Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Kanzaki

Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Kanzaki or Toaru Majutsu no Index: Kanzaki SS was a series of short stories organized into chapters featuring Kanzaki Kaori as the protagonist, going around the world and space doing missions for the Church of Necessary Evil, however, there is more than meets the eye as each incident is connected.

One is bundled with each limited edition release of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun anime DVD and BDs, collecting all of them makes it equivalent to a single normal Toaru Majutsu no Index volume.

Chapter 1
This part revolves around a man called Ellasone. He's a person who creates magical restraining and containment devices for the Necessarius. One day, he suddenly disappeared, and if his knowledge leaks out, it could potentially lead to magicians escaping from the Tower of London. It's unknown whether he was brought away be some else, or disappeared on his own. Kaori was sent to find and bring him back.

At the start of the chapter, Kaori and Ellasone fought, but Ellasone escaped.

The next day, a messenger came to the jeans shop where Kaori was, and asked Kaori and the Jeans Shop Owner to help with the investigation. The Jeans Shop Owner is actually kind of like Kaori's "partner" and has knowledge about magic, although he's more like a volunteer. So Miss Tour Guide, Jeans Shop Owner and Kaori went to Ellasone's house.

There, they found a bunch of "devices" which were not sold to anyone, and the Jeans Shop Owner was asked to analyze them.

Also, they met a girl called Seachel, the one who noticed Ellasone's disappearance and reported it. Seachel was abandoned by her parents when she was 10 and also became a victim of child trafficking. She was saved and sent to an orphanage by Ellasone. Seachel wanted to pursue Ellasone in search of her purpose in life, and kept on escaping from the orphanage because of that. Eventually, Ellasone knew about it, brought her out of the orphanage, and let one of his neighbors take care of her.

After that, Seachel offered to help with Ellasone's work, but he refused. However, Ellasone eventually noticed Seachel's abilities to escape. Naturally, as a person who creates restraining and containment devices, this interests Ellasone. He also found out that Seachel escaped to search for her purpose in life. Eventually, Ellasone decided that the only way to keep Seachel safe is to give her a purpose in life and let her help with testing his creations. Since then, Seachel sees this job as something that she needs.

When Kaori and Jeans Shop Owner left Ellasone's house, they took a bunch of the devices away to analyze. The tour guide went to St. Julian's Cathedral to meet with the bishop there, since the bishop seems to be concerned about Ellasone's disappearance.

On the way back to the jeans shop, Kaori received a call regarding a Magical Organization that was in contact with Ellasone before his disappearance. Kaori went and fought them, but the organization didn't know anything.

Back in the jeans shop, they started analyzing the devices. The owner used a magic which allows him to see the "magical blueprint" of a device, and asked Kaori and the tour guide to do the same and split the work so that they could speed up the analyzing process. They noticed that each of those devices have Cathedral-level strength. Kaori then realized that those devices were actually miniatures of the St. Julian's Cathedral, and were made to mimic the security systems in that cathedral so that Ellasone could analyze them. They deduced that Ellasone's plan is to attack St. Julian's Cathedral. Ellason easily infiltrated St. Julian's Cathedral, and was able to reverse trap the guards, since he already analyzed the security systems through the devices he created. He went straight to the bishop's room.

Meanwhile, Kaori came to the Cathedral. There, she encountered one of the tools created by Ellasone, in the form of the Gleipnir.

In the bishop's room, Ellasone restrained the bishop and interrogated him. The bishop is actually the one behind that child trafficking project. The purpose is to give a steady supply of magicians to the Necessarius. However, the child trafficking project is not supported by either the Necessarius or the Church of England. The bishop of St. Julian's Cathedral started the project himself so that he could become a good supplier and get more merit for himself. As Ellasone was killing the bishop, Kaori came into the room. Then, it was revealed that Ellasone knew about the bishop's project all along, even before he saved Seachel. He had planned to kill the bishop all along, but also hated himself for being a hypocrite and getting joy from being a hero and the "purpose of life" for one of the victims of the project. Because of that, he intended to kill himself to completely free Seachel.

In the end, Ellasone lost to Kaori, and was handed over to the Church for punishment.

Chapter 2
The Church received intel about a magic cabal preparing a spiritual device of mass destruction on an island in the Micronesia. They sent Kaori in to completely destroy the device, stop the cabal's plan, and to kill or capture the mastermind behind it. As a result, Kaori, the jeans shop owner and the tour guide lady went to the Uphill Island (アップヒル島) to investigate and resolve the issue.

Uphill Island was originally just a chunk of rock sticking out of the ocean with only 3 meters in diameter. But 50 years ago, an underwater volcano eruption caused a plate movement, then the current Island was formed. Because of this, Uphill Island is seen as an irregular and a bad omen to the surrounding islands, and so they don't have a good relationship with each other. Also, the locals on Uphill Island have developed a belief that "people who live here are good, people who come from outside are bad" and generally do not like visitors, making investigation even harder.

After some investigation, it looks like that the local religion is influenced by the "cargo cult" religions. The locals think that the good things given to the surrounding islands were originally meant for the new island as a blessing from the Gods, but the other islands stole them. It's as if the locals are all preparing something to take those blessings back by force.

At first they suspected that the locals are all involved in this mass destruction magic plan, but this idea was dismissed quickly. Then they tried to figure out what religion that spiritual device is based on. It couldn't be the Island's modified version of cargo cult, since it's relatively new compared to the other branches on the other islands, and it doesn't have a record of large scale magic activity. It also couldn't be the main religion of the surrounding islands (believing in the blessings of the sea), since all the important artifacts of that religion are on the other islands, and this island does not have priests (or equivalent) of that religion. In the end, they figured that it's most likely something left on that 3 meter rock by Christians during the Age of Discovery, before the island was formed.

Later, Kaori arrived at that rock alone. It's in a part of the island with no settlements. There, she saw a 10-year-old girl whose name was never given appears to be another English magician doing something at the rock. When Kaori was about to fight, the girl invited her to come take a look at what's on the rock.

It's not something left by Christians, but rather, it's a set of runes. However, it doesn't have any magical meaning to it, since it's more like the Japanese "a i u e o" table. The girl explained that it's something related to Norse myth. During the Age of Discovery, Christianity was forced upon many nations. That set of runes was left by believers of the Norse religion on territory that was not yet covered by Christianity, in hopes to keep their religion alive.

The girl explained that she came to this island to investigate the impacts that her religion had in different cultures. After deducing that the girl is not a threat, and that there must be another magician on the island, Kaori gave the girl an amulet sort of thing for her to wear on her neck to track her position (so in case there is magic activity on the island, she can prove that she was not there) and to communicate with Kaori in case of an emergency. Then the girl suggested that the real culprit is someone who can cause a great flood that can wash everything, since this is probably what the locals want to happen because of the treatment they get from the surrounding islands.

Just as Kaori was about to leave the girl and go search for the real mastermind, the girl triggered a red flood which swallowed the part of the island that they are on, avoiding herself but washing Kaori away into sea. The water that washed her away is red and has an unnatural consistency, making it harder to move around in the red water. This spell is called Ymir's Ocean, which allows her to control the water and salt in the ocean. In order to use this, she'll have to change the salt concentration of her own blood to match that of the ocean's, since the ocean was created from Ymir's blood in Norse myth. However, if she does that, she'll definitely damage her own organs. So she concentrated all the salty blood in blood vessels in her hand, and stopped it from flowing to other parts of the body. Of course, this means she has to restrict the flow of her blood, so she cannot use this spell for a long duration.

After being washed away, Kaori reappeared on top of the water, on waterskis (she hid her sword in a waterski case, so she probably had real waterskis in there too). She explained that Ullr (a.k.a Ollerus), who is known as the god of hunting and skiing, was among the gods who were not swallowed by Ymir's flood. In other words, as long as she's on Skis, Ymir's flood will not sink her.

The girl then told Kaori the reason why she's doing this. Originally, she really did come here for research. She skimped on the people-clearing magic because she didn't expect people to come, and in order to prevent the sea water from eroding the rock, she used her magic to control the water current. However, she was seen controlling the water. Because of this, the locals think she is the key for the island to gain power, and the surrounding islands think that they are going to be swallowed by a flood. In this situation, if she leaves the island without doing anything, everyone on the island will definitely be killed by people of the surrounding islands. This is why she can't leave.

The girl then proceeded to create salt pillars to attack Kaori, but she dodged them all. When Kaori had the chance, she used the force of an emerging salt pillar and leaped into the air. Then she dodged a few more salt pillars in mid-air. After Kaori landed, the girl went full force and sent a large wave towards her. However, this pushed Kaori towards the island. Then Kaori headed straight for the girl while on skis and knocked her out with one hit.

After the girl regained consciousness, Kaori offered the girl to leave quietly with her. Then they hear loud cheers from different parts of the island. The locals are cheering because after seeing the red flood in action, they are confident that this power can help them destroy the enemy.

In the end, the girl decided to stay and try to resolve the issue without using the red flood.

Chapter 3
Kaori's mission is to stop a magician from destroying a steel plant in Denmark and stopping its operation. That steel plant is one of Academy City's supporters. They don't want this to worsen the relationship between the science side and the magic side. The magician has already destroyed similar facilities in other places using the same method.

While investigating on how the magician is planning to destroy a steel plan that covers such a large area, they found a magic circle in the middle of an asphalt road, right under their feet. There is nothing important around where they are standing. Destruction to the asphalt road would not deal any damage to the steel plant's operation. It looks as if the culprit placed those runes in many places throughout the plant just to increase the effect. Then they see an explosion in the distance, destroying a part of the plant. Right after, the place where they were standing also exploded.

However, they were unharmed by the explosion, because Kaori found a way to limit the effects of the explosion after understanding the runes used in the magic circle.

They thought the only way to stop the destruction would be to destroy all the runes throughout the plant, but Kaori suggested that they could just stop the magician behind it. There was a suggestion that the magician is triggering all these explosions far away from the plant, but Kaori dismissed that possibility because there are no signs of magic that allow long range triggering, so the magician must be within the premises of this steel plant. She also realized that the magician placed the runes everywhere so the people pursuing him would think that there are no safe spots for him to hide. But in fact, since he is the one triggering these explosions, he can control where these safe spots are. Kaori already knew where the magician is hiding, and sent a flying road sign at his hiding spot. Leasic ran away, and Kaori chased after him. Just as he was about the reach the next safe spot for the next wave of explosion, Kaori caught up and wrapped her wires around his arms, threatening to cut them off if he doesn't surrender. However, the magician cut off his own arms using the wires by himself. After that, fire created from runes sprout out from where his arms were cut, acting like wings or thrusters.

He got away temporarily, and triggered another wave of explosion. However, nothing happened. It appears that the jeans shop owner found a link into the magic that the magician used and rigged the magic circles so that they don't explode. Then Kaori caught up to him again and attacked him with her wires. As a last struggle, the magician broke free using the fire coming out from his body, then tried to escape, but his condition didn't allow him to do so.

He said that he's doing this to protect the Earth. Kaori wondered why he needs to do this when this steel plant is run by regular people and is only producing regular household items and not weapons. He said that it's because the science side is "eroding away" the magic side with these plants. He said that the pollutants released from these plants lead to acid rain, which destroys the runes written on stones from a long time ago. Even though those runes might not have any magical meaning, they are valuable information to rune users such as himself. Kaori said to him that destroying the plants this way would only lead to innocent people dying, and will create pollution in another form. However, the magician explained that he couldn't care less about water pollution of other forms of pollution. All he want to do is to save those ancient rune writings.

After thinking for a moment that the magician actually wanted to stop the pollution to save the Earth and then being disappointed at the truth, Kaori knocked him out.

Chapter 4
This time, the problem is that the "Brick Wharf" located in northern Scotland is taken over by an opposing force. That opposing force is actually an artificial magic lifeform created by the person who manages the wharf. The wharf is actually from the Industrial Revolution period, but is now used as one of the main magical defenses of the United Kingdom. If this facility is destroyed or if other countries know of this incident, it could mean danger to the country. Kaori and company are sent to resolve the matter before it worsens.

There, they meet up with Slappar, the manager of the wharf, who claims to be chased out of the building by Alfar. 3 KM away from the wharf, they talk about a couple of things:
 * 1) Slappar is incapable of using complex magic. He was born with this disadvantage.
 * 2) He created Alfar, the artificial lifeform who captured the facility, to help him cast complex magic and overcome his weakness.
 * 3) Alfar possesses the knowledge to run the facility, and can possibly create more artificial lifeforms.
 * 4) The wharf's main weapon is a magical cannon with a 200 KM range. The cannon fires an invisible blast that analyzes the victims' magic and sends out a signal to make them lose control of their magic and damaging their bodies.
 * 5) Alfar probably rigged the cannon so that when she dies, the cannon would be destroyed, thus crippling the UK's defenses.

They were able to get this close to the building by hiding from bush to bush. Then Kaori just stood up and walked towards the building without getting hurt even if she was hit. This is because the Amakusa's magic is a mix between Christianty, Buddhism and Shintoism. If the cannon reacts to her Christianity-based magic pattern, she can immediately change to Buddhism. Then when the cannon reacts to her Buddhism magic pattern, she can change to Shintoism and so forth. By cycling her magic patterns, she can effectively avoid the effects of the cannon and walk towards the building without being hurt. Once inside the building, she meets Alfar. After fending off a creature with the head of a crocodile and the body of a dog that Alfar sent out, Alfar ran away, then later Kaori discovered a room with more monsterous-looking creatures in large spherical containers. She thought Alfar created them to help her fight. Then she was surprised attacked by Alfar. Meanwhile, waiting outside, when the jeans shop owner was about to go towards the building to help Kaori, he was surprise attacked by Slappar.

Back inside the facility, Kaori was unharmed by Alfar's surprise attack by using her wires to create a 3D magic "circle" that protected her from Alfar's attack. Alfar then told her that she didn't create those other lifeforms. They were originally normal animals that "evolved" into their current monstrous state because of Alfar's existence. It seems that Alfar has the power to cause life around her to evolve, and humans are no exception. The evolution happens within a few hours. Those monstrous-looking creature were put into those containers by Alfar to slow down their "evolution". It seems that even if she dies, her corpse would still have the same effect, so committing suicide would not make things better. Because Alfar doesn't want to affect people and animals around her anymore, she decided to isolate herself in this facility until she finds a solution.

Then Slappar appeared and attacked Kaori. Slappar fights by by creating and using trillions of snowflake-like runes to generate a flood of acid (Alfar also uses the same way of creating runes as Slappar). It's a simple magic, but he can make up for it with amount. However, Kaori easily defended against the attack. He explained that natural alfars (elves) also have the ability to cause life to evolve, but at a much slower rate. Slappar initially created Alfar to help him overcome his weekness, but the "finished product" just happened to have a much more magnified evolution-inducing power than natural elves. Slappar wanted to make use of Alfar's evolution-inducing property to make himself evolve so that he could lose his weakness. During the development, he did some adjustments to the wharf's magical defence cannon. But because it became a big issue, he had to notify the Necessarius. As such, he made a lie and pretended to be defeated and chased out of the building by Alfar.

Next, Kaori attacked Alfar with her wires and killed her. Seeing that his only hope was lost, Slappar lost the will to battle and was captured by Kaori. However, Alfar didn't die. Kaori only scratched her, then used her own blood together with some magic to make it look like that blood splurted out of Alfar's body, and it tricked Slappar to make him think that Alfar died. In the end, Alfar was being taken to another research facility which is currently developing a spiritual device to control this kind of evolution-inducing power.

Chapter 5
The Underwater Prison is having navigation troubles and is heading towards India. At this rate, once the submarine reaches India, the prisoners inside will be release into the wild. Kaori and co are sent to sink the submarine and kill whoever tries to swim to the coast. It's a simple killing mission, no need to rescue the wardens inside.

So here they are at the Nagercoil Coast in southern India.

The Underwater Prison is an underwater prison transport that is used to transport magic-related fugitives from all over the world to the Necessarius. There are 12 of these submarines in total. But because these submarines travel throughout the world, they can't go undetected by the Science side. So what they did is transform one of these submarines into a luxurious underwater cruise which is actually operating. To the public, it would seem that all 12 of theses subs are luxury cruises, but in fact only one is, and the other 11 are operating as prison transports. In order to prevent these submarines from being hijacked, they cannot be controlled from the inside. Instead, 7 spiritual devices called the "Cape of Good Hope" are spread throughout the world to navigate these subs.

At first, they suspected that the "Cape of Good Hope" located in India was rigged and someone used it to change the course of the sub. However, the magicians in charge there did not find anything wrong. So Kaori and co headed to the spiritual device to chek it themselves. There, they used their own methods, but didn't find any problems with it. This means that the "Cape of Good Hope" is not the reason for the sub's navigation problem, which means that the problem should be from the inside.

Then Kaori suggested the Naglfar. In Norse myth, it's a ship made from fingrnails of the dead, and it transported those who opposed the Gods. The prisoners in the sub symbolize the ones who oppose the Gods, and the culprit who hijacked the sub probably killed people inside and spread their nails throughout the sub, essentially turning the sub into the Naglfar. Since it's now Naglfar in essence and not the original sub, the "Cape of Good Hope" cannot control it anymore.

Just as they started heading towards the coast again to reach the sub, Kaori was contacted by another magician sent by the Necessarius. It turns out because Kaori and company took too much time, the other magician was sent to destroy the sub. Because the Naglfar did not have diving capabilities, the sub went to the surface, and is therefore easily reachable.

The other magician headed towards the sub, and not wanting innocent people to die, Kaori chased after her on foot. At the edge of the coast, Kaori caught up to her and tackled her, then crashed into the sand. However, since they were travelling at such high speed crashing into the sand would be devastating, so Kaori had to cast a defense magic. While Kaori was focusing on the defense magic, the other magician broke free and headed towards the sub on water. Kaori chased after her again. They cannot run on water, but what they can do is using the stuff floating on water (garbage, drifting wood, nets, etc) as stepping stones. This of course is done in high speed. Kaori caught up to her and kicked her, but she didn't fall and didn't sink. The magician had a drop in speed, but picked it up again.

While wondering how that magician managed to keep up with a Saint in terms of power and speed, she noticed that the magician kept on throwing triangle pieces of leather onto thte water. In Norse myth, Vidar slayed Fenrir while wearing a pair of shoes made from triangle pieces of leather. These triangle pieces of leather that the magician throws onto the water symbolizes Vidar's shoes and grants her strength. When the magician threw a punch into the water, the water splashes hit Kaori with a great force, even though the punch didn't hit her. This is because the triangles also lets the magician increase the power of the wind around her to give her an even bigger boost. Then Kaori started to use her wires to cut those triangles into irregular shapes. It you cut a triangle with a straight line, at least one of the 2 parts would also be a triangle. Therefore, Kaori cut them with curves into irregular shapes. However, the magician retaliated by using the wind and water to cut those irregular shapes back into triangles. Soon this turned into a high speed leather cutting match. Theoretically, the magician would not lose if she doesn't make any mistakes, since keep on dividing these pieces in half would only lead to an increase in the number of triangles, which will give her even more power. The pieces eventually became so small that the magician could not accurately use her power to cut, since the power that she used is not her own power. In the end, Kaori won the cutting match and the other magician fell into the water.

By then, they have already reached the sub, and the prisoners inside saw this "fight". Kaori basically said to them "I don't know which of you is the one behind this hijacking, but if you still want to fight after seeing that, please come out." (not her exact words, of course), and the issue was resolved without fighting anyone inside. The sub was turned back into a sub and went back on its way to England.

Chapter 6
This time, Kaori's mission is to suppress a magician named Orlentz Trice, who's currently researching on immortality. His current theories have already been proved to have flaws, but he's still doing experiments based on those theories. Thus they want him to be stopped.

This time, Kaori is going alone. Orlentz's base is not easily accessible, therefore she took a special transport which would take her to the base. There, she met Birdway and Mark Space. It appears that they are all here for the same reason - to take down Orlentz. Kaori thought about the possibility of Orlentz and Birdway's organization teaming up together, but she dismissed that idea because she was told beforehand that Birdway's organization have already attacked some of Orlentz's facilities.

They discussed about Orlentz's experiments. Kaori was originally not told how Orlentz plans to achieve immortality, but Birdway explained that he plans to make use of the protection on original grimoires, and put it on humans. This, of course is dangerous for Orlentz too, but it appears that he doesn't care. It also appears that he's not doing this for any particular reason. He's just crazy.

They are actually not on Earth, but in space, in zero gravity condition. Orlentz got his current base with the help of the Science side, which is another reason why the Church wants him down. The transport that they are currently in is actually a container for transporting material and equipment to the base. During their trip, Kaori and Birdway kept on wanting to fight each other because even though they share the same objective right now, the Church and Birdway's "organization" have always been enemies of each other. Also, Birdway kept on referring to Kaori as an old lady and one who only knows how to shake her boobs. Kaori also implicitly makes fun of her for being a kid. However, each time they want to fight, Mark stops them by threatening to open the door of the container that leads outside. During the flight, Birdway also did other stuff like eating snacks and scattering them everywhere, drinking juice, playing handheld videogames with Mark, and grabbing Mark's legs then spin him around and throw him against a wall.

When they finally arrived, Orlentz was waiting outside with a guard plate enforced with the protection used in grimoires that he plans to use as protection against Kaori and Birdway. However, as soon as they arrived, Kaori and Birdway started fighting each other. The force blew up the container from the inside and knocked down Orlentz. While injured, Orlentz asked "Didn't you guys come here to defeat me?", then Kanzaki and Birdway both replied the same thing, telling him to shut up and will with him later, as Kaori and Birdway reached the limit of their tolerance towards each other.

Chapter 7
Kaori and company are sent to investigate the incident of famous Norse myth related magic cabals being attacked on after another in western Europe. The attacker(s) stole information and spiritual devices from the victims' bases, and it's possible that he/she is (or they are) planning something big. And because the Necessarius does not have the responsibility to protect the cabals, Kaori can use them for any purpose if the situation calls for it.

They arrive in Ostend, Belgium, in the base of the "Champions from the Sea" - the magic cabal that was most recently attacked, and also the 3rd most powerful Norse myth cabal. There, Kaori and company learn 3 things:
 * 1) All 1302 members of the cabal were badly injured in the exact same places, but not dead.
 * 2) It's not a group of people who attacked these cabals. It's 1 person.
 * 3) The attacker attacked the cabals starting from the most powerful one.

As such, they have decided to go to the attacker's next target, "Those Who Know the Words on the Sword of God", to ambush him/her. After going there, Kaori went in alone to negotiate with the members of the cabal. Meanwhile, the jeans shop owner told the tour guide that the attacker is probably another Saint. After a show of power, Kanzaki convinced the members of the cabal to leave the place, then the jeans shop owner and the tour guide came in to help prepare for the ambush. It appears that the memebers of the cabal mistook Kaori for a person named "Brunhild", who's actually the attacker. While they were wondering whether Brunhild would realize that it's an ambush, they hear a voice, but didn't know wheree it came from. That voice is from the Brunhild. Immediately after, large projectiles came flying in, breaking the walls of the base. Kaori wanted to slice the projectiles in half, but she noticed that those projectiles were actually the bodies of the people who were just convinced to leave the base. The Brunhild was using them as weapons. After being hit by the human cannonball, Brunhild charged towards Kanzaki and they started fighting. Brunhild's clothes were strange. Feathered cap, one piece dress, pants, knee and elbow guards, and a breast plate. It looks really messed up, but in the magic sense, her clothes form a set of medival armor. The weapon that she used was a Claymore. It's a huge sword, one that could deal substantial damage even without any sort of skills or tactics. However, it is clear the Brunhild is also skillfully using the sword. After some fighting, Kaori eventually damaged Brunhild's sword, with Brunhild noticing this as well.

Brunhild was about to retreat, however, Kaori wanted to press on and defeat her right here, but the jeans shop owner and the tourguide were also inside. Further damage to the base would be dangerous for them. Then Brunhild told Kaori that they will meet again when she finishes the Gungnir and left the scene. After searching the database, they found out that Brunhild is indeed a Saint. She was also part of a small cabal that was destroyed 5 years ago.They took the injured to a nearby Necessarius hideout to treat them. However, Brunhild cast some kind of magic on the victims to prevent healing magic from being cast on them and to halt their bodies' natural healing abilities.

Kaori was trying to get information out of one of the victims, about Brunhild and the cabal that she belonged to. However, he said he'd rather die than talk about it. That is, until Kaori told him that Brunhild plans to show up again once she completes the Gungnir, the spear used by Odin. Brunhild is a Saint, but at the time she is also a Valkyrie. The people from the other Norse magicians think that her Saint side corrupts their history and culture, and that she is a disgrace. They called her "Hel". So the 5 most powerful Norse myth magic cabals teamed up and destroyed Brunhild's cabal. Suddenly, they hear Brunhild's voice again. But this time, it's coming from the person that Kanzaki was interrogating. Brunhild hijacked the person's body and spoke out of his mouth. Through the person's mouth, Brunhild mentioned some of the other things that they did to her and those around her, but didn't give details. She also mentioned that once she completes the Gungnir, she's gonna drag every one of them into the underworld, living up to the name of "Hel". She's gonna go through with her plan even if it means destroying the balance of the magic side. A normal person would not be able to create, let alone wield, such a divine weapon. However, being a Saint and a Valkyrie, she is definitely not normal.

When the talk was over, she gave the person an option to commit suicide by biting his own tongue off, then released control of him. The person really attempted to do so, but Kaori put her hand in his mouth and stopped him. The person's jaw was dislocated, and Kaori hand was injured. Then, Kaori used her wires and magic to detect the flow of magic inside the guy and traced Brunhild's location. When she was heading towards Brunhild's whereabouts, she thought about the words that the Kaori managed to squeeze out with his dislocated jaw - the "Final Rune". Of the runes that Odin used, all of them existed for clear and simple-to-understand purposes, except for one. No one knows what that rune does or how it's used, except for Odin himself. It's a possibility that once that final rune is understood, the Gungnir will be truly complete. She also wondered why Brunhild needs the Gungnir, when she already has the ability make people suffer. But whatever the reason is, Brunhild must be stopped.

Chapter 8
Brunhild is both a Saint and a Valkyrie. However, she can't use both of her powers at the same time. Her powers are like the phases of the moon. When her Saint side is strong, her Valkyrie side is powerless; and when her Valkyrie side is strong, her Saint side is powerless. This is usually not a problem, since she's still strong with only one of her powers. However, every few months, there are a few days when her Saint side and Valkyrie side are balanced out 50/50. When this happens, she would not be able to use any of her powers, and will become a normal human without any of her special qualities.

Half a year ago, when she was completely powerless, Brunhild was captured by the cabals that despised her. They probably didn't know about Brunhild's special power cycle, so it was most likely by chance that they captured her during her "slump". Even though the hated her, they didn't kill her, since she is still a valuable research subject as a Valkyrie. Brunhild was born with special qualities. As such, she probably knows a lot of rare and special magic, which the cabals want to know about. In order to get her to talk, they tortured her. However, they didn't do any irreversible damage to her body, and they didn't sexually abuse her. This is not because they cared about her. It's because once she breaks and gives up, it would be impossible to get her to talk. Instead, they kept on torturing her, but leaving her with a glimpse of hope each time.

The person who delivers food to her prison cell is a 10-year-old child. That child is the only one she could talk to normally, and eventually opened up to him. Eventually, the child apologized to her, saying that he was ordered to talk to her to soften her up for more torture. The child kept on blaming himself for not being able to do anything to help her. It's then that Brunhild decided to help the child. For that, she decided to endure the pain and patiently wait until her power recovers. One day when her power has almost completely recovered, one of the magicians who tortured her showed up instead of the child. The magician told Brunhild that the child attempted suicide because of all the guilt he felt. The magician showed Brunhild a note that the kid wrote. It said "I'm sorry I couldn't help you". Immediately after, Brunhild snapped and broke out of the facility.

Back in the present, Brunhild is in an abandoned mineral water plant. Even though this is not a volcano, there is magma coming out through the floor. She realized that she's being tracked by Kaori, grabbed the Gungnir, and prepared for the attack.

Her Gungnir is a 3 meter long spear that doesn't look like a spear at all. It looks like it has a bit of everything, and it looks like it's alive and constantly evolving. This spear has the power to completely destroy the power balance of the magic side, but in order to save the child, she doesn't care what happens to the magic side. However, the spear is not complete and only has 70% of its power.

At first Kaori's wires showed up which attacked Brunhild from all angles, even then, Brunhild managed to dodge all of them. Then Kaori showed up in person and the started fighting.

The spear is only at 70% power. This is because it's still missing the "Final Rune". However, that rune is not that simple. It's carved with straight lines like other runes, but the coloring makes it much more complicated. Also, in order to give the spear full power, the final rune is not supposed to be carved onto the spear. Brunhild gave the task of carving the rune to an automatic writing mechanism, but there are still a few more hours before it's complete. Furthermore, while constructing the Gungnir, Brunhild put in symbols of the Spear of Longinus in without noticing, which lowers the purity of the Gungnir and further limiting its power output. Because the Gungnir is known as a throwing spear, Kaori went for close range attacks. However, the Gungnir has the ability to destroy weapons. It has a legend of breaking the Balmung in one hit. Noticing this, Kaori withdrew her sword and prevented the Gungnir's parts from snapping her sword in half. The Gungnir is known to hit any target when thrown, cannot be blocked by any weapon no matter how strong the weapon is, and will definitely return to Odin when thrown. However, Brunhild suggests that these ridiculous properties were only added on by other people, and are not what the Gungnir truly is. What the Gungnir really has is the ability to perfectly control weather and other natural occurences. She attacked Kaori with thunder, magma, water and even created large amounts of salt to damage the ground that Kanzaki was standing on. She can do all these with just 70% of it's original power.

Kaori was wondering where the Final Rune would be carved in and what it would look like so that she could destroy it. Brunhild then showed it to Kaori. It was one character carved on a piece of wood that Brunhild held in her hand. As soon as Kaori saw this, she had a severe headache. She recognized this feeling. It's just like looking at an original grimoire. It was just one character and had the same power as a whole grimore.

Then, the jeans shop owner contacted Kaori. Back at the hideout, they got more information out of the memebrs of the magic cabals. They said that the Final Rune is not something that's put into objects or people. It's to be carved directly into the world, at a specific place. No one will be able to find it, and so no one will be able to destroy it. Furthermore, it has the power of an original grimoire. Therefore once it's finished and grants the Gungnir its full power, no one would be able to destroy it anymore. The rune that Brunhild held in her hand was most likely some reference material for the automatic writer.

The jeans shop owner also told Kaori that the real reason behind the incident half a year ago was not to stop Brunhild from corrupting the Norse myth community. It was to get Brunhild to talk about the Gungnir and the Final Rune. Also, the child who committed suicide is still unconscious in hospital. Kaori realizes that Brunhild isn't doing this for revenge. Rather, she wants to use the powers of a God to save the child. Then, Brunhild interrupted their talk. She told Kaori that the rune is being carved in the core of the Earth. Naturally, one would think that this is impossible, but Brunhild has been doing preparations.

The Cape of Good Hope - a navigation control device with a range of 9000km (part 5). However, it is heavily guarded by the Necessarius' magic. For this, Brunhild contacted Ellasone (part 1) to break into the magic security and analyze the device. With this, she got the range covered.

The idea of carving the rune onto the inner core is simple. The outer core consists of a nickel iron fluid, and the flow of this fluid generates the magnetic fields of the Earth. By calculating the magetic fields, it's not hard to interfere with the flow of the fluid with the help of magic. By controlling the flow, it is possible to carve the inner core, like how water shapes the land. This, however, is relying on science. She was not sure if this would affect the outcome. For this, she used Leasic (part 3). Leasic used lasers (which are scientific) to mass engrave runes in short periods of time. This proves that using scientific methods to construct runes would not have much effect on the result. The Ymir's Ocean girl (part 2) and Orentz (part 6) were used to observe the movement of the clouds, the flow of the water and the rotation of the planet, which helps with the calculation.

Brunhild originally had doubts about whether a human could wield the Gungnir. She thought maybe only artificial lifeforms could wield it. As such, she contacted Slappar (part 4). However, analysis and research showed that this possibility is low. Brunhild probably also made a lot of other preparations too. Due to various reasons, they probably won't be able to stop the automatic writer in time. The only way is to defeat Brunhild.

Brunhild admitted that she wants to use the powers of God to save the child. However, Kaori said that it's useless. It's not as simple as healing a wound. That child was mentally crushed. He's dead inside. Can't be completely healed even with the help of a God.

According to Kaori. This is something that every Saint goes through; born with such special powers, there must be a time when people around you are injured or die because of you. You can't do anything, even though you're a Saint, all you have is merely a fraction of the Son of God. You don't have the power to revive the dead.

Brunhild doesn't want to give up. Kaori explained that Norse myth recognizes deaths and as such, Norse magic should not be able to bring back the dead. There are ways of extending life, but what's dead is dead. Still, Brunhild blames herself for the child's current situation, and wants to do all she can to save her. Kaori explained to her that this is probably not what the child wants to see, but Brunhild still believed that she could save the kid. Brunhild thought of the note that the child left, then she went crazy. She fought Kaori with anger, and blood started spurting out of her body. This was a sign that she used her power wrongly and damaged her body.

After some more fighting, Kaori noticed something. There is no concept of elements in Norse myth. Brunhild triggered those elemental attacks by different combinations of fire, ice and frost symbols. This forms a trinity - a symbol of Christianity. This is probably something that Brunhild failed to notice when building the weapon. After finding a loophole, Kaori struck the spear with her sword in a way so that it forms a cross. Through the cross and the fact that the Gungnir has symbols of Christianity embedded in it, Kanzaki injected Saint powers into Brunhild. Brunhild wanted to trigger the spear to snap Kaori's sword in half, but she was not able to control it. When Kaori released one hand to reach for the sheath, the cross lost its form and Brunhild regained control of the weapon. But by then, she already lost more than half of her powers. Brunhild let out one final strike, but was knocked unconscious by Kaori in the end.

The Gungnir was destroyed, and the automatic writer stopped functioning because of that. Brunhild was taken away by the Necessarius. The jeans shop owner mentioned that the child is probably still unconscious because the memebrs of the cabals cast a magic on him to prevent him from recovering, just to make Brunhild mad. There of course is a way to fix this, but Brunhild probably didn't realize this.

The Necessarius plans to ask Brunhild about the Gungnir, the Final Rune and the how she planned to carve it onto the core of the Earth. However, records show that torturing probably wouldn't get her to talk. As such, they plan to bring the child in and use him as a negotiation tool to get Brunhild to talk. The team who's going to do this is led by none other than Richard Brave. The jeans shop owner and the tour guide have already found the location of the hospital that the kid is in, and they are planning to go.

Characters
By order of appearance
 * Kanzaki Kaori
 * Jeans Shop Owner
 * Leivinia Birdway
 * Mark Space

New Characters

 * Ellasone
 * Miss Tour Guide
 * Seachel
 * Bishop of St. Julian’s Cathedral
 * Ymir's Ocean Girl
 * Leasic
 * Slappar
 * Alfar
 * Víðarr Shoes Woman‎
 * Orlentz Trice
 * Brunhild Eiktobel
 * Setrua
 * Ceillier Flatley (flashback only)

New Abilities

 * Ymir's Ocean - Ymir's Ocean Girl
 * Explosives Runes - Leasic
 * Induced Evolution - Alfar
 * Magic Pattern Switch - Kanzaki Kaori
 * Acid Flood - Slappar, Alfar
 * Cape of Good Hope - Unknown
 * Naglfar - Unknown prisoner
 * Vidar's Shoes - Unnamed Necessarius' female magician.
 * Original Grimoires Protection - Orlentz Trice
 * Bodies Regeneration's Halt - Brunhild Eiktobel
 * Stigma - Brunhild Eiktobel
 * Bodies Hijacking - Brunhild Eiktobel
 * Valkyrie's Norse Magic Style - Brunhild Eiktobel
 * Gungnir (only at 70%) - Brunhild Eiktobel
 * Magic Flow Detection - Kanzaki Kaori
 * Final Rune - Brunhild Eiktobel

Cultural References

 * There are several references to Norse Mythology, especially that of the Valkyrie and legendary spear of Odin, Gungnir is prominently featured in the story.
 * The Spear of Longinus is references in the story, said to be the spear that pierced Jesus Christ on his side during the crucifixion in the Bible.