A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 21 Read online

  Copyright

  A CERTAIN MAGICAL INDEX, Volume 21

  KAZUMA KAMACHI

  Translation by Andrew Prowse

  Cover art by Kiyotaka Haimura

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  TOARU MAJYUTSU NO INDEX Vol.21

  ©KAZUMA KAMACHI 2010

  Edited by Dengeki Bunko

  First published in Japan in 2010 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo,

  through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2019 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Kamachi, Kazuma, author. | Haimura, Kiyotaka, 1973– illustrator. | Prowse, Andrew (Andrew R.), translator. | Hinton, Yoshito, translator.

  Title: A certain magical index / Kazuma Kamachi ; illustration by Kiyotaka Haimura.

  Other titles: To aru majyutsu no index. (Light novel). English

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York : Yen On, 2014–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2014031047 (print) | ISBN 9780316339124 (v. 1 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316259422 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316340540 (v. 3 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316340564 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316340595 (v. 5 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316340601 (v. 6 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316272230 (v. 7 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316359924 (v. 8 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316359962 (v. 9 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316359986 (v. 10 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316360005 (v. 11 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316360029 (v. 12 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442671 (v. 13 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316442701 (v. 14 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442725 (v. 15 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316442749 (v. 16 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316474542 (v. 17 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316474566 (v. 18 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975357566 (v. 19 : pbk.) |ISBN 9781975331245 (v. 20 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975331269 (v. 21 : pbk.)

  Subjects: CYAC: Magic—Fiction. | Ability—Fiction. | Nuns—Fiction. | Japan—Fiction. | Science fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Fantasy / General. | FICTION / Science Fiction / Adventure.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.K215 Ce 2014 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2014031047

  ISBNs: 978-1-9753-3126-9 (paperback)

  978-1-9753-3127-6 (ebook)

  E3-20191119-JV-NF-ORI

  COMBAT REPORT

  World War III had finally begun.

  On a flat-screen television, a female reporter could be seen standing at attention as she held her microphone with a solemn air, blizzards and smoke in the background.

  “Eleven days have passed since fighting broke out. Even today, October 30, the flames of war near the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations border region show no signs of sputtering out!! Whoa—was that an Academy City bomber I just saw?! The Japanese government has repeatedly denied any intent of going to war, and this incident is believed to be Academy City acting on its—”

  Civilians weren’t the only ones in a panic. A female pilot of the Russian Air Force, engaged in live combat over the Sea of Japan, was gnashing her teeth, too.

  “A minimal combat force for defense, my ass! They’ve got enough power to turn all of Russia into a sea of flames ten times over!!”

  “This is Ryuuta Kameyama of the Academy City Air Defense Team…You can’t run from the speed of light. I’ll shoot you down real gentle, young lady, so get ready.”

  And at the war’s epicenter, a spiky-haired boy named Touma Kamijou and a young sorceress named Lesser were walking through the white Russian snow.

  “Fiamma again. He instigated this war with Academy City from behind the scenes in the Roman-Russian faction.”

  “Fiamma is on the sorcery side, through and through, but it doesn’t seem like all he’s aiming for is to mobilize the military. His timing for using the remote-control Soul Arm to access the Index’s 103,000 grimoires bothers me, too.”

  “Whatever the case, there’s only one thing to do: cave Fiamma’s face in and save Index.”

  At the same time, near the border between Russia and the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations, Shiage Hamazura and Rikou Takitsubo were once again racing across a battlefield in a stolen car.

  “Either way, we can’t go on without Academy City’s technology. Defeating the City can’t be our goal.”

  “Hamazura, we have to look for something in this war to negotiate with. If we search for where the fighting is the thickest and pinpoint a spot where we can affect the direction of the war…”

  Deep into Russian territory, aboard a transcontinental freight train, Accelerator was curled up, holding the nearly unconscious Last Order. After the appearance of Aiwass, a supernatural being, the little girl had sustained terrible damage due to the Misaka network’s immense drain.

  Accelerator, who had taken down the powered suit–clad group attacking the freight train, checked inside the trunk the assailants had been about to steal while remembering what Aiwass had said.

  “Parchment, huh? Is this supposed to be the clue I need to save the kid?”

  Kamijou and Lesser had arrived in the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations because the Alliance had secured the nun Sasha Kreutzev, a necessary piece in Fiamma’s plans. The Alliance’s aim was to ruin Fiamma’s schemes. But when Fiamma appeared and effortlessly defeated both the sorceress Elizalina and Vento of the Front (who also happened to be present), he’d kidnapped Sasha.

  As he departed, he’d said to Kamijou, “How will the 103,000 grimoires punish you when it realizes the truth? I’ll be looking forward to seeing it.”

  Meanwhile, on a settlement close to the national border:

  To aid Takitsubo, whose condition had suddenly worsened, Hamazura met a man named Digurv. Together, the two were led to a small settlement near the border with the Alliance, where Hamazura placed her in the care of its clinic. However, a hired team of foreign privateers affiliated with the Russian military abruptly attacked the settlement.

  “What now? Run as far as we want—if they shoot us from the air, it’s over. They’ll kill us all!!”

  “We’ll use that anti-air gun. If we use the vehicle they left behind, we can take on the attack helicopters!!”

  At a snowfield near a Russian Air Force base:

  Accelerator and Last Order, crossing leagues of Russian snow before finally reaching the parchment’s original destination, came under attack from Academy City. The assailant’s identity was Misaka Worst. A somatic-cell clone from the Third Season, which shouldn’t have existed.

  “They decided how to deal with the problem. Kill everyone in th
e useless old series. And Misaka and the rest of the new series will update the network.”

  Within a conifer forest near the settlement:

  Inside what was basically a half-destroyed anti-air cannon, Hamazura lay dumbfounded.

  The attack helicopter that had been dancing through the skies had gotten skewered by a giant sword.

  A rugged mercenary pulled the sword out of the shot-down helicopter’s flaming wreckage.

  “…Would you allow me, Acqua of the Back, to offer what assistance I may?”

  On a road leading from the Russian border to a town:

  Lesser, watching Touma Kamijou and Accelerator’s battle, gulped audibly.

  Accelerator’s black wings split into countless pieces, attacking simultaneously from numerous directions; Kamijou, knowing he couldn’t erase all the fragments with his right hand, had used Accelerator’s against him, grabbing his black wings and twisting them.

  However…

  Does that really explain it on its own…?

  Then, within the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations:

  When the beaten Accelerator opened his eyes, he was in the bed of a truck. Near Last Order, who slept next to him, was a small note. In bad handwriting, it read:

  Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

  “The index of prohibited books…”

  The war continued to swallow up ever greater numbers of people, changing spontaneously.

  Confusion filled the comms between the fighter jets battling above the Sea of Japan.

  “The Kremlin Report…?”

  “A defensive procedure to deploy curtains of biological weapons around nuclear facilities. Kills only humans with a lethal virus so they can retake an unharmed facility. Now that they feel like they might lose the war, the Russian military is considering using it immediately. Without ordering nearby civilians to evacuate first.”

  The pope of Rome, who had been sleeping in a hospital in the Italian capital, slowly opened his eyes. He opened the hospital room’s window, and as he got ready to sneak out, he magically established a line of communications with Vasilisa, a sorceress from the Russian Catholic Church.

  “I’ve virtually no authority left. I cannot end this war with a single word.”

  “But you still made a stand and tried to stop it. Maybe you still have some value after all.”

  And in Academy City—

  Two additional supersonic bombers were about to take off from District 23 runways. In one rode Academy City’s fourth-ranked Level Five, Shizuri Mugino.

  Missing an arm and an eye, she was embarking on a hunt—and not for Russian soldiers.

  “…I caaan’t wait—can you, Haaamazuraaa?”

  In the other bomber rode the third-ranked Level Five, Mikoto Misaka.

  …After defeating everyone on the team tasked with the mission to take out Touma Kamijou—essentially all the people who were originally supposed to be in the plane.

  “I’m this close to the end of my rope. If you don’t get me to Russia soon, you’ll be in a world of hurt.”

  On a base near the Russian border:

  Fiamma of the Right, returning to his base, exchanged words with the Russian bishop Nikolai Tolstoj through magic.

  “Academy City’s unmanned weaponry is overwhelming us. You were the one who convinced us to join this war— Do you understand how things will end if it keeps going like this?!”

  “Don’t panic. The archangel Gabriel…Would that stop your sleep talk?”

  …Of course, I didn’t get my hands on it for such a trivial purpose.

  An angel built under another set of rules, the aggregate of Academy City’s AIM dispersion fields, Hyouka Kazakiri. She extended wings from her back and shot through the skies above the Sea of Japan.

  She had one reason: to save her friend.

  “Do not lay a hand on my friends, please…If you do, then I will be your enemy, even if we devour each other in the end.”

  In St. George’s Cathedral in the UK capital, sorcerer Stiyl Magnus was trembling in anger. Before his eyes was a small figure, slowly rising, motions stiff and unnatural.

  It was Index—the girl who had memorized and stored 103,000 grimoires inside her brain.

  “Hostility, confirmed. Now…analyzing utilized spells, and…commencing construction of a corresponding Local Weapon…”

  Fiamma of the Right was on the verge of attaining everything by taking advantage of the great war.

  And so Touma Kamijou, heading for his base, muttered to himself.

  “It’s a good bet that I’m the worst kind of person for tricking Index. But the one I need to apologize to sure as hell ain’t Fiamma of the Right.”

  CHAPTER 5

  The Complex Game Board of the Battlefield

  Enter_Project.

  1

  In a town blanketed by pure-white snow, several trucks had been parked in a row.

  Inside one rode a spiky-haired boy named Touma Kamijou. Lesser, the young sorceress next to him, rummaged through a paper bag from a global fast-food chain, filling the vehicle with the aroma of meat and sauce. It was wartime, but apparently that hadn’t affected the flow of goods yet.

  As Kamijou tossed a nugget covered with a reddish sauce into his mouth, he said, “Gotta say, I never thought I’d be able to enjoy this flavor all the way out here in Russia. Although, they could have at least had a Russian-limited borscht burger or something on the menu.”

  “The convenience is all about the food tasting the same no matter where in the world you are. Rather useful when you can’t handle the local cuisine.”

  Lesser spoke casually as she spotted the fries she wanted, but Kamijou was no frequent-flying international businessman. In fact, he’d actually been quite aggressive in his desire to try out Russian food.

  But he also understood that they didn’t have time to enjoy a leisurely meal right now.

  Dipping a fry into the sauce Kamijou was holding, Lesser looked at him seriously and said, “We got this far by mixing in with smuggling brokers, but this is about as far as we’ll get in a vehicle. The Russian base Fiamma’s holing up in is about twenty-five miles away. Just like last time, we’ll sneak inside with the underground train they use to bring things in.”

  “…Looks to me like we’re going in from a different direction. I don’t remember a town like this last time.”

  “They’d spot us in a flash if we used the exact same route. We even captured a Russian sorcerer at that station, remember?”

  Seeming unhappy with just one fry, she shoved four or five in her mouth at a time like a gatling gun and munched them down.

  “From hearing the slight accent in their voices, I can tell almost for certain that they mobilized all the sorcerers in this village. Which means we can assume there’s another underground railway set up nearby, maybe in town.”

  “Is that how it works?”

  “Yes. You always customize secret bases so you can use them easily. It’s easy to make a maze or install all kinds of traps, but if it takes two or three hours to get through every time, it would slow down work. I can say that with confidence, since I’ve set up secret hideouts in Britain before.”

  “Huh,” said Kamijou, tossing the last nugget into his mouth. “…What about the people Elizalina ordered to come with us in these trucks? What are they going to do?”

  “You can think of them as something like a theater troupe that’s pretending to be human smugglers for us. They have some military experience, but they can’t stand up to frontline Russian soldiers, and they definitely can’t do anything against professional Russian sorcerers. Their job is complete now that we’re in this close. After this, they’ll go back to the Alliance, pretending to have their ‘guest’ on board.”

  A complicated feeling welled up in Kamijou—he was more anxious now, but at the same time, he was relieved.

  They were up against the top beast of the sorcery side: Fiamma of the Right.

  There was no guarantee they’d win. Kamij
ou, a mere high school student, wanted as much combat power as he could get. On the other hand, he had trouble coming up with anyone who could contend with a monster like that. He couldn’t bring himself to use anyone as a shield after they said they wanted to fight alongside him.

  Speaking of which, that also went for Lesser, who was sitting next to him.

  When he glanced over at her face, she shoved another salt-covered fry into her mouth, saying “Whaf’s frong?”

  “Nothing,” he said to change the topic after she looked at him blankly. “Still—smuggling brokers, huh?”

  “Oh, not familiar with the term? I would have thought Japan has quite a lot of them,” Lesser replied casually as she swallowed her food.

  “In most countries that share land borders with their neighbors, illegal immigration can be as easy as jumping over a fence in the night. Especially now that we’re in the middle of a war. There’s no end of people who want to leave the country, driven out by the dull roar of explosions and gunfire.”

  “…I didn’t know that many people were flooding into the Alliance.”

  “It goes both ways,” said Lesser aloofly. “It doesn’t matter if Russia wins or Academy City wins—even a layman can tell it’ll be over quickly. Nobody wants to end up being a citizen of a defeated nation. Fleeing abroad during times like that is a gamble. Your life will change massively depending on what side you’re on when the war ends. If your prediction is wrong, you will have escaped a country only to be marked as a member of the losing one, so you’d have to be very careful…I hear there’s even people who go back and forth between countries a bunch of times. Restless, like they’re waiting for a game of musical chairs to end.”

  “…”

  What a crappy state of affairs, thought Kamijou.

  Those people moving from one nation to another weren’t being forced to—they left their homes voluntarily, hoping to find a place where they could be happy. But lying at the bottom of that idea was anxiety and fear. Ordinarily, nobody would have had to abandon their homes or homelands.

  Maybe everyone was like that.