IS THAT THE FABLED LEGENDARY POKEMON CALLED UPDATE? QUICK CATCH IT WITH A MASTER BALL

No, but really. I spent some time thinking about how I could take this story off of the main story, if only a little. Aside from the this arc, there are various shards of chapters that need to be fixed up. For example, I could have done a lot of things with the Accelerator vs. Index fight but I'm really bad at fight scenes, you know...? Also, It's hard shifting the focus from Accelerator to Touma, because I already had Accelerator's entire story planned out, where Touma's... not so much. It'll be some minor rewrites to make this story more understandable. A little dialogue, some actions, and combing through chapter formats (like the date, location, time thing).

But really, can you believe that it's been a year since I started writing this? I mean, I had a lot of ideas, but this is the first one I ever wrote out.

I don't own TAMNI or anything it owns.

August 16th, Boy's Dorm Room, Evening (UNSPECIFIED)

It had been slightly disconcerting to watch his friend collapse on the table.

He had a slight feeling of why that was so, as he was used to her attempts to read his mind.

It wasn't as simple as imagining a block to her ability, as he was distracted.

Despite having '3 functions', if the item left his conscious mind, it would disappear.

It wasn't a power that could be used without thinking.

And also...

Tch... This headache...

He could feel an unknown power attack his mind.

The reason remains to be seen.

After carrying Misaki to her dorm, her clique appeared, and she was taken away.

Ah, not by the conscious ones.

Touma walked into his bathroom and splashed water on his face.

Staring into the mirror, he saw his pupils replaced by reddish gold lights.

...

As he blinked, they disappeared.

"How stressful... This really isn't lucky at all."

He gave himself a bitter chuckle.

Aside from Aiwass, I have other problems, huh?

Musing to himself, his mind routed back to August 7th.

"So it's impossible to stay out of trouble, Imagine Breaker or not."

A phone call.

"Eh...? Hello?" Touma receives the call.

It was interesting, really.

Recently, there had been signs of a search for information in the dark side.

What's more, it seemed like it was done by someone who hadn't dealt with the dark side in a long while.

Subtly, a person had been looking into databases for a 'certain individual'.

It just so happened that the search for that individual would coincide with his goal.

That is to say, the goal of Kakine Teitoku.

Though the evidence of some 'DRAGON' was well hidden, the person was only seeking out data with that 'individual.'

A laugh.

A number that hadn't been used in a long time.

Eh...? Hello?

And the boy had answered the call.

He considered if it was worth answering the call.

Even if he never talked to Aleister Crowley, he knew about Aleister's plans.

Well, the surface of them, anyways.

"...Kamijou Touma."

...Kakine-san!?

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Imagine Breaker?"

It's not 'Imagine Breaker' anymore. Things happened, you know.

"...Oh?"

Never mind that. We both know you prefer to get straight to the point. What is it?

"I've noticed break-ins occurring all over the city. You are looking for an 'Aiwass', aren't you?"

!?

"Well, even though I'm just a scumbag, I know how to cooperate. I'm looking for 'Aleister Crowley', so I think we can work together."

...Haha. Working together again, like before. Well, I have things to do right now. Even considering the dial static, Kakine could feel the bored tone from Kamijou. Cynical as ever, even though some messed up part of him realized that if his memory was wiped, Kamijou would be a tsukkomi god.

"Just like old times, right? Come to think about it, why did we stop?"

...Don't you remember?

He didn't, but certain things were coming to mind. "Unfortunately, I don't. Care to tell me?"

If you don't remember, that's fine.

Kamijou promptly hung up. Kakine huffed. A white beetle flew out into the open sky.

August 17th, District 7 Streets, 7:00 PM

"Ah, it's Touma-kun!" Cheerily waving, Shokuhou Misaki ran towards her friend.

"Shokuhou-san? Are you feeling better now?" Touma asked worriedly. A frown flashed across the Level 5's face, but it was very brief, and she only said:

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

They both began walking in the direction Touma was walking- to the grocery store, even though Misaki had no intentions of buying anything.

"I mean, you collapsed on the table and I had to carry you back to Tokiwadai..."

"Touma-kun, I assure you that my health ability is still in order." Playfully, she decided to use an accusing tone.

"I see, I see." He said in a placating manner.

"Jeez, you're not fun at all..." Misaki was a little disappointed that he hadn't responded in turn to her words as he normally would have- meaning a tsukkomi and a a rather entertaining failure to communicate properly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing, nothing! Hey, by the way..."

"Yeah?"

"I know that your 'lone savior' ability is high, but if you have problems, you can talk to me, right?"

Recalling the golden being. A certain experiment. He was shouldering too many responsibilities and desires.

"Misaki..." An unreadable expression appeared on Touma's face.

"Aren't we friends? Friends... Trust each other, right? You helped me before, so..."

He was still silent for a while.

"Hah, I guess you're right." He smiled.

Well, in reality, 'Childhood Friends' was over stereotyping and they hadn't met until they were teenagers.

But, because of the nature of his childhood, it happened that she was the first actual friend he had.

A friend that he could trust, of course.

"Wait, no. Can you really talk about trust?

"W-what's that supposed to mean?"

"I have no intention of working with someone whose mind I can't read."

"That's- that's different!"

"How so?"

"..."

August 18th, Boy's Dorm, 3:00 AM

Touma slipped on a black jacket and prepared to leave in the middle of the night. The supposed 'Disturbance Frequency' project would stop him from searching out the golden being, but his logic forced him to fix his own messes.

After all, there's no reason for heroes to exist if everyone can just change what's in front of them.

*Cough*

He was stopped by the taste of iron on his tongue.

"Damn you... It's my body, don't you remember?" He swallowed the blood and continued out the door. "We'd seal that a long time ago so just be quiet for once." He nigh hissed.

Pressure. As if gigantic wings were beating, wind whipped around without any command.

-I could say the same about you.

Silent words hung in the air, but the frenzy of unnatural phenomena stopped.

Using his power, Touma created a pill- miracle drug- to strengthen himself.

Running slightly faster than the speed of sound, he headed towards the Administrative area, also known as District One of Academy City.

He was taking time off of ransacking labs for information on 'Aiwass', as he had to deal with his own messes.

This was about the project known as 'Second Tuning'. To turn an ability, AIM Stalker into a level 5 ability that could freely edit the powers of other espers.

Or, an ability that could substitute for the entirety of Academy City.

But to do so, 256 girls (clones of the Railgun) had to die. Rather, 30 of them had already passed.

It wouldn't always be a one-on-one confrontation, as there were simulations for taking down a group or terrain battles against 5 or more SISTERS.

This was because of the 'Mental Stress' model that showed a certain boy going through a period of overwhelming mental activity and increasing levels exponentially during that time period. Running that model through Tree Diagram allowed this project to exist.

Of course, that by happened to be Kamijou Touma, and his sick sense of heroics required him to fix it.

Actually, even if it had nothing to do with him, he would still be compelled to oppose the experiment.

Just because your power changes doesn't mean your mind has to change with it.

August 18th, ITEM Hangout, 3:10 AM

Takitsubo Rikou vomited into the toilet.

Disgusting. Despite having an immaculate appearance, she still felt blood all over her hands.

A high level of mental stress was beginning to affect her physical stats.

According to the researchers, she could stop taking Body Crystal by the end of the experiment, so her health would improve. Although, it felt like her current state had nothing to do with the esper-amplifying drug.

"Oi. Takitsubo. We have a job." Their leader called from a different area of the 'salon' that was their main meeting place.

Takitsubo Rikou stepped out of the booth, making herself look more presentable. She would deal with it- There were things to do, after all.

"...Some guy is looking for super highly classified information, and it's our job to super stop them." The 'Offense Armour', Kinuhata Saiai muttered.

"So in the end, we just intercept this person before they get to the center of this research facility, is it?" Seivelun Frenda smirked. "Sounds like fun."

Kamijou Touma reached the facility, effects of the drug wearing off.

He needed to find the locations of all of the experiments. The were scheduled to end a week before the school term started again, but to intercept them, he had to know where they were.

A 'machine that pointed to the experiment's location' was far too ridiculous of an idea for Touma, whose ability required the self-illusion of the fact that it would work in order for it to, in fact, work.

For example, if a doctor you trust gives you a pill that's simply made of sugar and tells you that it'll cure colds, your physical state will improve slightly as to reflect your subconscious thought, though it will fail to actually cure the illness.

On the other hand, when something is created by means of 'Phantasia,' the effect is reliant on the user's ability to imagine a solution and to 'trick himself' into thinking it will work, which will cause the object itself to work at a 100 percent success rate.

However, for someone with a seriously straight-laced personality, it was hard to accomplish these things. Therefore, the locations were needed.

After entering, he quietly walked through the halls. It was past midnight, so only the die hard scientists and the most important scientists would be inside.

"Hold it."

Touma sighed a little when he heard the voice. It was of a middle-school girl, though it also seemed menacing and and suffocating.

Despite himself, he froze in place.

"Where do you think you're going?"

In front of him, a girl in an orange hoodie, brown hair, and shorts.

He sighed. Of course, he'd been searching for classified information for a long time.

He reached into his pocket.

As expected, a pure white card was still there. He reached out, leaving the card inside.

"Away, obviously." As if daring her to stop him, he started walking.

However, the girl lunged towards him, reaching out a palm as an attack.

However, within 50 centimeters of him, it was blocked by a suddenly appearing sheet of metal. She didn't let up, trying to kick through, though only more metal sheets appeared, though they disappeared after the attack ended.

Huh, it seems like to build the barrier, I can't concentrate on running... It was truly slowing down his pace, but those attacks seemed to be lethal, so he didn't let up.

"Tch. That's super troublesome. Looks like I'm not getting the 'kill' bonus." She put her hands in her pockets and stared behind him.

...And a beam of light flew towards him, being blocked by his shield.

"Really, it's taking you this long to kill the target?"

He looked back.

Brushing her hair to the side, a nonchalant killer's smile on her face, was a high-class looking lady. Behind her stepped a black-haired girl with rather blank eyes.

"Though, it's strange that my first attack didn't kill him... Really, most 'barrier' type espers aren't this strong..."

It seemed that she had his ability confused with something else, but he wasn't complaining.

"Really, can't you even stall the target, though? We only have to stop him from reaching the research center of the facility."

"You know, I'm still here...?" He muttered. However, he dropped the barrier and began running. He materialized a pill to boost him again.

The problem with this was that if he 'forgot' about the effects of the pill for even a second, they would vanish.

Running around four times his normal speed, he headed forward.

However, beams kept appearing from random places. His instinctual precognition allowed him to barely dodge them, but it was getting harder to do while still keeping up his speed.

However, the beams suddenly stopped.

"Gah, honestly what is it with running into people today!? Can't I even go for 15 minutes without dealing with someone else?"

He was referring to the girl in front of him.

A blonde girl with a beret, a foreign-looking person, grinned. A remote idly sat in her hand.

"In the end, you can't run away from us."

Dolls poured from the ceiling.

"Wha-"

They exploded.

"Wow, I was only supposed to hold the intruder back... That kill bonus is mine!"

"What the hell are you even talking about?"

She looked back.

A metal barrier surrounded the blast radius like a dome. It soon disappeared.

"I don't have any intention of being killed!"

However, the girl only grinned.

"Heh, that's just too bad..."

However, this wasn't coming from the girl.

Rather, it was the high-class lady from earlier.

"So I was wrong. Rather than a barrier-type esper, your power is more like an illusion, isn't it?"

"And if it is?"

"The thing about this kind of power is..."

Beams of light jetted outwards.

However, they weren't aimed towards him.

The lights above him shattered. He flinched.

A fist slammed into him from behind.

"When they lose concentration, everything has a tendency to break."

He was stuck in a wall. he'd been caught halfway, but for some reason, he'd somewhat expected that.

"Hah, you got me." He chuckled, weakly reaching into his pocket.

"Hah...? Got any last words to pass on?" She said mockingly. "Well, better luck next time.

"But I guess this is what it means to be lucky." He drew out pure white card, holding it in the air.

If he was still the old Kamijou Touma who held the Imagine Breaker, that would be the end.

However, he was now lucky enough to be saved by coincidences.

As the energy beam zipped to him, the card changed shape.

Pure white walls exploded around him.

"It's been a while since we'd fought together, Kakine-san."

A figure- a completely white boy, tilted his head.

"Yes, that's right, isn't it? Also, what did you do to get attacked by the Fourth strongest?"

"Eh? The Meltdowner, really?"

"Wh-you didn't know? Wait, of course you didn't."

The Kakine made of Dark Matter grinned. "You've always been an idiot." The Level 5 spoke in his arrogant tone.

"Hehehe... I wasn't expecting you, Dark Matter!" The revealed Meltdowner shouted. However, Kakine only grinned.

"Is that so? Well, I'm ready to beat you down any day, Meltdowner."

"Ah, Kakine, one more thing."

"Hm?"

"You disguised yourself as a trump card, really?"

August 19th, 3:00 PM, Julian Cafe

Accelerator glared at his wallet.

Despite the fact that he started taking experiments again (as well as insurance), there was still less money than he had liked.

He had never worried about it before, but...

"Index, if you order another fucking thing I will rip you to shreds."

The silver-haired girl (not in her nun habit) stared blankly.

"No, you won't." She said nothing of his profanity-either she had an automatic swear filter or she'd grown used to it.

Accelerator was more than wiling to bet on the former.

He choked down his words in indignation, However, the nun was right on the money, so he stayed silent to keep his pride.

"Accelerator, I want to try the cake."

He twitched a little.

This wasn't the important part, though.

The important fact was the huge scene they managed to make.

And the fact that a certain Electromaster and her friends are in the next booth over.

Misaka Mikoto stared in shock.

Well, if this was what the Accelerator had come to, she could understand just a little better what the strongest esper had become.

However, that wasn't stopping her righteous fury.

Hair shadowing her eyes, she stood up.

"O-Onee-sama, that's not a good idea-" The teleporter had realized that her idol was about to confront the Strongest-for what reason she was not sure.

"Kuroko. Let me handle this." The oppressive tone that Mikoto used had silenced the teleporter. Saten and Uiharu, in the first place, did not say anything out of shock.

"Accelerator!" She shouted furiously. The duo in the other booth had already made a scene, so she was fine with shouting. No one spoke for fear of inciting the Strongest's wrath.

"Hoh...? It's the original?" At this, said Original began to spark angrily.

"Ex-excuse me, please don't fight in the restaurant..." One brave waiter spoke. Both level 5s glanced at him for a second, making him flinch and run away.

Index only continued to eat.

Accelerator sighed, shooting a glance at the smaller girl.

"Fine. You wanted to fight? Let's take this outside."

"Why?"

The girl spoke. Accelerator leaned against the wall of the cafe. He stared blankly, which was actually more threatening than Mikoto's actual lightning bolts.

"Why what?"

"Why did you cancel the experiment?"

This was important. She'd raided labs, destroyed buildings, done so many things to get the experiments to stop.

And yet, the man simply up and cancels them?

"...What? Are you telling me you want me to continue the experiments?"

"No! I'm only asking why you gave up halfway!" Getting heated, she totally forgot that the guy could rip her to shreds at any given moment and not care at all.

He shrugged infuriatingly.

"I'm the Accelerator. I can do whatever I want."

"That-" She sighed. "Is it because of your sister?"

"What sister?" She looked at him like he was crazy. He returned the look in kind.

"The girl inside the restaurant, obviously."

Her? His sister? Well, technically, she was a church sister and their skin and hair were collectively pale enough to have familial resemblance.

But still. His. Sister? That number one cause of financial problems? As if.

"Ghk- I don't have a sister."

"What, don't tell me that the Accelerator helped some random girl on the street?"

"This has nothing to do with your original question."

In a rather tsundere manner, he looped the conversation back. Despite actually having no room to room to talk about acting tsundere, Mikoto still raised a brow.

"No, this is important. Who i-"

"This has nothing to do with your original question." He crossed his arms. Mikoto cringed.

"Fine. Then why?"

He looked up, beyond the skyscrapers of the city. Losing energy, he only said:

"The world is more than just Academy City."

In this episode: Misaki talks about trust as if she has the right to, Kamijou Touma takes matters into his own hands, Kakine Teitoku bails people out and Accelerator has sketchy conversations over meals.

I was thinking of what I could do to change up Kamijou Touma's past, just a little. I don't want it to be the same, yet I want his base values to be the same. Choices, choices. In the end, I decided that Teitoku and Touma have a sketchy past involving working as a team.

Also, ignore the '3 uses' limitation. I was still brainstorming limitations then, and I decided that the best limitation is that the existence of the object has to be the most important thing in the creator's mind- everything else is in the background.

By the way, has anyone read NT 11? Well, it doesn't really affect anything I've done so far. But, I think it was pretty interesting stuff. Though, this 'Kamijou Touma' is a different one from the one in the novels (but only very slightly) that's been affected by years of fear and hate. It's kind of like the Kamijou Touma of the first LN but with the cynical personality really stretched out.

See you some other time.

Encendrel