It's been a while. I hope you're all doing okay, and the plague hasn't hit any of you too hard. I'm doing fairly okay myself.

First of all, sorry about the delay. I've had a very busy month, I recently went from being completely unemployed to having a full time job! However, getting into the routine has left me very tired, and I'm still figuring it all out. That being said, once I get into a routine, things will be easier.

This chapter took me quite some time to complete. I went through several rewrites of it (hence why it's a little shorter than normal) and I've been working on the chapter 3 rewrite at the same time. So apologies for the length of this one, but hopefully it'll get easier from here. Plot is kicking off now.

Anyways, I should mention that these chapters will probably start coming out monthly, since I don't want to write anything subpar. So in order for me to maintain quality and not get burnt out, I will write these chapters more slowly.

Now that that's out of the way, I hope you all liked the last chapter. It was certainly fun to write, and I feel like I definitely got Lessar's character correct. She's quite interesting to write, and dunking on her was enjoyable, to say the least.

Anyway, before I start going on any more tangents, thank you all for your support, and I hope you enjoy.

The Truth of an Angel

A true angel. Another name given to archangels or similar heavenly beings due to their immense divine power. Magicians would tremble at the mere mention of those words, and only the most confident (or most stupid) of Saints would even dream about going against one. Just being near to a true angel would put your chest under immense pressure, as if it were being crushed by the sheer glory and majesty of the creature before you, forcing you to bend the knee if you aren't both physically and mentally strong enough to resist it.

Mikoto looked at Lessar, extremely confused. "What do you mean I'm a true angel? That shouldn't be possible."

The mage shrugged. "I know what I felt. What you used was Telesma, whether you like it or not. What do you think your powers are then? When'd that show up?"

She walked back and forth. "I don't know... five years ago, a little before World War 3, I unwillingly partook in an experiment to try to advance me to Level 6, using a virus in the Misaka Network to supplement my power. Touma ended up stopping me after I was close to destroying the city, and I can't thank him enough for it." Touma ruffled her hair, and she smiled cutely. "After that though... the next time it showed up was... a year later? Something like that. And it didn't use the Misaka Network as a supplement. I was walking with my friend, Kuroko. She was pretty perverted, and I was always target of her perversions, but she was like a sister to me. We got on fairly well, even though she was amazing at pushing my buttons." Mikoto sighed. "I'd had a long day, I was in a bad mood, and Kuroko did something in broad daylight that simply pushed me over the edge. Normally, I'd just zap her with a powerful bolt of electricity - high voltage, but low current." She laughed briefly. "Honestly, she seemed to enjoy it. But that day just wasn't my day. My angel came out, and I don't really remember what happened afterwards. All I know is that Touma broke me out of it again, and Kuroko had been hospitalised. She... didn't come back to talk to me after that..." She glanced at Touma. "I myself thought my powers changed due to a shift in my Personal Reality thanks to a conversation I had with Touma a little after World War 3, to create a Guardian Angel. I can't imagine what else could have made it like that..."

Lessar didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Kamijou, do you remember when we saw Accelerator during World War 3, and you fought him?"

"Of course! Honestly, it was terrifying. That power of his was evolving really quickly back then. Just a couple of months before then he couldn't create anything like those wings on his back."

She snapped her fingers. "Exactly. The feeling I got from Misaka earlier was the exact same feeling of pressure on me that I had when I saw Accelerator all those years ago. The same feeling as when I saw Michael. So, if you're saying that he couldn't make wings before then, then were there any out of the ordinary events involving the supernatural that happened during that time period?"

Mikoto didn't even have to think. "The 09/30 incident. People were falling asleep all throughout the city, a bunch of different militant groups were active, Kazakiri went all 'fake angelic,' and Accelerator was going on a rampage looking for Last Order. Oh, and I didn't know this until recently, but a magician called Vento of the Front invaded the city."

"Vento?" She sighed. "Of course she would parade around using magic in public, why wouldn't she? Not the smartest move."

Mikoto scratched her head. "That night... I helped Index out with something. She wanted... she wanted to know how brain-linked networks and AIM diffusion fields functioned, I think. Something to do with Last Order and the Misaka Network. She wanted to undo the knot in Last Order's mind or something like that. Then I heard her singing some weird song on the other side of the phone, for whatever reason. I don't know what it did but it apparently worked because I saw someone get shot out of a window by a black pillar and literally disintegrate." She snapped her fingers in realisation. "In hindsight I probably should've figured out that hearing that magic song would've 'undone the knot' in my mind too."

Lessar put her head in her hands. "So let me get this straight. You heard a magic song, heard that it would undo the knot in your mind, and you didn't think that any of that was to do with your angel problem?"

"Back then I didn't know anything about magic. I honestly thought Index was just had a serious case of 8th grader syndrome. All this stuff about magic and tomes and gods, I really thought she was crazy. I thought that her power was somehow relating to song-based sound waves and she was just spouting nonsense."

Touma nodded understandingly. "That's fair, I thought the same thing about her and magic until I was almost killed by Stiyl. That was a bit of a wake-up call."

The mage came to a realisation. "Hold on, Misaka. If you can become a true angel, then why don't you just stay in that form any time you're in any kind of danger? You'd certainly have an easier time if you have the power of God on your side."

The Level 5 sighed. "I thought this was coming. Okay, there's a few reasons. First of all, you saw what I'm capable of in that form. That tiny ball cracked the damn sky! Second, it's really difficult to control. My vision goes all white and blurry and it gets worse over time, and after a few minutes I lose all control and I turn into an observer within my own body. It sucks. Touma had to sic his dragons on me the first time." Lessar looked surprised at that one. "Third, it's very easy to advance up stages, but really difficult to go down. If Touma can't reach me and I go too far up, I'm screwed. And finally," she smirked, "I'm a Level 5, I can handle myself. I'm much more powerful than I may look."

Lessar brushed her hair back. "I'm sure you're very powerful. Just be careful if you meet any Saints, alright? They could spell trouble, and some of them could easily spell trouble. Oh, speaking of which..." she reached into her pocket, and pulled out a rune covered in a plastic vinyl. "Kanzaki heard that Touma was coming with another person, and she gave me this to give you. It's a stabilising healing spell, and it has the instructions and incantation on the back. It won't heal someone back up to full health or anything like that, but it'll stop them from dying until someone who knows what they're doing comes along. I know that if you use magic your life could end up in danger, but it could save someone important to you." She shrugged. "Either that or Kanzaki wants to kill you to take Touma for herself. I know I would."

Mikoto cautiously took the card, stuffing it in the inside of her jacket. "Thanks, I guess..." She took a quick look around. "Still, I'm surprised that nobody came to-"

Touma tapped her arm twice, and she stopped talking. "Lessar, walk away from us down that way." He spoke very quietly, and motioned with his head down the way they had come in. "Act as if you were asking us some questions and got what you wanted." The sorcerer seemed confused, but confidently walked down the alley towards the crash site. He discreetly made a few hand signals to Mikoto, and she knew exactly what he meant from their training: witnesses, caution, follow. He thought for a moment, before issuing one more: until the signal, act natural.

That was the first time that command had been issued to her by him. In Academy City, she was famous enough that almost anyone would know who she was, so it was impossible to just 'act natural.'

But this wasn't within the city. This was a place where she could blend in as a normal person with fairly unique clothing. This could be fun.

She took hold of Touma's left hand, pushing right up against his shoulder. "Wow, what a psycho. That bint just attacked you out of nowhere and started questioning us about the Ancient Greeks or some garbage like that." She chuckled. "She must be either drunk, or just plain high."

Touma smirked. "She may even be both. What kind of idiot just attacks someone demanding their seed right in front of their partner? Maybe she was some kind of sexual deviant, too. She must prey on poor men unfortunate enough to wander the alleys on their own."

Mikoto could feel Lessar bristling on the other side of the walls, and it made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. This was incredibly fun. "In all seriousness, are you okay? Nothing broken? Nothing touched that shouldn't be touched?"

He shrugged. "I don't think so? Honestly, the fact that you need to ask that question is crazy. I hate that out of everyone we could have met in this city, it had to be-" his head perked up. "Who's there?!"

That was probably the signal. She magnetised herself and the ground and walls, and reversed her polarity, cracking the pavement as she flew, crashing into the wall ahead in a controlled yet flashy manner. Electricity that looked like lighting arced off her in every direction, connecting to pipes and drains, making her look like some kind of human plasma ball.

Before her stood two girls. One was an older lady, she looked like she could be a similar age to her mama. She had a bright blue, almost white dress and white coat over it, similarly coloured gloves, white shoes, and to top it all off she even had long white hair. Contrasting this, her black trousers under the dress stood out like a sore thumb. Maybe she didn't have any pairs that matched the dress? She looked fairly fit, she definitely went on runs or at least walked an awful lot.

Behind the older lady was a young girl, maybe 15-16 years old. Unlike the lady, she didn't really have a coherent theme. A red coat, a blue shirt, black trousers and shoes, red gloves, a pink scarf and a white hat. Straight, medium-length dark hair. She was fairly thin, so she clearly didn't eat junk food all the time. She wore some kind of necklace, with a long silver chain link ending in a mass of gears, almost like the inner workings of some kind of machine. It was intriguing.

Mikoto let out a smirk. "Well, what have we here?"

The lady in white reached into her white handbag, and pulled out a dagger. "Stay away from us, mage!" She sounded European, but from a different place to those people she took out earlier.

Mikoto slowly dropped down, and Touma rounded the corner. "Sheesh, Firefly, you sure, are fast, huh?"

She shrugged and focused in on the dagger. It had a brass hilt, but the blade was made of ice. "I think we may have found mage, Dragon."

Terror filled the older lady's eyes. "Touma Kamijou, the Imagine Breaker... I can't fight you... Maybe if you were alone it would be different, but with this mage there I stand no chance. I may as well give up now..."

Mikoto took a few steps forward. "You're making this surprisingly easy." Electricity sparked from her bangs. "If you keep it this way, I won't have to get round with-" she yelped as she almost bounced off the younger girl. She had not been there a second ago.

An expression of excitement appeared on the younger girl's face face. "I recognise you!" She had a very similar accent to the older lady. Mikoto raised an eyebrow. "How could I not recognise you for so long? You're Misaka Mikoto."