A Certain Strange Addition
New chapter! Writing this is just all kinds of fun, especially knowing that so many of you are so supportive to my additions and changes to the original canon. I see a lot of you really liked the addition of the journal. Didn't see that one coming, did ya?
By the way, I went through the previous chapters and fixed the dates so they are consistent with the canon.
Now, before we get to the meat, a little bit of Q&A!
Awareness Bringer: I wouldn't worry too much about that. While Judgement Officers will get more involved now, these incidents won't be official Judgement work, so it will be off the books. I don't expect too many other Science Side Characters getting involved with magic for a while.
Cyber dragonarmy: Your going to have to wait if you want answers to Touma's potential memory lose. I'd go with Mikodex,too. Since their first meeting didn't involve fighting over Touma, I figure they would have a much friendlier relationship.
mohamaster94: Boom! Update!
narufuuin: Now that the journal is in play, I figured I could do a lot the shake things up. You know Saten is going to start peeking as soon as she gets the chance.
MrQuestionMark: I'm just really enthusiastic about this story. Thanks for the kind words. I'm a very "go with the flow" kind of writer, I write what comes to mind with key destinations in mind. I guess experiencing the story with the characters as I write just really makes progression a bit more natural. The journal is something I wanted to add for a long time. I just needed to find the perfect opportunity for it to come into play.
RedSS: Glad you agree with my choice to cut the fights. As for the journal, you'll just have to wait and see what I do with it.
Bluejack222: Oh, I plan on making it crazy. Might be a bit short though. Not sure yet. As for the journal, you'll have to wait and see.
Super Saiai: I'm not too sure about the Mental Out Arc right now. I need to check it again. Plus. considering he is incapable of retaining memories of her in specific before his big memory lose incident, he probably be incapable of writing about her.
RPGPersona: Not sure what to say, considering your reactions to many of the events are what I expected. Thanks for reviewing, anyway.
ahsoei: I'll be sure to adjust my balance of narration and dialogue.
Agent Nine: Glad you liked the addition of the journal.
ArmoredCoreNineBall: Glad you liked the addition of the journal. You'll have to wait for what comes of it. I think you're going to enjoy what comes up.
RareSilver: Yeah, but it's Kuroko, she'll go to any lengths when it comes to fulfilling her perverted fantasies. Don't worry, I have very special plans for the journal.
ALostBlueIdoit: Glad you liked the addition of the journal. I'll be sure to make use of both it and Kami Disease in the future.
Sorry about any guest reviews. I moderate those and I accidentally deleted them. My bad.
Now that that's out of the way, Disclaimer!
Disclaimer: All characters and plotlines of the "A Certain" franchise are credited to Kazuma Kamachi.
Chapter 11: Secrets
It was the morning of July 27th, three days after Touma was found unconscious in the middle of the road. After finding him that night, Mikoto dragged Touma back to Komoe's apartment, where Index treated his injuries. He was in really bad shape when they had found him. He had to get bandages wrapped all around his head, a pad tapped to his cheek, and his right hand was practically mummified. Index may have gone a bit overboard with the bandages to his arm. He had been asleep ever since they found him
Index never left Touma's side the entire time he was out. Mikoto, Kuroko, Uiharu, and Saten made sure to visit every morning and every afternoon to check on his condition. That morning, the girls were making yet another trip to visit Touma. Kuroko and Uiharu had the day off from Judgement, so with Summer vacation in full swing, they intended to stay keep and eye on Touma all day.
"Hey, Index, we're here," Mikoto greeted as the girls came in.
"How is he?" Kuroko asked.
"Same as ever," Index replied sadly, "Even now, he has not shown any signs of waking up."
"He was hurt so badly," Uiharu whimpered, "I wish we knew how exactly this happened to him."
"We'd all like to know," Saten agreed, "He was put in such a terrible condition, but no one saw a thing."
"It's all my fault," Index cried, "He was probably attacked by one of the sorcerers that were coming after me. He got hurt trying to keep me safe."
"Come on, Index," Mikoto encouraged, "We both know this idiot would go to any lengths to help someone. He chose to do this. So, chin up."
Mikoto could hardly believe what she was doing. Here she was, comforting a girl her age like she was her little sister. As expected of her photographic memory, Index seemed to know an awful lot about magic, religion, and history. However, she was also extremely naïve, like she was a four-year-old child. And that's not even considering her temper tantrums. It was like she lacked the life experience that a normal person her age would have had.
"Hey, Index, why don't you make something for Kamijou to eat?" Uiharu suggested, "A general rule of thumb is a person can go three days without water and three weeks without food. With how long he has been out, Kamijou will surely be hungry when he wakes up."
"Yeah," Index sniffed, "That's a great idea, Kazari."
"You want us to help?" Mikoto asked as she watched Index race to the kitchen.
"Don't worry, I'm a Sister," Index reminded them, "I know how to care for the needy."
Without much of another word, Index got straight to business with preparing something to eat for Touma. Little did everybody know that Index's only had minimum cooking skills, so the most she could make was rice, and that was with a rice cooker.
With Index 'busy' in the kitchen, the girls made themselves comfortable in the apartment. Komoe was out running errands for the time being, so they had to make sure the place was still presentable when she got back. The girls decided to lend the teacher a hand on organized all of the books that were scattered about the apartment. However, while organizing the books, Saten came across a single notebook that didn't seem to belong with the rest of them.
"Hey guys, look at this," Saten said, presenting the notebook, "Any idea what this is?"
"Oh, that's Kamijou's journal," Kuroko replied, "Apparently, he's been writing in it ever since he came to Academy City. It has everything he's considered important in it, from significant events, to profiles of his friends, to his personal tips for dealing with his misfortune."
"Really?" Uiharu asked.
"Yeah, he showed it to us the night he brought Index here," Mikoto confirmed.
Saten eyed the book for a minute, thinking about the stories it could hold. All the secrets it had to share. If there was something juicy in it, she could use it to blackmail Touma if she ever felt like it. The opportunity was just too good.
"Hey, you guys want to read it?" Saten suggested.
"Doesn't that seem a little wrong," Uiharu pointed out.
"Just leave it alone, Saten," Kuroko agreed.
"Yeah, nothing good can come from peaking at this idiot's secrets," Mikoto added.
"Come on, think about the possibilities," Saten encouraged, "Blackmail material, potential tactical weaknesses in battle, his taste in girls, what he really thinks about you?"
Hearing all of these possibilities, Mikoto struggled to resist. There was so much she could take advantage of, but she didn't want to betray Touma's trust. He has always been so lacks about his himself, but he always revealed things on his terms. It wouldn't be right for Mikoto to go digging into his journal like that. Unfortunately, Mikoto just couldn't resist. The temptation was just too great.
"For the record, you had me at 'potential tactical weaknesses in battle'," Mikoto conceded.
"Sissy!" Kuroko yelled in horror.
"This can't end well," Uiharu lamented.
Ignoring Kuroko and Uiharu's clear disapproval, Saten opened up the journal to the first entry, which appeared to be an event log of sorts.
"'It's been a few days since I came to Academy City'," Saten read out loud, "'After everything I had been put through, I guessed dad just couldn't stand it anymore. It made sense, I guess. It's one thing for your son to be shunned and called the god of pestilence for being unlucky, but it's another to have a man to attempt to stab your son for supposedly jinxing him and then have the media try to turn your son's unlucky life into a TV show.'"
Saten trailed off as she read that last sentence. She and the rest of the were stunned at what they all just learned.
"Is he serious?" Kuroko asked in shock, "He got stabbed because some guy blamed some bad luck on him."
"Y-yeah," Saten stuttered, scanning through the rest of the page, "Apparently, the man went bankrupt shortly after interacting with Kamijou and was extremely superstitious."
"I know he said he had it rough as a kid in his home town, but he never mentioned anything this bad," Uiharu added.
Mikoto remained completely silent. Her eyes drifted over to the unconscious Touma just across the room as her. This was what he had to deal with as a kid? It was terrible! No one should be stabbed for such a pointless reason, especially when they were so young. And yet, he pushed through it, sometimes even throwing himself into these painful situations. Was this why he was so dedicated to helping people? Had his constant, inescapable suffering made him unable to bear the thought of someone else being in that position? Mikoto had no idea.
"Doesn't if get any better?" Mikoto asked, "His situation, I mean."
"Hang on," Saten said as she flipped through the pages, "Yeah. He starts talking about his first and best friend he made in Academy City, a boy named Yuri Suzushina."
"I remember him," Uiharu added, looking over Saten's shoulder, "Kamijou told us about him one time. Look, there's even a reference to a profile on him somewhere else in the journal."
"In that case," Saten replied, flipping through until she came across the page, "Here it is. There's even a picture paperclipped to the page."
The girls crowded around the journal to get a better look at the picture. Said picture depicted a boy with black, spiky hair and a red shirt with his right arm slung over the shoulder of a boy with white, straight hair and a blue shirt. The girls easily deduced that the boy with black hair was Touma, leaving the other boy to be Yuri. Despite the two of them being as opposite as they possibly could be, they couldn't look happier. They both wore the brightest smiles the girls have ever seen on children and looked quite adorable together.
"Well, isn't that sweet," Mikoto mused, pulling away from the book.
"Kamijou sure put a lot of thought into this," Kuroko commented as she took the book a flipped through a couple of pages.
As she flipped through, she saw multiple other pages for Touma's friends, each with their own personal photo paperclipped to them. Kuroko's page had a picture of the two of them after a successful arrest. Uiharu's page had a picture of them busy in the Judgement Office. Saten's page had a picture from the time they all went to the batting cages.
Kuroko continued to flip through multiple pages before stopping on one that caught her eye.
"Hey, here's your page, Sissy."
"Let me see!" Mikoto suddenly jumped, snatching the journal from Kuroko's hands.
"You sure seem enthusiastic," Uiharu noted.
"Sissy, I don't think that's such a good idea," Kuroko whispered in concern.
However, Mikoto was too focused on the journal to listen. She scanned her page, reading out load what was written.
"'Name: Mikoto Misaka. Nickname: Zapper. Warning: Dangerously electric temper. Avoid angering at all costs. Check Classified Misfortune Survival Guild section Espers subsection 3 for further details.'," Mikoto read, growing furious at the last part, "I'm gonna clobber this idiot when he wakes up!"
"Sissy, you might want to read the rest of the page first," Kuroko advised.
"Fine," Mikoto yelled, still angry, "'She is an incredibly and independent girl. Despite her short temper and her occasionally childish behavior, she can be very understanding and dependable as well. When someone is in trouble or needs help, she takes on the role of the older sister, something I honestly always have found attractive in a girl. I'm sure she'd make a great girlfriend for some lucky guy. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly a lucky guy. Plus, she's never been to honest about her feelings, always hiding her love for Gekota. I wonder what other things she secretly loves.'"
At that point, Mikoto was completely shocked. This is what he actually thought about her? Sure, there were a few offensive comments here and there, but for the most part, it was all earnest stuff. Not to mention the last sentence suggested that he might have suspected she had other things she liked that she was embarrassed about. She could hardly believe it. However, it was the photo attached to the bottom of the page that really got her.
The picture was from an incident she would have rather forgotten. It was from the night that Touma made them all dinner after Saten had come out of the Level Upper workshop. Kuroko had attempted to drug her drink and make her fall asleep so Kuroko to take advantage of the situation. However, shortly after Mikoto took the first sip of the drugged drink, Touma was unlucky enough take her drink by mistake. Realizing that the two had shared an indirect kiss, Kuroko completely forgot about the drug and finished off the rest of Mikoto's drink, knocking her out almost immediately. Eventually, the drug took it's hold on Touma and Mikoto, causing them to fall asleep in a rather compromising position, at least in Mikoto's opinion.
The two of them were leaning against Touma's bed, with Mikoto resting her head on Touma's right shoulder. Touma's right hand was open upwards and Mikoto's left hand had fallen into it, making it look like the two were holding hands. Saten had taken the golden opportunity and took a photo of the two students, sending Touma a copy to his phone. When Mikoto learned of the photo, she zapped Touma's phone, destroying the data on the phone as well as the phone itself. However, she never suspected that he already had the photo printed, much less put it as her profile photo in his journal.
At this point, Mikoto was beet red and a puff of steam could be seen coming off the top of her head. She was just so embarrassed by what she had just read. The other girls were not different. They had always thought Touma was just dense, but his journal said otherwise. He could tell when a girl was special, but thought so little of himself that he never considers the possibility that they might have an interest in him. It was quite the embarrassing revelation to say the least. However, that embarrassment quickly turned to panic when they heard a certain passed out boy moaning behind Mikoto. Looking over her shoulder, Mikoto realized Touma was starting to get up. Not wanted to be cause with her hand in the cookie jar, she quickly shoved the journal into her bag before turning to face the now rising Touma.
"Good to see you're awake, idiot," Mikoto greeted, desperately trying to mask any embarrassment or guilt she felt for reading the journal.
"Misaka, everyone," Touma moaned as he got up, "Where am I?"
Unfortunately, his arm was still severely injured, and he grabbed it in response to the pain.
"Ow, that really hurt," Touma whined.
"Careful, you should really stay in bed," Uiharu reprimanded, "You're back at Ms. Komoe's apartment.
"The sun is up, so I guess I slept the whole night," Touma deduced, "I don't remember coming back here."
"You were out for three whole days," Kuroko explained, "Honestly, I'm surprised you woke up as soon as you did with how exhausted you were when we found you."
"Seriously? That long?" Touma asked.
However, he suddenly stopped in his tracks when he remembered his encounter with Kaori Kanzaki, the sorcerer that attacked him that night.
"Are you alright, Kamijou?" Saten asked, noticing his sudden silence.
"Never mind me! Where's Index? Is she alright?" Touma asked rather forcefully.
"S-she's just in the kitchen, making you something to eat," Uiharu stuttered, stunned by Touma's sudden outburst.
Touma let out a sigh.
"Then everything is alright then," Touma replied in releaf.
"What are you, stupid? Everything is definitely not alright!" Mikoto suddenly yelled, "We had no idea what happened to you when we found you passed out on the street! Index was blaming your condition on herself, saying she was the reason you were attacked! Seriously, you always try to take on all of this stuff on your own! You help others all the time, but you never let us help you! Why are you like this, you idiot?!"
At that point, tears were starting to form in the corner of Mikoto's eyes, something that didn't go unnoticed by anyone in the room. The girls couldn't really blame her. After learning that Touma might be willing to return whatever mixed-up feelings she had for him, Mikoto didn't need to also worry about how little he valued himself in the eyes of others. He'd go to any length to help someone, maybe even to the point of sacrificing himself. She just learned he might have a chance at him, so she didn't want him to throw away that chance himself.
On the other hand, Touma had very little idea why Mikoto was so upset. Sure, he had been hurt, but he had come out of it alright. Plus, he had been hurt worse before. Regardless, he was the cause of her current sadness, so he had to be the one to fix it. With his right hand still wrapped in bandages, he reached out and petted Mikoto on the head. To say she was shocked by the gesture was an understatement.
"Hey, I managed to walk away from it, right? Just like I always do," Touma pointed out, removing his hand, "Don't worry, this unlucky Kamijou isn't going anywhere any time soon."
"Idiot," Mikoto giggled, wiping away whatever remnants of tears were in her eyes.
Touma smiled at her reaction. Honestly, he was expecting to get zapped for that last stunt. However, he quickly became worried when he remembered something the girls mentioned.
"Wait, did you say Index was cooking something?" Touma asked, slightly worried.
"Yeah, why?" Saten replied.
"Is that you, Touma?" Index called from the kitchen, "Thank goodness you're awake, and just in time for the meal I made for you, too."
Index came out of the kitchen with a pair of chopsticks and a bowl of rice. However, during their time with Komeo, Touma learned something paramount about Index's cooking; she only knew the basics and was pretty horrible at them. From what he could tell, the rice she made had way too much water added to it, making it extremely soft and mushy. How a girl as obsessed with food as Index was that bad and preparing it, Touma had no idea.
"Um, I appreciate it, but I'm not hungry," Touma admitted.
"Too bad," Index said sternly, "You have to eat to regain your strength. I'm a Sister, I know how to care for the sick."
"Yes, I know, but right now I just want some quiet time to myself," Touma insisted, "t-to meditate."
"Is that so? You don't want the food I made?" Index accused.
The two stared at each other for second. Touma's eyes held fear while Index's held accusations. However, their staring contest was broken when the bowl of rice somehow slipped from Index's hand and landed right on Touma's head, covering it with wet rice.
"Well, at least your bad luck is still in order," Saten joked.
No one had time to respond to Saten's joke as a knock was heard on the front door. The group suspected that Komoe had come back from her errands, but her voice from the other side suggested that she had even more guests. When Komeo opened the door, the pair of Stiyl Magnus and Kaori Kanzaki stood in the doorway.
"You again! What are you doing here?!" Touma yelled, getting up from the futon.
The girls were rather shocked by Touma's outburst. Based on how he reacted, they deduced that the pair were the sorcerers that have been attacking Touma and Index for the last couple of days. Whatever they were expecting, they didn't expect the sorcerers to look how they did. The girl, Kanzaki, was especially odd, having one jean leg torn off and her shirt tied off at the bottom, showcasing her well endowed figure. For religious people, they sure seemed to have rather flashy fashion sences.
"Ah, it seems like you're in pretty bad shape," Stiyl noted, "I don't think you're going to have much luck running away from me this time."
"So, you're the ones that have been attacking them," Mikoto said, stepping in front of Touma, sparking, "I still don't entirely understand this whole situation, but if you want a fight, I'd be more than happy to give you one!"
"What are you, his girlfriend?" Kanzaki asked sarcastically.
"Go away!" Index interrupted, "Please, I'm begging you. Leave them alone, and I'll go anywhere you want. I'll do anything you ask."
"Index, no!" Touma called out, running over to her.
"What are you thinking?" Mikoto added.
"Just take me! I'm the one you want, aren't I," Index continued, ignoring her friends' pleas, "But I ask one thing. I don't want you hurting Touma and his friends anymore!"
"The limit will be reached at midnight. We wanted to see if the ball and chain sufficient to keep you from running away again. Better than we thought," Stiyl said vaguely, " You don't want your little toy to be taken away, do you? If not, you'd best abandon any thoughts of running. Understood?"
Without so much as another word, the two sorcerers left the apartment.
"What was that about?" Kuroko asked, "What did he mean by 'the limit'."
"It's okay, you all don't have to worry. I can make a deal with them," Index said reassuringly, "After this is all over, you can go back to your normal lives. You can forget all about this."
Touma appeared rather destressed by her choice of words. His worry only grew when Index suddenly grew faint and collapsed. She would have fallen had Touma not caught her. The girls had no idea what was happening, but something was clearly wrong.
Night had fallen over Academy City. Index had been asleep ever since she collapsed earlier that day. No one could bring themselves to leave Index when she was in such a helpless situation. The only exception was Komoe, who left to run a couple more errands for the night, leaving Touma in charge.
Ever since Index collapsed, Touma had been completely silent. He was completely focused on the passed-out Sister. The girls wanted to say something, but didn't feel like it would be right to prod him for answers when he was like this. As a result, the apartment was completely silent.
However, the silence was broken by the ringing of a rotary phone. Digging through the scattered newspapers, Touma located the phone and answered. He remained silent for a moment, almost stunned, before beginning to speak. Unfortunately, do to the nature of the phone, there was no speaker mode.
"Yeah. Kanzaki, wasn't it?" Touma answered, "I'd rather not wake her up. … Why would you go out of your way to tell me your plans? Knowing what to expect will only make it that much easier for me to fight you. … You people are unbelievable. Index is paying the price for your incompetence. I thought you guys do sorcery. Can't you do anything with your magic to help her? She's got 103,000 books in her head. Maybe one of those has the answer. … What are you talking about? … Fine then why not trying to get to them with your own magic. … You knew that and you still let Index memorize them? … Alright then, but what about us? … I'm talking about science. I bet there are any number of ways to erase someone's memory by using science. You said magic can't be used to get to those books, but maybe there's something else that can. This is Academy City, remember? There are plenty of Espers here that know about manipulating the mind. I think it's still too soon to abandon all hope. But maybe you'd rather go for the quick fix you know will work instead of taking on a challenge. Never mind that it's your supposed friend's happiness we're talking about here. … In that case, I don't think we'll ever see eye-to-eye on this. No surprise there. But you should know I'm still gonna fight you no matter what! You should stay out of my way! I don't care what I have to do to you if it means saving her!"
Touma remained silent for a few more seconds before hanging up the phone. When he looked up from it, he was met with the odd stares from his friends.
"Kamijou, what was all that about?" Kuroko asked.
"Yeah, it was weird. From the sounds of it, you were talking to one of the sorcerers that attacked you multiple times now," Uiharu deduced.
"And what's this about them being Index's friends and erasing memories?" Saten added.
"What have you been hiding from us, idiot?" Mikoto asked sternly.
While it took a while to explain, Touma came clean and told the girls everything he knew. Apparently, Stiyl and Kanzaki were from Neccesarius, just like Index. They were charged with protecting Index and her dear friends, but Index was completely unaware of it. Due to a supposed limitation in brain capacity, the grimoires took 85% of her brain with the other 15% being left for other functions. As a result, she had to have her memories wiped every year, other wise she would die. Out of pain from doing this to her year after year, Stiyl and Kanzaki made a plan where they would pretend to be Index's enemies, so they wouldn't feel like they were betraying their friend when the memory wipes came.
When he finished telling them the story, Touma paused to let the girls take it all in. However, he did not expect Mikoto to respond so quickly.
"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Mikoto asked flatly.
"Huh?" Touma replied.
"It's impossible for someone to overload with memories," Mikoto explained, "The brain doesn't have a limit that's so small that it couldn't take in the information a person gathers over a lifetime, even if they have photographic memory."
"It's true," Uiharu added, looking through the internet on her handheld computer, "Research suggests that the human brain can store up to 104 years of memories."
"Now that you mention it, those figures for brain capacity they gave me did seem a pretty arbitrary," Touma realized, "But if an overloaded brain isn't doing this to Index, then something else must be doing it."
"Maybe it's some sort of curse," Saten suggested, "She said that if someone could use all 103,000 grimoires, they could manipulate the entire world. Maybe the church did something to her to control her and keep her from turning on them."
"That has to be it," Touma agreed.
Touma kneeled down above Index. He then looked down at his right hand.
"Hey, what time is it?" Touma asked.
"It's 11:55," Uiharu answered.
"Then we still have time," Touma said as he undid the bandages around his right hand.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Mikoto asked in concern.
"You always say I'm always playing the hero," Touma replied, tossing aside the bandages, "I think it's about time I actually be the hero."
Touma placed his hand on Index's forehead. However, nothing changed, indicating he had yet to come in contact with any magic. He looked up and down Index's body, trying to think of somewhere else that the church could have put a curse mark of some sort. Eventually, he was drawn towards Index's mouth by the sound of her increasingly heave breathing.
"They wouldn't, would they?" Touma mused.
"What are you thinking?" Kuroko asked.
"That I'm gonna regret this," Touma replied.
Not waiting for a response from his friends, Touma stuck a figure into Index's mouth, much to the shock of the girls. After a moment of wiggling around her mouth, Touma's figure grazed something and was instantly thrown back, nearly crashing into his friends.
"What was that?" Uiharu asked in concern.
No one bothered to answer her question as everyone was more concerned by Index. She started to float up into the air, coated in a black aura. Her eyes were blank and had some sort of runes imprinted on her irises. Suddenly, she charged straight at the students.
"Get behind me!" Touma yelled, holding out his right hand.
Just outside the apartment, Stiyl and Kanzaki approached. The clock had just struck midnight of July 28th and were prepared to conduct the memory erasing ritual. However, they were caught off guard when the door to Komoe's apartment was suddenly blow from its hindges and accompanied by a blue light. The most striking occurrence was the sudden spike of mana in the area.
The two sorcerers rushed into the apartment to see Index in John's Pen mode conducting magic. Amidst the destruction of the apartment were Touma and his friends, that former of whom was pushing the apartment's sliding doors off of them.
"Urgent warning," John's Pen said, "Read from chapter 3, verse 2. A rupture has been detected in all barriers, one through three. Regeneration provisions failing. Auto regeneration not possible. Action required to preserve the library. Assigning priority to interception of the intruder. Currently reverse calculating the magic formulas that have penetrated the barriers by accessing the library. Failure, unable to locate relevant magic. Breaking down formula composition to develop local weapon to eliminate the intruder. Locating most effective magic. Desired combination for intruder repulsion has been successfully acquired. Now deploying specified magic. Employing Saint John's Holy Sanctuary. The intruder will be destroyed."
That was fun. Also, cliffhanger! Why do writers always do this! Wait...
Bet you didn't expect me to make references to throwaway jokes from earlier chapters, did ya?
That's if for now. Next is the final chapter of the Index Arc. Leave a review if you like.
See you all there.