“It’s not a matter of whether it’s good or not.”
“…”
“Index is suffering. How many people do you think are crying right now because of this shitty war you started? Is it strange to you that someone would want to stand up to you? Is it bad to want to fight for a girl who can’t even open her eyes? At the very least, you have no right to complain about anything when you take so much delight in making so many people suffer.”
However.
“How amusing.”
Chuckling, Fiamma proffered his right arm to Kamijou.
In it was a small, cylindrical device.
The Soul Arm to remotely control Index.
As Kamijou’s face changed, Fiamma’s cheeks loosened into a grin, and he said:
“Those words—could you still say them in front of the sister you’ve been lying to all this time?”
Prkk.
Kamijou’s shoulders gave a slight start.
Does he…?
“Sometimes her consciousness connects to mine through this Soul Arm. And sometimes, the information I see and hear is transmitted to her.”
Has he actually…?
“Now, in this situation, under those circumstances, could you say it again? If I’m mistaken, then you don’t have a problem. If you truly feel that way, then why have you kept up this shameless act with her?”
Does he know…?
A cold shudder ran through him.
It wasn’t an emotion relating to the crisis he was in.
A certain girl.
He could feel something, like an invisible pillar holding her up, slowly beginning to crumble.
On the other hand…
Fiamma tapped his temple with his normal fingers and, still smiling, said, “You’re the only one who understands that which you hide. Only she can give judgment on how she feels. You seem to be protecting her to satisfy yourself, but as for whether that will actually save her, well…I look forward to the judgment she will pass.”
His third arm swung.
Kamijou, movements completely blocked by the malicious words, couldn’t react to it.
But he wasn’t aiming for Kamijou.
It was Sasha Kreutzev, whom Fiamma had knocked down with one hit, who was still lying on the plaza ground.
“Firstly.”
The next thing he knew, Fiamma’s third arm was holding the short girl’s body.
He’d ignored the distance between them. The arm had undulated like a whip, then reeled back in like a chameleon tongue.
“?! Fiamma!!”
“I’d love to have the second, but there is still the issue of compatibility.”
After Kamijou snapped out of it and shouted, Fiamma responded in a light tone, almost a whistle.
“I’d like to ensure the angelic medium is sealed, but if I do, your right hand’s special effect will interfere. It would probably be hard to carry both at once.”
Still gripping Sasha like a bag wrapped in branches, Fiamma turned his back to Kamijou.
“Don’t die too easily,” he offered.
Kamijou ignored them and charged forward.
Fiamma, however, didn’t even turn around.
“I need that right hand for something.”
An explosion went off.
By the time Kamijou’s right hand had canceled it out, Fiamma was already nowhere to be seen.
The buzz returned to the plaza at last, now that the crisis had withdrawn.
As the scenery began to move, Kamijou alone remained still.
The only thing in his mind was what Fiamma had said.
“…But as for whether that will actually save her, well…I look forward to the judgment she will pass.”
9
Shiage Hamazura was sauntering about in the snow.
He’d been in a building at first, but he’d lost his patience for staying still and ended up wandering back and forth out in the snow, thinking over what he could do about the weight sitting in the pit of his stomach.
It was a small settlement.
It only had about fifty private homes, all made of logs. Nobody but the people living here could tell the difference between a dwelling and a store. And in fact, only those buildings existed out here.
“It looks like treating the girl’s symptoms is the best we can do, after all,” a tall man addressed him as he was ambling about.
It was the man who had brought Takitsubo and him to this settlement in exchange for the fuel in the stolen car.
His name seemed to be Digurv.
“The drug affecting her is from Academy City, which is several decades ahead in technology, right? A small clinic like this can’t possibly know how to cure the underlying condition. The greater danger is us doing something that ends up making things worse.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I know.” Hamazura shook his head, unease coloring his features. “But I haven’t even been able to let her sleep in a normal bed until now. Please—just get her health in a more stable condition. I can’t stand seeing her in pain.”
“Sure, but what are you going to do, ultimately?” asked Digurv.
Hamazura fell quiet for a moment. Takitsubo had said that Academy City might have a hidden reason for such a committed invasion of Russia. If they could find out what that was, then place themselves in a position that could influence the combat situation, they might be able to conduct negotiations on equal terms with the giant organization that was the City.
And searching for it was the only way. Before Rikou Takitsubo was completely out of action, he needed to head for the center of this world war on his own.
Spirits flagging at the sheer enormity of that wall, he decided to change the topic. Glancing around, he said, “Seems kind of busy around here.”
“Mm. A nearby settlement seems to have been attacked by Russian forces, but an Asian boy apparently saved them from a truck convoy transporting them to a concentration camp. More people here are runaways than actual villagers at this point.”
Were those the circumstances leading to the apparent lack of goods?
“…Will the generator be okay?”
“For now. Normally, we have regularly scheduled shipments of supplies and fuel, but the situation being what it is…The Russian forces are stationed on the roads, cutting off the usual route. To be honest, if you hadn’t been passing by a little while ago, things would have gotten pretty bad.”
A problem that wouldn’t have happened had there not been a war between Academy City and Russia.
“I’m sorry…It’s our fault.”
For a moment, a ridiculous idea had crossed Hamazura’s mind: Could this large-scale war have started because he and Takitsubo fled to Russia? He was fully aware of the fact that they were trivial and didn’t nearly have that much value, but he couldn’t entirely shake the thought, either.
However, Digurv shook his head. “No, it’s not. If I’ve offended you, then I’m sorry. In all honesty, I get it.”
“?”
“The Russian military has been targeting this settlement since before World War III started. The border with the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations is a stone’s throw away, you know. This is the perfect site to build a front-line base to mount an invasion. We’ve been in danger of a takeover several times already. It’s an awful real estate scam. Things got so bad they’ve been using the excuse of ‘preventing Alliance invasions’ to have transport aircraft lay out tons of land mines. Russia might have a way to find all of them and employ machines to retrieve them, but obviously, this settlement doesn’t have anything like that.”
The idea was unimaginable.
In Japan, a government perpetrating something like that was absolutely out of the question.
“Don’t worry about it. We basically treat it like a store point card—the land mines, too. If we retrieve them and give them to an NGO, they’ll exchange them for food and supplies. It would actually be safer to set them off where they are, but peace activists seem to appre
ciate results that are easy to understand.”
Digurv pointed to a small house at the edge of the settlement. That was where they threw all the land mines they dug up and stabilized the fuse pins on.
“…Russia really wants to attack the Alliance, huh? What does the Alliance have anyway?”
“Who knows? It might not be an actual threat—the Russian government might simply fear their huge lands fracturing more than they already have. At the very least, the Alliance doesn’t seem like it would ever be a military threat to Russia. Whatever the case is, our country can’t possibly have the combat strength to fight a direct war.”
Just because he was a local didn’t mean this man knew everything about the country’s circumstances. Digurv’s tone made it seem like he’d heard this all from someone else. He was just another person. He couldn’t get any news beyond what came on the television very easily.
And then it happened.
Zzzk. Hamazura heard someone’s footsteps on the snow.
Digurv turned toward the noise, then immediately shoved Hamazura down onto the snow. He didn’t even have time to argue. Digurv pulled on the fallen Hamazura’s clothes, then frantically dove behind a building.
“Wh…what? What happened?”
“Russian soldier,” answered Digurv in a purposely low voice, putting his index finger to his lips.
When Hamazura, startled, peeked around the wall, a man in his twenties wearing an army uniform was indeed standing on the snow.
The seriousness in Digurv’s face intensified. “I thought we had sensors around the settlement to prevent intruders. Did they short out somehow?”
“…Hey, the Russian army is after this settlement’s land, right?” asked Hamazura, but then something strange happened.
All of a sudden, the waddling Russian soldier fell into the snow.
Hamazura and Digurv exchanged glances, but the Russian soldier showed no signs of moving after that. After watching for a good thirty seconds or more, they slowly exited from the building’s shadow.
Even when they drew near the fallen Russian soldier, no surprise attack came.
When they turned the facedown soldier onto his back, parts of his face had turned blue or purple.
“Frostbite,” said Digurv.
With almost-closed eyes, the soldier looked up at his keepers and muttered something in Russian. When Digurv heard it, he glanced at Hamazura.
“Says he wants us to save him. He was waiting at a nearby air base for…something, but they were attacked by Academy City forces before it arrived. The cold must have been awful in his indoor uniform.”
Hamazura almost grimaced at the mention of Academy City, but worrying about that on its own wouldn’t get them anywhere…Sure are a lot of visitors today, he added internally.
“…What do we do? Save him? Seems like one hell of an uninvited guest.”
“Don’t give me that look. It’s written all over your face that you want me to save him.” Digurv sighed pointedly, then lent his shoulder to the frostbitten soldier and brought him to his feet. Hamazura helped support his body, too, shuddering at how cold his skin felt.
“Hey, will you guys be okay with this, Digurv?”
“I’d take the coldhearted route if I could. But leaving him to die won’t change the situation at all.”
Their destination was the tiny clinic Takitsubo was also resting in.
Hamazura didn’t know any actual treatments for frostbite, but he idly guessed that just carrying him to a fireplace or heater would help quite a bit.
“…Something,” huh?
As he held up the cold Russian soldier, he suddenly had a thought.
If the Academy City force had a reason other than the obvious war…in other words, if they’d been on a raiding mission to get the something scheduled to be delivered to the air base…Would the existence of that something be a tool he and Takitsubo could use to cut a deal with Academy City?
Right.
The soldier had said the Academy City force had attacked an air base where something was supposed to be delivered.
In that case, wasn’t it possible that something hadn’t made it into that force’s hands yet?
Hamazura glanced at the exhausted Russian soldier’s profile.
He doubted an amateur high school kid could “elicit information” from a professional soldier who went through daily training and had plenty of experience in actual combat. But in a weakened state like this, maybe there was a chance.
After he started to craft this plan, he said, “…Damn it. I wouldn’t be able to face Takitsubo if I did something like that.”
“?”
Digurv gave him a dubious look, but Hamazura didn’t say anything else.
There was more than one method. There had to be an opportunity to make a deal with Academy City that didn’t involve using a stranger’s misfortune as a stepping stone.
Carrying this guy someplace warm comes first.
But as they were about to open the clinic door, someone burst out from inside.
It was a girl of about ten. Probably one of the people rescued from the in-transit convoy and not an original resident of the settlement; he could somewhat tell the difference from things like her clothes. As soon as she saw Digurv’s face, she began to rattle away in Russian. It seemed to be a message for him, but Digurv was frowning. Maybe she was too excited for her words to get across.
However, as though finally realizing what the girl was trying to say, Digurv’s face changed. Entrusting the frostbitten Russian soldier to Hamazura, he rushed into the clinic.
Hamazura didn’t know what was going on, but he followed him inside while carrying the soldier.
He was tense.
The building the girl had burst out of was the clinic where Takitsubo was supposedly resting; maybe something had happened.
He had a bad feeling…
But his prediction was wrong.
The situation was even graver than he feared.
“What the hell’s going on?! What happened?” shouted Hamazura in Japanese, lowering the Russian soldier to the floor in front of the electric stove near the clinic entrance.
Digurv, who had been speaking quickly, eventually turned around to Hamazura. He was in a whirlwind, like he was about to make an escape through the night.
“…Privateers.”
“What are those?”
“They’re like corsairs. Originally, it was a name for a military system during the Middle Ages. Government-approved pirates who would prioritize attacking ships from enemy nations, both causing them financial stress and filling their own country’s coffers with the gold they plundered. During that time, the pirates would be under national protection, since they’re approved by the government. Apparently, a few were even knighted.”
“What’s that got to do with this?”
“Russia’s military uses privateers like that even in modern times,” answered Digurv, not paying any attention to the nervous sweat forming on his face, his eyes bloodshot. “Empty units exist in the military. Their official personnel count is zero. Like the name privateer implies, most of their missions are to acquire funds by attacking hostile forces. Originally, they needed to carry out operations to disrupt enemy supply lines and indirectly sap their combat strength, but raiding operations targeting lightly armed people were never popular and tended to cause the spread of unnecessary unhappiness, so I also hear they established teams for the express purpose. Apparently, they’re now the go-to team for when they need dirty missions done.”
Digurv added that he didn’t know how much of it was true, though.
“…They gather people mainly from western Europe who have armed forces experience and want to let loose. I even hear they recruit over the Internet. Military regulations don’t apply to them, and you can make a lot of money in a short time, so it seems to be somewhat popular. In addition to that, Russia gives them top-of-the-line equipment and pushes the dirty jobs on them—so if push comes to shove, th
ey can immediately disband the team and all its documentation. Any troops that cause a ‘problem’ are treated as having been thrown in a political prisoner camp on paper only, and then they go back to whatever country they came from. That’s how they’ve built this system where they can smoothly carry out missions that would otherwise earn them criticism from the global community.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me…You’re saying crooks like that are on their way here?”
Hamazura looked at the Russian soldier he’d carried in front of the electric stove.
“O-oh yeah, and there’s a Russian military ally here. They wouldn’t level the entire settlement, would they? They would at least do some checking first.”
“We’re up against privateers. They don’t care about any of that.”
Digurv shook his head.
The Russian soldier, too, let out a groan upon hearing the word privateers.
After a moment, Digurv said, “They’ve sent privateers into real combat several times already.”
Originally, the Russian military had been after this land to build a front-line base for attacking deeper into the Elizalina Alliance. And they’d even spread land mines using transport aircraft as part of their real estate scheme for it.
“But until now, we’ve detected them approaching and held out by running away before they started their main attack. I mean, they’d bust up our buildings and take anything worth money, but it was a small price to pay. And we’d always have a chance to manage to rebuild it all.”
“Th-then, can’t we do that now?”
“…The situation’s changed. We’re in World War III. The Russian forces have refurbished the privateers’ gear. We can’t escape anymore. The armored cars they have are far faster than our legs, and their firepower is something we can’t deal with.”
“This must be some kind of joke…”
Digurv and the others had also said they couldn’t run the generator because they had no fuel. Right now, it was possible they didn’t even have enough escape cars to fit everyone in the settlement.
They couldn’t use their usual methods.
What would happen if they ran out of all other options?
“Away from here is a steel lookout tower that uses magnetism to detect when people are approaching. It’s been blown to bits—probably by the privateers. They’re already very close; we don’t have much time. They don’t abide by the rules of war, so if they get inside, they won’t bother arresting us or capturing us—they’ll slaughter everyone on the spot.”
A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 20 Page 12