Author's Note: Well it's been a while. Remember how I said it shouldn't take that long to update unless I got busy? Well that happened. I'd like to say future updates will be very fast but I shouldn't promise that. We'll just have to see.

At 18:00 exactly Kamijou Touma's train of thought was broken when for the third time that day he was hit by a tazer. "Kihara Nami!?" He managed to sputter out as the electricity surged through him. For once Touma planted his feet and held his ground. He did not collapse from the pain, unlike the other two times.

Kihara Nami was standing beside him. Even though he had knocked her out with her own contact poison and left her in the street, she was still there. "Did you really think that was all it would take?" She asked him. "That just because you beat me once I would never bother you again?"

Touma cursed. He had had no choice but to leave her lying alone in the street, since until very recently Anti-Skill had been dealing with too many problems to help him. Apparently as soon as the poison had worn off she had started tracking him again.

Kihara Nami pulled something out of her lab coat in a smooth motion but before she could use it Touma's fist collided with her face. Her head snapped backwards and she lost her footing. "Gah!" She cried out in pain. Touma relentlessly followed up with two more punches before she could regain control of the situation.

She dodged his fourth punch by a hair and pointed the weapon in her hand at him. "If you surrender now I won't have to kill you." She told him. "That would be the most efficient way to do this."

"Why is this so important to you?" Touma asked her. "Why are you willing to kill me just to study my right hand?"

She tilted her head slightly and answered. "For science of course."

"For that stupid of a reason huh?"

"There is nothing in this world with greater value than science. That is something that every Kihara knows. Will you surrender?"

She took Touma's silence as a no and pulled the trigger.

Once again a burst of wind so powerful it looked unnatural shot out of the weapon in her hand. The force of the wind knocked Touma off his feet and felt like his entire body had been smacked with a hammer. A dozen tiny objects shot out propelled by the wind, the same things that had cut up Touma's side earlier. A hero from a story would have gotten away with just a few scratches, but Touma was the paragon of misfortune. About ten of them hit him at various parts of his body, mostly in his torso and one right over his heart.

He screamed in pain and writhed around on the ground in a futile effort to somehow get away.

Kihara's foot stomped onto his shoulder and she aimed her odd weapon at him once again. Touma's eyes locked onto it and he couldn't help but notice how much it looked like a handgun.

"That was the weakest form of ammunition." She explained as she ground her heel into his shoulder. "Like most of my equipment it was designed to stun without killing. Those razors that are currently cutting into you are only about half a centimeter deep. They were designed to stop like that. Enough pain to prevent you from fighting back without significant risk to your life. However I have plenty of lethal kinds that I can easily use." As Touma watched she opened the back of the gun like a shotgun and pulled out some kind of ammunition from her pocket. "Now let me ask you one final time. Will you-"

Before she finish her sentence Touma her leg with his left hand and pulled as hard as he could. He was using his weak hand but she was a short woman, who obviously spent far more time sitting in a laboratory than she spent fighting or working out. He was easily able to make her lose her balance and fall over.

While Kihara Nami was lost in confusion Touma grinned in sheer relief. If he had been stabbed by as many of those razors as it had looked like he would no doubt have been unable to fight back. However something simple had prevented that. He was wearing a shirt he had gotten from an Anti-Skill officer. A shirt that was bulletproof. Other than two cuts on his legs and one on his left arm he was completely unharmed.

Now that they were both on the ground Touma grappled with Kihara Nami. He did not have any training that he knew of but he was easily able to overpower the woman and hold her down so that she was unable to escape. In response she swung her head backwards to head-butt him and make him loosen his grip for just a few seconds.

Apparently what she lacked in strength she made up for in limberness because in those few seconds she managed to disentangle herself from Touma completely. He tried to grab her again but she was already rolling onto her feet and running away. For a brief second Touma entertained the idea that she was running away for good now but she only ran far enough away that she was able to reload her odd gun and turn around to point it at him without him having the time to catch up to her.

She was visibly panting at him now. "Enough of this. I'm just going to kill you and study your dead body."

Touma's mind raced. He was still on the ground with one arm awkwardly paused in the position of lifting himself up, leaving him unable to even get close to dodging out of the way. There was nothing near him that he could throw at her. She was too far away for him to reach her before she pulled the trigger. Her face was covered in a wicked grin and he knew nothing he could say would sway her. In the span of three seconds Touma realized he was about to die.

Then he saw something falling through the sky and every muscle in his body relaxed at once.

One second Kihara Nami was standing over him and staring at him with a mad smile on her face and the next a white figure crashed into her and knocked her away with casual ease. In one touch she was rendered unable to fight and Touma's life was saved.

The number one esper of Academy City, Accelerator, had arrived.

"Thanks." Touma sighed in relief as he pulled himself to his feet.

"Who was she?" Accelerator asked him.

"Kihara Nami." Accelerator's mouth tightened when Touma said Kihara but he didn't say anything. "She was trying to cut off my right arm and study it."

"Is this involved with what's happening to Anti-Skill?"

"No, I already solved that about fifteen minutes ago." Touma told him. Then he explained about how he had been meeting the cursed Anti-Skill members all day, how they all kept repeating the term 'Discordianism' and how he had gone to Anti-Skill headquarters to fix the problem.

"Tch. What a fucking bother." Was all Accelerator said about it.

"By the way do you have a phone?" Touma asked. "I need to call Anti-Skill."

"I'll take her there myself." Accelerator offered. "I already need to go there. This damn idol is such a pain." Without another word and without a goodbye Accelerator grabbed the unconscious woman, flicked the switch on his collar, and took off into the sky like a bird.

"Idol?" Touma asked the empty street. The mental image of Accelerator putting up with a spoiled and pampered idol made him want to fall over laughing. Hopefully the idol was someone humble like Arisa had been, for both their sakes.

Now that the problem of Kihara Nami was once and for all solved Touma began running towards the estate that the mind controlling magicians who had kidnapped Fukiyose lived in. The time for the duel was approaching and he knew that he couldn't afford to be late.

As he ran Touma began to wish that he was able to drive. He was covered in injuries and even though some of them had been bandaged up by the Islamic cabal they still hurt and he had plenty of fresh ones. Not to mention the simple fact that he had been running around and getting in fights for over six hours now. He was exhausted both mentally and physically.

"Damn what kind of weak resolve do I have?" Touma asked himself.

He still had to rescue Fukiyose. He still had to help the Amakusa's defeat the demon summoners who had snuck into Academy City. He clenched his fist and kept running, ignoring the pain and exhaustion with all his willpower.

Halfway through his run Touma ran into yet another misfortunate situation.

Shokuhou Misaki the number five level five was running towards him. Or sprinting to be more exact. She was staring at the ground and panting as she ran, and Touma didn't think she could even see him.

"Shokuhou-san!" He yelled at her. "Are you alright? What's happening?"

Misaki collapsed into his arms, although he hadn't actually been holding them out for her. "Had. To. Run." She panted.

Three people who looked absurdly futuristic, even for Academy City, stepped out of a nearby alleyway. All of them were wearing giant white metal helmets that were about a foot tall and a foot wide. Their faces were the faces of normal highschool students. Two were women and one was a man.

"What did you do to her!?" Touma screamed at them. "Why is she panting like this?"

"Actually, we've only been chasing her about a block." One of the women deadpanned. "I don't know why she's so exhausted."

Shokuhou pulled out a remote control from her bag and pointed it at the woman, pushing the buttons repeatedly. "Turn on the others." She commanded.

The woman just looked at her with a slight smirk on her face.

"The helmets work!" The other woman practically sang. "This is such a genius design Ikoma-kun."

The man blushed a little and said "Thanks."

"That's not what I mean! Why are you attacking her!?" Touma cut in.

"There's really no point in explaining it to you. You're obviously just being mind-controlled by her. I highly doubt this was a chance meeting, where you just happened to know her and just happen to feel obligated to help her instead of running away. You would have to be an incredibly misfortunate person for that to happen." The calm woman explained.

"Please don't remind me."

"That's right." Ikoma said. "I hate to involve an innocent person in this but we should just get you out of our way."

"Sorry about this! We'll explain it you when you get released from her mind control!" The other, more excitable, woman yelled out as she pointed her left hand a few feet beside Touma. There water burst out of the ground, likely from a pipe, and shot out at Touma like it was coming from a fireman's hose. Touma's right hand blocked the water before it could blast him away and it immediately left the girls control and began to fall uselessly to the ground.

"An esper!" Ikoma cried out. He stepped in front of the excitable girl in one massive step, facing Touma with a look of determination in his eyes.

Touma took one step forward with his fist clenched but that was as far as he got.

The water as his feet rose again under the water-esper's control. This time however instead of going to attack him it coiled around his legs like a snake. The thick cords of water held him in place and wouldn't let go. Then quicker than he could react the water turned to ice, solidifying in place. He strained against it but the ice was so thick that he couldn't even begin to break it. He was anchored to the ground.

Touma leaned over to blow the ice away with his right hand but nothing happened. "What?" He asked out loud. There was nothing he could do now. The water had already turned to ice and wasn't being controlled by the woman anymore. He couldn't destroy it with his right hand any more than he could destroy ash caused by a magical fire.

"That's such a clever trick Kimio-san." Ikoma said with admiration.

This time it was Kimio's turn to blush. "Thank you."

"Don't be so pleased with yourselves." Misaki declared. She lifted her foot up in an exaggerated motion and kicked at the ice surrounding Touma's legs. "All I have to do is break this ice and-!" Her foot hit the ice with a loud yell.

Nothing happened. There wasn't even a crack.

"How weak are you?" The calm girl asked with a look of disgust.

"Shut up!" Shokuhou yelled back at her. Then she took off again.

The other three caught up to her easily, with just a few steps. They surrounded her but did not touch her, and laughed to themselves every time that she tried to mind control one of them.

"Now it's time for you to pay." Ikoma said.

"I've been waiting a long time for this." Kimio added.

"I've prepared a lot of things for you to suffer through." The calm girl told her with a sinister smile on her face.

"I'm not going to let that happen!" Touma denied hotly. He strained twice as hard against the ice holding him down but it was to no avail.

Kimio broke away from the others and stepped up to him with a look of concern on her face. "I am very sorry about this." She confessed to him. "I don't want to attack anyone just because that woman is controlling them. I will make sure to properly apologize to you when you are freed from her control as well." She bowed down to him, the perfect image of proper Japanese politeness.

Touma reached over and grabbed the helmet right off of her head.

For a second none of the three attackers registered what had happened and that was all it took for Shokuhou Misaki to act. The two still surrounding her sprang at her as quick as they could but when they reached her it was already too late. She had pressed the button on her remote and said in a carefree voice "Knock the helmets off of the others."

The water that hadn't been turned to ice reached up like fingers towards the remaining two attackers. They tried to flee but neither of them made it very far before the water reached up and grabbed the helmets off of their heads. The calm girl at least had the presence of mind to try and hold her helmet down but that didn't save her for long.

"Hold perfectly still." Misaki commanded with a click of her remote. The two fleeing attackers both stopped in mid step and didn't run any more. "Release him." She commanded Kimio with another press of her remote.

The ice holding Touma down turned to water again and flew away, leaving him with nothing but wet pant legs to remember the experience by. "Thank you." Touma told her.

"Shouldn't I be thanking you for coming to my rescue?" Misaki asked him with a smirk. "And shouldn't I give you a reward for saving me?"

"No thank you!" Touma blurted out. With the way his day was going he had no doubt that would quickly lead to Index biting him or Misaka frying him with electricity. "What were those helmets?" He asked, more to change the topic then from any actual curiosity.

"They make them able to resist my mind control." Misaki explained. "I encountered something like this when I was younger but those weren't nearly strong enough to block my current power… This boy must have really gone overboard to impress that girl."

"Why were they attacking you, anyways?"

"They caught on to how I control the girl's minds every now and then." She said causally.

"So it was for something as stupid as… What?"

"Sometimes I take control of their minds when I need a water esper or want someone to check around outside for me." Misaki explained calmly. "That guy caught on and informed them, so they decided to get some revenge."

Touma just stared at her blankly for a while.

Then he exploded.

"What!? That makes you sound like the villain here! No, not just sound like! You definitely were the villain! You were the bad guy here!"

"Don't be silly, is there something so wrong with borrowing someone else's mind for a little while?"

"Of course there is! That's obvious! That's the kind of ethics a kindergartener would understand! Release them!"

Misaki sighed and pointed her remote at her victims. "Leave here and forget how to make those helmets, and that you ever attacked me." Then she pointed her remote at the calm girl in particular. "As punishment you have to fall in love with Ikoma too to create a vicious love triangle."

"How petty can you get!?" Touma cried out in despair.

"Of course I can't allow people to attack me without repercussions."

Touma just sighed.

"I have to go. I have a duel to get to." He told her. He had wasted enough time with the fight and he refused to be too late to save Fukiyose.

"A duel? Are you a medieval knight now? Well I suppose saying things like that is pretty typical for you."

"What?" Touma asked but he didn't have time to stick around. "Nevermind, I'll see you later!"

Then he took off running again, heading straight towards the estate. It would have been very easy for him to get turned around and not able to find a place he had only been to once considering how much he had been running around the city today but Touma had had a lot of experience running around randomly. He knew how to keep track of where he was. He couldn't count the amount of times he would have gotten lost without that skill.

Inevitably he found his way to his destination to see Itsuwa standing around outside with the guards and looking panicked.

"What's wrong?" He asked her when he ran up to her.

"Why haven't you been answering my calls?" She asked him. "I was worried about you."

"Ah, sorry." He told her. "My cellphone broke. Such misfortune"

Itsuwa let out a sigh that was half relief and half irritation. "So that's all it was. Are you ready?"

Touma turned his gaze to the estate. Fukiyose was in there. A normal person with no connection to magic had been kidnapped and mind-controlled for the amusement of a group of magicians. He clenched his right fist as hard as he could and said "Yes." With every ounce of determination he possessed poured into that one word.

Itsuwa followed him as he marched into the estate.

The time changed to 19:00.

Author's Note continued: Two things. First of all, some of you assumed that Kihara Nami was already down and out. That was never my intention and that's why I had Touma remark on how he couldn't call Anti-Skill when he beat her last time. To clarify, this time she is down for good. And secondly if you're wondering what Accelerator was talking about when he mentioned that idol, then rest assured you didn't miss something. That will be a part of a fanfiction I eventually plan to write where Accelerator has to look after an idol that will crossover with this one.