On the other hand, public baths.
Moe-sensei looked at Kamijou Touma and Index with a worried face. Kamijou Touma, in particular, was covered in dust for some reason, and because he was wearing short sleeves, there were also scratches on his exposed arms.
"Where did you go just now? Why did you disappear suddenly? Did you get hit by a car? Do you know that the teacher is very worried!"
"Just now I took a walk in the street..." Kamijou Touma grabbed his hair and laughed, "Anyway, it's getting late, let's take a shower first!"
As he spoke, he pushed Index and Teacher Xiaomeng towards the women's bathhouse.
Teacher Xiaomeng still looked like she couldn't let go, but her petite body couldn't resist the strength of the high school boys, so she was obediently pushed forward.
"Forget it...you have to explain it to the teacher when you go back!"
"Okay, okay..." Kamijou Touma said perfunctorily, intending to take the opportunity to think of a suitable excuse quickly, not to deceive Teacher Xiaomoe, but not to drag her into trouble, "I hope Index Don't show your feet... well, but she didn't want to involve irrelevant people in the first place, so there should be no problem."
After confirming that they entered the women's room, Kamijou Touma let out a heavy breath, and finally had a chance to calm down and think carefully about what happened today.
Until now, Kamijou Touma still feels unacceptable, the amount of information is a bit too much.
"It's... troublesome." He sighed again, and walked into the men's locker room with tired steps, "But because of the starry night, it's not so unfortunate... He really brought me these few days Any luck?"
"The shirt and pants are dusty." Kamijou Touma took off his shirt and checked.
In the battle just now, he often rolled on the ground, but he was lucky to get his clothes dirty, so there is nothing to complain about.
At this time, his mobile phone rang suddenly.
Who will call me at this point?
Kamijou Touma took out his mobile phone, and saw a name that had just been added to the phone book not long ago—Pyromaniac Steele.
"Hey, hey, are you in such a hurry?" Although Kamijou Touma had expected it, he still didn't expect that the other party would call in such a hurry.
The other party should be watching me constantly, right? As soon as he saw Index leaving me, he couldn't wait to call... Kamijou Touma couldn't help but look towards the door.
At the same time, you can easily connect to the phone.
"Hey, are you listening?"
"Of course," Kamijou Touma curled his lips, "So, what is there to say? And to avoid Index?"
"It's about that child." Stiyl's voice came steadily, "I won't beg you to hand over that child like Kanzaki did. But I think, based on your current position, you will take the initiative to cooperate with us .”
"How is that possible!" Kamijou Touma immediately retorted, "I will never hand over Index to you! If you want to take her away, you must first step over my corpse!"
"Oh, that's a good line." The voice on the other end of the phone was still calm and calm, not at all the irritable feeling of the flame magician before. "It seems that you have already awakened."
Kamijou Touma silently swallowed his saliva, just now he was only thinking about being handsome, and didn't think too much about it, the dangerous guy on the other side can do anything!
"Okay, let's stop talking nonsense. You have always misunderstood me and Kanzaki, thinking that we are the enemies who hunted down that child, right?"
"Is this the truth? Who hurt her so badly a few days ago?"
"There were a lot of accidents there," said Steele, "We didn't expect that the mobile church on her body would fail—it was impossible for Kanzaki's attack to hurt the child, so we were careless. Lie has always been annoyed by this."
Kamijou Touma fell silent when he heard that, because he was the one who caused Index's "Mobile Church" to fail.
"You should have felt it during the battle just now. Kanzaki and I didn't intend to hurt that child at all."
Kamijou Touma remained silent again—not only did he not hurt Index, but he intended to protect her.
And combined with all the previous clues, Kamijou Touma can even speculate that the two magicians and Index knew each other at all.
A year ago—before Index lost her memory.
That's why Kamijou Touma readily gave Stiles his phone number. Because he also felt that things seemed to be a little different from what he expected.
"First of all, let me introduce myself," Stiles stood on a tall building opposite the bathing place, lit a cigarette and took a deep breath, "The organization that Kanzaki and I belong to is the British Puritan Church of Necessary Evil... the name , you should have heard of it, right?"
"Sorry, I'm not about religion..." Touma Kamijou paused suddenly, recalling the conversation on the first day he met Index, "Wait, that church doesn't belong to Index..."
"That's right, we belong to the same organization. That's why Kanzaki said to give the child to our protection."
"But why did the companions from the same organization chase her down?" Kamijou Touma suddenly had plots such as betrayal, secrets, and escape popping up in his mind.
Steele didn't answer him directly, but asked another topic: "You should know that the child is in the catalog of forbidden books that keeps 103,000 magic books, so have you ever thought about the 103,000 magic books? Where is the book kept by her?"
"Since it is magic, it should be a path like a magic pocket?" Kamijou Touma guessed.
"How could there be such a convenient item... The original code is not something that can be carried and stored casually!" Stiyl retorted disdainfully, "It's the brain, the brain!"
"...Absolute memory ability..." Kamijou Touma reacted.
"That's right, the child's natural ability, she will not forget anything she has seen. That's why she was able to memorize the knowledge of those 130,000 magic books." Stiyl said, "But there is also a problem, This is why the Puritan Church in England preserved her. After memorizing knowledge that is impossible for ordinary people to remember, the child's brain has reached its limit."
"What's the meaning?"
"That is to say, 103,000 magic books occupy 85% of her brain's space. Coupled with her indelible characteristic, how long do you think her brain can last?" Steele said in a cold tone. , "Because she can't forget, she keeps all meaningless information in her mind, no matter how many bricks there are on the street, how many leaves are on every tree she passes by. Can you imagine the way of living with such a burden of memory? ?”
"..."
"One year."
"What?"
"One year is her limit." Stiyl said leisurely, "She said that she lost all her memories of a year ago, right? She is obviously a person with absolute memory ability, why did she lose her memory?"
"Because every other year, we will clear her memory - only the knowledge of one hundred and three thousand magic books will be kept, and all other memories will be erased, leaving room for the next year's life." Stiyl told the truth .
"..." Kamijou Touma couldn't hide his astonishment, he took a breath, "How could it be... that's why you chased down Index?"
"That child is ignorant of the world, and after erasing her memory, she is just a blank sheet of paper. If we really want to control her, why bother to erase her memory after a year?" Stiles sneered, "Kamijou Touma, you It's just a guardian for this round."
"This round... Guardian?"
"Yes, because she only has one year of memory, so to her, the person who guards her every year is a brand new stranger."
"And Kanzaki and I... used to be the child's guardians, just like you."
"How is it possible...why..." Kamijou Touma's brain became more and more confused, unable to understand.
"Think about it, the fetters accumulated from being with that child for a year have all been wiped out overnight! Although the child has been smiling gently, but the empty eyes..." Stiyl took a deep breath Tone, "In short, Kanzaki and I decided to give up being her companions and become her 'enemies'."
Become an enemy so that no new bonds will be created, and it will not be so painful when erasing memories. This is the helpless compromise of the two powerful magicians to reality.
"Now, it's only four days until the year is over," Stiles said, "so, for the sake of that child, please hand her over to us."
"…How can it be?"
"Huh? Any more questions? I think I've made myself very clear."
"Doubt? Everything is a question! How could such a thing happen? How could it be possible to give up on her for such absurd reasons!"
"That's why you are a brat who doesn't understand anything." Stiyl didn't get angry, "It would be great if innocence can be useful."
"If it's really what you said, then clear the memory of one hundred and three thousand magic books!"
"If you do that, there is no need for that child to exist. Do you know what the church will do with useless props?"
"Why is there such a thing in modern society!"
"Don't use your common sense to measure the magic world~www..com~Even so...I won't give up!"
"What else can you do? Do you think that Kanzaki and I haven't thought of a way?"
"You are all magicians, have you ever used a scientific method?" Kamijou Touma had a flash of inspiration, "In such a situation, normal people would go to the hospital, right?"
"How could it be possible to let those cold things play with her body!"
"Stop talking nonsense! Anyway, you have nothing to do, just listen to me this time!"
"There's no time." Stiyl said, "There are only four days left before the deadline. The child's body is already very weak."
Touma was taken aback by Kamijou, it is true that Index has been in a bad state these two days. He thought it was the weakness after recovering from a serious injury...
"ah!!"
There was a commotion outside.
"It's Teacher Xiaomoe's voice!" Kamijou Touma shivered, put on his clothes and rushed out the door.
But she saw Teacher Xiaomeng, who was wearing a baby-style bathrobe, hugging the silver-haired nun, looking panic-stricken.
"What's going on?" Kamijou Touma hurried forward. I don't care about Index's exposed spring—it's nothing to look at anyway.
"Index is dizzy." Seeing the waiter bring the first aid kit, Teacher Xiaomeng breathed a sigh of relief and felt relieved.
"Has something happened?" Steele asked.
"Let's talk later." Kamijou Touma hung up the phone.
"Kamijou Touma, don't worry too much, it's just dizzy, foreigners are not good at that kind of temperature, right?" Teacher Xiaomeng comforted.
"How could it be such a simple question..." Kamijou Toma murmured.