Twist of Fate
Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.
Chapter 7: Bath Time
Academy City glowed with the orange light of the sunset as a loud sound streak across the streets.
"I can't believe you got a motorcycle." Touma said as he held onto Itsuwa.
"Yeah." Itsuwa blushed feeling his grip around her waist get tighter. "The rest of the Amakusa gave it to me as a going away gift. They said it would come in handy being alone in the city."
"Whoo!" Index shouted in side car besides them. Index acted like it was a roller coaster instead of a bike speeding past cars on a busy street. Index even waved her arms in the air.
Touma in the meantime tried not to think of any of this as a good luck because misfortune would soon to follow if it was. He tried to think that it was just Hamazura trying to rid himself of some guilt for setting Sogiita on him. Soon enough the motorcycle arrived at the bathhouse. They parked the bike nearby and disembarked.
"Hey boss." Hamazura greeted them at the entrance.
"Hey." Touma greeted him. "You remember Index and this is Itsuwa."
"Nice to meet you." Hamazura smiled at her. "So she's your girlfriend?"
"Huh?!" Was the generally what the trio yelled.
"No, she's just a friend." Touma explained though that didn't stop Itsuwa from blushing like it was going out of style.
Soon enough they headed inside, the girls went to one area and the boys to another. After putting their clothes in the lockers they headed into the baths.
Touma and Hamazura chatted a bit as they walked into the bath room. "Did you wait long?" Touma asked his fellow level zero.
"Not really. " Hamazura told him. "My girlfriend and our friends came too. They went in just before me, they're girls so I couldn't go in with them anyway."
They walked into the large shared bath and let out a sigh as they sunk into the hot water.
"Hey it's you!" Sogiita shouted.
"Huh?" Touma was more than a little surprised to see the esper there. "What are you doing here?"
"That frog faced doctor gave me a pass here. He said it would ease my muscles and help my bruises to have a long bath."
"Oh, sorry about that." Touma knew he was the one responsible for those very bruises.
"Don't worry. I challenged you to the fight. I gotta hone up to my guts to be a match for yours."
The three of them settles into the water hoping to enjoy a nice and relaxing stay. There were other people there enjoying their passes but this small group didn't really take them in, they simple talked about everyday things. And they did the typical guy thing of not looking down to avoid making things weird between anyone. Sorry to any ladies who thought some yaoi would happen but that's what really what guys do in this sort of of places.
In the women's locker room a group of friends gathered in to make use of the baths since they too won some passes. It should be noted that just about everyone who went to the lottery stand would have won some passes. If Touma had tried the lottery he would been the one out of a hundred visitors who would have gotten a pack of tissues with the bath house logo on it though.
Anyway Mikoto found herself being dragged into the bath house by Kuroko because she left the group without saying anything.
"Come along Onee-sama." The teleporter literally dragged Mikoto along.
Kuroko wasn't sure why but her roommate seemed less energetic than usual.
Mikoto sighed, "Are you sure this is what you should be doing? You were hurt."
"Don't worry about it." Kuroko simply waved her off. "The doctor said I should just take it easy. A nice visit to a bath house with my beloved onee-sama would do more to heal me than a week into the hospital." Kuroko quickly jumped onto her roommate and embraced her.
"Kuroko, don't make me shock you near water or else you might not survive." Mikoto said with a straight face knowing what might be in that teleporter's mind.
"I'll be sure to remember that." Kuroko forced a grin despite the threat.
If Mikoto let out sparks near water, even my accident, it could certainly be dangerous.
"So what about those collars?" Uiharu's voice rang out.
"Anti-Skill didn't find anything about them. From what they could tell it was some sort of experimental collars used to override a person's mind. It seems to work by feeding their senses false information but it also kept the higher thinking parts of their brains from working." Konori explained to the younger girl. "They were actually lucky that the collars got broken when they did, any longer and they would have been risking serious damage to their bodies."
"So someone put those collars on them? Saten chimed in as she put her clothes in one of the lockers provide by the bath house.
"It seems that way. They're still unconscious so we can't question them. We still don't know how they got out of their cells."
"It looks like someone got them out and then put those collars on them." Uiharu summed it all down. "Maybe you can get a telepath to look into their minds and see the last thing they saw."
"I already tried that. The telepath couldn't get anything. They might had those collars put on them when they were asleep."
So the terrifying thought of being removed from your bed and then having someone take control of your body was unsettling enough so Konori changed the subject. "Kuroko! Mikoto! You made it." Konori took out her glasses and put them in the locker along with her other items. The three girls all had a towel wrapped around them already.
"Yes, we did." The pig tailed girl smiled at her sempai. "You go ahead, we'll change out of our clothes and meet you inside."
The three girls agreed and walked into the bath room. There was a large bath almost the size of a pool, the water was dyed a peach pink and it had the sweet smell of peaches too. The room was refreshingly warm to the girls coming in from the chilly autumn air. The girls didn't hesitate to get into the warm and inviting water. As the slipped into the warm water they let out a pleased sighs.
"Maybe a pass for a year would make a good gift?" A voice spoke out.
"What?" Konori looked over to a few feet away where Seria who said those words to Misaki sat. "It's you again."
"That's a coincidence." Seria said surprised to see Konori again. One would think these weren't a coincidence.
Seria was smart, smart enough to realize that Konori was yet another rival in love.
"Was this planned out?" Saten questioned them. "Her too?"
Saten pointed to another area of the bath to were a silver haired girl was next to a familiar purple haired girl. Sensing they were being watched both girls turned their heads. Index shrunk done behind Itsuwa seeing the blonde buxom beauty and the dark haired girl besides her. Itsuwa just stared in confusion.
"All of Kamijou's cheerleaders in one place." Saten started to tease playfully.
"This wasn't planned." Itsuwa said in a vain attempt to stop the implications.
"Oh, so what do you really think about it Kamijou?" Saten asked. "I mean none of you seemed to have any trouble getting in those skimpy cheerleader uniforms for him."
"They weren't that skimpy!" Itsuwa shouted in attempt to get them to believe her or more accurately trying to convince herself that wasn't that skimpy. They were rather skimpy.
"Keep down over there!" Another young woman yelled from the other side of the large tub. "W'ere trying to relax over here!"
The other's tried to stay quiet after that outburst but Itsuwa's face remained beet red. Though the other girls weren't any less red themselves. An uneasy silence fell on the group but that was when Mikoto and Kuroko. Kuroko had no problem discarding her towel and slipping into the water but Mikoto was different. Mikoto got in the water with her towel still on since she was a little shy in these kind of situations.
The electromaster's eye twitched. "What are you doing here?!" Mikoto pointed an accusing finger at the Queen.
"I'm taking a bath, what does it look like I'm doing?" Misaki coyly replied.
"I said be quiet!" The same girl as before made her way over. "This is a public place and you should stay quiet!"
Mikoto's eyes widened. "You?!"
It was the one and only Meltdowner.
"You essentially made Mugino angry." A small blonde haired girl swam besides her. Fremea's wet hair was soaked and cascaded down her body. The usual fluffy hair looked more like damp towels just hanging down.
"Oh, you are super in trouble." Noted the ever super Kinuhata.
Besides her floating like a dead body in a lake was Takitsubo. Takitsubo was so motionless and faced down in the water that Mikoto started to get worried.
"Huh?" Mikoto pointed cringing at very words she was about to say, "Is she alright? She kinda looks like she drowned."
"I'm fine." Takitsubo raised her head, her face was devoid of any noticeable emotions.
"Oh, Number Four how good it is to see you again." Misaki greeted her in a polite manner.
"Shut it Mental Out." She spat back at her. It didn't seem like any of the level fives liked each other. "Now Railgun can you and your friends stay quiet so we can relax?"
Mikoto glared at the other girl, after the incident with her sisters she didn't exactly trust ITEM.
"Don't fight here." A quiet voice spoke up.
They all turned around to a girl with long black hair sitting there in the water.
"What?!" No one there seemed to notice her at all until that moment.
"Himegami! How long have you been here?!" Index shouted at her friend.
"We've been here since before anyone you arrived." Himegami turned to the red haired girl next to her.
"You!" Kuroko developed dark aura around her when she noticed the familiar girl.
Awaki looked around confused, "That is weird. No one really notices you." She looked at Himegami. "Even me just sitting next to you makes me unnoticed. What is your power?"
"Apparently it's being unnoticed and killing vampires."
Awaki gave her confused look after hearing that strange comment.
"What are you doing here?!" Kuroko glared at the other teleporter.
As the argument started Mikoto noticed that many of the people she couldn't stand had gathered there. Mugino the Meltdowner that nearly killed her, Mental Out who frustrated her, Index who she argued with almost every time they ran into one another and Awaki who tried to rebuilt Tree Digram. As she looked around she started to notice something else, that almost everyone there beat her when it came to bust size and that included some of the girls that were younger than her. Mikoto lost the will to fight and sunk into the water.
"What's wrong with short hair?" Index looked at her afraid she would drown.
"Maybe we should just go." Himegami suggested to Awaki.
"Yeah, we've soaked long enough."
"Onee-sama! I will save you with the kiss of life!" The teleporter proclaimed.
"Kuroko! Don't do that!" Konori tried to stop her. "That's not where you give her CPR!"
"I said be quiet!" Mugino shouted again.
"Don't fire in the water. It could be super dangerous!" Kinuhata warned her.
After changing back into their clothes Himegami and Awaki stepped outside of the baths deciding to go home.
"Hey." They didn't expect to find Touma and two other men. They didn't seem to be causing any trouble just enjoying by the cool evening air. Night had fallen but lights kept the area around the bath house with enough light. "Hey Himegami and Awaki."
She might not have stood out but there were times that he actually saw her, and he would talk to her and give Himegami that smile that made her heart race.
Himegami was silent until Awaki gave her a nudge in her ribs. "Are you waiting for Index?"
"Yeah." Touma smiled at her.
For a girl who went by so unnoticed by everyone to be spoken to by the guy she liked was what she wanted the most. After watching so many die because of her and having to relive their screams and death rattles in her nightmares most would say the girl deserved such humbles joys.
Still the world is not to kind to let such joys last forever.
The next thing they heard was the sound of metal crashing onto cement and the cement cracking. The group then saw three large Powered Suits coming off a large black track in the nearby parking lot. In a city with technology so advance such sights were not particularly unique but that still stood out. They were tall and silver, without a bit of paint on them, they looked fresh out of the factory.
Then all three suit turned to a certain unfortunate boy and then they ran towards him.
"Touma!" Himegami shouted her heart suddenly filled with fear.
The suits moved so fast that that in a blink of the eye it was inches away from Touma.
"Amazing Punch!" Sogiita roared as he enflamed fist suddenly struck the suit closes to Touma and knocked it away and into a car. The other two suits stopped and moved back to access the situation.
Sogiita stood before Touma taking a deep breath. "So today is the day, the robots finally decide to take over the human race! Me and my guts will stop you gutless machines!"
What movie is has he been watching.
"Those are powered suits, you moron!" Awaki yelled at him. "There are pilots in them."
Hamazura who had seen the suits before went to check on the suit that was now embedded into a car. He had hoped to removed the pilot before he could get up. Sogiita's punch was enough to knock the head piece off the new suit and as he looked inside he was overcome with shock.
"I don't think anyone is in it." Hamazura said pulling out some wires. "There are wire and machines in where the pilot should be. I think someone is using a remote control." Realizing that himself he started to tear apart the insides to make sure it would get up.
One of the two remaining suits raised it's arm and pointed it's side gun right at Touma. The air grew hot as a bright red laser shot out straight at Touma. Sogiita stood before him and raised his shield. The bright red light struck the shimmering wall with a blazing boom.
Sogiita grunted. "What did you do to upset the robot army?"
"I don't know! it's just my usual rotten luck."
The laser attack stopped and Sogiita sighed letting down his shield. The moment he relaxed the other suits rush in and grabbed the powerful esper.
"Amazing kick!" Like his punch his foot was engulfed in the fire like energy and without much thought he kicked the arm that grabbed him. Metal was torn apart and the arm fell away. Sogiita fell backwards the robotic hand still grabbing his abdomen. The damaged power suit turned back to Touma, Touma was powerless against it and he had no idea how his fist would deal with something like that. That was when Hamazura jumped on the titan like machine's back. The blond delinquent struggled to rip the head piece off. Hamazura had some experience with the suits and managed to reach the emergency hatch release and pulled it. The second the suits opened up he hurried and took out the devices that allowed it to be controlled by remote. The suit became little more than a metallic statue after that.
The smell of melting metal filled the air as the others notice that Sogiita was using his laser vision to melt the hand that had him in it's grip.
Finally he broke free, "The last one is mine."
That was when the final suit just punched Sogiita, hitting him before he could react. The esper was tossed aside with so much for he cracked the wall he hit. Then the machine turned its attention to Touma and reached for him and the unlucky boy just barely dodged it.
"I'll get him out of here." Awaki told Himegami before she vanished.
The red haired girl appeared next to Touma and grabbed him. The power suit pointed it's laser right at them.
"Let's get out of here." Awaki tighten her grip on him and then tried to teleport. "What? Nothing is happening."
The tip of the gun started to glow an unnatural red as it's aim changed from Touma to Awaki. It didn't much to figure that the puppet master behind the machines had decided she was too much trouble. Awaki tried to teleport again but it failed, it seemed that her power whenever she needed them never worked. To her credit she didn't think of abandoning Touma, if she realized that he was the one keeping her from teleporting she might have thought about leaving him behind though.
"Look out!" Touma yelled as the blast was fired and with his full might Touma pushed her away and took the blast instead. The red light tore through his side and he collapsed to the ground. The smell of burnt flesh floated around them, Awaki could throw up at the realization that it smelled like roasted pig. The blast tore through his side, the hole was a clean tear about the side of a golf ball just below his left ribs. He clenched his jaw as he tried to ride out the pain.
"Why did you do that? Why did you take the hit?!" Awaki said in shock, trying to wrap her mind to why he would do something that could kill him.
"Do I need a reason?" He forced a smile as he answered her. "I just wanted to protect you."
Himegami made her way over and bent down to his side. Tears filled her eyes as she saw how badly he was hurt, though the laser cauterized the wound there were still sprinkles of blood around him and the promise that more would come if he wasn't treated soon. After all she had been through she didn't want to see blood again and certainly not from him.
Hamazura ran over to him next and took off his orange sweater and placed it on the wound in an attempt to stop any more blood from spilling out. Maybe it was for the better but that was when Touma passed out.
Sogiita on the other hand was furious. His eyes were ablaze with anger and his mind was burning with that rage that he didn't even bother to speak. He put all the power he could muster into his fist and raced towards the last standing suit. He leapt into the air and then everything changed. A loud noise filled the air and the energy around his fist vanished and his head ached. With one swipe of its arm the suit flicked the esper away like he was nothing but a bug.
Inside the bath most of other customers left since they were tired of the argument that was happening in the bath, the girls squabbled with one another and then they were silent. Suddenly a great pain over took them and they held their heads in pain. Itsuwa, Index, Saten and Seria seemed to be the only one's unaffected.
"What's happening to them?" Index questioned the events before her.
'"I've seen this before." Saten murmured as she was forced to watch her friends in pain.
Back outside Hamazura watched as Himegami, Sogiita and Awaki writhed in pain.
"It's Capacity down." Hamazura had never seen it first hand but he heard what it did from other members of Skill-Out. The loud noise in his ears and the espers pain was enough proof for him. Hamazura got up and tried to block them from the oncoming suit but he was only tossed to the side with a second delay.
A few minutes later the girls went outside to see what was going on. Their heads had hurt but then it stopped. Only slowing down to get dressed they hurried outside when the pain passed.
When they got outside they got the found Sogiita holding his side as he sat on the ground. Awaki, who tried to fight off the suit once more to only get her arm broken, was now being tended to by Himegami.
"What happened here?" Konori looked around.
"They took him…." Awaki groaned out as Himegami put her arm in a makeshift sling made of Hamazura's orange sweater.
"That's Hamazura's." Takitsubo's eyes widened as she spotted it. "What happened?"
Sogiita stared at them, "Those robot suits showed up and attacked us. They managed to hurt Kamijou with a laser and just left taking him, it didn't take it's buddies either." He glanced over at the suits they managed to beat.
"What?"! Mikoto was outraged. "Why didn't you stop it?! You one of the level five!" In a fit of anger she kicked him in his side.
He hissed out and pain and collapsed on his side. Mikoto gasped as she noticed his shirt started to turn red as his blood seeped out.
"What?" Mikoto muttered.
"My power's aren't at a hundred percent." Sogiita explained. "I'm sore and bruised from my fight with him. I can't concentrate and it takes a lot more for me to use my power at a lower level. The suits managed to land a few good hits on me. If it was few days from now and my guts were in shape they wouldn't have stood a chance…."
"You need to get to a doctor. You all do." Konori noted as she took out her cell phone.
"What happened to Hamazura?" Takitsubo's eyes pleaded for an answer.
"The blond guy? He's got guts." Sogiita grinned. "Even after it flung him off he tried." Him being a level zero kept him from being hurt by Capacity Down so he could still get up and do something. "The suit took Kamijou onto a black truck and drove off. He took a car and followed them."
"We have to find them." Takitsubo replied.
"Yeah, he might be an idiot but Hamazura is a member of ITEM and we can't let anyone make us look bad." Mugino growled out the words.
"Hey where did Fremea go?" Kinuhata noticed that the girl was missing.
Soon Anti-Skill arrived and they got the hurt to the hospital. They also examined the suits and found out they had recently stolen and the news about Touma being taken made it all the worse for them. It was particularly bad since one of the Anti-Skill Officers was a teacher at his school.
In a windowless building Aleister Crowley watched various screen unfold with information. He was unusually worried, he had not planned for this. This scenario was overlooked and even he didn't know where Touma was. Whoever was behind this was smart enough to stay hidden. He started to come up with plans to correct this. He decided that the common method in finding Touma might work.
On screens across the city the news broke out. A young female reporter with just a touch too much hair spray spoke to the camera. "Anti-Skill asking for the public's help tonight. A high school Student named Touma Kamijou was was attacked and kidnapped earlier today." Touma's picture was flashed on the screen. "The attacker remains unknown but attacked Kamijou and four other people before leaving with the unconscious student. If anyone has seen or knows anything about his whereabout please contact Anti-Skill."
The news cast continued on but many people couldn't focus on the rest of it.
"Did girls finally get sick of waiting, Kamijou?" Aogami watched the news in his room. "Have they taken you to away to keep other girls away from you?"
Komoe watched the news in utter shock, "Kamijou! You've been kidnapped?! How much trouble have you gotten yourself in now?"
"The savior has been taken! Misaka says in shock." Last order spoke loudly as she watched television.
"What trouble has that hero gotten into?" Accelerator mumbled as he sat next to the small clone.
"I'll get his room ready." The Heaven Canceler sighed as he watched the news cast in the hospital break room.
"The savior has been taken, we must go out to find him. Misaka says to the other sisters." The sisters gathered in their room after finding out about Touma from Last Order. Misaka 10032 and the other sister got ready to search for Touma.
ITEM got a call from Fremea that she would find and rescue Touma and Hamazura so they got ready to find the three of them and probably save them too.
Fremea found herself in a dark alley after night and yelled out, "Help me, rhinoceros beetle!"
After a moment a small white beetle flew towards her and then with a wisp of white smoke the beetle was replaced with a young man with white colored skin and shimmering green eyes.
He spoke with a calm smooth voice and gave her a gentle smile. "Fremea, it's been sometime."
"Hello Beetle! Essentially we have a problem, people are in danger and you are going to help me saved them." The small girl smiled triumphantly.
With that a race was set off, people all over would set of to find the keeper of imagine breaker not knowing that time was running out and what disasters awaited for them.
It was only a question of who would be lucky enough to find Touma first and would they get there in time.
Author's Notes: Okay another chapter is done for the next one Touma wouldn't be in the role of the hero. But who will ultimately save the luck challenged boy. Without a doubt the girls are going to get involved with hopes to win his favor. After the next chapter a magic arc will start and Komoe will have a role in that one. Special shout out to Loopsey who was the 100th reviewer. Go look at their stuff I really like To Ascend and suggest you read that. Anyway leave a review if you please. I'm also starting a new job tomorrow so I hope i can keep up with the posts as often as I've been doing. Also can someone explain Takitsubo powers and how they are now after giving up body crystal I'm a little confused about her power.