Chapter 2: The Illusionist Bestows Demise. Part 4

Index headed on to the public bath alone.

Meanwhile, Kamijou trudged on toward the public bath. He had tried running after Index at first but the angry white nun ran off like a stray cat whenever she saw him. Despite this, he would see Index's back after walking a bit further as if she were waiting for him. After that, the cycle would repeat. She was truly like a capricious cat.

Well, we're headed to the same place, so we'll meet up again eventually. With that thought, Kamijou gave up trying to run after her.

Not to mention that he sensed impending misfortune in the form of an arrest should someone see him (seemingly) chasing a weak and helpless young British nun down a dark pathway at night like a Namahage.

"A British nun, hm?" Kamijou muttered under his breath as he walked down the dark pathway alone.

He knew that Index would be brought to the Anglican Church's headquarters in London if he took her to one of their churches in Japan. There would be nothing left for Kamijou to do. It would all surely end with something like, "It may have just been a short time, but thank you. I will never forget you because of my perfect memory."

Kamijou felt something sharply stabbing inside his chest, but he had no other ideas of what to do. If Index were not brought under the church's protection, she would continue to be chased by magicians. Also, it was unrealistic to try to follow Index to England.

They lived in different worlds, they stood different places, and they existed in different dimensions.

Kamijou lived in the world of scientific ESP and she lived in the world of the magical occult.

Like land and sea, their two worlds would never cross paths.

That was all there was to it.

That was all there was to it, but it still annoyed him like a fish bone stuck in his throat.

"Huh?"

Suddenly his vainly spinning thoughts cut off.

Something was not right. Kamijou checked the time displayed on a department store's electronic billboard. It was exactly 8 PM. It would still be some time before most people would be asleep, and yet, a horrible silence had fallen over the area like that of a forest's at night. A strange, out-of-place sensation hung over the area.

Come to think of it, I haven't seen anyone since we were walking together… With a puzzled thought and a puzzled look, Kamijou walked further along.

And when he came to a major road with three lanes in each direction, the out-of-place feeling shifted to a full-blown sense of things being blatantly wrong.

There was no one there.

No one entered or exited the major department stores that lined the road like drinks on a convenience store rack. The footpath that usually felt overly narrow now felt horribly wide and not a single car was driving along that runway of a road. All of the cars parked on the side of road were empty as if abandoned.

It was like a farm road out in the country. "This is because Stiyl carved the Opila rune for a people clearing field."

A female voice suddenly entered his head like a Japanese sword stabbing into the core of his face.

He had not noticed.

She hid behind nothing and did not sneak behind him. She stood in the center of the wide runway-like road around 10 meters ahead of him, cutting off his path.

It went beyond the point of not seeing or noticing her due to the dark. An instant before there truly was no one. But, in the time it took him to blink, the girl had appeared.

"All of the people around this area have had their focuses averted so that they avoid approaching here for whatever reason. Most are likely inside the buildings, so worry not."

His body reacted before his mind could manage to. All of the blood in his body seemed to gather in his right hand. With rope-like pain was tightly binding his wrist, Kamijou instinctually sensed that the girl was dangerous.

The girl wore a T-shirt and jeans with a leg boldly cut off, her clothes completely removed from normalcy.

However, the two meter plus Japanese sword hanging from her waist like a pistol emanated a freezing bloodlust. The blade was hidden within a scabbard but the black scabbard appeared as full of history as the pillar of an old Japanese building, making it clear that the sword was real.

"The God Purifying Demon Destroyer…3 An excellent 'true name.'"

However, the girl herself showed no signs of nervousness. The relaxed way she spoke, like that of someone having a casual conversation, made it all the more frightening.

"…Who are you?"

"I am Kanzaki Kaori. …I would prefer to not give my other name, if possible."

"Your other name?"

"My magic name."

He had expected it, to a certain extent, but Kamijou still took a step back.

Magic name. That was the "name of bloodshed" that Stiyl offered before attacking Kamijou with magic.

"So… what? Are you from that magic cabal or whatever, just like Stiyl?"

"…?" For a split second, Kanzaki frowned in doubt. "Oh, did you hear that from Index?"

Kamijou gave no reply.

A magic cabal, the organization chasing Index to acquire her 103,000 grimoires, a group striving to become Magic Gods, people who have so thoroughly mastered magic that they can twist everything in the world to their will.

"To be honest," Kanzaki closed one eye. "I would like to take her into our care without having to give my magic name."

Kamijou shuddered. Kamijou had a trump card, his right hand, and yet, the enemy standing before him sent a chill down his back.

"…And if I refuse?" Kamijou asked nevertheless. He had no reason to fall back.

"Then I will have no choice." Kanzaki closed her other eye. "I will have to give my name until she has been brought into our care."

An earthquake-like shock caused the ground under Kamijou's feet to tremble.

It was like a bomb had gone off. The night sky at the edge of his vision that should have been covered in the pale blue darkness was instead colored with a burning orange like that of the sunset. Giant flames were spreading a few hundred meters ahead.

"Index…!!"

The enemy was an organization and Kamijou knew the name of a flame magician.

Kamijou reflexively looked over in the direction of the exploding flames and in that instant, Kanzaki Kaori's slicing attack approached him.

A distance of 10 meters lay between Kamijou and Kanzaki. Additionally, Kanzaki's katana surpassed two meters long, so it looked impossible for her slender feminine arms to pull it from its scabbard, much less swing it around.

…But that was just how it looked.

In the next instant, the air above Kamijou's head was sliced apart like she wielded a giant laser. In shock, he froze in place and the blade of a wind turbine behind him to the right was silently sliced through diagonally as if it were made of butter.

"Please stop this," said a voice 10 meters before front of him. "Ignoring my warnings will only lead to death." Kanzaki's two meters plus sword was already in the scabbard. The strike was so quick Kamijou never saw the blade exposed in the air. He was unable to move.

The only reason he was still standing was because Kanzaki had intentionally missed. The situation seemed so unreal that he had only just barely managed to realize that fact. His enemy was so absurdly powerful that his mind could not keep up.

With a loud thud, the sliced wind turbine blade fell to the ground behind him.

Though the wreckage of the blade fell so closely by, Kamijou was still unable to move.

"…!"

Kamijou gritted his teeth at the thought of how ridiculously sharp that blade must have been.

Kanzaki opened one of her closed eyes and said, "I will ask you again." She narrowed her eyes slightly. "I would like to take her into our care without having to give my magic name."

Kanzaki's voice was unhesitant, her voice so cold she seemed to be saying that that level of destruction was not worth any surprise.

"…Wh-What the hell are you saying?"

As if his feet were glued to the ground, he could move neither forwards nor backwards. His legs trembled like he had just finished running a full marathon and could feel his strength leaving them.

"I have no reason to surrender to-…"

"I will ask as many times as necessary."

In an instant —truly only an instant— Kanzaki's right hand blurred and disappeared like a bug in a video game.

With a roar, something flew at Kamijou with frightening speed.

"!?"

Kamijou felt like giant lasers were being fired of every direction, like a giant tornado of wind blades.

Kamijou Touma watched as that typhoon sliced the asphalt, the streetlights, and the trees lining the street at set intervals to pieces as if it were an industrial water jet cutter. A fist-sized piece of asphalt flew through the air and struck Kamijou's right shoulder, which was enough to send him flying and almost knock him unconscious.

Grasping his right shoulder, Kamijou looked around while moving only his eyes.

One… two… three, four, five, six, seven. A total of seven linear sword slices continued for a few dozen meters across the flat ground. The cuts came in at many seemingly random angles and looked something like fingernail scratches on a steel door.

He heard a click as her katana returned to its scabbard.

"I would like to take her into our care without having to give my magic name."

With her right hand still on the hilt of her sword, Kanzaki simply spoke her words with no malice or anger.

Seven strikes, but Kamijou was unable to see even a single one. She had performed seven iai strokes in that single instant. And, had she wanted to, any or all of those seven strikes could have been a deadly attack that sliced Kamijou in two.

No. He had only heard the metallic sound of the sword being sheathed once.

It was most likely the supernatural power known as magic. She possessed some magic that extended the range of her strikes by dozens of meters and gave her the swordsmanship to attack seven times with one draw.

"The speed of the Nanasen attack4that my Shichiten Shichitou5 creates is enough to kill you seven times over in the period of time known as an instant. People refer to this as an instant kill. Calling this a certain kill would not be far from the truth."

Silently, Kamijou clenched his fist with enough force to crush his right hand.

She had overwhelming speed, power, and range. Most likely, that slicing attack had something to do with the supernatural power known as magic. In that case, he just had to touch the actual attack itself.

"Keep dreaming," she said, cutting off his thoughts. "I heard from Stiyl that your right hand can dispel magic for some reason. However, am I correct in thinking you cannot do so unless you touch it with that right hand of yours?"

Exactly. Kamijou's right hand was of no use if he could not touch it.

It was not just an issue of speed. Unlike Misaka Mikoto's Biri Biri-ing and Railgun that shot in a straight line, he could not predict where Kanzaki Kaori's Nanasen would go due to its constant changing. If Kamijou tried to use Imagine Breaker, those seven slices would likely slice his arm to pieces right off the bat.

"I will ask as many times as it takes."

Kanzaki's right hand silently grabbed the hilt of Shichiten Shichitou at her waist.

Kamijou felt a cold sweat on his cheek.

If Kanzaki's mood changed and she went in for the kill, Kamijou would certainly be sliced to pieces in an instant. Given how she had sliced the trees lining the road to pieces at a range of a few dozen meters, trying to run away or use something as a shield would be suicide.

Kamijou calculated the distance between himself and Kanzaki.

It was about 10 meters. If he ran as quickly as his physical body would let him, he could cover that distance in four steps.

…Move, Kamijou desperately commanded his legs that seemed attached to the ground with instant glue.

"Will you let us take her into our care before I give my magic name?"

…Move!!

He took one step forward as if ripping his feet off of the ground. One of Kanzaki's eyebrows twitched up as Kamijou moved to take another explosive step forward like a bullet.

"Ohh…. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"

He took his next step. If he could not run away, could not evade to the right or left, and could not use anything as a shield, the only option left was to head forward and open up a path for himself.

"I do not know what is driving you this far, but…"

Kanzaki gave a sigh that held more pity than surprise. And then…

Nanasen.

The small fragments of the destroyed asphalt and trees floated in the air like dust. With a roar of wind, that cloud of dust was sliced to pieces before Kamijou's eyes.

"Ah… Ohh!!"

He knew in his head that he could negate it if he touched it with his right hand, but his heart immediately chose to evade. He crouched down with such force it looked like he was swinging his head down and his heart froze as the seven waves passed overhead.

He had not calculated it and there was no way he could have succeeded had he tried. He had only managed to evade due to pure luck and he proceeded to take another powerful step, the third of the four.

No matter how strange of an attack Nanasen was, it was still an iai strike at its base. It was an ancient sword technique that let fly a single definitive attack that began with the action of sliding the sword from its scabbard, meaning that the time when the blade was out of its scabbard left the user defenseless and unable to use another iai strike.

If he took that last step to reach Kanzaki, he would win. The final hope that the thought gave Kamijou was shattered to pieces with a small click.

It was the much-too-short slightly metallic noise of the katana being returned to its scabbard.

Nanasen.

The roar came from directly in front of Kamijou at pointblank range.

The seven strikes were on him before his body's reflexes could even kick in.

"Dammit… Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"

Kamijou stuck his right fist forward toward the slicing attacks in front of him, but the movement was more like a defensive attempt at catching a ball thrown at his face than an offensive attack.

As long as it was a supernatural power, Kamijou's right hand could negate it even if it were the power of God or of vampires.

Due to the close proximity, the seven strikes were released simultaneously without spread, which meant he could blow away all seven of them with one strike of Imagine Breaker.

As the strikes glowed blue in the moonlight, the skin of one finger on Kamijou's fist lightly touched them….

…And was eaten into.

"Wha…!?"

It did not disappear. Even with Imagine Breaker, those absurd strikes did not disappear.

Kamijou immediately tried to pull his hand back but was too slow. After all, he had stuck his own hand into the oncoming strike of a Japanese sword.

She narrowed her eyes slightly at the sight of him. In the next instant, the wet sound of flesh being sliced apart filled the area. Kamijou held his bloody right hand with his left and fell to his knees.

He was honestly surprised to find all five of his fingers were still attached. This was of course not due to Kamijou's fingers being tough or Kanzaki's skill being poor. Kamijou's body was not sliced to pieces due to the simple fact of her having held back, held back even more, and allowed him to live.

Still on his knees, Kamijou looked up.

Kanzaki stood with the blue moon's perfect circle behind her. He could see things like red threads in front of her.

It was akin to a spider web. It was only once Kamijou's blood covered them like evening dew on a spider web that he could see the seven steel wires.

"I can't believe this…" Kamijou clenched his teeth. "Are you even a magician?"

The ridiculously huge katana was nothing but a decoration.

It was unsurprising that he was unable to see the instant she drew the sword. Kanzaki had never actually drawn it. She had only moved the sword slightly within the scabbard and then moved it back. That motion was to hide the hand manipulating the seven wires.

Kamijou's hand was relatively unharmed because Kanzaki had loosened the wires just before they severed his fingers.

"As I said, I heard about your ability from Stiyl." Kanzaki sounded disinterested. "That was when I realized: your power is not of greater quantity, it is of a different type. It is the same as rock paper scissors. No matter how many times you use rock, you can never defeat my paper."

"…" Kamijou clenched his bloody fist.

"You seem mistaken about something." It seemed to pain Kanzaki to look at him. "I am not disguising a lack of ability with a cheap trick. Shichiten Shichitou is not a mere decoration. Beyond Nanasen is the true Yuisen6."

"…" He clenched his bloody fist.

"And more importantly, I have not given my magic name yet."

"…" He clenched it.

"Please do not make me give it, boy." Kanzaki bit her lip. "I don't wish to give it ever again."

His clenched fist trembled. She was clearly different from Stiyl. She was not a simple one-trick pony. From the most basic of the basics to the most complex of the complexities, she was a kind completely differently from Kamijou.

"…Like I can give up."

Even so, Kamijou did not unclench his fist. He kept his right hand closed despite having no feeling in it.

Index had not given up in her attempt to face Kamijou when sliced in the back by that magician.

"What did you say? …I could not hear you."

"I said shut the hell up, you damn robot!!"

Kamijou clenched his bloody fist and tried to swing it at the face of the girl standing before him.

But, the toe of Kanzaki's boot jabbed into his solar plexus before he could. All the air in his lungs burst from his mouth and the Shichiten Shichitou's black scabbard struck him on the side of the face like a baseball bat. His body spun like a tornado and he struck the ground shoulder-first.

Before he could cry out in pain, Kamijou saw the bottom of a boot coming down to crush his head.

In an attempt to evade, he immediately rolled to the side and…

"Nanasen."

As that term entered Kamijou's ears, seven slicing attacks broke the asphalt around him to pieces. Kamijou's entire body was pelted by an explosion of small fragments from every direction.

"Gh… Ah…!?"

Kamijou writhed in place as intense pain similar to being brutalized by five or six people assaulted him. Kanzaki approached him with her boots scraping on the ground.

I need to get up… He told himself.

However, his legs were too tired to move.

"Surely that is enough." Her quiet voice actually sounded pained. "There is no reason for you to go this far for her. Lasting even 30 seconds against one of the top 10 magicians in London is quite an achievement. She cannot blame you after going this far."

"…"

Kamijou's mind was hazy, but he managed to recall something.

He recalled that Index would indeed not blame him no matter what he did.

But… He thought.

He could not give up precisely because she continued to withstand it all without blaming others. He wanted to save the girl who smiled so perfectly with the otherwise heartbreaking expression.

Kamijou forced his destroyed right hand into a fist like it was a dying bug.

His body could still move. It moved when asked.

"…Why?" Kamijou whispered from his collapsed position on the ground. "You look like you don't like this. You aren't like that Stiyl guy; you're hesitating to kill your enemy. You could easily have killed me from the beginning if you wanted to, but you didn't. …You still have enough of a normal human's way of thinking to hesitate about things like that, don't you?"

Kanzaki had asked again and again. She had asked to have it all ended before she had to give her magic name.

The rune magician naming himself Stiyl Magnus had not shown the slightest bit of hesitation in that regard.

"…"

Kanzaki Kaori fell silent, but Kamijou's mind was too hazy from the pain to notice.

"Then surely you know, right? You know that chasing a girl around until she collapses from hunger and then slicing her back open with a sword is wrong, right?" As he spoke the words as if he were coughing up blood, Kanzaki could only continue to listen. "Did you know that she has no memories beyond about a year ago thanks to you? What the hell did you do to her while chasing her down to cause something like that?"

He received no response. Kamijou could not understand.

He would have understood if this magician were trying to gain the 103,000 grimoires to become a Magic God that could (supposedly) bend the rules of the world in order to make some wishes like healing a child with an incurable disease or something for a dead lover come true.

But she was not doing that.

She was part of an organization. She was doing it because she had been told to, because it was her job, and because those were here orders. That was all it had taken for her to chase down a girl and slice her back open.

"Why?" repeated Kamijou, his teeth clenched. "I'm a loser who couldn't save a single girl after risking my life to desperately fight you. I'm a weakling who can't do anything but lie on the ground and watch you take her away." He sounded like he could burst into tears like a child at any moment.

"But you're different, aren't you?" He had no idea what he was saying. "With your power, you could protect anyone or anything and save anything or anyone." He had no idea who he was speaking to.

"So why are you doing this?"

He spoke.

He regretted.

He regretted that he had thought he could protect everything he wanted with the little power he had.

He regretted that someone with such overwhelming power was using it only to hunt down a small girl.

He regretted that the situation seemed to be saying that he was worse than even someone like that.

He regretted it all and he thought he would cry.

"…"

Silence built atop silence, creating an even greater silence.

Had Kamijou's mind been clearer, he would have definitely been surprised.

"…I…"

Kanzaki was the one driven into a corner.

With only a few words, he had driven one of the top 10 magicians in London into a corner.

"I really did not mean to slice her back open. I thought the barrier of her Walking Church habit was still functioning… I only sliced her because I was absolutely sure it would not hurt her… And yet…"

Kamijou did not understand what Kanzaki was saying.

"I am not doing this because I want to," said Kanzaki. "But she cannot live if I do not do this. …She will… die."

Kanzaki sounded like a child, about to burst into tears.

"The organization I belong to is the same as hers. I am from Necessarius of the Anglican Church," she said as if coughing up blood. "She is my colleague… and my precious friend."