Toaru Majutsu no Index

Part 1

"You Aquarii born between January 20th and February 18th have the greatest luck in love, work, and money! No matter how incredibly improbable things may get, only good things will happen, so how about you go play the lottery!? But no matter how popular you may be, don’t try dating three or four girls at the same time?."

“...Y’know, I knew it would be something like this, but still.”

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

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?”

He had always felt that horoscopes given on TV like weather forecasts tended to be just that, forecasts, but he was unable to laugh it off when it was that false.

“…I really do get it. But I can’t fully grasp it without speaking to myself.”

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.

But he had no intention of just lazing around because of bad luck.

Kamijou did not rely on luck. In other words, he had a lot of drive.

“…Now then. The immediate problems are my card and the fridge.”

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.

As he changed out of the T-shirt he wore instead of pajamas and into his summer uniform, Kamijou considered stopping by a convenience store on the way to school. Living up to his position as an idiotic student, Kamijou had pointlessly stayed up all night as summer break approached, so a grinding pain was running through his sleep-deprived mind. However, he forced himself to think positively.

Well, I guess I’m getting off easy if a single week will wrap up everything I missed in the four months’ worth of class I skipped this term, Kamijou thought.

His mood rebounded to the extent that he suddenly muttered, “The weather sure is nice. Maybe I should air out my futon.”

Kamijou then opened the screen door to the balcony, where he expected the futon to be nice and fluffy once he got back from his supplementary lessons.

But on that seventh floor balcony, the wall of the neighboring building was less than two meters away.

“The sky is so blue, but my future is pitch black?”

His spirits dropped sharply. Forcing himself to say it cheerfully only had the opposite effect.

Having no one around to act as the straight man only tormented him with a feeling of loneliness and he used both hands to grab the futon on his bed.

All else fail, I at least have to get this nice and fluffy, he thought.

While thinking, he felt something soft squish under his foot and looked down to find yakisoba bread still in its plastic wrapping. It had been in the aforementioned ruined refrigerator, so it had surely gone bad.

“…I just hope it doesn’t suddenly start raining this evening.” 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.

Her age was about 14 or 15. She looked about a year or two younger than Kamijou. She must have been foreign because her skin was pure white and her hair was as well... No, silver. Her hair was rather long, so it completely covered her upside down head, hiding her face from view. Kamijou guessed it must go down to her waist normally.

Her clothes...

“Wah, it’s a real sister… The nun kind, not the sibling kind.”

Was habit the term for what she wore? It was that outfit you expected to see on a nun in a church. Her clothes looked a bit like a long dress that reached her ankles, and she wore a one-piece hood over her head that was a bit different from a hat. However, while normal nun habits were jet black, hers was pure white. Was it made of silk? Also, at all the important points of the outfit, embroideries made of golden thread were sown in. Kamijou could not believe just how much the impression given by the same design could change by altering the color scheme. What he saw reminded him of a nouveau riche teacup.

The girl’s lovely fingertips twitched. Her head slowly rose from its hanging position. Her silk-like silver hair smoothly split to either side like a curtain and the girl’s face appeared from between the long, long hair.

Wah, wah…!

The girl’s face was relatively cute. Her white skin and green eyes were a new experience for someone with zero overseas experience like Kamijou, and she somehow seemed like a doll to him.

However, that was not what had left Kamijou so flustered.

She was a foreigner and Kamijou Touma’s English teacher had suggested he take up a lifelong policy of avoiding foreigners. If someone from some strange country suddenly started talking on and on to him, he would likely end up buying a down comforter without even realizing it.

“I…”

The girl’s cute but slightly dried lips slowly moved.

Kamijou thoughtlessly took a step or two back. With a squish, he stepped on the yakisoba bread once more.

“I’m hungry.”

“…”

For an instant, Kamijou thought he was so dim witted that his mind had automatically substituted the foreign language he had heard with Japanese. Similar to how dim elementary school kids would give ridiculous lyrics to songs that they did not know the real lyrics to.

“I’m hungry.”

“…”

“I’m hungry.”

"…”

“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m hungry?”

The silver-haired girl seemed to get a little irate at how Kamijou stood there, frozen.

No. That settles it. This can’t be anything other than Japanese, he thought.

“Ah, umm…” he said as he stared at the girl draped over the balcony railing. “What? Are you trying to say you collapsed from exhaustion or something?”

“You could also say I have collapsed and am about to die.”

“…”

The girl could speak Japanese really well.

“It would be great if you could feed me enough food to fill me up.”

Kamijou looked down at the squished and likely spoiled yakisoba-pan still in its wrapper at his feet. He had no idea what was going on, but knew he would be better off not getting involved. In the hopes of happily sending the girl off to some distant place, he stuck the squished bread up to her mouth. He was sure she would run off once she caught a whiff of the sour smell, so he meant it as something similar to chazuke being offered to a guest one wanted to leave in Kyoto.

“Thank you. And it’s time to eat.”

Her mouth engulfed it along with the wrapping, Kamijou’s arm included.

Once again, Kamijou’s day began with a scream and a taste of misfortune.

Part 2

“I suppose I need to start with an introduction.”

“Actually, I would rather you started explaining why you were hanging there.”

“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.”

“Hello? Hello? Just what kind of alien am I talking to?”

Kamijou did not understand so he dug his finger inside his ear, and Index chewed on her thumbnail. Was that a habit of hers?

Kamijou wondered why they were politely sat there facing each other from across a glass table like it was a marriage interview.

If he did not leave soon, he would be late for his supplementary lessons, but he could hardly leave this strange person in his room. To make matters worse, the mysterious silver-haired girl calling herself Index seemed to have taken a liking to the room to the point that she seemed willing to laze about on the floor.

Had Kamijou’s misfortune called her here? He whole-heartedly hoped not.

“Anyways, it would be great if you could feed me enough food to fill me up.”

“Why would I do that!? I don’t want to raise your love meter. I’d rather die than activate some weird flag and end up stuck on the Index route!!”

“Um… is that slang? I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you're saying.”

Typical of a foreigner, she had no knowledge of the Japanese otaku culture.

“But if I leave now, I'll collapse three steps out the door.”

"...Don’t give me that collapsing nonsense.”

“I'll gather my last remaining strength to leave a dying message: a picture of you.”

“Wha-?”

“And, if someone happens to save me, I'll tell them I was imprisoned in this room and tormented to the point of collapse. I'll let them know you forced your cosplaying preferences onto me.”

“Don’t you dare say that! So, you do know a thing or two about otaku culture, don’t you!?”

“?”

She tilted her head to the side like a kitten seeing itself in the mirror for the first time.

He regretted letting her get him agitated, feeling like he alone was somehow horribly cheated.

Okay, let’s do it! Kamijou thought.

He noisily headed toward the kitchen. Only spoiled goods were left in the fridge so it would cost nothing to feed her. The boy figured it would be fine if the food were heated. He dumped everything into a frying pan and made something similar to stir-fried vegetables.

Come to think of it, where did this girl come from? He wondered.

Naturally, there were people out of 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, but 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 or Judgment from different schools would immediately intervene.

But... that zapper of a girl reigned in that thundercloud yesterday. That might have hidden Index from the satellites, he considered.

“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.”

“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...?”

“Yes? Oh, you don’t need to worry about a wound. These clothes also function as a defensive barrier.”

What did she mean by a defensive barrier? Was it a bulletproof vest?

The girl spun around as if to show off new clothes and certainly did not seem injured. Kamijou had to wonder whether she really had been shot. The concept that she was delusional or making it up seemed more realistic.

But...

The fact remained that she had indeed been hanging from his seventh story balcony.

If, hypothetically, everything she was saying were true…

Who shot her?

Kamijou deliberated.

He thought about how determined one would have to be to jump between the rooftops of an eight-story building. He also considered how lucky she was to be caught on his seventh-story balcony and the hidden meaning behind the fact that she collapsed.

She said she was being chased.

His final thoughts wondered the meaning of the smile on Index’s face as she said those words.

He knew not what circumstances Index was in and understood not what the few things she told him had meant. Most likely, he could only understand half of it if Index explained everything from start to finish and would still have no idea how to even begin to understand the latter half.

Nonetheless, one truth remained.

With a tightening in his chest, he finally accepted the fact that she had gotten caught on his seventh-story balcony when one wrong step could have sent her straight to the asphalt below.

“Food.”

Index poked her head from behind Kamijou. Despite her Japanese fluency, she must not have had much experience with chopsticks because she held them in a fist like a spoon while she excitedly stared into the frying pan.

Her eyes were like a kitten’s taken from a cardboard box on a rainy day.

“...Ah...”

Kamijou put the (former) food into the frying pan to make something like (poisonous) stir-fried vegetables. For some reason, the angel in Kamijou, whom usually came along with the devil Kamijou, was writhing horribly at the sight of the starving girl.

“Ahh! I-I know! If you’re really that hungry, how about we go to a proper family restaurant rather than give you this horrible meal made by a man with leftovers!? We can even get it delivered!”

“I can’t wait that long.”

“...Ah ...kh!”

“And it isn’t horrible. You made this food for me without charging anything. It has to be good.” For the first time, she gave a shining nun-like smile.

As pain assaulted Kamijou like his stomach was being wrung like a wet cloth, Index scooped the contents of the frying pan out with her fist-held chopsticks and into her mouth.

Munching.

“See? It’s good.”

“...Oh, is it?”

Chomping.

“It’s nice that you added that sour flavor to me help get my strength back.”

“Geh! It’s sour!?”

Chewing.

“Yeah, but that’s fine. Thanks. You’re like a big brother or something.”

She gave a large grin as she ate with such a pure heart that she had a bean sprout stuck to her cheek.

“...Gh ...Uuwhaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

With the speed of sound, Kamijou grabbed the frying pan while Index looked incredibly displeased. However, Kamijou swore in his heart that he would be the only one to fall down into hell.

“Are you hungry too?”

“...Hah?”

“If not, I’d rather you let me eat the rest.”

As Kamijou watched Index look at him with slightly upturned eyes while she chewed on the end of her chopsticks,

Kamijou received a divine revelation.

God told him to take responsibility and eat it himself.

This had nothing to do with misfortune; he had completely brought it upon himself.

Part 3

Kamijou Touma stuffed his mouth full of the fried garbage and grinned.

“Mhh,” grunted the girl calling herself Index with a look of complaint on her face as she gnawed on a biscuit. The way she held the small biscuit in both hands made her seem a bit like a squirrel.

“Okay, you said you were being chased. Chased by whom?”

Having returned from his Nirvana, Kamijou once again asked about the biggest issue in her story.

He was not about to follow a girl he had met less than 30 minutes ago down to the depths of hell. However, it was already likely too late for nothing itself to happen.

So in the end, I have to go with fox’s words, thought Kamijou, using a personal term for the sake of feigned kindness.

He knew it would likely resolve nothing, but he still desired to comfort himself by feeling that he did something.

“Hmm…” she said with a slightly dry throat. “Now who was it? Maybe it was the Rosicrucians or S.M., also known as Stella Matutina. I think it was a group like that, but I don’t know their name yet. …They aren’t the type to find meaning in names.”

“They…?” Kamijou asked meekly.

Apparently, she was being chased by a group or organization.

“Yes,” said Index surprisingly calmly. “A sorcerer’s society.”

…

…

…

“Hah? Sorcerer? Hah? What!? That’s crazy!!”

“Eh? Huh? W-Was my Japanese weird there? I mean magic. A magic cabal.”

“…” 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 psychic powers like pyro-kinesis and clairvoyance, 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.

“Psychic 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 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.”

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 psychic powers as strange and mysterious because they were ignorant. The fact that those powers could be explained scientifically was common knowledge in that city.

“…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 failed to analyze his power. Consequently, he was labeled Level 0.

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

“…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 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 imagine it’s a book, like a dictionary.”

“Yes. The Book of Eibon, the Lemegeton, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Cultes des Goules, and the Book of the Dead are good examples. The Necronomicon 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.

He began to wonder whether she was 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 involve himself with any longer.

“Believing in psychic powers but not in magic makes no sense,” Index said with a pout. “Are those psychic 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 psychic.

“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 workings 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.

“…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 mutterings 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.

“The 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, 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?

Shut up, idiot, Kamijou thought angrily.

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, he thought with relief.

Kamijou just could not stand it.

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

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 the 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.

The girl froze still with her hands on her hips and her small chest puffed out in pride.

To sum it up, she was completely nude.

Part 4

Apparently, the girl naming herself Index had a habit of biting people when angered.

“Oww… You bit me all over. What are you, a camp mosquito?”

“…”

He received no response.

Index was naked and wrapped in a blanket. She sat with her legs bent back to the sides while attempting, futilely, to return her clothes to their original form by applying safety pins into the pieces of the nun’s habit.

The sound effect 'dohhn' seemed to dominate the room.

It was not that a new Stand user had attacked.

“…Um, princess? This may be presumptuous of me, but I have a button-down shirt and pants you can wear.”

“…”

She stared at him with snake-like eyes.

“…Um, princess?”

What kind of character is this she’s playing? He worriedly thought.

“…What?” she replied when he called out once more.

“I was completely the one at fault there.”

The only response he received was an alarm clock flying at him.

“Ee!” Kamijou shrieked just as a giant pillow was thrown as well.

To make matters ever more ridiculous, a video game system and small radio came went his way as well.

“How can you talk to me so normally after something like that!?”

“Ahh, no! It was quite the life-changing event for this old man as well. But that’s youth for you!”

“You’re making fun of me… Uuuuuuuuhhhhhh!!”

“Okay... I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Don’t bite that rented video like a handkerchief, you idiot!”

Kamijou Touma bowed down to the ground with both his hands straight forward like it was a part of some kind of joke.

Deep down, Kamijou felt like a grip was crushing his heart after having seen a girl naked for the first time.

However, Kamijou Touma was not the type to show it.

…Or so he had thought, but he would have been quite surprised at what he saw had he looked in a mirror.

“Finished.”

While triumphantly blowing air from her nose, Index spread out the pure white nun’s habit that had somehow regained its original form from that hellish do-it-yourself job.

Dozens of safety pins glittered across the nun’s habit.

“…” Sweat.

“Um, are you going to wear that?”

“…” Silence.

“You’re going to wear that iron maiden?”

“…” Tears.

“In Japanese, we call it a bed of needles.”

“…Uuuuuuhhhhhh!!”

“I get it!” Kamijou apologized as he head-butted the floor with all his might.

Meanwhile, Index stared at him like a bullied child and was about to bite through the television’s power cord. Was she a naughty cat?

“I’ll wear it! I’m a nun!!”

Though Kamijou was unsure whether that made sense, Index began to change by squirming inside the blanket wrapped around her, much like a caterpillar. Her head was the only thing visible and was as red as a bomb.

“Ahh, this reminds me of when we had to change at school for swimming.”

“…Why are you looking at me? At least look the other way.”

“What does it matter? Compared to what happened before, just changing isn’t all that arousing.”

“… … …”

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.

The room took an awkward atmosphere like the inside of a silent elevator.

Kamijou’s mind began to flee from reality, but the term “supplementary lessons” floated in.

“Wah! That’s right! I have supplementary lessons!” Kamijou glanced at the clock on his cell phone. “Um… I have to go to school, what are you going to do? If you’re going to stay here, I can give you a key.”

The option of simply kicking her out had disappeared from his mind. Since Index’s nun habit, the Walking Church, had reacted to Imagine Breaker, she clearly had some connection to the supernatural. That meant that not everything she had been telling him was a lie.

It was possible that she had really fallen from the roof because she was chased by magicians. It was possible that she really would have to continue playing a deadly game of tag.

It was possible that wizards from a picture book or something similarly crazy really were running amok in that city of science where established theories of espers and psychics existed.

And, even if those were false, he did not want to just abandon Index.

“…That’s okay. I’ll leave.”

However, Index stood straight up and made a dramatic announcement. She then slipped past Kamijou’s side like a ghost and showed no sign of noticing that her hood fell. But, if he tried to pick it up, it would likely fall to pieces.

“U-umm…”

“Hm? No, it’s not that.” Index turned around. “If I stay, they’ll likely come here. You don’t want your room blown up, do you?”

That smoothly delivered response left him speechless.

As Index slowly exited the front door, Kamijou frantically ran after her. He wanted to do something, so he checked his wallet and found he had only 320 yen left. He ran after Index to give her what little he had, but his small toe struck the door frame at the speed of sound as he tried to exit the front door.

“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 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.

“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?”

She smiled a heartbreaking smile that left Kamijou speechless for an instant. Index had used kind words to implicitly say, “Do not come with me.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not alone. If I can escape to the church, they will shelter me.”

“…Hmm. So where is this church?”

“In London.”

“That’s a long ways away! How far do you planning to run!?”

“Hm? Oh, don’t worry. I think there are a few branches in Japan,” She replied as her nun’s habit, which looked like the result of a bullied wife, fluttered.

“A church, hm? There might be one in the city.”

The term “church” brought to mind a giant wedding hall, but the examples in Japan were pretty shabby. First of all, the culture had little to do with Christianity. Also, a country with frequent earthquakes lacked historical buildings. The churches that Kamijou had seen out of train windows had all been small prefabricated buildings with crosses on top. He had a feeling he was mistaken to think that those were nouveau riche churches, though.

“Oh, but it can’t just be any church. It has to be the British rendition I belong to.”

“?”

“Um, there are any kinds of Christianity,” said Index with a bitter smile. “First, there is the distinction between the old style Catholics and the new style Protestants. Also, while I belong to the Catholics, there are various versions of them as well. For example: the Roman Catholic Church centered in the Vatican, the Russian Orthodox Church with its headquarters in Russia, and the Anglican Church with its core at St. George’s Cathedral.”

“…What happens if you accidentally go to the wrong church?”

“They would turn me away,” said Index with the same bitter smile. “The Russian Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church primarily exist within their respective countries. Anglican churches are rare in Japan.”

“…”

Things were looking gloomy.

Was it possible Index had tried going to church after church before she collapsed from hunger? How had she felt as she fled and fled while being turned away at each church she went to?

“Don’t worry. I just have to keep at it until I find a British church.”

“…”

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.”

“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 look at 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 analyzed.

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

Part 5

“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 salary man teacher.

“…Mhh. I see. Komoe-chan finds you so cute she just can’t help herself, Kami-yan,” said the blue-haired, ear-pierced 1, male, class representative who was sitting next to Kamijou.

“…Do you sense malice coming from that teacher’s back as she enjoyably stretches up to reach the blackboard?”

“What? What’s wrong with having such a cute teacher scold you for failing a quiz? Getting physically abused by a little kid like that gets you a ton of experience points, Kami-yan.”

“I knew you were a lolicon, but you’re a masochist, too!? You really are hopeless!!”

“Ah hah! It’s not that I like lolis! It’s that I also like lolis!!”

Kamijou almost shouted out “You’re omnivorous!?”, but he was interrupted.

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

Just as one would expect, Columbus’s 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.

Kamijou and Aogami Pierce stared at Tsukuyomi Komoe while forgetting to breathe.

“Okay?”

Her smile was quite frightening.

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 salary man 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.

“…Hey, Kami-yan.”

“What?’

“Would it turn you on to get lectured by Komoe-sensei?”

“I’m not you! Just shut up already, idiot! If we have to play with a raw egg even though we don’t have Psychokinesis, we’ll be spending our entire summer break here! If you get it, shut that fake Kansai dialect mouth of yours!”

“Fake… D-D-D-D-D-Don’t call it fake! I’m really from Osaka!”

“Shut up. I know you’re from a rice region. I’m in a bad mood, so don’t make me play the straight man right now.”

“I-I-I’m not from a rice region! Ah. A-ahhh! I sure do love takoyaki.”

“Stop trying to force yourself into the Kansai role! Are you going to bring takoyaki for lunch just to fill this role?”

“What are you talking about? It’s not like someone from Osaka eats only takoyaki, right?”

“…”

“Right? I think that’s right…no, wait. But… but yeah… but huh? Which is it?”

“You’re falling out of character, Mr. Fake Kansai,” said Kamijou before sighing and looking out the window.

He felt like he should be by Index’s side rather than dealing with that pointless supplementary lesson.

The Walking Church nun’s habit she wore had indeed reacted to Kamijou’s right hand, although, “reacted” was perhaps an understatement. But, that did not mean he had to believe. Most likely, the majority of what Index had said was a lie, and even if she were not, she may have just mistaken some natural phenomenon as the occult.

Even so…

I guess the fish that gets away always seems huge, he pondered.

Kamijou sighed again. If the alternative was being stuck at a desk in that sauna-like classroom with no air conditioning, charging into a fantasy of swords and magic may have been better. And he even had a cute, though difficult to say beautiful, heroine to go with it.

“…”

Kamijou recalled the hood Index had forgotten in his room.

In the end, he had not returned it. He did not see it as having been unable to return it. Even if Index had disappeared, he would likely have found her if he had seriously started looking for her. And even if he had not, he could still go out and run around the city looking for her with the hood in one hand.

When he thought about it, he realized he had wanted some kind of connection. He had felt that she might come back to get it someday.

Because, that white girl had shown him such a perfect smile…

He felt like she would disappear like an illusion if he did not leave some kind of connection.

He was afraid.

…Oh, so that’s it, he concluded.

After going through those somewhat poetic thoughts, Kamijou finally realized something. When it came down to it, he did not hate the girl who was caught on his balcony. He had liked her enough that the thought of never seeing her again left him with a slight twinge of regret.

“…Ah, damn it.”

He clicked his tongue. With how heavily she weighed on his mind, he wished he had stopped her from leaving.

Come to think of it, what was it with those 103,000 grimoires that she mentioned?

Index had said that the group, a magic cabal (something like a corporation?), after her seemed to be pursuing her because they wanted those 103,000 grimoires. And apparently, Index had been fleeing with those 103,000 grimoires in her possession.

It was neither a key nor a map to the place where all those books were stored.

When Kamijou had asked where all those books were, she had simply said, “Right here.” However, as far as Kamijou could see, she owned not a single book. Even if she did, Kamijou’s room was not large enough to house 100,000 books.

“…What was that all about?”

Kamijou tilted his head to the side in puzzlement. Since Index’s Walking Church had reacted to Imagine Breaker, her words were not complete delusion. However…

“Sensei? Kamijou-kun’s staring out the window to look at the girl’s tennis team’s fluttery skirts.

Aogami Pierce’s forced Kansai dialect sent Kamijou’s focus in an about-face to the classroom.

“…”

Komoe-sensei fell silent.

She had seemed to go through shock because 'that' Kamijou Touma-kun had not been focused on the lesson. She had the look of a 12 year old who had just found out the truth about Santa Claus.

Just as that thought reached his mind, Kamijou Touma was pierced by the hostile gazes of his classmates who wished to protect the human rights of that “child”.

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.

“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 Biri2 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 was 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.

“…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!!”

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 would strike as a surprise for anyone to see one sitting on the floor of a train messing around with their cell phone like any other person.

“So what do you want, Biri Biri? Actually, why are you wearing your uniform during summer break? Do you have supplementary lessons?”

“Gh… Sh-Shut up.”

“Were you worried about the class bunny?”

“I told you to stop with the animal stuff! Also, today I’m going to make you twitch like frog legs with electrodes attached! So, get your will and inheritance in order!”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not!?”

“Because, I’m not in charge of my class’ pet.”

“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 Railgun with nothing but her own body, smiled such that her canines were bared like a beast’s.

“Hmph. How was that? Did that change your cowardly mind? …Mgh!”

In a frantic attempt to cover her mouth, Kamijou’s hand covered Misaka Mikoto’s entire composed face. "Sh-Shut up." he whispered nearly inaudibly. "Please just shut your mouth! Everyone’s cell phones were fried and they’re looking none too pleased!! If they find out it was us, they’ll make us pay, and I have no idea how much that cable broadcast costs!!"

Due to his recent encounter with that silver-haired nun girl, Kamijou prayed with all his might to the God whom Kamijou normally only thought of around Christmas.

His prayers must have made their way to heaven because no one approached Kamijou and Mikoto.

Thank goodness, he said with lessening apprehension.

Kamijou gave a sigh of relief… as he continued to suffocate Mikoto.

“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.

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, he unhappily thought. 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 (approx. $15000).

“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 was a match for Kamijou Touma.

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

“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 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.

What was all that magician nonsense, anyway? Kamijou wondered.

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, he considered.

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 so much of it.

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

Part 6

Those days, one could not buy even a large gyuudon with only 320 yen.

“… … …Regular, hm?”

The girls who happily ate a bento the size of a light novel would likely not understand, but a sweating, growing boy saw the regular size as nothing more than a snack.

After driving off the Biri Biri girl, Kamijou went to a gyuudon restaurant to eat his “snack”. With only 30 yen remaining (tax included), he approached his dorm building with the sun having already set.

The place seemed deserted.

It was the first day of summer break and so most people were presumably out enjoying themselves.

The building looked like that of stereotypical one-room apartment housing. Pathways along one wall of the rectangular building had doors lined up. It being a male dorm, the metal railing lacked plastic sheets to prevent peering up at girls’ skirts.

The front doors, and the balconies on the opposite sides of them, were built on the sides of the building going inwards as seen from the road. In other words, they were in the gaps between buildings.

The entrance to the building was auto-locking, but the distance between buildings was only two meters. One could easily sneak in by jumping from roof to roof as Index had that morning.

Kamijou went through the auto-locking entrance, passed by the storage room known as the dorm manager’s room and got on the elevator. It was out of enjoyable spite that the elevator was dirtier and more cramped than the a factory elevator for bringing goods in, but the “R” button, indicating the roof, was sealed via a small metal plate in order to prevent Romeos and Juliets from heading up to the rooftop night after night.

With a microwave oven-like ding, the elevator stopped at the seventh floor.

Kamijou pushed aside the door that clanked as it opened and exited into the passageway. He was on the seventh floor, but there was no wind and seemed even hotter and stuffier than before because of the neighboring building being so close.

“Hm?”

Kamijou finally realized something. Down the straight passageway and right in front of his door, three cleaning robots were gathered. Seeing three of them was rare. For one thing, he was nearly sure only five were ever deployed for that dorm.

From the way they were trembling and moving back and forth, they seemed to be cleaning up quite the horrible mess. For an unknown reason, Kamijou felt an intense feeling of impending misfortune.

Drum robots had enough power to cleanly rip up gum stuck to the floor. So, what was giving three of them such trouble?

Kamijou shuddered at the thought that his neighbor Tsuchimikado Motoharu might have gotten drunk while acting like a delinquent in order to lose his virginity and had ended up vomiting in tremendous quantity, all the while using Kamijou’s door instead of a telephone pole.

“What happened…?”

People had an unfortunate tendency to want to see horrible things.

After taking a few more subconscious steps forward, he finally saw it.

The mysterious girl named Index had collapsed from hunger.

“… … …Ahh.”

She was not entirely visible because of the robots, but someone wearing a white nun’s habit covered in glittering safety pins was clearly collapsed face down.

Though the three drums were continuously ramming into her, Index was not moving. It made her seem all the more pitiful, like if she were being pecked at by city crows. For one, the cleaning robots were made to avoid people and other obstacles. Why did the machines fail to register her as human?

“…I guess this is misfortune, too.”

Had Kamijou Touma seen his face in a mirror at the time, he would have been surprised to see a smile on his face. Deep down he was worried. Perhaps he did not believe her about the magicians, but it was possible some cult was chasing the girl.

He was glad to see her in her usual, starved state.

And even ignoring those worries, he was simply glad to see her again.

Kamijou then remembered the one thing she had forgotten: the pure white hood he had not given back to her. He found it strange that he saw that hood like some kind of charm.

“Hey! What are you doing here?”

He called out to her and ran over.

Why does just going over there make me feel like an elementary school kid who can’t sleep the night before a trip? Why does each step I take forward make me feel like I’m headed to the store on the release date of a major RPG? Such were his racing thoughts.

Index had yet to notice him.

Kamijou Touma forced down a smile at how “Index-like” that was.

And then, he finally noticed that Index was lying in a pool of blood.

“…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.

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 knuckle, 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 for complete, he had a barcode-like tattoo underneath his right eye.

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

“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 habits.

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!!”

Index’s unmoving back irritated him for some odd reason.

Before, Index had told Kamijou that his misfortune was due to his right hand.

Apparently, his right hand was subconsciously negating even the faint supernatural powers that were things like the divine protection of God and the red string of fate.

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

No. Those kinds of excuses don’t matter, he considered

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.

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 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.” 𝘧r𝑒𝘦𝒘𝘦𝙗ｎovel.𝐜o𝒎

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 perfect 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.” 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, the Louvre, the Vatican Library, the Pataliputra ruins, Chateau de Compiègne, Mont Saint-Michel Monastery, 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 it.

He could not believe that these grimoires existed or that she had a perfect memory.

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

“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?”

“…” fre𝙚𝓌𝒆𝚋noѵel.c𝚘m

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. The 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.

“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 expect 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.

“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 name of bloodshed, 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).”

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.

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.

“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 break, 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 a 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 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 had Index been 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.

“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 tornado3 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.

“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!

“…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 be 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.

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 being Magic Gods.

Not the god of the demon plane4,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?

“!!”

To hide the shuddering 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?

“… … …”

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

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

“M T W O T F F T O. (One of the five great elements from which the world is constructed.) I I G O I I O F. (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’s. 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.

“I I B O L A I I A O E. (It is a light of blessing that raises life and a light of judgment that punishes evil.) I I M H A I I B O D. (It is overflowing with calm blessings and with freezing misfortune that destroys cold darkness.) I I N F I I M S. (Its name is fire and its role is the sword.) I C R M M B G P! (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 whose meaning meant “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.

“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.

“…?”

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.

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.

“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, 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.

“With my introduction complete, I will return to my explanation of rune 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 depart.

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.

“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!”

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!! He desperately thought.

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

Part 7

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.”

“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”?

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 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 digressed.

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.

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.

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 look.

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 psychics that Kamijou knew.

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 police,” Kamijou muttered.

Why had he not thought of it before? Academy City’s police 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 knew not 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.”

He knew what he had to do, so now, he just needed to try it.

Even if he failed, it was still much better than doing nothing.

A metal railing warped and glowing orange fell down and Kamijou frantically rolled out of the way.

He may have made up his mind, but he still had to do something about that Innocentius before he could save Index. The real problem was the tens of thousands of runes. But could he really tear off all of those scraps of paper taped to the building?

“…Y’know, I’m surprised the fire alarm hasn’t gone off with all of this going on.”

It had just been an offhand comment, but Kamijou Touma froze in place once he said it. The fire alarm?

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’s 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? Stiyl thought with irritation.

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 break 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.

What? What happened to Innocentius? Stiyl questioned.

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 at 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.

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!”

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 were feeble squirms.

“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.

“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.

Notes

1. "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.

2. Biri Biri is Japanese onomatopoeia for an electric shock.

3. Only notable due to the dragon imagery commonly associated with Imagine Breaker, but the Japanese word for tornado literally means "winding dragon".

4. Magic god is Majin(魔神) which could also mean demon god