A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 22 Read online

  Ssszzzzhhhhhhhhhhh!! A second later, Kamijou heard a sound like oil popping in a hot pot.

  “What…?!”

  Everything exploded.

  The light was blinding, like a welding flame, and before he knew it, Kamijou was covering his face with his hands. The flash actually gave him a headache—and then his feet were in the air. A moment later, his body careened several meters backward.

  This was only the aftermath. The intense heat caused the air to explode, and simply being exposed to the shock wave had sent a single human body flying.

  But…

  “An optical weapon of Academy City?”

  A cool voice could be heard beyond the explosive flashing lights.

  The very man supposedly under fire by the mystery attack hadn’t changed his tone in the slightest.

  “Officially, they claim to have four satellites…But now, as I thought, the map of space territory seems to have major discrepancies. It’s very likely they have smaller satellites and spaceships deployed around a giant station.”

  The ray of pure-white light that had fallen from overhead should have been digging into the top of Fiamma’s shoulders.

  But it wasn’t.

  Instead, the third arm coming out of his shoulder was raised straight upward, acting like a huge parasol. It blocked the downpour of light from encroaching upon Fiamma’s space. And then, he casually swung his right hand. That was all.

  And yet.

  Boom!!!!!! The air rumbled.

  Blown and scattered by the third arm, the white light shot away like a tiny eraser flicked by a finger. With no more than that, the irradiation of immense light, which had brandished such enormous power, vanished. Kamijou’s vision was nothing unusual for the average human, so he obviously couldn’t observe what was happening outside the planet’s atmosphere. But he knew. Fiamma, the man before him, had just shot down a whole satellite with a flick of the wrist.

  “It’s nothing to be surprised about.” Fiamma of the Right’s third arm slowly drifted. “In fact, I’m ashamed I had to expose my half-formed appendage like this.”

  “You…”

  “I thought I’d displayed this in the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations already. My right arm does whatever I need it to, always providing the optimal output to match whatever challenge or difficulty I encounter. It doesn’t matter if what I’m facing is an optical weapon or anything else. Naturally, nothing can compete with me.”

  This is insane, Kamijou sputtered.

  This was way beyond holding back in rock-paper-scissors until just after you saw what the opponent threw. Fiamma was basically claiming to be all-powerful. Kamijou could throw out rock, paper, or scissors—but as long as Fiamma put out his hand, he’d simply win no matter what. It didn’t matter what shape he had his five fingers in. The moment he challenged somebody, he’d win.

  That was why Fiamma didn’t need to worry about things that were normally important.

  Speed.

  Hardness.

  Intelligence.

  Muscle strength.

  Distance.

  Manpower.

  Weaponry.

  For someone who could end the battle by putting out his hand, trivial things like slowly building up to a victory, searching for the primary factor for winning, or thoroughly preparing beforehand. He only needed to do one thing to win: swing his right arm. That was it. Before, he seemed to have had a limit on how much he could use it, but he’d apparently overcome that as well by bolstering it with Index’s knowledge. As he was now, Fiamma could obtain as many victories as he desired.

  Maybe they’d only be personal victories and not political victories. That was probably why he’d needed the Roman and Russian Churches. But in this situation, he held far too great an advantage.

  How was anyone supposed to fight an opponent like him?

  Finding a way to climb onto the same stage that Fiamma stood on and finding a way to achieve certain victory against him were two entirely different problems.

  “Nevertheless, you should be proud.”

  Fiamma, with his aberrant right arm, spoke cheerfully.

  Not that he was enjoying his battle with Kamijou.

  He was merely enjoying the simple fact that what he desired was within his grasp.

  “I should have expected as much of the right hand I have such high hopes for. My right arm seems to be unsure how much power to use against that fist of yours.”

  Boom!!

  It was a horizontal swipe.

  Naturally, Kamijou’s right arm wouldn’t block it. Fiamma’s arm wasn’t built so shoddily. Kamijou stuck his right arm out in front of him. Just as he was about to touch the tip of Fiamma’s third arm, he veered his fist away, as if to slide along the man’s forearm. His own body slid to the side to follow that momentum.

  The tension that gripped his entire body was so intense that it almost seemed like it would shorten his life span.

  Perhaps Kamijou’s hand should have also been considered abberant for being able to compete against a right arm like Fiamma’s.

  “…!!”

  Still, despite all his efforts, Kamijou couldn’t counterattack properly. Fiamma’s body had already disappeared.

  His opponent couldn’t move up or down, but he could move across as much horizontal distance as he wanted. After instantly retreating three kilometers back, Fiamma landed on the roof of another building on the floating Bethlehem.

  At the same time, he launched his next attack.

  A light burst out—from the remote-control Soul Arm in his hand.

  “Warning. Chapter 22, Verse 1. Commencing spell Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani— Full activation in seven seconds.”

  Rrrrrm!!!!!! A bloodred flash surged forth in a roar.

  A magic circle had appeared in front of Fiamma, and a pillar of light had leaped out of it, shooting straight at the distant Kamijou.

  Something ran up Kamijou’s spine.

  He couldn’t have remembered this as a memory, but something like an instinct was intensely rejecting this.

  “…?!”

  He immediately thrust out his right hand, but what came was pressure heavy enough to break his fingers.

  He couldn’t drive it all away.

  This…guy…!! Kamijou clenched his teeth. He doesn’t rely only on his right arm?! It’s got so much packed into it, and you’re telling me it’s still nothing but a crude, incomplete item to him?!

  And then…

  “As I thought, simple spells have their limits.”

  That line came from directly behind him.

  He didn’t have time to turn around to meet the voice. Fiamma was already there, his third arm gripping a giant sword made of light. He swung it horizontally, aiming for Kamijou’s neck.

  Kamijou’s Imagine Breaker was weak to attacks coming from multiple directions at once.

  It would be too difficult to cancel both at once, and at this level of power, even if he stuck with one and faced it head-on, he’d be crushed.

  But Kamijou didn’t have the time to hesitate.

  Even now, the bloodred light ray was threatening to squash his body while the great sword was approaching from behind to chop off his head.

  “Ooohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!” he shouted, keeping his right hand thrust forward while pivoting his body around.

  He positioned himself so that his leg was underneath his right hand and at a right angle to the light ray of the spell Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani.

  And then he pulled his right hand back from the ray.

  Rather than taking it head-on, he changed his positioning to only subtly graze the ray’s edge.

  A moment later.

  Crack!! The red beam’s trajectory was forcibly twisted.

  It was like in bowling, when throwing the ball purposely away from the center of the pins to come in from the side. Its path bent, the light ray flowed behind Kamijou, parried diagonally.

  Yes.

  Toward Fiamma, who was trying to take his he
ad off.

  Got y—

  Kamijou turned around at the sound of the explosion, but his eyes went wide before he could confirm the result.

  Fiamma of the Right had ignored the light approaching him and continued with his third arm’s horizontal swipe. The sword of light blasted the red ray into oblivion with a single hit, then tore through the air, still heading for Kamijou’s body.

  He didn’t have time to get his right hand in position.

  He also didn’t have room to dodge with footwork.

  “!!”

  Without hesitation, Kamijou dropped to the floor as though his legs had been swept out from under him. An instant later, the sword passed right over his head. He knew it was already slicing brutally through the fortress’s walls; the rumbling noise hit his body like another shock wave.

  Fiamma smiled thinly.

  With his sword drawn all the way to the end of its swing, he toyed with the remote-control Soul Arm.

  “…Continuous attacks from a distance are less precise. I suppose I knew that based on what happened in Elizalina’s country.”

  The remote-control Soul Arm gave off an unnatural light, pale and red.

  “Warning. Chapter 29, Verse 33. Crimson Stone of Pexjarva— Full activation in seven seconds.”

  Wha…?!

  Blindsided, Kamijou immediately got ready to make his next move, pushing the soles of his shoes into the floor as he tried to get up.

  A moment later.

  Crack-crack-crack!! A strange, intense pain shot up Kamijou’s toes and through his ankles, shins, and knees. It was almost as bad as if his bones’ joints had been wrenched out of place. It felt like something he couldn’t see had made its way up from the floor, through his feet, and into his body.

  “Kuh…gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

  Kamijou slammed his balled fists into his thighs.

  The moment his hand made contact, the intense pain stemming from his legs suddenly vanished.

  He got onto his knees, but Fiamma didn’t stop there.

  “Warning. Chapter 35, Verse 18. A Rain of Sulfur Shall Scorch the Earth— Full activation in five seconds.”

  Arrow-like objects, blazing orange, rained down.

  And more than just a couple.

  Almost fifty arrows appeared close to the roof before falling upon Kamijou like a suspended ceiling.

  …He has his own skills as God’s Right Seat and he’s pulling one thing after another out of Index’s knowledge…?!

  Still on the floor, Kamijou clenched his teeth, then swung his right arm.

  Several of the arrows turned into orange sparks and blew apart in a spray of color. Their fine particles continued, crashing into the swarm of the rest of the arrows still trailing their target, causing a fruitless explosion in midair.

  But he couldn’t knock them all down.

  Orange arrows plunged straight past the young man’s body, brutally crushing the stone floor. Even as he was pelted by sharp fragments, Kamijou rolled backward, then stood up on two feet.

  Touma Kamijou and Fiamma of the Right.

  They glared at each other through the white smoke between them.

  “Ah, this is no good. Even though I couldn’t have rehearsed a situation like that, it’s still important to pay attention to the theory’s margin of error. Anything less is simply rude when the enemy I need to defeat is standing right before me.”

  Now that both the room and the fortress had been cut in two, a cliffside into the skies appeared right under Kamijou’s feet.

  Beyond the sheer fissure, he could see white clouds and the Russian earth that had been upturned.

  In a situation where one wrong step would lead to a deadly jump from almost ten thousand meters up, neither Fiamma nor Kamijou took their eyes away from the other’s face.

  The movement of Fiamma’s limbs didn’t quite possess the speeds of Kanzaki or Acqua. They were a normal person’s normal movements, same as Kamijou. Nevertheless, mountains had been shattered, and the ground had been ripped apart. The inconsistency was rather bizarre.

  Though fully aware of that terror, Touma Kamijou found his lips moving. “Enemy you need to defeat?”

  “Well, of course. I’m not being overly dramatic, mind you. And I don’t want to take over the world, or wipe out humanity, or anything of the sort. If anything, that sort of change is the furthest thing from what I’m working toward. My goal is to keep the right things moving in the right direction.”

  The remark was clearly at odds with his words and actions thus far.

  But the words that followed brought his ominousness to the fore.

  “This world is distorted.”

  One short sentence.

  Casual words—but they conveyed Fiamma’s thoughts keenly enough to send a shiver down his spine.

  “Whether it be the four aspects that I mentioned before or the immense, sordid negative energy fueling World War III—everything is hopelessly distorted. The causes are numerous. All kinds of problems are cropping up everywhere. Almost as if the world itself is growing decrepit, and its joints are weakening. The one we call God has created a perfect system and arranged the cogs so that everything would spin correctly. Why, then, did things distort so easily? …The answer is simple. Several of those cogs have reached their limit.”

  That was why he would put it back to normal.

  Put it in words, and it was a simple goal.

  But considering how many he’d sacrificed against their will before now, it was easy to see how wrong his process was.

  “Cogs need to be exchanged, and in certain places, it’s very likely new mechanisms will have to be set up. Think of it as having to do internal rewiring when renovating an old house. In a way, the malice manifested by World War III was merely getting some clogged dust out.”

  Fiamma spoke about these things in a tone that made it seem like they weren’t important to him.

  “After washing off all the dirt on the cogs, I’ll reapply the lubricant—Crossist codes—and restore their original smooth motions. I think that should work as a decent analogy. I think it would be more prudent to compare it to Noah’s ark…Although, even after washing the world away with the great flood, it seems that clinging malice remained even in the post-flood world.”

  “…Lubricant,” murmured Kamijou, glaring at Fiamma’s face. “Are you talking about using a spell or something that will rewrite people’s minds in a way that’s convenient for you, like the Croce di Pietro during the Daihasei Festival?”

  “It’s not that complicated. I only need to teach the masses a lesson; that’s the easiest way for people to learn. Think about it—if I were to swing my completed arm just once, every last person would have no choice but to realize the difference in power whether they wanted to know or not…Now, I wonder how afraid humanity will have to be before they come to terms with reality. The reality that what I’m doing is the same as the punishments of legend, like raining thunderbolts atop the heads of those who go against the codes. The reality that I can offer salvation to people throughout the world as long as they obey those codes. The reality that when the Star of Bethlehem first began to glitter in the night sky, a new age had already begun.”

  In the end, was Fiamma of the Right a Crossist?

  Or was his belief that the cogs God had created were distorted and that he could “fix” them the greatest blasphemy?

  That wasn’t what Kamijou was interested in, though.

  “Offer salvation to people throughout the world…”

  Fiamma would cover the world with happiness, but only in the scope he could imagine.

  He would never acknowledge any other values.

  A world like that…

  It would be a utopia, in a certain sense.

  A planet where all but happiness had been obliterated.

  “Have you ever really gone out into the world and seen every last bit of it for yourself? Seen how many people are smiling?”

  “Hmm. Your opinion
is quite fascinating.” Fiamma grinned. “But I’ll consider it after I’ve saved the world.”

  A moment later:

  A giant sword suddenly rose, from straight beneath him to straight above him.

  It dug right up under Kamijou’s right armpit, heading immediately for his right shoulder.

  He had no time to evade, nor room to parry.

  Thmp.

  With an unbelievably soft noise, Touma Kamijou’s right arm came off at the shoulder.

  3

  Accelerator had successfully brought down the angel of water.

  Despite having manipulated vectors, his breath was ragged, and his two feet on the snow trembled madly with exhaustion.

  He’d kept the water angel’s detonation as small as he could. For now, he’d protected hundreds of kilometers of Russia that the explosion would have obliterated—as well as the people living there. He’d made a difference.

  And yet.

  Accelerator thought his heart would stop.

  Because, in front of him—

  Crashed into a wall of snow was a single car. It was the one Misaka Worst had been driving, the one Last Order had been riding in. It was clearly not fine. The hood was massively dented, and the front windshield had shattered.

  The surrounding trees had all been mowed down in the same direction.

  This was the aftermath of his battle.

  Last Order and Misaka Worst had taken the brunt of its shock wave.

  “…”

  Accelerator’s weary body seemed ready to crack and sink into the snow.

  As things stood, he wondered what had he even been fighting for.

  Both Misaka Worst and Last Order lay limp inside the car, no doubt having sustained severe injuries—Last Order especially. Aiwass’s influence had already bound her from within, and now she’d been injured from without. Just imagining the peril her body faced was terrifying.

  Is there anything I can do?

  He still didn’t know how to use the parchment. Meanwhile, the war was intensifying with no end in sight. On top of that, a string of battles had taken its toll on both Last Order and Misaka Worst. Would Last Order physically hold on until he could find his so-called clue, and it guided him to a concrete solution?

  “…You might…be able to do something…”