Unlucky Star

by Fukou da

The bro adventures of bros doing bro things.

4. Chapter 3: Child Error

> Unlucky Star in charge of updating

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Chapter 3: Child Error

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Etzali stood atop a nondescript building adjacent from Tokiwadai middle school. He peered through his set of binoculars, tracking a certain electromaster's retreating back as she went to rendezvous with one of her friends.

The Aztec magician let out a heavy sigh. Misaka Mikoto. The Railgun, Tokiwadai's Ace, the third ranked Level 5… and the girl that he had fallen so hopelessly for, but could never have. For whatever reason, she still harbored feelings for that idiot Imagine Breaker boy, and there was really nothing that he could do about it.

So here he was, reduced to simply watching over her as the idiot she had fallen for remained an oblivious bastard to her obvious affections. Life sucked a whole lot of ass.

…speaking of asses, he had a rather nice view Mikoto's as a small breeze lifted her skirt to reveal the bike shorts she had on underneath. Perhaps he had weird tastes but he actually liked the fact that she wore shorts underneath her skirt. They wrapped so nicely around her firm, yet still girlish posterior, accentuating her modest curves just so…

Like all good things, his "fan service" came to an end as her skirt fluttered back down to its original position. It happened in but a moment, but it was long enough for him to burn the image into his head, which would help tremendously concerning his later… nightly activities.

'Oh Misaka Mikoto, if only you knew the number of tissues crumpled in your name…' he thought to himself as he continued to watch his object of affection walk down the sidewalk.

"There you are!" a voice came from somewhere behind him.

Etzali spun around, quickly stashing the set of binoculars in his pants. Walking towards him was his blonde "comrade" along with the ever annoying Pierce and the hated Kamijou Touma.

"Jose, you gotta help us man!" Pierce began without preamble.

"My name's Etzali, you racist prick-"

"We need you to help us make really good burritos. Like super authentic Mexican style ones!" the blue haired idiot continued as if he hadn't heard him.

"And we need a lot of them too, nya!" Tsuchimikado added.

"What do I look like, a taco vendor? I don't have time to deal with your idiocy!" Etzali snapped.

"Awww c'mon don't be that way! Can't you just cast a burrito spell or something and whip up a few thousand for us?" Pierce whined.

"I said no- wait, why the hell do you need a few thousand?" Etzali asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"We're gonna make the world's largest burrito!"

"…but then why do you need me to make a bunch of regular ones? Wouldn't it just be better to make a big batch of ingredients?" Etzali pointed out.

"No no, we're gonna make a bunch of small burritos and wrap them up in three big ass tortillas, then wrap them together in an even bigger tortilla so that it distributes the weight evenly through the triangulation rule or something like that. It's going to be awesomely redundant!" Pierce explained with profound stupidity.

"That's-" Etzali began before he was interrupted by the arrival of 'headband,' who had jumped a good ten meters over his head before landing next to the three trouble makers.

…wait, where the hell did he even jump from? They were on top of a building!

"Brothers, I bring bad news!" the overzealous headband guy announced with a frown, "It seems that our foes have already created their own giant burrito in the past!"

"Are you serious?" Pierce asked in disbelief.

Headband guy nodded in confirmation, and the three idiots groaned in response.

"Ugh, what the hell!" Pierce yelled as he scratched his head in frustration. "There has to be something that they haven't done yet!"

"Anyone care to fill me in? Or better yet, could you just leave already?" Etzali asked dryly.

"Nya, these guys we met the other day called us 'cooking chumps' on their channel, so now we have to show them who's boss." Tsuchimikado elaborated, "Problem is, these guys are pros at what they do. They've made jumbo sized stuff of like everything ever. So we're trying to figure out what they haven't done yet, so that we don't get accused of just copying them."

"How could you possibly expect to beat professionals when you yourself are amateurs?" Etzali asked in exasperation.

"With our guts!" the headband guy butted in explosively, "We will construct an edible masterpiece that will show everyone the true power of guts! Delinquents and miscreants will marvel at its-"

"That's enough, Gunha." Touma deadpanned. "Why don't we just leave it? I don't even know why I'm bothering with this in the first place…"

The one named Gunha looked at Touma in dismay, "K-san, you're our leader! If you will not lead us with your guts, then who will?"

"I never volunteered to be the leader in the first place-!"

"I got it!" Pierce yelled as he was hit with a sudden wave of inspiration, "We'll just deep fry the burrito and cover it in cheese sauce! It will be a giant chimichanga instead!"

Touma sighed loudly and rolled his eyes, a resigned look across his face. Tsuchimikado, however, didn't seem to be at all happy with this decision, as his normal carefree smile was replaced with a scowl.

"That's not funny Pierce, my mom died that way." he said forcefully.

"Oh… sorry man, I didn't know…" Pierce hastily apologized.

"Back the hell up, what do you mean your mom 'died that way'?" Touma demanded, turning to face the blonde haired spy directly.

"Exactly what I said." Tsuchimikado answered stiffly, giving him a look that told him to drop it.

But Touma continued to press the subject, "You mean to tell me that your mother died by being deep fried and covered in cheese sauce?"

"It's hard to talk about, ok? Just leave it."

"Yea Kami-yan, stop being such a dick."

"You're so full of shit! There is no way that somebody could die so ridiculously!" Touma insisted.

"Don't talk about my mother that way Kami-yan, or I'll kick your ass!" Tsuchimikado warned as he cracked his knuckles threateningly.

Touma stood his ground as he clenched his own fist in response, "You expect me to accept things at face value? After all the times you tricked me? To hell with that! If you insist on hiding behind your lies, then it's my duty as your friend to yank you out and break that damned illusion of yours!"

"I warned you!" Tsuchimikado yelled as he angrily charged. Touma met him head on, the two of them trading blows as a simple disagreement became an all out fist fight. Pierce and the guy named Gunha both stepped back to give the two space, making no move to intervene.

"Aren't you guys gonna stop them?" Etzali asked as he watched the two idiots pummel themselves into oblivion.

Gunha shrugged, "Sometimes, men need to show their guts to one another before they can truly understand each other." Gunha looked over at Pierce, "By the way, our foes have already made a giant chimichanga as well."

Pierce frowned, "Really? Damn it. Maybe we could try-"

Without warning, the world began to dissolve as a voice boomed around them.

"Um, please wake up!"

---

Thursday, September 17

A Certain Apartment Complex

Touma's eyes fluttered open. An unfamiliar, bespectacled green haired woman peered down at him, fully clothed in Anti-Skill attire.

"Y-You need to get up! Your c-community service starts today!" she tried to say in a stern voice. Her stuttering effectively killed any sort of intimidation aspect she might have had. Looked like she had confidence issues…

Wait, community service?

All at once, the memories of yesterday's events slammed into him. White, the school, Accelerator…

White…

"He was in my dream just now!" Touma yelped as he slapped his head in sudden realization. Moreover, he had called him by name… what was it again? Gunha?

"Um… what?" the confused Anti-Skill asked.

"…It's nothing." he replied. He would have to look into the matter later. For now he had far more pressing matters to attend to… one of them being the girl standing directly behind the green haired woman.

"Toooouuuuummmaaaaa…" Index slowly ground out in irritation, "Who is this girl?"

"I told you yesterday Index; I'm going to be escorted to community service for awhile…" Touma began before pausing and turning towards the bespectacled woman. "Come to think of it, why are you in here?"

The nervous Anti-Skill girl fidgeted,

"Um, when I went to fetch you, you were still asleep… but we need to leave soon so…" she trailed off.

Touma sighed, "My bad… I'll get a new alarm clock-"

"You were with guys last time." Index stated bluntly.

"Yea… so what?"

Index narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "Are you collecting girls again?"

"Collecting? What are you talking about?"

Before Index could respond, a new voice broke into the conversation,

"Tessou, I told you to escort him, not become his new best friend." the newcomer snapped, who Touma recognized as the jersey-wearing teacher from yesterday.

The girl named Tessou jumped before rattling off a quick apology,

"S-sorry…um…" she turned to him, "You need to come with us immediately!"

"Can I at least eat breakfast first…?" Touma grumbled.

"We will provide food for you if you have yet to eat." the blue-haired woman answered tersely.

Touma sighed and glanced at Index, "Alright… Index, I'm going to be gone for awhile, you'll have to make your own breakfast."

"But Touma, the refrigerator is empty!"

"That's impossible!" he protested. "I stocked it up to last for at least two more days!"

Index looked away, "It took you so long to come home yesterday… I eat more when I'm worried…"

"There is absolutely no way you could've eaten all of that! I'm telling you, it's not humanly possible!"

"Toumaaaaa!"

"Ugh… fukou da…"

Touma turned to the blue haired Anti-Skill in exasperation.

"Look, can she tag along for today? I'll pay you back…" he pleaded.

The blue haired woman gave him a stern look before she turned to leave the cramped bathroom, "Fine. Just hurry up."

Touma sighed again before motioning for Index to follow. She complied with a huff, leaving Tessou to bring up the rear.

Once outside of his room, he was greeted by three additional Anti-Skills, the cat-like smile of his dorm room neighbor, the death glare of a certain albino…

…and a running tackle-hug from a little girl who looked eerily similar to Misaka Mikoto.

Touma staggered backward a little, just barely managing to avoid falling on top of Index. The mini Misaka looked up at him with a bright smile on her face.

"'Misaka is happy to meet you at last.' Misaka says as Misaka expresses her satisfaction!"

"Uh… same here…?" Touma managed. He looked up to see a furious Accelerator glaring daggers at him.

"Nya, so that's why he attacked us!" Tsuchimikado accused, pointing his finger dramatically at Touma, "You were trying to steal his girl!"

"I was not! I haven't even met her before-!"

"Touma! You really were collecting girls!" Index joined in as she barred her teeth.

"What the hell is that even supposed to-?"

"Settle down." The blue haired Anti-Skill cut in abruptly. She reached over and pried the tawny haired girl from Touma's waist and plopped her next to Accelerator, who in turn grabbed her by the shoulder with his free hand. The girl offered no real resistance, just a small pout before giving another carefree smile.

"Don't go bothering other people, you damn brat." Accelerator grumbled, not once breaking eye contact with him as he steered the girl to his far side, away from Touma.

Touma just stared. The whole thing unnerved him. Accelerator, the one who slaughtered over ten thousand Misaka clones, the one who had called them nothing but dolls… was acting to protect this miniature clone? This was unexpected to say the least… he wasn't quite sure how to respond.

The brief stare off between the two was broken by a particularly loud outburst from the endless stomach know as Index.

"Toumaaaaaaaaa, hurry up!" Index whined insistently.

Touma grimaced and looked over beseechingly at the head Anti-Skill. Her eyes softened slightly before being replaced again with its usual hardness.

"We will have breakfast shortly. However, we will be taking a small detour along the way." she announced as she turned around towards the apartment stairs. She glanced back at them over her shoulder, "You better hustle too; you have a long day ahead of you."

With that she walked off towards the stairs. The other Anti-Skills herded them after her and into the back of one of the Anti-Skill vans that were waiting in the parking lot. The three delinquents and their two tagalongs sat wordlessly as the Anti-Skills hovered around them.

After a few minutes of silence went by, the miniature Misaka began tugging on Accelerator's shirt.

"'Are we there yet?' Misaka asks as Misaka tries to determine the trip length."

"What the fuck does it look like? Have we stopped moving yet?" Accelerator replied irritably.

The mini Misaka wilted dejectedly. A few more minutes passed before she spoke up again.

"'How about now?' Misaka asks as Misaka reattempts to pursue an answer."

"What did I just get done telling you?" Accelerator snapped.

The clone sighed before playing with the ends of her hair. Like clockwork, she started up again after a few more moments passed by.

"'How long do you think-?'"

"I don't know where the hag is taking us damn it, so stop fucking asking already! Damn that Yomikawa, she did this on purpose didn't she? I'll get her for this!"

Touma noticed that most of the Anti-Skills tensed to the raised voice, their trigger fingers twitching reflexively. Not that he blamed them. He had seen firsthand what the top esper was capable of, and he was frankly amazed that he managed to survive not once, but twice against him.

Although, he wondered about that. Despite all the destruction they had caused, there hadn't been any casualties or even major injuries of any sort. Considering the person behind the attack, that was beyond miraculous.

Accelerator was the kind of person to focus only on his target and nothing else. He steamrolled through anything that got between him and his prey, no questions asked. Collateral damage meant nothing to him. So then why didn't he just smash the entire school in one go? Sure, they had ripped apart a few hallways and destroyed a few classroom walls, but compared to their first battle that was nothing. Accelerator was more than capable of leveling the entire building, so why didn't he? Wouldn't have that been easier for him?

Why did he hold back?

Touma shook his head before glancing back at the super powered albino, who was repeatedly bopping the tiny Misaka on the head. That was another thing, what was the deal with this new clone? Why was she hanging around Accelerator of all people? And more importantly, why was Accelerator, the guy who would start a dust explosion on a whim, putting up with her? Moreover treating her like a bratty little sister? It was like he was a different person around her…

"Toumaaaaaaaaa, how much longer? I'm going to die at this rate…" Index moaned.

"We're almost there Index, just be patient." Touma replied as he tried to pacify her growing temper.

"How soon?"

"I…I don't know, just soon ok?"

"Toumaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Index whined angrily.

"Oi, make that sister shut her god damn mouth or I'll do it for her!" Accelerator yelled over the protesting mini Misaka.

"You're making more noise then she is!" Touma yelled back. Accelerator narrowed his eyes, but surprisingly didn't say anything.

Tsuchimikado stretched a bit with a grin across his face, "Aren't little sisters wonderful?"

"Shut up."

"Shut the fuck up."

A few long minutes ticked by before the van slowed to a halt. The five of them were marched out of the van to where the blue-haired Anti-Skill was already waiting with a small, silvery device in hand. The woman nodded once, studied her instrument for a few seconds, then began walking briskly in the opposite direction. Touma and the others followed after her as the other Anti-Skills began to jostle them along.

Touma frowned as they trekked the unfamiliar part of town. With all the excitement of this morning, he hadn't realized until now that they were short a member. Pierce was supposed to be serving his community service with them, wasn't he? So were they going off to fetch him? That couldn't be it though, why would Pierce live all the way out here? Plus the woman in charge referred to this venture as a "detour," not "going to pick up the last person." Just what was going on?

He eyed the back of the blue haired woman with some apprehension. Truth be told, he was a bit intimidated by her. She had a very… commanding aura about her. Yet at the same time, he felt as though he could trust her. She had been the same person who had covered him during the golem incident after all. Then again, he also felt like she could snap him in two if he managed to piss her off. And of course, going by his usual luck...

'Stop being so timid Kamijou!' he mentally berated himself. It's not like she was some sort of black ops or something, right? She was just a regular Anti-Skill. He had stood up against more intimidating things then this before… he was walking less than ten meters away from Accelerator for Christ sake!

"Um, miss?" Touma began before suddenly realizing that he didn't even know her name.

"Yomikawa." the woman responded without looking back.

"Right. Miss Yomikawa... where's Pierce?" Touma asked.

"That's a good question." she replied casually as they continued to march toward their destination, "Tell me, is there any chance that your friend is a teleporter?"

"Uh… I don't think so…?" Touma said uneasily, looking at Tsuchimikado for confirmation. Come to think of it, what was Pierce's power anyway?

Tsuchimikado shrugged, "Nya, I don't really know what his power is… but I can guarantee that it isn't teleportation."

"How do you know?"

Tsuchimikado grinned, "C'mon man, it's Pierce. If he was a teleporter, he would've been abusing it every day to get into girl's locker rooms or something."

Touma couldn't help but agree with him.

"But anyways, why would you think he's-?"

"Here we are." Yomikawa suddenly announced as she looked up from her device.

Touma blinked, just now noticing his surroundings. They were in an alleyway located right next to a family restaurant; specifically the alleyway where they placed their trash for pick up. Dumpsters were lined up neatly along the right side.

"Uh, what?"Touma asked in confusion.

She flipped the machine she was holding so that he could get a better look. On the screen was a bright red marker leading to a dark purple one, which they were practically on top of.

A GPS. It must be linked to their ankle bracelets so that they could track them. But if they were getting a signal from here…

Touma jumped as the dumpster he was standing next to let out a muffled moan. Yomikawa raised an eyebrow before she motioned for the other Anti-Skills to lift the top off of the talking trash bin. A heavy stench filled the air as it was removed, revealing…

…Aogami Pierce lying in a pool of buttery spaghetti. For whatever reason, he was sporting a pink jumpsuit that was only haphazardly buttoned up to his chest, a sombrero covering his left eye, and a corny moustache taped on to his upper lip. He stared up at them with a bewildered expression on his face, which they mirrored back at him.

Tsuchimikado was the first to respond, "Rough night?"

"I don't… what?" Pierce answered in disorientation. He shook his head to clear his mind before responding again, "I don't remember how I got here…"

"Most people don't."

Pierce grasped the edges of the container and attempted to hoist himself out, but was stopped midway by Yomikawa.

"I'd like to ask a quick question while I've got your attention." she said in a tone that brooked no argument.

"According to the tracking system, you were inside your room until midnight of last night. You then vanished and reappeared at this location less than a second afterwards."

She leaned in closer, looking down at the trapped pervert. "Your bio makes no mention of you being capable of teleportation. So I must ask; how exactly did you manage to travel nearly a kilometer in such a short period of time?"

Pierce shifted uncomfortably in his small prison of buttered noodles, "I… I don't know… the last thing I remember is playing one of my galge games… then I…"

A light bulb seemed to go off in his head as a look of realization dawned upon him.

"I bet it was those damned panties!"

"…I beg your pardon?"

"I found a pair of panties in my fridge a few days ago." Pierce clarified, "They stayed ice cold even after I let them sit out for awhile. Anyways, I was playing some games last night and accidently touched them, and I started to hallucinate. I think I passed out after I let them go, then I woke up here… where are we, anyways?"

"…Tessou, get a breathalyzer over here."

"I'm not drunk!" Pierce protested.

The exchange was suddenly punctuated with a loud rumbling noise. Everybody turned to see Index clinging onto a helpless looking Tessou for support.

"Foooood..." Index pleaded as her stomach gave another tremendous growl. Her eyes were focused hungrily in the direction of the dumpster, which made Touma fearful of that she might disregard sanitation in her bid for filling her belly.

Yomikawa shot Touma an irritated look, "Don't you ever feed her properly?"

"Oh, you have no idea…" Touma responded hollowly.

The blue haired woman sighed and ran her hand down her face before responding,

"Alright then boys, fish Mr. Frozen Panties out and get him some clothes. We'll do the drug tests on the way to our destination. Everybody else get back in the car and wait."

---

After a few minutes of forcing Index away from the dumpster of spaghetti, they were once again seated in the van. Pierce had changed into the clothes that Anti-Skill had provided, but still smelled heavily of buttered noodles.

Right before they left, a woman with hopped inside. She had short, blue hair and wore a lab coat over her faded shirt and pants. Touma immediately recognized her as the woman he had bumped into right before meeting Accelerator… and she apparently recognized him as well, as Touma noticed that her eyes lingered a bit too long on him. The nameless woman sat down in a vacant seat and nodded at one of the Anti-Skills, who promptly slid the door of the vehicle shut.

"Yoshikawa, what the fuck are you doing here?" Accelerator asked the new arrival.

The woman apparently named Yoshikawa gave him a small smile,

"The person overseeing your community service today happens to be an old friend of mine, so I decided to tag along."

"Taking the day off from job searching? Tch, no wonder you're still unemployed."

"I suppose, but at least I'm actively looking for a job and not blatantly trying to free load." She responded pleasantly.

Accelerator narrowed his eyes at her, "What are you trying to imply, you damned hag?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to say that you were a free loader for living in Aiho's apartment without offering any intention of finding a job. It can't be helped after all, because you're going to school. Well actually, I suppose the correct thing to say is that you were going to school…" Yoshikawa trailed off.

Accelerator grit his teeth and looked away, "Fuck off, you nagging bitch."

Yoshikawa just continued to smile with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

Meanwhile, Tsuchimikado was busy filling in Pierce on what had transpired in his absence.

"Nya, and then she ran up to Kami-yan and gave him a big hug right in front of Accelerator! The Anti-Skill lady had to pry her off of him!"

"That bastard! No wonder Accelerator was so pissed!"

Pierce turned and pointed an accusatory finger at Touma, "Kami-yan, this is all your fault for trying to steal Accelerator's loli! None of us would be in this mess if it wasn't for you!"

"I wasn't trying to steal anybody! Stop blaming me for everything!" Touma defended.

"Don't call her my fucking loli!" Accelerator spat.

Pierce gave Accelerator a sympathetic look, "Don't worry man, we know. Kami-yan has always been a ruthless bastard in the girl department. But even though he's a bastard, he would never outright steal someone else's loli if he knew that she was already taken. This is all probably just a big misunderstanding-"

"I just told you not to call her that, you fucking freak!"

"For the last time, I wasn't stealing anybody! I've never even had a girlfriend!"

"Settle down!" one of the Anti-Skills yelled over them, slightly raising his gun to emphasize the point.

Touma, Pierce, and Tsuchimikado immediately quieted down. Accelerator flipped him off. An uneasy silence soon filled the van, only broken by Index's constant stomach rumblings.

After a long while, the mini Misaka finally spoke up,

"'Are we there yet?' Misaka-"

"Don't even say it you little shit!"

---

Child Error Orphanage

Touma jumped out of the van and stretched a little before focusing on the small, bleak-looking office building before him. The place looked near-deserted. Only two cars were parked at the front, both as bland as the building they sat next to.

"Hustle!" Yomikawa commanded from across the small parking lot, "We aren't here to play around!"

Touma quickly complied, trotting with the others to the front entrance of the building. Well, everyone except Accelerator. Touma watched as he slowly made his way over while using his cane as a crutch, wondering for not the first time just what had happened to him to debilitate him so bad. He may have confidence in his fighting ability, but Touma was pretty sure he had never crippled anybody with a simple punch... had he?

Yomikawa waited until Accelerator was with the rest of them before she started speaking,

"Alright," she barked, "I am officer Yomikawa, and I shall be the director of your community service sentence. You are to conduct your services in an orderly, civilized manner. Failure to comply may result in extended time… and will most likely be detrimental to your well-being."

She paused for a moment, letting the words sink in. Everyone remained silent except for Accelerator, who yawned loudly in response.

Yomikawa motioned at the building behind her, "This is where you will working first. The current owner recently bought the rights to this building, and is using it as an orphanage for child errors. As you can see though, this isn't exactly the greatest looking establishment. Today's job is to help clean this place up until it looks somewhat respectable."

"Tch, more shitty brats? This shit just keeps getting better and better..." Accelerator remarked sarcastically.

Ignoring his quip, Yomikawa continued, "You will be given two small breaks along with an extended lunch period. While you four are working, your companions with be allowed to play with the other children if they wish. Cleaning tasks will be left to the owner's discretion. Basically, anything the owner tells you to do, you do. Do I make myself clear?"

Accelerator snorted as the rest of them nodded silently in confirmation.

"Good. Now we need to wait for the owner to arrive and-"

A loud screeching noise overtook the explanation as tires skidded chaotically on concrete. They all looked over in time to see a navy blue sports car drifting beautifully around the corner. The tires squealed as the vehicle continued to drift through a few open lanes before righting its course and roaring into the parking lot. With another loud skid noise, it parked perfectly between the two other cars from earlier, contrasting spectacularly with the drabness of its surroundings.

Everybody stood momentarily stunned at the sudden intrusion, staring at the vibrant blue vehicle. The silence was short lived though, as the lab coat woman began chuckling in amusement.

"Looks like sempai still drives like a maniac."

Yomikawa sigh deeply, briefly dropping her business-like demeanor for a more natural one, "I know she's your friend and all Kikyou, but she needs to stop hot-rodding around like that. If it were anyone else I would have arrested them on the spot."

"I know. She's always been like that..." the short haired woman admitted as she shook her head.

The car door opened to reveal a woman with long, brown hair and distinctive bags underneath her eyes. If he had to guess, Touma would have pinned this new arrival to be in either her late twenties or early thirties. Like Yoshikawa, she also wore a lab coat over her regular clothes.

The woman smoothed out her skirt and calmly walked towards them as if nothing unusual had happened. Yoshikawa had a small smile on her face as she stepped forward with her hand outstretched, which the other woman quickly clasped in a firm handshake.

"It's been awhile, Kikyou." The brown haired woman greeted.

"Too long, sempai." Yoshikawa replied as they both let go of each other's hands.

The older woman shook her head at that, "I told you, none of this 'sempai' crap any more. I feel old when you call me that. Just call me Harumi."

"It's a kohai's job to remind their sempai of the wisdom that they have gained through old age." Yoshikawa replied coyly.

Harumi opened her mouth to respond, but was beaten to the punch by Pierce,

"Did you just multi-lane drift?" Pierce asked in awe.

The tired looking woman focused on Pierce as if she had just noticed him for the first time,

"I guess I did?" she lazily answered.

"That was bad ass!" Pierce gushed, "Are you from Initial D or-?"

"Anyways," Yomikawa cut in, "This is Kiyama Harumi, the current owner of this building. You are to follow her orders obediently and without complaint. If she says 'jump' you ask her 'how high?'"

She gave a tight smile at the four of them, "In other words, you are her gophers for the day."

The tired woman named Harumi frowned a little in confusion,

"They are? Must have slipped my mind…"

Yomikawa metaphorically tripped on air, "What do you mean it 'must have slipped'? I told you yesterday!"

"Sorry, I've been busy lately… I was wondering why so many people were gathered here, but now that I think about it, I do remember something about getting help with some chores…"

Touma was somewhat reminded of a certain flighty blond nun that he had met recently…

"It's for community service. They are to help you with whatever you deem necessary." Yomikawa reminded patiently.

"Hm… ok then. That would certainly help."

Harumi turned to face the new arrivals,

"Right... then your first order of business is to get the groceries out of my car." she drawled as she pointed back at the sports car. "I'll show you where to put them once you get inside."

The four of them began halfheartedly moving towards the intrusive vehicle. Index and the mini Misaka must have made to follow them, as Yomikawa began issuing orders for them to stop.

"Last Order! Index! You're going to be playing with the others while they work. Follow Harumi-sensei, she'll show you where to go." she told them in a surprisingly soothing voice.

Another voice, this time Harumi's, broke into the conversation, "Oh, they aren't participating in the community service? I did think it was odd that a nun would get into this kind of trouble...well, come along then kids."

Touma looked back at the two of them. Index followed Harumi as if she was in a trance, too hungry to care about being referred to as a "kid" by the older woman. The tiny Misaka clone named 'Last Order' did the same, but stopped before the building entrance to look back at Accelerator.

"'You're not allowed to fight!' Misaka commands as Misaka enforces a peaceful co-existence!"

"Get lost already you damned brat!" Accelerator yelled without looking back. Last Order stuck out her tongue at him before she turned around and vanished into the building.

"Shithead..." Accelerator grumbled. He glanced over at Touma, "The fuck are you looking at?"

Touma responded with a quick "nothing" and looked away.

After they finally got the food packed away into their respective positions, the four delinquents were ushered into a makeshift cafeteria. They were seated at the far end of an isolated table, next to Index, Last Order, Yoshikawa, and Harumi. The other tables were taken up by thirty to forty middle school aged children, who were talking amongst each other since they had apparently already had breakfast.

The kids closest to them were playing chess on the adjacent table. One was wearing a grandiose black cape for whatever reason; the other was dressed plainly aside from his hat that had the number "69" emblazoned across the front.

The caped boy flicked back his long hair from his eyes dramatically before grabbing one of his game pieces,

"I will destroy Britannia!" he announced as he boldly took one of 69's knights.

Yomikawa raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Harumi. She just shrugged tiredly,

"He keeps saying that… I think it's a phase or something…"

Touma wanted to say that imitating anime characters seemed a bit strange for a "phase", but decided to keep his mouth shut.

69 studied the board with a frown, his brow knit in concentration. After a few moments he smirked and grabbed one of his pawns.

"Check this out!" he proclaimed as he proceeded to leapfrog over three of the other boy's pieces and land on the opposite end of the board.

He leaned back with a smug look on his face, "Triple hopped! King me."

"That's not how the game is played." the caped boy explained with over exaggerated hand motions.

"Pffft, whatever man. This is the stupidest game of checkers I've ever played." 69 said dismissively.

"That is because we are playing chess, not checkers you damned eleven."

"Bro, I keep telling you I'm not eleven. I'm thirteen years old, ok?"

"Truly, your stupidity astounds me..."

Touma shook his head at the exchange and noticed one of Harumi's assistants approaching with several bowls of soup. The woman gave them a kind smile as she put the prepared food in front of each of them, which Index wasted no time in digging into. The woman didn't even have enough time to pass out the rest of the bowls before Index had finished and was asking for seconds. Everybody stared in awe as the bemused assistant put down another serving, which was also devoured. Their own food lay forgotten, everyone too enthralled in the phenomenon that was Index's stomach.

Her monstrous appetite seemed to catch the eye of the Child Errors as well,

"Daaaaamn, that girl can eat!" 69 whistled, clearly impressed.

"I've never seen anybody eat so much, so fast!"

"W-what is this feeling in my heart?"

"500 yen says that she'll stop after her forth bowl!"

"Is she related to that hotdog eating champion?"

Touma sat mortified through it all. He looked up at Yomikawa with a pained expression,

"I'll pay you back somehow…" he offered quietly.

"Hah… don't worry about it kid." she replied after she wrenched her eyes away from the spectacle, "You just have more work to pay off, that's all."

"I…I don't think I understand?"

Yomikawa shot him a pitiful expression before she elaborated, "All damages against the state will result in an extended community service time. That includes food costs. So if I were you, I'd pack your own lunch from now on."

Touma's mouth worked silently for a minute before he glanced back at Index, who was continuing to wolf down food at an alarming rate. He could literally feel his shoulders droop from the invisible weight of additional community service hours she was tacking on. He was going to be stuck in community service hell because of a bottomless hole of a nun…

Touma felt an unnaturally strong urge to start sobbing on the spot.

"Ahhh what the hell Kami-yan! You're adding to our debt!" Tsuchimikado yelled from across the table.

"Haven't you gotten us into enough trouble already?" Pierce complained.

"It's not my fault! Besides, you two are the reason any of this happened in the first place!" Touma defended himself as directed the blame to the two of them.

"How do you figure?"

"You think I don't know? I checked with Komoe-sensei, and she told me that I was never supposed to escort anybody around to begin with! Why would you make me go on a wild goose chase like that?"

Tsuchimikado shrugged, "It couldn't be helped."

"WHAT KIND OF LAME ASS EXCUSE IS THAT?" Touma cried in outrage.

"Well if you weren't trying to steal his loli, things would've went just fine-" Pierce spoke up angrily.

"Oi, you call her 'my loli' again and I'll rip your fucking spine out!" Accelerator growled from between his Anti-Skill guards.

"Enough, all of you!"Yomikawa demanded, already fed up with shouting match.

The four of them looked away from each other. The rest of the meal was spent in silence. Harumi ushered the Child Errors (along with Index and Last Order) somewhere and didn't return until well after they were done eating, looking even more tired yet somehow more lively at the same time.

"Sorry, they can be a handful sometimes." she apologized, "But anyways, I have some work for you to do today."

"Before I bought the rights to this place, it was set to be demolished. It's been abandoned for the past few years now, so naturally I had to clean a lot to make it look even a bit respectable."

She paused to fan herself a bit with her hand, apparently hot from handling the child errors from earlier, "I've managed to clean out most of the bottom floor, but that's about it. Right now everybody has to sleep in one or two big rooms, so it's pretty crowded… I think that it would be a lot better for everyone if we managed to get more separate rooms for them to live in. So your first task is to help clean the upper floors. My assistants brought cleaning supplies to the second floor, so you should be ready to go… you don't have to do much, just make it livable, alright?"

They all nodded wordlessly. Touma noticed that Accelerator had an unreadable expression on his face, like he wasn't really listening. It was replaced a second later with his usual scowl, making Touma question if it even happened at all.

"So…any questions?" Harumi asked apathetically.

Nobody said anything for a moment.

"Is it possible for a bear to ride on top of a horse?" Pierce suddenly asked.

…Touma was seriously starting to question Pierce's mental state.

"Are you fucking retarded? Of course it can't!" Accelerator snapped in irritation.

"Nya, not necessarily. It could be a really small bear."

"I also depends on the type of bear." Harumi pointed out, unperturbed by the random question. "I don't think an American grizzly would be the best choice for such things."

"The weight of most bears would still break the average horse's back." Accelerator insisted.

"Well then what if the horse was a Clydesdale? Those things are gigantic." Pierce brought up.

The others looked at each other.

"That could work."

"Don't see why not."

"Maybe." Accelerator admitted. "But only then."

"Why in the hell would you try to get a bear to ride a Clydesdale in the first place?" Touma asked in exasperation.

"Because it would be awesome! Think of a bear riding down on horseback after your ass. You wouldn't mess with that, would you?"

"I wouldn't mess with a regular bear."

"You don't have any imagination, Kami-yan."

"You have an overactive one!"

"If there aren't any actual questions, then I suggest that you get started." Yomikawa interrupted, "Between eating an entire kitchen worth of food and Mr. Frozen Panty's breach in house arrest, you guys aren't exactly off to a great start in debt recovery."

At this reminder, the four of them hesitantly began trudging their way to the first work assignment of their community service.

---

Child Error Orphanage, Second Floor

"This is such fucking bullshit! Why do I have clean a shit hole like this? Do I look like a fuckin' trash man?" Accelerator complained from across the hall.

"Just shut up and do it, Accelerator."

"Fuck you Yomikawa! You're not the one cleaning rat shit off the ground!"

"I'm also not the one who blew up a building."

"It was still standing upright!"

"Just barely. And with half of the interior carved out. It's pretty impressive that it managed to stay up, actually."

"Nya, you must be a pro at Jenga, Accelerator!" Tsuchimikado commented as he sprayed down the windows.

"Who the fuck asked you!"

Touma sighed as Accelerator continued to complain. As far as he was concerned, they had gotten off easy.

'Too easy, actually.' Touma thought to himself as he threw some more junk into the waste basket. What they had done was grounds for jail time at the very least. Instead, they were allowed to take community service, doing favors for an officer's friend. And it wasn't exactly back breaking work, either. Their punishment seemed more like a big slap on the wrist than anything else.

Was it because of Accelerator's standing? He supposed that made sense. It was pretty obvious to Touma that Level 5's were given some leniency from higher authorities. Him, Pierce, and Tsuchimikado were probably just riding in on Accelerator's curtails… well, it was his fault in the first place after all.

But that begged the question; why did Accelerator transfer to his school in the first place? It was obvious that Accelerator was just as surprised about it as he was… and Accelerator didn't really seem like the type to go to school of his own volition. Was he somehow forced into it? Surely, the higher ups would have been keeping tabs on both of them, considering what happened during their fight… why would they intentionally put them together again?

And on top of that, why would they let somebody who had just wrecked a building work in a child error orphanage the next day? If he had another outburst, it would just be a repeat of yesterday… So then that must mean that they have some way of controlling him? Thinking back, Accelerator did just kind of fall to the ground out of nowhere yesterday… but then why would they have waited to do anything until after he got done destroying everything? Unless maybe-

A hand suddenly clapped him hard on the back, knocking him back into reality.

"You ok bro? You were spacing out." Pierce asked cheerfully.

"…Yea." Touma answered back slowly.

"What were you looking at anyways?" Pierce questioned as he followed Touma's line of sight from a moment ago. A lecherous grin spread across his face as he spotted Tessou standing at the other side of the room.

"Heh, I don't blame you, she's pretty hot. She even has that whole clumsy moe thing going for her… is she your next target?"

Touma gave Pierce a confused look, "What are you talking about?"

"Well I mean, it makes sense if you think about it. Having a girl in the law enforcement would definitely come in handy when you have to deal with jealous boyfriends or yanderes. Plus her specs are pretty good all considering. Throw in the fact that she's a 'naturally clumsy' type, and she's a pretty sweet deal!" Pierce explained enthusiastically.

Touma stared at him cluelessly. Most of what Pierce had said was without subject content, and the misfortunate boy was simply too dense to connect the dots.

Pierce patted him on the shoulder before he went back to sweeping, "I know you have experience, Kami-yan, but you still need to be careful. If you screw up on that route, you'll have half of Anti-Skill down your back. So handle your flags well, ok?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Touma called after him, but Pierce just waved without looking back. Touma shook his head and continued working, deciding it was best if he didn't ask.

They slowly worked their way up the building without incident. While the building had been abandoned, there honestly wasn't too much to clean up besides dust and rat feces. After only a few hours, they were halfway done with the fourth and final floor.

Touma had just gotten done emptying the trash, and was being escorted back up the stairs by Yomikawa when it happened. They had reached the third floor when a high pitched scream met their ears, followed by several howls of pain and gunfire. Without hesitation, Touma dropped the trash bin and charged up the rest of the stairs, Yomikawa only a few steps behind him. Half way to the top, a bizarre, fluctuating noise blasted above him, cutting out all other sound. Gritting his teeth, Touma jumped the last few steps and into the final floor.

Touma only caught a glimpse of the scene before him. Everyone was scattered across the landing. Pierce was holding his right arm, blood pouring out of two separate spots. Tsuchimikado's arm was somehow stuck in a wall. Bullet holes lined the wall, evidently fired by Tessou who was gripping an empty clip as if her life depended on it. The actual pistol was a few meters away from her. The other three Anti-Skills were sprawled on the ground awkwardly, sporting large gashes on the sides of their faces.

And Accelerator was lying on the ground, completely motionless. Standing above him was a man clad in a black wet suit that spanned the entirety of his body.

Before Touma could completely grasp the situation, the man in black lunged forward. Touma could only lift his hands to shield himself before the man crashed into him.

As they collided, Touma's right hand brushed against the assailant. With the familiar sound of negation, the man and the bizarre noises vanished as soon as Touma's Imagine Breaker made contact with his body. Despite this, the momentum still converted, and Touma was knocked back down the stairs and into Yomikawa. He reflexively tried to shield her from most of the blows as they both tumbled down, it not occurring to him that she would have hardly felt it anyways due to her body armor.

They landed in a heap on the conjunction between the third and fourth floor. Yomikawa somehow managed to land on top of him, knocking the wind out of him and smothering him with her sizable breasts simultaneously. A few frightful seconds of oxygen deprivation passed before he managed to dislodge himself from her cleavage and take a large gulp of air.

Pain seared through Touma's head as he experienced extreme disorientation. Random thoughts and images flit through his mind, feeling somehow both alien and uncannily familiar to him. It felt as if someone had ripped his brain out, diced it into small pieces, then put it back in random order. Was this what a concussion was supposed to feel like?

After a long moment, his vertigo eventually subsided. He took a long, slow breath before he realized he was being talked to.

"What the hell Kami-yan, I thought you were going for the green haired one! Don't tell me you are actually planning to go for both!"

"Nya, as expected of Kami-yan!"

"Fucking idiots."

"I-I didn't-!" Touma sputtered, his face flushing red as he realized that Yomikawa was still sprawled across his body. She had only managed to partially untangle herself enough to sit upright, which looked extremely lewd without proper context. Touma looked up from his unfortunate position to see a crimson faced Tessou, three embarrassed Anti-Skills, the pissed yet perverse faces of his two idiot friends, and Accelerator, who looked completely indifferent if not a bit ruffled.

Yomikawa either didn't realize the predicament they were in, or simply didn't care,

"What in the hell is going on here?" she barked, still somehow maintaining a commanding presence despite her awkward… seating arrangements.

"Uh, um, well… I mean-"Tessou bubbled, tripping over her words spectacularly from a combination of nervousness and embarrassment.

Pierce had no such qualms,

"We got attacked by a bunch of crazy rats!" he shouted cheerfully.

"…Rats?" Yomikawa repeated.

"Yea! They were like super rats or something! Then a power ranger appeared and scared them away by playing really weird music. Then Kami-yan came and I guess he decided it was time to go cuz he teleported away right after that... then we found Kami-yan raising your flags down at the bottom of the stairs!"

Yomikawa stared blankly at Pierce before looking back at Tessou, "You sure he read negative on the drug tests?"

"I'm not high!"

"Um... while his interpretation is… unique, that is essentially what happened…" Tessou confirmed.

Yomikawa raised an eyebrow, "I heard gunshots."

"W-well…"

"Nya, that's because she was shooting at the rats." Tsuchimikado butted in.

"Yea, she had her eyes closed when she fired too, it was so moe~!" Pierce added.

Tessou blushed even harder, causing Yomikawa to give a tired sigh, "I see… well, I'll get your testimonies later I guess, but I'd like to-"

"Can you please get off of me before you continue?" Touma interrupted, trying to ignore the warmth she was generating around his nether regions. He was a guy after all…

"Oh, right. Sorry 'bout that." She apologized before slowly separating from him. Touma was relieved to see that everything was 'under control' down there as she lifted herself off of him. She patted herself off a bit before offering him a hand up, to which he obliged.

Almost as if it was an afterthought to all the craziness, Yoshikawa and Harumi appeared at the crux of the stairwell,

"We heard a commotion?" Yoshikawa questioned the Anti-Skill leader.

Yomikawa gestured at the others, "We got a rat problem, apparently. It looks like some of them got bit, so I'm going to have to have one of your nurses check them out for now."

"I suppose that does explain the excessive rat dung… I'll have one of my assistants take a look at them." Harumi replied casually.

"I'd appreciate that." Yomikawa thanked before signaling for the others to come down, "Once they patch you up, you'll be following me and Tessou outside. We have more work for you to do."

Nodding glumly, the four boys followed Harumi to the nurses ward.

---

Child Error Orphanage, Just Outside

Touma grunted with exertion as he scrubbed the exterior of the building. After the rat incident, they had been relocated with Yomikawa and Tessou to cleaning the graffiti-coated backside of the orphanage. The rest of the Anti-Skill team was tackling the supposed rodent problem, as Yomikawa deemed the extermination as "not safe enough" for the unprotected delinquents to take part in. Not that Touma minded in the slightest. He didn't really want to take another freefall down the stairs if he could help it.

Standing back to look at their overall progress, Touma jammed his hands inside of his pockets, only to notice that there was something in them. Curious, he quickly pulled out the thin object to reveal a slip of folded paper.

Touma looked around suspiciously at the others. For some reason, his gut was telling him that he needed to keep whatever was inside the paper to himself.

Accelerator was busy trying to erase the words "Skill-Out wuz hear" from the wall, keeping up a steady stream of swearing as he worked. Tsuchimikado and Pierce were working on the other end, well out of earshot as they attempted to scrub off a particularly stubborn drawing of a penis. Tessou appeared to be daydreaming, a serene smile on her face as she stared of into the clouds.

Once he was sure that nobody was looking, he hastily unfolded it and peered at the message scrawled inside.

It simply read: "Beware of blondes."

Touma stared blankly at the cryptic words. What the hell was that supposed to mean? And why was this even in his pocket in the first place? He was positive that it hadn't been there before...

Perhaps it was from that ninja character from earlier? Had he slipped it in before he had gotten dispersed?

And what was up with that anyway? He had kept his mouth shut when Pierce had said that the guy teleported away, but he was positive that he had heard his Imagine Breaker activate. It couldn't have been a hologram or an illusion though; he had obviously generated momentum when he knocked Touma back. So that meant that it had to have been corporeal… Touma was aware that some magicians could create humanoid constructs, but usually they simply broke down into their base components when he touched them, like when he had taken down Sherry Crowell's rock golem. With this, there was nothing left, like he had dispelled a fireball or something. Even that weird noise had disappeared with him…

And what was this guy playing at with this "Beware of blondes" business anyway? I mean, why didn't he just say "look out for this person" instead of being all cryptic like that? He didn't even know any blondes aside from Tsuchimikado and Orsola… at least, he thought he didn't. He couldn't be absolutely sure, what with the mind wipe and all. Come to think of it, if he didn't know said blonde in question yet, then just giving a name wouldn't really do him any good. Maybe there was a reason to be vague…

It still annoyed the hell out of him though. He liked straight forward answers, not mysterious messages that had to be worked out. It was like one of those unrealistic plot twists that writers used to "refresh" the story. It might be cool to the readers, but the protagonist has to suffer for it, damn it!

Touma let out a frustrated sigh. He gave the small piece of paper one final look over before pocketing it, deciding to put it out of his mind for now.

Touma glanced back over at Accelerator. The Level 5 albino was also piling on more questions then he did answers. He had seen Accelerator lying on the ground when he had beheld the apparent aftermath of the rat incident. Motionless, unresponsive… he looked almost exactly the same way he had when he had suddenly collapsed on the rooftop the day before. Could it be connected to that ninja guy?

Touma wanted to question him about it, but had held off. People generally didn't like having their moments of weakness pointed out to them, and Accelerator was no exception. Only in his case, Accelerator was liable to blow up a building if he felt his pride was being attacked.

Still, something was definitely off. Was there a flaw in Accelerator's power after all?

The sound of doors bursting open quickly brought Touma back to reality. He turned to see the middle schoolers pour out of the building and into the playground behind him, apparently having break.

A boy with gold hair quickly led a group to retrieve a set of dodge balls from a bin parked in the center of the playground. The boy with the 69 cap rushed to get his own ball, only to get casually tripped by the gold boy. Surprisingly, 69 immediately tucked his body and rolled as he hit the ground, and using his forward momentum, he sprang back up without losing step, landing right next to the open bin. He began throwing balls at random to the other children before a member of Gold's group managed to drag him away. In response, the boy in the cape from earlier threw his own ball and hit the back of the captor's head, which stunned him enough to drop 69 on the spot.

The newly freed 69 picked up one of the few spare balls and turned to face Gold, grinning challengingly with a look of fiery determination on his face. Gold smiled back before picking up his own ball and chunking it at 69, while at the same time motioning his group to fall into formation. 69 blocked Gold's ball with his own, signaling to the rest of the kids to grab the rest of the precious ammunition that lay around. 69 threw his own ball at Gold's face, which he nimbly dodged with a tilt of his head. Two seconds later, both sides began firing at each other. The battle for the playground had begun.

"Shitty brats… Don't know fucking shit about the world." Accelerator declared as he went back to work.

"Just because they are having fun doesn't mean they haven't gone through rough times before." Touma responded automatically.

Accelerator scowled, "Fuck them. Those little bastards have it made. Being a child error has changed a whole hell of a lot from before if living in a cramped area is all they have to worry about."

Touma gave Accelerator a sharp look, "From before? You were a child error too?"

"No shit, Sherlock. You see mommy and daddy coming to my fuckin' rescue?" Accelerator asked mockingly.

Touma didn't say anything for awhile, opting instead to focus back on the kids. Gold and his posse now stood atop the jungle gym, raining hell on whoever got within throwing distance. He was grinning triumphantly at 69, knowing the he had the advantage in both weapon stock and field position. 69 glared back before his face split into a smile of its own, causing Gold to frown in confusion. 69 was suddenly blocked from Gold's view as the biggest kids in 69's group slid in front of him, handing over their own ammunition to the smaller kids and forming a human shield by linking arms. 69 flashed the caped boy a quick thumbs up before ordering the human wall forward, the smaller children crouching behind them with a ball in each hand. Gold's group pelted the protective barrier relentlessly, slowly trying to wear down the "tanks" of 69's formation. Undaunted, the group plunged into Gold's stronghold, slowly but surely gaining ground.

"It must have been tough." Touma finally said.

Accelerator snorted derisively, "Maybe for them, for me it was just fucking annoying. They were hardly strong enough to survive; I got to be with fucking Kihara all the time. The fucker would never leave me alone, always one test after another. Not that the greasy fuck could make me do anything, I just had nothing else better to do. But for the others, it was killed or be killed, and that was only if you were lucky enough to have the eggheads take an interest in you."

Accelerator waved his cane at the unfolding battle, "These little bastards have obviously never had to experience that kind of shit before. They shouldn't even be called child errors."

"So that's why you looked so distant earlier..." Touma realized aloud. That unreadable expression Accelerator had while Harumi was talking about improving the living conditions of the orphanage… it probably dug up unwanted memories of his own childhood, of how worse off he had had it.

Accelerator apparently didn't take too kindly to the observation,

"The fuck are you looking at me so much? You checkin' me out or something? Go suck on someone else's cock!" Accelerator sneered.

"Sorry for having a sense of compassion." Touma responded dryly.

"I don't need your fucking sympathy."

"And I really don't need your constant shitty attitude, but you keep giving me one." Touma snapped back.

The two glared at each other for a moment before they were interrupted by the sudden appearance of Index and Last Order.

"Touma, what trouble are you causing now?" Index growled warningly.

"'You aren't supposed to fight!' Misaka complains as Misaka puts her metaphorical foot down."

Accelerator gave her a supremely annoyed expression before turning back to washing the wall.

Touma shook his head before regarding the two girls, "We weren't fighting… what are you two doing here anyways?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

Index shrugged, "We felt we'd just be in the way if we got involved with… what ever it is that they're doing."

Touma looked back up at the warring child errors. The battle was reaching its climax as 69's battle formation broke apart explosively in the middle of Gold's position. The "tanks" were out of commission, but they had done their damage; Gold's forces had been forced to use a large amount of ammo to whittle down the human shield, and were now evenly matched on both resources and vantage position. The two factions fought fiercely as the battle devolved into an all out free-for-all for the jungle gym.

At the center of this maelstrom of flying balls and bodies, the two commanders met.

69 and Gold dropped their balls simultaneously as they both somehow pulled out concealed melee weapons from their pants. 69 brandished a silver nerf bat, the word "BRO" etched into its surface in blue. Gold wielded a cylindrical, drill-shaped nerf sword engraved with crimson letterings that Touma couldn't recognize. They stared at each other for a moment, sizing each other up. Then, without warning, they clashed.

"Cuneiform?" Accelerator wondered, his eyes narrowing on Gold's strange "blade".

Index nodded, "Yes, from the Uruk period to be precise… it's very strange. Both weapons seem to have certain special properties, but I can't seem to make them out…"

Last Order tilted her head slightly, "'Aren't they just play weapons?' Misaka asks as Misaka tries to understand your reasoning."

Index shook her head, "No, they aren't. It's a bit faint, but both of those constructs definitely hold a power within them. But as I said, it's difficult to define… the formula is both similar to magic, yet not…"

Accelerator squinted at the petite nun, "Magic? The fuck are you babbling about?"

"Ah, she just recently moved into Academy City, so she's still not quite used to esper abilities. She keeps calling it magic or something." Touma hastily interjected before Index could say anything.

Accelerator looked at him for a moment before focusing his attention back on the children, "Tch, whatever."

"Anyways, you're good at identifying types of leaves right Index? What kind is this one?" Touma asked with feigned interest as he grabbed Index by the arm and forced her down to look at a leaf on the ground. Crouched right next to each other, his expression turned from cheerful to aggravation,

"How could you forget about not mentioning magic to espers!" Touma hissed, "'Perfect memory' my ass!"

"I didn't forget, it just didn't occur to me!" Index whispered back indignantly.

"Same difference."

"It's a huge difference!"

"Whatever. You said there was something different about their weapons?"

"Like I said, it has traces that are similar to magic, yet aren't. The format is jumbled, yet the formula is still capable of performing a proper circuit."

"…Wanna run that by me again?"

"It's really weird."

"That's too simplified!"

"It's Touma's fault for being stupid!"

"How the hell am I supposed to understand what you're talking about when you give no subject content!"

"'Misaka is surprised at how enthusiastic the Savior is concerning foliage identification.' Misaka states as Misaka relays her surprise."

Touma and Index both straightened up, sheepish expressions on their faces, "Haha yea, I've been, uh, trying to get into a new hobby lately…"

Last Order simply gave him a cute smile and went back to watching the warring child errors. 69 and Gold had somehow ended up on top of the monkey bars, hoping from bar to bar as they continued their duel.

Gold was eventually forced to jump down first as he made it to the other side, leaving 69 to jump after him. Bringing all his strength to bare, Gold desperately swung upwards at the descending 69, who oppositely used the momentum of his decent to swing downwards. He barely managed to force 69's strike to the side, quickly backing away in order to recover.

But 69 didn't give him the chance. Rolling forward as he landed, 69 sprung up with an upward slash at the defending Gold. Gold parried the thrust to his left and quickly capitalized on the brief overextension to slam the hilt of his sword into 69's side. 69 staggered forward before swinging his bat around in a large arc, successfully blocking Gold's follow up thrust. Both sword and bat were forced upwards, and before either of them could bring their weapons back down, 69 dived forward, hitting Gold with a flying tackle.

Both were sent tumbling down an open slide, landing in a heap on the ground. They quickly separated from each other, squaring off to once again continue their duel. But before they could proceed, Harumi opened the door to the building again, announcing that break was now over.

The children quickly gathered by the door and filed into a line as if a full scale war had not just broken out for the past ten minutes. 69 and Gold reluctantly got into line with the other kids and marched back inside, agreeing non-verbally to put their fight on hold for another time.

"Nya, that was pretty bad timing on Harumi-chin's part." Tsuchimikado commented from behind him.

Touma jumped a little. They must have snuck over to watch the fight…

"Yea, I was about to get some money off of you." Pierce added.

"What are you talking about? The gold guy was definitely going to win the one on one duel."

"My ass, that 69 kid had that one in the bag."

"Instead of trying to bet money that neither of you actually have, why don't you two get back to work," Yomikawa suggested as she casually checked her nails, "When you goof off, I just stop counting the time going towards your community service. I won't tell you again."

Pierce and Tsuchimikado laughed nervously before making to go back to their post. But Yomikawa stopped them before they could get more than a few steps in,

"Not now, it's lunch time. You get half an hour break before you go back to work. Follow me to the cafeteria; we'll hook you up with some more food. Though you'll have to eat out here so me and Tessou can see you properly."

Index, who had apparently stayed behind with Last Order to eat with them, instantly perked up at the prospect of food. Which meant more debt.

Touma suddenly didn't feel hungry any more…

---

Child-Error Orphanage, Lunch Break

Touma groaned as his stomach gargled pathetically. He was starting to seriously regret skipping out on both breakfast and lunch to offset Index's gluttony…

"Nya, you can have my miso soup, Kami-yan. It tastes like garbage compared to Maika's." Tsuchimikado offered.

Touma gratefully accepted as his eyes began to tear up in appreciation. Tsuchimikado, after all, was his absolute best friend in the world right now. That was what his stomach was telling him anyways, grumbling in approval as he quickly downed the precious soup.

With a sudden flash of insight, Touma wondered if this was what Index felt like all the time. Maybe they had more in common than he had thought…

Well, except he didn't go around biting people when he didn't get fed immediately. And he didn't freeload off of people for said meal. And he didn't have a singularity where his belly was supposed to be either.

…why did he put up with her again?

A thought occurred to Pierce as he turned his attention to Touma,

"Kami-yan, what are your favorite kind of panties, blue and white striped, or lacy red?"

Touma lifted an eyebrow at the blue haired pervert,

"What kind of question is that?" he asked dully. While Index was outside of hearing range, Yomikawa, Tessou, and Last Order could hear everything quite clearly. Why would he bring this up now?

"Well, Tsuchimikado over here was saying some ridiculous crap about how red lacy panties are the best when clearly stripped is far superior-"

"Nya, you're still stuck on that cliché design? Your tastes are immature." Tsuchimikado interrupted.

"Lacy red is just about the most clichéd panty type in the history of ever! Anyways, which one is your favorite? It's got to be blue and white strips, right?" Pierce pressed.

"Red is the way to go!" Tsuchimikado yelled proudly.

…Yep. They were clearly devoid of situational awareness. While Yomikawa looked indifferent, Touma could see that Tessou was flushing darker shades of red the longer they talked about this. Last Order was also listening with rapt attention, which Accelerator didn't seem to notice since he was busy tuning them out.

Put on the spot like this, the best way out would be to just disagree and leave it at that, right?

"Neither." Touma finally stated. "Now let's just-"

"N-neither? You're into commando?" Pierce asked in surprise.

"What? No, I said-"

"Nya, now that's thinking out of the box! That's a pretty good answer, Kami-yan!" Tsuchimikado commented, clearly impressed.

"Yea I gotta admit, going bare back can be pretty sexy." Pierce added as he nodded in approval.

"I never said that!" Touma yelled at the two of them.

The damage was already done, however. Yomikawa was sporting an amused smile while Tessou was completely red in the face.

Last Order had a slightly confused expression on her face, "'I see.' Misaka whispers in confusion as Misaka saves this bit of information for later discussion."

Touma had no way of knowing that Last Order had just broadcasted her newly gleaned knowledge over the entirety of the Misaka Network.

As Touma was trying to salvage his good name, Pierce turned to Accelerator,

"So what's your panty preference?" he asked enthusiastically.

Accelerator blinked in surprise. Maybe he had assumed that the others wouldn't try to include him in casual conversation. Either way, he managed to recover fast enough to tell Pierce to fuck off before returning to his canned coffee.

Tsuchimikado suddenly spoke up,

"By the way, what's up with the cane, Accelerator?" he asked out of the blue.

Accelerator tensed, "None of your fucking-"

"Dude, it's his pimp cane. He's even got an arm guard on it." Pierce interrupted.

"Oh ok- wait, why would you need an arm guard on a pimp cane?" Tsuchimikado questioned.

"To protect against player haters." Pierce responded matter-of-factly.

"That's stupid." Touma stated bluntly.

"No it's not. People get jealous when you're walking around with girls all the time. You of all people show know this, Kami-yan."

"What do you mean I should-?"

"But what makes you think that Accelerator has girls around him all the time?" Tsuchimikado butted in.

"Same reason why Final Fantasy has loads of fan girls; chicks love androgynous bishie types." Pierce replied sagely.

"Oh yea, now I see-"

"Don't just fucking go and talk like I'm not here!" Accelerator yelled over them.

"Nya, sorry bro. You really need to speak up more though." Tsuchimikado apologized.

"Yea, you're kinda anti-social for a pimp, you know?" Pierce added.

"I'm not a fucking pimp and I'm not your fucking 'bro'!" Accelerator growled with hostility.

"Should we call you 'buddy' then?"

"Don't call me anything you fucking freak!"

"But that could get really confusing, and Accelerator is a pretty long word, nya."

"Because 'Tsuchimikado' isn't a long word, right?" Touma commented sarcastically.

"You can call me Motoharu if you want."

"As soon as you start calling me Touma."

"But Kami-yan sounds better. And it's shorter"

"No it's not!"

"Anyways," Pierce began, "If you're a pimp, why don't you pay off our stuff, Accelerator? I'll bet you're loaded!"

Accelerator was about to give Pierce a verbal smack down, when Yomikawa interrupted by hooking Accelerator's neck with the crook of her elbow,

"Actually, Mr. Pimp here is what you would call a 'riches to rags' story. He's as broke as you." She said with a grin.

"Really? What happened?" Pierce asked out of curiosity.

Yomikawa's amused grin spread further,

"You see, Accelerator here succumbed to a classic example of poor money management. Despite all the money he had, he didn't invest any of it. But as it turns out, paying for intensive surgery without any insurance to cover the bills is a rather costly endeavor. So now the once well off Accelerator is left penniless and without a place to call his own. So, make sure you invest your money kids, or else you could end up just like Accelerator."

"What kind of fucking reason would I ever have had to get insurance? Nothing could even touch me!"

"Except that something did touch you, and now you're free loading off of me because you didn't think ahead." Yomikawa reminded him.

"That had a trillion to one chance of even happening!"

"It still happened."

"You're fucking impossible!"

"As impossible as Mr. Invincible getting hit?"

Accelerator made an immensely frustrated noise before he grabbed his cane and hobbled away. Tessou half heartedly attempted to stop him before Yomikawa waved her off.

The blue haired officer sighed and shook her head, "It's amazing how he can be such a genius, yet still act like an angsty teenage punk. Though I guess he can't help it, his hormones are pretty screwed up from what I hear…"

In contrast to Yomikawa's calm demeanor, Last Order looked distraught,

"'Do you think he will be okay?' Misaka asks worriedly as Misaka tries to deal with it."

Yomikawa's face softened as she gave the ten year old a genuine smile,

"He's fine. He's just pouting because he's got a bruised ego, that's all. Me and Kikyou are just knocking him down a few pegs. It's a great stress reliever."

Yomikawa adopted a more thoughtful expression, "Though I guess I was being a bit too hard on him… oh well, I was never gonna win parent of the year award anyways. And I still think I'm doing a better job than those damned scientists."

Touma thought as Yomikawa continued to comfort Last Order. Why did Accelerator have a cane now? He might of knocked him around a bit, but surely not enough to cause anything crippling… right?

But it wasn't just that. No matter how you looked at it, Accelerator acted differently around that girl. Sure, he rattled off insults at her just like everyone else... but he held himself differently when he focused on Last Order.

He tolerated her. She would annoy him constantly, and even though he cursed her for it, he did nothing about it. It might not seem like much, but this was coming from a guy who simply steamrolled through anything that bothered him. For him to willingly put up with something that irritated him... well, that wasn't Accelerator. At least, not the Accelerator that he remembered.

And it wasn't just her either. From what he had gathered, Accelerator seemed to be living with both Yoshikawa and Yomikawa. They both nagged and teased him, but he once again put up with it. He held back, just like he had with their last battle, opting to put up with the more tedious fight then going straight for the easier method.

What had happened between their last two encounters that had made him change so much?

Touma focused again on Yomikawa. If she and Yoshikawa were living with Accelerator, they had to know something, right? Maybe he could get a few questions answered. He reckoned it was worth a shot anyways. Either way, he needed to hurry as lunch was about to end soon.

He stepped forward before addressing the blue haired woman,

"Uh… can I have a word with you before we start on our community service again?" he asked hesitantly.

Yomikawa's face turned blank for a second before she shrugged it off, "Sure, but it'll count against your service hours."

She pointed at Tessou, "Make sure those two keep working on the graffiti; I'll get Harumi to pick up the tykes."

"Y-yes!"Tessou answered dutifully.

The others were considerably less pleased,

"What the hell, why do we have to keep working when Kami-yan and Accelerator get to do whatever they want?" Pierce whined.

"Kami-yan, did you already seduce Spartan lady as well? Should have known, she is your type after all…" Tsuchimikado assumed.

"Touma! What's all this about seducing people?" Index demanded.

"'Misaka has noticed that the Savior seems inclined towards military women.' Misaka asserts as Misaka extrapolates from the Savior's [commando] preference."

Yomikawa ignored them entirely and motioned the slightly red faced Touma to follow her into the building. He quickly obliged, vowing to beat up the two idiots later for indirectly mentioning his 'older women' preference in front of Tessou and Yomikawa.

---

"Damn that crafty bastard, raising flags left and right!" Pierce grumbled.

Tsuchimikado and Pierce had begrudgingly went back to scrubbing the walls after Touma's departure. Harumi had already rounded up Index and Last order, leaving only Tessou to watch over the two of them.

Thankfully, she was decidedly more lenient on the whole 'no talking' policy then Yomikawa.

"Nya, that's Kami-yan." Tsuchimikado said offhandedly.

"Still, this sucks. Kami-yan and Accelerator owe us for this."

"Where did Accelerator go anyway?"

"He's probably on the rooftop acting like a mysterious bishonen or something."

"Nya, I don't think he could get to the roof, the top floor is still being fumigated." Tsuchimikado pointed out.

Pierce paused, his frustration slowly dying off, "What was with that anyway? We got our asses kicked by a bunch of rats. That's just embarrassing man."

"They were on steroids or something. I just want to know where all the bodies went. I'm sure we killed at least a few, but I didn't see any corpses after that black power ranger scared them off." Tsuchimikado stated thoughtfully.

"Maybe they brought the bodies with them?" Pierce guessed, "I mean, isn't it battle code to bring your dead back for a proper burial or something?"

"For humans. They were rats, Pierce."

"Rats aren't usually smart enough to attack in delta formations." Pierce countered.

"True…"

The two idiots were silent for a moment before Tsuchimikado noticed something was off,

"Yo Pierce, what the hell is wrong with your arm?"

Pierce looked down to see his hand bleeding.

"Shit, what the hell?" he yelped in surprise, his right hand instantly going for the apparently wounded limb. He pulled back his shirt sleeve, tracing a long welt that started at his shoulder and extended to the back of his left hand.

"Maybe one of those rats got you better then you thought." Tsuchimikado offered, staring curiously at the bizarre mark.

Pierce didn't say anything. He was sure that nothing had bitten his left arm; he would've felt it like he had with the other couple of rat bites he had received. But with this, he didn't feel anything. It was as if the wound had just appeared out of thin air. Pierce couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something definitely felt off about this…

"D-do you need medical assistance?" Tessou asked, having apparently noticed Pierce's injury as well.

Pierce pushed aside his doubts and gave the adorably shy Anti-Skill his usual grin. He couldn't let such a nice flag set up go to waste. This was the perfect opportunity to impress her with his bravery.

"Nah it's nothing; it doesn't even hurt. I always have some tissues on hand just in case something like this happens." Pierce said in his best heroic voice, reaching in his pocket for his wallet.

"Nya, I bet you always have some lotion on hand too, if you catch my drift." Tsuchimikado snickered.

But Pierce didn't have time to acknowledge Tsuchimikado's snarky comment. He pulled his pockets inside out after rummaging through them a bit, revealing that they were completely devoid of anything other then lint.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" he muttered in aggravation, "I had it right before we started working!"

"Had what? Your tissues? Relax man, just get some inside-"

"Not that! The tissues were in my wallet! It's not here any more!" Pierce replied frantically, searching his back pockets on the off chance that he had put it there on accident.

"Oh… well who cares? You told me that you always leave your money at home so that you don't overspend at the arcade, right?"

"It's not about the money! My lucky condom was also in my wallet!"

"…Your what?" Tsuchimikado asked blankly.

"My lucky condom!" Pierce repeated.

"How in the hell can a condom be lucky? Did you use it or something?"

"Of course I didn't use it yet. But I will one day, so that's what makes it lucky!"

"So let me get this straight… you have a lucky condom, despite the fact that you've never once gotten 'lucky' before?" Tsuchimikado asked incredulously, "That's just weird. And really ironic."

"Whatever, just help me find it!" Pierce pleaded, searching the ground on his hands and knees for the precious wallet.

"Um… when was the last time you saw it again?" Tessou asked, still pink faced from the condom business.

"Like I said, right before we started working on cleaning up the floors of… the…" Pierce trailed off as something suddenly dawned on him.

"The rats!" he shouted, hopping up onto his feet, "It probably came out when the rats attacked!"

Tsuchimikado shrugged, "Worth a shot."

Tessou clumsily took charge of the situation, "I'll call the fumigation team and let them know to look out for it… Um, in the mean time you need to continue working."

Pierce looked like he wanted to check for himself, but eventually relented. He turned back to the wall with a glum expression and quietly went back to work.

---

One Extremely Long Winded Off-Screen Exposition Later…

Touma stood back, wiping sweat from his brow. Tsuchimikado, Pierce, and him had just finished erasing the last of graffiti from the wall, and were taking a short break. Yomikawa left almost immediately after she had escorted him back, and hadn't been seen since. Probably out looking for Accelerator…

Touma knew everything now. The virus that had threatened the Network, Accelerator risking his life to protect Last Order, his current reliance on the Network's calculations... Yomikawa and Yoshikawa had filled him in on every detail.

It had seemed surreal at first, but the more he thought about it, the more he could see why Accelerator had started holding back so much. Before, he had nothing. No reason to fight except for himself. Now though, he had Last Order. He couldn't afford to be so reckless any more. He couldn't afford to harm others when she was in sight. He couldn't afford to ignore her like he had with everyone else up to that point. So he put up with her. He changed his thinking for her. He was subconsciously trying to become the person that he thought she deserved. And with that, he started protecting others as well.

It was ridiculous in a way. Of all the things in the world, it was a little ten year old girl that managed to pacify the most monstrous of the Level 5's. But then, maybe it wasn't. Accelerator had been a kid once too. Perhaps when he gazed into the lonely, yet still hopeful eyes of Last Order, he had seen a bit of himself and simply wanted to protect it.

Maybe, maybe. In the end, it really didn't matter. The important part was that when the moment came, he had chosen to save her. It didn't take away the pain he had caused or the murders he had committed. But he had managed to save a life. And that was something that the old Accelerator wasn't even capable of doing.

"Nya, something wrong, Kami-yan?" Tsuchimikado asked. "You look like you have a lot on your mind."

Touma shrugged. While he had entertained the thought of letting his two friends in on some of circumstance behind Accelerator, he ultimately decided against it. This was a problem between him and Accelerator; he didn't want to start dragging more people into it. Especially if Accelerator really was trying to make a fresh start.

Of course, Tsuchimikado had to press the subject, "C'mon Kami-yan, we're your friends! You can talk to us!"

Touma started to tell him that it was nothing, then stopped himself. Come to think of it, he still didn't know anything about this "Gunha" character… Tsuchimikado might be able to tell him something, considering how well informed the blonde triple agent was.

Then again, what if he and this Gunha guy were acquaintances before his memory was erased? If he asked Tsuchimikado who somebody was when he should already know, Tsuchimikado would know something was up. Hell, he didn't even know if Gunha was even White's real name. He was going off of a dream, after all…

Tsuchimikado apparently decided to leave it after Touma suddenly went quiet again, "Well whatever. You didn't happen to see Pierce's wallet lying around anywhere, did you?"

"No... why?" Touma questioned.

"It was those damned rats!" Pierce yelled, "They jacked my wallet!"

"He swears he had it before we started cleaning the inside, then it disappeared." Tsuchimikado explained. "The guys that are fumigating the place say that they haven't found anything."

"Damn... how much money was in it?" Touma asked in sympathy. He had lost his wallet on more then one occasion, and wouldn't wish such a thing on anyone.

"None." Pierce replied, "But that doesn't matter; my lucky condom was inside! Damn it, why didn't I notice it was gone sooner?"

Touma suddenly wished to retract any pity that he had given the idiot.

"Nya, today's just not your day man. It's like Kami-yan's luck got transferred to you or something... Now that I think about it, Kami-yan has had a pretty decent day so far-"

"Don't jinx it!" Touma snapped. Aside from his forced community service and Index's usual gluttony, today hadn't been too bad for him. He wanted to keep it that way.

Tsuchimikado began to reply, but was cut off midway by a returning Yomikawa,

"Break is over." she announced briskly, "We still need to remove graffiti from the other side before it gets too dark, so hurry up."

Touma frowned; Accelerator was still no where to be seen. He had wanted a chance to speak to the white haired esper before the end of the day, but it looked like the odds of that happening were getting slimmer and slimmer.

"Hold up, hag."

Touma turned to see Accelerator behind them, hobbling slowly in their direction. Yomikawa smiled approvingly, but said nothing.

"Dude, where have you been? We need you to help out, or else we'll never get done with community service!" Pierce lectured as Tsuchimikado simply waved him over.

Accelerator fixed Pierce with a withering stare before addressing Yomikawa, "Let's get this shit over with, I don't have all fucking day."

Yomikawa simply motioned for them to follow as she turned around and walked off towards the other side of the building.

They eventually arrived at a wall that was completely white. Touma shot Yomikawa a confused look. Weren't they supposed to be cleaning off more graffiti?

Accelerator apparently felt the same way, "Oi, what the fuck is this? There's nothing wrong with the wall."

"Yes there is," Yomikawa explained, "It was beige a few days ago. Now its white. You're going to have to fix that."

"Back the fuck up. You're saying that some stupid asshole got up in the middle of the night just to paint the entire fucking side of a building solid white? Who the fuck does that!"

"Maybe he was a paint kinesis?" Pierce offered.

"A what?" Touma asked doubtfully.

"A paint kinesis. You know, somebody who controls paint."

"That has to be the stupidest power I've ever heard of."

"Well, it could be useful for artists and stuff."

"A solid wall of white hardly constitutes as art, Pierce."

"Actually, there seems to be something in the middle, nya." Tsuchimikado observed.

Touma looked up. Tsuchimikado was right; he could just barely make out small black letterings at the very center of the bleached wall. He squinted, straining his eyes to read the lone message in the sea of white.

It simply read, "The Heart."

"That magnificent son of a bitch..." Pierce whispered.

"What the fuck is that even supposed to mean? Was he trying to be deep? Fucking pretentious bullshit."

"Be that as it may," Yomikawa interrupted, "you still need to clean this up. We're going to have to lower two of you onto some scaffolding in order to reach the higher floors; the other two can work from the ground up."

"Oh, I'm going to fucking kill whoever did this…" Accelerator promised ominously.

Touma let out a tired sigh. Great. Just what he needed. Accelerator to be pissed off before he tried to chat him up on a touchy subject.

"But there's no way we're gonna get done with all this in a few hours!" Tsuchimikado whined.

"Then we'll come back tomorrow and finish it." Yomikawa replied as she tossed safety goggles at the four of them, "It shouldn't even be that hard anyways, we're just going to paint over the white instead of trying to remove it."

Touma spoke up as he slid the goggles over his eyes,

"Knowing my luck, I'll probably fall off the scaffold… would it be alright if I got ground duty?" he asked, shooting Yomikawa a meaningful look while Accelerator was busy.

She apparently got the message, "As long as you work hard, it doesn't matter to me. Accelerator, you pair up with Kamijou. The rest of you grab a few buckets of paint and follow me to the top… you too Tessou, I need you to help me lower them down."

After a few minutes, Touma was alone with Accelerator, silently painting the wall back to beige.

He decided to make the first move, "Accelerator."

"The fuck do you want?" he snarled back.

Touma paused for a moment. Truth be told, he had no clue what to say to him. He hadn't planned to meet up with Accelerator when he first asked to talk to Yomikawa. But after learning about the circumstances around Last Order, he knew instinctively that he needed to see Accelerator, here and now when nobody else was around to listen in.

"I just wanted to talk." he finally answered.

"And what makes you think I give a fuck?"

Touma continued to paint the wall at a leisurely pace, "I know about how you took a bullet to save Last Order's life, and prevented the Misaka Network from going berserk."

He couldn't see Accelerator's reaction to that little piece of news; the goggles cut his peripheral vision. He was still pretty sure he had caught his attention though, since the rhythmic squeaking sound of Accelerator's paint roller had completely vanished.

Accelerator regained his voice after a few seconds, "So Yomikawa snitched on me, huh? Well, there you have it hero. I tried to go outside of my villain role, and I got a bullet in the fuckin' brain for it. I'm sure you and the hag had a good laugh at my expense."

"She didn't 'snitch' on anyone." Touma said quietly, turning to face Accelerator, "She just told me what happened when I asked her why you were protecting Last Order."

"Well now you know. So what? You expect a fucking heart-to-heart? You wanna hold hands and talk about each other's feelings too?" Accelerator asked mockingly.

"No. I just want to make sure of something." Touma answered seriously.

"I'm dying to hear it." Accelerator replied sarcastically.

Despite his apparent nonchalance, Touma could tell that he had Accelerator's full attention just by the fact that Accelerator had stopped painting. For a guy who could multitask a million different things at once without breaking a sweat, there was hardly a clearer way to show just how invested he was in the conversation.

"I don't care about the reasoning behind your decision to help Last Order and the rest of the Sisters. That's all in the past now, along with the Experiment. What happened doesn't make me a hero or you a villain, it just makes me me and you you. I just want to know one thing; will you continue to look out for Sisters when I'm not around? Will you continue to put your life on the line to protect Last Order's world?" Touma asked the strongest Level 5.

Accelerator turned his head and looked Touma straight in the eye. His blood red eyes were impossible to read, filled with something that Touma hadn't recognized before. After a long pause, he finally answered,

"You think I'm going to half ass something once I decide to do it? Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?" he quipped in his usual rude manner.

The meaning behind the harsh words was not lost on Touma however,

"Good enough for me." he acknowledged firmly, bending down to get more paint, "That's all I really wanted to know."

"Hmph. Like I give a fuck about your approval." Accelerator snorted as he returned to his own work.

"Yea, yea."

Silence descended on them once again. Touma was midway through congratulating himself at how relatively smoothly the exchange had went when about half of a bucket full of paint splashed on top of him, coating most of his upper body in beige. The actual bucket that originally housed said paint slammed into his head a half second later, still containing the remainder of the paint that hadn't splashed onto him. Stars exploded into his paint covered goggle vision, the weight of the unexpected blow knocking him face first to the ground.

"Shit, sorry Kami-yan!" came Tsuchimikado's voice from above. Accelerator began cackling like a deranged lunatic.

The words 'beware of blondes' flitted through Touma's mind as he spit out some paint that had entered his mouth,

"'Kami-yan has had a pretty good day!'" he mocked angrily, "Damn you Tsuchimikado, this is your fault, you bastard! You jinxed by bad luck!"

"Nya, that doesn't even make sense Kami-yan, you can't jinx bad luck."

"Yea, that's like a double negative or something-"

"JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!"

"Oi, stay right there Kamijou, I'm coming down to escort you to the nurses office!" Yomikawa commanded from the rooftop.

Touma slumped back down to the ground as Accelerator's continued bouts of laughter grated against his ears.

"Fukou da…"

---

Child Error Orphanage, Sunset

Touma tenderly felt the large bump on his head as he stood next to the Anti-Skill van, yanking out bits of paint from his hair as they waited for Yoshikawa to finish saying goodbye to Harumi. Most of the paint had washed off thanks to a special body cleansing agent that Harumi had on hand. His shirt, however, was completely ruined, forcing him to go shirtless for the remainder of the day. Apparently, they had given their only set of extra clothes to Pierce from earlier.

He felt rather self conscious without his shirt on, especially when in the company of so many women that were 'within his target range,' as Pierce would put it. Index was also put off for some reason, probably because she thought he was being indecent in public. Oddly enough, she wasn't trying to bite him. She opted instead to sneak glares at him from time to time, before she looked away, red in the face from anger. Last Order was even more disconcerting, as she was outright staring at him. When he asked what was wrong, she had simply replied that she was "doing a favor for her underlings," whatever that meant.

Despite the various setbacks, they had still managed to repaint the entirety of the wall. This was mostly due to Accelerator, who had finally had enough at one point and used his power to somehow apply the rest of the paint evenly across the surface. He got growled by Yomikawa for "defeating the purpose of the exercise" and "not reflecting upon why he was here in the first place." Needless to say, he ignored her entirely.

Touma shook his head, focusing back into the conversation.

"-really smelled weird, so you might want to take a look into it." Yoshikawa concluded.

Harumi nodded absent mindedly, fanning her face with her hand,

"I guess that's about everything then… what will they be working on after this Aiho? I might need them to help out during the Daihaseisai festival." She asked Yomikawa as she gestured at the four delinquents.

"Sorry, but they're still required to participate in the festival." Yomikawa apologized.

"We are?" Touma blurted in surprise. He had thought that his high school would have been disqualified, considering the actual building was out of commission.

Yomikawa crossed her arms, "Yes Kamijou, you are. You'll still be competing for your schools sake, regardless of its current state."

Touma could only nod silently underneath the woman's stern gaze.

Harumi sighed tiredly, "That's too bad, they did a pretty good job today. I'm sure we'll manage without them though… ugh, it's so hot…"

Touma had to agree, it was pretty hot. Being shirtless certainly helped, but even then he still- WHOA!

For reasons unknown, Harumi had suddenly decided to strip on the spot. She was already shirtless by the time he realized what was going on, leaving her only in her bra. Unperturbed by stares she was receiving, she began loosening her pants as well.

*CHOMP*

"WHY ARE YOU BITTING ME? I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Touma yelped in pain.

"Holy shit, is this free?" Tsuchimikado asked.

"HARD. ON."

"Wha-wha- what are you doing!" Tessou squeaked, immediately rushing to Harumi's side as she tried to cover her with the scientist's discarded lab coat.

Harumi blinked, "It's hot."

"Y-you can't go s-stripping, no matter how hot it is!" Tessou insisted.

"But he doesn't have a shirt on." Harumi countered, pointing at Touma.

"I'm not like this because I want to be!" Touma protested as he tried to dislodge Index from his head.

"Ok, I think it's time to take you kids home." Yomikawa announced in a very bored manner, dragging Pierce and Tsuchimikado by the arm and into the van. The rest followed, Yoshikawa shaking her head in amusement while Accelerator looked annoyed as always. Touma was of course in extreme pain due to a certain jaw locked nun.

So with the day ending with an impromptu stripping session, the four delinquents completed their first day of community service, blissfully unaware of the trails in store for them.

---

A Small Distance Away

A girl in a Tokiwadai middle school uniform stared at the departing Anti-Skill van. Her eyes appeared abnormally sparkly, as if she was caught up in a daydream. Which she more or less was, as she was one of the many people under Shokuhou Misaki's influence.

Known as the Queen of Tokiwadai, Misaki was the most powerful telepath in Academy City. And with an army of powerful espers literally at her beck and call, she was also one of the most dangerous individuals of the science side.

But long ago, there was a boy who once knew a softer side to the Queen.

He was annoying. Infuriating, even. Always condescending and rude, with absolutely no tact. He was a stupid boy with an equally stupid power that interfered with her own abilities at every turn.

He was also kind, at times. And dependable. Protective. Courageous. Sincere. He never treated her like she was different from anyone else. He saw the person behind the power.

Kamijou Touma. The name of the boy who she fell hopelessly in love with.

That boy no longer existed. At least, not the one she remembered.

She had been attacked by those who would steal and misuse her powers. That reckless idiot had charged right in stop it. That stupid, courageous, wonderful man defended her to the bitter end. And he paid a price for it.

The wounds he suffered were horrific, and he was losing blood fast. But the paramedic couldn't treat him. He was convulsing too much from the pain. Applying anesthetic would lower his blood pressure to dangerous levels. The paramedic's hands were effectively tied.

Misaki wasn't about to let him die though. Using her power, she was able to cut off the boy's sense of pain. The convulsions stopped, and the EMT was able to save the boy's life.

But there was still a price to pay. Her use of her ability had caused permanent damage to his brain, addling the pathways of his memories. Specifically pertaining to one person: Shokuhou Misaki.

It was impossible for Kamijou Touma to ever remember her again. No matter how many times they met, no matter how much she interacted with him, he would not recall. She had done everything she could think of. She had consulted every doctor she could find. She consumed every medical thesis and theory pertaining to memories. She had thrown her vast wealth and influence around to pushing the research of the human mind to new heights. And still, she was no closer to curing her prince.

But even so, she did not give up. It simply wasn't an option. No matter how great the odds, she would press on. Because that's what he would have done.

So Misaki would wait, continuing to hope for that miracle to occur. And in the mean time, she would keep tabs on him. She would be close by, ready to lend help at a moment's notice. Ready to step in and save him when he was in need. She would be his silent, watchful protector.

And maybe one day, they could meet again.