Part 5
Kamijou Touma ran through Academy City at night.
He was heading for the Central Hub Transformer Station that Accelerator had told him about.
Academy City's electricity was supplied by the wind turbines set up all across the city. That had the advantage of making it more difficult for a power outage to occur if some of them were destroyed in an accident or a disaster, but it added complexity because the network of power supplies spread all across the city. That made facilities that controlled the flow of electricity necessary.
One central hub existed in each district.
(But why there...?)
Kamijou thought as he ran, but he could not come up with an answer. It was possible electricity or something else related to the area functioned as an occult symbol.
Hamazura Shiage had begun heading for the same location just a bit ahead of him, but Kamijou had not caught up to him on the way. Kamijou was pretty sure he was taking the shortest route there, so the other boy may have taken a different route.
Eventually, Kamijou made it to the Central Hub Transformer Station.
That stern name had made Kamijou envision something that looked like a large scale industrial complex or a military facility, but he realized he had been wrong when he arrived.
It was surrounded by a concrete wall and barbed wire, but it had no guards or anything like that. Some security robots were periodically patrolling around the building, but that was no different than the security at a children's park in Academy City.
Kamijou looked up at the thick wall.
(...Climbing over would probably be fastest.)
Having made that decision, he picked up an empty can from the ground at his feet. Before he actually climbed up, he wanted to make sure there wasn't any electricity running through the barbed wire.
He threw the can.
It hit the taut wire, but no sparks were created.
"Here goes," Kamijou muttered as he faced the wall.
The barbed wire had sharp spikes in order to stop intruders, but they were placed at even intervals. The rest was just plain wire. If he was careful, he would not get hurt even if he grabbed the wire directly.
(It would be even safer if I had a thick rubber mat...but I guess these spikes are long enough to pierce through one.)
As he thought that, Kamijou glanced around the facility from atop the wall.
The area was not all that large.
The actual land was at most thirty meters square and there was only one two story square building. However, there was equipment that looked like drums lined up all across the area. Power cables stretched from the ground around them, so they likely had something to do with the transformation. He did not think it would be a good idea to touch them.
Kamijou jumped down from the wall and snuck into the inner portion of the facility.
His goal lay ahead.
Part 6
A third of Radiosonde Castle had been annihilated.
An avalanche of wreckage did not rain down on the Kanto region because the massive amount of energy had blown away the third of the fortress to the extent that not even dust remained. That spell was powerful enough to forcibly destroy the ozone layer and it was similar to a solenoid coil. The Throwing Hammer had continually revolved around that circular orbit while carrying a massive amount of electricity. That had given the electrified air in the center of the circular orbit a vertical vector.
...That explanation alone seemed to make sense, but the attack was actually physically impossible.
With just the laws of science, the phenomenon created some inconsistencies.
But magic compensated for that and forced it to work.
"haa...haa...!!"
Kanzaki breathed heavily right next to the edge of the destruction.
The edge glowed orange like the inside of a blast furnace. The stone walls and ceiling that had been creating an odd sense of intimidation were no longer there. Just a running long jump's distance away, there was nothing but open space.
She had used her supersonic speed to its limit without thinking of the consequences.
She had headed forward tearing through walls and pillars.
But she could not do it again.
She had no way to deal with it if the same thing happened again.
She had not been able to use her sword or wires in time for a few walls and had merely tackled her way through them at full speed. She had used a bare minimum of defensive spells, but her body was crying out in protest.
And most importantly, she would no longer have anywhere to run to after two more of the same attack.
Her situation was close to hopeless, but at the same time, a question grew in Kanzaki's mind.
(I thought he or his organization was trying to drop Radiosonde Castle on Academy City!? Why would he destroy it like that...!?)
Speaking of goals, there were many mysteries regarding that Throwing Hammer itself.
That thing could produce destruction that rivaled the mobile fortress.
However, that was merely a means, not a goal. If the magician had modified his or her physical body to that extent there had to be a "magician-like" reason to match beyond efficiency or rationality.
Protecting a loved one. Killing a hated enemy. Reviving someone who had died. Creating a dragon that had never actually existed.
Whether it was actually doable or not, a magician would have their goal carved into themselves in Latin...they would have a magic name. But she could not feel anything like that from that Throwing Hammer.
It had such great firepower, but it did not use it to directly attack Academy City.
Dropping Radiosonde Castle on Academy City was likely the overall goal, but it had unhesitatingly blown away a third of the fortress.
In those methods that gave a jumbled and mismatched impression, she could not see the consistent and, in some cases, abnormally tenacious behavior that was characteristic of magicians.
Was there some reason behind it that only the Throwing Hammer could understand?
Or...
"Has he...already lost his objective...?" Kanzaki muttered.
For example, what if the magician's magic name was to protect a loved one and that utterly changed body was the result of gathering everything needed to do so? And what if that loved one had died partway through gathering those things making that goal disappear?
In that case, only the power would remain.
That power would drift about the world without even a direction to aim its malice. Because the power had no strong direction, it would occasionally be swept along and go along with the views of another and it would occasionally be swept along and wield that power. But a power with no purpose behind it would attack the world with overwhelming ferocity.
He could not cast aside the power he had ended up with.
A true monster would carry out destruction just by walking down the street. How much damage would be done to a city by someone who decided on their actions for the day based on nothing more substantial than the thoughts caused by a TV commercial or a collection box next to a cash register?
An apathetic destroyer.
A natural enemy that did not even wish for the destruction of the world.
Someone who would destroy on a whim what people had desperately built up.
If a failed one like that had existed for long, it was strange that the world still existed as it did. Since Necessarius, an organization that dealt with magicians like that, had no records of that magician, he may have failed only recently.
What came to Kanzaki's mind first was...
"...World War III."
It had officially ended very quickly after only about two weeks and the rapid and precise deployment of large scale forces centered on Academy City had kept the casualties to a minimum, but that disturbance had still covered the entire map of the world. It was possible that there had been battles that had not been officially announced and tragedies that no one knew about.
"You fool." Kanzaki frowned at the cause she could not even imagine while taking a drastic measure. "Even if you failed like that, you would not have gone down this path had you recalled that the people around you have things they wish to protect."
It may have been "magician-like" to not understand that fact.
It was completely one directional. Magicians gained explosive propulsion by restricting themselves with their purpose. That may have been why they did not understand the feelings of those who headed down other paths.
But Kanzaki knew.
She knew of magicians who had stood back up even after losing their goal. In Necessarius, there was a rune card magician who had been unable to protect a certain girl, but he still continued to fight in order to protect the world that girl lived in. There was a magician who had lost her precious partner in an area between science and magic, but she now used a golem with that partner's name. There were many nuns who had been treated as sacrificial pawns by their parent church, the Roman Catholic Church, and then banished, but they continued to believe in God.
Losing something was indeed sad.
But that did not surely send one on a twisted path and it did not act as an indulgence.
And most importantly, destruction did not lead to the salvation the destroyer wished for.
Salvation was not something one simply depended on others for.
Kanzaki had seen smiles reappear on the faces of those who had stood back up countless times while coughing up blood. She could say for sure that she understood this. Kanzaki respected the types of strength she did not possess herself and that was why she did not hold any easily influenced sympathy for what that Throwing Hammer had become.
"...Salvare000."
Instead, she named herself.
A saving hand for those who cannot be saved.
Without hesitation, she seemed to be stabbing out with the magic name she had carved into herself in Latin.
The Throwing Hammer that had lost even its magic name began flying to form the giant circle again. It had an instability that was somehow reminiscent of a kite being swept away by the wind after its string broke.
This time, the twenty-kilometer radius was oriented vertically.
It looked as if over half of the fortress would be destroyed if Mjölnir was fired, but the magician showed no sign of hesitation.
Part 7
According to Accelerator, the transmitter created using the leylines was at the very center of the Central Hub Transformer Station.
Kamijou forced open the lock on the back door using a flat-head screwdriver and entered the building.
The space was filled with pale illumination from fluorescent lights, but there was no sign of anyone there. There was a room with over ten computers lined up in it, but no one was there operating them despite the numbers on the screens constantly scrolling. They seemed to be set so they could be operated remotely. The workers may have been working from home.
(They probably aren't supposed to be doing that...)
But it was better than having some diligent worker still there. Kamijou did not have time for any unnecessary disturbances.
He walked through the facility.
He soon arrived at the very center.
It was one square room in a square building and it had no real design to it. There were large computers lined up that checked on and controlled the power network so all the power coming from the great number of turbines within that district could be sent to the appropriate places.
It was not uncommon for places with equipment like that to be kept cold like a refrigerator, but that did not seem to be one of those cases. Most likely, the bookshelf-like cases had cold air flowing through them or some kind of liquid cooling system was used.
"The center..." Kamijou muttered as he walked across the room. "The center of the facility..."
But there was nothing like a magical transmitter in that spot. He thought there might have been some kind of invisible gas or energy, so he swung his right hand around randomly, but he never felt any kind of reaction.
Was it really there?
Had they gotten the spot wrong? Or was it something that only a professional magician would be able to recognize?
(...Wait.)
Kamijou suddenly remembered something and looked at the center of the room.
Technically, he was looking at the thick concrete floor.
The roof was not leaking, but there was an unnatural dark stain there.
"Underground...? Is it below this thick concrete!?"
Part 8
By quickly flying in a giant circle while surrounded by a high voltage current, the Mjölnir spell caused the electrified air within the circle to move at high speed.
Once it was fired, it produced enough destruction to blow away a third of Radiosonde Castle which was a few dozen kilometers long.
Kanzaki, a Saint, did not have enough physical strength left to evade it again.
And she did not intend to evade it.
Using one's knowledge to prevail in a difficult situation was a magician's specialty.
(...When I think about it, why was it necessary to interfere with this fortress in such a roundabout way?)
Due to its altitude, neither an airplane nor a rocket had been able to make use of its normal level of performance against Radiosonde Castle. Due to that, Kanzaki had gone up in a rocket and then reentered the atmosphere in order to land on top of the fortress.
But...
(Except for special cases like the #10 Saint, modern magicians are prohibited from a certain action. That is why I had to go up above the fortress first rather than going directly to it.)
The reason she had chosen to fall.
The reason she had not directly flown there.
Kanzaki Kaori referred to that.
There was one legend about Peter, one of the twelve apostles. He had confronted a magician named Simon Magus who was famous for trying to buy sacred acts. When Simon had freely flown through the sky, what had Peter said?
It was...
"Oh, demons carrying this magic user, promptly let go!!"
Flight was prohibited.
That barrier existed for all magicians living in modern times.
That means of interception had spread too far due to it being simple yet both powerful and effective, and due to it being based on a famous story. Thanks to that, humans were restricted by the fact that they would be brought down the instant they tried to fly without wings.
(I can't allow myself to be led astray.)
That magician's strange appearance had led to her forgetting something very basic.
The Throwing Hammer was not a spiritual item or a weapon. It was a living human being.
A voiceless voice let out a cry that was something like a shock-wave.
The perfectly controlled giant circle was crushed in an instant. The Throwing Hammer lost control and slammed into the fortress with a high voltage current trailing behind it. When it hit, a massive amount of sparks exploded out, but it was nothing compared to the destruction that had been about to be fired.
"...That appearance was necessary to change what people aimed their interception spells at, wasn't it?"
The Throwing Hammer had smashed through a few floors of the fortress and was surrounded by rubble. Kanzaki slowly approached it.
"If someone determined you were a spiritual item or a weapon, they would begin putting together interception spells to deal with those things. Simply put, you made people choose something other than an anti-personnel spell because an anti-personnel spell would easily defeat you. Thor's hammer would be meaningless if it could not fly, but you would be shot down if you flew in this day and age. That was why you thought up a way to keep people from recognizing you for what you were as they tried to lock on to you as a target."
With a sound like plastic boards folding, the Throwing Hammer changed from the flat plane back to the cube. It gave up on flying and seemed to be trying to roll away from Kanzaki.
But it was no use.
When the magician Simon had been brought down, he had died. For magicians, obstructing the opponent's flight was not just something that brought the opponent's altitude down to zero. The effects depended on what part of the story about Peter was being most strongly emphasized, but there was always something more than the simple damage from the fall added in.
As such, the expanded cube was unable to return to the proper cube.
The same sound continued, but the edges simply would not connect. It was like a die that a child had tried and failed to make out of drawing paper.
"That is also why you used that large attack to blow away a good portion of the fortress. When I realized that you were a human, you felt a risk greater than just the immediate battle. ...Since you have lost your goal, did you fear having that method taken from you as well? And yet if you did lose your lingering attachments to the past, it would likely be easier to seek out a new goal."
That Throwing Hammer had been in charge of controlling the metal balloons providing Radiosonde Castle's lift. She could not overlook it. If she defeated the Throwing Hammer there, she could stop the fortress from rapidly falling. She could prevent a catastrophe that would affect Academy City and likely the entire world.
Kanzaki Kaori recalled her magic name.
Salvare000.
A saving hand for those who cannot be saved.
But she did not think that easily permitting the Throwing Hammer to live like that would lead to carrying out that goal. She believed that the salvation in the magic name she aspired to was not something so simple.
"...It seems there is a problem in how you live your life, so you need to think deeply about what you intend to do before you take action. I will give you the time and place to do that whether you wish for it or not."
The Throwing Hammer remained silent.
In its silence, it gave up on returning to the cube form and collapsed to the ground as the flat expanded cube.
But it did not stop there.
Without making a noise, something like a net appeared on the surface. Along the lines of that net, the flat expanded cube split apart complexly. At first glance, the shapes it was splitting into looked random, but they all became smaller expanded cubes. The many small expanded cubes looked like puzzle pieces and they started flapping weakly like many butterflies taking off in unison.
(...So even as he flees, he chose a projectile.)
It was possible his or her magic name lay in that fact.
Kanzaki thought for a second, but then mercilessly activated Peter's interception spell.
As if a giant metal sheet had struck them from above, the mass of expanded cubes fell in unison. They lost their power and were swept away into the sky by the wind.
Kanzaki did not think the magician was dead.
In fact, she had no idea how one was supposed to kill someone who could split up to that level.
"..."
For an instant, Kanzaki's focus remained on the Throwing Hammer floating in the wind, but she finally shook herself from it.
She would make sure to save that magician later.
But Kanzaki Kaori had something to do first.
Part 9
The sound of a heavy piece of metal striking something hard rang out.
It was the sound of Kamijou Touma swinging down a shovel he had found in the facility, but as he had expected, it was not enough to break the thick concrete floor. He had tried it a few dozen times already and made many white marks on the floor, but that had only taken a few millimeters off the surface. Not a single crack had appeared.
His hands that were swinging down the shovel were at their limit.
Kamijou could not bear it any longer and tossed the shovel aside.
"Fuck!!"
What he was after was below there.
The transmitter guiding Radiosonde Castle was most likely something that could easily be destroyed with just a slight touch from Kamijou's right hand.
But he could not do anything without touching it.
That thick wall of concrete was a completely normal object that could be found anywhere and it had nothing to do with the world of the occult, but it was blocking Kamijou Touma's way.
A power called Imagine Breaker resided in his right hand.
Using that right hand, Kamijou had defeated the #1 esper and the leader of God's Right Seat.
But he could only negate supernatural powers.
He could not destroy completely normal concrete, he could not outrun a completely normal car, and his blood could be shed by a completely normal box cutter.
That was all he was.
Up until then, he had fought cleverly in order to ensure that those things would not work against him, but his strategy of using every trick in the book had finally bitten him back.
(What do I do…?)
Kamijou looked down at his numb hands.
(At this rate, Radiosonde Castle is going to fall on Academy City. There's no guarantee that the danger will leave even if I leave the city. I have to destroy that transmitter somehow, but I can't get to it with this thick concrete in the way!!)
Time was running out.
Radiosonde Castle was approaching.
Rushing things would not solve the situation. Kamijou picked back up the shovel that's edge had chipped. He was seriously worried about the condition of the bones in his wrists, but he had to at least do something.
Suddenly, the wall to Kamijou's side was blown away by a force from outside.
A great amount of rubble and dust poured into the room.
What had come crashing through the wall was a piece of construction equipment facing backwards. The reason it was backwards was most likely to protect the arm portion on the front. Instead of a bucket used to dig dirt, the arm had a sharp spike on it that vibrated electronically.
Kamijou recognized the boy sitting in the driver's seat.
It was Hamazura Shiage.
"Hey, boss. Having trouble?"
"Cough cough!! Wh-what is that thing? And where did you get it!?"
"It's a boring machine used to open small tunnels for underground cables. It was inside the facility grounds."
As Academy City had no power lines, the power cables and communications lines had to be laid underground. As such, pieces of equipment like that were not too rare.
"I don't understand all the details about this magic or whatever, but we basically just have to destroy the thing that's calling in that fucking huge fortress, right? In that case, wouldn't a little horsepower be helpful?"
The bottom of the vehicle that was wrapped in metal treads remained stationary and the upper portion with the driver's seat and the arm on it rotated around. Hamazura was bringing the sharp spike to the center of the room.
He did not have any kind of special power.
That was why, when a powerful esper appeared, he did not take them on head on. Instead, he would first try to find a safe area. And when the situation also involved the occult, his options were limited even further. In order to protect those he did not want to lose no matter what and in order to save his comrades from unreasonable situations, Hamazura would occasionally confront people with extraordinary powers, but that was not really his area of expertise. Basically, Hamazura Shiage had nothing more than a commonplace role that had no place in the world of science or magic and could easily be killed at the slightest chance.
But…
When the situation had nothing to do with those kinds of unreasonable powers, Hamazura Shiage could solve normal problems with normal techniques.
The tremendous noise of the spike digging into that concrete floor exploded out. That floor had not budged after Kamijou struck it with that shovel again and again, but thick cracks ran through it in no time at all. Gray dust flew into the air, the cracks connected, and the thick floor broke. For the first few minutes, the thick noise of the concrete breaking continued, but after that, it changed to a softer sound. It was now boring into the earth below the concrete.
"Shit!! What!?"
Something suddenly changed.
A high-pitched noise almost like glass shattering rang out and orange sparks started flying from the sturdy spike. Hamazura forcibly operated the arm trying to dig further, but the tip of the tough tungsten alloy spike broke like a piece of hard candy.
The broken tip of the spike must have struck the cable along the arm because the spike itself stopped vibrating.
Kamijou peered down into the darkness of the newly opened hole.
Something was inside.
The object glowed a muddy red like some kind of strange jewel. It was cold like glass, it was hard like stone, and it colored everything an ominous blood-red.
It was a crystal about the size of a fist.
Most likely, it was…
"Reach it…"
Kamijou stretched his hand down into the hole.
Pain shot from his joints as he stretched them to their limits. He ignored the pain and stretched his hand, his fingertips, deeper and deeper down.
"Reach iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!"
And…
Part 10
A sound like shattering glass reverberated throughout one corner of Academy City.
Immediately afterwards, Radiosonde Castle arrived above the city.
Its speed of descent increased slightly, but its horizontal speed did not lower.
Thirty seconds later, the fortress passed directly over Academy City and continued on.
Part 11
Hamazura Shiage abandoned the piece of heavy machinery and fled the Central Hub Transformer Station with Kamijou Touma. What they had done was necessary, but they were not necessarily going to get a chance to explain that fact.
Accelerator jumped down from the building's rooftop and landed near the two of them. He did not have a single scratch on his body. Looking annoyed, he flipped his electrode's switch and leaned his weight on his modern cane.
"…Looks like it's over," he said while switching his cell phone to speakerphone using his thumb.
Birdway's familiar voice came from the phone.
"It seems Radiosonde Castle's speed was carefully controlled and it has landed in the sea off of the Boso Peninsula in the Chiba prefecture. There was no damage caused by high waves. I'm a little bothered by how slow Academy City's reaction speed was, but the situation was resolved nonetheless."
Kanzaki Kaori sat atop the topmost level of Radiosonde Castle that was floating in the ocean like an artificial island. She sighed.
She could communicate using her spiritual item once more, and she was currently listening to Agnese.
"The crisis has been confirmed to have been avoided. That means we now have to focus on gathering information. After all, we still do not know who exactly the enemy was. It isn't known how long that fortress is going to float there, but please gather as much data as you can before any hints there disappear."
"…Understood. However, I feel that focusing on putting up defensive spells so the water pressure does not destroy the fortress would increase the amount of data we could get down the line."
As she spoke, Kanzaki stood back up.
Because there was a danger of it sinking, she did not intend to investigate deep within the fortress, but she did need to gather what information she could.
"I'd like to give you some words of thanks now, but I just remembered that I never got to the real issue at hand in our discussions," said Birdway over the cell phone.
"You're going to explain more? How many more hours are you going to keep us restrained…?" complained Hamazura sounding utterly fed up with it all.
"Don't worry. Only the true core of the issue is left: 'their' name."
Kanzaki Kaori discovered something truly out of place in one section of Radiosonde Castle.
It was unknown if the enemy was from the science side or the magic side, but that structure felt as if it had been built to look like the Star of Bethlehem, a magic side fortress. In order to give it the image of the fortress it was based on, the parts making up Radiosonde Castle had the designs of old churches and temples.
She had found something that completely ruined the atmosphere that had been built up.
It was a message covering one wall written in red spray paint.
The writing was messy.
It was nothing like the almost artistic kinds of graffiti often seen. Instead, the wall simply had the letters quickly drawn out on it which completely destroyed the overall image the rest of the fortress had created.
"Them".
Those who had come about in the process of World War III. Those who were still squirming about after the war had ended.
For those three who had protected those important to them in that war, that was information they had to be made aware of.
"Yes," Birdway said, "'Their' name seems to be…"
The message covering the wall before Kanzaki said the following:
Welcome home, hero.
Kanzaki knew who it referred to.
Just before she had set out on that plan to deal with Radiosonde Castle, she had heard from another magician named Itsuwa that a certain boy had been sighted.
"…"
And…
The name of the ones who left the message was written at the end.
It said…
"…Gremlin," Birdway finished.
From "Gremlin".
That was the name of a type of fairy that was believed to cause malfunctions in machinery and to make weapons such as airplanes unusable.
That was a new generation of the occult that had only started being passed down by humans once the concept of machines had been created.
It was a symbol of one side of the world eating into the other side.
In that world where the winners of World War III, the science side, had greatly spread, a type of occult that would devour it had been born.