Kamijou's eyes opened wide.
His right hand containing Imagine Breaker had not made it.
Vento's attack had smashed the concrete wall to pieces like a bomb had gone off. Everything there, including the unconscious man, disappeared behind a cloud of gray dust.
This action was like attacking a battlefield hospital, holding a gun to the heads of the injured being treated, and pulling the trigger.
There was no way the man could have survived.
After the gray dust cleared, Kamijou was sure he would see nothing but pieces of human flesh scattered everywhere.
Meanwhile, Kazakiri continued firing attacks that resembled electrical discharges.
The great sounds of those attacks put further pressure on Kamijou's heart.
"Damn yoooouuuuuu!!" he shouted after a bit of a delay.
The scene before his eyes was so gruesome it had taken his mind longer than usual to process it.
And then the cloud of dust suddenly disappeared as if a storm had blown in.
However…
It revealed the unconscious man with not even a scratch on him.
"Wha-…?"
"Ah…?"
Both Kamijou and Vento stared at the collapsed college student.
The attack had definitely hit. And yet…
(What is going on, dammit? I thought I could shake him emotionally by crushing someone in front of him.)
That had been Vento's plan.
But…
Something like pale glowing cotton slowly floated down from the night sky.
Kamijou and Vento both turned their heads to look at it.
Tiny glowing objects that resembled a moth's scales were floating around the uninjured college student. This was the sign of a supernatural power so weak that they had to pay close attention to even see it properly. However, this had covered the area around the college student to block the impact. This was what had protected the man from Vento's attack.
Kamijou glanced around, trying to figure out where it had come from.
These glowing scales were floating around the area despite the pouring rain.
Something had caught Kamijou and Vento's attention just as much as the survival of that man.
It was the light coming from these scales.
Kamijou Touma recognized that light.
He turned around.
Kazakiri Hyouka was scattering those scales from her countless wings.
"Ha ha…"
He laughed.
Kamijou could not help but laugh at this.
He heard the sound of some rubble collapsing nearby. More people who had been buried alive like the college student began to appear. There were men and women, adults and children. There were a great number of them.
Hundreds or even thousands of those scales had wrapped around them and protected them.
They contained no injuries.
Not even one.
The glowing of the countless scales lit up the surrounding area.
Her feelings were sweeping away the darkness!!
"Ha ha ha."
Kamijou had no idea who had done this to Kazakiri, but he doubted they cared about the safety of the survivors. The destruction was one thing, but using those glowing scales that had saved those people was unlikely to have been in the orders given by whoever was controlling her.
In that case, she had done this of her own free will.
Even after being transformed like this and having her freedom robbed of her, she had desperately resisted. And as a result, she had managed to keep herself from crossing that final line.
The pencil-sized rods attached to the angel's halo above her head moved at high speed. The light guiding her twinkled again and again.
This was likely a command telling her to stop these unordered actions.
An odd cracking sound came from Kazakiri's right arm.
She was being bound so tightly that her arm's silhouette visibly changed.
Even so, the scales floating around did not disappear.
She refused to stop protecting them.
With a great roar, the electric discharge-like attacks were fired one after another from Kazakiri's wings and toward the outer perimeter of Academy City. However, countless scales appeared and blocked the path of those attacks. The attacks held such great destructive power that the scales were easily blown to pieces, but Kazakiri did not stop resisting. It did not matter how much it hurt her.
She attacked and defended. She simultaneously took two contradictory actions.
That represented what Kazakiri Hyouka was right now.
Even if she could not escape the control someone had over her and even if she could not stop attacking others, she did not give up.
She resisted to the point that her body groaned in protest.
She resisted so that misfortune would befall as few people as possible.
She gathered up all of her strength even if it would cause blood to ooze out.
And she fought alongside Touma.
"You hypocrite!! What are you doing!?" shouted Vento with her face turning red, but her words did not reach Kamijou's ears.
"Ha ha."
He was glad.
He had made the right decision to stand up and protect Kazakiri Hyouka.
He knew that for sure now.
"Ha ha ha ha ha!! I love it! I love it!! I'm always talking about my misfortune, but I'd say I'm fortunate enough if things like this can happen!! Right!?"
"Wh-what… What are you talking about!?"
When Kamijou left the proper course by laughing, Vento took a step back despite having the upper hand. Her tongue chain that had been dyed red trailed along after her. Meanwhile, Kamijou had no intention of answering her questions. He was already satisfied. If he did not need any more answers, he did not need to respond to Vento. Now that he had this answer, Kamijou's heart would not break no matter what Vento said or did.
"Wait just a bit longer, Kazakiri."
Kamijou Touma now spoke with the knowledge that his words would reach her.
He spoke to that girl who was scattering destructive attacks yet continuing to resist with those protective scales.
"Index is working to save you. This may be a huge problem, but I know she can handle it. Plus, she's your friend. She's sure to live up to your expectations."
Kamijou gathered strength in his right hand.
He formed a fist that was incomparably stronger and harder than before.
"So don't worry. I'll take care of things here until she does."