Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume7 Chapter4
Chapter 4: Hear the Name of Thy Ruin, World – Call_“XXXXX”.[edit]
Part 1[edit]
Kamijou felt the entire world raise a groaning cry in that moment.
Part 2[edit]
The gloomy young butler known as H. T. Trismegistus pushed his cane sword up with a thumb and attacked.
They had more than 10m between them, but it didn’t matter. The boy only saw it as something like a tremendous explosion.
A silver explosive blast formed a sharp, straight line.
That wasn’t possible when swinging an ordinary blade, so it had to be some kind of twisted magic.
“!!!???”
Kamijou felt a tension strike him on the cheek. A moment later, the air burst, blasting him in the right eardrum. He couldn’t even tell if that was a sound or a rapid pressure distortion.
But he had dodged it.
Kamijou Touma had just barely dodged it.
At the last second, he had concluded Imagine Breaker and its ability to negate all supernatural powers wouldn’t be enough. A memory he shouldn’t still have throbbed in the back of his mind. Had something happened long ago that gave him a powerful fear of iaijutsu and other sword-drawing techniques?
He could hear something.
Despite the vibration of his aching eardrum, some distorted common tones reached him from head on.
He knew he couldn’t afford to miss this.
“No more holding back. Risk 4: Releasing the numberless seal – leaving human territory. Rapidly renewing myself using a trio of great beings.”
“…”
Kamijou gasped, forgetting even to frown.
It wasn’t exactly the same, but he recognized those words. When Witch Goddess Aradia was pushed to the limit in Shibuya on the 31st, she had attempted to draw on something.
Kamijou’s Imagine Breaker had shattered it that time before it was complete.
But not this time.
“My right hand contains Zeus. My left hand contains Indra.”
From the very first move, Transcendent H. T. Trismegistus was taking this to the level of tearing down half of the world supported by science and magic!?
“Thus I am renewed. Z. I. Trismegistus conversion complete.”
“Really!?”
“Think about it.”
The young butler silently pushed his thumb up against the head of the cane that hid a blade.
A few millimeters of the deadly glint emerged once more.
“Common sense says I have no reason to hold back. If an enemy is being a nuisance, you should kill them right away, don’t you think?”
“…”
“The drowning man grasps at straw. An excellent saying. The proverbial man is earnest about survival and, no matter how pathetic he might appear, he is not causing anyone else any trouble. …But with a plank of Carneades, the drowning man must snuff out the life of another in the fight over the plank floating in the ocean.”
That was probably what led him down this path. Or a small glimpse of it.
Hadn’t he said that, no matter how logically you explain your academic theories, there is nothing you can do when people brush them aside based on emotion?
But using that reasoning to ban people from having emotions wasn’t going to create an ideal world.
“Have you heard that people once believed madness was caused by a stone of folly inside the head and victims actually had their heads cut open in a serious attempt at medical treatment? How about the baseless legend that all medieval castles have cruel dungeons or long, hidden escape routes? This is not unique to any one era. Superstitions always find their way into the world of academia and they are extremely hard to extricate once they have taken root. They cause so much harm to the human world. So someone must prevent these farces from altering common sense. And the distortions that my Alice would bring to the world are the greatest such example. Someone must put a stop to it.”
This probably wasn’t about Carneades. If he simply hated that story about a plank, he wouldn’t be trying to solve this by killing Kamijou. Trismegistus was a throwaway penname shared by academics in an older age. So who was this guy?
Kamijou stepped on a frozen puddle.
He didn’t have time to prepare for the impact.
They had more than 10m between them, but since Aradia had been cut down in front of him, he could tell the length of the cane sword and the range of the actual attack did not match.
From there, Kamijou Touma recalled something else.
He had to set aside the intense fear of death trying to numb the back of his mind and the uncontrollable racing of his heart. He couldn’t forget what really mattered. What did he need to focus on most here?
Transcendent Aradia.
First and foremost, he needed to prevent any further attacks on her while she lay motionless on the ground.
It was distorted.
To Kamijou, the deadly slash flying straight toward him looked a lot like an exploding firework.
The roar of bursting air arrived after a short delay. The explosive sound crashed into his right eardrum as he just barely dodged to the side. The green grass was torn through and a zigzagging line of destruction sent dark soil soaring into the sky.
This time, he had done it with his own willpower.
Time had seemed to stretch out infinitely, but it soon returned to normal.
The rose hedge behind him was torn through.
(Damn, I can’t let this scare me so much. Aradia’s in trouble if I don’t move in and negate this with Imagine Breaker!!)
“Tch!!”
“I feel like clicking my tongue as well. I clearly have a long way to go as a Transcendent if I fail to kill my target with the first attack, even if outdoor battles do add in many complicated environmental factors. I cannot look my Alice in the eye after this.”
More small explosions followed. And some shattering glass sounds. The garden’s streetlights and bug zappers were scattering sparks, but Kamijou knew he was dead the instant he looked toward them.
He didn’t have time to stand around.
He kept his momentum going as he charged toward the small woods in the garden. They were only decorative and would not even function as a windbreak, but this was still better than out on the open grass.
Kamijou ducked down after just barely surviving, but he was also smiling.
(H. T. Trismegistus is focused on me, which means he won’t attack Aradia again.)
Some words were already escaping the young butler’s mouth.
“Shall I call Alice?”
Kamijou heard the young butler’s footsteps from beyond the thicket. He also heard the rubbing of metal hinges, so the man was presumably opening a storage case and pulling out a notebook or pocket watch or something.
He was confident.
But that made Kamijou smile even more. What luck. Even Mr. Misfortune himself couldn’t help but think that.
H. T.? Or was it Z. I. now? Whatever it was, Trismegistus was pursuing Kamijou. Luring him away from collapsed and unmoving Aradia was the right thing to do here. What was this if not a silver lining to his predicament?
“There is no common sense at all in your attempt here, but I suppose it is the only option that could possibly allow you to defeat me. But either way, I will have this dealt with before Alice arrives.
Common sense.
Kamijou hadn’t heard the details, but was that the starting point for this Transcendent calling himself Z. I. Trismegistus? It was possible he had seen the moment when a major disturbance in that concept had led to a vast tragedy.
Just like Witch Goddess Aradia had roared after witnessing the persecution of so many witches.
Just like the Bologna Succubus’s soul had been burned by the false accusations her name pointed to.
Z. I. Trismegistus was the same.
“…”
Was it Zeus and Indra?
But Kamijou didn’t have Index with him. And he had thrown 15cm Othinus to go seek help. On his own, Kamijou was only a high school boy, so he didn’t know what these magical words meant. Even though he knew they had to contain the key to a miraculous upset here.
He heard a metallic sound at his feet.
His throat went dry. He had stepped on the stainless steel cover over a drainage ditch.
He sensed his impending death.
“There you are.”
“!!!???”
The instant after he rolled to the side, a long-range slash lashed out. In fact, it circled around the large tree he had been leaning against and sliced right through the stainless steel cover, sending sparks flying.
(That didn’t even move in a straight line!? This is bad. I can’t even imagine what kind of path it can take!!)
The young butler’s voice came from somewhere in the windy artificial woods.
“Hm, so I missed. Then I should visually confirm your location first instead of relying solely on intuition. I do not want to destroy the beautiful garden I created for Alice.”
(Does that mean he wasn’t using any kind of clairvoyance or precog? No, wait. He’s a Transcendent. He might just be trying to trick me into lowering my guard that way!!)
Hiding behind the trees was relatively useless if the slashes could move around obstacles. But running out into the open garden would be suicide. So…
(I need to get inside the consulate!!)
He tackled the back entrance opening out into the woods and tumbled inside. If he had knocked or even grabbed the knob, a slash from behind probably could have sliced horizontally through him along with the door and the stone wall.
But he had survived. He got back up and ran down the long hallway.
(I don’t like the idea of relying on this.)
Kamijou gulped and pulled out his old folk’s smartphone while still crouched low.
He used the device to connect to R&C Occultics’s official website.
And to the magic database that had been leaked to the public.
If you typed in a term and ran a search, it would pull up a list of webpages, especially ones selling related products, but when Kamijou tapped the link now, he only got a simple “this service has been shut down” message. He realized he should have expected that after he destroyed the giant IT company during the incident in Los Angeles.
But a few external sites apparently still had cached versions of the website. That would only contain fragments of the vast database, but it was better than nothing.
Staying on the 1st floor too long could get him killed by a horizontal attack since that slash’s range was unknown, so Kamijou made his way to the nearest stairway before the young butler made an appearance.
(Zeus at least sounds vaguely familiar. He’s some kind of god, right?)
He ran a search and found Zeus was a Greek god.
He was the final child of Cronus and Rhea. He was the ruler of heaven and symbolized by the blessing of the rain. On the other hand, he was also known for the lightning bolt he held in his hand which obliterated all of the gods’ enemies and meted out divine punishment.
(A lightning bolt?)
He tapped another link in the explanation to delve deeper, but none of it was very clear. He could tell Zeus had an ultimate weapon symbolized by lightning, but nothing said whether it was a spear, a bow, a sling, or a magic bullet. One sculpture of Zeus showed him holding something rodlike, but that was only meant to be the lightning itself and other art depicted various designs for his weapon.
A formless weapon.
Bright light, an explosive sword drawing, streetlights and bug zappers destroyed just because they were nearby…
“!?”
Outside the window, a slash suddenly flew Kamijou’s way.
If he had left the stairs and entered the 2nd floor hallway lined with windows, that would have hit him. He fell on his rear and the horizontal line sliced through the walls just above his head. Was the attack aimed solely on a vague figure visible through the window? But the windows remained shut and the glass intact.
How disturbing that was belatedly crawled up Kamijou’s back.
(How does that work!? Is it not just the blade extending out through space!?)
Z. I. Trismegistus must have been able to see him from outside, so he needed to move elsewhere. He quickly turned around and fled further up the stairs.
(Dammit, I can’t do that. If I hide on the 3rd floor, I’m putting the Bologna Succubus at risk!!)
He turned around again.
Surrounding the consulate’s White House-style mansion were several walls and towers straight out of a fairy tale castle. If he wanted to keep anyone else from getting hurt, he had to avoid the main structure and escape into one of the towers.
Indra.
When he typed that other foreign term into his old folk’s smartphone, he found that was a god from the Hindu religion spread across the Indian region. That felt like it had nothing to do with Zeus, but apparently there was a cultural connection. For example, the names of the Indian god Dyaus, the Greek god Zeus, and the Roman god Jupiter all came from the same name. And Indra used lightning too. But Kamijou doubted the pair had been chosen for that alone.
Most likely, there was some other rule at play. Something that would be obvious if he could only look it up in some kind of magic or occult dictionary.
(Do Zeus and Indra have something in common?)
The site said the form of the Hindu lightning weapon was just as unclear. For example, Indra’s weapon was known as the Vajra. When the stories arrived in China and Japan, the Vajra was said to be shaped like a five-pronged club or a pestle with a blade on the ends. But those were only exorcism weapons designed by Indian artists and priests because “lightning is difficult to explain without giving it some kind of shape”.
Both traditions incorporated the same name.
Both had weapons symbolizing formless lightning.
Weapons that could later be given form by someone else – even mere humans.
(Is that it!?)
Kamijou ran up a tower’s spiral stairs and exited through the skylight leading to the roof. At first glance, the height made this a dead end, but there were still a few paths he could take, like the tall castle walls or the roofs of the elevated passageways. And useful items could be found anywhere.
For example…
“A solar power cable!!”
Z. I. Trismegistus could freely change his name and his attacks were undeniably frightening. Both for their simple power and range, but also because the slashes could change direction and circle around cover. They moved too quickly to react to, so they would be deadly when combined with iaijutsu, which could be so hard to predict.
But those attacks had to follow some kind of rules.
(That stainless steel ditch cover in the artificial woods.)
What connected the Greek Zeus and the Hindu Indra?
(I’m pretty sure the window frames on the 2nd floor were metal too. That means his sword strikes follow paths of electrical conduction!!)
“And if his weapon is lightning, I should be able to redirect it!!”
“Sigh.”
The young butler’s voice softly but bluntly interrupted him.
“This is not Zeus. Common sense should have told you that right away.”
How – and when – had he arrived on the tower’s roof?
Something flashed. The person using the Trismegistus name had flicked up a clear plastic cocktail pin with his thumb.
Then the cane sword was released from its scabbard and light surged out.
Kamijou held his right hand out, but it wasn’t enough. He definitely felt something being negated, but when the blade’s light hit the cocktail pin overhead, the light scattered as if from a disco ball.
That light carried the sword strike.
This didn’t follow the rules of electricity at all.
The victim didn’t even have time to feel a chill on his spine. More than eight glowing slashes rushed toward his neck from different directions.
His death was a silent one.
His vision spun around.
It wasn’t Zeus’s lightning bolt or Indra’s Vajra.
And he was punished for his wrong answer.
After failing to find the key to a miracle, the boy could only look back up at his own headless body, still standing there.
(Aradi-)
Part 3[edit]
Kamijou’s vision restarted.
Part 4[edit]
The best Kamijou could describe the feeling was having the film of his memories forcibly linked together. And he only knew one person capable of something so absurd. She was so convenient she could eliminate the very tragedy of death, but she would utterly destroy your world the instant you started to assume you would receive her help. This monster – this Transcendent – had complete control over an artificial miracle.
“Good…” he groaned.
His right shoulder felt funny. Had she severed that arm again?
He couldn’t even get up, so he held his throat and looked up at the woman in a large hat and a maternity dress who stood next to him like shimmering heat or a ghost.
“Good, Old Mary?”
“Do not worry.”
Good, Old Mary did not assume she would give her help either.
And she knew what that puny boy most wanted to hear.
She remained entirely motionless even in the biting wind.
“Aradia is safe. Since you managed to distract H. T.? Z. I.? ABC? Random Letters Trismegistus, mama could complete the process in peace.”
That was all it took.
Kamijou Touma felt so much relief he nearly let go of the consciousness he had reclaimed.
But he couldn’t do that.
Z. I. Trismegistus – that monster who was not Zeus and did not wield a lightning bolt – was still out there. Leaving him be would give him a chance to use his cane sword against Aradia again.
So Kamijou had to do something.
Even if nothing he had done had worked so far!!
“Mama said not to worry.”
Kamijou’s anxiety motivated him to try and force himself up on the tower roof, but Good, Old Mary bluntly interrupted.
“You have met mama’s conditions for salvation. By managing that, you and Aradia’s gamble paid off. So stay here and accept your victory prize. Mama will defeat him. You are not needed.”
“Really? First Aradia and now Kamijou Touma? You would give your miracles out to just anyone, wouldn’t you? I can’t let Alice see this.”
On a different roof, the young butler gently returned the sword to its scabbard and tapped his finger against the hilt like he was timing something.
The air between the two Transcendents seemed to electrify.
“Good, Old Mary. Your conditions are too broad and lax. Do not forget that we are the Transcendents who accompany Alice. Did you think you could avoid the ‘monster’ label if you played at being a doctor?”
“Have you gone so senile you cannot tell the difference between a proud doctor who pours all of their efforts into helping any suffering people they come across and mama who blurs the line between life and death for her own purposes?”
Her sigh sounded exasperated.
Z. I. Trismegistus’s fingers toyed with his cane sword.
“Common sense says not everyone deserves these grand miracles.”
“Who says miracles only belong to a chosen privileged class, you fuck.”
These were their starting points.
The very cores of these Transcendents clashed head on.
A moment later, something shining exploded from the distant young butler’s cane sword, but it was clearly thrown off course. That wasn’t lightning or light. It was pressurized water. The deadly water jet targeted Kamijou’s neck while he was unable to get up, but its path changed when it hit something else and sliced diagonally through a different tower.
A huge explosion of orange sparks occurred a moment later.
The leaves floating in the air were all sliced through when the splashing droplets hit them.
If Kamijou had tried to block that with Imagine Breaker, the main water jet would have exploded, drenching him. And if each drop could slice through solid objects, his entire body would have been shredded.
Kamijou couldn’t tell what Good, Old Mary had done.
He only saw her slender fingers occasionally toy with the camping kitchen tools hanging from her belt which looked vaguely weaponlike: the tea kettle, the gas burner, the multitool, the sandwich toaster, etc.
“Random Letters.”
“Please state my identity accurately. Alice is going to start calling me that.”
“That name is too long. But you have nothing to worry about. Mama will resurrect you even if you die. However, mama must punish you, so you will be resurrected into a state with all your bones removed and your organs crushed. It is time you crawled this earth like a worm in a state of constant, undying pain, Transcendent. Maybe then you will understand what it feels like for those who can only look up from below.”
“…”
“Do you understand the consequences if you lose? Then do take this seriously. Life is such a wonderful thing, so make sure to thank mama, Random Letters.”
“I don’t even care if you get it wrong, at least try to say my name right!!”
Good, Old Mary was still toying with the kitchen tools in her hands.
She did not actually use any of them or try to hit him with any of them.
Yet far below, a massive fissure formed in the ground and orange lava erupted sharply upwards. It looked like a disturbing glowing serpent. The young butler jumped up to avoid it, but then a mass larger than a dump track crashed into him from the side. The massive blunt object might as well have been one of the wrecking balls used by cranes to demolish buildings, but it was actually a hunk of ice weighing more than 30 tons.
A deadly attack split the ice into three pieces.
Trismegistus didn’t even wait to reach the ground. He landed on one piece of ice and continued slicing through the bed and desk that crashed through a window and the storm of pebbles torn from the white wall, before solidifying it all. What even was that? Clear crystals jutted from where he sliced through the objects, linking together Good, Old Mary’s projectiles, and pinning them in place in midair.
Based on what Kamijou had seen, those sword strikes came in more than one variety.
Lightning.
Light.
Water.
Crystal.
How did it have so much variety? The young butler himself had said it wasn’t Zeus, but even knowing that, Kamijou couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Aradia and the Bologna Succubus’s spells were supposedly powerful enough to fight the entire magic side on their own. Same for Good, Old Mary’s resurrection.
Was Trismegistus the same?
He could infuse his sharp blade into any phenomenon, so if he wasn’t afraid of cutting himself, could he fill this entire universe with miniscule death and destruction?
“Do not worry. Mama has a scorching hotplate double slap with that gloomy butler’s name on it.”
“I’m thankful that you’re helping me, but how am I even supposed to respond to something like that!?”
Kamijou trembled and shouted back at her, but the Transcendent didn’t seem to care.
As if this wasn’t enough to surprise Good, Old Mary.
“Trismegistus. Who is currently in your right hand? And who do you have serving within your left hand? Did you attack Aradia before your top priority target because she uses a similar spell and you were afraid she would see through it?”
Flash.
Boooooooooom!!!
This time, it wasn’t a long range slash. Was it lightning? With cane sword in hand, Trismegistus himself dropped sharply down like a flash of light. But he was forcibly stopped right in front of Good, Old Mary who stood atop the tower with her large hat swaying.
There was an invisible wall there.
The one Transcendent revealed the other’s secrets from such close range.
“Mama knows your trick. You are not borrowing a portion of a god’s power and you are not making yourself identical to a god to wield their power. You place one god in your right hand and another in your left. Including you, that creates a large triangle that implants the world with a false definition saying you yourself are a god too. That is your method of leaving human territory. So instead of borrowing an existing god’s name, you create a brand new god and make yourself that god. You use the correspondences of the Liber 777 to accomplish this. Thus, you are not Zeus or Indra and you were not Hermes or Thoth. In the end, you never could love anyone other than yourself.”
“Tch!! “My right hand contains Odin. My left hand contains-”
“Mercury? Or maybe Anubis or Loki?”
“!?”
“Weren’t you listening? Mama knows your trick. Anyone who understands Crowley’s correspondence table can predict your next move. And that means your sword is no longer a threat. You cannot freely transform your blade into whatever you want. It operates on a predictable pattern.”
Aradia had mentioned the triple goddess in Shibuya.
Kamijou still didn’t know what that meant, but Trismegistus was another Transcendent whose power was based on the number 3.
“I too am a Transcendent who serves Alice. I know you do not have as much an advantage as you claim to.”
The young butler’s trick had been revealed, but he still smiled and pressed his sword against the invisible barrier.
“Your surefire plan has already failed from the moment I got this close. Not too surprising really since you are no more than the kitchen manager. Food is meant to be carried out to the guests; you do not want them entering your territory.”
A slight cut ran down Good, Old Mary’s cheek visible below the brim of her hat. A few red drops formed and dripped down to color her face.
The young butler could apparently infuse his sword strikes into a variety of ordinary phenomena like light and water. So could he apply a cutting edge to the an electric field and not just to a lightning strike?
“Good-”
Kamijou gasped just before an explosion burst out.
Trismegistus was sent spinning away. He forcibly applied the brakes by stabbing his cane sword into the flower garden on the roof of a midair passageway connecting the sharp tower to the large mansion. A storage case similar to a tackle box spilled from his cloak and he couldn’t return it to its pocket. He tilted to the side with his right half covered in blood, but he was definitely smiling.
He was focused on Good, Old Mary’s right hand back on the tower.
She held an ordinary sandwich toaster like it was weapon.
“Ha ha ha!! I’ve peeled back another layer, Good, Old Mary! How many more until I break through that calm façade? You might be the kitchen master who can create a microcosm contained to a glass container, but not even the greatest chef can cook without her tools. I will keep peeling back those layers. And with each tool I take from you, the more powerless you will be!!!”
The previous rules no longer applied.
Good, Old Mary took a step forward.
“Steam.”
The word came after the fact.
Her tall body suddenly disappeared.
It wasn’t a simple issue of speed. Unlike with Saints such as Kanzaki or Acqua, there was no roar or blast of wind as she tore through the air. Maybe this was the light physically bending and maybe she had constructed some kind of trick that placed her in a preexisting blind spot found in human vision, but she must have surrounded herself in something that prevented anyone else from seeing her.
(You’re kidding, right?)
Kamijou recalled how Good, Old Mary had appeared out of nowhere when called back Shibuya on the 31st. What if she hadn’t teleported from afar and had already been standing in that scramble crossing?
By the time the powerless boy realized a blade had been against his throat at the end of the previous year, Good, Old Mary had approached Trismegistus.
She was already making her next move.
“!?”
Transcendent clashed with Transcendent.
They reduced the distance between them to zero, several explosions erupted, and each time, a tea kettle or gas burner dropped to the ground far below.
It looked a lot like Good, Old Mary was overwhelming her opponent while appearing from and vanishing into the background. With each explosion, Trismegistus took a powerful blow and the rusty scent in the air grew stronger. The flurry of attacks was too great to block with a cane sword alone.
But who was really making progress here? Hadn’t Trismegistus said his goal was to take away all of her tools?
Kamijou Touma was concerned, but his imagination proved insufficient.
“Mama is going to allow herself a risk of 4. Releasing the singular seal – leaving human territory,” said Good, Old Mary. “Show yourself, Tribikos – the tool mama used to contain a complete universe.”
Kamijou felt some shaking.
He thought it was an earthquake, but apparently not.
“…”
He looked up toward the sky without thinking, but in this case, the foolish pointy-haired boy hadn’t been hopelessly left behind.
Trismegistus did it too.
He reacted just like Kamijou even as he sneered despite his battered body. He silently looked overhead. Yes, even though they were at the top of a tower or in a rooftop flower garden.
Three distorted legs – each one taller than the average transmission tower – supported a squashed sphere resembling a domed baseball stadium. Was it supposed to resemble chemistry equipment like beakers and flasks? Or was it supposed to resemble a living, breathing creature? Kamijou wasn’t sure, but the very core of his body was ruled by a dreadful shaking. Even at the top of a tower, the sky overhead was entirely blotted out.
It was as hard as thick porcelain.
But it was also clearly pulsating from the inside.
What did it contain? A collection of energy as massive as the sun or even the big bang? An all-consuming black hole? Good, Old Mary had called it a universe. Was that a metaphor, or was it literally true? Looking up at it, Kamijou could no longer tell what was a joke and what wasn’t.
“The red stone, a panacea that provides immortality, pure control over the five elements, rearranging the universe.”
Good, Old Mary accepted what she had summoned like it was nothing. She did not even glance up at it.
That Transcendent calmly viewed her enemy from below the brim of her hat.
Calmly but strongly.
“But a creator must do more than complete their research. They cannot make any progress without first inventing the necessary tools. Mama is Good, Old Mary. The Bain-marie insulated pot, the Kerotakis reflux device, and the Tribikos distiller are all the basic tools needed to create a universe, so do not underestimate the one who rules the very foundation of those tools, long-named one.”
The giant mass did not attack.
She was going to use the brand new death and destruction contained within.
How far did it go? This was something from a brand new category than all the types of magic and elements Kamijou had seen before. What if it pushed even a bit past the limits of what the 103,001 grimoires covered? Wouldn’t this be magic that not even Grimoire Library Index could defend against?
Did this simply make Good, Old Mary frightening, or was the real threat Trismegistus for requiring something so powerful to deliver the finishing blow?
“Ha…ha ha ha. Good, Old Mary, you are rebelling against Alice at this point.”
“You are a Transcendent, making you more powerful than the average person, but mama heard what you childishly said to this high school boy, knowing he is forced to walk a path of greater-than-average misfortune because he lives in this city and is unfairly shunned by god’s miracles. You said common sense says you have no reason to hold back and, if an enemy is being a nuisance, you should kill them right away.”
“There, that’s the final layer. Once I survive this, you are done forrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”
“Mama sends those words right back at you. Since you wield your own miracles to trample on the less fortunate, you do not meet mama’s conditions. Thus, she will not hold back. So bring it on, you depressing butler. Mama will kill you quickly like the worm you are.”
There was a sharp clash of metal. Trismegistus had remade himself into a brand new being by swapping out the names of the gods wielded by his hands and he rushed toward Good, Old Mary, slicing through even the wind with his cane sword. Whatever he planned on infusing his sword strike into, he pushed the sword up from its scabbard with his thumb and tons of rusty sewing needles spilled from the blade.
Good, Old Mary had told him to come to her, so she was unfazed. A massive piece of lab equipment covered the sky overhead and she only needed to release what it contained. All she did was pull back her index finger while standing in the flower garden.
This time, they both attacked in a straight line.
The two Transcendents clashed after tearing through the seals which kept them human.
And…
Part 5[edit]
Light flashed.
A wet explosion rang out.
Part 6[edit]
“…”
It took Kamijou Touma a moment to realize nearly all sound had vanished.
Was that short rhythm he heard his own shallow breathing?
The destruction was so bad he just about forgot he was on the roof of a tower on the consulate grounds. The ground was torn up, orange lava spewed out, and a few of the other towers had collapsed. It looked like the end of the world. He was all the way at the top of a tower, but he felt dark soil on his head.
His entire body was stiff and he had trouble simply moving his head. So he instead moved just his eyes while slumped on the roof.
The wind blew and dust scattered through the air.
He saw a silhouette through that dust cloud. It was lying on an elevated passageway that looked ready to collapse at any moment. Kamijou gasped when he noticed how dark the silhouette was, but he could make out some other features too. It wasn’t feminine. It only looked dark because of the old-fashioned tailcoat and cloak it wore. It looked a lot like a crushed cicada. A tiered storage case similar to a tackle box sat partially open and crushed.
That was Trismegistus.
Kamijou couldn’t say whether he was H T, Z I, O M, or whatever other combination at the moment.
He wasn’t moving anymore.
But Kamijou Touma remained frozen. He couldn’t relax yet. Of course he couldn’t. Not when he could see another silhouette collapsed a short distance away from the motionless young butler.
That one was Good, Old Mary.
The giant Tribikos’s three legs had shattered, its smooth squashed sphere was split in two, and its pieces leaned against the consulate.
But this wasn’t a case of mutual destruction. If the threat was gone, Kamijou’s paralysis would have gone with it. He would have found some way to run to Good, Old Mary and see if she needed medical care. And if she was fine, he would have tried to restrain Trismegistus.
But he couldn’t.
He couldn’t bring himself to move while on the top of the tower. The deadly paralysis showed no sign of going away.
Because something else had happened here.
This was not two Transcendents attacking and defeating each other simultaneously.
“Court, court, court.”
Far below, a small silhouette walked along the ground. And the girl was saying something.
Her words formed a rhythm like she was humming an improvised song.
Hers was the last voice Kamijou had wanted to hear right now.
“The girl’s court is in session.”
This was Alice Anotherbible, the true tyrant who had obliterated those ordinary Transcendents in the blink of an eye.
With a roar, the tower and the rooftop flower garden collapsed. Kamijou could tell grabbing onto something wasn’t going to be enough here, so he steeled himself and aimed for a body of water that had survived the devastation. He couldn’t re-aim after being thrown into the air. So instead, he leaped from the crumbling tower himself to reach a garden pool that was even more bent than a gourd.
“Gahh!?”
He landed in the water, but he still ended up bloody. The extreme chill seemed to slice through his skin. But he had made the right choice. He couldn’t let the pain or chill stop him now. He didn’t have time to safely run down the spiral staircase.
Because Good, Old Mary and Trismegistus were in danger if he didn’t reach them immediately.
What would happen to them if Alice reached them while they were helpless?
(Ugh. Not to mention…)
He realized he should have seen this coming.
Trismegistus had been using his cane sword to produce supernatural blades not found in any mythology and Good, Old Mary had produced a piece of lab equipment so massive it covered the sky. With that going on, there was no way the young master of the consulate would fail to notice.
The idea of “ordinary Transcendents” was absurd, but she was so overwhelmingly unusual that he felt the need to apply that “ordinary” qualifier to Trismegistus and Good, Old Mary. She was so extraordinary that even other Transcendents feared her.
(It’s not use.)
Kamijou forgot to even breathe.
He was entranced.
(Mut Thebes is an execution expert and has that “drink me” item capable of killing Transcendents, but not even she can defeat Alice. Even thinking about fighting her is the wrong move!!)
Alice’s cute lips had uttered the words “court is in session”.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was a global best seller, but Kamijou was ashamed to admit he didn’t know that much about it. He knew there was a tea party with a hatter and a march hare, he knew there was a cricket game at the castle with the queen of hearts, and he thought there might be a court scene too. Was that related to the hysterical queen who yelled “off with their head” at the drop of a hat?
That would mean this trial meant death for the accused.
The odds of a guilty verdict and immediate death were greater than 99.9% and any other result had such slim odds it deserved to be called a miracle. On the other hand, there was no possibility at all of harming Alice herself. Not even a 0.1% chance.
It was that unilateral of a massacre.
“A-Alice?”
“Yes, teacher?”
“That’s enough. This is already over. So you need to calm down and-”
“No.”
A dull popping sound followed.
But it was wetter than an explosive going off.
The young girl hadn’t even directed her small palm in that direction. She hadn’t even glanced that way.
But Trismegistus was still launched from the ground. His already injured body twisted further in midair, crashed helplessly back to the ground, and kept rolling.
“Alice!!!”
Was he alright? Not the physical impact or pressure. Was he alright on the level of the fundamental definition of a Transcendent!?
And it didn’t end there.
Alice’s shadow pulsated at her feet. She wanted another sacrifice.
She wanted the other Transcendent lying motionless on the ground.
“The Trismegistus stuff is over!! Good, Old Mary didn’t do anything! In fact, she saved my life! So-!!”
“No.”
Kamijou moved between them.
Alice’s usual smile was gone. She kept the blank expression of a noh mask as she silently tilted her head.
That was far more terrifying than if her face was red with fury.
She opened her eyes unnaturally wide and spoke without blinking.
“Teacher. There is blood on the ground. It smells like you.”
“…”
“Good, Old Mary was too slow. She did not risk her life to protect you. She failed to see the threat coming and then patched things up afterwards. That isn’t good enough. She neglected her duties. The girl told everyone in this secret base – consulate? – that you are an invited guest and they were not to harm you. But these two failed to keep the most basic of promises: don’t kill people.”
More pulsating.
But this time it came from inside Alice’s children’s book dress.
She could not restrain her power anymore. Kamijou clenched his teeth knowing what lay at the foundation of it all.
Alice was frustrated.
She was frustrated that someone she cared for had come to harm. She was frustrated that the Transcendents who lived with her had done it. And she was frustrated that she had failed to stop them and save his life.
I’ve come to play, teacher.
What if Alice’s first words to him had really and truly been the whole story for her?
The thought made him grimace.
This wasn’t good.
It went beyond Trismegistus and Good, Old Mary. Based on Alice’s current rules, Shibuya on the 31st was a problem too.
Aradia had killed him and the Bologna Succubus had failed to prevent it.
This one seam threatened to tear down everything around her.
Hence the tyrant title.
That immature ruler had tremendous power but could not protect the world because she was too easily manipulated by her emotions.
“You can’t, Alice,” said Kamijou without thinking.
She was acting entirely on a child’s logic, so he maybe could have chosen to simply hear her out instead of rejecting what she was feeling. But he still made his move since it looked like the tiny tyrant was ready to explode at any moment.
And losing everything here would be far too painful.
Aradia, the Bologna Succubus, Good, Old Mary, and Trismegistus. If he was being honest, none of the Transcendents had been perfect. He couldn’t fully accept the inhuman way they each set their own conditions for saving people.
But they still cared deeply for the Bridge Builders Cabal.
Trismegistus had been utterly terrifying, but even he had only wanted to eliminate Kamijou so he could protect Alice. He had been willing to bloody his hands and take Kamijou’s life because he cared about the home he had found in the Bridge Builders Cabal more than anything.
Maybe he had gone about it the wrong way. But now the man who had gone to so much misguided effort, and the woman who had tried so hard to stop him but just barely failed, had both been badly injured. There was no reason to punish them further.
The young tyrant needed to learn that forgiveness was another option.
“You can’t do it this way, Alice.”
“Are you going to fight the girl? To protect Good, Old Mary who is lying there close to death?”
But with her head still tilted, noh mask Alice immediately rejected her own question.
“No, teacher. The girl can tell from your eyes. You are also looking at Trismegistus. That means you’re talking about saving them both.”
Good, Old Mary had saved his life, so it made sense with her.
But he had no reason to insist on saving the young butler known as Trismegistus. Even if he had done it for Alice, he had cruelly cut down Aradia and attempted to do the same to Kamijou.
But Kamijou didn’t even need to think about his response.
“So what if I am?”
“Why would you do that?”
“If I don’t have a reason, I’ll find one. At the very least, I don’t have it in me to abandon someone to die and then smile like nothing happened.”
He directed his right fist toward her.
There was a dull cracking sound, but not from his fist.
It came from Alice Anotherbible’s tilted head. The angle of the tilt had passed a certain threshold. Her thin neck continued making strange cracking noises, but no hint of pain was visible on her face.
She spoke from that abnormal angle and from the noh mask that seemed entirely devoid of life.
“You too, teacher?”
Something more frightening, and much more painful, than tears of blood spilled from her eyes.
“You’re afraid of the girl and her power just like all the others? But the girl hasn’t said anything wrong. The girl hasn’t done anything wrong.”
That was probably close to the very core of that young girl.
This was something Anna Sprengel’s whisperings had implanted in her and something she had ended up clinging to.
“I’m sorry…Alice.”
It was true Kamijou had kept his eyes on both Good, Old Mary and Trismegistus to ensure no stray shots would hit them. And Alice had seen right through him.
But did she realize that it wasn’t only those two.
They were confronting each other head on. They were clearly enemies. But it was an indisputable fact that Kamijou Touma had kept that young girl in the very center of his vision this entire time.
He would save Alice too.
If he didn’t have a reason to, he would find one.
He was making the choice that none of the Transcendents had dared make.
“The Bologna Succubus and Good, Old Mary told me about this too.”
“…Did they?”
Their eyes met.
He couldn’t look away now.
“They said I was the only person in the world who could hold an ordinary conversation with you and the only one who could get you to accept your mistakes if you did the wrong thing. If that’s true, then this is my job. Alice Anotherbible, it doesn’t matter if you hate me now or not. Don’t ever think that’s enough to stop Kamijou Touma!!!”
“Enough, teacher. Just shut up. You’re completely helpless once you get caught up in a few wonders. That puny fist of yours would shatter if you tried to break through the wall you’re facing now, so don’t think the girl is going to start bawling just because you threaten her with it!!!”
Her picture book dress completely tore away, revealing soft skin and leather overflowing with immorality.
The psychedelic sight would destroy the souls of all who ignored their instincts and attempted to attack her. Alice Anotherbible’s fury had easily dealt with the entirety of Academy City’s dark side, but now it was manifesting in full to crush just one boy.
He realized this may have been the first time Alice had ever directed real hostility in his direction.
It scared him.
People trying to survive a bombing or shelling could apparently feel so much fear they bled from their heart. The pressure bearing down on Kamijou was reaching that level.
Nevertheless, the puny boy chose to fight back against this deadly barrage. He knew that, deep down, Tyrant Alice wasn’t looking for someone unnaturally kind who would bake her a birthday cake every single day. She wanted someone who would do this without hesitation.
He had to believe that.
If he wasn’t sure what to do, he only needed to listen to his will.
He could not take a single step away. He was certain he stood in the position needed to save Alice.
And that had to be enough to give him the strength to fight against such great power!!!
Part 7[edit]
Alice Anotherbible.
Bits and pieces of her power had been seen in Academy City on December 29. There were the direct examples like the hedgehog balls and flamingo bat, there was the Executioner with unknown attack conditions, and even the Bridge Building that constructed bridges between the world’s logic and laws to distort the world as she saw fit. Seeing as she had created a reality where the dark side’s survivors all worked together to fight a powerful foe, her power had reached the point of forcibly creating impossible results.
Also, her body was immune to bacteria, bugs, curses, and all other forms of internal damage, both scientific and magical. As for external damage, she would always remain unscathed thanks to the hedgehogs and flamingo protecting her. Moreover, this didn’t come from a fear of shedding blood. She protected herself that way because if anything obstructed her actions, she might get angry and kill someone.
It was unknown if it was even possible to defeat her.
Kamijou couldn’t guess what punching her with Imagine Breaker would accomplish.
And with all that in mind…
(My top priority is that world-distorting power.)
Kamijou set his sights on that.
(I have to avoid being sucked into a fake happy ending where I forget all about fighting. But as long as I can avoid that, I can at least continue to fight back. That means-)
“Gryphon, clean this up.”
Everything blurred.
Kamijou’s vision grew distorted as he was tossed more than 20m backwards. Alice’s already small form looked so much smaller due to the greater distance.
Horrific snapping and cracking sounds came from inside his body. He belatedly realized he was basically being squeezed within a giant press.
Giant feathery wings spread wide before his eyes. That was definitely a sharp beak and talons holding him. Overall, it reminded him of a hawk or eagle, but that was no bird. When his eyes finally managed to focus again, he realized he was pinned down by a lithe body covered in feline muscles.
Hadn’t Alice mentioned a gryphon?
He estimated it was more than 7m long. The spread wings made it look nearly three times as large. A lion was 2.5m and a Siberian tiger could reach 3m, so how strong was this beast!?
(Damn, I’m not sure what a gryphon is supposed to be! And since this came from Alice, is it a specific one from that children’s book? I need Index’s knowledge here!!)
“Bh?”
He hadn’t known about this.
Kamijou hadn’t heard a thing about this trump card!
“Gahh!! Cough, cough, agh! Alice!!!”
Held between a giant beak and pressed roughly to the ground, “cornered” didn’t adequately describe Kamijou’s plight.
“Gryphon.”
Alice wasn’t even looking his way with her leather and soft skin exposed.
She only held out a hand and observed her nails.
“The girl is bored. Entertain her with the usual lobster dance.”
“!?”
Kamijou’s vision turned to flowing lines and gravity seemed to vanish.
It took him a few seconds to realize the giant monster was shaking its head side to side with him still in its beak. By then, he had already been slammed into the dark soil. He heard a disconcerting cracking sound deep inside him. He couldn’t have survived a second or third time, but he instead slipped from the beak, flew through the air, and tumbled along the ground. Thankfully, the beak wasn’t good at gripping. With a jaw with rows of teeth or fangs, he would have been pummeled until he didn’t even look human anymore.
Some kind of massive vortex approached him with rumbling sounds reminding him of artillery fire.
Was that the lobster dance?
That told him nothing! He couldn’t even predict what was flying his way! He was up against incredible power wielded in seemingly meaningless ways, so he had the feeling anything he tried to do to escape would backfire!!
He put off worrying about his inability to breathe. He instead rolled to the side to escape.
It didn’t help.
He felt something catch on his back and then the world around him lost shape again. By the time he realized, a birdlike talon had caught him, he slammed into the ground, tearing up the grass. He forgot all about breathing. He couldn’t resist in the slightest as the sharp break grabbed him again.
Kamijou couldn’t win. Or more accurately, he couldn’t even start to fight. He had badly misjudged this. After running around Academy City’s darkness with Alice on December 29, he had tricked himself into thinking he understood the girl.
Aradia, the Bologna Succubus, Good, Old Mary, Trismegistus, and all the other Transcendents were each said to rival the entire magic side on their own, so did he really think what he had seen before was enough to terrify them?
How many more trump cards did Alice have?
In fact, this giant monster with a lion’s body and a bird of prey’s beak, wings, and talons – had she called it a gryphon? – had been tossed out so thoughtlessly he wondered if Alice Anotherbible even considered it to be a trump card. Could this be her idea of teasing him with her little finger instead of one-shotting him like she had the others?
“Teacher.”
Cold wasn’t the right word.
Alice’s words were empty, like she didn’t care at all if he lived or died, which tore into Kamijou’s heart.
“You don’t need to worry about that. There is no way you can escape the Gryphon.”
“Aghhh!?”
“Do not underestimate the girl’s Gryphon. He is an embodiment of destruction who insists everything is a boring illusion and strips all things of value.”
Alice made it sound like no concern of hers. The Gryphon may have been the one who got rid of any nuisances bothering her.
It appeared whenever Alice didn’t feel like playing and it swiftly cleaned up whatever was ruining her fun. No, it was more than that. That monster would also perform the aforementioned lobster dance to cheer up the small girl. It destroyed only the simplest of hurdles. Its job was to give her a change of pace when she was done playing with someone and wanted them removed in a hurry.
The Gryphon hadn’t made an appearance on December 29.
Because Alice hadn’t felt the need.
Did that mean, in Alice’s opinion anyway, the Gryphon was even more dangerous than Academy City’s entire dark side!?
(A-)
Still in its mouth, Kamijou reached out his hand.
Toward the girl in the unsuitable leather outfit who was trying to display no interest in him.
He couldn’t reach her.
He knew that.
But if he died here, what would happen to her?
(Al…ice.)
A dull crunch rang out.
The gruesome sound of crushed flesh and bone echoed across the area.
He had known this. He had known Imagine Breaker wasn’t enough to battle a Transcendent without anything else prepared. That was an undeniable fact when he had already been killed multiple times by Transcendents like Aradia and Trismegistus. And he doubted Good, Old Mary was going to conveniently get up and resurrect him right now.
If he died, it was all over.
That basic fact of life applied to everyone equally…but it did not bare its fangs against Kamijou Touma here.
He was not dead.
The crunch had not been the Gryphon mercilessly shutting its giant beak. The gruesome sound of crushed flesh and bone had contained another sound as well.
An explosive blast.
The flesh and bone belonged to the Gryphon, not to Kamijou.
But this wasn’t just a sniper shot. The abnormal bird of prey was more than 7m long and it was blasted so hard from the side that it forcibly spat Kamijou from its beak. That couldn’t have been a simple 12.7mm anti-materiel rifle. It had to be something large enough to deserve the title of “cannon” rather than “gun”.
“Bwah!! Cough, cough. Ughh!?”
Kamijou rolled along the ground trying to get air in his lungs again, but all he found was a rusty flavor. He heard definite cracking sounds from inside his body. He may have broken a few ribs.
Alice looked away from her nails.
And she spoke in a dry, emotionless voice.
“Hm. An antique.”
Part 8[edit]
Identical clone girls were focused on their binoculars at a position about 1.5km from the Bridge Builders Cabal Consulate.
“The target was hit, reports Misaka #10777.”
“Hitting without an initial test firing is not easy, says Misaka #15000 to boost morale through self-praise. Even if it was a test shell without any explosive inside.”
“The hot combustion gas is constantly changing the metal barrel, repeats Misaka #18009 while preparing the next shell. Adjust the targeting grid up and right by 25 degrees for the 2nd shot.”
One of the Sisters held a giant hammer over her shoulder.
But it was not meant to break down a building wall or work in a mine.
It was used to drive in the metal spikes needed to secure an old weapon to the ground.
And unlike a department store or shopping mall during a good sale going on, the public museum was relatively quiet during the New Year’s holiday. This was often when the displays were maintained and aired out.
“Flak 18,” whispered the hammer Sister, her breath visible in the cold.
That was an oft-romanticized weapon that had once been used for both antiair and antitank combat.
“If you need to shoot something, you can’t go wrong with an Acht-Acht, says Misaka #19090, wiping sweat from her brow.”
Misaka Mikoto, still not used to the Japanese clothes she was wearing, was taken aback on a building rooftop.
And here she had thought she could enjoy a peaceful time with the Sisters over the holiday.
“H-how can you fire an 8.8cm cannon horizontally through an urban area, you stupid sisters!?”
“Misaka doesn’t want to hear that from the girl who starts blasting railguns everywhere the instant anything irritates her, calmly retorts Misaka #10032.”
“Gh. Th-that’s different…”
“Also this right here is the maintenance plan for the Acht-Acht given to us by the District 2 Firearm Museum, says Misaka, smugly showing off a fancy tablet since we live in a paperless era. We were asked to keep it in fireable order, so we have done so. And they do say that a machine must be used periodically if you want it to remain functional.”
“That’s a superstition! And I thought these things had internal parts severed to prevent them from being fired!? Curse that new board chairman. Why would he approve something like this? He’d better not be doing everything you ask out of guilt.”
“(Misaka thinks his approval had more to do with him than with us.)”
“?”
“…says Misaka while running a meaningless simulation based on fictional parameters to have fun with the Misaka Network. Some might call it fantasizing about amusing scenarios.”
Anyway.
There was of course only one possible destination for the two identical girls.
Misaka realized it was unusual for the two of them to accompany each other like this.
“We got that thing to spit him out, but this is still a crisis situation. The details and size of the enemy force are unknown. And the known enemy appears unharmed by an artillery blast to the side, reports Misaka, sharing the information taken from the other observers.”
“So what is it? I’m reluctant to fight a fluffy animal for different reasons than a human. But if it’s as big as you say it is, I’ll probably get over that reluctance real quick once I see it for myself.”
“The best tactic with monsters is to avoid making contact with them in the first place, says Misaka, trying her hand at counseling. So what should we do? This monster did not shed a single drop of blood after a direct hit from an Acht-Acht.”
Misaka Mikoto’s answer began with a quiet metallic sound.
She had flicked up an arcade coin with her thumb.
“Then we’ll have to try a cutting-edge railgun.”
In the blue sky above, an irregular demon girl floated in defiance of gravity. She did have wings reminiscent of marine animals on her back, but they clearly weren’t large enough to provide enough lift for her to fly.
“Kee hee hee. Look at ‘em go. Well, he’s not the type to let someone go through with murder just because they’re in a consulate protected by international law.”
A consulate represented an entire country, so attacking one wasn’t that simple.
But a consulate could also freely move around within the host country. And once it had moved, the former site of the consulate was no longer bound by the same legal restrictions.
So that was what he had done.
In exchange for some economic support, the new board chairman had gotten the consulate moved to Academy City’s District 1, a much nicer part of the city.
This was a gray zone.
The original Condroniard Republic had been bought by the Bridge Builders Cabal. Their bureaucrats would behave very differently depending on who came out on top here – Academy City or the cabal. Instead of ending the legal protections once the move was complete, they were holding off on doing anything for today, waiting to see how it turned out.
But the board chairman only needed this one day.
Academy City could deal with the rest.
Floating next to Qliphah Puzzle 545 was her opposite: a scientifically-created angel.
“What do we do now?” asked the busty glasses girl.
“Well,” said the demon in a newspaper dress, grinning. A demon’s logic was always the same: “We do whatever we want.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“It’s looking like our current job is to deal with anyone who steps outside the bounds of humanity,” whispered Qliphah Puzzle 545, her tail whipping side to side.
The teacher’s pet and the mischievous girl.
They held opposite positions, but they were already forming a new bond between themselves.
“And in that sense, Alice Anotherbible has made herself an obvious target. Sometimes being too powerful invites further danger. Now, let’s show her how we do things here in Academy City!!”
There was also movement on the consulate’s grounds.
“Hey, have you managed to analyze Alice Anotherbible yet? Without that, heading out there will only get you killed! It’s meaningless!!”
“Sphynx, bite that pagan god the next time she says anything pessimistic.”
“Yikes, yikes, yikes!!” shouted 15cm Othinus, her hair bristling.
“I’m close. So close,” said Index sullenly.
“So are you ready to accept it now? The Index Librorum Prohibitorum doesn’t mention any of the spells used by the Transcendents of the Bridge Builders Cabal.”
“No, not that,” interrupted Index.
Never underestimate her. They had seen a lot of special types of people – Saints, God’s Right Seat, angels, demons, Magic Gods, and now Transcendents – but none of them made the grimoire library any less valuable.
“This isn’t just about Alice Anotherbible. I’m so close to seeing a common factor between them all. I’m so close to having a definition for what a Transcendent is!!”
“…”
“If I get closer and actually confront her, I might get the last piece of the puzzle. And we can’t wait any longer anyway. Touma’s going to die!!”
“Yes, I’ll grant you that one. And none of this means anything if that human dies. But let me ask one last time: are you sure this is the choice you want to make? Don’t regret this after the fact, human girl!!”
Part 9[edit]
Someone was coming. Kamijou’s woozy mind managed to hear several footsteps approaching. They were on their way despite the laws and treaties protecting the consulate and despite the fact that it was a monstrous place guarded by countless Transcendents, including Alice herself.
They were on their way to bring an end to all this trouble.
They were on their way to protect Kamijou Touma.
“Damn.”
(I appreciate it, but I can’t get them involved in the battle against Alice. If they go up against her without any real chance of winning, who knows what kind of trick she’ll reveal she still has up her sleeve!!)
That meant he only had one option.
He couldn’t rely on kindness, warmth, or the good of the world.
He had to crawl back to his feet if he wanted to protect them himself.
And if he wanted to prevent Alice from becoming that kind of enemy!!
“Bh.”
He had no way of knowing what was going on inside his body.
A rusty flavor filled his mouth.
Maybe this was what it meant to fight a Transcendent without a plan. With Aradia, Trismegistus, and Alice, simply being with them meant risking your life and directly facing them meant unavoidable death.
All the more reason why he couldn’t let anyone else get involved.
He moved his body despite the disturbing sounds it made when he did so and he dug his fingers into the dark soil.
He was painfully aware of the birdcage his ribs formed in his chest. Something hot was exploding inside that cage.
He had pushed himself too hard.
The blood went wild in the core of his being and he collapsed back to the ground.
“Gahh!?”
How much longer would he be able to move?
10 minutes? 5? Maybe not even 1.
But.
He gathered strength in his deteriorating body once more.
He was willing to cough up blood, break some bones, or damage his internal organs if that was what it took.
As long as he could keep himself moving for another minute.
As long as he could stand back up and clench his fist again.
His right hand wandered.
He touched Trismegistus’s sword on the ground and it shattered. With Good, Old Mary’s outdoor kitchen tools, he wasn’t sure how they were even used as weapons.
Nevertheless…
“Gahh!!”
He stood up.
He threw his right fist forward.
Toward the giant monster rushing toward him. The difference in their strength had already been proven beyond a doubt. The Gryphon opened its large beak and bit at the boy’s right arm.
He heard an unpleasant tearing sound.
He felt searing heat.
But.
His arm exploded.
Something burst from within his torn-off right arm and rapidly expanded within the bird of prey’s mouth.
The Gryphon’s silhouette burst like a balloon.
“Ah, ahh, ahhh, ahhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
(This isn’t over.)
He staggered to the side.
His vision faded due to all the blood gushing from his arm.
(Alice is still there.)
He still had to deal with the hedgehog balls, the flamingo bat, the executioner, and the small girl herself.
He knew that.
He wasn’t going to last much longer.
Defeating the giant Gryphon wasn’t the end of it. it probably didn’t even qualify as one of the main cards in Alice Anotherbible’s deck. Kamijou was already battered before even arriving in front of her. If he couldn’t defeat her at his best, what hope did he have in his current state?
Still.
Kamijou Touma used his remaining arm and his mouth to tie a handkerchief tightly around the shoulder just above where his arm had been torn off.
He couldn’t afford to pass out yet.
He knew people were rushing to his aid, but he couldn’t expose them to the threat that was Alice. If this had all begun with the two of them meeting on that adventure in the dark side, he had to be the one to end it.
“Al…ice.”
He couldn’t even straighten his slanted stance.
But he still clenched his bloody teeth and took a step forward.
“Forget about the others. Pretend they’re not even here.”
He moved forward.
He moved of his own free will to stand before that young monster whose innocence was what made her so terrifying.
“So fight me!! Alice Anotherbible!!!”
And…
“…”
Alice looked away from him in her inappropriate leather outfit. She was instead focused on the many footsteps surrounding them.
On all the people attempting to eliminate her to protect Kamijou.
Then she let out a visible breath with resignation on her face. It was the look of a child who had been so excited about going to the amusement park but, once she arrived, got lost, was taken into custody by the park officials, waited and waited for her parents to come get her, and as the sun began to set, finally realized that her parents had abandoned her.
That face stabbed into Kamijou Touma’s heart far more painfully than anger or the noh mask ever could.
“Forget it…”
Uh, oh, realized Kamijou, but it was too late.
He had already seen the clear drops growing in the corners of her eyes as she pouted her lips and turned away.
And the girl said one last thing now that she was truly alone.
“Stupid teacher.”
Between the Lines 4[edit]
The girl thought she would be happy if she became something special.
She thought she wasn’t happy now because she hadn’t done enough to set herself apart.
Maybe she could be like Cinderella. Or like Snow White.
So she specialized herself more and more and more. To a dangerous degree.
She innocently improved herself.
She became someone who did what no one else could.
Now, let’s take a peek at the answer.
How did that turn out for the girl?
