Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume9 Chapter1

==Chapter 1: Determine Your Stance – Right_or_Wicked.==

===Part 1===

He was conscious, but he couldn’t see anything.

He felt like he was floating in lukewarm water.

Eventually, he realized he couldn’t even feel pain.

The first thing to stimulate ''Kamijou Touma''’s mind was his sense of hearing.

“…not enough…? …renaline…another…milli…”

Kamijou listened dispassionately.

Even though something was being injected into his body.

Or maybe he was in such a dire situation even his ordinary danger sense wasn’t functioning.

What was happening to him?

Only once that tiny question occurred to him did something change.

He felt pain. The scattered noise rushed in toward the center of his chest.

He experienced a sensory explosion.

He was assaulted by reality.

“Countershock!! That’s three times. Just wake up already!!”

Kamijou Touma felt excruciating pain in the center of his chest while his entire spine arched.

(Gah…hah?)

His mouth flapped, but he couldn’t bring in enough oxygen.

Various colors of light danced before his widened eyes before finally forming a coherent picture. He was inundated by the unnaturally sterile white of the ceiling and the distinctive scent of disinfectant. The overwhelming amount of information turned his stomach inside out and he just about vomited.

A hard plastic mask covered his mouth and nose.

If he threw up in the mask, it would get all over his face. Even as he struggled to breathe, he gathered every last ounce of strength to suppress the nausea.

Tears formed in the corners of his eyes, but only then did he realize something.

…Had he recovered enough to be concerned about appearances?

“Ugh.”

He heard the monotone hum of machinery.

And not just one. He was surrounded it.

Kamijou Touma regained consciousness all at once.

“''Ah!! Anna!? What happened to Anna Sprengel''!!??”

He sprang up in bed and tried to grab at anyone within reach, but he felt a powerful tug on his entire body. This wasn’t someone restraining him. The IV, the blood transfusion tube, the ECG cords, and more were all connected to his body. Some warning sounds played when he fell back into the bed, so some of the needles or electrodes must have come off.

The pain had finally caught up with him, but that didn’t matter to him.

A young nurse rushed in and then froze in shock. She had probably meant to reattach the dislodged IV needle…but instead she stared pale-faced at Kamijou, her hands wandering hesitantly in the air. He didn’t know what was wrong with his body, but he really wished that medical expert wouldn’t appear so pained when looking at a patient. It terrified him.

At that point, Kamijou frowned.

A nurse? A medical expert???

“Good grief. Ordinarily, I would expect you to start by asking where you are or what happened to you.”

He heard a familiar voice.

It was the frog-faced doctor. Except he wasn’t actually present. His voice came from a tablet fixed to an arm resembling a floor lamp.

Hold on.

Did that mean the super delicate lifesaving cardiopulmonary resuscitation had been done remotely!?

“I really would prefer to meet with you in person when you are in my hospital, but I am unfortunately a little busy at the moment. The new year is supposed to be a joyous occasion, but I have far too many emergency patients. Or maybe the new year itself is to blame. Regardless, I hope you don’t mind a remote interview.”

“So I’m in the hospital.”

The usual one at that.

Did that mean he had been transported from District 12 on the far east of the city to District 7 near the center?

After muttering the realization to himself, Kamijou took a look around. Instead of his ''usual'' hospital room, he appeared to be in an ICU partitioned by transparent walls. That must have meant his condition was a lot less predictable than in the past.

Something already felt off.

His condition was unpredictable? Why had he been left even that well off?

How had he managed to reach the hospital in that situation? Christian Rosencreutz had already killed Alice and that mystery magician woman. Both about as gruesomely as possible: the former with her head crushed and the latter with her torso bisected.

The man’s wicked voice replayed in the back of Kamijou’s mind.

''“Now, I believe it’s time to slaughter those Transcendents who got a little too interested in ''divine roleplay''.”

Christian Rosencreutz had said he would kill the Transcendents for his own game. He was spreading true death. And to people other than Kamijou.

''“Do you need a reason to kill time? This is their punishment for bringing this old man into such a dull and boring world. They can soothe this old man’s ennui with their worthless lives. How else can you make up for what you have done, Transcendents?”

Kamijou couldn’t imagine any reason he alone would have survived being there in that moment.

His thoughts turned toward Witch Goddess Aradia, but…

“It wasn’t me.”

She rejected the idea herself while leaning against the wall nearby.

And she was definitely one of the targets in CRC’s Transcendent hunting game.

“I was too preoccupied to save you.”

Then who else could it have been?

Kamijou could only think of one person who he was pretty sure had been there.

“Was it ''Aleister''?”

But he didn’t see the woman in the beige habit here. The frog-faced doctor only shrugged. Perhaps no one in the world knew all the details. Had Aleister gone off to do his own thing after escaping Rosencreutz and delivering Kamijou and the others to the District 7 hospital?

“As much as that human insists he doesn’t believe in the goodness of humanity, he can’t bring himself to ignore a tragedy playing out before his eyes,” said the frog-faced doctor. “I don’t know what happened this time, but I doubt he could turn his back on the people collapsed before him.”

People. Plural.

“So is Anna in this hospital too!? Where is she!?”

“Right there, actually.”

On the flat LCD screen, the frog-faced doctor really did point right next to Kamijou.

Kamijou Touma whipped his head around so fast he nearly tore it from his neck.

He was speechless.

His voice refused to come.

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

The ICU, the intensive care unit, was a special space for a hospital’s patients who were in an especially iffy condition, requiring a doctor’s constant attention. No one would end up there if they went to the hospital because they were feverish after catching a cold or their cavity hurt.

It was unusual for an ordinary high schooler to be there at all and it was news to Kamijou that patients in the same ICU had their priority determined by triage.

There she was right on the other side of the thick glass – no, the clear plastic wall.

He saw so much machinery. A hard plastic oxygen mask covered her lower face, countless LEDs blinked, LCD monitors of all sizes surrounded her, tubes carried red and yellow liquids, and all the power cords looked like a bundle of wet hair. The pumps repeating their mechanical expansion and contraction were the most worrying. Pumps. Plural. There were a lot of them.

What was that?

Had she always been so small?

Was that really the same Anna Sprengel who had sneered as she made a mess of the science and magic sides of the world? Her presence, her warmth, her humanity were all absent. If someone told him that thing buried within all the machinery was in fact beautiful taxidermy, he might have believed it.

“Medically speaking, she is not brain dead. Which is why she is still hooked up to all that equipment.”

The frog-faced doctor looked through the monitor to view the same thing as Kamijou.

And he had to know the truth of the matter in much more detail than the ignorant boy.

“Simply put, she would not be breathing and her heart would not be beating without that equipment. Fortunately, the legal system says, once life-support equipment is in use, it can’t be removed without consent from the patient or their family.”

“…”

“Physically speaking, you might as well say she is dead. What happened to her? She has no obvious external wounds and no signs of electric shock or poison either.”

It was the Shrink Drink.

That twisted spiritual item was imbued with a portion of Alice Anotherbible’s power and designed specifically to rob a Transcendent of their power and kill them.

After all this, was that weapon going to carry out its purpose?

(Because Alice…is gone.)

Kamijou recalled that tiny corpse lying on the cold asphalt with its head entirely missing as if it had been crushed by a tremendous force.

So much had happened at once that he still hadn’t sorted through all his feelings.

He had seen the result for himself, but he still found it hard to believe Alice of all people had lost.

(But even with Alice gone, her power remains.)

Anna Sprengel’s heart and lungs had ceased functioning. That power came from Alice Anotherbible, who was now dead, yet Anna had not resumed breathing, so did that mean that power had been cut free of Alice herself and stored inside the weapon? Like charging a battery from a power outlet?

Alice was no more.

Only Alice could save Anna.

The situation spiraled out of control from there. There was no silver lining or last laugh to be found. That one loss had started a chain reaction that would mean losing everything.

Was it unstoppable? Was there no hope left in this world?

“Sorry, but you don’t have time to mope,” said Aradia, leaning against the cold wall. “Christian Rosencreutz is still out there. Whatever choice you make, he will reach this hospital eventually.”

“…”

Christian Rosencreutz had casually stated he would kill all of the Transcendents.

That meant Aradia, the Bologna Succubus, and even Anna Sprengel who couldn’t even breathe for herself.

And he didn’t seem like the type to spare Kamijou just because he wasn’t a Transcendent.

He wasn’t so reasonable a monster. He was the kind of extreme beast who would devour everything he laid eyes on and bask in the joy of it.

===Part 2===

Aleister Crowley did not fly through the sky or walk through walls.

After delivering a certain boy to relative safety, that human left his old friend, the frog-faced doctor.

But he did not even make it all the way out of the hospital.

It hadn’t helped that there happened to be no one in the hallway.

“Ahhhh.”

Aleister was at his limit.

He staggered, leaned his side against the wall, and screamed.

Now that he had no task to preoccupy himself, he slid down the wall to the floor.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Why did all the decent people have to die?

Why was it only the people like him who stubbornly survived?

Anna Kingsford. He thought he had finally found a benevolent expert even a contrarian like him could honestly respect. Maybe it was unnatural that she could speak thanks to the modifications he made to her preserved remains, but that didn’t lessen the agony of losing her.

There was one thing Human Aleister simply could not get his hands on.

As the world’s greatest villain, he had snatched up everything he could want – fame, fortune, scholarship – but he had never been blessed with a smart and kind woman.



The Battle of Blythe Road had been a war Aleister began due to the distorted fate of his wife Rose and his daughter Lilith.



When he had resided in the Windowless Building as Academy City’s Board Chairman, he had used Mina Mathers as the navigator for his plan. She was the wife of his sworn enemy Mathers. This may have been the reason why he had chosen such an awkward person for that role.



And now it had happened again.



Why?

Why?

Why?

He could mourn all he wanted, it would not change what had happened. CRC – Christian Rosencreutz. The stench of death lingering on that man was real. Aleister had singlehandedly conquered the Battle of Blythe Road, known as the greatest conflict in modern Western magic, so he could tell.

That man made use of death in the same way as Mathers and Westcott.

And at a higher level.

Aleister couldn’t even bring himself to choose between fighting or running. Ordinarily, he would have chosen to fight and fight hard. That he was hesitating at all was like accepting how fragile his heart was. He had no freedom here. He had to accept that he was a loser – that he was bound by fear.

It wasn’t just that he couldn’t fight.

He even lacked the courage to run away and found himself frozen in place.

This wasn’t about his own death.

In the fight against CRC, every action in every direction was guaranteed to consume lives, so just how many people would be sent to the graveyard by every choice he made?

“…”

The golden retriever opted for silence.

He simply watched.

Kihara Noukan knew very well that Aleister was not perfect. So it was fine with him if Aleister was an ugly and miserable wretch.

He knew deep down that this human would arrive at the right decision in the very end.

“You aren’t disappointed in me? That I could see all that and not even vow revenge?”

“Don’t be foolish. No one understands romance better than me.”

So he would wait as long as it took.

Kihara Noukan had enough tact to leave that part unsaid.

===Part 3===

They stood tall and intimidating.

Who did? Index and Misaka Mikoto.

“Explain yourself.”

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………Yes, ma’am.”

Kamijou was hesitant to discuss the magic side with Mikoto present, but he also felt like the public awareness of magic had changed since the rise of R&C Occultics. People thought of it as something close-to-home instead of something impossible. But that didn’t necessarily mean ''Mikoto really did believe in the existence of magic.''

He told them about the Shrink Drink spiritual item designed to kill Transcendents.

He told them about the Bridge Builders Cabal’s goal.

He told them about the truly evil Christian Rosencreutz.

He told them about Alice Anotherbible’s death.

He told them about Anna Sprengel who was hooked up to medical machinery and unable to move.

“As I’m sure you can tell, Rosencreutz is as bad as they get. That monster one-shotted Alice who treated Academy City’s dark side like a playground and wasn’t concerned by the magic side either. I couldn’t beat him. It happened so quickly I can’t even analyze why it is I lost. I don’t remember it, but I think I would have just died if Aleister hadn’t intervened. He had no reason not to kill me.”

“…”

As his story progressed, Index’s eyes grew grimmer and grimmer while Mikoto’s eyes grew blank and emotionless.

He was scared.

But even so, he knew they would attack the instant he kept something from them.

“I could leave the hospital on my own and go into hiding, but as you can see, Anna is stuck here. If Rosencreutz is on his way here, then I need to get out there and stop him before he reaches the hospi- um, is something wrong, you two? Why are you hanging your heads and trembl-”

“Tou – ma!! Why are you just assuming you have to risk your life and fight!?”

“Look, I don’t understand even half of what he just said, but I do know one thing quite clearly: it’s in this idiot’s best interests if I punch him for saying all this while he’s in the ICU.”

They beat him up. Quite seriously.

He saw red. Half his vision was stained red!

“Aghhhhh!! Why would you chomp on my head when I’m already short on blood, Index!? Are you trying to finish me off!? And, Misaka, you need to stop zapping me in the hospital! With all this delicate machinery, you’re turning yourself into a real public nuisance!!”

Aradia made no effort to help him.

She only looked away with exasperation on her face.

Battered and spurting red, Kamijou managed to get more words out.

“M-my point is, Rosencreutz is a monster. If he’s on his way to the hospital to get Anna, then we need to stop him before he gets here. Because Anna’s in no condition to be moved. That rules out hiding her elsewhere, so we have to make a preemptive strike on Rosencreutz.”

“?”

He thought his point was pretty straightforward, so he found the lack of agreement odd.

And not just from Mikoto, but from Index too.

And…

“Okay, maybe this is a cruel thing to say as someone who’s only been watching all this from the outside.” Misaka Mikoto hesitantly spoke up. “This person wants to kill you. And we can’t deny the possibility that this will put all the other patients and doctors at this hospital in danger. Is that wicked woman really worth risking yours and so many innocent people’s lives to protect?”

===Part 4===

The boy wasn’t the only one who needed time to gather his thoughts.

Witch Goddess Aradia did as well.

Alice Anotherbible was gone.

There was no second or third Alice like there was for her.

The Bridge Builders Cabal had fallen apart and it was unlikely to ever be restored. The loss of its central figure was too devastating a blow and they had already seen the result of the Transcendents gathering together and trying their best.

Christian Rosencreutz.

They likely lacked the strength needed to overcome that horrific failure and regroup.

But time was still progressing.

Aradia and the others’ regrets and hesitation did nothing to slow the clock.

(I need to decide what I’m going to do too.)

Aradia heard a metallic crash.

Something had fallen over.

She checked inside a nearby hospital room to see just one bed. The room’s sole occupant was a girl of 5 or 6 wearing pajamas. Her gaunt arms dangled weakly at her sides. She may have been in this hospital since before she began Academy City’s esper development.

A red color was splattered on the floor.

She must have pulled out her transfusion needle.

“No, don’t push the nurse call.”

The girl’s parched voice stopped the question on Aradia’s lips.

The bedside table contained a few personal items, but the stuffed animals and picture book looked somehow faded. She may not have been receiving visitors as frequently as when she was first hospitalized.

Aradia glanced at the picture book’s cover.

(Cinderella, hm?)

“Witches aren’t real.”

The girl didn’t even look over at it.

Only that faded picture book remained.

“Miracles don’t happen. Nothing I do will make me even a little better. I already know that. I was surprised when R&C Occultics showed up, but that site was shut down before long. Now no one can use-”

The girl stopped midsentence.

Aradia didn’t even need to snap her fingers.

A spiral lollipop had appeared in her hand. When she spun it around, it turned into a crow, which flapped its wings to transform into a rabbit, which became a kitten that hopped onto Aradia’s shoulder.

The girl in the bed leaned forward.

“Wh-what did you do? Is that an esper power?”

“No talent is needed for this. Because anyone is free to use magic.”

With a flourish of the stick in Aradia’s hand, the cat on her shoulder unraveled like a ribbon and returned to being a spiral lollipop.

“Nothing is impossible,” she declared. This was also a command she made. “I will never let the barrier of ‘impossible’ stand in your way. I will leave you with the hope you need to live. And if you are truly interested in being a witch, seek me out once you have conquered your illness.”

“Are you…a witch?”

“No.”

Aradia shook her head.

She glanced over at the faded picture book on the bedside table with fondness.

And she reached for the nurse call button once more.

“I am the goddess of all witches. I exist to protect and guide all who hope to be a witch.”

Aradia left the room.

Just before some nurses scrambled into the room.

Alone in the hallway, the Transcendent breathed a quiet sigh.

She knew she had no right to make such promises. CRC was on his way here, so Aradia’s presence was threatening the lives of everyone in the hospital.

But.

But what did that matter?

She had never claimed to perfectly embody her borrowed name. She had known from the beginning that she lacked the power to save the world. That was why she did not use her own magic name and instead chose the path of the Transcendent, where she borrowed a god’s name and mimicked their manner of dress and their behavior.

Where had it all begun?

Hadn’t there been something she could not let happen, even if she wasn’t up to the task?

Maybe she would lose this battle in the end.

But who would be the one to suffer from that result?

“Hmph.”

===Part 5===

Kamijou Touma staggered down the hospital hallway.

He couldn’t seem to gather his thoughts.

Misaka Mikoto’s question had hit him like a heavy blow to the head.

But that was likely a “right answer” Kamijou never could have reached on his own. It was a reasonable argument made from a different viewpoint. Mikoto only saw Anna Sprengel as the villain who had caused so much mayhem in Academy City around Christmas and infected Kamijou with deadly microbes.

A new year had begun and it was now January.

Those girls knew nothing of the Anna who he had rescued from her imprisonment(?) as a human film canister and who had fled from Mut Thebes with him in that mobile combat vehicle. They hadn’t seen the side of her that got excited in a discount store, got embarrassed and angry at being seen naked, and had developed an interest in Japanese candy.

The same was true of nearly everyone else in the world.

It wasn’t their fault since Anna had hid that side of herself.

But Kamijou knew.

She was not superhuman. She had trembled in tearful terror when Kingsford showed up and she had used a mobile combat vehicle to save the others from Mut Thebes even though it didn’t benefit her. She had the same emotions as anyone else and she had worked to conquer her fear and press on.

Just then, Kamijou spotted someone.

“Hey, Kami-yan. Back to check out the miniskirt nurses again? Or are you more into pajama girls?”

It was Aogami Pierce.

What was he doing here?

Kamijou Touma shuddered.

“Now I remember. Didn’t you end up hospitalized after grabbing a boobs mousepad you threw in the microwave so you could feel some human warmth in midwinter? But wait…does that mean you’ve been in here all this time!? It’s the new year!! There are new rules now!!”

“Nah. I was so sick of the bland hospital food I decided to celebrate my release with a trip to Ramen Niro, but it was too great a shock to my system and it sent me right back here.”

“Ehh!? High school boys have such big appetites we’ll choose a restaurant just because it advertises a free large serving of rice with its meals, but you still managed to eat so much salt and fat they had to call an ambulance!? How ridiculous have the extra-large bowls of fatty pork ramen gotten!?”

“Heh. Kami-yan, there is nothing ridiculous about it. They couldn’t be more serious about their food. …Just as you couldn’t make a historically bad video game if you tried, food this shit is a godlike feat that can only be achieved with the kind of miraculous balance only found in someone trying their best.”

“Don’t call it shit. Not when we’re talking about food.”

“What has you all depressed? It’s January 5. New Year’s might be over, but our winter break is still going. What, are you sad because you missed seeing the giant kagami mochi they had in the lobby?”

Of course not.

Kamijou tried to say so, but the words refused to leave his mouth.

After being hospitalized so many times after his deadly battles, he had learned that hospitals tended to play these things up. What might seem like just another seasonal event to Kamijou could seem far more important to a patient who feared they might not be around to celebrate the following year.

That was the kind of place Christian Rosencreutz was approaching.

He chaotically spread very real death.

Even now, he was only doing it for fun. So who was really putting these people at risk: him or Kamijou?

“What if?”

Kamijou knew this was the wrong person to ask, but the words spilled out in front of his classmate.

Or maybe he could only say it because this was a friend.

“What if someone would get hurt whether you did the right thing or not? What would you choose to do then? Would you still go with the right thing? Would you choose whatever let you save the most people? There must be countless ways to make the choice.”

“That’s an easy one. I’d choose whatever put a smile on a cute girl’s face.”

Aogami Pierce didn’t even need to think about it.

But he wasn’t just giving a joke answer either.

He looked Kamijou in the eye, showing he was deadly serious.

“All that stuff about good and evil is too much for me to wrap my head around. It’s not like we even have any way of figuring out ''if our definitions of good and evil are even accurate''. So all I can do is see if the person in front of me speaks to my moe-loving heart. If I don’t want to see their story get canceled prematurely, then I’ll support them even if it means risking my life. Who cares about the ranking lists or how many stars it has? If I think something’s the best, then it’s the best thing in the world. Isn’t that the one and only tenet of the otaku faith?”

“…”

Kamijou Touma’s breath caught in his throat.

Yes.

Why did he need some great hero’s permission to save the person in front of him?

It wasn’t like he had an important position or was responsible for anything.

''Wasn’t he no more than the kind of high school boy you can find anywhere?

“Is something wrong, Kami-yan?”

“No, it’s just that you told me something I really needed to hear. Just like with Misaka, I’m realizing how important it is to hear from people with a different viewpoint.”

Kamijou scratches his head bashfully.

But then something spilled from his coat pocket.

The flat plastic package was a video game case with the title printed clearly on the front: Jiggly☆Witch Trial.

Aogami Pierce was struck by lightning.

Kamijou could tell this had been a serious error.

“Kami-yan…that’s the legendary game that costs a fortune at online auctions and even the OLED system revival version has to be locked in a glass showcase at used game stores…”

“No, no, no!! D-dammit, Anna Sprengel. Did she sneak this into the cart back at the discount store!? How is she still ruining my life when she’s in a freaking coma!?”

“Heh. I have a gift to help you with your newfound excellent taste. The legendary original versions of JWT2 and JWT+!!”

“You mean this niche game had multiple sequels? Ahhhh, Aradia is watching from around the corner of the hallway. And I really don’t like the terrifying way her eyes are shining!!”

===Part 6===

Index still stood before the ICU.

Kamijou Touma had already left.

The only person still inside was Anna Sprengel surrounded by so much machinery.

Index stared intently through the thick plastic partition at the small girl who barely looked alive.

“Are you kidding me?”

Index’s hood shook a bit and something emerged onto her shoulder.

It was 15cm Magic God Othinus.

“I leave him alone for a few days and this is what I find he’s been up to? Everything moves much too fast around that human.”

“He got himself tangled up with a group of the false symbols known as Transcendents as well as the real Christian Rosencreutz who they resurrected.”

“Then this will not be an easy one. If that human and Rosencreutz fight, no matter who wins, I won’t be surprised if Academy City doesn’t survive it.”

“But can we really ignore Rosencreutz?”

“Well, I doubt a little planet like Earth is enough to contain that freak.”

By this point, Index had already arrived at her answer.

She was a grimoire library belonging to Necessarius, a special part of the Anglican Church. If a long-dead magician had been revived and he would selfishly destroy this world full of innocent people, then she couldn’t imagine a reason not to stop him.

But there was a problem there.

“What about the fact that stopping him will also save Anna Sprengel?” she asked.

“To be honest, it gives me a headache. But one problem at a time. Letting Rosencreutz go free won’t end well no matter what else might be.”

“When will Touma stop making such troublesome acquaintances?”

“You’re not one to talk, grimoire library.”

The Magic God arrogantly crossing her arms may not have been one to talk either.

===Part 7===

Misaka Mikoto had walked out in the hospital courtyard to try and cool her head.

“Misaka-san, you can take an awfully harsh and icy viewpoint sometimes, you know that?”

“What are you doing here?”

The #5 girl was not one to answer every one of Mikoto’s suspicious questions.

Shokuhou Misaki had a habit of appearing seemingly out of nowhere thanks to her ability to manipulate people’s memories and facial recognition.

Mikoto was immune to the effects of Mental Out, but the Queen of Tokiwadai still managed to sneak up on her a lot.

“Regretting your own words?”

“…Oh, shut up.”

Mikoto’s voice dropped in tone.

She couldn’t forget that boy’s shocked face.

Anna Sprengel. Mikoto could tell that, when the two of them thought of that name, she and that high school boy were calling on different information and experiences. And in the worst case, that idiot would probably save someone suffering before his eyes even if every reason to save that person was stripped away from him. It might be correct to say he had no reason to save a wicked woman like Anna, but it felt wrong to imagine him stopping what he was doing just because someone made a good enough argument.

She hadn’t wanted to see that look on his face.

But she had known someone had to present that problem to him.

Anna Sprengel was, without a doubt, a villain.

And with that premise established…

“What are you going to do now?”

“My role is to help him out no matter what else might happen. If he decides to take the path of evil, then I will dedicate all of my support ability toward that.”

“I’ve been wondering – why are you so fixated on that idiot?”

“You have your reason and I have mine. That’s all I have to say on the matter☆”

Although they appeared to have reached very different conclusions regarding what to do about it.

If Mikoto saw someone take the path of evil, she would return them to the straight and narrow even if she had to punch them. Indulging them and encouraging them wasn’t her idea of what a friend should do.

“It seems to me you’re not really interested in anything as trivial as what I want to do.”

Shokuhou Misaki laughed before she completing her thought.

“Aren’t you more interested in what ''you’re'' going to do?”

===Part 8===

The setting sun dyed the hospital roof.

After giving Kamijou Touma a (gentle) noogie headlock for so rudely viewing witches in a lewd light, Witch Goddess Aradia had emerged into the chilly air.

She was a Transcendent who had chosen ‘saving all persecuted witches” as her condition for salvation. When Kamijou Touma had wielded magic to fight Anna, knowing it would destroy him, he had become a target of the witch goddess’s salvation. If he was going to fight, Aradia was willing to join him.

But she knew that wasn’t enough to win.

Christian Rosencreutz had effortlessly killed the Transcendents participating in that ceremony. Even the extraordinary Alice Anotherbible had her head destroyed, killing her.

A single regular Transcendent of the Bridge Builders Cabal wouldn’t stand a chance against Rosencreutz.

Then what could she do?

Kamijou Touma was a target of her salvation, so she couldn’t give up just because it seemed impossible.

''She had to find some way of saving him.

“Kh.”

She heard a flapping noise.

With what sounded like bed sheets beating at the air, a sexy demon alighted on the chain link fence. That Transcendent had long wavy blonde hair, pale skin, animal horns on her head, an arrow-tipped tail at the back of her hips, and large batlike wings on her back.

Aradia looked up at the person who had flown through the sky in a one-piece corset – in other words, in her underwear.

“Bologna Succubus.”

“Jhhbrhbh…I take it thou too found a way to survive.”

The Bologna Succubus’s casual comment sounded odd because her ''common tones'' were still somewhat off.

Aradia sighed softly.

“I hear Alice is dead.”

“Aye.”

“And all of you took out Anna. How many of the regular Transcendents are left?”

“Hmm? There’s me, Good, Old Mary, Mut Thebes, and I reckon a few others. The rest of y’all weren’t there, so I’m a rare example of someone who was at the ceremonial ground and survived. You should be proud of me, really.”

“What about H. T. Trismegistus?”

“''Gone.''”

That was an odd word choice.

Did that mean he hadn’t fought and been killed by Christian Rosencreutz?

CRC remained inside Academy City.

He had said he would kill all of the Transcendents.

And for no good reason. It wasn’t about right or wrong, or even about his likes or dislikes. She recalled what Kamijou Touma had relayed, sounding apologetic.

The Bologna Succubus breathed a heavy sigh from atop the fence.

“Because he’s bored. To kill time.”

“…”

“That means he will arrive at this hospital eventually. Sooner or later, he will set his sights on Anna Sprengel. But if we know his target, we can ''lay a trap for him''.”

The words were steeped with the kind of mockery and malice that stuck in the back of the mind.

Having a monster like CRC after your life just for the hell of it would be enough for the average person to lose their cool, but before even reaching that point, there was an aspect of this Aradia had trouble accepting as a Transcendent.

“Can you believe this?”

“What about it?”

“The true face of our ‘savior’.”

“What you see is what you get. If he won’t do anything to save the wrongly accused, then I just have to find a different method. …He simply ''wasn’t what I was hoping for''. We went out of our way to resurrect someone who should have remained buried and dead.”

Rosencreutz had no policy for salvation.

For what did he wield that immense power?

Whatever the answer, he had already removed the “salvation” card from his deck. This was never going to end well.

Witch Goddess Aradia truly existed to save persecuted witches.

Whoever she had been before, she had remade herself into such a being.

What if CRC wasn’t going to help with that and would in fact bring harm to the people she meant to save?

No, that wasn’t a hypothetical.

Stop kidding yourself.

He was already doing it. Since Kamijou Touma had used magic to protect Academy City, he counted as one of Aradia’s goodhearted witches.

And Christian Rosencreutz had attacked him.

He had violated that goddess’s holy ground.

“What will you and the other survivors do?”

“Ach, you have a talent for asking the hard questions.” The Bologna Succubus sat down atop the tall fence and looked down at Aradia. “''I honestly care not if he comes to kill me.''”

“Hm.”

Aradia didn’t seem particularly surprised.

Transcendents chose someone other than themselves to save. You could say only someone who had modified themselves to that point could claim the title. The only exceptions were Alice and Anna.

“And even if he goes on a rampage, the damage he causes doesn’t have anything to do with false accusations. I ain’t gonna save pure aggressors, but I also ain’t gonna expand my salvation conditions to include pure victims. I know it would be too much to handle and I would only be destroying m’self.”

“…”

“Don’t give me that look. You’ve narrowed down your conditions to only persecuted witches. You must know that expanding those conditions endlessly will only tear you apart.”

Aradia was aware.

But confirming that wouldn’t convince the Bologna Succubus to help. Aradia alone was no match for Rosencreutz, meaning she couldn’t save Kamijou Touma, so she needed to do whatever she could ''to drag the other Transcendents into her business''.

“Heh heh♪”

The Bologna Succubus must have realized this.

She swung her legs atop the fence and hopped down.

She placed a hand on the center of her chest, winked, and spoke with the gentle yet toxic voice of a tempting demon.

“Good, Old Mary, Mut Thebes, and me – that should be good enough for now. Can you picture the intertwining threads in your noggin, Aradia?”

*One wanted to deliver miracles to the people who had been driven out of a special category.

*One wanted to use the art of punishment to protect the group she had chosen for herself. That group was currently the Bridge Builders Cabal.

*And one wanted to save anyone who was falsely accused.

“I shouldn’t have to tell you that we Transcendents of the Bridge Builders Cabal only act based on the salvation conditions we’ve set for ourselves. So if you want us to act, you need to match our conditions. Each of our conditions, with nary a contradiction.”

“…”

Aradia had to understand just how much of a challenge that would be.

It was the apparent incompatibility of their conditions that had led the Transcendents to hope the resurrected Christian Rosencreutz could save the entire world for them.

“So what will you do, Aradia?”

The Bologna Succubus held her hands behind her back and leaned in.

The demon smiled sweetly.

“''Are you prepared to solve this impossible puzzle to save that boy''?”

===Part 9===

It was the afternoon period past midday but before evening.

That in-between time period may have been the least crowded time. Kamijou was all alone seated in the break area with plenty of vending machines lined up alongside it.

Aogami Pierce’s words had been so simple and expressed a viewpoint Kamijou lacked.

Simply protect what you love.

That had to be one correct answer.

It was also a very easy one to cling to for a high school boy like Kamijou.

“But.”

Could he really drag everyone else into this for no more than that?

Who was Anna Sprengel really?”

''“Merry Christmas, my amnesiac enemy. You looked good out there today.”

She had undoubtedly been an enemy at first.

Her mouth-to-mouth attack had taken the form of the deadly microbes known as St. Germain. Worse, due to the conflict with Kamijou’s Imagine Breaker, the strange Rosicrucian ally was doomed to die whether he won or lost.

''“Did you use magic!? By making an ally of the St. Germain I implanted in you!?”

Even after they worked together to defeat her, Anna Sprengel easily escaped Anti-Skill custody and fled. She then caused another major incident in Los Angeles.

She joined the Transcendents of the Bridge Builders Cabal and messed with Alice Anotherbible to successfully push that mysterious magic cabal beyond any semblance of control.

But even Anna had a nemesis.

Aleister Crowley. And Anna Kingsford who he controlled.

Kamijou couldn’t explain why he had reached out to help when he saw Anna Sprengel transformed into a helpless film canister. He had simply responded to the thought in his head.

Yes, he hated Anna Sprengel.

But that result wouldn’t have brought him any joy.

''“Fine, fine. Just this once, I will use my trump card.”

Then what was it he did want?

He couldn’t put it to words, but he could say for certain it was incompatible with Mut Thebes, who had tried to execute Anna with the Shrink Drink, or with Aleister, who had tried to kill her with Kingsford.

Maybe he wasn’t right.

Maybe he wasn’t being logical.

But he could hold his head high.

''“I don’t know if someone like that exists, but if they do, I can make a compromise with this world.”

Yes.

That was right.

''“I do hope they are out there somewhere, fool.”

That was it.

So what if she was wicked? Why should it matter what a powerful enemy she was?

No matter how this conflict ended and no matter where they all ended up, he did not want it to be ended by Anna Sprengel’s death.

What was so strange about being so certain of that?

“…”

''But. Even so.

Kamijou had made up his mind, but a mere high school boy had no realistic way of saving Anna while she was hooked up to all that machinery in the ICU.

He couldn’t even defeat Rosencreutz who was on his way here.

The hospital contained plenty more patients. Not to mention the doctors, nurses, and other medical staff caring for those patients. Those hospitalized people had their everyday lives taken from them. They were all fighting with all their might to reclaim those everyday lives. Anna Sprengel wasn’t the only person here at death’s door. She wasn’t special. So how could he put those others at risk?

He wanted help.

But who could he ask for help and how could he convince them?

Someone approached while he was agonizing over these questions.

“Oh? I was wondering where you got off to.”

It was the frog-faced doctor.

“How’s Anna?” asked Kamijou on reflex.

“I don’t know anything about Alice Anotherbible or that Shrink Drink you mentioned.”

He wasn’t lying. The frog-faced doctor’s next words were simple.

And they tore into the core of Kamijou Touma’s being.

“So what are you going to do?”

“…”

Kamijou clenched his teeth.

He tried thinking, but it didn’t do any good.

“Anna is a villain. There’s no denying that at this point.”

He couldn’t stop himself.

His voice seemed to spill from his heart more than this mouth.

“But I still don’t want her to die.”

That settled it.

No, he had made up his own mind.

He knew where he wanted to stand, which direction he wanted to face, what stance he wanted to take.

So he let it all out.

He released the ugliness within.

“I mean, everyone keeps calling her a villain, but she still saved me. I never would have gotten that mobile combat vehicle without her there. In fact, I probably would’ve screwed up and gotten myself killed on that first night. Sure, I freed her from being a human film canister, but if all she wanted was to survive, what reason did she have to bring me or Aradia along with her? She could have lied to us and run off on her own. She loved to tease people and laugh at them, but there were moments when she reached out a helping hand for nothing in return! No, that’s not the point. I don’t want to save her because she saved me. This isn’t some transactional thing where I’m just repaying a favor!! It’s really not. She teased me and wouldn’t leave me alone in that discount store. She laughed at the duct tape around Aradia’s ankle at the gas station and she loved the Japanese candy she tried. She was a normal girl. She might be an irregular Transcendent with exceptional power, but she’s still no different from anyone else. I can’t leave her to die. I just can’t!! I can’t accept that just by saying she’s an enemy and drawing a line between us! I don’t want Anna to die!! I don’t even want to think about it! I don’t know how great a monster Christian Rosencreutz is. It doesn’t matter how stupid it is to think about fighting him. I won’t let him take her away from us. I can’t stand idly by when I know what he’s going to do! I’ll do something about him. I swear it. I’ll do whatever it takes to snatch victory away from him and protect Anna! But that isn’t enough. Defeating Christian Rosencreutz is just one battle won. It doesn’t mean I’ve won it all and it doesn’t actually save anyone’s life. That isn’t the goal. It’s all meaningless if Anna doesn’t wake back up!! There are things you can’t accomplish with a punch! Anna was hit by the Shrink Drink and now my right hand can’t save her. With Alice dead and unable to help, you’re all I have left. Your medical skills are all based on ordinary science, but you can do things I never can!! I don’t want to give up. I refuse to give up on Anna Sprengel!! I couldn’t bear to give up on her life here!!! It’s not about how much time we spent together. I’ve seen her smile. I don’t care about her mysterious ‘king’. We will drag her up out of the darkness ourselves. I want her to smile. That’s all this is about. I want to see Anna’s smile again!! I’d gladly throw my own life away for that!! So please. Once this is all over, I’ll turn myself in to Anti-Skill. If helping a villain is wrong, then I’ll accept whatever punishment I deserve. They can badmouth me on TV and online – I’ll walk into juvie with my head held high!! Ugh, ahh, so please don’t give up on Anna!! Ugh, ahh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Kamijou’s face was a mess.

He couldn’t find his strength. He clung to the doctor in front of him as he fell to his knees.

In response, the frog-faced doctor only breathed a quick sigh.

And he spoke.

''Just like he always did.

“You’re overthinking this, if you ask me.”

“…”

“Think about this as deeply as you want, there’s no point in endlessly worrying yourself when it isn’t necessary. I’m a doctor, so you don’t need to find any lengthy justification. You only need to speak two simple words: save her.”

For a doctor, it was a normal, natural, and commonplace thing.

“But…but.”

“Hm?”

“Anna is a villain.”

“And? What’s wrong with wanting to reach out and help someone whose life is being threatened by that very accusation?”

“But I asked everyone to help…and none of them would do it.”

“If you could use a doctor, then I will do whatever I can to help. But what can you do to help?”

''He had help.

''He had one person willing to help his selfish and ugly wish to keep a worldclass villain alive even though it would worsen the situation and put so many unrelated lives at risk.

That man’s dedication to preserving lives was not shaken. It never was. Not even in an emergency when everyone else was panicking. Even though reading the room and cleverly pretending not to notice might be so much easier. Was he driven by his pride as a professional life saver?

Seeing it for himself reignited something within the hopelessly inexperienced Kamijou Touma.

That something was quite small but it was a solid presence within his heart.

That was his core. He now had something to support his heart.

''This doctor did not lie.

''If he said he would save a patient, then that patient would be saved.

Kamijou could believe that without any real evidence because of the many times he himself had been brought back from the brink of death. He didn’t know who this frog-faced doctor was, but he knew he would not betray a human life.

The real answer was nothing special. Its basis was found in the experience he had built up for himself.

And with that settled…

He would accept his disadvantage and do whatever it took to save Anna. That meant stopping anyone who would intrude on the hospital and interrupt the doctor’s actions.

Do that and he could solve everything.

Then he could once more see that little wicked woman mocking him, verbally abusing him, throwing a tantrum, and causing trouble in general. And he could once more see her smiling.

If so, that was the best possible reason for the puny boy to clench his right fist.

“Doctor.”

“Yes?”

“''Thank you.''”

Kamijou Touma bowed deep and then turned around.

He walked toward the hospital’s front entrance. And the dangerous city beyond.

Now that he had a goal in mind, he only had to clench his right fist tight and continue onward.

Christian Rosencreutz.

He would do whatever it took to defeat that greatest of enemies.

===Between the Lines 1===

Lambeth Palace, London.

A solemn voice rang through the residence of the Archbishop at the top of the Anglican Church.

“Attention, pawns.”

“What did you call us!?”

Agnese Sanctis was ready to fight, so Sisters Lucia and Angelene had to restrain her.

Dion Fortune, who had taken the Archbishop position after Lola Stuart’s unprecedented resignation, sighed in exasperation at what she saw before her. Namely, a travel suitcase stuffed so full the lock looked ready to burst.

The impertinent girl addressed her subordinates.

“Do none of you awkward nuns know the first thing about taking a long trip!? I won’t need my pajamas or bathroom things right away, so you can put them at the bottom of the bag. But flimsy foreign language handbooks, card games, and anything else I will need more frequently should be at the top! This is basic stuff. Did you rely on your mother superior for everything back at your original abbey!?”

“Are you serious? Why would we have a paper guide nowadays when everything is machine translated?”

“Don’t be dumb. What if my phone breaks, turning it into an expensive paperweight? And when I’m in the middle of a strange foreign country, no less!? Of course I’ll have that convenient mobile device, but I also need to bring something paper just in case. Oh, and make sure the deck of cards has two jokers. You can’t play some games with just one.”

Agnese stared icily at Dion Fortune who was smugly lecturing the combat nuns who spoke dozens of languages and were trained to blend into any part of the world if necessary.

“Why are you in such a hurry to leave in the middle of the night, anyway? Trying to skip town?”

“I’m not interested in power structures or wealth. I know I’m only a body to fill the position until the next real Archbishop is chosen. But since I have this power for now, I might as well use it, right? That would be best for the UK as a whole.”

“Then make sure you don’t forget this: your passport. It’s worth having on hand even within the EU because cops can be stupidly pigheaded at times. So where are you headed?”

Dion Fortune responded with a “nee hee” of laughter.

Like she was secretly sharing her plan for a prank.

“''Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany.''”

“…”

“If you have any knowledge at all of the Golden cabal, you should have a good idea what I’ll be looking for. Hint: Mathers and Westcott ran themselves ragged searching for it but never found it, so they had no choice but to claim it was a spiritual thing that existed in a separate phase.”

“The First Temple?”

“Right. Its actual name is the Licht Liebe Leben Temple. Anna Sprengel was said to belong to and directly manage that magic cabal, which can be seen as the starting point of our Golden cabal. With Miss Sprengel and even CRC showing up, I figured it was time I dug a little deeper there. Of course, this is a fairly dangerous decision for a Golden magician.”

“…”

The Isis-Urania Temple, the first one established in London, was also known as the Third Temple. They had chosen not to start at one out of respect for the First Temple which was (supposedly) run by Anna Sprengel.

“Ah ha ha!! So impressed you’re dumbfounded, you silly and useless nun pawns!? We’re talking about Anna Sprengel and Christian Rosencreutz here, so I need to investigate the Rosicrucian cabal, which always seemed more like a legend than anything! It might be a temporary gig, but I didn’t snatch the Archbishop position for no reason. So do your job as pawns by preparing your big boss’s suitcase and do your part for the UK and the world. C’mon, make sure you put the wallet, credit card, and transit card, which can also be used for shopping, in different places. Losing all of them at once would be a nightmare. Do you want me to be stuck all alone in Germany!?”

Just then, the smartphone (which she had been planning to use for checking restaurant reviews at her destination) vibrated. Dion Fortune grabbed the device that was surprisingly loud even in silent mode.

“Hello? What do you need with the great Archbishop? I’m busy as hell, so I hope you made an appointment, you piece of sh-”

“Oh? You’ve moved up in the world since I last saw you, my disappointing apprentice. Hard to believe this is the same person who spent night after night sobbing in fear of stray cat attacks.”

“!!!???”

Agnese and the others watched curiously as Dion Fortune’s back went ramrod straight despite only talking on the phone.

“M-”

But the Archbishop had bigger concerns.

She was already soaked with sweat as her old trauma was triggered.

“''Mina Mathers''? M-mistress, what business do you have with me today? Heh heh, eh heh heh.”

Many incidents and conflicts were recorded in the history of modern Western magic, but there was one magical battle nearly as famous as Crowley’s Battle of Blythe Road.

The compilers of that history referred to it as Mina Mathers and Dion Fortune’s magical catfight.

(But that wasn’t two girls grappling in a vaguely naughty way. I was attacked by a giant catlike thing that tore a huge slash across my back! Eek! She has some nerve calling herself the black cat witch. It really is true history is written by the winners since she chose to rewrite herself as something a lot cuter than reality!! Not all cats are cute little housecats!!)

“I predicted that my incapable apprentice would be searching for the First Temple. As things are, that human might just do something rash all on his own. With someone who can win by being self-destructive, there is nothing in this world more frightening than when they are truly pissed. I honestly can’t bear to see that happen, so you need to join me in assisting him as soon as possible. We are looking for the same thing anyway.”

“Heh, eh heh heh. My mistress, what if – purely hypothetically speaking, so please don’t take this seriously! – I were to tell you that today’s tarot reading were poor and according to Western yoga – that is, according to the Kabbalistic interpretation – I should take a rain check and try this again some other-”

“''Then your kindhearted master might just lose her temper and extend her claws for the first time in quite a while.''”

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