A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 16

by Kazuma Kamachi

  But it wasn’t a bad thing that it was too much. If you could use 100 percent of the power, you instead ran the risk of putting so much pressure on yourself that you’d blow your saintly body to bits. That, perhaps, was more of a self-preservation instinct than anything related to sorcery—because the one thing a baby without any magical knowledge knew how to do was stabilize their own power.

  But…

  …The limit of a saint…doesn’t apply…to Acqua…? His power…is already easily…beyond what a human can control…?

  This was saying nothing of Acqua’s powers as part of God’s Right Seat overlapping his sainthood. He was called Acqua of the Back—and thus possessed the attributes of the archangel Gabriel, the “Power” of God. At a glance, it might seem like it was simply multiplying his strength, but in actuality, the burden that would bounce back would have to increase, too.

  Yes.

  The oddest thing was that Acqua had a grasp of easily over 200 percent power, and not only was it not going out of control—but he’d maintained a steady face the entire time.

  …There’s no…way he can do that. It has nothing to do with talent or genius. A saint…and God’s Right Seat. There should be no way a single body could hold these incompatible traits inside it at once…

  The term genius had a lot of persuasive power behind it, enough to convince someone most anything was possible.

  But it wasn’t, really.

  Kanzaki was in that realm herself, and she knew.

  The terms genius and talent weren’t so convenient in reality.

  …Something’s…going on…

  She heard a soft tap. It was Acqua of the Back, coming to a stop in front of her.

  …A saint…and God’s Right Seat…

  Kanzaki thought, glaring at the terrible enemy before her.

  …He has to be using some kind of trick to make those two powers coexist…!!

  “!!”

  Before Acqua took another step, Kanzaki, still lying on the ground, rolled to the side.

  She snatched up the Seven Heavens Sword from the ground.

  At the same time, Acqua whirled his five-meter-plus mace horizontally. As if to brush away all the debris along with the ground itself—a pure brute-force strike.

  Kanzaki’s katana, which had aimed for a surprise attack, needed to switch to defense.

  Mace and katana clashed with a tremendous keeeeen!! The second blow from the mace nearly sent her flying again, but she stabbed her katana into the ground to stop herself—and then still slid over ten meters back.

  “You would continue to fight?”

  Acqua sounded impressed.

  But it was the kind of “impressed” one got after realizing they had the upper hand.

  “You will have no chance to turn this around. You should understand this, given your own hand and the number of cards in mine. If miracles occurred in response to endeavors and prayers, then the few saints like ourselves would not be lionized.”

  “…We’re…lionized, are we?” murmured the wound-covered Kanzaki. She sounded disgusted, all the way from the deepest pits of her self. “You didn’t work for this power. It was an option that was attached to you from the day you were born. Are you satisfied wielding something easy?”

  “What would you do if I answered?” Acqua didn’t give her a reply. “I believe we talked about this before—about how much truth lies in convictions you want others to hear.”

  Kanzaki and Acqua jumped at the same time.

  They clashed head-on, sparks flying between metal and metal.

  “I know what enrages you. Normal humans, the Amakusa, they all have an overwhelming lack of ability compared to me. You are mad that I involved them in a fight between saints.”

  “…!!”

  “This, however, is a battlefield. Difference in inborn abilities, the strengths of the weapons you possess, and the number of combat personnel. These are clear differences that attack you on a battlefield. If you would rather me not involve them, they should not have come here to begin with.”

  This was no longer a close contest.

  Kanzaki buckled under Acqua’s power, and she withdrew.

  “I have no need to fight those without strength,” said Acqua as Kanzaki tottered unsteadily. “I would rather cross blades only with true soldiers.”

  Was that a glimpse of Acqua’s unspoken conviction?

  Unlike the others in God’s Right Seat, this man told them he would destroy only the boy’s right arm.

  Was this a fragment of his heart, the heart of someone who purposely wielded the power of Mary, the power of mercy, rather than that of an angel?

  Kanzaki’s feelings were of a similar philosophy.

  Battlefields were all too unmerciful, and pure combat strength, to say nothing of how much one had trained, had no meaning. No matter how much you prepared, you would die when it came time to die. If a saint like her hated that, the only thing she could do was go around and eliminate all the scattered risks in advance, then force a fight on a safe battlefield.

  But obviously, that wasn’t possible.

  If you just had to consider respective combat strength and the possibility of soldiers lying in ambush, maybe it would be possible. But actual battlefields didn’t work that way. It was impossible to grasp every single possible nightmarish coincidence in advance and impossible to successfully prevent them all.

  Kanzaki had seen this as a sign of her own inexperience.

  She wasn’t strong enough, which was why she couldn’t control the battle, always changing as it was, and her precious friends had been hurt. That was what she’d truly felt back then. At the time, Kanzaki, their Priestess, couldn’t bear it and ended up breaking ties with the Amakusa.

  However…

  What…

  Kaori Kanzaki, seeing herself in Acqua of the Back, grated her teeth.

  What an arrogant way of thinking.

  Amakusa’s sorcerers had been weak, so they had died—if they had powers like a saint, everybody would have lived. But was that true? How could it be true? If it was, then what about the boy? What about the boy who fought alongside everyone, won alongside everyone, and laughed alongside everyone?

  She’d said she would fight with them—but had she ever really believed in the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church’s abilities? Not in their character, or their minds, but their abilities? Wasn’t that why Kanzaki couldn’t entrust her back to anyone? Wasn’t that why coordination had broken down? Wasn’t that why she’d been doing nothing but piling on losses they didn’t need?

  Was the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church that weak?

  Which one of them had really been the weak one?

  What could she possibly gain by forcing a win in her terrible state?

  If the ages had moved in the way everyone wanted them to, if the world had moved in a better direction, could those who never gained the strength to win be able to keep up with it?

  They would think they’d been left behind.

  They would think they’d been left out, alone, from the shining light of happiness filling everything.

  A saint.

  All they had was what they were born with. Fools, wielding their privilege as “chosen ones.” How far did this clash of fools have to go before she was satisfied?

  “I’m…a huge idiot,” she mumbled in disgust.

  She’d witnessed all the unconscious violence she’d committed before now.

  That’s what this was all about.

  Acqua of the Back, God’s Right Seat, and Kaori Kanzaki were all the same.

  Let someone “special” manage everything. For everything else, simply say the word, and she will manage it for you. It’s for your own sake. Putting in pointless effort would make you look miserable, waste our limited resources, and make you a laughingstock—so don’t do anything. Just be quiet and obey. At some point, had Kanzaki, without knowing it, begun demanding that of her precious friends?

  “…”

  Kaori Kanzaki
wiped the blood off her lip and readied her sword once more.

  Which was the right choice?

  I know which one.

  What was truly the right choice to save her friends?

  I know which one!

  Which choice was suitable for correcting the mistakes of this absolute enemy, Acqua of the Back?

  I know which one!!

  Having solved one thing, the rest began to unravel in a chain of revelation. Her hands tightened around the Seven Heavens Sword. Her final strength. The strength of her conviction, which she could put on full display, because she could believe it was correct.

  Acqua of the Back, who wielded the powers of both a saint and a part of God’s Right Seat.

  With the strongest opponent she’d ever faced before her eyes, Kaori Kanzaki began her final action.

  3

  At that same moment, the current members of Amakusa, who were staring down in a trance from the edge of the fourth stratum’s new crater—about thirty meters above the fifth stratum where the two saints fought, give or take—heard her words.

  “……er.”

  The voice of a true saint, one of less than twenty in the world.

  “Please…”

  The voice of their Priestess, who had once led Amakusa.

  “Please lend me your strength!!”

  The voice of Kaori Kanzaki.

  At first, Itsuwa, Tatemiya, and the others didn’t understand what she’d said. Their brains had processed the intent behind her words, but it didn’t seem like it was directed at them.

  But no—she was speaking to them.

  Kaori Kanzaki, whom they thought they’d never reach. Kaori Kanzaki, whom they thought was different from birth, someone with more than them. Kaori Kanzaki, who had turned her back on their weakness, saying she didn’t want her precious friends to be hurt.

  She was asking for their help.

  Their help, to defeat an enemy she couldn’t defeat alone.

  “…Ah…”

  How many realized they were trembling, then?

  How many realized they were about to break into tears?

  What Kaori Kanzaki had meant by her words and actions was this:

  Their Priestess had accepted them.

  Accepted them not as simple burdens, comrades-in-arms—but as real friends who stood as her equals in strength.

  She’d never done anything like this before.

  Why had Kaori Kanzaki requested the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church’s help at this point in the game?

  It was simple.

  There was an enemy here that Kaori Kanzaki couldn’t beat on her own.

  But she had a reason to confront him despite that.

  And…

  …her hope to accomplish it in spite of impossibility…

  …the final piece she needed to protect her dream…

  …was the awfully, terribly normal Amakusa-Style Crossist Church, complete with Tatemiya, Itsuwa, and all the others.

  “…”

  How long had they been waiting for it? This moment?

  Those who had dropped their weapons in enervation now picked them up again.

  No one would refuse her.

  They were wrapped in bandages, blood seeping from their wounds, the protective fabric itself ripped and torn—but none of that mattered.

  They were going to confront this monster—who they couldn’t beat as a group, who even Kaori Kanzaki couldn’t hold a candle to—but not a single heart had fear at her voice telling them to rise again. Instead, happiness had a greater hold.

  They could help their Priestess. They could fight alongside her again. That simple fact gave birth to joy.

  Some let out roars to rally their fighting spirit. Others shed the brightest tears in the world. Some stood silently, basking in the happiness, trying not to let anyone see. Those leaning against the wall rose back to their own two feet. Tatemiya, the “representative” pope, exhaled, as though a heavy burden had suddenly been lifted.

  “…Let’s go.”

  Saiji Tatemiya, as the temporary leader of the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church, gave the final order.

  As if those two words weren’t enough, he spoke again, this time with a thousand emotions behind his words.

  “Let’s go! Our Amakusa-Style Crossist Church now goes to where it needs to be!!”

  With a shout, they raced down through the giant hole in the fourth stratum, descending onto the battlefield.

  They knew full well how much power they lacked.

  But that didn’t shake the reason they had to fight.

  The Amakusa-Style Crossist Church, as a group, confronted their enemy.

  With the lone woman they’d recognized as their leader.

  4

  What…?

  Acqua of the Back didn’t understand Kaori Kanzaki’s act.

  It was clearer than a blazing fire what would happen if she dragged normal sorcerers onto a battlefield of saints. In fact, Kanzaki had distanced Acqua from them because she didn’t want that, because she wanted specifically to create a battleground for them alone.

  And yet, now…

  “Oooohhhhhhhh!!”

  One ran past holding a sword, and another jumped high with a spear. Those who didn’t fear death assembled in the blink of an eye, forming a battle line to protect their gravely wounded saint.

  It was a wall fragile as candy, from Acqua’s point of view.

  He readied his mace and made a dangerous expression. “Asking for weaklings to save you…Do you value your life that much?”

  “Is that what it looks like?” replied Kaori Kanzaki, bringing her Seven Heavens Sword around with bloodied hands.

  In fact, there was a smile on her lips.

  “I once had comrades who were hurt because they were at my side. I feared it would happen again, so I decided to leave the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church for a time.

  “But,” she said firmly, “that tragedy didn’t happen because they were weak.”

  “…”

  “I labeled them weak, unable to bring myself to have faith in their abilities. Somewhere in my mind, I looked down on them, unable to entrust them with my life. I abandoned the strength right next to me, fighting on despite my inexperience, and in so doing, showed my enemies a glaring weakness! My arrogance, my sense of superiority in thinking I would protect them, was the root of all that tragedy!!”

  Those aware of their weaknesses grow when they advance in spite of them.

  A new power swirled within Kaori Kanzaki’s beaten flesh.

  “I will surmount this. I will take back my Amakusa-Style Crossist Church by believing in them, trusting them, and letting them all display their full power!! We are our leader, and we are our comrades!! We have no need of a single person like a saint to lead us!!”

  What…?

  He could tell that she’d regained the confidence she’d been lacking.

  It was heart.

  A stubborn, firm passion that only those with confidence in their own actions possessed.

  But it didn’t change the fact that they had no chance at victory. Fifty more added to the rabble meant nothing. He didn’t need his full power to fight Amakusa as it was now. They were people in the background, ones who would be blown away during his heated combat with Kanzaki.

  They cling to impossible illusions—group psychology at work.

  “Groundless hopes are naught but delusion.”

  Power filled Acqua’s body.

  “You think you can surpass me with delusion?!”

  He swung his mace, annoyed, as though swatting pests out of the way. Kaori Kanzaki lunged into range without fear.

  The Seven Heavens Sword and his mace collided, but several Amakusa members developed defensive magic to kill the impact. Whatever spiritualism they brought wouldn’t change the difference in their abilities. And yet, after all that, Kanzaki contended.

  “Saints were born with physical characteristics very similar to the Son of God, and by idol theory,
they have received a temporary fragment of his power.”

  By her own admittance, there had been a blank space of several years between Kanzaki and the Amakusa.

  But the two forces didn’t even trade words. They overcame all that time in the span of a breath.

  “But even a saint cannot use as much power as you. You clearly have powers above those of a simple saint. And why is that?”

  Their contention was a sham.

  Acqua immediately counterattacked, sending a major wave through Amakusa’s ranks, including Kanzaki.

  Yet the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church still fought in desperation.

  “The answer is simple—the Adoration of Mary!!”

  Yes, come to think of it, Acqua had been forthright with them in that.

  He’d told them he used the attribute of Mary.

  But the power Acqua of the Back should have had was that of the archangel Gabriel, God’s “Power.” Compared to the Virgin Mother, a symbol of mercy, Gabriel had burned the entire city of Gomorrah, and in the legends, he would deliver even more direct attacks during the Last Judgment to destroy the world. Why had Acqua avoided such an obvious method of attack and instead chosen the roundabout way of Mary?

  “Your physical characteristics resemble more than the Son of God, don’t they? They’re similar both to Jesus and to Mary, which is why you obtained both their powers!!”

  The Son of God and the Virgin Mary were mother and child. Their physical characteristics being similar to one another wasn’t that surprising a fact.

  And Mary, too, number two in Crossism after Jesus, was said to be the highest of the saints, having great powers as the being who had miraculously given birth to the Son of God. The Adoration of Mary, which extolled her, had moved an incredible number of hearts. As one who had granted exceptional mercy, even more than the impartial Jesus—who was himself an embodiment of the very rules of the world—churches had reports of many miracles occurring by praying to her. At times, the Roman Orthodox Church leaders had even viewed the adoration of Mary with danger, worried that Marian worship could become an independent faction.