Chapter 2: The Detectives of This World at War[Part 7]

Everyone was stunned.

Hino, who was unrelated to the entire case, lost consciousness either due to the pain or because his Angel-sama was believed to be false.

Now, all their trails in tracking down the culprit of Angel Fall were dead-ends. They had wasted so much time. They didn't know how to handle this, and they didn't know how much time they could use to grasp around.

"If Hino's not the culprit behind Angel Fall, who is?"

"How would I know...?"

Kamijou also didn't know what to say. They had no clues at all. Not knowing what to do, Kamijou and company could only stand around.

At that moment...

"Eh?"

Not daring to look at Kanzaki, Kamijou managed to catch a glimpse that something was not right. However, he didn't know what that feeling was.

Kamijou looked at the cupboard Hino was lying at and walked over.

The things in the cupboard were plentiful. Touya, who often went overseas to work, seemed to have placed his stash of all the meaningless items here.

The only non-collectible item here was a photo frame. Though Kamijou had lost his memory, he seemed to have moved into Academy City after he graduated from kindergarten, so the people in the photo should be the young Kamijou and his young parents.

"This is..."

The switched phenomenon wasn't just limited to the bodies, even the photos were the same. Aogami Pierce could fit in perfectly into Index's nun's habit because of this. The clothes, shoes sizes, fingerprints, bioinfo, photos, film, everything related to that person would be switched.

The photo in this frame had become weird because of Angel Fall. Kamijou had managed to use his Imagine Breaker ability to escape the effects, so the image of Kamijou still remained as his young self, but the photo of his mother had become Index, and the photo of his father—

—The photo of his father.

"...Hang on."

Kamijou muttered. Looking at where Kamijou's looking, the other magicians seemed to realize this.

What about Touya?

Why wasn't Kamijou Touya switched?

The topic they had just talked about seemed to be a distant memory.

"—The only one not affected by it is this boy in the middle of the commotion."

"—In this situation, isn't it reasonable to suspect that this boy is the culprit?"

This suspicious point started to help Kamijou remember the numerous suspicious points.

"—According to the results of the investigation, this strange phenomenon seems to be caused by you at the center, Kami-yan."

"—However, you're unaffected even though you're at the center."

The numerous suspicious points headed towards the same direction and formed a problem.

"—Kanzaki and I were lucky."

"—Under the double protection of the distance and the barrier, we managed to escape."

Yeah, Kamijou thought. Even if they were magicians, even most of the experts of the magical world couldn't escape Angel Fall.

"Don't tell me...dad..."

Kamijou let out those words, which made Kanzaki frown.

"What are you saying? Are you telling me that the person wasn't switched and remained the same?"

Kamijou didn't know how to answer that question.

But on thinking through it, Kanzaki's question was logical. Since Angel Fall changed all the photos and records, even if they wanted to find the information of person A after it happened, they would only find the information of person B that was switched. So even if Kamijou Touya's information wasn't switched, Kanzaki and the rest would have thought that this was another person that got switched.

At that moment, Misha, who was standing beside Kamijou, sighed coldly.

"My first response: Found the answer. Target defined. Just need to confirm the correctness of this answer... My personal opinion: I think that's a no-brainer."

After saying that, she leapt out of the open adjacent window, into the yard, and vanished without a trace.

"WAIT! MISHA KREUTZEV! WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!?"

Kanzaki frantically shouted, but Misha had already disappeared.

The target.

Kamijou just saw Kamijou Touya's photo and said that.

"...Tsuchimikado."

Kamijou took a deep breath, and asked, "In this Angel Fall, is it really rare to see someone like me not affected?"

"It's not just rare, it's just you only."

Tsuchimikado peered through the blue shades.

"Even with me who set up the magic array, or like nee-chin who just so happened to be in the deepest part of St. George Cathedral or Mont Saint-Michel Monastery, we couldn't get away from the effects of Angel Fall completely. It's like me knowing that I'm Tsuchimikado Motoharu, but other people view me as Hitotsui Hajime."

That's right, that was why they had thought Kamijou Touma was the culprit behind Angel Fall.

Everyone in the world should have been affected by Angel Fall, but only one person hadn't been affected by this huge magic at all.

This was the answer.

The person who wasn't affected by Angel Fall was the culprit.

Kamijou again stared at the photo frame on the cupboard.

There was a family photo of three.

Kamijou Shiina was switched as Index, no problems.

Kamijou Touma wasn't switched because of the Imagine Breaker. That was no problem as well.

However...

Kamijou Touya wasn't switched.

Of course, Touya didn't have the Imagine Breaker ability like Kamijou. if everyone in the world had to be affected by Angel Fall, and this Angel Fall was magic that affected everyone, it would be like a computer virus, only the creator was exempt.

"Damn it..."

Kamijou Touma didn't want to admit it.

But this was the only possibility.

"DAMN IT!"

The culprit was Kamijou Touya.

And Kamijou Touma hated himself for finding out.