とある魔法の種類

Toaru Mahō no Shurui

A Certain Kind of Magic


Author's Note: This is one of the only times I will ever put the Author's note before my work but it is important here. This will be one of two (not in a row) long chapters with no action and considerable exposition but you really only need to read to the third line, skipping the small lined-off section in between, to understand the story and you can skip the rest if you don't care about the particulars of my magical system and just want to read the action-y bits, in which case I held back the release of this chapter so I could group it with the next one which should sate you action hungry readers and involves ninjas. This chapter is going to be expanding upon canon a considerable amount. I will try to keep it generally in line with what canon says but there will be differences and there will be things which are unprecedented in canon and some of which may directly contradict it, though this will never happen without an explanation. I hope you trust me as an author to know what I am doing in that department but I appreciate any critisisms you have.


"I trust that the years have treated you well child, I apologize for my absence this past year but things have been… busy and they will get even worse soon. That is the reason I have called up you. All those years ago you mentioned a desire to repay your debt, both to the world and to myself. Do you still hold to those words?" Aleister asked. He'd rather get her to agree to do what he wanted rather than hold the debt over her head and force her to.

"Of course," Kuroko replied expectedly, "I will do anything I can to repay all your kindness."

"That is good to hear. Tell me… do you believe in magic?"

Kuroko's brow furrowed at the unexpected question, "no. The concept is ridiculous."

Aleister smiled, "and what of Kuro? What does she believe?"

Kuroko was taken aback. She wasn't aware that Aleister-sama was aware of Kuro. Aleister stood there, expecting an answer. It is as I have said before. "Your roommate shoots lightning out of her fingers and once defeated a big, blue, fetus-shaped blob of concentrated AIM-fields. I am willing to believe in Ninjas, I am willing to believe in magic, I am willing to believe in anything but luck and God at this point. With the exception of those two things, logic dictates that you should believe in whatever has evidence behind it, even if it is something like magic."

When Kuro had said that, she had deliberately emphasized magic because she had suspected its existence for a long time. She and Shiro did not share all sensory information after all. Kuro could not see the "dimensional grid" of the 11 dimensions like Shiro could. And Shiro seemed to be unable to detect the strange energy that flowed so powerfully from the man in front of her, as well as a few other people through the years, like Kuro could. It was not AIM, even in impossibly powerful levels AIM wasn't detectable.

Kuro, too, had that same strange energy flowing through her own veins, but only when she was in control of the body. She had filed it under magic as the catch-all category of the unexplained, though she hadn't quite believed it was actually that. She was still willing to believe in it if evidence was presented to her.

Kuroko relayed Kuro's thoughts then asked, "how long have you known about Kuro?"

"Before I answer that let me ask one more question… what do you think Kuro is?"

"Schizophrenia or an alternate personality disorder."

"She is neither of those things actually. If someone were to hook you up to a brainwave scanner they would detect two completely different patterns at the exact same time. It is not that way with schizophrenia. More than that though you actually have two different souls residing within the same body. Though they are not a full soul each, it would be more accurate to call them 75% of a soul. 25% is always active no matter who is in control to maintain consciousness while the other half is latent, only emerging when triggered by certain conditions. It is an interesting condition that I have never seen in person before, though I have heard cases of similar things happening." Aleister had indeed heard about things such as this happening but the reason behind it had never been clear. It was by simple stroke of luck that it had actually happened and when it had the reason behind it had become more clear.


When a person was born they were named, not by their parents, but by god himself, a name in the language of the angels. The soul of the person was built upon this name and through this name they borrowed the power, which in most cases came in the form of mana from hell though it was not unheard of for telesma to power a person's existence as well, needed to sustain consciousness from heaven. In most cases the name was 2 words. A particularly powerful person such as a saint or a level 5 had 3 words to their name. In very rare cases of extreme power there were four words. There existed only 4 such people in the world today, Accelerator, Kakine, Touma, and Aleister himself.

Even God was not infallible however. Ever since the three alteration to the natural laws of the world had occurred long ago , along with the fourth alteration which Aleister himself had caused when he founded Academy City, there had been a few mistakes with the names. Far more people with three were born than usual and a few were born with only 1. In either case the baby often died shortly after birth, whether by ripping itself apart with its power in the case of a 3 worded soul or because a single worded soul did not have enough energy to sustain consciousness.

There was however a single exception: Kuroko. Her name upon birth had been a single word, the angelic word for heaven. The reason that this was enough was that the angelic word for heaven was actually composed of two different angelic words, the words for everything and nothing. This little detail allowed her to survive even though she only had a one word soul name. It had also piqued Aleisters interest and he had taken steps to monitor her, protect her, and induct her into Academy City so that she could undergo the Power Cirriculum Program. He was interested in seeing what would happen to her.

The power curriculum program functioned by changing the angelic name of a person artificially, much like magician training did. However the key difference was how it changed it. Normally the words of a person's soul were 2 nouns. Since nouns were the most common type of words in angelic most people were matched with two random ones at birth. Magicians trained hard to alter the first noun and turn it into an adjective instead. Adjectives were not natural in angelic language as most nouns described themselves, so having an adjective in their name confused it into thinking that the person name comprised more words than it did, causing their soul to think it needs to borrow more mana for energy, giving the person an excess.

ESPers, however, had a verb in it as well as a noun. Verbs existed in the angelic language naturally so there were cases where a person was born an ESPer rather than crafted into one. The Power Cirriculum Program was for the rest of the people, using the same principals behind magician training to transform one of the words into a verb rather than a noun.

This process's success depended upon the person's angelic name itself and so the power level they could be expected to reach could be discovered the moment their name had been altered and they had become an ESPer. From there the proper procedures could be taken to foster their ability so that they may reach that level.

Kuroko had been an interesting case to observe. Her transformation had been extremely difficult because of her unique one worded name. It resisted all attempts to change it because, had the first word indeed been changed, it would have been rendered completely unstable. However it could only take so much strain. But before it was altered it broke, splitting into two as a new word formed in between, the only word capable of going there. But this formation was still unstable and it broke apart further. The new word that had been formed was also capable of being split in two, one word a verb, the other an adjective, which is exactly what happened. But instead of maintaining a single soul of four words they actually pushed against each other, splitting into two souls, one of which inhabited a portion of the brain which Kuroko had been born with that heightened her chances of developing schizophrenia, a portion which had been altered by the program as an unintended side effect.

When he had heard the results of that particular experiment, Aleister had been somewhat surprised that his theory had been correct. He had also been slightly surprised over the results and saw the potential for a person who could be both a magician and an ESPer at the same time. However this optimism didn't last long since one of the souls was latent and couldn't take control, and even if it could only one could be in control at a time, meaning she would only ever be either a magician or an ESPer, never both… at least not at the same time…


"I apologize for my rudeness Aleister-sama but I don't believe in souls either." Kuroko spoke up.

"Belief is unnecessary child. If you are ready to begin repaying your debt than you have just to do as I ask and regardless of whether you believe it exists or not I would like you to learn about magic. Or do you perhaps not trust my Judgment on this matter? You are free to decline if you wish but I hope you at least believe in me and believe when I say that the best way you could help is to do as I ask, even if it seems ridiculous."

Kuroko opened her mouth but then shook her head and said, "Again I apologize Aleister-sama, I trust you completely. You have been nothing but kind and you have always looked after me. If you say that this is the best way then I will do as you ask. You have never been wrong before."

"Good. There is a building near here where you will be taught," he told her where exactly it was and continued, "I also wish you to keep this a secret from others as well. We can schedule around when you're available. How does 10 o' clock every night sound child? We will supply you with advanced supplements to ensure that the lack of sleep does not affect you and it will allow you several hours to learn each night."

Kuroko nodded, "yes Aleister-sama."

"Excellent. Then you are excused."

Kuroko nodded and teleported away to the designated place. She knocked on the door and a tall suited man opened it. She had seen him briefly once before, a couple months ago, when Kuro first surfaced during her first encounter with the Horn of Jericho. He had been watching from the rooftops and would have gone completely unnoticed if Kuro was not paranoid enough to look up every couple seconds for traps and people just waiting to spring on her.

"Ah, greetings Kuroko," he said in accented but perfect Japanese,"Aleister told us you were coming. My name is Vyers," he held out his hand, "it is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

She shook his hand. "Likewise," she said politely, though she didn't really feel it. She looked closer at Vyers. He was young looking, quite tall, and seemed foreign, with pale white skin and styled brown hair. He wore an expensive looking designer suit. Pinned to his lapel was a white and black flower with vermillion leaves that looked like a cross between a lily and an orchid. The flower was immediately familiar. She was about to ask when she was interrupted by Vyers.

"Come in, I'll introduce you to your teacher." He lead her into the entry room of what looked to be a fairly comfortable apartment.

"No need my friend, I can introduce myself," another voice, similar to Vyers's said. He walked into Kuroko's line of sight. "My name is Lammington. A void magician and… an ally if not a friend… of Aleister's. He has asked me to teach you. Given the proficiency with magic you displayed earlier it should be quite an interesting endeavor."

'My imagination is better than I thought. These delusions are very vivid… oh well. Can't hurt to play along at least. I know I'm insane anyway so it's not like it matters.' She thought, then said, "I look forward to it. But may I ask what you mean by "magic I displayed earlier"?

"Replicating the effects of a complicated spell like David's Blessing with so little experience, training, or anything else is impressive."

Kuroko blinked a couple of times unsure of what to do or say. Kuro decided to speak up. I can handle this if you wish. Simply relay my words to them. Kuroko nodded and began to speak for Kuro "The feat was not too great actually. I managed to absorb some of the energy as well as the basic form of the spell from a previous encounter. The layout was all there, all it took from me was a bit of added energy."

"It is impressive nonetheless. Now… Today I am instructed to teach you about magical theory and history. I shall start with the most relevant to you and the most personal to me. Void magic."


"Void magic is a type of magic that allows control of entropic forces and rates of change. It is a primarily, practically exclusively, defensive magic that has no spells used to kill or harm. To control it requires either a strong desire for things to stay the way things are or a thorough understanding of the concept of eternity, for eternity is the essence and power of void magic. I say that this is the most relative to you both because, not only does this particular aspect of it suit what I have been told are your principles, but also because you have displayed talent in it and your mana is void aligned. Normally that would mean that you excel more in one type than another but void magic is fairly exclusive. the mana aligned with that type of magic eliminates possibility of using it for other purposes. So this is the type of magic you will learn."

"Okay…" she responded going along with this madman's babbling for now, as a favor to Aleister-sama, "Why is it so exclusive?"

"Because the source of it is different than that of other magics. It has to do with magical history, really. You see… magic isn't a natural thing. It only came into existence 4000 years ago, before then the only the only magic that existed on earth were the 5 aspects, essences housed in crystals on a shrine on Gibraltar, before it was destroyed and became a strait. But a man found this shrine and used the aspects to steal the power of the prime archangel. While that position is now Michael's it was not always, it used to belong to an angel known as Samael, who controlled entropy. Since all things have an entropic value his power encompassed everything and it was the power that allowed chemical processes and reactions to take place. But his power was drained by this nameless, forgotten magician and he was presumably destroyed. This magician used this angelic power to alter the very language of the angels to something easier for humans to understand and use, thus allowing people to use magic. However at this point the only thing that could be used was void magic which used the ambient, unabsorbed energy that was caused by the fall of Samael to borrow his power and change reality in a limited fashion."

"This also had the effect of ending the age of Isis and preventing people from awakening to it naturally and making alignment to it far rarer. The current person capable of mastering it is the only person in 1100 years to be able to do so, and his existence is only a theory given that he was not born in a civilized part of the world. Though 1100 years isn't the rarest example. You see there are five aspects. Set, Isis, Osiris, Horus, and Ma'at[1]. Currently Osiris is the most common but even that has not seen a master since Sir Isaac Newton, a good fellow who used the enormous powers of vector manipulation granted by it to discover the way the world worked rather than gain power. Horus is the second most common, being the next in line of progression and has not had any masters since Merlin. Then you have Isis. Then Set, the age of which ended a long time ago when humans first appeared, a master of that has not been seen since Attila the Hun, tainted by the madness and evil associated with the aspect, used its power to crush the Roman Empire. Ma'at is even rarer still and is the only aspect which has nobody capable of awakening to it currently in existence, nor has anyone like that existed in almost 2000 years."

"Are these aspects supposed to be significant?" Kuroko asked, somewhat skeptical. It was a common practice of humans to retroactively apply knowledge to fit history, attributing a person's significance to a factor which agreed with their belief and taking that as proof. Still, it was at least a somewhat entertaining story.

"Yes actually, for they are how the worlds are kept in balance."

"Oh, so there are more than one eh? What are you going to go for for the others? One of the classics like Heaven and Hell? Maybe Nirvana and Tartarus? Or perhaps something more original? How about Zippy and Floop? I admit that there are multiple dimensions but I am tired of people confusing dimensions with worlds. Dimensional travel doesn't mean you go to another universe, it just means you move around in this one."

Lammington was patient, infinitely patient, so this did not disturb him in the slightest. "I understand your skepticism, in fact I encourage it. Know that these are naught but theories, but also know that nothing is anything but a theory. Perception is our reality, and thus what clouds perception may seem to alter reality and what seems to be an unrealistic reality may or may not simply be the result of a skewed perception. I am merely offering one version of how this universe of ours may be perceived, whether you accept it or not is up to you."

Kuroko took a deep breath, "I apologize for my rudeness. I know better than most people what you are talking about and for that reason this is a little overwhelming."

"Shall we stop for today?"

"No," she responded, "keep going. I can handle it."

"Very well I shall finish up on the 5 worlds, 5 aspects, and how it relates to you, then we can get the rest of magical history as talk more about the 10 elements." Lammington continued.

"The name of the five worlds don't really matter but they are typically called, as you suggested, Heaven, Earth, and Hell, with the other two referred to collectively as Limbo. But the imagery of it is quite different from the actual place, at least according to the theory that we will be working with. Hell is not a place of fire and torment, but a place of pure mass. Hell has no energy and more importantly no entropy. The dominant equation of equivalence relates mass to volume rather than energy through a universal constant based on 3 constant densities, one each for gas, liquids, and solids, rather than the speed of light. The purpose of Hell is to receive faulty energy, such as those from fallen angels, from either heaven or earth and purify it, returning it to earth in the form of mass which can then be transformed back into energy by Heaven."

"Heaven is the opposite of that, having energy but no mass where entropy works in reverse, so that the energy levels condense rather than propagate. The dominant equation involves a constant energy transfer rate which is multiplied by time.

"Earth is a blend of the two, having both energy and mass interacting in the form of force and vectors, with entropy working normally and a dominant equation featuring the speed of light as a constant."

"The two limbos are places where mass from earth is transformed into energy for heaven and vice versa or where energy from earth is transformed into mass for hell and vice versa. The two limbos allow heavenly aligned mass and hell aligned energy to come into being if something is retrieved before. This is important because hell aligned energy is also called mana and is what allows spells to be cast."

"But whereas Lower Limbo can be accessed by anyone capable of magic, it is impossible for just about people to access either Heaven or Hell and any ordinary human to access Upper Limbo. That is where the aspects come in. There are 5, as I said, divided into two categories. Mastery and Mobility. Mastery allows the aspect master to control the power of their particular world when awoken. The three Mastery ones are Isis, which controls hell, Osiris, which controls earth, and Horus, which controls heaven. The two Mobility ones allow one to move either mass or energy up or down between the worlds but doesn't allow control of it. The two Mobility aspects are Set, which forces things back away from earth back to either heaven or hell and is demonically aligned, and Ma'at, which brings things to earth from heaven or hell and is angelically aligned. Originally the aspects were created and placed on earth to maintain the balance of energy and mass but since their powers were drained by the nameless first magician the world has been slowly taking on more energy than it is naturally supposed to have, causing an inbalance between heaven hell and earth that is causing heaven to lose energy at an exponential rate."

"And what exactly does that mean?" Kuroko asked.

"Well… let's just say that Nietzsche was wrong about god being dead, but he's not far off."

"I'm an atheist, I do not, cannot, believe in god," Kuroko said firmly, "magic I can grow to accept as a hallucination but I cannot accept that there is a god, even in my delusion."

Lammington shrugged, "that is your choice but at least listen to the rest of magic history if simply to understand everything." He waited until Kuroko nodded before continuing, "going back 4000 years, there existed nothing but angels. Each angel had their particular domain over which they ruled and a small portion of free will to do as they wished on earth. Because they held all of the power over their chosen domain however it was impossible for humans to influence the world through something like magic. Though ESPers still existed in the form of Gemstones they were rare."

"I don't believe in gemstones either," Kuroko pointed out.

"I would have you know that I am a gemstone," Vyers pointed out, "the power curriculum program didn't exist when I first became an ESPer."

Kuroko looked at him, "I tried so hard and suffered so much to get my ESPer powers. I cannot accept that some people can be born with them and not have to suffer at all to obtain something so valuable. Besides, It's been around for 30 years. You can't be more than 27."

"Thank you for the compliment but I am actually 546. Lammington is even older than I am, 712. My ESPer power, much like his magic, keeps my body young through various biological stagnations of which I do not fully understand. From what I have been told my DNA is preserved by my power and does not degrade over time. Being a void mage, like Lammington, you are the same way."

"wait… you're saying I'm never going to age?"

"Possibly… There has never been a void magician, to my knowledge at least, so young. It is unknown whether you will age to adulthood or not…"

Even though she did not believe it (at least she told herself she didn't) it was disturbing. She was tired of being treated like a child and if she was stuck in this body forever then she would never be treated as anything more…

"There is of course a caveat," Lammington spoke up, "There is a reason void magic is one of the rarest despite granting functional immortality. Since void mana is not granted by borrowing the power of angels like the rest, which we will get to tomorrow, but rather from the world and the self. This means that the mana is not self-renewing as other magicians have. While the mana allows for eternal life and regeneration the person must ingest mercury. Unfortunately having void magic doesn't give you immunity to heavy metal poisoning and it isn't exactly a sustainable form of immortality. At least not until I discovered this," he said holding aloft a flower. It was a flower she recognized. It was the same one that Vyers wore on his lapel and that she still had on a vase at her table at home, "It's quite an interesting little flower. It grows near volcanoes, constantly exposed to the highly poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas and mercuric oxide rich soil. After thousands of years of evolution these elements have been incorporated into the flower itself. The stem and leaves have rendered the mercury sulfide in a safe state which makes a fabulous tea that allows me to sustain my mana without poisoning myself."

"on a side note the thorns aren't as safe to eat as the petals and stem. The thorns have a high concentration of Dimethylmercuty, a powerful neurotoxin to most humans. Though void magic grants immunity to organomercuries as they simply break themselves apart into their organic and mercuric components harmlessly, it can still cause heavy metal poisoning."

"… wait… the thorns are deadly?" Kuroko asked, finally understanding the danger she had so casually placed herself and her Onee-sama in. "I have to go," she said teleporting away and back home where she took the bouquet that was still in the vase and teleported them down into the ground, feeling quite guilty as she did so for risking the life of her Onee-sama. She looked over to the girl who was resting in her bed, somewhat fitfully, and decided that she had had enough learning for tonight. She would be back there tomorrow.

For the first time in 4 nights she wriggled into the older girls bed and allowed her arms to wrap around her


[1]: All of which are actual aspects in thelema, the historical cult created by Aleister Crowley. I've done an almost spooky amount of research on this.


Author's Note 2.0 : A matter has been pointed out to me that I'd like to remedy. Misaka was contacted shortly after she reached the hospital (to find out that she was expected by the doctor) by Lammington who informed her that he was still alive so she should not feel guilty for his death. He stated that he really did feel guilty and would pay Kuroko's hospital bills himself stating that "collateral damage in my line of work means that people get hurt. I don't enjoy seeing that but sometimes it is necessary for the greater good. In those cases it is all one can do to minimize losses and take any consequences resulting from those still suffered." Because Kuroko had survived just fine she found it in her heart to forgive him.