Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume5 Epilogue
Epilogue: Even If Your Hand Leaves Mine – Not_Enemy.[edit]
Kamijou Touma crawled back out from the depths.
He somehow managed to return to the surface world.
“Hah.”
He laughed and then slumped down to the ground as soon as he felt the outside air on his skin. He honestly hadn’t thought he would make it back out alive this time. And if he had been on his own down there, he couldn’t have managed it.
His stomach was stained a dark red.
He couldn’t go on. He couldn’t possibly fight any more. He knew he was still in danger, but he just sat there weakly and smiled into the distance.
A group of people had formed a short distance away.
Ladybird had sheathed the ultra-heavy machete on the back of her hip and she had artificial muscles and wires sticking out of the split artificial skin on one arm. Risako hesitantly approached her after being carried out on Hamazura’s back. Sodate was a lot more hesitant, but that may have had more to do with her skimpy racing swimsuit outfit than with her being the android who had tried to harm him once. It was a subtle difference but an important one.
Kamijou’s vision grew red and distorted. Was that Frillsand #G’s toxic presence that kept her from being with the children she had once lived with? He was too weak to speak to her. They both watched the group from a distance for a bit, but she eventually vanished into thin air without speaking a word.
Academy City’s Greatest Taboo was back in her control and she had chosen to disappear without giving any kind of warning, so he guessed the Taboo had stopped expanding and would not alter the planet itself using the magnetosphere. In that sense, he knew she would never betray Drencher’s spirit.
Maybe Operation Handcuffs had been a hellish incident, but that didn’t mean the people caught up in it had no hope.
They had finally ended it for good.
He felt certain of it.
“Teacher.”
Alice trotted over with a smile. The white fluffball on the back of her apron wiggled side to side and the arms sticking out of her short sleeves were thrust forward as she leaped at him.
“Hee hee. Good job.”
“Was it really?”
“You are incredible, teacher. Well, you’re hard to look at in your current state, but you did prove it was worth rejecting the girl’s spell and struggling on your own.”
…Maybe so.
Alice had the same gentle atmosphere as ever. He was too weak to get up when she leaped at him, so he was helpless to prevent her from nuzzling against him. Her frictionlessly smooth skin and high body heat stabbed sharply into his exhausted brain. He didn’t even question where she had come from or what she had done in the past. The storybook girl was harmless, but she carried too many mysteries.
He was badly hurt, he only had 49 yen left, his New Year’s Tokyo survival life had reached true crisis levels, and he may not have gained much of anything from getting involved in all this, but he had ended Operation Handcuffs. Knowing something like that would never happen again was good enough for him.
And just as he sighed at that thought…
“Alice. Did you have fun?”
His shoulders jumped, but that was all. His head would not turn.
A bored girl’s voice had come from behind him. He couldn’t seem to bring her into view, like he had a crick in his neck and it wouldn’t turn right.
He could tell something had been gently placed on his head. His reflection in a nearby puddle showed him wearing a thorny rose crown. One thought immediately leapt to mind.
(Is it poisoned!?)
After St. Germain, he had nothing but bad memories concerning their medicines and poisons.
Even if it was a magical spiritual item, he couldn’t touch it when his right hand wouldn’t move.
He recognized the voice slipping into his ears.
A sweet rosy scent hung in the air as the voice was gently sighed behind him.
“I didn’t realize you were into the cute ‘needs to be protected’ type. Maybe I should have worked up some crocodile tears and slipped below your blanket.”
“Anna…Sprengel?”
“Alice.”
She was through with him.
The villainess named Anna ignored paralyzed Kamijou and spoke to the other mysterious girl. Her tone was as casual as could be.
“You’ve been running around all night without any sleep, haven’t you? Isn’t it about time you went home?”
“Yes. You can’t tell the girl what to do, but she does like having someone to talk to.”
Alice was equally casual as she left Kamijou, but did she really know what this meant?
“Wait…”
Kamijou called out to her without thinking.
Alice Anotherbible had been a mystery from the beginning. She hadn’t been fazed by an artificial ghost like Frillsand #G, by Hanatsuyu Youen the Carrier, or by anyone else. She had used some kind of powerful magic called Live Something-or-Other, and he still didn’t understand what that had been about even after she explained it herself.
To be honest, she was so strange he had his doubts she was really a magician.
But…
“You aren’t like her.”
“Um? What do you mean?”
“You aren’t like Anna Sprengel!! It’s true you use a power I don’t understand and everything about you is a mystery, but you helped me. You saw everyone suffering from Handcuffs and you used your power to help them!”
“Alice.” The higher-level being sounded amused but exasperated. “Is that the kind of desire you played with this time?”
“No. He is the girl’s teacher, but he didn’t leave an opening for the girl to have an adventure.”
Alice tapped the back of her small hand against Kamijou’s chest.
“The girl saw it coming from the moment he refused to use Live Adventures in Wonderland. Ah ha ha. Because the better the person, the less they need the girl.”
“My, my. And yet none of them were able to resist the temptation.”
“Right? Teacher is incredible☆”
Alice’s smile looked sad but somehow proud as well.
Kamijou heard a rustling of cloth from outside his range of vision. Anna Sprengel was probably slowly standing up.
In order to leave.
While holding the hand of that girl who existed beyond good and evil – or maybe was too young to even know the difference.
To take her back into a different sort of darkness from Handcuffs.
“Stop…Anna.”
“Why should I? I received that human’s message in LA, so I need to prepare for our game. And you were the one who rejected Alice. You refused to flee into her storybook world and you put a stop to her adventure.”
“She saved me. No, not just me – everyone involved in Handcuffs. She made it a lot more complicated, but the 29th never would have made it to this point without her!”
He couldn’t move a finger, but he heard Anna Sprengel’s tone shift slightly.
There was now a subtle hint of regret.
“Maybe I should have done the same from the beginning.”
“?”
Her tone shifted again, this time to that of a girl plotting some new mischief.
Like she was trying to shake something off.
“And just so you know, I do think this is in your best interest.”
He wasn’t sure what she meant.
Could his outstretched hand not reach those girls unless he figured this out?
Finally, Alice bent over.
She placed herself on the seated boy’s eye level and smiled gently. It was a strangely mature smile that did not at all match her storybook dress or her animal ear curls.
“Farewell, teacher. It would be best if you stayed here.”
The lips he felt on his cheek were probably meant as a way of saying goodbye.
A faint scent of tea lingered afterwards.
She practically hopped away and then the other girl moved into view. Miss Sprengel in her baggy dress held Alice’s hand and walked into the shadows.
“This…isn’t over,” said Kamijou Touma, still unable to move. His voice grew to a shout. “I won’t stay here!! Listen, Alice. If you’re going to descend into the darkness like everyone in Handcuffs did, then I will pull you back out again. I’ll do it whether you want it or not!! I don’t care what anyone says or even what you think – nothing will change the fact that Alice Anotherbible saved us all!!”
There was no strength in his voice, but the helpless boy still managed to shout the words, like he was carving them into his heart.
“I don’t care if you can use some special magic or if you’re some unique being! I got to know you and that’s a good enough reason to pull you out from the darkness!! So listen, Alice. If you insist that’s the only place for you, then I swear I’ll destroy that illusion!!!!!!”
A cruise ship floated in a flooded stadium located in the middle of a deep, deep rainforest cut off from time and civilization. The giant yellow duck floating in the gathered water made it all look like some kind of joke.
Aradia, goddess of all witches, smiled and greeted the storybook girl with a jangle of pure gold.
“Welcome back, Alice.”
“Hi☆”
The girl wiggled the fluffball on the back of her apron as she kicked off the water’s surface and landed on the polished deck. Were the short sleeves actually a good match for the jungle, or were they an even worse mismatch because it left her bare skin exposed to so many natural dangers?
“You weren’t lonely with the girl gone?”
“No, no.”
The goddess of all witches did not bother pointing out that it was Alice who had disappeared without telling them. This happened all the time. Aradia exchanged a glance with Anna and then shrugged.
Alice walked through the disconcerting cruise ship with great familiarity and made her way to the circular colosseum. She plopped down in the giant throne sitting in the center. It was far too big for her, so she couldn’t bend her legs when sitting against the back. Her legs stuck straight out as she kicked them despite wearing a skirt.
Her high body temperature and the way the light reflected off her blonde hair and pale skin seemed to change the very atmosphere of the place.
This was how things usually looked here.
Sensing Alice’s return, several people appeared in the tiered stands – good, old Mary, H. T. Trismegistus, and more. Their physical location had them looking down toward Alice, but the reality was the opposite. They had hurried to visit their returned master because they knew what happened if they displeased her even slightly. They all had active imaginations and they could not ignore her even on this ship where their individual freedoms were guaranteed.
The only others at the center of the colosseum were Aradia, who was closest to Alice, and Anna Sprengel, who was a newcomer and thus did not properly recognize the threat.
Aradia, who wore a purple bikini-like dancer’s outfit and a wimple that fell to her ankles like a cape, spoke gently to her master in the throne.
“Did you have fun?”
“Yeah!”
“If you are feeling refreshed, how about you get to work now, Alice?”
“Hmm?”
Alice placed a finger on her chin and stared into the distance.
Aradia did not let her smile crack. She knew how capricious the storybook girl was. That was why she had not mentioned anything about Alice’s sudden disappearance or her return with Anna.
If Alice said she wanted a toy, they would get it for her. If Alice sulked that she was bored, they would find some way to entertain her.
Even if that toy or entertainment was a living human being.
Alice would go on adventures where she linked together laws and definitions to find new meaning there while she innocently used her Live Adventures in Wonderland that affected the entire world, so all of their efforts here were a small price to pay if it let them work that girl into their own plans.
But.
“No, the girl isn’t doing that. Teacher wouldn’t like that messy stuff.”
She made it sound like an offhand thought, but it was devastating for Aradia and the other powerful magicians who were trying to accomplish something using the special spell that only Alice could use (which was the opposite of how magic was supposed to work).
Alice bounced her little butt up and down on the throne’s cushion.
“Hm, it just doesn’t feel right. Teacher’s lap is the best seat there is.”
“He isn’t my type, but I must warn you that acquiring him will not be easy.”
“That’s what makes it so fun.”
“Now that I understand.”
Everyone else had been shocked into silence, but one person continued smiling and speaking with Alice.
Anna Sprengel peered into Alice Anotherbible’s face and asked a question.
“So what kind of adventure do you want to go on next, Alice?”
“The girl hasn’t decided.”
“Then think of it this way: what would he want to do with the world?”
“Hee hee. You don’t know that any more than the girl, Anna Sprengel.”
For a moment, Aradia felt left behind by the flow of time.
But a few seconds later, her blood boiled and rushed to her head.
“A-”
But just as she started to say something, she heard a swishing sound.
At some point, a flamingo bat and a few hedgehog balls had emerged from below the storybook girl’s apron. Her psychological defense had activated.
This was actually protecting Aradia from Alice herself doing something without thinking.
But push this any further and Aradia would no longer be protected and the executioner or what lay beyond would emerge.
If you stopped blinking and paid careful attention, you would have noticed a tingling more ominous than static electricity filling the air around bored-looking Alice. Needless to say, the real threat was not the bat, the balls, or the executioner – it was young Alice herself.
“…”
So Aradia had no choice but to forcibly alter what she was about to say with her mouth forming an “A” sound.
She could only think of one other person to address instead. Ideally, this newcomer would turn out to be a useful pawn. But if she did try to start some kind of rebellion, Aradia and the other legendary individuals would either take her down as a group or have capricious Alice eliminate her instantaneously after she displeased the girl.
But what was this?
Did this answer the mystery of how Alice had gained an interest in Academy City!?
“Anna Sprengel!! Did you delve far deeper before we even invited you here!?”
The red girl tried to suppress her laughter.
But she failed. Miss Sprengel started shaking and then doubled over, holding her sides.
“Ha ha. Ah ha ha!! Didn’t I tell you before to ask Alice? My, my, my. It is true I told bored Alice the story of a certain boy, but I don’t see how you can resent me for that. Also, killing me won’t do a thing to change Alice’s nature now. She is already focused on a different toy. Pwa ha ha!!”
“Only because you pushed her in that direction!! Do you have any idea what you have done!?”
Aradia’s rational anger only made Anna wrap her arms around herself and tremble in joy. As if to say she had only bowed to this wannabe elite earlier so that she could see the look on her face now.
Alice was not the only person who let her current mood guide her and destroyed everything around her.
This other innocent girl, who had readily thrown out R&C Occultics once she was done with it, parted her own smiling lips.
“Whining isn’t going to change what has already happened. Hee hee. I am not Alice’s teacher. Her obsession is with someone else.”
Alice held a small hand to her mouth and yawned.
Like she had no interest at all in the argument being held over her head.
The way she kicked her little legs in the oversized throne made her look like cuteness incarnate. But no one here could make her obey with any kind of external force. Aradia herself had explained that to Anna: You are free to do what you want here, but do not upset Alice.
They had been bound by their own one and only absolute rule.
But after spending so much on this and making so much progress, they were not going to just let this happen either.
“Kamijou Touma.”
The goddess of all witches, who ruled the moon and the night, clenched her teeth and rapidly reworked her plan.
If she lost Alice’s interest here, it could bring a permanent end to that plan.
So she knew the first problem she had to deal with.
“Kamijou Touma!!”
