Whenever she turned up in this kind of situation, it always reminded Kamijou that she lived in a different world. “So where’s this point, then?”
“Touma, don’t you have a blinky-blinky map? Give it to me for a minute!”
“You mean the GPS in my phone?” He handed his cell phone to her, but she scowled at it, so he decided to stand next to her and hold it sideways. She ordered him to go more to the right, a little farther down. After various other commands, she finally indicated one point with her slender, fair index finger.
“It’s right there.”
“Our recon team reported that they discovered two suspicious persons near the point in question. They’re likely to be Amakusa, but we’re leaving them alone for the moment.”
They got results not fifteen minutes after Agnes had delivered the command upon hearing Index’s advice. It really gave Kamijou a sense of how different things were when you had more people. He was all over the place during Angel Fall, despite it being a chaotic situation to begin with.
“But they say they couldn’t locate the main Amakusa force, the
Book of the Law
, or Orsola.”
“Makes sense. Going in with dozens of people at this hour would be sure to raise eyebrows. They’re still
open for business
over there, after all.”
Kamijou didn’t know exactly when the stores would close up, but it still wasn’t even eight yet.
If the Amakusa members planned to flee from here using the tricks in Tadataka Inou’s map, then they would need to use a movement point called an “eddy.” He and the others were planning to crush Amakusa when they got to it and rescue the
Book of the Law
and Orsola.
“It’s possible there are other points we don’t know about—and possible that they won’t use the special movement method. Since we can’t see the main force anywhere, it will be hard to split up all our personnel among the designated regions. Unless we funnel a lot of
power into both the upkeep of our perimeter and searching those areas, their chances to escape will rise, so. It’s just that it would still be real risky…”
Agnes sounded worried, but Index didn’t let it get to her. “I think that’s normal. It isn’t like there’s any definite evidence that what I’m saying is true.”
Agnes continued. “Thus, we have seventy-four people to use, including myself. We’re reorganizing our weapons and Soul Arms now, but we cannot promise victory should we encounter Amakusa’s main force. I’m sorry, but I’ll need to have you protect your own hides.”
Until now, Amakusa had fought on equal terms with less than fifty people against the Roman Orthodox Church, which boasted more than two hundred fifty. Her remarks were understandable.
Stiyl lit a new cigarette. “We don’t mind. I can’t get in contact with those Knight idiots who promised to send us support anyway, and we can’t have ourselves being luggage, either. How long will the reorganization take before you can move out?”
“Selecting weapons and armor…And including the application of holy water and each individual reading scripture aloud to gain protection…” Agnes thought for a moment. “Three hours, give or take…At the latest, we’ll be done by eleven.”
“And when we include transit time, we’ll need to settle things in a little over half an hour. Well, it’s fine—even if we were really early, we’d just be waiting in vain if the Amakusa main force didn’t come to the point in question anyway.”
With this and that, it was decided that mobilization would be at eleven
PM
.
Clap, clap!
Agnes clapped her hands together, fired off an order in a foreign language, and the sisters dressed in black all began moving at once. The seventy-four of them immediately formed two-to four-person teams and hastened their respective preparations.
For Kamijou, who had grown accustomed to seeing individualistic—or to put it more negatively,
self-centered
—sorcerers like Stiyl,
Tsuchimikado, and Kanzaki, the perfect order with which this group operated was a little surprising.
The plan was that Agnes and the others would split into teams to rescue the
Book of the Law
and Orsola and prepare for combat individually. Those who were finished would switch out and grab a meal and a nap. But how could they catch any shut-eye just hours before a battle?
He was dubious, but according to Agnes, you wouldn’t sleep too soundly in a bed if the battle dragged on. It seemed to be common sense for them that if they had any time at all, they should sleep in short bursts—even for just ten or twenty minutes—and recover their stamina. He figured the women in this group must be used to fighting under such conditions.
Of course, he, Index, and Stiyl didn’t need to prepare anything anyway, so they ended up getting food right away and taking a nap. He wondered if maybe that was Agnes being considerate toward her guests. And incidentally, their meal and rest would both be outdoors.
Why was he camping out in the middle of Japan’s capital, again? He couldn’t help but find this odd, but then he considered it calmly—the sight of seventy-strong people dressed in strange clothing assembling at a restaurant or hotel and preparing for battle would be surreal, and akin to camping out anyway.
But if we’re going to be starting at eleven
…
Am I going to make it to school tomorrow? Ah! Wait a sec, isn’t the deadline for avoiding the summer homework penalty coming up?
Panicked, he turned his thoughts back to Academy City, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Due to various circumstances, he never finished his homework from summer break. Miss Komoe had given him a replacement assignment because of that (she had created handouts for him alone). The deadline, if he recalled correctly, was tomorrow…
Ahhhhh!
He blanched. He thought he’d have finished it for
sure
. The hard-working Touma Kamijou had been desperately racking his brains and desperately evading Index’s desire to play and the cat’s
desire for snacks all day. In all honesty, there was a part he would never have been able to do on his own. But after Mikoto Misaka taught him the trick to solving those problems yesterday (she stuck with him for hours for some reason, despite getting angry at him constantly), he had sped up his pace, and he had just begun to catch a glimpse of a ray of hope that he’d finish within the day.
Crap, crap, she’ll be so mad! What do I do, ahh
…
Miss Komoe will definitely get mad that Mikoto helped me, no doubt. Ahh
…
I haven’t said this in a while. One, two—what rotten luck!
He began to tremble a little. He quietly looked up at the night sky—and decided to believe the shining, transparent drops coming from his eyelids were sweat.
His shoulders drooped. He trudged over to the camp in the corner and got himself some soup and bread that seemed Italian but he didn’t really know the names. As he munched on it, he took a quick look at his surroundings. There were a number of dome-shaped tents all over the Hakumeiza parking lot. The parking lot was definitely not big enough to cover everyone, but some could sleep inside the building. Besides, more than half of the Roman Orthodox people here were urgently making preparations and didn’t seem to have time to catch a nap anyway.
It all made Kamijou hesitant to go to sleep by himself without a care in the world, but Stiyl had said bored people wandering around would be much more of a nuisance.
No one’s gonna call the police on all these people camping out in an abandoned building, are they? Or did they do that magic to keep people away so that wouldn’t happen?
Kamijou thought as he entered a tent in the campground and wrapped himself up in a blanket.
Stiyl was already lying down next to him, and Index was apparently in the next tent over. The sorcerer had wanted to be in the same tent so he could protect her, but that opinion didn’t seem to go over well.
If only Kanzaki were here—she’s a girl…,
he had muttered, grinding his teeth, while sticking rune cards all over the tent she was in. Kamijou looked at them. It seemed like Innocentius’s power
level varied based on how many cards Stiyl used, and the man had been lamenting how limited he was with such a small tent.
Kamijou lay in the tent for a little while, but he just couldn’t seem to sleep. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel tired or that he was experiencing pre-battle excitement—he just felt awkward resting by himself when so many other people were working outside. And when he envisioned them in his mind’s eye, he couldn’t help but think of Orsola, dressed in the same habit.
“…I’m going to go help with something.” Squirming, he crawled out from underneath his blanket.
Stiyl seemed annoyed. “I won’t stop you, but please try not to break any of their Soul Arms with that strange right hand…And if you do, you’re on your own. The English Puritans will have nothing to do with it.”
Spurred on by the extremely unpleasant advice, Kamijou left the tent.
The night was sweltering. It was hot and humid outside, too. He saw a girl with a big bundle of silver candles in her hands, a sister carrying a good number of old Bibles, a lady hoisting a huge wooden wheel you might see on a horse-drawn carriage—all going to and fro in the crowd, busy as bees. He didn’t know how to use any of that stuff.
All right. I wonder if there’s something I can help with…Wait, huh?
He noticed something and stopped. Index’s tent, the one right next to his, which was plastered with cards—the zipper for the entrance was open. It didn’t look like there was anyone inside.
Where did she get off to—Wait, whoa?!
As he was looking over there and walking, he suddenly noticed that he had lost all sensation underfoot. He had unwittingly stepped into the equilateral triangular hole Amakusa had opened in the ground.
Eek, I’m falling!!
Just before his body slipped into the sewer without a sound, as he flailed about in midair, a sister in black hurriedly grabbed his hand. She pulled him up, then gave him an angry lecture in some foreign language. He didn’t really understand what she was saying.
Aw, jeez, am I being a huge bother right now or what?
A heavy, dark aura coiled itself around the dejected Kamijou as he observed the triangular hole he was about to fall into.
Amakusa used the sewers as a route to directly attack the surface from underground. Until now, he had considered this place to be relatively safe to wander about, since it was essentially the Roman Orthodox base. Maybe, though, the line was a lot thinner than he thought. It was the command center of Amakusa’s pursuers. He realized they must be concerned about the fleeing Amakusa coming to this base and wrecking it, since it would make it easier for them to run away.
Well, I doubt pulling an intricate surprise attack on an amateur like me would mean much. If there was an important point somewhere here, like an HQ, that could be in danger, though.
That said, he couldn’t tell the difference between the tents that were important and the ones that weren’t. For the time being, he saw a tent that was a size bigger than the others and got the detached impression that they’d probably go for something like that. But then…
All of a sudden, a loud
bam
exploded from the large tent.
A girl’s shriek followed in its wake.
“…?!” Kamijou’s mouth dried. His vague idea from a few seconds ago shot back across his mind.
Amakusa was able to directly attack the surface from underground.
And they would probably go after tents important to Agnes and the others.
But that means
…
really? Are you serious
…
?
“Damn it!”
The silver lining was that the tent was quite close to Kamijou. He tightened his right fist hard as a boulder and dashed for it. There were many sisters nearby, but they were standing there at a loss at the sudden situation. Kamijou ran through them to the entrance of the big tent and pulled the zipper on it down in one motion.
“Amakusa!!”
At the same time he shouted, there was something heavy in the opened entrance—and
bam
! It slammed right into Kamijou’s gut. It was heavy and warm, and he thought he could feel watery moisture.
Gah
…
?!
Kamijou got goose bumps everywhere at the strange sensation. He was about to swing his fist down when…
…he realized that the person with her arms around his stomach was a completely naked Agnes Sanctis.
“………………………………………………………………………………………Huh?”
Kamijou heard the sound of a huge bell ringing in his head as his mind went completely blank.
The stark-naked Agnes’s hair was wet with water, and there was moisture on her skin, too. Her soft skin was tinged faintly in red, with white vapor rising from it. But his embracer was trembling all over, her eyes were firmly shut with her face buried in his stomach, and she was muttering things in another language—all these amounted to the fact that something was wrong.
He didn’t understand what Agnes was saying, but as she clung to him, she pointed at something. He looked that way.
There was a small slug stuck to the corner of the big tent.
As she pointed, she said something in a foreign language.
“W-wait, Agnes. Just get off and put on some clothes. And I only understand Japanese!” Kamijou shouted, his face bright red. Her trembling stopped immediately.
With much trepidation, she looked up.
Her eyes locked with Touma Kamijou.
In the next moment…
Agnes passed out and fell straight backward.
Ugeh?!
The ground was made of rough asphalt. He hurried to gather her up right before she collapsed onto it. A strangely warm sensation
came through his shirt, sending all the nerves in Kamijou’s body into a frenzy. Agnes was more slender than Index overall, so she had a firmer feel—but that, in contrast, only seemed to emphasize her softness on a part-by-part basis.
Uh
…
?!
Then, when Kamijou directed his gaze straight up to get his eyes off of Agnes, now snug in his arms, he saw something else and quaked again.