A Scientific Urban Detective.

Chapter 1020 Shorthand Original
Seeing the horrific scene before him, Touma Kamijou couldn't help but gasp, feeling a chill run down his spine as if he were witnessing the same thing. He instinctively wanted to check on the charred bodies.

"Touma, this isn't over yet!"

Fortunately, Index's warning came in time, and Touma Kamijou himself had not really let his guard down—since a magic circle appeared here, and it erupted at just the right moment, didn't that mean there was a magician hiding nearby?

Even though the magician conveniently wiped out all the pursuers for him, Touma Kamijou didn't consider them his own people...

If it weren't for Index's timely intervention, and the fact that he had the trump card "Imagine Breaker," he and Index would probably be lying on the ground, charred black, just like these people in front of them.
"Index, can you find where he is?" Touma Kamijou forced himself to ignore the people still groaning on the ground, carefully looking around as he asked in a low voice.

“I don’t know, it’s a pre-set magic circle. I can’t find any more clues.” Index observed the remaining traces of the magic circle on the ground, then let out a soft exclamation, “This structure…”

"What's wrong? Did you find anything?" Touma Kamijou asked quickly.

“This isn’t a magic circle for summoning fire,” Index practically lay on the ground examining it closely. “It’s a unique rune used to transfer and conduct power… The magic itself isn’t here!”

Upon discovering the clue, Index looked up sharply: "Over there! The essence of fire magic is in that place!"

As she spoke, Index, who was already completely focused on interpreting the magic circle, didn't care about anything else and immediately ran towards the wall blocking the end of the road.

Touma Kamijou quickly followed, standing guard beside Index, carefully protecting her from any potential attacks.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly afterward. With Index's careful search, she quickly found a sticky note-like sticker on the wall. The paper was almost covered with symbols and patterns, and from a distance, it appeared dark gray, almost blending into the wall. If you didn't search closely, you probably wouldn't have been able to find it.

"This is..." Touma Kamijou also noticed the label, "A rune card?"

The strange, scribble-like characters and symbols on the paper immediately reminded Touma Kamijou of Stiyl's rune cards.

“Not only that,” Index examined the label with a serious expression, not rushing to peel it off, “runes, symbols, a carefully designed layout, cleverly woven patterns… incredible, that magic from just now was all condensed onto this tiny piece of paper!”

Touma Kamijou thought for a moment and said, "So, the enemy can unleash such a large-scale fire magic with just one card? Doesn't that make him even more powerful than that Stiyl guy?"

Touma Kamijou knew that when Stiyl used rune cards to unleash his ultimate technique "King of the Witches," he would need thousands upon thousands of cards! As a result, he had to rely on modern technology printers to freely activate the magic. And if the number of rune cards was reduced to a certain level, "King of the Witches" would disappear.

Incidentally, it seems that this is precisely why Stiyl became one of the few magicians in the Church of Necessary Evil who was proficient in modern technology.

In comparison, the unknown magician is indeed more powerful!
“No, that’s not how it’s calculated.” Index shook her head. “The two spells are different in nature and purpose, and their power is also vastly different.”

According to Index's observation, the burst of flames that had just shot into the sky looked impressive, but its destructive power was actually quite limited. At least among those "charred" pursuers, none of them were actually burned to death; they just looked rather miserable. However, if it were the "Witch Hunter King," even a mere touch from him would be fatal for an ordinary person.

Index cautiously reached out to touch the label: "I can only say that the magic on this piece of paper is more complete, it's almost like..."

"Just like the original texts of the grimoires." Someone suddenly chimed in from above, "Am I right, Index?"

Touma Kamijou immediately pulled Index back, creating a safe distance before looking up.

A blonde beauty was seen clinging to the wall with one hand and one foot, looking down at the two people below with a smile, as if she were Spider-Man.

"Ah, it's her!" Touma Kamijou recognized her immediately. "Oriana!"

He, Stiyl, Tsuchimikado Motoharu, and Takemiya Saiji had been searching for this woman for most of the day, but they never expected to meet her under these circumstances.

"We meet again, little brother Kamijou. Did you miss your big sister?" Oriana teased as she landed back on the wall and casually peeled off a label. "What a pity, I didn't get to directly touch my original grimoire."

"The original text of a grimoire? Yours?" Touma Kamijou exclaimed in surprise. "You can write the original text?"

After all, he's someone who spends every day with "Index to A Certain Magical Index." After two months, even though Touma Kamijou was originally a complete Muggle, he now has some understanding of things on the magical side, especially knowledge and information related to "Original Texts."

In the world of magicians, "original texts" are a rather rigorous concept; not just anyone has the qualification and ability to write original texts.

Even reading the original texts is a very dangerous thing for the vast majority of magicians.

Despite Index's mind containing the knowledge of 103,000 original magical books, this is the result of exhausting almost all magical books from the past and present of this world.

Now, this seemingly young woman is claiming that she can write a new original text, which even Touma Kamijou, a complete novice, finds hard to believe.

Index stared intently at the woman before her, and after a moment's thought, she said, "Your so-called original tome of magic is just a degraded version formed by extracting some of the original's characteristics, isn't it? If it were the true original... its power would be far too weak!"

“As expected of the ‘Index of Forbidden Books,’ your judgment is spot on.” Oriana smiled and readily admitted, while casually tearing up the label she had just seen. “That’s right, this is my magic—‘Shorthand Text’. I abandoned the original text’s self-preservation and long-term existence characteristics, and only extracted the ‘automatic casting’ property to write new magic in the most concise way.”

"Although it's not as powerful as the original..." Oriana casually pulled out a stack of shorthand notes, "you can still suffer if you're not careful!"

(End of this chapter)