5_Chapter 4_ The Exorcist Decides the Ending

CHAPTER 4 The Exorcist Decides the Ending(N)Ever_Say_Good-bye. 1 The two sorcerers stepped into the apartment, over the broken door, bathed in the moonlight behind them. This time, even though Stiyl and Kanzaki were right there, Index didn’t stand between them and Kamijou. This time, she didn’t shout at them to go away. She was breathing shallowly, as if a slight wind could have robbed her of her breath entirely. Soaked in sweat, as if critically ill. Kamijou’s head ached. A fierce throbbing, as if his skull might shatter at as minute a sound as snow falling. “…” Nothing passed between him and the sorcerers. Stiyl entered with his shoes on and shoved the speechless Kamijou aside with one hand. He hadn’t put much power into the gesture, but Kamijou still toppled over. All of his strength gone, he dropped onto his rear on the tatami. Stiyl didn’t devote so much as a glance to him. Squatting beside the motionless, outstretched Index, he whispered something to her too quietly for Kamijou to make out. His shoulders were trembling. Then he raised his voice, robust with the outrage of a man who’d witnessed a loved one hurt before his eyes. “Referring to Moon Child, the Book of Crowley. We shall utilize a method for capturing an angel, then create a chain of summoning, capturing, and employing a fairy.” Stiyl stood again, fully prepared. He turned, and his expression was entirely devoid of compassion. He wore only the face of a sorcerer who had sacrificed his humanity to save a single girl. “…Kanzaki, help me. We shall kill her memories.” Those words pricked the frailest area of Kamijou’s heart. “Ah…” He understood, though. He understood that there was no other means of saving Index but to perform this awful task. And Kamijou had told Kanzaki before that if she really was acting solely out of friendship for Index, then she shouldn’t hesitate to eradicate her memories. However many times she lost her history, if they gave her happier and more interesting experiences to enjoy the next year to the fullest, it wouldn’t be as hard on her. But that was… Wasn’t that just a compromise they made after giving up on pursuing other options? “…” Unconsciously, Kamijou’s hands had balled into fists, and he was clenching them so hard that he was on the verge of crushing his fingernails. Are you okay with this? Are you just going to give up? Even though there are memory- and mind-related research facilities in Academy City, you’re going to give up like this? Are you really okay with using this stupid, old-fashioned “magic” to kill the memories of the person most important to you, over and over again? Isn’t this the cruelest solution? Isn’t it the easiest? No, fine. I don’t give a damn about logic anymore. You, Touma Kamijou. Can you stand it if Index’s memories of the week you spent together were wiped clean as casually as deleting a game’s save data? “…Wa…it…” Touma Kamijou looked up. All he wanted to do was take a stand against the sorcerers trying to save Index, straightforwardly and honestly. “Wait, wait a minute! Just a little bit longer! I’ll know in just a little bit! There are 2.3 million espers in Academy City. There are more than a thousand research agencies overseeing them all. Psychometry, brainwashing, telekinesis, materialization! There are tons of espers who control minds and labs developing them all over the place! If we ask one of them, you might not have to resort to using this terrible magic!” “…” Stiyl Magnus didn’t say a word. But Kamijou continued shouting at the flame sorcerer. “You don’t want to do this, either. Deep down in your hearts, you’re hoping that you find some other way! So just wait a little bit…I’ll find a happy ending where everyone can laugh together! So just…!!” “…” Stiyl Magnus still held his tongue. Kamijou didn’t know why he was going this far. He’d only met Index a week ago. He’d lived sixteen years without her, so shouldn’t he be able to live a normal life even if she was gone? He should have been able to, but he knew he wouldn’t. He didn’t know why. He didn’t even know if he needed to know why. It just hurt. He wouldn’t hear her voice or see her smile, her gestures, or anything about her, ever again. Her memories of the week they’d shared were going to be erased as easily as the push of a reset button. The thought of it made the most important, kindest part of his soul ache. “…” Silence held sway. It was elevator silence. It wasn’t that there was nothing to make a sound, but the people inside were dedicated to maintaining the saturninity. It was a bizarre hush punctuated only by breathing. He looked up. Petrified, he probed the sorcerers’ faces. “Are you finished, you self-righteous brat?” That was it. Those were the only words that Stiyl Magnus, the rune magician, spoke. He had certainly heard Kamijou’s pleas. He absorbed every word, crushed them into bite-sized pieces, and scooped up the meaning and emotion they conveyed. But he didn’t move so much as an eyebrow. The desperate entreaty didn’t persuade him so much as a millimeter. “Out of the way,” commanded the flame mage. Kamijou didn’t know how to organize his expression, which facial muscles to activate. Not wasting a breath, Stiyl said, “Look,” and pointed at something. Before Kamijou could redirect his attention, Stiyl viciously grabbed the boy’s hair. “Look!!” Kamijou was incapable of forming words. Index’s face was before him. It looked as if she might stop breathing at any moment. “Can you still say that after seeing her like this?” Stiyl’s voice quavered. “Can you still say it when she’s seconds away from death?! To someone in such pain that she can’t open her eyes?! Can you still tell us to wait because there’s something you want to try?!” “…” Index’s fingers stirred. Either she was just barely lucid or doing it unconsciously, but she moved her leaden hands with all her might, reaching to touch Kamijou’s face. As if desperately trying to protect him—as if she knew the sorcerer had a fistful of his hair. As if she was saying that her own pain didn’t matter at all. “If you can, then you aren’t even human anymore! Even with her in this condition, you want to give her medicine you’ve never tried, let a doctor whose name you don’t even know mess around with her body and make her dependent on drugs? No human being would even entertain ideas like that!” Stiyl’s roar pierced Kamijou’s eardrums and into his brain. “Answer me, esper. Are you still human? Or are you a monster who’s abandoned his humanity?!” “…” Kamijou couldn’t answer. Stiyl followed up, as if stabbing a blade into the heart of a corpse. He reached into his pocket and produced a small necklace with a cross. “…This tool is required for erasing her memories.” He dangled the cross in front of Kamijou’s face. “Obviously it’s magical. If you touch it with your right hand, it should lose all its power, just like my Innocentius.” The cross swayed back and forth as if taunting Kamijou, reminding him of a cheap hypnosis pendulum. “But can you destroy it, esper?” Kamijou regarded Stiyl as if paralyzed. “Look at her suffer like this. Can you take this in your hands?! If you believe in your power so much, then erase it! You’re nothing but a freak of nature pretending to be a hero!” Kamijou watched. He studied the cross swaying before his eyes. He fixated on the contemptible, memory-eradicating relic. As Stiyl said, if he took it, he would stop them from erasing Index’s memories. There was nothing difficult about it. He just had to reach out his hand a bit and lightly stroke it with his fingers. That was all. That would be all it took. Kamijou squeezed his right hand as tightly as a boulder… But he couldn’t do it. This sorcery was the sole means of saving Index for now, safely and certainly. He couldn’t touch it. Not in front of a girl suffering like this, enduring it all. There was no way he could. “With the preparations, at a minimum…twelve fifteen AM. With the power of Leo, I’ll wipe her memory.” Stiyl sounded almost bored as he looked at Kamijou. Twelve fifteen AM…It probably wasn’t even ten minutes until then. “…!!” Kamijou wanted to shout Stop! or to scream Wait! but he wouldn’t be the one to suffer if he did. The price for his selfishness would be paid in full by Index. Just accept it. “My name? It’s Index, okay?” Just accept it already. “And, um, if you gave me some food to fill up my tummy, Index would be happy!” Touma Kamijou, just acknowledge that you have neither the power nor the right to save Index! Kamijou couldn’t call out. He just bit down on his teeth, stared at the ceiling…and let a tear fall from his eye, unable to hold it back any longer. “…Hey, sorcerer.” He spoke in a stupor, still looking up at the ceiling with his back against the bookshelf. “What do you think my last words to her should be?” “We have no time to spare for nonsense like that.” “I see,” he replied in a daze. Stiyl advanced on Kamijou again, the boy looking as if he’d stay rooted to that spot forever. “Can you get out of here, you monster?” Stiyl sized him up. “…Your right hand canceled my flames. I still don’t understand the principle behind it…but I don’t want it screwing up what we’re about to do.” “I see,” he repeated, bewildered. Kamijou chuckled quietly, as if taking his last breath. “…It was the same when she got slashed in the back. I wonder why I can’t do anything.” Don’t ask me, said Stiyl’s eyes. “I have this awesome right hand that can even erase God’s miracles.” He spoke as if he was about to collapse. “…Why can’t I save just one person…? Just one suffering girl?” He was laughing. He didn’t curse fate, and he didn’t blame his rotten luck. He just bit down in frustration at his own powerlessness. Kanzaki averted her eyes painfully and then told him, “There are still about ten minutes left before we perform the ritual at twelve fifteen.” Stiyl stared at her as if she had three heads. But Kanzaki met his eyes and smiled a little. “…On the night we first promised to erase her memories, we cried all evening at her side. Isn’t that right, Stiyl?” “…Gh.” Stiyl’s words got caught in his throat. “W-we don’t know what this guy’s gonna do. What if he tries to kill her and then himself while we’re not looking?” “If he wanted to do that, wouldn’t he have touched the cross? You used a real cross, rather than a fake one, because you knew he was still human, didn’t you?” “But…” “Either way, we cannot perform the ritual until the proper time. If we leave him with regrets now, it opens us up to the possibility of his interference in the middle of the ritual, Stiyl.” Stiyl gritted his teeth. He looked poised to rip out Kamijou’s throat, as if he were some sort of wild beast. But he held back, saying: “Ten minutes. Got it?!” He promptly turned on his heel and headed for the door. Kanzaki said nothing, but her eyes were smiling in a very painful sort of way as she followed her partner out. The door closed. Kamijou and Index were alone. He had risked her welfare—not his—to gain these ten minutes while her life slipped away. But he didn’t know what he should do. “Ah…ka, ha…” As she lay there limply, a voice struggled to escape Index’s mouth, making Kamijou’s shoulders suddenly quiver. She had opened her eyes a little bit, and her sole concern seemed to be why she was on the futon and where he had gone. Once again, she disregarded her own welfare entirely. “…” Kamijou gritted his teeth again. Facing her was more terrifying than fighting sorcerers. But he couldn’t bring himself to run away. “Tou…ma?” Kamijou approached the futon, and Index, with her sweat-covered face, looked relieved from the bottom of her heart. “…I’m sorry.” He apologized at her side, looking down into her eyes. “…? Touma…There’s some kind of magic circle in here…” Having been unconscious until now, Index didn’t realize the circle had been drawn by the two sorcerers. She looked at the pattern on the wall near the futon and tilted her head in confusion, looking every bit a little girl. “…” For a moment, Kamijou clenched his teeth again. But only for a moment. Before anyone would have been able to notice, his expression softened. “…They said it’s healing magic. We can’t have you suffering with that terrible headache, can we?” “? Magic…Whose?” No sooner had she posed the question than Index finally realized the possibility. “?!” She forced her inert body to move and tried springing to her feet. The instant he saw the distorted look of pain that shot across her face, Kamijou took Index by the shoulders and forced her back down onto the futon. “Touma! Those sorcerers came again, didn’t they?! Touma, you’ve gotta get out of here!” Index looked at him incredulously. She knew just how dangerous sorcerers were and worried for Kamijou with every fiber of her being. “…It’s all right, Index.” “Touma!” “It’s over…It’s all over.” “Touma,” she muttered quietly, the strength draining from her body. Kamijou didn’t know what sort of aspect his face had taken on. “…I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll get strong. I won’t lose ever again. I’ll get strong enough to blow away all these people treating you like crap, I promise…” Crying would be cowardly. Inviting her sympathy would be unpardonable. “…Just you wait. Next time, I’ll save you for sure, all right?” How did his face look in Index’s eyes? How did his voice sound to Index’s ears? “Okay. I’ll be waiting.” She didn’t know the situation, so it must have looked as if Kamijou had sold her out to save himself after losing to the sorcerers. But she still smiled. It was a weak smile, a perfect smile, and a smile that could disintegrate at any moment. Kamijou didn’t understand. He no longer understood how she was capable of placing so much trust in someone. But it was enough for him to make up his mind. He told her that once her headache healed, they’d beat them and win their freedom. He told her he wanted to go somewhere with her, like the beach, but that they’d do that after his makeup classes ended. He asked her if she might want to transfer into his school after vacation ended. Index said that she wanted to make lots of memories. Kamijou promised that they definitely would. He went through with the lie. He no longer cared what was right and what was wrong. He didn’t need cheap morality if it was cold and unkind to her. If it couldn’t ease one girl’s suffering. The name Touma Kamijou didn’t need to be labeled good or evil. The stamp of a fraud was more than enough. Thus, he didn’t shed a single tear. Not even one. “…” The strength in Index’s hand failed, and it fell to the futon with a little thump. Index, once more unconscious, looked like a corpse. “But…” Her countenance gave the impression that she was enduring a feverish nightmare. Kamijou bit his lip softly. “…This ending is just unacceptable.” He tasted blood where his teeth sank into his skin. He was mortified by his helplessness, despite the fact that any action he might have taken would have been a mistake. Kamijou could do nothing. He couldn’t do anything about the knowledge of the 103,000 grimoires consuming 85 percent of Index’s brain, and he couldn’t safeguard the memories stored in the remaining 15 percent. “…Huh?” Having surrendered his thoughts to despair, he suddenly got the sense that something didn’t add up. Eighty-five percent? Creak. He looked down, contemplating Index’s feverish face. Eighty-five percent. Yes, Kanzaki had said so, hadn’t she? Eighty-five percent of Index’s mind was devoted to storage of the 103,000 grimoires. So her brain was compressed, and the remaining 15 percent could store no more than a year’s worth of experiences. If she absorbed any more memory than that, her brain would overload. But wait. Why was it that 15 percent of her brain was incapable of retaining more than a year’s worth of memory? He didn’t know how unique perfect recall was. But he didn’t think it was so rare that Index would have been the only person in the world to have it. And other people with perfect recall didn’t require having their memories wiped with some ridiculous sorcery. But if Kanzaki still maintained that 15 percent of her brain was only capable of storing a year’s worth of memories, then… “…Wouldn’t those people die when they turned six or seven…? ” If Index’s “disease” was so terminal, wouldn’t it be a lot more famous? Even more than that, though… Where did Kanzaki even get that 85 percent figure? Who exactly had given her the information? And… Most importantly, was that 85 percent even correct? “…They got us.” What if, hypothetically, Kanzaki didn’t know anything about neuroscience? What if she was just being fed information like that by her superiors—by the Church? Kamijou started getting an extremely bad feeling about the whole setup. He immediately dove for the black telephone in the corner of the room. Miss Komoe was out somewhere again. He had no problem finding her cell number, having just made a mess of the entire room to locate it. The mechanical ringing sound irritated him as he waited for his teacher to pick up. Kanzaki’s explanation of Index’s perfect recall ability had to be off somehow. And what if the Church had planted that mistake? Maybe there was a secret buried there. The phone connected with a staticky click. “Teacher!!” he shouted into the phone automatically. “Yeah~ That’s Kami, isn’t it~ You really shouldn’t use Teacher’s phone whenever you want like this~” “…Um, you sound like you’re having a good time.” “Yeah~ Teacher is at the bathhouse right now! I’m test-driving a new massage chair~ I’ve got a coffee milk in one hand~ Ahh~” “…” He considered pulverizing the receiver in his hand, but Index took priority. “Teacher. Please, listen to me…” Kamijou asked about perfect recall. What was it like? Does capturing a year’s worth of memories really use up 15 percent of your brain? In other words, was it a lethal trait that only permitted a six- or seven-year life span? “Of course not~” Miss Komoe cut him off. “Yes, the perfect recall ability necessitates the retention of useless information—like sales in last year’s supermarket circulars—but~ There’s no way that will blow out your brain or anything~ People with the ability will just carry hundreds of years’ worth of memories with them to the grave, that’s all. Human brains are capable of remembering about a hundred and forty years of data, after all~” Kamijou’s heart almost beat out of his chest. “B-but what if, hypothetically, somebody used it to memorize a crazy amount of stuff? Like if you read all the books in a library…would your brain fry then?” “Huh…Kamijou, you really are flunking your Development courses~” Komoe observed merrily. “Listen, Kami. In the first place, a person’s memory isn’t actually one thing. There are lots of different kinds~ Semantic memory governs language and knowledge, procedural memory governs how we get used to certain movements, and episodic memory governs actual memories of events~ There are tons~” “Umm, Teacher…I don’t exactly understand what you’re saying.” “In other words…,” Miss Komoe continued, still using her happy, explanatory voice, “…different things are categorized into different types of memory~ Kind of like regular trash and recyclables, I guess? For example, even if you hit your head real hard and got amnesia, you wouldn’t go back to babbling and crawling around like a baby, right~?” “…So, that means…” “Yes~ However much you put into your semantic memory by memorizing books, compressing your episodic memory is a neurological impossibility~” The words hit him in the head like a ton of bricks. The handset slipped out of his hand and fell, colliding with the cradle and cutting off their conversation, but Kamijou didn’t have time to think about that. The Church was lying to Kanzaki. Index’s perfect recall wasn’t life threatening at all. “But why…?” Kamijou muttered, dazed. Yes, why? Even if the Church hadn’t done anything to her, why would they lie about Index when she was perfectly healthy, claiming she’d die unless she was treated annually? And Index, plainly suffering before his eyes this very moment, certainly didn’t look like she was faking it. If her perfect recall wasn’t the problem, then what was the source of her affliction? “…Ah.” Once he’d thought it through, Kamijou had to suppress the urge to burst out laughing. I see. The Church wanted to put a collar on Index. A collar forcing her to receive regular yearly maintenance from the Church or forfeit her life. A collar to ensure her loyalty, and thus the safety of the 103,000 grimoires. What if Index’s body had originally been totally fine, and she didn’t need to undergo weird rituals and ceremonies? What if Index was capable of surviving just fine on her own without any of the hokum or mumbo jumbo? If that was the case, the Church would never let it stand. There was no telling where she might disappear to after memorizing the 103,000 grimoires. There was no way they wouldn’t collar her. He repeated it back to himself: The Church wanted to put a collar on Index. The explanation, then, was simple. The Church had rigged something in Index’s head, which had been just fine in the first place. “…Ha-ha.” Yup. It was akin to packing a ten-liter bucket with enough concrete so that you could only fill it with one liter of water. They messed with Index’s head and made it so that one year’s worth of memories would burn out her brain. They made certain she was dependent on the Church’s rituals and procedures. They forced her friends to swallow their tears and bend to the will of the Church. …They’d scripted a demonic program that even accounted for human kindness and compassion. “…But that doesn’t matter.” No, none of it was of any consequence right now. There was only one problem requiring immediate attention: figuring out what kind of security measures the Church had employed to make Index suffer like this. The same way that Academy City, which supervised Kamijou and the other espers, was on the cutting edge of science, Necessarius, which oversaw sorcerers, must have been on the cutting edge of something. Yes. If the obstacle was an abnormal power like magic… …then Touma Kamijou’s right hand could obliterate even a miracle with a single touch. Kamijou thought about the time in the clockless room. There probably weren’t even minutes remaining before the start of the ritual. Next, he looked at the apartment door. Would the sorcerers believe him if he explained this truth to them? The answer was no. He was just a high school student. He wasn’t a licensed neurophysiologist, and moreover, when you got right down to it, the two parties were clearly at odds. He doubted they’d take him at his word. His gaze fell. He looked at Index, lying on the futon, her exhausted limbs outstretched. She was drenched head to toe with a repulsive sweat. Her silver hair looked as if it had been dipped in a bucket of water. Her face was flushed, and her eyebrows twitched periodically in pain, the way they might if she was hospitalized with a serious malady. “Look at her. This suffering girl lying at your feet, can you take this into your hands?! If you believe in your power so much, then erase it! You’re nothing but a freak of nature pretending to be a hero!” Kamijou chuckled, recalling Stiyl’s accusation, which had shattered his resolve just moments earlier. The world had changed enough that he could laugh. “I’m not pretending to be the hero…” Grinning, he undid the white bandages wrapped snugly around his right hand, as if breaking a seal. “…I will become the hero.” He said this, smiling, while pressing his tattered right hand to Index’s forehead. People said his right hand could eradicate miracles, but it couldn’t take down a single delinquent, or raise his test scores, or make him popular with girls. He’d thought it completely useless. But maybe there was just one thing it was good for. If it allowed him to save this suffering girl, then Kamijou thought it was a marvelous ability. … … …? “…Huh, what?” Nothing happened. Nothing at all. There was no noise or light. Had he undone the spell placed on Index by the Church? No, she was still grimacing in pain. He got the impression that nothing had changed. Kamijou tilted his head in puzzlement and tried touching her cheeks and the whorl of her hair, but still nothing happened. No change. No nothing…but that’s when he remembered. Kamijou had already touched Index a few times. For example, after pummeling Stiyl at his dormitory, he’d been touching her when he carried her away, and he’d lightly flicked her forehead after she’d told him who she really was. Of course there was no sign of a change. Kamijou twisted his head. He couldn’t imagine that his supposition was mistaken. And there shouldn’t have been any sort of “abnormal influence” that his right hand couldn’t interrupt. So… So…where hadn’t he touched Index yet? “……………………………………………………………………………………………Ah.” His mind almost leaped somewhere extremely erotic, but he steered his thoughts out of the gutter. But the process of elimination told him there was nowhere else left. If some sort of enchantment had been placed on Index, and if his right hand could cancel out any magic, then he hadn’t yet touched the point of enchantment. But where was it? Kamijou examined Index’s inflamed face. Memory-related magic…It would have to be applied to her head or somewhere close, right? If there was a magic circle inside her spinal cord or something, then Kamijou couldn’t do anything about it, of course. If it was inside her, his germ-filled hands could never touch— “…Oh.” He looked at Index’s face again. Her painfully flinching eyebrows, her tightly squeezed eyes, her nose dripping sweat like mud…He ignored all those, focusing on the dainty lips exhaling shallow breaths. He took the thumb and index finger of his right hand and slid them between those lips, forcing her mouth open. The back of her throat. That was where the brain lacked the skull’s protection, and in a straight line, it was even closer to her brain than the whorl of her hair. People would rarely see and never touch it. In the back of the dark red throat, he saw a single, eerie mark carved in black. It looked like a symbol you might see on a televised horoscope program. “…” Kamijou squinted his eyes once, then prepared himself and stuck his hand into her mouth again. His finger slid into her oral cavity, wriggling like a worm, as if it were a separate life-form. Abnormally hot saliva spilled over his digit. He hesitated at the uncanny sensation of her tongue, and then, as if to pierce her throat, jammed his finger all the way in. Index’s body shuddered with a violent gag reflex. Click. A feeling somewhat similar to a static discharge shocked his right index finger. Bang! Suddenly, Kamijou’s right hand was flung forcefully backward. “Gah…?!” Globules of his own blood splattered the futon and tatami. The shock left his wrist feeling as if a handgun had blasted it. He immediately inspected his right hand. The wound Kanzaki had originally dealt him had reopened, and fresh blood streamed with a drip-drop onto the tatami. Looking beyond the hand he’d raised to his face, he saw… Index, collapsed in exhaustion mere moments ago, lifted her eyelids delicately. A brilliant red glow. This was not a natural eye color. It was the illumination from two bloodred magic circles floating in her eyeballs. Crap…!! An instinctive shiver ran down Kamijou’s spine. He immediately tried thrusting his ruined right hand forward again. Before he could, though, Index’s eyes flared a brilliant crimson, and something exploded. Crash!! A powerful impact tossed his body into the bookcase in front of him. The wooden shelves fractured all at once, and the sounds of falling books echoed through the room. Every single joint in his body exploded in searing pain. Shaking terribly, he was barely able to stand again. His legs felt as if they were going to fall apart. His saliva had taken on the metallic tang of blood. “…Warning. Reading from chapter three, verse two. Barriers one through three of the collar of Index Librorum Prohibitorum destroyed. Penetration of all barriers confirmed. Preparing for regeneration…Failed. Self-regeneration of the collar impossible. Now prioritizing interception of intruder to preserve the 103,000-volume library.” Kamijou watched the reaction unfolding before him. As if she had no bones or joints, she rose lazily, her movements sluggish, as if she were composed of jelly packed into a bag. The crimson magic symbols inscribed on her irises pierced right through him. They may have been eyeballs, but they definitely weren’t human. There was no humanity in them, and no feminine warmth. Kamijou had seen these eyes once before. After she’d been slashed from behind by Kanzaki, Index, collapsed on the floor of his dormitory, had spoken to him mechanically, lecturing on the subject of runic magic. I don’t have any magical power, so I can’t use magic. “…Now that I think of it, there was one thing I never asked you.” Kamijou cradled his shredded right hand and mumbled quietly in his mouth. “If you’re not an esper, then why the hell don’t you have any magical power?” The reason was likely due to the Church having prepared a two- or three-layer security system inside her. If someone was to learn the truth behind her perfect recall ability and tried to unlock the collar, Index would automatically manipulate the 103,000 grimoires and tap the most powerful magic she could reference to stop them. Maybe an automatic interception system like that required all of her magical energies. “…Using the 103,000-volume library to reverse engineer the magical technique that destroyed the barriers…Failed. No matching sorcery found. Exposing structure of the technique and setting up a Local Weapon for use against intruder.” Index twisted her small neck as if she were a corpse being manipulated by string. “Success. Preparation of most efficient counter-magic against specific intruder complete. Invoking Local Weapon Saint George’s Hallowed Ground and destroying intruder.” Grakk! There was a tremendous noise, and the sigils in Index’s eyes expanded quickly. The two magic circles, now two meters in diameter, positioned themselves in front of Index’s face, overlapping. They were fixed in front of each of her eyes; when Index moved her head slightly, they followed her motion. “.” Index sang something incomprehensible to the human mind. The two magic circles with Index’s eyes as their anchors momentarily shone, then exploded. It was as if a single point in the air had detonated, that point being the middle of Index’s forehead. It looked like a rupture of a high-tension current, which scattered lightning in all directions. However, these weren’t bluish-white sparks. This lightning was pitch-black. It’s silly to say something so unscientific, but the fissures honestly looked as if they were ripping through space itself. Grakk! Centered at the intersection of the two magic circles, the black fractures spread through the air as if it were glass that had been struck by a bullet, and they extended to the corners of the room. They formed a single rampart, as if preventing anyone or anything from approaching Index. Then, the innards of the fissures started to swell and pulse, as if something was in there. What emerged from the partially opened maw of the pitch-black ruptures was a scent reminiscent of a beast. “Uh.” Kamijou suddenly realized something. It was neither logic nor reason, neither far-fetched conjecture nor rationality. It was something more fundamental, something closer to instinct, that was screaming inside his mind. He didn’t know exactly what was in those fissures. But he got the distinct feeling that just looking at it with his naked eye would eradicate his entire existence. “. Ha.” Kamijou was trembling. The fractures grew bigger and bigger and bigger, and he knew the thing inside was getting closer. But Kamijou couldn’t move. He quaked and quavered and palpitated because… Because if he defeated that… …then he would have saved Index all by himself, with no one else’s help. “Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!” Kamijou was trembling with delight. Scared? Why would I be? I’ve waited for this for so long. I’ve had this useless hand that can’t take down delinquents, can’t raise my test scores, and can’t make me popular with girls. But even so, when one girl’s back got sliced open because of me…When I was told that I would interfere with the healing magic and ran out of the apartment…When I got beaten to a pulp by that wire-wielding samurai…! I cursed my powerlessness, but I still hoped and prayed I could save this one girl! It’s not like I wanted to be the hero of a story. The power sleeping in my right hand can even erase the very story itself! Just four meters. I can end everything just by touching her one more time! And so, Kamijou dashed toward the fissures—and toward Index, who waited behind them. He clenched his right hand. He did it to destroy the ending of this cruel story. The foolish, infinite loop. At the same time, with another high-pitched shriek, the fissures expanded all at once and opened. It had all the subtle nuance of slicing open a struggling virgin. From the inside, the giant fissures stretching from one corner of the room to another, something peeked out. Accompanied by an ear-splitting roar, a pillar of light erupted from the Stygian depths. It was analogous to a beam fired from a laser, about one meter in diameter. The moment the face-melting, white-hot light lanced at him, Kamijou didn’t hesitate to raise his tattered right hand in front of his face. There was a loud hissing sound reminiscent of flesh being pressed against a hot plate. But it didn’t hurt. It wasn’t hot. The instant the pillar of light collided with his right hand, it scattered everywhere, as if it were a stream of water from a fire hose bouncing off an invisible wall. However, Kamijou couldn’t completely dispel the pillar of light itself. Just like Stiyl’s Witch-Hunter King, Innocentius, it felt as if no matter how much he erased, there was still more. His feet started to gradually slide backward across the tatami, and his right arm felt as if it might fly off his body from the pressure. No…This isn’t like…What?! His right hand feeling a hair’s breadth from dismemberment, Kamijou immediately braced it with his left, grabbing his right wrist. A shocking pain erupted on the palm of his right hand. The magic was cutting into his skin…His right hand’s ability couldn’t keep up, and the beam was edging closer to Kamijou, one millimeter at a time. It’s not just the sheer quantity…! It’s like every single photon has its own properties!! Maybe Index was using each of the 103,000 grimoires to cast 103,000 spells simultaneously. Each individual volume meant certain death, and she was using all of them at once. He heard a clamor outside the door of the apartment. The instant they finally figured out something was wrong, the two sorcerers threw open the door and dove into the room. “Damn! What are you doing?! Why do you insist on this futile—” He heard Stiyl shouting something at him, but in the middle of it, the sorcerer’s breath caught in his throat as if he’d been punched in the back. His face drained of all color when he saw the pillar of light before his eyes and that it was Index who’d unleashed it. For Kanzaki’s part…Kanzaki, who’d seemed so aloof and powerful before, was dumbfounded at the sight. “…D-dragon Breath…I don’t believe it. How can she even use magic in the first place?!” Kamijou didn’t turn to look at them. It wasn’t really an option, and he didn’t want to avert his eyes from reality—or Index—any longer. “Hey, do you have any idea what this is?!” he shouted, staring straight ahead. “Its name? Its form?! Its weakness?! Explain every single detail to me right now!!” “…But, well…What…” “You’re so aggravating! Can’t you tell just by looking?! Index is using magic, so the Church has been lying to you and saying she can’t!” Kamijou bickered while dispelling the energy spear. “Yeah, that’s right! The whole ‘erase Index’s memory every year’ thing was a big, fat lie, too! The Church’s magic was what was compressing her mind, so if I wipe this thing out, there won’t be any need to erase her memory anymore!!” Kamijou’s feet continued losing ground, little by little. The pillar of light doubled its intensity, as if to tear off the toes he was digging into the tatami. It was a nightmare. “Calm down! Think about it logically! Do you really think the Church would be nice and tell lackeys like you the entire truth?! They’re the ones who created this shitty Index system! Face the reality that’s in front of you, and if you don’t believe it, then just ask Index!!” The two sorcerers, still dazed, looked at the girl standing behind the fissures. “…No observable effect of Saint George’s Hallowed Ground on intruder. Switching to alternate technique. Continuing attempt to destroy the intruder to safeguard the collar.” That was, without a doubt, the Index who the two sorcerers didn’t know. That was, without a doubt, the Index who the Church had kept hidden from them. “…” Enraged, Stiyl clamped his teeth together with enough force to crush them, but only for an instant. “…Fortis931.” Thousands of cards flew out of the recesses of his black clothing. The cards, each with a flame rune engraved on it, whipped into a whirlwind and completely plastered the floor, ceiling, and walls within moments. It was exactly like Hoichi the Earless, whose tattoos covered and protected his body. But they weren’t for Kamijou’s benefit. Stiyl placed his hand on Kamijou’s back…so he could save Index. “I don’t need your vague possibilities. If we erase her memory, we can at least save her life for now. I’ll kill anyone who gets between me and that goal. I will destroy whatever I have to! I made that decision long ago!” Suddenly, Kamijou’s legs, which had been steadily losing ground, stopped. The tatami below him creaked under the unbelievable stress as he dug his toes in deeper. “For…now?” He didn’t turn back. “No, that’s bullshit! That doesn’t matter! I don’t need logic or reasoning! Just answer me this, you sorcerer!!” He drew in a breath. “…Do you want to save Index?!” The magician swallowed. “You’ve both been waiting for this, haven’t you? For a way you wouldn’t have to take her memories—a way where you wouldn’t have to be her enemies—the greatest and final happy ending where everybody gets to smile!” His right wrist, straining under the pressure to keep the beam at bay, made a disturbing cracking noise. But Kamijou still couldn’t give up. “This is the plot twist you’ve been waiting for! This isn’t some filler dialogue that happens before the hero shows up! I’m not stalling for time before the main character appears! No one else, nothing else! Didn’t you promise that you would save this girl with your own hands?!” Bam! The nail of his right index finger splintered, and fresh crimson blood spurted through the fresh injuries. But Kamijou still didn’t want to give up. “You’ve always wanted to be the main character! You’ve always wanted to become the kind of sorcerer you see in books and movies who risks his life to protect one girl! That’s not over!! It hasn’t even started!! Don’t give up hope just because the prologue is a little long!!” The sorcerer didn’t respond. Kamijou definitely wouldn’t give up. What the sorcerers saw in him was anybody’s guess. “…If you just reach out, you can achieve it! Let’s get this started already, sorcerers!” A very nasty sound emanated from his right pinkie. It bent at an unnatural angle…and broke. The instant this registered, the indescribably powerful pillar blew through his defense. His right hand recoiled away. The shaft of light rushed at his defenseless face at a speed beggaring imagination… “…Salvare000!!” Just before the pillar of light hit him, Kamijou heard Kanzaki shout. It wasn’t Japanese. It wasn’t any language with which he was familiar. But he’d heard something similar—it was a name. It had been when he faced Stiyl in the student dormitory. It was the name Stiyl’d said all sorcerers must give when using sorcery—her magic name. The katana Kanzaki held, close to two meters in length, sliced through the air. The Seven Glints, using the seven metal wires, approached Index with sound-splitting speed. But her attack wasn’t aimed at Index herself. The seven metal wires shredded the frail tatami at Index’s feet all at once. Suddenly without footing, she began falling backward. The magic circles linked to Index’s eyes moved as well, causing the pillar of light aimed at Kamijou to miss its mark. The beam swung upward like a giant sword, rending the wall, then the ceiling, leaving nothing in its wake. Even the black clouds floating in the night sky were torn open…It might even have sliced through satellites in low-Earth orbit. Nothing remained of the portions of wall and ceiling the pillar had touched—not even a single splinter. Instead, the eradicated sections turned into feathers of light, as pure and white as the beam itself. They were fluttering down. A few dozen of the feathers, effects unknown, danced through the summer night like snow. “That’s Dragon Breath…It’s the same attack used by the legendary Saint George’s Dragon! Whatever power you may possess, please don’t consider letting it make contact with your body!” Kamijou, who had escaped his battle with the light lance, listened to Kanzaki as he shot toward Index, now crumpled on the floor. Before he could reach her, though, Index’s head moved. The pillar of light that had torn a hole through the night sky started to swing back down. It’ll catch me again! “…Innocentius!” As Kamijou prepared himself for the blow, a whirlpool of flame materialized before him. The giant fire took on human form and spread its arms to stand as a shield to block the light. It looked like a cross protecting someone from sin. “Go, esper!” He heard Stiyl’s voice. “Her time limit’s already passed! If you’re going to try something, then don’t waste a second!!” Kamijou didn’t answer. Neither did he look back. Instead, he ran toward Index, detouring around the clashing flame and light—because Stiyl wanted him to. Kamijou had heard his words, knew what he meant by them, and understood all the feelings they implied. Kamijou ran. Ran!! “…Warning. Reading from chapter six, verse thirteen. New enemies confirmed. Modifying combat processes. Beginning battlefield scan…Complete. Prioritizing the destruction of the most immediately dangerous enemy soldier, Touma Kamijou.” Index’s head came down, and the pillar of light followed with a loud blast. However, at the same time, the Witch-Hunter King moved in to block for Kamijou. The light and flame ate into each other, each repeating the cycle of destruction and rebirth. Kamijou ran straight for Index, now defenseless. Four more meters. Three more meters. Two more meters! One more meter!! “Wait, stop! Above you!!” Kanzaki’s voice rang out, cutting through the chaos, just as Kamijou was about to reach out and touch the magic circles in front of Index. He looked at the ceiling without cutting his stride. The feathers of light. Dozens of shining, glittering feathers created when Index’s beam destroyed the wall and ceiling. They drifted down through the air like snowflakes and were about to alight on his head. Kamijou didn’t know much about magic, but he got the picture. If even one of those things was to touch him, he’d be in big trouble. He also knew that if he used his right hand, they could easily be canceled out. However… “…Warning. Reading from chapter twenty-two, verse one. Flame magic technique successfully reverse engineered. Distorted cross image confirmed to be created by runes. Building technique for anti-cross use…Type One, Type Two, Type Three. Twenty seconds until complete activation of Eri Eri Rema Sabaktani.” The color of the pillar of light started to change from pure white to a bloody crimson. Innocentius’s revival speed began to wane, and it started to be pushed toward the light. Dealing with the dozens of glowing feathers with his right hand one at a time would probably take too long. Index could regain her posture, and Kamijou knew that the Witch-Hunter King wouldn’t last much longer. Above him were dozens of dancing wings of illumination. At his feet was a lone girl whose feelings were being abused and whose body was being manipulated like a puppet. The only question was which one he would save. The other would fall. It was simple. Of course, the answer was already decided. Touma Kamijou hadn’t been using his right hand to protect himself during these battles. He’d been fighting the sorcerers all along to protect this one girl. All right, God, if the story of this world really does follow your system… He opened the five fingers of his right fist. He stretched them out straight, as if about to strike with his palm. …Then I’ll bust up that illusion first!! And then, he brought down his right hand. The black fissures and the magic circles creating them. Kamijou’s right hand cleanly sliced through them all. It severed them so easily that he wanted to laugh at how much he’d endured just to get this far. It cut them effortlessly, as if they were no sturdier than the paper nets used to catch goldfish at festivals. “…War…ning. Reading from…final…chapter, verse…zero…Collar has…sustained critical…regeneration…impossible…era—” Suddenly, Index’s voice completely disappeared. The pillar of light disappeared as well, as did the magic circles, and the fissures running throughout the room began to retract as if being rubbed out with a pencil eraser… At that moment, one of the light feathers landed on Kamijou’s head. He thought for a moment he heard someone shouting. He didn’t know whether it was Stiyl, or Kanzaki, or even himself, or maybe Index. Maybe she had woken up. His entire body, all the way down to his fingertips, was sapped of its strength from that one hit, as if he had been smashed in the head with a metal hammer. Kamijou collapsed on top of Index, who was herself still huddled on the floor… …As if to cover her from the glowing feathers raining down upon them. Just like snow piling up, dozens of illuminated feathers danced down to blanket Kamijou’s body. Touma Kamijou was still laughing. While he laughed, his fingers ceased moving permanently. That night… …Touma Kamijou died.