III

Chapter 12: Battle Against the Unknown

Unscientific

Part 1

"You… What do you want?! What have you done with Touma?!" Index yelled at the man named Rüdiger Nowell.

"The Imagine Breaker? I just sent him elsewhere since he was going to get in the way of my show. As for what I want… Well, you're a smart girl. I'll give you a chance to guess what it is, and if you do, I might tell you where the boy ended up."

Index frowned and answered without even needing to think. "You are after the grimoires, right?"

"Too bad, this isn't the case today." He shook his head. "Well, as a magician, of course it's tempting to take a peek on your precious treasure, but it would be suicide to do so without the proper preparations. And if I just wanted that, why would I let him stay?" As he said that, Rüdiger pointed at Hishiro who was still frozen in place.

Index didn't noticed that the brown haired boy was still there until this moment and panicked. "No! Leave him out of this! He has nothing to do with-"

"Beeep - sorry, but you're wrong again! There's a reason why the three of us are together at this place and time."

"What? Why?" The man didn't answered and wavered his wand as if drawing something in the air. The nun understood what he was doing right away.

"Both the God and his priests hold the fate of the sick and the injured in their hands. In the right lies the staff that keeps the flames of life burning inside the weak bodies of the unfortunate." After chanting, an ember lighted up on the tip of the wand. Moving it one last time, Rüdiger drew an "S" in the air that turned into a snake. The creature fell to the ground and stared at Index and Hishiro with flame colored eyes.

Index widened her eyes when she saw it "A mixture of regular mana and telesma… no, that's not all of it. Something's off. This spell… I don't understand what it means..."

This… is not good. I don't know what is going on, but that thing is dangerous! Hishiro's instincts were warning him that as the serpent slowly made its way towards them. "We should get out of here… C'mon, let's run!" And so he forcefully grabbed her hand and pulled the girl with him as fast as possible. As if waiting for that, the snake opened its jaw and an unholy amount of flames fell from it like a waterfall. In a matter of seconds, the whole area that was full of people laughing and enjoying their vacation minutes ago became a wasteland of fire.

Hishiro heard the explosive noise and made the mistake of looking behind. "What the fucking heck?! What kind of ability is this?! I never heard of a fire manipulation esper with such power!"

"No, you're wrong!" Said Index with a sad and desperate look on her eyes as she struggled to keep up with him. "He's not an esper!"

"That just makes everything worse!" If she was right, then how was that possible? No, not that wouldn't make sense even if he was an esper. After all, there was that snake appearing out of nowhere before the flames even started. Unless he was the first and only multi-skill esper to ever exist, nothing inside this city could explain what had just happened. That's not the time to figure things out. First I need lose this pyromaniac. He glanced behind again to see if they were being followed and saw Rudiger running after them drawing more and more symbols in the air with his wand. "Oh crap, here it comes again!"

This time, five snakes appeared and shot fire to the sky instead of directly at them. The projectiles drew an arc in the sky each and then they came raining down like arrows. None of them hit, but wherever they stroke the asphalt a pillar of fire rose, forcing them to walk around it. It was just as if they were being guided towards a certain point. Luckily Index noticed it in time and threw herself to the side, dragging Hishiro with her. "Watch out!"

A card - more precisely, a nine of clovers - was lying on the ground a few steps ahead of them and it suddenly exploded, raising a wall of fire that blocked the whole street ahead. Dammit, we're cornered! Hishiro stood up as fast as he could and braced himself for the imminent battle. Memories of the one-sided fight he had with the katana woman assaulted him and made him tremble in fear as Rüdiger got closer.

"And in the left lies the knife that cuts the threads pulling their souls towards the depths of the river of the dead." After chanting those words, the magician took a glass shard from the inside of his toplet and used it to stab one of the snakes. All other snakes literally melted down, turning into crystal clear water, and merged together with the injured one. The result was a giant water serpent waving its body like a river and charging right at Hishiro and Index.

The attack looked overwhelming, but it was too predictable and they both managed to dodge it without problem. The giant snake crashed head first into a tree placed at the sidewalk. Anyone would expect the tree to fall over due to the force of the impact, but that didn't happened. Instead, it withered and in ten seconds, making it look like a tree that had been dead for several months. Hishiro stared at the scene completely astonished. "Just what the..."

"The snake is definitively a symbol for a river. To drain the life force like that, the river it represents must be..." Index incomprehensible analysis got cut off when the snake lifted its head and headed towards her.

"Hey! It's coming for you!" The nun ignored the boy's warning and stood still fearlessly in front of the upcoming attack.

"It's alright, don't worry." She stared deep in the eyes of the deadly serpent approaching at a devastating speed. Right when it was about to hit her... "T-A-A-A-T-O-D (turn around and attack the opposite direction)" Then the snake forcefully made a large turn to the left and went charged towards Rüdiger - or almost. It passed by him, missing for a few meters.

The red haired man froze on his bases for a few seconds looking legitimately astonished, before breaking into a laugh. "AHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was a close one! For a moment there I really thought you had it in you to kill me with my own spell! I guess I shouldn't underestimate Necessarius's trump card."

I wasn't trying to kill him, but the spell was supposed to go right to his direction. Why did it go out of his way to make such a large turn? Does he have some safety set up in the spell? Or did I make a mistake? With her eyes narrowed and her mind at full steam, Index was ready to take and counter anything her enemy tried, determined to protect the boy that had helped her before. "Run away while you can! I'll keep him busy!"

"... tsk!" Hishiro was legitimately afraid. The whole situation made no sense and the only thing he was sure of is that his life was in danger. But if I'm in danger, so is she. Even though she somehow managed to manipulate that thing, I can't afford risking losing her again. After all, she is the lead I was waiting for! He picked his gun and stood right beside her. "Like hell I would run away and leave you behind."

"H-huh? No, you can't stay!" Protested the nun. "It's dangerous for you! And this isn't about you, it's all because of me-"

"It doesn't matter! Even if you can somehow stand on your own against him, I won't let you risk your life for the sake of someone like me, you got that?" He forcefully cut her sentence, making her blink many times without knowing what to do. "I don't know what you two have to do with each other, but he clearly tried to kill me just now and now he needs to pay for it."

"Hohoho, those are some strong words kiddo." Rüdiger interrupted and challenged the boy. "Can you back them up?"

"It'll be too late to regret it once you find out." Then, both males took action at the same time. The magician spread his arms holding a two of clovers, and two fire snakes appeared floating in mid air. Hishiro tried his luck and shot at them, hitting one at least three times. The flames were unable to maintain its form and dissipated. The second snake twirled around in the air to avoid the shots and charged forward towards Hishiro's face, but it was unable to hit.

"B-T-B-D-A-I-S! (bend the body downwards and increase speed)" At Index's command, the serpent forcefully turned down and exploded on the asphalt. Hishiro sidestepped the blast and quickly reloaded his gun, ready to aim at Rüdiger this time.

However four more snakes were already heading his way. Clicking his tongue, he desperately pulled the trigger and destroyed two of them. Index redirected the third to the wall of a nearby building, but the last one forced him to use his ability to slow it down and dodge. But something unexpected happened.

When the snake touched the distorted field of Null Inertia, a loud static noise roared through the whole street. All three of them covered their ears out of reflex. The flames changed colors multiple times, got deformed, shot upwards and finally exploded like a firework rocket. What the heck just happened?! Before Hishiro could even think about it, Rüdiger had already recovered from the shock and was standing right in front of him, ready to perform a high kick.

"Guha-!" Hishiro was sent flying backwards while the magician sent more snakes at him.

"T-L, I-A-O-M-B-A-H-T-W! (turn left, intertwine all other moving bodies and hit the wall)" The last snake in the left followed the orders and intercepted the other incoming attacks before self-destructing. It gave enough time for Hishiro to get to his foot again and shoot at Rüdiger.

The Magician saw it coming and ignited another nine of clovers on his hand. The fire wall blocking the street disappeared and a new wall appeared in front of him, melting the bullets before they could harm him. The barrier disappeared again after a few seconds, but no one moved. Rüdiger, which seemed to be as composed as he was before the fight started, smiled nonchalantly while Hishiro and Index surrounded him from both sides.

Dammit… he's just toying with me. But I won't lose my temper like last time. There's gotta be an opening in his attacks that I can make use of. While Hishiro panted heavily, Rüdiger tried to make a move and pulled 4 cards out of his sleeve. They were a 6, 7, 8 and 9 of clovers and a 3 of hearts…

"... of hearts? Wait-" The magician panicked and the cards exploded on his hand raising a thick curtain of smoke. Index grinned as she held something - a ten of clovers. "You get distracted too easily."

Hishiro had no intention of losing this opportunity and charged forward. He sent a punch to Rüdiger's face which was easily dodged, but followed up with a knee in the gut that hit cleanly. While the older male stumbled backwards, Hishiro aimed at his lower body, hitting the knee on the third shot.

The magician groaned in pain but didn't let that get to him. He rolled backwards to get some distance and threw a Jack of hearts. "Let the waters of death purify your soul!" These words triggered a cyclone of water. Hishiro avoided most of it, but a single drop fell on his cheek, making it burn intensely which halted his movements for a moment.

Rüdiger prepared two more cards to throw, but Hishiro froze his left hand's movements before he could do it. He then summoned another flame snake from his right, but Index's words made it self-destruct again.

"Whew... You two are good team, I'll give you that." Admitted the magician. "I better try a little harder or else I might really die here!" With his hand still paralyzed, he used his injured leg to kick something into the air - a red joker. "Walnnar mumtir min alssama'i, tathir al'ard min fasadiha! (And fire rained from the skies, cleansing the land from its corruption)"

What was that? The words - which Hishiro assumed that were from a foreign language - gave birth to a massive blast above of them and a giant flame snake came down.

"T-T-T-L, A-F- huh? Wha-!" Index tried to use her trick again, but before she finished, the snake turned into countless smaller ones that twisted from their original path and rained towards the girl.

"Not good!" Hishiro dashed towards her with the intention of pushing her away from the attack area, but the magician stood on his way and summoned another barrage of serpents at close range. On reflex, Hishiro pulled the AMCP and tried to shoot down all of them with both guns at the same time.

However, he forgot the fact that the bullets continued forward after dissipating the flames. Several of them, including the high caliber ones fired from the cannon pistol, hit Rüdiger on the head, chest and right arm. Blood and flesh splattered around while the magician fell limp on the asphalt with his eyes wide open. His attacks also disappeared on the spot, but neither Hishiro nor Index were paying attention to that anymore.

Did I really... did it actually work on him? For a moment, Hishiro doubted the scene in from of him. Up until now, he was treating Rüdiger like a monster instead of human being due to the man's unexplainable techniques, but in the end, he was just made of flesh and bones. When given this much damage, there was no way a human could survive.

Index stared blankly at the corpse. Hishiro was expecting a stronger reaction from her, but surprisingly she didn't even turned much pale. It was more like she was on cooldown from the battle instead of shocked from the grotesque scene.

"S-should I have held back a little?" Asked the boy in a half joking tone.

"No, it's alright." She answered as if trying to make him not feel guilty. "He attacked us first, so it's his fault, not yours."

Hishiro walked to her side and quickly inspected her for any injuries. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. More importantly... your cheek."

"Hm? What's wrong with- OW!"

"Don't touch it or it might spread out!" She warned a bit too late. "That spell was supposed to instantly kill on contact, but it seems that the symbol of the serpent sent it into disarray and is now behaving like a poison. We may be able to treat it in time."

Hishiro didn't understand most of it, but he got the basic idea: he was lucky to survive but there was still the danger of death. Even though that was true, a few things took priority over treating wounds. First of all, they couldn't just leave the corpse in the open like this. And also…

"Huh? What? What are you doing?" Protested Index once she noticed that the boy had handcuffed her.

"Sorry, but the situation escalated beyond the point we can solve everything with a friendly chat." Answered Hishiro while pulling her towards a back alley and turning on the communication device. "Come with me. You'll be explaining all of this from the beginning to the end."

Part 2

Without even a hello, the first thing Asuka said when she picked up the call was "So, what have you got yourself into this time?"

"Hey! That's… actually true… how did you know?"

"Female intuition. Totally has nothing to do with the fact that whenever you call me while I'm investigating something, it is to give me even more trouble to look into."

"Hey! That's n-… actually true too. Sorry."

Asuka giggled at his reaction. "Well, I found out some interesting things and was about to call you too anyway. So, what had happened."

Hishiro opened his mouth, but for his surprise, he couldn't find the words to explain to her. "W-well… where should I start from… I guess I kinda need you to send someone to pick up a corpse-"

"WHAT?! You killed someone in broad daylight?"

Index, which was still handcuffed and hearing everything from the side, decided to cut in. "No, that's not it! He had done nothing wrong! It was just self defence!"

Asuka stayed quiet for a moment before talking again. "Hey, Shiro… is there someone else with you?"

"Stop it. I know where you're going with this."

"And it's a girl, right?"

"Just stop it."

"Could it be-"

"Stop already and listen!" Trying to control himself, Hishiro cleaned his throat before continuing. "Let me introduce you to each other. Asuka, this is Index, our missing intruder."

"Wait, you found… and she's still… hold on, I need to see it for myself!" Less than ten seconds later, a nearby camera started moving on its own with a mechanical noise and focused on the girl. "I don't believe it, it's really her! Hello~* I'm Asuka Mayu, nice to meetcha~*"

"H-hello..." Index was having a hard time trying to keep up with this development. She kinda got that the device on Hishiro's hand was made for communication by watching his actions, but when the camera was involved too, she didn't know where she should be looking at while speaking.

Asuka payed no heed to the girl's confusion and kept talking. "Shiro is giving you too much trouble, I guess? I know he's hard to deal with, but I wish the best for the two of you~*! Just remember that I'm the main wife and-"

"WHAT IS THIS CRAP ALL ABOUT?! Godammit Asuka, she's a nun! Can you please tone down your jokes for a second? And what's with this main wife stuff?!"

"Oh my, looks like I got rejected. What a shame. But it can't be helped, Shiro does like younger girls after all~*"

"Even IF that was the case, you have some serious problems to solve about yourself before trying to blame your age!"

"Hey! That's ru-… hmm, that may actually be true." She admitted without caring too much, which pissed the boy even further.

"A-NY-WAY, can we get back to the topic here?" After Asuka finally stopped laughing, Hishiro tried to explain more or less what had happened. She didn't believe at first and had to watch the recordings to be able to accept it. Index seemed like she had something to say during the explanation, bet she gave up and waited before they had said everything they wanted first.

It took a whole minute for Asuka to say something after the explanation was over. "Okay… what he did during the battle is utterly incomprehensible, so let's try and find a clue on something else. He called you a Seed of Doubt… do you have any idea what it means?"

"Nope… but her case is different." Hishiro said while pointing at Index. "He called you the Forbidden Library, right? And if I remember correctly, your full name had something to do with libraries, am I right?"

The nun lowered her head and confirmed. "Yes. Index Librum Prohibitum… that's me. I am a Forbidden Library."

"This name... it does sound familiar for some reason." Commented Asuka.

"You might know it as the list of books that were forbidden by the Catholic Church during the middle age." Explained Index. "My name refers to that exactly. I have with me all 103,000 books that are considered as a taboo not only to the Catholics, but for other religions as well. That's why magicians often hunt me in search of that forbidden knowledge I carry… though that wasn't the case this time. Sorry, but I don't know the meaning of this Seed of Doubt, nor why he purposefully dragged you into this."

Hishiro looked even more puzzled than he was before the explanation. "Wait, wait, wait, gimme a second. First of all, why are these old books even important? I thought you could find any book on the internet nowadays."

"Because they are not regular books, they are grimoires. The magic knowledge contained on them is on its purest form, so no copy of their content on any form is close to it's worth."

FREEZE. The bells started ringing inside Hishiro's head once again and he couldn't even move or change his facial expression. "You don't believe a word I'm saying, do you?"

The boy took a while before answering. Deep inside his memories, he remembered what ITEM's liaison said about the contents of that USB drive: "It was full of terms such as Anglican Church, Magic and Grimoires. Of course, it probably didn't meant those words literally. It has to be some kind of code so only those involved would understand. After reading it all, my best guess is that it was about ambassadors from England coming into Academy City in secret, and someone being interested in the technology they were bringing with them."

"Sorry, but this is a bit too much for me to handle at once. You're saying that that guy was a real magician instead of an illusionist?"

"Yes, that's right."

"So… those strange attacks he was using on us..."

"It was all magic."

Rubbing his temples, Hishiro gave up on trying to accept it on his own. "... what do you think, Asuka?"

She also took a while before answering. "On moments like this we have to be more open minded, Shiro. It is a fact that we can't explain how they managed to make the crowd go away so conveniently, how he made the boy disappear or how he managed to pull out all those weird powers out of nowhere. If the circumstances were different, I would say that some organization had set it all up in order to confuse us, but..." The camera focused on Index once again. "The contents of the USB Drive and her statement are key elements we can't ignore."

"Then we should take as the true?"

"For now, let's just say there are other sets of rules out there in the world that we don't understand, so don't fry your brain over it. We need to focus on why were you two attacked and what connections there are with the previous case."

Calm, composed and logic. Why can't she always be like this? Hishiro thought, but decided against voicing it because she was doing more progress on the matter than himself.

Asuka was still 'facing' the nun and continued. "Index-chan, can you give us a brief explanation on how this magic works?"

"I wouldn't mind but I'm worried about Touma. And we really have to do something about this curse or you might end up dying."

"Oh, right. I almost forgot about that." He couldn't see it, but the purplish mark on his cheek was slowly spreading.

"Good grief. You have to pay more attention to yourself, Shiro."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, what should I do about it? Is there a magic spell to heal it instantly or something like that?"

"I'll see what I can do once you take those off me." Said Index puffing her cheeks. Hishiro had honestly forgot about the handcuffs as well. After her hands were free again, Index got closer to him and looked intently at the mark while narrowing her eyes.

"Unfortunately, none of us can use magic. But don't worry, there is another solution. Do you have water with you?"

"Huh? Ah, no, not right now. If you're thirsty, we can buy-"

"It's not for me, it's for you." Index took a quick look around to see if there was anything she could use, but there wasn't even a puddle inside the back alley they were currently in. "We don't have much time… I guess it can't be helped. Hold still for a moment." She then licked her thumb and pressed lightly against the center of the mark on Hishiro's cheek. The sudden action took him by surprise and he almost took a step away from her, but she used her other hand to keep him in place. "Don't move."

She sounded so serious that his body froze in place. Index closed her eyes and started to sing in a low tone. Hishiro had no idea of what she was trying to do and doubted her, but he started to feel tingling sensation spreading from where she was touching to his whole face. After little time she stopped and looked closely at him again with a satisfied smile on her face. "D-did it work?"

"Hmhm, it's gone. You're fine now."

"Amazing…" Asuka sounded legitimately surprised, which was rare. "So this is magic?"

"Not exactly. Like I said, I can't use magic. Can I go look for Touma now? I'll answer anything after I find him."

"Oh, let me handle that! That's the least I can do for helping Shiro."

Index didn't seem to like the idea. The two of them were already getting too involved in this incident, and she didn't understand how that Asuka could help without even being there. Hishiro picked on that and assured her. "You can leave it to her. Asuka will get the job done faster than us, specially if we were to look for him walking around randomly. She sounds stupid most of the time, but she's somewhat capable to get things done when she's serious."

"EEH?! Is that what you think about me?"

"That was a compliment. Trust me." Before Asuka could complain further, Hishiro suggested. "I'm beat... let's go to somewhere we can sit at least." He took the lead and Index followed, still looking a bit troubled.

"Hey, Shiro" Asuka said in a lower tone so only him would hear. "Just now... when she was doing... y' know-"

"S-shut up. And never bring this up again." Index couldn't see it, but he blushed from head to toe just for remembering what had happened.

Part 3

Slowly, but surely, the man opened his eyes.

There was a pool of blood on the ground around him, but his body had no wounds.

Still, this blood was no doubt his.

"Cough cough! T-that was surprising... and very painful... Hahahaha, I can still feel it..."

His body was hurting on several spots. It was almost unbearable, to the point he doubted that he was going to survive. But he could still move it as if nothing had happened. He managed to stand up and confirmed once again that he was in one piece.

The red haired male picked his toplet, which was unfortunately dirtied with his own blood, and placed it on his head where it belonged

Rázval really has an eye for talents... no wonder why he had chosen that boy. I could never had imagined he was an Exception. Hehe, now I'm getting excited! I can't wait to see what the other Seed of Doubt can do!

Rüdiger took a last deep breath and stretched his arms before walking away in search of his runaway targets. "Alright, time for round two!"

A long time of wait for a not so long chapter and no mysterious Between the Lines… I'm sorry. Funny that I had it ready for a week now and forgot to upload it.

Anyway, the truth is, I'm getting involved with two projects (regarding game development) and that's why I've been absent. But now that things are on the rails, I'll be updating on my usual schedule of one chapter every two weeks… probably. lol

This was basically an action oriented chapter, so there's not much to comment on. Please leave your reviews, it might remember me about posting a ready chapter if this ever happens again (and I hope it doesn't...). As always, special thanks for my life saver guest who keeps spotting the typos that my (im)perfect visual memory seems to let slide and to Banditz for giving me some neat ideas. Index is pretending to reveal everything next chapter, so look forward to it!