A Certain Magical Index: The Primal Spirit Descends to My Side

It's a summer city, and it's the first morning of summer vacation. Logically, this should be the kind of opening scene most people would love to see in a coming-of-age novel, but Mr. Kamijou doesn't think so.

Deathly silence. A suffocating silence permeated the small room. The only sounds were rustling behind them and... a suppressed, faint, trembling gasp.

After an unknown amount of time, Index's voice, thick with a nasal tone and almost broken, rang out: "It's fixed..."

Touma Kamijou secretly glanced back. He saw Index already wrapped in a blanket, sitting on the bed, with the pile of her nun's robes, now turned into fabric, spread out in front of her.

Her eyes were red-rimmed, large tears welling up, but stubbornly refusing to fall. Together with the white-haired girl, she was repairing the clothes in her hands. The once magnificent pure white monastic robe, a symbol of absolute protection, had now become a strange-looking but still decent garment with a few gleaming silver brooches at the joints and patches of beige thread with a slightly off-color effect.

Kamijou Touma and the nameless girl who was watching quietly with a faint hint of confusion in her eyes both showed subtle expressions.

"Uh...it's actually quite good-looking..." Kamijou Touma praised cautiously, feeling almost overwhelmed by guilt.

Index responded with silence, but her tightly bitten lower lip and even redder eyes said it all.

"I was wrong! I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry!" Touma Kamijou immediately prostrated himself, his forehead touching the tatami mat.

Index writhed in the blanket like a caterpillar, struggling to put on the somewhat drafty [Mobile Church] dress. Her only exposed face was as red as a bomb, it was hard to tell whether it was from shame or sadness.

Seeing her distressed and aggrieved expression, Touma felt even more guilty. He moved closer, trying to comfort her: "Um... Index, I'm so sorry, I didn't expect this to happen. Your clothes..."

"Pervert!" Index looked up abruptly, her eyes brimming with tears as she glared at him, her small canine teeth flashing coldly. "You pervert who's keeping a beautiful girl hidden away! You're a pervert who's hiding a beautiful girl in a boys' dormitory! You're a huge pervert who's doing this to me even though you have a girl like that at home!"

"Huh?!" Touma Kamijou suddenly remembered the white-haired girl he'd been neglecting for so long. He looked at the edge of the bed; the girl was still sitting quietly, her gray eyes calm and unwavering, as if this farce had nothing to do with her. But this contrast made Index's accusations seem even more... convincing?

"No! Let me explain, she is..."

"I won't listen! A nun doesn't listen to perverted explanations!" Index had barely managed to put on her drafty nun's habit, and stood up unsteadily, forgetting to put on her hat.

She sniffed, wiped her face haphazardly with her sleeve, her eyes stubborn and sorrowful, but deep down there seemed to be a deeper worry. "I want to leave here."

"Wait! Do you have anywhere to go after you leave? And... and what you just said, those magicians who want to get the grimoire..." Kamijou Touma panicked, remembering the danger she had mentioned earlier, and quickly stood up.

"That's why I'm leaving." Index's voice lowered, carrying a resolute tone. "The [Mobile Church] effect is gone... If I stay here, I'll only attract those dangerous enemies. You..." She glanced at Touma Kamijou, then at the nameless girl, "You also have someone you need to protect, right? Sorry to bother you."

"Wait!" Touma Kamijou chased after her to the door, her phone slipping out of her pocket and sliding a short distance before being stepped on. Her newly purchased phone, barely used, had met its end. "Unfortunate..."

"Your right hand..." Index stood in the doorway, turned around, and placed her hands behind her back. "Including luck or 'divine protection,' I believe your right hand has erased them all..."

Seeing Touma's confused look, Index smiled. "It means that as long as your right hand touches air, you'll keep having bad luck..."

"What a misfortune..." Touma Kamijou was devastated by Index's explanation and collapsed to the ground, utterly defeated.

"It's not just you who's unlucky now..." Index added. "Just being born with this ability is unlucky enough."

"Um..." Touma Kamijou looked up, still lying on the ground, but his eyes were serious. "After you leave, is there anywhere else for you to go?"

"Staying here will attract the enemy."

"enemy?"

"This garment of mine operates using magic; the enemy can pinpoint my location by searching for magical energy." Index spread her arms wide, seemingly demonstrating the garment. "But don't worry, you'll find refuge in the church..."

"Wait a minute..." Touma Kamijou interrupted seriously, "Now that I know about this, how could I abandon you?"

"Then... will you accompany me to the depths of hell?" After saying that, she rushed out like a gust of wind carrying sorrow and determination, not even noticing the hat she had left behind.

"Index!" Touma Kamijou chased after her to the door, only to see an empty corridor and a fleeting glimpse of a white hem of clothing at the stairwell in the distance. He wanted to give chase, but the shrill ring of the landline phone rang again—it was Komoe-sensei's relentless barrage of calls.

"Oh no!" Touma Kamijou wailed, clutching his head. He was going to be late for tutoring! Index had run away! And there was this mysterious white-haired little sister at home! And if what Index said was true... she was currently walking unsuspectingly down a street that could be teeming with enemies!

He rushed back to his room in a panic, quickly changed into his school uniform, and hurriedly told the nameless girl who was still sitting there, "I...I'm going to school for tutoring! You stay here, and absolutely do not go out! Lock the door!"

Then, he rushed out of the dormitory as if he were being chased by a demon.

The room returned to silence.

The white-haired girl slowly turned her gaze, from the closed door to the messy bed, and finally it landed on the forgotten, pure white nun's hat beside the bed.

She gazed silently at the hat, then stood up, walked over, and picked it up. The hat was light, the fabric soft, carrying a faint, indescribable scent that didn't belong in the room. It wasn't perfume; it was more like… a lingering trace.

She took the hat, walked to the door, and turned the handle. There was no key. Had Touma left in such a hurry that he forgot to give it to her, or had he subconsciously locked her inside for safety?

His gray eyes gazed at the empty corridor outside the door, then looked down at the hat in his hand and the faint but unique "mark" on it.

Without any hesitation or confusion, she stepped out of the room where she had spent less than a day since her arrival. Before leaving, she reached out and touched the doorknob, and the door was locked.

As Touma Kamijou said, the door needs to be locked, but she doesn't have the key, so she can only let the door lock itself.

She didn't know how she did it, but she used it just like that, as if it were an innate ability, as natural as operating her own limbs.

She stepped into the intricate streets of Academy City. Her direction was not random, but rather a faint trace left in the air by that pure white and sorrowful figure as she departed, a trace that seemed out of place with her surroundings.