Prev Next

"Bwah!!"

It was December in Academy City. All the lights were out, so darkness ruled. When viewed from satellite, it would look like a gaping black hole in that capital city of ten million.

And in those sticky shadows was something possibly even more unnatural.

"Argh. Grrrrrr!!!!!!"

It was like a tar pit splitting open.

The giant seal used the entirety of Academy City.

A single slender arm burst from the solid asphalt of the paved road. It wandered through the air in search of a handhold and eventually found a broken piece of plastic. Just like the survivor of a shipwreck clinging to a wooden board.

The rest did not take long.

A woman's face, torso, and legs crawled out from the black earth. She had extremely long blonde hair and a modest beige habit. That person known as Lola Stuart crawled back to the world of the living.

At the same time, there was a deep noise. And several more followed. Power traveled from the generators to the transformers, power transmitters, and spider web of power cables to breathe life back into the dead city. Bright artificial lights blinked on inside the skyscraper windows, traffic lights, and every other corner of the city.

This had been an absolute necessity for Aleister Crowley.

She had needed to outdo Mathers and use a single powerful counterattack to escape a bind.

But that was summoning another threat.

"Alei…ster."

Lola spoke deeply while curled up in the fetal position and surrounded by sticky colors. At the same time, she sensed something with her sensory organs as a higher being. That great demon clenched her teeth and waited for her avatar's pulse to calm.

She heard something rattling in her sleeve.

She pulled it out and clicked her tongue.

It looked like a long and narrow wooden card, but the panel actually functioned as an extremely special easel. It was a handheld underlay on which she would draw lines and fill in colors.

She would draw rough sketches on it with special charcoal made from red wine and iron oxide while using bread crumbs in place of a kneaded eraser. Needless to say, those materials had been chosen to apply symbols of flesh and blood to the card. By coloring it with pigments chosen based on personal traits found in things like bibliomancy and reinforcing it with a thin layer of the wax used for cursed dolls, she could create a member of the Golden cabal.

As seen with the artist Mina Mathers, magical items like tarot cards could be newly created from just about anything.

So why had this one broken?

The demon thought about that small wooden panel's combination of sketch, colors, and wax coating.

It may have been a similar data transmission method to heating a turtle shell in the fire and reading the future in the cracks.

(Mathers and a few of the others have taken damage and Berridge was destroyed. Damn, this couldn't have been by chance. I guess they've figured out the trick by now.)

Looking just at their specs, Mathers was superior to Aleister no matter what the latter tried. And with the Golden army at his command, they could easily slaughter a swarm of Crowley's possibilities.

However.

Because Coronzon was Coronzon, she was not relieved by that and she did not simply accept it.

Dispersion. 333.

She interrupted the bonds between people and the world and she tore them apart.

The world was embedded with that obvious symbol of natural decomposition. In other words, people should naturally fall into conflict and destroy each other. Yet that was not happening. It was highly unnatural, but humanity still existed. As tiny, puny, insignificant, and obscene as they were. Coronzon saw no value in the bonds between people, but even she had realized something. If there was a reason for everything that happened, then as much as she hated it, those bonds did have power.

Humanity was like microplastics.

It did not matter how harmful or powerful they were on their own.

If they would not be broken apart, they could still distort the entire world.

(They were only ever meant for use against Crowley, so I can't expect them to work perfectly in any other situation.)

She left the fetal position and slowly stretched out her arms and legs. Her body had calmed down. She consciously breathed in and out and then got up from the cold road.

(There is no real reason to stay here. Even the Windowless Building has left. I lost my chance to have some fun controlling Academy City with the Board Chairman's corpse, so I'll have to rethink how to use this toy box.)

At that point, she grimaced slightly.

Using the leader's corpse as a relay point to manipulate the giant gears was the exact method Lola had suggested using on the dying Aleister back in the Windowless Building. And now Aleister was attacking England to reach Mathers's corpse. She had unwittingly given that human a hint.

"What a pain. I really need to fix my bad habit of talking too much when I call checkmate."

It did not take long once she got moving.

Academy City had to contain enough power to annihilate the human race ten thousand times over, but figuring out what it all was and how to unlock it would not be easy. Losing the Windowless Building and Aleister's corpse was a major blow. It was like having a giant supercomputer but not knowing where the mouse and keyboard were.

However.

Even if she could not control Academy City as a whole, some smaller parts of it were a different matter.

This was like opening up the supercomputer, removing one of the blade servers lined up like mille-feuille, attaching a clip to the circuit board, and sending it a signal from your mobile device.

In this case, her long blonde hair wriggled like an independent creature and acted as her hacking tool.

An old tradition said demons resided in a woman's hair.

That was very true here.

"Hmph."

She sliced up the shutter to a random warehouse and viewed the collection of steel and composite armor within. Academy City had been Aleister's territory and that human had apparently been in the habit of leaving backup supplies around the city. Although that only applied to the items that could be duplicated.

With a hand on her hip, Lola named the device before her eyes.

"The A.A.A."

This was not a complete set. It was only a collection of repair parts. Those parts were not assembled into its proper form, but that was not an issue for Coronzon. She sent out the hair that was more than 2.5 times her height. Once the hair slipped into the cracks in the armor like nematodes, she read the inner structure in the blink of an eye.

She could not control science, but the magical symbols hidden in the steel and concrete city were a different matter.

"This isn't even a flash tablet or planetary magic circle. It just uses ordinary sigils."

She pulled her hair out with a sticky sound.

No, her hair did more than that. Like a ribbon in rhythmic gymnastics or like the cursive writing on a parchment contract, the dancing golden light formed meaningful characters in the air. Then bat-like glowing wings burst from the sides of her beige habit.

These sinister wings were formed from the "contents" of the A.A.A., not its mechanical structure.

(I should take a ballistic route instead of normal flight. Heading 'outside' and reentering should be faster.)

That great demon did not care about her avatar's convenience.

With Coronzon filling the avatar, that soft flesh would not burn up in the atmosphere.

Even though she was using the same thing, those wings did not possess over-the-top rocket boosters like Aleister's toy did. The wings remained wings, so she only had to flap them.

Those excess functions were a sign of fear.

Facades, justifications, theoretical arguments, and ideals. Humans grew fat on all that extraneous nonsense. To the point that they lost sight of what lay at the center of it all.

333. Dispersion.

Coronzon encouraged the world to naturally break apart and she did not hide her evil deeds.

"Now, then."

She looked straight up.

The thick ceiling overhead did not even enter her thoughts.

"The great demon is coming for you, Aleister. And you only have yourself to blame."

A single line of light broke through the giant warehouse's ceiling as it launched itself outside the atmosphere.

Finally wearing a Roman Catholic habit once more, Orsola Aquinas looked out a transport helicopter window. She was on her way to Scotland. The helicopter could travel at three to four hundred kilometers per hour and it could ignore the roads and traffic, so it would not take long to arrive.

Even so.

It may have been late at night, but the surface was awfully dark.

That reminded her that the country was experiencing a crisis. She was just glad that she did not see a giant sea of flames below.

Although the fact that the possibility even came to mind may have proven how abnormal a situation this was.

"Thank you very much." Orsola looked away from the window and spoke to the woman riding with her. "I can't protect myself and I couldn't ask for a better bodyguard than a Saint like you."

It was Kanzaki Kaori.

She was the Priestess of the Amakusa Church and one of the fewer than twenty Saints in the world, but she showed little confidence or brightness at the moment.

She had likely experienced her own troubles during this national crisis.

She covered her face with a hand and groaned.

"To be honest, I am not confident I have it in me to continue fighting."

"Oh, my."

"I killed someone. Whatever form they might have taken, the Crowley's Hazards were still people. I violated my magic name. So I am not sure how I should wield magic now."

Orsola did not simply comfort her.

She placed a hand on her cheek and then spoke.

"Then I will protect you until you are back to your usual self."

"Do not worry. I too am part of the Anglican Church. I am not entirely ignorant of magic."

This contradicted what Orsola had said earlier.

Kanzaki Kaori of course noticed that, which was why she said what she did.

"Why are you so certain this is a temporary thing? Why do you think I will recover with time?"

"Because you are much, much stronger than I could ever imagine."

"I'm really not."

"And I too made a serious mistake. It might be something I can never make up for. But even if I cannot, I must not give up and look the other way. Isn't that what it means to be human?"

Kanzaki could not answer.

Even Saints were flawed humans. And after the mistake Kanzaki had made, she could not act like she was better than someone else.

She could come up with an answer once she had a better grasp of her own life.

Everyone lived their lives with the same doubts.

So Kanzaki Kaori spoke once more.

"I pray that I can one day live my life correctly once more."

"Yes, so do I."

That room was supposed to be for mending the covers and pages of books.

Grimoires had only been gathered there because it was off limits to normal people.

Which meant…

"I knew it," said Index as she looked around the work tables lined with different colors of paint, glue, and cutters for neatly slicing the ends off of paper.

Was it wine or iron sand? Some kind of red pigment had been worked into a charcoal-based drawing tool and kneaded erasers had been made from bread crumbs. There was also some soft wax.

"This isn't for repairs. It looks like they were creating something new. But it looks smaller than a book. Maybe a notepad? No, it could even be a set of cards."

"Like tattva or tarot? There are a few scraps of thick paper in the trash. It's only as wide as the end of a fork, so I bet it came from some cards. The scraps are all lined up like after someone cuts the crust off of bread."

The individual marks and scratches left on books or scrolls could be extracted and copied as a data medium. And that meant the data could be transferred to a brand new book with nothing written in it.

That said…

"Is there nothing else we can figure out here? I just wish we knew what was being made here."

"Could we figure out who was making it?"

"Normal people aren't allowed in here. This is the repair room for the British Museum's important documents, so only a limited number of people would be allowed to apply paint and glue or cut them with a blade."

"So it was an inside job? And by an Anglican with a lot of authority?"

"Like the Anglican leader, Lola Stuart?"

Index and Fran had both been directly or indirectly controlled by Lola (i.e. Coronzon), so it was natural for their suspicions to fall there.

Index had a perfect memory, so she would not forget something even if the topic was shifted elsewhere. She wrote out a list of the books she wanted from the British Library while she made a suggestion.

"While we're at it, let's investigate Lola."

"What do you mean?"

"No one knows how old she is and no one knows when she took her position as archbishop at the top of the Anglicans. What is her real history? She claims to be Aleister Crowley's second daughter, but how did she work her way up to the top of the church?"

Luckily, they had plenty of reference material here.

So they could make better use of their time than running around blindly.

A solid yet light clanking sound rang through London late at night.

Needless to say, it was Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. That peerless magician wore a witch's hat and cloak over a bright Scottish military uniform that predated the use of camouflage and his four Symbolic Weapons were bumping together as they danced around him.

"Cold and wet, then hot and wet."

When the Golden leader spoke those words, blue and yellow lights spiraled around him and attached themselves to his leather shoes. Instead of running, he slid and leaped. He sometimes slid across the road surface and sometimes kicked off of walls or signs to speed through the night faster than a police car equipped for highway patrols. His witch's cloak and his scarf trailed behind him like a shooting star.

And he was not alone.

Arthur Edward Waite, John William Brodie-Innes, Robert William Felkin, and other magicians with their own unique legends accompanied him at that speed. They jumped over abandoned cars and took detours around the haphazardly placed ancient Egyptian stone. Any who saw that group would have felt the same fear as seeing a pack of wolves chasing down their prey.

But someone was missing.

Edward Berridge was not bowing his head by the short-tempered Mathers's side.

"The Praemonstrator is Felkin and the records and backup will be done by Waite. Westcott, you can be Imperator. You choose the Hiereus and Sentinel."

"Oh? Unusual for you to give up command. I expected you to take the Imperator job."

"Don't let him distract you by giving you a 6=5 level role, Westcott. He doesn't seem interested in the 7=4 position, so he's really just leaving the performance to us while he can sit back and relax in the audience seating. I can't stand it."

Even if they had all studied in the same cabal, they had their distinct areas of expertise. The possibility might be there, but not everyone's magic could reach Mathers's level.

On the other hand, they were a cabal.

When an individual's power was not enough, they just had to work together.

Movement was a symbol of the wide area one controlled and of the amount of knowledge they could obtain. The most obvious example was flight, but there were plenty of others. For example, the legends of parting the sea, the legends of passing through a jail cell's bars or door, and the astral projection achieved by staring at a tattva card.

They used a white and black pillar, tarot, the Banner of the West and the Banner of the East, a rose cross medal, a planetary magical circle, tattva, a magic sword, a seven-branched candleholder, a censer, and the four types of Symbolic Weapons.

They were all symbols with their own important meaning, but they were also props which established a major ceremony when used as a set. Words and sentences differed, but it would be strange to try to rank them against each other.

The Golden magicians passed each other, their speed rose and fell, they changed lanes, and they were constantly swapping positions. Their movements changed the location of their ceremonial tools which also changed their meaning. This was the Golden method of performing a ceremony much like a stage play.

They constructed a single large current that moved like a dragon or serpent and they picked up speed like a car shifting gear.

They had originally been created to protect England, so why were they targeting the British Royal Family?

The Anglican archbishop would never give such an order.

But what about Great Demon Coronzon?

To that sinister higher being, England was no more than one of her toys. She had used it when it would protect her, but if it lost its usefulness, she was more than willing to destroy the entire nation. That was the thought process of a demon with no fear of god.

"It doesn't really matter where the target is since we have Waite's tarot. It won't be hard to work out which route they're using," said Annie Horniman, the monocle and dress woman who looked like an old-fashioned tutor. "How does it feel to be ordered to protect your own corpse, Mathers?"

"Enough nonsense."

The Golden leader did not even glance her way while his Scottish military uniform and thick cloak flapped behind him.

Yes.

It did not matter where he had come from or that he was created from a tarot card. He was the leader of the world's greatest magic cabal.

If Coronzon had fully copied Mathers to the card, then he would be the same Mathers who had held Coronzon below his foot and had her do his bidding.

"I will remove these bonds. There is no such thing as perfection or absolutes in this world. 333. Dispersion. That absolute evil prevents the bonds of this world for no real reason. She is an incarnation of the natural breakdown of human civilization, so she should know that."

And for that reason, Mathers could not afford to let anything interfere with Coronzon now. That would ruin everything he had prepared. So he would protect it. He would not let anyone touch the corpse in Edinburgh Castle which could be used to relay commands. If anyone threatened to do so, he would defeat them.

Even if that meant attacking the head of the United Kingdom even though he had been created to protect that nation.

"Let us follow our country's traditions."

He showed no hesitation whatsoever.

"Let the foxhunt begin."

A great number of carriages left Buckingham Palace and traveled north.

They each had four horses, but the rain roof stuck out further than the coachman's seat, making it look like a long line of connected cars from a distance.

Queen Elizard spoke slowly and deeply inside one of the carriages.

"Hand me a sword. I am not picky. A mass-produced steel one is fine. The Crowley's Hazards? An unidentified magic cabal? What do I care? I will fight alongside everyone else in London."

"Discard restraints #05 through #60! Set up more! Rebind her entire body with the common divisors 3 and 4!! Hurry!! Before she breaks free of them all and goes on a rampage!!"

This did not seem at all the way to treat an elderly woman. She was like a ferocious beast. It was the aides wrapping wide silk bands around her arms and legs who were nearly dragged and swung around.

Meanwhile, black-haired and monocled First Princess Riméa breathed an exasperated sigh while sitting across from her mother. She was a fundamentally distrusting person.

"Do not be silly, mother. Whatever the reason, this country will never break free of the fighting if you are taken out. Why don't you understand that? You might as well be sending the entire population to their deaths in order to save just one person."

"But," said Third Princess Villian as she glanced somberly out the window. "I think I understand. Ordering the normal citizens to evacuate would only cause massive congestion to the roads. I get that, but I still don't like leaving the capital on our own."

"Oh? Did you catch Carissa's love of war?"

"Kh."

Second Princess Carissa specialized in this sort of thing, but she was still imprisoned in the Tower of London. She played the same role as the political hostages of an older era. The Royal Family had left one member in London. That would put the people's minds at ease because surely they would not leave a royal in danger, right? That was the intended message.

"The Crowley's Hazards, Egyptian Mythology, and now an unidentified magic cabal. This has fully left our understanding. Win or lose, if we force our way through this without the proper information, we will almost certainly create a great number of victims among those around us."

1st Princess Riméa was not naïve enough to immediately praise the Egyptian symbols and magic cabal just because those things had defeated the external threat of the Crowley's Hazards. Any fighting force unknown to the Royal Family had to be a rogue unit within England and a magic cabal was a criminal group needing elimination. Even if a gang protected the people of a city during a zombie outbreak, Riméa would not hail them as national heroes.

Unregistered fighters had to be viewed as enemies.

And the more powerful they were, the more their uncontrollable firepower threatened the common people.

"Also, the Royal Family leaving London will protect the people who cannot escape the city. We are aware of several different threats in the United Kingdom, but whether we intend to attack them or defend against them, we should assume they will view us as the center of the nation. If we move, their indiscriminate attacks will move with us. Surely you understand that."

If they fought in London, it would cause damage in London.

No matter whether that battle was meant to destroy or save the city.

However, that did not make it okay to bring that same damage to Scotland.

"This is a race."

With a heavy metallic clunk, First Princess Riméa rested something on her shoulder. Its structure was far too complex to call it a staff.

"That means the scoundrels cannot remain bunched together. We dangle some bait in front of them, lure them across a long enough distance to spread them apart by their varying specs, and then we defeat them one at a time. Scotland is our destination, but it would be best to eradicate them before we arrive. We have four hundred kilometers until the border. And Edinburgh Castle is another one hundred kilometers from there. On the way there, we will keep our distance and fire on them. And all the while, we will be spreading out their group to pick them off one at a time."

They had given this thought.

The Royal Family would not simply flee in the face of a national crisis.

(But.)

Third Princess Villian had another somber thought.

(If that isn't enough to defeat them all, we'll be spreading the flames of war to Scotland.)

After leaving the ordinary London apartment which was actually the Isis-Urania Temple, Aleister Crowley took a very simple action.

Her cape fluttered unnaturally and then four objects the size of 500mL bottles emerged. They were micro rocket engines.

"Huh?"

Kamijou Touma could only stare.

She was floating in the night sky. Only after a few moments of staring at the magician's white panties (which he did not particularly want to see), the spiky-haired boy asked a question.

"Wait, are you chasing after Mathers? What are we supposed to do!?"

"I can't afford to lose track of him. And now that I have unlocked the tech, there is no reason to continue hiding the cards up my sleeve. Scotland is about four hundred kilometers away. That might sound like a lot, but it only takes a few hours in a car. You two find your own transportation and follow after me."

The silver girl was no help at all.

She used her micro rocket engines to fly off into the night sky while Kamijou remained helplessly on the ground. It sounded like a bad joke, but he had been left behind all the same.

"Hey, Accelerator, what should we do?"

"Don't ask me. You figure it out yourself."

"You're headed the other way!? U-um, where are you even going!?"

Kamijou shouted after him, but the #1 waved back at him and messed with his choker. With a dull sound, he jumped up to a nearby rooftop and disappeared from view. He clearly had no intention of chasing after Mathers or Aleister.

Was it so wrong that the spiky-haired boy could not fly?

Left all alone, Kamijou Touma trembled and muttered to himself.

He felt so very forlorn in the foreign night.

"Why? Why am I surrounded by selfish morons who refuse to cooperate no matter what!?"

"Whatever the result, I really don't think you have any room to talk when it comes to being self-centered, human."

"I was wrong. I'm not alone. I still have you, Othinus-shwaaan!!"

"Wait! Stop that, understander! I know you're feeling lonely, but don't grab at me like that when we're outside and anyone could be watching!!!"

"Wow," groaned Hamazura Shiage.

They moved elsewhere after the previous encounter. He had driven the four-wheel-drive vehicle below a bridge due to his habit of avoiding satellites.

However.

Five people was a lot for that vehicle. It was feeling cramped, so he had hopped out and tried climbing up on top of the bridge.

But he had spotted something odd in the London night: four-horse carriages. And they did not appear to be for show like the ones tourists could ride around. There were ten rows of two, for a total of twenty. And the rain roofs stuck out well past the coachman's seat, so it all looked like a single luxurious sleeper train from a distance. There was also a cavalry unit protecting it all.

However, that did not mean much for him on the narrow sidewalk.

Only after watching them drive past did he wish he had snapped a photo with his phone. Although he had the phone turned off to keep anyone from tracking it, so he could not have opened the camera app fast enough anyway.

But then he heard a quiet electronic jingling from his pants pocket.

He could have sworn he had turned it off.

(Are you kidding me!? Why did it restart!? That's really not good!! It might've been broadcasting my location this whole time!!)

He snatched his phone from his pocket and saw a familiar display on the screen.

"What? It's you, Aneri?"

The device vibrated a little.

He took that to be the same as a nod.

"You weren't the one to turn my phone back on, were you?"

Silence this time.

But that did not seem to be meant as a denial.

It was impressive that the program could express awkwardness.

Aneri had originally been the support AI for the Dragon Rider supersonic motorcycle and its special protective suit. The machine had been destroyed rescuing Fremea Seivelun, but the program remained. The AI had also helped a lot with the Processor Suit - which was the Bank itself in the form of a humanoid suit - during the fight against A. O. Francisca.

That said, he had thought Aneri had ceased functioning when the Board Chairman had shut down all of Academy City's technology.

(If she's up and running again, does that mean the entire city was unlocked???)

But hadn't the city been shut down to stop the villain named Lola or Coronzon or whatever? Hamazura did not fully trust Aleister and he had no way of seeing into the Board Chairman's mind, but he still had to wonder what she was thinking.

"Well, I'll set that question aside for now. Anyway, this should help a lot. Did you only now get inside my phone? How much do you know about the mess around here? I need as much support as you can give me because, honestly, I'm in way over my head here."

The device vibrated again in response.

Aneri had always been oddly sociable.

With phone in hand, he returned to the vehicle below the bridge and found Dion Fortune trapped between the two Magic Gods in the back seat.

"Mwa ha ha. Spill it. Spill the beans. This will be much easier on you if you do!"

"The great Dion Fortune, elite of the Golden cabal, will never fall for such underhanded tactics! Hee!"

"Sure, sure. Okay, the tickling just passed the thirty second mark."

"Bwa ha, wa ha ha!! I-I will nyever syuccumb to- ah nya ha ha!!"

Hamazura was pretty sure it was best not to ask what was going on. He had noticed the vehicle rocking as he approached it, but this was what he had found inside. He could only say it was crazy for the windows to be fogged up just from those girls' sweet breaths. He felt like he had lost a lot of points as a human being for leaving his girlfriend alone in a place like that.

"What are you doing?"

"Ah, Takitsubo, you idiot!"

"But Hamazura. That person saved you, so we can't just abandon her."

The delinquent boy had interpreted it as Fortune saving Takitsubo, but which interpretation was the correct one?

Niang-Niang took a break from supplying the tickle hell and faithfully answered Takitsubo's question just to kill some time.

"Hm. Dion Fortune seems to be an obsessive note-taker, so we're having fun asking her what she wanted to write down so bad she started running her fingertip along her palm."

"Just leave her alone!!"

Hamazura spun around in the driver's seat to look back, but that proved to be a bad idea.

There were some moments when people did not want someone looking them in the eye.

The laughing redheaded girl seemed to get excited when she was the center of attention because she held her head high.

"Ah ha nya ha nya ha! Pant, pant. Do not underestimate the great Dion Fortune. I write grimoires, contribute to an occult magazine, work on correspondence education, and even give lectures! I am the cute spiritual medium who reveals her charm on multiple fronts instead of letting the old ways hold her back! Hwa ha ha ha ha ha!!"

Why did he feel so disappointed once he got a translation of that? He did not feel particularly jealous and was not entirely sure any of that was something to brag about. He wished she could find pride in something else. Perhaps it all sounded so old and musty because it was so far removed from the modern digital world of video sharing sites and social media.

"Heh. Bowled you over with my charisma, didn't I? The great Dion Fortune is a modern young magician who is always on the lookout for the next hot thing. Oh, whoops. I need to suppress my charm a bit for this sensitive teenage boy. But I can't blame you for recognizing talent when you see it! Kneel before me now and I will give you the privilege of being my chair! Hwa ha ha!!"

"She says she is very interested in bathing in a guy's used bathwater, boy☆"

"Are you sure that's what she said? It sounded like she said a lot more than that! Am I wrong!?"

Then something odd happened. The frilly dress girl's spiel came to a complete stop and she stared wide-eyed at Hamazura.

"Mi-…"

No, she was technically staring at the delinquent boy's phone.

And the frilly dress magician spoke a certain title in a daze.

"Mis…tress???"

It was a bombshell of a statement.

Hamazura had no way of knowing, but Aneri was a downgraded version of Reading Thoth 78, aka Mina Mathers.

And why was Mina Mathers Mina Mathers?

Why was she known as a black cat witch?

"Wh-what are you doing in such a tiny box!? Was there some kind of mistake during the setup to establish your physical form? No, something isn't right. Is that an entirely different system than us!?"

Dion Fortune began panicking and talking endlessly without stopping to listen.

And Aneri remained entirely silent.

There was no response.

It was the same awkward atmosphere as an elevator. That was enough for the frilly dress magician to jump so much her head and the white flower decoration bumped against the ceiling.

"Wait! Please wait! Anything but more scratches!! I'll do anything, so please work with me, mistress! We know each other well enough for that, don't we!? All those cat scratches on my back were no laughing matter! And what kind of black cat is the size of a tiger!? Was that really a cat or was it some other member of the cat family!?"

As question marks filled Hamazura's mind, Niang-Niang explained while rolling around in laughter.

"Dion Fortune originally joined the cabal under the courteous protection of Mina Mathers, but due to some turf wars within the cabal, she fell victim to a harsh magical attack from Mina. Her house was surrounded by black cats, her back was sliced open by the carnivores' claws, and she even saw phantom black cats the size of tigers."

That explanation did not mean much to Hamazura Shiage who did not really know who Mina Mathers was. He only knew her as the one with the big boobs and mourning clothes who was looking after Lilith. And he had no idea what any of that had to do with Aneri.

Regardless, he could tell this had unearthed some kind of trauma, so Hamazura the Gentleman decided to put the phone back in his pocket.

But just then, a great din thundered down from overhead. It was even more heavy and continuous than a focused downpour of rain. At first, he had ducked down because he did not know what it was, but then he remembered they were hiding below a bridge.

"Wh-what the hell!? What is going on up there!?"

A semi-truck or a tanker truck would not make that much noise driving by overhead. This tremor was like all the guests in a club or the audience in a stadium stomping their feet at once. The sound soon left them, but a strange uneasiness stuck with him. Something strange had happened, but no one was telling him whether he should be afraid or not.

And if whatever-it-was had crossed the bridge, should he assume it was chasing after those carriages?

The two Magic Gods giggled and redheaded Dion Fortune looked up at the ceiling with her pale face between theirs.

"That was Master Mathers and the others."

Everyone focused on the frilly dress girl and she gasped when she noticed. She frantically covered her mouth with both hands and shook her head.

She had saved them.

So Hamazura knew he could not treat her badly. It simply was not an option.

"I won't talk! I won't!! Even if we've parted ways, I'm still a member of the Golden cabal, so I can't betray the others!"

Once Nephthys pinned the girl down, Hamazura called Aneri up on his phone and rubbed it against the struggling girl's cheek.

Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki had crash landed in London.

They ended up a good distance away because they had used a shallower angle to reduce the damage as much as possible instead of just plowing into the ground like a meteor. The English signs said they were even further north than Primrose Hill. They were just about in Outer London.

And Academy City's #5, Mental Out, was in trouble.

"C-c-c-c-c-cold, it's so cold. What is going on? I can see my breath. Oh, right. It's December, isn't it? What kind of idiot wears a swimsuit in London during the winter? I'm going to die. Why do I keep having to fight for my life ability against things that aren't even my own fault, Misaksaaan!?"

"Hmm, looks like it's more the movable joints than the rocket boosters themselves. It's the bearings. I wonder if I could fix it using the parts in the swiveling portion of the other weapons. But I'd be nervous using it without testing it first."

"Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisaksaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!?"

They were living in entirely different worlds.

The queen could not believe her eyes while she held her shoulders, pressed her legs together, and shivered.

"I-is her tunnel vision ability breaking the limits of the human body now?"

"No, this might just be an extension of the law that prevents idiots from catching col-…"

"I can hear you, Shokuhou."

And unless Mikoto opened up her mind, Shokuhou Misaki's Mental Out could not control the #3.

She should have caught on sooner. In this post-apocalypse, it was the physically strong who reigned supreme.

"No, wait, Misaksan!! Why are you grabbing me around the hips and lifting me over your shoulder? Wait, don't tell me. Is this the legendary-…ahhh!! My butt!? What kind of person starts spanking someone in the freezing December weather!?"

"I have a feeling your hopeless personality is a result of a spoiled upbringing, so I need to reeducate you from the ground up."

"How did you reach that silly conclusion? And how am I supposed to respond when you act like a middle-aged mother with a full-on broccoli-style perm?"

"Act now and you get 20% more at no extra cost."

"Ahhh!!"

Loud slapping sounds echoed through the London streets for a while. The young lady of prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School could not escape her punishment. She could only cover her bright red face with her hands.

Finally, she was freed.

Swimsuit Queen Shokuhou Misaki was feeling a bit warmer from the embarrassment, but her heart would die if she had to continue keeping warm that way.

Also, why wasn't Misaka Mikoto bothered by the December London weather?

Even if her one piece covered more skin, it was still a swimsuit.

"No, don't stop thinking, Shokuhou Misaki. There has to be some kind of trick. Yes, that's right. Didn't Misaksan say something about being able to stay warm using microwaves!?"

"Tch, you remembered."

"Fully-Electric Hot Water Bottle Girl Misaksan, could you please share some of that happiness with a girl in need?"

"Get off of me!!!!! You have no restraint at all when you're desperate, do you? If you found yourself stranded on a desert island, I bet you'd immediately strip and start sending smoke signals in the nude."

"The best queens increase their charisma by giving off just a hint of defenselessness☆ Like the pinch of salt to bring out the flavor of a watermelon."

"I'm going to hit you if you don't let go. Besides, don't you have that juicy power that lets you control people's mental state by manipulating the fluids in their body? Can't you keep yourself warm with that?"

"Call me juicy again and it's a sexy dance festival for you. And don't think your #3 brain defenses can stop me! All your craziness today has seriously put my life at risk, so I'm on the verge of releasing all my limits and awakening to new powers, Misaksaaaan!!"

Whatever the case, they could not do anything hasty when they had doubts about the A.A.A.'s ability to fly. They needed to spend a lot more time carefully working with the machinery, so the necessities like food, clothing, and shelter became much more important.

"Well, that last attack was only for good measure, so papa should have been able to escape without it."

"Your love for your family is great and all, but I don't see how that helps me and my blue lips. By the way, how much money do you have on you?"

"Why?"

Shokuhou Misaki pointed a shaking finger toward a line of vending machines. In addition to the hot drink and sandwich machines, there was a machine with rain gear like umbrellas and raincoats.

"Ohh, I guess London is known for its rain. This is perfect."

"Well, it's better than nothing. The food might be full of artificial colors and preservatives, but I must have one of those raincoats! However, there is a problem there. I happen to be a classy cashless girl who only carries a card, but these local vendors do not appear to accept electronic money. So please, Misaksan! Can I borrow just one crumpled bill!?"

Shokuhou Misaki had finally completed her transformation into a begging girl tearfully clinging to a schoolmate (in the filthy late-night streets while wearing nothing but a swimsuit).

And that signaled the start of a noble game.

"Oh, poor Shokuhou Misaki. She can't warm herself with microwaves and she can't even buy a raincoat. Is this what you call karma?"

"Wait, no! I'm only #5, so I don't even get a spot on the winners' podium, but you are the glorious #3!"

"Hm, you can do better than that."

"Woof, woof. Wait, a photo!?"

When the phone's flash went off in front of her, Swimsuit Girl Shokuhou Misaki immediately held her right hand horizontally to at least cover her eyes. But Mikoto was not cruel enough to wait until the girl froze solid. The #5 attended prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School and her intellect was the real deal. Even if Mikoto could not stand her, she would still come in handy for repairing the A.A.A., so it would be best if she was not knocked out by the cold.

However.

"(I have a feeling she'll turn on me the instant I buy her a raincoat, so maybe I should have her fend off the cold with the cardboard boxes and newspapers lying around here and only buy it for her once she's truly desperate. She needs to properly appreciate what I've done for her.)"

"I hope you aren't really considering that, Misaksan! I-I-I really am at my limit here! The shivering ability is reaching the core of my body! I'll do anything! I'll give you a shoulder massage and shine your shoes, so please, Great God Misaka!!"

This girl did not even have any matches (and was wearing a swimsuit), so she had her hands full in a number of ways. She was willing to go this far over what was little more than a thick plastic sheet.

"Hm? A horse???"

Which was why the shivering blonde girl initially thought she was hallucinating.

With all the chaos in London, it would not have been too surprising for some animals to have escaped the zoo, but that did not seem to be the case here. A muscular horse was fully outfitted with reins and armor and it was ridden by a female knight decked out in silver armor and a surcoat. The queen's discerning eye could tell she was not just a troublesome performer hoping to earn some money from tourists wanting to snap a photo with her. She may have been an actual knight who guarded Buckingham Palace.

But that was not the real problem.

There was someone else on the horse: a spiky-haired boy sat right behind her.

"Heh heh heh. It must be destiny that we ran into each other again, so let's have a lovely journey together, Miss Knight!!"

"You must be joking!! How dare you take advantage of my compromising position to boss me around!? Have you no shame!? And you call yourself a man!?"

The leisurely clip-clopping of hooves passed by from right to left.

They did not seem to notice the two girls.

But those girls were very curious about what they had overheard.

"Taking advantage of her?"

"Compromising position???"

The female knight had spoken in proper Japanese. That was unusual for a blonde-haired, blue-eyed resident of London. That seemed to sum up who was in charge between her and the spiky-haired idiot.

There were some issues with the A.A.A.'s flight capability.

It could be fixed by substituting other parts, but the work would take a while to complete.

Mikoto and Shokuhou both recalled their situation her. And they arrived at the same conclusion:

"Who cares about that!? What is he doing after traveling all the way to London!?"

The roar of rocket engines shook the English night.

After the disconcerting sound of metal fitting together in complicated ways, the winged devil silhouette shifted all of its rocket boosters to the back. The flying device transformed into a monstrously large motorcycle. Even with the hovering support legs holding it up, its shape was far too brutal.

Occasionally, variety shows or documentaries would focus on the vehicles for a unique kind of race in foreign countries. Existing cars or motorcycles would have jet fighter or rocket engines forcibly attached to the back to blast those drag racers down a straight road.

Right now, they did not need to fly.

They only needed to give chase.

They had nothing as nice as helmets. Mikoto tossed a translucent vending machine raincoat to Shokuhou, put one on herself, and then jumped onto the monster bike.

"Hop on, juicy powers!! We need to go punch that idiot!!"

"Okay, Misaksan. Now that I have a coat, the perfect queen is back!! …And don't think I didn't hear that."

The bike gave a violent roar.

Mikoto frowned while holding the handlebars.

The unathletic girl had climbed onto the extrlarge motorcycle just fine, but now she was fidgeting oddly. Mikoto gave her a puzzled look through the side mirror, but she could not see the other girl's expression because she stuck her face into the raincoat hood and rubbed her forehead against Mikoto's nape.

"What is it now!? That's really distracting!!"

"It's just, ah, I wasn't expecting it be so-…oh, this vibration is a bit much…"

"………………………………………………………………………………………………I know you always have a member of your clique call a car for you, but that isn't because you're too sensitive for a bike seat, is it?"

No response.

The blushing girl used her silence to forever bury the truth.

Mikoto cleared her throat.

"Yeah, I guess it couldn't be that."

"Um, wait, Misaksan. Could you please drive safel-…"

"So enough messing around. Let's do this!!!!!!"

Shokuhou could not even form proper words after that.

They were chasing someone with no clear destination in mind, so the monster bike roared through the London night in a next-generation rodeo.

There was actually a good explanation for why Kamijou Touma was seated right behind a female knight whose name he did not know.

Let us move back in time just a bit.

He of course had to stop Mathers's group from attacking the Royal Family's carriages, but he was a simple high school boy without even a bicycle. Aleister had flown off with her cute little jet engines and Accelerator had gone off somewhere under his own power. Left behind, Kamijou needed to find something that could travel at more than 100km/h.

That left just one option.

"Okay, it's mooching time. Where can I find someone to drive me around!?"

"It might sound nice when you call it the power of your bonds, but you really are the worst sometimes, human."

That was just how a high schooler without a license viewed cars and motorcycles. Whether it was their parents or public transportation, it was always someone else doing the driving.

Plus, he already knew there were several familiar faces in London. Lessar and Birdway had been riding a scooter together and he bet he could get a ride from Orsola, Agnese, or one of the other nuns. Add Sherry and Oriana into the mix and surely at least someone had a car.

And.

When Kamijou Touma peered around a corner, he spotted an innocent little fawn in the concrete jungle.

"Isn't that the knight we helped evacuate near the Thames???" he asked.

"She's already recovered?" added Othinus. "That was quick."

"She's staring at a map on her horse. And wait. Is she tilting her head and flipping the map around trying to figure it out? Isn't this her hometown???"

"She isn't following her usual patrol route and the Royal Family is apparently headed to Scotland. She was probably ordered to join them as a guard."

"Looks to me like she's about to cry."

"Well, in the confusion of battle and with communications out, a certain percentage of soldiers will get lost on the way, but unfortunately, I think she's just not very smart."

Whatever the case, it looked like they could come up with a mutually beneficial arrangement. Kamijou had business with Mathers's group which was trying to attack the Royal Family. If he gave the female knight directions, she might just give him a ride on her horse. And since Kamijou could not hide his stupidity on the knowledge front, he was more than willing to rely on Othinus for those directions.

All the spiky-haired boy could do was attempt a hellish negotiation by channeling the spirit of an old lady who traveled the world knowing only Japanese.

"Yahoo!! Having trouble there, miss? If you like, Kamijou Touma here could escort you on a much less irritating journ-…!!"

Before he could finish, his tiny understander and the female knight gave the exact same warning:

"You fool! Don't sneak up on a horse from behind and then shout!! Those herbivores are easily spooked!!"

The idiot was kicked away by the horse's back legs. It was such an impressive kick that the scene was a little comical.


And that was the reason.

"I was careless, but I still feel taken advantage of. Is this what it feels like after an insurance scammer runs in front of your car?"

The clip-clop of hooves continued.

But despite that peaceful cadence, the wind blew by and the scenery flowed by like they were driving down the highway in a convertible.

The female knight did not throw Kamijou Touma off of the horse despite her complaints because she felt bad about what had happened. Leaving him there had been an option, but she was a good person through and through.

A horse might sound primitive, but when equipped with special rubber horseshoes for urban terrain, their mobility rivaled that of a motorcycle. Also, this was the magical kingdom of England. Several different spells were used when raising a horse for official duties. Running around a 2000m lawn would not be enough to exhaust them.

Kamijou Touma was still woozy, so he leaned on the female knight from behind and spoke with a smile.

"It's, ugh, it's okay, Miss Knight. Pant, pant. It was all necessary."

"Why is he so full of life? That kick could have easily killed him."

"I'm a god and I couldn't tell you that."

"More importantly, tell this fool to match his breathing to the horse's movements!! He keeps throwing me off my pace and Alex is getting sick of it!!"

His right hand had touched all over her armor, but her clothes still had not exploded. Any magical reinforcements must have been applied inside the armor.

And Kamijou was interested in what the female knight had just shouted.

"Ho ho? So this horse's name is Alex, is it?"

"He is not mine. I am borrowing him from 2nd Princess Carissa. She ordered me to take care of him while she is imprisoned. He normally only gets to walk around the Tower of London's courtyard, you see. I cannot let anything happen to this royal horse, so breathe with the horse's movements, you fool!!"

It sounded a bit like she cared more about the horse's wellbeing than Kamijou's. And the mention of Carissa brought a light squeezing to the spiky-haired boy's heart. Angering her would indeed be a bad idea. He might just find himself on the receiving end of that overbearing princess's high heels.

But this also meant he had recovered enough to consider such things.

They had to be moving faster than your average motorcycle, but he did not feel his mind going blank like when he rode a roller coaster. Similar to a bus or taxi, it may have been comforting to have someone holding the reins. Nevertheless, accidents still happened and he would share her fate even though he had done nothing wrong himself.

"Yo, oh. Breathe rhythmically? Like this? Does it really make that much of a difference???"

"Stop that, scum! Quit rubbing your crotch against my hips just because I can't stop you right now!"

Apparently unfamiliar breathing methods could lead to unfortunate misunderstandings. The female knight blushed bright red and shouted resentfully back at him.

"Ahem. While it does not go as far as the unicorn legend, Alex is known for only growing attached to pure maidens."

"(Jump!!)"

"Why did your heart just leap in your chest? What is it now?"

"Well, um, you see…I had heard people in the west tended to, uh, hit those milestones at a younger age, but if this horse is fond of you…my, oh, my. Does this mean you are, um, pure? Or how should I put this?"

The spiky-haired boy was too embarrassed to ask any more clearly than that.

But that topic was the only thing in his classy mind. It no longer mattered to him that they were traveling faster than 100km/h.

Then Othinus gently whispered in his ear.

"(That settles it. She's a virgin.)"

"Blush!!!!!!"

An odd noise came from adolescent Kamijou Touma.

Also, Alex began struggling, so the female knight had to force him back on track with the reins. And she was too busy dealing with the horse to check on the situation behind her.

"What is this? What is awakening inside him? Explain this to me!!"

"Don't worry. It's just a sickness," said Othinus. "Innocent young boys have a great weakness for a certain word. No matter how much they try to guard themselves against it, they cannot help but react to it."

"That explains nothing. And small one, why do you sound so relieved by the boy's disturbing react-…"

"And another thing, human. Did you realize this raises a certain question about Princess Carissa?"

"(Shake!!!!!!)"

"Gwah!? What is this aura behind me!? Really, what is awakening inside you to spook Alex this badly!?"

The female knight trembled with biological revulsion, but she still overlooked something thanks to the god's forceful change of subject.

Then she got back on topic to help shake off the fear.

"So the central focus has shifted from the Crowley's Hazards to the Golden magic cabal, has it? I find it hard to believe they really are the Golden cabal, but I have received some suspicious information in official reports. Wars do tend to escalate because you have to strike back when attacked, but I can't believe they would release something so uncontrollable in our country."

"What do you think about Lola Stuart at the center of it all?"

"I refuse to believe it. For one thing, that great demon simply does not exist."

It was a blunt answer, but it was a sensible one when no material evidence had been provided.

And…

"More importantly, you're sure this is the right direction? Putting up with your behavior has been a trying experience, so if we fail to regroup with the Royal Family, not even I know what I will do to you."

"Come to think of it, why didn't the queen use an airplane?" asked Kamijou. "Wouldn't she have a really fancy private jet or something?"

"There are signs of an internal threat in addition to the external one. We cannot rely on the air routes when we might have someone leaking information. Secrecy is a government plane's greatest defense."

Kamijou Touma looked impressed with her knowledge, but Othinus snorted from his shoulder.

"Try to sound smart all you like, but care to explain how you ended up running around in circles? The Royal Family is taking the land route north to Scotland, right? I don't care how complex the roads are in London, there are only so many highways between cities."

"Gh."

"The many branches converge into a single trunk. If you head to Scotland, you will naturally rejoin them. What, were you hoping to stop for a picnic?"

Of course, Mathers and the other pursuers would come up with the same idea. That was why the Royal Family had predicted an attack and gathered as many defenses as they could.

"There it is. That's the entrance to the highway."

"Looks like it isn't blocked off. A normal car could wander onto there, not to mention Mathers."

The experts had that to say, but lower middle class Kamijou was surprised to find no tollbooth at the highway entrance. The armored horse ran up the onramp and entered an elevated road as wide as a runway.

Just then, Kamijou's shoulders jumped at the loud roar coming from behind them. It sounded a lot like a rocket engine, but it had apparently missed the onramp and entered the road below. He had no idea who that was, but it may have been a lost out-of-towner.

Meanwhile, the female knight clicked her tongue.

But not because Kamijou had wrapped his arms around her even tighter when the previous noise caught him by surprise.

"Ignore whatever that was behind us. The Royal Family really is up ahead. We've fallen behind, so we need to hurry it up! We can't regroup with them by waiting here!!"

"How can you tell?"

"There are horse droppings here and there. More than 20 four-horse carriages must have passed through here."

"D-don't give me that disappointed silence!! It's an unavoidable part of using living creatures!"

Her shouting just about led to disaster.

She was slow to notice an obstacle lying on the highway, so the horse nearly trampled it.

It was a human.

Someone had been thrown to the asphalt and they were still collapsed there.

"Wah!?"

The female knight gave a shout and quickly pulled on the reins. She just barely dodged the person. It was a boy who looked middle school aged. No, maybe even elementary school aged. His baggy habit allowed even the spiky-haired amateur to know he was connected to all this, so Kamijou looked back and shouted.

"Who was that!? Do you know him!?"

"I do not!! He wasn't a Knight. He looked more like an Anglican to me."

The female knight shouted back at him while lighting a flare so colored flames spewed from it like a firework. She threw it behind them either as an SOS signal for the medics to retrieve the boy or as a hazard light so no one else would hit or trample him.

However.

Her explanation placed a cloud over Kamijou's face. He did not exactly want harm to come to the enemy, but this meant the boy was not a Golden magician who had gotten himself defeated while attacking the Royal Family. It was the Royal Family and their protectors who were being defeated.

"It's started," muttered Kamijou. "The fight has already started up ahead."

Hamazura Shiage gave a puzzled look inside the four-wheel-drive vehicle parked below the bridge.

"Eh? Tarot cards???"

"Yesss…"

Dion Fortune was so afraid of Aneri(?) that she finally confessed with tears and snot staining her face, but Hamazura was not sure what it meant or why it mattered. Would a detective look so foolish if they confidently explained the trick to a locked room murder only to find everyone was too dumb to understand?

"T-Taki-Takitsubo-shan?"

"It's okay, Hamazura. I don't understand it either. It might be a metaphor or codename for something."

Not being the only one was such a wonderful feeling. It didn't solve shit, though.

However, the bandage woman and mini-China dress girl had shown no mercy to Fortune.

Being too powerful may have come with its own issues.

Fortune was speaking English, but he could still tell there was no ill will behind her words.

"She isn't saying anything too tricky. She just hasn't explained everything you need to know."

"Yeah. I can see why she'd be so confused when you keep pressing her for an answer."

"Higii!?" was apparently universally understood.

Even without a translation from Takitsubo, Hamazura could tell how cornered Dion Fortune felt.

"Stop that. Fortune saved us, remember? And I feel like you two are giving everything a skewed viewpoint and Fortune is actually a pretty amazing person."

Those ruinous words should never have been translated into English.

The filly dress girl brushed back her white veil as she started getting a big head again.

"Heh. Eh heh heh. Yes, I am the great Dion Fortune. Pitting me against Magic Gods is cheating, that Egyptian one is enough to bring me to tears, and finishing me off with my mistress is not playing fair at all, but that is not what matters here. Yes, I am amazing. I might be surrounded by insanity right now, but if you understand my value and show me the proper respect, I will give you the privilege of shining my shoes, massaging my shoulders, carrying my bags, and otherwise doing my bidding! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!"

"Boy, you deal with this one."

"Hold on! Don't you carry some of the responsibility for translating all that!?"

At any rate, the frilly dress girl gave more of an explanation from the back seat.

"When you get down to it, we are just one of the defenses prepared by Great Demon Coronzon. Master Mathers seems to be working toward some way of breaking free of that so we can do whatever we want. He always was good at translating grimoires."

"Mathers?"

"He is the leader of our Golden cabal…although that description makes me feel bad for Westcott who claims to be the second leader."

Keep in mind that Hamazura Shiage was not present for the events at the Westminster Abbey graveyard. Thanks to that, he could not even imagine what kind of person Mathers was or what kind of organization the Golden cabal was.

That was why he arrived at a certain thought in the driver's seat.

(Hm. I don't get any of this, but Coronzon is the villain who was chasing after Lilith, right? Then could we work with this Mathers person to fight her?)

Nothing could have been more presumptuous.

If things had been different, it might have been a possibility, but that option had been eliminated a century ago.

"So if we go to…Scotland was it? We can meet this Mathers person?"

"Hamazura, isn't Scotland pretty far away?" asked Takitsubo.

"I don't know the geography here."

"Scotland is to the north," explained Nephthys. "And the UK is about half the length of the Japanese archipelago."

"It's that long? Then we can't just sit around here. After filling up with gas somewhere, we can go talk with this Mathers guy."

That shocked Dion Fortune as she sat between the Magic Gods in the back seat. The exhibitionists were giggling and whispering into her ears, so they seemed to be acting as a luxurious two-person translator. Hamazura had a feeling they were taking some liberties in their translation, though.

Either way, Dion Fortune tearfully thrashed her arms and legs around and raised her voice.

"Wait!! This is all moving way too fast!! And why are you acting so tough!? Have you already forgotten how quickly Annie and Westcott took you out!? And you think you can deal with Master Mathers of all people!?"

"Wa ha ha ha!! I'm pretty sure this boy's brain is throwing a party 24/7. …But I see. This is the bystander's perspective. You get a lot of interesting ideas when cheap emotion isn't clouding everyone's minds☆"

"Yeah, Kamijou Touma and Accelerator wouldn't have worked this time. Like we said at the beginning, they're way too close to the action."

Niang-Niang and Nephthys shared a meaningful smile in the back seat.

Due to how weak he was, Hamazura was sensitive to changes in the mood and he could tell something was changing now. He felt like it had started with seeing those carriages. The threat of imminent death seemed to be fading and the usual stillness of late night was returning to London. The city was entering a world of peaceful sleep where that abnormal excitement was unneeded.

"How do the convenience stores and fast food chains work in England? I've heard they close early overseas, but the self-serve gas stations are open 24 hours a day, right???"

"Hamazura, we'll know when we get there."

"Y-you're going to visit Master Mathers with these two spirits? For real!? Th-there's something wrong with the world when saving people only puts me in even more danger. Wh-wh-wh-what do I do? I might die today…"

Hamazura drove the vehicle out from under the bridge and into the London night. Before long, he spotted a sign he recognized, so it must have been an international brand. The lights were off, but since there were no barriers or chains keeping them out, he tried pulling up to the self-service gas station.

"Oh, the digital display is on. The pump should be working."

"Hamazura, if there are vending machines, go buy some snacks and drinks. This might be our last chance for a while."

After they discussed what to do while viewing the gas pump through the window, Hamazura opened the door and got out. Self-service stations would have at least one employee inside, so they may have been asleep. Or they had abandoned their job and fled due to the emergency.

And while he thought about that, he noticed something.

Two very small girls were doing something in the darkness. One was a lacrosse-style girl with long black hair braided at the end and the other was an elegant young lady with shoulder-length fluffy blonde hair, a white blouse, a black miniskirt, and black tights. Neither one was the type he expected to find at a gas station.

They were standing restlessly around a scooter.

"Ugeh. This gas is expensive. When did a liter pass 1.3 pounds!? Nwah! War really is a crime!! So we're definitely splitting this bill, right? You've gotta be loaded with your big-ass cabal."

"Don't try to scam me, small-fry. This is your scooter, right? So this is your responsibility."

"Does driving you around earn me nothing!? A taxi would've taken 10 pounds in just 2 kilometers. And isn't the Dawn-Colored Sunlight the proper successor of the Golden cabal? This is like a giant defense contractor driving a small local factory out of business to get the patent to a single tiny bearing! Stop picking on the little guy!!"

"If you were a driver from my cabal, I would have fired you for speaking to me like that. New Light, was it? Besides, it's obvious you're only staying so small to hide your actual skill and keep your operations lightweight. You have no right to say anything to me."

They were arguing over something in English, but there was no way in hell those two were old enough to be using a car or motorcycle. Unfortunately, Hamazura Shiage was driving around in a stolen vehicle, so he was in no position to scold them here.

Instead, he stuck some wrinkled money (that he had found in the stolen vehicle's dashboard) into the pump.

Afterwards, there was nothing much to do except listen to the heavy liquid running through the hose.

But then those two girls noticed him.

The one with shoulder-length blonde hair gave him a quizzical look and then spoke in fluent Japanese.

"Hm? I thought I recognized you. You were one of the guys hanging around Kamijou Touma."

"Who are you again? My precious memory space is reserved for people with big boobs."

A merciless slap sent Hamazura Shiage rolling around the area.

"I recognize this pain. Bard…no, Bird-Something, right!?"

"Almost there. Do you need another hit to jog your memory, you hunk of junk?"

"Ow, wait, ow, ow! When you step on someone, you're supposed to let each blow linger for a bit! This isn't a reward; it's just violence! Please stop, you little dominatrix! What is even happening!?"

"Oops, I hit him too much and he rolled away. Guess I went overboard."

This was odd. Hamazura Shiage was the delinquent with a heart of gold who would rescue little kids and abandoned kittens in the rain. His time with Fremea Seivelun, who was always nyah-nyah-ing, had taught him how to deal with kids, but none of the usual logic seemed to apply here. Why not? Yes, it was a lot like this blonde girl looked like a kid but was more like an old lady on the inside!!

"Oh, so it isn't that you haven't developed a chest yet. You had one, but it shriveled away. You've made yourself look young enough, but you're a wrinkled old hag on the ins- brbwobergh!?"

"Next time I'm jabbing the toe of my shoe up your ass, you fool. More importantly, what are you carrying in that thing?"

"Bwah!!"

Someone rolled out of four-wheel-drive vehicle as if they could not bear to stay inside a moment longer. Since the Magic Gods were stationed in front of the side doors, she had apparently opened the door at the very back. The frilly dress girl forgot to stand up and frantically clung to Hamazura.

"Wait, wait, wait! Please don't barge in on Master Mathers uninvited! You seriously need to rethink this! He really does have a short temper and no sense of humor! What will you do if you uses his Belzébuth meant for punishing his own people!? You'll die!!"

He could not make heads or tails of her English. His grasp of the language was so poor he had considered asking Takitsubo if he was right about which label meant gasoline and which one meant diesel. He felt like his only option was turning toward the blonde girl who knew Japanese.

"That's right! You can always count on Bird-Something! Hey, sorry about the trouble, but could you tell me what Fortune is saying?"

For some reason the little blonde dominatrix and devilish lacrosse(?) girl froze when they saw the frilly dress girl. They stopped moving with their eyes wide.

"Hm? What's with you two?"

They did not answer his question.

Instead, the little blonde girl's entire body trembled and she somehow managed to force out a voice so unsteady it nearly cracked.

"D-Dion…Fortune???"

That tear-and-snot-covered face was gone in a flash. Dion Fortune sat on the hood of the vehicle, elegantly crossed her bright stockinged legs, and held her head high.

"I see, I see. So these are the descendants of the Golden cabal. How cute. Hee hee. How does it feel to see one of the originals? Quite an honor, isn't it? Your heart is pounding with excitement, isn't it? Hwa ha ha! Well, soak it all in because this will be a memory of a lifetime! Yes, there's more than tears for me today! This is just another lovely day in the life of Dion Fortune, magician of love and glory!!"

Was this something like an entertainer surrounded by fans on a street corner?

Yet when Hamazura glanced over, he saw the blonde girl and lacrosse girl hanging their heads with shadows over their faces. And a closer look showed they were biting their lips. There were even tears in the corners of their eyes.

("This is…this is a member of the original Golden cabal? You're telling me this is what I've dedicated so much time to studying!? No, no! I don't want to write it all off as a waste of time! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!)"

"(S-surely this is some kind of mistake, right? Right!? I know you're supposed to view a technique or technology in isolation from the thoughts and personality of its inventor, but this is still something of a shock!!)"

This seemed different.

Those two looked more like mixed martial arts fans who had gone to see a match in person and found it was much less exciting than on TV and the fighters were a lot smaller than they expected.

The blonde girl intentionally took a few deep breaths to calm herself before speaking.

"Anyway, you mentioned Mathers just now, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I haven't actually seen the guy," said Hamazura. "Most of what I know comes from her."

"Hey, Fortune!! A founder like Mathers isn't, uh, like this too, is he!? Just nod or shake your head! This is important! Depending on your answer, I might just crawl into bed and not get out for like a month!!"

"Eh? What's this? Are you hoping to write him a letter, or do you think you can make some corrections to the grimoire? Uwehhh, don't grab, ugh, my decorative collar, urgh, and shake me like that. Bleh, I feel sick."

She was a surprisingly powerful little dominatrix.

But she was inexperienced and showed room for improvement. Her British training had clearly not taught her how to provide punishments and rewards in equal measures. In fact, the frilly dress girl started to look pale, so Hamazura quickly intervened. He did not want to see a girl foaming at the mouth.

"Hey, stop that, Little Miss No Boobs! I can't just watch you do that to Dion Fortune!!"

"Shut up, I do to have boobs!! And what are you to Dion Fortune anyway!?"

"What am I to her?"

Come to think of it, why had she stayed with his group after saving them?

Everyone around him was such an irregularity (including Takitsubo and Aneri) that he was actually glad to have someone more on Fortune's level, but he did not want to make her feel like she had to stay.

"Um, that's actually a good question. Why am I traveling with her?"

"Hgh!?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't say that if I were you," cut in the lacrosse girl. "She might not understand your words, but your facial expression and the general mood say a lot. Do you want to make Class Rep Fortune cry? …And that size of yours is generally referred to as a margin of error, Decimal Point Girl. Bwa ha ha!!"

If this was enough to make Dion Fortune teary eyed, she must have opened herself up to Hamazura and Takitsubo more than he thought. Maybe the Magic Gods had effectively played the bad cop role.

Thanks to the reference to her chest, the blonde girl held the lacrosse girl's head between her small fists and rubbed at her temples while speaking in a low voice.

"Hey, let's go see Mathers for ourselves. I don't really care about the fate of the world, but my identity as a Golden magician is at stake here."

"Ummm, unlike a certain idiot who does everything out of pure self-interest, I'm a legit patriot, so I'd like to put the safety of the UK first and foremost."

"Do I need to use my heel?"

"Ha ha. I'm well known for my wide range of defenses, so if I were you, I wouldn't underestimate-…"

"I'll use it on your family. I'll turn every last one of your relatives into an M."

"Wait just a second! Targeting someone's family is the absolute worst and scummiest thing a criminal organization can do! I-I couldn't bear to see my parents with that kind of fetish!!"

The lacrosse girl bristled at the thought.

That was when Hamazura interrupted.

"Hey, she said the guy's headed for Scotland. And I heard the UK is half as long as the Japanese archipelago. How long would that take on a scooter? Wouldn't you end up with your asses all red and raw?"

The blonde girl and lacrosse girl exchanged a glance.

It was a worried one.

"If Mathers went to Scotland…oh, I get it. It's that obsession of his. He really is claiming to be the Count of Glenstrae, isn't he?"

"Let's just pray he isn't wearing white tights and a crown in full-on prince mode. And if we know where he's going, couldn't we get there ahead of him? Instead of burning out the scooter's engine on the highway, I bet it would be faster to hop onto a freight train running through the night."

"Don't be silly. I am the Dawn-Colored Sunlight's leader, so I can get us a private jet to use. I'm a little worried the airport won't be running during this crisis, though."

"Then why was this domineering girl weighing me down on the back of my scooter this whole time? I really want to give you a punch now."

The sound of the liquid running through the hose and the digital display both stopped, so the fueling was complete.

The same was true with the lacrosse girl's scooter.

"Wow, the price feels even more outrageous when you see the total. Gas is way too expensive. Electric has got to be the way of the future. Y'know, living a cheap and ecological life on solar power."

Hamazura heard an odd warning tone. The money he had shoved into the pump must not have been enough. He had no sense of how much this British money was worth and just shoved another wrinkled bill inside, so the lacrosse girl whispered the answer to him.

"1.3 pounds a liter is more than 180 Japanese yen."

He thought he was going to throw up.

Report error

If you found broken links, wrong episode or any other problems in a anime/cartoon, please tell us. We will try to solve them the first time.

Email:

SubmitCancel

Share