Chapter 16: Chapter 3: The Grimoire Peacefully Smiles. Part 4
Night came.
Index was asleep next to the futon. Because they had been asleep since before the sun had set, the room's lights were not on.
It seemed Komoe-sensei had headed for the public bath leaving the two of them alone in the room.
Kamijou wasn't entirely sure that was the case because he had fallen asleep as well due to his poor condition. It was nighttime by the time he had awakened. Komoe-sensei's room had no clock so he knew not what time it was. The air felt especially cold as the term "time limit" crept into his mind.
Index must have been incredibly nervous the previous three days because she had fallen asleep, assaulted by weariness, with her mouth hanging open, looking like a child who had exhausted herself nursing her sick mother.
It seemed Index had completely abandoned her original goal of merely getting to an Anglican church. If Kamijou forced himself to stand up in his beaten up state in an attempt to take her to a church, she would probably have resist him.
He felt slightly embarrassed as she occasionally muttered his name in her sleep.
Index's defenseless kitten-like face gave Kamijou a complex feeling.
No matter how much determination she showed, in the end, it was all going to end up exactly as the church desired. Whether Index made it safely to a church or was captured by the magicians partway there, she would still end up captured by Necessarius and have her memories erased.
Suddenly, the phone rang.
The phone in Komoe-sensei's room was a black rotary phone that could have been called an antique. Kamijou slowly looked over at the phone giving off an old-fashioned ring that sounded like an alarm clock.
He felt that he should answer the phone but also did not know if it were right to answer Komoe-sensei's phone without her permission. Nevertheless, he grabbed the receiver. He did not truly care so much about answering the phone but would feel guilty if the noisy ringing awoke Index.
"It's me... You can tell who I am, right?"
The voice coming from the receiver was a polite, female voice. Even over the phone, he could tell she was trying to keep her voice soft as if speaking in secret.
"Kanzaki...?"
"No, it would be better if we did not learn each other's names. Is she... Is Index there?"
"She's asleep, but... Wait, how do you know this number?"
"We knew the address, so it wasn't difficult to look up." Kanzaki's voice was not calm. "If she's asleep, that's perfect. Listen to what I have to say."
"?" Kamijou frowned suspiciously.
"As I mentioned before, the time limit is tonight, midnight. We have put together a schedule to end everything by that time."
Kamijou's heart froze. He knew that there was no other way to save Index. He knew it but when the "end" was thrust before him like that, he felt cornered.
"But..." Kamijou's breathing grew shallow. "Why are you telling me this? Just stop. If you tell me this, I might end up wanting to resist you even if it gets me killed."
"..."The voice from the receiver fell silent.
It was not complete silence, though. He could hear suppressed breathing mixed in. It was a very human silence.
"...Then, do you need time for your farewells?"
"Wha—...?"
"I will be honest with you. When we first had to erase her memories, we spent the three days prior solely focused on creating memories. On the final night, we did nothing but cling to her, sobbing. I believe you have the right to that same opportunity."
"Don't fuck with me." Kamijou thought he was going to crush the receiver in his grip. "That's the same thing as giving up! You're just telling me to give up the right to try!! You're just telling me to give up the right to desperately challenge this!!"
"..."
"If you don't understand, let me tell you one thing: I haven't given up yet. In fact, I won't be able to give up no matter what! If I fail 100 times, I'll get back up 100 times. If I fail 1000 times, I'll crawl to my feet 1000 times! That's all there is to it! I'll do what you couldn't!!"
"This is neither a conversation nor a negotiation. It is merely a message and an order. Whatever you intend to do, we will recover her at the appointed time. If you try to stop us, we will destroy you." The magician's voice was as smooth as the voice of a bank receptionist.
"You might be trying to negotiate with me, counting on the human kindness left within me, but that is exactly why I am giving you this strict order." Kanzaki's voice was as cold as a Japanese sword drawn in the night's air. "You will say farewell to her and leave before we arrive. Your role is nothing more than to act as shackles for her. The fate of chains that have lost their purpose is to be cut."
The magician's words were not simple words of hostility or scorn. She sounded as if she were trying to stop a wounded person from struggling and hurting themselves further.
"F... Fuck that." Her tone strangely irritated Kamijou and he snapped back at her. "Everyone is shoving their own incompetences onto me. You two are magicians, right? I thought magicians made the impossible possible!? But look at you! Can you really do nothing about this with magic!? Can you really stand before Index and proudly tell her you tried every last option!?"
"...Nothing can be done about this with magic. I wouldn't be proud of it, but I find it impossible to lie to that girl," said Kanzaki as she gritted her teeth. "If we could do anything, we would have done it long ago. No one would want to use this cruel ultimatum if they did not have to."
"...What?"
"It seems you cannot even give up if you do not understand the situation. I don't think this is a good use of your last moments with her, but I will give you a helping hand of despair." The magician spoke smoothly as if she were reading from the bible. "Her perfect memory is not a type of psychic power nor is it a type of magic. It is a natural part of her. It is the same as poor eyesight or allergies. It is not a type of curse that can be broken."
"..."
"We are magicians. With any circumstances created by magic, there is a danger of it being dispelled by magic."
"I thought it was an anti-occult defense system created by a magic specialist? Can't you do something with Index's 103,000 grimoires!? She said that controlling those would give you the power of God, but if it can't even heal one girl's head, it doesn't sound so great to me!"
"Oh, you're referring to a Magic God. The church is extremely afraid of Index rebelling. That is why they put a 'collar' on her so that the maintenance only the church can perform must be carried out once a year by erasing her memories. Did you really think they would leave any possibility of her removing that collar herself?" Kanzaki spoke quietly. "There is likely a bias in her 103,000 grimoires. For instance, she was probably disallowed from memorizing any grimoires that dealt with manipulating memories. I would be willing to bet that the church has put up some security like that."
"God damn it," Kamijou cursed under his breath. "...You said 80 percent of Index's brain is taken up by the information in the 103,000 grimoires, right?"
"Yes. It is apparently actually 85 percent, but it is impossible for us magicians to destroy those grimoires. An Original grimoire cannot even be destroyed by an inquisitioner, after all, meaning that we can only hollow out the remaining 15 percent, her memories, to increase the empty space in her head."
"...Then, what about us on the science side?"
"..."
She fell silent.
Kamijou wondered if it were possible. The magicians knew their field, magic, backward and forwards, and they could not do it. If they were not going to give up, it was only natural to move to a different field.
For example, there was science.
And, if they were going there, it made sense to have someone to act as an arbitrator. It was the same as having a local help someone out when one had to walk through an unfamiliar country and negotiate with various peoples.
"...There was a time when I believed the same thing."
Kamijou had not expected her to say so.
"To be honest, I simply did not know what to do. The world of magic that I had believed in absolutely was unable to save a single girl. I understand the feeling of trying to grasp at straws."
"..."
Kamijou had a premonition what would come next.
"It just does not feel right to hand her over to science."
He had expected it, but actually hearing it still felt like being stabbed in the brain.
"I know that you people cannot do something that we cannot. Your crude methods of filling her body with some unknown drug and chopping her up with a scalpel will do nothing but unnecessarily shorten her life. I do not want to see her be violated by machines."
"Okay, that's it. How the hell can you say that when you've never even tried it? I have a question for you. You keep talking about destroying memories, but do you really know what memory loss is exactly?"
No response came.
She must really not know much about science, he thought.
Kamijou pulled some Curriculum textbooks that were on the ground towards himself with his foot. It was a recipe for powers development including a mix of neuroscience, rare psychology, and reactionary drugs.
"How can you talk on about a perfect memory and losing memories when you don't even know what it is? There are many different kinds of memory loss." He began to flip through the pages. "There's aging... I guess like senility. And apparently you can lose your memories from getting drunk with alcohol. There's a brain disease called Alzheimer's and there's TIA where blood stops flowing to your brain and your memories disappear. Memory loss is also a side effect of general anesthetics like halothane, isoflurane, and fentanyl, of derivatives of barbituric acid, and of drugs like benzodiazepine."
"??? Benzo... What?"
Kanzaki's voice was surprisingly weak, but Kamijou had no duty to explain it all to her, so he ignored her.
"Simply put, there are tons of ways to medically eliminate someone's memories. It means that there are methods you people can't use that can get rid of her 103,000 grimoires, you idiot."
Kanzaki's breathing froze.
However, these methods did not remove the memories. Instead, they damaged the brain cells. An old man with dementia could not remember more just because he lost some memories.
But, Kamijou left that part out. Even if it were just a bluff, he had to stop the magicians from forcibly erasing her memories.
"And, this is Academy City. There are plenty of espers that can manipulate people's minds with powers like Psychometry or Marionette. Not to mention that there are research facilities all over the place. It's way too soon to give up hope. Apparently, there's even a Level 5 at Tokiwadai who can remove people's memories just by touching them."
That was where the last ray of hope truly lay.
No voice came from the receiver.
Kamijou continued on to truly defeat Kanzaki who was starting to show signs of hesitation.
"Well? What will you do, magician? Are you still going to get in my way? Are you going to give up on trying when someone's life hangs in the balance?"
"...Those words are much too cheap to convince an enemy," Kanzaki said with a slight tone of self derision. "We have a practiced and genuine method of saving her life. I cannot trust in this untested gamble of yours. Do you really think you can change that with some reckless statements?"
Kamijou remained silent for a moment.
He tried to come up with a rebuttal, but he could come up with nothing.
He had no choice but to accept it.
"...True enough. In the end, we just can't understand each other."
He had no choice but to accept that she was his enemy despite the fact that there was a possibly she could have understood. After all she was once in the same situation.
"Yes. If people who wished for the same thing would always become allies, the world would be completely filled with peace," she said.
Kamijou's grip on the receiver strengthened slightly.
That beaten up right hand was his sole weapon and it could negate even the systems created by God.
"...Then, you are my arch enemy and I will defeat you," he said.
"Given the differences in our physical abilities, the result is immensely clear. Do you still intend to call this hand?"
"Perfect. I raise. I just have to invite you into circumstances where I'm guaranteed to win."
Kamijou bared his canines at the receiver.
Stiyl had definitely not been weaker than Kamijou. Kamijou had only won because Stiyl had lost to the sprinkler system. In short, differences in strength could be made up with strategy.
"Just so you know: the next time that girl collapses, you should consider it too late." Kanzaki's words were as sharp as the tip of a sword. "We will be there at midnight. You don't have much time left, but make your final useless struggles good ones."
"You're not gonna see me cry, magician. I'm gonna save her and steal all your scenes."
"Stay there and wait for us," she said and hung up.
Kamijou silently put down the receiver and looked up at the ceiling as if he were staring up at the moon in the night sky.
"Damn it!"
He swung his right fist down on the tatami mat as if punching an opponent he had pinned down. His wounded right hand did not hurt even in the slightest. His head was in such chaos that his pain was blown away.
He had acted quite full of himself on the phone, but he was neither a brain surgeon nor a professor of neuroscience. Something might have been capable if done scientifically, but that normal high school student had no idea what that something might have been.
Even so, he could not simply stop.
He felt an intense impatience and unease as if he were stranded in a desert with only the horizon in every direction and subsequently told to walk back to town.
Once the time limit came, the magicians would mercilessly destroy Index's memories. They were likely already lying in wait near the apartment, planning to capture her if they tried to escape.
He had no idea why the magicians did not attack then and there. It could have been out of sympathy for Kamijou. Perhaps they did not want to move Index right before the time limit. He had no idea which it was or even if it were something else.
He looked at Index's face as she lay curled up, asleep on the tatami mats.
He then stood tall, completely fired up.
Academy City had more than 1000 research facilities both large and small but a first year student like Kamijou had no connections with any of them. He was going to have to contact Komoe-sensei.
Whether anything could be done in less than a day was a valid question. Index's time limit was drawing near, but Kamijou had a secret plan for it: if her brain were to burst if she continued to add more memories, couldn't he buy her some time by putting her to sleep that so she would not gain more memories?
A Romeo and Juliet-like drug that put one in a state of apparent death sounded very unrealistic, but he did not have to go that far. Basically, he just had to put her to sleep with some laughing gas, a general anesthetic used for surgeries.
There were no worries about her dreaming while she slept, creating memories that way. Kamijou had learned a bit about the system of sleep in the powers development lessons. He was nearly sure that people only dreamed in a state of light sleep. Once one entered a state of deep sleep, your brain rested to the point that it even forgot that it had dreamed.
Therefore, Kamijou needed two things.
The first was to contact Komoe-sensei and acquire help from a research facility that dealt in either neuroscience or perhaps esper powers related to the mind.
The second was to slip past the magicians and get Index out of there or to create circumstances in which he could defeat the two magicians.
Kamijou decided to start with calling Komoe-sensei. But, when he thought about it, he did not actually know her cell number.
"Wow, I'm an idiot..." he said, almost wanting to kill himself, as he looked around the room.
He saw nothing out of the ordinary besides the cramped 4.5 tatami room that looked like an unknown type of labyrinth. With the lights off, the room was as dark as the night's sea and the books and knocked over beer cans littering the floor appeared like they had something hiding behind them. When he thought about all the drawers in the dresser and cabinet, he felt like his consciousness was going to slip away.
Trying to find a cell phone number that may not even have been there seemed like an insane task. It seemed like a task akin to finding a battery thrown out the day before which was now in a landfill.
Even so, he could not stop. Kamijou started turning over everything in the area searching for a memo or something that would have her cell phone number written on it. Every minute and every second mattered, so searching for something that may have not been there was hardly a sane thing to be doing. Every time his heart beat, it irritated him and every time he breathed, more impatience burned within him. At first glance, it may have appeared like he was just throwing around everything near him in anger.
He checked deep into the cabinet and he pulled out all the books on the shelf. While Kamijou was rampaging around, Index continued to sleep curled up on the ground which made it seem like time had stopped for her.
Seeing her in her complete "cat in the kotatsu" mode, he strangely felt like hitting her but, at that same time, a scrap of paper stuck in a notebook, which seemed to be for a household account book, fluttered to the ground at his feet.
It was Komoe-sensei's itemized cell phone bill.
Kamijou immediately grabbed the scrap of paper and found an 11 digit number written on it. It seemed she had spent an entire 142,500 yen on the cell phone the previous month. She must have gotten stuck with some terrible phone. Normally, he would have rolled around laughing for around three days at the discovery, but it was hardly the time. Needing to make a call, he headed for the black phone.
He had a feeling it had taken quite a bit of time finding the phone number.
He had no idea if a few hours had passed or if it had only been a few minutes. Kamijou's heart felt so cornered that his sense of time was thrown off that much.
He called the number and Komoe-sensei answered after the third ring as if she had timed it.
About to foam at the mouth, Kamijou yelled an "explanation" that was hard for even him to understand because his mind simply could not sort out what he wanted to say.
"...Hm? My major is in Pyrokinesis, so I don't have many connections in Mind Hound related things. You could probably use the Takizawa Institution or the Todai University Hospital, but their equipment is second-rate. Calling in a guest esper who excels at that field would be a safe bet. I know Yotsuba-san in Judgment is a Level 4 Telepath and she would likely be willing to help."
He had not given her much of an explanation, but Komoe-sensei still rattled off an answer. Kamijou decidedly realized that he should have consulted with her from the beginning.
"But, Kamijou-chan. Even if these researching teachers are terrible people who've flipped day and night, they probably wouldn't like being called by a student at this hour. How about we just prepare a bed in a facility for now?"
"What? ...No, sensei. I'm sorry, but this is urgent. Can't we just wake them now?"
"But," Komoe-sensei responded sounding slightly irritated, "It's already 12."
Kamijou suddenly froze in place. The room had no clock but even if it had one, Kamijou would have lacked the courage to check the time.
His gaze zeroed in on Index.
She was curled up, fast asleep on the tatami mats, but her arms and legs that were sprawled about weren't moving. They weren't moving at all.
"...In... dex?" Kamijou called out timidly.
Index did not move.
Like someone with a fever, she had fallen deeply asleep, completely unresponsive.
A voice came from the receiver but Kamijou dropped it before he could gather what was being said. A terrible sweat had started on his palms. A terrible feeling weighed in his gut as if a bowling ball were dropped there.
He heard footsteps in the passageway leading to the apartment.
"—We will be there at midnight. You don't have much time left, but make your final useless struggles good ones."
The instant Kamijou recalled those words the apartment door was kicked open from the outside. Pale moonlight fell into the room like the sunlight shining through the leaves into a forest thicket.
With the perfect full moon to their backs, the two magicians stood in the doorway.
At that moment, the hands of all clocks across Japan indicated it was precisely midnight.
That meant that a certain girl's time limit was up.
That was what it meant.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
OmnipresenceBeing
OmnipresenceBeing Chapter 3: Notes:
1. ↑ Just like in the prologue, this is playing off the fact that “genius” and “disaster” are both pronounced the same in Japanese.
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