A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 7 (6 page)

Kamijou felt the temperature around him decrease.

“On the run…?”

“Yes. There was a slight bit of trouble and I am currently in the midst of my great escape. I had heard Academy City was out of reach of the Church factions, so I wanted to flee there if possible.”

“The Church…Hey, does this have anything to do with sorcerers?” asked Kamijou.

The sister, visibly surprised, asked, “How do you know of the existence of sorcerers?”

“Guess I hit a bull’s-eye, judging by that look.” Kamijou sighed. “Academy City, huh? You know, if you’re seriously being chased, then going into the city won’t make you completely safe. Illegal invaders come screaming into the place pretty much all the time.”

He knew about everything revolving around the girl named Index, so he was all too aware that fleeing into the city wouldn’t shake off the sorcerers’ pursuit.

“Then what should I—?”

The sister’s face was slowly getting to the point where she might cry. He was pretty sure he knew how dangerous these sorcerer people were, so he was hesitant to just leave her here, but…

“—Would you happen to be able to read the bus route map?”

“How many pages ago did we leave that topic?! And this time you added a new term, ‘bus route map’! Where did the issue of whether you could get into Academy City or not go?!” Kamijou shouted. He was thoroughly exasperated at the surprised sister who had backed up to the topic of some minutes earlier.

If sorcerers were really chasing her, he didn’t think it would be good to ignore her. But he had a situation on his hands and couldn’t afford to take anything lightly. He was worried about Index, who had been kidnapped (apparently). It was a deeply suspicious situation, but he still couldn’t ignore it.
I don’t want to discard either of them! Jeez, what should I do?!
wondered Kamijou, about to start frantically scratching his head, when he suddenly realized something.

Wait…Why don’t I take this nun with me to Index?

He thought it was a splendid plan.

He did seem to recall something in the threat letter about coming alone, though.

Stiyl and Index left Hakumeiza’s great hall and walked into the remains of a lobby that must have been where tickets were sold.

A girl wearing a jet-black habit led them a few steps ahead.

She was about one or two years younger than Index, and her hair was a reddish-brown—she was essentially a redhead. Her hair was braided into many strands, each about the thickness of a pencil. The sleeves on the habit she was wearing were long enough to cover her fingertips, but in contrast, her skirt was so short you could see her thighs. Looking closer revealed a fastener-like object on the skirt’s edge. She must have taken off a detachable piece of the clothing. Her waist was more slender than Index’s, who was still definitely on the skinny side.

She was as tall as Index. But when you followed the sound of her clopping, horse-like footsteps down to her feet, you would find them wearing cork platform sandals thirty centimeters high. They were called chopines, footwear popular in seventeenth-century Italy.

She was a nun of the Roman Orthodox faith, and she had introduced herself as Agnes Sanctis.

“The situation is already a mess. We’re getting conflicting information, too, so we don’t exactly know where Orsola went, I suppose? We don’t rightly know if they secured the
Book of the Law
, either, so we’re in a pile of trouble.”

There were no Japanese people here, but Agnes spoke in fluent Japanese.

“For the moment, our raid against Amakusa-Style as they were transporting the kidnapped Orsola could be considered a success. Despite one of our people rescuing Orsola, Amakusa kidnapped her again before they could reunite with the main force. Then, when we took her back a second time, a separate Amakusa-Style group kidnapped her yet again…We’ve been going around in circles. We spread out our scouting operations too thin, and it came back to bite us. Even though we have more people than they do, each separate group has been losing people, and they’ve been capitalizing on that. So while we’ve been stealing and capturing Orsola over and over and over and over again, Orsola herself, whom we should have caught up to by now, has disappeared to who-knows-where.”

Agnes’s tone was both rough and polite. If she had learned the language on the job, it might have been from talking to Japanese detectives and investigators.

As Stiyl mulled that over, Agnes spun around. Her short skirt fluttered, revealing more of her pale thighs.

“What is it? Oh, I apologize. I can speak English as well, but I can’t seem to get my Italian accent out of it. No one usually cares, unless they’re from England, anyway. So if you wouldn’t mind, I’d prefer to speak in the local language.”

Stiyl smoked the cigarette in his mouth, not seeming particularly concerned.

“No, I don’t mind much. In fact, I could speak Italian as well.”

“Please, don’t. If I heard my mother tongue spoken with an English accent, I would be laughing too hard to do my job. We should stick to a language that’s foreign for all of us. We won’t get into any fights as long as we both sound weird speaking it.
”

Clop-clop
went Agnes’s platform sandals like a horse’s hooves.

She had a point, but Stiyl needlessly worried about what language she planned on using with
actual
Japanese people in this country. If those around her couldn’t use it in the first place, then he wasn’t sure why she needed to learn the country’s language.

Index had been silent the whole time. She didn’t say a word.

She just pouted. She shot an angry sidelong glance at Stiyl to show that she wasn’t talking to him, then returned her gaze to Agnes.

“So this Amakusa-Style borrowed the
Book of the Law
and Orsola Aquinas from your home. Do they really threaten you that much?”

“You mean, why is Roman Orthodoxy, the largest religion in the world, having so much trouble, don’t you? Well, I don’t actually have anything to say to that. We have more in terms of numbers and armament, but they’ve been disrupting us by using the terrain to their advantage. Japan is their backyard, after all. It does make me pretty mad that we’re taking damage from someone with a numbers disadvantage, though. I don’t want to admit it, but they’re strong.”

“…So they won’t give in easily, will they?” Stiyl’s voice was just slightly bitter.

He’d thought the “walk softly and carry a big stick” idea would have been the fastest and most peaceful way of resolving things, but if the opponent had enough might not to capitulate to your negotiations, the only thing left to do would be a protracted fight.

The longer the battle went on with Amakusa, the higher the danger that Kanzaki would stick her neck into this. Now that things had come to this, the smoothest option might be to abandon any sense of mercy and take down Amakusa with one blitz before she noticed.

The Roman Orthodox Church’s objective was to retake the
Book of the Law
and Orsola Aquinas, not to annihilate Amakusa. If they were to get what they actually wanted, they would likely pull back right away. After that, they just had to worry about ridding Amakusa of their will to fight.

“I don’t know much about the history of Crossism in Japan, but do you know what sort of techniques Amakusa uses? You might be able to set up some amulets or warding circles for searching or defense based on that.”

Stiyl had been partners with Kanzaki, former leader of Amakusa-Style, in the past, but he never bothered to try and analyze her techniques. After all, she was one of less than twenty saints in the world. Even if he did figure them out, a normal person like him would never be able to use
them. No human would ever think to measure the distance between the sun and the earth with a fifty-centimeter-long ruler.

Agnes looked worried at the priest’s question as well.

“Actually…We haven’t been able to properly analyze Amakusa-Style’s techniques. If they were based on Xavier’s Society of Jesus, then that would mean they were a branch of Roman Orthodoxy, but you can’t even
smell
Christianity anymore. There’s too much influence from Oriental religions, like Chinese and Japanese ones, mixed in there.”

Stiyl still didn’t blame Agnes even after hearing that. Just them being able to determine from their skirmishes yesterday that Buddhism and Shinto were mixed into things might have spoken volumes for their analytical abilities.

He looked away from her and to Index, as if interested in her opinion.

She had at least ten thousand times the knowledge of a normal person, so at times like this, she was the unchallenged champion.

The sister all in white spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Amakusa-Style is famous for their secrecy. They’re Christians in hiding from the motherland, after all. They thoroughly conceal their Crossism using Buddhism and Shinto, and they hide their techniques and spells within greetings, meals, habits, and behaviors—they hide all traces that Amakusa-Style ever even existed. So Amakusa-Style doesn’t use any obvious incantations or magic circles. Their dishes and bowls, their pots and knives, their bathtubs and beds, their whistling and humming…They use seemingly everyday, ubiquitous concepts for their sorcery. I don’t think even professional sorcerers would be able to figure out Amakusa-Style’s spells, even if they saw them. I mean, it wouldn’t look like anything except a normal kitchen or bathroom.”

Stiyl slowly moved the cigarette in his mouth up and down.

“Which means they’re essentially idolatry specialists. Hmm. They seem more suited for long-range sniping combat than close-range melee combat. Though we can only pray they’re not part of something like the Gregorian Choir.”

“No, not at all. Even when Japan is in isolation, they aggressively absorb the cultures of other countries. They possess close-quarters combat techniques as well—original methods fused from all manner of sword arts both from the east and west. They could be swinging around anything from katana to zweihänders.”

“…They’re warriors and scholars both, huh? What a pain in the ass,” spat Stiyl resentfully. Incidentally, Agnes, who had at some point been driven outside the ring of the conversation, was shyly kicking her toes lightly against the lobby floor. Her short skirt fluttered every time she kicked it. Her feet made clapping sounds, which sounded a little silly.

The cigarette-smoking priest turned back to Agnes.

“So how far out does your search go for the
Book of the Law
and Orsola? We probably shouldn’t be standing around, either. Where should we look?”

“Ah, right. We’re handling the search on our end, so it’s fine.”

With the conversation now back on track, Agnes straightened up a bit hastily.

“We practically have a patent on human wave tactics. Even now, we’re doing it with a group of two hundred and fifty people. Nothing will change by adding one or two more, and you’re under different command anyway, so it would actually run the risk of getting confusing.”

“So then why did you call us out here?”

Stiyl frowned just a little, while the corners of Agnes’s mouth curled into a smile.

“It’s simple. We want you to investigate what we cannot.”

“Like what? There’s no church in Japan directly administrating English Puritanism. In terms of places you couldn’t search if we refused to help, it’s pretty much just the British Embassy.”

“No, there’s also Academy City.” Agnes waved one hand in the air. “Considering the occasion, it’s not impossible. If Orsola fled into Academy City, Amakusa wouldn’t be able to get to her. Or, rather, it would be more difficult to follow her. So I want you two to get in contact with the city. The Roman Orthodox Church has no connection to it, so it would be a pain for us to do it.”

“I see…However, you might have told us a little bit earlier. I sort of wish I could make my past self ask you sooner.”

As could be understood from Index having been entrusted to Academy City, there was a slender thread connecting the city to the English Puritan Church. It was just barely significant enough to say there was diplomatic relations, but that was enough to make it far easier for them to contact the city than it would have been for the Roman Orthodox Church, who had no such connection.

“…But that would mean she’s fled into quite the troublesome spot.”

“This is just a possibility. Let’s pray that Lady Orsola at least has that much discretion. Anyway, about how long would it take to get in touch with them and confirm?”

“Right, it wouldn’t be just a phone call. I would have to contact St. George’s Cathedral first, and then have them put me through to Academy City…Even if I told them it was an emergency, it would probably take anywhere from seven to ten minutes. Also, if we get permission to intrude upon the city, things will turn into a hassle. It’s technically possible to sneak in, but realistically, I’d want to avoid that.”

“Oh, you can just ask them for now, so if you could do that quickly that would be gre—”

Agnes suddenly paused in the middle of her sentence and froze.

He followed her gaze to the entrance of the building in the front of the lobby. It was a large entryway with five glass double doors.

“What is it? What’s wr—”

Stiyl also stopped mid-question.

“?”

Finally, Index followed where they were looking.

On the other side of the glass entryway was an open square of asphalt that used to be a parking lot. Despite the size of the building, it was an extremely small space. There should have been nothing there at the moment but robust weeds growing through the hardened cracks in its surface…but in the former parking lot that should have been empty, there was something.

Or rather, there was some
body
.

“Oh, it’s Touma!”

Index said the name of a familiar boy.

“Or…sola…Aquinas?”

Agnes spoke the name of the sister in black walking next to the boy.

The two whose names had been voiced didn’t seem to have noticed the sorcerers inside Hakumeiza yet.

A little while earlier…

Though the evening sun was cooler than other times, Kamijou was cursing the heavy manual labor of walking three kilometers in the summertime.

C-come to think of it, I was already totally beat from gym class and that other stuff today
…

He had left his wallet in his dorm, so obviously walking was his only method of transportation.

The sister in black walking beside him didn’t have any money, either. He couldn’t help but wonder how in the world she planned on actually taking the bus. Dripping with sweat from all that had happened, he had trekked three kilometers down the road in the harsh last heat wave of summer in September and had arrived at Hakumeiza, but…

“Umm…Miss Nun Lady? You’re wearing black clothing in this blazing heat. How are you going along smiling and not sweating at all?”

“Well, the agony of the flesh is nothing compared to the agony of the soul.”

“…You’re a nun
and
a masochist?”

“Excuse me, but how much longer must we walk until we arrive at the bus stop?”

“Are you still on that whole bus joke?! I told you we were going to go see a guy from the English Puritan Church! Were you just ignoring every single thing I said back there or what?!”

“Oh, my. Please excuse my rudeness—you seem to be sweating quite a bit.”

“Argh! You keep taking the conversation in totally different directions!!”

“Now, now. I will wipe your sweat for you, so please hold still for just a moment.”

“Eh, what? Hey, wait,
brfgh
?!”

The sister suddenly took a handkerchief out of her sleeve and wiped his face. It was only a handkerchief, but it was made of expensive-looking lace, and was faintly warm, and smelled like roses. He tried to escape from it, but she was pressing it against his face unexpectedly hard, so he couldn’t.

“There, there. All finished.”

The sister smiled at him brightly enough to shoot sunbeams at him.