Aleister Crowley smiled.

Still smiling, the human took a step back, leaving Kamijou to fend for himself.

“I would readily get into a physical battle with William Wynn Westcott who was rumored to be immortal. I would have no problem with killing that clown Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers who had the nerve to name himself the originator of modern magic.”

Aleister slowly raised both hands.

He didn’t turn his head, but he didn’t seem able to look Kamijou directly in the eye either.

Almost like a small child whose mischief had come to light.

“But the one thing I never want to do is get into a verbal argument with you.”

“I know reality isn’t going to play nice,” spat Kamijou Touma, surrounded by terrifyingly dark shadows.

Aleister had taken a step back, so he couldn’t use the human for support anymore.

But he managed to stay on his feet with the bestial gleam found in the eyes of any challenger.

“But that’s why I need to overexert myself and stretch out my hand as far as it can go if I hope to grab anyone’s hand. Are you kidding me, Aleister? Yeah, they’re hopeless villains. Sure, they’re criminals who harm everyone they come into contact with. But so what? Don’t just give up on people’s lives. That should be all the more reason to make a real effort to save them. What if I can prove everyone wrong and save them? What if I can pull off a happy ending after the rest of the world threw in the towel and pretended they couldn’t see what was happening anymore? It’ll feel pretty damn good, don’t you think? You’re supposed to see this as a chance to point and laugh at the god in heaven who claims to be all-powerful and all-knowing but still lets these tragedies happen. Am I wrong?”

“..”

“I don’t know how many Handcuffs survivors there are in all. There might be someone everyone’s forgot who’s still out there struggling in the depths of the darkness. They might be shouting - screaming - for help, but we just can’t hear them. And as long as that chance exists, I’ve got to plunge into this godforsaken darkness and search for them. I won’t settle for a partial solution with Alice’s help. I’m not burying it all under cement and going home when there might still be someone down there. That’s why I refused her help and came back here, knowing it would hurt like hell. So don’t waltz in here and try to do the same damn thing like you’d be any better.”

His head wobbled on his neck.

He had lost too much blood.

But he clenched his teeth, held his ground, and got out the words.

“Don’t cement over it all and call it fixed. The all-knowing god in heaven might be able to accept an answer like that since he can see all the right answers, but you’re only human. So don’t you want to see a future that tears down that coldhearted conclusion, Aleister?”

“I can’t believe it.” Aleister sighed with an indescribable look on his face. “To think I would find a glimpse - however small - of the Thelema leading to the 21st Aeon in the very home I have already abandoned. This part really is frustrating. This always seems to happen to me. The things I pursue flee me and the things I discard turn out to be treasures.”

“..?”

“Just speaking to myself,” whispered the beige habit woman(?). “Now, I have a simple question for you: how do you intend to turn this around?”

“First, promise me an overpowered joker like you won’t get involved in this. If you can’t promise me that, then I’ll punch you right in the face until you cry and change your mind.”

“Why does justice always side with you when what you’re saying isn’t much different from a tyrant’s criminal code?” Aleister sounded somehow exasperated, but he had turned his back on goodness and justice for so long he wasn’t about to change his mind on the matter at this point. “I get that you intend to turn down my generous offer and settle this on your own, but how exactly are you planning to do that? You don’t understand what is really going on today, not to mention how the original Operation Handcuffs ended.”

“Personally, I find it strange that you would know so much more about it when you were supposed to have left the city.”

Kamijou poked at his temple. This was not like when he had Alice’s strange adjustments to protect him. He had a bruise there where some kind of blunt weapon had hit him.

(Really, Alice’s intervention has only complicated things. The real culprit wasn’t Frillsand #G. I’m betting Alice switched the real one out for a powerful enemy she thought I could actually defeat, but that false information got in my way here.)

He could use his knowledge from Alice’s world as a reference, but he couldn’t rely on it too much. The number of people involved didn’t match up and everyone’s plans and situations were different. After all, he didn’t even know if Youen, Rakuoka, and Benizome had really wanted to escape the crashed train of their own free will.

He exhaled, focused on his aching temple, and gave his answer.

The wounds on his body were the one thing he knew to be real.

“I start by figuring out who did this. I might not like the answer, but I can never find the path to a solution if I don’t know who my real enemy is.”

“Then the girl will help you, teacher☆”

“Gweh!?”

His senses were taken over by something soft, warm, and sweet.

An incautious blonde girl had apparently jumped right toward his head from the side. She had taken a running start and then buried his head in her flat chest. When she wrapped her arms and her legs around him, he couldn’t help but focus on her body heat. Her arms were latched onto his shoulders and her legs onto his hips. There was only one person this could be:

“A-Alice!?”

“Yes, the girl’s name is Alice.”

He tore her from him and then held her under the arms like a cat. She tilted her head, demonstrating the same otherworldly and gentle fairy tale aura she had shown in her world.

The beige habit and golden retriever were nowhere to be found anymore.

He briefly wondered if he had wandered back into Alice’s world, but that wasn’t it. Aleister could pull off a miracle of that level on his own.

“Where did you come from?”

“From there☆”

Her little finger did not point north, east, south, or west.

It pointed up.

That came as a surprise. Firstly, because it meant she had recklessly jumped down from the elevated railway like he had. It did sound like her to ignore the defined path like that. And secondly, because if she had jumped down with no concern for her skirt, she may have had a good reason to leave the railway in a hurry.

(That’s right. What happened to whoever hit me in the temple!? The culprit who destroyed the ATS sensor is up there. If someone else tries to investigate the track, they’ll run right into the culprit too!!)

He heard an impact of heavy metal.

Then someone flew over the elevated railway’s wall and fell toward him.

“Shirai!!”

Part 5

Earlier, Shirai Kuroko teleported from the platform roof to the elevated railway. She could use a series of teleports to travel at a speed equivalent to a sports car, but she instead chose to travel on foot this time. Not even she was sure why she avoided high-speed travel and instead chose to walk slowly along the track.

The train tracks were a dangerous area you weren’t meant to walk through in the first place. Plus, the gathered darkness keeping her from seeing very far ahead may have triggered an instinctual fear within her.

At any rate, Shirai Kuroko walked along the elevated railway with Matsuriba, the young driver of the Overhunting, and Alice, the girl left in her care. She didn’t like getting the driver involved, but she knew nothing about railroads and needed assistance from someone with the appropriate knowledge. Alice came too. No one knew why.

(Wait, I only teleported myself and the driver from the platform to the roof. When and how did she follow me onto the roof and then onto the railway?)

Shirai wanted to get to the bottom of this case, so she was headed to the likely center of the action. The escaped prisoners were unlikely to return to the train, so leaving Alice at the platform should have been the safest option, so what was she doing here?

Alice looked perfectly harmless smiling up at Shirai, but that just made everything about her more confusing.

The fairy tale dress was also curious. Not to mention the short sleeves. Clothing that didn’t match the season was a sign of someone on the run for a long period of time, but could that really be the case here?

Eventually, they heard a voice. They hadn’t even traveled 300m by that point.

“Yes, yes.”

Shirai immediately grabbed Matsuriba and Alice’s hands and teleported. The elevated railway traveled in a straight line, but it stuck out a bit from its meter-high concrete walls. The drop from there was about 7 meters, but she could approach whoever-this-was if she traveled along the outside of that wall.

She held a finger to her lips to tell the other two to stay quiet.

“..”

The lack of noticeable obstacles along the track gave a clear view in both directions and it was easy to overlook the walkable section past the walls, so they had managed to get in a blind spot.

The voice coming from the other side of the thick wall belonged to an adult woman.

“I’ve had a realization, Yomikawa-senpai. I’ve realized the truth. Operation Handcuffs was an obvious failure. Attempting to clear out the dark side while keeping our hands clean triggered a powerful backlash. That’s what brought down Handcuffs, right? So we need to make some adjustments to keep that from happening. Anti-Skill needs to adapt more flexibly to the state of the city if it hopes to keep the peace.”

(Who is she talking to? Is she on the phone?)

“Do you have any idea what you’re saying?”

“Of course I do. We need to be more openminded. Cal it a plea bargain or a witness protection program if you must, but we’ve decided to call ourselves Anti-Skill Negotiators and we actively negotiate with the criminals. We can use that to make the technology seen in Operation Handcuffs our own and use that to defeat even more powerful criminals. From there, we just have to repeat the process, our power growing each time. The power scattered by Handcuffs will be absorbed by Handcuffs and used to end it once and for all. Anti-Skill doesn’t need to suffer any more damages tonight.”

“Anti-Skill only has the right to arrest. We have no right to determine a suspect’s guilt or reduce their punishment. You lack the power to keep the promises you’re making!”

“Yes, and?”

“First of all, some of the criminals you’re talking about using are minor students and they will come to harm using your methods. What do you do if they end up hurt or worse!?”

“Why should I have to do anything? They’re criminals, so why should I care what happens to them?”

“Tessou..Tessou Tsuzuri!!”

That name came as a shock.

Shirai knew her.

(Are you kidding? She’s changed so much I didn’t even recognize her. Is this really the same timid Tessou-san?)

Surviving Handcuffs may have acted as a baptism for her.

December 25 had been a nightmare for everyone involved. That bloody night had been so horrific it was a miracle anyone had survived. It may have been a radicalizing event for some.

“Oh, please, Yomikawa-senpai. Did you learn nothing after surviving Handcuffs and crawling out of the hell that was South District 7 General Anti-Skill Station?”

“Kh.”

“The nightmares plague me every time I try to sleep. Now I know there are people who don’t see the world the way we do and can’t possibly be saved. Criminals can be useful, but they are too dangerous to let loose. If you insist on denying these simple truths, then you’re making a mockery of all our colleagues who died helpless and in vain while trying to the end to be the good teachers serving to protect the city’s children. Also..”

The speaker paused there.

(Oh, no.)

Shirai Kuroko’s hand wandered through empty space until it found the driver and she teleported him to the ground. Alice had already disappeared of her own accord, but Shirai didn’t have time to question that.

“I can see you,” said the voice beyond the wall.

“Dammit!!”

The meter-tall concrete wall was mercilessly blown away. If Shirai hadn’t teleported away a moment before, the scattershot of fragments would have knocked her from the elevated railway.

She teleported to the center of the track.

The person who ended the call and stored the phone in her chest was an adult woman with glasses and curly black hair blowing in the night breeze. Shirai knew her to be the timid type, but no sign of that remained.

She wore a black jacket and tight skirt, but the outfit would never have fit in at an ordinary office. The belts around her hips and shoulder looked more military than anything. For some reason, the Anti-Skill emblem stitched onto the shoulder belt was upside down. Instead of a gun on her hip, she wore a large whip, a stun baton, pepper spray, an LED strobe light, a spherical wireless speaker, and more gadgets. It initially seemed like a motley collection of SM gear, self-defense tools, and A/V equipment, but Shirai realized what they all had in common.

(Those are all used in nature parks and circuses to get large animals to obey.)

The hooked pole she held was used by animal tamers.

The Anti-Skill Negotiator grinned and scraped that along the ground.

Shirai had heard that loud noises and strong smells could be as effective as direct pain against an animal with sharp senses. Although in those cases, it might be referred to as a repellant instead of pepper spray.

Someone else stood alongside her.

The woman was cowering nervously and looked to be college aged - no, probably a bit older than that. Her long chestnut hair was tied back with a simple hair tie. She wore an apron over a sweater and skinny jeans, giving her the look of a homemaker. Light gleamed from her left hand’s ring finger. It could always be fake, but that suggested she was married and had a family.

But something else clashed with the rest of her look.

A neon color shined atop her head. She wore a pair of triangular devices resembling cat ears. They were attached like headphones and they made constant subtle adjustments in response to the wearer’s thoughts.

That was clearly a next-gen weapon.

And if what Tessou Tsuzuri had said was accurate..

(Is she a criminal who made a deal with this so-called Anti-Skill Negotiator? But wait. I don’t remember anyone like her during Handcuffs.)

Shirai was suspicious, but she couldn’t deny the possibility either. Too many people had died during Operation Handcuffs to keep track of everything.

But now was not the time to frown in thought.

The apron woman may not have been the belligerent type. She was stooped over and cowering with tears in her eyes as she asked a nervous question of the woman in a black military uniform.

“E-excuse me, but is what you just said, um, true?”

“Oh? Ohh? Ohhhhh???”

The Anti-Skill Negotiator on the other hand sounded amused. She moved her legs adorned with garter belts and black stockings, clacked her sharp heels against the ground, moved her lips over to the apron woman’s ear, and tore into the other woman’s heart with a voice loud enough that even Shirai could hear it.

“What makes you think a criminal’s family deserves an ordinary life? Would you prefer I spread some rumors around your neighborhood so you can never go back to the life you had?”

“!?”

It was Shirai Kuroko of Judgment who gasped, not the apron woman herself.

Did that woman not realize she was violating an unforgivable taboo for anyone with the ability to search people’s personal information at a deeper level than the average person!?

“Ah ha ha! I hope you’re ready to deal with graffiti on your house, stones thrown through your windows, and raw garbage left at your front door. Your name will be on all the trending search lists. You see, people don’t give a crap about the rights of bad people, especially when they’re strangers. And people with too much time on their hands will do just about anything to feel self-righteous. I wouldn’t go outside at night if I were you. A van might pull up and snatch you off the street. You and your family!!”

This was pure malice.

It was the ultimate cruelty where you stripped all other options from someone until they had no choice but to continue toward the precipice. The scum who tamed humans like animals used her whispered words more than her whip or stun baton.

She made a show of driving the verbal blade into the soul found deep in the apron woman’s chest.

“Do you get it now, Rakuoka Nodoka-chan?”

That name was enough for Shirai Kuroko to sense something snap in her mind.

Maybe he hadn’t been a good person. Maybe Operation Handcuffs had revealed him to be a harmful villain.

But.

“Tessouuuuu!!!!!!”

Shirai’s shout was repelled by a deep metallic noise.

The apron woman stepped forward to shield the black military uniform woman.

Rakuoka Nodoka’s weapon was neon-colored metal that protectively surrounded her hands. She held them in her hands and passed her fingers through them to enhance her fists like high-tech brass knuckles. She scraped them together before spreading them to either side.

“We’ve found your second target, Nodoka-chan. C’mon, hurry it up. I don’t want to dirty my own hands. I can’t let my involvement get out until we’ve managed to build ourselves a solid enough foundation within Anti-Skill.”

(Did she punch through the concrete wall with that? No, enhancing an ordinary fist couldn’t accomplish that. And at her age, I doubt she’s an esper.)

Shirai Kuroko pulled a few metal darts from her thigh belts, but Rakuoka Nodoka was more afraid of someone other than the enemy in front of her.

“Wh-what are you going to do? This girl looks like ordinary Judgment. Eek, eek. Can you really trap someone who hasn’t done anything wrong?”

“Kh.”

“Nodoka-chaaan. Don’t phrase it like that. Are you doing this on purpose?”

(Whatever the case, she isn’t an esper. If only these darts weren’t so powerful. And I can’t use them for defense either!!)

This woman wasn’t even a criminal.

The government workers in charge of rehabilitating criminals had a duty to protect not just the victim but the perpetrator’s family from any social backlash. But a public agency’s network was being used to threaten this woman and force her to commit crimes against her will. What was she if not a victim?

With all the pain and suffering, it was unclear if she even knew what she was doing, so it was possible she could not be held legally responsible here. And Shirai personally hoped it would turn out that way.

She only wanted to take down this villain using justice as a disguise.

More and more brutal words were used like a whip against the puppet’s ass.

“Get going!! Make yourself useful or I’m posting photos of your home on social media. Ah ha ha hee hee. Do you want your lovely and comfortable family torn apart because you’re the sister of some criminal scum!?”

“Uhhh. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

“Don’t listen to her, Rakuoka Nodoka-san! Dammit!!”

Rakuoka Nodoka approached with greater strength than expected.

Her skinny arms suggested she had never worked out a day in her life, but a punch from those metal fists could easily be fatal.

“!!”

Shirai Kuroko escaped outside of her punching range.

She couldn’t attack either, so she kept teleporting away, focusing on Rakuoka Nodoka’s feet. Specifically, on her short-heeled pumps.

(If I can break one of her shoe’s heels to knock her off balance, she won’t be able to rush toward me in that moment. But that’s all the opening I need. I can use that moment to end this by defeating that Anti-Skill Negotiator grinning behind her!!)

Shirai Kuroko did not see Rakuoka Nodoka as an enemy. It didn’t matter where she came from. When she was so blatantly being threatened by a third party, she was a victim needing protection. More than that, it made this a battle she could not afford to lose for the sake of the Anti-Skill man she had fought alongside.

She would not harm her.

Killing her was entirely out of the question.

She was sick of the cruelty seen in Operation Handcuffs.

But she didn’t know the full truth.

Shirai Kuroko had not seen the end of Operation Handcuffs after it was so distorted by the Coins of Nicholas, so she didn’t know how this particular case had begun.

She did not know that Rakuoka Houfu and his family had gotten away with murder in the past. She did not know he had strayed from the straight and narrow to dispose of the body of a malicious stalker who wouldn’t leave his sister alone.

So a question.

Rakuoka Houfu had disposed of the body, but who had that body belonged to? Kihara Heikin. That specialist in psychological research had belonged to a family infamous in a certain field and he had a bad habit of mixing his personal and professional lives. But who was it that managed to locate that monster hidden nearby, attack him, and end his life without giving him a chance to fight back?

The answer stood before Shirai now.

An impossible impact struck her in the forehead.

No amount of external boosting should have brought such a slender fist to this level and Shirai had been out of punching range regardless, yet her brain was rattled all the same.

Woozy, she heard something slicing through the air and hallucinated a great flying serpent.

Only then did she realize what was happening.

(So..that’s it.)

Once you noticed it, it seemed silly.

But if you failed to notice until it hit, even the cheapest of tricks could be very effective.

Shirai was a Level 4 Teleporter. She could ignore the three-dimensional restrictions and warp to whatever coordinate she wanted, but this apron-wearing homemaker was holding her own against that high-level esper.

In other words..

(I don’t know if it’s to extend her reach or boost her power, but is she swinging the brass knuckles around on some kind of rope.!?)

The rope was cheap. It looked like she had a sturdy cardboard tube around it to protect her hands from the friction.

It was less like a Western flail or morning star and more like the flying claw developed in China during the Ming dynasty. That weapon swung some finger-like claws at the end of a long rope. It was unlikely Rakuoka Nodoka had dug that deep into history, though.

It wasn’t that this was all Rakuoka Nodoka could do.

Just think back to her first move. With nothing more than the cat’s paw brass knuckles on her hands, she had easily broken through a concrete wall.

That suggested she was more destructive at closer range.

The really scary part was the incredible luck involved in sensing her disadvantage, immediately coming up with a clever solution, creating it on the spot, and proving it to be effective.

This ordinary homemaker could convert a discount store into a collection of weapons more deadly than a military armory. Those deadly crafting skills were here true essence.

“Bff?”

Shirai didn’t have time to shout.

With her head so rattled, she couldn’t teleport even when she noticed the threat approaching.

The apron woman tugged on the rope to retrieve the blunt weapon and then moved in close while readying her other fist. Maybe she had thick springs at her armpits and elbows because the body blow that hit Shirai’s gut from below felt like it was rocket powered and even lifted her feet from the ground. More than that, it sent her soaring through the air.

Rakuoka Nodoka could draw on as much deadly force as she needed and she was being threatened into doing precisely that.

The Anti-Skill Negotiator would negotiate with anyone involved in this case and make use of them even if it meant their deaths.

It was an extremely dangerous combination. They had more than enough power already, but the threat level could grow endlessly if Hanatsuyu Youen, Benizome Jellyfish, or someone else was convinced to obey as well.

Tessou Tsuzuri.

That woman’s own physical abilities were an unknown, but she was definitely dangerous enough to make use of Operation Handcuffs and all the human desire and violence packed into it.

Whether it was the Carrier or the artificial ghost, she could squeeze out all the bizarre technology anyone was hiding.

Shirai Kuroko understood all this, but she couldn’t find a solution.

She could considerably reduce the chance of being hit by teleporting around, but her physical endurance was the same as any middle school 1st year. Her head was rattled and it was a struggle to breath. She could not recover right away, so she was helplessly dumped off of the elevated railway.

Her badly blurring vision caught sight of a tearful smile.

Now she understood.

If she had collapsed atop the railway, Rakuoka Nodoka feared the Anti-Skill Negotiator would laugh and crush her head under her sharp heel. Whether it was warranted or not, someone who felt no guilt could not be threatened into obeying. That meant the corrupt Anti-Skill officer would have no choice but to physically eliminate her. To avoid that, the kind homemaker had intentionally sent the pitiful loser over the edge.

Shirai was again saved by someone with the name Rakuoka.

She bit her lip, still unable to clear her vision.

But the 29th threatened to transform Rakuoka’s kindness and compassion into something deadly.

Part 6

Kamijou Touma had no choice but to spread his arms and catch her.

“Gwah!!”

He had chosen to do it himself, but he nearly lost all awareness of where he was. The breath caught in his throat. As soon as the impact hit him, his upper body was pushed straight down. His feet nearly slipped from the ground and his hips bent more than 90 degrees. He had taken the impact on the arms, yet he felt an intense pain in his neck and back more than his shoulders.

What was the average weight of a 1st year middle school girl? 40kg? 50kg? It felt more like a small meteor had hit him. Never again would he dream of a heroine falling from the sky. If one of those actually landed on you, you’d be dead.

Nevertheless, he managed to catch her.

He just barely kept her from hitting the asphalt after falling more than 7m. Once the numbness wore off, he could finally feel her warmth. She was still alive.

“Ow.. Wow, I can’t believe I did it. That was pretty badass, right? If I don’t praise myself and drown my brain in endorphins over this one, I’m pretty sure I’ll keel over from blood loss.”

“Teacher☆”

Innocent Alice spread her arms and hugged him with her higher body temperature.

She rubbed her face side to side on his stomach, poking him with the pointy animal ear curls. She gave him an endorphin-fueled smile and pointed u-->>

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