Alright, new chapter! About half the length of the last one, which is to say a little longer than average XD. To be fair this chapter is really just wrapping up this little mini arc. I seem to remember something about a tournament going on? Maybe we should look in on that soon….but side note, I can't guarantee a new chapter next Friday, I have a creative writing portfolio to write and a mid-term to study for, so that's a thing. But who knows? I'll try to get it out, if not you'll have to wait two weeks instead of one. What, you want me to release on Saturday or something? What kind of barbarian do you take me for?

"Oh, hey, you're here. What took you so long?"

Touma stood in front of Mikoto, who was leaning against the outside of the building. Touma looked at her, then at the front of the warehouse, half of which had been turned to rubble, then back at Mikoto, who covered her mouth to suppress a yawn.

"Mm, sorry, it's been a long day and I didn't get a lot of sleep last night," Mikoto said mumbled apologetically and it took Touma a moment to realize she was talking about her yawn, not the fact that she had apparently demolished part of a building.

"What…" Touma gaped at the carnage, looking at the inside and seeing all the knocked out goons "how did you…" Touma was at a loss "you were supposed to wait for me!"

Mikoto shrugged "I got bored, it wasn't a big deal. They were prepared for you, not me." She grinned smugly "if you'd been here you would have gotten wasted again."

"I would not have!" Touma said indignantly "you can't just go running into…" He trailed off as he thought about what he was about to say, a true rarity for him. Was this really the time for him to chew her out right after she had done him a massive favour? Especially when what she had done was what he seemed to do at least a couple times a month these days.

He was deep in thought so he didn't see Mikoto tense up in worry as he began his sentence. Despite her casualness, the more she had waited for him to arrive the more worried she had become that Touma would be mad at her for not waiting, a fear that he seemed to be all too eager to affirm with his first few sentences upon arriving.

Touma sighed "is Index okay?"

Mikoto felt like she was going to cry, that was it? 'Is Index okay?' She risks her life to impress him and that's what she got in return? She had been scared he was going to be mad, but this was far worse.

She forced herself to not let her distress on her face "I think so…probably. They knocked her unconscious but it also looks like they injected her with something? I don't know why they would do that though."

Touma looked upset when she said this, but not surprised. He walked into the warehouse towards Index, leaving Mikoto to trail after him.

Touma crouched over Index "why didn't you untie her?" He asked Mikoto

"The ropes are weird, they ignite when I try to touch them, but it doesn't hurt her."

Touma nodded and touched the ropes, which immediately disintegrated. Index slumped in the chair now that the ropes weren't supporting her.

"Should we get her to a doctor or something?" Mikoto asked, worry for the smaller girl overwhelming her disappointment at Touma's reaction to her heroics "what if whatever they injected her wit is poisonous?"

Touma shook his head "she's not useful to anyone dead. If they planned on capturing me here they would definitely want Index too, she's too valuable to just throw away."

"Why is she so important?" Mikoto asked, thinking of all that strange woman's talk about how the ropes had been to restrain Index.

Touma hesitated "it's…complicated."

"I see."

Touma turned around at the tone of her voice "um…Biri-biri?"

"Don't call me that!" She shouted, back facing him.

Touma was confused "are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Her shoulders were shaking "I just…I wish you would trust me."

"I do trust you!" Touma protested quickly.

"Do you? Then why won't you tell me what's so special about Index? I rescue her and the first thing you do is hide things from me!" She paused "and... maybe a thank you would be nice."

Touma stared at her, she was right, he hadn't thanked her. In fact, he had been totally ungrateful. Why? He wasn't normally like this, he was usually eager to thank people who helped him out as Mikoto had done. He looked at the thugs lying on the floor with all their guns and bullets and couldn't imagine how he could have saved Index by himself. Was that really what was bothering him? That he wasn't able to rescue Index himself? Was that the kind of person he wanted to be, the hero at all costs?

"Biri-biri," he said gently.

"I told you to stop calling me that!"

"It's important, please."

"What?" Mikoto asked miserably, still facing away from him.

"Turn around."

Slowly, reluctantly, she did as he asked. Touma stood and faced her.

Touma smiled sheepishly "I guess I really am used to being the hero." He put his hands on Mikoto's shoulders.

Mikoto blinked "eh?" She said as blood rushed to her face and she wished he would stop smiling so adorably.

Touma pulled her into a hug, causing even more blood to rush to her face "thank you for saving my friend…Misaka."

They stood there for a while, perhaps a bit longer than necessary. Then Touma pulled away "alright! Now then, maybe you were right, we should take Index to the hospital, no point in taking any chances right? Who knows what goes on in these crazy people's minds? Only problem is I can't carry her because of my ankle, sorry for imposing but do you think you could give me a hand one more time? Um? Biri-biri?" Touma looked at her curiously when he got no response.

"Are you alright? Your face is kind of red…well it's really red actually. Like, really, really red. Did you over exert yourself in that fight? Do you have a fever? Biri-biri can you hear me?"

But poor Touma got no response from Mikoto, for her brain had had a minor meltdown and was stuck on the moment he said her name, repeating over and over again.

Mikoto, after about five minutes, snapped out of and called a cab for them to take Index to the hospital to make sure whatever they had injected into Index wasn't something that needed to be taken care of.

A certain doctor examined her for about two minutes before telling them she just needed to sleep it off. This doctor did give Touma a funny expression though, and Touma knew that the doctor knew whatever they had given her hadn't been your run of the mill knock out drug. (The fact that he could say 'run of the mill' and 'knock out drug' in the same sentence made him weep a little bit)

What Touma found strange though was the fact that Misaka was almost completely silent during this entire episode. She moved rigidly and her face was still slightly red. He had asked her multiple times if she was certain she didn't have a fever, but every time all he got in response was a jerky shake of the head. He asked Heaven Canceller if there was anything wrong with her while he was examining Index, but after a single glance at Misaka's face he had simply sighed and said he pitied her, which worried Touma but after that the elderly doctor assured him there was nothing wrong with her, so to speak. As to what he meant by 'so to speak' he refused to tell him, leaving Touma confused as to whether or not he should be worried for her health or not.

He decided however to put his faith in Heaven Canceller, if he said that the problem wasn't one he could fix Touma couldn't imagine what he could possibly do to help her condition.

Heaven Canceller said it was fine to take Index home some they loaded her back into the cab. They stopped at Touma's apartment first, since Touma would have trouble getting Index up his apartment's stairs and Misaka needed to pay the driver anyways.

And so now they stood at Touma's front door, Index still sound asleep. Misaka was standing outside with Touma in the standing in the door way to see her off. Her eyes were fixed on the ground and she seemed to be trembling slightly, which Touma could only attribute to the wind and exhaustion. Still he felt like he should say something before she went on her way.

"So…" He began awkwardly. Now that the situation was purely social and it was his responsibility to take the initiative he had become nervous. "Thanks again for saving Index."

"Yeah…" Misaka said quietly, making Touma feel even more awkward.

"Um...I know I sounded pretty ungrateful when I got to the warehouse, I'm sorry for that, that's not me, that's not who I want to be." He hesitated "It's just…I don't like it, the feeling of arriving too late. It scared me. I hope you don't think that I'm not grateful for your help."

To his surprise and relief this made her smile a little "you saved thousands of my sisters, by my count I still have a long way to go until I've repaid my debt to you."

Touma chuckled and scratched the back of his head awkwardly "I really don't like to talk about debt and saving people in the same conversation, it's not about that, you know?"

Now her smile was wide and earnest "you really are a strange boy, you know that?"

Now it was Touma's turn to smile genuinely "heck, you alone tell me often enough for me to know that, never mind all the other people who say the same thing."

Silence descended following his statement, both of them wanting to say something more but neither knowing what until the silence became too heavy for either to say something even if they knew what to say.

Finally Touma coughed "um, I guess you should probably being heading back right? I mean, your dorm manager is pretty strict, and you were talking about how you didn't sleep much last night…"

"Oh." She sounded disappointed "yeah, I guess so."

Another awkward silence. Touma hated to do it but he took a step back. Putting his hand on the door he said "well, see you around." As he went to close the door he felt a tug on his shirt. He turned back around to see Misaka, face once again bright red and staring at the ground, holding onto the sleeve of his shirt "um, Biri-biri?" He asked curiously.

A small pause from her, followed by a deep intake of breath. Then: "doyouthinkwecouldhangoutsometimetogether?"

"Um…" Touma wasn't entirely sure what she had just said "come again?"

Misaka inhaled through her mouth, then out through her nose, trying to calm herself, she tried again "do you t-think…if you wanted to…maybe…I mean….y-you know….h-hang out on a weekend…or something…just for fun?" She was shaking again. 'Could you be any weirder?' She silently berated herself 'it would be a miracle if he ever talked to you again after acting like this! Never mind spending time with you willingly'

"Oh, was that all? So…is like, Saturday good for you?"

"…"

"Biri-biri?"

"Could you say that again please?" Her voice was very quiet now.

Touma frowned "um, I asked is Saturday good for you? Or do you have something else planned? I should try to catch up on schoolwork, so I don't think I could do Sunday. I guess schedules are pretty messed up with this tournament thing huh? You can just give me a call when you get the time right?"

"NO!" She blurted out, shocking Touma so much that he almost fell over backwards "Saturday's good, I like Saturday, nope, no plans for Saturday, there's supposed to be good weather on Saturday, your good for Saturday? Great! I'm good for Saturday; let's meet on Saturday, okay? Okay!"

Touma stared at her in fascination. For the first time he doubted Heaven Canceller telling him that she was fine, how could she be? He knew nothing about medicine and even he could see that she had a fever or something, and now she was rambling like a crazy person!

Mikoto found herself cut off when Touma put his hand on her forehead.

"I-Idiot! What do you think you're doing!?" She stammered as she stumbled half a step back from him.

Touma frowned in response "I was checking your temperature; I think exhaustion is making your brain overheat. Go get some rest, it's been a long day."

His words had the effect of making her even more embarrassed, which couldn't be good for her health (at this point she couldn't afford to have any more blood go to her face, she needed some to keep her heart, which was beating at twice the normal rate, pumping!) But at the same time she also realized he was partially right…. about the symptoms at least if not the cause.

"O-okay, I'll see you later." With that Mikoto half teetered her way back to the taxi. Touma watched her go, hoping she would be alright.

"What a strange day…" He muttered to himself as he went back inside "and that's saying something coming from me!" He closed his door behind him and was asleep before his head hit the pillow, dreams full of kidnappers, thugs, demons, and a certain electromaster who was confusing him more and more with every passing day.

On a semi-important note: All this goes down on Monday. If I previously mentioned it was on another day, I was being a filthy liar.

See you with another update either next Friday or the Friday after that.