Chapter 143: The Hanged Woman
If we’re talking purely about combat strength, Komaba Ritoku isn’t someone we should truly fear.
Sure, Komaba-san once managed to corner Accelerator through sheer technique and ingenuity—he’s not an opponent to dismiss outright. But the flip side is clear: without trickery, he can’t stand against genuine high-level espers.
As long as we stay alert to his raw physical power and his anti-esper tactics, and steadily tighten the noose from all directions, he’s not the kind of enemy we should ever struggle with.
But… that only applies if we’re up against Komaba Ritoku alone.
"Oi oi, what’s the matter, brat!! You’ve been running this whole time, this ain’t even a fight!!"
—Kihara Amata.
Even Enshuu-san once described him as "a man who wields sledgehammer-level destruction with the precision of an electron microscope." And now that Komaba-san’s brute strength has been added to that? I can’t even begin to picture the nightmare those two create together.
Honestly, if one of his punches suddenly twisted into some warped form of energy and discharged as electricity, I wouldn’t even bat an eye. That’s why I want to see every card Amata-san has in play before I commit to a real move.
"Or what…? Don’t tell me the great underground Fourth Ranked, Another Four-sama, is scared of going up against a powerless Level 0?"
"Oh? So you’ve picked up some bargain-bin provocation since I last saw you."
"Strength alone is no basis for caution. Anyone can carry fangs sharp enough to pierce the mighty. Anyone who’s survived in this city knows that."
Reicia-chan… you do realize you’re playing right into his taunts, right?
"You’re looking awful timid. Don’t tell me you’ve gotten so scared you forgot time isn’t infinite, huh?"
"I haven’t forgotten. But letting impatience rule me against you would be a mistake. I won’t let a cheap jab shake my resolve."
"Tch… pain in the ass."
Amata-san dropped his stance low. …Here it comes!
"This guy’s original toy was that busted piece of junk, the Spring-Loaded Bandage, Hard Taping. Funny, right? A defective product using another defective product just to keep up with high-level espers!"
Classic Kihara cruelty—half sincere in its twisted way, half calculated to throw the enemy off-balance. The words didn’t matter.
Because I knew that, I kept my eyes locked on Amata-san’s movements. That awareness let me react just a fraction of a second faster.
"It’s a joke, isn’t it? You don’t have to use it just to boost physical ability—look what else you can do with it!!"
The space we’d occupied a heartbeat earlier was shredded as "something" ripped through at high speed.
Most likely rubble from the facility, scattered during the earlier clashes. And the one who had hurled it… was Komaba-san.
When I looked, Komaba-san’s body had twisted into something inhuman.
From his arms and torso, thin, tentacle-like strands extended outward. …That must be the Spring-Loaded Bandage, Hard Taping.
《The Spring-Loaded Bandage, Hard Taping reacts to electrical stimuli, stretching and contracting to dramatically boost the wearer’s physical ability. Think of it as a stripped-down version of a powered suit’s drive assist system. But taken further, it can also serve as "new limbs that move in response to electrical signals."》
Problem is, those things are a serious nuisance—I’d love to cut them off. But as long as Amata-san can move freely, he could drive us into some suicidal trap, so I can’t.
Still, Komaba is only human. He isn’t hiding behind some incomprehensible esper barrier or sorcery.
"Let’s see how you handle this!!"
Whoosh!! I dissolved the "Crack" cocoon and unleashed a gale straight at Komaba-san.
Strong enough to flip a car head-on. If Komaba took it directly, he wouldn’t walk away intact. But—
"Checking my specs, are ya? Fine, I’ll show ya."
The strike was deflected by the Spring-Loaded Bandage tentacles. Under normal circumstances, there’s no way that material alone could withstand the force of our gale. But the bandages generated their own airflow, interfering with the storm.
Considering Amata-san once disrupted our wind currents with nothing but a whistle, this much shouldn’t surprise me.
…Wait.
Why didn’t I notice sooner?
Amata-san hasn’t used that whistle technique even once in this fight!!
We’ve relied on air control over and over—our storm attacks, the high-speed maneuvers of the "Crack" wings. If Amata-san had used that same interference technique he once pulled on Doppelganger-san, we’d be fighting Komaba without high-speed movement or air manipulation.
Coupled with his suicidal tactics against the "Crack," our options would have been crushed down to almost nothing.
Yet he hasn’t used it. And knowing his personality, if he could, he absolutely would have. The fact that he hasn’t… means something.
《…I see. Even he can’t control something like a remote puppet with perfect precision.》
I nodded at Reicia-chan’s words.
《Yeah, that must be it. Of course, it can still move with impressive accuracy… but the output—the actual movement of Komaba-san’s body—can’t match the exact control Amata-san himself could achieve. Which means he can’t generate sound waves sharp enough to disrupt airflow, or execute body maneuvers precise enough to pierce Accelerator’s reflection.》
That grotesque Spring-Loaded Bandage, Hard Taping exists to hide that limitation.
…But if that’s true, then the reason it deflected our gale earlier must be…
"About time you realized, huh? Yeah, that’s right. This guinea pig’s talented, sure, but it can’t replicate the full precision of my own movements. If it were an esper, maybe it could achieve perfect control through calculation, but that’s just theory. Still… you didn’t think I’d rely on nothing but these tentacle-like Spring-Loaded Bandages as weapons, did you?"
Slowly, ominously, four sets of Spring-Loaded Bandages rose, their movement embodying Amata-san’s words. They looked like grotesque extensions sprouting from human flesh—
—and for an instant, the silhouette blurred into the image of Oriana-san.
(…W-what the… just now…?!)
What I saw was Oriana-san crucified on a cross. But it wasn’t her provocative form from before. She was dressed in ordinary clothes—everyday attire you’d see in Academy City.
Which means…
"So, here’s a question! Besides the Spring-Loaded Bandages, Hard Taping, what other weapons did Kihara Amata bring to hold you guys back?!"
Immediately after, a vortex of four colors began to swirl around Komaba-san.
Final Chapter: As If to Make the Entire World an Enemy — Are_You_Ready?
Episode 117: The Hanged Woman — Sacrifice_Lady.
"What… what is this…!?"
Four colors.
Red, blue, yellow, green.
A torrent of power where the primary colors spun together without blending. I realized on the spot—this was sorcery.
Primary colors meant the four great elements. Which meant this… I don’t know much beyond what I’ve read, but it was probably basic Kabbalah… or the orthodox sorcery used by Aleister and the Golden societies.
Oriana had used spell formulas that relied on letters and their colors to tune attributes. Even after she became a "grimoire," she hadn’t abandoned that framework. Taking that image into account, then—
"Amata… that’s Oriana’s…!?"
"Insert/Heh, so you can tell. Guess that’s what I’d expect from the ‘liaison’ of the sorcery side. Well yeah, I’ll admit it—I didn’t study sorcery or anything. All I did was set up the interface."
His casual answer made it clear—this wasn’t important to him.
And he also believed there was nothing we could do about it.
"An interface…! So the spell’s actually being cast through Oriana! Absorbing foreign knowledge like sorcery into an experiment subject—that’s exactly the kind of twisted thing a Kihara would cook up…!"
Reicia said it as she ran rapid calculations, trying to find a way to counter the formula.
If she was right, it explained why Amata could suddenly build a barrier that accounted for Kamijou’s right hand—or why he could cast sorcery at all. But something else nagged at me.
Normally I’d ignore that feeling and focus on the immediate attack. This time, though, I couldn’t. It felt like I was missing something critical—something that, if ignored, would lead to an irreversible disaster—
"…Insert/Huh? That look in your eyes…"
Lightning flashed through my thoughts.
That’s it!! The one actually casting the sorcery isn’t Amata—it's Komaba!!
Komaba truly wasn’t an ability user, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been through development. He’s a Level 0—a subject who underwent training but never manifested anything useful.
Which meant—even without a power—his body’s circuits had been rewired. Tsuchimikado proved that. If Komaba uses sorcery, his body will take severe damage. That much is obvious.
So what does that mean here?
If I follow it through, Amata’s plan snaps into place.
If Komaba uses sorcery and will be fatally injured unless immediately treated—how would we react?
"…He’s planning to use Komaba… to force us out of the fight…!!"
With that strategy, counters to Komaba’s spells don’t matter.
As long as Oriana exists as the sorcery interface, Amata only needs to make Komaba cast some formula, let Komaba self-destruct, and we’d never abandon him—we’d rush him to a hospital. No matter how fast we were, by the time we returned, the barrier’s time limit would expire.
And just like that, we’d be forced to retire from the battlefield.
"Insert/So, you finally figured it out, huh!? Hyahahaha! That’s right, you got it, spot on!! My weapon is this guy’s liiiiife—the life of a test subject!! You, the animal-loving hobbyist and hidden Fourth Rank, Another Four-sama, you wouldn’t abandon even a delinquent piece of trash like him, would you!? Then let’s play a round of Russian roulette, shall we, oh holy maiden!!!!"
"……!!"
This was bad—really bad.
Tsuchimikado had only survived so far thanks to Auto-Rebirth. If Amata keeps mindlessly spamming sorcery like this, Komaba will die…!!
Damn it—if only I could use a ‘Fissure’ to seal the space and sever Amata’s control—!
Shudododo!!
I tried to deploy the ‘Fissure’—but even though I sealed the space completely, gaps started forming in the barrier.
"…Wh-what is this…!?"
"Insert/What, you already forgot!? This whole space is slowly collapsing piece by piece! Even if you seal it to block the signals controlling him, it’s useless!"
Ugh… damn it…! I’d completely forgotten about that.
So what the hell am I supposed to do…!?
"And another thing. The moment I took this guy hostage, I knew you’d panic and be unable to think of anything else. You softhearted, do-gooder idiot."
It only took a single instant.
No—I wasn’t off guard. If anything, I was more tense than ever. But maybe because of that tension I couldn’t think through Amata’s strategy properly.
And the cost for that moment of failure came immediately.
Yellow letters gleamed in the void—the mark of wind.
The word formed: Wind Symbol.
Its meaning—
"Insert/‘Drop Rest, the Slumbering Wind,’ eh!?"
Then, as if fate were mocking us, a transparent spear of wind was unleashed.
Komaba screamed, blood spouting from his mouth, but even as we scrambled to interfere with the sorcery, we were too slow—
And that single strike pierced straight into our chests.
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