Twist of Fate
Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.
Special thanks to my beta Excaliburswrath b 0-0 d
Chapter 44: My Funny Little Valentine
Most of the people at the concert hall were taken to the hospital to make sure the event had no lasting effects. The official statement was that Hajime had made some deal with a corrupt Academy City scientist. It had all been a test of a device installed in the speakers that compelled listeners to obey Hajime's commands.
It would have been crazy talk anywhere else, but it passed as truth in Academy City. Hajime was promptly arrested by Anti-Skill for his part in the incident.
Oddly enough the attention helped to raise his music sales, not that he was going to see a dime of it.
0000
Maika had already checked out so she went to see Tsuchimikado. He had been beaten up during the concert after all. Nothing serious mind, but he had lots of bandages covering his body.
"Onii-chan!" Maika scolded him, "Why did you throw yourself in the middle of a crazy mob?"
"I wanted to save you," Tsuchimikado told her.
Her frown reversed, a soft smile overtaking her features, "Okay, but next time don't get hurt for my sake," She pulled out a small box and handed it to him. "Happy Valentine's Day."
"Thank you." He smiled as he held the home made chocolate close.
Aogami, who was in the next bed over, let out a whimper as no one had visited him all day.
"Don't worry Aogami-onii-chan!" She pulled out another box and handed it to the blue haired boy, cheering him up instantly.
The two were too focused on each other to notice Tsuchimikado's glare. He couldn't do anything now, but once his arm was healed Aogami needed to get scarce.
0000
On the roof of the hospital sat Kakine and the girl in the white dress.
She was trying her hardest not to laugh, "You let her draw on you?"
Fremea had used a permanent marker for her art, allowing it to somehow remain on Kakine despite him having shifted back to his human form.
He just let out a small sigh before looking at the boxes of chocolate he'd received from the girl, Last Order, and Fremea.
0000
Speaking of Fremea, she was currently busying herself poking Hamazura's side.
"Don't do that." Frenda told her.
"Hamazura doesn't mind." Fremea replied.
Hamazura was one of the more badly injured considering the hole in his side.
Fremea continued innocently, "In the first place, he doesn't care. He's not even angry that we forgot the chocolate we made for him."
"This is super weird even for a super weird day." Kinuhata added. "He doesn't even care Mugino got brainwashed into attacking him."
Mugino sneered at her for a second, not at all thrilled to be reminded of recent events. Her attention quickly went to Hamazura, "Why do you have that stupid smile on your face?"
He was smiling at Takitsubo, maybe it was something about overcoming the day's trials but he simply felt more connected to her. "Why wouldn't I be happy to be with my fiancé again?"
"…. ah, idiot." Takitsubo murmured.
"F-fiance!" Mugino, Frenda, and Kinuhata all replied in unison.
"We hadn't told them yet." Takitsubo replied taking Hamazura's hand into her own.
"Ooh!" Fremea cheered. "That means you're getting married, right? So grown up!"
0000
Sogiita was sitting by himself in the hall. He'd been checked in on account of having several broken bones but careful application of guts made those a non issue. For him, such injuries were just a hero's daily burden.
Little did the esper know that he was being watched.
Saten, Kongou, Wannai, and Awatsuki had been walking down the hall when they noticed him sitting there.
Both Kongou and Saten had vague memories of something happening with Touma at the concert. Something about sharing his true feelings with some other girls. They wouldn't deny that they wanted to be included in that group but they'd already come to terms with it. He clearly cared deeply about that group, and if he was happy that was just how it was. Maybe if they had gotten closer to him faster they could have been among them but it wasn't much use fretting over something like that now. Saten did feel relieved that she wouldn't have to go against Konori and wished her the best.
Now, as they looked at Sogiita, they couldn't help but feel their hearts flutter. A kind, heroic, spiky haired boy. Clearly these girls seemed to have a type.
Both girls, independent of each other, realized that if they wanted to start anything with him they probably needed to introduce themselves.
At that moment a girl sat down beside Sogiita.
The esper looked up at her, recognizing her as one of the girls from the concert.
"Hey." She smiled at him, her sweet voice drifting through the air.
"Hey." Sogiita replied.
"Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what happened today but I think I attacked you. I just wanted to say uh, sorry about that."
Sogiita brought his fist to his chest, "Don't worry about it. My guts were more than strong enough to recover from it. Didn't even take me all day."
"Cool." She smiled at him. "You're Gunha Sogiita, the Seventh Level Five, right?"
"Oh, yeah." He nodded, not dropping his pose.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Ayame Fusou." She held out her hand, the spiky haired boy shaking it after a small pause. A tiny blush spread across her cheeks. "You know, I'm not doing anything tonight, if you're free maybe we could come up with something."
"Uh. Together?"
"That's the idea."
"Are you asking me out on a date?"
"Yeah, basically," She nodded
Sogiita remained silent for a moment as he processed what was happening. His eventual response was excited to say the least, "YEAH! I'm free! Let's go do something!"
"Hah, Sounds good. Uh, You mind letting go of my hand first?"
Sogiita looked down at his hand, which was still wrapped around hers from their introduction, "Sorry!" The esper started to blush with enough ferocity that one would assume he'd unlocked some new power.
"No, don't worry about it. I don't really mind." Ayame teased. She let out a sudden gasp as Sogiita jumped up and lifted her off the ground in one smooth motion.
Attack Crash charged, carrying her bridal style as he shouted at the top of his lungs, "WHITE BETTLE! Look! A girl said she'd go on a date with me!"
As Sogiita's search for his fellow level five got underway, Ayame just laughed before wrapping her arms around his neck to steady herself. Ayame had a performer's heart, pushing all her energy towards the people around her. This made her one of the few people who could actually keep up with Sogiita's personality.
Saten and Kongou just stared as the espers made their grand exit.
"Oh my." Wannai mumbled.
Awatsuki nodded along, similarly stunned, "How bold…."
Kongou took that moment to notice that her friends all seemed to be blushing as they watched Sogiita. She realized that her three friends were probably developing a crush on him just as she had just done.
Thus started Sogiita's love life and possibly his own harem.
The probability of Sogiita actually being Touma's son shot up that day.
0000
"I am truly sorry for everything, Misaka whole heartily and sincerely apologies for whatever she did."
Last Order bowed as Accelerator sat in his hospital bed.
He clicked his tongue, annoyed, "You don't remember severing my connection to the Network ? Or kicking me when I was down? Convenient isn't it you shitty brat?"
"Ah, I have no recollection of that, Misaka lies to cover her vague memories of those events."
"Yeah, I remember doing that. It was fun." Worst threw in.
Yomikawa lightly thumped Accelerator. "Just accept the apology. They even gave you chocolate."
Last Order had made chocolate earlier with the others and intended to give it to Accelerator but the day's events had gotten in the way.
With his usual annoyed expression, the number one esper chomped down on his chocolate as Last Order watched, looking awfully pleased with herself. "Not bad for a brat," He said, pointedly not making eye contact.
Yoshikawa glanced over to the Sister clones that had joined them, "What about you girls?"
Misaka Sister 10032 replied with her usual flat tone, "We delivered our chocolate to the savior, Misaka explains with a hint of disappointment in her voice. Misaka speaks for the other Sisters when Misaka acknowledges that the savior has made his choice and we are not a part of it says Misaka even though it pains her. Misaka thought it was still a good idea to deliver the chocolate we made for him as a sign of how grateful we are for everything he's done for us, Misaka says with a gentle smile."
Yoshikawa nodded, "That's very mature of you."
"Though if those girls mess up Misaka will jump at the chance to make him ours, Misaka cackles darkly."
"….Eh, baby steps."
0000
Touma wasn't actually all that injured for once. He had a few bruises and some minor cuts from his skirmishes but he was mostly fine. Even so he found himself in his usual room.
"Really?" Shiina stared at her son.
"…Yeah."
His mom felt she had to say something about him suddenly acceptance of the romantic feelings of several girls at once. "I know I said I wanted you to be a bit more selfish but I didn't expect this."
"…Ha ha.." Touma chuckled awkwardly.
Shiina understood that her son wasn't two-timing anyone (or whatever number fits here), they all knew about each other and no one had dared to put forward the idea of dating him exclusively.
"I'm not really going to say anything against this odd relationship you've set up." Shiina told him, throwing him for a loop, "I know you'll try not to hurt any of these girls. You're growing up and I can't hold your hand through your dating life. If you really want to go through with this then I can only hope you think before you act."
"Okay mom."
"I love you." She said tenderly. "I'll call you later, but for now I'm going to meet up with your father for our date."
Shiina had a lot of faith in her son, and his ability to make the right choice in his end.
She opened the door to leave and found a familiar group of girls waiting for Touma. Shiina made a point to close the door before turning to speak to them.
"While I trust that my son is a good judge of character, I can only hope that you all manage to sort this out in an agreeable way." Death filled the air between her words, "But if one of you hurts him I swear you will regret it."
The girls collectively gulped. Not a single one of them could form a response in the oppressive atmosphere Shiina was generating.
"Okay, that's all I wanted to say. "She smiled again, lifting the weight that was crushing the air out of the girls' lungs, "Happy Valentines."
With that, she left them to their own imaginations. Shaking off that encounter, they proceeded to enter Touma's room in order to discuss a few things with him.
Meanwhile, Index, Sozty, and the twins sat on a bench eating large swaths of the chocolate that had been sent to Touma. Even with the four of them putting a large dent in it, his pile of chocolates seemed to be the largest of all the patients.
Sozty asked, "What is it with all this chocolate anyway?"
The twins lightly shrugged, not even bothering to stop gorging themselves.
Index took the distraction to sneak a small piece of chocolate to the tiny god hidden in her habit.
0000
Kagun Kihara was working in the lab in an effort to aid the overflowing hospital, busying himself with looking over some reports.
"Happy Valentines."
He looked up and found Maria holding a box of chocolate for him.
0000
Misuzu exited the hospital after receiving a clean bill of health before she heard someone call out to her.
"Mom!" Mikoto ran to her mother. "I just got a call from Kuroko! Are you okay?"
"Yes, the hospital gave me the all clear!" Misuzu paused, eyeing the large book Mikoto held in her arms, "Something for your project?"
"Something like that."
Misuzu wondered if she should tell her daughter about what had happened at the concert, but her recollection of those events was shaky at best. It was better not to mention what she thought had happened with Touma just to prevent any misunderstandings. Either way, she was certain her daughter would be fine in the end.
"I'm going to meet up with my friends and head out of town to see your father. I speak for him and myself when I say we both love you."
0000
After the battle Carina left a note with Othinus before she quickly fled the concert area. She didn't exactly want to have to explain why she had a bow in such a public venue.
The note wasn't much, it just said that she wanted to meet with Touma at her shop sometime in the next few days so she could explain things.
As such, a couple of days after the incident Touma entered her shop with a polite hello.
Carina nodded from her seat in the waiting room, "Right on time."
0000
With Touma apparently out for the day, the girls had gathered together once again. The first time they'd done so was to form a truce to share Touma. They all wanted to keep him safe and infighting would only cause him more problems than he already got into on his own. Plus fighting over him probably wouldn't look too good from the outside and probably do more to drive him away.
The subject of today's meeting was a little different however. They gathered around the dining room table as Seria placed a call, putting it on speaker before placing it on the table.
"Hello?" Moses's voice sounded from it.
They'd actually managed to surprise him. He'd just just moved in time and immediately upon arrival his phone had started ringing.
Misaki spoke, "We need to know. What were you trying to say last time? What do we need to protect Touma from?"
"What did you see that you thought was so heart breaking?" Seria added.
Moses let out a long sigh. He knew this conversation wasn't going to be a particularly fun one.
0000
Carina and Touma sat across from each other.
"I think I should start with how I got into this. It'll probably be a lot easier to understand why I did what I did if you know everything. Why I do what I do."
She paused to take a deep breath before continuing, "When I was around your age I fell in love frequently. I was very quick to jump into a relationship with someone if I was single which wasn't always the wisest thing. But everything always seemed to work out pretty well once a relationship fell through, no negative feelings or anything, we'd just go back to being friends. And then there was him…."
"Someone you loved?" Touma wagered.
"The problem was that he wasn't. His name was Lovino and he was madly in love with me despite the fact that I never really paid him much attention. I just thought he was nice since he was always friendly to me and he never really asked for anything in return. Then came the last dance before school ended. He worked up his courage and asked me to the dance. I rejected him, not out of malice or anything of course, I just hadn't planned on going with anyone else. I just wanted to have one last casual hang out with everyone." She paused to collect herself before continuing. "Come the dance itself, he met me outside," She wiped away a tear that had begun welling up, " and he took out a knife."
"He attacked you?"
"No, I would have preferred that though. He slit his throat right in front of me. I did the best I could to help him but," Tears were now flowing freely. Time had not dulled the memory, she could still feel the warm blood spilling onto her hands as she tried to stop it. "After he- He had a letter on him. It said that he only wanted me to notice him. That was it. He killed himself in front of me just so I would actually see him."
"That's crazy," Touma murmured. "But. It wasn't your fault. You can't blame yourself for what he did."
"That's what everyone told me. They said there was something wrong with him and that I couldn't blame myself. Didn't stop me though. Even now. Seeing a person die. Feeling their heart stop. It does something to you. Ever since then I just, haven't felt it anymore…"
"Felt what?"
"That thing… that little flutter in your chest that tells you you've fallen in love. I lost that that day. I figure it's punishment."
"You can't believe that."
"Who knows. I can't really say for certain it's not self imposed. It's just what I feel." She shook her head before continuing, "That's when I dove into magic. I wanted to try to ease his spirit but I've never had any talent when it comes to calling on the dead. It was desperation that lead me to trying love magic. Turns out I had a fair bit of skill in that area, so I decided I'd use that to try and help people. I wanted to help people find others who would love them. To ease their hearts, to fill them with love."
"So no one else would end up like Lovino?"
"Pretty much."
0000
"Touma is broken." Moses started off.
"You mean-" Misaki brought her hand to her mouth.
"No! I don't mean like that!" Moses stopped that train of thought before it got started.
"Then what do you mean?" Itsuwa questioned.
"Look," Moses readjusted his approach somewhat, "If your odd relationship is going to work you have to earn his trust, to the point where he'll willingly tell you what happened." He cleared his throat before continuing, "A few of you already know that secret only by chance not because he placed his trust in you. I will not violate his trust and I would expect you to respect that until he is ready to share that secret with you. What I mean, Touma is broken and has been for a long time. Someone once told me that people like Touma only die one way, and it wasn't pleasant and thats when I pieced together why." He let out a sigh, his thoughts on the matter were quite scattered but he again tried to collect them, "I thought back to what happened to him. How Touma was a hated by everyone because of his luck. How someone even went so far as to stab a child to be rid of some bad luck." His tone turned bitter as he continued. "Kids threw rocks at him, parents wouldn't let their children play with him, and everyone ridiculed him. He was a child! A child who did absolutely nothing wrong! Imagine that, being a kid that can't figure out why apparently everyone hates you."
0000
"I met a magician once. He had an odd name, Olle- something. He gave me this." Carina said, going over to her desk and pulling out a box.
Touma could almost sense something from within, "What's in there?"
"Stones." She said frankly. Upon opening the box, the mentioned stones flew from it. "Very special stones. The magician said that they were representations of something greater than magic. I found a bunch of names for these things on my own time. Stuff like the stones of destiny, the norn stone, the fatal stone, the stone of bethel, jacob's pillow, the standing stone, the Lia Fail, the sire of the wyrd, the stone of ages,the stone of destiny, they have more names than there is time to say them. They've seen kings crowned and nations rise from nothing. Think of them like the physical manifestations of destiny I guess, they're more than that but I don't know how to say it any better. No matter how you put it they've got power. With shavings of these stones I'm able to cast spells like that red string one I used that day. Aaaand that's where the problem started."
0000
"Hate! Hate!" Moses grew increasingly more disgusted the more he recalled. "Everyone hated- No, I'm wrong. He wasn't hated by everyone. His parents loved him no matter what. They loved him so much they sent him somewhere that would be able to deal with his problems. That kind of decision is something none of you have ever experienced. How heartbreaking is it that the best they could do was send him away? That astounding amount of love was his saving grace. If he didn't have that, he would have become something truly worthy of the hatred he'd received. Instead he became kind. Experience taught him what it was like to be hurt so he resolved to make people happy at any cost."
0000
"You made a spell with me in a mind?" Touma asked, having been thrown a bit when she said it the first time.
"I'd heard about your hand and how it messed with the strings of fate,"She shrugged, "The more I learned about it the more I learned about you. Given your nature I decided I'd try a spell on your personal string of fate." She pulled a bag containing some black hair she'd gotten ready for their meeting, "On one of your hospital visits I snipped one of those spikes. Figured you wouldn't miss one of them since you have so many."
Touma vaguely remembered Maika mentioning something to that effect once.
"I used it to aim the spell at your strings. The goal was to untwist any red strings your right hand might have tangled. But it'd also help in a few other ways. Your hand reaches further than red strings and a lot of stuff has gotten tangled up with you. I wanted to try and straighten everything out."
"And you didn't tell me any of this why?"
"I think people should be rewarded for their actions. You've helped a lot of people you know. I wanted to try and help you in the same way. It felt like the right thing to do considering you'd never ask for thanks. It's not like there was a downside either. The strings of fate that had been tangled in your wake would straighten back out and normalize. Karma would also realign since your hand tends to mess with that. Bad people around you would receive appropriate punishments and those good people around you would be rewarded."
Touma thought back. He'd seen the effects of this spell already. His parents won a trip, Yomikawa and Konori received praise for their hard work, people who fought to protect people during things like the ghost crisis came out better for it.
On the other side of things, some who had stood against him received a slap on the wrist. Stiyl had tried to kill Touma had received a fiery wake up call and come out better for it. Kuroko, who treated him like trash, got her own lesson with those odd dreams of hers. There were countless examples of those who'd gone up against Touma and learned from their past misdeeds.
There were yet more examples, some people found love, some just had fun, they had all received something without realizing fate was bending over backwards to make it happen.
0000
"I don't understand." Himegami said aloud.
"What's there to not understand?" Moses said, "He knows pain well, that's why Touma, at his very core, will always try to be a hero. So he can save others from that pain. I said it before didn't I? He'll save them by any means necessary. Do I really need to spell it out?"
0000
"I think I get it. You basically kick started karma right? Try to put fate back to how it was before my hand messed with it?" Touma tried to wrap his mind around it. "But why do you look so worried?"
"Because this spell is the reason why some of the more extreme things have been happening to you. The kidnapping, the ghosts finding a way to the land of living, and god knows what else found it's way to you."
"Don't worry about it." Touma tried to reassured her. "Things like that have always happened to me."
"No. I tipped a domino. Your fate has become even more twisted than it was before and the stones have been going crazy. Something is coming, something that no power in the universe can avert. Something is going to happen with you in the center and I am scared of what it could be."
0000
"He's given up so much, to the point of nearly dying a few times. It's not that he's suicidal, he'll defend himself of course. But in the end there's only so much he can do. He will die. Touma will willingly give up his own life for someone else. Hell, it might not even be worth it. Knowing him, he could get tricked into protecting something not worth protecting, or even dying for nothing at all. Despite that, he will give up everything he has to protect people's smiles. Even if it means cutting himself off from everyone so they won't cry for him. Touma Kamijou will die, perhaps saving thousands, perhaps saving nothing at all, but it will always be his choice. He will choose to die and he will chose to die alone." There was a pointed pause as Moses again composed himself, "That's what I want you to protect him from. I want you to protect him from himself. I want you to make sure he wont ever end up like that. I want you to love him. To make him see that he has value. To make him see that sometimes he needs to put himself before others. He needs to see that it's important to have people around him. He's a good person and he doesn't deserve a lonely life," The time traveler's voice began to hitch, "He doesn't deserve that kind of life, so please protect him it. I've seen it too many times, saints, heroes, martyrs they are always praised but they never have a happy ending. "
The line went dead. They didn't know if he'd jumped or if his phone had again run out of batteries. It seemed fate had allowed him just long enough to get his message across.
The girls stared at the phone in silence.
0000
"I'm so sorry." Caria said, "I can use the stones to take glances at the strings of fate. It's not enough to see the future but it lets me get a general idea of what they're reaching for. It's not exact so I can't say anything is set in stone but... I don't see your strings continuing past whatever is coming."
Touma let the weight of her words wash over him. He took them in and considered them before speaking again, "Don't worry."
"Don't worry? You're going to-"
"I know, but I've never really believed in fate. I've always believed that the future is built on the choices people make. So I chose to face whatever is coming my way, and I'll stop it like everything else."
Carina stared, dumbfounded. Her expression softened considerably. Maybe his optimism was contagious, "Alright, I'll support you as best I can. I won't be leaving this city until everything has blown over but I'll do anything I can to make sure that your fate is what you make of it."
0000
Mikoto had been asleep in the library when Kuroko had called to tell her about the concert. The sudden jolt from waking up so fast had jostled the shelf behind her, causing some of it's contents to tumble to the ground.
"Hello?" Mikoto rubbed her head as she listened to Kuroko talk about the incident and how her mother was involved.
Mikoto's eyes drifted to one of the books that had fallen.
0000
The city burned as Mikoto lay on the ground in paralyzing agony. The earth quaked, aggravating the wound in her side.
"It's coming." Mikoto whimpered.
A nearby building was torn asunder as several dragon heads ripped through it like so much paper. They roared and the world trembled.
0000
Mikoto woke up in her bed. Memories of that hellish landscape left her shaking. It had felt so real. Not to mention how terrifyingly familiar that dragon was. She quickly got out of bed and went to the large book she'd found at the library the day of the concert.
Mikoto found herself mindlessly skimming the words as she rapidly flipped through the pages. Finally her eyes settled on a particular passage. "A great beast will escape its prison and bring forth a time of darkness. A time where two will be called forth to witness. A time where four riders will bring suffering in their wake. A time where the dead will rise. A time where twelve Angels will rise to face the darkness. A time known as the End of Days."
She turned the page, only to find a single drawing. One of a multi-headed dragon burning the world.
Mikoto hoped her dream had been influenced by her reading that passage before. However she could not shake the feeling that there was something more to it than that.
ExWrath – Looks like things are gonna start heating up before too much longer! Might have to wait a chapter to start seeing them though because I have a little something special planned for next time. Hope to see you then!
Authors Notes: Okay, so Exwrath will be writing the next chapter. They had an idea and I liked it and we got it to fit in the larger story. So wish them luck. I was hopping to bring this chapter to you faster but stuffed happened and I was gone on my trip to ax and I died from a pear, anyway it's over now. So yeah, Mikoto at the moment is probably closes to figuring out what is really going on and will have to face it. Anyway let me know what you know and leave a review and lets see what Exwrath has in store for the next chapter.
