In the middle of the road, where the people were walking about, Oriana was looking up, staring at the electronic bulletin.
Many people weren't noticing what was developing on the screen. Even if some people did, they were just interested in the critical patient who had caused the match to be interrupted. It wasn't weird, just a critical patient, there was nothing much to talk about.
Well, at least that was how it looked on the surface.
"…This."
With one hand holding onto a billboard that was covered with white cloth, she muttered. On her work clothes, only the second button was buttoned up, as the attire revealed her navel, giving off some tension.
"Should be something that I didn't expect."
After saying this, Oriana's eyes left the electronic billboard.
She started to move.
There were still things to do.
Oriana's fingers gripped onto the thing beside her.
Kamijou Touma and Tsuchimikado Motoharu were running down the streets, knocking into other pedestrians. The pedestrians were giving them an accusing look, but right now, they didn't have time to bother about it.
Tsuchimikado turned on the loudspeaker of his phone, as both men were listening to Stiyl's voice as they continued to run.
"I have confirmed Oriana Thomson's whereabouts. She's near the Futsuka subway station in District 7. Give me some time, I'll give you a more accurate location."
"Futsuka station! We ran past it already!"
Tsuchimikado was the one who had been leading, now it was Kamijou who was leading. As the specialist, Tsuchimikado, was left behind.
"North…oh yeah, she seems to be heading north. The road is split into three, and I still don't know which one it is. It should be stabilized soon."
Before they finished hearing the conversation, Kamijou and Tsuchimikado had already passed through the street. On a side of the road, they could see the entrance to the underground subway. They continued to run in a northwards direction.
"Three streets…now…now…it's here. Hear carefully—"
"The one on the far right! I see her!!"
As Kamijou shouted out, the blonde lady who was twenty meters in front turned her head around. When she saw the two people who were passing through the crowd, she immediately panicked and ran to another road.
Kamijou and Tsuchimikado were chasing after her now.
The road was short, and it immediately ended at another road. But this road was different, there was no sense of hustle and bustle. The small shops were side by side in a corner, there was no welcoming atmosphere. Though there was an arched arcade as normally seen on a shopping street, it just made visibility even worse.
It was morning, and yet all the stores were closed. Maybe the retailers felt that this location wasn't viable in attracting customers, so they probably had opened some temporary stalls near the arenas, where it was much more crowded.
The lateral road extended left and right.
Oriana Thomson, who was wearing work clothes, ran to the left. When Kamijou and Tsuchimikado were about to catch her, the auto-bus passed them from behind.
Kamijou, who was just casually looking in Oriana's direction, was stunned.
She was running to the bus stop.
"Oh no…!!"
Oriana pushed something at the bus stop that looked like a button, causing the auto-bus to stop. Of course, the auto-bus robotically stopped.
While the auto-bus was still opening its door, Oriana stepped inside.
It was obviously hard to chase a moving bus by just running, but taking other buses that went in different directions wasn't going to make their job easier. As ordinary vehicles were banned from entering during Daihaseisai, it was hard to find any other vehicle. Besides, Kamijou couldn't drive.
The auto-bus only answered the command that it was issued right at the start.
If it was driven by a driver: when waving one's hands behind a bus, the driver may assume that the person was unable to catch up to the bus in time, and may stop. But for an auto-bus, asking for these may be a bit too strict.
Kamijou frantically ran.
The distance between the two of them was only 20 meters.
By the time Kamijou reached the bus-stop, the auto-bus had already moved away silently.
"DAMN IT!!"
Kamijou pressed the button, wanting the bus to stop, but it was too late. The bus, which was already moving, didn't respond as it accelerated.
Tsuchimikado, who was a step behind, watched the bus leave, and said,
"Oi, Kami-yan, I can't see it from here. Are there any other passengers on that bus besides Oriana?"
"WHAT? IT DOESN'T MATTER RIGHT!?"
Seeing Tsuchimikado looking so relaxed, Kamijou anxiously replied.
Tsuchimikado said,
"Listen to me, this is very important."
"…There doesn't seem to be anyone else on board."
"Doesn't seem?"
"THERE'S NO ONE! AH, THIS MEANS THAT THERE'S NO ONE ELSE ON THE BUS! MAYBE EVERYONE HAD ALREADY ALIGHTED TO WATCH THE GROUP A RELAY RACE NEARBY! IT'S A MATCH WHERE ALL THE WINNERS ARE PARTICIPATING IN, SO IT'S AN ATTRACTION FOR THE FIRST DAY!! EVEN THE TOUR GUIDEBOOK INTRODUCES IT! SO WHAT!!?"
"If so, I'm relieved — Stiyl."
Tsuchimikado wasn't talking to Kamijou, but to Stiyl, who was on the other side of the phone call,
"Before this, when we were at the auto-bus depot, did you put some runes cards on the bus? If so, we can use it. I need you to help me with something. Destroy the card that you stuck on the bus no. 5154457."
The other party's response was rather fast.
"BOOM!"
An explosion was heard.
On the side of the bus that was slowly accelerating, a strong flame erupted. One second later, the body of the bus exploded. The bus that was lying on the road surface continued to spin on the ground without losing any momentum, as it became a fiery lump of metal.
The flames that were rising up vertically, upon reaching the arcade, spread around.
With one hand, Tsuchimikado folded up the foldable phone—
"Isn't the effect a bit… too strong nya?"
He revealed a confused look as he bitterly said,
Looking at the burning bus, Kamijou was speechless. It was true that the objective of Kamijou and company was to stop Oriana, but did it count as purely 'stopping' her?
Looking at Kamijou's expression, Tsuchimikado realized what he was going to say, and said,
"Oh my. Didn't expect that to be like this. I originally told him to light a fire in order to activate the bus' safety device. Damn it, I thought that that was a tram, and got careless nya. That was probably a gasoline-electric hybrid bus that uses electricity and some natural gas."
He then proceeded on without any sense of tension,
"However, since the people in the shops should be out doing business, and the satellites and unmanned helicopters are blocked by the arcade. There shouldn't be too much of a commotion."
"Why…why can you still remain so calm!? Where's the fire extinguisher? If we don't save her, she might really die!!"
"Hm, so what?"
Just as Tsuchimikado said this…
A vortex emerged from the raging pillar of fire, as the large fire was blown away by the tornado inside, and vanished without a trace. The wind that blew the flames away was filled with moisture, and it was also called 'mist'. On what remained of the burnt bus lay a layer of moisture, like how water droplets stuck onto leaves. The mist caused everything to be covered with a thin layer of moisture. This moisture didn't seem to evaporate off. In fact, it seemed to take away anything flammable, and prevent the flames from advancing.
Standing in the midst of this mist, was a woman.
Because of the moisture that she created, her hair, face, and work clothes were all slightly wet.
Oriana Thomson.
She was holding something that looked like a billboard with her right arm, a flashcard with her left hand, and a piece of paper that had the blue words 'Wind Symbol' in her mouth, between her teeth.
Oriana spit out the paper that she was biting aside, and pulled out a thread of saliva from her mouth.
She casually laughed,
"Hohoho. A flame that's not created by magic, that uses ordinary physics, is unable to heat up this nee-chan. However, this lady is still nervous enough to get so wet. See this? Even my underwear is already wet."
To think that in this juncture, she could still make a joke.
Facing this fact, Kamijou slightly squinted his eyes. Though this action was rather subtle, he really did squint his eyes.
"…The spell that you set up hurt someone who's completely unrelated to this. Do you still remember? It's the girl I was with the first time we met. Do you feel that girl has any relation to magic?"
"In this world, no one is unrelated to one another. As long as one has the desire, anyone can have some sort of relationship with one another, right?"
"You…you knew about all these. You knew about all these, and yet you never reflected on it?"
Kamijou's voice sounded rather fierce.
Hearing this tone, Oriana slightly frowned.
"Right now, it's useless to talk about anything else, but I really didn't intend to hurt that child. Nee-chan also didn't want to hurt ordinary people, unlike now."
After she finished speaking, Oriana tore a piece of paper with her mouth.
It sounded like glasses being knocked together.
In that instant,
"WAAAHH…!!"
With this sound, Tsuchimikado Motoharu bent his body forward. He held onto his flank with his hand, gnashing his teeth and staring at Oriana.
"Tsuchimikado!!"
Panicking, Kamijou moved closer to Tsuchimikado. The wound didn't seem to open, but Tsuchimikado's face was ghostly pale. Was it because of how he still continued to work despite getting injured?
Seeing this scene, Oriana laughed,
"Oh my, I thought you're the one who got injured. Seems like I was wrong."
There was another thick piece of paper on her lips. In blue ink, the words written on it were 'Fire Symbol'.
KlaKaKaKa.
KlaKaKaKa. Tsuchimikado gradually collapsed to the ground.
Oriana subtly smiled,
"Let's see how much you can endure…but just like this, you can't beat this nee-chan."
The moment she finished speaking, Tsuchimikado's body finally seemed like it couldn't take it anymore, and collapsed. He had lost all the strength in his arms and legs.
"What? What did you do to Tsuchimikado?"
"I just used the blue words to remove the fire element that signifies rebirth and regeneration. This uses the medium of sound to enter a person's ears, and render a person unconscious if he's injured enough. The ring just now was the trigger…looks like you aren't hurt at all?"
Kamijou rubbed Tsuchimikado's body with his right hand, but it was useless. To be precise, even if one removed this effect, it would continue to regenerate. This spell seemed to be different from the counterspell before. If one didn't remove the original grimoire, the effect wouldn't go away.
(A spell that knocks out anyone who's injured to a certain extent without exception…)
In other words, as long as the condition still applied, that Tsuchimikado's injuries weren't healed. He would remain unconscious. Even Kamijou's Imagine Breaker couldn't heal Tsuchimikado's wounds. This method wasn't going to bring back his freedom.
Kamijou glared at Oriana, as she happily picked up the card that was lying on the ground with her left hand, and tossed it into the air. In an instant, the extremely light flashcard followed the wind and flew behind Oriana.
Kamijou's face suddenly became hot.
"YOU BASTARD!!"
Oriana, who felt this rage, trembled happily. She licked her lips to moisten them, and said,
"If you want to save him, you'll have to beat this nee-chan. If you don't do that, until this nee-chan says stop, that guy will continue to be like that. However, I don't know if he can hang on till then. He might not even last that long, right?"
Kamijou's teeth were clattering.
He was trembling in rage.
"WHHH…WHY?"
Kamijou choked as he said.
If not for this case, Tsuchimikado Motoharu might have forgotten about his spy duties and enjoyed Daihaseisai. If there wasn't any mission, he'd probably enjoy it with everyone.
The same went for Stiyl Magnus.
If Oriana hadn't started off this situation, there would be no need for any battle. He wouldn't have had to come to Academy City. Even if he was to be here, he'd be here to see his old partner, Index.
And Fukiyose Seiri.
Though Kamijou didn't understand why she wanted to be a member of the Daihaseisai Organizing Committee. But since she wasn't forced by anyone, but volunteered herself to be a committee member, she must probably have some goal in mind.
To a professional magician, this might be trivial.
Compared to the 'Stab Sword' that could shake the world, this may not be anything much.
"I don't know what kind of value that 'Stab Sword' has. I really can't feel how that thing is going to change history, and how the world is going to change after that."
Kamijou said,
"However, I do know this. Hurting others for this stupid reason is wrong. If this 'Stab Sword' is something that will create these useless results, I'll destroy it with this hand of mine."
Hearing this, Oriana Thomson laughed, as if it wasn't worth hearing, a nonsensical joke that anyone would laugh at. Like the people who were involved in this case, there was no value in this.
She said,
"If this time, if I say that it's because of work that I'm emotionless about this, maybe this might make me look cool a bit. But saying it this way…might be considered as dishonest to my client."
There was no heavy feeling in her tone.
"Of course, I must finish my objectives. As for how I do it, just leave it to this nee-chan."
The rising temperature inside Kamijou started to distort like a hurricane.
He was gnashing his teeth so hard that his molars were about to break.
"STOP TREATING—"
He clenched his right fist.
"—OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES AS GAMES—!!"
He sent a straight punch over.
Seeing Kamijou like this, Oriana continued to smile.
And it seemed like she was really happy.