A Certain Magical Index Vol. 17 Read online

  Copyright

  A CERTAIN MAGICAL INDEX, Volume 17

  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.17

  ©KAZUMA KAMACHI 2009

  First published in Japan in 2009 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2018 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.)

  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: 978-0-316-47454-2 (paperback)

  978-0-316-47455-9 (ebook)

  E3-20181005-JV-PC

  CHAPTER 1

  Disorder in a Casual Exchange

  Irregular_Spark.

  1

  The morning of October 17.

  Even though El Niño had been dragging the hot spell along until just a few days ago, London’s Little Tokyo was enveloped by a chill that coiled around people’s feet like a snake.

  It was the middle of rush hour for people going to work and school, and no matter where you looked, people flooded the streets. For some reason, not a single tourist was among them, but nobody would bother to point it out or wonder why. Everyone knew the reason.

  Itsuwa, a girl from the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church, was also in the tourist-less Little Tokyo.

  Like in Chinatown and Little India, one of the pillars supporting Little Tokyo was its food. People who you could talk to—the natural way—all gathered there to enjoy the tastes of home in a foreign country. In fact, the main street of Little Tokyo was lined with a variety of food places: sushi, set meals, every kind of pot cooking there was.

  The apartment where Itsuwa took up residence was itself a bento store on the first floor. Obviously, Japanese people living in London visited it, but quite a few English businesspeople who were partial to Asian tastes stopped by, too, on their way to work to pick something up. Office workers in a hurry also seemed quite appreciative of how they could buy and receive their food as fast as at an F1 pit stop, thanks to the Japanese virtue of punctuality.

  Similarly, Itsuwa would sometimes get roped into helping around the bento shop, but she wasn’t currently doing that kind of job. And unlike during work hours, she was wearing personal clothes.

  Many of Itsuwa’s outfits for London were chic but mature. At the moment, she wore a short jacket over a light-beige sweatshirt and slim, olive-brown pants. Luckily for her, she—a minor—only had to pay attention to her clothing and then she could sneak into a nighttime pub, which greatly helped her work for Necessarius.

  But right now, in the employee break room behind the shop proper, she looked at a Japanese website on a laptop, quivering.

  “Making sure your partner remembers you is the key to long-distance relationship success! If you don’t make a strong impression, you might find the cord cut before you know it! Read on to find out the difference between those who succeed and those who fail!!”

  With trembling fingers, she scrolled down. “Success method one: the predatory special tactic! A stronger woman with more appeal will overwrite his feelings!!”

  The moment she read that, she thought back to what had happened just a few days ago.

  To guard Touma Kamijou from Acqua of the Back’s aim, she’d ended up glued to his side. She’d tried everything she could think of to narrow the distance between Japan and London, half a world away…but the Priestess of the reborn Amakusa-Style Crossist Church, Kaori Kanzaki, had shown up partway through and, after causing a massive amount of inflation, brought out an unbelievable one-hit-kill secret move.

  In other words…

  A…an erotic fallen-angel maid…!! I had no idea she had such a formidable card up her sleeve, but I should have expected no less from our Priestess! With that kind of thing on the table, that must be all he can remember about the Acqua battle…!

  Itsuwa buried her face in her hands in anguish.

  She glanced at her own trendy, mature-feeling—put another way, extremely safe—outfit, then heaved a deep, deep sigh.

  Was this what set geniuses apart from the masses? Would an ordinary sorcerer ever reach the level of a saint? Tatemiya, also from Amakusa, teased her about having “closeted-huge knockers,” but would she ever rival Kanzaki’s “normal-huge knockers”? The image, burned all-too-vividly into her brain, came back to mind—those breasts of hers, those thighs, that erotic maid outfit with the you-know-what, threatening to make her faint outright. She could never beat that.

  …To clarify, it wasn’t as though Kamijou and Itsuwa had built anything special between them, but it didn’t seem to matter to her anymore. Maidens in love had a way of being blind to things.

  Sh-she’s mastered how to use those giant breasts completely and then combined them with an erotic fallen-angel maid costume in a heavy-hitting strategy. A boob strategy with heart, technique, and physique all at once…Such is the might of the Priestess. One shot—one shot was all she needed to take everything. I might not even have a chance to turn the tables anymore…

  Itsuwa sighed tiredly, skimming
through the suspicious “news website.”

  Then her eyes stopped on a corner of the site, set apart from the rest of the article, called “This Week’s Ten News Tidbits.” And there it was.

  “Their rumored new product is the Great Fairy Flashy Maid!! A destructive force indicative, as always, of a creator with a Z-type brain! Goes on sale this autumn to oddly high demand!!”

  Time slowed to a halt within Itsuwa.

  Had she caught up with the saint?

  Had the time come for her to match—no, to surpass even sainthood?

  She thought for a moment, the once-in-a-lifetime chance before her very eyes…

  But she groaned. “I can’t wear something like this!!”

  Her hands made a manic back-and-forth journey through her hair as she went with the exceedingly honest choice. She slumped over the table, hating herself for it. She whimpered, slightly seriously, knowing that stopping here or diving in was probably what separated the ordinary from the extraordinary.

  …Incidentally, from a corner of the break room’s ceiling came whispered voices: “(No!! Itsuwa, one more push!! Nooo!!)” “(We should buy it for her and put the whole thing, cardboard box and all, in front of her room!!)” “(Vicar pope…or rather, Tatemiya! You have a rough idea of Itsuwa’s body type and breast size from the great massage mission, right?!)” “(Indeed. If we are to bear witness to a battle between an erotic fallen-angel maid and a great-fairy flashy maid, we must shed a suitable amount of our own blood and sweat!!)” “(Enough already. Get back to work, you bums…)”

  Itsuwa didn’t notice them.

  2

  Meanwhile, the rumored erotic fallen-angel maid, Kaori Kanzaki, gave a slight shiver, as though she’d sensed the strange emotions from a distance.

  At the moment, she was walking down a suburban road near Buckingham Palace. This was the British royal family’s base of operations, and for Kanzaki—and the rest of the Puritan Faction, one of the three British factions—it wasn’t a very familiar area. The other two factions—the Royal Family and the Knights—exerted too much influence over it.

  …If someone were to ask what Kanzaki was doing in a place like that, it was because she’d come to the Home Office near the palace to request a release of some documents. But on the way, she’d run into a familiar face.

  It was the top of the Knight Faction—the Knight Leader.

  She couldn’t deny that he was dressing a little young for his age today, but he was in his mid-thirties or so, twice Kanzaki’s age, so she might not have been the best judge of it. However, his physical appearance—with neat blond hair and clean-cut features—combined with the quality of his suit and even the way he walked—every step with his spine straight—all fit the format of royal castles and palaces.

  In fact, Kanzaki found the Knight Leader rather hard to deal with.

  And it wasn’t because he smelled slightly of the air characteristic to noble society or anything of the sort.

  “In terms of social events, we have a night party at Windsor Castle and a yacht party in Liverpool during October, but I believe the most suitable would be the ball at the queen’s residence, which doubles as a birthday party for James of the House of Lords. The invitees will be a somewhat dingy bunch, none with enough prudence to show deference to the guest of honor, should they unthinkingly attempt to involve themselves with her. Should the party cause anything to happen, it would smear mud in Lord James’s face, after all.”

  “No, I, well, um…” Kanzaki began to lose her calm, still holding her giant document-filled envelope.

  The Knight Leader watched her face and frowned slightly. “Hmm. If you’re looking for something a bit more high-grade, there will be a masquerade held at Buckingham Palace for Halloween, but I’d advise against your first party being one where you hide your face and name…Or perhaps the clientele isn’t to your fancy? You would not tolerate any amorous gazes from others, I’m sure. In that case, it is somewhat far away, but an invite-only event is coming up in Edinburgh—”

  “No, that’s not what I’m talking about,” managed Kanzaki, eyes drifting away from the man. “B-besides, all these night parties and balls…Umm, part of the reason you go there is to meet others, right…? I do lead a unit under the English Puritan Church’s command, so I should avoid such things—”

  “Not necessarily,” interrupted the Knight Leader. “Still, I thought you were the one who wanted to learn proper English behavior in England.”

  “I, that is…,” stammered Kanzaki as the rush-hour pedestrian traffic filed around them.

  The Knight Leader watched her dubiously. “I do apologize for prolonging your plans, but I truly wish to see any requests through to the end. Please, you may rely on me when it comes to matters of societal etiquette.”

  “N-no, that was back when I’d just arrived in Britain and wanted to study courtesy and the natural features of the region for casting Amakusa-Style spells. I have no particular desire to live in the world of aristocrats.”

  With help from Motoharu Tsuchimikado, also Japanese, she had at this point already studied things far beyond the broad idea of “Britain,” even including subtle accent variations between regions. She was fairly sure there was nothing left for the Knight Leader to teach her.

  “Still, you do not, in fact, appear at many parties or balls. Might you feel ill at ease in high society?”

  “…As an English Puritan, I feel no real need, so I don’t have any reason to go to events like that.”

  “Leading a just and proper life and polishing your aristocratic beauty are separate things. Beauty is not synonymous with deception, either. If you are just, then no matter where you go, you will remain just. Do we not see such messages from legends like that of Saint Agnes, who, when brought to a brothel, transformed it into a radiant place for missionary work in the blink of an eye?”

  “…Mentioning a brothel in your metaphor tells me you’re aware of how dangerous these night parties can be for women, and yet you’re still inviting me.” I heard he came carrying a ring of flowers to invite me to a ball while I was away once, too…, she thought, sighing.

  The Knight Leader, for some reason, looked confused at her reaction. “So you say, but aren’t you starting to emulate the lifestyle of a noblewoman yourself?”

  “Where on earth did you hear a rumor like that?”

  “…Hmm. How odd. Was my information about the erotic fallen-angel maid costume incorrect…?”

  Kanzaki sputtered, expelling air at a terrifying speed.

  The Knight Leader frowned. “I cannot very well call that befitting of a noblewoman.”

  “I, what, you, what, wh-wh-wh-wh-what are you…?!”

  “Still, as a British gentleman, it would be a lie to say I had no interest in the erotic or in maids…I cannot tolerate a fallen angel, however. It isn’t as though a noblewoman’s beauty is something determined by exterior charms alone. The inside is what deserves more significance—the beauty of your personality, for example, is—”

  “Please wait. Listen to what I have to say!! That was an extremely irregular phenomenon, and it’s not like me putting that thing on is an indication of what my future will look like!!”

  “Come to think of it, the young lady Sylvia, a waiting maid for the Guards, is a saint as well, training to be both a maidservant and a warrior…Do the women in this country all start at the bottom as a maid in order to learn proper feminine behavior?”

  “Umm, Sylvia is employed as a medium by the top of our divine royal system, so I feel she’s built quite a position for herself— Wait! That’s not the important argument right now; it’s that an erotic maid is about the last thing I want to be in the future!!”

  Kanzaki flew into a panic, but for the Knight Leader’s part, there must have been nothing he was concerned over, because he didn’t pursue the point further.

  “Still,” he went on, “you would be killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. You could learn the behavior of a noblewoman in so
ciety while at the same time introducing your name and face to them as a warrior. In that sense, too, allow me to advise against going to the masquerade, as it would hide that.”

  “…So that’s what you’re after,” said Kanzaki with a sigh, eventually calming down. “As I’ve said many times in the past, I’m not planning on transferring from the Puritans to the Knights. My swordsmanship is only one facet of a whole host of spells. My faith is what drives me. Learning the way of the sword wasn’t my main goal, so it would be rude of me to take on the title of knight or warrior. Besides, isn’t the world of knights men-only?”

  “We allow a queen to reign, and yet we don’t allow the knights who serve her to be female. It’s contradictory. If you were to ask me to choose between useless traditions and useful combat power, well, I should think I have enough character to choose the latter.”

  “Even then, my answer would be the same. I will show myself as my best, along with the others in Amakusa. I’ve no intention of creating a position for myself by abandoning the people who look up to me.”

  “I see,” murmured the Knight Leader. He muttered something quite interesting about the Knights treating Amakusa as mercenaries in that case.

  “You can feel free to invite a nun to a night party, though.” Kanzaki shook the envelope in her hand and tried to force the conversation in another direction, showing the Knight Leader the documents she’d gotten from the Home Office. “I should save any merry-making for after I solve this problem.”

  “Hmm.”

  He couldn’t have seen through to the envelope’s contents, but just a glance at its blank surface gave him a guess as to what she wanted to say.

  Kanzaki watched him, then asked, “How is the Eurotunnel?”

  The Eurotunnel was a giant underwater subway tunnel, the only land route connecting the British archipelago to France on the mainland. The three passages, packed closely together for their underground run, were an important enough infrastructure to be called “a lifeline for the transportation of personnel and goods,” but…

  “No prospects for restoration,” said the Knight Leader shortly. “Rescue efforts in the flooded area have largely ended. Uncovering the cause comes next. It’s clear that this was not a natural incident, but we don’t know if it was sorcery or scientific. Or who, from which group, did what. Depending on the result, the time may come when the Knights will have to go to war as well.”