The door slid open.
Touma scratched his head listlessly as he passed through it, coming out onto the balcony walkway leading to his apartment. The sun had fully set, and the city was beginning to light up with billboards and windows, practically another daylight. There was no sound but the distant rumble of cars, the calls of a few nocturnal birds, the chirping of crickets...
And a strangely metallic thumping sound.
Touma raised his eyebrow as he saw a strange sight a ways ahead of him. The building's cleaning robots, similar to the ones he had been pursued by at school, were crowding around a strange bundle on the floor, futilely bumping against it in their attempts to continue their nightly rounds. Touma sighed.
"What is it now?"
Then he took a closer look and saw the object they were obstructed by. Index was laying on her side, arm under her head, apparently fast asleep and completely oblivious to the beeping robots. Touma couldn't help but smile at the odd sight.
"I should've known", he said as he walked over and knelt down beside her, dismissing the robots with a quick wave of his hand, "Hey, Index, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be sleeping outside you know." He gently reached his hand out and placed it on her shoulder, shaking her slightly.
Then he noticed a very distinct warm dampness. Confused, he lifted his hand off her shoulder and looked at it to see what had gotten on it.
His palm was covered in blood.
A moment passed in which he tried to process what he was seeing. There was no way that what he was looking at was actually blood. How would she have even gotten injured if she'd been here all day?
A faint coughing sound snapped him out of it. Looking down, he noticed a very slight rising and falling on Index's robes. She was clearly alive, but it looked like she was having trouble breathing, and there were no signs of waking up.
"Index? Hey, Index!" he cried out to her.
No response.
"If you can hear me, just stay with me Index! You gotta tell me what happened! Who did this to you?"
Footsteps.
Touma sat up straight, suddenly terrified. Someone was standing directly behind him. Their steps didn't sound like those of an adult, but he could see in their shadow on the wall that they were much taller than he was. Slowly turning his head, he made eye contact with the mysterious newcomer.
It was a man. At least, that was Touma's initial assumption based on his height. But as Touma looked closer, the man's features couldn't have belonged to anyone over fifteen. He wore a long, pitch black, duster-like robe with white markings along the collar, almost reminiscent of the ones worn by priests. On his face was a disturbing sneer, accentuated by the half-used cigarette clenched between his teeth. His hair and his eyes were both a muddy red, and his right cheek had a barcode tattooed across it. Narrow, tilted eyebrows led back to ears that protruded just far enough from beneath his hair to make out the five gold hoops that adorned each of them.
But the weirdest thing about him was the feeling Touma got from being near him. It was almost... cold. Like he was something that Touma's body rejected being exposed to. He shuddered slightly as goosebumps sprung up across his skin.
"Oh, that would be us", the man said to Touma, "You would call us sorcerers."
The man leaned to the side and gazed past Touma, looking at Index's prone form, apparently deep in thought.
"Looks like they really did a number on her, too", he said with a hint of regret.
"Why would-?" Touma struggled to find the words to respond, but his brain came up empty. He could only turn and continue staring in horror at the unconscious girl, whose gold and white robes continued to slowly become stained with red.
"Why would she come back here?", the man finished for him, "Who knows? Maybe she left something behind and wanted to retrieve it."
What? Touma couldn't think of anything she might have wanted from him. I didn't take anything of hers, so what would be missing?
"Hmm", the man pondered, "Whatever happened to that hood she was wearing yesterday?"
Touma's eyes widened. So they can track the magical energy of her clothing? Then that means...
She risked her life to come all the way back here...
Just so I, a total stranger, wouldn't get caught up in all this?
The man behind him chuckled. Touma immediately turned and glared up at him.
"Oh please", the man said, his grin widening, "there's no need for that harsh look. It's not like I'm responsible for cutting her apart like this. Do you see a blade on me? And I'm fairly sure that Kanzaki didn't mean to do it either. After all, the Walking Church should have protected her just fine. Yet somehow, it had been rendered powerless."
"How could you?"
"Hm?"
Touma slowly rose to his feet, clenching his right fist.
"I never really believed all this crap about magic, and I certainly don't plan to put much stock into the word 'sorcerer'. But you..." He turned to face the strange man. "You seem human enough. What, do sorcerers just not know the difference between right and wrong?"
The man didn't respond, he just looked away, not meeting Touma's gaze.
"You attack a little girl while she's just trying to find her hood, and you leave her here, bleeding across the pavement. Can you really look at her lying there and call yourself just?"
The man slowly raised one hand and fiddled with his cigarette as he responded.
"If you're done with the lecture, mind stepping aside? I'm just here to retrieve that."
"That?"
"Yes. I'm here to retrieve what are known as grimoires. This girl is in possession of 103,000 volumes of forbidden information that she carried with her. I recommend you be more careful about such things in the future. One glance at a grimoire she carries, and I doubt a mind of your level could fully recover."
"Look, I'm tired of being screwed with. Where the hell are these books everyone's been going on about?"
The man took the cigarette from his mouth and lowered his voice, as though making sure no one was listening.
"They're right next to you. In her head."
Touma's eyes widened.
"What?"
"You see", the man continued, "a small percentage of the world's population possesses a photographic memory. Index is part of an even smaller percentage that has a perfect memory. Every sentence she's ever read is stored eternally within that abnormal brain of hers. And she's also the only person in the world who's read all 103,000 forbidden volumes and survived. Her head is a library of occult knowledge."
Touma's head was reeling. So that's what she meant by them being invisible?
"Fortunately the girl herself is unable to use magic", the sorcerer said as he replaced the cigarette in his mouth, "It's the grimoires that are dangerous. Which is why we're here. We seek to take charge of the forbidden books, before they fall into the wrong hands. After all, just because she's a pure, sweet, innocent little thing..."
He stretched out his arms so that his robe draped open.
"... It doesn't mean that she won't break if subjected to enough torture. Can you imagine someone with evil intentions getting hold of her and knowing what she contains?" He smirked, his teeth clenching tightly on his cigarette.
"Breaks your heart, doesn't it, boy?"
Touma gritted his teeth, unable to stomach the man's words any longer.
"You son of a-", he began to yell, flinging himself forward, "Who the hell do you think you are?!"
The robed man leaned effortlessly to the side and avoided Touma's fist, sending the boy hurling past him.
"I suppose I should introduce myself", he said without looking at Touma. "My name is Stiyl Magnus. But for our purposes... You can call me Fortis931. Normally it translates as 'the strong one', but that doesn't matter."
He slowly turned and looked down at Touma as the boy got back to his feet.
"What matters is that it's my Magic Name. You see, it's the name by which we refer to ourselves when we intend to use our full magical power on an opponent we don't intend to leave intact. For this reason, they're sometimes referred to as 'Killer Names'."
Taking a long, final drag on his cigarette, the man gripped it between his fingers and flung it over the railing. Touma's eyes followed the small object as it slowly descended. Then he heard the man speak a single word.
"Flames."
In an instant, the cigarette exploded. A gargantuan fireball, too big to have possibly come from such a tiny source, roared forth and bathed the building in the light of its flames. Touma covered his eyes and coughed as sparks and tongues of fire poured over the railing, smoke already filling the air.
Magnus, unfazed by the explosion or the smoke, lifted his hand into the air, palm outstretched. As if in response, the flames swirled over him, collecting themselves in his hand and merging into a giant fireball above his head.
"No way", Touma exclaimed as he watched the spectacle unfold. "So this... This is magic?"
The man smiled wryly in response, and the flames continued to grow until Touma was being pushed backward from the heatwave alone. Sweat was beading on his forehead and he could barely breathe as he shielded his eyes with his right hand.
My right hand...
"Now then, boy! Behold the forces you're meddling with!" The sorcerer reeled back and thrust his hand forward, carrying the fireball with it. "Purisaz Naupiz Gebo!", he cried as he swept his arm toward Touma.
The spell shot out from his palm as a column of searing flames that tore across the balcony and streamed down the hallway with a roar, completely engulfing the young boy within them. The building echoed with the sound of the explosion, then was shrouded in black smoke as the fire died down.
Stiyl Magnus dusted off his coat and scratched his head, ashes cascading down from him.
"Hm. Might have overdone it just a bit. Wonder if there'll even be anything left of him when the smoke clears."
He turned and approached the unconscious girl, who he'd been careful to keep out of range of his attack. He reached down towards her, and his hand had nearly touched her head when...
"Well..."
Magnus jerked upright at the sound of the voice. Turning with wide eyes, he looked at the cloud of smoke, which was just beginning to dissipate.
There, in the center of the blackened rut created by his attack, was the boy.
His clothes were sooty and their edges blackened, but his body was unmarked. He looked over his outstretched right hand, which looked as though it was steaming, and glared directly at the sorcerer.
"I'd say there's a bit left of me after all, Magnus."
Magnus gasped. "Impossible."
Touma looked at his hand as the steam faded from it.
"That's right! What was I even so scared about? I saw it work on magic before! My hand was the one that destroyed her robes!"
The sorcerer clenched his jaw and glared back at Touma.
"Damn you!", he cried, swiping his arm in front of him.
A horizontal blade of fire swept out from his arm, careening down the railway toward Touma. The boy looked straight at the flames, unafraid, and reached his hand out once more. As the strange beam struck him, he felt the sensation of the fire flickering across his palm, but no heat. He slowly closed his hand around the strangely-solid phenomenon, and clenched his fist.
A piercing shock of bizarre, indescribable sound rang out and echoed from his hand as his fingers wrapped around the blade. Time seemed to freeze for a moment, then the spell itself shattered like glass. The tongues of fire cracked and fractured apart like a broken mirror, completely vanishing from sight.
"I- I see", Magnus said, his voice quivering slightly, "So you were the one that destroyed the Walking Church..."
Touma only leveled his gaze and glared into the sorcerer's eyes in response.
Then he took a step forward, and Magnus stepped back in spite of himself, apprehension beginning to bubble inside of him.
What the hell? Magus thought, trying to keep his expression neutral. How did he do that? There's no way a human could survive temperatures like that! Could it be... Is he actually human?!
Stiyl thought back to when he and his partner had first scouted out the apartment and saw the two unfamiliar boys who had encountered Index.
Come to think of it, we definitely ruled out human for the other guy too. Kanzaki already could sense that confronting him would be too risky for me, but I didn't get any readings from this guy!
Stiyl now knew that if he was going to accomplish his goal...
He had to pull out all the stops.
"One of the five elements that created the known world," he began to recite as the air around him rippled with heat waves, "The first light that pierced the darkness..."
Touma stopped moving forward. He was getting a very bad feeling about what was happening in front of him. A bright golden circle appeared on the ground, surrounding Magnus, and white-hot tongues of fire emerged from it, swirling around his feet and glistening off his black shoes.
"The light whose presence first brought us comfort and warmth, and whose piercing judgement burns away the flesh of the wicked."
The tongues erupted into a spiraling torrent of flames that ran up the walls and crackled across the nearby railing. Touma winced and stepped back, the heat beginning to sting his entire body.
Everywhere but his right hand.
"The miasma that has the power to give life, and to take it away."
The heat suddenly stopped expanding outward and rushed in at Magnus, coalescing behind him as a solid pillar of energy that seemed to screech and groan as it grew in height.
"It is fierce, it is cruel, and above all, it is hungry."
Stiyl's robe flared up around him, the leather edges blistering and cracking as they became singed by the intense heat behind them.
"I call upon fire, to serve as my sword! Manifest thyself and feed on me that thou shalt gain power!"
A piercing roar howled through the air as something appeared within the flames.
It's form was humanoid, but distorted and angular, its arms and legs like dripping tree branches. Skin that was black like tar and bubbled with endless heat scraped and creaked as it moved, a mix of crackling wood and pounding machinery.
It's face split into a jagged maw, its throat a bottomless volcanic cavern that vomited forth gurgling lava with every eldritch breath it released. Eyes, globular balls of white plasma, burning with the intensity of a lightning strike, fixed themselves emotionlessly on Touma's as it cried out with the voice of a thousand screaming animals burning alive.
Touma glared back at it, struggling to keep his footing as a surge of heated wind ripped across his body when the entity moved. It's presence caused the concrete beneath his feet to crackle and crunch, and the iron railings, doorknobs, and signs throughout the hallway glowed as they slowly drooped and began to dissolve into molten goo.
Stiyl's hair was drying out and his skin gleamed with a layer of sweat, but he grinned confidently as his reddened eyes leveled on Touma.
"This is the mighty Innocentius, the Witch Hunter King. Or as it was known in ancient times... Absolute Destruction!"
The giant screamed again and lunged past Stiyl, it's amorphous fangs stretched towards Touma. Touma jumped back, narrowly avoiding its jaws, and swept his hand out, tearing his outstretched fingers across the monster's face
"Get out of my way!"
The devilish beast howled as its body shredded apart, dissolving into shapeless flames that parted as the rushed past Touma.
The creature taken care of, he prepared to continue advancing on Magnus, but then noticed that he was laughing. Touma barely had time to ponder before another surge of heat hit him from behind. Turning, he saw the fire collecting into a mass of plasma on the ground that stretched outward and reformed the terrifying entity.
"No way," Touma exclaimed, backing away from it. "But my right hand..."
As if in response, the beast raised its own right hand and clenched it around nothing. The heat surrounding it melded together and shot through its hand, forming itself into a solid mass of glowing heat in the shape of a bladed cross that the creature held. With a resonating growl, the monster swung its newly-constructed weapon down at Touma.
Not thinking, the boy yelled and thrust his arm out in response, his open palm colliding with the edge of the blade.
A resounding boom heralded the impact, the shockwave cracking windows and pushing Touma backwards. Then the explosive sound was drowned out as that same indescribable twang was emitted by the right hand of the Level 0.
But the sword didn't break.
Touma clenched his teeth and grunted with effort as the superheated mass continued pushing him steadily backwards.
"What's going on? Why isn't my hand working on this one? Could it be?"
Touma gasped as he realized.
"It's because the magic is flowing from a continuous source! I can't put out the flames because they never run out of fuel!"
"...Runes..." A quiet, monotonous voice reached Touma's ears. It sounded like...
Index?
Touma strained his neck to turn and look behind him, and saw that Index's eyes were opened. Dull and emotionless, they peered ahead at nothing, emitting an eerie mechanical whir. Her voice was utterly robotic, gentle but impersonal, as it rattled off information.
"Runes. Definition: Magical words and symbols first used and popularized among mages by ancient Germanic tribes in the second century. Consisting of 24 letters in total, they symbolize arcane ritualism and secret knowledge, forming the roots of Old English.
"Attacking directly will have no effect. The walls, floor, and ceiling are sustaining Innocentius through the use of runes, which continue regenerating the source of his mass."
"Index, is that you?"
"Affirmative. I am designated as such, as the library of grimoires belonging to Necessarius, also known as the 0th Parish of the English Puritan Church. Formally known as Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Analysis indicates you have elected to shorten it to 'Index'."
Magnus glared behind him as the girl continued speaking.
"Currently I am invoking a defensive program known as John's Pen-"
Thwack
Stiyl planted the heel of his shoe directly across Index's mouth, stopping her from talking. Touma yelled in response, but could do nothing without opening himself up to Innocentius's attack.
"You're out of luck," Magnus said, "as long as Innocentius has you pinned. Removing all the runes around this building will be impossible, so don't even try attempting it."
Touma grimaced at him, but knew that he was right. He then widened his eyes in horror as Magnus raised his left palm.
"Ashes to ashes," the sorcerer said as a small fireball appeared, "And dust to dust."
Two fireballs, each the size of a softball, materialized in his hands, one red, one blue. Touma watched in horror as each one stretched and expanded into a gleaming blade of fire that the enemy clutched confidently.
"Squeamish Holy Rood!" He cried out as he swung the two swords at Touma's unguarded back.
There was no time to think.
Only to act.
The side of the building lit up. The crash of an explosion echoed across the city, and a black column of smoke poured up between the skyscrapers.
Naoki could detect the scent getting closer and closer as he moved across the night sky. Sickeningly, unbearably closer.
Continuing to leap from one building to the next, he could pick up a change in the source's position. It had detected its pursuer, and was moving rapidly. No longer based at Kamijou's apartment, it seemed to be trying to get out of the city.
He was faster.
Confident in his ability to catch his prey, he landed on another roof and skidded to a stop. Gazing out over the city, he got a feel for where the opponent was, and where they were headed. Preparing to take off and intercept them, he was interrupted by the sound of an explosion.
He turned and looked behind him as the sun began to rise over the horizon, the night sky fading into a gentle shade of pink.
And a single black line marked the sight of smoke rising from an apartment complex.
Touma and Index.
Naoki hesitated. He looked back and forth between the site of the explosion and the distant place where he intended to catch his mysterious enemy. The enemy was closer, and he'd been pursuing them all night. If he stopped his advancement for even a minute, they might evade him.
But...
The Demi-Fiend gazed out again. The target was fading from his senses, concealing their presence to lose their pursuer as they reached the outskirts of the city. This was his last chance to make a decision.
...
Gritting his teeth in frustration, Naoki turned with a growl and leapt back the way he came, racing in the direction of the apartment.
Kamijou, your life better be worth it.