01x05 - Limit (12 o'clock)

[bunniefuu]

Index's perfect memory comes with a drawback...

% of her brain is taken up by the grimoires,

which leaves only % for other functions...

The sorcerers say that because of this,

they have to erase her memory every year or she will die...

Only three days remain until they perform the ceremony.

Wait... there were three days...

I've been asleep how long?

[Music]

Okay, Kamijo, I'm heading out now...

I won't be back until late,

so you're in charge...

Be a good boy and keep an eye on things here

for me, all right?

But I ask one thing:

I don't want you hurting Toma anymore!

The limit will be reached in twelve hours

and thirty-eight minutes.

We wanted to see if the ball and chain

was sufficient to keep you from running away again...

It worked better than we thought.

The ball and chain?

You don't want your little toy taken away, do you...?

If not, you'd best abandon any thoughts of running...

Understood?

It'll be all right.

I can work out a deal with them...

and your life can go back to how it was before you met me.

I promise...

I'm not going to let them bother you anymore...

I...

Index, what happened?

I'll make this quick.

Hello...? Can you hear me?

Yeah... Kanzaki, wasn't it?

It doesn't matter....

There's no need for pleasantries now......

is Index there with you?

I'd rather not wake her up.

No, that's perfect...

Just listen to what I have to say.

It's almost time...

She'll reach her limit tonight at midnight.

At that exact hour, we'll begin the ceremony

to erase her memories...

The one that will save her life.

Why would you go out of your way to tell me your plans?

Knowing what to expect is only gonna make it

that much easier for me to fight you.

Don't you want the opportunity to say goodbye to her?

This is not a matter open for debate

or negotiation...

This is an order...

You will say your farewells before we arrive...

And then you will leave that place.

Do you understand me?

You people are unbelievable...

Index is paying the price for your incompetence...

I thought you guys knew sorcery.

Can't you do anything with your magic to help her? !

She's got a hundred and three thousand books in her head!

Maybe one of those has the answer!

The church can't allow that.

Index turning on them is their greatest fear.

What are you talking about?

The grimoires are full of dangerous information...

The church decreed that Index would not be allowed

access to anything in them

that dealt with memory manipulation.

Fine... then why not try to get to them with your own magic?

The church is also very concerned about sorcerers

outside of Necessarius gaining access to the books.

Take my word for it;

the grimoires are very well protected.

And then, of course, there's the fact

that the act of reading the grimoires defiles the mind.

You knew that... and you still let Index memorize them? !

We weren't told until it was already done...

Our magic cannot help her.

Trust me.

All right then...

but what about us?

What do you mean?

I'm talking about science...

I bet there are any number of ways to erase

someone's memory by using science.

You've said magic can't be used to get to those books,

but maybe there's something else that can...

This is Academy City, remember...

There are plenty of espers here

who know about manipulating the mind...

I say it's still too soon to abandon all hope.

But maybe you'd rather go for the quick fix

you know will work instead of taking on a challenge...

Never mind that it's your supposed friend's

happiness we're talking about here.

Talk is cheap...

Results are what we're interested in.

And, to use your words,

we do indeed know that our "quick fix"

will have the desired result of saving her life.

We can't be certain something else would work

so any other method would be a gamble....

It isn't a matter of not wanting to take on a challenge.

We don't want to be reckless with somebody else's life.

In that case...

I don't think we'll ever see eye-to-eye on this...

No surprise there.

But you should know...

I'm still gonna fight you...

no matter what!

You should stay out of my way...

I don't care what I do to you if it means saving her.

If anything happens to her while she's in your care,

you can consider your life forfeit...

I will see you at midnight tonight...

You only have a short time remaining now.

If you want to spend it fighting a losing battle,

it's up to you.

Let's see...

"Memory loss is commonly caused by old age

or over consumption of alcohol ...

It may also occur following an interruption

of blood flow to the brain."

"Drug induced:

Certain medicines may also cause memory loss...

Among these are general anesthetics such as

halothane as well as some benzodiazepines."

Forget it. This isn't getting me anywhere.

What is that?

Miss Komoe's cell phone statement.

That might work!

I'll ask Miss Komoe if she knows the number

to any research lab that might deal with neurology.

Oh, come on... Pick up the phone!

I guess all I can do now is call up some places

at random and hope. "...

Next up.

Damn it!

Hi... is someone there?

Research on photographic memory?

Yes... I'm familiar with it.

What's the problem?

Can you describe the issue in detail for me?

Magic...? Seriously?

What do you think you're doing

making a prank call at this hour?

It's nearly midnight.

Hello...?.. Are you still there?

Hello...?

Oh, for crying out loud!

We've run out of time.

Move it.

We'll refer to the Book of Crowley...

We need to call down an angel...

and raise a temple in this room.

We need to root out every last memory.

Wait... just hold on...

Think about it!

There are over . million espers

here in Academy City...

and more than a thousand research labs.

If we check out those possibilities,

we might not have to resort to something so drastic.

You guys don't want this to happen to her either, right...?

Deep down you're hoping and praying

that there's some other way, aren't you?

So it's simple ...

just wait a little longer...

I promise... I'll find another way...

Whatever it takes,

I'll find something that works for everybody.

Are you done talking, or is there more?

Look! If she wasn't unconscious now,

would you be saying the same thing...?

She's endured this hell for so long...

She's in so much pain she can't open her eyes,

and you'd tell her: "Sit tight,

there's something I wanna try."

You'd have doctors you never met before

poking around in her body,

pumping her full of dr*gs...

all on the off chance that maybe it'll work? !

What kind of a person are you?

Answer me...!

Are you truly a human being,

or a monster who's wearing human skin?

Do you see this...?

It's a magical artifact

necessary for erasing her memories.

All you have to do is touch it with your right hand,

and it will lose all its power.

The only thing that we'll be taking from Index

is her memory...

a small price to pay... but you...

if whatever you want to attempt fails,

you'll be taking away her life.

Knowing that...

do you still wanna try?

Can you sit here, watching her struggle bravely,

and decide to risk her life?

If you're so sure it's going to work,

why do you hesitate...?

Go ahead and play the hero!

I'm Index. Nice to meet you!

Do you have any food in there?

I'm really starving...

Please feed me!

The ceremony will commence at : a.m.

We'll use the power of Leo to perform the memory erasure.

All right.

Hey... sorcerer guy...

What am I supposed to say to her

when I... when I tell her goodbye?

If you hadn't noticed, I'm busy.

I don't have time to give you advice...

What you need to do right now is shut up...

and get out of here.

Your right hand extinguished my flames...

I still can't comprehend the principles at work there,

but I don't want it to have any influence

on the ceremony we're about to perform,

no matter how minor it may be.

Useless...

I'm useless...

What good am I if I can't even save this one girl

from suffering such a huge loss?

There is still enough time left...

We have ten minutes before we need to begin.

Do you remember what it was like for us

the first time we had to erase her memories?

We spent the whole night by her side, sobbing.

No... no way...

Who knows what that kid might try to pull

if we leave him here?

If we take our eyes off him for a second,

he could do something that kills them both!

If that were really true, wouldn't he have touched

the cross when you gave him the opportunity?

You only gave him that test

because you knew he would pass...

You knew he wouldn't risk her life.

Yeah, maybe...

Either way, we cannot perform the ceremony

until the time is right...

It's riskier to deny him his goodbye...

Without that closure, he might change his mind

and interrupt us at a crucial moment...

Just let him.

Just ten minutes... Understood?

To... ma...?

Index...

I'm sorry.

Toma...

Some kind of array has been set up in the room.

They said it was recovery magic.

Recovery magic?

Who said that?

Those sorcerers came back, didn't they?

Go now! You have to get out of here!

No... it's fine...

I'm staying.

-Toma! -It's all done...

It's over.

For now, at least, it's over.

Toma...

I'm sorry...

I'll get stronger, and this will never happen again...

I'll punish every single person

who is responsible for doing this to you...

When I'm done with them,

they'll regret this more than anything else

they've ever done in their lives.

Just you wait...

Next time, I swear I'll save you...

Next time I will not fail...

no matter what I have to do.

Thank you, Toma...

I'll be waiting.

Damn it.

Is this really the way it has to end?

It's not fair...

There must've been something else I could've done...

Something to get to those damn books

that are taking up % of Index's brain.

Something to save the memories she does have left...

She should get to control more than a sliver of her own brain.

Wait...

A full % of Index's brain is used to store

the hundred and three thousand grimoires...

As a result, she has only % of her brain remaining

to control day-to-day functions.

Index's memory erasure is conducted

at precise yearly intervals.

Hang on a second...

How is it that only a year's worth of memories

can fit into that leftover fifteen percent?

And another thing...

how did they arrive at those figures in the first place...?

They seem like arbitrary percentages,

not precise calculations.

Yes? Oh, hi Kamijo.

I recognized your voice.

What are you doing using my phone

without asking permission first?

Huh? ... What's that about photographic memory...?

Yeah... it exists...

It's a rare ability that very few people have...

Was there something specific

you want to know about it?

Someone told me a year's worth of memories

take up fifteen percent of a person's brain capacity...

but if that's true...

what about people who have photographic memories...?

Wouldn't their brains become overloaded

around the time they're seven years old?

It's true that somebody with a photographic memory

is unable to forget anything.

The memories are permanent,

no matter how trivial they are...

but even so it's impossible for someone's memories

to overload their brain.

In fact, some studies indicate that the human brain

is able to store up to

a hundred and forty years of memories.

It's impossible for memories to overload the human brain?

Human memory is really complex.

There's more than one kind, you know.

There's semantic memory,

which handles language and knowledge...

Procedural memory, which handles motor skills

that are acquired over time...

and episodic memory, which handles memories of past events.

Kinda nifty the way it's all split up like that, huh?

Oh, yeah. Very nifty...

So, Miss Komoe, what exactly are you telling me?

I'll sum it up for you...

It doesn't matter how much knowledge you acquire...

Neurologically speaking, there is absolutely no way

that your memories could make your brain explode

or anything close to it.

According to what Miss Komoe says

Index's photographic memory

isn't actually a life-threatening condition.

If that's the case...

it has to mean the church is lying to Kanzaki.

But there's no question that Index is suffering.

The church must have tampered with her brain somehow...

They rigged it so if her memories

aren't erased on a yearly basis, she'll die.

They need to ensure that Index,

the keeper of the grimoire library,

will never turn against them.

And Index's friends, too.

The church needs to make sure

they'll do what they're told.

All right...

So what exactly did they do to make her this way?

If you're so sure it's going to work,

why do you hesitate...?

Go ahead and play the hero!

I won't play the hero.

I will be the hero!

Okay...

let's see...

There doesn't seem to be any change yet...

so I haven't come in contact with any magic...

All right, maybe...

they put it someplace I haven't touched yet?

No, they wouldn't...

Urgent Warning...

Read from Chapter , Verse .

A rupture has been detected in all barriers,

from one through three.

Regeneration provisions failing...

Auto-regeneration not possible.

Action required to preserve the library.

Assigning priority to interception of the intruder.

Currently reverse-calculating the magic formula

that has penetrated the barriers by accessing the library.

Failure... Unable to locate relevant magic.

Breaking down formula composition to develop

a local w*apon that will counter the intruder.

Locating most effective magic...

Desired combination for intruder repulsion

has been successfully acquired.

Now deploying specified magic...

Employing Saint George's Holy Sanctuary...

The intruder will be destroyed.

[Music]

[Music]

Saint George's Holy Sanctuary creates

a seemingly endless distance between Index and me...

but I'm just one step away...

One more step and I know I'll reach her!

Next time, "Imagine Breaker."

When science and magic cross paths...

a story is born.