Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume7 Chapter3

Chapter 3: The Next Move – Witch_Trial.

Part 1

“The girl is ready to eat!!”

“…”

Alice put on a perfect smile and made her announcement as the center of the world.

She had taken the seat of honor at a very long table inside the white castle’s large dining hall. An impressive array of food covered the table as if that was just the way of things here. Everything clearly followed Western culture, but each course of the meal was not brought out separately. And the silverware only included a single knife and fork per plate.

“Here, Alice. Make sure to wear a napkin.”

“Nh.”

“Wouldn’t it be best to cut this up on a separate plate? You prefer using a plastic cocktail pick instead of a fork, don’t you?”

“I want a bento food pick! The shiny see-through ones are so grownup and cool!!”

The young butler H. T. Trismegistus’s cloak seemed to contain anything and everything. He also swiftly took care of Alice without getting in her way. He had denied it himself, but the way he looked after her sure made him look like her tutor.

“(Hey, Othinus. What does Trismegistus mean? Some kind of god?)”

“(There is of course a story behind the name, but the legend that still remains in the current world doesn’t point to a specific individual. It’s something like a shared penname ancient scholars would use to release their papers anonymously.)”

So was the concept of a throwaway account a modern continuation of an ancient tradition? But what did that mean for this young man using the name?

Kamijou didn’t have a clue about Western etiquette (was there even such a thing as a singular “Western” etiquette when, even limiting your definition of Western to only include Europe, that category included everything from Greenland in the west to Russia in the east?), but the man had hung the head of his black cane from the back of his chair.

“Alice does not like having each course brought out in turn. Yes, common sense says she prefers to do things trattoria style.”

“Ooh, meatballs! They’re made from almost the same thing, but they still seem so different from the small hamburger steaks in a bento.”

“If you ask mama, the distinction is similar to the difference between gyoza and shumai, Alice.”

“Yay, there’s Chinese food too!”

Kamijou had trouble focusing on the food when Mut Thebes, the Transcendent punishment or execution expert, was eating at the same table as him, but when their eyes met, she silently passed him the French dressing. Apparently she wasn’t in a bad mood – that was just how she always looked.

Othinus, meanwhile, was worried about being drugged and had the cat try the food first, but Index started chowing down immediately.

“Yum. This home food is just as good as restaurant food.”

“Yeah, can’t say I expected home cooking here,” replied Kamijou.

“(Why is it such a surprise? Mama only wants everyone to feel at home.)”

Kamijou hesitantly dipped his spoon into his soup. So that woman was the ultimate magical healer, could fight according to Kumokawa-senpai, and was willing to do all the housework? Was there anything she couldn’t do?

He had a feeling the Transcendents wouldn’t try to poison the food. If they wanted him dead, they could have obliterated him with simple brute force.

“You eat too, Aradia. You’ve missed mama’s cooking, haven’t you?”

“…”

The witch goddess looked uncomfortable.

She knew the others weren’t going to suddenly attack since Alice was against it, but she wasn’t sure where she stood in the Bridge Builders Cabal.

“H. T. Trismegistus, you aren’t going to eat your fries? Then the girl will take them.”

“I am saving them to eat after my baked potato, Alice. And I see you are stealing them with your fork despite my explanation!”

The young butler tearfully protested, but Kamijou was curious what the difference was between these Western-style baked potatoes and Japanese-style buttered potatoes.

It looked like H. T. Trismegistus let himself be bullied while Good, Old Mary tried to control Alice through her stomach. As Kamijou noticed each cabal member’s strategy, what might have looked like an enjoyable meal seemed a lot more like a game of chess or shogi surrounding Alice.

But even that wasn’t perfect.

So whether they were a Rescuer or a Killer, the Transcendents all feared the boy who could freely influence Alice.

Kamijou glanced to the side. It was already dark outside the window. The sun set early at the start of the year, but it was already well into the night.

Q. Why was he doing this?

A. “Eh? Because you’re spending the night at the girl’s house, teacher.”

Alice had made it sound like a foregone conclusion.

He could have refused and he doubted she would have stopped him from leaving. But doing that would have made it even harder to predict the actions of the other Transcendents who were so interested in Alice Anotherbible’s moods.

“Hm. The girl’s soda water has gotten warm.”

“Shall I pour you a new glass, Alice?”

“No!! The girl wants this glass!”

“Very well. Your wish is my command.”

The young butler was clearly accustomed to her childish demands. He opened a tiered storage container he pulled from his pocket and then held an icepack of dry ice against the glass to cool its contents. Kamijou got the feeling the guy had a canister of carbon gas in there too.

H. T. Trismegistus’s job was to look after Alice (and clean up the mess she made while eating), but the food preparation was handled by Good, Old Mary.

Othinus, who was being careful to only eat something she had seen another human or the cat eat first, whispered to Kamijou with a piece of bread in both hands.

“(Human, have you figured out who you need to keep an eye on?)”

“…”

“(In this case, it isn’t Alice.)”

He agreed with that.

He didn’t know the exact number of Transcendents staying in the Bridge Builders Cabal Consulate, but the one who terrified him the most was Good, Old Mary.

Resurrection.

Even death could be reversed.

Aradia and the Bologna Succubus’s mysterious spells had appeared to be purely destructive in nature, but this would bring great chaos to the world in a different way entirely. For example, if all of humanity came together and used up all of Earth’s natural and human resources to defeat a single Transcendent, it might not end there. If Good, Old Mary used her resurrection, that Transcendent would be good as new while everyone else remained worn down. Kamijou didn’t even want to think about that possibility.

So as dangerous as the Transcendents were on their own, they might push past their usual limits on the assumption they could be resurrected.

It felt like having the frog doctor on your enemy’s side. Kamijou felt ungrateful since she had already saved his life more than once, but it was those rescues from beyond the verge of death that told him just how abnormal Good, Old Mary was.

(On that note, Alice’s abilities seem so depthless she could handle both destruction and resurrection.)

“This bread is good. I didn’t know just bread could taste good, but it does.”

“That is because mama baked it from scratch herself.”

It sounded like Index and the mama were hitting it off. Or rather, the latter was winning over the former with food.

Then Kamijou noticed a silver cart next to Good, Old Mary. It contained portions of the same food Alice was eating.

“What’s that for?”

“Mama is willing to forgive people for not showing up at the table for mealtime. Especially when they are recuperating in their room like the Bologna Succubus is.”

“…”

This was something he had hoped to see for himself. He had been told she was fine, but still.

“(Do not take the bait, human. Did you learn nothing from Los Angeles? Hopes can quickly transform into vulnerabilities.)”

“(But…)”

The Bologna Succubus had seemed different from the rest of the Bridge Builders Cabal (including Alice). She looked wild with the horns on her head and wings on her back, but of all the members he had met so far, she had had the most solid head on her shoulders.

“(Mama has been perfectly reasonable with you at every turn and I still rank below Miss Walks-Around-In-Her-Underwear?)”

Good, Old Mary was squirming for some reason, but he decided to ignore it…which must have shown on his face because an even deeper shadow fell over her face.

But for now, he was focused on the Bologna Succubus. He still had trouble believing some things.

For example, there was that traitor Anna Sprengel.

The rise and fall of R&C Occultics he could understand. That had been Anna’s personal toy. But even as an outsider, he could tell it meant a lot that Alice Anotherbible had appeared before him.

“We are not like the Magic Gods,” said H. T. Trismegistus.

Was the silent tension in the air coming from Mut Thebes, the executioner Transcendent?

“What I mean is, we do not attempt to gather the people’s faith or be worshiped as gods. I have no desire to spread the name of my beloved master among the people. Simply put, the fact that our presence is so widely known is a major failure in and of itself.”

If Alice hadn’t appeared out of nowhere and followed Kamijou around in the dark side of Academy City on December 29, the world never would have known the name of the Bridge Builders Cabal. If the Transcendents were gathering to fulfill some master plan, then that alone was a significant mistake.

For the Transcendents like Aradia and the Bologna Succubus, the battle in Shibuya on the 31st had been a highly unusual occurrence. Internal conflict hurt them far more than it benefited them. And dragging all of Shibuya into that conflict set things up so the entire cabal looked like villains.

It made sense the cabal would want to punish Anna Sprengel.

But was that reason enough to kill her?

Kamijou thought about it for a bit.

Setting aside his feelings, was it even possible to physically attack and kill that monster?

He guessed it was possible. Those Shrink Drink spears contained a special liquid in the head. Being pierced by one and forcibly injected with the liquid was supposedly game over for Anna Sprengel, so she probably really would die. It wouldn’t just defeat her or aggravate her. It would kill her.

Anna was certainly a fearsome magician, but she couldn’t vanish into thin air or pass through walls. In a 1-on-1 battle, a dense enough barrage would make it impossible for her to dodge and she could take a direct hit. Kamijou had defeated her on the 25th because fighting with St. Germain’s help had given him more options to use.

But that realistic path toward killing her was the entire problem.

The cabal was not split into Rescuers and Killers over the question of striking back at Anna. The entire cabal agreed with it (except for Aradia who they hadn’t been able to reach until now). Did that mean the Bologna Succubus agreed too? After she had thrown away her own life to protect a stranger like Kamijou?

But…

“O-oh, right. Alice, what about your vegetables? If you do not want them, I can put them in a container and eat them as a late night snack.”

“No, these aren’t just any vegetables. They were steamed in butter! This is the good kind!!”

“I see. You are such a good girl with plenty of common sense. Ah ha ha.”

Kamijou’s mind was entirely focused on the Bologna Succubus, but something in a corner of his mind stopped him. Could he really ignore everything underway here?

H. T. Trismegistus was saying a lot to Alice with a smile, but he had given up on actually influencing her on his own.

At first glance, the consulate was heaven for Alice. It was filled with things she liked.

But the Transcendents’ actions were rooted in fear.

The young butler called her his “beloved master”, but he appeared to be standing on a foundation of fear.

No matter how close any of them got to her, they could never have a real connection that way. Even if none of them actually harmed her, none of them could save her from her loneliness either. It was like an automated store run by polite prerecorded phrases. The smiles here were only for show.

Which of them was the real monster?

Could he really conclude that it was exposure to this environment that had twisted Alice?

Good, Old Mary glanced over at the cart of food.

“Please excuse mama for a bit.”

“Oh, if you’re going to the Bologna Succubus, I’ll join you.”

This was what Kamijou wanted all along.

But there was no rule limiting him to only wanting one thing.

“You come too, Alice. We can visit that dumbass and see how she’s doing.”

“Yes, teacher!!”

Alice sprang from her seat of honor.

Index was still working at the food and looked confused why anyone would want to leave the table and 15cm Othinus slapped her forehead while seated on the table.

But the seating arrangement no longer mattered. Now Alice was just another part of the crowd like Kamijou.

Good, Old Mary tilted her head with her eyes still hidden by her large hat.

“Mama doesn’t mind and the Bologna Succubus was worried about you too.”

H. T. Trismegistus’s jaw dropped while various tools spilled from his cloak, so Kamijou doubted inviting him was a good idea. Instead, Kamijou turned to the witch goddess who looked just as shocked.

“What about you, Aradia?”

She vigorously shook her head.

Things were awkward for her in the cabal after losing her battle, but she must have decided being surrounded by her old cabal-mates was better than ending up 1-on-1 with Alice.

But Kamijou ignored that and grinned.

“Oh? You’re that opposed to staying here? Yeah, I can see why. After everything you did on the 31st, it would make sense to go apologize to the Bologna Succubus.”

“I-”

“Right, teacher? We all need to get along.”

“~ ~ ~!?”

Aradia tearfully gnashed her teeth. She looked like someone whose escape route had been cut off by a horizontal line of landmines.

And with that settled…

“(Index, you can eat every bit of this food, so you look after things here.)”

“Hm? But this food already belongs to me.”

“(Just listen. I want you and Othinus to observe H. T. Trismegistus. Things should relax in here after Alice and I leave and I want to know if he lets anything slip as soon as he doesn’t have to look after Alice anymore. With your perfect memory and Othinus’s knowledge of inhuman magic, you might be able to figure something out together.)”

“(Not so fast, human! Don’t leave me behind with that cat!!)”

The god was unusually tearful and shaken, but with all this food on the table, he didn’t trust Index alone to keep watch even if she did have a perfect memory.

“Don’t worry.”

“Yikes!!” yelped Kamijou, jumping on the spot.

Mut Thebes had ended up right behind him without him noticing. That was super scary with an execution expert.

This was also his first time hearing her speak. She had a lovely, almost musical, voice.

“I will watch over them. If that gloomy butler tries anything, I will end his life on the spot, so there is nothing to worry about.”

“I-Is that so?”

“Make no mistake. I simply do not want anything to ruin my meal time. I happen to like sharing my meals with people who are enjoying themselves.”

Apparently Transcendents these days came equipped with a tsundere mode.

Good, Old Mary pushed the cart out of the dining hall, so Kamijou and Alice followed after her (while dragging along an empty-eyed Aradia whose soul was starting to escape through her mouth). Preventing Alice from swiping food from the cart became Kamijou’s job.

He sensed someone’s gaze and found Good, Old Mary was looking back at him while pushing the cart. …Oh? It was hard to tell which direction she was facing with the large hat hiding her eyeline, but could she really safely turn her head that far?

“…”

“Wh-what do you want? It’s hard to breathe when you stare silently like that.”

“Nothing.” She shook her head and the large hat on her head. “I was simply noticing that you really do have the power to get Alice to obey.”

“Of course he does. Because he is the girl’s teacher!!” replied Alice while he restrained her. Really, he was lifting her up like a stuffed animal while she waved her arms and legs in delight.

(The girl’s teacher, huh?)

Anna Sprengel had apparently done something to Alice, but what exactly had she done to make Alice so obedient?

“…”

Then Aradia glared quite harshly at him. Come to think of it, hadn’t she been with the Killers who were trying to take his life to prevent Alice from turning out this way?

She had been temporarily stripped of her magic by the duct tape around her feet, but that wouldn’t last forever.

Regardless, the demoness was his priority right now.

On the 31st, Kumokawa Seria and Good, Old Mary had worked to save the Bologna Succubus, but apparently she was still too weak to leave the consulate or even show up to dinner in the same building. What was her condition like? Hopefully she didn’t have casts on all her limbs with tubes and electrodes covering the rest of her.

Kamijou continued following Good, Old Mary and the cart down the hallway. She never entered any of the rooms. Instead, she opened an accordion door and pushed just the cart onto a small elevator. Apparently she didn’t use magic to make the glasses and plates float around.

Kamijou felt like he had lost his chance to lower Alice to the floor, so he held onto the playfully squirming girl while looking up at the ceiling.

“Is the Bologna Succubus up there?

“Yes, we were free to choose our own rooms and that idiot insisted on having one on the top floor. She was still better than Alice who wanted to stay in the basement storeroom or attic, though.”

The casual insults helped make them sound like friends.

They walked down a hallway lined with giant flower pots and goddess statues that probably had some meaning which was lost on Kamijou. On the way to the stairs, they passed by someone Kamijou didn’t recognize. Since Aradia looked away awkwardly and used Kamijou as a shield, he guessed this was another Transcendent.

How many Transcendents were there in all?

Hopefully they were a chosen few like with the Level 5s and Saints, but that was really only wishful thinking on his part. They might not have a set number like with God’s Right Seat. The thought of those extraordinarily powerful beings numbering 10 or 20 thousand like the clones was too terrifying to consider.

Good, Old Mary whispered to him while walking silently.

“(Aradia is acting just like a girl in a haunted house. Make sure you check this out. It isn’t often you’ll find a young woman’s vulnerabilities so clearly on display.)”

“I can hear you, you know?”

Aradia shut her eyes and stuck up her nose, but she continued clinging to Kamijou’s right arm with all her might. That could be cute with a small girl like Alice, but he wasn’t sure what to do with someone who gave off as many pheromones as Aradia. His spine tensed every time he felt that soft sensation bumping into him.

Good, Old Mary collected the cart from the elevator in the third floor hallway. Unlike an apartment building or student dorm, the hallways took lots of twists and turns (which meant the number and size of the rooms wasn’t standardized). They made their way through the labyrinthine consulate before stopping at a door.

Good, Old Mary knocked thrice and called out.

“Bologna Succubus.”

There was a keyhole in the door even though it was an interior door.

“Mama is here with your dinner.”

But apparently the occupant was willing to leave the key with someone else.

Good, Old Mary lifted her large hat with one hand and pulled out an old-fashioned key that had been balanced(?) on her head. It was just the one key, not a ring of them, so it was probably a master key.

This may have been a hint of how much camaraderie there was in the Bridge Builders Cabal.

The click of the lock opening sounded awfully loud.

“?”

Alice looked curiously up at Kamijou. Maybe because he had quickly put her down on the floor.

He audibly gulped.

Every tube in his neck was so dry they seemed to catch.

How bad were the Bologna Succubus’s injuries really?

She hadn’t needed to go through any of that. If Kamijou hadn’t been so weak or if he had recognized the dangers of being killed repeatedly, she wouldn’t have had to replenish his opportunity for resurrection like that.

“We are coming in,” announced Good, Old Mary.

And she opened the door.

“Take this! And this! Yes, yes! Bang! Bang! Bang!! No, why was the southern tank units wiped out? What, a drone loaded with aerial bombs? Uh, oh. Is that a playable unit and not just an indiscriminate NPC for the event!? Did this nincompoop buy all the new units in the shop the instant the new update went through!? Gyahhhh!!”

She was there.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed.

She didn’t see any of them because she was playing an FPS game with VR goggles on.

She was making the most of life in Academy City where technology was said to be 20 or 30 years ahead of the outside world. Beyond her usual one-piece corset, she also had bandages all over her body, but she was going nuts on the bed there. She would lean to the side in her cross-legged position and swing the controllers around quite dangerously. Stepping too close was liable to get you slapped in the face with a tail or a wing.

Good, Old Mary silently pushed the cart into the room, casually grabbed a curly pink goat horn, and slammed the wounded woman onto her back. She kept rolling back from there, so she ended up with her butt sticking up in the air while still in her cross-legged pose.

“Show some appreciation for the food and respond when people talk to you, Bologna Succubus. Hmph!”

“Gwahhh!!”

The Bologna Succubus’s tail flailed wildly with her butt sticking up. The impact had knocked the VR goggles out of place, so the room’s fluorescent lights had dazzled her eyes.

“Oh, the lad. Long time, no see.”

“Hey, Good, Old Mary? What’s happening? Her common tones are sounding all 8-bit. Does yanking on a demon’s horn break their brain that badly!?”

“This is her idea of a joke. Taking it seriously will only encourage her, so please don’t.”

Then the Bologna Succubus noticed something else: Alice was staring all sparkly-eyed at the VR game set. The young girl was fixated on the flatscreen TV linked with the goggles.

“What is this? Hee hee. Yay! The girl wants to play too!!”

“Bologna Succubus!!” shouted Good, Old Mary, uncharacteristically(?) raising her voice.

Unseen tension filled the room.

This was Cold Mistress, the Bologna Succubus’s Transcendent spell. Didn’t it replace hunger, lust, sleepiness, and all other pleasure signals with pain?

And if used correctly, it was supposedly the only spell with the possibility of rivalling Alice.

“?”

Alice seemed like an embodiment of joy as she rushed for the device with a huge smile, but then she slowed.

The Bologna Succubus spread her pink wings wide to get in the way.

“Halt, cease, desist!! I forcibly added an unofficial blood & guts processing pack to the downloadable version on Steal, so the actual rating would be well into adults only territory. It’s great for playing online matches, but you can’t use it in the official tournaments. Nothing this gory would be a good match for a gal a doll like you, Alice.”

The Bologna Succubus must have concluded this wasn’t actually going to stop Alice’s charge because she crawled to the edge of the bed, let her upper body fall to the floor, and grabbed the main power cable to the power strip. She yanked that out, bringing down all the gaming equipment at once. Only her butt remained on the bed, so it looked a lot like she was sticking it out.

Alice tilted her head.

“I can’t play?”

“Alice, this game is a lot more suitable for a noble lady like you. It’s called Manju Crossing!”

“?” Kamijou looked confused.

He agreed that a small girl (she was a small girl, wasn’t she?) shouldn’t be playing a ridiculous FPS which made a point of representing war in a hyper realistic way and then turned around and let the player fire N, B, and C weapons, but why were the Transcendents all panicking over it?

“We said Alice must never get her hands on a smartphone or tablet, Bologna Succubus,” said Aradia with fear written on her face. “Letting her watch an online drama or Hollywood movie would not end well.”

“You’re the ones that barged in here with her,” argued the Bologna Succubus, pouting her lips.

There was a clattering sound.

The Bologna Succubus had a red tube extending from the inside of her elbow. It was connected to an IV stand next to her bed. The bag hanging from that contained a red liquid with a gemlike shine. It was strange, but Kamijou didn’t feel any kind of biological reaction when he saw all that red contained in a hygienic pack instead of flowing from someone’s body or splattered on the floor. He recalled that the demon couldn’t receive a transfusion of human blood with a normal blood type, so was this something special, like her own blood or artificial plasma?

She must have noticed him staring.

The bandaged Bologna Succubus returned to her cross-legged position on the bed and placed her other hand on the inside of her elbow.

“You don’t need to worry about this, boy. In fact, what are you doing this deep in the Bridge Builders Cabal so soon after that mess?”

“What is that stuff”

“What? It’s only some transfusion fluid. Really, what doesn’t make sense here is you. Did you even go to the hospital? Aradia there killed you several times and Good, Old Mary forcibly resurrected you in a way I can’t explain. Aren’t you concerned about your health?”

He could only look away and cough.

Were the hospitals even running on New Year’s? The usual frog had to be his best bet!!

“(All mama has done is go around saving people and now you act like I’m a land mine to be avoided.)”

She didn’t seem completely out of it, but Good, Old Mary was looking depressed as she swiftly sliced up some round bread and cheese with her multitool that had a seal mascot attached.

The Bologna Succubus rubbed her hands together and licked her lips while observing all the food that Good, Old Mary lined up on the small bedside table.

“So how deep have you gotten in this, boy?”

“Anna Sprengel. I heard she was the cabal’s top priority. Something about protecting your secrets.”

Kamijou pulled up a seat and cautiously broached the subject while the Bologna Succubus grabbed some of the bread.

“Yeah, and Anna started that whole kotatsu syndrome thing which is even affecting us.”

“Eh?”

That didn’t come from Alice Anotherbible? thought Kamijou as he watched her laugh and take a sip of milk. (Aradia let him know that succubi loved milk.) She finally continued while smiling and sharing her cheese with Alice.

“She let R&C Occultics run wild to start up a global anti-elite movement and then used Alice as a trigger to shake everyone up even more. Thanks to that, our collection of Transcendents is seen as an evil organization that threatens the stability of society.”

There were two mysteries here.

First, the Bologna Succubus and Good, Old Mary hadn’t demonstrated any kind of extreme cruelty during the Shibuya battle on the 31st. In fact, they had selflessly assisted a stranger like Kamijou. Why were they now in agreement with the other Transcendents about executing Anna Sprengel?

And second, what would happen to Aradia once that top priority issue was dealt with? He couldn’t have them turn around and decide to silence her since she could also leak their information.

The Bologna Succubus glanced over at Alice.

Alice had found something she liked more than Manju Crossing. She sat on Kamijou’s lap looking as pleased with herself as a king, but she tilted her head curiously when the Transcendent looked her way.

Kamijou decided he needed to ask, but couldn’t build up much momentum and remained hesitant.

“What…do you plan to do about it?”

She was as close to a good guy as there was in the Bridge Builders Cabal.

She was the reasonable member of the group.

But the next thing she said overturned that image Kamijou had constructed.

“’Probably kill her. I mean, the accusations against Anna Sprengel are anything but false and I’m not so nice that I’m going to head out and save the guilty criminal who betrayed us all.”

Kamijou really did stop breathing – and even lost consciousness – for a few seconds.

He felt like he had gone to the biggest police station in town in search of help, but they slammed the metal shutter in his face and told him to get lost. This proved that H. T. Trismegistus hadn’t been putting words in the Bologna Succubus’s mouth. They really did all agree on this point. She had said it herself: she wasn’t going to save a criminal.

“…”

“You’re asking mama now?”

Not so much out of strategy than out of desperation, Kamijou turned to look at the other more reasonable cabal member, but Good, Old Mary only tilted her head in the large hat.

She seemed to be asking why he had so much trouble understanding something so simple.

This was all it took for them to use the spiritual item left in Mut Thebes’s care. The countless javelins bound in an X-shape within a single binder. The words “drink me” taken straight from Alice in Wonderland. They hadn’t created the Shrink Drink in order to threaten Anna into obeying. They truly meant to kill her.

“This case does not match mama’s condition either. So like it or not, I simply have no reason to save Anna Sprengel.”

Kamijou’s mouth flapped like a goldfish but no words came out.

Her condition?

What was that about?

What was this powerful sense of wrongness roiling in his chest?

“I take it you’ve noticed,” whispered Aradia by his side.

She was the very enemy who had attempted to take his life on December 31. In fact, she had killed him. Quite thoroughly and more than once. She was supposed to be the last one he could hold a reasonable conversation with, so why did she seem like the only one he could actually speak with anymore?

“Each Transcendent has their own reason for joining the Bridge Builders Cabal. And that reason is always about protecting something beyond ourselves. That is even true for me and for H. T. Trismegistus. But on the other hand, we never do anything on a whim. We gathered with a clear purpose, so whether or not an action advances that purpose is crucial information when we make a decision.”

“But…but.”

“If it fit our search criteria, one of us would save Anna. But none of us have stepped forward to do so. I expect that is the whole story here.”

“What do you mean you don’t do anything on a whim? What about you, Bologna Succubus!? You risked your life to save a stranger like me!!”

“Yeah, but only because you were falsely accused.”

“And you, Good, Old Mary!?”

“Mama is only freely distributing the saving substances that shouldn’t be limited to the privileged class who were chosen by a miracle.”

This is what our search result says.

So why are you still questioning it?

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

Kamijou realized he was drenched with sweat.

This wasn’t right.

These Transcendents were fundamentally different from the powerful foes he had faced before. They weren’t like Accelerator, Fiamma of the Right, Magic God Othinus, Kamisato Kakeru, or Great Demon Coronzon. It wasn’t about good or evil. It wasn’t about what they liked or disliked. They simply saved whoever met their conditions. And it wasn’t some condescending thing where they chose to do it on a whim. If someone happened to meet the conditions, they would turn against their oldest allies or even sacrifice their own life to carry it out.

So what if Kamijou hadn’t met just one of the Bologna Succubus’s conditions on the 31st? What if he hadn’t matched Good, Old Mary’s rules?

Or what if someone else who met their conditions showed up and he was an obstacle to saving that person?

(This isn’t working.)

Aradia, the Bologna Succubus, and Good, Old Mary.

Why had he thought they were safe?

Everyone else in this lockable room were Transcendents of the Bridge Builders Cabal.

He felt like he was in a space ruled by the inhuman – like he was inside a ferocious beast’s cage at the zoo.

(It might look like we’ve gotten closer, but deep down we’re kilometers apart. This isn’t just about Aradia or H. T. Trismegistus. I thought the Bologna Succubus and Good, Old Mary were on my side…but I just didn’t understand how Transcendents work!!)

And…

“Teacher, teacher, teacher!”

Alice smiled and kicked her legs in Kamijou’s lap.

She was Tyrant Alice, the greatest irregularity who all the other Transcendents feared.

But this new information changed how he viewed her. Who said the winner of a majority vote was always correct? Why had he never considered the possibility that it was all the other Transcendents who feared Alice that were wrong? And after seeing firsthand how often her whims had saved lives in Academy City’s dark side!!

For example, what if Alice Anotherbible was a young and incomplete Transcendent in the sense that she had yet to decide on the conditions for her salvation? That would explain why her actions seemed so capricious and not based on any consistent rules. Some people would be saved as a result and others might die. It was also possible that the sweet words that little villain girl had whispered in Alice’s ear may have shifted the scales there.

A lack of consistent rules was a scary thing at first glance.

That was unavoidable when people’s lives were at stake and you couldn’t predict what she would do next.

But was that really so bad? Since you couldn’t tell what Alice was thinking, she might decide on a whim to save a kitten on the roadside. Meanwhile, the other Transcendents viewed everything through the lens of their conditions and would abandon someone to die if they failed to meet even one item on their list. Which one of those was more messed up?

You couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

You couldn’t perfectly predict what she would do next.

But…wasn’t that how it worked for normal human beings?

“Aradia.”

“What?”

“What about you? Does Anna Sprengel meet your conditions?”

“It’s a tricky one. I might consider it since she’s a woman who uses magic, but she also has the financial power to singlehandedly build up a global IT company. She just doesn’t feel like a poor witch being unjustly persecuted by the wealthy Christian church. So my internal scales would be 2-to-8 between saving and killing. I could possibly change my mind if you had additional conditions for me to consider, but if I had to make up my mind right this instant, I would go with the latter option.”

Kamijou smiled a little.

Finally.

He felt like he was speaking with space aliens here, but did Aradia realize what she had said?

She said it was “a tricky one”.

So she couldn’t overturn her 2-to-8 decision, but she was willing to call it tricky. To Kamijou, that word hinted at a fragment of something beyond the cold judgment – something unnecessary and inefficient.

(What is happening here?)

None of this changed that Alice saved his life on the 29th and both the Bologna Succubus and Good, Old Mary saved his life on the 31st.

So why was he having a much easier time reaching an understanding with Aradia who had killed him more than once?

(Is it just that Aradia has a more reasonable set of conditions? Does it help that I’ve sealed her Transcendent abilities with the duct tape on her feet? Or did something in her change while being separated from the cabal for a time?)

He could come up with a number of theories, but no answers were forthcoming.

For one thing, he didn’t know what a Transcendent really was. How were they different from a normal magician, from a Saint, or from something special like Fiamma or Othinus? It made sense he couldn’t find an answer when he didn’t have a clear definition for them.

“Alice.”

The room froze over when he spoke to the girl in his arms.

He was the one and only person who could control Tyrant Alice. That was where his value lay for the Transcendents. It may have been even more important than Imagine Breaker here.

Alice kicked her feet while he held her in his lap and she looked up to meet his gaze.

“What is it, teacher?”

“I want to know what you think. You knew Anna Sprengel, didn’t you? I saw her take you back to the Bridge Builders Cabal on the 29th.”

“Yes!”

“So what do you want to do with her? I get why the cabal as a whole wants to do this, but I know you’re not bound by any of that.”

“The girl doesn’t really care.”

That was about as much of a non-answer as you could get.

That may have been a response a completed Transcendent could never give.

“But the girl doesn’t like liars and traitors very much.”

“…”

That was much more of an answer.

The eyes looking up into his while she leaned back into his chest were pure as could be. She was deciding someone’s fate with the logic of a child.

Sure enough, if the Shrink Drink spears meant to kill Anna came from Alice in Wonderland, then it was reasonable to assume Alice had helped Mut Thebes make those.

Alice’s internal scales were probably wavering between whether Anna Sprengel’s betrayal was directed at the cabal as a whole or at Alice personally. If the former, then Anna was the friend who taught her a fun game the grownups didn’t want her to know about. If the latter, Anna was the sack of shit who had made a mockery of the trust Alice had placed in her.

To repeat yet again, no one could predict what Alice would do next.

Say Alice held a red flag in one hand and a white flag in the other. One hundred times in a row at a rate of once per second, Alice would raise whichever flag she wanted. If she ever raised the red flag even once – whether on a whim or for a calculated reason – Anna would lose her head. And all the Transcendents around Alice would be begging her to raise the red flag the entire time. Now, under those circumstances, was it really logical to rely on the possibility of Alice saving Anna on a whim?

Kamijou loathed Anna Sprengel. He couldn’t find any reason at all to like her.

Not after what happened with St. Germain and seeing the disaster in Los Angeles with his own eyes. And she may have been involved in the recent tragedies within Academy City too.

But was he willing to kill her? That he wasn’t ready to say.

It wasn’t the solution he had in mind. If capricious Alice was guided by the other Transcendents to kill Anna, Kamijou couldn’t help but feel like that decision didn’t come from Alice’s personal morals.

A small child with a knife could possibly kill someone.

But how could you push that small child toward bloodying their hands like that? And how could you act like Alice was the fearsome monster in that scenario?

Kamijou suddenly remembered what the Bologna Succubus had said on the 31st.

(I’m the only person who can get through a normal conversation with Alice Anotherbible without being killed and I’m the only one who can scold her when she does the wrong thing.)

That was a clearly unnatural situation.

He had a strong feeling Anna Sprengel had a hand in setting it up, but…

(That doesn’t mean I want Anna dead. And I don’t like the idea of Alice killing someone.)

That may have been an impossible goal from the beginning.

Kamijou didn’t know a thing about Alice Anotherbible’s past. If she had been in this environment for long, it was possible she had already killed someone. Based on how terrified the Bologna Succubus had been of her in Shibuya, it seemed likely she had killed, or nearly killed, in the past.

But if he was still going to choose that as his goal…

(That sounds like a decent stance to me. And if I stick with the Bridge Builders Cabal, which is dead set on executing her, could I possibly help Anna escape at the last second?)

Anna Sprengel was of course one of history’s worst women.

Even if he did help her escape execution, letting her go free was much too dangerous.

He already knew from experience that she would simply escape her cell if he punched her and left her with Anti-Skill.

He honestly didn’t know what he could do about this.

He only knew he needed to stand up against what he was certain was wrong.

These people intended to use Tyrant Alice to kill someone they wanted gone.

Be the kind of person who can stand up and say that’s wrong, Kamijou Touma.

Part 2

Kamijou’s visit with the Bologna Succubus came to and end without any real results. In fact, the more information he gathered, the more confused he felt.

He left the room following Good, Old Mary as she pushed out the cart loaded with empty dishes and he asked a question of Aradia by his side.

“What are you doing about a bath? It looks like each room has their own.”

“Why are you, a boy, asking about that? No, never mind. You don’t have to explain it for me. Keep that right hand away from me, Kamijou Touma!!”

He doubted there was any getting out of staying the night at the consulate and he did want to get as much information as possible while he had a chance to stay in contact with the Bridge Builders Cabal. They could also keep an eye on each other and he definitely wanted to know what Mut Thebes, the execution expert, was up to.

Hence his curiosity about Aradia’s bath. Needless to say, Aradia’s spells used her bare feet. Her power could return if she got the duct tape off her feet while he wasn’t paying attention.

“Guess I’ll have to ask Index to handle that again.”

“Could you not strip me of my rights as casually as coming up with tomorrow’s menu?”

“Eh? But who other than Index could-”

“The girl!”

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Uh, oh.”

This idea must not have even occurred to Witch Goddess Aradia because she sounded like someone watching a dump truck about to hit her in slow motion.

And so…

“Ahhhh!? No, wait, Alice. I can do that on my own. I can wash myself there, I promiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise!!!”

“But the girl’s teacher asked her to do this. Look, this is the natural sponge everyone recommended. The girl also has this loofah and this bumpy silicon one! We can try them all out tonight! Scrubby scrubby☆”

“Bologna Succubus, aren’t you going to stop this? Or at least remove the duct tape from her feet?”

“Can’t you see me holding her in place to support her scrubbing assault, Good, Old Mary? She beat me up last year, but now she’s all tied up and begging for attention. Besides, I know firsthand the accusations against her aren’t false, so I have no reason to help her.”

“Mut Thebes. What about you?”

“I believe in the importance of communal bathing.”

Kamijou listened to the female Transcendents through the door.

(They certainly sound like they’re enjoying themselves. But is that only an illusion? The real problem with Transcendents is that this isn’t enough to know who they are deep down.)

He sighed out in the hallway.

It was like they could understand each other’s words, but there was some fundamental difference in their viewpoints.

But based on what he heard, he didn’t have to worry about the duct tape being removed from Aradia’s feet. He didn’t need to stand watch over the door, so he chose to leave.

Now was no time for being in such a quiet mood.

(Wait, if Mut Thebes was in the bath with them, then who’s looking after Index and Othinus!?)

Could you not trust a verbal promise from a Transcendent, or was that a problem with Mut Thebes in particular?

He returned to the 1st floor dining hall to find H. T. Trismegistus clearing away the dishes left on the table. He opened another storage case he pulled from a pocket and pulled out a rag, cleaner, and a large tray. Could he fit his black cane in there too?

Index must have eaten a prodigious amount because she was now resting her head on the table in utter satisfaction. 15cm god Othinus hopped up and down on the table to catch his attention. The fearful looks she kept giving the calico cat said she wanted to reclaim her spot on his shoulder immediately.

“(Human, I got a few pieces of information out of H. T. Trismegistus, but…)”

“(But this is a lot more dangerous than you thought? My findings say the same thing. Although those findings are mostly just even more things I now know I don’t know about the Transcendents.)”

H. T. Trismegistus glanced their way while they whispered to each other.

He was a Transcendent as well.

It didn’t matter if he could understand the words they spoke. How much could they actually communicate?

“I began clearing the table when my master showed no sign of returning to eat.”

The young butler prioritized his master Alice above all others, so he must have decided dinner was over when she did not return to the table.

“We all grabbed something in the Bologna Succubus’s room. …There isn’t much food left, is there? Let me guess: Index ate it all.”

“She is a very eco-friendly person.”

“I don’t think that’s what that means.”

The problem was not leaving food behind. The problem was that not enough food made it to everyone. Eating several people’s worth of food on your own, even if it was close to expiring, was not the same thing as being economical. Confusion there was what led to meaningless announcements about “creating a sustainable society by reducing the number of unused take home boxes thrown out”. It was the restaurant that spent year in and year out buying more than they could possibly use and then throwing them out, so why did they sound so smug about cutting that waste in half? And why were they even throwing out take home boxes like it was a seasonal trend?

But the young butler didn’t seem particularly interested in the planet’s future.

“Mental exercise helps digestion as much as the physical type. So how about a game of chess? Alice and the others enjoy playing too.”

“Sorry, but I don’t know the rules to chess.”

The young butler had been partway through pulling out collapsible table and chairs when Kamijou answered and he ended up dropping everything to the floor.

His eyes shook as badly as a university professor who visited a supposedly haunted location with all the latest tech necessary to disprove the existence of ghosts and then started getting some very ghostly readings.

“C-common sense says you can’t possibly have lived 15 or 16 years without learning the rules to chess. E-even Alice knows how to play.”

“Oh, yeah? And when is knowing how to play chess going to help me find the loophole needed to win a battle, you fancy-pants butler?”

Kamijou Touma also didn’t know anything about the cricket game that Alice’s bat came from, but he now knew that was a secret he had to take to his grave.

“Besides, I’m Japanese, so what do you expect? A lot of people pretend to know, but only a handful of people can actually play chess without a set of instructions on how the different pieces move.”

This time, H. T. Trismegistus really did physically collapse backwards. Just toppled over like a felled tree.

The loud sound made Kamijou jump, but the butler himself didn’t even notice.

He rolled onto his side and clawed at the carpet while muttering to himself. Icepacks, headache medicine, and other similar items spilled from his cloak and scattered across the floor around him. He apparently didn’t have a chess rulebook on him and that failure came as something of a shock. To him, chess was apparently as basic a game as rock-paper-scissors or tag.

“C-common sense is not…common to everyone? No, that can’t be. It is absurd. I knew Academy City was a devilish place, but I never imagined it could be this bad. Grgbhdfbeewrby…”

“Hey, Transcendent? Your common tone thingies are breaking down.”

This confirmed H. T. Trismegistus was as eccentric as the rest, but Kamijou’s thoughts on the matter were cut off.

“This is the plank of Carneades.”

“?”

“I saw something like that long ago. The world is a cruel place indeed when people lose their ability to treat the concept of justice with care. No matter how logically you explain your academic theories, there is nothing you can do when people brush them aside based on emotion.”

The young butler didn’t seem intent on saying anything more.

It had come up several times when he spoke, so it sounded like H. T. Trismegistus measured his actions using the idea of “common sense”, or at least his definition of it. He normally felt untouchable there, but once that concept was shaken, it affected the very foundation of his thoughts.

Kamijou couldn’t afford to forget.

Aradia, the Bologna Succubus, Good, Old Mary, Mut Thebes.

And Anna Sprengel.

It wasn’t clear what kind of spells H. T. Trismegistus used, but he was definitely on par with those monsters. And this felt like a case of “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know”.

It wasn’t as simple as duking it out to compare strengths.

This really was a wonderland.

Part 3

It was January 3.

Kamijou Touma had spent the night at a girl’s house.

It was somewhere around 9 or 10 AM and he was eating a lazy breakfast on this vacation day.

“Aradia, hold out your feet.”

“Sigh.”

Aradia was starting to grow accustomed to this, so she sat on the billiards table in the Bridge Builders Cabal Consulate’s recreation room and held her right foot out toward Kamijou on the floor.

The pointy-haired boy held a thick roll of duct tape in his hand.

Wrapping that around her ankles and feet was necessary to seal her powerful magic. But this was only a temporary fix and it wouldn’t last forever. The duct tape had to be periodically replaced, just like bandages.

“Okay, I’m going to take off the old tape. It might hurt some.”

“If you know it’s going to hurt, then don’t do it.”

“You’re the one who freaked out when I tried to use a knife.”

“Of course I did when you aimed a big box cutter at my ankle! Were you not aware that the Achilles tendon is a classic weak point!?”

Aradia snapped at him, but Kamijou was honestly relieved. As long as she didn’t have her Transcendent magic, a simple box cutter was enough to scare her.

He thought back to what happened in the dark side on December 29.

He doubted Alice would be so easily weakened.

He was afraid Aradia would make a run for it if he removed the tape from both her feet at once, so he did it one a time: removing the tape, wiping the foot off with a wet tissue, and then wrapping new tape. The witch goddess on the billiards table scowled at him the entire time, but she did let him do it.

Aradia grabbed a nearby tablet and browsed through the website for a new museum that was linked on the top page of a search engine that doubled as a news site.

“Why am I the only one receiving this kind of treatment when this place is crawling with Transcendents? Taking away my magic doesn’t change much overall.”

“I’m still doing it.”

Kamijou wrapped duct tape around Aradia’s left foot too and then made sure none of the sticky side was exposed and none of the tape was coming off.

“There, all done. After dealing with the more immediate problems, I need to find a more fundamental solution here. In a house like this that lets you walk around in shoes, maybe it would be easier to have you wear some cheap shoes and tape up the ankles real good, but…”

“?”

Aradia looked confused.

But when she looked down, she found her answer. Sitting on the billiards table and holding her leg out toward the kneeling boy placed her crotch right at his eye level.

“…”

“Wait! I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear! And I’ve been meaning to ask – is that sexy outfit a swimsuit or underwear? Seems to me the answer to that should influence your response here!!”

Apparently that true idiot was unaware it wasn’t okay to stare at a girl’s crotch even if she was wearing a swimsuit or pants.

Aradia jammed her foot into his mouth quite forcefully.

The lovely reward only tasted of rubber.

Part 4

Aradia stepped out into the hallway, leaving Kamijou Touma dizzy on the recreation room floor.

The witch goddess looked right, then left, and sighed.

Finally, she shut one eye.

An individual could only remain focused for so long. She had thought he would leave an opening eventually if she pretended to obey for a few days. Her Triple Reload spell was triggered by a witch’s ointment made by mixing several powdered herbs with the sweat and sebum from her own bare feet. That meant she could not use the spell with her feet duct taped up, but that changed if she could be alone for a while.

Anyone could remove the duct tape given enough time.

With a fighter nearby, she would be attacked while attempting persistently trying to remove it, but she could get rid of it safely right now.

She crouched down and brought her hands to her right ankle.

“God, you can tell what an amateur he is from the way he thinks he can keep an enemy indefinitely restrained without some kind of organized power. If he wanted to take my power away for good, he only needed to chop my feet off while I couldn’t resist.”

“That’s what I said.”

Aradia literally jumped from the floor.

The gap between her giant wimple and long silver hair widened and a 15cm god’s exasperated face emerged. The god stood on the witch goddess’s shoulder and whispered into her ear. Which meant she was in the perfect position to jab her arm in Aradia’s ear.

“But that human isn’t willing to do that, so he chose to accept the risks of keeping you around. Do try to pay attention, you overstudying witch.”

“Okay, okay. I get it.”

Aradia slowly raised her hands without straightening back up.

She doubted it would be difficult to crush 15cm Othinus in a hand, but if the tiny god threw out her pride and screamed, she had no idea who would come running. She could guess how Kamijou Touma would react, but she wasn’t sure what Alice or the other Transcendents would do if she exacted violence upon a guest of the consulate. Especially when her position in the group was on shaky footing after losing.

Aradia smiled.

“So are you the organized power tagging along to make up for that foolish high school boy’s mistakes? Surely you know these half-assed restraints aren’t enough to defang me.”

“Why do you think I warned him to remove your feet if it ended up killing you? He’s seen countless times that his foolish efforts go unrewarded, but he still bets his own life on this crap every single time. It makes my head hurt.”

“?”

Aradia looked puzzled and Othinus sighed.

“You can lower your hands. So why do you think that human chose to do this the hard way?”

“Because he isn’t willing to slit his defeated enemy’s throat or at least cut off their limbs to keep them from using magic?”

“Got it in one, dammit.”

Aradia had meant that as an obviously silly reason, so she was taken aback when it turned out to be right.

Othinus went on, sounding a bit sulky.

“Or more accurately, he wants things to end when he defeats an enemy. No matter how harsh the battle, he thinks the end of the fight should signal a new beginning where both sides can throw out their hard feelings and get a fresh start.”

“…”

“Anna Sprengel has shaken his confidence in that idea. He defeated her himself on December 25, but when he left her with Academy City, she easily escaped her cell. And if that weren’t enough, now Academy City and the Bridge Builders Cabal have concluded that killing Anna is the only option. …It all must have come as quite a shock for that kindhearted idiot. That’s why he’s so desperate to prove using you that defeating a powerful enemy is all you need to have a nice happy ending.”

Aradia stared at her right ankle while crouched down like she was retying her shoelaces. She stared at the crude safety device made from the waterproof duct tape the boy happened to have on hand.

“He knows this isn’t the smart thing to do,” said Othinus, looking down on Aradia for scoffing. “But he does it anyway because he thinks he can protect you if he finds a nonlethal way to neutralize a Transcendent. He’s doing all this because he believes your life can still be saved as long as he doesn’t give up, no matter how hopeless it seems. …And here you are mocking him for it. Just goes to show truly selfless acts go unappreciated. Is that one of the cruelties you see in this immature world? Is this one of your complaints with the current world, Transcendent?”

“I never asked him to do this.”

“Then are you going to tear off that duct tape and join your old pals in the Bridge Builders Cabal? You already know they don’t need you as much as you think they do. They have no reason to accept the risk of taking you back in unless you bring them back a souvenir that more than makes up for your failure. Because the fact that he defeated you becomes a vulnerability or backdoor for the cabal as a whole. I don’t know what the cabal’s ultimate goal is, but if they decide you would be a hindrance, they’ll just kill you.”

“I will still become a goddess who is a protector to all witches!! That is the only way I can live my life!! You think you can remove the fangs I need to save people and call it a nonlethal way of saving me? That only leads to a future where I have to watch helplessly as so many others die. You can’t force this compromise on me and assume I’ll just accept to abandon the less fortunate to their suffering. You think too little of Aradia, goddess of witches and ruler of the night and the moon!!!”

This wasn’t about her magic power or spells. That Transcendent’s way of life and determination gave her words enough power to crush someone’s soul.

But it had no affect at all on Othinus.

She may have lost her powers, but she was still a Magic God.

“You say you’re the goddess people expect to save all the witches being unjustly persecuted by the wealthy Christian church?” asked Othinus as if seeking confirmation. “Then you have made a fundamental misunderstanding here.”

“?”

“You didn’t know? That boy is far from unscathed. He carries the scars of all the idiotic stunts he’s ever pulled. To be fair, he chose to do those things on his own, but the majority of them were related to that Index Librorum Prohibitorum. In other words, the Christian church is using an innocent high school boy to protect their ultimate weapon. Oh, and I haven’t seen any sign of them rewarding him or paying him for everything he does. And as a result, he’s missed class so often he’s at risk of having to repeat the year.”

Time stopped within Aradia.

It took more than 5 seconds of actual time for her to get the next word out.

“…What?”

“Also, he has, just once, used magic of his own free will. It happened in his battle against Anna Sprengel on December 25. Of course, he didn’t refine his own lifeforce into magic power and it was mostly done by the microscopic St. Germain infecting his body, but he still chose to use magic to protect everyone in Academy City even though he knew it could mean his death.”

“!!”

Aradia completely stopped breathing for a moment.

Yes.

If she was to truly live the life she had defined for herself…

“And the word witch can also be applied to male practitioners of heretical magic. Just think back to the Bologna Succubus’s story. The person killed at a witch trial for the absurd crime of running a succubus brothel was a man. …Doesn’t this mean that human is someone who was forced to using magic at the risk of his own life because the Christian church took advantage of his kind heart and sent him into battle time and time again? Oh? Aradia, wouldn’t that make him a poor witch unjustly persecuted by the wealthy Christian church? So isn’t it very odd that he’s the one you’re attacking here?”

Originally, witches did not call themselves witches.

They did not seek fame or fortune.

They simply gave nearby villagers advice and secretly dealt with those villagers’ problems using special means unavailable to most people. So no matter how many people a witch saved, they would never be understood or rewarded for their actions.

Just like Aradia had thoughtlessly pushed Kamijou away here.

The witch goddess paled.

“A-are you kidding me!? Do you have any idea how many times I’ve killed him? And I’m supposed to be a guardian to all witches! Sure, maybe I was in no state to think it through on the 31st, but I kept antagonizing him today on January 3! Why didn’t he say anything!?”

“Because saying something would bind you. So he has chosen to abandon the trump card of borrowing your power. He really is betting his life on the absurd idea that one day everyone will come to an understanding without the need for any of those special conditions.”

“…”

The long history of witches was, by and large, a depressing one, but there were some people accused of being witches whose hellish trials were overturned or who were protected by the people and lived out happy lives. For example, there was Biddy Early, a bottle magician who healed injury and disease without asking for any kind of payment, and there was Kyteler, a marquis’s wife who used her authority to fight back against a bishop abusing his own authority. No one determined to be a witch could survive in those days, yet they had done so because the people hadn’t forgotten what their local witch had done for them, had refused to provide false testimony, and had never succumbed to the great pressure of the church that had such power over people’s lives back then.

Aradia had failed to do the same.

Was a violent mob deceived by misinformation the real threat? That wasn’t the only way people could respond. The true saints who saved the lives of the desperate were ordinary people who didn’t think they had done anything special. Crossing that tightrope was second nature to them, so they didn’t see it as something to be proud of.

“That human smiled.”

When Aradia fell silent, the girl known as a god clicked her tongue and made her point even more clearly.

“On December 31, I mean. You probably don’t remember since you had just been punched out, but when he learned that covering your feet would keep you from using your magic, Kamijou Touma breathed a wholehearted sigh of relief. Once he knew how to switch your supernatural power on and off, he didn’t need to fear you anymore. The witch goddess was an extraordinary monster, but he could finally say that cutting off your feet and killing you wasn’t the only option. Sure, the possibility was slim, but you were still savable.”

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

Something replayed in the back of Aradia’s head.

What was it the Bologna Succubus had told her on December 31?

“If you could only calm down some and recall the kinds of hell the witches of yore experienced in those sorry excuses for trials, you would have gone out of your way to become the good goddess of the silent night who would protect Kamijou Touma.”

Othinus had one more thing to say to the dazed witch goddess.

In a tone that said she hadn’t thought Aradia was this dense.

“But your rudeness destroyed even that faint hope. You should thank me, foolish goddess. I’ve chosen to save a stranger like you even if it means smashing up that human’s dreams. Because if you do tear that tape from your feet and kill that human again – and this time doing a thorough enough job that not even this city’s doctors or Good, Old Mary can reverse the process – then you will no longer be able to call yourself a goddess to all witches.”

Part 5

Kamijou had lost track of Aradia after taking his eyes off her for only a moment.

He was legitimately worried as he stepped out into the garden’s bright green grass. The building was so big and labyrinthine he had decided it would be faster to look in through the windows and see if he saw her that way. That was no guarantee of finding her, of course, but he would at least know she wasn’t anywhere visible through the windows.

Of course, this was all assuming she remained at the consulate at all.

“Hey, human.”

Out of nowhere, someone called out to him.

It wasn’t Aradia. He looked back to see the 15cm god giving him a look of exasperation and pity from the witch goddess’s shoulder, as if to say she had found the child he had lost.

“She isn’t going to run away, so don’t worry about that,” said the small but arrogant god. “The deal was for you, the grimoire library, and me to take turns looking after her, remember?”

“Hmph.”

Aradia was in a very bad mood as she entered the garden.

But while she did refuse to look Kamijou in the eye, she didn’t leave either.

When she spoke, it was in a somewhat sulky voice.

She also restlessly toyed with her silver hair.

“You want to stop Anna Sprengel before Mut Thebes can, don’t you? And without killing her if possible.”

Kamijou blinked.

And he tilted his head.

“Aradia, have you mellowed out?”

“Do not even suggest such a thing. I am a Transcendent. I am the goddess of all witches. Do you really think my nature would change so easily?”

Aradia swept her hair back with a hand and glared icily at him.

She and Othinus on her shoulder whispered something back and forth.

“(You’re sure he counts as a witch?)”

“(Why are you getting cold feet and questioning it now? I know you’d prefer it if he was.)”

“?”

Aradia still had waterproof duct tape wrapped around her feet, which meant she hadn’t tried to tear it off while she was alone.

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

Aradia sounded a bit irritated.

And she continued from there.

“The Bridge Builders Cabal has settled on killing Anna Sprengel for being a traitor. Since the Shrink Drink execution spiritual item is already complete and Mut Thebes has already arrived, they would be hard pressed finding a reason not to go through with it. I imagine you think you can hide your true purpose and stick with them so you can find some way of letting that little devil escape at the last second, but that isn’t enough. The Bridge Builders Cabal has hideouts across the globe and can freely travel between them. So even if she escapes for now, they will just send in more and more Transcendents until she can’t possibly escape. Saving her in the here and now isn’t enough to end the threat to her life.”

“So how many Transcendents are there in all?”

“That isn’t important. What matters is that you can’t save Anna Sprengel by rushing in once something has already happened.” Aradia winked. “So you need to get what you want before anything happens. That’s the standard method for preventing harm.”

“Before anything happens?”

“Did you forget, human? The Bridge Builders Cabal is run by the Transcendents gathering together and talking things out,” said Othinus, walking down Aradia’s arm to reach him.

She was right. It was easy to forget with Alice Anotherbible and all the other Transcendents being so extraordinarily powerful, but the Bologna Succubus had said they discussed what path to take the world down and made adjustments accordingly. And the other Transcendents were having trouble because Alice’s child logic was ruining all that.

“You must control the discussion held between the Transcendents,” firmly stated Aradia.

“…”

Kamijou didn’t say anything, so she continued.

“That is the only way to prevent Mut Thebes from executing Anna Sprengel with the Shrink Drink she was lent.”

“I-I’m all for talking things out, but how exactly do we make that happen?”

“I’d like to know that too,” said Othinus. “Aradia, you said yourself that the Bridge Builders Cabal has bases all around the world and we haven’t even seen how many Transcendents are hiding out here. We don’t know who to argue our case to or how many people we have to convince to gain a majority. How do we control the discussion like this?”

“You’re both idiots. Didn’t I say that isn’t important?” interrupted Aradia. “It’s not about how many votes you get. The actions of Alice Anotherbible always hold an important meaning within the cabal.”

“Wait, you mean…?”

“Only you can do this,” said Aradia even as she was distracted by the sight of Mut Thebes walking by a 2nd floor window.

This was a choice that not even the Bologna Succubus or Good, Old Mary could make.

“But to be extra certain, it would be safest to convince anyone here capable of influencing Alice’s actions. There still aren’t very many Transcendents here in the consulate. And only one of those serves as Alice’s aide: H. T. Trisme-”

“Talking about me?” calmly asked the young butler with a cane.

He didn’t seem to have any trouble walking, but that wasn’t enough of a reason to conclude the cane was a spiritual item for his magic. Since it was so conspicuous, it could have been bait to distract from the real spiritual item.

Kamijou wondered what kind of work a butler did in the garden, but there was a table set up in a corner decorated by green grass and colorful flowers. The gardener wouldn’t be in charge of maintaining that.

The young butler smiled thinly when he noticed what Kamijou was looking at.

“I agree it is cold out here during January, but Alice still prefers to drink her tea outside. Heh heh. Sounds like something straight out of a children’s book, doesn’t it?”

“Perfect timing,” said Aradia.

By then, the young butler had already pulled a new table and several chairs from his cloak and finished setting them up. The witch goddess sat down in one of the chairs like this was normal.

“Kamijou Touma, you can gain the Bologna Succubus and Good, Old Mary’s cooperation if you make your request in the correct way.”

Potable water that didn’t need to be boiled was apparently more valuable than something like tea. H. T. Trismegistus handed Kamijou a bottle of ice-cold mineral water, but Kamijou was grimacing at what Aradia had said.

He still couldn’t forget what the Bologna Succubus had said in her room.

“But aren’t they full-on ready to kill her already?”

“Then you need to remove Anna Sprengel from their conditions.”

“Human, take the Bologna Succubus for example. She is a Transcendent who will save anyone, whether she likes them or not, as long as they have been falsely accused. No matter how specious the argument, she should back down as long as you can place Anna in that category.”

Othinus’s explanation made Kamijou frown.

Even if she looked like a winged exhibitionist who walked around town in her underwear, she had still saved his life in Shibuya on the 31st. Even if the Bologna Succubus said otherwise, he wanted to believe there was a deeper meaning and connection between them.

Aradia breathed an exasperated sigh at the pointy-haired boy.

“Stop thinking about what you like and dislike and start thinking about what is correct and incorrect. Not even Good, Old Mary saves everyone indiscriminately using her composite miracles. She only resurrected you in Shibuya because you met her conditions. Figure out for yourself what those conditions are. She doesn’t keep them hidden, so she should have mentioned them already.”

“…”

“There seem to be a few other dangerous Transcendents in the consulate, but you really only need one more. With H. T. Trismegistus here’s help, you would have decent control over everything around Alice. If you have a majority of those in the consulate and Alice herself on your side, the rest of the cabal members around the world should choose to go your way. Mut Thebes can’t act alone because she is a Transcendent who only kills in accordance with her rules. For better or for worse, she only acts according to the organization’s decisions. Everyone fears Alice. She technically only has one vote, but that vote determines how most everyone else votes.”

“Umm, I get the feeling you are dragging me into something messy,” said H. T. Trismegistus. “Especially when you keep mentioning Alice.”

“We will not cause any trouble for your beloved Alice.”

The young butler tilted his head, took a sip from his water bottle, and pulled a notebook from his pocket.

Kamijou’s group explained everything from the beginning.

The angle of H. T. Trismegistus’s head tilt grew as the explanation continued.

“So you wish to retract the order to execute Anna Sprengel with the Shrink Drink?”

“Simply put, yes.”

“But why, Aradia? Setting aside the cabal’s own issues, we all know that villain causes global disasters wherever she goes. She has even interfered with Alice. Why would you work so hard to make her fit your conditions?”

Aradia only shrugged.

H. T. Trismegistus was not being coldhearted. Anna had already done so much. Most likely, the entire 6 or 7 billion population of the Earth would question this decision.

So only Kamijou could answer that question.

“I don’t need a reason now. I can come up with one later.”

“…”

“It was the same in the fights against Accelerator, Fiamma of the Right, Magic God Othinus, Kamisato Kakeru, Aleister, Coronzon, and even myself. If I don’t have a reason to save them, I find one by getting to know them better while we fight.”

Academy City would never forgive Anna Sprengel for what she did to it.

And the many Transcendents of the Bridge Builders Cabal were constructing a practical method of killing Anna.

Kamijou wasn’t interested in forgiving Anna either. What had she done to St. Germain, Los Angeles, and Academy City? If she intended to cause even worse tragedies in the future, he had to stop her even if it meant knocking her out with his fist.

But was blood and death the only possible ending?

Was that really the conclusion Kamijou Touma had sought this whole time?

“I see, I see, I see. So this is the Kamijou Touma that Alice has grown so attached to.”

The young butler sighed in deep exasperation.

“Don’t act like you already understand him,” said Othinus on his shoulder, furious for some reason.

Aradia also viewed Kamijou again with an unreadable expression.

“Hey, H. T. Trismegistus,” said Aradia.

“What do you want?”

“I would like to start by confirming we’re on the same page here. Everything with Anna Sprengel was outside of our plans. Both the changes to Alice’s settings and Kamijou Touma unwittingly becoming Alice’s controller. Do you agree with me so far?”

“I do.”

“Then if we distort the Bridge Builders Cabal and its definition over whether or not we should kill Anna, haven’t we already lost to her? If we kill the traitor and that changes something fundamental about the cabal’s nature, then we are accepting that loss for nothing in return. Anna Sprengel can go to her grave sticking out her tongue and mocking us.” Aradia took a sip of her cold mineral water. “I sense danger in the very fact that we are having a Transcendent create a tool for executing Transcendents. Everyone is too furious with Anna to think about it rationally, but what guarantee of safety do we have if a third party steals that Shrink Drink spear and directs it at us? If this goes wrong, Anna’s ghost will haunt us forevermore.”

“Aradia. I must ask something for my master’s sake,” said the young butler. “I am here to save the majority who believe in the strength of common sense. And I am here to prevent the tragedies that would follow if common sense itself were to be shaken. But that does not mesh with the conditions of your salvation. …That means I am in no position to judge whether or not this boy and Anna Sprengel meet your conditions. So please think of this as a purely hypothetical question.”

“Get on with it.”

“What would you do if one or the other of Kamijou Touma and Anna Sprengel no longer met those conditions? Then this dangerous tightrope walk shaking the power balance of the entire cabal will have been for nothing.”

“True.” The witch goddess laughed, took a deep breath, and gave her answer. “If that were to happen, I might just act on a whim the way Alice does.”

“Is that so?” said H. T. Trismegistus. He held a hand to his thin chin in thought. “The way Alice does, you say? Then common sense can only lead to a single solution.”

Even Kamijou could sense the tension draining from the witch goddess’s shoulders and neck.

Making this suggestion must have been a nerve-wracking experience even for another Transcendent. Kamijou couldn’t keep up with it all since he was an outsider to the cabal. And as an outsider, he didn’t even get a vote in the discussion.

The young butler tapped his cane against the ground and glanced down.

He looked below the table.

He noted the duct tape sealing Aradia’s feet.

He tore a page from his notebook and slowly stood from his seat.

“Transcendent Aradia, I can prevent a lot of future problems by killing you here and now.”

The table and chairs were all blown away.

Something flashed from the young butler’s hand.

It all happened so fast the boy’s understanding and perception were delayed and shredded. At first, Kamijou saw it as an incredibly long whip of light or as a white serpent, but that wasn’t it.

It was a sword.

How long did it take Kamijou to realize that flash came from the sword H. T. Trismegistus had drawn from his black cane? And the powerful sweep of the drawn sword covered a range longer than the cane had been.

So he was much too late to react.

He could only watch while blood erupted from Aradia and she crashed to the ground.

With her feet covered, she couldn’t even defend with her magic.

The young butler had blatantly checked on that before drawing his cane sword.

It was all the result of Kamijou’s own actions.

“Aradiaaaaaa!?”

“You idiot! You need to move away, human!!”

Othinus shouted something into his ear, but Kamijou simply stood there in the garden.

Fight? Against who? Didn’t he need this man’s cooperation?

What about Aradia?

How bad was her condition after erupting with blood and collapsing!?

“You should have seen this coming.”

The young butler actually looked confused.

He returned the beautifully shining blade to its scabbard that doubled as a black cane.

“Aradia, any Transcendent who has already lost contains the risk of losing again and again and again. What does my Alice gain by including such a vulnerability in the cabal? And based on what you have told me, it is obvious you intend to include Alice in your plans. This time, it would not be accidental. Kamijou Touma has begun to consider manipulating Alice Anotherbible’s actions for his own purposes. Any Transcendent with common sense would not let that continue.”

That young butler had said he would not allow any tragedies caused by common sense itself being shaken.

Were his interests incompatible with Aradia’s as she tried to manipulate the votes and trends in her favor?

No, this was deeper than that.

“Don’t tell me…”

“Yes. I am one of the so-called Killers when it comes to you, Kamijou Touma. View the issue with common sense and it could not be more obvious that you are the most dangerous person in the world for your ability to control Tyrant Alice.”

“…”

“I decided to hold off on judgment until I had seen it for myself. You were also Alice’s hope, after all. So until yesterday, I merely observed. I would feel bad if I beheaded you over a baseless rumor, after all. But now you are showing signs of controlling Alice for your own ends. And thus you must die, Kamijou Touma. You cannot avoid my blade.”

Aradia wasn’t moving.

She didn’t even groan in pain while coloring the grass red around her.

Something in her had finally started to change.

Kamijou had no way of knowing what had caused it, but Aradia had clearly changed from when he had seen her in Shibuya. It was obvious enough even he could tell. Her conditions? Her rules? What did it matter if someone didn’t fit one of the items on her list? What was wrong with wanting to save someone on a whim!?

But H. T. Trismegistus hadn’t allowed it.

He had nipped that change in the bud like this was a standard process!!!

“Why not me?” asked Kamijou.

“What about you?”

“I’m Tyrant Alice’s controller, aren’t I? If you Killers are so damn scared of me, why did you cut down Aradia first!?”

“You are indeed my top priority target, you loathsome illegitimate controller.”

Mut Thebes was nowhere to be seen.

Hadn’t she said she would kill the young butler if he tried anything? Did she never keep her promises, or did only Index and Othinus meet her conditions?

“However, I have done some research into that bizarre Imagine Breaker you call a right hand. While you did receive considerable support from the Bologna Succubus and Good, Old Mary, the fact remains that you defeated Aradia – a Transcendent. Did you think I wouldn’t show the utmost caution around you? Common sense says the most effective method is to prepare a landmine to trip up the intruder before making your attack.”

“…”

That was all?

He had attacked Aradia, a fellow cabal member and a fellow Killer, for nothing more than that?

“Also.”

The young butler glared down at Aradia while holding his black cane – or the murderous tool disguised as one.

He now had pure contempt in his eyes.

“I have noticed some changes in the other Transcendents, not just in Tyrant Alice. You are causing Alice and the world around her to crumble. Witch Goddess Aradia, you stopped caring if Kamijou Touma and Anna met your conditions, didn’t you? You felt relieved when you found a way to make him fit your conditions, didn’t you? Did you perhaps want to try living outside your own rules? Did you decide you wanted to save them even if they did leave your conditions? That is a problem. Transcendents must provide salvation in a fair and evenhanded fashion.”

Was that…?

Was that really so wrong?

She had told Kamijou how to save Anna when he didn’t know how.

Was it really so wrong to feel your convictions shaken when they told you to say nothing as someone died!?

“Aradia trusted you. She must have.”

“Yes, I am aware.”

“She trusted you enough to share this secret with you! And this is how you repay her!?”

“That has no bearing on the conditions for my salvation. It’s common sense really.”

Kamijou clenched his teeth harder and harder.

When a Transcendent got like this, they could understand your words, but actual communication wasn’t possible.

Kamijou had sensed this same thing when visiting the Bologna Succubus. The Transcendents chose who to save based on a programmatic list of and, or, and not operations. Tyrant Alice, meanwhile, would reach out a hand carrying indescribably great power on a whim when she saw a tragedy playing out before her. Which of those was more normal?

The goddess of witches had decided on her own definition of and conditions for salvation.

To hell with this. All she had done was feel a desire to save someone who didn’t fit those self-imposed rules! Was that really so heinous a crime it deserved being summarily executed by a trusted companion!?

“…H. T. Trismegistus.”

“Now, prepare to die.”

A metallic sound whispered from the black cane.

The young butler held the cane scabbard next to his hip, no longer making any attempt to hide that there was a sword within.

That Transcendent was superficially polite but filled with killer intent and he kept a thin smile on his face.

“Aradia has fallen, Anna will be executed before long, and common sense leads me to conclude I would be doing the world a favor if I swiftly and surely eliminated you here. Therefore, this is the end for you.”

“To hell with that!! How is this any form of salvation!?”

“My actions only look cruel because you do not meet my conditions. That is always how it works with us Transcendents.”

Kamijou had heard enough.

Some kind of flimsy thread snapped in his head.

He immediately grabbed Othinus from his shoulder and flung her to the side.

“Human!?”

His top priority was rescuing badly injured Aradia, so he needed someone who could bring Good, Old Mary here. And Othinus was small enough that she could hide within the grass and flowers if she crawled.

Of course. H. T. Trismegistus wasn’t about to overlook this. It was possible he could draw his sword and slice her into confetti before she even landed.

But Kamijou wasn’t going to let him do that.

Transcendent H. T. Trismegistus.

Don’t assume you can get away with anything just because you have so much power!!

“Oooooooaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

The time for words was over.

The boy clenched his right fist as hard as a rock, roared, and charged toward the Transcendent.

He wasn’t letting Aradia die.

He refused to let this end with her death!!

That was the only thing he needed in his heart right now!!!

Between the Lines 3

No one trusted the witch.

No one praised the witch.

No one knew who the witch really was.

The path to success was right there in front of them, she carefully explained it to them over and over, and they all would have found happiness if they had simply followed her instructions.

But the people still failed.

But the people still fell and suffered for no reason.

Why did these things happen?

…Did they think there was a shortcut?

She had them taking such a long route because anything shorter would be too dangerous.

…Did they think it was a dead end?

It might look that way at first, but they would find a hole in the wall if they kept going.

…Did they think the stone bridge would collapse below them?

Such a kind witch would never tell them to take a path as dangerous as that.

Again and again, nothing she did was ever rewarded.

But she still pointed out the way.

No matter how horrifically she was treated.

No matter how muddy and bloody she ended up.

She knew no one would believe her, but she still pointed out the way for the troubled people she encountered.

She simply pointed to the answer right in front of them.

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