Chapter 177: The Instinct of a Grimoire (Part 2)
"Miss Mikoto."
The battle began.
Before the first strike, Shiren called out to Mikoto and raised her right hand. Kihara’s Grimoire reacted instantly.
"Result Twister, nullified! You think I’d let you use that, huh!?"
The four primary colors swirling around the Grimoire’s right arm merged into a marble pattern before yellow emerged from the blend. A moment later, an air wall unfolded, forming a barrier to protect the Grimoire.
Even though the barrier was made of wind, it was still powered by Kihara’s own malice. That malice meant that the instant it was struck by the Result Twister, it would shatter.
However, if used correctly, the Grimoire could at least block sound once with certainty. And by continuously regenerating those air walls, it could prevent its core from collapsing and disappearing altogether.
At that moment, Misaki moved.
Through the flickering gaps of the illusory flames blown away by the wind barrier, she dragged the half-conscious Oriana out of the battlefield.
──Kihara’s Grimoire, which could only think through the logic of hostility, had built its entire strategy on the assumption that Shiren would definitely use Result Twister.
In reality, Shiren could never employ such a suicidal move—one that risked total erasure. Yet the Grimoire wasted a valuable move preparing for it.
All without realizing that this waste was exactly what Shiren had aimed for.
Crack!!
A spear of purple lightning pierced straight through Kihara’s Grimoire.
"Ugh…!!"
"This might not deal much damage, but… looks like it’s enough to stop you for a bit!"
Air barriers couldn’t block electricity—that weakness had been proven countless times by Jagged Edge.
By the time Kihara’s Grimoire recovered from the electric shock and regained its stance, Mikoto had already vanished from sight.
Even so, it couldn’t divert its attention from Shiren. A being that acted purely on malicious instinct could not ignore a threat capable of destabilizing its very existence.
And then—
"Don’t forget, I’m still here!"
Driving his momentum forward, Kamijou Touma charged straight into the wall of air.
If Imagine Breaker struck, the air wall would vanish without a trace.
And once that happened, Kihara’s Grimoire would be completely exposed to Result Twister.
However—
"Forget you? Not a chance! That’s why I went out of my way to get this thing!!"
Kihara’s Grimoire had anticipated that too.
Whoooosh!!
A blast of wind surged as countless sparks scattered, each one marked by floating numerical symbols.
Phantom rune cards swirled like confetti, and before Kamijou appeared a massive figure of fire and oil—the Witch-Hunter King, Innocentius.
"T-That’s… the Witch-Hunter King, Innocentius!?"
"I’ve ‘inherited’ it. Blame your useless allies for this one, Imagine Breaker!"
Behind Kamijou, another wall of wind formed, effectively preventing Shiren from interfering.
Electricity was a problem, but with the rune cards already in place, that risk could be managed.
"…Tch. Fine. I’ll just blast everything away with a Railgun and reset the field."
"Please, wait!"
As Mikoto prepared to unleash her signature move to break the stalemate, Shiren stopped her.
She had already grasped the Grimoire’s underlying strategy.
"The one the Grimoire fears most right now is my right hand. In other words, its entire plan may be centered on neutralizing it."
Kihara’s Grimoire had already outmaneuvered both Stiyl and Kanzaki to reach this point. Its cunning couldn’t be underestimated. Any straightforward move now could very well be one it had anticipated—and manipulated them into taking.
"What do you mean?"
"It may have inherited a ‘Saint.’"
Shiren voiced her concern plainly.
"A Saint—like Acqua, whom we just fought. They possess terrifying physical abilities and can move at supersonic speed if they wish."
"If it has that, why hasn’t it used it already?"
"That only shows how cautious it is of my right hand."
Even if it could move at sonic speed, the moment it left the wind barrier, Result Twister would strike it, ending everything.
So Kihara’s Grimoire thought—how could it neutralize Result Twister?
"…If I fire my Railgun, the resulting roar would drown out the sound of your right hand’s activation—making it harder for you to use it effectively, right?"
"Most likely."
"Haa… haa… I get the logic, but then what about this stalemate? If Kamijou keeps getting stalled like that, we’re done for!"
"You should really catch your breath already. It wasn’t even that much running."
Back when Kamijou had defeated Innocentius before, he had nullified the rune cards using a sprinkler system. But this was a city street—there was no easy way to drench them with water.
And even if he could, who knew whether water would even affect these illusory rune cards?
"If only we could make it inherit something that leads to its own destruction…"
"Like Kamijou’s right hand… or maybe yours?"
"No, that’s impossible. Our right hands aren’t products of technology."
"Then again, we don’t even understand the logic behind this ‘inheritance’ ability. Depending on how it works, maybe even a developed esper ability could count as ‘technology’ and be inherited, couldn’t it?"
The one who voiced the most reasonable doubt was Mikoto—she had, after all, experienced firsthand what it was like to have her own ability used externally against her.
Shokuhou, who understood the technology behind the Exterior Brain system, nodded in agreement.
Their concern was valid. The enemy had literally inherited the physiology of a Saint. The possibility was far from impossible.
However, Shiren shook her head.
"That seems unlikely. If it were possible… then Kihara’s Grimoire, having inherited Kihara Amata’s knowledge, would’ve used Accelerator first and foremost."
She was right—it was only logical. Kihara Amata’s greatest achievement was the creation of Accelerator. No one understood that esper’s structure and mechanisms better than he did.
As a developer herself, Shiren understood that kind of relationship all too well—through her own developer, Semi.
"…Still, it’s true that we don’t understand the logic behind this inheritance process…"
"…Big Sister has one suggestion, though."
It was Oriana, sitting on the ground, who spoke up next.
Her gaze drifted toward a silver-haired nun watching the spiky-haired boy fighting desperately against the Witch-Hunter King, Innocentius. Concern filled her eyes.
"Kihara’s Grimoire is a Codex. So what if we have that girl analyze it? If she reads the ‘original text,’ it’ll become harder for the Grimoire to attack its reader—it would cause bugs in its behavioral logic. …And not just that. By deciphering its script, she might even find a way to create a countermeasure against its defensive systems."
"That’s not an option."
A soft but firm voice interrupted Oriana’s proposal before it could take root.
Standing there was a young girl with long blonde hair tied into twin tails, a red school backpack on her back, and a green armband marking her as a member of Judgment.
"Nayuta-san!"
"…That’s exactly what Uncle Amata—no, what Kihara’s Grimoire—is after."
Kihara Nayuta.
A girl of the Kihara family herself, appearing now on this critical battlefield.
Final Chapter: I Don’t Know Anything About Predestination - Theory_"was"_Broken.
Episode 148: The Instinct of a Grimoire (Part 2) - Vice_Evangelist.
“The purpose of Kihara’s Grimoire is to break away from Kihara Amata. Up to that point, are we all on the same page?”
“Yes. We already suspected as much.”
When Shiren and the others nodded, Nayuta returned the gesture and continued.
“I don’t think that understanding is wrong. But in the end, Kihara’s Grimoire is still a continuation of Kihara Amata. It can’t truly break free from him. …You can see that from the fact that the method it chose for its self-reformation was the same as his—‘inheritance,’ right?”
Cruel as it sounded, it was the truth.
Even if Kihara’s Grimoire sought to escape Kihara Amata by gathering ‘colors other than Kihara Amata,’ as long as it used the same method, it could never escape his domain.
It was like a card game: no matter how many different cards exist, your playstyle always shows through when you pick them—and that habit can’t be erased.
“This is something Kihara’s Grimoire itself must have realized. So then, how do you think it planned to achieve its goal of escaping Kihara Amata?”
Nayuta’s tone carried a faint unease as she looked at the five people around her.
The one who answered was the girl at the center of it all—Index.
“…The essence of the ‘Original Text’ known as Kihara’s Grimoire isn’t that humanoid form we see now, but the knowledge written within it. The logic of knowledge being inherited and passed on—that itself is the essence of ‘Kihara’s Grimoire.’ That’s what you mean, isn’t it?”
“Exactly. In other words, its goal is to escape its own vessel—the one that can never break free from the framework of ‘Kihara Amata’—and instead be inherited by the sister from the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
To make the Library of Forbidden Books itself house ‘Kihara’s Grimoire.’”
Which meant—
“…To implant ‘Kihara’… into her…!?”
Ironically, Shiren already knew of similar phenomena.
Kihara Gensei had so easily planted malice into Vento of the Front. Kihara Unjo had imprinted his thought patterns into Kusuko Yakumi—and he’d done the same with the Kamisato faction as well.
The undeniable fact was this: “Kihara” spreads like a contagion.
And if someone were to decipher a grimoire saturated with Kihara ideology—no matter how strong Index’s defenses against the poisons of magical texts—there was no telling what might happen.
Then, Index suddenly realized something.
“Of course…! How could I have missed it? An ‘Original Text’ inherently seeks to spread its own knowledge. That means Kihara’s Grimoire has been unconsciously guided by that tendency all along—its actions were being influenced by the instinct of the Grimoire itself!”
Indeed, while Kihara’s Grimoire’s own will may have been to break free of Kihara Amata and establish its individuality, that intent was distorted by the primal instinct of an Original Text—manifesting as the drive to ‘inherit’ its knowledge to Index.
Naturally, that distortion was only amplified by the warped mindset that defined “Kihara” itself.
“I get the logic, but if we can’t have Index analyze it to find its weakness, then we’re still stuck!”
“It’s okay. That’s exactly why we came here.”
“…‘We’?”
Everyone tilted their heads at Nayuta’s words—just moments before it happened.
BOOM!!!
A blast of wind spears shattered the Witch-Hunter King, Innocentius, who had been closing in on Kamijou, scattering him into pieces.
Accompanying that thunderous sound came the deliberate, steady tap of footsteps.
A boy brushed his pale white hair back with one hand, exhaling in mild annoyance.
“Don’t go rushing off on your own, damn it. I’ve got to conserve my power supply here.”
“Sorry, sorry—Mr. Accelerator.”
—Accelerator.
At the sight of the white-clad strongest esper, Kihara’s Grimoire’s eyebrow twitched slightly.
“…Oi oi oi oi. What the hell, brat? You’ve gotten yourself stuck in one hell of an unflattering role, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, I know. Doesn’t suit me one damn bit.”
Despite his rough tone, Accelerator’s voice was unexpectedly calm as he went on.
“That brat over there begged me to lend a hand. Just this once.”
Then Nayuta stepped up beside him, taking over the explanation.
“Judgment, disciplinary committee. Advanced Education Bureau—Special School Corporation RFO. Kihara Nayuta.”
“Borrowed Cat’s Paw Haphazard, first registered student… Accelerator.”
One driven by duty.
The other, by reluctant compliance.
Yet both looked straight ahead as they declared:
“We came here to protect this city.”
Perhaps those were the very words that someone, somewhere, had never managed to say before they died.
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