A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 7 by Kazuma Kamachi Page B

You want me to treat you to some shaved ice or something?”
    Index’s face turned blue and panicky at seeing Touma Kamijou looking down and grinding his teeth.
    They heard a funny
grrkk
come from around Kamijou’s temples.
    “You know, until now, I know we’re not what you could call
friends
, but we were getting along just fine otherwise. I’m serious. I seriously thought that, you know? Yeah, at least, until this moment!!”
    “Enough of your jokes. Just hand Orsola over to Agnes already. What? You want me to pay more attention to you? Unfortunately, I can’t take away your loneliness, and I wouldn’t want to anyway because it would be creepy.”
    On top of getting seriously angry, having been ignored so briefly caused Kamijou to collapse where he stood, as if he had burned out. “Urgh, uuuuuuurrrrrrgh. I don’t even have the energy to make dinner tonight anymore. Index, we’ll have to have commonplace takeout pork bowl for dinner tonight.”
    Kamijou ignored the always-hungry girl shouting, “What?! But Touma!!” and turned back to face the sister in all black, Orsola Aquinas. “…You did say someone was after you. Did this search have something to do with it? You should be fine now that your allies are here, right?”
    When Kamijou addressed her, Orsola’s shoulders gave a jerk for some reason. It was a small tremble, like she had tried to suppress it and failed.
    He tilted his head. She seemed to be looking at Stiyl and the others, not at him.
    Stiyl closed one eye, uninterested. “Hmm. There’s no need to be anxious. We English Puritans are getting out of here as soon as our job is done. Well, I suppose you should at least have that much caution.”
    For an outsider like Kamijou, everyone looked lumped together as either “someone from the Church” or “someone belonging to the magic world.”
    He wondered, though, if they were viewing one another as hostile and subdividing them into Roman or English or whatever. But then…
    “Oh, no. I can’t give her to you so easily.”
    Suddenly, they heard a deep, male voice.
    Unnaturally, it came to Kamijou from straight above. He looked up to the night sky and saw a paper balloon about the size of a softball floating around seven meters up in the air.
    The thin paper making up the balloon was vibrating of its own accord, creating the man’s voice he had just heard.
    “Orsola Aquinas. You should know that best of all. You could live a much more meaningful life with us than you could going back to the Roman Orthodox Church.”
    That moment.
    With a sharp
zip
, a single blade plunged out of the ground in between Kamijou and Orsola. It came close to being a surprise attack to the spots of Kamijou and the others, whose attention had been directed overhead.
    And then two more came up around Orsola with a
zing
and a
ging
!!
    The swords that leaped out at them slid in a straight line through the ground like a shark fin cutting across the surface of the water.The three blades cut across the ground, carving out a triangle two meters on each side with Orsola at the center.
    “Aahh!” As Orsola felt gravity give way, she gave a cry that sounded more bewildered than afraid. But before it could turn into a clear scream, Orsola’s body began to plunge into the dark underground along with the entire triangular piece of asphalt.
    “Amakusa!!” shouted Agnes, trying to reach her hand out, but she was too late. Orsola was already being swallowed up into the pit of darkness. Kamijou frantically ran to the edge of the hole and swore angrily.
    “Shit, a sewer…?!”
    The paper balloon overhead continued in an enthusiastic yet still focused voice.
    “If we simply follow the Roman Orthodox commander, it did not matter where Orsola Aquinas flees or who she is captured by—she would eventually be brought here. I suppose running around underground waiting was well worth it!!”
    Kamijou couldn’t get even a marginal hold on this situation. Who was hiding in the sewers?