Part 2
Itsuwa, a girl belonging to the Amakusa Christian Church, was near Kamijou's high school.
She wore a pink tank top over a sweatshirt that was as fluffy as a sheep. Below, she wore deeply colored pants, but the pants had cuts wrapping around them with a transparent plastic material that prevented the fabric from moving out of place. This was a new Academy City design that boldly showed off the flesh color of her legs. She had carefully chosen her outfit in order to blend into this rare city that was 80% students. A suit when in a business district and a miniskirt when in a shopping district. That was the Amakusa style rather than Itsuwa's personal style.
She had a reason for being in Academy City.
Two days before, a letter had arrived at the Anglican Church and the top levels of Academy City. It had been sent by Acqua of the Back, a member of the secret Roman Catholic organization known as God's Right Seat. The letters had been a sort of challenge. He had said he was on his way to utterly destroy Kamijou Touma and that they should send out their strongest forces if they wished to stop him.
It was of course possible the letters were fakes.
However, the one sent to the Anglicans had contained an additional item to boost its credibility.
To put it simply, it was Terra of the Left's remains.
Those remains had been gently wrapped in the highest quality velvet and shipped in a paulownia box that smelled faintly of wood. It was unclear if the extravagant jewelry box style decorations had been meant as ridicule for his enemies or a sign of respect.
The upper body ended at the waist and it definitely belonged to that member of God's Right Seat.
Itsuwa had directly fought Terra, so she had been called to St. George's Cathedral to confirm his identity. But that had left her bewildered.
There were two reasons for this.
First, Terra had supposedly been fried in Avignon by Academy City's weapons, but this corpse had clearly been sliced in two at the waist.
Second, if Terra had survived those Academy City weapons, how much strength had Acqua of the Back needed to so easily execute him?
The man had been killed in a single strike.
That was the story told by the bisecting wound.
As one who had directly fought Terra of the Left, Itsuwa could tell. That man had caused her to so much torment and had broken through an Academy City unit, so it would have taken extreme cruelty to rip his body apart by force like that.
And she had further questions.
Why had Acqua of the Back sent out an old-fashioned letter of challenge rather than attacking at a weak point as God's Right Seat had done before?
And why had he killed Terra of the Left and then used him in the letter of challenge?
His method had been so straightforward that the Anglican Church and Academy City had made many different speculations and suspected a trap, but they had been unable to grasp his true intentions. At any rate, if he was targeting Kamijou Touma, they had decided that defeating him here would be best, so the Anglicans had dispatched the Amakusa Christian Church.
It was normally forbidden for magicians to act as a group within Academy City.
That action was defined as crossing the line between the magic side and the science side.
But that agreement had been broken for this exceptional situation.
Itsuwa did not know the details, but the Anglican archbishop had likely struck some form of deal with the head of Academy City.
Most likely, the Anglicans had chosen a small independent group under their command like the Amakusas because they could be cut away like a lizard's tail if things grew inconvenient. It was also possible they had been chosen because they had originally operated within Japan and knew the land.
Either way, Itsuwa was now within Academy City where she could not normally be.
This was partly due to the world beginning to divide between the "Academy City and Anglican Church" side and the "Roman Catholic Church and Russian Orthodox Church" side, but it was even more due to Acqua of the Back being such a great danger that he could not be defeated while following the rules.
To put it another way, Academy City and the Anglicans had both decided an attack solely by Acqua was more of a threat than the global chaos caused by crossing the line between the science and magic sides. That was how powerful an enemy the man was.
"…"
Due to that situation, it had also been decided that Itsuwa would join the battle as Kamijou's bodyguard.
She needed to contact him as quickly as possible, but she also had enough sense not to arrive when he was in the middle of class. She was waiting in a position from which his class was visible and planned to take action once school let out.
(I need to do my best.)
She clenched her small fist as she secretly filled herself with motivation.
During the C-Document incident from a few days ago, her insufficient strength had left her unable to protect Kamijou through to the end. To make up for that fact, she was prepared to act as a professional magician and not let anyone lay a finger on civilian Kamijou Touma.
She carried a bag over her shoulder and she could feel the weight of the dismantled Friuli Spear inside.
(With Vento of the Front and Terra of the Left, he has already defeated two members of God's Right Seat, but there has to be something for me to do. I need to do my best.)
And then a familiar face cut by in front of Itsuwa's eyes.
It was Kamijou Touma.
"Eh?"
She tilted her head as she wondered why and then she checked the time. There was no way school had been let out yet. Also, Kamijou's expression as he ran through the streets was not normal. It looked like he was being pursued by something.
Something may have happened.
Slight tension filled Itsuwa.
And then she saw a suspicious gorilla-like person cut by in front of her in pursuit of Kamijou.
The person's face looked the polygonal villain in a unique western video game.
Itsuwa thought about Kamijou, recalled that western video game face and then looked back toward Kamijou's fleeing back.
There was no way that gorilla was a normal person.
Kamijou Touma was a courageous veteran of many battles yet his face was filled with fear.
His expression made it look like he thought he would be torn limb from limb.
Finally, she came to a conclusion.
According to the report on September 30, Acqua of the Back was a man.
(He's already here!!)
She swiftly assembled her spear and charged straight toward the western game villain.
Part 3
Due to health reasons, Saigo the disaster teacher in charge of life counseling had to retreat.
"…Ha."
After school, Kamijou, who had finally managed to finish the great battle of lunch, sighed heavily as he walked out of the school gate after changing his shoes at the shoe shelves. Right now, Itsuwa, who was still blue with shock, was standing there.
For some reason, she had appeared at the noon break, and like a spirit, intercepted the life-counseling teacher (with a spear, no less). It seemed like all of that had been a misjudgment on her part. "EH? He's not Acqua of the Back? EHHH!? A SCHOOL TEACHER!?", and after which, Itsuwa had collapsed into confusion.
There were many questions Kamijou really wanted to ask Itsuwa, including 'Why are you here in Academy City?', but Itsuwa was rolling her eyes around in confusion as she tried to settle the gorilla-teacher problem, carrying his huge body and quickly heading to the hospital.
And it all ended up like this.
"I-I really… even if I'm useless, there's got to be some limit…"
Itsuwa, who had come back from the hospital, was now sunk in a deep and bottomless-looking hole.
To Kamijou, if he had been caught by that gorilla teacher, he would have been thrown onto the asphalt floor by ancient martial arts, and afterwards, have gotten smothered with a sweaty pinning move combo; this was undeniable. Thus, it was hard to tell whether Itsuwa had served her purpose or not. However, it seemed that Itsuwa wasn't down because of that.
(…Seems like it's also not because she injured an ordinary person… because, that gorilla had a legend going about that he managed to catch a falling boulder with both hands while in a rockfall zone. That's not an ordinary person.)
Anyway, no matter what, Kamijou decided to start by asking why Itsuwa, as a resident of the magic side, was appearing in the main base of the science side—Academy City.
"…Acqua of the Back. Do you still remember that name?"
Itsuwa trembled as she asked.
Kamijou's eyebrows moved suspiciously.
"Yeah. I remember, he's one of the members of God's Right Seat…right? I met him once on the 30th of September."
Yes, after Vento of the Front had been defeated in Academy City, it was Acqua who forced his way in. Besides being a member of God's Right Seat, he had the capability of a Saint. It was impossible to imagine his battle prowess, and he was essentially different from all the enemies Kamijou had faced so far.
Though Kamijou didn't really want to go anywhere, he continued to walk towards a busy street, chatting with Itsuwa.
"Then, what about Acqua? Don't tell me he intends to do something strange in another country?"
"N-not that, that's not it…"
Itsuwa looked like she had trouble articulating. After she seemingly processed everything in her brain, she finally said,
"Acqua of the Back's target seems to be you."
"Ha?"
"About that, both the Anglican Church and Academy City have gotten a challenge letter from Acqua. It was written that in these next few days, he'll… um… come back to attack Kamijou Touma. So he told both sides to be wary, something like that."
Itsuwa looked troubled, as she paused halfway through talking. She was like those parents who purposely concealed the extremely sensitive issues from their children.
His own life was being threatened by Acqua of God's Right Seat… Just how serious was this? This ordinary high school student called Kamijou Touma was unable to immediately understand.
"God's Right Seat, huh?"
Kamijou pondered for a while.
"Vento of the Front once said that in order to kill me, the Pope had to prepare the relevant documents to let them attack Academy City. But they probably wouldn't mobilize such a powerful guy to attack me, an ordinary high school student."
"AH!? NONONO! This is because you helped so many people and managed to stop the Roman Catholic Church from carrying out their underground deeds! How could they still consider you to be an ordinary high school student after you have done so many things!?"
For some reason, Itsuwa had begun to shout. Though it wasn't clear, Kamijou suitably concluded that most likely, she had been sent here by the Amakusa to guard him. Although he was praised by her, the boy standing here really was just an ordinary high school student, and there really wasn't anything about him that was praiseworthy.
"But Vento of the Front came here before… it's Acqua of the Back now?"
"Right now, the English Library's checking on his history. Including the other members of God's Right Seat, there hasn't been any important information dug up on him so far."
"Well, they are secret members of a secret organisation."
"Though there hasn't been any specific information, he obviously has the strength worthy of a member of God's Right Seat and what seems to be the power of a Saint, so it'd be great if we can get the Priestess's assistance."
This Priestess she was talking about should be Kanzaki Kaori.
She was one of the 20 Saints in the world, and had managed to survive a fight against a real archangel. This was truly one achievement she could brag about.
It was true that Kanzaki's help could help the situation a lot more, but as a lot of things had happened in the past, there was a rift between Kanzaki and the Amakusa. Also, Stiyl once said that because Saints have such ridiculous powers, they were not allowed to go about freely.
"…But this doesn't mean we're completely at our wits' end,"
Itsuwa sounded like she wanted to discard any unrest as she said.
"God's Right Seat is an extremely powerful group of the magic side. Truthfully, even if we fight against them all, we can't guarantee that we could even manage a draw against them. But, Vento of the Front and Terra of the Left… we managed to fight them back. Why is that?"
"Mm."
"We didn't analyze the details thoroughly, so we can't say that our current intel is correct, but both sides have a common point of 'having been interfered greatly by the science side'. Terra of the Left was forced to change his plans because of those powered suits and supersonic bombers, and as for Vento of the Front, it was… that… thing which looks like an angel, right?"
Now that she mentions it, this was true.
It had been because of Academy City's irregular counterattacks managed to shake up the strongest magic group, God's Right Seat. They hadn't been able to perform on the perfect stage where they could utilize all of their strength, but instead performed on the stage of the science side, which they were not used to. Maybe this was the real reason why they had managed to win.
"Then, to fight in Academy City where science is everywhere, there should be a huge significance."
"…I-I feel that things aren't that simple…"
"?"
Seeing Itsuwa continue to mince her words, Kamijou felt puzzled. Itsuwa immediately waved her hands to get over it.
"An-anyway! Acqua of the Back will be attacking, so I'll protect you well. The Anglican Church gave us orders to protect you, publicly and privately, so please do not worry too much!!"
Though Itsuwa said this with energy, Kamijou did feel that these words were important.
Wanting to verify whether he had heard this wrongly, Kamijou confirmed it again,
"Itsuwa, why are you here?"
"Do I need to say it? I'm here to be your bodyguard."
Itsuwa clenched her small fist. Seeing her like this, Kamijou felt that every part of his body was getting stiff.
So he asked again.
"Itsuwa, why are you here?"
"I said it before, I'm here to be a bodyguard, to stick to you and protect you."
Part 4
The substitute Supreme Pontiff of the Amakusa-style Church, Tatemiya Saiji was hiding behind a building, his eyes leaving the pair of binoculars.
They were beside a little cinema. Nearby, there was a little lateral path, and at the entrance, there was a lottery shop that was conveniently and deliberately placed there to block the line of sight. This was supposedly a crowded place, yet unexpectedly, hardly anyone noticed this place — a really intriguing place.
Showing a dirty look as he held the binoculars with one hand, the narrow-eyed Tatemiya silently said,
"…How boring."
Regarding this comment, the big guy beside him, Ushibuka, was pretending to read a magazine while nodding his head in agreement.
"That Itsuwa…she's been talking about work all this time, not even going on the offense."
"Yeah, we finally gave her the perfect chance to get real close to Kamijou Touma, yet she hasn't done any self-revealing yet. Looks like she's forgotten about the greatest weapons on her body."
"What's Itsuwa's greatest weapon?" The lanky teenager, Kouyagi, asked as he continued to pop popcorn into his mouth.
Tatemiya rummaged through a tossed-aside bag and pulled out something like a whiteboard used for a riddle contest. The black marker then started to run on the whiteboard.
After that, he wrote the correct answer on the whiteboard and showed it to everyone.
"—Yes, that's Itsuwa's huge, hidden breasts!!" Tatemiya widened his eyes as he said this.
Besides Ushibuka and Kouyagi, a group of men, including the middle-aged man Isahaya and the already married Nomozaki, immediately gathered towards where Tatemiya was.
"On what basis do you make this hypothesis, Pope!?"
"To actually say such a thing… I won't agree to this kind of horse race-like prediction, you bastard!!"
The males all pent out steam from their nostrils, and Tatemiya again moved the black marker on the whiteboard.
"According to the great Itsuwa Massage battle, her sore shoulders index is 40. But considering Itsuwa's muscle strength and activity level, and also her clothes, equipments, and everything else she has, even after totaling all these, it'd be weird if her maximum sore shoulder index even reached 37."
"If so, this means…"
A group of men swallowed their saliva.
Tatemiya seriously nodded his head. He gathered all of his energy in his abdomen before declaring in a high-pitched voice:
"Yes, this sore shoulder index has only a difference of 3. This is the best evidence to show that Itsuwa has huge hidden breasts!!"
Because of this stunning truth that was written plainly on the whiteboard, Ushibuka and Kouyagi immediately fainted. Isahaya, who was over 50 years old, seemed like he was happy about seeing his own granddaughter grow up. On the other side, Nomozaki was, on one hand, muttering to himself that breasts should be a bit smaller, and on the other hand, he seemed both regretful and disappointed.
Standing slightly farther away, the blond female, Tsushima, looked like she was seeing a bunch of idiots, and sighed heavily.
"…Stop talking about such useless things; keep your eyes on the one being guarded."
Tatemiya and the other males got a dampener over them. With probing eyes, they stared at Tsushima's body, whose height was disproportionate to her bust size.
"Tsushima-senpai's ambiguous, so she shouldn't say much."
"WHAT!?"
"No matter what, at least tall people should have huge breasts, or short people with small breasts. Tsushima doesn't have a fixed character trait, that's why."
Beside Tsushima, who was unable to say anything, Tatemiya pulled out a new whiteboard and uses the black marker on it.
"Sheesh, don't you guys know this—the legend of Tsushima's beautiful legs!!"
Not knowing what the substitute Supreme Pontiff could say next, Tsushima kicked Tatemiya right between the legs to force him to shut up.
The males seemed uninterested in Tsushima, as they all choose to ignore this side and focus on Itsuwa.
"But is this really alright? That Itsuwa looks like she's going to continue with the wet napkins tactic."
"It's true that Itsuwa's too passive. She won't be able to climb over the fence at this rate…" Isahaya, who was more than half a century old, said while gritting his teeth.
At this moment, Tatemiya, with tears in his eyes, again snatched the right to lead the conversation.
"Yes, to allow Itsuwa to display her extra large oranges to the maximum, we can't let this continue."
"Eh…? Extra large oranges!? I thought they're at most as big as apples!!"
Beside Ushibuka, who was making a ruckus, Kouyagi asked,
"But substitute Supreme Pontiff, it's useless to discuss this further, right? Itsuwa's really maturing too late."
"Humph, that's why I prepared a countermeasure."
Tatemiya unveiled an evil smile as he pulled out something from a pretty bag.
"A soccer ball?"
"The wilderness sharpshooter Tatemiya Saiji will again propose a free kick match."
Part 5
Because of recent events during the past few days, Misaka Mikoto was in a daze.
Ever since she became aware of 'a certain thing' regarding Kamijou Touma, she had always been like this. No matter how much she considered it, the problem wouldn't settle. No matter how much time was lost, the problem wouldn't settle. It was like asking someone to answer a question he couldn't answer: no matter how much the person thought, he would continue to be stuck at the same spot.
(As expected, that wasn't a bluff.)
That certain thing.
In other words, it was… a loss of memory.
It was supposed to just be a sentence consisting of only a few words, yet it shook Mikoto's heart up.
(But, since when…?)
She hadn't felt that anything was amiss during the date on the 30th of September, and there hadn't been any change during the Daihaseisai tournament. Did something happen on the 31st of August? Or was it that time when he interacted with the Sisters and Accelerator?
"…"
She couldn't make a correct judgment.
If so, even though that boy looked like he was near to her to some people, there were a lot of things about him that she didn't know about.
(I know that this isn't something that can be solved by worrying about it.)
Since when did he become like this? How much of his memory was lost? Does this affect his life? Did he let a doctor check up on this before? Is there really no way to treat this?
And,
How much of his memories with her were lost?
(I could check it out with someone that's an expert in mental control, but…)
In Tokiwadai Middle School, besides Mikoto, there was another person who was also a Level 5. In terms of mental control, she was at the top of Academy City—in other words, she was the strongest ever in regards of her Mental Out. Reading other people's memories, changing other people's personalities, carrying out conversations with people far away, destroying memories and willpower, revealing feelings and transplanting them… No matter what kind of mental phenomenon it was, she could control them all. Like a Swiss knife, she was a multi-functional Level 5.
"But I'm not used to dealing with her…"
She subconsciously said out loud.
This meant that Mikoto didn't really want to deal with that esper.
Unlike Mikoto, whom was unaffiliated to any sect, she was the queen of ojous, the leader of the largest sect in Tokiwadai Middle School. From this, it was obvious that both of them were incompatible. If Mikoto was to seek her to talk, it would end up with Mikoto being in her debt… In the worst case scenario, she could do some unnecessary things to that idiot during the therapy. Accurately saying, the trust placed with her wasn't so great that Mikoto was willing to place her friend into that person's hands.
So she shouldn't consider this.
Anyway, Mikoto decided to chase away this existence of another Level 5.
(Even though I understand that idiot's personal problems, yet asking me not to mind about it, it's obvious that I can't do it. I'm not the kind of person who won't care about other people.)
Why didn't he go look for her? Should he continue to pretend that he doesn't know anything? Including these questions into the mix, Mikoto had no other choice but to grit her teeth. Furthermore, Kamijou Touma himself did not know that Mikoto was aware about this issue, and it looked like he didn't wish for her to be. If she forcefully confronted him… through that, there was a high likelihood that a lot of damage could be done to him.
Now, what should she do?
Was there anything she can do?
(AH!! DAMN IT. WHY AM I BEING SO BOTHERED ABOUT THAT IDIOT'S PROBLEMS!? I'M GETTING ALL WORRIED AND GETTING MY BRAIN ALL AFFECTED, AND THIS MAKES ME EVEN MORE WORRIED! Maybe I should recollect my thoughts.)
She wanted to say that, but if she was really able to change feelings so easily, she wouldn't be so bothered.
Thinking about all of these, Mikoto sighed heavily. At this moment,
"…?"
She just so happens to see a group of suspicious people beside a little cinema.
A large man placed a soccer ball on the ground. He had black hair that was as shiny as a beetle, and after nodding to the surrounding people, he did a little start up run before kicking the ball forcefully.
The forcefully-kicked ball soared, spinning end over end, making a sharp arc. If it were a proper match, it was most likely that this free kick would have passed over the defense's wall and headed into the goal.
What were they doing on the road? Mikoto's eyes naturally moved towards the destination of the soccer ball.
At that moment, she froze.
*PAM!!* With a crisp sound, the side of Kamijou Touma's head collided heavily with the soccer ball.
Possibly because of the impact from the soccer ball, Kamijou's head sunk deeply into the valley of the chest of the girl who was walking beside him.
It looked like the impact just now was rather great, but Kamijou was just buried into the girl's chest for a while. The girl looked like she didn't know what to do and blushed before rubbing on the part of his head that had been hit. This entire sequence of events just gave the wrong impression that Kamijou's head was being forced in.
Because of the sudden series of events, Mikoto was unable to say anything. At this moment, shouts of 'bravo!' could be heard. Looking at where the voices were coming from, it seemed like the guy who had made that free kick and those young guys were happily giving high-fives to each other.
*Pacha pacha* One could hear the sounds of sparks falling.
After realizing that this was due to the high voltage emitting from her body, Mikoto exploded.
"There's someone here with all sorts of trouble… STOP GIVING ME ALL SORTS OF TROUBLES, YOU BASTARDS!!!"
The long spears of thunderbolts continued to shoot out from Mikoto's bangs. After noticing this, beetle-head and company immediately dispersed, and in the next moment, vanished without a trace. Like a chameleon mixing into the crowd, they could not be found by her. Mikoto was intrigued by that.
Yet even after losing her target, her anger wasn't kept in check.
Besides, that mastermind, the hedgehog-head boy still had his head buried inside the girl's chest, and even gave an "Uuuu…" sound as if he was saying something. It was like a dazed and sleepy child grabbing a certain expanded part of a girl.
"That idiot… HOW LONG MUST HE CONTINUE TO BE MESMERIZED BY THE FEMALE ANATOMY!?!?!?"
Mikoto shouted and immediately dashed towards Kamijou, who, logically, should be the one punished.