CHAPTER 3

English Puritanism

The_English_Puritan_Church.

1

The battle was over.

Kamijou figured it was because Amakusa’s command had crumbled all at once, since they lost their leader, Tatemiya. He basically understood because the sounds from afar had abruptly stopped, and the tingling, tense air had cleared. He hadn’t been given a thorough explanation, since they hadn’t met back up with Agnes and the sisters, but it seemed like victory had visited the Roman Orthodox Church. If that wasn’t the case, then it was strange that Amakusa wasn’t sending reinforcements to Kamijou’s group, since they’d been acting so uncontrollable and crazy.

He was a little concerned about the welfare of the Roman Orthodox and Amakusa, but Stiyl had reported no deaths on either side, and that the Romans had placed the Amakusa members under arrest. He wondered for a moment where all the man’s confidence came from, but it seemed like he was communicating by using his cigarette ember. The way the smoke billowed apparently conveyed his intent, but Kamijou obviously couldn’t tell by looking at it.

Saiji Tatemiya had been seated nearby, and rune cards attached to his limbs, chest, back, and forehead. It was apparently a brutal technique—one that would immediately douse him in flames if he were to move too much.

And, since Stiyl had gone to bring Orsola to Agnes and the others, Kamijou, Index, and Tatemiya were the only three people here.

And…

“Touma, Touma! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Does it hurt anywhere?!”

…at the moment, a white-faced Index was trying to take off his clothes.

“Hey, would you quit that, Index?! I’m fine, nowhere hurts really—bwah? A-are you an idiot or something?! Watch where you’re touching!”

“Then make absolutely sure of it yourself! Like if there’s anywhere that hurts or that’s hot or something!!” she shouted, nearly crying.

Kamijou finally realized how much he’d worried her. But making a direct comment along those lines would be incredibly embarrassing, so he listened to Index without saying anything and checked himself. “Okay. My side hurts a little, but that’s about it. It’s not like I can’t move or anything.”

“Really? It’s really no big deal?”

“Yeah. And I mean, I think I’m pretty accustomed to this. Back-alley fights with espers everywhere are pretty dangerous in their own right. And I fought magicians a whole bunch of times over summer break, remember?”

“I see…That’s good…” Index made a face he found difficult to judge whether it was smiling or crying. He grew vehemently embarrassed and couldn’t help but look away, but…

“…So then I can bite your head all I want, Touma.”

What?

He couldn’t ignore that—and the moment he heard it, the wild-animal girl Index launched a vicious assault on his head with her teeth.

“B-byaah?! Wait a second, Index! One second you’re worried about my health, and the next this?! What’ll you do if you make another wou—gyaahhh?!”

“I’m biting you because I’m worried about you! What in God’s name were you thinking, Touma?! You’re crazy! Not only did that guy have a huge sword, he was also a sorcerer! And you went up against him with just a fist! Maybe you should have used that weapon on the ground! And the enemy actually said that if an amateur surrendered, he wouldn’t take your life! What were you thinking getting all determined?! You’re hopeless!”

“Wait, wait, you might kill me if you keep doing this, Miss Index, ow! I got it! I sincerely apologize on all fronts for my own actions today, so would you please lighten up with the biting…?!”

“And also, also! Did you actually think this through to the end? Did you even know that Amakusa guy would need time to build a fire-resistant defensive technique?! If you messed up on how long he was gonna take for it, you would have gotten cut right in half!!”

“No, no plan or anything. That was actually me going in for a real suicide attack, it’s just that Stiyl is so considerate, I had no idea about flame-resistant or defenses or—wait owwww?! I’b sowwy I’m sorry Miss Index pleeeaaaassseeeee?!”

Kamijou thoroughly delivered the kind of scream he would have never voiced in serious situations. Finally, Index seemed to feel better.

“…Hmph. You’re stupid. And reckless,” she murmured to herself as she put her small chin upon Kamijou’s hair.

Uh, wha…?!

Index, tired of being angry, probably did it with the same feeling one would when they got bored and put their head on their desk, but Kamijou’s heart immediately began beating twice as quickly. Aside from the sensation of a girl’s chin on his head, her long, silvery hair was giving off a sweet fragrance that wafted refreshingly to his cheeks, and above all, since he and Index were facing each other, her chest was super close—not even two centimeters from the tip of his nose. Normally he wasn’t aware of it, but this close, he was made to notice just a slight bit of a bulge.

Why are all her attacks changing speed like this? Oh, I get it. Now she’s gonna realize I’m looking at her chest and end up biting me again, right?!

Kamijou edged into a defensive stance, but contrary to his expectations, Index simply pulled herself away.

She stared up at the night sky for a few moments, listening carefully. “It’s so quiet. You wouldn’t think that many people were fighting.”

“Yeah.” He nodded along with her.

But right now, this silence was welcome. At the very least, he didn’t need to worry about swinging around swords and lances, or people yelling angrily, or the sounds of things breaking.

“Hey.” And then, all of a sudden, Saiji Tatemiya, seated nearby, spoke up to Kamijou. There was an odd tinge of impatience in his voice. Before Kamijou looked over there, Index spread out her arms and went in front of him as a shield. Tatemiya glared at them and said, “Shit. Sorry, but could you take these off for me, man? Well, I mean, I know I’m askin’ the impossible. But I can’t just leave her alone like this.”

Huh? Kamijou frowned. Who does he mean by “her”? he thought…but it hit him a moment later: Orsola Aquinas. “What are you saying, idiot? Why would we let the most dangerous person here out of our—”

“You’re the idiot here! Come on, just hear me out, all right? Do you actually plan on handing her over to the Roman Orthodox Church, man? You probably have no idea what kind of treatment she’ll be getting after this.”

Huh…? Kamijou didn’t know what to say.

“No, Touma.” Index actually sounded calmer than him. “This person uses his words as a weapon. So don’t listen to him. How would our enemy benefit from telling us the truth, anyway—”

“She’s going to be killed,” said Saiji Tatemiya, cutting her off. “Listen, I’ll just tell you the ending first. Don’t hand her over to the Roman Orthodox. They actually want to kill her.”

“And you’re Orsola’s ally, so you want us to untie you and let you escape? You’ve gotta be joking. That’s way too convenient. You’re the ones who kidnapped her in the first place! And you stole the Book of the Law, too! She knows how to decipher what’s inside it, so you kidnapped her, gave all these people weapons, and fought, and now you’re saying we’re the bad guys? That’s the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard!!” Kamijou was so mad that he yelled loud enough to hurt his throat.

Tatemiya, however, didn’t care. “We didn’t steal the Book of the Law.”

What?

Kamijou’s mind blanked for a moment.

“I mean, just think about it. What would we need it for? Roman Orthodoxy is the world’s largest Crossist denomination. It’s got more than two billion followers in all. Would we want the thing so badly we’d pick a fight with that? It’s just the Book of the Law.”

“Don’t give him a serious reply, Touma!” Index tensed up and said flatly, “I heard Amakusa lost its priestess, and now it’s gotten a lot weaker. So you tried to make up for that missing strength by getting your hands on the unknown grand magics in the Book of the Law. Am I wrong?”

“I just said—why would we need power in the first place?”

Saiji Tatemiya smiled. The expression, with a bead of sweat sliding down his face, looked like he could have been impatient because he was running out of time.

Kamijou was perplexed. “Because if you didn’t have it, you’d lose to other factions!”

“Yeah—if they even attacked us, man. But you just have to remember this. Amakusa’s been oppressed for an extremely long time. Do you think we don’t have any countermeasures for it? Nobody has ever found our base, and there are still plenty of eddy points for our specialty, the Pilgrimage in Miniature, set up by Tadataka Inou, that no one knows about.”

Kamijou suddenly felt like he’d been caught off guard by the man’s words.

That was right—they only knew twenty-three of the points used for the special movement method.

“How would anyone attack our base when no one but us even knows where it is?”

He has a point, he thought.

Nobody knew where Amakusa’s headquarters was, so if they fled there, Orsola wouldn’t be able to be rescued again. Because of that, the point of this battle had been to settle things before they activated the special movement method.

No one would be able to attack their stronghold—so they never needed to prepare to defend it in the first place.

“Then…”

Did Amakusa have some other objective than defense? Could they have been going after the Book of the Law to expand their military might?

Or were they…

“Lemme ask you something, man. What kind of grimoire is the Book of the Law, exactly?”

Saiji had been talking to him, but since he was a total amateur when it came to magic, he meekly looked at Index.

She began explaining, her expression reluctant. “The Book of the Law is a grimoire written in an extremely complex code—and actually, its grammar is strange enough that it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that it was written in a completely different language all its own. It’s said that the only one to ever decipher it properly was Edward Alexander, the one who wrote it, also known as Crowley. He stated that the most important part of the book was ‘There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt,’ but nobody knows what that means.” She continued smoothly. “The Book of the Law’s contents contain instruction from an enigmatic being called Aiwass, who could be said to be his guardian angel or one who must not be forgiven. One theory states it lets you freely use techniques that angels can use. It has enormous power. They say that as soon as you open the book, it announces the end of the age of Crossism and the beginning of a new era.”

“That’s the thing.” Saiji Tatemiya smiled meaningfully. “That’s the most important part. The Book of the Law does have enormous power. If it really did allow anyone to use angelic techniques, the era of a Crossist-dominated world would be over before the day was up. After all, everyone would be able to use powers stronger than the pope himself. The entire pyramid structure of the Church would come toppling down, but…” He paused for a moment. “But I don’t actually think everyone thinks everyone wants this power.”

“Why not? I’m not a sorcerer, so I’m not involved in this. But don’t you professional sorcerers want to use stronger magic so you can move up in status?”

“There’s the question of why we would need to move up in status in the first place. We don’t need that kind of power. In fact, neither should any true disciples of Crossism.”

“But the Roman Orthodox Church manages the Book of the Law because they want its strength, don’t they?” This mystified Kamijou, but Index seemed to understand what he was getting at, since she made a sour expression.

“Here’s the thing.” He smiled quietly and answered the young man’s innocent question.

“Why would Roman Orthodoxy, the biggest Crossist denomination with the most disciples in the world—two billion—want to end the era of Crossism?”

Oh. Then it hit him.

People who were already satisfied at the current balance wouldn’t have any reason to desire change. In fact, that went even more for those who reigned supreme in this day and age.

“The Roman Orthodox were never looking for a weapon as strong as the Book of the Law. What they need is a weapon to help them gain control of the world, not one that would smash the world to pieces.”

Kamijou and Index both fell silent.

It felt like the darkness of the night had grown many times thicker all of a sudden.

“So they decided to secretly get rid of the one person who could draw out the book’s power. But she realized that, too. She used all the power she had to get to somewhere the Roman Orthodox couldn’t reach…In other words, she manipulated her schedule so she could come here to Japan. Ironically enough, the Book of the Law was set to be transported here already. And then she came looking for help from the local Crossist sect—Amakusa. When all’s said and done, we were really just helping her make her great escape.”

Tatemiya heaved a sigh. “The book being stolen was a big farce put up by Roman Orthodoxy. There’s no way we would steal it. They were probably trying to connect her disappearance with the book. If they came as a set, then everyone would think the kidnapping was so we could get our hands on it. If she had been the only thing to disappear, people might put it down to some other possibility. Like that she defected in order to flee the Roman Orthodox Church, for example.”

Good and evil, offense and defense, capturing and rescuing.

Kamijou witnessed the single moment all of these flipped around.

“So can you still say that the Roman Orthodox Church is in the right here? Can you say with one hundred percent certainty that returning Orsola Aquinas to them was the right move?”

“…”

“If you can, then let’s hear your proof. If you can’t, then stand up and face your own doubts! Who’s the real enemy here? Anyone could understand that if they just thought about it calmly!!”

Kamijou took one deep breath at Saiji Tatemiya’s angry shout.

He closed his eyes.

He neatly arranged all the information in his head and started to verify it piece by piece.

Think.

Whose points are correct—the Romans or Amakusa?

Where is the contradiction?

“I can’t. I still don’t trust you completely.”

“…Why not?”

“Even if everything you say is true,” began Kamijou slowly, “then why did Orsola run away from you? I first met Orsola walking around by herself near Academy City. Stiyl explained before that the Roman Orthodox Church and Amakusa would have been fighting at the time. I think she probably looked for an opening in the fighting and ran from both parties. But if that’s the case, then why?”

“…”

“What you’re saying could be a lie. And even if it’s true, that doesn’t mean the enemy of our enemy is our friend. So I’ll ask you. Why did Orsola Aquinas run away from you?”

If they were truly Orsola’s allies, then she wouldn’t have had any reason to run away.

Tatemiya smiled quietly at Kamijou’s implicit declaration. It was a very weak smile, like he was tired of life. “She was the same.”

“The same?”

“Yeah. The same as you, man. She did come to us asking for help—but at the very end, she wasn’t able to trust us completely. She probably thought this about us. ‘They have no reason to help me at the cost of making the largest Crossist denomination, Roman Orthodoxy, their enemy. They must be after the method of deciphering the Book of the Law.’ ”

Kamijou fell mum.

Tatemiya’s eyes appeared to both be watching him and gazing at something far in the distance.

“Man, barking up the wrong tree, that’s for sure. Why would we need to get our hands on that book?”

“? Then what did you try and save her for?” asked Kamijou carefully.

“We didn’t have a reason,” answered Tatemiya without missing a beat. “And we never did, either. We’ve done it this way since the beginning. And our current generation is even more exceptional. Why on earth do you think our priestess, that girl, was ordained our leader at such a young age? She stood before an evil dragon that could swallow mountains whole, just to protect one young girl’s dream. She defended a small village from a big military force so that she could hear the one person’s dying request. And from behind, we watched her this whole time. It may only have been a little while, but for us, it feels like we’ve done so forever.”

Saiji Tatemiya spoke as though he were chasing the illusions of bygone days.

And as if boasting about his own family.

“That is why we do not mistake our path, and why we do not mistake how we use our strength—and how we’ve led ourselves along the straight and narrow. Many things are easier said than done—but she would actually do them. Her example taught us that people could become this strong. That people could become this kind. That all of that was within our reach.”

Quiet dominated the air.

Tatemiya gritted his teeth to break the silence.

“…And that path she lived her life walking—we destroyed all of it.”

“What?”

“Our deaths—our inexperience—caused the priestess to suffer. She was always the last one standing, and she began to believe it was her fault that everyone around her was falling. That ain’t a joke. Our minds and bodies were what caused everything—the fact that we wished to stand together with her on the battlefield, and the fact that we fell in the process. And now we’re in this sorry state. The priestess didn’t do anything wrong, but we forced her to leave the place she belonged by herself.”

Tatemiya talked as if stabbing his own face with a sword.

His voice, wrung from deep in his throat, contained vivid emotion.

“We stole her home with our inexperience. That’s why we need to offer her home to her again. One where nobody gets hurt, one where nobody must grieve, one where everyone fights to put smiles on others’ faces. A home where we all stand as one without hesitation to protect someone’s happiness.”

“…”

“That’s why we extended a helping hand to Orsola—because she wanted help.

“Because we thought our priestess’s home should be a world in which people would do that normally.”

In the end, they weren’t actually fighting for advantage or disadvantage, as they assumed from interorganizational deals. They were just fighting because the circumstance dictated it—not because they were looking to gain anything from it. The circumstance in question was too deeply entwined with the history of their group, so they couldn’t get Orsola to understand. It had just created a misunderstanding. Was that it?

That was only if everything Tatemiya was saying were true, though.

Kamijou had begun to want to believe his words. But there was still no proof for any of them. Even if he felt like he wanted to trust Tatemiya, he couldn’t find any evidence that would let him do so absolutely. He gritted his teeth. Who should he believe? Who was telling the lies? Many thoughts spun round and round in his mind, when…

…suddenly, they heard an ear-splitting yell from far away.

No—it was nothing so lackluster as a yell.

A shriek. A scream. A screech. And if he had to guess, it had come from a woman. But did it really come from a person? Kamijou wasn’t even confident enough to say that. The high-pitched whine, like fingernails scratching glass or a chalkboard, physically made people cringe. And yet within the loud reverberation was plenty of raw human emotion. Fear. Denial. Despair. Agony. It was like a mud-soaked sponge being wrung out—he could tell that the repressed sound, unbecoming of a human, was soaked in all-too-real human-ness.

Index looked at Kamijou. He didn’t look back at her. “Or…sola?”

“I’ll ask you one more time…Did you say you were entrusting her to the Roman Orthodox Church, man? I thought she trusted you—not the Roman Orthodox.”

“…” Those words made Kamijou think back.

“I would like to make certain—you are helping now because you were requested to cooperate by the English Puritan Church, yes?”

—Why would Orsola Aquinas have been so reluctant to ask him that?

“That’s right…”

—Why did she look so relieved at that short statement?

“So then you are of English Puritan descent, not Roman Orthodox?”

—And she asked again, to make absolutely sure…

“It’s nothing crazy like that. Oh, and just so you know, I don’t have any pull with them. I’m from Academy City, after all.”

—And those words, which he hadn’t thought about very hard, made her so relieved…

“I…see.”

—Those two words—how much meaning had been packed into them?

She probably had faith until the very end.

Faith that Touma Kamijou was someone she could trust herself to as long as she needed.

“…Shit!”

Kamijou clenched his teeth in anger. He quickly turned in the direction he’d heard the shriek. In hindsight, he should have just gotten her into Academy City even if they risked danger. That was it—that was all he had to do to make her safe!

“Give me a goddamn break. Why the hell did it turn out like this?!”

“Don’t panic. It’s not like that scream was her dying. The Roman Orthodox Church has their own stuff going on—they wouldn’t be able to kill Orsola Aquinas right here and now. Actually, I’m completely certain of that.”

“What?”

“I mean that if you hurry, you can still save her. But if you misstep here, who knows what will happen? Given the situation, I’m not gonna ask you anymore whether or not you trust us, man. We have our own circumstances, but securing Orsola’s safety is the most important thing. So I don’t care if you and I remain enemies or not!”

His shout implied that they were in a race against time.

“But just promise me this! That you’ll get back Orsola Aquinas from the Roman Orthodox and take her somewhere neither they nor we can get to her!!”

His eyes were serious.

Serious enough to make Kamijou falter.

And then.

Suddenly, ker-click—he heard a footstep. He took his eyes from Tatemiya. He turned around to the noise to see two sisters in black approaching, as if parting the darkness in front of them. They must have been from the Roman Orthodox Church.

One was tall, and one was short. The taller one was hoisting a wheel, bigger than a small round table, that looked like it came off a carriage. The shorter one had four leather pouches hanging from the belt around her waist. Coins or something must have been inside, because they jingled every time she took a step. The pouches were about softball size, so if they were filled with coins, they would have been as heavy as shot puts.

The taller sister drew an old leather notebook from her sleeve pocket and flipped through its pages; then, after nodding about something, she came over to Kamijou. Perhaps there was a photograph in there.

“You are the outsiders assisting us, yes? We have come to take custody of the imprisoned heretic leader. The enemy of God…Is that him?”

As she spoke, the younger sister moved toward Saiji Tatemiya, seated with rune cards stuck on him, in anticipation of the answer.

The four coin pouches at her hips jingled.

“Hey, wait a second!” called Kamijou, but the short sister didn’t seem to hear.

For a moment, she reached a hand toward Tatemiya but then hesitated, realizing something. She went around him, carefully observing the rune cards attached to him.

Instead, the taller sister stared at Kamijou’s face. “What is it?”

“Before you guys pull out of here, can you let me see Orsola one more time?”

“Unfortunately, I must decline. Though we have secured Sister Orsola’s safety, we cannot call the situation safe just yet, since we don’t know the true state of the enemy forces. In cases such as these, our rules state we must give first priority to the safety of our own personnel. Once we have safely seen her back to Rome, we will send you an invitation.”

A perfect answer—so perfect that he had to frown.

“No, no. I’m not convinced. What was that scream from before, anyway? Wasn’t that Orsola’s voice? Is that the kind of noise that someone who’s made it to safety would make? Anyway, I want to see her again. You don’t mind, right? I just want to see her for a bit, say a few words, and that’s it. We won’t be seeing each other for a while, so I have to at least say good-bye.”

“But our rules state…”

“Ah, jeez! Why are you so annoying about rules? Is Agnes over there? I’ll just go over and ask her myself!”

Kamijou grabbed the tall sister’s shoulder and brusquely pushed her aside.

“…” She relaxed her shoulders, as if amazed at seeing how much of a worrywart he was.

Then she took the giant wheel against her back and placed it in front of her like a shield with a dull noise.

Index’s face immediately warped with nervousness. “Stop, Touma—?!”

But before she could finish…

Boom!!

The wooden wheel exploded.

“…?!”

For an instant, Kamijou didn’t know what happened. Like a shotgun, hundreds of sharp fragments came flying, but only toward him. Once his thought process caught up, he covered his face and chest with both hands. A moment later, the countless splinters hit him right in the hands, legs, and gut. By the time he had begun to feel pain, his feet had already left the ground. As the stupid-sounding ka-boom hit him, he found himself being blown five or six meters back.

Index’s clipped shriek reached his ears.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Tatemiya trying to stand, but he stopped abruptly when a few rune flames singed his hair. He bared his teeth like a chained wild dog. The shorter sister appeared a little shaken up. She looked at the taller sister and asked,

“S-Sister Lucia…Umm, well, i-is this okay…? Didn’t…Didn’t Sister Agnes tell us to avoid needless contact with our guests…?”

“Be quiet, Sister Angeline. Damn, Agnes, this is why we shouldn’t have let these heathens slip so close to us—we should have chased them away sooner. We all listened to your optimistic command to leave them be, and this is what happens…,” muttered the taller sister to herself as if to calm her own emotions, shooting a glare at the shorter sister to silence her.

Her eyes had changed color. It was an abstract change, but that’s what Kamijou thought. The taller sister’s eyes had heat enough in them to melt butter into a puddle as she looked at Kamijou.

He was speechless—was this the same kind of nun as the ones who had given him bread and soup at the campsite?

“If only you weren’t so weirdly obsessed with a scream, then we would have had less to do…Damn, why—why, this heretic, with his hand, on my shoulder, my shoulder, my shoulder. Sister Angeline! Find me the soap—no, the detergent! This is terrible. I am in the worst of moods. They spoke to me. Would you say a few words to them? I simply cannot stand it—I need to wear a mudguard apron or something.”

Blood silently rose to the tall sister’s face.

Her face wavered to and fro as her mouth produced a monotone voice.

“This is all getting more and more and more complicated. What are we to do? Let us say that Amakusa member resisted and killed you both. Ah, yes, that seems like the easiest option. After that, we must only seal Amakusa’s lips, and there will be no problems.”

The line sounded like an ad-lib correction for a stage play whose scenario had gone awry.

It sounded like a threatening voice, but Kamijou couldn’t find it in him to answer.

Quite a few wooden shards had struck him, but they weren’t actual blades in the first place, so his wounds were shallow.

But right after that…the slender shards piercing his skin suddenly began twisting up and down by themselves.

“Gh…gaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh?!”

As Kamijou screamed, as though pulling out an ax wedged in a big tree, the fragments began falling out one after another. The blood-splattered fragments returned to the tall sister as if by magnetism, and like a jigsaw puzzle being assembled, they re-formed the original carriage wheel.

“Touma!!” shouted Index, just about to run over to him in a panic.

However, at the sight, the tall sister commanded, “Sister Angeline!”

“Y-yes ma’am!” stammered the short sister in reply, slicing the belt at her waist and throwing the four coin pouches overhead.

Right then, flap!! With the sound of air hitting a big piece of cloth, six sparrow-like wings came out of each of the pouch openings. The wings shone in different colors for each pouch—red, blue, yellow, and green.

“Viene. Una persona dodici apostli. Lo schiavo basso che rovina rovina un mago mentre e quelli che raccolgono!”

The short sister raised both hands overhead as if to embrace the night sky, and at that moment,

Brrmmm!! With the speed of a bullet, the green-winged coin pouch grazed across Index and stabbed into the ground at her feet.

Bkk-bshh, came a small sound as the hard ground began to form cracks like tree roots.

“This is…?”

Index hastily tried to leap backward, but her body came right back down. She looked to see the drawstring on the coin pouch stuck in the ground was undone. It had wrapped around her ankles and was holding her down. Right when Index cast her gaze down to her feet, the other three pouches fluttered high in the air, aiming right for that new blind spot.

Kamijou paled. Oh, crap…! If she hits her with that…!!

The coin pouches probably weighed more than shot puts. With her feet stuck to the ground, Index wouldn’t be able to avoid them, and it would be too much to defend with her hands.

“Shit! Index!!” he shouted, getting ready to run over there. Fortunately, the coin pouch binding her legs seemed to work on magical principles. It would be easy to punch it with his right hand and undo it.

But then…

“Worry about yourself, child. So that you may avoid as much pain as you can!”

Before he realized it, the taller sister hoisting the giant wheel had jumped above him. Kamijou, unstable and trying to stand up, locked on to the wheel’s center point like the muzzle on a gun.

—?!

He shuddered and he felt his throat dry up. Punching the wheel and having it be blasted to smithereens clearly presented poor odds for him.

“Heathen child, are you familiar with the Legend of the Wheel?”

The tall sister smiled vacantly.

“Countless saints have been martyred since long ago. Those foolish people, high in the government, thought to end their lives by execution, but in their history of torture and execution, the wheel appears many times.”

Kamijou didn’t feel like engaging in small talk, but the wheel before his eyes was preventing him from moving. And meanwhile, the three coin pouches, dozens of meters in the air, turned and dove straight down to Index.

“They were giant wheels, with innumerable nails and blades stabbing into them, made to rip saints apart. But there are many reports of the wheels exploding on their own when they touched saints. Yes—Saint George, who exterminated dragons, and even Saint Catherine of the Alexandria. Fragments from the exploding wheels were said to have killed more than four thousand people who were there to watch the execution. The teachings of the Legend of the Wheel are as follows.”

Her calm tone fried his nerves even more. The three coin pouches aiming for Index shot like a bullet toward her to smash her head in.

The tall sister viewed Kamijou as he began to sweat in nervousness from the other side of the wheel. She smiled, pleased. “The sinless will not be punished, and the sinful will receive judgment—know this, heretic. There is no salvation for you. Sister Orsola, both our comrade and a fool who must die—we must follow procedure for her, but we have no need to hesitate when killing the two of you.”

“Shit…!!”

Thinking he was going to go save Index, he turned and gave his full attention to the bound girl in white. Before his eyes, the wheel began to crack apart. Time slowed—and Kamijou saw the wheel, split into six equal parts at its center like a pizza, begin to expand from within.

“Ga, ahhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He clenched his right hand and howled, but he was too late. He wouldn’t make it. Before he thrust out his fist, the giant wheel wielded by the tall sister made an ear-splitting noise…

…and with a ger-slam it bounced sideways.

Obviously, it wasn’t the tall sister’s intention, nor was it due to Kamijou’s fist.

The coin pouches.

The coin pouch with six red wings, which had been going after Index’s head, had struck the execution wheel from the side with amazing speed. The impact wrenched the wheel from the tall sister’s hands. It bounced on the ground a few times and flew into the darkness. The coin pouch that hit it burst open from the impact, sending unidentifiable coins of all sizes into the air.

The tall sister, suddenly without a weapon, hastily jumped away to put distance between her and Kamijou, then turned a glare on the shorter sister.

“Sister Angeline, have you gone mad?!”

“N-no, no…It wasn’t me!”

Her savagely angry shout made the shorter of them blanch and explain herself, when just then,

“CTRTTOP, ABO! (Collect the remaining three to one point, and become one!)”

Index’s clear voice interrupted them.

That instant.

Ker-crash, came the roar of metal being pulverized. The green pouch’s drawstring came off from Index’s ankles. The blue and yellow pouches going for her head instead shot off toward the short sister’s face with incredible speed.

The three pouches collided with one another two centimeters from her nose and stopped dead. The extreme force pounded the hundred-some coins into a single metal lump, and it made a dull sound as it fell to the short sister’s feet.

Plop. The shorter sister fell over on her rear with, strangely enough, a smile.

“The apostle Matthew, who felled two fire-breathing dragons using only a cross and prayer. By passing telesma through his emblem, the money pouch, one can create a weapon that tracks a target when thrown…,” Index criticized, very quietly. “How sloppy. The incantation is long, and its encryption is all over the place. You’re so preoccupied with stabilizing your own technique and not paying attention to anything else. It’s easy to muscle on into it!”

Kamijou didn’t understand what had just happened. Index couldn’t use magic, could she? Or was it some other kind of trick? Something to let her interrupt the short sister’s sorcery and hijack it…

“…Self-destruction—friendly fire. A tactic to use the penalty of magical failure against itself.”

The taller sister cast her gaze around, then clucked her tongue and readied herself again. Even without a weapon, her will to fight hadn’t waned one bit. With gentle movements, she made the sign of the cross…

…but then they heard what sounded like a high-pitched flute tone from far away.

Fweeeeee, came the birdlike scream. The taller sister looked hatefully into the black sky.

“The command to retreat? Sister Angeline!!”

“Ah, uh? B-but we haven’t yet dealt with—”

“We are retreating. We can put the Amakusa leftovers down to the English already having let them escape. Ruining the pace of things will badly affect our unit as a whole and could cause harm to befall the group escorting Orsola. That is the larger problem at hand.”

The tall sister turned on her heel and disappeared into the darkness, and the short sister followed her in a fluster.

“You get it now, right?” said Saiji Tatemiya sourly, looking up at the night sky.

“That’s how Roman Orthodoxy, the largest Crossist denomination in the world, operates behind the scenes.”

2

“I see. So that’s why she looked so stupefied the moment she saw Agnes Sanctis. They probably cut us off from the main Roman Orthodox force because they’ve been looking down on us from the start, too. Hmph…Their chain of command would be left in disarray with English Puritans there, eh? That’s rich,” said Stiyl at leisure as they left Parallel Sweets Park. He must have heard Orsola’s scream, too, but he didn’t seem to have asked Agnes about it when he left her. If he hadn’t known the situation and asked her, it could have turned into a diplomatic issue between the two Church organizations. Kamijou understood that, but he wasn’t satisfied with it.

After the little fight, he had run to where Agnes had been, only to find that she and all the others had already withdrawn. And no assassins came up to pursue Tatemiya, either. With so many of his friends captured, maybe they had judged Amakusa as having already been destroyed.

The fact that they’d had so many people, yet still withdrew cleanly enough to leave no trace of their existence, sent shivers down Kamijou’s spine. The fact that they hadn’t given the English Puritans any sort of debriefing—or even a good-bye—must have meant they really didn’t trust them at all. Securing Orsola was their primary objective. Maybe they figured that they’d only deal with Tatemiya and the others if they had the time. Or perhaps they would summon their entire force from all over the city and press for a decisive victory.

With all of that, Kamijou, Index, Stiyl, and Tatemiya were busy exchanging information. Kamijou, having been stricken all over his body with those wheel fragments, was wrapped up in bandages in many places.

“Even if everything that man says is true, they’re not going to kill Orsola Aquinas right away. They have their own circumstances to consider…So, Touma Kamijou, don’t you dare go running off somewhere right this moment. If you stand out, things will get pretty complex.”

Kamijou made a dissatisfied face at the warning. “…What do you mean, circumstances to consider?”

“Roman Orthodoxy is Crossism’s largest denomination, Touma. Most don’t know anything about the occult, but it still has more than two billion followers, the pope still leads 141 cardinals, and it’s still expansive enough that it has churches in 113 countries. It’s all well and good that it’s big, but if it gets too big, they might start to have problems.”

“?” Kamijou still didn’t understand.

This time, Tatemiya spoke up. “Well, in other words, basically…If they have that much influence, they’re obviously gonna have a lot of different factions. First off, the pope and the cardinals govern 142 parishes, and depending on the country and region, it’s 207—then if you add in clashes between old and young and between male and female, it’s 252.”

Stiyl blew out a puff of smoke, vexed. “With so many factions, people say Roman Orthodoxy has more enemies within it than outside it. People join up with others over minute problems with their own brethren and poke and prod at them. With all that, the current situation has a very delicate aspect to it. The Book of the Law is definitely a threat to Roman Orthodoxy, but Orsola Aquinas herself is entirely innocent. If they kill her unreasonably, their brethren around the world would turn against Agnes.”

“Is that right? But we didn’t do anything wrong, either. And they still came at us without a second thought.” Kamijou lightly stroked the bandage on his arm with a fingertip. It was already oppressively hot outside—the bandages on him were only making it worse.

“That’s because they can use the excuse that we’re heretics or pagans. Any idea how much atrocity has been justified by simply saying how it’s okay to punish those who disobey God’s teachings?”

“That’s what the sisters who attacked us before are probably thinking. But I think that’s exactly why they can’t inadvertently lay a hand on Orsola. Since thou shalt not kill those who believe in the teachings of God.”

“…”

Kamijou glanced away and thought about it, gazing at the trees on the roadside illuminated by the streetlights. Even if Roman Orthodoxy had a rule that stated they couldn’t kill other members of the faith, then why did Amakusa act to prevent Orsola from being assassinated?

He asked the question, and Stiyl answered, not treating it as very important.

“It’s easy. There’re exceptions.”

“Exceptions?”

“That’s right. Thou shalt not kill those who believe in the teachings of God—if you subscribe to this rule, then that means it’s okay to drive those who don’t from the Church and kill them.”

His giant sword on full display, Tatemiya continued for Stiyl. Not that it mattered, but Kamijou began to worry how he’d explain himself if the police saw him.

“Criminals, witches, traitors…They cut off all connections with those who break the rules. And at the same time, they label them enemies of God.”

“The way they do it is simple. Just test them. Let’s see—for example, say there’s a metal pole that’s so hot it’s burning red. They’ll make Orsola hold it. If she were innocent, her Lord would protect her, and she wouldn’t be burned. But if she was burned, then she would be judged one not worth protecting. It’s absurd, isn’t it? In English Puritanism, testing the Lord is treated as a sin.”

“But that’s…!” Kamijou was dumbfounded. “But of course she’d get burned! It would be weirder if she didn’t!”

“You’re right. They could find fault with her even if she wasn’t burned. They could say she’s being protected by the devil. Whichever the result, the one being tested is sure to be labeled.”

That’s savage, he thought. It was absolutely wrong to decide Orsola’s fate with such messed-up methods.

“But on the other hand, this inquisition—or trial by ordeal, should I say. Anyway, until they’re finished preparing to exile her, they can’t take her life without due caution. If they follow proper procedure, they will go back to Rome first, and then it would take two or three days to get it ready. Still, anything they do will probably be overlooked as long as they don’t kill her.”

The Roman Orthodox couldn’t care less about what she was thinking or the feelings with which she was trying to stand up to the grimoire’s original copy. Because it was a nuisance. Because it was inconvenient. Because it was a pain. Because it wouldn’t go well. Because it would make trouble. That was all it took for them to go after Orsola’s life.

Even though they should have been the same.

Even though Orsola and the Roman Orthodox must have had the same opinions deep down.

Even though both of them saw the Book of the Law as dangerous and were acting because they wanted to do something about it.

Even though she was looking for a breakthrough, a way to dispose of the original copies of grimoires, which were said to be indestructible by human hands, despite the fact that they could decipher them.

Even though she just wanted to be useful.

Even though she thought the book was dangerous and wanted to do something about it.

“Do you know about the original copies of grimoires? Or how they cannot be destroyed by any means?”

—Was that really such a bad thing?

“With current technology, it is impossible to get rid of grimoires that have reached this state. The most that can be done is to seal it so that nobody may ever read it.”

—Had Orsola Aquinas done something so wrong…

“That is, with current technology.”

—…that she needed to go through someone else’s procedure, be labeled a heretic, remain silent instead of asking for someone’s help, and be executed?

“One should be able to use the magic circle against itself—in other words, to force the original text to destroy itself.”

—No.

“The power of grimoires doesn’t bring anyone happiness. The only thing they create is conflict. That’s why I was investigating its inner workings—in order to destroy these kinds of grimoires.”

—No!

“Like hell I’ll accept that…” Kamijou clenched his teeth so hard they might break. “Even if they had that kind of reason, no matter what circumstances they have, that shit isn’t okay! Seriously, what the hell?! What do they think human life is? Taking away everything important to a person, bit by bit—what the hell do they think human life is?!”

Touma Kamijou had amnesia.

So there were very few things he thought were very important. He only had a month’s worth of memories from summer vacation in the first place. Compared to high school students with normal lives, he had but a fraction of things important to him. And most of what he had were messy memories borne from lying about his amnesia.

But Kamijou still felt as though…Even he, with such a scant number of things he could call precious—if someone were to come and steal them away as simply as crossing something out in a document with red ink, he would be angry beyond description.

Maybe those in the Roman Orthodox Church really were fighting to protect something precious to them. But they shouldn’t be doing it.

Like a flock of crows pecking at somebody—stripping away everything someone held dear, one by one, robbing them—that was something that should never be done.

Why didn’t they look for another way?

Why did the cheap, foolish method of killing her satisfy them?

Kamijou clenched his fists so tightly he thought they might bleed. The lights on the street, dotting the dark residential area at night, coldly illuminated them.

“…Where are they right now? Do you know anything?”

“I’ve got a good idea. But what do you plan on doing once I tell you?” answered Stiyl in an aloof way—and it made Kamijou want to grab his collar.

How the hell can this guy stay so calm? he thought.

His face looked like he was going to devour Stiyl, but the priest didn’t seem disturbed at all. The cigarette in the corner of his mouth wiggled. In fact, Index, whom he couldn’t see, seemed to be the one who was scared.

“I understand how you feel.” Stiyl quietly exhaled smoke. “But how about we calm down a bit first, hm? There are close to 250 of the ladies just in this one town, remember? Remind me—was your fist convenient enough to wipe them all out?”

“…!!”

Kamijou gripped his own fists.

Yes, he knew that. His skill was only good for fights in back alleys. He could only beat people one on one. One on two was pretty risky, and one on three would end up with him getting beaten to a pulp. And while it may have been a sneak attack, that sister had just overwhelmed him by attacking with that wheel.

Barehanded fights in real life weren’t like in the movies—one person couldn’t beat dozens of opponents by himself in a fair fight. No matter how strong the person was, there was a strict rule to the effect that you couldn’t possibly win given a certain number of people surrounding you.

And that…

…was if you weren’t the kind of real combat professional you saw in manga and dramas.

The sorcerer—who should have been one of those combat professionals—blew out a little smoke, grinning comfortably.

“If Amakusa’s story is all true, then we don’t have anything to do at this point in the first place. Unfortunately, this story is already over.”

“What…was that?”

“Just think about it, all right? Orsola Aquinas broke the Roman Orthodox rules, and now they’re after her life. Agnes Sanctis followed her to punish her for breaking the rules. That’s really all this incident was, wasn’t it? The Book of the Law’s original copy is apparently safe at home in the Vatican Library. Given their position, they can’t allow it to be used for evil. Amakusa’s saying they don’t plan on using it for evil, either. In the end, nothing has happened that would change what we English Puritans have to do. I’m not happy we didn’t get to say good-bye now that everything’s over with, but it’s nothing getting so red-faced over will do anything about, is it?”

This time for sure…

This time, Touma Kamijou grabbed Stiyl Magnus’s collar without a second thought. Index covered her mouth and let out a yelp as Tatemiya looked at him and gave a whistle.

But still, the rune sorcerer wasn’t disturbed in the slightest. In the deserted night streets, his words echoed, alone, and disappeared. The flickering streetlights intermittently cast their shine on the priest.

“This is no more than the Roman Orthodox Church judging an internal incident by its own rules. As long as it doesn’t affect anyone else, if we English Puritans foolishly complained about it, then it would be seen as a political intervention—it could even do great harm to relations between the English and the Romans…Unfortunately, it’s time to give up on this, Touma Kamijou. Or do you want to save her even if you start a war?”

“…That’s…”

“Whether it’s English Puritanism or Roman Orthodoxy, don’t go thinking everyone who’s part of them are combat personnel like we are. In fact, most of them are people just like you. They go to school, spend time with friends, eat hamburgers on the way home—that’s their whole world to them. They don’t know about the sorcerers lurking in the shadows, nor do they notice all the deals made among various groups to keep a magical war from occurring. They are truly virtuous, powerless lambs.”

Then, the sorcerer, with Kamijou still holding on to his collar, asked coolly.

It was indeed as though he were a demon urging him to an agreement.

“Now this is the problem—can you wrap them up in this? Do you want to get people, ignorant of the truth, who are part of these religions involved in this, rob them, kill them, take everything they have, just so you can protect Orsola Aquinas?”

“…”

The strength in the hands Kamijou was grabbing Stiyl’s collar with faded. Index tried to say something, but she didn’t know what, so she just took a long breath.

This was the difference between amateurs and professionals.

This was the difference between individuals and organizations.

Stiyl spat out his cigarette tiredly, crushed it with his foot, and turned to look at Tatemiya. “I don’t have the right to stop you from doing anything, though. You can fight all you want for Orsola, since she asked, or your subordinates, or whatever you want. But if you’re going, then you’re doing it alone. If you try to get English Puritanism involved in this, they will turn this entire island nation into scorched earth to uproot and massacre Amakusa,” threatened Stiyl—but Tatemiya’s expression didn’t change.

“Man, I know that much. Oh, come on, kid. Don’t get so down. The English Puritan Church might not have any reason to fight, but we’ve got a big one. I’m just gonna pay a visit to their little hideout, rescue my allies, and maybe give Orsola a lift while I’m at it. What? We’re used to throwing a few talented people at stupidly huge groups. Our sect evolved by opposing the Tokugawa Shogunate, after all.”

Kamijou brought his head up at what he said.

Index, next to him, looked at Tatemiya’s face.

“You’re going to call the rest of your friends from Amakusa’s main base? But you’ll have to wait another day to use the special movement method, and if you wait that long, the Romans might go back home.”

“Yeah. Can’t take the safe option in this situation,” said Tatemiya, swinging his white sword a bit.

Stiyl said in an uninterested voice, “Are you saying you’re going alone?”

“There’s no other choice, so I need to. Fortunately though, those idiots may have gotten taken away, but they haven’t been executed…If they wanted to kill us, they wouldn’t have bothered capturing us—they would have just cut us down on the spot. It’d be more realistic for them to deliver a sentence to us with Orsola, saying that she conspired with Amakusa to steal the Book of the Law. So if I break ’em out and incite things the right way, we might actually have a chance of barely winning.” Tatemiya concealed his tension with a jovial expression. “The best time to go at them is when they’re on the move.” He waved his giant sword around. “Amakusa’s been pursued for a long time—we’re pretty familiar with how scary and fragile groups can be. A large group of people is at its weakest when it’s on the move. After all, the Romans captured more than three hundred Amakusa members, y’know? They can’t move around properly with only the nuns they have. If hundreds of sisters dressed in black went on parade through the city together, they could end up on TV as a demonstration or a riot or somethin’.

“So they’re gonna have some kind of camouflage for when they move, just in case. Like splitting into smaller groups and going by car. It’s an established tactic—when they’re camouflaging themselves, they can’t use the full extent of their power, making it the best—and only—time to launch a surprise attack.”

From what Tatemiya was saying, the Roman Orthodox Church wouldn’t use magic to move like Amakusa did. And it was too late at night for them to charter a boat or plane. Their exodus would probably wait to begin until morning, when the harbors and airports opened up.

“…”

Their moving was the greatest opportunity.

But that also meant they couldn’t do anything until they started moving, too. Stiyl said that in order for the Roman Orthodox Church to erase Orsola, they needed to follow a procedure called an inquisition.

But on top of that, it meant that until they killed her, they could do anything they wanted and it would be overlooked.

Violence, inflicted by a surrounding group of two hundred and fifty people. In a way, that could be more terrifying than a punishment based on proper rules. After all, it wasn’t clearly defined in their laws—there wasn’t a clear line between how much was okay and how much wasn’t.

Could they do anything to her as long as she didn’t die?

Would they say she was lucky, no matter what they did to her, just because she was breathing?

Kamijou’s face clouded over, and Tatemiya seemed to suspect his apprehensions. “…Might be a bit cruel to tell you to understand. Even we’ve got things we know we can and can’t do.” His words were mixed with bitterness. A professional like him could probably imagine things more vividly than an amateur like Kamijou. About how the Romans treated captured enemies.

Touma Kamijou punched a nearby telephone pole with all his might.

Despite being able to visualize the worst possible situation, he couldn’t take any action whatsoever—and he felt ashamed to no end for it.

Stiyl disinterestedly looked at Kamijou, who was unable to make any sort of reply, and said, “Looks like that settles it. We should split up and hide as well. Guess I’ll give the higher-ups a ring and ask what to do next. Our problems with the Romans and Amakusa have been cleared up, but I’ll need to do something about Kanzaki now. Touma Kamijou, you take Index back to Academy City. Right now, having gotten their hands on the most important person, Orsola, the Romans wouldn’t consider attacking you two outsiders, since it would mean picking a fight with the scientific side of things.”

He lit a new cigarette. “Well, if the English Puritan Church at least had a proper reason to rescue Orsola Aquinas, it would be a different story—but this is all we can do.” He blew out smoke, sounding thoroughly uninterested. “Right. Also, Touma Kamijou. There was something I wanted to ask.”

“…What?”

He turned around, exhausted. Stiyl continued, giving a cynical smile. “That cross I gave you before. You don’t seem to have it on you—where’d you put it?”

“…” Kamijou thought for a moment, then remembered. “Sorry. I gave it to Orsola. She seemed really happy I put it around her neck, though. Was it really that valuable?”

“No, it was an entirely normal iron cross. They’re probably souvenirs produced en masse by some factory. They’re all over England—it’s the cross of Saint George, which is also part of our nation’s flag.” Stiyl grinned for some reason, seeming a bit pleased. “That cross has no value as an ornament or an antique. The thing had value while you were carrying it…but whatever. You don’t need it anymore anyway,” said Stiyl cryptically, blowing out another puff of smoke.

Without knowing what he meant by that, Kamijou withdrew to the dark road.

And thus the curtains fell on a disappointing ending to a disappointing incident.

3

Saiji Tatemiya was gone.

Stiyl seemed to want to guard Index until she safely got into Academy City. She was next to Kamijou, who was trudging down the night road, but seemed to be at a loss for words.

This may have been the capital of Japan, but when you got away from the center, it was veiled in the dark of night. Checking the time revealed it was past one in the morning, and most of the city lights were out. A few apartment complexes had lights in their windows here and there like missing teeth, and sometimes a taxi with someone drunk in it would pass by. The streetlights kept on flickering unreliably, illuminating the many moths gathering to them.

Their unexpected day revolving around fighting was already over. In just a few hours, he would be going back to his normal life, centered around school. Kamijou would shake the lack of sleep from his head, go to school, take some boring classes, talk about dumb stuff to Tsuchimikado and Blue Hair on the way home, and be on the receiving end of Mikoto’s biribiri for not completing his summer homework after all.

“…What should I have done?” he said suddenly.

Index looked up at him, but he was still looking down, dejected.

He wanted to save Orsola Aquinas.

But he couldn’t think of any way to do that.

“I get that an amateur can’t think of a way to beat a professional. But I still think maybe there was something even an amateur could have done. Like when I first met Orsola, if I had just taken her to Academy City like she asked—what would have happened then? And if we didn’t help the Roman Orthodox Church, maybe she could have gotten away with Amakusa and their special movement method.”

“Touma…”

“No, I get it. Those things only seem hopeful because I’m not looking at their end results. Even if Orsola got into Academy City, the Romans would have given chase and followed her in. Even if we didn’t help them, they would have used their human wave tactics, searched every nook and cranny, and found where Amakusa was gathering. I get all that, but still…”

He thought back.

Back to when he first met Orsola. That uneasy voice asking him to tell her how to get into Academy City. Her smile when they were hiding out in the theme park.

Her words, spoken strangely readily, as though she thought she’d finally found someone she could trust.

And last of all—that shriek of despair they had heard from somewhere.

“But really…what should we have done?”

He knew that just thinking like this was the act of an amateur who didn’t fully grasp the dangers. This incident had nothing to do with him. A simple high school student had chanced a glimpse at how harsh the world of professional sorcery was, and now he was going back to his own world. No one would blame him for it. Anyone who knew firsthand how terrifying the real world of sorcery was would probably breathe a sigh of relief upon seeing his safe return.

Stiyl must have thought he’d finished explaining everything he needed to, so he didn’t say even a word despite hearing Kamijou’s complaints.

On the other hand, Index looked up into Kamijou’s face. “…Touma. This is a problem for sorcerers, so you don’t need to get yourself involved. I can’t say much, since I can’t do anything anyway, but Saiji Tatemiya said he’d do it, so I think we just have to trust him…”

“…Right.”

Index looked about to cry at Kamijou’s unfocused response. “That’s right! Touma, there’s no rule saying you have to settle every problem sorcerers have! I think if anyone, you should blame me, the anti-sorcery expert, for not being able to do anything. But the problems that can be solved will be solved even if you’re not there. Touma, I think you’ve gotten involved with a lot of sorcerers, for an outsider. But there are a whole lot of sorcerers in the world you don’t know, and they all have their own problems, and they figure them out without needing to borrow your strength. This time is the same—it’s just that this is the first time you’ve seen an incident you weren’t involved in ending.”

“Is that right?” Kamijou answered mechanically—but he was surprised on the inside.

She should be able to imagine what fate awaited Orsola, too—but she had firmly told him not to get involved with this incident anymore.

Or maybe it was backward. If she made a contradictory statement, then maybe Kamijou wouldn’t praise her anymore.

“Yeah. Things have been weird until now. No one can solve every problem they see by themselves. Touma, you can ask people for help. You can trust other people with the endings. Just because you see a house on fire and there’s a little kid still inside, there’s no reason you have to jump in. Calling for help in that situation isn’t shameful at all,” Index said. “Touma, I think you should rely on other people more. We’re from Necessarius—that’s what it was made for. No one will blame you just because you couldn’t solve a problem yourself that even an organization like ours is having trouble with.”

“…” It just so happened that he didn’t have a place in this, in the end. Maybe that’s all it was. Just because his part was over didn’t mean the incident suddenly ended there. Maybe Saiji Tatemiya would just take up the mantle of protagonist from here and settle things.

She was right—just because a random attacker incident happened right in front of him, there was no rule saying that witnesses needed to resolve it. Nobody would blame the witnesses for the police arresting the criminal.

“I wonder if Tatemiya can do it.”

“I think he has a chance at winning. He’s a real sorcerer, after all. Amakusa has a particularly harsh history of oppression—these sorts of odds we’re facing are their specialty. They wouldn’t take on an enemy they couldn’t beat.”

I see, nodded Kamijou.

He thought to himself—this was enough. He thought to himself—if they’d resolve this incident without him forcing himself to fight, then there was no need for an amateur to butt in. That was a normal idea. A clueless amateur doing as he pleased and throwing things into confusion could trigger everything going in an even worse direction—so not getting involved instead seemed like a good plan in its own right.

There was no rule saying he had to resolve every incident.

In fact, if he took a step back, there were plenty more incidents resolved without Kamijou’s help.

He didn’t need to worry about having gotten a glimpse of one of them.

Even without his involvement, someone would take it upon themselves to close the curtains on it.

He looked up into the night sky and slowly stretched both of his hands into the air. Suddenly growing aware of all his pent-up exhaustion, he finally started to yearn for the futon in his dorm.

“Guess we’ll go home,” said Kamijou aloud—as if to draw a clear line between his normal and abnormal lives. “Oh, right. Before we go back, I want to drop by a store. Supermarkets and department stores won’t be open this late, so it’ll have to be a convenience store. The fridge is empty, so I figured I’d go and buy a bunch of stuff…but whatever. I want to see what places outside Academy City have—maybe they’ve got bento they don’t sell on the inside.”

“…Touma. I think I’m suddenly really tired of domestic life.”

“Well, sorry. I’m just a boring high school kid who thinks it’s fun to have a household account book now, that’s all.”

“I want to eat luxurious meals without having to worry about your account book once in a while.”

“If you don’t like it, fine. But tomorrow’s breakfast will be an empty plate with some water. You’ll have to make up for the rest with that active imagination of yours.”

“Touma?!” shouted Index, despite it being night.

Kamijou looked at the girl devourer as her face paled at such a simple thought and grinned. “Then why don’t I go hit a convenience store and find some breakfast for tomorrow?”

“Huh? If you’re going to the ‘store,’ then maybe we should all go.”

“If I brought you, I wouldn’t be able to shop—you’d throw everything within reach into the basket. All right, I won’t be long. Stiyl, could you bring Index back to Academy City ahead of me? You brought us out, so you can sneak back in, I’m sure…Actually, er, if you did that might be a problem in its own right…”

“If you say so. Your suggestion benefits her—so I don’t mind…”

Stiyl wiggled the cigarette in the corner of his mouth up and down. “By the way, you know where it is?”

“…No, but…Convenience stores are everywhere—I’ll just run around here for a bit.”

“Fine.” Stiyl grinned sardonically, disappearing into the dark night escorting Index. Index wanted to stay with Kamijou, but he waved his arms and refused.

He waited until he could no longer see them, then turned right around.

Right around—to return straight along the road he’d come.

“That asshole. Did he know…?” said Kamijou to himself, annoyed.

My wallet’s still in the dorm, after all. Wouldn’t be able to do much in a convenience store.

As he walked, he took out his cell phone from his pants pocket. Its white backlight cast a dim light on his face. He pressed a few buttons and, using his GPS service, started searching around on a map. He wasn’t, of course, looking for a nearby store.

Touma Kamijou remembered Agnes Sanctis’s words.

“It is our privilege to outnumber all. We have comrades in 110 countries around the world, after all. There are many churches even in Japan. In fact, a new house of the lord is being constructed as we speak—the Church of Orsola. I think it was somewhere around here, actually. Right nearby. I think they were bragging that when it was finished, it would be the largest church in Japan. It was supposedly as big as a baseball stadium.”

Academy City’s GPS was extremely accurate and updated frequently. There were even rumors it was precise enough to be used for military purposes. It displayed the newest buildings, of course, but also every single planned construction. In contrast, that meant that places like the Hakumeiza site were quickly erased from the map.

Of course, the names of planned buildings weren’t listed on GPS maps—all it said was “planned site.” But he could tell just by looking at the picture. He could only find one planned construction site giant enough to rival a baseball stadium.

“Yes. She has quite a record, you know. She has spread the teachings of God to three heretic nations, earning her the special privilege to have a church built in her name. She was very good at speaking, wasn’t she?”

He quickened his pace as he looked at his cell phone screen. Just as she said, the Church of Orsola—the base of the Roman Orthodox Church—was in this town. Moving around with lots of people was a weakness of group action. If they wanted to lessen the risk at all, making the Church of Orsola—which was right around the corner—into a fortress would be logical. And they’d use magic Kamijou didn’t know of, whether the building was under construction or not.

The Roman Orthodox members had to be there.

Including Agnes Sanctis—and Orsola Aquinas.

“Once the church is finished, we’ll send you some invitations. But before that, we should settle the issue at hand. Let’s pray for a splendid conclusion with a good aftertaste.”

He recalled Agnes’s joke and chuckled.

“They haven’t even finished getting ready for the party or addressing the invitations…but let’s go crash it anyway.”

With his destination clearly in mind, he didn’t need to stand around.

He began moving even faster—and when he next realized it, he was dashing along the night roads.

He didn’t have any reason to fight.

He didn’t have to fight to know that someone else would settle everything by themselves.

Just because there was a burning building in front of him with a young child trapped inside didn’t mean there was a rule saying Kamijou had to jump in there—that’s what Index had said.

Asking someone else for help and leaving it to them wasn’t a bad thing, she said.

But still…

If that child in that burning house was waiting this whole time for Kamijou to come save her, then what?

The wisest choice, obviously, would be to get in touch with the fire department as soon as possible.

But Kamijou didn’t want to show his back to that child even by accident. Even if that was the safest and easiest choice for him to make, he didn’t want to betray that faith.

Did Orsola Aquinas still have faith in Touma Kamijou?

Despite all the foolish choices he’d made, did she still trust him like a child would?

Fortunately for him, he had no connections with any specific organizations like the English Puritans or Roman Orthodox. He was never anything more than a student and an amateur, so nothing bound him. He couldn’t ask for the help of professionals like Index or Stiyl, but there was instead something only an amateur could do.

His one misgiving was that he could be seen as a member of the science faction of Academy City, but if things really got dangerous, said organization would probably just expel him, erase him from the register, and treat him as though he had never been a part of it.

But Kamijou didn’t care about that.

In fact, he had to laugh at himself for feeling like he wanted to choose this path.

Without a reason to fight, the boy ran through the night.

In reality, there wasn’t a single reason he had to make himself fight…

…but he had a reason he wanted to fight, all the same.

4

Despite it being called the Church of Orsola, you couldn’t call the building a church yet. It was about as big as four or five average school gymnasiums put together. Once it was finished, it would be a genuine cathedral, the likes of which had never been seen before in Japan. And placing it a stone’s throw away from Academy City also implied a diversion against the science faction. But right now, the construction site’s size was all it had going for it—inside, it bore nothing but a sense of desolation.

The outer walls of the church had just been finished, but there were metal scaffolds and ladders left alone nearby. As for its interior design, nothing had been done yet—it actually looked like a barbaric band of mercenaries had taken over the place. The windows were gaping open, stained glass planned to be fitted into them. In the planned location for the giant pipe organ, too, only an unnatural space lurked. The marble flooring and walls shined, brand-new, but on the other hand, on the wall behind the pulpit, there was a big cross standing up casually against the wall, originally planned to be hung on it.

But those things couldn’t create such an eerie environment on their own.

Inside the cathedral, without any man-made lights, lit up only by the faint moonlight shining through the black holes without any glass, hundreds of sisters all wearing black, as if drenched in darkness, stood silently. They formed a ring surrounding something—and that ring was many layers thick. In their hands were obvious weapons like swords and spears, as well as religious ritual instruments such as giant cogwheels and claws. They all sparkled when the faint moonlight struck them. There were no other people there. The captured Amakusa members were on the same site, but in a different location, bound and under guard by about ten people.

The sisters’ attention was not directed outside the building.

Their eyes were focused on the circular space inside their ring.

They heard a punch.

They heard a stifled scream.

“Come on, don’t make things difficult, yes? Unfortunately, everyone here is quite busy, myself included. We don’t have time to go along with your little games. Just accept the death penalty already, will ya—hey, are you listening to me? I asked if you’re fucking listening to me! Answer me!!”

The thud of heavy fabric being kicked.

And with it, an otherworldly scream cut through the dark.

“Hah!! That’s a nice scream you got there. Don’t you think it’s disgraceful? Like you’ve abandoned your womanhood? Ah, shit, looks like we’ll have to rename this church, won’t we? Naming it after a pig or an ass would be simply laughable!”

Orsola Aquinas didn’t answer.

She was on the floor, beaten to a pulp. Her clothing was torn, as though she’d been dragged around while tied to a horse. Its fasteners were broken as well, and large pieces of fabric had been ripped off.

Agnes and the others weren’t using any special magic to make Orsola suffer. They were simply kicking her in the limbs and the gut—and, given enough blows, it would create intense pain. Violence performed by more than two hundred people, even going easy on her, had still driven Orsola to the brink of death. After all, even if each person struck her once, that was two hundred strikes. It was the same as water dripping from the roof creating a hole. Orsola’s limbs, sprawled out on the floor, showed no sign of any movement.

Orsola’s leg, sprawled out on the floor and unmoving—Agnes stepped on it casually. Her thick soles applied pressure like a vise. She yelped.

“I mean, it’s not like I don’t understand why you’d run away. I know your fate—and you might be happier dying here. Inquisitions, attended by all the cardinals…Do you know what they’re like? Ah-ha-ha! They might try to be way serious, but they’re monsters. With that, it still can’t match where it came from—England. If you want my opinion, ours are like playing pretend compared to theirs, you know. Hah, ha-ha! That old man still can’t stop playing house—what a wonderful fate you have, to be pulled along by them and die! Isn’t it?!”

“—?!”

Because of the intense, grinding pain in her leg, Orsola couldn’t manage a proper answer. She also felt like if she opened her mouth carelessly, she would bite her own tongue.

Why did things come to this? thought Orsola hazily.

The Book of the Law’s original copy was a hindrance and an evil to all. Everyone wanted to burn it. It led all who acquired it to a ruinous end—it was literally li libro di un modo pericoloso. But human hands could not dispose of the original. They could only take temporary measures, locking it tight with a seal.

Orsola Aquinas wanted to do something about that.

Both she and the Roman Orthodox Church must have had the same feelings regarding wanting to erase the infamous Book of the Law.

So then why?

What changed to part their paths so definitively?

Right up until the very end, she thought she could see salvation.

Why did that boy hand me over to Agnes?

“Still, it looks like you’ve got a lot less friends to rely on now, eh? To think you’d come here looking for help from Amakusa, of all people!”

Agnes Sanctis looked down at Orsola.

Her expression looked like it was enchanted by a suspicious grimoire as thud, thud, she kicked Orsola’s calves. The storm of pain resounded in her bones and threatened to tear her mind apart.

“Driven to the brink of death, you finally clung to a bunch of Asians you didn’t know in some filthy island nation. Ah-ha-ha-ha! You mustn’t do that, you know. You can’t hope for anything from piglets who don’t even read scripture. Under our rules, marrying someone outside of a baptized Roman Orthodox is equivalent to sodomy—you know that. Did you think it would be fine just as long as they were still Crossists? Amakusa, the puritans of England—it’s ridiculous they’d even call themselves Crossists. They are not human. They are pigs and asses. Look where trusting your precious life to people like them got you. Jeez, tricking beasts like them really is too easy. Just tame them a little, and they’ll bring rats back to you in their mouths!”

“…Tr…tricked?”

Orsola’s awareness, hazy with pain until then, slowly turned back outward.

“Those people…Did you…Did you trick…them…?”

The sticky blood falling from her torn lips hindered her speech.

But that didn’t stop her from asking.

“They weren’t…co…cooperating…with you…You tricked…them…?”

“What does it matter? Whichever it was, we got our hands on you, didn’t we? Heh-heh, a-ha-ha!! Man, it was great! Comedy gold! They were all like, ‘We’ll rescue Orsola Aquinas from the evil Amakusa for sure!!’ How moronic, right?! They delivered someone they should’ve been protecting straight into the hands of their enemy! They’re hopeless, that’s what they are!!”

“…”

Is that so? thought Orsola, her face losing a little bit of its tension.

They hadn’t intended to sell her out to the Roman Orthodox Church—that wasn’t it at all. Their smiles, their words—none of them had been a lie. They earnestly worried about her and came all the way to such a dangerous battlefield just to rescue her.

Even though it had ended in failure…

Even though their efforts were for naught, and her life was threatened instead…

They stayed her allies until the very end. They never once betrayed her, forsook her. They had fought for her until the last moment—those kind, reliable allies.

“The hell are you smiling for?”

“I…see. I…am smiling…am I?” said Orsola in a slow, gentle voice. “I seem…to have realized it. Realized the true colors…of our Roman Orthodox Church…”

“Eh?”

“Those people…They act on faith…They believe in others, believe in their feelings, and would follow them anywhere…for others. And yet we…How ugly we are. We…can only act…on doubt. You fooled those helping you, to execute me…You’ll fool the people with a fixed trial…and even fool yourself into thinking it’s what God wishes you to do…”

“—”

“Although…I’m not in a position to argue with it…either. If I had but trusted Amakusa…from the start…things wouldn’t have gotten this bad. If I had fled with them by their plan…then those in Amakusa wouldn’t have faced danger, either…In the end, this unsightly form of ours…Is this what the Roman Orthodox Church…really is?”

Orsola smiled.

With her beaten-up face, and without a hint of humor.

“…I can no longer…escape from your clutches. And just as you planned…I will be judged a false sinner…and be buried in the dark. But I am fine with that now…—For I cannot lie to myself…! And what’s more…I absolutely, absolutely cannot…trick those who lent me their strength without expecting anything in return, can I? Never again…do I want to be called the same kind of person as you…”

“The words of a martyr. You expect to be canonized or something?”

Whap—with the lightness of kicking an empty can, Agnes’s sole came down on Orsola’s leg.

“If you want to die that badly, then be my guest. It’ll be easier for us if you don’t resist, after all. Curse those fools for causing this to happen to you as much as you please, and then die!”

Although Agnes would have known there was no way for her to resist. More than two hundred sisters surrounded her, waiting. And there was a strong barrier put up around the church, so she definitely couldn’t make a run for it.

Her consciousness wavering, even Agnes’s words, spoken right next to her ears, only came in bits and pieces. But Orsola still managed to think with her near-disabled mind.

“What…on earth…should I curse?”

“Wh…what?”

“They never…had a reason to fight. I asked him, and he said he wasn’t a Roman Orthodox…or an English Puritan…He was just a boy. And yet, without any power or reason, he came running to me, a complete stranger…See? Where else in the world…could you find a more attractive gift than that…? Those people…they gave me such a beautiful gift…so what are you saying I should curse about them?”

Yes—she wouldn’t curse them.

She would never curse them.

Even if they hadn’t rescued Orsola safely, what they did couldn’t be condemned. Because they had no duty telling them they needed to rescue her. They weren’t fighting just because someone told them to. They flung themselves into battle, not bothering to use their “rights” to save her.

Just fighting for her, just standing up for her, was worthy of much gratitude.

So Orsola would never curse them.

She felt proud to have been blessed with the chance to meet people who would do so much for a total stranger. She wanted to thank God for making her lucky enough to be with them at the end.

She was satisfied.

That was enough.

Orsola Aquinas thought she would never again embrace such happiness with her hands…

…and yet that happiness hadn’t ended.

For the next moment…

Smash!! came a sound as the barrier around the church was destroyed.

Agnes reflexively took her eyes away from Orsola.

Something had happened that forced her to do so.

“It…broke…? Could it be…? Hey! Someone check on the Protection of Giles we put on that door! And scout for enemies! Shit, what group could this be? No one person could have possibly broken a barrier of that level. What enemy faction could be attacking us…?!”

Commands, issued in rapid succession.

But before any of them could be carried out, she got the answer she wanted.

“Ah…” Orsola Aquinas looked.

The oaken double doors at the entrance to the church were thrown open. And there someone stood, like a rough storybook scene where the prince comes to save his princess.

The one standing there was just a boy.

It was an ordinary young man—and yet he neither fled nor ran.

Who was he here for?

What was he here for?

The two-hundred-strong sisters surrounding Orsola turned their harsh glares on the boy but didn’t make a sound. There were already hundreds of people to cause violence against him, and none of them was normal, either. He had to have felt fear. There was no way he didn’t. He was no more than an utterly average young man—so he must have been scared.

And yet.

And yet, without hesitation, he took a step.

A step into the church veiled in darkness, in order to save Orsola Aquinas.

He took the step…for her.

As if to declare that everything would be all right.

5

Touma Kamijou set foot into the huge, unfinished church.

It was a terrible place.

Hundreds of people were gathered here with no air conditioner on this sultry night—it may have been huge, but it felt like a secret room, wrapped in a strange heat. The thick smell of sweat drifted from the darkness, giving it the impression of a deep, giant nesting hole.

Hundreds of sisters dressed in black, blending with the darkness, eddying about.

He saw one girl on the floor in the middle of them, and his eyes narrowed without a sound.

Then he heard a derisive laugh that seemed to know what he was feeling.

He looked toward its source to see Agnes Sanctis for what seemed like the first time.

“You know, I did think it was quite strange.” She giggled and broke into a smile. “Why did some total amateur like you, not even a sorcerer, get brought out to the battlefield as a guest?…I don’t know what logic went into that one, but I suppose you must hold some absolute power over barriers.”

“…”

“Oh my, what’s the matter? Did you lose something? Did you want a reward? Oh, well, if you’re still attached to that thing over there, I can strip her bare for you if you want.”

Her voice was tinged with irritation and enthusiasm. It was a joy not unlike having drunk bad alcohol.

“Just one question. You’re not gonna lie anymore, are you?”

“Lie? About what?! Can’t you tell what’s happening here? Who is the greater, and who is the lesser? You can’t possibly be stupid enough to think you can stand on the same stage as me, do you? Now, I want to hear your choice from you—what will you do when faced with this many people?”

Just one versus more than two hundred certainly didn’t present very good odds. If Kamijou fought them all head-on, he stood no chance. Agnes knew that, too. She casually walked right up to him, without any caution, as if to provoke him.

She thought that Kamijou could never strike her. If he threw even one punch, that punch would mark the beginning of a hopeless battle.

“Sheesh. You’re an idiot—and a big one, at that. I thought the English Puritans made the wise choice and ran home—but what about you? Hmm. Well, whatever. You can’t do anything by yourself, so if you want to run away, I’ll let you do so. See? I’m giving you one last chance. You know exactly what you need to do, don’t you?”

Kamijou smiled feebly at Agnes Sanctis’s relaxed words. “My last chance…I know exactly what I need to do, huh?” And then, in a voice that sounded somehow relieved, he replied:

“You’re right. This is my last chance, that’s for sure. I completely understand.”

Wham!! Kamijou’s right fist tore through the air.

Agnes immediately crossed her arms to defend her face, but her legs came off the floor.

Her entire body flung away despite her guard, and she glared at Kamijou with eyes like a mad dog.

Not even one second of hesitation.

Without even showing a moment of indecision, the young man showed his preparation to the enemy before him.

“You…little…What the fuck are you doing?!” Agnes Sanctis yelled angrily, but Touma Kamijou replied with an even louder roar.

“What I need to do! Don’t take me so lightly! I’m here to save her! Why the hell else would I be here?!”

Their emotions clashed against each other at close range.

Though they were both, in a word, “heated,” their properties and temperature were entirely different.

Her cheek muscles trembled oddly and she began muttering to herself. The sisters in black, who had been standing idly until now, all turned to face Touma Kamijou. The hundreds of weapons they held made an eerie, mechanical sound, like soldiers marching forward.

“You…That’s…pretty…funny.” Agnes’s voice and body both trembled. “There are two hundred of us. How much can you do alone in this situation?! Come on, then, show me! Ha-ha—with the number difference, I think you’ll be mincemeat in less than a minute, though!”

The sisters in black all readied their weapons at her assertion.

Meanwhile, Touma Kamijou had no weapons—only his own tightly clenched fist.

Just before the two sides clashed…

…suddenly, they heard a voice.

“Give me a break. Don’t start without me. You managed to slip right through the barrier. You could have at least given me enough time to set up the runes we need.”

“Eh…?”

The very moment Agnes turned around with a dumbfounded look, there was a roar of flames sucking in oxygen—and with it, the orange explosion instantly dissolved the darkness dominating the incomplete church.

In the back of the church, exactly opposite where Kamijou stood—

There was a big hole in one of the windows on the wall behind the pulpit, about two stories up, waiting for stained glass to be fitted inside. He’d probably used the scaffolding on the outer wall to get there. Standing in the window frame was an English Puritan priest, with a flame sword in his hand.

“…S…Stiyl?”

In a daze, Touma Kamijou whispered the name of the priest with the cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

“We sorcerers were all ready to finish things up, so we’d planned to have the amateur retire. All those fake explanations and fake persuasions—for nothing.”

Agnes spoke before Kamijou could. “English…Puritans? Absurd…This is solely a Roman Orthodox issue! If you interfere, they’ll see it as meddling in our internal affairs! Don’t you know that?!”

“Yeah, well…Unfortunately, that doesn’t apply here.” Stiyl blew out some smoke, annoyed. “Take a look at Orsola Aquinas’s chest. See that English Puritan cross hanging on her neck? Yeah—the very same cross our amateur accidentally gave her.” He grinned teasingly. “Placing that around someone’s neck places them under the protection of the English Puritan Church—which means she has been baptized and is now one of us. Our archbishop prepared that cross personally. And she ordered me to hang it around Orsola’s neck myself…It was low on the priority list, so I had left it for later and given it to that man over there. I figured it would be a bit of insurance, to make you think the amateur was under English Puritanism’s umbrella should you have captured him…but somehow or another, it ended up on Orsola, just as planned. That means Orsola Aquinas is not a member of the Roman Orthodox Church—but one of the puritans of England.”

“I get it. So that’s why…” Kamijou absently thought back.

When he casually said he’d give her the cross, Orsola seemed extremely happy…

So this is what it really meant.

Agnes’s face grew bright red. After moving her mouth up and down a few times, she said, “Y-you think such sophistry will work?”

“No, I don’t. It’s not as though it was performed according to English Puritan ceremony, by an English Puritan priest, in an English Puritan church.” Stiyl wiggled his cigarette. “But that doesn’t mean Orsola isn’t in a very delicate position right now, does it? A Roman Orthodox disciple received an English Puritan cross—plus, someone from Academy City, in the science faction, gave it to her. I think we should take some time now to deliberate on what faction she is technically a part of right now. If you put her to trial as just a Roman Orthodox, then the English Puritan Church won’t sit idly by.”

Tap. Stiyl jumped from the window and quietly landed in front of the pulpit. He pointed the tip of his flame sword at the distant Agnes’s face. “And above all—you were nice enough to point your blades at her.” Stiyl bared his teeth. “Did you think I was that naïve? That I was kind enough to let that slip?”

“Damn! Just because there’s one more of you now doesn’t mean—?!” she began to shout hatefully, but once again, someone else’s voice interrupted.

“Man, hope you’re not thinking you’ll get away with just two!”

“?!”

As Agnes turned to face the audacious male voice, this time, the wall to her side blasted apart and crumbled. From the dense clouds of dust walked a tall man with a large sword.

“Tatemiya…” Kamijou voiced the name of the tall man holding the pure white flamberge of unknown composition.

Saiji Tatemiya.

The vicar—representative—pope of the diversified religious fusion of Crossism, the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church.

And behind him were gathered the members of Amakusa, who should have been confined in a separate building. They numbered about fifty—it was probably everyone who had been locked up.

“No need to ask me why I’m fighting here, is there?”

Surprised, Kamijou said, “Y-you…But you said it would be best to hit them while they were on the move…”

“Because I thought you’d give up and go home if I said that. I talked it over with the English Puritans and we tried to set things up so that we’d finish things before you made a move. You’re an even bigger idiot than I thought. But you’re fun to watch, so I can’t really hate ya,” answered Tatemiya, amazed.

And last of all, with a click clack of footsteps, the familiar voice of a girl in white came to him from behind.

“That’s why I told you not to worry, Touma—someone else would settle things!”

“In…dex…”

Pat—a small, yet reassuring hand was placed on his astounded shoulder. “But we can’t help it now that it’s come to this, I guess!—Let’s save her, Touma. Let’s save Orsola Aquinas with our own hands!”

Yeah, nodded Kamijou.

Agnes Sanctis, watching the whole thing, exploded. With a single order—kill them!—the hundreds of sisters in the dark leaped at them to attack.

The final battle had begun—the final battle of those gathered to settle the score of this ridiculous story.

INTERLUDE TWO

In the middle of the night, Kaori Kanzaki stood on the roof of a building.

The landscape before her eyes portrayed the under-construction Church of Orsola. Its impression was far from that of a church—not a speck of silence, filled with the sounds of violence and breaking.

She was standing far away from the church, but her keen ears could hear what they said. They heard the words of those who stood up for a single girl.

Kanzaki never planned on taking Amakusa’s side or killing the enemy Roman Orthodox from the beginning. She had not absconded right after the incident so that she could exercise violence.

She just wanted to make her true intentions known.

She wanted Amakusa to know that even without her, they would still be Amakusa, and nothing would change.

And they had just shown that, just as she’d believed they would. She narrowed her eyes in a gentle, natural smile, as though gazing at an object of nostalgia.

A place she could never go home to again.

But now she would be able to treasure that place in her heart, forever and ever.

From behind her, she heard unconcealed footsteps.

“Nyaha! I see you’re feeling totally grateful and moved, there, Zaky. Ain’t it a sight? Your old friends didn’t kidnap Orsola so they could use the Book of the Law for their own greed after all!”

“Tsuchimikado…” Kanzaki hastily erased her expression and turned around—but she couldn’t seem to accomplish that when she saw Tsuchimikado’s broad grin.

She spoke in a strict tone to hide her abashment. “Are you finished on your end? You were talking about snatching up the Book of the Law’s original copy using this opportunity…”

“Hmm, who knows? Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.”

“…”

“I’m kidding. Don’t look at me like that! You basically know what’s goin’ on, right? Amakusa didn’t steal the book. It was all the Roman Orthodox Church tryin’ to frame ’em. That means they didn’t need to bring the thing into Japan in the first place, yeah? The one they brought here was a forgery. The real thing is deep, deep in the Vatican Library as we speak.”

Tsuchimikado was reporting on his failure, but his voice was awfully bright. Maybe he didn’t have much passion for his work—or perhaps he had lied, and he actually managed to steal the Book of the Law. Kanzaki didn’t quite know what to make of it.

He walked up next to her. He placed both hands on the metal railing to prevent falling, and as he quietly gazed at where Kanzaki was looking, asked, “So, you satisfied?”

“…Yes. More so than I thought.” Kanzaki looked at the church again. “They’ll be able to keep Amakusa on the correct path without me. They’ve become very strong.”

“Mm, yes. They’re probably having a hard time, though—not gonna help ’em?”

“I do not have the right to stand before them. And they no longer need my strength. I was as training wheels on a bicycle,” said Kanzaki, sounding a little lonely but proud.

She hadn’t hesitated even a moment to give her answer.

Tsuchimikado suppressed a grin at her seriousness.

“What is it, Tsuchimikado?”

“I mean, nothin’ much…It don’t matter, but ya probably didn’t expect Kammy to get involved in this, did ya? You still haven’t thanked him for the Angel Fall business and the Index struggle, either. Now you’ve gotten him mixed up in another one of your problems—you’re totally afraid of having to make it up to him, aren’t ya, nya?”

“N-not at all. Nothing you are imagining is going to happen!”

Kanzaki replied with a very serious look, but for some reason, Tsuchimikado burst out laughing. He laughed so hard and so loudly that it brought tears to his eyes and he started to worry it would reach the Church of Orsola below.

“By the way! What could those bandages in your hands be, hmm? You weren’t gonna sneak up on your unconscious friends and do secret first aid on ’em, were ya? And then after you were done, stroke their heads softly with a hand, smile a little, and quietly retreat? Pfft, ku-ku! Man, Zaky, you’re so simple and cliché, you! I can’t believe you were thinking of something so embarrassing with a straight face!”

“……?!”

“Hm? What’s up, Zaky? Your temples are all pulsing and…Hey, wait, wait stop stop stop! I’m unarmed! You can’t seriously use the Seven Heavens, Seven Blades on me! Does this mean you’re gonna bandage me up first, nyaaaa?!”