Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume7 Ending
“…”
That human didn’t move for a while.
He stood stock-still, unable to do anything.
“Kee hee. Ee hee. Ha ha ha. Ah ha ha ha!”
Mocking laughter filled the air.
It came from the great demon who had lost most of her territory when her flowing blonde hair was cut short.
“Yes, yes, this is such a delight!! It has been far too long since I’ve seen that look on your face!!”
The preserved corpse sighed next to him.
That was Anna Kingsford.
“One 🗣️ to me and I could have solved everything.”
“I couldn’t…”
He responded with his head lowered and his voice vanishingly quiet.
“I couldn’t possibly do that.”
Aleister hadn’t been considering anything extra this time. He had simply noticed Anna Sprengel and the Transcendents of the Bridge Builders Cabal moving to make a mess of Kamijou Touma’s life, so he had come to Academy City to stop them. That was truly all he had wanted to do.
He said more.
He could have stopped. The truly smart knew not to speak on and on for no reason. Anna Kingsford had already proven that with her own way of life.
“I’ve only done the right thing this time.”
More and more words spilled out of him.
“If I hadn’t crushed those executives during the war in Los Angeles, R&C Occultics wouldn’t have fallen. Melzabeth and Helcalia would have wasted their lives on meaningless revenge.”
Once it all broke down, this was who that human really was.
Everything he held inside burst out through the small crack that had formed.
“I said I would deal with Academy City’s dark side, but he rejected that and charged into the depths of the darkness himself!! What the hell!? Didn’t he hear what Alice said!? She told him plain as day that he would die!!”
He spat out his resentment like it was his own blood.
He was used to unfair treatment. In fact, it was unusual for things to go his way. That was a lesson he had learned long ago.
“Then he goes and dies multiple times in Shibuya! And after all that, he didn’t even notice Anna Sprengel approaching!! If I hadn’t woken Kingsford and sent her after Miss Sprengel, he would have lost Aradia and everything else too!!”
Kihara Noukan didn’t say a word.
He simply looked away from his old friend and lit a new cigar.
“I wanted to save Kamijou Touma… For once in my life, I wanted to be the one who saves someone! That, dammit, that really was all I wanted!! Why!? Why does this always happen to meeee!?”
Even when you start with kindness and have the ability to act on that kindness, sometimes it doesn’t work out.
The ache he felt in his chest came from the hostility he felt coming from someone he had gone to such lengths to help.
Miss Sprengel could not be contained by a prison cell.
The only way to capture her without killing her was to at least take away her arms and legs.
But the boy with ordinary sensibilities hadn’t understood that.
He wasn’t here anymore.
“Hee hee hee.”
Anna Kingsford leaned gently against the human. Just like an older sister seeking attention from her shy little brother.
That was probably something that Aleister had never been able to find.
“What do you want?”
“Now, now. Do ❌ be like that.”
Until now, Anna Kingsford had only seen Aleister as a temporary traveling companion while she served those around her. She would obey him as long as it aligned with her purposes, but she would eliminate him and gain her freedom as soon as he stood in her way.
In fact…
If Aleister had panicked and ordered her to attack that amateur high school boy, Kingsford would have easily defeated Aleister and sided with the pointy-haired boy. She was the sort of expert who showed no mercy to that sort of wicked magician.
But Aleister hadn’t done that.
No matter how much it made his heart ache, he had said he couldn’t do that.
That appealed to her.
Even if he was hopelessly awkward. Even if the magic he was so desperate to make use of seemed like little more than a crude game to someone who had mastered that path as much as she had.
It appealed to her so much that she wished she had accepted him as one of her troublesome children even earlier than this.
And so Anna Kingsford smiled.
That great goddess of wisdom smiled and spoke.
“For now, cry your eyes out, Aleister.”
