After giving orders in a foreign language, Agnese returned to where Kamijou and the rest were, her mini-skirt shaking about and her sandals, with their extremely thick soles, making a tapping sound like that of horseshoes.
This girl, who was younger than Index, made Kamijou feel rather perturbed. After seeing some inexplicably young nuns from the Anglican Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, Kamijou understood that there was no such thing as an age/authority hierarchy in the Magic world (Misha's inner and outer appearances were completely different, however). Moreover, this girl had been shouting and directing orders at several subordinates in a foreign language, not to mention given out those same orders to others through different methods of communication.
To Kamijou, though, the biggest problem was not the high position and great power that this little girl had, but rather her foreign language. At the moment, Kamijou thought, Since I can't speak a foreign language, I'll have to have a showdown using the most hot-blooded high-speed body language instead!
Agnese gazed into Kamijou's eyes, as if she was going to use a foreign language to engage in a foreign cultural exchange with him. Kamijou got ready as well, preparing to show off his most dramatic actions.
"Ah…erm…I really want to start explaining the current situation; may I ask if you guys are prepared?"
"…"
Such strange Japanese.
The surprise that Kamijou felt could not be described by pen or ink.
No matter how mindful someone was of their own unique culture and characteristics, they should not be speaking this sort of Japanese.
Seeing the Roman Catholic nun in front of him all frozen up, her legs shaking and her face flushed red, Kamijou now understood that being nervous when talking to a foreigner for the first time was a universal quasi-truth.
"It…it makes me nervous to show my lousy Japanese in…in front of a Japanese person. Ah, can you speak any other languages? It's best if we can speak some language that's far away from our cultures, like Albanian or Berber…"
Since she was nervous, she spoke really fast. Index stood next to her and told her, in a foreign language, something like, "Calm down, calm down, take a deep breath." In another corner, Stiyl's face was rather gray as he lowered his head, muttering, "Never mind, don't mind me; I was just thinking of another person who speaks weird Japanese."
Agnese placed her hand on her almost flat chest, took a few deep breaths, and just barely regained control over her emotions. Her two feet, clad in those sandals with 30-cm-thick soles, were staggering about like those of a drunk because of nervousness.
But in order to do her mission, she straightened herself up and said,
"I'm sorry. Now let me repeat myself: we should discuss the current situation and the actions we're going to take later--AHHHHHHHHH!"
Agnese, who had ignored the fact that she stood on unstable platforms, tried to straighten her back and hold her head high, but fell backward before she managed to finish what she wanted to say. "WAAAHHH!!" she screamed as she swung her arms wildly. In her confusion, she grabbed onto Kamijou's arm.
"Whoa!"
In the end, even Kamijou was pulled to the ground. The sudden action made him unable to react in time to protect himself, and his entire body fell flat onto the asphalt. It hurt so much that he wanted to writhe on the floor. Suddenly, Kamijou realized that there was a piece of floating fabric covering his head.
It was Agnese's skirt.
Kamijou looked up, and several centimeters in front of him was an entirely delightful scene of paradise.
"WAAAAA...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"
Panicking, Kamijou tried to move his head away. At the same moment, Agnese also sensed something amiss; gave a loud, piercing "AHHHHHH!!!"; and pressed her skirt down tightly with both hands. Of course, it was a defensive action under a desperate situation, but such an action only caused Kamijou's head to be stuck under her skirt, making him unable to move.
Kamijou heard Index shouting at him as his entire range of vision was blocked by Agnese's skirt and thighs.
"Tou…Tou-Tou-Tou-Tou-Touma! This sort of prank is really too much!"
"Please don't get too aroused while we're doing a mission; now hurry and stand up."
Stiyl raised his leg to his waist before kicking Kamijou, finally freeing him from the terrifying prison formed from Agnese's skirt and thighs. Stiyl seemed to have enjoyed the kick a little too much, however, and it seemed that he had felt compelled to do that after hearing Index cry out.
Having been kicked, Kamijou coughed as he shook his head.
At that moment, Kamijou and Agnese, who had fallen onto the asphalt, stared at each other. Agnese was trembling all over, her face flushed red, and tears were forming in her eyes. When Kamijou saw that, he became desperately pale.
"Sor…sorry…"
"Never…never mind…I fell down myself. Maybe it was because I was too nervous that I lost my balance…Um, can you stand up?"
Agnese used her feet, with those 30-cm-thick-soled sandals, to support herself, and stood up steadily. She then stretched her hand out to Kamijou, who was lying on the ground. Kamijou looked like he had just seen a glimmer of light in the midst of some dark clouds and reached his hand out, grabbing Agnese's hand. Index was rather unhappy with how the whole scene went.
After calming down, Agnese's body was still rather stiff, but she was no longer nervous when she spoke.
"Okay, now I'll start on The Book of the Law, Orsola Aquinas, the Amakusa's actions, and our future course of action."
Maybe it was because she was afraid to fall down again, but Agnese, who was trembling terribly, could not help but stretch her hand out again, wanting to hold onto Kamijou's shirt--but she stopped halfway through. No matter what, grabbing onto a boy whom she was unfamiliar with was inappropriate, and also, the boy had just clearly seen quite a scenery under her skirt. Agnese groped the air before gently grasping onto a corner of Index's nun's habit.
"Right now, we can confirm that Orsola Aquinas has fallen into the hands of the Amakusa. As for The Book of the Law, I'm afraid that they may have taken that as well. The enemy we're facing, the Amakusa Church, probably has slightly less than fifty people. They used the sewer to escape earlier, but it's unlikely that they'll stay there throughout the night."
"In other words, there's not even a single clear clue?"
Index asked. The way Agnese was pinning herself close to her seemed to be making her uncomfortable.
"Yes. Although we tried to use some of the remaining traces of magic to find out the Amakusa's whereabouts, we weren't successful. As expected of the Amakusa Church, a sect that specializes in enhancing stealth."
Agnese's body swayed as she pointed to the equilateral triangle-shaped hole.
"But we have another group setting up a perimeter. Maybe we might get something."
"A perimeter…how large is it, anyway?"
Kamijou tilted his head as he asked. Index looked at him, her eyes seemingly telling him to save her by pulling away Agnese. He pretended to not notice.
"With this place as the center, the perimeter has a radius of about ten kilometers, enclosing 132 roads and forty-three sewers. With our manpower, setting such a perimeter isn't a difficult thing," Agnese said as she clung onto Index. "Anyway, once the Amakusa try to bring The Book of the Law and Orsola Aquinas back to their base, they'll be detected by our network. According to the information we've gathered, the Amakusa's base is located in Kyushu…though, unfortunately, we're unable to confirm the accuracy of that report. If they aren't trying to get past us, but are asking Orsola the way to decode The Book of the Law on the spot instead, the situation will be even tougher to handle."
"You don't have to worry about that. I believe that Orsola isn't so stupid that she's unable to resist the magic spells that allow people to read minds. If they were to try and use force, this place wouldn't be ideal for them."
Stiyl blew out some white smoke and continued,
"The number of nearby enemies is too large for them, so they can't carry out their work peacefully. Interrogating Orsola, getting the method to decode The Book of the Law, and then printing out manuals on how to decode it; all that work can't be completed in one day. If they want to break through her heart's defence and force her to sell out information without pushing her toward suicide, the best method of interrogation would be to exhaust her or to prevent her from sleeping without directly interacting with her; that would take at least a week, however. Not letting her sleep for one or two days isn't even a form of interrogation. They'll only make her sanity begin to deteriorate by forcing her to stay awake for at least 120 hours."
Stiyl said that nonchalantly, but Kamijou got goosebumps just from hearing it.
Putting this expert in witch hunting and religious trials aside, Kamijou was afraid of what Orsola's kidnappers would do to her. Also, from what he had heard from Agnese, there were almost fifty members of the Amakusa.
The Amakusa Church.
At that point, however, Kamijou thought of something; he had heard Kanzaki Kaori and Tsuchimikado Motoharu mention this "Amakusa" group before. What he had heard was that Kanzaki had originally been the leader of that group, and had left them in order to protect them.
In the past, Kanzaki had really wanted to protect this group of people--but now they dared to do this sort of thing for their own selfish purposes?
That shouldn't be the case…
Don't tell me that these guys have changed?
After Kanzaki Kaori had left them, had these guys whom she had been protecting fallen?
"What's wrong, Touma?"
Index asked suspiciously, tilting her head to one side, knocking into Agnese, who was clinging onto her.
"Nothing. Oh, yeah, what do we do now? Those guys from the Amakusa will be immediately found by the perimeter, right?"
"Ah, yeah, that's right."
Agnese still seemed to be nervous, as her entire face was almost touching Index's. She continued,
"Basically, you guys just need to be the backup…there's still some danger of them using the spells from The Book of the Law, however, even though the possibly may be small, so it'd best if an expert of the grimoire were to settle this—"
"Ahhhh! This is unbearable! It's really hot!"
Index swung her arms around. After a while, she said to Kamijou,
"Will the Amakusa be found that easily, though? Touma?"
"If you ask me, then who can I ask? Speaking of which, if forty to fifty guys of a mysterious organization were to walk onto the streets, wouldn't it be rather striking?"
"Touma, didn't you know that the Amakusa don't have a fixed attire? They're a group of people highly specialised in hiding their whereabouts and covering their own tracks. Even if they were to walk onto the streets, outsiders wouldn't see them as different from ordinary folks."
"…"
"What's wrong, Touma? Why are you staring at me so suspiciously?"
"Nothing," Kamijou replied. None of the people around him were dressed normally. What Index had said about them not being different from ordinary folks did not seem convincing to him.
"Anyway, the Amakusa specialise in hiding and escaping. After stealing The Book of the Law and kidnapping Orsola Aquinas, they'll expect the Roman Catholic Church to hit back full force. If this was a planned operation, then they might have rehearsed this part."
Agnese, who was still clinging onto Index, looked puzzled as she said,
"But…but even then, no matter what, they can't possibly escape our perimeter…"
"It's possible. There's a type of magic for that."
Index replied without hesitation. At that, Agnese sucked in a deep breath.
"There's a spell that can only be used in Japan. Basically speaking, there are special places called 'portals' all over Japan. One can use this 'map magic' to travel from 'portal' to 'portal'."
"Are you talking about the Dai Nihon Enkai Yochi Zenzu that Ino Tadataka created?"
Stiyl seemed to have thought of something, giving an ugly expression as he muttered.
Kamijou was extremely confused now. He asked,
"Who's this Ino Tadataka? Is he another famous magician?"
Once that question was asked, everyone turned and gazed at Kamijou coldly.
"Erm, Touma, he was the person to create the first map of Japan using modern surveying techniques. It's even recorded in ordinary history timelines."
"Seems like you have no clue at all about history. I bet you've even forgotten who the previous five prime ministers were?"
"…even an Italian like me knows."
Kamijou, completely embarrassed now, was bombarded and pulverized by the voices around him.
"Anyway, this Japanese map created in the Edo period has a special structure. Everyone should be clear about the Idol Theory, right? That's, except for…Touma."
There were supposed to be only a few people who understood that magical term, but it seemed to be common knowledge among all the people around him. Kamijou felt that he was in a situation where he was struggling alone.
"For Touma's sake, I'll give a brief explanation. The Idol Theory is a form of basic knowledge that allows us to put the power of God and angels to good use. According to this theory, if one were to build a duplicate of the cross on which Christ was crucified and put it on the roof of a church, some of the holy power from those actual cross-wielders will be replicated. The power of the duplicate is not even 0.000000000001% of the original's--even the greatest legendary duplicate, Holy Manger, contains only a small fraction of that power--but if someone obtained even 1% of the original's power, they could match even the Twelve Apostles."
All over the world, from the ones on churches to the ones hanging on nuns' necks, there were a lot of crosses. But even with the power split away into so many duplicates, the power of the original was almost limitless. Maybe it's like how the sun provides solar power for electricity, Kamijou guessed wildly.
"And, according to our hypothesis, this Idol Theory can be reversed; in other words, not only will the original cause some effect on the Idol, but also vice-versa."
"Hypothesis…? Do you mean that it's still unconfirmed?"
"There are some exceptions that cannot be explained, so right now, it's just a hypothesis. But using this hypothesis, people have claimed that they'll receive divine judgement if they treat the Bible badly; that's not unreasonable, however. In the Bible, there are many instances where several idols from different anti-Christian Greek religions were struck down and destroyed by lightning. Stepping on Fumie in Japan was a method designed to affect the original badly by stepping on the duplicate." [1]
Index frowned as she said that. As a treasure house of knowledge, she did not seem to like saying uncertain words like "what if" or "according".
"Ino Tadataka used the Idol Theory in the opposite manner. He understood that the real one and the idol would affect each other, so he plotted 47 'portals' on the Dai Nihon Enkai Yochi Zenzu that originally didn't exist on the Japanese islands. Thus, these entrances that allow people to come and go as they please appeared in modern Japan."
Kamijou's mind tried hard to arrange this extremely strange information Index had told him.
The Japanese islands and the intricate map of Japan that the guy called Ino Tadataka had made could actually affect each other. Once one randomly drew a teleportation entrance on that map, such an entrance would appear on that real island as well.
In other words, everything that they drew on the map would become real?
"Hey, that's too scary, isn't it? If one were to use an eraser to erase that map, wouldn't every Japanese person and city disappear as well?"
"It's not like that, Touma. Listen to me: the condition for being an idol is being a duplicate; as long as there's even a slight difference in the levels of magic used between the idol and the original, the idol will lose its purpose. So, the Idol Theory can't be used to solve everything. Once the original image is changed, the theory cannot be used."
Index solemnly explained. There had been a group of magicians in the past who had tried to use a stone sculpture that looked like the Son of God to control the Son of God in the heavens, but it ended up in failure.
"Looking at it another way, this was where Ino Tadakata was really impressive. He added some things to the duplicates that the original itself didn't have, and yet he was still able to maintain a perfect balance between the duplicates and the original. In the entire history of Magic, he was the only one who managed to accomplish that. If he were a sculptor, he might even have been able to control the Son of God or an angel…though, of course, just being able to manipulate the map of Japan was pretty impressive."
"…do the Amakusa know how to use this magic that employs the Japanese map?"
"The answer should be affirmative. Ino Tadakata, who lived in the Edo period, was very interested in the cultures of other countries. His clan even intended to sell the Dai Nihon Enkai Yochi Zenzu to Siebold. [2] When Christians were persecuted, he might have obtained some knowledge through the Dutch. [3] If he had met the Amakusa secretly in the interest of knowledge, it wouldn't be strange."
Putting aside the minor details, the Amakusa basically had a magic spell that allowed them to teleport themselves all over Japan. So, breaking through the perimeter would be easy work for them.
After hearing Index's explanation, Agnese was stunned.
Kamijou organized the information that he had just heard and said,
"Then, what do we do? The Amakusa might have escaped through a portal, right? Since there are a limited number of portals, shouldn't we just check all of those in one go?"
"It's impossible. Actually, people later said that they could only find 23 of the portals on the Dai Nihon Enkai Yochi Zenzu. But a manual from the time of when black ships arrived[4] clearly stated that there were 47 portals."
The location of more than half of the portals could not be identified.
Thus, they could not determine the whereabouts of the Amakusa.
"Besides using the special teleportation magic of the Dai Nihon Enkai Yochi Zenzu, the base of the Amakusa is famous for being a well-hidden secret. That's understandable, since outsiders can't even determine their escape routes. Just now, Agnese said that their main base was reported to be in Kyushu, but it's almost impossible to verify that. There are too many places that are suspected to be their main base. As for where the real one actually is, nobody knows. These reports could be all false, or those places could all have the capacity to be a main base."
Agnese looked pale.
Her hands, which had been clinging onto Index's body, were now grabbing Index's shoulders. She exclaimed,
"Then…what should we do? Since you knew about this, why didn't you tell me? We can't determine the location of the portal, and we can't find their main base! In this situation, if they were to get into the portal, it'd be all over! If we take action before they enter the portal, there's still a chance that we can intercept them! Why do you still look so calm?"
"Because there's no need to panic."
Index calmly replied. When Agnese heard that, she was stunned.
"The Dai Nihon Enkai Yochi Zenzu is measured and mapped out using the location of the stars. So, the location of the stars is extremely important, as that's the condition for using this special magic. Basically, there's a limited time frame; if the time isn't right, the special teleportation magic cannot be used."
Index gazed at the stars, her silver hair swaying in the air.
"Judging by the location of the stars right now…the time now is approximately 7:30 PM. The only time in which they can use the special teleportation magic is a short period after the date changes, which means that there's around four and a half hours to go. Also, the location of the portal which they can use to teleport is fixed. Among the 23 portals that the descendants could find, only one is located within our vicinity…of course, they might use other portals that we don't know of," Index said rather confidently.
Every time this kind of situation occurred, Kamijou felt that he and Index were not really living in the same world.
"Where will that portal appear?"
"Touma, do you have that thing that can allow us to see a map? Lend it to me, lend it to me."
Kamijou thought, She must be referring to the GPS function, and handed her his phone. Index accepted the phone, but she looked like she did not know what to do with it, so Kamijou had to use it for her. Index continued to give him directions like "a bit right" or "move down a bit", and finally pointed her slender white finger to a point on the map.
"It's here."