Chapter 107: Major Convergence

"Nurikae has... been taken over by Kihara Gensei, you said...!?"

Touma-san looked at me wide-eyed, as if genuinely shocked.
Well, I guess I can’t blame him. After all, "possession and body hijacking" is entirely a magic-side thing. If you’re told that a pure scientist like Kihara Gensei pulled it off, of course you’d be stunned.

…That said, Gensei has already caused enough chaos with all that "Dragon" nonsense, so it doesn’t exactly feel like this should be a surprise anymore.

"Is it really something to be that shocked about? For example, even the Fifth Ranked can apply their brainwashing ability to project their own consciousness onto a target in real-time."

"The Fifth Ranked… that was Mental Out, right?"

…Wait, does Touma-san actually remember Shokuhou-san?
Ah, no, makes sense — ability names are stored in semantic memory, so it’s probably just that.

"Be it science or magic, once pushed to the extreme, the destination seems to be similar. I don’t know the exact method. However, one thing is certain: the current actions of Nurikae-san are not of his own free will. That much I am sure of."

…Yeah, after actually clashing with him, I know it for certain.
That was definitely not Nurikae-san. His words, his behavior, his entire approach — everything matched one person, and one person only: Kihara Gensei.

"…Reisia…"

Touma-san’s voice pulled me back, and I realized my fist was clenched tight.
Recognizing my own frustration helped me cool down a little. …Yeah, I get it. Getting angry won’t change anything. Anger clouds judgment, and clouded judgment plays right into Gensei-san’s hands. I need to calm down and think carefully about what to do next.

"…I’m fine now. So, what’s our next move?"

"That bastard’s disappeared somehow. Don’t know what kind of trick he used, but he’s gone to ground. I’ve got some of the lower-level guys digging, but it’s radio silence. Still… knowing that damn monster of an old man, he’s not rampaging around without a purpose."

"So this jailbreak… taking over Nurikae-san just to force it through… you think there’s a clear objective behind it?"

"Yeah. And whatever it is, it could very well be Gensei’s Achilles’ heel. Though, to be fair, hijacking Nurikae Onrei was probably just a matter of convenience for him."

The reason why Kihara Gensei chose to break out now.

There’s no way it was just "anytime works." If timing didn’t matter, he could’ve waited until Nurikae-san finished his sentence and walked out of Academy City legally. That would’ve meant less surveillance on him and a lot more freedom to act.

But he didn’t wait. He chose a jailbreak. Which means… there must’ve been urgency driving him.
He wouldn’t risk something this bold unless remaining in custody was genuinely disadvantageous to him.

So then, what could be pushing him this far…?

………………

…If I knew that, we wouldn’t be struggling like this.
If it were something simple enough for me to figure out in a few minutes, Kakine-san wouldn’t still be sitting here frowning and growling alongside us.

"On that part! We actually happen to know the details!"

A sharp, high-pitched voice cut through the stalemate.

Standing there was—

"Frenda-san!?"

Frenda Seivelun.
And beside her, a brown-haired boy — Hamazura Shiage.

Right now, the two of them were still members of "ITEM," both Level 0, non-ability users.

…Frenda-san, though — despite once standing against us as part of ITEM, she stood there with an absurdly confident pose. Guess that’s just how you survive on Academy City’s dark side; you’ve gotta have a thick skin to make it out here.

That said, as far as we’re concerned, they’re still "enemies." I could feel Adabana-san, who’d been standing nearby, silently shift into a guarded stance.

The one who reacted most sharply to that was Hamazura-san.

"Ah—! W-wait, wait! Look, we’ve got our own circumstances here, alright? And besides—"

"You’re that guy from back then…"

"…Goddammit. Of all the rotten reunions…"

The air got tense between Touma-san and Hamazura-san.
…Ah, right. This was their first time meeting again since their initial fight, wasn’t it?

Even with how much this world’s shifted, that particular incident still happened, huh?
Well, it must have — otherwise Hamazura-san would be dead by now.

While the two of them were locked in that awkward tension, Kakine-san, who clearly had zero interest in their history, spoke up brusquely.

"So? You made your flashy little entrance — I assume you’ve got information worth showing off. Start from the source."

"Y-yeah, yeah, I get it. I talked big, but honestly, we only found out because of pure dumb luck…"

With that, Hamazura-san began explaining slowly.
…Meanwhile, Frenda-san had already gotten bored and started fiddling with her nails.

Chapter 3 — “The Worth of a Soul Is Meaningless” Double(Square)_Faith.
Episode 90 — Major Convergence Double_Face.

"…So anyway, we haven’t actually run into Nurikae— er, Kihara Gensei, or whatever his name is, but we figured out one thing: his powered-up state won’t last long."

"But the guy’s still using some creepy, unknown power, right? We were thinking we’d need some solid backup, and then bam — we ran into you guys, Reisia!"

Frenda-san laughed with her usual carefree expression. The first one to react, though, wasn’t me — it was Adabana-san, standing next to us, quietly listening.

Before I realized it, Adabana-san had stepped forward, putting herself between us and Frenda-san, and her hand was gripping the Macuahuitl tight. …She’s ready to fight, no question. Well, fair enough.

"…Hmph. Bold of you to show your face before me, a member of Member, with such paltry information. Did you forget who you’re up against right now?"

"Damn it, I knew this was gonna happen!! Shit! Frenda, we’re bailing!"

"Calm down, you two, calm down!"

Seeing things about to spiral into a fight when we could be cooperating, I quickly stepped between Adabana-san and Hamazura-san to defuse the tension. Then I glanced at Hamazura-san’s hand, which was buried in his back pocket.

"And you too, okay? Keep that gun where it is. Don’t even think about drawing it."

"…!!"

…Pretty sure I scared him a little there.

"There’s no time to be fighting amongst ourselves here. If we must, let’s put aside dealing with the previous ambush for now. We know now that Nurikae-san doesn’t have much time left. Within three hours, we need to force Gensei-san out of his body. …And for that—"

"That means it’s my right hand’s turn, huh?"

That was Touma-san, who’d been mostly quiet until now — or rather, too overwhelmed by the constant shifts in the situation to say much.
Exactly. We still don’t know how Gensei-san is possessing him, but it’s definitely not normal science. Which means it’s an abnormal power — and if it’s an abnormal power, Touma-san’s Imagine Breaker is our trump card.

"…………"

"Second Ranked, is something wrong?"

"Huh? Nah, I’m good. Doesn’t matter either way — the endgame’s the same. We find Gensei, corner him, and crush him. Doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to me if we’ve got more meat shields or less. Do whatever you want."

"Haaah? What’s with that hierarchy flex? Honestly, you have zero sense of teamwork!"
"Reisia-chan, you’re overreacting again."

While Reisia-chan fumed at Kakine-san’s provocation, I tried to refocus and organize the situation in my head.

…Time limit: three hours.
Within that window, we need to stop whatever Gensei-san is planning to do using Nurikae-san’s body and have Touma-san use his right hand to forcibly break the possession.

Our lineup: me, Touma-san, Adabana-san, Kakine-san, Frenda-san, and Hamazura-san.

Immediate problem: ——

"By the way, anyone know where Gensei actually is right now? Feels like we’ve totally lost his trail."

"That’s exactly the problem here…"

And so, all six of us sat there, groaning in unison.

Well, I’m sure ITEM, School, and Member’s subordinates are all working hard right now, trying to track Gensei down.
But still… how the hell is he managing to slip past Academy City’s surveillance systems, especially with the Under Line aerial network in place?
Then again, it’s Gensei-san we’re talking about. He probably sliced right through their defenses like it was nothing.

《…Oh. Wait. If we reverse the perspective — doesn’t that mean if we just shut down the Under Line network, Academy City’s entire surveillance grid would collapse pretty easily?》

《Ah, that’s… actually possible. Come to think of it, during the battle against Acqua, there was that massive explosion that temporarily disabled Under Line across a huge area. I vaguely recall Aleister grumbling back then about losing all data from an entire District because of that.》

Yeah, I remembered reading about that, too. It stuck with me because I was literally yelling at the book, like: "Wow, they turned a core plot point from a previous volume into a throwaway detail!"

Which means… Gensei-san probably isn’t doing anything super elaborate here. He must’ve just used the angel’s massive output to knock out the Under Line system across this whole area in one go…

"…Lady Blackguard. A word, if I may."

Adabana-san — still in her maid uniform — lowered her voice and leaned close to whisper. Guess it’s something she doesn’t want to say in front of everyone.

"This possession… if Kihara Gensei truly has taken over Nurikae’s body, then it’s possible that he’s triggering something akin to a ‘soul enhancement’ effect… by forcing two souls into one vessel."

"!?"

"Adabana-san, that is…?"

"Ah. I’m talking about the magic side. …I’m looking at that artificial angel. Even if the ‘science’ of this city comes close to overlapping with our domain, I’m not surprised. Whether we choose to ignore it, however, is another matter entirely."

Adabana-san spoke with the face of a magician, spitting the words out bitterly.

"Strengthening output by making two souls function mutually isn’t all that rare in the world of magic. For example, think of the lion dances in East and South Asia—rituals where multiple people inhabit a single ‘vessel.’ That’s one case. If I’ve explained this much, I’m sure you understand, Miss Blackguard. Yes, I’m talking about dual personality."

"…!"

N-no way.
Kihara Gensei… Could he really have artificially recreated the same state as us… as Reisia = Blackguard…!?

But then…

"However, boosting a soul’s output isn’t such a simple matter. The total amount of power a human can store within their capacity is fixed. Of course, research into bypassing that limit has been popular on the magic side for ages, but…"

I get it.
It’s not something that can be done easily.

After all, the only reason we can even exist like this is thanks to Stiyl-san and Kanzaki-san, who borrowed Index’s wisdom to make the protective charms for us.

"People like you, with an unusually high ‘soul capacity,’ are rare. You might even be more valuable than a Saint. …If you’d been born into the magic side, you might have aimed to become a Magic God."

…Oof.

Adabana-san probably doesn’t realize how big of a deal that sounds to someone from the science side, so she just said it casually… but still…

Is having a high soul capacity really that amazing…? At the level where becoming a Magic God is even on the table…?
And Index just casually made those protective charms like it was nothing…
O-one hundred and three thousand grimoires’ worth of wisdom, huh…

"If you try to replicate that using an ordinary human body… naturally, the body will collapse. In other words, from my professional standpoint, what those two delinquents said carries a certain degree of credibility."

…Makes sense.

As I watched Adabana-san begin summarizing the discussion, I felt like I was starting to understand what she was getting at.

"That’s why, Miss Blackguard. I understand your desire to protect Nurikae Onrei, but… I’d advise you to ‘wait’ for now. Even if Gensei completely self-destructs in three hours, there should be visible cracks forming much earlier. By the time only about an hour remains, whatever hidden tactics he’s relying on will naturally collapse, and you could subdue him without much resistance."

"…No. That won’t do."

True, if Kihara Gensei stays exactly as he is now, that might be the optimal move.

"But I refuse to be optimistic when it comes to Kihara. Facing him, I cannot believe he’ll just obediently march down the obvious road to ruin that we can all see coming. If we wait for him to self-destruct, I’m certain an even more catastrophic disaster will rear its head instead."

She paused deliberately before continuing.

"And besides… even if we manage to ‘save’ Nurikae-san that way, his body will be in ruins. I cannot allow such an outcome. …And the same goes for whatever ‘countermeasures’ Gensei might take to avoid destruction—whether he abandons the vessel or reconstructs it, the damage to Nurikae-san’s body will be severe. That’s why we must defeat Gensei before that happens, no matter what."

"…Your pretense is obvious."

"Well, I’m not sure what you mean."

I have no idea what Gensei will do to control a power that a human body can’t handle, but one thing’s certain—it’ll be some shoddy ‘Kihara-style’ method, as always.

For that reason, we first need to pinpoint his location…

…Hu-human body…?

"…Ah."

Right.
Why didn’t I notice earlier?! The answer… had been right in front of me from the start!! If a human body can’t handle the drastically increased soul output, what’s the simplest solution…!?

"This is bad…! I’ve figured out Gensei’s target!!"

If a human body cannot fully contain that power, the solution is simple.

Prepare a vessel capable of handling it.

And that vessel… already exists! A perfectly suitable vessel made of iron flesh!

"A doppelgänger!! Kihara Gensei will aim to use her as his vessel! Baba-san!!"

I barked into the communicator. On the other end, Baba-san was rummaging through papers, responding amid the rustle of documents:

"Damn, he’s rough with his tools… As for the skirmish between the doppelgänger and the Third-ranked, we’ve dispatched T:GD to follow it. …Seems like they’re currently heading toward the observatory in District 21."

…District 21’s observatory? Suddenly, it feels like they jumped somewhere far away.

Anyway, now that we know the location, we need to hurry and get moving—

"This is bad…!"

That thought was interrupted by Frenda-san, whose words mirrored my earlier alarm. I glanced at her—her face was pale, her eyes darting around frantically. …What’s so bad?

"The observatory in District 21! That’s… it’s actually Misai’s hideout!!!"

…Wait, Misai… who?

Amid that doubt and the momentum of the situation, Hamazura-san’s groan—“I knew this would happen…”—dissolved into the night’s darkness.