Part 3
A bit before, Kumokawa Maria could do nothing but watch Kamijou Touma and Marian Slingeneyer's battle in a daze. After all, the scale of the battle was simply too great. The clash between Kihara and Gremlin that had covered Baggage City had been incredible. And this was a battle between two people who had enough power to smash that other fight to pieces. Even though her limbs were functioning properly and she stood in the same location, Kumokawa Maria felt like she was reading it from a report. Even if she knew the details, she could not interfere. That was obvious. It was wrong to even think of struggling. The battle was so great and the scene so grand that the gears needed to act in the present to change the future seemed missing.
However, even when people read a set report or watch a set film, they still sometimes raise a cry. Even as they know it will not get through and it will not change anything, the words still come out.
Sitting on the floor, Kumokawa Maria forced out some such words.
"The teacher I was searching for may have disappeared long ago. He may not have been the person I thought he was."
Her words were those of an outsider.
Her words would change nothing.
"He may have worked with Gremlin under the name Bersi and taken on all sorts of dirty jobs. He may have hurt many people and desired to hurt many more."
But she did not stop. She did not stop
Kumokawa Maria's mouth moved even as she knew it was useless.
"But that was not all there was to Kihara Kagun."
Her muttering turned to a shout.
The strength increased for the very reason that nothing would come of it.
"He did not start out as Bersi. Gremlin is not the only thing in his past. Even if he was on the side of those that wanted to destroy the world and even if he did horrible things as Kihara Kagun, he was still the teacher that listened to everyone's worries at one point!!"
She no longer cared about her pride.
Even if shouting like that hurt her pride, it would not break.
Even if it was pointless, meaningless, and would change nothing.
She was not so distorted as to think that was shameful.
"Please. Please!" shouted Kumokawa Maria. "Do not remove the word teacher from his gravestone! Do not let that word be buried by some unknown enemy that only wishes for slaughter and destruction and who comforts herself with that sword!!"
And that time came.
Kamijou Touma's form collapsed and Marian Slingeneyer made her preparations for her attack. And of course, the brown magician did not hesitate. She immediately took action to bisect the boy who stood in the way of her goal.
But Kumokawa Maria heard it.
Amid that mayhem on a grand scale that felt like a report of the past that she could not interfere in…
She heard the response from that boy that made her feel feebly connected to it all.
"Understood."
Immediately after that one word response, Kamijou Touma and Marian Slingeneyer both moved at the same time.
Part 4
Kamijou Touma's form collapsed.
He could not evade now. He could not punch Marian even though she was so close. While in that half standing state, he could not move his body weight and could therefore not make any powerful movements.
Kamijou Touma immediately moved his left hand rather than his right.
He reached out for one of the gold sparkles floating in the air.
It was one of the fragments of the human-altering tool Marian Slingeneyer had used. It had already been shattered by Imagine Breaker and lost all its effectiveness as a spiritual item. Kamijou grabbed it and used it to cut his own clothing. He grabbed the portion of his sleeve he had cut off.
He threw it.
The speed did not matter.
What mattered was accurate control.
He only tossed the scrap of cloth with the strength of someone jokingly tossing an eraser and it was not headed for Marian Slingeneyer.
It was headed for the scabbard of the magic sword.
More accurately, it was headed for the clear sphere that had expanded out from the bottom of it.
The Imagine Breaker countermeasure Marian had prepared was a purely physical phenomenon. That way the large swords created from gravity could sever Kamijou's right hand that only activated in the face of supernatural powers.
In other words, the large swords were purely physical phenomena and therefore the magician Marian Slingeneyer herself could not completely control that ultimate weapon. After all, she could only control magic.
By controlling the size of the balloon and the location of the opening, she controlled the size, force, and direction of the giant swords, but that was all she could control. She controlled the hole, so she could not completely distort the direction taken by the particles emitted from the hole by gravity.
In that case, what would happen if her control of that hole was interfered with?
It was not an issue of strength. If the hole was only lightly covered, the shape of the opening would change.
If Marian activated a gray sword in that state, it would change like putting a showerhead on a faucet.
In other words, the overwhelming sword that was produced would not be able to hold its form and would cause devastation against Marian's wishes.
"…Ah?"
In that instant when Marian Slingeneyer was sure of her victory, she looked toward the magic sword's scabbard in confusion.
That may have been her mistake. If she had time to do that, she may have been better off deactivating the clear sphere.
It ended up being more like holding your thumb over the opening of a hose.
The mass of particles like dust and dirt had lost their normal path out and were forced out through the multiple gaps around the edges.
An explosion.
That word expressed it best.
With an explosive noise, Marian Slingeneyer's short body was blown back a few meters before landing.
"Gahh!?"
Her back struck the concrete floor and she started to have trouble breathing. Even so, she did not let go of Dáinsleif's scabbard.
Meanwhile, Kamijou did not try to pursue her.
Just running up to her unarmed would lead to a repeat of the previous situation. To ensure his attack against Marian using his previous success, he had to do something else first.
"Once you know the trick, it's simple," said Kamijou Touma as he cut off a few more scraps of cloth from his own clothes with the gold fragment. "You fire and then swing. Your attacks always went through those two stages. Was it to hold back the recoil? That was why you stopped for an instant before opening it. You, that scabbard, and the sphere swelling out from it all stopped. That made it easy to aim. Even with my off-hand, I was able to get a direct hit with that weightless scrap of cloth. If I use my entire body and my right hand, my accuracy will increase. Also, does it suck in the dust and dirt it needs like a vacuum cleaner? If so, I just have to throw it at random and it will be sucked in toward the hole on its own. That is why the hole will always be plugged up. I have no way of knowing what shape the exploding sword will take, so there is a danger of getting taken out too, but that is your limit. If this were rock-paper-scissors, you would only be able to tie or lose. There is no way for you to win."
"That was…still…" Scraping the scabbard on the concrete floor, Marian slowly stood up. "That was still just the scabbard. I have yet to draw the magic sword. Dáinsleif is the magic sword that causes the war that destroys the world. It was created to destroy all of humanity, so it cannot lose to a single person."
She used her thumb to raise the guard.
A few centimeters of the ominous blade touched the air.
If she drew it all at once, it would likely truly activate.
Everything before had merely been the preparations. The fear that stopped one's heart and the scabbard that produced swords that had sliced the ring to pieces were nothing more than the rings of Saturn around the magic sword.
If she used it, who knew what would happen?
It might be something that far exceeded what Kamijou Touma could imagine.
Even so, the boy spoke directly to her.
"You won't draw it."
"What…?"
"If you could use such a great power at any time, you would have drawn that sword from the beginning. And I don't just mean of this fight. You would have done so before sending Radiosonde Castle or revealing Gremlin to the world. If you could use it, you would have been able to end all these battles before the fighting began and taken all the victory for yourself. You could have done that if you had been able to sacrifice all but yourself."
"…"
It was possible its destructive power was so great that Marian herself was not confident she could control it. Or perhaps it was pure fear. Just revealing a few centimeters from the scabbard was enough to stop the hearts of her enemies, so perhaps she herself would be bound by fear if she drew the entire magic sword.
But…
There was one more thing.
"You did not want to draw it."
"What?"
"You did not want to draw that magic sword called Dáinsleif. You did not want to draw that spiritual item that is simply too destructive."
"Why do you think that!?"
"I don't know how much of the world it would destroy, but it would definitely destroy more than you want to be destroyed," said Kamijou as he consciously regulated his breathing and clenched the scraps of cloth in his hand. "When that Bersi or Kihara Kagun or whoever he was died, some might have felt all was lost. But you are different. While you did bring out Dáinsleif, you still did not draw it. Even if your comrade-in-arms had been lost, you did not want to destroy the place where you two had spent time together."
A high-pitched noise drowned out Kamijou's voice.
It was the sound of the bottom of the magic sword's scabbard scraping across the concrete floor.
Marian Slingeneyer's other hand touched the magic sword's hilt for the first time.
She clenched it.
"Charge."
Immediately after she said that, a giant light fell down from the heavens, breaking through the roof of the domed facility. The shockwave blew in all directions. The outer walls of the dome creaked. A great amount of power filled the magic sword's scabbard and the power that had been used up little by little was replenished.
She was preparing it for use.
She was preparing the power that would destroy the world.
"I will draw it."
"Then do it."
"At the very least, I will have this victory."
"Even if you do this, it will not be a victory for you."
Kamijou Touma said no more.
He took a step forward. And another. With that momentum, he charged forward. He charged straight toward Marian Slingeneyer.
She should have had time.
Marian Slingeneyer should have been able to draw Dáinsleif.
And yet…
"Gh…kh…!!"
"See, you can't do it," spat out Kamijou Touma.
He tightly clenched his right fist.
"That is because you are strong. You do not feel indebted. If, after your revenge, you or the entire world are gone, who will mourn for Bersi?"
Nothing more was necessary.
The gold scabbard and the boy's fist crossed.
With a dull noise, it was all over.
Part 5
"It's over…?" muttered Kumokawa Maria as she sat on the floor.
The circular ring had been sliced to pieces and the roof of the domed facility had been torn apart as well. It had been supported by artificially raised air pressure, but the framework seemed to be just barely holding it up for the moment. Of course, they had no idea how long that would last.
Kumokawa suddenly felt a great cold.
The destroyed domed ceiling had let in the -20 degree weather, but it was also possible Kumokawa Maria's senses were finally returning to her.
That battle had made her doubt whether she was actually sensing anything properly.
The battle had been greatly distanced from the standard of Academy City and even those from outside Academy City could probably have noticed that it was different. Kamijou Touma, the one who had caused it, cut across the ring that had been casually sliced to pieces. He was headed for Dáinsleif which had fallen from Marian Slingeneyer's hand.
"Wh-what are you going to do?"
"I can destroy even this," Kamijou said without turning around. "Marian couldn't draw it, but someone else might be able to. They might be able to hold back the fear and control it. In that case, I cannot allow it to get out. Who knows how destructive it is."
As he answered, he unhesitatingly walked over to the magic sword that was the source of all that fear.
Kumokawa Maria felt that everything would finally be over once he destroyed it.
The chain of superhuman battles between Kihara and Gremlin in Baggage City would finally be over.
Kamijou crouched down in front of the magic sword and Kumokawa Maria asked him a question.
"How did you get here? How did you find out about what Gremlin was doing here? It seemed to be a different theory from what Academy City uses."
"It was Bersi."
His quick response sent pain into Kumokawa's chest..
Kamijou continued.
"I never actually met him face to face, but he left various hints around Baggage City that led me here. Also, I still find it suspicious that a mere high school student like me was able to get here from Hawaii with no help."
How much of it had that man planned?
It may be true Kamijou Touma's intrusion had saved Baggage City from the worst possible ending. At first glance it all looked like a part of that magician's plan and that he had left everything for Kamijou Touma to resolve in the very end.
However, what if Kamijou Touma had ended it all sooner?
What if he had broken the illusion sooner?
Things may have ended differently. Bersi's own objective may have been destroyed and all those tragedy might have been avoided.
Kamijou Touma had been manipulated by Leivinia Birdway and he wanted to rid himself of that.
However, had he done the right thing?
This time he had not been manipulated by anyone, but he did not know the answer to that question.
That was how perfect Bersi was.
If Kamijou Touma had succeeded, that was good. If he had failed, Bersi had his own conclusion prepared.
He cleaned up after himself.
Was it a pure ideal or was the conclusion too pure and should be resented?
"Do you know what kind of person the magician known as Bersi…or as Kihara Kagun was?"
"I do," replied Kumokawa Maria after she brought her own breathing under control.
As stated before, Kamijou Touma was an outsider this time. He may have simply wanted to know who the man was that had helped him and who had driven Marian on.
"I do not know much, but I do know. I may not even know whether he was good or evil in the end, but I do know him. He is the one that saved some lives including my own and – for me at least – he was a teacher whose mystery was worth pursuing."
"I see…"
Kamijou stopped moving for a moment.
In a small voice, he spoke a truth that still had not changed.
He did not simply shout it.
His low voice seemed to carve it into him.
"I wasn't able to save him."
He learned a lesson in failure.
As if swearing to absorb as much of it as possible, he said it again.
"I wasn't able to save him."
"It's fine," replied Kumokawa Maria without hesitation. She seemed to be getting over something. "It was such a ridiculous death. He had this satisfied look on his face. I'm sure that was best for him. If it had stretched on any longer, it would have just lowered the purity of his happiness."
Of course, it was not actually that simple.
Of course, it was not something with a clear explanation.
For a while, Kamijou did not move.
But remaining stopped would not change anything. If he did not move forward, the battle that began in Baggage City would never end. That was why Kamijou headed forward. He reached out his right hand. Toward Dáinsleif. He would bring it to a certain end by destroying that great power.
But…
A slender female hand grabbed Kamijou's right wrist to stop him.
Kamijou had no idea when the person had appeared.
"Wha—?"
He let out a questioning voice.
A girl of about thirteen or fourteen stood so close that he could feel her breath. The girl had white skin and wore a fur coat that was open on the front and an outfit of black leather. However, two other things she wore drew the eye even more.
The first was a wide brimmed hat with a pointed tip like a witch would wear.
The second was an imposing eyepatch covering her right eye.
Whoever she was, Kamijou concluded she was from the magic side and he went on full alert because she had grabbed his right wrist.
However, what happened next went well beyond anything he could have expected.
The eyepatch girl whispered to him.
"…This isn't over yet."
Immediately afterwards…
Without hesitation…
The girl tightened her grip, crushing Kamijou's right wrist and severing his hand.