A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 21

by Kazuma Kamachi

  “Shit!!”

  Scooping up the confused child, Grickin tried to run farther. But his feet caught in the deep snow, and his body fell into it, his balance ruined by her unexpectedly heavy weight.

  The soldier approached.

  Grickin could see, even from this distance, the agent’s finger pressing the trigger.

  Until.

  Baaaang!! A gunshot echoed out through the snowy forest.

  Grickin had unconsciously closed his eyes, but he felt no pain.

  Nervously, he opened his eyes and saw the soldier fallen on the ground a short distance away. A lump of snow piled up on a branch, about twenty pounds’ worth, had suddenly fallen on his head.

  It was not a natural occurrence, of course; the gunshot just now hadn’t been from the assault rifle in the soldier’s hands. A third party had fired at the trunk of the tree near him, from somewhere. After all, hitting a big target sitting still was easier than a small target that was constantly moving.

  “Are you okay?!”

  He heard a shout. Japanese—rare in these parts. Another gunshot went off. The snow on the ground near the agent trying to get up flew about. He saw the brawny soldier raise his hands.

  “Grickin, tie him up!! That was a lucky surprise attack that happened to work. If we take him on for real, we won’t be able to deal with him!!”

  He remembered that voice. He looked toward where it came from just as Shiage Hamazura was running toward him, weaving between the trees, a gun in his hand. In a moment, as though irritated by how Grickin still wasn’t moving, he tied the agent’s hands behind his back with barbed wire.

  “…Why…?” murmured Grickin, not thinking properly, before remembering the situation. He peeled the girl he had been trying to protect off him and said, “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. Let’s get away from here. The guy you just tied up is from an elite Russian unit. His friends will figure it out soon from the gunshots and radio silence. We have to run before they surround us.”

  “I’ve got a bone to pick with them.”

  “?”

  Grickin frowned as a girl approached, following in Hamazura’s wake. Her name was Takitsubo, if he remembered correctly. She’d been sick with something until a little while ago, but it seemed like she’d recovered.

  Hamazura looked her way, and Takitsubo dutifully took the girl’s hand. Then, as natural as anything, she led her away—so she wouldn’t hear what they were about to say.

  “The Kremlin Report.”

  “The what?”

  “There’s a nuclear launch silo near the settlement that isn’t active anymore. The top Russian officers think Academy City might seize it, so they want to hit first and deploy a bioweapon in the area. Apparently, they set up a process for handling all this in advance.”

  “…Bastards…,” groaned Grickin.

  Normally, such a story would have been immediately unbelievable. But the presence of that unofficial combat unit, the soldier after his life just moments ago, had been far too sinister.

  “You mean that unit is gonna spread a horrible virus or something?! Even if we had all the settlers evacuate now, I don’t know if they’d have enough time!!”

  “Well, Takitsubo was the one who read the report because it was in Russian, but apparently they have to go through certain steps to spray the weapon. There was a report on predicted casualties that had data on wind direction, temperature, humidity, and stuff like that. It seems like the humidity—the amount of moisture in the air—is important for spreading the contagion, but it’s highly possible it’ll turn into diamond dust with how cold it is.”

  “In that case…”

  “But if they use a large amount of water vapor to change the temperature and humidity, the contagion will spread out like an explosion. They want to take this heat-retaining gel and make it into powder, then scatter it upwind from the target point. Special gel that won’t freeze even at these temperatures. Once they’ve optimized the temperature and humidity in the appropriate area, they can unleash the weapon in question. If a person goes into it one time, the virus will survive by the infected person’s body temperature and moisture, creating a carrier.”

  “Then we might be able to do something if we can just stop them from spreading that heat-retaining gel they need for the first step.”

  “It said on there it was called the Steam Dispenser. It’s a device for making the gel into powder and shooting it into the air. Like a special humidifier, I guess. Anyway, that, uh, unit or whatever. We have to somehow destroy that machine before they take action.”

  Somehow.

  That was easy to say, but it meant fighting that elite unit and winning. If the enemies moved as a group, two people wouldn’t be enough to take them out in a surprise attack.

  “…What do we do? Call the Academy City forces garrisoned in the settlement?”

  “There’s no time. And if we do something big, it might make them push up their schedule for spreading the stuff. We can estimate the Steam Dispenser’s rough position by geographical and weather data with the wind direction. We haven’t figured out exactly where it is. If that unit starts right now, we’re already too late. And…”

  Hamazura paused.

  Grickin lowered his face slightly at his silence. “Sorry…”

  “It’s fine. But we need to move before the ones left get suspicious. Grickin, can you drive a car? Here’s the key. We hid the jeep three hundred meters west of here. You take the girl and go back to the settlement for now.”

  “But then you’ll be—?!”

  “More of those guys could be wandering around here, so we can’t leave the girl here. It’s too dangerous to have her walk back alone, and bringing her to the battlefield is out of the question. Please, escort her back. And the soldier I tied up, too.”

  After saying that, Hamazura took out his cell phone.

  “Let’s trade phone numbers. There’s nothing around here, but apparently we still get a connection because of some relay antennas. I’ll contact you once I find the Steam Dispenser. At that point, even if they realize Academy City’s doing something, I can put a stop to them before they start the spread. And then you have to do whatever you can to persuade the Academy City soldiers to have the people in the settlement go on an exodus. If I don’t contact you for thirty minutes, same thing. Be careful of the wind direction. It may not matter much if they actually spray the weapon, but it’s probably better than moving around without thinking. I’d actually like them to run away right now, but not if they run blindly to where the Steam Dispenser is waiting for them. Understand?”

  “…”

  “Do you understand me, Grickin?! If something happens to me, and you don’t do your job, a lot of people in that settlement could die!!”

  “…”

  “It’s impossible that every single person in the Russian army wants to use a bioweapon like that! That’s why they sent in a team that would willingly take on the heartless mission of the first spraying operation!! If they get a certain amount of results here or whatever, those soldiers will lose all self-control!! Meaning the same thing could happen in the rest of Russia!! We have to avoid that. I don’t want anyone being a victim—not any of the Academy City soldiers or anyone in the settlement. Do you understand me now, Grickin?!”

  “Yeah, I understand you, damn it!! I’ll protect those settlers with my life. You’d better not die out there, either!!”

  Hamazura and Grickin, after exchanging cell phone numbers, slapped their palms together as if to run the plastic devices into each other. They said nothing more after that. Takitsubo, judging that their conversation was over, returned with the girl. Grickin took the girl’s hand, put the tied-up soldier on his shoulder, then headed off for where they’d hidden the jeep.

  Hamazura put his cell phone in his pocket, then turned to Takitsubo and said, “We should go, too.”

  “Hamazura. Considering the weather and geographical data in the report, I suspect the spot is about five hun
dred meters north of here.”

  Takitsubo spoke smoothly, perhaps because she’d been in charge of reconnaissance for Item. It didn’t have anything to do with her ability, but she’d probably polished the skill to figure out plans based on data, too.

  “There’s a small mountain, less than a hundred meters tall, and the wind blows down from there toward the nuclear launch silo and the settlement.”

  “Won’t be at the mountaintop. They’re on a time limit, too—they want to wrap things up as fast as they can. I think they’ll try to quickly set up the Steam Dispenser as close to the foot as they can manage.”

  Hamazura walked up to the place the soldier had been lying a few moments ago, then picked up the assault rifle and magazine he’d been carrying. Its weight and texture were entirely different from his handgun. He doubted he could use it properly, but going in with a single pistol would be far too unreliable.

  For just a moment, the chill of the lethal weapon gave him pause.

  But then he looked up to shake off the feeling, slung the band around his shoulder, and took a determined step toward the mountain to the north.

  “Hamazura. Let’s finish it quickly. I’m sick of this war.”

  “Yeah. And I gotta say, I hate this solar eclipse. Least they could’ve done is given us a view of the aurora.”

  7

  As Accelerator blew away the white snow on the ground like a blast wave, he charged at the two angels. For just a moment, he considered which of the two, clashing their blades together, he should launch a preemptive strike on.

  Whatever the case was, they were monsters with wings growing from their backs.

  He had no responsibility to help, either.

  In which case.

  Accelerator applied his reflection to purposely intervene between the two angels.

  A thunderous ba-bam!! rang out.

  Of the two angels, his reflection didn’t work properly on the one flapping wings of water with a doll-like face. It was just like Vodyanoy and the others at the remains of the air base. He was definitely using his reflection ability, but the watery wings twisted and squished like candy, gouging out a forest nearby, ground and all, and flinging it into the air.

  The rebound angle was shallow. If the angel pressed Accelerator any harder, it would hit him directly, too.

  But his expression didn’t change. The other angel—the one that looked like a woman wearing glasses—his reflection worked on her wings just fine. Ignoring the angel, surprised almost like a human would be, Accelerator forcibly converted his attack vector on the angel wearing the glasses.

  He converged it into a single point, then brutally slammed it into the water angel’s chest.

  All sound disappeared.

  Ignoring gravity, the angel’s body, which had been freely dancing through the air, shot over three hundred meters backward. The monster fell spectacularly, shooting across the surface while pulling up the ground underneath like an airplane crash.

  The reason Accelerator had gone after the water angel first was simple.

  His ability worked on one of them—and not on the other. It made sense to go for the more troublesome one first.

  “You…are…?”

  The angel wearing the glasses, who probably wielded a power of a sort even Accelerator could understand, stammered, sounding baffled.

  In Japanese. Without any blurring like with Aiwass.

  “You controlled my wings, made of an aggregate of AIM dispersion fields…?”

  “I’m surprised a monster like you has a brain in there capable of having a serious Q and A.”

  Accelerator opened his jacket and showed her the sheaf of parchment he had shoved into his inside pocket.

  “Did this thing draw you here, too?”

  “…?”

  The scientific angel frowned, as though confused.

  But then—

  Whumm!! Something like a wall of pressure spread out over the area. It was like an invisible explosion—and it had a strange, unknowable killing intent. When he looked at ground zero of the immense negative emotions, more than a single human could ever output on their own, the knocked-away water angel was just getting up.

  The snow disappeared.

  All the white drifts in a five-hundred-square-meter range centered on the angel melted and turned into water.

  Zm-zm-zm-zm-zm-zm-zm-zm-zm-zm-zm-zm!!!!!! A huge amount of fluid was absorbed into the water angel. In the blink of an eye, its already enormous wings changed into something even more fiendish.

  “How candid. Trying to introduce yourself?”

  Accelerator closed his jacket and turned to face his adversary.

  While standing side by side with the science angel, as it were.

  “Um, I…”

  “I’ll deal with you later,” said Accelerator, sounding bored. “Got no interest in Academy City–made stuff. I’m getting the feeling that other monster has the key I need to save the kid.”

  He’d learned something from the initial clash: Both angels were monsters but not as strong as Aiwass.

  It was obvious when it came to the science angel—his reflection and vector manipulation worked on her. Even with the unknown water angel, though, if he could blow it away using the science angel’s power, it was far from being Aiwass.

  After all.

  Aiwass never even left an opportunity to counterattack.

  I can win.

  It was a cynical method of judgment—but Accelerator knew it wasn’t wrong.

  That was when it happened:

  “…hbuiesdfosfnisadofhjohnvouazeswhfpiASNFcpiAENFpiANJvpidnkljndsigps…”

  The water angel’s mouth writhed about.

  Something was coming out. A small sound, hard to make out.

  He didn’t know what country’s language that was in the first place, but…

  “…sergvSCOPEhySETTING…”

  A clear revolution occurred in Accelerator’s ears.

  He felt like someone had shown him another painting buried inside a trompe l’oeil.

  “DROPgrePREPARATION…djkuCOMPLETE”

  This language.

  Accelerator knew this language.

  As he brought up his face in surprise, every one of the watery wing tips pointed up to the ominous night sky. Almost like a radio antenna. Almost like it was receiving a signal from the heavens.

  And then.

  Its voice, which had just become clear, said:

  “Command Eradicationdropping.”

  The night sky sparkled.

  He didn’t have time to see why.

  Tens of millions of destructive stones began to rain down over an area about two kilometers in radius.

  Divine punishment, of the same nature as the power even he couldn’t fully reflect.

  “?!”

  He couldn’t react in time.

  Dodge or block? Before he could think about it, the tempest of destruction slammed into him with all its brutality. He lost his concept of where the sky and the ground was. By the time he realized he’d taken a direct hit, his body had been flung through the air. He tried to alleviate the damage through vector manipulation, but the taste of blood crawled up from the bottom of his throat. Snow, dirt, and everything else whipped up and around, whiting out Accelerator’s vision.

  “Gh…gah…agh?!”

  When he slammed into the ground, his voice was harsh but broken. Breathing felt impossible. Using his ability, he controlled vectors to expel the blood accumulated in his throat all at once, finally regaining the ability to breathe.

  You piece of shit…!! What the hell is this…?!

  In his vision, now white with the risen snow, he saw one spot of color in front of him.

  A blue light.

  The symbol of destruction known as an archangel.

  “…”

  He saw the night sky once again taking on an uncanny glow.

  It wasn’t over after that one volley. Whether it took five or ten, the water angel would continue t
o execute this until its target no longer moved.

  You can…fuck right off…

  Even as his body creaked and groaned, Accelerator slowly stood up.

  He couldn’t afford to die here.

  There was still something he needed to do.

  He couldn’t afford to lose—not until he tore apart every single bit of the unfairness binding Last Order.

  Doesn’t matter if I can beat it on paper or not. As long as I have a reason to crush it, that’s all I need!

  Boom!! went an explosion.

  Manipulating the vectors of his leg forces, Accelerator dove straight at the monster’s blue light.

  And then the water angel delivered more of its heartless words.

  “WAVEkoTWO. ATTACKwagrCOMMENCINGwsPREPARATION. THIRTY SECONDiseUNTIL SECONDnvspERADICATION DROP”

  Meanwhile.

  Bbbrrrrrrrrmmmm!!!!!! The thunderous boom shook Russia’s night sky.

  It was the first Eradication.

  “She’s going too far,” murmured Fiamma of the Right from the Star of Bethlehem, floating over seven thousand meters high. The incredible shaking made it even to his feet, but this one hadn’t been a surface shock wave that had climbed up here.

  It had been collateral.

  The magic circle for Eradication that the archangel had prepared had deployed even higher in the sky than the Star of Bethlehem. And when Gabriel had restrictively dropped that Eradication, it had shaved off part of the Star of Bethlehem floating directly underneath.

  Just by looking at the color in the night sky, he estimated she would fire a second volley within thirty seconds. The damage to the Star of Bethlehem would surely grow.

  But there was no major change in Fiamma’s expression.

  He only had to let her do as she pleased. In any case, now that the Star of Bethlehem had expanded enough, it had acquired self-repairing abilities. Even now, part of the crushed castle floated in midair, trying to return to its initial placement.

  Fiamma, who had linked his senses to an extent with Gabriel, who he himself controlled, said “Is this all?” in a bored-sounding tone. “Is this all my enemies amount to? I know you could simulate how the war would change if an archangel appeared.”