"DAMN IT…!!"
Because of what was in front of him, Kamijou Touma couldn't help but shout out.
There was no one left at the bus stop.
Right now, it was 3:30 PM, as the heat of this hot day began to weaken. There was only a simple tin-roofed bus stop there, all alone, facing the road. There was no one sitting on the bench, no one queuing up. The surrounding people weren't looking at the bus-stop, like how they would treat a lost child standing there.
"Ha."
The situation in front of him made him laugh weakly.
Kamijou just stood there.
On both sides of the road, there was no sign of any auto-bus, and there were no clues as well. Forget about which bus Oriana took, he was not even clear if she had taken the bus from this bus stop.
At first, if they couldn't catch Oriana in three minutes, she would escape.
They had wasted quite some time when Himegami was attacked. By calculating the distance and time, one knew that they couldn't catch up to Oriana.
In terms of common knowledge, this was to be expected.
But,
(That Oriana, where did she run off to…!!?)
Facing this reality, Kamijou couldn't help but feel giddy. No matter how he swore, what kinds of thoughts he had, a desire that couldn't be attained meant that it couldn't be attained. Though not everything could go a person's way, such a simple fact shot Kamijou down.
He couldn't catch up to Oriana anymore.
As for Lidvia, there was not even half of a single clue on her.
If this kept up, they couldn't prevent her from using the Croce di Pietro.
(What now?)
Kamijou pulled out his phone and dialed Tsuchimikado Motoharu's number. He pressed the call button and waited for a few seconds. Tsuchimikado seemed to be waiting for a call, as he immediately answered it. Kamijou said straight away,
"Sorry, Tsuchimikado. I lost Oriana at the bus stop. Himegami got hit by one of her magic attacks, so I guess she's still around. Is there any way to check that out?"
"No…about this, it's a bit tough nya."
Tsuchimikado said in a weak voice,
"The 'all-around reality array' can only reach 3 kilometers in all directions. It won't be effective…from where I am now, and Stiyl can't set up the 'all-around reality array' on his own…right now, even if I take a bus to where Stiyl is, if Oriana's taking a bus…she'll be able to completely get away from the effective zone."
Then now what? Kamijou looked around.
There was still no clue.
"…Which line will Oriana most likely take, do you know nya?"
"I do."
Kamijou was looking at the tour guidebook of Daihaseisai.
"…The route of this bus seems like it will loop around District 7, but I don't know where Oriana will alight. Estimating the time that elapsed up till now, the bus should have passed through 4 stations, so she might still be taking the bus."
"Oriana, she…should be trying her best to escape as far as she can…so, she's most likely still on the bus."
"But, there's an underground train near the second stop, and the fourth stop is a terminal where other buses will stop at as well. She might change transportation somewhere."
"…"
Tsuchimikado Motoharu became silent.
There were all sorts of people around Kamijou, students spending their free time eating some ice cream, spectators rushing to the next arena, parents being pestered by their children to buy them fruit juice. There were supposed to be all sorts of noises and footsteps around him…but Kamijou could only hear a silence.
Right now, they were in a fix.
They couldn't predict Oriana's movements.
Did she, or did she not take the auto-bus?
Basically, where was she headed to?
"…Wait a sec, Tsuchimikado?"
Kamijou lifted his head as he said in a low voice.
Hearing Kamijou say this, Tsuchimikado braced his wounded body and replied,
"What now…Kami-yan?"
"Let me ask you, why was Oriana on the streets just now?"
"Eh? That's because…we were chasing her, so in order to escape—"
"No, I mean before that."
Kamijou interrupted,
"The reason why this chase began was because I bumped into Oriana when I was with Fukiyose-san. Then, what's Oriana's purpose for walking over there?"
Kamijou slowly arranged his thoughts,
"If Oriana and Lidvia never intended to trade the Croce di Pietro, she can't possibly be meeting up with someone on the streets. So, why was she on the streets? What's her aim? Can't she prevent herself from taking this kind of risk?"
"I see nya."
Tsuchimikado's voice indicated that he had recovered in strength.
"At least in the morning, Oriana didn't…have the Croce di Pietro. Even so, she still took action…that means that she needs a reason to work alone."
"What reason…?"
As Kamijou asked, Tsuchimikado seemed like he couldn't endure the pain as he groaned.
"I don't know nya…this, I have no idea about it. But…the Croce di Pietro hasn't activated yet. The reason behind it…may be related to this. That Oriana, might she be…looking for the conditions to use the Croce di Pietro…"
The conditions, Tsuchimikado said,
This was something that the magicians felt may be a clue in leading them to Oriana. Before knowing the answer, because Tsuchimikado had been using the security facilities of Academy City to look for Oriana, because they had an advantage when pursuing her, they had delayed it all the way till now…
"The searching criteria…? In other words, one can't use it without a special environment? Oriana must be moving around to look for that condition."
"…To sneak into Academy City without any assurance…and now they're hastily looking for the condition now? This might be a bit strange…of all times, in this critical juncture, Stiyl just had to turn off his phone!"
Now that Tsuchimikado mentioned it, Kamijou remembered that Stiyl was exchanging information with some people from Academy City. Stiyl did mention it before…
"Oh yeah, that guy said it before, about a storage room for the Croce di Pietro."
"What? Kami-yan, even if it's trivial…it's alright, just tell me what you know in detail."
"Okay, seems like the work in London isn't proceeding smoothly. Right now, we know that the windows of the storage room are sealed, and there are two doors."
"Hmmm…two doors…? Like those in the airtight labs?"
"…No, what are they like?"
Kamijou slightly nodded his head.
"Ah, that's right, it seems the purpose is to prevent light from shining on it."
"Light huh…the Croce di Pietro is a powerful spiritual item, maybe they don't want to activate it accidentally nya…"
Tsuchimikado remained quiet.
One could hear him breathing lightly, probably because his breathing was irregular.
Such a silence meant that he was seriously thinking about this.
This silence, one formed when Tsuchimikado tried not to make a sound, stimulated Kamijou's nerves even more. The sweat flowing down his face wrinkled it, as he began to ponder as well. A security vault, conditions of using it, two doors, and a room with no windows. To prevent light from shining in, that meant that light was…
"Will there be a problem once that Croce di Pietro touches light?"
"…I don't think so…if so, there's no need to care about the location and time, right? Even now…the sun is still up. If they only need this to activate the Croce di Pietro…they would have done it right from the beginning. If it's such a simple thing, they only need to forcefully invade Academy City…and use the Croce di Pietro before being captured…wouldn't that be enough? It's like a game of kicking the can…but, if the spiritual item activates…because of some form of light, I guess it's possible… About 2,000 years ago, Christianity at that time…before it was segregated into Roman Catholicism or Anglicanism, there were quite a few…spells that used light. The baptism center has 3 windows, and using the light shining in, three sorts of light are formed. This represented…the Trinity nya."
"Then, what does it have to do with the light that's required to activate it…?"
Kamijou raised this doubt that was floating in his head. Tsuchimikado didn't answer; he probably didn't know either.
"Say, Kami-yan…is that…all the information that you have?"
"Just these…"
Kamijou put his phone near his ear as he pondered. The magic topic that Stiyl talked about wasn't in his field of work. If he could memorize it, he could say it out immediately without understanding the principles, but there were many things that he couldn't memorize. Even so, he was trying to force out what he remembered.
"Ah!…There is."
"What?"
"That Stiyl said that it's too troublesome to explain it, so he sent Orsola's email report into my phone."
"…The contents?"
The heat in Tsuchimikado's voice lowered.
"Sorry, I can't read it since it's in foreign language. Can you read it if I send it over?"
"How would I know if…you don't send it over nya? What foreign language are you talking about? It's not in English?"
Tsuchimikado informed Kamijou of his new mail address. Kamijou cut the line and opened his mail, forwarding the mail that Stiyl had sent him to Tsuchimikado.
Two minutes later, Kamijou's phone again indicated an incoming call.
"Kami-yan, anyway…I've read the report. This is…Italian, they didn't turn these words into a magical code."
"…Then, what's the content about?"
"This seems to be…after arranging the British Library…miscellaneous records, just ordinary stuff. The security vault of the Croce di Pietro…will organize…a biannual…cleaning. This record seems to be a record…that some of the security members recorded during the cleaning nya."
In the mail, there were several rules regarding the cleaning.
First, they had to clean it on a certain day.
Second, they had to do it in the daytime.
"Well…it's not major information."
"Wait a sec, Tsuchimikado. Read that mail again."
Kamijou kept the cell phone at his ear for a while. It was a while before Tsuchimikado spoke.
"Daytime? Not nighttime? That's strange, they already used two doors to prevent light from shining in. Isn't daytime even brighter?"
"Seems like…it's not just that."
Tsuchimikado said that there was something written on the back of the report.
In practicality, such a rule was rather ambiguous, according to this guard's report, even if the guards forgot to clean it in the day, they wouldn't clean it at night. He'd say 'everything will be done tomorrow morning' and go home.
"This inspector's report, seems…it isn't appropriate to say that the attitude of the guard isn't good nya. Also, while they were working…there seem to be a few people who were…playing with astrology horoscope. Damn it…it's not really some important information after all. The…content of this is about the guard grumbling."
Kamijou felt that there was something fishy with this report.
"…The Croce di Pietro is a rather important artifact of the Roman Catholic Church, right?"
"That's right nya…and because of this, to these people, it's a Holy item that they might even weep…or even kneel down in front of."
"Then normally, would they let others take care of it so easily?"
"Hm. I also feel that those guys…wouldn't just anyhow leave it. The keeper of the Croce di Pietro seems to be some sort of elite group…the record of the inspector, he's just away for a while…so he can only…write such a record. What's going on?"
"…"
"During the case of The Book of the Law…though the decoding failed, Orsola Aquinas'…information analysis…the level of danger…was such that the whole…Roman Catholic Church felt it was too dangerous. Though Stiyl seems to think that it's nothing, since Orsola…would choose this to be the report, it may mean that…there's some discrepancies in it nya…"
"Seems like it."
Kamijou replied to Tsuchimikado, thinking carefully about the events that had happened up till now.
The windows of the security vault were removed, and there were two doors for the entrance to completely prevent light from shining in.
Even so, the cleaners carried out their cleaning only in the daytime, and not in the nighttime.
And the report even said, the guards who forgot to clean it up didn't do it at night, but said that he'd do it the next day, and went home.
In other words, the main point was—
"Tsuchimikado, regarding the light's that's supposed to activate the Croce di Pietro, is it a light that only appears at night, and not in the day? Because from the actions of the guard, even if he ignored the first rule that 'they had to clean it on a certain day,' he had to abide by the regulation of 'they had to do it in the daytime,' right?"
Between these two rules, even if they were to remove one, they had to put the other as priority. In it, there must be a reason why they had to put the other rule as the priority.
"Hm…it's not unreasonable…nya."
Tsuchimikado's words weren't clear as he said,
"But, that night light…what can it be? Can it be…moonlight? Like, a full moon…if it can be activated on a certain phase of the moon period…if it's this sort of condition, the moon cycle and the date on the calendar…would be different. Even if they have already decided it…the date will differ because of the moon cycle, so they can't decide on a…'safe date'."
Tsuchimikado's suggestion was that if it used 'moonlight', which was unrelated to the moon phase, there was no need to strictly set a day for cleaning. Like, Easter or Christmas. They could just do it by choosing a certain day.
He concluded, since there was a need to choose a date, there must be some sort of religious meaning behind it. In this situation, the date would be closely related to the conditions needed to be fulfilled in order to activate the Croce di Pietro.
"…A night's light…huh?"
Kamijou held onto his cell phone with one hand as he sunk deep into thought.
(It's not that Oriana didn't intend to use the Croce di Pietro, but they can't use it.)
Kamijou arranged all the information that he had in his head.
(They have to use a certain sort of light if they want to use the Croce di Pietro.)
A fact that he had witnessed himself, and Stiyl's information from the British Library, and then Tsuchimikado's assumptions. He reconsidered these carefully.
(It's not a day's light, but a night's light.)
Kamijou stared at the wall of the building. There were many electronic bulletins that were formed by lights.
(No, that's not right. Since it's something that was available several thousand years ago, it shouldn't be something like a light bulb or LED, it's something that only this night scene has.)
His eyes moved away from the bulletin.
(A naturally occurring light…)
He held onto the cell phone with one hand as he sunk deeper into his own thoughts.
(Also, it's a light that related to the calendar…)
Kamijou Touma seemed to realize it as he looked up at the sky hovering over Academy City.
Tsuchimikado had mentioned this when he read Orsola's report a while back.
The keepers of the Croce di Pietro weren't serious.
A lot of them were playing with astrology.
But,
What if the astrology was important?
"Maybe—a constellation?"
"This…is rather likely nya…"
Tsuchimikado seemed to nod his head as he remained silent for a while, and said,
"A spiritual item…that uses constellations, isn't rare…a constellation spell is the basic of the basics, the summoning of an angel needs to match the constellation of the season."
Tsuchimikado added on that compared to the moon cycle, which is based on a month, a constellation is based on a year. For example, if a 'Spring's Constellation' was the key to activating the Croce di Pietro, they had to clean it up in a season with an 'Autumn's Constellation'. Just like this, they could easily mark down a 'safe date' on the calendar.
"This means that the guards…didn't have bad attitude…they might be…using the constellation to collect…all the required information for their work nya…"
Tsuchimikado seemed to agree with this, but just something like this wasn't very clear.
Thus, Kamijou honestly asked,
"A force is required to activate the Croce di Pietro, but to use it, what's the type to be used?"
"Basically…it uses 12 ecliptic, 28 north days, and 48 south, a total of…88 constellations, one of which is required to use the magic. In other words…in this situation, the ecliptic Aries and Scorpio do not have any power on their own…the stars that are arranged in a constellation, though they look very close…the distance is somewhat far huh? To include each and every single one of them…it's rather difficult."
"…Is it really like this?"
Though he wasn't familiar with constellations, Kamijou knew that it was something that people believed in several thousand years ago. There was a way to calculate the distance between the stars? To be honest, could anyone accurately recognize the structure of the universe in that time?
As Kamijou raised his doubt.
"That's why they have to use that, Kami-yan."
"What?"
"The old universe…no, we basically call it the sky…everyone thought that…this sky…surrounds the Earth like a giant dish plate…well, this feels like a celestial chart…nya?"
Tsuchimikado continued,
"…The magic of a constellation, uses such a celestial chart…it's unrelated to the actual power of a star or the distance. This is something that displays this fixed picture…that appears…on this night sky…into a magic array. The picture itself is very simple, but that's…a large-scale force. The picture itself isn't complicated, so it can normally be used on several spells…but such a useful spell…there shouldn't be a lot of them nya."
Tsuchimikado said that when they were at the seaside resort, the night sky when the archangel called the 'Power of God' was used to develop this constellation magic, 'a sky that's beneficial to the caster.' Kamijou couldn't accurately tell how large scale the spells were that required the use of a constellation in the magic side. However, it was a shock for him now that he knew that this spell was somewhat related to the spells that angels used.
"Then, that Oriana…"
"These…may be the possible conditions that's required to activate the Croce di Pietro. Because they need to gather the light of the night…onto…that Cross on the ground, and to accomplish that objective, they have to set up some sort of antenna to absorb the night's light, and then use the link…required for the spell to be activated. The reason why Oriana was running around on the streets…was probably because she was…looking for the best place to establish this antenna."
Tsuchimikado said that not all spells that used stars followed this rule. Like for example, on the last day of Kamijou's summer holidays, the Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli that the Aztec magician had used. That kind of magic that used the power of Venus had nothing to do with the night, it just heavily relied on Venus' actual position. But, the Croce di Pietro probably didn't follow the same rule, because if it did, Oriana didn't need to find an opportunity. If it could use a certain light source like sunlight, they could have quickly activated the Croce di Pietro and dominated Academy City quickly.
Thus, the Croce di Pietro was likely to be a spiritual item that used the 'appearance of a constellation,' a picture of it.
The reason why Oriana was moving about was because she was looking for a place where she could use the appearance of the constellation. Even so, what was her reason for walking around the streets? Was it that the places that she had checked up till now weren't suitable for activating the Croce di Pietro, or was she looking for the most suitable place?
"…However, for Oriana to really intend on…using the power of the Constellation…to activate the Croce di Pietro…this is rather likely…"
Tsuchimikado said as he ended his explanation.
"'This is rather likely'? What do you mean by that?"
"This assumption…though rather solid, has a few…contradictions that need to be solved nya."
What would that be? Kamijou frowned.
Tsuchimikado said directly,
"Listen carefully, Kami-yan…the so-called Croce di Pietro is something…highly related to Peter… one of the Twelve Apostles…of the 'original Church' that the Son of God created when he died. Of course, the Romans…used this power to create the Roman Catholic Church, and the event that caused this to happen…was 'Peter's death', or something after that."
Tsuchimikado said that Peter was executed during the late 1st century A.D., Emperor Constantine first recognized Christianity with the completion of St. Peter's Basilica in the early 4th century, and the Frankish king gave up the land in the 8th century. The time between these events was rather long.
Even so, it was after Peter's death that people first erected 'a Cross to commemorate Peter,' and stated that 'this land is Peter's inheritance,' which led to a long road that ended up with 2 billion believers forming the nucleus of the Roman Catholic Church.
"About this, the Croce di Pietro was originally a Cross that's set up on a grave. It should be something that was completed before some certain Cathedral was built. What's wrong with this?"
"The date to use the Croce di Pietro…and the constellation are important, I agree with these two points. But…Peter died…on the 29th of June. It's a different season, the sky is also different…you should have heard of…the summer and winter constellations, right? Also, because of the latitude and longitude…one will see different constellations in Japan's sky as compared to the Vatican. The Vatican's sky on 29th June…is different from Japan's sky in late September. If they can't solve this problem, it's impossible for them to use the constellations nya…"
In other words, during this season, they couldn't use the Croce di Pietro?
Kamijou slightly frowned.
"But, what would happen if they don't care about the season and use the Croce di Pietro?"
"Kami-yan, think about it…we use a direct current for our shavers…what would happen if we use alternating current instead?"
"…"
"I don't know to what extent will this thing…be destroyed, but at least…they can't successfully execute their plan. If not for this, wouldn't it be meaningless for them…to specially these important…'conditions of usage' nya?"
"…Then, why would they bring in a spiritual item that they can't use…?"
"I don't know nya…there may be a condition…to overcome this nya. Damn it, there's not enough time to…think about this properly."
Time.
Now that it was mentioned, Kamijou re-realized the restrictions.
"Assuming if Oriana and Lidvia are waiting for the constellations to appear in the night because they want to use the Croce di Pietro, the restriction of activating it is still sunset, right?"
"It's not immediate. According to the constellations, we may see it clearly only when the stars from the first to third class can be seen. Right now, the time…"
Maybe it was because this call was very long, the time was about to reach 4 PM. The sunset of the end of September was normally just before 7 PM. Because the first star would shine before sunset, according to the situation, it would be extremely difficult if they operated after 6 PM.
In other words, they had to find Oriana in the next two to three hours. No, the Croce di Pietro may not be in Oriana's hands. In this situation, they could only force Oriana to spit out Lidvia's whereabouts and catch her.
There wasn't much time.
There was no guarantee that they could catch Oriana at all, and on top of that, they had to find Lidvia.
"I feel that we're lacking the decisive blow… anyway, let's get to work. I'm moving…along where Oriana went by, looking for a common point in this constellations spell…if we're successful…maybe we can know where Oriana's targeting…"
"Wait…wait a sec! You're okay if you take action in this condition?"
"In this…situation? …Kami-yan, what kind of condition do you think I'm in now?"
Tsuchimikado pretended to be calm as he said this.
On the other side of the call, on the screen now, was an idiot who was still talking despite all his injuries. Besides magic, Tsuchimikado had Auto-Rebirth, but that was a Level 0 ability. Though it was better than nothing, it wasn't an ability that could remove wounds like an eraser.
Kamijou intended to say something, but he knew that it was useless to talk about anything right now.
"…I know. Then, what do I have to do during this time?"
Just as Tsuchimikado was about to propose something.
A different voice came from behind Kamijou,
"…Touma, what are you doing here?"