Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 09

Publisher's Summary
Academy City's largest school event, the Daihaseisai.

The event is an athletic festival that also doubles as a large-scale experiment for ability development institutions which aims to determine the effects of interactions between abilities.

Of course, Kamijou Touma is a participant. However, his "misfortune" is going strong, having his head gnawed on by a hungry Index, facing a lecture from Daihaseisai Committee member Fukiyose Seiri, and fighting against Misaka Mikoto in an ability contest.

In the middle of these events, a mysterious object, the "Stab Sword", is carried by a certain magician that infiltrates Academy City.

Oriana Thomson. a leading "courier" in the Magic side, also known as "Route Disturb", and her motives are...!

When science and magic collide, Kamijou Touma's story shall begin!

Prologue: Preparations Stage Seen From Third-Person —　Parent's_View_Point.
September 19 marks the first day of Academy City's largest athletic meet, the Daihaseisai.

Newcomers to Academy City, Kamijou Touya and Shiina arrive to look for their son Touma. By chance, they would soon meet a woman named Misaka Misuzu, Mikoto's mother. Shiina slowly develops a dark aura upon seeing her husband's friendly attitude towards Misuzu, only to calm down upon seeing Touma talking to what turns out to be Misaka Mikoto, the one Misuzu is looking for.

To their surprise, they are witnessing the start of an anything-goes punishment game between the two.

Chapter 1: Under the Blazing Sun from the Starting Signal — Commence_Hostilities.
On England, Archbishop Laura Stuart of the Anglican Church holds an online meeting with the Superintendent of Academy City. The topic is about a magician who infiltrated Academy City — and it is not Stiyl Magnus. The names of the infiltrators are Oriana Thomson, a powerful magician that can elude being seen with ease, and Ridovia Lorenzetti, a "radical" member of the Roman Catholic Church.

And what they suspect that would be brought to Academy City is a powerful artifact called the "Stab Sword", a sword shaped artifact that can slay any Saint with ease. With the power balance between Science and Magic at stake, they decide that any major move will make things more complicated; thus, the Superintendent plans of using a "normal" boy to guide them through the conflict.

Kamijou Touma, after giving some food to Index, finds a lethargic school team on campus. Although not really his fault, he is blamed by classmate Fukiyose Seiri, who is also part of the event's Management Committee. After a short argument against the "iron wall girl", Touma soon discovers that their teacher, Tsukuyomi Komoe, is facing flak from one of the competing school's teachers.

This is just what A Certain High School needs to lift their spirits.

Meanwhile, Misaka meets Index while planning to watch Touma's match. While the #3 Level 5 feeds the poor hugry nun, she watches with shock as Touma's team emerges with an unusual aura.

After a tense first battle against an unnamed school, Touma and A Certain High School is victorious. However, they decide to be mum about actually knowing what Komoe has to face several minutes before. Touma soon goes to look for Index, who does not show up on their planning meeting area, and plans to contact him using his phone. His journey to his phone ends up in more misfortune when he catches Seiri wearing only her panties. Fukiyose shows a calm response at first, but Touma triggers her to be a bit more aggressive in the end.

Touma manages to find Index after discovering that Index does not know how to maintain her phone, and plans to take her to a food store before the next event starts. Unfortunately, an unexpected rerouting has brought them too far from the closest shop.
 * Chapter 2: A Stadium of Magicians and Espers — 　"Stab_Sword."
 * Chapter 3: Tactics of the Pursuers and Pursued — Worst_Counter.
 * Chapter 4: Did the Battle End in Victory or Not? — Being_Unsettled.

Saint Peter and Pietro's Cross
Is one of Jesus's Twelve Apostles, foundator of the Roman Catholic Church and also a saint. Peter was executed during the late 1st century A.D., and when Emperor Constantine first recognised Christianity was in the early 4th century, and the Frankish king, Papal the short, gave up this land in the 8th century.

Peter wasn’t on good terms with the Roman empire at that time, for he was enemies with the high magician of the empire, Simon Magus, and in the end, killed him. (Note: Legend had it that the magician Simon wanted to show that his power exceeds those of the Apostles, and thus let himself float in the air. As Simon was floating in the air, Peter kneeled down and asked God for a miracle. In the end, Simon immediately fell down and ended up dead). To do that sort of thing when Christianity was being persecuted, one can imagine what sort of end he would meet.”

There are many legends about Peter when he was executed. Besides the just stated one, there’s also the famous ‘Quo Vadis (Where are you going?)’ legend (Note: At first, Peter was convinced by his fellow believers to escape to the gates of Rome, and saw Jesus. He asked Jesus, “Where are you going?” Jesus replied, “I’m going back to Rome, to be nailed on the Cross again.” Thus, Peter understood what he meant, and went back to pay the price of his faith with his life). As Peter was being pursued by the Imperial soldiers, he was saved by his fellow believers, who begged him to run onto the streets. He already reached the gates, only to let himself get captured by the soldiers. Furthermore, he saw a vision of the ‘Son of God’ at the exit, realising that that is the time when he has to be the martyr.

On the day that Peter was executed on the Cross, he made this request, ‘I don’t dare to die the same way as my Lord, so please turn the Cross over.’ As one of the twelve Apostles, Peter must have known that no matter what action he took, he would be executed one day. So, he could have used what he could have done with his own death and tried to get the best out of it, even considering what might happen several hundred years later.

Even so, it was after Peter’s death that people first erected ‘a Cross to commemorate Peter,’ and state that ‘this land is Peter’s inheritance,’ which led to a long road that ended up with 2 billion believers forming the nucleus of the Roman Catholic Church.

Actually, Peter did think through it, where he would be killed. As you all know, where Peter is resting today is at the centre of the Vatican. He knows that the place where he’s going to be killed would be closely linked to the history after that, so it ended up inheriting the ‘Apostle’s Cross’ to the future Roman Catholic Church. And the cross commemorating him is the 'Pietro's Cross'.