To Aru Majutsu no Index – 08

Summary:

Stiyl explains that the corpse is probably belongs one of the Thirteen Knights of the Roman Catholic Church, and the reason why no one else notices is because everyone else here is split from them like they’re on different sides of a coin. The students on one side of the coin can’t notice them on the other side, and they can’t interfere with the students. Touma considers using his right hand, but Stiyl claims that they can’t get rid of the seal without destroying the core of the magic. The two then make their way up a long stairwell, and when Touma points out how they could have used the elevator, Stiyl reiterates that they can’t press buttons on the other side of the coin. Since Touma is also curious about phones, he tries calling Index with his cell, and he gets through. He’s initially pissed off when he learns that Index ate the lasagna and pudding in the refrigerator, but he lets it go because he’s glad to have been able to reach her. After Touma hangs up, Stiyl comments on how Touma was conversing carelessly with Index even though they’re on a battlefield, though Stiyl also denies being jealous. This leads to Touma thinking about how it wasn’t the current him that saved Index and that the person she wants is him before he lost his memories.

Further up the building, the two find rooms full of students interacting like normal people, but all of the sudden, all the students turn towards them even though they shouldn’t be able to see them. They start to chant in unison, and light orbs appear from each of their foreheads. Stiyl runs off, leaving Touma to deal with this, but Touma chases after him and is followed by all of the light orbs. Stiyl recognizes this as a replica of something called the Gregorian Choir which requires the prayers of 3,333 monks, but he also knows that it requires the control of a lot of people at once, so they only need to destroy what’s synchronizing them. His plan is to simply leave Touma to deal with it while he goes in a different direction. On his own now, Touma runs into a girl who continues the chanting, even as it causes cuts across her entire body. When she suddenly faints, Touma catches her, and he watches as all of the light orbs swirl together and surround him before falling to the ground harmlessly. His attention is then turned to Himegami Aisa who has suddenly appeared on the stairwell behind him.

After Himegami helps treat the unconscious girl’s wounds, Touma brings up how she needs to get out of here, but she claims that she has a goal that requires the alchemist. She doesn’t feel the need to go out because if she did so carelessly, she would attract vampires. The topic of vampires causes her to talk about how they aren’t different from humans. Her blood attracts them, and she kills them without reason or exception. Since Academy City is a place that deals with powers, she thought that she might be able to figure out the secret behind her power and how to remove it. However, there wasn’t such a thing. Himegami doesn’t want to kill any more, and she’s decided that she’d rather kill herself rather than someone else. The only reason she went out to the fast food restaurant was because Aureolus wanted her to attract vampires. She agreed to this after he promised not to hurt them, and she reveals that Aureolus has someone he wants to save that he needs a vampire’s power for. Himegami thus feels that she’s using her power not to kill but rather to save.

Touma objects to all this and believes that it’ll lead to something that can’t be undone. The man in question then appears, and Touma is shocked by Aureolus’s ability to move around instantly. When Touma tries to throw a punch, Aureolus easily moves out of the way, but Himegami gets between them and prevents the alchemist from harming Touma. She claims that Touma doesn’t know the significance of Deep Blood, and she goes on to question what Aureolus’s goal is. She threatens to quit if he just wants to kill ordinary people, so Aureolus promises not to kill Touma, but he then stabs his own neck and makes Touma forget everything that happened there. When Touma regains his senses, he’s back outside at a playground beside Stiyl who’s also forgotten everything. Touma remembers everything after touching his right hand to his head, and he helps Stiyl remember by punching him. While all this has been going on, Index meanwhile has come to investigate because she senses that something is up. Aureolus meets her when she enters the building, and he puts her to sleep.

By the time Touma and Stiyl make their way back to the building, they find several armored knights standing outside, and they begin the genuine Gregorian Choir spell to bombard the cram school building. The building starts to topple over from this, but it suddenly reverses course as if time was being turned back, and it’s soon back to its original state. Stiyl recognizes this as Ars Magna, and he calls it Aureolus’s true power. Shortly thereafter, Touma hears a cat meowing and sees Sphinx nearby with the top part of Index’s outfit. As Touma is realizing what happened, Aureolus is meanwhile carrying Index into a room at the top of the building.

Preview

Okay, so Aureolus (voiced by Sugita Tomokazu) is obviously really powerful – as is the Roman Catholic Church – but what the heck is he trying to do? This episode had some nice action and a lot of pretty lights, but story-wise, it mostly just confused me with what Aureolus is after with the vampires and the person he apparently wants to save – assuming that that’s not a lie he told Himegami to get her to help. He seems too evil to actually want to save someone. And what does he need with Index? To the writers/original author’s credit though, at least they at least they developed Himegami’s character a bit and made sense of what she’s doing.

Hopefully things will be cleared up about Aureolus next week. From the preview, it appears that there will be a fight, and Touma doesn’t look like he’s doing so hot in this shot.