Chapter 152: The Right Seat’s First
──And so, Reicia, Aleister, and Kakine had infiltrated the Garden of Learning.
Of course, leaving Reicia aside, Aleister and Kakine were so blatantly male that they should have triggered every alarm in the Garden’s security system. And yet…
"Why are the two of you just walking straight through the front gate…?"
Unlike Reicia, who had to rely on the special abilities of her AIM Thought Body to force her way in, Aleister and Kakine passed through the gate without resistance, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Which was absurd, considering Reicia was supposed to be the one with legitimate access. The entire situation was fundamentally unreasonable.
"…Anyway, will you finally explain why we came all the way to the Garden of Learning?"
Even though it was still early morning, students were already coming and going. Despite the holiday, some had gotten up for morning practice. Now, in a narrow alley just off the main street where early risers were passing through, Reicia whispered her question to Aleister, almost holding her breath. For her, this was nerve-racking.
If anyone saw them, she would be branded as the accomplice who smuggled men into the Garden. She hadn’t even disguised her face. Getting caught like this would ruin her social standing forever. The fact that one of the men was Academy City’s Board Chairman meant nothing—especially since that shield had already fallen. She couldn’t wave around his authority now.
To be blunt, Reicia wanted nothing more than to distance herself from them immediately and act innocent. If possible, she would have thrown them out of the Garden altogether, just to reduce the risk of drawing an attack from the magic side. Selfish though she was, she still wanted to protect her own position.
Aleister, on the other hand, wasn’t the least bit concerned.
"It’s simple. We’re here to retrieve Shiren."
His declaration was curt and absolute.
"It would have been convenient if she were still at Tokiwadai’s external dorms. But when I tracked her smartphone’s GPS, the signal wasn’t there—it was inside the Garden. I also detected both Railgun and Mental Out in the same location. That likely means she’s with them."
──So, Reicia reasoned, Shiren must have realized she wasn’t inside Reicia anymore and acted on her own. That thought filled her with happiness, but at this particular moment, it was nothing but terrible timing.
Ordinarily, Reicia would welcome a reunion with Shiren. After all, they had been together since the summer, two souls sharing one body. Not feeling Shiren’s presence within her now left Reicia with deep unease. In truth, she wanted nothing more than to reunite and return from this AIM body to her original state.
But as things stood, meeting Shiren carried definite risks.
First: Vent’s presence ahead.
Reicia knew her own personality was far from virtuous. Shiren, though, might be able to fight Vent without harboring hostility, even after learning the truth about her. Shiren was that sort of naive do-gooder.
Reicia wasn’t like that. Even confronted with every tragic justification the “official history” laid out, she could still dismiss it with a sharp, "Like I care. You people are just causing me trouble." Which meant she would inevitably be targeted by the "Divine Punishment" spell.
If only the targeting worked in such a way that her hostility didn’t count—or that her split soul confused the spell enough to leave her outside its scope. But if not, then Shiren would be caught in the curse’s blast as well.
And with three Right Seat-level magicians already in Academy City, they couldn’t afford to let Shiren be incapacitated.
Second: the usefulness of this AIM body.
Reicia had already noticed its regenerative ability. The fingertip she’d torn off earlier had healed on its own. She wasn’t on the level of Kazakiri after becoming an angel, but her baseline specs as an AIM Thought Body gave her considerable strength. Remaining in this state alongside Shiren might actually yield greater combined power than simply reverting to one Level 5 esper.
And finally: the problem of bringing Aleister to Shiren.
Compared to this, the other concerns were trivial. This was the same "human" who had just declared he would use Shiren as a tool to rewrite history. No one could hear that and accept it at face value. Shiren would be wary too.
Unless Reicia could be certain Aleister’s intentions posed no danger, she absolutely could not let him near Shiren. That was her inviolable condition.
In short—
(…There’s no helping it. I’ll just have to let the Garden of Learning get swallowed by battle…)
It was a merciless conclusion.
(If I’m to meet Shiren without letting Aleister near her, my best chance is to use the chaos of a fight to slip away. In that case, the most suitable candidates are the Right Seat. Well, unless Acqua shows up, this city is safe enough with Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki around. And if it is Acqua, then at least he’ll minimize civilian casualties.)
The ideal outcome would be for Vent to attack, Aleister to deal with her, and Reicia to break away during the distraction to reunite with Shiren.
The problem was how Kakine would interpret her breaking formation, given that they were technically acting as a team. But then again—
(…No, Kakine will be the first victim of "Divine Punishment" the moment he faces Vent.)
Vent would probably be killed by Aleister right away. But for at least a few seconds, Kakine would be disabled too. In that window, Reicia could slip away without him objecting.
(It’ll work. In the "true history," Vent was saved by Touma. Leaving her to die does make me hesitate… but who knows how many people she’s already killed with that spell. There’s no obligation to save such a villain.)
With that, Reicia crushed her budding guilt.
(If I can save her, fine. But Shiren’s safety comes first. The one thing I must never allow is this bastard using Shiren however he pleases.)
Having settled on that conclusion—
"Oh, that reminds me," Aleister said suddenly, as if recalling something trivial.
"By the way, I have no resistance against spells that kill in response to hostility."
──A bombshell of the highest order.
Final Chapter: I Don’t Know Anything About Predestination - Theory_"was"_Broken.
Episode 126: The Right Seat’s First - First_Danger.
"……………………………………Huh?"
Reicia couldn’t believe her ears.
Maybe her perception of sound had changed since becoming an AIM Thought Body. Maybe she had simply misheard. The thought crossed her mind—but Aleister, seeing her confusion, spoke again:
"I told you, I can’t defend against a spell that kills its target unconditionally if they harbor hostility. From what I can tell, the spell’s power scales with the degree of hostility, but in my case, it would almost certainly mean instant death. Back when I was hooked up to life-support inside the Windowless Building, I wasn’t generating life force myself, so I wasn’t a valid target. But now, I am. Under ordinary circumstances, the moment the enemy activates the spell, I’ll be marked and die instantly—without time to counter it."
"You’re supposed to be some legendary magician, aren’t you!? Can’t you do something about it!?"
"The Right Seat’s spells are angelic in nature. I can counter magic that stems from my own system, but techniques from the B.C. era fall outside my scope. And besides, a spell fueled by pure Telesma—angelic essence—isn’t something mortal technology can simply resist."
"Th-That’s ridiculous…"
──Ridiculous, maybe, but in a sense, only natural.
After all, Coronzon had designed a spell specifically to oppose Aleister: one that grew stronger the less the caster understood their target. And Aleister, by his very nature, was fatally vulnerable to any spell triggered by his own hostility.
He might look like a final boss, but it was exactly this sort of weakness that made Aleister, Aleister. Anyway…
"So the great Board Chairman isn’t so tough after all," Kakine muttered dryly.
"You sound detached, but Dark Matter will struggle too. If you could completely surround yourself with it, maybe you could interfere with the spell and dull its effects. But doing that while fighting a member of the Right Seat? Nearly impossible."
"………," Kakine fell silent.
Reicia had already assumed Kakine would fall before Vent. But if Aleister would also be a target…
"By the way," Aleister continued, "since you told me about the Right Seat, I’ve avoided looking into their recent movements. If I ever confirmed that one of them used such a spell, the instant I recognized it, I’d die."
Then, as if recalling something else, he added,
"…A Naruko ward just reacted. One of the Right Seat has entered the Garden of Learning."
"………………,"
Aleister pressed on, as if to corner Reicia. As if to say he had seen through her schemes from the very beginning.
"Can I leave this to you? We need to hurry and join up with Shiren."
"………………Very well. I’ll handle it somehow."
And so, in the end—
Reicia weighed two risks against each other: Aleister and Kakine reaching Shiren directly, or losing them entirely if a fight with Acqua rendered them unusable. In her judgment, the latter was heavier.
Or perhaps she had been maneuvered into thinking that way. Reicia couldn’t tell.
(This is bad.)
Events were marching straight toward the worst possible outcome. She would be forced to clash with the Right Seat while Aleister, unguarded, made contact with Shiren. The result: a nightmare scenario where anything could happen to her.
(I have to drive out the Right Seat that’s infiltrated the Garden of Learning and reach Shiren as fast as possible…!!)
Just because she carried knowledge of the “Canon” didn’t mean she could outwit the man who had already rewritten the world itself. That task was harder than any half-baked hero’s tale.
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