With the giant angel scattering thunderous, crackling, discharge-like sounds
behind him, Touma Kamijou dove for Vento.
He sped like an arrow. His earlier movements seemed like a lie. No, it was
probably the opposite. Now he knew the people buried were alive, and that
Kazakiri's mind was still there. She knew well that he wouldn't easily direct
"hostility" at others. And now Vento's erratic attacks wouldn't continue to
affect innocents nearby. Liberated from all his worry and concern, Kamijou's
shackles were off, and he could fight at full strength.
He just needed to protect her.
He just needed to protect the friends important to him.
It was simple.
And because of that, Touma Kamijou was released from everything.
"Shit!!" swore Vento, swinging her hammer around. By that time, though,
Kamijou had already gotten very close to her. Ba-bam!! He blew the air club
away with one hit, then reached forward, forward with his right hand, wanting
to grab the part of the hammer not wrapped in barbed wire.
"!!"
Right before he touched it, the hammer disappeared from Vento's right hand.
It instantly switched to her left, and Kamijou's palm swiped through empty air.
Vento swung her hammer horizontally at him, aiming for his wide-open chest.
Kamijou ducked underneath. There was a loud vwoosh!! as it passed
overhead before he came in at a sharp angle at Vento and rammed his elbow
into her gut.
Wham!! exploded a dull sound.
"Geh?!"
Vento doubled over, and then the bottom of her foot slipped and she fell to
the ground. Kamijou tried to stomp his heel into her like a nail, but before he
could, she swung the hammer with all her might from her prone position.
An air club soared straight at Kamijou's face.
"!!"
Kamijou beat a hasty retreat, and with another swoosh!! the wind attack
carved through the air right by him. It tore through the downpour, leaving a
particle-like trail behind.
They were back to square one, but his face had a smile on it.
He could do this.
Vento didn't want me to grab her hammer with my right hand. He opened up
his right hand's fingers, then closed them again. That means it can be erased.
And it doesn't seem like she can get her broken hammer back to normal very
quickly, either. If I break it once, I can prevent her from using it!
"I guess this doesn't do me much good if you get up close…" With a swish, she
spun the long hammer in her hand and put it on her shoulders.
The red blood dripping from her lips trickled down the slender chain and onto
the cross on the end.
Kamijou reaffirmed his grip on his fist, then gave a savage smile. "Now that I
don't have to worry about what's around me, I can really go at it."
"Hah. It's almost like that monster behind you is helping."
"Not 'like.' She really is helping me!"
"Keep talking!!"
Vento swung her hammer down in one motion from her shoulders, and
Kamijou dashed forward.
He repelled the air club flying at him with his right hand, and the second
attack fell to his feet. The asphalt exploded underfoot, sending huge pieces
sailing at him.
He ducked, reducing the number that hit as much as he could, and crossed his
arms in front of his face to protect it. Then he started running forward again.
As he ran, he shouted, "You've hit your limit!! This is all you can do when
you're not using other people as a shield!!"
"Don't…you…underestimate God's Right Seaaaaat!!"
Vento screamed, then swung her hammer around again to create an air club.
He'd already seen through her attack. She used the hammer to create a
"weapon," then fired it along the path indicated by her tongue chain. That was
her only pattern. Kamijou's right hand could deal with that.
No, Vento had more than this to begin with.
She had a spell that crushed everyone who directed hostility at her. With that
and these air-manipulating attacks, most people probably couldn't stand up to
her. And even if she can't hit them, she can create "hostility" in the opponent
just by aiming her weapon at them.
But Kamijou's Imagine Breaker prevented Vento's big play, the divine
judgment spell, from affecting him. Right now, all she could do was use her
"clubs" meant for feints. So I can win!! I'll end this now!!
Kamijou clenched his right hand into a single balled-up fist and jumped at
Vento.
Before his hand got to her, Vento swung her hammer sideways. An air club
appeared. But before it fired off, she retracted her wrist, then swung her
hammer again, this time in an upward path. With a booming noise, two air
clubs appeared.
They didn't come at Kamijou separately. Instead, they carved into each other,
forming a single mass, then exploded into a fan shape like water from a
showerhead. Hundreds of sharp drills of air shot at him at once.
He couldn't block them all with his right hand.
"Ahhhhh!!"
As his foot reached forward for another step, he wrenched it away and rolled
desperately to the side. With a dull sh-bam!! a dozen meters of asphalt behind
him flipped up into the air. It ripped off the arm sleeve of his uniform and tore
at his skin sharply.
Kamijou came out of his roll and immediately ducked, and then Vento swung
the hammer up again. After a series of swings, both vertical and horizontal, she
forced out three air clubs this time.
Kamijou tensed up. Not good! He hadn't gotten all the way up yet and
couldn't make any nimble movements. If another one of those showers came at
him, there was no assurance he could dodge this time.
"Shit, they're gonna hit…!!"
Kamijou immediately brought up his right hand.
Cough!!
But suddenly, Vento doubled over, and chunks of blood burst from her
mouth. The three clubs, with nothing controlling them, exploded on the spot.
With a thundering boom, they blasted her straight back.
"Vento!!"
Out of reflex, Kamijou shouted after his enemy. He'd seen her coughing up
blood before, too.
"…What…nonsense are you babbling?"
As she spat puddles of blood out of her mouth, Vento shakily readied her
hammer again. The explosion had torn parts of her yellow clothing, and blood
was starting to seep from the openings.
"You…and the science side—you're the ones who put this together, aren't
you? With the appearance of that 'angel,' you've put pressure on everything
magical on this entire 'plane.' In a word, you've created a mana circulatory
failure. Aleister, you bastard. How repulsive your tricks are…"
Vento was speaking vaguely, and Kamijou didn't really understand what she
was saying. But it apparently meant Vento would cough up blood whenever she
used sorcery right now. Maybe creating several air clubs was putting needless
strain on her body.
But still…
…As she coughed up blood, she kept on swinging that hammer.
Kamijou paled. "You idiot!! What reason do you have to fight that hard?!"
"You're the one trying to beat me to death, you heap of excrement! I see
through your shameless words!!"
Her hammer danced, first vertically then to the side, creating three air clubs,
then creating a whirling wind to fuse them all into a single sharp spike that flew
at Kamijou.
With a booming roar, the spike sailed straight past his ear.
Not because Kamijou had dodged right away. He couldn't react to it in time.
The reason it hadn't hit was that Vento's own aim was off.
Her stamina wouldn't hold out much longer.
Creating multiple air masses, multiplying their vectors, launching winds with
completely different directions and strength…
"That attack…It uses the principles of fluid mechanics?!"
"You irritating little prick. Don't analyze someone's spells with that knowing
face of yours…! Just the very usage of scientific words makes my skin crawl!!"
she shouted, but she hadn't the stamina to back up her resolve.
The hammer, swung upward, pulled her arm down and fell to the ground with
a smash. Her hands hung limp at her sides, but the glaring hostility in Vento's
eyes never went away.
"Oooahhh!!" She clenched her bloody teeth and swung her hammer up. Its
trajectory was wobbly, enough so that Kamijou could almost feel the limit of
her endurance. The attack missed him and struck the road right next to him.
Kamijou watched on. "Hah, you need someone to rescue you now?"
"Don't…give me that…crap…"
"Sorry, but I've got my own shit to deal with. I'll send you straight to the
hospital!!"
"Silence!!" roared Vento. "I will not give my body to the likes of science ever
again!!"
Kamijou frowned slightly at that. "Again?" he said in spite of himself.
An even deeper level of fury appeared on Vento's face. She spat blood off to
the side, wiped her lips with the back of her hands, and spoke. "…Science was
responsible for killing my younger brother."
"What?"
She gritted her bloodred teeth, swung her hammer up with all her might, and
continued. "Thanks to a theme park attraction's motor going haywire. Both my
young brother and I ended up a total mess after that. They told us that
scientifically, there wouldn't be a problem! Dozens of safety features, brandnew lightweight strengthening materials, fully automatic speed control
programs! They rambled on and on, feeding us all those reliable-sounding
words!! But in the end, they were of no use at all!!"
"You…"
"I don't believe science can save anyone. Your angel is no different. Protecting
people? Hah! Meanwhile, it's still doing its real job—destruction!!"
Kamijou had no words.
Vento stuck out her tongue at him. "Surprised? That one of the God's Right
Seat, which controls the world, would be fighting for a reason like this? I detest
science so much that I'd even use God's Right Seat to obtain my revenge!!"
Though she was infuriated, no attack came immediately. Vento could
probably feel the limit of her stamina clearly. She edged around to the side,
trying to time an attack to kill him for sure.
She stuck out her reddened tongue again and said, "Type B, Rh negative. The
blood I'm spitting out now? The doctors said it's incredibly rare. They couldn't
even find much of it in their transfusion stock. What do you think happened to
my brother and me once we were in the hospital?"
"…"
"They couldn't get enough to transfuse for both of us. They called everyone,
but they could only get enough for one. We were waiting on the verge of death
when the doctors told us the hopeless news—they could only save one of us.
And only I lived! He told them to save his sister, so they just let him die!!"
Blood trickled from her teeth, but Vento still didn't attack—as if implicitly
declaring she would wait until she could kill him for sure.
"Science stole our path, and on top of that, the Bible, which I took to be a
means of salvation, is being sullied by that thing! This is what science really is.
It's nothing but an obstacle!!"
She breathed deeply, her shoulders heaving, shaking the air sharply as if to
multiply her own power level.
"That's why I hate science, why I detest science! If science is that cold and
heartless, then I'll wreck all of it and fill the world with warmer rules. That's my
duty as someone who tore apart her brother's future!!"
" "
So that's how it is, thought Kamijou. After everything was said and done,
Vento had always regretted letting her brother die and thought it was her own
fault. Her greatest enemy wasn't science—it was probably herself. It was Vento,
who was still alive yet had let someone she personally protected die.
The divine judgment spell. A sorcery that defeated all who showed her
hostility, no questions asked.
When he first heard about it, it sounded like a convenient power indeed. But
if you looked at it the other way, unless you created an environment in which a
lot of people continued to be hostile toward you, it was completely useless.
Vento had chosen to be hated by everyone in the world.
Without being on the receiving end of others' hostility, she couldn't create
any value or results. To fight back, she had to plunge into the world's darkness.
The way she lived her life—it was like she'd given up any possibility of someone
showing her goodwill.
She believed that was fitting for her. She ran about, destroying, for her dead
brother alone.
Kamijou could never do what she'd done.
But he still said this:
"Don't give me that crap."
"What?" Vento frowned.
He continued. "Science killed your brother? Those doctors didn't want to let
him die from the start, you know. They obviously wanted to save both of you!!
And the theme-park ride with the accident, too. They didn't make that thing so
they could hurt people. They wanted to put smiles on their faces!!"
"Silence…"
"When your brother told them to save you right before he died, how do you
think he felt?! He knew exactly what situation he was in, and he still wished for
you to be saved!! You think he'd want you to get revenge on science?! The
person who wanted more than anyone else for you to be happy?!"
"I said, shut your goddamn trap!!"
In her blind fury, Vento recklessly whipped her hammer around. It had none
of the calculation behind it that it used to. The wind attack came flying at him in
a disorderly fashion, and Kamijou easily blocked it with his right hand.
"He wasn't even ten years old! All he saw in his near-dead, hazy mind was a
family member who had been hurt! Anyone in that situation would agree if you
told them to make the choice!! It's a little kid's opinion. How is that valuable?! If
they didn't have enough blood, they should have given it to my brother! They
might as well have just used my blood for it!!"
Kamijou's expression didn't budge. As the rain fell, he leveled his gaze at
Vento and looked into her eyes. "I say it's valuable," he spat. "Even if it's a little
kid, you're only here because of his decision! It was valuable!! And you should
understand that best of all!!"
"This is absurd!! Are you trying to comfort me?! I've shattered people's
futures!!"
"Could you say that to someone in your exact situation?!"
"!!" Vento held her breath.
Kamijou continued, driving the point home. "I couldn't do it. That's why I'm
arguing with you!! The way you live your life is wrong! I don't know what your
brother was like. But he did something I could never do. He did the greatest
thing anyone could possibly do!! And you're rubbing dirt in that?! If you died
hating science your whole life, you'd be wasting his last words!!"
"——Don't make me laugh," said Vento of the Front, barely moving her lips.
"You think I'll change my ways just for that? I'm committed to this path.
Someone who just heard the story now won't be able to twist things around so
easily!!"
She took only one step back, rallied what little strength remained within her,
lifted her weighty hammer, and readied it. Blood slipped out of her mouth and
trickled down her slender tongue chain, wetting the cross on the end.
In response, Kamijou clenched his right fist and faced Vento head-on.
Only five meters separated them.
Kamijou could get within punching range in two steps. With Vento in such a
weakened state, one hit would be enough to knock her out.
But she would fire an attack of her own in the meantime. She'd use her killing
move, where she combined several air clubs and used principles of fluid
dynamics to change their shape and vector.
It was a straight-up duel, and they'd each have one attack.
With the sound of nearby wreckage breaking apart, hostilities began.
""!!""
Kamijou plunged forward.
Vento whipped around her hammer several times as she coughed up blood,
creating seven wind clubs in one go. They all ate into one another, changed
vectors, spun up into a whirlwind, and transformed into a single giant spike.
Kamijou couldn't even react to three of the bundled clubs.
With more than twice as many, he couldn't imagine how much force they had
behind them.
But he didn't flinch.
He didn't take any evasive action. He put even more energy into his fist to
meet it head-on. If his fist and the spike were even a few centimeters off,
Kamijou's head would explode for certain. He understood, yet his eyes never
wavered.
The danger Academy City and Hyouka Kazakiri are facing…
Or maybe he could predict Vento's attack by her eye movements and
breathing. If he used the raindrops, he could also read where the wind attack
was.
The hatred of science shackling Vento…
But Kamijou abandoned any such schemes.
This battle wouldn't be decided by petty tricks like that.
As he watched Vento pour everything she had into one grand, final attack, he
thought.
I'll destroy all those stupid illusions at once!!
"Oooooaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"
Kamijou and Vento shouted.
His fist and her spike flew at the same time.
With a thundering boom, the spike streaked through the space between
them, breaking through raindrops, scattering them into particles. The rain
exploded into a thin mist, and for a moment, it blocked their vision. It burst
outward like steam.
Sounds ceased.
A moment later…
A primal ga-gah!! rang out as Kamijou's fist caught the tip of the spike,
destroying it all in one hit.
"…!!" Vento tried to swing her hammer, but she couldn't muster the strength.
Kamijou stepped in deep.
"Compared to your brother, it might not be much…"
He clenched his fist as hard as he possibly could.
And he stared into Vento's eyes.
"…but I can save you a little. Come back after you've started over, you
gigantic moron!!"
Wham!! Kamijou's fist plunged into the bridge of Vento's nose.
She flew several meters back, then fell to the rain-soaked asphalt.