Toaru Majutsu no Index

Volume 6, Epilogue: On the Other Side of the Stage.

“Doctor, look, I’m not staying in the hospital this time. Ain’t I great? This should be some sort of development, right?”

Inside the doctor’s consultation room, Kamijou delightedly said this to the frog-faced doctor. At that moment, Tsukuyomi Komoe and Himegami Aisa reached their arms out from each side and smacked him on the head.

“Kamijou! You really don’t think anything of causing trouble to others! Causing so much trouble for Anti-Skill...really! I’ll ask you where you went later, so prepare to explain yourself!”

“Didn’t I tell you several times to be careful about this person called ‘Kazakiri Hyouka’? You can’t control yourself whenever you see a woman, looks like we have to thoroughly correct you.”

“...Doctor, those two behind me are really scary. Can you just let me stay in the hospital? Until those two calm down, I need to hide. If possible, send me to the ICU, and don’t allow any visitors.”

The moment Kamijou said this to the frog-faced doctor, the duo behind smacked Kamijou’s head even faster.

Right now, the sun had set, and it was past visiting time. But even though Kamijou was jumping all around, he was still an emergency patient.

After getting involved in a gunfight, and the subway collapse, it was proper procedure to do a thorough check. This instruction was certainly reasonable.

On a side note, Index and Kazakiri were waiting in the waiting room. Shirai Kuroko herself was said to be unable to sleep tonight as she has to clear everything up.

The frog-faced doctor sure looked helpless on seeing that he had to meet a patient after working hours. He said to Kamijou,

“I really can’t stand you, how can you still smile after this situation? Did too much fatigue cause you to be so hyperactive? Anyway, I must remind you that one more step, your hand would end up with complex fractures."

“...What?”

“You seemed surprised, don’t you? But this is really very likely. The human hand can do many intricate things, but as there are too many joints, it can’t withstand impact. If it’s just a simple attack, a hammer would be a lot safer than a fist.”

On hearing these words, Kamijou remembered that he did feel some pain in his right hand, and shuddered. The doctor’s words were really destructive.

The frog-faced doctor skillfully used a threat to let the patient’s comfort level decrease, and quickly bandaged Kamijou’s hand.

Kamijou remained silent, Komoe-sensei and Himegami weren’t saying anything as well.

After a while, on seeing Kamijou’s bandaged hand, Komoe-sensei slowly said,

“There are many suspicious points about this.”

“Suspicious points?”

“Yes. Though I won’t understand these points even if I say them out loud, it’s uncomfortable for me to keep it to myself, so sensei will point them out.”

Komoe-sensei revealed a smile with deep meaning, raised her index finger, and said,

“First, why would Kazakiri Hyouka ‘appear’ around Kamijou? The entire city’s filled with AIM dispersion field, so logically, she could be anywhere in this city. Why would she appear ‘next to Kamijou’ several times? Of course, this isn’t a coincidence.”

After that, Komoe-sensei raised her middle finger.

“Second, Himegami said that ‘Kazakiri Hyouka is the key to the ‘Imaginary Number District - Five Elements Institution’, what does this mean? However, since these words were said by the teachers at Kirigaoka Girls' Academy, maybe they're just a baseless rumour.”

After that, she raised her ring finger.

“Lastly, the third point. Why was the terrorist able to accurately find Kazakiri Hyouka’s location when she just ‘appeared’ only for today? Even for us in Academy City, we didn’t even sense Kazakiri Hyouka’s presence, so this information may be leaked from the administrators of Academy City. Of course, this may be just a coincidence, and maybe related.”

Finally, Komoe-sensei opened her five fingers wide, placing her two palms together, and said,

“However, why did so many coincidences occur at the same time? Maybe this is the most suspicious point.”

The entire consultation room was silent.

There was too little information for them to derive an answer.

At that moment, the frog-faced doctor turned away and looked outside the window.

Though one couldn’t see it from the hospital, far away in that direction, there was a windowless building.

“Are you happy now?”

Inside a certain room of that building that didn’t have any doors, windows, corridors, stairs and air ducts, Tsuchimikado Motoharu looked away from the image that was floating in mid-air as he said viciously.

Aleister, who was floating upside-down inside the giant glass cylinder, revealed a slight smile and didn’t answer,

Tsuchimikado seemed like he couldn’t endure the silence, and said,

“Using people as chess pieces, getting the key to the Imaginary Number District - Five Elements Institution, and you just completed one more part of your plan. Really, to me, you’re the real monster.”

Imaginary Number District - Five Elements Institution.

“Nobody could guess that it was just the AIM dispersal field. Nobody knows that the natural energy scattered by the 2.3 million students in Academy City is the Imaginary Number District.”

As long as power users existed in the city, there would be an AIM dispersal field, and thus there would be a Five Elements Institution.

No one even knew whether the Five Elements Institution was harmful or not.

It wasn’t a large energy corporation that produced energy like nuclear power. If a strong force appeared in Academy City, anyone could feel that something was not right. The truth of the Five Elements Institution, or the AIM dispersal field, was a tiny energy that can only be felt through machines.

However, the Five Elements Institution was as unstable as water at 0 degrees Celsius and in vacuum state.

Under vacuum state, when the pressure’s really low, as the freezing point drops, water won’t freeze even when it’s 0 degrees Celsius. However, by using something like a stick to stir it, the vacuum state water would freeze.

It was the same with the Five Elements Institution. Normally, this little energy could only be detected by a machine, but by giving a certain amount of impact, the power would increase. In this incident, Kazakiri Hyouka’s power greatly increased later on, because of the ‘impact’. It was unknown though whether this ‘impact’ came from the stone golem’s attack, or if there was another catch to it.

But now, the question was – how big was this ‘certain level of impact’? Nobody knew. Maybe one could just stretch a finger and snap it to cause a huge explosion, or maybe one didn’t need to mind about it.

Besides, ‘the power would instantly increase’ was just a ‘predicted’ outcome. What kind of power, how large the scale, no one knew. Maybe it might end up with Academy City disappearing from the world map, or maybe it was nothing at all.

The specifics couldn’t be defined, the results couldn’t be judged. Thus, Academy City wouldn’t so easily try to remove the Five Elements Institution.

If so, why wouldn’t they just control it instead of erasing it?

And the key among this was—

“Kazakiri Hyouka? You actually let a part of the Imaginary Number District materialize by letting it be self-aware as a human? That’s crazy.”

A boy had a right hand called the Imagine Breaker.

This right hand was the only threat to the Imaginary District.

As it felt the threat, it started to be self-aware.

Appetite, sleep; the basic desires that were naturally derived from human functions were all signals about ‘wanting to live’ and ‘I don’t want to die’. In other words, things that didn’t know life and death wouldn’t develop personalities or self-awareness right from the start.

Looking at it another way,

If one used the Imagine Breaker to instill a concept of ‘death’, one could cause an illusion that didn’t have self-awareness to be self-aware.

Aleister, who had been silent up till now, finally said,

“This is a tactic to help control the Imaginary District even more easily. Instead of letting it be in a selfless state of ‘not knowing what to do’, I guess I should let it be able to think, make it easier to predict some of the actions, and even use it for negotiations or coercion.”

“If you’re creating someone who’s friendly to you that you can predict, there’s no problem. But how would you be able to handle this if it’s a villain that no one can imagine?”

“Villains are easier to control than good people. The difference between these two is only in the method used to handle them.”

Tsuchimikado cursed. It was true that Aleister viewed humans differently from normal humans.

“Is there really any meaning to doing all this just to get to that Imaginary Number District?”

Tsuchimikado couldn’t help but ask,

“That’s right, the Imaginary Number District is a huge threat to Academy City. However, the threat doesn’t just exist on the inside. You may have done this today, and it would slowly cause this world to lose it's stability. Without knowing why, a legitimate member of the English Anglicans got beaten by Anti-Skill, so St. George Cathedral won’t just keep quiet about it. Are you thinking that you can use this city to beat all the magicians in the world?”

Hearing Tsuchimikado’s threatening voice, the blank expression on Aleister’s face remained unchanged.

“By getting hold of that, magicians aren’t something to be worth fearing.”

“What did you say?”

On hearing these words from Aleister, Tsuchimikado couldn’t help but frown.

The Imaginary Number District, the Five Element Institution, these things weren’t going to assure anyone that it was safe in this city, it was just for the internal affairs of Academy City. The AIM dispersal field only formed around power users.

Thinking about this, Tsuchimikado suddenly had a bad premonition creep up his back.

(Hold on...)

He again tried to summarize the collection of AIM dispersal field, which was all the features of the Imaginary Number District-Five Element Institution.

This thing was like an infrared or high frequency sound, even though it existed, it couldn’t be seen or heard.

It was something that existed on a different plane from humans, using a certain force that had gathered to form a new type of life.

Tsuchimikado Motoharu was rather clear about this.

What this thing would be called in magic terms.

(Don’t tell me...an Angel?)

No, the residents of the Imaginary District—like Kazakiri Hyouka, were ‘Angels’. And the ‘city’ that she was staying in was...

“Aleister...are you thinking of creating an artificial Heaven?”

“What do you say?”

Aleister just coldly gave him this response.

"An artificial Heaven...no, if it’s created only with the power of science, it can’t be called terms like ‘Heaven’ or ‘demon realm’. This is a new ‘world’, not existing in the classics like Kabala, Buddhism, Christianity, Shintoism or Hinduism."

And once this new ‘world’ was created, it meant all of magic would be erased.

For example, assuming that the buoyancy and lift values of the world were drastically increased.

In this situation, according to the picture that a kindergarten child draws, the plane would never fly, but even by following an expert’s design to create a plane, one couldn’t fly as well. However in reality, the plane would still glide on the runway as it tried to fly. What would happen though was that the plane would instantly lose balance once it left the ground, and crash.

Once the new ‘world’ appeared, the magic environment would drastically change, and it would have a similar meaning. Once a magician tried to use magic, the body would explode. The temples and churches that were supported by magic would lose the support, and collapse.

The same phenomenon would occur to any religion.

Thinking closely, one would know that any religion had a certain set of ‘rules’. Of course, there wasn’t just one. Buddhism has Buddhist laws, Christianity has Christian laws. These laws are like all sorts of colors that are newly drawn on this large picture called the world.

All the religions have only one common point, and that’s a certain set of laws.

So what would happen if a new ‘world’ was inserted where the law exists? The law and order that was originally there would be jumbled up. The magicians would explode and kill themselves no matter what kind of magic they used.

No matter how good a violinist was, he couldn’t use a violin with messed-up strings to play. It was the same with the messed-up laws.

Right now, the key to the Imaginary District wasn’t complete yet. Once finished, no magician would be able to use magic in Academy City.

And Academy City itself was a miniature version of the world.

Once the power development reached a global scale, all humans would be able to use powers, and the entire world would be engulfed under the AIM dispersal field. The Imaginary District that only existed within Academy City would spread to the entire world.

No.

The preparations were already complete.

The working power users ‘SISTERs’ that Kamijou had saved, totalling about 10,000 people, were now scattered all over the world to all the agencies that were co-operating with Academy City. Why must they be patched up ‘outside’? This puzzled Tsuchimikado, and now here was the answer.

That ridiculous experiment that Accelerator underwent wasn’t really some Level 6 evolution, but to scatter the cloned power users all over the world. In order to allow these ‘SISTERs’ to be deported ‘outside’, they came up with the destruction plan of power users, and then abolished this Level 6 project. Using these 2 fake actions, they deported the ‘SISTERs’ all over the world.

This tactic should be considered a success, as right now, all the churches and forces, including the English Anglicans, had not detected the real reason why the ‘SISTERs’ had been deported ‘outside’. No, even if they did, they won’t understand the seriousness of it. At most they would think that Academy City was trying to clean up the mess of its internal problems.

These power users were like an antenna of the Imaginary District, covering the entire world.

After that, as long as they could get hold of this incomplete Imaginary District and let the new ‘world’ activate.

All the magicians would lose control of their powers and self-destruct due to the new ‘world’.

But to power users, the AIM dispersal field wasn’t harmful at all.

If so, the results of the war between the magic side and the science side would be very obvious. No, that couldn’t be considered a war. It was like blasting out the brains of an enemy who had surrendered.

Thinking about this, Tsuchimikado shook his head.

Was this really Aleister’s final goal? Maybe, maybe not. This person may be smiling and thinking that this level of events was just a stepping stone to help him achieve his other goals, but maybe he was not thinking of that either.

It was hard to tell.

This person, Aleister, who looked like a man, and like a woman; an adult, and a child; a Saint, and a convict, had all the possibilities of humanity. Thus, nobody could guess what he was thinking. It was not an exaggeration to say that he may be thinking of what the whole of humanity was thinking now.

Tsuchimikado shuddered, but like a defeated dog, he tried to be brave as he said,

“Humph, if the English Anglicans know about it, they will declare war. Right now, I really pity Sherry Cromwell. From what I see from your huge conspiracy, she isn’t simply playing the role of a villain, but a character that stood up to fight against the evil power in order to protect her own world.”

“Don’t be so paranoid. I’m not intending to fight against the Church. Besides, to create that Artificial Heaven that you thought of, I have to really understand how the real Heaven works. That’s the magic side’s business; it’s not something that I can understand while standing on the science side.”

“Are you treating me as if I was born yesterday? In this world, who understands magic more than you do?”

Tsuchimikado curled his lips as he said,

“The magician, Aleister Crowley...”

During the 20th century, there existed a magician who was hailed as the greatest in history.

Everyone agreed that he was the most outstanding magician in the world, and also the biggest embarrassment to magic.

Nobody else in history had performed an act which insulted the magic world to the extent that he had.

That was to give up that magic power he had developed to start all over again and analyze science and technology.

Why Aleister would give up everything he had when he stood at the pinnacle of the magicians, nobody knew. But this was the biggest insult to the magic world. For the strongest magician in the world to give up magic and go to the science side. What Aleister had done was like being the leader of the magic society, and without any compromise, surrendering to science.

Thus, Aleister Crowley became the enemy of all magicians in the world. The people who were trying to kill him weren’t just the English Anglicans that specialized in hunting down witches, but also people who were even the least involved with magic.

Stiyl and Aleister had met before, but Stiyl hadn’t seen through to Aleister’s real identity, and there was a reason behind this. While the English Anglicans were hunting down Aleister Crowley, they had been said to be gathering information about him for a long time. However, the information was just false information that Aleister himself leaked. Since the original information was wrong, no matter whether one used magical or scientific means to track down Aleister, they couldn’t possibly find any connections to the real Aleister Crowley. In other words, to the English Anglicans, Aleister just so happened to be a common name, or maybe even a false name.

This level of patience and guts made Tsuchimikado’s jaw drop. Even if he himself could do this, he wouldn’t risk it. Or maybe it just showed the difference in power between Aleister and Tsuchimikado.

“Just treat this as me not going to admit defeat to you, I’m going to give you some advice, Aleister.”

“Hm, I’m all ears.”

“Have you heard of the words ‘hard luck’[1]?”

“It means ‘misfortune’, right?”

“There’s another meaning to this. That’s ‘no matter how many times one meets a hellish fate, the person is lucky enough to overcome it safely’.”

Tsuchimikado chuckled, and continued,

“I don’t understand what’s on your mind. Even if you explain it to me further, I most likely won’t be able to understand. But, once you make use of that Imagine Breaker, I hope you’re prepared. If you’re going to treat him half-heartedly, that right hand will rip your illusion apart.”

After Tsuchimikado said that, the teleporter entered the room as if she timed it perfectly.

After that, Tsuchimikado was taken away by this girl who was shorter than him by 30cm.

In this empty room, the man hanging upside down muttered to himself.

“Hm, all the illusions that I believed in were destroyed a long time ago.”

Index and Kazakiri Hyouka were sitting side by side on the sofa in the hospital waiting room.

Basically, they didn’t allow pets inside the hospital, so the calico cat was guarding the house. The white nun who was normally with the calico cat seemed impatient, not knowing where to put her hands.

Kazakiri carefully said to Index,

“Erm...that...skirt...aren’t you going to repair it?”

Index was stunned, so she looked down at her lower body. She had taken off those safety pins in order to fight against the stone golems, and now her skirt was all split apart. Now it looked like a high-cut cheongsam.

“That...looks outrageous...no sense of defensiveness at all, so dangerous...”

“After so many things happened, I didn’t really have time to repair it. Hyouka, does it look weird?”

“It...it was...very weird...it was weird right from the beginning...it’s even weirder now...”

“It’s weirder now?”

Index narrowed her eyes, as if she just heard Kazakiri’s true words.

At that moment, something strange happened.

Kazakiri Hyouka revealed a bitter smile with a profound meaning behind it, and suddenly, she started to sway like the fog. It was as if there was an illusion, that if she was not careful, Kazakiri’s body would disappear into mid-air.

Index gasped. Kazakiri’s outline was starting to sway, but never once did it cuts off.

“Hyo...Hyouka...this...”

“Mm...it’s a bit troublesome...”

Kazakiri smiled, and said,

“My body...is like a block of powers concentrated in one, so...no matter how I try, I can only exist in an unstable state. And I can’t remain forever...”

Kazakiri confessed. However, Index thought of another possibility.

Imagine Breaker.

The killer hand that erased all supernatural powers, without caring whether it was good or evil.

“No, it’s not that.”

Kazakiri seemed like she saw through what Index was thinking according to her expression.

“That person’s power...didn’t affect me...if it had, I would have most likely disappeared into thin air. So, this isn’t his fault...”

Kazakiri Hyouka gently said, but her voice was fluctuating sometimes being high, and sometimes low.

“...Don’t worry, I won’t be destroyed that easily...my body has the power of 2.3 million people...my lifespan is numerous times that of yours...”

Kazakiri Hyouka smiled.

Index added on the knowledge in her brain to Kazakiri’s words, thinking that it was alright.

But for some reason, Index still felt a heavy sense of insecurity.

Kazakiri’s outline continued to sway unnaturally, without a single sound. Maybe it was an illusion, but the swaying seemed large, as if fog was scattering.

“Ah...yes...regarding something...I don’t know whether it’s important to you...”

“What?”

“Regarding that person’s power...I’m...not too sure...”

After pausing for a while, Kazakiri Hyouka said this.

Kamijou Touma’s right hand couldn’t be explained through supernatural powers.

Index was shocked as her entire body froze.

“Wait...hold on, Hyouka, it’s not possible, right? That kind of right hand doesn’t exist in magic! That strange power doesn’t exist in the knowledge of the 103,000 grimoires that I have in my head! If that’s not an esper power, I can’t explain it!”

“Ma...magic? I don’t know...what that is...”

Kazakiri smiled,

“However, I can confirm that that’s not an esper power...my body is formed through...all the esper powers in Academy City...if that person is an esper, the moment his weak energy enters my body, it would have erased my body in an instant.”

Index recalled how the boy had said that his power wasn’t derived from inside Academy City. That it wasn’t man-made, but an innate ability.

If so, what was that power? Index sunk into deep thought.

Since it was a not magic nor esper power, it was another form of power.

“It’s time...for me to go...”

Kazakiri said as she stood up from the sofa.

Everything that was on Index’s mind instantly vanished. She quickly looked up, feeling very insecure. She said she was going back, but where? If one was to think of it normally, it basically meant night time, it was time to go home. However, for baseless reasons, Index felt that there was a deeper meaning behind it.

Index’s expression was like that of an abandoned child. Kazakiri gently smiled and said to her,

“Don’t worry...it’s alright. Even when my body vanishes, I’m not dead...I just can’t be seen, can’t be touched...even if you can’t feel it, I’ll always stay with you...”

Index wondered: why would she say such things right now?

It was as if they wouldn’t see each other again.

Even though there was no proof.

Kazakiri Hyouka didn’t say anything like a farewell.

“HYOUKA!”

Index couldn’t help but shout at Kazakiri, who had turned her back.

Kazakiri slowly turned around.

“Yes?”

“Can...can we go out and play tomorrow?”

Index said with a teary expression.

Kazakiri Hyouka smiled.

She replied,

“Sure.”

Notes

1. ↑ the novels gave it as ‘hard luck’ in English