“Shizuri…Mugino…?!”
“You deserve to be hunted down by better than these lowlifes. After all, you have me—and I decided I’d have you drawn and quartered!!”
Chill!!
This time, the face of true, unbridled despair opened its jaw to swallow them.
13
Accelerator, Motoharu Tsuchimikado, Awaki Musujime, and Mitsuki Unabara were in the deepest part of the domed shelter. In front of them was the defeated Shiokishi. His powered suit had fallen to pieces, and a knife made of black stone was stuck in his gut.
“There are two things we can do that will protect our own.”
Accelerator, on his crutch, put his free hand to his neck and cracked it loudly.
“The first is making you spit out everything you know about Dragon right now. The second thing is taking that knife in you, moving it up and down, and splaying your intestines all over the floor.”
“Dragon, eh…,” mumbled Shiokishi, not even paying much attention to his stab wound. “Have you any suspicions?”
“You’d better not be about to babble on about not actually knowing anything yourself.”
“It would have been easier if that were true. Unfortunately, I did learn of it. I was in a position where I was able to. That was why I worried.”
The four remained silent.
Only Shiokishi’s voice continued.
“It is something no human eyes should ever see. If you demand the details, I will give them, but allow me to say this for your sakes: It’s better not to know. I don’t mean that in the sense of a cheap threat. It is purely the remark of one who knows. To be honest, I didn’t want to know. I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that I’d never known.”
“What is Dragon?” pressed Accelerator, heedless. “And where the hell is Dragon?”
According to Tsuchimikado and Unabara, Dragon was a code word related to angels. And Accelerator had personally witnessed something with wings of light on September 30. Wings that were apparently related to what Amata Kihara was doing, to Last Order and the virus.
“…What are you saying?”
Shiokishi chuckled in spite of himself.
It was too funny to him, seeing people talk so seriously about something they had a completely wrong idea about.
“Dragon is everywhere. Look—it’s behind you now.”
Accelerator thought it was a mean-spirited joke.
But a moment later, he heard dull thuds.
“Tsuchimikado?”
Without thinking, he turned around.
And then he said their names.
“Musujime? Unabara?”
They had all fallen down. Completely knocked out. No noticeable injuries, but also no signs they’d be getting up soon. The members of Group each boasted incredible combat powers. An attack by factors unknown had just taken them all down easily…without even allowing room or time for a counterattack.
And then.
Accelerator saw it.
“It’s not Fuse Kazakiri.”
Standing in a daze with his eyes opened wide, only Accelerator could hear Shiokishi’s voice.
“That is nothing more than a simple production line used in Dragon’s formation.”
Saying all that he needed to, Shiokishi passed out then, possibly from blood loss. He fell to the floor with a grunt, but Accelerator didn’t have the leeway to look his way.
His gaze remained fixed in front of him.
Long, golden hair.
A tall, shining body, and white garments that wrapped loosely around it. He couldn’t tell the exact gender, but if he had to guess based on its appearance, it looked feminine.
An infinitely smooth face, all emotions at once—happiness, anger, sorrow, pleasure—while simultaneously having a basis in something clearly alien to human emotions.
“…Dragon, is it?”
It opened its mouth.
Accelerator had never before felt such a sense of wrongness about something with a human form speaking human words.
“That given name is not mistaken, either. I do also correspond to the symbol of angel…I am, at the very least, far closer to the real thing than those romanticized ideas whispered of on the streets, of extraterrestrial intelligent life-forms, holy guardian angels, or the Secret Chiefs of modern western sorcerers’ societies. My existence, however, differs in concept from the angels described in extant holy books. Therefore, if one wanted to refer to me in a more accurate fashion, one should choose a term from among the following.”
This thing was telling him the answer to the question Accelerator and the others had pursued.
“It is rare that one would cling to this extent. This must mean you find value and interest in what I call myself. And that is why I suppose I shall answer your question.”
This thing was describing Dragon’s identity.
“I am the one who once provided necessary knowledge only in necessary amounts to a strange sorcerer known as Crowley.
“…I am known as Aiwass.”
CHAPTER 4
Two Monsters with an Invitation to Hell
Dragon(≠Angel).
1
Aiwass.
That was what the being, apparently classified under the code name Dragon, called itself.
Accelerator confronted the blond humanoid, very cautiously observing it.
In all honesty, his thoughts wouldn’t connect with what he’d set out to do next.
The basic direction for all of Group, including him, was this: to find Dragon’s identity, the highest secret in Academy City, then use it to bargain with the city’s leaders. They never thought for a second that the Dragon itself would appear before their eyes.
And perhaps…
Perhaps Accelerator had considered, somewhere deep down, the possibility of Dragon’s identity never coming to light.
But now that it was suddenly right in front of him, perhaps his thoughts hadn’t caught up yet.
“That is a very mystified face,” said the being named Aiwass, without changing its expression. Its very golden locks appeared to radiate a faint light.
“Is it truly so incomprehensible that I should appear in this way?”
Of course Accelerator wore an expression of shock. Academy City had been keeping this being under lock and key until now. Why, of all things, would it choose to appear? Accelerator considered several possibilities, then chose the most logical:
“…A servant of Shiokishi’s? You’re too late to serve as reinforcements.”
“Are you being serious?”
Aiwass shook its head. It was clearly expressing its intent, and yet, Accelerator couldn’t even guess at what it was thinking.
He stayed silent for a moment, internally coming to reject his own hypothesis. Yes, Shiokishi must have despised … or more like, feared Dragon, he thought. This wasn’t even close to how one of his pawns would respond.
However.
If that was out, then why had Aiwass appeared before Accelerator?
“Because I have acknowledged a level of value in you, and because of that…I’ve taken something of an interest in you,” said Aiwass—its tone casual, as if to reject everything Group and Shiokishi had done up until that very moment. “You wished to meet me—and thus, I appeared. Are you unsatisfied with that?”
That was insane.
But this being didn’t appear to be hiding anything, either.
Did it mean to say it silently took out Tsuchimikado and the other two because it didn’t find any value or interest in anyone but Accelerator?
Now what … ?
Accelerator lowered his center slightly.
Several people had shown up before now and posed a threat to Accelerator’s life, like Hound Dog’s Amata Kihara and School’s Teitoku Kakine, but this Aiwass was cut from a completely different cloth. He couldn’t even sense malice from it.
Aiwass was supposed to be the most crucial asset for Academy City’s leadership. But there was more than one way t
o use it; defeating Aiwass was sure to deal major damage to the top brass’s scheming, but maybe there was a more effective way to use this dragon…
In the first place, he didn’t know what kind of role Aiwass had.
Unless he knew that first, he wouldn’t be able to devise effective ways to use the being.
He started to feel like a dog on a leash.
Aiwass realized that and showed emotion for the first time—an expression that seemed surprised. “This result differs from my predictions. I had thought you would charge at me to take revenge for your friends, then end up flat on the floor within three seconds.”
“…What you just said to me is a better way to make that happen,” growled Accelerator.
Yes—Aiwass had taken out Motoharu Tsuchimikado, Awaki Musujime, and Mitsuki Unabara without so much as making a sound.
If one was to ask Accelerator if that was enough to engage in hostilities, he’d have said no. As stated multiple times in the past, to Accelerator, Group was only held together by how valuable each member was to use.
First, he’d extract any information that seemed useful out of this Aiwass. He’d decide whether to be hostile after that.
Having settled on his course of action, Accelerator stared the newcomer down again. “What are you? And why do they hide it with the code name Dragon?”
“Must I start explaining from there?” said the being as if it was about to remark on how surprisingly dull he was. “My identity is nothing special. I’m naught more than a simple hboiebeingaeb…”
Aiwass’s words blurred.
Accelerator frowned, but even the being who had spoken them brought a dubious hand to its throat, checking its voice.
“…Well. I cannot even express this level of meaning in this world. The headers are insufficient. I would struggle to explain it this way. May I take a more roundabout route? It would be simple to convey this directly, but if I did, it would cause a wgbudcollapsewsrui, you see.”
Aiwass didn’t seem like it was speaking in riddles or jokes.
To begin with, Accelerator was hearing things strangely. For some reason, at the moment Aiwass’s voice blurred, the direction of the sound source itself shifted away. It sounded very unnatural to him, as though the left and right speakers in a pair of headphones were reversed.
“Do you know the words Fuse Kazakiri?”
“…?”
He remembered Shiokishi mentioning something about that, but Accelerator didn’t know what they meant. But when Aiwass saw his face, it exhaled softly.
“It is troubling indeed to speak of things from beginning to end. Remember my words and research them on your own time later. In any case, it is a being called various things, one of which is man-made angel. This is accurate given its properties, but it doesn’t reflect Fuse Kazakiri’s true nature. She is really something of a production line for the purpose of giving form to me, Aiwass.”
Accelerator didn’t understand most of that, but the word angel did stick with him.
The wings of light that appeared when Amata Kihara injected Last Order with the virus. Even that wasn’t the important part? It was just a piece of the plan prepared for this Aiwass creature?
“Allow me to use a crystal as an analogy. What substances are close at hand—water or salt? Yes, I believe I’ll use salt this time. Assume that there exists highly dense saltwater called an AIM diffusion field. However, crystallization cannot occur from that alone. In order to proceed efficiently, it is better to inject impurities into the saltwater. It can be a simple twig, or a small grain of dust, or a nsrioangegau such as Fuse Kazakiri…Well, the crystallization itself is simple, but when aiming for the desired shape in the desired size, it then becomes necessary to consider the core’s properties.”
“…What you’re trying to say is that you were created based on this Fuse Kazakiri thing?”
“Strictly speaking, Fuse Kazakiri was the one who was adjusted in order to create me. It would be correct to think of her as a factory assembly line. In any case, I will not deny that I was born after the stylings of Fuse Kazakiri. It would be more accurate to say uymanifesidvif rather than born, but— Blast, my words cannot catch up. I suppose I will say that I was not born, but rather emerged. Strictly speaking, it is different, but I cannot express it in any other way.”
Aiwass brought its index finger to its chest, then moved it down toward its stomach.
“Aleister seems to love his circuitous methodology, but, well—cloning technology is not enough for me.”
If Aiwass was a mass of AIM diffusion fields coming together, that would mean it wasn’t human.
This was all ridiculously fantastic, but Accelerator didn’t laugh it away.
In fact.
He would have felt even stranger had the being standing in front of him said it was a human just like him.
“What will you do?” asked Aiwass. “I appeared out of mere curiosity, but what will your next actions be? What would you like to do? For example, do you desire to use my information to quash Aleister’s ambitions?”
“…Are you being serious?” Those words heightened Accelerator’s caution. “I don’t know what the chairperson’s goals are, but you’re at the center of all this. I mean, to crush his plans means sending you, whose existence is supported by artificial means, back to the void.”
“Indeed.” Aiwass nodded, long hair waving. “But what does that matter?”
“What…?”
“Let us speak of history.” Suddenly, Aiwass veered the conversation in a different direction. “Those who live on the ground here do many different things, celebrating them as ecological or protecting the environment. They say things like many species of animal and plant will go extinct at this rate, earnestly picking empty cans off the road and trying to reduce the amount of smoke.”
“Never seen such a master Peeping Tom before.”
“You would suggest you humans do anything worthy of me watching?”
“Cut the crap. What are you getting at?”
“Only that history will not change at all,” answered Aiwass with ease. “Long ago, an ice age visited this planet. The environment changed drastically, and many animals and plants went extinct…But did history itself end? The flow of time doesn’t budge, regardless of whether the small creatures clinging to its surface live or die. If global thermonuclear war broke out right now, and all higher life vanished from the face of the planet, it means nothing to the thick pillars of history. Ten thousand years, one hundred thousand years—eventually, other plants and animals will appear on their own to replace them.”
“…”
“It’s all the same. Though I may not be one suited to speak of this dimension’s history. This man, Aleister, has not learned his lesson and evidently wishes to use me, but I would not be particularly troubled were his plans to be set back. After ten or a hundred thousand years, I will asbumanifesoagbv…or rather, appear, at another opportunity. Even that has no real worth to me, however.
“Now, then,” added Aiwass, long hair swaying, arms slowly spreading. “What will you do? It may be entertaining to kill me here and frustrate Aleister, you know. That is, if your full powers are capable of such a thing.”
Aiwass was unreadable.
Accelerator felt like random gears in his mind were missing; his normal aggressive thoughts weren’t coming to him. It didn’t matter whether or not he had proof—he knew that even given a long period of time, he wouldn’t find a way through. There was no point in merely fighting. It felt to him as stupid as running on and on, trying to reach the horizon where the sun was setting.
He stayed still, and Aiwass, its hands still spread out wide, continued. “Oh? Are you sure about that? I should say this first— Aleister, whose power you trust in a negative way, is far from a perfect human.”
“What?”
“Several seams have begun to come apart in his schemes.”
Aiwass spoke as though it meant nothing, despite it having to do with litera
lly its entire existence.
“Aleister himself seems to think that each time an irregular phenomenon occurs, he can simply work it into his plan to be beneficial and recover from it. But the small cracks are beginning to grow larger. At this rate, the situation will develop into something that not even Aleister, executor of the plan, would have expected. Yes…”
He had a bad feeling about this.
He could sense he shouldn’t listen.
But Aiwass continued, as though mentally cornering stunted, pitiable humans was the only thing this being could enjoy in their boring world.
“…Yes, like how the core of his plan, Last Order, is headed for certain ‘collapse’ down the road at this rate. Well, she is just a clone, so he might simply be able to create another with the same functions.”
Those two words were enough.
His top priority eliminated all discouraging factors and determined Accelerator’s next actions.
2
Where am I? thought Hamazura as he ran at full speed through the deep, dark corridor.
Where was he? He was alone. Rikou Takitsubo, whom he hadn’t let out of his sight until now, was no longer there.
The reason was simple—they’d been forced apart. The figure slowly following him from behind, as if making sport of him, possessed enough strength to do that. It wasn’t a matter of pure physical power or abilities. Something far more overwhelming—terror—rested in the foundation.
“…Haaamazuraaa.” A voice, audible from beyond the dark.
“?!” Without turning around, Hamazura surged into a sideways leap. He hit the metal railing, his body rattling, leaning over it. By the time he realized this passage was actually a raised bridge, he was already plummeting.
But it was probably still better than the alternative.
A moment later, with a ga-bam, a terrible flash of light stormed past. It melted the very metal walkway he’d just been standing upon, blowing it away and leaving an orange waterfall in its wake.
The Meltdown.
The fourth-ranked Level Five.
“Gah!!”
Right after those monikers crossed his mind, he slammed into the floor on his back.
A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 19 Page 19