ACADEMY CITY CHAPTER

Part 1
Half of Heiwajima Shizuo’s motionless body was submerged in the middle of a river.

Part 2
…What on earth was he talking about? The fierce blond man wearing a bartender’s suit
and sunglasses was thinking about things like that. What, why, and how did it become
like this? No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t give a reasonable answer.
Heiwajima Shizuo knew that he wasn’t good at thinking about things, and besides, his
surroundings did not look like Ikebukuro in any way, and to say that this was a regular
developed city would be underselling its neatness.

There was an airship with a large screen on it slowly moving over his head, broadcasting
some strange news.

“…Flying overhead at 10,000 to 25,000 kilometers in the sky, the high altitude flying
SSTO platform “Sky by Fire” has beaten the world record of 152 consecutive days in the
air. Before this, it had already claimed the record of being the world’s largest aircraft,
having the world’s largest loading capacity, as well as being the mobile platform with the
world’s largest launch capacity. This time…”

Even Shizuo, who didn’t regularly watch the news, could tell that there was something
off with this content. Not to mention the obvious flying machine which wasn’t making
any noise. This was no longer in the realm of common sense.

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Anyway.”

Still half submerged in the river, Heiwajima Shizuo spoke in a frighteningly low voice.

Sometimes, he talked to himself like this.

2
“This sort of weird and troublesome situation is most likely related to that bastard.
Speaking of which, “yesterday” was the same—annoying as fuck. I should first find that
damn flea and kill him. Ah fuck, my smokes are all wet! I’m definitely killing Izaya, that
bastard!!”

Although that might sound insane, he had somehow always managed to find out the
truth through such methods. He was a man whose very existence ran opposite of the
saying “let sleeping dogs lie.”

An incomprehensible situation, thinking of Orihara Izaya, and his supply of nicotine

running out—Shizuo had ticked off three of those checkboxes…

“Though, to be fair, no matter how much that flea looks like a flea, since he came from
his mother’s belly, in the end, he’s still a human. Deciding to kill him on a whim isn’t
that good…Argh, why did that bastard have to be born from someone!? If he were a toy
or a doll, I would have killed him without saying anything—that guy pisses me off!”

Let’s take a step back.

Calm down.

That’s right, giving way to anger would be the easy way out. Movie heroes always turn
that anger into strength and try to beautify such behavior. But that’s something that can
be done by any dog you can find on the curb…Well, he’d never had the patience to
endure through something so slow paced as a movie. Anyway, one must suppress that
anger—the ability to do so was unique to humans. Hadn’t he caused so much trouble for
his brother before because of this very issue of patience?

“Haaah…”

Slowly, like steam escaping from a highly pressurized steam engine, Shizuo suppressed
his rage.

Essentially, thanks to that, situations such as the Earth being karate chopped in half or
half of the Moon being vaporized by a beam of Shizuo’s rage were avoided.

“Hi~, Shizu-chan…How are you not dead yet?”

He heard something, an auditory hallucination.

This auditory hallucination was accompanied by a visual one.

More than fifty meters away, a grand steel bridge stood, and the illusion of a slender,
elegant man with a large smile on his face was leaning against the railing of the bridge,
waving his hand.

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 “……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

In addition, there came a loud popping noise from inside Heiwajima Shizuo’s head.

It was the sound of the angry steam engine, one that had been releasing steam slowly,
blowing it all away at once.

“Iii—!!”

He could not even wait for his shout to fully form.

“Zaa—!!”

Shizuo brought the upper half of his body down into the river.

“Yaa—!!”

There was a vending machine at the bottom of the river, possibly a nasty joke from a
certain someone, and Shizuo silently pulled it up with both hands.

“Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!”

There was an explosive sound.

The extra-large artillery shell flew through the sky, just like it would have in the streets
of Ikebukuro.

Part 3
“Ah, I don’t like this, don’t like this at all.”

The young man named Orihara Izaya was talking in a perfunctory manner while
running from alley to alley. However, this wasn’t the commonly seen “distancing oneself
from the other” method of running away. Attempting to escape Heiwajima Shizuo, who
was so packed with muscle that he could take bullets straight on, by foot, was
undoubtedly suicidal. Therefore, Izaya constantly turned from alley to alley to execute
maneuvers such as “disappearing from view” or “eliminating clues.”

The fact that he was facing Shizuo, who could maybe even outrun a cheetah or a leopard,
and was still alive today was undeniable proof for the effectiveness of such
countermeasures.

4
 “I at least thought ‘getting caught up in the distortion of space’ would have caused you to
die; I mean, with this, I don’t even know why I made this deal with them.”

But.

This method should have only worked in the streets of Ikebukuro. The reason was very
simple: if you were not familiar with the area, you couldn’t make use of the intricate
system of alleys. He had originally wanted to shake his opponent off, but if he ran into a
dead end, or if that sort of thing happened, it would be a real problem. Facing an
opponent like Shizuo, there was no doubt he would be made into mincemeat.

In spite of this, Orihara Izaya managed to navigate the alleyways easily.

You could maybe say that this was going even smoother than it would have back in the
streets of Ikebukuro.

(Well, this city also seems to have some sort of thing going on for itself, but anyway, it’s
a lot more convenient since there aren’t any “adults” lurking in the darkness of this city.
It’s like arriving on an island that uses shells as currency and has no concept of forgery…
Well in any case, I just wish Shizu-chan would die already.)

His strides were like that of this city’s…Academy City’s citizens.

Or it would be better to say it was as if he had already obtained a detailed map of this
place beforehand, thus being able to understand every nook and cranny of this city.

Part 4
He casually leaped over the parked SUV on the roadside, slid beneath a hot dog cart, and
finally ran straight up a building in just a few seconds. Overall, such actions were similar
to a tiger or a lion crossing obstacles to chase its prey.

Despite all this, Heiwajima Shizuo had lost Orihara Izaya.

This place was like an intricate maze of concrete in all directions.

The bartender with sunglasses put his hand on a wall with red letters scrawled
everywhere, which were not in English, and slowly breathed out.

He was trying to keep himself from “accidentally” destroying the building.

5
 (…No matter how flea-like he is, this is too much of a coincidence. No, since a flea is
always just a flea, it’s impossible for it to win without any preparation.)

If you stepped on the opponent’s laid-out track without the certainty of being able to
destroy it completely, it would be meaningless to chase it heedlessly. He had already
learned his lesson about this kind of “smell” countless times in high school. It was the
smell of imminent failure.

However, it was at that very moment.

Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting sound. It was like the sound made from scraping a
rough piece of rock against metal.

“…That goddamn flea.”

Shizuo didn’t think it was Izaya himself.

Actually, in the case of Orihara Izaya, it was usually more troublesome if he himself did
not appear. In other words, this was the situation he was best in. If he used himself as a
decoy and baited his opponent into following him, that opponent, chasing after him
without thinking, would be led into a deserted alley in no time. And then an assassin
would appear. Wasn’t this “exactly” what that guy did best? It felt like getting in ten
consecutive combos in a trapping game—a trap so obvious, it was oddly satisfying.

But Shizuo wasn’t one to be cowed by something on this level.

Rather, his emotion meter was maxed out by rage right now.

“In other words, I can find out where that flea is just by beating that guy up, right…?”

The monster who could be considered the apex of the human race walked towards the
source of the sound without any hint of hesitation.

The only question left was whether Shizuo would be able to beat “that guy” up while
making sure his tongue and cheeks were left intact.

Part 5
Then, in a dirty alleyway with red graffiti everywhere, stood a girl who clearly did not
belong there.

6
She had short black hair and large glasses. She seemed timid, and that shone through
not only from her looks but also from all of her small actions, ranging from slightly
twitching and shrinking her body to hugging herself as if she were trying to protect
herself. The girl, who had a blazer that looked like it was from some school uniform,
would’ve seemed attractive to people who were into that sort of thing, yet annoying to
people who found such things distasteful. From the air around her, one could tell she
did not actively look for a long and eventful life, but however, the needle in her meter
spasmed from left to right, always straining further from the “average.”

Sonohara Anri.

Although she seemed the type to be reading obscure poetry anthologies in the school
library, she was holding the very thing that would completely shatter such an image.
Though from her posture, which looked like she was hugging herself, it could have been
said that she was in fact embracing “that thing.”

So, what exactly was “that thing”?

The answer was a katana.

“Hey, you over there, you know that it’s actually the truth!?”

In front of Anri, who was retreating two or three steps backwards, was a pointy-haired
high school boy who furrowed his brows as if he were in a conundrum.

His expression was desperate, and his voice carried a sense of unease.

“I have no idea where you came from, but it’s obvious that you’re not familiar with this
place, and that you don’t belong here!”

His words weren’t making much sense in the first place, but even without that,
Sonohara Anri felt an acute dizziness in her head. She realized that she was losing the
ability to recognize the sounds coming from in front of her as words.

This was not simply a matter of speaking to a boy she had never met before.

The real reason lay within the katana she was holding.

It would be more accurate to call it a demonic blade.

Saika.

It was shouting loudly in the sweet voice of a woman directly into the mind of Anri, the
owner of the blade.

The tone was completely different from her usual whisperings proclaiming her love of
humanity.
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“What is that; what is that; what is that; what is that; what is that? Wuhuhuhu! Ahh,
ahhhh! That’s not good; that can’t be good; no matter how much I think about it, that’s
definitely not good! I have no problems with being shattered, dulled, melted, or changed,
and I would still be myself, but I have no doubt something terrible will happen if I were
to glance off even so much as a fingertip!”

Kirikirikiri!! Anri’s vision was forcibly drawn to a certain place.

It was drawn to the pointy-haired boy, and especially to the part below his right wrist.

(What is…this person?)

Anri was, in a word, terrified.

It was not because of the unusual reaction of Saika nor the “something” hidden within
the pointy-haired boy.

She didn’t know what, but something was definitely off.

She sensed danger that raced along her spine, mercilessly fanning the fear in her heart.

It was as if an invisible fishing hook was pulling her soul out to the other side of the
“frame” Anri had predefined.

(I know Saika always whispers her love for humanity. Sure, there will be some
exceptions whom she hates, but she’s never simply given up to fear like this…)

“It’s not too late yet.”

The pointy-haired boy spoke.

Another step.

Even if a knife was pressed into her neck, even if a gun was pointed straight at her
forehead, as long as she was still within her “frame,” Anri would have never been shaken.
But even she stepped back from a totally normal step, like a totally normal girl.

This was not good.

The only reason she had been able to stay sane against the whisperings, or the “curse,”
of Saika was the existence of her “frame.” Anri could not imagine what would become of
herself if she were to forget its existence.

“Anyway, I’m running out of time. Please tell me how many people are with you. And
then all of you involved need to go back. There’s no other choice anymore!”

Uu!
8
And so.

In an instant, Sonohara Anri drew her katana with a large motion. It was as if she
couldn’t even feel its weight. She swung it around with one hand, creating orange sparks
as the blade screeched against the wall, until its end was pointed directly at her
opponent.

The action was in no way like one that would have been made by someone who has
knowledge of kendo or swordsmanship.

It would be more accurate to say that Anri had merely acted out of self defense, much
akin to a person instinctively protecting their face with both of their hands.

However, the pointy-haired boy merely clicked his tongue.

As if in response, he clenched his fist again and took a posture of his own.

“Damn it! Why did it have to come to this!?”

The moment the fist was clenched…

Kirikirikirikirikirikirikirikirikirikirikirikiri!!

Through Saika, an absurd amount of tension and sense of danger ravaged Anri’s
consciousness.

Numerous fishing hooks from the other side of her “frame” grabbed onto her exposed
soul and tried to forcibly pull her out. An unknown reality was threatening her very
personality.

Starting from the edges, her vision began to lose focus.

She reflexively covered her lips with her hands as she could feel her stomach heaving
uncomfortably.

(This is…bad)

Saika’s blade started glowing an ominous red.

No, that wasn’t it.

That was just the light reflecting off the blade. It was Anri’s own eyes that were really
glowing.

(No…!!)

Her vision became hazy.

9
Her consciousness began to fade.

Saika’s “whisperings”, which used to merely be continuous soft mutterings, began to

pressure her heart little by little while accompanied by an unfamiliar, sweet smell.

However.

In fact, Anri never turned into a slasher demon.

The reason was simple yet difficult to explain.

“Bagigokushyaaaaaahhh!!!???”

It was because out of nowhere, a flying vending machine launched the pointy-haired boy
into the wall.

Well.

It wasn’t as if the vending machine was made of sponge, nor was the wall an old and
crumbling dirt wall. It was beyond any doubt that the vending machine was made of
metal and the wall was solid concrete.

Even so.

Nevertheless, what in the world just happened?

There wasn’t even a one-millimeter gap between the wall and the vending machine. No
matter how you put it, it would have been most accurate to say that the pointy-haired
boy was “smashed.”

A dry sound followed.

Nobody knew what had happened to the boy.

“Fu fu fu! Ha ha ha!! Ah, that was amazing that was so good that’s what all human
beings should be like if there’s a human with the highest specs right in front of me then I
shouldn’t be afraid but instead love them love them love them love them!!”

When she came to, Saika was back to normal.

Accordingly, Anri also came up with an appropriate response. She pulled her “self” that
was halfway out of her “frame” and began lightening the effects of the cursed
“whisperings.”

The red in her eyes slowly faded.

By the way.
10
 The person who caused such damage spoke aloud.

“Yo, do you know anything about fleas?”

The girl who secretly hid the demonic blade behind her back shook her head gently.

“I don’t know.”

Part 6
“It hurts….”

Accompanied by a cracking sound.

Kamijou Touma kicked the mangled vending machine out of the crumbling concrete
wall. Then he wobbled outside.

Patter patter, the blood spilled from his forehead and dripped onto the ground.

“…That hurts, damn it! Are you from Ikebukuro as well, you bastard!?”

“Huh? What a surprise. I’d understand if you had just dodged or blocked my attack, but
you’re somehow still standing after taking a direct hit. You must be as solid as Simon,
right?”

“…Another name I don’t recognize. Exactly how many people came here?”

“Well, anyway, I have just one question for you… Do you know about the flea?”

“Ahhhhhhhh, seriously!! How many people are from Ikebukuro!?”

While shouting, Kamijou suddenly charged towards Heiwajima Shizuo and tried to grab
his shirt.

Sadly for him, even though it had been plunged into a river and had gotten wet, that did
not change the fact that the shirt was a gift filled with memories from Shizuo’s brother.

And the deadliest thing was that when Kamijou grabbed the shirt, one of the buttons
flew off.

Riiiiip.

The pointy-haired boy heard a strange sound.

11
It sounded like a bundle of steel wires being forcibly stretched on both ends like a
rubber band.

However, he would never be able to guess what the sound actually had been.

Indeed.

No one could have thought that the sounds made by the straining of a mere human’s
muscles could ring out like that.

“Ah.”

Just.

Blankly, he realized he had messed up.

(I guess I’m on the highway to hell now.)

At that moment.

–––!!!!

All sound disappeared with a flick of his wrist.

“Ah.”

At the same time, strangely enough, Heiwajima Shizuo made a similar sound.

With just one hand, he had grabbed his collar and then threw.

He himself was probably the only one who could grasp what had happened.

The person who had been right in front of him, whose name he did not know, had been
blasted away from the alley and made a spectacular sound of something splattering
everywhere.

He couldn’t even imagine what happened to the boy—not even where he landed.

The man in a bartender’s suit, who was left all alone, muttered to himself with a face like
he had accidentally ripped the paper while scooping goldfish because he had put too
much strength into it.

“Shoot, I should’ve asked about the flea before smashing the fly…”

12
Part 7
Satin dress: [Huhh!? I’ve never heard the name Tanaka Tarou. Are you someone who
hasn’t used this social media? Well, anyway, nice to meet you.]

Tanaka Tarou: [Nice to meet you too. Anyway, I was really taken aback. It looks
basically the same as any other social media, but it turns out to be something completely
different on the inside, and it’s filled with technology I’ve never seen before.]

Satin dress: [Ahaha! Everything about the technology is adjusted by the server
management side, so it has nothing to do with us!]

Tanaka Tarou: [I see. I was just thinking it would be hard when you host it yourself.
So, I’ve heard this is a forum that collects rumors.]

Satin dress: [Yes indeed. If it has anything to do with urban legends, leave it to me!
Ask me about anything from the best location for a bravery test to the most nerve-
racking workplaces!

Tanaka Tarou: [Um, are there rumors about the demonic blade or the headless rider?]

Satin dress: [Hmm. You’re looking for some really retro stuff, huh?]

Tanaka Tarou: [I’m sorry.”]

Satin dress: [No need to be sorry. But, uhh, oh yes… There was one derived from some
other rumor. Have you heard of the subway tunnels story?]

Tanaka Tarou: [I’m sorry, no.”]

Satin dress: [If you apologize to me one more time, I’ll force you to play FPS games
with me for free until tomorrow morning both as punishment and to bring us closer as
friends, all right? Anyway, some experiment on neutrinos or the Higgs boson or
whatever led to rumors that a strange door opened in an unused subway station. And if
you go through that door, you would be teleported to a fantasy world where swords and
magic are intertwined. It’s recently become somewhat viral.]

Tanaka Tarou: [So how is that connected to the headless rider?]

Satin dress: [Ahh, yes. Well, if we can go to the other side, it’s logical to think that
someone could come to us from the other side. There have also been numerous rumors
of strange sightings around the station’s entrances and exits. Should I send you the
video URLs?]

Tanaka Tarou: [That would be great. …Wait, numerous rumors?]

13
 Satin dress: [Yeah. You’ll see it in the video, but it seems that there’s more than one of
them who came through. Vampiric aristocrats, retro gangs from the Prohibition era, and
all sorts of other things. I mean, compared to UFOs and Little Greys, it seemed there
were more types of them.]

Tanaka Tarou: [Then, you’re saying one of them was—]

Satin dress: [Exactly. There was a headless rider in a jet-black riding suit. Well, I
suppose it could just be something a college film student is doing to ease their
boredom.]

Part 8
“...”

A headless rider in a black leotard pulled up to the side of the road on a motorcycle. She
elegantly typed an ellipsis onto her PDA.

As if there was always some bored, perpetually online guy in the anime forum, a reply
soon popped up, saying, “Don’t just write meaningless BS.”

Once again, without even realizing it, she had become a celebrity.

If there happened to be an “original” in this city whose head had been cut right off by a
wire trap, she wouldn’t even be able to lift her face to meet theirs. At that point, it would
probably be better for her just to serve up some cookies or whatever.

“But like, I can’t lift my face because I don’t have one. Fufufu.”

Right after those words were uttered, the motorcycle that “she” was riding let out a
sound similar to that of an upset horse.

The headless rider came back to her senses and hurriedly deleted the text she had typed.
If her lover Shinra had seen it, it would have been disastrous. In all seriousness, he
might have even made an “I can’t lift my face” t-shirt.

Incidentally, this city, which was apparently called Academy City, seemed to be a
treasure trove of urban legends, just like Ikebukuro, and there were all sorts of rumors
running around, including the headless rider.

For example, the rumor that “nobody knows who’s writing the bloody German letters all
over the city or even when they’re written, but a tragedy will occur just as foretold...” and
so on.

14
 “...The Sky by Fire is the world’s largest high-altitude flying SSTO and the pride of
Academy City. Unlike a rocket or a space shuttle, a single-stage spaceship separates
from an airplane mid-flight to break through the atmosphere. This was a major
Academy City project that combined the scattered research and developmental
achievements of various private spacecraft companies...”

An airship slowly passed over the headless rider’s head, its large screen broadcasting a
mass of information to the entire city.

“A spaceship, huh. There are rockets outside of Tanegashima too...? I-I just hope that
kind of thing doesn’t attract real aliens, shudder shudder.”

The headless rider typed furiously on her PDA to turn her mind elsewhere.

Suddenly, she turned her gaze to the side.

As if deliberately spoiling the squeaky-clean walls of the building, huge red letters had
been scrawled on one side.

Although the letters were from the English alphabet, they were arranged completely
differently.

But for the international headless rider, German was not a problem.

Then, after skimming the letters, she entered something onto her PDA.

For some reason, she then turned the screen towards the direction of the graffiti.

This was what had been written on the screen:

“Well, what the hell are you doing there, vampire?”

Part 9
“So that’s why 3D printers are like pyramids.”

A young man who was holding a plastic bag with anime designs on it spoke.

He was Yumasaki Walker. Next to him, a woman named Karisawa, who was also holding
a plastic bag, laughed.

“Yumacchi, I’m a cosplayer, so I only know so much about 3D objects. How do you
expect me to understand something as philosophical as that?”

15
“How should I say this... Whether you’re making a battleship or a girl, or a girl in the
form of a battleship… It’s like building something up with loads of tiny dots to make a
smooth outline. Basically, you can only add to it and can never subtract from it. After all,
you can’t make the tunnel after building the mountain. So in the end, it’s like a
pyramid–you can only create the internal rooms and pathways by changing the way you
stack the dots when you make it at first.”

“So what?”

“But this place, Academy City, is just filled with tools that allow one to use the taking
away method to dig right through all three dimensions! And it’s as easy as using a
photocopier in a convenience store! Man, I can’t even put into words how awesome this
is! It’s indescribable! The possibilities, the range of what can be done, are on a totally
different level! Poggers!!!”

“So, Yumacchi, you’re a 3D kinda guy?”

“Up to a purity of about 2.99 dimensions, I’m your guy! An idol made of polygons is not
three dimensional! It’s just pretending to be so!”

Next to them, there was one man who actually had some common sense. He made a face
like he had eaten a bitter insect after listening to the others’ conversation. The man
named Kyohei Kadota always had something weighing down his mind.

“...You know what, it’s your life, so I won’t say anything more about it. But what the hell
happened to that Togusa guy?”

“Ah, well, Togusa-san is totally obsessed with 3D idols. After seeing Meigo Arisa-chan
just now, he disappeared into the crowd like a slippery eel.”

“That was pretty cool, right!? It’s definitely not just a normal cosplay–could it be some
kind of promo for a theatrical release!?”

“Hey, what about Hijiribe Ruri...?”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk! That ain’t right, Dotachin; this isn’t cheating! While idol fans know they’ll
never be able to touch the real deal, they’re free to construct harems and dream teams in
their brains!! Of course, this is all confined by the limits of their wallet!!”

They hadn’t changed at all. It’s as if that group of people had concentrated all of their
points in professional baseball into a single parameter.

At that moment, Kadota noticed that Karisawa was looking elsewhere.

In her line of sight, next to the window of a shop of some sort, stood a girl in a pure-
white nun’s habit and a bespectacled, ample-chested high school girl in an indigo jacket.

16
Kadota warned them just in case.

“... Don’t get involved in that. If that’s a religious person, you might accidentally create
an international incident!”

“What are you talking about, Dotachin? They’re our comrades! Can’t you see!?”

“Huh?”

“That’s Index and Kazakiri Hyouka from the show A Certain Magical Index! ...You know,
that’s a lot more difficult than it looks. It always gets heated whenever we discuss how
one would portray the safety pins!!!”

“So they’re cosplayers, huh...?”

“But really, that’s a scarily accurate reproduction. Let’s go ask how they did it! Wheee!!”

Saying that, Karisawa stretched her arms out horizontally while holding on to her plastic
bag and charged off like a plane taking off.

The cosplay(?) girls were saying some things as they looked through the window.

It looks like they weren’t browsing the shop’s merchandise.

“Well, it’s based in German, but there’s a lot of phrases in some sort of dialect, so it’s
hard to decipher...”

“...I-I don’t speak German, so I can’t say much.”

On one side of the transparent glass window, crimson letters were haphazardly scrawled
over it.

It wasn’t lipstick or anything like that: it was written in some kind of paint that looked
suspiciously like blood and gave an ominous feeling.

Karisawa, who was looking at the window over the shoulders of the girls she had just
met, suddenly said, “Hm? Doesn’t that say, ‘The Sky by Fire will fall from up high. Three
more people, and it’ll fall for sure’?”

“Whoa!?”

“Uh, umm, and you are…?”

The two girls, shocked, turned around, shoulders shaking, but Kirasawa only gave them
a non-sequitur answer.

17
 “Heh, for the users of the Evil Eye, German is a compulsory subject! Rather than one,
two, and three, it should be, eins, zwei, and drei! Schwarz Kreuz, Black Crucifix! But
everyone wants to use German, so it’s common sense to memorize all sorts of niche
words in order to stand out from the rest!!”

“...”

“...”

The conversation died. Maybe it had never been alive in the first place.

The gaze of the girls wandered around, and then fixed on a single point, resting on the
face of someone who looked like he could actually communicate properly with them.

As always, Kyohei Kadota had a face like he had eaten a bitter insect.

“... I’ll do my best to translate, but even I have my limits.”

Part 10
Rumble rumble

In front of the headless rider, the characters written in blood on the wall squirmed.

The characters no longer needed the wall as a canvas. The crimson liquid, as if in a
micro-g environment, floated in midair, and then began to form a particular German
phrase.

“Either way, I look like this, so even if I wanted to convey an accurate warning to the
residents, when they see me like this, they’re so scared that I don’t even have a chance to
communicate. So I had no choice but to use methods that their common sense could
accept, like the fact that bloody graffiti has been scribbled everywhere in the streets.”

“Wouldn’t the fact that this much blood—way more than what one could get by draining
an entire human body—was sprayed everywhere go past their threshold of common
sense? It wouldn’t be surprising if rumors of some unknown murderer were to start
circulating.”

“Hmm, the human world sure is difficult to understand. While being holed up in your
own castle is comfortable, if you surround yourself only with such comfortable things,
you’ll be spoiled, and such considerations will only be crude at best.”

“A castle?”

18
“As in the castle of a vampire. Although the lordship has been transferred to my son, I
would still be called viscount if I were to return to my country in such a form.”

Although she was just a headless rider with no clear memories of her own, as expected,
she had a firmer grasp on the occult than most ordinary people. Still, a vampire in the
form of a mass of blood could only be described as “exotic.”

“I was hoping you would look a bit more... aesthetically pleasing...”

“It’s basically the same as assigning parameters in baseball games. Sure, some vampires
go all-in for looks, like the immortal queen of internet fairy tales who sings and dances
while pretending to be a 3D model or the diva vampire who, instead of cash, collects
blood donations from millions. I wanted to do things a little differently, so I decided to
forgo my outward appearance completely and instead further my evolution.”

“You know, it would be great if you could come back stronger and stronger every time
you were defeated for like three times or something.”

“Oh, you’ll have to ask the mayor for that kind of thing. He’s the expert in powering up
after being defeated.”

There was an endless amount of questions raised about the vampire made of bodily
fluids, but there were more pressing concerns at the moment.

The vampire who called himself(?) viscount had expressed so in bloody letters.

“What do you mean ‘you were trying to convey an accurate warning?’ “

“Well—though I’m sure you’re aware of it as well—by nature, we are not supposed to be
in this world. While it’s thrilling to think of establishing diplomatic relations using such
an occurrence, things will most certainly go wrong.”

“And more specifically?”

“It’s like the butterfly effect. Regardless of whether we have malicious intentions or not,
because of the emergence of such outside forces, the great causality in the world here
will be gradually skewed, leading to something that should never be allowed to happen…
but that’s beyond our control. After all, even if a butterfly’s flapping wings can cause a
storm, that butterfly cannot hope to control said storm.”

The bloody text continued to shift.

Having finally met a person(?) who could properly understand German, it seemed the
viscount was extremely upbeat.

19
“Nevertheless, we can’t just say that it has nothing to do with us and that the fact that
this world will be destroyed is not something we should care about. That would be too
irresponsible, right?”

“What do you mean by something that should never be allowed to happen?”

“Well, you’re already seeing it.”

The viscount began making something other than just words.

A pointer icon, like that of a computer cursor, pointed straight up.

To the sky.

The airship floating slowly in the blue sky was broadcasting such news.

“The Sky by Fire is currently sailing over Japan and is preparing numerous SSTO
vehicles for gravity-free medical research, high-speed cargo transportation, orbital solar
power generation, and personalized space travel.”

The headless rider raised her full-face helmet and looked to the sky, typing some text
onto the PDA under her shadow.

“That thing?”

“That thing.”

It seemed that the vampire gave only an incomprehensible, cryptic answer.

But that was not the case at all.

“It appears that the Sky by Fire isn’t actually something that exists in this world.”

Bullseye.

Only the immense scale of the situation prevented the headless rider from properly
understanding what was on hand.

“We don’t know how many foreign entities have broken into this world, but all of the
distortions caused by such movements were concentrated into a single point in the sky.
And so, the world’s largest supergiant aircraft that should never have existed was born.
And it will continue to exist until we leave this world. On the other hand, if we foreign
entities continue to increase and be active here, then its details will become more and
more fine-tuned.”

“...”

20
 “And here’s the worst part: it seems to have a self-preservation function inside, so, to
put it simply, it’s actively working towards the destruction of the factor that we need in
order to leave this place.”

The bloody text laid out the terrible facts so concisely.

“An SSTO can be transformed into a ballistic missile just by changing its contents. If
over a hundred shots of them were fired on this city at the same time... To be precise, it
would try to shatter the “rumored tunnels” we need in order to return to our original
world. If that fails, the Sky by Fire itself might fall like a meteorite to shut the door and
make us stay here forever.”

Part 11
A total length of three hundred and eighty meters.

And a total width of five hundred.

It was an aircraft that looked like a flying wing aircraft shaped like a “<“ with another,
sharper, V-shaped pair of wings stuck on top. A four-winged flying machine, it looked
like a kimono floating on a river. In fact, more than eighty percent of its giant fuselage
was filled with SSTO launch and control devices, and the upper part of the fuselage was
covered with countless hatches, which looked like a honeycomb or the vertical launch
tubes on a nuclear submarine from which cruise missiles were shot.

The manufacturing technology used could be seen everywhere in Academy City, which,
admittedly, could even be mistaken as a Martian base by outsiders.

Or rather...

“This is fourth control; some unidentified cooling system is proliferating around the
computing equipment! It is presumed that the object has acquired CIC-class processing
power. Currently in the process of self-segmentation!!”

“You can’t even remove the parts. Cut cables are rewired in about thirty seconds on
average!”

“Warhead formation capability is rising. Unlike until now, when only conventional
rocket fuel was injected, it seems that special explosives are being mass-produced in on-
board chemical synthesis plants!!!!”

The lamenting cries of young girls could be heard from all over.

21
Even as they cried out, the ground beneath them writhed, the wires and the pipes in the
walls constantly shifted, and rooms and equipment that had never been seen before
were constantly created as if it was a matter of course.

It was as if they were inside a living creature, or as if they were watching a timelapse of a
plant’s growth.

This wasn’t the time to talk about modern technology. Rather, the technology itself was
becoming more and more complex by the second, right in front of their eyes.

“We’re less than a hundred kilometers away from Academy City. Thanks to the altitude,
we’re already at a point where something can reach the city by simply free-falling
without any propulsion!!”

“I still can’t get my commands to be received. Maintain an altitude of twenty-five

thousand meters!”

“Analyzing the target’s position through a radar survey, terrain relief scanning, and
concave/convex patterns... The target is represented as the center of Academy City!! The
launch tube hatches on the first and second wings are opening in sequence!”

The girls who were giving those various reports seemed to be middle schoolers.

If one were a native of Academy City, one would have recognized them to be the elite
students of the famous Tokiwadai Middle School.

“Sigh, what’s going on here…?” Misaka Mikoto muttered impatiently.

There was no explanation of any kind, and even those girls couldn’t explain what had
happened.

They had been at school, as usual. Shortly after the bell that signaled the end of the first
period had rung, they had all appeared inside this machine, which they had never seen
before.

Rather than to say that they had been transported somehow, it was more appropriate to
say that the entire landscape around them had been replaced.

“How exactly was the list of names leaked?” said the queen of the largest clique at
Tokiwadai Middle School, Shokuhou Misaki, as she leaned back against the wall.

One of the monitors that were lined up everywhere was displaying a student register for
Tokiwadai Middle School. Each name was assigned to each part of the giant aircraft
called the Sky By Fire.

22
“Or could there be another reason why the names are known even though they haven’t
been released…?”

Presumably, they were to be the crew of the ship.

A unified group of people, possessing enough skill to be able to manipulate such an

aircraft.

That may have been the reason why the aircraft twisting like an organism had “selected”
them.

In order to assume the proper form of an aircraft.

Everything it did was to enrich the details even though it had the ability to grow to
completion by itself already.

At some distance from Shokuhou, Misaka Mikoto and Shirai Kuroko were in the middle
of a conversation.

“Onee-sama, how is the situation on your side?”

“Wait a minute, here, it’s this wire, right…? Should be fine, there’s just a bit left... there!!”

Misaka spoke, hunched over at the console.

Having peeled off the equipment’s power distribution panel, she was cutting into the
mass of cables inside.

According to previous reports from the girls, even if the power distribution cables were
cut, they would automatically be reconnected, but...

“Okay, that’s good... Although the severed cables will automatically connect back
together, if we add other wires to the mix, they should mix together and be restored as
well! Alright, it’s starting soon!!”

Misaka Mikoto snapped her fingers.

The terminal held in her other hand showed a red debug screen that she had never seen
before.

Although it was based in English, it was totally different from what one would see in
everyday conversation. Kuroko, who was watching from the side, could not understand
it at all, but that was not the case for Misaka.

23
Tatatatatatat!! As her fingers quickly moved around, the Sky by Fire, which had been so
stable that you could almost forget it was actually flying, began to shake slightly.

“Local data link, CIC, first through fourth full wing surface, waiting for the command list
to be displayed... there it is!! The emergency stop command for all SSTOs about to be
launched! Disengage target coordinates!! And now… !!”

There was a noticeable change in the screens piled up everywhere.

One of the underclassmen turned her back.

“Launch preparation successfully lifted!! With this, Academy City is saved!!”

“That was just the first step. If we don’t land this thing safely, then...”

Shortly thereafter, Misaka smiled.

Bzzzzt!! The cabin lights immediately turned bright red.

Immediately afterwards, the entire Sky by Fire shook tremendously.

In the blink of an eye, all of the girls were thrown up to the ceiling, as if gravity had
disappeared. Some turned in the air and landed with their feet on the ceiling, while
others held the hands of other girls while floating in the air. If they had not all been
high-Level Tokiwadai espers, a few head-on collisions and a couple broken bones would
not have been surprising at all.

So why did such a gravitational anomaly occur?

The reason was revealed before they even got their feet back on the ground.

“The Sky by Fire is rapidly losing altitude!!”

“Its speed is rising—now it’s practically shooting itself straight down to Earth!!”

“The surface analysis on the radar is working again. The target is still the middle of
Academy City, but this...this isn’t using the SSTOs! It’s going to crash the whole aircraft
into the city!!”

“Considering that we have ten minutes before impact and that we reach the target at top
speed, we predict a blast diameter of over eight kilometers!!”

Listening to the depressing report, Misaka gritted her teeth.

24
 Although the gravitational anomaly hadn’t been resolved yet, she magnetically forced
herself back on the ground and grabbed the still-attached support terminal that was
swinging in the air.

“Argh, why is this thing so persistent!? It’s almost like a living creature in its tenacity!!”

Part 12
“...”

At the moment, Kamijou Touma was buried inside a passenger car parked on the side of
the road.

This was not some exaggerated metaphor. Half of his body was literally sunken within
the rolled metal of the car door.

The car itself had skidded all the way to the other side of the road. The dark marks left
on the road by the friction from the tires were testimony to the intensity of the impact.

It was that bad.

Shizuo Heiwajima’s “accident” had caused that much destruction.

Index had told him about the German words written in blood.

At first, he had been dubious. That was until he witnessed certain things like a bronze
statue in front of a station toppling over and all of the windows on a building shattering.

Like a snowball rolling down a slope, the significance of the incidents had grown larger
until when he looked back, it had grown to the point where it covered the sky itself.

And then he had heard about the disappearance of Misaka Mikoto.

Through his phone, he had heard that the students of Tokiwadai Middle School were
locked up in the Sky by Fire. In addition, he heard that the giant structure was acting all
on its own, so the girls didn’t know how to land it.

Death. As if he sensed that one word inching closer toward someone he knew, Kamijou
couldn’t help but tremble.

He also knew that the existence of the Ikebukuro group, who had come from the tunnel
over to this side, was at the center of all these distorted events.

25
There was no way of knowing who had written the bloody German text and what their
intentions were. However, now that the situation had reached a critical point, there was
no longer room for any doubt.

The Sky by Fire planned to obliterate Academy City in order to destroy the tunnel.

If that happened, everything would be lost: the students living in the city, the students of
Tokiwadai, and the people from Ikebukuro. They would lose everything. There was no
time to explain to each and every one of them. Even if he was being stubborn, it was still
the only way.

If he gave up here, everything would be lost.

He might never see the smiles that should’ve been around him.

So.

Crrrrreeeeeaaaaaak!!!!

With a tremendous sound, Kamijou Touma dug himself out of the metal.

It wasn’t over yet.

Even if his opponent wasn’t a particularly evil person.

Even if his opponent had a power that didn’t make sense in “this world.”

That was not a reason for not saving the people in the city or the girls on the Sky by Fire.

Nor was it a reason to nonchalantly admit that the Ikebukuro group should be trapped
in this world forever.

“Have to save...”

Kamijou spoke with a mouth filled with the taste of iron.

Forcing his wobbly vision to look firmly ahead, he steadied himself.

“I have to save everyone.”

Just that was enough.

The young man, once again, firmly stepped toward the future.

26
 Sending the entire Ikebukuro group back to their original world before any critical
damage is done.

There was no other way to smash through the current situation.

Part 13
[This is bad.]

The headless rider was driving a large, black motorcycle while entering some words on
her PDA.

[Isn’t this a super dangerous situation!?]

She was not human, nor did she didn’t feel any special attachment to cities outside of
Ikebukuro.

However, perhaps because her life in Ikebukuro had influenced the meaning of her
existence, she could not put on a leisurely attitude while bringing useless chaos to
human society, at least for now.

[I need to do something… It’d be better to start with something simple and easy to
understand and then gradually make everything come together. If Shizuo were here, he
would’ve been found out right away, and Anri might also surface due to her
“heterogeneity”. I guess it’s very possible to find information about them through what’s
trending on SNS and bulletin boards… So then the problem is with Mikado and Aoba,
the “ordinary” people. It would be pretty difficult to find them if they’re here.]

Although she wanted to “take action” right away, the headless rider suddenly turned her
train of thought around.

She was known as a “transporter” underground, and this time, she had once again been
involved in some trouble while working but had somehow come to Academy City.

In other words, she still had “the goods.”

Inside the stainless-steel case and shock-absorbing resin was a bottle of aged liquor. It
probably could be stored at room temperature as there was no special coolant.

“Well... this isn’t the best time to talk about this, but this is this, and that’s that, so…
Since I don’t know what’s happening at Ikebukuro, there’s no telling what would affect
someone’s life. Even though it’s kept in a case, the bottle is still scary.”

27
After reconsidering, the headless rider headed to a nearby station.

She placed “the goods” in a station locker and got back on her large motorcycle.

[All right, now it’s time to deal with this super dangerous situation!!]

Then.

The headless rider tried her best to eliminate “a certain possibility” from her mind.

But it was impossible to ignore.

Even though she knew that it was the worst-case scenario, she couldn’t help but think
about it.

[Orihaya Izaya... If that guy has something to do with this current situation, then only
God knows how this will end.]

The viscount, after watching the headless rider leave, moved the clump of blood floating
in the air and wrote some particular German words.

[Well, she’s gone.]

“Yes, she’s gone.”

Someone answered back.

You couldn’t really describe how a blood clot that didn’t even have eyes, ears, a mouth,
or a nose would “look back,” but the viscount deliberately made a red silhouette to turn
around, purely out of courtesy.

Standing there was a beautiful woman surrounded by frigid air and covered in white
from head to toe.

Dorothy Nifas.

She had gone down a different evolutionary path from the viscount, but in a sense, she
was a vampire that was closer to the viscount than anyone else.

[If you had explained it to the humans, things might not have come to this.]

“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think I could’ve talked to a ‘human being’ I’ve never met
before?”

28
[If I had known this, I would’ve brought the “children” with me. Since they’re all part of
a new generation, they weren’t poisoned by the witch hunts, the exorcisms... as well as
the “eaters.”]

“Are you serious? Do you really think that having those siblings lingering here will make
the current situation even a tiny bit better?”

[...Ah, yes, well, never mind that. Even though they don’t mean any harm, they certainly
have the power and the temperament to mess everything up. In that respect, “the
children” are probably the top of the top.]

“You spoil your children too much.”

Dorothy said with a soft, icy sigh.

“So what do we do now?”

[Hmmm. Since the warning has been accurately delivered, we’ll rely on that headless
rider to spread it now. There’s no need for us to continue sending messages in blood. It’s
about time we started on something else.]

“Are you going to confront the Ikebukuro group?”

[I’d like to if I could, but I’ve got other things to do.]

The viscount said with floating red text.

[Something bad is about to crawl out of the tunnel over there. Now, the fact that it’s bad
isn’t a matter of that thing’s consciousness, but rather about its very nature. Anyway,
this is far from good. The moment it comes out, it’ll probably exceed the capacity for
“the world on this side.”]

“More specifically?”

[From us vampires, the very ends of the galaxy; from the madness of the liquor of
immortality, the deepest secret of alchemy.]

The viscount didn’t name the thing openly, probably because of how terrible the
situation was.

As if by just uttering a name, one called upon its owner.

Dorothy frowned.

“And if that’s true, what can you do?”

29
[I’ve never been a vampire who seeks power. However, I’m better than the others at not
dying, and above all, I’m confident in my ability to lead a humorous conversation. Even
just stalling for time would be enough from me.]

“Really?”

Dorothy’s eyes narrowed.

And then, she said.

“I’ll go with you.”

[There’s no need for that, you know?]

“I’m your fiancée.”

[Well, in that case, I might just leave it to you.]

“Anyway.”

Her gaze, which always gave a cold impression, suddenly turned even sharper.

“Did you know that the headless rider just now was actually a woman?”

[Huh? I didn’t notice that... Hey, wait, Dorothy. Why is everything starting to freeze
up?]

“What do you think? Hint: female jealousy.”

“Your ability to say such things so nonchalantly is part of your charm, you k-k-k-kno—?”

The viscount’s crimson clot froze over before he could finish.

After freezing everything, the pure white vampire exhaled softly.

“Really, how could I just let you go?”

As if it were absurd.

But there was also a glint of warmth in her eyes.

“The fact that we have Hawking, a black hole vampire, on one hand, and that on the
other we have Ronny is the worst XXXX.”

30
 That said, if “they” had already come when he woke up, and everything was destroyed
before his eyes, the viscount would surely be in a sorrowful state...

Probably not angry, but sad.

That was why.

“Sigh, how could I have fallen in love with such a troublesome man?”

There was nobody listening, so she could rest assured in speaking her true feelings.

Dorothy Nifas, who spoke thus, departed, alone, from the frozen viscount.

After all, that was what he had said.

That even if your strength was not on par with your opponent, you might find a way to
stall for time.

Part 14
A mass of screeching, ear-piercing sounds gathered together.

From deep within the darkness of a railroad tunnel, a large number of rats scrambled to
escape. It was not unlike the unusual behavior exhibited by animals just before a storm
or a great disaster.

Complete darkness.

True darkness.

No one dared to peek inside. Surely nobody could go in there and come back in one
piece.

Nobody knew if whatever was inside carried obvious malice or evil intentions. Maybe it
was thinking about completely destroying the Euclidean world as we know it, or it was
just dissatisfied with the seasonal chips at the convenience store.

Either way.

While there was no way to peer through the darkness, there was definitely something
peering out from the dark.

It was clear.

31
 “It” was interested in this place.

The moment “it” came out, everything would be thrown into disaster.

Part 15
As long as there was even a single opportunity to grow, the situation would advance like
an avalanche.

After all, the headless rider, Heiwajima Shizuo, and Kyohei Kadota—all part of the
Ikebukuro group—had suddenly been thrown into this city that they had never seen
before. No matter how calm they seemed on the surface, there was a certain unease, and
the best way to get rid of it would have been to find someone they knew.

They were all trying to find each other.

So when the headless rider, Heiwajima Shizuo, and Sonohara Anri met each other, the
Ikebukuro group just naturally formed up.

After all, the existence of the headless rider and the violent bartender was a “living
landmark” in itself. Although they could never be used as true rendezvous points, they
were probably more conspicuous than the owl at Ikebukuro Station. They just walked
down the street together, and people who knew them just gathered around them.

[Ugh, I can’t do things like that...]

The headless horseman, who was a professional courier and the lover of an underground
doctor, muttered.

She knew the “truth.”

The “truth” shown on the PDA screen was probably beyond the common sense of the
ordinary people of Ikebukuro. Even so, spreading this information would bring about
changes. Even if it turned out to be so small that you couldn’t observe it with the naked
eye, it would still be “a change.”

Then.

A new set of footsteps could be heard scratching on the ground.

“...”

It was probably an inhabitant of Academy City—in fact, it was a spiky-haired high school
boy in a school uniform.

32
He had only received two attacks from Heiwajima Shizuo.

But if anyone who knew Shizuo knew about that, they would have thought one thing.

How are you still alive?

“...Need... your... help.”

There was no time left.

No time left until the Sky by Fire crashes, and no time left until he could no longer
maintain his own consciousness.

And so, the teenager left all the unnecessary things out and spoke.

“I need your help... to save my friend on that thing...”

“Hey.”

A low sound rattled out.

It was the sound of Heiwajima Shizuo cracking his neck ever so slightly.

“When you want to involve someone in some annoying scheme of yours, it means that
you don’t care if they get hurt because of you. Even if there’s a monster that breathes fire
or a full-body suit flying at Mach 10, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re the primary
reason they’re in danger. You understand what you’re getting yourself into, right??”

“...Aaaah.”

He was on the verge of collapse.

Supporting a body that could fall at any moment, the teenager replied.

“I’m not a hero—I don’t hope to somehow save everyone purely out of the kindness of
my heart...”

“Oh yeah?” Shizuo looked back.

Then, he took a step forward.

The bartender clenched his “fist” with something that sounded like a sheet of hard
plastic being torn apart.

He wasn’t grabbing a vending machine, nor was he trying to throw anyone. Truly, it was
only his own “fist.”

33
 “In that case, show me your determination. If you can do that, I’ll help you.”

“Got it.”

He got a response.

An immediate one.

The boy, clenching his right hand, stared at the “enemy” before him.

He proclaimed, “You said it. If I win, you’ll help me save them.”

Part 16
Was there any way? Kamijou Touma thought.

There was no way he would normally be able to take out an abomination who could
easily toss a human body so hard that the impact could cause a car to skid to the other
side of the road with just his hands.

But at the same time, that monster was still human.

His anatomy must be the same. There was absolutely no way he was so overpowered
that he had four hearts or literally could not bleed.

So, there must be a weakness somewhere.

How about his eyes? His carotid artery? Or maybe his Achilles’ tendons?

That was Kamijou’s thought process.

But it was too naive.

The moment a fist came flying at his face, Kamijou Touma’s senses utterly collapsed.

The world was falling apart—no, it was his own eyeballs that had gone awry.

He had only managed to realize he was still standing through the trembling of his legs.

There was no time to think things through.

Above all else, his every instinct as a living creature screamed against fighting that man
in a bartender suit.

34
If he couldn’t release those bonds, he wouldn’t even be able to throw his first punch.

As he thought to himself like that, the second punch came.

“Ah, guhahhhh...!? Aagaaaghhhhhh!!!!!”

Forget about talking—even his breathing was abnormal.

It was only when he realized that those disgusting sounds were coming out of his mouth
that he remembered to breathe. If he kept forgetting like this, he would probably be
suffocated by sheer panic.

Kamijou Touma clenched his fist.

It was impossible to determine the distance between him and his opponent with his
blurred vision, but he still advanced toward his opponent.

He gave up counting after the third punch.

The very concept of pain disappeared.

Everything, every sensation, was lost to the extreme depths of the burning heat.

The back of his neck rang with an ominous sound. The beating of his heart fell into
disarray. He could not taste anything save for the taste of iron filling his mouth. His
vision kept tilting, unable to recover. Was it really air that he was inhaling and exhaling?
It was no longer distinguishable from that crimson liquid that was flying everywhere.

He knew he wanted to save them.

Although it may have just been his pride, he still wanted to do that.

The girls who had been forced onto the Sky by Fire, the people living in Academy City,
and the Ikebukuro group who had been forcibly dragged here.

Index. Misaka Mikoto.

Everyone.

So.

“...Aaarrgahhh.”

Already, as he clicked his jaws together, he realized he couldn’t say any intelligible
words.

Even before that, his brain had lost its ability to construct sentences.
35
It was like slamming a laptop into the ground to destroy the internal components
physically.

But.

Even so.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

A primal roar.

Words were no longer needed.

That monster had proclaimed, “Show me your determination.”

So Kamijou Touma took his horribly disfigured hand and clenched it tightly once more.

He clenched it into a fist.

And stepped out, toward the enemy in front of him.

And then...

“Hey...”

At some point, Togusa, who was holding a glow stick in one hand, absentmindedly
uttered a sentence.

“That kid... punched Shizuo in the face. He actually just passed out while standing up
like that...”

Time itself stopped.

The punch had really been nothing more than a light bump, but Shizuo stopped as well.

“Ahhh, Shizuo lost, didn’t he?” Kadota said in a low voice. “Above all else, he himself
agreed to it. After all, when Shizuo said, ‘I’m going to beat you to a pulp,’ the guy
immediately replied with ‘Oh, really?’ That had already decided the answer. That’s why
he was holding back.”

“Huh? Dotachin, how do you know all this? Has your third eye, your mind’s eye, finally
opened?”

“You idiot! Just look at Shizuo’s face. That sheer anger—he’s never made a face like that,
even when that Izaya guy duped him.”

36
 “Ha, haha!! Dotachin and Shizuo are having a heart to heart! I thought the one true ship
was the Shizuo x Izaya ship, but now there’s a Shizuo x Dotachin ship too!?”

“Hey, if that kind of ship actually exists, I will literally be traumatized, so don’t say such
things!”

On the other hand, the headless rider, who was standing a bit off from the rest of the
group, was thinking to herself without typing anything on her PDA.

(Anyway, that’s fifteen of Shizuo’s punches. Even if I let my shadow go berserk, I might
not be able to handle that kind of thing. Is that boy some kind of monster? At this point,
he’s stronger than most other vampires or immortals already, isn’t he?)

Instead, the headless rider entered something completely different into her PDA.

[What are you going to do?]

“Well, I guess I have no choice.”

After picking up the boy by the scruff of his neck and tossing him aside, Heiwajima
Shizuo continued speaking.

“A promise is a promise. Now we’ll have to take care of that huge thing.”

Part 17
Belatedly, Kamijou Touma woke up.

For some bizarre reason, he was lying on the road and was receiving a lap pillow service
from someone.

That person was none other than Kyohei Kadota.

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

He could only stand up in a panic.

As if he had just drunk his morning coffee, his mind was clear, but there was still a bitter
taste lingering in his mouth.

“Huhahahah!! You thought Anri-chan was giving you that lap pillow, didn’t you? Sorry,
but that seat is already filled—you just need to treat this like a game of musical chairs!

37
 By now, engrave into your mind that the level of Dotachin’s nosiness pierces the very
heavens!”

Next to them was an unusually upbeat woman walking around.

All in all, there was no way to grasp what they were talking about.

“Wait, what, wait, where’s the Sky by Fire? And where’s the Ikebukuro group? They’re
all gone now...!? And what happened with the fight earlier...!?

“Ah, don’t worry about that. Your wish has come true.”

“...?”

Kamijou took a fresh look at his surroundings.

The people who were just here were all part of the Ikebukuro group, right? The
bartender, the rider, and the high school girl wearing glasses were all gone, even though
he had wanted to make them go through the “tunnel” as soon as possible.

A young man holding a bunch of plastic bags with drawings of anime figures on them
answered his questions.

“What. I. Mean. Is. Everyone went off to do something about the Sky by Fire, as
promised.”

“Do something about...?”

“Well, it looks like they’re trying to physically stop the Sky by Fire from falling out of the
sky.”

Part 18
As expected, there was a limit to what a single mobile terminal could do.

Even though Misaka Mikoto used her power to try to seize control of the Sky by Fire, she
could barely make the nose of the aircraft tilt a little.

There was no way to stop this giant thing from flying toward Academy City.

In the first place, the collision couldn’t be stopped.

“Fifty seconds to impact! It’s impossible to move it out of the Academy City area!!”

38
“I’ll stop this from happening by any means necessary...Target School District 21’s
reservoir!!! At the very least, avoid crash landing into a building. The only thing we can
do is attempt an emergency landing as if we’re over an ocean! Everyone, brace for
impact!!”

They suppressed their primal fear and gave up on trying to stop the aircraft from falling.

Instead, they could only concentrate on reducing the angle of their fall like the curve of a
quadratic graph.

The green slopes of the hillside approached them.

They were close enough to differentiate the individual trees on the rolling hills.

Between those trees, there was a reservoir that stored a huge volume of water.

The only open plain.

A reservoir supported by an arch-shaped structure.

This was both their first and last chance.

The belly of the airship, far larger than a whale’s, was approaching the surface.

Making contact.

Misaka Mikoto shouted with all her might.

“It’s coming!!”

Boooom!!! A tremendous, violent rumbling came from underneath.

The massive aircraft slid on the liquid surface of the lake. The girls tried to force the ship,
which was trying to bounce back up like a stone being skipped across the water, to point
down.

Then came an ominous ripping sound as if parts were flying off.

However, it was no longer possible to worry about such trivial matters.

They were completely preoccupied with how they could stop the aircraft.

“Maintain a speed of 180 kilometers per hour... It’s not stopping!! We’re going to crash
into the arch at this rate!!”

“Damn...!!”

39
It was the moment after Misaka subconsciously spat out a curse.

Bang!! A dull noise rang out from overhead. It sounded like someone had fallen onto the
roof. Then, the camera outside the fuselage showed a figure in dark tights who had
landed on the roof.

Just as Misaka frowned at the sight, “something” happened.

A shadow.

From the back of the bodysuit, a myriad of masses, like hooked ropes, stretched out all
around the aircraft. Dozens, no, hundreds of them. One by one, the front ends stabbed
into the surface of the lake, using the water resistance to forcefully reduce the speed of
the Sky by Fire.

“The speed has gone down to ninety, but the ship is still moving!!”

Dong!! A huge wave splashed in front of the Sky by Fire. It was the huge volume of water
that had been displaced by the sheer volume of the aircraft, similar to how water spills
out of a bathtub when one gets into it. But the amount of water was the real problem. If
they didn’t deal with it, it might get over the arched dam and onto the streets.

But that worry was unfounded.

Somehow, a large, black motorcycle was floating in the middle of the lake. Seemingly
refusing to obey the laws of physics and buoyancy, a young girl with glasses was
standing on the bike with one foot on the seat and another on the handlebars.

In her hand, the girl held a Japanese sword.

She swung it horizontally.

That was it.

Kabloowie!!!!!!! Just like that, the huge wave that looked like a solid wall was split in
half and dissipated.

Normally, even that demon blade couldn’t have had this kind of power.

The heart of the issue lay with the “thing” that had performed the cutting.

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

40
Next to the sword-wielding girl, another bespectacled young girl, albeit with longer hair,
emerged.

Kazakiri Hyouka.

What exactly did the fact that the demon blade had “acknowledged” her mean?

Maintaining a fierce speed, the Sky by Fire still continued to glide across the lake.
Moving past the large, black motorcycle and the two girls(?), the giant mass headed
straight towards the arched dam.

“Speed: 50...40...”

If it didn’t stop, it would be the end.

A titanic volume of water would pour onto the streets like a tsunami.

“35... we can’t stop it—it’s staying constant at 30!!! Considering both the distance and
the volume, it’ll hit the arched dam for sure!!”

And then.

Misaka Mikoto saw it through the external camera.

On top of the arched dam that supported the weight of the water with its curved, bow-
like shape, someone was standing in the middle of the road. It was as if he was
straddling the Great Wall of China itself. He was a man with a long and slender figure,
with his hair dyed blonde, wearing sunglasses and a bartender suit.

He was aware of what was happening on this side.

One could see that his lips were muttering something.

From the movement of his lips, one could realize that he was saying, “I don’t have any
more cigs.”

An instant later.

Heiwajima Shizuo, with his hands out in front of him, gritting his teeth, came face to
face with the Sky by Fire.

It was simply unbelievable.

It was as if the entire aircraft had been caught by a giant rubber net.

41
 A bone-chilling creak pierced the air.

Had it come from the arch dam, the Sky by Fire, or Heiwajima Shizuo?

And.

And.

And.

Part 19
[The Sky by Fire made an emergency landing at the water reservoir in Academy City’s
District 21. All of its passengers were safe, and no problems have been reported in the
dam. Furthermore, the world record that it had been attempting has already been
recognized, so really, it was a miracle, as it could have been much worse...]

The headless rider looked up while leaning on her motorcycle and watched the news
displayed on the large screen on the belly of the flying ship.

While she was relieved that there had been no casualties, as long as they stayed in
Academy City, the Sky by Fire would always come back. The only way to eliminate the
threat was to go back to their original world through the tunnel.

Most of the humans, such as Ryuugamine Mikado and Kyohei Kadota, had already
returned through the tunnel, but the headless rider still had unfinished business to
attend to.

The existence of “a certain man” that had been deduced from multiple sightings.

Using her PDA’s text to speech software, she contacted him, and he immediately
responded.

[Hey, Celty, don’t you think it’s ironic that you, a monster, are contacting me, who loves
humans so much?]

[I’ll give you a word of advice. It took me a while to fix this situation, so if you’re going to
stay in this city and ruin everything, we’re going to have to do something about it.]

[What are you talking about? You’re the ones who ruined it all, right? It’s not easy to get
a beautiful stage that’s only filled with humans, but in the very end, you lot—the
headless horseman, the demon sword, and Shizu-chan—messed it all up!!]

42
To this person, it didn’t matter if it was a comedy or a tragedy as long as it was beautiful.

Compared to a comedy intertwined with the supernatural, a tragedy with only humans
would be infinitely more beautiful.

That was probably why he always looked to sow more chaos: he wanted to make Earth a
living hell for its human inhabitants.

The headless rider knew that there was absolutely no need to empathize with him and
immediately gave her verdict.

[A final piece of advice: go back to Ikebukuro right now. If you don’t, I don’t know what
will happen.”

[Haha, I bet you want to say, ‘I’m actually behind you right now,’ just like the monsters
in urban legends, eh? Anyway, you can’t beat me in a battle of information, you know?
Do you really think you’ll be able to find me? I can become practically invisible if I try!]

[Well, by now, Shizuo should almost be right behind you.]

[...Ugh!! Why didn’t you say so earlier? It’s because normal human logic doesn’t apply to
Shizu-chan that I hate him so much!!]

[If you want to escape, you better go back to Ikebukuro. Even if you have a map, you
can’t know all the strategic advantages of each individual nook and cranny. And there
aren’t many people who can use that as a shield.]

[I know that already; thanks, little Miss Know-it-all!!]

He rudely hung up.

Although Heiwajima Shizuo seemed to be seriously preparing to kill Izaya, let’s just say
that it was more important to get Izaya to retreat first.

(...Well then.)

So that’s it.

The headless horseman was about to head into the dark subway tunnel on her
motorcycle when she suddenly tilted her head(?). The full-face helmet teetered.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something missing.

(Hmm... I’m not forgetting something, am I?)

43
Part 20
A few days later, a new male station employee was tidying up the contents of the station
lockers according to the railway company’s regulations.

Since the past, there have been some problematic customers who hid “things that were
too bothersome to throw away” in their lockers and left. There were all sorts of things,
ranging from possibly shady items like pistols or marijuana to things that made one
question the other’s sanity, like dead pets, the personal belongings of an ex, gastroliths,
and even babies. It was one of the most distasteful jobs for someone who had joined the
railroad industry simply because they loved trains.

As expected, there was something strange once again.

“What is this…?”

The station worker held a bottle of aged liquor in his hand. It had been left in the locker,
preserved in a stainless-steel protective case and some sort of cushioning material.

The label had been scratched off, so the name couldn’t be read.

No, even if this had been brand new, it would have been unreadable to a station worker
who possessed no knowledge of the occult.

It was actually the greatest achievement of alchemy: a wine of immortality that was said
to give the person who drank it an everlasting body.

If used correctly, he might even become the hero of another tale.

44
 IKEBUKURO CHAPTER

Tokyo | Ikebukuro | Summer

“Such misfortune...”

Kamijou Touma, under the sweltering sun, spoke his catchphrase.

However, there was just one thing that was different from normal.

He was neither in his usual stage known as Academy City, nor in the sky above Russia,
nor in the eternal darkness made by the Magic God.

It was a place that wasn’t that far from Academy City. He was in a city only a few
kilometers to the northeast of one of the entrances of the Outer Wall.

Ikebukuro, Toshima City, Tokyo.

Although it couldn’t compare to Academy City, Kyoto, or Akihabara, it was one of the
most famous cities in Japan.

“Ikebukuro, huh...? Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve been to many cities in Japan
apart from Academy City...”

Kamijou deliberately added the word “Japanese” because he remembered that he had
been to several cities outside of Japan in just the past few months. It was ironic that he
had never been to a much closer city in Japan, yet he had been to Russia and Italy.

“Though if I wanted to shop, I could just do it in Academy City...”

At that moment, something similar to a news commentary could be heard from the side.

“...President to be at the summit...”

When he turned around toward the sound, he saw a prototype laptop displayed in an
electrical appliance store, converting the news images from the TV to high definition
and then broadcasting them.

46
The news of the summit between the President of the United States and the Prime
Minister of Japan came on.

At that time, Kamijou tilted his head and said, “Huh? He’s not that old guy?”

After a while, Kamijou, surprised at the appearance of a man who looked nothing like
the Hispanic president Kamijou had known, suddenly realized something.

“His approval rating didn’t drop because of that incident in Denmark...right?”

After he spoke with such anxiety, he heard a sudden beeping sound in his head.

Then, in the next instant, he had a question about what he had just said.

Huh?

“That incident in Denmark…”

What was that again?

“Well, that old guy was really one of a kind... I guess he finally got the sack.”

Kamijou, who easily accepted his acquaintance’s sacking even while cocking his head in
worry, started walking forward, and then sighed deeply once again.

“Why on earth would I want to spend my hard-earned days off on something that feels
like what an envoy would do?”

In the bag hanging from his hand, there was a cylindrical protective case made of
stainless steel and some sort of cushioning material.

It seemed to have been found at a station at Academy City, and after being bounced
between various organizations, it ended up in the hands of the troubled Kamijou as
usual. And now it had to be sent back to Ikebukuro.

“Anyway, all you have to do is casually walk around with it. It’s bound to be reclaimed
soon enough thanks to the law of causality. At least, that’s what Birdway said, but I
really don’t get it. That bartender guy beat me up so bad yesterday that I can’t even
straighten my back anymore, and she had the nerve to oh-so-politely help me fill out my
application to exit Academy City? No matter how you think about it, it can’t be anything
other than her using me. Speaking of which, isn’t she spending way more time in Japan
than in England…?”

Whining, Kamijou took a look at the box. There were signs that it had already been
opened, but there was no way to know if the person who found it had drunk any of the
“something” inside. As the transporter, Kamijou, who was a minor, didn’t even think
about the option of “drinking” the thing.
47
“Ahhh, seriously, will there never be a chance for me to relax other than on a hospital
bed...?”

Beside the sighing Kamijou, one of his classmates opened his mouth with a happy smile.

“Don’t say that, Kami-yan. I’m looking forward to it, you know? Ikebukuro is filled with
a different flavor of chaos than Akihabara. The mere mention of the word “Otome Road”
alone transforms my heart into a great-journey-gangster-gold-mine!”

The boy who spoke such nonsense was none other than Aogami Pierce.

Just as his nickname suggested, he was a blue-haired boy with perpetually closed eyes
and pierced ears.

Although this bad friend of his had also applied to leave Academy City, it seemed as if he
had applied to go out in the name of “external training experience instead of
supplementary lessons,” and in order to meet the requirements, he had to have a
tutoring partner.

“Anyway, I’m going to leave the tutoring to you… or should I?”

As Kamijou expressed his unease, another fellow student smirked mischievously at him.

“Nyaa~ As soon as I said I was going to Ikebukuro, my step-sister told me to “hurry up

and go to the butler cafe to have the essence of a gentleman carved into your spine.” But
before that, I should pop into a cosplay cafe, and in there, I’ll think about world peace
and the safety of my sister: that’s the real essence of being a gentleman!”

The upbeat boy with dyed blond hair and a Hawaiian shirt was Tsuchimikado Motoharu.

These three were a group of delinquents known as the Delta Force, famous among their
classmates in a very small subsection of Academy City. Because Kamijou was always
covered in blood, their characteristically red, blue, and yellow colors may have given
them the nickname “Academy City’s traffic light trio.”

Those three were striding through the streets of Ikebukuro, but—

“Anyway, the subway to Ikebukuro was surprisingly crowded...”

The moment Kamijou said that, he noticed something strange.

Huh?

Subway?

48
That was strange. Was it even possible to reach Ikebukuro by subway from Academy
City?

The last time he was able to leave Academy City so easily was that time on the beach in
Kanagawa.

He was pretty sure...that leaving the city would require walking through the gate.

Kamijou, who had been repeatedly manipulated by various organizations, had gone to
many countries like England and Italy through questionable means, having even been
thrown out of planes, needing to stick a parachute landing. That was why he didn’t think
there was any point in formalities like “having to walk out through the gate” at all.

However, even so, he didn’t think there was such a thing as being able to leave Academy
City using the subway.

In order to go outside, students had to prepare an application and a guarantor. Before

they went out, they had to accept the procedure of getting a nanomachine injection into
their bodies.

They say the extra security protocols were countermeasures against industrial espionage,
but to students, it gave the illusion that Academy City was actually a prison and that
they were applying for parole. Therefore, was it even possible that they could’ve gone
through all of that and not remember any of it?

(That... Eh?)

In the first place, why didn’t he realize something so important until now?

(Anyway, what was today’s date again?)

He realized that even such simple facts had become so vague for him and was suddenly
filled with unease.

“Hey, hey, it’s not like we’ve been hit by some mind-altering magic or psychological
esper power, right?”

Kamijou touched his head with his right hand just to be on the safe side, but didn’t seem
to notice any significant change.

After all, his right hand could dispel any supernatural ability and restore the world to its
proper form. If his right hand, named Imagine Breaker, touched it, any illusion or the
like should have been dispelled at once. However, it seemed like his memories and
vision haven’t been tampered with.

He began to relax about that, but then another bout of unease arose.

49
“I don’t think I went through any procedure, no matter how much I try to think about it.
I don’t even think I took a subway at all...”

Was this really Ikebukuro? He looked around in a panic, wondering if he had mistakenly
gone to the downtown area of District 15.

Then, in just a few seconds, he found a subway station entrance marked “Ikebukuro
station.”

“Huh? Am I even more tired than I had realized…?”

Looking at Kamijou, who was breaking out in cold sweat, Tsuchimikado whispered
quietly.

“(Calm down nyaa~ Kami-yan. I also feel like something is out of place here.)”

“(Hey now, don’t tell me it’s some trick you Anglicans are pulling!? If I get taken away
somewhere again, I’m actually going to be held back a grade at this point...)”

“(If that were the case, I wouldn’t have done any of this. I would have just kidnapped
you quickly, nyaa. In any case, if this is some kind of attack, panic is what they would
want you to feel, so pretend like you’re totally fine. This is perfectly normal, okay?)”

“(What about Aogami Pierce?)”

Kamijou focused on his friend who was just an ordinary person, despite being an esper,
and Tsuchimikado straight up gave a thumbs up.

“(That’s not a problem, nya. He’s an idiot, so he probably has no inkling as to what’s
really happening!)”

“(Wait, that’s true.)”

Saying something like that made one wonder if they were really friends.

Aogami Pierce suddenly stopped and spoke to Kamijou and Tsuchimikado.

“Hmm? By the way, we never went through the gate, did we?”

“Ohhhhhhhhhh! I can’t believe this guy just said it aloud!”

“Nyaa!! This guy really can’t get with the program!”

Faced with inexplicable spite from his two evil friends, Aogami Pierce silently clenched
his fists and prepared to defend himself while not even knowing why.

50
“Wait a minute! I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I can definitely at least
read the mood! Say if some president’s voluptuous secretary, who’s wearing glasses and
has an air of maturity, and some depressed-looking, blonde, Nordic girl appeared in
front of my eyes, even if they looked like mother and daughter, I would politely say “did
you sisters come to see the sights around here?” while desperately fantasizing about
those two as my older and younger sister. See, I can read the mood on that level of
making a paradigm shift and turning it into a paradise shift!”

He was probably trying to say that he could be polite enough to refer to an older woman
as much younger than she actually is, but the entire message was soiled by his later
words.

“As expected from Aogami Pierce. Choosing to be the middle sibling of three instead of
being a lover—I’m impressed by the depth of your skills.”

“The moment you use the words ‘depressed-looking’ and ‘president’s voluptuous
secretary’ while trying to explain how you can be polite to women, you’re just proving
that you really can’t read the mood…”

“No, that’s the key. By imagining our positions in detail, we can make our delusions
more realistic and our hearts more satisfied.”

“Oh, I see you know your stuff! See, I’ve already fantasized away and came up with this.
The two sisters are actually assassin sisters who were sent here to kill me, but thanks to
that lucky pervert Kami-yan, they got their breasts fondled somehow, and as a result of
their mental shock, the brainwashing that had been placed on them got lifted, and the
plot of escaping their evil organization begins! Then, eighty years later, surrounded by a
total of 128 heroines that I met in my journeys, including eternally young mothers, maid
robots, and shota step brothers, I die from pure moe overload!

“That’s a surprisingly long life you live in that fantasy… More than that, don’t just
casually put other people inside your own perverted fantasies!”

“Though, Aogami Pierce... in order to differentiate each person, it’s important to set up
costumes for everyone! Also, is there really a need for the “shota step brothers” thing,
nyaa?”

“What are you talking about! I’ve said this before, but no matter if its a step sister, a
stepmother, a stepdaughter, twins, widows, (omitted), soldiers, secretaries, lolis, shotas,
tsunderes, cheerleaders, (omitted), non-humans, ghost girls, or animal-eared girls, I can
accept them all! As long as you feel attraction, trivialities like gender cease to matter,
don’t they?”

“Well, homosexuality is indeed a form of love, but the moment you do anything with a
child, it’s a crime whether or not you’re a man or a woman.”

51
“Mmmm, and the dream that allows us to bypass the wall known as the law is called the
second dimension. After all, I firmly believe that as long as it’s only in 2D, even lolis and
shotas are totally acceptable. Of course, if you bring that dream over into the 3D world,
you’re really sus.”

“You know, I had a phase where I thought like that as well, but now that I’ve seen some
guy who manages to build a harem with every single girl in his class, his loli teacher who
looks like she’s still in grade school, some little nun he found somewhere, and the ojou-
samas in some fancy middle school, I’ve come to realize that the wall between 2D and
3D is basically nonexistent.”

“Exactly. And then he always uses the “I like older women” card to spread the fake news
that he doesn’t have a harem or anything like that, like he’s some kind of messenger
from hell! What’s more, even though there should be no way he could develop a
relationship with her, he’s been calling my sister by her first name from the very start,
nyaa!”

“Hey, watch it.”

Because the debate seemed to be perpetually ongoing and because he felt like he was
being insulted to his face, Kamijou decided to change the subject by voicing a concern he
had had for some time now.

“Anyway... Who in the world are you?”

The three of them focused their attention to one place where there was a man who had
somehow so naturally joined the conversation.

“Ah, hey guys. I’m Yumasaki Walker.”

The teen, who seemed to be the happy-go-lucky type, cheerfully gave out his name.

“Wow, to see the Kamijou Touma in the flesh, it’s such an honor to meet you!”

Hikoboshi II | Zero Gravity Biological Impact Laboratory.

A young woman strongly felt that something was very wrong.

The shape of a certain city on Earth had become completely different from what it had
been just a few hours ago.

The person floating weightlessly in space while curled into a ball was a girl who was
probably in her late teens.

52
That alone was anomalous enough for “this world,” but the fact that she was wearing a
junihitoe made that fact all the more so.

However, for the “world she resides within,” what she was wearing wasn’t anything too
special.

It may be that the only thing that had become abnormal was our benchmark. At least, it
was this girl who noticed the abnormality just now.

To her, the Earth, including its seven billion people, was just something to observe.

Whether it was a war on the surface, the disappearance of national borders, or even a
nuclear explosion, it was merely someone else’s business to her.

For her, who was, in a sense, watching a live documentary while in the luxury of a first-
world environment, such a disturbance would not go unnoticed.

Having a unique life rhythm, she woke up a few hours ago and found that the earth had
changed significantly between the time she had gone to bed and the time she had woken
up.

The only place she had been “connected to” on Earth—Academy City—had disappeared
from Japan.

Although the surface of the earth looked like a neat little collage, to make a collage of its
scale in real time would require a being on the level of a god, a demon, or someone who
had completely surpassed the boundaries of esper powers.

Located in the western part of Tokyo, the isolated circular world of Academy City
contained 2.3 million people.

The developed city within that circle had disappeared, replaced with a completely
different topography.

After about half a second of her debating whether to try contacting someone in Academy
City to judge whether this was some sort of attack or if it was too rash to reveal her
location just like that, a communication signal came to her as if it had been deliberately
timed.

It had all the right codes and the same patterns as the hidden line she usually used, but
the voice was of a man she had never heard from before.

[Hey.]

“Yo.”

53
The girl, named Amano Kaguya, who spoke back in a rude way that was completely
contrary to her appearance, did not show any particular worry about the disappearance
of an entire city.

“So, who are you?”

[Ah, sorry, I’m Tsukumoya Shinichi. Nice to meet you.]

“That name doesn’t show up in either my memory or my records. So, what do you want
from me, a person in space who has deliberately abandoned the Earth? Though in this
situation, it seems more like I’ve been abandoned by the Earth.”

[To be honest, in your eyes, your situation isn’t something to be so pessimistic over,
right? You’re basically embodying that saying about how if there is a god that throws
you away, there is a god that picks you up.]

“Using the word “god” to represent the people of Academy City? I see you really are an
outsider.”

As if she had figured something out, she smiled and spat out the words that got directly
to the heart of the matter.

“Before we talk, I just want to confirm one thing... Are you a human being?”

[Well, I’ll just say this. I sort of emphasize with Kazakiri Hyouka of Academy City.]

The man named Tsukumoya replied in a voice whose emotion could not be read, which
was not to say it was emotionless.

It was like a voice that had mixed together and averaged the happiness, anger, and
sadness of millions of people.

[If she is considered by someone to be “human,” then I guess I could also be regarded as
some nameless human.]

Celty Sturluson was definitely not human.

She was a Dullahan, who were fantastical spirits who lived between Scotland and
Ireland—and who visited the houses of the dying to declare their deaths.

They visit the house of a dying person with their severed head in their arms, in a two-
wheeled carriage drawn by a headless horse called the Cóiste Bodhar. And if you
carelessly opened your door, you would be showered in blood. As the main example of

54
ominous harbingers along with banshees, they have been passed down various
European mythologies and folklore.

Some stories claim that they were actually figures of fallen Valkyries from Norse
mythology, but whether that was actually the case was unclear even to her.

It was not that she didn’t know.

Precisely speaking, it was that she could not remember.

She had been robbed of her head in her homeland, and her memory of her own
existence had disappeared from her.

In order to retrieve it, she had come to this place called Ikebukuro, following the faint
signs of her own head.

The headless horse transformed into a motorcycle, the armor into a skintight suit, and
lingered around the city for decades.

In the end, however, she was unable to get her head back, and her memory had not been
restored to this day.

She already knew who stole her head.

She also knew who the person was that prevented her from finding her head.

However, in the end, she had not been able to find the whereabouts of her head.

Celty was fine with that, since she could be with the person she loved.

It was because she was able to live with people who loved her, and who accepted her for
what she was.

If that was what happiness was, she reckoned she’d be better off living how she was
living now.

A headless woman who hid her firm determination in her heart, replaced her non-
existent face and expressed her will through her actions.

That was it—the existence of Celty Sturluson.

Then, and now.

She was in an abandoned factory on her home turf of Tokyo, confronting something
even less human than herself.

“So...? Who are you, and where did you come from?”
55
Even though he was talking like a gangster, there was an air that was completely
different from that of normal street urchins.

“Though, it doesn’t matter anyway. If you get in my way, I’ll destroy you too.”

She realized he must have gone through many kinds of hell, where he had to kill or be
killed.

And that was a number that couldn’t be counted using two or three digits.

The boy who was staring at her fiercely had a neutral face, but he was nothing more than
a boy.

That’s right, he looked like a human being from the outside, as if he were a teenager.

He had beautiful pure-white hair, that didn’t look like it had been dyed.

It was a sort of mysterious white that looked so natural, yet at the same time, seemed to
be full of some sort of scientific chemical.

Apart from that, he did look human in appearance, and didn’t feel anything less than
human.

The problem was the actions he took, and the results of those actions.

A part of the floor of the abandoned factory was covered with steel plates, but there were
many “human-shaped holes” in them.

To be more precise—

Heiwajima Shizuo. Half of his body was stuck in the floor of the abandoned factory, and
he was not moving.

Although his body was still upright, his head was hanging slightly down. It was
impossible to tell whether he was still conscious or not.

When Celty came by the factory, she heard a loud noise, and took a look inside. What
she saw was the impossible to understand scenario of the man widely regarded as
Ikebukuro’s strongest, buried in the ground.

That boy. The one who buried Heiwajima Shizuo into the ground, glared at her, and said
those words earlier.

Even if he asked who she was and where she came from...

She was the one who wanted to ask that!

56
Celty came just in time to witness the moment of Shizuo being buried into the ground.

Shizuo’s body was hit by the teenager countless times with the metal plate, and as he
finally stood up, several tons of industrial machinery floating in the air came crashing
down at high speeds.

In the next instant, the industrial machinery was violently compressed, and Shizuo’s
body was driven into the ground like a nail.

“...Say, what the heck is going on with this product? From my experience, it should be
the human body that gets compressed.”

Startled, the boy shrugged and spoke to Celty.

“This isn’t some cartoon about a mouse! I’ve blown so many people away so far, but this
is the first time I’ve seen a guy who can hit a man-shaped hole in a metal plate. This is
clearly beyond the scope of an ability that strengthens the flesh. It also doesn’t look like
he’s got nitrogen or oxygen armor, or anything like that.” He then sighed, acting bored.
“Are you a Gemstone or something? While I’ve heard that the #7 is something like that,
but at least now it makes sense why I was brought into do the dirty work—”

Gemstone? #7? What was he talking about?

“Don’t play dumb.”

Seeing Celty who seemed to have major doubts about it all, the teenager clicked his
tongue and continued.

“I can tell from your outfit that you’re related to Academy City. How can someone from
outside the city have a suit that absorbs 100% of light?”

Facing the agitated teenager, Celty took her PDA out, and entered text with great
trepidation.

[What’s Academy City? Are you talking about Ōizumi-gakuen?]

He probably was thinking that he was being made fun of when he was shown the text,
and so the boy silently reached his hand out and touched Celty’s helmet.

“I can’t sense the flow of blood in your vessels, or the movement of your muscles, so this
is another type of special equipment. But it’s been a long time since I’ve been played for
a fool like this!”

The complaining teenager spoke in a cold tone.

Just like that, he blew the helmet off of Celty’s head in an instant!

57
(Wha-wh-wh-wh, what was going on!?)

Celty couldn’t understand what was happening.

He didn’t use gunpowder or anything like that. The helmet merely bounced off, as if it
moved by itself.

If Celty had a head, she would have stared, eyes wide.

Similar to how the boy in front of her was looking at her.

“...Ah?”

The boy furrowed one of his eyebrows.

“I thought I had overexerted myself and chopped your head off... What’s this all about?”

[I, I know now! You’re that, aren’t you, a vampire! There are vampires I know who can
use this kind of ability with your mind!]

“It’s not Psychokinesis.”

The white-haired teenager dismissed the vampire or whatever she was saying as a joke,
and continued.

“What’s up with that body of yours? Long range manipulation?... Doesn’t seem like it
either.”

Facing the presence of something that had nothing from the neck up, the teenager
maintained his hostility, and continued questioning.

“...Hey, I’ll ask one more time. Who are you, and where are you from?”

At that moment...

Creak. An exaggerated sound could be heard from the abandoned factory.

Then, as if it was from the depths of hell, the dull sound made the surrounding air stir.

“Yo...”

As Celty and the boy looked towards the source of the sound, the man in the bartender’s
uniform appeared, half of his body buried in the ground, craning his neck, looking
relaxed.

“To be honest, I don’t know what you’ve done to me... but you made me a bit dizzy.”

58
Although he gave the impression that his body was all battered, he put his hands on the
ground, pulling his body out, which had been knocked into the ground, with just the
force of his palms.

“I don’t know what happened, but I was blown away by the force of the blow... Then, for
some reason, my blood pressure suddenly shot up, and a headache came on...”

The white-haired boy frowned at Heiwajima Shizuo, the man in the bartender’s uniform,
who continued to twist his neck by gently pressing on his head.

“Even though I’ve used quite a bit of energy to force your blood flow backward, all
you’ve got is a headache? Are you really human?”

“Ah, forget it, it doesn’t matter how you did it. After all, I’ve been done to death by some
corrupt politician using Aikido or something... The important thing isn’t that.”

Shizuo, who had his blows all reflected back to him, was wounded by his own wrist, and
then had his blood vessels and internal organs ruptured by the manipulation of the
vector of his blood flow. Even then, he said it was trivial, with his voice boiling in anger.

“If it’s just me, then I’d let it go. Although I don’t know why, I suddenly succumbed to
provocation and was beaten, but even this wouldn’t make me so angry.”

“Is that so!?”

Shizuo, who was staring at the white-haired boy with the face like a demon, continued
without acknowledging Celty’s surprised words.

“But, you smashed the helmet of my friend, who just happened to be walking by...”

“So you’re saying, even if you get killed you won’t have any complaints?... That’s what
you mean, right...?”

Somewhere in Ikebukuro | A parking lot.

“It’s Kamijou Touma...”

In front of the station wagon, she dropped the things she bought onto the floor and
spoke, stunned.

“Hey? That...”

Had he met her somewhere before?

59
No, was it an acquaintance from before his memory disappeared...!?

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sheeeeeeeeeeeeet!”

It was a woman in her early twenties who was making that strange sound.

The moment their eyes met, an unprecedented light shone from her eyes, and then they
made a strange sound.

“Kami...K-K-K-K-Kamijou!? It’s Kamijou, right!?”

“Eh? That’s me, yes.”

“I,I-I-I-I-I, I’m Karisawa Erika, it’s a real pleasure to meet you for the first time and
please take good care of me!”

The woman named Karisawa Erika, who was holding the hand of the confused Kamijou,
called out as she waved her hand back and forth.

“Alive! And walking!”

“Seriously, Karisawa, you’re acting like a kid who met his dead grandmother using a
time machine!”

The man named Yumasaki said that he’d “make sure someone would meet him,”, so
Kamijou and the others came to the station wagon, but—

“Hey... What the heck is going on here?”

“This isn’t a high-precision cosplay or anything like that... It’s the real deal! The real
thing is right in front of me!”

“No, I don’t get it at all... Hey, why are you crying!?”

Kamijou Touma was swept deeper and deeper into the whirlpool of confusion as he
stood in front of Karisawa, who began to spill tears.

“Karisawa’s emotions are peaking.”

“Haha, this is the first time I’ve seen someone this happy!”

In the wagon where they could hardly hear their conversations except for Kazawa’s
screams, the two men, Tokusa and Honda, tilted their heads and spoke.

“Who’s that guy, Kadota?”

60
“I feel like I’ve seen him before... Judging by Karisawa’s happiness, he’s probably some
young Seiyuu or something, right?”

“Ah! That’s probably it!”

“Well, it’s not a good idea to disturb them. Let’s give them time to talk.”

The two people in the driver’s seat and shotgun who were nodding to each other, silently
got out of the car, and left the parking lot.

Kadota didn’t notice it.

That boy, in the novel that Yumasaki and Karisawa highly recommended and read- he
said that he was “a good guy with backbone”, the protagonist Kamijou Touma himself.

On the other hand, this Kamijou, the protagonist, was surrounded by his two evil friends,
eyes closed, laughing.

“Heh heh... Hahaha! Kami-yan... has finally learned the hax skill of “The big sister who
he met for the first time but has already been flagged down”...?”

“Nya, besides, I like the “elder sister” trope anyway, nya, Kami-yan must be loving it,
though I don’t understand it well, the talents he has are only for the sake of getting
popular...”

“Nonononono, nononono! It’s not like that!”

Even if he wanted to defend himself, Kamijou could only keep saying “No,” as he didn’t
know what was happening, but—

This was cut off by the woman named Karisawa.

“Well, it’s obvious at first glance though! You must be Aogami Pierce, and Tsuchimikado
Motoharu, right? Wow, that’s amazing... it’s the same as my imagination! You’re both so
tall!”

“Gwah!?” “Nya!?”

Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado Motoharu, who did not expect to receive pieces of the
flag themselves, looked at each other, and panicked.

Leaving the two in their bewilderment, Karisawa decided to take advantage of when
Aogami Pierce asked Yumasaki, “What kind of flag is she raising with me?” and said
something that rang all sorts of alarms in Tsuchimikdo’s head.

61
“Well, you know. Tsuchimikado, you started wearing sunglasses when you changed your
appearance, but now they’ve become a symbol of your identity, and in reality, they look
real good on you!”

“!?”

Kamijou and Tsuchimikado both stiffened up.

They remained in this state, shied away from Karisawa and the others, turned around,
and whispered, shoulder to shoulder.

“{Hey! This person knows about Angel Fall! So it really is your contact over there! What
are you going to get me involved in this time!)”

“(No, no, no, wait, Kami-yan, wait! I’m just as confused as you are, I have no idea who
this person is!)”

“(So, then... could she be from the Russian Orthodox Church? If she knows about Angel
Fall, it’s unlikely she’s related to Academy City, no matter how you think about it!”

“(The key thing is that we don’t know. I’ve told you about the glasses, Kami-yan, so the
information must have leaked from you somehow!)”

“(Bruh, there is a literal spy here, and he doubts the Kamijou Touma!? Obviously, you’re
more suspicious than I am!)”

“(Why would I be surprised if it’s the information that I leaked, nya?)”

While they were throwing out their suspicions like this, Karisawa, who was approaching
behind them, unnoticed, said this with a refreshing smile.

“It’s all right, I’m not a spy for Gremlin or the Kihara family! At least, I’m not an enemy
of Group!”

“I can’t believe it, she just casually said two phrases relating to the dark side of Academy
City, nya... Speaking of that, what’s that Gremlin that can be said on the same level as
those two?”

“Huh?”

The sense of disharmony was wandering in Kamijou’s brain.

Hmm? Tsuchimikado, was he playing dumb?

Gremlin. Tsuchimikado was, of course...

...Hmm?
62
When was the last time he had spoken to Tsuchimikado? When did that come...?

At that moment, Kamijou’s mind began to play a flashback of Tsuchimikado’s face.

He appeared in a completely different air from the current Tsuchimikado, with an

expression as cold as ice...

Hmm? Strange. If Tsuchimikado was here right now... really stra...nge?

The voice of Aogami Pierce rang out as if to ride the wave of confusion that was going on
in the mind of Kamijou.

“Hey, hey, Kami-yan. I just realized that I can’t see Endymion in Ikebukuro.”

Endymion.

The space elevator, pride of Academy City.

This elevator, which extended beyond the atmosphere, should have been visible as a thin
line, even at a distance as far as Ikebukuro. However, Kamijou knew that it would never
be visible now.

“...What are you talking about, Aogami Pierce? Isn’t Endymion already...”

“What? Did I, uh, say something strange?”

A chill spread behind Kamijou’s back.

No.

Something was wrong.

He could feel a distinctive “dislocation” from both Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado.

“Right! Speaking of Endymion, there’s something I wanted to ask you about Meigo
Arisa!”

“Oh, you’ve got a good eye, Arisa is related to this! I, ah, think she’ll come? This
Endymion concert is really something to look forward to!”

“Huh? Is it time for that concert again?”

Aogami Pierce seemed to have become indifferent to the fact that he could not see
Endymion, and returned to the unique conversation he was having with Yumasaki.

On the other hand, Kamijou was convinced by what Aogami Pierce had just said.

63
There was something wrong after all.

There was a misalignment between himself and Aogami Pierce’s “perception”.

...Arisa’s concert on Endymion, it had ended, clearly!

It wasn’t that those two were imposters. They were undoubtedly the real Aogami Pierce
and Tsuchimikado.

Even so, he was sure that something was distorted.

It was obvious that they were the real people, but something was distorted, so what did
that mean?

Thinking about this, Kamijou suddenly realized something.

It was possible that he himself might have been distorted with the world—

The president.

The TV image he saw when he first came to Ikebukuro.

On that note, Kamijou didn’t recognize the man who was supposed to be the president.

Gradually, the sense of dissonance became clear about all this.

It was like waking up and then gradually being able to distinguish between reality and
dreams, the feeling of one’s brain gradually becoming clear, and waking up.

Moreover, this city named Ikebukuro, or actually, the whole of Tokyo...

Suddenly, he turned towards Karisawa and asked her a question.

“Um! What happened to the dragon... that attacked this city before?”

“Ah! You know about that, huh? I see, I see. You’ve already experienced that, right?
Have you experienced that honeymoon in Denmark?”

“Dragon? What are you talking about?”

Contrary to Kamijou who nodded his head like he had figured it out, Tsuchimikado’s
face was full of his confusion.

At that moment, his phone rang.

64
“Ugh, it must be Maika. I’m a little concerned about all this, but a call from a loli takes
precedence over anything else, that’s my thirty-fifth rule of life.”

Tsuchimikado picked up his phone while walking to the corner of the parking lot.
Looking at his back walking away, Karisawa said with passion:

“The fact that you can categorically say that your sister is also a loli is impressive.
Having said that... look at him, which time is this Tsuchimikado from?”

“Wait a second, explain quickly. What the hell is going on here?”

“Ahhh, mhm. Yeah, if you’re unsure about a situation, it’s natural that you’ll feel uneasy.”

Nodding her head while speaking in an understanding tone, Karisawa continued.

“Well actually, before we actually saw you, we were half-believing. We are probably the
ones who could accept this the fastest, as I heard the details of the matter from the
father of an acquaintance...”

Karisawa, who said this, looked at the entrance of the parking lot, and leaked out an “ah”

“Look, they’re here. The person who can explain.”

“Eh?”

When Kamijou looked over—

The man who was walking towards him, wearing a white gas mask in broad daylight in
addition to a white lab coat, raised his hand in a friendly manner, and spoke.

“Aha! You’re that otherworlder! Nice to meet you. How are you? Be careful not to get
infected with bacteria that doesn’t exist in your world and die suddenly!”

Looking at this man who greeted him with surprise, Kamijou...

“Defi...”

“Defi?”

Ignoring the otherworlder comment first, he shouted out what he was feeling at that
very moment.

“You definitely have a connection with Academy City!”

65
A few minutes ago | In satellite orbit | Hikoboshi II | Zero Gravity Biological Impact
Lab

“What about the tunnel with the other world?”

[There’s a theory that the neutrino and Higgs particle experiments in both our worlds
has something to do with this, but as far as I know, your world has a Magic God who has
changed the world through the phases that filter the physical world, your boss has also
forcibly teared apart the thin film of the world, and our side has an existence known as
the Dullahan, and began to overuse its powers. It’s probably all these sorts of accidents
that came together, that just happened to connect these two worlds together…]

“The accumulation of these unfavorable conditions, huh.”

The girl who was near the top of the system called Academy City sighed.

“Hng, let’s not talk about whether parallel worlds exist or not, but this tunnel that just
happened to be created is rather unbelievable. And it does not explain the fact that
Academy City has disappeared off the earth.”

Amano Kaguya, accepting the explanation of the man who called himself Tsukumoya
Shinichi, nodded as she floated in midair.

“However, the disappearance of Academy City on that side should be on this side.”

[That’s probably the case. However, not many people can remember and have that sense
of dissonance. To fill that void of dissonance, it seems that the Earth where Academy
City exists right now also has a 380-meter-long aircraft named Sky By Fire flying around,
like nobody’s paying attention to it. No, maybe it’s actually because of the appearance of
this aircraft that you’ve suffered a loss.]

“I got squeezed out through that distortion, so I was transported here without going into
the tunnel?”

[Yes, the Sky by Fire was originally developed by a company called Niblo in this world
fifty years in the future. By connecting with a world like Academy City, which has
technology years ahead of its time, it was able to materialize in the world as a “thing that
should exist”. So basically, to replace that Queen of the Sky, and to achieve balance, the
Princess of the Universe was chosen.]

Kaguya, who was floating upside down from the Earth, shrugged at Tsukumoya’s words.

“Is that flattery or sarcasm? It’s hard to read your feelings just from your voice.”

[Even so, I’m still anxious right now. if the two worlds completely merge together, it’ll
become all kinds of bad.]

66
“If you look at it from the perspective of rapid development of science and technology,
shouldn’t it be a good thing for your world?”

[It’s not like that. At the very least, there are tens of thousands of vampires in this world.
If the girl named Himegami, the carrier of Deep Blood from your side, comes here, the
vampires will flock to her, and then we’ll be in a crisis. We’ll need to sacrifice the girl’s
life to save the extinction of the vampires. But, what’s troubling is that there’s a lot of
good people among the vampires. I can usually accept any outcome, no matter what, but
what if someone I know, or an innocent girl dies as a result of an outside influence? That
wouldn’t be very interesting.]

Even for Kaguya, who knew about the dispute between science and magic, the sudden
mention of a topic like vampires was unexpected, but—

But she, who looked at the world as it were someone else’s business, dismissed it as “Of
course that exists”, felt relieved, and calmly accepted the request to help resolve the
situation.

“Well, that’s fine. I think it’ll be interesting, just standing by and seeing how things
develop, but I can’t leave Academy City alone in this situation. So I’ll help you get things
back on track.”

[That’s a big help, thank you.]

“I’ll take care of Tsuchimikado, who has come to this world. Probably because of his
back and forth between the magic and science sides, and the outside and the inside of
the City, his tolerance is quite big, as long as his sister is not in trouble. Even if he does
look like that. I’m sure he’ll accept this and help us.”

“Ahah, that’s true. Better start acting as soon as possible.”

There was a slight pause here from Tsukumoya, and the presence of a certain man was
mentioned.

[The troublemaker who’s grasped the situation and accepted it readily is preparing to
take advantage of it for his own personal gain.]

Somewhere in the city | Orihara Izaya’s office

“Well, even if it is Shizuo, it should be over by now.”

In his office, Orihara Izaya, who was happily sitting in his chair, spinning around, talked
about this, eyes shining.

67
“I’m having a hard time trying to make connections with the other world. Although we
share the language of Japanese, there’s a significant difference in science and technology,
and there’s two billion people in the Roman system alone.”

Izaya, who seemed to be speaking to his assistant in the office, kept talking, half to
himself, without waiting for a response.

“From a girl obsessed with urban legends named Saten Ruiko to the media queen of the
other side of the world named Olay Blueshake, I was most satisfied to know someone is
named “Loki”. Me, I’d feel some empathy towards these types of people. But it seems he
was recently betrayed, and got beaten up by his comrade. So even if he believes in what I
say, he won’t have any trust in me.”

“If there’s someone who can trust you on a personal level, they can probably be
considered a saint.”

Ignoring the sarcasm of his assistant, Izaya continued.

“In any case, with his cooperation, he managed to infiltrate part of the system in
Academy City. After that, he gave a false command that relies on some condition to the
most powerful esper over there.”

“False command?”

“Ahah, it’s all true, up to the midway point at least. The two worlds are gradually
merging together. And on top of that, add a hypothetical such as “If an important man
goes to Academy City, the worlds will merge together. If that happens, the other world
would be an obviously unnatural existence... For example, for the ten thousand or so
clones, their existence will disappear, and other similar changes may occur.” That kind
of condition—”

There was a slight pause there, but he continued with a pleasant smile.

“The “strongest man in Ikebukuro”, the point of deviation related to the metamorphosis
of the world, rendered useless, with no chance of resurgence... That kind of order.
Additionally, I gave him the information that the man in the bartender’s uniform is
actually a nasty piece of work with a penchant for kidnapping young girls. Even if it is
that physically overpowered Shizuo, in front of that Level 5, who is literally beyond the
stage of what you call an ability, he is nothing more than a baby.”

“And who’s this superpowered person?”

With a half-hearted look, the woman who was his assistant, Namie Yagiri, looked at the
information in her hands.

“You write it as “One Way Road”, and read it as Accelerator?”

68
“Yup. Well, it’s the same as an animal’s Japanese name as compared to its scientific
name. Although names are used to represent identity, don’t you think that this name
suits him in every sense? And his old name is also very interesting.”

“Compared to his ability’s description, “vector transformation”... What is that?”

“It means what it means, literally. The ability to observe the direction of various
phenomena, and manipulate them according to one’s own will, such as kinetic energy,
light, sound, heat, and electricity. The ability to trick the world, changing gravity energy
into buoyancy, and in extreme cases, to manipulate the vector of time, in a limited
sense.”

In the face of Izaya’s exaggerations, Namie responded with a sigh.

“Even though you don’t understand the concept of time very well, you still said that...”

“It’s that sort of illogical ability. Although it’s probably logical for a place like Academy
City, in our world, it’s something beyond our logic.”

“Illogical ability, huh.”

Namie narrowed her eyes slightly, and spoke with a hint of annoyance, as if she recalled
something.

“That person’s “shadow” is no more logical than he is.”

An abandoned factory

“If I had complaints about being killed, I wouldn’t have come here.”

The white-haired boy replied with a bored, but serious tone, saying something that
reeked of self-deprecation.

“I never thought I’d hear such brave words after all this.”

“...”

“You’re not a normal human being. If you obediently lie back down, your chances of
survival will grow.”

In contrast to Shizuo, who emerged, veins bulging, the white-haired teenager kept a cold
expression.

69
Celty, in the middle of those two people, firmly interrupted.

[No, wait a minute. Why are you doing this to Shizuo!?]

“Why? It’s just a job.”

Speaking indifferently, the white-haired teenager lightly put his foot on the floor of the
factory.

The next instant, the “action and counteraction” that existed in Celty’s own brain, that
common sense, completely collapsed.

The iron plate that lay on a part of the abandoned factory bounced up and began to turn
in the air magnificently, as if it was dancing.

“And, if you get in the way, you’ll get destroyed. I’ve said this before, right?”

The white-haired teenager pushed the iron plate gently in the direction of Celty.

Then, as if the rotational force of the plate became propulsive force, it shot at a straight
line towards Celty.

A direct hit with the iron plate that weighed dozens of kilograms onto a normal human
wouldn’t be something that you could shake off.

But, Celty wasn’t human, and she definitely wasn’t normal.

Countless shadow tentacles reached out from her own body, and caught the iron plate
that was flying at high speed.

“!”

Looking at Celty’s shadows, the white-haired teenager narrowed his eyes slightly.

“...What is that?”

If a normal person had seen it, they would have been open-eyed in shock, but the teen
wasn’t ordinary in any sense.

He changed his expression as if he had seen a strange cat, nothing more, and he then
continued with a soft tone.

“...Do you use the same power as that #2?”

Celty thought to herself, after hearing the teenager’s words.

(What the hell was this #2 and #7 just then!?)

70
Nevermind, she had to suppress him first.

Celty immediately stretched out her shadow, and tried to wrap it around the boy’s body
at high speeds.

However, he dodged it with a jump that was beyond the physical limits of a human, and
lightly slapped away one of the tendrils that got close with his left hand.

“...”

In an instant, the front end of Celty’s shadow started spinning around, disappearing as if
it had been swept into a tornado.

(Uwah.)

What was that feeling she felt just then!?

It wasn’t a natural disappearance, as it took Celty’s own will to disperse her shadows.

It was because she felt a creepy feeling, something like the flow of power being doubled
and sent back in full. She judged the danger in an instant.

(This guy… He really is using psychokinesis?)

This wasn’t good, as this was much more powerful than even the vampires she knew.

Contrary to the anxious Celty, the teenager’s body language didn’t give away any signs of
anxiety at all.

Maybe he had experience fighting against an opponent similar to herself before.

If that was the case, it would be impossible to maintain a dominant position here, right?

Would he allow him to surrender? To retreat? As she was contemplating that—

“Yo.”

The voice of Shizuo rang out, and both Celty and the teenager’s attention turned his way.

Then, Shizuo picked up the remains of the vending machine that had somehow been
abandoned in this abandoned factory.

“Your opponent... is meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

71
In the next instant, the vending machine flew towards the teenager with substantial
force behind it.

The action taken by the teenager in response was...

Ignored.

The teenager once again looked at Celty, and assumed the attitude that there was no
need to respond to Shizuo’s attack.

However, in realty, the moment in touched the special barrier thinly covering his body,
the vending machine jumped back like a bouncy ball hitting a wall.

(Shizuo!)

Although Celty hurriedly stretched her shadow out, it failed to reach him.

Those who are immersed within their own abilities shall drown in them. The
overwhelming force that matched this metaphor was heading for Shizuo’s body.

“Ora!”

And with that, Shizuo struck it again.

...What?

“Ah?”

Even the white-haired teenager couldn’t help but look back at his opponent.

This teenager, so far, had bounced back all kinds of enemy attacks with his ability.

He had experienced multiple crises before. Such as, people who could nullify attacks,
people with special energy such as the “shadow”, as well as getting overwhelmed with
attacks from different dimensions.

But was there anyone who could forcefully reflect an attack back by using only the force
of his hands?

Although he observed a flow of a force field, he didn’t think that he was using any sort of
ability.

What was going on? Who the hell was this guy?

72
He felt that this level of sturdiness was a bit weird, never mind the fact that this was
beyond the realm of humans in the first place. Although there had been battles with
durable opponents before, this man’s body was half the size of the leader of Skill Out
that he fought before, so how the hell could he do such things that were so far from
common sense?

Although he thought so, he soon realized that it was pointless.

Because even if he could get the vending machine back at him, he could just reflect it
back again. It was totally risk free.

Just as he predicted, the vending machine bounced back at Shizuo.

And then, once again, the man in the bartender’s uniform punched it back.

“...”

Crack! Pop! Once again, the exaggerated sounds of destruction resounded throughout
the abandoned factory.

Between the bartender and the white-haired teenager, a vending machine rally began.

And, the speed of it was gradually increasing.

But in the end, it finally stopped.

It wasn’t because the man in the bartender uniform had run out of energy. Instead, it
was because the vending machine couldn’t bear the brunt, and finally broke apart in
midair.

“...”

“...”

There was a silence, with only the sound of the bartender-suited man’s breathing that
echoed through the factory.

Then, the white-haired boy began to take a step towards him.

“Honestly,” he said, “people who boast of their strength I see as fools usually... But, the
truly outstanding ones are enviable. Since I have no need for physical exercise over here.”

“...”

“If I could have five percent of your strength...”

73
In the teenager’s mind, the face of a certain spiky-haired teenager flashed through.

He put on a bitter face, and continued speaking with a distracted look.

“Though I probably wouldn’t be who I am now in any sense.”

And then, for the first time, the teenager spoke of his reason for taking that step forward.

“Although it may seem a bit unreasonable... But for today and tomorrow, if you were to
wander around freely, that guy I know may disappear from the world.”

The white-haired teenager continued, as he walked over, step by step.

Was it because he was in an overwhelmingly favorable position, or was it because of

some other reason that he became more talkative?

“Direct reversal of the flow of brain signals. If I keep your consciousness suppressed for
three days, that’ll be enough. However, if you’re careless, you might die... Although I’m
not going to apologize, if you’ve got any resentments to express, I’ll listen to them.”

However, Shizuo replied to this with a smile.

“Although I can’t understand the implications of this all, this is extremely unreasonable.”

Despite the blood flowing from the corner of his mouth, Shizuo persisted.

“But I can’t fall like this without so much as a whimper. I’ll lose my face against the
spiky-haired boy who beat me yesterday.”

“...Spiky haired?”

Hearing that word, a bad feeling flashed through the teenager’s mind.

But, thinking about it wasn’t going to help, so he took another step closer.

Celty, overwhelmed by the vending machine rally, finally realized that Shizuo was in
true danger.

Up to now, has Shizuo ever been pushed against the wall like this?

Whether it was getting sent flying by a dump truck, a train, a hundred people trying to
cut his head off, getting attacked by a huge tiger, even though he could survive all that,
he was in a truly life-threatening situation now.

Heiwajima Shizuo was about to be killed by someone who came out of nowhere.

74
Something that seemed as ridiculous to Celty that it could have been a joke to her was
happening before her eyes, and she was having a hard time trying to understand it.

Celty looked at the Shizuo whose body was covered in wounds.

Izaya’s office

“To be honest, I’m still only half convinced.”

Namie looked at the information in the laptop and said once again.

“Connecting with parallel worlds. That’s an idea so old that even SciFi novels don’t use it
much anymore.”

“You’re the one who’s delved into the mythical realm and studied the head of the
Dullahan, so are you sure you can say that?”

“Eh, course I do. The head of the Dullahan is an actual thing, and it’s been confirmed.”

“And in fact, it’s also true that people from the other world have come here, right?”

Izaya, who said that, handed over some papers to Namie.

“Kamijou Touma, Tsuchimikado Motoharu, Aogami Pierce. These names don’t have any
sort of records in this world. These three people, who existed in Academy City, came to
this world through the subway in order to transfer something.”

“High school students?”

“They aren’t just any high school students. Especially this kid, Kamijou. He’s a real hero
who has saved the world multiple times. It’s probably only in a world of advanced
science as well as magic that a person can become that sort of savior. For me, I’m very
interested in the kind of state such a rare human being is living in.”

While looking at the laughing Izaya, Namie boredly said, “It’s like you think you’re a god.
You don’t even have all the information about this world yet, so can you really
understand the information about this so-called “other world” correctly?”

Although she was still doubtful about the connection with this other world, she had
experience of studying the existence of an unnatural being such as the Dullahan using
the common sense of science, so she might not have been so doubtful if not for that.

75
“Ahah, the intelligence level in that world is much higher. It’s a world where you can
even see the memories of the dead if you want to collect it. It’s even easier to get
information there than in this world.”

Then, the corners of his mouth lifted in pleasure, and he said something unbelievable.

“In fact, I think it’s fine to let the worlds merge like this. I think it’s better for them to be
integrated. When a new variable or an alien existence that is completely unmanageable
appears in front of them, what kind of action will the humans take? Even if it’s just
limited to the people in this city, if I can observe them, one by one, it’ll be enough for me
to enjoy this life.”

“Although what you said was that you’ve abandoned the struggle with a kindly tone,
what you just said was extremely bad.”

“There are a lot of interesting people over there too. Especially the Kihara clan’s way of
life, which makes me wonder about new possibilities for human beings. I don’t think it’s
an exaggeration to call it beautiful.”

“I think it’s sad that these children are being treated like precious specimens by people
like you. ...Eh?”

While looking at the information, Namie sarcastically said that, but she frowned
suddenly.

“Hey, what’s this ‘Aogami Pierce’ thing?”

In response to Namie’s light question, Izaya looked up at the ceiling, and giggled.

“Ahaha, this kid’s information is well-collected.”

Then, without looking at any of the info, he began to talk about it.

“He’s an esper who freeloads in a bakery in Academy City. Although he’s the class
president of Kamijou Touma’s class, he’s also known as one of the “three idiots”, along
with Kamijou and Tsuchimikado. He’s a strange fellow who’s over 180 centimeters tall.
He takes supplementary classes, but not because he’s dumb. Instead, it’s because he
wants to have as much interaction with his class teacher as possible. The possibility of
this is pretty high. He’s been questioned regarding his occupation forty-three times… no,
it would be around forty times regarding the time from when he came over to this city.”

Without pause, Izaya droned on, as if he were speaking a tongue twister about the boy
named Aogami Pierce.

Instead of boasting his knowledge, it seems like he was trying to hide something.

76
“Ah, yes, that guy’s fetishes concerning the opposite sex really is impressive. ‘I’m open-
minded enough to welcome any girl, including but not limited to stepsisters (older or
younger), stepmothers, stepdaughters, twins, widows, upperclassmen, underclassmen,
classmates, female teachers, childhood friends, preppies; girls with blonde hair, black
hair, brown hair, silver hair, short hair, bobbed hair, ringlets, straight hair, twintails,
ponytails, braids, pigtails, wavy hair, frizzy hair, ahoges; girls in sailor uniforms, blazers,
gym clothes, judo clothes, archery clothes; kindergarten teachers, nurses, maids,
policewomen, shrine maidens, nuns, soldiers, secretaries, lolis, shotas, tsunderes,
cheerleaders, stewardesses, waitresses, goths in white, goths in black, girls in china
dresses, girls with weak constitutions, albinos, girls with crazy fantasies, deluded girls,
split personality girls, queens, princesses; girls wearing knee socks, garter belts, men’s
clothes, glasses, hair over their eyes, eye patches, bandages, school swimsuits, one-piece
swimsuits, bikinis, sling swimsuits, ridiculous swimsuits; nonhumans, ghosts, and
animal girls.’ That seems to be his mantra. Although some aspects of the opposite sex
aren’t in my personal domain, I admit that he is also an existence that can expand the
possibilities of mankind.”

“That guy, and you as well, who actually memorized that all, are perverts.”

Namie said that with an icy gaze, flipping through the information, page by page, in
contrast to Izaya reciting it.

“And then?”

“And then, what?”

“The real name of that Aogami Pierce. It’s not in the file.”

“...”

Orihara Izaya was silent.”

It was probably the first time she had seen him with such a quiet expression.

“There are various things... When downloading information from there, that kid’s
information was broken in a few places.”

“What the heck, you don’t even know his real name? You’ve got the nerve to claim that
you’ve been collecting information well!”

“Well. Although I don’t think this kid is anything special, but as a human being who
loves everyone equally, let me show you.”

And so, Izaya took his laptop out and connected it with a special cord.

After a long list of unusual codes floated across the screen, a data file detailing some
kind of roster was displayed.

77
“This is the roster of students in Kamijou’s class. If you compare that with other
conditions, you can immediately find the real name of Aogami Pierce, or something...”

In the next moment, the screen was completely flooded with images of flowers.

At the flower garden in the middle of the screen, a cartoon image of a character wearing
a bouquet of flowers on her head appeared, and text emerged from the dialogue box that
extended from there.

“Stop right there! Inappropriate access behavior!”

“Ah, fuck.”

Sensing something, Izaya hurriedly shut the laptop down, and cut the line.

“Fuck me that was dangerous! It was almost like I’ve been stripped naked on this side!”

“Are you not going to run?”

“Anti-skill, the policing unit of Academy City, won’t come to Ikebukuro. I don’t think I
need to even mention the police force of Ikebukuro here.”

After that, Izaya tried various means of getting into touch with Academy City, but—

The information about Aogami Pierce was obstructed or corrupted before he reached it,
and so the key information was not obtained.

“Does that mean that this kid is actually related to some sort of super-important
confidential information?”

In response to Namie’s question, Izaya just shook his head.

“If that were the case, the information itself would have been protected. The reason we
can’t get information about it so far is because, although it seems far-fetched to say this,
is all by chance. No, is it possible that there’s a protection system in Academy City that
pretends to be like this? Well...but...”

After a brief moment of confusion, Izaya stood up with a soft sigh.

“There’s no helping it. He’s here in person. Let’s go collect some fresh information.”

Although he seemed to be whining, his expression was that of a smile.

With a face full of anticipation as if he had never seen a new human before, Orihara
Izaya happily left his office.

78
After calmly watching him leave, Namie softly said, “This is looking like the pattern
where he comes back empty handed. You reap what you sow.”

Somewhere in Ikebukuro | Station Wagon

“Isekai!? This Ikebukuro?”

Karisawa said that “it would be bad for Aogami Pierce to hear”, and so she brought him
back to the station wagon. After hearing the explanation from the man with the gas
mask, Shingen Kishitani, Kamijou Touma accepted it, half in doubt.

“Though, now that you say it, I feel like I was involved in a similar incident yesterday...”

“You’re the one who’s in the other world to us. The company I belong to, Niblo, has been
conducting various investigations to this, and both the technological might of Academy
City and the magic outside of it are excellent. The idea of sending a corporate spy there
was on my mind, but I thought it would be impossible to hide the discrepancy since
we’re of a different world, so I cancelled it.”

“If it were you, you probably won’t feel any sense of being out of place even if you were
walking around the research area...”

The right hand of Kamijou clenched tightly, after Shingen said that, and stared at him.

“Whoa!? What!? What’s the matter!?”

“Mhm. That’s the Imagine Breaker that’s become a topic of conversation over there. So,
since you’re here in this world, wanna try dissecting it?”

“I refuse!”

Shingen, a fully grown adult, proceeded to prostrate himself while in the back seat of the
station wagon before Kamijou, who had merely given the only sensible response.

“Please think about it!”

“Although there have been various people who have turned their sights on this right
hand so far, this is the first time I’ve heard of such a direct request from someone sitting
right in front of me! How!? Don’t tell me that this is how this world operates!?”

Facing the confused Kamijou, Karisawa replied.

79
“Well, this guy is pretty special. His son is a special guy who likes girls who’s got nothing
above their neck.”

“What kind of hobby is that!? Even Aogami Pierce’s list of fetish doesn’t include it!”

“Ah, I guess I’ll put it in the category of ‘not a human’ for now.”

Putting aside the Karisawa who calmly roasted someone, Shingen pressed on the subject
of Kamijou’s right hand.

“Money isn’t a problem, we’ve got all the money you need! It’s not as if we’re going to
cut that hand off and take it away. As long as we can do all sorts of experiments with you
under anesthesia, we can guarantee a minimum of twenty million yen!”

“Twenty million!?”

After hearing the exact amount, Kamijou’s brain circuit short circuited for a while.

Damn it... if this was about a billion or two, something that’s extremely far from the
reality Kamijou knew, it wouldn’t have any effect, but when it comes to the tens of
thousands of yen, it felt surprisingly realistic!

Ahhh... Speaking of this, how much would the repair of his dorm cost? With that big
hole caused by Birdway and Lessar...

And, that much money would render his food problems...

It seemed like the magic of money couldn’t be dispelled by his right arm, and Kamijou
staggered drunkenly in delusion.

Eh? Wait a minute. Food expenses?

The moment he thought of that word, “food”, his mind went straight to, “Touma,
where’s the food”, and the scenario where she made her way through twenty-million-yen
worth of food in half a month. Kamijou couldn’t help but shake his head vigorously as he
thought of that.

No, no, no, he needed to pull himself together!

If he believed that money on that sort of magnitude could have any effect on his
misfortune, he had to destroy that illusion of his!

Kamijou slapped his face with his right hand, and awakened his consciousness with the
sensation and clarity that came with the pain.

80
“...Well, better forget about it. Knowing me, the day after I get that kind of money I’d
need to pay a twenty-million-yen compensation, something will eat it, etc. That’s my
fate.”

Although he hadn’t yet given up on life, he had given up on his own fortune, and faced
with the Kamijou who carried such sadness in his eyes, Shingen shook his head in pity.

“Ah... So that’s the case. It’s nothing, even if you hadn’t said that, I understand. If you
can’t save someone who was in crisis during the time when your freedom of use of your
right hand was taken away, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life, right...! How noble!”

“Ah, no, I’m not thinking about such a grand thing...”

“Anyway. We’ll want to avoid the cause that will be caused by the merging of the worlds.
If all the people of the Academy City group, including you, can go back, the distortion
will be more or less reduced, right?”

Nodding vigorously, Shingen once again began to explain the situation

“Actually, a boy who called himself Jörmungandr was raging all over the place with huge
wounds covering his body, but apparently a group of vampires somehow appeased him,
and there was also a woman who called herself Hel who could control the cause of death,
but a gang of immortals managed to calm her down.”

“No, I don’t get it at all, even if you tell me that.”

Ignoring Kamijou, who was tilting his head, Shingen continued.

“Then, there’s also...two people who are also confirmed to be here.”

“Who? Do I know them?”

“One of them, I hear, is someone you know quite well.”

At that instant, the window of the station wagon made a clanging sound.

Looking over, what he found was Tsuchimikado, who was looking confused.

“What’s wrong, Tsuchimikado?”

Kamijou opened the window of the car and looked over, while Tsuchimikado whispered.

“Ah... Just now, the boss gave me an order, nya.”

“Order?”

81
“It seems like... someone’s impersonating the board of directors, and are issuing false
orders.”

A stuttering Tsuchimikado finally managed to spit out the true identity of one of the
visitors of Ikebukuro.

“As a result of those false orders, the #1 came over here, and because communications
are unstable, I can’t connect to him... so we’ll have to get in direct contact with him and
drag him back before shit gets real.”

Abandoned Factory

“...?”

The white-haired teenager stopped in his tracks, as he felt a powerful change in the flow
of power behind him.

As he turned back, he found half the factory filled with a darkness.

It was the large number of shadows that Celty Sturluson sent forth, swallowing up the
entire abandoned factory.

Shizuo, who saw this, shouted out!

“You fucking idiot... Celty! This is my fight, so hurry up and return it to me!”

[I refuse!]

“Wh...”

Seeing Celty, who was typing in words with an unprecedented forcefulness, Shizuo
couldn’t say anything.

Honestly, it was impossible to understand what was going on.

Because it was not understandable, they had to stop this situation in order to
understand it.

If there was any chance of stopping it, it would only be herself.

Celty, who was calmly weaving those words in her mind, wanted herself to calm down.

However, the passion that came out was completely uncontrollable.

82
The most important thing was...

The headless horseman, Celty Sturluson, clenched her fists.

How could she stay silent as she saw a friend being treated like that, right in front of her
eyes!

For her, this was an extremely rare emotion.

Pure anger.

That was to say, a clear hostility towards the boy in front of her.

She didn’t think she could win.

Her opponent was an existence that was outside of common sense, even to her as a
Dullahan.

And she feared that he hadn’t even shown his full strength yet.

Even so, the option of abandoning Shizuo there and running away on her own did not
even exist in the mind of Celty at the moment.

She was a Dullahan. A fairy who didn’t become a human.

As a result of her integration into human society and learning about humans through
various mediums, the “human” heart that had developed inside her had made up its
mind to attack the threat in front of her.

And since that was the case, it didn’t matter if that “ordinary human being” made fun of
her for being tactless.

“You don’t have a head, but you still make such a determined face. Well, at least it shows
that you understand the situation better, as you’re not getting on the ground and
begging.”

And after those words dripping with sarcasm...

The white-haired teenager manipulated the vectors of the wind around him, and
instantly whipped up a tornado.

He compressed it into a blade of wind, and shot it straight at Celty.

However, the protective shadows completely blocked the wind, and moved forward,
through the new shadows being generated from within.

83
The shadows had taken root in every corner of the factory, and the half-hearted wind
attack probably wouldn’t budge at all.

“...”

Bang! The white-haired boy understood the situation. Bang! And he tapped the floor
with his foot.

After that, he somehow manipulated vectors to allow the steel in the abandoned factory
to float, one by one, and then as if they were being pulled to his side, they flew.

And then, as if to dust off the steel off his body, he knocked them, one by one.

The simple action made the iron accelerate like a cannonball, and with the momentum
of a rain of bullets, they flew towards Celty.

However, all of them were absorbed as if they fell into a swamp, and the shadow
continued to expand, like a giant slime.

“Tch... it really is the same sort as the #2!”

While clicking his tongue, the white-haired boy raised his hand to the sky.

The wind began to compress in front of him at a high density, creating a small body of
plasma.

Just as the teenager was about to throw the plasma at the “shadow” without hesitation—

“Take this!”

Shizuo threw one of the nearby chunks of iron, the same way he had through the
vending machines before.

However, if it were only on this level, the teenager would not panic and misfire the
plasma.

“Watch and learn, old man.”

Of course, his reflection worked properly, and bounced the iron back just like before.

However, it was a little different than before.

Shizuo, after throwing the piece of metal, burst forward towards his opponent himself.

Then, in the same way, he hit the iron back at him.

If that was it, the results would not differ from before.
84
And because there was no difference—

Shizuo hit the piece of iron into the ground.

“!”

The piece of iron completely destroyed the ground, and stabbed itself into the
underground warehouse of the factory.

And the white-haired boy started to fall.

If it was only this, it wouldn’t be considered on the level of a crisis.

However, when he felt that the ground in front of him was darker than he thought, he
couldn’t help but click his tongue.

He sensed it.

Was it that Celty read Shizuo’s intention, or was it that she was prepared to take hold
from the very beginning—passing through the cave where half of Shizuo’s body had been
buried into, she filled the ground with a number of large shadows.

Then, just a moment before he was going to escape from the air through vector
transformation—

The shadows that covered the top, bottom, left and right of the abandoned factory
wrapped up the boy completely.

“...What’s this, huh?”

What was in front of Shizuo’s eyes was a giant sphere that was about the size of a small
car.

It didn’t make contact with the ground, but it was completely stationary in the air.

[For the time being, I kind of locked him up...]

Instead of having the shadows directly twisting on him, it was akin to being locked up in
a soap bubble.

Judging that he could manipulate kinetic energy freely, she didn’t move the sphere
immediately, but just kept it stationary in the air. Of course, if he kicked at the walls, he
would be able to generate energy, right? So that was why Celty divided the sphere into
dozens of layers, and wrapped it up like a Russian matryoshka doll.

85
Even if an inner layer was destroyed, a new one could be generated from one of the
outer layers to cover it immediately. Although she had prepared for this specifically,
nothing happened yet.

If this was ordinary matter, no matter what kind of technique was used to construct it,
as long as the teenager used his ability, he would be able to tear it apart easily.

However, this was no ordinary matter that wrapped up the teenager.

It was shadows.

Originally, shadows were areas where there was no light, and since they weren’t even
considered matter, they didn’t have mass, or thickness.

Celty was manipulating the shadow as if it were an object with mass—the important
thing here was that although thickness could be created through this, the concept of
thickness could also be ignored.

This was something Celty herself did not realize, that she was actually able to
materialize her shadows with varying degrees of thinness.

In other words, it could be kept at zero thickness, but also could be stacked infinitely to
increase its strength.

Therefore, if Celty Sturluson had actually knew about this, the shadow could be a spear
and a shield more powerful than any other material on this planet. It could even be the
thread used to connect Earth and Mars together.

It was a power that had completely surpassed the common sense of science and the laws
of physics. Celty herself was not able to understand it properly. It was a shadow of
absolute strength that was created unconsciously.

In order words, she was able to do this because of the anger she felt.

If the underground doctor, who lived with her, knew about this, there would be no doubt
that he would be jealous of Shizuo.

“This, how are we going to deal with him?”

[I don’t think he can be defeated by physical means. Let’s just wait for him to enter a
state of hypoxemia.]

Celty made the density of the shadow bigger than usual, thus blocking the supply of
oxygen by blocking the air.

This suffocation attack created by the interweaving and overlapping of various special
conditions could be said to be one of the rare weaknesses of the invincible reflection.
86
If it were a normal person, this would be enough to decide who was the winner, and the
loser.

However.

This young man was the existence known as the #1 of Academy City. Accelerator.

He was another existence that wasn’t ordinary, even within the category of espers.

Bang... Celty and Shizuo felt the sound of the air shaking.

In the next instant, alongside a violent sound of destruction, the top of the black sphere
was torn by something unseen.

“What!?”

This...

Next to Shizuo who shouted out loud, the headless Celty’s “vision” felt it.

From the top of the sphere, two colorless wings grew out.

(...He hasn’t even shown his full strength yet!)

The thing that destroyed Celty’s shadow, something that ignored the laws of physics,
was indeed something from another dimension that also did not obey the laws of
physics.

(What was this... this thing, it was almost like...!)

Celty probably associated the pair of wings with something else.

Just before she continued to think about it, the crack of the sphere widened, and the
invisible wings, (were they white or black?), were rendered in another color for just a
moment.

“Please don’t fight over me anymore! says Misaka as Misaka remembers the lines she
recently saw in the morning at the theater, and tries to pretend to be the heroine in the
swamp!”

Such words, which were completely incompatible with the atmosphere of the scene,
resounded throughout the abandoned factory.

When Shizuo and Celty looked over, there was a girl of about ten years of age standing
there, with an ahoge on the top of her head.

“A kid...?”
87
In contrast to Shizuo, who frowned, Celty, who saw who the girl was, panicked and took
out her PDA, pointing it at her.

[I told you to wait near the motorcycle!]

“Who is it?”

Before answering Shizuo’s question, Celty typed something in order to ensure the girl’s
safety.

[It’s dangerous! Get out of here!]

But the girl, looking up at the black sphere, asserted with her hands crossed.

“It’s not dangerous anymore, says Misaka as Misaka tries to send the words of objective
truth to the strange sphere with hopeful observation.”

The young girl had the voice of a child, but with the words of an old man.

Then, in the next instant, the transparent wings disappeared completely from Celty’s
vision, and the voice of a teenager who had become tired in every sense came from
inside the sphere.

“Hey... I’m no longer in the mood for messing around. Hurry up and get rid of this damn
ball.”

A few minutes later.

After the shadow cage was lifted at the urging of the girl who called herself Misaka, the
boy stared at them but didn’t attack.

“Why are you here, you idiot?!”

“Because of numerous reasons, announces Misaka, Misaka somehow came into this
world, but there were also signals from a satellite that talked about how several people
were involved in a conspiracy.”

“Say it so that I can actually understand,” said the boy, annoyed.

Shizuo had to have suppressed his anger and urge to interject from behind.

“Hey...Although you guys seem to be pushing the topic on your own over there, I’m
totally not convinced...”

Probably because there was a kid in front of him, he held back desperately. Celty tried to
calm Shizuo down, whose face was twitching with anger.

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“The reason is Orihara Izaya.”

Because of what that girl said, Shizuo’s movements halted.

“Misaka says as Misaka tries to convey this crucial piece of information that’s at the core
of everything.”

“What are you on about, Last Order?”

Then, the girl named Last Order weaved around Shizuo’s back and continued.

“It’s all lies! About this person wandering around and the network, they’re lies! They’re
all false orders given by that person named Orihara Izaya, pretending to be Academy
City’s Board of Directors, says Misaka as Misaka tries to peek at a certain person to see if
his reaction is different than normal when he sees Misaka hiding behind this bartender,
as Misaka peaks Misaka’s head out to confirm.”

“Cut the bullshit and tell me.”

After a few minutes, after the girl had explained everything, Celty’s shoulders slumped.

In the end, there he was again, with his usual evil plans!

The man who did this thing purely because he hated Shizuo was none other than
Orihara Izaya.

She understood this, but this time she actually really wanted to beat him up.

However, above that, there was a worry.

If she had that kind of thought, what kind of boiling state was Shizuo’s mind in right
now?

“Seriously, anyway, you should say sorry to the person you hurt first, says Misaka as
Misaka thoughtfully teaches you the common sense of society.”

Faced with the teenager who kept his face stiff, the young girl urged him to apologize to
Shizuo and the others.

Just before the teenager said something, Shizuo spoke.

“Ahah... No, no need to apologize...”

Even though the #1 kid didn’t use his ability, he could feel that Heiwajima Shizuo’s
anger vector had completely switched direction. But it also increased by several times
then when he was facing him.

89
“Do you know where that fungus Izaya is? Girl.”

The girl answered without panic to the face of Shizuo, who was seeping with a ghost-like
anger.

“Although I don’t know why, because Hikoboshi II has also come to this world, I can
observe his location in detail if I connect to the Network! Misaka says confidently.”

——Distortion.

The reason for all this was the distortion of space-time.

For example, even if Yumasaki or Karisawa went to Academy City tomorrow or

yesterday, and met Index, but didn’t realize it was her, that could be explained by that
phrase, that it was all caused by the distortion of space-time.

In the past, when Yumasaki was thrown into the other world called Dengeki Gakuen,
there had been a miracle, where he had met Index, and Burning-Eyed Shana
themselves—perhaps the Yumasaki who went to Academy City was actually the
Yumasaki from before in that point in time, so during his time in “that other world”, that
was why he judged Index to be a cosplayer.

And in this situation with distorted space-time—

Yumasaki and Karisawa were still going their separate ways.

“So, if you get Shokuhou-chan to remove the psychological scars of Awaki-chan, would it
allow her to become a Level 5? Kamijou, try doing that please.”

“What good would that do to Misaki-chan, huh?”

“No, what are you talking about! And who’s Awaki!?”

“She’s a shotacon girl!”

“Even if you say that!”

While Tsuchimikado was trying to find out where Accelerator was, this argument
continued. Shingen left the station wagon, saying that he had to go back to the office to
report on the situation, and Aogami said that he was going to meet some girl on the
Otome Road and left, so only Kamijou was left to savor this unreasonable situation.

Why did these people know so much about Kamijou and Academy City?

90
“Actually, I have even more questions...”

When Yumasaki tried to take out some books, he accidentally dropped his backpack,
and several light novels dropped out of the opened pack.

“Huh? What books are these?”

Kamijou frowned when he saw that cover read “A Certain Magical Index”.

Index. It was a word that he often heard. Did the “A Certain” part mean a specific Index?

Also, the characters on the cover of the books all matched with the people he knew. Even
the outfits matched.

“Ah, this is...”

While Yumasaki was thinking of how he should explain it, Kamijou picked up one of the
books nearest to him, and turned the pages noisily.

And then.

“W-what the hell is this!?”

Electrical current swam throughout the grey matter in Kamijou’s brain.

Actually, it was the same kind of shock, as the time when he was gently hit by Misaka
Mikoto’s electrical attacks.

After seeing the word “Kamijou” in the novel, reading it with a frown, he found that it
was as if his previous experiences in the past had been recorded in the form of a novel.

“What the hell is this!? Is this some stalker’s diary or something? Did I make some
enemies in some kind of strange organization unknowingly!?”

“Ahhhh... That... That’s... something like the Akashic Records. About the Akashic
Records, maybe Index or Birdway can explain it in more detail.”

“Wait a second! You not only know Index, but also Birdway!?”

In the book labeled Volume 2, the events relating to Himegami and the Misawa Cram
school were described.

Then, it suddenly occurred to Kamijou.

(Hmm? This means...)

Wouldn’t the first volume... be about the events before he lost his memories?
91
Moving his eyes down, he found a book with no number after the title, lying on the floor.

Gulping, he slowly stretched his arm out.

Karisawa held her hand out.

“No.”

“Hey...”

This book was a very good example of the kind of book that could be used to make a
person’s life easier.

Putting that book away in his backpack, Yumasaki, with a serious face, said, “Kamijou,
we’ll also be talking according to the situation. Your past, just like the flower on Uiharu’s
head, is a sacred area that must not be touched. So I’m sorry.”

“Hey, so my past, though I don’t get it at all, it’s on the same level as a flower on
someone’s head or something...?”

“After all, we’re just mere spectators. Even if we can cheer you on, we don’t have the
right to change your life.”

Karisawa spoke while hugging Kamijou who had no choice but to calm down.

“It’s all right, even if you don’t have your memories, there are still people who love you.
No matter what happens to them, we’re the same. Who we love is the ‘you’ who can
move forward now!”

“That’s right, in this city, there is someone who has lost her head, not to mention her
memories, and that person is now living a fulfilling, loving life.”

“...”

He didn’t understand what all this was about.

Although this was the case, he could feel that the warmth in their words was genuine, so
Kamijou said two words, though he was still confused.

“Thank...you.”

“Ooooohhhhhhhhhh! Kami-yan!”

Completely destroying the fantasy-like atmosphere, from outside the station wagon
came the voice of Aogami Pierce.

“What’s wrong, what’s wrong!?”

92
After Kamijou opened the car door, it revealed the tearful Aogami Pierce.”

“You listen to me, Kami-yan! Even if I talk to the girls on Otome Road, all they say to me
is that ‘Wow, that’s so cool, this cosplay suits you!’ What??? Did someone steal my iconic
hair and earrings that I’ve put so much faith into! I didn’t think it would be so
humiliating to be asked if it was a cosplay or not, but this seems to have awakened a new
fetish in me, ohonononononoononono.”

“Okay, just calm down! The one feeling embarrassed is me now!”

Kamijou was made aware of the eyes surrounding them and used his hand to press on
Aogami Pierce’s mouth.

Pushing Kamijou’s hand away from him, and complaining to Yumasaki, whom he had
just established a friendly relationship with, Tsuchimikado sighed as he watched
Aogami Pierce running around.

“Not good, nya. The line with Hikoboshi has become mixed up, and so I can’t figure out
where that guy is.”

“Are you saying that there’s others communicating? With that satellite?”

“Well, there’s a lot of confusion over on the other side as well. Even so, if we don’t find
Accelerator soon...”

“You want me to tell you what?”

Kamijou and the others looked back at the place where the voice suddenly appeared,
and there stood a man wearing a black fur coat.

“...Who are you?”

“An informant that’s just passing by. You guys are worried because you can’t find where
Accelerator is, right? Then allow me to sell you that information.”

“You... know about what’s going on?”

“Sort of. Honestly, I’ve already looked into the situation. After all, this incident is of
great interest to me as well.”

The man who called himself the informant looked at the teenager near the door of the
station wagon, expertly weaving his words together.

“There’s just one thing, to be honest. Although I’ve collected all kinds of information, I
don’t know why I can’t get the real name of Aogami Pierce over there.”

With a self-deprecating smile, the informant continued.

93
“Although it isn’t a big deal, I’m pretty unsatisfied having such a hole in my information.
If you can tell me this, I’ll give you the information you want.”

“What, what? It’s not such a big deal. I’m not even listening, and you’re talking about it
so casually?”

Aogami Pierce, who heard his nickname being called, started to listen to the
conversation midway, saying to the informant, determined.

“Oh, tell me my real name, Kami-yan! With gusto! Let this second-rate informant, who
doesn’t even know my real name, see the cruelty of reality!”

Aogami Pierce, who was pointing a finger at Izaya with a strange pose, Kamijou could
only respond with silence.

“...”

“Kami-yan?”

An unprecedented cold sweat seeped out of his face, and Kamijou said some words, as if
he were talking to himself.

“Once, despair was inflicted.”

“?”

“That was when the whole world became my enemy. Even you and Fukiyose tried to kill
me. Imagine it as some sort of dream.”

“Hey? Ah, so you’re talking about a dream?”

“In such a horrible, horrible situation, to you who tried to kill me... I called you ‘Aogami
Pierce’... Even in such a situation, I could only use your nickname...”

“What are you talking about, Kami-yan? What are you trying to say?”

“Hey, wait, you guys, are you serious!? Are you kidding me!? Nooooo, really, are you
guys trolling me?”

Aogami Pierce accepted his friend’s reaction as a joke, standing in front of the informant.

“Fine, I’ll do it myself! Dig the shit out of your ears, and listen to me carefully!”

Aogami Pierce took a big breath, getting ready to say his name out loud to all these
people around him.

94
“My name is...”

And in the moment after that, space-time distorted.

To be precise, it was an attack that gave the illusion of space-time distortion, that
wrapped up an entire space.

The one that flew here, aiming at Orihara Izaya, crushed the asphalt beneath him,
blowing the body of the Aogami Pierce next to him away, through the pressure of the
wind alone.

“Arghhh—!?”

Looking at Aogami Pierce, who was rolling around, grunting, Kamijou went after it with
his unsteady body.

He glanced to the side. A small impact crater had been created, and a man in a
bartender’s uniform with a face that looked like it belonged to a demon lord was
standing in it.

Because of the overwhelming sense of pressure, Kamijou continued to chase after

Aogami Pierce, as if he had seen nothing.

The man who had dodged the impact just in time howled like a monster.

“I don’t know if this world is distorted or whatever... But you’re ready to have your body
squished into a ball, right...? I—za—ya—kun-Ooooooohhhhh!”

“Goodbye, and thank you so much for today, says Misaka as Misaka shows kindness in
the place of the cold edgy guy.”

[Ahah, take care on your way back.]

Celty entered that text gently, to the girl who was smiling innocently.

Then, she took a look at the boy named Accelerator.

He manipulated Shizuo’s strength, which far exceeded that of a normal human, blowing
his body directly towards where Izaya was. Although this was Shizuo’s own request,
Celty couldn’t help but think that this kid who could do this was so far beyond common
sense that it wasn’t even funny.

95
At the same time, if that girl hadn’t arrived, who knows what would have happened.

Shingen suddenly said “You should accompany this child to find someone” and then
because of this girl “Felt that he was this way, thought Misaka as Misaka tried to look for
that person’s distinct traces of AIM surrounding him”, Celty followed those ambiguous
instructions and ran up and down the streets.

When she came into the abandoned factory because of Shizuo’s guttural roar, she told
the girl to wait at the motorcycle, and so she went to see what was going on, but ended
up getting involved in it.

After all, she didn’t know about the white hair... So she didn’t think that it was the
person that the kid was looking for.

“Why are you staring over here... Uh, oh wait, you’ve got no eyes.”

The girl began to lecture the teenager when he said such things to Celty.

Ignoring the lecturing, he said this to Celty.

“...Yo.”

[What?]

“About your power... There should be a better way that you can use to kill me in an
instant, right? Why didn’t you use it?”

Celty responded after thinking a little, typing out the text.

[Why do you think... Wouldn’t it be better to settle things without killing anyone? No
one would lose any sleep at night because of it.]

Hearing that, the teenager frowned, muttering.

“Even a monster like you is this indecisive.”

After that, with a slightly unimpressed expression, he messed with the girl’s hair.

“We’re going back. This isn’t my city.”

[Nonsense. As long as you don’t go crazy like before, Ikebukuro welcomes you]

The teenager didn’t respond to Celty’s words.

As if to replace the reply, he once again ruffled with the girls’ hair.

96
It was as if he was claiming that the place where the teenager would go was the place
where he belonged.

Ikebukuro station | On the subway

“Ahh, what bad luck. It’s the same as yesterday. I didn’t even finish one of the external
research...”

After all that chaos, Kamijou and the others got on the same subway they took here
because of Shingen’s urging.

After that, they got caught in a fight between the man in the bartender suit and the
informant, and when they managed to escape, they found out that Accelerator had
already gone back to Academy City, so everything was settled.

“Honestly, I have no idea what just happened, but suddenly everything is alright now...
Well anyway, if it’s all solved, then it’s for the best...”

Kamijou, who got involved in the incident, and yet didn’t become the center of it, felt the
fatigue coming on, after relaxing for a bit.

Speaking of which, was it really all over?

Although he wasn’t so sure about it, once you got on this subway, people of the Academy
City group would automatically go back to their original world.

Aogami Pierce, who did not understand what was happening, and Tsuchimikado, whose
last encounter with Kamijou was a little earlier back in time. Each of them would go
back to their respective times and places, across the distorted space-time.

No matter if it was a distorted path or not, all one could do was to move forward.

Suddenly, Kamijou, who had made his mind, felt a sense of unease, and said,

“I feel like I’ve forgotten something... What could it be?”

Hikoboshi II - Satellite Orbit - Zero Gravity Biological Impact Laboratory

[We’ve finally solved the problem]

97
In response to the message from Tsukumoya Shinichi, Kaguya maintained her floating
position as she replied.

“The scale of the merging seems to be larger than expected.”

[Yes. So there’s nothing better than getting in touch with you, who can observe the earth
from the most objective perspective, and getting your assistance on top of that.]

“But the important thing is that I’m still here in this world.”

[If the distortion of the Sky by Fire can be resolved, you should be able to return to your
original world in a few days.]

“I said that I couldn’t leave Academy City on its own, but I don’t really care about it.
Looking at a different Earth is a good way to pass the time. It’s like a spot the difference
game.”

To the not particularly troubled Kaguya, Tsukumoya Shinichi told the truth.

[Well, also, since you think it’s fine like that, then I better not say anything more...]

[But your presence here has sent the surface into panic.]

Somewhere on Kawagoe Street | Shinra’s apartment

“Celty! You’re back! What a day it’s been today!”

[I know! Suddenly something unbelievable has happened.]

When she finally returned home, she found a paper bag on the table.

[What’s this?]

She took a peek with her hand, and saw something that looked like a wine bottle in some
special packaging.

“Ahhh... That seems to be something that my dad’s guest forgot. He says that he wants
you to send it back through the subway tunnel tomorrow...”

[???]

Why did she have to go through the subway tunnel to send back something that
someone forgot?

98
Just as Celty was about to ask the obvious question, a report about an astonishing event
just came, blaring from the news on the TV.

[And for the next piece of news. We have received an astonishing image. A huge artificial
structure, five thousand meters long, has appeared in the sky over Tokyo. There is no
record of such a satellite being sent up, as far as we know—]

Suddenly, Celty dropped the goods onto the couch.

[Ohh... Are these aliens ahhahaguukayadshaaghdsdkgh—]

“Calm down, Celty! Celty!?”

After that, she couldn’t get her work done well because of the news, and the next day,
she passed through the underground tunnel, confused. She arrived at Academy City,
but—

But that is another story, for another time.

Epilogue

Ikebukuro’s west gate park was covered in a thin, crimson, sunset.

In the corner of the park was a man with long, thin eyes, as well as a European-shaped
face, sitting on a metal tube bench.

Although it wasn’t a rare presence in Ikebukuro, where there were many foreign tourists,
the unique atmosphere that surrounded this man was a presence very rare indeed, both
in Japan, and abroad.

However, a person who could detect this atmosphere would also be a very rare existence
in this world.

“Can I sit next to you?”

“It’s a public bench. You don’t need to ask me for permission...”

The man said with a shrug, after glancing in the direction of the girl.

“Whatever.”

99
“It’s not just whatever. This side or that side, how much confusion do you think has been
created? There were several conflicts in places you didn’t see. Of course, you know all
that, right?”

“So, is it, or is it not? After all, it would be boring if I knew everything. Life is meant to
be a challenge.”

“What are you talking about, cheater?”

The girl said that, sitting down violently on the bench

To this girl, the man said.

“Why did you come here? The bottle should have been returned to Kamijou Touma,
right, girl?”

“It’s like you asked me to come here yourself. I didn’t expect that someone like you could
blend in with society in general. How can you not be interested in something like that?”

The young girl, who was about twelve years old, spoke loudly. The leader of the magic
cabal, the Dawn-Colored Sunlight, Leivinia Birdway. To this, the man softly replied.

“Even so, he was a senior member of an underground organization. It’s hard to say that
he’s someone with a normal status.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s the triads, the Camorra, or the ‘Ndrangheta, to us magicians,
they’re all the same.”

“From how I can see it, magicians and espers are just the same.”

“Don’t get so passive aggressive. What are you, a child?”

The man of the underworld giggled at Birdway’s words.

“It’s not something to laugh at. Have you seriously prepared a solution to this mess?”

“Don’t need to do anything. In the infinite cycle of the chicken and the egg, the chick will
go on its own way.”

“Are you going to play this game of words to deceive your way through? If that really
would work, what a chaotic play it would be.”

After a little more words exchanged, Birdway slowly stood up.

“There’s not much to be gained from how I live my life. It’s time for me to return,
Alchemist.”

100
“Yeah? I’m sorry to see you go, but I won’t keep you any longer.”

The man named the Alchemist continued to speak to the magician girl.

“It’s hard to form ties. In the end, I’d like to leave you a piece of advice, about your
actions this time. Although it’s something that the majority of people from this world
can feel.”

“What? Advice from a “being” like you would be interesting. Let’s hear it then.”

In response to Birdway’s words, the Alchemist said with a blank expression.

“I don’t think you came here because you were interested in what I was doing, but
simply because you were chasing after Kamijou Touma, right?”

“Wh...”

“You’re actually a brocon, aren’t you?”

“...”

For a moment, the silence that seemed like that time had stood still dominated these
two.

After several seconds of silence that could be described as forever, the corners of
Birdway’s mouth twitched, and she spoke.

“...If I become a Magic God, I’ll come over to this universe and destroy you, you bloody
bastard. Keep that in mind.”

“What a horrible thing to say...Fine”

Smiling while shrugging his shoulders once more, the Alchemist laughed.

“When that time comes, I’ll ask Kamijou Touma for help.”

After the girl disappeared from the streets of Ikebukuro with an appalling anger, the
man, still sitting on the bench, looked up at the sky, and muttered to himself.

“A chaotic play. In some sense, maybe that’s true. But where in the world can you get the
words to explain this event?”

“If you could explain it with words, then a phenomenon of this magnitude can’t really be
truly called ‘absurd.’ Ha.”

101
This, again, was the words of something outside of this dimension, from elsewhere.

Whether he understood it or not, this incident was, in other words, something like that.

“Oh well.”

After saying that, the man’s figure disappeared.

The space where the man was originally located dissolved into nothingness—like a film
reel being scattered in the air.

Then, one part of the film distorted, beginning to form a circle, and the film, which had
become a shape of a mobius ring, further shifted into the shape of the infinity symbol,
beginning to rotate.

As if to say that the event neither had a beginning, nor an end, from the very start.

The view of the city, too, continued to rotate like a film.

Knock knock, click click

102