A New ROAD of Misfortune

by Itherael

Kamijou Touma had faced many difficult situations, meeting along the way both allies and enemies, however, there had been something deep inside of him that always remained the same. His desire to see a world where everyone could be happy. Then, does that mean that he also had the right to be part of it? Surprisingly, a certain 'Mental Out' would clear that doubt once and for all.

6. MONSTER Hunt

Just when I thought that I could not write a longer chapter, I come up with this monster-sized update. Geez…

Although, that's good for you, isn't it?

This is a mini arc, which is pretty informative actually. It will let us know a bit more about Touma and the world around him as well as some other… stuff.

I have to admit it, though I already had in mind the content of this chapter, NT 11 heavily influenced how this chapter was written. And now that I mention it and after having read NT 11, I can say without fear that these events did occur, though with some minor changes according to what I had planned for this story.

Beware, this chapter may be a bit strong… for some tastes, like the serious arcs of Index in which Accelerator appears… though he will not participate in this chapter, you get my message right? Reader discretion is advised.

Thanks to "Diller", "Tomonee", "Major Major Major Major" and "NirvanaFrk97" for the awesome beta-reading.

---

A New Road of Misfortune

Chapter 05: Reminiscence / High Voltage — Monster_Hunt

PART 0

"I finally found you, stalker! I can't believe you managed to elude me all this time! But now, you will face justice for destroying the lives of those girls."

Such were the words thrown at a completely exasperated pointy-haired boy, who naively thought that he was going to be able to return to his dorm for some needed rest with no more trouble. Yet here he found himself being accused by no other than Misaka Mikoto, the third strongest of the seven Level 5 espers of AC.

To understand why, one would need to turn back the hands of time. To explain the events that made him the sworn enemy of the strongest espers in the city, the events that made her think he was behind the attacks on women during the month of June. The short answer was fairly simple.

Kamijou Touma happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That was another day in his list of top-ten most dreadful and grueling experiences of Kamijou Touma, which was really saying something. It didn't help that a certain Electromaster got in his way the entire time he was trying to catch the true mastermind behind those horrendous acts.

A certain level 5 electromaster, a Level 3 ojou that could manipulate water and the commander of a certain private security organization played important roles in the Hunt of a demented esper that sought to join a dark world hidden from those of Academy City, but even then not everything was as it seemed.

Unknowingly they became tangled up in a hunt in which a certain Imagine Breaker discovered a terrifying truth, one that only he would able to stop. Even at the cost of everything, his mind, his sense of self, his sanity, even if it meant to r********* and e**** his ********.

And so, the story behind Misaka Mikoto's accusation will begin.

PART 1

The first week of June, the beginning of the rainy season in Japan, current location: Academy City School District 9.

Unlike any other district, its hierarchical structure was based on seniority, and its main focus was for schools related to the industrial and fine arts. Even so, these schools used hologram technology instead of the traditional teaching methods despite them focusing on arts and crafts.

The district's speciality, however, is ultimately irrelevant to the coming events its streets would see. The horrible circumstances about to sneak up upon to an unsuspecting girl, who found herself particularly tired after today's tennis club. A girl who thus found herself leaving late, alone, after she eventually woke up from a surprise nap.

The ROAD she would choose may have begun at the bus stop, waiting for the last ride home, but it would end in a destiny of suffering and despair.

PART 2

Kamijou Touma: resident in Academy City, student, Level 0 esper, and undeniably a teen marked by Misfortune. The carrier of the mysterious power called the Imagine Breaker, which could negate all that was supernatural, was actually wearing his usual school uniform for once. Such was needed for his mission.

For this unfortunate boy, whose youth filled with bad luck and hardships, had since chosen to become a protector. Someone that would fight for those who could not fight for themselves, those that lacked the strength to do so. If it was within his power, Kamijou Touma would fight to bring a smile to every saddened face his eyes met.

He refused to become the God of Pestilence his childhood nickname had labelled him as, and to counter his misfortune, he always sought to do good for others. How this determination would change his destiny, he couldn't know, but knowing wouldn't have changed his choice regardless.

The pointy-haired boy was, at the moment, on his routinely night patrols on the streets of AC, this time in District 9. While Kamijou didn't traverse AC every single night, today happened to be one of those days.

Of course, this meant he was prepared to deal with the common thugs and gangsters he would likely encounter. Getting their attention and running away as they gave chase to give their first victims time was the usual plan. It was proven and effective.

That night, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The illuminated streets of Academy City created a spectacle of lights on its tallest buildings, though it somehow gave the streets a somber outlook. A blimp barely visible in the sky shined a warning message, a standard memo about detours near the construction of a surveillance building in the Switchyard, School district 17. There was barely any student among the streets, just the usual couple here and there playing with each other and kissing... Not that such was the business of a certain unfortunate individual.

Said individual decided to get a snack before he continued his patrol, and after getting a sandwich from a store that thankfully sold cheap products, reached a empty park.

To Kamijou's eyes the park looked creepy: not a single person was around. Kamijou scratched his head in uncertainty as he decided to look around before heading to some other place. It was silent, eerily so, and the lampposts located through the empty park barely illuminated.

Minutes passed and the pointy-haired boy crossed his arms. Finally he felt satisfied with his inspection; nothing seemed likely to start here, so it was a better use of his time to go somewhere he was needed… Or so he thought.

Just as he turned to leave, the wind blew strongly. Kamijou covered his face with his arm and heard a mournful moan.

---

Go to profile, LISTEN: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Song 01

---

This frightened the boy.

"...What was that?"

Wary now, he began to scout the area again. The sound evoked a feeling of dread that he couldn't quite understand. A few minutes passed and again he found nothing. Trying to calm himself, he could only sigh.

"Did I just imagine that or what?"

He was wrong.

The moan came again, bringing with it instant worry. While the boy did not believe in ghosts, he accepted that if they existed, they would sound exactly like that. The dark environment didn't improve that line of thought.

Still, Kamijou Touma was not one to be intimidated; he was in the City of Science, after all. Electric stimulation of the brain, infrasound, the ideomotor effect, carbon monoxide poisoning and other explanations demonstrated that the term ghost lacked credibility.

But if these circumstances were just a coincidental occurrence, he was left with an important question. Who was moaning?

A prank, a couple having their "happy hour", some animal hidden among the tree: all were possible explanations behind the sounds. In the end, there was only one way to find out.

As his paranoia heightened Kamijou couldn't help but think that if one were exposed to this experience for a long time, one's mind would without a doubt fail, and fall to irrationality and delusion, leading ultimately to madness.

But he shook his head, clearing away the creeping tendrils of fear, "Who's there!?"

No response came, at least, not the kind of response Kamijou had hoped to hear. The bush behind him moved twice, and Kamijou spun around to face it.

Today was supposed to be one of those ordinary days for the teen that carried a mysterious power he did not understand. The usual encounter with thugs leading to the same process: Gain attention, the chase and the escape, with some minor changes involving a punch of his right fist towards the face of a thug when the circumstances deemed it necessary.

Of course, only Kamijou Touma would deem something like this ordinary. Simply put, what the spiky-haired boy considered as ordinary was in fact, really far from ordinary, to the point that it could be charitably called unusual. Or bluntly called insane.

But ordinary was not the term even he would have used when the source of the moan came out of the bushes. Neither was uncommon or even insane. The exact word was much simpler than ordinary, because it held only one possible meaning.

That word was: Cruel.

The boy flew instantly into a panic.

Just a few minutes ago, Kamijou Touma feared for his own well-being, but as the bloody hand reached out from the shadows, he now feared the opposite. The index finger of it twisted in an unnatural way, and it groped painfully his way.

Kamijou stepped back, unable to say anything as he stared in horror as the hand reached closer. Kamijou gulped and shook his head to regain his composure, not quite able to believe his eyes.

"H…h…elp… me…"

The barely audible voice rang alarms in his head as he finally realized what was going on. Kamijou dashed forward to the bush and pushed it away, revealing a horrendous sight.

A young girl, a student, resident of this city, was covered in blood.

Kamijou widened his eyes; the girl was on the verge of death. Her uniform was torn-apart, there were bruises all over her body and her breathing was laboured. There was simply cuts and blood everywhere on her, just the sight of her wounds made his eyes hurt.

Not even a single second passed before the boy pocketed out his cell and called emergencies.

The furious boy then clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles becoming white. It was at a time like this that Kamijou Touma contemplated the thought of hurting someone really bad.

PART 3

"You found her, right?"

"Yeah…"

"What were you doing here at this hour?"

The boy averted his eyes from the Anti-Skill officer interrogating him. He was currently sitting on a bench near the place of the crime under careful scrutiny, and he didn't like it.

The girl, who was apparently the third victim of an unknown attacker, had been already taken to the hospital, and as much he would rather have gone with her, he was told to remain here and explain the details of his finding.

"I was just passing through here. I actually was going to my dorm in District 7."

"That didn't answer my question. If your dorm is in district 7, what were you doing here?"

The officer frowned, becoming suspicious. The boy was not answering properly, which implied that he had something to hide. Yet Kamijou suspected that if he responded with the truth, the officer wouldn't believe him either. Only if he were from Judgment, would Kamijou have had a good excuse for his night patrol.

Kamijou gathered his thoughts for the response, looking around.

Several Anti-Skill specialists investigated the area as they searched for clues that might lead them to a culprit. They took care to carefully handle DNA evidence to avoid its contamination or destruction. It could be found in blood, saliva, fingerprints, sweat, nearly anything the body produced. As such, it would be a crucial part in discovering the truth.

In Academy City, advanced technology was used to creating comprehensive DNA profiles. Crime labs examined DNA profiles collected from crime scenes through Academic City's data base, finding potential suspects and comparing them to find the correct match.

However, the fact that no useful biological material, aside from the victim's' blood, was found in either of the first two crime scenes, nor on the body of the two victims, complicated the investigation. This was an incredibly rare occurrence.

So far, the same was occurring in this new crime scene.

"I..." The teen sighed, "Just how could there be third attack, and you still don't know the criminal's identity?"

Normally, in these kinds of violent acts, the attacker could not help but leave some kind of DNA at the crime scene, whether it was found on the victim, on their clothes or somewhere else. But to the investigators' bewilderment, nothing was found, as if it were somehow removed. With no DNA evidence of the attacker, the use of an advanced computer would be useless.

According to the their initial observations, where the girl was was found wasn't actually where the attack occurred. There was a trail of blood leading to the park, where she had dragged herself in hopes of help.

The armored officer narrowed his eyes at the inquiry, his riot helmet on hand. "We're investigating, kid..." The law enforcer sat at the boy's side and lit up a cigarette. "Sorry, but I need it," Kamijou shrugged his shoulders, "We're trying to capture the criminal, so you have to cooperate with us, unless... you have something to hide."

While there was already a lead about the culprit's appearance, which the spiky-haired teen didn't quite match, the normal procedure was to interrogate the witness and confirm his/her innocence.

"Do you think it was me?" The nervous teen asked in disbelief.

"I could think that until you prove me wrong," The officer smoked his cigarette, and gave a look at the report on his other hand.

The girl, whose identity had yet to still be discovered, was the third victim of these attacks. The first victim announced on the news was found in a similar condition on May 28, but died before arriving at the hospital. The second attack occurred on June 3, the victim was still recovering, though she lost vision in her right eye and was undergoing mental therapy from the trauma.

The testimony of the second victim was thankfully very helpful. She described her attacker as someone young and attractive, with brown hair and green eyes. The girl couldn't remember clearly, the only thing her mind recalled was a green bracelet the suspect wore and a tie with black and red square patterns.

Kamijou scratched his head, observing part of the report that the officer was checking.

"We know you're not the attacker kid, but you are the first eyewitness we have," The man spoke, the cigarette still in his mouth. "I don't trust espers much, but their intel seems to be accurate. I just needed confirmation."

"Espers?" Kamijous asked, realizing mind control abilities could be of great help in solving a case, "Like... psychometrists or something?"

"Indeed," The officer nodded.

Psychometrists from Judgment were dispatched to examine the mind of the second victim, but to no avail. What they managed to see was the same as the description she gave, with no other leads that could help them find the culprit.

That was suspicious.

Some experts analysed this event as illogical. While the second victim explained what she could remember, the psychometrics should have gotten a better glimpse of those events through her mind. They theorized that, if the attacker was a mind controller, it could be that the attacker incapacitated the victim and altered her memories.

However, this theory raised another question. Why did the attacker choose to not completely erase her memory if this was the case?

Either way, an act as atrocious as this was not something Kamijou could ever walk away from. He had to stop the attacker no matter what, But first, he needed to get out of there and avoid further suspicion.

"I came here with my girlfriend," Kamijou finally answered, "A friend mentioned this place to be a good place for us… to have some privacy," Kamijou explained, showing a disinterested expression. "You get it, right?"

The Anti-Skill officer snorted at the boy's remark. The expression he made showed he understood clear enough. He might even have smiled, were it not for the recent brutal attack.

"I see. Where is she now?"

"…She left a while after… That's when I began to head to my dorm. I heard some noise coming from that bush and well, you know the rest."

While his lie lacked details, it was believable; after all, he was a teen of the right age. It was normal for couples to wander in the streets at late hours to have some time alone, so why would he be an exception? The officer didn't have to know he was actually single.

"So the same happened with the other victims?"

Putting down the cigarette, the officer recalled the two previous reports.

The attacker had intercepted the second victim on her way to her dorm, pulling her to a dark alley when she was walking on the street. From the victim's description, it was as if some powerful force dragged her inside, though she felt a hand grabbing her arm. It was too early to assume that it was some kind of esper ability since it could be the sheer strength of the attacker.

The victim mentioned that she lost consciousness when she got abducted, and regained it while she was being hit and cut with a knife. The girl tried to resist, but she couldn't move despite not being tied.

Toxicology tests have been run on the second victim to determine if a drug was used to make her lose control over her body but nothing of the sort was detected. The same result was obtained from the autopsy of the first victim.

"You ask too many questions..." He muttered, sighing. The officer felt impotent as they barely had leads about the recent attacks, so having a boy ask why these attacks continued made his stomach contort.

A shiny bracelet and a tie with an unusual pattern. There was not much to continue from there besides the face profile obtained by the victim's description and the psychometrists, leaving Anti-Skill with the only option of continuing the search on the database to find any matches and wait for the third victim's testimony and psychometry session.

Naturally, if the attacker was not a resident of Academy City, any possibility of finding him on the database would prove to be highly unlikely. Not to mention that it would imply that someone unknown has breached AC's perimeter.

"So that's all you know?" The officer inquired, "You realize that if you are hiding any important fact about this, you could become an accomplice of this crime?"

Kamijou nodded. He really did know nothing.

"Get in the car; I'll take you to your dorm."

The boy averted his gaze,"Thanks… I appreciate it," He wasn't really gonna get nothing from him.

The boy suppressed a sigh as he walked to the police vehicle and mused about the facts he had.

A horrible finding interrupted today's patrol. A girl had been brutally attacked by an unknown individual, one in a string of assaults, and was still free to continue his crimes.

It all made the boy sick. Kamijou Touma decided then an there that he was not going to let that bastard get away with it.

Between the Lines 1

"Yes, it's an important object. I want it back, is that clear?"

A woman with the looks of a child commanded, her aquamarines eyes carefully observing jer group of elite enforcers. They saluted as one, all wearing matching black full-body muscle suits.

"Your command will be accomplished, Tangleroad-sama!"

All crows present shouted, causing a smile to appear on the blonde girl before them. She wore eccentric clothing that had a checkered pattern, giving her the looks of a gothic lolita. But somehow she remained austere and noble.

Ladylee Tangleroad, the chief executive officer of the Orbit Portal Company, who was also founder and owner of the civil affairs resolution mediation unit that stood before her, observed carefully the gathered squads.

They were known as the Black Crow Unit, its official goal to maintain the order in Academy City. Yet they followed Ladylee's every command, should they be related to AC's security or other, less civil issues.

One of the Crows, a woman, stepped forward.

"I will find the bracelet and bring it to you. We can't allow that criminal to use it for his twisted desires, though I still fail to see how it could give him the ability as to become invisible to cameras or the human eye."

"Shutaura, refrain from participating in this mission. Your main objective is to watch over that girl, don't forget that. Also, you are in charge of dealing with any terrorist attack that could affect the construction of Endymion," Ladylee directed her eyes to her nails, an uninterested expression adorning her face. "I haven't hired you for understanding anything, just stick to your orders."

Shutaura Sequenzia, commander of the Dark Crow Unit, narrowed her black eyes upon hearing her blunt response. While she was under Lalylee's employment, she had to say that the blond girl always had the ability to unnerve her to some extent.

Shutaura grabbed a lock of her long straight black hair, putting her other hand on her hip to return the apathetic gesture.

"As you say, leader."

"Then you are all dismissed. Be sure to inform me of any progress in the search of Vár."

Named after the Nordic Goddess of Oath-keeping, the bracelet by the name of Vár was stolen from one of Ladylee's storages hidden within the many districts of the city. This object in particular had no connection to science; in fact, the bracelet's creation could not be explained as normal, because it was considered a… magical artifact.

In this world existed supernatural phenomena not associated with science in any way, instead related to the occult. In Academy City, most were ignorant to it with a few exceptions.

Magic, unknown to most of those who choose to walk the road of Science, and yet, the only road left for those born without talent, was the set of the supernatural phenomena that could not be explained or analysed via any sort of scientific means and reasoning. It could provide powers similar in scope to esper abilities, but was instead based around a certain ideological premise, whose origin can come from anything culturally narrative, such as religions, belief systems, mythologies, folklore and even fairy tales.

Simply put, Espers were born from science, while Magicians came from belief.

In contrast to espers that held a single ability decided since birth, a magician could create supernatural phenomena without any kind of restriction, thought its price and toll was heavier. In order to achieve control of magic, a magician trains for years in order to become proficient at preparing it properly through the use of Mana.

Mana existed in all forms of life. It could be obtained by processing a person's inner life force, it also existed in the earth itself, where magicians and some magical artifacts drew their power from in the form of Leylines, the currents of power that ran through the earth.

Magicians often used magic arrays, which were designs or arrangements that could facilitate the use of magic. Drawn magic circles were examples of magic arrays, as well as using the positions of the stars and other examples. Spiritual Items were also utilized to aid in the use of magic. In precise rituals and ceremonies, these specialized tools had to correspond to the symbols and requirements of the spell, thus allowing the magic to be executed more efficiently.

However, the Bracelet of Vár didn't facilitate the use of magic. What it did in fact was to grant a magic connection between the wielder and the desired person in exchange of his/her strongest current emotion, whether it was love, hate, sadness, happiness, fear, wrath, compassion, remorse and others. Once used, the bracelet would permanently absorb this emotion, leaving the wielder incapable of feeling it again, even if the bracelet was removed. Despite this, it did not give any special ability or magic to the one that wielded it.

This connection could allow the one not wearing the bracelet to get great amounts of mana from the soul of the wielder of Vár. Also, Vár allowed those under its effect to be able to sense each other when desired.

This object had no real importance to Ladylee Tangleroad's plans, but it was valuable nonetheless. She wasn't exactly looking forward to letting it be taken by some stranger.

Such is why the Black Crow Unit had been called to the main hall of Ladylee's Manor. They would catch the robber, retrieve the magical artifact and deal with them properly.

All the Crows nodded firmly after hearing her orders and left. Only Shutaura remained in front of the immortal girl.

Shutaura had many times wondered why Ladylee looked like a little girl, eventually leading her to think that her superior had some kind of disease that didn't allow her to age properly, or maybe had used some kind of technology to stunt her growth.

Looks were deceiving, though, for she knew Ladylee wasn't someone you could mess with and live to tell the tale. She was wealthy, cold and manipulative, with seemingly unlimited resources at her disposal. The time Shutaura had first met Ladylee gave her the impression that there was something dark and extremely dangerous about her. That hasn't change so far.

Ladylee gave no heed to how people looked at her; she could not care less about the pity, wonder and curiosity directed at her. She was immortal; a curse worse than dying 1000 times was within her due to a magic fruit.

Ambrosia, a small magical fruit whose name came from Greek Mythology. Legends spoke of it as the food eaten by the gods that could confer anyone with ageless inmortality. It truly existed.

Having eaten Ambrosia, Ladylee's body remained how it was when she consumed it, hence, her looks of a small girl. She didn't age, and she couldn't die; as much as she tried to kill herself, she never succeeded. She was cursed to live forever and see everyone around her age and die, her body never changing in the slightest. This had led her to become cold, even a cruel deranged seeker of death.

But she had plans, which involved a certain Space Elevator, and a girl whose dream was to become a professional Idol. The time when Ladylee's wish would become true, was something she just needed to wait a bit more for.

She had already waited three years since she had set her plan in motion, three more months shouldn't be any problem.

"Don't you have anything to do, Shutaura?" Ladylee asked to the Crows's Leader.

"…I'll be on my way. Good night."

With that, Shutaura Sequenzia left the hall as she made up her mind. Ladylee ordered her to not get involved with retrieving the stolen bracelet, but she didn't mention anything about the thug.

She would catch the robber by herself and bring the criminal to justice.

PART 4

A day has passed since the incident in a certain park in district 9.

In a Certain High School in District 7, a boy with no luck attended his daily school classes.

Current hour: 10:30 a.m.

"ESP, or Extrasensory Perception is the ability in which person can receive information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but with the mind itself. This means that someone with ESP could learn of future events that has yet to occur. Some scientists often called it the Sixth Sense."

"Is that something like what fortune readers do, Komoe-sensei?"

The petite homeroom teacher by the name of Tsukuyomi Komoe frowned at this question. The little teacher, considered as one of the seven wonders of the school wondered why something as fortune-reading would be mentioned in her class.

"What nonsense are you asking me-desu? Fortune-reading is based on predicting information about a person's life. It's not a science-based art, so it's just considered as some sort of unreliable method of obtaining information, used to deceive those with weak minds."

Every student in the class nodded, with the exception of the pointy-haired boy looking aimlessly through the window at his side. Komoe noticed it and a grabbed the lower part of her cute outfit in frustration.

"Kamijou-chan! How many times do I have to tell you to listen-"

Komoe stopped herself; his student simply glanced at her with a dull expression and sighed. That was not his normal reaction; something was not right.

"Well, Komoe-sensei, Kami-yan has been a little distracted since this morning-nya. You should just ignore him and continue the class."

A blond-haired guy with dark-glasses whose name was Tsuchimikado Motoharu spoke, causing the class's attention to focus on Kamijou Touma. Another comment was soon followed by Aogami Pierce.

"Yep, sensei. Let Kami-yan be. He even ignored the conversation about how tiny bikinis should be and that clearly isn't normal."

A certain black haired girl in the class observed Kamijou carefully, who in turn seemed to just ignore everyone's comments. She crossed her arms over her voluptuous chest.

"Stop bothering him," The girl known as Fukiyose Seiri commanded, trying to sound intimidating to have her order followed.

"Could it be that…?" A spiky-haired girl of the class who wore glasses stood up, and gazed directly at the boy with similar hair, "It was you, wasn't it? I saw in the news about the new attack, and they said a student of this school found the victim. I thought I saw you walking in the background but I wasn't so sure."

Everyone looked at Kamijou in disbelief and confusion. Most of them were aware of the incidents since they had become known through the media.

"Is that true, Kami-yan?" Tsuchimikado asked with a serious tone, earning some mixed reactions from the other students. It was very uncommon to see two members of the idiot trio acting this serious, whatever the matter.

The boy didn't answer, at least, not immediately.

"Yes, it's true. But I'd rather not talk about it."

Kamijou responded dryly. He couldn't get it out of his head how bad that poor girl looked when he found her. The more he remembered, the more it made his blood boil in anger. It was better not to dwell on it.

None of Kamijou's classmates spoke as they gazed in shock, then pity and understanding. Most of them wondered how bad that experience was, if it caused the normally resilient Kamijou to act like this.

"Okay… Kamijou-chan… Let's… continue the class. We'll talk later-desu."

Kamijou simply nodded and looked to his book. Komoe was worried, not wanting her dear student to be depressed. She wasn't the only one; other girls in the class glanced at him from time to time as the class continued. In particular was the girl with the nickname of The Iron Wall Girl, Fukiyose, who kept observing him closely.

She was more than troubled. Fukiyose hated when Kamijou acted like a kid and complained about how unfortunate he was. This time, he undoubtedly experienced a terrible event, since he was doing nothing of the sort. The look in his eyes was beginning to exasperate her. She wanted to help him, to cheer him up, to be there for him as a friend, but wasn't sure on how to approach the boy, so she did nothing.

As much as she would have liked to get closer to Kamijou, Fukiyose just couldn't gather the courage to say anything to him; in the end she decided to let things to go on its natural flow.

Fukiyose Seiri was already regretting that decision.

PART 5

What resulted was a very long talk. Komoe and Kamijou had a really long discussion about what happened the previous night in the teacher staff room, catching the interest of a certain busty professor and member of Anti-Skill, Yomikawa Aiho.

Still, the woman chose to remain silent as she overheard their discussion.

Yomikawa frowned upon hearing the teen's explanation. It was more shocking to hear it from his lips than reading it in the report her squad received this morning; and that already included the psychometry session data from the third victim.

The report mentioned that the victim was intercepted in a street located at two blocks from the park where she was found. The girl was struck unconscious by a hit she received on the head.

The victim awoke in the aforementioned park; her eyes only caught a brief glimpse of a green bracelet and the tie of her attacker, exactly like what was gathered from the second victim's psychometric session. She also managed to see a part of his face, enough to prove the her later oral description of the perpetrator was accurate.

The third victim, like the second one, was a student that belonged to the Tokiwadai Middle School, one of the five most prestigious schools in AC: it happened to be the most renowned girls' school in the world.

No more info could be gathered from the victim's mind, leaving Anti-Skill and Judgment in the dark. There weren't any good leads to follow, nor even a good theory that could explain how the attacker managed to elude the authorities' grasp. It was enough to infuriate Yomikawa.

"Well, Komoe-sensei… I'm going home," The boy said suddenly, worrying the aforementioned teacher. She didn't want her dear student to leave in that seemingly depressed state, but as much as she tried to cheer him up and rationally explain that in the world, cruel things happened, it couldn't improve his mood. Or change his mind.

Still, she had to try ."Kamijou-chan… Are you sure you are going to be alright? I knew that allowing you to make those night patrols wouldn't bring any good to you-desu."

The boy snorted, letting out a soft, sad chuckle. Yomikawa furrowed an eyebrow at his odd reaction, but more so when she heard the words 'night patrol', wondering what Komoe meant by that.

"It's better like this. I'd rather know the truth than to live ignorant to it… At least, I know what I'm going to do now."

"Kamijou-chan?"

"Don't worry sensei," He smiled. "This Kamijou-san will be fine."

Komoe didn't say anything else, his voice was determined. She would have to trust his words.

Between the Lines 2

"The surveillance cameras didn't show anything? How is that possible?!"

A certain Judgment member with tawny hair and two curly pigtails stated in disbelief as she reviewed the tapes of the camera security system of District 9. She was with her constant companion and team-mate, a black haired girl wearing a headband made of artificial flowers, though she girl would never admit that.

"The cameras haven't recorded any suspicious person. Only the victim appears in the camera footage. The girl simply disappears when she reaches this blind spot. Then, after her disappearance, this boy appears 2 hours later walking through the area and enters the park where she was found. Ambulances and Anti-Skill arrive shortly after."

"So what have we got until now?" The bespectacled girl inside the room asked.

After examining the report sent to Judgment's database by Anti-skill, Shirai Kuroko and Uiharu Kazari began their investigation, while their superior and chief of their branch of Judgment, Konori Mii, examined some documents related to this case.

The three girls were currently in Judgment's 177 Branch office.

"The first victim was a member of Skill-Out and level 3 esper, oddly. There's not much info about her besides that," Konori commented as she moved her gaze to yet another folder. "The other two victims were from the Tokiwadai Middle School, and were level 3 and 4 respectively… Maybe the attacker is targeting high level espers?"

"That's possible. But… isn't there any other kind of connection between them?"

Kuroko mused upon hearing Uiharu's inquiry, and then directed her eyes to the girl with short dark-blue hair that wore glasses.

"Konori-senpai, is the third victim related to the second one? If they are from the same school, there's the possibility that-"

"I don't think so," Konori interjected. "The report says they did not know each other, they were even from different classes." Kuroko opened her mouth to speak but Konori continued. "And don't ask me to affirm that. The psychometrists explored their minds so this intel is quite accurate."

"You're right… I even thought at some point that this guy had some kind of grudge against my school, but the first victim's profile kind of disproves that theory," Kuroko commented weakly.

Uiharu returned her gaze to the screen of her laptop and continued to search through the profile list of the residents of the city. However, the flower-headed girl's efforts quickly failed, much to her frustration.

Even with her amazing abilities with operating computers, from hacking to databases, parsing to understanding and writing complex codes, in the end there was simply no match that existed. Not in the esper list at the least; she moved onto the list of non-espers, refusing to be daunted.

Kuroko let her body fall on the sofa behind her and let out a sigh. She felt mentally exhausted, their investigation since the finding of the second victim hadn't advanced much, and things haven't really improved upon receiving this morning's report. Simply put, they were stuck.

"It seems the only connection between the victims is their high level as espers. Skill-Out must be-"

"To blame Skill-Out of this would not make any sense. I don't really think they would hurt their own people," Konori interrupted the hacker by the name of Uiharu as she stood up from her desk. "There is always the possibility that the criminal is choosing his targets randomly."

Uiharu and Kuroko frowned; there were simply a huge amount of possibilities that could explain what was going on, they needed solid evidence to direct the case to a point where it could be solved.

But there was no useful data.

Not even if they were allowed to use Tree Diagram, the super computer who monitored many aspects of AC such as weather and security. It was installed on the satellite Orihime 1 to protect it from terrorists, industrial spies or supremacists; of course, this was all under the pretext of weather prediction.

On a side note, when it came to terrorist attacks, the Tree Diagram Information Receival Center located in District 23, was used in order to work more rapidly in shutting off any future threat by receiving direct information from Orihime 1 where Tree Diagram was located, and sending it to the law-enforcement organizations within the city. However, it only could be accessed by the Academy City's Board of Directors.

"ARG!" Kuroko scratched her head in exasperation, "We're not going anywhere with this! Uiharu! Do something!"

"C-calm down, Shirai-san! I'm going to contact the other branches to see if they have any leads… At least something that could be useful…"

A tick mark appeared on Konori's head, announcing that a certain level 4 Teleporter A.K.A Shirai Kuroko was about to receive a scolding from her superior.

"SHIRAI! THERE'S NO USE LOSING YOUR HEAD NOW! WE NEED TO STAY FOCUSED!"

"I'M SORRY, KONORI-SENPAI! BUT AREN'T YOU THE ONE SCREAMING!?"

Uiharu Kazari, Level 1 esper, just shook her head at the antics of her partners before her eyes returned to the screen of her laptop.

PART 6

Current location: School District 5. Two days later.

The main focuses of this district were junior colleges and universities, as well as dorms and accommodations for the students to reside in. The ranks and reputation of buildings and establishments were much higher and had an overall relaxed atmosphere than in other districts, such as School District 7.

Nevertheless, relaxed was very far from what Kamijou Touma was feeling in this exact moment. Some kind of liquid covered the path before him, so he knelt and touched it with his fingers before some red letters drawn on the wall caught his attention, making him stand again. It was 7:49 p.m. and he was alone in a dark alley.

But not quite alone. His emotions raged between disbelief and impotent rage at the sight before him.

---

Go to profile, SEE: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Picture 01

---

ArE You FoLLowIng Me? YoU BeTtEr dO bEcaUSe I aM nOt StOpInG :)

"This is…!"

A new girl had been massacred, this time along with an older woman. Both were lying on the ground just in front of him, both horribly still.

His suspicion on the nature of the liquid had been confirmed, and he felt sick to his stomach. As he feared, it was blood.

Kamijou narrowed his eyes in ire, too late again to stop anything. Even though he had managed to hear their shouts of agony, so incredibly close in his patrol, when he arrived at the source he only found two new victims, the criminal long gone. It was almost like he was being taunted.

"Damn it!" A furious fist crashed against the wall; however, Kamijou could not feel the pain. Or maybe he just didn't care.

PART 7

A certain level 5 esper, noticing a crowd gathered close by, decided to check and discover the reason behind the sudden commotion occurring in the street.

Misaka Mikoto, resident of Academy City, student, was a Level 5 esper, the strongest electromaster in particular: best known as the Railgun. Her chestnut brown hair with matching eyes suited well her slight figure. And slight was indeed the word to describe her, much to her frustration.

Studying in Tokiwadai Middle School, she wore the uniform of her school, which was composed of brown loafers with a light brown vest over a white blouse, a grey skirt and white socks.

"Um... maybe I should climb the wall using my electromagnetism..." Mikoto muttered under her breath, aware that as a level 5, most people could easily recognize her, "I don't need any fans pestering me right now."

Misaka Mikoto, being an Electric Shock User, could generate and manipulate electricity. She could also sense all phenomenon related to her power like electric fields from the surrounding nature, along with all magnetic and electromagnetic information that was subconsciously processed.

Having various applications to her ability, like the Super Electromagnetic Cannon, this skill was the reason on why she was called Railgun. As a level 5 esper, this ability could be capable of having a maximum output of one million volts, which basically meant that she could fire a metal projectile three times the speed of sound, utilizing the Fleming's left-hand rule by the use of a great amount of electricity.

Her ability had other uses, like observing and manipulating electric, electromagnetic and magnetic fields with the unaided eye, which in fact was very valuable due to the large output and vast range of applications.

"Judgment is here..." Mikoto said, noticing a girl that she could recall was a telepath, "If she notices my AIM field, I won't hear the end of this..."

Mikoto's unique AIM dispersion field allowed her to sense her surroundings, which also protected her against telepathic manipulation. By manipulating Electromagnetism, she was able to walk and even run on surfaces made of metal, whether they were walls, ceilings, etc, as well as gathering any object made of metal no matter its size from the surroundings in order to use it as a shield.

"Let's see…" Mikoto muttered, entering a nearby shop. Looking around, she noticed from the windows a possible route, "I guess I'll use the crowd to conceal myself. There's no terminal for me to use around here, so it will be risky not knowing how Anti-Skill is positioned, still, I have to see what's going on."

Minor applications of her esper powers that was still very useful, was the capability of performing minute operations that required great control of her skills such as reading electric signals, cracking devices such as electronic locks and other kinds of security systems, stealing information from credit card's magnetic strip, hacking computers or any data bases with a simple portable terminal, etc.

It wasn't surprising that she was considered the number 3 of the seven existing level 5 espers of AC, considering of what she was capable of, hence, her title as the Ace of Tokiwadai.

The girl found herself near a crowd gathered in front of a crime scene, concealed behind a truck to avoid detection. From what the girl had heard among the whispered comments of the students around her, two new victims were found just a half hour ago, both dead. Anti-Skill had already the area secured, the bodies taken to the nearest Anti-Skill crime lab for autopsy.

"I can't believe this is happening!" Mikoto heard a girl scream, followed by several gasps, "How many deaths are going to occur before they capture that criminal!?"

"Wasn't the security tight in this city?"

"Anti-Skill is useless!"

Shouts of protest and disgust were hurled at the agents of order present in the area: the crowd was becoming agitated. But Mikoto ignored this, and chose to step out of the mass of people. She sneaked through the parked vehicles near her in order to get a better look to the crime scene. She felt she had to.

It was when the second attack happened that Mikoto's roommate and close friend, Shirai Kuroko, confided to her about the difficult case of a stalker that attacked girls. It not only caught her attention, and drew her anger; Mikoto felt, to her shame and annoyance, a surprising tinge of fear.

She was a level 5 that could very well protect herself. She had dealt with gangs of thugs trying to hit on her or who tried to force her to go with them several times in the past. None of them remained standing after her behavior-modifying-electro-therapy was over. Most of these guys were just pigs, only interested in lewd stuff: while Mikoto found this extremely irritating, it wasn't truly evil.

However, she knew this was different. This was not usual thugs attacking girls.

The criminal behind these atrocious acts had managed to elude Anti-Skill's grasp so far, which spoke a lot about how skilled the criminal was. The security cameras detected nothing either, which made this case even more difficult to solve. Still, with her unique set of skills, Mikoto couldn't help feeling that she could do something to stop this bastard.

But first, she needed information. And what better way to start than a fresh crime scene?

Mikoto waited a moment; the investigators were still examining the area. The girl looked around; quickly guessing that if she entered through one of the connecting alleyways she could get a good look around without being caught.

The girl jogged around the block. Upon reaching the intersection, a boy appeared out of nowhere and Mikoto barely managed to stop before crashing into him. They took a step back, scanning each other despite their shock.

He had spiky hair and a student's uniform. His expression startled her: he looked annoyed, yet equally nervous. He just stared at her with uncertainty. Mikoto's eyes examined him, and to her surprise, she saw blood on one of his hands.

"Is… is there a problem?" The boy asked her, putting both hands in his pockets.

Mikoto gave him a stern look; the blood was evidence enough.

Two persons were murdered recently, and coincidentally, this boy appears near the scene of the crime with a suspicious attitude and a stain of blood on his hand. Was he the stalker? The criminal? She knew she couldn't jump to conclusions but this couldn't be a coincidence.

"Actually, yeah…" Mikoto cleared her throat as she formulated her inquiry, "Do you know that two persons were murdered recently just around the corner?"

The pointy haired teen by the name of Touma furrowed his eyebrows. What was this girl trying to get at, he wondered. He had seen that uniform before: she was from Tokiwadai.

"I heard…"

"You heard? Then why do you have blood in your hand if you just heard about it?"

"Hm?" Kamijou took both hands out of the pockets; there was some blood on the fingers and part of the palm of his left hand, which startled him, "I guess… there is no use hiding it. I was the one who found the victim and called emergency."

"And you are here because…?" Mikoto crossed her arms, "Shouldn't you be informing any important detail to Anti-Skill right now? Or… are you hiding from them?"

Her tone strongly suggested that she was wary of him; this triggered the warning bells in his head.

Kamijou totally forgot to remove the blood of his hand due to his shock upon seeing the new victims. His current situation would easily lead this girl to believe he was the criminal if he didn't play well his cards. Her suspicious was not illogical, but it wasn't the true either.

He would need to convince her of that.

"I just don't want to have anything to do with this… I am as terrified as you are. The only thing I could do was to call Anti-Skill, but I don't want to get interrogated by them. That's why I called as an anonymous."

Mikoto observed him thoroughly, "…Well, I guess that could be true…"

"It is true."

Mikoto was doubtful, she recalled seeing in the news that a student found the third victim. Could it be that the attacker was a student trying to deceive everyone? That the boy in front of her was the criminal? She didn't have enough evidence to prove it but this boy was suspicious, whoever he was.

"If you say so."

Mikoto turned around and walked away from the nervous teen as she glanced at him suspiciously before he was out of her sight. There was always the possibility that he was saying the truth but… there was also the possibility that he was lying. Whatever it was, Mikoto needed to investigate these incidents further and discover the identity of the criminal. Whether it was this boy or anyone else, she somehow had a feeling that this would not be the last time they would meet.

The teenager blinked in confusion as he finally was left alone.

"That was close… Fukou da…"

PART 8

A couple of days passed.

As much as people try to stay out of trouble, for some it was a constant companion. Such was something a certain boy named Kamijou Touma might say.

But in his case, as much as he might claim otherwise, it was often the contrary. He got into trouble on his own, simply by standing firm to his beliefs. Though in truth, if he could have avoided the confrontations his actions usually caused, he definitely would have done so.

But in the end, there had never been a situation where he could protect someone without trouble occurring.

Ever.

In another way of speaking, it could be said that while trouble seemed to follow him or just be present in every place he went, it was his own special brand of misfortune.

"Oh, damn it!"

Two days had passed since the murder of a teacher and her student. The killer was still roaming the streets freely, with no one that could find him. This was beginning to become a real pain in the ass for the authorities. It was also a pain for Kamijou, but right now he had a different trouble.

"Where did all these dudes come from!?"

A spiky-haired boy commented as he ran as fast as he could, simply because he found himself in one of those ordinary days of trouble that occurred more than occasionally in his daily life. In District 7.

A large group of thugs chased him, nearly a dozen; one was even armed, the illegal handgun flashing dangerously against the street lights.

"Give us the girl you fucking punk!"

"There's no way in hell I'll do that, you lowlifes! And how am I the punk!?"

The trouble in which Kamijou found himself in was caused by his interfering with the plans of some creepy looking guys hitting on a scared girl. After seeing her expression, Kamijou had to do something about it: he somehow knew that even if rejected, these delinquents wouldn't take no for an answer.

Picking her up and running may not have been the best secondary answer, but it was an answer nonetheless.

So the rescued girl bounced in Kamijou's arms, stunned into silence while he raced through the streets. The current situation was familiar him, enough so that despite his desperate chase, he reviewed the preceding events in his mind's eye...

---

A group of scary-looking persons had surrounded a Tokiwadai student with a cute face, wavy light-brown hair and a very desirable body.

Her name was Wannai Kinuho, a level 3 esper; her ability was called Hydro Hand. With it, she was capable of manipulating small amounts of water, though she needed a body of water in order to control it. Water that has been scattered on the ground was no longer usable for her.

Wannai could only control four separate clumps of water at the same time, however, to control them required a lot of concentration. She could admit that she had great difficulty by only controlling one. Despite these disadvantages, once she controlled water, she could still manipulate it despite being out of her sight or it being inside a container.

Of course, Wannai being from Tokiwadai spoke a lot of her. She was an excellent student and a capable esper, but sadly, none of those qualities served to help her in her current situation.

She was intimidated by them, her calm will broken, ability useless with no water nearby. Never in her life has something like this happened to her, raised in the sheltered environment of her first home and then Tokiwadai.

Her bad luck began when she was intercepted on her way to a gift shop. Her intention was to buy a pretty doll for her best friend at her school, but it had slipped from her mind upon the thugs' approach.

Yes, she afraid. Wannai Kinuho feared for her life,and desperately hoped that someone from Judgment or Anti-Skill would appear to save her from the gang.

There was no one nearby, no one like that, but still…

Her inner pleas were heard.

"Excuse me?"

Wannai blinked.

"Oh, there you were!"

Out of nowhere, a boy with spiky-haired and ordinary looks made his way through the group surrounding the scared girl. To her surprise, this boy grabbed her hand and smiled warmly at her.

She didn't know what it was or why it happened, but despite her actual situation, his smile gave her tranquillity and some odd feelings she could not identify.

"With this many people around, it became a bit hard for me to find you," They boy talked to her in a casual manner and then scratched the back of his head on a sheepish manner. "Sorry I'm late."

Wannai blinked again and the boy frowned slightly.

'Oh, man… I hope she doesn't screw it up.'

The boy, whose name was Kamijou Touma, pleaded in his mind as he hoped the girl would just follow the flow. He had a plan, one that he had used several times and succeeded roughly half of them. Before he resorted to violent or exhausting measures to get the girl out of there, he chose to play the role of a friend that knew the future victim in order to show the thugs she wasn't alone, making them reconsider their actions.

Wannai stared at him before she smiled back, now fully aware of this boy's intention. He meant good.

"Oh, yes! But you still had me waiting for a while. I had to walk around for a bit to not get bored," Wannai puffed her cheeks as if bothered, to which Kamijou sighed inwardly in relief because she was playing along. "I hope you are ready to make up for it."

Kamijou chuckled, shortly forgetting his surroundings. Wannai also shove her fear aside and she continued to exchange gazes with the pointy-haired boy.

The plan, better called fake acting, was going smoothly, much to Kamijou's surprise and relief.

The reason why this plan failed half of the times was simply because the girl in question didn't follow the flow. That said, a couple of those times, thugs just didn't give a shit about it and still tried to get their hands on the victim. Either way, Kamijou knew what he had to do, whatever way this situation developed.

"Tch! Don't waste your time with a scumbag like him. Come with us and I'll make sure you'll have some real fun," The thugs closest to Wannai winked at her perversely.

Wannai's fear returned as she stepped back from the creepy man, while Kamijou only raised an eyebrow, looking quite pissed. Both students knew they were not going to be let off the hook so easily.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves, really. To intimidate a girl to the point where she could cry? Look at the tears of my friend you caused by doing this!" Kamijou crossed his arms in disgust, "If you want a girl so much then just find some porn videos or something, rather than bothering her or any other girls in the streets for that matter!"

"Huuuuh… you have a big mouth, punk! Don't you realize your situation? Huh!?"

The boy deadpanned.

Common delinquents always behaved like that: these weren't any different. Most times, they tried to intimidate people by acting tough and moving on their victims in groups. Then again, if intimidating didn't work, they also usually resorted to violence.

However, Kamijou Touma didn't give a damn about that. He was used to dealing with this kind of stuff.

"Yes, I do realize it and it irritates me that you guys try to hit on girls like this, only to scare them! Can you all do it like a normal person? Just because you can't gather the courage to ask a girl out properly doesn't mean that you should all gang up on her like a bunch of creeps!"

"What did you say, you little fuck!?"

To Wannai's dismay, the boy stepped forward to the leader of them, sporting an aggressive expression. Was he really trying to start a fight with them under these circumstances?

"I-I think we should get going… eh… Gintoki-kun."

'Gintoki-kun? Oh… She doesn't know my name. I guess she made up one… Though… I don't have a natural perm…'

"I guess you're right, let's just leav-"

Before Kamijou could finish his words, a robust brown-haired man stepped out of the gang, multiple scars spread through his arms and face.

"Would you just shut the fuck up!?" The thug glanced behind his left shoulder and towards his fellow gang members, "Get rid of the kid, we'll have some fun with her anyway."

Wicked and disturbing smiles soon emerged among the other delinquents now staring at the terrified Tokiwadai student.

The leader observed her from top to bottom; he licked his lips as if waiting to savor a choice morsel.

The situation looked bad. Kamijou knew that at this rate, the girl was in serious peril. If the worst came to it...

There was no way in hell he'd going to allow that.

"Then I hope you are all ready to face Anti-Skill," The boy said in a mocking manner, pointing his index towards them, or more exactly to what was behind them.

That instant, expressions of shock and fear appeared on every single one of them.

"Anti-Skill!?" The leader repeated in shock as he and his gang spun around to face the direction of Anti-Skill.

'I guess it's time to move.'

Wannai didn't expect it, nor did the thugs. To her surprise and embarrassment, the spiky-haired level 0 lifted her bridal style.

With the stunned girl in arms, Kamijou sprinted between the unsuspecting delinquents and away from them.

In that moment, Wannai Kinuho didn't know what to do.

To let the unknown boy carry her in the embarrassing way he was doing it to an unknown destination, or try to resist?

It was then, when her eyes travelled up towards the face of the unfortunate boy, that she made her choice. And was impressed.

His face was fierce but concerned, his eyes determined. Just staring at him made the girl feel safe. She couldn't help herself wanting to remain in his arms.

It was an odd feeling, one she had never felt before. Something fuzzy deep inside her chest. She didn't know what it was, maybe happiness? Perhaps hope? Whatever it was, Wannai found herself warming to it fast.

Kamijou Touma was now running to not only save his life, but Wannai's too.

"We need to lose them," Kamijou said out loud, glancing between the possible routes he could use in order to achieve that and then entered an alley. "They're still right on our heels."

"I'm sorry, if you weren't carrying me, I'm sure you would have lost them by now…"

Kamijou smirked confidently, his gaze still on the road, causing the Tokiwadai student to look at him curiously.

"What are you talking about? You're very light, it's not the problem."

His comment made her blush, or it was his handsome expression… Handsome? Her blush deepened as she wondered why her mind came up with that word.

All of a sudden, those feelings and thoughts were interrupted abruptly.

Several gunshots echoed across the alley, the bullets impacting on the walls at Kamijou's sides. Though shocked, he was forced to admit the thugs were serious about not letting them escape. Kamijou forced himself and accelerated. To do it would tire him faster, but considering that they were now shooting at them, he had no choice.

The gunshots continued until one hit Kamijou in the back.

"Argh!" The boy grunted in pain as he lost his balance, falling to the floor together with the girl he was carrying.

"Ha! We got him!" One of the thugs shouted excitedly as maniacal laughs spread among them.

The piercing pain on Kamijou's back made his whole body tremble. His shirt was already feeling wet, meaning that blood was steadily coming out. He was in serious trouble.

"Gintoki-kun! Gintoki-kun!" Wannai called out for the boy, who just remained on the ground, forgetting that it was not his name.

Wannai's hands were stained with blood when she tried to move him. The wound was letting out blood at a fast rate and she knew it wouldn't take long before he fainted or worse.

Kamijou managed to stand up as he resisted the intense pain in his back and planted himself in front of Wannai as if he was an impassable wall. The girl was stunned upon witnessing the incredible feat.

With that much blood coming out of him, how could he even be conscious, much less standing up to protect her?

"Gintoki-kun! Don't move!" Wannai stood up too. She couldn't keep seeing this, him forcing himself like this. "You don't know me! This should never have been your problem!" But there he stood regardless, with a bullet wound on his back as he stood up with determination and prevented them from getting close to her.

The boy looked at Wannai briefly; there were tears on her eyes ready to stream down her face at any second. His facial expression hardened, he wasn't going to let her cry for his fault, he didn't want to be a reason that would make her cry.

He had to do something, however, he felt weak.

"You have to run… or else…"

Despite what he said, Wannai didn't move.

It was not fear that paralyzed her. It was the thought of leaving him behind; she felt she could never forgive herself if she did.

"Don't ask me to do that! I…" She stopped, and then, made a serious expression, "I will not abandon you here! Like you did with me, I will not leave you!"

The boy blinked in mild surprise before the sound of steps directed his attention to the thugs that were just 1 meter away.

'If only… if only there was water I could use…' Wannai looked around the alley, biting her lip as she confirmed that her ability would still remain useless in their desperate situation.

"I'm sure that you'll end begging for you to become my slave by the time I'm done with you, little hottie, hehehe," The leader of the gang said mockingly as he licked his lips in a way that could only be considered as repulsive.

"P-please! Let us go," Tears streamed down her cheeks as Wannai pleaded, her voice breaking. "He is going to die if I don't take him to a hospital..."

"Bitch! Why do you think I shot him?" The thug's smile twisted, "To kill him, ain't that right?"

Suddenly, the boy moved.

Wannai couldn't believe it, neither the leader nor the other members of the gang when they saw it. A swift uppercut landed of the jaw of the nearest thug, courtesy of the carrier of the IB, which sent the surprised delinquent to the ground.

The girl watched in shock at the completely bloodied shirt of Kamijou Touma.

"Run! I'll hold them here!" Kamijou shouted fiercely, giving another step forward.

"I can't just leave you here!" She shot back, "I can't!"

The boy was about to respond when a figure fell from the sky.

She landed lightly between the startled teen and the group of thugs, a girl with long black hair and some sort of futuristic-looking black suit with grey, white and red details.

"What? Where did this bitch come from?" A tall thug commented in surprise.

The leader pushed himself through the other thugs, shoving them aside like nothing and completely ignoring the guy on the ground who he stepped on.

"Well, well… look what we have here."

"You are all under arrest for causing harm to a citizen and illegally carrying and using firearms."

The leader crossed his arms in amusement. Her outfit didn't match the usual uniform he had seen those from Anti-Skill wearing.

"Is that so?" He cracked his knuckles, "You aren't from Anti-Skill or from those kids playing like cops, ain't ya? So… You must be affiliated with some private organization, I suppose."

Shutaura Sequenzia, the commander of the Black Crow Unit lifted a hand to gracefully put her hair behind her ear before glancing at the boy behind her, who was barely standing.

"You don't need to know," Her hard haze returned to the group ahead of her. "You don't deserve to know," Her voice was cold. "Surrender now or I'll be forced to use violence."

"Ooohh… Just you know, I happen to be the kind of guy that likes playing rough."

Laughter was heard among them, most already imagining what they were planning to do when they got their hands on her.

"I don't know who you are..." A male voice resounded in the alley. "But if you're tough, you should get her out of here..."

To Wannai's dismay and Shutaura's surprise, the wounded boy pushed the black-haired girl aside and stood once again in front of them. Shutaura was left behind him gaping in confusion.

Her eyes narrowed upon seeing the state of Kamijou's back. If that wound wasn't treated properly and the bleeding stopped, he was going to die for sure.

"Fool! You are not going to get anything by playing hero in that state! Only death if you continue your reckless actions!"

Kamijou remained silent.

---

Go to profile, LISTEN: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Song 02

---

"I was meaning to let you bleed to death, but if you are that desperate, I will speed the process with pleasure," Then, he eyed the two girls with perverse eyes. "After I'm done with you, we're going to have fun with the two hotties over there."

The leader cracked his knuckles, smiling wickedly as he moved towards the immobile teen.

Shutaura narrowed her eyes at the gang leader with disgust. She put on hand on Kamijou's shoulder to pull him backwards, but found she couldn't move him. It was as if the boy was determined to stop them, to keep protecting both the girl and now her.

"Is that so? Bring it, I'm right here," Kamijou answered in a quiet voice that had an undercurrent of rage beneath it.

Shutaura found his willpower illogical. There were more of them, they had firepower and he was wounded. She tried to figure why he kept standing: was he just insane? Delusional? Did he want to act like a hero to impress the Tokiwadai girl or something like that? Shutaura couldn't comprehend it.

The way things were, this spiky-haired boy would simply get his ass kicked by them, so why did he act like he was confident about his situation? They were thugs accustomed to fighting and all that came with being a member of a gang while this boy was just a normal high schooler who probably had only ever fought against other students like him. This was not just a school fight, delinquents attacked mercilessly, not caring if they caused fatal injuries on their opponents.

"Just stand back! I will handle this!"

He didn't respond, and it was too late.

The leader lunged towards the teen, sending a punch directed to hit Kamijou's face. Kamijou however did the unexpected and went on the offensive, tackling the surprised leader to the ground.

The gang leader tried to struggle free but Kamijou pressed his advantage and began pummeling the leader's face, punctuating each word with a brutal punch.

"You think. You can. Hurt. Others. Just. Because. You can?!"

Kamijou dragged the disoriented leader up by his shirt collar, standing despite his situation.

"If you do, then let me show you the fist that will destroy that fucked up illusion of yours!"

Unexpected? Unbelievable? But still amazing. Those were the words that could describe what happened in front of two girls, one that was rescued by an unfortunate boy, and the other, who was supposed to rescue both teens but still ended behind.

The leader was sent back to his companions through the sheer force of a powerful punch which also busted his nose and knocked him out cold in the process. Those in front barely managed to catch him when he crashed onto them.

"Boss? Boss!? Kill that shitty bastard!" A gang member yelled.

The gang began to move towards Kamijou, who was supporting himself by leaning against a wall.

All energy having left him, Kamijou couldn't move and they were getting close. But a shadow passed over the head of the wounded boy, landing softly in front of him. The girl in the black suit had retaken her preferred position.

"I'll handle them; take him to a hospital quickly!" Shutaura commanded, glancing at Wannai over her shoulder.

"Y-yes!"

Wannai hurriedly walked to the barely standing boy, nervousness welling up inside her. She stopped just a few centimetres away from him and gathered the courage to speak.

"L-let's go… you need medical treatment."

No reply was heard, causing Wannai to get closer in order to peer while Shutaura fended off the thugs. She blinked in surprise as she saw the boy's face; he looked already unconscious though still standing on his feet. Wannai remained stunned upon this rare occurrence before shaking her head to regain her composure.

"ARGH!" A thug cried out in pain as several kicks landed on his chest, but was silenced when the the last one his his mouth.

Shutaura skillfully intercepted all comers, attacking and counter-attacking with practised ease. Soon, it was clear to the thugs she was no pushover. They knew that at this rate, they were all going to be wiped out.

"Why are you two still here!?"

Wannai gulped after hearing the fierce shout of the black-haired girl, and her fear was further increased when Shutaura glared at her.

"I-I can't get him to move! He's unconscious!"

Shutaura blinked in puzzlement before realization hit her, making her sigh. "Guess I have to clean up first after all."

"Bitch!" Shutaura returned her gaze to the remaining thugs; a gang member was pointing a handgun at her, "You'll regret messing with us, fucking slut!"

A disinterested glance was the only response they got from the crow commander before she raised her left arm and pressed some buttons on her watch.

"As I said, you are all under arrest."

"We'll see how much you talk with a bullet in your skul-"

The end of his sentence was never heard due to the sudden noise that came from behind the group of thugs. They spun and saw an eight-legged black machine, menacingly agile but massively overshadowing them. It blocked the exit of the alley from which they all entered and all the delinquents still conscious paled.

"Running is pointless," Shutaura spoke, but none one looked at her. "None of you will escape. Of that, you can be certain."

The front part of spider-tank's fuselage opened, showing four circular openings.

Wannai couldn't see very well from her position the odd machine but the faces of fear within them showed her that something was about to occur.

"Are those… cannons…?" One of them said in disbelief, his voice shaking.

Shutaura Sequenzia shook her head in a mocking manner.

"Not exactly cannons, or at least, not the kind that shoots bullets," Shutaura's smile turned evil, increasing the rising feeling of anxiety within the delinquents. "But they'll get the job done regardless."

To their horror, metal claws shot from the circular openings, spinning towards them. These claws were linked to the central part of mobile weapon via thick grey cables.

The first claw got hold of the leg of one of them while the next grabbed the thug by his jacket. The last two ones seized two other thugs by their arms. Once the claws gripped them tightly, they were all dragged with incredible force from the alley like reeled-in fish.

A gang member's jaw dropped at the sight of four fellow members of his gang making a short-lived forced-flight, landing harshly out of the alley and behind the machine in a crumpled pile.

It was at this moment that the thugs realized that they were screwed. On the other hand, Wannai Kinuho knew that everything was going to be alright, and she hoped 'Gintoki' would be too.

PART 9

"Despite the blood loss, we managed to stabilize him while removing the bullet successfully from his body. I can say for certain that his life is no longer in danger."

"So you're saying that he will recover… right?"

Wannai Kinuho asked shyly, truly worried about the condition of the spiky-haired boy.

After the black-haired girl and her customized Crow Mobile Weapon as she had later called it, easily took care of the rest of the delinquents, ambulances arrived together with two vans from Anti-Skill to arrest the criminals and save the life of a heroic teenager.

Wannai was deeply grateful to him, so she decided to watch over the boy as the ambulance took them to a hospital located inside District 7. In it, a doctor with an odd face attended her injured savior. Though it reminded her of a frog, she would never say it: that would just be disrespectful.

The level 3 Tokiwadai student waited expectantly to hear the reply of the man, who spoke after reading some papers he had on a clipboard.

"He will be fine," He responded with a little smile, bringing one to the girl's face too. "After all this time, he continues to be as reckless as ever," The doctor sighed. "He'll never learn."

Wannai blinked in confusion after hearing the doctor's comment.

"Um… you know him, doctor-san? You talk like you do," The girl looked directly at him, causing the doctor to slightly frown before sighing again. "Does he usually come to the hospital?"

The bald doctor put both hands on the pockets of his white coat as recalled all those times he had saved Kamijou Touma's life.

At first, Heaven Canceller, as he was known due to his exceptional skills as a physician, which basically made him the doctor that could determine by choice if his patients would live no matter their state, was the benevolent old man that first thought of Kamijou Touma as some kind of delinquent that got into a lot of fights. But as time passed, he eventually found out that the spiky-haired boy actually fought to protect people, and that he was different.

It was worth mentioning that he pretty much knew about IB and all what it implied, just like his acquaintance, the General Director of Academy City, Aleister Crowley, and eventually discovered that this boy held it.

Several times he was taken to the hospital by those he saved and vice-versa. And like this girl, he usually stayed until he knew they were no longer at risk.

Heaven Canceller could affirm that Kamijou Touma was a strange lad, but a good person nonetheless.

"Indeed," The frog-faced doctor finally replied after his mind returned to the present. "He drops by… More often than I'd like…"

Wannai Kinuho widened her eyes in shock.

"Does… does he always come in the same state?"

"To be fair, gunshot wounds are rare, even for him…" Heaven Canceller put a thoughtful hand on his chin, "Most of the time it's just bruises and cuts."

Wannai frowned as her mind contemplated this revelation. There just could be many ways to explain the reasoning behind the boy's actions, however, among those possible explanations laid a definitive truth, a bitter truth, a truth that disappointed her deeply.

"So... he does this sort of thing for anyone, doesn't he?" She quietly had discovered she was not an exception, but rather the rule, for his intervention this day.

He saved her because that was the right thing to do, not because he found her special or anything.

Though it was honestly a sad truth, it only made her feel more respect towards him.

"I suppose I should stop asking this whenever he is brought by a girl but… are you his girlfriend?"

"Eh?"

Wannai blinked twice, stunned by the doctor's embarrassing question. It didn't take long for her face to become extremely red.

Many times she had heard her classmates talk about dating boys and even having boyfriends but truthfully, it never became a subject she was interested in simply because she never had a person she liked.

"No-no-no! He just…"

"Helped you?" The doctor continued, "He doesn't really listen to me when I tell him to stop being careless so I thought that he would listen to his girlfriend, that, if he had one."

"I'm not that luck-" The girl stopped herself from finishing that sentence, putting both hands to cover her mouth. She could not believe what her lips pronounced, what her mind had subconsciously thought.

'Hmm… all the girls make similar reactions… interesting…' Heaven Canceller mused. "Maybe I should get in on his act... Though I'm not as young and spry as he must be..."

"He isn't! He isn't!" Said Wannai with a rising tone, realizing that she was overreacting as she spoke. But still, she couldn't help herself, "He is… not my boyfriend…"

The doctor was startled by her outburst that came as fast as it went. In the end, her voice lost its volume until it completely faded, her gaze fixated on the floor as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

"You don't need to repeat it, I believe you, young girl."

Wannai put both hands down and gripped her skirt tightly as she found herself unable to raise her gaze, she could feel her cheeks burning with embarrassment.

"I suppose you'll want to remain here until he regains his consciousness, won't you? Though I actually recommend you to return to your dorm and rest: you look tired. Besides, he is not waking up any time soon, that I can assure you."

Wannai nodded, embarrassed her plan had been seen through so quickly, but she had to return to her dorm before the Tokiwadai Dorm Manager punished her for not respecting the designated curfew.

Now that she thought about it, the sky looked a bit dark, so she took her phone out of a pocket from her skirt and opened it. It was 6:23 p.m.

"It's…! It's late!" The brown-haired girl yelled, the tiny object almost slipping out of her hands, "I-I need to go! Please, watch over him."

Wannai bowed in a respectful manner and dashed out of Heaven Canceller's office.

"Wait! What should I tell him when he wakes up?" The gero doctor shouted, however it was to no avail, the girl was gone, "Teens these days…" The doctor sighed as he walked out of his office when he noticed a presence in the corridor, a black-haired girl with an odd suit supporting her back on the wall with arms crossed and eyes closed. "Hmm…? You're still here?"

The girl nodded, opening her eyes and directing them at him, "What's his condition?"

"The bullet has been removed, and the bleeding has been stopped. He'll just need to rest to recover… He was lucky that you brought him to me before it was too late."

Shutaura raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"He looked pretty bad, but he is already out of danger? You sure got some skills."

The bald doctor snorted before turning around, displaying his back to her.

"Who do you think I am?"

PART 10

"But onee-sama! This case is too dangerous! That attacker is too dangerous! Even if you are the Ace of Tokiwadai, I will not allow my onee-sama to get into this kind of trouble!"

Misaka Mikoto rolled her eyes upon hearing the ramblings of her underclassman and roommate, Shirai Kuroko, over the phone.

"Of course I know it's dangerous, but to let that criminal keep attacking and even murdering people... I just can't sit with my arms crossed and do nothing!"

Kuroko knew that her onee-sama's intentions were good. Despite that, she was absolutely certain she wasn't going to let her get involved.

"M.A.R. is also helping Anti-Skill and us so we'll eventually catch him… or her, or whatever the culprit is. Just be more patient, please."

'Multi Active Rescue is helping? Well, that surely improves things a bit, but still…'

Mikoto sighed, she had to do something and she couldn't be patient, not when the criminal still roamed the streets with no one stopping him. She also had a possible suspect, the boy with spiky hair.

---

Go to profile, LISTEN: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Song 03

---

Mikoto had found him pretty close to the crime scene, with blood on his hand no less, acting suspiciously. He had even lied when she asked him about the murder that just occurred. His excuse was that he found the victims and called the police but decided to hide because he was scared.

She didn't buy it was a coincidence, yet she couldn't just blame him as the one behind those attacks. She needed more evidence, real evidence that would prove he was the perpetrator.

Using a weak application of her esper powers, she could perform minute operations that required great control such as reading electric signals, cracking devices such as electronic locks and other kinds of security systems, stealing information from credit card's magnetic strip, hacking computers or any data bases with a simple portable terminal, etc.

This was all why she'd been doing her own research about the case, reading Judgment's reports without Kuroko's consent and hacking Anti-Skill's database.

Mikoto discovered a profile of the suspect, a young boy apparently with brown hair and green eyes, who wore a green bracelet and a weird tie…

But that was it. That was all the intel gathered by them until now. At least they had a face to work with but she couldn't believe that this was all they knew. The testimony of the two victims that managed to survive didn't help much, only giving not-proven theories about the attacker being an esper.

That spiky-haired boy didn't match the profile she found about the attacker at all, so it appeared that her suspicion about him was misplaced…

But was it truly?

What about if she saw this from another point of view? If the authorities didn't know anything solid about the attacker, why assume it was only one person? For all she knew, that suspicious boy could be an accomplice, helping the killer to accomplish his attacks and then acting like a passing person who happened to have found the victim. This might be useful to deflect suspicion.

Whatever it was, Misaka Mikoto had to keep digging.

No matter what Kuroko said, they were not advancing in the case. More victims were appearing and there were not getting close to catching the criminal. She had to do something to apprehend the attacker or at least help in some way.

"I can't be patient! Girls are being killed, Kuroko. I can't turn a blind eye about it… Surely you understand that, right?"

Kuroko bit her lip, unable to respond as her onee-sama had always showed a keen sense of justice. All those times she had intervened in Judgment's and even Anti-Skill's cases to just help them was proof enough.

This, among other reasons, was why Shirai Kuroko admired her; respected her, wanted to be close to her Onee-sama.

Particularly when they were showering.

She knew very well that Misaka Mikoto, the third-ranked level 5 esper, was someone that you could rely on: her resolve when it came to protecting or helping anyone was unshakable and sincere. But she was not a Judgment agent, and that could only make the teleporter worry.

"I… I just don't want onee-sama to get hurt…"

Mikoto widened her eyes upon hearing Kuroko's sad voice from the cell phone, making her feel a bit upset with herself. She didn't mean to make her best friend worry.

'...but what good is being one of the strongest espers in the city if I can't use my power to help, or in this case, stop that damn bastard?' A sympathetic smile spread across her lips, one that Kuroko would have loved to see if they had not been speaking over the phone. Mikoto sighed inwardly before putting a cheerful face. "Don't worry, Kuroko. I'll be extra careful."

"If... if you say so, onee-sama... Though that's not what I want to hear, I know I can't stop you." Kuroko grabbed her phone as if it was her beloved Mikoto. "Call me if anything, even the tiniest thing, comes up, OK? I will appear there as your sexy knight in shining armour and save you from anything… and then I will take you to my castle and I will do a lot of lewd stuff to yo-"

Mikoto closed her cell, ending the call, her face a bit red.

"Idiot…"

Between the Lines 3

It was a windowless room.

No doors, no corridors, no stairs. There was simply no way to enter it, although there were a few specific methods. One being if one were a level 4 teleporter.

---

A certain pig-tailed girl sneezed violently, fouling the pages of report she held. She took a moment to shout in disgust before giving up.

---

The purpose of this windowless isolated room was to be an impenetrable stronghold, easily surpassing the protection of a nuclear shelter.

The walls and ground of an almost empty room inside were filled with yellowish starry-like lights. A lone cylinder stood tall in the middle, emitting the strongest source of light within the room. The walls that surrounded it were covered with numerous screens, flashing buttons and equipment of all shapes and sizes. Thousands of cables and tubes spread through the room, gathering around the aforementioned cylinder as if they were its blood vessels.

The cylinder was ten meters tall and its diameter was 4 meters wide. The cylindrical container was made of reinforced glass and filled with red liquid, which actually was a weak alkaline recovery fluid.

Inside it, a long silver-haired man wearing a green surgical cloak floated upside-down.

To describe him was difficult. He looked masculine, yet feminine, youthful, yet matured, pure, yet corrupt, leaving one with a doubt. What single word could describe him?

The answer was simple.

The only word anyone could truly use for him was Human. To try a more precise description would just end in a waste of time.

The Human was actually smiling, something that rarely occurred.

"That was close…" His masculine, yet feminine, young, yet old, pure, yet corrupt voice resounded in the large room. "But interesting nonetheless…"

A man who faked his death in order to start anew, the strongest of his kind who simply decided that the ROAD he had taken in the past would not lead him to accomplish his true objectives. So he gave up on it, and by doing so, earning the hatred of more than half of the world.

Though 'Human' would be the word to describe his appearance, there was another that could describe what he was.

Traitor.

A word that almost cost him his life, yet his savior, Heaven Canceller, took him as his patient and saved him, introducing him to a new country and helping him hide. Thus Aleister Crowley was declared deceased in December 1 of 1947 for the sake of his plan. Now he found himself inside this life-support system designed by Heaven Canceller with a weakened body that was maintained by it.

Aleister Crowley could literally affirm that his life depended on science, and he could also say that 50 percent of his plans depended on it as well. Though perhaps that number was not exactly accurate, thanks to the existence of a mysterious power that resided inside the right hand of an unfortunate boy.

This 'Human' was actually the founder of Academy City, alongside Heaven Canceller. Aleister Crowley was the Board Chairman and so the one responsible for creating the most advanced city in the world, with 2.3 million espers residing within. He had control of an army that could declare war to the world, and yet, to do that was not his aim, it was merely an available method.

The entire world would tremble if Aleister Crowley found it necessary.

"An intruder… hmm…" The 'Human' mused as he monitored the communications channels before directing his attention to the intel gathered by UNDER_LINE.

UNDER_LINE was Aleister Crowley's personal information network composed of minuscule machines spread all over Academy City, which served as the sole direct and trustworthy line of information to the Windowless Building, where the 'Human' resided. The building was located in School District 7.

These spherical machines floated on air and used convection to generate power. They gathered data indefinitely through quantum signals over a direct electron beam to pass information between them, creating the UNDER_LINE network.

"What's her purpose, I wonder?" His stern voice asked. Obviously, there was no reply, "Vár will not get her anything… Unless…" An image appeared in the darkness, revealing a document related to Norse mythology.

The document showed details of an old poem, and a certain part caught his interest..

Then said Thrym,

the Thursars's lord:

Bring the hammer in,

the bride to consecrate;

lay Miöllnir

on the maiden's knee;

unite us each with other

by the hand of Vör

"Vár, Thrym and the Valkyries… This will get complicated…"

Aleister opened more files related to the content of the poem. His smile returned once again upon reading the following text.

She listens to people's oaths and private agreements that women and men make between each other. Thus these contracts are called varar. She also punishes those who break them severely.

"If you are planning what I think you are, then this is going to be quite troublesome. I will make use of her again if that is the case."

Another text caught his eyes.

'Wise Var of wire makes me sit unhappy. Eir of mackerels' ground takes often and much sleep from me.'

"Now…" A voice that was masculine, yet feminine, youthful, yet mature, pure, yet corrupt resounded in the large room. "What are you going to do, Imagine Breaker?"

PART 11

Intense bluish-white sparks flew everywhere, as the girl sat terrified upon the floor. She was unable to move, but the other girl that stood protectively before her was no shrinking violet. She stared down yet another girl, whose dark blue hair and red eyes made for a striking contrast. They all stood in a certain park in School District 5, otherwise abandoned.

"Who are you!?" Asked Misaka Mikoto to the enemy, an unknown, yet dangerous individual.

"I suppose there will be interference this time."

A girl with red dark hair said with an oddly serene, yet intimidating gaze. She wore a black sailor uniform with a red ribbon tied in the middle. Mikoto gazed at it, curious.

'Never seen that uniform before... What school does she even belong to?'

"Are you the one behind these attacks?" Mikoto asked fiercely, more sparks moving across her skin.

The girl who was addressed simply leaned her head in an awkward manner, and moved the hand that was holding some sort of red lasso divided in three long parts. It seemed useless like that, but Mikoto wasn't about to let her guard down.

"No, but I won't let you intervene either way."

Mikoto narrowed her eyes. The mysterious black-haired girl was clearly demonstrating her connection with the attacks. 'If she wants to let them keep going, then it's just like she's an accomplice.'

"I guess I'll take you as a friend of the real attacker then. I'll make you spit out the answers between shocks if you don't tell me what you know."

The warning went ignored. The creepy girl merely stared at her with those disturbing crimson eyes, her long hair moving up and down as if it were floating. Mikoto realised with mild surprise her clothes were also moving. 'Wind user, huh? Fair enough.'

"You are my enemy, and a strong one at that. Still…" The creepy girl began to float, and the atmosphere became oppressive and heavy, like the sky itself was pressing down.

Mikoto readied herself, no idea who she was or what she was about to do, nor her level. The only thing clear to her was her strange red lasso that appeared to be moving by itself. 'Maybe not wind? Telekinesis?' It was if the girl was controlling it with her mind or eyes. 'Either way, can't let my guard down.'

---

Go to profile, SEE: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Picture 02

---

"I will destroy you…" The unknown enemy stated, and finally, it began.

The floating three parts of her lasso became one. They whipped forward at blinding speed, heading straight at Mikoto. The Electromaster side-stepped and avoided it.

But as she did the lasso stopped. It hung in mid-air before striking at her like a snake. The surprised girl used electromagnetism in order to pull her away from it by using the nearest metal lamppost, watching it curl around where she had just been.

'What the heck is that thing? It's like its length increases and decreases at will… How is she controlling it?'

The lasso, again divided in three parts at the end, returned to float around its holder like some sort of shield, causing Mikoto to widen her eyes in bewilderment as she returned to stand on the ground.

'Just what is that thing made of, exactly? It must be some kind of advanced weapon.'

Mikoto recalled in that moment one of the reports she read about the attacker, some observations mentioned him as a possible telekinetic user like she suspected, thought they also suspected that he could be a mind-controller.

'But that's not good enough. I need more information!'

"What is your goal!? Why are you killing people!?"

"You wouldn't understand it. And the killing part isn't on purpose…" The girl responded, the red lasso taking a solid form, resembling a lance now. "Though, he enjoys hurting them so… It can't be avoided."

Mikoto gritted her teeth. It was now crystal clear that she was an accomplice of the killer, so she needed to capture her. This was her first, and may be her only chance: Mikoto wasn't going to let that opportunity slip away.

She turned around and glanced at the crying girl still on the ground, the one she saved from a sudden attack. "You get out of here! This place is gonna get a hell of a lot more dangerous!" Mikoto glared at the crimson-eyed girl. "Call Anti-Skill, I will take care of her!

The short-haired girl, a Tokiwadai student, nodded and stood up, running away as fast as she could on faltering but grateful legs. As the girl left them, Mikoto raised a hand, intense lightning concentrating around it.

The unknown girl's expression changed to a serious one. It seemed to Mikoto that her enemy wasn't expecting the interference of a Level 5; the thought made her grin.

Fighting the so called Railgun was indeed an unwanted occurrence. The crimson-eyed girl knew she would lose easily to the Esper if she fought now, and to use Ragnarok wasn't an option at this moment. To say that she 'would destroy her' was obviously an empty threat. But the ritual must not be stalled.

Even as a capable Magician, Elise Anderson could not win against a level 5 esper from Academy City.

Elise just had to buy him some time. Distracting the Railgun and everyone who came close would be enough. Their movements in the city had been compromised somehow, so they needed to carry out their task as fast as possible.

"Come on, Railgun. Let's have some fun."

Mikoto frowned, "You know me… I guess it will make things easier. If you know who am I, then you are aware of what can I do, right? You better surrender before I fry you."

"Give me your best shot."

Without wasting a second, Mikoto sent a high voltage current towards the magician. The lasso lance intercepted her attack and spun around in front of Elise, creating a shield that effectively stopped the lightning-base attack.

Mikoto was stunned. 'How does that even work!? What technology... How could it stop that? Or… did it absorb it? But rather than show her surprise, Mikoto put on a confident grin.

"You're certainly carrying something interesting with you," The esper commented casually. "What is it?"

"Are you seriously asking me to tell you what my weapon is?" A tone of disbelief adorned her voice, eyes flickering in amusement. "Sorry, but I would prefer to hold the element of surprise for a bit longer."

Not hesitating, Mikoto created an arc of lightning that crashed on the swirling lasso of her opponent. This time it took longer to dispel the lightning. The Ace of Tokiwadai also noticed the strain on the black-haired girl's face when it stopped her attack. 'So it is mentally controlled, but looks like it's pretty hard to manipulate.' The brown-haired ojou smirked. 'Bad luck for her I'm just getting started.'

Seemingly aware of her failing defence, Elise moved forward, taking the fight to Mikoto. Her red lasso took the form of a lance again and flew towards the esper with deadly intent. Mikoto ducked underneath it and sent more lightning at her.

Rather than going on the defense, the magician threw herself to the side, avoiding her attack, but as she did the lasso lost its current form and returned back to her. Mikoto realized that her opponent needed concentration in order to manipulate that weapon. 'So if I keep attacking, soon the lasso will be useless. Can't keep up forever, you damn accomplice!'

---

Go to profile, LISTEN: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Song 04

---

Misaka Mikoto just had to push forward until her opponent was worn out enough to be struck by her lightning.

What Mikoto didn't expect was for the lasso to suddenly split completely. Each part moved independently and lashed out from three different directions as Elise smiled mockingly. All aimed to pierce through the head of her enemy, a sure kill should even one get through.

However, it was too soon for her to assume that she had the upper hand.

Misaka Mikoto pulled all nearby benches towards her into a quick barrier, blocking all the attacks. The benches didn't hold long, but they bought her plenty of time to escape from danger. A few seconds passed before the shield was cut into pieces by her opponent's weird but powerful weapon.

Mikoto remained unharmed, while Elise looked tired. She was reaching her limits, fatigue building up slowly in her body. Without a doubt, controlling the magical weapon named after the powerful Nordic sorceress: Grimhild was taking its toll sooner than she had expected.

Mikoto avoided more strikes, ducking beneath them and using electromagnetism to keep herself out of harm's way before sending a strong beam of bluish-white lightning towards the Magician. This time, Elise didn't block it, instead, she moved out of the danger zone by using her lasso on a nearby tree to pull herself to avoid it.

"How much longer can you keep up with me?" Mikoto taunted, resuming her advance towards her opponent, "Both you and that weird tech are slowing down. Give up already before I really hurt you!"

The remaining metal pieces of the destroyed benches moved to Mikoto's side as she made them intercept more attacks. And all the while she moved closer and closer to Elise.

The magician stepped back as she tried to fend off the Railgun, but it was futile. The floating pieces of metal were able to stop them. At this rate, Elise would have no other choice; she would have to activate it.

There was no going back if she did so, however. Her mission was far from being completed so she could hardly dare. But as she wavered, a voice suddenly spoke in her mind.

[Elise! I'm trouble here! Get your ass to me this instant! This dude is going bloody crazy and there's this group that's attacking us!]

The magician blinked in surprise: the others were supposed to be handling the girl while she confronted the investigative Railgun.

[Who is attacking you!? Dammit! Can't I leave you alone for even a single moment?] She answered through her mind. Both were using the Bound spell of Vár, cast before separating in order to communicate mentally.

[They call themselves the Black Crows or something… Someone blew our cover.] The voice became desperate. [You know that, don't you? Now everyone can see us! Even the cameras!] The male voice resounded in Elise's mind.

[At least you retrieved it, right? We won't find any descendants of the Valhalla's Valkyries just anywhere! We were lucky we found the last of them in this disgusting city!]

Before Elise could hear a reply, a thunderous roar ripped through the sky and blotted out her every thought. Light flashed above as a big current of lightning appeared overhead; its dazzling brilliance distracting.

Even as her lasso moved to create a shield, it was too late. The electricity reached the magician's body and spread through it. Blinding pain coursed through her, and she fell prone.

Mikoto waited as smoke floated up from her opponent's clothes, wiping sweat from her brow. 'All right, maybe that was a bit overboard…'

Elise suddenly stood up, burns visible across her body as she glared at her.

"That was not fair… I was talking with someone…" The creepy girl muttered, wiping soot from her tattered clothes.

'Guess not. But…' "…What?" Mikoto blinked as she glanced around, "With who? I don't see anyone around here…" She widened her eyes as realization hit her, "Are you a telepath too?"

"Shut up! That lightning hurt! Bitch!"

"Hey! It's your own fault! Who would talk to someone telepathically in the middle of a fight? Sorry if I didn't realize idiot!" Mikoto's tone became sarcastic before resuming its seriousness, "Now give up and tell me this time! Who is the killer and where is he!?"

By way of answer, Elise sent Grimhild towards Mikoto yet again. The Railgun jumped back and sent more scrap to block a new attack, but the three segments of the lasso stopped in middle air and pierced through the ground, disappearing beneath. Elise smirked.

"What are you trying to...?" Mikoto cautiously observed her still grinning opponent, but a slight rumbling beneath her feet drew her attention. She began to run just in time to avoid Grimhild, as it emerged just behind it. The esper avoided the nearest segment as she threw a spear of lightning towards another, but the last one whipped forward and lassoed her left leg and pulled her upward.

"Whoa!"

A giggle escaped from Elise's lips as her enemy hung upside down.

"What's this?" Elsie deadpanned, "Shorts…? Really…?"

Mikoto's skirt had flipped upright to reveal plain white boxers. The girl flushed and used both hands to pin her skirt back up, yelling down the magician.

"S-shut up! It's not your business what I decided to wear! Let me go!"

"If you insist…"

The lasso holding Mikoto shook her violently before slamming the brown-haired ojou on the ground. She coughed as the brutal hit left her ragged, but she had no time to catch her breath before she was hoisted up again.

"On second thought, I changed my mind. I prefer seeing you like that," She smiled darkly. "How about we hurt you a little more?"

"Grh! W-what!?" Sparks flew from Mikoto's bangs as she tried to remove the string holding her leg. It was little use, as she belatedly realized it contained no metal.

Elise raised a hand in front of her face, a red circle appearing in the back of her hand.

"Darksome night and shining moon, hearken to the Snake's rune. By the power of land and sea, be obedient unto me. King of Hell, King of Snakes, send your hate unto the spell. Scaled Hunter of the night, work my will by magic rite and unleash the pain upon my enemy!"

Mikoto didn't understand a bit of what the girl muttered but suddenly, her whole body began to ache terribly.

"Argh! What is this!? Stop!" Mikoto screamed in agony, the pain rapidly becoming unbearable. 'What's causing this!? Some kind of drug?' Her eyes moved to the string on her leg. It had become purple for some reason and the zone of her leg that was enveloped by it was taking a bright red color, 'From that thing!? Get it off!'

Mikoto was desperate to do something before she fainted. She had just enough presence of mind to search for a weapon. Or perhaps, to make one.

Elise giggled as she observed the Railgun, one of the strongest from the science side, screaming in despair. She had won: she didn't think she could do it but she defeated a level 5 esper.

Nevertheless, she wondered why the sparks on her opponent's brow never faltered. By the time she understood that she may have been underestimating Misaka Mikoto, it was too late.

Mikoto opened her hand. A fierce wind blew as black sand began to float from every part of the park. Elise frowned, but focused on subduing the esper since she couldn't sense any immediate threat.

By using her magnetic powers, the electric shock user had gathered Iron sand and concentrated it in her hand. It formed a blade that cut clean the string that held her leg, much to Elise's horror.

Mikoto fell to the ground after breaking free while the iron sand dispersed.

"What the hell was that?" Elise said in disbelief. "There's no way... my Grimhild should never have been..."

"Are you… seriously asking me to tell you what my secret weapon is?" Mikoto panted as she mockingly parroted her opponent, "Sorry, but I will keep the element of surprise for a bit longer."

Mikoto savoured her delicious freedom. 'Like I hoped; cut that lasso thing, and the pain was gone like magic. Magic... Heh.' She smiled at the ridiculous thought, fully aware this was all just a clever combination of technology and esper powers.

She grinned at the black-haired girl, who gritted her teeth. Before turning around to run away.

Mikoto blinked in surprise. "Hey! We're not done! I can't let my only suspect get away!" The third-ranked of the level 5 of Academy city ran off in pursuit, exasperation growing.

PART 12

"What do you intend to do with this information?"

So Kumokawa Seria, third-year student of a Certain High school and advisor, or more exactly, Brain of one of the members of the Academy City's Board of Directors, asked to an injured spiky-haired boy resting on a hospital bed, whom she actually was quite fond of.

"Whatever I need to, Kumokawa-senpai."

The genius girl crossed her arms over her exceedingly voluptuous chest. They were hidden under her school-issued sailor uniform, but her skirt was defensively longer than others of its kind. Her shoulder-length black hair, fringe tied back was a hastily improvised accommodation to improve her appeal.

"As my kouhai, I can't let you take more risks. The director of our school informed me of your… accident and asked me to watch over you." She glanced at two other girls inside Touma's room, their presence, of course, unwelcomed to Kumokawa. "You can thank her for that."

"She is right, Kamijou-kun." Spoke Wannai Kinuho, the girl whom the boy had saved and also, a girl who asked a certain frog-faced doctor to inform Kamijou's school about the incident. She spoke as she stood up from her seat in front of Touma's bed.

After the events of that day that lead Kamijou Touma to get shot by some thugs and then hospitalized, Wannai finally gathered courage to visit the teen at the hospital.

o-0-O-0-o

Twenty minutes ago.

Standing just in front of her savior's room, Wannai hesitated, fidgeting nervously as her mind swirled with many doubts and insecurities. She had been meaning to visit him since that eventful day, though embarrassment got in the way every time she had tried to do so.

But not today.

"Ehm… What should I say to him?" She whispered. Making a friendly expression, the girl spoke to one in particular, "Hello Gintoki-kun! How are you doing?" She shook her head.

'That's too casual…'

She tried again, her tone becoming rather neutral, "Good afternoon, Gintoki-kun. I see you're recovering…" Wannai stopped and shook her head yet again, sighing.

'That's too obvious! Of course he is recovering! And that is not even his name!'

As she drooped her shoulders in resignation, the girl felt her insecurity rise again. She couldn't understand why it was so hard for her, seeing the boy again, that is. Wannai had never felt so indecisive before, yet now that she had finally make it to the hospital, backing up was not much of an option.

She raised a hand hesitantly to knock the door, but stopped again before doing so. Her hand trembled slightly, her legs faltering.

'C'mon Kinuho! Don't make such a big deal of this… Just… do it!'

In a new attempt, she stretched her hand again, gulping as she gathered all her courage, only to be foiled by voices coming from inside the room. She blinked, leaning her head against the door, her ear resting over the cool wooden surface.

Whispers could be heard, female ones, yet both different. She would never realize, but this fact made her grab the doorknob in concern, or maybe curiosity, her fear forgotten as she opened it. The lights on the ceiling inside covered her face. Her eyes blinked, adjusting quickly before she walked in.

Upon entering the hospital room, the girl with wavy-brown hair was shocked to notice the boy she had wanted to see again had other visitors.

"While I would rather let him use his persuading ability to tell you that I am closer to him to shut your mouth, this is not the proper time," A girl with blond hair stated, irritation coating her tone. Wannai blinked, her blue eyes meeting golden starry ones. The gaze of the blonde narrowed, not looking surprised by her presence as she would had imagined, but rather annoyed. Not a good sign.

After all, Wannai Kinuho was on the grace of none other than Shokuhou Misaki, a Tokiwadai student and more importantly, a level 5, who held fearsome mind-controlling capabilities.

Wannai had to bite her lip, feeling intimidated and all that came with being glared by one of the elite, a girl that was the leader of the largest clique in her school, hence her nickname:

Queen of Tokiwadai.

"So you're the reason for Touma-chan to be hospitalized this time?" Shokuhou asked, her gloved hand resting over her hip, the other holding a remote control, "I assume that you came to visit him?" Darkening her gaze, her lips contorted in an insincere smile, "Why… is that?"

Shokuhou could have very well used her esper abilities to get the answer, yet, she knew that was out of the question while that boy was present, albeit asleep. She tapped her foot on the floor, a growing look of suspicion building up as she waited for a reply.

Wannai felt afraid of answering, if only because the Queen looked ready to destroy her mind in case she gave a non-satisfactory response. However, she was currently feeling more curious than scared, pointing inside her mind quite well the reason for her sudden unease.

'Touma-chan… Is that his name…? Did she call him by his given name? That is sort of…'

Her train of thought was interrupted, to her shock by another voice. Wannai turned to see yet another girl, whom she had absentmindedly ignored since entering the room, leaning towards the Queen in what seemed to be an aggressive manner.

"Don't mess with her, Shokuhou," The other girl that had black hair fringe tied back, who wore a school-issued sailor uniform with a long skirt, growled. "You know she is one of many others, though…" Wannai almost yelped when she found herself under sudden scrutiny, "Why are you here?"

Kumokawa Seria folded her arms over he voluptuous chest, gaze inquiring.

Two oppressive auras began to envelop the room, as if pressure was being created by their mere presence. Wannai felt she couldn't breathe under their glares. It was a given that the Queen was someone to be afraid of because of her status, yet, the other girl somehow managed to give a similar imposing aura as the Level 5.

However, before a reply was given, a nervous one at that, a yawn echoed in the room.

The trio turned towards the bed, where a pointy-haired boy was stretching his limbs, probably to get rid of the numbness of his body.

A drastic change occurred in both girls surrounding the bed, the tense atmosphere dissipating. Both girls now looked happy as their eyes dug into the form of the boy lying on bed. It was like being transported from the North Pole to the Alabama desert instantly. That was how Wannai felt the atmosphere drastically changed.

While to think how their demeanor changed so abruptly was scary, it was more troublesome to see the boy keeping his gaze on the Hydro Hand esper. Wannai felt her cheeks getting hot at the sight of his kind eyes looking directly at her, which wasn't missed by the other two.

"Tch!/Gr…" Were the unexpected reactions from both the blond and the brunette, otherwise ignored by the boy as he finally spoke.

"Hey! It's good to see you doing fine," He grinned, the level 3 esper blinked, "Did you come to visit me?"

Wannai gulped, crafting a response that never came. Instead, it was the Queen that spoke, sensing a threat in girl with light chestnut hair.

"Touma-chan!" Shokuhou jumped to the bed, hugging him shortly after. A throbbing vein became noticeable in the brunette, looking ready to kill someone. Wannai gave a step away from her, observing the boy trying to push her from the bed.

"H-hold up!" Gripping her shoulders, he managed to shove her to the side, making her sit, "You should stop doing that, my body still hurts."

Shokuhou gasped, feigning to be surprised by his revelation, "Oh, I'm sorry… I was just happy to see you awake again…" Pouting, she whispered with a knowing smile, "…Couldn't control myself…"

Wannai couldn't help feeling jealous, as much the black-haired girl at her side apparently was, her cold expression giving her the chills. However, her gaze returned to the scene before her. Touma and the Queen seemed awfully closed.

'How does he know someone like the Queen…?' She bit her lip, wondering what kind of past their shared together. The thought was more than a little uncomfortable, 'Why do they seem so close…?'

The boy sighed, speaking words of disapproval that were ignored by the level 5, because she simply shifted her attention, though only turned her head slightly, looking over her shoulder at both spectators with a triumphant smile.

Shokuhou Misaki was sure none of them would ever be as close to him as she, even if the boy was sort of currently mad with her, nothing would ever erase what they went through together.

The memories they shared.

Shokuhou truly cherished those memories. Without them, the blonde would have probably become a force of doom. Yet she didn't because she met him, Kamijou Touma changed her selfish way of thinking…

Shokuhou Misaki admired him because the boy became the foundation of her world.

"When will you ever learn to give him some space?" Kumokawa said with scorn, seating on the other side of Touma's bed, hands rested over the soft fabric sheet as she leant menacingly towards her rival, "Can't you see that he is uncomfortable right now?"

Shokuhou glared daggers at her, honestly, irrelevant to Kumokawa. There was simply no way that she'd allow the insufferable mind controller to get her dirty hands on the boy that meant so much for her. Despite that they were somewhat alike, manipulators with different means, Kumokawa hate her.

As she pulled Shokuhou away, she had to stifle a giggle as she was acting like a hypocrite, given the fact that if she could, she would be all over the boy and even more. Indeed, she had to bitterly admit she was similar to her rival, but in all aspects, much better that Mental Out.

Kumokawa Seria cherished the boy because of the events of some time ago, which made her see him in a light she had never seen anyone with during her entire life.

She was considered a genius, yet, Kamijou Touma had managed to fool Kumokawa in order to protect her from a dangerous threat that involved ********. Even if the boy managed to stop that madness, Kumokawa still felt responsible for the anguish those events caused to him.

She, a genius and Brain of a member from the Academy City's Board of Directors respected Kamijou Touma because he showed her how to stand strong and firm on what her heart believed, not what her brain reasoned.

Wannai Kinuho would never know that the two girls present in Touma's room owed him their lives, just like she did.

o-0-O-0-o

After answering some of the questions thrown at Wannai about the incident that involved both the sleeping boy and her, Wannai was asked to introduce herself by the intimidating, yet beautiful Queen of Tokiwadai.

"My name is… Wannai Kinuho," She bowed respectfully to them, "I'm very sorry for interrupting your reunion, Kumokawa-san," She bowed again, facing the level 5, "Shokuhou-senpai," Finally, her eyes adverted to the male teen, who was scratching his head.

"Drop the formalities, Wannai," He started, smiling. She felt her heart race upon hearing his voice say her name, her temperature and discomfort rising. "I'm really glad that everything turned out okay. I'm Kamijou Touma by the way. Nice to finally meet you in…" His voice faded, his gaze thoughtful for a moment, "Well, I was about to say normal circumstances, but I'm afraid this is far from being normal either."

Kamijou Touma chuckled, yet Wannai could only stare at him.

'Kamijou-kun…'

An insincere voice came from the honey blonde, "Touma-chan What's going on?"

It was then when Wannai saw it. The boy blinked, as if recalling something important, and then sighed again, before glaring at the Queen from the corner of her eyes. She couldn't help the gaze of confusion as Shokuhou, staring back at him, averting her gaze in what looked like shame. That was odd.

"Shokuhou, I still haven't forgotten that, so please behave," His tone was dry, unlike the one he just used. Seria covered a smile with her hand, Wannai only blinked. "I appreciate the concern but one visit is enough. Maybe you should be searching for that person instead of wasting time here."

"I…" Shokuhou dropped her gaze, turning around with a look of depression. The scene made Wannai shift uncomfortably, if only because the kind boy now looked rather intimidating. "I'm sorry. I told you I would, but it's hard for me…"

"It's not hard, given your abilities," Touma retorted, "To me it seems you just don't want to."

Kumokawa raised an eyebrow, musing a bit. She could recall some minor details about some incident that involved those two and another person. She was rather happy about this actually, because Touma had stopped hanging out with Shokuhou since then. More chances for Kumokawa to get closer to him was what mattered in the end.

Her eyes fell on the startled level 3, who she actually knew since she had studied every student in Tokiwadai for security purposes. Kumokawa could understand her confusion as Touma had begun to act really coldly.

Touma kept his hard expression for a brief period of time, before sighing again.

"Kumokawa-senpai," He addressed the beautiful brunette. She was taken aback, if even for a little moment, "Did you find anything about what I told you?"

This was Kumokawa's time put on a somber expression. During the first day she had visited him, the boy had asked her to find any details about the recent murders, stating that senpais as mature and knowledgeable as her would be able to accomplish such.

It was rather amusing actually, his logic. Kumokawa couldn't really refuse his request, despite the fact that she already was aware of the murders and the intel gathered by the authorities. Being the rhetorical brain of one of the higher ups had granted her much.

However, knowing Touma's personality, the beauty senpai was a little reluctant to reveal this information. The past had showed her what he could do with enough information, no matter the circumstances.

It didn't take too much thought, for the boy only had needed to look at her expectantly. To help him was all Kumokawa had ever wanted to do. She had to curse herself for being so weak, despite her being considered a manipulative genius.

Ironically, she was being manipulated by that kind boy now, though she could bet her life that he wasn't doing it on purpose. Therefore, Kumokawa Seria ended up informing him about the current situation of the case, Shokuhou remaining oddly silent and Wannai listening attentively.

The boy just scratched his cheek.

"Touma-chan… You can't possibly think of going after them," Reprimanded the fifth-ranked Level 5 esper and acquaintance of Kamijou Touma as she leaned towards him, putting a hand on the boy's bed. "I know it troubles you but your recovery ability hasn't finished. There's nothing you can do right now."

Touma blinked at the sight of Misaki's amazing chest bouncing just before his face, before shaking his head. The boy averted his gaze from the Tokiwadai blonde-haired girl and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Mis—Shokuhou-san. I still don't understand why're you still here. Have you forgotten that I didn't want to see you?" The boy replied with a serious tone, making Shokuhou frown, "I say it again. I appreciate your concern but please leave."

Shokuhou's heart was torn into pieces. His harsh words hurt. They really blonde knew that she made a terrible mistake, but she was truly sorry. She had tried apologized to both Touma and *********, but neither of them accepted her apology.

A long time had passed since that event, and her dear friend with whom she shared her most important memories told her that he would never accept her as a friend again unless ********** accepted her apology first.

So far, nothing has changed. Shokuhou Misaki despised herself for that.

'I should be enjoying this but… I kind of feel bad for her…' Kumokawa mused upon witnessing Touma's dry, uncommon behavior. She wouldn't want to be in her shoes, that's for sure.

Misaki sat on edge of the bed, hands over her lap, her eyes on the ground, looking quite depressed. The boy seemed resolute in his demeanor. But even after he spoke so harshly, Kumokawa could tell he wanted her to make Shokuhou what was correct because he truly cared for her and didn't want his friend to commit whatever mistakes she had done in the past.

It was painful to treat her so coldly but the boy knew this was for the best, just as Kumokawa knew. She may have a rivalry with the blonde level 5 but it wasn't like she could just let a friend of Touma's walk in the wrong path, and nor would he.

Kamijou shifted over the bed, resting his elbows over his slightly raised knees, fingers intertwined as he mused profoundly. Kumokawa looked at Touma with a stern expression as she wondered if she did well by providing him the details of the current situation about the serial killer case.

"So what's the current situation?" He suddenly asked.

Wannai observed the brunette folding her arms, looking sort of hesitant. It was easy to notice that Kumokawa looked uncomfortable talking about this subject. Understandable as she also found herself rather anxious. A serial killer was of course a serious matter to discuss. More like frightening to her.

Several second passed in silence. Kumokawa finally responded. Probably because the way Touma furrowed his brows, which confirmed her debility when facing him.

"A private security organization had found two suspects related to the recent murders," The boy nodded, assuming a serious expression, "One of them had been confirmed as the serial killer. Don't worry though, Anti-Skill is already on their way to district 5 to give support in their capture."

"So they are resisting arrest?" Wannai inquired. She had hoped this would be enough to alleviate Touma's concern. She would soon realize that she was wrong as he spoke with a grave tone. "But with the police on their way, I'm sure they will catch them."

"Who's the killer?" Touma asked sharply, eyes shadowed by his spiky hair.

Kumokawa retrieved her mobile phone, "Let me check what my friend in Anti-skill sent to me." Tapping on her tactile phone, she browsed the archives sent by her contacts.

Shokuhou turned to her, furrowing her brow.

'Friends… right… I bet she got the information from her employer.'

"The killer has been identified as Himura Takeshi," Kumokawa revealed, her eyes focused on her tiny device. "A level 0 that underwent several psychological therapies. He presented several mental disorders in his personality, as well as other abnormal behavioral patterns."

"Can you repeat that in a language I'm familiar with?" Kamijou deadpanned, while Wannai couldn't stifle a giggle.

"He is insane."

Kamijou nodded, "I see. Continue please."

Kumokawa fixed some locks of hair behind her ear before proceeding, "This boy actually went missing six weeks ago after one of his therapy sessions. Anti-Skill found out later that he had joined one of the many armed groups of Skill-Out."

"Skill-Out?" Wannai repeated. She never had heard of them, her startled face showing it. The black haired girl turned to her briefly at her inquiry.

"Skill-Out is an illegal faction composed by thousands of the city's residents. Mostly students and level 0 espers," Kumokawa explained, inwardly smiling as the boy only focused on her. Despite that Touma had ended up injured as usual, she was happy to be his current center of attention, "Their vandalism and mayhem is mostly attributed to their strong resentment towards high-level espers."

Wannai nodded. 'So the delinquents he fought to save me belonged to this Skill-Out?'

Touma interrupted her musings, asking a new question, "Then if he is the killer, who is the other?"

Kumokawa opened more files in her phone, biting her lip as she did. Wannai raised a hand to her chest during the short wait, Shokuhou only stared aimlessly through the window from her sitting position.

"It's still unknown, but his appearance matched the one of the gathered evidence," Touma's gaze became noticeably sharper. The eyes that Kumokawa, and now Wannai loved to see, "He is most likely the accomplice of the killer."

"I see, well thanks Kumokawa-senpai," Grinning, he nodded. "Upperclassmen are really dependable, even knowing stuff about the serial killer case. High school girls like you sure are amazing."

Kumokawa was taken aback by his sudden praise, her cheeks getting a bit warm as she blinked. Shokuhou pouted while Touma's senpai managed to force a scoff, regaining her composure.

"E-ehem… I am simply lucky to have a friend with connections…" She stuttered, earning a confused look from the spiky-haired teen and narrowed looks from both Tokiwadai students.

Wannai couldn't help but wonder how close this senpai was to the heroic boy. She felt out of place being the only stranger to him. Not entirely true, but still one compared to the others.

Not to mention the leader of one of the largest cliques in her school. The Queen also seemed to be quite close to the boy that saved her. A new inquiry erupted that moment.

'Why is he upset with the Queen? What could have happened between them?'

"Anyway, where are my clothes? I can't go anywhere in this hospital gown."

Shokuhou opened her mouth to speak but refrained in the end. Trying to change his decision wasn't an option now that he was determined, and he wouldn't listen to her anyway.

"Kamijou-kun… you do realize you are just a student right? Why do you persist on doing such dangerous stuff? You almost died because of me…" Wannai sported a sad smile, "There will be a day when someone will kill you if you keep doing this…"

"Like you said, I almost died, but I didn't…" Touma replied, sitting on the border of his bed, opposite to Shokuhou. "What if I hadn't interfered when those guys ganged up on you? You would be the one on this bed, not me and I'm sure you'd have ended in a worse condition."

Wannai gave no answer or complain because it was the truth.

"But what can you do?" Kumokawa asked worriedly, "How can you help? You are not even at full strength and they said this killer is a maniac with absurd speed and reflexes. You remember you are just a normal boy, right?"

"It's only a matter of time," Commented Shokuhou out of the blue, standing up from the bed and walking towards the door. "The authority's investigation ability will eventually lead them to their capture, with or without your help, Touma-chan."

Wannai could see the boy frowning as she gazed at the Queen's leaving form. Touma observed then his right hand, eyes fierce as the ones he carried when he lifted her bridal style.

"Maybe it is just a matter of time, but people are getting hurt, and if I can reduce in any way the number of injured people, then it will be worth it, even if I have to risk my life, this is what I'm going to do. Any complaints?"

"But… you could die, Kamijou-kun…" Wannai's voice faded as the boy looked at her.

"Don't take me lightly."

Wannai averted her eyes after hearing his response; she couldn't meet his sharp gaze. A teen whose determination surpassed any kind of fear, including the one of dying. He was one of a kind, her admiration of him grew exponentially.

"So what can I do, you ask?" Kamijou smiled fiercely at his senpai, making a strong fist, "Destroy their illusions of course!"

PART 13

"Crow Leader? I thought Ladylee-sama ordered you to not participate in the retrieval of the bracelet."

An injured member of the Black Crow Unit addressed Shutaura Sequenzia as she stood in the middle of a parking lot painted with red.

"You think I'm going to stand around and keep watching my team get killed by that maniac!?" She spat, "Not a chance!"

"But Crow Lead-" Shutaura glared at him fiercely, silencing him.

"Enough!" She directed her hard gaze towards a disturbing sight. Blood was all over the place.

Corpses of some of the members of the Black Crow lay unmoving on the ground with fatal wounds on their bodies. She gritted her teeth in anger, for having failed them as their leader. Her focus soon would be drawn by the sight of an atrocity.

At some point, bloodied corpses were gathered together, one on top of the other as they created some sort of twisted and nightmarish monument that could only be dedicated to a bloody Monster.

That Monster was actually present, sitting over the pile of bodies as he observed with disturbed eyes at the Crow Leader. There was no way to describe his face because half of it was hidden under a surgical mask that had an unsettling drawing of an opened mouth with monstrous teeth, making him look far more dangerous than he should have been.

The Monster had short grey hair, wore a white T-shirt stained with the blood of his victims and black pants. His arms were covered with some bandages and his left hand held a short hammer, its claw dripping blood.

---

Go to profile, SEE: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Picture 03

---

"I Am BorEd… WiLl YoU GiVE mE SoMe FuN?"

Shutaura lowered her head in disgust, her eyes hidden under her hair. The criminal behind the recent attacks to innocent people was in front of her, the murderer.

"I hope you resist arrest…" Her cold voice spoke.

She swore to protect AC, it was her goal, and it was her duty. To eliminate all threats was her mission, and this perturbing individual was certainly a threat, a dangerous one at that. This was the time to stop him.

"I WiLL iF yOu GIve Me soMe fUn! " A cheerful, yet creepy tone responded.

Shutaura raised her face and gritted her teeth in anger, drawing a combat knife from the sheath that hung on her hip.

He wasn't taking her seriously, he was mocking her and it pissed her off, not to mention that he had killed many members of her team. All his victims were brutally massacred and he didn't feel any sort of remorse.

"If you want some fun... You can have it!" The Crow Leader roared, taking an aggressive stance, her eyes sharp and full of hate towards her enemy. She was not going to hold back this time: he would be getting what he asked for.

Shutaura lunged forward, her knife ready to kill; a swift end to his life will have to do.

Even if he deserved worse.

'Though, when thinking about it more closely, allowing him to bleed to death would be a better way of killing him…' She gave some wary steps, observing carefully any movement on his part, 'That is if I manage to wound him without inflicting a fatal injury. He deserves to suffer for what he's done.'

The Monster remained sitting on the corpses as he watched the black-haired girl coming at him.

A drop of cold sweat traversed down the face of the killer, and it made him feel ecstatic.

"An InteReTinf person iS cIminG fOr mY life! It's sO exciting!" Himura's blood was already boiling in expectation. "HoW muCh would yOu BleEd bEfoRe dYinG? He wondered out loud. "YoUr sCreAms Of pAin wiLL suRelY bEcomE a mUsIcaL mAsteRpieCe! I juSt NeEd yOu tO sTaY StiLl sO I cAn cUt yoU, hIt yoU, TorTurE you!"

Himura Takeshi, the Monster, had already pictured the sight of her blood on his hands.

Shutaura jumped and swung the knife down, aimed to his skull, only to fail as the Monster blocked her knife with the hammer and pushed her backward. She had hoped it wouldn't end that easily.

The Monster stood up from his grotesque monument, and avoided the gunshots from the other Crows like it was nothing, startling Shutaura.

'How fast is this bastard? To avoid gunfire with simple movements?'

Shutaura stepped back to avoid the hammer crushing her face and back flipped to gain some distance. It was clear now how he managed to take down so many of her companions without receiving any hit or wound.

"Keep shooting!" Shutaura commanded as the Monster sprinted to the nearest Crow and sliced his throat in mere seconds, much to everyone's horror, "Damn you!"

Small disks made of Rare Earth were soon sent towards the killer, which were blocked with his hammer before some wires pierced them in that exact moment, every disk exploding on his face. Shutaura smirked.

Using her esper ability Earth Palette, she detonated the disks by releasing the stored explosive energy in them through the use of rare earth elements. She could detonate any material made of these elements by just piercing it with her wires and using her ability.

The Black Crow Unit waited for the smoke to dissipate, but suddenly, something moved within it.

"Wha-?" A crow suddenly began to levitate and crashed into his companions with devastating force.

Shutaura blocked the attack from the Monster, who suffered several burns on his body. The surgical mask was no more on his face, finally showing the sickening expression he carried.

"Don't you realize how futile it is to resist? You will be captured!" Shutaura shouted to not only the Monster but also to a boy that just had used some kind of ability to throw away several of her companions.

The boy gave three steps forward and stepped over a crow member, earning a glare from Shutaura. He had brown hair and green eyes just like the reports mentioned, but also wore some sort of black school uniform, which was composed of black pants and shoes of the same color, a white shirt under a black blazer. The tie with a black and red squared pattern as well as a green bracelet were also present on his person.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that…" The brown-haired boy replied, smirking as more Crows were sent flying away for no apparent reason, "I thought we were screwed but, with that guy going berserk and my telekinesis, getting rid of you will be easy enough."

"Telekinesis? You're an esper?" Shutaura was startled, if he was an esper, the investigators should have found him in the database quickly.

"Indeed. I even took an exam to determine my level, and I happened to be a level 4," Shutaura could sense some sort of pride in his tone. "You may call me… erm… in Japanese it would be… Teisō-gui."

"Such a despicable name…" Shutaura commented darkly, "So you underwent the power curr-?"

"Nope," He interjected. "I was born with my abilities so I did not undergo that thing, just some test that would indicate my level. I think they call my type Gemstones, don't they?"

Gemstones were espers that obtained their abilities without an artificial method, such as Academy City's Power Curriculum Program or other procedures.

These Gemstones were quite rare, only fifty of them existing in the entire world. Fifty that were known, at least.

"I see… Now I understand why our database could not find a match for your profile," Shutaura said as the Monster stood at the side of the telekinetic esper. "We don't have access to all records of the existing Gemstones," She cursed under her breath, knowing that only the superintendent of Academy City could provide the SS classified intel.

"What are you planning to do with the property of Ladylee Tangleroad? And why are you killing people?" Shutaura prepared herself for a possible attack as she questioned the criminals. "Whatever your plans are, they are going to fail, I promise you that."

"The killing is not part of the plan. Actually, it was for this... person's enjoyment," The green-eyed boy patted the back of the Monster whose gaze was concentrated on Shutaura. "To let him kill girls while preventing the authorities from finding him was his pay in exchange of giving us a hand."

"You slaughter innocent women for enjoyment? You fucking insane bastard!" Shutaura's roar was followed by several rare earth disks flying towards the criminals, "And you are no better as his accomplice!"

Each disk was pierced with wires, each one them exploding in rapid succession. Teisō-gui, whose true name was Alphonse Lauren, British gemstone and Level 4 telekinetic user, dragged all the corpses close to him and created a literal meat shield, neutralizing the fiery blast.

"That was close," Alphonse truly was relieved, thanking his quick instincts for letting him react on time. "I'm sure that this guy won't be able to resist more of those, and I'm not really willing to test my endurance against them."

"You…You bastard! How dare you use my comrades as meat shields!"

A black figure moved on the top of a building, green and white lights appearing on it. Shutaura's Crow Mobile Weapon as well as three-wheeled motorcycles appeared on the area, surrounding both Alphonse and Himura. Anti-Skill vans together with ambulances appeared behind them.

"Now this looks bad…" Alphonse glanced at the bracelet on his arm, "And this thing is totally useless! Where is that woman?"

His question would soon be answered when a red beam that came from the sky landed on the area where the law enforcement squads gathered. Upon impact, a huge explosion occurred, wiping out the Crows, Anti-Skill officers and their vehicles within the range of the explosion. The impact created by it sent Shutaura and everyone flying away.

Alphonse lowered the arm that covered his eyes from the flying debris, feeling pleased, "Well, well… it's about time don't you think?" The gemstone commented out loud as a black-haired girl appeared before them with some sort of huge red arm coming from her back. A strong light came from the gem that was located in the middle of her black sailor uniform.

"Imbecile! Look at the chaos you created! Now I was forced to use the Oath spell sooner to save both your worthless lives!" The girl and magician Elise Anderson growled at the causal greeting of her companion as she walked to him.

"I AM getTinG BOreD AgAiN!" Himura lowered his gaze to the ground as if depressed.

Elise ignored the lament for blood and looked over her shoulder, "We need to move quickly, a level 5 is coming after me."

"Ha! And you called me an imbecile!"

Elise sighed and then glanced at her own outfit; there was no use in keeping the facade of a student of this city. The gem on her chest emitted a strong light, her school uniform transforming into an odd white blouse with red lines all over it and a dark red skirt with long boots of the same color and a strap on her right leg. A purple ribbon materialized on her head.

"We still need the last Valkyrie's descendant. We have to find that girl and leav-"

"Stop right there!"

Misaka Mikoto's voice echoed through the parking lot, earning the attention of the three criminals responsible for the recent murders. Mikoto observed the area, the girl she was chasing was with two guys, fire spread through the many destroyed vehicles and several corpses around the area. That red beam Mikoto saw falling from the sky as she ran to this place must have been the reason for the destruction around her.

"You sure are an annoying little pest!" Elise growled as she stood in front, the red lasso she had before wasn't present, but some transparent, yet shiny thing that came out from her back.

"What kind of ability is that?" Mikoto stepped back in surprise when her eyes met the weird thing protruding from her enemy and gritted her teeth, "That beam, was it you?"

The magician smiled wickedly, the thing on her back taking the form of a monstrous hand that grabbed an Anti-Skill vehicle like it was a toy and threw it at the unsuspecting Railgun.

Mikoto had no time to even articulate a word as she used her magnetism to pull another vehicle towards herself. It protected her from the makeshift projectile, both vehicles crashing into each other with amazing force.

'What on earth is that thing? The lasso that took on another form? Or is it a rare esper ability?'

"Don't move! You are under arrest!"

Anti-Skill squads advanced into the parking lot, aiming their SIG SG 551 SWATs at their targets, as other law enforcers took the lead at created a defensive perimeter with their riot shields.

"Kid, they are dangerous! Get away from them!" Was the warning sent to Misaka Mikoto by one of the law enforcer agents, but the girl ignored them as she prepared herself for a new attack.

"So they are your accomplices, huh?" The ojou's gaze stopped on a guy with a disturbing expression, stains of blood all over his not-so-white shirt as well as burns on his arms. "He… He is the killer?"

"Yes…" Mikoto yelped at the sound of a new voice right at her side, which made her fall to the ground.

"Ouch…" The electric princess whimpered when her brown eyes met black ones, a girl with an odd suit was staring at her, her expression startled. "You are…?"

"What are you doing here? I don't think it's necessary to say that this place is dangerous."

Shutaura Sequenzia said to the girl on the ground. Just before the red beam caused that enormous explosion, her customized mobile weapon dragged her out from the danger zone barely in time.

"Well, I can take care of myself just fine," Mikoto mumbled as she stood on her feet. "I have the abilities to do so, and I will catch them with or without anyone's help."

White-bluish sparks jumped wildly from her bangs, causing Shutaura to raise an eyebrow in amusement. She had heard about one of the level 5 espers that could manipulate electricity. An esper that belonged to the Tokiwadai Middle School.

'Could it be that she was that esper? The Railgun?' Shutaura mused, "Then let's see what you can do."

"Heh…" Mikoto smirked. "Just don't get in my way."

"The same goes for you."

Mikoto didn't know who this woman was, but she looked quite capable. Shutaura on the other hand wasn't even sure if the brat was the Electric Princess she had heard about.

However, both of them had the same goal, which meant that they would have to work together, even if they were strangers to each other. To capture those criminals was their priority; failure was not an option.

Mikoto pulled multiples metal objects from the area as Shutaura entered her Mobile weapon. Elise narrowed her eyes and Alphonse smirked, both magician and gemstone knew that things were about to get nasty.

PART 14

"I'm here to help you, so be grateful!"

'Am I imagining… this…? For real? Am I really seeing and hearing this crap right now?'

Kamijou Touma found himself in a situation that could only be considered as ridiculous because of a mysterious girl he met on his way to a certain parking lot where a certain battle was occurring.

This orange-haired girl with matching eyes was cosplaying as some sort of witch, like the ones he saw as the antagonists on those Mahou-Shoujo animes. She wore long black stockings, a hooded black coat with a white line on the middle and a black skirt with two white lines. The most prominent aspect was the odd hat she wore over her head, which strongly resembled the one witches used. For the killer, she even was carrying an old-looking broom.

She proclaimed to him that she was a powerful magician that would assist him in the capture of the people that were bringing chaos in the city. Illogical, coming from someone that looked like her honestly.

Many questions and doubts emerged on the brain of the confused boy. To begin with:

'What is a magician?'

---

Go to profile, LISTEN: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Song 05

---

"So em… you say that you're going to help me, right…? How exactly?"

Kamijou Touma asked reluctantly, it was a bit absurd to imagine this girl being of any help in his current situation. She looked like a witch, but it wasn't like she had any power because magic did not exist. Or so he thought.

"I will help you track the magical essence of Vár's bracelet," She responded cheerfully, making a cute pose as she spoke, "By doing so, we will be able to find the people you are looking for."

"I already know where they are, though I'm not sure why you know I was looking for them…" Kamijou could tell that he was sounding funny, "Do you even know who I'm after?"

"Yes."

The boy scratched his head exasperatedly.

'Just who was this girl?'

"How? This is the first time I met you as far as I know, and did I hear the words 'magical essence'? Moreover, what is that bracelet of Vár or something you mentioned?" He scratched his head, for this girl seemed really crazy. Her outfit was the proof of his logic, "Man, you're only confusing me more."

"You'll understand soon enough," The brunette snickered. "It's not surprising that the residents of this city aren't familiar with those terms, so your ignorance is to be expected."

Kamijou rolled his eyes, he wondered if she was delusional. Maybe she was acting out the TV shows in real life as if they were true. There was a word to describe this kind of person.

It was Chuunibyou, the Middle School 2nd Year Syndrome. People with this syndrome acted like a know-it-all adult, looking down on real ones, or believed that they had special, or on this occasion, magical powers unlike others.

"Well… whatever, I already know where they are," Kamijou responded with a bothered tone.

"Really?" The cute witch pouted, putting both hands over her normal-sized chest as if disappointed, "But, but… what if they go to another place before you get there? They possess a powerful magic spell called 'Ragnarok' that can activate the ultimate form of a magical Norse weapon and make it ridiculously powerful, the police of this city don't stand a chance against that."

"Wait, wait," Kamijou raised a hand to signal her to stop. "Hold on a minute! I don't have the slightest idea of what you are talking about. What do you mean by magic spell? Are you trolling me or something, because it's not funny!"

"I'm not trolling you, Spiky lad!"

"Don't call me Spiky lad!"

"I'm going to call you Spike then, if you don't mind," She replied casually.

"I do mind! That's not my freaking name!" He snapped, "It's Kamijou Touma!"

"Tou…ma?" She tilted her head to the side as Kamijou nodded, "I have heard some Japanese names before, but yours sure sounds weird."

"That's not polite!" The boy pointed out.

Kamijou facepalmed as he let out a sigh in resignation, realizing that he was acting like a tsukkomi a comedy duo. At least he now knew that she was a foreigner by the way she spoke, her accent made it kind of obvious.

"So what you're basically saying is that you can lead me to them wherever they go?" Kamijou sought confirmation, even though he didn't have much faith in her words.

"Yes! Follow me!"

The boy raised a stopping hand, again.

"Can I ask you something before that?" The brown-eyed girl nodded, "Okay… then tell me… Who are you and why do you want to help me?"

The self-proclaimed magician, whatever that was, blinked as her cheeks slightly reddened.

"Oh… I haven't introduced myself yet?" She giggled nervously, "How silly of me… I am Isadora Sprengel, magician extraordinaire! You may call me Isa!"

"And you say my name is weird? Tsk…" Kamijou deadpanned while crossing his arms, "Anyway, why do you keep saying that word magician? What is a magician?"

Kamijou waited for a reply while the girl took her sweet time to answer.

"You seriously don't know?"

The boy once again accidentally became the tsukkomi routine by almost face faulting.

"You took that much time to think to only give me that crap answer? Listen, as you seemingly know, I have to go and help capture those criminals. People have died because of them!"

"You don't have to yell… I'm aware of that," The brunette pouted. "I will explain everything while we move."

'Finally, something reasonable coming out of her mouth. Hold on a minute… what's that?'

"Come out you little imp! Time to do your job!" Isadora said playfully, shaking a shiny bottle she took out from her skirt pocket. "Track Code: 773-11."

To Kamijou's amazement, a red light came out from the bottle and made its way to the ground just beneath Isadora. Upon touching the solid surface, the light fainted and a red shiny circle appeared all around her.

"Defining current location of the Magical object 773-11 within the leylines. Location…found."

'Is she okay? For some reason, her voice became creepily mechanical.'

"Creating a spiritual link to the source… done. Azure eyes activated."

The boy stepped back when the red light shone with intensity and Isadora's eyes became bright red. A soft impulse came from her as she closed her eyes.

"What the hell is this?" The startled boy said in disbelief.

"Maintaining spiritual flow to object 773-11… Secured," The girl finally opened her eyes and to his relief, they were back to normal. "Alright, I can clearly see the location of Vár, it's not far away."

"Stop, stop!" Kamijou waved his arms frantically in confusion, "What on earth did my eyes just see?!"

Isadora Sprengel smirked bashfully at his question, as if she was expecting it. Such reaction was startling, if only because she seemed certain of her reply.

"Magic."

"…Magic?" He deadpanned.

"Yes… magic," She nodded, her face taking on a prideful expression.

Kamijou stared at her blankly for a few seconds as his brain processed the information he just received. Silence surrounded them as he just continued to stare at her, then suddenly, his voice broke the silence.

"By magic, what do you… mean?"

Isadora furrowed her brows as she pouted, making Kamijou realize how cute she was.

"I mean magic!"

"Magic?"

"Yes! Magic!" She shouted exasperatedly, startling him. "True, powerful and diverse magic! Magic!"

Kamijou Touma narrowed his eyes upon hearing such nonsense, although he still tried to find a reasonable answer despite the absurdity of the situation.

"You mean like those tricks the people on TV and shows pull off? I don't think you can call that true, powerful or whatever. It has been proved that all that magic they claimed to achieve was only smart schemes made to deceive one's perception, or something like that."

The magician looked offended, clutching her skirt as she snarled at him. This boy just called the foundation of her world a trick. Isadora, being the grand-grand-grandchild of one of the founders of the most powerful Magic Cabals in history, obviously found the reasoning of Kamijou Touma as simply ridiculous and insolent.

"You call that magic?" Isadora said indignantly, "How old are you?"

"Old enough to know that real magic doesn't exist."

"It exists!" She argued, "I just cast a tracking spell in front of you!"

'This girl wasn't making any sense, what did she mean by spell?' Kamijou found himself unable to explain the rare occurrence that happened just some minutes ago, 'That couldn't be real magic, could it? Maybe she's just an esper with a rare ability that could create lights or something, right?'

"You can't be possibly serious, I mean, you are saying that supernatural magic exists? That's just crazy."

"Crazy is what your city had done by creating and training people with psychic abilities," Isadora growled with righteous fury. "Their mere existence denies the destiny that God had designated for this world."

"I'm not gonna argue about religion with you, or foreign religion in your case, but let me tell you this. I can't accept the existence of magic."

"…Why?" She stepped closer to him, "As far as I can see, you accept the existence of esper abilities, which are supernatural, yet you won't accept magic. That doesn't make any sense."

Kamijou scratched his head, crossing his arms shortly after, "Esper abilities are created by developing the human brain through the use of esperin that is injected to the veins, electrodes that are attached to the neck and certain rhythms that are played through headphones."

"So? What is your point?"

"You don't get it? The existence of espers can be explained with science, which isn't the case with magic. The standard procedures used in order to create espers are scientific and had been proved, that's why I accept that kind of supernatural abilities… Tell me, what would be the point of developing psychic abilities if magic existed?"

"That's a good question! Why create espers if magicians existed? Sadly, there is only one answer to that."

"Which is…?" The boy inquired.

"Someone who lost faith in magic. Someone who was powerful with it, yet, he renounced it. Someone that chose science instead, thus creating the foundation in which your current beliefs have taken form."

"…You're basically saying that Academy City was created by someone who believed in magic or possessed it?" Touma put all she said in a nutshell, "If that is possible of course."

"Maybe…"

Kamijou scowled, she wasn't giving him a proper answer. The thought of her being truly delusional began to become highly conceivable, which in this case would be good due to the implications that he could think of if the nonsense she was babbling about was actually true.

"You're only making me feel more skeptical about this, you know," Kamijou let out a sigh, shrugging his shoulders. "I can't believe I'm having this conversation… with a girl cosplaying as a witch! Just lead me to them. I can't afford to lose any more time."

Isadora sulked, glaring at him intensely as she tightened the grip on her broom. Apparently, his comment offended her greatly.

"Did you call me a witch?" Isadora questioned severely.

"…No? I called you 'a girl cosplaying like a witch'…" He corrected.

"I'm not a witch! I am a magician!"

"Well… your resemblance matches greatly the one of a witch…" Kamijou explained, "And I still don't know what a magician is."

Her glare intensified, and it somehow made Kamijou gulp despite how cute she looked in that outfit.

"What makes you think I'm a witch? And you said you did not believe in magic, yet you call me a witch who is well versed in the chanting of dark sorcery, which in fact is magic!" She looked about to hit him with her broom at any time's notice, "How can you acknowledge witches and not magicians?"

"I only know of witches because of those books I've read as a kid, whose genre is fantasy, hence, not real," Kamijou paused, clearing his throat. This girl was really getting on his nerves, "The black outfit, the witch hat and the broom are precise traits of witches in those fantasy books and even in some TV shows, and you just happened to have all those. Sorry if I mistook you as one, which I haven't in fact because I called you a girl cosplaying as a witch, not a witch!"

"You… you are so annoying!"

"I'm annoying? You got me into this senseless conversation!" Kamijou shot back, giving her an exasperated look before walking away from her, "I escaped from my room at the hospital for this? They're surely looking for me at this point."

Misaki nor his senpai wanted him to leave the hospital, so he went to Wannai Kinuho in order to do so. Although she seemed to be reluctant about helping him, she accepted in the end, quite unexpected considering that she also supported the idea of Kamijou remaining in his room to rest. Not to mention his usual luck when he asked someone for help.

He didn't know how Wannai managed to get both their attention as he left his room, taking into account that one of them was the strongest mind controller of AC and the other a brilliant student, considered a genius by most who knew her.

Kamijou also met a naïve nurse on his way out of the hospital who was kind enough to lend him his school uniform, which was clean but still had the hole created by the bullet that hit him.

His goal was to reach the parking lot in District 5 where an unknown security organization found and surrounded the suspects of the recent murders.

As he was told inside his hospital room, he was just a student with no business in the capture of those criminals, a teen who should have been enjoying his life instead of getting himself in dangerous situations for someone else's sake.

'But… what kind of life could I enjoy knowing that people like those criminals walked free in the streets?'

There simply was no way that he would stay put with his arms-crossed, ignoring those who needed help, letting others to harm innocent people. Despair was a sentiment Kamijou Touma would never want anyone to feel because he knew very well how bad it could be.

And now on his way to District 5, a cute witch suddenly appears before him to tell him that magic existed. The mere thought of it would have made Kamijou laugh, if not for the dire circumstances he found himself in.

'Seriously, the mere idea of believing in magic is just absurd, if not outright insane. It wasn't like she could shoot fire without being a Pyro, or see through things without using Clairvoyance. Those lights she created when supposedly 'casting' a spell must have probably been some kind of optical effect created by an artifact of sorts… or an esper ability.'

"Where are you going? The bracelet is…" Lightning struck fiercely at a certain location, making Kamijou and Isadora look on in surprise at the sudden phenomenon, "That way…"

Kamijou Touma narrowed his eyes as he became more determined. That kind of lightning was supernatural, rather familiar to him as he had seen it in the past, which in his book meant trouble. Something was happening, and his gut feelings told him that it had to do with the criminals he was looking for.

The boy quickly dashed towards the direction of the sudden phenomenon, ignoring the piercing pain he still felt from the wound on his back. Kumokawa was right about the wound, it hadn't recovered yet but he couldn't let it stop him, not now.

"W-wait! I haven't told you about the bracelet yet!" Her words fell on deaf ears as the boy just continued to run away, causing her to sigh, "Why do I have to look after him!? Damn you Aleister!"

After cursing, Isadora mounted her broom and began to magically fly on it. Maybe if the boy saw her now, he would believe in magic. She headed in the direction where the boy had gone.

PART 15

"You're a lot tougher than I had expected."

Misaka Mikoto complimented her enemy, who was barely standing by herself. Multiple burns marks spread across her body, smoke emerging from her clothes as she used the strange red shiny limb that came from her back to keep herself standing.

"Your power is too damn crazy! Don't you have any limitations?" Elise Anderson scowled, finally standing up by herself as she glared at the third ranked level 5, "You are a monster!"

Mikoto puffed her tiny chest proudly, smirking darkly.

"Monster?" Amusement, or more like mockery, coated her tone, "I wouldn't be so sure, considering that you are the one that has three arms, not me."

"Stop making fun of me, Railgun!" Elise growled. It was humiliating how her opponent was cornering her, she, who among her peers was considered one the best. "You'll regret it!"

The level 5 rolled her eyes at Elise's threat. The unknown girl had been a difficult opponent, but Mikoto knew that in the long run she would lose. It seemed that controlling that thing on her back required a lot of effort and it was visibly wearing her off, though it improved from what her lasso previously did. Its speed, strength and applications as well as the distance it managed to move was greater. It truthfully made Mikoto sweat a bit, though it wasn't enough to stop her.

"Huh… How about if we ignore that third arm of yours," She glanced at the far side of the isolated grounds in which they were at the moment, which lacked concrete or any building around its surroundings. "Then the only monster present here is that guy over there."

Elise moved her eyes to an unconscious person lying on the ground. Said person was the guilty of the murders, which earned him several electric spears, courtesy of the Railgun when she found out that he was the killer, with a few more added when she discovered that he only killed his victims for his sick enjoyment.

Even with his speed, Himura could do nothing to stop the Railgun's wrath, nor could the magician. He wasn't as fast as lighting after all.

'Damn Alphonse… Where did you go? Haven't you defeated that woman yet?'

Elise Anderson, member of the magic cabal Dusk Waiting to Awaken, gritted her teeth in anger. When the fight against the Railgun and the woman in that weird machine began, the Gemstone that called himself Teisō-gui disappeared together with the black machine tailing him.

Elise feared that he had been defeated, yet the Bound spell still resounded in her mind, telling her that he was alive.

Anti-Skill and the rest of the Crows had the area surrounded, not interfering with the fight in fear of the sky beam. The female terrorist warned them to unleash it again upon them if they interfered. Snipers were gathering among the tallest buildings that held enough vision of the area.

"So… tell me… Why did you let him kill those innocent girls? I don't know what your goal is, but to kill an innocent, that's just wrong and that psycho did it just because he enjoyed it!"

"We needed him, like he needed us. We gave him what he wanted because his skills in combat and knowledge of the city were essential to our plans. Those girls should be grateful, their sacrifice will bring balance to this insane world, their lives will achieve a greater good."

"What the hell are you talking about!?" Misaka snapped, "A death will never bring anything good to the world. Only grief and loss! How do you think the parents of those he's murdered are feeling now!?"

Mikoto's anger was growing exponentially, electric sparks flying in all directions around her. She never imagined that people that didn't give any importance to human life existed, people that were willing to kill in order to achieve their goals. She would never forgive them for this.

"The end justifies the means," Elise simply answered.

'That was it! I had enough!'

If there was one thing that Misaka Mikoto hated the most it was the people that used others for their goals, not caring if doing so would hurt them. There was no way that she would approve of sacrificing somebody for the greater good.

The girl with chestnut hair took from her skirt a coin while glaring at her, roaring with all her might,"Then this ends now!"

A coin was thrown to the air; a minor shockwave came from the right hand of Mikoto. It was the moment to show why she was called the Railgun, her enemy would not prevail.

However, the desired result didn't occur.

Mikoto blinked in shock as the coin reached the ground. She observed her hand, she couldn't fire the Railgun, what's worse, she couldn't even create a single spark.

'What's going on?'

"Huh… Almost too late…" A male voice spoke behind them, "As your prince, I have come to your aid my dear wife."

"Don't call me that!" Elise shouted instantly.

Green eyes met brown. The partner of Mikoto's enemy had appeared, walking casually towards them. The law enforcers had the area surrounded, making Mikoto wonder how did he managed to get here.

'Did he beat them and that girl with the odd machine?'

"Yo-you defeated them, right?" Elise asked, scowling at him.

"Who do you take me for?" Teisō-gui smirked, directing his attention to the Ace of Tokiwadai, "Don't worry, Railgun, I haven't killed any of them, so I hope you didn't kill my…" The gemstone glanced at Himura, "Partner…"

"He's not dead, though he should be for what he's done," Mikoto responded dryly.

"He should be, I guess… But you don't kill unlike him, nor do I…" Teisō-gui commented with an uninterested tone, "Anyway, I'm here to take my partners away."

"I won't let you!"

"Really? Come on!" Pointing towards his partners, Alphonse said, "You already gave them quite a battering. Why keep complicating this situation?"

---

Go to profile, SEE: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Picture 04

---

"No matter what you try to do, I will stop you. That's a promise I made for myself," Mikoto said darkly, glaring at him with such fierce eyes that could terrorize even the most courageous of men.

Alphonse Lauren smiled wickedly, raising an arm that held a black bracelet with shiny green patterns. Despite that it gave him no power whatsoever, he still felt confident.

"!" Mikoto readied herself, it appeared that he had some sort of strange artifact as well, maybe with odd applications like the one of that girl, so she couldn't be careless. By the look of his eyes, Mikoto could tell that he was dangerous.

"As long as I am bounded to Elise by the Oath of Vár, we will prevail," He chuckled slightly.

'Vár… that was not the first time I had heard that name. The other girl also mentioned it, but what exactly is Vár? They kept talking about things I didn't know about… it's really annoying…'

"What is Vár!? An advanced weapon? Explain yourself!"

"There's no time for that, and you wouldn't understand anyway," The gemstone moved forward. "If you still insist on interfering, then you leave me no choice."

"I suppose you're the one behind my current lack of power, aren't you?" Misaka questioned. It was by the time that he showed up that her esper abilities stopped working.

The man that held Vár in his arm grinned.

"Could it be luck? No… I knew it was destiny," Misaka raised an eyebrow as the gemstone continued, "You know, it's been some time since I discovered a function that I could give to my telekinesis, probably because of my rank as a level 4," Giving some steps around, he laughed mockingly. "It was then that I realized that I was destined to face the strongest electromaster that existed in Academy City."

"Destiny doesn't exist," Misaka shot back, glaring at him. "We make our own path with every decision we made, every action we take."

"Then you are simply ignorant. Destiny does exist," He responded with a smile, making her fume. "Though I never expected that our long-awaited confrontation would occur during my very first mission. Anyhow, this will be my definitive proof. I'll show them I'm worthy of being a member of their cabal."

"Cabal? What is that?" Even when he was saying that to her, Misaka noticed he was glancing to at his companion, as if those words were meant for the unknown intruder, rather than her.

'If I succeeded, then I could prove that even as a gemstone, I could be trusted inside the magic side and become an enemy of the city of science. It's only a matter of time.'

His mind returned back to reality, "You don't need to know, Railgun…" He stopped right in front of her, "Your level is of no importance, because no matter how strong you are, as an electromaster, you are nothing to me."

Mikoto gritted her teeth as she tried to create electricity, but it was to no avail. Something was interfering with her control over the electrons, causing her to be unable to generate even the tiniest spark.

"That's cheating! How are you doing that!?"

Teisō-gui grabbed Mikoto by her neck with brutal force, gripping it to the point that she could not speak, or breathe for that matter.

"Insulation, an application I can give to my telekinesis. This ability interferes with the motion of electrons, making me capable of repelling any kind of electric-based attacks," He shook her violently. "Within the considerably large field it affects around me, the movement of electrons is interfered, preventing electromagnetic phenomena to occur such as any of your abilities. In conclusion, you are powerless against me."

"Gh...!" Mikoto tried to remove his hands from her neck but his grip was just too strong. At this rate, she was going to lose consciousness.

She kicked him on the chest, but it only made him grunt in pain, as his hands remained locked around her neck.

"Good! Even in your current condition, you still try to resist your defeat," His smile darkened. "Nevertheless, you will die, and I will be known for being the one who killed a level 5. While I would never stain my hands by doing something like this, your death will grant me entrance to the world of magic! I can't let this opportunity slip from my hands… or your neck… Hahahahaha! That was seriously funny! Though I doubt you get it."

Causing her death seemed like the best thing Teisō-gui could do to achieve his goals. Luck was on his side, and probably even god.

Elise averted her gaze from her weakened opponent, she felt ashamed for letting an esper save her life, but it was necessary. If Alphonse hadn't appeared, she would have probably completed Vár's Oath and unleashed Ragnarok; there was no going back after that.

There was one last descendant of the Norse Valkyries she needed to find and completing that spell would have meant her end. She was ready to die, but not just yet.

Tears escaped her eyes as Mikoto still attempted to break free, but all strength was leaving her now. The faces of her friends came to mind,

'Am I going to die this easily? Am I that useless without my abilities?'

She promised herself that she would stop the murderers the day her teacher announced that one of her classmates had been murdered, she swore to herself that she would catch the bastard who took the life of a friend but she was careless, she didn't expect such an ability to be used against her and it would now cost her life.

Mikoto's hands finally stopped moving, her consciousness fading.

It was in that very moment that a hand grabbed the shoulder of the gemstone. Teisō-gui narrowed his gaze as he turned his face to look over his shoulder.

"What the-" Alphonse was startled, as for an unknown boy stared at him with a serious expression. "Who the-?"

"Let her go…" A spiky haired boy spoke with a strong voice before an uppercut connected with the chin of the brown-haired esper, making his whole body spin around before hitting the dirty surface.

Mikoto was finally free from his death grip as well; her body falling to the ground as she gasped for breath and coughed in pain. A few seconds passed as her mind was blurry and suddenly, she felt like sleeping.

The last thing her eyes saw was the back of someone standing in front of her, and then it all went black.

o-0-O-0-o

"Now… who the hell are they?"

Alphonse Lauren, British level 4 Gemstone and supporter of an unknown magic cabal, asked in irritation as he grabbed his aching jaw.

Elise Anderson, British magician and member of an unknown magic cabal widened her eyes in shock upon recognizing the girl that stood behind a teen with spiky hair.

"I don't know who that lad is, but the girl is bloody dangerous."

Isadora Sprengel jumped forward playfully, her eyes glinting as she neared their position.

"Why, thank you! That's a very kind compliment," She said with a cheerful tone.

Kamijou Touma, unfortunate boy, carrier of the mysterious power called Imagine Breaker, couldn't tell if the girl at his side that was dressed as a witch was being sarcastic or really took that comment as praise. Whatever it was, he had more pressing matters to be worried about.

"Who is the killer?" Kamijou asked with a monotonous voice.

"That guy on the ground is…" Isadora answered instantly, pointing her finger to a person lying unconscious close to them.

"I wasn't talking to you," Kamijou deadpanned as he glanced at her. "And how do you know?"

"More and more interferences! What the hell is wrong with the people around here?" The gemstone stood up as he glared at his new enemies, "Can't you mind your own business?"

"We need to get out of here now!" Elise shouted, her voice held detectable fear, "We won't win against her unless I activate Ragnarok, and the spell is not complete yet!"

Alphonse narrowed his gaze, raising a hand as several objects gathered around began to float; most of them were pieces of metal that belonged to some destroyed Anti-Skill vans.

"We'll see about that."

Seeing the incoming projectiles nearing them with deathly speed, his voice rang out, "Watch out!" Kamijou shouted as she pulled Isadora towards him and ran away from the danger zone.

The metal pieces crushed all around the area, but thankfully, the level 0 esper and the self-proclaimed magician didn't receive any harm.

"That was not necessary!" Isadora pouted as she gripped his shirt, "I can protect myself."

"I still don't understand why you followed m-"

All of a sudden, the witch moved her broom in a circle, a whole Anti-Skill van crashed with an invincible wall around Kamijou and Isadora.

The boy blinked as he tried to understand what just occurred before his eyes, and the only viable explanation that came to him was:

'She used an esper ability… right? It couldn't be the magic that she claimed that existed; maybe it was some kind of magnetic field that could repel metal objects.'

"That was rude!" Isadora yelled, her arms gripping her skirt, "To attack us while we were distracted? That's sort of pathetic, you know?"

Elise Anderson stepped back in fear. She knew that creating such a powerful barrier instantly without a proper chant meant that she used her knowledge from a grimoire. Alphonse noticed the rising anxiety if his partner, wondering why was she acting that scared.

He had seen beforehand how capable and skilled Elisa was, not only because of her great learning methods, but due to the vast knowledge she possessed of the Norse mythology. However, while Alphonse ignored it, Elise knew well why that girl was dangerous.

Isadora Sprengel was the holder of the grimoire, Rauðskinna.

Grimoires were books that contained knowledge about magic, powerful spells and the like. In exchange for that knowledge, they were harmful to all who read their contents due to the pure and incomprehensible information they held. Not many had the skills to decipher them and actually used them. Isadora Sprengel was one of the few.

"Hey, Elise, don't be such a chicken!"

Elise scowled, "I'm not a chicken! It's just… that girl possesses a grimoire," Her revelation got a visible reaction from her partner, shock, "You should know what that bloody means…"

Alphonse knew just fine as he witnessed a grimoire wielder in action during his travels in France. Only magicians with enough skill could read a grimoire and not suffer from its contamination, especially when the reader had the desire to propagate the information within them.

Isadora, noticing their rising fear, decided to speak, displaying a cheerful face that didn't belong to this current situation. It was actually creepy.

"I actually control the Rauðskinna," She revealed without a care in the world.

'Rauo…what?' Kamijou furrowed his brows.

"Care to explain?" Alphonse asked to his panicking companion.

Despite her trembling legs, she gritted her teeth, glaring at them.

"The Rauðskinna is the Book of Power, a legendary book written by 'Bishop Gottskalk grimmi Nikulasson of Holar in Iceland', famous between practitioners of Galdr," Elise elaborated, Isadora nodding happily as if proud of the explanation, "This grimoire held powerful and rare spells, which were of Black Magic nature."

"I'm pleased! You have done your homework, Elise Anderson!" The witch sat on the remaining of a van, crossing her legs, "Please, do continue!"

Elise bit her lip, truly worried for the outcome of this unwanted meeting. Alphonse could somehow understand the severity of a grimoire wielder appearing, but his partner had made sure he understood the true danger they would face.

"It was said that Rauðskinna could make its reader master magic to such a degree as to control Satan, though it had not been proven if it could really achieve that," It seemed that not only Alphonse was listening intently to her, but also the unknown spiky-haired boy. "Nevertheless, the grimoire gives a magician incredible power."

Kamijou had no idea of whatever they were blabbering, but he used this valuable time to scan his surroundings, preparing himself for a possible battle.

"She is known in the magic side by the alias of Golden Witch, a magician that managed to control a fearsome grimoire without suffering from its debilitating effects."

The witch fumed, gripping her skirt with a furious pout, "I don't have an alias! That's the bloody name some bastard put on me!" It irritated her to no end, for she knew that those in the magic side had attributed her outfit and affiliation to a certain magic cabal to the name.

Golden Witch.

Elise couldn't help but wonder why she was capable of handling such a dangerous magical relic. There were plenty of rumours about the so-called Golden Witch, and one of them in fact said that only the greatest magician in the world knew the truth about her, the one whose Magic Name was Beast 666.

"She destroyed plenty of magic organizations that opposed her Cabal by herself," Explained Elise. "The rumors even mention that she belonged to the Golden Dawn!"

Alphonse shook his head in shock because true fear began to materialize inside him. The name of Golden Dawn became quite known among those that were aware of the existence of the magic side. In the past, Golden Dawn, also known as Stella Matutina, was once the strongest and largest magical cabal in the United Kingdom.

"But Golden Dawn disappeared almost 50 years ago. How could a girl that looks no older than 16 be a member of the once all-mighty Golden Dawn?"

"Me? From Golden Dawn? Are you kidding?" Isadora tilted her head slightly, "Rumors… They even created such a mess in that Russian shopping mall… My poor Lessar suffered for that," The girl muttered. "I'm a Golden-style magician and I'm 17 years old!"

Kamijou Touma furrowed his brows, 'Those three are talking about magic? Wasn't it just the delusions of that girl? I don't understand a single thing about their conversation…'

"That certainly doesn't improve our situation," The black haired girl commented. "Golden-style means that she belongs to its remnants, which is still equally bad."

And indeed it was. After the destruction of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the remaining groups of gathered magicians developed on their own thanks to the Golden Dawn's Legacy and progressed, creating the Golden-style cabals.

"What are your intentions, golden witch!?" Elise glared at the other magician.

"Witch!? Who are you calling a witc-"

"Shut up! All of you!" Kamijou roared, earning the attention of everyone around him.

"I don't have the slightest idea of what any of you are talking about, nor do I care," He walked forward. "Your purposes, intentions, plans or whatever, I don't give a shit about them!" Kamijou stood still, face to face with the gemstone. "But you messed with my city, my people, INNOCENT PEOPLE! I found your victims! Tell me! Why do something as monstrous as that!? TELL ME!"

"I don't give a damn! And you talk like you have business with us, huh…" Alphonse responded with a bored tone, "I'm sure you wouldn't understand the reality of the situation you are in now, so let me warn you, return home and continue your pathetic and naïve student life if you value your life," The gemstone sneered, motioning his head to the side. "As you have seen by coming here, this is not a game. I defeated all the security sent to stop me, so what makes you think that you, just some random boy playing hero, can do anything to accomplish what they couldn't?"

"Nothing makes me think that, really. Nevertheless, you are still going down."

---

Go to profile, LISTEN: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Song 06

---

"Then I'm going to rip you apart with my telek-"

Alphonse blinked in shock; the boy in front of him wasn't affected. The gemstone used his telekinesis but he couldn't lift him, it was like this unknown teen was some kind of unmovable object. Alphonse took some steps back in fear as his new enemy darkened his gaze, looking very intimidating.

"It's… it's not working? W-why?" The level 4 pointed his hand in Kamijou's direction to multiply the effects of his ability, though it was in vain, "Who are you!? What kind of bloody counter-ability are you using?"

Kamijou Touma glanced at his right hand before looking at the criminals he had searched for during the last few days. This was the time to finish this.

"Pghhohh!" Alphonse screamed out in pain due to a mighty punch he received in the stomach, followed by a punch on his face.

The telekinesis user stumbled back but managed to regain his balance by putting one foot back. Blood dripped from his mouth as he glared daggers at his enemy.

"You're going to pay for that!" If he couldn't lift him, them Alphonse would use any stuff lying around to crush him, "Die!"

Two Anti-Skill vans as well as several pieces of junk and corpses began to float, which were then sent towards Kamijou Touma. The boy first ducked under a lamppost and rolled to the side to avoid the first van while the other crashed into another van some meters away from him. A medium-sized rock made it way towards him so he sidestepped and then sprinted towards the gemstone while avoiding more pieces of junk.

Alphonse widened his eyes in shock and fear. That boy wasn't an ordinary foe, first his telekinesis didn't work on him, then he somehow evaded all his projectiles. At this rate, he was going to receive another of those punches that hurt like hell.

"Fool! Move!" Elise intercepted the boy, using her third limb to create a red wall between his companion and the surprisingly skilled teen.

That didn't stop the teen though.

Upon seeing the red thing in front of him, Kamijou instinctively raised his hands to avoid crashing on it but to everyone's surprise, the red wall was destroyed when he touched it, the limb returning to its natural form. The magician was left stupefied when her weapon, Grimhild, returned as the lasso she first used.

Kamijou didn't stop and ran past the girl, grabbing the gemstone by his tie.

"S-stop! Wha-what are you?" Alphonse stuttered as the boy shook him violently before several punches crushed into the level 4 esper's face.

"Do you expect me to be merciful with you after murdering those girls? They shouldn't have died!

"G… ghh… It… it wasn't me."

"I know…" Kamijou muttered.

Elise remained stunned as one final hit landed on her comrade, a strong headbutt that knocked him out instantly. Kamijou observed his defeated foe, before raising a dangerous gaze to the holder of Grimhild.

It was then when the black-haired magician realized that this boy was going to be a true obstacle in their plans. The gemstone remained on the ground, which wasn't really surprising, that beating must have knocked him out cold.

After making sure the damn bastard was unconscious, Kamijou moved his gaze to the startled girl, causing the magician to step back in fear.

"I will not repeat this… Give up and turn yourself into the authorities," Kamijou said sharply turning to fully face the crimson-eyed girl, "I wouldn't want to do the same with you."

Elise Anderson observed him closely. This boy didn't look any different from the usual students in Japan, he was just ordinary. However, his eyes were different from those normal students she had seen, in fact, his eyes were different from any other she had seen. They were fierce and strong, they held conviction and resolve which made her whole body shiver, but it wasn't of fear, it was of excitement because she had finally discovered someone who was truly worthy of using Vár with.

It was a pity that this boy was her enemy.

"I have no way to escape, I see," Elise said weakly.

"You don't," The boy replied coldly.

Isadora was impressed; she saw all the exchange with the gemstone and the ferocity of Kamijou Touma in battle. Even his behavior was amazing, how he handled the situation so easily, and the Imagine Breaker, it truly negated any supernatural ability whether it was scientific or magical.

"I guess that my participation wasn't truly necessary, was it?" The witch commented, puffing her cheeks as she walked to the unconscious gemstone and poked him in the face playfully. "But I still wonder, what was your true goal Elise Anderson? I know you were searching for the souls of the Valkyries… for what purpose?"

Elise chuckled in resignation as she noticed the vehicles getting close to their position. Black vans, different to the ones she had seen from the earlier authorities parked all around the area.

Kamijou glanced around as people came out of the black vehicles. Black gloves, black armors on their torso, black helmets and goggles that hid their faces were the outfit Hound Dog members used. The elite black operations unit that took direct orders from Aleister Crowley himself surrounded the area.

One of them walked to the wary boy.

"We'll handle things from here, kid. Good job. Now get in the van with your…" The member of this unknown organization glanced at the girl that kept poking the unconscious esper, "Friend… We'll take you to the hospital."

Kamijou narrowed his gaze, he wasn't sure if these guys were part of Anti-Skill because he had never seen those uniforms. More of them appeared to take the gemstone and the true killer to one of the vans while they moved to detain the black haired girl.

"I guess I failed," Elise said with an odd tone, causing Isadora to become startled.

"Shut up!" One of the men in black shouted to the girl, "You'll talk when we tell you to, is that clear?"

The spiky-haired boy frowned.

"She's planning something…" Kamijou raised an eyebrow upon hearing Isadora's remark, a feeling of dread forming inside of him.

"What do you mean?"

She didn't reply, instead she walked to one of the vehicles and entered it. The girl ignored him for some reason, so the only thing Kamijou could do was to remain cautious and do the same as her.

As the boy entered the vehicle, a girl with black hair appeared from within with the black armored officers. Kamijou recognized her as the one who helped him a few days ago.

'Was she a part of this team?'

Shutaura Sequenzia crossed her arms as she observed the area; it seemed like it was finally over. The gemstone managed to render her mobile weapon inoperable by disrupting its energy source with an electromagnetic device. She ended up trapped inside it, making her unable to move while the gemstone simply used his telekinesis to defeat the rest of the Crows as well as the present Anti-Skill squads before escaping.

Hound Dog found her mobile weapon and took her out of it. Her customized weapon would need to get some serious repairs if it's going to be used by her again. That pissed her off a bit.

"We will clean up this mess and calculate the damage done," The Hound Dog officer spoke to the leader of the Black Crow Unit. "I suggest you return to your superior and explain the current situation."

Shutaura nodded as Kamijou looked curiously from the opened window of the van as it began to move.

"She uses shorts? That is sooooo weird."

The boy blinked before turning his head to the source of the voice and wished he hadn't done that as his face became red at the sight before him.

The girl cosplaying as a witch was peeping under the skirt of an unconscious girl he had seen before and saved. Kamijou recalled the events of the day when he found the two victims.

"What was she doing here anyway?" The teen scratched his cheek nervously, "Then again, she could be saying the same thing about me… She uses shorts? That's kinda… well… odd," He turned to the girl with an odd accent, "Though you're not one to talk."

"Odd would be the last word I'll use," Isadora responded. "Anyway, don't you think that all this was just too easy? I mean, you managed to beat that guy and the other was already unconscious but…"

"But…?" The boy pressed.

"Don't you think that girl gave up too quickly? To come all the way to this city to accomplish some task, only to give up like that?"

"Well, I guess they were from a foreign country like you…" Kamijou commented thoughtfully. "And now that you mention it, it really was too easy, too quick…"

Silence followed his words and uncertainty remained on the boy. He couldn't relax, Isadora indeed mentioned an unsettling truth, something was not right.

PART 16

As three black vans moved through district 7 on their way to the hospital, one wary boy kept thinking about the implications of Isadora's earlier comment.

"I'm so hungry!"

Kamijou Touma rolled his eyes at the complaint of the self-proclaimed magician, though he had to admit that he could use a fine meal as well.

"Oh! I brought some apples!" Isadora commented cheerfully as she took out a couple of apples from her pockets, "I forgot I had them with me. Do you want one, Touma?"

The boy stared at her before sighing.

"Sure… why not?"

Kamijou received the fruit and both began to dig in. Maybe it was the hunger but he had to admit that the apple was extremely delicious. Like, seriously delicious. It was hard to believe how tasty it was.

"How much longer is she going to be unconscious?" After swallowing, the cute witch asked while glancing at Misaka Mikoto, who was still sleeping, "My Sleeping Beauty spell was weak; she should be awake at this point."

"Sleeping Beauty? Isn't that some fairy tale for children?"

"It is, but it also is the name of a rookie spell to make someone fall asleep."

"And you're still going on about that magic stuff?" He deadpanned, "I assure you that she's unconscious because of almost being strangled by that guy."

Isadora pouted and sat closer to the boy, making him feel quite uncomfortable.

"No! I casted a sleeping spell on her. I don't think that a level 5 of AC should discover magic… at least not yet. It would be dangerous to us… magicians."

Kamijou raised an eyebrow in annoyance.

"Okay, Okay, whatever… Let's just assume that magic and magicians exist."

"Assume? I am the solid proof that magic truly exis-!"

A sudden movement from the vehicle made Kamijou and company crash to the sides of the van violently, a loud screech could be heard as the car stopped abruptly.

"Ouch, owie…" Isadora groaned in pain.

Kamijou rubbed the sore part of his head as he got himself back on the seat, the witch did the same. Screams and gunshots were heard outside, alarming both the level 0 esper and magician.

"Something's happening… Take care of her," The unfortunate boy said as he quickly opened the door and left the vehicle. His eyes widened in horror upon seeing the destruction around him. "What… the… hell?"

Some sort of black energy spread around the area, mixing with the fire from other vehicles, thus creating a sickening atmosphere. Wounded Hound Dog members moved to take cover from the fire as others advanced to engage the black thing from which the black energy was coming.

"Move! Move! Move! Move!" The squad commander shouted as he and his soldiers took strategic positions around the Black Thing, readying their IMI Tavor TAR bullpup assault rifles.

"Fire at will!"

The gunfire began.

The rifle bullets impacted on the Black Thing, but instead of causing it any real damage, it seemed like it was absorbing them. Soon, it spread a pair of black wings and created furious gusts of winds.

Kamijou quickly grabbed the door of the black vehicle to keep himself on the ground, watching in shock how the black-clads were sent flying away by the currents of wind.

"What the bloody hell is going on out there?!" Isadora shouted from inside the van.

"Stay inside the vehicle!" The boy yelled as the nearest van to the Black thing was sent into the sky.

Kamijou Touma couldn't tell what was that weird black form with wings that exuded black energy, nevertheless, he was positive about it not being related to any esper ability.

'Could science create such a thing? Or…was it magic?'

The Black Thing began to fly high on the sky and away from the Imagine Breaker.

"We need to chase after her!" Kamijou looked behind him, it was the witch, "She's going to destroy this city if we don't stop her!"

"She? That thing is a she?" The boy turned around completely, facing her, "You know what that thing is? Explain yourself."

"I know why that girl surrendered," Isadora spoke with a worried voice as she walked to Kamijou's side. "She needed time to chant a demonic spell, though I didn't think she would activate it while it was incomplete. That thing you just saw is Ragnarok, or at least the almost completed Ragnarok."

Kamijou hardened his gaze. Even if he didn't get completely what she said, he could tell it was bad, "So that monster was created by them?"

"Summoned," The witch corrected. "To activate Ragnarok requires the blood of all the Valkyries descendants from Valhalla that were scattered through the world. Ragnarok isn't complete because it lacks the blood of one of them; however, the spell is still quite powerful as you have seen."

"Again I don't understand a thing you are saying, but it doesn't matter now. How are we going to stop her if gunfire couldn't… or are you going to use… ehm… magic to do it?" Kamijou couldn't believe he just said that.

Isadora Sprengel puffed her medium-sized chest proudly.

"I'm more than capable of handling Ragnarok, but…"

"But?" Kamijou looked at her expectantly.

"A full third of this city would immediately be destroyed," The witch stared at her with a deep expression that held sternness. "Do you want that, mate?"

The obvious answer was no. How this little girl would be able handle that thing would forever remain a mystery because Kamijou would never accept people dying for the sake of others or as a means to defeat an enemy.

'So… what to do now? Let her keep rampaging throughout Academy City until security forces manage to take her down?' Kamijou suspected the higher ups would take strong measures to deal with the enemy, '…but until that happens, how many people will be injured? Or die for that matter?'

The situation reached a point where Kamijou Touma, carrier of the Imagine Breaker and unfortunate student of Academy City could just do nothing. It was a bitter truth.

The boy sighed in resignation.

"Of course not…"

Isadora raised a hand and pointed her finger at him, looking unexpectedly serious.

"Then you stop it," She simply said and Kamijou widened his eyes. "If anyone can do it, then it's you."

The boy didn't reply and stared at her in mild shock. The witch claimed he could do it, that he could stop the destruction of the city and while he at first wondered how, his gaze fell on the right hand that held a mysterious power, one that could negate the supernatural.

"I can…" Isadora nodded, her eyes fixated on his as her cheerful demeanor returned, "Can't I?"

"Yes… The Imagine Breaker can stop it. No matter if its origins are magical or scientific; you can stop it as long as it's supernatural. Only you can defeat Ragnarok and avoid total destruction."

Kamijou didn't remember mentioning anything about his power, much less telling her what it was called, but the girl wasn't ordinary, whether she was an esper, magician or whatever. If she knew about the Imagine Breaker, then he was going to have to trust her on this.

"Then it's settl-"

Kamijou widened his eyes as his instincts screamed danger in that instant.

The spiky-haired boy ducked to avoid the swing of a sharp blade, some of his hair was cut in the process but other than that he didn't receive any other injury.

"You… you… YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU!" A spine-chilling voice resounded in the area. "YOU ARE THE ONE THAT FOUND MY ART FIRST! YOU!"

Himura Takeshi, the insane killer had appeared before them, his left arm was twisted in an unnatural way and was just hanging limply, he also lacked some teeth and was covered in blood. He had a knife in his right hand.

Just looking at him in the state he was could cause pain.

"He probably escaped from the black vans after that girl activated Ragnarok and unleashed chaos," Isadora commented. "As I told you before, of the three, he was the one who killed those girls."

"I Was hOpINg tO mEeT my GReaTesT fAn!"

"You refer to art as the way you killed them, right?" Kamijou glared at him, tightening his fists in anger, "You're nothing but a lunatic! You had no right to take their lives!"

"You mAd? I ThoUGht yOU apPrecIAted My aRt…"

"I'm… I'm gonna ki-" The boy stopped himself, he was letting his fury get the best of him. "You will face justice for what you've done."

However, before their confrontation could even begin, several black-clad men arrived at the scene, pointing their rifles to the murderer. Without warning, they shot at point blank range.

The level 0 esper and magician remained stunned as they watched in horror the death of Himura Takeshi. His lifeless body fell on the ground with a thump.

"We should have killed him before," One of the men in black commented as he neared the position of the corpse with multiple gunshots. "Now two of them are dead."

Kamijou shook his head to regain his mind, "Two of them?" He gazed at the magician, ignoring the corpse of the serial killer, lying on a pool of blood, "Why did that man say two of them?"

"As I suspected," Isadora made her way to another black vehicle. "She took advantage of the Bound Spell of Var's bracelet and completed the Oath. She used all his life force to speed-up and complete the enchantment."

Kamijou walked to the witch, pushing aside one of the Hound Dogs that tried to stop him and looked inside the vehicle. The boy felt dizzy, the urge to vomit came to him, making Kamijou's body double over before he quickly put a hand on his mouth as he tried to contain the contents of his stomach from coming out his mouth.

The British gemstone was clearly dead. His skin was white, his body extremely skinny, his eyes black and the facial expression he displayed was just horrible. Not even in nightmares did Kamijou see something as sickening as what was in front of him.

"She deceived and betrayed him… but she will be doomed soon enough," The witch spoke. "Var doesn't allow the breaking of oaths, and if it happens, well… It's a just a matter of time before she dies. Will you wait until then?"

Kamijou stepped back as her averted his eyes from the vehicle.

"Inform the chief. That thing's heading towards the Windowless Building," The squad leader walked to an undamaged vehicle while the body of the murderer was taken inside another. "And get these kids out of here."

"Thanks, but not this time," Isadora slammed the stick of her broom on the ground, creating a grey shockwave that pushed all of Hound Dogs members away, however, a high pitched sound was heard and the pulse disappeared. "I knew that would happen."

Kamijou glanced at his hand before looking at Isadora. All the remaining black-clads had fallen asleep. A girl with brown hair appeared from a vehicle, supporting herself with the door as she glared at him, much to the boy's surprise.

"I knew it… You were part of this…" Misaka Mikoto growled as a spear of lightning formed in her hand.

"She is an electric shock user?" Said Kamijou, startled by her sudden presence.

"And not just any. She is a level 5, third strongest of the seven that exist in AC, Misaka Mikoto," Isadora Sprengel elaborated as she assumed a defensive position with her broom. "You negated my massive Sleeping Beauty spell before it reached her…it appears that she is going to be a problem."

"You all seem to know me, but that doesn't matter… I'm going put an end to this, right here, right now!"

---

Go to profile, LISTEN: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Song 07

---

The spear of lightning headed towards the witch, followed by another aimed at the spiky haired-boy who stood in front of them and raised his right hand. The lightning disappeared upon impacting on the Imagine Breaker, with only smoke remaining.

Like a gamble where his life was the wager, Kamijou decided to face the lightning in order to protect Isadora, without knowing for sure if the Imagine Breaker would stop it.

Thankfully, it did.

"So you are not just some random boy, I see," Mikoto tilted her head a bit. "I should have captured you when I met you that day, stalker."

"I don't have anything to with the murders. I was actually trying to stop them."

Mikoto let out a dark chuckle. The electromaster could not believe that he was still trying to lie, having so many agents of order lying on the ground around him with a suspicious looking girl at his side.

"Don't make me laugh… Liar! How many of you are there, really? More and more of your friends keep appearing with strange weapon and abilities. Are you with some kind of organization? Answer me!"

The roar of the Railgun was accompanied by multiple sparks that headed to them, which were stopped by a right hand. Mikoto gritted her teeth at the sight of seeing her attack failing yet again but then she smirked.

---

Go to profile, SEE: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Picture 05

---

'He can stop my lighting with his bare hand… Maybe he's a powerful level 4…'

"Whatever your ability does, it's kind of shocking to see you repelling my attacks with your bare hand," Mikoto unexpectedly complimented his new found enemy. "I will not hold back then…"

"…Damn it! I don't have time for this," Kamijou readied himself for another new fight.

Black clouds began to form on the sky as Kamijou Touma avoided and negated multiple electric attacks from Misaka Mikoto. The boy managed to remain intact but he felt an increasing amount of pain from the wound on his back that would surely open if he kept moving.

Using magnetism, Mikoto pulled the front doors of one of the black vans and threw them at him with incredible speed.

"Whoa!" Kamijou jumped to the side and rolled, evading successfully the two projectiles. "Hey! You're attacking the wrong person!"

"Stop lying! I know you are their accomplice."

Kamijou sighed in annoyance simply because his misfortune had no limits. Destiny had somehow managed to trick a level 5 into believing that he was her enemy.

Very unfortunate indeed.

"Railgun! The true murderer is dead and so is one of his companions!" Isadora unexpectedly spoke with resolve as she walked to Kamijou's side. "Only one of them remains and is planning to kill the Board Chairman and steal the Database of Academy City!"

"Huh?/What?" Kamijou and Mikoto said simultaneously with widened eyes of disbelief and shock.

'I suppose that mentioning the motive of her goal is not necessary. Seriously, to gain control of Academy City's Intel network in order to achieve the successful creation of the so desired booster spell Blank Paper. How far does 'Dusk Waiting to Awaken' plan to go? Not even caring whether or not the balance between magic and science is broken.' The witch mused worriedly.

"So that's what she is planning to do with Rag… ehm… whatever that black thing was…"

"Black thing?" Mikoto questioned.

"Yes! And your interference is going to help her achieve her mission! We will stop her but you need to let us go!" The brown-haired magician raised her broom and it began to shine red, "Or I will be forced to take you down."

Isadora's chilling voice startled Kamijou. She was acting a lot different than before, though considering the development of the current events, it wasn't surprising. The safety of the city was in danger.

"Listen!" Kamijou's voice resounded strongly, "If you think that I'm guilty of what happened, then I will surrender this instant! But that will not save the many lives that are going to perish if I do."

Misaka Mikoto narrowed her gaze and then looked at the ground beneath her. She was confused, she was angry and she didn't know what to do. The level 5 was sure he was a criminal, the odd-looking girl was his accomplice, but they both spoke as if they were saying the truth.

The girl with black hair and crimson eyes was nowhere to be seen, meaning that they were referring to her as the one that would bring hell to the city if she wasn't stopped.

Mikoto pressed her lips, her mind filled with doubts.

'But what if she captures them and the girl kills the board chairman? While also stealing AC's Database? It would mean the end of this city, not to mention that more lives would perish if she continued to attack the city with whatever she was planning to use…'

Nonetheless, they could be lying.

"What about all the security you have killed? Look how many corpses around!"

"There are only two corpses here," Isadora responded. "Of both criminals, I mean. The soldiers are just sleeping… Feel free to check them if you don't believe me."

Just as the girl dressing as a witch stated, Mikoto moved to the closest law-enforcer and knelt down, removing his black helmet, the black goggles and the elastic face mask he wore. The girl put her head close to his nose, and to her relief, his breathing suggested that he was just sleeping.

"Okay… they are sleeping…" Mikoto stood on her feet again, "So why are they sleeping here? This doesn't make any sense."

"I used…" Isadora pondered for some seconds before continuing. "A drug that doesn't affect espers. They would have died if they tried to confront her with their conventional weapons."

"So you're telling me that only you can stop her? That's way too convenient."

Kamijou stepped forward and stood just in front of the Level 5.

"You have seen how I negated your attacks right? I can do the same with… the weapon she's using," The boy's tone was serious. "Let me stop her, please…"

Kamijou looked at her directly in the eyes, and Mikoto returned the gesture. Almost an entire minute passed as Isadora waited expectantly and remained silent.

"…Fine," Mikoto turned around. "Go… but hear me clearly. I will not abandon the idea of you being a stalker. I will catch you next time, this I promise."

'Am I doing the right thing? Letting that spiky-haired boy off the hook again? Probably not, but somehow, the eyes of this boy look sincere, like he was truly desperate about stopping the chaos that would befall Academy City if that criminal was not apprehended.'

The boy smiled, though Mikoto didn't see it.

"Follow me!" Isadora shouted as she ran to the left street.

Kamijou observed the level 5 for a few seconds before he turned around and followed the cosplaying girl. He was truly glad that she gave him this chance.

The Ace of Tokiwadai finally let her body slowly slide down on the nearest vehicle and sat on the ground.

"I think I could use a rest… My neck is killing me…"

o-0-O-0-o

"Are we really going to reach that thing by just running?"

An unfortunate boy asked to the witch in front of him.

"Of course not!" Isadora suddenly stopped and then scanned the area around them. "I just wanted to get away from that level 5. I can't allow her to know that I'm a magician."

"I doubt that she would think of you as one. I bet she is as ignorant as me in that matter."

Isadora raised her left eyebrow, the boy was probably right.

"I will not refute that statement, Touma," The magician smiled. "In any case, hop on."

Kamijou frowned slightly upon seeing the girl getting on top of her broom, like a real witch would do. The sight of her at that moment was a bit surreal.

"Hop on?" Staring at her blanking, he asked with a dumb tone. He could already imagine the absurd conversation that was about to come, "Are you seriously asking me to do that?"

"I know it looks a bit dodgy, but trust me, it's our better source of transportation," She made a thoughtful expression. Now the boy was absolutely sure of his previous thought, "And please, don't touch it with your right hand."

"…And you say you're not a witch?" Kamijou rolled his eyes, "I'm feeling pretty stupid right now."

Kamijou walked in resignation clear on his face to her and stopped, again.

"I have two problems right now…"

"Which are?" Isadora inquired, getting a bit exasperated due to his attitude. The situation was dire and they were losing valuable time.

"First, your broom wouldn't damage… my… virility, would it?"

Kamijou wasn't sure how to approach that subject so he came with that word, and from the face that Isadora just made, he could tell that she understood quite well what he meant. Sort of embarrassing, he had to admit, but this matter had to be addressed.

"N-n-no! You gormless esper!" The girl stuttered, her face as red as a tomato, "Why are you thinking about that at this moment?"

"Can you blame me? I have yet to experience any of… those events… and I'm at my age of youth!" The boy responded dumbly, "I'm not planning to die, and I want to have a family in the future!"

"J-just hop on! Your balls-" She covered her mouth, "Yo-you are going to be okay!"

The boy raised a stopping hand, sporting a blank expression.

"Wait, the other problem still remains. If I hop on, I would be behind exactly you and that would be extremely awkward… How close do we have to be?"

"JUST. HOP. ON!" Isadora unexpectedly grabbed him by his shirt's collar and pulled the boy close, "This isn't exactly easy for me either, so JUST deal with it!"

The girl pushed the boy back and raised the back of the broom where Kamijou would need to sit.

"Geez…" Kamijou scratched his head and sat on the broom, his legs at both sides just like her, "Is this fine? Am I supposed to grab onto you?"

"Do whatever you want," Was her sour reply, before she muttered. "But don't bloody fall."

Even if the boy accepted to sit on the broom, he didn't really believe that it would fly, or at least, he didn't expected that it would do it just like it did.

The broom moved very fast, and Kamijou could only embrace the girl in front of him to keep himself on the flying object. This, of course, earned a loud moan from the witch that only worsened the situation, even causing the broom to lose its speed and direction for a few seconds.

"I knew you were going to hold onto me, but not like that!" She shouted.

"I almost fell from this thing! I can't believe we are actually flying on it," The boy looked down, there was already a huge distance between them and the solid ground. "I'm really starting to believe in magic…"

"Y-you… ahh!" Another moan came from her, "You… you are way too close… and your hands…"

"I-I know I am, but If I move away I'm going to fall down! Let's just get there quickly…" Kamijou blinked. "Am I touching anything I shouldn't?"

Isadora bit her lip, his embrace was too strong and one of his hands was grabbing her medium-sized chest. Deep inside him, Kamijou could admit it was a nice sensation.

"Just move that hand a bit down… BUT NOT TOO MUCH!"

"F-fine, I wouldn't want my hand to touch that part either… MOVING ON!"

The broom was directed to a tall, windowless building. The Black Thing could be seen from their location moving towards it. Without wasting anymore time, Isadora and Kamijou flew very fast as they tried to avoid thinking about their embarrassing positions.

PART 17

Two missiles made their way to the Black Thing, but the projectiles were destroyed before reaching it due to black reddish spears that intercepted them. Apparently, the wings had an ability like that.

"It didn't work?! Yomikawa Aiho commented in disbelief.

She, along many squads tried to fend off the Weapon made of Nanotechnology, as they were informed by their superiors.

More spears came from the wings and crashed on the surface of the building that emanated purple light, though no damage was created by them due to the material the building was made from.

Calculate Fortress or Operation Type Impact Diffusing Compound Material was what the Windowless building was made of, capable of sustaining almost every kind of attack imaginable.

As such, every attack Elise Anderson made on the Calculate Fortress with Ragnarok were futile despite how powerful they were.

"Code Orange has changed to Red, all units gather at district 7," Yomikawa spoke on the radio to the main Anti-Skill base of operations. "Permission to use heavy weaponry."

"Permission denied. Wait for the Six Wings that are on their way and hold your position."

The transmission ended and Yomikawa sighed after that.

"It's not like that thing is interested on us anyway… It's only attacking that building," The woman commented to herself as she glanced at the thing, "Take cover behind the vans, we wouldn't want to be unprotected if that thing decided to use those spears on us… and take the Powered Suits away, we can't use them yet. Our order is to maintain this position."

"Roger!" The agents of order close to her nodded and moved to fulfill her orders.

The Black Thing moved and stood on the rooftop of a less tall structure in front of its target. The wings spread to the sides and a red circle materialized in front of it. Soon, a powerful red beam came out of the circle impacting on the surface of the impenetrable structure.

"What on earth…?" An officer of Anti-Skill widened his eyes in fear as all the security forces present took cover from the pulses created by the crashing of the red energy.

High on the sky, Isadora and Kamijou observed in shock at their target.

"She is using the Thrym's Eda again. We must hurry!" Isadora shouted worriedly.

"Thrym's what…? WHOA!"

The flying broom took a swift descent as it moved at incredible speed. It only took a few minutes for Isadora Sprengel and Kamijou Touma to reach the area where Ragnarok was present.

"We will land on top of that building, stay sharp!" Isadora said aloud and the unfortunate boy tensed in anticipation.

The witch halted the broom.

"I guess this is a prudent altitude… I'm going to jump," Kamijou moved away from the girl and raised his leg as he accommodated himself over the thick broom.

Now being in a crouched position with both feet over the broom, Kamijou took a deep breath and jumped onto the roof, rolling his body forward upon landing to lessen the impact.

"Good. Now get her attention while I create a portal," Said Isadora before flying away.

"Portal? And you said it like it's easy…" The boy looked warily at the black form about a dozen meters away from him. It was shooting some kind of laser at the purple building.

"Wait, the Windowless Building was purple?"

The boy looked around before walking slowly and steadily towards it. It seemed the Black Thing hadn't noticed his presence yet, so if he could get close enough, it could work. The boy recalled what the witch said to him in their way here.

'You will only negate Ragnarok if you touch the Red Sphere in the middle with your right hand.'

Kamijou wanted to ask her some more questions, like where this sphere was exactly, or where was the middle in that Black Thing, but their travel by broom was short and the speed it possessed didn't allow him to talk due to the strong current of the wind.

Wherever that red sphere was, he had to get close enough to find it.

The boy continued to move forward but suddenly, multiple white lights that came from the sky illuminated the roof. Kamijou turned around to see multiples choppers arriving at his location.

HsAFH-11N, also known as Six Wings were attack helicopters that had wings at each side of the aircraft that split into three, hence its name. This machine was controlled by advanced AI and its automatic attack mode made it one of the most efficient technological weapons Academy City ever produced.

The Six Wings was armed with machine guns and it also could shoot air-to-surface attack missiles, as well as short ranged anti-armoured vehicle missiles that used infrared sensors to lock on targets. As a defensive mechanism, it could use softball-like projectiles as a counter against anti-aircraft missiles, which sprayed out iron sand followed up by a high-voltage electric current. The electrified field created by it extended 20 meters in every direction and could make any missile explode if exposed to it.

---

Go to profile, LISTEN: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Song 08

---

"What on earth…?" The teen whispered in shock.

Meanwhile on the ground, "The reinforcements are here. Pull back!" Yomikawa Aiho shouted to the squads gathered in the area. The moved to a safe spot with haste.

The helicopters surrounded the Black Thing that continued to unleash the mighty beam onto the Windowless Building without caring about the presence of the armored aircrafts.

"Oh… Shit…"

The machine guns began their rapid fire and Kamijou Touma could only run away in order to save his life.

"How the hell I'm supposed to get close to that with bullets coming in all directions!"

The boy shouted as the Black Thing stopped its attack on the building and directed the red beam to the choppers. The first one was completely destroyed as the others dispersed to get away from it.

The remains of the chopper crashed below, causing a part of the rooftop which Kamijou was currently running on to collapse. The boy tripped on a crack that spread throughout the rooftop.

"Kgh… I can't die here!" Kamijou quickly stood up and sprinted away from the falling rooftop, stopping on the edge at the other side. "Okay… I'm not so sure now…"

It was an excessively long distance between him and the ground below, to fall would mean instant death, but the boy had nowhere else to move or maybe… he did.

The beam ceased as missiles crashed on Ragnarok, black energy flying all around. The boy dashed forward to it as he avoided the nearby explosions and jumped before the whole roof collapsed.

The boy fell on a lower level of the destroyed building and slid his body over a huge column. Kamijou used the momentum to increase his speed and jump from it before reaching the end.

The boy observed his surroundings as his body moved through the air, Ragnarok just before him.

'I'm so dead… but this is it!'

Kamijou stretched his right arm towards the Black Thing as bullets passed over him, under him, at his sides, but fortunately, none of them went through him. It was like time stopped at that moment, his eyes fixated on the mass of black energy before him.

Moreover, his right hand touched it…

The black energy dispelled to the sides and a form appeared. It was someone he had seen before, the black-haired girl with crimson eyes who was looking at him with an equally shocked expression.

As he began to fall, Isadora appeared, flying swiftly and caught the boy just before he hit the ground as Ragnarok crashed on the already wrecked building, totally destroying it as a cloud of dust engulfed the area.

"It's that girl! She's inside Ragnarok!" Kamijou shouted as Isadora landed on another rooftop, "I think I saw the red sphere on her chest."

"That was totally reckless… but good job," The witch smirked. "You destroyed the outer shell which was the mass of energy you just negated. Now the inner one remains, and by that I mean the red sphere."

"If I can get close to her again, we can win," Kamijou looked down, Ragnarok spreading the wings that protruded from the back of the black-haired girl. "But with the security forces attacking, it's going to be impossible."

"That's why I've created a portal," Isadora elaborated as she pointed her index to a blue light shining in the sky. "Using the principles of the Dai Nihon Enkai Yochi Zenzu as base, I managed to replicate a spell used by the Amakusa-Style Remix of Church."

Kamijou's jaw fell.

"Why do you keep explaining that stuff to me? It's not like I can understand any of it, you know?" The boy deadpanned.

'Hmm… Boring! I don't even mention the part about creating my own portal instead of using the 47 already existing in this country. I don't even have to restrict myself to the limitations these portals had because mine is not plotted upon the atlas created of the gathered survey work of the cartographer Tadataka Ino, which was mapped and measured to the location of the stars.'

Isadora pouted, she loved sharing her knowledge with others, but if those others could not grasp what she explained, it would be just senseless to give such information. Still, she still did so when the chance presented itself. Maybe this was one of the reasons why her Grimoire accepted her.

"The portal will take Ragnarok to another location, far from all these people, but it will not remain there for much longer, we need to lead Ragnarok to it," Isadora motioned him to hop on the broom again. "If we do it, we'll kill two birds with one stone."

"To lead that thing away from this place and by that, securing the safety of the city," Kamijou said, his voice gaining a tone of realization, "Also, a place where we could deal with it without any kind of interference… perfect."

"Exactly," Isadora smiled proudly.

"Then let's get to it," Kamijou seated himself on the broom again and it flew upward.

Isadora ignored the embrace of the boy and moved near Ragnarok.

"Isadora Sprengel! Who is that boy and how did he manage to destroy my protective shell!?" Elise Anderson, wielder of Ragnarok, shouted furiously as her black wings flapped repeatedly before taking flight.

"If you are interested, you can ask him yourself!" The witch winked at her mockingly, "Though, if I think about it, with such a poorly prepared spell, it's not surprising that your Ragnarok is this weak."

The taunt worked and Elise flew towards them, multiple black reddish spears sent by her wings in order to kill her enemies. She had failed in causing any damage to her objective and it was probably because her Ragnarok spell lacked the blood of the last Valkyrie.

Yomikawa Aiho and the other Anti-Skill members could only wonder what that little thing, flying in the sky, was. It now seemed to be the new target of the Black Thing.

Shirai Kuroko, who just arrived at the place, widened her eyes at the sight in front of her eyes.

"What… what is that?" She stared at the strange form moving through the sky in awe for a few moments before shaking her head. "No! Don't lose focus! I need to find Onee-sama! Anti-Skill will handle this."

The teleporter disappeared from the area as a shiny blue light enveloped the black thing in the sky and vanished from the sight of all those who were witnessing the event.

"Did it...? Did it… just… disappear?" Yomikawa commented to herself as her voice faded completely. All the members of the squads sported varied expressions of disbelief, amazement, shock and even fear.

Only total silence remained before the Windowless Building.

PART 18

"Rubidus831…" Elise Anderson spoke darkly, "The One who carries a Crimson Destiny."

Isadora made a worried expression, their enemy had just mention her magic name, and it could only mean one thing.

"A duel to death, huh?" The witch directed her attention to the boy at her side, "She will not hold back anymore… Are you ready, Touma?"

The boy to which she spoke only glanced at her and raised his right hand, forming a fist.

"I'm not ready… however, that's not going to change the fact that I'm doing this."

Kamijou Touma answered with resolve, taking a step forward. They were currently near the isolated area where the Graveyard Tower was located inside School District 10, which was rampant with urban decay. This district also held several nuclear energy research facilities as well as the barely known Special Ability Institute.

This infamous institute was dismantled by Yomikawa Aiho's unit due to the illegal and inhuman experiments performed on people, especially with Child Errors, who were orphans that resided in Academy City.

"That's not the answer I was hoping to hear, but I suppose it still works…"

Huge amounts of black energy flowed around Elise, her black wings spread to the sides as some sort of black reddish double-edged sword with a weird design materialized on her arm.

"I know I'm going to die… I knew it the moment I entered this city," The soft smile her face showed turned evil. "But I'm going to accomplish my mission before I do. Even if I have to destroy the entire city, I'll find the last descendant of the Valkyries and take down that bloody building!"

The black energy became red, as if it was fire and Elise began to float, strong shockwaves coming from her one after another. Some sort of circular symbol began to take form behind her as the atmosphere became dense.

"The spell is reaching its ultimate stage," Isadora took another apple from her pocket and brought it to her mouth before a huge wave that released red energy stopped her from biting it.

"The… the amount of mana that she is letting out is absurd! I… I underestimated the power of Ragnarok, even if it's not complete."

The sight before both the Imagine Breaker and the Golden Witch was truly terrifying.

---

Go to profile, LISTEN: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Song 09

Go to profile, SEE: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Picture 06

---

"Behold Ragnarok!" Her smile twisted. "I will now destroy you and this wretched city!"

Kamijou Touma didn't falter and stood strong in front of the mad magician. His companion visibly frowned, realizing something he didn't.

"Hmm… This doesn't look good…" Isadora commented as she held the apple she was about to eat near her mouth and muttered some words.

A strong pulse came from Ragnarok, the ground around cracking as dark energy emerged from the openings on the floor.

"Here it comes!" Kamijou warned.

Multiple black projectiles were shot from the wings and came towards them. Kamijou negated the incoming projectiles with his right hand as he sprinted forward. He swung the Imagine Breaker to destroy each and every one of the black spears. Soon, the wings began to move, creating powerful gust of winds directed towards the boy.

"Kgh..." Kamijou advanced step-by-step to his enemy.

The boy struggled to maintain his feet on the ground, covering part of his face with his left arm. The area around him was deformed, though he couldn't tell if it was because of Ragnarok. Maybe his mind had begun to become insane.

Isadora threw the apple to the sky and to Kamijou's surprise, a purple aura surrounded it and the apple grew in size, landing in front of them as some kind of shield.

"An enormous apple?"

The black reddish spears impaled the apple but none of them passed through it, they were safe for now. Kamijou had to smile, as a simple apple had been used as an effective shield.

"As expected of the golden witch, to use something as simple as an apple to stop my attack, it's amazingly annoying," Elise's deformed voice spoke with a subtle tone of sarcasm. "And you… how can you stop my Jötnar needles? You're not an ordinary boy, are you? That ability of yours goes beyond everything."

"Even if he isn't ordinary, that is none of your concern," The witch responded before the boy could. "Your death will only get worse if you continue to use the Spell of End!"

"What do you mean 'her death'? Does using this Ragnarok take her life or something?"

Kamijou's voice showed concern, which startled both of them. It was as if the boy was worried about the future of his enemy, despite what she previously said.

"I don't need you worrying about me," Elise's wings closed. "If I was in your position, I would be running for my life. Not that it will change the fact that I'm gonna bloody kill you."

The magician lunged forward, her odd sword cutting the enormous apple in half. Isadora quickly flew off on her broom as Kamijou rolled to the side to avoid a swing of her sharp-looking weapon. More black spears headed towards Kamijou's direction after that, but he was ready and zigzagged and successfully avoided them.

"I can understand why the golden witch would challenge me, despite us both hating this city, but you… why would you meddle in this confrontation? You have no business here!"

The boy let out a mocking chuckle.

"You say this is none of my business? You attack the people of this city for the sake of your goals, you even plan to destroy this city and you dare say it's not my business!?"

The Ragnarok girl smiled at this response.

"What? Do you think of yourself as some sort of Hero, someone who can appear and defeat the bad guys just like in those cliché movies from the United States?" He lips curled into a expression of mockery, "I'm amazed that you haven't started to run like a scared cat when I activated the Spell of End."

"I don't think of myself as anything…" Kamijou felt no fear as he spoke, even if certain death awaited him, he felt no fear because he was fighting for the city he cherished, the city that hasn't seen him as the child of chaos everyone thought of him during his childhood, the city that was now his home.

"Hero, villain, police, delinquent, adult, boy… esper or magician…" The boy smiled oddly before shaking his head, sharp eyes concentrating on his enemy, "It doesn't matter what or who I am, but just know that I will stop you no matter what."

Elise frowned, the way her new enemy talked with such determination made her worry, 'Could it be that he can actually stop Ragnarok? But what was his power exactly?' She noticed the boy only used his right hand when he nullified her attacks, so maybe his power only resided in that limb.

Elise came to the conclusion that her enemy was an esper that somehow negated supernatural abilities, like he did with Alphonse's telekinesis and her End Magic based attacks. Now, the question was:

'To what extent does his ability work? …There's one way to find out, actually… two.' The current holder of Ragnarok lowered her head, crimson eyes locked on her opponent.

"Let's see how that hand holds up against Fenrir's Fang."

Kamijou rose an eyebrow in confusion, and the witch noticed it.

"She must be referring to the sword she has in her hand," Isadora commented as she observed closely the nature of the odd weapon.

More black spears emerged from the wings but this time they flew to the sky, and then fell as a deadly red rain. Upon seeing this, Isadora quickly took action.

"Ecnatsissa ruoy em gnirb, Belial!"

The boy couldn't be more shocked after the girl shouted those strange words, for a shiny purple circle with an upside down star on the middle appeared before Kamijou's head and to his shock, a big monstrous hand emerged from it.

A red orb appeared above the monster's hand and split in multiple lesser orbs, each one of them moving and intercepting every single spear. The horrible hand returned to the circle and disappeared after the death rain had been neutralized.

Kamijou Touma was fully witnessing magic and there was no way that he could deny its existence anymore.

It was at that exact moment that Elise lunged towards the distracted teen to strike. The boy let his guard down after seeing Isadora's magic and this was her chance.

The boy moved his dazed eyes toward the black wings coming directly at him and his instincts acted accordingly to what was about to occur.

The Imagine Breaker grabbed and stopped Fenrir's Fang but it didn't disappear nor was it negated despite its magic nature, however, it didn't cut his right hand either. Kamijou planted his feet firmly on the ground as he held his position, not letting Ragnarok advance any further.

"Your power is amazing! You… you are very interesting…" The British magician smiled slyly as she pushed her magic blade a bit, "I wish I had known you before…"

The boy was startled, not only due to her words but also because of his right hand holding the demonic weapon. There was something off.

'What did she mean by that? Moreover, why is the Imagine Breaker not working?'

"Touma! You can't negate her sword because Ragnarok possesses an extremely fast self-regenerating capability," Isadora informed loudly as she continued to fly above them. "Your right hand is indeed doing its job but it can't fully negate her magic fast enough!"

The boy gritted his teeth as his enemy began to push him back, black energy flew everywhere and crashed with the cemetery-like structures, which were similar to that of an elevator equipped with a multi-story car park.

"Wonderful… Your ability does negate magic…"

"Does it even matter?" Kamijou used all his strength and swung his right arm, pushing Elise back and gaining some distance, "Does that really matter!? Can't you see that this goes beyond what we can do?" The boy stood still and closed his eyes; his expression was one of indignation. "It's what we do with what we have that matters! All you had done only caused suffering and death!"

Elise narrowed her eyes at his protest; his attitude was beginning to bug her.

"Just who the hell do you think you are to judge me?" She snapped angrily, "To judge my actions? …My mission?" She was fighting for her beliefs, for the sake of her cabal and an important person to her. "You don't have any right to do so!"

This spiky-haired boy, whoever he was, whatever ability he possessed, didn't have the right to judge her, he knew nothing of her and of the people that had to die in order to achieve her goal, that she was willing to accept any and all consequences.

Even now, she had accepted her own death. Having come this far, it would inevitably occur because Vár's Oath was completed, yet broken after using all the life-force of the Gemstone to which she was bound to.

"And you didn't have the right to allow that bastard to kill anyone!" Kamijou shouted in response, glaring at her furiously, "Who are you to judge who lives or dies? Who do you think you are to believe that sacrificing innocent people would bring any good?"

"Shut up, you bloody nuisance!" The black haired girl screamed, "I have no reason to hear your lousy ramblings! I will use Ragnarok and destroy this pathetic city and you with it! Nobody will stop me!"

Kamijou Touma darkened his gaze, his stance taking an aggressive position.

"Don't be so sure of that…"

---

Go to profile, LISTEN: Link in A New Road Of Misfortune: Chapter 05 Section: Song 10

---

Imagine Breaker and Ragnarok knew, their final confrontation was at hand.

Elise Anderson laughed wickedly at Kamijou's remark before seemingly endless amounts of black energy began to cover the entire area. It spread and destroyed everything it touched, but couldn't harm Kamijou as his right hand held its advance. Soon, the witch landed at his side with a worried expression.

"The infinite energy of Ragnarok will consume this city, along with the whole country at this rate… I've been careless, Ragnarok is just too powerful," Isadora raised her broom and twirled it, creating a purple aura in the area where it was spinning. "I will create you a passage to her where that black force will not bother you for a few seconds, but you will have to move fast after your right hand negates my own magic. That red crystal is your objective; you must destroy it with your power."

The boy nodded, his mind getting ready for what was about to come.

"D. T. M. I. O. M. A. P. T.C! (Destroy The Magic In Front Of Me And Purge The Corruption!)" These letters were spoken by her, which made no sense to Kamijou. However, the purple aura became brighter and expanded forward in Ragnarok's direction.

"Quick, Touma! You must reach her!"

Kamijou Touma took swift action and dashed towards his enemy, his right hand ready to stop anything that might come his way. The boy entered the area where the black energy couldn't penetrate and the Imagine Breaker negated Isadora's spell as expected. Soon, the demonic ground began to cover the Road before him as the boy advanced, he had to move faster but it became difficult due to the recurring pain of the not fully recovered gunshot on his back.

'Kgh… I can't stop now… My life is not the only thing at stake here.'

The boy mustered all his strength and ignored the pain. The darkness covered his surroundings; weird sounds came from everywhere as if deformed screams of lamentation called his name. Kamijou found himself inside a horrid tunnel of black reddish energy that emanated an oppressive atmosphere.

Honestly, it looked like he was inside a tunnel that would lead him to Hell itself.

As seconds passed, it became more and more difficult for Kamijou to take a step forward, though he still pushed himself to his limits and continued to get close to the eye of the storm while the Imagine breaker negated the demonic force trying to push him back.

The ground was cracking, the rubble around him was floating, the demonic territory was already covering the path behind the boy. He knew his time was coming to an end.

Kamijou Touma had to end this now.

"HOW!? Even if your ability can negate magic, how can it stop the end of the world!?"

"Because the end of the world is not meant to be, not brought by you or by the hands of anyone else," Kamijou pushed himself forward as he gritted his teeth fiercely.

Elise could feel her power diminish, "It's impossible! The spell that was supposed to bring the end to this accursed city is…"

"The end you speak of is nothing but a mere Illusion that I will destroy with this right hand. I'm no Hero, I'm not the strongest esper, but…" The boy gave two steps forward, his glare fearsome, "Right here, right now, I'm the only one standing in front of you… That is why it is up to me to stop you."

The Imagine Breaker reached Ragnarok at that moment and a loud piercing sound echoed throughout the area. Red cracks spread through the demonic energies around, an intense light erupting from them until they broke into millions of pieces as if made out of glass.

Soon, Elise Anderson came in sight. Her expression pretty much showed her feelings. Extreme shock. Her eyes fell down to where the hand of her enemy was.

The Imagine breaker was touching the red jewel on her chest, Grimhilde's Valhalla, which was the source of power for her magic weapon. The gem cracked after a few seconds while the boy just stared at her, with it turning into scarlet dust and dispersing through the air. Fenrir's Fang as well as her Valkyrie's Wings shattered into pieces.

"Y-you destroyed a Spell of End…" Elise said in disbelief as Kamijou stepped back and just continued to look at her with eyes showed pity, "Why…? What are you…? Just what is that right hand?"

The boy didn't respond or remove his gaze from her, not even when Isadora Sprengel appeared at his side.

A few moments passed when finally, Kamijou Touma's voice was heard in the isolated area.

"It's over…"

Elise blinked before her gaze was averted to the side.

"Yes… It indeed is over… At least for me…" The crimson-eyed magician spoke softly in resignation, "You have won…"

Kamijou shook his head.

"I've won nothing…"

Isadora remained silent, she couldn't think of anything to say, the boy looked oddly sad for some reason despite the fact that he had successfully stopped Ragnarok.

"I have failed my cabal, I have failed the people that trusted me, and her… Oh god, I have failed her…" Kamijou blinked when tears appeared on her eyes. "Not even my death will erase this failure…"

"I don't really know what to say to you…" Kamijou turned around. "But know this,.. you are going to have to answer to justice for what you've done."

"Don't worry for that… my punishment is at hand."

Kamijou glanced at her over his shoulder and noticed the eyes of remorse on his former opponent. His attention was drawn to the witch, who sported a sorrowful expression.

Elise raised her hands and observed them as she chuckled, causing the boy to raise an eyebrow.

"Why are you laughing?" The boy asked sharply, narrowing his gaze.

"Because I have nothing left… Not even my life now…" She whispered to herself, yet the boy managed to make up her words, "It's funny… in a twisted way."

Kamijou was startled by her words. What was she trying to say?

"Touma, let's leave, I don't want to see it…" Isadora walked to his side, but avoided meeting his worried gaze, "We have to leave before it starts."

"Leave? But she'll escape if we do that… and what do you mean by 'before it st-'?"

A scream was heard.

"Argh!"

Kamijou looked back to the black-haired magician in surprise with Isadora doing the same. The skin of the girl was covered by green marks that seemed to come from the green bracelet on her arm. Kamijou recalled seeing it on the other guy he defeated.

'Why was she wearing it? How did she get it? What's it doing to her?'

Screams of desperation, agony, fear and pain came from the girl. Their increasing intensity caused the boy to get desperate.

"What's happening to her!?" The boy asked in concern.

"She broke Vár's Oath. I'm surprised that using Ragnarok didn't absorb her soul, but I figured the Imagine Breaker negated Ragnarok's aftereffect," Isadora explained with a serious tone. "However, you haven't cancelled the connection she made with that gemstone using Vár."

"Stop! Make it stop!" Elise knelt due to the intense burning pain spreading across her body, which was caused by the marks on her skin. "Please! It hurts! It hurts too much. ARRRRGGGHHH!"

"She is going to die…" The witch finally revealed with a tone filled with sorrow. Kamijou didn't waste any more time.

The boy dashed towards her and raised the Imagine Breaker to destroy the bracelet, but it levitated and dragged Elise's body with it up the sky, she was out of reach.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Kamijou shouted in indignation as he watched in horror how the girl hanged from the floating magical bracelet, tears streaming down her face.

The boy had to stop this madness, he couldn't keep watching the terrible suffering that girl was enduring. Each scream she made burned into his mind little by little, so horrible they were that gradually broke his will.

"Touma! I'm not sure if this will do any good but I can't watch this too…" Isadora made a determined expression, "Get on the broom. I will take you to her!"

Kamijou turned around and saw the witch getting close. He mounted the flying object together with her and flew towards the girl in agony.

Just before they could reach her, several pulses originated from the bracelet and pushed the broom away forcefully, making Isadora lose the control of it as both girl and boy were sent flying away and back to the surface.

Kamijou fell on his back, causing enormous pain to course through his body, not only from the hit from the fall, but also from the bullet wound that was reopened upon impact with the ground. Isadora received a hit on the head and lost consciousness.

"Kgh… Damnit!" Kamijou forced himself to stand on his feet as he supported his arms on his knees.

Blood spurted again from his wound, his shirt getting stained by the blood, but that didn't matter now, only the girl that was being attacked by an unknown force called Vár.

The light of the green marks intensified and Elise's arms began to move by their own in unnatural directions, breaking her bones and causing even more dreadful screams. Then, her legs began to do the same.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

The boy widened his eyes in complete horror as he observed the sickening punishment the girl was receiving. The boy moved to the witch and tried to wake her up, yet she didn't respond. He even tried to use the broom by himself but it wasn't working. She was simply out of her reach.

Kamijou Touma could do nothing to stop the suffering of the magician.

The next minutes, it became worse, and the girl stopped screaming; only her barely audible crying was heard as the curse destroyed her body and mind.

Kamijou could just leave and refrain from watching her horrible death, but he couldn't move, he knelt in resignation as tears of desperation appeared on his eyes.

This was the most horrible thing he ever witnessed, not even in the movies, nightmares, or the times he found the victims during this time compared to what his eyes were seeing at this very moment.

"Please…" He whispered weakly, "Someone… help her… stop this…" He gritted his teeth and hit the ground several times, causing severe damage to his knuckles. "Even if she did wrong, she doesn't deserve this!" The boy roared loudly in impotence.

One more endless minute passed and the demonic bracelet finally absorbed the almost unrecognizable body of Elise Anderson as if she was made of energy. The bracelet fell from the sky and landed a couple of meters forward from the stunned boy.

Only utter darkness and silence remained in the area near the Cemetery building.

Minutes passed.

Kamijou's mentality has been compromised; he couldn't process any normal kind of thought pattern that wasn't related to the death of the girl. The guilt and impotence Kamijou felt was overwhelming and it was destroying his mind.

"I was useless… I fought to protect everyone, but I couldn't do anything for her… I couldn't, I couldn't…"

His sorrowful whispers continued for more minutes when a girl stepped near him, yet the boy kept muttering about his failure, completely ignoring her.

The newly awoken Isadora Sprengel observed the broken boy. His eyes were lost; it was like his soul left his body.

"Touma…"

PART 19

"Now that almost all of you are here, I will explain the current situation regarding a person who you all seem to care about."

Isadora Sprengel stood in the middle of the rooftop of a certain hospital. Surrounding her was Shokuhou Misaki, Wannai Kinuho and Kumokawa Seria.

"Hold on a minute… Who are you? Was it you that sent us that mental message?" Kumokawa inquired with suspicion, "And more importantly, what happened to him?"

Shokuhou stepped forward, took a TV remote control from her wallet that had a star on the middle and pointed it at the girl dressed as a witch from a TV show.

"I will not wait for you to explain it. Touma-chan is suffering and I need to know why as soon as possible."

Her thumb pressed a button on the control and… nothing came to her mind.

"W-wha…?" Shokuhou blinked in mild shock.

"You think I would meet you without being prepared, Mental Out? I know very well of what you are capable of…" Isadora smiled, "That's why I need your help. Not to mention that Kamijou Touma seems to be really important to you."

"Eh?" The blonde's face became red, "What makes you say that?"

"You could have read his mind, but you didn't. That only proves that you respect him, or…"

Kumokawa scoffed loudly, earning the attention of the other three females.

"Can we return to the subject?" She said, irritated, "You have not responded to any of my questions."

"I will not say my name, nor you won't find me in any database," The witch spoke with confidence. "The face you are seeing now is not real. Consider it a mask."

Both rivals narrowed her gazes. Shokuhou saw the witch as a girl with short orange hair with matching eyes, Kumokawa saw her as a girl with pink hair and green eyes. Wannai, well, in her eyes she had blonde hair, purple eyes and a scar that ran horizontally on the left side of her forehead and another vertically on her left cheek.

"Then why have you gathered us here?" Wannai finally spoke.

"Because I have a task for each one of you."

Shokuhou's brow twitched, she was extremely worried about the condition of Kamijou Touma and this girl was making her lose time that she could be using to find a way to help the boy.

"What makes you think we'll do what you say?" Mental-Out shot back, crossing her arms to show her clear annoyance.

"You will do it for his sake."

No reply was heard. Isadora found their silence as a cue to continue.

"As you have noticed, Touma suffered a mental-breakdown," Wannai averted her eyes while Shokuhou and Kumokawa tightened her hands into fists.

'This must be her fault! And why does she call him by his name!?' Shokuhou bit her lip as she resisted the urge to try using her power on the girl again.

"This occurred because he witnessed a horrible event, and that together with the personality he seems to have, compromised his sanity," Isadora elaborated as the three girls paid her close attention. "So to help him, each one of you must perform a task to not only cure him but also, avoid future troubles for him."

"You want me to use my ability on him?" Shokuhou inquired and Isadora shook her head.

"No, I will take care of that. What you must do is modify the memories of all the people he knows and anyone that could be aware of the murders that occurred in this month."

"I knew it!" Kumokawa interrupted, "He shouldn't have left the hospital… It had something to do with the murders, didn't it? That's why he ended up in this condition."

Those words stabbed Wannai in her heart. She allowed and even helped the boy leave the hospital. She bit her lip, hard.

It was her fault.

"I will not explain what caused this, only what you have to do," Shokuhou looked as irritated as her rival, but in the end, they both nodded. "Anyway, that is your task Mental-Out," The golden witch moved her focus to a black-haired girl. "You have a lot of connections from what I know, so use them and clean any information about these attacks from all the databases of this city."

Wannai raised an eyebrow, 'That girl called Kumokawa had a lot of connections? What did she mean by that?' By the expression the busty-girl sported, it seemed that this unknown girl cosplaying as a witch was right.

"You know a lot of us… and I'm guessing you are not from this city," Kumokawa commented sternly. "Which would make you an intruder with too much information…"

"Maybe, maybe not… but I'm not intimidated by the snipers you have positioned in the nearby buildings. If I die, then the boy you know as Touma would not return. Not even Mental-Out would manage to cure him if she was to erase or modify his memories. His mental wounds go beyond that."

She was saying the truth. Being exposed to the End Magic had caused non-visible effects on the boy that only became present when he observed the death of Elise Anderson, hence his current mental breakdown.

"Fine…" Kumokawa accepted. That girl could be lying but she was not willing to risk the well-being of Kamijou Touma. Her words became more believable now that she mentioned that she was aware of the snipers on the adjacent buildings.

'Just how did she notice them?'

"And you girl… I know you just met him but a strong bond was created between you two," The witch's comment made Wannai fluster and the other two frown. "I will ask you to watch over him as he recovers from his physical injuries."

"OK…" She nodded quickly.

"But what are you going to do to cure him?" Kumokawa asked in concern.

Isadora Sprengel smirked.

"That… You do not need to know," The witch walked to the exit, but stopped near Wannai and moved her face near her ear.

"I was actually planning to ask Mental Out to erase your memories but that wouldn't be fair, considering what he had endured for you…" Isadora whispered softly. "At least, one of you should remember what happened in that alley… He indeed was impressive."

Wannai was startled, and the brown-haired girl only winked slyly at her reaction.

'How did she know what happened? About how had Kamijou-kun saved me?'

"Wait! I'm not gonna let you touch his mind! If someone was to do it, it should be me!" Shokuhou barked, "If erasing his memories is the cure, then I'm the most suited for doing it."

"I will not erase his memories… and I already told you, even if you did, that would not help him out of his mental disturbance," Isadora blinked as she remembered something and took out from a pocket a purple gem.

"Here is the list of people in power you should use your power on. They must forget by all means anything related to these murders."

"How am I supposed to use this?" Shokuhou received the gem and took it near her eyes to observe it closely, it was pretty.

"Put it near your head for ten seconds and you will receive its contents."

The three espers stared at the purple gem with curiosity, wondering what sort of technology was used in the gem. Some seconds passed before returning their gazes to the spot where the unknown presence stood.

Wannai spoke first, "...Eh? Where did she go?"

The mysterious girl had disappeared.

Between the Lines 4

"I must say, I'm quite pleased with your performance, little Miss Sprengel…" A masculine, yet feminine, young, yet old, pure, yet corrupt voice spoke to the only person standing in front of the huge cylinder, "As expected from someone that carries the same blood of Anna."

"Don't speak my great-great-grandmother's name!" Isadora said furiously, "You betrayed her, so you don't have the right to."

The golden witch couldn't tell but it seemed the odd being known as Aleister Crowley was smiling. She just arrived using an advance teleportation spell to give to him the report about the events involving Ragnarok.

"So was it really needed to ask Kumokawa Seria to clean the database? I was planning to do that if you haven't forgotten…" The witch glared at him darkly, "Is there something I should know?"

"I will not explain my reasons to you. I did what you asked me to and that should be enough."

The human whose life was maintained by machines and was floating upside-down chuckled, and it caused the girl to get wary. If the board chairman was to see her as an enemy, she would get killed for sure, but the presence of this human unnerved her, his sole existence disturbed her.

The witch breathed deeply to control her ire; she was inside the main base of the enemy of Magic, the center of science, so she had to be careful. She gripped tightly her broom as she waited for an answer.

"It is enough. You have successfully avoided future confrontations from both sides. Everyone will know that the Golden Witch took down a troublesome magician."

Yes, science and magic existed, the balance between them existed and it would be broken if scientists defeated magicians or vice-versa. The Magic side would not remain with arms crossed knowing that Academy City claimed to have taken down their people. That is why Aleister Crowley called her to deal with the intruder of this city, Elise Anderson, member of the magic cabal Dusk Waiting to Awaken.

If a magician took down another magician, no confrontations would arise between both sides and the balance would be preserved.

"I will leave then… I'm sick of this place."

"But I would like to know something before you go," The witch tilted her head a bit while narrowing her eyes. "Why have you decided to just extract his memories instead of just eliminating them?"

The witch turned around and put a hand on the left pocket of her skirt, a gem was inside it, a gem that held Kamijou Touma's memories of the month of June.

His hunt for the monster that attacked women, the horrendous findings left by the murderer, his fight to save a girl from thugs, his confrontation against a gemstone. Then the death of the true killer, his acceptance of believing in magic, the fight to stop Ragnarok and finally, the horrible death of the true mastermind behind all these events.

Isadora took all those memories and introduced them inside the blue gem she had now on her pocket.

"Because he will need those memories in the future… but he is not ready for them… at least not for the time being," Isadora answered as she began to walk away from the cylinder. "Besides, I need to cleanse them before returning his memories back to him, they are infected with End magic."

"I see..."

The odd tone on the Human's voice made Isadora wonder what was he was musing, but decided to leave it at that.

"I will ignore your plans for Touma, but I'm sure he will become a true force of good, despite being an esper from this city," Stated Isadora with unexpected conviction, glaring at him.

"You seem to regard him with pretty high standards, could it be that the time you spent with him had caused something in you?"

"He is an esper and I am a magician, he is my enemy," Isadora answered instantly. "Elise Anderson knew that, so that's why she used that Gemstone and that mad level 0 to accomplish her goal."

The witch raised her broom and muttered some words, a purple circle appearing on the ground. "Just remember… I'm not your toy and neither he is. The time will come when you will have to accept that."

Aleister watched in silence as Isadora jumped to the purple circle and disappeared from the room.

"I certainly don't think so…"

PART 20

A soft bed, a silent room and some food waiting to be eaten on top of the bedside table was what a certain boy observed and then... Kamijou Touma looked through the window, the sunrays fell over nature as birds flew peacefully from one tree to another. The boy scratched his head in confusion.

"How… did I end up here?" Kamijou asked to himself as he stood up from his hospital bed.

The boy glanced around; his school clothes were hanging from a chair in front of the bed.

o-0-O-0-o

A spiky-haired boy, now dressed in his summer school uniform, walked out of his hospital room. A girl with wavy-brown observed him from afar as she hid from his sight.

There was the Hero of Wannai Kinuho, her savior and the person she held great admiration for. The boy that saved her but was forced to forget in order to live like a normal person. He would not remember her despite risking his life for her.

Kamijou Touma had forgotten all what happened since he first found the third victim in that rainy day of June.

As much as Wannai wanted to walk to him and only say hello, she couldn't muster the courage to do so. Maybe it was because she was now only a stranger to him, or it would hurt if the boy ignored her or something along those lines.

She could only watch him walk away and do nothing.

Kamijou stood in front of the elevator as he waited for it to come. He had no idea who brought him to the hospital or what caused his visit to it again, but it wasn't like he was going to stay there.

"What…" The boy during that time of June said…

---

"What…" The boy said again… "What the hell are you talking about?" The current Kamijou Touma said to Misaka Mikoto, who was blaming him for who knows what.

Several times he had met her, and the mad girl attacked him for no apparent reason. A level 5 electromaster that called him a stalker and a pervert was obviously one of the worst things he had to deal with, and more with those insanely powerful attacks she tried to land on him. If it wasn't for his Imagine Breaker, he would be as fried as those chips that were sold in shops.

"Why do you keep feigning ignorance?"

Instead of answering, Kamijou did the only thing his mind was thinking. The boy dashed to the stairs as screams and shouts that came from the Railgun reached his ears.

"Geez… I'm so tired, and I still have to put up with this… Fukou da…"

The boy ran as he wondered what could have caused the third strongest of the level 5 of AC to think he stalked women.

Whatever it was, Kamijou wasn't in the mood to endure more crap. He had enough with that bomber blonde he just had left in the hospital and to escape from the insane ojou became his top priority.

'Sheesh… How much would take now to lose Biri Biri this time?'

"Wait, you idiot! I was just joking!"

Between all her shouts, this one caused Kamijou to stop on his tracks and looked over his shoulder.

The electric girl neared his position, finally stopping in front of the boy as he turned around. Just when Kamijou expected her to say something else, she leaned forward and supported herself by putting both hands over her knees as she panted heavily.

"Why... did you... make me... run... this much...?" The girl said weakly between pants, her eyes hidden under her bangs, "You... are a moron..."

"I'm a moron?" Kamijou deadpanned, "You've attacked me without no reason every time we met in the last few weeks," He crossed his arms, looking at her with eyes of displeasure. "Did you really expect any other kind of reaction?"

After a few seconds of catching her breath, Mikoto raised her head and looked at him, smiling sheepishly. Kamijou was startled; this was not the usual behavioral pattern this girl used to have when he came across her.

"Well... those times I truly believed that you were a stalker," She stated, her eyes as soft as her tone. She truly meant it.

Kamijou raised furrowed his brows.

"Does that mean you don't anymore?"

Mikoto shrugged her shoulders, looking at him with a neutral expression, "I've discovered some stuff about what happened one month ago..." She rested a hand over her hip, brown eyes staring. "Sorry for chasing you."

'About what happened one month ago? Did something special occur that I'm ignoring?'

"Okay… so what did you discover exactly?"

"You wouldn't understand it, so let's leave at that. But someone told me to mention this to you..." The boy looked at her expectantly, "Does 'Ragnarok' ring any bell?"

The boy mused and crossed his arms.

'The name she mentioned... it wasn't Japanese, so what was it? Why would that weird word ring any bell in my head? This brat sported a serious expression so she couldn't be trying to play me a prank, could she?'

"I guess it doesn't..." The girl muttered after noticing the look of confusion on his face, "Anyway, I have something to ask you, Kamijou Touma."

"Mmm...? What...?" His gaze narrowed in suspicion, "And did I ever mention my name to you?"

Misaka Mikoto smiled evilly, making Kamijou gulp. Whatever it was, he knew it wasn't going to be any good.

---

Now, you obviously had noticed the difference in the narrative as it's not focused on Touma as with the other chapters. It's a bit necessary because we need to see what is going on with other characters, and by thus complementing this story.

Aside from that, please Read and Review. It motivates both author and Betas if we know there are people reading this.

Until next time.