novelThe Vanishing Girl's Legacy — Hard_MEMORY (2)
| ← Ch.135 | Ch.137 → |
After all, she had done "this". If not for her, that would never have happened to his friend.
But St. Germain explained.
"As a hypothetical example, what if a deadly fight broke out over a single scrap of bread in a war-torn nation? Whose responsibility is that? The rules of the world had been distorted, so shouldn't the crimes of those directly involved only be weighed after the distorted system was judged?"
"..."
"That story was a tragedy, " said St. Germain."But the saddest part of all is that the story did not have all the necessary elements. If a single gear had been in its proper place, that horrific event never would have happened."
"What are you talking about!?" shrilly shouted Aihana Etsu."What else is there!?"
St. Germain answered her king.
"Kamijou Touma was not present in that story."
At first, that comment may have seemed nonsensical.
But when it was someone with true strength, that changed entirely.
"That is all it was. That alone turned everything around by 180 degrees. So there is no real meaning in taking your complaints to Mugino Shizuri, Kakine Teitoku, or anyone else directly involved. Not to start with anyway. First, you judge the system, remove the filter that system placed on the situation, and then weigh the crimes of those involved. If you still find excess fat, then you can scrape it away until everything has been settled. I am not trying to protect Mugino Shizuri. But if crimes are not judged properly, you cannot take pride in your revenge."
It did not feel real to Aihana Etsu. He had occasionally heard the name Kamijou Touma while wandering the back alleys, but this was far too extreme and he could not decide how much of it he could believe.
And so he asked.
"If..."
"Yes?"
"If Kamijou Touma had made it there, what would have happened to my friend?"
It may have been a meaningless question.
What good were hypotheticals about the past?
But...
"He would of course have saved someone with that fist of his. He may have the body of a fragile human child, but at this very moment, he is gaining the upper hand against a higher being such as myself."
She made it sound obvious.
She made it sound like having her plans ruined had been part of her plan.
She made it sound like one needed to allow for that much when dealing with him.
It was possible that pointy-haired boy had walked a path like that.
But...
(Why didn't anyone make it in time?)
Judge the system.
Do not hate the madness; expose the conditions that had led to it.
(It didn't matter who, so why wasn't there a single person there to hear her scream?)
A grinding came from Aihana Etsu's mouth as he clenched his back teeth.
He could tell something in his heart was turning in a strange direction.
"What will you do?"
St. Germain held the golden shield once more.
"Mugino Shizuri is undoubtedly more evil than good. If you kill her, you could call your revenge a success.... But is that enough? Making a judgment without bringing all the evil to light is no more than canceling out the crime. Killing two people and killing two hundred people receive the exact same death penalty, but you would never accept it if a killer of two hundred was executed for just two of those deaths, would you?"
"..."
"And as things are, what Frenda Seivelun left behind will eventually be brought to light. If it is misused, it will posthumously sully her name."
The golden shield reflected the moonlight.
As she kneeled, the look in St. Germain's eyes spoke clearly to Aihana Etsu.
What one could not do and what one did not do were entirely different.
And the power that divided the two categories sat before his eyes.
"Fine then, " he muttered.
His small hand reached for the golden shield.
"I'll clear everything up. And to do that, I can wait to deal with a definite answer like Mugino Shizuri. Kamijou Touma comes first. How much was he involved and how much was he unable to be involved? I'll figure all of that out."
"That is fine. If such a thing as heaven exists, I am sure your friend is smiling down on you."
"..."
He did not speak the rest aloud, but he continued in his head.
(If Kamijou Touma's presence could have changed her fate and I can say that the very act of not showing up in time was a crime... )
He felt the heavy shield in his hand.
(Then I'm guilty of the exact same crime. Once this is all over, I need to judge myself as well. )
"What can Anne's Shield do?"
"The shield itself is not important. What matters is you know that it has chosen you. Just as the fact that the sword was pulled from the stone is seen as much more important than its sharp edge."
"I don't want to make a name for myself. I want something I can use right away."
"Heh heh. I would like to leave that for a surprise once you use it, but I suppose I will give a general explanation. But understand that this is not the shield's power. This is your power; Anne's Shield merely prepared it inside of you."
St. Germain spoke as if revealing a prized secret.
"King Arthur's sword was a symbol of the active and positive side of ruling a kingdom through dominance and territorial expansion. As its counterpart, what would Anne's Shield symbolize? The passive and negative side of ruling a kingdom."
"Be more specific."
"It can shoot down anything. This ultimate defensive spiritual item uses a minimum of light to tear into anything you hold it towards. It would create... yes, you could call it a straw-sized hole."
"The ultimate? Really?"
"The materials do not matter and it has the ability to pierce through as many as two million knights at once. It is a horizontal downpour of death. Doesn't that seem like enough to exceed the limits of Imagine Breaker and tear him to pieces?"
Part 13
Hamazura Shiage and Kamijou Touma found an unexpected sight beyond the sliding screen.
It was not a new type of bomb or an explosives plant.
"What... is this?"
Kamijou looked around the tatami mat living room that looked large enough for a home economics classroom.
It did not look lived in either. In fact, the furnishings were not numerous enough or positioned right for that.
Instead, the entire room was filled with boxes.
Some were as small as bento boxes and others were bigger than refrigerators.
The multicolored wrapping and ribbons reminded Hamazura of something.
"Christmas? No, this is..."
"Looks like birthday presents. And there's a calendar over here."
Kamijou pointed at the calendar thumbtacked to the wall. It contained pictures of sea creatures and was marked with a highlighter.
But not just one or two days.
In fact, more days had marks than did not.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hamazura saw Aneri recording the names written on the boxes and building up a database.
"Come to think of it, Frenda was the most well-connected member of Item. I think she said something about knowing thousands of people if you included everyone from the darkness and not."
"Then this is... ?"
"Are they all birthday presents? This looks like when a company prepares year-end gifts for everyone."
Kamijou flipped through the calendar while listening to Hamazura's almost shocked voice.
The calendar had not been updated for a few months now, but all of the birthdays had been written in ahead of time. He stopped after flipping through a few months.
December 1.
That was today's date. The name written there was nothing like "Aihana Etsu", but he recognized the face on the small photo sticker placed there.
"..."
"(I can see why she didn't want Mugino or Kinuhata to see this. )"
Hamazura muttered to himself while looking around the room again.
Aneri's scan picked up a few familiar names on the many boxes.
There were no traps, no weapons, and no ulterior motives.
This was Frenda's most defenseless side.
This would have been where she sealed her softest side that was different from the side she showed in the normal world and the one she showed in the underground world. Here, she did not have to behave just right as Fremea's sister or polish her deadly skills for underground work. This was her tiny shelter.
Everyone had multiple sides.
They were all real and none of them were faked.
If one were to judge Frenda Seivelun's humanity based on every part of her, she would likely be judged an evil girl.
There was no excuse for everything she had blown up and all the lives she had taken.
When she won, she did not give the slightest thought to the feelings of those she had taken away. And if she was about to lose, she would suddenly start talking at length about the sanctity of life. When she killed, she enjoyed it. When she was going to be killed, she would sell out her teammates and desperately beg for her life. She was that kind of selfish and convenient girl.
But...
That fact did not wholly invalidate what they had found here.
A few remote controls were lined up on the edge of the table. What they belonged to was written on the color tape attached: TV, air conditioner, digital recorder, projector, curtains, etc. When Hamazura picked one up and hit the power button, the lines of a spreadsheet program appeared on the one wall left clear of presents. It was apparently a list of what she had discovered the different people wanted.
"Jaka-jaka-jan.... No, that's not right. Jaka-jaka-jaka-jan! Is that it?"
The digital recorder contained a few videos Frenda had recorded of herself dancing.
Hamazura assumed she was practicing for some kind of entertainment at a birthday party, but...
"Jaka jaka jahn jan. There! In the end, it has to be that one.... Heh heh heh. Mugino's gonna be so surprised."
"..."
Hamazura watched that carefree smile.
She clearly did not have a single clue what was going to happen to her.
He quietly used the digital recorder's remote to switch off the footage.
Deep in his heart, he told himself he could never let Mugino see that.
Kamijou finally looked away from the calendar.
"Aihana said we would find the reason Frenda Seivelun disappeared here, but should we just assume he was wrong about that?"
"Yeah. I doubt she left anything like that here, " spat out Hamazura before adding something else."But it wasn't entirely meaningless."
That was when they noticed something flashing behind a pile of presents.
It was attached to the wall. Kamijou noticed it first and Hamazura noticed him turn toward it. They checked and found a flat-panel touchscreen and an attached phone receiver.
They initially thought it was an intercom, but it was not.
"What is this?"
The screen displayed a floorplan of the apartment and the main entrance was flashing red.
"Oh, I get it. It's a security alert because I forced open the front door."
Hamazura leaned forward from the Power Lifter and touched the screen.
"Hm? What the hell!?"
He may have used it wrong because the displayed floorplan flew from the screen.
And it instead displayed more than just the one apartment.
The entire Dianoid was shown in wireframe. Dozens or even hundreds of photograph thumbnails popped up here and there. They showed footage from near the building's many entrances, inside the lower level shops, in front of the elevators and escalators, and inside the mid level TV station.
Kamijou spoke aloud the impression it gave him.
"Security cameras?"
"But why? This clearly goes beyond her room."
"Maybe it's a special privilege for the VIPs. To sell peace of mind, they handed over the other customers' privacy."
Aneri was not attached by any cables, but observations of the screen were enough to make some detailed predictions about how to operate the device.
This time, Hamazura controlled it like he wanted.
He checked the login history and found nothing except once right after the lease was signed. Frenda had likely noticed the device while checking through the apartment's security and never touched it since. That meant she had not had it installed and it had come with the apartment.
During her underground jobs, she might have gladly used it. The more information she had, the more advantageous her position. And she had not been the type to worry about the privacy of others.
But her time in here had been different.
There had been no light or dark and no acting or truth. She had simply put together kind plans to give birthday presents to everyone she knew, so anything that might remind her of the rotten truth was only in the way.
Annoyed, Hamazura removed his finger from the screen, but Kamijou reached in from the side.
He touched one of the countless thumbnails.
"Hey!"
"Wait a second. Look here."
He interrupted Hamazura and expanded the security camera window.
It displayed a moonlit garden on the roof.
A boy stood surrounded by dozens of men in tailcoats.
He was speaking with a blonde woman wearing what looked like a bunny suit and jacket combination.
"That's Aihana Etsu. Good, he's still okay."
"That's him? He doesn't look like the #6 to me. Not that a Level 0 is one to talk."
Unlike normal video footage, security cameras did not provide sound.
Fortunately, Aneri displayed intermittent pieces of text at the bottom of the screen like movie subtitles.
"Come with me, my king of the shield."
"How can you do so much? I've only ever heard of Kamijou Touma in rumors, but you know what his true power is, don't you?"
"Didn't I tell you? I have been searching for the king I can truly serve. And he is an excellent opponent to test the king's power on. It is normal to take revenge and reclaim your rightful place."
"Is this... really revenge?"
"If he had arrived in time, Frenda Seivelun would not have died. Isn't that true? It may sound like a wild leap in logic, but anyone who knows him would certainly agree."
"... Kamijou Touma."
"The term Magic God may not mean much to you, but I assume you have at least heard the news and seen the videos from the incident in Denmark. That was a war waged against a single Magic God who had earned the entire world's hatred. Even when faced with the deadly desires of six billion people, Kamijou Touma protected that Magic God to the very end. If he could do that, why did he have so much trouble against an element or two of Academy City's darkness?"
"..."
"I went out of the way to break into the TV station and steal the container, so use that shield as much as you want."
So Kamijou could hear, Hamazura read aloud the information Aneri gave him.
They only received bits and pieces of the conversation, so it was nearly impossible to accurately understand it all.
But they could make some guesses based on the ominous terms that got through.
"I don't know what she's talking about, " muttered Hamazura Shiage.
His confusion soon lifted his voice to a shout.
"We did transport a container to TV Orbit, but that wasn't a shield. That container was for a show using cutting-edge technology to see just how accurately an antique German grandfather clock can keep time!!"
"..."
Kamijou narrowed his eyes.
Someone was lying. Was it the person who had made the order with Hamazura or was it St. Germain who insisted he had acquired the shield from that container?
Hamazura looked utterly confused.
"And what's this about King Arthur? Isn't that the king who shows up in RPGs?"
"That just shows how well-known he is. On the magic side, he might have been a real magician or Saint, " spat out Kamijou."But Aihana's from the science side, so would a name like that really be enough to convince him to act?"
"I kind of understand." Hamazura thought for a moment."Academy City is all about science, but the morning news still does the horoscope. It isn't about logic. Everyone watches it even though they know it's meaningless. If you only believe in Academy City's rules, a Level 0 is a Level 0. The laws of physics seem pretty cruel when you're weak. So you'd panic if you found out there was an entirely different set of rules out there, wouldn't you?"
"..."
"If there's a loophole, everyone wants to use it. Saying you have hidden talent or haven't gotten serious yet are worn-out clichés for a reason. And with some great historical figure or famous weapon, it's all prepared in advance, so gaining that for yourself would be like a dream come true. It would be like finding out you're a blood relative of one of the seven Level 5s and have powerful genetic information hidden inside you."
Hamazura had tried to give a calm answer, but he could tell the anger that had long burned deep in his gut was welling up as he spoke.
Cinderella and the Ugly Duckling may have been nothing but convenient fairy tales.
The heroes in children's picture books did not put in any work themselves. They had special talent from the beginning and they only had to let some special person guide them the rest of the way. In a way, they could be called lazy. And perhaps the people who looked up to those fairy tales could be called the same.
But people only did that because they had no other option.
If they could change themselves with enough effort or if their efforts ever led to any noticeable results, no one would have had such a hard time of it. They were kept ignorant of the Parameter List and their growth rate was managed for the convenience of the adults, but they still tried to pursue their dreams.
Talent that not even the owner was aware of may have been an illusion brought on by a weak heart.
Aihana Etsu may not have been a strong person for letting that get the better of him.
But...
Who had the right to mock him for it?
"What is St. Germain trying to have him do? I do know your name, Kamijou Touma, showed up in the conversation."
"That's it right there." Kamijou narrowed his eyes slightly."It's the idea that it might have worked out if I had gotten there in time. Not that I'm that great a person. I've only achieved what I have by using every trick in the book and receiving the support of everyone around me."
"What... the hell?"
"At the very least, I bet that's the way Aihana Etsu sees it. Frenda Seivelun, was it? He thinks she died because I didn't notice in that final moment."
"What the hell is that!?"
Hamazura shouted in utter confusion.
If that argument was valid, it would mean Kamijou Touma was responsible the lives of all six or seven billion people on the planet. If even one of those lives were to slip from his grasp, the blame would lie on him.
That was a job for god.
And...
"That's complete bull. You didn't even know Frenda, right!? In that case, there's no way she would have expected for you to come save her on the verge of death. Aihana and St. Germain aren't speaking for her at all!!"
"No, they aren't, but that's not the real issue here."
Kamijou spoke calmly and thought of the many magicians and espers he had clashed with in the past.
"People out for revenge aren't looking at reality. It's pretty common for them to pretend they're acting on behalf of the dead while actually being manipulated by what they themselves think. So Aihana Etsu's hypothetical doesn't need to be consistent."
"But!!"
Hamazura's words caught in his throat, so he slowly took a breath and started again.
"It's true that incident was horrific. Everyone went insane, the normal safe zones were violated, and the ideals the adults love to talk about so much didn't apply in the slightest. Frenda died and a lot of other people died. The most I could do was bring it all to an end and I can't proudly say I actually 'resolved' anything."
"..."
"But we were all putting our lives on the line there! Everyone involved was a horrible person, but we kept pushing onward through the blood in the hopes of survival!! So what is this about Kamijou Touma's presence? To hell with that! That spits in the face of all our efforts there. It shoves us to the sidelines and says it's all decided by Kamijou Touma alone, no matter how much work we put in!!"
"I know that." Kamijou shook his head."The world doesn't revolve around me. It's ridiculous to think I'm looking down on people when I rescue them. I'm just fighting for my own selfish desires and creating the future I want to see. I'm not doing anything grand enough that you could claim I'm stealing other people's achievements."
But some people did not realize that.
Without relying on that illusion, some people could not accept the fact that they had lost someone.
It was no different from Cinderella or the Ugly Duckling.
It was an illusion created by a weak heart, but who had the right to look down on them and mock them for it?
"So... what? What is St. Germain trying to have Aihana do to you?"
"Probably not just kill me. If so, St. Germain could just do it himself. He can attack from every direction which is perfect for getting around my right hand, so there's no reason to add in an uncertain element like a complete stranger."
"Then..."
"It's the opposite, " spat out Kamijou in annoyance."Remember the side effects when an esper uses magic? I don't know what exactly that shield does, but I doubt it would be all that useful against me. St. Germain wants to pit Aihana Etsu against me and then have Aihana die. He wants me to bear the sin of murder. That's his goal here."
"Why!?"
"That I don't know.... Maybe he wants to defile the 'weak illusion' we talked about before."
There was no consistency to St. Germain's actions.
Despite supposedly being obsessed with Aihana Etsu, he had sealed the Dianoid and tried to kill Kamijou and the others. None of that was necessary if he only wanted access to Aihana Etsu.
But a change of viewpoint cleared that up.
Aihana Etsu was not at the center. He was only a part of the whole. St. Germain was using Aihana Etsu to either kill Kamijou or make him suffer. A battle against St. Germain might be difficult, but if he caused the death of Aihana Etsu who had only been deceived, things changed.
Say someone desperately fought off a man-eating tiger that attacked them. Now say they crushed a sleeping kitten underfoot. In both scenarios, they were taking a single life, but the thorn in their heart would be vastly different.
Perhaps it would even be enough to greatly change Kamijou Touma himself.
That pointy-haired boy had occasionally heard people allude to the "nature of Kamijou Touma". He was not aware of it, but perhaps there was something special others had seen inside him. He may have found a hint there if he could speak with Ollerus or Othinus, but he could not.
And of course, a sickening heat roiled inside Kamijou.
"To hell with this. You don't just get to decide that Aihana Etsu is weak. That bastard St. Germain is making up his own standards and shoving Aihana into the expendable category!!"
"Wait just a second. Don't tell me you're thinking of going and saving Aihana Etsu. The details might be twisted beyond recognition, but he's still trying to kill you!"
"So what? Didn't I tell you I'm not looking down on people when I rescue them and I'm just fighting to create the future I want to see? So it doesn't matter if he hates me or isn't asking for help! I'll drag him out of this by force if I have to!!"
Hamazura Shiage brought a hand to his forehead inside the Power Lifter.
He now understood where the other boy got the weak illusion that led him to save anyone and everyone.
(He claims to be selfish through and through, but when that selfish desire is to protect everyone's smiles, it makes you just like a legit hero. )
And he decided going along with this was not that bad an idea.
"So what exactly are you going to do? Even if you want to go save him, he's surrounded by St. Germain, he has a weapon with a deadly side effect, and who knows if we'll have the time to convince him he's wrong."
"We just have to get rid of what's motivating him."
Kamijou must have been thinking even as he answered because he spoke quickly.
"To make sure he doesn't get hit by the side effect of magic, we need to launch a surprise attack or something to get the shield away from him."
"And after that?"
"..."
"Wait a second. Don't tell me!"
"Even if it's a farce and completely misplaced, Aihana Etsu is being motivated by revenge. If we fulfill that desire, he'll stop, so there's no reason to overthink this. He just has to hit me until he's satisfied. With, um... oh, right. With Mitsuari Ayu it was the same... I think."
"But then what about you!?"
"I'm not just gonna sit there and let him kill me. It's not like I want to die. So don't worry. I'm fairly confident in my ability to take a punch."
Kamijou smiled thinly.
"But that's another reason why we need to take away his shield at the very beginning.... And my not wanting to die and the mix of feelings filling Aihana are two different issues. I doubt he'll stop just because I tell him I don't want to die. I don't know how the incident in Denmark looked to him or anything, but I need to pay him back for the false hope I gave him."
Those were frightening words.
That thought process was somehow different from the hero Hamazura had thought he was a moment before.
Hamazura recalled the fairy tale of The Happy Prince he had heard as a child. A statue of a prince was decorated in gold and jewels and, with the help of a passing bird, it had shared the pieces of its body with the poor people of the city. Kamijou Touma claimed to be selfishly doing whatever it was he wanted, but his logic had a tendency to treat only himself as a pawn to be used.
How many veils would one have to remove before finding the true selfishness below?
Or in some twisted way, was this Kamijou Touma's version of selfishness?
"Listen. Once Aihana Etsu fulfills his desire for revenge, he won't have any reason to fight. And once St. Germain's plan falls apart, he'll attack from every side.... I'll be relying on your Power Lifter. Make sure you at least get Aihana out of there."
Hamazura was unable to immediately reply.
But then...
"... ?"
A new red dot appeared at the base of the wireframe representation of the building.
It was the same type of warning that had flashed when they had broken into Frenda's room. It indicated something was wrong, so something had to be happening there.
Kamijou reached his index finger toward the flat-panel touchscreen.
And when he touched the flashing dot, the screen displayed...
Part 14
Perhaps due to the difference in air pressure when the door slid open, a dully violent gust of wind washed over the St. Germains as they walked into the Dianoid's basement.
This group had not gone with Aihana Etsu and they had a clear goal.
"Academy City's ideas are always so shocking. I have my own ideas on the control of carbon, but this is a gene I lack."
They were all St. Germain and they would all think the same thing when they saw this, but it was part of his personality to speak it aloud in a theatrical manner.
Some were old, some were young, some were men, and some were women.
A middle-aged male St. Germain spoke for all of them.
"The Dianoid. Yes, the Dianoid. This setup certainly is grand enough to warrant such a name."
The panel at his feet was as clear as glass.
As the Dianoid was entirely made of carbon materials, it likely had properties similar to diamond.
What lay at his feet was the secret hidden in District 15's greatest landmark.
Yes.
At the base of the Dianoid, the 120 thousand ton building floated ten centimeters off the surface of the earth.
One way to protect buildings from earthquakes was to float them a few centimeters off the ground with the power of air. That would protect them from the tremors.
But that only applied to normal houses.
It was impossible to lift up a seventy story building and keep it standing without it losing balance.
Normally, that is.
"A graviton-style artificial gravity control device, hm?" St. Germain smiled."Diamonds are slowly formed when carbon molecules are compressed deep underground. To put it another way, artificial diamonds require mankind to reproduce that extreme high pressure environment.... But on this level, it goes beyond a mere laboratory. This can probably produce diamonds like candy in a factory."
And....
This secret usage of the Dianoid could do more than reliably mass-produce artificial diamonds.
For example...
"A black hole bomb... well, maybe not that much. A dwarf star bomb is probably the most they can manage."
Rumors filled the underside of the city that a new type of bomb was hidden in the Dianoid. Anyone who was familiar with the name Frenda Seivelun had assumed that secret was related to her, but...
"You could say it is like compressing the earth and the moon down to the size of a fist. Matter produces heat when compressed, so I suppose this would create temperatures in the range of ten to twenty thousand degrees. That should be enough to take care of even Imagine Breaker."
St. Germain had no grudge against the individual named Kamijou Touma.
In fact, he had no real interest in him.
From the very beginning, he had not been looking at either Aihana Etsu or Kamijou Touma.
"Are you watching, Magic Gods?"
He laughed.
He was neither a magician nor a Magic God. He alone formed an entirely new category.
And he seemed to be challenging someone.
"The sword once chose who would be king and I acquired Aihana Etsu with the shield, but you will acquire no one. Your precious toy will die here. So what will you do as Magic Gods? Is this any time to be mocking Aleister without a care in the world?"
At that moment, a soft chime sounded to say the elevator had arrived.
All of the St. Germains turned toward it.
When they saw the boy who stepped out, their expressions softened.
They looked to their small king holding the golden shield.
"Hi, my king. I was waiting for you."
Aihana Etsu's eyes looked somehow dark and sluggish.
He looked more like roughly worn down metal than a carefully sharpened blade.
With his expression still rough, the boy slowly opened his lips.
And he spoke.
"Where is this?"
"The final stage."
The blonde St. Germain standing next to him took over.
"No matter what anyone says, that rescue-obsessed idiot will notice the change and come running. You need only wait here, king. Frenda's legacy will invite in her enemy."
"That simply?"
"That simplicity is what makes the world so baffling. It makes it all the more strange that he did not show up in time for Frenda Seivelun."
"..."
Aihana Etsu took a deep breath while he listened.
Why had Kamijou Touma not arrived in time for Frenda Seivelun?
If possible, he wanted to ask that.
But he also needed to ask himself the same thing.
(Why didn't I arrive in time?)
Part 15
Kinuhata Saiai confronted twenty St. Germains.
Altogether, her opponents could wield two thousand spears at once and they attacked unendingly from every direction around her.
That said, her expression was not grim.
Her Offense Armor surrounded her with a barrier of compressed nitrogen several centimeters thick. At full power, it provided enough defensive power to deflect a sniper bullet. Used offensively, she could lift up a car in one hand.
So even if she was receiving two thousand attacks at once, they could not break her Offense Armor as long as each individual one's destructive power was below a certain level.
She knew what she had to worry about.
(Receiving super damage at the same spot over and over again. Even if it's only a few centimeters, I need to super shift the spot being hit or they might break through. )
Because she could survive those attacks, she had quickly managed to learn how St. Germain attacked.
(I thought that ability to open holes in people's flesh was super dangerous, but... )
She focused on the spears deflected by her Offense Armor.
Before long, something came into view.
(Basically, thin hair-like points extend fifty to one hundred centimeters from what looks like the tip of the spears. And anything they super touch has a tunnel opened for the actual spear to pass through. That's all it is. )
A rumbling burst out.
Even against twenty St. Germains, she had no real reason to stay on the defensive. She could stop the spears, so she could also approach and hit them with her nitrogen fist.
Fortunately, she was able to knock out the people who had been transformed into St. Germain. If they had continued to get back up, she would have had to break their arms and legs or even kill them.
Also, another hand reached in to grab and crush the countless spears shooting toward Kinuhata like bullets.
That hand belonged to Mugino Shizuri.
She had a simple means of defense. Her mechanical eye would track the spears' movements and her weaponized prosthetic hand would swing up with superhuman speed. With a sound like a sewing machine, she grabbed and broke each and every approaching spear.
It was simple to describe, but it made for a threatening visual when done fast enough and often enough to form afterimages.
The sewing machine roared on and the crumbling spears seemed to form a solid wall in front of them.
"Tch. What a pain in the ass. Can't we cut down their numbers a little?"
"Watch your language. And don't forget that the people on the front lines here might be from the super 'innocent' side of things."
"But if they are..."
"Yeah, I'll admit there are some things that super don't add up about all this."
As a user of nitrogen, it quickly came to her what St. Germain used: the element of carbon. All they were actually doing was transforming the Dianoid's walls and floor into projectile-like spears and launching them.
That would be more than enough of a threat to a normal person, but it seemed lacking and too superficial.
If they truly could directly manipulate carbon, they should have had a much wider array of attack methods.
"Did they forget to train each individual unit because they saw them as super expendable?"
"Winning isn't their objective, but what are they buying time for? Damn, this pisses me off!!"
As the girls wore down their numbers, the downpour of attacks suddenly stopped.
The St. Germains were gone.
"We only took out about half of them, right?"
"Looks like the rest of them fell super back."
Bloody boys and girls were collapsed on the floor, but not due to anything Mugino or Kinuhata had done. If those girls had tried to harm them, they would have had a hard time not turning them into mincemeat.
The blood looked like it was coming from internal wounds more than from external ones.
"So did we only take out the defective ones? To hell with them. They know how to take advantage of us."
Mugino had mentioned the possibility of them buying time for something, so had they finished their preparations for whatever it was?
"Ah, " said Takitsubo Rikou.
As her eyes had wandered aimlessly, they had spotted one of the decorative flat-screen monitors.
It displayed a diagram of the Dianoid.
There was a red dot at the very bottom level and specialized shorthand symbols provided some kind of additional information. A normal student would have had no idea what it meant, but Mugino and Kinuhata wrinkled their brows in annoyance when they saw the string of letters.
"What do you think?"
"A graviton-style base isolation structure? Seriously? If someone misused that, they could compress the entire planet to the size of a fist."
More importantly, it was obvious why someone would have purposefully let this information get out.
"Come and get me if you can, hm?"
"I super don't know if this is intended for us, but I can't think of any reason why we can't crash the party."
The bottom level of the Dianoid was taken up by the base isolation structure using a graviton-style artificial gravity control device. The floor resembled thick glass and it floated a few centimeters off the ground.
Aihana Etsu leaned his small back against one of the pillars placed evenly along the large flat surface.
No, it was someone who was only using that name.
A former king had vanished and been forgotten, but Anne's test remained as it had not been destroyed or lost in the legend. This boy was the one who had overcome that test.
The bearer of the golden shield spoke to the female St. Germain standing next to him.
"Weren't you disappointed when you learned the answer you had been searching so long for was a liar who had to fake his identity to not be turned away at the entrance?"
"Hah! Gaps and impurities cause a diamond to shine all the brighter. Do you really think I would be disappointed in the one and only answer after spreading constant deceit for thousands of years? This just means that the truth I spent so much time searching for truly does exist. How could that be a bad thing?"
"I'm not like you. You had real power, so don't you regret this?"
"If I had truly gone along with what the ostentatious nobles said, not even the contents of a treasure island would be enough and I see no meaning in going along with them. More importantly, if anyone wishes to speak, they can speak. That suits those people who use their own filter to only see the reality they wish to see, no matter how much evidence is piled up before them. Heh heh. But those are exactly the ones who beg for the art of immortality or time travel once they age and stand on the verge of death."
"..."
"More importantly, have you forgotten, my king of the shield? Your value – your positive gap – is something at the level of once every two thousand years. To hide it, you were sent to Academy City where your talent would never be used and your Curriculum was handled with placebos and the kind of acting you would find at a school play."
The user of the shield still did not understand.
St. Germain repeated again and again that he had been chosen by Anne's Shield and that the shield's power was his power.
Anne's Shield could shoot down everything. No matter who he raised it against, a tiny power was guaranteed to tear through them.
This symbol of defensive force could put holes in two million foreheads in an instant.
Aihana Etsu stared into the distance while dragging around the shield of unknown material.
He looked to the stairs, the ducts, the maintenance ladders, and the elevator.
There were several entrances to the lowest level.
As he imagined who would be arriving through them, negative emotions swirled inside him.
"I see there is no need to say it all. Your job is to target Kamijou Touma. That is your greatest desire and Frenda's final request. I will eliminate all unnecessary obstacles along the way, so you take the path of the king."
For just an instant, the familiar face of his friend appeared in the back of his mind.
He felt like she was saying something, but her voice no longer came to him.
He tried reading her lips but could not convert it into words.
He sealed it all away and faced forward.
He then slammed the bottom of the golden shield into the floor.
"Let's begin."
A girl in a pink track suit, Takitsubo Rikou, turned her back on the intense fighting and crouched down.
However, she was not trembling in fear after losing her will to fight.
She picked up a small object she had found running along the floor.
"What is this?"
"Whoa!? I was found... and caught!? Kh. Release me, human!!"
"?"
Takitsubo tilted her head with a fifteen centimeter doll(?) in her hands. It was wearing something like a Halloween costume cut down to the bare minimums and it may have been given gyroscopes and an autonomous control program because it moved around quite nimbly.
Meanwhile, Stephanie had left her destroyed Power Lifter and she looked back and forth at both the intense battle and Takitsubo. Time seemed to run at different speeds between those two fields.
"Oh, honestly! What is going on!? But since they've drawn the focus towards themselves, we need to go hide. We aren't any help in a fight, so staying here only restricts their freedom."
Several metallic sounds accompanied Stephanie's voice.
Takitsubo turned toward the blonde woman while still holding the struggling doll(?).
"What are you doing?"
"Putting together a PDW. I'm dismantling some Power Lifter components and putting them back together here. Owning a completed gun is illegal, but only having the different parts is rumored to be more of a gray zone. Not that it's actually that simple!"
Even though she called it a PDW, it did not actually fire bullets using gunpowder. It apparently used pressurized gas to fire mock bullets made of tungsten steel. However, it still had enough firepower to fill a flesh-and-blood body with holes when fired from within twenty or thirty meters.
(It seems wrong that a toy is more complex than an actual gun. )
Suddenly, the doll(?) that Takitsubo held made its move.
It bit her finger, slipped away when she flinched, and landed on the floor. It then ran down the corridor and around a corner.
The track suit girl began to pursue and Stephanie decided this was better than forcibly guiding the girl to cover.
But Takitsubo lost sight of the doll(?) after turning the corner.
Nothing was moving in the polished corridor that looked like it was made of wood.
"?"
She tilted her head with a blank look in her eyes.
The girl did not notice the small duct cover sitting open near the floor on the wall.
Fifteen centimeter Othinus did not even have to duck as she ran full speed through the unlit tunnel of the duct.
(Honestly, this is no time to be doing this. )
She still had not managed to meet up with Kamijou Touma after he drew multiple St. Germains away from her. And now the various flat-screen monitors hinted at a gravity bomb on the lowest level. Given the situation, it was safe to assume this was the work of St. Germain and not some newcomer. She did not know how the situation had taken this turn, but it was clearly meant to lure Kamijou in.
Which meant...
(I can find him on the lowest level. Still, that isn't enough. St. Germain is a special kind of magician and not a Magic God. He's a synchronized and parallelized crystal. As a parallel processing network that doesn't rely on brainwaves, he can expand into anyone else regardless of their individual genetic code. I need to contact that grimoire library and work to explain his magic. The properties of a 99. 9% pure diamond are determined by the less than 0. 1% of impurities. For him, that would be a controller or settings file. We need to find that. )
While rationally putting together a plan, she jumped into a pit inside the duct.
Climbing up or down was not easy with her small body, but giving into gravity and sliding down was not difficult at all.
Given the condition when they had parted, Index would be in the shopping area of the lower level.
(But the question is what floor of the lower level she's on. There are at least twenty floors there. I just hope she has enough sense to stay put and wait for us where we left her. )
But as Othinus slid down to the lower level, a giant form shot out from the side where the duct had intersected with another duct.
"O-ohhhhhhhh!?"
She cried out, but the beast showed no mercy.
After a deafening crash and a mewing roar, Othinus was carried out of the duct like a stolen fish.
She groaned and hung limply in the bright light.
"Y-you again? I can't stand this.... D-do – cough – d-do cats have no reverence for gods?"
"Bad Sphinx!! If you chew her up, I'll be mad at you!"
A white nun shouted from nearby, but the cat ignored Index and happily presented the "prize" at her feet.
"P-pant, pant... M-more importantly, we need to get to the Dianoid's lowest level. Now that St. Germain is luring him in, Kamijou Touma is almost guaranteed to go there. His fist may be strong, but that will lead to death if we don't understand his opponent. It would be best if we could determine how St. Germain's non-brainwave thought network works. All I know is it's based on a crystalline structure that grows by repeatedly synchronizing and parallelizing."
Kamijou and Hamazura faced the intercom-like device on the wall of Frenda's secret base.
The alert about the lowest level had been special information for the upper level apartments, but...
"I hope that was enough to inform the others."
"It'll get through to anyone who understands that strange alphabet abbreviation, so that's at least Takitsubo and Mugino."
"I have my doubts about Index, but Othinus should manage."
"But, " muttered Hamazura from the Power Lifter."The gravity bomb data was sent to all the upper level apartments, right? Shouldn't that have caused a panic earlier than this?"
"These are almost all used as storehouses for the rich. There probably wasn't a single actual 'resident' here."
Kamijou took a step away from the flat-panel screen.
"We did what we could, so let's get going."
"But a gravity bomb is way too far outside my area of expertise! I wouldn't even know where to begin!"
"No, Aihana Etsu is our top priority. That hasn't changed."
"Wait a second."
Hamazura frowned and asked the question on his mind.
"The Dianoid's foundation floats a few centimeters off the ground for base isolation, right? And those St. Germain people have taken control of the artificial gravity control device that makes it possible. Can't that crush the earth to the size of a fist if it goes out of control!? Then it's obvious what they're really after here! Aihana Etsu was just a decoy!!"
"Are you sure?" asked Kamijou."He made for a lousy one if that was the intent. If it wasn't for him, we would never have visited this room. Without him, there's no way we would've seen the security alert sent to the high-class apartments. That's completely backwards. If the black hole bomb or white dwarf bomb or whatever was St. Germain's real goal, he never would have left this alert here for us to see. And he would have made sure we never came into contact with Aihana."
"Wait, wait, wait."
Hamazura cut off Kamijou and gently spread his steel hands, as if creating a wall with his gesture.
"That doesn't add up. If he was really after Aihana, St. Germain still would never have let us in here. If all he wanted to do was convince Aihana to act, it would've been best to keep Frenda's secret a mystery and use the suspicion to fill Aihana with desire for revenge. Since St. Germain didn't stop us from seeing this, it means he isn't after Aihana or the bomb."
"That's right." Unbelievably, Kamijou immediately agreed."It's finally coming together. St. Germain's objective isn't Aihana Etsu or the gravity bomb. He's looking at something else entirely."
"... What?"
"Thinking back, his very first attack was strange. He was after Aihana? He was after the shield? That's why he stopped attacking me and focused on those things? Yeah, right. If he could have killed me at any time, he could have just finished me off and then focused on Aihana. But he didn't. There was something else there that forced him to leave. Then again, I bet even that's only a side issue for him."
"There's still more!? Like what!?"
"You don't want to know." Kamijou moved the conversation along."At any rate, we need to stop St. Germain as soon as possible! And for that, we have to start with Aihana Etsu. From the outside, it's impossible to tell if St. Germain has a leader or a hierarchy, but based on what's happened, he's been concentrating himself around Aihana. If we're going to find out more about St. Germain, the unit closest to Aihana would be best!!"
Hamazura tried to think through it all, but his understanding was reaching its saturation point.
Regardless, Kamijou did not stop.
That may have had something to do with how often he had dealt with magic in the past.
"Listen, the St. Germains have shown no sign of communicating by phone or radio. We've seen dozens, but there may be over a hundred in the building and their minds are all linked. My guess is they're using some kind of telepathy magic. I don't know if it's complex enough to create one large will, but if so, this system is even more convenient than the Misaka Network since it isn't bound by brainwaves!!"
"Wait, wait, wait!! I know you've seen a lot, but please keep it at a level I can understand!!"
"It means it doesn't matter what St. Germain we attack!" shouted back Kamijou."They're all the center and they're all the terminals. It sounds like an infinitely reproducing system with an endless supply of replacements, but it probably isn't. You could say they're all computers. No matter where a virus enters the network, all of the computers will be infected! We can't let ourselves be distracted by their numbers. We have to focus as much as we can on just one of them!!"
"A virus? Can you be more specific!?"
"I may sound like I know what I'm talking about, but I'm an amateur too, " admitted Kamijou without letting it bother him.
He no longer insisted on fighting alone. He would use everything available to him.
That was the path he chose.
"But I know a nun who knows a ton about interfering with magicians like this. If we add some knowledge on Magic Gods into the mix, it'll be perfect.... Yes. That's right. Original grimoires infect people's brains. She has 103, 000 grimoires in her head, so she might be able put together a specialized method of dealing with that kind of thing!!"
"You're not making any sense again. But anyway, Aihana Etsu and St. Germain are waiting on the lowest level, right? That's all I need to know right now!"
"Right." Kamijou slowly breathed out and spoke."I'll do something about Aihana Etsu. And once I do, the St. Germains are sure to focus on me. I said to grab Aihana with that Power Lifter when he comes back to his senses, but scratch that. I'll take care of that too, so you deal with the gravity bomb instead. You're good with machines, right? Unfortunately, I'm a complete amateur with that. If I had that job, I'd definitely get us all blown up."
"Are you still saying that? There's no point in going along with Aihana Etsu's revenge."
"Unfortunately, we don't have time to explain everything to him. But no matter the situation, we can't just let him die. And is this any time to be worrying about me? You're going to have to prepare yourself for the worst too."
"..."
"Hamazura?"
"... Sorry."
At first, Kamijou did not know why Hamazura was apologizing.
But a moment later, the Power Lifter's giant palm approached and shoved the boy backwards.
"Gah!!"
Kamijou's back struck the tatatami mats and knocked the breath out of him, but he soon realized he had more to worry about.
Hamazura had already stepped outside of the large living room.
The room's sliding screen forcefully shut, but it was not a normal one made of Japanese paper and a wooden frame. Its cutting-edge carbon materials could easily stop a handgun bullet.
"What the hell are you doing, Hamazura!?"
He quickly got up and grabbed the screen, but it would not budge. It seemed to have been jammed shut in some way. He rethought his strategy and kicked it with the bottom of his foot, but it was no use.
He heard a muffled voice on the other side.
"Aihana Etsu's revenge just doesn't make sense. I don't care if it's part of your strategy; it's wrong for you to be attacked for that."
"What!? Don't you know this isn't the time for this!?"
"But it is, " said Hamazura."Ha ha. Oh, I get it. I guess you wouldn't know since you weren't there then."
"?"
"Do you know the name of the guy who was there when Frenda Seivelun died?"
"..."
It couldn't be.
A very bad feeling entered the back of Kamijou Touma's mind.
Hamazura Shiage gave the answer regardless.
"It was me. Frenda died because I didn't get there in time."
"Dammit, " spat out Kamijou.
His own plan was wrapping the noose around someone else's neck.
He finally grasped the situation.
"So if we're going to divide up the work here, it makes more sense for me to deal with Aihana Etsu's revenge."
"Wait, Hamazura..."
"I'll draw the attention of Aihana and St. Germain, so you do something about the gravity bomb. If you can't do it yourself, just get help from someone who knows about that kind of thing. Make sure you do something about it, okay?"
"Wait!! I didn't put together that plan to have you do this!!"
"Hah."
The voice beyond the screen grew quieter.
No, more distant.
"Then this is a good chance for you to see how it feels for the one being protected."
That was all.
The sound completely vanished.
Hamazura Shiage had taken the Power Lifter out of the high-class apartment. He was on his way to Aihana Etsu who had a magic shield and the countless St. Germains who served him.
"Goddammit!!"
Left alone, Kamijou yelled and kicked the carbon screen a few more times, but it showed no sign of breaking.
He then searched around the room again.
"Wait."
His eyes stopped on one point.
What he saw would not help him escape the room, but he hesitantly reached for the object placed within a pile of birthday presents.
He may have made a fundamental misunderstanding.
There may have been a way to settle things with Aihana Etsu without sitting there and taking the boy's punches.
And if so...
"I can't let you do this."
Kamijou made his way to the kitchen connected to the living room and his eyes stopped on the kind of cart used to carry food in large mansions. He placed a few heavy items on it and tied them on with power cables to increase the cart's weight.
"Letting Aihana die is out of the question, but it's meaningless if you die instead, Hamazura!"
He returned to the living room.
He set his aim on the carbon screen, took a ten step running start and crashed the cart into the screen.
The screen was knocked backwards as if by a battering ram.
He continued out of the room and into the long hallway.
Hamazura was already nowhere to be seen.
He quickly ran to the elevator hall. As before, just one of the elevator doors was broken.
Aihana Etsu and St. Germain were on the lowest level. They were all the way at the bottom. Unless he had a very strange way of thinking, Hamazura would have gone straight down there with the Power Lifter.
Kamijou peered into the abyss.
He could not see the bottom of the dark elevator shaft, so it looked like a gaping maw.
Even with steel arms, there was no guaranteeing one's survival.
Doing it with flesh-and-blood limbs was even worse, so...
(This is going to be risky. )
Kamijou gulped and quickly removed his jacket. He wrapped it around his hand like when training a police dog and grabbed the wire that was slippery with machine oil.
He ignored his animal instincts and jumped out into the elevator shaft.
Mugino Shizuri's Meltdowner beam burned away the door from the stairs.
The #4 girl then spoke to Takitsubo and Kinuhata.
"The hell is that? Is that donut near the ceiling the gravity device?"
"If Frenda secretly messed with it, it could easily be a gravity bomb. What do you super think?"
"Nothing would surprise me with her. She was the type to wash the blood from her hands and head right into a fancy shop with a smile on her face. Talking about good and evil is pointless with her."
Takitsubo Rikou asked a question while her gaze wandered.
"What should we do?"
"It's that obvious?" readily replied Mugino."Let's deal with this and get back home."
Guided by fifteen centimeter Othinus, Index held the calico cat and crawled through a narrow duct.
The two girls opened the duct cover and looked to the many St. Germains and the boy at the center.
Specifically, they looked to the golden shield in his small hands.
"Hey, can you tell what that is?"
"Queen Anne's Shield. A legend to match the one of acquiring the sword."
"But it isn't supposed to exist. That king didn't have a twin sister."
To begin with, the legend of the sword had been created when a man who was both a knight and an author gathered various stories of knights scattered across Western Europe and arranged them into a single story. That created a fair number of discrepancies in the same legend and some information had been shoved aside in the process of arranging it all into the one story.
Queen Anne's existence was nothing more than one of those neglected pieces of information.
There was no evidence of someone like that existing.
In fact, if one investigated the driving force behind the telling of the story, it was nothing more than what would be the most exciting. During the legend of the king, he was said to have let go of Excalibur and used a different sword instead, but Queen Anne's existence was even stranger than that. Searching through the old texts and parting the underbrush would show that her name does appear, but some researchers said her name was "An" instead of "Anne". And in Old English, "an" was used in place of "if", so it was even said to be an allusion or joking reference to "the story of that which does not exist" which had been taken seriously when the stories were compiled and then transformed into an actual name.
A counterpart to the sword had now appeared as possible proof of her existence, but Index gave a calm answer.
"I think this is a 'logical reversal'."
There were some things that anyone could picture in their minds and that they would recognize if someone showed it to them, yet a careful examination would show that there was no clear legend or myth behind it.
For example, a continent that sank to the bottom of the Atlantic.
For example, a magical sword that was used against the shogunate.
For example, the red thread connecting the pinkies of lovers.
I read it in that book. I heard it from that person. There were apparent sources, but a more thorough inspection would run into a dead end. Perhaps they had no objective proof in the form of records because it was spread orally, perhaps there had been records on stone slates or frescos that were lost as time passed, and perhaps the author's personal opinions had slipped in during the process of compiling the records.
And as the legends spread from person to person, gaining credibility as it did so, they would create something with a rich history and yet which never actually existed.
They would grow into something like heaven or hell that no one had ever seen and yet everyone had a common image of.
One of those logical reversals was Queen Anne's Shield.
Index and Othinus had never seen it since it was a nonexistent legend, but they were able to decide this was it at a glance.
"It's easy to give a physical history to something with a great presence. You just have to create the evidence yourself. It's just like drawing a new treasure map on top of ancient parchment to gain sponsors to dig for buried treasure."
"So the shield was made by St. Germain? That does sound like something a liar would do."
"But even if it's a fake, magic is still magic. If an Academy City esper uses that..."
"The side effects will tear his body to pieces. If that's part of St. Germain's plan against Kamijou Touma, it's obvious what he wants. He's trying to rip apart Kamijou Touma's heart using the death of a failed opponent."
Aihana Etsu slowly narrowed his eyes and dragged the golden shield.
In his memories, "someone" was smiling.
Even after his friend's death, he had relied on her words to make it this far, but he could no longer see the details.
Bit by bit, the vision in his head was destroyed like a photo in the flames.
The knowledge of Frenda Seivelun's death had likely done more than confirm her death.
In that instant, Aihana Etsu's heart had died as well.
With only his physical body left, he no longer trembled in pain or fear.
He did not care if he was going to die here.
If he did survive, he would continue fighting until he finally died.
The elevator door was loudly broken down by a great force.
The person who stepped out was not Kamijou Touma. It was someone Aihana Etsu had never expected. In fact, he did not even know who it was. He had technically seen the boy in the Dianoid's parking garage, but he had already forgotten that.
And so he let out a low voice.
"You aren't the one I called for."
"Even if I'm the one who let Frenda Seivelun die?"
"..."
A creaking sound came from the golden shield's handle as he squeezed it.
Hamazura remained aboard the Power Lifter and he slammed its steel fists together.
"I know the general situation, but it makes no sense for you to attack Kamijou Touma. If you want to take revenge for Frenda, there's someone a lot more suitable."
"Who were you to her?"
"Item, " concisely answered Hamazura."It was a very small framework. I may have only been the underling there, but I was still a part of Item. It was my job to support her, so it's my job to stop anyone from dying in her name."
Instead of Aihana Etsu, it was the St. Germains who reacted.
But before the countless Chambord spears could show themselves, Aihana Etsu spoke.
"You don't have to, St. Germain."
"But, my king."
"This is my job. If what he's saying is true, then it matters that I do the fighting."
The corners of Hamazura's mouth relaxed a bit when he heard that.
Aihana Etsu and Kamijou Touma would not clash. The scenario St. Germain wanted would not come to pass and it was obvious St. Germain was panicking a little.
(But this might not satisfy him. Just like serving ramen to someone craving gyudon, he might still feel hungry afterwards. )
He remembered the time just after the charismatic Skill Out leader Komaba Ritoku had died. To protect themselves, they had taken on some dirtier jobs and tried to kill an innocent adult.
He had not used any of his imagination and simply swung around murderous tools like some kind of monkey.
(But this will teach you how bad violence feels. You'll learn that tingling in your fingertips after you stab someone or split their head open. You can only wield that weapon so innocently because you don't know how disgusting a thing it is. So I'll teach you that. )
There were people who grew bolder when they held a deadly weapon. Some would grow intoxicated on the destructive power and destroy themselves.
But Hamazura doubted Aihana Etsu was that kind of person.
He gave the reason in his heart.
(When you learned of Frenda Seivelun's death, you learned just how unreasonable death is. )
Aihana Etsu would apparently be injured all over if he used the shield, but Hamazura was not going to look after him that much. They were both risking death here and Hamazura Shiage was not as benevolent as Kamijou Touma.
So...
"C'mon then." He raised the Power Lifter's arms in a martial arts stance."I'm sick of people like Silver Cross and Kuroyoru digging back up this same crap over and over again! When someone tried to take revenge on you in the Edo period, it was apparently not considered a crime if you killed them. You have one chance. That's as much as I'm willing to give you!! So let's do this, Aihana Etsu!!"
"Fine then."
Just once, Aihana Etsu struck the transparent floor with the bottom of the golden shield.
"Then I'll kill you first. Afterwards, I'll kill Kamijou Touma too. And once all of the insane filters have been removed, I'll search out and kill all of the perpetrators and criminals. I'll do what that girl can't anymore."
Aihana Etsu felt something stabbing into his own heart with each word he spoke. Each time, the crumbling remains of his memories would break away a little more.
Revenge was not an act of harming your opponent.
He belatedly realized it was an act of dirtying your own hands, showing contempt for yourself, and killing yourself.
But even as he realized that, he could no longer stop.
After all, what else was he supposed to do?
The friend he had been searching for was long dead, there was no way of saving her, and the crybaby's convenient dream of never giving up on his precious friend had been smashed into a million pieces.
So what was he supposed to do?
His dream was gone, his hope was destroyed, and his ideals were lost.
Should he curl up and give up like a crybaby once more? Should he shout that there was nothing he could do and decide the realistic, efficient, and logical thing to do was to not lift a finger and to hit the reset button? Should he throw Frenda Seivelun's existence into the trash and continue on towards tomorrow?
No.
He could not bear to do that.
He did not want to abandon his friend. He did not care if he was being stubborn or patronizing. He wanted to continue trying to do something for her. It did not matter if this was not realistic, efficient, or logical. He did not want to throw her into the trash and he did not want to forget her and move on.
So kill your heart.
Scrape off all the excess fat and leave only the bones.
Become a machine made to take revenge.
"I'll start with you, " he said with the golden shield at the ready.
He felt his body temperature gradually lowering as he continued speaking.
"You can tell me what you had to do with her death while I crush you."
Their gazes met.
It no longer mattered that this was not Kamijou Touma or Mugino Shizuri.
He had not overcome his shortcomings.
In the end, he was still Aihana Etsu. He was still a pathetic person who could not stand tall without relying on a fake ID.
This was just the opposite extreme.
He had taken on too many negative feelings and his emotions had numbed over.
And he did not care if that was the case.
He only cared about fighting back.
Activating the shield and killing Hamazura Shiage would be worth 100 points. But even if the shield refused to activate, he could still knock him down with his own hands and choke the life out of him. What did it matter if his own arm was broken or eyes were crushed in the process? In the worst case, he would not be able to do anything and only add to the pile of corpses. As long as he could avoid that, nothing else mattered.
Revenge was an act of tearing at your own flesh, not your enemy's.
It was an act of killing yourself through your enemy.
(Yes. )
Aihana Etsu felt like he was gradually seeing the truth of his own being.
(I guess nothing St. Germain said really mattered. It doesn't matter if this shield is real or if I'm special. )
He could feel his scattered thoughts gathering on a single point.
They were turning toward a clear goal that was also a dead-end.
(Maybe I just couldn't bear to live in a world without my friend. )
So he had wanted to leave.
He had wanted to vanish to some other place like cutting the string to a balloon.
(But I'll leave my mark somehow or other. )
He tore through the wind with his shoulder, walked on his own two feet, and directly approached Hamazura Shiage.
He intentionally moved within range of the Power Lifter.
(I have to do at least one thing for her!! I have to do at least one thing she wanted!! And I'll carve the proof into this guy's body!!)
This was the preliminary battle. And it was also the lighting of a fuse that could not be stopped once it began.
His eyes coldly reflected the light like glass and he prepared to pull that final trigger.
But something happened just before he did.
Kamijou Touma climbed through the elevator shaft's broken door and approached one of the lowest level's evenly spaced pillars.
Aihana Etsu stood in front of Hamazura Shiage's Power Lifter, he held a huge golden shield, and many St. Germains waited behind him.
Was there no stopping him now?
Was there no way of stopping his desire for revenge without bloodshed?
(No. )
Kamijou reached a silent conclusion.
(He'll stop. If he's truly doing this for his friend, he'll stop. )
Kamijou held a single trump card in his hand.
If Aihana Etsu came back to his senses, it would bring an end to St. Germain's puppet show. The St. Germains would certainly try to dispose of the boy once their plan fell apart and Kamijou doubted he could endure their attacks from all directions with only Imagine Breaker.
(So I need you. )
Kamijou stared at Hamazura's back from behind the pillar.
(Don't die yet. I need you so we can all return from this with smiles on our faces!!)
While checking on the focus of their gazes, he moved from pillar to pillar.
Little by little, he approached the center of the disturbance. There were more than fifty St. Germains here, but they only had their human senses at their disposal. They did not have eyes on the backs of their heads and they could not scan the entire area with microwaves or ultrasonic waves.
All of the St. Germains were watching Aihana Etsu's movements, so they would not spot Kamijou as long as he did not draw any attention to himself.
(I know someone who truly gave himself over to revenge, Aihana Etsu. )
He had met that person in snowy Baggage City. He had gone by two names: Kihara Kagun and Bersi. He had swallowed up both enemy and ally and he had left this earth after perfectly carrying out his revenge.
If someone had asked him if he had been happy with the result, he would have definitely said he was satisfied.
But Kamijou would have given a different answer if asked if he approved of what had happened.
It did not matter if that had been the most correct decision in the world.
It did not matter if everyone involved had accepted it or if digging it back up now was unnecessary.
Despite all that, he knew he could not walk that same path.
If he saw someone falling in that direction, he would not push them on their way. He would grab their hand.
(I won't let you end up like that. )
He snuck within a few meters of the surrounding St. Germains and thought quietly.
He had a reason to make this approach despite the risk to himself.
(A desire for revenge is best removed before it has a chance to settle in. It's most frightening when it surpasses emotions and becomes normal. After it shifts to a quieter burn, they can never relax without that desire. )
He checked what he held in his hand.
It may have had no meaning to the other six or seven billion people, but it was probably the final key to this situation.
(So I won't let you end up like that. )
He clenched his teeth and continued along a path that bordered death.
(I won't let you use revenge as an excuse. You don't have to want my help and I know this is just me being selfish, but I still won't let you degrade what you care about most by using it as a blood-soaked indulgence!! So remember, Aihana Etsu. Remember the very first feelings you held in your heart before ever using that name!!)
And then Kamijou Touma took the final action.
Something slid along the floor.
The surrounding St. Germains noticed, but Aihana Etsu held out his hand and stopped them before the sharp Chambords could tear it to pieces.
The boy had seen it.
It could not have cost more than three thousand yen, but to him, it was something he could not overlook even if he had to weigh it against the entire blue planet.
It was a ten centimeter box wrapped in pale green paper and red ribbon.
The ribbon crossed on the top to hold a card in place. It must have had a cheap electronic music player inside because it played a dull birthday melody.
It was probably part of a message service.
And the voice of the sender accompanied the melody.
It was a certain girl's voice.
"Happy birthday to you!! Hey, hey, hey. In the end, it's a surprise present for you, Kanou-chan!!"
"..."
Aihana Etsu... no, the boy who had only been using that name felt something in the back of his mind.
The unrecognizable remnants of something like a burnt photo were restored all at once.
There may have been no real meaning in it.
It did not change the fact that the girl was already dead, it overturned none of his assumptions, and immersing himself in old memories may have been no different from writhing in bed with an imaginary partner.
But...
"Nee hee hee. You're the type who forgets his own birthday, aren't you? But! Don't underestimate Miss Frenda's communication skills! I researched what you wanted long ago! Now, now. Open the box and tremble at how scarily on target I was. Gah hah hah!!"
Aihana Etsu had decided revenge was an act of scraping away the excess fat from yourself rather than an act of harming your enemy.
That "excess fat" would become a weight that trapped more and more people in the desire for revenge.
The boy seemed to be dragged back to being human instead of a revenge-taking machine.
He stopped.
He sank.
He drowned.
A warmth he thought he had already lost forced the gears in his mind to reverse. The gears were destroyed one by one and it all fell apart.
A memory returned to him.
He recalled someone from a time before he had used the name of Academy City's #6.
"In the end, you insult yourself and call yourself a crybaby, but it's not going to end that way. I'm not some kind of benevolent person, you know? I'm not trying to get along with all six billion people out there. You're one of the friends I, the great Frenda, chose and approved of! I think that's something you can be proud of!!"
Time stopped.
Aihana Etsu stopped moving.
Something was directly driven into the small boy's heart.
This was not like St. Germain who spoke about the world while pretending he knew what he was talking about.
This was the real thing.
These were the words of the friend he had pursued for so long.
"Your tears are like a safety lock from your common sense. They'll make sure you don't stray from the proper path no matter how unreasonable the obstacle. That's something I don't have, so I respect you for having something I could never reach! There are so, so, so many people that will end up doing awful things so easily, but your strength will never allow that. So be proud. In the end, you can be proud of having the strength to cry and forgive anything!!"
"Oh..."
A heavy sound shook the room as the golden shield slipped from the boy's hands and fell to the floor.
He no longer needed Anne's Shield.
He did not need to rely on a legend to stand on his own two feet.
He used his freed hands to cover his face.
"I remember now, St. Germain."
He was not one of the Academy City's Level 5s.
He was not someone who created a great legend just like the person who had once been chosen by a sword.
But what did that matter?
This boy had been born into this world as his own person. He could not pretend to be anyone else and he was an irreplaceable gear to this world, no matter how small and insignificant it might be. Someone had smiled his way and celebrated him. In so doing, she had proven his existence.
This was a single trait.
It was not some cheap way out. Unlike the first prize earned by following a legend or some other path someone had created to the mountaintop, he had to pave the way forward on his own. Mastering a trait of one's own was a much more difficult and challenging task than reaching some ready-made peak.
"I remember my name, St. Germain. My name is Kanou Shinka."
Even so, the devil on his shoulder continued to whisper in his ear.
But he did not care if he was called pathetic, pitiful, unsightly, or embarrassing.
He would part ways with the easily followed path and make his own way out in to the world.
He would not use St. Germain's temptation as an excuse. He would not use Frenda Seivelun's death as an indulgence. He would not rely on the reputation of the mysterious #6 or nonexistent Queen Anne.
He would stand with his own strength.
He would use his own mind to remember what it was he had truly wanted to do.
At the very least, that had not been to fabricate feelings for his silenced friend and throw fresh fuel on the fire of selfish revenge.
Frenda Seivelun had kept "something" hidden and she would not have wanted to invite this boy onto that bloody path from which one could never return. She may have put on an act in the hopes that he would remain in the realm of the sun and she may have thought of him as someone strong enough to cry and forgive anything.
If so, what path should he take?
What should he do as a resident of that sunny realm?
"So St. Germain, I can see my true enemy now. This wasn't for anyone else or because of anyone else. It was me!! I was the one that used her death and trampled her underfoot! I used her as a tool of killing!! And I won't accept you!!"
St. Germain reacted swiftly.
With an explosive sound, Chambords forcefully skewered the birthday present from below.
The wrapping and ribbons were torn and the box itself was ripped to shreds.
But the boy's expression remained unchanged and he raised his small hand.
A cheap pocket watch fell into it.
He wrapped his hand around the silver device and grabbed the fluttering card between his index and middle fingers.
Happy birthday, Kanou Shinka.
A girl who was no longer among the living had given him this celebration of life and acknowledgment of his existence. He held that proof up like a blade as he spoke.
"You're welcome, Frenda."
He shed his old skin and shattered the mask of "Aihana Etsu".
The boy became a man.
He was Kanou Shinka and no one else.
He would not waste this celebrated life and name. To struggle against the world, he faced his true enemy.
In that moment, Kamijou Touma smiled while still crouching.
In that moment, Hamazura Shiage sighed from his Power Lifter.
The two of them were thinking the same thing.
"Guess I've got no choice."
"Guess I've got no choice."
They were not old friends.
They were just one of the six billion that filled the earth.
But they knew one thing: It would be a great shame if Aihana Etsu died.
And he was no longer Aihana Etsu. He was a man who had overcome his bonds and now used the name Kanou Shinka.
So...
He had found value in stepping into that deadly place, so he did not hesitate to rush into the crowd of St. Germains.
That was when something happened.
It was just as St. Germain began to use his countless Chambord spears to dispose of Kanou Shinka now that the puppet show was over.
Kamijou and Hamazura cut in and used Imagine Breaker and the Power Lifter's arms to break through the downpour of spears. Kamijou grabbed Kanou Shinka through a slight gap, pulled him in, and then pushed him forward.
A moment later, a brilliant beam of light surged in.
It was the #4's Meltdowner.
But once he noticed it was targeting something other than the Chambords, Hamazura's eyes opened wide.
"Dammit, Mugino!! Why are you trying to kill Kanou!?"
"Eh? But his determination and change of heart has nothing to do with me. He looked like he was on the enemy's side, so I can't see any reason to go easy on him."
"This has lots to do with you!! This has more to do with you than anyone else!! I may not be one to talk, but you're the one that caused all this mess in the first plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs, but Mugino only sighed.
As someone who worked underground jobs, she dryly cut through it all. If she could not tell if someone was an enemy or an ally and if they registered as yellow instead of a clear green or red, she would incapacitate them. It could be a reading beyond a wall, a hypnotized innocent, or someone convinced by a third party to take revenge. If they were not a clear ally, a certain type of professional would view them as a target for destruction.
"So."
Mugino Shizuri produced a new ball of light from thin air and faced St. Germain.
"You're still as red as can be though, aren't you, you piece of shit?"
There was movement elsewhere as well.
"Touma!!"
"Oh, honestly. Does everyone have to head out into the open!?"
It was Index, the nun in a white habit with gold embroidery, and Stephanie, the woman with short blonde hair who was acting as the nun's bodyguard with a PDW.
Index also had fifteen centimeter Othinus on her shoulder and Takitsubo Rikou, the girl in a pink track suit, stood behind Stephanie.
Kamijou Touma said nothing and Hamazura Shiage did not cut in.
Everything the boy needed to do came from his own heart, so they left it up to him.
Kanou Shinka stood up once more and made an announcement while flanked by the two heroes.
"I'm taking it back, St. Germain."
He faced a monster whose very existence had become a sort of legend.
He opposed it as a single being and a single hero.
"I'll be taking back every last piece of my friend's pride that you trampled underfoot!!"
Between the Lines 3
That golden retriever had an armory in each of the twenty-three districts.
Kihara Noukan walked to District 23.
He arrived at an aircraft maintenance bay far larger than a school gym. The entrance looked more like a moving wall than a door as it slowly opened to the left and right. The lights inside came on automatically.
It was filled with several ejection containers and large trucks to tow them.
This was a walk-in closet to Noukan. He could choose the appropriate clothes for the occasion and head out to the dinner party with the optimum outfit. And he would use bullets instead of manners, shells instead of etiquette, laser beams instead of affection, liquid nitrogen instead of hospitality, and killer microwaves instead of respect.
The golden retriever's goal was to destroy an irregular element inside an otherwise stable world that followed the laws of physics.
Namely, magic.
And his greatest hypothetical enemy was...
"So the Magic Gods have made their move."
That said, he had no real grudge against magicians or the Magic Gods that were their ultimate form. Nor did he have any kind of heroic story in which they had taken something precious from him.
But he knew the people who had transformed him from a normal dog into what he was now. They were the ones who could be called the original Kiharas.
Not even one hundred years had passed since the category of Kiharas had taken clear form. A similar concept had likely been spread around like the roots of grass, but only recently had it been gathered together to form the Kiharas.
Even the creation of Academy City was the work of that "human" when he had used the confusion of reconstruction after an old war to arrive here, so it was not hard to imagine the concept of the Kiharas had also been created quite recently.
The original seven had been mere humans who both laughed and cried like normal people.
It had not been known what a Kihara was at the time and that had caused more suffering for them than anyone else. Even as they despaired at how completely insane and mad they had become, they had been unable to stop themselves from continuing down the path of science. That was the type of people they had been.
The one who had provided the golden retriever with his intelligence had always patted the dog's head while apologizing in human language.
As normal people, their reason had caused them to suffer, but as researchers, the reports of successful experiments had brought them joy. Their faces had always contained a complex mixture of emotions.
"If everything in the world can be explained with scientific formulae, then the world will contain nothing but resignation and despair. Doing that would be much like summoning Laplace's theoretical demon."
That was true, but had the hand rubbing his head contained a softness not found in a completed Kihara?
"But at the same time, it will mean the arrival of a kind world in which the unreasonable side of the world will eternally lose all opportunity to kill people. Now, which view is correct?"
Those original members were gone now.
They had used themselves to define what a Kihara was, summed it up in a way that anyone could understand, and then left the world behind. Even as they grew madder by the day, they had constantly fought the unreasonable side of the world using human intellect. That had led to the completed Kiharas of today.
That was why Kihara Noukan had no particular grudge against the magic side.
That was why the golden retriever had no interest in the solid yet kind world that the original members had hoped for.
"Don't worry."
Scientific knowledge may not have been able to prove the existence of heaven.
The laws of physics may not have been able to measure the weight of the soul.
But the large dog still spoke.
"Even if you have left this world, the Kiharas you left behind are still here."
The golden retriever gave an instruction in his head and the countless trucks loaded with ejection containers all gave the initial roars of ignition. A storm of headlights filled the entire scene.
A mass of metal sat there.
The collection of armor known as the Anti-Art Attachment followed Kihara Noukan's movements as he turned around.
He stared into the infinite darkness outside and carried countless lights with him as he spoke in his heart.
Focus on nothing but being a Kihara.
With that wish, he began to work for the people who had transformed a dog into a true being with a heart of his own.
| ← Ch. 135 | Ch. 137 → |