Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume10 Prologue
Prologue: Alice Anotherbible – Back_to_Memory.[edit]
“Nyawn? The girl’s name is Alice.”
- “Also, why am I your teacher?”
- “Kamijou Touma is the girl’s teacher.”
- “A train is about to crash into that one!! We’re looking at a head-on collision with a prisoner transport train!!” “Go!! Take Alice!” “I am Hanatsuyu Youen. I am glad you don’t recognize me because it means you’re one of those ignorant normal people.”
- “Hello, dark side. I know this is sudden, but you will be handing over all your information!!” “This isn’t just about us anymore, so I swear I’ll save you too, ghost!!” “You weren’t satisfied with this ending? Then what kind of ending would you accept?”
- “Then return everything to the way it was, Alice.” “You will die.” “That doesn’t change my answer.”
- “Shibuya!!!???” “Bologna Succubus!!” “Ding, ding, ding! Correct☆ She’s Aradia, goddess of all witches, who rules over the night and the moon.” “Alice is a step above the other Transcendents in the Bridge Builders Cabal.” “So you split between the Rescuers and the Killers?”
- “Don’t kid yourselves, you rioting criminals.” “Stop it! No one wants it to end like this!!”
“I didn’t – cough – want you to see me looking so pathetic.”
“In what world is this pathetic!? Goddammit!!”
- “Leave it to me.” “Then you leave this with me.” “Anna Kingsford!?” “I simply wish to aid the 🙂 around me☆”
“I’ve come to play, teacher☆” “A consulate in District 12?”
- “Probably kill her. I mean, the accusations against Anna Sprengel are anything but false.” “This case does not match mama’s condition either.”
- “I am one of the so-called Killers when it comes to you, Kamijou Touma.” “Mama will defeat him.” “No.” “You can’t do it this way, Alice.”
- “Stupid teacher.” “Run away with me, Anna Sprengel!!!”
- “I am Mut Thebes. I provide punishment.” “She can make use of anything if her shadow touches its shadow.”
- “The Shrink Drink…is safe.”
- “Um, Anna-san?”
“I had it wrong?” “The Bridge Builders Cabal wasn’t a legendary magic cabal going back millennia?”
- “Not even Good, Old Mary’s resurrection can heal Anna Sprengel.” “We just have to get Alice’s help.”
“'CRC.” “Christian Rosencreutz.”
- “No.” “I do not need the unexpected.”
“We just need Alice.” “We just need Alice Anotherbible!!!”
“Ahhhhh!!”
“They can soothe this old man’s ennui with their worthless lives. How else can you make up for what you have done, Transcendents?” “Anna is a villain.” “But I still don’t want her to die.”
- “Didn’t you hear? The cats…”
“Found you☆”
- “Misaka.” “Stop, Kamijou Touma! You mustn’t do that!!” ““Fire on this GPS signal.” “You made this old man…touch the floor?”
- “That is not what it means to believe in someone.”
- “You completely missed the crossroads you couldn’t afford to cross and you walked right on through.” “But how is this possible!? Why would she get back up again now!?” “Shut your mouth. Right this instant!!”
- “Johann Valentin Andreae.” “It all comes to an end.”
- “Cackle.” “Cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle!!!”
- “This isn’t over.” “None of this is over.”
It was in District 12 that Index and Othinus witnessed that moment.
The frigid wind of the January night blew through, but neither of them complained of the cold.
They had long since lost their ordinary sense of temperature.
“…”
CRC.
Christian Rosencreutz’s corpse lay sprawled out on the ground.
No, that corpse technically belonged to Johann Valentin Andreae.
He still had his red cloak and silver hair, but the messy remnants of the old man had large chunks torn out by a little girl’s hand. If his remains had been entirely eliminated, that painful and ugly visual also wouldn’t have remained and his legend at least could have survived.
We’re screwed, thought Othinus.
Her knowledge as a war god was enough to know that.
Alice Anotherbible was headless and bloody.
H.T. Trismegistus wielded his cane sword.
...They couldn’t win against those two.
Index had at least 103,001 grimoires memorized and Othinus had lost her power as a Magic God. There was no way they could survive an onslaught of attacks from those two Bridge Builders Cabal members long enough to reach safety.
“Hmm, hm, hmm.”
The small girl had no tongue or teeth, so a flute-like voice left the severed and visible trachea in her neck.
But even that was soon covered up.
It made a strange noise. A horribly dry one. But it was definitely coming from headless Alice Anotherbible. Like watching footage of an eggshell breaking in reverse, more and more small fragments floated up, linked together, made a sound like something very thin and soft folding over, and eventually formed the young girl’s adorable face atop her neck like nothing had ever happened.
Her head there should have been the expected sight.
But knowing the greater context created a very different impression.
“Did I get it right?”
“Common sense says it is perfect.”
The young black-haired butler bowed respectfully.
He paid no heed to Othinus and Index’s eyes on them.
Even if surprise attacks were launched on them from all directions, he would not let anyone lay a finger on his master Alice. He said nothing and didn’t even look their way, but the Transcendent with a sword cane gave off that sense like a smell.
It was true too.
If they tried to fight here, they would die.
If they died, no one would get word out that CRC was dead and Alice was back. Knowing those two, even a few days’ delay in learning those facts could mean the destruction of the world. There no doubting it.
There was only one option left.
(Get caught on purpose.)
Othinus worked out that cold-hearted answer from atop Index’s shoulder.
(One of us is a grimoire library and the other is Magic God who would make a valuable sample even if I have lost my power. They should want to keep us alive and study us. We can use that time to find an opening to inform the human, so going with Alice is actually our best-)
“That won’t work.”
Nothing about the young butler had changed.
Nothing at all.
“I know what you are thinking. But we do are not interested in anything which does not fulfill our salvation conditions. Did you think common sense would tell me you are valuable enough for us to leave you alive? Alice alone can give us everything we could want, so what more could we ask for?”
The grimoire library was supposed to be an irresistible temptation, but not even she would work as a bargaining chip.
She wasn’t worth enough to them.
Othinus did think this made some sense. If Alice Anotherbible really was as extraordinary as the Transcendents said, then they were indeed screwed. The board had been in an unwinnable configuration from the beginning. Shifting the pieces around from there wasn’t going to change it in any significant way.
They couldn’t win if they tried to fight.
Trying to buy time through underhanded negotiation wasn’t an option either.
Alice was so far beyond the ordinary that she wasn’t even focused on the realistic issues.
“What will you do?” calmly asked the young butler.
“This,” said Index, turning tail and running.
H.T. Trismegistus watched it happen but did not immediately move to pursue. There was more than a little scorn in his eyes.
As if he were saying, “You know as well as I do that you cannot escape us on foot.”
But even if this bought them less than a minute of time, it was still time bought.
Othinus’s thoughts were racing at top speed on Index’s shoulder.
“What do we do!? We can’t escape like this and we don’t even know if we can reach my understander by phone thanks to the martial law.”
Index looked side to side as they ran through orderly rows of identical storage units.
Then the white nun grabbed Othinus from her shoulder.
“Hey?”
Index crouched on the spot and shoved 15cm Othinus into the narrow gap between two of the storage units.
The eyepatch girl’s eye widened.
“(What are you doing!?)”
“(I can’t escape those Transcendents no matter what we try. So it’s better you get away and reach Touma than for both of us to be caught.)”
“…”
The girl’s resolve made Othinus gasp.
And she was a true war god who had sacrificed an eye in exchange for wisdom.
“If Touma knows about this, he can do something. Even against Alice. So hurry!”
“(That sort of cunning sacrifice is a job for a war god like me, dammit!)”
Before Othinus could stop her, Index ran off toward a more open space.
She was intentionally getting herself caught.
After all, they had just seen Rosencreutz slaughtered for no good reason. They had no guarantee that the current Alice Anotherbible and the young butler who served her were operating on even the barest minimum of logic.
And Index still chose this.
She tried her best to suppress her trembling, pushed down the desire to run away too, and risked her life on the one possibility of getting word back to Kamijou Touma.
Magic God Othinus accepted that resolve.
(That stupid idiot can’t even fight!!)
CRC – Christian Rosencreutz – had been defeated, but this was not over. Her ignorant understander had just overcome a great threat, so he would be at his least guarded. If he failed to recognize the extraordinary threat that was Alice Anotherbible in time, the consequences could be dire.
He would regret his own actions if this led to tragedy. Even if it wasn’t his fault.
So Othinus had to reach him.
Did Index recognize the value of information more than the average person because of the 103,001 grimoires in her head? She had sacrificed herself to let Othinus escape because she understood the worst option was to let the line of information be cut off here.
Light flashed.
A dull sound followed.
H.T. Trismegistus and Alice Anotherbible had taken action.
But there was no scream from Index. However, that didn’t mean nothing had happened. Othinus clenched her teeth but forced herself not to think about rescuing Index.
Index herself wouldn’t want that.
Giving in to easy emotion would waste the girl’s resolve.
Othinus cold-heartedly turned her back and continued on, just like Index wanted of her. She silently slipped away into the gap between the storage units, which was a lot like an alley between skyscrapers for the 15cm god.
She ran through and out the other side.
“Are you kidding me? I know I’m only still alive as a form of punishment, but this still seems like a bit much, world.”
But after all that, someone stood in her way.
Othinus came to a stop.
However, this was not a Transcendent or Alice Anotherbible.
“Ugh.”
Something emerged from the shadows. And it wasn’t alone.
It was an entire group of local stray cats.
But they were more than enough of a threat for 15cm Othinus.
One would have been bad enough, but there appeared to be five or six of them.
She couldn’t stand up to them and they could catch her even if she tried to run. Then she would be literally tormented to death. If she died here, no one would pass on the news that Alice Anotherbible was back. Did the world’s destruction really hinge on something as silly as this?
“A-argh! Are these city-dwelling animals who have lost their wild side really going to be what stops me in the very end!?”
No matter how great her mission or how firm her resolve, the world remained just as cruel. Even as a Norse war god – no, specifically because of it – she could not fight this kind wicked coincidence – this kind of deadly fate.
Just then, something intruded from the side.
The many bright eyes in the shadows were thrown into disarray.
A shadowy battle had begun.
Paws kicked off gravel and weeds, fur rushed through the air, and low growls wobbled unsteadily.
The feline presences left.
Something had driven off all those bearers of claws and fangs.
A single form emerged from the shadows.
And mewed.
He wore a belled collar around his neck.
He was Magic God Othinus’s nemesis ever since being reduced to 15cm. He was the calico cat.
“Th-the beast! You did this?”
Despite being a house-raised kitten, he had taken on a group of stray adults and driven them off. It honestly made Othinus fear for her future.
The cat crouched down in front of her.
He could not speak human language.
But his eyes said “hop on”.
(Hmph. I thought he was just an insolent kitten, but he’s developed the spirit of a true einherjar since I last saw him.)
The 15cm god hopped onto his soft back and grabbed onto the back of his collar in place of reins.
“Onward, Sleipnir!! Carry your god!!!”
She was nearly thrown off.
His name was Sphinx, so he shook his body in protest.
