Toaru Majutsu no Index SS

Volume 2, Chapter 21: Those with an Undetermined Identity. The Second Friday of October.

The scene was a strange one.

In a container storage area in District 11, around nine girls had collapsed next to a line of giant metal boxes. The girls’ clothes, hairstyles, heights, physiques, and even faces were all identical. They were the Sisters who had been created from the cells of a certain Level 5.

Rifles were on the ground, empty shells were scattered about, and the girls were on the ground unconscious. One man was standing amidst it all.

He was unscathed.

The man who should have become a Magic God, Ollerus, took in the nighttime scenery, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

This man was so powerful that the entire Magic Side was after him, yet he had managed to crush every single one of his pursuers. He had not faced defeat even in the headquarters of the Science Side, Academy City.

“Wow, this is pretty amazing,” came a sudden voice.

A boy was standing a bit away from the collapsed girls. He was Number Seven, Sogiita Gunha: Academy City’s seventh Level 5, and also a true man of love and guts.

His face showed displeasure for the scene before him.

But that was not because of the existence of nine girls with the same face.

Sogiita was not bothered by such trivial things.

“...These nine gorgeous girls... I guess that’s what I’d call them. Well, anyway, you seem pretty pleased with yourself for mercilessly beating up some girls. Amazing. I’ve never seen someone with less guts.”

“I have my reasons.”

Ollerus smiled slightly.

He slowly turned his head to look at Number Seven.

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“If Academy City was just going to gather up the estimated fifty Gemstones in the world, I wouldn’t stop them, but there is a risk that they'll use them for some unknown kind of research here.”

With the irregular method with which the Gemstones had been invited to Academy City, they were a rare existence for Academy City's scientists. It was possible that some perverted scientist would imprison them in some dark laboratory.

“I thought I should give them a warning. It’s not quite as vague as having a check on them; it’s more like a forceful negotiation. If I can just easily defeat the strongest Gemstone who is also Number Seven in Academy City, that should be enough. That should get across to him what I plan to do if anything happens to the Gemstones while they're here.”

“Heh...” Number Seven smiled slightly. “Excellent. Now that’s a line with some guts in it. So, you’re negotiating with the darkest depths of Academy City by basically picking a fight with them for the sake of only fifty kids. And you’re going to physically clash with a Level 5 to do it. Good, good. That’s a spirit with quite a bit of guts in it.

“But you know,” said Sogiita after remaining silent for a moment, “I don’t know who these girls are, yet they risked their lives to put up a fight full of guts. They may have even been fighting to protect me, someone they had never even spoken to.”

“...”

“I don’t have any real reason to risk my life here, but I’ll show some guts. And as such... I’m going to truly crush you.”

The action Number Seven took immediately thereafter was simple.

He rushed up to Ollerus, grabbed his face, and threw him against the nearby wall of containers.

However, what would happen if that series of actions was done at twice the speed of sound?

A tremendous noise rang out.

The steel containers were easily crushed, and Ollerus’s body flew through the mountain of containers and a few dozen meters beyond it after he slipped from Sogiita’s grasp. The mountain of containers collapsed like a house of cards and rained down on top of Sogiita and the collapsed girls, but after he raised his hands above his head, the containers were blown upwards in midair like a volcano.

Dust enveloped the area.

An ominous metallic clattering continued irregularly for some time.

Then, Number Seven narrowed his eyes.

“Tch. Your guts may be rotten, but you certainly are showing some warped guts.”

“No, I really have no guts,” said a voice from within the dust.

A silhouette could be seen where the sound had come from, and Ollerus slowly walked forward.

He hadn’t changed even slightly. Not one hair was out of place.

“But I have my reasons. Unlike you, I have a reason to fight.”

“...”

Number Seven didn't respond.

Sogiita tried to approach Ollerus in order to drive some guts into the gutless man before him.

That was when Ollerus showed the true value of his own power.

Simply put, it was an unexplainable phenomenon.

Even Sogiita who received the attack couldn't even slightly understand what had happened to him.

Before he realized it, he had been blown away a great distance. His entire body, from the surface to his very core, had received damage equally. The shock didn't just come from one spot and spread from there; it was more like an unnatural force had permeated his entire body like a cloth being dunked in water.

“...?”

After receiving that clean hit, strength left his legs, and he collapsed to the ground. Even so, the only thing in Sogiita Gunha’s mind was not fear, but a flood of questions.

He didn’t even let himself feel any danger to his life from Ollerus’s attack.

“The most fearsome attack in this world is an unexplainable power,” spoke the man who should have become a Magic God. “No matter what kind of mysterious power your attack uses, if you swing it down like a sword, it can be stopped as if it were a sword. If you shoot it like a gun, it can be blocked as if it were a gun. Any kind of unknown attack that can be understood is pretty much the same.”

“Ghhh.”

Number Seven attempted to stand up from his face-down position.

Ollerus didn't move.

He didn't make a single action that was explainable or understandable.

He merely caused some phenomenon, and Sogiita’s body was blown back even further.

“But an unexplainable power cannot be dealt with the same way,” Ollerus spoke slowly and quietly. “The most fearsome thing in this world is to be defeated by an attack that uses an unexplainable power and comes from an incomprehensible place while you have no way of thinking up a countermeasure. The attack is so vague that you can't assign conditions to it, and you don’t even know if there's a direction you can go to avoid it or if you can escape its reach after getting tens of thousands of kilometers away. You now know how horrible that is firsthand.”

Sogiita didn't voice any surprise.

It may have been incomplete, but he had taken two direct hits from Ollerus’s Hliðskjálf. That legendary throne did not actually have any attack functionality, but that was exactly why Ollerus’s spell had evolved to something unexplainable when he forcibly used it as one. Hliðskjálf’s attack was a vague thing that didn't have a defined range or force, so Number Seven had most likely already lost consciousness from being on the receiving end of it.

“There is no major difference between us,” muttered Ollerus as he relaxed. “One of us is aware that he wields an unexplainable power, and the other isn’t: that is the only real difference between us. You are the delicate yet complex Number Seven that not even Academy City's researchers could do anything about. In fact, you’re a special esper that they aren’t even sure should really be classified as a Level 5. If you yourself understood that, you may have been able to defeat me.”

The objective of the man who should have become a Magic God was to defeat Number Seven with overwhelming power.

It was a slight check on Academy City's gathering of the Gemstones.

Ollerus decided that he had accomplished his goal, and silently turned around.

“I did have a reason for not letting myself lose. It may have been unfortunate for you, but just accept your defeat. This isn’t a problem that can be dealt with using guts.”

Then...

“...Now that’s a comment I can’t just let go.”

A presence stood up.

Ollerus slowly turned around once more. A boy was standing there, wounds covering his body. He had received the unknown attack of Hliðskjálf twice and should have lost consciousness, yet he stood up. Ollerus had not seen this coming. However, this was the world Ollerus lived in.

“Don’t treat people like they have no guts before they’ve given up, you bastard.”

Blood was oozing from his forehead.

His breathing was erratic.

But Number Seven ignored the pain, and stared at Ollerus.

“I won’t be defeated so easily. I’ll show you that being arrogant and full of yourself isn’t the only kind of strength! Guts aren’t something you lose just because you’re at a disadvantage!!”

An unknown power wrapped itself around Sogiita Gunha.

“I’ll show you what true guts are!! You don’t need some great reason. A man who isn’t twisted or rotten, even if he’s a complete stranger, can stand up for some injured girls!!”

Number Seven ran forward with the momentum of the power gushing forth.

Unlike Ollerus’s unexplainable power, anyone could understand his simple approach.

Ollerus smiled in response.

As he smiled, he took no action that was explainable or understandable.

The third instance of Hliðskjálf, and the seventh Level 5.

Those two inexpressible, unexplainable, and incomprehensible monsters clashed.

And...