Chapter 154: What Do You Believe In
Reicia had entrusted the rear guard to her doppelgänger and hurried after Aleister and the others. It was a race against time, yet a faint smile touched her lips.
(…Of course. That’s exactly what Shiren would do. In a situation like this, she’d already be moving on her own!)
Even though she had been separated from her dearest partner—something that should have inflicted deep emotional wounds—Shiren wasted no time taking action. And the method she chose—turning to her former comrades—was so unmistakably her.
That alone filled Reicia with encouragement and joy. It made her all the more determined to do her best for Shiren’s sake as well. Which was why—
"Wait right—"
Reicia raised her voice the moment she entered Tokiwadai Middle School, where Aleister was supposed to be. But her words were cut short.
"Tch…!"
There, kneeling on one knee, was Aleister. Facing him was none other than Reicia=Blackguard—dressed in a Tokiwadai uniform. She looked down on him with eyes of absolute zero, utterly unharmed.
"You thought that if you tore Reicia-chan away from me and disabled White-Black Saw Blade, I’d be nothing more than some insignificant little girl? You thought I wouldn’t notice? Is that truly what you believed?"
It was obvious at a glance.
Shiren was furious. And the cause was clear—being torn away from Reicia.
"…Wait, Shiren. You’re misunderstanding something. I wasn’t activating a spell to harm you."
"So what, you expect me to believe the enemy of my enemy is my ally? Yet here you are, failing before my eyes. That alone is reason enough not to trust you. …In the end, you planned to use me and what’s important to me as disposable tools to resolve this crisis, didn’t you? You can’t rely on Last Order anymore, after all."
There was no opening. In Shiren’s eyes, every move Aleister Crowley made was venom. From that starting point, she had already rejected the very possibility of dialogue.
And the truth was, she wasn’t wrong. If Shiren let her guard down, Aleister would try to use her immediately. From that perspective, refusing dialogue outright was the most rational "anti-Aleister" strategy imaginable.
…But even so, Reicia felt this wasn’t like Shiren. Even if cutting ties was the right choice, she would usually still search for some path to understanding, however slim. That was her nature—foolishly kindhearted. Even against the root of all evil, could she really pass such a cold judgment?
"…I have… no words to deny it!"
With those words, Aleister swung the Staff of Shock in his right hand. Sparks burst into the air, accompanied by floating numbers—
"This causality… will be inverted."
Snap!
Shiren flicked her fingers. The numbers blurred, wavered, and disappeared.
"Ghbbghhh!?"
Aleister coughed up blood.
"My, my. Another failure. Fascinating—using the ‘Whim-Defying Result Twister’ on spell invocation causes this kind of backlash. …I wonder if that’s a common trait among all ‘right-hand abilities’ that function as mage-killers."
Just one flick of her finger. That was all it took.
Shiren had made a mockery of the king of this city. In an instant—faster than anyone thought possible—she had completely overwhelmed the world’s most dangerous magician, Aleister Crowley.
Cold. Merciless.
"Sh… Shiren…"
Reicia’s voice came out frail, unlike before—weak, trembling.
Because right now, Shiren was consumed by rage. Being cut off from Reicia by Aleister’s hand had driven her fury beyond reason, more than the larger crisis engulfing Academy City. The kindness that usually compelled her toward dialogue was gone.
And Reicia wondered—what would Shiren think, seeing her like this? Would she still acknowledge her as her other half? Or would she suspect she was just another of Aleister’s tricks? …Or worse, was she already part of Aleister’s trap? That doubt rushed through her mind in an instant.
When Shiren finally noticed Reicia’s presence—
"!!"
Her face stiffened in shock. So shaken that, for a moment, her focus on Aleister faltered completely.
And that fleeting instant was worth its weight in gold for Aleister.
"The formation is complete. Uninvited intruders—depart from this sanctuary!!"
At once, Reicia Blackguard vanished from the School Garden.
At the same time as Aleister’s words, Reicia’s vision lost all shape, melting and warping like paint dissolving in water.
Overcome by an indescribable floating sensation, she instinctively shut her eyes—and when she opened them again, she found herself standing in a cityscape far removed from the School Garden, modern and unfamiliar.
“…Wh-where is this!?”
“Likely the Seventh District. A retreat. A complete and utter rout, really. Well—good thing I had insurance.”
Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Aleister—who had been crouching beside her—slowly stood.
“…Insurance, you say?”
Reicia’s question earned only a nod.
It wasn’t so much an application of summoning techniques as it was their abuse. By treating the School Garden as a ritual site, Aleister had redefined himself and his group—who had entered by illicit means—as “illegitimate summoned beings.” Using an exorcism formula, a spell meant to banish unwanted summoned entities, he had forcibly expelled his group from the School Garden.
But Aleister offered her no explanation.
“More importantly… quite the setback. As you can see, I’ve been wounded. And Dark Matter? One hit, knocked out cold.”
Only then did Reicia realize. Like Aleister, Kakine—the one who had gone ahead earlier—had been absent from the battlefield. She wondered where he was—until she spotted him.
He was lying at Aleister’s feet, facedown on the ground.
“He tried to counter Shiren’s attack—and failed. Self-destructed, then took her punch square in the face and went down.”
“Wha…!”
Reicia wanted to demand how such a thing could even happen, but the sheer absurdity of the situation left her speechless.
“S-still! What on earth was that!? Shiren snaps her fingers, and suddenly your spell fails!? White-Black Saw Blade, Jagged Edge could never do something like that!”
“How should I know? That’s not even a function within Near-Death Promise, the Divine Contract.”
“…Good grief.”
Once again, another curveball. Reicia was sick of it. As an enemy, this mastermind was a nightmare—yet the moment he was on their side, he became utterly unreliable. Well, not that he was really an ally to begin with.
“Still… serves you right. By the look of things, you must have tried something against Shiren, didn’t you? You should be grateful she didn’t kill you on the spot.”
“No… that wasn’t it.”
Aleister cut her off sharply, regaining his composure.
But his face showed no trace of its usual calm. Instead, there was something rare for him—anxiety. For someone who normally accepted every situation with cool detachment, it was startling. As if he had come face-to-face with something truly beyond his control.
“Shiren didn’t listen to a word I said. Yes—it’s true my formula was responsible for separating you from your body. But before she even confirmed that minimum cause-and-effect, s-h-e launched an attack on me.”
“…!”
To Reicia, that was hard to believe.
No matter how vile the person, Shiren would always try to hear them out first. Even if it was foolish. Would she really turn so one-sidedly hostile toward Aleister? The only explanation Reicia could form was that she was so important to Shiren that losing her had made Shiren unstable—more aggressive than usual.
And then there was that ability.
Jagged Edge had been unusable because Reicia was gone—a blind spot, but a sensible one. After all, Jagged Edge was bound to Reicia’s spirit and her recognition. Even when her consciousness had once been submerged, she had never truly been absent. Now, with her completely gone, it was only natural the ability wouldn’t function.
But what had manifested in its place…
(Shiren called it a “right-hand ability,” didn’t she? …It feels like I’ve heard of something like that before. Should I think of it as akin to Touma’s Imagine Breaker, Kamisato’s World Rejecter, or, in that spin-off, Fiamma’s “Holy Right”?)
Of course, Shiren had never shown anything like this before. Never a hint of an ability that could make a magician cough blood with a snap of her fingers.
Normally, one would assume she had acquired it sometime after Aleister’s summoning of Reicia. But…
“……”
Could that really be possible?
A side of her more violent than ever before.
A power stronger than anything she had displayed.
They planted in Reicia one particular doubt.
Namely—was this truly the Shiren she knew?
(No! What am I even doubting!? The look she gave when she stopped the moment she saw me—that was Shiren, beyond a doubt!)
Yes, she had been angry.
But surely part of that was panic, overwhelmed by an unprecedented situation. Even Reicia herself, if Shiren had vanished and Aleister suddenly appeared, would have immediately attacked him unless he acted uncharacteristically reasonable.
And Shiren wasn’t charging recklessly ahead on her own—she was reaching out to allies like the doppelgänger. The fact she still chose to rely on others meant she hadn’t lost her warmth entirely.
(Yes. Of course. The answer has been there from the start.)
As her heart steadied, clarity returned.
(Correct. Just as I feel anxious now, Shiren must feel the same. She’s surely afraid that even I might suspect she’s not the real one—that’s what must be eating away at her. Which means!! My role is not to cower in doubt, but to return to her side as soon as possible—to reassure her!!)
“…Well, well. Perhaps… this may be the work of Kihara Amata.”
And with that one muttered name from Aleister, Reicia’s resolve froze in place.
Final Chapter: I Don’t Know Anything About Predestination - Theory_"was"_Broken.
Episode 128: What to Believe - Result_Twister.
"...Huh?"
"This is information unfavorable to me, so I wanted to keep it hidden as long as possible— but Kihara Amata, as a living being, is dead. My subordinates killed him."
"Wha— but… Souji reported that he handed him over to Anti-Skill… D—don’t tell me…!"
Back when Misaka and the others were saved, Reicia’s group had received a report from Souji during the mission: that he had betrayed Kihara Amata, attacked him, and taken him alive.
Of course, the moment he tried to relay that, Kamijou’s condition had suddenly worsened, leaving no time to process it. And afterward—miracles, crises, and everything else—left no room to revisit the matter, so it had simply been forgotten.
"Hm? So that’s what you were told. I suppose that was his version of a ‘gentle lie.’"
Aleister spoke without the faintest trace of guilt.
"But it seems… that man didn’t die completely. He apparently deepened into an A.I.M. Thought Entity."
"……"
Those words alone were enough to make Reicia imagine the worst.
And fittingly so. It was exactly the kind of ‘inheritance’ one would expect from a Kihara.
"Truly, his usual failure. …And most likely, as an A.I.M. Thought Entity, Kihara Amata has possessed Shiren’s body after you escaped."
"No way… Th—there’s no proof! This is just your speculation, nothing more!!"
"How do you explain that right hand?"
Aleister’s pointed question silenced her.
Indeed—it was strange.
That right hand that had appeared out of nowhere, that ability… even if the materials for it existed, there was no way Shiren could have produced it on her own in such a short time. A phenomenon like that demanded some kind of external input.
And if one asked what the source of that input was—there could be no answer more fitting than this.
‘Kihara.’
That inhuman inspiration.
If he was involved, then discovering a latent quality in Shiren and shaping it into a unique ability would not be strange at all.
Judging by her words and behavior, Shiren hadn’t been completely taken over. She likely wasn’t even aware she was possessed.
But—his inspiration could already be coloring her actions, tilting them with a Kihara’s coldness. That would explain why, unlike her usual self, Shiren had rejected dialogue outright and treated Aleister only with hostility.
And if she truly carried that cold influence—then even the ‘pieces on the board’ she had set up beforehand, which Reicia had taken as reassuring signs, could just as easily be reasons for dread.
If Shiren really was caught in the grip of Kihara’s inspiration…
For Reicia to approach her without a plan could prove dangerously reckless.
Of course, it was all speculation.
Assumptions piled atop assumptions—nothing more than fearful conjecture.
But if there was even the chance—and if that chance happened to be right—the consequences would be catastrophic.
"...I understand your impatience. But right now—Shiren is dangerous."
Yes. She had no choice but to admit it.
"—Y-you’re not necessarily telling the truth… For all I know, you could just be saying something convenient to deceive me!"
"White-Black Sawblade, Jagged Edge!!"
Aleister’s voice rang out like a whip crack, cutting through her strained denial.
Her shoulders jerked. That reaction alone betrayed the turmoil inside her more than words ever could.
"If you are saying that out of calm, rational judgment, then very well. I am, after all, fundamentally your enemy, and I’m aware I’ve worsened your position. I won’t contest that judgment. But… are you really calm right now?"
"……"
"If you’re merely clinging to wishful thinking, turning your eyes away from doubt—then as Chairman of the Board of Directors, as the one who oversees the educators of this city, I must stop you, my student."
Straight on.
Aleister Crowley locked eyes with Reicia, speaking with finality.
Almost without thinking, her gaze fell. That alone was her answer.
"...What do you propose, then?"
"Don’t worry. If she truly is possessed, the same method I used on you should be able to drive it out. However… that right hand is troublesome."
Aleister stroked his chin as he replied to the downcast Reicia.
"That right hand—he called it Result Twister, didn’t he? Most likely it carries the effect of failing all intent. Any spell built on the theory of astral projection would almost certainly be nullified. Unless we deal with that hand first, we won’t get anywhere."
He fell silent, lost in thought.
"The quickest way would be to sever the hand entirely, but…"
"...!"
"It was merely a thought spoken aloud. Naturally, I have no intention of following that path."
As Reicia’s expression hardened, Aleister lifted both hands in mock surrender. Of course—no matter the possession, no matter how twisted her mind became, Shiren was still the most precious person in Reicia’s world. To harm her was unthinkable.
"What about that finger snap? Could it be equivalent to Kamijou’s ‘touch’—the condition needed to trigger the ability?"
"Hm. I see. If the ability manifests through the right hand, then naturally its condition would stem from it as well. Plausible. Perhaps the sound itself defines the range of effect—wherever the snap can be heard, the nullification applies. If that’s the case…"
Aleister’s gaze rose briefly toward the sky.
An ability that nullifies all intent through sound—monstrous, yes. But within that overwhelming power, he glimpsed a way forward.
"There is... a plan. It may well be that the White-Black Sawblade will prove the keeeey to victory."
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