A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 14 Read online

  “A-a-a Soul Arm…makes th’ngz…he says…correct…? B-but that…urbh!”

  “Ha-ha. Maybe it sounds cowardly, nya. But back in the days, where what important people said was absolute law, they had plenty of little tricks to maintain their dignity. After all, people would only trust what an important person said as absolute law if they had dignity, nya. If that trust was shaken, the entire country would be in a dangerous situation…Remember how in Japan, during the Edo period, we had a system where samurai were allowed to kill people in the streets if they thought they were being insulted? If a commoner said one bad thing about a samurai, they ended up in two pieces. If that’s not the simplest example of restricting freedom of speech, I don’t know what is, nya.”

  “Then…th-the-the-the-then…they made…the doc’ment b’cause…”

  “Because they were scared, probably. Of the world they’d built shaking and swaying…And the Church did face its share of crises. In Crossism, God is absolute, and God was supposed to save people from all of that. But in reality, the bubonic plague wiped out half of Europe and the Crusades were a complete failure, and at the time, they never knew when the Ottoman Empire’s main forces would press into Europe.”

  Tsuchimikado’s voice was entirely impassive. But his face was showing a little something like sympathy.

  “…The idea that God is absolute was shaken many times over. But the Roman Orthodox Church had to persist in the belief. That’s why they needed the document. Faced with such a grave threat, they wanted to keep the people’s hearts close. That’s what the document was for.”

  It was, so to speak, a Soul Arm to bridge the gap between ideals and reality.

  By forcing people to believe, it protected their hopes.

  It seemed incredibly ugly and, at the same time, done out of good intentions.

  S-s-so the Roman Orthodox Church is using the document now to…, thought Kamijou, taking deep breaths, …to make people believe the statement that Academy City is bad is “correct”…And that’s why these twisted “demonstrations” are happening—because they forced the idea into their brains.

  Kamijou moved his lips, blue from the g-force, and asked a question. “B-b-b-b-b-but if they…had that crrr’zy Soul Arm…why d’dn’t…use it…till now…?”

  “Because its powers are immense. Once it defines something as ‘correct,’ it’s hard to take it back, even by using the Soul Arm again. They can’t just go around defining anything they want as ‘correct’ without forethought.”

  Tsuchimikado’s answer was swift.

  “And it’s not easy to use. Remember how I said it makes people think what the pope says is ‘correct,’ nya? Not everyone can use it, and you have to be in the right place. Originally you couldn’t use it unless it was set in the heart of the Vatican. From there, the order goes along ley lines and out to the whole world.”

  “H-huh? B-but…we’re going…get in the way…’f it…right now…?”

  “Yep.”

  “Wh-why…France? You just said…can’t use…unless…Vatican…”

  “Huh? Oh, right. About that…”

  “A-also…if you use…doc’ment…can’t cancel…right? Can we…stop that…errselves?”

  “Well, you see, nya…I’ll need to explain that, but where should I start…?”

  As Tsuchimikado was about to continue, a soft electronic beep came over the plane’s speakers. After that, a computerized female voice made an announcement. It was in a foreign language, but it didn’t seem like simple English. Tsuchimikado listened, then made a face.

  “…Oops, looks like we’re out of time. Kammy, are you sure you’re okay? If it hurts, try taking deep breaths. Breathe in…”

  “Shh…”

  “…and out.”

  “…haa.”

  “And in again…”

  “Shh…”

  “…and out again.”

  “…haa.”

  While they did that, Kamijou somehow was feeling better…or at least, he thought he was. But as Tsuchimikado peered at his face, his friend’s expression was still clouding over.

  “Gah, this is gonna be a pain, nya. Wasn’t breathing out supposed to make it easier? Come on, Kammy, I’ll guide you, so come over here. Push the button on your seat belt to undo it. There’s no flight attendants here, so no need to worry, nya.”

  Tsuchimikado casually rose from his seat, and Kamijou wobbled up after him. He wasn’t really going under his own volition so much as he felt like his mostly hazed-over mind was piloting his body of its own accord.

  Kamijou’s guide walked down the passage and opened a door, then walked down another smaller passage and slipped through a hatch short enough to accidentally bump his head, until he finally reached a place with exposed metal that was…roaring, for some reason.

  Wait, where were they?

  As Kamijou stood there dazed, Tsuchimikado pushed some kind of backpack at him.

  “Here, put this on.”

  “??? Tsuchimikado? Um, what did you mean by exhaling making it easier?”

  “It’ll be fine, all right? It’ll open soon. Quick, put it on.”

  Tsuchimikado was already putting his backpack’s straps around him. The thing was indiscriminate, with straps not only on either shoulder but also around his stomach and chest.

  Kamijou didn’t really understand but watched him do it, then closed up his own straps.

  “Great. Kammy, you look good, too, nya.” Tsuchimikado slapped a big button the size of a can lid on the wall. “Make sure you breathe out all the way before we go!!”

  Kamijou heard a strange booming noise.

  A moment after he realized it was some sort of thick pump going…

  Ga-clat!

  Suddenly, the airplane’s wall opened wide, and he saw the blue skies beyond.

  “I…uh?” His pupils turned into little dots.

  And then a wind so fierce whipped into the airplane, telling him this wasn’t the time for making cartoonish faces. Almost immediately, everything seemed to be on the verge of being expelled from the plane.

  “Tsu-Tsu-Tsu-Tsu-Tsu-Tsu-Tsuchimikadooooo?!”

  Kamijou quickly grabbed the parts of the wall that jutted out with both hands. But he didn’t know how long he’d last.

  As the wind roared around them, the other youth smirked. “It’s time, Kammy. If you’re ready, let yourself loose and breathe out, nya!”

  “Don’t ‘breathe out, nya’ me!! The hell?! D-did…did you just fling open the rear cargo haaaatch?”

  “Well, we can’t just land in a French airport like idiots. Those Roman Orthodox assholes would find out, you knyow? This plane is headed for London. We’re getting off partway through the trip.”

  “Are you a moron?! Think about how fast this plane is going! If you opened a hatch going over seven thousand kilometers per hour, it would wreck the inside of the plane!!”

  “Sorry. It’s already open.”

  “I’m dead!!”

  “Don’t be silly, Kammy. If I really did that, I wouldn’t be this relaxed.”

  …Could this plane have actually slowed down for this emergency drop-off…? he wondered. It would make sense since he hadn’t been feeling sick from the effects of the g-force…

  “Y-you…Then why did you tell me to take deep breaths?! That didn’t mean anything, did it?!”

  “Come on now, Kammy. You can’t struggle forever. Let go of the wall already.”

  “I was thankful. I really was! Thankful to you, Tsuchimikado, for being so considerate to me!! I can’t believe you did this!!”

  “Shut up. We’re going.”

  Tsuchimikado kicked his hands off the dents in the wall—and the spiky-haired boy lost all his support.

  The fierce winds blowing through the plane immediately picked up Touma Kamijou’s body, and he passed through the cargo-loading hatch on the fly and tumbled out into the skies.

  It was afternoon, local time.

  The sky was pure and blue and punctuat
ed by a high school boy’s shriek.

  “Ugyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

  A 360-degree view of blue sky unfolded before him.

  Wh-what’s happening? Just a few hours ago I was having a forkball contest with Fukiyose. Why the hell did I just get dropped out of a plane above France?!

  As he spun so fast he couldn’t tell up from down, he saw Tsuchimikado smile like he was truly enjoying this sky sport and jump right out of the plane.

  I’ll kill you…You piece of shit, when we land, I’m going to beat you into a bloody pulp!!

  Then he paled. …Wait, are we even gonna land somewhere safe? he thought, and a moment later, there was an explosion as his backpack burst apart.

  The giant parachute inside expanded. It must have been made to deploy automatically when it reached a certain speed.

  Unfortunately for Kamijou, it had come as a complete surprise.

  “Gehhh?! M-my neck…can’t bre—”

  He didn’t have a chance to finish his complaint.

  Plop…His arms and legs dangled limply, and in an extremely unnatural position, the boy continued his descent.

  Incidentally, the wind blew his parachute far from his intended landing position, eventually grounding him right in the middle of the Rhone’s one-hundred-meter span. But he didn’t know that yet.

  3

  Kamijou heard a watery squelch.

  When he realized it had come out of his own mouth, it alarmed him.

  His parachute had drifted along with the wind, dropping him in the middle of a river. It didn’t feel like his legs were touching the bottom. He wasn’t particularly good at swimming, but he was no slouch, either. Still, underwater with his clothes on and with the big fabric sheets of the parachute tangled around him, his body was sinking so fast it was almost funny.

  He didn’t see any signs of Tsuchimikado landing nearby. They might have gotten separated. Kamijou didn’t have time to bother with that, though, since he was underwater.

  He couldn’t tell how deep the river actually went. It was possible it was surprisingly shallow, but with his current distress, it was more than enough to drown him. All the water gave him right now was fear.

  He used his hands to try and paddle; they moved a few times slower than he thought. And his arms were trembling. Muscle fatigue, shaking from temperature loss due to the cold water, fear that he’d never go above surface again…

  All those things muddled together, making him feel like something invisible was squeezing him more and more.

  Crap, he thought.

  The air stored in his mouth sputtered out like someone had wrenched it open from inside.

  He looked overhead and saw the sunlight glittering on the water’s surface. A mad dance of light, dulling his sense of distance.

  Oh yeah, I got flung into the water from the ice ship in Chioggia, Italy, too, he thought, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu as he stared at the surface.

  …Then all of a sudden, something broke it with a huge splash of bubbles.

  …!!

  Before Kamijou had the time to be surprised, a slender arm reached out of the curtain of white air for him.

  By the time he realized someone had jumped in, the pale hand had grabbed his arm.

  Yoink.

  It began to haul him upward. His body, in its state of odd relaxation, approached the surface, reeled in as if by a rope. It took less than ten seconds for his face to break out of the water and touch air.

  He heard the water splash loudly.

  He’d yearned for this oxygen so much, and yet now he couldn’t breathe much in. Something was wrong with the muscles that moved his throat or lungs.

  “Are…are you all right?!” came a girl’s voice from immediately next to him.

  The parachute was like a weight, still dragging him down, down into the depths. Having to support the weight of two people, the girl’s voice raised even higher.

  “We’re going to…bank. Please stay relaxed!!”

  The riverbank…It was more like a shallow, dry section of riverbed. When they got there, Kamijou fell onto his rear end. Not only were his clothes wet but the parachute fabric had also absorbed water, making his body feel incredibly heavy. Plus, while he’d been struggling underwater, the chute’s strings had gotten wrapped around him, and now they were nothing but shackles.

  “Is…Do you do it like this…?”

  The girl reached to him from the side.

  With a loud ka-click, he was finally released from his bindings.

  Having escaped the entwining parachute, Kamijou slowly gained his feet on the river sand, which was underneath water about as deep as a puddle.

  He looked overhead and saw that the sun was high in the sky, which probably meant it was after noon. There was nobody else around but the two of them, though. Maybe they were all afraid of protests and riots and weren’t leaving their houses today.

  He took a look around. Right nearby, there was an arched stone bridge. However, it was half-destroyed, crumbling and cut off mid-river. Maybe the girl had jumped into the river from there.

  Right, the girl. He looked at his savior.

  He was supposedly in France right now, but she was a Japanese girl. She was probably about his age. Black, shoulder-length hair, distinctive double-edged eyelids, a pink tank top, white shorts ending above her knees. All in all, she cut a slender figure.

  “Did you inhale any water…?” she said, peering into his face with a look of consideration. Then he recalled who she was.

  If I remember right…He coughed. “You’re from Amakusa…Itsuwa, was it?”

  “Um, yes. It’s been a long time,” she said, cutely bowing her head.

  But she, along with the rest of the Amakusa members, was supposed to be living in London right now. They wouldn’t be in France for no particular reason.

  Why is Itsuwa here? He wondered for a moment. Wait, in this case, I guess there’s only one reason…

  “Hey, Itsuwa. Did Tsuchimikado call you out here?”

  “I…um. Mr. Tsuchimikado?”

  Contrary to his expectations, Itsuwa gave him a blank look and crooked her head to the side.

  He coughed again. Wait, was I wrong? he thought, blinking in surprise. “Well, I mean. All that stuff about the worldwide demonstrations and protests, and the Roman Orthodox Church’s Document of Constantine having something to do with it…”

  “H-how do you know that?” cried Itsuwa, putting a hand to her mouth. “Y-yes, we’re currently investigating the document. But Amakusa spent so much time looking for that clue. How do you know so easily?! I should have expected no less from the one who punched our former priestess to the ground with one fist!!”

  Itsuwa’s eyes started glittering for some reason, but the amnesiac Kamijou didn’t have those memories. He only wondered with a little fright, Seriously, what the heck did I do to Kanzaki?

  Meanwhile, Itsuwa presented him with another commonsense question. “Um, well, that is…Wait, why did you suddenly fall here with a parachute in the first place? Shouldn’t you be at school in Japan?”

  Kamijou scratched his head, wet with slightly muddy water. “Well, I came here with Tsuchimikado to stop the document…Did he not instruct the Puritans to tell you what he was doing?”

  “The English Puritan Church is the one who made this request of us—to look into the magical value of the ley lines and geography of France.”

  “Huh,” he muttered, then blinked. “Us?”

  “Yes,” said Itsuwa with a small nod. “All fifty-two of the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church’s combat personnel are mobilized, investigating France’s main cities. I was assigned here to Avignon, but…Then you fell from the sky, and I didn’t really know what was going on…”

  “…I see. This city is named Avignon?” he repeated dumbly.

  Kamijou had been dragged and dropped from the airplane by Tsuchimikado, and so he hadn’t known where he was currently. When he thought about it, maybe he should
consider himself lucky for running into a familiar Japanese face here.

  Whatever the case, if Tsuchimikado planned on coming to Avignon the whole time, it was highly probable the Roman Orthodox Church was using the document right here.

  Which made this enemy territory.

  And Kamijou had fallen right into the middle of it.

  “Hey, by the way, Itsuwa. I think Tsuchimikado was saying they had to be in the Vatican to use the document, right?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “Then why are we investigating France and not Italy? I asked him, too, but he knocked me out of the airplane before answering.”

  Itsuwa must have thought the last part was a strange joke. She made a quite oddly pained grin.

  Then she gave a start, remembering something. “Oh, um, could I go grab my things before we talk about that?”

  “What things?”

  “I left them on the bridge. I-I’m a little worried about someone stealing them.”

  The bridge must have been the one right nearby—arched and made of half-destroyed stone.

  Itsuwa must have really jumped into the river from there.

  “Oh. It’s a little late, but thanks. If you hadn’t saved me, I would have been in serious trouble.”

  “N-no, not at all! I didn’t do much!!” Itsuwa’s head whipped from side to side as she waved a hand in front of her face. Flecks of water flew from her hands.

  After seeing that, Kamijou asked another question. “Oh, right, Itsuwa, do you have a change of clothes in your bag?”

  “Huh? W-well, Amakusa is a religion specializing in covert activities, after all…” Itsuwa was surprised at the sudden question, but her expression as she explained herself seemed somehow prideful. “I left most of my things for this stay in the hotel, but I have a complete set of clothes for tailing or fleeing in there. I didn’t have a chance to use it until now, though.”

  “I see. That’s good.”

  “?” Itsuwa looked at him blankly, evidently not realizing what Kamijou was actually talking about.

  But he couldn’t just say it to her directly.

  Instead, he looked away and into the sky, using his index finger to point.