[sasuke706]

Originally Posted by Bordix

Catching up with all the discussions and spoilers.

Found a summary of vol 19 courtesy of The Observer from OM.

Spoiler for vol 19:

Quetzal (aka unabara mitsuki) had a senpai-kouhai relationship with the Aztec magician after his life in vol 15, and now after that incident she calls him ‘onii-chan’ again after a long time. Motoharu comments that he’s a lucky ******* having a ‘imouto’-type girl, and even better one that’s not blood related. Motoharu also mentions how in the world Unabara can try and pick up a girl from tokiwadai (mikoto) when he already has this girl, and the girl in question starts giving unabara death-glares. The girl starts questioning unabara, saying he better not have betrayed their organisation for something like this.
Awaki comments that Motoharu and Unabara’s wasting time on little girls when they have a job to do (Motoharu was with his maid-sister before meeting up with rest of GROUP) and suggests Accelerator stop them, but Accelerator says he has no right to stop this kind of thing (LO and all…). Awaki then says she’s surrounded by perverts, but the rest of GROUP replied with the same timing she’s the same since she’s a shota-con (no proof yet though, but she didn’t deny the claim).

GROUP gets hired to take a rogue ‘group’ called ‘Spark Signal’ in academy city, though after Accelerator wiping out their main force they found they’re after info on DRAGON, and should’ve squeezed info out of them first.

Shiage tried to hijack a mini-copter to get to where Rikou is, but the pilot pulled out a knife from nowhere and said aviators these days are tired of being hijacked and they’re not all helpless victims. Though after the pilot heard Rikou and Shiage’s talk on the phone and sees how desperate Shiage is to try and save Rikou she decided to help.

Later Shiage jumps out of a helicopter without parachutes down towards something that he’s not sure it’ll save him from a hard landing, while firing down at 3 guys holding Rikou hostage. True main character style.

Shiage takes on Accelerator, got pwned, and Accelerator left because he says he’s not interested in a fight when a sick person (Rikou) has to stand up to try and protect Shiage. Though if Shiage was the kind of person that would use her as a shield Accelerator would rip him apart right there.

Accelerator and Awaki know about Unabara and Motoharu being magicians, though they just think of them as ‘espers infiltrating from another organisation and ended up betraying their own’. Accelerator also thought of now that the ‘Level 6 shift’ experiment’s over the sisters aren’t disposed yet, so he wonders whether the experiment was built to fail from the start.

And as a final piece that shows even Accelerator has mellowed, he told a passing kid he saved before in a hostage situation “I’m the Strongest Level 5, I don’t need brats worrying about me”, just to prevent the kid rushing in and kill himself accidentally. In addition: “Listen, even if someone is suffering before you, the kind of person that can take up arms without hesitation to shoot down the villain is no better than a villain himself. The kind that doesn’t care about others, doesn’t give 2nd chances; someone that kills is given a reason, is definitely not a hero. You don’t have to become that kind of person. That’s my specialty. Only I have to go through that” – he’s really trying hard to become like Touma, with the speeches and all.

After some negotiations, Director Oyafune decides to help Accelerator to take down another director, despite earlier having decided to not interfere with the Dark side of academy city due to threats to her own daughter. Oyafune decided even if she retire there’ll always be threats from the dark side so she might as well go and get rid of the root of the problem.

The 2nd district of academy city is basically a giant weapon factory. The director attacking GROUP has his main base hidden in one of the experimental bomb shelters that get bombarded on a regular basis to test both weapons and the shelters. This director’s employees are like a army, and have Capacity Down (after events with Telestina they’ve improved Capacity Down drastically, to the point where if Accelerator or Awaki even activates their ability they self destruct) installed.

The Aztec organization infiltrated to the point where they are right next to a Director, all for the sake of eliminating Quetzal.

Kinuhata Saiai carrys around emergency oxygen supplies in case her opponents create a vacuum around her to prevent her using her powers.

The Aztec organization has gone to the point where they modify all ‘normal’ agents to all carry around a ‘original’ grimoire for battle purposes, and it can’t be destroyed by Quetzal’s obsidian knife. The leader of the Aztec organization even came himself to eliminate Quetzal (I’m not gonna attempt to spell Aztec names…). The leader and Quetzal battle, and Quetzal manages to make the grimoire turn onto its owner – grimoires have a ‘mind’ of its own and seeks out those who can use them to the fullest, and the leader set up measures to make sure his mind is safe from the dangers all grimoire possess, where the information is too much for the human brain to handle. Therefore Quetzal signaled he’ll take on the burden of the opposing grimoire, and let its knowledge flow through him regardless of the cost, and the grimoire destroyed the leader after deeming him not fit to possess a grimoire.

The ENTIRE dark side of Academy City (minus GROUP) knows about Kamijou Touma and his worth to Aleister, including how no matter what kind of mess Touma causes within Academy City it’s all within Aleister’s margin of error, and Touma’s under Aleister’s personal protection. It’s also known Accelerator have something to do with Aleister’s plans, though Accelerator doesn’t have the protection like Touma. Hamazura Shiage however is an unknown factor which not even Aleister can predict, since according to the plans was Shiage was supposed to have died in vol 15 in the fighting between ITEM, BLOCK, SCHOOL, GROUP and SCHOOL, but he beat Mugino and survived, something Aleister cannot comprehend. Therefore the entire Dark side of Academy city has got the order of eliminating Shiage directly from General Superintendent Aleister, and the whole city is out to attack Shiage.

Shiage was about to be killed before Mugino intervened, saying she’s the only one allowed to kill him and wiped out the pursuers (which were ex-Hound Dog members).

The director that was after GROUP was defeated, and he said unfortunately he does know the truth about DRAGON, and it might have been better if he didn’t know in the first place. When the 4 of them asked him what is DRAGON, he replied “DRAGON is everywhere. Look, right now it’s behind you”. They thought it was a bad joke, but Motoharu, Awaki and Unabara got knocked out instantly, leaving Accelerator to think that’s impossible, the three of them aren’t that easy to dispatch. The director exclaimed the one behind them that did this wasn’t FUSE=Kazakiri like he thought, before being knocked out as well, with a voice somewhere saying of course not – she’s only a piece for DRAGON’s materialization. Accelerator saw ‘it’ speak, but to him there’s nothing seem more wrong than ‘it’ being able to act like a human. ‘It’ had long blonde hair, a slim figure and flowing robes that made it look like a girl. Its face seemed to show all sorts of emotion all at once, but also seemed beyond emotions. It also remarked itself can also be called a ‘angel’, or at least sounds closer to the truth than a ‘extraterrestrial intelligent being’, ‘holy guardian angel’, or ‘the true master of the secrets that shaped modern western magics’, and says he/she’s very different than the angels in the bible. And finally “there are few that reach this point. And it’s because so I’m interested in this, and that there’s value in stating my name… I’m the one who once taught the bare essentials of the necessary knowledge to the eccentric magician Aleister Crowley.”

Later on it’s confirmed Aiwass is a girl, or at least Chinese translations made it seem so. Aiwass’ form is still incomplete that she lapses into ‘angelic gibberish’ now and then since human language can’t convey what she wants to say. Everything that Aleister’s done so far, like injecting the virus into LO, making Kazakiri etc is all for bringing back Aiwass. Accelerator cannot comprehend Aiwass or what she’s suggesting at first, as to him her actions like showing up in front of him is illogical, when Academy City tried so hard to hide DRAGON’s information. Aiwass was saying how humans never change, and history is always flowing on regardless of what humans do, so even if she’s defeated she can always come back in another 10,000 years, or even 100,000 years, as she’s not really of this world. Aiwass is also saying though Aleister always improve his plans to make it better after unforeseen events, cracks are starting to appear. When Aiwass revealed Aleister plans to replace LO, and that if she’s defeated LO might be saved, Accelerator decided to just kill Aiwass.

Shiage is being chased by Mugino, and she revealed she’s alive due to Heaven Canceler's ‘Dark Legacy’, something that can rapidly rebuild the human body, no matter how badly it’s damaged. After seeing Mugino toying with Rikou he finally had enough and decided to step out and fight head on with Mugino once more.

Accelerator charged at Aiwass, though reflect doesn’t work on her and Accelerator got sliced in two by Aleister’s self defence program that he embedded into Aiwass’ body, on the off chance she’s in danger. Aiwass also have wings the color of white gold hidden under her hair. Accelerator brings out his black wings to try and attack, but Aiwass only smiles and says that’s something from the age of [Osiris], is outdated and cannot possibly defeat herself from the times of [Horus]. Their wings clash and Accelerator got beaten in one blow. Accelerator then followed the AIM field from the SISTERS and forcibly shutdown that network, since Aiwass has said LO was the core for her existence for now. While Aiwass is disappearing Accelerator pulled out a gun and shot her exposed triangular-prism core.

After getting Mugino to chase him Shiage managed to hide in a hanger filled with cutting edge weaponry, and tricked her to blow up a fighter jet she thought he was hiding in, and ends up blowing the whole place up with a chain reaction while Shiage ran like hell.

After the massive explosion he went back to check if she’s dead, and found she propelled herself using recoil force from her own attack like a rocket engine to escape the blast, and got ambushed by her. Shiage ran again and hid himself, but then Mugino pulled on his sympathy, saying how she and Kakine ended up like this and how bad it is, before kicking him while he’s distracted. After that Shiage crawled into a testing room for the new jets and their defense, and activated the program that engulfs the whole room except his location in a fierce combination of gale and heat. Mugino got blasted away.

After that Shiage found Aleister’s forces are coming after him, he picked up Rikou and escaped on one of the supersonic jets out of Academy City. Before he left he saw the pursuers get blasted by a beam of light and knew Mugino’s still alive, and felt they’ll meet again one day.

After Accelerator shot the core Aiwass is still present, with the additional defenses programmed in by Aleister. Aiwass said that’s such a pity, before defeating Accelerator.
Aiwass is having a conversation with Aleister, and shows their difference: Aiwass is motivated by the ‘value’ of doing something, while Aleister judges things by ‘efficiency’. It’s also revealed it’s been 50 years since Aleister founded Academy City, making the time line in TAMNI novels around 2000AD.

Aiwass also commented on the differences between Touma and Accelerator – Accelerator craved for the wholesomeness of being a ‘good guy/hero’ like Touma, to the point he declared himself evil since he cannot reach that level – while in reality Touma is only doing whatever he felt was right and is labeled ‘Righteous’ by other people impulsively.

Aiwass also asked if Aleister envies ‘Heroes’ like them, the three of them that stands up with their own two feet regardless what happens. One who follows his ideals no matter what (Touma); one that tries hard to redeem himself (Accelerator); and someone who is never looked at by people nor have any talent, but for the one person he loves he’ll become the hero (Shiage). Since Aleister back then when he was in situations like those three’s he himself can do nothing but sigh and lament. Aleister replied though Aiwass jokes his plans are coming apart, she won’t hold her position of superiority forever – and Aiwass says it matters not either way, since she never asked for this power. She then fades away and leaves the message she’ll appear again when things become interesting once more.

Accelerator is on his way to Russia, after Aiwass suggested not even Heaven Canceler can heal LO – in the end the frog-faced doctor’s still only human, and not perfect. The only one that can save LO now is “Index Librorum Prohibitum”. Accelerator crushes his cellphone, erasing his last link to Yomikawa, Yoshikawa, GROUP and anyone else he ever had a link with.

Shiage and Rikou jumped out of the fighter jet, after setting it to self destruct and parachuted down into Russia.

Touma is en route to Russia, going after Fiamma and save Index. [“Wait for me”, the teen muttered.]

To Conclude: “Tragedy is not the End.

With their own thoughts, the many main characters gather in one place.

Before, they traveled on different paths, but now their paths are converging onto a single point.

With the world’s most gruesome battlefield as the stage, the true story will now begin!”

I'm glad Shiage is even more badass than this thread gives him credit for; I like the three protags. Though the Touma being a vigilante, Accelerator being a self-hating attempted hero, and Shiage just trying to protect the little he can against the odds, is how more-or-less how I envisioned them trying to act...though the speeches from Accelerator was a little more than anticipated.

I do hope that Aogami becomes a little more relevant (and maybe a real name, though I do like his nickname), as I usually always enjoy the protagonist's interaction with their no-more-than-two main friends.

...And GROUP's socializing with each other needs some more translations. It's great how they've already assessed each others' interests, and even the tsundere Accelerator came to terms with how he feels toward Last Order.

Oh, and it seems Baka-Tsuki has all the novel's illustrations now.