Author's Note: As of 6/17/2016 this is the most recent chapter. It required a bit of shuffling around so please understand and know that you're supposed to read this one.
Toaru Hakyoku no Tō
A Certain Tower of Catastrophe
と ある破局の塔
November 27th, 11:27 AM
Kamijou Residence
Index sat under the kotatsu in Touma's apartment with a frown on her face. Touma was currently out buying food leaving the tiny nun all alone with only Sphynx to keep her company.
She huffed, "I eat all the food in the cart one time and I can't go grocery shopping anymore? So unfair... I bet it's something else. Don't you agree, Sphynx?" The cat mewled lazily from it's position under the kotatsu which Index took as an agreement, "I know, right?" she continued on, "He's been acting really weird and deflecting all my questions. Ever since that time I had a cold..." None of the others would tell her either, they were all silent about the matter either because they knew nothing about it or because they were hiding things too.
She just needed to keep pressuring Touma to give her an answer, or hope that one of the others cracked first and told her.
Then the doorbell rang and Index ran over to check who it was, 'Speak of the devil,' she thought as she saw Kaori through the peephole. She went to let her in. Kaori seemed surprised to see Index answering the door and appeared unsure of what to do.
Finally, the Saint cleared her throat, "Is Touma here?"
Index shook her head, "No, he's out shopping. Want to come in?"
"Uhh... sure..."
"What's going on with Touma," Index asked, never one for subtlety in her demands.
Kaori froze in place. She had been afraid of this. She didn't want to have to lie, but neither did she want to admit that they had lost a battle.
Then she realized that she didn't really have to lie, since all Index asked about was what was going on with Touma. To be honest Kaori didn't really know herself. She had come here to try and find out about what was happening.
The Saint opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by an ear splitting crack and a sudden falling sensation. She looked down just in time to see two gaping holes beneath her feet, swallowing her legs and closing around them afterwards. For a second she wondered if Index had done it but she quickly scrapped that idea when she saw the look of shock on the nun's face.
She began to struggle out of these footholds when another earth-rattling noise sounded throughout the small apartment and one of the walls bulged outward and parted like a door, revealing a tall man with dark skin. His head was bald and seemed to glint in the sunlight that now streamed across the small room. He wore cheap but fancy looking clothes, as if he wanted to appear wealthy without actually having to spend much money. Around his neck was a necklace made of the teeth of a massive beast, possibly a lion. His face and eyes seemed far too old for the rest of his body and bespoke of hardships too numerous to count.
He looked at the nun and the Saint and then back to the nun. Kaori could see the intention in his eyes and put her hand on the hilt of her sword. "Index! Run!" She commanded.
He didn't even bother sparing her a glance as he drew his hand into a fist, causing spears of stone to shoot out of every surface, stopping just short of embedding into her flesh, instead pressing against her limbs and restricting her movements.
Index's eyes widened and she began to run but the ground beneath her feet began shifting, pulling her towards the tall man.
As this happened he finally began to speak in a deep voice thick with an unknown accent. The voice had an odd harmonic quality, as if he was speaking two languages at once, English and Japanese. "I am the most powerful Earth magician in the world, it will take far more than a mere saint like yourself to defeat me. If you wish to see your little friend returned I suggest you bring some reinforcements." He reached down and grabbed the struggling Index with one hand as he reached into one of his pockets with the other, "My card," he said, chucking a rectangle of paper at the trapped saint, "I will be waiting at the location written on the back. Don't come alone or she will die." He lifted Index up by her habit and disappeared as suddenly as he came.
The rage that coursed through Kaori's veins at the sight of the one she had done so much to protect being put in danger unleashed itself in a burst of strength, allowing her to shatter her stone bonds as if they were paper, sending shards of brick and earth flying in all directions.
Unfortunately one of these directions was at the newly opened door, causing a hunk of brick to hit Touma square in the forehead as he attempted to enter his apartment.
He recovered quickly to see the ruins his apartment was in and Kaori standing in the middle of it looking at a piece of paper.
"Fukuo da," he groaned as he stepped in, "what happened?"
"He took Index!" she yelled.
"Huh? Who?! Where?!" He asked, matching her voice in urgency.
She handed him the card she held and he accepted it. It looked familiar, as if he had seen it, or something similar before. On the front was a picture of a tall building being struck by a spear of lightning and catching on fire as two figures jumped out, plummeting towards a black abyss. On top of the card were the Roman numerals XVI and on bottom were two words, "THE TOWER". He flipped the card around and saw the address of a high rise scheduled for demolition about a mile away as well as a simple message "don't come alone or she will die."
Touma clenched his hands into fists. "I'm going to get her." He said as he turned to the door.
"I'm coming with you," Kaori stated as she began following him.
"No. this is definitely a trap, I can't let you get hurt," Touma responded as he rushed out of the building, the saint hot on his heels.
Kaori felt a blush overtake her face at this show of concern. but her embarrassment was short lived in the face of this panic. "He said not to come alone or she would die. For once you can't take this burden alone, don't you understand that. Us going together is the best chance for success, the only chance for success." With a burst of speed she was suddenly in front of him, blocking his path. "you have people to rely on, people to trust. People whose fight this is as much as it is yours. You know how much I care about Index, do you really think I'm going to stay back and let someone use her as a hostage?"
He stopped and looked at her before shaking his head, "It's my fault for not being there to protect her. It's my responsibility to make this right."
"Don't you dare make this all your fault," Kaori said, her voice even colder than usual, "I was there and yet I failed to protect her. If this is anyone's fault it's mine." The saint took out a phone, "and it's the right of those that care for her to fight to retrieve her."
Touma quickly resigned himself to her help. It wasn't as if he could outrun or or anything as they made their way to the address listed on the card, joined on the way by Stiyl and the other members of the Amasuka church, eager as ever to fight for the sake of Index.
They soon made it to the designated spot and stared at the meeting place. It was one of the city's numerous parking garages, though this one seemed taller than most. Given the nature of this district's industry it was likely built to store large cargo trucks and the smaller construction vehicles. As such each floor was taller and thicker than a normal parking garage to withstand the weight of it's occupants.
Kaori put her hand on her sword as she narrowed her eyes at the building, "this guy uses earth magic. We should consider the entire building as an enemy."
As if in response to her words a spear of concrete rocketed out from the side of the building towards the saint.
In an instant Kaori stepped forward and to the side. Her sword was drawn and held out to the side. "Battoujutsu," she muttered as the spear practically exploded from the power of her slash.
"Wow," marveled Itsuwa, "she's really giving it her all."
"Of course, Index is in danger after all," Stiyl explained as he stepped forward, "though that was far too easy. I doubt this Tower person expected it to work. It seemed more like an invitation. A token opposition to ensure us he's here and to lure us inside. I don't like it."
"Me either," Saiji agreed, "reminds me too much of that windowless building fiasco. Could the knight be behind this as well?"
"Probably not," Touma said as he walked to the building, cautious but unafraid. "This guy's probably on the same side as the Sun guy from earlier. She was against him, so I doubt she'd be on this guy's side."
"Whatever the case," Stiyl said, desperate the change the subject before anyone asked for clarification on who The Sun was and he was forced to recount the shameful story. "We have to be careful. In that building we'll be surrounded on all sides by earth. I can sense that it's covered in runes to increase his control as well. He'll be able to attack us from any angle with incredible power."
"Create a circle," Kaori ordered the Amasuka church, "Itsuwa, stand in the center and watch for attacks from above, Stiyl, see if you can take out the runes, Touma..."
"I'll keep my arm to the floor," Touma stated, easily finding his place in this plan. He hunched over slightly, allowing him to scrap the floor with his knuckles without sacrificing speed, "that'll prevent any attacks from below."
Kaori nodded before stating, "let's go," to the others, with the kind of authority that made it obvious why she was in charge.
They got into formation and entered the building. Almost immediately they were inundated with attacks. Spikes and stones and pillars of rock barreled towards them with incredible power and frightening speed.
Luckily this absolute defensive position that Kaori had put them in allowed them to utilize their skills and teamwork perfectly, creating an almost impenetrable barrier of blades that not even the strongest stone could get through.
This allowed Stiyl to locate the runes. Rather than being located on a piece of paper they were carved directly onto the rock. The power and language of the runes was unfamiliar to Stiyl, as if they were self taught. However Stiyl had manufactured runes himself before so he was quickly able to understand and nullify the runes with his own.
Touma frowned as he stood in the center of the circle with Stiyl and Itsuwa, trailing his gloved knuckles along the ground. He knew his job was important but he couldn't help but wish that he could help in a more active way.
Regardless, as Stiyl destroyed more and more runes, the attacks began to slow down, allowing the Amasuka church to slowly advance towards the ramp which would get them to the next floor.
Unfortunately the second floor was all it got them too as the two way nature of the garage menat the ramp to the next floor was all the way across the room, necessitating the same sort of thing that they went through on the previous one.
They went through 5 more floors of this, and by the end exhaustion was gripping each and every one of them other than Touma. Midway through the ramp to the 7th floor, however, the attacks stopped suddenly.
None of them gave up their guard but it did allow them to run up to the next floor without a cloud of rock dust impeding visibility so when the reached the next floor they could clearly see the tall african that Kaori had described standing at the far corner, holding a sawn off shotgun to Index's face as the little nun was tied to a chair. She was placed precariously on the edge of the building, so close that a stiff breeze might well knock her off. Her eyes seemed strangely dead, as if glazed over with resignation. She didn't even call out to her friends as they arrived and shouted out to her.
"You have arrived," The Tower said calmly, "and you brought others like I requested. That is good. It is always nicer to die surrounded by friends."
"Why are you doing this?" Touma demanded.
"Why... Because the total bounty for your little group right here is 103 billion dollars. Your head alone is worth 100 billion."
"You're doing this for money!"
"Yes I am and no I am not. Yes it is for money but only because that money serves a purpose."
"What purpose could possibly be worth murdering innocent people?"
"How about saving countless millions of lives? I was born in the Congo you know. All my life I have seen dictators ruling with iron fists as their subjects stand helpless against them. I have seen my neighbors tortured in front of me for looking at a soldier the wrong way. I've watched as the strong butchered the weak for no reason. When I finally developed this power I was quick to use it against the strong. I thought that killing the dictator would be enough. But that just led to more trouble, more death, more destruction. In the end brute force can't truly solve problems on a national scale. Brute force can only create fear and fear can only oppress. Only money can help people, because money is power, the right kind of power. It does not create fear, it creates ambition and desire. Money creates the desire to improve and, more importantly, the ability to do just that. With my power and the money to back it up I can creates schools, hospitals, jobs. Rather than trying to help the powerless by defeating the powerful, I can help them by giving them a little power of their own, so that the gap between the two closes just that little bit that's needed to let them throw off the yoke of oppression themselves."
"You don't need money to free people, and you don't need to kill people to get money," Touma argued.
"It is not something one as naïve as yourself can possibly understand," Tower sighed as he squeezed the trigger, sending the shots tearing through Index's head. This, combined with the shaking of the collapsing building, caused the chair she was still tied to to tumble out of the skyscraper and collide heavily with the ground below.
There were a couple seconds of stunned silence, giving The Tower ample time to escape as he caused the building to collapse the ceiling in on itself like a person squeezing an accordian, burying all those who remained in countless tons of steel and concrete.
That was the plan at least. He had barely set off the collapse when Touma burst forward with supernatural speed, speed that would put Kaori to shame. His right arm drawn back.
The Tower had no time to respond before the Imagine Breaker hit him full force in the jaw with the speed and power of a whip. He was sent tumbling across the room and out the window. Through blackened vision speckled with stars he could vaguely see Touma plummeting through the air after him.
Even in his most crazed and grief-filled moments Touma always had one simple goal: save everybody. Today he had failed in this goal, he had let Index die and had not been able to do anything to stop it. Index, the little nun who had been with him since the start, who would always be there to give her unique brand of support and assistance, who he had promised to always protect.
And it was all because of this person in front of him. He gritted his teeth and drew his arm back, ready to deal the finishing blow.
However he hesitated as his morality screamed at him that it wasn't right, no matter how desperately he wanted vengeance he just couldn't kill. The hesitation was long enough for his target to be yanked away just before the pair of them hit the ground.
Instead of attacking The Tower, Touma launched his fist against the ground. The impact cracked the asphalt but lessened his speed enough to survive the fall.
Suddenly an unfamiliar voice rung out from several meters ahead. "Phew, that was close. Are you ok over there? That looked to be quite a fall. Your arm didn't break did it?"
Touma looked up to see two girls standing a short distance away. One of them Touma recognized as Shukuhou Misaki, one of the level fives who he had met a few times before. The other, who seemed to be doing the talking, was standing in front of Misaki and was quite similar in appearance, being blond and buxom with pale skin like porcelain.
Touma was about to respond when several impacts sounded beside him. He turned to look and saw all the members of the Amasuka church other than Itsuwa, crash to the ground. They looked at Touma, then at the girls, then at The Tower, who had somehow made his way over to the feet of the two girls.
"What are you doing with him," Kaori demanded.
"Taking him away," the woman in front responded.
Kaori might have been about to say something else when Itsuwa rounded the building, looking down at the ground. "Itsuwa?" she said instead, almost afraid to confirm.
"I can't heal... there's, there's nothing anymore. Just some splinters of wood from the chair and some blood soaked dirt," the girl looked on the verge of tears at the loss of her friend.
Stiyl had a slightly different response to the grief as he clenched his hands into fists and glared at the woman who held the unconscious Tower. "Give him here, he doesn't deserve to live." He seethed.
"No," the woman began, but she had no chance to continue.
"Vampire Killing Cross," Stiyl yelled as he cast the powerful flame spell right on the girl, letting it consume both her and that despicable wretch The Tower.
The Queen watched as the other girl was consumed in a cross of flames. Her eyes widened. She wanted to cry and scream but her voice failed her as she helplessly looked on.
She didn't have long to despair though. A girl from the crowd, the one whose pants only covered one leg for some inexplicable reason came charging at her, katana in hand and eyes flashing with murderous intent.
She clamped her eyes tightly shut, hoping it would at least be over quickly. But when the impact didn't come she allowed herself to peek out from the lids. Kaori's sword hovered inches from the Queen's neck.
In between the sharp metal blade and its target was a hand charred completely black. The charred flesh reached the shoulder of the girl who had just a second ago been seemingly enveloped in flames but not an inch of skin beyond the shoulder showed the slightest hint of a burn.
Before Kaori could react a slight push from the charred hand sent her flying back, crashing into the building behind them at a high speed. "Vampire killing cross," A voice of silk and steel slowly said into the Queen's ears. The level five felt extremely relieved as she realized it was Avon's voice, "What a poorly named attack," hot breath tickled the Queen's collarbone as Avon's uncharred right hand tilted her head slightly to the right, baring her neck, "It didn't kill me..." she finished. The implication hit the Queen just as Avon dug her fangs into the level five's neck, drinking the bitter red liquid that flowed from the vein.
As she drank, the charred flesh began flaking off in chunks as new, completely undamaged flesh took its place. Within 4 seconds and 1 and a half pints of blood she was completely healed. The flesh of her arm and shoulder as pink and pristine as before, though this was not to say that the skin was unmarred. On her shoulder a serial number was branded onto her flesh along with a six pointed star. Scars from her past.
Sofia "Avon" Pickrew was born in Warsaw Poland on August 24th, in the year 1926 to a successful Jewish banker. She lived with her younger brother and sister along with their grandparents in a nice house in uptown Warsaw and their lives were full of comfort and happiness.
However this happiness did not last forever. Though Sofia had always been grateful for being born into such comfort, her circumstances of birth ended up being her downfall. She was, after all born with some very unfortunate traits.
To make it simple she was a Polish, Jewish, homosexual living in 1939. It is easy enough to guess what happens next.
To this day October first of that year would remain the worst in her long life. It was the day the Nazi's walked into her city and laid it to waste, killing her father and brother and grandparents and sending her mother, sister, and herself to one of the lesser known but cruelest concentration camps in all of Germany. It was a camp so cruel that, rather than giving the prisoners patches with their numbers on it, they branded the numbers and designations into the skin.
For her sister and mother and so many others this was the end of the story, but Sofia was not so lucky as that. For at this concentration camp was a military scientist named Major Bram Carlaud. He was an influential Nazi biologist and researcher who had been tasked with a very particular type of research. He was part of the Thule society tasked with paranormal research and his speciality was vampirism.
He had done many years of research into vampires but he had never been able to obtain a sample, until now. The Nazis had captured one in the hills of Romania. And now that he had a specimen Dr. Carlaud could begin his research and experimentation.
After several months of experimentation he had discovered several traits that vampires had which differed from normal humans. One thing was that they produced blood at an amazing rate. With just a small cut held open and some anticoagulant to keep the flow going, a vampire could bleed solidly for days without any negative effects on their health. Second was that, despite the myth, a vampire did not seem to need to drink blood at all. He had not fed the vampire in an attempt to see the body degrade and measure the effect of lack of blood, but the vampire had shown no signs of deterioration. However there were clear mechanisms for the drinking of blood meaning that it was an important part but he could not figure out the purpose.
It was a year and a half after Avon arrived that the vampire died. He had been surprised to find out that the vampire had been killed by a simple case of whooping cough, completely dispelling the myth of vampiric immortality. Unfortunately this meant that unless he could find a way to create another vampire he could do no more research. That is when an idea struck him. He dissected the vampire and separated it into its various organs then called for several subjects to test a theory out on.
Avon was one of the subjects who was called upon, to this day she does not know whether her prays to God were answered or mocked by this action. Because, though the end result might have been positive, the process was living hell.
Dr. Carlaud attempted to recreate a vampire by placing the various organs of the vampire into other tests subjects. Heart, brain, lungs, all went in various people. Almost everyone died, which was to be expected. Finally it came to be Avon's turn.
The girl was stripped and strapped to a table to prevent movement. Then Dr Carlaud walked up to her with a massive needle and began extracting her bone marrow.
It is impossible to describe the pure and utter agony that was a bone marrow transplant. Even under heavy anaesthetic people can often feel the immense pain of the procedure . Sofia was given no anaesthetic as her bones were drained of marrow one by one, only to be replaced by the marrow of the now dead vampire. Each time she would scream so loud that the entire camp echoed with her tortured cries of pure agony, and she would scream for so long that her voice would dwindle down to nothing before the operation had been finished for the day.
This was repeated with every single bone in the girl's body, slowly and with complete disregard for her health or safety. Over and over she had pleaded and begged and prayed for death but she stayed alive and awake throughout the whole procedure.
As it turned out, marrow was the key to vampirism, and within a few days of transplantation she had begun to mutate into one of the bloodsucking creatures. Bram was pleased with these results and was eager to start more experiments, however this plan was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of three people, agents of France and Great Britain sent to liberate a few of these concentration camps and see what was happening in them. These three men were Vyers, Lammington, and a magician known as Aleister Crowley.
Avon could recall little of what happened after she was freed. Her mind was clouded by anger and pain and she went on a rampage which lasted years, killing as many Nazi's as she could. By the time she finally snapped out of it the war had ended, Germany had fallen, and Hitler was dead.
She was lost in every sense of the word, even the faith she had had since she was a baby was shattered by the magnitude of the tragedies she had suffered and the sins she had committed. She adopted the name "Pesha", crime, in acknowledgement of her sins.
It was during her aimless wandering that she once again came in contact with the two men who had saved her all those years ago in their villa in France.
Despite what she was, despite what she had done, they accepted her immediately. They helped her accept her past and grow beyond it. They taught her to accept what she had done and to see it not as a deliberate act of Pesha, but rather Avon, sin caused by strong emotions, in her case anger and pain.
She knew she owed them her life twice over, for saving her from both the camp and from herself, so when they left to join Lammington's mentor and the third man that had freed her that fateful night in creating a city in the far away land of Japan, she followed them immediately.
It had been over 40 years since that day and many things had happened. She had been able to maintain inner peace and follow the teachings of the Torah to such a degree that she had been put in charge of youth rehabilitation and incarceration. Aleister had told her that he could trust nobody more than someone who knew the pain of being locked up and abused to avoid doing the same to the students of his city.
Now her job had expanded to looking after the Queen and dealing with other small messes like the one that was currently in front of her. Until today it had been easy enough to do so but now...
She dug her face out of the Queen's neck, licking the two puncture wounds she had left behind. As she did she began speaking, "You know... I have managed to stay kosher for forty years. Do you know how much self-control that took? Especially with that damn Deep Blood girl around for the past decade making it so hard to resist... But you've ruined all of that, and even worse you made me hurt my pet," she said affectionately as she knelt down carefully, cradling The Queen's head in her hands as she let the unconscious level five slowly down to the ground, "but you know what. I'm a good Jew and, unless you're a Nazi, I don't believe in returning violence with more violence, so I'll simply ask nicely. Please leave and do not force me to hurt you."
The Amakusa church and Stiyl were terrified and confused. They had heard of the terrifying powers of Vampires, how they were immortal, how they had unlimited magical power, how no one who had ever faced them had survived. However they sensed no magic from this person and they had seen it injured by Stiyl's attack. Was it possible that the tales were exaggerated?
There was only one way to find out.
"Kenaz—Puris-" Stiyl began chanting, about to summon up his flame sword and kill this vampire when he was forced to stop mid incantation as he bent over and coughed up blood.
"The reputation of our difficulty to kill is not unfounded," Avon said, reading Stiyl's mind, "No vampire has ever been killed by a magician. We have an ability that is extremely harmful to magicians, the ability to induce AIM fields in another person," as Avon spoke several members of the Amakusa church charged at her. Without missing a beat she struck all of them down in an instant. One was struck and thrown by a whip composed of a long black material, Dark Matter, another was hit by a bolt of Lightning, Railgun, another flung back by a beam of light, Meltdowner, another was tricked into striking at an illusion standing a short distance away, Mental Out, and the last collided with what seemed to be a wall that couldn't be seen, Stasis Field. "an interesting extension of this is that any human which has the blood of a vampire injected into them permanently emits an AIM field and becomes able to use ESPer abilities. A side effect is that the vampire whose blood was injected into them gains these abilities as well, in much the same manner that we gain the abilities of those whose blood we take. You see... vampires aren't magicians at all, we are, and have always been, ESPers."
"Another interesting fact... there are approximately 368 thousand level one or higher ESPers in this city with about 10,000 unique abilities," a pause as fire and wind and ice and lightning and iron and sand and asphalt and light erupted behind her twisting and destroying the landscape around her in a simple demonstration of utter destructive might, "My blood has gone to every single one of these ESPers, so I have almost every single one of their abilities. I am the sixth most powerful person in the city, possibly the world. So are you sure you still wish to fight?"
Nobody spoke up. The spectacle had been daunting enough to temper even the suicidal rages of Kaori and Stiyl. And if Kaori was balking from this fight, then what hope did any of the rest of them have. The only person who could possibly beat this person was Touma.
The eyes of the others turned on the level 0 as he clutched his right arm and breathed deeply in and out a couple times. Trying to calm himself down before he rushed into the fray. There was a gleam of something in his eyes, something no one there could place. Fear? Rage? Despair? No one knew what it was, but they all knew instinctively that it wasn't a good feeling bubbling up inside him.
"Where are you taking him?" Touma asked. His voice was calm, yet heavy with the effort it was taking to maintain that calmness.
"To jail of course. There are quite a few that can seal his powers." Avon explained as she gathered up The Queen and The Tower nonchalantly. As if she had nothing to fear from any of them.
Touma took another deep breath. "As long as he faces justice..." he said, but even to him it sounded weak.
"No... Justice would be killing him here and now," Kaori seethed.
"Even if I did approve of that kind of justice, in this situation such a move would be suicide. From what I'm given to understand, the leader of this particular group of mercenaries is incredibly powerful, easily capable of killing each and every one of his targets in an instant. Even you Touma," Avon regurgitated the information she had been given, "He does, however operate on a strict code. Part of this code states that he does not get involved in a contract unless either everyone else has failed or one of his employees dies. In other words, if you kill him now you'll be next, but if you let him live, then there might just be enough time to prepare for him. Now I have to get going before he wakes up."
Before anyone could ask any more questions the three disappeared, leaving nothing but a torn up patch of asphalt and concrete.
"What do we do now?" Itsuwa asked.
"We could find that deep blood girl, lure that vampire out of hiding," Stiyl suggested, standing up and wiping away the blood from his mouth.
"That won't solve anything. I don't want to have to get Aisa involved. Besides, by the time we get to her she'll probably have dropped him off wherever she was going," Touma said, "and if you believe what she said earlier it seems like she's able to resist it anyway." He stood up and began walking off, head hung low.
The others began to follow him. They had nowhere in particular to go, and they couldn't just leave him alone after what had just happened.
The walk was unnaturally quiet. Nobody knew what to say to anyone. What words could soften a blow like that? And who should those words go to?
The silence was only broken when Touma turned a corner and walked into a ladder, upsetting a can of paint and causing it to fall onto his hair. "Fukou da," he said almost by reflex as he pried the can off of his head.
"Ack! Hey, watch it," A familiar voice yelled at them.
Immediately all eyes turned to the source of the voice, hoping against hope that it was who they thought it was.
A short little nun sat perched atop the ladder, trying to steady herself as it shook from the collision. In her hand was a paintbrush, and she was currently painting over the sign of what appeared to be a chinese restaurant. "INDEX'S SUPER MEGA ULTRA BUFFET!" The new sign said.
"Index?! You're ok?! How?! We saw you get shot!" Kaori was the first to ask the question everyone else was wondering.
"Shot?" She repeated with confusion. "I wasn't shot. I was rescued."
"By whom?" Stiyl asked.
Index opened her mouth and began to tell the story.
It was pitch black all around. The deep rumbling sounds of grating earth shook Index to the core. It felt like they were stationary but Index had a feeling that they were moving, going somewhere.
She squirmed on impulse, desperate to escape the man's grip despite the fact that she had no way to leave this place even if she was freed.
"Settle down," The Tower commanded in a stern voice, squeezing the tiny nun's arm in a manner that was just short of painful.
"Where are you taking me?" Index demanded. A bit of fear gripped her but that was mitigated by her confidence in her rescue. She had been kidnapped many times before but she was always rescued. This time would be no different.
"To a remote skyscraper where I can minimize collateral damage. I am not as fussy about it as The Sun, I would never handicap myself trying to ensure the safety of bystanders. But I am only here to kill certain people and the deaths of innocents does nothing to assist me," The Tower explained.
Index's eyes widened for a moment. "Touma? Are you here to kill Touma?!"
"Among others. Yourself included."
Now the fear intensified. "Me?" asked the tiny nun in a timid voice.
"There is a reason I never promised your safe return if they took the bait. I plan to kill you almost immediately after they arrive."
"What?!" Index exclaimed, resuming her squirming only to receive another firm reminder to stay still.
"It will be a quick and painless death that will serve a good cause. Take comfort in the heaven you believe you will go to and accept this."
The nun was she had every confidence in her rescue it would not matter much if she was killed before Touma had a chance.
'No,' she reminded herself, 'he will find a way, he always finds a way.'
They soon arrived at the destination and the stone walls that shut out all the light fell away to reveal a massive empty area somewhere near the top of a massive parking garage.
Index had barely recovered from the dizzying ride before she was pushed into a thin stone chair that The Tower had just formed from the stone that had encased the pair just moments before. Stone bound her limbs and mouth so she could not struggle or speak at all. She was pushed to the sill of the window so she was teetering on the brink of falling off. A single push would send her tumbling, further discouraging her from struggling. The only thing she could do was watch and wait as The Tower stood in front of her and watched the door for her rescuers, and his victims.
Scarcely a minute had passed before someone suddenly grabbed the tiny nun's shoulder and she disappeared from the room, instantly staring at the building she had just been in from the street outside.
Being in the seated position and suddenly having no chair caused Index to lose balance and almost fall, but the grip on her shoulder tightened and kept her upright. She looked up to the person holding it and saw a young girl with auburn hair tied into two pigtails with her bangs covering one of her eyes. She wore the same outfit that Misaka wore, in fact Index could remember seeing her alongside Misaka way back during the Sherry Cromwell incident.
The girl looked down at her, her face a mix of distraction, worry, and concern. "Are you ok?" she asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine," Index responded. She knew she would be rescued and she was happy that it was quicker than she had thought it would be, but she was unsure how to react to this particular savior.
"Good," the girl said, the concern melting off her expression leaving only the distraction and worry to colour her features.
"You're Kuroko right?" the nun said, only her perfect memory allowing her to remember the girl's off-handedly mentioned name from their previous encounters.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, Shirai Kuroko."
"Shirai-san," Index repeated, figuring that was appropriate for their level of familiarity. She was about to speak when a loud rumbling came from her stomach.
Kuroko glanced at her. "If you're hungry I can treat you to a meal, it's not like I have anywhere to be..." She said the last part bitterly.
However Index stopped listening after 'treat you to a meal' and smiled broadly, "Yay. I'm really hungry Shirai," she stated, dropping the honorific. After all, someone so willingly treating her to a meal was a friend in her book.
The two began walking and soon stumbled upon a family owned chinese restaurant that offered a lunch buffet. Two of Index's favorite words.
The two of them went in, and got a table. Index immediately went to the buffet and filled a plate high with food. Kuroko, despite paying to eat, didn't budge, just looking out the window with a far away look on her face.
Index sat down and began chowing down. It was only on her 3rd plate that she decided that she really should speak up, if only to rid them of this impressive silence. "What's wrong?" She asked.
"Girlfriend troubles with Onee-sama..." Kuroko all too eagerly supplied, looking at the little nun.
'Onee-sama.. that was Shirai called Misaka-san wasn't it? Wait! So they really were girlfriends?' When Index had seen them before they had given off a bit of that vibe, but Misaka's dogged pursuit of Touma had confused her about their true relationship. Was this girl's relationship with Misaka as one sided as Misaka's relationship with Touma 'Touma's mine after all' Index thought. Or was Misaka's pursuit of Touma adultery? Or had she confused the pursuit this entire time and it was far less romantic than she had thought.
One way or another it was worth delving into. "Tell me about it. I might be able to help." She offered.
Kuroko's eyes lit up slightly. Getting some advice from a neutral source might help get her to understand the situation a little bit better. If nothing else then perhaps, in explaining the situation from the beginning to someone else, the answer might reveal itself.
She opened her mouth to speak... only to be interrupted by the owner of the establishment, who walked over to them and said, "I'm sorry to do this, but you're eating far too much," he began, pointing at the heaping plate in front of the nun, "I know this is supposed to be an all you can eat, but we're already in the red and I..."
"If you're worried about money I'll buy the place," Kuroko seethed at the interruption as she produced a sheaf of money several centimeters thick and handed it to him, "so make more food and don't disturb your new owner's conversation again.
Index could practically see the yen symbols popping into the guy's eyes as he smiled, "yes miss owner, right away miss owner," he said as he walked away.
"Wow... you really are rich..." Index marvelled.
"A little," Kuroko dismissed curtly, clearly eager to move on to her explanation.
Index listened intently, slightly afraid of the frown that split the teleporter's face anytime the nun made to get up for another plate of food, keeping her in place.
Apparently Shirai and Misaka-san really were going out, which Index was grateful for. It was always nice to have one less rival for Touma's affection. Other than that the situation was a fairly basic one, Misaka was mad about some gadget that Kuroko had gotten (she had been fairly vague about the nature of the gadget, which was just as well given Index's comprehension level for advanced technology). She was probably jealous off the amount of time Shirai spent on the gadget or maybe she had a personal gripe with the manufacturer. She demanded Shirai get rid of it, and Shirai had refused. Even Index knew how to fix such a basic issue.
"Just wait till she cools down then apologize," the nun advised.
"But I don't know what to apologize about, I still have no idea why she blew up over it in the first place," Kuroko sighed. The retelling of the situation hadn't helped her understand her Onee-sama's rage in the slightest.
"Then keep the apology vague. If they want a more specific apology then they'll probably prompt it themselves." Index thing about hanging out with someone as dense and clumsy as Touma was that she had seen more apologies from him than she could count.
"But what if she insists I destroy it again?" That was the real issue. Forgiveness always happened in time but she wasn't sure if Misaka would pursue Willow's destruction further.
Index practically smirked. For once someone was coming to her for help and advice, rather than the other way around. It was great. She just hoped that her advice was useful. "Well if you don't need it and you value your relationship more than the thing, then get rid of it. If you do need it, calmly explain why you need it, showing her how you use it if possible." This was a strategy Index had used several times whenever she begged Touma to buy her something with his limited funds. Granted, her threshold for "need" seemed to include slightly frivolous things like a Kanamin wand to complete her cosplay, but usually all she needed to do was stress how the outfit wouldn't be complete without the wand and Touma would fold.
Kuroko considered it for a while. It wasn't a bad idea. If she could just demonstrate the help that Willow provided her with then perhaps Misaka would relent. "Thanks," she said, smiling at the nun, "that helps. I think I'll go figure out how to do that." She stood up and put some money on the table for the bill.
Index looked at the money "Didn't you buy this place? Can't you eat for free?"
"Oh right... forgot about that," Kuroko frowned again, though this one didn't seem nearly as frightening as before. "That was kinda impulsive wasn't it? What am I supposed to do with a restaurant?"
"I'll take it off your hands," Offered Index, glad she could help further.
"Hmm? Yeah, sure. Go ahead, that works for me," she said, "it's yours now." She said as she left the place.
Index had a few more plates of food before she decided that this place could use a little makeover. Starting with the name.
"So I got some ladder and some paint and started making the new sign. Then you came along and... that's it." Index said as she finished explaining. She smiled and looked at the others, but seeing the looks on their faces made the smile melt away quickly.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
Author's Note 2: Uggh, sorry to make you wait so long again. At least it wasn't a year this time at least.
I've had this chapter on the back burner for a while. I tend to write some chapters, namely chapters with big exciting battles or plot twists, in chunks. Write the bits I want to write first then join them up later. So yeah, this was sitting in like... 4 or 5 chunks for months.
The reason I didn't finish it earlier is twofold. One, I didn't want the first chapter after my big gap to hardly feature Kuroko at all, since in the end that's what my story is about and what you guys come here to read. And second, I don't have a beta reader who knows about Index. To be honest, my knowledge is kinda slapdash, especially when it comes to characterization. So without a beta who can go "oh he'd never say that" or "yeah, that's just the kind of behavior I'd expect from her" my confidence kinda dwindles, and that's not exactly conducive to fast writing.
But in the end I got it out, and that's the important thing right? I hope you enjoy it. The next chapter isn't written at all, so it might take me a while, but hopefully I have more time I can devote to writing.
In terms of content this chapter is kind of interesting. It's the first chapter in which the Tarot merc was not defeated by Kuroko, Misaka, Oneeni, or some combination of those three. It's not going to be the last time however, though I'm a bit concerned about this.
This is the third book in a trilogy, which means it's highly unlikely that people will start from this book, which means most of my readers are readers from the first two. The big selling point of the first two was the fact that it centered around Kuroko. As I delved more into the Index side of things I feared that I was alienating some of my readers, and now I'm far enough into it that some chapters barely feature Kuroko at all.
It's a necessary turn of events, since it is building up to something, as well as preventing Kuroko from overcoming these obstacles with ease using her teleportation. In other words, in order to show off the powers of these people I have concocted I have to set them against other people whom can draw out their power.
At this point I'm not sure how much of it I can change, but as always I'd love to hear your opinions of this and will take your words to heart in whatever way I can, so please leave a review, favorite, follow, etc... Whatever you can to make your voice heard
