A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 22

by Kazuma Kamachi

  But when she gave him a grin filled with malice, she took an iron spike out of her pocket and said, “…Well, we were already gonna make them pay for this, so I guess it’s all the same. And if we analyze Last Order and the data for the song in the Misaka network, it might grace us with a chance to obtain technology that doesn’t exist in Academy City.”

  Last Order, perhaps uneasy with how dizzying these developments were, latched on to Accelerator’s clothes. “Where are you going? asks Misaka asks Misaka.”

  Her eyes wavered as she looked up at him from his arms.

  She probably knew what Accelerator was about to attempt. And because she knew, she was trying to stop him.

  “You’re not going anywhere, right? says Misaka says Misaka, getting confirmation and stuff.”

  “Nothing to worry about. It’ll be over soon,” said Accelerator, not mentioning if he’d ever return, if he’d ever come back home.

  The monster who had sprouted black wings gently released the girl’s fingers that were clutching his clothing, one by one, as if to throw off the last fetters still keeping him on the surface.

  “No!” came Last Order’s weak voice. “I want to be with you forever, says Misaka says Misaka.”

  “…Yeah.”

  Accelerator, too, admitted it.

  At the very end, he gave a cherubic smile and answered:

  “I wanted to be with you forever, too.”

  Crack-crack-crackle-crackle!! With a sound like ice breaking, the color of the monster’s wings began to change. From a deep ink-black to an immaculate snowy white. From their roots to their tips, in mere instants, everything—from its outer coloring to its inner essence—began to be replaced.

  Just above his head, a small ring of the same color appeared.

  This was how he had changed.

  How his mind, the wellspring from which his singular power gushed forth into this real world, had altered.

  Accelerator placed his hands on Last Order’s tiny shoulders and gave her a soft push. Like an astronaut in zero gravity, the recoil caused his body to float gently into the air.

  Last Order’s small hands reached toward the man in the air.

  But they didn’t reach.

  Accelerator was already floating several meters high.

  This was the right thing to do.

  Convinced of that, Accelerator flapped his pearly wings. They were giant, reaching hundreds of meters in length, and they didn’t change mere wind force into lift but, instead, had a much stranger energy: They applied zero force to the surface, and yet, his body shot straight up like a cannonball.

  In the blink of an eye, he ascended three thousand meters, scattering the edges of the thick clouds about to cover up the skies.

  The aerial fortress moved at the same time.

  A mass of golden energy, taken from above and accumulated on its lower part, dropped without mercy. He felt the sort of pressure that sent people’s spines tingling. As he’d thought, it, like Accelerator’s white wings, was not a normal power. His reflection probably wouldn’t affect it, either. Reflection’s power would penetrate it, just like when Aiwass had defeated him.

  But so what?

  Accelerator worked his white wings even more, skyrocketing his ascension speed. He headed straight for that falling golden mass without using any tricks. There was even a subtle smile on his lips.

  I get it, thought Accelerator belatedly.

  This is what it’s like to fight to protect something.

  A moment later, at an altitude of eight thousand meters, two enormous forces collided.

  2

  Whu-whuuuump!!!!!! A tremendous impact rocked the Star of Bethlehem.

  There was an explosion of golden light.

  “What…?”

  However, the great calamity Fiamma of the Right expected to assault the earth never came to pass. And the surface was never steeped in the same gold as the skies. Some other factor had stopped the large-scale telesma that was dropped from the Star of Bethlehem.

  “It should have had enough output!! Destruction enough to fulfill my strategic objective on the surface should have assured my victory!! What in the world…?!”

  The tragedy he’d hoped for hadn’t happened.

  Malice’s amplification went unrecognized, with the tragedy instead having been held in check—and thanks to that, the dark parts of people’s hearts were starting to be wiped away.

  Perhaps it was no more than temporary, like the feeling of oneness with the world only felt during sporting festivals, the heat of wild excitement.

  However.

  Even if for no more than an instant, those on the surface must have thought this.

  This world is doing fine with just us.

  Your condescending salvation can fuck off.

  “You good now?”

  Touma Kamijou, fist clenched, took a step forward.

  One step. Two steps. Three steps.

  “It’s about time for your illusions to call it quits.”

  With a boooooom!!!!!! he turned his steps into a run, all at once.

  Kamijou didn’t need any silly tricks. All he’d do was get close, fair and square, as close as he could. In response, Fiamma of the Right swung the symbol of his power, his third arm, with all his might. Even the Imagine Breaker wouldn’t be able to cancel out the enormous power packed inside. If he failed to divert its path, it would be able to pulverize his entire right arm. Perhaps that was what Fiamma thought when he used brute force to try to eliminate the obstacle before his eyes.

  But Kamijou didn’t stop.

  As soon as he rammed his right fist squarely into the oncoming third arm, Fiamma’s greatest weapon, that malformed arm, was squarely blown away.

  Fresh blood and flesh danced.

  His third arm, which had finally gained flesh, lost its vessel, shaking in agony in midair.

  “Wha…what?!” cried Fiamma, face warping, as though an unknown and intense pain had slammed into him like an avalanche.

  It wasn’t that Kamijou’s power had been increased or anything. The Imagine Breaker was still only the Imagine Breaker.

  Fiamma’s third arm, which responded to malice, had weakened to the point where even the Imagine Breaker could destroy it. As a result of that small goodness rippling out to cover the surface, the shaft supporting Fiamma’s power had broken.

  The power that made Fiamma of the Right special no longer existed.

  Indirect forms of attack from the third arm were unlikely, of course—but so was his evasive maneuver that instantly moved him kilometers away in a horizontal direction.

  And now, nothing stood in the way of Touma Kamijou’s advance.

  “Shit…!!”

  Fiamma thrust Index’s remote-control Soul Arm in front of him. He tried to use the knowledge in the 103,000 grimoires to intercept the approaching Kamijou. He felt a terrible, stabbing headache, as though his defenses had weakened, too, upon losing his special power, but he ignored it and continued to search the knowledge base. His eyes were a declaration that he’d kill the enemy before him no matter what it took.

  But then Fiamma heard a voice.

  It belonged to what he was supposedly magically connected to—the library of grimoires.

  …Warning. Chapter 88, Verse 1. Anomaly detected in currently searching main body. Excess of external stimulation has caused a serious reduction in search efficiency.

  “…?!”

  The index’s main body was supposed to be in safekeeping in St. George’s Cathedral. If external stimuli had caused an error, then an English Puritan sorcerer must have done something.

  His final option was totally cut off.

  This was the difference between the two.

  The decisive difference between one who had only polished his power to stand alone at the peak and one who had struggled to stand at that peak through the help of others.

  The small, unimportant high school student tightened his right fist and ran toward the king manipulat
ing the world.

  Deeply.

  Sharply.

  All the way to a throne that had never let any others near it.

  And then it happened.

  Slllppp…!! Kamijou’s feet suddenly sank.

  The Star of Bethlehem was weakening.

  Its power source from Fiamma of the Right severed, it had naturally begun to collapse.

  At the very, very end, something had stopped Touma Kamijou.

  And it was called…

  Rotten luck.

  Fiamma’s lips twisted eerily.

  He focused his mind on the remote-control Soul Arm in his hand one more time.

  Five, ten seconds—that’s all I need. That’s long enough for me to rewire the grimoire library’s settings!! I don’t care if the high load burns out the 103,000 volumes. I will wash away this enemy before me right now!!

  “Oo—”

  However.

  Touma Kamijou’s forward march didn’t stop there.

  The boy shouted and plunged ever onward.

  “—ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

  Bam!!

  With a boom, Kamijou jumped from his nearly crumbled foothold.

  To cross the fissure separating the two.

  Forward, toward Fiamma—like an arrow.

  And then Fiamma knew.

  He knew what sort of being this “enemy” before his eyes fundamentally was.

  Are you…kidding me…?

  Index’s remote-control Soul Arm wouldn’t make it.

  This enemy wouldn’t even give him that little bit of time.

  I’m using the miracles and blessings of Jesus at their full capacity and causing all sorts of phenomena—and this bastard doesn’t care?! It has nothing to do with good or bad luck—this fool has the power to personally trample over all such ambiguities…!!

  “If you don’t think you can save anyone without doing things this way…”

  The words came from deep within Touma Kamijou. Uniting those raging emotions together, he put all his strength into his right fist.

  “…then first, I’ll destroy that illusion!!”

  A thundering boom rang out.

  Fiamma, who had never received an attack from anyone, was knocked down with sheer momentum by a punch to the face.

  The vestiges of the third arm, still trying to cling to this world, vanished completely this time, melting into the air.

  At the same time.

  From his hand fell the remote-control Soul Arm that had been manipulating Index.

  3

  Fiamma of the Right’s loss of the third arm visited major aftereffects on his floating fortress as well. Greater shaking was happening frequently now, inviting more unrest than before. The fortress’s ascent had stopped dead, having still been continuing until now. The source of its flotation of this much matter was steadily being lost. At this rate, it would eventually start to descend. Escaping before that was probably the only way to live.

  On the ground, Fiamma looked at his own hand.

  The remote-control Soul Arm was gone.

  When he’d been punched, the impact had wrested it from his hand. It had fallen somewhere through one of the cracks in the floor. It was likely still inside the fortress, but he had no idea where it would have gone.

  If only he had that, maybe he would have been able to counterattack with normal magic, he thought.

  But he didn’t have any strength left in his limbs. Now that he’d lost the third arm, he was no different from a mere human. Even a light concussion would be enough to stop him from moving.

  In his hazy consciousness, he heard a voice.

  It was from the speakers set up all around the Star of Bethlehem.

  “We didn’t have time, so me and—er, Sasha, was it?—and I…Anyway, we went ahead and used a container to escape. Please hurry. The Star of Bethlehem is going to start falling soon. The fortress itself is falling apart, and there are only so many usable containers left.”

  He could see the fortress’s lowest level beyond the broken floor. And that was only a few layers of overlapping metal grating; the very bottom was connected to open sky. Escape containers hung from it, too, but most were unusable now. Some containers had been crushed, while the lowering hooks on others had broken and were now inoperable.

  There was probably only one usable container left.

  It was swaying unreliably and only about the size of a public phone booth. Not one of the larger containers that could carry over fifty people at once. Only one person would be able to ride it. Having lost his third arm and becoming a normal person, Fiamma couldn’t even get himself down from this altitude by his own power.

  Touma Kamijou and Fiamma of the Right.

  Which would go aboard the container, and which would perish along with the fortress?

  The question didn’t even warrant consideration.

  …So this is it.

  That was all Fiamma thought.

  If every human living in this world would refuse salvation, it didn’t matter to him anymore. They could follow their chosen path and hurtle toward extinction for all he cared.

  Slowly relaxing his entire body, Fiamma closed his eyes.

  And then someone grabbed his collar.

  “Hey, we’re going.”

  It was Touma Kamijou.

  Forcing Fiamma upright, his own body covered in blood, he began to walk, dragging the limp villain behind him.

  “…What…are you doing…?”

  “We don’t have time. The Star of Bethlehem is starting to fall. If we don’t escape before then, we’ll be stuck here.”

  “Do you not understand the situation?” accused Fiamma in his puppet state. He used his jaw to gesture toward where they were going. “The escape containers are unusable. At most, there’s one good one meant for one person. It’s me or you. It’ll only help one of us.”

  “Looks like it.”

  Kamijou exhaled once.

  So he said, “Then you escape. Either way, there’s no time. Let’s get there fast.”

  “…”

  This time, Fiamma looked up at the side of Kamijou’s face, dumbfounded.

  In the meantime, still dragging him along, Kamijou went down to the lowest floor and headed for the escape container.

  He was serious. There was no need to posture at this stage in the game. If he abandoned Fiamma, the cause of all this, and climbed into that escape container, he could return alive. He’d be a hero, acknowledged by everybody. Nobody would criticize him for letting Fiamma die. In fact, many would doubtlessly praise him for delivering the finishing blow to the mastermind who caused so much tragedy.

  And yet.

  Why did he say those words now?

  No matter how much he thought about it, Fiamma couldn’t find an answer. And in that time, they arrived in front of the escape container. Kamijou, with much trepidation, reached for the container door. His right hand’s power didn’t destroy the container.

  After opening the door, he unflinchingly stuffed Fiamma’s body inside.

  This guy was insane.

  He tried to get out of the container, but being so gravely injured, his body couldn’t move.

  Automatically, he shook his head.

  Even he didn’t know what he was trying to reject.

  “…Are you sure…?”

  “About what?”

  “I have no idea how large this world you talk about really is.”

  “Oh,” said Kamijou, smiling a little.

  Why had he smiled? Fiamma couldn’t understand.

  “Then now’s when you start getting out there and seeing everything you can.”

  The escape container’s door was locked from the outside. A moment later, the container slid along a short rail before being tossed into the open sky.

  For a while, Kamijou watched the container as it fell and grew smaller.

  Eventually, he shook it off and peered up.

/>   The final container had launched.

  There was no longer any way for him to safely escape this fortress.

  And then it happened.

  There was a thunderous boom. The raging winds changed direction. Kamijou, having unconsciously covered his face with his arms, spotted a fighter jet. It was called a VTOL, an aircraft that could ascend vertically like a helicopter and stop in midair.

  He knew the face of the person riding in the cockpit.

  It was…

  4

  “More to the right!! …Little more!! Get a little closer!!”

  Mikoto Misaka, leaning out of the rear seat, shouted at the Sister operating the flight yoke.

  Finally.

  After all this time, finally.

  She’d finally reached the same time and space as that idiot!!

  “Big Sister, your face is eerily smiley, indicates Misaka.”

  “Bfuh? That’s not true!! And you’re just comparing me to yourself, which is messing up your judgment!!” said Mikoto, hastily pulling on her cheeks to check. She continued, “Argh! What the heck is even happening?! It was floating up there just fine until a minute ago. Why did it decide to start falling now?!”

  “Misaka’s apologies for interrupting your excitement, but if you don’t open the cockpit canopy, your voice will never reach, indicates Misaka.”

  “Where is it? Which button?!” asked Mikoto before suddenly having doubts.

  They were high up, past ten thousand meters. The outside air was below negative fifty degrees Celsius, the air pressure was very low, and there was little oxygen. Would it be okay for her to open the canopy now?

  If she didn’t, she’d never reach him. But the elements wouldn’t let her open it.

  Caught in an incredible dilemma, the Sister, impassively bending her head to listen to something, said, “…Something is strange about how the engine sound is reverberating, reports Misaka.”

  “?”

  “This transmission pattern is for below one atmosphere at negative seven degrees, says Misaka, finishing precise calculations. The exact mechanism is unknown, but despite being at an altitude of ten thousand meters, the outside environment seems set up in the same manner as the surface, reports Misaka, giving her conclusion.”