A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 22

by Kazuma Kamachi

  “All this for that?”

  “Why, yes. Whether or not I had appeared, the command tower would not have lasted long. It didn’t have the strength to line up the dominoes. Thus, to grant the necessary strength, I provided a hint…And he did well. This method was not in my elimination, but in the shift to a different domain. Still, it was a very good job on his part to do this much.”

  Whether it saw value and interest or not.

  That was the only condition this being, who could instantly destroy this star if it was unnecessary, ever acted on.

  “I think you should learn more about what humans are.”

  “?”

  “It’s strange that you never knew from the start. After all, it’s their power that supports our bodies. They have so much possibility sleeping in them that they can give us form. Needless to say, humans are incredibly strong creatures…If you make light of them, you’ll find your heart pierced before you know it.”

  “What are you saying?” answered Aiwass, looking back at Kazakiri but not hiding its excitement. “If a frail human could truly do something like that…That would be so incredibly fascinating, don’t you think?”

  Mikoto Misaka arrived on the shore.

  But it was a very different shore than Japan’s bathing beaches. It was technically a small fishing port, but she didn’t know if it was running at the moment. After all, the sea had been completely covered in white ice before. The water was flowing.

  The VTOL hadn’t had enough fuel, so she’d been forced to land on the surface.

  She’d boarded a high-speed freight train, but even then, she’d been definitively late.

  She’d gone in the direction of the floating fortress, and kept going, and kept going, and kept going, but what she’d run into was this fishing port.

  Possibly because of the evacuation warning from when the fortress was falling, nobody was around. The roads nearby were awfully frozen; maybe after the tsunami had hit, the chill had frozen the water.

  She hadn’t found a trace of anything that might provide a clue about the boy.

  Looking around at a loss, Mikoto eventually picked up a large stick. From a concrete embankment, she reached out with the stick and stirred around the seawater, its surface covered in ice like a soda at a café.

  The tip of the stick caught onto some kind of small plastic clump.

  The Sister next to her asked her what it was.

  Mikoto couldn’t answer.

  Exactly because she’d seen it before.

  Its string torn apart by some strong force, it was a Croaker cell phone strap.

  Something they’d gotten together on August 30.

  DECLARATION OF THE END OF HOSTILITIES

  We must not allow this fruitless war to continue any longer.

  After a careful examination of Academy City’s proposed conditions, we have agreed to hold talks. The details will be worked out then, but we hereby declare that it will not result in any disadvantage for Russia.

  Before, we failed to listen to the words of the people and made an irreversible choice based on the opinions of a few. You all likely sense much more strongly how much tragedy this carried with it. I do not have the words to vindicate this historical failing.

  The least we are able to do is put an end to this abnormal state of affairs as soon as possible and restore the world so that it can enjoy peace, as is its right.

  After everything has ended, we will accept any punishment.

  But until then, we ask that you grant us some measure of grace.

  Some may not be convinced by this ending. The act of laying down our arms may not sit right with you. But we ask that you think with a clear mind—what was this war for? If this was a battle to protect our families, our friends, our spouses, and our loved ones, then this is precisely the moment we can say we’ve done it. Any further combat action would do no less than bring us farther away from that.

  What made us realize that fact was the exploits of everyone on the battlefield.

  During the supernatural disasters that occurred at the end of the war, you all made a far more correct choice than us in providing a helping hand to enemy and ally alike. We are confident that you will accept this ending.

  At this time, we announce an end to all combat operations.

  And we pray that the choice you have obtained will be written in the history books of a future peaceful world as the correct one.

  October 30

  Klans R. Tzarskij, Patriarch of the Russian Catholic Church

  He’d been beaten to a pulp.

  His right arm had been severed.

  Even exposed to the air’s slicing chill, he could no longer move a finger. He could feel the blizzard slowly burying him.

  But then…

  He heard footsteps coming through the snow.

  A moment later, figures appeared in his upturned view. No, they hadn’t approached by walking—they’d appeared in a more unnatural fashion, as though they’d shown up exactly when he’d perceived them.

  They were an odd pair.

  One was a blond woman. She had goggles, pushed up onto her forehead, and wore a work apron over a deep-colored jacket and pair of pants made of a thick, practical fabric. Her appearance was sloppy, but he could sense refinement in her motions. She gave the impression of a waiting maid from Britain.

  The other one was a blond man. Over his light-blue shirt, he had on a beige vest.

  He was in no place to comment on others, but those were not clothes that would allow movement in this bitter cold. And yet, they never even rubbed their hands together for warmth.

  The woman spoke.

  “Looks like he’s still breathing, at least.”

  “A result of his sheer strength, no doubt. He had no reason to hold back in that situation,” answered the man before looking at his fallen face. “Anyway, I’m sure you’d rather this not end with such a complete beatdown. We’re almost at the end of our ropes ourselves, at least…We can promise you housing and safety for the time being. In exchange, we want you to tell us everything you heard. Because we may be able to read past the Age of Osiris you were in and into the Age of Horus—of Crowley—that comes after.”

  “Who…are you…?” Fiamma asked. His voice was ragged.

  “Ollerus.” The answer was short, everything compressed into that one word. “A pitiful sorcerer who should have become a magic god—only to have that position stolen by the one-eyed Othinus.”

  AFTERWORD

  To those of you who purchased one book at a time, hello again.

  To those of you who purchased all twenty-three volumes at once, it’s nice to meet you.

  I’m Kazuma Kamachi.

  This book is Volume 22. And with it, the God’s Right Seat arc comes to an end for the present. It started with a mention of Vento around Volume 11, so it’s been going for about ten volumes just in the main novels, give or take.

  This is a good opportunity, so I’d like to touch on each of the three protagonists.

  Regarding Touma Kamijou.

  He is a “relative” character, through and through. Without any sorcerers or espers with special powers around him, even the existence of his ability to cancel them out will never be seen. Even when beliefs clash with beliefs, in most cases, he doesn’t mount the attack himself—it’s presented in a way where he responds to what the opponent has to say. If someone without any special power, who had straightforward, honest beliefs, had come at him with fists clenched, Kamijou would have lost without a doubt…Of course, there may not be any reason to fight someone like that in the first place.

  If Shiage Hamazura, as he currently is now that he’s grown somewhat, beat Kamijou in a regular brawl, the power balance between the three protagonists would turn into a triangular struggle. That might be interesting— What do you think?

  Some readers may feel that something was different about Kamijou in this volume. However, this was mostly the enemy being out of this world rather than Kamijou having gr
own. He seems more amazing now that he can deal with their amazing powers, which elevates his position in a relative sense.

  At his core, he is a character whose position is unknown.

  If he heard a pet cat had gotten out, he’d put 100 percent into finding it, and if a crisis threatened the world, he’d put 100 percent into stopping it. He’s earnest about everything, and yet, depending on the essence of the incident, the direction of that earnestness changes completely, making him a strange person, I think.

  And in this series, several characters appear whom you could call Kamijou’s polar opposites. This changes based on what part of Touma Kamijou they cut down, but that just means Kamijou has that many facets to his character.

  I envision the world of A Certain Magical Index not as an overarching storyline wherein many characters appear, but something where stories occur around the characters set up as the protagonists (with SS2 being the most prominent exception). For each of the protagonists, stories happen with them that make that protagonist stand out the most. But with Kamijou, it feels like he can do anything, from going through wars with cannonballs firing all over the place to cooking battles with a bubbling Chinese hot pot…It’s not about having many and varied talents but going forward without caring that he’s an amateur, and that probably makes him easy to write as the protagonist of a story. If he was some kind of expert, on the other hand, I’d have to set up some sort of deep and complex circumstances for him to challenge anything outside his field.

  Regarding Accelerator.

  He’s depicted in the main series as a dark hero, but from another angle, he has a saintlike quality to him. It’s the type of thing where someone who had committed a so-called grave sin walks a path of suffering to atone for it.

  As proof of overcoming those trials, his wing color changes dramatically…That scene was something I’d wanted to do for a long time.

  What Accelerator wants, deep down, is not a lover but a family. But he’s never known a family, so while he treats Last Order like a parent would (even without it being clear whether it’s like a father or a mother), he allows Yoshikawa and Yomikawa to treat him as a child (notably in Volume 15, in the scene when Yomikawa takes away his gun), so he’s always been in something of a contradictory position.

  His calling himself a villain was both a symbol of his past and a way to give himself a convenient way out. Now that he’s destroyed his own complex over good and evil in Volume 22, Accelerator will probably need to face his “family” without any more excuses.

  Regarding Shiage Hamazura.

  In this war, Touma Kamijou and Accelerator were sticking to the irregular portions, so I gave him a role that would make the reader feel the smell of war a bit more.

  His complex is, though maybe it doesn’t need to be said, his grades in school—the scarlet letter of the Level Zero. However, now that he’s realized the Curriculum and System Scan results are nothing more than guidelines given by Academy City’s leadership to guide children’s futures at the whims of adults, he’s broken the chains binding his own mind and succeeded in rescuing an ally who was also chained down by her elite Level Five rank.

  He doesn’t stick mainly to the sorcery side or the science side—he’s on the Hamazura side—but in the latter part of the story, he encounters things quite close to the central core of everything. The specific factors refined using Level Fives, for example. Dark Matter is a very unique example and is unverifiable, but with Accelerator and Railgun as well, I think it’s really neat to view things from the perspective of industry in addition to simple biotic resources. What about you? I think that if you apply this way of thinking, you’ll understand the question of why number seven, who appeared in SS2, is very strong but only ranked seventh…And number five, who at a glance can’t physically interfere with anything, which means her added value seems low, can get enormous results in fields like sports and medicine.

  …Also, and this is incidental, but in terms of male-female relationships and their viewed worth, I think Hamazura has progressed the furthest. He’s probably the only protagonist who could have given a real answer after that super-cutting line: “But you chose didn’t you?” I would have liked to give a certain spiky-haired boy the same question.

  I’d like to thank my illustrator, Mr. Haimura, and my editor, Mr. Miki. This being the last part of the God’s Right Seat arc, there were quite a few huge gimmicks, and I’m sure illustrating them was a monumental task. Thank you, truly, for putting up with my troubling instructions again.

  And I’d like to thank all my readers. I could only unwrap the God’s Right Seat arc this far because you were all supporting me. Thank you so much for supporting this environment where I can do whatever I want to such a degree.

  Now then, as you close the pages here,

  and as I pray you will open the pages again next time,

  here and now, I lay down my pen.

  Next up is the saved world!!

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