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Kazuki was dreaming of steam.
Hot water bubbling in a kettle.
A café bell chiming.
Someone yelling about curry being too spicy.
Then—
"There's no way a human can cancel God's miracles!"
Kazuki's eyes cracked open.
"It's basic divine structure! You're not even trained in runic contradiction theory!"
"I don't need to be trained to know what my right hand does when it keeps breaking every damn weird thing that touches it!"
Kazuki blinked at the ceiling.
Morning sunlight leaked through the window. Dust floated in golden shafts across the tatami.
The smell of toast.
The sound of two idiots arguing theology and physics at 8:00 a.m.
He rolled out of his blanket, yawned, and stepped into the kitchen.
Index and Touma were facing off like a nun and a very tired gladiator.
Touma's hair was a mess. Index's face was red with frustration.
"Miracles aren't like your city's esper tricks!" she snapped. "You can't just wave your hand and delete them!"
"Tell that to the lightning I accidentally erased yesterday!" Touma shot back. "It disintegrated the second I touched it!"
Kazuki poured water into the kettle, ignoring the brewing holy war.
"How can you cancel God's will? That's sacrilege!"
"Lady, if you'd seen my life, you'd know God left the chat a long time ago!"
Kazuki exhaled slowly.
"You two are going to wake up the neighbors."
Neither of them listened.
Touma pointed dramatically at Index.
"Fine! You want proof? I'll touch your miracle cloak and—"
Kazuki set down the cup a little too hard.
"Noli tangere sacrum corpus Dei."
The room fell silent.
Index turned.
Touma turned.
Kazuki froze.
"…What did I just say?"
Index stared at him.
"You just said 'Do not touch the sacred body of God.' In Latin."
Kazuki blinked. "Oh."
Touma furrowed his brow. "When the hell did you learn Latin?"
Kazuki opened his mouth. Closed it.
Then shrugged.
"Just now."
The silence got thicker.
Index's eyes narrowed.
"You're not an esper."
Kazuki shook his head. "Not officially."
"You're not a magician either."
"Also true."
"Then how—"
Kazuki held up his hands. "Hey, don't look at me like I've got a wand tucked into my belt. It just… came out."
Touma raised an eyebrow. "Do you absorb languages through osmosis now?"
"I don't know," Kazuki muttered. "My brain does what it wants."
Index crossed her arms, clearly rattled now.
"Only trained clergy can speak that kind of Latin without practice."
Kazuki shrugged again.
He felt a buzz in the back of his mind—but this time it wasn't uncomfortable. It was like a new window had opened, and the words had simply been there, waiting.
Then Touma broke the tension.
"Okay. I'm done talking. You don't believe me? Fine."
He reached out toward the edge of Index's robe.
"Touma—" Kazuki warned.
Too late.
His right hand brushed the fabric.
And the robe—Index's Walking Church, the miraculous defense spell woven into clothing—began to unravel.
Not physically.
It disintegrated.
Layer by layer, thread by thread, it peeled off reality like an illusion being erased.
Light shimmered around Index for a moment.
Then it was gone.
She stood there in a loose white underlayer, stunned, eyes wide, mouth slightly open.
No scorch marks. No pain. Just… gone.
She staggered back.
"Y-You—You actually destroyed it…"
Kazuki's eyes narrowed, studying the air around her.
There was nothing left of the barrier. No spiritual framework. No resistance.
Just silence.
Touma looked down at his hand like it had just betrayed him.
"See? This is what I've been saying. I don't know how or why… but that's what it does. It breaks anything strange. Powers. Spells. Whatever."
Index stared at him for a long second.
Then crumpled to her knees.
Not in pain.
In disbelief.
"No one… no one should be able to destroy the Walking Church."
Kazuki knelt beside her, more out of instinct than thought.
"You okay?"
She nodded slowly.
Then looked up at Touma.
"I believe you now."
Touma let out a breath like he'd been holding it all week before he was directly slapped in the face by the embarrassed Index.
Kazuki looked at his friend. Really looked.
And for the first time, he realized something.
Touma wasn't just unlucky.
He was dangerous.
The kind of dangerous you couldn't see until it was too close.
Kazuki wasn't afraid.
But something deep in his gut told him,
This right hand isn't just misfortune. It's a threat to the very existence of supernatural.
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