Chapter 1: A Whisper from the Devil

Fragile_Present

The sun shone bright in the sky peacefully as if nothing had happened. But one would just needed to look through the window to notice that the night before wasn't just a random nightmare. In the night of September 30th, Academy City had been attacked by Vento of the Back, member of the God's Right Seat, and that caused several other minor incidents, leading to the awaken of Fuse=Kazakiri, which spread chaos and destruction all over the city.

In that morning, Index woke up early and excited, despite all the action she had participated yesterday. Well, of course she would. After all, her dear friend Hyouka had appeared before her once again, and it was impossible to tell how long it would take for her to go away. Meaning that they had no time to waste. She got up, made the bed (that actually belonged to Touma) as fast as she could and went straight to the refrigerator, looking for something she could eat right away.

In a hurry, she forgot (or not bothered) to be quiet, and the owner of the room woke up soon after. "*Yaaaawn* What, are you up already?"

"Ah- Gowd mowrnin, Towmah!" The nun answered with such a bright smile that could only be called the incarnation of innocence and cuteness in this world in its purest form… or so it would be if it wasn't for the half sandwich she had sticking from her mouth.

"Hey, don't talk with your mouth full of food… no, more importantly, why are you eating my sandwich?! Ah, and it was my favourite one, too! Such misfortune..."

"It's your fault for not getting one for me too." She pouted as she swallowed the rest of her breakfast. "Sorry, but I didn't have time to wait for you, so I picked the first thing I saw into the refrigerator."

"Eh?" Touma put his grief aside for a moment and tried to understand the meaning of her words. "Are you busy today? That's rare..."

"I promised to Hyouka that I would be meeting her. We're going to play outside until it gets dark."

"Ah, I see..."

"Are you coming to see her too?"

"Sorry, but I have plans for today already." The boy said it with a bit of troubled expression on his face, sending some alarm bells ringing inside Index's head. Normally this kind of reaction meant he was going to fight an unreasonable powerful enemy bare handed again to save some random girl he had just met. Sensing her stare, Touma shook his head and waved his hands in front of him, trying to explain it before she decided to bite him. "T-that's not it, okay? I'm not going to do anything dangerous this time!"

"Touma… I haven't said anything yet, so why are you making excuses already? Suspicious..."

"Your eyes said everything already! Actually, they are saying it even louder now!"

"Touma!" She shouted, placing her hands on her hips, a motion that made him feel like bowing down and apologising even though he had done nothing wrong yet. "Don't tell me you forgot about what happened yesterday? What would you have done if I weren't there?"

The boy could only swallow dry. She was the one responsible for turning Kazakiri back to normal. He didn't know the details on how she did it, but that was an undeniable fact.

"And when we were saving Orsola? And in the Adriatic sea? What would happen if you were fighting alone then?"

"S-sorry… you were a great help back then..."

"That's why," she leaned forward, getting a bit too close to him, speaking with a firm tone. "I'm not going to forgive you if you go fight a magician all by yourself ever again without telling me anything, understood?"

"But-"

"UN-DER-STOOD, TOU-MA!?"

"YES! I GOT IT! Please forgive me, iron jaw maiden!"

"Really?" She took yet another step forward, dropping the aggressive attitude and looked deep into his eyes as if begging for the answer she wanted to hear. "Do you really mean it?"

The boy scratched the back of his head. He wanted to escape her gaze, but he was too scared about what would happen to him if he did so. Without any other option left, he sighed and smiled gently at her. "Yes. I promise, okay?"

…

"Ufufufufufu!"

"What's so funny?"

"N-nothing, sorry. I-it just… I mean… you seem pretty happy about it."

In the midst of all the construction machinery trying to repair the damage, students of Academy City still had classes today. Some public transport lines were still unusable, so the amount of people walking to school was higher than the usual. And within them all, Index and Kazakiri stood out the most for their looks and the fact they weren't going in the direction of any school at all. But they were both unaware of it and simply continued chatting.

"But you know… You two seems to be closer to each other than the last time we met."

"E-eh? That's..." Index's face turned crimson in an instant and she casted her eyes down. "Y-you really think so?"

"Yes." Answered the glasses girl, also blushing a little. "It is as if you two… y-you know..." Too embarrassed to say it out loud, she whispered the rest to Index so only her could listen, who completely stopped on her tracks.

"Eh? Wha-wha-what are you saying, Hyouka?! Our relationship isn't like that at all!"

Hyouka couldn't help but giggle at her reaction. She thought it was cute how she strongly denied it, though her feelings were written all over her face.

Just as planned, the two of them spent the whole day messing around in the underground mall, arcades and all kinds of places, reminding them of the day they first met. By the time the sun started to set, they headed towards a fast food restaurant.

When they were almost getting there, Kazakiri stopped, looking at the opposite sidewalk. "Huh? Isn't that Kamijou-kun over there?"

Hearing that, Index turned her head to the side and found him. With a smile suddenly beaming on her face, she waved at the boy, full of excitement. "It's him! Let's invite him to co-"

But her words ended there. Touma never saw them there looking at him. Besides him, there was a girl with shoulder length chestnut hair pulled the boy by his arm… no, more like dragging him along the street towards the exact same restaurant the two girls were going to. They both know exactly who that girl was.

"..."

Even though he was being forcefully dragged, he didn't seemed exactly against the whole situation. On the contrary, he… they both seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"..."

It was almost like they were…

"Index-chan..." Kazakiri didn't know what to say to her and could only mutter her name as the small girl had her back turned to her. It was impossible to tell what kind of expression she was making from there.

"... it's ok, Hyouka." Index said with a quiet voice. "Didn't I tell you before? We don't have that kind of relationship." She then turned around, with a kind smile on her face. "Touma has been pushing himself too much recently, so we should let him be. Come, let's go eat somewhere else."

Kazakiri said nothing in return as her friend walked past her, only following her after she was a few steps ahead. Out of consideration to her efforts to hide how she felt, she didn't touched on the subject for the rest of the day. But at that moment, she saw it. There was a shadow in her eyes, something that she had never seen in Index before.

"It's okay." She said.

The next day, Index saw them together again on the crepe shop.

"It's okay." She told to Kazakiri.

The two of them were meeting up almost every the during the following week.

"It's okay." She told to herself.

It felt as if it was ages since the conversation they had that morning, and after that, they just exchanged a few lines.

"It's okay." She kept repeating it over and over. But deep, deep down in her mind, she asked herself.

Didn't they got closer during that battle? Was that just an illusion? Was she only imagining things? Did he actually got closer to Misaka instead of her and she failed to notice it?

"It's okay..."

Is it really?

Index's eyes widened. That thought just now… wasn't actually hers, was it? Blinking a few times, she finally noticed the weird phenomena that was happening around her. The whole city had turned grayish. All people and vehicles stopped moving abruptly. All sound disappeared. In the middle of it all, she alone maintained her color and could still walk.

No, that wasn't accurate. There was someone else. She had to focus her eyes on the person for quite some time to actually be able to "see" it. "Hoooh… so you can picture this form with your eyes. As expected from someone with a perfect memory. The moment the image stored on your brain mismatches what you're seeing, you notice that there's something wrong and my disguise fades away… I need to think of a countermeasure against this in the future."

"Who's there?" The girl shouted, searching for any sign of magic being used in the area.

"Calm down, no need to put yourself on guard." The person said, walking towards her. It was a man with dark robes that matched the color of his hair which was spiked only on the left side of his head, dark crimson eyes and a skin so pale that made the grayish world around them look colorful. "I am B- whoops, I probably can't speak my name in your language, can I? Hmm… you could call me Ramon the Black Player for the time being."

Something about his presence didn't feel right. It was like he wasn't supposed to be, but he was forcing reality to accept his existence. Feeling shivers from the pressure he was emitting, she unconsciously took a step back, make him giggle innocently like a kid. "Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you."

"What do you want?"

"I just want to help you." He said sweetly, but despite his words and actions, he still looked like he wanted to cause harm somehow. "I actually having been watching what has been happening in this city for quite some time. I know all about the Imagine Breaker, about you… about what you truly want… and why you will never have it."

Don't listen to him! That thought crossed her mind for a moment, but she simply brushed it off, trying to understand what he was trying to say. Happy that he had picked her interested, he continued. "The world had been tormenting you, filling your fate with misfortune. Since the very day you were born in fact… but that last prank it pulled was just way too cruel to simply sit and watch, especially because you don't even know what's going on."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll get to the point: do you want to be happy? You always thought about the happiness of the ones around you, but what about yourself? How far are you willing to go to reach your own happiness?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I am ha-"

"Are you?" He took a step closer, his voice almost sounding as if it came from inside her head. "Can you really say that while that boy is getting further and further away from you?"

She narrowed her eyes and turned around. "You know nothing. I'm going home."

"Kamijou Touma loves you."

Freeze

Almost tripping on her robe, Index suddenly stopped and froze in place. His words triggered a storm of feelings within her and she was having a hard time dealing with it. What in the world is this person? What does he want?

"I mean, the Kamijou Touma you met loves you."

"What does that mean?" Her voice was cold now, trying to hide her emotions and gauge the man's intentions.

"Someone as smart as you should be able to figure it out by yourself by now. But if you need a hint, think back at what had happened that day you first went to visit him in the hospital."

Yes, that day right after he had saved her. Those memories were precious to her, more than even the knowledge of the 103,000 grimoires she held in her head. That day he pretended that he had lost his memories…

In that moment, a shiver ran down her spine, colder than anything she ever felt in her life.

No, it couldn't possibly be. Could it? There's just no way.

"Touma… he reverted the effect of the dragon breath… with his right hand..."

"Yeah, he has that kind of power… but it only works if it touches the power itself. He can erase a flame, but cannot heal a burn caused by it. So you have noticed it already?"

"No… this is a lie… YOU'RE LYING!" With that shout, she turned around with teary eyes.

"But it is unfortunately the truth. In order to protect your memories, he sacrificed his own. Kamijou Touma 'died' and 'reborn' anew that day. Thus the person you live with isn't the same that saved you. He had forgotten about what you had gone through together, forgotten how he had saved you, forgotten he had fell in love with you… it's quite ironic."

In the face of the truth, she fell to her knees with huge tears falling from her emerald colored eyes. Seeing that, Ramon sighed and offered her a hand to stand up. "Oi, don't despair just yet. I told you I came here to help you, didn't I?"

The girl blinked a few times, wiped away the tears and got to her feet on her own, making the man awkwardly retreat his hand and scratch his head and clean his throat. "Under normal circumstances, a damage of that level cannot be treated either by science nor by magic, especially after so much time had passed."

"Then how do you plan to help me?" Her voice sounded almost liveless this time.

"Like I said, that's only under normal circumstances. But you, the library of all magic, have the knowledge needed to twist those rules and bend them to your will. Do you know where I'm getting at?"

She knew. She had all that knowledge, but she couldn't use magic on her own, so if she wanted something like that to be done, she needed the help from a magician… and that means... "You want me to turn you into a magic god?"

"Putting it bluntly - yes, that's it." He answered nonchalantly. "It happens that I, just like you, need to fix something that can only be fixed by changing the rules of this world. So, what do you say? You win, I win, and everybody lives happy ever after."

That was a cheap trick. Playing with her feelings, weakening her mind and making her give the grimoires away on her own accord. "Do you think I would let you use them just like that if you asked?"

"I thought it would be worse if I lied to you, so I decided to go with a honest approach. After all, I have nothing to hide." Her will wavered, but that wasn't enough to make her agree with him. She was stuck in the conflict between her duty and her desire, unsure if she should trust him. Seeing it, Ramon turned around and walked away, fading on the background. "Well, I guess it was too much to handle at once. Think about it okay? I'll come to see you again. Bye."

And in a blink, everything went back to normal. The world regained its colors, the people and the cars were moving again... But Index still stood there for a long time, as if she was the one paralyzed now. Eventually it got dark and she went back to the dorm.

Right now, she wanted to see Touma more than anything else in the world. She felt that if she talked to him like they used to, she could treat everything that had happened that afternoon as nothing but a bad dream.

But he wasn't there. Like the other days, he was probably with Misaka doing who knows what with her. Just thinking about it made her chest hurt. It was a pain that was always there, but only now she noticed it, making her suffer for all that time at once in a single second. Trying to not cry she sat on the floor and hugged her knees.

Worried, the calico cat approached her, meowing to her owner to cheer her up but it had no effect. All she did was lift her head a little and mutter. "What should I do, Sphinx? What should I do?"

For those that are reading a story from me for the first time, welcome.

For those that were expecting and update in The Backstage and and found a new fic instead… sorry, let me explain what I'm doing here before you get mad at me.

Some time ago, one of the people that reads The Backstage came up with an interesting theory that, while wasn't quite what I wanted to do with that story, it was too interesting to brush off. So I talked about it with a few friends, brainstormed a ton of ideas it just for the fun of it, and then they gently asked me to make a story out of it (and by that I mean they really forced me, holding my part of the Pizza hostage… and I was the one who had paid for it.)

*Ahem*- Anyway, with that said, there are a few things I want to make clear:

First, this is only a side project. Chapters are going to be short like this one, it won't reach 20, and don't expect often updates, as The Backstage is my main project.

Second, this is my first time trying to write any sort of story with actual romance involved, so sorry if ends up sucking.

Speaking of first times, I'll be diverging from the rails set by the canon, writing the characters in a whole new light, as well as trying out lots of other things. Think of this as some sort of experiment to test my own skills.

And lastly, a warning: do not expect it to be a happy love story. If that's what you were expecting, then run away while you can. That's all. *Evil laugh*