Chapter 7 – Angel or Demon

"Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, darling-"

"For God's sake, stop singing!" said Kimi angrily.

"You give love a bad name!"

In return, Honoka had a lot of bandages thrown in her face. It had been a busy day and Kimi was tired, especially as she hadn't expected to go to the infirmary so early in the morning

"And here I thought you liked music," commented Honoka, dipping absorbent cotton in alcohol.

"I'm starting to hate it," Kimi said as she rolled her eyes. "You only sing about love and romance, among other mushy things. I hate it all - ouch!"

"Stop moving. And that song doesn't quite mean what you think it means."

The wound on Kimi's face was being cleaned by Honoka, who had attentive eyes coming towards her. The two were sharing a bed, one sitting next to the other where the pillows should be, which they had placed on their laps.

"Are you finished?" asked Kimi, already losing patience.

"All that's left is this adhesive plaster and... that's it." Honoka smiled and made a positive sign with her thumb. "If you carry on like this, you'll get some ugly scars. Or not... You're lucky we're in the city of science."

"I'd be more intimidating at least." Kimi shrugged, unconcerned.

"You're 10 years old, no amount of scarring is going to make a little girl intimidating."

"But when I get older..."

"I'm sure you'll become a stunning young lady when you're older, my cute little sister. I'd recommend letting your hair grow."

It wasn't a good idea. Kimi was sure, deep down in her heart, that she would become someone who would get into fights often. The bizarre thing is that it was only recently that this realization came to her.

"So, was it worth it?" asked Honoka, putting away the medical kit.

"I can't say." Kimi put her hand to her sore cheek. "That spiky-haired bastard packs quite a right punch. And he didn't even flinch, even though I'm a girl. I already figured he had a screw loose, but it surprised me. "

"Why do you have a half-smile on your face?" And Honoka also had a strange smile. "Don't tell me you're the kind of person who likes being be—"

Honoka was interrupted when Kimi poked her in the forehead.

She had been smiling for no particular reason, barely aware of it. Perhaps the extra dose of emotion she'd received had made her feel more energetic. She needed it. Every day she felt less and less. That numb feeling, deep inside, remained constant, pulsating, never fleeting, and perhaps it would only worsen with time.

"Next time, I'll give him a good beating," Kimi said, snapping her fingers.

"You landed some solid blows. When you hit him on the forehead with the metal tray and he fell back, I thought it was over."

"I should have gone for the second blow. The bastard can take punishment. Good." She was too excited.

"Don't pretend that's what you're interested in." Honoka narrowed her eyes, arms crossed.

"Huh?"

"Don't play dumb. Do you think I haven't noticed? Every time you try to intimidate him, it's conveniently before that group of high-level espers. That day, I saw you whisper something to Raifu when you head-butted him."

"Stop Honoka, you're making things up in your head."

"Shundan-chan," she said in a childish voice, squeezing her friend's cheeks, who grunted slightly in pain. "I've known you long enough to know when you're acting strange. You've never been one to try to intimidate anyone. Maybe that was a weird way of trying to help him?"

If she felt like answering, she would say she was helping herself. Maybe she was becoming someone she wasn't, but she was already past the point of caring. She just wanted to hold on to something before she went crazy in this collapsing white sandcastle. How she hated all that white. Her head throbbed every time she focused on something, so much so that the pain in her face was more of a blessing.

"Honoka, I'm not you," Kimi said in a low tone. "I'm not the kind of idiot who looks after people. And I'm certainly never going to save anyone."

"If you say so." With a nonchalant shrug, Honoka got out of bed and stretched. "It's time for my experiment sessions. Get some rest, okay? Stop getting into trouble."

"Are you my mother?"

"Big sister. To all of you."

Honoka nodded and left without another word. Kimi wanted to say something after she saw her disappear through the door.

"Thank you... really..."

It was the most sincere she could sound.

x-2-x

"Chains of love got a hold on me..."

"And here we go again," said Kamijou when he heard Kimi singing.

"When passion's a prison, you can't break free." The dragon girl slipped her arm around his neck and brushed her cheek against his. "Come on, I know you like this song. Sing it with me!"

"Wasn't that one of her favorites?"

A calm silence hung in the air. Then a loud cough caught everyone's attention.

The group made up of the dragon couple and their two companions, the magician and the library, hurried to the location of their mission.

"Before we charge into Misawa Cram School, let's talk about our enemy," said Stiyl, playing with a runic card in his hand, looking nervous next to Index. "The enemy's name is Aureolus Izzard."

"Oh..." Index interrupted with a hand on her chin. "Aureolus? Like in the legends?"

"No, that's just a descendant."

"Calm down, you two," said Kamijou, waving his hand. "Who is this Aure- Aureo... whatever. What do you mean legend?"

"My God," snorted Stiyl, chewing on his cigarette in irritation. "Dealing with amateurs is bad enough, but I didn't expect you to be so ignorant."

"We're two ignoramuses then," Kimi cut in. "I have no idea what you and Index are talking about."

"Have you two at least heard of Paracelsus?"

"Nah."

"Nope."

Both Stiyl and Index sighed deeply, simultaneously bringing their hands to their faces in exasperation.

"It's the name of one of the most well-known alchemists in the world!" said Stiyl impatiently.

The August sunset was burning. The large number of windows, windmill turbines, everything was dyed orange red. Kamijou thought that it looked just like a faded photograph. Perhaps that was because their conversation didn't seem so realistic.

"That is a strong guy, I take it," said Kamijou, his right hand facing the clear sky above.

"It's not a big deal in and out of itself...But he did get his hands on something that's letting him suppress Deep Blood, after all. And I don't want to think this...but in the worst case, he might be using her to tame the creature."

The flame magician had already given a brief explanation about vampires and Himegami Aisa's ability. Kamijou found the whole thing strange to say the least, but magic was also something he'd thought impossible until a while ago, but here he was.

"So he really is a problem?" insisted Kamijou, as if expecting a positive response.

"Don't worry. The Aureolus name might be top class, but his strength has waned. Alchemist isn't a profession in the world of magic in the first place." Stiyl pointed out, bored. "Divination, alchemy, summoning. In your words, those are just language, mathematics, and history. Even language teachers study some math, right? If you're a magician, then first you sink your teeth into everything and then find a specialized field that suits you. That's basic. Also, Aureolus Izzard is only called an alchemist because he has no talent besides that. And also...alchemy itself isn't even a completed field of study to begin with."

"So he's a weakling?" Kimi almost giggled. "Really? Why did you bother contacting us then? I know you're a lesser magician, but you can't handle even a random librarian?"

"Lesser magician?"

Stiyl took a deep breath and put another cigarette in his mouth to calm down.

"Alchemists are more scholars than fighters, but they have an ultimate goal," he continued, pausing for a breath. "To be able to simulate the entire world inside their mind."

Kimi and Kamijou exchanged a curious glance. They were in tune enough that words weren't necessary.

"Ars Magna." Index said that term suddenly and then paused for a long moment, staring at her feet as she walked. "The ultimate goal of alchemy. Imagining a world and altering it in your mind, basically making your thoughts come true."

There was a similar concept in Academy City. Those two espers were more familiar with it than most, as the facility they grew up in aimed to achieve something akin to that.

"Does a spell like that exist?" asked Kimi, curious. "If someone could manage it, they'd kind of be... a god..."

"Something like that," Index continued, "but it's incredibly difficult to achieve. The incantation itself is complete, but that alone is not enough."

"Huh?" Kamijou had become completely interested in this. "What do you mean there's already such an incantation? Hasn't anyone ever used it?"

"Human life is limited," explained Stiyl. "Let me put it this way. If I want you to explain everything in the world, including every grain of sand on the beach or the stars in the night sky, how long are you going to take? I don't think you can finish explaining after one or two hundred years, right?"

Absolute power, so close yet so out of reach. Wasn't that the basis of those experiments?

x-3-x

"But, well..." muttered Kamijou, looking up at the building.

It could only be described as an irregularly shaped building. The building itself was a perfectly ordinary, rectangular, twelve-story tower. However, there were four of them.

"Such a building plan should defy the Land Area Planning Adjustment Project, right?"

"Your ability to think of random, unimportant things always fascinates me, Touma-kun."

"You two are acting too casually," complained Stiyl, looking in Index's direction. "Try to stay in the middle of the formation at all times, understand? Don't try anything brave, we're the ones who are going to sort this out, just watch."

That magician really cared about Index. Bringing her along was certainly weighing on him, and he wanted to leave her behind if he could. Unfortunately for him, Kamijou Touma was not easily convinced.

"Anyway, our initial target is the fifth level of the south building, next to the cafeteria. There seems to be a secret room there," Stiyl said casually.

The map sketches had been burned after Kamijou had examined them. He didn't have an excellent memory, but he could use his powers to store any information he needed. Even if he happened to lose his memory, the creature watching him could retrieve it for him, so he didn't bother paying too much attention to details.

"Okay, let's do it," said Kamijou, his posture casual as he walked with his hands in his pockets.

Kamijou looked at the entrance. It was a thoroughly normal automatic glass door. He didn't even wait for some kind of confirmation, with Kimi by his side and the other two right behind him, he entered the building without any caution.

"Shouldn't we make a plan first?" asked Index, a little nervous

"Index, my cute little sister," said Kimi. "Me and the handsome guy here have enough firepower to set this whole town ablaze in an instant, it's the enemy that needs a plan."

Many glass panes were placed throughout the whole lobby to let in a lot of sunlight. The lobby was fairly wide; it was about three stories tall, too. The building was a prep school, and this was its "outward" appearance. It wasn't a facility for the students. It was a place to attract guests looking to matriculate. That made the extravagant decoration understandable as well.

Kamijou's attention automatically shifted to the elevators on that floor.

"Blood," he just whispered, his eyes focusing on the four elevators, between the first and second from the right. "Nobody noticed? No, that's not it."

His instincts were better than everyone else's, but that person in armor over there should have been noticed by anyone. Of course, being in the city of science, someone could mistake it for a malfunctioning robot, that had even been the first thing that crossed his mind.

"Leave him there, boy," said Stiyl when he saw Kamijou walking towards the person in armor. "He's nothing but a corpse now."

An arm extended towards Index. The flame magician didn't want her to see it, so he used his black robes as a shield. That girl had a perfect memory; anything she saw would be etched into her mind, whether beautiful or horrible. In that moment, Kamijou found Stiyl's caution appropriate.

"He's still breathing," said Kimi, bending down next to the bleeding person who no one seemed to notice. "Is this something to do with you magicians?"

"Divine protection granted by the Surgical Armor and a Heavenly Bow Replica. This here should be one of the Thirteen Knights of the Roman Catholic Church-"

"Magic nonsense." Kimi rolled her eyes. "Keep it to a minimum please."

Kamijou took that moment to take a good look around. He heard the sound of the metal doors of an elevator sliding apart.

A handful of boys and girls about the same age as him began to alight from it. They paid no mind to the near-dead person right next to them, as if it was an ordinary sight. They were laughing, talking about things like how expensive the school lunches were, and how it would be a better idea to buy convenience store bento boxes instead.

"Did you notice?" asked Stiyl. "This place is like a coin; it has a front and back side. Those living on the 'front side of the coin', the students who don't know anything, won't notice a magician on 'the back side of the coin'. Look at that," sang Stiyl, pointing out the feet of a girl coming out of the elevator.

The floor. The dark red blood flowing out of the armor was spreading like a puddle, and the girl proceeded over it like she was walking on water.

"That sounds like a problem," said Kamijou, turning his attention to the person in armor. "But better to focus on one thing at a time." He leaned in close to the face of the man hiding behind the helmet. "Listen to me. I know this may sound a bit cruel considering you must be in a lot of pain, but I'm not giving you permission to die. So wait there while I sort this out."

"Can't you heal him?" asked Kimi nonchalantly.

"Maybe," replied Kamijou, crossing his arms. "But I'm terrible at that sort of thing. My specialty is avoiding damage. I can reverse it, but usually I need an obvious starting point." He gestured towards the knight. "I can't visualize it accurately, so the most I can do is stabilize it."

"I'll never understand how your powers work," said Kimi, shrugging. "After all this time, I think I'll need a manual."

"I can take care of that," Index suddenly cut in.

The girl in the lavender dress passed Stiyl quickly and went over to the man, who was breathing weakly. You could see the disappointment on the flame magician's face, as he had totally failed in the task he had set himself.

"I thought you couldn't use magic anymore," said Kimi.

"I can't normally, but I have enough knowledge to think of an effective healing spell. I just need someone to refine the magical power for me."

"That's risky," said Stiyl, reluctantly joining the group. "Using magic could attract suspicion."

"We have no choice." Index examined the man's armor, tracing the inscriptions with her fingers. "Leaving someone to suffer when we have the power to help is wrong."

It was such a natural thing to say, but the reaction Kimi and Kamijou had was profound but subtle. They exchanged glances, with Kamijou averting his eyes first. Kimi, however, appeared quietly proud of something.

"I can steal the power of a ley line by distorting the magical power around us," Index continued, "but the spell would be very unstable without my own magical power to guide it."

"Okay, okay." Stiyl tossed the cigarette aside and picked up some runes. "What do you need?"

With a smile on her face, Index began the procedures. She completed her examination of the armor, noting that the spells embedded within would complicate the process. Nevertheless, she directed Stiyl to scatter some runes in precise positions, creating a pattern that mimicked the arrangement of the pillars around the room.

"We'll have to do something about the armor, but I don't recommend taking it off," said Index. She was speaking very seriously, her eyes almost lifeless, more like another person there. "We'd have to take into account the changes to the sanctuary, so the ideal is to seal any magical power it has."

"How do you recommend this?" asked Stiyl, still organizing the runes as indicated.

"Perhaps a 'Trithemius' inscription. It was a method used by Westcott of the golden. They say he discovered it by accident. Does anyone have a pencil or marker? I need to draw something, or engrave it on the armor."

"Use your tablet," suggested Kimi. "Show the symbol to Touma-kun, he'll take care of the rest."

"Good idea!"

Index pulled out her trusty modern tablet, which she barely knew how to use but was slowly learning, and then used a drawing app to make an intricate symbol. It resembled a mirrored 'R', with an extra stroke on the right. Kamijou took the tablet from her hands when she had finished and scratched his head.

"Do I have to engrave it somewhere specific?" he asked.

"On the helmet would be ideal."

"Understood."

Approaching the almost-dead man, Kamijou took one last look at the drawing and then raised his index finger. A toxic light suddenly appeared from the tip of his raised finger. It was a bright red flame, intense and brilliant, which moved like the legs of a spider.

"Very careful now," he said to himself.

"Hey, Touma-kun," Kimi called out from where she was leaning against the wall near the elevator. "Are those flames that burn even life energy or something? Wasn't there something less dangerous?"

"Don't distract me."

Carefully, he traced the armor little by little, doing his best to make the symbol match the one indicated. A burning smell escaped from the sturdy armor, it couldn't resist the flame that burned anything it touched. Kamijou preferred to use this because if he got the design wrong, any interference spells on the armor would probably be burnt together, that fire was that strong.

With the job done, Kamijou extinguished the flame with a snap of his fingers, leaving a fresh glowing mark on that helmet. Index checked in a hurry and nodded. Soon after, she began to sing a melody that echoed strangely, which served as a cue for him to let the two magicians get to work.

"Why are you so pensive?" asked Kamijou, leaning his back against the wall next to Kimi.

"Just a bit nostalgic." She smoothed her bangs with her hand, thus no longer hiding one of her eyes as usual. "We used to fight a lot in the past."

"More between us than against the others." He sighed and put his hands in his pockets, sharing that nostalgic feeling. "Honoka was right in the end."

"She always was."

There was a pleasant silence between the two, as they watched Stiyl examine the man in armor while a gentle light illuminated them both. The process seemed to be working.

"Healing magic... convenient," said Kimi. "I wish I had something like that."

"Recover faster from the alley fights in the past?"

"Yeah... do you have any idea how many times I've been stabbed?"

"Kinda. And your reaction afterwards was the best. Your expressionless face was kind of creepy."

"I've always been a tough girl," boasted Kimi, giving a slight smile. "It was fun back then, although the fights against you were the best."

"That never bothered you?"

"Hmm?"

"That our relationship is like that?"

It wasn't the first time he had asked her something similar, but it was the first time she had hesitated to answer.

"You know better." She shrugged. "It has to be like this, doesn't it? The further away from a normal relationship we are, the better."

"Maybe it's not." Kamijou paused to look at her sidelong. "Maybe it doesn't have to be."

The magical ritual seemed to have been a success. It was a bit strange to have all those people walking around carefree while a girl with silver hair, a priest in black robes and a knight in armor took part in something that could be considered black magic. Or almost, who knows.

"We're done here," said Stiyl. "Does the couple there need more time alone?"

It had been a very sarcastic question, but Kamijou wanted to make one thing clear.

"We're not a couple."

"What are we then, Touma-kun?" Kimi sounded slightly indignant.

"We are..." He brought his hand to his chin, thoughtful. "Friends with benefits."

"Benefits?!" Her voice rose, echoing with indignation. "What benefits? I'm not getting any lately."

"Letting you sleep in my bed is enough."

He pushed Kimi gently out of the way, her arms crossed and a scowl on her face, she wasn't having a good week. A subtle growl escaped from between her pointed teeth. Kamijou found her more cute than intimidating when she got angry with him, which was something that also put him further away from a "normal" relationship. Maybe Kimi was right.

Their goal for the moment was to search for rooms hidden in the gaps throughout the building. The closest one was in this south building, next to the cafeteria on the fifth floor, so they decided to use the stairs.

"That's strange," said Kimi suddenly, starting to kick a step. "Are the impacts magnified or something?"

"The whole building… is on the other side of the coin," Stiyl retorted, starting to pant. "We can't… interact properly with the other side."

Basically, it was like the difference between punching people and punching a concrete wall. As they were walking on an overly hard floor, the fatigue build-up was two to three times faster.

"Let's use the elevator then," suggested Kamijou.

The spiky-haired boy passed through an open door into a corridor full of people and made his way to the nearest elevator, followed by the rest of the group.

"Wait... that won't work," complained Stiyl, breathing hard. He certainly wasn't an athletic person, despite his size and build.

"Why not?" asked Kamijou.

"We're on the back side of the coin, so if you know some way of pressing the button on the front of the coin, I'd love to hear it."

Kamijou began to have some ideas, but he stopped suddenly when he noticed something suspicious. The students, eighty in number, were definitely staring at the group. Gone were their human-like gestures; they simply stood there like poles, their eyes like lenses- inorganic.

"That's a big problem!" shouted Index.

"The seraph's wings are a shining light, the shining light is the immaculate white, which exposes sin-"

A single student, stiff as a pole, alone, started to murmur something he didn't know the meaning of.

"The immaculate white is the 'proof of purification, that proof is the result of' motion-"

A second voice overlapped the first.

"The 'result is the future, the future' is 'time, time is' uniform-"

A second voice, a third, a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen-!

And then...

Kamijou also heard Index start to say something, at the same time a bluish-white light about the size of a Ping-Pong ball appeared at the brow of one of the students. It wasn't long before hundreds of those bluish spheres began to surround the group. The magical attacks rushed towards the group, and the two teenage dragons moved to protect the people behind them, but...

"What?" Kimi stopped halfway.

It was as if something invisible was protecting them. No, that wasn't it. The magic spheres were being thrown, but they took a strange trajectory, many of them crashing into each other in mid-air and disappearing in a meaningless explosion.

No attack hit the group.

Kamijou hadn't done anything, someone else was responsible. And she spoke up after the attacks stopped.

"I call it 'Spell Intercept'," explained Index quickly. "Magical commands are constructed within the mind of the caster. If one is able to confuse the caster's mind, they can impede that control. It's similar to messing up someone trying to count by whispering random numbers in their ear. I'm using this technique to mess up their aim."

"You can do this with that many?" asked Stiyl, surprised and somewhat proud.

"Not all of them, but I can get in the way enough and have the others intercepted by their own allies."

"Impressive," Kimi sounded a little proud at that moment. "In the end, it looks like it was a good idea to bring her with us. Well done, Index."

The spell those students were using was restarted. Kamijou prepared to help Index if she made a mistake, but then something strange happened.

With a popping sound... blood exploded from the mouths and noses of the students around them, as if fireworks had been placed under their skin. It was a surreal and grotesque scene that would make a faint-hearted person's stomach turn. Stiyl did her best to cover Index's eyes before the image became etched in her memory.

"What's going on?" asked Kimi, but she soon realized the problem. "Wait, Index mentioned that espers can't use magic, does that mean..."

"They're self-destructing," added Stiyl. A rune on his hand glowed bright red. "Let's be quick."

Even though the students were bleeding and destroying their bodies from the inside out, they continued to recite the incantation, one voice after another, like a bizarre choir. They were like robots, ignoring their own destruction and just carrying on as if the only thing that mattered was the enemies in front of them.

"Back off, magician," said Kamijou, feeling disgusted. "They're probably not doing this of their own free will, so I won't let you try anything dangerous."

"So what do you want, amateur?"

"Save them." He looked in Kimi's direction quickly. "Cover them both with your wings."

"Will that be enough?" The girl gestured with her right hand, making her pale wings appear.

"I'll keep the intensity to a minimum."

Kamijou wasted no time. Before the next barrage of attacks came their way, he snapped his fingers. The air around them became hazy, a blur that could be seen for just an instant. It was like a large mouth or jaw, distorting the light just enough to be noticeable. The giant "maw" gnashed its teeth intermittently, creating a disturbing sound not even a guillotine or bear trap could have mimicked.

The air froze.

The boys and girls suddenly stopped reciting the incantation, frozen in place, looking even more lifeless than before. This was a form of intimidation, a psychological attack that would paralyze anyone in range. Used during a fight, it could guarantee a clean hit on an enemy, ending the fight instantly, but Kamijou had other plans. Those boys were not a target for his violence, so something else was required.

"Fall asleep," he said, calmly and simply. There was no extra intonation, but anyone listening would feel an intimidation at the core of their being.

That was all it took. Half a second later, all the students closed their eyes and "switched off". They didn't fall to the floor like someone suddenly fainting, as ordered, they fell into a deep sleep standing there, breathing rhythmically without any fuss.

When Kamijou was sure that everything had worked out the way he had imagined, he looked back to see Index and Stiyl huddled together, their faces rigid.

"You two can move around as much as you like," said Kamijou, making a casual gesture with his right hand, pushing away the pressure around him.

"What did you do?" asked Stiyl, panting.

"It's temporary," he replied without thinking. "They'll probably find a way to get out if I get distracted. I'm terrible at that sort of thing." He gestured towards the students. "Controlling people isn't really my style, so it's hard to visualize what I want to do precisely. Shokuhou-san shouldn't be too proud of me."

He scratched his head nonchalantly, which made the scene more surreal than before. However, even acting like this, he actually had a bad taste in his mouth now. This was a battlefield that disgusted him. The enemy was using innocent people as nothing more than puppets, disposable pawns, and even forcing him to fight back using something he considered taboo.

"Aureolus," muttered Kamijou, his right fist clenched. "I'm coming to you, you coward."

The boy with boiling blood was about to take a step forward, with a clear goal in mind, but Index stopped him.

"Hey, wait," she said in a calm voice.

"Is there a problem?" asked Kamijou.

"What happens when they wake up?"

The silver nun seemed incredibly concerned about these strangers. She must have been the kind of person who would help someone without wanting anything in return.

Kamijou looked at her and tilted his head.

"You're the expert, what do you suggest we do?"

Index pondered for just two seconds and then gave an answer.

"That now looked like a Gregorian Chant, or a very good replica."

"Gregor... what?"

"It was originally the ultimate weapon of the Roman Catholic Church, " explained Stiyl, exasperated. "They'd assemble 3,333 monks into a temple and gather their prayers-"

"Yeah, yeah, magical bullshit," Kimi interrupted rudely. "Index, you're the leader, what are the orders? How do we stop this thing?"

"We need to find the core," Index replied promptly, as if expecting the question. "This is a replica, so to maintain synchronization, he must have hidden an artifact. If we destroy that, the spell will come to an end." She looked at the ceiling and pointed upwards with her slender finger. "I can feel the flow of magic energy. It's up there."

"Hmm... sounds easy enough," Stiyl said and took a step towards the stairs. "Let's go."

"Wait," said Index, "I can't leave these people behind. Maybe I can create a song that will force them out of sync and stop them getting hurt, but it will take some time."

"Let's split up then," suggested Kamijou. "I'll stay here with Index and protect her while she does her job, Kimi and Stiyl will take care of destroying the core."

The flame magician didn't seem at all happy with this formation, but he waited for Index to walk to the other side of the room to check on some students before saying anything.

"I'd rather stay here with her," began Stiyl, crushing a cigarette under his foot. "Protecting her is my job."

"Look, magician," said Kamijou, trying to sound casual but a little annoyed. "I know you're in love with Index, but let's think carefully here without letting emotions get in the way."

"What?" Stiyl stepped forward, glancing quickly in Index's direction but then looking Kamijou in the eye. "You got it wrong, I don't have those kinds of feelings. I just think it's better that we magicians stick together, so we can help each other out if necessary."

"God, what a pain," Kimi cut in impatiently. "Touma-kun separated the teams in the right way. I mean, it was me or him who had to be left behind. You know, balance and all that."

"Balance?"

Kimi even gave a shit-eating grin when she saw Stiyl slightly confused.

"It's like the physical education teacher who joins the weaker team in a game of dodgeball so that the team has a chance." She shrugged and tossed her hair back. "In other words, you're too weak to carry the 'Index team', so be glad you're on my team, lesser magician."

There was a pang of regret in Kamijou's chest after hearing his "ex-girlfriend" say that so dryly. The two of them got into a brief argument, with Stiyl practically blowing smoke out of his head.

"You think you're hot shit, but you fell for the first blow," spat Kimi, with a mocking smile on her face.

"You took me by surprise, that's all. If only I'd had more time to prepare-"

"Nah, I call that a skill issue, lesser magician. I'm sure that flame giant was your strongest attack. It was my most beautiful salt sculpture so far. Be glad that the merciful Shundan-sama didn't transmute you along with it. Come on, get down on your knees and show some gratitude. My high boots need a polish."

They would probably fight soon judging by the battle pose Stiyl entered, but Index's calm voice interrupted them.

"I think we have a bigger problem than imagined." She had her hand on her chin, looking around as if she sensed some strange flow. "Aureolus must have achieved his goal."

Stiyl casually picked up a pack of cigarettes, but the way he crumpled it in his hand showed that he wasn't calm.

"You mean he tamed a vampire?" asked the magician, surprised.

"No, probably not." The silver nun slowly shook her head from side to side. "I mean Ars Magna."

"Impossible." Now it was Stiyl who denied it with his head, but in a disheveled, perplexed way. "That's absurd. Even if Ars Magna is theoretically complete, the incantation is too long. One or two hundred years wouldn't be enough to finish it. You can't shorten the spell any more, either, and even if you split the work up by passing it down from parent to child to grandchild, the ceremony would be distorted like a game of telephone."

"Yes, I know that." Index didn't even blink, she just carried on like a machine. "But haven't you forgotten what you just saw? That's a replica of the Gregorian Chant."

In silence, the flame magician chewed on a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. It seemed he hadn't come up with an answer yet.

"It's simple," Index continued. "If you directly control two thousand people and have them chant the spell, the pace of work is multiplied by two thousand. Even if it was a ceremony that took four hundred years, you could get it done in just seventy days."

Stiyl Magnus seemed speechless. He could never come up with that answer on his own, even with all the pieces there.

Kamijou looked at Index. For a moment, he thought that this was some knowledge in the library in her head, but that wasn't the case. No one had ever completed Ars Magna in the first place, so there wouldn't be a book in which the solution would be written. She put it all together in her head by combining the knowledge she already had. In those moments, he began to believe Kimi's words. That girl really was a genius.

"We'd better get on with it then," suggested Kimi. "If what Index says is true, the sooner we beat this guy the better."

x-4-x

The group had split up after Index's alarming analysis, leaving Kimi stuck with the sulky-faced flame magician. They walked through several rooms filled with people sprawled on the floor, unable to fight. However, there hadn't been a battle; these people had destroyed themselves before the group arrived.

"What a problem," she muttered to herself.

Kimi wasn't the type to be shocked or uncomfortable by such grotesque scenes. Over time, things had turned 'gray' for her. Nevertheless, it didn't stop her from having a bad taste in her mouth at that moment.

She attributed it to him.

In the past, she was the type of person who saw someone in trouble and simply turned away, pretending nothing was happening. She went on with her life, never looking back. Some of that coldness remained within her—it always would—something fundamental had shaped it in her. But now, she couldn't pretend she felt nothing anymore. She wished she truly didn't. Her life would be easier.

"They're coming," Stiyl said, alarmed.

It seemed the "wizard" couldn't solve the problem on his own despite the confidence he had shown earlier.

"Why are you hiding? Aren't you a battle mage?"

"And you have an angelic serpent, so do something about it."

Kimi sighed when she heard that. She really didn't want to have to use her powers on someone being controlled.

"Let's go upstairs," she suggested, stepping back and pointing to the stairs.

After they had climbed a few flights, Stiyl suddenly stopped, nearly causing Kimi to trip over him.

"What is it, wizard? Can you at least warn me before you stop like that?"

"I feel a magical signature nearby."

"Can you translate?"

The sigh that escaped his mouth sounded tired and worried at the same time.

"I'm using runes to detect the artifact that serves as the core, but there are consequences."

"And they are?"

"Someone is following us, other than those students." He paused and looked down the stairs. "It's hard to sense since this place is saturated with his magic, but... I made an extra effort after what Index said."

"Hmm? You mean..."

"That alchemist is nearby."

"Okay, what's the plan then?" Kimi asked, slightly excited, even snapping her fingers.

"I have an Ace up my sleeve."

"Oh... really? So use it. I'm curious to see if I could have enjoyed myself more the day we fought. Come on, show me something interesting".

She even turned her back in the direction the alchemist was supposed to be coming from.

And then...

"You asked for it."

As soon as Stiyl said that, a deafening thud sounded. Kimi didn't even notice what had happened. She only turned to see Stiyl being pushed up the stairs like a rag doll. It was only then that she realized that one of her angelic wings had appeared in mid-air and then disappeared without a trace. The girl couldn't keep her dragon manifested all the time. If she tried, the amount of energy used would be immense even for her, and it would also put a tremendous strain on her body. But the Angel Dragon could choose to manifest of its own volition if it deemed it necessary, usually to protect Kimi from a surprise attack.

"Um... that was..." Kimi made a confused face as she looked at Stiyl getting up. "Wait a minute, is it just me or did you try to push me down the stairs?"

Stiyl looked at her nervously when she asked that. The poor boy should have been hurt when he was pushed by the Angel Dragon's wing, but he did everything he could to pretend everything was fine.

"Is that serious?" Kimi asked and laughed. "Your plan was to throw me downstairs and run away while I took care of everything?" She laughed, so much so that she held her stomach as it began to ache. The magician just looked at her angrily. When Kimi had finished, she gasped and looked at him in disappointment. "Come on, chimney. I knew you were a damn scum, but that's too low. What kind of moron throws his ally into the fire like that? And one who can tear you to pieces in the blink of an eye? Are you stupid?"

She wasn't even angry. It was all amusing in her eyes. She didn't know if it was desperation, or if that boy was so angry with her that he expected her to die after being thrown down, either by the fall or by her opponents, but it was all so comical that she couldn't feel angry.

"Okay, you can go find that core or whatever," said Kimi, turning around and rudely gesturing with her hand for Stiyl to get out of there. "I'm going to confront that alchemist."

"Are you serious? I'm not coming back for you."

"Yes, yes. Go on. Find the artifact and go look for your balls too, you goddamn coward."

Neither hesitated to go their separate ways, Stiyl running up the stairs, while Kimi casually walked downstairs, nonchalantly fixing her hair.

As soon as she felt a presence in the corridor, she licked her lips. She always felt like this when she was about to fight. That excitement surging in the center of her chest, the anticipation flowing through her veins.

Kimi heard clear footsteps coming from the other side of the corridor, their owner hidden in the fleeting shadows. The person didn't seem to want to hide their presence.

The owner of the footsteps spoke.

"I don't feel any magical power."

The voice sounded disappointed. He continued walking calmly, his footsteps echoing clearly in Kimi's ears. The footsteps' identity was the soles of a pair of Italian-made leather shoes. The tall legs stretching out from them and the slender body achieving two meters in height were both arrayed in an expensive, pure white suit.

"So you're the famous Aureolus Izzard?" said Kimi, crossing her arms. "I expected something different. What the hell are you wearing?"

"Watch your mouth, you pathetic wench. Maybe I should teach you some manners."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I only accept these kinds of lessons from someone I consider an equal. In that case, you're too far below me, grow up as a person and try again later."

She was sure she heard the alchemist cluck his tongue in anger at the comment.

"You cur!"

"Look, you've got a sharp tongue too," joked Kimi, a mischievous smile sliding across her lips. She kept her arms crossed, her posture totally relaxed. "Do you need help controlling your temper?"

With a motion like a snake slithering out of a hole, a golden blade leaped forth from the right sleeve of Aureolus's suit. Kimi noticed something like an arrowhead flying towards her, which made her casually wave her right hand.

A metallic sound rang out.

"W-what?"

The golden chain attached to the arrowhead snaked through the air before being pulled back by the astonished man.

"How did you manage to go against my Limem Magna? Some kind of trick?"

"Limen Magna? Wait, that wasn't the name."

Index had said that the technique used by the alchemist was known as Ars Magna, so this made Kimi a little suspicious. Perhaps in the end the alchemist hadn't managed to reach his goal and had stopped halfway. It didn't matter to her. In fact, she would have preferred it if he had succeeded, at least things would have been more fun.

Another attack came with a buzzing sound.

The golden serpent thrown by the man came like a bullet, aimed straight at Kimi's eyes. The other attack had been deflected by one of the angel dragon's wings, so quickly that the man must barely have noticed, but this one was different.

"Is that all?"

Kimi smiled, casually shaking her head to the side, letting the arrowhead pass through her and return in a fluid motion. The alchemist frowned. He took a step back and then threw the spear once more, only this time, the target wasn't Kimi.

With the sound of fruit being sliced open, the tip of the arrowhead stabbed into the back of one of the fallen students.

The girl almost bit her tongue at that moment. She hadn't expected the man to simply attack one of the students lying on the ground, so she hadn't been able to react in time to protect him. But it didn't stop there. As if he had thrust the knife into a water balloon, the student's body turned into fluid and exploded. It almost looked like the body had been melted by a strong acidic solution, but no, that wasn't just any fluid. It sparkled in a golden color. It was none other than pure, smelted gold.

"Anyone who gets touched by my Limen Magna will automatically be transmuted into pure gold. Any defense is ineffective, and any escape is impossible," boasted the alchemist, but Kimi was barely listening. "See now, wench, your fight is pointless. I only need to hit you once and you'll just be another one of my experiments."

Kimi's face suddenly became serious. Her gaze wasn't on the man's face, it was resting right there, in that golden puddle that had once been one of those students that man used for his own purposes. She gritted her teeth. There was no amusement left. None at all. The girl, who had struggled to feel anything genuine, now grunted as something welled up from deep within her, forcing its way into her mouth. A nauseating taste lingered.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, looking in the direction of the innocent student who had been transformed, although the words were inaudible. "Unfortunately, I'm not him."

Aureolus fired the Limen Magna from his right suit sleeve. His roar in itself could have supplied the force at which he fired it. It turned into a golden laser and left a stream of afterimages because its launch-rewind speed was just too fast. But no attack even scratched the dragon girl. She didn't move either, still looking in the same direction while whispering something to herself.

A voice arose amid the cacophony caused by the pale wings colliding with the golden spear.

"Impossible," said the alchemist, his voice free of that mocking tone. "How can you protect yourself against my Limen Magna?"

That alchemist had no way of knowing, so he was obviously surprised, but those wings belonged to a serpent dragon that had a similar power to the one he wielded. So obviously, that girl's powers were at a level that left her untouchable against such an enemy. Not that this was unusual in her life.

"Can I ask you a question?" Kimi's voice sounded calm, but it was laden with diluted anger behind it. "Why do you seek power?"

"Huh?" the man stopped attacking her, somewhat confused.

"The person I love often asks that kind of question," she explained. "He has doubts that no one can explain, and he acts as if the world is nothing more than an inefficient machine... with rusty gears, working against him. Sometimes I don't even know what his goal is. Maybe he doesn't even have one. So answer me, what drives you?"

The alchemist stared into her empty eyes, and although his confusion was clear, he barely blinked before replying.

"The purpose of alchemy is nothing other than an investigation into truth. My own particular specialty is humans. How high can a human climb while maintaining his human form? It is that search that led me to knock at the gates of the schoolhouse." Aureolus readied his Limen Magna. "That's what drives me. That's why I worked to obtain this power."

Once again, the spear snaked quickly, leaving a golden blur in the air as it was thrown towards Kimi.

"That's enough then," she said, raising her right hand and moving her index finger in a downward motion. "I have no regrets."

Just then, something fundamental changed in that spacious corridor. The large arrow head continued to move, but straight down. It slammed into the floor, turning much of it into a puddle of gold. But most importantly, Aureolus staggered towards Kimi. It was as if an invisible pressure from above had hit him squarely on the head and then spread throughout his body.

"What... is that?" asked the man, pathetically putting his hand on a wall to try and keep himself upright.

"Gravity."

Kimi casually answered that as she walked towards him. The high boots she was wearing produced footsteps that echoed as if a great weight were behind her. Still deadly serious, she looked down at him.

"This is a holistic phenomenon," she said, gesturing briefly with her right hand. The man had now fallen to his knees. The way she looked down at him, with her head held high, made it clear that she wanted to demonstrate who was superior, who was in control. "As a holistic esper, my powers work differently from most. You could say I'm an impossibility. I can create a black hole anywhere in the universe, but that's not all. Usually, a normal esper uses the microcosm, their body, to manipulate what they see, but I see things in the opposite way."

To put it extremely simply, a personal reality wasn't exactly how it worked. She used the macro as a way of moving the micro. Putting enormous pressure on the universe itself, distorting time and space because of massive gravity.

"I can connect my own body to my black hole," said Kimi, still walking leisurely towards the man on his knees. "That way, I get an unlimited source of energy, but I can also extend this connection to other things. I'm connecting the macrocosm of the point in the universe where my powers affect, to this room right here where we are."

In other words, the room they were in was being indirectly affected by her powers. If a normal esper wanted to heat up a room, he would make the necessary calculations, move his body, or whatever to create a flame. A holistic esper like Kimi would achieve the same thing by bringing the earth closer to the sun. This didn't have to be literal.

"Of course, I have to be extremely careful," she said, finally arriving exactly where the man was. "Normally I only leave the link on me and my dragon, but I can do a quick calibration and extend it. What's happening is that I've changed how gravity works in this room. If I'm not careful, the link would become too strong and I'd end up causing a gravitational collapse right here where we are."

Just like the metaphorical example given, if the earth got too close to the sun, it would be the end. The gravity near a black hole is so great that there are points where even light can't escape. If that girl lost control, the whole world would be crushed and swallowed up. But with precise control, she could extract energy due to matter being compressed and generating heat in the process, or even control the radiation emitted by the collision of cosmic rays.

That was why the scientists didn't want her to live. She was a walking disaster. At the time, she didn't even know what she was capable of, but over the last year, she has worked to at least control a small part of her powers.

But that was irrelevant at the moment.

Now she wanted to focus on something.

"Do you want to know why I sought power?" she asked, her voice now full of uncontained anger.

A dull thud sounded. It came from the alchemist's body, more specifically, from the kick Kimi had delivered with the sole of her foot to his chest. All the air escaped from his lungs, a grunt of pain mixing with heavy breathing. The only reason he didn't fly for dozens of meters after that impact was because gravity was greatly distorted.

The alchemist tried to get up, but it was as if his back was stuck to the floor. Not satisfied with seeing his suffering, Kimi stomped down hard on his chest. A scream of pain flooded the silent place, and although the girl remained serious, she was feeling pretty good now.

"It was to go after people like you," she answered her own question. She lifted her foot and came down hard once again. The sound of breaking bones rang out beneath her high boots. She almost smiled at that. "Trying to figure out the limits of a human, huh? Treating people like nothing more than disposable objects. You disgust me."

Again, and again, and again... and again. The sound of her boot crashing into the helpless man's body echoed for several seconds, blood escaping from his mouth as he choked trying to say something.

"Take it as fortune or misfortune," she continued, leaning over to crush him while looking down at him as if he were a mere insect. "But I made a promise never to take a life again. So enjoy the pain while I turn your insides into paste. When I've finished, I can take you almost dead to some doctor, I know a very good one. Maybe I'll repeat the treatment two or a hundred more times until I'm satisfied. For your information, they've messed with my head so much that it's hard to leave me satisfied, so I'll have a fun day ahead."

Now she had a mocking smile on her face. She only looked for half a second in the direction of the golden puddle that had been a person a minute ago. That girl had only planned to defeat him quickly, to dole out some kind of justice against that poor student who had lost his life so quickly, so unceremoniously, but now she wanted to go further.

She would have her fun.

x-5-x

"I think I'm getting to an answer," said Index, examining the eyes of an unconscious boy.

Kamijou sat pensively against a wall, his fingers drumming on his thigh as he stared into the void. "It's already night," he said abruptly. "I wonder where those two are."

"Worried?" Index asked.

"No," Kamijou replied, shaking his head slowly. "As long as they stick together, Kimi can protect him."

"You have complete confidence in her."

Kamijou looked up to see Index checking the students' pockets, scattering the random items she found around the room in an intricate arrangement.

"Hey, Index, can I ask you a rather strange question?" Kamijou's tone shifted.

Index tilted her head at the question, her curiosity piqued but not confused. Kamijou raised his knees, wrapping his arms around them and resting his chin on his hands.

"Of course," replied Index, looking away and continuing to set up that strange shrine.

"You said you have the potential to be a goddess, or something like that. How does that work?"

"The knowledge in my head," she said without even thinking. "It poisons the mind, it needs to be diluted to be passed on, but I'm immune to this intoxication."

"But is that all it takes? To become a god, I mean."

"No." She sat down on the floor, there in the middle of the cramped room. "For that, someone would have to die."

Kamijou narrowed his eyes, his lips curving downward. Without realizing it, he began tapping his foot, a sign of his nervousness.

"A ritualistic death, to be precise," Index explained, returning to her work on the ritual. "Some famous figures in the world of magic have said, theoretically speaking, that knowledge of grimoires isn't the only way. I think it was the Rosicrucian order that started this theory, but it was the Golden Cabal that popularized it."

"You know that all those names mean nothing to me, right?"

"They're not important," Index shrugged. "Just like the grimoires in my head, who wrote them is irrelevant; having the knowledge is enough." She paused for a long moment. "That's why the Golden Cabal used to perform astral projection rituals. They believed they could gain sufficient knowledge by contacting the 'other side' frequently."

"It sounds crazy. Does something like 'the other side' even exist?"

"I'm a nun, so my answer has to be yes." The way she said it sounded so much like an innocent child, but the conviction in her voice was unquestionable. "Anyway, no one has ever achieved enlightenment through it. Some scholars have said that it is theoretically possible to purify a soul completely through death experiences alone, but the number of times one would have to witness something like that was too great."

"How much exactly?"

"103001 times." Her eyes were now locked on his. She suddenly looked uncomfortable. "But that's impossible. What person would be able to accumulate all that experience? If I'm not mistaken, the Rosenthal family, experts in necromancy, claimed that the quality of the deaths helped with effectiveness. If someone achieved the maximum potential of each experience, the number of times someone would need to die would decrease dramatically."

Kamijou swallowed dryly, his hands squeezing his legs tightly. When he spoke, his gaze wasn't on Index, he was hovering around the room, but his mind wasn't quite there.

"How much would it decrease?"

"About ten times." She bit her lip at that moment. "10031. That would be the number. But of course, nothing more than theory. But just like Ars Magna, perhaps someone is willing to try innovative methods and ends up coming up with the answer. However, this is an artificial method, practically a cheat, so someone could only create an artificial god that way."

"An artificial god?" Kamijou repeated that in a whisper and then exhaled sharply.

And then, as he gazed into the void, another person entered the room. He immediately recognized that shrine maiden's clothes and long black hair.

x-6-x

"What a mess," said Kimi calmly. She let her body collapse, sliding down the wall and sitting on the floor. "It's amazing that this guy is still breathing. Damn monster."

Her gaze quickly fell on the deformed figure in an expensive white suit, now smeared with blood. His face was covered in cuts, swelling on one side, with his eyes barely open. One of his arms was twisted at an unnatural angle; a human's joints shouldn't work like that.
At that moment, Kimi's face returned to its usual expressionless state. There wasn't a drop of regret about what she'd done to him, but as always, after something that had excited her, all that remained was an empty contemplation. Everything seemed so temporary to her.

"That's certainly not a good way to convince him to take me back."

If she was going to be brutally honest, if someone put the right conditions together, the person she loved would do something similar. She knew that very well. It was hard to visualize, since she couldn't imagine losing to someone, but if a person were to seriously hurt her, she was absolutely certain that they would be in a worse state than that monster lying there, choking on a pool of their own blood.

"But he's a damn hypocrite." She smiled, as always.

"Is the person you're referring to one of those magicians?"

A male voice sounded.

It was a soft voice, like someone had whispered in her ear. The voice's owner, though, was nowhere to be found. He could only express it as a voice that did not use air as a medium, completely violating the laws of physics.

Kimi suddenly froze. It wasn't fear she felt, it was something different. Her senses were working overtime.

There shouldn't have been anyone there, but when Kimi blinked, someone appeared. There was nowhere he could have hidden. He stood there placidly, as if to say he hadn't been concealing himself in the first place.

Leaning against the wall, the dragon girl leaped to her feet. She didn't need to worry about a surprise attack; her dragon would protect her. However, the presence she felt now was overwhelming. Although it was nothing compared to when a certain someone got angry, it was enough for her to go on high alert.

The reason for this was also due to the man's face.

From out of the void appeared the Aureolus Izzard that she should have already beaten. He didn't have a single scratch on him. This discrepancy was enough to make Kimi grimace, her gaze quickly switching to where that man should have been, almost dead on the ground.

And surprisingly, there he was.

"What?" She didn't understand.

There were two of them. The same face, the same clothes, even the same posture.

"It is clear. I am sure many questions come to mind, but I have no duty to answer," the alchemist stated calmly. "What you need to know is that your group has already caused me enough trouble."

Suddenly, Aureolus brought a single, hair-thin needle out of an inner pocket of his white suit. Kimi smelled a subtle scent, probably disinfectant. That was probably something used in the art of acupuncture.

"I'd better start cleaning this temple of mine." He put the needle he had picked against his neck, then casually stabbed it in. The motion was like he had flipped a switch for hypnotic suggestion. "Starting with you."

Kimi's gaze fixed on the beaten man on the floor, and then she straightened her posture. Perhaps she had made a mistake. Judging by the presence of the man now standing there, identical to the other, her anger had been directed at the wrong person.

"So you have a stunt double?" she asked, giving a half-smile again, feeling a sense of satisfaction return. "Is the one in front of me the real one? Please say no. It would be great if there were dozens of you, maybe then things would be fun."

"The man you defeated is nothing more than a failed experiment. I am the one who has mastered the art of alchemy, so don't expect you to have the same luck facing me."

"I've never needed luck."

Kimi casually lifted her leg and struck the man on the floor with force. Despite the minimal effort, the impact was strong enough to lift him two meters into the air and launch him like a rocket towards Aureolus.

The alchemist didn't even change his expression.

"Shatter."

And as he commanded, the body of the man thrown towards him shattered in mid-air. Three cracks split the man's body first and then scattered it in the wind like powdered snow. That life was snuffed out in an instant, but Kimi couldn't feel a thing. She had no pity for that monster in human form, and although she hadn't intended him to die like that, she just pushed that feeling of revulsion to the back of her mind and faced the real Aureolus Izzard.

The girl thought it unnecessary to say anything now, so she just moved her right hand horizontally. Her angelic wings spread out from her back, contracted like a translucent claw and then leapt towards the alchemist. The tremendous force pushed the air so hard that some of the glass decorations shattered and were scattered across the floor.

"It won't hit me."

When Aureolus' calm voice sounded, it seemed to double for an instant. He suddenly disappeared and reappeared just two meters to the side, causing the wing to pass through his previous location and strike the wall, cutting it vertically like a guillotine slicing through parchment.

"Hmm... impressive," said Kimi, smiling as she raised her head and crossed her arms. "It's almost like Index described." She even licked her lips.

The man quickly adjusted his suit as he stared at those translucent wings around the girl, like claws holding her firmly. For other people, the impression was that this girl didn't even belong in this world, that pale glow that the wings emitted gave rise to this strange illusion.

"What a curious power you have," he said, looking at her through the transparent wings that distorted his vision. "There's no trace of human magic. Are you an angel, or perhaps a demon?"

"I longed to be an angel. Yet I'm just what I am."

"Hmm?"

"It's an excerpt from my favorite song." She shrugged, still with her arms crossed. "Anyway, you've already given me a better fight than your other self, I'll finally have some fun. Come on, show me something else. Attack me!"

"I wish you wouldn't refer to me as another version of that failure." He jabbed his neck with another needle, causing some sparkle to appear in those expressionless eyes. "And I'm not interested in playing games right now." He tossed the needle aside with a smooth gesture, then put his hands in the pockets of his impeccable white suit. "That said... blow away."

Immediately afterward, Kimi felt something bend in front of her. It was as if the room itself had shattered, opening a transparent fissure that pushed everything violently. Her feet were no longer attached to the floor. With a resounding thud, the wall behind her opened like a mouth as her body collided with it. All the other walls in the way were destroyed, and Kimi found herself flying through the night sky.

It wasn't just a casual blow. That invisible attack was so strong that the girl accelerated through the air at speeds that far exceeded the speed of sound. If she had been a normal person, her body would have turned into plasma due to the resistance of the air. She continued flying, as she spun around without knowing what was up and down, and then finally stopped, spreading her wings around her in a desperate measure.

"That was interesting," she said inexpressively.

Although Kimi had wings, she didn't usually fly. But her instincts allowed her to hover high in the sky at that moment as she casually straightened her clothes. Her fair skin didn't have a single scratch on it. That devastating attack hadn't even touched her. Her wings moved almost by instinct and dispersed almost the entire force of the attack, which left her somewhat surprised that only a small portion of it made her fly like that.

"He went straight to the kill, I like that." She even licked her lips again as she said it with a creepy smile. Her eyes stared briefly at the horizon. "Now, where is that school?"

With her hands on her hips, as she hovered in the sky, she took a good look around, trying to figure out which direction she needed to go in order to get back to the battlefield. However, it didn't take her long to realize something.

"Wait... just a second." Kimi took her hands off her waist and clenched her fists. The scenery around her was extremely colorful. "I'm in Shibuya?!"

The way she spoke sounded more like she was horrified, as if she didn't want to be right. However, the jumble of tiny stores, each painted in primary colors, left no room for doubt. She wasn't in Academy City anymore.

Kimi decided that shouting was ideal here.

"That son of a biiiiiiiitch!" Her hands messed up her blue hair desperately. "Did he hit me so hard that I ended up here by accident? Or was that on purpose? Damn you! I promised Touma I'd drag him here one day, so I could have this first experience with him. Damn it! Damn it! Goddamn it!"

She stretched out her arms, which made her wings grow by dozens of meters. The girl resembled a vengeful angel, freshly fallen from the heavens, intent on retribution against those who had wronged her.

The fallen angel Shundan Kimi started biting her thumbnail while muttering a curse.

"Now I'm pissed. Just wait, you bastard, I'm going to turn you into a fucking pillar of salt and use you to season my fooooooooood!"

The girl even forgot that she wasn't good at flying, which made her fly perfectly through the sky at an alarming speed energized by pure rage.

Who needs training when you're so pissed off?

x-7-x

"Hemostasis is complete. Her blood will coagulate in fifteen minutes. Then her wounds will close. But the disinfecting is incomplete. She'll be fine for about two hours. Bringing her to a hospital for further treatment would be ideal."

The girl known as Himegami Aisa began to check on another student lying on the floor, while Kamijou watched from afar, leaning against a wall near the window.

"That was a good job." His eyes were traveling now. He was barely interested in what was happening at that moment. "Are you a doctor working without a license?"

"No, I'm a magic user."

"That's not true," Index said quickly. "I mean, I didn't notice you using any rituals, drawing any magic circles, and you don't seem to have any spiritual items with you either. I didn't even see any kind of breathing technique."

"Does that last thing exist?" asked Kamijou curiously.

"It's actually a common thing used to refine life force into magical power. Even an amateur could do it if they tried."

"Here," Himegami Aisa spoke with a white face. "I have a magic wand."

"First," said Kamijou, "where the hell did you get that from? And secondly... Isn't that a nightstick with a stun gun buried in it!"

"It's made with a new material—"

"That's nonsense!"

"That's nonsense!"

Index and Kamijou synchronized, causing Himegami to wince briefly.

"Anyway, you two are doing well. Stay here, I'm tired of waiting."

"Wait, Touma!" Index ran over and grabbed his arm. "We'd better wait and regroup, it's too dangerous to wander around alone."

"People are getting hurt while I stand here." He just shrugged, gently placing his palm on the back of Index's hand on his arm. "I need to save them. And that includes you right there, Himegami. In fact, you're the main reason I came here."

"Don't bother," said Himegami Aisa. "I don't know what you're up to, but you have no reason to risk yourself like this."

"Since when do you need a reason to save someone?"

x-8-x

Aureolus Izzard walked slowly through the principal's office. That room occupied the entire top floor of Misawa Cram School's north building. In the midst of modern luxury, he reorganized his thoughts, focusing on what mattered. As long as he kept his mind clear, he could do anything.

That man, breathing softly in that uniquely beautiful but classless room, was contemplating the past. The window in front of him displayed the stars of the night sky, dimmed by those artificial lights below them. Sometimes this was what the world was like. Something that should be on such a tiny scale could interfere with something so big. Of course, it depends on how you look at it.

"I'll save her," he said weakly, playing with a needle on his finger.

In the end, that was all he wanted. If he obtained absolute power, he would surely save her. Only someone with extraordinary power could do things like that, after all. Saving someone was not for the faint-hearted. That's why he had to remake himself, reinvent himself, leave his nature behind and become what he has become today.

Aureolus was already preparing to leave the room. He knew where Index was, there was no time to waste playing any more games. That girl from before had been eliminated in one blow, and the others would suffer the same fate. It couldn't be any different.

"Good evening, alchemist."

A voice sounded just as he turned towards the door.

"Kind of you to leave the door open for me."

It was a boy.

He was a completely normal boy.

He was standing there, right in the doorway, casually. His hands were in his pockets, and his back was arched in a posture that was at once relaxed but also gave off a feeling of superiority. His head held high matched everything. Clear confidence exuded from him, as if nothing in the world could affect him.

All of this was typical for a young person, especially in this town, Aureolus thought. Not that he knew all the details of their activities here; he was only interested in a specific power that this city possessed. Nevertheless, many students strutted around as if they were superior to "ordinary people".

But none of that mattered.

The boy standing before him was an enemy, and regardless of how confidently he acted, the outcome would be the same. He would be crushed like an annoying ant.

"Before we start," said the boy, taking a single hand out of his pocket. "I'd like to warn you that it would be wiser to surrender."

Aureolus almost smiled at that. If it hadn't sounded so pathetic, he would have laughed, but now he could only feel sorry. The purpose of alchemy is to recreate the world in your head, an absolute power that he had obtained. As a man who could manipulate the entire world, there probably wasn't anything he couldn't obtain. That poor boy would never understand something like that. He didn't see the world through the same lens as him.

The air around them was terribly hollow. It was as empty as a timeworn, faded photograph. This served as a representation of Aureolus' state of mind. Even with so much power, he hadn't gotten what he wanted, and now, things were quickly losing their meaning for him. So he decided to act fast.

"If you've come this far, then you must know what you're up against." Aureolus took a single step forward, one of his hands also in his pocket, unintentionally imitating the boy. "Brave of you. I can reward you if you act like a good servant and bring me Index. Maybe I'll even spare your life."

"I'm sorry, but I made a promise to protect her." He shrugged casually. The way he acted irritated the alchemist for some reason, but he wouldn't let it show.

"Ridiculous. Your efforts will be in vain one way or another. That girl has been condemned to a terrible fate—"

"Yeah, yeah."

The interruption came with a dismissive wave of the hand, a gesture akin to slapping someone across the face with the back of your hand. Despite the distance of over 10 meters between them, the way the boy moved his hand seemed to intrude into his personal space. That was the immediate sensation he felt. Whether it was the casual manner of speaking that caused this feeling, he couldn't say, but it was increasingly irritating him.

"That nonsense about memory," said the boy, putting his other hand back in his pocket. "Aren't you supposed to be a scholar? Why are you so stupid?"

Aureolus Izzard gritted his teeth without meaning to at the time. That boy. Damn him. Not only did he seem to be mocking Index's condition, but he also dared to question his intelligence. Right him, who had obtained the absolute power that no one before him had.

"I'd give you the same fate as that blue-haired girl," said Aureolus, his eyes practically shooting lightning bolts in the boy's direction. "But I'm going to have some fun with you first, knave, maybe then you'll learn an important lesson."

"Blue-haired girl?" He tilted his head to the side. "Are you talking about Kimi? Strange. You met, but you're not lying in a pool of your own blood. Either you fell at the first blow, or she took it too easy on you."

"Hah! What a delusion. That pathetic wench is surely dead right now. She didn't even put up a good fight."

"Be careful how you talk about my childhood friend. You don't want to see my bad side."

"Both of you shall meet shortly. Then you may lament together over your foolishness in attempting to challenge me."

The spiky-haired boy smiled slightly, so quickly that it was barely visible. A vein seemed to be popping out on Aureolus' forehead.

"What's funny?" asked the alchemist angrily.

"The fact that a wimp like you is barking so loudly. Not even on a lucky day, when the whole universe lines up in your direction, can a low-life like you even dream of putting a single scratch on that girl."

Aureolus had reached his limit. It was time to demonstrate to the irritating insect just who he was dealing with. But first, he would toy with it a little.

"I shall not kill you so easily. A gun in my hand. Load out: magic bullets. Usage: firing. Quantity: One is more than enough."

The alchemist gleefully stuck a thin needle into the back of his neck. He lightly threw his hand to the side, and instantly, it was gripping a sword. Aureolus eyed the barrel of the firearm hidden in that ornate sword and smiled slightly. He was going to like that.

"Begin firing at a speed exceeding that of human kinetic vision."

The order was given calmly, a moment later, the sound of gunpowder exploding resounded through the room. He made sure not to aim for any vital points, no one wanted it to end with the first blow.

As soon as the air in front of Aureolus was cut off, the bullet moved, but it looked more like it had been teleported.

And then...

One of the boy's hands lazily slipped out of his pocket. He couldn't have been more sloppy if he'd tried. His index finger was pointed forward, and not an instant later, the projectile touched that completely ordinary finger.

The bullet stopped in mid-air.

It didn't bounce, or feel the effect of gravity, it just stopped there, as if it had run into a barrier and got stuck.

The alchemist was surprised, but also interested in this turn of events.

"Oh no!" the boy exclaimed dramatically. "Bullets, my only weakness."

The second sentence was said totally without emotion, not matching the first at all, making everything surreal, as if logic was being challenged and he didn't have the strength to care.

"Then you can fight back," said the alchemist, smiling. That was good, so he could play a bit more with that insignificant boy.

"Unfortunately, we can't say the same for you."

No orders were given out loud, but the same attack seemed to have been repeated at that moment. However, it didn't come from the alchemist. The bullet stopped in mid-air began to move, and at the same moment, the window and part of the wall behind Aureolus exploded. The sound was even slower than it should have been, or so it seemed.

"My aim is terrible today," said the boy, putting his hand back in his pocket and shrugging.

Aureolus turned towards where the wall had exploded. He wasn't concerned about exposing his back to the enemy, such was his confidence. The breach in the wall had undoubtedly been caused by that minuscule bullet, propelled by a mere flick of the fingers. He couldn't possibly be mistaken, even though it resembled more the work of a cannonball.

"There's no trace of human magic here either," added Aureolus, deciding not to worry about that attack. "No matter. You're more interesting than you let on, but any technique pales in comparison to my Ars Magna. The absolute power achieved by one who has reached the pinnacle of alchemy. Maybe if we'd met before, but now, I've become the strongest."

"Hmm... 'I'm the strongest there is' said the ant to the lion."

The boy swiftly withdrew his hands from his pockets. It wasn't a casual movement; rather, he appeared theatrical, as if deliberately making an exaggerated gesture on stage. His expression remained serious.

"If you really believe that," continued the vulgar boy. He spread his arms, showing his palms. "Then let's test your theory. Hit me."

Aureolus' head tilted slightly to the side. He struggled to articulate the sensation he experienced in that moment, the shift in the air. It wasn't pressure; it was the absence of it. Until now, the alchemist had been unaware of the peculiar aura emanating from the boy. It had seemed insignificant, not something worth his attention. After all, that pathetic boy posed no threat. Yet now, he appeared even more powerless. The pressure had dissipated entirely. It was as though there was no longer another person present beside him.

"I'll give you one chance... and one chance only," declared the boy with open arms, his gaze bored but defiant. "Hit me with your best blow. If you really have absolute power, then killing me shouldn't be difficult. No more games, fifth-rate alchemist."

That annoying boy was asking for it. Aureolus' blood boiled, but he pushed this useless anger out of his mind. That insignificant insect was right, there was no time for games, he should eliminate the enemy and get on with his goals.

Aureolus opened his mouth, ending the fight with a single command. But something simple wouldn't satisfy him.

"So be it, you broken esper." A thin needle jabbed unceremoniously into his neck. "Innumerable decapitation blades into position. Sever his head from his body immediately!"

With those words, many giant guillotine blades came out of the ceiling above the boy's head as if they were cutting through the surface of water. Each one was a blade of execution weighing one hundred kilograms. The hands of gravity pulled them down. The boy just stood there, not even looking up, his arms still open.

It happened suddenly. A sound of something being smashed rang out and then...

The boy's head was separated from his body.

But Aureolus was not satisfied. The countless decapitation machines continued their flow, cutting, slicing, dismembering, crushing, grinding, separating, breaking, shattering, destroying, reducing, dividing... and repeating.

There was no longer a boy there. He had never been an opponent.

All that was left was a pathetic red stain, scattered across the floor. No one would be able to tell that what was in that room had ever been a human.

Aureolus felt satisfied. He straightened his impeccable suit while keeping one hand in his pocket, totally unconcerned. A command to clean the room of that filthy mess almost escaped his mouth, but he decided he should enjoy it for a while longer. That pathetic boy really thought he could go against him, so his end was well in hand.

"In the end, it was just bravado," said Aureolus, a giant smile of derision appearing on his face. "But it was the obvious, no one can go against absolute power... hahaha."

His laughter started weakly, but he found himself carried away by it.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Huh?"

But another laugh erupted from across the room.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

At that moment, Aureolus involuntarily took a step back at the unforeseen event. He had done it. The boy's head had been easily separated from his body. That was more than enough to guarantee victory, everything else was just spectacle, done for his satisfaction alone. So what did that mean?

The boy took a step forward. Aureolus didn't understand when it happened. One moment, he was nothing more than a wet stain, dirt impregnated in the room, and the next, there wasn't a scratch on his body.

The first thing Aureolus felt was not fear but discomfort. That was because of that fleeting sensation from before, that subtle pressure. It had suddenly returned, and now that its absence served as a scale, it kept nagging at him, right there, a needle in his mind.

"So much for 'absolute power'. What a joke," sneered the boy, walking slowly towards Aureolus. "That was kind of disappointing, to be honest. I gave you a free attack. I didn't even try to block, dodge or protect myself in any way, but that was it?"

As he said this, a distorted smile remained on his lips. The boy's head remained raised, the one that had been separated from his body, which made the alchemist think that it was all just an illusion.

"Yes, that's it," said Aureolus.

Nothing more than an illusion. He wanted to play with the boy before killing him, so that must have been what happened, the attack wasn't effective because of that. Aureolus had sunk so deep into this theory that he barely noticed when something appeared in mid-air near the boy and then disappeared after a subtle twist. It looked like the tail of a giant lizard, being destroyed by several cuts in an instant, but he pushed it out of his mind.

"Repeat the procedure," ordered Aureolus. With a ting of irritation, he tossed the needle in his neck aside. "You damned knave...There is no escape from my Ars Magna. Innumerable decapitation blades into position. Destroy his body completely until there's nothing left!"

The same attack was repeated. In reality, and just as he thought, multiple guillotine blades made contact with the boy's body.

But all the guillotines shattered to pieces like sugar cubes just from touching him.

"Kh...agh." Aureolus Izzard cursed himself for letting something like that slip out of his mouth. "How?"

The boy was laughing. He seemed to be enjoying the way the alchemist reacted.

"Did he tell the truth?" Aureolus muttered to himself. "Did he even try to avoid the attack the other time?"

That couldn't be true. If it were, what was that boy then? He had seen him killed before his eyes. A human being can't survive without a head, that's so obvious that starting to have doubts about something like that made his head hurt. But there he was. All along he could have made the attack disappear in an instant, but he chose not to. He had chosen. It wasn't carelessness, it wasn't a lapse of judgment. He decided so. Because he knew it didn't matter, that he'd be fine all the same.

"No, no, impossible." The man stabbed his neck once more, he had to get those thoughts away. "A wall of flames as hot as the sun, come out. The target is just the demon in front of me."

The alchemist must hardly have noticed the way he referred to the boy. It was totally subconscious. But that demon marched towards him, not even caring that hell was being hurled in his direction.

"Get electrocuted!"

As if stricken with horror, Aureolus Izzard looked at that demon. At some point, the sharp look in his eyes had been chipped into a rusty blade. The attack certainly hit him, it wasn't deflected, the only description that could be given is that it was ineffective. There was no noise, no fanfare. It was simply ineffective.

"Be crushed!" ordered the Alchemist, and then a car was thrown in the boy's direction. "Be shot by infinite bullets!" And then several guns fired at the same time. "Be blown up!" And then explosions so strong that they would demolish skyscrapers with the shock waves alone hit him.

Nothing was effective. All the attacks certainly hit him, there was no doubt from his point of view, but nothing could even erase that evil smile on his face.

He needed to keep going. To think of something that would stop it. He fumbled with his quaking hand to bring out an acupuncture needle, but the many needles fell to the floor in a mess. But he still had one last needle in his hand.

"Stop him!" he said quickly. "Indestructible chains appear. Wrap his body forever!"

They were like metallic snakes, tinkling in mid-air. They swirled around the boy, crashing into his body and wrapping him from head to toe.

But all it took was a single step.

The alchemist's eyes widened. The chains hadn't been broken, they hadn't even been damaged. The boy simply "passed" through them, without a single scratch on his metallic prison. It was as if a clear message had been passed on. The boy didn't even bother to break the chains, it was as if he didn't care about playing the alchemist's game. He beat him on his own terms, just the same. Just as easy.

"No, no, no." The alchemist stumbled as he tried to back away, falling to the ground and crawling as he desperately searched for the needles. "Damn it, my needles...Where are my acupuncture needles?"

He felt that strong presence right next to him. Turning around, he saw the boy... no, the dark blue-eyed demon looking at him. The smiling creature was crouched down next to him, but he seemed distant. He was looking at the distressed alchemist mercifully, cynically, pitifully, disdainfully, pleasurably, as if mocking him for fun. The monster was laughing. With an expression that stated he'd already completely seen through everything. There was no threat there for him. A lion, crushing the strongest ant. That was it, and that was all.

"Here," said the monster, holding out his hand. One of the thin needles was there. "Use it."

That's all he said. Aureolus needed his needles to calm down, to cleanse his thoughts of any impurities, anything that might get in the way. So that gesture seemed crazy. It was like a victim handing a loaded gun back to his attacker.

"Don't make me repeat myself," the demon said calmly.

The alchemist picked up the needle immediately.

This was no time to hesitate or hold back, he had to end it somehow.

"D-die!" ordered the alchemist, now with his eyes closed.

It was as if Aureolus was praying at that moment. His silent prayer lasted only a second, and then he opened his eyes. It had to be over. He gave the order, so it couldn't be otherwise.

"Really?" The demon looked at him with boredom in his eyes. "Did you really think that something so simple would be enough to kill me? How pathetic can anyone be?"

The monster stood up. It looked at Aureolus on the floor, something like disgust on its face. The alchemist didn't want to be near that being, so he began to back away, crawling pathetically on the ground. He didn't even care at this point.

"Your power is interesting, indeed," said the monster, shaking his right hand slightly. A loud crack escaped him. "You seem to establish a territory where you reign absolute. Whatever you think of becomes reality. But you don't even realize that the authority of the territory was seized the instant I set foot here." He paused when he saw the alchemist grimace. "Or maybe you did? My congratulations. Let me show you something as a reward. It must be fascinating for someone who has sought absolute power."

A casual but eye-catching gesture was made. The boy's right arm pushed out a large amount of air with that mere gesture. Or not really. Something had changed, or become more intense. It was hard to understand anything that was happening perfectly.

A translucent mass impregnated everything around the boy. After grasping the concept of up and down, it audibly took shape. It became a great maw lined with ferocious fangs.

"Come forth, my crowned dragon king," ordered the human-shaped monster. "You can play for a while."

It was like nothing he'd ever seen before, save in legends, for it had a length of more than ten meters and a ferocious brutality. It was the gargantuan, gigantic jaw of a dragon king. The translucent creature became fully visible, its claws now digging into the ground, and its reptilian tongue snapping in the air like a whip.

Aureolus Izzard had already given up. His supposed absolute power that he had obtained because he wanted to save someone had already been subdued. Easily subdued. There were no more cards, so he did what he would never have imagined himself doing a few minutes ago.

He turned and ran.

A clap of thunder was heard at that moment, but Aureolus ignored it and ran towards the window with all the strength his body could produce. That was the highest floor, but the alchemist didn't even hesitate, he would throw himself out of the window and then think of something. His first priority was to escape from that demon linked to that legendary monster. There was no other option.

A crash sounded. A body crashed through the window. Not only that, the hole that appeared also broke through the concrete walls in the way.

It hadn't been Aureolus Izzard.

"Yo, missed me, you piece of shit?"

And it hadn't been the demon behind him either. That female voice sounded just as another person appeared, breaking all the floors from above, blowing out the window glass and the entire wall in front of him without even seeming to make an effort.

She had pale wings on her back, stretching behind her out of the building. Her blue hair fluttered in the icy wind, and her beautiful face had an expression that ranged from anger to disdain, but soon became expressionless. She was like an avenging angel, falling from the heavens to bring punishment.

The wings on her back retracted, her right arm moved in a gesture similar to that of the monster behind him. Aureolus noticed a pale deformation on that arm, but this was no time to think about it. That girl should be dead now, but somehow she had managed to survive. It didn't matter. He had to think of something, a desperate order to get her out of the way.

But his mouth froze before he could say anything.

Something emitting a pale light appeared behind the girl. The creature snaked around her body, still visible through its translucence. It resembled an angelic serpent, large and emitting a toxic glow from its scales.

Those two were similar.

Issuing a desperate command wouldn't aid him in defeating the girl. What had the monster said earlier? That he wouldn't manage to scratch her even on his best day. Whether that was accurate or not, it was irrelevant now. The same fear that had originated from behind him, from that demon, now emanated from the angel before him.

"Touma-kun," said the angel girl, walking calmly with a straight face. "I don't know what was going on here, but I have a score to settle with that son of a bitch."

"I say the same," replied the demon, joining her. The two of them were side by side now, forcing the alchemist to retreat uselessly in another direction.

"The bastard threw me straight into Shibuya, so I hope you don't mind if I take the first bite."

There was no obvious sign. In the next instant, the angel and the demon stepped forward, and the two dragons advanced towards the poor alchemist.

---

Author's note: This chapter was too long.

I'm back with another chapter, dear readers. Seriously, this chapter was hard to write. I thought about splitting it into two parts about three times, but I wanted the whole adventure inside Misawa Cram School to happen in a single chapter. We'll still have a short epilogue, but I'm satisfied.

I kind of established Index acting almost like a "leader" when it comes to magic. In the original, neither Stiyl nor Kamijou are determined to take her with them, but here one of them has more than enough power to keep her safe on this battlefield so she has more opportunity to do what she does best.

Yes, Kamijou was using the power of the Flame Corpse Dragon there. And he also used automatic resurrection with a dragon's tail. There's a theory that says this technique comes from the Flame Dragon itself, but the Dragon King can use any power from the "Lesser Dragons". There's no confirmation, but it makes sense. I wanted to put this scene here just because I thought this theory was cool. And I also had to try to make the scene where Aureolus cuts off Kamijou's arm even more brutal. Was it good?

Kimi used a holistic phenomenon in this chapter. For those who don't understand exactly what happened, think of it as the phenomenon that occurred in the final fight of NT22. The narrator compares it to a holistic phenomenon, so I imagine that theoretically Kimi could do something similar. In NT22, Accel, after adding the third tree, he used the macro phenomenon generated to move the micro, in this case by applying a physical attack, since the world itself can be linked to a human body. I know, holism is confusing. Here, Kimi does something similar. By distorting space-time after creating a black hole, she can use this phenomenon to distort gravity in her environment. Using the macro as a way to move the micro, basically the same principle. She never did anything like that in the canon, but there the scientists tried to kill her right after they discovered what she was capable of, and she never got the chance to develop her powers afterwards. Here she had that chance.

By the way, did you know that Kamijou's powers can fit into the concept of holism? That's why here and in another story of mine he's considered a holistic esper. I don't want to go too far into this theory, these notes are getting too long.

I'd better answer your reviews:

CrazyLich79: I hope the confusion got better, lol.

5had0wHand: I'm glad you like the change. Mikoto and Kamijou's relationship is not very different from the canonical one. It's definitely not her last appearance, but she won't be recurring as much. All he saw was nothing, white and empty. Index is happy to be referred to by her formal name. Glad you like their dynamic, thanks.

Guest: She demonstrated a little here. I hope you enjoyed it.

Guest(2): It all happened so quickly, didn't it?

Amad0: Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'm glad you liked the interactions and the secondary plot. See you around.

Farrelspiral: Thanks too. It's always good to know that people enjoy the interactions.

Superboy813: Glad you're enjoying it. Unfortunately, I had no plan for anything like this. Perhaps a future subplot. I often add extra scenes to my stories when I like an idea.

Guest: I'm going to write a one-shot, so stay tuned. Just kidding.

Amatsumi: You could say both, and neither. I like to joke in my stories that he's #6, but I never confirm it.

Kuroshiragami0: Thank you very much. I hope you enjoyed this long chapter.

See you next time!

---

Omake:

"The bastard threw me straight into Shibuya, so I hope you don't mind if I take the first bite."

Kamijou looked at Kimi with a special expression. Was he covering his mouth with his hand to avoid laughing?

"What's so funny?" asked Kimi without understanding.

"Kimi-chan, your dragon doesn't even have a mouth. Are you stupid?"

After that, instead of fighting the alchemist, they threw themselves at each other and exchanged blows, forgetting the rest of the world. Does that count as the good ending?

---

"They're essentially the same thing anyway. The only difference is who they follow." My chapter titles sometimes make sense, at least here. I wonder if anyone reading this is confused by two Aureolus. I recommend reading OT2 if that's the case, there's an extra fight in there that isn't in the anime.

An extra author's note. If you follow all my stories, you'll know that my health hasn't been the best lately. This chapter was kind of edited in a hurry, so I'm sorry if there are a lot of mistakes or if the descriptions aren't the best. I wanted to finish it quickly, since I'm going to have surgery soon. I probably won't be able to write and edit properly during the recovery period. I'll update all the stories eventually. Wish me luck.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it was the longest so far and I kind of don't intend to have such long chapters. That's all for now. Moon leaving.