Disclaimer: To Aru Majutsu no Index and all associated characters, settings, and concepts are the intellectual property of Kazuma Kamachi and ASCII Media Works, and I claim no ownership.


_VOLUME 1_

Chapter 8

Dark Steel

Clarity_of_MIND.

Part 1

"O'Reilly!"

The red-haired Esper known as Arakuyo Kenji charged towards the white-robed magician who

had carelessly slung Miyako Mizuki over his shoulder and was trying to get away.

Unimpeded, Brian O'Reilly seemingly possessed enough speed to vanish completely, moving from in front of Miyako to behind her before she could even catch a glimpse of him. However, with Miyako over his shoulders, the magician's speed dropped considerably.

On top of that, whatever it was that had given Kenji the power to throw a creature made out of heavy stone ten meters with a single punch had also given the Esper an incredible boost of speed.

O'Reilly wouldn't be able to dodge at all in this situation.

Kenji closed the remaining gap between himself and O'Reilly and reeled his arm back in preparation.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

The red-haired Esper brought his fist forwards with tremendous speed, and the attack was dead on to hit O'Reilly square in the stomach.

Even having seen what the tremendous force of this new Kenji's punch could do, the white-robed magician merely stood there with a blank expression on his face.

Just before Kenji's punch made contact with O'Reilly, Earthwyrm jumped to his feet and moved in between the Esper and his master. Planting himself firmly on the ground, Earthwyrm blocked Kenji's attack with his arms crossed in front of him defensively.

Even after having been thrown ten meters, and even with the deep cracks running all the way through Earthwyrm's stone head, the golem was still able to move fast enough to block Kenji's punch.

Instead of flying back like last time, Earthwyrm had been prepared for the force of the impact. The stone golem only moved back a few centimeters along the ground.

Even still, having withstood the entire force of impact from the red-haired Esper's punch, Earthwyrm's arms began to crack. Within moments, cracks spread through the stone golem's forearms and his hands began to crumble and break away, stopping just above the elbow.

"Tch," Earthwyrm gritted his teeth.

Kenji took a few steps back to distance himself from Earthwyrm and frowned.

Earthwyrm's strength and speed were greater than they were the last time Kenji fought, but even still, with a single punch Kenji was able to break the stone golem's arms.

"I've already won this battle. I'm stronger than Earthwyrm now, and as long as I keep his arms like that-"

"Heh, I know what you're thinking, Esper…"

Earthwyrm looked up at Kenji and smirked as best as he could with his damaged face.

"You're thinking something like 'I can keep him from regenerating his arms using the surrounding buildings, so I've basically won', right!?"

Earthwyrm held his damaged arms out to his sides, and blue runes appeared in circles around his damaged stumps. They appeared very similar to the runes that appeared when he used his surroundings to repair his body, but this time his arms were not in direct contact with anything like stone.

Even still, the circles began to move outward, and Earthwyrm's limbs regrew entirely.

At the same time, the cracks in the stone golem's face glowed a bright blue and closed themselves up.

"Didn't I already tell you!? With my master so close to me, my power has increased exponentially since we fought last! I don't even need to use the surrounding materials to repair myself!"

Instead of reacting in surprise or panic, Kenji merely smirked.

"Even if your power has increased exponentially, it doesn't matter."

Kenji crouched down in preparation for another attack.

The Esper held his arm out to his side and concentrated, using Density Shift to give his arm more mass.

Because of the incredible sensation of clarity that had filled Kenji's mind, the red-haired Esper was able to push past his old limits and increase his arm's density to a point he never had before.

This was essentially how he had blown Earthwyrm away with a single punch earlier.

Kenji reeled his arm back and launched himself towards Earthwyrm.

"I'm finishing this right here!"

Kenji reached Earthwyrm's position and brought his fist forwards with tremendous force.

Earthwyrm didn't have time to dodge.

The stone golem was once again forced to block the attack with his arms.

"Gah!"

Earthwyrm felt his arms break away like last time as they absorbed the full impact of Kenji's punch. Still, he had managed to absorb the entirely of the impact. Even as he stood there,

Earthwyrm was already starting to regrow his arms.

Yet even though it seemed like his attack had been successfully blocked, Kenji smirked victoriously.

"It's over, Earthwyrm."

The red-haired Esper brought his other fist forwards towards Earthwyrm's face. Even though the stone golem was already regenerating his arms, the spell wouldn't finish in time to allow him to block the attack.

Earthwyrm ducked back and tried to dodge Kenji's punch, but in that moment the red-haired Esper brought his other arm forwards again and landed a strong hit on the gem embedded in

Earthwyrm's chest.

As Earthwyrm's concentration was lost, the regenerative spell fizzled out, leaving the stone golem with stumps stopping just before his wrists.

"W-wha…. WHAT!?"

Earthwyrm stumbled backwards from the impact and looked down at the gem on his chest.

"Th-this… this pain… Why?"

A single, jagged crack appeared in the jewel, and Earthwyrm's eyes widened.

"Im… impossible… you…"

More cracks began to spread outward through the jewel, and finally the blue gem shattered in a small explosion of small shards and blue light.

The glowing blue lines across Earthwyrm's body flickered and died out with the jewel, and Earthwyrm's body fell backwards like an empty husk. The golem's stone body hit the ground roughly and shattered like a ceramic statue that had been knocked over. As the magical energy that held Earthwyrm together faded away, his body began to crumble into small stones and sand.

Earthwyrm, the modified golem employed by the Irish Catholic Church, had been destroyed entirely.

As Kenji stood victoriously over the golem's remains, the sounds of a mocking slow clap reached the red-haired Esper's ears.

Kenji turned his head and glared at the white-robed magician.

In the time Kenji was fighting Earthwyrm, O'Reilly had placed Miyako's unconscious body on the ground and was now clapping his hands together with a small smile on his face.

"That power of yours is impressive, however…"

Just as it had happened with Miyako, O'Reilly entirely and completely disappeared. Even though Kenji was looking directly at O'Reilly when it happened, his body entirely vanished without a single movement.

Kenji didn't even want to call it speed.

"Haven't you noticed already? Your body can't even handle that power of yours."

Kenji spun around to see O'Reilly standing directly behind him, pointing down at the red-haired Esper's arms with an outstretched hand.

"Your hands are swollen and bleeding… they're broken… and your shoulder… dislocated maybe?"

Kenji looked down and his eyes widened. O'Reilly wasn't lying.

Blood dripped from Kenji's raw knuckles steadily, and the shoulder of his left arm was resting in an unnatural position.

There was a phenomenon where warriors in the midst of battle or athletes in the middle of a big game could get injured without feeling a single thing. It was a kind of shock that could only be brought out in the most desperate of circumstances.

It seemed that Kenji was going through a similar situation. His body was lying to him about its condition so he could fight at his full strength even with severe damage.

Even still, such a situation was dangerous.

"You didn't notice, but tell me, Esper…. How long do you think that body of yours can last?"

O'Reilly took a fighting stance and readied the spike-like weapon in his hands.

"Even if my body is destroyed… as long as I stop you from taking her, I'll be satisfied!"

Kenji's words were not some kind of boast or intimidation tactic, meant to scare O'Reilly with his sheer force of will. Instead, Kenji had spoken those words from his heart, without even thinking about them for a second.

Back when Earthwyrm was about to finish him off, Kenji looked to the darkening sky and realized just how little he understood about Miyako.

She was a vampire, but she acted no different than humans. She could stand under the same sun as humans, have the same desires as humans, and smile and laugh as humans do.

Therefore, it stood to reason that she could also cry and despair like humans.

Kenji wondered if she had ever felt that despair. The hopeless feeling of being chased until one ran up against a wall, and then cornered. The utter despair one felt as they were caught like an animal and caged away to be used for someone else's desires.

On the first night they met, Miyako had told him that vampires supposedly contained an infinite supply of magical energy in their bodies.

Even if she was wrong, if that was the belief of these magic organizations- or rather, if that was the belief of the Irish Catholic Church- it wasn't hard to understand why they were chasing her so tenaciously.

It was out of nothing but greed and desire for power.

Kenji would never allow anyone motivated with such vile ambitions take away someone as human as Miyako.

In that moment, he truly believed what he said.

He didn't care at all if he fought until he could no longer stand.

"O'REILLY! YOU'LL LOOK LIKE A PATCHWORK DOLL WHEN THEY STITCH YOU BACK TOGETHER AFTER I'M DONE WITH YOU!"

Pouring all the anger and determination into his fists, Kenji shot forwards with one goal.

"Miyako! I'll defeat him… I'll definitely protect you!"

"Heh…"

O'Reilly merely smirked as Kenji closed in on him.

Earthwyrm had been destroyed. There was no one to block the punch this time.

On top of that, Kenji was not holding back.

Even if he had to shatter all the bones in his left arm, he'd just keep on fighting with his right.

With this mentality, Kenji was able to swing at full force.

Yet still, O'Reilly smirked.

Kenji's fist did not connect with the white-robed magician. Instead of hitting O'Reilly's body with a force powerful enough to break stone, Kenji's fist merely passed through the magician's body like he was some sort of ghost.

Seeing this, Kenji's eyes widened and he whirled around instantly.

Behind him was the real O'Reilly, waiting with his metal spike in his hands.

"Good instinct… no… that wasn't instinct was it? You realized the moment you noticed that

O'Reilly was a fake that I would go for a surprise attack."

Kenji jumped back and barely dodged the metal spike headed straight for his head.

The clear, ominous intent to end someone's life emanated from O'Reilly's entire being.

"Your power is incredible… but your true danger is your mentality. You're both cunning enough to see through my traps and determined enough to push forwards at all costs…"

O'Reilly took the spiked pole in both hands like a spear and drove it forwards towards Kenji. The red haired Esper managed to dodge right, but the spike grazed his cheek and a bleeding cut appeared where it had scratched him.

"Tch."

Bringing his hand up, Kenji wiped off the blood as he dodged backwards again.

It wasn't that Kenji intended to run away, but there was a problem with attacking O'Reilly at all.

Namely, even if he went on counterattack, there was no way Kenji could be sure he was attacking the real O'Reilly. Kenji would be left open after a full-force attack. If he were to attack the wrong target, O'Reilly would have the chance to deliver a decisive blow that could end him in one strike.

On the other hand, Kenji attacked with so much force that he would surely leave O'Reilly incapacitated if he got just a single hit in.

In other words, even though this was the final battle where one would imagine an all-out brawl, whoever got the first hit in would be victorious.

"In this battle of wits… I'll be the one to come out on top!"

Even as Kenji thought this, he realized it was very likely O'Reilly was thinking a similar thing.

The white-robed magician grinned and raised his spiked pole into the air above him. Below Kenji, multiple magic arrays appeared on the ground and began glowing.

"S-shit!"

Kenji leapt into the air just as the magical arrays that formed on the ground erupted into large metal spires. The spires were packed closely together densely and left no room to stand between them. If Kenji had tried to dodge either left or right, he would've been impaled by multiple spikes either way.

Kenji used his Density Shift to stay in the air and looked down at where O'Reilly had been when he cast the spell. The space below him where the white-haired mage had been standing moments ago was empty, and the rest of the rooftop seemed barren as well.

"Damn… I lost sight of him!"

Kenji allowed himself to fall back to the ground, just outside of the perimeter of metal spires. The red-haired Esper rested all his weight on the balls of his feet and kept all his senses tuned.

Kenji knew O'Reilly wouldn't leave Miyako behind just to run. Miyako was his primary objective.

As long as Miyako was still lying on the roof, it meant O'Reilly was nearby.

"He won't be able to damage me with an illusion. The second he attacks, I'll strike!"

Hearing a shuffling sound behind him, Kenji jumped to the side just as O'Reilly's metal spike jabbed at the air where he was just standing.

O'Reilly's spike, as well as his arm, was coming directly out of the forest of metal spires behind him.

"W-what!?"

Even though there were small gaps between the spires, there shouldn't have been enough room for O'Reilly to even move around.

On top of that, O'Reilly's arm was coming directly out of a metal spire, not from between them.

Kenji looked between the metal spires, but he couldn't see a single sign of the rest of O'Reilly's body. Even though O'Reilly was attacking, Kenji couldn't attack a body that wasn't there.

Kenji jumped back from the metal spires and crouched low, still alert for any sign of movement from the white-robed vampire hunter.

As Kenji faced the wall of metal created by the many spires that O'Reilly had summoned, a ripple appeared in the surface of one of the spires, and the rest of O'Reilly's body emerged. The whole time, O'Reilly had used a spell to hide inside the metal.

Kenji cursed under his breath.

This whole time, he had forgotten a crucial fact.

During his fight with Earthwyrm, O'Reilly had stopped running to watch the Esper. Even if it was for only a brief moment, O'Reilly had seen Kenji's fighting style and abilities. Even if O'Reilly wasn't entirely sure how Kenji's Density Shift worked, he knew enough from watching his fight to be one step ahead at all times.

In the same way, Kenji was at a complete disadvantage.

This was his first time encountering the vampire hunter known as Brian O'Reilly. All of O'Reilly's spells and attacks were unknown to him. Unlike Tia Greenhart, who seemed to have limited attacks that she cycled through, O'Reilly could have multiple spells at his disposal.

Without knowing the limits to O'Reilly's ability, Kenji was two steps behind.

Yet even with that kind of difference, Kenji wasn't going to give up.

There was one thing he was sure of. The next time O'Reilly attacked him, he would deliver a decisive blow before the magician could even retaliate.

O'Reilly vanished once again and Kenji whirled around to face away from the forest of metal spires sticking up from the ground. Just as Kenji had imagined, the white-robed magician had appeared directly behind him, weapon ready to deliver a final blow.

"You've been a thorn in my side since we arrived here… no, since even before then. I'll end you here and now, heathen!"

Kenji smirked and dodged to the left, sidestepping O'Reilly's spear thrust effortlessly.

"You're wide open, O'Reilly!"

Kenji whirled his arm back and O'Reilly's eyes widened. The white robed magician took a quick step back and raised his arms, but Kenji was expecting him to dodge. Kenji stepped forwards and prepared to drive his fist straight into O'Reilly's face.

As O'Reilly braced himself for impact, however, Kenji's own eyes widened. In an instant, the strange silvery glow faded from Kenji's eyes, and the red-haired Esper staggered as he clutched his head in pain.

"Gahhh!"

The clarity that Kenji had gained had just as quickly vanished, and the headache that ailed him prior returned with a vengeance. Unable to concentrate on the fight, Kenji staggered again and he stopped his attack short.

The white-robed magician took the opening and whipped his weapon around, slamming it into Kenji's leg. A loud crack echoed across the rooftop, and Kenji yelled out in agony. Before Kenji could fall to the ground, however, O'Reilly whirled around and jabbed the Esper in the stomach with the blunt end of his pole-arm.

Kenji doubled over and coughed, spatters of blood flying out of his mouth and landing on the ground in front of him.

O'Reilly followed up with yet another strike to Kenji's side, and the red-haired Esper staggered backwards, nearly collapsing when his weight shifted onto his injured leg. As he was pushed back, Kenji felt his leg brush up against the lip of concrete at the edge of the building, and he collapsed to the ground in an attempt to avoid stumbling off the roof.

O'Reilly shook his head slowly, looking down on the fallen Esper.

"You're no longer a threat to me, Esper…" O'Reilly stated bluntly. He hadn't put any cockiness or mocking into his words, as if he were simply stating a fact.

And O'Reilly wasn't wrong.

With Kenji's accumulated injuries, there'd be no chance of a fair fight between the two. O'Reilly had more power, more skill, and he had the advantage of knowing how Kenji fought.

"Once I leave with the vampire, you'll have no way of tracking me down. It's already over," O'Reilly concluded, turning around and locating where he had laid the green-haired vampire on the roof.

Kenji grit his teeth as he laid on the rooftop, barely able to move.

He couldn't let things end like this.

As O'Reilly took a step towards Miyako, he felt something reach out and clamp around his ankle. Whirling around in surprise, he found Kenji, still lying on the concrete, reaching his arm out and grasping O'Reilly's leg weakly.

"I… won't… let you…"

O'Reilly frowned and kicked the Esper off of his leg.

"Stay there, Esper, and you will live a little longer yet," O'Reilly commanded, "I didn't come here to kill you. As long as you don't get in my way, I couldn't care less if you live or die."

O'Reilly attempted to take another step forwards, but once again Kenji reached out and gripped his leg tightly, trying to hold him back.

"You… can't take her…"

In anger, O'Reilly whirled around and kicked Kenji in the side, forcing the Esper to release his foot.

"She is a vampire… a monster… a vile creature worth no man's sympathy!" O'Reilly yelled, venom filling his voice, "Whatever lies she's weaved to you to wind you around her finger… forget them! Do not throw your life away for such vile filth!"

O'Reilly moved to turn around again, but before he knew what was happening, Kenji had dragged himself to his feet and punched the white-robed magician in the face.

It wasn't a punch amplified by Kenji's Density Shift. The Esper could no longer draw out the concentration to perform such complex calculations in his current state. Yet even so, the normal punch sent O'Reilly reeling backwards, eyes wide in shock and anger.

"Miyako… is not… a monster…"

O'Reilly's face scrunched up with anger and the white-robed magician turned to face Kenji.

"Stubborn fool…" O'Reilly growled, "Fine, if you want to die so badly, allow me to oblige you!"

O'Reilly shifted his grip on his pole-arm and took a step towards Kenji. He drew his arms back and thrust the weapon forward like a spear, aiming directly at the red-haired Esper. Even though Kenji saw the attack coming, he wasn't in any shape to react fast enough. The sharpened point of the metal pole stabbed Kenji in the torso.

O'Reilly impaled Kenji further, letting the Esper double over and cry out in pain before he ripped his weapon out of Kenji's torso roughly. Kenji collapsed to the ground and clutched at his wound, feeling the blood seeping out of his injury.

O'Reilly stared silently down at Kenji for a brief moment before turning around, swing the metal pole to the side once and flinging Kenji's blood off of his weapon. He quickly relocated Miyako and began walking off in her direction, leaving Kenji lying on the roof of the building.

Kenji watched through his fading vision as O'Reilly reached the green-haired vampire and picked her up, reaching his bloodied hand out towards Miyako as the white-robed magician lept from the roof and disappeared from sight.

"I'm sorry, Miyako…" Kenji lamented mentally, "I wasn't strong enough to protect you…"

As Kenji thought this, he let his eyes slip shut as he felt his consciousness fading.

Arakuyo Kenji…

Through his dulled senses, Kenji though he heard the sound of a voice calling out to him.

"Arakuyo Kenji…"

Kenji tried to focus on the voice. There was something vaguely familiar about it, but Kenji still couldn't pinpoint it.

"Arakuyo Kenji!"

The voice sounded distant to Kenji, but in the next moment he felt someone roll him over gently and tear his shirt open to tend to his wounds. Kenji focused on the distant voice as it kept calling out to his name, allowing it to put him at ease as his world faded to black.


Part 2

When Kenji woke up, he found himself in an unfamiliar room.

When Kenji lost consciousness, he figured that whoever had found him would take him straight to the hospital. But the room he was in now was nowhere near as sterile or impersonal as a standard hospital room.

Kenji was lying in a bed off to one side of the room, pushed up against a wall with a covered window. There were a few shelves off to one side, lined with books and files that were stacked on top of each other haphazardly. Next to one of the bookshelves was a small desk that was half-buried under pages upon pages of complex equations and graphs scribbled on grid paper.

A somewhat disorderly pile of folded clothes sat on the floor in a pile. Comprised mostly of purple fabrics and with a few skirts and what Kenji was pretty sure was a pair of panties poking out of the pile.

If Kenji had to guess, he would feel fairly safe to assume this room belonged to a woman.

However, Kenji didn't even need to guess. Resting in an armchair pulled up near the bed was the sleeping form of Nakare Mitsuho.

The raven-haired woman had her head resting on her left arm, her balled hand pressing into her cheek. It seemed like it would be impossible to fall asleep in such a position, but her closed eyes and light snoring left nothing ambiguous. In that odd position, Nakare had actually managed to fall asleep.

Since he had woken up, Kenji had barely moved, only moving his head and eyes to look around the room. Yet, as if Nakare had somehow realized Kenji had come to, the lab coat-clad woman stirred as she too began to wake.

The raven-haired woman shifted in her seat and let out a quiet yawn, raising one hand to rub the corner of her eye as she stretched the other one. It took her a few minutes to realize where she was and what she was doing, but the second she did her eyes darted straight to the bed where Kenji woke up.

Noticing the red-haired Epser was awake, Nakare spoke.

"Arakuyo-san, you're awake."

She sounded bored or possibly still drowsy, but a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"Why am I here?" Kenji asked, taking the opportunity to ask the question that had been bugging him since he first woke up.

"I brought you here," Nakare replied, "When I found you I was really concerned, so I decided to let you stay here."

"No," Kenji shook his head, "I mean, why didn't you bring me to a hospital?"

This question seemed to catch Nakare off guard, for she tilted her head to the side and frowned.

"Hospital?" Nakare echoed in confusion, "Why would you- Oh! Your friend found you before I did, she said she patched you up a little, but if you were expecting to wake up in the hospital I guess she understated things a little."

"Wait…" Kenji began, trailing off as he processed what Nakare had just said. The way she had spoke made it sound like she had meant to clear things up, but it only raised more questions in Kenji's mind.

"Patched up…" Kenji pondered before noticing something odd, "Wait, does that mean…?"

Kenji attempted to pull himself upright, expecting to feel pain shoot through his body. Instead, he effortlessly shifted into a sitting position, letting some of the sheets concealing his bare torso fall away to reveal unbroken skin.

It wasn't just his torso either. The injuries on his hands and shoulder were gone too, and Kenji was willing to bet that his leg was fully healed too.

There was just one problem.

"Who… healed me…?"

Kenji asked the question more to himself than Nakare, but even still the raven-haired woman looked as though she were about to answer. She opened her mouth to provide Kenji with a name, but in that moment the bedroom door swung open abruptly and both Nakare and Kenji turned to look at the doorway.

Nakare's bedroom had a small amount of sunlight filtering in through the covered window, but overall the room was much dimmer than the well-lit room it was connected to. As such, the figure standing in the doorway was obscured by their own shadow.

"Arakuyo Kenji…"

Kenji's eyes widened as the figure called out his name. Even though she was standing against the backlight of the other room, Kenji was pretty sure he recognized her voice.

As the figure walked further into the room and closed the door, coming into view and confirming Kenji's suspicions.

Dressed a purple v-neck with a single yellow star decal printed across its chest and around her waist was a pair of dark blue denim capris held up by a black belt with a simple square buckle, the woman's appearance was drastically different from when they had first met.

Even still, Kenji knew it was her.

"Tia Greenhart!" Kenji exclaimed, standing up and leaping into a defensive fighting position. His quick movements startled Nakare, who began looking between the two with a confused expression plastered across her face.

As Kenji stood there, dozens of thoughts raced through his mind.

"What is she doing here? How did she find me!? What does she want with me?"

Before he could vocalize any of these questions, Tia Greenhart spoke again.

"Arakuyo Kenji… We need to talk."

To Be Continued...


AN: Here's the next chapter!

I recently received a review addressing Kenji's power, so I thought I'd clear things up here so anyone with this question on their mind can rest easy. Kenji's ability does not break the Law of Conservation of Mass. From the basic explanation of Kenji's ability I gave in the form of Kenji's incredibly glossed over explanation to Miyako, it's not an unreasonable conclusion to draw. But it's still an incorrect one. The explanation Kenji gave Miyako was an explanation of what he could do with his power, not HOW he does it. Kenji never said he could create mass, and he can't. He said he can change an object's mass, and he can, but he doesn't create or destroy mass to do it.

If you want an more solid explanation, Kenji's mass altering abilities work like this: When he wants to decrease the mass of an object, he takes the mass and "stores" it somewhere else, and the object gains that mass back when Kenji releases the effects of his power on it. How he increases mass is a bit more complicated, but I'd say it probably works in a similar manner: taking mass from surrounding objects and adding it to whatever his power is affecting. There's some more intricate problems, like how he adds mass to an object while keeping its composition the same, but I never really meant to get that in-depth with Kenji's abilities anyway. In the long run, this is still a story, and while I wanted to clear this up to avoid future confusion, in the end this is still a story. If over-explaining something makes it uninteresting, I won't, even if it leaves things ambiguous or open to incorrect assumptions.

Anyway, Thanks for reading! I enjoy reading what you guys have to say about the story, so feel free to leave a review! I hoped you liked the chapter, and as always, I'll be back with another one next week!