Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament

Volume 1, Afterword

To both those who are picking up one of my books for the first time and those who have picked up all of my books so far: welcome.

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

This is the first book of the new numbering. The first book is Science-only and Index doesn’t really show up, but don’t worry about that. The normal theory is going to be ignored quite a bit like that from now on, so make sure you check out how things are in this first volume.

The theme this time was technology that goes beyond a certain scientific line, and the book was basically powered suits and a cyborg rampaging around. The world in the series is divided between the science side and the magic side, but Academy City went beyond the line of the definition of the human body for two reasons. First, the problem they had was now on too large a scale. Second, after winning the war, they had destroyed the balance of the world.

Now about the Five Over. I feel that it is something that goes against the theory of a battle story.

But, as described in the novel, science and technology continue to advance, so what was cutting-edge yesterday may not be so today. I decided to put it in to demonstrate that.

Currently, the Five Over has a more powerful gun than #3, but, if the two were to fight, #3 would win due to application.

But that isn’t an absolute, because science and technology will continue to advance.

On the other hand, #3 has a wall called the Parameter List.

I suppose I could say that this is becoming a world of the functionality of machines vs. the ingenuity of humans. Which is stronger, and how long will one side’s superiority last? ...Now, I wonder how long #3 can continue reigning.

The cyborg may have been a bit different from what you, the readers, were imagining, but she got that way by this design process: I freely design the physical body -> I freely add in bird wings, fish gills, or whatever I want -> I decide what characteristics I most want to bring into Academy City.

Her battle strategy is basically asking the question “Which is stronger: one Level 5 or a thousand Level 4s?”

But the source of her power is still just one person, so it exhausts her quite a bit.

By the way, I think the first appearance of a clear cyborg instead of just a fake hand or a cane in this world was the short story by Narita Ryougo-san that was in a special volume of A Certain Scientific Railgun.

When writing the main story, I had wanted to bring in a cyborg, but I was worried that having cyborgs walking around Academy City would mess up the power balance, but thanks to him, I made my decision. I decided that it was okay for incidents like this to occur in a city that had Nayuta-chan in it, so I had a cyborg that had been altered for the war against the intentions of the creator of the cyborgs.

Thank you very much, Narita Ryougo-san.

One of them was a cyborg that altered her outer silhouette and the area her power could be used from while rearranging the inside of her body, and the other was a powered suit that altered the outside of his body and optimized the inside of his mind. As was stated in the novel itself, it’s rather hard to draw a clear line between the two. Which do you, the readers, feel would be harder to accept?

My thanks to my illustrator, Haimura-san and my editor, Miki-san. With a girl that carried thousands of arms with her and a sexy guy who wears the right thing at the right time, I feel that there were a lot of troublesome new concepts this time, but you two always stick with my selfishness, so thank you very much.

I would also like to thank Narita Ryougo-san for bringing cyborgs to this world and Akitaka Mika-san for designing the powered suits.

And a huge thanks to all you readers. The numbering may have been reset to 1 and I may have gotten carried away and made the first volume a more side story-ish volume, but I think I was only allowed to do this because of your support. I plan on doing whatever I want with the story from here on out, so keep on reading.

And now you will be closing the page.

I pray that you will be able to open the cover of the next volume.

And I will lay down my pen for now.

At long last, Birdway has joined in with the main story...!!

-Kamachi Kazuma