Toaru Majutsu no Index

Volume 14, Chapter 3: Something Far Removed from Magicians. Power_Instigation.

Part 1

District 23 of Academy City was an industrial zone that specialized in aviation and space. All of Academy City’s major airports were centered in District 23.

The district was covered in runways and rocket launch sites, so it lacked tall buildings like the rest of the city. As far as the eye could see, it was flat asphalt with occasional control towers and laboratories sticking out.

“It’s like a field made of stone and iron...”

Kamijou said this as he stepped off the train and looked out at the landscape stretching out in front of him.

This was the place where he had fought Oriana Thomson during the Daihaseisai, but he got the impression that the security was even tighter now.

He put the grocery bags he had been carrying in a coin locker at the station. Since there were a lot of researchers in this city, the coin lockers were airtight and one had the option of making them refrigerated.

But...

“...This is expensive. Do these things usually cost this much per hour!?”

“Nyah. Looks like it’d be cheaper to just throw those bags out and buy the stuff again at a cheap super market when we get back.”

Tsuchimikado had a point, but Kamijou didn’t like wasting food. He put the bags in the locker, recorded his fingerprint, locked it, and activated the refrigeration option.

Kamijou headed for the station’s exit and spoke to Tsuchimikado.

“I assume we’re catching a plane since we’re in District 23?”

“Well, we're leaving the country.”

“Seriously!? ...Wait, did someone get my passport?”

“Nope.”

Kamijou fell silent at Tsuchimikado’s one word response.

Tsuchimikado sounded bored as he continued speaking.

“It’s not like we’re going for a trip overseas. Our activities are completely unofficial. And if we’re found out, we’ll be in international trouble that pales in comparison to not having a stamp or two in our passports.”

“I-I see.”

There were plenty of things he wanted to say, but the matter-of-fact way Tsuchimikado said that made him wonder if this way really was better.

After exiting the station, they were at a large-scale bus terminal. In District 23, one traveled by taking busses instead of walking.

Tsuchimikado found the bus heading to the international airport and got on; Kamijou followed suit.

Since the district had many runways and lacked buildings, the road was straight as an arrow. The speed limit was fairly high as well; the posted signs noted 100 kph.

With the asphalt plain out the window, even the gray horizon was man-made.

Large white clouds of steam could be seen rising up from the horizon.

A low-pitched tremor shook the glass, causing vibrations.

“Oh, a rocket. Looks like it launched fine.”

Tsuchimikado sighed as he said that.

Kamijou pulled out his phone and activated the television function. The news was showing various angles of a rocket leaving the ground.

“They’re saying it’s Academy City's fourth satellite. I wonder if that’s true or not.”

“If they’re launching a rocket now, one of the reasons will be to get people speculating about it. People will say it’s everything from a military satellite to a test launch of an ICBM. The more possibilities, the more effective it is in holding others in check.”

(So this is what information warfare is...)

Kamijou suddenly froze.

“...Wait. What about Index?”

He didn’t want to take her anywhere dangerous, but he couldn’t exactly leave her alone with no food.

“Don’t worry. Maika will be going to your room, Kami-yan. She’ll probably be only a third as hungry as usual after Maika’s done with her.”

Kamijou was relieved to hear that, but then realized that his sole purpose in Index’s eyes was to make food for her.

Before long, the bus arrived at the international airport.

Kamijou got off the bus and checked the time on his phone.

“Tsuchimikado. Where exactly are we going anyway?”

“France.”

Tsuchimikado responded casually.

“Ugeh!? Europe! That’s a long ways away... Wait, how long are we going to be gone? And doesn’t a flight to Europe take something like 10 hours?”

“No, we’ll be there in just under an hour.”

“Hah?”

Kamijou responded in confusion.

Tsuchimikado seemed to be annoyed at having to explain, so he simply pointed to the runway a bit away from the terminal building.

There were multiple large passenger planes lined up, each a few dozen meters long.

“We’ll be getting on one of those.”

“...Please tell me you’re kidding.”

Kamijou was almost speechless as he asked Tsuchimikado for confirmation.

He had ridden on a plane like that once before.

“If I recall correctly, that’s the type of plane that took me from Venice to Japan.”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard, Kami-yan. I didn’t have much involvement in the whole ‘Queen of the Adriatic’ incident, so I don’t know the details.”

“So are those really the ones that fly at 7000 KPH?”

“Hahaha,” laughed Tsuchimikado. “The faster the better, right?”

“That’s too fast!! When I was riding that thing, it felt like a thick metal sheet was slowly crushing my body! Index had finally started opening her heart to the science side and that thing made the shutters over her heart seal up tight!!”

There was also the part where Index had ordered some in-flight food and it flew behind her spectacularly.

“Oh, c’mon, Kami-yan. We’re heading out on an unofficial overseas mission. Did you really think we were going to head to France while we leisurely ate an in-flight meal and watched a movie?”

“W-well, no. I was expecting there to be a little more tension than that, but... Wait. We’re really getting on that thing? I-I really can’t recommend the experience!!”

“Don’t worry. Don’t worry. After you exceed Mach 3, an amateur won’t feel the difference.”

“How the hell is that supposed to make me worry less!?”

Kamijou kept complaining, but Tsuchimikado stopped listening and started explaining what to do once they got on the plane. It seemed there were no other planes, so they really had no choice. Tsuchimikado led Kamijou through a door for "authorized personnel only" and down a corridor that led them to the supersonic passenger plane while circumventing the general-use gate.

Part 2

“The C-Document. That’s the name of the spiritual item in the center of all this.”

Tsuchimikado’s voice resounded throughout the spacious plane.

The supersonic passenger plane was a size bigger than usual passenger planes, but they were the only two on board, disregarding the crew, making the plane feel quite empty.

Since they were the only two passengers, Kamijou and Tsuchimikado were sitting right in the middle of the area with the nicest first class seats. Unlike the cramped economy seats, they had more than enough room to stretch out their legs.

Tsuchimikado was facing the seat next to him where Kamijou was sitting.

“Its formal name is the Document of Constantine. The Christian Church originally underwent persecution by the Roman Empire until Emperor Constantine recognized it as an official religion. The C-Document is a document created for the Roman Catholic Church by Constantine.”

Those words weren’t the words of the classmate Kamijou knew. Tsuchimikado Motoharu was now in full magician mode.

“The C-Document stated that the Roman Pope is the leader of the Christian Church and that the land in Europe that Constantine ruled over belonged to the Pope. Since Constantine owned the majority of Europe, it essentially meant that the Pope owned Europe and all of the people living there had to obey the Roman Catholic Church. From their point of view, it’s a certificate that grants the Roman Catholic Church things that sound way too good to be true.”

Tsuchimikado continued speaking as he worked with the LCD touch-screen next to his seat.

“As a spiritual item, the C-Document’s power is... well, you could say it’s kind of like a compass. For the land Constantine ruled over about 1700 years ago, you can use the C-Document even today to make symbols appear that indicate that that land was inherited from the emperor. Since the emperor’s inheritance is composed of things given to the Roman Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church is given the lands and items that correspond on the C-Document to develop or use as necessary."

Tsuchimikado stopped speaking and stared at Kamijou’s face.

“Kami-yan, are you even listening?”

“Ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ughh-ughhh-ughhhh!!”

Kamijou could not respond.

7000 kph. The powerful g-forces created by such a speed were crushing Kamijou Touma’s internal organs, leaving him unable to respond properly. It felt as if there were a basketball being pushed up against his stomach while someone stomped on it as hard as he or she could.

By being perfectly fine in that circumstance, Tsuchimikado was the strange one.

“Well, whatever. Just listen up.”

“Ugh-gh!!”

Tsuchimikado was not sure whether that was a response or a moan.

“As I said, the C-Document sounds a bit too good to be true for the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, a 15th century scholar declared it to be fake, and he was right. The C-Document’s effects and powers as a spiritual item are quite different.”

“Ggh-gh-ghh-gh!!”

“The real power of the C-Document acts on a much greater scale. It distorts that which is said by the Roman Pope to be ‘accurate information’.”

Tsuchimikado smoothly moved his lips as he spoke quietly.

“For example, if the Pope declared that the members of a certain faith were enemies of humanity that were upsetting the public order, it would be a fact from the moment he said it. If he declared that 'you will not burn your hand if you touch a hot sheet of metal as long as you pray while you do', that too would be believed without a shred of evidence.”

“Ohh-gh-gh-gh!”

"C’mon, Kami-yan! At least look this way!”

Kamijou’s upper body was shaking violently but he still managed to speak.

“So... if he uses that C-Document... everything the Pope says... is true...?”

It seemed he was actually able to follow the conversation well enough to grasp that much. Kamijou was trying to see if talking rather than listening alleviate his pains. It was his last resort.

“So... he can make everything he desires to come true? ...Kind of like the Ars Magna in alchemy? ...Oghh!!”

“No, not like that.”

Tsuchimikado looked so carefree it almost looked like he would start humming.

“The C-Document can only make people 'believe' that things are true. No matter how ridiculous it is, it makes people think it must be true because the Pope said it is. It doesn’t actually alter the laws of physics.”

Tsuchimikado did something on the touch-screen installed in the armrest.

“Also, it only makes people believe if they care what the Roman Catholic Church says. Conversely, people who don’t care whether what the Roman Catholic Church says is true or not aren’t affected by it. For better or worse, this spiritual item is solely for use by the Roman Catholic Church.”

“S-s-so... it’s a spiritual item that makes people think what you say is true? B-but that’s... Ugh.”

“Haha. I guess it might sound like cheating. But there are plenty of tricks that were used to maintain one's majesty back in the day when the things powerful people said were taken as absolute laws. After all, the majesty of those powerful people determined whether people believed on those absolute laws of theirs or not. And if that belief wavered, the entire country could be in danger. Even in Japan there was the practice during the Edo period of cutting people in two if they spoke badly of the samurai. What easier way of regulating the ideas people have is there?”

“S-s-s-s-so...they made the C-Document because...”

“Yes, because they were afraid. They were afraid of losing control of the world they had created. The Roman Catholic Church has had multiple crises throughout history. But the Christian Church and God are supposed to be absolute. God is supposed to be a being that will save humans from any crisis. And yet the population of Europe fell greatly during the black plague, there were many failures during the Crusades, and no one knew when the Ottoman Turks would attack Europe en masse.”

Tsuchimikado said this all in an unfeeling voice, but there was a compassionate glint to his eyes.

“The idea that ‘God is absolute’ was challenged again and again. And the Roman Catholic Church needed to keep that idea around. That’s why they needed the C-Document. With it, they could ensure that the people’s hearts would stay with them even in the worst crisis.”

You could almost say that it was a spiritual item that filled in the gap between the ideal and reality.

It was a tool that protected the hope of the people by forcing them to “believe”.

It could seem quite cruel, but at the same time there was some kindness in the intention behind it.

(S-s-so the Roman Catholic Church is using that C-Document now...)

Kamijou took deep breaths as he thought.

(They’re making people believe that the information that the people of Academy City are the bad guys is “correct”. And because they’re forcing that information on people, it’s showing up in the twisted form of these demonstrations.)

Kamijou then moved his lips that had turned pale from the effect of the G’s.

“B-b-b-b-but...if they had such a dreadful spiritual item...why haven’t they used it yet...?”

“Because the effects of the C-Document are enormous. Once something is set as being ‘correct’, it’s hard to take it back even by using the C-Document again. Because of this, they can’t be setting every little thing as ‘correct’.”

Tsuchimikado answered the question smoothly.

“Also, the C-Document isn’t exactly easy to use. As I said, it makes people think that something the Roman Pope said is ‘correct’. It can’t be used by just anyone and it can’t be used just anywhere. It was originally made so it could only be used when it was at the center of the Vatican. The command spreads around the world all at once from there via leylines.”

“Eh? Ghh... B-but aren’t we...heading to go keep them from using it?”

“We are.”

“Th-then why France? You just said...the C-Document can only...be used at the Vatican...”

“Hm? Oh, right. About that.”

“A-and...you said...after they use it...they can’t delete that command, right? But that would mean...we can’t do anything...about it.”

“Let’s see. Which question should I answer first?”

As Tsuchimikado spoke, a soft electronic tone came from the plane’s speakers.

Then a synthesized-sounding female voice made an announcement. It was in a foreign language, but Kamijou didn’t think it was English. After hearing the announcement, Tsuchimikado’s face grew grim.

“...Well, it looks like we’re out of time. Kami-yan, are you really okay? If you’re not feeling too good, try taking some deep breaths. C’mon, breathe in."

“Huhh.”

“Breathe out.”

“Hoo.”

“Breathe in again.”

“Huhh.”

“And breathe out again.”

“Hoo.”

After doing that, Kamijou did feel better...or at least he thought he did.

But Tsuchimikado’s face looked more and more grim.

“That doesn’t look too good. Maybe you’d feel better if you vomited? Well, c’mon, Kami-yan. Take off your seatbelt and follow me. C’mon, there are no flight attendants, so you don’t have to worry about getting in trouble, Kami-yan.”

Tsuchimikado stood up from his seat calmly and Kamijou slowly followed. Kamijou didn’t feel like he was moving of his own free will; he felt like he was removed from the situation and his body was moving on its own.

Tsuchimikado walked down the passageway, opened a door, walked into an even smaller passageway, stepped through a hatch so low it looked he was going to hit his head, and walked into an area that was just bare metal where a rumbling noise could be heard from all around.

(Where are we?)

Kamijou was in a daze and took a backpack like object Tsuchimikado handed him.

“Here. Put this on.”

“??? Tsuchimikado? What was that about feeling better if I vomited?”

“Don’t worry. Don’t worry. I’ll be opening it up soon, so hurry up and put that on.”

Tsuchimikado had already gotten the belts attached to the backpack wrapped around his body. The whole thing was pretty excessive. There were belts connecting the backpack to him not just over both shoulders, but around his stomach and chest too.

Kamijou didn’t really understand what was going on, but put his own belts on the same way he saw Tsuchimikado do it.

“Okay, Kami-yan. Looks like you’re ready to go.”

Tsuchimikado used the palm of his hand to press a big button on the wall that looked like the lid of a tin can.

“Okay, now you can vomit as much as you want!!”

Kamijou heard an odd, loud noise.

Just after Kamijou realized it was the sound of a large pump, a large portion of the wall suddenly opened revealing nothing but the blue sky.

“What?”

Kamijou was completely stunned.

And before he could think any further, a violent wind arose inside the plane and started sucking everything out.

“Ts-Ts-Ts-Ts-Tsuchimikadoooooooo!?”

Kamijou frantically grabbed a protuberance on the wall, but he doubted he could hold on for long.

In the midst of the roaring wind, Tsuchimikado had a huge grin on his face.

“C’mon, Kami-yan. You’re all set up, so vomit as much as you want!”

“You shut the fuck up!! W-why the hell would you throw open the luggage hatch!?”

“Because if we landed at a French airport like a bunch of idiots, those Roman Catholic bastards would find out. This plane’s headed for London. We’re getting off partway there.”

“Are you stupid!? Think about how fast this plane is moving! Throwing open the hatch at over 7000 kph will tear the plane to pieces!!”

“Sorry, but it’s already open.”

“We’re gonna die!!”

“You’re the stupid one, Kami-yan. If I had really done that, we wouldn’t be able to sit around talking to each other like this.”

The plane must have lowered its speed in order for them to get off. And it was true that Kamijou was feeling better since he wasn’t being affected by the G’s as much...

“H-hey. Then what were those deep breaths for!? They were pointless, weren’t they!?”

“C’mon, Kami-yan. Quit struggling in vain and let go of the wall already.”

“I was grateful. I was truly grateful that you were worrying about me!! And yet you were just being a bastard!!”

“Just shut up and go.”

Tsuchimikado kicked Kamijou’s hand from the protuberance on the wall and the spiky-haired boy lost his last support.

The strong wind blowing out of the plane picked him up and he flew out of the baggage hatch and into the empty sky.

It was just past noon local time.

Below the refreshingly blue sky, a high school boy was screaming his lungs out.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!”

There was only blue sky 360 degrees around him.

It was probably due both to him flailing his arms and legs around and to air resistance moving the wind in an odd way, but his body was tumbling in confusing directions.

(Wh-what’s going on? Just a few hours ago, I was having a forkball competition with Fukiyose. So why was I just flung out into the sky above France!?)

As he was tumbling, he managed to spot Tsuchimikado jump from the plane smiling like someone who was really into sky sports.

(I’ll kill him... When we get to the ground, I’m going to beat the shit out of that bastard!!)

(...Actually, how are we going to land safely?)

Kamijou’s face went pale.

But then the backpack he was wearing exploded.

A large parachute opened up from inside. It must have been set to activate automatically at a certain altitude.

But it caught Kamijou completely by surprise.

“Ghhh!? My neck! I-it’s caught around my-...!”

He couldn’t finish his complaint.

His arms and legs dangled down as he floated down in a very natural pose.

He had no way of knowing his parachute got caught in the wind and strayed from the area he was supposed to land at and that he had landed in the Rhone River which was known for having a width of over 100 meters.

Part 3

Kamijou heard the sound of water.

What confused him was that the sound was coming from his own mouth.

His parachute had gotten caught in the wind and he had ended up in the middle of a river. He couldn’t feel the bottom below his feet. He wasn’t great at swimming, but he wasn’t particularly bad at it either. However, with his clothes soaked and with the giant parachute wrapped around him, he wasn’t floating very well.

There was no sign that Tsuchimikado had landed nearby. But since he was sinking into the water, having been separated from Tsuchimikado was the least of his worries.

He had no idea how deep the water was.

It was possible it wasn’t very deep at all, but it was definitely enough for Kamijou to drown in given how disoriented he was. The water wasn’t doing anything except making him panic.

He began paddling the water with his arms at a rate 2 or 3 times slower than his racing thoughts.

His arms were shaking terribly.

The shaking was due to his muscles being tired, the water robbing his body of heat, and the fear that he would never get his head out of the water. All of this put together made him feel like something was restraining his movements.

(Oh, shit.)

The air he had stored in his mouth came spilling out.

He could see the light of the sun shining on the surface above his head.

The dancing light threw his sense of distance out of whack.

(Come to think of it, this happened to me once before when I was thrown from the ice ship in Chioggia...)

As Kamijou stared at the surface, he saw what looked like an odd revolving lantern coming down towards him.

The surface burst open with a large number of bubbles.

(...!!)

Before Kamijou could be surprised, a slender hand reached out from the white curtain of air.

Just as he realized someone must have dived into the water, the white hand grabbed his wrist.

He was then pulled up by a strong force.

Kamijou’s body was oddly limp as he was pulled towards the surface as if by a rope.

It didn’t even take 10 seconds for his face to breach the surface and meet the air.

He heard a loud splash.

He had a hard time breathing in the oxygen he had been wishing for so badly.

The muscles moving his throat and lungs weren’t working properly.

“A-are you okay!?”

He heard a girl’s voice nearby.

The parachute continued to act as a weight pulling Kamijou’s body down. The girl raised her voice as she supported both their weights.

“I’m going to head for the bank. Just stay limp like that!!”

When they got near the riverside...or rather a shallower portion of the river, Kamijou managed to sit down. Due to his clothes and the parachute absorbing so much water, he felt very heavy. And the cord for the parachute had gotten all tangled up as he had struggled in the water making it nothing more than a hindrance.

“I-Is this how it works?”

The girl stretched out her slender hand.

Kamijou heard a loud clicking noise and found he was finally free of the parachute.

He then slowly stood up from the portion of the river he was in that was no deeper than a puddle.

He looked up and saw the sun high in the sky, so it had to be just past noon. But there was no one else around except for Kamijou and the girl. Perhaps people were staying indoors out of fear of the demonstrations and riots.

He looked around.

There was an arch-shaped stone bridge nearby, but it was partially destroyed and only went partway out over the river.

The girl may have jumped into the water from there.

Kamijou then turned towards the girl who had saved him.

He was supposed to be in France, but the girl was Japanese.

She looked about the same age as Kamijou.

She had shoulder-length black hair and double eyelids. She was wearing a pink tank top and white knee-length pants. She had an overall slender silhouette.

“Did you swallow any water...?”

The girl looking at him worriedly looked familiar.

He was pretty sure she was...

“Cough. Itsuwa of the Amakusas?”

“Ah, yes. Nice to see you again.”

Itsuwa cutely bowed her head.

But she was supposed to be living in London along with the rest of the Amakusas. She wouldn’t be in France for no reason.

(Why is Itsuwa here? ...Actually, there’s only one reason why she would be here.)

“Hey, Itsuwa. Were you called here by Tsuchimikado?”

“Um...Who is Tsuchimikado-san?”

Betraying Kamijou’s expectations, Itsuwa cocked her head to the side in confusion.

“Cough. Huh, that’s not it?” Kamijou clearly hadn’t expected that. “I mean, surely you’re here because the Roman Catholic Church is using the C-Document to cause the demonstrations and protests around the world, right?”

“H-how do you know about that!?”

Itsuwa brought her hand to her mouth in surprise.

“I-it’s true that we were investigating the C-Document, but how do you know about the lead it took us so long to find!? I suppose it should be expected of the one who defeated the Priestess in a single blow!!”

Her eyes were sparkling for some reason, but Kamijou had no recollection of any such event due to his lost memories. It actually kind of scared him.

(What the hell did I do to Kanzaki?)

“Um, well, uh...Why did you come floating down on a parachute all of a sudden? Are things okay at your school in Japan?”

Kamijou was faced with an even more basic question.

He scratched at his hair that was wet with dirty river water as he answered.

“I came here with Tsuchimikado in order to put a stop to the C-Document. Did the Anglican Church not inform you of Tsuchimikado’s actions?”

“We were investigating the leylines and other magical properties of the land in France on a request from the Anglican Church.”

“I see.”

Kamijou wasn’t really paying attention. But then he blinked.

“We?”

“Yes,” Itsuwa said and gave a small nod. “The 52 combat-ready members of the Amakusa-style Church. We’re all going around to the major cities in France. I was in charge of Avignon, but then you came falling from the sky...”

“...I see. So this is Avignon.”

He had been dragged along and dropped from the plane by Tsuchimikado, so he had had no idea where he was. When he thought about it, he was really lucky he had run into a Japanese person he knew.

And since Tsuchimikado had been taking him to Avignon, it was highly likely the Roman Catholic Church had the C-Document here.

That meant this was an enemy base.

And Kamijou had fallen right in the middle of it.

“Hey, Itsuwa. Tsuchimikado had said the C-Document could only be used at the Vatican.”

“Th-that’s true.”

“Then why were you investigating France and not Italy? I asked him, but I was thrown out of the plane before he could answer.”

Itsuwa must have thought that last part was some kind of joke she didn’t get, because she gave a bit of a forced smile.

And then Itsuwa remembered something.

“U-um... Can I go get my bag before I answer that?”

“Your bag?”

“I left it on top of the bridge. I-I’m a little worried it might get stolen.”

She must be referring to the half-destroyed arch-shaped bridge that was nearby.

Apparently, she really had jumped from the bridge.

“I see. Oh, and thanks. I really would have been in trouble if you hadn’t saved me.”

“N-no, no! It was nothing, really!!”

Itsuwa shook her head back and forth at an amazing speed and waved her hands in front of her face as she said that. Small droplets of water flew from her fingertips.

Seeing that, Kamijou asked her a question.

“Oh, one more thing, Itsuwa. Do you have a change of clothes in your bag?”

“Eh? W-well, the Amakusa-style Church does specialize in secrecy.”

She was confused by Kamijou’s sudden question, but a bit of pride could be seen in her expression as she gave that explanation.

“Most of my luggage is at the hotel, but I do have a change of clothes with me in order to tail someone or to get away. I haven’t had to use it so far, though.”

“I see. Good.”

“?”

Itsuwa still didn’t understand what he was talking about.

But Kamijou was reluctant to directly tell her.

So he moved his gaze from Itsuwa to the blue sky and pointed at what he was talking about.

“...”

Itsuwa followed Kamijou’s finger with her eyes and saw what he was pointing at.

Her chest.

More specifically, at her pink tank top that had gone see-through and was sticking to her from being wet and thus was causing her full silhouette to be visible.

Part 4

Now, Itsuwa was a girl with a peaceful and honest personality.

Even with Kamijou directly pointing out the issue, she made no eccentric actions such as slapping him, biting his head, frying him with a billion volts of electricity, or anything else. Her face merely turned bright red and she gave a strained laugh. She merely said, “Ah. Ah ha ha. Sorry about showing you that. Ah ha ha ha ha,” and crossed her arms to hide her chest and jogged off towards the stone bridge the bag with her change of clothes was on.

She was smiling, but there was a hint of tears in her eyes. It felt like a quite sensible and adult reaction.

“Hmm...”

For some reason, Kamijou was left feeling really awkward about the whole thing.

He stared off into the distance wishing she had at least screamed or something.

Ten minutes later, Itsuwa was back wearing different clothes leaving Kamijou wondering where exactly she had changed. She was dry now, but she must have still smelled of river water, because he could tell she had put on some perfume.

“S-sorry for keeping you.”

Itsuwa had a large bag over her shoulder.

She was wearing a pale ice cream-like green blouse and dark brown pants short enough to leave her calves visible. The blouse was made of material so thin it almost made you think you would be able to see through it if the sun was shining on it. The shirt wasn’t held closed by buttons; it was instead tied just above the navel.

That shirt was all she was wearing on her upper body.

“...Itsuwa-san?”

“I-I had no choice! I only had it to put on over the tank top to make it look like a different outfit! So please don’t say anything!!”

It seemed she was telling the truth, because on closer inspection the blouse didn’t even have buttons. Tying the front was the only way of keeping it closed.

She must have known that she was pushing it with that outfit, because she curled up a bit to avoid Kamijou’s silent gaze.

But she was stuck in this situation because she had jumped into the river to save him.

Kamijou used all the limited resources of his brain to try and find something to say.

“Well, with the way Kanzaki dresses, this is okay, right?”

“The Priestess doesn’t dress sluttily like this!!”

Itsuwa went all out denying that Kanzaki dressed inappropriately, but then realized again that she was dressed “sluttily” herself and her entire face turned red.

(Well, with the way Kanzaki acts like she could party all night, it works. The way Itsuwa is getting all embarrassed, trying to hide herself, and fidgeting around, it makes her stand out even more.)

“I don’t really know who Tsuchimikado-san is, but, if you’re here to retrieve the C-Document, maybe we should work together until you can meet up with him.”

Itsuwa may have wanted to quickly move the subject away from her outfit, because she kind of forced the topic to their job.

Since Kamijou didn’t know a lick of French and had no passport, he couldn’t exactly go back to Japan on his own, so he was hoping things would work out the way Itsuwa had suggested.

“W-well, it’d be a huge help to me if we could do that.”

“Okay, first let’s find somewhere to sit. We can discuss some things.”

Kamijou was about to agree, but then he looked down and saw what he looked like.

“I’m soaking wet... I’d like to at least get this mud off.”

Itsuwa’s back straightened suddenly after hearing Kamijou’s casual comment.

She hurriedly rummaged through her bag.

“W-w-well...I-I have a wet towel you could...”

Before she could finish, a towel was draped over Kamijou’s head.

He turned around in surprise and saw a white man walking with a large dog. The man didn’t even turn around and waved a hand while saying something in an annoyed fashion that must have meant something along the lines of “You can keep it.”

“...Ah. There are some nice people here. Why do French people have a cool way of doing every little thing? ...Hm? Itsuwa, why did you just stiffen up like that?”

“N-no reason...”

Itsuwa’s shoulders drooped. Kamijou tilted his head in puzzlement as he wiped the mud from his face and clothes with the towel.

“Oh, right. They’re having those demonstrations and riots here, right? Do they have inspections? You see, I don’t have my passport with me.”

“They have plenty of inspections, but at most they’ll check your belongings. I don’t think they’ll ask you for your passport. And I can trick the inspector using magic.”

Itsuwa readjusted her bag’s shoulder strap as she mumbled something about a hot towel working better than a regular one.

Avignon.

The old town of that city in southern France was surrounded by about 4 kilometers of castle walls. There were a large number of buildings crammed into that limited space. In the city’s golden age, it was hugely influential on the entire culture of Europe. Partially because of that, it was still one of the leading tourist spots in France.

“...Hmm. So you were investigating Avignon for the C-Document? I understand that much, but...” Kamijou asked for an explanation from Itsuwa while they walked through an arched castle gate leading inside the large stone walls and to the old walled town of Avignon.

They entered a plaza-like area and Kamijou saw what looked like an open café. The sign on the side of the road for the café had something written in French (at least Kamijou thought it was. He wasn’t sure.) and English. It must have been a café for tourists because it had a lot of things to help accommodate people who were here for the first time.

Itsuwa brought Kamijou away from the plaza and into a small pathway. Kamijou assumed there must be a hole-in-the-wall place Itsuwa knew about.

“I know you said we were going somewhere we could sit down, but...”

“Y-yes?”

“Why Drory Coffee? I mean, I know it’s a foreign company, so it isn’t surprising that they have them in France, but this is exactly like the Japanese chain. Couldn’t we go to a store that’s more...y’know, the kind of little known place that was started by some old couple or something?”

“W-well, there are places like that, but...”

Itsuwa sounded apologetic.

“Um...Places like that have mostly local people in them, so Japanese people like us would stand out more. It’s much safer to be at a chain that lots of Japanese tourists go to...”

“Nnn...” Kamijou moaned.

He kind of agreed with her, but then he realized something else.

“...Wait a second, Itsuwa. I’m still pretty dirty.”

He had been given a towel back at the river, but he couldn’t get everything off with that. He was mostly dry now, but the mud wasn’t going anywhere.

“If I go in a store like this, won’t I get kicked out as soon as they see me?”

“You’ll be fine.” Itsuwa responded casually. “The way things are now, you’re fine.”

Kamijou figured out what she meant as soon as he stepped into the store.

The layout of the store was exactly the same as the ones in Japan.

The walls facing the road were covered in glass and in front of the glass there was a long table with seats lined up in front of it. The center of the floor had booth seats for four and the counter where you ordered was all the way in the back. Kamijou couldn’t read French, but from the “no smoking” marks on placards placed around the store, the entire store must have been a “no smoking” area.

The only differences from Japan were about the people inside.

Obviously, the people were French instead of Japanese.

There had been no one around where he had landed after parachuting in, but the store was packed. They may have been afraid of the demonstrations and riots, but they still had to go out to make a living. People were only going to the places they had to which concentrated the streams of people to specific areas.

And there was another difference.

The majority of the customers had disheveled hair and clothing, were covered in mud, and had bandages wrapped around their limbs. Everyone from the strongest adult to the smallest child at the very least had bruises on their faces. You would have been hard pressed to find someone who was unscathed.

“So this is what the results of the demonstrations and protests are...”

Kamijou sighed as he spoke.

So far, Academy City and the Roman Catholic Church had been showing their opposition for each other, but no full-blown military actions had been taken. However, this had caused a change that was having a real effect on the world nonetheless. Even though no one had wanted this horrible change.

“We have to do something about this as soon as possible,” Itsuwa said in a quiet voice.

“...I know. And we’re here to figure out how to do that,” Kamijou responded.

This was no time to leisurely eat some food, but Itsuwa pointed out that they would stand out if they sat down without ordering anything. Kamijou agreed because he would have felt awkward having a discussion while the workers glared at him, and he headed for the counter.

Of course, the young woman standing behind the register was French.

(Now then...)

“I-Itsuwa-san. Since I’m in France, do I have to speak French?”

“What?”

“I’m wondering if there’s any chance some French people might understand English.”

“Well, I think most people in the EU would understand English. Unlike an island nation like Japan, the sense of nationality here is a little bit weaker. See, that customer over there is German. Oh, and that one’s Italian. Since they have to speak with people from a lot of different countries, most employees dealing with customers at chain stores have to know more than just French.”

“I-I see!!” Kamijou was suddenly filled with motivation.

The time had come to show the fruits of his labors with the “English Training Made Easy” app on his phone.

He had actually been a bit discouraged because he had been stuck at practice level 4, but this was no time to worry about that. He walked purposefully towards the counter and spoke before the worker could ask him for his order.

“Coffee and sandwich, please!!”

His pronunciation was quite bad, but the woman nodded.

(Sh-she understood me!!)

But just as Kamijou was celebrating his English skills, the woman said something in a foreign language that must have meant, “That will be 7 euros”.

Kamijou freaked out.

They didn’t take yen.

“Wh-what do I do...!!”

Kamijou’s expression made it look like he had been struck by lightning, but Itsuwa handed him a euro bill.

(Okay, I need to pay her back for that. ...Wait, how many yen is a Euro?)

As Kamijou was wondering that, Itsuwa spoke to the worker.

“U-um, I would like an espresso, a black ham sandwich, and some healthy vegetable sticks.”

The French worker nodded again showing she had understood and Kamijou yelled in shock.

“Ehh, Japanese!? I could have used Japanese!?”

When he looked closer at the workers, he noticed that they had a bunch of small flag-shaped badges on their shoulders. They most likely indicated what languages they could understand.

This made Kamijou really doubt his English ability. It was possible she only understood his pronunciation because she knew Japanese.

Kamijou was fairly disheartened as he took his tray and went ahead to find a table. Itsuwa came a bit later.

Itsuwa first put her tray on the table and then put the bag hanging from her shoulder down by her feet.

Kamijou could hear a heavy metallic clank come from the bag.

“...?”

He looked towards the bag.

When he did, Itsuwa’s face went red and she shook her hands in front of her face.

“D-don’t worry about that.”

“Yeah, but...”

He was about to continue when Itsuwa spoke while barely moving her lips.

“(...Um, I have a weapon in there.)”

“Hah?”

“(...The grip is split into 5 parts. When I need to use it, I can connect the attachments making a single spear. I know adding in the joints makes the spear less strong, but this way I can carry it around with me.)”

(Come to think of it, I did see her swinging around a huge spear in Chioggia.)

“By the way, have you been able to contact that Tsuchimikado person yet?”

“No.”

Kamijou took his phone out of his pocket.

“...We got split up during our descent and I can’t contact him. I’m able to make calls, but it seems his phone is off or he’s out of range of an antenna. ...Well, knowing him, he should be fine no matter what happens.”

He tried calling again, but there was no sign of it connecting to Tsuchimikado’s phone.

(This is a tough phone. I fell in that river and it’s perfectly fine.)

Kamijou put the phone back in his pocket.

Kamijou was thinking of having a strategy discussion with Itsuwa while eating his sandwich, but he noticed he didn’t have any napkins on his tray.

“Ah, what now? I wanted to wipe my hands off before I ate...”

For some reason, Itsuwa’s eyes sparkled after hearing his complaint.

“I-i-i-i-in that case, I can...”

Her face turned bright red and she started rummaging through the bag at her feet, but then a female worker who was coming by said something in French that sounded like an apology and plopped down a pile of napkins.

Itsuwa froze in shock while for some reason holding out a personal wet towel.

Once he had wiped his hands off with the napkins, Kamijou decided to get down to business.

“So, you said before that you’re here investigating around Avignon...Huh? What is it, Itsuwa?”

“N-nothing...”

She seemed to have lost all energy like a house plant that had been left by the window too long during the summer.

Kamijou started again.

“So you’ve been searching around Avignon, right? So why are you searching France instead of the Vatican? Did you find anything suspicious?”

“Y-yes,” Itsuwa nodded. “I was actually planning to gather some more information and then contact the rest of the Amakusas spread out around France.”

“So you found what you’re looking for?” Kamijou asked for confirmation and Itsuwa didn’t deny it.

“Do you know of the building called the Palace of the Popes?”

“?”

“It’s the largest Roman Catholic facility in Avignon. Or rather, the city of Avignon was built around it.”

“The Popes...” Kamijou muttered.

(By “pope” does it mean “The Pope” pope?)

“Hm? But wouldn’t the Palace of the Popes be in the Vatican? That name makes it sound really important.”

“Well...” Itsuwa began.

It seemed she was having trouble figuring out what to say.

“There are some complicated circumstances surrounding the city of Avignon.”

“Complicated circumstances?”

“At the end of the 13th century, there was a dispute between the Roman Catholic Pope and the French king. And the winner of that dispute was the French king. He gained the right to order around the Pope at the time. One of his orders was for the Pope to leave his headquarters and come live in France.

“That started what is known as the Avignon Papacy,” added Itsuwa.

“And the Pope’s headquarters was the Vatican?”

“N-no. At the time, it was known as the Papal State.

“Apparently, the French wanted to control the Pope in order to use the various privileges and benefits the Roman Catholic Church had. Avignon was chosen as the place to imprison the Pope. And the palace the Pope was imprisoned in was named the Palace of the Popes.”

“Imprisoned, huh?”

“For the 68 years of the Avignon Papacy, there were multiple Popes and they all had to act as Pope from here.”

Itsuwa chewed on a vegetable stick.

“But there are many things the Pope had to do that could only be done in the Papal State. Things like the investiture of Cardinals and various ecumenical council meetings could be carried out by a representative. But things that had to be done within the Papal State, in buildings within the Papal State, or with certain spiritual items in the Papal State couldn’t be done from Avignon in the same way.

“Doing so would have been akin to creating an entirely new Papal State,” explained Itsuwa. “So the Roman Catholic Church needed to set up a certain trick.”

“A trick?”

“They couldn’t create the same devices in Avignon that they had in the Papal State, but by creating a magical pipeline to Avignon, they could control the devices in the Papal State long distance.”

“...So it was like connecting a computer so it could access a major server?”

“When the Pope moved back from France at the end of the Avignon Papacy, the pipeline was supposed to have been severed, but from the looks of the patterns of the magical pulsation in the ground in this area, there must have either been a facility left connected where they could use the C-Document or they may have reconnected the severed pipeline.”

“Hm...” Kamijou nodded.

He thought about what he had just been told and then spoke.

“...Have you checked inside the Palace of the Popes?”

“N-no.”

Itsuwa shrank down in her seat and shook her head.

“I’m just supposed to investigate... Once I have enough information, I’m supposed to contact the Substitute Pope so that a large team can gather and break in at once.”

Apparently, Tatemiya Saiji, the Substitute Pope, had a “special spiritual item” that was passed down by the Amakusas, but it seemed that Itsuwa thought that acting alone wasn’t a very good idea when dealing with an object that affected the entire world.

(...Come to think of it, that makes Tsuchimikado and my actions pretty irregular, doesn’t it?)

“Since Tsuchimikado came here, he must have determined that Avignon seemed suspicious from some other source of information. Which means it’s highly likely that you’re right about the Roman Catholic Church using the C-Document in the Palace of the Popes.”

But then Kamijou had another thought.

“The C-Document is property of the Roman Catholic Church, right?”

“Y-yes.”

“So why does it have to be used in the Papal State?...or now it’s the Vatican, I guess. I can’t really think of any reason they can’t just take it away from their headquarters. And just because they can control devices at the Vatican from Avignon doesn’t mean there’s magic that can only be activated in Avignon, right?”

“Well, there are multiple theories regarding that...”

Itsuwa thought for a second and then continued speaking.

“It probably takes a long time to get approval to use the C-Document. The 141 Cardinals at the top of the Roman Catholic Church must all be in agreement about it. The Pope has a lot of power within the church, but he can’t use the C-Document on his decision alone. I think that’s why it hasn’t been used very often until now.

“There are conflicts between factions within the Roman Catholic Church and that rule prevents the C-Document from being used during one of those conflicts.

“According to some information I heard, they don’t need all of the Cardinals’ approval to control something via Avignon because the method is so irregular. But at the same time, since they are not activating it directly at the Vatican, preparations have to be made in Avignon causing the activation to not be instantaneous like usual. And that means that if we stop the C-Document now, we may be able to stop the chaos spreading throughout the world completely.”

“But either way you have to investigate the Palace of the Popes, huh...”

“I-I just need a bit more information to have enough to get everyone to move. I think we’ll be ready to infiltrate the Palace in a few more days.”

This war was between science and magic, but Itsuwa and the other Amakusas seemed to be fighting to stop the Roman Catholic Church.

The Anglicans probably didn’t like that the Roman Catholic Church was holding the reins of the magic side. On the other hand, they didn’t like to create direct trouble for themselves. She had said it was the “Amakusas” not the “Anglican Church”. In other words, the Anglican Church was using the Amakusas to stop the C-Document and, if the Amakusas were to fail, they would insist that it was just a small faction acting out of their control.

“...”

Kamijou was separated from Tsuchimikado.

He felt like working with Itsuwa in her plan to infiltrate the Palace of the Popes was a better plan than heading there now on his own.

That meant he had to help Itsuwa gather the information she needed.

“Itsuwa, is there anything I can help with?”

“Eh?”

“You said you wouldn’t be infiltrating the Palace for a few days, but we need to get this done as soon as possible.”

“Th-that’s true. In that case...”

Itsuwa seemed at a loss as how to answer Kamijou’s question.

But she never got a chance to answer.

There was a loud crash as all of the windows facing the street shattered simultaneously.

It wasn’t due to thrown stones. Nor was it due to being hit by bats or metal pipes.

It was due to human hands.

Hundreds of hands pushed against the glass at once and the pressure shattered the glass. Many screams erupted from within the store and a crushing horde of people flooded inside. It was like a scene from a zombie movie.

Kamijou quickly realized what had caused this clearly unusual scene.

“A riot!?”

“Th-this way!!”

Itsuwa grabbed her bag from the ground, grabbed Kamijou’s arm with her other hand, and started running. She wasn’t headed for the main exit; she was headed for the emergency exit. During that time, hundreds of people stormed inside and the store was suddenly too full to move properly like in a packed train.

“They’re Japanese!”

“Are they from Academy City!?”

“Crush them. Don’t hesitate. They’re the enemy!!”

Kamijou couldn’t understand French, but he got the gist of what they were saying from the nuances their emotions gave their voices. A multitude of hands reached for his back, but before they could reach him, he managed to get out of the open metal emergency door in what was almost a roll.

He turned to look behind him.

He heard many screams from within the store coming from some women and small children inside. But before he could go back inside to help them, Itsuwa kicked the emergency door closed.

“Itsuwa!!”

“Their actions aren’t enough to kill someone. There were just too many of them. The great number of rioters did nothing more than restrict their own movements. As long as they don’t all fall over like dominoes, there shouldn’t even be any major injuries.”

“That’s not the issue here!! We need to at least help the children so that-!!”

“This same thing...!!” Itsuwa yelled cutting Kamijou off. “This same thing is happening all over the world. If we went back into that wave of people, what could we realistically do? We’re here to destroy the source of all this as soon as we can, right?”

“...Damn it.”

“If we can stop the C-Document, this rioting will stop. If we get caught up in the rioting, we’ll do nothing more than restrict our own movements. And then there will be no one left to stop it.”

(The Roman Catholic Church is causing these riots and Academy City is doing nothing to stop them.)

“...Fuck!!” Kamijou swore and then gnashed his teeth.

(And the only ones suffering are the people caught up in the middle of it all! I can’t just ignore this. I’m stopping this here. I need to put a stop to this messed-up shit as soon as I can!!)

Kamijou and Itsuwa ran through a back street that had tall walls rising up on either side.

Kamijou could hear a throaty man’s voice yelling. The sound of shattering glass rang in his ears. He could hear high-pitched crying. And he could even hear an explosion from gas or gasoline being lit.

He had no idea what exactly the riots were targeting.

They could be targeting chains of Japanese-owned companies or maybe they were attacking hotels that Japanese sightseers often stayed in. Whatever it was, they had lost sight of their original goal and were now flooding the streets causing mayhem.

“Itsuwa, how far are we going to run!?”

“I’d like to find an area where we won’t be overrun by people for now, but...”

She cut off midsentence.

They could see another group of rioters down the street.

(Damn, they have good timing...)

Then Kamijou’s shoulders shuddered as he had a troubling thought.

“Hey, Itsuwa. You’ve been investigating here for a while, right? Did you ever get caught up in a riot like this in that time?”

“Eh? N-no. The Amakusa Church specializes in blending into the environment after all. Normally, I would leave as soon as I noticed any sign of a riot coming...”

“...So I was right.”

Itsuwa’s words confirmed what he had been thinking.

“Their timing is too good.”

“What do you mean...?”

“If the enemy controlling the C-Document is here in Avignon along with us, they may have seen me parachute in. And even if they didn’t see me directly, they probably detected an Academy City supersonic passenger plane drop something above the city. This reaction makes sense if the ones using the C-Document are on their guard.”

“You don’t mean...”

“This riot is their method of intercepting us!!”

As Kamijou yelled, the mass of people blocking the path drew closer.

The Palace of the Popes was in Avignon’s old city which was a small city surrounded by old castle walls. Because they continued cramming more and more buildings into the limited space, the roads were so small it was hard to even get a car through them. And since those paths were surrounded by buildings of over 10 meters in height, it created quite a feeling of claustrophobia.

And these small roads were blocked by waves of people at various points.

The people taking part in the riot seemed to even be injuring themselves.

Kamijou thought for a second and then resigned himself to what had to be done.

Unless they forced their way through the mountains of people ahead that was marching in the opposite direction, they would never make it to the Palace of the Popes. And taking a different path wasn’t going to solve that problem. The longer they put it off, the more everyone would be injured.

“Let’s go, Itsuwa.”

“Eh...?”

“We don’t have time to wait for a chance to contact Tsuchimikado. And the Amakusas can’t be here right away, right? So we have no choice but to force our way through those people and head for the Palace of the Popes. If the enemy knows we’re here, they may not stay here for long. Even if they flee back to the Vatican, they may continue to use the C-Document. Letting them bring the C-Document back to their headquarters can only be a bad thing. I’m a complete amateur at this kind of thing and even I can figure that much out. We need to destroy it here and now!!”

Itsuwa hesitated slightly, but finally nodded in Kamijou’s direction.

She had decided that they didn’t have time to wait for the Amakusas spread out throughout France to gather here.

As they spoke, hundreds of rioters drew near down the small road.

It was a solid wall made up of humans like the inside of a crowded train.

“...Stay crouched down as we go through,” said Itsuwa quietly as she looked at the rioters. “If our heads stick up above the crowd, we could easily become targets. We’re less likely to be spotted if we hide behind all the people around us. Even if this riot is the enemy’s way of stopping us, they don’t have any precise control over it.”

“Got it,” said Kamijou as he felt strangely nervous. “Here we go.”

As he said that, Kamijou and Itsuwa ran straight toward the rioters.

The rioters were as tightly packed as a wall, but they managed to cram themselves into their midst. There were just too many people to run. They could barely walk and at first they could only make it a few meters.

Someone screamed and hit Kamijou’s head.

He managed to move forward, but fat fingers grabbed his shirt.

He continued forward recklessly. He bit at the arm grabbing him, shoved his shoulders against the wall of people, and walked forward with people still clinging to him. He felt fingernails pierce his side and blood oozed out. He could smell the body odor of men who had been worked into a frenzy. The screaming exploding in his ear and the pressure of people pushing into him from every direction gradually ate away at his consciousness.

(Damn it...)

Kamijou’s legs started to weaken.

He was losing the power to move forward.

(Damn it...!!)

Just when he felt like he was going to be swallowed up by a mass of disgust, the wall of people suddenly thinned out.

Now that the air was not made up of the exhalations of others, he breathed in the fresh oxygen deeply.

“A-are you all right!?” Itsuwa asked from nearby.

There was a drop of blood running down from her temple. Apparently, she hadn’t been able to get through the mass of people unscathed either. She did have her spear in her bag, but she must not have wanted to swing it around here.

Kamijou started running out of the crowd of people while breathing heavily. His feet were wobbling and he felt a little shaky. He had to pay attention so he didn’t bump into the stone walls on the sides of the small road.

“...I-Itsuwa. Where is the Palace of the Popes?”

“It’s up ahead. That’s its roof you can see over there. ...We have to get through there next.”

Kamijou slowly looked over in the direction Itsuwa was pointing.

What he saw there was a large riot that made the one they had just gotten through look like nothing in comparison.

Part 5

The path to the Palace of the Popes was impassable.

Kamijou and Itsuwa were in the small old town of Avignon that was surrounded by only 4 kilometers of castle wall, but they still couldn’t reach a certain spot. The streets in the old town were small. They were only about 3 meters wide and were surrounded on either side by stone housing complexes towering up 15 meters high making it difficult to take detours. And to go ahead, they had to go through a solid wall of hundreds if not thousands of rioters. It was like trying to move from one end of a packed train to the other.

At this rate they would never make it to the Palace of the Popes.

They would be taken out here before they had a chance to destroy the C-Document.

“Not again...” Itsuwa said as she caught her breath and stared at the new group of rioters ahead of them.

Some of the rioting men with bloodshot eyes were pointing and yelling at them. Kamijou didn’t know French, but they may have been yelling, “They’re Japanese!”, or “They’re from Academy City!”, or something similar.

Before they could move, Itsuwa grabbed Kamijou’s arm and started running.

“This isn’t going to work. Come on. This is just going to end in a stalemate!”

“Hey, what about the Palace of the Popes!?” Kamijou yelled as Itsuwa led him back the way they had come.

It looked like the men who had been glaring at Kamijou and Itsuwa started following them, but they got pulled back into the huge mass of rioters.

Itsuwa didn’t like the situation any more than Kamijou.

“...That group of rioters was clearly the biggest one yet. We’re not going to get through just by running!”

“So you’re going to find another route? But...”

Kamijou started speaking, but he spotted some youths who were taking part in another riot ahead. The small path was completely blocked by a wall of people.

It wasn’t too surprising. Kamijou and Itsuwa had just pushed through that group of rioters.

“Here too!?”

Itsuwa’s voice sounded surprisingly pissed and she grabbed Kamijou’s hand while running towards the housing complex making up the wall. They leaped into the stone building that almost looked like it was made out of a cliff.

They pushed the thick wooden door closed with their backs.

The sound and impact of the rioters going by on the other side pounded on the door. But it wasn’t because someone was trying to destroy the door; it was just from the shoulders and arms of the rioters crammed into the road scraping against it.

Kamijou slid down to the ground while keeping his back on the door.

“...What do we do about this? At this rate, we’ll never get to the Palace of the Popes.”

“Making progress through these riots is difficult...” Itsuwa spoke in a quiet voice.

She lowered her bag to the ground and pulled out a few rods about 70 cm long. They came together into a single rod when she connected them using sockets that looked like gas valves. Lastly, Itsuwa connected a steel blade to the end.

It was a Western-style cross spear.

Kamijou thought it was called a Friuli Spear.

(Sigh...Well, I had thought a lot about this secret mission thing, but...)

As he was thinking, he saw something that made him choke.

He saw Itsuwa’s cleavage that was visible due to the front of her blouse being tied closed in a makeshift fashion. Kamijou thought there were plenty of problems with how she was dressed, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“What do we do now? I act so as to avoid the riots, so I don’t actually have any plan or spells to use if I ever actually got caught in one.”

“Y-yeah...We need to get to the Palace of the Popes in order to stop the riots and we need to stop the riots in order to get to the Palace of the Popes...Damn it. This is just going in circles.”

And on top of all that, there was the fact that if the enemy felt any danger they would take the C-Document and return to the Vatican while Kamijou and Itsuwa were stuck here. If the C-Document was used there, it would be even more difficult to get it. And then these riots could last forever.

They had to act now, but they were stuck. It was quite a dilemma.

Each second that was wasted felt like tens if not hundreds of times longer.

But then...

Kamijou heard his cell phone ringing in his pocket.

It was from Tsuchimikado.

“Kami-yan, you okay!?”

“Where are you!? Are you caught up in the riots, too? Are you hurt!?”

“I’m en route to the building known as the Palace of the Popes. If the C-Document is really being used in France, it has to be there.”

“The Palace of the Popes...? So you’re headed there, too?”

“?”

Kamijou continued before Tsuchimikado could respond.

“So my parachute didn’t end up somewhere way off target. We really were aiming for Avignon.”

“Well, yeah...Kami-yan, how do you know about the Palace of the Popes? I thought we jumped off the plane before I explained that.”

“I met up with Itsuwa of the Amakusas here and she explained it to me. But the riots are so intense we can’t reach the Palace. What about you?”

“It’s about the same here. Well, a lot has happened. These waves of people are working too well at blocking the small roads of Avignon. There’s no way we can get through like this.”

And with that, they both understood the other’s situation.

Tsuchimikado must have gotten caught up in the riots and was now hiding somewhere.

“Hey, Tsuchimikado. I’d like for us to meet up. Do you know a good place for that?”

“These riots are occurring all across the city. I’d rather not stay in one place for too long.”

“Then what are we going to do? Wait for the riots to die down?”

“That would be a good plan if these were occurring naturally, but these are being caused by the C-Document. The Roman Catholic Church can make this last as long as they need, so things aren’t going to change for the better with time.”

“But is there anything else we can do!?”

“Yes,” Tsuchimikado readily responded. “We need to change our way of thinking about this. If we can’t get to the Palace of the Popes, we just have to solve the problem in a way where we don’t have to go to there.”

“...?”

“Since you had that Amakusa person explain it to you, I’m sure you know why we’re focusing on Avignon’s Palace of the Popes, right?”

Kamijou thought about that for a second.

“Well, they can operate devices in the Vatican from there, right? That’s why they can use the C-Document here.”

“Right. So we just have to sever the magical pipeline connecting Avignon and the Papal State which is now the Vatican. If we do that, they shouldn’t be able to use the C-Document anymore. It may be too difficult to get to the Palace, but we should be able to get to the pipeline.”

“Oh,” Kamijou responded.

(Now that I think about it, that’s true...)

“But surely the people using the C-Document in the Palace will notice if they can’t use it anymore. Once that happens, they’ll flee.”

“True enough. I can’t deny that. That’s why our schedule is important. This will all rely on whether we can get to the Palace after we sever the pipeline.”

Kamijou thought that Tsuchimikado’s plan made sense.

He must have been gathering information on this well before they had gotten on the plane. And he must have continued to investigate while being chased by the rioters after they had gotten separated.

But Kamijou, an amateur, spotted a problem in the plan.

“Even if we know the C-Document is in the Palace of the Popes, we don’t know who’s using it. Couldn’t they just hide within the crowd of rioters? We’d never find them then.”

“...”

Tsuchimikado stayed silent for a moment before he started speaking.

“Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Stopping the C-Document comes first.”

Kamijou had a bad feeling about Tsuchimikado’s words.

(He isn’t going to use magic to find the enemy’s location again, is he?)

Tsuchimikado Motoharu had a major handicap in that he injured himself whenever he used magic.

But Kamijou knew he would ignore that handicap and use magic if he had to. He had tracked down Oriana Thomson during the Daihaseisai even when he was covered in blood.

Whether he was aware of the unease Kamijou was feeling or not, Tsuchimikado continued speaking.

“Now we finally know what exactly needs to be done, Kami-yan.”

Part 6

Kamijou and Itsuwa cut through the housing complex and went out through the back door.

“Itsuwa, are the other Amakusas not able to come yet?”

“S-sorry. I didn’t think anything like this would happen. I contacted them earlier, but they’ll be here by tomorrow morning at the earliest. If only we were in Japan where we could use the ‘vortexes’ of the transportation spell ‘Miniature Pilgrimage’...”

The path they were on was devoid of rioters and it almost looked like they could have made it all the way to Palace of the Popes without incident.

But they had no idea when a crowd of rioters would block their path and it was better not to walk long distances. It seemed Tsuchimikado was right about changing their target to the closer pipeline.

“Th-this way.”

Itsuwa was showing Kamijou the way while holding her spear.

He thought the “walls” on either side looked even taller than usual, and on closer inspection there were stone buildings built on top of the normal ones here. Because the buildings looked almost like fortifications and their walls were stained black making them look like some kind of bulwark, it was hard to tell what kind of buildings they were at first glance. The houses, shops, and churches all looked like fortresses on the outside.

“Um, I know where the place Tsuchimikado-san mentioned is...but is the pipeline connecting to the Vatican really there?”

“Don’t ask me...” Kamijou muttered as he looked at his phone.

Tsuchimikado’s voice sounded cheerful.

“Well, the method of reading leylines is pretty different between cultures, but I’m fairly sure about this.”

Apparently, the point they were headed for was near Kamijou and Itsuwa. Since it was a fair distance from Tsuchimikado, he was leaving the severing of the pipeline to them.

“Hey, what does this pipeline look like? It doesn’t stick up from the ground or anything, right?”

“A leyline is a current of power through the earth. The types of power and the directions it flows in can be quite different, though. It isn’t uncommon for a power that is crucial to a certain sect to be completely meaningless to another. That’s why the method of reading them is so different between cultures.”

Kamijou tilted his head to the side in confusion at the voice coming from the speaker and Itsuwa explained that it was a bit like the use of ingredients in the foods of different cultures.

The black ham used in Western cooking was completely ignored in Japanese cooking (recent innovations notwithstanding). In a similar fashion, sensing and drawing out the needed type of power from all the different types was the key to using leylines.

As Itsuwa smoothly explained all this, Kamijou surmised that she may specialize in Amakusa-type leyline spells.

“Y’see, Kami-yan. There are no parts of the Earth that are necessarily better than other parts. It’s us humans that put value on it like that.”

“So an amateur like me wouldn’t be able to tell it’s there, huh.”

“Anyway, a leyline important to the Roman Catholic Church is connecting Avignon and the Vatican. But it’s a distorted line that was created by people destroying and rebuilding the terrain,” Tsuchimikado explained. “Leylines are fairly easily moved. In fact, that’s the whole idea behind feng shui.”

“Sigh. I don’t really get this whole leyline thing, but is it a line directly carved in the earth?”

“As I said, by destroying the terrain, you can alter the leyline. The trick to telling between good land and bad land in feng shui is based on where there are mountains, what direction rivers are flowing in, and things like that. And nowadays, filling in rivers and destroying mountains isn’t that rare of an occurrence.”

“Magicians that use the earth have to work to make sure that important magical points aren’t destroyed like that,” Itsuwa added.

(...That sounds like a pain in the ass.)

“But you can also change the terrain in a calculated way. It’s a bit like choosing which type of leyline you want to make stronger out of all the different types in the area. But if you screw up, balance can be lost and that can be disastrous. Because of that, it can only realistically be done as a huge project on a national level.”

“So that’s how the Roman Catholic Church’s pipeline was made...”

“As I said, there are many different types of power flowing through the earth in many different directions. That’s why it can be hard to find a specific line if you have no hint to go on.” Tsuchimikado spoke smoothly. “But if I know I’m looking for a line that connects the Palace of the Popes and the Vatican, I have some criteria to search with. It’s like having a car navigation system leading you there. Anyway, if you can just destroy that pipeline, it would be a huge help. Um, Itsuwa, was it?”

“Y-yes!!”

“Just to make sure. You know the method and spell to destroy the pipeline, right?”

“U-um...I follow the Amakusa style, so I know all the standard spells of Shinto, Buddhism, and the Christianity...”

“That’ll be enough. You take care of it as soon as you spot the pipeline.”

Kamijou was merely confused by their exchange.

“Wait. Can’t I just take out the leyline or pipeline or whatever with my right hand?”

He had a power known as Imagine Breaker.

He could destroy any supernatural power whether it was magical or psychic in nature.

But Tsuchimikado disagreed with Kamijou’s view.

“I’m not so sure your Imagine Breaker can negate leylines, Kami-yan.”

“Eh?” Kamijou looked shocked. “But leylines are...um...magical...right? So...”

“Yes, but...” Tsuchimikado interrupted him. “I just can’t figure out what your right hand really is. You say it can negate any magic or psychic power. But take an occult power like a human’s ‘life force’ for instance. You can’t kill someone just by giving them a handshake, right?”

“Well, no...”

“I get the feeling there are some odd ‘exceptions’. And leylines are most likely one of those exceptions. I highly doubt you can obliterate the entire Earth just by touching the ground.”

But at the same time Misha Kreutzev avoided being touched by Kamijou’s right hand and Kazakiri Hyouka was subconsciously afraid of it.

“...”

Kamijou silently stared at his right hand.

(Exceptions...? How does that work?)

When he thought about it calmly, Kamijou realized that he didn’t know any details about how his power worked. It may have been because he had lost his memories, but he may not have known before losing his memories either. At the very least, none of the “knowledge” left after he had lost his memories contained any hint he could find an answer in.

But right now severing that pipeline took precedence.

He pulled himself together and looked ahead.

Part 7

Kamijou and Itsuwa made their way to a small museum in Avignon.

It wasn’t a large building solely used as a museum. Just like the housing complexes and stores, it used one portion of the fortress-like buildings towering above the roads on either side. There just wasn’t enough room in the old town of Avignon that was surrounded by the castle walls and they had probably wanted to maintain a sense of unity in the scenery.

There was a sign in French on the main entrance, but the wooden door had a metal shutter down in front of it. The plate hanging from the knob most likely said “closed”.

It was midday on a weekday.

“They must have closed early in fear of the riots,” Itsuwa said while looking up at the building.

Kamijou stared at the solid looking shutter and spoke.

“But Tsuchimikado said the invisible pipeline runs through this museum, right? We have to get in somehow. Is there some Amakusa lock-picking skill or-..?”

“Eyah!”

Kamijou was cut off by a cute yell.

The tip of Itsuwa’s spear stuck into the gap between the shutter and the ground and she moved the spear according to the principle of leverage. The very gears that moved the shutter broke with a crunching sound.

Itsuwa ignored the security alarm that began ringing and lifted the shutter higher. Then she broke the wooden door using leverage as well.

She entered the building with a sleek expression on her face.

“C’mon, hurry.”

“Um...Itsuwa-san?”

Kamijou stared at the short girl’s face in shock.

His eyes seemed to be saying “And I thought you were just a normal girl...”, but her expression didn’t change. She must have been preparing to beat down any museum employees who might come to see what was going on.

As the security alarm continued to ring, Kamijou entered the building, too.

The lighting was fairly dim. In fact, it was almost completely dark inside. All of the windows were covered so the exhibits wouldn’t receive any direct sunlight. With the normal fluorescent lights, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but Kamijou was a bit unsure of his footing with only the faint light from the emergency exit sign.

“Tsuchimikado said it was...”

“I can tell where it is now that we’re this close. It’s this way.”

Itsuwa continued deeper into the museum holding her spear in one hand.

Kamijou followed her and found nothing more than a normal floor. But looking at the arrangement of the glass showcases, the usual pattern was ignored here which left it oddly empty.

Itsuwa slowly circled around the oddly empty floor. She looked around for a bit and then nodded in satisfaction.

“Yes, it’s here. I can feel a power manufactured by the Roman Catholic Church. It feels like a type of purified power that is used in the spells of some other sects. This is a leyline characteristic of a Western church society. They did an excellent job of concealing it; it’s hard to sense until you’re almost right next to it.” She spoke while looking towards Kamijou. “...Tsuchimikado-san isn’t here yet, but I should take care of it before the enemy notices. I’m going to sever the pipeline, so please stand back.”

“I don’t see anything here,” Kamijou said as he stared at the floor next to Itsuwa. “...And is severing a pipeline such an easy thing to do?”

“Well, completely severing a leyline requires a large number of people.

“Ah ha ha.” Itsuwa laughed. “But if we just need to make the line connecting the Palace of the Popes and the Vatican unusable, I can do it. Basically, I’m going to damage it which will cause its direction to be slightly shifted.”

“I see...” Kamijou nodded even though he didn’t really understand.

He didn’t want to mess it up with Imagine Breaker, so he moved a bit away from Itsuwa.

The Amakusa girl put down her bag and rummaged around inside it. It seemed she was choosing the everyday items needed to use this spell.

Kamijou asked a question as he watched her.

“So the Amakusa Church uses things like that to create spells?”

“Y-yes. For this spell I need a camera, a slipper, a pamphlet, some mineral water, and white panties...”

As she took them out, Itsuwa screamed and hurriedly stuck them back in her bag. They were most likely the ones she had changed out of before.

Her face turned red and she stopped moving.

“Wh-what’s wrong, Itsuwa?”

“...this spell.”

Itsuwa spoke while still not moving.

“I need them to complete this spell...”

All hope left her face and she slowly took the panties back out from her bag. Itsuwa looked like she was about to cry, and Kamijou thought about turning around, but he couldn’t get himself to move after she told him not to worry about it.

Itsuwa lined up the objects she had taken out of her bag on the floor. To Kamijou it just looked like a circle, but there must have been subtle rules about how to do it that she was following.

When she had finished arranging the objects, she spun her spear around in her hand so that the tip was pointed down.

“Here goes,” Itsuwa said as she stabbed down towards the floor with her spear.

It hit the very center of the circle.

There was no sound of blade hitting stone.

The tip of the spear disappeared into the floor like it was sinking into mud.

(Once Itsuwa severs the pipeline, the C-Document will stop working. In other words, the riots taking place here should calm down.)

The Amakusa girl mumbled something while her spear was stabbed into the floor.

The spear ever so slowly sank deeper into the floor.

(But then the people using the C-Document in the Palace of the Popes will realize they’ve failed. When they’ve determined that the situation is no longer in their favor, they may flee to the Vatican with the C-Document.)

She tapped the floor with her heel.

She also lightly but rhythmically tapped the handle of the spear with the pointer finger of the hand holding the spear.

(So this is a race against the clock. We need to rush to the Palace of the Popes once the riots settle down. We’ll join up with Tsuchimikado and stop them before they can leave.)

The spear was now over halfway into the floor and the end of the handle only reached up as high as Itsuwa’s chest.

She let go of the spear and adjusted her grip.

It was like she was turning a giant key.

Next, there was a noise.

But...

It wasn’t a noise caused by Itsuwa’s spear.

With a loud crash, the outer wall of the museum suddenly burst open from some kind of attack. It was aimed for Itsuwa and her spear that was sunk into the floor.

It looked like a giant blade being swung.

It was white.

It traveled in a straight line for Itsuwa.

When she noticed that, she altered her position without moving the spear so that she was behind it. The attack passed right by Itsuwa, but a piece of the destroyed wall...or rather, a piece of stone too big to reach your arms around, hit her spear dead on.

“Itsuwa!!”

The spear broke clean in half where it was hit.

Itsuwa was knocked back a fair distance while holding the broken spear.

After causing this destruction, the white attack fluctuated and disappeared like smoke.

“Damn it...!!”

Itsuwa held the two halves of her broken spear in her hands. She removed the broken piece from the attachments and threw it aside. She then kicked her bag up from the ground and grabbed a replacement rod from the bag in midair. She used that piece to remake her spear.

The second attack came shortly thereafter.

The “white blade” came bursting through the outer wall again.

The motion of the “white blade” as it moved from one wall to the other was rough like kid swinging a tree branch around. But this had overwhelming destructive force. The stone walls and floor crumbled, the glass showcases shattered, and the pieces scattered in every direction.

The sounds of destruction continued one after another.

Kamijou bent over and saw a fine powder falling down from the ceiling.

(Not good...This building isn’t going to last...!!)

“Itsuwa!!” Kamijou yelled and moved his arms to tell her to run for the exit.

Meanwhile the “white blade” continued to fly around destroying the walls like a predator chasing its prey.

With each strike, it seemed to be getting closer and closer to its target.

Whoever was controlling it may have been getting a feel for how they were avoiding it.

Or perhaps the attacker was attacking from a distance and he or she was getting slowly closer.

Kamijou barely managed to avoid the blade as it fell like a guillotine. He leaped out of the way and out of the museum in what was almost a roll.

And then...

“My, my. It seems when attacking from a distance my accuracy drops.”

The voice came from nearby.

Quite nearby. It was only a few dozen centimeters away from his face.

Kamijou was surprised as the man must have been waiting for him there.

The man in front of Kamijou’s eyes swung his right arm without waiting for Kamijou to respond.

Something white appeared behind his arm as it moved.

Unlike the slow movement of the man’s arm, the white object shot towards Kamijou’s neck at the speed of a falling guillotine.

There was a loud roar as it flew through the air.

“Ohhhhhhh!?”

Kamijou immediately held up his right hand and the “white blade” hit it.

The “white blade” fell to pieces the very second it did. Literally. A white powder really did scatter around the area.

The fog-like curtain of powder fluctuated and gathered back together when the attacker moved his finger.

“Get back!!” Itsuwa yelled from behind Kamijou and he hurriedly put some distance between himself and the attacker.

Kamijou was finally able to focus on all of the attacker at once.

It was a man wearing green ceremonial clothes.

He was wearing green from head to toe.

He was a bit short for a white person as he was about Kamijou’s height or maybe a little shorter. On the other hand, he looked about twice Kamijou’s age. He was quite skinny so his ceremonial clothes were very loose fitting. His sunken cheeks gave him an odd sense of vitality.

Kamijou held out his right hand and asked the ceremonially-dressed attacker a question.

“...Are you from the Roman Catholic Church?”

“I am, but I would prefer it if you said I was from God’s Right Seat.”

Kamijou was at a loss for words at how carefree the man’s response was.

God’s Right Seat.

Another member of that group, Vento of the Front, had almost completely paralyzed Academy City single-handedly on September 30th.

If this man was on the same level as her...

“My name is Terra of the Left.”

The white powder gathered in his hand took shape.

As before, it was the shape of a guillotine.

It was a board-shaped blade that looked like a 70 centimeter square that had had its bottom cut diagonally. The man held it by the ring that would normally have the supporting rope tied to it.

“It seems my turn is finally here. Since we of God’s Right Seat cannot use normal magic, I had to leave the operation of the C-Document to another magician.”

Terra smiled as he let the execution blade hang casually by his side.

“And so I was hoping you could help me kill some time. You’re the first ones to get caught by my anti-leyline spell probe, so I hope you’ll be good for some fun.”

Part 8

Kamijou, Itsuwa, and Terra stood in front of the destroyed outer wall of the museum. The dust was lowering visibility, so they tried to wave it away.

Then Terra of the Left swung his right hand.

He swung it from left to right.

Matching that movement, the white guillotine moved. It was less like he was holding it and more like it was floating in the air while connected to his arm. The form of the guillotine that had been a meter across just a moment ago collapsed. It turned into a white tsunami that shot out in a horizontal line.

It roared through the air.

“Ohhhh!?”

Kamijou held up his right hand.

Whirling destruction followed the blade. The streets in the old town of Avignon were small. It gouged into the cliff-like buildings on side, blew away parked cars, and knocked entire buildings crooked.

There was now a clear distinction between the pristine old street to Kamijou’s right and the pile of rubble to his left.

The white guillotine was very destructive and it would easily slice right through a person, but...

(I can deal with it using my right hand!!)

“Itsuwa!” Kamijou yelled, but he started running towards Terra without waiting for her to respond.

He would draw Terra’s attack and Itsuwa would get in range to attack him. That was the best attack pattern for this situation.

And Terra seemed focused on Kamijou’s right hand.

His sickly-looking eyes narrowed and he spoke in a voice that showed admiration.

“You should have been killed by that strike. I see. So this is Imagine Breaker. ...I had heard that you beat down Vento of the Front.”

Terra swung the guillotine while grinning.

He swung it from back to front.

Matching that movement, the white blade tapered off like a screw and shot in a pointed strike straight for Kamijou’s chest.

“...!!”

Kamijou somehow managed to get his right hand up to hit it, but he was so focused on defense he was having trouble moving his feet quickly enough.

Whoosh.

Itsuwa ran by Kamijou’s side holding her spear while crouching slightly.

“Hmph.”

Terra’s guillotine headed towards her.

A loud noise entered Kamijou’s ears. Itsuwa had ducked under the white blade flying in a straight line. But she didn’t stop moving there. She evaded the blade a second and third time, held up her Friuli Spear, and leaped for Terra’s chest.

She pulled the spear back and powerfully stabbed it forwards.

Terra repelled the spear with a horizontal swing of the guillotine.

He then swung the guillotine horizontally in the opposite direction. This time he was aiming for Itsuwa.

It was something like a counter for that large blade.

“!!”

Itsuwa didn’t try to stop the blade; she leapt forward diagonally and continued forward to avoid it. As she did so, she pulled the spear back to build up power and struck forward.

It may have been because she had to dodge the blade, but she lost her balance and there was a slight lag to her attack.

Terra used that time to swing the guillotine again.

It looked like Terra’s white blade would reach Itsuwa before her spear reached him.

But there was a small glint of light next to Terra’s face.

He then noticed lines of light crossing in front of his eyes and several straight lines of light spreading out like a spider web around him.

“Sorry about this...” Itsuwa spoke these words as a straining sound could be heard.

The sound of something being strained to its limit was coming from...

“The Seven Blades of the Seven Teachings!!”

Wires.

With the sound of the air being sliced, the wires rushed in towards Terra at an amazing speed. The superfine blades attacked at once from 7 different directions and were set to cut him at several places from his ankles to his heart.

Terra did not have time to avoid them.

Kamijou thought they might be moving faster than a bullet.

But...

“Precedence.”

Terra’s expression did not change.

He merely muttered that one word. The 7 wires headed for his body did not cut him to pieces; they merely coiled around him without even breaking the skin as if they were nothing but fishing line.

Itsuwa’s expression turned to one of shock.

Terra lightly swung his right arm and the 7 wires wrapped around his skin ripped to pieces like they were a spider web.

“!!”

Itsuwa exhaled sharply and stabbed forward with her spear that had been pulled back.

The sharp tip stabbed towards Terra’s shoulder at lightning speed.

“Precedence: Outer Wall – Lower, Human Body – Higher.”

But then Terra muttered those words.

He disappeared into the wall behind him as if he was entering an invisible entrance.

“!?”

Itsuwa’s spear struck the wall and a high-pitched sound rang out.

As the shock ran up her arm, Itsuwa grimaced.

And then...

“Precedence: Outer Wall – Lower, Movements of a Blade – Higher.”

The white guillotine crashed through the wall and attacked horizontally towards Itsuwa’s torso.

Itsuwa abandoned the idea of blocking it and practically fell to the ground avoiding the horizontal attack.

A few severed pieces of her hair floated in the air.

Meanwhile, Terra jumped out through the newly made hole in the wall.

He spotted Itsuwa shortly after her evasive action and casually swung the guillotine again.

As Itsuwa had her stomach pressed to the ground, she had no way of dodging it this time.

So Kamijou leaped over attempting to get between Itsuwa and Terra.

“Ooooaaahh!?”

He just barely managed to destroy the giant blade with his right hand as it swung down towards Itsuwa’s neck.

The guillotine exploded and white dust scattered about the area.

Terra’s expression did not change.

He did not seem worried in the slightest.

“Precedence: Outer Wall – Lower, Movements of a Blade – Higher.”

Terra spoke the same words again and he casually thrust the now re-gathered white blade towards the side wall.

The guillotine swung across the outer wall like an arm knocking things off of a shelf.

The outer wall collapsed and dozens of stones the size of melons flew through the air.

“!!”

While Itsuwa tried stand up, Kamijou grabbed her arm and pulled her backwards. Building materials crushed the area they were moments ago.

Instead of chasing after them, Terra leisurely walked over the rubble in their direction.

“I’d heard about the Imagine Breaker before, so I was anticipating quite a bit.” Terra smiled while the white blade of unknown properties hung from his right hand. “But from the looks of things, you’re nothing much. To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed, I wish I’d never seen this. You apparently won your battle with Vento, but that was merely caused by your destroying her ‘Divine Punishment’ and Academy City's using that ‘fallen angel’ with the ‘pressure of the realm’ to constrict her. If she were at full power, she would not have had any trouble with you.”

(This is...)

Kamijou felt a chill down his spine as he realized something.

A man who was on the same level as Vento would not attack with just a blade.

(He’s a part of God’s Right Seat...!!)

Kamijou subconsciously gritted his teeth, but he doubted Terra was just going to wait for him to calm down.

“My my, what’s wrong?” Terra smiled and lifted up the sinister guillotine. “Surely you don’t think you can defeat me by keeping your distance. At least allow me to enjoy this a little more. If this is all you’ve got, I don’t even need to make any ‘adjustments’.”

“Kh!!”

Kamijou and Itsuwa dragged their heavy bodies forward and simultaneously attacked Terra.

Terra held the guillotine forward in his right hand and spoke.

“Precedence: Movements of a Spear – Lower, Air – Higher.”

And with that, Itsuwa’s motion suddenly stopped.

The tip of her blade that had been headed for Terra’s throat was stopped as if it were obstructed by a wall of air.

As Kamijou saw this happening from side, he clenched his right fist and swung it at Terra’s chest.

Terra was faster.

He casually swung his hand horizontally and the white blade followed suit. The giant blade evaded past Kamijou’s right hand and lunged at his body.

(Oh, shi-!?)

He lacked the time to even finish the thought.

The blade's width was thicker than his thumb. He felt it press up against his skin and dig in. Pain exploded about him.

Kamijou’s body doubled over from the force of the guillotine and he was launched into the side wall.

Shortly after he heard a loud thud, he heard a painful cracking noise from his body.

(...!?)

He was unable to speak. The force that was pinning his stomach and back had left him breathless.

“Gha...!?”

However, that was the extent of his injuries. Kamijou’s was not sliced in two like the outer walls.

He punched the guillotine pushing him against the wall with a shaking fist. The giant blade burst into powder and Kamijou sat on the ground, attempting to gain control of his erratic breathing.

“...”

Terra stared with great interest at his destroyed guillotine. He took a step back and lightly moved his fingers, calling the powder to return to him.

(I’m... alive...?) Kamijou thought as he rubbed his stomach that stung with dull pain. (That hit me, but I’m still alive...?)

Terra’s first surprise attack had easily broken through the outer wall of the museum. Kamijou had been hit by the same attack, so his body should be crushed or splattered.

Which meant...

(That and this one were different types...?)

Kamijou moved his gaze from his stomach to Terra.

Terra still seemed uninterested as he stood in front of the destroyed museum.

(Does something amplify the destructive power? Is there some trick to the sword?)

There was one thing that stood out as suspicious.

Kamijou stared at Terra as the latter checked to make sure his guillotine was in working order after it had been negated.

“’Precedence...'” Itsuwa mumbled as she changed position to cover Kamijou as she pulled on her spear that simply refused to reach Terra.

She then noticed the powder stuck on the tip of her spear.

“...Flour?”

She thought for a moment and her body stiffened as shock appeared on her face

“Does that weapon function using the ‘Flesh of God...?'”

“Oh, so even an Asian can figure that out.”

Itsuwa was nearly speechless as Terra attempted to provoke Itsuwa.

“During mass, wine is treated as the ‘Blood of God’ and the bread is treated as the ‘Flesh of God’. And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the event of mass is modeled after the execution of the ‘Son of God’ on the cross.”

Itsuwa bit her lip upon Terra’s words.

Kamijou had no way of knowing, but those words were quite destructive to someone knowledgeable in magic.

“When you calmly think about the fact that the ‘Son of God’ was crucified on the cross, you will realize that a normal human wouldn’t normally be able to kill the ‘Son of God’. That’d be quite a tall order even for me. At certain times in the scriptures, the ‘order of precedence’ is changed. For instance, in order for the ‘Son of God’ to take on all of humanity’s ‘original sin’, the natural precedence had to be changed so that he could be killed by a normal human.”

The guillotine started to crumble.

Despite the fact that Kamijou was raising his guard, Terra seemed to enjoying himself more and more.

“One of the secret ceremonies required to complete the story of the ‘Son of God’ is the alteration of the order of precedence. And it is that very spell that I use. It is called the ‘Execution of Light’. The ability to freely alter the shape of the flour, which used as the medium, into an edged tool shape is like a byproduct of that. Do you understand now?”

This basically meant that if “Terra’s body” was given precedence over the “wires”, his body would remain unscathed. If the “blade made of flour” was given precedence over the “outer wall”, the blade was able to destroy the walls with ease. If the “air” was given precedence over the “spear”, Itsuwa’s attack would stop in midair.

“Strength and weakness mean nothing before me. I can just alter the order of the two after all.”

This was the power of God’s Right Seat.

Vento of the Front wielded a power that dealt with God, “Divine Punishment”, and had used it to paralyze Academy City.

This time it was the execution of the Son of God.

All magicians dealt with theories and laws Kamijou knew nothing about, but he had a feeling the ones God’s Right Seat dealt with were something special.

“Hm, but what to do now? I may have revealed my trick, but that doesn’t mean this is over. Don’t tell me you thought it ended when you solved the mystery.”

Kamijou strongly clenched his right fist at Terra’s words.

He was right.

They knew how it worked, but they had no way of dealing with it.

That was why Terra had been able to reveal his secret to them while remaining confident.

“Perhaps I’ll give you some time,” Terra said in a teasing way. “Stretching out this battle doesn’t harm me any. I’ll give you 10 seconds. In that time, you can come up with a plan to defeat me or a plan to flee. ...But don’t be mistaken. I’m not saying any such plans actually exist, okay?”

Terra seemed to be enjoying himself more and more as he spoke.

“Fuck,” Kamijou cursed.

There wasn’t that much space between them and Terra of the Left.

Kamijou grit his teeth and Terra seemed to be enjoying every single reaction Kamijou gave.

But then...

“Oh, how generous. I can come up with 3 different plans given 10 seconds.”

Kamijou suddenly heard a male voice he knew well coming from outside his range of vision.

Before he got a chance to look over, a red bullet shot through the air. It was a burning orange piece of origami. The folded square scrap of paper flew towards Terra’s face with enough force to crack concrete.

Terra merely followed it with his eyes.

“Precedence: Magic – Lower, Human Skin – Higher.”

It struck. But just as the origami touched Terra’s skin, it suddenly changed directions and struck the wall right next to Itsuwa. It was like a bullet ricocheting off of a metal wall.

Kamijou finally turned to look at the intruder.

A boy wearing blue sunglasses was standing there.

Because he had forced himself to use magic, he had a trail of blood coming from his lips.

“Tsuchimikado...!?”

Tsuchimikado gave a slight nod in response.

His gaze never left Terra.

“Don’t tell me,” Terra smiled slightly as the guillotine hung from his right hand, “that was one of your plans.”

“Unfortunately for you...” Tsuchimikado smiled, too. His attack seemed to have been a dud, but he didn’t seem even slightly worried. “I have you cornered now.”

“...?”

“And it’ll be checkmate next. I’ve proved my theory to be correct.”

What he pulled out as he said this was not a magical item.

It was shining black handgun.

The very same handgun he had shot Oyafune Monaka with.

“Do you really think you can defeat me with a toy like that?”

Tsuchimikado gave no response.

He gathered strength in the finger on the trigger.

Terra made no attempt to find cover; he merely stood and slowly spoke.

“Precedence: Bullet – Lower, Human Skin – Higher.”

“Precedence: Bullet – Lower, Human Skin – Higher.”

Tsuchimikado spoke in unison with Terra.

The sound of multiple gunshots rang out.

But the lead bullets ricocheted off of Terra’s face and chest.

It was an overwhelmingly one-sided result.

But even so, a smile remained on Tsuchimikado’s lips.

“I told you, Terra of the Left.”

Tsuchimikado held the handgun in one hand and put his other hand in his pocket.

He pulled out a black piece of origami.

“I told it would be checkmate this time.”

“...”

Terra of the Left was silent after hearing Tsuchimikado’s words.

He then slowly turned towards Tsuchimikado and prepared his guillotine.

The streets were supposed to be full of rioters, but the area seemed oddly silent.

(Move...) Kamijou thought.

For better or for worse, a major change was about to occur in his battle.

Kamijou was completely caught up in the confrontation between Tsuchimikado and Terra, so he hadn’t notice Itsuwa drawing near. She whispered in his ear.

“(Um, we need to take advantage of Tsuchimikado’s next action and flee.)”

“Eh?”

“(...He told us to in his instructions. He said stopping the C-Document in the Palace of the Popes is more important than defeating the enemy here.)”

Itsuwa was holding a piece of origami.

Tsuchimikado’s instructions must have been written on it. Kamijou didn’t know exactly when, but he must have thrown it to Itsuwa while talking with Terra.

Tsuchimikado and Terra each took a slow step towards each other.

And just when Kamijou thought they were going to strike, a noise erupted that was so loud he thought his eardrums were going to burst.

(...!?)

This was not the sound of magic.

It was the sound of the townscape of Avignon being destroyed by explosives.

Of course, neither Tsuchimikado nor Terra had caused it.

A third party was interfering.

Proof of this could be seen in how both of them clicked their tongues in annoyance and how each stepped back to put some distance between himself and the other.

Kamijou was surprised by this sudden occurrence and watched as the housing complexes towering above either side of the road began crumbling. This created a gray dust that obscured Kamijou’s vision.

He could see the silhouettes of the source of the explosions on the other side.

But these were not human silhouettes.

“...What’s going on? What the hell is going on!?” he mumbled.

The warped silhouettes on the other side of the gray curtain were moving.

Part 9

Academy City’s unofficially formed armored unit began invading the old city of Avignon from outside its walls.

Their primary equipment was the HsPS-15, aka the “Large Weapon”. It was a powered suit developed using all the best Academy City technology.

The powered suit was a new Academy City weapon that covered the body in armor that looked like a Western suit of armor. The joints were moved using electric power and the flesh-and-blood human inside was given mobility anywhere from twice normal to dozens of times normal.

They came in various standard sizes and levels of firepower, but the ones here were giant masses of metal 2.5 meters tall.

The suits had blue and gray camouflage on them and the robot-like “armor” had two arms and two legs and the arms had 5 fingers each. However, if you asked someone whether the powered suits were “human-like”, you would be told “no”. The “head” area was huge. It may have been because the chest armor was so thick, but it looked like the suits had one of the drum-shaped security robots on their heads. There was no neck. The “head” was directly connected to the chest, but it could still rotate.

There was a great sound of something hard being crushed.

It was the sound of the armored legs stepping on the rubble as they advanced.

The stone paving and the ruins of the bricks had both survived for hundreds of years, but they were so easily crushed now.

The hands of the powered suits held special guns that had barrels so wide they looked misshapen.

The guns looked like large rifles made by forcibly shortening the barrel of a tank’s main gun, but they were actually quite different. They were anti-barrier revolver shotguns.

The shells used in those guns were special. Inside a single shell were a few dozen bullets that would usually be classified as anti-materiel. Each shot could blow straight through a tank and at close range a few shots could force open the door to a nuclear shelter. Usually, the barrel wouldn’t hold up to the explosive force of the gunpowder, but, by delicately controlling the type and arrangement of the gunpowder, the direction of the explosive force could be controlled so that the lowest possible amount of damage was given to the barrel and the greatest possible amount of destructive force was released.

The few dozen powered suits headed for the castle walls surrounding Avignon while holding this large weapon that had been developed for the purposes of breaking through the thick door of a shelter an enemy might be hiding inside.

“Commence invasion.”

A mere two words.

As that voice spoke, the anti-barrier shotguns fired. Each time the pump-action-like slide was pulled the revolver cylinder turned.

In an instant, the stone walls that had restricted people’s entrance and exit to and from the city for hundreds of years were blown away like they were made of paper.

The powered suits stepped over the rubble and entered the old city of Avignon.

The artificial legs moved much more smoothly than a real human’s would have.

They found the youths of Avignon who had been rioting shortly before.

Those youths were not enveloped in pure fear or pure rage. This had been so sudden that they had been unable to sort out their feelings. This left them shaking in a whirlpool of mixed emotions.

On the other hand, the response of the powered suits was completely uniform.

They moved the wide barrels of their anti-barrier shotguns that had blown through the castle walls in a single shot and aimed them directly at the flesh-and-blood humans before them.

A voice gave a short report to its companions over the radio.

“Enemy forces spotted.”

Part 10

Kamijou was dumbfounded when he saw the large number of powered suits blasting through walls as they walked through Avignon ignoring the complicated arrangement of small streets. One of the cliff-like buildings towering above was destroyed and he could see “them” on the other side of the rubble.

Those things should not be in the normal world.

No institution other than Academy City should have been able to develop powered suits of that level.

They had anti-barrier revolver shotguns in their hands.

They blasted through the buildings and cars in their paths and mercilessly turned their guns on the rioters that recklessly attempted to fight back.

The shotguns fired shells from those gun barrels that a human fist could easily fit inside.

People were easily mowed down as the shotguns fired.

But that most likely wasn’t done with live ammunition. Kamijou didn’t know how it worked, but it seemed the anti-barrier revolver shotguns could use different types of shells. Perhaps the types of shells were divided between the even and odd chambers in the revolving cylinder, and it rotated two chambers at a time. That way, it could be changed between odd mode and even mode.

They were shooting blanks.

But the shock wave from the great explosion this caused was enough to knock the oxygen from a person’s lungs and knock them to the ground. When the first line of vigorous rioters was silenced, the second and third lines of approaching rioters paled and started running about in panic.

The powered suits didn’t let them go.

The suits walked past the townspeople who were curled up shaking in the corners of the street and, if they showed any sign of resistance, the suits would mercilessly fire a blank in their direction knocking them back with a warhead of sound. While the rioters were rendered ineffective by this, the powered suits would connect their shotguns to a metal backpack-like part on their backs to automatically reload.

(...What’s going on?)

The situation was so crazy Kamijou could do nothing but watch.

(Didn’t Tsuchimikado say Academy City wasn’t going to act? And now that they have...Why did it have to be like this!?)

Oyafune Monaka had said that the leaders of Academy City hadn’t dared to deal with the problem in Avignon and were just going to let the chaos worsen.

Apparently the moment to act had come.

Now that the needed amount of damage had been done by the chaos, they were ending it all as if by flipping a switch.

Kamijou bit his lip.

The leaders of Academy City.

The Board of Directors.

And the one controlling them who was truly at the top of the science side.

“I see. So it’s come to this.” Terra said sounding amused.

And with those words, the atmosphere that was colored by shock was refocused on Terra.

Tsuchimikado held his handgun up as smoke came from the barrel and there was so much hostility coming from him that it felt like the hostility alone could pierce Terra.

“Well, the ones manipulating the C-Document in the Palace of the Popes are just normal magicians, so this really could end badly. I wish I could have gotten a bit more battlefield data for my precedence spell “Execution of Light”, though. Oh, well.”

As Terra spoke, he didn’t look towards Kamijou or the others and walked seemingly aimlessly through one of the large holes in one the housing complexes opened by the powered suits.

“Wait!!” Tsuchimikado yelled, but he jumped to the side directly afterwards.

Before Kamijou could figure why, a huge blast that probably came from an attack by one of the powered suits came from within the housing complex.

Kamijou’s tiny body was blown back in the blast.

The hole Terra had gone through was filled with flames.

“Ow...!?”

“A-are you all right!?”

Itsuwa frantically grabbed Kamijou’s hand.

Kamijou grabbed her hand to get up and Tsuchimikado called out to him.

“Can you move, Kami-yan? We need to get to the Palace of the Popes!!”

“Those powered suits are from Academy City, right!? I thought they weren’t going to move! This has gotten really damn complicated! Can we really just leave without stopping them!?”

“Going after Terra comes first!! And they’re after the C-Document, too. All this chaos might die down once that spiritual item is destroyed!!”

“Damn it. Do they really plan on stopping all this chaos?” Kamijou muttered in annoyance.

In Avignon there were the rioters affected by the C-Document and the powered suits. Which side did he truly hate?

“C’mon, Kami-yan. That God’s Right Seat member may still be taking us too lightly, but with things the way they are, they really are going to flee. This is our only chance to destroy the C-Document!!”

“Fuck,” Kamijou swore.

At that time, a number of powered suits stepped into the narrow road out of the now flame-filled hole Terra had left through.

It should be fellow Academy City people inside of them, but the barrels of the weapons were squarely aimed their way.

Apparently, they weren’t taking the time to check what side everyone was on. They were just attacking everyone in the city of Avignon.

“...Kami-yan, let’s split up here. Itsuwa was it? You and Kami-yan head towards the Palace together.”

“Tsuchimikado?”

“It seems there are two problems here in Avignon. I thought we could just leave the powered suits alone for now, but that option is gone. Kami-yan, you chase down Terra and do something about the C-Document. I’ll stop these Academy City idiots.”

“But there’s...”

Kamijou was going to finish that with “no way you can do that”, but Tsuchimikado cut him off.

“They aren’t complete enemies. Sure, I’ll have to fight briefly, but I’ll be looking for a chance to talk with them. And I’m better at this kind of tactic than you.”

“...Damn it.”

“Go, Kami-yan!!”

“Damn it!!”

Kamijou ran along the narrow road with Itsuwa as he yelled. Behind him he heard the sound of the powered suits operating and (Tsuchimikado must have done something) a repeated sound of ice shattering. Kamijou grit his teeth knowing that Tsuchimikado became covered in blood even when he used magic once, but he couldn’t do anything about it now.

He ran through the narrow streets of the old city of Avignon.

The scent of gunpowder and smoke filled his nose.

He saw fleeing people and powered suits chasing them down.

(What the hell is going on!?)

This made the demonstrations and riots look like nothing. As Kamijou watched the overwhelming violence of military action, Kamijou thought the blood vessels in his head were going to burst.

Itsuwa knew the location of the Palace of the Popes from her earlier investigation of Avignon. He looked in the direction she indicated and saw a silhouette he guessed had to be it in the distance.

Between the lines 3

Stiyl Magnus left the Tower of London.

The weather in London was reasonable, but the sightseers were few and far between. Unlike other countries, there weren’t large scale riots occurring in England, but there was still a sense of tension spreading throughout the city.

“God’s Right Seat, huh...?” Stiyl mumbled as he put a new cigarette between his lips.

According to Lidvia Lorenzetti, there were only 4 members and they each held the attributes of one of the four archangels.

“What do you think about what she said?” Agnese Sanctis spoke out of boredom as she exited the building next to him. “Is any of it even true? I never heard about anything like that while I was with the Roman Catholic Church. It could just be a lie meant to disturb us.”

“I can’t deny that possibility, but everything said in the interrogation room is magically recorded. That’s what you’re writing on the parchment. If we reanalyze that, we should be able to figure out how accurate it is.”

“Of course, we can’t be 100% sure,” Stiyl added.

Stiyl thought as he spoke.

If Lidvia was telling the truth, “God’s Right Seat” was both the name of a group within the depths of the Roman Catholic Church and, at the same time, was the name of their final objective.

(...The seat on the right side. It almost seems like a hint, but I’m not sure. I can’t narrow it down enough yet. I guess I’ll have to talk with them some more.)

Stiyl looked at Agnese’s face.

“Maybe we should take a bit more of a break.”

“No, I want to get this over with.”

“I see,” Stiyl briefly responded.

They then went back into the dark Tower of London.

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