Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Kanzaki/Chapter 8

Synopsis
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 Kanzaki, 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 Kanzaki's wires showed up which attacked Brunhild from all angles, even then, Brunhild managed to dodge all of them. Then Kanzaki 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, Kanzaki 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, Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki 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.

Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki. It was one character carved on a piece of wood that Brunhild held in her hand. As soon as Kanzaki 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 grimoire.

Then, the jeans shop owner contacted Kanzaki. 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 Kanzaki 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. Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki 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, Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki. 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. Kanzaki 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. Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki 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, Kanzaki 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, Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki's sword in half, but she was not able to control it. When Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki 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

 * Kanzaki Kaori
 * Jeans Shop Owner
 * Brunhild Eiktobel

New Characters

 * Ceillier Flatley (flashback)

New Abilities

 * Valkyrie's Norse Magic Style - Brunhild Eiktobel
 * Gungnir (only at 70%) - Brunhild Eiktobel
 * Magic Flow Detection - Kanzaki Kaori
 * Final Rune - Brunhild Eiktobel