Volume 18 Chapter 3 (1/2)
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This ti
He was falling headfirst An endless sensation of falling squeezed at his heart and a female voice slipped softly into his ear
”Do you understand now?”
”Understand…what!?”
Were reality and illusion ht shoulder as he fell headfirst, but there was no sign of his understander there
”Falling is a stereotypicalspecialized For exa dream'?”
”Hyp…nosis?”
”Well, so of falsehood and fact, like a netism and hypnotherapy”
So as happening? Kamijou's head was full of questions as soside him, also upside-down
It was a young and beautiful wo clothes with a translucent veil over her face However, she had such h the black clothing
…Or was that who this was? Sandstorh her and, each time it did, a black cat vision seemed to overlap with her
He focused his eyes on her ure out who she was, but that still caused the two in
”What in the hell? A groo from her head…?”
”That must be the most satisfactory appearance for you You can call me Mina, Mrs Mathers, or the Black Cat Witch I was also known as the heretic painter and the founder's understander, but each nament of who I am”
No ed In fact, she grew so her even more catlike
”That's super unbalanced… What is this? I feel like I' a female teacher with twintails”
”Odd My appearance should be auto to the one you will most easily accept”
The veiled wohtest
And was she influencing hi toward almost certain death with no plan, but for so Since she was so calelatin to catch theles to view soe of a cliff
”It is obvious why Aleister Crowley constructed me within his own palace And you already know the answer, don't you?”
”Hey, can you stop pretending I knohat you're talking about? You clearly don't think I do! You just want to explain it all to me!!”
”To Aleister Crowley, I…or rather, we are all enemies, trauma, and symbols of setback But thatopen that wound to preserve his own purity That is why I am here”
”Continue tearing open…that wound…?”
”As for why he chose me over Mathers or Westcott, I can only assuuess he decided thatme the host would allow him to asseardie”
”What, what, what!? One at a tiardie? These Western na to remember any of it if you just mention some friends of Mozart and Beethoven out of the blue! Especially when I'round!!”
”Oh, honestly You don't seeardless”
”Cat-ear hag, if you want to explain stuff, how about taking responsibility and doing it right!?”
”Golden” She cut hiic cabals coathered the world's greatest reatest discoveries and acco with the 3 founders such as Westcott and Mathers, people like Waite, Regardie, and Bennett gathered in one place for a truly roup And”
”…And?”
”Aleister Crowley destroyed it all and returned the ic cabal to mere ashes Thus, I and all the others are the trauma of his defeat and setbacks”
With no warning, the falling sensation ended
Karound below his feet White fog surrounded hih it The scenery was instantly rewritten and a world only seen in old movies spread out before his eyes
Dirty white steah a city of brick and stone paveht was illuhts A balled-up scrap of paper rolled along in the damp wind It was a lot like the tuered and stepped on it And it said the following:
London Shocking Times
April 1900 The day was illegible because the paper et and torn
”…1900? London???”
The newspaper's ink was running farwas illegible
Kans around, but he did not knohat any of therasp that one of the of letters there
”Bl…Blith…Bluth? What is this???”
”36 Blythe Road, Haic researchers, this was a crucial but quiet turning point of history”
He suddenly realized the Black Cat Witch was shockingly close by His nose sensed so odd He could not explain exactly what, but he may have picked up on a faint scent
A greatclothes woht that ominousness with her, Mrs Mathers whispered to him
”Well, I was known as the Black Cat Witch”
”That's a pretty straightforward interpretation”
”I was also an artist, so Ithe scent of art supplies or oil”
”You're pretty cheap, Black Cat Witch!”
The veiled woman remained nonchalant despite Kamijou Touma's sharp comment
”This place becae of a war”
”1900? …What happened then? That's too early for World War One, isn't it?”
”And it was known as the Battle of Blythe Road”
Mystery y city of steam and sooty s
The Black Cat Witch spoke as if she were celebrating the appearance of the star in a movie
”That hen Aleister Croent straight for Saor Mathers and declared war on theto an aricians that was recorded in actual history”
Kamijou Touma woke up
…Or was that the right way to describe it? Regardless, he once more found hi's wall This too was an alternate di which one was real would not lead to a clear answer
(Tsuchimikado…protected everyone from Aleister, then ere bloay, and, um, what happened!? Where is he now!?)
As hisonce n of his awful friend with blond hair and sunglasses
No
It went beyond that There was no one else here
”Index?”
There was no response
”Othinus!?”
He reached for his right shoulder, but he did not feel his understander there
…Even the pair of gear and handcuff beasts and the person caone
They had probably been one because Maika was not here?
”There is no need to beat around the bush and refer to him as ”the person” That is Aleister Crowley”
”Wah!?”
When he felt a sudden breath on his ear, Kaht onto his butt
”The many stairways and ladders are likely a sy made from urban materials He repeatedly s, yoga, andto name a few”
So
So was there
”But that can also bethe possibility to surpass and expand his limits”
Mourning clothes, cat ears, and a tail The young and beautiful woroup of black cats instead of a shadow and a hint of art supplies and oil tickled at his nose
Mina Mathers should only have existed in the illusion, yet here she was!?
”What!? Have I not escaped that yet!? Huh? Wait, which one is the real world!?”
”That is an extremely philosophical question, but there is no real reason to distinguish between the two Even without the example of the Four Worlds indicated by seven candles, the world always haslayers”
”Although I suppose someone with a soul as low-level as yours would indeed be trapped by the visions of the physical world Those chains are the mountain's devilishness that reaches for huhts and leads them to ascend thepush on the back”
”Well, the one thing I do understand is that you'reme”
Sos had no way to fulfill that desire without soht have been lonely With those silly thoughts rattling around his head, Kaulp
”Oh? I see your spiritual activity is directed toward a higher level now With that ht just be able to reach a Tattva vision”
”Don't you underesti! I'll strip you bare in my mind!!”
”Doing battle at a higher level of spiritual activity is a surprisingly simple task”
”By which I mean…flash”
”A black garter belt!?”
”A single visual will solidify their i that to seal off the cards in their deck and drive theic battle See? You can't picture anything other than sexy lingerie now, can you? You can only picture an elegant and glamorous lifestyle…”
”Da woazine for office ladies That's just a boring ie of the pre-established harer take away otta be some strawberry panties that don't suit her at all! Burn, my adolescence!!”
”Yes, that is the first step toward a vision A beginner must first overcome this”
Ka woh-level spiritual battle(?)
”Wait, I can't be focused on strawberry panties right now! What happened to Tsuchione too, but are they okay!? Did they disappear or was it oing tomaterialize, so whose world is this!?”
”The world is sis to no one”
”Again!! This isn't the tiue!!”
”Which of courseto Aleister Crowley”
She spoke in a confusing conceptual way that provided no concrete answers, but that phrase caught in Kamijou's mind
”You , his headquarters…?”
”Aleister Crowley has no intention of overco the trauma that he has perfectly recreated And he does not care if he has setbacks or failures So he does not arden he created That is why I am able to speak with you”
Her phrasing was a pain to deal with, but did thatthe trauma he had created hi inside an iron maiden…
”What is that Aleister guy trying to do…?”
”He believes in power But he does not distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, correct and incorrect Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of Thele, he will not hesitate to reach for it so long as it will achieve his goal That is the kind of 'human' Aleister Crowley is”
”…Give me a simple example”
”People hate roaches But that hatred is so strong that it produced the power leading to the development of insecticides and sticky tape That is what I mean”
Aleister Crowley's soul was constantly worn away by powerful trauust as the source of a power strong enough to carry hiicians as a source of unconditional and biological revulsion, just like a cockroach?
”No,” said the woman
”Hey, you're getting ahead of yourself, explainer Don't answer ”
”Aleister Crowley fosters his hatred in a er framework He loathes, fears, and mocks the entire planet to an extent that is almost pitiable”
The entire world
Frohtest star twinkling in the sky
…What kind of life had he lived to expand his biological disgust to that extent? There were some scenes that unconditionally inspired certain emotions in the humans who saw them For example, a weak baby bird or a kitten in the rain But Aleister Croas unaffected He hated it all equally No individual reason was necessary; ical reaction
”He's different froic Gods who just wanted to live free…”
”Of course He did not wish to becoory of 'human'”
”He likely gave up on crossing the abyss after the Coronzon failure, but he also feels pride in re 'human'”
She topped off her string of unexplained terhts to stay focused without wandering off
(He feels pride in re ”human”?)
”Yes No rows, he remains very childish”
”Don't butt in!! And is this actually a fantasy world of my brain's creation!? Is that why you can readchildish strawberry pantiiiiiies!!”
Nothing happened
After shouting at the top of his lungs, Kamijou was KO'd He covered his face with his hands and curled up on the floor
”…As I was saying, no row, men remain very childish”
”You just expanded that to include me, didn't you!?”
Anyway
”Will you actually gain anything fro here?” wondered the woh to fall toward the anshen you meditate”
”Youit behind your fancy words, but I can tell you'refun of me” Kamijou looked to the canopy of endless darkness overhead ”Well, I guess I'll just have to keep going If they're not here, they're probably so to acco me climb a mountain?”
”Just like realroute will lead to death, so be careful And I would assu to expand himself”
Of course, this was only if it was the others who had disappeared, not Kamijou himself This was co betorlds so often, he could not rely on his own point of view as accurate In the worst case, he ht have to ensure that Index, Maika, and the others were real once he did regroup with them
”He failed to cliave up after planning out a cli fierce opposition from his fellow mountain climbers In other words, to accomplish a difficult feat, he must expand his own existence to the point that he can s up others The rest of you are no more than a part of that”
”I have no idea what that means, but whatever”
The ascent was a long one Step by step, he walked up the stairs
…To be honest, he could actually pace himself now that he did not have to flee from the huear and handcuff beasts appearing around Maika were That did leave him worried about Maika now that they were separated, but his doubt kept hi a mad dash up the stairs
(Surely they didn't escape back down to the bottoht?)
They had been continuing up and up because the pair of beasts had been pursuing them from below With the chain skeleton and transparent flesh beasts nowhere to be found, it was impossible to knohether Index, Othinus, and the others would have gone up or down
The Black Cat Witch politely clasped her hands in front of her as she walked alongside him
”You will have the answer soon,” she whispered
”H for me?”
”That is not what I meant”
He felt like he had stepped through the floor
Then the entire stairway bent like a sugar sculpture exposed to a flaAnd Ka their hands around after falling froles He knew somewhere in his heart that it was useless, but his hands still searched for sorab onto
And his left hand happened across so incredibly soft
He had grabbed firmly onto one of a certain someone's twin peaks
”…That is a yellow card”
”No fair! And since when do you even have a physical body!?”
His vision whirled around
He did not knohat exactly was happening, but the ”falling entrance” continued without end…
They stood below the cold sky
”Hoo, hoo”
Shokuhou Misaki's legs squirmed as she held her hands to her mouth and blehite breaths Up ahead, Misaka Mikoto looked back at her with exasperation on her face
”Have you ever considered exercising more?”
”I'm cold, not out of breath!!”
She was i none of that
”You're wearing special-h?”
”A girl's hands and feet are very delicate, so they're susceptible to the cold ability Not that I would expect someone as shameless as you to understand”
”But you seem to have so much subcutaneous fat”
”…You ht wear shorts under your skirt, but cold weather isn't easy for norirls”
”You make it sound like I'm not normal!”
”The worst part is you aren't even aware of it!”
Illusory sparks seemed to flash between them
However, there was not ainst the chilly December sky
”Stop being silly and get walking Moving arm you u-…”
”Misaka-san, your back is so warrrm”
”Gyaaaaaahhhhh!!!???”
Mikoto screamed as Shokuhou stuck her chilled hand down the back of her collar
”You- what- I- Do you wantsome real electricity to roast every last part of you…!?”
”Oh, is this a hook?”
”Stop fiddling with that! And don't twist it! That has nothing to do with keeping warm!!”
”Yes, it does It makes me happy when your body heat rises And Misaka-san, you don't wear a sports bra?”
”Are you seriously picking a fight with me here!?”
But this was not the ti this on the pavement
Misaka Mikoto had returned to a certain place
District 11 was the foundation of land transportation and this particular corner was stacked with ht have been removed afterwards, but it was still there
”…This just looks like junk to me,” said Shokuhou ”Even scrap metal from cars would have maintained its shape ability better than this”
”It's enough that anything of it is left at all”
It had originally been enclosed in a container, but ”so” had clearly been there The pile of containers had collapsed and their contents were still scattered across the paveht have been gathered up along with the other trash for the recovery efforts
”Hmm So this is the connection to his world”
The AAA
The Anti-Art Attachinal one at that
When Mikoto lightly reached out her hand, the netism, the Lorentz force, or the van der Waals force But the deadthe presence of its owner
”Co weird nosebleeds lately”
”Are you sure you aren't just full of fantasy ability?”
Now, it was tiet down to business
The AAA was right in front of her But what exactly was it? Misaka Mikoto had built a inal and customized it for her own uses, but she still did not understand the core or the theory that it used to function
”Misaka-san I' even an eleh, okay?”
”What is it?”
”Guns were brought to this country by castaways froured out how they worked and how to mass-produce them?”
”By thoroughly taking the every last piece”
That hat she did
Then again, it was already a pile of scraps that had been led by several instances of intense violence She doubted the caution was necessary, but Mikoto still used her power to eli the sample materials
”…Well, I was fairly certain I understood most of it when I built my own AAA”
”But that ive up on the parts you couldn't reverse engineer Take another stab at it” Shokuhou gave the pile of ender stereotypes onto you, but fiddling withyour sensibilities for letting this fuel your excitement ability”
”But doesn't that mean this helps me understand how boys feel?”
”H this is a chance to better understand him? Let's see, then What does his world look like?”
The queen quickly grew ent
Mikoto gave instructions as the two of them removed covers, pulled out the contents, and lined them up on the cold asphalt
”This is it This is the part I couldn't understand” Mikoto pulled out and set down a few electronic parts that looked like wafers or a blade server It all looked very co an air conditioner filter ”There are some transistors and LSIs lined up here, but they're actually less The current enters froht on out It'spower through a cable wrapped up in a drue and it isn't creating a special signal Hh this layer…?”
”Just looking at the shape, itLook, doesn't it seey book that the library master carries around?”
”Let's say you hook a lightbulb up to a 15 volt battery Do you really think the brightness will change if the wire is a straight line or zigzagging?”
”But what if it produces some kind of invisible field? Doesn't an electric current create a h to detect under norh”
”And circuits can be used for h They can also be used to catch so …For example, don't antennas take a lot of different forms? And to more efficiently pick up EM waves, aren't they sometimes shaped like a mosquito coil or like a bowl? If an ancient person saw one, wouldn't they think it was so?”
Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki fell quiet and exchanged a glance Without the necessary foundational knowledge, were these girls in the same position as that hypothetical ancient person?
If so…
”If this crazy ram is an antenna, what in the world is it meant to pick up from the air?”
”Whatever it is, it can apparently be converted into an electric signal since this is built into a circuit Misaka-san, could you read it by connecting to this pile of junk with your power?”
They had finished the overall analysis of the black box section If they connected it to so it back to life
”Shokuhou, do you have a cellphone?”
”Sigh Who needs to ask a teenage girl that?”
”Eiyah”
”Why did you break it in half!?”
Shokuhou screanored her while pulling a speaker and a few colorful cables out of the broken e between the pins on the broken circuit boards and attached the thunal running through the line into sound
”That should do it”
”…I-I really don't think we can get along after all”
”Why are you acting like that's a huge discovery? Anyway, I'”
Now she just had to pass her power through it
When she held out her pal she had not before
Some quiet static came from the small speaker
”Are you picking so up?”
”But what in the world is the AAA accessing?”
The answer ht in front of their eyes the entire time
One only needed to read the device's name
The Anti-Art Attachment
The device of soic
He was back in the foggy city of London
But the stinging air froone
For one thing, he was in a rooently lit by tallow and a fireplace instead of outdoors Rather than some stately mansion, it was probably an old-fashi+oned apartment of some kind