CHAPTER 7

An Enemy to Defeat and a Person to Protect
Parabolic_Antenna.

1

“Damn it…!!” shouted Touma Kamijou at the sight before him.

The bus stop was already empty.

The beating sunlight was starting to grow a little weaker now that it was three thirty PM. The only things at the sidewalk-facing stop were a simple enclosure made of metal pipe pillars and a sheet-iron roof. Nobody was sitting on the bench inside, nor was anyone lined up. He felt like a lost child who had been left behind as those around him passed by without stopping to glance at the bus stop.

He sighed; he couldn’t help but grin weakly. For a moment, he stood there in a daze. He didn’t know where the bus route started and ended. Not a single hint to help him, either. In fact, not only did he not know which bus Oriana had boarded—he didn’t even know if she had used this bus stop to begin with.

They had only three minutes to capture Oriana, and now she’d gotten away by bus.

He had lost a lot of time stopping where Himegami had been attacked. If he’d actually calculated the distance and time, he should have known he’d never be able to catch up to her.

It was the obvious, sensible conclusion. But…

Damn it, where did Oriana go?!

The reality made clear once again, he grew dizzy. He could promise all he wanted. He could feel as strongly as he wanted. Some things just couldn’t come true. He knew not everything would go exactly the way he wanted. But he beat down that simple fact as far as it would go in his mind.

He couldn’t chase Oriana anymore. Nobody even knew where Lidvia was. At this rate, he couldn’t stop them from using the Croce di Pietro.

What do I do?

Kamijou took out his cell phone and punched in Motoharu Tsuchimikado’s number. After he pushed the call button and waited for a few seconds, Tsuchimikado picked up right away, as though he’d been waiting all along.

Kamijou didn’t waste time. “Sorry, Tsuchimikado, I lost sight of Oriana at the bus stop! Himegami got blasted with sorcery around here, so she’s gotta be somewhere close by. Is there any way to figure out where she is?!”

“Well…That would be a little difficult, nya~,” Tsuchimikado said in a weak voice. “Four Ways to Truth can get out to only a three-kilometer square. From where I am…I won’t be able to get it to work, and Stiyl can’t set up the spell by himself…And if Oriana used the bus, then even if I go find Stiyl now…she’ll get outside the effective range for sure.”

“Then what do we do?!” demanded Kamijou, looking around. Still no hints in sight.

“…So you don’t know…which bus line Oriana would be likely to take, nya…?”

“Nope,” he said, looking at the Daihasei Festival pamphlet. “…This bus stop looks like it loops around the outside of District 7, but I don’t know which stop she’d get off at. With this much time, she’d be about four stops ahead of me. And she could still be on the bus, too.”

“Oriana…should be trying to get as far away as she can…So it would be real suspicious if she was still on the bus…”

“But there’s a subway station near the second bus stop, and there’s a bus terminal for another line at the fourth stop. She could have hopped onto one of those, right?”

“…” Motoharu Tsuchimikado fell quiet.

Around Kamijou, there were all sorts of people: students with free time walking around eating ice cream, spectators hurrying to the next stadium, and children badgering their parents for juice. The hustle and bustle would have been loud with voices and footsteps…but Kamijou felt such a strong silence that his ears were ringing.

They were out of options. They couldn’t guess where Oriana would go, whether she’d gotten on a bus or not, what bus stop she’d get off at, which line she’d transfer to.

And most of all, they didn’t know where she was even trying to go.

“…Wait a minute, Tsuchimikado,” Kamijou said, looking up.

Tsuchimikado answered his murmured words as though he were dragging along his wounded body. “What…is it, Kammy?”

“Why’s Oriana walking around the city?”

“Eh? You know why…We’re chasing her…and she’s trying to get away—”

“No, before that,” he interrupted. “This whole game of tag started when Fukiyose and I bumped into Oriana this morning, remember? What was Oriana doing over there?” As he spoke, he organized his thoughts. “We figured out they weren’t trying to sell off the Croce di Pietro to anyone, right? She wouldn’t have been walking to a meeting with someone. So why was she hanging around the city streets? I mean, it was risky, and now she’s been wrapped up in all this trouble.”

“…I see what you’re saying, nya~.” Strength returned to Tsuchimikado’s voice. “At the very least…Oriana didn’t have the Croce di Pietro this morning. But she was still on the move…She must have had a reason to be moving alone.”

“Like what?” Kamijou asked.

Tsuchimikado let out a groan, trying to endure the pain. “Who knows, nya…Don’t know that much…But they didn’t activate the Croce di Pietro yet. Maybe…it’s got something to do with that. Maybe Oriana was looking for something…something they needed to use the Croce di Pietro…”

They needed something, he said. This was what the two sorcerers had been looking into at the beginning, thinking it would give them a hint as to where to look for Oriana. Tsuchimikado had spotted Oriana using Academy City’s security system before they figured that out, so they had left that aside to focus on pursuing her…

“Looking for something they needed…? Then does that mean they can use it in only a specific kind of place? And Oriana was moving all over the city to find a place like that?”

“…Seems fishy, nya…They snuck into the city without a destination and then started looking for whatever it was?…Man, why is Stiyl’s cell phone off in this emergency…? I can’t get in touch with him!”

Kamijou remembered that Stiyl had been trading information with allies in London. What had he said again? “Oh, right. He said he learned a bit about the vault they keep the Croce di Pietro in.”

“Eh? Kammy, anything…no matter how small, is fine. Could you…explain in detail…nya?”

“Sure, but it doesn’t look like they got very much for us. I think we learned only that the vault’s windows are all closed up and there’re two doors to get in.”

“Hmm…Two doors…? Like an air lock in a science lab…?”

“…Er, no. What was it?” He thought for a moment. “Oh yeah. It was to avoid letting light get in.”

“Light, huh…It’s a really strong Soul Arm, so they probably didn’t want to accidentally set the thing off, nya…” Tsuchimikado quieted for a bit. Kamijou could hear only shallow, intermittent breathing, like he was having trouble getting enough air. The short silence was the time he took to think about this.

The silence, punctuated by the muffled breathing, struck Kamijou’s nerves more than necessary. He felt sweat rolling down his cheek and grimaced, but he followed Tsuchimikado’s lead and thought about it. The vault. The specific usage rules. A room with two doors and no windows. Trying to prevent light from getting in…The light…

“Hey, would it be a problem if the Croce di Pietro or whatever got hit by sunlight?”

“…Probably not, nya…If that was true, place and time wouldn’t matter, you know? The sun…It’s out right now, and if that made the Croce di Pietro activate…then they’d have done it a long time ago. If it was that easy to use, they could just…force their way into the city…and break out the cross before they got captured…and that would be it. Like a game of kick the can…Except I do think…that the Soul Arm’s activation condition…has something to do with light…It’s been almost two thousand years, so the Crossist Church…it wasn’t yet split up into Roman Orthodox and English Puritanism or anything…There were a lot of spells that took in light. For example, with places they used for baptism…they’d have three windows and three sources of light shining in…to represent the Holy Trinity, nya…”

“Then what is the light that has to do with turning it on?” Kamijou immediately asked what he was thinking, but Tsuchimikado didn’t answer. He probably didn’t know, either.

“Hey, Kammy…Is that really…all the info you’ve got?”

“All of it…?” Kamijou fell deep into thought, his ear still on his cell phone. Stiyl’s sorcery discussions were out of his field. A lot of the time, he’d just keep talking without waiting for Kamijou to understand him, so there were a lot of things Kamijou had trouble remembering as a result. Still, he tried to drag out the few scraps that he remembered.

“!…There was something!”

“What?”

“Stiyl said it would be too much of a pain to explain, and he forwarded an email to my cell phone from Orsola with a report in it.”

“…What did it say?” Tsuchimikado’s voice was growing cooler.

“Sorry, it was in some other language and I couldn’t read any of it. I’ll send it over there. Can you read it?”

“If you don’t…send it, then I won’t know, nya. What do you mean, some other language? It wasn’t English…?”

After getting Tsuchimikado to tell him his new cell phone number, Kamijou hung up. Then he opened his mailbox and sent over to Tsuchimikado the report he’d gotten from Stiyl.

About two minutes later, his cell phone began to ring again.

“Hey Kammy…I read the report. It’s…in Italian…and there’s no magical encryption on it, either.”

“…So what was inside it?”

“It was basically…a report of some things written in notebooks. Apparently there’s a big cleaning…on the Croce di Pietro’s vault…twice per year. The record is from…an auditor in a different department…who would go in during the cleanings, nya.”

The message stated that there were several rules that had to be followed for the cleaning. The first was that they had to perform it on certain dates. The second was that they needed to finish cleaning by that afternoon.

“I guess…it wasn’t really that much, nya~.”

“Wait a second. Could you read that message again for me?” Kamijou held the cell phone to his ear for a few moments and finally said, “Afternoon? Not by night? That’s weird. They have two layers of doors to keep out all the light. Pretty sure it would be bright out during the day.”

“That might…not be all, either.”

According to Tsuchimikado, this was what was written next in the report. The actual established routines seemed to be pretty vague. The auditor had written that Preservers who forgot to clean the vault during the day wouldn’t do it that night—they’d go home and just do it the next day instead.

“In this auditor’s report…there’s a bit about how the Preservers…didn’t seem to have very good attitudes, nya. Apparently a lot of them…would use horoscopes and do astrology…while on the clock. Damn it, that’s…not very helpful, either. Most of this…is just the auditor complaining about shit.”

Kamijou felt something about the report tugging at his mind. “…Hey, the Croce di Pietro is, like, a really, really important antique to the Roman Orthodox Church, right?”

“You got it, nya…It’s supposed to be holy enough to weep over…and kneel at…”

“Then I don’t think they would get random lazy guys to care for it.”

“Hmm…I don’t think…they’d treat it this poorly, either. The Preservers of the Croce di Pietro…they’re supposed to be a group of elites recruited from across different departments…But this auditor’s saying…the people who left the place…were nothing to write home about…What’s that all about?”

“…”

“Orsola Aquinas…She couldn’t decipher the Book of the Law…but the level of her information analysis skills…posed a threat to…all of Roman Orthodoxy. I guess Stiyl decided it wasn’t much…but if Oriana chose this to submit for her report…I feel like there’s gotta be something in it…”

“Something…,” repeated Kamijou halfheartedly, deciding to go over what he knew.

The vault had no windows and two layers of doors to get in and out, which blocked the light from getting in. Despite that, the big cleaning, during which there would be many entering and exiting, was done, as a rule, only during the day, not the night. Plus, he’d think any Preservers who forgot to clean during the day would clean it at night, but they would just shrug and blow it off until the next day, according to the report.

What was important here?

“Tsuchimikado…Maybe this light that has to do with activating the Croce di Pietro is out at night, not in the day? I mean, the Preservers were disregarding the first rule about doing it on a certain date to make sure they followed the second rule about not doing it at night, right?”

Of the two rules, they prioritized one of them and broke the other. There must have been a reason to prioritize the rule to not clean the Croce di Pietro at night.

“Well…I suppose you could say that, b-but…,” Tsuchimikado stammered. “What light comes out at night…? It couldn’t be…the moonlight. If it had…a specific rule that it could activate only…during the full moon or another moon phase…The lunar cycles don’t match up with…our calendar dates. If they always did it…on a certain date, then the moon phase wouldn’t align right…and they wouldn’t be able to decide on a single date that worked every year.”

Tsuchimikado’s opinion was that if the moonlight itself, regardless of the moon phase, was the activation requirement, they wouldn’t need to set such a strict date to do the cleaning. For example, they didn’t just pick the dates for Easter and Christmas at random without thinking about them. But they did pick a specific date for the Croce di Pietro, which meant it had to hold some religious meaning, which was probably related to the Soul Arm’s usage conditions and conditions under which it might go out of control.

“…A light that comes out at night…” Kamijou sank into deep thought, his cell phone at his ear. Oriana and Lidvia didn’t use the Croce di Pietro because they couldn’t, not because they didn’t feel like it. Little by little, he mentally organized all the information he’d gotten until now. They need some kind of light to use it. What he’d seen, the info from the British Museum Stiyl had gotten him, the theories Tsuchimikado had suggested…He went over them again in detail. The light’s at night, apparently, not during the day.

He looked at the wall of a building. An electronic billboard was on it, made up of many small lights. No, that’s not it. If this was, like, a thousand years ago, then they wouldn’t have had lightbulbs or luminescent diodes. He took his eyes off them. Has to be a natural light. His thoughts turned even further inward as he held his cell phone. Plus, the light shines in a way that moves with the calendar…

Touma Kamijou abruptly looked up at the sky of Academy City.

When Tsuchimikado read Orsola’s report, he had said this.

The Croce di Pietro Preservers weren’t dedicated to their jobs.

A lot of them would use horoscopes or astrology while on the clock.

But…

What if using astrology was something they absolutely needed to do?

“Wait…so, constellations?”

“That could…be it, nya…” Tsuchimikado paused for a moment as though nodding. “In sorcery, Soul Arms…that use constellations…aren’t very unusual. Astrology is a basic foundation of a lot of magic, and even angel-summoning…is done in accordance with the constellations of the current season.”

He went on to explain. Unlike the moon phases, which changed throughout the month, constellations changed throughout the year. For example, if a constellation out during the spring was the trigger that made the Croce di Pietro go out of control, then they’d just have to decide that the cleanings would take place during the times when autumn constellations came out. That way they could easily decide what dates would be “safe.” “Which means the Preservers…weren’t just doing a bad job with their work…They could have been getting important job-related information…using their horoscopes…”

Tsuchimikado seemed like he was already convinced, but Kamijou had no idea what he was talking about just from that. So he asked. “So the Croce di Pietro needs the power of constellations to be activated. How do you even use constellations, anyway?”

“In general…with a spell that uses one of the eighty-eight constellations…made up of the twelve ecliptic constellations, the twenty-eight northern hemisphere constellations, and the forty-eight southern hemisphere constellations. But when you do…the actual ecliptic constellations, Aries or Scorpio doesn’t have any power itself…Stars that make constellations may look like they’re lined up all nice…but they’re crazy far apart, you know? You really can’t…just bunch ’em all together.”

“…Is that true?” Kamijou didn’t know much about constellations or astrology, but he thought that was what people really believed thousands of years ago. Did they have ways to measure distance between stars back then? And did they even have anyone who actually knew how the universe worked?

After he asked, Tsuchimikado said, “That’s exactly what they use, Kammy.”

“What?”

“A long time ago, the universe…or the sky, as they called it…They thought…the sky was like a big bowl…covering the Earth. Kind of like…a planetarium, I guess, nya?” He continued. “…Constellation sorcery uses this planetarium concept…It has nothing to do with the stars’ actual power or distance. They use the regular diagram projected onto the screen of the night sky…to build a magic circle…The diagram itself is simple, but…it’s still on an enormous scale, which makes it strong. And the diagram itself isn’t complicated, so it can be applied to many different techniques…There’s probably no other magic circle in existence…as convenient as that, nya~.”

Tsuchimikado explained that the magic circle covering the night sky that the Power of God had used at the beach house back then was an even more advanced form of this constellation sorcery, in order to set up the night sky specifically to be beneficial to the caster.

Kamijou couldn’t accurately judge how widely spread constellation sorcery was among the entire magic side. But just the fact that this had similarities to that angel’s spell shocked him. “Then Oriana, she’s…”

“The Croce di Pietro’s activation mechanism…probably works like this. They need to gather the light from the night sky…down to the earth…so the cross is probably like a big parabolic antenna…It catches the starlight from the night sky then creates a link…to activate the spell. Oriana’s still walking around the city…because she’s in the middle of looking for the most suitable place…to put that antenna, nya~.”

From what he said, these rules didn’t apply to every spell utilizing the stars, of course. The Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, for example, which Kamijou had seen the Aztecan sorcerer use on the last day of summer break. His spell had used Venus’s light—regardless of whether it was day or night. The only important thing was Venus’s physical position.

But if the Croce di Pietro worked on the same rules, then Oriana and Lidvia wouldn’t need to wait for an opportunity. If they could use any old light that was there all the time, like the sunlight, then they could just activate it right away and Academy City would fall into their hands.

Which meant it was more than likely the Soul Arm used a diagram depicting the appearance of the constellations.

Oriana was moving all over in order to find a sorcery-related point from which they could use the appearance of the constellations. But then why was she still hanging around the city streets? Perhaps the places she’d gone around to check had been unfit for activating the Croce di Pietro, or maybe she was just trying to find a spot more perfect than the others.

“…I mean, you’re right; they might be trying to use the Croce di Pietro…with the power of constellations…but still…,” he finished, punctuating his own theory.

“But still what?”

“It’s…a strong theory, but…there’re a few contradictions in it, nya…”

“What contradictions?” said Kamijou with a frown.

As he frowned, Tsuchimikado said his next words. “Listen, Kammy…The Croce di Pietro…it’s deeply related to Peter’s death…He was one of the twelve apostles and the one who created the first primitive church after the Son of God died. So the first chance they would’ve had…to create the Roman Papal States by using the cross’s power…would have either been when Peter died…or a little bit after.”

According to Tsuchimikado, Peter had been executed in the middle of the first century. Emperor Constantine had officially sanctioned Crossism and built St. Peter’s Basilica in the early fourth century. The king of the Franks had actually presented territory to them in the eighth century. A large time gap had separated all these events.

Even so, the story was that the initial standing of the cross for Peter, the declaration of intent that the land around it was the legacy of Peter, and the road to the creation of the Roman Papal States, which would become the core of the largest religion in the world with more than two billion followers—all that began after Peter was executed.

“Well, the Croce di Pietro was a cross for his grave, right? It would make more sense that it started when they made it right after he died rather than starting when they made that basilica or whatever. What’s wrong there?”

“I agree that the date…and constellations are important for using the Croce di Pietro. But…Peter died…on June 29th. That’s…a different season than now, so the stars in the sky would have changed, too…I’m sure you’ve heard of summer and winter constellations…right? Plus, Japan sees a bunch of different ones…since we’re at a different latitude and longitude compared to the Vatican. There’s a difference between the Vatican sky on June 29th…and the Japanese one at the end of September. If we can’t figure out that part, the constellation theory doesn’t hold water, nya…”

So did that mean they couldn’t use the Croce di Pietro in this season? Kamijou frowned a little. “Then what would happen if they ignored the constellations this season and used the Croce di Pietro anyway?”

“Kammy…what do you think if you took an electric razor…that worked on direct current…and gave it alternating current?”

“…”

“It might not…get destroyed like that, but…it would malfunction, at least. If not, they wouldn’t need…to spend so much time…figuring out usage conditions for the thing, nya~.”

“…Then why would they bring into the city a Soul Arm they couldn’t use?”

“I dunno, nya…There might be something…that lets them get around that, but…Shit. There’s no…time to think about it.”

Time. The word made Kamijou realize that once again, they had a time limit. “If we assume Oriana and Lidvia are waiting for the stars in the night sky to come out so they can use the Croce di Pietro, then our time’s gonna run out at sunset when they activate the cross, huh?”

“It might not be right after it goes down. Depends on the constellations they want, too, but they might need to have a full view of all the stars in it, nya~. Right now, it’s…”

The conversation had taken so long that it was almost four in the afternoon. It was late in September, so sunset would probably be before seven. The first star to appear would be shining before the sun went down, so even six o’clock might be cutting it close.

That meant they needed to find Oriana after another two to three hours. Actually, it wasn’t a sure thing that she had the Croce di Pietro. In that case, they’d have to get her to tell them where Lidvia Lorenzetti was and capture her, too.

They didn’t have time.

He wasn’t sure he could catch Oriana alone, but finding Lidvia on top of that?

“Don’t think we have enough to deal a decisive blow…but we gotta get moving. I’ll go back along the paths Oriana took…and try to find astrological similarities in those places…If all goes well…I might find out where she’s going next…”

“W-wait a minute! Can you even move around with your body like that?”

“With my body like…? Hah…Kammy, with my body like what, nya~?” said Tsuchimikado, feigning calm.

Kamijou imagined the idiot on the other end grimacing, his body still covered in wounds. Aside from sorcery, he had an ability called Auto Rebirth, but it was still just Level Zero. Not having it would have been better, but Kamijou was pretty sure it wasn’t convenient enough to get rid of all his wounds like an eraser on pencil marks.

He tried to say something but then thought better of it. Anything he said at this point would just be rude. “…All right. What should I do in the meantime?”

“Well,” began Tsuchimikado, to advise him…

…when another voice chirped up from behind him.

“…Touma, what are you doing all the way out here?”

2

The self-driving bus sat motionless at the stop.

Oriana Thomson, like the other passengers, glanced around. This wasn’t the short pause to let some out and others in. The AI controlling the bus had brought it to an emergency stop because it had gone over the weight limit. The vehicle was already crammed tight, and even more passengers had just gotten on. That must have pushed it over.

A woman’s voice began to come through the loudspeaker. Her inflections lacked emotion; it was probably an audio clip recorded in advance. “We truly apologize for the inconvenience. Due to safety concerns, this bus has come to an emergency stop. Once again, we are terribly sorry…”

She wasn’t saying what exactly needed to happen to resolve the problem. But in any case, the weight limit issue wouldn’t go away until someone got off the bus. Unless someone was willing to toss out their luggage.

Oriana decided to obediently disembark here; she could either wait in a bus for its hopefully eventual departure or find another means of transportation. She stepped down from the air-conditioned bus onto the asphalt baking under the hot sun.

Then she walked down the street. The area was bustling with people—maybe a big stadium was nearby. The stalls lined up around her were all selling cheering-related products like megaphones and handheld fans with school names on them.

Once the bus stop was completely out of sight, Oriana thought, Well, well. It looks like Kaori Kanzaki isn’t coming after all. She quietly sighed. I checked a few times for people tailing me but never saw a thing. Damn. That anti-saint page I thought up is totally useless. The thing won’t do much against regular sorcerers, after all…Now what? I feel so frustrated, so dissatisfied. Ah well, life is long. Maybe I’ll bump into a saint sometime down the road.

She remembered the black-haired girl whose upper body she’d destroyed. The female student whose hidden cross had been broken along with her shaved-off flesh.

“…” Oriana looked at the flash cards in her hand. She bit one off, scrunching her face as though it was bitter, and crushed it to activate a communication spell. The spell would allow her to talk to a person she visualized in her mind.

She sent the scene in her mind, then said, “Lidvia?”

“I know what you want to say.”

She had called Lidvia Lorenzetti, whose voice now rang directly in her brain. But it wasn’t her usual way of talking, where she trailed off all the time.

It was a firm declaration. “The girl you met was a mere civilian.”

Bam!! Oriana kicked the ground. It was a reflex, and she knew it would attract stares from people around her. Not one but two accidental…?!

Cold words began to pierce her as she gritted her teeth. “We have her name and photo from the investigation report on the earlier alchemist incident. Her name is Aisa Himegami. Despite having an extremely important power, she is barely a sorcerer. That Celtic cross was to seal her special ability—merely a Soul Arm given to her by another sorcerer. It has absolutely no attack abilities. We’ve been notified in official writing by the English Puritan Church to avoid further misunderstandings.”

The info about Kaori Kanzaki was most likely a bluff. On top of that, the girl she’d thought an enemy had absolutely no relation to the English Puritan Church. “…This is the worst.”

“It is indeed. We have sunken our fangs into not one but two entirely unrelated civilians in this matter. The first time is thought to have been due to the intervention of an enemy sorcerer in the middle of a sporting event, but this time the responsibility falls squarely on our shoulders.”

Her voice was painfully clear.

“We have raised a hand against someone we should have been protecting.”

The voice of a nun who had vowed to spread the Word to those with no knowledge of it.

“Those of perfectly noble character are not the ones we must extend a hand to—it is those in doubt, those who have made mistakes, those seeking help. It is the sinners. Those were the words of the Lord as he sat at the same table as the hated tax collector Matthew. We have transgressed those words. Do you know what that means?”

“…” Oriana fell quiet. Lidvia’s sentences were no longer trailing off. They weren’t even questions anymore. Her voice would not allow interruption—it would simply declare the fixed words of the Bible from start to finish. And above all…

“We must not make another mistake. For the sake of the girl we have wounded, we must take the utmost caution in using the Croce di Pietro and place Academy City under our control.”

…there was no hesitation in her voice.

Lidvia Lorenzetti had continued to speak, transforming every negative into a positive.

She felt remorse. She felt regret.

Lidvia was hurting on the inside more than Oriana was—of that there was no doubt.

But she used even that bitterness she felt to press forward. She knew the meaning of the word ordeal. No matter how hurt she was, she would use that experience to accelerate ever onward. She would never stop and stand still. Never, from the moment she was born to the moment she died.

Oriana felt a chill crawl down her spine. It wasn’t about which of them was stronger or weaker. There was a more fundamental difference between them.

“This will…”

So she asked this nun, who never hesitated.

“…This will really make everything better, won’t it? Everyone’s problems—by taking Academy City?”

3

“…Touma, what are you doing in a place like this?”

Kamijou started. He whirled around to see Index there in her cheerleading uniform. She was carrying pom-poms in her hands now, too. The calico, wrapped up in the pom-poms, didn’t seem to like the bushy feel of the vinyl and was struggling a little.

Her head was tilted to the side. But her eyebrows were bent inward in an angry expression.

Crap…! Was our school gonna have their next event around here?!

Many sorcerers were standing by outside Academy City. They were all from different nations and organizations. And they were constantly casting spells to detect mana flows at least one kilometer out from Index. As soon as their search spells detected mana, they’d use that pretense to flood into the city.

And not all of them would be trying to resolve the situation with Oriana and Lidvia first and foremost. Those hostile toward Academy City might use the chance to conduct all kinds of subversive activities.

“Touma, why aren’t you with the others in your ‘class’? Everyone was looking for you. They were all walking together toward the next ‘stadium.’” Index seemed to be uncomfortable with certain words. “I think you were playing in events this morning, but this afternoon you haven’t been in any of them. Why’s that?”

Index’s tone was condemning but had none of her usual brightness or intensity. Her cherubic face was betraying a hint of emotion: Could something bad be happening right now? Maybe it was her experience talking, of Kamijou single-handedly sticking his nose into every incident.

Oriana moved pretty far away. I’m sure she didn’t get off the bus nearby. He began to fire up the forge in his brain. He’d been chasing the woman, but now he wanted her as far away as possible. The situation was terrifically absurd, he thought with impatience.

“…” Tsuchimikado was keeping quiet on the other end of the cell phone at his ear, waiting to see how the situation developed. Kamijou looked near and far on the road and made sure there were no self-driving buses around.

“Jeez, Touma. Aisa and Komoe have gone off somewhere, too. I thought you were with them.”

His body gave another start and then stiffened. That’s right. Stiyl and Miss Komoe were using sorcery to heal Himegami, weren’t they?! His movements froze. That was only a kilometer away from here, wasn’t it?

“Uh, right. The administration committee didn’t have enough hands, so I was helping them out. That’s weird. I thought I sent a text to the people in my class.”

“Text?”

“Hmm…Maybe I was out of range. Did the waves not reach the center? You know, I didn’t check to see how many antennae were around…But I mean, you’d think a normal shopping district would at least have a relay station. I wonder what happened? Maybe everyone’s using their cell phones at once because of the Daihasei Festival, and the lines are getting congested. I think I saw it on the news. But didn’t they say they were gonna turn up the central station’s processing power to deal with it…?”

“???” The cheerleader Index bent her head to the side again.

He’d been trying to confuse her with cell phone talk and other things commonplace in the science world, which she was bad at dealing with. It looked like it had worked. Kamijou shook the phone at his ear a little. “I’m kind of on a call at the moment, Index. I’ll be right back, so go back to the others. Uhh, you still there? Anything particular change over there?”

“Well…Nah, not a thing. No changes over here at all. You can…rest assured…”

That was a relief. That meant the place Stiyl was doing the healing was outside the scope of the search spells centered on Index.

Index watched Kamijou and frowned somewhat, but she let it go. “Touma, Touma. They said next is the ‘group gymnastics.’ Can you come?”

“…” Kamijou paused for a moment. Then he made a promise he’d never be able to keep. “I’ll go. I’ll finish this errand for them as fast as I can, and then I’ll go there. Wait for me, okay, Index?”

“Okay!” Index nodded promptly. She propped the calico back up into her pom-pom-covered arms. “I will. So you come soon, too. I memorized all the dance moves Komoe taught me. You’re gonna be really surprised when you see them!” she said with a smile, turning her back to him. She headed off, probably to the next field. She went straight there, without stopping anywhere, not even looking at the food stalls she passed by. She believed everything.

Touma Kamijou didn’t move until he couldn’t see her anymore. Once she had completely disappeared into the crowd, he finally made a movement: He looked down and hung his head deeply.

From over the cell phone, Tsuchimikado said, “…Sorry, Kammy.”

If Oriana and Lidvia hadn’t come to the city, he’d be getting his fill of the Daihasei Festival with the rest of his class right now. If Tsuchimikado and Stiyl hadn’t asked for his cooperation, he would have been walking around the city with Index and Himegami without a care in the world. He was just a civilian. It wasn’t his duty to fight every single sorcerer who made his or her way in.

Kamijou let his thoughts linger on that for only a moment. “Don’t be,” he said flatly. “People say ignorance is bliss, but that would be hard in its own way. I don’t want to be thinking about how you guys are spilling blood all over while Index and I are all smiles.”

Surely Tsuchimikado wanted to have a good time at the Daihasei Festival, too. Even Stiyl might have come to Academy City for a reason other than to fight sorcerers. They hadn’t brought him misfortune. And even if they had brought it, there was nothing that required him to run from it.

“But at the same time, it’s like…I don’t want to do it, so it would take a lot of nerve to push it all onto Index, you know? I must sound dumb. Here I am, feeling happy, calmly thinking I don’t want to get her involved in this.”

“…” Motoharu Tsuchimikado had nothing left to say.

Professionals, amateurs, sorcerers, civilians. The man named Motoharu Tsuchimikado showed his own consideration with an unspoken silence.

Therefore, Touma Kamijou spoke alone—taking for himself the right to make his own conclusion.

“Let’s get this errand over with quickly. Then we’ll go back to Index. I want to fool around like idiots, eat our hearts out like idiots, take pictures like idiots—and be happy with all the idiotic memories we’re making.”

4

Four thirty PM.

Touma Kamijou was searching in a circle around the bus stop where he thought he’d lost Oriana.

Of course, the chances were ten to one—or more—that she’d gotten away on the bus. Still, it was possible she purposely hadn’t gotten on, trying to use their expectations against them. He couldn’t catch her with regular tactics, and with his lack of skill, figuring out the Croce di Pietro’s activation conditions would be impossible. So for now, the only thing he could do was eliminate irregular possibilities like this.

Tsuchimikado, the most likely to succeed, was currently trying to infer the Croce di Pietro’s usage point from where Oriana had previously appeared. That had to be left entirely up to the knowledge of sorcerers, so Kamijou could only wait for his report.

As he ran, he felt the four-thirty air creeping up on him. The city was shifting from afternoon to evening, and despite the sun’s usual glaring heat, it felt like the rays of sunlight stabbing into his skin had their edges blunted slightly.

As always, there were people buying souvenirs and heading to playing fields all over the streets as he ran through them. Sometimes he caught a glance of blond hair in the crowds.

…?! No, that’s not Oriana…Students with bleached hair and spectators from abroad were all over the place, so blondes weren’t very rare.

Kamijou curved toward the edge of the sidewalk and stopped so he wouldn’t get in the way of pedestrian traffic. It doesn’t seem like Oriana’s hiding out somewhere and waiting for me to leave…unless she’s holed up in a building, anyway.

He looked slightly up from the sidewalk. Concrete buildings with uneven heights stood along the side of the road, their windowpanes reflecting the harsh sunlight. Seems a little too hard to go around looking in all of them…But it’s better than nothing. Okay! He clapped himself on the cheeks and headed for the closest building, a large electronics store.

On the way, he heard a child’s voice.

“Wait up, says Misaka says Misaka, chasing you and stuff. Come on, Misaka was only looking at the souvenirs, please don’t leave me behind, says Misaka says Misaka, arguing desperately, but you won’t even stop, you dolt!”

Kamijou turned around casually, but he couldn’t see the owner of that voice in the crowds. It sounded like it belonged to a young child, so maybe she was caught up in the waves of people. But wait, Misaka…? No, there was something more important he needed to be doing.

Out of all of us, Tsuchimikado’s the one most favored to win, after all. He’d better be trying his best, too.

He passed through the automatic doors and took a look around the open, brightly lit store floor. The air-conditioning kept the place at a comfortable temperature, and there was enough light to see everywhere. It was the kind of place that could make someone lose track of time. He slowly walked around the store, checking for anyone who looked like Oriana, occasionally glancing out the big windows.

The stabbing glare of the four-thirty sky was starting to fade. It wasn’t red yet, but the warm tones of the sky had started to peek through. It would transition to an evening sky before another hour was up.

Then the first star of the evening would come out. And the brightest constellations would show up before the shroud of night fell completely.

“…If our hypothesis is right, we have a little under two hours to go,” he said to himself—when his cell phone rang.

The screen didn’t display Tsuchimikado. It was an emergency call.

He picked up and heard Stiyl Magnus… “I got your number from Tsuchimikado. You can bet I won’t save it, though.” He must have been smoking, because sometimes Kamijou heard a long exhale. “We finished treating the student. Where are you now?”

Kamijou stopped breathing for a moment. Then he frantically cried into the phone, “?! Himegami—how is she doing?!”

“…I’d appreciate it if you didn’t seek perfection from me. It was the first time I used that healing spell. It’s all foreign to me. It wasn’t going to go that well, anyway. Frankly, I don’t want to use a spell like that ever again, either. All I had to go on was random scraps of information from an amateur. You know how hard it was to pick up on what parts of all those vague things she told me were related to sorcery? I don’t know how I even threw the healing spell together at all. It was an absurd tightrope walk. I was sweating bullets, thinking it was going to blow up in my face and kill me at any moment. I don’t even feel alive now.” Stiyl delivered his answer in a bitter voice.

He was normally one big ball of self-confidence, so the work must have been really dangerous. Kamijou felt like an anvil had just dropped into his stomach.

“Anyway, I shored up the torn vessels and added more blood, then weakened her sense of pain. I think that was enough to get her out of shock. Now it’s up to the doctors…but the EMTs were all pretty confident. Seems like there’s a mysterious, blustering doctor in a hospital nearby who gets more worked up the worse the situation is.” His tone was uncomfortable. It was like a civilian had seen a villain rescuing a cat out of a tree on the side of the road.

“You’re…”

“What? Stop mumbling. I’ll tell you again. I don’t plan on getting all noncommittal buddy-buddy with you…gwaah?!”

There was a terrible thud from the phone. Then someone else’s voice came in.

“Oww! I haven’t thanked you yet! Bwaaahhh!! If you weren’t there, Hime…She would have…!!”

“S-stop it! Don’t cling to me! Not when you’re about to start spraying tears everywhere! Besides, I can’t promise they can save her. Unless they can recover her stamina, she’ll just go down again…and are you even listening?!”

For Kamijou, who was listening on the phone, it was a little scary. Who knew when the sorcerer would burn Miss Komoe to a crisp for (apparently) clinging to him? Surprisingly, Stiyl didn’t appear to be resorting to force. Maybe he would let his guard down for any small girl.

He couldn’t give Kamijou any details about sorcery battles in front of Miss Komoe, so Kamijou said, “Okay, talk to you later.”

Before he hung up, though, from amid the sounds of struggling he heard Stiyl say, “Call Tsuchimikado. I think he found something. I’ll go to him as soon as I can tear this person off me.”

5

Tsuchimikado was on a street in School District 7.

He was at the place where Kamijou and Fukiyose had first encountered Oriana.

Nearby was a totally inconspicuous main road, lined by big department stores and wind turbine propellers spinning round and round while oil drum–shaped security robots moved up and down the sidewalks. Students in gym uniforms passed by one another as usual, with guests to the city in personal wear stopping every time they saw one of the robots. The street was the kind you could find anywhere else, which also made it easy to get lost here.

He had since changed out of his torn gym uniform into new clothes, and the bandages he wore couldn’t be seen outside them. His face was still pale, though, because of the blood loss. He couldn’t hide that. Sometimes he would stumble, despite the absence of wind, and his breathing felt shallow, somehow unnatural. All his Level Zero Auto Rebirth ability could do was hook together broken blood vessels. Even so, without it, he would’ve been done for long ago.

In spite of his condition, he continued to stand there on the road under the glaring sun. The reason was simple. There was something he had to do.

Now that I’ve actually used my own feet to visit these places, he thought, looking up to the blue sky dotted with blimps and advertisement balloons, I’m starting to figure out a few things, nya. Oriana risked a lot by traipsing around the city like that. Was this why?

He was a caster skilled at the most predominant among eastern techniques: Onmyoudou, the traditional occultism of Japan.

Though it went by a single name, it contained many techniques to be learned and mastered. Geomancy, divination, Chinese alchemy, hexes, the art of worship, calendar creation, the usage of water clocks…It was made up of a myriad of goals and directions, everything from telling time to predicting the fates of entire nations. Onmyoudou’s true value was in how it governed everything.

Tsuchimikado personally specialized in Chinese-style geomancy, also known as feng shui, but he’d learned more than that. He could tell just by looking up. The dark-green branches and leaves of the trees on the roadside were partially hiding the sky, but not nearly enough to cause an issue.

Given today’s date and his current coordinates, he could tell which stars were out and where they were just by looking up at the daytime sky. He didn’t have to use any armillary spheres or horoscopes to know; he could accurately envision everything overlaid on the sky with the knowledge he’d worked so hard to acquire.

Still, if this was Index we were talking about, she could come up with the right answer just by hearing what we had to say. Wouldn’t even need to look at the sky at all, nya…The thoughts came to him involuntarily, and he gave a bitter, inward grin. When it came to Index, the very act of thinking he could take her on in pure knowledge was already a mistake.

But whatever the case was, he focused again and came to a conclusion. I get it…nyaa…Looks like we were right…She’s using the constellations after all. Seems like the autumn constellations are acting as a base, nya…No matter what vantage point I use…the constellations are all aligned in the same magical way…She’s gotta be doing it on purpose to read them…Agh. He summarized his ideas, grimacing and holding his side.

That was what he’d learned from going along the course Oriana had followed. No matter what point from which he looked at the stars, they appeared the same. At first this seemed like obvious logic, but when anything sorcery was involved, things changed.

Constellations were really just fake pictures that people saw from the earth’s surface. Seeing them all spread out like on a dome was a mere illusion caused by distance. To give an extreme example, if someone could look at a constellation from the side instead of head-on, they would see something completely different.

But in a stricter sense, observing the stars from but a single step away would be enough to change what the constellations looked like by the slightest of degrees. It was difficult to tell with the naked eye, and many a newbie sorcerer had misread the sky and gotten caught up in a backfiring spell. Practitioners in Greece and Egypt who borrowed the stars’ power, for example, had wanted more precise observatories and had begun to build giant temples for that exact reason.

Using the stars themselves was far from unusual. They were a resource, and anyone could use them. The thing about spells that used constellations, though, was that you needed to do a great deal of preparation to actually access that resource. Earlier Tsuchimikado had mentioned that the constellations could be applied to all sorts of different spells. But to actually pull it off, one basically needed to build a separate observatory for each spell one wanted to use. Ancient Greece, in its polytheism, had done just that: They’d separated everything, building a temple to Mars in one spot and a temple to a guardian deity in another. An observatory would have different magical meaning just by moving it slightly.

But despite that, the exact same “meaning” had appeared in the three or four “observatories” Tsuchimikado had just been to.

And that can’t be a coincidence. So that’s settled. Oriana and Lidvia are trying to activate the Croce di Pietro by integrating the autumn constellations…

He looked up at the blue expanse above him.

Behind his sunglasses, his eyes slowly narrowed.

…But then, what do we do about the contradiction, nya?

6

“Oh, is that you, Fuki? Is your body better already?”

After making a phone call, Fukiyose immediately heard Komoe Tsukuyomi’s mellifluous voice come back.

Right now, she was in an inner hospital courtyard. Her stamina had begun to return little by little in the time she’d spent resting in bed and wandering around the building. Eventually her range of movement had expanded enough for her to reach here.

It was like a resting place with a roof, with several tables and benches set up. There were also five or six other patients on their cell phones like Fukiyose was. A metal plaque hung on one of the room’s support beams, with the words CELL PHONE USAGE AREA. PATIENTS CURRENTLY USING DELICATE MEDICAL DEVICES NOT ALLOWED. It was like a disclaimer for a smoking area or something.

For people who always went on their cell phones when they had free time, the hospital disallowing their usage seemed to stress them out. This area let them do so as long as they met the conditions.

Fukiyose held the cell phone to her ear. “I’m fine. Have there been any problems with the Daihasei Festival? Like those idiots doing crazy things they shouldn’t?!”

“Oh! There was, there was! Hime was in a really bad situation!”

“…Don’t tell me that idiot saw someone changing again?!”

“No, not that! Somebody attacked Hime, and they brought her to the hospital! Kami and his friend were passing by, so it was okay, but if it had just been me, then…then it would have been terrible…”

Miss Komoe’s voice lowered in dejection. But Fukiyose couldn’t detect serious despair in it. She was probably relieved at the worst situation, at least, not having come to pass.

Several things caught her attention. She was attacked…? By who? Why? Those were the questions that sprang to mind. Maybe Aisa Himegami’s transfer to their school hadn’t been without reason. Every year people talked about those with hatred toward Academy City using the Daihasei Festival to slip in and make trouble. But if that was the case…

Then what are Anti-Skill and Judgment doing?

Judgment was one thing; they were all participating in the events. Anti-Skill was another thing. They should have been on guard for anything. After all, the Daihasei Festival appearing open and free was just that—an appearance.

Were they slacking off? Or was someone who outmatched them in the city?

And more important…

“If Kami and his friend hadn’t been there? What does that mean?”

“That’s right! Hime’s wounds were terrible, and I couldn’t do anything by myself! But Kami and his friend did a great job of it! Oh, I wonder what happened to that priest who was with Kami? He ran away from me before I could thank him…Oh! I think that was him turning the corner!!”

Tap tap tap tap!! She heard loud footsteps ringing on the other end of the phone.

“…”

She had felt the same way when it happened to her, too, hadn’t she? When she collapsed from sunstroke, who was it who reacted immediately and picked her up? The boy who had snuck his way into the other school’s event. Upon calm consideration, that was obviously strange.

She thought. In my case, I had sunstroke, and in Himegami’s, someone attacked her. Then I guess they don’t have anything to do with each other? But Touma Kamijou was involved in both those situations, so…

What did that mean? Fukiyose frowned. Just what was going on in this city?

7

Kamijou heard the story from Tsuchimikado after he got back. His Auto Rebirth ability had done a little bit, at least, because his voice was regaining its resilience. Still, his face was pale and he was breaking out in a cold sweat. In any other situation, he probably should have just gone to the hospital.

Tsuchimikado told him two things.

One: Oriana and Lidvia were trying to activate the Croce di Pietro by using the autumn constellations. Two: each of the “observatory” points had been set up for those constellations in particular.

But Tsuchimikado seemed skeptical about his own results. “Oriana was definitely walking around because of constellations, so our idea of them being the key to activating Peter’s cross was right…but I’m not sure they can actually do it. Historically speaking, the Croce di Pietro was used when the summer constellations were the main ones in the sky. It’s September now, so no matter how you think about it, the autumn constellations are the ones up there. I don’t think they could use them…There’s something else. I know it. Some gimmick we haven’t figured out yet.”

Tsuchimikado’s face was pale, and his skin was clammy. The gym uniform he’d changed into was brand new, but his fingernails had a little bit of dried blood on them. It looked painful, but Kamijou didn’t want to be the kind of person who would happily press the issue. “But Oriana still took the risk of people finding her and following her. That’s why she was looking for all those points that had a lot to do with constellations, right? You know where the points she hasn’t yet been to are, don’t you?”

“Yeah…but this unresolved gimmick is bothering me. Depending on what it is, they might be able to use an observatory besides the ones I found, nya~. Gonna be honest here—it’s just a matter of time. We could charge into the observatory we guessed, but if nobody was there and they were about to trigger the spell on the other side of the city, then what? We’d be up the river then, nya~,” finished Tsuchimikado, wiping the cold sweat off his jaw.

Kamijou checked the time. Five o’clock PM. He was right—if they had to go from one end of the city to the other, a train or bus wouldn’t necessarily get them there in time. They didn’t know the exact amount of time they had, either, which made it all the more difficult. In the worst-case scenario, it could all be over an hour from now.

His eyes stayed down on his cell phone’s clock as he spoke. “But we don’t have any more time to be thinking about it, do we? We’re running out of time! I’d rather not end up failing to even get to one spot!!”

Tsuchimikado knew as well as he did how much time they had. “I know that, nya…Damn, what the hell is Stiyl doing at a time like this, anyway?!” he said roughly.

Should they go in with no proof? Should they wait until they had proof? Whichever they chose, they were missing the one factor they needed to be sure. Kamijou’s thoughts gave way to silence; the silence gave way to a weight upon him. Finally, just as he was starting to feel choked by the air between them…

…his cell phone rang.

It wasn’t Kamijou’s. Tsuchimikado dubiously took his out of his pocket, but when he saw the screen, his expression changed. “Kammy, it’s from the Church!”

Come to think of it, Stiyl had said he was getting people at the British Library to collect information for them. Maybe they figured out something new. Right now Kamijou and Tsuchimikado needed whatever hints they could get. Even Tsuchimikado, usually calm and collected, was a little frantic as he fiddled with his cell phone and turned on the speakerphone. Kamijou got next to him and brought his ear close to the phone anyway.

Finally, they heard the voice come through the phone.

“Oh! Would I happen to be speaking to Mr. Stiyl Magnus?”

““You got the wrong number?!”” they both shouted at the same time.

The woman on the other end apologized in a crestfallen manner. Kamijou was confused, though. It didn’t matter, but if she had tried to call Stiyl—a foreigner—why was she speaking in Japanese?

Tsuchimikado heaved a sigh. “Ah, no, this is Motoharu Tsuchimikado. Working with Stiyl at the moment. If you have a report, I’ll hear it, nya…You get anything?”

“That is correct! I have a report. We went into the British Library’s records and found new information regarding the Croce di Pietro.”

Her voice came back to them relaxed. After hearing it again, Kamijou perked up. He’d heard that voice somewhere before. “Huh? Is that Orsola?”

“That voice…Oh my! Why, yes, it is. Thank you very much for the other day. Because of you, I am now thoroughly—”

“Nya~. Let’s not get off topic here,” interrupted Tsuchimikado, his voice irritated and tired. “Could you kindly get on with it, nya?”

“—acquainted with those of the English Puritan Church. In fact, just the other day Miss Kanzaki introduced me to a wonderful Japanese restaurant that…Oh, that’s right! Those of Amakusa have been assigned to Japantown as well.”

“Did you just smile away what Tsuchimikado said?! Agh, could you please just tell us what info you got already?!” shouted Kamijou, causing Tsuchimikado’s head to wobble anemically.

Finally, Orsola said, “Oh!” and stopped herself. “That’s right. I do suppose it would be best that I tell you as soon as possible the information we received from the British Library. Ufu-fu. I’m sure it will be helpful information!”

“…Okay, Orsola, but it better not be helpful info on Japanese restaurants, got it?” said Kamijou lowly.

“Of course. I understand completely,” she answered in a bouncing tone. “There is actually a very nice one five minutes away from Waterloo Station with the most delicious—”

“I literally just said not to do that! Stop trying to show off and give us the info on the Croce di Pietro!!”

“Oh, that is truly a shame…Let’s discuss the main topic. Please listen closely,” she said in an unaffected, gentle voice. Kamijou and Tsuchimikado, expressions serious, focused on the cell phone. “What we understood from fragmentary records at the British Museum regards the conditions necessary to use the Croce di Pietro.”

Kamijou felt his shoulders give a start. Details on the usage conditions. That was exactly the information they needed the most. They forgot to breathe as they waited for Orsola’s next words.

“It would appear the Croce di Pietro is a large-scale Soul Arm used by borrowing the power of constellations. Putting the cross up on the land is to precisely collect the night sky’s lights. At the right angle, it will accurately get the lights from the sky then use that as part of the spell to activate its magical effects. That appears to be how it works.”

“That’s what Kammy and I were saying. It’s like a big old parabolic antenna. But still…”

“…Yeah. Not the newest of information…” Kamijou couldn’t help but sigh. Tsuchimikado’s shoulders drooped as well.

“Oh? Do tell what you are so disappointed about.”

“Sorry, Orsola. Thanks for doing your best to find that out, but we’d already gotten that far on our own. At this point, we just need one hint to get us there.”

“Oh…I see…” Orsola’s voice was dejected, but Kamijou wasn’t paying attention to her anymore.

He didn’t know how much knowledge the British Library had stored away in its archives, but it had to have more than he and Tsuchimikado had gleaned so far. But the sweet honey was nowhere to be found—and that was like the nail in the coffin. They were stuck now and wouldn’t be getting any hints.

The expressions of both Kamijou and Tsuchimikado, the professional, clouded over.

Meanwhile, Orsola Aquinas continued. “…Then I suppose you have already learned of the constellations corresponding to the Croce di Pietro’s usage area that Miss Sherry and I found. It doesn’t have anything to do with any specific season’s constellations. It uses all eighty-eight constellations. I suppose you have already realized that it can be activated from anywhere in the world…”

“Huh?” said Kamijou and Tsuchimikado at once.

“Wait, Orsola. What are you talking about? We managed to figure out that it could be used only in certain places, but all this stuff about it using every constellation is news to us. Tsuchimikado was just worrying about not being able to use the Croce di Pietro in this season. And that if we figured that out, we’d solve the mystery gimmick. Could you give us a detailed explanation about that?”

“…What a shame. I believe I should be happier for the situation turning out better than I expected, but knowing that all the work we did was for nothing is still somewhat hard to take.”

“Listen to me! Stop acting so hopeless and explain! Please, O Beautiful Orsola! And wait, do you mean that Sherry?!”

After Kamijou shouted several times, Orsola finally pulled the conversation back onto its original track. “Well. San Pietro, or St. Peter as he is called here, was martyred on June 29th. Of course, it is believed the Croce di Pietro was used in the Vatican directly after that.”

Crossism was acknowledged in the fourth century, and the Roman Papal States were actually given the land as territory in the eighth century. But if the Croce di Pietro was used after Peter died, that would have been in the middle of the first century. Tsuchimikado had explained that much to him.

Orsola went on with her speculation. The fact that Emperor Constantine had acknowledged Crossism at the beginning of the fourth century, and the fact that the king of the Franks had given the land to the Papacy after invading Italy…She believed that those historical events were simply too convenient for the Vatican and Crossism as a whole—and that it was because of the Croce di Pietro’s power.

“???…I’m sorry, Orsola, I’m pretty bad at history lectures.”

“The important thing to remember is that the cross was first used in a place called the Vatican somewhere between late June and early July.”

Orsola’s voice was relaxed, but Tsuchimikado reacted sharply to it. “…In a place called the Vatican?”

“Yes. The historical Croce di Pietro was used only that one time, but as we all know, his cross was created to be used in regions other than the Vatican. Now this is the problem…” She paused for a moment, then went on. “On June 29th, it can be used only in the Vatican. It appears that to use it elsewhere, it must be on specific dates set for those places. In other words,” she said, continuing on, “in order to use the Croce di Pietro, the user requires a firm grasp of the area’s characteristics, features, and traits. Then, it first becomes usable by choosing the constellations from the eighty-eight through which it will be most effective. Because specialized knowledge is needed to choose a location and select constellations, there are various restrictions on its use: For example, it can be used only in a certain place once per year. But with this method, the user can be virtually anywhere on the planet, and they can place that area under the Roman Orthodox Church’s control.”

According to Orsola, Lidvia Lorenzetti traveled the world frequently in order to spread the Word to sinners. It was possible that meanwhile, she was compiling details on each area’s attributes, what constellations applied to them, times for use, and the positions of the observatories, all required to use the Croce di Pietro. When Orsola had still been part of the Roman Orthodox Church, she had seen Lidvia several times, holding an old telescope in her arms as she headed for where she was going to do her next missionary work.

“So then Lidvia already snuck into Academy City once before to figure out the usage location for the Croce di Pietro?”

“That would depend on how she did her measurements…For example, when making maps, you can measure your latitude and longitude from the angle of the North Star as seen from the ground, among other things. But you don’t need to perform that at every single location on the planet. You can figure out your main points, and then measure many others from a desk in your study. She may not have needed to enter Academy City at all.”

Is that how it works? Kamijou thought about it. And quickly ran into a question. “Wait. Wasn’t the cross made when Peter died in the first place? Why could it be used at any time and place besides when and where he died?”

“Well, you see…” Orsola paused to think for a moment. “It appears the Soul Arm itself was created during St. Peter’s lifetime…”

“…What does that mean?”

“At the time, St. Peter gave a great amount of thought to where he would have to be martyred. As we know from the fact that the entire Roman Orthodox Church is centered on the site where St. Peter sleeps, he knew that wherever he was martyred would have a significant effect on history. That was one thing he would have been thinking about…But because of that, it is highly likely that the Croce di Pietro was created to have broader usage conditions, just in case there was a place for him other than the Vatican…that would be more suitable for the Roman Orthodox Church.”

Kamijou felt his throat dry. Then he said, “So he could choose the place he wanted, but he couldn’t change the date, right? He wouldn’t just go ahead and use the thing when he was getting really old; he must have planned for an exact date…”

“Yes. And St. Peter was executed on June 29th. The exact date on which the Croce di Pietro is usable.”

“…So he got caught on purpose on that day? Prepared to die and everything?”

“It’s not…impossible, nya~,” answered Tsuchimikado, exhaling quietly as if to expel his fatigue. “At the time, Peter wasn’t on good terms with the Roman Empire. He was enemies with an important guest visiting the empire, a sorcerer named Simon Magus, nya~. In the end, he killed Simon himself. Crossism was already persecuted in that era, so you can guess what kind of fate the empire had in store for him.”

“There are several anecdotes about when he was executed as well,” continued Orsola. “I referred to it earlier, but Quo Vadis is a particularly famous one. When the empire’s soldiers caught St. Peter, he was thrown into a prison with his pupil. There, he fervently prayed to escape the city. One time he did make it to the exit of Rome, but in the end, he turned back and let himself be caught by the empire’s soldiers again. The story goes that he saw an image of the Son of God at the city’s gates, which revealed to him that he must be martyred.

“On the day of his execution, when he was hung on the cross, he made a request. ‘I am not worthy to suffer the same way as my Lord, so please, turn the cross upside down.’ These, of course, were the words of a pious Crossist disciple, but perhaps there was another reason…”

“…and maybe it meant there was some trick with the cross…,” finished Kamijou without really meaning to.

Peter was one of the twelve Apostles. Maybe he knew that he would one day be executed no matter what he did. If that was true, he could have used the exact moment of his death for the greatest effect. Even considering what would happen hundreds of years in the future.

For the creation of the Roman Papal States that followed…

…and for the sake of the people there who must be quietly protected.

It was far from being strictly passive. Where he would die, the time, the effect that would have, his death’s results, and the fruits of his labors. Not only had he given careful thought to all those things, but he himself had begun the process toward his own end. Done with the ultimate calmness and the ultimate compassion, all for one spell that had to be described as ultimate. Was that the strongest spell of the Roman Orthodox Church, which used the Croce di Pietro?

“Historically, it’s not rare to see people hacking their own graves. Prince Shōtoku placed his grave in a geomantically horrible location to purposely eradicate any descendants who would follow him, nya~,” Tsuchimikado said, face still pale, with a sigh—half from flat amazement and half from admiration.

Now that Kamijou had heard all that, he returned to the most important question. “So, Orsola…do you know where they have to use the Croce di Pietro today, on September 19th?”

“Yes,” came the immediate reply. “But of course I do.”

8

Mikoto and Misuzu Misaka, mother and daughter, walked down the street.

The place they were in was complex. The street, lined with big department stores, had an underground section; an aboveground section; and even a gigantic, multilaned pedestrian walkway, as a sort of second floor outside. All three of the floors’ paths mixed and mingled with one another. They were currently walking on the second floor, passing by many handmade open-road stalls.

There was still a good amount of time before Tokiwadai Middle School’s students would be taking part in the next event, so Mikoto was showing Misuzu around. Most of the places that Misuzu wanted to visit were souvenir shops and open stalls set up specifically for outside spectators.

“Hey! You don’t need a quasi-five-dimensional kaleidoscope! You’ll get bored of it in three days! Three days!”

“Oh, but Mikoto, Academy City is all about souvenirs filled with technology nobody understands!”

“Right. They’d never let guests take out stuff that’s actually cutting-edge. What the heck is this kaleidoscope, anyway? ‘Reproduces a purely physical vision of a theoretical five-dimensional space using light-refracting technology’? How can you not tell how big a lie that is?! Would you even know how to tell if it was really five-dimensional space?!”

“Oh, but the feeling of it being so unproven is fun!”

“If you’re gonna get a souvenir, make it something that helps you remember this!”

“Oh, but making sure you remember things? Mikoto, how girlish!”

“Just be quiet, stupid!!”

Mikoto grabbed her mother’s hand and dragged her away from the open shop. For a middle school kid going through her rebellious phase, trying to recommend a better souvenir for her mother, at least, went to show how tightly knit their family was.

Both would draw a lot of attention with how they looked, but neither paid any mind to the stares of others.

“Well, souvenirs are all fine and good, but I want to go places you can visit only in Academy City, too! Mikoto, know of any good spots? I want to see a landing dock for a super-giant space battleship or something.”

“…What sort of place do you even think this is?”

“Okay, then we’ll compromise. I’ll let you off if you show me an anthropomorphic pure-hearted maiden who carries lots of weapons on her!”

“We don’t have stuff like that here!!” shouted Mikoto in spite of herself.

Then she noticed an intense pair of eyes on her. Not the same kind as the people passing by but more of a clammy, sticky kind of gaze.

She turned around and carefully asked, “K-Kuroko?” The girl with twin tails sat in a sports wheelchair with wheels angled out of the bottom, and she seemed odd. Her eyes were glittering like a Christmas tree in the city, so bright that even the petite girl with all the flowers in her hair grimaced.

Shirai made a loud, clear gulping sound. “Is…Big Sister, is this your family? I say…I say, how beautiful! Truly, truly far too beautiful for one such as I! What is this sudden inflation of Big Sister aura?! D-darn it. It’s come down to this, so I must prepare myself! Oh, Kuroko! I don’t care if it’s sisters or a mother and daughter, you can all come at me at the same time if you please! Ufu-geh-heh-geh-heh-heh-ah-ha-ha-haaa!!”

The nimbus surrounding the Misaka family had been too much for Kuroko to bear, and her thoughts leaped brilliantly ahead of her. Mikoto promised herself not to ever let her know about the existence of any of the Sisters.

“Oh, Mikoto, I didn’t know your girlishness went in that direction.”

“In what direction?! I’ve always been on the proper path!!”

“You’re right. You’ve been heading straight for that boy. No time for side trips, I suppose.”

“Pfft?! I’ll shut you up by force!!”

Mikoto tried again and again to grab her, but Misuzu skillfully dodged them all, blabbering on as she went. Then someone appeared in the corner of Misuzu’s vision whom she remembered. Hmm? Wait, that’s…Oh, hee-hee. Speak of the devil.

Misuzu and the others were currently on the third floor of the roads here, which were split into the underground, the aboveground, and the second floor aboveground. A familiar face was down on the surface level, past a railing. That must have been why he hadn’t noticed them.

It was a boy with spiky black hair on the short side. Next to him, there was another boy standing a full head above him with blond hair and sunglasses. They were both wearing the same gym uniform, so they seemed like classmates. But they look really serious about something. She couldn’t make out from here what they were saying, but the looks on their faces were the kind you didn’t see often, even during important transactions at the company she worked for. It was the expression a person made when someone had many fates besides one’s own riding on one’s shoulders. What could it mean? Misuzu couldn’t imagine what could be making such young men look like that.

But anyway. “See, Mikoto? That gentleman you long for is right over there.”

“I won’t fall for that—Wait, no! I’m not longing for anyone, you hear me?!”

Mikoto’s face went bright red. Thinking it was a joke, she wouldn’t look in the direction Misuzu was pointing. Meanwhile, the two boys went off and disappeared into the crowds.

9

Tsuchimikado hung up.

“So that means the Croce di Pietro they’ve been carrying can’t be used in whatever place they like at whatever time they like.”

“Yeah. They must’ve figured out where the usable ‘observatory’ point is in Academy City way before they got here. From what Orsola said, while Lidvia goes around the world spreading religion, she’s probably looking for these observatory locations or whatever, too.”

Orsola Aquinas had said Lidvia had probably been looking around for these observatory locations for a long time, but she may have just been measuring one or two places in a given region and then mathematically calculating where all the rest of them were. That meant she might not have physically seen the observatory inside Academy City.

“That means Lidvia and Oriana have been walking around themselves to make sure there weren’t any mismatches in their calculated data and the real stuff…Is that it?”

“That sounds about right. And Oriana’s still wandering around, too. Maybe they were having more trouble finding a magically appropriate point than they thought they would. Or maybe there was some other geological factor they needed. Anyway…this is where we settle it.”

Of the points Orsola had given them, excluding the ones Oriana Thomson had already gone around to see left only one possible place.

“It’s been a long road to get here, but things are finally starting to turn in our favor, nya~. Hope they keep going this well.”

Kamijou looked up. It was five twenty PM. The blue sky was steadily shifting to an orange color. “One place left…How long’s it been since she found it? Maybe she already checked the place and went somewhere else.”

“No, I looked at the other places…Remember, she’s using the visual appearance of the constellations. That’s difficult to do. In two of those places, you couldn’t even see the sunlight, much less the constellations. Even if you went up on the roof. In three other places, the leaves from the trees along the roads blocked off entire sections of the sky. They’ve gotta be using this last point. It’s totally wide open to everything, nya~.”

“A wide-open place…Wait, the place you marked on the map?!”

“You got it. Probably can’t find anywhere better from which to see the whole sky.” As Tsuchimikado spoke, he stuck the pamphlet map, marked with a Magic Marker, toward Kamijou. His fingers were trembling, and even the marking seemed somehow unreliable. He must have taken a lot of damage.

School District 23.

A unique district, the entirety of which was occupied by space and aerospace development–related facilities. Aside from the international airport open to the public because of guests from abroad who came to watch, its whole area on the map was just white—in the sense of no noteworthy places at all.

There, they developed not only civilian aircraft but also jet fighters and unmanned helicopters for the purpose of retaining air supremacy in Academy City. Even during the Daihasei Festival, its security was probably still top-class.

The place Tsuchimikado had labeled with marker was right in the middle of the white on the map. Kamijou couldn’t tell, just from looking at it, where exactly that was in the city, either.

Tsuchimikado smirked at Kamijou’s perplexed expression. “The place is called the Tetsumi Aeronautical Technology Laboratory Testing Airport…If I remember right, it specializes in developing short-range landing strips, nya~. I know what goes on there, but Oriana’s never been there before, so she might have some trouble getting in, nya~.”

“…But isn’t Oriana a sorcerer? Would Academy City’s security even work on her? She doesn’t seem like the sort of person who would let herself be caught on the surveillance cameras.”

“On the contrary! All the observatory points Oriana’s been to have been light on security. You could tell if you went there yourself. She was almost going in order from lowest security risk to highest, nya~. Oriana and Lidvia are more cautious of Academy City than we thought…And I mean, if they were totally unconcerned about security, they wouldn’t have been trying to blend in with the crowds. Kammy, think back to the sorcerers you’ve fought in the past. Did the golem user, Sherry Cromwell, seem to care much about what Anti-Skill was doing?”

Come to think of it…Kamijou got the sense from sorcerers that if they could crash in through the front door, they would actually do it.

Oriana and Lidvia were trying to use to its fullest the current equilibrium of science and magic in the Daihasei Festival. They probably didn’t want to ruin that with their own powerful spells and have the situation change into something really extreme.

Countless magicians big and small were standing by in the periphery of Academy City. No matter how crazy they were, Oriana and Lidvia wouldn’t want to take on all of them plus Academy City’s security forces at the same time.

“In any event, let’s pray Oriana gets her feet tangled in the security net and go after her right now. They’re headed for virtually the last observatory. We’ll catch them there and put an end to all this.”

“Eh? Sure, easier said than done. If Oriana has problems with it, wouldn’t we lose the same amount of…?”

Kamijou broke off as he saw a conspicuous priest with red hair out of the corner of his eye. He looked that way with a distrusting glance and saw Stiyl Magnus running over to them.

Tsuchimikado gave a suspicious look to his colleague. He was pretty late. “What have you been doing, nya~? You didn’t run into Oriana and Lidvia or any of that, yeah?”

“No…”

Stiyl seemed to be having trouble replying, so Kamijou answered instead. “Right, right. Not only did he save a life and move Miss Komoe to tears, I bet she was clinging to him like crazy and he wasn’t sure what to do about it.”

“Pfft?! E-enough with the absurdities, amateur! I got her off me the moment I hung up on you. But even though I was using Opila, every time I left its area of effect, she found me again. It took me a while to shake her off.” Stiyl bitterly spat out his short cigarette and stepped on it.

Tsuchimikado watched, his eyes cold. “…Nya. I see how it is. The Kammy disease. While I was valiantly using Four Ways to Truth at the expense of half the blood in my body, you were having a wonderful time in a rom-com, nya…? And it wasn’t even with Index, either, but with Miss Komoe. You two are seriously strange. Staggering into one juicy situation after another. Men are supposed to go straight to their jobs and get them done first!”

“Don’t call it the Kammy disease! Also, you have no room to talk about us being strange when you’re obsessed with your little stepsister!”

“No! Wh-who are you calling obsessed with his little stepsister, nya?! I, Tsuchimikado, hereby swear that I—Ow!!…It hurts when I shout…” Tsuchimikado trembled, holding his side.

Kamijou shook his head and sighed. “Leaving aside Maika, what do we do now? District 23 has a crazy security detail, doesn’t it? We don’t even know if we’ll be able to sneak in!”

“…W-wait, Kammy. This isn’t something the elite Onmyou practitioner Motoharu Tsuchimikado can simply leave aside…But look. We can just use that one-time-only privilege I’ve got that Oriana doesn’t have.”

“Eh? A privilege?” Kamijou asked suspiciously, watching as Tsuchimikado smirked and got out his cell phone.

“Yeah. You know the chairperson of the Academy City General Board?”

10

Oriana Thomson was at the terminal in School District 23.

Unlike the other districts, District 23 had only one station: its entrance and also its exit. Every line that connected to the district met there, which made the station extremely large—and about as vast and complicated as an international airport.

Eight train lines, five subway lines, two monorail lines, plus four bus terminals at the front entrance. Other than those, there were even private special freight train lines and VIP-only lines.

That’s strange…, thought Oriana amid it all as she casually glanced around. The security had changed.

The terminal had a good amount of Anti-Skill officers stationed there, hidden by so many people with big luggage. However, they’d all been moved quite suddenly. More precisely, it sort of felt like they had raised the security. It didn’t mean that she would have to beat a hasty retreat from the station, but she couldn’t help noticing that they were all moved to a pretty meaningless spot in terms of security. It had created more blind spots in their net as a whole as well.

Glass panes, mostly white, were on the walls and ceiling, making the inside of the station bright from the sunlight. Inside, Oriana continued to think.

School District 23 was a special district even among those in Academy City. Apart from the international airport and roads connected to the terminal, everything else was completely off-limits. It was actually easy to get to the terminal station, but getting any farther in was absurdly difficult. Which was why she’d been going back and forth between the terminal and airport for a while, waiting for her chance, but…

Here’s my chance, but this seems a little too good to be true. She wanted to contact Lidvia, but she wasn’t sure if using a communication spell now would be spotted by all the mana-searching going on. After mulling it over for a moment, though, she brought her flash cards to her lips. In her estimation, the enemy’s searching abilities weren’t that strong to begin with.

She bit off a flash card then quietly said, “Lidvia? Brace yourself. We should get this started soon.”

The reply came in the form of letters imprinted directly on her retinas. They appeared at the bottom of her vision like movie subtitles. They read, “…Is the appointed time not further off?”

“Look, I’d love to take it easy, too, but our young men seem to be jumping the gun. It would be unsightly for one side to be late to the climax, wouldn’t it?” Oriana said, keeping an eye on the Anti-Skill officers changing location, their footsteps silent. “The security detail is acting unnaturally. They probably know we’re around. I don’t feel any traces of Opila or other awareness-manipulation spells around here, so it was probably Academy City’s instructions.”

“Do you mean to say Academy City is breaking the balance and pressing us all at once?”

“No, just the opposite. It’s more like they’re purposely retreating to make a spot for us to have a battle. The officers look like they’re hesitating about this quite a bit. They probably don’t understand why they need to change locations.”

“If that troubles you, you needn’t press the issue. You have the option of leaving the station and moving to another school district.”

“No…,” Oriana said, staring at the big clock on the platform. “I’ve looked all over, but this is definitely the most appropriate place. So I’ll tighten up our defenses here…Given how wide-open the spot is, no more civilians will be wrapped up in it, either.”

“Are you certain you can buy enough time?”

“It depends on how many they bring, but I can handle myself even when there’s a bunch of them on me.” Oriana looked away from the electronic sign and headed for the exit stairs going up and off the platform. Her strides were long—and quick.

“Then I will speak to you again soon.”

“Yep. You get ready, too, Lidvia. We’re bringing down Academy City right here. Like pushing an ignorant, radiant maiden down into the mud.”

11

A train roared into the subway platform. The hunk of iron and steel steadily slowed, but Motoharu Tsuchimikado didn’t even glance at it.

His eyes were on his allies—Kamijou and Stiyl.

“Talked to the big guys. Got them to change up the security detail in District 23 a bit. Getting them all out of the district was a bit much to ask, though. Basically, we’re just slipping through the gap they make while moving from point A to point B…”

Tsuchimikado went on to explain that they’d ordered those in charge of the satellites to change the video processing systems on them. While that switchover was happening, the eyes in the sky would be temporarily blind.

Kamijou thought back to the person Tsuchimikado had been talking to this whole time: the chairperson of the Academy City General Board.

…Aleister, huh?

The conversation had been over the phone, so Kamijou couldn’t hear the person’s voice. But they were equal, if not higher, than Tsuchimikado, who was fluent in both science and sorcery. Just that fact made it easy to imagine the person would be in a very deep place in the world. Such a deep place that Touma Kamijou, an amateur high school student, wouldn’t even be able to peek inside.

“They’re using the star chart for the night sky for this, so right after sundown is when they’re most likely to activate the Croce di Pietro. Right now, it’s five twenty-five PM. It’ll take about ten minutes to get to District 23’s terminal, nya~. We never figured out a clear time limit, but it’ll probably be between six and seven PM. At the shortest…that means we’ll have only twenty-five minutes after we get to the station.”

“Tsuchimikado, about the whole ‘slipping through the gaps as they shuffle around’ thing. It’ll be ten minutes to get there, right? Is that gap or whatever still going to be there for us?”

“Kammy, the security-detail changes aren’t just for one building. They’re changing around the whole district’s security setup. There’s no way they’ll be done in ten minutes. Same as an evacuation drill at school, you know? The more people, the slower they all move. It’s really common sense, nya~. At the very least, when it’s five thirty-five and we arrive at District 23, the setup should still be switching around.”

Stiyl took the cigarette out of his mouth and tossed it into an ashtray in the smoking area. “Just so I’m sure, you’re going to face Oriana like that?”

“Hah! I’d love it if I could take a nice nap now, nya~. The security might be switching up, but they’re not completely gone. District 23 isn’t easy enough for just the two of you to bust into.”

“That so?” said Stiyl idly. He wasn’t asking for a reason—he just wanted to make sure he was willing to do this. “From six to seven. That’s our time limit, but it’ll also hold down Oriana and Lidvia. If they changed routes and went to another point now, they wouldn’t make it there in time. They want to use the Croce di Pietro in District 23 at all costs.”

After Kamijou listened to them, he asked, “So this whole game of cat-and-mouse is over, then.”

“They’re probably thinking the same thing. No objections from me—now we just have to give it everything we’ve got.”

The train completed its gentle deceleration and stopped. The announcement came through the station as the metal doors opened automatically to the left and right. The people in the train started to flood out of the train car. Kamijou’s group, however, wouldn’t be stopped by the wave. It parted around the three of them so they wouldn’t run into one another.

“…Once we get on this train, there’s no going back. The only thing waiting for us is a death match with Oriana and Lidvia. Are you fully prepared for this, Touma Kamijou?”

Kamijou stayed quiet for a moment. All sorts of things had happened today. He’d smelled blood, tasted sand, run around the city, fought a sorcerer, fell for several tricks, saw someone injured before his eyes, realized he couldn’t do anything for her, gritted his teeth, and kept his fist tightened.

“…Yeah.” He nodded, taking all that in. He stepped toward the opened train door. “My mind’s made up. We’re finishing this. And then…”

“And then what?” Stiyl asked dubiously.

Kamijou didn’t turn around. “Remember this. I’m not gonna let this end by killing each other.”

The two sorcerers went silent for a bit. Then Tsuchimikado and Stiyl both smiled—Tsuchimikado like a little kid and Stiyl in a sardonic way, each showing their own feelings on the matter.

All three of them boarded the train.

The doors automatically closed, and the train slowly, gently left the platform, proceeding into the subway tunnel.

To invite them to the final battle waiting beyond.

INTERLUDE SIX

Oriana Thomson’s family was Crossist.

Every Sunday they’d go to church, where a kind old priest would always be kneeling, looking her in her young eyes, and explaining to her the same things in an easy-to-understand way.

He had told her to do things for the benefit of others.

She had always wondered how.

Oriana, of course, was kind to people no matter who they were. For example, she would pick up empty cans on the road, direct confused people in front of tube maps to where they wanted to go, and deliver things that needed to go somewhere else, even if it would cost her her own life.

But…

Those acts of kindness didn’t necessarily turn out for the benefit of others.

Perhaps the empty cans she picked up off the road would cause problems for homeless people who received small change and food from charity for volunteering to clean up.

Perhaps the things she’d been asked to deliver would turn out to be Soul Arms that would curse and kill a person as soon as the box was opened.

Even if she didn’t wish it, even if she wanted to help others from the bottom of her heart, tragedies would strike anyway. The world was filled with people, all different, each with their own opinions. They fell into holes in Oriana’s personal values, meaning the act of doing something for another person would also hurt that person. In a way she never predicted, in a form she never imagined, she would send the people she wanted to personally protect down to the netherworld.

It was hard. She could never come close to predicting whether her actions would backfire. If she knew beforehand that it would happen, she could simply not do that thing. And if she knew her actions were sure to succeed, she’d choose that without hesitation.

Of course…

Oriana’s thoughts on the matter were purely selfish, and she understood that as much as anyone else. The logic was like a roulette wheel. Oriana could bet on red a hundred times, but depending on what number the rolling ball stopped on, some other kind of luck or conditions would determine the outcome of each hundred-spin set, regardless of her own wishes or actions. She couldn’t choose red and win no matter what. She couldn’t gain chips on every hundred-spin set. There was no easy, surefire way to win. That was how reality worked.

But…

What if a person’s life was riding on one of those games?

What if they pleaded with her, begging her to win no matter what?

What would she bet on?

Was that choice easy for anyone?

If someone begged her to save them…

Her mind was already scarred. She was afraid. She couldn’t even reach out to them. And by not reaching out to them, she was sure to hurt the person who asked her to save them.

She just wanted a standard.

A reference point that fixed everything, so she wouldn’t have to anguish over it anymore.

A surefire way to win at a roulette wheel—a single rule would be enough. There were as many principles as there were people, and that created dissent, which would give way to tragedy. Water scooped up with her hands would slowly leak through her fingers, no matter how hard she tried. It was the same thing.

It can be an emperor, she wished. It can be a king, a pope, a president, a head of state, a prime minister. It doesn’t matter what they’re called. I don’t even care who’s sitting in that seat. I can fight for others, too. Science or sorcery—neither of them makes a difference to me…She clenched her teeth.

…So please, make some rules. Clear points of reference I can use to make everyone happy. So that I don’t have to worry about differences of opinions creating tragedy. Please, create a world bound by such an ultimate, surefire victory.

She thought, but she did not speak.

There was a simple reason why.

She kept saying it was for the benefit of others.

But in the end, here she was, once again having hurt another person.