This time, he did not immediately arrive in the world of fog.
He was falling headfirst. An endless sensation of falling squeezed at his heart and a female voice slipped softly into his ear.
"Do you understand now?"
"Understand…what!?"
Were reality and illusion mixing together again? He touched his right shoulder as he fell headfirst, but there was no sign of his understander there.
"Falling is a stereotypical method of entering hypnosis. And it need not be anything specialized. For example, have you ever suddenly woken after a standard 'falling dream'?"
"Hyp…nosis?"
"Well, something like it. It's actually a complex intertwining of falsehood and fact, like a mixture of animal magnetism and hypnotherapy."
So what was happening? Kamijou's head was full of questions as someone else appeared alongside him, also upside-down.
It was a young and beautiful woman in mourning clothes with a translucent veil over her face. However, she had such magnificent bodylines that they were apparent even through the black clothing.
…Or was that who this was? Sandstorm-like static would occasionally run through her and, each time it did, a black cat vision seemed to overlap with her.
He focused his eyes on her more to distract himself from the fear of the fall than to figure out who she was, but that still caused the two images to align.
"What in the hell? A grown woman has cat ears growing from her head…?"
"That must be the most satisfactory appearance for you. You can call me Mina, Mrs. Mathers, or the Black Cat Witch. I was also known as the heretic painter and the founder's understander, but each name only points to a fragment of who I am."
No matter what she said, the vision no longer changed. In fact, she grew something like a tail from her hipline, making her even more catlike.
"That's super unbalanced… What is this? I feel like I'm seeing a female teacher with twintails."
"Odd. My appearance should be automatically adjusting to the one you will most easily accept."
The veiled woman's expression did not change in the slightest.
And was she influencing him? He was still falling toward almost certain death with no plan, but for some reason, he felt his fear fading. Since she was so calm, he began wondering if there was a safety net or a pool of gelatin to catch them. …Although this may have been like wearing VR goggles to view some beautiful scenery while driving full speed toward the edge of a cliff.
"It is obvious why Aleister Crowley constructed me within his own palace. And you already know the answer, don't you?"
"Hey, can you stop pretending I know what you're talking about? You clearly don't think I do! You just want to explain it all to me!!"
"To Aleister Crowley, I…or rather, we are all enemies, trauma, and symbols of setback. But that must be why he has chosen to continue tearing open that wound to preserve his own purity. That is why I am here."
"Continue tearing open…that wound…?"
"As for why he chose me over Mathers or Westcott, I can only assume he viewed me as relatively reasonable and sensible. I can guess he decided that making me the host would allow him to assemble the more difficult people such as Waite and Regardie."
"What, what, what!? One at a time, please. Mathers? Regardie? These Western names mean nothing to me! Who are these people!? I'm not going to remember any of it if you just mention some friends of Mozart and Beethoven out of the blue! Especially when I'm kinda falling headfirst toward the ground!!"
"Oh, honestly. You don't seem to understand at all, but I will continue on regardless."
"Cat-ear hag, if you want to explain stuff, how about taking responsibility and doing it right!?"
"Golden." She cut him off with that single word. "That largest of magic cabals combined the DNA of Hermeticism and Rosicrucianism, gathered the world's greatest minds, and repeatedly made history's greatest discoveries and accomplishments. Starting with the 3 founders such as Westcott and Mathers, people like Waite, Regardie, and Bennett gathered in one place for a truly miraculous group. And."
"…And?"
"Aleister Crowley destroyed it all and returned the magic cabal to mere ashes. Thus, I and all the others are the trauma of his defeat and setbacks."
With no warning, the falling sensation ended.
Kamijou's eyes widened in surprise and he felt solid ground below his feet. White fog surrounded him in every direction. But unlike before, he could see through it. The scenery was instantly rewritten and a world only seen in old movies spread out before his eyes.
Dirty white steam and sooty smoke blew through a city of brick and stone pavement. The darkness of the night was illuminated by old-fashioned gas lights. A balled-up scrap of paper rolled along in the damp wind. It was a lot like the tumbleweed in Westerns. Kamijou staggered and stepped on it. And it said the following:
London Shocking Times.
April 1900. The day was illegible because the paper was wet and torn.
"…1900? London???"
The newspaper's ink was running far more than a modern one would, so the small English writing was illegible.
Kamijou looked up and checked the signs around, but he did not know what any of them meant. He could just barely grasp that one of them was a street sign and he tried to read the string of letters there.
"Bl…Blith…Bluth? What is this???"
"36 Blythe Road, Hammersmith. To magic researchers, this was a crucial but quiet turning point of history."
He suddenly realized the Black Cat Witch was shockingly close by. His nose sensed something odd. He could not explain exactly what, but he may have picked up on a faint scent.
A great many black cats swarmed around the mourning clothes woman's feet like her shadow. And as she brought that ominousness with her, Mrs. Mathers whispered to him.
"Well, I was known as the Black Cat Witch."
"That's a pretty straightforward interpretation."
"I was also an artist, so I might be carrying the scent of art supplies or oil."
"You're pretty cheap, Black Cat Witch!"
The veiled woman remained nonchalant despite Kamijou Touma's sharp comment.
"This place became the stage of a war."
"1900? …What happened then? That's too early for World War One, isn't it?"
"And it was known as the Battle of Blythe Road."
Mystery men were rampant in this foggy city of steam and sooty smoke. And someone silently appeared beyond the fog.
The Black Cat Witch spoke as if she were celebrating the appearance of the star in a movie.
"That was when Aleister Crowley went straight for Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and declared war on the main branch of the Golden cabal, leading to an armed conflict between magicians that was recorded in actual history."
Kamijou Touma woke up.
…Or was that the right way to describe it? Regardless, he once more found himself on the stairway attached to the Windowless Building's wall. This too was an alternate dimensional space that extended infinitely upwards. Asking which one was real would not lead to a clear answer.
(Tsuchimikado…protected everyone from Aleister, then we were blown away, and, um, what happened!? Where is he now!?)
As his mind started working once more, Kamijou's panic accelerated. Yes, there was no sign of his awful friend with blond hair and sunglasses.
No.
It went beyond that. There was no one else here.
"Index?"
There was no response.
"Othinus!?"
He reached for his right shoulder, but he did not feel his understander there.
…Even the pair of gear and handcuff beasts and the person camouflaged as an impossible third one were gone.
They had probably been meant to trip up Tsuchimikado, so were they gone because Maika was not here?
"There is no need to beat around the bush and refer to him as "the person". That is Aleister Crowley."
"Wah!?"
When he felt a sudden breath on his ear, Kamijou forgot he was on an elevated stairway and fell right onto his butt.
"The many stairways and ladders are likely a symbol of mountain climbing made from urban materials. He repeatedly measured his limits with a variety of methods: magic, drugs, yoga, and mountain climbing to name a few."
Something.
Something was there.
"But that can also be misinterpreted as demonstrating the possibility to surpass and expand his limits."
Mourning clothes, cat ears, and a tail. The young and beautiful woman brought a large group of black cats instead of a shadow and a hint of art supplies and oil tickled at his nose.
Mina Mathers should only have existed in the illusion, yet here she was!?
"What!? Have I not escaped that yet!? Huh? Wait, which one is the real world!?"
"That is an extremely philosophical question, but there is no real reason to distinguish between the two. Even without the example of the Four Worlds indicated by seven candles, the world always has many overlapping layers."
"Although I suppose someone with a soul as low-level as yours would indeed be trapped by the visions of the physical world. Those chains are the mountain's devilishness that reaches for human karma and they are the power that binds human thoughts and leads them to ascend the mountain, but they must have also provided a reassuring push on the back."
"Well, the one thing I do understand is that you're mocking me."
Someone who loved explaining things had no way to fulfill that desire without someone to talk to, so this woman might have been lonely. With those silly thoughts rattling around his head, Kamijou started to gulp.
"Oh? I see your spiritual activity is directed toward a higher level now. With that much of an imagination, you might just be able to reach a Tattva vision."
"Don't you underestimate a full-on adolescent mind, cat-ear hag! I'll strip you bare in my mind!!"
"Doing battle at a higher level of spiritual activity is a surprisingly simple task."
"By which I mean…flash."
"A black garter belt!?"
"A single visual will solidify their image, trap them, and rob them of their freedom. Using that to seal off the cards in their deck and drive them into a dead end is one form of magic battle. See? You can't picture anything other than sexy lingerie now, can you? You can only picture an elegant and glamorous lifestyle…"
"Dammit, I can only imagine a smug young woman!? But this looks like the model in a fashion magazine for office ladies. That's just a boring image of the pre-established harmony. I can't let a complete stranger take away my fantasies! If I'm going to embarrass her, it's gotta be some strawberry panties that don't suit her at all! Burn, my adolescence!!"
"Yes, that is the first step toward a vision. A beginner must first overcome this."
Kamijou Touma was led around by the young woman, but this was no time to be holding a high-level spiritual battle(?).
"Wait, I can't be focused on strawberry panties right now! What happened to Tsuchimikado!? Index, Othinus, and Maika are gone too, but are they okay!? Did they disappear or was it me that wandered off somewhere? Having weird fantasies isn't going to make anything materialize, so whose world is this!?"
"The world is simply the world. It belongs to no one."
"Again!! This isn't the time for a Zen dialogue!!"
"Which of course means it does not belong to Aleister Crowley."
She spoke in a confusing conceptual way that provided no concrete answers, but that phrase caught in Kamijou's mind.
"You mean…what…eh? But isn't this the Windowless Building, his headquarters…?"
"Aleister Crowley has no intention of overcoming the trauma that he has perfectly recreated. And he does not care if he has setbacks or failures. So he does not maintain control over the very miniature garden he created. That is why I am able to speak with you."
Her phrasing was a pain to deal with, but did that mean Aleister was writhing around while viewing the trauma he had created himself? That sounded like someone with belonephobia climbing inside an iron maiden…
"What is that Aleister guy trying to do…?"
"He believes in power. But he does not distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, correct and incorrect. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of Thelema. Even if a great many people call that power evil or wrong, he will not hesitate to reach for it so long as it will achieve his goal. That is the kind of 'human' Aleister Crowley is."
"…Give me a simple example."
"People hate roaches. But that hatred is so strong that it produced the power leading to the development of insecticides and sticky tape. That is what I mean."
Aleister Crowley's soul was constantly worn away by powerful trauma, but did he see the intensity of that hatred and disgust as the source of a power strong enough to carry him down his own path? Did he see Mina and the other Golden magicians as a source of unconditional and biological revulsion, just like a cockroach?
"No," said the woman.
"Hey, you're getting ahead of yourself, explainer. Don't answer me before I say anything."
"Aleister Crowley fosters his hatred in a much larger framework. He loathes, fears, and mocks the entire planet to an extent that is almost pitiable."
The entire world.
From a stone on the side of the road to the brightest star twinkling in the sky.
…What kind of life had he lived to expand his biological disgust to that extent? There were some scenes that unconditionally inspired certain emotions in the humans who saw them. For example, a weak baby bird or a kitten in the rain. But Aleister Crowley was unaffected. He hated it all equally. No individual reason was necessary; merely seeing it was enough to trigger a biological reaction.
"He's different from the Magic Gods who just wanted to live free…"
"Of course. He did not wish to become like them and has remained in the category of 'human'."
"He likely gave up on crossing the abyss after the Coronzon failure, but he also feels pride in remaining 'human'."
She topped off her string of unexplained terminology with a smug look, but Kamijou forced his thoughts to stay focused without wandering off.
(He feels pride in remaining "human"?)
"Yes. No matter how old he grows, he remains very childish."
"Don't butt in!! And is this actually a fantasy world of my brain's creation!? Is that why you can read my mind!? Then become a young woman wearing childish strawberry pantiiiiiies!!"
Nothing happened.
After shouting at the top of his lungs, Kamijou was KO'd. He covered his face with his hands and curled up on the floor.
"…As I was saying, no matter how old they grow, men remain very childish."
"You just expanded that to include me, didn't you!?"
Anyway.
"Will you actually gain anything from being here?" wondered the woman. "You clearly have not mastered this path enough to fall toward the answer when you meditate."
"You might be hiding it behind your fancy words, but I can tell you're making fun of me." Kamijou looked to the canopy of endless darkness overhead. "Well, I guess I'll just have to keep going. If they're not here, they're probably somewhere else. And what is that bastard trying to accomplish by making me climb a mountain?"
"Just like real mountain climbing, choosing the wrong route will lead to death, so be careful. And I would assume Aleister is only trying to expand himself."
Of course, this was only if it was the others who had disappeared, not Kamijou himself. This was completely unprecedented, but with him switching between worlds so often, he could not rely on his own point of view as accurate. In the worst case, he might have to ensure that Index, Maika, and the others were real once he did regroup with them.
"He failed to climb the K2, which is more than 8000m tall, because he gave up after planning out a climbing route but receiving fierce opposition from his fellow mountain climbers. In other words, to accomplish a difficult feat, he must expand his own existence to the point that he can swallow up others. The rest of you are no more than a part of that."
"I have no idea what that means, but whatever."
The ascent was a long one. Step by step, he walked up the stairs.
…To be honest, he could actually pace himself now that he did not have to flee from the human karma, the mountain's devilishness, or whatever those gear and handcuff beasts appearing around Maika were. That did leave him worried about Maika now that they were separated, but his doubt kept him from making a mad dash up the stairs.
(Surely they didn't escape back down to the bottom…right?)
They had been continuing up and up because the pair of beasts had been pursuing them from below. With the chain skeleton and transparent flesh beasts nowhere to be found, it was impossible to know whether Index, Othinus, and the others would have gone up or down.
The Black Cat Witch politely clasped her hands in front of her as she walked alongside him.
"You will have the answer soon," she whispered.
"Hm? Is someone waiting for me?"
"That is not what I meant."
He felt like he had stepped through the floor.
Then the entire stairway bent like a sugar sculpture exposed to a flame. By this point, he understood what this meant. Falling meant "that" was coming. And Kamijou's movements were the same as someone flailing their hands around after falling from a cliff while wearing VR goggles. He knew somewhere in his heart that it was useless, but his hands still searched for something to grab onto.
And his left hand happened across something incredibly soft.
He had grabbed firmly onto one of a certain someone's twin peaks.
"…That is a yellow card."
"No fair! And since when do you even have a physical body!?"
His vision whirled around.
He did not know what exactly was happening, but the "falling entrance" continued without end…
They stood below the cold sky.
"Hoo, hoo."
Shokuhou Misaki's legs squirmed as she held her hands to her mouth and blew white breaths. Up ahead, Misaka Mikoto looked back at her with exasperation on her face.
"Have you ever considered exercising more?"
"I'm cold, not out of breath!!"
She was immediately corrected, but Mikoto was having none of that.
"You're wearing special-made gloves and socks, but it's still not enough?"
"A girl's hands and feet are very delicate, so they're susceptible to the cold ability. Not that I would expect someone as shameless as you to understand."
"But you seem to have so much subcutaneous fat."
"…You might wear shorts under your skirt, but cold weather isn't easy for normal girls."
"You make it sound like I'm not normal!"
"The worst part is you aren't even aware of it!"
Illusory sparks seemed to flash between them.
However, there was not much they could do against the chilly December sky.
"Stop being silly and get walking. Moving will warm you u-…"
"Misaka-san, your back is so warrrm."
"Gyaaaaaahhhhh!!!???"
Mikoto screamed as Shokuhou stuck her chilled hand down the back of her collar.
"You- what- I- Do you want me to start using some real electricity to roast every last part of you…!?"
"Oh, is this a hook?"
"Stop fiddling with that! And don't twist it! That has nothing to do with keeping warm!!"
"Yes, it does. It makes me happy when your body heat rises. And Misaka-san, you don't wear a sports bra?"
"Are you seriously picking a fight with me here!?"
But this was not the time to be doing this on the pavement.
Misaka Mikoto had returned to a certain place.
District 11 was the foundation of land transportation and this particular corner was stacked with mountains of containers. She had thought it might have been removed afterwards, but it was still there.
"…This just looks like junk to me," said Shokuhou. "Even scrap metal from cars would have maintained its shape ability better than this."
"It's enough that anything of it is left at all."
It had originally been enclosed in a container, but "something" had clearly been there. The pile of containers had collapsed and their contents were still scattered across the pavement. If the two girls had arrived a little later, it might have been gathered up along with the other trash for the recovery efforts.
"Hmm. So this is the connection to his world."
The A.A.A.
The Anti-Art Attachment…and an original one at that.
When Mikoto lightly reached out her hand, the mangled metal writhed like a living creature. This was not magnetism, the Lorentz force, or the van der Waals force. But the dead machine(?) definitely raised its head after confirming the presence of its owner.
"Come to think of it, I've been getting weird nosebleeds lately."
"Are you sure you aren't just full of fantasy ability?"
Now, it was time to get down to business.
The A.A.A. was right in front of her. But what exactly was it? Misaka Mikoto had built a machine based on the original and customized it for her own uses, but she still did not understand the core or the theory that it used to function.
"Misaka-san. I'm about to smugly explain something even an elementary schooler knows, so don't laugh, okay?"
"What is it?"
"Guns were brought to this country by castaways from Portugal. Now, how do you think the people of that time figured out how they worked and how to mass-produce them?"
"By thoroughly taking them apart and examining every last piece."
That was what she did.
Then again, it was already a pile of scraps that had been mangled by several instances of intense violence. She doubted the caution was necessary, but Mikoto still used her power to eliminate all static electricity before facing the sample materials.
"…Well, I was fairly certain I understood most of it when I built my own A.A.A."
"But that means you didn't understand all of it, right? Don't just give up on the parts you couldn't reverse engineer. Take another stab at it." Shokuhou gave the pile of metal an exasperated look. "Now, I'm not trying to force gender stereotypes onto you, but fiddling with machines isn't a very girly hobby. I'm having trouble grasping your sensibilities for letting this fuel your excitement ability."
"But doesn't that mean this helps me understand how boys feel?"
"Hm? Are you suggesting this is a chance to better understand him? Let's see, then. What does his world look like?"
The queen quickly grew much more diligent.
Mikoto gave instructions as the two of them removed covers, pulled out the contents, and lined them up on the cold asphalt.
"This is it. This is the part I couldn't understand." Mikoto pulled out and set down a few electronic parts that looked like wafers or a blade server. It all looked very complex, but the action was much like replacing an air conditioner filter. "There are some transistors and LSIs lined up here, but they're actually meaningless. The current enters from one end, loops around within the circuit, and then flows right on out. It's moving all over the place inside, but it's the same as sending power through a cable wrapped up in a drum. There's no change to the current or voltage and it isn't creating a special signal. Hmm, why is it being sent through this layer…?"
"Just looking at the shape, it makes me think of a good luck charm or something. Look, doesn't it seem like something you'd see in the astrology book that the library master carries around?"
"Let's say you hook a lightbulb up to a 1.5 volt battery. Do you really think the brightness will change if the wire is a straight line or zigzagging?"
"But what if it produces some kind of invisible field? Doesn't an electric current create a magnetic field around it? Not that it's powerful enough to detect under normal circumstances, though."
"And circuits can be used for more than passing current through. They can also be used to catch something. …For example, don't antennas take a lot of different forms? And to more efficiently pick up EM waves, aren't they sometimes shaped like a mosquito coil or like a bowl? If an ancient person saw one, wouldn't they think it was some kind of magic circle or something?"
Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki fell quiet and exchanged a glance. Without the necessary foundational knowledge, were these girls in the same position as that hypothetical ancient person?
If so…
"If this crazy magic circle of a wire diagram is an antenna, what in the world is it meant to pick up from the air?"
"Whatever it is, it can apparently be converted into an electric signal since this is built into a circuit. Misaka-san, could you read it by connecting to this pile of junk with your power?"
They had finished the overall analysis of the black box section. If they connected it to something, they might be able to give it power and bring it back to life.
"Shokuhou, do you have a cellphone?"
"Sigh. Who needs to ask a teenage girl that?"
"Eiyah."
"Why did you break it in half!?"
Shokuhou screamed at the sudden violence, but Mikoto ignored her while pulling a speaker and a few colorful cables out of the broken mobile device. She formed a bridge between the pins on the broken circuit boards and attached the thumbnail-sized speaker that was made to convert the signal running through the line into sound.
"That should do it."
"…I-I really don't think we can get along after all."
"Why are you acting like that's a huge discovery? Anyway, I'm starting."
Now she just had to pass her power through it.
When she held out her palm and focused, she sensed something she had not before.
Some quiet static came from the small speaker.
"Are you picking something up?"
"But what in the world is the A.A.A. accessing?"
The answer may have been right in front of their eyes the entire time.
One only needed to read the device's name.
The Anti-Art Attachment.
The device of someone who wished to eliminate all magic.
He was back in the foggy city of London.
But the stinging air from before was gone.
For one thing, he was in a room gently lit by tallow and a fireplace instead of outdoors. Rather than some stately mansion, it was probably an old-fashioned apartment of some kind.
Several men and women were inside.
One sat in a rocking chair next to the fireplace, one sat directly on an ebony desk, and one leaned against the wall instead of sitting.
What was this room?
How was it related to that…Battle of Blythe Road that was mentioned before?
"This is a branch of the Isis-Urania Temple," whispered Mina Mathers next to him. "It was the prime ceremonial ground of the world-renowned Golden cabal. Although the publicly-known Number 03 was used to hide it."
"This is…?"
Kamijou looked around once more.
Kamijou lived in a student dorm, but even to him, it only looked like a cramped apartment. Old newspapers were piled up in a corner, a chess set and playing cards were scattered across a desk, and a shelf was lined with bottles of drinks that even a high school boy like him knew were bad for you.
There was no crystal ball lying on a purple cloth and there was no magic circle on the floor. There were some scattered cards, but they were clearly meant for gambling. The gold ring and silver coins lined up with them made that obvious enough.
"This is the world's best…???"
"The others and I did not seek worldly riches. We saw things differently from those adorned with gold and silver vestments and staffs who tended to forget they were accepted by the state and protected by the people's taxes."
She was clearly hinting at someone unrelated to this. And he could not take that at face value. There was an obvious note of jealousy in the Black Cat Witch's voice.
"I do not regret the days of begging my friend Annie for living expenses. And I certainly have no hard feelings for my husband who never held down a worldly job as he dedicated himself to magical research that could not buy even a single loaf of bread. Yes, we were all magicians, so of course our top priority was making progress toward our great goal."
Kamijou felt like reading too deeply into this would only reveal a tragic story. He sensed the same atmosphere as if a group of manga artists had rented an apartment together only to find out none of them were making any money.
The rundown room had no charm outside the flow of time and a conversation was underway with no concern for Kamijou and the Black Cat Witch.
A middle-aged man spoke to an elderly man in an aloof tone.
"Westcott, all things are connected. You cannot escape the influence things have on each other."
"What is this, Mathers? That sounds like something Frazer would say. He must have wanted public acceptance and…well, I'll admit that tasteless Golden Bough is as simple as a hot dog smothered in mustard. It's like Italian pizza. The simple flavor draws in the masses and the toxin of the letterpress copies gathers charisma around him without anyone noticing."
"That's enough of that, gloomy old man. Don't get so upset just because someone's having fun with Hermeticism. If you're jealous that his name is going down in history, then grab a knife and head outside. Just like a certain Jack of ill repute. But, but. If you have any intelligence whatsoever, then let's begin an experiment here."
"What kind of experiment?"
"I'm sick of cards. We all know each other's tells too well. Today, it's chess. How about I use this to prove the existence of that influence I was talking about."
"It's always about gambling with you! If you're broke, how about being honest and bowing down to me?"
"This is a worry a Scotland Yard coroner could never understand. Not when you're paid with public money and head straight to the pub to spend it all. You really are quite the magician. I mean, you've brought alchemy back at the end of the 19th century!"
"Yes, but I was nearly sacked when it was found out I attend these suspicious meetings! The higher ups have their eye on me, so it's always a gamble showing up even to this unofficial temple."
…It was a fairly awful conversation for two grown men. Kamijou could see what Mina had meant about men remaining childish no matter how old they were. He was reminded of the fact that the magicians like Stiyl and Kanzaki had all been the type to insist on doing things their own way even if that meant defying the ways of the world, but if they took that far enough, would they end up like this?
However, when he looked around again, he felt like he could see a few things that lined up with what Mrs. Mathers had said.
Then the Black Cat Witch spoke up again.
"By the way, the older old man is Westcott and the other old man is Mathers…making him the husband that gave me the 'Mrs.' "
"Then don't call him an old man. Show some love!"
"This is based on yours and Crowley's points of view."
Kamijou had no idea what was normal or what fashions were in style during the late 19th century and early 20th century, but he saw a major difference here.
The elderly man named Westcott wore a tailored suit with a necktie and Mathers wore a military uniform with a thick cloak and a worn-out pointed hat. However, the uniform was not modern camouflage. It was an extremely colorful outfit that would look more at home on a windup soldier doll.
"…Your husband had some…interesting tastes."
"The mess of colors is really an eyesore to look at."
"Again, show some love as his wife!!"
Anyway, this was the beginning of the Golden cabal.
It was not an underground group with high-level organization. Nor did it seem like a secret church that followed some complex and mysterious scriptures. It did not even look like a research institution for making world-changing inventions.
If anything, it was more like an unauthorized salon or an evening party where intelligent people of different occupations and backgrounds gathered to share their ideas. Instead of enjoying the evening by sharing stories of daring exploits, they would reveal the results of their research to each other.
The elderly man looked at the middle-aged man's hand and raised his voice in lamentation.
"Ahh!? What is this!? Who in their right mind would place their bishop there!?"
"Westcott, do you not remember what I said? You cannot escape the influence things have on each other. You may not see the path now, but this move will guide you to the game's rightful conclusion. Now, let the clock resume ticking."
"Did you think you could throw me off my game by making an unorthodox move?"
"If you still cannot see the path after all that, then I'm in luck. These nights of awful, sticky fog are the perfect time for some Irish or Scotch. I'm going to earn myself some decent money so I can enjoy this night."
"Only the unenlightened use alcohol to see visions, Mathers."
"Nonsense. I'm still a proper gentleman compared to those self-styled intellectuals that use the proud witch's rituals as an excuse for lots of sex and drugs."
"Bff!?" spat out Kamijou.
The cat-eared woman in mourning clothes shrugged next to him.
"Well, that's one of the reasons this age was fairly shameful for magicians."
"Isn't that an extremely worldly problem for you to be caught up in…?"
"At the time, the newspapers that were finally getting off the ground had no real journalistic spirit whatsoever. It was not long before then that public executions were held as entertainment for the masses while the infamous witch hunt swept across the world, but I think it was only the method of execution that had changed by this time. The people laboring to keep food on the table day in and day out would find a dark joy in the newspapers that provided a 'social death' to the wealthy and the intellectual who seemed to live in an entirely different world."
"Why would the newspapers want to cause chaos?"
"Once more time passed, the film industry was born and the people could let out that accumulated pus by watching the villains executed on the screen, but now that the internet has grown ubiquitous, it almost seems we are returning to the era of journalistic executions."
…Did it really look like that if you only viewed one side of the issue? Kamijou felt like that would give you a pretty serious bias about it all.
"Ahh!? What is this!? When did the board get all locked up like this!?"
"Didn't I tell you, old man? You cannot escape the influence things have on each other. Hah hah!!"
"Tch. I never thought I would be buying a man a drink at this age. By the way, Mathers, I heard about that newcomer. And with that, I have to ask: are you insane?"
"Is this really all it takes to shake you? You mean Crowley, don't you?"
Kamijou's heart leapt slightly at that.
But the magicians in the room smoothly continued.
"How can I not doubt your sanity in this one? He's one of those who have remade the good, old rituals into sex and drugs, isn't he?"
"That is certainly a rough spot, but in his case, it isn't an excuse or a front. You can't just laugh it off because he really is logically and efficiently achieving results with that. Merely looking at the surface without giving him a chance to explain is the same as announcing that your intellect is no greater than the self-styled intellectuals who shriek about everything they read in the newspaper, Westcott."
"He will bring disaster to our Golden cabal."
"Now are you jealous of Merlin, old man? Since when could you see visions of the future without using any tools? Anyway, I married a future painter and gathered the knowledge of many people, from scholars to artists, to accomplish this. So let's try to show some results with our prototype GD tarot."
"Gee dee?" parroted Kamijou with a tilt of his head, so the Black Cat Witch whispered sweetly back at him.
"There are many theories about the origin of that card set, but this was a reinterpretation using the secrets of Kabbalah. It was an attempt to remove the original sin that people are born with."
"Oh."
"Well, it's a little jumbled up, but it was basically the Golden cabal's own version of the card set. They were the type that loved to get all worked up about praising their own work."
"If not for that last part, I might have just accepted it with a normal 'is that so'! Y'know, like when you're looking up at a temple or castle!!"
It may have been hard to tell how incredible an important person was when you had a good friend of theirs with you.
Meanwhile, the chess game was still underway.
"…I am a founder of the Golden cabal, you know?"
"As am I. Checkmate."
A dry clack rang through the room.
Kamijou had trouble picturing how chess pieces moved, but there was apparently nowhere else to move.
"Two founders of the same rank have fought a high-level spiritual battle and that magic duel has shown who is superior. Now, pay up. I need some drinks and snacks to show proper discretion concerning our new member."
"Was that what you were after this entire time?"
"Didn't I tell you, Westcott? You cannot escape the influence things have on each other. It was your inexperience that blinded you to the path. I've actually already called him to the door here."
"Without my permission…!?"
"I just got it now, old man. Come in, newcomer!!"
After a modest knock at the door, the knob slowly turned.
Had this truly decided it?
Kamijou did not know the details, but this felt to him like a major turning point in history.
And then the Black Cat Witch spoke.
"That man could be so full of himself when no one was watching. 'I married a future painter to accomplish this'? Hmm, I see. More than a century has passed, but it really, really pisses me off to hear that again."
"This world needs more love!!"
The beginning was always signaled by falling, but the ending was always sudden.
"Uuh!? Gh… What? Am I back? Or have I made progress…?"
Kamijou groaned, placed a hand on his forehead, and shook his head.
(What are the problems I'm facing right now? Aleister, regrouping with Index and the others, and the shadow sword in Maika's chest. Okay, good. My mind is still working properly!)
The inside of the Windowless Building was still a dreary empty world with an endless ceiling overhead and no sign of human life.
As he supported his unsteady body with the railing and continued on, the scene changed.
The stairway, escalator, and elevator from before were gone. Instead, he saw ladders directly embedded in the wall, catwalks, and silver ducts that twisted around like snakes.
The change from elevators and such supported from below to these things embedded in the wall changed the type of mountain climbing.
Did that mean he had reached a higher level?
Either way, he was risking his life even more. The odds of an accident on stairs were different from on a ladder. And this was quite high up for a building. He still could not see the ceiling, but he could not see the bottom anymore either. It was all swallowed by darkness.
"Oh, ohh."
Hearing a voice from somewhere, he frowned and looked up. A bit ahead of him, a girl in a maid uniform was clinging to a ladder and reaching her leg over to a catwalk. It was Tsuchimikado Maika. She was sticking her hips out at the exact same height as his face. And she of course still had the hardened shadow sword piercing her flat chest, so the mountain's devilishness that bound people's hearts (the handcuff ring and gear) were falling around her at irregular intervals.
But the unsteady footing was actually a good thing here. Most of the metal objects slipped away and fell into the dark depths below. Without coming to a stop, they could not gather the transparent body that was a lot like sugar water. They were completely useless here.
(Or does this work just as well for them?)
"Oh, if it isn't Kamijou Touma. I was worried after getting separated from everyone."
"Where are you trying to go?"
"I was hoping to find Aniki since he disappeared. I doubt he'd be defeated so easily, but if he isn't here, I thought he might be higher up. Whoops-a-daisy."
She made it sound cute, but she was actually flailing her leg after missing the rung on what was essentially a ladder attached to the wall of a building more than 100m tall. Kamijou quickly looked to the narrow footing along the wall, gasped because he carelessly looked down, and took a deep breath before pressing his back against the wall and sliding over toward Maika. The only upside was the lack of unexpected gusts of wind he would have had to worry about with a normal building.
Once he finally arrived near Maika, he pressed both his hands against the back of her hips through her chic maid uniform.
"C'mon, that's dangerous, so hurry on up!"
"Hm?"
The maid trainee's body jumped upwards slightly. Kamijou looked puzzled, so the Black Cat Witch whispered softly into his ear.
"Hee hee. Taking advantage of the fact that her hands and feet are on the ladder to go for the defenseless butt of your friend's sister, are we? You're quite the piece of shit."
"Why aren't you worried about any of this!? I'm on the verge of falling too, so help out!!"
Kamijou shouted at the top of his lungs to avoid any unfortunate misunderstandings, but Maika only tilted her head with her hands and feet still on the ladder.
"Hm? Hmm? Hey, Kamijou, who are you talking to?"
"Eh?"
"It looked like you were yelling into empty space, but do you have a phone headset on or something?"
(Huh? Could it be…?)
Kamijou looked to the space next to him.
For some reason, Mina Mathers was standing on the dangerous footing while bashfully holding the long skirt of her mourning clothes with both hands.
"Flash, flash."
"No, you aren't bashful at all, are you!? Are you trying to distract me until I fall to my death!?"
"Hmm???"
No one could remain this confused while right next to someone who was basically committing public suicide by shame, so as Kamijou had suspected, Maika could not see Mina.
"People gather information on the outside world using their retinas and eardrums, but the accuracy is not always identical. For instance, myopia refers to a condition in which the eyeball itself extends elliptically towards the back. Since the red you see is not the same as the red Tsuchimikado Maika sees, it is not difficult at all to select an individual I wish to be seen by and display my form to them alone."
"…Wow. That sounded sort of convincing, but that long explanation didn't actually explain anything."
Even through the veil, he could sense her sullen mood.
Oh? He may have hit a sore spot for her there. In that case, what could he do to improve her mood? If he knew how to reward her with a figurative treat and punish her with a figurative whip, he could construct a controller for dealing with this strange and annoying woman.
"Wicked thoughts will only get you cursed, boy."
"Ahn?"
"For example, trying to force a lady in mourning clothes to obey you by hitting her with a whip. Perhaps I should make a quick post on a fancy SNS about a troublesome neighborhood boy."
"I'm done asking how you can read my mind, but you read it wrong this time! Your data's corrupted! Don't make this worse by misreading my thoughts!"
"It is possible a young woman with too much time on her hands might find it cute, but the odds of that are about the same as hitting 00 in a game of roulette."
"I said stooooop!!!!!! (…Ah. But won't the odds be the same no matter which pocket it lands in? Could I really have a chance with a wealthy young woman who has too much time on her hands?)"
"Hello?"
Kamijou Touma had only been protecting himself, but Maika could not see Mina and only stared at him like he was a crazy person. He suppressed tears while wondering if there even was a right answer in this world.
"Aniki seems to be the kind of person who works extra hard and derives a sense of accomplishment from the exhaustion that brings. If he's gotten into a weird penance mode, we need to find him and stop him as soon as possible."
…So with or without the pair of karma beasts made from rainbow chains and transparent flesh and blood, they had to continue upwards. The gears and handcuff rings falling around Maika were probably forming their bodies once they reached the ground far below, so no one would want to head back down there if they could avoid it.
Mina Mathers gently bent her hips and stretched her head in from the side to speak with a thin smile behind her veil.
"By the way, that is a magic sword."
"Well, yeah. It's a sword made from magic. Anyone could tell you that!!"
"Not what I meant. It is not the wind dagger of the four great elements. I mean that it is the symbolic weapon meant to guide the summoning ceremony. It is primarily something like an amulet that drives out negative power and protects the spell user, but to 'drive out' also means to 'divert or guide in a convenient direction'. So if used correctly, it can be used for summoning as well. Normally, you would take an appropriate sword, color the hilt green and the scabbard red, consecrate it by engraving a divine name into it, and carefully guard it so only the owner can touch it."
"Sum…moning?"
That made a lot of sense here.
Maika had the strange short sword stabbed through her chest and those creepy handcuff ring and gears kept appearing around her.
"It's actually so clichéd that the grimoire library may have misread it. I mean, who would think the Crowley would smugly use the most basic of techniques? …But in reality, the greater an expert masters their field, the more focus they place on the fundamentals."
That aside, Kamijou had to wonder if Maika had any thoughts concerning the blade in her chest.
"And when it comes to mastery rather than combat, Crowley always sought virginity in his weapons. In other words, he refused to reuse something that was already used for another purpose. A hammer is needed to strike the sword, iron ore and wood are needed to make the hammer, and so on and so forth. In the end, you need 1000 or even 10,000 things to create a single weapon, but he would claim it was all a necessary part of the learning process. Yes, almost like they were all pieces of a puzzle."
…Or was her carefree attitude the result of doing everything she could to avoid looking at an inconvenient truth? Like someone who felt sick but kept lying to themselves because they did not want to go to the hospital and hear they had come down with a strange illness.
Looking at it that way, Kamijou hesitated to ask her about it or joke about it.
She could come to her senses at any moment and enter an unmanageable panic.
And unlike normal, that would be deadly during this elevated mountain climb.
"The footing looks pretty unreliable up ahead, Kamijou Touma. Could you support me?"
"Sure thing. Dammit."
He felt like he was choosing his path, but he was not.
No, perhaps it was more accurate to say every one of the million options available to him would lead to the same result. Fear snuck into his fingertips and spread to the rest of his body, but this was a different sort of fear from the hundreds of billions of hells Othinus had once shown him.
"This kind of reminds me of the second-story seats in the gym."
"Ohh, now that you mention it."
There was a narrow metal ladder and a narrow walkway with a metal lattice floor. If not a gym, it felt like the space for lighting equipment above a theatre stage. …The problem was its position unknown hundreds of meters above the ground and that a single stumble would mean instant death.
"With narrow footing, there's a risk of falling, but with wide footing, the handcuffs and gears can create their bodies and attack. Honestly, neither option is great…"
"Sorry about getting you caught up in all this."
This was nothing for Maika to apologize for. At any rate, she and Kamijou worked together to climb higher.
"W-will this really be okay? There isn't some gathering point where the handcuffs and gears have been piling up, is there?"
Some of Maika's fear must have been seeping out because she occasionally trembled, clenched her small hands, and moved her face close to his chest.
She was right on the borderline of being close enough to feel her body heat.
Then the cat-eared piece of shit whispered in his ear.
"Your friend's sister."
"(I know that, you moron!!)"
The pair of pursuing chain beasts was not his only concern. The ladders and catwalks were fine. There was a clear "path" made for people to travel along, even if it was narrow.
The problem was the silver ducts wriggling along the wall like snakes and the air conditioners sticking out like univalves on a rock wall.
"Eh? What, are we supposed to jump!?"
There was something wrong with the mountain climbing route. This was no longer a "path".
They had to choose a step in the air to climb up and around on and then jump from one block to another. It felt like being forced to play a real-life version of a retro platforming game where falling meant instant death. At a meter off the ground, this might have qualified as a new form of athletics, but things changed at 500 meters off the ground.
His legs felt weak.
He could not draw out 100% of his usual strength.
There was no risk of a sudden gust of wind indoors, but he did not have it in him to count that as a positive at the moment.
For one thing, could the air conditioners even support their weight?
He was afraid the screws would break when he landed, sending him and the air conditioner plummeting to certain doom below.
Maika was of course hesitant to get started and she finally made a suggestion with her face entirely pale.
"W-wouldn't it be a good idea to prepare some kind of lifeline before attempting this…?"
"Well, I would love to, but was there anything around here we could use as a rope?"
Tsuchimikado Maika responded to Kamijou's question by reaching to her back with both hands. And he heard a rustling of cloth.
"Hwah!? What!? Why are you stripping!?"
He had no idea how a maid uniform was put together, but was she untying something behind her? Even in an emergency, he was not sure using the apron or dress as a rope was the best idea. Plus, this was an extremely delicate situation what with her being his friend's sister, so wouldn't that nyah-nyah sunglasses boy get super mad!? Kamijou Touma's thoughts bounced around wildly like a game of squash or pinball, but Maika softly blew a heated breath from her nose.
And for some reason, she pulled a crowbar and roll of duct tape from her long skirt.
"Hold it right there, you freak of a maid."
"Well, that's just rude. Duct tape is sturdy, so pulling out long strips and layering it several times is enough to support someone's body weight, you know?"
"That's not the point. Think of the context here. How in the world did you suddenly pull a crowbar and duct tape out of your skirt!?"
"With these 2 things, you can solve most any trouble in a mansion."
He had trouble thinking she meant fixing a leaky sink or hooking up a DVR. Did she want to be the kind of maid who could rescue the trapped daughter of the family by single-handedly taking on the group of terrorists that had hijacked a gorgeous mansion protected by a state-of-the-art security system?
"…Are you the kind of person who wants to combine a spray can with a lighter?"
"Yeah, yeah! Or turning the oven into an explosively formed penetrator."
She was worse than he had imagined.
When he pretended to understand what she was talking about, she replied with some term he had never even heard before. Imagining how something that horrific-sounding had anything to do with a kitchen oven felt like traveling to another dimension.
"You can also tune up the lawnmower to make it go berserk or mix detergents to make poison gas. Nail guns are the standard in movies, but they aren't actually that useful. So if you want a projectile, it's best to combine a handy metal tube with the gas cylinder for a portable stove. And in addition to firing projectiles, that can be used as an acoustic weapon."
"Dammit, is this what happens when you try to make a maid in Japan!? Tsuchimikado, the maid spirit you're imagining has been corrupted beyond belief while you weren't paying attention!!"
When he analyzed the damage this had done to him, Kamijou realized that he had actually idealized maids more than he had thought. That pointy-haired boy felt like someone had dumped a bunch of sweet vinegar sauce on some delicious fried chicken. Of course, this did not mean that she had mastered all of that. It may have been nothing more than the maid school version of "what would you do if terrorists attacked during class". Or so he wanted to believe…
"A-anyway, the lifelines. Umm, we just have to get some long strips of duct tape and layer them a bunch of times, right?"
Even if the theory was correct, no one could stamp it with a safety guarantee. He wrapped it around his torso and then attached one end to a piece of metal sticking out from the wall…and as he repeated the process, he began sweating from tension all the more.
He tugged on the makeshift lifeline again and again to make sure it felt nice and sturdy.
And then the piece of metal it was attached to suddenly broke off.
"Bahh!?"
His body seemed to slip away and he was thrown out into empty air. The scenery melted around him. No, this was different. It was the falling sensation that guided him into one of those visions.
"Are you using pigeon blood?" asked a frowning voice. "A dye that takes a life is against our ethics."
They were no longer inside the previous apartment. It looked like a dark underground space. The space itself was large, but with the stone walls surrounding it and the unreliable candlelight, it felt horribly oppressive.
A silver-haired young man was stirring up a porcelain pot filled with something sinister-smelling. And the previous skeptical voice belonged to…the elderly Westcott. He looked ready to attend a social gathering in his suit, but that looked terribly out of place in this musty underground space. His social standing was clearly different from the others around him. If that eccentric conversation with middle-aged Mathers was accurate, he was apparently a coroner…meaning he worked for the police.
The young man did not look up as he poured all his focus into stirring the pot. He apparently had no intention of responding.
Westcott of the Three Founders grimaced even more, so Mathers, the man of identical rank who had apparently recruited the young man, smiled bitterly and responded.
"We do not wish to create a coded document that is damn near impossible to decipher and no one can read. We can leave that to the secretive Rosicrucians. Oh, or was that too bold a thing to say to an old man who likes to bring a rosy scent to the cabal and even brought in a mysterious secret document?"
"Do you know why the steam engine has spread so far across the world? The industrial revolution happened because anyone can use it and because it distributes its benefits equally. The sailing ships from the Age of Discovery look freeing enough at first glance, but they actually required national approval and protection to use. That is why the entirely privatized steamers so easily won out. Our Golden cabal will begin a new age in the same way. And what we need to do that is not the all-inclusive and 'completed' Christian bible. With that, you take the fixed miracles left behind by a 'great being' and branch out via differences in interpretation, so the possibilities are limited. What we need is a way of arranging basic incantations and symbols to materialize any idea you have in whatever form you desire. We need a work kit similar to a board game that extends the possibilities endlessly."
"In that case, what is the Golden cabal's greatest foe? Wouldn't it be the avoidant reaction that hides everything behind the veil of the mystical, insists that the red on the palette means blood and the black means darkness, and continues to remove budding possibilities in that way, Westcott? And yet all of the colors are needed to paint the life force of a bright and beautiful flower. They are intentionally exaggerating the danger of the original grimoires' toxins, but it is perfectly safe if you avoid jumping right into a theory that is entirely separated from the current world and instead gradually accustom yourself to the knowledge in stages using the work kit method that slowly deepens understanding one piece at a time. If people assumed the sky was inviolable, the airplane never would have been invented and the progress those inventor brothers are making toward an individual machine would have been delayed by a century."
"Besides, we are in no position to talk about the ideal. From master to apprentice, master to apprentice, master to apprentice. …How many barriers are there between those of us here and a newcomer that joined today? The more people in the cabal, the more people placed in the higher ranks by the ritual of advancement, so those of us at the top are saying 7=4 on paper and peeling back the mask reveals something truly bizarre beneath. It isn't right. And if the outer face and inner truth don't match up, the entire organization's image grows indistinct. Passing things from master to apprentice is fine, but a problem occurs when you don't know which master to ask about what. If a unique method of determining which of the leaders is actually useful becomes necessary, it's no different from seeking worldly wisdom in prison. The quality of the people drops when they have to spend their time on that."
"A cabal is an organization. If the bottom collapses, the top goes with it. We need to take action before this decrease in quality comes to a head. It's nonsense for the leaders to arrogantly assume the failure to communicate is a lack of talent on the other end and thus give up trying. The necessary knowledge must be right in front their eyes from the moment they enter the cabal. We need to return to the basic idea of providing what is necessary and only what is necessary. We are not seeking a great quantity of knowledge. We are seeking a way to use it! It can be a crystal ball, cards, a turtle shell, or crackling flames. All those who received the benefits of magic had tools to show them the way. Isn't that also what we want? The completion of a collective device that will answer any anonymous question from someone with the proper experimental environment, be they master or apprentice? Listen, old man, only you enjoy your backwards teaching methods. I want an easier way! And for that, we must immediately complete a work kit that will naturally answer a seeker's questions as they play with and learn from it."
It was truly a deluge of words, but one term stood out to Kamijou.
"Work…kit?"
The Black Cat Witch responded by tapping her finger on the table in a corner of the ceremonial ground.
There was…something there. It looked like a detailed miniature garden or a complex foreign board game. There were wands and disks carved from wood, cups made by melting glass, and similar daggers made from metal. They looked like toys at first glance, but a lot of work had clearly gone into making them.
And Kamijou noticed something else.
It looked familiar. It was like a miniature version of the room in which they stood.
"To use modern terms, the concept is probably similar to an app development tool," explained the woman. "I mean, Hermeticism says everything in the world is made from 22 letters. From there, everyone just has to instinctually rearrange the graphical elements to prepare the environment. That is the gist of ceremonial magic that uses the form of a theatrical play and the miniature garden is a playwriting device for individual use. If the conditions had been different, it might have taken a form similar to haiku or tanka. Instead of relying on god and waiting your turn, this supplies the means of causing the miracle you feel is necessary. Or that's the naïve ideal form, anyway."
You moved the dolls within the miniature garden, had them hold the items like the daggers or wands, sprinkled colorful flower petals or leaves from a bottle, and made your own incantation by rearranging the terms in the guidebook.
And that created magic.
Anyone could try it as simply as making a bead accessory.
…Depending how you viewed it, that way of thinking could seem irreverent and frightening. Academy City's esper development, for example, did not allow you to choose your power type or level, but if the magic side had been able to freely choose everything as easily as selecting toppings for a crepe, how twisted would it have grown?
Even if this app development tool was used to create a virus or phishing site and caused great damage in the outside world, the Golden cabal would not care. Did they see it like a gun culture where the ubiquity of weapons grew due to mutual distrust and a desire for self-defense? Did they see it as an age where those without a weapon would die?
"I am not saying we need to put a stop to this," said Westcott. "I am saying even magic cabals need compromise. If we grow truly indiscriminate, we will be seen as no different from those wild partying groups."
"This is worth the risk. Begin, Crowley. Open the eyes of this old man who is quickly falling into skepticism!"
Despite the over-the-top encouragement, the young man called Crowley made no grand actions like a stage magician. In fact, he did not even draw a magic circle directly on the floor. He placed a cloth over the round table in the corner and began drawing a large circle on it using the table's outer edge.
"That is heresy!!" bellowed Westcott.
"Don't be silly. It's actually perfectly logical. As I said, our goal is not a 'completed' bible that follows the footsteps of a 'great being' and thus only has a limited number of miracles. We will create a work kit with endless possibilities that will bring back the communication of knowledge that has begun to slow to a trickle within our Golden cabal. We created a free cabal that allowed anyone in, man or woman, so it makes no sense to make them wait in meaningless lines. And due to the excessive number of people in the higher ranks, there is no guarantee that the person at the end of the line will provide the correct answer. We should be celebrating when people cut in line and when there is conflict between master and apprentice. What could be better than receiving feedback through confrontation? …This will be as close by as a lady's sewing set or knitting needle and as professional as a painter or sculptor's tools. Westcott, you had good taste to use the Germans as reference when establishing this cabal. After all, they have some truly involved board games."
The small box contained the toys such as the cups and wands. A row of small bottles had varieties of dried flower petals and le