The last day of August.
Touma Kamijou struggles to get his summer vacation homework done, and for a moment laments on his mysterious ability Imagine Breaker not being of any help to him. Meanwhile, Index is enjoying herself to another episode of Magical Powered Kanamin. According to Index, since Touma is not available as a playmate, she decides to watch Kanamin with the volume almost on maximum. This makes Touma lose his focus, and after an instant confrontation with Index, he loses his half-done homework and reference books over a pile of magazines.
Things go for the worst for Touma when Index tells him to get him some snacks.
Elsewhere, a man dressed in a black coat talks to himself about the Index of Prohibited Texts.
Index manages to find Touma's homework and gloats about her achievement, while Touma feels stressed and pressured about it, especially because Index is expecting for some compensation in exchange for getting his homework. Unfortunately for Touma, Index already ate pudding along with his share, and she is enticed by food commercials flashed on the TV. He is also thinking about time he needs to finish his homework, which he needs to pass the next day. Index tries to give some advice, but Touma dismisses it.
Soon, the man-in-a-coat appears in Touma's apartment, and using a spell to summon a small vortex of wind to launch himself in the air, attacks Touma's apartment unit with a powerful gust of wind. However, he does not find anyone inside.
At that moment, Touma feels something bad going on as he and Index stay inside a restaurant. As Touma toils on his homework, Index chooses the most expensive item on the menu and Touma willingly pays for it. Index's order comes up after a few minutes, but the waitress in-charge of delivering the meal slips, and food splashes down on Touma's homework. Touma feels despair after seeing his effort go to waste again, and not even the waitress's apologies nor Index's remarks of assurance helped him.
Soon, Touma sees a man with a coat and a bow attached to his arm, and before it could unleash its attack, Touma shoves Index back as a strong gust rips through the glass windows of the restaurant. He then uses his Imagine Breaker to dispel the attack, much to the stranger's surprise.
Before Touma could confront the stranger, he finds it behind him, and the man-in-a-coat asks for Touma's surrender. However, Touma is more concerned with the pieces of paper fluttering around him, which are actually pieces of his homework shredded by the attack. Touma loses his temper because of what happened, but the man soon grabs Index and announces his intents to capture her. Before Touma could retrieve Index from him, the man-in-a-coat uses a spell to render him and Index invisible and flees, knocking over Aisa Himegami (a passerby) in the process.
That night, Touma spends the night looking for Index with Sphynx tagging along. Soon, Sphynx breaks away from him and Touma goes to follow Index's cat to a hotel. As it turns out, Sphynx wanted to eat and brings Touma to the trash bin. Thinking that Sphynx is just fooling around, Touma brings Sphynx elsewhere.
Touma has no idea that Sphynx did track Index's location, and she is tied up on the rooftop of the hotel, while the man-in-a-coat looks at the picture of a girl. Soon, their discussion shifts to Index, and the man finally admits that he needs a volume from the 103,000 grimoires in her head.
Meanwhile, Touma continues on his search, and in his haste, he almost collides with someone. It turns out that it's Mikoto Misaka and, remembering the conversation she overheard, blushes as she starts a conversation with him. However, she is ignored by a frantic Touma. Mikoto bursts in anger and blasts through a security robot.
Mikoto manages to approach Touma, but sees him in hysteria, with thoughts of Index and his homework still in his head. Touma asks what Mikoto needs, and before she could blurt out her reply, Touma storms away from her.
Index soon notices the man-in-a-coat finish what looks like an array of ropes and amulets and assumes that he is intent on extracting a grimoire from her. As the man-in-a-coat explains his plans, she notices that she has Touma's phone and uses it to open a line for Touma to listen to the conversation. Index warns the man about his plans, but he knows these risks, in fact, and he starts the ceremony nonetheless.
On the other end of the line, Touma hears a shrill sound from Index's phone and searches momentarily for something unusual, He then sees a purple light from the same hotel where Sphynx has taken him earlier, and he runs for it.
Meanwhile, the ceremony goes underway, and the man-in-a-coat grasps the Baopuzi, a magical book that focuses on becoming an immortal. Soon, he begins to vomit blood as a result of grasping Index's forbidden books; he pushes on nonetheless, and mutters about vowing to become a Magician to save someone using his magic. As the ceremony continues, he makes a bloody mess and soon, Index understands what he is trying to fight for, as the ceremony allows both the man and Index to read each other's minds, and tells him to stop tainting himself with those magical books.
Soon, Touma reaches where they are, and in one touch of his right hand, dispels the entire ceremony.
As Touma and Index reunite, the man-in-a-coat still can't accept the outcome of his urge to save someone and desperately attacks Touma, which was dispelled. Touma then explains to him that he does not want someone to carry the burden of having someone die and the anguish it brings.
Before the man-in-a-coat could attack Touma again, he collapses in his own pool of blood. He laments on being a failure for not being able to endure reading a volume of a magical book. Before he loses his consciousness, he tells Touma and Index about giving up on life thrice, but not giving up on one such thing...
He then wakes up to an array of scratches brought by Sphynx. Touma tells him that he can't let the man die peacefully and gives Sphynx a chance to scratch the man-in-a-coat's face for ruining his homework. However, Touma decides to help the girl that the man-in-a-coat wants to save by using his ability.
Meanwhile, a group of men in armor emerge from the sea and faces Kaori Kanzaki. They march forth to attack, only to be defeated instantly. Motoharu Tsuchimikado joins her, but neither as an ally nor as an enemy. The two talked about her trip from England and about the Knights she just defeated, and Kaori leaves, she wonders why she needs to do the things she did.
Rating: 8.5/10
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