Chapter 167: The Shackles of the Water’s Heart
“The Book of Kihara: Primary = K.”
A completely new grimoire—an original manuscript born from Kihara Amata. Its nature was abnormal beyond comprehension. But before even addressing that insanity, there was one problem far more pressing.
That was—
“…So. You’re seriously telling me that’s all you’ve got?”
Kneeling on one knee before The Book of Kihara: Primary = K was Aleister Crowley.
Before the most detestable yet invincible mastermind writhing within the deepest layers of conspiracy, The Book of Kihara: Primary = K smiled in triumph.
“… … …”
Aleister said nothing.
The Book had reshaped its right arm into a vortex of four primary colors, blending and swirling together like watercolors to forge a new attack.
“If you’ve got nothing left, then this is where it ends. See ya, you second-rate mastermind.”
Checkmate.
With frightening ease, The Book of Kihara: Primary = K made its final move—an attack so fast it could erase that “human” in an instant.
And then—
Final Chapter – I Don’t Know What “Predetermined Harmony” Is - Theory_"was"_Broken.
Episode 140: The Shackles of the Water’s Heart - Kindness_Begets_Kindness.
"This causality—will now be twisted!"
A loud SPLASH!!! echoed through the air.
The massive black axe that The Book of Kihara: Primary = K had turned his right hand into flickered like a candle flame snuffed out by a breath, then unraveled into a swirl of four primary-colored lights.
Failure.
The attack, born of The Book of Kihara: Primary = K’s murderous intent toward Aleister, had been forcibly made to fail.
"Wha— the hell!?"
The one who had held the upper hand—The Book of Kihara: Primary = K—was now the one staring wide-eyed in disbelief.
As he instinctively pressed his left hand against his right shoulder, Aleister regained his composure and spoke with mocking calm.
"Oh, I forgot to mention something. You’re right—I can’t beat you. But that doesn’t mean I’m the only one on the board."
The “failure” didn’t stop there.
The right arm, still a vortex of colors, refused to return to its original form. Instead, the swirling mass began to expand—slowly, inexorably—corroding everything it touched.
"Dammit—!! Don’t tell me it’s detecting that bastard’s hostility too…!?"
"A-Are you… Kihara Amata-san? Why did you… break out of prison?"
"Tch!!"
With a harsh CRACK!!!, The Book of Kihara: Primary = K severed his own arm near the elbow. The detached limb was instantly swallowed by the four-colored vortex and vanished.
He glared at the empty air where it had disappeared, his expression twisted with resentment.
"…Heh. So that right hand of yours rejects revival, huh? Pretty damn ironic."
Leaving those bitter words behind, he was consumed by the vortex of color.
The one most startled by this was the blonde, green-eyed young woman who had just arrived—Shiren. Her right hand was bound by a shackle of water.
She had come to the Celestial Aquarium after hearing Aleister was inside, but before even reaching the deepest chamber, she found him—cornered, and seemingly losing to Kihara Amata.
When she tried to intervene, Amata abruptly cut off his own arm, vanished in a burst of color, and left her completely lost as to what had just happened.
"…First of all, why isn’t Reicia-chan by your side?"
Of all the confusion swirling around her, that was the question that left her lips first.
Perhaps, to her, that mattered far more than her own rampage—or even the battle itself.
Shiren approached the kneeling Aleister, determination flickering in her eyes.
Before he could answer, she continued, as if laying out her reasoning.
"For me, reuniting with Reicia-chan is my top priority. Being prevented from doing so would wound me far worse than any physical injury."
In other words—being separated from Reicia would hurt her more than anything else.
Revealing such a weakness could easily be considered foolish—but Aleister already knew this about her. And as Doppelgänger had recently proven, forcing someone to recognize another’s vulnerability could directly influence the activation of Shiren’s ability, the Result Twister.
By declaring “this is what would hurt me,” she made her opponent consciously aware of it. And once recognized, any deliberate action against that weakness would inherently carry intent to harm her—an intent the Result Twister could then distort and turn back.
"…So you think you can manipulate my hostility with that? Clever—but still naïve. When it comes down to survival, I can act with or without hostility."
"…Tch."
It was a pitiful thing to admit, but to Shiren, it simply meant her feint had failed.
She was still far from matching the cunning of a Kihara—a being defined by pure malice. Manipulating awareness of hostility wasn’t as easy as she’d hoped.
"More importantly… that’s quite the troublesome shackle you’ve got there."
Aleister’s gaze shifted to Shiren’s right hand—the mass of water that Acqua had bound to it.
She had expected it to vanish once she’d separated from him, but reality wasn’t that kind. Either the spell wasn’t tied to distance, or Acqua’s range, as a being beyond even Level 5 espers, extended far beyond mere hundreds of meters.
"…That has nothing to do with you."
"Oh, it does. I can’t explain the details, but that man—‘The Book of Kihara: Primary = K’—is an exceptionally poor match for me. Yet for some reason, your right hand can directly interfere with the foundation of his existence. If possible, I’d like to make use of that. Which means any factor weakening that right hand needs to be removed."
"You really don’t even bother hiding your villainy anymore, do you…?"
At this point, his bluntness was almost admirable.
Still, Shiren found herself oddly reassured by it. At least his motives were clear. If their interests aligned, she had nothing to lose.
She wasn’t trusting him as an ally—but rather as the enemy of her enemy.
…Not realizing that even that decision might have been subtly guided by Aleister’s hand.
"But the spell itself is Celtic Cross-type Kabbalah with British roots. Undoing something of this level is trivial. Shall I release it for you?"
"…Well, I’ve heard your intentions. Fine. I’ll allow it. But I’ll activate Result Twister the moment you do. If you’re fine with that—go ahead."
"Ah, I don’t mind. As I said before—you still have a role to play in shaking up the board a little more. Without that, I can’t reach my goal."
Shiren tried to test him again, but Aleister remained completely unfazed.
Resigning herself, she raised her right hand, ready to slam it against the wall at a moment’s notice.
Aleister lifted his own hand in response—
—and SPLASH!!
Once again, Shiren’s palm, along with the water binding it, struck the wall.
The movement had more openings than a finger snap, but knowing the timing, she could align it perfectly with her Result Twister.
At that exact moment, Aleister’s dispelling spell activated. As promised, the watery shackle around Shiren’s right hand lost its magical power and fell to the floor with a soft splash.
And it was right after that—
SHHHHRRRR!!!
The water she thought had been released suddenly surged toward her mouth.
“Wh—gah!?”
Shiren’s eyes went wide in shock. Right after Result Twister activated, any act born of hostility should have failed—there had never been an exception.
"Ah, my apologies. I seem to have startled you. I forgot that it causes brief difficulty breathing. That was my mistake."
Before she could react, the water vanished—soaking into her skin as though being absorbed by her body itself.
Left behind on her neck and upper chest was a dark, serpent-like mark, coiling around her like a strangulation scar.
“Hah… hah… Aleister…!! What do you think you’re doing!?”
“It’s nothing that will harm you right away,” Aleister said smoothly. “As I mentioned earlier, I need you to defeat Kihara Amata with that right hand of yours. I released the water shackle for that reason—but unfortunately, you and I are enemies for now. I can’t expect you to simply obey me, so consider that… insurance.”
A curse, then. Shiren didn’t want to accept it, but she understood. She stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.
“It’s a kind of possession summoning. I’ve descended a small artificial spirit into you—a mass of magical energy carrying a specific set of orders. It’s quite simple, really: a minor alteration of your priority hierarchy. In short, you’ll be compelled to make destroying ‘The Book of Kihara: Primary = K’ your top priority, regardless of your will. That’s all it enforces.”
He said it with such maddening confidence that Shiren’s teeth ground together.
This man—this human—would never act purely for her sake. She had been cautious, and even that hadn’t been enough.
She had far more pressing concerns: finding Reicia, stopping the rampage of Near Des Promise, preventing a total collapse. And now this.
Aleister watched her silent frustration with the detached calm of a scientist observing a lab rat.
"By the way, about Reicia—she’s not here, as you can see. But don’t worry, she’s safe. She’s acting on her own will now. Her current location… is the Windowless Building. Once you’ve neutralized ‘The Book of Kihara: Primary = K,’ you’ll see her again."
And with that—
Whoosh.
Aleister’s form blurred like static on a screen, then dissolved into the air.
Only Shiren remained, burdened with yet another shackle.
And worse—there was one glaring problem.
"…I don’t even know where Amata-san is…!!"
Aleister hadn’t given her his location.
In truth, it was more likely that even Aleister himself didn’t know where Kihara’s copy had gone.
"Ugh, what an infuriating curse…!"
She muttered under her breath, clutching her throat.
Standing around wouldn’t solve anything. She needed to decide her next move—and to do that, she’d contact Baba for guidance. She reached for her communicator—
“Ah, Reicia!? …No, wait, Shiren, right?”
A familiar voice called out to her.
She turned toward it—and saw three figures.
A spiky-haired boy: Kamijou Touma.
And two Level 5 espers from Tokiwadai: Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki.
The moment Shiren saw them, she didn’t hesitate for even a second.
“Touma-san! Could you please remove this for me!?”
As she spoke, she hooked a finger into the collar of her winter uniform and pulled it open—exposing the curse mark on her neck.
…But the reaction came faster than she could blink.
“Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up—what the hell is going on!?”
“What’s with you, Shiren-san!? I don’t see you for a bit and suddenly your seduction stats are maxed out!?!?”
From a teenage girl’s perspective, everything Shiren had just done looked—no matter how she explained it—exactly like a pervert trying to flash her chest.
Pushed down by the two middle school girls, Shiren finally realized—belatedly—how her actions must have looked. Her cheeks flushed bright red.
“Y-you’re mistaken!! It’s not what you think! I wasn’t doing anything indecent! I just—look! My neck!”
“Huh? …Wait, what is that?”
Finally convinced something was off, the two girls released her. Shiren took a deep breath, then turned toward the group.
“……The truth is, just earlier, Aleister—the Director-General of this city—placed a ‘curse’ on me.”
“What? …A curse? Wait, you mean the Director-General? The top guy of Academy City—the science side???”
It was understandable that Kamijou froze there. To anyone from the science side, the idea that Aleister Crowley could be a magician was absurd. Only those who straddled both worlds—like Shiren and Reicia—or those who already knew the legend of the magician Aleister Crowley could accept such a truth.
“Yes. Aleister Crowley is a legendary magician—famous throughout the entire magic side. And that very same magician is the one who built this so-called scientific city. I realize that’s… difficult to believe.”
“Huh… no kidding. That’s… kind of crazy.”
“You are surprised, right? Because your reaction feels way too mild!!”
Perhaps it was precisely because Kamijou lived by the pure logic of science that he was able to accept it so calmly. Had it been Stiyl or Kanzaki, who understood the true weight of Aleister’s name, their shock would’ve been immeasurable.
“…Anyway. As I mentioned this morning, I’ve been trying to resolve the rampage of the Divine Contract Niadeth Promise and Reicia-chan’s disappearance. But this curse Aleister placed on me forcibly rewrites my priorities. To be blunt… it’s a serious problem.”
“Right, since time’s already running out… So you want me to erase the curse, huh?”
“Yes! If it’s magic, your right hand should be able to dispel it instantly, Kamijou-san. So I’d like you to, um… touch it for a moment.”
Saying that, Shiren pointed again to her neck.
“That’s no problem. I don’t know what kind of scheme’s behind this, but if it’s a curse, I should be able to get rid of it.”
Without hesitation, Kamijou placed his right hand on her neck. The touch must have tickled—Shiren flinched slightly but didn’t pull away.
However—
“…Huh?”
The markings faded faintly under his touch, but as soon as he pulled his hand away, they reappeared—just as dark and vivid as before. It was as if some hidden core of power kept regenerating the pattern again and again.
In other words, Imagine Breaker couldn’t reach the root of the problem.
Shiren had half expected that—but she still couldn’t give up. Tracking down and defeating The Book of Kihara: Primary = K would take too long. Finding a workaround now could save her precious time later. And in her mind, that difference could determine whether she ever reached the happy ending she wanted.
That was why, pale and desperate, she said:
“W-wait, let me open my collar a little—just please! It’s not only on my neck; it extends across my chest too! If you could touch all of it at once, maybe the effect would be stronger…”
“Cut it out already, you damn pervert!!!”
And thus—Shiren narrowly avoided earning a truly disgraceful title.
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