Her arm bent slightly at the elbow, a small yet surprisingly strong hand was pulling Natsume-san along.
There was no need to worry about bumps or stumbles along the way; Index was proving to be quite talented at looking after the sick.
After putting her supermarket job on hold, the little nun had changed back into her habit and dashed out with a certain someone, heading straight for District 18 where Kazakiri Hyouka had supposedly appeared.
"The information about magic you described, Sonoko, is too sparse to pinpoint any specific texts," Index explained, "but it can still be traced back to some Shinto-related magical texts native to this island nation, like Momotaro or The Tale of Genji. The sources for these kinds of books mostly stem from Taoist magical texts like Baopuzi or the I Ching."
"Probably due to historical reasons, magical thoughts… hmm, the 'current of thought' regarding magic in this island nation suffered a major setback. The original indigenous religious magic declined and was lost, while schools better at assimilation and adaptation survived into the modern era."
"The most typical example is the Amakusa-Style Remix of Church that Kanzaki Kaori belongs to; it's now completely part of Christianity."
Dispensing this knowledge about magic to the certain bun-girl, Index didn't mind sharing what she knew with her friend, especially while waiting for the traffic light to change on the big street.
In fact, she was quite happy that Natsume-san was asking her these kinds of questions. It represented a form of trust between them.
And just like her own various clumsy actions on the side of science, Natsume-san, a high-risk asset of the science side, was similarly—and adorably—clumsy when it came to magic.
She didn't even really grasp the essence of magic, and was utterly confused about things like rituals, grimoires, and artifacts. Even now, she only had a general definition.
Simply put, it was like how certain magical girls couldn't understand the instruction manual for a washing machine.
But Natsume-san was different from those magical girls. Even if she couldn't understand it now, her 'other self' probably could.
While browsing that shrine maiden's dreams before, she'd often detected something supernatural. Thinking about it carefully, that was likely the power Hitomi wielded.
In short, since it wasn't science, it could be classified as magic. That was the shallow extent of Natsume-san's understanding of this strange world.
Yet, Natsume Sonoko had no desire to delve too deeply into those things, or to try and accept Hitomi's understanding of her own magic and the world, or even to learn the other's magical abilities.
If she tried to comprehend the power that Hitomi-san possessed, many things she had taken for granted would start to seem off-kilter.
If she fully accepted it, she would no longer be able to exist as an esper in the way she understood herself to be.
This was fundamentally different from the series of unscientific events she had witnessed before. Simply knowing something and choosing to understand it were two completely different things.
Once she deeply, fundamentally recognized that this world was not scientific, the worldview Natsume-san had built upon that premise would crumble.
Although that worldview itself was as precarious as a sandcastle, and the foundation of that castle was the even less reliable identity of a 'transmigrator,' it was still a sense of self she had worked hard to establish.
But it seemed this world had no intention of letting Natsume-san follow her lazy nature. It kept pushing her to a point where she had to face the facts, as if expecting her to one day truly recognize her own heart and step out of her so-called comfort zone.
"Speaking of which, Sonoko, why have you suddenly become so interested in magic?" Index asked, tilting her head.
"Most people in this city are the type who start feeling sleepy the moment someone starts lecturing about magic theory."
"And besides," she added, raising an eyebrow thoughtfully, "it's suspicious that you, clearly on the science side, Sonoko, are carrying an artifact given to you by someone else."
She was naturally referring to a certain amulet on Natsume-san's person.
Although it was just a lucky charm with a faint magical trace, such products on the magic side could generally be termed 'artifacts.' Moreover, it was a passive-type artifact, similar to her own 'Walking Church' nun's habit, though of a far, far lower grade.
"I just feel I should try to understand," Natsume-san replied, her face showing a hint of hesitation.
"I've encountered some very strange things. I want to try and find the answers."
Accepting anomalous knowledge, as mentioned before, carried significant risks.
But starting from the choice to understand that shrine maiden, she had already made a decision this time. Natsume Sonoko wanted to deal with the various problems existing within herself.
And if she kept reading those dreams, the opportunities for such anomalous contact with knowledge would only increase, until Natsume-san was forced to completely accept the fact that her worldview was being reshaped.
"Strange things? Are they secrets you can't tell others?" Index asked, peering intently at the girl with twin drills, her curiosity piqued.
"They're not secrets, really. It's just… not convenient to tell others."
"The dictionary says that's the definition of a secret," Index stated earnestly.
"It's really not such a big deal," Natsume-san demurred, fumbling for words.
"It's just… I suddenly have this inexplicable feeling, like… hmm.. as if my previous life might have been a magician or something. Index, do you believe in things like reincarnation?"
Natsume-san was just throwing things out there, offering a seemingly plausible piece of information.
It wasn't that she had things she couldn't tell others. Kamijou-senpai didn't hide the nature of his right hand's power, and Index hadn't concealed the 103,000 grimoires in her head from her.
She just didn't know how to say it, worried she might be seen as a lunatic or something. And sometimes, she just preferred to keep things bottled up inside.
"Reincarnation?"
Index, walking beside her, first recalled a series of Egyptian necromancy spells, unconsciously comparing them to Natsume-san's increasingly thin frame.
Then her head filled with texts from Buddhism, Taoism, and of course some Christian books as well. She nodded vigorously.
Of course she believed. Wasn't that common sense?
In many magical and religious doctrines, humans were said to continue existing in another form after death.
According to Christianity, humans face God's judgment after death.
Buddhism directly had the concept of reincarnation.
Taoist texts had also absorbed this idea, developing concepts like ascension or feathered flight, not to mention the various other magical texts that worshipped death.
In short, given the nature of this world, once so many different thoughts and consciousnesses collectively pointed towards the deceased engaging in a collective activity like reincarnation, it was highly possible that a corresponding concept, born from that collective belief, truly existed.
And once such a concept existed, then perhaps Heaven, Hell, the Underworld, the Netherworld… all of them had appeared, becoming specific Phases mixed within the boundless ocean of Phases.
In that sense, it wasn't that the world itself inherently contained these concepts, but rather that everyone believed they existed, and so they came to be. One could even use certain tools or specific methods to control the formation or manifestation of these concepts.
This kind of utterly bizarre world setting could often be attributed to things like miracles. For magicians, it probably explained the origins of various ritual-based magics.
Perhaps even the existence of the soul could be speculated in this manner.
Once a vast number of humans, or beings of even higher existence, believed souls existed, then it was entirely possible they truly came into being.
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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL