CHAPTER 2

Deciding Trigger
Muzzle_of_a_Gun.

1

After Kamijou split up with Mikoto, he paid a visit to the department store near the station like he’d been meaning to. He peered into the fresh food section on the ground floor and saw that vegetables were cheap today, so he went in and bought about four days’ worth of ingredients.

…Ready-made food seems really popular, but nobody’s going for the ingredients like vegetables and meat and stuff. Maybe less people are cooking for themselves these days, he wondered as he left the store.

He looked up to see the airship still there, a news program on the screen on its side. Initially, he thought it would be more about the protests in the U.S.…but now it was on Russia. News about the demonstrations was the only thing going right now, so it was starting to get hard to tell what was new and what was old.

“…” Kamijou stopped and thought, grocery bags in both hands.

Something Mikoto Misaka said earlier was bothering him.

Demonstrations and protests happening throughout the world. These huge “incidents” weren’t unmotivated—rather, there were so many motivations, they left no clues as to how to solve them.

The thing Mikoto was angriest about was having been used during the September 30 incident. The people of Academy City had done everything in their power, endeavoring to bring back the peace they used to have, but it had been used against them to help create new chaos.

Kamijou still wanted to do something.

Even Vento of the Front, who caused the upheaval, had her reasons. Even Hyouka Kazakiri, who stood at the crossroads of science and magic, didn’t want this kind of discord. Outsiders, those whose names and faces they didn’t even know, had butted in and made the world into this mess. That was wrong, no matter how one looked at it.

But…

What do I do…? Kamijou gritted his teeth as he stared at the airship floating in the sky. I have to stop the problem. That’s the biggest goal and easy to understand. But what am I actually supposed to do?

Perhaps one way was to contact Tsuchimikado, who knew the inner workings of Academy City, or someone from the Puritan camp, like Kanzaki.

But now that the problems were so much bigger, Kamijou couldn’t imagine any of them settling the situation at all. If pressed, he felt more like they were backstage specialists who took the initiative before the problems grew this large.

Anyway, standing around here isn’t going to do me any good, he thought. Still, I don’t know how to contact the Puritan Church. I guess I’ll go back to the dorm first and pay Tsuchimikado a visit, partly just to ask about that.

And about how he skipped out on the weeding, too, he added inwardly. Though maybe I’ve got it better than regular students just by having contact with an agent like him…? He forced himself to think positively as he mused, walking down the dark streets again. Thinking in circles was making the grocery bags in his hands feel oddly heavy as he walked.

It was the homebound rush hour, so a lot of people were around. Still, he felt like he was bumping into more people than usual. Going back to the dorm, getting dinner ready, and taking a bath was going to be a chore. Wonder if there’s any shortcut recipes that bypass the annoying parts, like using the microwave or rice cooker, he thought with some seriousness. Normally, there was a chance Index surrendered to hunger and bit him if he took too long to make food.

As he wondered, he ran into another person walking. This time, it was an old woman about fifty or sixty years old.

“Whoops, sorry.”

“No, don’t be,” said the old woman with an elegant smile, bowing her head to him instead.

She didn’t walk hunched over, but even standing up straight she was two sizes smaller than Kamijou. A coat was folded over her bent arm. Plus, she wore a scarf around her neck, looking rather overdressed for the beginning of October. Maybe she’s sensitive to the cold, he thought idly.

The old woman brought her head back up and said in an unhurried tone, “I’m the one who should apologize.”

“Oh, no, I’m the one who bumped into you.”

“No, no, not about that.” The old woman smiled.

Kamijou was about to frown before she spoke again.

“About the trouble I’m about to put you through.”

He heard a soft metallic click. He looked toward the sound—near his stomach.

The old woman’s arm was there. But with the folded coat hanging over it, everything from her elbow to the front of her wrist was covered with its thin fabric, completely out of sight.

All he understood was the feeling against his gut.

It felt like a hard, pointed stick. He cringed slightly.

“I really do apologize for this,” said the old woman gently, bowing her head again.

2

Suddenly, Mikoto Misaka stopped.

Hmm…

She’d forgotten about it when she ran into that idiot, but now she remembered she had something to talk to him about.

…The Ichihanaran Festival.

Mikoto had a citywide cultural festival on her mind. This year’s festival was still over a month away, but due to how terribly the Daihasei Festival, the aggregated athletic festival held in September, ended up (in reality, it was a succession of good, bad, and bittersweet, but she only felt it had been terrible), she’d been thinking about taking measures early for the Ichihanaran Festival.

Actually, half of that seven-day-long Daihasei Festival was one big string of problems related to that idiot. If I’d known it would end up like that, I would have taken the reins earlier…

When she said “taking measures,” she meant, of course, securing from him a promise to go around the festival with her.

Why did it turn out like this? …Well, I guess I can just call him, she thought noncommittally, taking out her cell phone.

She’d formed a pair contract with Kamijou on September 30, so his number was naturally registered in her phone. The whole setup was painful, but she had it, so she might as well use it. As she lined her cursor up on the number in her address book, her eyes went to the antenna symbol in the corner of her screen.

She was out of range.

“…!!”

She looked around, and though the road she was on wasn’t small by any means, she ran all the way to a real main street, watching the antenna display at the edge of the screen. Then, after confirming she was having no reception issues, she brought the cursor to the entered number once again and pushed the Call button.

But all she got was an emotionless voice telling her the person she was trying to call was unreachable or his phone was off. This time, he was the one out of range.

“Urgh, this is hard to use…What’s a cell phone good for if you can’t talk to someone when you want to?!”

With anger on her face, she put her phone away, looked around, then ran off to search for him personally.

Not much time had passed since they’d parted.

The idiot was probably wandering around nearby anyway.

3

Kamijou and the elderly woman walked side by side down the street.

Many people were out and about, but nobody gave them a second thought. Anyone would see a high school student with grocery bags in his hands and an old woman with a coat draped over her arm and think they were completely harmless.

As Kamijou stared at her out of the corner of his eye, not bending his neck, she was the one to give a dry grin instead. “You don’t need to be so nervous.”

Having said that, though, she had already ordered him to turn his phone off and given him precise instructions on how quickly he should walk. Whatever was hidden under that coat, it was the real deal. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but he clearly couldn’t make a mistake here.

He considered waiting for a chance to jump at her and turn the situation around. The problem is, I don’t know what’s really under there…If I do something careless and make things even worse, it wouldn’t be funny.

As Kamijou worried about this and that, the old woman quietly said, “Please act naturally. It isn’t like I’m demanding you not move a finger.”

“…Well, still…Why don’t you bring out what’s under your coat—?”

“Ahchoo!”

“Whoa!!”

The woman had suddenly sneezed, and Kamijou reflexively cried out. A group of students walking nearby glanced at them curiously, then continued on their way.

“I told you, it’ll be all right. You’ve been so scared for a while. What is it?”

“Mainly the thing you’re hiding in your coat!! What exactly are you sticking into me right now?!”

“Oh my. It’s all right, everything’s fine. It won’t fire just because I sneezed.”

“F-fire? It fires—you mean it really is one of those?!”

“It also makes a loud noise. Although I do have a little thing on it to make it quiet.”

“That was a pretty huge hint!!” squealed Kamijou, trembling in fear. The older woman didn’t worry about his shriek.

Escorted by her, they walked through a large shopping district and onto a side road. He realized they were heading for a part of town with a lot of student dormitories—though not the area his was in. Students made up 80 percent of Academy City, so admittedly “parts of town with a lot of student dormitories” were all over the place.

Where on earth are we going…?

If it had been a strange, abandoned factory or something, it would have maxed out his danger gauge. But that wasn’t what it seemed like. Not with the scent of white stew for dinner coming from a nearby dorm and a group of elementary school girls secretly giving food to stray cats, as though making up for the fact that their dorm didn’t allow pets.

As he was busy observing, the old woman stopped abruptly.

“Here it is. Right here.”

“?” That wasn’t enough for Kamijou to get it.

They’d come to a children’s park.

It felt more like this place had been made because there was a little extra space left over from the buildings around it, not as an actual zoned park. It seemed somehow squeezed together, with the proper amount of playground equipment for a narrow area bundled into a set and shoved in.

But why, though??? Kamijou’s mind reeled as he looked at the entrance to the empty space. It wasn’t a special place. At least, not the kind where you’d hold an object against someone on the street and bring them there, prepared for them to see your face.

“I’m sorry. Please go in,” said the old woman, ever so casually poking him with the thing in her coat.

He had no choice but to obey, but he still had no clue what all this was getting her.

At her instruction, they sat next to each other on a bench at the park’s edge.

He initially suspected somebody else was waiting for them, or perhaps would be coming later, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Kamijou hunched over a bit and placed his two shopping bags on the ground. The woman didn’t especially try to stop him. If he’d had a weapon in his shoe or something, maybe he’d be able to counterattack, but he wasn’t armed to the teeth like some kind of ninja.

He also considered picking up a rock, but he had no clear opportunity to. If he messed up and made her more cautious, it would come to nothing anyway.

For now, he decided to give up and stand.

He asked the woman, “So what on earth are you trying to start here?”

“Oh, no. Nothing as important as you’re thinking,” she said with a sweet smile, poking him with the very much important object in her folded coat.

“Let’s talk,” she said.

“Talk?”

“Yes. About the chaos happening throughout the world right now.”

4

She couldn’t find that idiot anywhere.

“This is so strange…” Mikoto swerved onto a small road she’d already been down, looking to and fro, wondering where he was.

She didn’t think it had been that long since they’d parted, but he wasn’t at the place they’d last met. She’d searched several roads around that point, and still, he was nowhere to be found.

Maybe he’d gone into a store or something. Or maybe he’d gotten on public transit and gone somewhere?

…Where is that idiot’s dormitory anyway? It’s not like I’m a stalker. How am I supposed to know where to find him? They tended to run into each other without particularly wanting to, so he couldn’t be very far away now. Thinking on it more, though, she had no idea where he even lived.

She folded her arms. Well, the Ichihanaran Festival thing isn’t urgent or anything, so I’ll give up and go home for today.

At least, she tried to brush off her irritation, but as soon as she spotted a side road out of the corner of her eye, she fidgeted.

…N-no, maybe one more road, she decided. Wondering if there were any roads around that she hadn’t checked, she called up her GPS map on her cell phone—and just then, she spotted Kuroko Shirai among the crowds of homeward bound.

With a terrific whoosh!! she hid herself behind a building.

Wh-what? …What am I hiding for?

It was a mystery even to Mikoto, but she vaguely felt like she couldn’t let her twin-tailed underclassman find her just now. The other girl was a teleport esper, so if Mikoto was discovered, it would be really hard to shake her off on foot.

The Level Four Shirai was saying something to a girl next to her as they walked down the wide road. The girl had a voluminous crown of fake flowers on her head, so she was probably Kazari Uiharu from Judgment.

…Mikoto had the feeling that they were coming this way, so she entered the narrow road her hiding place had put her near. For now, she went farther and farther down.

And then she realized it:

Huh? …Was this road always here???

She looked around closely again, realizing she didn’t recognize the place. She’d thought she knew most of School District 7 by heart, but this was her first time coming here.

It was a typical Academy City residential area—not of apartment complexes and single-family houses, of course, but of crowded student dormitory blocks. It was filled with nothing but rectangular buildings five to ten stories tall, not big enough to be called high-rises. A garbage dumpster was set up directly under a wind turbine propeller. Maybe the propeller’s movements were also used to keep pigeons and crows away.

All the meals at Tokiwadai Middle School were prepared by the school itself, so for Mikoto, the smells of dinner floating to her from nearby felt kind of fresh or something.

“…Well, this works. If I don’t see him here, I’ll call it quits for the day,” she said vaguely, continuing her walk through the residential district.

5

Kamijou gazed at the old woman dubiously.

The chaos happening throughout the world…She could only have wanted to talk about one thing: the large-scale demonstrations and protests split between those on Academy City’s side and those on the Vatican’s.

However…

“…Talk about it?” he said. “There’s nothing I can actually talk about to begin with.”

“That isn’t true. We need your opinion in order to solve this problem.”

“My opinion? Not the opinion of some UN people or the president of another country?”

“Groups centered on the state have a tendency to be weak to religious and ideological strife,” replied the woman easily and unexpectedly. “We commonly call these groups ‘modern nations,’ and it is quite rare that one solves problems like that. Many don’t hesitate to claim they solved one, but most of the time, they are squashed with military force. Nations, in many cases, actually make the problems worse.”

The old woman continued to speak, the park empty around them. Intellect came in many shapes and sizes, but hers was close to the teacherly kind.

“The chaos happening throughout the world right now is serious. Nobody will be able to solve it easily, and it could also be the flame to spark a second conflict. If they fail to put the flame out correctly, they could cause internal strife severe enough to paralyze national functions. That’s part of why no nation has carried out a military intervention against the demonstrations and protests. This is a difficult problem for them, and to be honest, nations would love to have a solution manual for it. Everybody is watching, waiting, until another country acts, so they can see what effects and results they achieve.”

“…Who in the world are you?” asked Kamijou carefully.

The woman sitting beside him seemed a little different than other agents like Motoharu Tsuchimikado and Stiyl Magnus, who were armed for combat and assassination. And from her manner of talking, she almost sounded like an educator. But a mere teacher probably wouldn’t make contact with him using a weapon hidden inside her coat.

…She seems somehow different than the people I’ve met before, he’d thought, so he’d cautiously put the question to her.

“Monaka Oyafune.”

Her full name promptly came out.

“Maybe you’d understand if I said I was on the Academy City General Board.”

It was one bombshell after another with this woman. “…What?” asked Kamijou in spite of himself.

The General Board was, so to speak, the highest agency in the sprawling Academy City—twelve people who focused on running the place. There was apparently someone even higher than them, a leader called the General Board chairperson, but nevertheless, the General Board’s privileges were nothing to shake a stick at.

But at the same time…

…Is she really one of those big shots?

As one of only twelve members of Academy City’s General Board, she could freely control Anti-Skill officers and private security police with a single command. It would be weird for her to come personally to talk to him, armed, and calling him to a tiny little children’s park.

As Kamijou wondered in doubt, the woman who said her name was Monaka Oyafune smiled. “Is that not believable?”

“Yeah, um, it’s just weird. Like that scarf around your neck, it’s weird and shriveled—or, like, I get the sense that if you were on the General Board you could get a better one.”

Kamijou was too confused to say anything sensible, but it startled Oyafune more than he expected. She suddenly brought a hand up to touch her scarf. “M-my daughter made this scarf for me. I will not let you insult it.”

“O-oh,” answered Kamijou with an awkward nod before thinking of another question. “Wait…I’m sure your daughter is a full-fledged adult at this point. But she doesn’t seem very good at— Okay, I get it, I get it!! I won’t mention it again!! I won’t, so stop shaking whatever’s inside your coat already!!”

Now he was being contained when he didn’t need to be, so he decided to stop pointlessly exciting her.

Monaka Oyafune. The General Board…Those two pieces of information might not be correct, he concluded. But maybe she’s using a fake name so she can give me some kind of correct information. I don’t like dancing in the palms of other people’s hands, but I’ll be the one to decide whether to dance and how.

“…Anyway, you said you wanted to talk. About what?” he began.

Oyafune nodded, seeming happy. “A major problem is occurring throughout the world right now. A chain of disruptions with demonstrations and protests first and foremost.”

“Well, I know that…”

“I want to ask you to solve it.”

“How?” asked Kamijou, frowning at those sudden words. “If I could do it myself, I would. Wouldn’t everyone in the world feel the same? But in reality, nothing’s changed. Nothing is solved. Everyone knows we have to solve the problem, but nobody is trying. Do you know why?”

Kamijou continued, not waiting for an answer: “Because there’s no simple reason or cause behind it. Nobody can solve a problem that doesn’t have an answer. That’s why nobody can do anything, even though the problem is being paraded right in front of them. It’s just not solvable, is it? I hope you’re not about to ask me to go around the world and talk down every single protester individually.”

“What if,” answered Monaka Oyafune, not backing down, as though she’d predicted that problem from the start, “there was a simple reason or cause? What would you do?”

“What?”

“This brings me to why I’m talking to you. I’m hoping for something that no United Nations or nation representative has—something that only you have.”

“And what’s that?”

“Your right hand.”

“…”

Something only Touma Kamijou had. Without thinking, he glanced at it.

The Imagine Breaker.

It would be appropriate to consider for this. Whether sorcery or supernatural ability, the special power could erase anything related to any strange abilities. But for things that weren’t, normal things like demonstrations or protests, it wouldn’t have any effect. Which meant…

“Wait…Is that how it is?”

“It is.”

“You’re saying that a strange power is behind this chaos and that person is the cause of everything? And that if I destroy that one cause, everything will go back to normal? That if I act now, while it’s still a continuing problem rather than a result of September 30, I can solve it?”

“That’s what I’m saying.” Oyafune nodded simply. “By the way, Academy City isn’t the one creating this discord. According to the chairperson, the Roman Orthodox Church, a religious organization, apparently possesses a scientific, supernatural Ability Development agency.”

“…?” Kamijou almost frowned at that but then realized to the general public…or rather, by Academy City’s announcements, sorcery didn’t exist.

That was the story.

The idea of “sorcery” was what “scientific supernatural abilities” were called in ages past. It wouldn’t do him any good to mention that here and now. If he interrupted without thinking, he’d just make the situation worse.

Oyafune, never letting go of her “scientific viewpoint,” continued on. “Well—and this goes without saying—Academy City has no reason to sow discord. Naturally, if a problem has happened, it was the Roman Orthodox Church, not us.”

“I see…” Kamijou almost agreed, but thinking calmly, something bothered him. “Wait, hold on. You’re kidding, right? They don’t gain anything from this, either. The demonstrations and protests are all happening in Roman Orthodox areas. The ones in the middle suffering because of it are people of that religion, aren’t they? They can’t benefit from making their own suffer.”

“What if I said they did gain something?”

“…What?”

“It’s simple,” said Oyafune smoothly. “For example, official records state that there are over two billion Roman Orthodox followers. It’s an incredible number, isn’t it? Even all the children and elderly in Academy City combined only come to 2.3 million. If it came to a straight-up war, it would be a pure contest of numbers, and we would have no way to win. Even considering the geographical problems a war would pose for them, I’m pretty sure it won’t make up for the numbers advantage.”

“So what?” asked Kamijou.

“Oh, but don’t you think that’s strange?” she asked back. “The Vatican is currently making a serious effort to destroy Academy City. Why would they choose worldwide demonstrations and protests to do that? Why don’t they take the simple approach and crush us with their numbers? Focusing everything on Academy City would be more effective than causing violence elsewhere in the world. Don’t you think it’s circuitous?”

“…You don’t mean…”

“Yes.” Oyafune smiled. “The fact that they control two billion people is a lie. If they could destroy this city, they would have done so long ago. Perhaps those people do wear Orthodox crosses, carry Bibles, and go to church on Sundays. And maybe there really are two billion people like that in the world.

“However,” she continued, “the issue is whether they could commit murder in the name of Crossism…and that makes things different. Though I’m sure there are people who would. Right now, the world is split in two: Academy City and a giant religious organization. But…what is the truth, really? Is there actually a clear-cut line in the sand?”

“…”

“Even people who go to worship on Sundays watch TV and use cell phones. Even athletes who train their body according to scientific sports medicine might pray to God during important games—that’s what it’s like outside Academy City in the so-called normal world. The lines are vague. People take the good parts from both sides, fortify it with their own beliefs, and then create their own worlds to live in.”

“The science side and magic side…overlap…”

Oyafune knitted her brows and said, “Magic side…?” but still continued after a moment. “Yes. The world’s great majority…the winners of its rule by majority—that’s what it is. Everything is spread thin and wide. People will take out loans and plan their lives at banks managed by Academy City–related groups, then have their wedding ceremony in a Roman Orthodox Church…They’re the ones populating the world: those who reap the benefits of both science and religion.”

“Then…,” said Kamijou. He felt the back of his throat starting to dry out, little by little. “The Roman Orthodox Church’s goal…Wait, it’s to get those people who reap the benefits of both science and religion to…?”

“Most likely. Having the best of both worlds concerns them. They want all two billion of those people secured. They want as many allies as they can get. So I believe they did something. And as a result, the cogs fell out of alignment and induced the demonstrations.”

Something, she’d said. Was that the key to this incident?

“Inciting protests isn’t what they’re after. They want the boost from chaos to attack the foundation of the world Academy City’s very existence has established.”

Oyafune’s words clearly came from someone on the science side. That bothered Kamijou a little, but there was no point arguing with her right now.

“Academy City is especially concerned by this part of what the Church is doing.”

“Really…Because they’re scared of all the people rallying to the Church because of the demonstrations?”

“That is one thing,” admitted Oyafune, “but even if that didn’t go their way, a different development is possible. We’re currently in the middle of working out countermeasures to what we’re calling economic bombing.”

“…Economic…bombing…?”

“The longer this chaos drags on, the worse the effect on our economy. It’s dangerous, and it could trigger a worldwide scare. If that happens, then the Church wouldn’t need to be big enough—Academy City could be torn apart.”

Kamijou didn’t quite get all this talk of economies and scares. He turned to the woman sitting next to him on the bench and said, “…These ‘modern’ nations you’re talking about…Would they really fail that easily? They haven’t been shaken at all yet, right? All this economics stuff—I don’t know anything about money on the national level, but I can’t see big armies getting ruined by business.”

“If there is one representative or symbol of the scientific world outside of Academy City that’s easy to understand…it would be so-called military powers. But even those nations have weaknesses to economic trends.” She spoke slowly. “To maintain a military, you need tremendous capital. The worldwide chaos is limiting the sources of money they’re using for that. In addition, no matter how small their income, the military always expends a certain amount of it. In other words, when an economic scare happens, military powers immediately take damage. The bigger the military, the more extreme their collapse is.”

Is that real? thought Kamijou. A few countries like that came to mind, but they didn’t seem like they would get jolted very easily. “But those countries that have big militaries…Don’t they have a ton of oil and lots of ammunition in store for times like these? Couldn’t they go off that for a few years?”

“Ha-ha. Wars don’t happen after reserves have actually depleted. Militaries wouldn’t be able to fight at that point. If you can make them look at the current situation and think, Eventually our reserves will run dry, you can make them pull the trigger, and everything goes up in flames. And when a major power goes on a rampage—I think that’s more than enough of a factor to tear apart the science world centered on Academy City.”

Her strangely decisive tone struck Kamijou dumb. She probably had the numbers in her mind she needed to back that viewpoint up.

“I don’t know if that process is related,” said Oyafune, “but right now, Academy City is desperately trying to acquire war funds. Are they trying to make up for the numbers difference with cutting-edge equipment and unmanned weapons…or is there some other reason? We’re holding weapons exhibitions, using the pretext of lowering our products’ grade for the sake of mass production to manufacture ‘mundane weapons’ without actually using significant technology. Then we call them Academy City’s newest weapons and sell them at high prices.”

“…”

“Meanwhile, the Roman Orthodox Church is also amassing a war chest, in the form of contributions from the faithful. On the surface, they’re peace funds to quell the chaos, and the people donating probably have no ulterior motives…but it’s plain as day what the higher-ups mean when they say they’ll use the money for peace.”

The bigger the chaos got, the more funds they could raise.

The Roman Orthodox Church was enormous. With its two billion followers, even if everyone only donated one yen, they would have two billion yen. Of course, it wasn’t compulsory, so plenty of people wouldn’t donate, but wealthier strata apparently had a tradition of gaining status through how much money they donated. And going by what Oyafune said, they’d already gotten a lot more than two billion.

“Their system of indulgences is still around, though in a different form,” said Oyafune.

Kamijou didn’t really understand that. Was indulgence a historical term of some sort?

“You’d have to be quite the zealot to weigh science against religion and choose the latter. If someone told you heaven existed, you wouldn’t decide dying was all right. Science is realistic, which means it’s almost ridiculously easy to understand. People will flock to whatever’s easy to understand. But there are people who still worry about it. And those are the people they did something to. Whatever it was, as I can see it, it affected the gears in their normally functioning minds and resulted in bringing about all this chaos.”

“…”

Was this all true? For example, wasn’t it possible Academy City caused this, not the Roman Orthodox Church? Academy City would have to fight the Church and its two billion followers with 2.3 million people. So they caused the chaos in the Church to whittle down the enemies’ numbers a little. Wasn’t that possible?

…This is hard.

The Roman Orthodox faithful were the ones central to the demonstrations and protests. But if they were spread thin like Monaka Oyafune claimed, they wouldn’t be a direct combat force. And they wouldn’t properly understand the sorcery aspect of the Church, either. It was hard to think about big shots like Agnes Sanctis or Biagio Busoni participating in the protests and rampaging around doing whatever they wanted.

If this was a plan of Academy City’s, then it was hard to imagine it doing damage to their actual combat forces.

In fact, if the demonstrators were halfway between science and sorcery, then that would make them important people supporting capitalism. If they were too preoccupied with protests to do their actual jobs, that by itself would lead to economic damage. And if it was two billion people doing it, those losses would be no laughing matter. If they just wanted money for wartime, they wouldn’t purposely constrict their own sources of funds.

If there was some kind of conspiracy going on behind the scenes, Kamijou decided that it would be appropriate to think the Church had caused this chaos—to win over the people on the fence.

And when things came to the dark side of the Church, Imagine Breaker likewise became more valuable.

“But still,” he began after thinking it through, “let’s say the Roman Orthodox Church was doing something, and they were related to some kind of trick or whatever. What on earth would the trick be? My power doesn’t amount to much. I don’t know where they are or what they’re using. It’s not a convenient tool I can use to meddle in things like this. If I’m going to cause trouble, I’d at least want someone to take me to the stage.”

“Yes. About that—” began Monaka Oyafune before stopping.

A new figure had appeared in the small children’s park.

“Tsuchimikado?” muttered Kamijou, seeing his sunglasses-covered face.

It was Motoharu Tsuchimikado, his classmate. He should have been at school after it ended, but he’d vanished when it came time to do the weeding. Kamijou considered griping about that, but this was clearly neither the time nor the place. He couldn’t—not with the way he seemed.

The air about Tsuchimikado was completely different from how it usually was.

“…Finished talking?”

He didn’t speak to Kamijou. His eyes, behind his blue-lensed sunglasses, were only looking at Monaka Oyafune.

Oyafune, for her part, wasn’t surprised. Maybe she was acquainted with the agent known as Motoharu Tsuchimikado. “We are not, but this is fine,” she said. “If you’re to be the one, I can accept that.”

“I see,” said Tsuchimikado shortly before exhaling quietly as if he was bored with an annoying job. “You’ve taken care of business?”

“I did yesterday.”

“Then I’ll start, if you don’t mind.”

“There is nothing you need to hesitate about,” answered Oyafune with a smile.

Tsuchimikado looked slightly away from her. He reached behind him and took out something from the belt of his pants.

“Tsu…chimikado?”

There, as they left the confused Kamijou out of the conversation, he saw something unbelievable. A black, shining metal item in Tsuchimikado’s right hand. An object just fifteen centimeters long. It was…

…a pistol?

Though his mind caught up, Kamijou couldn’t stop him.

Not because he couldn’t predict what was going to happen.

But because even if he had predicted it, he didn’t believe his classmate could follow through with such a heinous thing.

Bang!! The dry gunshot echoed through the tiny park.

Monaka Oyafune, nevertheless, was smiling.

Her body wavered, then fell off the bench and onto the dirt.

6

Mikoto startled at the loud noise.

It sounded like the crack of gunfire.

The shrill noise drilled into her ears, then echoed into the air.

Wha…? What was that???

Fireworks? But October wasn’t the season for them. In terms of other possibilities, maybe a fire-creating esper had done something…?

She heard several windows opening in the student dorms nearby. With such a loud sound, they must have been worried. None of the students went so far as to leave the building, though; it seemed spectating didn’t hold enough interest if it meant interrupting dinner.

Guess an esper’s going crazy. Well, this just turned into a chore, she thought, heading in that direction.

She was a Level Five electromaster, the Railgun. She could handle most espers on her own, one way or another, and was confident that if dragged into an incident, she could turn the tables. Even if someone threw her into the middle of a fight between a berserk esper and Anti-Skill, she’d probably return unharmed.

Still, even she had once faced a problem she couldn’t do anything about alone, but…

…!! Th-that’s only because the two key people were way too irregular! And that doesn’t have anything to do with this! A-anyway, I’ll go see what I can find over there. Um, which way was it again?

Mikoto shook her head, focused, and started walking toward the noise.

All she could see in this seemingly normal neighborhood was student housing to every side.

7

Monaka Oyafune had been shot in the gut.

It took several seconds for Kamijou to realize that fact.

Motoharu Tsuchimikado had shot her.

It took another few seconds for him to process that.

Oyafune hadn’t resisted. She’d been poking Kamijou with something in her coat before, but he never saw her point it at Tsuchimikado. She knew exactly what was coming and took the bullet anyway. Such was the scene before him.

Tsu…chi…mika…do?

Kamijou’s gaze slowly moved away from the fallen Oyafune.

Tsuchimikado’s expression remained the same.

White smoke still billowed from the pistol in his right hand. He brought it behind him, then hid it between his shirt hem and his pants belt, picked up the empty shell casing from the ground, and put it into his pocket.

All of those were completely calm, simple actions to him.

That made Kamijou explode.

“Tsuchimikadooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

He shot off the bench and grabbed his classmate’s shirt. When he saw that the eyes behind the sunglasses still didn’t change in the slightest, Kamijou clenched his fist and threw a punch. He felt the uniquely dull sensation in his fingers and wrist joints as he connected. Hit in the face, Tsuchimikado reeled back, and he fell to the ground. But even after falling over, his expression remained the same. He clearly didn’t feel any of the damage whatsoever.

This bastard!! Kamijou clenched his teeth and took another step forward.

But then he received interference—

A small hand weakly grabbing his ankle.

It was Monaka Oyafune’s, even though she’d just been shot.

“…Don’t…,” she said, lips touching the dirt as they moved. “Please…don’t blame him…”

Those words were enough to throw Kamijou into confusion.

Monaka Oyafune continued.

Smiling.

As though thankful Kamijou had stood up for her.

“My actions…don’t match…the ideas…of the rest of the General Board…representing Academy City…”

“What?”

“They want the war to get worse…They want to destroy…the other science side called religion…represented by the Vatican…They want to take advantage…of this chaos. They don’t…want this to be…resolved so easily…”

Kamijou looked at Tsuchimikado again. As always, his face was still, like he’d known everything since the beginning.

“Making the war worse…It’s absurd…You must stop it,” she said slowly, her voice tinged with pain. “But a board member…can only…use so much authority. I can’t…do it. Someone who went against the head’s will…and lost her power because of it…can’t do very much. So I…had to contact someone. Someone…who could actually…fix the situation…”

She was looking at Kamijou. Gazing into his eyes as she spoke.

“…One day…this contact will be revealed. The plan was…that I would be punished…for my rebellion. Alone…I could have avoided this…but then others would be punished.”

Others, thought Kamijou, a chill running up his spine. “If you ran, they would go after your family…?”

“…”

Oyafune didn’t answer. Her silence stated that she didn’t want anyone to worry about her.

“…I’m the one…who asked him,” she said instead. “Just to clarify…he said no. So please, don’t…blame him…I’m the one who…made the difficult request…that he enact my ‘punishment’…but miss my vitals…”

“Don’t talk,” interrupted Motoharu Tsuchimikado finally.

He slowly got off the ground and peered into the old woman’s face.

Kamijou couldn’t see his expression from here. Tsuchimikado probably didn’t want to show it, either.

“We’ll do the rest. You’ve done your duty well. I know you have a lot more to say, but I only have one answer for you. Don’t worry. That’s all you need to remember.”

After Tsuchimikado spoke, Oyafune’s smile slowly deepened. Around her neck was a homemade scarf, not very well-made. That was her reason to fight.

Stopping the conflict between Academy City and the Roman Orthodox Church, making sure not to have anyone else perform her “punishment”—it all came down to that. Tsuchimikado crouched and searched through her belongings, then took out a cell phone and called an ambulance. After wiping off the fingerprints, he put it on the ground.

Then Tsuchimikado took something out of Monaka Oyafune’s coat.

It looked like a small pistol for self-protection. He stuck it behind his belt and then looked at Kamijou. “Can you move right now, Kammy?”

“Yeah, I get it,” he said through clenched teeth, staring at the fool of a woman lying on the ground. “…She set up all this, this outrageous nonsense, so I would do something. Just so I would do something. You have to be kidding. How indirect can you possibly be?”

Touma Kamijou wasn’t a person of any particular renown.

If she’d wanted him to do something, all she had to do was talk down to him and not let him answer.

The thought made him grip his right hand.

“I’ll explain later. We don’t have time,” said Tsuchimikado. “We’re going to District 23. There’s a plane ready. Monaka Oyafune prepared it with her power just for this. I’m not about to let that go to waste.”

“This…is bullshit…,” muttered Kamijou as he followed Tsuchimikado out of the children’s park.

The only thing they left behind in the park was a blood-covered Monaka Oyafune.

As he listened to the ambulance sirens in the distance, his jaw was tight.

8

What Mikoto Misaka found was a small children’s park.

The place looked like they’d been building the dormitories nearby, but they had space left over, so they’d made it into a park…rather than having planned it out beforehand.

Several vehicles were parked outside the entrance.

They were Anti-Skill’s.

Mikoto was about to get a closer look when a man dressed in black blocked her way like a wall. Several layers of yellow tape blocked off the entrance as well, cordoning off the space.

She glimpsed inside the park.

There were several Anti-Skill men, like the one blocking her now, huddled together, but no other “normal person” was present. They were clustered near a bench at the park’s edge and seemed to be investigating something.

She didn’t know what had happened.

She didn’t know what had happened, but it looked like it was already over.

INTERLUDE TWO

“…God’s Right Seat apparently exists to overcome original sin.”

Lidvia Lorenzetti’s voice echoed through the interrogation room in the Tower of London.

Stiyl and Agnes, listening carefully, both raised an eyebrow. Nothing was more familiar to a Crossist disciple than original sin.

“The sin Adam and Eve received when they ate the fruit of knowledge…and the sin all of humanity bears as their children.”

“That is the Old Testament’s say on the matter,” Lidvia noted. “In the New Testament, the Son of God takes on the role of erasing sin. When he was crucified on the cross, he single-handedly took all humanity’s sin upon himself to erase it all. Because of this, all who pray to the cross, eat the body and drink the blood of Christ at Mass, and continue to be faithful until their very last moments…Their sin will be washed away at the hour of judgment and they will be led to heaven. That’s the idea anyway.

“…However,” she said with a pause, “there are exceptions to this.”

“Exceptions?” repeated Agnes as she compiled a record on a piece of parchment. Stiyl glared at her, but the conversation proceeded.

“Yes, an exception to the sin given to all of humanity…”

“The Virgin Mary,” finished Stiyl, finding the answer already.

Biagio, fastened to the chair next to Lidvia’s, tsked quietly.

Regardless, Stiyl continued, “As the vessel who gave birth to the Son of God, she was in deep contact with the Holy Spirit, and her sin disappeared. The Immaculate Conception, as it’s called. In other words, original sin didn’t exist for Mary. Even though all of humanity are Adam and Eve’s children and shoulder their original sin, and that property should have been passed on to the child as well.”

“Which means there are exceptions,” agreed Lidvia. “To begin with, in the New Testament, the Son of God walked the path to his execution precisely because there was no other way to cleanse original sin than for him to shoulder it. If one considers that, along with the fact that the sin vanished from the Virgin Mary, I believe the answer follows naturally.”

“…That there’s some other way to erase original sin rather than staying faithful to the Son of God?”

“A spell to trick it, as it were. I’ve heard God’s Right Seat has succeeded in weakening their sin as much as possible, but they haven’t yet been able to erase it completely.”

Though bound to her chair, she spoke so calmly that it was questionable if she even felt the restraints.

“However, though their erasure of their sin is imperfect, they have apparently gained magical knowledge surpassing normal humans. As it goes, they can even cast spells that utilize angels and kings, ones said to be impossible for ‘humans’ normally.”

“…Well, man’s end goal is to erase original sin, after all. If that were possible, the very qualities that make us human would shift and become something closer to an angel. But…”

“Yes. Original sin is synonymous with the fruit of knowledge, and losing it means normal sorcerers would lose the ability to use normal magic…A special property, if you will.”

“Hmm.” Stiyl exhaled slightly.

Erasing original sin.

An idea kept in the deepest annals of Crossism’s largest denomination, Roman Orthodoxy; it seemed incredibly appropriate to call it a bomb.

In Crossism, it was believed that true happiness was achieved through the expunging of original sin by constant devotion, then being guided to God’s new holy land after the Last Judgment. Dedicating their days to researching esoteric methods to get rid of original sin was very Roman Orthodox of them.

After summing his thoughts up, he pressed on with Lidvia: “Which means God’s Right Seat’s endgame is to completely erase what little original sin still remains in their bodies…Is that so?”

If they succeeded, God’s Right Seat would truly be able to freely use angelic spells. If that happened, even saints wouldn’t be able to stop them.

“Heh-heh.” Lidvia chuckled.

“Am I wrong?”

“You are. For God’s Right Seat, erasing original sin is nothing but a means to an end. Their final goal is something else.”

“…Fully removing original sin is just insane. And now you’re telling me that’s only a means?”

Then what the devil is their real goal?

Lidvia smiled quietly. “They’ve flaunted their goal from the very beginning.”

“What?”

“…God’s Right Seat. That is their destination.”