There may indeed have been some secret Tibetan techniques in Tibet, but they would not be the convenient vending machine of knowledge that Europeans imagined them to be.

“One example was influenced by the introduction of foreign cultures during the colonial period. That includes Central and South America, the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and India, but the biggest influence of all came from the Dark Continent aka Africa. After all, it’s a large place with tons of different tribes, so it’s overflowing with countless legends. It’s a true melting pot. And from a European point of view, it’s right across the Mediterranean and thus requires much less preparation than South America or India. This thinking worked its way deep into even the Golden Dawn which was called the world’s largest magic cabal.”

“One of the biggest names alongside Yeats and Mathers was Crowley. The tarot he used was known as Thoth Tarot which used the name of an Egyptian god. And when explaining his ideology, he refers to the Aeons of Isis, Osiris, and Horus,” easily explained chocolate-colored Nephthys. “The standard Golden-style tarot told the story of the Son of God from his birth to his execution and his resurrection in order to draw on a portion of his power. The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana from The Fool to The World are synchronized with the twenty-two paths connecting the Sephirot tree, so they are meant to acquire a technique of entering the realm of god with a human body. In other words, they’re all miracles that can be explained through Christianity.”

“But Thoth Tarot is a little different even though it’s based on the same tree.”

“It has a special sequence that starts at the birth of Christianity and follows it to its destruction – that is, the coming of Armageddon – and then to the ‘new Aeon’ that will arrive afterwards. The meaning of the Hanged Man is quite different and Judgment is replaced with The Aeon. In other words, you are not arriving at the realm of god, you are destroying the ‘closed ceiling’ that is god’s territory and then bringing humanity to the next stage above that. Of course, that probably seems dreadfully arrogant from the Vatican’s point of view.”

“...”

Index, who was (technically) an Anglican nun, looked like she was unsure what to say.

Nephthys seductively adjusted her legs and continued her lecture.

“Now according to Crowley, the Aeon of Isis is the time of primitive religions before the establishment of Christianity, the Aeon of Osiris is the time of stagnation while Christianity spreads, and the Aeon of Horus is the time when mankind achieves a true awakening through the destruction of Christianity. However, that was a rather extreme view even among the Golden cabal, so apparently not everyone in the cabal supported it.”

“So what does that mean?” Kamijou skipped the difficult parts and gave just his conclusion. “The European magicians try to work within their own culture for a while, but when they hit a dead end, they have a bad habit of changing their way of thinking and digging through information from around the world to resolve whatever contradiction they’re faced with?”

He vaguely pictured it as something like putting caviar or foie gras on top of a bowl of rice and claiming it was a new Japanese dish.

“And they even forget they asked for help afterwards. But that might just come naturally to the people who insist they were the ones to invent gunpowder and noodles. It makes me wonder if they ever get confused why it’s so difficult to eat food shaped that way by wrapping it around a fork instead of just slurping it up.”

“In that case...”

Kamijou looked back down at Birdway as she slept on the floor.

(That arrogant girl had incredible magic and a large organization at her disposal, but she still came across something that she didn’t think she could deal with?)

He shuddered all the more.

This no longer looked like a trivial interruption in the Kamisato Kakeru issue. The further they dug into this, the heavier it seemed to get.

“What exactly is it?”

He knew he was digressing from the main task that was Kamisato, but he still asked the question.

“What is Birdway dealing with?”

“Well...”

Index moved her fingers through the empty space slightly above Birdway’s sleeping body.

“Wheat...no, is this corn? Africa is pretty big and filled with different tribes, cultures, and legends, but this looks like bits and pieces were gathered from all over. Instead of a single system of mythology, it’s more like she was gathering legends to fill in what she was missing.”

“Meaning?”

“...Doll...fruit...ceremony abbreviation and cost reduction...sacrifice and destruction using a mechanical series of steps...an offering to a god...no, more like healing a sick patient by providing a corresponding part...the theory of predation...”

Index’s fingers came to a stop.

They were pointed right at the center of Birdway’s chest as the silver-haired nun said more.

“Cannibalization?”

But that was as far as she got.

Something grabbed her wrist as if to prevent her fingers from revealing more of the truth.

“Don’t touch me.”

It was Leivinia Birdway.

She did not get up and her face remained pale, but the corners of her lips still curved upward.

“An investigation isn’t needed to know that I have more than you.”

“...”

At first, Index was confused.

Next, she realized her fingers were pointing at the center of Birdway’s flat chest.

Finally, she looked down at her own habit-covered chest.

“You’re lying!! That has to be a lie!!”

“Give up. The system of this world is a cruel one.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a child who wouldn’t even know how to put on a bra!!”

“Whaaat!? What do bras have to do with anything!? Besides, the idea that having breasts and wearing a bra are one and the same is nothing but a fantasy of those with no cup size to speak of!!”

Nephthys sighed at the fruitless conflict.

For the record, the brown beauty was not wearing a bra yet she clearly did have a cup size to speak of.

The world was a confusing place.

Part 5

First of all, the girl sent out the UAV that looked like a toy and like a crane fly.

After confirming the area was safe, she approached the building in her formal clothing and her baggy lab coat that dragged behind her. With her glossy black hair reaching her ankles and her large sleeves covering even her hands, the outfit was somewhat reminiscent of a ceremonial kimono.

However, she was lacking in the size needed to be called a charming beauty.

“Naitou, Joujima, Ganzan, Tsukuyomi...oh, here we go.”

The solid sound of leather shoes on the floor continued as she walked down the corridor of the rundown District 7 apartment building while checking the nameplates. When she reached one with a blank nameplate suggesting the resident had only just moved in, she violently knocked instead of ringing the bell.

Without waiting for an answer, she applied a few reagents to the keyhole and used some wires to unlock the door in less than ten seconds. She opened the door to find a hellish scene contained within a 4.5 tatami mat room without a bathroom.

“Grrrr!! Hiss hiss!!”

“Ow!! Ow ow ow ow ow ow!! Why is this girl acting like a wounded cat the second she wakes up!?”

In one corner, a blonde girl with her forehead showing had all her hair bristled as she scratched at the normal high school boy, Kamisato Kakeru. The window was broken and covered by a plastic sheet, but that was most likely unrelated to this.

The lab coat girl covered her mouth with a baggy sleeve and spoke with a faint smile in her voice.

“Come now. She woke up to find herself in an unfamiliar boy’s apartment. You’re clearly the one at fault here.”

“No good deed goes unpunished in this age of mistrust, huh!?”

“Now, now, young lady.”

The lab coat girl crouched down to get on eye level with Patricia Birdway whose caution was set to max and who had tears of anger in her eyes. The lab coat girl smiled while elegantly keeping her teeth hidden.

Then she dropped a tremendous bomb.

“I may not look it, but I specialize in unofficial forensic investigation. If you don’t trust Kamisato-han and you’re worried about your body, I can check to see if you’re pregnant. If you just squeeze your eyes shut and spread your legs, it’ll be over in no time.”

“!?”

Patricia’s entire body shook.

The lab coat girl was still smiling. In fact, the perfect smile was frozen on her face. She was not joking or being unreasonable. She was being intentionally cruel to this girl who had harmed Kamisato, no matter how legitimate her reasons might have been.

The boy sighed, placed a hand on his neck, and swung his head a little to the side. He was trying to crack the joint, but it was not working.

“Ellen.”

“Yes, yes, hi, yes, hi! I’ll leave my harassment at that. Honestly, if Claire and Elza learned how ungrateful she was being, they would seriously tear her to pieces, you know? You ran off without your bodyguards and now you’re injured. What do you think is going to happen now, boss?”

“Oh, no... Maybe I should hide the injuries.”

“Well, it’s just a few welts from some scratches and she didn’t draw any blood. A thick application of foundation should be enough.”

That was when a strange aura of fear came from Patricia’s entire body while she trembled in the corner of the room. A sharp crack seemed to run through her soft cheek and something like an octopus tentacle filled with bubbling eyeballs or suckers showed itself. There were also glimpses of the colors of a strange poisonous frog or lizard.

It bent, twisted, and formed a single sharp spear before shooting out like a bullet.

Its target was Ellen. It shot a bit below her evenly-cut bangs – that is, the center of her face.

However...

“Oops.”

Kamisato reached his hand casually out from the side.

As soon as he grabbed it, a large chunk was torn from the spear and the bubbling mass frantically retreated back into Patricia’s body.

An unpleasant sound followed.

It came from below the small girl’s skin. Something as thick as a thumb seemed to slither from her cheek and down toward the neck holding her headphones.

The baggy lab coat girl reflexively tried to say something, but Kamisato Kakeru placed his index finger over her lips, then smiled toward Patricia in the corner.

“That...didn’t seem to be under your control.”

“...”

Patricia remained silent and a change came over her chest.

A pulsation was evident even through her puffy down jacket.

However, it clearly did not come from a human heart. Something else was wriggling at the center of her chest.

“To be honest, you’re free to tell us what’s going on or not. But if you don’t tell us, we’ll investigate it on our own. We will find the truth, but you can’t choose the extent of that truth.”

As Kamisato spoke, the pulsation grew smaller.

Or rather, it was hiding.

What had been gathered in one spot scattered in every direction to disperse and hide inside her body. Normally, she would not seem any different from a normal person.

“So you have the advantage here. If you tell us, you can choose the extent of the truth you want us to know.”

Patricia thought, opened her mouth, said nothing, hung her head, and shook her head.

Then she lifted her head once more.

“Sorry.”

“My response depends on what you’re apologizing for.”

Was it for injuring Kamisato and trying to harm the lab coat girl?

Or was it for brushing off his suggestion and rejecting his explanation?

But the girl had been apologizing for something else entirely.

“For my weak heart that’s telling me it will be crushed by the anxiety if I don’t tell you, even though I know telling you will drag you into this.”

Kamisato smiled and responded.

“Then you don’t need to apologize.”

“Not even I know what this is. As a guest researcher from the university, I took part in a study of the largescale changes in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean currents due to the changes in ice levels at the poles. While we were investigating the South Pole, we found a new kind of parasite. Our team called it Sample Shoggoth.”

“Shoggoth, hm?” Kamisato exhaled slowly. “I’d like to hear how you got from Antarctica to Academy City.”

“O-okay. It might not be all that important, though. While visiting different medical institutions to find a way to deal with this, I eventually found myself in Academy City. That’s all.”

“If you were undergoing treatment, why were you walking around outside?”

“While it’s a parasite, it doesn’t spread indiscriminately or anything. Oh, but I can’t guarantee it won’t cause you any problems.”

“Yes, it did just attack me.”

“Ellen.”

“I’m a victim!!”

The upset lab coat girl brought a finger to her lips again and Kamisato prompted Patricia to continue.

“Apparently, even Academy City’s technology has little chance of safely removing it. However, that’s not what I’m worried about. The problem is my sister.”

“Your sister?”

Kamisato placed a hand on his neck as he asked and Patricia nodded.

“The red one.”

That short answer held significant meaning.

“My sister seems to be searching for a way to save me with her own methods, but I can’t rely on that. I can never accept that method, so I can’t just sit around and wait. I need to stop her and have her give up on that method immediately.”

“Why?”

He did not understand, so he simply asked about it.

“It might not work, but just like with the lottery, having as many options as possible raises the odds of a miracle happening, right? Although if you’re talking about having an amateur cut you open with a rusty scalpel and no anesthetic, then yeah, you should probably say no to that.”

“If only that was what it was.”

Patricia shook her head and Kamisato’s frown deepened.

“It’s something worse?”

“If she does use her method, there’s no guarantee it will save me from this. That’s a complete unknown.”

Patricia admitted that first.

And then she cut to the heart of the matter.

“But if she uses that method, there’s a risk of her dying. She knows that and is still offering herself up to me, but that’s exactly why I have to reject it.”

Part 6

Birdway sat up and looked around the room.

“The window is broken here too? That would explain why it’s so cold.”

“The entire city’s like this thanks to the High Priest. At least be thankful there’s a plastic sheet covering it.”

“And why is the kotatsu over there? Isn’t that my seat?”

“It isn’t anyone’s seat. We just felt like using it today is all. ...Hey, quite forcing your way in here! There isn’t enough room!!”

“You’re the one that stole my seat.”

She was pouting her lips for some reason, so she may have been picky about her position, just like a cat.

“Fine, I’ll explain everything from the beginning.”

After sitting right next to Kamijou, Birdway finally got down to business.

Her face looked pale, but having the others worry over her seemed to hurt her pride. She blocked Kamijou’s hand when he tried to support her back.

“But first, promise me something, Kamijou Touma. Do not touch me. There shouldn’t be an issue since you claim to have carried me here, but I want to be as cautious as I can. I don’t want one casual move from you ruining everything.”

“What?”

“I’m telling you not to touch my chest.”

“Quick question, Birdway. What kind of person do you think I am?”

“You have to ask? I’m only so afraid because it’s you!!”

She looked at him like he was a wild animal, which depressed him a fair bit.

“Let me be blunt, this is a personal issue. It’s nothing for you all to get involved in and you don’t need to worry about it affecting the entire world. Just to be clear, this is about my life.”

“And I still want to know even after hearing that. Besides, you already said you would explain everything from the beginning.”

“Tch.”

She clicked her tongue before continuing.

“It’s about my sister.”

“Umm?”

“Patricia Birdway. Oh, right. I guess you wouldn’t be familiar with her. She was only involved in a fight between Anglican magicians that took place behind the scenes of an incident you and I dealt with together.”

She looked up to the ceiling as if thinking back to the past.

She may have been sorting between what she knew and what Kamijou most likely knew.

“She uses the Birdway name, but she is not a magician. While I have been exclusively focused on magic, she has a more scientific way of thinking. She is my little sister, which should give you a guess at her age, but she already has a PhD and works on university-run projects. She has also been sponsored by Academy City or its cooperative institutions to join labs and research ships as a guest researcher. She has more than twenty published papers and the media reacts entirely differently when a paper is announced with her name on it, so plenty of schools are looking for a chance to bring her in. To sum it up, she’s my wonderful little sister. I can only say this while she isn’t here, but she’s one of the few people I don’t mind having around.”

“Why am I picturing two sadistic little girls glaring down at me with identical smirks?”

“Her personality is the polar opposite of mine.”

“Wow, she must be an angel!! I’d actually be a little afraid to meet someone that perfect!!”

“I don’t like what you’re implying there.” Birdway sounded a little upset. “Of course, Patricia knows nothing of the cabal. To be exact, I’ve made sure of it. And her success isn’t because we’ve been putting in a good word for her. She knows I lead some kind of organization related to the Birdway family, but she isn’t actually aware that it’s a magic cabal. She probably thinks it’s a salon that dates back to the old noble days or something. It’s only just barely, but she still qualifies as a normal person.”

“What about it? What does that have to do with you wandering around Academy City as some kind of animal skin monster?”

“Animal sk-... Whatever. There was someone else there besides me, wasn’t there?”

“You mean Kamisato?”

“Kamisato?”

Birdway sounded confused, so that must not have been the answer.

“You mean the black one, don’t you?” cut in Othinus.

“Wait... You mean there was a human inside that one too!?”

“That’s the problem.” Birdway sighed. “That was my sister Patricia. But needless to say, she wasn’t born like that. There was apparently some trouble on an Antarctic investigation. Some weird parasite got inside her and transformed her into that.”

“Are you serious?”

“Quite serious. I initially balled up the report and threw it at Mark’s head, but once I started taking it seriously, I realized how bad this is. I checked through each of the cards the cabal holds and eventually took a step into the realm of the Dark Continent. You understand what that means, don’t you? Even with my organization, there was nothing I could do.”

If someone claimed a fleet of UFOs was going to attack tomorrow, everyone would laugh it off.

But how was everyone supposed to react once readings actually filled the radars and the many shapes were spotted on the photos taken with telescopes?

The moment when the ridiculous became no laughing matter was when everything one knew crumbled away.

“Academy City was apparently backing the project, so she was first sent to ‘outside’ cooperative institutions and then to an Academy City medical facility. But you can see the results.

She escaped the bed she was restrained to and is on a rampage outside. Even the science side sees little chance of healing that illness.”

“So that means you’re trying to...?”

“Heal her using magic. Do you get a little of what’s going on now?”

He did a little, but the full outline of the situation had not quite come into focus.

historical

“However, this is no easy task. That grimoire library will probably have revealed most of it already, but this cannibalization is a hybrid from the Dark Continent. As the leader of a Golden organization, I don’t want the men who rely on me seeing me like this. And when it has to do with something even more important than my own life, my reputation is at stake. Well, to be technical, the Dawn-Colored Sunlight isn’t a pure Golden cabal and it isn’t even a magic cabal in the truest sense of the term...but that means it isn’t as powerful as it once was and sometimes has issues at the extremities of the organization. At any rate, I didn’t want to spread unnecessary confusion during this difficult time, so I had no choice but to act alone.”

“Talking to an average high school boy about leading an organization isn’t going to help much. Sorry, but I’ve never even had a part-time job.”

“...You’re not the most considerate person, are you?”

“Anyway, what is that black thing? You said something about the Antarctic and a parasite, but does it spread from person to person?”

“I don’t know, but if it was highly contagious, I doubt Academy City would bring it inside the city...or at least I sincerely hope they wouldn’t. It apparently won’t leave my sister’s body now that she’s its host. Of course, it might seek out a new host if her vitals grew unstable.”

“Sounds more like a hairworm than influenza.”

“I don’t like the sound of either comparison,” spat out Birdway. “That thing has dissolved all of the fat in Patricia’s body and slips inside the empty space to maintain her human silhouette. It also handles the storage and distribution of nutrients that the fat would have. In other words, that thing holds my sister’s life in its hands. Try to extract it and it will go nuts and tear her body to shreds. And even if you did successfully suck it out, all that would remain is an empty skin-and-bones shell of my sister. She would die before she could recover her strength. In other words, she can’t be saved by normal means.”

“...That’s awful.”

“That’s just how parasites work. They latch onto their host and won’t let go. That thing is probably doing its best to survive in its own way. Anyway, everything I told you was in Mark’s report, but he couldn’t come up with an actual solution. That’s why I left the organization to act on my own.”

That meant Birdway had snuck into Academy City to do something about Patricia who could not be saved with surgery.

She had even left her subordinates and cast aside the Western magic she excelled at.

“Then what is your trump card?”

“My body. That’s why I told you not to touch me with Imagine Breaker.”

Birdway lightly tapped the center of her flat chest.

“This animal skin is based on the African legend of a princess. It’s a medium that fosters growth while providing defense and concealment so the beautiful princess could grow up without anyone getting in her way. I’ve been using it to grow a certain something.”

Birdway was of course not just wearing the animal skin for her health and beauty.

But then what was it for?

“That girl mentioned cannibalization, didn’t she?” A note of resignation entered Birdway’s voice. “A certain concept occasionally shows up in legends concerning food. If your eye is sick, eat an eye. If your arms or legs are lame, eat an arm or a leg. If your heart is bad, eat a heart. That way, you will regain a healthy body. Of course, another mammal like a pig or cow is often used, but it sometimes means eating body parts of another human.”

“Wait...you don’t mean...”

“I needed a way to save my sister.”

As she spoke, Birdway removed her large brooch and unbuttoned her blouse.

She was not wearing a bra, but a thin slip hung from shoulder straps and covered her from the chest to below the navel.

But that was not what caught Kamijou’s attention.

In addition to the two lovely mounds, there was something grotesque growing near the center of her flat chest.

It pulsated like a living creature, but it was clearly entirely separate from Birdway’s own pulse.

“I told you I have more than you, didn’t I?” Birdway gave a self-deprecating laugh. “I have created a new organ in my body that is meant to be eaten. If Patricia eats this once it’s fully grown, this will all be over.”

Part 7

In the rundown apartment, Patricia placed a hand over the center of her chest.

The foreign object there was obvious even over her puffy down jacket.

The thing must have realized she was feeling for it because it changed shape to slip below her skin. It split apart and the protruding bump vanished. It was like a diving submarine or like an octopus monster shifting its volume from its fist-sized main body to its eight legs.

That was when the nearly broken doorbell rang.

Kamisato and Ellen seemed carefree.

“I wonder who that is.”

“Hard to tell when only knowing it’s one of your fans still leaves about one hundred different options. You should probably make a list of all the girl’s you’ve won. I could combine that with facial recognition software to make a Kamisato App that automatically gives you their name and profile.”

It sounded like a joke, but Kamisato only sighed.

Meanwhile, the front door opened from the outside and two girls walked in.

They were Elza and Claire.

They both belonged to the unofficial “Kamisato Faction”.

Elza had long brown hair that was wildly cut away and she had the overall atmosphere of a delinquent. Due to the way her hair was cut, she almost seemed to have fox ears on the sides of her head. She wore a white sweater and a red pleated skirt, but the skirt was extremely long, which made her look like an old school delinquent or a shrine maiden. The girl’s image hit both extremes and she held a large plastic bottle in her hands. The clear container had its label removed and it contained old discolored ten yen coins instead of a liquid. She also had a baby carrier attached by a belt which pushed up and accentuated her already large breasts, but their size apparently bothered her and she would get mad if someone mentioned it.

Claire wore thick glasses and had long black hair tied back. She wore a white apron-like dress that left her back bare and she was an obedient gardening club girl...or she should have been. She looked plain and inconspicuous, but that impression was entirely overturned by the giant tropical flowers blooming on either side of her head. It almost looked like her twintails had exploded. Even more colorful flower petals adorned her back.

As soon as the two opened the thin door without knocking, they looked around and started speaking.

“Hm, so is this our new hideout? This is awful. The previous clubroom we’d -->>

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