Fate/A Certain Magical Index
Disclaimer: I don't own Fate/Stay Night, Fate/hollow ataraxia, Fate/Zero, the Fate/Extra/ccc/fox tail/Extella, Fate/Prototype/strange fake, Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Ilya, Fate/Grand Order or any other product related products and their characters and plot to the Fate series which belongs to Type-Moon. Nor do I own Tsukihime, Melty Blood, Angel notes, Garden of Sinners or any other series, their characters and plot which belong to Type-Moon. Like Chibichuki or Carnival Phantasm. The Toaru Majutsu no Index series, Side stories, and its spinoff A Certain Scientific Railgun and A Certain Scientific Accelerator and their character and plot belong to Kamachi Kazuma. The only thing I own are my Original Characters. Thanks to the translators from Baka-Tsuki for their Spanish Translations. Thanks to Barnes & Nobles for the English to Spanish Dictionary. This is a nonprofit story meant for entertainment purposes only. Please support the official Release.
Updated On: 12/23/2016
Fixed On: 12/23/2016
Index Arc Chapter 03
He did not understand. He did not understand what she was saying.
While Kamijou lay collapsed and bloody on the road looking up at Kanzaki, he thought he had imagined what he had heard because of the surprise. After all, it made no sense. Index was trying to escape to the Anglican Church while being chased by magicians. How could those magicians be from that very same Anglican Church?
"Have you ever heard of a perfect memory?" asked Kanzaki Kaori. Her voice was weak and she looked pained. At that moment, it was hard to believe she was one of the top 10 magicians in London. She looked like nothing more than an exhausted girl.
"Yes, that's the true identity of her 103,000 grimoires, right?" Kamijou moved his split lips. "They're all in her head. I find it hard to believe she can remember every single thing she sees even once, though. I mean, she's an idiot. She just doesn't look like that kind of genius."
"…What does she look like to you?"
"Just a girl."
Kanzaki looked more exhausted than surprised and said, "Do you think she could have escaped our pursuit for an entire year if she were 'just a girl?'"
"…"
"Stiyl has his flames and I have my Nanasen and Yuisen. She is up against magicians who name their magic names, but she cannot rely on a supernatural power like you or magic like me. She can only run away." Kanzaki gave a self-derisive smile. "And Stiyl and I are only two opponents. Not even I would last a month against the entire organization of Necessarius."
That was true.
Kamijou finally learned the truth about Index. He was unable to escape for four days even with his Imagine Breaker that could smash the systems of God in a single strike. And yet, she…
"She is, without a doubt, a genius," declared Kanzaki. "To the extent that using her ability in the wrong way could cause a disaster. The reason why the higher ups in the church do not treat her normally is clear. They are afraid of her. Everyone is."
"That may be." Kamijou bit his bloody lip. "But she's still human. She's not a tool. I can't… let you call her that…!"
"Yes." Kanzaki nodded. "But her current traits are not that different from normal people like us."
"…?"
"Over 85 percent of Index's brain is filled with the 103,000 grimoires. The remaining 15 percent is just barely managing to function enough for her to be the same as us."
That was amazing and all, but there was something Kamijou wanted to know first.
"…So what? What are you people doing? You're part of the same church as Index, right? That Necessarius thing. Why are you chasing her around? Why was Index saying you were evil magicians from a magic cabal?" Kamijou silently clenched his back teeth. "Or are you trying to say Index was the one tricking me?"
He could not believe that. If she were simply trying to use Kamijou, he saw no reason why she would have risked her life and gotten her back sliced open to save him. And, even without the logical reasoning, he simply did not want to believe it.
"…She was not lying," replied Kanzaki Kaori after slight hesitation.
She sounded like she was holding her breath while her heart was being crushed. "She remembers nothing. She remembers neither our Necessarius affiliation nor the reason for her being chased. Because she does not remember, she has to use her knowledge to fill in the gaps. It is only natural to assume magicians chasing the Index Librorum Prohibitorum are from a magic cabal after her 103,000 grimoires."
Kamijou recalled something: Index had lost her memories from before about a year ago.
"But, wait. Wait a second. That doesn't make sense. Index has a perfect memory, right? So why did she forget? What made her lose her memories?"
"She did not lose them." Kanzaki stopped even breathing. "Technically, I erased them."
Kamijou had no need to even ask how.
Please do not make me give it, boy.
I do not want to give it ever again.
"…Why?" He asked instead. "Why!? I thought you were Index's comrade! And that wasn't just something Index thought, I can tell from your face! You saw Index as a precious comrade, didn't you!? So why!?"
Kamijou recalled the smile Index had given him.
It was the other side of the loneliness that had led to him being the only person in the world that she knew.
"…We had to do it."
"Why!?" he shouted as if he were howling at the moon above his head.
"Because, otherwise, Index would have died."
His breathing stopped. For no discernible reason, the heat of the midsummer night that he felt on his skin departed. All five of his senses grew thin like they were trying to escape reality.
It felt as if… It felt as if he were a corpse.
"Like I said, 85 percent of her brain is taken up by the memories of the 103,000 grimoires." Kanzaki's shoulders trembled slightly. "She only has the remaining 15 percent for normal use. If she continues to amass memories like a normal person, her brain will quickly burst."
"No way…"
Denial. Rather than use logic or reason, Kamijou's brain simply denied it.
"I mean… I mean… how could that be? You said she was the same as us with that 15 percent..."
"Yes, but she is different than us in one way. She has a perfect memory." All feeling slowly left Kanzaki's voice.
"Think back to what a perfect memory really is."
"…It's the ability to never forget anything you see even once, right?"
"And is the ability to forget really all that bad a thing?"
"…"
"The specifications of the human brain are surprisingly limited. The only reason a human brain can keep functioning for 100 years is because unneeded memories are disposed of by the process of forgetting. For example, you don't remember what you ate for dinner a week ago, do you? Everyone's brain undergoes this maintenance without them even realizing it. Otherwise, people would be unable to live. But," Kanzaki said with an icy voice, "She cannot do this."
"…"
"She cannot forget anything: be it the number of leaves on the trees lining the road, the faces of each and every person during a rush hour, or the shape of each and every raindrop falling from the sky. All of those pointless, garbage memories fill up her mind in no time." Kanzaki's voice froze over. "Having only 15 percent of her brain leftover is a fatal tragedy for her. Since she cannot forget on her own, her only way to live is to get another to force her to forget."
Kamijou's mind shattered to pieces.
What… what kind of story is this? I thought this was the story of an uninteresting guy saving an unfortunate girl being chased by evil magicians, getting to know the girl, and finally feeling a slight twinge in his chest as he watches the girl leave in the end.
He continued to analyze the disparities.
So I came to shelter her before anyone who would use them came to take her away.
I would like to take her into our care without having to give my magic name.
"…How long?" Kamijou asked.
Inquiring instead of denying, he seemingly accepted it somewhere deep down.
"How long until her brain bursts?"
"Her memories are erased at precise one year intervals." Kanzaki sounded exhausted. "The limit is three days from now. It cannot be done too soon or too late. If not done at that exact time, her memories cannot be erased. …I hope she has yet to experience the powerful headaches that precede it."
Kamijou was shocked. It was true Index had said she had lost her memories from over about a year ago.
…And the headaches. Kamijou had assumed Index had collapsed due to the recovery magic. After all, Index knew the most about magic out of any of them and had said as much.
'But, what if Index were mistaken?' Kamijou considered.
What if she were moving around in a state where her mind could be destroyed at any moment?
"Now do you understand?" Kanzaki Kaori asked. She had no tears, as if refusing to allow herself to display such cheap expressions. "We wish her no harm. In fact, there is no way to save her without us. So, will you hand her over before I must give my magic name?"
"…"
As Index's face appeared in Kamijou's mind's eye, he gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut.
"Also, if we erase her memories she will not remember you. You saw how she viewed us, did you not? No matter how she feels about you now, once she opens her eyes, you will be seen as nothing more than a natural enemy after her 103,000 grimoires."
"…"
At that instant, Kamijou felt something was strange.
"Saving her will gain you nothing."
"…What do you mean by that?" The feeling exploded out in an instant like gasoline thrown on fire. "To hell with that! What does remembering me have to do with it!? You don't seem to get it, so let me tell you something. I'm Index's comrade. I decided to stay on her side no matter what happens! Even if it isn't written in your precious bible, this will never change!"
"…"
"I thought something was off. If she only forgot, couldn't you just get rid of the misunderstandings by explaining it all to her? Why did you leave it at the status quo? Why did you chase her around like her enemy!? Why the hell did you just decide to abandon her!? Do you have any idea how she fee-…"
"Shut up! You know nothing!"
Kamijou's anger was crushed by Kanzaki's yell assaulting him from above. What seemed to squeeze at Kamijou's heart were, rather than the words she spoke, the raw feelings that were stripped bare.
"Don't act like you understand! How do you think we've felt erasing her feelings all this time!? How could you possibly understand!? You spoke like Stiyl was some kind of sadistic murderer, but do you know how he felt seeing her with you!? Do you know how he suffered!? Do you know how hard it was for him to name himself her enemy!? What do you understand about Stiyl's feelings as he continued to sully himself for the sake of his precious comrade!?"
"Wha-…?"
Before he could raise his voice in shock at her sudden change of behavior, Kanzaki kicked his side like a soccer ball. The unrestrained strike sent Kamijou's body into the air. After landing, he rolled two or three meters further.
The taste of blood overflowed from his stomach up into his mouth.
However, Kanzaki jumped straight up, the moon at her back, before Kamijou could even writhe about in intense pain.
Like some kind of joke, she jumped three meters up into the air with just the strength of her legs.
"…!?"
He heard a dull noise. The flat tip of Shichiten Shichitou's scabbard had crushed Kamijou's arm like high heels.
But, he failed to even cry out in pain. The expression on Kanzaki's face made it seem like she would shed tears of blood.
Kamijou feared.
He was not afraid of Nanasen, or Yuisen, or of the power of one the top 10 magicians in London. He feared the raw human emotions that assaulted him.
"We tried, too! We tried everything we could! We spent spring trying, we spent summer trying, we spent fall trying, and we spent winter trying! We promised to make memories that she would never forget and we made journals and photo albums!"
The end of the scabbard rained down again and again like a sewing machine.
His legs, his arms, his gut, his chest, his face. The blunt blows crushed his body again and again.
"…But none of them worked."
Kamijou heard the sound of her gritting teeth. Her hand stopped.
"Even when we showed her the journals and the photo albums, she just apologized. No matter what we did and no matter how many times we tried, even if we remade the memories from scratch, nothing worked. Everything returned to zero whether you were family, her friend, or her lover." She trembled so much that it seemed she could not take another step. "We… could stand it no longer. We could not bear to see that smile of hers any longer."
With Index's personality, having to say farewell must have been as painful as dying. Having to experience such a thing over and over again would be like living in hell.
Immediately after experiencing the misfortune that was the farewell, she would forget it all and tragically begin a run toward that same determined misfortune once more.
That was why Kanzaki and Stiyl had chosen to lessen the misfortune as much as possible rather than give her the cruel fortune of knowing them. If Index never had the precious memories she had to lose, then the shock of losing her memories would lessen. That was why they abandoned their good friend and played the part of an enemy.
They would blot out her memories to make that final hell as easy as possible for her.
"…"
Somehow or other, Kamijou understood.
They were expert magicians. They made the impossible possible. The entire time Index repeatedly lost her memories, they had to have searched for a way to keep her from losing her memories.
They never succeeded.
Even then, Index had certainly never blamed Stiyl or Kanzaki.
She had surely given them that same smile like usual.
Being forced to connect with her anew each time had led Kanzaki and Stiyl to blame themselves and see giving up as the only option.
But that was…
"To hell with that!" Kamijou gritted his teeth. "That reasoning only takes you into account. You didn't give even a single thought about Index! Don't blame your cowardice on her!"
For the past year, Index had continued to flee on her own without relying on anyone. Kamijou refused to accept that that was the best option. He would not let himself accept it. He did not want to.
"Then… what else are we supposed to do!?"
Kanzaki grabbed Shichiten Shichitou's scabbard and swung it down forcefully at Kamijou's face.
Kamijou moved his battered right hand and grabbed the scabbard just before it struck his face.
No longer did he feel fear or nervousness because of the magician.
His body moved. It moved!
"If you were a little stronger…" Kamijou gritted his teeth. "If you had used fox words powerful enough to become reality…! If she was afraid of losing her memories of that year, you just have to give her even better memories the next year! If happiness, great enough to erase her fears of memory loss, awaited her, she wouldn't have to keep running! That's all it would have taken!"
He forcibly moved his left arm, now with a broken shoulder, and grabbed the scabbard with that hand too. He forced his battered body into a standing position. Blood flowed from various parts of his body.
"Are you seriously thinking of fighting in that state?"
"…Shut… up."
"What will you gain by fighting?" Kanzaki seemed legitimately confused. "Even if you did defeat me, Necessarius awaits behind me. I may have said I was one of the top 10 magicians in London, but there are those stronger than me. …From the church's point of view, I am nothing more than a subordinate sent out to this Far East island nation."
It was likely true.
If they were truly Index's comrades, they would have opposed the church's way of treating her like a tool. The fact that they did not meant that there was a gap of power preventing it.
"I said… shut up!"
It did not matter. He forced his body to move despite the fact it trembled as if he were about to die and glared at Kanzaki standing before him.
It was a simple gaze that held little power but was enough to make one of the top 10 magicians in London take a step back.
"That doesn't matter! Do you resign yourself to protecting people because you happen to have strength!?" Kamijou took a step forward with his battered legs. "No, you don't, do you!? Don't lie! You worked to gain power because there was something you wanted to protect!"
He grabbed Kanzaki's collar with his battered left hand.
"Why did you acquire power?"
He made a bloody fist with his battered right hand.
"Who did you want to protect!?"
Using that weak fist, he struck Kanzaki's face. There lacked anything remotely resembling force behind the punch and the fist itself actually spurted blood like a tomato.
Even so, Kanzaki stumbled back as if truly punched. She released Shichiten Shichitou which spiraled as it fell to the ground.
"Then what the hell are you doing here!?" He looked down on Kanzaki, who had collapsed to the ground. "If you have so much strength… if you have so much almighty power, then why are you so powerless?"
The ground shook, or so it seemed, under Kamijou. The next instant, he collapsed to the ground like the electricity powering his body had switched off.
'Get… up… The counterattack… is coming…' He reprimanded himself.
His vision was dyed in darkness.
Kamijou, forcibly moving his body, had lost too much blood to see or recover. He moved in an attempt to defend against Kanzaki's counterattack but the best he could manage was move one fingertip like a caterpillar.
However, no counterattack came.
Only someone calling his name.
"Touma!"
"Touma!" Kanzaki turned away from the fallen just in time to see practically a storm of strange arrows coming at her. As she jumped back to avoid them, Index ran to Touma's side while Shirou kept firing more arrows to keep her away from Index and Touma.
"How's Touma Index!" Shirou asked a he kept firing arrow after arrow, before he was forced to jump back as a large fireball crashed where he had been standing just a moment ago, giving Kanzaki enough time to regain her footing as Styl joined the battle.
"He's seriously hurt Shirou!" Index said as Shirou dismissed his bow and summoned a pair of deep white one-handed swords with an intricate blue pattern. He gritted his teeth at Touma's state while slashing two fireballs that Styl launched him.
"Nanasen!"
"Damn it!" Shirou said as he dismissed the blades and summoned a round metallic shield with gold sun emblem on it. The shield was strong enough to protect him, but the strength of the saint's attack manage to push him back until he was standing in front of Index and the injured Touma.
"Listen kid, just hand over the girl and you won't get hurt." Styl said.
"Like hell I'll listen to such a cliché movie villain line as that." Shirou answered as he summoned his black and aimed another of his strange arrows, this one looked like a big black menacing looking screw, at them, making it clear what his answer was.
"Very well, if that's your decision, I will not hold back." Kanzaki warned as she readied her attack. "Nanasen!" In an instant the seven wires split into a thousands, all aimed at Shirou.
Just as he had planned.
"Trace On: Continuous Fire!" Shirou commanded as he summoned thousands of swords and fire them nonstop at the magicians. Their attacks meet halfway, the wires strong enough to destroy the swords and the swords sharp enough to cut the wires.
A red flash crossed the distance between the fighters and impacted the ground with enough strength to launch a huge cloud of dust on the air.
"Damn it!" Styl growled as he threw a fireball at where Index, Shirou,, and Touma were standing, but he was already too late. They had escaped.
"I see you've managed to get yourself into some kind of trouble once more." Heaven Canceller, a plump doctor in an examination room of a university hospital, commented. He seemed to have been aware he resembled a frog, because he had a sticker of a small tree frog on the ID card on his chest.
Shirou only scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Will he be O.K.?" Index asked her face full of worry.
But Heaven Canceller just smiled.
"Just who do you think I am?" Heaven Canceller said as he left.
"What are you?" Shirou looked up from the book he was reading at Index's question.
After Heaven Canceller left, Shirou and Index had moved to the Waiting Room, though Shirou had briefly left to get some food for Index. Apparently, she got hungry when worried. Shirou had also informed Komoe-sensei about what had happened, excluding some things of course, and she had promised to visit tomorrow after the supplementary classes ended.
"What do you mean?" Shirou asked in confusion.
"You're an esper, yet you can use magic without any drawbacks." Index explained.
"What are you?"
Shirou closed his eyes as if thinking something over before nodding his head.
"I'm what you'd call a Holistic esper. Normal espers use their powers by imposing their own will and logic on the world; while magicians act as mediums impose the logic and will of some higher being or source in the world. For example, an esper could be someone that can move a huge rock with their own strength, while the magician might be someone who needs someone else strength to move that same rock." Shirou opened his eyes as he explained how esper and magical powers worked in a nutshell. "Holistic espers like me combine aspects of both theories into a single one as we believe that natural systems and their properties should be viewed as wholes, not as collection of parts. We believe that every single thing from animal and humans, to planets and stars, and even things like books and swords are alive in some way or form, although we may not be able to perceive it, and that all living things possess their own personal reality, their own way to pensive the world independent from each other, and the world that surrounds us is Gaia's, the Earth's, very own personal reality. As everything is part of a whole instead of an individual system separated from the rest, Personal realities may influence one another. Just like humans influence has changed the world, someone's actions may influence another person's view or ideals. This also works for both esper powers and magic. As example, it is possible to optimize specific espers personal realities by inputting personal values of other espers, while in Idol theory it is possible for the original's meaning to be affected by how the replicas are viewed in the Present time: The cross used to be a pagan symbol, but now days it is viewed as the symbol of Christianity."
"Then what about Holistic espers?" Index asked as she carefully listens to Shirou's explanation.
"I'm getting there. In order to use supernatural powers, a distortion must first be created. An esper create this distortion by cutting themselves from the proper reality humans' view as a whole. For magicians, a distortion is created by the entity or source they are imposing the will of, as they are too alien for both the world and humans to completely understand." Shirou kept explaining. "But Holistic espers are different. Our perception of reality is so different, much more cut off from normal reality than normal espers to the point that our personal reality is as alien as demons, angels, and gods. We create a distortion just by existing. You could even go as far as to say we're not human."
Ignoring Index's shocked face, Shirou continued.
"For Holistic espers, their main ability is their Reality Marble, the materialization and projection of one's inner world onto reality. While espers may use their own power to move the rock and magicians borrow the strength of a more powerful entity to do the job, Holistic espers on the other hand replace the current world with one of our own creation with its own set of laws that could allow us to move the rock. Although in theory it seems that we're all-powerful beings, we are anything but all-powerful. The materialized inner world is based on our personal reality, and although it may be on the same level as angels, demons, and gods, our bodies are still human and lack the power necessary to projected onto reality, as the world is a much powerful entity than a mere human."
"That's why you use magic, by turning your life force into mana; you use it as fuel for your reality marble!" Index exclaimed as realization hit her.
"Correct, and by going through the Power Curriculum Program, we are capable of making use of certain aspects of our reality marble, for example…" Shirou waved his hand and a couple of swords appeared before disappearing with another wave of his hand. "And some espers are skilled enough to deploy it inside their own body as it stills a part of them." He clenched his fist and three metallic claws were projected from between his knuckles.
Index just stared at the claws in shock as Shirou wiped the blood from them with a handkerchief.
It was such a surreal scene, almost as if it had been taken from comic book.
"Concerning our ability to use magic." Shirou continued as he finally retracted the claws. "Most of us can use magic as long as it's linked to our main abilities, although with enough training, some can use other types of magic with no relation to their powers. For example, I mostly use magic that deals with weapons, shields, armors, or magical objects, other than that the best I can do is are tracking origami cranes. There are exceptions of course. Sakura Matou with her Imaginary Shadow Numbers, Ayaka Sajyou with her Jutsu Shiki: Dark Écriture, and Misaya Reiroukan with Abyss Break can create their own type of magic independent of Idol Theory to a certain extent, while others like Jinako Karigiri with Archive, Shinji Matou with his GameMaster, and Rani VIII with DataMon Drive can only use magic for their main abilities."
Index seemed to think about what Shirou had revealed before asking one last question.
"Is Touma a Holistic esper?" Shirou shook his head.
"Touma's Imagine Breaker acts more like a Counter Force. In Gaia's view, supernatural powers are nothing more than distortions, errors in its Personal Reality. Imagine Breaker corrects these errors by negating the supernatural, though that's not its main purpose. It's also limited as it cannot negate things that the world considers natural, but that humans have come to think of as supernatural, such as souls and life force. It's something that belongs to neither the magic side nor the science side."
"I see you're getting along." Heaven Canceller said as he entered the Waiting Room, a nurse following close behind him.
"How's Touma?" Index asked as she ran up to him.
"Don't worry; he's now in a stable condition, though he won't wake up until tomorrow evening at the soonest. What ever happened to him seriously took a lot out of him."
"Can I see him?" Index implored. Heaven Canceller just nodded before signaling at the nurse. With a nod in thanks Index followed the nurse as she excited the Waiting Room.
"Thank you Sensei." Shirou said as he bowed.
"Hm, there's no need to thank me, just make sure to stay alive if you're going to get into trouble." Heaven Canceller said with a sigh.
"You know, most adults would warn us to stay out of trouble."
"Most adults don't know you well enough that no matter what is said, you'll end up risking you're neck for some complete stranger time and time again." Heaven Canceller rebuked as Shirou made his way out.
"Ugh…" Touma groaned as he opened his eyes. From the look of a familiar ceiling and the smell of antiseptics, he guessed he had ended up in the hospital. He felt something heavy beside and turned to look at Index sleeping on at his side, clenching the sheet with her fist.
"I see you're awake." Shirou said as he entered the room with a bag of fruit. "I was starting to worry."
"Shirou! How long have I been unconscious!?" Touma asked as he abruptly sat up, waking Index in the process.
"Touma!" She exclaimed as she launched herself in a hug.
"You've been asleep for almost a day." Shirou told him. "I was starting to get worried. Your wounds were pretty bad this time around."
"I'm sorry! Index suddenly shouted.
Kamijou's breath caught in his throat at that shout that had seemed like a burst of anger.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm really sorry, I didn't know anything! I was so focused on losing the flame magician that was at your house that I never gave any thought to the possibility that you would have to fight another magician!"
Her angry words were not aimed at Kamijou. Her voice tore into herself and Kamijou was so overwhelmed he could not interject.
"Touma, Mr. Shirou and I found you collapsed in the middle of the road, surrounded by two magicians. He was the one that carried you to the hospital. I was so delighted back then. I had no idea you were on the verge of death while I did nothing but delight in the thought that we had gotten away from those stupid magicians!"
Index's words suddenly cut off. What followed was a slight gap just long enough for her to slowly breathe in and prepare for the main point of her rant.
"…I couldn't save you, Touma."
Unmoving and biting her lower lip, Index's small shoulders trembled as she sat. Even so, Index shed no tears for herself.
Her heart would not allow even the slightest bit of sentiment or sympathy. Kamijou realized he could offer no words of consolation to someone who had sworn not to show any tears for even herself.
"So what did you find?" Shirou asked.
"What do you mean?" Touma asked in confusion.
"Every time you fight someone, they end up spilling their tragic past and the reason for their actions. So spilled it, what did she tell you." Shirou said.
For a moment Touma considered lying.
"And don't even think about lying."
But that route was swiftly cut off before it could even begin. And from the killing intent that was leaking from his friend, he was dead serious.
So Touma told him and Index what Kanzaki had told him, about her past with Index, Index's plight, and how she had dealt with the situation for the past two years. When he finished talking there was only silence.
Until…
"That's bullshit." Shirou commented calmly. Touma and Index could only stare at him in shock.
"Wha-…"
"That's the biggest amount of bullshit I've hear all year. Not even Shinji, the biggest idiot I know, could believe that." Shirou paused in his rant. "Probably."
Somewhere else a certain talking seaweed felt a sting.
"Listen, the brain doesn't work like that, if it did many people, including me, would be death." Shirou said.
Touma's eyes widened in realization.
"What does he mean Touma?" Index asked, unaware of Shirou's ability.
"Shirou's ability is called Unlimited Blade Works. It records and analyzes all weapons and defensive armament encountered. Their entire histories, compositions, and designs are all perfectly recorded, and just like its name implies, Shirou's collection is practically unlimited. He has even recorded swords from Ancient Mesopotamia."
"So think very carefully about what that magician told you." Shirou advised him.
Touma closed his eyes in concentration.
85 percent. Yes, that was what Kanzaki had said. 85 percent of Index's brain was filled with the 103,000 grimoires she had memorized. The pressure that was put on her brain meant that she could fit only a year's worth of memories in the remaining 15 percent. If she added any more memories than that, her brain would burst.
'But wait a second. How could 15 percent only hold a year's worth of memories?' He analyzed.
Kamijou had no idea how rare a condition a perfect memory was. However, he was rather sure it was not so rare that Index was the only person in the world with it.
And, the others with perfect memories did not use some ridiculous method like magic to erase their memories.
If it were true that 15 percent of the brain could only hold a year's worth of memories…
"…That means they'd die at about 6 or seven years old."
If the condition were some kind of incurable disease like that, wouldn't it be more prolific?
Also…
Where had Kanzaki gotten those figures, 85 percent and 15 percent?
Who had told her that?
Was the information about 85 percent of the brain even accurate?
"…They were tricked." Shirou smiled as Touma continued to realize the truth.
What if Kanzaki truthfully knew nothing about neuroscience? What if she had simply accepted what her superiors in the church had told her?
Kamijou had a bad premonition.
Kamijou had a feeling that something was mistaken in Kanzaki's description of a perfect memory. What if that mistake were intentionally planted by the church? They might have hid some secret.
"Emiya-chan is right Kamijou-chan." Komoe-sensei, their 135 centimeter teacher, said as she stood from Shirou's side.
"Sensei!" Kamijou shouted almost entirely by reflex.
"How long have you been here?" Shirou asked, surprised at not having noticed earlier.
"Long enough." Momoe-sensei said, making it clear how mush she had heard.
Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, Kamijou asked about perfect memories.
What were they? Did a year's worth of memories really use up 15 percent of the brain? In other words, was it a condition that set one's lifespan at only 6 or seven years?
"Of course not~." Komoe-sensei cut it all down in one short sentence. "It is true that a perfect memory makes you unable to forget garbage memories like the flyer for a sale from last year at a supermarket~. But it isn't like the brain can burst from that~. They'll just take their 100 years' worth of memories to their grave~. The human brain can hold up to 140 years' worth of memories, after all~."
Kamijou's heart skipped a beat.
"B-But what if they were learning things at a tremendous rate? Like what if they used their memory to memorize all the books in a library? Would their brain burst then?"
"Sigh… Kamijou-chan, I can see why you fail all your development lessons~," said Komoe-sensei happily. "Listen up, Kamijou-chan~. People don't have just one type of memory. Things like language and knowledge fall under semantic memories, things like habits falls under procedural memories, and what we most often think of as memories fall under episodic memories~. There are all sorts of types~. All sorts~."
"Um, sensei… I don't really understand what you mean."
"Basically~." Komoe-sensei loved to explain things, so she was delighted. "Each type of memory goes into different containers~. Think of it like burnable trash and unburnable trash~. If you get hit on the head and get amnesia, you don't just start talking gibberish and crawling around on the ground, right~?"
"So…"
"Yes~. No matter how many library books the person memorized, that would only increase the amount of semantic memory~. According to neuroscience, it is absolutely impossible for that to overwhelm the person's episodic memory~."
Kamijou felt like he had received that supposed hit on the head.
"Komoe-sensei, don't you have test to grade?" Shirou asked reminded Komoe-sensei making her ran out of the room in panic.
'The church had lied to Kanzaki. Index's perfect memory was not a danger to her life'.
"But… why?" Kamijou muttered in stunned shock.
Yes, why? Why would the church lie and falsely state that Index would die in a year?
Also, Index's suffering before Kamijou's eyes certainly did not seem like a lie. If it were not being caused by her perfect memory, then why was she suffering?
"…Ha."
After thinking that far, Kamijou suddenly laughed out loud.
'Yes. The church had put a collar on Index.'
…A collar that forced her to require maintenance from the church every year to survive. A collar that insured that Index would not use the 103,000 grimoires she controlled to betray them.
What if Index did not need the techniques and spells of the church to survive?
What if she could perfectly well live on her own without the help of the church?
In that case, the church would never be able to leave Index be. If she could just run off and disappear with 103,000 grimoires, they would feel the need to put a collar on her.
To repeat, the church had placed a collar on Index.
That made things simple.
'There had originally been nothing wrong with Index's head, but the church had done something to it.'
"…Ha ha."
For example, what if they had done something similar to filling the bottom of a 10 liter bucket with cement so that only a liter of water could fit?
They had done something to Index's mind so that her brain would burst after only a year's worth of memories.
That way, Index had to rely on the techniques and spells of the church.
That way, Index's comrades would have to choke back their tears and obey the church.
They wove a devilish program that took even human kindness and sympathy into account.
"…But that doesn't matter."
Yes, it really did not matter.
What mattered and what he had to worry about was just one thing: the identity of the church's security that was causing Index's suffering. Academy City, which monopolized espers like Kamijou, was the cutting edge of science. What was it that Necessarius controlled for magicians that was the cutting edge in its own way?
Yes, the supernatural power known as magic. And, Kamijou Touma's right hand could negate it with a touch even if it were the systems of God.
"From the look on your face, I'm guessing you've figured most of this mess out." Shirou said with a smile as Index just looked confused.
"Yeah, I did." Touma confirmed "Shirou, I need your help."
"Finally! I was getting worried you'd never ask for my help." Shirou said as he stood up.
"Don't worry, I have a plan."
Author's Notes: Finally! I thought I was never going to finish this chapter. Shirou finally enters the action and explains just what the hell is he, this story starts to deviate from canon, and I finally introduce my own version on how a Holistic esper works. For those of you who haven't realized it by now, this story takes place in the Toaru universe with characters from Type-Moon living on it. But don't worry; I will introduce a couple of things from Type-Moon into the Toaru Universe. The Kaleidoscope is something that you should not mess with, after all, no matter what universe.
Next Chapter: Touma & Shirou vs. Kanzaki & Styl, Index's John Pen Mode Awakening, and the Death of a Hero.
P.S.: Thanks DarkghostX