Hello internet, welcome to another chapter of A Certain Strange Addition! Sorry for the long wait. I admittedly got distracted by a little game called Wandersong. Really charming game. I just couldn't help myself. Regardless, I'm here now with a new chapter so your collective thirst to see this story move forward can finally be quenched for the time being.
This is going to be a special chapter as this is yet another chapter were I include a music recommendation to enhance the experience. You all know what's going to be in this chapter, so you all know what song I'm talking about. That's right, time to get "jellyfish", by Kawada Mami, ready. I'll tell you when to start playing it.
For now, let's get your reviews from the last chapters relied to.
Aminadab Brulle: I don't think she did. I certainly didn't intend a reference to ACIP.
Isokage: Glad you liked the little additional detail of giving the Judgement girl an identity. Actually, with my altered timeline, Uiharu and Saten are already outside of Academy City in Liberal Arts City. Besides, that cameo has no real impact since all they did was segueway the story into the existence of the non-stop train.
mohamadstar94: Happy belated New Year! I am indeed currently watching Railgun T. I'll be sure to keep this story going.
Nemonobody001: Thanks for the kind words!
GhostlyStranger: Well, that's the standard fare for the life of Touma Kamijou.
Kaichou9779: Sorry to keep you waiting again.
ArmoredCoreNineBall: What can I say, I'm unconventional. Yeah, the last chapter didn't give me a lot to work with when it came to altering the course of the story. Volumes 1-6 were mostly set up for the rest of OT, so not much is very flexible, at least for the time being. At the very least, the stuff I was able to add so far does allow for some variance. I should be able to make more impactful changes starting with the next arc.
Anime-ted Life116: Yeah, being so pivotal for the rest of the story, changing anything in it is pretty difficult. I think I've managed it pretty well so far though. Thanks for the encouragement.
Ivan Salazar: Gracias!
Generation Zero: I think a major reason Touma doesn't like others helping him in canon is that the help most people offer involves putting themselves in danger. The help Touma gets here is mostly sideline support, which puts less of a weight on his conscience. Komoe has always been a strange one, but she has some truly unshakable faith in her students. Plus, given Touma's very public history over that last few months since joining Judgement, she would likely trust that he'd handle himself alright.
DuckBoi (Guest): Thank you for the kind words.
II (Guest): Yup, Necromancer Arc and the Railgun Daihasei Arc are going to be included. I'm especially excited about these two in particular considering the plans I have for them regarding special additions.
Guest (1): The Necromancer Arc is the next arc to be included. Of course that will be after at least one intermission chapter. I'm setting up Necromancer and Orsala to take place in sequence so Touma can participate in the events of Necromancer.
fafnir1404: I never liked playing decks that see relevance in the competitive scene. I find it cheap to use a deck someone else made just because it has shown t perform well over a deck you design yourself. Thanks for the kind words.
fuji92: Hey, don't blame me for the cliffhangers. I'm just following the anime's division of events. If the anime made a cliffhanger for suspense, who am I to remove it? Given my most recent rate of progression, I'd say the final chapter will come out some time mid February.
vampireharry the 2: Glad you liked it!
Stitches (Guest): Touma can be very stubborn, and other people's safety and happiness is the highest priority. General logic is put aside in cases like this.
Rajarshi Sarkar: Sorry for the long wait.
Well, now that that's all done, you all know the drill.
Disclaimer: All characters and plotlines of the "A Certain" franchise are credited to Kazuma Kamachi.
Chapter 60: Real Friends
Kazakiri could hardly believe what she was seeing. Touma was here, and more than that he had saved her in the neck of time. With nothing more than is right hand, Touma had managed to stop the giant golem of stone dead in its tracks. Not only that, he didn't appear to be strained in the slightest.
"Come on, you're stronger than that, aren't you?" Touma encouraged, "You can't start crying over every little thing that goes wrong."
As if to punctuate his point, the golem completely crumbled under Touma's touch, having been exposed to Imagine Breaker far too long to continue maintaining its form.
With the golem now destroyed, Touma turned his attention to the person responsible for all this chaos. Standing in the opposite side of the hallway was the culprit herself, Sherry Cromwell. Seeing as she now had to face some actual opposition, she pulled out her stick of chalk and quickly scribbled on the wall the words "Golem Ellis" and a particular magic circle. On her command, stone that made up the wall enclosed in the magic circle began to crumble and morph, quickly reforming the golem Touma had just destroyed.
With the monster back on its feet, Touma quickly ran over to Kazakiri's side, holding his left arm in front of her to protect her. All Sherry did was laugh at the gesture.
"I bet that makes your day, doesn't it! Somebody actually cares about you, monster!" Sherry taunted, "I guess there will always be one idiot around!"
"I'm not the only one." Touma smirked.
On cue, several flashlights lite up, illuminating the dark hallway that was the battlefield. As it just so happened, the section of the mall they were in was a T-junction, and the golem Ellis stood in the dead center of it. To Sherry's front, left, and right, there were dozens of Anti-Skill officers, each one equipped with flashlights and either an assault rifle or a riot shield, and every one of those assault rifles was trained on the golem. Behind her was nothing but a wall. Great for drawing on, not so great for escaping. She was trapped.
"Why are you doing all this?" Kazakiri asked in disbelief.
"Don't be ridiculous." Touma replied, "Why wouldn't I do it? I'm a proud member of Judgement. Helping people, especially my friends, is my job. It's the same with all the Anti-Skill here. We're all here because we want to protect you. Whether you're human or something else, it doesn't matter. You still have every right to live your life. Do you understand what I'm saying? There is a place for you, and there's no one who can take that away. You belong here, Kazakiri!"
"Ellis, kill them all!" Sherry ordered, "Down to the very last man!"
With no hesitation, the golem began to charge forward, ripping apart the mall's hallways with its massive size.
"Configuration B! Civilian safety is our top priority!" one of the Anti-Skill officers commanded.
In response, several Anti-Skill officers with riot shields positioned themselves between the students and golem, creating a wall of shields that would hold back most mobs. Among those officers was Yomikawa, who took it upon herself to force Touma down for cover and protect the students from what was next behind her own riot shield.
"Fire, now!" Yomikawa ordered.
All hell broke loose as Anti-Skill opened fire on the slowly approaching giant. The constant hail of bullets managed to stop the golem in its tracks, keeping it from advancing further. Slowly but surely, Anti-Skill started to chip away at the golem's stone body, blasting away its "face" and removing the topmost layers of stone that comprised its limbs. All the while, Sherry desperately to take cover behind her creation in an effort to not get shot herself.
Seeing as Ellis was starting to take some serious damage, the Magician pulled out her stick of chalk and drew yet another magic circle on one of the walls. The glyph resembled two circles, one inside the other, overlapped with an X, almost resembling a compass of sorts.
"Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel." Sherry chanted, "Symbols of the four corners of heaven, I call upon your righteous power to aid me! Hear my call and be guided by me!"
In response to her words, more material was pulled off the walls of the mall and added on Ellis to help repair it. Among the added pieces were additional bits of metal which served to help reinforce the golem from further attacks. While this did help the golem last longer, it did nothing to slow down Anti-Skill assault on it.
"I'm scared." Kazakiri whimpered.
"Well, this is going as well as we expected." Touma mused, "Of course, that's not saying much considering our relatively low expectations."
"You sure about this, Kamijou?" Yomikawa asked in concern, "No one will blame you for backing down."
"Like I'm going to back down now." Touma replied firmly, "I'm the Judgement officer that spent his summer vacation fighting homegrown terrorist organizations. Not to mention what I can do with my right hand and the equipment Doctor Bakuya gave me."
"Wait, Touma! I don't understand what's happening!" Kazakiri plead, "I'm scared, don't go! What are you going to do!?"
"Haven't you guessed yet?" Touma replied determinedly, "I'm going to stop that monster!"
"Heh. That's a tall order, Kamijou. Maybe Miss Tsukiyomi is lucky to have you as a student after all," Yomikawa mused, before switching to Anti-Skill Captain Mode, "Get ready men!"
"Count five!" one of the Anti-Skill officers relayed.
Touma got ready, activating his hoverboard and gripping his ODD in his right hand in Standby Mode.
"Now, count three!" the same officer warned everyone.
The golem's rate of regeneration was starting to slowly outpace Anti-Skill's rate of fire. With its body now starting to maintain itself, the monster started to sluggishly continue its advance.
"You can't do this! There's no way you'll come through it alive!" Kazakiri begged, reaching out for Touma, "I couldn't live with myself if you died! Touma!"
"Be careful, Kazakiri," Touma warned, stopping her cold, "My right hand cancels out any supernatural power, regardless of whether it's good or evil. I have no doubt you'd also be affected."
"Count one!" an Anti-Skill officer called out over the gunfire.
"We may not be able to hold hands or anything, but that doesn't change the fact that we're friends, does it?" Touma continued, looking Kazakiri in the eye, "I promise you, I'll come back alive. You got that? I swear it."
"You'll survive this?" Kazakiri asked, her eyes full of worry, "Really."
"Yeah." Touma nodded, "We'll track down Index and everyone else, and all of will have some more fun together."
"Count zero!"
On cue, all the Anti-Skill equipped with assault rifles ceased fired and parted to the side, making a path for Touma to charge in. With his path clear, Touma took off on his hoverboard at full speed, right at the golem. Now no longer obstructed by a hail of bullets, Ellis was quick to attack, slamming its massive stone fist into the floor in an attempt to crush Touma. However, the misfortunate Level 0 read its movements and swerved to the right, narrowly avoiding the attack. Immediately afterwards, he kicked the board up on to the golem's left fist and started grinding up its arm.
As soon as he reached the shoulder of them monster, Touma jumped off his hoverboard and shifted his ODD to Crowd Control Trident Mode. With a defiant yell, he thrust his weapon down on the Magician as he fell, only barely missing her when she stepped back and dodged.
With Touma now safely on the other side of the golem, Yomikawa ordered the rest of Anti-Skill to open fire on the golem once again, halting it in its tracks before it could make another attack on anyone.
"So, you managed to avoid my opening gambit." Touma mused, standing up to face the Magician.
"What are you playing at?" Sherry inquired, "You're trapped. How are you going to run away now?"
"I don't need to run away." Touma replied.
"What?"
"You hear me! I don't need to run away!" Touma cried, "I'm tired of your ranting! Shut up!"
With all of his strength, Touma threw his ODD in Trident Mode right at the Magician's head. Not one to be blindsided by such an obvious attack, Sherry dodged it by simply leaning to her left. However, what she did not anticipate was the right hook Touma had threw just after he had thrown his ODD, and it was a punch she had quite literally walked right into by dodging the first attack.
In the moment of impact, Imagine Breaker took effect, negating the magic Sherry was using to control her golem. With its connection to its master cut off, Ellis stopped moving, its "eyes" crowing dim, now only maintaining its form via the magic that lingered within it. Meanwhile, Sherry was sent flying but the punch Touma had landed on her, sending her rolling backwards on the floor before landing face down.
"Now to take care of this thing." Touma mused to himself as he reached for the golem behind him with his right hand, only to stop and the sound of some feminine laughter.
Looking ahead of him, Touma spotted Sherry on the ground with a fresh magic circle scribbled on the floor below her.
"You're going to make another monster!?" Touma cried in outrage.
"Unfortunately, sustaining two at once exceeds the limitations of my powers." Sherry admitted with a smirk that suggested anything but acceptance of her defeat, "However, if I play my cards right, then there's a chance I can get myself out of this mess."
On her cue, the magic circle glowed with a brilliant red light. A second later, Sherry had disappeared, leaving nothing but a massive and deep hole in the floor behind. With its master gone, the golem collapsed on its own, the source of it power no longer present to sustain it. As soon as it crumbled, Yomikawa ordered her men to cease fire as to not accidently shot Touma who was present on the other side.
"Damn. She got away." Touma growled, staring down the hole she left behind, "Headband, can you access the mall's schematics? I need you to see where this hole the target dug could have led to."
"Already on it." Uiharu replied over the PA system.
'What is she up to?' Touma thought to himself, looking over to Kazakiri, who was trying to collect herself, 'Her target was right in front of her and she just give up on her that easily? I must be overlooking something. What was it she said before? She mentioned she wanted to start a war between Science and Magic. Not only that, she also mentioned she had several potential targets.'
Suddenly, it all clicked into place. There were always at least two sides of a war and aggravating any side would be enough to spark it. Killing citizens like him and someone as supposedly important as Kazakiri would naturally get a rise out of Academy City but killing a member of the Magic Side and blaming it on Academy City would surely get the same result from the Magic Side. If that was the case, there was only one option left to Sherry Cromwell.
"She's after Index!" Touma yelled in realization.
Elsewhere on the surface of Academy City, one could find a pair of fourteen-year-old girls and a calico kitten standing around in the hot sun, looking rather bored and flush. Even though school was back in session for the fall semester, it was still technically summer, and thus the weather was reflective of the season. After having been rather unceremoniously evacuated from the underground mall, Mikoto and Index were left outside in the burning sun to wait for their friends to resolve the issue of the Magician themselves. Unfortunately, this meant that the trio of two girls and a kitten were left to deal with the heat with nothing to do but worry for their friends' wellbeing.
"It sure is hot out here." Index wheezed.
"Yup." Mikoto agreed, waving herself in a vain attempt to cool down, "I wonder what's taking them so long."
"I'm not sure myself, but it seemed like the Magician was targeting Hyouka specifically." Index mused, clutching Sphinx close to her chest, "Not only that, I'm certain that the magic she was using was of the London Style. I sure hope nothing bad has happened to Hyouka."
"So that's your new friend's name, is it? Hyouka?" Mikoto inquired.
"Yup! Hyouka Kazakiri." Index perked up, "And this time, Touma wasn't the one that got her involved. I actually introduced him to her."
"He does have a knack for drawing in weirdness and dragging other people into it." Mikoto nodded in uneasy agreement.
"I'm really starting to get worried though." Index admitted as she started pacing around in circles, "My poor friend is trapped underground with a terrorist Magician on the loose, and to make matters worse, she's with Touma in a dimly lit area. With those kinds of conditions, there's no limit to the possible horrible situations that could come about, and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it!"
"You know, you're showing a considerable lack of concern for Touma's safety in all this." the Electromaster pointed out, "Knowing him, he's going to be the one who rushing in to fight this Magician head on. If anything, he's the one in real danger."
"Of course I'm not worried about Touma." the nun-in-training replied, "You've known him longer than I have. Surely you understand that no matter what happens, he's going to come back in one piece."
"I guess that's true." Mikoto giggled, despite herself, "Then again, his definition of 'one piece' can be pretty loose at times with how badly his injuries can be at the end of it all."
"What's this about Touma coming back in once piece?" a familiar voice sad behind the pair of girls, startling them.
Turning around, the pair was surprised to see Touma's older sister Shizuri standing behind them. She was staring at them intently, clearly fishing for answers after overhearing their conversation.
"Whoa! When did you get here!?" Mikoto cried, taking a defensive stance, "For that matter, why are you here at all!?"
"Take it easy, Railgun. I was just passing by after doing some grocery shopping." Shizuri sighed, presenting the bag of groceries she was carrying, "As for when I got here, that was around the time you two mentioned something about needing to worry about Touma. Did he get himself in trouble again?"
'Oh good. She didn't hear anything about magic." Index and Mikoto thought at the same time.
"It's nothing you need to worry about." Mikoto waved off, sensing the growing aura of ill intent surrounding the elder Kamijou, "He's just helping evacuate civilians while Anti-Skill deal with a terrorist attack happening in an underground mall nearby here."
"You mean the one that has all of its door sealed so the only way in or out without ruining the seal is via some form of teleportation, something my brother is completely incapable thanks to his right hand?" Shizuri postulated, crossing her arms skeptically.
"O-oh! Y-you knew about that?" Mikoto asked nervously.
"Kinda hard not to when this city as a jumbotron on every seventh building and blimps overhead playing news reports on a constant basis." the Meltdowner pointed out, "Touma wouldn't happen to be trapped inside that mall now, would he?"
"Y-yes, but he's only handling evacuations." Index stammered, feeling the dark aura around the older sister grow more intense by the second.
"Are you sure he's not trying to fight this terrorist himself?" Shizuri questioned, her intimidating aura leaving the girls too paralyzed to answer back.
Unfortunately, the girls were not the only ones to sense this air of anger and intimidation coming off of Shizuri. Frightened beyond his wits, Sphinx was quick to worm his way out of Index's grasp and run in the other direction. The loss of her precious kitten was enough to snap Index out of her stunned state, sending her running after her pet to retrieve him.
As soon as Index ran off, Mikoto snapped back to her senses and immediately chased after the nun-in-training. This was done partly because she didn't want to lose Index while they were waiting for everyone to return, but also partly because she wanted to get as far away from Shizuri as possible. She may have beaten her in a confrontation once, but Mikoto really didn't want to have to deal with the Meltdowner while she was angry in her sisterly way.
Sadly for Mikoto, Shizuri was not done asking questions. Determined to get her answers, she ran after the Railgun, leaving the girls in chase parade lead by a single calico kitten.
"Sphinx! Come back! Wait for mommy!" Index cried out.
"Index, don't go running off by yourself like that!" Mikoto reprimanded.
"Get back here, you two! I still business with you!"
With all the commotion, the three girls failed to notice the rattling of the nearby manhole covers that lined the streets.
Following the battle with the escaped Magician, Touma, Kazakiri, and the rest of Anti-Skill were still trapped inside the underground mall. As the mall's administration, and thus the control of the barriers that kept everyone in place, were not in Anti-Skill's jurisdiction, the group was unable to lift the barriers themselves. Even Uiharu, who was directly jacked into the mall's security system, couldn't force the barriers to open. Instead, they were forced to wait until they could get in contact with the mall's management to take care of the issue. All the while, Touma was left ponder on how he was going to make up for lost time.
With every passing second, Sherry Cromwell was getting further and further ahead of him, and by proxy, closer and closer to Index. As a master of manipulating earth, Sherry was perfectly at home underground, allowing her an easy escape and plenty of freedom to move about. Meanwhile, Touma was stuck in an underground mall with all the barriers closed with no supernatural means of transportation. Even if Kuroko wasn't still busy teleporting out civilians, Touma's Imagine Breaker makes it impossible for him to teleport along with her. At this point, his only real hope of catching up was to follow the Magician's trail, but that puts him several minutes behind her by default. Not to mention the fact that Sherry's escape route starts with a straight fall down a pit of her own creation that Touma couldn't traverse down without some way to control his descent.
As Touma stared down the whole Sherry left behind, he contemplated on just how he would manage such a trip. However, he was brough out of his mussing by the weary voice of the person he had just saved.
"Um, Touma." Kazakiri spoke up as she approached the boy, "I just wanted to thank you for saving me back there."
"Really, it was nothing." Touma insisted, stepping back from the hole, "Never mind that right now. How are you holding up? You took a couple of pretty nasty hits back there."
"I'm fine, I think." Kazakiri replied, quickly checking herself for lingering injuries, "For the most part, I feel pretty much normal. But I am concerned about that rock monster. It's not going to come back to attack us again, is it?"
"No, but I don't think that's the end of our worries." Touma replied sullenly, "I don't think that Magician was actually running away. If I had to guess, she escaped so she could switch targets. She doesn't intend to kill either of us specifically. Anyone else would do so long as they produce fulfil specific criteria."
"Anyone else?" Kazakiri repeated in confusion.
"Yeah. She has options to choose from, and Index is one of them." Touma replied grimly.
"Oh no!" Kazakiri gasped, "If that's the case, shouldn't we tell these people here with us? They can do something to protect her."
"Index is a part of something much bigger than this predicament here. Getting Anti-Skill involved to protect her could create some unwanted political ripples. We can only turn to them as a last resort." Touma explained before returning his attention to the hole, "If I'm going to get out and catch up, it will be through down here. The only problem now is how I'm going to actually get down there. I could use my hoverboard to get down, but the jets on it were designed for low hovering travel, not jumping off ledges several stories high. If I do jump down with it, there's no guarantee the jets will be able to slow my descent fast enough for a safe landing. Maybe with the right maneuver…"
As Touma continued to mumble to himself on how he might be able to safely descend the hole, Kazakiri though back to the day she had enjoyed with her new friends prior to the whole terrorist attack. The openness she was given when they were all introduced. The fun she, Index, and everyone else had in the underground mall. The joy she felt from being able to spend with them. The smiles on their faces as they enjoyed spending time with her. As these happy memories from over the last few hours flooded her mind, the thought of something happening to her friends made her heart ache.
Kazakiri could understand Touma's frustration at their current situation. Index was in trouble, and here she was trapped in an underground mall. The difference between him and her was the fact that Touma was actively trying to do something to improve the situation. All Kazakiri could do was sit back and watch as everyone else tried their hardest to save someone. She was completely useless, just like when the golem was attacking them.
Suddenly, the memory of her encounters with the golem and its master made it all click for Kazakiri. She had taken a pretty nasty hit during the first encounter, as well as learned something about herself the she wished was not true. Now, that unsavory discovery may just be the key to saving Index.
"Maybe if ride along the wall of the hole and spiral downwards? Is the hole even wide enough for me to do that?" Touma continued to muse to himself before facing the nearest security camera, "Hey Headband, can you give me a number crunch for this real quick?"
"Give me a minute." Uiharu said over the PA system, "I am getting a 32.3 percent chance of success, repeating of course."
"Well, I've had worse odds." Touma deadpanned.
"Hold on." Kazakiri interrupted, "Are you really going after that woman by yourself?"
"Index is in danger." Touma said firmly.
"I get it, but it doesn't have to be you." Kazakiri pointed out, "There is another way to help Index."
"What are you talking about?" Touma asked skeptically.
"To fight a monster, you should send a monster, don't you think?" Kazakiri proposed, earning a gasp from Touma, "It's not much. I know it's not likely that I'll be able to defeat that giant, but at the very least I can act as a decoy. If that thing goes after me, it will at least give Index a chance to get away. I know that's not a lot to offer, but what more can you expect from a monster."
"Please, are you still going on about that!" Touma scoffed, much to Kazakiri's surprise, "Get it through your head, you're no monster! Is that how you think we all see you!? As something to throw away!?"
"It's for the best! I know it is!" Kazakiri rebutted, "I'm okay with being a mosnter. It's because I'm a monster that I didn't die, even after everything that stone creature did to me. And it's because I'm a monster that I'm able to stand up to that giant and take another beating if I have too. I will do it. I will protect the people I care about no matter what. That's why I made peace with it all. That's why I'm actually glad to be a monster."
Not saying another word, Kazakiri ran past Touma's right side and straight into the hole with tears falling from her eyes. Touma tried to reach out and grab her to stop her crazy plan, but hesitated when he realized the hand he was about to grab with was his right hand, the same one that very will may destroy her. Completely turning himself around, Touma tried to grab at Kazakiri again with his left hand, but distance was too great, and the girl was moving too fast. Before he knew it, Kazakiri had jump straight into the hole in the floor.
"Kazakiri!" Touma cried as she disappeared into the darkness.
The place she came from, the place she could technically call "home", was a strange one. In this place, nothing was of substance. Everything and everyone in this place are made from the AIM Diffusion Fields constantly emitted by the Espers. It was an ethereal city located in the exact same location as Academy City, the largest and densest population of Espers in the world, yet completely unseen by anyone. This was the Imaginary Number School District.
Kazakiri had a special role in this mysterious city, one she had greatly feared. Her job was to breathe life into the Imaginary Number School District, to give roles and lives to all the ethereal people that lived within the city. With a single glance, she could give someone in this city a completely different role and life, turning their worlds upside down. A custodian could become an elementary school girl, who could then become a middle-aged woman. Kazakiri had absolute control over the people in this city, and she fear her job for the chaotic power it granted her.
From inside this hidden city, Kazakiri was able look outside at everyone and everything in Academy City. However, she was incapable of interacting with the real world. She could not touch anything or anyone there, nor could they hear or see her. But that all changed when she met Index. With a single tap of the nun-in-training's shoulder, Kazakiri was able to go to the real world outside the Imaginary Number School District. For the first time, she was able to experience all the things she had seen people experience since the day she had manifested.
These experiences were precious to her, and they were all the more precious because she had them with the friends she had made like Index. It was for these friends she now ran off to fight. Kazakiri believed herself to be a monster and that Index would reject her once she knew the truth. Even so, she was resolved to save Index no matter what it took.
"There you are you little rascal!" Index cried as she finally managed to catch Sphinx just outside a construction site.
"You finally managed to catch him?" Mikoto asked as she caught up with the nun-in-training, followed shortly by an exasperated Shizuri.
"Honestly! Did you two really just drag me around town in a low speed chase after a kitten just to avoid answering my questions!" Shizuri sighed, more annoyed than mad at this point.
"I'm sorry! He's not normally like this!" Index apologized as she held the squirming kitten close to her chest, "I swear, if you don't stop being so difficult, you're going to be in a heap of trouble! Now behave!"
"He looks upset." Mikoto mused, squatting down to meet Sphinx face-to-face, "I wonder what's got him so riled up."
As Sphinx continued to squirm and whine in Index's arms, the three girls noticed something off about the intersection they were standing in. Although it was faint, they could feel a subtle rumbling in the ground. The rumbling slowly but surely got more intense until it was strong enough to start shaking manhole covers loose.
"jellyfish" by Kawada Mami [Start]
What happened next completely threw the girls for a loop. The asphalt around the nearest manhole started piling up on its own before taking the form of a giant left hand, swallowing the manhole cover inside itself. With the hand fully formed, it clutched into a fist and dropped down on the girls. They would have surely been crushed had it not been for Shizuri's combat experience kicking in and making her jump back to dodge, dragging along the two younger girls along with her by the backs of their collars.
"Y-you saved us!?" Mikoto asked in surprise.
"I didn't do it for you. Touma would have been upset if he found out two of his friends got crushed because they were too stupid to try dodging." Shizuri scoffed, "What the hell even is this thing?"
"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure myself." Mikoto admitted as got up on her feet and watched as the asphalt continued to coalesce.
Within seconds, the asphalt from the road had created the form of the golem Ellis, the same golem that had attack Kuroko earlier that day. As this was technically a magic related matter, Mikoto couldn't risk exposing the secret to Shizuri. Instead, she did was Touma would do when he was trying to keep a secret, feign ignorance. It especially helped that Shizuri didn't exactly have a high opinion of the Railgun to begin with, so she would not be expecting much.
"Well, whatever it is, it's not going to be around for long!" Shizuri cried as she activated her power.
With trained and practiced precision, Shizuri fired four beams of ambiguous state electrons right at the monster's head, utterly vaporizing it. However, much to the Meltdowner's surprise, this dis not stop the golem. Even without its head, it continued to lumber closer to the group. In a matter of seconds, the head had been completely reformed with fresh material, as if Shizuri never attacked it in the first place.
"Fuck! Of course it has a damn regenerative property!" Shizuri cursed as she blasted the monster with a barrage of Meltdowner beams.
At the same time, Mikoto tried to disassemble the golem itself by pulling out the iron bits lodged inside its body. Unfortunately, this did very little to the monster as most of the metal was too well ingrained in its body to remove and the bit that were the surface were quickly replaced with nonmagnetic materials. In the end, nothing the pair of Level 5s threw at the golem could keep it down, not while it was constantly healing itself with the surrounding materials that constructed the street.
As the golem lumbered closer and closer, Index decided it was about time to show everyone what she was really made of. Diving into the wellspring of magical knowledge that was her perfectly memorized grimoire library, the nun-in-training quickly cross referenced the golem in front of her with every golem creation spell in every grimoire. There was a large variety of such spells, ranging from the defensive ice golems found on the Queen of the Adriatic Sea to the reanimated corpse golems of Rosenthal-style Necromancy. However, they style Index was combating was much more traditional, drawing most of its principles from Kabbalah.
'Basic theory from Kabbalah. Originated in the sixteenth century. Primary application is defense and the elimination of hostiles.' Index recited in her head, 'English Puritan formula combined with the original. Linguistic derivation changed from Hebrew to English. Judging from formulaic construct, remote controlled. In which case…'
Determined to eliminate its target, the golem Ellis threw is right fist straight at Index. Such an attack could have meant death for someone as physically frail as Index if it landed its mark. However, now that Index fully understood the spell that created and controlled the golem, there was no way she was going to let that happen.
"TTTR. (Turn to the right.)," Index chanted in Notarikon.
Much to the Espers' collective surprise, the golem's fist suddenly swung to its right, completely missing Index and instead slamming straight into a nearby building. Shizuri in particular was especially surprised, as she recognized the chanting Index was doing. It was just like what a certain other intruder had chanted against her and the rest of ITEM just two days ago.
'It couldn't be…,' Shizuri thought to herself.
With its initial attack disrupted, the golem tried again with a second attack, this time throwing its right fist. Just like the first attack, Index simply recited a short string of letters, causing the golem to react strangely.
"CFA. (Turn upwards.)"
Immediately, the golem's fist curved away from Index and rose high over it head.
"PIOBTLL. (Turn the left foot to the left.)"
In response to this code from Index, the golem turned its left foot to the left a whole ninety degrees. While the action itself was nothing special, the impact it left behind could not be understated. With its left fist swing upwards high above its head, the golem's upward momentum in its front translated to downwards momentum at in its back. With Ellis's left foot now orthogonal to its body's rotation, it made for the perfect pivot point, sending the golem plummeting on to its back with its own momentum.
"Whoa…," Shizuri gasped, releasing a breath she didn't realized she had been holding.
"Index, what was that?" Mikoto asked in awe.
"I am forbidden from using any of the magic I have knowledge of to fight, but I can disrupt the spell of it." Index explained in a low voice as to not allow Shizuri to hear, "This is Spell Intercept. By making use of Notarikon chants, I can cut off the castor's control and cause disruption."
"Well, you might want to use it again, because its starting to get back up!" Mikoto called out as the golem picked itself up back on to its feet.
"CRBBFTTNAWITOD! (Alter to the right, cross both legs, turn neck and hip in opposite directions!)" Index chanted as the golem prepared another punch.
In response to her chant, the golem started to flail around wildly. Every one of its limbs swing in a different direction, practically sending the monster spinning like some drunkard. The random movements caused the golem to lose its balance once again, sending it crashing into a neighboring building.
"Great work, Index!" Mikoto congratulated.
"Thanks, but manipulating it isn't going to be enough to beat it." Index pointed out, "At most, it will only delay it from its objective."
"So what do you suggest we do then?" Shizuri inquired, only barely understanding the situation.
"Its self-repair operations run in cycles. If I can backtrack them, we may be able to disrupt them and make further repairs impossible." Index explained as the golem dug itself out of the rubble, "For now, I suggest we pull back a bit and put some distance between us and it."
"Better hang on then!" Mikoto yelled as she wrapped her arms around Index and Shizuri's waists, much to the latter's surprise.
Just before the golem could stop its foot on top of them, Mikoto used magnetism to pull the trio plus a cat towards a nearby lamppost, barely dodging the golem's attack. The girls zipped through the air, fleeing the golem by a good several meters. As soon as they passed lamppost Mikoto used to give them the initial tug, she used the same lamppost as an anchor to slow them down, given them a relatively gentle landing.
"As see your dodging skills haven't dulled." Shizuri quipped as Mikoto released her, "Why did you grab me too?"
"Same as you." Mikoto replied, "Touma would be upset if he found out his sister kicked the bucket fighting this monster. I did it for Touma's sake, not yours. This doesn't mean I completely trust or like you."
"Glad to see we're in agreement then." Shizuri said with a hint of venom.
"If you're finished with the banter, I could use some help disabling this golem. "Index cut in, completely focused on the monster in front of the, "For starters, I need one of the coins you use for your railgun, Mikoto."
"What? Why?" Mikoto asked in confusion, "It's not going to do much if it's not in my hand so I can fire it."
"Trust me, my plan is a bit more sophisticated than just blasting this thing to bits." Index insisted, holding out her free hand to receive a coin.
Reluctantly, Mikoto reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a single arcade token, her trademark ammunition for her railgun. Tossing it to Index, the nun-in-training caught the token in her right hand while clutching Sphinx safely to her chest in her left hand. With the coin in hand, she focused on the golem's left foot, silently tracking the repair cycles associated with the limb.
"There!" Index ordered, pointing at the golem's left foot, "Do whatever you can to sever that leg!"
Although unsure as to what the plan was, the Level 5s complied, launching their own psychic attacks to cut the leg off. With her destructive use of ambiguous electrons, Shizuri was easily able to cut through the golem's stone leg with a blade of green light. Not one to be outdone, Mikoto followed suit, slicing the leg to bits with a set of sawblades crafted from the surrounding iron sand. With it's left foot gone, the golem once again fell on its back, needing a moment to repair itself.
Just like with all other attempts at attacking Ellis, the golem quickly began repairing the damage, pulling in surrounding materials to help it heal. However, there was one exploitable flaw in this system. Much like the gears in a machine, the golem could not function properly if a foreign object forced itself between its intended parts, and that was just how Index planned to deal with the golem.
As soon as the wound was exposed, Index threw the coin Mikoto lent her into the gap. As asphalt and cement started to fill in the missing limb, the coin was lost among the absorbed materials. However, as the coin was not an intended component of the golem's regeneration, it fit into the golem's form about as well as a jigsaw puzzle piece in the wrong puzzle, leaving unseen structural imperfections as it tried to force itself to fit.
When the golem tried to put weight with the newly replaced left foot, the foot quickly began to crumble and get misshaped. Try as it might, the golem was unable to properly move the foot as all of its joints were mangled beyond functionality as a result of a single misplaced coin.
"It's working!" Shizuri yelled in awe.
"Don't stop!" Index ordered, "Give me two more coins and aim for the arms!"
Following, Index's instructions, the two Level 5s quickly flanked the golem, Mikoto on its left and Shizuri on its right. Once in place, they wasted no time demolishing the monster's arms, slicing them away with their respective Abilities. With an opening clear, Index wasted no time tossing a coin into each of the wounds as the repaired themselves with the surrounding material. Just like with the leg, the interference with the repairs left the golem with defective arms, its hands misshaped with fingers that would not flex. The golem may as well have had stubs in place of its hands.
However, the golem Ellis was not one to give up so easily. Even with its debilitated limbs, it still had at least one good leg. With a power stomp of its right leg, the golem sent Index tumbling down the street with a shockwave, unable to dodge fast enough without the assistance of Mikoto or Shizuri, who were too far away to help.
"Index!" Mikoto cried, rushing to help her friend.
Unfortunately, in her panic, Mikoto was caught off guard by a surprise attacking from the golem's left arm. Even though the golem's hands were useless as hands at the moment, they still functioned perfectly fine as bludgeoning weapons. The attack knocked Mikoto off her feet and down the street away from Index, leaving her sore and unable to immediately get up.
The golem then attempted to swat Shizuri on its right with the same attack. The good news was that the Meltdowner was able to properly react to the attack and attempt a defense. The bad news was that this defense was a barrier made of ambiguous electrons which Shizuri was unable to large enough fast enough to completely destroy the arm and negate the attack. In the end, all she managed to do was drill a hole through the golems hand while getting knocked away by the parts that she didn't manage to disintegrate. To make matters worse, the hole in the golem's hand gave it a reason to repair, and said hole happened to be were the coin that disrupted its last repair was located. Within a matter of seconds, the golem once again had its right hand, not fully functional.
"CR-! (Right-!)" Index attempted to say, only to be cut off when the golem slammed its hands into the ground in front of her, sending her flying further down the road and losing her grip on Sphinx, who quickly fled.
With a massive roar, the golem Ellis rose its hands over it head in a pose that resembled something like an enraged man, as if it was venting its own anger and frustration at the opposition it was facing.
"MBFPADCOG! (Move both feet parallel and destroy center of gravity!)" Index chanted in an attempt to by her and her friends a bit of time to recover.
However, the golem did not respond to her commands. Instead, it started to advance closer to her, but its movement were different than from before. Ellis seemed to look down on her directly, like it was trying to communicate something on its own. Its movements also appeared to be more natural, as if it was in control of its own actions and not being carefully micromanaged.
'Oh no! Its switched from remote control to automatic control!' Index though in horror, 'I can't interfere anymore!'
With Index unable to do anything further to interfere with it, the golem pulled back its right fist for a punch. With no way to fight back and her allies temporarily incapacitated, all Index could do was let out a whisper as she awaited what could very well be here end.
"Touma…," Index whispered as she sadly accepted her fate.
The golem threw its fist right at Index, aiming to kill. A moment later, the sound of flesh being crushed under stone could be heard, almost echoing through the streets of Academy City.
Special End Card Segment: Animan Temple
"Welcome back to the Animan Temple!" Animan cheered in greeting, "As always, I'm your host, Animan von Elysium X!"
"And I'm Priestess Number 1, Aisa Himegami." Himegami said with a polite bow, "It's a pleasure as always."
"Well, that was certainly a fun one. Combat got a bit of a mix up this time around with additional equipment and players." Animan mused, swing his sword, Mugen, wildly to demonstrate.
"I wouldn't go that far." Himegami rebutted, easily dodging her master's reckless sword swings, "The fights turned out more or less the same, with Kamijou only having two minor changes to his approach and the Level 5s barely affected the fight with the golem in the long run."
"Ouch." Animan whined, struggling to pull out the strange arrows in his heart.
"Well, that's all for now." Himegami announced, "We'll see you all next time for the finale of the arc, 'Promised Reunion'."
"Good bye..." Animan said weakly, tending to his emotional wounds.