius did not revive. Black, fuel oil-like chunks of flesh were splattered about the area and all the chunks could do was squirm feebly.

“Im…possible… How… How! My runes haven’t been destroyed yet!”

“What about the ink?” It seemed to take 5 years for Kamijou Touma’s voice to reach Stiyl’s ears. “Even if the copy paper hasn’t been destroyed, the water will make the ink come off.” Kamijou spoke in a leisurely manner. “Although, the water didn’t seem to take out every last one.”

The squirming pieces of Innocentius disappeared into thin air one at a time as the manmade rain continued to flow from the sprinklers. It was as if the ink on the copy paper taped all over the building was coming off in the rain one by one, causing Innocentius to lose power bit by bit.

The chunks of flesh disappeared one by one until finally the last one dissolved and disappeared.

Touma punches Stiyl hard enough that he sends him flying and spinning.

“Innocentius… Innocentius!”

The magician’s words were like those of a man shouting into a phone receiver after being hung up on.

“Now then.”

That one statement was enough to make the magician’s entire body flinch.

Kamijou Touma took a step toward Stiyl Magnus.

“Inno…centius…” the magician said… but not a single thing in the world responded.

Kamijou Touma took another step toward Stiyl Magnus.

“Innocentius… Innocentius, Innocentius!” the magician shouted… but not a single thing in the world changed.

Kamijou Touma finally started charging toward Stiyl Magnus like a bullet.

“A-Ash to ash, dust to dust, Squeamish Bloody Rood!” the magician finally roared, but not even a sword of flames appeared, much less the giant flame god.

Kamijou Touma drew near Stiyl Magnus and then continued even closer.

He clenched his fist.

He clenched his utterly normal right hand. He clenched his right hand that would be of no use unless in contact with the supernatural. He clenched his right hand that would not defeat even a single delinquent, not raise his test scores, and not make him popular with girls.

However, his right hand could also be quite useful.

After all, he could use it to punch out the bastard standing before him.

Kamijou Touma’s fist slammed into the magician’s face.

The magician’s body rotated like a bamboo copter, and the back of his head struck the metal railing.

Cryso Agori · Apr 2, 2022

Chapter 2: The Illusionist Bestows Demise. The_7th-Egde.

2.1 Part 1

Touma destroys the tracking functionality of Index's hood.

It was night; the sirens of an ambulance and fire trucks rang from the main road and echoed by.

The dorm had seemed mostly abandoned, but the triggering of the fire alarm and the subsequent sprinklers going off had changed matters. In no time at all, the empty dorm was filled with fire trucks and onlookers.

Kamijou had used his right hand to destroy the tracking function of the hood in his room before taking it with him. Had he left it working and abandoned it in some arbitrary place, he could have fooled the pursuers, but she obstinately insisted that she take it with her.

More information about Academy City security.

Kamijou Touma clicked his tongue in a back alley. He held Index’s bloody form in his arms as he could not let her wound touch the dirty ground.

He could not hand Index over to an ambulance.

Academy City fundamentally disliked outsiders. That was why walls surrounded the city and three satellites were constantly monitoring all activities. Even the drivers of the trucks that supplied convenience stores needed an exclusive ID to get in.

For that reason, information about an outsider without an ID, like Index, would spread if she were hospitalized.

Not to mention, her enemy was part of some organization.

If she were attacked there, the damage would spread to those around her. Also, she would be defenseless if she were attacked while recovering or in surgery.

Index is still somewhat conscious despite her wound.

“But I can’t just leave her like this.”

“I’ll… be fine. If you… can just stop the bleeding…”

Index’s voice was weak and showed no hint of the mechanical voice she donned while explaining about runes.

And, that was why Kamijou immediately knew that what she had said was wrong. Her wound was beyond something an amateur could solve by wrapping bandages. Kamijou was accustomed to fights, and he performed first aid on himself for most of the wounds best kept secret. But, the wound on her back was bad enough to make even Kamijou lose his cool.

There remained only one thing that they could rely on.

He still did not believe in it, but he had nothing else left to believe in.

Index states that Esper's can't use magic.

“Hey, hey! Can you hear me?” Kamijou lightly slapped Index’s cheek. “Is there anything that can heal wounds in those 103,000 grimoires of yours?”

Kamijou’s idea of magic was nothing more than the attack magic and recovery magic in RPGs.

It was true that Index had said that she was naturally unable to process magic power by herself and therefore could not use magic; but, Kamijou could handle supernatural powers, so if Index would just tell him what to do…

Index’s breathing was shallow. However, this was more due to blood loss than pain. Her pale lips trembled.

“There is… but…”

Kamijou’s face lit up for an instant until the word “but” belatedly caught in his mind.

“You… can’t do it…” Index let out a small breath. “Even if I… taught you the spell… your power would surely… get in the way… ow… even if you perfectly… imitated it.”

Kamijou looked down at his right hand in shock.

Imagine Breaker. The power residing there had indeed completely negated Stiyl’s flames. And so there was a chance that it would negate Index’s recovery magic the same way.

“Shit! Not again… Why is it always this right hand’s fault!?”

That just meant that he needed to call someone such as Aogami Pierce or that Biri Biri girl, Misaka Mikoto. The faces of a few tough people whom he would have no worries about getting involved in this kind of trouble floated up in his mind.

“…?” Index fell silent for a bit. “No… That isn’t what I meant.”

“?”

“Not your right hand… The problem is… that you’re an esper.” In that broiling night, she shivered like on a snowy mountain in midwinter. “Magic is not… something to be used by ‘talented people’ like you espers. ‘Untalented people’ wanted… to do what the ‘talented people’ could do… so they created certain spells and rituals… which are known as magic.”

Kamijou was about ready to shout, “This is no time for explanations!”

“You don’t get it…? The circuitry is different between ‘talented people’ and ‘untalented people…’ ‘Talented people’ cannot use the systems created… for the ‘untalented people…’”

“Wha-…?”

Kamijou was left speechless. It was true that drugs and electrodes were used on espers like Kamijou to forcibly expand the circuitry of their brains in a way that made it different from a normal human’s. It was true that their bodies were different from others.

But he could not believe it. No, he did not want to believe it.

2.3 million students lived in Academy City and every single one of them had undergone the powers development Curriculum. Even if it were not visibly apparent, even if they could not bend a spoon with efforts so strenuous they burst the blood vessels in their brain, and even if they were the weakest of espers, they were indeed made differently from a normal person.

In other words, the people who lived in that city could not use magic, the one thing that could save the girl.

There was a way to save the person who lay before him, and yet not a single person could.

“Damn it…” Kamijou bared his canines like a beast. “How could this happen? How could this happen!? What the hell is this!? How is this fair!?”

Index’s trembling grew worse.

What Kamijou found the most difficult to bear was the fact that she received punishment for his own inability.

“‘Talented’ my ass,” he spat out. “I can’t even save the girl suffering before my eyes.”

However, he could come up with no other solution to the situation. The fact that the 2.3 million students living in the city could not use magic was the rule he needed to break down first.

Index states that while 'talented people' can't use magic those 'untalented' can use magic, but getting it wrong can cause damage to the nerves.

However, he could come up with no other solution to the situation. The fact that the 2.3 million students living in the city could not use magic was the rule he needed to break down first.

“…?”

Kamijou suddenly noticed something off about his thought process.

Students?

“Hey, any normal ‘talentless’ person can use magic, right?”

“…Eh? Yes.”

“And this isn’t going to end up being useless because the person has no talent for magic, right?”

“You don’t… need to worry about that… As long as they prepare correctly and perform it correctly… even a middle school student should be able to do it.” Index thought for a bit. “Although, if they get the steps wrong, the pathways in their brain and their neural circuitry could be fried… But with the knowledge of my 103,000 grimoires, it will be fine. Do not worry.”

Kamijou smiled.

Without thinking, he looked up as if to howl at the moon in the night sky.

It was true that 2.3 million students lived in Academy City and that they had all been developed to have some kind of esper power.

However, the teachers that developed them were normal humans.

“I hope she isn’t already asleep.”

The face of a certain teacher appeared in Kamijou Touma’s mind.

It was the face of Tsukuyomi Komoe, the 135 centimeter tall homeroom teacher of his class who a red randoseru[1] would suit despite her being a teacher.

Touma takes 15 minutes to get to Komoe's house, somehow Index hasn't died from blood loss.

Kamijou used a pay phone to get Komoe-sensei’s address from Aogami Pierce. (Kamijou had dropped and broken his phone that morning. Why Aogami Pierce knew Komoe’s address was a mystery. Kamijou suspected he was a stalker.) Kamijou then began to walk with Index’s limp form on his back.

“This is the place…”

He arrived after 15 minutes of walking from that back alley.

Touma is incapable of breaking down Komoe's door.

Kamijou rang the doorbell twice and then kicked at the door with all his might.

His foot striking the door made a tremendous noise.

However, the door did not so much as budge. True to form, Kamijou had the misfortune to think he heard an unpleasant crack come from his big toe.

“~ ~ ~!!”

“Yes, yes, yeees! The anti-newspaper salesman door is the only sturdy thing here. I’ll open it, okay?”

(Why didn’t I just wait?)

Narrative states that Index was losing blood like oil.

Kamijou felt that was hardly the problem as he stared at his homeroom teacher who appeared 12 and kicked some beer cans out of the way to clear an open spot. He was reluctant to sit on the worn tatami mat, but there was no time to worry about preparing a futon.

He laid Index face down on the floor to ensure her wound did not touch the floor.

The way her clothes were torn hid the actual wound from view, but a dark red liquid was flowing out like fuel oil.

John's Pen mode activates as Index is losing too much blood. States she has 15 minutes left.

“Sh-Shouldn’t you call an ambulance? Th-The phone is over there.”

Komoe-sensei pointed toward a corner of the room with a trembling hand. For some reason, her phone was a black rotary dial phone.

“The mana in the blood is flowing out along with the blood.”

Kamijou and Komoe-sensei reflexively turned toward Index.

Index was still sprawled out limply on the floor but her eyes were silently open even as her head lay on its side like a broken doll. Her eyes were colder than the pale moonlight and more precise than the gears of a clock. Her eyes were so perfectly serene that they looked inhuman.

“Warning: Chapter 2, Verse 6. The loss of the life force known as mana due to blood loss has exceeded a certain amount and John’s Pen[a 1] is being forcibly awoken. …If the current situation persists, my body will lose the bare minimum of necessary life force and expire in about 15 minutes according to the international standard minute defined by the clock tower in London. It would be best if you followed the instructions I am about to give in order to perform the most efficient treatment.”

Komoe-sensei stared at Index in shock.

Kamijou could hardly blame her. Even though he had heard that voice once before, he simply could not get used to it.

“Now then…”

Kamijou looked over at Komoe-sensei and thought.

If he out and bluntly asked her to use magic, she would surely tell him it was hardly the time to be pretending to be a magical girl and that she was much too old for that kind of thing anyway. So, how was he supposed to convince her?

Index's wound.

“What?”

Kamijou waved his hand like he was calling over a small dog and Komoe-sensei approached with no caution whatsoever.

“Sorry,” Kamijou apologized to Index under his breath.

He lifted up her ripped clothes to reveal the horrible wound hidden beneath.

“Ee!?”

He could hardly blame Komoe-sensei for jumping in shock.

The wound was so bad that it shocked even Kamijou. It was a horizontally straight line cut across her back. It was as if a cardboard box had been sliced using a ruler and box cutter. Beyond the red blood, pink muscle, and yellow fat, something hard and white that seemed to be her backbone was visible.

If the wound were viewed as a red mouth, the lips around it had gone utterly pale like a person who had been in a pool.

“Gh…” Kamijou forced away some dizziness and carefully lowered the clothing that was wet with blood.

Even when the clothes touched the wound, Index’s icy eyes did not move in the slightest.

Narrative states once again that Touma can negate systems of God.

Kamijou ran through the city at night. As he ran, he clenched his right hand that could negate even the systems of God but could not protect a single person.

John's Pen starts setting up a ritual.

“From the location of the stars and angle of the moon… the time matches the direction of Sirius with an error of 0.038. Now, to check once more: the current time in Japan Standard Time is July 20th 8:30 PM, is that correct?”

“Yes. Well, technically it is now 53 seconds past that, but… Ah, no!! Don’t get up!!”

Komoe-sensei frantically tried to push Index back down as she tried to sit up, further damaging her already injured body, but Index’s gaze did not waver in the slightest.

Her gaze was neither frightening nor piercing.

All emotion had simply disappeared from her eyes as if a light switch had been turned off.

There lacked any real presence in her eyes. It was like her soul was missing.

“It is no matter. It can be regenerated,” said Index as she headed for the tea table in the center of the room. “It is near the end of Cancer. The time is between eight and midnight. The direction is west. Under the protection of Undine, the role of the angel is the cherub…”

The sound of Komoe-sensei gulping could be heard throughout the room.

Unexpectedly, Index began to draw some kind of figure atop the small tea table with her bloody finger. Even those unfamiliar with a magic circle would recognize it as something religious. Komoe-sensei had already grown timid, but now something overwhelmed her to the point of muteness.

After drawing a circle of blood that filled the tea table, Index drew a star-shaped symbol known as a pentagram.

Characters in some strange language were written all around it. The words were likely the same as Index’s mutterings. She had asked about the constellations and time because the words written changed depending on the time and season.

As Index crafted her magic, she showed none of the weakness of one who was injured. Her extreme focus made it seem like her sense of pain had been temporarily cut off altogether.

Index creates a miniature version of Komoe's room.

It was true that an ambulance would take 10 minutes to arrive, even if they called at exactly that instant, and would also take that long to take her back to the hospital, and on top of that, the treatment would not start the second she arrived at the hospital. Komoe-sensei lacked the understanding of what an occult term like mana meant, but it was true that just closing the wound would not bring back her stamina.

Even if the wound were closed at that exact instant with a needle and thread, would that pale girl be too weak to live long enough to recover her missing stamina?

“Please.” inquired Index without the slightest change in her expression.

A mix of fresh blood and saliva was dripping from the corner of her mouth.

She had no intensity and there was nothing ghastly about her either. But, her calmness and composure were more frightening than either. How everything she did seemed to widen the wound made her seem like a broken machine continuing to run without realizing something was amiss.

(If I do anything that makes her resist, her situation could become even worse.)

Komoe-sensei sighed. Of course she did not believe in magic. However, Kamijou had asked her to keep the conversation going to make sure the girl did not lose consciousness.

All she could do was try not to provoke the girl sitting before her and place her hopes in Kamijou’s calling an ambulance as quickly as possible, if not sooner, and in the splendid first aid of the EMTs in the ambulance.

“So what should I do? I am not a magical girl.”

“I thank you for your cooperation. First… take that… that… what is that black thing?”

“? Oh, that is a video game memory card.”

“??? …Well, fine. At any rate, take that black thing and place it in the middle of the table.”

“Technically, it’s a tea table…”

Komoe-sensei did as she was told and placed the memory card in the middle of the tea table. She then took a mechanical pencil lead case, an empty box of chocolates, and two small paperback books and put them on the tea table as well. She also took two small figurines that came with her food and lined them up next to each other.

Komoe-sensei wondered what the point of it was, but Index was still completely serious despite looking about ready to collapse. All of her complaints disappeared before the gaze as sharp as a Japanese sword that emanated from that pale face.

“What is this? You called it magic, but isn’t this just playing with dolls?”

Sure enough, it all looked like a miniature version of the room. The memory card was the tea table, the two books standing up were the bookshelf and closet, and the two figurines were in the exact place of the two individuals in the room. When glass beads were scattered over the tea table, they seemed to stop in places that perfectly emulated the beer cans scattered across the floor.

“The substances do not matter. It is the same as how a magnifying glass magnifies regardless of whether the lens is made of glass or plastic… As long as the form and role are the same, the ceremony is possible,” muttered Index as she dripped with sweat. “I just need you to accurately carry out my instructions. If you mistake the order, the pathways in your brain and your neural circuitry could be fried.”

Index starts singing, the figures also reproduce the sounds Komoe and Index make.

“???”

“I am saying that failure will turn your body into mincemeat and kill you. Please be careful.”

“Bh!?” Komoe-sensei almost spat out, but Index continued without paying any heed.

“We will now create a temple for the angel to descend into. Follow my lead and chant.”

What Index said after that went beyond words and become nothing but sound. Without thinking about the meaning, Komoe-sensei attempted to copy just the tone into something like a hum or song.

And…

“Kyahh!?”

Suddenly, the figures on top of the tea table started to “sing” as well. “Kyahh!?” one of them screamed with the exact same timing. The figures were vibrating. Just as vibrations are transmitted along the string in a toy telephone and come out as a voice in the paper cup on the other end, the figure vibrated and reproduced Komoe-sensei’s voice.

Index's spell connected the mini room to Komoe's real room.

“Link complete.” Index’s voice and the voice from the tea table made it sound double. “The temple created on the table has been linked to this room. To put it simply, everything that happens in this room will happen on the table and everything that happens on the table will happen in this room.”

Index pushed the tea table lightly with her foot.

In that instant, the entire apartment shook under Komoe-sensei’s feet as if from some great shock.

She could feel the stuffy air of the room growing as clear as the air in a forest in the early morning.

Fields are important for magic.

When carrying out magic, determining the field was important.

For example, a pebble thrown into the sea creates a feeble ripple. However, a pebble dropped into a bucket makes quite a ripple. The concept was the same. To alter the world with magic, the field in which the alteration would take place had to be demarcated.

A protector was a temporary god in a small demarcated world. If one properly imagined a protector, fixated its form, and freely controlled it, one could more easily cause mysterious things to happen in a limited field.

The 'angel' the spell summons is not a real angel but mana formed into an angel by mana. Komoe fails to imagine the angel.

However, nothing akin to an angel was present. All that was present was what could only be described as an invisible presence. A feeling assaulted Komoe-sensei’s entire body like she was being watched by thousands of eyeballs from every direction.

And then, Index suddenly shouted.

“Imagine! Imagine a golden angel with the body of a child! Imagine a beautiful angel with two wings!”

When carrying out magic, determining the field was important.

For example, a pebble thrown into the sea creates a feeble ripple. However, a pebble dropped into a bucket makes quite a ripple. The concept was the same. To alter the world with magic, the field in which the alteration would take place had to be demarcated.

A protector was a temporary god in a small demarcated world. If one properly imagined a protector, fixated its form, and freely controlled it, one could more easily cause mysterious things to happen in a limited field.

Komoe-sensei did not receive any such explanation and was having a hard time imagining an angel. The term “golden angel” only made her think of that thing about one gold one or five silver ones.[2]

As the image in Komoe-sensei’s mind lost coherence, the surrounding presence followed suit and lost its form. An unpleasant feeling ran down Komoe-sensei’s back like she was wrapped in the rotten mud from the bottom of a swamp.

“Just imagine it! This will not actually call in an angel. It is just a gathering of invisible mana. It will take form according to your will as the magic user!”

She must have truly been desperate because even the voice of that cool, mechanical Index grew as sharp as an icicle.

Komoe-sensei’s eyes opened wide at that sudden change and she hurriedly began to mutter under her breath.

(…A cute angel, a cute angel, a cute angel.)

Hazily, she frantically called up an image of the girl angel she had seen in a shoujo manga long ago.

Whatever it was that felt like invisible mud hanging in the room’s air took form as if it had been shoved inside a human-shaped balloon… or at least that was how it seemed to Komoe-sensei.

She timidly opened her eyes to check.

(…Huh? This will not actually call in an angel?)

The instant that doubt entered her mind, the human-shaped water balloon burst and the invisible mud splattered across the room.

Despite Komoe's failure Index is still able to heal herself.

“Kyahh!!”

“…The fixation of its form has failed.” Index looked around with her sharp gaze. “If the temple is at least protected by a blue color Undine, it will be enough. …Continue.”

Her words were positive enough, but Index’s eyes were not smiling in the slightest.

Komoe-sensei flinched back like a child whose parents had just seen a failed test that she had tried to keep hidden.

“Chant. It will be over with just a bit more.”

The sharp order refused to let Komoe-sensei lose her composure despite her rising confusion and flagging thoughts.

Index, Komoe-sensei, and the two figurines on the tea table sang. The back of Index’s figurine on the table began to melt.

It was as if it were rubber being held up to a lighter. It melted, the surface lost its unevenness, it grew smooth, it cooled and hardened once more, and its form came back together.

Komoe-sensei felt like her heart was freezing over.

Currently, Index was sitting across the tea table from her.

She did not have the courage to circle around and see what was happening to Index’s back.

Index’s pale face was covered in oily sweat.

Her glassy eyes still showed no sign of pain or suffering.

“Replenishment of mana and stabilization of condition confirmed. Returning John’s Pen to dormant mode.”

Index's explanation of magic.

Like a switch had been flipped, a soft light returned to Index’s eyes. Like a fire being lit in a cooled fireplace, warmth filled the room’s atmosphere.

The look in Index’s eyes was so kind and warm that Komoe-sensei could not help but feel that warmth. It was the look of a normal girl.

“Now, if the descended protector is returned and the temple destroyed, it will be over.” Index smiled painfully. “This is what magic is. It’s the same as how “apple” and “ringo”{refn|Ringo is Japanese for apple.}} mean the same thing. You don’t need a glass wand when a plastic umbrella is just as clear. It’s the same thing with tarot cards. As long as the design and numbers match, you can perform divinations with the cut outs from the back of a shoujo manga.”

2.2 Part 2

Index becomes sick next morning.

After dawn came, her symptoms were like those of a cold.

Index was bedridden with a high fever and a headache, though she lacked a runny nose or a sore throat because it was not a genuine virus. It was simply a matter of regaining her missing stamina, so no matter how many immunity-strengthening cold medicines she took, the efforts would be futile.

Index says that Komoe can't use magic anymore, and some things about Grimoires, religion can protect you from it's effects.

“Don’t worry about it. This is for the best.” Index shook her head. “It would be wrong to get her any more involved. …And she can’t use any more magic.”

“?” Kamijou frowned.

“Grimoires are dangerous. Written in them are aberrant and uncommon knowledge as well as twisted laws that break the common laws of this world. Whether they’re for good or evil, those things are toxic in this world. Merely learning the knowledge of a ‘different world’ will destroy the brain of the one who learns it,” explained Index.

Kamijou tried to translate that in a way he understood.

(So is it like forcefully running a program that isn’t compatible with a computer’s OS?)

“My brain and spirit are protected by religious barriers, and magicians who attempt to exceed being human must exceed the boundaries of their own common knowledge to arrive at the desired state of mind that can almost be likened to a type of insanity. However, for a normal person from a barely religious country like Japan, it could all be over after just casting one more spell.”

Index explains how much Limen Magna costs. Touma tries to explain transmutation with science.

“I-I see…” Kamijou somehow managed to stop the shock he had received from showing. “Well, that’s a shame. I was hoping she would be able to perform alchemy for me. You know alchemy, right? It can turn lead into gold.”

He of course omitted the fact that he knew this from an item mixing RPG with a young female alchemist as its protagonist.

“Well, there is a technique for that called Limen Magna,[3] but preparing the tools with modern materials would cost… um… 7 trillion yen in this country’s currency.”

“………………………………………………………Well, that definitely isn’t worth it,” muttered Kamijou soullessly.

Index smiled weakly and said, “…Yeah. Turning lead into gold accomplishes nothing more than making nobles happy.”

“But… wait. Now that I think about it, what does that do? How does it work? If you’re turning lead into gold, are you rearranging the Pb atoms into Au?”

“I don’t really know, but it’s only a 14th Century technique.”

“Wait, do you mean what I think you mean? It might actually be changing the atomic arrangement!? You mean you could cause proton decay without a particle accelerator and nuclear fusion without a nuclear reactor!? Wait just a second. I’m not even sure the seven Level 5s of Academy City could do that!”

“???”

“Wait, don’t look so confused! Um… um… Ah. If you’re wondering just how amazing that would be, that kind of thing would let us easily create atomic robots or mobile suits!”

“What are those?”

With those three words, she cast aside all of the dreams of men.

Index talks about swords and wands.

As Kamijou’s head hung down limply, Index seemed to feel she had done something wrong.

“A-Anyway, the holy swords and magic wands used in ceremonies can be made with modern materials as substitutes, but there is a limit. …This especially goes for sacred items related to God such as the Lance of Longinus, Joseph’s Holy Grail, or The_ROOD.[a 3] Even after 1000 years, it seems no substitutes can be made… ow…”

As she talked on and on excitedly, she began to hold her temple like she had a hangover.

Index explains why churches split.

“Do you want to know?” she asked while ignoring her own pain as if apologizing to Kamijou.

Index’s usual cheerful tone had set a context that made that quiet voice stand out and seem to hold even more determination.

(Sensei, you idiot.)

Index’s situation was irrelevant to Kamijou. Whatever situation she had possibly been in, there was no way he could abandon her. As long as he could defeat her enemies and keep her safe, he saw no reason to dig into her old wounds.

“Do you want to know what my circumstances are?” repeated the girl naming herself Index.

Kamijou made up his mind and replied, “That kinda makes me feel like a priest, y’know?”

In a way, it really did. He felt like a priest listening to the confessions of a sinner.

“Do you know why?” Index asked. “The Christian Church was originally a single organization, but now there are the Catholics, the Protestants, the Roman Catholics, the Russian Orthodox, the Anglicans, the Nestorians, the Athanasians, the Gnostics, and more. Do you know why these splits occurred?”

“Well…”

Kamijou had at least skimmed through his history textbook, so he had an idea what the answer was. However, he hesitated to mention it in front of the “genuine” Index.

“That’s good enough.” Index actually smiled. “It was because politics were mixed in with the church. Sects split, opposed each other, and fought. In the end, even people who believed in the same God were each other’s enemies. Even as we believe in the same God, we each walk a different road of many scattered paths.”

Index explains the different factions in England.

Of course, people’s ideas on things naturally differed. Some wanted to make money with the word of God, while others refused to allow that. Some felt they were loved by God more than anyone else in the world, while others refused to accept that.

“After the sects stopped interacting with each other, we each underwent our own isolated development which gave us our individual characteristics. We changed in accordance to the situations or cultures of our countries.” Index let out a small breath. “The Roman Catholic Church[a 4] manages and controls the world, the Russian Orthodox Church[a 5] searches out and eliminates the occult, and the Anglican Church[a 6] I belong to…”

Index’s words caught in her throat for a second.

“England is a country of magic,” she said as if that was a bitter memory. “So the Anglican Church is especially advanced in anti-magician culture and techniques as seen by witch hunts and the inquisition.”

In London alone were a number of public companies calling themselves magic cabals, and there were 10 times that many shell corporations that really only existed on paper. Their trials and errors that had begun as a means of protecting the citizens from the “evil magicians lurking in the city” had developed too far in one direction and at some point became a culture of slaughter and execution.

Information about Necessarius.

“The Anglican Church has a special division,” said Index as if she were confessing her own sins. “It investigates magic and develops countermeasures with which to defeat magicians. It is known as Necessarius.” She sounded exactly like a nun.

“If you do not know your enemy, you cannot defend against their attacks. However, understanding an impure enemy will make your own heart impure, and touching an impure enemy will make your body impure. That is why Necessarius, the church of necessary evils, was created to draw all of those impurities into one place. And the most extreme case of this is…”

“The 103,000 grimoires.”

The 103,000 Grimoires can neutralize all magics in the world.

“Yes.” Index gave a small nod. “Magic is something like an equation. If you skillfully reverse the calculations, you can counteract your opponent’s attack. That is why I had these 103,000 grimoires put into me. …If you know magic from all around the world, you can neutralize magic from all around the world.”

How Grimoires spread.

“But if these grimoires are so dangerous and you know where they are, why don’t you just burn them without reading them? As long as there are people to read and learn from these grimoires, magicians will continue to appear without end, right?”

“The actual books are less important than the contents. Even if you got rid of an Original,[4] the magicians who knew the contents would pass that on to their followers, so it would be pointless. Although someone who does that is known as a sorcerer rather than a magician,” explained Index.[5]

(Is it something like data posted on the internet? Even if you delete the original data, copy after copy of the data will continue to exist.)

“Also, a grimoire is nothing more than a textbook.” Index sounded as if she were in pain. “Just reading one does not make you a magician. Magicians change it up to suit themselves and create a new type of magic.”

It was less like data and more like a constantly changing computer virus. To completely eliminate the virus, you had to be constantly analyzing the virus and creating new antivirus software.

Index explains how copies of Grimoires are exposed of.

“As I said before, grimoires are dangerous.” Index narrowed her eyes. “When disposing just a copy, an expert Inquisitioner[a 7] must sew his eyes shut to prevent pollution of his brain, and even then it takes 5 years of baptisms to fully rid him of the poison. The human mind cannot handle an Original. The only option for the 103,000 Originals scattered about the world is to seal them.”

The narrative compares the Grimoires to nukes.

It was as if she were discussing what to do with a vast collection of leftover nuclear weapons.

Actually, that was more or less what it was. Most likely, the very people who had written them had not expected this.

Explanation on MG's and Magic secrecy.

“Tch. But can’t magic be used by any normal person excluding us espers? Then wouldn’t this spread throughout the world in no time at all?”

Kamijou recalled Stiyl’s flames. What if everyone in the world could use that kind of power? The common knowledge of the world that built its foundation on science would crumble.

“You… don’t have to worry about that. The magic cabals do not recklessly let the grimoires get out to the general public.”

“? Why not? Wouldn’t it be better for them to have more comrades to fight for them?”

“That is exactly why. If every single person who had a gun were friends, there would be no war.”

“…”

Just because two people knew magic did not mean they were on the same side. It was because they knew the power of their trump cards that they did not want to recklessly create enemy magicians.

The grimoires were treated like the plans of a new weapon.

“Hmm. I think I get it.” Kamijou seemed deep in thought. “So basically, they want to get their hands on the bomb in your head.”

She was a library with perfect copies of the world’s 103,000 Original grimoires in her head. To obtain her was to obtain all the magic in the world.

“…Right.” From her voice, it sounded like she was about to die. “With the 103,000 grimoires, you would be able to twist everything in the world to your will without exception. That is what we call a Magic God.”

Not the god of the demon world, but someone who had thoroughly mastered magic to the point of entering the domain of god.

A Magic God.

Kanzaki Kaori's appearance.

About 600 meters away on top of a multi-tenant building, Stiyl took his binoculars away from his eyes.

“The boy Index is with… I’ve looked into him. …How is she?”

Without turning around, Stiyl replied to the girl who had spoken to him.

“She’s alive. But that must mean they have a magic user.”

The girl gave no response, but it seemed she was more relieved that no one had died than worried about a new enemy.

The girl was 18, but she was about a head shorter than Stiyl who was only 14.

But then, Stiyl was over 2 meters tall, so the girl was still tall when compared to the average Japanese height.

Her waist-long, black hair was tied in a ponytail, and at her waist was a sheathed Japanese sword over two meters long. It was a type known as a “command sword” that was used in Shinto rain calling ceremonies.

However, it was difficult to call her a Japanese beauty.

She wore used jeans and a white shirt. For someone reason, the left leg of her jeans was completely cut off up to the base of her thigh, the extra cloth at the bottom of her T-shirt was tied off so her midriff was visible, she wore knee high boots, and her Japanese sword was hanging down in a leather holster like a pistol.

She looked something like a sheriff from a Western who had traded their pistol for a Japanese sword.

Just like Stiyl, the perfume-smelling priest, her outfit was hardly normal.

The Magicians asked for information from Five Elements, Touma doesn't actually have data on his powers.

“So who exactly is this guy, Kanzaki?”

“The thing about that is… I was unable to get much information on the boy. At the very least, it seems he’s not a magician or supernaturally powered in some other way.”

“What, are you trying to say he’s just a normal high school student?” Stiyl lit the cigarette he pulled out by staring at the tip. “Just stop. I may not look it, but I’m a magician that has fully analyzed the existing 24 runes and developed 6 new and powerful runes. This world isn’t kind enough to let a powerless amateur drive back Innocentius’s flames of judgment.”

With Index’s assistance, he had put together a plan using that help almost immediately. Plus there was that strange right hand of his. If he were a normal person in Japan, then it truly was a country of mysteries.

“True.” Kanzaki Kaori narrowed her eyes. “The real issue is that someone with that much battle ability is categorized as nothing more than a hopeless student who is prone to getting into fights.”

Academy City had a hidden side where it was an institution that mass produced espers.

Even if the organization under which Stiyl and Kanzaki operated was hiding Index’s presence, Stiyl and Kanzaki had contacted the organization known as the Five Elements Institution beforehand to get permission to enter the city. Even the magic group that was known as the greatest in the world could not remain hidden within the enemy’s field.

“Perhaps the information is being intentionally blocked. Also, Index’s wounds were magically healed. Kanzaki, do any other magical organizations exist in the Far East?”

They had decided that the boy must have had an organization other than the Five Elements Institution on his side. They mistakenly believed that this other organization was thoroughly eliminating all information on Kamijou.

“If they’re doing something in this city, the Five Elements Institution’s informants must have picked up on them.” Kanzaki closed her eyes. “We have an unknown number of enemies and no chance of backup. This is a difficult development.”

It was all a misunderstanding. Kamijou’s Imagine Breaker had zero effect unless it was being used on supernatural powers. In other words, Academy City’s System Scan was unable to measure his power because it used machines to measure it. And so, Kamijou had the misfortune to be treated like a Level 0 despite possessing a top class right hand.

Stiyl laminated his runes and an explanation on how his magic works.

“In the worst case scenario, this could develop into a magical battle against an organization. Stiyl, I heard your runes have a fatal flaw when it comes to waterproofing.”

“I’ve already compensated for that. I laminated the runes. The same trick won’t work on me again.” Like a stage magician, he pulled out the runes that now looked almost like trading cards. “This time, I will place the barrier 2 kilometers around the area rather than just on the building. It will take 164,000 cards and the preparations will take 60 hours to complete.”

Unlike in video games, real magic took a bit more than just the chanting of a spell.

It may have seemed like it was all it took at first glance, but quite a bit of preparation was necessary behind the scenes. Stiyl’s flames were the type of thing that had instructions along the lines of “Take a silver wolf’s fang that has soaked up 10 years of moonlight and…” For this reason, Stiyl’s speed was actually that of an expert.

Explanation on Magic battles.

In short, magical battles were a matter of reading what was to come. When the battle started, you were essentially caught in the trap that was the enemy’s barrier. When defending, you had to determine what the enemy’s spell was, and find a way to turn it back at the enemy. When attacking, you had to predict what kinds of counterattacks would come and rearrange your spell accordingly. Unlike simple martial arts, you had to think 100-200 steps ahead amidst constantly changing surroundings. While savage terms like “fighting” were used, it was actually more of an intellectual battle.

For that reason, an enemy force of unknown numbers put a magician at a serious disadvantage.

Kanzaki can see 600 meters without binoculars.

“…She looks so happy,” the rune magician suddenly said as he stared 600 meters ahead without using his binoculars. “She looks so very, very happy. She always lives such a happy life.” He sounded like he was spitting out some kind of thick liquid. “How long do we have to keep ripping that to pieces?”

Kanzaki stared 600 meters ahead from behind Stiyl.

Even without using binoculars or magic, she could see clearly with her 8.0 vision. Through the window, she could see the girl angrily biting down on the boy’s head while he flailed his arms around and struggled.

2.3 Part 3

Index says she doesn't have any memories of anything before a year ago.

“Hm? …I don’t really know.” Index tilted her head to the side as if she really did not know. “The first thing I remember is begin here in Japan. I don’t really know how things are back in England.”

“…Hmm. So that’s why you speak Japanese so fluently. If you were here since you were little, then you’re practically Japanese yourself.”

However, the certainty that she would be safe if she escaped to the Anglican Church became less credible. He had thought she would head home, but she would actually be heading to another country that she had never seen before.

“No, no. That isn’t what I meant.” Index shook her head, shaking her long, silver hair back and forth. “Apparently, I was born and raised in London’s St. George’s Cathedral. Apparently, I only came here about a year ago.”

“Apparently?” Kamijou frowned at that vague term.

“Yes. I have no memories from before about a year ago when I arrived.” Index smiled.

Just like a child heading to an amusement park for the first time in her life. It was the perfection of the smile that showed Kamijou the fear and pain behind it.

“When I first woke up in a back alley, I had no idea who I was. All I knew was that I had to run away. I couldn’t remember what I ate for dinner the night before, but knowledge of things like magic, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and Necessarius were swirling around in my mind. It was so scary…”

“Then you don’t even know why you lost your memories?”

“That’s right,” she replied.

2.4 Part 4

Touma realizes something amiss when he sees there are no people on the street.

“Huh?”

Suddenly his vainly spinning thoughts cut off.

Something was not right. Kamijou checked the time displayed on a department store’s electronic billboard. It was exactly 8 PM. It would still be some time before most people were asleep, and yet, a horrible silence had fallen over the area like that of a forest’s at night. A strange, out-of-place sensation hung over the area.

(Come to think of it, I haven’t seen anyone since we were walking together…)

With a puzzled look, Kamijou walked further along.

And when he came to a major road with three lanes in each direction, the out-of-place feeling shifted to a full-blown sense of things being blatantly wrong.

There was no one there.

No one entered or exited the major department stores that lined the road like drinks on a convenience store rack. The footpath that usually felt overly narrow now felt horribly wide, and not a single car was driving along that runway of a road. All of the cars parked on the side of road were empty as if abandoned.

It was like a farm road out in the country.

Kanzaki blitzes Touma's vision in the blink of an eye and explains what the Opila runes do.

“This is because Stiyl carved the Opila rune for a people clearing field.”

A female voice suddenly entered his head like a Japanese sword stabbing into the core of his face.

He had not noticed.

She hid behind nothing and did not sneak behind him. She stood in the center of the wide runway-like road around 10 meters ahead of him, cutting off his path.

It went beyond the point of not seeing or noticing her due to the dark. An instant before there truly was no one. But, in the time it took him to blink, the girl had appeared.

“All of the people around this area have had their focuses averted so that they avoid approaching here for whatever reason. Most are likely inside the buildings, so worry not.”

His body reacted before his mind could manage to. All of the blood in his body seemed to gather in his right hand. With rope-like pain tightly binding his wrist, Kamijou instinctually sensed that the girl was dangerous.

The girl wore a T-shirt and jeans with a leg boldly cut off, her clothes completely removed from normalcy.

However, the two meter plus Japanese sword hanging from her waist like a pistol emanated a freezing bloodlust. The blade was hidden within a scabbard but the black scabbard appeared as full of history as the pillar of an old Japanese building, making it clear that the sword was real.

LN Illustration

Touma's name literally means "The One Who Purifies God and Slays Demon." Or “God Purifying Demon Destroyer.”

“The One who Purifies God and Slays Demons… An excellent ‘true name.’”[6]

However, the girl herself showed no signs of nervousness. The relaxed way she spoke, like that of someone having a casual conversation, made it all the more frightening.

“…Who are you?”

“I am Kanzaki Kaori. …I would prefer to not give my other name, if possible.”

“Your other name?”

“My magic name.”

He had expected it, to a certain extent, but Kamijou still took a step back.

Magic name. That was the “killing name” that Stiyl offered before attacking Kamijou with magic.

Another Magical Cabal explanation.

A magic cabal, the organization chasing Index to acquire her 103,000 grimoires, a group striving to become magic gods, people who had so thoroughly mastered magic that they could twist everything in the world to their will.

Stiyl makes a giant explosion, distracting Touma.

“To be honest,” Kanzaki closed one eye. “I would like to take her into our care without having to give my magic name.”

Kamijou shuddered. Kamijou had a trump card, his right hand, and yet, the enemy standing before him sent a chill down his back.

“…And if I refuse?” Kamijou asked nevertheless. He had no reason to fall back.

“Then I will have no choice.” Kanzaki closed her other eye. “I will have to give my name until she has been brought into our care.”

An earthquake-like shock caused the ground under Kamijou’s feet to tremble.

It was like a bomb had gone off. The night sky at the edge of his vision that should have been covered in the pale blue darkness was instead colored with a burning orange like that of the sunset. Giant flames were spreading a few hundred meters ahead.

“Index…!!”

The enemy was an organization and Kamijou knew the name of a flame magician.

Using the distraction, Kanzaki attacks from ten meters.

Kamijou reflexively looked over in the direction of the exploding flames and in that instant, Kanzaki Kaori’s slicing attack approached him.

A distance of 10 meters lay between Kamijou and Kanzaki. Additionally, Kanzaki’s katana surpassed two meters long, so it looked impossible for her slender feminine arms to pull it from its scabbard, much less swing it around.

…But that was just how it looked.

Kanzaki cut's down a wind turbine.

In the next instant, the air above Kamijou’s head was sliced apart like she wielded a giant laser. In shock, he froze in place and the blade of a wind turbine behind him to the right was silently sliced through diagonally as if it were made of butter.

“Please stop this,” said a voice 10 meters in front of him. “Ignoring my warnings will only lead to death.”

Kanzaki’s two meters plus sword was already in the scabbard. The strike had been so quick Kamijou had never even seen the blade exposed in the air. He was unable to move.

The only reason he was still standing was because Kanzaki had intentionally missed. The situation seemed so unreal that he had only just barely managed to realize that fact. His enemy was so absurdly powerful that his mind could not keep up.

With a loud thud, the sliced wind turbine blade fell to the ground behind him.

Though the wreckage of the blade fell so closely by, Kamijou was still unable to move.

“…!”

Kamijou gritted his teeth at the thought of how ridiculously sharp that blade must have been.

Kanzaki opened one of her closed eyes and said, “I will ask you again.” She narrowed her eyes slightly. “I would like to take her into our care without having to give my magic name.”

Kanzaki rips up the street, Touma almost gets knocked unconscious by asphalt.

“…Wh-What the hell are you saying?”

As if his feet were glued to the ground, he could move neither forwards nor backwards. His legs trembled like he had just finished running a full marathon and could feel his strength leaving them.

“I have no reason to surrender to-…”

“I will ask as many times as necessary.”

In an instant —truly only an instant— Kanzaki’s right hand blurred and disappeared like a bug in a video game.

With a roar, something flew at Kamijou with frightening speed.

“!?”

Kamijou felt like giant laser guns were being fired from all directions.

It was like a giant tornado made up of blades of air.

Kamijou Touma watched as that typhoon sliced the asphalt, the streetlights, and the trees lining the street at set intervals to pieces as if it were an industrial water jet cutter. A fist-sized piece of asphalt flew through the air and struck Kamijou’s right shoulder, which was enough to send him flying and almost knock him unconscious.

Grasping his right shoulder, Kamijou looked around while moving only his eyes.

One… two… three, four, five, six, seven. A total of seven linear sword slices continued for a few dozen meters across the flat ground. The cuts came in at many seemingly random angles and looked something like fingernail scratches on a steel door.

He heard a click as her katana returned to its scabbard.

“I would like to take her into our care without having to give my magic name.”

Touma was unable to follow the strike.

With her right hand still on the hilt of her sword, Kanzaki simply spoke her words with no malice or anger.

Seven strikes, but Kamijou was unable to see even a single one. She had performed seven iai strikes in that single instant. And, had she wanted to, any or all of those seven strikes could have been a deadly attack that sliced Kamijou in two.

No. He had only heard the metallic sound of the sword being sheathed once.

Touma believes her Nanasen is magic.

No. He had only heard the metallic sound of the sword being sheathed once.

It was most likely the supernatural power known as magic. She possessed some magic that extended the range of her strikes by dozens of meters and gave her the swordsmanship to attack seven times with one draw.

Nanasen explanation.

“The speed of the Nanasen attack[7] that my Shichiten Shichitou[8] creates is enough to kill you seven times over in the period of time known as an instant. People refer to this as an instant kill. Calling this a certain kill would not be far from the truth.”

Countering Nanasen isn't just an issue of speed.

Silently, Kamijou clenched his fist with enough force to crush his right hand.

She had overwhelming speed, power, and range. Most likely, that slicing attack had something to do with the supernatural power known as magic. In that case, he just had to touch the actual attack itself.

“Keep dreaming,” she said, cutting off his thoughts. “I heard from Stiyl that your right hand can dispel magic for some reason. However, am I correct in thinking you cannot do so unless you touch it with that right hand of yours?”

Exactly. Kamijou’s right hand was of no use if he could not touch it.

It was not just an issue of speed. Unlike Misaka Mikoto’s Biri Biri-ing and Railgun that shot in a straight line, he could not predict where Kanzaki Kaori’s Nanasen would go due to its constant changing. If Kamijou tried to use Imagine Breaker, those seven slices would likely slice his arm to pieces right off the bat.

Touma states she destroyed trees dozens of meters away.

Kamijou felt a cold sweat on his cheek.

If Kanzaki’s mood changed and she went in for the kill, Kamijou would certainly be sliced to pieces in an instant. Given how she had sliced the trees lining the road to pieces at a range of a few dozen meters, trying to run away or use something as a shield would be suicide.

Touma says he could cover 10 meters with 4 steps.

Kamijou calculated the distance between himself and Kanzaki.

It was about 10 meters. If he ran as quickly as his physical body would let him, he could cover that distance in four steps.

Touma manages to evade Nanasen with pure luck.

He took one step forward as if ripping his feet off of the ground. One of Kanzaki’s eyebrows twitched up as Kamijou moved to take another explosive step forward like a bullet.

“Ohh…. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He took his next step. If he could not run away, could not evade to the right or left, and could not use anything as a shield, the only option left was to head forward and open up a path for himself.

“I do not know what is driving you this far, but…”

Kanzaki gave a sigh that held more pity than surprise. And then…

Nanasen.

The small fragments of the destroyed asphalt and trees floated in the air like dust. With a roar of wind, that cloud of dust was sliced to pieces before Kamijou’s eyes.

“Ah… Ohh!!”

He knew in his head that he could negate it if he touched it with his right hand, but his heart immediately chose to evade. He crouched down with such force it looked like he was swinging his head down, and his heart froze as the seven waves passed overhead.

He had not calculated it, and there was no way he could have succeeded had he tried. He had only managed to evade due to pure luck, and he proceeded to take another powerful step, the third of the four.

The attack is faster than Touma's reflexes. IB is stated again to negate the powers of God, but also vampires.

Nanasen.

The roar came from directly in front of Kamijou at pointblank range.

The seven strikes were on him before his body’s reflexes could even kick in.

“Dammit… Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Kamijou stuck his right fist forward toward the slicing attacks in front of him, but the movement was more like a defensive attempt at catching a ball thrown at his face than an offensive attack.

As long as it was a supernatural power, Kamijou’s right hand could negate it even if it were the power of God or of vampires.

Due to the close proximity, the seven strikes were released simultaneously without spread, which meant he could blow away all seven of them with one strike of Imagine Breaker.

Nanasen wounds Touma's hand, because it is not a magical attack, it's Kanzaki manipulating wires, the sword clicks are a diversion.

As the strikes glowed blue in the moonlight, the skin of one finger on Kamijou’s fist lightly touched them….

…And was eaten into.

“Wha…!?”

It did not disappear. Even with Imagine Breaker, those absurd strikes did not disappear.

Kamijou immediately tried to pull his hand back but was too slow. After all, he had stuck his own hand into the oncoming strike of a Japanese sword.

She narrowed her eyes slightly at the sight of him. In the next instant, the wet sound of flesh being sliced apart filled the area. Kamijou held his bloody right hand with his left and fell to his knees.

He was honestly surprised to find all five of his fingers were still attached. This was of course not due to Kamijou’s fingers being tough or Kanzaki’s skill being poor. Kamijou’s body was not sliced to pieces due to the simple fact that she had held back, held back even more, and allowed him to live.

Still on his knees, Kamijou looked up.

Kanzaki stood with the blue moon’s perfect circle behind her. He could see things like red threads in front of her.

It was akin to a spider web. It was only once Kamijou’s blood covered them like evening dew on a spider web that he could see the seven steel wires.

“I can’t believe this…” Kamijou clenched his teeth. “Are you even a magician?”

The ridiculously huge katana was nothing but a decoration.

It was unsurprising that he was unable to see the instant she drew the sword. Kanzaki had never actually drawn it. She had only moved the sword slightly within the scabbard and then moved it back. That motion was to hide the hand manipulating the seven wires.

Kamijou’s hand was relatively unharmed because Kanzaki had loosened the wires just before they severed his fingers.

“As I said, I heard about your ability from Stiyl.” Kanzaki sounded disinterested. “That was when I realized: your power is not of greater quantity, it is of a different type. It is the same as rock-paper-scissors. No matter how many times you use rock, you can never defeat my paper.”

Kanzaki also has Yuisen.

“…”

Kamijou clenched his bloody fist.

“You seem mistaken about something.” It seemed to pain Kanzaki to look at him. “I am not disguising a lack of ability with a cheap trick. Shichiten Shichitou is not a mere decoration. Beyond Nanasen is the true Yuisen.”[10]

Touma charges at Kanzaki, she easily stops it.

“I said shut the hell up, you damn robot!!”

Kamijou clenched his bloody fist and tried to swing it at the face of the girl standing before him.

But, the toe of Kanzaki’s boot jabbed into his solar plexus before he could. All the air in his lungs burst from his mouth and the Shichiten Shichitou’s black scabbard struck him on the side of the face like a baseball bat. His body spun like a tornado, and he struck the ground shoulder-first.

Before he could cry out in pain, Kamijou saw the bottom of a boot coming down to crush his head.

Kanzaki uses Nanasen again, says she's one of the top 10 magicians in London.

In an attempt to evade, he immediately rolled to the side and…

“Nanasen.”

As that term entered Kamijou’s ears, seven slicing attacks broke the asphalt around him to pieces. Kamijou’s entire body was pelted by an explosion of small fragments from every direction.

“Gh… Ah…!?”

Kamijou writhed in place as intense pain similar to being brutalized by five or six people assaulted him. Kanzaki approached him with her boots scraping on the ground.

(I need to get up…)

However, his legs were too tired to move.

“Surely that is enough.” Her quiet voice actually sounded pained. “There is no reason for you to go this far for her. Lasting even 30 seconds against one of the top 10 magicians in London is quite an achievement. She cannot blame you after going this far.”

Touma's still able to move despite the punishment he took.

Kamijou forced his destroyed right hand into a fist like it was a dying bug.

His body could still move. It moved when asked.

“…Why?” Kamijou whispered from his collapsed position on the ground. “You look like you don’t like this. You aren’t like that Stiyl guy; you’re hesitating to kill your enemy. You could easily have killed me from the beginning if you wanted to, but you didn’t. …You still have enough of a normal human’s way of thinking to hesitate about things like that, don’t you?”

Touma pushes Kanzaki into a corner not with strength but with words.

Kanzaki Kaori fell silent, but Kamijou’s mind was too hazy from the pain to notice.

“Then surely you know, right? You know that chasing a girl around until she collapses from hunger and then slicing her back open with a sword is wrong, right?” As he spoke the words as if he were coughing up blood, Kanzaki could only continue to listen. “Did you know that she has no memories beyond about a year ago thanks to you? What the hell did you do to her while chasing her down to cause something like that?”

He received no response. Kamijou could not understand.

He would have understood if this magician were trying to gain the 103,000 grimoires to become a magic god that could (supposedly) bend the rules of the world in order to make some wishes like healing a child with an incurable disease or something for a dead lover come true.

But she was not doing that.

She was part of an organization. She was doing it because she had been told to, because it was her job, and because those were her orders. That was all it had taken for her to chase down a girl and slice her back open.

“Why?” repeated Kamijou, his teeth clenched. “I’m a loser who couldn’t save a single girl after risking my life to desperately fight you. I’m a weakling who can’t do anything but lie on the ground and watch you take her away.” He sounded like he could burst into tears like a child at any moment.

“But you’re different, aren’t you?” He had no idea what he was saying. “With your power, you could protect anyone or anything, and save anything or anyone.” He had no idea who he was speaking to.

“So why are you doing this?”

He spoke.

He regretted.

He regretted that he had thought he could protect everything he wanted with the little power he had.

He regretted that someone with such overwhelming power was using it only to hunt down a small girl.

He regretted that the situation seemed to be saying that he was worse than even someone like that.

He regretted it all and he thought he would cry.

“…”

Silence built atop silence, creating an even greater silence.

Had Kamijou’s mind been clearer, he would definitely have been surprised.

“…I…”

Kanzaki was the one driven into a corner.

With only a few words, he had driven one of the top 10 magicians in London into a corner.

“I really did not mean to slice her back open. I thought the barrier of her Walking Church habit was still functioning… I only sliced her because I was absolutely sure it would not hurt her… And yet…”

Kamijou did not understand what Kanzaki was saying.

“I am not doing this because I want to,” said Kanzaki. “But she cannot live if I do not do this. …She will… die.”

Kanzaki sounded like a child, about to burst into tears.

“The organization I belong to is the same as hers. I am from Necessarius of the Anglican Church,” she said as if coughing up blood. “She is my colleague… and my precious friend.”

Cryso Agori · Apr 2, 2022

Chapter 3: The Grimoire Peacefully Smiles. "Forget_me_not."

3.1 Part 1

Kanzaki calls Index a genius.

He did not understand. He did not understand what she was saying.

While Kamijou lay collapsed and bloody on the road looking up at Kanzaki, he thought he had imagined what he had heard because of the surprise. After all, it made no sense. Index was trying to escape to the Anglican Church while being chased by magicians. How could those magicians be from that very same Anglican Church?

“Have you ever heard of an eidetic memory?” asked Kanzaki Kaori. Her voice was weak and she looked pained. At that moment, it was hard to believe she was one of the top 10 magicians in London. She looked like nothing more than an exhausted girl.

“Yes, that’s the true identity of her 103,000 grimoires, right?” Kamijou moved his split lips. “They’re all in her head. I find it hard to believe she can remember every single thing she sees even once, though. I mean, she’s an idiot. She just doesn’t look like that kind of genius.”

“…What does she look like to you?”

“Just a girl.”

Kanzaki looked more exhausted than surprised and said, “Do you think she could have escaped our pursuit for an entire year if she were ‘just a girl?’”

“…”

“Stiyl has his flames and I have my Nanasen and Yuisen. She is up against magicians who name their magic names, but she cannot rely on a supernatural power like you or magic like me. She can only run away.” Kanzaki gave a self-derisive smile. “And Stiyl and I are only two opponents. Not even I would last a month against the entire organization of Necessarius.”

That was true.

Kamijou finally learned the truth about Index. He was unable to escape for four days even with his Imagine Breaker that could smash the systems of God in a single strike. And yet, she…

“She is, without a doubt, a genius,” declared Kanzaki. “To the extent that using her ability in the wrong way could cause a disaster.[1] The reason why the higher ups in the Church do not treat her normally is clear. They are afraid of her. Everyone is.”

Kanzaki and Stiyl erased Index's memories.

“That may be.” Kamijou bit his bloody lip. “But she’s still human. She’s not a tool. I can’t… let you call her that…!”

“Yes.” Kanzaki nodded. “But her current traits are not that different from normal people like us.”

“…?”

“Over 85 percent of Index’s brain is filled with the 103,000 grimoires. The remaining 15 percent is just barely managing to function enough for her to be the same as us.”

That was amazing and all, but there was something Kamijou wanted to know first.

“…So what? What are you people doing? You’re part of the same Church as Index, right? That Necessarius thing. Why are you chasing her around? Why was Index saying you were evil magicians from a magic cabal?” Kamijou silently clenched his back teeth. “Or are you trying to say Index was the one tricking me?”

He could not believe that. If she were simply trying to use Kamijou, he saw no reason why she would have risked her life and gotten her back sliced open to save him. And, even without the logical reasoning, he simply did not want to believe it.

“…She was not lying,” replied Kanzaki Kaori after slight hesitation.

She sounded like she was holding her breath while her heart was being crushed. “She remembers nothing. She remembers neither our Necessarius affiliation nor the reason for her being chased. Because she does not remember, she has to use her knowledge to fill in the gaps. It is only natural to assume magicians chasing the Index Librorum Prohibitorum are from a magic cabal after her 103,000 grimoires.”

Kamijou recalled something: Index had lost her memories from before about a year ago.

“But, wait. Wait a second. That doesn’t make sense. Index has an eidetic memory, right? So why did she forget? What made her lose her memories?”

“She did not lose them.” Kanzaki stopped even breathing. “Technically, I erased them.”

Because otherwise she would die due to her brain being 'filled with to much information'.

“…We had to do it.”

“Why!?” he shouted as if he were howling at the moon above his head.

“Because, otherwise, Index would have died.”

His breathing stopped. For no discernible reason, the heat of the midsummer night that he felt on his skin departed. All five of his senses grew thin like they were trying to escape reality.

It felt as if… It felt as if he were a corpse.

“Like I said, 85 percent of her brain is taken up by the memories of the 103,000 grimoires.” Kanzaki’s shoulders trembled slightly. “She only has the remaining 15 percent for normal use. If she continues to amass memories like a normal person, her brain will quickly burst.”

“No way…”

Denial. Rather than use logic or reason, Kamijou’s brain simply denied it.

“I mean… I mean… how could that be? You said she was the same as us with that 15 percent...”

“Yes, but she is different than us in one way. She has an eidetic memory.” All feeling slowly left Kanzaki’s voice.

“Think back to what an eidetic memory really is.”

“…It’s the ability to never forget anything you see even once, right?”

“And is the ability to forget really all that bad a thing?”

“…”

“The specifications of the human brain are surprisingly limited. The only reason a human brain can keep functioning for 100 years is because unneeded memories are disposed of by the process of forgetting. For example, you don’t remember what you ate for dinner a week ago, do you? Everyone’s brain undergoes this maintenance without them even realizing it. Otherwise, people would be unable to live. But,” Kanzaki said with an icy voice, “She cannot do this.”

“…”

“She cannot forget anything: be it the number of leaves on the trees lining the road, the faces of each and every person during a rush hour, or the shape of each and every raindrop falling from the sky. All of those pointless, garbage memories fill up her mind in no time.” Kanzaki’s voice froze over. “Having only 15 percent of her brain leftover is a fatal tragedy for her. Since she cannot forget on her own, her only way to live is to get another to force her to forget.”

Kanzaki says that Index's limit till her memories can't be erased is three days.

“…How long?” Kamijou asked.

Inquiring instead of denying, he seemingly accepted it somewhere deep down.

“How long until her brain bursts?”

“Her memories are erased at precise one year intervals.” Kanzaki sounded exhausted. “The limit is three days from now. It cannot be done too soon or too late. If not done at that exact time, her memories cannot be erased. …I hope she has yet to experience the powerful headaches that precede it.”

Kanzaki sent into a frenzy by Touma's words starts beating him up even more.

“Shut up! You know nothing!!”

Kamijou’s anger was crushed by Kanzaki’s yell assaulting him from above. What seemed to squeeze at Kamijou’s heart were, rather than the words she spoke, the raw feelings that were stripped bare.

“Don’t act like you understand!! How do you think we’ve felt erasing her feelings all this time!? How could you possibly understand!? You spoke like Stiyl was some kind of sadistic murderer, but do you know how he felt seeing her with you!? Do you know how he suffered!? Do you know how hard it was for him to name himself her enemy!? What do you understand about Stiyl’s feelings as he continued to sully himself for the sake of his precious comrade!?”

“Wha-…?”

Before he could raise his voice in shock at her sudden change of behavior, Kanzaki kicked his side like a soccer ball. The unrestrained strike sent Kamijou’s body into the air. After landing, he rolled two or three meters further.

The taste of blood overflowed from his stomach up into his mouth.

However, Kanzaki jumped straight up, the moon at her back, before Kamijou could even writhe about in intense pain.

Like some kind of joke, she jumped three meters up into the air with just the strength of her legs.

“…!?”

He heard a dull noise. The flat tip of Shichiten Shichitou’s scabbard had crushed Kamijou’s arm like high heels.

But, he failed to even cry out in pain. The expression on Kanzaki’s face made it seem like she would shed tears of blood.

Kamijou feared.

He was not afraid of Nanasen, or Yuisen, or of the power of one the top 10 magicians in London. He feared the raw human emotions that assaulted him.

“We tried, too! We tried everything we could! We spent spring trying, we spent summer trying, we spent fall trying, and we spent winter trying! We promised to make memories that she would never forget and we made journals and photo albums!”

The end of the scabbard rained down again and again like a sewing machine.

His legs, his arms, his gut, his chest, his face. The blunt blows crushed his body again and again.

“…But none of them worked.”

Kamijou heard the sound of her gritting teeth. Her hand stopped.

“Even when we showed her the journals and the photo albums, she just apologized. No matter what we did and no matter how many times we tried, even if we remade the memories from scratch, nothing worked. Everything returned to zero whether you were family, her friend, or her lover.” She trembled so much that it seemed she could not take another step. “We… could stand it no longer. We could not bear to see that smile of hers any longer.”

With Index’s personality, having to say farewell must have been as painful as dying. Having to experience such a thing over and over again would be like living in hell.

Immediately after experiencing the misfortune that was the farewell, she would forget it all and tragically begin a run toward that same determined misfortune once more.

That was why Kanzaki and Stiyl had chosen to lessen the misfortune as much as possible rather than give her the cruel fortune of knowing them. If Index never had the precious memories she had to lose, then the shock of losing her memories would lessen. That was why they abandoned their good friend and played the part of an enemy.

They would blot out her memories to make that final hell as easy as possible for her.

“…”

Somehow or other, Kamijou understood.

They were expert magicians. They made the impossible possible. The entire time Index repeatedly lost her memories, they had to have searched for a way to keep her from losing her memories.

They never succeeded.

Even then, Index had certainly never blamed Stiyl or Kanzaki.

She had surely given them that same smile like usual.

Being forced to connect with her anew each time had led Kanzaki and Stiyl to blame themselves and see giving up as the only option.

But that was…

Despite this, he still manages to catch Kanzaki's strike and push her.

“To hell with that!” Kamijou gritted his teeth. “That reasoning only takes you into account. You didn’t give even a single thought about Index! Don’t blame your cowardice on her!!”

For the past year, Index had continued to flee on her own without relying on anyone. Kamijou refused to accept that that was the best option. He would not let himself accept it. He did not want to.

“Then… what else are we supposed to do!?”

Kanzaki grabbed Shichiten Shichitou’s scabbard and swung it down forcefully at Kamijou’s face.

Kamijou moved his battered right hand and grabbed the scabbard just before it struck his face.

No longer did he feel fear or nervousness because of the magician.

His body moved. It moved!

“If you were a little stronger…” Kamijou gritted his teeth. “If you had used fox words powerful enough to become reality…! If she was afraid of losing her memories of that year, you just have to give her even better memories the next year! If happiness, great enough to erase her fears of memory loss, awaited her, she wouldn’t have to keep running! That’s all it would have taken!!”

He forcibly moved his left arm, now with a broken shoulder, and grabbed the scabbard with that hand too. He forced his battered body into a standing position. Blood flowed from various parts of his body.

“Are you seriously thinking of fighting in that state?”

“…Shut… up.”

“What will you gain by fighting?” Kanzaki seemed legitimately confused. “Even if you did defeat me, Necessarius awaits behind me. I may have said I was one of the top 10 magicians in London, but there are those stronger than me. …From the Church’s point of view, I am nothing more than a subordinate sent out to this Far East island nation.”

It was likely true.

If they were truly Index’s comrades, they would have opposed the church’s way of treating her like a tool. The fact that they did not meant that there was a gap of power preventing it.

“I said… shut up!!”

It did not matter. He forced his body to move despite the fact it trembled as if he were about to die and glared at Kanzaki standing before him.

It was a simple gaze that held little power but was enough to make one of the top 10 magicians in London take a step back.

“That doesn’t matter! Do you resign yourself to protecting people because you happen to have strength!?” Kamijou took a step forward with his battered legs. “No, you don’t, do you!? Don’t lie! You worked to gain power because there was something you wanted to protect!”

He grabbed Kanzaki’s collar with his battered left hand.

“Why did you acquire power?”

He made a bloody fist with his battered right hand.

“Who did you want to protect!?”

Using that weak fist, he struck Kanzaki’s face. There lacked anything remotely resembling force behind the punch and the fist itself actually spurted blood like a tomato.

Even so, Kanzaki stumbled back as if truly punched. She released Shichiten Shichitou which spiraled as it fell to the ground.

“Then what the hell are you doing here!?” He looked down on Kanzaki, who had collapsed to the ground. “If you have so much strength… if you have so much almighty power, then why are you so powerless?”

Kanzaki's attack knocked Touma out for three days.

The ground shook, or so it seemed, under Kamijou. The next instant, he collapsed to the ground like the electricity powering his body had switched off.

(Get… up… The counterattack… is coming…)

His vision was dyed in darkness.

Kamijou, forcibly moving his body, had lost too much blood to see or recover. He moved in an attempt to defend against Kanzaki’s counterattack but the best he could manage was move one fingertip like a caterpillar.

However, no counterattack came.

Nothing.

3.2 Part 2

The feverish heat and dryness in Kamijou’s throat awoke him.

“Touma?”

Around the time that he realized he was in Komoe-sensei’s apartment, he also realized Index was staring down at him as he lay in a futon.

Surprisingly, he saw bright sunlight coming in through the window. That night, Kamijou had indeed lost to Kanzaki and lost consciousness before his enemy. He had no memory between then and waking up there.

Simply put, he was too dissatisfied with what had happened to even be glad to be alive. Komoe-sensei was nowhere to be seen and must have been out somewhere.

The only sign of her was some porridge sitting on the tea table next to Index. It may have been unfair to Index, but he doubted she could have cooked it given that she had asked for food after getting caught on his balcony and assumed Komoe-sensei had made the porridge.

“Honestly… You’re treating me like I’m sick.” Kamijou tried to move. “Ow, ow. What the hell? Since the sun’s up, I must have been out all night. What time is it?”

“It wasn’t just all night,” replied Index, whose words seemed to catch a bit in her throat.

“?”

Kamijou raised an eyebrow, and Index said, “It’s been three days.”

Touma doesn't feel the pain of his wounds.

“…Damn it. I can’t move. What the hell? Why am I completely wrapped in bandages?”

“Does it hurt?”

“Does it hurt? If it did, I’d be writhing around. What’s with the bandages all over me? Don’t you think you went a bit overboard?”

“…”

Index said nothing, and then tears welled up in her eyes as if she were unable to bear it any longer.

It stabbed into Kamijou’s heart more than anything she could have shouted at him. He then realized that not feeling any pain was actually a bad thing.

Index calls her John's Pen mode "Awakening."

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Kamijou shook his head with it still pressed against the pillow. “If at all possible, I don’t want to see that face of yours when you talk about magic.”

Kamijou recalled the look on her face when she gave her explanation of rune magic in the passageway of his dorm. Her eyes were as cold as the pale full moon and as precise as the gears of a clock.

Her words were more proper than that of a bus tour guide’s, and yet, lacking more humanity than a bank ATM. It was the existence known as Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the grimoire library.

Even so, he could not believe she was the same as the girl sitting before him. Or rather, he did not want to believe it.

“? Touma, do you dislike explanations?”

“Hah…? Wait, do you not remember? You were talking about runes in front of Stiyl like some kind of puppet. To be honest, I didn’t really like it.”

“…Um… Oh, I see. I… awakened again.”

“Awakened?”

The way she stated it had it seem as if that puppet-like form were her true self. It was like the kind girl before him was a fake form.

“Yes, but please don’t say too much about what I’m like when I awaken.”

Kamijou was unable to ask why. Before he could say anything, Index said, “Speaking when you aren’t conscious is something like talking in your sleep. It’s embarrassing. Also,” she said. “It seems I become more and more like a cold machine and that scares me.”

Index smiled.

She smiled as if she were actually about to collapse but wanted to avoid worrying anyone.

It was an expression that no machine could make.

It was the smile of a human being.

3.3 Part 3

The magicians didn't take Index away because they're using Touma as a shackle.

“Huh? What are you doing in front of my house?” asked a voice on the other side of the door. It seemed Komoe-sensei had spotted whoever had knocked on the door as she returned from wherever she had been.

(Then who is it?)

“Kamijou-chan, I’m not sure what’s going on, but it seems we have visitors.”

The door clicked open, and Kamijou’s shoulders jumped in surprise. Standing behind Komoe-sensei were two familiar magicians. They had appeared somewhat relieved to see Index sitting like normal.

Kamijou frowned in suspicion. Naturally, with any thought at all, they were there to retrieve Index. However, they could have retrieved her three days prior when Kamijou had collapsed. There was little reason for them to let her roam freely until the day of her “treatment”. Instead, they could have confined her somewhere until it was time.

(…So why did they wait until now to come?)

His muscles naturally tensed up as he recalled the powers of the magicians’ flames and sword.

However, Kamijou no longer had reason to simply fight Stiyl and Kanzaki. They were not “Evil Magic Cabal Forces A”; they were from Index’s Church to take her into their care. He worried for Index. In the end, he had nothing he could do but work with them and hand her over to the Church.

But, that was simply from Kamijou’s point of view.

The magicians lacked any reason to cooperate with Kamijou. Simply put, there was no reason why they couldn’t just decapitate Kamijou right then and there and take Index away with them.

Stiyl seemed to enjoy the fact that Kamijou stiffened up upon seeing them, and he said, “Heh. It looks like we won’t have to worry about you escaping with those injuries.”

At that point, Kamijou finally realized what the “enemy” was trying to do.

On her own, Index could escape the magicians. After all, she had eluded the church for almost a year on her own. Even if they captured her and locked her up somewhere, she might be able to easily escape if she were alone.

With only a few days until the time limit, they might be unable to catch up to her again if she truly began to flee again. If they imprisoned her somewhere, she might escape and it was possible she could escape even in the middle of the ceremony.

However, the same could not be said if she were burdened with an injured person like Kamijou. That was why the magicians had not killed Kamijou and why they had allowed him to return to Index. They wanted Index to refuse to give up on him so that he would function as a convenient shackle.

They had overlooked him solely so that they could more safely and surely take Index into their care.

3.4 Part 4

Kanzaki explains that Index's condition is 'natural' and can't be fixed with magic because the church put a collar on Index because she has the potential to become a magic god.

“It seems you cannot even give up if you do not understand the situation. I don’t think this is a good use of your last moments with her, but I will give you a helping hand of despair.” The magician spoke smoothly as if she were reading from the Bible. “Her eidetic memory is not a type of esper power nor is it a type of magic. It is a natural part of her. It is the same as poor eyesight or allergies. It is not a type of curse that can be broken.”

“…”

“We are magicians. With any circumstances created by magic, there is a danger of it being dispelled by magic.”

“I thought it was an anti-occult defense system created by a magic specialist? Can’t you do something with Index’s 103,000 grimoires!? She said that controlling those would give you the power of a god, but if it can’t even heal one girl’s head, it doesn’t sound so great to me!”

“Oh, you’re referring to a magic god. The Church is extremely afraid of Index rebelling. That is why they put a ‘collar’ on her so that the maintenance only the Church can perform must be carried out once a year by erasing her memories. Did you really think they would leave any possibility of her removing that collar herself?” Kanzaki spoke quietly. “There is likely a bias in her 103,000 grimoires. For instance, she was probably disallowed from memorizing any grimoires that dealt with manipulating memories. I would be willing to bet that the Church has put up some security like that.”

Touma tries to stop Kanzaki from erasing Index's memory by opening a few textbooks.

“God damn it,” Kamijou cursed under his breath. “…You said 80 percent of Index’s brain is taken up by the information in the 103,000 grimoires, right?”

“Yes. It is apparently actually 85 percent, but it is impossible for us magicians to destroy those grimoires. An Original grimoire cannot even be destroyed by an inquisitioner, after all, meaning that we can only hollow out the remaining 15 percent, her memories, to increase the empty space in her head.”

“…Then, what about us on the science side?”

“…”

She fell silent.

Kamijou wondered if it were possible. The magicians knew their field, magic, backward and forwards, and they could not do it. If they were not going to give up, it was only natural to move to a different field.

For example, there was science.

And, if they were going there, it made sense to have someone to act as an arbitrator. It was the same as having a local help someone out when one had to walk through an unfamiliar country and negotiate with various peoples.

“…There was a time when I believed the same thing.”

Kamijou had not expected her to say so.

“To be honest, I simply did not know what to do. The world of magic that I had believed in absolutely was unable to save a single girl. I understand the feeling of trying to grasp at straws.”

“…”

Kamijou had a premonition what would come next.

“It just does not feel right to hand her over to science.”

He had expected it, but actually hearing it still felt like being stabbed in the brain.

“I know that you people cannot do something that we cannot. Your crude methods of filling her body with some unknown drug and chopping her up with a scalpel will do nothing but unnecessarily shorten her life. I do not want to see her be violated by machines.”

“Okay, that’s it. How the hell can you say that when you’ve never even tried it? I have a question for you. You keep talking about destroying memories, but do you really know what memory loss is exactly?”

No response came.

(She must really not know much about science.)

Kamijou pulled some Curriculum textbooks that were on the ground towards himself with his foot. It was a recipe for powers development including a mix of neuroscience, rare psychology, and reactionary drugs.

“How can you talk on about an eidetic memory and losing memories when you don’t even know what it is? There are many different kinds of memory loss.” He began to flip through the pages. “There’s aging… I guess like senility. And apparently you can lose your memories from getting drunk with alcohol. There’s a brain disease called Alzheimer’s and there’s TIA where blood stops flowing to your brain and your memories disappear. Memory loss is also a side effect of general anesthetics like halothane, isoflurane, and fentanyl, of derivatives of barbituric acid, and of drugs like benzodiazepine.”

“??? Benzo… What?”

Kanzaki’s voice was surprisingly weak, but Kamijou had no duty to explain it all to her, so he ignored her.

“Simply put, there are tons of ways to medically eliminate someone’s memories. It means that there are methods you people can’t use that can get rid of her 103,000 grimoires, you idiot.”

Kanzaki’s breathing froze.

However, these methods did not remove the memories. Instead, they damaged the brain cells. An old man with dementia could not remember more just because he lost some memories.

But, Kamijou left that part out. Even if it were just a bluff, he had to stop the magicians from forcibly erasing her memories.

“And, this is Academy City. There are plenty of espers that can manipulate people’s minds with powers like Psychometry[a 1] or Marionette.[a 2] Not to mention that there are research facilities all over the place. It’s way too soon to give up hope. Apparently, there’s even a Level 5 at Tokiwadai who can remove people’s memories just by touching them.”

That was where the last ray of hope truly lay.

No voice came from the receiver.

Kamijou continued on to truly defeat Kanzaki who was starting to show signs of hesitation.

“Well? What will you do, magician? Are you still going to get in my way? Are you going to give up on trying when someone’s life hangs in the balance?”

“…Those words are much too cheap to convince an enemy,” Kanzaki said with a slight tone of self derision. “We have a practiced and genuine method of saving her life. I cannot trust in this untested gamble of yours. Do you really think you can change that with some reckless statements?”

Kamijou remained silent for a moment.

He tried to come up with a rebuttal, but he could come up with nothing.

He had no choice but to accept it.

“…True enough. In the end, we just can’t understand each other.”

He had no choice but to accept that she was his enemy despite the fact that there was a possibility she could have understood. After all, she was once in the same situation.

“Yes. If people who wished for the same thing would always become allies, the world would be completely filled with peace,” she said.

Kamijou’s grip on the receiver strengthened slightly.

That beaten up right hand was his sole weapon and it could negate even the systems created by God.

“…Then, you are my arch enemy and I will defeat you,” he said.

“Given the differences in our physical abilities, the result is immensely clear. Do you still intend to call this hand?”

“Perfect. I raise. I just have to invite you into circumstances where I’m guaranteed to win.”

Kamijou bared his canines at the receiver.

Stiyl had definitely not been weaker than Kamijou. Kamijou had only won because Stiyl had lost to the sprinkler system. In short, differences in strength could be made up with strategy.

“Just so you know: the next time that girl collapses, you should consider it too late.” Kanzaki’s words were as sharp as the tip of a sword. “We will be there at midnight. You don’t have much time left, but make your final useless struggles good ones.”

“You’re not going to see me cry, magician. I’m going to save her and steal all your scenes.”

“Stay there and wait for us,” she said and hung up.

Chapter 4: The Exorcist Chooses the End. (N)Ever_Say_Good_bye.

Explanation of the magic the magicians are going to use to erase Index's memories.

Stiyl neglected to even look in Kamijou’s direction. He knelt down next to Index, whose limbs were sprawled out limply. The magician then muttered something under his breath.

His shoulders were trembling. He was a perfect representation of human angers felt when a person’s precious was hurt before them.

“Based on Crowley’s Moonchild, we will use the method of capturing an angel to create a chain of events that will summon, capture, and have a fairy work for our ends.”

Having gathered his resolve, Stiyl stood up. When he turned, his expression was void of the slightest hint of humanity. His face was the face of a magician who abandoned his humanity to save a certain girl.

“Kanzaki, give me your help. We need to destroy her memories.”

Stiyl says that Touma can negate the cross used to erase Index's memories, Stiyl states they'll use the power of Leo to erase Index's memories.

“Is that all you want to say, you self-righteous failure?”

And… That was all the runic magician Stiyl Magnus said.

It was not that he had not listened to what Kamijou said.

His ears had heard every single one of Kamijou’s words, had processed them, and had comprehended their meaning as well as the feelings hidden below the surface.

And yet, Stiyl Magnus did not move so much as an eyebrow.

Kamijou’s words had not hit home with him in the slightest.

“Out of the way,” said Stiyl. Kamijou had no idea how the muscles on his face were moving. Without so much as a sigh, Stiyl said to Kamijou, “Look.”

He pointed. Before Kamijou could look over in the direction Stiyl was pointing, he grabbed Kamijou’s hair.

“Look!!”

“Ah…” Kamijou's voice froze over.

Before his eyes, he saw Index who looked like her breathing could stop at any moment.

“Can you say the same thing in front of her?” Stiyl’s voice trembled. “Can you say the same thing while she is mere seconds away from death!? Can you say the same thing while she is in too much pain to even open her eyes!? Can you tell her to wait because you have some things you’d like to try out!!?”

“…”

Index’s fingers stirred. It was unclear if she were barely conscious or if she were moving subconsciously, but she desperately moved her hand that seemed as heavy as lead and tried to touch Kamijou’s face.

It was as if she were desperately trying to protect Kamijou as the magician grabbed his hair.

It was as if she thought her own intense pain was meaningless.

“If you can, then you are not human! Anyone who could see her like this and still inject her with some untested drug, let some strange doctor mess with her body, and fill her body with drugs can’t possibly be human!” Stiyl’s shout stabbed through Kamijou’s eardrums and into his brain. “Answer me, esper. Are you still human or are you a monster who has abandoned his humanity!?”

“…” Kamijou could not answer.

Stiyl went in for one last blow like stabbing a sword into the heart of a deceased.

He pulled a necklace with a small cross on it from his pocket.

“This tool is needed to destroy her memories.” Stiyl waved the cross in front of Kamijou’s face. “As you might guess, it’s a magical item. If you touch it with your right hand, it should lose all power just like my Innocentius.”

The cross swayed back and forth in front of Kamijou like a five yen coin being used for a cheap bit of hypnotism.

“But can you negate it, esper?”

As if he had frozen in place, Kamijou stared up at Stiyl.

“When that girl is suffering before your very eyes, can you take this from her!? If you believe so much in your own power, then negate it, oh mutant who thinks he’s a hero!”

Kamijou stared.

He looked at the cross swaying before his eyes. He looked at the abominable cross that could rob people of their memories.

As Stiyl had said, he could stop the deletion of Index’s memories if he took that from him. It was nothing difficult. He just had to reach out his hand and lightly touch it with the tips of his fingers.

That was all. It should have been so easy. Kamijou clenched his trembling right hand until it was as hard as rock.

But he could not do it.

For the moment, magic was the one safe and surefire way to save Index. How could he take that from the girl who was suffering and putting up with it all?

He simply could not.

“Our preparations will be complete at 0:15 at the earliest. We will destroy her memories using the power of Leo,” Stiyl said to Kamijou in disinterest.

Touma states again that his hand can negate the powers of god.

“Leave this place, monster.” The magician looked at Kamijou. “Your right hand negated my flames. I still don’t understand how it works and we can’t have it interfering with the spell we are going to use.”

“I see,” replied Kamijou emptily. Kamijou gave a small, corpse-like smile. “It was the same with that wound on her back. Why is there never anything I can do?” How should I know? Stiyl’s eyes seemed to say.

“I can destroy even the systems of God with this right hand.” Kamijou seemed to crumble. “So why can’t I save just one suffering girl?”

As Touma bids farewell to Index he realizes something.

He knew that what was happening was wrong and hated how powerless he was to stop it. Yes. Kamijou could do nothing. He could neither deal with the 103,000 grimoires taking up 85 percent of Index’s brain nor protect the memories filling up the 15 percent left over.

“…Huh?”

As hopeless thoughts raced through his mind, Kamijou suddenly felt that something was off.

85 percent?

Kamijou looked back at Index’s feverish face.

85 percent. Yes, that was what Kanzaki had said. 85 percent of Index’s brain was filled with the 103,000 grimoires she had memorized. The pressure that was put on her brain meant that she could fit only a year’s worth of memories in the remaining 15 percent. If she added any more memories than that, her brain would burst.

(But wait a second.)

“How could 15 percent only hold a year’s worth of memories?”

Kamijou had no idea how rare a condition an eidetic memory was. However, he was rather sure it was not so rare that Index was the only person in the world with it.[1]

And, the others with eidetic memories did not use some ridiculous method like magic to erase their memories.

If it were true that 15 percent of the brain could only hold a year’s worth of memories…

“…That means they’d die at about 6 or seven years old.”

Calling Komoe, Touma realizes that the church has lied to Kanzaki and Stiyl.

If the condition were some kind of incurable disease like that, wouldn’t it be more prolific?

Also…

Where had Kanzaki gotten those figures, 85 percent and 15 percent?

Who had told her that?

Was the information about 85 percent of the brain even accurate?

“…They were tricked.”

What if Kanzaki truthfully knew nothing about neuroscience? What if she had simply accepted what her superiors in the Church had told her?

Kamijou had a bad premonition.

He rushed over to the black phone in the corner of the room. Komoe-sensei was out somewhere. He had searched all over the room and found her cell phone number not too long before, so that was not an issue.

The mechanical ringing sound, which had a way of truly aggravating people, continued briefly.

Kamijou had a feeling that something was mistaken in Kanzaki’s description of an eidetic memory. What if that mistake were intentionally planted by the Church? They might have hidden some secret.

With a static-like noise, the phone connected.

“Sensei!!” Kamijou shouted almost entirely by reflex.

“Ohh, is that you, Kamijou-chan~? You shouldn’t be using my phone~”

“…You sound happy.”

“Yes~… I am at a public bath right now~. I’ve got a coffee milk in one hand, and I’m testing out a new massage chair~. Yes~.”

“…”

Kamijou thought he would crush the receiver in his grip, but Index’s situation was direr at the moment.

“Sensei, please just listen quietly to what I have to say. The truth is…”

Kamijou asked about eidetic memories.

What were they? Did a year’s worth of memories really use up 15 percent of the brain? In other words, was it a condition that set one’s lifespan at only 6 or seven years?

“Of course not~.” Komoe-sensei cut it all down in one short sentence. “It is true that an eidetic memory makes you unable to forget garbage memories like the flyer for a sale from last year at a supermarket~. But it isn’t like the brain can burst from that~. They’ll just take their 100 years’ worth of memories to their grave~. The human brain can hold up to 140 years’ worth of memories, after all~.”

Kamijou’s heart skipped a beat.

“B-But what if they were learning things at a tremendous rate? Like what if they used their memory to memorize all the books in a library? Would their brain burst then?”

“Sigh… Kamijou-chan, I can see why you fail all your development lessons~,” said Komoe-sensei happily. “Listen up, Kamijou-chan~. People don’t have just one type of memory. Things like language and knowledge fall under semantic memories, things like habits falls under procedural memories, and what we most often think of as memories fall under episodic memories~. There are all sorts of types~. All sorts~.”

“Um, sensei… I don’t really understand what you mean.”

“Basically~.” Komoe-sensei loved to explain things, so she was delighted. “Each type of memory goes into different containers~. Think of it like burnable trash and unburnable trash~. If you get hit on the head and get amnesia, you don’t just start talking gibberish and crawling around on the ground, right~?”

“So…”

“Yes~. No matter how many library books the person memorized, that would only increase the amount of semantic memory~. According to neuroscience, it is absolutely impossible for that to overwhelm the person’s episodic memory~.”

Kamijou felt like he had received that supposed hit on the head.

The receiver slipped from his hand. The fallen receiver struck the hook, ending the call, but Kamijou no longer had the time to care.

The Church had lied to Kanzaki. Index’s eidetic memory was not a danger to her life.

The church had messed with Index's head so that she'd die if her memories weren't erased on yearly intervals.

“But… why?” Kamijou muttered in stunned shock.

Yes, why? Why would the Church lie and falsely state that Index would die in a year?

Also, Index’s suffering before Kamijou’s eyes certainly did not seem like a lie. If it were not being caused by her eidetic memory, then why was she suffering?

“…Ha.”

After thinking that far, Kamijou suddenly laughed out loud.

Yes. The Church had put a collar on Index.

…A collar that forced her to require maintenance from the Church every year to survive. A collar that insured that Index would not use the 103,000 grimoires she controlled to betray them.

What if Index did not need the techniques and spells of the Church to survive?

What if she could perfectly well live on her own without the help of the Church?

In that case, the Church would never be able to leave Index be. If she could just run off and disappear with 103,000 grimoires, they would feel the need to put a collar on her.

To repeat, the Church had placed a collar on Index.

That made things simple.

There had originally been nothing wrong with Index’s head, but the Church had done something to it.

“…Ha ha.”

For example, what if they had done something similar to filling the bottom of a 10 liter bucket with cement so that only a liter of water could fit?

They had done something to Index’s mind so that her brain would burst after only a year’s worth of memories.

That way, Index had to rely on the techniques and spells of the Church.

That way, Index’s comrades would have to choke back their tears and obey the Church.

They wove a devilish program that took even human kindness and sympathy into account.

“…But that doesn’t matter.”

Yes, it really did not matter.

What mattered and what he had to worry about was just one thing: the identity of the Church’s security that was causing Index’s suffering. Academy City, which monopolized espers like Kamijou, was the cutting edge of science. What was it that Necessarius controlled for magicians that was the cutting edge in its own way?

Narrative repeats that Touma could negate the miracles of God.

Yes, the supernatural power known as magic. And, Kamijou Touma’s right hand could negate it with a touch even if it were the systems of God.

Touma realizes that he has already touched Index multiple times and didn't dispel the magic, meaning that it wasn't cast on her entire body.

Kamijou gave a slight smile at the words that Stiyl had beaten him back with before.

The world had changed enough that he could smile at it.

“I don’t just think I’m a hero.”

Still smiling, he removed the white bandages thoroughly wrapped around his right hand.

It was as if he removed a seal from the hand.

“I will be the hero.”

He spoke, he smiled, and he pressed his battered right hand against Index’s forehead.

While he said it could negate even the systems of God, he had thought that it was a useless right hand that would not let him defeat even a single delinquent, would not raise his scores on tests, and would not make him popular with girls.

But, there was one thing it could do.

If it could save the girl who suffered before his very eyes, it held a most wonderful power.

…

…

…?

“………………Huh?”

Nothing happened. Nothing at all happened.

There were no lights or noises, but had the magic the Church implemented been negated? No, Index still grimaced as if in pain. It certainly seemed like nothing had happened.

Kamijou looked puzzled and touched her on the cheek and the back of the head, but nothing happened. Nothing changed. Nothing changed, but he did remember something.

Kamijou had already touched Index a few times.

For instance, he had touched her all over when he carried her from the dorm building after he punched out Stiyl. When Index had revealed her identity from within the futon, Kamijou had lightly struck her on the forehead. But of course nothing had happened.

Kamijou looked puzzled. He did not think he was wrong. Also, he doubted there was some supernatural power that his right hand could not negate. In that case…

In that case, was there some part of Index he had not touched?

The magic is on the back of Index's throat.

But then, where was it?

Kamijou looked down at Index’s feverish face. Since the magic had to do with memories, would the magic be located on her head or somewhere near her head? If there were a magic circle carved into the inside of her skull, even Kamijou would have to simply give up. If it were inside her body, he could not arbitrarily touch it with his finger that was covered in germs, but…

“…Oh.”

Kamijou looked at Index’s face once more.

Her eyebrows were moving in pain, her eyes were held tightly shut, and her nose was covered in mud-like sweat. Ignoring it all, Kamijou lowered his gaze to her cute lips taking shallow breaths.

Kamijou slipped his right thumb and forefinger between those lips and forced her mouth open.

…The back of her throat.

Due to the protection of the skull, the back of the throat was closer to her brain than the back of her head. Also, people would almost never see it and it was unlikely someone would touch it. At the back of her dark red throat was a single eerie mark like something from TV horoscopes. The mark was carved in pure black.

The mark breaks with enough force to reopen his old wounds on his hand.

Kamijou narrowed his eyes once, gathered his resolve, and proceeded to shove his hand into the girl’s mouth.

Her mouth wriggled like it was a different creature altogether as his fingers slipped inside. The oddly warm saliva wrapped around his fingers. The unsettling feeling of her tongue made Kamijou hesitate for an instant but he then pressed his fingers in the rest of the way to jab at the back of Index’s throat.

It appeared to Kamijou that Index shuddered violently with a powerful urge to vomit.

Then, he felt a slight shock in his right index finger as if from static electricity. In the same instant, his right hand was forcefully blown backwards.

“Gah…!?”

A great number of blood droplets dripped onto the futon and tatami mats.

It had felt like his wrist had been shot at by a handgun and he instinctively looked down at his right hand. The wounds Kanzaki had given him had reopened and fresh blood was audibly dripping down onto the tatami mats.

John's Pen activates, Index starts using magic. John's Pen can't regenerate the negated collar.

As he held his hand up before his face, he noticed something beyond it.

As Index lay limply in the futon, her eyes silently opened, and they glowed red.

The color was different from her irises.

Glowing blood red magic circles floated in her eyes.

(Not good…!!)

An instinctual chill ran down Kamijou’s spine; he lacked the time to even hold his destroyed right hand up.

Her eyes glowed a frightening red, and something exploded.

With a tremendous shock, Kamijou’s body struck the bookcase. The wooden planks making up the bookcase were smashed apart and the books thundered down to the floor. An intense pain rushed through Kamijou’s body as if all of his joints had been smashed to pieces along with the bookcase.

Trembling, Kamijou just barely managed to stand back up, his legs threatening to collapse beneath him. The metallic taste of blood mixed in with the saliva in his mouth.

“Warning: Chapter 3, Verse 2. All barriers for Index Librorum Prohibitorum’s collar from first to third have been breached. Preparing to regenerate… failed. The collar cannot self-regenerate.

The church locked Index's ability to use magic, so it can only be used by the auto-defense system John's Pen.

Switching priorities to the elimination of the intruder in order to protect the 103,000 archived grimoires.”

Kamijou looked at what lay before him.

Index slowly stood up in such an unsettling manner that she seemed like a boneless, joint-less sack filled with jelly. The crimson magic circles in her eyes pierced Kamijou.

While they were technically eyes, Kamijou found it difficult to think of them as such.

They held no human light and no feminine warmth.

Kamijou had seen those eyes before. When the girl’s back had been sliced open by Kanzaki, collapsing her in front of the student dorm, she had spoken about runes like a machine. These were the eyes she had at that time.

—I have no magic power, so I can’t use it.

“…Come to think of it, there was one thing I forgot to ask you,” Kamijou muttered under his breath as he clenched his battered right fist. “If you’re not an esper, why is it you have no magic power?”

The answer to that question was likely right before him. The Church had prepared multiple layers of security. If someone found out about the secret of her perfect memory and tried to remove the collar, Index would automatically use her 103,000 grimoires to use the powerful magic held within in order to literally keep the person who knew the truth from saying anything ever again. All of Index’s magic power was put into running that auto defense system.

LN Illustration

John's Pen uses St. George's Sanctuary breaking open space to summon a dragon.

“Using the 103,000 archived grimoires to determine the magic spell used to damage the barrier… failed. The specified magic cannot be determined. Putting together an anti-intruder, local weapon to expose the composition of the spell.” Index tilted her head like a corpse puppet. “The magic expected to be most effective on the specific intruder has been formulated. Proceeding to activate the special magic, St. George’s Sanctuary, to destroy the intruder.”

With a tremendous noise, the two magic circles in Index’s eyes grew simultaneously. Two magic circles over two meters across were now positioned in front of Index’s face. Each one was fixed in place with its center over one of her eyes and the magic circles would move through the air when she slightly moved her head.

“...”

Index sang something that was beyond human comprehension.

For an instant, the two magic circles centered on her eyes glowed before exploding. More specifically, it seemed like an explosion of high voltage electricity occurred in a point in space between Index’s eyes, and lightning scattered in every direction.

However, rather than bluish-white electricity, the lightning was pitch black.

Though an unscientific description, space itself had seemingly cracked open. Centered at the point where the two magic circles crossed, pitch black spatial cracks spread out in every directions to the edges of the room.

It was like a window that was shot by a bullet. It almost seemed like a type of barrier preventing anyone from approaching Index.

Something seemingly pulsating swelled up from within the cracks. A beast-like scent wafted in from the slight opening created by the pitch black cracks.

“Ah.” Kamijou suddenly knew.

This was based on neither theory nor logic. Nor was it based on reason or sense. Perhaps his basic instincts were shouting it at him; he knew not what exactly the thing within the cracks was. However, he knew that seeing —viewing it directly and honestly— would be enough to destroy the being that was Kamijou Touma.

Despite this Touma is happy.

“Ah.” Kamijou trembled.

The cracks spread and spread and spread and spread. Even though he knew that whatever within approached, he could not move. He trembled, he trembled some more, and he truly did tremble. After all…

He just had to defeat whatever that was. He and he alone had the hand that could save Index.

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

And, that was why he trembled with delight.

Was he afraid? Of course not. After all, he had been waiting for this moment for so long.

While he said it could negate even the systems of God, his hand was so useless it would not let him defeat even a single delinquent, would not raise his scores on tests, and would not make him popular with girls.

When a girl’s back had been sliced open due to him, when he had been forced to leave the apartment so as not to interfere with the recovery magic, and when the wire-wielding samurai girl had beaten him within an inch of his life, he had cursed his own powerlessness while wishing all the while that he could save that girl!

It was not that he particularly wanted to become the hero of this story. It was just that he held the power in his right hand to negate and tear this too cruel a story to pieces!

He was only four meters away. If he touched that girl just once more, he could bring it all to an end! That was why Kamijou ran toward the cracks and toward Index who stood beyond them.

He clenched his right fist.

He clenched it so he that could negate the never-ending and horribly, horribly boring ending to that cruel story.

The dragon shoots a laser at Touma. Touma is unable to fully negate it.

At the same time, the cracks spread all at once and “opened”. It looked as painful as a virgin’s hymen being forcibly ripped open. The giant cracks opened wide enough to reach the edges of the room and the “thing” inside peered out.

A pillar of light shot out from within the cracks.

It looked something like a laser beam about a meter across. The light was so pure a white it looked like it had been melted by the sun. The instant it shot out at him, Kamijou thrust his battered right hand out in front of his face.

The sound of the impact was like a piece of meat being pressed against a hot metal sheet.

However, there was no pain… and no heat. As if it were a pillar of water coming from a fire hose being repelled by a clear wall, the pillar of light scattered in every direction when it struck Kamijou’s right hand.

Even so, the pillar of light itself was not completely negated.

The beam is John's Pen using 103,000 magics at once. Similar to Innocentius despite negating the laser it's being brought back faster than IB can negate it.

Just like with Stiyl’s Innocentius, it seemed to have no end no matter how often he negated it. His feet planted on the tatami mats were slowly pushed backwards and his right hand felt like it would be blown away by the great pressure.

(No… That isn’t… what this is…!!)

Kamijou grabbed his right wrist with his empty left hand. He felt a stinging pain in the palm of his right hand. The magic was eating into it. His right was not negating it quickly enough and the pillar of light was approaching millimeter by millimeter.

(This isn’t just a large mass! Each individual piece of light is something different!!)

It was possible Index was using her 103,000 grimoires to use 103,000 different types of magic at the same time. Each individual grimoire held instant death and she was using them all at once.

The spell Index is using is called Dragon Breath.

Suddenly, Kamijou heard some noise from the other side of the apartment.

(Did they only now notice something’s wrong?)

The door swung open and the two magicians charged in.

“Dammit, what are you doing!? You're still struggling in—…!?” Stiyl began to shout but his breath caught in his throat, as if punched in the back. The sight of the pillar of light and of Index who had fired it had him look like his heart had stopped.

Kanzaki, who had seemed so superior and powerful before, looked utterly taken aback by the scene displayed before her.

“D-Dragon Breath?[a 2] It can’t be. Just how is she using magic!?”

Index doubles the power behind her spell before switching to another one.

Kamijou did not turn around.

While it was true he was hardly in a situation where he could turn around, it had more to do with him not wanting to take his eyes off of Index.

“Hey, do you know what this pillar of light is!?” He shouted at them without turning around. “What’s it called?”

“What is it!? What’s its weakness!? What should I do? Explain each and every step from start to finish!!”

“…But… but… what is…?”

“God, you piss me off! Isn’t it obvious!? If Index is using magic, it means the Church was lying when they told you Index couldn’t use magic!” Kamijou shouted while blowing away the pillar of light. “Oh, and that whole thing about Index having to have her memories erased every year? That was another lie! The Church was the one limiting her, so if I negate this thing, you won’t have to erase her memories anymore!!”

Kamijou’s feet slowly but surely slid backwards.

The power behind the pillar of light nightmarishly doubled as if to rip up his toes that were digging into the tatami mat.

“Calm down! Calm down and think about this rationally! Do you really think the people who created the cruel system behind Index would kindly tell their subordinates the whole truth of the situation!? Look at the reality in front of you! Ask Index herself if you like!!”

The two magicians stared blankly at Index who stood beyond the cracks.

“St. George’s Sanctuary is showing no effect against the intruder. Switching to another spell and continuing destruction of the intruder in order to protect the collar.”

It was clearly not the Index the two magicians knew but clearly an Index the Church had not told them about.

LN Illustration

Stiyl instantly covers the walls which runes and supports Touma.

For an instant —just an instant— Stiyl gritted his teeth so hard it seemed they would crack.

“…Fortis931.”

Tens of thousands of cards flew from within his pitch black clothes. Cards carved with flame runes spiraled around like a typhoon and in no time at all had covered the walls, ceiling, and floor without gap. It was just like Hoichi the Earless.

However, he did not act in order to save Kamijou. In an effort to save the girl named Index, Stiyl pressed his hand against Kamijou’s back.

“I do not need any vague possibilities. As long as I can erase her memories, I can save her life for now. I will kill anyone to accomplish that. I will destroy anything! That is what I decided long ago.” Kamijou’s feet that had been sliding further and further back suddenly stopped.

An unbelievable power caused the tatami mats his toes were digging into to creak horribly.

The laser manages to overpower IB.

Kamijou sucked in a breath before continuing.

“Do you want to save Index or not?”

The magicians stopped breathing.

“You’ve been waiting for this the whole time, haven’t you? You’ve been waiting for a solution where Index doesn’t have to lose her memories and you don’t have to make an enemy of her, right!? This is that kind of wonderful, wonderful happy ending that everyone wants where everyone is happy!”

An unpleasant noise came from his right wrist as he continued to force it against the pillar of light.

Even so, Kamijou did not give up.

“You’ve always longed for this turn of events, haven’t you!? You aren’t filling in until the hero shows up! You aren’t buying time until the main character can appear! There’s no one else! There’s nothing else! Didn’t you swear to save that girl with your own two hands!?”

A crack ran down the fingernail of his right index finger and red blood flowed out.

Even so, Kamijou did not give up.

“You’ve always, always wanted to be the heroes, right!? You wanted to become the kind of magicians you find in picture books and movies that risk their lives to save the girl, right!? Then this isn’t anywhere near over!! It hasn’t even begun!! Don’t fall into despair just because the prologue dragged on a bit too long!!”

The magicians’ voices were silenced.

Kamijou would not give up. What did he look like in the magicians’ eyes?

“If you stretch out your hand, you can reach it! Just do it already, magicians!”

An odd cracking noise was heard from Kamijou’s right pinky.

When he realized the finger was bent —broken— at an unnatural angle, the pillar of light attacked with tremendous force and finally knocked Kamijou’s right hand away.

His hand was knocked a good ways backwards.

Kamijou’s face was completely defenseless and the pillar of light rushed towards it at a dreadful speed.

Kanzaki manages to mess with Index's aim before the laser hit Touma.

His hand was knocked a good ways backwards.

Kamijou’s face was completely defenseless and the pillar of light rushed towards it at a dreadful speed.

“…Salvare000!!”[a 42]

The instant before the pillar of light struck his face, he heard Kanzaki yell.

It was not Japanese. He had never heard the word before. However, he had heard a similar word… no, a similar name once before. It had been during his confrontation with Stiyl at the dorm. He had said it was the name he must give when he used magic. His magic name.

Kanzaki’s approximately two meter long Japanese sword sliced through the air. Her Nanasen attack utilizing seven wires flew towards Index at a speed that seemed to slice through sound itself.

But, she did not aim for Index.

The wires tore through the fragile tatami mat at Index’s feet. Having lost her footing, Index fell backwards. The magic circles linked to her eyes moved and the pillar of light that was supposed to be aimed at Kamijou missed its target considerably.

The Dragon Breath reached so high that it could've cut through a satellite in space.

As if it were a giant sword being swung around, the pillar of light sliced through the wall and ceiling of the apartment. It even sliced through the pitch black clouds floating in the night sky. In fact, it could have even sliced through a satellite outside the atmosphere.

The breath caused everything hit by it to turn into feathers. There the same as the beam.

Not even a splinter remained where the walls and ceiling had been sliced.

Instead, the portions that had been destroyed had become feathers of light that were as pure a white as the pillar of light. They floated down. Kamijou had no idea what effects they might have had, but a few dozen of those feathers of light came floating down like winter snow on that summer night.

“Those are the same as Dragon Breath, the strike of the legendary dragon of St. George! Whatever power they may have, I highly doubt the human body will react well to them!”

Having heard Kanzaki’s warning and having been freed from the bonds of the pillar of light, Kamijou ran towards Index as she lay collapsed on the ground.

But before he could, Index turned her head.

Just like Kanzaki, Stiyl blocks the laser with Innocentius before it could hit Touma, Innocentius is powerful enough to hold it off.

But before he could, Index turned her head.

Like a giant sword being swung, the pillar of light was swung back down, slicing back through the night sky.

Kamijou was going to be caught by it again!

“Innocentius!”

As Kamijou prepared himself, a spiral of flame appeared in front of him.

The giant flame took on the form of a person and then spread out its arms to act as a shield against the pillar of light.

It was truly like a cross protecting man from sin.

“Go, esper!” shouted Stiyl. “Her time limit has already passed! If you want to do this, don’t even waste a second!!”

Kamijou did not respond with words or even turn around.

Before he could, he ran around the colliding flame and light towards Index. He did it because Stiyl wanted him to. He did it because he had heard Stiyl’s words and understood the meaning held in them and the feelings hidden behind them.

Kamijou ran.

He ran!!

Innocentius is capable of holding the laser thanks to its regeneration.

“Warning: Chapter 6, Verse 13. New enemy confirmed. Changing combat considerations. Beginning scan of the battlefield… done. Focusing on the destruction of the most difficult enemy, Kamijou Touma.”

Index swung her head around, pillar of light and all.

However, Innocentius moved to protect Kamijou at the same time. The light and flames continued to eat into each other in an extended conflict of destruction and regeneration.

Kamijou ran straight for the now defenseless Index.

Four more meters.

Three more meters.

Two more meters!

One more meter!!

The feathers Dragon Breath created floated down. Touma says he could negate them.

“Nooo!! Above you!!” Kanzaki yelled with a voice that seemed to tear through everything.

Kamijou had just reached the point where he could reach the magic circles in front of Index’s face if he stretched out his hand. Without stopping his feet, he looked up at the ceiling.

The feathers of light...

The few dozen shining feathers that had been created when Index’s pillar of light had destroyed the wall and ceiling were slowly floating down like snowflakes. They had just floated down far enough to be about to reach Kamijou’s head.

Despite knowing nothing about magic, Kamijou could still tell that having even one of those feathers touch him would have had extremely undesirable results.

He also knew that he could easily negate them by using his right hand.

John's Pen scans Innocentius and develops a counterspell.

But…

“Warning: Chapter 22, Verse 1. Analysis of the flame magic spell has succeeded. It is confirmed to be a distorted Christian motif described with runes. Adding in anti-Christian spells… Spell 1, Spell 2, Spell 3. Twelve seconds until the complete activation of the spell named Eli Eli Lema Sabachthani.”[2][a 4]

The pillar of light’s color turned from pure white to crimson.

Innocentius’s regeneration speed visibly slowed and the pillar of light pushed forward.

Touma destroys the collar.

Using his right hand to take out each and every one of the dozens of feathers of light would most likely take too much time. There was also a danger of Index managing to stand back up, and, most importantly, Innocentius clearly wouldn’t last that long.

The dozens of feathers of light floated above the single, controlled girl at his feet whose every feeling was being used.

It was a simple question of who to save and who to let fall.

The answer was obvious.

Kamijou Touma had not been swinging his right hand around for his own sake.

He had been fighting the magicians in order to save a certain girl.

(God, if this world, this story, is moving ahead according to the system you created…)

Kamijou spread open the five fingers of his clenched fist almost as if he were going to wash his palm.

(…then I first need to destroy that illusion!!)

Kamijou swung his right hand down.

He swung it down on the black cracks and the magic circles that had produced those cracks. Kamijou’s right hand easily tore them apart. It was so simple that it made him want to laugh at how much suffering they had caused. He broke through them as easily as the paper of a goldfish scoop once wet.

“…Warning: Final… Chapter, Verse Zero…. The collar has received fatal… damage… Regeneration… impossible… gone.”

The voice coming from Index’s mouth ended altogether.

The pillar of light and magic circles disappeared, and it was almost as if the cracks that had been running all across the room had been erased with an eraser.

LN Illustration

However, a feather hits his head 'killing' him.

At that moment, one of the feathers of light fell down on Kamijou Touma’s head.

He thought he heard someone shout.

He knew not whether it was Stiyl, Kanzaki, himself, or even Index who might have woken up.

As if he had been hit in the head by a hammer, all strength left his entire body, down to the very last finger.

Kamijou fell down and covered Index who was still collapsed on the floor.

It was like he protected her body from the falling feathers of light. The dozens of feathers of light floated down like snowflakes towards every part of Kamijou’s body.

Even so, Kamijou Touma smiled. He smiled and he never moved those fingertips again.

On that night, Kamijou Touma “died”.

Cryso Agori · Apr 2, 2022

Epilogue: The Conclusion of the Index of Prohibited Books Girl. Index-Librorum-Prohibitorum.

Doctor states that John's Pen really did hit a satellite.

“But having three people in Academy City without an ID is quite a surprise. Did you know a strange beam shot down one of our surveillance satellites? It’s left Judgment quite busy.”

Stiyl's exploding letter.

Index was one of the three without an ID. The other two were likely those magicians. Despite having chased her all over, they had brought her to the hospital and then disappeared without a trace.

“By the way, that letter you have there is from them, isn’t it?”

The frog-faced doctor stared at the envelope in Index’s hand that looked like it could hold even a love letter. With an angry look, Index ripped the envelope apart and took out the letter.

“Oh? I thought it was addressed to that boy, not you.”

“It doesn’t matter,” replied Index indignantly.

Since the letter was sent by “Stiyl Magnus” and started with “Dear Kamijou Touma”, it was simply too suspicious. A deadly malice could be felt from the heart sticker on the envelope.

At any rate, the letter read…

Any standard greetings would be a waste of time, so I’m skipping them.

Well you’ve done it, you bastard... and I’d like to go on like that, but if I threw all my personal feelings at you here, I would end up using up all the trees in the world and still not have enough paper for this letter. As such, I’ll end that there, you bastard.

It went on like that for 8 pages of stationery. Index silently and carefully read through it all, crushing up each page she finished and tossing it behind her. The doctor’s frog face grew more and more annoyed with each new balled-up page littering the floor of his workplace, but could not say anything to Index who emitted the odd intimidation of a bullied child on the verge of tears.

Now on the 9th and final page, the following was written:

For now, I will do the bare minimum of what etiquette demands of me for your help and explain the girl and her circumstances. I can’t have either of us owing each other anything. The next time we meet, we are sure to be enemies.

We don’t trust you scientists, so we examined her in our own way before the doctors saw her, and she seems to be fine. The higher ups in the Anglican Church seem to want to retrieve her as soon as possible now that her collar has been removed, but I think a more wait-and-see approach would be better. Although personally, I cannot stand to have her with you for even an instant longer.

However, she used magic based on the 103,000 grimoires when in the John’s Pen mode that the Church prepared. Now that John’s Pen has been destroyed, it is possible she can use magic with her own free will now. If the destruction of John’s Pen has caused her magic power to recover, we must reorganize our strength.

That said I don’t see how her magic power could have realistically recovered. It’s hardly worth warning you, but a magic god that can freely use those 103,000 grimoires is just that dangerous.

(By the way, this does not mean we have given up and are leaving her to you. Once we have gathered the information we need and gathered the equipment we need, we intend to come back to take that girl again. I don’t like catching people off guard, so make sure you prepare yourself for our arrival.)

P.S. This letter is made to self-destruct after it has been read. Even if you had realized the truth, you need to be punished for making that bet without consulting us. I hope this blows off a finger or two of that precious right hand of yours.

Post-letter, one of Stiyl’s runes was carved into the paper. As soon as Index frantically threw the letter away, it burst into pieces with a crackling noise.

The feather destroyed Kamijou's brain cells.

She knocked on the door twice.

It was all she did, but Index still felt like her heart would burst. While waiting for a response, she restlessly wiped the sweat from her palms onto the skirt of her habit and crossed herself.

“Yes?” replied the boy.

Index brought her hand to the door but hesitated, because he had not actually told her to come in and she wondered if she should ask before doing so. But, she feared having him say something like “God, you’re persistent. Just come in already.” She was very, very afraid.

She opened the door jerkily like a robot. Instead of a hospital room with six patients to the room, it was a private room. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all pure white which threw off her sense of distance, making the room seem oddly large.

The boy sat up in a pure white bed. The window next to the bed was open, and the pure white curtain fluttered slightly.

He was alive.

That truth alone almost brought tears to Index’s eyes. She was unsure if she should leap into his arms right then and there or if she should first give his head a good chomp for being so reckless.

“Um…” the boy said with a quizzical look on his face while bandages were wrapped around his head like a headband. “Did you go to the wrong room by any chance?”

The boy’s words were the polite and doubtful words of someone probing for information.

It was the voice of someone who had just received a phone call from a complete stranger.

—This was less amnesia and more a case of complete memory destruction.

The words the doctor had told Index in that freezing summer examination room floated up in the back of her mind.

—He did not just “forget” his memories. The brain cells were physically destroyed. I really don’t see how he could remember those things again. Honestly, did someone open up his skull and jam a stun gun inside?

Because of IB he couldn't be healed.

Index’s breathing stopped. She could not help but lower her gaze.

Serious damage had been done to the boy’s brain as a reaction to his forced overuse of his esper powers and as damage from the light Index herself had fired. (Or so she had heard. She did not remember it herself.)

Since it was physical damage —that is, just a wound— healing it might have been possible with recovery magic like with Index’s sliced open back. However, that transparent boy had a right hand called Imagine Breaker. It would negate all magic whether for good or evil.

In other words, even if she tried to heal the boy, recovery magic would be negated.

It all came down to the boy’s mind and heart being dead rather than his body.

Despite having his memories erased he still pretends to be the original Touma.

“Umm?”

The boy’s voice sounded unsure… no, worried.

For some reason, Index could not allow that transparent boy to speak like that. The boy was hurt for her sake. It was unfair for him to be worried for her.

Index forced down whatever it was that was gathering in her heart and then took a deep breath. She tried to smile and thought she might have managed.

The boy was transparent through and through, clearly showing that he did not remember Index at all.

“Um, are you okay? You look really sad.”

That transparent boy smashed her perfect smile to pieces all at once. Index recalled that the boy had always seemed able to see the true emotions hidden behind her smiles.

“I’m perfectly okay.” Index worked to keep her breathing steady. “Of course I’m okay.”

The transparent boy studied Index’s face for a bit.

“…Um. Did we know each other by any chance?”

That question was the hardest one for Index to bear, proving that the transparent boy knew nothing about her.

Nothing. Truly nothing.

“Yes…” replied Index as she stood in the middle of the hospital room. Her body language was similar to that of an elementary school student in a manga sent to stand out in the hall for forgetting her homework.

“Touma, you don’t remember? We met on your dorm balcony.”

“…I live in a dorm?”

“…Touma, you don’t remember? You destroyed my Walking Church with your right hand.”

“What’s a Walking Church? …Is it some kind of new jogging religion?”

“… …Touma, you don’t remember? You fought magicians for me.”

“Is Touma someone’s name?”

Index felt like she could not continue to speak for much longer.

“Touma, you don’t remember?”

Even so, she had to ask one last thing.

“Your friend, Index… loved you.”

“I’m sorry,” said the transparent boy. “And what is Index? It doesn’t sound like a person’s name. Do I have a cat or a dog?”

“Weh…” Index felt the urge to cry rise up as high as her chest, but she crushed that urge and forced it down.

She forced it down and smiled. It was hardly a perfect smile, but she did at least manage a crumbling smile.

“Just kidding! You totally fell for it! Ah ha ha ha!!”

“Hweh…?” Index froze in place.

The unsure expression left the transparent boy’s face. It was completely swapped out for a fierce and incredibly evil smile with bared canines.

“Why are you getting so emotional over being called a dog or cat, you masochist? What? Are you into things like collars or something? C’mon, I have no intention of having this end with me revealing a secret interest in kidnapping and confining little girls.”

At some point, color had filled the transparent boy.

Index did not understand why. She thought she hallucinated and rubbed her eyes. She thought she was hearing things and cleared out her ears. It felt like her perfectly sized habit had somehow become so big that one shoulder would slip off.

“Huh? Eh? Touma? Huh? I was told your brain cells had been destroyed so you forgot everything…”

“…C’mon now. Don’t make it sound like it would’ve been better if I had.” Kamijou sighed. “You really are slow. It’s true I chose to take those feathers of light at the very, very end. I’m no magician, so I have no idea what effects they had, but according to the doctor, my brain cells were damaged. As such, I was supposed to have amnesia, right?”

“You were supposed to?”

“Yup. After all, that damage was done by magic power, right?”

“Ah,” said Index as she realized something.

“That’s right, that’s it, and you’ve got it. Is three times enough? That makes things simple. I just touched my own head with my right hand and used Imagine Breaker on myself.”

“Ahh…” Index weakly sat down on the floor.

“Basically, I just had to negate the magical damage before it could reach my brain and do permanent damage there. If it were more like a physical phenomenon like Stiyl’s flames, it would never have worked, but those feathers of light were nothing more than a strange, supernatural power, so there was no problem.”

It was the same as how a bomb would not explode even if its fuse were lit as long as the fuse was cut before it reached the bomb. Before the damage running through Kamijou’s body could reach the brain, he had negated that damage itself.

It sounded ridiculous. It sounded absolutely ridiculous, but that boy’s Imagine Breaker could negate even the rules created by God.

As Index sat on the floor in a daze with her legs bent backwards to either side, she looked up at Kamijou’s face. Now she was sure, the shoulder of her absolute nun’s habit had indeed slipped down. Her expression was just as stupid looking.

“Ha ha ha. Man, you should’ve seen your face. With how you always get everyone to volunteer for your sake, I hope this incident has taught you something.”

“…” She could not respond.

“…Huh? …Um.”

Kamijou grew a bit unsure of himself and the tone of his voice dropped.

Index slowly lowered her head and her long silver bangs covered her expression. As she sat on the floor, her shoulders trembled slightly. It seemed she was gritting her teeth.

“Um, there is one thing I would like to ask. May I ask it, princess?” With an unpleasant tone in his voice, Kamijou returned to probing for information.

“What?” replied Index.

“Um… Are you angry by any chance?”

● ● ●

The nurse’s call rang.

The scream of a boy who had been bitten on the top of the head rang throughout the hospital.

Proof that Touma was faking and doesn't actually remember.

Perfectly fitting in with some angry sound effects, Index left the hospital room.

“Oh?” said a voice near the entrance. The frog-faced doctor entered just as Index exited and had almost bumped into her. “I came because the nurse’s call went off, but… Oh, now this is bad.”

The boy’s upper body had slipped from the bed, and he cried while holding the top of his head with both hands.

“I’m gonna die. I’m really gonna die,” he muttered to himself with such realism that it was frightening.

The doctor glanced back towards the open door to the hallway before turning back to Kamijou.

“Should you really have done that?”

“Done what?” replied the boy.

“You don’t remember anything, do you?”

The transparent boy fell silent. The reality that God had created was not as kind and warm as what he had told that girl.

As a result of the magic that had afflicted them, the boy and girl had collapsed in the apartment and the two naming themselves magicians had brought them to the hospital. The supposed magicians had told the doctors what had transpired, and the doctors had of course not believed them. The doctors had only told the boy all of it, because they felt he had the right to know.

To him, it was like reading someone else’s diary. To him, it mattered not what someone else’s diary said about a girl he could neither picture in his head nor recognize if he saw her.

What he had told her had been nothing more than something he had made up based on what someone else’s diary had said. Even if it said that that right hand that was wrapped in bandages held a power that could destroy even the rules created by God…

He did not really believe it.

“But should I really have done that?” asked the transparent boy.

Even though it had been someone else’s diary, it had been so enjoyable… and so heartbreaking. His missing memories would never come back, but he had somehow managed to think of that as a very sad thing.

“For some reason, I didn’t want to make that girl cry. That was how I felt. I don’t know what kind of feeling it was and I’ll probably never remember, but that was how I felt all the same.” The transparent boy gave a truly colorless smile. “Doctor, why did you believe that story? I mean, being a doctor is about as far as you can get from things like magicians and magic.”

“Not necessarily.” A proud look appeared on the doctor’s frog-like face. “Hospitals and the occult have a surprisingly close relationship. …And I’m not talking about ghosts haunting hospitals. Depending on their religion, some people refuse to take blood transfusions, refuse surgery, and will sue you even though you saved their life. For a doctor, it is best to just do what the patient says when it comes to the occult.”

The doctor smiled, though he did not know why smiled. When he saw the boy smile, he instinctively smiled back like a mirror image.

Or perhaps it was the boy that was a mirror of the doctor. That was just how hollow the boy’s smile was. It was like he could feel no sorrow.

The boy was really, truly transparent.

“I may still remember more than you think.”

The frog-faced doctor looked at the transparent boy in slight surprise.

“Your memories were ‘killed’, brain cells and all.”

What a ridiculous thing for me to say, thought the doctor.

But, he continued.

“To liken the human body to a computer, your hard disk was utterly fried. If there’s no data left in your brain, just where are these memories supposed to be?”

Somehow, the doctor felt the boy’s response would blow that ridiculous logic away.

“Isn’t that obvious?” replied the transparent boy. “In my heart.”

Baka-Tsuki's Translator's Notes

Translator's Notes

↑ Genius and disaster are both pronounced “tensai” in Japanese.

↑ The word 'system' is written with the base kanji for the word 'miracle'. So the sentence literally implies that God's miracles are being negated.

↑ When a Kyoto native asks if a guest wants to eat chazuke, it may really mean that the person has overstayed and is being politely asked to leave.

↑ Index's magic declaration was originally revealed in the Subete Guidebook and is only included here because it is the only place in the series where it makes sense to.

↑ Incorrectly referred to as Golden Dawn in older translations, S∴M∴ is referred to many times in the series. S∴M∴ will now be referred to as Stella Matutina from here onwards by js06's suggestion.

↑ Magic Society was spoken in Japanese while the bolded words were spoken in English.

↑ A reference to the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure manga series.

↑ An agathion is a familiar spirit which appears only at midday in the shape of a human or an animal, or even within a talisman, bottle or magic ring.

↑ "Blue-haired pierced-eared" is "Aogami Pierce" in Japanese. That sounds like a name, so it is used as if it is his name from here on out.

↑ Biri Biri is Japanese onomatopoeia for an electric shock.

↑ The original Japanese refers to the condition as Perfect Memorization Ability, though it is describing the same condition. While there exist many people with excellent memorization, regardless of what is said in many fictional material, to date, there have been no verified cases of an individual possessing a truly eidetic memory.

↑ Due to peculiarities of the Japanese language, many of Stiyl's spells contain words which have different pronounciations to what would normally been spoken. In the following passage, what Stiyl says will be in bold and what would normally have been said will follow in parentheses.

↑ Only notable due to the dragon imagery commonly associated with Imagine Breaker, but the Japanese word for tornado literally means "winding dragon".

↑ Magic god is Majin(魔神) which could also mean demon god

↑ In the original Japanese Kamijou erroneously refers to the Anti-Skill as the police in this scene.

↑ A randoseru is a backpack that is commonly used by Japanese elementary schoolchildren.

↑ This is a reference to Japanese candy known as Chocoballs. If you are lucky, the package will have either a gold angel or silver angel printed on it. One gold angel or five silver angels can be exchanged for a can of toys.

↑ The original Japanese refers to the spell as Ars Magna.[a 29] However, events in Volume 2 revise the names and functions of the spells.

↑ When referring to original grimoires, the Japanese gives the English word “Origin” in furigana. This was changed to Original since it’s almost the same and sounds better in English.

↑ Magician is pronounced majutsushi; Sorcerer is pronounced madoushi.

↑ Literally translated as “God Purifying Demon Destroyer”; (神浄の討魔) is pronounced “Kamijou no Touma” but uses different kanji than Touma’s name (上条当麻). The current translation has been suggested by js06.

↑ Nanasen means “Seven Flashes”.

↑ Shichiten Shichitou means “Seven Heavens Seven Swords”.

↑ An iai strike is a technique that involves drawing the sword out of its sheath, striking with the sword and then resheathing it.

↑ Yuisen means "Sole Flash".

↑ Just like in the prologue, this is playing off the fact that “genius” and “disaster” are both pronounced the same in Japanese.

↑ As mentioned in an earlier note, there have been no verified cases of an individual possesssing a truly eidetic memory.

↑ The spell takes its name from one of Jesus' last sayings as he was crucified on the Cross of Golgotha.

Baka-Tsuki's Alternate Translations

Alternate Translations

↑ Kanji: Person with Superpowers

↑ Kanji: Person without Powers

↑ Kanji: Timetable

↑ Kanji: Super Electromagnetic Cannon

↑ Kanji: Archive

↑ Kanji: Illusion Destroyer

↑ Latin: Dedicated

↑ Kanji: Security Officer

↑ Kanji: Public Morals Committee Member

↑ Furigana: Rosenkreuz; Kanji: Rosy Cross

↑ Kanji: Golden Dawn

↑ Kanji: Ignition Ability

↑ Kanji: See Through Ability

↑ Kanji: Unreality

↑ Kanji: Physical Examination

↑ Kanji: Lesser Key of Solomon

↑ Kanji: Book of Nameless Rituals

↑ Kanji: Cannibalism Ritual Book

↑ Kanji: Book of Necromancy

↑ Kanji: God Killing Spear

↑ Kanji: Familiar

↑ Kanji+Latin: Index of Prohibited Books

↑ Furigana: Arsenal

↑ Kanji: Flower Fortress

↑ Kanji: King of the Witch Hunters; Latin: Innocent

↑ Kanji: Church of Necessary Evils; Latin: Necessary

↑ Kanji: Vampire Killing Crimson Cross

↑ Kanji: Automatic Secretary

↑ Kanji: Pure Gold Conversion

↑ Kanji: Cross of Golgotha

↑ Kanji: Roman Orthodox Church

↑ Kanji: Russian Established Church

↑ Kanji: British Purtian Church

↑ Kanji: Inquisition Officer

↑ Kanji: Mind Reading Ability

↑ Kanji: Brainwashing Ability

↑ Kanji: Memory Manipulation

↑ Kanji: Person with Strong Powers

↑ Kanji: Mind Induction

↑ Kanji: Thought User

↑ Kanji: Killing Breath of the Dragon King

↑ Latin: Save

↑ Kanji+Aramaic: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Cryso Agori · Apr 4, 2022

OT Volume 2 Prologue

Touma's friend consider Touma a magnet for bad luck.

Such misfortune. It truly was unfortunate.

However, this was the essence of Kamijou Touma's everyday's life. Additionally, he was popular simply because his friends felt that "with him around, he’ll absorb our bad luck like a lightning rod.”

Explanation on Touma's lost memories.

The problem was the precariousness of the situation.

It was imperative that he avoided the label, "someone with only manga on his bookshelf". Of course, his thought processes were abnormal. An ordinary person would disregard unscientific claims like “to understand a person, one must simply examine their bookshelf.”

It was because Kamijou Touma had lost his memory.

Naturally, everything was not forgotten. He still knew how to read traffic lights and operate his cell phone. He lost his “memories”; “knowledge” was intact.

Though he knew how to use a cell phone, his brain would wonder “Eh? Where I did I put my phone?” or “Hold on, since when did I have a phone?”

His apparent "knowledge" was like a dictionary.

For example, one might know that “apples” were the “fruit of the Rosaceous deciduous tree which bloom in spring with a round shape.” But, to decide if it were tasty, one had to eat an apple. His brain lacked the diary-like memory of “I ate a delicious apple on month X, day Y.”

He was told that the reason was because the “experience memory” (memories) part of his brain, rather than the “meaningful memory” (information) part, was destroyed. However, this was not the main issue.

Kamijou Touma wanted to know what sort of person he was before he "lost his memory"; even if it meant that he had to adhere to some baseless claim like “one must simply examine their bookshelf.” But, it did not mean that Kamijou’s expression was that of pain.

After all, Kamijou was not alone in the world and was not thrown into some unknown environment. He had food, clothes and friends he could call companions.

Index states that the Walking Church is the materialization of God's protection.

Index seemed unhappy somehow and began to get angrier. She frowned, “Touma, this clothing is a materialization of God’s protection. I never even thought about how hard it is to wear, how hot it is, how it’s troublesome or how there should be a summer or winter version.”

2.3 million students have powers.

...Perhaps to most, such a conversation would have been too out of the ordinary. But, as it was Academy City, such things were very common parts of their everyday lives. As the 2.3 million citizens of the city had some sort of power, it could have been called a large-scale "power development group".

IB can negate gods miracles.

In fact, Kamijou was an esper. He was the boy called the "Imagine Breaker". He possessed a right hand that could "negate any supernatural power, even one of God's miracles".

Touma recognizes something was wrong with Himegami.

Over there, on that table, sat a sleeping miko. Jellyfish-like shiny black hair was scattered, covering the miko's face.

This... What's with this scenario? Kamijou cried out in his heart.

Not right, something's not right. Kamijou's misfortune radar warned him. Don't get involved with her, don't get involved with her, you'll definitely meet misfortune! When it happens, it won't be something solved by amnesia!

Chapter 1, Part 1

The Calculate Fortress is inaccessible to anyone without a level 4 teleport ability.

It was a windowless room.

There were no doors, stairs, lifts, or corridors. As a part of the building, the room had no functionality. There was no way to enter the building except via a Level 4 esper’s teleportation ability. It could have been said to be the most impenetrable stronghold.

The Calculate Fortress is stronger than a nuclear shelter.

A single magician stood within the Calculate Fortress building that’s strength easily surpassed that of a nuclear shelter.

Academy City uses drugs, body manipulation and hypnotism to develop esper powers.

Instead of the building, he should not have been in the city entirely. He was a member of the Christian sect Necessarius while Academy City was a purely scientific body that rejected the supernatural and instead produced espers via drugs, body manipulation and hypnotism.

Stiyl meets Aleister, the head of Academy City.

Despite it all, he was still fazed by the scene before him.

The area was too large to be described as in-doors and there was supposedly no lighting. However, the room was filled with starry lights because of the numerous flashing screens and buttons. Equips of all sizes, thousands of cables and tubes were gathered at the center of the room like blood vessels on the floor.

An enormous cylinder was centered in the room.

It was four meters in diameter and over ten meters in height. The cylindrical container of reinforced glass was filled with a red liquid.

The color was said to represent a weakly alkaline recovery fluid. Of course, to magician Stiyl, the scientific were not in his field of expertise and would not understand even after an explanation.

A human wearing a green surgical cloak floated upside down.

No word beside “human” could have described him. The silver-haired “human” appeared like a man but somehow feminine, like an adult but somehow childlike, like a saint but somehow criminal.

Had he obtained all of the possibilities that a "human" can only dream of? Or did he give up on all the possibilities that a "human" had?

Whichever it was, the only word that could describe him was “human”.

"Everyone who comes here observes me and has a response similar to yours.” The "human" in the cylinder spoke. He sounded like a man but somehow feminine, like an adult but somehow childlike, like a saint but somehow criminal.

"...Why let a human do it when machines can as well?"

It was how that "human" existed.

His own life was maintained by machines and so it was meaningless for him to act as he did. This "human" who seemed like he had extended his lifespan to 1700 years was now before Stiyl.

Stiyl felt fear.

He feared not the scientific technology of Academy City that could operate lives for humans but the way the “human” existed. As he had the option of machinery, he could have abandoned his body of flesh without a thought and offer himself to the machines.

It was terrifying to meet a “human” twisted enough to live that way.

"I suppose you want to know why I called you here..." The General Director of Academy City, the "human" Aleister who floated upside-down, spoke with a stern tone. "The situation has become complicated as of now."

Hearing Aleister say this, Stiyl inadvertently frowned. He could not imagine that the “human” before him would show weakness with a statement like “the situation has become complicated as of now.”

"It's regarding Deep Blood, am I correct?"

Stiyl, who normally neglected honorifics, used them with Aleister.

Of course, rather than his status as "liaison for the Anglican Church," he also he knew that if Aleister detected hostility, he would be cut into pieces.

It was not an overall issue of hostility; even if it were misunderstanding or misconception, if Aleister decided it, Stiyl’s life would end.

It was because they were in the enemy’s base, the command center for 2.3 million espers.

Aleister states that there are more than 70,000 ways to clean up esper-related messes.

"Fuu."

Noticing Stiyl's trembling, Aleister spoke. "It wouldn't be a problem if this were an esper-only issue, because it would be one of the espers I 'had'. As long as it's a citizen in this city that creates a commotion, there are about 70,632 ways to handle it and clean up..."

Because of Izzard Aleister must call on the help of magicians.

The words invoked no particular feeling from Stiyl. He was uninterested in Academy City procedure and lacked understanding of how the science side operated.

"...The complications are because a magician has taken part in this when he should have not.”

Thus, Stiyl pondered it.

Deep Blood: The Blood-Sucking Killer. The name came not from Academy City databases but the Great English Library.

From the wording, one could imagine that its purpose was to kill "something” which may or may not have existed. None knew what sort of ability it was or whether or not it was even genuine. All that was known was that a girl possessed the power.

In particular, the girl with Deep Blood was being held prisoner by a magician.

Not because of power but because it's a political issue, also says that he can make the espers of Academy City fight for him.

The situation was that simple. “Fu. Because the enemy is an outsider to this city, it has become troublesome.”

Aleister remained inverted and spoke. "Of course, it would be trivial to send out 2.3 million espers to crush one or two magicians. But, this isn't the main issue. If we did that, it would mean that the science side defeated magicians."

Academy City and Necessarius each had its own “world”, a sphere of influence.

“Powers” and the “supernatural”… it was because each monopolized technologies that they could keep their positions. If Academy City, which controlled “espers”, declared that they had defeated a “magician”, those on the magic side would not remain silent.

For example, if the latest fighter jets crash-landed in enemy territory, the wreckage could reveal the secret technology.

Espers and Magicians working together is also precarious.

“It seems it’d difficult for you to send in reinforcements.” Stiyl said calmly. Espers and magicians coordinating… may have been too precarious. It was already problematic to decide between the two who would lead because of the excuse of checking the other’s battle abilities in order to spy on the technology.

Despite the tension between the Magic and Science sides of the world the events of vol 1 were swept under the rug.

Considering this, Stiyl formed a question. Two weeks ago, he entered Academy City, and had a battle with an esper. Why was the battle allowed so silently? Perhaps, beyond Stiyl’s knowledge, the two had made an agreement. Or perhaps because he was a Level 0, he held little importance.

However this time the situation is more overt.

The situation at the moment, however, was different. Most of the espers and magicians involved were considered “important people”.

Stiyl is an exception.

"I see. So that's why you specifically asked me, an 'exception', to be here." Stiyl's expression did not change but seemingly had confirmed something.

Essentially, Stiyl Magnus was an exception. There would have been problems if espers from the science side defeated magicians from the magic side. However, there would be no issue if Stiyl, a member of the magic side, defeated a magician. Additionally, Stiyl’s superior also felt it important that the magician be defeated by a magician for the sake of cleaning house.

Izzard is hiding out in Misawa Cram School. Some of its history.

"This is the blueprint of the 'battlefield' in question."

It was unknown what technology was used to form an image in the darkness. The hologram seemed like computer graphics and the image of a building seemed ordinary enough. Then, a positional diagram of the "battlefield" appeared.

The words “Misawa Cram School” were written on the corner of the diagram.

"Through the initial building blueprints and various satellite images, we have analyzed the interior layout." Aleister's voice lacked cadence and tone. "However, we know not the magic equipment inside. Regardless, we have no understanding of magic."

"..."

"This 'Misawa Cram School' is somewhat unique.” Aleister began to explain. Incidentally, Academy City was an educational enterprise consisting of hundreds of schools of different sizes. Also, the Curriculum included the paranormal, such as esper development.

It was said that Misawa Cram School catered to all of the levels of society in the country and was set up as a school in Academy City to learn the secrets of esper development exclusive to the city. It had the makings of a large corporate spy incident.

However, Misawa Cram School, which knew nothing about power development, gave off a strange impression. Perhaps it was a science cult that used the exclusivity of the scientific knowledge as a reason they were chosen by God, creating a new religion.

Misawa Cram School had even begun to go out of control and rejected the main branch’s orders and did something extreme: they imprisoned the Deep Blood in accordance to the religion.

Cryso Agori · Apr 13, 2022

OT Vol 2 Chapter 1, part 1.

Misawa Cram School motive.

"But why must they imprison Deep Blood? Are their teachings like 16th century fanatics to achieve immortality?"

"No. Misawa Cram School lacks true existence. Essentially, they simply desire a unique esper whose power cannot be duplicated. Anyone would do.”

"?"

"Levels in Academy City are decided by aptitude and power. Thus, they wanted to take the Deep Blood and examine her. As long as they could use the slogan 'we duplicated a super rare ability', students lamenting that they have ordinary abilities or Level 2s or 3s will be attracted by it...

Even with a brain transplant espers cannot change their ability.

Such idiocy. They cannot change their developed power even with a brain transplant."

Crowley knows about IB.

However, it sounded strange. Even if having a rare ability were a cultural unique in Academy City, how could anyone believe that Deep Blood, from the magic side, existed in a scientific environment?

Just as Stiyl's considered it, Aleister casually stated the answer.

"Furthermore, objects are more valuable if rare. As long as such basic logic exists, there will be points of contention. There are many espers with unknown truths behind their powers beside Imagine Breaker. Some espers possess such tremendous power that none have seen them in a serious state.”

Izzard appeared and complicated the situation by usurping Misawa Cram School.

It if it were just that Deep Blood was imprisoned, the situation would be simple. However, as Aleister had said, conflicts in the city had 70,632 solutions.

This was not the issue.

Before the situation was settled, a magician came from the outer world and invaded Misawa. He aimed for Misawa. Instead of destroying it he usurped it, transforming it into such a complicated situation.

"..." Stiyl silently stared at the diagram of Misawa. He could not see any objects modified by magic. A tension like charging into complete darkness enveloped Stiyl. Though an uncomfortable sensation, it was one he was accustomed to. It was a battle of life or death, nil or one.

He was rather unhappy that he was to battle alone in a city housing 2.3 million espers.

Crowley says IB is a magician's natural enemy.

"Not quite." Seemingly reading Stiyl's mind, Aleister spoke. Perhaps there was a machine that could analyze a person’s mind with temperatures or blood flows. "I do possess an esper who is a magician’s natural enemy." Stiyl immediately froze.

Imagine Breaker: the boy who fought a life or death battle against Stiyl two weeks priors. All supernatural powers, regardless whether magic, ESP, or a Godly miracle were negated upon contact with his right hand. Such a power was considered an exception among exceptions.

Crowley's reasoning to team up Touma with Stiyl.

"But, didn't you say that you can't use any espers to beat a magician?"

"You need not worry about it." Aleister spoke in a tone as if he had memorized it, "Firstly, as a level 0 he carries no valuable information. If I were to allow working with you, there is no fear of an information leak."

"..."

"Secondly, his lacks the intelligence to analyze magic side technology and duplicate it accordingly. Thus, even if he were to go with you, your technology would not be stolen by us."

Stiyl cannot understand what Crowley's thinking.

That old fox... for the first time, Stiyl harbored tangible hatred for Aleister. What is this 'human' in front of me thinking about? Stiyl did not understand. No matter what, Imagine Breaker definitely should not have been classified as Level 0. He experienced it first hand in battle.

It was true that the functionality of Imagine Breaker was not something that could be understood with an examination or two and he most certainly could not duplicate it and return it to the Church. However, it should have been the same case for Academy City. Or rather, Stiyl hope it was the same. If Academy City had a way to duplicate Imagine Breaker, the Church’s existence would have been jeopardized. Even weapons with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of year could be destroyed by contact with his hand.

Crowley does not seem to treasure Touma.

However, Aleister did not seem to treasure the precious Imagine Breaker at all. It was as if he were giving a saint a number of trials. He was like a heavy hammer striking a piece of scorching metal into the shape of a powerful sword.

Deep Blood is a myth to even magicians.

"...Deep Blood." Stiyl muttered. His expression was like that of a scholar perplexed by something found that was unexplainable. "Does Deep Blood really exist? If it does that means--"

Stiyl could not continue.

Deep Blood. If there were Deep Blood, then the species to be killed must have existed. In other words, if the existence of Deep Blood were to be believed, then the other something had to exist as fact.

"Hm, the occult is not a scientist’s specialty. But, you magicians—including your world— have to admit that some truly supernatural exists, right?”

Of course. Stiyl cursed in his heart.

Magicians use their lifeforce to cast magic, but while magicians have finite lifeforce, vampires have infinite lifeforce and as such infinite magical energy.

The magical energy that magicians used could have been described as similar to gasoline. In other words, using their lifespan and life-force, the “crude oil”, was refined via breathing, blood flowing, and thinking into “gasoline” for simpler use.

Thus, magicians were not omnipotent. No matter how they sought for high-leveled magic, the amount of gasoline was finite.

However, the certain creature had no such a limitation.

That certain creature had the ridiculous characteristic of immortality, meaning that they possessed infinite magic power. Even if the Earth’s resources were to eventually run dry, the magical power of the creatures would continue on.

Cain's descendants: the vampires.

One vampire is compared to a global nuclear calamity.

They were, for certain, not the feeble creatures depicted in fiction that could be dealt with by a cross or sunlight. In fact, one was enough to initiate a nuclear-level global calamity.

Crowley compares Esper Powers to schrodinger's cat.

"Hm." In the huge container, the still inverted stared with dullness at Stiyl. "Speaking of which, do you know what do we mean by esper powers?"

"...No." Stiyl could not possibly understand neither did he believe Aleister would tell him. It was because if the moment came that Stiyl knew the enemy’s secrets, he would no longer have the option to escape alive.

"In fact, esper powers are but a difference in perspective." Aleister spoke casually. "Have you heard of 'Schrödinger's Cat'? It is the most famous animal abuse case in the world."

"...?"

"I shall gloss over the details. Overall, it roughly experimented that 'reality is seen differently from human to human'. Of course, the micro and macro physical laws are different, so this cannot explain it all."

"The rules of this world can be seen as a microscopic (micro) and telescopic (macro). As for which were micros and which were macros, it was said that those were also within Aleister's range of research."

Just like Esper powers Deep Blood is the same.

"...I don't really get what you mean."

"It is alright, there is no need for you to. If you did, I would have to kill you immediately." Aleister nonchalantly told him. "...Speaking of which, it is I who truly does not understand. Is there really a Deep Blood? And what is the difference? It is just like the cat in the box."

Esper powers change the macro and micro, Crowley wants to replicate esper powers.

Aleister stated that espers changed the world like how litmus papers changed colors in different acidities.

The purpose was not to marvel at the change in color from red to blue but to wonder why it had changed and whether one could manipulate such a rule. Though Aleister controlled 2.3 million espers, they were not enough to declare on the entire world. Espers are not an aim but a means.

Crowley really believes machines can replace humans.

Stiyl trembled. The human before him truly believed that machines could replace all human actions.

To this human, which parts were mechanical?

To this human, which parts were human?

Crowley says Deep Blood proves vampires exist, if that's the case then what does Imagine Breaker prove?

"That is right." The human spoke, the being that appeared like a man but somehow feminine, like an adult but somehow childlike, like a saint but somehow criminal formed an expression which could have been considered a smile and continued. "…If Deep Blood proves the existence of vampires, whose existence does Imagine Breaker prove?"

Part 2

Himegami says she's not a miko but a spell caster.

As Kamijou prepared to force Aogami Pierce to remain silent, the miko spoke. “I’m not a miko.”

“What?”

The black-haired girl who looked exactly like a miko, whose picture could have been used in an encyclopedia entry on mikos, caused the present company to stare at her.

“Eh… If you’re not a miko, what are you?” Kamijou asked, having somehow become the group’s representative.

"I'm a spell caster."

"..."

Completely silent. The sounds of the shop’s cable broadcast seemed distant. For some reason, despite his amnesia, Kamijou felt that he had experienced it before. But, of more importance, why was Index trembling? Kamijou cried in his heart.

BAM! Index slammed the table with both hands. Before the shakes on the tray could even jump up, Index roared. "What kind of spell caster? Kabbalah? Knoch? Hermes? McCue's idol or Modern Astrology? Don't just give us something that vague and tell us your specialty, school, magic name and order name, idiot!"

Touma and the gang are suddenly surrounded by ten people, no one notices.

“Ah.” Index, who had turned her head aside, seemed to notice something.

Kamijou wondered whether the shop attendants would chase them out for their riotousness.

At that moment, Nh… people?

As he felt that something was amiss, Kamijou realized that the table the four of them sat at was surrounded by about ten people.

"…"

Why didn't we notice? Kamijou wondered.

It was perhaps the same distance as the space between customers and attendants waiting for orders. The group of ten looked over in that direction, seemingly desiring to surround the table. It was incredible that no one had noticed.

Also, though shop was crowded, no one had noticed the anomaly. Essentially, these individuals could erase their presences like professional assassins.

All the people had emotionless expressions, so does Himegami.

"…"

All of them, in their 20s and 30s, were dressed in the same Western suit

If they were squeezed together in a train station, they could cause those around them to not remember their faces and names. However, their expressions lacked emotions completely. And, because of that, they contrasted from their surroundings.

Emotionless expressions…?

Kamijou wondered where had seen the expression before and looked back around the table.

…The anonymous miko…

Her expression was still deadpan even with ten men surrounding the teenagers.

The people are Misawa Cram school teachers.

“100 yen more.” She spoke as she silently stood. Her attitude was as casual as meeting someone for a planned arrangement, showing her unwariness of them.

One of them backed away and made a path while another respectfully handed over a 100 yen coin to the palm of the miko without a word.

“Eh? Ah? So you know these people?” Oblivious of the situation, Kamijou spoke.

"..." She looked around herself, seemingly pondering something. “Nn. They’re cram school teachers.”

A nonchalant tone. The miko walked down to the first floor and the ten men silently followed behind like bodyguards or even shadows.

The familiar buzzing and wired music seemed far away as the volume softened. When everyone had left, Aogami Pierce finally spoke. “Hold on, why did cram school teachers bring her back? They’re not elementary school disciplinary officers.”

Part 3

Index can sense magic and rituals.

"...That's strange. Touma. I seem to sense that mana is being gathered." Index stared at Kamijou and muttered.

"...The attribute is earth, color is green. This ritual... uses a medium to introduce mana and acts through conscious intervention..."

She seemed to mutter her thoughts. Kamijou knew not what she spoke of and only stared at her. As he did so, she finally spoke.

“Oi, Index!”

“It looks like someone just set up a magical array around here. I’ll go check it, go home first, Touma!” Just like that, Index vanished into the alley.

Stiyl approaches Touma.

“It’s been a while, Kamijou Touma.” His foot, about to step into the alley, stopped.

The words “It’s been a while” were essential taboo for Kamijou. He remembered information like the Japanese language or first grade mathematics but he had no memories. He remembered nothing, not even the trivial from when he bought a game to the important like how he scored on his end-of term exams. As he could not remember names and faces, hearing something like “It’s been a while” caused him to only give his most sincere false smile.

It was to protect her happiness. He had decided he must never let others realize his amnesia. With such a conviction, he turned to look behind him.

Stiyl distracted Index with Opila runes.

"Ah, don't worry about Index, I just used Opila runes. She probably just detected the magic flow and went to take a look."

Touma grasps knowledge of runic magic despite losing his memories.

Kamijou was stunned.

Runic magic: a magical language that the Germanic people adopted in the 2nd century A.D. Essentially, they were “words of power” such as “kenaz,” flames. With “kenaz” on paper, flames would form over.

...What’s going on? He could not voice his concerns. Rather than the priest’s speaking of runic magic, it was because such ridiculous knowledge flowed naturally from Kamijou’s mind.

It was certainly abnormal. It was like running a rusted locomotive into the middle of a clear river, like a large gaping hole in a logical world. It had mixed into a world where green meant go and text messages cost money. The thing called magic had weaved into everyday life.

What kind of world did the Kamijou Touma of the past live in?

For the first time, Kamijou feared his past self.

Touma instinctively senses danger and blocks Stiyl's attack.

The scented priest seemed to see something in Kamijou’s eyes and closed one eye and smiled. Kamijou knew not what was going on and neither was he in the mood to speak to others. He could only ambiguously smile and suppress the nebulous feeling.

As Kamijou smiled, the red-haired priest pulled out what appeared to be a card and spoke. “Don’t smile with everything. Are you ready to die?” (English) He smiled like melting wax, the face extending sideways.

A chill. The knowledge that Kamijou still had told him that there was danger. Without time to think, he raised his right hand.

Quickly raising his right hand before his own eyes, as if he were blocking light shining into eyes, and, at the same instant, the priest’s right hand burst out flames. As if he were hosing out gasoline, a fiery-red sword of flames formed.

There was no delay. No hesitation, no mercy—the sword was swung great force, downwards at Kamijou. The instant the sword and hand came in contact, the former exploded like a ball of gas the flames scattered.

The flames absorbed oxygen and released a terrifying sound as a 3000 degree flaming Hell formed a vortex that invaded all nearby. With a boom, the flames did not completely stop. It shined but, without a moment’s notice, vanished as if broken.

"Ha... hah..." Kamijou did not lower in a panic his right hand that protected his face. He continued to breathe heavily.

Imagine Breaker: the mysterious power hidden in Kamijou’s right hand. No matter what the super natural power, even one of God’s miracles, would vanish completely on contact.

Touma is frightened by his ability to block the flame sword without prior warning.

"Hah... hah...!"

Seeing the stiff, trembling and immobile Kamijou, the priest finally smiled. “Yes. Yes. That’s the face I want. The relationship between Kamijou Touma and Stiyl Magnus should be like this. Don’t make me repeat myself: our relationship isn’t such that could call each other comrade after working together once.”

The priest’s smile ruptured and melted. Kamijou, on the other hand, could not respond. It was not that he feared the abnormal power within him, neither did he fear the priest called Stiyl Magnus. If it were a question of fears, there was but one issue.

What bothered him was that he could actually respond in time to block the attack, a flame sword at that without a thought. In other words, his knowledge feared him.

It was truly frightening.

Touma's previous battle knowledge comes to him.

"Wha... are you—" Kamijou frantically took two, three steps because the knowledge leftover from the previous Kamijou Touma was telling him that an enemy was there.

There was no time for him to fight the enemy within. As of then, the most important issue was the enemy without. Perhaps, as a result of the knowledge imprinted in his mind, Kamijou growled and entered a fighting stance of no particular style. He was in fact quite surprised he was accustomed to fighting.

Opila runes keep people away, allowing Stiyl's explosion to go unnoticed.

Facing Kamijou, the pseudo-priest magician chuckled. “Hn? I want to tell you a little secret.”

What nonsense are you spouting? As Kamijou thought as such, Stiyl extracted an envelope.

It seemed like it contained much information. Is he really going to tell me some secrets? Kamijou frowned. This guy just made a huge explosion on this one direction, 3-lane road as wide as a runway. Now he’s trying to tell me a secret...?

...?

Considering it, Kamijou realized something. There was a large explosion and yet the surroundings were not involved in the commotion.

...!?

No. It was then that Kamijou realized the truth. Rather than a lack of commotion, there was a lack of people. On the said road as wide as a runway, there were department stores lined up on either side. But, giving it thought, there were no people, no cars, only Kamijou and Stiyl.

The windmill turbines rattled, causing echoes through the empty street like a laughing skeleton. From far away, the ringing of a siren was heard in the empty crossing.

"I said it before," Perhaps to break the silence of the night cost, Stiyl chuckled. “I used Opila runes.”

Stiyl has a letter opening spell.

“Ehwaz.” Stiyl said and flicked the large fan-mail like envelope with his index finger. It spun like a Frisbee and slowly landed in Kamijou’s hands. There were mysterious words on it that seemed to seal the documents inside. As Stiyl muttered, the words began to glow. The seal opened down the middle as if cut by a knife.

Stiyl explaining Misawa Cram School.

"Have you heard of Misawa Cram School, the prep school?" Stiyl asked as if singing. A large amount of information appeared on every scrap of paper and, like a magic carpet, only the necessary information flew out of the envelope and floated around Kamijou.

Lacking memories, Kamijou could only scan the name through his own knowledge. However, he still had no impression of the name Misawa. It had seemed his past self lacked interest in college entrance exams.

“It’s said to be the prep school with the largest market in the nation.” Stiyl spoke with melancholy. A prep school, as the name may have implied, that was tuition based. Repeat students who failed their college entrance exams gathered there to study.

However, the “promotion prep class” in Academy City has another meaning. It was to provide to those individuals who already had the potential to enter college but chose to spend a year to study.

A piece of paper floated in front of Kamijou. It seemed that Misawa Cram School provided not only “promotion classes” but “pre-exam express” services to those students yet to take an exam.

"...So, why are you telling me about prep classes? Is there a discount offered when you introduce it to friends?" Kamijou asked Stiyl with an obvious look of distrust. Kamijou could not imagine any sort of relationship the cologne reeking priest had with a preparatory school.

“It’s like this,” Stiyl nonchalantly began. “A girl is imprisoned in Misawa and it’s my job to save her.”

Touma reviewing the information in the letter.

Completely stunned, Kamijou stared at Stiyl. Instead of the frightening word “imprisoned”, it was because he suspected that the man was serious. Of course, even if Stiyl were mad, it was nothing to Kamijou. However, as the man could use flames like weapons, it would have been dangerous for him to go berserk.

“Hm, I thought that you would understand if I showed you the information.” Stiyl lifted his index finger up and the envelope in Kamijou’s hands released printing paper that continued to fly around Kamijou like snowflakes. One particular piece was a positional diagram of Misawa Cram School.

However, the picture of the diagram contained errors in regards to the measures when one compared the infrared and ultrasonic scans. Naturally, it was an unknown place that consumed much electricity.

A Misawa Cram School electricity bill… Even after investigating the electrical consumption of each room, the sum did not tally up. There seemed to have been a room where “something” was consuming large sums of electricity.

A personnel entry and exit list of Misawa Cram School… The teachers and students seemed to take in a myriad of foods. Some investigators acted as garbage men and checked the trash but the numbers there did not tally either. Misawa seemed to provide food for other “people” inside the building.

The final sheet of paper… was a reported sighting one month prior of a girl walking into the Misawa building. According to a caretaker of the student dormitory, the girl was never again seen at the dorms.

“As of now, it would seem that Misawa Cram School has become a phony religious cult devoted to scientific worship.” Stiyl said smoothly.

Scientific worship in Academy City.

Scientific worship...? Kamijou frowned in surprise.

"You're, talking about those things, right? Gimmicks like how God's real identity is that of a UFO or with an extraction of a Saint's DNA, they could make clones, right...?"

The concept that science and religion are unrelated was rather shallow. In the Western world, there were many doctors and scientists who were also Christians.

However, if such a relationship were forced, it was fact that atrocities would occur. It was common for those individuals to have the most advanced technology in producing explosives and poisonous gases.

Academy City, the leading entity of scientific technology and coincidentally learning and education, would normally act extremely carefully when dealing with science and religion mixing. The places whose purposes were educational could become brainwashing institutions.

Izzard is a Zurich alchemist.

“I don’t know what they’re teaching. But, to be honest, it’s pointless no matter what kind of fanatical religious group that Misawa Cram School becomes because it’s already been dissolved.”

“…?”

“To put it more bluntly…” Stiyl continued, appearing to have not a care at all. “Misawa Cram School was taken over. The half-baked science phony-religious group was consumed by a real magician—no, an alchemist of the Zurich school to be precise.”

"An authentic one...?"

Izzard took over Misawa because it's convenient.

For a time, Stiyl stared with suspicion at his face. “Fine, whatever. It’s not a problem that this conversation’s going well anyways.” Stiyl finally ended his digression. “The point is the reason why the alchemist took over Misawa Cram School. Of course, the simple reason is that he probably feels it convenient to use Misawa as a base. Most of the students may not have realized that the principal of the prep school has changed.”

Originally, Misawa Cram School captured Himegami to act as a miko, Stiyl states that miko's can be sacrificed to summon higher class beings.

Stiyl lightly exhaled and continued. “The most important reason why is because Deep Blood is imprisoned in Misawa Cram.”

Deep Blood?

Kamijou had never heard of the name before and neither did he possess any knowledge of it. However, the name itself already sounded terrifying.

“Originally, Misawa Cram seemed like they imprisoned her to be a miko. In actuality, their idea wasn’t wrong. It’s a viable method to use a miko as a sacrifice to summon higher class beings.”

Izzard was already targeting Deep Blood, and simply wanted to abduct her, Misawa and him confronted each other however and Izzard took it over.

“...”

“But Deep Blood was already a target for the alchemist. Misawa Cram had simply taken her first. No, perhaps for him, it couldn’t have been helped. His original plan should have been to abduct Deep Blood without any notice and proceed to escape Academy City. However, because Misawa blew it out of proportion, his plans was ruined.”

Touma compares Izzard to a master thief.

“So… he forcefully took what he wanted from Misawa?”

He was like a master thief who formulated various preparations to steal something from an art gallery only to find terrorists occupying the building. The thief then would proceed to steal the painting he desired from the destructive maniacs who did not understand the value of the artwork and then finds police flooding the gallery.

Unable to do a thing, the master thief would build a barricade at the entrance and hide inside.

Getting Deep Blood is the wish of all magicians. Deep Blood can kill vampires.

“Yeah. For the alchemist, it’s his greatest wish to be able to get Deep Blood… or, more accurately it’s the wish of for the entirety of magicians. Or maybe even the wish of the entire world.”

“???” Kamijou appeared puzzled.

“It’s an ability that kills a ‘certain creature.’ No, not only that. It offers the only possibility of capturing the creature alive to prove it exists.” Kamijou still did not understand. “Well, if I have to use Christian terminology, this creature is called Cain’s descendant.”

Stiyl chuckled and spoke in a whisper. “Basically, they’re vampires.” He had finally said it.

“Are you kidding me?” Upon hearing such a word, it was Kamijou’s first response. Vampires… Kamijou did not know where the legend originated from but, according to the depictions in games and manga: vampires fear crosses and sunlight, vampires die when hammered with a stake, vampires reduce to dust upon death, and those bitten by vampires become vampires.

He only knew those facts. And, for some reason, the information that Kamijou knew were from mangas and games (and fighting games at that). In reality, the Cross was useless.

Stiyl fears vampires, no one has ever seen one cause they died from vampire.

“…Those that can consider it a joke are considered lucky.” Stiyl gnashed his teeth and looked away. As of then, the adept flame manipulator magician seemed to fear something. “Humph. If there’s a specialist that can kill vampires, it’s obvious that the vampires to be killed must exist too. It’s like how villains exist for the sakes of the heroes of justice. It’s a vicious cycle. But, one thing I can confirm is that… well, if possible I don’t want to admit it.”

“...What do you mean? Do these fictional vampires actually exist?” Kamijou was still denying it in his heart.

But, the man before him was as stern as ever, unable to brush it off.

“Nobody has ever seen a vampire—“ Stiyl Magnus seemed like the embodiment of self confidence as he continued in a chant-like tone. “—because everyone who did, died.”

“...”

“Of course, I’m not going to just believe it so easily. The troublesome thing is that no one has seen a vampire before but Deep Blood’s very existence proves vampires’ existences. Nobody knows how strong they are, how many there are, where they are… No one knows, no one knows, no one knows… How can we deal with something we know nothing about?”

Touma compares vampires to hidden terrorists.

Stiyl continued to rant on but Kamijou, who still had not accepted the term vampire, could understand nothing. In the end, he could only think that they were dealing with hidden terrorists all over the world.

Stiyl tells Touma about the Kabbalah.

All beings have 'soul levels' humans can rise through the ranks with training but will hit a wall they can't climb.

“But on the other hand, it's because no one knows about the truth behind them that there're all sorts of unknown possibility.” Stiyl sneered cynically.

“Kamijou Touma, have you heard of the 'Kabbalah?'… I suppose you haven't, right?”

“...Do you think you’ll hurt my pride like that?”

“Whatever. Anyways, the 'Kabbalah' represents the 'soul level' of God: angels, humans, et cetera. Simply put, humans can climb the ranks with training. But, at some point, they’ll hit a wall they can’t climb.”

In order to go above the 'wall' magicians can borrow power from inhuman beings.

“...You're treating me like an idiot, aren't you? What are you trying to say?”

“Is your pride hurt? What I'm trying to say is… there are some disciplines that humans can't reach no matter how much they try. But, humans do want to continue their ascent no matter what. Magicians became magicians because they want to surpass human limits. If so, what must humans do to surpass this limit?” His expression seemed like he would rip his sneer apart. “It’s simple. They just need to borrow the power from something that isn’t human.” Kamijou could not speak.

Stiyl explains vampire immortality.

“So-called vampires are immortal. You could rip their hearts out or stab them with a magic sword and they can continue to live like a magic tool.” Stiyl easily continued. “The authenticity is unimportant. Scholars are those who would try anything with even just a tiny possibility.”

Stiyl says that it's not their job to confirm the existence of vampires.

In other words, whether the vampires existed was irrelevant. What was important was that some believed that they did and raised issues over it. If someone blew something up, another would have to deal with it. This was the situational crux.

“So... no one knows if vampires exist or not, right?”

It was a common occurrence to find a number of people fighting in action movies over some ancient treasure whose existence was questionable. However, it was ridiculous for such a thing to occur in real life.

“Confirming such an unknown existence is our job.” Stiyl chuckled cynically. “Thus, Misawa Cram and the alchemist were serious. They really wanted to face off against a vampire and needed the ace called Deep Blood.”

Himegami's past.

“…”

“Oh yeah. Do you know about Deep Blood’s past? It’s rumored that the girl used to live in a mountain village in Kyoto. But, one day, everyone in the village died. The last villager who reported on the case might’ve been in a state of disarray, fearing a monster would kill him. When the rescue arrived, all they found was an empty village caked in a white snow-like ash and a girl, absent mindedly standing there.”

Ashes… It was rumored that vampires turned to ashes upon death.

Deep Blood can kill vampires.

“It's true that vampires are an unknown sort of existence. Deep Blood is a power that can 'kill vampires'. But if, Deep Blood wanted to kill vampires, Deep Blood has to meet vampires. As for those who want to find vampires no matter the cost, the easiest way is to catch Deep Blood. However, since Deep Blood is powerful enough to kill even vampires, how can they subdue Deep Blood? That’s the question.”

Touma has great instincts.

It was a completely supernatural discussion.

Kamijou’s instinct told him it was dangerous to listen in. If he continued to listen, his common senses would become twisted. Kamijou had a premonition that, if it kept up, it may turn into an irreversible situation.

To end the conversation, Kamijou explicitly raised a suspicion. “Alright. You’ve told me these secrets. What do you want to say now?”

“Nn. That’s right. We’re short on time so let’s end this quickly.” Stiyl nodded twice and continued. “…Basically, I have to charge into Misawa Cram and save Deep Blood.”

Kamijou nodded in response.

“Don’t nod away like that. You’re going with me.”

Stiyl's papers are made to burn after reading.

…

“What? What did you just say?”

“That was an accurate description of the situation. Also, the conversation was a discussion of our battle plan. Do you still remember everything? The papers are engraved with flame runes and are due to burn up after you see them. It’ll be bad if you forget.”

“Hold...!”

Index will be taken away from Touma if he refuses.

“Also… one more thing.” Stiyl continued. “I believe you don’t have the right to refuse. If you disobey, we’ll take away Index from you.”

For some reason, the words carved deeply into Kamijou. His past “knowledge” was afraid. The remnants of the past Kamijou seemed to fear something.

“The mission that Necessarius gave you is for you to act as a shackle. You are a shackle that’s preventing the chained Index from betraying the organization. But, if you don’t do as the Church wishes, you aren’t functioning as a shackle.” Stiyl sighed. “Speaking of which, it’d be good for me if you Church felt you were useless. I’d really thank you if you could do it. Since broken shackles are useless, I could just take that child back.”

It was a threat. If he disobeyed, Index would be taken away.

Touma's reaction to Deep Blood actually being the miko he met in the fast food place.

“...Humph.” Stiyl detachedly looked away. His expression was the inexplicable one of an actor whose role was stolen. “If you want to settle things with me, wait till we deal with the alchemist hidden within Misawa Cram. Also, I forgot to mention, Deep Blood’s name is Himegami Aisa. Here’s a photo. It’s best you take a look. It’d be bad if you didn’t know the face of the person you’re going to save.”

A photo slipped out of the envelope, one that seemed powered by Stiyl's runes as well as it danced in the air and stopped in front of Kamijou.

Kamijou looked at the photo… What does the esper with this terrifying Deep Blood look like?

But, in the photo, he saw the face of the girl from the restaurant.

“Eh...?” Kamijou froze.

Perhaps the photo on a student report book or some I.D. card was enlarged because the face of Himegami Aisa was the same as the miko’s.

Kamijou recalled Stiyl’s words.

Originally, Misawa Cram seemed like they imprisoned her to be a miko.

He recalled the girl’s previous words.

…I'm not a miko.

Then the magician’s.

…A girl is imprisoned in Misawa and it’s my job to save her.

Himegami Aisa’s.

…They’re cram school teachers.

But why? He wondered. According to Stiyl's explanation, Himegami Aisa was imprisoned in Misawa Cram. IF the miko's really Deep Blood, how can she enter a fast food restaurant to eat hamburgers?

…Train fare back home: 400 yen.

Did she escape? Kamijou considered. The only possible reason why the imprisoned Himegami Aisa would be outside was because she had escaped Misawa.

…My total fortune: 300 yen.

If that were the case, it explained why she had so little cash with her. Besides, if she had escaped without much money, she’d have less if she took trains and buses.

But, why was she at a fast food restaurant? He wondered. Since she escaped, how was she there?

…Spent all my money and ruined myself.

“Ah!” Suddenly, Kamijou finally remembered what she had said. What if she couldn’t run any further because she ran out of funds? It’s because she couldn’t go any further?

And so, the girl had one final wish? The girl needed 100 yen. If she had 100 yen, could she have escaped Misawa Cram School? Who was the idiot who refused her?

…Spent all my money and ruined myself.

“Damn it...”

Additionally, Himegami conceded when she was surrounded by the cram school teachers. Obviously, she must have desired to resist. How could she be willing to return after escaping Misawa Cram School?

Any other person would have chosen to run. If escaping on her own were impossible, then she would have asked others for help. But, asking another would involve end up involving them.

“Damn it…!” Extremely unhappy about the circumstances, he was so frustrated he could not think. He was in outrage that Misawa Cram treated the girl as nonhuman and imprisoned her. He was revolting against the alchemist that snatched her and was infuriated by Stiyl who claimed that Deep Blood was the ace, the vampire deterrent.

But, the one thing that vexed Kamijou the most was the fact that Himegami Aisa had sacrificed herself for Kamijou’s sake.

It was wrong. If Kamijou had handed over 100 yen, he could have changed her fate. However, the girl was actually willing to sacrifice her efforts in escaping Misawa to save the boy who returned her to despair. It was fundamentally wrong.

Though Kamijou did not know what type of “new religion” it was, he could not imagine how a captive girl would be treated. Naturally, he did not want to imagine at all.

Kamijou was supposed to adopt the pain.

On what grounds can you even… Kamijou bit his lips and the taste of blood was felt on his canines. TAKE AWAY ANOTHER PERSON’S MISFORTUNE!?!

In reality, this was the root of Kamijou’s frustration, a fact that made his mind boil.

Kamijou lacked memories. However, Himegami considered her treatment as a tool as acceptable. She ignored her own pains to help others and thought it a form of happiness.

In the past, Kamijou felt he had met such a girl before. Why was the memory absent? Kamijou vexed himself.

He had to save her?

What should he have said? Kamijou Touma was going to be unable to relieve his angers unless he punched the selfish and stubborn Himegami Aisa.

Between the Lines 1

(these are like interludes.)

Lancer Squadron of the 13 Knight Squads of England is a recon team

…The girl stood in the center of a sea of ashes…

One of the 13 Knight Squads of England, the 1st Lancer Squadron, was assigned the mission of “gathering enemy information before any others.”

That time, the enemy territory was a mountain village located in Kyoto. They had to decipher why the mana flow had become abnormally large and eliminate any threats. Thus was their aim.

The British museum is called the Arsenal, has a bunch of magic artifacts.

…It had been over six hours since they had lost contact with the village…

…It had been over three hours since the investigating police had disappeared…

As every member of the squad could have guessed, the village was in ruins. It was not a rare occurrence for them. England had the British Museum which was known as the Arsenal. That bloody altar contained spiritual treasures stolen from all over the world.

Compared to the raging soul of some ancient emperor residing in age-old treasure, the mission was riskless.

The knight's equipment.

In fact, they were only equipped with cast armor and cross-shaped spears that were not mass-produced holy spears. Though the cast armor were simply defenses possessing magical power that increased the bearer’s mobility by 20-fold, they were still first class spiritual items that their superiors saw as more than enough.

None wants to believe vampires exist.

But, there was one thing that everyone was mindful of. The last survivor who had called had said something along the lines of “Help… me—that’s not human… that’s—”

Of course, nobody had believed him. The church superiors did not believe it and had not afforded the knights proper equipment.

But, the battle-hardened Knights of England felt some irritating sensation.

Though many records existed in the British Library, none had actually seen it before let alone capture one. As this creature seemed to somehow exist, it was a mystery as to why so many refused to admit they existed.

The power and immortality of a vampire.

If they admitted that the certain creatures existed, the world would have been destroyed.

The terrifying fact about them was not the power they wielded. If the power were unmatchable, humans could always improvise with something besides brute force, such as tools and weapons to succeed.

The terrifying fact about them was not their immortality. If they could not kill the enemy, they could use other means for victory. For example, they could freeze them beneath the Antarctic ice or cut up the immortal flesh into 200 pieces and place them in bottles.

These were not issues. The issue at hand was the rumored mana stores the certain creature possessed. Mana was the magic world’s gasoline. It involved the refining of raw fuel like lifespan and lifeforce into something simpler to use. To humans, who from the very beginning had shortened lifespans, the power of the mana depended on the adept or inept refining methods.

However, it was different for the creature.

In essence, their original fuel, lifespan and lifeforce, could not simply be compared to a human’s. Or rather, more accurately, their lifeforce was infinite so of course, the amount of magic they could use was on a completely different level. How could a handgun with limited ammunition combat an unlimited missile raid?

Himegami killed more than 10 to 20 vampires.

Thus, the members of the company laughed at their insecurities but still could not rid them completely. Like that, they passed through the mountains and reached the age-forgotten village. As they encountered the scene, their hearts felt crushed.

Around, ash was everywhere.

The seemingly age-abandoned Eastern wasteland was caked by a layer of white ash. The roofs of the huts, the earth in the fields, and the narrow channels were covered in ash.

Were the ashes… the remains of the creature?

But, that was not the truly shocking part. If they were real corpses, the number of dead was not limited to 10 or 20. By looking at the amount of ash, the members of the squadron were in disbelief.

Himegami is unharmed.

In the middle of it all, a girl stood.

Around 5 or 6 years old, she was an Eastern black-haired girl. But, seeing the cute face of hers, the knights specializing in the elimination of radicals could not stop their hearts from beating wildly.

Among that scene of dancing ash, where the remnants of the certain creature were present, the girl was unharmed.

The wind began to blow and the ashes rose.

The ash that covered the entire wasteland scattered about except the area around the girl, as if she were in a Holy Sanctuary. It was as if the dead ashes still feared and avoided her presence.

“I…” The girl spoke. “…I… killed so many again.”

It was like she was describing her everyday life.

Cryso Agori · Apr 18, 2022

OT Volume 2 Chapter 2 Part 2

Stiyl sets up Innocentius barrier in Touma's dorm.

Upon leaving the dormitory room, he met Stiyl, whom he had parted goodbye to sometime previously. He was scattering card-like objects around the area.

“What are you doing?”

“Can’t you tell? I’m placing a barrier here to build a temple.” Stiyl said as he worked. “Before we leave for Misawa Cram, who knows who will come here with a stupid reason and kidnap Index? Even if we can only do so much, we can feel a little more optimistic if we leave Innocentius here. If something happens, it can help her buy time to escape.”

Innocentius.

Though Kamijou lacked memories, his information database informed him that Innocentius was a humanoid, ultimate weapon consisting of 3000 Celsius flames with an automatic tracking ability. Its only weakness was—

“It can only be used in the boundary that has runes and will disappear if the runes are destroyed.”

“…I’ll tell you this,” Upon his words, Stiyl’s ears twitched. “I lost to you last time because of the location, not because I’m weaker than you. If you hadn’t set of the sprinklers…”

Touma has no knowledge of fighting Stiyl, but knows how Innocentius works. Stiyl says that if the barrier is too strong Index will notice it.

"Eh? Did we fight before?"

Kamijou, with only knowledge instead of memories, knew how to defeat Innocentius but knew not where the information came from.

“Ku… So you mean to say that that incident was too pointless to remember?” Apparently misunderstanding, Stiyl continued. “Then, fine. I won’t squabble with you over it. Once I’m done here, the boundary will be complete. And, we’ll be able to head to Misawa Cram… how troublesome. I have to set up a boundary to repel magicians but weak enough that that child won’t notice.”

Stiyl states Izzard's ancestor was powerful.

“Before we charge into Misawa Cram, let’s talk about our ‘enemy.’” Stiyl said, perhaps preventing Kamijou from questioning further. They exited the student dormitory to walk onto the night street. Kamijou listened to Stiyl speak.

“The enemy’s name is Aureolus Izzard.” He introduced the name. “Speaking of Aureolus, there’s a person you’d think of… hm? Are you shocked he’s so famous? Don’t worry, he’s just a descent and not as strong as the legend.”

Izzard's ancestor is Paracelsus

"...Oh yeah, you don't know about the magic world. But, you have heard of Paracelsus, right?"

"???"

"Ku...! He's the most famous alchemist in the world!" Stiyl said impatiently.

“So… Is this guy really amazing?” Kamijou asked while walking down the evening streets.

Stiyl says that Izzard shouldn't be this strong.

“He shouldn’t be strong… But, what’s worrying is the fact he must have some ‘secret weapon’ to subjugate Deep Blood. The worst case scenario is one where he’s used Deep Blood to capture the certain creature.” Rather than Aureolus Izzard himself, Stiyl seemed to mind the creature.

Touma doesn't think they should shrug off Izzard's capabilities.

However, Kamijou could not comprehend. Even if the conditions were unique, treating the enemy’s abilities as secondary was incomprehensible.

“Oi. That’s not right, is it? I don’t know how powerful vampires are but shouldn’t our primary concern be the enemy leader? It’s like fighting in a fire. We’ll be hurt badly if we’re only concerned with the flames.”

Alchemy isn't actually a form of magic but more akin to a science.

“Hm? Oh, you don’t have to worry about it. Aureolus’ name may be familiar but his descendants aren’t as powerful as him. And, in the magic world, there’s no such thing as an alchemist.” Stiyl spoke nonchalantly. “Divination, alchemy, summoning… these sound like your world’s language, mathematics and history. Japanese language arts teachers wouldn’t try to abolish mathematics, right? This so-called-magic is the study of learning a part of everything and choosing a world most suited for the user.”

Stiyl also added that the reason Aureolus Izzard became an alchemist was because he was untalented at other roles.

“And, also, alchemy isn’t a refined knowledge.”

“…”

Though Stiyl stated all of these, Kamijou understood none of it. His knowledge was like a historical calendar. It was because, for Kamijou, alchemy was only a fraudulent gimmick widespread in the 16th century. The purpose of alchemy, to his knowledge, was to fool royalty with scams.

“Alchemy—especially of the late Zurich branch—can be said to be a sub-branch of the Hermes school. Normally speaking, the main purposes were to turn lead into gold, create an immortality elixir, and so on.” Stiyl sounded unmotivated, perhaps because it was out of his scope of expertise. “But, these were all experiments. They’re like what you’d call a scientist, always looking for ‘foundations’ or ‘rules’. Scientists don’t care about what they get from the test tube because it wasn’t their aim. The same theory applies here. Alchemists weren’t actually focused on creating something but pursuing knowledge.”

“…Is it like how Einstein was only researching the Theory of Relativity? The atomic bomb was just a by-product?” If one examined it from this angle, scientists were the arrogant type, never considering the effects their creations have on society.

“Yeah. But, besides researching the formula and principle, they have a final goal.” Stiyl paused. “…It’s like a simulation of the world within his brain.”

The final goal of alchemists is to simulate the world in their brain.

“Yeah. But, besides researching the formula and principle, they have a final goal.” Stiyl paused. “…It’s like a simulation of the world within his brain.”

“…”

“If you can understand the all the laws of the world, you could imagine the world in your brain. Of course, if even a single law were to be wrong, the simulated world in the brain would be flawed.”

“…? What? What do you mean? Are you talking about abilities similar to esper powers?”

On the primitive islands of the South Pacific like Fiji and Melanesia it was said that: to be leader, one had to be able to predict the next day’s weather with just a glance up at the sky.

Though such weather forecast ability seemed esper-like, it was just a result of calculating wind currents, cloud shapes, temperatures and humidity’s in the brain. The island leaders never realized that their brains were calculating. Instead, they believed they “listened to the voice of the wind” to predict the weather.

Stiyl’s meaning was similar to such an example. While it was true that a leader’s mind had simulated the next day’s weather, the imaginary world would have been miles away from reality if there were the tiniest error in their supposedly-perfect formulas.

“…Hold on. What could an ability like that do? Are they trying to make some algorithm that predicts the future for them like a weather report?”

This can be done by bringing the imaginary into the real world, which is already something magicians can do.

“No.” He responded easily. “What if they could bring something imaginary into the real world?”

It was a shocking declaration.

“For example, there are spells that involve ectoplasm and spells that use telesma to summon angels. In the magic world, it isn’t uncommon to see someone drag their brain’s thoughts into reality.” Stiyl folded his arms. “Thus, it’s important to have an ability that lets the brain accurately imagine the real world. Basically, with this power, they could operate the world. Any and all celestial beings or devils would bow before them.”

“…Oi… Oi…”

“Of course, it’s hard to do. The flow of the river, the clouds, the humans, the blood… there are an infinite number of laws in a world. If someone screwed something up, he wouldn’t create an accurate world. One distortion in the world is like a distorted pair of wings. Even if they’re summoned, they’d be vanquished.”

That’s like a computer’s processor. Kamijou rationalized. No matter how perfect the process is, if someone forgets to input an extra line, there’ll be an error and the program won’t execute.

“On the other hand, if he really somehow did it, wouldn’t no one be able to go against him? If he could alter the entire world, how could the world win?” Perhaps, deep within him, Kamijou refused to believe it.

He was right. Humans could not defeat “everything” in the world. It did not mean that gods or devils were strong or weak; it was not that. Instead, “everything” in the world also included the people living there, such as Kamijou himself.

The simplest example: a mysterious could make real anything it reflected. No matter how strong Kamijou was, if an opponent created an identical Kamijou, the battle between identical Kamijou’s would result in simultaneous deaths.

Stiyl says that completing such a spell would take centuries. But a vampire with longevity could live long enough to complete the spell.

“I said it before, just relax. Alchemy isn’t a refined knowledge.” In contrast, Stiyl did not seem anxious. “Let me put it this way: If I wanted you to explain everything in the world, including every grain of sand on the beach or stars in the sky, how long would it take you?!? I don’t think you could finish in one… two hundred years?”

“That’s the situation. In reality, the incantations existed for a long time but the human life is so short no one finished chanting it.” Stiyl continued easily. “Though they tried all sorts of things like removing unnecessary parts to shorten it or breaking it up to allow each generation and descendant speak 10 lines and so on.”

Even under these cases, there was not a single case of success. A completed incantation would have lacked any excessive points. When each generation passed down the incantation, the incantations became gradually erroneous like a game of telephone.

“However…” Stiyl stopped there and seemed to finally show some hostility. “…If the alchemists were living things with no lifespan limits, they could recite and complete the very long incantation. Perhaps because of this, the certain creature is such a rather large threat to magicians.”

Maybe this is why the aim of the enemy is to get a vampire. Kamijou thought.

To scientists, it was painful when they knew an answer but did not know why.

If an alchemist’s body of flesh could not fulfill it, could they not just seek a creature that surpassed a human’s limits?

Stiyl says that Izzard shouldn't be able to do that and should simply be able to turn the school into a fortress.

“It’s true that this alchemy is still pretty threatening. But, right now, Aureolus Izzard shouldn’t be able to do it. The most he can do now is create a few things and turn this Misawa Cram into a fortress and set up numerous traps to prevent outsiders from entering.”

Stiyl knows Izzard.

“…?” Kamijou felt that something was off. Why is Stiyl so confident? “Oi. Do you know this Izzard guy?”

“Of course I do. We were from Church organizations after all.” Stiyl said smoothly. “I’m an Anglican and he’s a Roman Catholic… We did meet each other, though our sects differ. Though, of course, we aren’t friends.”

For Kamijou, it was difficult to associate the terms “Church” and “magician” together.

Stiyl explains Izzard's proffession.

Necessarius’, the organization that Stiyl and Index were affiliated with, purpose was to consume magical knowledge and counter magicians. But, they were radicals among the radicals. Even if the Anglican Church possessed such an organization, would the Roman Catholic Church, a different sect, be similar?

Noticing Kamijou’s question, Stiyl frowned.

“Necessarius is an exception amongst exceptions. There can’t possibly be similar institutions.” Stiyl sighed. “But, even if we’re exceptions, his job as a Cancellarius was a unique example among unique. He basically wrote grimoires in place of the Church. Even thought they were grimoires, the purpose was the complete opposite. It was like a guide to teach things like ‘which lines in the Bible could be used to counter spells witches use.’”

Stiyl stretched his arm and shook it about. “Of course, it isn’t rare to see members of the Church write grimoires as guides. The ones Pope Honorius III and King James I wrote are really famous.”

“…I see. So that’s why you said Aureoulus Izzard’s power isn’t really that much.”

“That's right. He might be knowledgeable about these things, but he can't fight. He’s like a quiet social club member that isn’t in a sports club. However, he's still a tough opponent. It’s because he's one of the few Cancellarius of the Roman Catholic Church and possessed much influence. The Roman Catholic Church is planning to determinedly fight him and punish him as a ‘heretic.’”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I’m saying that Aureolus is a name worth mentioning with the top religious people and kings, right? Are you jealous of him?”

“…I can consider that a taunt, right?”

“I’m up for it if you want to fight but don’t mistake me as an enemy right now.” Kamijou stared forward. “We’ve arrived at the battlefield.”

The pair stopped. Under the seemingly flaming sunset, the building awaited them.

Part 3

Misawa Cram School description.

"I gotta say…" Kamijou looked up at the building and muttered.

The building could only have been described as strange. The building itself was rectangular and rather standard. However, there were four 12-story buildings on each corner of the junction, forming a “ta” (田). Additionally, the linked pathways were overhead, as if forming a suspended bridge above the road as they linked the buildings.

A building like that violates the Land Area Planning Adjustment Project, right? Kamijou looked up at the suspended corridors. Simply put, the jurisdiction of the sky was under the lands’ owners. In other words, the space above the roads should have been public areas.

Stiyl states there's a secret room covered up by an illusion or spell.

Examining the building, it was implausible for people to associate it with the term “religious science” that was outside of normal understanding. It truly seemed like an ordinary cram school: there were students walking in and out on occasion. It was nothing abnormal.

“Anyways, our initial target is the 5th level of the South Building beside the restaurant. Apparently there’s a secret room there.” Stiyl said conversationally. The diagram was incinerated after Kamijou read it which possibly meant that Stiyl had memorized the entire map.

“A secret room?”

“Yeah. It should be some trick illusion or distortion that makes people ignorant of its existence. The building’s interior is like a kid’s toy block, there are many crevices.” Stiyl stared at the building. “…I found 17 secret rooms just looking at the diagram. And the closest one is the one beside the restaurant on the South Building’s 5th floor.”

Stiyl despite being an expert magician can't sense anything wrong with the building from the outside.

“…Ohh. But, it doesn’t look like those booby-trapped ninja houses.” Kamijou muttered.

“…Yeah, sure doesn’t look like it.” Stiyl responded viciously.

“Eh?”

Kamijou turned his head and found Stiyl staring at the building that seemed to penetrate the sky and earth. After a time, he shook his head and sighed. “Nothing. In fact, as an expert, I can’t find any abnormalities… Nothing at all even analyzing as an expert.”

Though Stiyl said it, he seemed stressed. The expression on his face was like that of a doctor who found something wrong on an X-ray but still could not identify the source of the illness.

"..."

It was suspicious, much too suspicious. Though he knew not what was going on, it was much too suspicious.

Stiyl had only said that he could not find anything. He had never said that the building was safe. Inside the building, there could have been numerous mines that they simply did not know about and perhaps there was truly nothing. They could confirm nothing and in essence were entering blind.

Rhetorically speaking, was it safe to enter a building that a magical expert could not vouch for?

Stiyl says the plan is to walk through the front door.

“Of course we shouldn’t.” Stiyl answered concisely. “But entering is the only option, right? Our aim is to save people, not kill them. I’d be really grateful if I could just burn this building to the ground from out here.” His words had to have been more than half serious.

“Hold on… What do you mean we can only go in? Are we going to go in through the front door? No tactics? Like no way to avoid being detected or beating the enemy safely?”

“What. Don’t tell me you have some ideas?”

“…ACK! Are you kidding me!? Are you really going to charge like that? How is that any different from charging into a building occupied by terrorists?! Even if it’s just a dumb trick, can’t you just throw in bait!?”

Stiyl says that even if he uses presence-concealing magic, Izzard would be able to sense it, while Touma would always be sensed due to IB.

“…Hm. Using a knife to carve the rune ‘AnsuzGebo’ can hide a person’s presence.”

“THEN DO IT! HURRY UP AND DO IT!”

“Listen to me!” He answered with an irritated tone. “Even if we get rid of our presence or become invisible, I’ll leave a mana signal saying ‘Stiyl Magnus just used magic.’”

“...What?”

“You have no concept of how mana works at all. Seems like I’ll have to explain it to you.” Stiyl sighed. “For example, what if there’s a map that only has red colors on it?”

"…Psychologically, I think it's a bad omen."

“Shut up and don’t butt in. The red color indicates Aureolus’ magic in the entire building. What if I colored this map blue?”

“…I don’t really understand but you’ll basically be a walking transmitter, right?”

“That’s kind of right, but it’s more than that.” Stiyl continued as Kamijou was about to ask why. “Your Imagine Breaker is like an eraser than removes the red color. If one’s painting is being eating up, anyone would realize that something’s wrong. I wouldn’t be detected as long as I didn’t use magic but your ability is always active.”

“…Alright. So that means we’re walking transmitters so there’s no point in tactics and might as well enter a building filled with terrorists. Should we ring the doorbell first?”

“And that’s why we need your power. If you don’t want to be full of holes like a beehive, use your right hand and be a shield.”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHY DO YOU ACT LIKE IT’S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU!? IT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE USELESS THAT I HAVE TO DO THIS!”

Stiyl states that Izzard's magic is weaker than Dragon Breath which IB negated, and due to using Innocentius around Touma's dorm he can only use a flame sword.

“Ahahah. No need to be so nervous. It’s just an alchemist’s magic. Your right hand managed to block the Saint George’s Dragon Breath. It should be able to handle it. And, it’s useless to rely on me. I sent Innocentius to protect that child and right now I can only use a flame sword.”

“WAAAAAAAHH!! YOU REALLY DON’T THINK THINGS THROUGH!!”

Touma and Stiyl enter Misawa Cram.

Kamijou watched the exit; the automatic doors were not abnormal.

Incidentally, Kamijou did not want to enter. It was to be expected. What person would want to invade a booby-trapped battlefield housing an expectant enemy? What was more, it was the central stronghold for a fanatical religion that none knew the truth about.

However, because of these things, they had to enter. If men trembled before the sight of such a place, how could they allow a girl to remain inside simply because she was called “Deep Blood”?

“Let’s go.” The magician Stiyl Magnus said. Without another word, Kamijou approached the automatic doors.

Upon entering through the class doors, they found the scene to be extremely normal. Much of the glass that built the hall brought in extra sunlight. The hall itself was extremely wide and approximately three stories high. Near the elevator, a non-renovated staircase was placed for the sake of emergency exits.

Perhaps as a result of being evening, it was break time for ordinary schools. The length of time should have been as long as an afternoon excursion and there were a modicum of student heading out to purchase dinners.

Kamijou and Stiyl were not attracting any real attention, possibly because the manager had not memorized every student’s appearance. And, even if they were discovered to be outsiders, considering it was an entrance hall, others would have believed they were there to consolidate the administration process.

…Forget about me, does this guy even look like a student?

Touma notices a 'robot' he seems to be the only one to notice.

Who he was aside, looking around, they could find nothing amiss. Those around them walked about seemed quite normal.

“Eh?”

Thus, the only abnormality was rather obvious.

Of the four elevators, between the two on the right, there was a human-shaped robot lying—or rather placed—there. Its limbs were severely twisted and it was like a pile of scrap metal that reminded one of serious traffic accidents.

In terms of type, it was similar to a suit of Western armor. However, the figure was as exceedingly modernistic as a fighter jet with an intrinsic design and a texture that reflected a silver light, dissimilar from ordinary metal plate. An 80 centimeter long bow was dropped nearby, presumably equipment for the machine.

On the object’s right wrist was the word “Parsifal” that perhaps represented its name. At first glance, one could tell that the robot could not fulfill its original purpose. The supposed limbs were severely twisted while a slick tar-like black oil oozed from the dysfunctional limbs.

The rusty smell in the air caused Kamijou to frown.

What in the world is that?

First of all, where did this robot come from? The security robots and cleaning robots in Academy City look like large metal cylinders. Kamijou had never heard of such humanoid machines in Academy City that simultaneously lacked mobility.

Second of all, why did this thing break down? Though Kamijou knew not how functional the machine was originally, it was akin to the aftermath of a traffic collision. There would have been no need for such force, correct? What had occurred in that cram school’s hall?

And, finally: …Why hasn’t anyone noticed yet?

The humans there ignored its very existence as if not even worth gossiping over. Rather than a sensation of deliberate ignorance, the machine was like a pebble on the road, unworthy of notice.

It was as if… the damaged robot had snuck into their daily life.

The 'robot' is a corpse.

“What? There’s nothing here. Anyways, either we find Himegami or crush Izzard. Hurry up.” Stiyl said with ease.

“Ah… oh.” Kamijou at last managed to tear his gaze from the machine because none beside him paid it any notice, giving him the impression he witnessed a phantom.

But… it was not a phantom. It truly existed before Kamijou’s gaze.

“What? Are you interested by that thing? Oh well, that’s true, it might be something rare for you.” Stiyl had seemed to finally notice Kamijou’s interest in the machine.

“We-Well yeah… eh. Hold on. Robots are something from the science side, right?” As Kamijou spoke, Stiyl proceeded to frown. “What are you talking about? That’s just a corpse.”

It was an indisputably shocking reply.

“What…?” Kamijou could not comprehend.

The corpse is one of the 13 knights.

“A caster’s incantations and a Heavenly Bow duplicate. This here should be one of the 13 Knights of the Roman Catholic Church. They’re probably here to execute the heretic but it looks like they were crushed. Really. Knights were an English specialty and these guys that just love to copy ended up like this.” Stiyl shook the cigarette in his mouth. “…Tch. Speaking of which, that man in formalin is too sneaky. There was already another church helping out and he still made us enter separately. Was he deliberately trying to make us fail…? It’s true that the ones here to settle this mess are elites of the church and it’d be good if he could get even one of them killed…”

Stiyl is unperturbed by the sight.

Stiyl continued to mutter angrily. Kamijou, however, unaware of the circumstances, ignored it.

Kamijou chose to clearly stare at the something lying on the floor. The limbs were twisted, it was a pile of scrap metal like the wreckage of a collision, the silvery metal body was crushed and reddish-black oil oozed out. The remains of a machine.

No.

What if it were not reddish-black oil but something less black and more red?

No.

What if they were not machinery but a human clad in armor?

“Why are you so surprised?” Stiyl said, as if it were a pedestrian sight. “This is a battlefield. What’s so strange about seeing a corpse or two on the way?”

“…” Kamijou was speechless. He already knew. He should have known. It was a field of combat where humans killed humans. The enemy had already prepared traps for intruders like Kamijou and simply waited for them to enter. Even then, Kamijou and Stiyl had no intentions of negotiation with the vicious enemy.

The knight is still alive.

Yes, they should have known. Even so, Kamijou could not overlook it.

“Damn it!”

Kamijou dashed toward the corpse. He did not know what he could have done, possibly bandage a few places, the amateur Kamijou knew not even the correct emergency procedurals. Not only was the armor severely damaged to the point of questionable life signs, Kamijou could not think of a way to extricate a person out of the twisted armor. Even so, without clear proof, the human being inside the metal may have been alive. If that were the case, it was possible to save the person if he acted quickly.

Kamijou spent a mere ten seconds to run from one end of the hall to the other. Because the fatality’s face was completely encased by the helmet, Kamijou could not see the expression. He could only hear slight air flow through the gap in the block of metal that was a helmet.

He’s still breathing!

The students don't notice the dying knight, Touma tries to touch one of the students, and nearly has his arm dislocated.

As Kamijou felt relieved, he realized that he could not move the body carelessly and considered calling for an ambulance until he heard the sound of metal doors sliding apart.

A number of like-aged teenagers exited the elevator and failed to notice the flayed body. It was as if they saw a normal scene, just continuing to walk as they discussed trivialities like “the food in that restaurant is so expensive and so bad I got sick of it, how about we get something to eat from a convenience store.”

“You guys—!” They should be saving the injured. Kamijou understood this fact and was unable to maintain his silence. He inadvertently attempted to grab the shoulder of a nearby student. “—WHAT ARE YOU DOING? HURRY UP AND CALL AN AMBUL—”

However, Kamijou stopped.

Kamijou’s hand was forcefully dragged forward.

No.

Dragged was inadequate. The force he felt was like attempting to grab the driver’s side door of a moving truck. The magnitude of the propulsion was completely different.

“WHA—!”

His arm was nearly dislocated. The true shock was that the student had not acted at all. Kamijou’s hand on that shoulder felt like a balloon tied to a car. What was more, the person seemed completely ignorant Kamijou’s roar let alone his hand.

Before them, Kamijou was like the twisted suit of armor.

“…What’s going on?” Kamijou recalled the sensation his hand experienced. While he expected the texture of soft fabric clothing, his hand felt like it passed through extremely hard glue. Forget the student’s shoulder, Kamijou could not reach the clothing.

Stiyl explains why they can't interact with the students, and why the students can't interact with them.

“It’s a boundary like the two sides of a coin. The students are on the ‘front of the coin’ and can’t detect those of us on the ‘back of the coin.’ We, the intruders on the back, can’t interfere with the people on the ‘front’ who are ignorant. Look.” Stiyl spoke like he was chanting and raised a finger to point at a girl walking out of the elevator.

Kamijou’s eyes followed the girl’s back. She stepped into the blood but her shoes were not stained and left no bloody footprints. The pool of blood acted like one large sheet of hardened plastic.

“Hm.” Stiyl carelessly pinched the chewed cigarette in his mouth and pressed the burning red tip to the plastic elevator button. Despite his action, the plastic button was not burnt, let alone melted. “I see. So, the entire building is a part of the ‘front’? I guess that’s right since this is suitable as a fortress against magic. Kamijou Touma, it would seem that with our power alone we may be unable to open a single door, even automatic ones. We’re stuck.”

Touma tries to negate the boundary but is unable to due to the core of the magic being separate similar to Innocentius.

“...” A boundary. If it were a supernatural power, even if a term alien to Kamijou, a resident of the science side, was this not an opportunity for Kamijou Touma to rise?

Kamijou clenched his fists tightly. Imagine Breaker. If a supernatural power came in contact with that right hand, it would have been negated, even a miracle of God. It was a unique power among unique powers.

Kamijou clenched his fist and raised it high into the air. He then proceeded to slam his fist forcefully against the floor, wanting to smash the boundary into pieces. Yes, he hammered it down but there was only a dull noise.

“WOAH! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“What are you doing?” Seeing Kamijou roll about on the floor, Stiyl, overwhelmed, sighed. “This’s probably like my Innocentius. If we don’t destroy the core of the magic, we can’t break this boundary. And, most likely… the core is placed outside the boundary or the people inside would be locked in. Hmm. We’ve got some trouble now.”

Stiyl the priest sends the knight to heaven.

Kamijou seemed truly unaware of what to do. “…Damn it. So, what should we do? We’ve got an injured person here and we can’t call a doctor or take him outside…”

“We don’t have to do anything. He’s dead.”

“WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? CHECK HIS BREATHING! HE’S STILL ALIVE!”

“Yeah. He’s definitely alive if we go by heartbeat. But, his fractured ribs punctured his lungs, his liver’s crushed, his pulse is faint… he can’t be saved in this situation. His name might as well be ‘corpse.’” It was unknown whether Stiyl determined the facts through rune magic, but his words were as cold-hearted as a doctor declaring that a patient acquired a terminal illness.

“…!!!”

“What’s with the expression? You knew from the start, right? Even if he’s breathing, he can’t be saved.”

Suddenly, Kamijou lifted Stiyl up at his chest with both of his hands. He could not comprehend. Kamijou could not comprehend. How could the person before him remain so calm? How could he say such words in front of a dying person?

“MOVE ASIDE! THIS PERSON DOESN'T HAVE MUCH—!!”

Stiyl calmly pushed Kamijou aside. “We don’t have much time. I’ll let you cast, what you think is pity, on the dead. It’s a priest’s job to send the dead to heaven. You, amateur, step aside.”

Kamijou, releasing his hands, finally noticed. Stiyl, whose back then faced Kamijou, stared at the knight who was borderline from death. Stiyl was…

He’s… angry…?

It was difficult to imagine, given his typical mockery, but Kamijou was not mistaken. At that moment, Stiyl Magnus was not a magician while his back seemed to emanate static electricity, seemingly deflecting everything that came in contact. Yes. This was the back of Stiyl Magnus, the priest.

Stiyl did not enact some obscure, special ritual.

“…” He spoke unintelligible, at least to Kamijou, foreign words. The words came from the priest, not the magician. Kamijou did not know the significance of the action but the formerly immobile knight trembled and raised his right hand, stretching it out at Stiyl as if to catch something in the air.

“… …” The Knight spoke as well.

Stiyl nodded his head, Kamijou was as unknowing as always, and the knight’s body seemed to relax, losing tension. It was like he had handed over what he had wanted to… with no worries left, he relaxed with relief.

The knight’s hand dropped.

The metallic right hand landed on the floor, resounding like a knell.

“…” Still in his priestly persona, Stiyl Magnus drew the cross before his chest. At the point of death, there was no difference between an Anglican and a Roman Catholic. The last rites were still the last rights.

It was then that Kamijou finally realized.

It was a true battlefield.

“Let’s go!”

He spoke once more as a magician rather than a priest. “It would seem we have one more reason to fight.”

Part 4

Stiyl and Touma are fatigued due the effects of the building.

He was feeling terrible.

Their initial goal was to seek the gaps in the building, the secret rooms. The nearest secret room was on the fifth floor of the South Block building so they began to climb stairs.

Why do I feel like shit? Kamijou wondered as he climbed the narrow emergency staircase. Initially, he believed it was because of the knight and then because the staircase was narrow and dark.

However, there was a physical reason additional to the psychological.

“My legs…” Kamijou looked down at his legs that were showing unnatural fatigue.

The “front” and “back” of the coin meant that magicians who knew of the “back” could not interfere with the citizens of the “front”. These were the rules of the game that Stiyl had outlined.

But, the entire building was a part of the “front”. The result of this part of the game meant that stepping on the floor would recoil against the foot. To analogize, it was the difference between punching flesh and punching concrete. As they walked on a “ridiculously hard floor”, the fatigue accumulated 2-3 times faster.

“We… can only… pray… that the… enemy is in… the same situation…” Stiyl seemed irate that they were fatigued so quickly. Though his build was rather large, it seemed that he had not done much physical training and was unaccustomed to strenuous physical activity.

Things on 'the back of the coin' can't interact with things 'in front of the coin.'

“Che… if I had known, we should have taken the elevator.”

“We’re on the ‘back of the coin’, how can we press a button on the ‘front of the coin?’ If you can do it, teach me.”

"..."

“Even if we did enter the lift, if students on the front used it, we’d be crushed if a lot of them walked in.”

The individuals on the “back” could not interfere with those on the “front”.

For example, if a car from the “back” collided into a person from the “front”, the car would have been wrecked while the human would escape unscathed.

If the elevator were crammed with people, they would be like raw eggs in a fully occupied train: crushed. …Ugh, this is just getting more and more depressing.

Kamijou lowered his head dejectedly. He was already tired and with the dark and murky thoughts swimming in his mind, he began to want to give up.

Think happy thoughts. Hurry up and think of something happy… Kamijou’s heart was in urgent need of rest.

Stiyl states that Izzard is the type to destroy the enemy in one go.

“Oh yeah, where’re phones?”

“What?”

“You discussed the ‘fronts’ and ‘backs’ of the coin right? Will phones work?” Kamijou asked as he took out his phone. He said the words himself and realized they were excuses. Because too many abnormal things occurred around him, he had to do something “normal” or he felt he may have gone crazy.

As for whom to call, Kamijou needed not a moment to consider: his room. Meaning, he would call the girl who was waiting in his room. As he was about to call, he considered something. “…Wait. Wouldn’t the enemy detect the signal and attack us?”

“Who knows? But, our existence might already be discovered. We did enter from the front door.”

“Then why weren’t we attacked?”

“God knows. Maybe it’s because they’re so overconfident or maybe because they intend to destroy us in one go. That alchemist is that kind of person. Right now, he’s probably preparing all sorts of ways to counterattack.”

The call goes through.

“…” Really? Why in the world does your God exist? However, since their whereabouts were likely exposed, there was no need to dilly dally. Kamijou decided to brazenly make the call.

Three rings.

So it won’t work…?

Six rings.

…Looks like I’ll have to give up.

Nine rings.

HURRY UP AND PICK UP! Despite his impatience, Kamijou did not want to hang up. During his wait, he had another thought. What if this doesn’t have to do with the coin stuff? What if Index doesn’t want to pick up? Or… what if it isn’t that she won’t but she can’t?

Don’t tell me… Something happened to Index?

Ind—!?

As a mysterious chill rose up in Kamijou’s stomach, he was met with a voice, Index’s extremely nervous voice to be exact. “Erm. Hello! This is Index Libror—excuse me, I’m sorry. This is Kamijou speaking. Hello? Hello?”

“Oi. Tell me…” Kamijou lethargically asked as if he had just trialed the wrong method of dieting. “…is this is first time you’ve answered a phone call?”

Stiyl explains Touma's position.

“Nothing.” Stiyl sighed. “It’s just that I think you’re too relaxed. This’s a battlefield and yet you’re nonchalantly chatting away with a girl. I don’t really care if you die because of carelessness. In fact, I’d be dancing in joy, but, please don’t drag me down.”

“Are you jealous?”

“Ku… Ugh…” Stiyl silently seemed like he would burst 60% of his blood vessels. Kamijou began to understand how to handle the person before him.

“…Yeah, that’s right.” Stiyl’s words induced surprising shock for Kamijou, though he knew not why he was so affected. “…Don’t be mistaken. I’m not considering that child a target of romance.”

Without looking at Kamijou’s face, Stiyl continued. “You should know that up until now, the child had her memories erased in one year intervals or die. Then, you can understand how many people were once in your position.”

“…”

“Many have wanted to be her father, some, her older brother, others her good friend, and some even her teacher.” Stiyl elaborated. “It’s like that, just that simple. I failed in the past and you succeeded. This’s the only difference between you and me.”

Stiyl stared at Kamijou’s face and looked like he was facing an impossible future. “However, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t care.” He said with a sigh. “Besides, she didn’t really abandon me, just forgot. If she recovered her memories, she’d coming running at me to hug me.”

Kamijou had no response. If there was a person, a really important person, that lost her memory… and unknowingly, someone just stepped in and accompanied her, how would I feel? Could I remain calm? Kamijou mused to himself. No, this isn’t just a problem of someone else being beside her.

Would he not have felt betrayed by this important girl? However, the man before him still believed in himself, still following through with his belief.

So strong.

Kamijou looked back at his phone and considered the meaningless five minute conversation. A person had actually given up everything he had in order to protect the person important to him, knowing there was no going back.

Such were people’s hearts. These hearts were crushed under the current Kamijou’s feet. What right did he of the moment have to keep the girl for himself?

…I don’t know.

If it were her only wish to maintain the status quo, Kamijou would have protected it until the end. However, Index had “merely forgotten.” How could a girl who was unaware of the other possibilities be expected to make a decision?

I don’t know. But, if Kamijou Touma really saved Index…

Yes, if it were the case, he had to take up the burden of protecting her. It was like enthusiastically giving a cat food but not taking it home, despite knowing it would die of hunger. Instead of giving the cat the hope that “this person might keep me,” it would have been better to give it despair from the beginning.

However…

The one who saved her wasn’t the current “me”.

His thoughts came full circle.

Who Index needs is the Kamijou Touma of before.

Part 5

Stiyl and Touma find the secret room but are unable to open it due to the boundary.

After climbing to the fifth floor, Kamijou and Stiyl arrived at a corridor.

Stiyl had completely memorized the diagram of Misawa Cram School, which was why they had gone to that floor. Using the parameters of the diagram and actual measurements taken through infrared and ultrasonic means, he had derived error spaces.

Halfway through the middle of the straight corridor, Stiyl lightly knocked on a normal-looking wall.

“…Even if we’re right here, if we can’t open it, we have to give up, right?”

“Yeah.”

Even if it were a normal room rather than “secret”, for Kamijou and Stiyl, as residents as the back, could not open the door. If they wanted to enter, they could slip in once a student of the front opened the door. However, if a secret room, students may not go in and out.

The boundary can be removed by killing Izzard.

“But it’s best to check out the situation. No matter how strong the boundary is, the caster is Aureolus. We can just force him to remove the boundary by threatening—or killing—him.”

“…” Kamijou inadvertently stared at the other. It was a “battlefield,” and Aureolus was the “enemy” to defeat. Kamijou understood this. Considering the imprisoned Himegami Aisa and the knight killed by Aureolus, one could imagine the precariousness of the situation.

However, even so, Kamijou could not say something like kill Aureolus because his actions taken on the knight was also self defense.

He had said “kill him” instead of “beat” or “stop”, there was no ambiguity.

Stiyl and Touma go down to the cafeteria.

He had said “kill him” instead of “beat” or “stop”, there was no ambiguity.

They headed down the wall nearest to the secret room and they arrived at the student cafeteria. It seemed they were mixing the people into the wide room to dilute the secret room’s existence. It applied an allusion and there were no doors for secret room visible from the cafeteria entrance.

To prevent themselves from being caught in the crowded entrance, Kamijou and Stiyl entered the cafeteria.

The individuals on the back could not interfere with the people on the front. Boys fought for the few available seats and the girls carried trays of food and chatted away as they walked. People rushed about like bulls. Unlike a corridor, the movements in the wide cafeteria were unpredictable. Kamijou and Stiyl were carefully avoiding the crowd.

Since it was evening, many students were in the cafeteria. It was actually quite the refreshing experience for Kamijou to have others ignore his presence, a feeling unknown when moving in traffic jams. Those experienced in such matters would realize that surrounding people consciously avoid one another to prevent collision.

The secret room contained a counter and behind it a small kitchen. The large freezer and utensils made the kitchen feel even more cramped, causing others to be ignorant of the space’s actual size.

Stiyl mentions finding the secret entrance, which causes the students in the cafeteria to look at them.

“Hm. Seems like you’ve been interested by the fanatical gas, eh? But, don’t forget our aim. We need to find the secret entrance.”

“Oh. Okay, okay! I got it!” Kamijou took a deep, calming breath and turned to examine the entire cafeteria.

Immediately, approximately 80 students turned to stare at him. Initially, Kamijou was under the impression that his loudly speaking resulted in attracting their attention.

The students were on the 'back of the coin' and were the first safety.

“Well. This doesn’t look good… Is this the first safety?”

Despite Stiyl’s voiced seriousness, Kamijou could not react. “Ah? Eh?”

“Don’t you understand the situation? The people on the front shouldn’t be able to see those on the back. I see… so there’s an alarm like this around the secret room?”

“…” Kamijou peered around.

Close to 80 students were without question staring at them. Their individual humanness had disappeared and was replaced with a blank, glass-like stare.

“Do-Don’t tell me—“ It was true. The students were residents of the back of the coin. “—a magician!”

The students cast magic.

As Kamijou shouted out without meaning, Stiyl had abandoned Kamijou and back away.

“The wings of the seraph shines brightly and the bright light is a pure white color that reveals all sins…” One of the students near the front began to mutter ambiguities.

“The pure white color is proof of purity, the mark is the result of one’s actions…” An additional voice overlapped with the first.

“The result is the future, the future is time is uniform…” A second, third, fourth, fifth sixth seventh eighth ninth tenth eleventh twelfth thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen…

“Uniformity is all, all is created by the past, the past is the cause, cause is one. One is sin, sin are humans. Humans fear, fear is guilt. Guilt resides within oneself. If in oneself there is something one despises, the wings of the seraph shall reveal your sins and purge it from within!”

An 80-person chorus, or perhaps a pugilistic verbal maelstrom created by the thousands within the building, echoed unceasingly.

Hovering in front of each student’s forehead was a ping-pong ball sized blue-white glow. Perhaps the orbs were beginning to gather as they floated and even stuck to the floor below Kamijou, coming from the lower floor.

And then, like explosives or the sizzling of a strong acid, the orbs emitted smoke. Touching even one would have caused burns.

Touma can't block all the magic.

“Oi! Strongest shield Imagine Breaker! It’s time for you to step up!”

“What? Oi!” Peering back, the uncountable orbs were closing in, blocking Kamijou’s line of vision. “Uwah! With so many… HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BLOCK THEM ALL?!”

With a mad dash to the exit, Kamijou chased Stiyl’s back and overtook him. Stiyl, who had thought Kamijou would act as a shield, felt some panic and escaped behind Kamijou out of the cafeteria.

“Wh-Why are you running away?! You’re the shield! Your right hand blocked Dragon Breath! Instead of using your right hand you’re running away with your back exposed!? Are you crazy!?”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? I DON’T WANT TO HEAR THAT FROM SOMEONE USING ME AS A SHIELD! THIS IS A CASE QUANTITY NOT QUALITY! HOW CAN I NEGATE ALL OF THAT WITH ONE RIGHT HAND!!”

To analogize, it was like fighting something with four limbs. Even if one flawlessly guarded against two limbs, the other two could still strike. An individual’s power was unlikely to make that of a group’s.

With a boom, a large number of the orbs filed out of the entrance and flooded out the floodgates that were the cafeteria entrance. Kamijou and Stiyl could only run down the corridor.

The magic used is the gregorian chant.

“Tch. Speaking of which… this might be a replica, but to be able to replicate the Gregorian Chant means I underestimated Aureolus Izzard.”

“What’s this Grego whatever?”

“Once, it was the ultimate weapon… A grand spell that required 3,333 praying monks gathered in a cathedral. It was like running sunlight through a magnifying glass to increase output.” Stiyl gritted his teeth. “Though this’s a replica with only 2,000 students, as the saying goes in this country, ‘pile up sand and you can build a tower.’ Its power can’t be underestimated.”

Kamijou was stunned. Though his understanding was limited, did it not mean they were not facing 2,000 opponents? It was a battlefield and he was in the midst of an enemy camp, this much he could understand, but the concept of fighting 2,000 individuals was despairing.

“Then there’s no way we can beat this head on! Even if this place is huge, we’ll still get caught playing hide-and-seek with 2,000 people!”

“Not quite,” Stiyl said, still facing forward. “The emphasis is in the core. The Gregorian Chant requires the simultaneous controlling of 2,000 people or it fails. If we can find the core of the 2,000 people and destroy it, we’ll end the Gregorian Chant.”

Stiyl splits from Touma, using him as a decoy

The two of them ran down the long corridor and finally arrived near the staircase. At the same moment, they noticed a large number of blue-white orbs deluging in. They were pincered.

“The stairs! Move it!” Kamijou and Stiyl frantically ducked under the stairs beside them. Kamijou intended to inquire whether they should go up and down the stairs, but he realized something was amiss.

“You… You’ve been looking so calm for a while. Do you have some secret plan?” It was true. For someone who had barely escaped the jaws of death, Stiyl seemed much too calm.

“Hm. I do have a plan. I’ve just been wondering whether I should use it.”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? IF YOU HAVE ONE, HURRY UP AND USE IT!”

With an “oh”, Stiyl happily looked at Kamijou’s face. In face of the abnormal smile, Kamijou inadvertently held his breath and became more alert.

Don. Stiyl pushed Kamijou down the stairs.

“What…” Before he could even react, he had lost his balance and had tumbled down the stairs. The numerous stabs of pain surrounded him and it was impossible to even cry out, for if he did, he would have likely bit his tongue.

“Bad luck, scarecrow.” Stiyl’s joyful voice was audible from above. Dazed, Kamijou could see him running away in the opposite direction, upstairs. Then, the flood approached and split both ways, and rushed at Kamijou like flowing water.

“That bastard!”

Kamijou dragged his pained body and ran downwards. Stiyl’s words passed through his thoughts. They were in Aureolus’ stronghold, a place filled with mana. Like an entirely red picture, if any blue (in this case Stiyl’s) paint was added, the enemy would soon realize something was amiss. On the other hand, if Stiyl avoided using magic, he would go unnoticed.

However, it was different for Kamijou. His Imagine Breaker endlessly erased the red color. Stiyl had the option to use or not to use, but Kamijou was like a perpetual transmitter.

All in all, Kamijou was brought there to be a convenient decoy to abandon. He had thought Stiyl’s lack of planning was irrational but in truth this reasoning lied at the heart.

…Damn it! Eh. Hold on, something’s not right. Kamijou’s heart rang an alarm but he knew not why. As the current Kamijou could think of no reason, it must have been the pre-amnesia Kamijou warning him.

As his thoughts raced, a fresh set of footsteps interrupted him, coming from below… and blocking his escape route.

Cryso Agori · Apr 22, 2022

Touma is stopped by a girl.

“…!”

The deluging orbs continued to converge onto Kamijou, but he could not possibly stop. So, instead he dashed and peered downstairs. There was a girl, one whom he had never met and whose uniform was unfamiliar, awaiting Kamijou. She was perhaps a candidate, one or two years older than Kamijou, with black braids and rounded spectacles. In all honestly it did not seem that she could fight, let alone use magic.

“The flames punish sin; purgatory governs the flames. Purgatory was created to burn sinners, the only violence God recognizes.”

What came out of her cute lips caused Kamijou unhappiness. Each time she spoke, the blue-white orb in front of her grew in size. It seemed the front and back of the coin had flipped.

The girl and the other students are espers, meaning using magic damages them.

The girl should have been a student on the front but became a magician on the back. This was perhaps true for every Misawa Cram student. Though in truth, Kamijou could have easily knocked the girl down.

I can win this…!

Kamijou clenched his right fist, and, though he could not definitively defeat 2,000 individuals, one or two of the orbs were no threat. Kamijou clenched his fist tighter as if to confirm the existence of Imagine Breaker.

Then, with a “crack!” the girl’s face exploded as if fire crackers were planted beneath her skin.

“What…?”

Simultaneous to Kamijou’s shock, the girl’s fingers, nose, under the cloths… released miniature explosions, one after the other. The explosions were small enough that they only burned holes a few centimeters wide on her skin.

“Violence… is the affirmation of death. Affirmation is… recognition. Re… cog… ni…” Each time the girl spoke a single word, her body cracked further. Her lips eventually began to crack as well and blood flowed out of her mouth, showing her innards were severely damaged. Despite the damage, she continued to speak. In reality, it was more like she could not talk. She seemed like a frog being controlled by a machine, her leg muscles twitched against her will from the continuous electrocution.

Don’t tell me…

Anxiety rose up in Kamijou’s stomach and his knowledge was informing him, though he knew not where the ridiculous information came from.

Espers couldn't use magic. Though espers and magicians were similar in their abilities to utilize supernatural powers, the applications were different. The “circuits” in espers were different from those of ordinary humans; even if they attempted to imitate a magician, they would be unsuccessful.

That in mind, they were in Academy City. All students there had undertaken some esper development curriculum. With this assumption, what would have happened if espers unable to use magic… did?

“Stop… it…” Kamijou muttered, forgetting his personal situation.

The circuitry was incompatible, his brain told him this. Though Kamijou himself knew little magic basis, the feeling may have been like a generator meant to run on batteries being run through an alternating current. Though the current might flow and the circuit might work, such an unreasonable method would burn out the circuit.

“STOP IT! YOU CAN TELL YOUR OWN BODY IS IN TROUBLE!!” He had forgotten to even clench his fist. At that moment, though it felt like there was a gun pointed at his head, he dashed down the stairs without a thought.

“…tion. Re… st… with… in. Within… refers… to… the world. Connect your inner… self with the outside… world.” The girl suddenly let out a deep sound and went silent.

The bridge between her eyebrows exploded and the blue-white orb she casted disappeared, leaving behind a fresh red wound. Her last sound seemed to betray the fatality of the wound while the girl swayed about and tumbled forward on the stairs.

Touma decides to save the girl.

Kamijou’s mind was informing him… A human body is heavy. Even a girl of petite size can be truly heavy if carried around like luggage. If you’re burdened with several extra kilograms, evading the flood of orbs will be impossible.

Kamijou’s mind was informing him… This girl’s even an enemy. There will be no merits to saving her, you might even be attacked. If you consider life as the largest priority, leave this enemy behind and escape.

Kamijou’s mind was informing him… Most importantly, a severely wounded casualty like her can’t possibly be saved. Not only are her wounds obviously fatal, she’s been poisoned by a religious science.

“…” Hearing the voices in his mind caused Kamijou to gnash his teeth. “STOP MESSING AROUND!”

Kamijou still decided to rush down the stairs and reached his hand out to save the girl that was ready to collapse. It was true that the girl was heavy and it was also true that it was already difficult for him to make an escape and it was again true that with extra luggage, he could not possibly outrun the tidal wave of orbs. The girl was an enemy, a physically and emotionally wounded one at that, and Kamijou understood it.

Even so, there was no reason to abandon a wounded girl and let her be devoured by the coming deluge of orbs. Even if he searched the entire world, he would never find a reason to justify such an action.

Most likely, the girl had not intended for it to happen. She believed she was just joining an ordinary cram school but upon enrollment was soon manipulated by the science religion. Unknowingly, she became a pawn.

Kamijou remember the knight who had died in front of the elevator. Most people could not have possibly left the injured there alone, even if an enemy.

The balls hone in on Touma but stop when Himegami appears.

“Guu… Damn it!”

Don! The girl collapsed onto Kamijou’s chest and she seemed even lighter than expected, even if this were only true from the perspective of people. As luggage, she could have been considered extremely heavy and, as this happened halfway down the stairs, Kamijou almost fell down as he attempted to maintain his balance.

Carrying the bloodied girl, Kamijou intended to continue his run down the stairs and he checked behind himself.

“…”

The flood had already appeared before him.

Kamijou began to frantically swat at orbs with his right hand while he rushed down the final steps with the girl cradled in his left arm. An unconscious person was quite a bit heavier than he had expected, as if he were swimming with a metal ball weighing him down.

He wanted to jump, but his body was grounded by the extra weight. That slight lag allowed the thousands of balls to form a swirling vortex around him.

“…!!”

Kamijou reflexively shut his eyes and began to think. With the girl under his protection in mind, he could block a few orbs with his body, but it was impossible with thousands chasing them. Kamijou’s body would be eaten away by the balls like metal in acid… devoured by uncountable worms…

“…?”

Nothing had happened. For some time, nothing happened. There was a strange sensation of stopped time and Kamijou did not dare open his eyes recklessly. He was in some fantasy world that would have broken if he opened his eyes and time would flow again. Regardless, it was imperative he did open his eyes.

With a fearful sensation, like for someone disarming a bomb, Kamijou carefully opened his eyes.

“…Ah?”

He could see, but he could not understand. It was like time stopped. The phenomenon he was witnessing could only have been explained by time stopping. The vortex of orbs that was about to swallow him had stopped as if it were a still image.

After a moment, the seemingly impatient orbs began to move. However, instead of swallowing Kamijou whole, they slowly deliberately dropped to the ground like apples from a tree. Upon ground contact, they submerged.

Then, a new set of footsteps was heard. Kamijou did not understand. Even so, he sought the footsteps that he heard coming from below and stared down. The stairs were linked to the entrance of a corridor where the shining sunset gleamed into the dark emergency staircase.

From there, Deep Blood Himegami Aisa observed upward, as if in the bottom of a well.

Part 6

Stiyl can easily sense magic.

Stiyl watched as an expended flaming sword vanished. Card runes scattered into the air like sakura petals. There was an ordinary corridor a floor above Kamijou’s location, where Stiyl knew the core of the Gregorian Chant was.

He was a magician. To him, the detection of mana flow was a specialty and such a feat was simple. Though the energy harnessed by each individual student was miniscule, the power to control 2,000 people from a single point made the core’s location obvious.

“…I see. So this is considered hidden, huh?” muttered Stiyl with a cigarette in his mouth.

Stiyl destroys the core hidden in the wall by forcing flames into it.

Hiding oneself on the front of the coin was an absolute defense against those on the back. The individuals on the back could do nothing to the front, even if it were just the removal of a Christmas wrapper. By putting the core inside of an ordinary wall, it was perfectly defended. Even if an enemy magician were to find the location, if it were impenetrable, the core was safe.

“First I have to wrap the core in the wall itself.” Stiyl uninterestedly puffed smoke while he created formless flames. If there were slight distortions in walls or windows that created gaps of barely one millimeter, he could force flames in with the intense 3000 Celsius heat.

The knowledge contained on the front was unsuited for the back. If Aureolus desired a perfect defense, his best option was to place the core into a plastic bag and tie it.

At any rate, without seeing the core, Stiyl destroyed it and it seemed he managed to end the Gregorian Chant.

Espers can't use magic repeated again.

“…Speaking of which…” Stiyl shook his cigarette. “Looking at this bloody trail, it seems like even the alchemist has fallen so far since we met. A real bloody road should be made with one’s own blood, right?”

An esper and magician’s physical makeup were different. If espers even attempted magic, the unstable mana would rip apart the blood vessels and nerves in the body. In fact, there were numerous collapsed students on the corridor, even the area around his very feet. Some were still trembling while others were immobile. Searching the rooms would likely have resulted in hellish sights ten times worse than what he saw. On top of the sights, an unknown, thick smell of rust floated about.

Even Stiyl was amazed at his own bitterness; perhaps he still harbored some human feelings.

That guy really seems to believe in me. Recalling that esper boy, Stiyl seemed unable to bear it any longer.

Fake Izzard says that he lured Stiyl.

Then, he heard the clear sound of footsteps approaching him from another direction. The steps were confident, had an unsuppressed volume, and seemed to fully express their killing intent, prepared to deliver the killing blow.

If an illustration were needed, it was like daring to knock on an enemy’s door while fully intending to attack. Absolute confidence. It was a declaration of war with the firm belief of success, a preemptive declaration of victory.

The owner of the footsteps spoke. “Naturally, by using the pseudo-Gregorian Chant, I knew I could lure you to the core, no matter where you were hiding.” The footsteps prolonging, he continued. “Certainly, there should be two intruders… where’s the other one? Was that familiar of your swallowed by the Gregorian Chant?”

“I’d be really happy if that happened.” Stiyl said. “But, that guy’s life’ll be longer than you’d think. Also, he’s not something cute like a familiar.” Stiyl chucked and turned to face the owner of the footsteps, his eyes no longer smiling by the end of the turn.

Fake Izzard's appearance. Stiyl says he isn't a fighter.

The footsteps came from a pair of Italian leather shoes. The long legs and two meter tall build were wrapped in an expensive, white Western suit. His name was Aureolus, and 18 year old male. He had dyed green hair to signify his control of one of the five elements, earth, while the slicked hairstyle made the Caucasian male all the more unique.

If others were dressed so ridiculously, perhaps they would have been ridiculed. But, for the middle-aged-looking man, his cloths were appropriate.

“What now? What do you intend to do by luring me here when you aren’t a fighter? You should know that you alone can’t stop me. Or rather, how many magic tools do you have on you, you antique salesman?”

Stiyl says the entire building is his magic tool.

The words seemed taboo for Aureolus. For alchemists to step up and fight on the frontlines, it was imperative that they equip themselves with weapons and spiritual items. Aureolus would have had to use tens, even hundreds, of magic tools to simply be on par with Stiyl.

“Idiot. Can’t you tell that I don’t have any on me?”

“I guess so. But, this entire building itself is like a sacred city, one large magic tool. Even if you don’t use any tools to protect yourself, the surrounding environment will automatically help you. Hm… The problem is, why did you come out? If you stayed put, the sacred city would have fought for you. And, even if you’re out here, you’re still just relying on the power of the sacred city. Why are you here? Or rather, what can you do here?”

Fake Izzard instantly turns a student into molten gold.

“You bastard…!”

Like a snake slithering out of its hole, a cold knife shot out of Aureolus’ right sleeve with a swoosh.

A dart…? Stiyl frowned. Though it seemed like a dart, it was the size of a dagger. As Stiyl began to believe it was throwing weapon…

“Transmute!!” Immediately, the huge dart flew out like a bullet at Stiyl’s eye with a golden chain attached at the end. Stiyl bent his body downwards and the snake-like golden dart flew overhead. A second golden chain flew out of Aureolus’ sleeve, ripped through the air and grazed Stiyl’s face.

“Tch.”

With the sound of a fruit being sliced open, the tip of the dart stabbed into the back of a fallen student.

“…” Stiyl wondered what to say. “…?”

BAM! As if piercing a balloon, the student’s body burst into bits and fluids. It was as if someone had used a powerful acid to dissolve the body but… something was strange. It was not an ordinary liquid but a shiny gold… It was pure gold that melted from the intense heat. With a swish, the chain curled and the dart was back into Aureolus’ sleeve.

“Why are you so shocked?” Aureolus again raised his right hand. “I’m an alchemist and, I suppose, you know how I got this name.”

Stiyl was speechless. The representative magic called alchemy, which was theorized to be able to convert lead into pure gold, truly existed. However, if such a project were to be carried out using modern materials, it would have taken seven trillion yen and a total of three years, a spell with quite the hefty price.

However, Aureolus had actually managed to achieve the magic in less than a second. It was impossibly fast, an unsurpassable record.

Stiyl calls Limen Magna meaningless.

“Anyone who’s touched by my Instant Alchemy Limen Magna, will be forcefully transmuted into pure gold. It can’t be defended from nor avoided. Now, show me your ace, your Innocentius. I’m truly interested to see whether the shapeless flames can turn into gold.” The golden dagger lunged out of his sleeve like a snake.

“…” But, Stiyl did not speak. He seemed incredulous of the situation and completely rooted to his location.

“Hm. Inevitable. It’s to be expected you would be shocked after seeing my Limen Magna. But, don’t get killed too easily, I’m not satisfied yet. That attitude of your from five seconds ago can’t be compensated even if you died 10,000 times.”

“So, why must you do something so meaningless?” With surprise, Stiyl Magnus muttered like a child who saw a ghost.

“What…?” The alchemist was shocked.

“What’s so surprising about what I’m saying? The point of magic is to experiment, not get results, right? Even if an expert can make a magic drug in five seconds, what’s the difference if the drug’s effects are the same?”

Acting like he had seen something truly idiotic, Stiyl sighed. “It’s the same with what you did. Limen Magna? How stupid. How is this any different from dumping acid on someone?”

“…Just…”

“I know you’re trying really hard, but it’s too much of an overkill to use Innocentius for this. Besides, he’s watching a house and I have no need for him here.”

Izzard hits Stiyl multiple times but isn't affected, Izzard is a fake created by the real Izzard.

“…JUST SHUT UP!!!”

In an attempt to block out the mockery, Aureolus released another Limen Magna from his right sleeve. The dart flew out with the alchemist’s rage and, as the strike was much too quick, formed afterimages of several golden lasers. A barrage of ten in one second, the flesh and blood body of the magician Stiyl could not match the velocities. In the end, six of the ten stabbed through the head and abdomen like a sewing machine.

“And, what’s with this? Haven’t you realized you’re just a magic tool?” The runic cards owned by Stiyl danced about in the air. His upper body was pierced into the shape of a honeycomb and there was even a hole through his head the width of an arm. However, Stiyl Magnus’ extremely bored and unenthusiastic voice still continued.

“WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!?”

Extremely stunned, Aureolus continued to fire Limen Magna and Stiyl’s tatter upper body was continually pierced and his formerly unharmed lower body was also gaining holes.

“Using basic materials and Germanic Cross to materialize a soul… it really does like something a Roman Catholic priest would do. But, I’m just looking for the real Aureolus Izzard. Will the fake Aureolus please step aside?” Stiyl said, while his body swayed in the air. He gradually became transparent, seemingly about to disappear at any moment, but he continued to remain standing.

“What are you talking about!? These words defy basic premises! Obviously I created Limen Magna. Where else would this power come from?”

“Of course it came from the real Aureolus Izzard. I believe you’re beginning to realize something wrong, right? Alright, let me ask you a question. Fake Aureolus, why did you start to learn alchemy?”

“…Is there even a need to ask?” Aureolus said, raising Limen Magna. “The only aim of alchemy is to seek truth. I specialize in humans. Seeing how high I can go while maintaining a humane concept is the answer I seek."

Stiyl insults the fake Izzard.

For example, by consuming a poisonous plant hallucinogen, it was capable to accelerate the speed of assimilating and reciting incantations, even if it caused physical damage. Another example was the possibility to hibernate for thousands of years by entering the frozen mass of the South Pole.

But, what Aureolus sought was not a breakthrough that sacrificed one’s own humanity, but how high humans could climb while maintaining their form and pride. Such was his goal of Aureolus, the descendant of the so-called famous magician-doctor Paracelsus, as an alchemist, which was also his greatest pride.

“If that’s the case, why do you want a vampire, something said to surpass human understanding?”

The words of the magician crushed his beliefs.

“…”

“Hmph. See? You don’t understand. You don’t understand anything. You don’t know what Aureolus Izzard is doing and you don’t know what Aureolus Izzard is thinking of doing. You’re just a fake with basic ideas in your mind that can’t even understand why Aureolus Izzard would go against his fundamental beliefs to do this.”

If he truly knew nothing, how could he have been the true Aureolus Izzard? The magician that should have been physically ravaged spoke with more arrogance than the alchemist

“Also, about that Limen Magna of yours, since magic exists for research, how could Aureolus Izzard be proud to say he completed such a spell? Only a child would be happy to be cured after taking flu medicine, right?”

“Ugh… Ah…” There were too many arguments for Aureolus to counter. However, Aureolus could not prevent from listening because Stiyl’s words were like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, placing themselves in the deficiencies of the alchemist’s heart. He truly could not ignore him.

“I’ll say it as many times as you like. You’re a fake. I’m looking for the real Aureolus Izzard, not you. Though it’d be easy to destroy one or two of your security functions, I’m not too willing since your face is so familiar. Get as from here as you can.”

The fake Aureolus could take no more. It was not an issue of being a fake. The point was that he had spent immeasurable effort to create that one and only spell, how could it have originated from another person?

The fake Aureolus decided to use his full power to crush the enemy before him, raising his blade.

What Izzard had been stabbing was a mirage made by flames.

“Also, you should understand this one clearly. How could the real Aureolus Izzard lose so easily?” said a voice from behind the alchemist. In a moment, a warm, oven-like atmosphere brushed past the alchemist’s face. Then, in a formerly empty place, Stiyl Magnus appeared.

A mirage…?! The fake Aureolus began to back away.

The so-called mirage was a phenomenon caused by thermal expansion that caused light to refract. Thus, it was possible for Stiyl to seemingly melt into the air or cause himself to appear somewhere like a movie projection. Such a fake image was what was repeatedly speared by Limen Magna. The true Stiyl had hidden himself in the air and crept behind Aureolus.

Aureolus thoroughly perceived Stiyl’s tactic in but a moment. It was with such mirages that Stiyl avoided Limen Magna. However, the illusions that were speared seemed to cause mental falsehoods for the alchemist and the moments where the illusion and body overlapped were the most precarious.

If Stiyl stopped to think, he would have been filled with holes.

Stiyl cuts off fake Izzard's leg and arm. Fake Izzard floods the floor with molten gold.

As the false Aureolus dragged his thought back to reality, a sword of flames appeared in Stiyl’s right hand, which swung vertically and hacked his left hand and leg off. The cuts were extremely smooth, like a hot knife slicing butter. The parts sliced by 3000 Celsius flames did not even bleed.

“Uuah… Ah…” What dominated the alchemist’s mind was not the bodily pain.

Also, you should understand this one clearly. How could the real Aureolus Izzard lose so easily? Stiyl’s words echoed in his mind and shook it. It was true, Aureolus Izzard was certainly invincible and overwhelming, never knowing either failure or retreat. He could only have been called a perfect saint.

But… what was his currently sorry state? As of then, was he no different from a frightened cat that used all sorts of gimmicks for protection and trembled before attacks?

“A…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

The fake Aureolus finally lost all sanity. Despite his lack of an arm and a leg, the fake alchemist still fired Limen Magna. Stiyl, still wary of the golden dart, raised his flaming sword. However, Limen Magna flew off in a completely different direction, stabbing the students gathered on the floor and causing the entire floor to overflow with molten gold.

Fake Izzard can manipulate the molten gold, Stiyl easily blocks it with his flame sword. But is forced to make a detour due to the molten gold.

Then, Aureolus stabbed Limen Magna into the molten gold, perhaps having the ability to manipulate pure gold like how a magnet attracts iron sand, splattering gold all over. Of course, this included the area around Stiyl Magnus, who responded with casual blocking and a flame-sword explosion. Though the numerous droplets of gold were not blockable, the storm repelled them. Stiyl then created a new sword and sliced apart the smoke surrounding him. He saw no signs of the fake Aureolus, who had possibly escaped during the explosion, and hesitated whether to chase after him, but decided otherwise. The five meter corridor before him was covered in high temperature, lava-like molten gold that would result in burns if the distance was not jumped.

It seemed he could only make a detour, but, lucky for him, Misawa Cram School consisted of four buildings and each was linked through an overhead corridor.

There’s nowhere I can’t go if I don’t mind some detours. Stiyl pondered.

Part 7

Himegami has experience in medical knowledge.

“It looks bad but the injuries aren’t serious. Treatment will do.” calmly said Deep Blood Himegami Aisa. Kamijou had dragged the Misawa student, the girl with braids, onto the corridor.

“BU-BUT SHE’S COVERED IN BLOOD!” Kamijou placed the girl on the floor and could not help but roar at Deep Blood’s words. The unknown school’s summer uniform was dyed a fresh red and her face, hands and other visible skin were damaged, looking like a layer of plastic was wrapped over them.

“Only her damaged skin caused damage to the capillaries. Had her arteries ruptured, it would have been worse. The blood would have gushed like a fountain.”

“How… do you…”

You’re not a doctor. And even if you were, you’d need to thoroughly examine this. How can you make a prognosis just like that? Kamijou thought.

“I’m well informed about blood flow than other people.” Kamijou was stunned and automatically recalled the name of Himegami Aisa’s ability.

“Help me!” Kamijou’s reaction went unnoticed, likely because she began emergency treatment and proceeded to undress the wounded girl in front of the boy.

“Uwah! Hold on…”

“Don’t overreact. It’s disrespectful to the injured.”

Though Kamijou was panicked for whatever reason, considering it, it was wrong to think that it was a girl’s naked body. It was similar to how quickly a doctor would be fired if they were excited because of a patient’s naked body. Himegami then, like a doctor or paramedic, used a handkerchief to stop the bleeding and, since it would not suffice for the bleeding wrists, used Kamijou’s belt to tie her wrists. The ruptured abdominal muscles were then stitched together with the injured girl’s hair and needles from a sewing box.

Kamijou could do little but follow Himegami’s directions and lift the arms higher than her heart or use the handkerchief to press the wounds. Doing such things caused his hands to stain red and, considering it was because of attempts to save a life rather than hurt, caused a rather remarkable feeling for Kamijou.

“Anyways, she’s alright.” Himegami, whose miko outfit was stained with blood, spoke with little impact. “We managed to stop her blood loss. It’ll take 15 minutes for the blood to clot but once it does, the wounds will be patched up. However, the sterilization’s incomplete. Though there won’t be any danger for the next couple hours, it’d be best to send her to a hospital just to be safe.”

Fake Izzard replaces his limbs with gold.

“Damn it! Damn it! Exactly why am I so injured! He’s supposed to be material but he’s dragging me down… Kuku… huhu... dragging me down? Dragging me down? That’s interesting, isn’t it Aureolus Izzard! You don’t even have a leg for others to pull! Kuku! Kukuku! You bastards looked down on me! In the end I’M GOING TO MELT ALL OF YOU…!” said an abnormally loud male voice, sounding like crashing echoes.

With an extremely loud swoosh and the sound of dragging, the man escaped down the stairs and into the corridor. Kamijou was stunned by the green-haired foreigner in a white suit. His left arm and leg were sliced off at the joints and slanted golden sticks were attached the damage parts, serving as crutches. It should have been painful but the man seemed unperturbed. His sweaty, exaggerated face perhaps betrayed the anger, hatred, ecstasy and insanity that served as anesthetic for the man.

Additionally, in each hand, his normal right hand and prosthetic left, were the collars of bloodied boys and girls, three on each for a total of six.

Fake Izzard turns the students into gold.

“Of course these are just materials! Alchemy requires materials! Why’re you looking at them? That’s weird! Aureolus Izzard and his Limen Magna stand before you and you’re looking at the materials!? I should be perfect!! Why are you unmoved!?! What do I lack!?”

The name Aureolus Izzard shocked Kamijou, finally caused him to back away. However, Himegami Aisa, beside him, maintained her expression.

“Poor thing… If you hadn’t realized the truth, you could have continued to be Aureolus Izzard.”

“Ku…!? Damn you!!” With Aureolus’ growl flew a large golden dart from the right sleeve, which quickly spun around the alchemist, the golden chain making some sort of boundary.

The dart pierced through the bloody students that Aureolus had dragged with him. The six students immediately melted into something gold. It was no ordinary fluid. The mercury-like metallic substance’s hissing and the noisy beast-like breathing of the steam proved that the fluid was molten metal.

Fake Izzard creates a molten tsunami of gold.

“Wha— DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’RE DOING YOU BASTARD?!” Seeing this, Kamijou Touma worried for the melted students, ignoring the murderous technique itself. Aureolus faced Kamijou, seething with anger.

“Of course. ACCEPT YOUR FATE!” Aureolus cried out and the golden dart and chain spun around the alchemist with increasing velocity. Even the surrounding golden dirt flew in mid air like a tornado. It seemed like a wall, yet like a tsunami and yet like a meteor crashing into the sea. It raised waves around Aureolus that extended to the ceiling.

During this, from the corner of his eye, he saw Himegami move. She wordlessly bent down and lifted the injured girl before backing away. Staggering slightly but visibly not anxious, she clearly knew she had to back away and get clear of the attack range.

Luckily, the fluid formed by the spike was different from water. Rather, it was more like sticky, melted chocolate. Even if it were to crash like a tsunami, splash damage would not have been a factor.

Touma blocks the dart with his right hand, he isn't turned to gold but his hand is burned.

Kamijou followed the burdened Himegami’s lead and backed away. Then, a hole appeared in the golden tsunami from whence a golden dart lunged with terrifying speed.

“…!?” Though he would have dodged it, as he was backing off, he could not find proper balance in such short notice. Instead, he chose to use right hand to grab the attack that approached.

The sound of ripping muscles was heard from his hand. The golden dart was not so easily caught; it retreated and returned to the golden storm. The cut palm felt hot, as if scalded by a metal plate.

After a moment, the golden tsunami began to rise. Kamijou jumped backwards and then rolled, avoiding the molten hot attack. The golden sea separated Kamijou and Aureolus a distance of three meters.

…Ku. Damn it. I have no feeling in my right hand! Kamijou gritted his teeth at the difficulty of clenching his right hand’s five fingers. The right hand that could negate any miracle had no power to block a small knife.

The dart turns to dust after being negated by IB.

“What—What’s going on?” After the gold tsunami subsided, Aureolus reappeared, seeming to be more anxious, perhaps even confused, than Kamijou. The golden dart in his hand began to disintegrate like sand.

Kamijou’s right hand, Imagine Breaker, began its effect. The dart was something imbued with super natural power, which was destroyed upon contact with his hand. The wound on Kamijou’s hand was caused by the blade just before destruction.

“Just what exactly is up with your range hand? Certainly… it won’t change? Without question, my Limen Magna is alchemy’s pinnacle! It’s a miracle that even two schools, Bohemia and Vienna, abandoned thinking it impossible! This is unbelievable! Exactly what did you use to negate my theory!?”

Limen… Magna? Kamijou felt his wound pulsate with his heartbeat. He automatically frowned and analyzed. By “change” does he mean that molten metal?

“Ha. How satisfying! Haha! THIS IS SATISFYING. YOU’RE TRULY FASCINATING, BOY! WHAT’S YOUR BODY’S SECRET? LET ME, A MAGIC DOCTOR, DISSECT YOU AND ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS!!!”

Izzard aims for Touma's head and starts shooting the darts like a machine gun with less than a fifth of a second. Touma is able to block though.

Aureolus swung his right hand vertically and revealed a new dart that was pointed at the spot between Kamijou’s eyebrows, exacting the killing intent held in his eyes.

He’s coming!?

The dart nearly reached his forehead. Kamijou had frantically used his right hand to block his face, swatting the dart aside, causing a sharp, cut-like pain in his own hand.

“Tch!” Aureolus attempted to use his chain to counter, but Kamijou’s right hand shattered it like glass before he could catch it. Another dart appeared from his right sleeve.

Just as Kamijou prepared to dodge, golden darts fired out like machine guns from Aureolus’ suit.

It was fast. The firing, the damaging and preparation for the next each lasted less than a fifth of a second. The level was no longer something a human could handle. However, Kamijou could not simply run away or even turn his back on others. The smallest mistake would have allowed for a dart to lance his chest or other vitals.

Luckily, the dart, though fast, had a relatively simple trajectory. It continued to fire in straight lines which were much easier to predict than the straights and hooks of a boxer.

“Ku! Ahh!!”

Though Kamijou knew he ran the risk of cutting his hand, he could only choose to deflect with Imagine Breaker. Considering the dart’s ability to transform, he would have been melted into gold if he had blocked with anything else. Thus, after some time, the remains of darts and chains surrounded him.

Izzard suggests it would take a magic absorbing chant or the lance of longinus to destroy Limen Magna.

“HAHA! HAHAHAHA! SUCH AN INTERESTING HUMAN SPECIMEN! IT’S NOT EVEN USING A CHANT TO ABSORB THE MAGIC OR A LANCE OF LONGINUS GOD SLAYER! IT USES ITS BARE HAND TO DESTROY MY LIMEN MAGNA!”

The speed of the darts double.

Though he was continuously unable to kill his enemy, Aureolus seemed quite ecstatic. He was like an adventurer exploring some mysterious place that none had reached prior.

“IT’S NOT ENOUGH! HAHA! BOY! THIS ISN’T ENOUGH TO TEST YOUR LIMITS!”

The speeds of the golden dart’s destruction and regeneration more than doubled, continuously ripping the air and flying at Kamijou.

Kamijou’s hand was already stained in blood, unable to even clench into a fist.

Da-Damn it…! MY FINGERS MIGHT GET SLICED! As Kamijou experienced the frightening thought invade his body, a dart unexpectedly missed and whizzed past the slowly moving Kamijou

The dart hits the girl Himegami was holding.

“The enemy missed” was much too optimistic a thought. Standing behind Kamijou was Himegami Aisa and the injured girl!

"HIME—!"

Kamijou turned his head around and attempted to yell. However, facing where the dart originated, the action was too slow. It was aimed for the area between her eyes. Perhaps Aureolus’ extreme mental confusion caused him to not consider showing any mercy for the Deep Blood he had labored to obtain.

Before them was the shocked look of Himegami Aisa’s face. Kamijou attempted to shout… but the sound of a dart piercing flesh was heard. In fact, there was a shocked cry whose origin Kamijou was unsure of. He could not tell because the scene before him was much too pitiful and much too unexpected.

The golden dart had not pierced Himegami Aisa.

Instead, the thoroughly injured girl that she was carrying, a girl who could not possibly lift a finger, had actually moved her hand to protect Himegami.

The dart deeply pierced into her soft hand but the girl did not show a look of pain. Instead, she used her other hand to gently push Himegami’s chest, swaying her and forcing her one step away from the girl.

She seemed to mutter something with an extremely weak voice. She went unheard… but she smiled.

Rather than a smile for her, it was one for the consoling of others.

Then, the anonymous girl was simply transmuted into flowing gold.

Touma grabs Fake Izzard's chain with his left hand. His instinct tells him it doesn't have the same effect as his darts.

For an instant, Kamijou seemed to shout something. He knew not what he shouted but he had nearly ruptured his throat. The alchemist also seemed taken aback and, likely due to luck (or a lack of it), the golden chain stopped winding.

Kamijou grabbed the chain, not with his sure-kill right hand but instead his left. His instincts told him that only the dart could carry out Limen Magna because, if the chains could, Aureolus would have swung the chain rather than fire the dart because of the extended lateral range.

“Ugh…!” Aureolus naturally attempted to pull the chain back but was held straight like a rope in tug-of-war as Kamijou used his foot to hold it in place. Aureolus himself was the one pulled.

Touma drags Izzard into the molten gold.

And… in front of him was the fiery liquid gold he had created!

“GUOAHHHHHHHH!!”

Upon stepping into the golden fluid, Aureolus attempted to escape, but could not. The golden chain had become a bind, restricting his movements.

Aureolus roared and released the chain hidden within his suit, managing to eventually drag himself out of the gold. Although the contact was only two seconds, his foot was smoking.

Perhaps understanding he could no longer bind him with the chain, Kamijou’s bloodied hand abandoned it.

Should he run? Or should he attack?

Touma jumps at Izzard despite the molten gold.

As Aureolus hesitated, he witnessed something unbelievable. Kamijou bent over in an attempt to maximize his jumping distance and jump over the golden stream in order to attack the opposite alchemist.

In truth, the abandonment of the chain had nothing to do with locking Aureolus in place. As for the leaping distance, anyone could have told him it was impossible. The gold stream between them was three meters wide, which was possible with a running start, but impossible starting at rest.

Even so, Kamijou’s eyes lacked hesitation.

It was as if he were saying that even if he were to fail and jumped into the burning gold, then he just had to beat the enemy before him before he was burned.

The intense, unrestrained emotions caused Aureolus his fear.

The next instant, Kamijou jumped without hesitation.

It had seemed like a suicidal jump… but it was not toward Aureolus. Instead, his foot landed on a slightly protruded platform window in the corridor that allowed in the shining sunset; Kamijou flew at him!

“…!”

Kamijou had already jumped before Aureolus could prepare an attack, and from a position much higher than both Aureolus and the floor. The alchemist’s survival instincts told him to respond quickly and use a dart to shoot Kamijou out of the air. However, as he rushed to raise Limen Magna, he realized that Kamijou Touma was overhead. If he used Limen Magna, the fiery gold would have rained down.

“Apparently, I didn’t foresee this…!”

Actions, pride and a burning foot were all abandoned by Aureolus as he frantically rolled to flee Kamijou’s attack. In comparison to the shame of losing to an ordinary person, a non-magician, unendurable damage was a greater fear.

All the alchemist could do was crash about as he ran away on his battered legs, into the darkness.

Part 8

No matter how much mana Fake Izzard put into his darts IB still was able to negate the spell.

The fake Aureolus continued to tread the corridor’s long, seemingly endless distance. After he was grabbed by the boy, he had lost all of his power, which was over all trivial. The golden dart was merely a materialized tool. Limen Magna’s actual identity was the entire fortress called Misawa Cram School.

Even if the tool’s mana supply were cut off, as long as the main body was supplied with mana and the shape was recreated, it was reusable. Though, this was not the reason for the fake’s escape. The power in the boy’s right hand had seemed limitless. No matter how much mana was placed from the main body into each dart, the right hand still eroded it. If such a cycle had continued, the body would have eventually been depleted of mana, a possible crisis that sent chills down Aureolus’ spine.

Fake Izzard plans to turn the rest of the students to gold and dump it on the two.

"Ku, damn…" The fake Aureolus still planned the next step. Even if Limen Magna itself were ineffective, both Stiyl and the boy had to carefully avoid the molten gold. “…In other words, if there’s so much gold they can’t dodge, they’ll be powerless. Ha. I have 1982 pieces of material in here and naturally, it’ll be more than enough to be rid of them.”

The area of question was large, but it was still a building. If he chose to pour enormous amounts of gold from the top level like water bursting from a dam, he could have easily flooded the levels below. Just imagining it, just imagining it consume his unhappy feelings was enjoyable for the alchemist.

Touma appears before Fake Izzard.

Fortunately, the alchemist had placed the cram school students on the back of the coin and now he simply had to gather these materials. Once done, all that remained was the trivial matter of piercing Limen Magna through them. Giving it consideration, Stiyl had destroyed the core of the Gregorian Chant replica, the tool that allowed him to manipulate the students’ actions.

“Regardless of anything, these guys are against me…” Anger ripped the air like a burning blade but the sounds of footsteps behind him were even sharper. “…!?”

Aureolus’ back seemed to visibly shrink as he heard the footsteps. When afraid, ordinary people would typically choose to run away. It was a normal response. People would choose to run rather than endure irritating and painful events. If possible, they would ignore it.

However, the footsteps disallowed the alchemist even the ability to act on primitive instincts associated with normality. The footsteps contained killing intent, bringing with them despair. If he had turned away, he believed, he would have chopped into 100 pieces. Thus, Aureolus could only seek its source. His heart told him to crazily run away without looking and his mind was already unable to endure the pain. However, like a puppet, the alchemist could only look on.

There, ten meters way, Kamijou Touma stood like a savage beast that had escaped a laboratory.

“Wh-What’s going…” He did not understand. He was supposed to be perfect. How could someone have pushed him so far?

But, Kamijou Touma truly stood there.

“…Have you had enough fun?”

Kamijou’s muttering caused Aureolus to frown. It was the voice of one standing in the midst of icy cold rain. Onlookers would have been confused as to who had pushed whom into despair.

Touma vs Fake Izzard.

“Ugh...” Aureolus disorderedly raised Limen Magna out of pure fear, which gave Kamijou even more determination.

Wordlessly, his feet dashed, or rather exploded, with all his might towards the alchemist. Consumed by fear and anxiety, Aureolus fired the dart at Kamijou’s face to keep him from approaching. In response, Kamijou crouched like a spider and easily dodged, even taking an additional step at the same time.

“!?”

The alchemist’s nervousness rose. However, even if his restlessness caused Limen Magna to be less effective, he could still prepare six in a single second. He recovered the dart and once again fired at the boy’s face.

Having already bent down, Kamijou had nowhere to go. He used his right fist to land an uppercut into the alchemist’s abdomen, shattering the dart and chain in the same stroke. The perfect counterattack had seemingly predicted the dart’s path.

Crouching down was a ploy. If there were no retreat options coupled with a large opening, the enemy would predictably attack. Thus, the straightforward trajectory was much too simple compared to the rule-less alleyway brawls. With a distance of ten meters, just dodging the first dart would not have covered the distance. Kamijou had devised this tactic as a way to dodge second attack.

And… if he could do it…

“Wait!” With a stunned, twisted expression, Aureolus roared in an attempt to fire a third. However, before it could happen, Kamijou’s fist had found its way to the alchemist’s face. Then, without slowing down, despite the one-head difference in height, Kamijou smashed his forehead into Aureolus’ jaw.

Having taken two direct strikes to the head, Aureolus stumbled to the floor. He attempted to roll away but Kamijou did not allow. He stamped heavily onto the gold prosthetic and maneuvered his foot to remove it. With the sound of crushing fruit, the wound, which was given makeshift treatment, ripped.

“GYYYYAAAAAAAAH!!!” Aureolus screamed in pain and shot another Limen Magna at Kamijou, who was about to sit on the alchemist.

Despite the risk, Kamijou used his left hand to grab the golden chain in order to keep it intact. It seemed he had not considered that the slightest mistake would have turned him into gold.

He twisted his left hand and tied the golden chain to his arm. Once Limen Magna was completely sealed, Kamijou looked down upon the alchemist.

Idiotic… if this keeps up I’ll be killed. Aureolus' better judgment had him cut the golden chain linked to the inside of his suit. Having previously balanced his balance with the chain’s resistance, Kamijou swayed. Utilizing this opportunity, Aureolus rolled away and escaped Kamijou’s clutches. The alchemist cried in his own heart. Rather than the Limen Magna he so believed in be destroyed, he had abandoned it of his own will, questioning his entire belief system.

He had believed that he could save his life if he abandoned everything, which would have been for nothing if it failed. However, Aureolus could not walk, let alone run, with his prosthetic leg ripped out.

Kamijou raised the golden chain and whipped the crawling Aureolus. The heavy hit caused the air to leave his lungs, causing him to roll about on the floor in pain.

Touma chokes Izzard with his own chain.

“…”

Kamijou silently closed in on the alchemist and stepped on his back, proceeding to wrap the chain around its former master’s neck. He could have then hanged him by pulling on the chain. What he could not do was break the neck because Kamijou was right-handed, not left. The boy was not acting on emotion, simply because he could not. His mind was infuriated and blank, reality having little hold.

“I—gya—sp-spare—me.”

The words seemed to douse Kamijou’s brain in cold water, clearing him of his anger. It was an unreasonable request. How many had he killed? Considering how many, there was only one option. Even in superhero movies with special effects that were shown to children, none would have hesitated to kill such a person.

But, Aureolus was inhuman. He knew he could not run, but he continued to stretch his arms to struggle.

Kamijou began to recall the knight, abandoned in the hall, the students who still continued incanting the Gregorian Chant, damaging their own bodies, and the anonymous girl who was morphed into gold because she protected Himegami. He knew there was only one option.

Kamijou wordlessly tugged at the golden chain… but… in the end chose to let go.

Aureolus crawled away on the floor, only capable of escaping the boy who had caused his downfall, wondering what misfortunes befell him. He was relieved to be living.

He was still human, how could Kamijou have killed him?

The Fake Izzard was negated by IB.

The fake Aureolus no longer even knew what floor it was. Though he managed to tumble down a few floors, he no longer had the strength to crawl. His body no longer had the energy. His back rested against the wall of the dark emergency staircase while he stared at his remaining hand.

Since he was punched by the boy, he felt like the strength that supported him was being taken away. The sense of powerlessness told him that a certain mana source was cut off.

It was then that the fake Aureolus realized. He was not human. If the existence that provided him energy ceased to exist, he could not even stand. He was like Limen Magna, a tool amongst numerous substitutes.

"Ahh…" The alchemist sighed as the feeling in his fingers gradually faded. He somehow felt satisfied.

What is this? Whether it’s Limen Magna or this body, magic is negated on contact. What is that boy’s right hand? Thinking of such things, the alchemist was like a teenager looking through a telescope, his eyes sparkling with the thirst for knowledge.

Stiyl burns Fake Izzard.

Footsteps…

He weakly looked up the stairs and found Stiyl standing there.

“Naturally I can see that… you haven’t gotten tired of killing me?” said the self-mocking alchemist. “Even if you leave me alone, I’ll certainly die anyways. Why do you still want to kill me?”

“Yeah. It’s true I have no interest in killing you. Besides, that child didn’t interact with you.” Stiyl responded with disinterest. “Speaking of which, a member of the 13 Knights was killed. I suppose you didn’t do that, right?”

The fake Aureolus continued to lean and continued to stare up. His weapon was Limen Magna. Though he could not turn anything and everything into gold, it could not have possibly forced the enchanted knight’s armor into that dented shape.

“…Hmph, speaking of that… Certainly, I never killed any of them.”

“What?”

“Inevitably, I lost. You can go ahead and think of the reason.” Aureolus said with a smirk. “Speaking of which, since you’re not interested in me, why’re you here? Naturally, can’t I die alone?”

“It’s the complete opposite you idiot. I’m here to send you off. Could you endure dying by yourself like this?”

“…” For some time, the alchemist stared blankly at Stiyl.

Then, he smiled.

It was a rarity for the man, but he smiled. Though a fake, he was a scholar and, as of then, was extremely satisfied that he had managed to obtain the answer to humanity’s highest limit.

There was still some time until he died, less than ten minutes.

He was a scholar. In the remaining time, he would think of a new question to ponder, perhaps a research topic waiting for him.

However, the alchemist lacked the time to ponder. For a scholar, it was Hell to have doubts that were not researchable before death. It was an unavoidably unhappy feeling of regret.

It was also why Stiyl spoke.

“Before you find that sweet question and ponder hard, let me send you off while your goals are complete.”

“Hmph.” Aureolus smiled. “I can’t tell if you’re an angel or the devil.”

“Those two are similar beings that only differ from whom they take their orders from.” Stiyl slowly walked down the stairs. “I prove why my name is the strongest. Fortis931.” Stiyl’s black coat writhed and numerous runic carts scattered about like sakura petals.

“Magic name, huh?” muttered Aureolus as Stiyl walked down the stairs. What was his magic name? The alchemist began to recall. “Oh. I remember.”

My honor is for the world—Honos628.

Having finally remember his name and purpose, the alchemist’s eyes narrowed.

“Do I need to make a final prayer for you as a priest, alchemist?” Down the stairs, Stiyl Magnus spoke as he arrived before the man.

“Stop dragging this out. You’re just a magician.”

The moment the fake Aureolus replied, Stiyl’s flames entered him through the mouth, quickly consuming the inside of his body. The flames burst out from every opening and the abdomen shattered, splitting him in two. Copious flames continued to burst out and Aureolus’ upper body shot out like a rocket.

Part 9

Index notices Stiyl's runes and can track the mana. Runs to Misawa Cram School.

Would she give up? As Index considered returning to the room, she noticed what appeared to be a tarot card stuck on the wall. It was the runic imprint that the magician Stiyl Magnus utilized.

“…” Index stared at the card with distrust. Something was happening. Kamijou had surely gone alone to deal with something.

Index recalled that a few days ago, she had met the feeling-less teenager. Despair and anxiety caused Index restlessness.

Run. She could only run.

Luckily, with the knowledge of 103,000 grimoires, she understood the workings of Stiyl’s magic. The runes required the magician to continuously provide mana to maintain it.

For example, when a soul is lost, a thin string-like something would link the soul and body. Though Index could not use magic, she could trace the mana to prevent from getting lost.

And, like that, Index ran off for the battlefield while neglecting to even lock the door.

She did not know that that action would bring about the worst consequences.

END OF CHAPTER 2

Cryso Agori · Apr 28, 2022

Chapter 3 part 1

Stiyl hid himself, and checked every secret entrance.

Stiyl Magnus journeyed for the top floor of the North block. Perhaps Kamijou, whom Stiyl had used as bait, was attracting many more enemies than he had predicted as Stiyl faced essentially no resistance. He hid himself completely, checked every secret entrance, and formed a grasp of the building’s situation.

Stiyl realizes Himegami was willingly helping Izzard.

It seemed Deep Blood Himegami Aisa was not imprisoned inside. Having checked the dust and mana traces left behind at the entrance, it seemed that whether it the front or back of the coin, no one had entered.

There was no one, no subordinates, no soldiers or not even Aureolus himself, an environment that would not monitor an escaping prisoner. If such an event occurred, it would have become much more complicated, meaning that Himegami Aisa was not in fact imprisoned but willingly assisting Aureolus Izzard. If it were so, it seemed Stiyl had to face the terrifying and unknown power called Deep Blood.

Stiyl was befuddled by Touma's reaction to his 'betrayal' cause he already tried to nearly kill him before.

…Damn it. Why are espers so hard to handle. Having such thoughts, Stiyl’s mind wandered to the boy that was used as bait. If the boy died, it would have meant little to Stiyl. From the beginning, Stiyl had told him that they were not allies and clearly stated the boy was a shield. However, when the boy was pushed down, he had seemed so betrayed.

It was the expression of someone backstabbed.

"..."

He had attacked him with a flame sword on their first meeting and had even dragged him to that deadly battlefield. Why did the boy see him as a comrade?

Stiyl was uneasy. Though just a small irritant, it caused Stiyl some uneasiness. …Damn it. Why are espers so hard to handle!

Stiyl began to dash down the narrow emergency staircase. Considering he had used him as bait, such an action was futile. However, Stiyl could not appease his conscience unless he did something with some impact. The remains of Stiyl’s humanity argued back.

Someone sneaks up behind Stiyl.

“I don’t understand. Why are you so anxious?” inquired an icy voice behind Stiyl.

“…” Stiyl slowed turned his head. He knew what would have happened if he let an enemy sneak behind him.

Behind Stiyl Magnus stood…

Index tracks Stiyl all the way to Misawa Cram.

“Hm. So it’s over here?” As orange sunset melded with purple night, Index arrived before Misawa Cram School, whose normalness made it seem strange. Index had tracked the owner of the runes stuck to the student dormitory. However, it seemed the mana trail disappeared once it entered the building.

Index immediately figures out the building is not normal.

To be blunt, it was an obviously abnormal building that feigned normality. Its intentions were clear.

The planet also has power. In the west it's called Telesma in the east it's Feng Shui.

Like how individuals had mana, the world had “power.”

Christians called the existence God’s Blessings. The creation of the Golden Dawn organization mapped the blueprint of Western magic called Telesma. In terms of contemporary language, the most similar were the geography and astronomy of Feng Shui. As the name would suggest, a pulse formed from the forces and flows of the entire world that formed blood vessels extending everywhere.

Just like how Magicians convert their life force(crude oil) to mana(gasoline), the planet's energy goes through a similar process. Because the energy is spread all over the earth it's not much. And the 'lifespan' of the planet is much longer than that of a human. It is possible to convert this energy into something more powerful using a temple or shrine.

It was similar to how mana formed from human life force, similar to gasoline refined from crude oil. Similarly, the energy spread out over the planet was not too powerful (at least relatively. The lifespan of planetary objects could not be compared to that of a human’s and thus the “power” was much larger than human mana.). Through a temple or shrine, it was possible to convert this power into a “planetary energy”, generating huge sums of energy.

Normal people and even magicians can't sense the energy of the planet only those specially trained can sense it. Index herself can't sense anything from the school.

The power filled the world like air and ordinary people (magicians included as well) could not feel it. Only specially trained magicians or Feng Shui masters could see the force. However, there was no such energy in the four buildings before Index.

Because there's an absence of 'planetary energy'.

Though the power of the world was normally undetectable like basic air, if a vacuum formed, breathing became impossible. Similarly, Index felt an incomparable strangeness.

It was like some tower of death was sliced into cubes, becoming the largest tombstone in the world. It was much too extreme, even if for the sake of trapping mana inside.

Imagine Breaker can return the world's power back to the earth. And is considered natural.

Though Kamijou’s right hand was capable of destroying the world’s power, it was not a large problem. If the power returned to the soil like falling leaves, it rejoined the cycle of life in the form of destruction, perfectly natural. Before Index realized the Walking Church’s destruction, she had not realized how harmonious the hand was with nature.

The school however was different.

However, the magic tower differed. It was like a city of stone and steel formed after cutting down a forest through forced methods. It was an ugly representation of urbanization.

Stiyl was unable to sense the difference, because he refined mana from his own life force. Index who didn't was able to sense it.

Had the rune magician not realized? It was perhaps because the rune magician was a walking refinery of vast amounts of mana. Similar to how people react to eating foods with strong tastes, slight changes in flavor went undetected. In contrast, Index, who could not refine mana, clearly felt the slight change.

The boundary didn't prevent enemies from entering but leaving. Index compares it to a pyramid.

“This isn’t a boundary preventing enemies from invading but a boundary to prevent escape. Hm… It’s like an Egyptian pyramid…” muttered the white nun and walked through the automatic doors.

Index feels the atmosphere change entering the building and sees the dead knight.

Index had no reason to head back. In face of such an abnormal existence, she had ever more reason to bring the boy home.

The moment she stepped inside, she felt the difference in the atmosphere. It felt like she had walked from under the scorching sun into a shop with a hyperactive air conditioner. The lively and peaceful street had become a cold-blooded battlefield with the ominous presence of permeating death. It was not a false impression for, deep inside the expansive room, at a wall near the lifts was a dead knight donned with Roman Catholic tools.

The armor the knight was wearing is called the Surgical Armor. Which is imbued with magic that allowed it to absorb physical attacks. But was weaker against magical attacks. However whoever killed the man did it physically, meaning they overwhelmed the magic.

Index cautiously approached the knight and observed him. The knight’s tool, the enchanted suit Surgical Armor was imbued with magic that absorbed physical strikes. As the emphasis was focused on physical defense, the equipment was frailer against magic attacks. However, the enchanted armor was forcefully destroyed by a powerful physical attack. Someone had ignored the defensive attribute.

Index thinks whoever did this either knew nothing about magic or was crazy.

…Either someone doesn’t know anything about magic or he’s just really crazy.

Index again compares the building to a pyramid and thinks that magicians capable of breaking the Surgical Armor are powerful enough to summon archangels or metal golems.

Of course, examining the building that was similar to a pharaoh’s tomb, the former was impossible. In which case, the situation was troublesome. Those capable of destroying the enchanted Roman Catholic armor with pure physical force were either those capable of summoning archangels or metal golem specialists.

A badly disfigured human appears out of a suitcase and leaps at Index.

Then, she heard the sound of something clashing. Index looked back and found, beside the elevator, the entrance to an emergency staircase. There seemed to have been the sound of dragging and heavy breathing.

“Who’s…” Before she could finish her question, the thing climbed out of the emergency staircase.

It could not have been called human or object. It was no longer human. Its lower half was ripped, its left arm blown to smithereens, and its face’s right side blown off. Even its remaining left side was charred. Such a thing could not have been called human.

The half of its remaining face was still moving. Unbelievably, it seemed the head tilted with thought. As Index began to think of something unimportant, it used a hand to support itself in preparation to leap.

"…!"

Without a word, it leaped. Index could only frantically backtrack and trip and tumble over the remains of the knight. The thing seemingly lost its target and seemed to be positioned to land on Index.

The real Izzard appears and crushes the monster simply by saying it.

“Be crushed!” A stern man’s voice was heard in the icy expanse.

The wall near the elevator ripped apart like paper and a man’s hand emerged from within. The large hand grasped like it was catching a ball and found the charred head of the thing.

Then, before Index lying on the floor, the thing’s body shattered as the man had declared. Like gathered ash being crushed, with a “pak!” three cracks appeared on the thing’s body, beginning to break into pieces. It then exploded into something like snow-flakes that disappeared before touching Index’s face.

The magic real Izzard uses is one that forces the surroundings to follow the user's words.

“Open!” The voice was heard once more and the immobile elevator doors ripped open from the inside. The twisted elevator that should not have opened, did. It was an ultimate magic that forced the user’s surroundings to morph according to his words.

The real Izzard has acupuncture holes on his neck.

“Don’t tell me…”

Facing the puzzled, mumbling Index, a tall, lean man exited the elevator, appearing careless. His green hair was combed back and he wore a white Italian suit and high class leather shoes.

“Hm. It’s been a while, but I don’t think you remember me. Inevitably, you can’t remember the name Aureolus Izzard. But, to me, this might be somewhat lucky.” Said the man who had numerous mosquito-bite like marks on his head.

It was acupuncture, an Asian healing technique that seemed out of place with Westerners. In truth, this was false pretense. For example the founder of Golden Dawn, a Western magic organization, loved Buddhist concepts.

The magic Izzard used is the Golden Ars Magna.

“But, even if you don’t remember, I shall say what I need to. It’s been a while Index. It seems you’ve forgotten me but I’m quite happy to see you haven’t changed.” He said as he reached his hand out, blocking Index’s eyes. It was the hand of a human or perhaps a monster that crushed the charred creature.

Index could not move as she responded. “Do-Don’t tell me… the Golden Ars Magna?”

The man responded with a soft smile.

Chapter 3 part 2

Touma made a detour to get past the gold and doesn't think he can save the students.

“Let’s go home.” Kamijou said. Unable to get past the flowing gold, Kamijou could only make a detour through the four buildings and return to Himegami. “I beat that guy called Aureolus. I didn’t kill him but he’s done. He can’t fight, he’s wounded and his heart’s broken.”

So, go home.

There was nothing left to protect. The students that took part in the Gregorian Chant could not be saved and he ended up dueling the alchemist. There lacked any reason for Kamijou to remain there. He himself desired to escape that battlefield filled with death and return home.

Himegami tells Touma that the Izzard he defeated was fake. Touma realizes that it may be true.

“That Aureolus Izzard was a fake.” Himegami Aisa said matter-of-factly.

“What?”

“He was just a clone. I’ve seen the real one before so I can tell. The real one wouldn’t kill so indiscriminately.”

Each word she spoke etched into Kamijou’s thoughts. It was true. Analyzing carefully, something was wrong. The alchemist had certainly used Misawa Cram School as a fortress but had for some reason self-destructed the students with the Gregorian Chant? If it were the case, would he not have broken his disguise?

Touma doesn't want to fight anymore though. The real Izzard has way more needles and is more powerful.

Even with such analysis, Kamijou was unwilling to believe reality. He could not calmly think because what remained of his sanity was the fact that he would finally go home. He could not simply accept that he had to step back into the battlefield.

“Hold on! Hold it right there…! What do you mean? I just beat Aureolus Izzard!”

“Like I said, he was a fake.” She responded quickly. “The real body has many needles to stab with. The ones without needles are definitely fake, not to mention the real one isn’t that weak.”

Kamijou could not admit to it and neither did he want to. His thoughts were focused on going home and he was wholly unwilling to accept another enemy’s existence.

Himegami says Izzard wouldn't stop Touma from leaving.

“The real one is only interested in what he wants. I don’t think he’d stop you if you went home.” Himegami’s calming tone finally soothed Kamijou’s rampaging mood. However, something she said seemed strange.

Himegami tells Touma she's there out of her volition.

“Hold on. You’re coming with me aren’t you? Since he wants you, why would he let us go?”

“Why?”

“Why, what?”

“The question isn’t ‘why can’t he let us go’. It’s ‘why should I go with you?’”

“What?” Kamijou, confused, could say little more. Even if they defeated all enemies, Himegami did not intend to escape from Misawa Cram.

“Don’t be mistaken. I’m here of my own accord. I don’t plan to escape from here. On the contrary, my goal can only be achieved here. Without that alchemist, it’s possible it might never be fulfilled.” Rather than sound lost, Himegami may have even sounded like Aureolus’ friend.

Touma thinks Himegami had Stockholm Syndrome.

What’s going on? There are psychological cases where imprisoned or monitored hostages have felt mysterious sympathy for criminals. Is Himegami like that?

Himegami explains that she stayed with Izzard so vampires won't sense her.

“No matter what your aims, the guy doesn’t consider you an ally, right? And if you are one, why are you imprisoned here?”

“I was imprisoned before he took command of Misawa Cram.” She said with resolve. “Do you really want to know how I was treated here? Do you want to know why there are so many secret rooms? I don’t think you could handle the truth.”

"..."

“Ever since the alchemist came, the secret rooms were never used again. I’m just staying here. I don’t feel the need to go outside. If I did randomly go out, I’d attract ‘them.’”

Kamijou remembered what Stiyl had told him prior to their invasion. Though it seemed like an ordinary building, it possessed a perfectly disguised barrier.

Deep Blood: a legend of even the magic world. A girl was said to possess the ability to instantly kill vampires. Perhaps…

“What do you mean? Don’t tell me you hide here to avoid conflicts with them?”

“…My blood has the power to attract them with a sweet scent and also kill them. Lure them, kill them. I’m like a carnivorous plant: colorful and deadly. Such is my nature.”

Vampires are just like humans, and came to Academy City to research Deep Blood.

Kamijou’s eyes widened. Even when Stiyl simply mentioned vampires, he was filled with fear and disgust and now, he knew Himegami Aisa truly had the powerful ability to kill vampires. However, Himegami’s words sounded lonely. It was as if she were standing in the cold rain.

"Do you know what vampires are like?" Kamijou could not possibly answer. All he could think of were evil vampires in fiction who attacked humans. In fact, the term vampire itself seemed unrealistic.

“I don’t.”

“They’re no different from us. They cry, smile, get angry, get happy, laugh for others, and act for others. All of these people—without exception—are killed.” Himegami replied with words that only those who had seen Hell could say. She sounded like her heart bled. Her happy memories had been shattered.

“Academy City researches powers. I thought I could come here to analyze the secrets of my powers. If I knew its source I could get rid of it. However, I couldn’t find a way to be rid of it.” Himegami said. “I don’t want to kill anyone. I’d decided that I’d rather kill myself than kill other people.”

Such was the reason that the girl titled Deep Blood agonized alone.

Izzard may be able to recreate the Walking Church which would hide Deep Blood.

“But that…”

“Please don’t try to convince me otherwise. It’s not so bad. Aureolus said that he could create a simply boundary that takes the appearance of clothes, called the Walking Church. If I put it on, I can go outside without the fear of luring ‘them.’”

Izzard wants to attract a vampire to capture to save Index.

“I have my goals and Aureolus has his. We need each other to fulfill them. So, it’s okay. Aureolus will fulfill his end of the bargain and keep me safe. I’ll explain it to Aureolus for you if you want to leave this battlefield.” Kamijou could not consent. He did not understand the burden she bore. He did not know how to save her. He did not know what to do.

“Tell me something.” He asked because he did not know. “If you don’t want to attract vampires, why were you eating outside when we first met?”

“Simple. Aureolus needs me because he wants a vampire. If I stay inside this boundary, I can’t attract one.”

“Isn’t that the opposite of what you want? Don’t you want to stop hurting vampires? If you do, why would you accept that ord—”

“Yes. But, Aureolus promised me he wouldn’t hurt it after he captured one. He just wants their help.”

“…What? I thought you had worked hard just to escape Misawa Cram.”

“Even if I had intended to escape, why are you here?”

“I’m here to save you of course. Do I need any other reason?”

Himegami’s eyes widened at his argument. It was like she had gotten a birthday present even she had forgotten what day it was. “Unbelievable. But don’t worry, I wasn’t imprisoned. You can relax and go home, no problem.” She smiled. “Aureolus said he wants to save someone and can’t do it by himself. That’s why he needs a vampire and also why I agreed to help. This’s the first time I agreed to use this power to save, not kill.”

The real Izzard appears and Touma realizes that Izzard is different than the Izzard he fought.

“On exactly what basis do you refute my ideas?” said a male voice that interrupted Kamijou.

A mysterious ringing permeated their conversation, forcing both silent. It was like a whisper to the ear, though the owner of the voice had transferred the vibrations not through air but through something metaphysical.

The footsteps clacked behind Himegami in a corridor 30 meters away.

No one should have been there. No one should have been there. But, in the blink of an eye, Kamijou witnessed a man appear before him. Surely there were no places to hide. Not to mention, the man had never hid.

“You…” Kamijou began to distrust his very own eyes.

The man that suddenly appeared was the Aureolus Izzard that Kamijou had beaten down. His limbs were intact and he had not a single scratch.

Did he use some special power to heal? Kamijou considered it but deemed it illogical. Regardless of physical healing, one’s personality would remain constant. Like a twin brother with a completely different persona, the person before him was identical but possessed a wholly different atmosphere.

Touma senses danger from Izzard.

Not to mention the pressure… He was thirty meters away but Kamijou felt an overwhelming sensation as if the enemy had already stabbed his ribs.

Despair. The only suitable description of that man was power.

Dangerous! His instinct warned him. This person is dangerous! He’s someone that definitely can’t be beaten while in this building.

Because of the warning, Kamijou took a step forward to protect Himegami. From the beginning, sacrificing someone to save himself was never an option.

Izzard instantly covers 30 meters and get between Himegami and Touma.

“Calm down. Don’t interfere. I will go there now.”

Before Kamijou could take even a step forward, Aureolus Izzard had covered the entire 30 meter distance between them.

“What…?”

With Aureolus’ sudden appearance, Kamijou’s mind froze with incomprehension. Rather than fast, he had appeared out of nowhere like a scene change in movies.

Izzard creates a infinite distance between him and Touma.

“Naturally, you’re wondering what happened. However, I have no obligation to answer.” The alchemist said with calm.

“Himegami’s blood is very important so I can’t hand her over. I’m here to reclaim her.”

The word “reclaim” swirled in Kamijou’s confused mind. “You bastard!”

How could he run away? He had to close the two meter distance between them and rescue the imprisoned Himegami from the mastermind Aureolus. He rushed forward.

“In any case… You,” The alchemist calmly began. “shall not touch me.”

The change was drastic.

Initially, nothing changed, which was the source of the strangeness. Kamijou had rushed at Aureolus with maximum force. However, the distance did not lessen, as if he were chasing the setting sun on the horizon. Run and run and run but the two meters did not disappear.

Like a corridor expanding into infinity, Aureolus and Himegami seemed to retreat from him. With a sense of anxiousness, Kamijou remembered the existence of Imagine Breaker in his right hand. Any supernatural power would be negated, even one of God’s miracles.

But how exactly am I supposed to use this effectively!?

Izzard stabs himself with a needle.

Without warning, Aureolus procured from his white suit a thin needle as thin as hair that smelled faintly of antiseptic. Aureolus stabbed the needle into his neck as if to hypnotize himself.

Kamijou backed away from this declaration of Kamijou’s death. However, Aureolus removed then needle and tossed it aside. “Unfortunately, you’re an uninteresting boy.”

Izzard was about to make Touma disappear but Himegami stops him.

Then, Kamijou shockingly realized that, regardless of his efforts, he could not retreat from Aureolus. In a mysterious predicament, Kamijou could move neither forward nor backward. His heart nearly burst with his inability to act as Aureolus silently reached his hand to grab something far away from Kamijou’s heart, as if to dig it out. “Diss—” began the stern alchemist.

“Hold on a minute!” Himegami had suddenly appeared between them and interrupted the alchemist. Kamijou was amazed that Himegami had dared to actually stand between them to protect him from the true alchemist with overwhelming power.

Deep Blood is actually just a type of blood that attracts and kills vampires and is useless against anything else.

Idiot…! Don’t!

Kamijou hurriedly reached a hand out to push her away but could not move approach even a single centimeter. Like a child confronting an assailer with a machine gun, Kamijou trembled from the fear danger.

Then, Kamijou remembered her title: Deep Blood.

Her legendary, mysterious power killed the vampires that even Stiyl so feared. With her power, as the strongest ace, they could perhaps turn around the situation.

Don’t tell me… Please tell me she has a chance. If she doesn’t… she shouldn’t be doing this…

Aureolus glanced at the thinking Kamijou with disinterest. He seemed to lack a regard for his trump, Deep Blood. “Obviously, at this point, you might harbor a sense of hope, which is expected. However, Deep Blood is no match for me.” Aureolus said coldly. “Naturally, you might wonder how the name Deep Blood came to be. Hm. Yes. She certainly has the power to kill vampires… but have you ever wondered, considering it’s so powerful, why it’s limited to vampires? Why don’t they call her Overkill Annihilator?”

…Don’t tell me… With his final hope snatched, Kamijou’s thought processes simplified.

“Essentially, Deep Blood is an ability exclusively effective on vampires. The truth is none so extravagant. It’s simply a unique type of blood. Her sweet-smelling blood lures vampires to her and when they consume but a drop of her blood, they disintegrate. The terrifying thing is the fact that it lures each and every vampire. They drink her blood knowing they will die. It’s only effective against Cain’s descendants, vampires; not humans.” Aureolus elaborated as he obtained another needle, stabbing this one as well into his neck. What was its effect? The rather emotionless alchemist seemed somewhat excited. “Hm? Are you going to retort by attacking me? How are you any different from me? In the end, you’re just like me. You need Deep Blood.”

Himegami threatens to kill herself.

His words carved their way into Kamijou’s heart. Kamijou knew the despair but he also wanted to struggle until the willpower in his heart disappeared.

“That’s not true. This person didn’t know the definition of Deep Blood or even what vampires are like. He came here to save a stranger he met this morning. We haven’t even been formally introduced but he wouldn’t leave me behind.” The person who said this to Aureolus was Himegami, not Kamijou. She widely spread her arms, becoming a shield and warding away the verbal attacks. "Aureolus Izzard, what is it that you want?"

Himegami’s words caused Aureolus’ eyebrows to twitch. “Are you going to get ordinary people, neither magicians nor alchemists, involved and kill them so regularly? Is this going to satisfy you? Is this your goal?”

“…”

“If it’s such a meaningless objective, then I shall quit. I know I can’t defeat you, but I have the right to decide whether to bite my own tongue and end my life.” Her eyes never broke the honest expression of patience. It was almost difficult to discern who the king of the fortress was.

Izzard dealt with Index.

Once again, he pulled out a needle and stabbed his neck. “Essentially, we don’t have time to waste on such things.” He said with casualness. “There’re too many things to deal with. Dealing with Index is much more troublesome than the intruder. It’s simple to defeat others but it’s not something I handle well.”

Aureolus’ nonchalant words had nearly caused Kamijou to stop breathing. Hold on. Hold on. Index? Don’t tell me… she came here?!

The infinite distance between them prevented Kamijou from grabbing Aureolus and changing the dire situation. The hand that the alchemist had lowered was raised again and Himegami, with a defiant look, stepped toward Aureolus.

Izzard tells Touma to forget everything.

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill him.” He said easily as he removed the needle. “Young man: as for what happened here…”

Damn it! What kind of sick joke is this!? I can’t back away now!

The alchemist, apparently seeing through Kamijou’s heart, smiled. “…Forget everything.”

Cryso Agori · May 3, 2022

Chapter 3 part 3

Touma forgot everything about Misawa Cram.

The sun had set.

“…?” Kamijou rose from the seat and looked around himself. Seat? He found that he was inside a student bus that apparently did not go in the direction of Kamijou’s dormitory. The final stop on the bus wrote “17th District: Before Misawa Cram School.” Typically speaking, the final busses stopped running at 6:30. It was possibly a cram school bus considering it was rare for buses to travel at midnight.

“Misawa Cram?” Kamijou’s head tilted. Was that the name of the cram school? Kamijou pondered it but found no answer. He himself could not have been a cram school student; Kamijou Touma could not write his holiday assignments let alone prepare for exams.

The term memory loss sent chills down Kamijou’s spine. He had thought that it was simply memory loss of previous experiences, but, as things stood, it may have been much worse than he had expected.

Touma thinks he's fine physically.

“…Better check it out at the hospital.” While muttering to himself, Kamijou decided to first get off the bus for he knew not where it was headed. After exiting at the nearest stop, Kamijou found that he was unfamiliar with the surrounding scenery.

He physically felt relatively balanced and was wide awake. At first glance, he seemed very healthy but it seemed safer to do a check-up at a hospital considering he had lost several hours of memories.

Touma despite having lost his memories of Misawa Cram still feels something about it.

If I go to the hospital I’ll need my health insurance card. Better go home first. Are hospitals still open right now? Do I need to call for emergency services? Wait, how am I going to explain this to Index? Wouldn’t she be suspicious if I wanted to go to the hospital all of a sudden? Would she be angry that she hasn’t eaten dinner this whole time…? His mind swirling about, Kamijou walked to his dormitory since there were no buses at that time going in that direction.

Such misfortune.

He felt like something was calling out to him.

…?

Kamijou bent his head with puzzlement. It was strange. Why did he feel like he had forgotten something important? It was like forgetting to turn off the stove before going on holiday, that sort of irresolvable danger.

Touma touches his head with his right hand, which returns his memories.

I really shouldn’t’ve bought that 3600 yen reference book. Kamijou sighed and scratched his head with his right hand...

…His right hand that could negate any supernatural power, even a Godly miracle…

PAKIN! With the sound of his skull shattering, the entire day’s memories rushed into his mind.

Touma remembers.

“…!” Kamijou erratically looked around and only found a scene cloaked in the night’s darkness. Considering the station’s distance, he could no longer see Misawa Cram School from where he was. How long had it been? He could not find Stiyl, Himegami or Aureolus and—of course— Index.

Aureolus had said “forget everything” and Kamijou had truly forgotten everything. He forgot the Misawa Cram School that became a battlefield, Himegami being taken away by Aureolus and also what the alchemist said about Index.

"DAMN IT!"

Touma runs back to Misawa Cram and realizes that the streets are empty.

The last few hours were completely lost. Even alone, Stiyl’s probably okay in there, right? With him coming to mind, Kamijou began to run towards Misawa Cram School.

During his run, Kamijou, whose mind was in disarray, had noticed that he had not met anyone else along the way; in fact no one else was on the road aside from him. Even if it were afterhours, it was downtown Academy City. It was unnatural to not have met a single person.

…What’s going on?

By the time Kamijou had noticed the abnormality, he was already within visible sight of Misawa Cram School. An absence of people was something Kamijou had experienced before due to the Opila runes that Stiyl had utilized the previous evening.

Touma sees people from the Church in front of the school.

However, this time, rather than an absence of people, Kamijou was surprised to find people surrounding Misawa Cram School. Kamijou stopped and did a double take. Somewhat far away, he saw a few people, whose genders were indiscernible, donned in skin-tight silver armor. The lack of people made it seem all the more suspicious. From Kamijou’s angle he saw three individuals. If they were surrounding the four buildings, there must have been more of their comrades.

…What? Who are these weird guys…? People from the Church? Mindful of these people, Kamijou decided to approach one of them. Perhaps the situation had changed while Kamijou had lost his memory like an idiot.

The people are from the same Church as the dead knight.

“Oi. What are you people doing? Are you members of the Church?” Kamijou remembered the knight who had died near the elevator. The people wore armor similar to that of the fallen knight.

One of them responded, shocked to hear the term “Church.” “I’m a member of the 13 Knights of the Roman Catholic Church, ‘Lancelot’ Vittorio Cassera.” He said rather impatiently. “Oh, so you’re a survivor of that battlefield? We saw you walk from over here. You’re really lucky. If you don’t want to die, get back.”

Kamijou wondered what nonsense he was spouting as he examined the entire suit of armor.

The Church will use a real Gregorian Chant to bombard the school.

“We don’t wish to cause unnecessary damage. We’ll have the Gregorian Sacred Song Corp use the Gregorian Chant to carry out a Holy Incantation Bombardment. This is a means we decided after much deliberation in order to keep collateral damage to a minimum.”

The knight’s words were surprising. The Gregorian Chant was the spell that the Misawa Cram School students had used. According to Stiyl, the spell was of Roman Catholic origin. It was intended to be the ultimate weapon of the Roman Catholic Church. By utilizing 3333 monks gathered outside of a cathedral and having them chant the long spell, it intensified the power of the spell like sunlight into a magnifying glass.

Stiyl’s words once again floated in his mind. The replica already had such power, how much did the real one have?

Touma tries to bargain with 'Lancelot' and not use the Gregorian Chant.

“Bombard?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? HOW POWERFUL IS THIS THING!? HOW MANY PEOPLE INSIDE WILL GET INVOLVED!? ARE YOU GOING TO BLOW UP THE ENTIRE BUILDING!?”

“Certainly. This holy spell gathers 3333 at the greatest holy location in the world. The Vatican Church can accurately turn anything in this world to dust. Not to mention, if we leave that heretic’s tower intact, it’d be an insult to our pride.”

“WHAT NONSENSE ARE YOU SAYING!? THERE ARE STILL COUNTLESS INNOCENT STUDENTS INSIDE! AND STIYL AND HIMEGAMI ARE STILL INSIDE! EVEN AUREOLUS—!”

Aureolus, the man that wanted to simply wanted to summon a vampire to save someone’s life.

“EXACTLY HOW BIG WILL THE BLAST RADIUS BE WHEN THAT HUGE BUILDING BLOWS UP?!? RUBBLE WILL FLY LIKE CANNONBALLS FOR 600 METERS!!”

“The end justifies the means! The bloodshed of today will be the foundation of tomorrow!”

Kamijou could not remain calm as his anger boiled at those words. His last comment had contradicted what he had said before. For the sake of relieving unnecessary suffering, Kamijou was told to run away. Yet somehow, the knight nonsensically felt no remorse for the lives of the people within Misawa Cram.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? YOUR COMRADE’S IN THERE TOO!” said Kamijou, invoking the knight that died beside the elevator.

“Percival has been martyred in enemy territory. His life will be avenged for the better tomorrow.”

The dying, armored knight was unintelligible and filled with fury, seemingly having lost his ability to think calmly.

“Damn it! Wait a minute! One hour, no, 30 minutes will be enough!”

“We have no reason to listen your opinion! Begin the attack now!” The armored man calling himself Lancelot raised his large sword into the sky. Giving off a red glow, Kamijou thought it looked like an antenna.

The spell clears the clouds and destroys two buildings. Said to be a 'pillar of flaming arrows'.

Before Kamijou could stop him, the antenna was swung down.

“Revelation 8:7,” So began the coordinated ritual. “The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down onto the earth!"

Perhaps due to the result of magic, a horn was heard from the glowing sword, a howling, echoing noise was heard through the night.

All voices vanished.

The clouds floating in the night sky promptly scattered and from far away were lightning. An enormous pillar of light descended from the heavens. However, the pillar was red. Like thousands of flaming arrows moving in close proximity, the pillar was spear striking one of the four Misawa Cram buildings.

The red lotus pierced roof to basement, crushing the tower to half of its original height like a squashed aluminum can. The glass shattered and interior decorations flew about in chaos.

However, there was more. The tower that was hit directly dragged the two neighboring towers by the overhead corridors, leaving the last unaffected tower like a tombstone.

The act of madness left Kamijou in bewilderment.

The buildings were twisted, cracks formed along the walls and people fell through the gaps like dust being patted from pants. Numerous pieces of falling debris utterly devastated the surroundings like a meteor shower. The only possible upside was the lack of people that the Opila rune had caused.

Kamijou gritted his teeth at the thought that many students and teachers, Stiyl, Himegami, Aureolus and perhaps even Index were still inside.

“YOU BASTARDS!!”

Izzard reverses the destruction of Misawa Cram and aims it at the Knights.

Kamijou exploded like a cannon, but not at the armored person. There was no time to bother with him; Kamijou’s destination was the site of bombardment. A storm of dust prevented Kamijou from making any progress. He could not open his eyes let alone see. Even so, he continued forward. In the back of his mind, he hoped it was all a joke. Then, something changed.

“?” Initially, Kamijou was under the impression that the dust began to scatter. The immense dust flew forward as if carried by a strong wind… to the wreckage called Misawa Cram School. “!?”

Dust was just part of it. The previously falling rubble began to float in midair and the crumbling walls flipped erect. The debris moved together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and completely reformed the smooth towers that looked freshly renovated.

It was like watching a show in rewind. The collapsed towers were upright and the falling people were reabsorbed through the cracks. Most of the damage was repaired and soon, all four Misawa Cram towers were reformed as if nothing had happened. Even the neighboring buildings crushed by rubble reverted to what they were prior. One would have wonder if Kamijou’s memories were being manipulated.

Wait. Reverting things back to normal… Don’t tell me…! Kamijou looked up at the sky. The red lotus Divine spear that was fired from the sky had reappeared. Any onlooker could have realized where the spear was aimed: eye for an eye.

“Ah… ahh…” Kamijou turned to look at the moaning armored man. His knees had given way and he collapsed onto the ground. It seemed he truly knew how powerful the real Gregorian Chant was.

What’s going on? Kamijou returned his gaze to the night sky. Even the seven Level 5s of Academy City could not possibly create such a miracle.

Is that the enemy’s… That’s that guy’s real power…!!

Aureolus Izzard. In face of such a terrifying enemy, how would Kamijou fight him? Kamijou stood idly by with a numbed mind.

Touma enters the building and finds the students are fine even after being killed or bombarded.

“DAMN IT!” Kamijou abandoned his fears and dashed off to Misawa Cram School.

Once he had arrived in front of the automatic doors, he hesitated to go in. With fear and trepidation, Kamijou entered the doors and returned to the battlefield.

The cram school’s interior was unchanged and, because of it, Kamijou felt goose bumps. Not to mention, the students were unharmed as they continued to listen to the teachers’ lectures. The students were fine despite the Gregorian Chant and the transmuting Limen Magna.

Passing through a certain classroom on a corridor, Kamijou saw something surprising and stopped.

That girl…!

Sitting a seat in the very back of the wide classroom was a girl that Kamijou recognized. She had braided hair and glasses… she was the girl who was turn to gold by Aureolus’ Limen Magna when she protected Himegami.

She was there. It was like nothing had happened. She lived in that ordinary world.

“…!” The peaceful scene struck fear in Kamijou. Under the guidance of the alchemist’s magic, life and death, fortune and misfortune, normal and abnormal were all reshuffled.

Touma finds Stiyl who also had his memory erased.

Kamijou did not know where to go. Arriving at a straight corridor, he finally found a familiar face.

“What? Why are you so panicky?” There stood the person who had betrayed him, used him as bait and could still shamelessly smile. There stood Stiyl Magnus, a person Kamijou truly loathed but was perplexedly relieved to see.

“Hm. If you’re still here, I guess we’re still in Japan, right? No wonder I’ve been seeing so many Asians this whole time. Speaking of which, what is this mysterious boundary? Kekkai? I seem to be somewhat familiar with it.” Stiyl ignored Kamijou as he continued to mutter. Apparently, his memories were wiped like Kamijou’s. It seemed he had even forgotten the objective they had for Misawa Cram School, implying his memories were erased even more extensively that Kamijou’s.

Touma is afraid of touching Stiyl with IB because if Stiyl was killed and brought back IB would negate the resurrection. Touma stats that IB was unable to affect the infinite distance Izzard created.

He could return Stiyl’s memories if he touched Stiyl’s head with his right hand, but Kamijou was worried whether doing so would erase Stiyl’s revival post-bombardment. His right hand was ineffective against Aureolus’ order that he “shall not touch,” but, if it involved Stiyl’s life, the effect may have been undesirable.

Stiyl wasn't killed.

“Oi! What block were you in?”

“What?”

“Just tell me!”

“Should be North Block. Why?”

Kamijou heaved a sigh of relief. Only the North block was untouched after the Gregorian bombardment, meaning Stiyl had no need to be revived.

Stiyl gets his memories back.

Once confirmed, Kamijou knew what to do. “Oi! Stiyl! Let me teach you a charm that erases your doubts.”

“…Oriental Charms are Kanzaki’s specialty.”

“Just do as I say. It’s simple. Close your eyes and stick your tongue out!”

With a look of suspicion, he followed Kamijou’s instructions.

"HERE'S A SOUVENIR FOR ACTUALLY USING ME AS BAIT AND ESCAPING BY YOURSELF, YOU BASTARD!" declared Kamijou.

"...Eh?"

Kamijou slammed an uppercut against Stiyl’s chin using his right hand.

Memories returned and a tongue was bitten, proceeded by rolling on the floor.

Chapter 3 part 4

Izzard reversed everything with a single sentence.

Aureolus Izzard stood on the highest floor of the Northern-most block. It was a floor called Principal’s office, a large space that encompassed the entire level. As a cram school, it was more like a director’s room than a principal’s office.

Aureolus was looking out the window, ignoring the glamorous room and luxurious decorations inside. Though, the night scenery below was not his interest. Instead, he was looking at the face reflected on the window.

…The road taken was quite long.

With one sentence—just a single sentence—like “Revert back to normal” the entire building stood back up like a living creature. He had witnessed the event without even batting an eyebrow. He looked at the mirrored face and sunk into deep thought.

Izzard's personality had changed. But he doesn't care.

In the past, he was not like that. Though he was more of the stoic type, he was still a human that expressed his emotions. In the current time, he had an emotionless calm that he ignored since he had no time to be bothered with it.

It’s acceptable even if I’ve become like this. Even if he were aware of the change since the very beginning, he had no time to relax. He had an entire world to fight for the sake of achieving his goals.

Izzard wants to save Index. His job was to write modern Grimoires. And he thought he was helping people.

Aureolus Izzard had done everything to save the single girl on the black ebony table behind him. Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Index. Three years had passed since he had met the girl who did not know her own given name. While involved with the Roman Catholic Church, he was a Cancellarius. Though a member of the Church, he was tasked with writing grimoires, making his situation a unique one amongst unique. He was to decode modern witchcraft, discover ways to counter them, and record the results. He had believed, through his actions, he could protect innocents hurt by witches.

But the truth is that the Roman Catholic Church used them for malicious gains.

In fact, the grimoires that Aureolus had written had helped many people. However, the Roman Catholic Church had used those grimoires as trump cards. Pagan cults and even other Christian sects like the Anglicans and Orthodoxies had no knowledge of the existence of these trump cards. Such individuals were even warned that they should convert to Catholicism if they wished to be protected from witches. Though the alchemist had devised ways to defend against the witches, many were not benefited, some even harmed. It was much too unreasonable, as if they were patients who could have been operated upon but were abandoned.

Aureolus escaped the church to go England where he met Index.

Aureolus could not endure. He had originally believed that his trump card was created to save others. Eventually, he had decided to smuggle the “books” he had written. He escaped to England, a country of magic seriously rampant with witches. Aureolus carefully disguised himself and successfully made contact with the Anglican Church using underground methods.

It was there that he met the girl that could not be saved. At first glance, he knew. He whom he had given the task of saving the entire world knew that he could save the girl before him. The girl possessed 103,000 grimoires from across the globe, each capable of driving an ordinary person insane. However, the keeper herself smiled on, despite knowing being saved was impossible.

Grimoires intoxicate the body and corrodes the mind.

Saving her was impossible. A human being memorizing 103,000 grimoires would result in her physical intoxication because of the grimoires’ logics and the mind being corroded by the actual knowledge. It was the realization that caused the alchemist to see the limits of his knowledge. The girl perpetually facing misfortune always smiled for others. If he could not accomplish saving even her, how could even discuss saving the entire world?

Izzard's reasons for seeking out Deep Blood and learning Golden Ars Magna.

At some point when he had lost count of how many grimoires he had written, he began to wonder why he had not given up and continued to write. It was then he had realized. Even if saving her were impossible, he struggled, using the excuse of providing her with grimoires to visit her.

It was an ordinary story. An alchemist desired to save a girl but in the end was saved by the girl. His realization that he could not save her brought about the end: he could no longer hold a pen, his faith and confidence in his writing ability gone.

Unable to save… unable to save… The alchemist at that time could save no one. However, to save her at no matter the cost, he chose to walk, even fall down, a path of darkness for that one reason.

If Aureolus could obtain the power to save everything, he decided he would utilize it for the girl before him. Thus, Aureolus rebelled against the Roman Catholic Church, Christianity and even the entire world. Despite those actions he had failed. Depleting the knowledge taken from the Hermes and Zurich schools he still failed. He had believed he could simply understand the human anatomy and cure any disease. He had believed that understanding the brain could cure any emotional scar. But of course, he was wrong.

If it were impossible through faith or technology, what was wrong with relying on Cain’s descendants, whose powers surpassed human understanding? For achieving his goal, he was willing to betray and manipulate anyone and anything. This included Deep Blood. And, like that, the alchemist strayed from righteousness. His initial desire to save others had become a pitiful shadow.

“…”

Aureolus Izzard had not realized. The girl titled Deep Blood watched him silently from behind with the desire to save others.

Aureolus had not realized. The savior had not arrived.

Stiyl explains magic shouldn't be able to do what Izzard is doing and again says Ars Magna is impossible due to the time it would take.

“Aureolus Izzard reflected the Gregorian Chant? How is that possible?” said the shocked Stiyl as Kamijou told them during their game of tag. Incidentally, Stiyl was playing with a flaming sword.

“It’s true! It was like I was watching the rewind of a video! The damaged towers reverted back to how they were!” said Kamijou, running down the corridor. Stiyl had apparently explored further into the building than Kamijou had but, before he could discover the alchemist’s hiding place, he had wavered.

“If that’s the case… don’t tell me… but modern alchemy can’t possibly do that much…” muttered Stiyl as he exhaled smoke.

“He even used chants like ‘you shall not touch me’ and ‘forget everything.’ Is magic really so omnipotent that anything you want appears!?”

“…How is this possible? Magic’s a form of knowledge with strict rules and logic. If there were such a ridiculous spell, who would want to honestly research magic?”

“Then what did I see? Everything he said somehow happened.”

“’Everything he said…’ is such an irritating term. Reminds me of Ars Magna.”

Focused on the noted term, Kamijou remembered the discussion where Stiyl mentioned the final, unachieved aim of alchemy, where one could project one’s thoughts onto the world. “Then, wait. Has that guy already mastered the most powerful spell in alchemy?”

“THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!” yelled Stiyl with a rare, violent tone. “I said it before. Ars Magna isn’t something achievable by humans. The incantation exists, sure, but it can’t be completed with one, no, two hundred years of continuous incantation. You can’t shorten the incantation and the later generations can’t pick it up. Like a game of telephone it gets more and more twisted. Humans with limited lifespan just can’t possibly have that kind of magic!” Stiyl’s refutation was logical for those who understood magic, but, Stiyl himself trembled as if he had seen something unbelievable.

Touma and Stiyl realizes that Ars Magna might have a weakness.

“You’re right.” Kamijou pondered from a different point of view. “If could really do anything he wanted, we wouldn’t be alive. He wouldn’t’ve used the False Sacred Song Corps to use the Gregorian Chant or that fake Aureolus. Wouldn’t he have just said ‘die’?”

In fact, vampires and Deep Blood would have been unnecessary. If it were necessary, he could have just created a vampire. If the alchemist’s desires were projectable onto reality, why was there a need for vampires?

Stiyl figures out Izzard's aim.

“Speaking of which, what’s his aim? I’d heard he wanted to save someone but he ended up mercilessly killing a lot of people. Right now, even Index is involved… Did the stress of blowing this out of proportion get to him?”

“What? That child too?”

“I heard him talk about her but I never actually saw her. Maybe he was delusional or something.” Kamijou said with an easygoing demeanor, “Maybe consolation for himself?”

Stiyl’s expression had become more serious. Apparently bitter, he spat his cigarette away. “Tch! I see what’s going on. He isolated himself for three years to study alchemy and hasn’t kept track of current events.” Said Stiyl has he stuffed a new cigarette. “I know what he wants. It’s Index.”

“What?” Confused, to his understanding, the situation had no relevance to Index.

“Listen, Kamijou Touma. Index has had her memories erased every year. Every year, her relationship changed and found a new partner each time.”

“So… What about it?”

“This year, it’s you. Two years ago it was me and,” Stiyl continued vengefully. “three years ago it was Aureolus Izzard. They were teacher and student.”

Shock.

“The fate for every companion was the same. They tried to save her from having her memory wiped but absolutely failed.” He said with disdain. “It was of course the same for him. And, it would seem he didn’t accept it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Simple. We companions weren’t abandoned by her, she simply forgot us. If that so, then all they needed to do was cure Index and salvage her memory. Wouldn’t she go back to them?”

Kamijou’s heart felt a pain like a hammering stake. He did not know what affected him so much. It was a good thing that Index was healed but still there was an inexplicable and invisible impact. He remembered the smile. That smile that she showed to others carried a heavy burden for Kamijou.

“But it won’t happen.” Stiyl smiled. “Just like how erasing someone’s memories is already a huge sin, changing memories is as well. He must know this or he’s completely lost his senses.” Stiyl voice was much too soft. As Kamijou turned around to face Stiyl and hear more clearly, Stiyl simply exhaled smoke and calmly shook his head.

“It’s nothing. I’m saying that guy can’t save that child. It’s that simple.”

“Why?” Kamijou failed to make the connection, his mind focused on the idea of his omnipotence. If he could take away people’s memories or revive the dead, what could he possibly not do?

“The reason’s simple. It’s you.”

?

“Haven’t you saved her already? How could someone be saved twice? It’s that simple, nothing more to it.”

The boy drew the connections. Aureolus Izzard was Index’s former partner three years prior. Since he had lost Index, he had lost contact and did not know the current situation.

Which meant that Aureolus…

“We’re here. Look, he even deliberately left the door open for us. How nice.” Stiyl looked forward. In the highest floor of Misawa Cram School’s North tower, the enormous doors leading into the principal’s office were open. They were inviting Kamijou and Stiyl.

Chapter 3 part 5

Izzard sees no value in his own creations.

The space was quite wide.

The room was once owned by the former-principal, incidentally also the founder of the cult, of Misawa Cram School. Though the room was luxurious, it lacked class and represented the cult’s twisted desires. It was like the annoying experience of entering a restaurant adorned properly but showed no care for the clients.

Himegami was shocked to see Kamijou enter the room but Aureolus, by contrast, had no reaction as if expecting his entrance. The emptiness a severe one that was reminiscent of old, faded, yellowish photographs.

This was not planned by the alchemist. Perhaps to him, there was nothing in the world he could not do, and, because of it, little seemed real. Like an esper capable of altering the minds of others, when he saw others smile, he felt no happiness. When he saw the perfect smile, it was as significant to him as the flick of a finger.

The logic was similar. For someone capable of creating anything, his actual creations held little value. Even the environment lacked the atmosphere of a battlefield. Anywhere Aureolus Izzard appeared became a futile battlefield.

Izzard's plan is to turn Index into a vampire.

“Obviously, I can see that you’ve deduced my goal.” He began calmly. “If that’s the case, why do you intend to stop me? Wasn’t your rune magic meant to save Index?” The alchemist glanced before him. On the luxurious table lied the sleeping silver-haired girl.

Kamijou tried to dash forward but was stopped by Stiyl’s long arm.

“Simply put, this method can’t save that child. I don’t want to watch an operation doomed to fail. This child isn’t that worthless.”

“This isn’t true. It’s just your envy, but I understand. Because we were comrades who had the same dream be crushed, you are unhappy that I’ve surpassed you. However, I don’t consider it enjoyable and I never will.” Stiyl frowned at the way Aureolus said it so naturally without even a hint of sarcasm.

“In the past, Index’s brain was overloaded with so much information that her memories were erased each and every year. It was a fate the human body could not defy.” He said sternly. “However, by using a power above humanity, I can solve the problem. When I had reached this conclusion, I found it unbelievable that no one had suggested we borrow the power of vampires.”

“...”

“Vampires are immortal and store infinite amounts of memories in their brains that are similar to humans’. I’d never heard of a vampire’s brain being overloaded by information.” said the alchemist. “Essentially, vampires possess this attribute: no matter how long they live their existences are maintained.”

“Hmph. I see. So you intend to interact with vampires and ask them to teach their method?” Stiyl shook his cigarette with his mouth. “For the sake of safety, let me ask. If this method can’t be used on people, what do you intend to do?”

“Basically, if a human’s body cannot do it, I’ll place the Forbidden Library in something not human.” Aureolus said without hesitation.

The alchemist’s plan meant that he would…

“Turn her into a vampire? Tch! What Christian in this world would be happy to become a descendant of Cain? This’s a common mistake people have. When you want to save someone, the most important thing is to consider their thoughts and perspective, right? It’s something I only learned recently.”

“…Absolutely ridiculous. That kind of mindset is just feigned kindness. This child once told me at that final moment that she did not want to forget me. Even if she defied the teachings, even if she willingly sacrificed her life, she wanted to keep her memories. She told me these things while she couldn’t even move. She didn’t even realize she was crying—while smiling!” Aureolus gritted his teeth. Kamijou did not know what he was thinking or remembering.

Stiyl goes insane after learning Touma already saved Index.

“…What?” Aureolus finally turned to look at Kamijou. Kamijou had a difficulty figuring out which part of Stiyl’s comments angered the alchemist.

“Just what time period are you from?”

With a perplexed expression, the alchemist stared at Kamijou.

“And that’s what is. Index has already been saved. Not by you, not by but by the current partner. This guy did what you couldn’t achieve.” Stiyl smirked with cruelty. “This happened only a week ago. Ah it’s predictable that you wouldn’t know. You were away from that child for three years so of course you wouldn’t know she’d been saved.”

“That’s impossible…”

“Yeah. I can understand you don’t believe it. I even witnessed it myself but couldn’t believe it. No, I didn’t want to believe it myself. This is a declaration for me: that child will never come back to me again.”

“PREPOSTEROUS! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! HOW COULD THERE BE ANY OTHER WAY TO SAVE INDEX?! A PERSON THAT POSSESSES A HUMAN BODY! THIS GUY ISN’T EVEN A MAGICIAN OR ALCHEMIST. JUST WHAT COULD HE POSSIBLY DO?”

“About that, since it involves Necessarius… no, since it concerns the pride of the Anglican Church, I’d rather not tell the story. I can only tell you this,” Stiyl exhaled the smoke with cruelty. “That guy’s right hand has an ability called Imagine Breaker. Basically, it’s a terrifying ability that shouldn’t belong to an ordinary person.”

Shocked and unable to calm down, the alchemist stared at Kamijou. “…Hold on a minute. This means…”

“That’s right. It’s been tough for you. I’d heard you’d betrayed the Catholic Church and hid underground for three years? It looks like it was a waste of time. Hm. I can understand the pain of getting nothing back in return. However, this child is currently living a happy life with her partner as you’d wished.”

“Ha…”

It was the decisive sentence. The foundations supporting Aureolus Izzard crumbled.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

He began his maniacal laughter.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

…This guy’s insane. Kamijou thought numbly but surely. Unexpectedly, the eyes began to follow something. In front of them all, on the large table, the girl moved. The sleep Index began to regain some consciousness after Aureolus’ mad laughter. She was perhaps the last barrier for Aureolus’ mental sanity.

Index wakes up, and causes Izzard to go even more insane.

She widened her eyes slightly and softly spoke like a person holding thread in their hand. “…Touma?”

The person she saw was not the Aureolus Izzard before her. She cared not who, when, where or how she was brought there. She cared not for her current state or what happened during her unconsciousness.

She smiled. She smiled happily. In her line of sight was Kamijou Touma.

“Ah.” Kamijou automatically backed off. He was glad to see her with such an attitude. Kamijou felt it irreplaceable as she acted like a kitten opening its eyes, only caring about Kamijou’s expression.

This scene brought about a sharp coldness. Behind Index, the alchemist who was supposed to be the main character was forgotten by the girl he had sought to protect. His face stiffened as if he had witnessed the end of the world.

Kamijou could not face the reality. Aureolus Izzard was once the male protagonist. He had betrayed the Catholic Church, renounced his beliefs and became an alchemist, all to save the girl in front of him. He faced the worst outcome. Even Kamijou Touma, if he had taken one wrong step, would have faced a similar fate.

The pure, holy girl before them was beloved by people all over the world. Because she was a holy girl, she could only love a male protagonist. That simple purity, bordering on cruelty, caused the most pain.

I should be perfect!! Why are you unmoved!?! What do I lack!?

Kamijou remember the defeated clone. It was not a shallowly crafted replica. The dummy itself truly portrayed the character Aureolus Izzard.

“Ugh!” Aureolus Izzard was speechless. He smiled a frozen, twisted smile as if he’d barfed air. Right above Index, Aureolus raised his hand. It seemed like the blade of a guillotine but Index’s gaze had not left Kamijou, causing the alchemist even more rage as he placed more force in his arm.

Izzard is unable to attack Index and instead focuses on Touma and Stiyl.

“Index!”

Kamijou considered running to her but because of his anxiousness could not decide with which foot to step first. The alchemist laughed maniacally and Kamijou, the current protagonist, raised his right hand.

It was too late. He had not made it in time.

The alchemist’s arm was… never swung down.

Kamijou stopped.

“Ugh…” Above Index’s head, the arm, which was raising what seemed to be a guillotine, trembled. “Ugh… UGGHHH!” He was immobile. He had lost everything. He had become an alchemist and even betrayed his old allies to save a single girl. But, the girl was already saved by a stranger whom he did not know and Index ignored the man who had sacrificed everything for her.

If Kamijou were in that position, could he have still relied on Index? Could he convince himself that it was not betrayal? Aureolus Izzard could not bring himself to hurt her. For the alchemist, she was that important.

…

Kamijou did not move. He had no memories and, despite the fact that others told him that he had saved her, did not remember how he did or what he was thinking when he had. Like that, Kamijou Touma gained the trust of others by saving someone from whence he had no memories. In face of the alchemist, Kamijou wondered whether he had a right to keep her with him.

Aureolus turned and glared sharply at Kamijou. The alchemist had the power to sentence anyone to death with a single sentence. Kamijou knew it was a glare of death but, deep deep inside, understood his feelings. It was impossible for Aureolus to calm down. He could not bring himself to kill Index and, having lost all direct, went on a rampage.

Who would become the scapegoat?

Logically, the outcome was predictable.

Izzard causes Touma and Stiyl to be smashed into the floor. Touma tries to touch his body with IB to negate the effect.

“SLAM TO THE GROUND, INTRUDERS!!”

Like an explosion, an angry roar was heard.

Immediately, Kamijou felt the weight of uncountable hands push him to the ground as if he were a bank robber being crushed to the floor after having his gun taken away. As the term “intruder” included Stiyl, Kamijou saw the red-haired magician be flattened to the floor from the corner of his eye.

“Uuh… Ugh…”

The sensation of having his intestines flipped around almost caused Kamijou to puke. He began to move his right hand, which felt like it was being attracted by a strong magnetic field, forcefully to his chest, inch by inch. If he could contact his body perhaps it would have released him like when he recovered his memories.

“HA! HAHA! HAHAHAHA! I WON’T KILL YOU SO EASILY! LET ME ENJOY THIS A LITTLE LONGER! I WON’T DO ANYTHING TO INDEX, BUT I WON’T BE ABLE TO MAINTAIN MY SANITY IF I DON’T TAKE IT OUT YOU TWO!”

He pulled out a needle as thin as hair and aimed with trembling at his body. Then, he stabbed it like pressing button in his body. He then tossed aside the needle like a poisonous bug nibbling at his flesh. The actions were signals and declarations of the commencing attack.

Himegami moves between Touma and Izzard. Touma negates the pressure on his body.

Aureolus again glared at Kamijou.

“Stop it!”

Himegami Aisa moved between them with the same posture she had when she shielded Kamijou prior. However, this time there was a decisive difference: Aureolus valued not Himegami Aisa but Deep Blood. Since his aim was to save Index, if it were impossible, there would have been no reason to keep a useless method!

"Hime--" Kamijou began but could say nothing to save her.

The image of her back radiated her worry and, not just for Kamijou, but Aureolus and his crumbling sanity. Not explicitly said, but Kamijou could tell that she wanted to calm Aureolus down before he went down the road of destruction.

Who could have simply said the cruel reality?

“Out of the way, woman!”

It was the greatest failure. Kamijou saw the serious eyes that raged like gun barrels. Kamijou moved, or rather tried to move, his hand. If he did not move in, Himegami would surely die. Slowly, bit by bit, inch by inch, he dragged the right hand bound to the floor. He used his very teeth to touch his ace, his right hand, like he was going to eat his index finger.

BANG! With the sound of bones breaking, his body regained freedom. This is my chance! Kamijou frantically stood up to move Himegami aside and silence Aureolus.

Izzard kills Himegami with a word.

“Die.” As Aureolus Izzard speak, time seemed to stop.

Assassinated, strangled, poisoned, shot, beheaded, slaughtered, hacked, beaten up, burned, nipped, crushed, ganged up, frozen, drowned. No one knew with what method Himegami was to die.

With no wounds, no bleeding and no illness, she simply died.

Like a consumed battery, she was expended. If souls existed, hers was extracted from her flesh, leaving behind an empty shell.

Himegami did not even cry out. Looking like she would cry, she held back her tears. Her preparation had prevented any surprise or shock. She wore an expression of regret from her inability to prevent the predetermined. Himegami Aisa knew the result of blocking Aureolus. Even so, with a speck of hope, she still attempted it.

The girl no one needed was viewed as a simple object until the very end. Like how the alchemist had never understood how to be a protagonist, Himegami Aisa had failed to become a heroine till the bitter end. Like an unappreciated background, she was dead and worthless. Such was the fate of Deep Blood Himegami Aisa.

In face of such a scene, who could have remained silent?

IB negates Himegami's death.

“Whose life…” Kamijou’s eyes ignored the alchemist’s existence and ran toward Himegami Aisa who was falling onto the floor. There was no reason. He simply felt that if he allowed her to reach the ground, her death would have become permanent. “ARE YOU MESSING WITH, YOU BASTARD!”

The instant before she reached the ground, Kamijou managed to catch her with both arms. She was quite light, so light it seemed like something important was stolen from her. She felt unbelievably soft in his arms. But, with his right carrying her, he felt a weak but definite heart beat.

“What? My Ars Magna imbued with Gold has been dispelled by your right hand?” The alchemist’s expression froze.

“IMPOSSIBLE! HIMEGAMI AISA’S DEATH WAS ALREADY DECIDED! DOES YOUR RIGHT HAND POSSESS SOME SORT OF HOLY VATICAN SECRET ART!?”

Touma strengthens his resolve.

"..." Kamijou did not reply. It was enough and his questions were unimportant. Like when he touched his head and regained his day’s memories, why he could negate the order to die was unimportant.

It was important that Kamijou would definitely not forgive the alchemist. He would pity him and understand him. Even if Aureolus could not bring himself to kill her after she hurt him, the man’s actions were absolutely unforgivable.

The situation had changed. Sure, Kamijou had witnessed as the alchemist’s most important person betrayed him, as his most important person was taken away and as his anger exploded and had refused to scold himself. Before someone that he truly cared for, how could he simply vent his anger for self-satisfaction? Kamijou wholeheartedly disagreed.

The current him did not understand the old Kamijou Touma: what memories he had, the past he lived, his plans for the future, what he liked, what he hated, what he protected in the past and what he wanted to protect in future were all lost. But, surely, there one thing he knew. Kamijou Touma would never have approved of the alchemist’s, no man’s, actions.

The two Kamijou Toumas who were walking their own paths had finally reached a common understanding, an intersection.

“Alright, Aureolus Izzard. If you think you can do anything you want…” Kamijou Touma gently placed Himegami Aisa onto the floor and stood up. He made no sound but anger seethed around him like static electricity. Without any restraint, he declared. “THEN I'LL DESTROY THAT FUCKED UP ILLUSION OF YOURS!!”

The words belonged to no one else. It was the voice of the Imagine Breaker, Kamijou Touma.

Between the lines 2

Himegami's blood kills a bunch of vampires.

That’s why I wanted to be a spellcaster.

It was a story of ten years past. On a certain night, a mountain village in Kyoto was attacked by a vampire. It had happened so suddenly, without warning, without a trace.

A once ordinary village that had no need for a police station had become living hell overnight. The defending young people were killed one by one until it was difficult to tell who was or was not a vampire. The former companions eventually were consumed in the chaos of murdering each other. Before the sun rose, there were two types of life: the dead and the vampires.

How? Why did I survive for so long? The girl thought in her young heart. Vampires were everywhere, the familiar aunts and uncles who had once said goodbye to her at night. The farmer uncle who had once told her that “it’s late, hurry up and go home,” bit into her neck.

The moment it happened, he turned to dust.

Yuzu, who had once told her “we’ll play together tomorrow,” bit into her neck.

The moment it happened, she turned to dust.

Her mother, who had once told her to “run away”, bit into her neck.

The moment it happened, she turned to dust.

Thus, the vampires realized. Like vampires’ bane, if they bit her neck, they died. Irrelevant of her desires, the girl’s blood was acid. If their mouths made contact with her blood, they melted and perished. Even so, they continued to do it while the girl gently stared as the once familiar vampires became dust scattering in the wind.

What could she have said?

“I’m sorry.” said every vampire.

Some had said they had not wanted to become vampires while others said they had not wanted others to become like them. They believed that by reducing to ashes, they could have been redeemed.

Eventually, the village was caked by ash. It was peaceful. With a lack of people, it was peaceful. Even the first vampire, the instigator of the tragedy, was unaccounted for. It was unknown whether the vampire had bitten her and joined the ashes.

She realized.

The instigator was a victim as well. The girl, whose ability killed them in one stroke, likely instilled fear in that vampire. Trembling each and every day with nowhere to go, he had chosen to kill a girl without the necessary power. Having exhausted all options, the vampire had considered converting the entire village to bolster the strike.

However, an entire village of vampires was decimated by that one girl.

So, I wanted to be a spellcaster.

I want to save those that can’t be saved. I want to save the abandoned. Whether victims or sinners, dead or not, I want to pull them out of Hell. The only magicians who can defy logic exist in picture books.

No matter what, she had to become a spellcaster. She dreamed of the day she became one. Her mind was set on becoming one. Therefore, the day that she met the alchemist, was the day that the impossible dream found a possibility. That night, with comfortable excitement, she could not sleep.

However, in present time, the alchemist stood before her.

"Out of the way, woman!"

Her sought after dream was horribly shattered by the twisted mouth.

Himegami coming back to life.

“Die.”

At the moment of death, she knew not what she was even thinking, unable to maintain her own consciousness. Under that hazy circumstance of disorientation, her mind was dragged into a dark abyss.

But it was then that she heard a boy’s roar that came from neither the magician nor alchemist. It was the voice of that ordinary boy. “ARE YOU MESSING WITH, YOU BASTARD!!”

The boy was angered. Angered not because of what the alchemist did but because of the girl’s death.

To the girl, he looked stunning. And, for some reason, she thought that the unattainable dream was standing right there.

Cryso Agori · May 15, 2022

Chapter 4

Touma can close 10 meters in 4 steps.

There was no need for words or signals. The battle between the esper and alchemist began. The goal was simple: defeat him.

"Phew!"

Kamijou exhaled slightly and explosively charged at Aureolus. The alchemist simply took out one of his needles and stabbed his neck.

A distance of only ten meters was closable in four steps. Four steps was all Kamijou needed.

Aureolus tells Touma to suffocate, his right hand could not negate the effect when he touched his throat.

“Suffocate.”

The moment he took his first step, he lost all momentum. His neck felt like it was tied by steel wires and automatically bent down. Feeling like he was just poisoned, Kamijou used his right hand to grab the throat. This was the same method he had used to retake his stolen memories and return Himegami her life after being ordered to die.

But this time, Kamijou did not regain his breathing. It felt like something deep in his throat was obstructing his breathing.

Touma negates the effect by reaching into his throat, which takes five seconds.

Calm down! Calm down! Kamijou released his right hand from his neck and heard his throat release a strange noise. What did he order? Use a rope to tie the neck? No, wait! It was more ambiguous… he told me to suffocate!

Kamijou proceeded to stuff one of his fingers into his mouth as if trying to forcibly vomit something he had eaten. As the finger reached deep into his throat, with the urge to vomit came a PAH! He heard the sound of shattering glass and could breathe once more.

The entire event lasted a mere five seconds. But, against Aureolus, who could turn any sentence into a weapon, they were five seconds of toying. Aureolus once again stabbed his neck and nonchalantly extricated it.

Aureolus tries to electrocute Touma from all directions, Touma is able to negate the effect.

“Be electrocuted.”

The moment he finished speaking, blue-white sparks surrounded Kamijou from all directions. Before Kamijou’s body could even freeze, the electric vortex burned the air and rushed for Kamijou.

“...!”

Kamijou raised his hand. It was a response he had not planned but the lone right hand still took the role of a lightning rod, absorbing the electricity. The sparks that interacted with the hand trembled like a snake that devoured poison, and then silently vanished.

I can dispel it…

Aureolus summons ropes to strangle Touma and tries to crush him with a car. Touma negates both.

For Kamijou, excitement surpassed tension as his heart began to race. His opponent, however, narrowed his eyes and stabbed his neck once more.

“Be strangled and be crushed.”

For a moment, the floor rippled like the surface of water and numerous ropes flew about, painfully choking Kamijou’s neck. At the same time, a rusted car fell down from the twisting ceiling.

I can dispel it!

Kamijou simply waved his right hand and the tied ropes broke like soaked paper bags while the rusted car morphed into a coarse, sugar-like powder, disappearing into the air. Aureolus removed the needle like he was scratching off a poisonous bug.

I can dispel it! That should be enough! My right hand dispels this guy’s attacks! If he attacks verbally, it means there’ll be an attack. It’s nothing if I deal with it calmly!

Aureolus's attacks are predictable because he states them. Unfortunately, Aureolus realizes this.

As Aureolus was the type to state his commands, it meant his attacks were predictable. It was like a card game that tested human responses. Like if one heard the word “electrocuted,” he could guess what attack it would become. It took less than a second to predict the attack. In normal brawling, there was no second of reprieve. Boxers had 0.3 seconds before a punch landed and, though each attack was terrifyingly powerful, the speed of Aureolus’ commands was like that of ordinary punches.

With such things in mind, the fear of not knowing what attack will come was gone, like the worry of a delinquent bringing a knife to children’s fights. Aureolus noted Kamijou’s reason for confidence and frowned.

Aureolus figures out Touma needs to touch something with IB to negate it.

“I see. Truly, that right hand can dispel my Ars Magna Imbued Gold without exception.” The alchemist was still confident, causing the boy some puzzlement. “However, that would mean that the negation effect won’t occur as long as it doesn’t touch your right hand, hm?”

Kamijou’s body went numb.

Aureolus makes a gunsword.

“Form a pistol in my hand. Load with magic bullets. Application is firing. One will suffice.” The alchemist seemed rather excited as he stabbed his neck.

As Aureolus gently waved his hand, a sword appeared. At first impression, it was a Western sword that a fairy tale prince would use, but was slightly different. Where the hilt should have been was a pirate’s musket pistol. It was a sort of gun with a strange projectile.

Aureolus's gun shoots magic bullets faster than 'human motion recognition' and is said to be faster than Fake Izzard's Limen Magna. Touma is unable to react.

The attack approaching, Kamijou tensed.

"Begin to fire at a speed that surpasses human motion recognition.”

Seemingly desiring to rip apart the air, he swung the Western sword horizontally, which came with the sound of exploding gunpowder. The next instant, Kamijou felt something barely brush past his face and, after that, blue-white bullets struck the wall behind him and exploded.

“…!”

It was actually none to extravagant: the musket’s trigger was pulled. However, how could the human eye see a magic bullet that ripped through the very air? Kamijou had raised his hand but did not react. The destructiveness of bullets was easier to understand, making him more nervous than esper powers or magic normally would.

The speed was completely different from that of the fake Aureolus’ Limen Magna. It was irrelevant to magic or esper powers. A magic bullet could not be endured by human flesh, becoming a sort of killing blow.

Aureolus creates ten rifles.

Aureolus revealed a satisfied expression and removed the needle.

“Mass produce the previous process. Simulation firing with ten Hidden Rifle Imperceptible Rifles.”

With those words, ten muskets appeared in his hands, five in each in a metallic fan-like array. If those guns were fired, Kamijou Touma would inevitably fail to avoid or dodge.

Touma tries to run but stops when he sees Stiyl and Himegami.

I’ve got to… run!

Kamijou had decided to run before the firing. Though he knew it was a pointless struggle, he actively tried to flee. Then, he realized that behind Kamijou, at his feet, Himegami was still barely breathing. Even further behind, Stiyl was immobile.

“IDIOT! WHY ARE YOU STOPPING!?” yelled Stiyl with shock.

Izzard fires, the bullets move so fast you couldn't see it even with video editing software. Touma was sent flying 7 meters into Stiyl's body but was still able to move because Izzard purposely held back out of sadism.

“Preparations complete. Ten hidden rifles: fire simultaneously.”

With his command, ten blazing, blue-white bullets struck Kamijou. Kamijou’s body was covered with what felt like fists wearing brass knuckles. The word “fire” failed to describe the speed. The high-speed sniping was untraceable while even editing a recording of it.

"Ugh… argh…!"

Luckily, the magic bullets were not fatal. Hit all over by the old-style bullets, blood spilled everywhere. He was shot back, bounced off the floor like a rubber ball and finally stopped once he had crashed into something, specifically Stiyl’s body. In the end, the distance had widened by seven meters. Though he was in so much pain he thought his bones were broken, he could still move. Of course, this was not luck. The alchemist had already warned that he would not kill him so easily.

Izzard is happy.

Apparently happy with the outcome, Aureolus raised a hand at Kamijou.

Stiyl distracts Izzard by asking about Ars Magna, Izzard was able to complete the chant by having the students of Misawa Cram do it with the Gregorian Chant, even multiplying the magic by 120.

“…Tch. What kind of joke was that? It’s almost like you can actually distort reality with your words.” Before Aureolus could speak, Stiyl cut in, causing him to divert his attention that way.

“Hmph. Ars Magna is the pinnacle of alchemy. It might be hard to obtain, but, if I continue to pursue it, naturally it will become obtainable.”

“That’s not possible! Though Ars Magna’s theory is complete, the incantation is way too long. It can’t be completed with one or two hundred years! The incantation can’t be shortened and passing it on becomes a telephone game of error in the ritual!” said Stiyl while giving Kamijou a look.

Kamijou nodded with understanding. Since Aureolus’ method of attack was to turn his words into reality, they just needed to divert his attention and safely take away his intention to attack.

Stiyl continued to distract Aureolus while giving Kamijou hints. While I’m buying time for you, think of some ways to counter this!!

“This is actually a trifle.” Aureolus, ignorant of it all, continued. “Hmph. It’s true I couldn’t complete the ritual in one or two hundred years. But that’s just one person chanting it, right? From father to son, son to grandson, such a method would result in error like a game of telephone… that’s the logic, but there’s no need to pass it down, right?”

“…What?” Stiyl frowned slightly

Then, Index dejectedly spoke. “It’s the Gregorian Chant. By manipulating 2,000 people to make them chant simultaneously, the chant will complete at least 2000 times faster. A ritual that takes 400 years would be completed in less than 7 days.”

Rather than passed down, it was chanted at once. Kamijou stared at her face. At first, he thought she had derived it from the 103,000 grimoires but he realized that, in a world where no one had managed to complete Ars Magna, there was no book to reference. She had deduced it from the current information.

“In fact, I thought there would be a multiplication effect in the spell that would cause it to drastically increase. But, I only managed to increase it by 120 fold, so it was overall unsuccessful.”

Izzard finished the chant for Ars Magna in half a day. And was able to bring back the students when they died due to performing the spell.

Kamijou gathered his thoughts that were slipping away and examined his surroundings. He could still move his body and he was seven meters from Aureolus, not too far. If he could dodge his attack, he could attack him.

“120 fold… you finished it in only half a day?” Stiyl spoke with extreme seriousness. “But this is the home of espers. If these people used the Gregorian Chant with their bodies, they’d explode and die!”

Kamijou looked around but found nothing usable as a weapon. He rummaged through I pocked and felt something hard and cold but nothing suitable as a weapon.

Two shots. If Kamijou could dodge two of Aureolus’ commands, he could close the distance.

“Haven’t you noticed?” Aureolus titled his head. “Can’t I just repair spoiled goods like a collapsed building?”

For a moment, Kamijou stopped to stare at Aureolus.

“Ah, didn’t I tell you? Today wasn’t the first time those students died.” He said carelessly.

“YOU BASTARD!” Kamijou’s mind blurred from the anger.

Touma distracts Izzard by throwing his phone which Izzard takes the time to turn into a pebble.

“YOU BASTARD!”

Kamijou had stood before Aureolus had given the order.

Kamijou grabbed the object in his pocket as Aureolus prepared to give the next command to kill the standing Kamijou.

Before he could speak, the boy threw the phone at Aureolus.

“…?” For a moment, he was truly stunned, which Kamijou utilized to begin his run.

A cell phone could not defeat an Alchemist, but it was a distraction to buy time and close the distance. Predictably, it was distracting.

“Abort the throw. Turn it into a pointlessly thrown pebble!”

In that short time, Kamijou approached, fully capable of defending against Aureolus’ next command. There was chance to turn it around!

Izzard summons a gun, Stiyl distracts him by yelling Innocentius. Izzard makes him float. Touma stops.

“Bring a pistol into my hand. Used for shooting. Finish according to preparations!”

On the other hand, if Kamijou failed to evade, it was over.

Aureolus fired ten musket-swords. SLASH! The empty weapons dropped onto the floor, sounding like a secret code as the weapons reappeared in the alchemist’s hands.

Kamijou’s face twitched tensely as Aureolus was about to say the crucial word.

“INNOCENTIUS!” Stiyl’s roar interrupted.

Stunned, the boy turned to Stiyl. That’s impossible, right? Isn’t that thing summoned with the runes all over the dorm? Besides, Innocentius was stationed in the student dorm to protect Index.

It was apparently a hoax, a hoax meant to slightly extend Kamijou’s lifespan.

Aureolus’ burning, cannon-like eyes glared at Stiyl.

“Float into the sky, Father from London.” Aureolus said it quietly, as if preparing for an execution.

Once he had finished, Stiyl’s body floated into the air like gravity was forgotten everywhere below the ceiling. Kamijou automatically stopped. Imagine Breaker was capable of negating the command but, a simpleton would have known they were much too far away.

Stiyl yells out Izzard's weakness, and Izzard makes him explode but keeps his blood vessels intact and keeps him alive. Index faints and Touma tries to keep himself from being paralyzed.

“YOU IDIOT! IT’S EASY FOR YOU TO BEAT AUREOLUS! THAT GUY’S WEAKNESS IS THE NEEDLE! YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT MEDICAL STUFF!” growled Stiyl to have the frozen Kamijou move.

Aureolus glowered at Stiyl with razor sharp eyes. “Explode from the inside, rune magician.”

With a mysterious and uncomfortable noise, as commanded, the rune magician had expanded like a balloon and then exploded. Blood, flesh, bones and internal organs splattered the area. Flesh and blood stained the ceiling, making a large oval shape. The entire room, covered in the human body, was like one large museum created from the magician’s flesh.

“…!”

The truly terrifying thing was the fact that the blood vessels were intact, the heart undamaged. Like the map of a train, the visible heart pumped blood through the long blood vessels into the internal organs and back into the heart.

He was alive. Even like that, Stiyl Magnus was alive.

Pala pala…

Rune cards scattered like sakura petals from possibly the magician’s pockets.

Thump! Index, who was sitting blankly on the table, had fainted at the cruel image.

“Da-Damn it!”

Kamijou hurriedly tried to think of a way to prevent the horrifying situation from paralyzing him and tried to hold back the voice wanting to cry out. Stiyl had never asked Kamijou to save him. He knew this would become the result but still told Kamijou the important words. It was imperative that Kamijou thoroughly analyzed the enormous clue.

Touma starts to decipher what the acupuncture is for.

YOU IDIOT! IT’S EASY FOR YOU TO BEAT AUREOLUS! THAT GUY’S WEAKNESS IS THE NEEDLE! YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT MEDICAL STUFF!

Kamijou began to decipher his words.

Needles... medical stuff?

Aureolus had repeatedly used needles to stab his neck. Stabbing needles into his own neck… was that the reference? Academy City used various drugs as a part of the esper development program which meant it had vast pharmaceutical and medicinal knowledge unknown to the outside world. Like remember English words during a vocabulary test, Kamijou’s mind pieced together its understanding of acupuncture.

From the standpoint of regulating breathing through Asian medicine and factors, acupuncture therapy’s purpose was the stimulation of the nerves to reduce pain or control internal organ functions. In a time period lacking anesthesia, it was an important part of treatment that was like magic.

But... what about it? Kamijou tilted his head and continued to analyze.

The fact that modern operations abandoned acupuncture meant that it was ineffective in humans and did not have truly desired effects on the mind and body like anesthetics. The most it could accomplish was stimulate endorphin secretion to feel happier and more excited, and relieve some anxiety.

Anxiety?

Touma figures out the truth about Golden Ars Magna.

“Change the contents. Stop shooting the hidden rifle. Use the bayonet to eliminate the intruders.”

Kamijou stood idly by as he forgot to run forward. With Aureolus’ words, he recovered. The muskets’ bayonets in the alchemist’s hands aimed at Kamijou were spinning, signs of death.

Despite the imminent danger, Kamijou’s suspicions were not ignorable. With one suspicion came a chain reaction creating more suspicions.

That’s right. It’s too weird.

In Himegami and Stiyl’s case the alchemist had said “die” and “explode” to kill them. If he could truly do anything, was it not simpler to command that Kamijou lose the ability in his right hand?

That’s right! Something’s not right!

If he could do anything, why did he need vampires and Deep Blood? If he could create anything, could he not create vampires with his own power?

That’s right. There’s something wrong with this!

Also, if Aureolus Izzard could do anything he desired, why did Index ignore him?

What if Aureolus Izzard’s ultimate Ars Magna did not alter reality through his words but through his thought?

Izzard cuts off Touma's right arm.

“Do-Don’t tell me… I see…”

It was no wonder Stiyl had told him that it was a simple matter for Kamijou to defeat the alchemist. Because Aureolus understood the powers of Stiyl, Index and Himegami, they could not defeat him. But, Kamijou was an exception. Having met for the first time today, Aureolus had no grasp on the stranger’s strength.

IMPOSSIBLE! HIMEGAMI AISA’S DEATH WAS ALREADY DECIDED! DOES YOUR RIGHT HAND POSSESS SOME SORT OF HOLY VATICAN SECRET ART!?

Anxious was certainly nervous at the time. For an omnipotent being to have anxiety in his heart…

“I understand. So it’s like that.” Kamijou muttered lightly. It was unimpressive and even simple after understanding the truth.

“Hmph. It seems the source of your confidence is that mysterious right hand of yours.” Aureolus calmly stared at the spacey Kamijou, stabbing his neck with another needle. “If that’s the case, I’ll start by cutting off your right hand. Hidden rifle: rotate-fire your blade!”

Soundless, Aureolus swung his right hand, sending the bayonet spinning at Kamijou with the terrifying speed of an electric fan. He himself barely saw the trajectory of the blade and what actually flew over.

One moment, the musket-sword rested in the alchemist’s hand.

One moment, it had severed Kamijou’s arm and stabbed into the back wall.

Touma feels no pain from having his arm cut off and comes to the ultimate conclusion.

It felt like a hot knife had sliced through butter as Kamijou’s right arm was sliced neatly down his shoulder.

His right arm rotated in midair. It was painless and heatless. Kamijou stared absentmindedly at his detached arm.

My right hand’s been sliced off?

Kamijou stared at the spinning arm.

An omnipotent person who can crush my heart heard with a single sentence…

His mind had not been distorted from pain or fear as his thoughts reached the ultimate question.

…chose to slice off my right hand?

He combined his suspicions to formulate his answer.

He’s definitely someone who can do what he wants…

Eventually, fresh blood gushed out of severed joint.

But can’t do anything to the power of my right hand?

He still felt no pain and no heat.

He could only slice off my right arm to take away Imagine Breaker?

The arm spun in the air until it hit something hard, dropping to the floor.

Eventually, he found the answer from the various suspicions. He knew what he had to do and the rest was simply.

Kamijou heard his mind flip a switch.

Cryso Agori · Jun 30, 2022

Chapter 4, part 2

Touma starts laughing crazily.

KUKUKUKUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Faced with such an unexpected response, Aureolus backed away. The boy with one arm was absolutely sneering.

Is he crazy from pain and fear!? No, that’s not right…

His smile was one of confidence, a very natural smile that indicated his belief of victory. To remain normal in that critical situation was most abnormal

Aurelous initially did not feel fear but was instead dissatisfied.

What… What’s going on? Aureolus was more dissatisfied than afraid. Though he did not know what thoughts ran through the boy’s head, the victor was already decided. In which case, there was no reason to feel unhappy.

Aurelous shoots a magic sword to crush Touma's head. The sword is aimed at his eye and the 'bullet' is called out to be low-velocity.

Deciding to end his life, he impatiently tossed aside a needle and began his commands. “Hidden rifle appears in my hand. Load with magic bullets. One will suffice.” Swinging his right hand, and as commanded, a Western sword with a rapid-fire musket pistol appeared in his hand. Rather satisfied with his perfect magic, he continued. “Application is crushing. Following the original rifle concept, fire the blade to crush prey’s head into pieces!”

Aureolus squeezed the trigger and the magic bullet loaded with gunpowder flew toward the eyeball of the maniacally laughing boy. Though a low-velocity projectile, it would still pierce the brain if it hit the eyeball. Still, it was not a velocity that humans could dodge and not a defendable force. The boy could do little more but stare and watch as his brain was splattered like a tomato.

The bullet somehow misses.

…But nothing happened.

"What?" Aureolus began to distrust his very own eyes as the blue magic bullet aimed precisely at the boy’s eye had somehow grazed the stagnant boy, hitting the wall behind him.

Did I miscalculate the distance? No…

Aurelous repeats this with 10 bullets and still misses.

Aureolus commanded once more. “Repeat the previous command. Application is strafe firing. Simultaneously fire ten hidden rifles!”

The discussed ten rifles appeared out of thin air and fired bullets like a bouquet of flowers. However, the ten accurately aimed bullets all proceeded to fly past the boy, leaving him unharmed.

Touma is still smiling and walking toward Izzard.

A MISSFIRE!? HOW COULD THAT!? Stunned, Aureolus stared at the boy who had escaped death twice. The bleeding shoulder gushed unbelievable amounts of fresh bled from the sliced joint, splattering blood onto his face, covering it with blood.

The boy still spoke. As if the vilest parts of his body were gushing from the sliced arm, the boy continued to smile.

Izzard starts feeling anxiety.

In response, the offender decided to give the command for a third attempt at killing his enemy.

But he didn’t do anything. He evaded Ars Magna twice!?

He stopped his actions as he felt doubt. He knew the abilities of his spell the best and he knew they were not attacks evadable through luck.

Don’t tell me he’s planning something I didn’t foresee!?

In his heart, the boy seemed to laugh as he stuck his tongue out, licking the blood on his lips like sauce. Even a fallen vampire would not have reveled in its own blood!

WHAT’S—GOING—ON? Aureolus could not stop the anxiety bubbling from within. WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS GUY? HE CAN STILL FIGHT WITH THAT BODY? WITHOUT A RIGHT ARM? IMPOSSIBLE! TOTALLY ILLOGICAL! THIS GUY WILL DIE FROM THE INTENSE BLOOD LOSS! IT’S ALRIGHT. THERE’S NO PROBLEM! THERE SHOULD BE NO PROBLEM! THERE’S NO PROBLEM BUT—!

It was the moment that anxiety had formed in his heart…

The boy had lost his right hand, and with it, his powers. That pitiable image seemed to mutter, sneer and laugh as it stared at the alchemist.

Izzard creates an infinite amount of guillotines.

“Ku… ah… Ugh. Damn you… YOU WON’T SURVIVE BEFORE THE EXISTENCE OF MY ARS MAGNA! DEPLOY A COUNTLESS NUMBER OF GUILLOTINES TO QUICKLY DISMANTLE THAT BODY!”

As he had finished speaking, numerous, enormous guillotines appeared on the ceiling space above the boy’s head like the cracking of the surface. Each was a blade of execution weighing over 100 kilograms. Before those murderous tools of gravity, Kamijou simply sneered, intending to neither evade nor defend.

IT’S ALRIGHT! HE CAN’T GET AWAY FROM THIS! IT WILL HIT! HE’LL DIE AS HE’S MASSACRED! I GAVE THE ORDER! I GAVE AN ORDER I GAVE AN ORDER I GAVE AN ORDER! IT SHOULD BE ALRIGHT! THERE’S NO NEED TO WORRY! Aureolus repeated consolations in his heart over and over and over again. As long as events unfolded as he had commanded, the boy would die. Though he would surely die, doubts continued to creep into heart as if his silent wish was to remove his heart’s anxieties.

As Aureolus had wished, an infinite number of enormous guillotines appeared above him… as the boy sneered. His expression seemed to say that he knew Aureolus’ weaknesses.

Izzard is unable to control his doubts.

Ku. DAMN IT! WHY!?

The alchemist had no hesitation as he glared at Kamijou like he wanted to pierce him through.

“DIE! BOY—"

Before his roaring command had completed, doubts crept into his mind.

Can I really kill him with just that word?

Izzard drops his needles.

With trembling hands, he tried to take the needle out of his neck but caused numerous unused needles to drop onto the floor, something he had no time to worry about. Aureolus Izzard trembled as he stared at Kamijou. The formerly piercing gaze became as blunt as a rusted blade. Unbelievably, his control over his legs seemed limited as he stumbled away, stepping on something, crushing some of the numerous needles dropped onto the floor.

Explanation of Ars Magna weakness.

Ars Magna turned a person’s wishes into reality. But, once Aureolus believed that he could not win, could not defeat someone, those also became reality, becoming a double-edged sword. It was the reason why he could not create vampires and needed Deep Blood for his goals. The doubts in his heart that he “could not create this” were why he could not form them in reality.

Each and every order was like a bullet. If he were to simply think, numerous random thoughts would have mixed in. Thus, the ambiguousness of the order would have prevented its occurrence. Gathering his concentration, he could fire his command like a bullet. And, like when learning English words, reciting out loud simplified the process.

Ars Magna was not a spell that turned anything spoken into reality but a spell that turned imagination into reality. Aureolus Izzard had lost control of his verbal ability. Before, he converted ambiguous thoughts into words and automatically created reality. It was like a handgun that fired without human interface. In order to prevent such a situation, he had prepared a countermeasure.

Izzard loses control of his doubts.

DAMN IT. WHERE ARE MY NEEDLES? WHY DID THEY LAND ON THE FLOOR!? I USED NEED THEM TO EASE MY ANXIETY! WITHOUT THEM—! In shock, Aureolus held his breath. IF I DON’T HAVE THEM WHAT WILL HAPPEN? STOP? NO! STOP THINKING! IF I CONTINUE TO THINKING THEY’LL BECOME PERMANENT!

The more he considered running away, the further his thoughts divulged. It was a known fact that he could not stop. If he did stop, it meant he had consented to his own powerlessness. Like a rolling snowball, Aureolus’ doubts went out of control and lost all meaning.

Touma terrifies Izzard.

OI!

Suddenly hearing the boy’s voice, Aureolus trembled like a child being lectured.

“YOU DIDN’T THINK THAT YOU COULD GET RID OF MY IMAGINE BREAKER BY JUST CUTTING OFF MY RIGHT HAND, DID YA!?!”

Kamijou bared his fangs while his eyes seemed to glow reddish gold. He had spoken from the bottom of his heart.

A dragon comes out of Touma's stump. It is said to be like Imagine Breaker revealing its true form.

WA-WAIT! STOP THINKING—! DON—ANXIETY—NOW I NEED—! Unable to reign in his thoughts, the alchemist could only pray.

Then, an abnormal change began on Kamijou’s right shoulder that was releasing blood like a fountain. The blood loss increased and an object formed as if the blood were being splattered all over a transparent glass statue. And the unbelievable object began to take shape.

What formed on his shoulder was not a human’s arm.

It was a head, a savage, two meter long head seen only in ancient legends, the head of a large and almighty King Dragon.

What should have been a transparent head was dyed with blood. The boy raised it and swung it, slowing opening the jaws containing rows of saw-like teeth.

It seemed like it was revealing the right hand’s true identity.

Its teeth were bared.

At first glance, nothing seemed to happen. However, in the unseen world, it changed while the alchemist’s once dominant presence disappeared.

Izzard's anxieties reverse Stiyl's manglement.

WHA—

Aureolus looked up and found that the repulsive human constellation observatory consisting of Stiyl Magnus’ flesh and blood began to gather together from all over the room. It was like the command to explode was repealed.

DON’T TELL ME HE’S REVIVING!? LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO HIMEGAMI!? THE PEOPLE DESTROYED CAN—

As Aureolus considered the idea, Stiyl reformed and landed onto the floor, completely unharmed. In turn, Aureolus felt like his spine were being stabbed by an icy pillar. Naturally, the magician’s revival was caused by Aureolus’ anxieties.

Izzard tries to will the dragon to disappear but t doesn't work.

HOLD ON… THIS IS JUST… MY... ANXIETIES… CALM DOWN… AS LONG AS I… CONTROL MY ANXIETY… I CAN DEFINITELY… MAKE THIS RIDICULOUS MONSTER… DISAPPEAR!

Attempting to reign in the sensation crushing his heart, Aureolus attempted his final resistance. It was surely a monster that Aureolus had created and, so long as he had calmed himself down, the mystical beast residing in the boy would surely have disappeared. But, the transparent King Dragon glared silently at the alchemist with both eyes.

And, like that, Aureolus’ vision faded from the sheer horror.

IM… POSSIBLE… I CAN’T… WIN…

Simultaneous to those thoughts, the King Dragon’s mouth widened until its maximum, completely swallowing the alchemist head first.

Epilogue

Touma's arm was reattached.

“I really think your injuries are really interesting every time.” In a pure white hospital room, a middle-aged-looking doctor with a face like a frog’s spoke to Kamijou.

“...”

Kamijou knew not what to say as he lied on the table, lowering his head to look at the arm held in plaster. The severed limb was repaired neatly for likely the best. The cells near the sliced area were undamaged and, after a day of emergency treatment, the arm itself was successfully reattached. “A pinky sliced off by a delinquent can be reattached,” was the type of information that Kamijou had. However, no one had imagined that such a major reassembly of the arm was possible. However, with such disgusting information in his mind, Kamijou truly did not understand what kind of person he was before he had lost his memories.

Stiyl lived cause despite his body being exploded his blood vessels were unharmed.

Immediately after he left, another person, Stiyl Magnus, a man who seemed out of place in Japanese culture, walked in.

“Though I don’t want to get close to you or be friends with you at all, I came here out of courtesy.”

“Let me ask you something… Why are you strutting around as if nothing happened? Tell me why.”

Stiyl unhappily puffed his cheeks and chose not to say anything. Between the two of them, Kamijou was the one less tactful about injuries. Though, he was somewhat justified as Stiyl had his flesh and bones broken and scattered yet at the moment not even a blood vessel was harmed. His organs had splattered the room but he had survived as his blood still circulated. Few could have such precious experiences.

The insane Touma was Touma acting after realizing how to beat Izzard.

“I actually wanted to more or less thank you for this one. But, when I thought about it, there’s no need. All you did was let Aureolus self-destruct.”

“Hmph. This is all thanks to this Kamijou Touma’s perfect acting skills!”

It was true that Kamijou Touma had lacked the ability to defeat Aureolus Izzard. His magic turned one’s thoughts into reality and, as such, he had needed to ensure that he believed… that Aureolus Izzard could not possibly defeat Kamijou Touma.

To achieve it, Kamijou Touma had bluffed. In fact, the boy had forgotten the fact he had lost his right arm. Though he was supposed to act somewhat properly, in reality, his mind had numbed from the intense pain and shock. According to some suicidal individuals, excessive blood loss brought about a kind of high, which explained his slasher smile.

Of course, the truth was undetectable. Considering his need to act, he raised it up to eleven.

Stiyl despite being turned into a human constellation was still able to use his magic to create illusions so Izzard would miss as he did in the beginning of the fight.

“Speaking of which, it’s pretty unbelievable that you survived. I got my arm cut off but you became a human constellation exhibit. It feels like we’ll appreciate the value of life again… Oi. Why do you look like you’re about to laugh?”

“Nothing. By your attitude, I was just thinking you didn’t realize I was secretly helping you.” Stiyl smirked with apparent condescension. “After you lost your arm, you managed to dodge Aureolus’ bullets without dodging, remember? How do you think that happened?”

“…Ah?”

“Your acting did fool Aureolus but he wouldn’t have believed you right away, right? After you lost your arm and started your bluff, the main reason why he was fooled by it was because you dodged his attacks twice, right?”

“Erm…” Kamijou stared back like a fool.

“You still don’t understand after I said so much? Basically, the reason why he missed the first two times wasn’t because of your acting but because I used my magic to create an optical illusion around Aureolus.”

“What…?” Kamijou looked at him with surprised.

“What’s so surprising about that? I specialize in fire magic. Using heated air to create mirages and manipulate light refraction to create optical errors is not outside my area of ability.”

“Ho-Hold on! I’m not surprised about that! Weren’t you blown to pieces and splattered all over the ceiling? How were you able to cast magic in human constellation mode?”

“Human constellation is an interesting description… but, this is none to strange, is it? I was alive the whole time so of course I could refine life force to create magic. It’s a good thing my rune cards were scattered all over the floor when I exploded!”

Stiyl thinks the dragon was a illusion, Izzard didn't die, but was mind-broken and lost his memories.

“You don’t have to worry about it. I suppose you know the sin you committed during this incident, right? I’m here today to discuss the developments for Misawa Cram.”

Sin.

Kamijou turned to look at the right hand covered in plaster that had once housed a King Dragon. Though it was a self-destructive illusion induced by Aureolus’ own anxieties, the one who had forced the alchemist down the path to self-destruction was none other than Kamijou.

Stiyl sighed. “No need for that expression. What Aureolus imagined was a mental image of the King Dragon, not physical. It was an illusion. Though you couldn’t physically touch it, it was something could devour stuff like souls.”

???

“It means you didn’t harm Aureolus physically but he is mentally broken.”

“…Is that something worth bragging about?”

“Of course it is. In terms of the conclusion, we stripped his memories and that settled it. In this battle involving such a powerful magician, the final casualty count was that one member of the 13 Knights by the lift. In the 2,000 years of recorded magic history, this is the third time such a happy ending occurred.”

Touma thinks the dragon is unrelated to Izzard powers. Which it is.

Kamijou Touma had a realistic experience as he remembered a doubt he had left on the battlefield.

The King Dragon’s head had emerged from the severed right arm.

It was supposed to be a monster created by Aureolus’ fear of Kamijou. That was the logical analysis. But, in that situation, had Aureolus Izzard truly imagined that there was a transparent King Dragon’s head living exploding out of Kamijou’s right shoulder?

The likelihood was low but what if, just what if, that monster was unrelated to Aureolus’ powers?

Astaro · Aug 4, 2022

So we had a debate earlier about Crowley’s Spiritual Tripping not being real and only illusions.

Produces a sword through Touma’s imagination that he both physically wields and can use to slice up anything in the surrounding space.

Produces a sword through Touma’s imagination that can he can use to slice up anything in the surrounding space.

13, 5, 32. In other words, the sword again.

He dodged based on the assumption that the length of the rapier would be 10 times the image he saw in his head, but a dark red hole was opened in his side.

“Gbh!?”

“When you assume the length will be extended 10 times, the Blasting Rod uses that as the basis for the 10 times amplification. Thus, the blade is extended 100 times.”

At that length, the blade could slice across this entire space. He could not pull it out. To avoid being held in place by the imaginary blade skewering him, Kamijou grabbed it with his right hand. It shattered and vanished into the ether and he regained his freedom in exchange for losing the plug keeping the wound closed.

Mimetic Predators vaporized by what the novels says is all the energy that created the Big Bang multiplied by 10

"An aerial support…Big Bang Bomb!!!???"

This was only targeted at the Mimetic Predators crawling around the area. And they had the misfortune to be biologically based instead of being inorganic weapons. They too could "picture" the weapon, so it was drawn with hopeless detail in the back of their minds. There was an explosion that only they could sense.

That 10-44 seconds may have been more valuable than an eternity.

Cold rain continued to pour down on the late night parking lot. Physically, not a single leaf floating in a puddle was harmed and not a drop of water was evaporated, but hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of organism weapons were blown into the air, swept away, vaporized, and thoroughly contaminated to the last cell. This was not just on a planetary scale. This blew away the entire "world" including every last galaxy and nebula. For those chosen as a target, there was no escape. The meaning of what was "possible" was cruelly distorted. This far exceeded a neutron bomb or pure fusion bomb and added a much-too-evil attack to human history.
“How naive.”

But Aleister whispered.

That severe human had more to say.

“Blasting Rod. In other words, that power will be multiplied tenfold from my opponent’s point of view.”

She finally exceeded the limits of the existing universe.

This had originally been a secret technique meant to take on every last Magic God at once. Even if the one taking the damage had a limit to their imagination, her enemy’s mind would be mercilessly blown away by enough energy to create the universe ten times over.

The above Big Bang even left behind residual gamma radiation like a genuine Big Bang would.

“That big bang…well, it was technically ten times that, but it created a great many things. Radiation was one of those and it is a powerful medicine that can be used for good or bad. As a powerful medicine, it cannot be taken lightly, but when used right, it can become a ‘weapon’ that saves the life of someone who cannot be saved by any other method.”

That grim reaper who had taken the form of a girl had robbed his opponent of her foolish hostage strategy that used her own body as a shield.

After all…

“A gamma knife. When a brain tumor is surrounded by the delicate organ and is thus inoperable, this medical tool can pass through their body and accurately burn through just the miniscule target. Oh, my apologies. Was that explanation unnecessary? I am sure someone as wise and knowledgeable as you was already well aware of all that.”

“…”

“And don’t worry. No matter how much Karasuma Fran struggles, 'I will accurately excise you and only you. Until not a speck of you remains. So rest easy and struggle all you like.”

Spiritual Tripping combined with Blasting Rod is described as Crowley’s best method of fighting the Magic Gods on his own. Plus Spirtual Tripping is his main method of combat.

If Aleister had intended to eliminate all magic, he must have planned to fight the Magic Gods on his own. Had he had any realistic chance of that without an exception like Kamisato Kakeru’s World Rejecter? Kamijou had his doubts, but this seemed to be the trick.

If he could not do it as a human, he would draw out the destructive power from the Magic Gods themselves.

Drawing out the power of a god and defeating a god while remaining human was the way a summoner thought.

Instead of becoming a god, he would control them and rule them.

Nothing could have been more arrogant, but that just showed how much hatred he had in his heart.

However, that methodology actually showed some promise of working against full-power Othinus. How to mentally cut down a Magic God who had absolute confidence in their power was still a major question, but this still had far better odds than using any kind of human power against them.

Crowley with Spiritual Tripping destroyed the distorted Phase of the Magic Gods which was infinite in scope and made to contain beings like them that destroy the universe from moving a limb to get them out. This along with the above sword feat on Touma shows the that attacks are very much physical, do the damage their described, and can damage other things besides the target once their imagined into reality.

All expression vanished from the face of the human known as Crowley.

He held a twisted silver staff in his hand and his lips carried a single name.

Beast666.

That name had once been used by the man who led the world’s most famous modern Western magic cabal to destruction from within.

“You really are human. I’m a little jealous of that emotion, but that isn’t enough. I am about to tie it all together, so could you stick around a little longer?”

“Oh, you’re gonna tell him about that☆” said a girl’s voice with a giggle.

“This is about Aiwass, that cornerstone of your plan that you went to such great lengths to raise.”

The old man’s voice contained a cruelty unfitting to his age.

Far from reaching enlightenment, desire dripped from his words like juice from a thick cut of meat.

“It’s a complete failure, young one. You’re going to be at your wits’ end before long.”

A moment later, a clash occurred somewhere in the world.

“Dealing with the primary issue is fine, but that is going to be taking action soon. Now that we’re existing here in the real world, we’ll be detected before long.”

“Yeah, we probably do need to do keep things in check. In a way, that is even more of a troublemaker than Othinus.”

“What a pain,” said the High Priest while massaging his shoulders.

Niang-Niang pouted her lips as she continued.

“Honestly, why did Aleister have to thoughtlessly destroy our hidden world? Maybe we really should’ve killed him.”

Novel itself literally spelling out its illusions made real.

In a way, this was a completely different direction from the illusion-breaking boy’s right hand.

It was a completed method that gave physical form to illusions and sent them out into the world

NeloAngelo · Aug 10, 2022

Top59 said:
Well I calculate it with a low estimate while I was having breakfast XD

Anyway, I was thinking of doing a better calculation here along with the calculation on the statement that Accelerator calculated the movement of all the air particles in Academy City when he made the plasma storm.
But it will be when I have more free time.

Quantum computers have the ability to do several calculations at the same time and not one by one, although it is still quite large, now in the event that a human gets to do that amount of calculations to give an example...

It would be something absurdly big, Taking only the examples from the reddit thread.

It's between 2 e+30 xFTL to 4.4e+42 xFTL

“What’s with you? What’s that thing called? Um…Tree Diagram, was it? Hah, are you the kind of person that can’t stand it when a machine beats a human at chess?”
Simply put, Tree Diagram was the world’s smartest super computer. It was the ultimate simulator created under the pretext of being a perfect weather forecaster.
Weather forecasting may sound familiar, but that was a field where things could only be forecasted. They could not be declared as fact. Because the movements of each of the air particles that created “weather” were incredibly complex and intertwined with the butterfly effect and chaos theory, one could say that there was an 80% chance of rain the next day, but one could not say that it would definitely rain at 9:10:00 AM. That started to enter into the realm of quantum mechanics.
However, Tree Diagram had moved weather forecasting to weather predicting.
It did not do anything complicated. Basically, if it could perfectly predict the movements of every particle in the air around the world, there was only one answer it could come up with.
Tree Diagram had ridiculous enough specs to do that, but some people theorized that its use for weather forecasting was just a front and it actually had some other true use.
Incidentally, there was one irregular aspect of Tree Diagram’s weather forecasts.
It calculated the weather forecast for an entire month all at once.
There was no real problem with that because it was still accurate, but it still seemed like unnecessary effort. After all, next month’s weather was much, much more likely to be off than tomorrow’s weather. If the goal was accurate weather forecasts, it would be better to redo the calculations each day.
Yet the Tree Diagram used the more difficult method.
It was rumored that the leftover time was used for research simulations.
Drug reactions, physiological reactions, electrical reactions, and all sorts of other things could be calculated by Tree Diagram and a couple of tests could confirm the answer given. Being able to create a new drug like that almost sounded crazy. According to the rumor, there were researchers that did not know how to use a test tube and who did not like touching lab rats.
A super computer with that much power had plenty of enemies. Human supremacists who hated machines could try to blow it up in a terrorist attack at any time and AI supremacists who hated people might try to sneak into the storage area for Tree Diagram to steal the technology.
In order to protect it from external enemies, Tree Diagram was currently kept in a place where human hands could not reach it.
Basically, the satellite launched by Academy City was Tree Diagram.
The fact that Academy City could privately use the kind of rocket technology that was usually only allowed by national agencies showed just how much influence Academy City had in the world.
(Well, the fact they allowed it also shows how valuable it was.)
Kamijou stared blankly up at the evening sky. Tree Diagram was orbiting outside the atmosphere even then and it was possible it would continue calculating even if the world ended.
“It’s a steel brain watching down on mankind from above, but it can’t turn on us or anything. This isn’t some cheap SF movie. It’s just like a bank ATM. It operates according to the buttons you press.”

Well, I am going to seriously try to calculate the calculation capacity of the Tree Diagram.
According to the quote and the manga, the Tree Diagram can calculate the entire month’s movement of each air particle on the planet once a month.
It is not clear how long it takes, but it is known that it is less than a day since it repeats the process daily and sends hundreds of reports per day, so it also does other calculations but I have no way of calculating them.

So for the low end I will use one day of time frame and for the high end I will use one hundredth of a day.

So there are about 1.04 × 10^44 molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Last Word

Deep breath Q: Is it true that every time we take a breath of air or swallow a mouthful of water, we consume some of the atoms breathed or swallowed by Leonardo da Vinci (as I read in a children's science book in 1960)? A: We do indeed breathe in a considerable number of molecules …

www.newscientist.com

Now the number of air particles on the planet is 1.04e+44.

Documentation – Arm Developer

developer.arm.com

Now I need to know how many floating point operations it takes to measure the motion of a particle.
According to this page, we could use this formula

Particle Motion

Did you know that motion is relative? It's true! For instance... By stating that a vehicle is moving at 60 miles per hour, we are really referring to the

calcworkshop.com

So need about of ~40 floating points operations to calc of the movement of one particle.

40*1.04e+44= 41.6e+44 floating points
1 day= 86400segs
1 day/100= 864 segs

Low End Tree Diagram Flops: 41.6e+44/86400= 4.8148148e+40 flops

High End Tree Diagram Flops: 41.6e+44/864= 4.8148148e+42 flops

Results:
Low End Tree Diagram Flops: 48 duodecillions flops

High End Tree Diagram Flops: 4.8 Tredecillions flops

To be honest, the Tree Diagram being a computer, I doubt it can be scaled to a character without a direct statement but maybe it's a good feat for things related to hacking

NeloAngelo · Aug 11, 2022

Well, this may be the craziest feat in Accelerator's reactions, so I would understand if a discussion arises, especially since it is a feat from the first volumes and that no one calculated it to date.

Accelerator created a plasma storm, move all air in the city and compress in a point.

The relevant thing about this is that in OT3 it is clarified that Accelerator in 10 seconds calculated all the airflow, both the new one caused by it and the natural flow

With a roar of wind, the sphere of plasma floating above lost its form.

“Wha-…?”

Accelerator looked up. That plasma had been created from all the wind flowing through the city being condensed into one point. The flow of that wind had clearly shaken for an instant. That had caused an error in the compression ratio which caused the plasma to be shaken as well.

Accelerator thought he might have made an error in his calculations of the wind, so he rebuilt those new equations. Unlike simple reflection, he had to calculate both, the vector before alteration and the vector after alteration which was a pain in the ass.

But Accelerator managed to perfectly revise that huge set of equations in less than 10 seconds. His brain had developed to the point that something of that level was no problem. In Academy City, power development was part of the teaching method, so Academy City’s strongest espers were also Academy City’s greatest honor students.

But the movement of the wind flowing through the city suddenly changed as if escaping from the supposedly perfect equations he had built up in his head. It was not a mere coincidence. It was as if the wind itself had a will and was slipping through the gaps of his equations.

The mass of compressed air above his head scattered and the plasma disappeared as if it were dissolving into the air.

(What? What the fuck happened!? There was no mistake in my equations. Those irregular eel-like movements were clearly not natural movements of the air!)

He wondered if he had gotten really unlucky and a actual wind user was using his power somewhere in the city, but that did not make sense as the irregular flow of the wind covered the entire city. If there was a wind user with the processing power needed to outdo Accelerator’s ability and equations, that person would definitely be designated a Level 5.

As I know that it is tedious for some to read all that, I leave only the relevant part here

But Accelerator managed to perfectly revise that huge set of equations in less than 10 seconds.

Accelerator thought he might have made an error in his calculations of the wind, so he rebuilt those new equations. Unlike simple reflection, he had to calculate both, the vector before alteration and the vector after alteration which was a pain in the ass.

In OT 5 it is clarified that Accelerator calculated the movement of each air particle in the city when he made that attack.

In Academy City, where the school curriculum included esper development, the strongest esper in Academy City also had the strongest brain. Having accurately calculated all the air particle flow in the entire city before, Accelerator used all his thoughts to find a way to solve this.

Here I already have the radius of the city

Top59 said:
Well the AC is a circle, so is like 15.25 km of radius.

Now I need to know how high in the atmosphere it was controlled.

Seeing that in the Railgun manga storm clouds are seen.

Apparently those seem to be Nimbostratus clouds.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimbostratus_cloud
Those can be between 500 to 5000 meters high, for conservative data management purposes, I will use only 500 meters high.

Altitude
500-5,500 m

With these data I calculate the volume of the air.
https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/cylinder-volume
Air Volume= 365308320750.24 m³
Air density= 1.225 kg/m³

Air mass= 365308320750.24 m³ * 1.225 kg/m³
Air mass= 4.47502693e+11kg
Air mass= 4.47502693e+14 g

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15020308-500-the-last-word/

the mass of 1 mole of air will be about 28.8 grams.

Air mass in mole= 4.47502693e+14 / 28.8
Air mass in mole= 1.5538288e+13 mol

One mole of any substance contains about 6 × 10^23 molecules.

Air molecules= 1.5538288e+13 * 6e+23
Air molecules= 9.3229728e+36 molecules

Accelerator calc that in 10 seconds

But Accelerator managed to perfectly revise that huge set of equations in less than 10 seconds.

It is impossible for me to know what formulas the albino used since he also manipulated the air but at least need a calc to any particle.

Accelerator calc speed= 9.3229728e+36 calc/ 10 s

Accelerator calc speed= 9.3229728e+35 calc/s

In the case of this can be applied to his reactions, Accelerator or at least his field reacts within 1.0726192e-36 seconds, that is even much less of a yoctosecond.

Hypothetically with that it would react to things moving at 3.1 octillion times the speed of light at 1 meter away.

And maybe it contradicts when he hacked Last Order's mind, which would still be FTL but not as high level
https://www.fanverse.org/threads/toaru-feats-calculation.1231745/post-64444901
But on the other hand it is not even 1% of the calculation capacity of the Tree Diagram.