The squabbling between the Roman Church and the Church of England has put Academy City and its citizens in mortal danger, but who should Touma side with in hopes of doing the least amount of damage?
Creative Staff
Comic: Chuya Kogino
Original Story: Kazuma Kamachi
Character Design: Kiyotaka Haimura
Translation: Andrew Prowse
What They Say
A magical booby trap threatens Academy City. The culprit behind it–magic smuggler Oriana Thompson–is still on the loose. Touma is desperate to prevent a disaster, but when Oriana’s present injures an innocent bystander, this game of cat and mouse gets personal!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The sorcerers of the Roman Catholic Church have proven time and again that they care little for the people around them. This new dog of the Catholics, Oriana Thomson, has entered Academy City with an acute bloodlust. She is quick to lash out at anyone around her, enemy or innocent bystander.
Oriana is playing cat and mouse with Touma, Stiyl, and Tsuchimikado, who believe she is running around Academy City with a powerful weapon called the Stab Sword. To throw them off her trail, Oriana sets a booby trap at a nearby school. With that school’s sports festival in full swing, the trap could kill dozens or even hundreds of students and spectators. Forcing Touma and Tsuchimikado to infiltrate the school as students in hopes of sniffing out the trap before it is sprung.
In the meantime, Stiyl continues to track Oriana. But once they finally have her cornered, she proves to be immensely powerful. Her Grimoire is a massive index card pack of spells that she can cast by merely touching the card. To make matters more difficult, Touma knows almost nothing about magic so he has no idea what kind of spells she can attack him with. This could be the end of Tsuchimikado as he must expend every bit of magical energy he has. If he uses his last ounce, it will end his life and maybe Touma’s too.
In Summary:
This volume does an excellent job of mixing up the action, suspense, and finds downtime for the story’s love triangle to heat up with the meeting of their parents!
It is Mikoto’s school festival that Touma must crash in hopes of deactivating Oriana’s booby trap. So, it is only fitting that Mikoto and Touma meet as opposites on the field of sports battle. I love how Mikoto can’t control or understand her feelings for Touma. Her quick temper and powerful esper abilities make it a good thing Touma’s hand can nullify those powers, or he would have been dead long ago. Pile on the fact that he is totally oblivious to Mikoto’s obvious crush and it is comedic gold. But ultimately, it is Touma’s race to stop the Roman Catholic Church’s latest mischief maker in Oriana that brushes aside any humor in this volume. Oriana is more than happy to kill anyone that looks at her sideways and when Touma’s classmate pushes Oriana’s buttons, it will be Touma that suffers.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: April 24, 2018
MSRP: $13.00