A Certain Magical Index - Volume 9 by Kazuma Kamachi

Author:Kazuma Kamachi [Kamachi, Kazuma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9

Tsuchimikado’s body didn’t allow him to use magic.

More precisely, if he did, it would go out of control. Human stamina wasn’t quantified with numbers like it was in video games, so there was no specific number of times he could use magic and still endure it. Sometimes he could hold out for four or five castings, and sometimes he’d die on the first.

It was essentially a game of Russian roulette. As long as he wasn’t absolutely sure he could bring things to a conclusion in one strike, Tsuchimikado seemed to completely refrain from using magic. Everyone knew what would happen if he was incapacitated on the battlefield.

He wasn’t going to be the one using the tracing spell.

He placed on the ground the card Oriana had left. Then all he did was draw circles around it and position origami of all colors nearby. It was apparently Stiyl’s job to actually trigger the magic.

“The spell’s name is Four Ways to Truth…Man, I wish we could’ve used this during Angel Fall, nya. I was already a wreck from the defensive spell I used to escape its effects, and Kanzaki nee-chan’s bad at drawing barriers. It was a disaster! And of course, I couldn’t teach spells to someone from the Russian Orthodox Church—another denomination entirely…”

“Why not work your hands instead of your mouth? Didn’t you say the search range isn’t even three kilometers?”

“Oops, you’re right. Okay, Kami-yan, stand back. This won’t mean much if your right hand busts Four Ways to Truth.”

Kamijou, a little startled, took a few steps back. After placing markings on the ground here and there, Tsuchimikado backed away as well and stood next to him.

On the ground was a black circle about fifty centimeters across. In the middle was the card Oriana had stuck on the side of the washing machine. Four pieces of newly made origami each sat at ninety degrees within the circle—blue, white, red, and black—dividing the circle into four parts. It looked like it was separating east, west, south, and north.

Stiyl knelt down by the circle Tsuchimikado had drawn, then placed his hands together and shut his eyes as if praying. A small bead of sweat trickled down his brow.

“IITIAWHAIICTTPIOA (It is carried through the wind, however air is not conveyed through the place it originates at.)”

With his words, the four pieces of origami moved despite there being no wind. Like puppets controlled by an unskilled puppeteer, they wafted upward. Each of the colored papers stood upright, then paused abruptly. Their edges evoked images of sharp blades.

“Runes work by coloring and decoloring,” said Tsuchimikado, watching the circle on the ground. “One carves out meaningful characters, triggers the spell by coloring the grooves with power, and turns it off by decoloring it. Stiyl uses cards that he colored in advance—using a method called printing—so he’s crazy fast at activating spells. Plus, he can just burn the card and skip the decoloring process entirely, nya. It does mean he can only use spells that he ‘colored in’ beforehand, but…”

The four papers danced around above the circle.

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