A Certain Magical Index Volume 3

“I see.”
That was all Mikoto said.
Her eyes narrowed as if she was watching over something precious to her, but there
were some shadows floating in her eyes.
Mikoto had managed to stop the experiment.
And she had managed to save the lives of almost ten thousand Sisters.
But she had not managed to save the lives of the other Sisters.
Due to the DNA map she had carelessly shared, twenty thousand Sisters had been born
solely to be killed. That truth would weigh on her back for the rest of her life. Even if no
one else blamed her for it and everyone in the world forgave her for it, she would still
carry that around with her for the rest of her life.
“But,” Kamijou muttered and Mikoto silently looked over at him.
Her eyes were like those of a child left alone in a strange city, but Kamijou was not
looking at them.
“If you hadn’t shared your DNA map, the Sisters would never have been born in the first
place. There may have been a lot wrong with that experiment, but I think the birth of the
Sisters is something you should be proud of.”
Mikoto remained silent for a bit.
Finally, she poke in a voice that sounded like a child who was about to cry.
“…Even though over ten thousand Sisters were killed due to me?”
“Even so,” Kamijou responded.
Saying painful things were painful and that difficult things were difficult was something
that anyone could do, but they could not do them if they had never been born.
“I’m sure the Sisters do not resent you. There were a lot of twisted aspects to that
experiment, but I’m sure they’re thankful that they were born.”
Mikoto’s breath caught in her throat.
Seeing her face, a small smile appeared on Kamijou’s anesthetized face.

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“So it’s okay for you to smile. The Sisters don’t want you alone to be down like this. The
Sisters you wanted to protect are not so small-minded that they would be satisfied with
having their pain forced onto someone else, right?”

♦
When he awoke again, it was three o’clock. That was the time for snacks.
However, Kamijou did not get a chance to eat the cookies he got from Mikoto.
This was because Index was staring at him from extremely close range from atop the bed.
“Touma, don’t you have something to say?”
“………………………………………………..Um, good morning?”
The instant he made that joke, she bit down on his entire head. His body twitched
around on the bed like he was being shot with a stun gun. Index was fully in kill mode
and a cry escaped Kamijou’s lips like that of a cat having its tail stepped on.
“Wait! Wait!! My injuries this time aren’t something to joke about! And weren’t you
worried at all about your landlord!?”
“I was worried!” Index yelled.
Kamijou’s breathe caught in his throat when he heard her yell like a stubborn child.
“…I was worried,” Index said once more.
She stopped biting Kamijou’s head and wrapped her arms around his head like it was a
pillow.
Kamijou thought for a bit.
What if their situations had been reversed?
What if Index had been doing such absurd things without him knowing and she had
ended up in the hospital? How much would he blame himself for remaining peacefully
carefree without her discussing any of it with him?
“I’m sorry,” Kamijou said.
“It’s fine,” Index said as she let go of his head and smiled.
There was a definite difference between Kamijou and Index.
She was the kind of person who did not simply get angry. She was also able to smile.

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“And Touma, once again, once again, once again, you kept the problem all to yourself. If
you don’t discuss these things with me, I’m gonna have to give you a serious lecture.”
“Ah ha ha,” laughed Kamijou so he did not have to give an actual response.
He had to hide the fact that he had lost his memories.
“Hoo. Well, discussing it any more won’t help anything. So what were you fighting for,
Touma?”
“Hm?” Kamijou said to check what Index had said before responding. “For myself.”

♦
And so, his usual everyday life began again on that day.
Kamijou Touma walked down the usual path without turning back to the past.
If the dream of the future he had dreamt involving Misaka Imouto ended up actually
happening, that was great. And if it didn’t, that was fine, too.
All that mattered was that the future was so happy for Misaka Imouto that it surprised
her.

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AFTERWORD

To those who have been buying each book from Volume 1: welcome back.
To those who took this chance to buy all three books: welcome and thank you very much.
This is Kamachi Kazuma.
…Yes, this book is called A Certain Magical Index. Those of you who have finished
reading can have a nice laugh now. I’m sure you’re wondering what is with this
magnificent (and pointless) trick. Those of you who started by reading the afterword just
need to read the actual book. That will answer your questions.
But before you throw the book at the wall, let me make some excuses. There are a few
parts of this book that touch on magic. Of course, one of those is the scene with Index in
it, but there are actually other sections that give explanations regarding magical systems.
I guess you could say the theme this time was the technique of everyday magic where
there is magic but is never referred to with the word “magic”. This technique is primarily
used in fairy tales and the like, but I tried using it this time. As the author, I would like it
if you have all your friends read the book and then have discussions over where the
magic talk was hidden.
To be honest, I’m a “rule junky” that loves these kinds of hidden rules that have nothing
to do with the main topic but still exist to the side.
A real life example is the decoding of ISBN codes.
There should be the letters ISBN followed by a number on the back of this book. Most
people know that the number refers to the name of the book, but I don’t think very many
people think seriously about what the number means.
If you go look, A Certain Magical Index (1) is 4-8402-2658-X. With just that, you can’t
figure anything out, but let’s compare it to another book. Suzuki Suzu-sensei’s Umibe no
Usagi is 4-8402-2631-8. Oh. The 4-8402-26 is the same. And Minase Hazuki-sensei’s
Kekkaishi no Fugue that debuted the same month as my series is 4-8402-2659-8. It is
only one number off from my 4-8402-2658-X.
In that case, you might think the 4-8402-26 refers to Dengeki Bunko and the numbers
afterwards are the order of release. However, Hayama Tooru-sensei’s 9S (1) is 4-8402-
2461-7. Oh? The previous assumption would say that should have been 26.

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If we look further, we find that Takahata Kyouichirou-sensei’s HHO (01-03) is 4-8402-
2414-5. That’s 24 again. Those two books with 24 were released in 2003 and the others
with 26 were released in 2004. In that case, those two digits seem to indicate the year.
The fact that it moved from 24 to 26 in one year is most likely because the next 2 digits
refers to the number of titles released in that year. Dengeki Bunko releases about 10
books a month, so they release 100-200 titles a year. I’m guessing the number jumped
from 24 to 26 because 25 was used as a cushion for when the number of released titles
reached three digits.
I’ve written this all out fairly confidently, but that’s probably not the correct answer. In
fact, it’s highly likely that I’ve made a major mistake. But that’s fine because I’m in this
to enjoy imagining different rules rather than to find the correct answer.
If you read all this and got interested enough to look at the back cover, then I suggest
you look into the number known as the JAN code. It seems that is hiding a certain set of
rules behind it too, so it would be perfect to kill some time.
Now a rule that currently has my interest is the spines of Dengeki Bunko books. It seems
they are color coded by author, but what is the rule behind the color coding?
1. It is a definite choice based on color psychology.
2. The colors are simply put in rotation based on the order the authors make their
debuts.
3. It is based on the whim of the editors.
When I thought about it, I ended up choosing number 2, but what do you all think?
I give my great thanks to my editor Miki-san and my illustrator Haimura Kiyotaka-san.
It is definitely those two who gave color to this book that is so full of holes it’s like a bee
hive. On my own, I’m like a small bird without any wings, so I hope we can continue to
get along.
And I give my greatest thanks to you who have picked up this book. It is most certainly
due to you that I stand here now.
I now pray that this book will always stay in a corner of your bookshelf.
I also hope that it remains in your precious memories.
And I lay my pen down for now.
Twenty thousand Sisters…Did I end up breaking a record for the most new characters?
-Kamachi Kazuma

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