Author: Well this... turned out a little messed up, and it felt kind of rushed when I was re-reading it. Anyway, I'm bad at endings, especially ones where there's a lot of things that I have to tie up all at once, and those with big groups of characters cause I have to think of a way to separate them.

Ah well, what's done is done.

XXX


"Ngh..." Mikoto stirs slightly. Her eyes opened slowly, but her vision was still blurry. She could tell that she's in an unfamiliar room, a cramped apartment. Her head lifts up, then she pushes up the upper half of her body and sat up at the end of the bed. She could hear somebody frying something.

"You're awake?" it was a certain young man's voice.

Mikoto's eyes widened and she turned her head. (It can't be...) She sees Touma, cooking some food.

"Misaka?"

Mikoto holds her head, trying to remember the last thing that happened to her before waking up. (Kat...)

Touma places a plate on a small table. "Are you okay?" He sits down right next to her with a hand on her back and leaning down to see her face.

(I was... knocked out... by Kat...) Mikoto's eyes tear up. (Then, this is a dream... just... a dream...) Mikoto starts to cry out. (I knew it... there's no way that this could be real... but...)

"Misaka?"

Mikoto raises her head to see Touma in the eye, while her face wet with tears.

"Misa-kuhmnph?!"

Mikoto pushes Touma down onto the bed. Then she pulls her head away from his and places it onto his chest. She cries out on top of him. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I couldn't... I couldn't..."

"Misaka..."

"I have all this power, and I couldn't protect you. I can't save you."

"It's alright, I'm fine. See?" Touma tries to lighten the mood with a smile.

"You idiot!" Mikoto sits up on top of him and slaps his face, multiple times. "Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! IDIOT! Do you know what I've done?! What I've been through?! And it's all because of you... you... uaahhh!" Mikoto drops her head again onto his chest. She cries out loud.

"Shh..." Touma strokes her head gently. "I guess I really am an idiot, huh? Sorry... Misaka. It's because of me that you went through a lot."

Mikoto calmed down a little, holding back her voice and tears as much as she could. She sniffled but didn't lift her head up at all. (His hand, it feels so big and warm. His chest, I can hear his heart... even though this is just a dream...) She slowly gets up.

"M-M-Misaka? W-what are you do-umnph?!"

(I promise, I'll come save you. But for now, let me have my dream...)

XXX


"Uuuuunnnngh!"

"Rutile?"

The cat girl stirs around before getting up and holding her head. "Ohh... where am I? What happened?"

"Rutile! Are you okay?" a familiar voice rings in the cat girl's ear.

"Li-Lilian? What's going on?" Rutile's vision clears up. She finds herself on the roof of a building with Lilian right next to her.

"That's what I was going to ask you," the ice girl answers.

"Wha-what I'd do?"

"The both of you totally wrecked the train yard."

"'The both of us'?" Rutile remembers the other girl that was there. "Miss Misaka!" Rutile turns around to look for her. She finds the electromaster lying down right next to her. "Ah!"

"It's alright, she's fine, as far as I can tell." Lilian reassures her. "She's just... knocked out. And pretty hard too."

"Ah!" Rutile jerked back. "Whoops. Did I hit her too hard?"

"What happened between you two?"

"I-i-i-it's nothing!" Rutile waves her arms furiously, defensively. "Really!"

"I wouldn't call two girls tearing up a train yard nothing."

"Speaking of which, where is the train yard? Why are we here anyway? This is so strange, really."

"The train yard is down there," Lilian points over the edge of the building. "Surrounded by Anti-Skill and Judgement."

Rutile heads over to the edge of the roof to see sirens and officers investigating a completely wrecked train yard. "We did all that? Really?"

"Huh? Oh, you're here?" Lilian seems to talk to herself. "Rutile, they're here."

The door to the roof busted open, with a spiky haired young man carrying a blonde Tokiwadai student crashing through. The boy crashed down to the ground while the girl got off.

"Haa... haa... haa... Why did I... have to carry you... all the way up here?"

"I'd rather not walk all the way up," the blonde answers. "It'd take too long. And running would tire me out before I even got to the second floor."

"So it's true," Lilian cuts in. "You do have extremely low stamina because you use your powers to skip gym classes."

"Th-that's- Ahem." The blonde loses composure for a moment before regaining herself. "What happened to Misaka?"

"Misaka!" The boy is suddenly full of energy again and rushed over to where Mikoto was laying. "Misaka!"

"She's fine," Lilian tells him. "She just got hit in the head, that's all."

"Hit in the head?" The blonde asks. "With what?"

"Um... th-this..." Rutile pulls up a fist and points at it, nervously laughing. "I-I hit her with this. Really."

"You're... Katherine Rutile Sopheria, the new transfer student, right?"

"Y-yes!" Rutile bows. "I-I'm sorry! Really!"

"Hey hey!" The blonde walks over to her. "Don't worry about it. I was just trying figure out how to approach her anyway. Hopefully this will simplify things. Oh, I'm Misaki Shokuhou. Nice to meet you." Misaki smiles.

"Nice to meet you! Really!" Rutile smiles back and bows again.

"So, why were you two fighting anyway?" Lilian asks.

"Th-that's-!" Rutile suddenly got extremely nervous.

"You somehow figured out that Misaka was the Magneto and chased after her, correct?" the blonde guesses.

"N-no! W-well yes... b-but I-I just happened to find Miss Misaka by chance, I wasn't looking for her. Really."

"I can believe that," Lilian adds. "I asked you to wait at the train yard, Miss Misaka was probably just passing through or something."

"But how did you start that fight?" Misaki inquires.

"I-I wanted to get my mother's pendant back. S-she didn't want me getting involved with what she's doing. I-I wanted to help her, but she didn't want it. Really."

"That sounds just like her," Misaki face palmed.

"That reminds me!" Lilian reached into her pockets. "Rutile, catch!"

Rutile caught an item that Lilian threw. "Th-this is-!"

"It's yours, isn't it?"

"Y-yes! Oh thank you thank you so much! Really!" Rutile starts jumping around joyously, then stopped. "But wait, if you had this then..."

"Yeah, we er-... she managed to find them. The ones responsible for forcing Miss Misaka to steal for them. But she needed my help to actually capture them."

"Then, is that guy...?"

"Oh, you even know about that?" Misaki catches on. "Yeah, that's their hostage, their leverage."

"As much as I want to stay and talk resolution," Lilian interrupts while walking over to the edge and taking a peak down at the train yard. "We really should be getting out of here. Kamijou!"

"Right, I'll take Misaka."

"Wait," Rutile steps forward. "I'll take her. You don't look so good, really."

"No, I can..." Touma falls down on one knee.

Rutile runs over and takes Mikoto off his arms. "See? I got her, really."

"You need to lay off on the parfaits," Lilian tells Misaki.

"And you should get back in your head and let Lilian take over, Isolde."

"I don't think she can fly yet," the ice girl responds. "Which we'll need to get down faster."

"So um..." Rutile looks around. "What are you talking about? And you can fly, really?" Rutile looks at them with a confused expression, while holding Mikoto in her arms like a princess.

"Lilian here has a... split personality," Misaki tells Rutile.

"Hey!" Isolde yells.

"What? She's going to find out eventually, you are roommates."

"A split personality, really?" Rutile tilts her head.

"We don't have time for this," Isolde mentions. "Shokuhou, where's your car?"

"That way," Misaki points. "My car is just down the alley here."

"Okay," Rutile casually walks over to the edge of the building, easily carrying Mikoto. "See you down there, really!"

"Wait!" Touma stops Rutile. "Where are you going?"

"Huh? I'm going to jump down, really." Rutile answers bluntly.

"Jump down? While carrying Misaka? Isn't she heavy?"

Misaki couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Touma calling Mikoto fat.

"It'll be fine," Rutile reassures him. "She's almost weightless right now, really."

"Weightless?" Isolde blinked, then started to think. "Hmm..."

"Miss Sopheria, as soon as you reach the car, place Misaka inside and come back up here."

"Got it," Rutile hops down the edge of the building.

"What do we do?" Touma asks out loud.

"The same thing," Isolde answers. "I think I can only take one of you down at a time though."

"Take Kamijou," Misaki tells her. "Miss Sopheria's ability seems much more pleasant. Plus, you're aware of his ability negation on his right hand."

"I don't know how to take that," Isolde seemed agitated. "Even if it is true. Kamijou, give me your left hand and keep your right in your pocket."

"Um... yes ma'am?"

XXX


"Whoo..." Misaki landed on her feet and wobbled a bit. "It was fun for the short time I could feel it, but now I feel dizzy."

"It's the sudden gravity shift affecting your head," Rutile explains. "It'll go away soon. Really."

"So, what do we do now?" Isolde asks. "It's past our curfews."

"I can handle that," Misaki informs. "It'll be like you and Miss Sopheria never left the grounds. The real problem is Misaka."

"What do you mean?"

"That teleporter friend of hers. She may be a fool, but she's still smart enough to figure out that something is amiss. Not to mention her chances of meeting with Kamijou's negating ability is much higher than everyone else. For now we should let her sleep somewhere else. I'm just trying to figure out where though."

"What about my apartment?" Touma suggests.

"Hmm..." Misaki ponders. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, yes I am."

"Alright, if you say so," Misaki shrugs. "But you'll have to stay with her for most of the day tomorrow. We'll meet up at your apartment after school to discuss what to do next."

...

With that, the rest of the night was spent returning Touma to his apartment, laying Misaka inside, then returning to Tokiwadai.

Misaki manipulated the security records so that herself, Lilian and Rutile will not encounter any trouble with the school.

Rutile crashed on top of her bed, and just slept how she fell on it. Lilian lay down slower, but slept just as fast.

...

The next day was fairly uneventful. Except for Rutile nearly oversleeping into the first period. Misaki managed to deliver a note to Lilian and Rutile on how they would meet up. The other classmates managed to see it and started to swarm the two of them. Student's from Misaki's faction intervened allowing the two of them to escape. Rutile never asked about Lilian and Isolde's split personality. Which unnerved them both while they were waiting for Misaki.

"Um... Rutile?" Lilian nervously decides to start the conversation. "I think we should tell you... about us."

"Huh?" The cat girl jumps back, startled. "I-I told you I don't swing that way! Really!"

"N-no not that!" Lilian stutters her response. "I'm talking about what Miss Misaki told you last night. My split personality."

"It's a secret you want to keep, right?" Rutile asks. "If you don't want to share it, then I won't ask about it. I have my fair share of secrets too, really."

"B-but..."

(Let it go Lilian.)

"I think I got the basic idea of it though. There really shouldn't be that much more to it than that, really."

"Yeah, you're right." (I hope. I wonder when Isolde will tell me the whole story? If she has memories that I don't, does that mean that she's the original personality? She always lets me take control so I thought I was the original, but...)

"Lilian!" Rutile yells.

"Huh? What?"

"Our ride's here," Rutile points to Misaki waiting in the car.

"Oh sorry."

(Is there something wrong, Lilian?)

"Huh? O-oh, it's nothing. Really."

"Really?" Rutile looks at her friend curiously. "Really what?"

"I-I was talking to Isolde," Lilian explains. "We actually have to talk to each other, we just can't share our thoughts."

"That's weird."

"Tell me about it."

XXX


"Wait for us here," Misaki tells the driver before she meets up with Lilian and Isolde.

"Do you think they're okay?" Lilian ponders.

"I told Kamijou to let her rest the whole day," Misaki answers. "No one in my faction has heard or seen the Railgun today so at least she didn't return to school."

"What if that guy already told her everything? Do we need to be here, really?" Rutile asks.

"We didn't have time to tell him everything," Misaki responds. "And I doubt he'd be any good at explaining anything to her, especially to her. This is the room."

They all stand just outside.

"Kamijou?" Misaki knocks on the door. "Kamijou, are you home?"

They waited a moment.

"What if they're not home?" Lilian asks.

"They're there," Rutile informs. "I can feel Miss Misaka. And... she's charging up, really."

"Charging up?" Misaki asks.

"...aaaaaAAAAHHH!" They hear a scream from inside the room.

The door rumbles. The three girls take a step away from the door. There was yelling inside.

"KYAAAA!"

"WH-WH-WH-WHAT THE HELL?!"

"THAT'S MY LINE!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE KIDNAPPED! AND WHERE AM I? rrrrRRRAAAAGGGHHH!"

The door furiously opens. Touma rushes out, in nothing but a pair of boxers, followed by a large bolt of lightning that strikes Misaki.

"Miss Shokuhou!" Lilian bends down to check on her.

(Pull her away from the doorway. Hurry.)

Lilian pulls Misaki's body away and off to the side.

"I'm... I'm okay... Owwww..." Misaki holds her head in pain. "What just happened?" She looks up to see Rutile blushing red and looking away embarrassed.

"Rutile?" Lilian turns to see what Rutile was shying away from. "Kyaa!" Lilian looks away and closes her eyes.

(Keep your eyes closed, Lilian.)

Isolde takes over and looks back at the half naked Touma.

"Is there a reason you're only wearing that?" Isolde asks.

"It's the only thing I managed to put on before she went berserk on me."

"It's all your fault!" Mikoto yells from the room. "Why didn't you tell me it wasn't a dream?!"

"You thought it was a dream?!" Touma yells back. "What made you think that?!"

"YOU!"

"Me? What part of me looked like a dream?"

"EVERY... thing..." Mikoto's voice drastically shrank with her answer.

There was silence for a moment.

"You said that you only managed to put those on before you were chased out," Isolde restates, while leaning into the doorway. "Does that mean..."

"DON'T COME IN YET!" Mikoto shoots another bolt out the door to scare them away.

"She's... not changed," Touma tries to explain. "This is going to take some time."

"Miss Shokuhou," Rutile speaks suddenly. "You're drooling, really. And I mean really!"

"N-no I'm not!" Misaki hurriedly wipes her lips.

"Shokuhou?!" Mikoto screams from inside the room. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Obviously we're going to discuss what happened yesterday."

"Yesterday..."

"Are we going to do it here?" Touma asked.

"No," Misaki answers bluntly. "I know there's no room in your tiny little apartment. So I booked a certain restaurant for the rest of the evening. Are you ready to go?"

"Like this?" Touma looks at himself.

"That could be a problem," Misaki wipes the drool off of her lips again. "How about I buy you something. I promise you'll like it..." Misaki had a suspicious grin on her face.

"Put these on!" Mikoto yells as some clothes flew out of the apartment.

Misaki and Rutile turn away as Touma gets his clothes.

"Shokuhou," Isolde chats with Misaki while they wait. "Why don't you tell us where the restaurant is, the car was incredibly cramped yesterday."

"It's over that way," Misaki points with her remote. "You can't miss it, my security should have the place surrounded by now."

"Okay, I'll see you there," Isode jumps over the railings, she sprouts ice wings and flies forward.

"Lilian! Wait up!" Rutile jumps over the edge and flies towards her.

Isolde stops and turns around.

"Whoa!" Rutile rams right into Isolde. They stumble in midair, landing in a very thick bush.

"Ow..." Isolde gets up holding her head.

"Nyaaa..." Rutile whined, she was sprawled on top of Isolde. Leaves and branches scattered all over both of them.

"Rutile, can you please get off of me?"

"S-sorry, really."

The cat girl gets off of the ice girl and helps her get up.

"I-I'm not used to stopping and hovering in midair," Rutile starts explaining. "I'd rather use my power to boost my speed and jumps than to actually fly, really."

"It might be worth practicing it a bit more though at least," Isolde suggests. "You never know when you need to suddenly stop in midair."

"Heeheehee..." Rutile smiles and giggles nervously with a hand on the back of her head.

"Come on, let's go the rest of the way on foot."

"Alright, um..."

"Isolde, I'm Isolde."

"Nice to meet you Isolde!" Rutile bows happily.

"Heh, it's nice to meet you too, Rutile." Isolde smiles happily. "I can call you that, right?"

"Of course!" Rutile nods.

"Hey listen, make sure you treat Lilian well, okay? I'll be watching..." Isolde puts two fingers in front of her eyes and points at Rutile, then goes back and forth a little bit.

"A-ahh..." Rutile's eyes widened, whether in shock, fear or confusion Isolde doesn't know.

(Isolde! Don't scare her!)

"Hahaha... I'm just kidding," Isolde laughs. "I know you'll be great friends with her." Isolde ruffles Rutile's head lightly. Rutile puts her hands on her head and looks up, kind of blushing.

(Look what you did.)

"What? What I'd do?"

"That felt... really nice... not even father did that to me..."

"Eh?" Isolde stepped back, surprised.

"Can you... do it again? Please?"

"Uh... Lilian? You want to take over?"

(H-huh? Why?)

"You're more gentle than I am!"

(W-WHAT? F-fine!)

The girls switched. Lilian begins to furiously ruffle Rutile.

"N-not so rough!" Rutile complains. "Slower... hmm..." Rutile seemed relaxed, so much that her legs gave wave and she tumbled forward into Lilian.

(She's just like a cat, or something.)

"Mmm..." Rutile digs her head deeper into Lilian's body. Lilian herself seemed to be enjoying it.

After a couple minutes...

(Hey Lilian, shouldn't we get going?)

"Ah! I almost forgot! We need to meet up with them!"

"Ah! S-sorry! Really!"

"Rutile, I'm going to skate, think you can keep up?"

"Of course! I'm faster than you think, really!"

XXX


"Well," Misaki looks to the side just as she, Touma and Mikoto were about to enter the restaurant.

The two girls meet up with them, Lilian was breathing slightly harder from her ice skating.

"S-sorry," the ice girl apologizes.

"Weren't you supposed to arrive before us?" Misaki asks.

"I-it's my fault, really," Rutile nervously explains.

"Well, you're both here now, and on time, so we'll let it slide."

The five of them take a seat at a table. Misaki in the middle, Lilian and Rutile on one side, Touma on the other. Mikoto just stood at the end of the table, looking at all of them.

"Is there something wrong?"

"I... I'M SO SORRY!" Mikoto bows so hard she hit her head on the table.

"Whoa Misaka!" Touma gets up and puts an arm around her. "Are you alright?"

"No..." She answers solemnly. "Everyone... everyone went through a lot because of me. Especially you. I can't- I don't know what should I-"

"Hey, did I ever blame you for what happened?"

"..." Mikoto looks into his smiling face, his kind eyes...

"If anyone is to blame, it's those card guys." Isolde spoke out. She had taken over half of the body, which includes sharing the mouth.

"I-Isolde?" Lilian's red eye widened in surprise. "When did you-?"

"The last time you blinked. Though I thought it might be better that we share the body for this."

"Card guys?" Misaki asks.

"Oh, right," Isolde realized that they wouldn't know. "Apparently they had a card theme going on and even they didn't realize it. Hamil that uses Joker cards, Sparrow the gets Jacked up, Marian Tenant is a drama Queen, and the leader is good at hacKing."

"Ugh..." Misaki face palms. "That's incredibly bad. In any case, we should start with our orders. Excuse me!" Misaki waves her hand for a server to come to their table.

The five ordered some food as they discussed the plan.

"I should be taken in, arrested." Mikoto tells everyone.

"You really should," Misaki teases. "But you know how the school is. Especially around us."

"So then," Isolde starts. "What happened to all the stuff that was stolen?"

"Luckily for everyone, they were still keeping them," Misaki explains. "Probably because pawning them all at the same time would look suspicious. I need to figure out a way for the authorities to actually capture those guys."

"The easiest way is to use the drama queen's ability on that costume Misaka has," Isolde suggests.

"Or you could just tip the authorities off on their hide out, really," Rutile randomly blurts out.

"That sounds easier," Misaki concurs. "I just need to alter their memories, remove anything related to Misaka and Kamijou. Then everyone is off the hook."

"There's also the fact that Kamijou's been missing for a few days," Isolde reminds everyone.

"I don't think you need to worry about that," Touma scratches his head. "I get involved in a lot of things that send me to the hospital. Thankfully the doctor doesn't ask... much."

"So we just need to beat you up and send you to the hospital?" Misaki asks, smiling.

"Yeah," Touma agreed, momentarily. "What? No! Why would I want to get hurt for that?"

"Even if it's for Misaka?" Misaki teases, with a suspicious smirk.

"We can dump him in the sewers and have some random people find him," Isolde suggests.

"That doesn't sound much better," Lilian brings her thoughts in.

"I can drop a building on him, really," Rutile tells everyone. She was stared at. "What?"

"I think I'll be able to handle this on my own," Touma informs them. "There's someone I know, and as much as I don't want to rely on him for this, he's probably my best bet."

"That mysterious friend and neighbor of yours?" Misaki asks. "He's a tricky one, can you really trust him?"

"Not really, but he's dependable at least."

"Well then," Misaki ponders. "So I'll have to set up the criminals somewhere and tip off Anti-Skill and Judgment. Kamijou here will deal with his disappearances. Is there anything I'm missing?"

"Why?" everyone heard Mikoto ask. "Why did you save him, why are you doing all this?"

"Come now Misaka," Misaki starts. "We each had our own reasons."

"Just how did you find out about all this?"

"My faction at the school likes to keep tabs on you, even without my asking them. As luck would have it, a couple of them overheard your conversations. I dismissed it at first, but then I found out that Kamijou was missing.

I got someone to hack into your phone service so that I can listen in your conversations. Sure enough, Kamijou going missing was related to you, but I wasn't expecting the Magneto to be a part of this as well. Which posed a problem. I needed someone that can follow them from a distance so that their radar doesn't set off, and there was also the possibility of them calling you to force you to fight for them."

"But their radar glitched or something," Lilian cuts in. "It didn't detect my power at all."

"I don't know if that was sheer luck or something else," Misaki wonders. "But it worked out in our favor."

"It wasn't luck," Isolde explains. "It was magic."

"Magic?" Touma asks out loud. "But... you're an Esper. You can't use magic."

"You... know about magic too? Really?" Rutile asks surprisingly.

Mikoto slams her hands on the table. "There's no such thing as magic. It's probably just because Lilian's power is different from everyone else's, she was born with it."

"In any case," Misaki continues on. "You should go back to how you were before. You're no fun when you're like that."

"What do you-?"

There was a spark right by Mikoto's hair. Her head moved liked it was hit with something. Misaki smirks as she put down her remote.

"What the heck was that for?!" Mikoto stood up, angrily. "You want me to zap you?"

"That's more like it," Misaki smiles. "Once everything's fixed and settled we'll be right back to our regularly scheduled hostility. If you feel like owing us anything, then just do that, go back to the way you were."

Mikoto calms down a bit and looks into everyone's faces, which seem to be in agreement.

"Good, cause I can't stand being in the same room as you for a second longer."

"Heh," Misaki smiles. "Likewise, now if all of you are done with your food, please get out of here so that I can concentrate."

XXX


"So what do we do now?" Lilian asks.

"Nothing, really," Isolde answers. "We just wait for Shokuhou to get those card guys caught, and Kamijou has to get himself found."

"I'll need to make a call," Touma sighs. "Not that I want to when it comes to secret stuff, especially with that guy."

"What about Miss Misaka?" Rutile asks.

"I need to get back and take another rest," Mikoto mentions.

"But you just woke up not too long ago," Touma tells her.

Mikoto shoots an incredibly powerful bolt at Touma. Touma blocks it perfectly with his right hand. "We are NOT going to talk about that, or mention it, EVER... AGAIN!" She suddenly calms down and holds her head. "I still can't believe..." The rest was inaudible.

"Miss Misaka?" Lilian tilts her head.

"That goes for you too!" Mikoto points at her and Rutile. "All three of you!"

"Damn," Isolde cursed. "So much for the split personality loophole."

"Misaka," Touma tries to approach her.

"Just..." Mikoto waves her hand out to stop him. "Give me time to sort things out. Okay?"

"Okay, I'll see you then." Touma waved goodbye and walked away.

"We should get going too," Isolde reminds them. "Do you need anything, Misaka?"

"I need something to keep my mind occupied."

"I've got an idea," Lilian speaks up. "Watch this!" The ice girl walks wraps an arm around Rutile from behind.

"What? Hey! What are you... do... hmm... ing...? Mmm..."

Lilian was lightly ruffling Rutile's hair. Rutile had a pleasantly relaxing look on her face. The cat girl's knees weakened and gave way. The two girls drop to the ground, with Lilian still holding on and ruffling the cat girl's hair. Rutile unconsciously tries to cuddle up closer to Lilian.

"Heeheehee," Lilian giggles. "Isn't she just adorable?"

Mikoto can't help but giggle herself. "Hahaha... she's such a cat."

"Don't... saaay... thaaat..." Rutile purred from Lilian's arms.

"I want to pet her," Mikoto moves in.

Rutile jerked around and scurried right behind Lilian. Mikoto stood still, dumbfounded.

"S-sorry..." Rutile apologized while shrinking in behind Lilian.

"I forgot that you're sensitive to electricity..." Mikoto looks at her hand, depressed. She sighs.

"Um..." Rutile crawls out from behind Lilian. "Y-you can try..."

"Are you sure?" Mikoto moves in again, slowly.

Rutile closed her eyes, yet it was obvious that she was getting anxious, even more so the closer that Mikoto got. Rutile is outright trembling.

"NYAA!" Rutile's body disappeared into the air.

Lilian looks upwards to see the cat girl clinging onto a wall of a building, several stories up. "What the heck?"

"There was some static," Mikoto sighs. "It shocked her." Mikoto looks up at Rutile, who looked like a frightened little kitty. "I'll never get to pet her..."

"Ahaha..." Isolde laughs out loud. "Serves you right, I guess. In any case we should all get back, not just to the school, but how we used to be."

"You're right," Mikoto smiles. "Thank you, everyone."

"Rutile!" Lilian calls out. "You coming or what?"

"I-I'm coming!" Rutile jumps off of the wall and joins up with Lilian and Mikoto.

The girls happily made their way back to Tokiwadai.

XXX


Author: And that ends this story, ladies and gentlemen! It'll be a while before my next Index story though, real life and other interests and all that. However, I do have the next few stories that I want to write already in my head, I just have to get the time and incentive to actually write them.

The main purpose of this story was mainly to give Lilian a 'best friend'. You know, like the protagonists of those typical anime school shows always have. Granted I could just have wedged in any of the canon characters into that role, but it felt kind of restrictive if I did that, which is a shame too, I really did like Wannai. Another one of my OCs was originally supposed to fill that role, but that actually proved difficult considering that OC's own story and circumstances, ah well. Now what I need is 'the rival', XD. Actually, Wannai and Awatsuki can fill that position easily, the friendly type of rival. Water vs Ice and Buoyancy vs Gravity, may be toss in Kongou in there to balance out Isolde and mist. Huh. Hmm... (+1 to stories in my head that I want to write).

Oh, I guess I should spill the whole story on how I came up with Rutile. Just like how Lilian is mainly based off of Kula in King of Fighters, Rutile is based off of... Rutile, in Disgaea. Much more blatantly so in fact, especially her appearance, mannerisms and martial arts knowledge. Her gravity powers came from Kat, of Gravity Rush (as well as her 'Katherine' first name), and her speech habit is like from Neneko of Project X Zone (where I was introduced to her, I know she's really from Yumeria). Her last name, 'Sopheria' is from Tales of Graces, and it's a flower, mostly to give a minor link to Lilian (who also has a flowery name). Lastly her fighting style, I used a made up name of "Pisica Feroce", which is 'Fierce' or 'Ferocious' and 'Cat' in Romanian. But what I used was Tekken Tag Tournament 2's Leo's Bajiquan. And I forgot why I made her Romanian... (/lies)

Well, whatever the case, I'll be seeing you all in the next story!