novelThe Magician Lands on the Tower. FAIR,_Occasionally_GIRL (1)
| ← Ch.001 | Ch.003 → |
Part 1
"You Aquarii born between January 20th and February 18th have the greatest luck in love, work, and money! No matter how incredibly improbable things may get, only good things will happen, so how about you go play the lottery!? But no matter how popular you may be, don't try dating three or four girls at the same time?."
"... Y'know, I knew it would be something like this, but still."
It was July 20th, the first day of summer break.
Kamijou Touma was at a loss for words in his Academy City dorm room that was ruled by a boiling heat due to a broken air conditioner. Apparently, lightning had struck during the night and had taken out 80% of the electrical appliances, meaning that the contents of his fridge had been wiped out. When he tried to eat the cup yakisoba he kept as emergency rations, he had spilled the noodles all over the sink. With no other option, he decided to eat out, but he stepped on and broke his ATM card while searching for his wallet. When he spitefully crawled back into bed to cry himself to sleep, he was woken by a love call on the phone from his homeroom teacher saying, "Kamijou-chan, you're an idiot, so you need supplementary lessons?"
He had always felt that horoscopes given on TV like weather forecasts tended to be just that, forecasts, but he was unable to laugh it off when it was that false.
"...I really do get it. But I can't fully grasp it without speaking to myself."
The horoscope was perpetually wrong and Kamijou never encountered a true good luck charm. It was simply everyday life for Kamijou Touma. He had believed that his fantastic misfortune ran in the family, but his father had won fourth prize, about 100, 000 yen, in a lottery and his mother had won a vending machine roulette again and again without end. At times he wondered whether he was not blood related to them, but he could not enter the "heir to the throne" route without activating the little sister flag, so that kind of pointless foreshadowing would actually be a problem.
To sum it up, Kamijou Touma experienced nothing but misfortune to the extent that his life could in essence be called a running gag.
But he had no intention of just lazing around because of bad luck.
Kamijou did not rely on luck. In other words, he had a lot of drive.
"...Now then. The immediate problems are my card and the fridge."
Kamijou scratched his head and looked around his room. As long as he had his bankbook, he could get a new card easily enough. The real problem was the fridge... or rather, breakfast. They called it supplementary lessons, but he was sure to be forced to take Methuselin pills and Elbrase powder for the sake of power development. Doing that on an empty stomach would not be a good idea.
As he changed out of the T-shirt he wore instead of pajamas and into his summer uniform, Kamijou considered stopping by a convenience store on the way to school. Living up to his position as an idiotic student, Kamijou had pointlessly stayed up all night as summer break approached, so a grinding pain was running through his sleep-deprived mind. However, he forced himself to think positively.
Well, I guess I'm getting off easy if a single week will wrap up everything I missed in the four months' worth of class I skipped this term, Kamijou thought.
His mood rebounded to the extent that he suddenly muttered, "The weather sure is nice. Maybe I should air out my futon."
Kamijou then opened the screen door to the balcony, where he expected the futon to be nice and fluffy once he got back from his supplementary lessons.
But on that seventh floor balcony, the wall of the neighboring building was less than two meters away.
"The sky is so blue, but my future is pitch black?"
His spirits dropped sharply. Forcing himself to say it cheerfully only had the opposite effect.
Having no one around to act as the straight man only tormented him with a feeling of loneliness and he used both hands to grab the futon on his bed.
All else fail, I at least have to get this nice and fluffy, he thought.
While thinking, he felt something soft squish under his foot and looked down to find yakisoba bread still in its plastic wrapping. It had been in the aforementioned ruined refrigerator, so it had surely gone bad.
"...I just hope it doesn't suddenly start raining this evening." Voicing a sudden bad premonition he had, Kamijou trudged out the opened screen door and to the balcony.
He spotted a white futon already hanging there.
"?"
Though it was a school dormitory, the layout was exactly like a one-room apartment so Kamijou lived alone. As such, no one besides Kamijou Touma would hang a futon over the railing of his room's balcony.
When he looked closer, he realized it was not a futon at all, but a girl wearing white clothes.
"Hahh!?"
The real futon fell from his hands.
It was a mystery. In fact, it was nonsensical. As if she had exhaustedly collapsed across a metal rod, the girl had her waist pressed up against the balcony railing and her body bent such that her arms and legs were dangling straight down.
Her age was about 14 or 15. She looked about a year or two younger than Kamijou. She must have been foreign because her skin was pure white and her hair was as well... No, silver. Her hair was rather long, so it completely covered her upside down head, hiding her face from view. Kamijou guessed it must go down to her waist normally.
Her clothes...
"Wah, it's a real sister... The nun kind, not the sibling kind."
Was habit the term for what she wore? It was that outfit you expected to see on a nun in a church. Her clothes looked a bit like a long dress that reached her ankles, and she wore a one-piece hood over her head that was a bit different from a hat. However, while normal nun habits were jet black, hers was pure white. Was it made of silk? Also, at all the important points of the outfit, embroideries made of golden thread were sown in. Kamijou could not believe just how much the impression given by the same design could change by altering the color scheme. What he saw reminded him of a nouveau riche teacup.
The girl's lovely fingertips twitched. Her head slowly rose from its hanging position. Her silk-like silver hair smoothly split to either side like a curtain and the girl's face appeared from between the long, long hair.
Wah, wah...!
The girl's face was relatively cute. Her white skin and green eyes were a new experience for someone with zero overseas experience like Kamijou, and she somehow seemed like a doll to him.
However, that was not what had left Kamijou so flustered.
She was a foreigner and Kamijou Touma's English teacher had suggested he take up a lifelong policy of avoiding foreigners. If someone from some strange country suddenly started talking on and on to him, he would likely end up buying a down comforter without even realizing it.
"I..."
The girl's cute but slightly dried lips slowly moved.
Kamijou thoughtlessly took a step or two back. With a squish, he stepped on the yakisoba bread once more.
"I'm hungry."
"..."
For an instant, Kamijou thought he was so dim witted that his mind had automatically substituted the foreign language he had heard with Japanese. Similar to how dim elementary school kids would give ridiculous lyrics to songs that they did not know the real lyrics to.
"I'm hungry."
"..."
"I'm hungry."
"..."
"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm hungry?"
The silver-haired girl seemed to get a little irate at how Kamijou stood there, frozen.
No. That settles it. This can't be anything other than Japanese, he thought.
"Ah, umm..." he said as he stared at the girl draped over the balcony railing."What? Are you trying to say you collapsed from exhaustion or something?"
"You could also say I have collapsed and am about to die."
"..."
The girl could speak Japanese really well.
"It would be great if you could feed me enough food to fill me up."
Kamijou looked down at the squished and likely spoiled yakisoba-pan still in its wrapper at his feet. He had no idea what was going on, but knew he would be better off not getting involved. In the hopes of happily sending the girl off to some distant place, he stuck the squished bread up to her mouth. He was sure she would run off once she caught a whiff of the sour smell, so he meant it as something similar to chazuke being offered to a guest one wanted to leave in Kyoto.
"Thank you. And it's time to eat."
Her mouth engulfed it along with the wrapping, Kamijou's arm included.
Once again, Kamijou's day began with a scream and a taste of misfortune.
Part 2
"I suppose I need to start with an introduction."
"Actually, I would rather you started explaining why you were hanging there."
"My name is Index."
"That's clearly a fake name! What do you mean Index!? What are you, a table of contents!?"
"As you can see, I am from the church. This is important. Oh, but I'm not from the Vatican. I'm from the Anglican Church."
"I don't know what that means and you're just going to ignore my questions!?"
"Hmm, is Index lacking? Well then, my magic name is Dedicatus545."
"Hello? Hello? Just what kind of alien am I talking to?"
Kamijou did not understand so he dug his finger inside his ear, and Index chewed on her thumbnail. Was that a habit of hers?
Kamijou wondered why they were politely sat there facing each other from across a glass table like it was a marriage interview.
If he did not leave soon, he would be late for his supplementary lessons, but he could hardly leave this strange person in his room. To make matters worse, the mysterious silver-haired girl calling herself Index seemed to have taken a liking to the room to the point that she seemed willing to laze about on the floor.
Had Kamijou's misfortune called her here? He whole-heartedly hoped not.
"Anyways, it would be great if you could feed me enough food to fill me up."
"Why would I do that!? I don't want to raise your love meter. I'd rather die than activate some weird flag and end up stuck on the Index route!!"
"Um... is that slang? I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're saying."
Typical of a foreigner, she had no knowledge of the Japanese otaku culture.
"But if I leave now, I'll collapse three steps out the door."
"... Don't give me that collapsing nonsense."
"I'll gather my last remaining strength to leave a dying message: a picture of you."
"Wha-?"
"And, if someone happens to save me, I'll tell them I was imprisoned in this room and tormented to the point of collapse. I'll let them know you forced your cosplaying preferences onto me."
"Don't you dare say that! So, you do know a thing or two about otaku culture, don't you!?"
"?"
She tilted her head to the side like a kitten seeing itself in the mirror for the first time.
He regretted letting her get him agitated, feeling like he alone was somehow horribly cheated.
Okay, let's do it! Kamijou thought.
He noisily headed toward the kitchen. Only spoiled goods were left in the fridge so it would cost nothing to feed her. The boy figured it would be fine if the food were heated. He dumped everything into a frying pan and made something similar to stir-fried vegetables.
Come to think of it, where did this girl come from? He wondered.
Naturally, there were people out of country in Academy City. However, she did not have the characteristic "scent" of a resident. Nonetheless, it was also strange for someone to come in from outside.
Academy City was treated like a city made up of hundreds of schools, but it was more accurate to consider it like a city-sized boarding school. It was large enough to cover a third of Tokyo, but was surrounded by something akin to the Great Wall of China; though not as strict as a prison, but was still not a place one could simply wander into.
... Or so it had seemed. In reality, three satellites launched for experiments by a technical college were constantly monitoring the city. Every individual going in or out of the city was completely scanned and if any suspicious person for whom the gate records did not match, either Anti-Skill or Judgment from different schools would immediately intervene.
But... that zapper of a girl reigned in that thundercloud yesterday. That might have hidden Index from the satellites, he considered.
"So why were you hanging out to dry on my balcony?" Kamijou asked the girl as he put soy sauce on the stir-fried vegetables-like dish he was making with purely ill intentions.
"I wasn't hanging out to dry."
"Then what were you doing? Were you blown over and landed there?"
"... Something like that."
Kamijou meant it as a joke and stopped moving the frying pan as he turned around to face the girl.
"I fell. I was trying to jump from rooftop to rooftop."
Rooftop?
Kamijou looked up at the ceiling. Cheap student dorms lined the building level and even more of the same types of eight-story buildings were lined up. One glance out the balcony showed a gap of two meters between buildings. It was true that a running jump could get you from one rooftop to another. However...
"But that's eight stories high? One wrong step and you'd be heading straight to hell."
"Yes, you don't even get a grave if you commit suicide, " said Index cryptically."But I had no choice. I had no other means of escape."
"Escape?"
Kamijou frowned at that ominous word.
"Yes, " said Index like a child."I was being chased."
"..."
Kamijou's hand shaking the hot frying pan stopped moving once more.
"I made my jump fine, but I was shot in the back in midair." The girl calling herself Index seemed to smile."I apologize. It seems I was caught on your balcony as I fell."
She tossed an innocent smile in Kamijou Touma's direction without even a hint of self-deprecation or sarcasm.
"You were shot... ?"
"Yes? Oh, you don't need to worry about a wound. These clothes also function as a defensive barrier."
What did she mean by a defensive barrier? Was it a bulletproof vest?
The girl spun around as if to show off new clothes and certainly did not seem injured. Kamijou had to wonder whether she really had been shot. The concept that she was delusional or making it up seemed more realistic.
But...
The fact remained that she had indeed been hanging from his seventh story balcony.
If, hypothetically, everything she was saying were true...
Who shot her?
Kamijou deliberated.
He thought about how determined one would have to be to jump between the rooftops of an eight-story building. He also considered how lucky she was to be caught on his seventh-story balcony and the hidden meaning behind the fact that she collapsed.
She said she was being chased.
His final thoughts wondered the meaning of the smile on Index's face as she said those words.
He knew not what circumstances Index was in and understood not what the few things she told him had meant. Most likely, he could only understand half of it if Index explained everything from start to finish and would still have no idea how to even begin to understand the latter half.
Nonetheless, one truth remained.
With a tightening in his chest, he finally accepted the fact that she had gotten caught on his seventh-story balcony when one wrong step could have sent her straight to the asphalt below.
"Food."
Index poked her head from behind Kamijou. Despite her Japanese fluency, she must not have had much experience with chopsticks because she held them in a fist like a spoon while she excitedly stared into the frying pan.
Her eyes were like a kitten's taken from a cardboard box on a rainy day.
"... Ah..."
Kamijou put the (former) food into the frying pan to make something like (poisonous) stir-fried vegetables. For some reason, the angel in Kamijou, whom usually came along with the devil Kamijou, was writhing horribly at the sight of the starving girl.
"Ahh! I-I know! If you're really that hungry, how about we go to a proper family restaurant rather than give you this horrible meal made by a man with leftovers!? We can even get it delivered!"
"I can't wait that long."
"... Ah... kh!"
"And it isn't horrible. You made this food for me without charging anything. It has to be good." For the first time, she gave a shining nun-like smile.
As pain assaulted Kamijou like his stomach was being wrung like a wet cloth, Index scooped the contents of the frying pan out with her fist-held chopsticks and into her mouth.
Munching.
"See? It's good."
"... Oh, is it?"
Chomping.
"It's nice that you added that sour flavor to me help get my strength back."
"Geh! It's sour!?"
Chewing.
"Yeah, but that's fine. Thanks. You're like a big brother or something."
She gave a large grin as she ate with such a pure heart that she had a bean sprout stuck to her cheek.
"... Gh... Uuwhaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!"
With the speed of sound, Kamijou grabbed the frying pan while Index looked incredibly displeased. However, Kamijou swore in his heart that he would be the only one to fall down into hell.
"Are you hungry too?"
"... Hah?"
"If not, I'd rather you let me eat the rest."
As Kamijou watched Index look at him with slightly upturned eyes while she chewed on the end of her chopsticks,
Kamijou received a divine revelation.
God told him to take responsibility and eat it himself.
This had nothing to do with misfortune; he had completely brought it upon himself.
Part 3
Kamijou Touma stuffed his mouth full of the fried garbage and grinned.
"Mhh, " grunted the girl calling herself Index with a look of complaint on her face as she gnawed on a biscuit. The way she held the small biscuit in both hands made her seem a bit like a squirrel.
"Okay, you said you were being chased. Chased by whom?"
Having returned from his Nirvana, Kamijou once again asked about the biggest issue in her story.
He was not about to follow a girl he had met less than 30 minutes ago down to the depths of hell. However, it was already likely too late for nothing itself to happen.
So in the end, I have to go with fox's words, thought Kamijou, using a personal term for the sake of feigned kindness.
He knew it would likely resolve nothing, but he still desired to comfort himself by feeling that he did something.
"Hmm..." she said with a slightly dry throat."Now who was it? Maybe it was the Rosicrucians or S. M. , also known as Stella Matutina. I think it was a group like that, but I don't know their name yet....They aren't the type to find meaning in names."
"They...?" Kamijou asked meekly.
Apparently, she was being chased by a group or organization.
"Yes, " said Index surprisingly calmly."A sorcerer's society."
...
...
...
"Hah? Sorcerer? Hah? What!? That's crazy!!"
"Eh? Huh? W-Was my Japanese weird there? I mean magic. A magic cabal."
"..." Hearing so in English improved nothing."What? What? Are you talking about some dangerous cult? Like a cult that says not believing in its leader will result in divine punishment and then proceed to give you LSD and brainwash you? That's bad in more ways than one."
"...Are you making fun of me?"
"...Sorry, I just can't... I can't accept magic. I may know all sorts of psychic powers like pyro-kinesis and clairvoyance, but I just can't accept magic."
"...?"
Index looked confused.
She had likely expected a believer in only science to deny that any kind of strange thing could exist in the world.
However, Kamijou's right hand held a supernatural power.
It was called Imagine Breaker and could negate even the systems of god seen in myths in a single stroke so long as it was a supernatural power beyond the ordinary.
"Psychic powers are pretty common here. Anyone's brain can be 'developed' and have the pathways open up by having 'esperin' injected into their veins, electrodes attached to their neck, and certain rhythms played through headphones. It can all be explained scientifically, so it's only natural to accept, right?"
"...I don't really get it."
"It's normal! It's completely normal, utterly normal. Is three times enough!?"
"...Then what about magic? Magic is normal."
Index sulked like someone insulted her pet cat.
"Umm... Well, take rock, paper, scissors for example. Wait, is rock paper scissors known worldwide?"
"...I think it's from Japanese culture, but I do know it."
"Okay, if you played rock paper scissors ten times in a row and lost each time, would there be a reason behind that?"
"...Mh."
"There wouldn't, right? But it's human nature to think there is, " said Kamijou with little interest."You'd think there'd be no way you would keep losing like that. You would assume there was some unseen rule, and once you start thinking like that, what happens when you factoring in things like horoscopes?"
"...You mean like, 'you cancers are unlucky, so you shouldn't compete in any competitions'?"
"Right, that's the occult's true identity. Luck is just our dreaming for these invisible rules. While reality is just pathetic coincidence, our hearts mistake it as some great inevitability. That's the occult."
For a bit, Index frowned like a displeased cat, but then said, "So you didn't just deny it without giving any thought."
"Right. And it's because I've given it such serious thought that I can see why those musty old stories are no good. I can't believe in some magician from a picture book. If we could raise the dead with the only cost being a bit of MP, no one would be developing these other powers. I simply can't believe in the supernatural that has no connection to real science."
He felt that people only saw psychic powers as strange and mysterious because they were ignorant. The fact that those powers could be explained scientifically was common knowledge in that city.
"...But magic exists, " Index said as she pouted.
Most likely, magic was like a pillar supporting her heart, similar to Kamijou's Imagine Breaker.
"Well, whatever. So, why are they chasing you?"
"Magic exists."
"..."
"Magic exists!"
It seemed she obstinately wanted him to acquiesce.
"Th-Then what is magic? Can you shoot fire from your hands without undergoing our psychic curriculum? If so, I'd like to see it. I might believe you then."
"I have no magic power, so I can't do that."
"..."
Kamijou felt like he had just met an esper failure that said they could not bend a spoon around a camera because it distracted them.
All the while, a rather complex feeling filled his chest.
He insisted that the occult did not exist and that magic was ridiculous, but he really knew nothing about the Imagine Breaker power that resided in his right hand. How did it work and what was going on that he could not see? Academy City was at the peak of the world's powers development, but even its System Scan failed to analyze his power. Consequently, he was labeled Level 0.
Also, that power had not appeared later due to a scientific timetable. It resided in his right hand from birth.
He insisted the occult did not exist and yet he himself was a part of the supernatural that ignored the rules.
Regardless, he refused to accept the ridiculous reasoning that magic could easily exist simply because there were strange things in the world.
"...Magic exists."
Kamijou sighed.
"Okay. For argument's sake, let's say that magic exists."
"For argument's sake?"
"If it does, " continued Kamijou, ignoring her."Why are they after you? Does it have something to do with how you're dressed?"
Kamijou was referring to the rather extravagant nun habit that Index wore, made of pure white silk and golden thread embroideries. In other words, "Is this church related?"
"...It's because I am the Index."
"Hah?"
"They are likely after the 103, 000 grimoires that I have."
...
...
...
"...Once again, I don't understand at all."
"Why do you seem to lose motivation every time I explain something? Are you the fickle type?"
"Um, let's go back over this. I'm not sure what these mentioned grimoires are, but imagine it's a book, like a dictionary."
"Yes. The Book of Eibon, the Lemegeton, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Cultes des Goules, and the Book of the Dead are good examples. The Necronomicon is so famous there are all sorts of imitations and fakes, so it isn't very reliable."
"No, I don't really care about the contents."
He wanted to add that it was "because it's all a bunch of nonsense anyways", but he held his tongue.
He instead asked, "So, where are these 100, 000 books?"
He refused to back down on that point, one hundred thousand books were enough to fill an entire library.
"Do you mean you have a key to where they're stored?"
"No." Index shook her head."I have every single one of the 103, 000 grimoires with me."
"Hah?" Kamijou frowned."You aren't going to say these are books idiots can't see, are you?"
"You couldn't see them even if you weren't an idiot. There'd be no point if anyone could see them."
Index's words were so removed from reality that Kamijou felt he was being mocked. He glanced around, but could not see a single musty old book that may have been a grimoire. All he saw scattered on the floor were game magazines, manga, and the summer homework he had tossed into a corner.
"...Wahh."
He had forced himself to listen up until then, but was at his limit.
He began to wonder whether she was merely imagined being chased. If she had jumped from the eighth story rooftop, slipped on her own, and gotten caught on his balcony all due to a delusion, she was not someone he wanted involve himself with any longer.
"Believing in psychic powers but not in magic makes no sense, " Index said with a pout."Are those psychic powers really all that great? It isn't right to make fun of people just because you have some kind of special power."
...
"Well, yeah." Kamijou gave a small sigh."I agree. It's not right. It's wrong to think of yourself as above others just because you can pull off some little trick."
Kamijou's gaze dropped to his right hand.
No fire or lightning would come. It could not cause any beams of light or explosions, and no strange markings were going to appear on his wrist.
However, his right hand could negate all kinds of supernatural powers, disregarding if the power were good or evil or even the systems of God seen in myths.
"Well, for the people who live in this city, the power they have is like a part of their personality, so you should probably be a bit forgiving as far as that goes. In fact, I'm one of those espers, too."
"Is that so, idiot. Hmph. You can always just bend a spoon with your hand instead of messing around inside your head."
"..."
"Hmph, hmph. What's so great about a guy who cast aside his natural shade to color himself artificially? Hmph."
"...You don't mind if I shut that mouth of yours along with that ridiculous pride, do you?"
"I-I won't give in to terrorism. Hmph, " said Index like a displeased cat."A-anyway, you say you're an esper, but what can you do?"
"Umm, well, if you put it that way..."
Kamijou was a bit unsure of what to say.
It was not often that Kamijou explained his right hand to others. Also, since it only reacted to supernatural powers, it could not be explained without knowledge of the supernatural or psychic.
"You see, it's this right hand of mine. Oh, and in my case, it isn't doping; I've had it from birth."
"I see."
"If I touch it with my right hand, any kind of supernatural power will be negated. That goes for A-bomb level fireballs, tactical railguns, or even the workings of God."
"Eh?"
"Why does your face look like you just saw a good luck miracle stone in some magazine?"
"But... you don't even know the God's name, but yet you just said you can negate His miracles." In surprise, Index dug her pinky into her ear while giving a scornful laugh.
"...Kh. Th-This is really annoying. I kind of hate being made fun of by some kind of fake magical girl who claims magic exists but can't prove it."
That mutterings of Kamijou Touma's soul seemed to upset Index.
"I-I'm not a fake! Magic really exists!"
"Then show me something, Halloween girl! You aren't going to believe my Imagine Breaker until I destroy something with my right hand anyway. C'mon, fantasy head!"
"Fine, I will!" Index threw both her hands above her head in annoyance."Here! These clothes! They're the highest quality of defensive barrier called the Walking Church!"
Index spread her arms to show off the teacup-like nun's habit.
"The Walking Church? What? You're not making any sense! It's not very nice to keep using these incomprehensible technical terms like Index and defensive barrier, y'know!? Explaining things means to tell them to someone who doesn't understand in a form simple enough to become understandable. Do you not get that!?"
"Wha-? How dare you say that when you aren't even making attempts to understand!?" Index swung her arms around in anger."Fine, seeing is believing, right? Take a knife from the kitchen and stab me in the gut!!"
"Stab you!? Is this going to end up as a news story that says 'it all started with a pointless argument' or something?"
"Ah, you don't believe me." Index's shoulders rose and fell as she breathed heavily."These have the bare minimum of components required to make up a church: so, they are a church in the form of clothes. The way the cloth is woven, the way the threads are sewn, the way the embroideries decorate it... It's all calculated. A knife won't even put a scratch on it."
"Yeah, right. What kind of idiot would just agree to stab you? He'd have to be an unprecedented kind of juvenile criminal."
"Will you ever stop mocking me? This is an accurate copy of the Shroud of Turin, the cloth worn by the Saint that was stabbed by the Lance of Longinus, so its strength is Pope-class. I guess you would say it's something like a nuclear shelter. It turns aside or absorbs any attack, be it physical or magical. I told you I got caught on your balcony after getting shot, right? Well, I would have a giant hole in me if it wasn't for the Walking Church. Do you understand now?
Shut up, idiot, Kamijou thought angrily.
Kamijou's appreciation gauge toward Index rapidly dropped and he stared at her clothes with scorn.
"...Hmm. So if that really is a supernatural power, would it be torn to pieces if I touched it with my right hand?"
"Yes, but only if your power is real. Heh heh heh."
"Perfect!!" shouted Kamijou as he grabbed Index's shoulder.
As if he had grabbed a cloud, it strangely felt like the impact was absorbed by a soft sponge.
"Wait... huh?"
Kamijou cooled his head and thought.
What if everything Index was saying was true, as unlikely as that was, and this Walking Church really was sewn together with supernatural power?
Would negating that supernatural power truly rip her clothes to pieces?
"Huuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
Kamijou reflexively yelled out at the sudden premonition he had that he was about to suddenly go up a few steps on the stairway to adulthood. But...
...
...
...?
"Ehhhhhhh?... Huh?"
Nothing happened. Nothing happened at all.
Oh, jeez, don't make me worry like that, he thought with relief.
Kamijou just could not stand it.
"See? What was all this about your Imagine Breaker? Nothing at all happened. Heh hen."
Index put her hands on her hips and puffed her small chest in pride.
But in the next instant, her clothes fell straight down like the gift's ribbon.
The threads sewing her nun's habit together had cleanly come apart, turning it all into mere pieces of cloth.
The hat-like one-piece hood must have been an isolated item because it alone remained. Having only her head covered made it seem all the more painful.
The girl froze still with her hands on her hips and her small chest puffed out in pride.
To sum it up, she was completely nude.
Part 4
Apparently, the girl naming herself Index had a habit of biting people when angered.
"Oww... You bit me all over. What are you, a camp mosquito?"
"..."
He received no response.
Index was naked and wrapped in a blanket. She sat with her legs bent back to the sides while attempting, futilely, to return her clothes to their original form by applying safety pins into the pieces of the nun's habit.
The sound effect 'dohhn' seemed to dominate the room.
It was not that a new Stand user had attacked.
"...Um, princess? This may be presumptuous of me, but I have a button-down shirt and pants you can wear."
"..."
She stared at him with snake-like eyes.
"...Um, princess?"
What kind of character is this she's playing? He worriedly thought.
"...What?" she replied when he called out once more.
"I was completely the one at fault there."
The only response he received was an alarm clock flying at him.
"Ee!" Kamijou shrieked just as a giant pillow was thrown as well.
To make matters ever more ridiculous, a video game system and small radio came went his way as well.
"How can you talk to me so normally after something like that!?"
"Ahh, no! It was quite the life-changing event for this old man as well. But that's youth for you!"
"You're making fun of me... Uuuuuuuuhhhhhh!!"
"Okay... I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Don't bite that rented video like a handkerchief, you idiot!"
Kamijou Touma bowed down to the ground with both his hands straight forward like it was a part of some kind of joke.
Deep down, Kamijou felt like a grip was crushing his heart after having seen a girl naked for the first time.
However, Kamijou Touma was not the type to show it.
...Or so he had thought, but he would have been quite surprised at what he saw had he looked in a mirror.
"Finished."
While triumphantly blowing air from her nose, Index spread out the pure white nun's habit that had somehow regained its original form from that hellish do-it-yourself job.
Dozens of safety pins glittered across the nun's habit.
"..." Sweat.
"Um, are you going to wear that?"
"..." Silence.
"You're going to wear that iron maiden?"
"..." Tears.
"In Japanese, we call it a bed of needles."
"...Uuuuuuhhhhhh!!"
"I get it!" Kamijou apologized as he head-butted the floor with all his might.
Meanwhile, Index stared at him like a bullied child and was about to bite through the television's power cord. Was she a naughty cat?
"I'll wear it! I'm a nun!!"
Though Kamijou was unsure whether that made sense, Index began to change by squirming inside the blanket wrapped around her, much like a caterpillar. Her head was the only thing visible and was as red as a bomb.
"Ahh, this reminds me of when we had to change at school for swimming."
"...Why are you looking at me? At least look the other way."
"What does it matter? Compared to what happened before, just changing isn't all that arousing."
"........."
Index suddenly stopped moving, but since Kamijou did not seem to notice, she gave up and started once more inside the blanket. She was so focused on what was going on inside that she did not notice when her hood-like hat slipped off of her head.
The room took an awkward atmosphere like the inside of a silent elevator.
Kamijou's mind began to flee from reality, but the term "supplementary lessons" floated in.
"Wah! That's right! I have supplementary lessons!" Kamijou glanced at the clock on his cell phone."Um... I have to go to school, what are you going to do? If you're going to stay here, I can give you a key."
The option of simply kicking her out had disappeared from his mind. Since Index's nun habit, the Walking Church, had reacted to Imagine Breaker, she clearly had some connection to the supernatural. That meant that not everything she had been telling him was a lie.
It was possible that she had really fallen from the roof because she was chased by magicians. It was possible that she really would have to continue playing a deadly game of tag.
It was possible that wizards from a picture book or something similarly crazy really were running amok in that city of science where established theories of espers and psychics existed.
And, even if those were false, he did not want to just abandon Index.
"...That's okay. I'll leave."
However, Index stood straight up and made a dramatic announcement. She then slipped past Kamijou's side like a ghost and showed no sign of noticing that her hood fell. But, if he tried to pick it up, it would likely fall to pieces.
"U-umm..."
"Hm? No, it's not that." Index turned around."If I stay, they'll likely come here. You don't want your room blown up, do you?"
That smoothly delivered response left him speechless.
As Index slowly exited the front door, Kamijou frantically ran after her. He wanted to do something, so he checked his wallet and found he had only 320 yen left. He ran after Index to give her what little he had, but his small toe struck the door frame at the speed of sound as he tried to exit the front door.
"Bh... myah! Myaahhh!!"
As Kamijou held his foot and let out that strange cry, Index turned around in shock. As Kamijou writhed around in great pain, his cell phone fell from his pocket. The moment he realized it, the LCD screen struck the hard floor and he heard the crack of a fatal blow.
"Uuuuhhhh! S-such misfortune."
"I'd say that was clumsiness, not misfortune, " said Index with a slight smile."But if this Imagine Breaker is real, it may be inevitable."
"...What do you mean?"
"This is related to the world of magic, so I doubt you'll believe me, " said Index with a giggle."But if the divine protection of God and the red string of fate actually exist, then wouldn't your right hand negate all of those?" Index shook her safety pin-covered nun's habit and added, "The power of this Walking Church was a blessing of God after all."
"Wait. What we call fortune and misfortune are just matters of probability and statistics. What you're talking about is completely—...!"
As he said that, Kamijou's finger touched the doorknob and was shocked by static electricity.
"Wha-!?" he cried out as his body twitched reflexively.
The odd way his muscles moved caused a cramp in his right calf.
"...!!"
The agony left him incapacitated for about 600 seconds.
"...Um, sister?"
"Yes?"
"...Please explain."
"There isn't much to explain, " said Index as if it were obvious."If what you said about your right hand is true, then merely having it is enough to be continually negating the power of fortune."
"...Do you mean what I think you mean?"
"Just by touching the air, your right hand is giving you more and more misfortune?."
"Gyaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!! S-such misfortuuuuuuuunnnneeeee!!" Kamijou did not believe in the occult, but things were misfortune related matters were different. At any rate, Kamijou was the type of person for whom any venture he took never ended well. It was to the point that he felt that the entire universe conspired against him.
Meanwhile, a pure white nun gazed upon him with the smile of Virgin Mary. In her eyes was what people called an inviting look.
"Wouldn't the real misfortune be having been born with that power??" The smiling nun brought tears to Kamijou's eyes and he finally realized the conversation had gotten off track.
"W-wait, that's not it! Do you have somewhere to go once you leave? I don't know what situation you're in, but you can hide here if those magicians or whatever are nearby."
"If I stay here, the enemies will come."
"How can you be sure? If you just stay in my room and don't draw any attention to yourself, there shouldn't be a problem."
"That's not true." Index pinched at the chest of her clothes."This Walking Church functions using magical power. The church seems to call it 'divine power', but it's the same mana. Simply put, the enemy seems to be searching for the magic power in the Walking Church."
"Why do you wear tracking device clothes!?"
"I told you, its defensive power is Pope-class, remember? You're right hand tore it to pieces, though."
"..."
"You tore it to pieces, though."
"I said I was sorry, so don't look so tearfully....But, Imagine Breaker destroyed that Walking Church, right? So shouldn't the tracking device-like functionality be gone too?"
"Even if it were, they'll know the Walking Church was destroyed. As I said before, its defensive power is Pope-class. Simply put, it's like a fortress. If I were the enemy, I would make an appearance when that fortress was destroyed whatever the reason might be."
"Wait a second. That's all the more reason I can't just let you go. I still don't believe in the occult, but if someone's after you, I can't let you just leave." Index stared at him blankly. With just that look, she truly, truly seemed like nothing more than a normal girl.
"...Then, will you follow me to the depths of hell?"
She smiled a heartbreaking smile that left Kamijou speechless for an instant. Index had used kind words to implicitly say, "Do not come with me."
"Don't worry. I'm not alone. If I can escape to the church, they will shelter me."
"...Hmm. So where is this church?"
"In London."
"That's a long ways away! How far do you planning to run!?"
"Hm? Oh, don't worry. I think there are a few branches in Japan, " She replied as her nun's habit, which looked like the result of a bullied wife, fluttered.
"A church, hm? There might be one in the city."
The term "church" brought to mind a giant wedding hall, but the examples in Japan were pretty shabby. First of all, the culture had little to do with Christianity. Also, a country with frequent earthquakes lacked historical buildings. The churches that Kamijou had seen out of train windows had all been small prefabricated buildings with crosses on top. He had a feeling he was mistaken to think that those were nouveau riche churches, though.
"Oh, but it can't just be any church. It has to be the British rendition I belong to."
"?"
"Um, there are any kinds of Christianity, " said Index with a bitter smile."First, there is the distinction between the old style Catholics and the new style Protestants. Also, while I belong to the Catholics, there are various versions of them as well. For example: the Roman Catholic Church centered in the Vatican, the Russian Orthodox Church with its headquarters in Russia, and the Anglican Church with its core at St. George's Cathedral."
"...What happens if you accidentally go to the wrong church?"
"They would turn me away, " said Index with the same bitter smile."The Russian Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church primarily exist within their respective countries. Anglican churches are rare in Japan."
"..."
Things were looking gloomy.
Was it possible Index had tried going to church after church before she collapsed from hunger? How had she felt as she fled and fled while being turned away at each church she went to?
"Don't worry. I just have to keep at it until I find a British church."
"..."
For just an instant, Kamijou thought about the power in his right hand.
"Hey! ...If you're ever in any trouble, you can stop by here again."
That was all he could say.
He had the power to kill even God and yet that was all he could say.
"Sure. I'll stop by if I'm hungry."
Her sunflower-like smile was so perfect that Kamijou could say nothing in response.
Then, a cleaning robot passed by, having gone out of its way to avoid Index.
"Hyah!?"
That perfect smile was blown away in an instant. Index jumped as if she had a cramp in her leg and then tripped backwards. With a horrible sounding thud, her head struck the wall behind her.
"!! S-some weird thing just showed up like it's nothing!"
Index had tears in her eyes, but completely forgot to even hold the back of her head as she shouted out.
"Don't point at it and call it weird. It's just a cleaning robot."
Kamijou sighed.
Its size and shape were similar to a drum container (large trashcan). It had small tires on the bottom and a circular rotating mop similar to those on a street cleaner. It had cameras in order to avoid people and other obstacles. They were quite hated by girls in miniskirts.
"...I see. I had heard Japan was a leading nation in technology, but I didn't know you had made mechanized Agathions."
"Hello?" Kamijou was a bit frightened by how impressed Index seemed."This is Academy City. You can find those things all over the city."
"Academy City?"
"Yes. It's a city made by buying up the entire western area of Tokyo where development had slowed. The name comes from how it has dozens of universities and hundreds of elementary, middle, and high schools in it." Kamijou sighed."Eighty percent of the residents are students; all the apartment buildings you see are dorms."
He omitted the fact that it had a hidden face where powers and bodies were developed alongside the studying.
"That's why this city is a bit odd. The city is overflowing with university experiments like the automated disposal of kitchen waste, the wind turbines that function well enough to be practical, and the cleaning robots like this one. Thanks to all that, our level of technological culture is about 20 years ahead of anywhere else."
"Hmm." Index carefully examined the cleaning robot."So are all the buildings here part of Academy City?"
"Yup. I guess it might be best to leave the city if you're looking for an Anglican church. All the churches here are probably teaching institutions for theology or Jungian psychology."
"Hm."
Index nodded and then finally brought a hand up to the back of her head where she had hit the wall.
"Hyah!? H-huh? My hood is gone!?"
"Oh, you finally noticed? It fell off earlier."
"Hyah?"
By "earlier", Kamijou had meant when she was changing in the blanket, but Index seemed to mistake it for when she had tripped backwards in shock because of the cleaning robot. She started looking around on the floor and a question mark appeared over her head.
"Oh, I know! That electric Agathion!" Still mistaken, she made a dash after the cleaning robot and disappeared around a corner of the hallway.
"...Ahh, what's going on?"
Kamijou look at the door to his room where Index's hood was and then down the passageway. Index was nowhere to be seen. There had been no farewell, tearful or otherwise.
From the looks of her, I get the feeling she'll live on even if the world is destroyed, he analyzed.
He had no proof of it, but nevertheless was the thought he had.
Part 5
"Okay, I have a handout for you. Follow along while we go through this supplementary lesson."
Even after spending an entire term in that class, Kamijou still could not believe it.
The homeroom teacher of Year 1 Class 7, Tsukuyomi Komoe, was a ridiculous teacher who was so short that only her head could be seen when she stood behind her desk.
That little girl teacher was one of the school's seven mysteries: at 135 cm tall, there was a legend saying she was refused a roller coaster ride due to safety concerns, and looked to the world like a 12 year old who should be carrying a soprano recorder with a yellow hard hat and a red elementary school backpack.
"I won't stop you from talking amongst yourselves, but you need to listen to what I say. I put a lot of effort into making a quiz, so if you do poorly on it, you will be punished with the See Through lesson."
"Sensei, isn't that where you play poker with a blindfold on!? That's part of the Curriculum for Clairvoyance! I've heard you can't leave until you win 10 times in a row despite not being able to see your cards, so wouldn't we just be stuck here until morning!?" protested Kamijou Touma.
"Oh, but Kamijou-chan, you don't have enough development credits, so you'll be doing the See Through lesson regardless."
"Ugh, " Kamijou was at a loss of words when faced with the salesman smile of a salary man teacher.
"...Mhh. I see. Komoe-chan finds you so cute she just can't help herself, Kami-yan, " said the blue-haired, ear-pierced 1, male, class representative who was sitting next to Kamijou.
"...Do you sense malice coming from that teacher's back as she enjoyably stretches up to reach the blackboard?"
"What? What's wrong with having such a cute teacher scold you for failing a quiz? Getting physically abused by a little kid like that gets you a ton of experience points, Kami-yan."
"I knew you were a lolicon, but you're a masochist, too!? You really are hopeless!!"
"Ah hah! It's not that I like lolis! It's that I also like lolis!!"
Kamijou almost shouted out "You're omnivorous!?", but he was interrupted.
"You two over there! If you say a single word more, you'll be stuck with Columbus's Egg."
Just as one would expect, Columbus's Egg involved standing a raw egg upside down on a desk without anything supporting it. Those specializing in Psychokinesis could keep the egg from falling when they worked to the point of the blood vessels in their brain almost bursting. (It was actually an extremely difficult challenge because the egg would break if the Psychokinesis was too powerful. ) As with the previous example, you would be stuck there until morning if you could not do it.
Kamijou and Aogami Pierce stared at Tsukuyomi Komoe while forgetting to breathe.
"Okay?"
Her smile was quite frightening.
While Komoe-sensei loved being called "cute", she became incredibly irate when called "small".
However, she did not seem to mind being looked down on by the students. Part of it was just something inevitable within Academy City. The city was a veritable Neverland where over 80% of the population was students. The opposition to salary man teachers was harsh even compared to a normal school, and more importantly, the "strength" of a student was based on both their academic ability and their power.
The teachers were the ones that developed the students, but the teachers themselves had no powers. Some, like the PE teachers and guidance counselors, seemed like they were from foreign units because they trained Level 3 monsters with their own fists. However, it would be cruel to expect that from a chemistry teacher like Komoe.
"...Hey, Kami-yan."
"What?'
"Would it turn you on to get lectured by Komoe-sensei?"
"I'm not you! Just shut up already, idiot! If we have to play with a raw egg even though we don't have Psychokinesis, we'll be spending our entire summer break here! If you get it, shut that fake Kansai dialect mouth of yours!"
"Fake... D-D-D-D-D-Don't call it fake! I'm really from Osaka!"
"Shut up. I know you're from a rice region. I'm in a bad mood, so don't make me play the straight man right now."
"I-I-I'm not from a rice region! Ah. A-ahhh! I sure do love takoyaki."
"Stop trying to force yourself into the Kansai role! Are you going to bring takoyaki for lunch just to fill this role?"
"What are you talking about? It's not like someone from Osaka eats only takoyaki, right?"
"..."
"Right? I think that's right...no, wait. But... but yeah... but huh? Which is it?"
"You're falling out of character, Mr. Fake Kansai, " said Kamijou before sighing and looking out the window.
He felt like he should be by Index's side rather than dealing with that pointless supplementary lesson.
The Walking Church nun's habit she wore had indeed reacted to Kamijou's right hand, although, "reacted" was perhaps an understatement. But, that did not mean he had to believe. Most likely, the majority of what Index had said was a lie, and even if she were not, she may have just mistaken some natural phenomenon as the occult.
Even so...
I guess the fish that gets away always seems huge, he pondered.
Kamijou sighed again. If the alternative was being stuck at a desk in that sauna-like classroom with no air conditioning, charging into a fantasy of swords and magic may have been better. And he even had a cute, though difficult to say beautiful, heroine to go with it.
"..."
Kamijou recalled the hood Index had forgotten in his room.
In the end, he had not returned it. He did not see it as having been unable to return it. Even if Index had disappeared, he would likely have found her if he had seriously started looking for her. And even if he had not, he could still go out and run around the city looking for her with the hood in one hand.
When he thought about it, he realized he had wanted some kind of connection. He had felt that she might come back to get it someday.
Because, that white girl had shown him such a perfect smile...
He felt like she would disappear like an illusion if he did not leave some kind of connection.
He was afraid.
...Oh, so that's it, he concluded.
After going through those somewhat poetic thoughts, Kamijou finally realized something. When it came down to it, he did not hate the girl who was caught on his balcony. He had liked her enough that the thought of never seeing her again left him with a slight twinge of regret.
"...Ah, damn it."
He clicked his tongue. With how heavily she weighed on his mind, he wished he had stopped her from leaving.
Come to think of it, what was it with those 103, 000 grimoires that she mentioned?
Index had said that the group, a magic cabal (something like a corporation?), after her seemed to be pursuing her because they wanted those 103, 000 grimoires. And apparently, Index had been fleeing with those 103, 000 grimoires in her possession.
It was neither a key nor a map to the place where all those books were stored.
When Kamijou had asked where all those books were, she had simply said, "Right here." However, as far as Kamijou could see, she owned not a single book. Even if she did, Kamijou's room was not large enough to house 100, 000 books.
"...What was that all about?"
Kamijou tilted his head to the side in puzzlement. Since Index's Walking Church had reacted to Imagine Breaker, her words were not complete delusion. However...
"Sensei? Kamijou-kun's staring out the window to look at the girl's tennis team's fluttery skirts.
Aogami Pierce's forced Kansai dialect sent Kamijou's focus in an about-face to the classroom.
"..."
| ← Ch. 001 | Ch. 003 → |