I got this chapter out fast! I know, it's shorter than the last one. Sorry if you were expecting another long chapter. However, the next one should be pretty long. We'll see how it goes. It depends on what I want to include in it. Um... Anyways... I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Feel free to share your feelings on it via review or PM. Also, I didn't get the chance to say it last chapter, but thanks for all the positive feedback. I don't think I've receive a negative review or PM about this story. However, I've received many positive ones! That really makes me want to continue this story! Thanks guys and enjoy!


Teitoku looked around the corner of the marble hallway. Two guards faced opposite him, both walking away. They were armed with AK-101's.

He looked back at Shizuri.

"They have military-grade Russian assault rifles. Besides that, I'm sure they're espers. We should take them out quick."

"Are we killing them or knocking them out?" She asked.

"Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter, but I guess we don't want them waking up and coming after us…"

"Got it."

Shizuri walked into the hallway. The two guards turned and, upon seeing her, took aim at her. However, before they had the chance to shoot, two green beams shot through both of their chests. The two boys dropped to ground, dead.

"I guess that's one way to handle it."

The two hid the bodies behind a random door and continued on.

"Do you even know where we're headed?" Shizuri asked the boy. "For all we know, we could be headed in the completely wrong direction."

"Sorry, but I didn't bring map along." Teitoku replied sarcastically.

"I'm sure there's a map somewhere around here. It beats just wandering around like this."

"Fine…" They worked their way around systematically, hiding whenever guards or scientists came by.

After about twenty minutes of this, they found what they were looking for. There was a map on the wall with the layout of the laboratory.

"Where are we trying to get to?" Shizuri asked from behind the boy who was looking over the map.

"Let's find out." He pressed on the button on the earpiece and after a few seconds a voice answered.

"What is it?" Yumi asked.

"We found a map of the lab. Where are we headed?"

"First, you should look for a conference room or the head office. If you can't find either of those, look for the testing rooms."

"Got it." He scanned the map and found a conference room marked, but nothing that looked like the head office. "This will do." He turned and started off, the girl following close behind.

"How are you going to remember exactly where we're going? That map was huge."

"You don't get to be the second ranked level 5 without a good memory." He replied. "Memorizing that map was easy."

"Right…" Shizuri had a good memory and she probably could have memorized that map if she had another hour to look over it, but the amount of time the boy had taken to memorize it was amazing.

The two were like assassins, making their way through the corridors unseen. The few guards and scientists that did see them didn't' have the chance to raise an alarm or even scream out before Shizuri killed them.

After about ten minutes of this, the two stood on either side of a large metal door, two dead guards laying on the ground to the side.

"Okay." Teitoku said. "This should be the conference room. There's no way to know if anybody's even in there. However, in the event that there is, we need to be prepared."

"I think we can handle anybody in there. You just stay behind me. That gun of yours has a limited amount of ammunition now that your ability has run out, right? Save the bullets and use that sword as much as you can. I'll do my best to protect you, but that will be hard if you go too far away."

Teitoku smiled.

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind while we're in there. Also… One thing."

"What is it?"

"They have security cameras all over the place and yet an alarm hasn't been raised yet. They know we're here. They're prepared for us."

Shizuri frowned.

"Well, it's not like we can just leave now."

"You're right… Let's do this.

They both nodded.

He took out an ID card that he had taken from one of the dead scientists. He slid it through the scanner and the light turned green, flashing an "Accepted" message.

The metal door swung open.

Shizuri ran in, her Meltdowner at the ready. Teitoku ran in next to her, his sword held out.

"What…?" They had expected the room to either be full or for there to be nobody.

They had not expected a single person to be there. More so, the girl looked only about twelve years old.

The girl had short brown hair in a bobcut and wore a fluffy knit sweater dress and striped socks, leaving much of her legs and thighs revealed. She had a calm smile on as the two came into the room.

"I've been waiting for you." She said.

"Dammit. I knew it." Teitoku said.

"I'm Kinuhata Saiai. I'm on the General Council. Very much… like my friend you super killed." She frowned.

"Oh, you saw that?" Shizuri said with a smile. "We had no choice but to kill him. It wasn't like I was going to let him hurt my friend."

Teitoku didn't know how to react to the girl referring to him as her "friend".

"You look pretty young to be involved with SHIFT." The boy said. "Are you the daughter of a scientist who got dragged into this without say?"

"No. Not even close." She shook her head. "I joined SHIFT super willingly."

"Why would you join them willingly? Do you have any idea what you're getting involved in?"

"I think it's you who has no idea what you're getting involved in." She sighed. "I've learned so much since I joined SHIFT. I want to super protect Academy City. This is the only way."

Teitoku hesitated to ask the girl a question.

"Tell me then… Kinuhata."

"You can call me Saiai. Besides, I'm about to beat you so super bad that you won't be able to say my name for a while."

"Fine… Saiai. Tell me something. Who is the other side?"

Her eyes widened a little bit at that question, but she quickly recovered.

"I was super unaware that you held any knowledge about the other side." She smiled. "I can't tell you anything of course. It would be better if you remained ignorant. For now, at least. If there was anything that you super needed to know, you would know it."

Shizuri shot a Meltdowner at the girl's head, but she merely pushed her chair to the side. The green beam burned a hole through the wall.

"Shizuri?" The boy looked at her.

"She's not going to tell us anything. She's just going to try to stop us. We should take her out while we have the chance."

"Fine. Let's do this."

They slowly started walking towards the table.

Saiai stood.

"I'm against two level 5's and I'm only a level 4. I should be super scared, right?" She sighed. "Well, I'm not."

She grabbed the large table with one hand and picked it up. Then she threw it at the two.

"Are you stupid or something?" Shizuri asked as the table approached the two. A green beam shot through the table, cutting it in half. The two halves fell to their sides. "It's going to take a lot more than that to…"

Shizuri was cut off as Saiai charged forward, having hid behind the thrown table. She kneed the level 5 in the stomach, making her bend over. Then she grabbed her by the neck and threw her across the room against the wall.

"What the…?" Teitoku brought his sword to bear and stabbed at the girl from behind.

The girl sidestepped the stab, turned, grabbed the boy by the wrist, and swung him into the wall next to the door.

"Fuck!" Teitoku yelled as blood flew out of his mouth on impact. She swung him the other way and threw him across the room. He slammed into the wall and fell to the floor.

Shizuri was on her feet again, her Meltdowner prepared.

"You're going to pay the price for messing with level 5's." She said cruelly. A green beam shot from one of the balls, but the girl easily dodged it. All four beams shot for her, but she simply kicked off the wall and landed perfectly in-between the beams and kicked a chair at the level 5.

One of the Meltdowner beams shot through the chair, disintegrating it.

"Don't think that just because you're a level 5, you're invincible. I'm more than a match for both of you at once."

Teitoku got on his feet again.

"If I could use my ability, I'd crush you in an instant."

"It really is a shame, then, that you can't."

Shizuri took out a pistol she had taken from one of the guards and shot a bullet at the girl's chest.

The bullet hit her in the chest, stopped, and fell to the ground.

"That was a super nice try." Saiai said with a smile. "It will take more than that to defeat me, though."

"Guns are no good against her." Shizuri said with a frown. "I was hoping to end this quickly."

"That won't happen. My ability is superior."

"What is your ability?" Teitoku asked curiously.

Saiai giggled.

"My ability is Offense Armour." She said, smiling kindly at the boy. "Try to keep up, okay?"


"Sorry about that." Gunha said, walking up to Misaki.

"It's okay. Let's do this already!" She said impatiently.

"Okay. I'm ready."

The two walked into the café and were immediately spotted by Mikoto.

"Hi, Mikoto! Accelerator!" She said happily, walking over to them. She sat down next to Mikoto at the table and Gunha sat next to Accelerator. The boys nodded at each other.

"Hey, Misaki. Gunha. What a coincidence." She said with a smile.

"It really is, right?"

Accelerator laughed.

"Well, why don't you guys have some cake? We have plenty." They had ordered a rather large cake.

"Happily!" Misaki said and the boy cut a piece for her and put it on his plate and slid it over to her. "Thank you!" She happily took a fork and ate a bite. "Delicious!"

Gunha wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

"Misaki…" He nodded at her and she understood.

"Um… Is there something wrong?" Mikoto asked. She sipped from her coffee.

"You guys… have been hiding things from us." Misaki said.

Mikoto put her cup down. She had a look of defeat on her face as if everything had come crashing down.

Accelerator showed no sign of surprise.

"How did you two find out?" He asked.

Mikoto was surprised how calmly he was speaking.

"We were suspicious, so we followed you. We saw what happened. Your fight with that girl and everything."

Even his eyes widened some at that.

He laughed, surprising everyone at the table.

"What's so funny?" Gunha asked. Even he found the boy's laughter strange.

"I guess we really can't hide anything from you guys."

"Then do you have a good explanation for us? We'd like to know everything that you guys have been doing." She said with a pout.

"Of course we do." He said with a smile.

"Are you sure about this?" Mikoto asked worriedly.

"It's not like we can hide it anymore, right?" He said.

The girl nodded.

"Fine…"


Saiai dodged to the side as another Meltdowner shot her way, missing her by less than an inch.

"I think you might have super singed my hair right there. Do you have any idea how long it took for me to get a haircut that I like?"

"That's funny. You say that like I should fucking care." Shizuri said, then shot another Meltdowner at her.

The girl just dodged to the side again.

"Maybe if you could aim better, you would have hit me already." She stepped between the girl's Meltdowner beams again and delivered a swift punch to her stomach.

"Gah!" The punch hurt much more than it should have. "That's funny, kid. You should learn to respect your elders though!" She yelled and kicked the girl in the face.

Instead of it hurting the girl and sending her back, it hurt Shizuri's foot and the girl didn't move at all.

"You're really an idiot, aren't you?" Saiai asked with a smile. She punched Shizuri's leg and an audible crack could be heard.

"Ah!" She screamed and hopped back a few steps on one leg. "Damn you!" A Meltdowner beam shot and burned the edge of the girl's sleeve.

"Woah. That was way too close." Saiai said and jumped back.

Teitoku ran up behind her and wrapped his arm around the girl's neck.

"You should really just give up."

"That's funny." She said. "Maybe next time." She elbowed him in the stomach.

It felt as if she had hit him with a crowbar.

"What the fuck!?" He backed up and gasped for air. She turned and kicked him away.

"You two really are stupid." She ran to the boy and began delivering swift punches and kicks, which he in turn dodged.

Her attacks gave him time to think.

There's no esper ability that gives somebody super strength… Also, her defensive capabilities are abnormally high and we can't damage her with our physical attacks… What the hell is her ability?

"Teitoku! Move!"

It was Shizuri. He did as he was told and jumped to the side just as a Meltdowner shot for Saiai. Just as it came to pierce her chest, Teitoku grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the side.

"What…?" The girl started to say, but was cut off as the boy slammed her into the floor. The pain she felt was minimal.

"Teitoku! What the hell's wrong with you!? I was about to kill her there!" She walked over to the boy then noticed something odd.

He looked at her with a distant look in his eyes. Then he turned his head and looked at the girl on the ground. He held his hand up and white strands flowed from his head and formed a spiraling lance in his hand. He pointed the tip at the girl's neck.

"Explain your ability to me." He said in a calm voice.

"Like hell." Saiai said.

He pointed the lance to her arm and stabbed it at her arm hard. It seemed to just barely break through her ability, but it did and the point drew blood. The girl held in a scream.

"Now… talk."

"Okay! My ability, Offense Armour, allows me to manipulate the nitrogen in the air."

He didn't really need more of an explanation then that. Everything fell into place.

"So you compress the nitrogen around your body to make some sort of barrier. You were able to appear as strong because you controlled masses of compressed nitrogen… I get it." He drew the lance away from her. "That is a useful ability, but it's no match for my Dark Matter."

"Even if you kill me… there's more people much more stronger than me."

"I don't really care." He positioned the lance over her neck again. "Now tell me about this 'other side'."


"What!?" Misaki asked.

Accelerator had given her a quick explanation about everything that was going on.

"What?" He asked. "Do you have a question?"

"How could you hide something that important from us!?"

"Just for the record…" He said. "Mikoto wasn't supposed to know either. It was supposed to just be Teitoku and I. When she found out, we really didn't have a choice but to include her. It's the same as this situation."

"I don't care! You should have told all of us from the start!" She looked at Gunha. "Tell him something!"

Gunha looked at the boy.

"Accelerator…" The boy looked at him. "It takes some real guts to reveal everything to us like that. I'm proud." The boys smiled and highfived.

"What!?" Misaki asked. That wasn't what she had expected him to say at all.

"It's not that big of a deal, is it? We know now, so isn't that all that matters?" He said with a smile.

"I… guess so… but I still think they should have told us sooner."

"We should have." Mikoto said. "We're sorry."

"We… Teitoku and I just wanted to keep you all safe." Accelerator said, getting everyone's attention. "We knew that this would be very dangerous. We were warned about that. We thought that it would be best if it was just us two risking our lives out there."

"Accelerator…" Misaki said.

"It's fine, Accelerator." Gunha said. "Besides… now that we're involved this operation has exactly what it needs… GUTS!" He yelled proudly.

Everybody in the café was now looking at them.

The group laughed at the boy and he smiled.

"We're glad to have you guys now." Accelerator said with a smile.

The group started eating the cake and ordering more coffee. It was like any normal time they would hang out before they were separated, with the exception of one person.

"Hey…" Misaki said. The group looked at her. "Where's Teitoku?"

"He's… busy." Accelerator said. "He's investigating right now."

"By himself?" Gunha asked.

"No… Yumi called Mikoto and I in for backup… but then she said that he already had some backup. I don't know who he's with, but if Yumi thinks that person can help Teitoku, then I'm sure they can."

"You trust Yumi that much?" Mikoto asked.

"We have no choice but to trust her." He said. "Without her, we wouldn't have gotten anywhere." He gave thanks to Shinobu in his head.

"Accelerator." The group turned to see Yumi standing there. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Yumi…" He looked back at the others then to her.

"Why are you suddenly telling them everything?" She asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "I thought that the only other one you would be involving is Mikoto."

"They found out, so there was nothing I could do. Isn't it better that all of us level 5's are together in this anyways?"

"Interesting that you should say that." Yumi smiled. "It seems that all of the level 5's are now involved in this. Accelerator gave her a confused look. She pulled up a chair and took her laptop out of bag she was carrying. She placed it on the table, opened it, and started it up.

"What's going on?" He asked as all of the level 5's gathered around her to see the screen.

"You have no idea what has been going on." She started typing and a screen popped up. After a few seconds, a video displayed. "I was able to hack into one of SHIFT's security cameras because of some faulty wiring. I could only view previous footage. This is what I saw from a few minutes ago."

One the screen, it showed Teitoku and Shizuri fighting together against Saiai.

They watched the video for a while, but it cut off partway.

"Who was that?" Misaki asked.

Yumi frowned at her as if she didn't want to answer the question just because she was the one asking it.

"I expected that question, Mental Out. That would be Kinuhata Saiai. She is a level 4 with the ability Offense Armour."

"Wait…" Accelerator said. "That was Shizuri! What the hell is she doing there? Did she actually get back to Teitoku after that time he gave her his number?"

"No…" Yumi replied. "I was watching Teitoku through various security cameras as he made his way to this base. Shizuri was following him there. I decided that she was no threat and didn't tell Teitoku about her. Looks like she's helping him now, so everything's okay."

"They seemed to be struggling against Kinuhata." Gunha observed. "Should we go help them?"

"No. They can handle it. I trust them."

"You can't expect us to just sit here and do nothing while they're fighting." Misaki said.

"You won't be. I planned to have Accelerator and Mikoto handle something for me in a few hours but…" She closed her laptop and put it away. "I've realized that there are too many things that need to be done."

"What do we need to do?" Accelerator asked.


"The Magic Side." Saiai said calmly.

"Magic?" Teitoku asked.

"I hope you don't super seriously think that there's just espers in the world." She sighed. "Think about it like this. First, there is the Science Side, which is Academy City and affiliates. All espers fall under the Science Side unless they have super defected."

"So that's us…" Shizuri said.

"Yes. Then, there is the Magic Side. The Magic Side consists of the Churches all over the world. They were super ordinary humans that were jealous of those with supernatural powers, so they developed magic, which centers on religion. It's just as dangerous as espers powers, if not more."

"Magic…" Teitoku said slowly.

"Yes. For a long time, the Science Side and the Magic Side have been at odds, but it has been relatively peaceful. However, both sides are making their moves now. The Archbishop of the Church of England has temporarily super united most of the churches. She, along with the Right Seat of God, are the current leaders of this alliance."

"What does that mean? We're going at war with the Magic Side?" He asked.

"We are. SHIFT consists of espers who know about the war and super wish to help the Science Side. Project Dual was created by SHIFT as a means to gain an advantage in the war. We only have seven level 5's in this city. You and the number one are our greatest advantage. However, we knew that neither of you would participate in this experiment. So, we went with the number six."

"Were you that desperate to gain an advantage over them? If Academy City wants to win so badly, why didn't they tell us about it?"

"I'm not sure. We are all just following orders. Academy City thought that if they could super produce a level 6 with Dual-Skill, our victory would be guaranteed."

"Tell me then…" He thought back to what he had seen in the other laboratories. "What is Aomi killing?"

Saiai looked at him with a bit of surprise.

"She's killing a lot of things. Traitors who have tried to defect to the Magic Side, Magicians that we have captured who were acting as spies, for a while she even killed clones of the Railgun."

"What? Misaka 1 said that she was the only one made."

"For a long time she was. However, after we had her transferred to another laboratory, they super fixed the error in the system. They believed we had lost the Railgun's DNA map, but we hadn't. So, after reworking the system, we started to make clones again. However, after around one thousand clones were produced, we ran into a super fatal error. The system failed, destroyed her DNA map, and we lost the entire laboratory."

"What happened to the clones?" Teitoku asked.

"The Particle Disruptor super killed every single one of them." There was a strange twinge in Teitoku's chest. "The scientists were transferring the clones out as they were made, so we did not lose any. We did not have enough clones for her to kill to make her a level 6, so we had to resort to using Magicians and traitors."

"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" The boy yelled. "What the fuck makes you think you have the right to sacrifice so many people for something so stupid!?" He looked ready to plunge the lance through her, but Shizuri put her hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down." He looked at her. "Killing her won't get us anywhere."

"Fine…"

"You don't get it." Saiai said, getting both their attentions. "We didn't do this just because we super wanted progress. If the Science Side loses, there will be many more casualties, including many innocents. Everyone you know and care about will die if we super lose. I admit though… I don't agree with SHIFT's methods."

"Everybody…" He frowned. "Why are you with them if you don't agree with the way they do things?"

"Do I really have a choice?" She asked. "Being in SHIFT is the super best way to help."

Teitoku sighed. He pulled the lance away and held out his hand to the girl. She looked at his hand, hesitating, but then grabbed it and he helped her up.

"You are no longer a member of SHIFT." He said.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, confused.

"You are now with us." He said with a smile. "Now, lead us to the testing rooms."

"Why the hell would I just super join you?"

"You said you don't agree with SHIFT's methods. If you don't, then why not join us?"

"What are you doing to help Academy City?"

"I'm not sure yet… but…" He smiled at her. If you think we're going to lose that easily to the Magic Side, think again. I'll destroy the entire Magic Side myself if I need to."

She sighed.

"You're a super idiot." Saiai said. She smiled. "In a good way, though."

"So, will you help us then?" He asked.

"Yes." She held out her hand and he took it. "Let me introduce myself again. I'm Kinuhata Saiai. You can call me Saiai now that we're friends."

They exchanged phone numbers and Teitoku convinced Shizuri to exchange numbers with the girl and give him hers.

"Now then, Saiai." Shizuri said. "If we're done with all the introductions, we need you to bring us to the testing rooms."

"Right." She said and led the two out of the room.

"So…" Teitoku said as they walked down an empty hallway. "I have two questions. First, how old are you?"

"I'm 12." Saiai replied.

Twelve? Damn, she's young to be involved with a group like SHIFT.

"Also, why is this place so empty? Before, there were at least guards and a few scientists."

"All of the head scientists were having a super meeting before you arrived. I assume it has something to do with that."

"A meeting? What was it about?"

"I don't know. They don't tell me everything."

"You're proving to not be as useful as I thought you would be." Shizuri said.

"You're proving to be more super annoying than I thought you would be." Saiai replied with a hint of annoyance.

"We haven't been friends long enough for you two to start arguing like that. This really isn't the time for this anyways. Let's just get where we need to go."

"Right." Saiai said, looking forward.

"Whatever." Shizuri said with no hint of interest.


Misaki looked around the car she was hiding behind.

There were two armed guards stationed outside a laboratory.

A scientist walked up, presented an ID to a scanner, and walked through the doors as they opened.

She looked back to Gunha, who was right next to her.

"There's two armed guards standing outside. If we don't have ID's, we'll be in a lot of trouble."

"I have an idea. Use your ability to make them turn away."

"Right." Misaki activated her power and looked at the guards. She removed a small remote from her purse and pointed it at them. There was a small click as she pushed one of the buttons.

The guards immediately froze in place.

She smiled and the two came out from hiding, walking up to the men who were now under the girl's control.

The two guards turned away as they came.

"Okay…" Gunha looked at the doors and cracked his knuckles.

"Wait, Gunha… You're not thinking of…"

"GUTS!" The boy pulled his arm back and slammed his fist through the doors, shattering them. He then turned and knocked out both of the guards with swift punches to their heads. "Now then, let's go."

"Wait." She said as they walked inside. "Why did you make me make them turn away if you were just going to do that?"

"I didn't want them shooting at me as I approached." The boy said with a shrug.

Misaki sighed.

"Whatever. Let's go." He two ran down the hallway.

Of course that wasn't the reason. Gunha didn't care if there was a risk. He just wanted to observe her ability more. Out of all of the level 5's, he had seen Misaki's ability the least. It seemed like a good opportunity.

"So, what are we supposed to be finding here?" Gunha asked.

"Yumi said we need to find a way to access the files regarding number six in their computers. I don't know how we'll gain access to them though."

"You would think they would keep files like that under top security anyways."

"We'll deal with that when it comes to it. Let's just focus on finding the computers for now."

"Right."

They moved swiftly through the lab, Gunha demolishing any resistance they met with. The two turned a corner to see a scientist running away.

"Fuck off!" He yelled. The man reached into his lab coat and took out a small object.

It was a grenade.

He pulled the pin and threw it at the two.

"Ha! Such trivial things are no match for my GUTS!" He yelled the last word. Gunha ran forward and kicked the grenade mid-air back at the scientist.

"Ahh!' The man screamed and picked it up to throw it away, but it exploded in his hand.

Gunha covered Misaki's eyes so she didn't have to see what was left of the man and guided her down a different hallway before removing his hand.

"Sorry, but you didn't need to see that."

"I'll be fine. Don't treat me like a kid or something."

The boy laughed at that remark.

A man suddenly burst out from a door behind Gunha and pointed his gun at the boy's head. Gunha turned, but knew he wouldn't dodge in time.

However, the man didn't shoot. He just slowly put his gun down.

"What…?" Gunha ran up to the man and punched him in the face, sending him flying to the end of the hallway, unconscious.

He looked back at Misaki.

"Are you…?" He stopped. The girl had her remote in her hand. He sighed. "You stopped him, didn't you?"

"Of course! You're lucky I keep this close by at all times." She said with a smile.

He pat her head.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"You're treating me like a kid again…" She sighed. "Come on."

They ran through the hallways at top speed. They didn't run into anymore resistance as they made their way through.

"What's with this?" Misaki said as they stopped in front of a door labeled 'Database'.

"What do you mean?"

"There's nobody here anymore. It's like everybody just left."

"Doesn't that just make our job easier?"

"That's not the point…" She looked at the door. "Well… we came here, so let's just get this done. I don't like this."

Gunha silently pushed the door open. It wasn't locked.

The two peaked inside.

Everything was chaos.

Scientists and espers ran around the room carrying paper and files. Some typed furiously on computers. A large screen on the wall opposite the door displayed various parts of Academy City.

"What's… going on?" The girl asked.

"I don't know…" Gunah said, looking around.

One scientist, who appeared to be in charge, was yelling out orders to various people who ran by.

He stopped one esper.

"Have you contacted Aleister yet!?" The boy nodded. "What about the prisoner? Is she secure?"

"Yes. We have her in containment."

"Good. Proceed."

"Yes."

The esper walked away.

"Dammit." The man said. "What is Aleister going to do about this!?"

"What do you think they're talking about, Gunha?" There was silence. "Gunha?" She turned around to see the boy staring at the screen in shock.

"Fuck… No… They couldn't have… Not yet…" He mumbled too low for the girl to hear.

"What's wrong?"

He snapped out of it.

"I-It's nothing. I should go report this to the others… I'll be right back."

"Right." Misaki turned and tried to listen to some of the various conversations.

Gunha walked a fair distance from her, pulled out his cellphone, and quickly dialed a number.

A calm voice answered from the other side.

"Hello there, Gunha. Is there something I can help you with?"

"What have you done, Archbishop? Why would you start the First Strike now?"

"Just a while ago, I spoke with Kamijou Touma, who came all the way to England to speak with me."

"Kamijou Touma? What did the Illusion Killer boy want?"

"Interesting you should mention him that way. He seems to believe that all I hope to accomplish is a mere illusion. I'm going to prove him wrong."

"What are you…?" He was cut off.

"Kamijou Touma is currently on his way back to Academy City. I can't risk him interfering, so I decided that now would be the best time." She was smiling, he could hear it in her voice.

"SHIFT is completely aware that you've started this. So is Aleister. Are you prepared to clean up this mess you're about to make?"

"I will do what I need to do. Shouldn't you focus on your current mission? SHIFT is holding somebody that we want back. I believe… you're in one of their bases now, right?"

"How did you…?"

"In fact, I believe it is the very base where she is being kept."

"Listen, it's not that easy. How do you expect me to free the prisoner while keeping my role in the Magic Side a secret?"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out." Laura said cheerfully. Then her voice took on an eerily calm tone. "If you fail, Sogiita Gunha, I'll have Fiamma arrange a punishment for you. Do you understand that?"

His eyes widened, but he recovered quickly.

"Yes… I'll get it done. By the way, Archbishop… Does Fiamma know you're doing this?"

"Hm? Don't be silly, Gunha. Fiamma arranged it himself. Good luck." He was about to say something, but Laura hung up.


"I don't get what's going on." Teitoku said as they looked in to a panicked computer room.

Scientists and espers were all stationed at computers, typing away. Some walked quickly around the room, bring papers and files to others.

"They seem pretty panicked." Shizuri commented.

On the way to the testing rooms, they heard a disturbance in one of the rooms and looked in to find this.

"It's happening…" Saiai said, getting their attention." The Magic Side has super made their move."

"What are they doing?" Shizuri asked.

"I don't know…"

"Stop!" A man in the room yelled. All movement ceased as everybody stopped what they were doing to look at the man. "It's too late. They're here." He looked around at everybody. "Academy City had been invaded. We're switching to Code Gold. Everybody evacuate immediately and get into your assigned combat positions around the city."

"Invaded?" Teitoku asked, surprised.

"Yes." Saiai said. "The Magic Side has made their move. They've super invaded Academy City."


Yumi frowned.

She still sat in a chair at the table in the same café the group had been in. Accelerator and Mikoto sat in chairs on the other side of the table.

"I thought you said you have something for us to do." Accelerator said. "We've been sitting here drinking coffee for the past half hour."

"It's happened." Yumi said.

"What happened?" Mikoto asked.

"Academy City has been invaded."

"What!?" The two level 5's said at once.

"What do we do?" Accelerator asked.

"What to do indeed…" She stood. "For now, let's go. I know somebody we can talk to."

"Okay." The boy said. He was going to have to trust her again.

Yumi walked out of the café and the two level 5's followed her.

She smiled slightly and mumbled.

"Well, Aleister… Just what are you going to do now?"


Are things getting more exciting now? I hope so. I still have big plans for this fic, it's not over yet. I do have to say that I know some people think that I'm rushing it along. I'll have you know that it's not at the end yet. This chapter is a great example. Just because the Magic Side made their first move doesn't necessarily mean that a full out war is going to start nor does it mean that the fic is nearing some climax where it will end.

Another thing. People have wondered things about the personalities of the level 5's. Like, why Accelerator isn't insane and why Kakine isn't so cruel. Let me put it in a simple way. I wanted to change their personalities into what I believe they would have been like if they had all grown up together as friends. Accelerator wouldn't be insane, Kakine wouldn't be so cruel, Misaka wouldn't be as cocky (considering she's surrounded by people who equal and surpass her power), Shizuri... She's a different story as ITEM doesn't exist, Misaki wouldn't be as um... ready to abuse her ability as she was in the LN's. Gunha is separate from all of them. He uses one personality with them and another when dealing with issues involving the Magic Side as you can tell. I'll delve deeper into their personalities as well later on.

Kakine was suddenly able to use his ability again, despite his time having run out. I'll leave that mystery up to you guys.

Many people seem to be confused on Sakurai Yumi's role in this fic. It's hard to explain everything because I don't want to. So, I won't. More will be revealed about her as the fic goes on.

Also, to answer a question. Yes, all of the churches are temporarily united right now. At least, most of them are. Laura Stewart and Fiamma of the Right are equals as far as their authority over the Magic Side goes.