Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Kanzaki/Chapter 4

Synopsis
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. Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki, he was surprise attacked by Slappar.

Back inside the facility, Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki. 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, Kanzaki 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, Kanzaki 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 Kanzaki. However, Alfar didn't die. Kanzaki 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.

Characters

 * Kanzaki Kaori
 * Jeans Shop Owner
 * Tour Guide Girl

New Characters

 * Slappar
 * Alfar

New Abilities

 * Induced Evolution - Alfar
 * Magic Pattern Switch - Kanzaki Kaori
 * Acid Flood - Slappar, Alfar