A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 15 Read online

  Open the oversized, steel, safe-like lid by its handle, toss the black sleeping bag inside, close the lid, and turn on the furnace. It had been tuned up beforehand, so all he had to do was press the conspicuously red ignition button.

  He was better off not thinking about what was inside the bag. Item’s Shizuri Mugino had warned him as much—not that Hamazura wanted to.

  Item, School—as a lackey, Hamazura didn’t think too much about what these top-secret teams were after. He was only here because he wouldn’t survive in this city otherwise.

  “…”

  But every time he felt the black sleeping bag’s oddly vivid weight, every time the spongy sensation came through the thick synthetic fabric and into his palms, he imagined the face of someone he’d never seen before. He forced himself to shrug it off, threw the bag into the furnace, secured the thick metal lid, and locked it.

  Now he just had to push the red button.

  The electrically created 3,500-degree heat would incinerate the body in minutes, even destroying DNA information, changing a person into nothing but ashes.

  Hamazura considered, for a moment, the person in that sleeping bag, but still put his thumb on the button.

  The passing thought gave him fear, and the tip of his thumb trembled—before his thumb pressed the button anyway.

  Vrrrgg. The “disposal” began with a low rumble.

  Hamazura gazed at it for a short while in silence, but he eventually took one step back, then another, then sat down on the dusty floor.

  “…”

  Who could have been in that sleeping bag?

  It could have been a lackey Level Zero like Hamazura, and it could have been a much stronger esper. It wasn’t necessarily a child, but he couldn’t say for certain it was an adult. Was it an enemy? Mugino might even kill an ally if they blundered. He didn’t know the story behind them, and they could have even been entirely unrelated, simply swept up in the chaos.

  All of it burned to nothing.

  Inside that thick metal machine, the person changed into something else entirely.

  The ashes, no longer legally a “person,” would disappear off somewhere. It might end up thrown into some garbage-disposing automation, blended into a mush, and shipped out as fertilizer. Even if someone found the ashes in the garbage, they wouldn’t treat it as a person. The flesh had lost its DNA information, so it couldn’t be used as physical proof.

  “Hamazura.”

  Even when someone addressed him from behind, Shiage Hamazura couldn’t move.

  The electric furnace gave a few shrill beeps, letters coming up on its monitor to indicate the incineration was complete.

  “Hamazura, what’s wrong?”

  It was probably Rikou Takitsubo, from Item, talking to him.

  Her other name was Ability Stalker.

  Unlike Hamazura, she was a very powerful Level Four esper. That power was what had led him astray, but he still envied it more than anything else.

  “…What does human life mean?” said Hamazura, letting the energy drain from his body while simply staring at the furnace.

  It wasn’t like this was his first time seeing a corpse, and yet he felt considerable pressure in his heart.

  “Damn it. When did Level Zero lives get this cheap…?”

  He heard a voice say his name.

  He stood, ignoring it, then opened the furnace lid and collected the ashes within.

  Shiage Hamazura’s job wasn’t over yet.

  14

  Mitsuki Unabara was in a multi-tenant building in District 10.

  The place operated as one of Block’s hideouts.

  Right now, there were three official Block members present, along with a dozen or so combat personnel belonging to their ancillary organization. Of course, Mitsuki Unabara had secretly switched places with one of their official members.

  “…Not much longer now,” said Tatsuhiko Saku, his big, bearlike body shifting.

  A laptop was in front of him. It looked compact, but a cord came out of it and connected to what looked like an overstuffed sandwich. Apparently, it was almost fifteen store-bought CPUs stacked on top of one another, with liquid cooling tubes running through the gaps between them.

  The brawny woman, Teshio, her eyes on the screen, spoke to Saku. “Has it worked?”

  “Mostly, yeah. Thanks to the dummy we used on the Virus Storage Center, District 23 thinned out, too.” Saku spoke without looking at his companion. “Now we can say good-bye to this shitpile of a world with Aleister’s stink permeating every last corner. This is our first step in that direction.”

  He wasn’t giving a speech; not many people were particularly listening. He was practically talking to himself.

  Even so, Unabara could feel strength in his words.

  “But this is just the first step. There’s a long way to go before reaching our goal, but still, it’s the first step.”

  “…” Unabara casually glanced over at the clock on the wall. It would only be a few more minutes before the satellite was hijacked.

  He’d gotten no message from Accelerator. He didn’t know if he’d managed to destroy the ground antenna. Unabara turned his attention to his inside pocket, thinking on the Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli within.

  …I could just destroy that computer, but if I do, it would be at the cost of my life.

  His palms began to clam up with perspiration.

  He didn’t have much time to make a decision.

  But then, Megumi Teshio said, “It would appear, there has been some action, in District 23. A number of on-site Anti-Skill officers, have gone down. But as far as I can tell, from intercepting communications, there is no danger to their lives, the likes of which, would cause rescue teams any confusion.”

  Everyone there looked at the woman.

  “We can understand, by connecting the points, at which the Anti-Skill officers went down, that they’re lined up, straight from the terminal station, to the ground antenna. Such incredible speed. It certainly doesn’t seem, like he walked.”

  “Who, and from where?” asked Saku.

  “Nobody honest, I’m sure. Is it one of Aleister’s dogs, part of Member?”

  “No,” said Teshio simply. “Group, most likely. I remember, that white-haired kid. If I recall correctly, he’s the Level Five esper, who came here recently.”

  …She remembers seeing him? wondered Unabara, but the question was soon answered.

  Teshio had a small business instrument in her hand, a device with somewhat more functionality than a cell phone. And on its screen was a rough video, probably taken by a telescope.

  According to the number in the corner, it was magnified four thousand times. One of Block’s subordinates was probably outside District 23 recording it right now.

  On the monitor, it showed Accelerator heading for the ground antenna.

  With his ability, destroying the twenty-five-meter-across parabola would be as easy as swatting a fly.

  And he didn’t think Block was about to wait quietly for it to happen.

  Not good—or wait, maybe it’s fine…? Even if he was captured, they couldn’t accurately snipe him from that range.

  “What now?” asked Megumi Teshio curtly, awaiting instructions.

  Everyone’s gaze turned to Saku’s bear-like frame.

  “That much is obvious,” came the reply, not particularly hurried, sending tension through Unabara.

  They had a plan to deal with him.

  Could there be a wireless bomb or something set up near the ground antenna? he thought, before the bear of a man gave a different answer.

  “We just have to pray that he succeeds.”

  For a moment, Mitsuki Unabara couldn’t understand it.

  But soon his thoughts recovered.

  No…That was their aim?!

  “Breaking through District 23 would have been too difficult for our abilities. Still, we can’t get anywhere while that ground antenna is still up. We needed a more capable idiot to h
elp us.”

  “Actually, we might have been, thinking too much. The Level Five is, already at the antenna.”

  “Someone watching from ‘above’ probably cleared the way for him. The district is loaded with air force-related weapons. Normally, unmanned weapons, namely HsAFH-11 attack helicopters, would have gone to intercept him. ’Course, that Level Five could probably wipe them out, too.”

  We were so preoccupied with the optical weapon on board that we forgot Altair II’s main usage—to monitor Academy City and the surrounding areas…Taking away that ground antenna doesn’t only disable its ability to attack—it paralyzes all its surveillance functions, too!!

  Unabara’s thoughts went to the cell phone in his pocket, but no matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t get away to contact anyone.

  Teshio’s eyes went to Saku. “They’re actually useful, right? The ones standing by, outside the wall, of District 11?”

  “This is one project those kinds of guys are the right choice for. What? You’re not worried about getting unrelated people wrapped up in this, are you?”

  The big man stopped the hacking program on his laptop, which they no longer needed, then turned the machine off and tossed it to one of the underlings.

  “Let’s go. Five thousand mercenaries are waiting on the other side of that wall.”

  October 9, 1:29 PM.

  With the destruction of the ground antenna that communicated with the satellites, they all lost function.

  Academy City, without its surveillance system in the skies, had lost a significant chunk of its defenses.

  INTERLUDE TWO

  School’s Level Five esper, Teitoku Kakine, was in District 4.

  The district was home to many eateries, even in Academy City, with a host of other facilities related to food as well. He had hidden their station wagon in one of them, a meat freezer warehouse.

  “No sign of Item. I guess they got away for now.”

  Kakine opened the station wagon’s rear door and checked inside.

  There was no frozen meat. Instead, there was a giant metal box the size of a small closet.

  “…So these are the Tweezers…,” groaned the driver, one of School’s subordinates.

  A grin came to Kakine’s face. “Superfine object interference absorption manipulators. In short, mechanical fingers that can grab tiny particles smaller than atoms. That’s why they’re called Tweezers.”

  All matter in the world was composed of several elementary particles combined with one another. The Particle Physics Institute had apparently been running experiments where they purposely removed elementary particles from objects to create unstable matter.

  Normal robotic arms had a hard time grabbing anything smaller than atoms. But with the Tweezers, they created a way to “suck them out” using magnet force, light waves, and electricity.

  “But one wrong step and they could have caused an atomic collapse.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” said Kakine. “Getting a new sniper to replace the one Item killed, shooting Oyafune—a lot of work went into this, but it seems like we got a lot out of it. That’s a relief.”

  The driver stared at the big device for a few moments. “But what on earth are you going to do now that you’ve stolen it?”

  “What do you mean, what? Exactly what it’s meant for. I want to grab something really small. It’ll give me a way to break through to Aleister.”

  “???” The driver looked confused, but Kakine didn’t bother to explain more. He opened a toolbox in the station wagon’s trunk, took out a screwdriver, and started loosening the Tweezers’ screws.

  “A-are you going to break it?”

  “I’m making it better,” said Kakine, annoyed. “You want to know why this thing’s so big? It’s to prevent theft. If you just had the bare minimum parts, you could make it smaller.”

  The clacking sounds continued for a while.

  Soon, the Tweezers were remade, changed into its original, optimized form.

  Kakine now held what looked like a metal glove. Long, glass-like nails came out of the index finger and middle finger, and inside the nails were even smaller parts that appeared to be metal stakes. There was a small monitor the size of a cell phone screen on the back of the hand.

  From what it looked like, it extracted elementary particles from the glass nails, then performed measurements with the metal stakes.

  “Y-you can make it that small?”

  “Well, it’s brand-spanking-new Academy City tech. If they go too far, that’s their problem, eh?” answered Kakine, putting the glove on his right hand and checking it. “Great, feels good…Contact the others. We’re moving to the next phase.”

  “Right away,” nodded the driver, and that was when it happened:

  Ba-geen!! A sharp, metallic sound rang out through the warehouse.

  Kakine and the driver looked over to see a square hole cut into the thick warehouse wall like a door. Bright midday sunlight shone in through it, as the dismembered section of wall fell inward.

  Nobody was outside.

  But the attacker was definitely aiming for them.

  “Gyah…Gwahhhhhhhhhhh?!” the driver screamed suddenly.

  Kakine looked over just as the skin on the driver’s face disappeared. Then his fat and muscle disappeared, too, in that order, and in the end even his brain vanished as well, leaving only clothing and bones to fall to the ground.

  The clattering sound was light, like plastic.

  Kakine frowned slightly.

  “Teitoku Kakine? It would be a waste to lose a Level Five right now.”

  A voice from an unclear direction came to Kakine’s ears.

  Staying alert in all directions, he activated the Tweezers he’d just finished rebuilding. Didn’t think I’d have to use it so soon. “…Group, is it? Or maybe Item?”

  “Unfortunately, I’m with Member. By the way, young man, have you ever smoked a cigarette before?” The middle-aged male voice, source unknown, was calm. “You know how when you take one out of the box, you tap the box with your finger? When I was a child, I didn’t understand the point. Still, it made a fine show. That’s why I started tapping on my boxes of cookies.”

  “Yeah?”

  “That’s exactly what you’re doing right now.”

  “Talking down to me? Looks like you really want me to make your corpse a good one.”

  A mechanical blip came from the Tweezers equipped to his right hand.

  He looked at the monitor, and among the air particles it had gathered were, it seemed, little droplets of machines. Something clearly artificial had mixed into the electron-microscopic world.

  “Nanodevices? You plucked out every single cell he had.”

  “No, mine aren’t that excessive. They don’t have circuits, or power. They’re simple granules of reflective alloy; they only show a specific reaction in response to specific frequencies. I call them the Bowing Images, though.”

  The middle-aged male voice, which he still couldn’t locate, continued, tone vaguely annoyed. “But if you use several frequencies, you can control it, kind of like using a television remote to control a radio-controlled car. Normally, I attach them to bacteria in the air, and let the bacteria disperse naturally.”

  Whooshing noises surrounded Teitoku Kakine.

  His eyes darted all around, but before he could find an escape route, the Bowing Images attacked.

  Member’s “Professor,” having taken the mechanical beast along with him, stood relaxed outside the freezer warehouse. In his hand, on a small device, it showed the operation status of the program controlling the Bowing Images.

  Right then, he was in a bazaar built along the sidewalk. In that area, you could only park your car on the road if it was for business use; food trucks, such as crepe stands, lined the street.

  The mechanical beast next to him spoke. “Our superiors’ information was right. He was in the District 4 freezer warehouse.”

  “That goes to show how
strong they are. Academy City is their territory. It’s spilling over with strange technology. There’s nowhere to run, no matter how much we struggle.”

  He took a bite into a tropical fruit, red enough to seem poisonous, and continued quietly, “It was my twelfth winter when I lost all hope in the arts.”

  The mechanical beast listened quietly to the professor’s words.

  “I admired European architecture. I was in love with the scale, of using so much time and manpower to construct a work of art, to complete just one piece of beauty. But at the same time, I found it hard to understand. It’s easy to gaze at the outside of a building and say how beautiful it is. But when you try to understand the design in-depth, down to its fundamental layers, you need a ton of time because of the building’s scale. Quite frankly, it’s tiring—there are too many points of interest.”

  “Is that why you discovered a connection with mathematics?”

  “Indeed,” the professor said, nodding. “Ah, numerical formulae. They have no excess, they’re like machines, they hold a rainbow of aesthetic in the smallest space possible. The very formulae have an artistic beauty, but also the poetic beauty of a haiku. And all these aesthetics can be enjoyed just by unraveling a single line, leaving nothing left over…I want to find the beauty hidden in the world’s crevices, to take that wonderful beauty and cherish and adore it. I would throw myself at the feet of my worst enemies to do so—even if it meant others calling me Aleister’s dog.”

  The professor looked at his wristwatch.

  His Bowing Images would be almost finished eliminating the hostile.

  Aleister probably wouldn’t look kindly upon him bringing down the second-place Level Five, but if he made a new Level Five in his place, it would solve the problem.

  “Let’s get going. We need to retrieve the Tweezers and crush the other official members from the rebellious School, and then our job is done.”

  “What about our own Saraku going down near the District 23 terminal station?”

  “If I recall, Accelerator was calling him Kill Point. Well, if he’s not dead, we can leave him be. If you have time, you should retrieve him,” said the professor.

  But the mechanical beast didn’t answer.