— — — — — —
Thankfully, in the next moment, Renzo retracted his killing intent. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at the two with a relaxed expression.
"If it weren't for Index," he said casually, "and the fact that I'm worried she'd be heartbroken once she gets her memories back and finds out I killed you two, well… just based on the fact that you attacked me twice, you'd already be dead."
His tone was light—almost lazy—but Kanzaki and Stiyl didn't doubt a single word.
"So you do know who Index really is," Kanzaki said, her voice grim. "And you know who we are too."
"Then who are you? What do you want from her?"
She and Stiyl stared Renzo down, deadly serious.
If this guy really meant harm to Index… they were ready to put everything on the line to stop him.
Renzo just smiled. "What I want? Simple. I'm going to remove the magical restrictions the Church placed on Index. Get rid of that hidden time bomb they buried in her."
"Oh, and while I'm at it, I'll copy the entire 103,000 magical grimoires stored in her brain. That's about it."
He said it so casually, like he was just talking about making a grocery run.
To him, it really wasn't a big deal.
From the start, he was upfront with himself—he wanted access to those forbidden grimoires in Index's head.
And if he could save this poor girl from the fate the Church trapped her in while he was at it? Bonus.
"What?!"
"I knew you had ulterior motives!"
Stiyl and Kanzaki immediately tensed up, their wariness cranking up several notches.
They were getting ready to fight again.
But then Kanzaki paused, frowning slightly at something he said.
"You mentioned a 'hidden danger' in Index? What do you mean by that? I've never heard of anything like that."
Renzo gave her a 'you can't be serious' look. "Wait… you really believe the Church would seal 103,000 grimoires inside a girl's head without any sort of backup plan or failsafe?"
"You really bought that ridiculous story about her brain overloading from too much information and needing regular memory wipes to stop her from dying?"
Seriously, these two weren't dumb.
But when it came to Index, they were unbelievably naive—just blindly accepting whatever the Church told them without question.
So stupid it was almost cute.
"Isn't that… true?" x2
Both of them looked genuinely confused and uneasy.
Renzo rolled his eyes so hard it was a miracle they didn't fall out of his head.
"Come on. Anyone with even a basic understanding of science would know that's total BS."
"Go online, look up some actual research—it's obvious how absurd that whole memory overload thing is."
If you're dumb, then read more books! Easy!
"...Huh?"
"You're serious?"
Kanzaki and Stiyl were visibly shaken now. Their expressions were stiff, and their eyes were beginning to redden.
Had they been lied to this whole time?
"With my strength, do I look like I need to lie to you?" Renzo said with a shrug, looking completely indifferent.
The two glanced at each other, faces grim.
Finally, Kanzaki sheathed her sword and said coldly, "We'll look into what you said. And once we've confirmed the truth—we'll come find you again."
With that, the two of them gave one last look at Index—still floating midair, happily "swimming" around like she was playing in a pool—then turned and left, disappearing into the distance.
"Alright, Index! Time to go home!" Renzo said with a chuckle. He turned and waved at her, mentally guiding her floating body to drift along beside him.
"Huh? You already dealt with those two bad guys?" Index asked curiously.
She glanced around and, sure enough, the two people who'd been chasing her were nowhere in sight.
Her eyes lit up with joy.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Renzo replied. "But actually, they're not really bad guys."
"They used to know you, Index. You were close—good friends, actually. You just don't remember right now because of your memory loss."
"Eh?" Index tilted her head, clearly confused. "But… they were trying to kill me! That doesn't sound like good friends to me!"
"They were just misled," Renzo said with a grin. "Besides—think about it. With how strong they are, if they were really trying to kill you… do you honestly think you'd still be alive right now?"
"Ah…" Index blinked, gears clearly turning in her head.
Ah... as much as she didn't want to admit it, Renzo had a point. A painfully good one.
"Then why were they chasing me...?" she asked hesitantly.
"It all comes down to the 103,000 grimoires stored in your head," Renzo said, his tone growing serious. "In short—this whole thing is just one big conspiracy by the Church."
He then explained the truth to Index, breaking it all down.
When he finished, realization finally dawned on her. "So that's what's going on? That's awful! How could they lie to me like that? And treat me like this?"
Index puffed out her cheeks in anger. She was livid. And when she got mad, things got serious.
"Can you help me?"
After fuming for a while, Index looked at Renzo with big, hopeful eyes.
She'd come to realize something: the random guy she'd run into on the road wasn't exactly normal. In fact, he might just be crazy powerful.
Maybe he really could fix her problem.
After all, didn't he say something earlier while talking to those "bad guys"? Something about wanting to remove the danger inside her, and that he was interested in the grimoires in her head?
Still, Index genuinely thought Renzo was a good person. She didn't mind the idea of copying the books for him if it meant being free.
"Of course I can help. Why else do you think I brought you back with me?" Renzo said, ruffling her hair.
"For real?!"
"For real."
...
"Let's do it!"xN
Back in Renzo's mansion, many shadow clones chuckled.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's do this already!" Index said, practically jumping with urgency.
She was beyond done with having a time bomb lodged inside her head.
"Alright, alright! I'll take care of it. Now open your mouth and let me see the magical seal on your tongue."
"Ah—!"
Index did as she was told, opening her mouth wide. Renzo activated his Uchiha eye technique—Omnipotence—and immediately began dissecting the complex spell structure at high speed.
Even though the seal was sophisticated, it wasn't anything Renzo couldn't handle. Within a minute, he had completely unraveled it.
Not only that, but his clones managed to fully decipher the entire sealing mechanism as well.
"Don't move. I'm removing the threat now."
With that, Renzo extended a finger and lightly touched Index's tongue, pressing against the magical seal. A surge of Origin Power burst forth and flooded the spell pattern.
The spell began to tremble violently. Its built-in defense system kicked in, attempting to eliminate Renzo—the intruder trying to tamper with the Grimoires.
But Renzo wasn't just some ordinary guy.
His Origin Power sliced through the defense like a hot knife through butter, dismantling the entire seal with overwhelming force.
The threat was neutralized. The defense mechanism shattered completely.
"Huh? What just happened...?"
Index blinked back to awareness, tilting her head in confusion.
For a moment there, it felt like she blacked out. Like her mind had been trapped in a dark room and locked away from her own body.
"That was the seal acting up. But it's gone now. You're safe." Renzo gave her a reassuring look. "Next… want me to restore your lost memories? The ones that were erased with magic?"
He left the choice up to her.
Index thought about it seriously for a moment, then gave a firm nod.
"Yes. Please."
She thought of Kanzaki and the others. She remembered what Renzo had told her earlier.
Those memories—her past—were a part of who she was. Losing them felt like betraying the people who had cared about her. She wanted to remember everything.
"Got it. Let's bring them back," Renzo said with a gentle smile, fully supporting her decision.
Recovering magically-erased memories was no easy task—definitely not something an average person could pull off.
But this was Renzo we were talking about—someone who shared the power of 31 different versions of himself from all worlds.
He just placed one hand lightly on her forehead. A soft golden glow began to spread.
Index felt a soothing warmth flow through her head.
Then, like a dam breaking, image after image started rushing back—some familiar, some distant.
All the memories she'd lost came flooding into her mind, growing clearer and more complete with every passing second.
.
.
.