EPILOGUE

I Won’t Let This End in Tragedy
Brave_in_Hand.

The blond monster, Aiwass, walked on two legs, a run-of-the-mill cell phone at its ear.

It was near the edge of an exposed steel beam in a building still under construction. It walked while looking at the moon, not paying the slightest attention to its oh-so-narrow footing. The precarious metal perch held no value, so it had no interest in the thing. That was the only reason.

“Is it truly so mystifying, Aleister?” said Aiwass slowly into the cell phone it had acquired from parts unknown.

The other person was silent for just a moment, then answered, “If you wanted to, you wouldn’t need to move on foot. And the same applies when it comes to conveying your intent. Your actions are indeed perplexing and seem quite inefficient.”

“To stand on two legs and converse through a convenience of civilization…Is that not an act from which one can draw significant value? Perhaps, though, it is perplexing to a man who floats upside down in a glass container in the pursuit of efficiency first and foremost.”

Efficiency and value.

That seemed to be what distinguished the two monsters.

“Oh, yes. About the ‘number one’ you finally succeeded in creating by building this whimsical city for over fifty years.”

“Are you about to tell me things haven’t proceeded as expected?”

“Well, you can allow it, can’t you? You have margins of error. Still, I must say, his mind was more puerile than I thought. He bemocks himself as evil, but I wonder if he realizes it is only because of a fervent thirst for goodness…Even though the one who he pursues, the Imagine Breaker, doesn’t act according to good or evil in the first place. That boy simply acts in line with the mental activity that bubbles up to the surface, only to be arbitrarily deemed ‘good’ by others.”

As Aiwass looked at the moon, it smiled very, very thinly. Its expression seemed to say that a short moment’s idle conversation held more value and interest than even destroying the world.

“And perhaps,” it said, “you admire them, hmm?”

“ … ”

“Heroes come in many shapes and sizes: those who try to stay on the straight and narrow, obeying the emotions that well up within them, even if nobody teaches them; those who have committed a grave mistake in the past and try to walk a proper path even as their sin causes them agony; those who can become a hero for one person alone, even if they don’t have the talent and weren’t chosen by anyone. Each sort of hero is someone who will rise again and again, no matter how many times they are beaten.”

“ … Aiwass.”

“These three types of heroes seem to be equipped with what you lack. I cannot blame you for admiring them…After all, there was a time when you could do nothing except fall to pieces and wail.”

“Aiwass.”

Aleister said its name one more time.

He who appeared both male and female, both adult and child, both saint and sinner, let a sharp twist creep into his voice for a mere moment. Normally, his voice was clothed in all emotions: joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. But now something was different.

Aiwass’s expression never changed.

Perhaps Aiwass didn’t even find that reaction worthy of its interest.

“I will be using whatever I can. Even if that means you. You may laugh and speak of errors in my plan, but allow me to say something as well—that absolute superiority of yours is by no means an eternal guarantee.”

“I didn’t particularly gain this power out of desire, nor do I maintain it through effort,” said Aiwass into the cell phone. “Well, that’s fine. I’ll emerge here again if I find value and interest.”

Moments before daybreak, Aiho Yomikawa awoke for some reason. Even she didn’t know why. She was a talented Anti-Skill officer, and as a result of her training, she could accurately sense the presence of others. Without turning on the lights, she left her bedroom and found her apartment’s living room window had been opened.

On alert, she searched the room and discovered two things. The first was that a roommate, a girl named Last Order, was nowhere to be found. And the second was the sticky trail of blood leading from her room to the living room window.

Yomikawa’s expression changed, but then she found a third clue.

It was a small note.

A short sentence had been written on it using bright-red blood, the characters shaky. There was nothing indicating who had written it, but Yomikawa recognized the words right away. She couldn’t glean deeper meaning from the words, but this one, abrupt sentence was written there:

I’ll save this brat’s life. I promise.

Only the periodic sounds of shaking disturbed Accelerator. He was in a dark space—a freight train container. And this freight train, which ran before the first commuter trains started, was set to keep chugging along and head outside Academy City. There would have been freight checks near the outer wall on their way, but Accelerator, active in the dark underbelly of the city, knew that certain processes could get a stowaway through them.

There were no voices.

It was so silent it seemed strange that this served as the hiding spot for two people. In Accelerator’s hands, as he lay curled up and unmoving, was another person, a girl, who was also still. It was Last Order, fully unconscious, the brunt of her weight on Accelerator. Aiwass’s appearance must have placed considerable stress on the girl; she was exhausted beyond what he’d ever seen.

“The girl presents a problem.”

Accelerator recalled the words, delivered from on high after he’d been completely trounced.

“It depends on Aleister’s plan, but whether it’s right now or far in the future, there is no doubt she will eventually be destroyed. She will die during the process of him integrating me into his plan. I wouldn’t rely on that doctor. Bluntly speaking, he’s just another human. His skills aren’t perfect, and if the technology in this city could do something for her in the first place—well, Aleister would never leave any causes for concern sit and not do anything about it. Still, though, losing this body if and when his plan crumbles is just one of myriad possibilities. If you want to save yourself tears later, walk a path besides the one that already exists.”

What was the intent behind those words?

As though he’d seen value and interest in something, Aiwass’s words alone continued to flow.

“Go to Russia.”

Accelerator had stayed silent and listened.

Aiwass wasn’t someone he could deal with in anger, a problem that he could tear limb from limb, and that fact alone disturbed Accelerator enough to fry his nerve cells.

“More specifically, head for the Elizina Alliance of Independent Nations, which broke off from the motherland. That place is beginning to transform into the center of a planet-scale war. Every civilization’s knowledge and technology will be honed into militaries and weapons and converge there … and something you’ve never seen before will appear as well—a completely different ‘law.’”

Aiwass, mindless of others’ thoughts and feelings, continued uttering words alone.

“The index of prohibited books—remember that term. The index itself is not there, but there is something crucial related to it.”

“…”

Accelerator’s puny evil didn’t stand a chance against power that overwhelming.

What should he do now? It felt like he’d been using a GPS map to cross some flatlands, but suddenly his screen had gone dead. He couldn’t figure out what it was he needed to aim for.

Academy City’s strongest monster. Nobody could see him hiding in that freight train, but if they had been able to, everyone might have felt the same.

They would have seen an abandoned child, one who had been wandering around the vast city’s streets and had finally curled up in abject exhaustion.

There was a crunch.

It was the sound of him crushing his cell phone in his hand—his only connection to Group, Aiho Yomikawa, and Kikyou Yoshikawa.

Accelerator brought the young girl in his arms close again, and his lips moved very slightly. In words that were almost unspoken, he said:

To Russia.

The supersonic passenger jet Shiage Hamazura and Rikou Takitsubo rode pierced through the heavens, maintaining its balance and a fixed course on autopilot. But that wouldn’t last forever. Hamazura had no way of safely landing the jumbo jet.

… We’ll have to use parachutes to get off.

Hamazura was busy placing bombs from the testing facility all over the plane as he thought out their next move. This passenger plane, though, was another part of Academy City’s top-of-the-line technology. They couldn’t let another country recover it, and he didn’t want such a huge mass falling intact anyway. It would be best if they detonated the jet above a sea or a flatland.

After he finished setting a bunch of explosives, Hamazura headed for the passenger seats rather than the cockpit. Takitsubo was there, tiredly leaning against the wall.

“Everything’s set. Will this really be okay?!”

“…Yeah. This plane has a built-in security package that melts all the important circuits with strong acid when it crashes to prevent technology from being salvaged. There should be almost no risk of secret information winding up in another country’s hands where it can be used as a weapon…”

There was no firmness in her voice.

Hamazura was no scholar, so he couldn’t even guess as to how much the Crystals had damaged her. But she probably wouldn’t heal if they did nothing. And he got the feeling that no outside medicine could do anything about it.

In the end, they would have to rely on Academy City technology if Takitsubo was to have any chance at survival.

… Our victory condition isn’t to escape from Academy City. And it’s not to destroy the entire science side.

Shiage Hamazura made the decision on his own.

… It’s about surrendering to Academy City in the most optimal way. I mean, we’d obviously never be able to beat them. I should narrow my focus to how well I can lose.

At the very least, he’d negotiate and get a guarantee for Takitsubo’s safety.

In the same way this supersonic jet was built using technology secret enough to warrant installing acid to erase its traces, Takitsubo’s Level Four body and DNA map were also secrets they couldn’t let fall into another nation’s hands. He would use this as leverage to cut a deal with the immense City. That was the only way to survive.

No matter…

No matter what dangers he had to face after getting Takitsubo back safely and losing his only bargaining chip.

“??? Hamazura, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

Hamazura forced himself to smile, then placed a bomb on the door leading outside the passenger seating. He took Takitsubo by the shoulders and veered her away from it so she wouldn’t be caught in the blast.

And then Takitsubo put her arms around his neck.

Their faces drew closer, then their lips touched.

It lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough to completely shatter all of Hamazura’s pessimistic plans.

“Don’t leave me.”

That was all she said.

Hamazura understood how much meaning was packed into those few words, though.

“All right…”

He embraced Takitsubo again. Whatever happens, we’ll both survive. “I’ll never leave you,” he said with trembling lips. “Damn it, I promise. I swear I’ll never leave you!!”

The frantic words brought a faint smile to the girl’s face.

The supersonic passenger jet slowed down. Hamazura didn’t understand it, but while he was setting the bombs all over the inside, Takitsubo had messed a little with the autopilot settings. She didn’t seem to have any more luck in taking control of the flight yoke to fly the plane but, after reading the manual a bit, she had apparently learned how to make a few small setting adjustments.

“I wonder where we are,” Hamazura said.

“If the GPS is right, probably Russia. I think we’re near a country called the Elizina Alliance of Independent Nations. There won’t be any civilian facilities here, so there shouldn’t be any damage if we blow up the plane here.”

“I see,” said Hamazura. No matter where they were, he’d keep running. He’d make use of anything and everything to keep Takitsubo safe, and in the end, they’d both find happiness. After steeling his resolve again, he remotely detonated the bomb attached to the passenger seating exit.

The door blew off instantly.

Because of the air pressure, a gust of wind launched Hamazura and Takitsubo out into the wild blue yonder like air escaping a balloon. With parachutes on their backs, they held hands as they fell, as though it were a skydiving competition.

They flew to their new battlefield, intending to grab hold of hope with their own hands.

Meanwhile, a certain spiky-haired boy was also headed for Russia.

The battle with the Roman Orthodox Church and the Russian Catholic Church had entered its climax. As a result, a girl who had memorized 103,000 grimoires had been put in mortal danger. In order to rescue her, he would have to defeat Fiamma of the Right, the apparent mastermind based in Russia, as soon as possible.

“Wait for me.”

That was all the boy said.

To rescue a certain girl, his legs carried him unhesitatingly onward, into the heart of the worldwide war.

I won’t let it end in tragedy.

Several protagonists, each with their own feelings in their hearts, unerringly assembled in one place.

Their paths, which had been separate once, would intersect.

And that would be when the true story began, with the stage standing atop the most terrible battlefield in the world.