A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 21 Page 2

  Discarding things they didn’t need to discard, things that shone so brightly, under the false assumption that they wanted to. Maybe that’s what this huge war really was, too.

  “We should put an end to it quick,” said Lesser in a carefree tone, shoving her arm into the paper fast-food bag and fishing around. “Fiamma’s the one pulling the strings behind the war anyway, right? If we beat him up, stop the fighting as soon as we can, return peace to the world, and get Britain some hefty reparations while we’re at it, it’ll be a perfect ending.”

  “…Yeah.”

  Though I’m not so sure about all that reparations stuff, added Kamijou to himself, mostly agreeing with Lesser’s opinion. However it all shook out, it wouldn’t change what he had to do.

  “We’ll smash Fiamma and rescue Index.”

  “Now that that’s settled, let’s wrap up this nutrient replenishment. With this triple!!”

  “Hey, wait, that hamburger’s as big as a vaulting horse. I don’t think you can eat that without breaking it apart.”

  More specifically, it looked far too big to fit in the short Lesser’s tiny mouth, but…

  “Not to worry. I may look small, but I can fit things in my mouth that are so big everyone around me would be shocked—and I’m proud of it. You can take that in a somewhat lewd way if you want.”

  Spouting incomprehensible nonsense as always, Lesser chomped down onto the triple-decker burger. The huge serving of food began to fold in the middle and into her mouth.

  And a moment later—

  Squish!! Out of the opposite end of the hamburger she was biting into flew a chunk of ground beef that couldn’t fit inside any longer. The juicy meat splattered on Kamijou’s student uniform.

  “…”

  A moment’s silence came.

  Looking highly distraught, Kamijou glanced between his clothes and Lesser’s face.

  And then Lesser…

  “N-now’s my chance!! I’ll make it up to you with my body!!”

  “Why do you have stars in your eyes, and why are you licking your lips like that?! You aren’t sorry at all, are you?!”

  2

  The roaring wouldn’t stop.

  At a spot about fifteen miles north of the Elizalina border, Russia’s land and sky were both a sheer pane of white. And yet, unhealthy-looking black smoke was spurting up through the winter scenery.

  Resting in the snow were a tank and an armored car, both resembling empty cans ground down by cogs. Other things lay scattered about—for example, chunks of concrete that were once standing walls and ceilings. This wreckage was the source of the smoke blotting out the pristine white vista.

  Death.

  That was what it smelled like to Shiage Hamazura.

  And yet…the smoke wasn’t from the nearby settlement.

  It was from the privateers’ garrison base.

  The fortress, defended by top-of-the-line Russian equipment, had been swallowed in a vortex of destruction.

  Obviously, Hamazura and the others couldn’t have managed something like that.

  The privateers had attacked the settlement twice, but that hadn’t been all the troop power they could have mustered. In any case, more soldiers were on standby. The force they had in reserve probably numbered over five or even ten times that. Bases had a bare minimum number of personnel needed to continue running smoothly.

  Then who was responsible?

  The answer to that question came into view as Hamazura watched through a pair of binoculars he held in a tight grip.

  Blue clothes.

  A giant sword.

  A tall man who called himself a mercenary.

  Before this battle had started, Hamazura exchanged a few words with the man who had brought down an attack helicopter. But he still had no idea what was going on. A saint? Sorcery? The guy was acting like he hailed from a completely alien culture.

  Hamazura had only learned a few things.

  That the man called himself Acqua. That he had some kind of powers, different from esper abilities. Also, he was apparently on their side—and he would assault the base where the privateers were garrisoned.

  It all seemed like a farce.

  But…

  …Is this some kind of joke? I don’t know what system his power’s based on, but I don’t know if even our Level Five espers could have made it such a one-sided fight.

  With every swing of his sword, huge swaths of snow melted into multi-ton masses of water that hurtled at the enemy tanks and armored cars. When a helicopter fired all its rockets at him, the man had answered with twice as many spears of ice, intercepting every single one of them. Soon after, when the water vapor in the middle of enemy lines burst outward in a sphere, the fortress, made of thick reinforced concrete, tore apart like a vinyl umbrella caught in a typhoon.

  Supernatural phenomena; a natural disaster: That’s exactly what this man’s huge water attacks were.

  Like a giant snake on the hunt, the liquid under his control floated in complete disregard for gravity and spanned dozens, if not hundreds, of meters. Just moments ago, Hamazura and the others had been engaged in a death match with the privateers. Now, it sent a chill down his spine as he watched a one-sided massacre unfold.

  “What the hell…?” groaned Digurv, still in the anti-air tank with him. “Is that one of those supernaturals Academy City developed…?”

  No, thought Hamazura.

  But before he could mount any actual argument, the duel was over.

  Except—it had never been a duel.

  Destruction. Elimination. Eradication.

  Those were the only words that could be sensibly used to describe the battle, which had lasted a scant twenty minutes.

  “…I suppose that will do for now. However, this nation is incredibly large, and they will likely replenish their personnel quickly,” said the mercenary in blue, sword on his shoulder, in a level voice.

  Hamazura didn’t know when the man had appeared. Just a moment ago, the guy had been standing somewhere Hamazura could only just barely make out through his binoculars.

  The mercenary was far from out of breath—which was absurd considering how he’d supposedly just been fighting with his life on the line.

  What the hell is this…?

  Hamazura opened the vehicle’s roof hatch and leaned out. He scowled immediately at the cutting chill and the stench of smoke, now several times thicker than earlier.

  The tall man wearing blue gripped a giant sword in his hand. Its length alone was over three meters, and who knew how many hundreds of kilograms it weighed. No matter how anyone thought about it, that sword was too big for someone to hold in one hand.

  Baffled, Hamazura muttered, “I’m gonna ask you again—what are you?”

  “Acqua of the Back. A has-been mercenary and a thug.”

  He seemed to think he was replying to the question, but it didn’t answer much. Hamazura still didn’t understand anything—like how this man could summon such muscle power that clearly broke the limits of the human body, or even fundamental things, like what group he belonged to or who he was allied with.

  Esper powers…?

  Hamazura thought back to what Digurv had said moments ago.

  He’d been living in Academy City until now, and he naturally tried to process this as the kind of “inexplicable phenomenon” he was used to seeing.

  But this was different.

  Even now, orbs of water floated about the tall man like he was in outer space, completely unaffected by gravity. They’d protected him from the heat, flames, and shock wave after he blew up the attack helicopter earlier.

  Espers couldn’t use more than one ability.

  Is he controlling the moisture in his body to augment his muscle strength? No, human bodies are sensitive to changes in internal pressure. If he did that, his blood vessels and cells would just rupture. That doesn’t explain it. Which means…

  After thinking that far, Hamazura felt like he was about to be thrown into
a new whirlwind of confusion.

  Could it be?

  Did this mean something, some unknown entity that transcended the normal rules of physics apart from Academy City’s supernatural powers, really existed?

  “Hamazura.”

  A voice called to him from inside the anti-air vehicle. It was Grickin, the Russian soldier who had fought alongside him. His face, pointed at Hamazura, was drawn with tension.

  “This is bad…The radio picked up some transmissions. It’s encoded, so I don’t know what’s being said, but the signal is getting steadily stronger.”

  “It’s getting closer,” said Digurv, riding in the same vehicle. “More privateer reinforcements?”

  “Wait,” Hamazura instructed, cutting him off. He’d just realized who the radio transmission was coming from.

  He checked the binoculars to make sure. Something was near the white horizon.

  There were over thirty tanks drawing closer that he could see, as well. They were on a different technological level than the mobile anti-air gun Hamazura was in; the designs were obviously different, but judging from the armor, these newcomers weren’t even in the same league.

  And the approaching force wasn’t only tanks.

  Advancing behind the cover of the lead tanks, he could see multiple foot soldiers wearing what looked like body armor made from composite materials. The armored cars without any visible guns running alongside the rest of the formation were probably supply vehicles for providing electricity to the force’s various high-tech weapons. In the sky above them were tiny, remote-control aircraft buzzing about, each about a foot long. They seemed to be recon UAVs, but some of the models had thin tubes on their wings. Most likely, they were built for simple bombing runs, delivering the grenades attached to their dart-like tail ends by having them glide through the air.

  This unit was clearly different from the privateers they had been seeing until now.

  They’d brought more than one type of weaponry.

  This was a formation designed for combat, using multiple varieties of soldier and weapon to cover one another’s weaknesses. There wasn’t a single hint of playfulness in their equipment. It left no openings to take advantage of, leaving Hamazura’s hodgepodge team no chance of winning.

  Hamazura gulped audibly and then offered, “They’re not privateers…”

  “What?”

  Digurv frowned. Hamazura answered again.

  “That’s an Academy City military force.”

  Hamazura had kept his eyes on the infantry marching in the tanks’ shadow. They wore armor-like gear, made from composite material—in other words, powered suits. Even Hamazura, a layman when it came to war machinery, could say one thing for sure: The only people who could put such things to practical use had to be from Academy City.

  …Looks like regular, official soldiers. They don’t seem to have any connection to the underworld like us, guessed Hamazura offhandedly.

  Of course, there was a possibility that people from that underworld were simply using normal Academy City equipment—but he rejected that idea, not with knowledge but intuition. People from the underworld like Hamazura would never strut around so openly. Even if they tried to behave that way, their “scent” would always be detectable.

  “It seems as though they’ve come to occupy this place,” said Acqua flatly, giant sword still on his shoulder. “What now? Shall I scatter them?”

  “…No. I don’t know if it lines up with your goals, but if we want to keep protecting that settlement, we better not resist now.” Hamazura shook his head. “I don’t know who you are or where you’re from, but I know you’re a monster. A monster on a level that even someone like me, who’s lived in Academy City, can’t figure out how you work. That means it would be better to purposely let Academy City’s military garrison come here. They’ll occupy the area for the moment, but they’ll be able to protect it for months. Even if the privateers call up additional troops, these guys can deal with them. If we lash out without thinking, it won’t help the settlement’s situation.”

  “…” Acqua grunted and nodded slightly. He seemed to have accepted Hamazura’s viewpoint.

  “But…wait,” said Digurv instead. “Hamazura, aren’t you on the run from Academy City?”

  The question gave Hamazura pause for a moment.

  But only for a few seconds.

  “…What can I do?”

  Academy City’s temperament, while not as bad as the privateers’, would still be difficult to deal with. Hamazura knew that much—he’d fled from them, after all. But at the very least, they’d serve as a bulwark to protect the villagers from Russian tyranny—particularly that of the privateers.

  The settlement had been a nice, comforting place. Despite Takitsubo’s sudden arrival, everyone had worried about her condition. But neither Hamazura nor Takitsubo could afford to be caught here by Academy City. They absolutely couldn’t let that happen until they found a means to negotiate.

  The only thing they could do was run.

  Flee the settlement that Hamazura had personally risked his life to protect.

  “I don’t think they know I’m here. But if they use their advanced sensors to search the area, they’re more than likely to find us. Chances are slim that students have been mobilized, but if they had a psychometer or something, they’d catch us right away. I don’t want any of you to hide information about us. Tell them everything that happened here. Don’t do anything that might make those troops suspicious. If you keep a cooperative attitude, Academy City will protect you.”

  As he spoke, Hamazura internally reviewed his ideas.

  “Of course, Academy City troops aren’t allies of justice. They’re just a combat force, a different kind than Russia’s. But they’ll do their best to take care of useful people who side with them. So if you give them information on us, you can take advantage of them, too.”

  “That’s absurd,” said Digurv quietly, though his voice trembled with anger. “Do you think we, for mere convenience, would abandon someone who fought alongside us?”

  “Then what will you do? We don’t know when the privateers will get reinforcements. It might be tomorrow, it might be in a week. They might have a hundred people, and they might have a thousand. Are you saying you can fight them all off alone? That’s unrealistic, no matter how you look at it.”

  “…But…”

  “I don’t plan to cut my life short at this age, and I don’t feel like demanding that from any of you, either. I’ll survive—just you watch. I’ll flee to the ends of the earth to make sure of it.”

  As Hamazura spoke, he reached out and rapped his hand on the beaten-up anti-air vehicle’s armor.

  “Just this once, have faith in me. Don’t give up so easy. What we carry isn’t cheap—it’s not something you can just throw away using the word war as an excuse.”

  The words I’m sorry played across the faces of the men by the mobile anti-aircraft gun.

  But they kept it to themselves, so Hamazura decided he hadn’t noticed. Digurv and Grickin had no reason to apologize.

  He met Acqua of the Back’s eyes. “I forgot to say something.”

  “What is it?”

  “I wanted to tell you ‘thanks.’ Nobody needed to die—not me, not the settlement, not the woman I’m in love with—because you were here…I’ll repay you someday.”

  He didn’t have time to wait for an answer. Academy City’s forces would occupy that settlement in the near future, then cut off all communications with the surrounding area. He had to get Takitsubo from the settlement and leave this region before that.

  After parting with Acqua and driving the anti-aircraft vehicle close to the settlement, he got out of the steel chassis and ran across the deep snow. The residents wouldn’t be in the destroyed buildings. Hamazura and the other fighters had made them evacuate their homes and take shelter in the southern woods. Hamazura hurried in that direction.

  He felt like something invisible was weighing down on hi
s back. Along the way, he tripped several times, rolling onto the snow as he desperately headed for the woods.

  When he reached his goal, he heard several noises—hushed breathing. Faces were visible behind the trees here and there. The settlers. When they realized the person who had barged into the woods was Hamazura, they hastily rushed out from their hiding places. Someone shouted something in Russian, and a mother came to him with a small child at her side. She was holding an exhausted Rikou Takitsubo.

  “Are you okay, Takitsubo?”

  “The same goes for you, Hamazura—I’m so glad you’re alive.”

  “Sorry. Things are getting dicey again.”

  After learning the situation, Takitsubo spoke slowly and calmly, despite a sweat-covered frown appearing on her face. “…The Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations.”

  “What?”

  “Academy City is steadily taking over Russian territory. At this rate, we’ll never be able to run or hide from Academy City garrisons and their patrols. But if we cross the border, they won’t have a pretext to come after us.”

  She was right—Russia apparently shared a nearby border with the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations. If it was a land border, the security probably wouldn’t be that tight, either. All that was left was to figure out a way to break through. They’d cross the border temporarily to evade the Academy City’s pursuit for the moment, then go back into Russian lands and resume their search for something they could use as a negotiation tool.

  Now that they had a plan, they couldn’t dally forever.

  Lifting Takitsubo, who couldn’t walk properly, onto his back, Hamazura was about to start trekking over the snow once again. How many miles was it to the border? How many dozens of miles?

  And then someone from the settlement—a short old man—tossed something silver and shiny at Hamazura.

  In confusion, he grabbed it; it was a car key.

  The old man smiled and said something in Russian. Takitsubo translated.

  “He says it’s for a blue jeep parked outside the settlement.”

  “No, I couldn’t.” Hamazura was upset. “Academy City will probably come after us. If I take this, it’ll make it look like someone from the settlement might have aided our escape. If that happens, we can’t be sure their troops will protect you.”