Volume 14, 2: A Trigger that Becomes a Decisive Blow. Muzzle_of_a_Gun.

Volume 14, Chapter 2: A Trigger that Becomes a Decisive Blow. Muzzle_of_a_Gun.

Part 1

After Kamijou left Mikoto, he headed towards the department store by the station as he had originally intended. He looked in the perishable goods section in the first basement and decided to buy 4 days’ worth of vegetables because they were pretty cheap that day.

(...Hm, the section selling completed dishes seems to be popular, while there aren’t many people in the sections with meat, vegetables, and other ingredients.)

(Are fewer people cooking for themselves these days?)

Kamijou turned his head quizzically as he wondered this and left the store.

He looked up and at the airship displaying the news floating above. As before, it was about the protests in America...or so he thought. It now seemed to be about Russia. All the news was about the protests, so it became difficult to distinguish between old stories and new ones.

"..."

Kamijou stopped to think while holding grocery bags with both arms.

He couldn't get what Misaka Mikoto had told him before out of his head.

It wasn't that there was no cause behind the demonstrations and protests around the world; the problem was just so big that there were too many causes and therefore no simple way of solving it.

Mikoto probably most resented having been used in the incident on September 30th. Their efforts to bring back peace were instead used to bring about an entirely different kind of chaos.

Kamijou wanted to do something about it, too.

Vento of the Front who caused the chaos did have her reasons. And Kazakiri Hyouka who stood at a point halfway between science and magic didn't want that chaos. It was a bunch of people "outside" of it all getting all worked up and throwing the world into chaos now. That was clearly wrong.

But...

(What can I do...?)

Kamijou clenched his teeth as he stared at the airship floating up in the air.

(This problem has to be stopped. What I want to do is obvious, but what can I actually do about it?)

He could contact Tsuchimikado who knew about the underside of the Academy City. Or he could contact Kanzaki and the others at the Anglican Church. But Kamijou couldn't imagine even those people being able to completely solve a problem that had grown so large. He had a feeling that working behind the scenes to stop the problem from getting this large in the first place was their way of dealing with this kind of thing.

(Well, standing here isn't going to solve anything. And I don't even know how to contact the Anglican Church in the first place. I guess I should head back to the dorm and go pay Tsuchimikado a visit.)

(And I need to get on his case about skipping out on the weeding.)

(I suppose having contact with an agent like Tsuchimikado puts me in a better position than most students...)

Kamijou forced his thoughts in a more positive direction and started walking along the gloomy street.

Maybe it was because of all the thoughts whirling around in his head, but the grocery bags in his hands felt heavier than usual. It was around the time everyone was heading home so the street was crowded, but he still felt like he was running into people more than usual. He began thinking that fixing dinner and preparing the bath after he got home was going to be a real pain in the ass and started seriously wondering if there was a nice recipe that let him use the microwave or the rice cooker and skip the hardest parts of cooking dinner. It seemed that Index would end up biting him because she couldn't stand to wait while watching him when he leisurely made dinner like usual.

While thinking about all this, he ran into another person.

This time it was an aging woman who looked to be in her 50s or 60s.

"Oh, sorry."

"It's all right."

The woman gave a refined smile and lowered her head.

She didn't have a stooped back, but she was about two sizes smaller than Kamijou even while standing up. She was rather heavily dressed for the start of October with a coat folded over her bent arm and a scarf around her neck. Kamijou surmised that perhaps she got cold easily.

The aging woman raised her lowered head and began speaking in a calm voice.

"I'm the one that should be apologizing."

"No, you're not. I'm the one that ran into you."

"No, no. Not about that."

Kamijou was about to raise an eyebrow at the smiling aging woman's remark when she continued.

"I need to apologize for the trouble I will be causing you now."

He heard a metallic noise.

He lowered his gaze to where the noise originated - the area next to his own stomach.

The aging woman's arm was also there. However the thin fabric of the coat folded over it hid the area from her elbow to just past her wrist so he couldn't really see.

All he knew for sure was what he could feel on his stomach.

It felt like the tip of a hard rod and Kamijou's body stiffened slightly at the sensation.

"I'm sorry. I really am."

The aging woman spoke those words slowly and lowered her head once more.

Part 2

Misaka Mikoto suddenly stopped.

(Nnn...)

She had completely forgotten once she met that idiot, but there was something she had wanted to talk with him about.

(...The Ichihanaransai.)

She had wanted to talk to him about the cultural festival-like event that takes place across the entirety of Academy City. The opening day of this year's festival was still over a month away, but because of the terrible horrible result of the Daihaseisai (the actual result was a mix of good and bad, but this was how she had already begun to think about it) she felt she should hurry up and take measures to ensure the success of the Ichihanaransai.

(Come to think of it, over half of the seven day Daihaseisai was just a string of trouble related to that idiot. If that's what's going to happen, I should just rein him in from the beginning...)

Of course, the measures she was going to take were to get him to promise to go around the festival with her.

(Why does it have to end up like this?...Well, I guess I can just ask him over the phone.)

Mikoto decided on that and pulled out her phone.

She had gotten a pair contract on her phone with him on September 30th, so she had his number recorded in her phone.

(It really was a pain getting that all set up, but I guess it's coming handy now.)

But after she moved the cursor to his number in the address book, her eyes stopped on the antenna mark.

No signal.

"...!!"

Mikoto looked around, but the street she was on wasn't all that small, so she ran out to a more major street. She watched the antenna mark on the edge of the screen and once she had a good signal, she moved the cursor back to his number and pressed the call button.

But she just got an emotionless message telling her the phone she was trying to call couldn't be reached.

This time it was his phone that wasn't getting a signal.

"Th-this thing's hard to use... What good is a cell phone if you can't use it to talk with people when you need to!?"

Mikoto put her phone away with an irritated expression on her face, looked around, and ran off to go find Kamijou herself.

It hadn't been that long since they'd parted.

He had to be walking around this area somewhere.

Part 3

Kamijou and the aging woman walked side-by-side down the street.

There were plenty of people around, but no one gave them a second look. They looked like nothing more than a high school student carrying grocery bags and an old woman with a coat over her arm. What could look more harmless than that?

Kamijou glanced sideways at the woman without turning his head, and she gave a smile that seemed inappropriate to the situation.

"You needn't be so nervous."

She ordered him to turn off his cell phone and gave him slight instructions as to where to walk. He couldn’t refuse because of the object she had hidden in her coat. He didn't know what exactly it was, but he knew he couldn't let his guard down.

He thought it was possible that he could reverse the situation if he waited for a chance and attacked her.

(But I don't know what she's holding... If I make the wrong move, things could go from bad to worse.)

As Kamijou was pondering all this, the woman spoke quietly.

"Just act naturally. It's not like I'm saying you can't move at all."

"Yeah, well...You say that, but what do you have under your coat there?"

"Achoo!"

"Watch out!!"

The woman suddenly sneezed and Kamijou yelled out without thinking.

The other students in the area looked at him oddly, but soon their gazes moved elsewhere.

"Like I said, you don't need to worry. What has you so scared?"

"Mostly whatever it is you have under your coat that needs to be hidden from view!! What is it that you're jamming into my side anyway!?"

"Oh, my. You needn't worry about that. It's not going to go off from just a sneeze."

"G-go off? So is it what I think it is!?"

"And it makes quite a noise, too. Although it has a little device on it that silences that noise."

"That's a pretty big hint!!"

That left Kamijou trembling with fear, but the aging woman didn't seem to mind.

As Kamijou was being escorted, he noticed that they had left the major shopping district, turned onto a side street, and were now heading for an area lined with student dorms. It wasn't the area his dorm was in though. Since 80% of the residents of Academy City were students, there were quite a few areas "lined with student dorms."

(Where are we headed...?)

If they had been headed toward an old abandoned factory, his danger sense would have been maxed out, but this area didn't feel like that at all. He could smell a dinner of white stew coming from the dorms. And these dorms must not allow pets because he saw some elementary school girls gathered in front of one of the buildings giving some stray cats cans of food.

And then the aging woman suddenly stopped.

"Here we are."

"?"

Even after hearing that, Kamijou didn't really get what was going on.

They had come to a children's park.

It didn't really look like an area set aside to be a park; it was more like it had been made solely to fill up a left over piece of developed land. Maybe it was because the standard amount of playground equipment had been forced into the area, but it had a cramped feel to it.

(Why here???)

As he stared at the entrance to the abandoned park, Kamijou cocked his head to the side quizzically.

At least it wasn't the kind of "special place" he had expected to be brought to after having someone stick something into his side on the roadside.

"Sorry about all this. Now let's go in."

As the woman said this, she continued to casually stick whatever was in her coat into Kamijou's side. He had no choice but to do as she said but couldn't imagine what possible merit his going in the park gave her.

At the woman's instruction, he sat next to her on a bench at the edge of the park.

Kamijou had expected there to be someone waiting for them in the park or that someone was going to come meet them there, but it didn't feel that way.

Kamijou bent over slightly and put his grocery bags on the ground. The woman didn't stop him from doing so. If he had a weapon in his shoe, he could have fought back, but Kamijou wasn't the type to equip himself like a ninja.

He thought of throwing a stone at her, but he realized that if he didn't have a clear chance, all he would accomplish would be to make her raise her guard.

He decided to give up for the moment and sat back up.

He then asked the woman a question.

"So? What are you trying to start here?"

"No, no. It's nothing major like that."

The aging woman with "something major" hidden under her coat jammed into his side smiled as she spoke.

"Let's talk."

"Talk?"

"Yes. About the great chaos that is occurring throughout the world."

Part 4

She couldn't find that idiot.

"Odd..."

Mikoto went back into the small road she had just been on and cocked her head to the side in puzzlement as she searched.

She didn't think it had been very long since they had parted, but Kamijou wasn't in front of the station where they had previously met and even when she searched the different paths away from there she couldn't find him.

(Maybe he went into one of the stores around here.)

(Or maybe he got on a train or a bus and left.)

(...Actually, where is that idiot's dorm anyway? I'm not a stalker, so I have no idea where to go to meet him.)

Since she was always running into him, she didn't think it could be too far away. But when she really thought about it, she had no idea where he lived.

Mikoto folded her arms.

(Well, it's not like I have to talk to him about the Ichihanaransai right away. I can just leave for today.)

Just after she had that cheerful thought, she noticed a side street at the edge of her vision and started feeling restless.

(...I-I suppose I can search just a little longer.)

And with that she pulled up the GPS map on her phone to see if there were any streets she hadn't checked yet.

But then she spotted Shirai Kuroko's face in the crowd of people going home.

Mikoto quickly hid behind a nearby building.

(H-huh?...Why am I hiding?)

She had to ask herself that because for some reason she had a feeling she couldn't let that twin tail underclassman see her here. Shirai was a teleporter so it would be difficult to lose her on foot once she had been spotted.

Shirai, a Level 4, was walking along the road while chatting with the girl next to her.

From the great number of artificial flowers on her head, it was most likely Uiharu Kazari of Judgement.

(...)

She felt the two girls were coming in her direction, so Mikoto moved from behind the building to a small road to the side. She then continued further and further in.

And then she realized...

(Hm? I don't remember this road???)

She looked around again, but she didn't recognize anything.

She thought she was familiar with pretty much all of District 7, but this was the first time she'd been here.

It was just a stereotypical Academy City residential area. Of course, as an Academy City residential area, it wasn't made up of apartment buildings and houses; it was instead a block of student dormitories. It was a row of square 5- to 10-story buildings not quite worthy of being called high-rise. There was a trash area right under a wind turbine. Someone must have been using the movements of the turbine to keep the pigeons and crows away.

Since all meals were provided by the school at Tokiwadai Middle School, the scents of dinner coming from the area smelled especially nice to Mikoto.

"...Well, this worked out nicely. I'll look around here and then call it quits for the day."

She arbitrarily decided on that and then started walking through the residential area.

Part 5

Kamijou looked at the aging woman suspiciously.

There was only one thing she could mean by the chaos occurring throughout the world. And that was the large-scale protests and demonstrations being held by Academy City supporters and Roman Catholic supporters.

But...

"...What do you mean we're going to talk about that? There's nothing about it you need to discuss with me."

"Oh, but there is. I need your opinion on the matter in order to solve the problem."

"Shouldn't you be getting the opinion of someone in the UN or some country's president instead?"

"The organizations holding up nations tend to be weak to religious and ideological conflict."

The woman spoke in a smooth voice.

Kamijou hadn't expected this.

"The organizations commonly referred to as countries have a bad track record in resolving this kind of problem. Many of them cry out that they have resolved the problem, but most of them have only forced them into silence using military force. Often times, this only exacerbates the situation."

The woman continued speaking in the deserted park.

There were many types of intellectuals, but she seemed most like an educator.

"The chaos currently occurring throughout the world is quite serious. Not only is it a problem that won't be easy to solve, but it will also lead to worse problems. If it isn't dealt with properly, it could even lead to rebellions that paralyze entire countries. The demonstrations and protests haven't been stopped with military force to keep that from happening. What the countries around the world really want is an example to follow in how to deal with difficult problems like this. All those countries are waiting for another country to make a move so they can see whether it works and what effects that action has."

"...Who exactly are you?"

Kamijou asked his question carefully.

The woman sitting next to him didn't seem like an agent skilled in battle and assassination like Tsuchimikado Motoharu or Stiyl Magnus.

The way she spoke reminded him of an educator, but a normal teacher wouldn't hide a weapon in her coat in order to contact him.

(...She seems different from anyone I've met before.)

That was what Kamijou was thinking as he cautiously listened for her answer.

"Oyafune Monaka."

But she simply gave him her full name.

And she followed that up with something even more surprising.

"I am a member of Academy City's Board of Directors. That should tell you all you need to know."

"...What?"

Kamijou responded without thinking.

The Board of Directors was the group of only 12 that managed all of Academy City. It was basically the highest institution in the city. He had heard that there was a "General Superintendent" who was above even them, but the privilege the Board of Directors had was anything but ordinary.

But at the same time...

(...Is that really who she is?)

One of the 12 members of Academy City's Board of Directors should have personal guards or be able to obtain complete control over Anti-Skill with a single order. It was odd that she had come herself to contact him. And with a weapon no less. Also, a small children's park didn't have the scope you would expect for this kind of meeting.

As Kamijou was doubting her, the woman naming herself Oyafune Monaka simply smiled.

"You don't believe me?"

"Oh, umm. I was just thinking that your scarf seemed oddly short. I would think that a member of the Board of Directors would use something better than that."

Kamijou just blurted something out in his confusion, but it seemed to take Oyafune by surprise. She suddenly moved a hand to her neck and touched her scarf.

"Th-this was handmade for me by my daughter. I won't let you speak badly of it."

"O-oh, I see."

Kamijou awkwardly nodded, but then something caught his attention.

"Wait. Your daughter must be an adult by now. But in that case, that level of skill is... Okay, okay!! I won't bring it up again! We can talk about something else, so quit shaking whatever you have in your coat!!"

He decided to stop pointlessly provoking her after that.

(Oyafune Monaka. The Board of Directors.)

Kamijou concluded that those two pieces of information may not be true.

(But she might have approached me with a fake name in order to give me some real information. I don't like being used by others, but as long as I can opt out and decide how I do what they want, I suppose I can deal with it.)

"...So what exactly do you want to talk about?"

Kamijou went right for the main issue and Oyafune nodded happily.

"A great problem is occurring in the world. That problem is a type of chaos that is appearing in the form of demonstrations and protests."

"I know that much."

"I want to ask you to solve that problem."

"How?"

Kamijou lowered his eyebrows at her words and spoke.

"If I can solve it myself, I'd love to do so. I'm sure there are plenty of people throughout the world who are thinking the same thing, but that doesn't change anything. Nothing has been solved. We all know the problem that needs solving, but no one has solved it. Do you know why that is?"

Kamijou continued on without waiting for Oyafune's response.

"It's because there is no simple ‘reason’ or ‘cause’ behind it. No one can solve a problem that has no answer. So even though people investigate the problem for show, no one does anything about it. Can it even be solved? Surely you're not telling me to go around the world and convince each and every person taking part in those protests and demonstrations to stop."

"By the way..."

Oyafune Monaka responded without even a hint of hesitation.

It seemed she had predicted this question.

"What if there really was a simple ‘reason’ or ‘cause’ behind it?"

"What?"

"That is why I am talking with you. I am after something that you have that no one in the UN and no diplomat of any country has."

"And what's that?"

"Your right hand."

"..."

It was something only Kamijou Touma had.

He lowered his gaze to his right hand without meaning to.

Imagine Breaker.

That had to be what she meant. That was his special ability to negate any kind of supernatural power, be it magical or psychic in nature. But it had no effect whatsoever on normal events devoid of the supernatural like demonstrations and protests.

Which meant...

"You mean...that's what's going on?"

"Yes."

"So there's something supernatural behind all of this chaos and if I destroy that it'll all go back to normal? This isn't the result of what happened on September 30th; it's something that has been continuing since then? And I can solve all this because of that?"

"Exactly."

Oyafune simply nodded.

"By the way, Academy City is not the source of this chaos. According to the General Superintendent, the world's largest religious group, the Roman Catholic Church, has a scientific psychic power development institution as well.

"...?"

Kamijou was about to lower his eyebrows at Oyafune's remark, but then he figured it out.

That was what Academy City was telling the world at large.

To them, magic did not exist.

The identity of the phenomenon known as "magic" was scientifically being called "psychic powers".

The topic had to come up here, but if he corrected her it would only make everything more complicated.

Oyafune continued speaking from a purely "scientific" viewpoint.

"We at Academy City have nothing to gain from this chaos of course. So the ones behind it must be the Roman Catholics."

"I see..."

Kamijou nodded, but when he calmed down he noticed something that bothered him.

"But wait. There's nothing for them to gain from it either. Those demonstrations and protests are occurring within the realm of daily life for members of their church. So it's members of their church that will suffer the most from this. You don't gain anything from making people on your side suffer."

"What if they did gain something from it?"

"...What?"

"It's quite simple."

Oyafune spoke smoothly.

"For example, the official number of believers in the Roman Catholic Church is around 2 billion. That's a frightening amount. Even if you count everyone from the youngest to the oldest residents of Academy City, we only have 2.3 million. If it came to all-out war, we would have no chance from that difference alone. Even if you take into account other factors, it's hard to imagine winning against that kind of difference."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Oh, don't you find it odd?"

Oyafune responded to Kamijou's question with a question of her own.

"The Roman Catholic Church could crush Academy City now. So why did they choose to cause demonstrations and protests throughout the world? Why didn't they choose the obvious method of crushing Academy City through numbers alone? Surely a concentrated attack would be more effective than rioting separately across the world. It seems rather indirect, doesn't it? If they can really control 2 billion people, they should just get it over with."

"You don't mean...?"

"I do."

Oyafune smiled.

"The information saying they can control 2 billion people was a lie. If they could do that, they would have done so by now. It may be true that there are 2 billion people around the world who wear the cross of the Roman Catholic Church, carry a Bible around, and go to church on Sundays."

"But," Oyafune Monaka moved her lips.

"The question has now become how many people are willing to commit murder in the name of the church. And there may well be some who are willing to. The world is currently thought to be split in two. Split between Academy City and a giant religious group. But...is it really? Is the line really that clear?"

"..."

"The people who go to worship on Sundays watch TV and use cell phones. Athletes who train their body with the science of sports medicine may pray to god before a big game....That's the way the world is outside of Academy City. The line is quite vague and people build up their own world made up of what they believe in by using the best of both worlds."

"The science side and the magic side...overlap..."

Oyafune gave a confused look and said "Magic side...?" at what Kamijou muttered.

But then she continued.

"Yes. The vast majority of the world thinks that way and the majority usually wins. They are spread around thinly. People plan their lives around loans from banks managed by organizations related to Academy City and at the same time they get married at Roman Catholic churches. People like that who benefit from both science and religion cover the earth"

"So," Kamijou began.

He could feel his throat beginning to dry.

"The Roman Catholic Church is trying to win over those people who benefit from both sides?"

"Indeed. They don't want people benefitting from both sides. They want exclusive use of every single one of those 2 billion people. They want as many allies as they can get. So they have begun something. And as a result, they have set some gears turning that started these demonstrations."

Oyafune had called it "something".

That "something" was the key to this incident.

"Their goal was not to start demonstrations. They are using this "chaos" to boost their numbers and using Academy City to strengthen their foundation in order to attack the world."

Oyafune's words were clearly those of the science side.

Kamijou didn't really like the way she was speaking, but arguing about it wouldn't help.

"Academy City is especially on edge because of the actions the Roman Catholic Church has taken."

"Are you really afraid that these demonstrations could bring people over the Roman Catholic side?"

"That's part of it," responded Oyafune.

"But even if that doesn't happen, it could lead to another development. We are currently preparing for something we call an ‘economic bombing’."

"An economic...bombing?"

"If this chaos continues for a significant length of time, it could have a negative effect on the economy. And that could be the trigger to a world-wide panic. Even if the Roman Catholic Church does not grow due to this, it could end up tearing Academy City apart."

Talk of economics and panics wasn't something that really meant too much to a high school student like Kamijou.

He asked Oyafune on the bench next to him a question.

"...Can modern countries really be destroyed that easily? They haven't shown any sign of being affected so far. And I don't know too much about the economy or money at a national level, but I can't really see a huge army being destroyed due to something like the economy."

"The representatives and symbols of the scientific world outside of Academy City are mainly the major military powers. But those countries are especially weak to the economy."

Oyafune slowly answered to his question.

"Maintaining military power requires a vast amount of funds. And in a time of global chaos, the supply for those funds is limited. And no matter how low the income gets, the amount spent to maintain the military always costs a set amount. So the ones that suffer the most in times of economic panic are the major military powers. The larger the military, the more violently it crumbles."

Kamijou couldn't believe it.

Several major military powers came to his mind, but he couldn't imagine any of them being majorly affected by this.

"But those countries with large militaries store up oil and stock up ammunition, right? Can't they last for a couple of years on that?"

"Ha ha. War does not start when the emergency stores run out. Once that happens, they can no longer fight. Once it looks like the emergency stores will eventually run out, they pull the trigger. And I think that a major power pulling that trigger is enough to tear apart the scientific world that Academy City sits in the center of."

Oyafune's oddly decisive statement left Kamijou speechless.

She must have calculations in her head that backed that opinion.

"I don't know if it is related to that possible turn of events, but Academy City is currently desperately gathering funds for a war." Oyafune continued speaking.

"We may be attempting to overcome the difference in numbers with the latest equipment and unmanned weaponry. Or there may be some other reason. We are doing it by making relatively insignificant weapons that do not take much technology to make and selling them at a high price as the latest weapons made by Academy City. And we're doing it all on the pretext of lowering the grade of the weapons being shown in the exhibition and of the goods being mass produced."

"..."

"Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church is also gathering funds for a war in the form of ‘offerings’ from believers of the church. They are doing it on the pretext of funds to help bring peace back to the world from the current chaos. The ones actually gathering the funds do not have any real plans for it, but their superiors are clearly saying it will be used to bring peace."

The greater the chaos grows the more "funds" they will receive.

The Roman Catholic Church was a giant denomination made up of 2 billion believers. If each member were to give a single yen, they would have 2 billion yen. Of course, they were not obligated to give, so plenty of them wouldn't. But there seemed to be a custom among the wealthy that the more one gave the more status they gained, so they could most likely easily get more than 2 billion yen.

"It seems indulgences have come back in another form."

Kamijou didn't really understand what Oyafune said.

(Is "indulgence" some kind of historical term?)

"Excluding the most zealous people, most people would choose science over their faith if they had to choose which had more weight. People say that heaven exists, but you never hear them saying that they therefore don’t care if they die. Science is both practical and ridiculously easy to understand. The ease with which one can understand it is the very reason so many people gather to it. But some people don't like that. Those people have used some kind of trick. And that trick has had some effect on the way the gears in people's minds usually work. This has led to the great chaos we are now seeing. That is how I see the situation."

"..."

Was that really true?

For one, was it really so hard to think that Academy City could be behind this problem instead of the Roman Catholic Church? Academy City with its 2.3 million people had to take on the Roman Catholic Church with its 2 billion believers. So maybe they caused this chaos within the Roman Catholic Church to whittle down their numbers as much as they could. Was it really so hard to think that could happen?

(...This is tricky.)

It was true that the Roman Catholic Church was at the center of the demonstrations and protests, but their potential for war wasn't spread thin the way Oyafune Monaka said it was. She thought that only because she didn't understand the magic side of the church. Kamijou couldn't exactly imagine the major players of the Roman Catholic Church like Agnese Sanctis or Biagio Busoni taking part in those demonstrations.

It was hard to think that this plan Academy City had come up with would actually damage their true potential for war.

And even if the people taking part in the demonstrations were people who were at the halfway point between science and magic, they would still be needed to keep the capitalist economy going. If people who were supposed to be working were focused on the demonstrations instead, that alone could be a blow to the economy. And if that was 2 billion people, it could be quite a major blow. If they needed money for the war, they wouldn't go out of their way to do something that would shrink their supply of funds.

Kamijou did think that it was natural to think that the Roman Catholic Church was behind this chaos if there really was a conspiracy behind it. Either way, they could take in those who fell to their side.

And if this had to do with the hidden underside of the Roman Catholic Church, Imagine Breaker would be quite valuable.

"But..."

After thinking about all that, Kamijou began to speak.

"Even if the Roman Catholic Church is causing this and even if they're using some kind of trick to do it, what exactly are they doing? My power is pretty limited. We don't know where they are or what they're using. I can't do anything about something like that. If you want me to do something, you have to at least lead me to the place I need to be in order to do it."

"Yes. About that-"

Oyafune Monaka started speaking, but suddenly stopped.

A new figure had appeared in the small children's park.

"Tsuchimikado?"

Kamijou unintentionally mumbled that name when he saw the figure's sunglasses-wearing face.

It was Kamijou's classmate, Tsuchimikado Motoharu. He had been with Kamijou until school let out, but when it had been time for their punishment of weeding, he had suddenly disappeared. Kamijou thought about asking him about that, but realized this was hardly the time.

The atmosphere was all wrong for that kind of question.

Tsuchimikado had a completely different feel to him than usual.

"Have you finished your discussion?"

Tsuchimikado wasn't talking to Kamijou.

His eyes that were covered by the blue lenses of his sunglasses were only looking at Oyafune Monaka.

And Oyafune didn't seem surprised by his appearance.

She probably knew him as the agent named Tsuchimikado Motoharu.

"Not entirely, but that doesn't matter... You can handle the rest."

"I see."

Tsuchimikado kept his response short.

He then gave a short sigh like he was getting ready to perform some tedious task.

"I'm sure you have your feelings in order about this."

"I have since yesterday."

"Then you don't mind if I start?"

"This is nothing for you to hesitate over."

Oyafune Monaka smiled as she responded and Tsuchimikado averted his gaze slightly.

He then moved his hand to his back and pulled something from his belt.

"...Tsuchimikado?"

Kamijou had been thrown a bit by having the conversation continue without him, but now he saw something he truly couldn't believe.

Tsuchimikado was holding a shining black piece of metal in his right hand.

It was about 15 centimeters in length.

It was...

(...A handgun?)

Even after figuring that much out, Kamijou couldn't do anything to stop Tsuchimikado Motoharu.

It wasn't because he couldn't guess what Tsuchimikado was going to do next.

It was because he couldn't believe that Tsuchimikado would do something as horrible as it looked like he was going to.

Bang!! A dry gunshot rang out in that small children's park.

Even so, Oyafune Monaka continued to smile.

Her body trembled and she fell off the bench and collapsed onto the ground.

Part 6

Mikoto jumped slightly at a sudden loud noise.

It sounded like a burst of gunpowder.

The high-pitched sound pierced her ears and echoed off into the sky.

(Wh-what was that???)

She thought it might have been fireworks, but October wasn't exactly the season for that.

It could also have been an esper with some kind of fire related power.

She heard a few windows opening from the student dormitories in the area. A sound that loud does draw a lot of attention. But not a single student went as far as to leave the building. It didn't draw enough attention for anyone to leave their dinner preparations.

(So an esper is causing some trouble, huh?)

Mikoto didn't really feel like dealing with that right now, but she headed that way anyway.

She was the Level 5 Class Electromaster, Railgun. She could handle most espers on her own and she felt confident she could handle anything she got wrapped up in. If a rampaging esper and Anti-Skill were fighting it out, she could jump into the middle of it all and come out unscathed.

Even so, she had been faced with something she just couldn't handle on her own before...

(..Khh!! A-anyway, I just have to head in the direction of that noise. Let's see, was it this way?)

Mikoto shook her head to focus her mind and walked off in the direction the noise had come from.

She could see nothing but student dormitories in this residential area.

Part 7

Oyafune Monaka had been shot in the gut.

It took a few seconds for Kamijou to realize that fact.

And Tsuchimikado Motoharu had shot her.

It took a few seconds more for that fact to sink in.

Oyafune hadn't resisted. She had been sticking something hidden under her coat into his side, but it hadn't looked like she had even tried to turn it towards Tsuchimikado. She had accepted the bullet knowing full well what was going on. That's what it had looked like.

(Tsuchi...mikado?)

Kamijou slowly moved his gaze from Oyafune's collapsed body.

There was no change to Tsuchimikado's expression.

The handgun he held in his right hand still had a wisp of white smoke coming from it. Tsuchimikado put the gun behind his back, stuck it in his belt and hid it under the coat of his school uniform. He then picked up the empty cartridge that had fallen to the ground and stuck it into his pocket.

He did all of this as if it was just a job that he had no real interest in.

And then Kamijou's emotions exploded.

"Tsuchimikadooooooooooooo!!"

Kamijou forcefully stood up from the bench and grabbed Tsuchimikado's shirt. Even then, there was no change to the eyes behind those sunglasses. When Kamijou noticed this, he clenched his fist almost completely out of reflex and punched Tsuchimikado's face as hard as he could. He felt the characteristic feeling of punching someone shoot up his fingers and wrist. Tsuchimikado's upper body bent back and he fell to the ground. But even as he fell into a sitting position, his expression didn't change. He clearly hadn't felt the slightest bit of damage.

(You bastard!!)

Kamijou grit his teeth and took a step forward.

But something got in his way.

A weak hand was clutching his ankle.

It was Oyafune Monaka, the woman Tsuchimikado had just shot.

"...Please..."

She spoke even as her lips were pressed against the ground.

"Please do not...blame him..."

Those words were enough to throw Kamijou into a state of confusion.

Oyafune Monaka continued.

She smiled as she spoke.

It was an expression of thanks for Kamijou's anger at the situation.

"My actions...were not those of a representative of Academy City... My opinions... differ from those of the Board of Directors as a whole..."

"What?"

"They wish for this war to intensify...and for the utter destruction of the other scientific group calling itself a religion that represents the Roman Catholic Church... They want to take advantage of this chaos, so they would rather this not be solved so easily..."

Kamijou looked back at Tsuchimikado's face.

As before, it had not changed.

It was the face of someone who had known all this from the beginning.

"Letting this war intensify...is completely absurd... It must be stopped."

Oyafune spoke slowly.

There was pain mixed in with her words.

"But even as a member of the Board of Directors...the power I have is limited. I can't turn this situation around... If you go against the wishes of the one 'above', you have your power stripped from you and what you can do is severely limited. So I had to contact someone who could destroy the current situation.."

She looked up at Kamijou.

She continued speaking as she looked him in the eyes.

"...My contact with you will eventually be discovered. And then I will have to be 'punished' for treason. I could avoid it if it was just me...but if I did that, the target of the 'punishment' would change."

The target.

Kamijou felt a chill run down his spine as he thought about that.

"So if you flee, they'll just go after your family...?"

"..."

Oyafune did not respond.

It was the silence of someone not wanting to worry someone else.

"...I...asked him to do this."

Oyafune moved on to another topic.

"Know this...He said he did not want to do this. So please do not blame him...He gave me my 'punishment' while just slightly missing my vitals...I am the one who gave him such a ridiculous request to carry out..."

"Don't speak."

Tsuchimikado Motoharu finally spoke.

He slowly stood up and looked down at Oyafune Monaka's face.

Kamijou could not see his expression from where he stood.

But he didn't really want to see it.

"I'll handle the rest. You carried out your part perfectly. I'm sure there are plenty of things you want to ask me, but there is only one answer I can give: Don't worry. You just have to remember that."

Oyafune's smile slowly widened at Tsuchimikado's words.

There was a hand-made, but not very well made, scarf around her neck.

That was most likely what Oyafune Monaka was fighting for.

Her reason for stopping the dispute between Academy City and the Roman Catholic Church and for making sure she received her "punishment" for her actions were both there.

Tsuchimikado crouched down and looked through Oyafune's belongings. He pulled out a cell phone and called an ambulance. He then wiped off his fingerprints and set it on the ground.

He then pulled something out of her coat.

It looked like a small handgun for self-defense.

Tsuchimikado put it in his belt and looked towards Kamijou.

"We need to get moving, Kami-yan."

"Understood."

Kamijou grit his teeth and stared at the foolish woman collapsed on the ground.

"...She went to the effort of setting all that up just to get me to move. What the hell? There's such a thing as being too indirect."

Kamijou Touma wasn't exactly a famous person.

If she wanted him to move, she could have just told him what he needed to do.

And yet she put her life on the line for such a small request.

Kamijou clenched his right fist as he thought about that.

"We don't have time. I'll explain later."

Tsuchimikado continued.

"We're headed for District 23. There's an airplane waiting for us. It's the one thing Oyafune Monaka used her power to prepare. We can't waste it."

"God damn it..."

Kamijou muttered that as he followed Tsuchimikado out of the children's park.

The only thing left in that park was Oyafune Monaka covered in blood.

Kamijou grit his teeth as he heard the siren of an ambulance in the distance.

Part 8

Misaka Mikoto found a small children's park.

It didn't really look like an area set aside for a park; it was more like the park had been made to fill in some leftover land after the student dormitories around had been built.

There were multiple vehicles parked in front of the entrance.

They were Anti-Skill vehicles.

Mikoto started in that direction, but a man dressed all in black blocked her way. The entrance was sealed off by multiple layers of yellow tape.

She caught a glance of further in the park.

There were multiple Anti-Skill men like the one in front of her gathered inside, but there were no "normal people". They seemed to be investigating the area around a bench on the edge of the park.

She had no idea what had happened there.

She had no idea what had happened, but, whatever it was, it seemed to be over.

Between the lines 2

"It seems 'God's Right Seat' is a group working to obtain victory over 'original sin'."

Lidvia Lorenzetti's voice rang out in the small interrogation room in the Tower of London.

Stiyl's and Agnese's eyebrows rose slightly at that. There was no term known better to believers in the Christian Church than original sin.

"You mean the 'sin' Adam and Eve received upon eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge? The 'sin' that was passed on to all of humanity as we are their descendants?"

"Yes, that much is in the Old Testament."

Lidvia took over the conversation and continued.

"And in the New Testament, 'The Son of God' played the role that eliminated that 'sin'. He was crucified on the cross, so that he could inherit the sins of all humanity and eliminate it himself. Because of this, if we pray to the cross, eat the flesh and blood of God at Mass, and keep our faith right to the very end, our 'sin' will be washed away at the 'Final Judgement' and we will be led to the 'Holy Kingdom'."

"By the way," Lidvia said.

"...There is an exception to this."

"An exception?"

Agnese asked this question without thinking as she recorded everything on the parchment.

Stiyl glared at Agnese, but let the conversation continue.

"There is someone who did not have the 'sin' that should have been given to all of humanity."

From that Stiyl was able to figure out who she was talking about.

"The Virgin Mary."

Biagio who was bound to the chair next to Lidvia clicked his tongue.

Stiyl continued on regardless.

"As the woman who gave birth to 'The Son of God', the Virgin Mary's sin disappeared because she was deeply touched by the Holy Spirit. It's known as the 'Immaculate Conception'. In other words, the Virgin Mary has no 'original sin'. As all of humanity is descended from Adam and Eve, they bear 'original sin' and pass it on to their own children."

"And so there is an exception."

That was Lidvia's simple response.

"In the New Testament, it was because there was no way to eliminate 'original sin' other than having 'The Son of God' take it onto himself that he took the path to execution. If you take that as a basis and add in the fact that the Virgin Mary's 'sin' had disappeared, I feel the answer becomes obvious."

"You're saying there's a method to eliminating 'original sin' other than through faith in 'The Son of God'?"

"Through a spell that could be considered cheating, yes. I have heard that 'God's Right Seat' has succeeded in diluting their 'sin' as much as possible, but they have not managed to eliminate it altogether."

Lidvia was bound to her seat, but she spoke as calmly as if she was in complete control.

"But because they have incompletely eliminated their 'sin', they can carry out spells of a level surpassing what normal people can. It is said that they can even use the normally unusable spells that deal with the angels and the Lord."

"...Well, I suppose eliminating 'original sin' really is the final goal of humanity. And if you could manage it, your 'quality' as a human would approach that of an angel. But..."

"Yes. 'Sin' in this case also means the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. If you lose that, you also lose the ability to be a normal magician and use the magic that is for humans to use."

Stiyl exhaled slightly.

The elimination of "original sin".

It wasn't too hard to imagine that the depths of the Roman Catholic Church would be holding a bomb like that. Having one’s "original sin" eliminated via faith in the Christian Church and being led to the "Holy Kingdom" made by God after going through the "Final Judgement" was treated as true happiness. It was just like the Roman Catholic Church to be constantly researching a secret ceremony that would eliminate "original sin".

After thinking through all that, Stiyl asked Lidvia a question.

"So the final goal of 'God's Right Seat' is to completely eliminate the remaining 'sin' from their bodies?"

If they succeeded in that, "God's Right Seat" would truly be able to freely use the spells of the angels. And once they could do that it was possible that not even a saint would be able to stop them.

"Hee hee."

"That's not it?"

"No. Eliminating their 'sin' is just a means to an end for 'God's Right Seat'. Their final goal is something else entirely."

"...Eliminating 'original sin' is quite a feat. And that's merely a means to an end?"

(Then what could their true goal be?)

Lidvia suppressed laughter and continued speaking.

"They have been announcing their goal loudly from the very beginning."

"What?"

"'God's Right Seat'. That is what they are after."