"*Hu* *Hu* *Hu* *Hu* *Hu*" Mikoto found herself humming along to "See VisionS by Mami Kawada". It seems as if Saten had infected her with the 'passion for music'. Mikoto was smiling widely as her new earphones really sounded great, though she did have to carry a Walkman™ due to her internal insistence on keeping her somewhat dated Gekota phone.
"What are you listening to?" Touma asked, peeking over his shoulder while holding a package of scallions with a slightly confused look on his face.
"Ah, just this new song I found at the record label shop. We took a detour to my dorm for me to come and take it with me after all." Mikoto grinned and Touma, while closing her eyes.
"Fukou da, Misaka Mikoto-san. I didn't know I could slip on 15 puddles on my way to get there. You better not drag me around such slippery places again, alright?" Touma narrowed his eyes ever so slightly and decided to finally make his first-ever date (as far as he knew at least) take great care of such things. While he was already used to such misfortunes, it'd open up a series of events wherein the end she'd be saddened and would apologize unnecessarily to him. Touma, the amnesiac who promised himself to protect Index's smile with his whole heart and soul, couldn't afford to let Mikoto suffer like that.
"*Ahaha* Yeah… I'll be more careful when you say you're sure unfortunate incidents will happen to you." Mikoto paused the music and looked guiltily at Touma, closing her eyes temporarily.
"Also, have a listen. I think it's a good jam to vibe to." Mikoto handed him her left earphone with an insistent gaze.
"I guess I can't say no." Touma thought as his eyes slightly widened and he submitted, putting it into his left ear.
The pair stood in a never-before-seen-scene.
The two were in the middle of a large konbini, styled similarly to an American Walmart or a British Sainsbury's.
They were thankfully alone in the middle of a 'greens' section where various vegetables could be bought from all around the world.
Mikoto stood to Touma's left and Touma stood to Mikoto's right, their shoulders touching and them having their heads practically touching each other. Touma still held onto the scallions with both of his hands and Mikoto was about to press play as she held the Walkman™ in her left hand.
""Too close. Please start, song thing."" Both thought as Mikoto pressed play. She thankfully moved the slider to the beginning of it so that they can enjoy it in all its glory.
"Agent Measure, report." A male voice whispered.
"This is Agent Measure, you stupid Agent Dark, who really should've come up with something that's less of a farce." 'Agent Measure' whispered back.
Kakine Teitoku and Gokusai Kaibi respectively exchanged some words as the pair stood just outside the konbini in its large inside area before the big entrance to its actual shopping space.
There were no walls or anything and the 'greens' section was right in front of their eyes.
The two were for some reason playing 'Noire policemen' from the 1920s with their beige fedoras and long beige trench coats. Each had a pair of 'pilot approved' Aviators on and their whole stature was otherwise concealed by their 1 meter-sized newspapers.
The pair of them were leaning against two of the many marble-covered pillars within this 'not-so-konbini-konbini'.
"Agent Dark, why in the nonexistent God's name have you decided that any of this is a good idea?" Kaibi whispered to Teitoku, sounding annoyed as his face beyond the newspaper was giving a disappointed look.
"*Shhh* Agent Measure. We are tracking our possible leads on our case. They've also met that 'eccentric guy' that knew about UNDER_LINE. If he didn't jump out of the window with me having to end him, we wouldn't be here." Teitoku whispered back, very concentrated on 'covertly' spying on the unlikely (by power and most people's conventions) pairing of the almost all-powerful Railgun and the less so powerful Imagine Breaker.
Thankfully that database they hacked recently expanded their knowledge massively on both of them. Especially on Kamijou Touma.
"And who's fault is that do you think? You were the one who was supposed to hold him down." Kaibi whispered, not paying much attention to what was going on with their two targets.
"And can I get you to cut me some slack since that pesky 'Agent Psychokinesis' called me about another problem with our 'gas-powered sniper'? I swear we should really-" Teitoku whispered, now slightly distracted and annoyed before being cut off.
"*Shush* They started moving. Assume formation, 'totally stealth operation', Agent Dark." Kaibi whispered to him as she started moving to stand beside a different pillar. It seems like she paid attention at required intervals 10/10 times, unlike Kakine.
"Damn it, Kaibi. I don't get it. I'm your boss and yet I fail to keep attention so badly… Shit." Kakine thought as he hurried over in the similar 'totally not suspicious noire-fedora-trenchcoat-1920s-mission-cop-not-cop' fashion.
Mikoto and Touma were now for some reason dancing to the music in sync, with their legs doing marching movements similar to a unique type of march performed by Russian soldiers (which could be typically seen during their nationally very important Victory Day parade).
The pair were ecstatic and their wide smiles showed it as they danced away to the aisle containing snacks much to the chagrin of their 'totally inconspicuous "tail-ers"', who as stated before… followed suit-
Well, 'followed newspaper-trench coat' to be exact.
Once Touma and Mikoto finished they breathed heavily for a bit before fist-bumping each other with a big smile still present on their faces and with Touma (uncharacteristically) not losing nor damaging his 'packaged hand-held scallions', despite all the ecstatic dancing that went on.
"That was awesome!" Touma said somewhat loudly.
"The song or our 'performance'?" Mikoto asked with a cheeky grin.
"Both." Touma nodded and gave her an unexpected head pat. This swiftly returned the 'advantage' back to him.
He wouldn't be flustered she would be.
"And there you go again… being so nice." Mikoto said meekly, while blushing and pouting and pointing her head and gaze downwards.
"So, what did you think of the song?" Touma decided to get her out of that 'lovely' but not actually 'lovely to/for him' state quickly.
"*Uh* Can you maybe go first?" Mikoto looked up at him, his soft, yet strong right hand firmly planted on her 'exquisite-shampoo-washed' soft and (as some would say) little head. The blush remained, while the pout was gone.
Touma softly removed 'the barrier between being electrocuted or not' (since that's how it served him during most of his encounters with her) from her head even though her hair and scalp felt so… peachy-soft that he'd gladly keep his hand there forever if given permission to. If asked for one, he'd use two hands instead and if asked for two, he'd also lock foreheads with her. That's how nice she felt to the touch for him.
Touma removed the one earphone, stepped away slightly and affirmed a pose of a 'proud hero' with his hands on his waist.
"Gentlemen cannot and must not allow themselves to go before ladies. As a true gentleman" Touma switched to talking under his breath "and secret admirer of gender equality" he switched back to normal loudness of his voice "I must not allow an honourable lady such as yourself from such a pristine institution to be insulted by my tactlessness and frankly cowardice due to an inability to protect your inherent rights." Touma said with a proud tone and his head turned to the side and eyes closed, a slight blush appearing on his left cheek, which was facing Mikoto. "If I didn't secretly admire that, I don't know how I'd be able to punch so many hot girls both before and after my memory loss." He thought and half-lamented as he was a bit uncomfortable.
"*Hi* *Hi* *Hi*" Mikoto couldn't help but softly and cutely giggle.
Honestly, they were both really enjoying each other's company as this 'kiss to date' thing didn't seem quite as bizarre as it did less than a quarter of a day ago.
"Well, thank you. Then I'll share my impressions first then." Mikoto smiled widely at him as he turned his attention to her, and she noticed he looked happy about something.
Well, Touma really was happy about her considering his gesture in good faith. It seemed like his misfortune was giving him a break for now somehow. "Maybe some strange god that dictated fate using a sheet of paper had a good day and decided to make my misfortune nonexistent for now." He thought as he was very thankful to that god. Whoever they were, Touma was happy to know that they truly finally helped him achieve great moments like this today.
He was honestly about to cry, but Mikoto's words came first. He was enough of a gentleman in actuality to listen and not to worry her over literally nothing other than his actual happiness.
"Well, the song is really awesome. Oh! Yeah, I think it really fits you!" Mikoto started her trail of thought but changed course midway, all the while looking exuberantly happy.
"I'm sorry?" Touma interrupted her partway as he had a confused look on his face.
"Hold on, let me explain." Mikoto eyed him with cute anger and pouty cheeks. 'Cute-ger and pooties' as one might call them. After all, Touma's mind certainly referred to what he saw by the latter.
Her normal smiling expression returned.
"It's like… Well, I think if you imagine things hard enough you can imagine you running around, dodging trouble and running on and on to save people again. Running through the blue-skied Academy City and being the 'Superhero Black Jacket' or something!" Mikoto said with her big smile, putting great pride in what Touma really does for everyone (and what she said about him) and giving him a nod of approval.
"Oh, come on. I'm not that amazing, Misaka." He said and sighed slightly.
"You are and you should know it!" She said and pointed with conviction, her pointing index finger almost reaching his right eye that he closed mid-sigh.
"Even assuming that, I think that 'related series of events' in the song could include you firing your Railgun at some bad guys… and maybe missing slightly and knocking them out by a powerful gust of wind." Touma decided to come up with Mikoto's involvement on the spot.
"Wha-? Hey, why am I suddenly involved?" Mikoto was aghast, though only a bit and temporarily.
"You started it first with what impressions the song brings out. And-" Touma looked down at the floor, the scallions were there. Thankfully the packaging covered all of their parts so they were still very edible. Well… as long as he didn't step on it.
He silently picked the package up and gave it to Misaka as he said "Hold it, please."
Mikoto was so surprised by the action that she froze up and complied inadvertently.
"Am I your 'carry-helper farm girl' or something, HEY?!" Mikoto was about to go full delinquent on Touma from the looks of it to which he raised his arms and looked apologetic.
"*Haah* Can't be helped thennnn. He really won't come out of it better if I do nasty stuff to him." Mikoto thought, after internally sighing and decided to leave him be, disappointed that she even thought of harming her date.
"Note to self: Misaka-san will annihilate you and your entire world if you force her to suddenly carry vegetables. Figure out the exact reasons and limits later." Touma thought as he was trembling, his hands still obstructing the view.
But then he slowly peeked out being one of his hands only to see Mikoto actually saddened and not at all angry.
"*Ahem* Sorry about that." Touma regained a normal position with the speed of a children's Saturday morning cartoon character. He did not like making people sad in the slightest.
"To continue where I left off from, I was going to say that since you found an impression of my actions within the song, I found an impression of yours though to be honest it's still a bit weird in your case. I think yours where you link it to me fits better. Maybe. I'm practically speculating here jeez." Touma explained rather casually and gave her a reaffirming smile.
"Well, yeah I think it makes relative sense I guess." Mikoto nodded as her smile mostly returned.
"Negative internal thoughts of his date – 0
Kamijou, the amnesiac Imagine Breaker, Touma – 1" thought the one with the 1.
"So, with that out of the way, what do you-?" Touma was about to ask her what they should buy next, but Mikoto was already transfixed on something so heavily that her lit-up eyes were probably akin to immovable laser drills at this point.
"And what is she-?" he was about to think "What is she looking at?", but the massive figure that he did not notice before made it all very clear.
A 5-meter tall and 3 meters wide appropriately proportionate chocolate Gekota stood in the center of the shop.
How neither of them noticed it until now was a misfortunate/fortunate miracle that Touma could not explain even if he was as smart as some nonexistent rank 0 Level 5. Well, they could exist maybe, but not in the reality where Touma (this Touma) was in.
Knowing what to do and how to do it, judging by her extensive Gekota collection he briefly glimpsed when he entered her room during what he refers to as the 'Sisters debacle'… Touma was certain.
"Misaka, we will buy this, and we will buy it with your money since I would literally have to mortgage my soul to afford it. Let's think practically." Touma instantly exuded an aura of a 100,000-year-old merchant with impossibly large experience as it even swayed the Gekota-crazed Biri-Biri.
"B-But…" She was too ecstatic to think properly.
"What will you do to get it?" Touma asked with a dead-serious, slightly frowning expression.
"A-Anything!" such an overdose of Gekota was evidently affecting Mikoto like a proper methamphetamine drug.
"I'm pretty sure that until she gets a full night's sleep or she eats up all this chocolate, she'll be in this state. Damn it, I guess the date we've both been enjoying is postponed." Touma made concrete plans to save both Mikoto and himself from her condition.
"As per our promise, I will be asking you to buy me a lot of cup ramen and water-" Touma went on explaining what will happen in great detail.
Mikoto in that state was practically a slave to everything and anything that would help her get the Gekota of all Gekota.
Thus, the two (mostly Touma) somehow managed to sanely explain that they'd like to buy all their supply of 5-liter water bottles, all their supply of cup ramen, the massive chocolate gekota and last but not least that very lonely pack of scallions that Touma took away from Mikoto, fearing for both everyone else's and her own safety at the same time.
The shop's staff were completely dumbstruck, but upon regaining their composure asked agreed, only asking if Mikoto was okay.
"Ah, well, my girlfriend over here is a big Gekota fan and well… the sheer size of that thing was a bit shocking to even a non-fan like me." Touma decided that it's best to reveal the 'girlfriend status' than risking being jailed due to misfortune and thus abandoning his knightly duties to protect the overly transfixed Mikoto.
Not once during the whole debacle had her gaze strayed off from the Gekota.
Upon, hiding it, her smile turned into slow forming tears within her eyes and she still stared to where she last saw the Gekota.
Touma even wondered if Mikoto was even awake or whether she just fainted and conveniently entered a sleepwalking state.
Those were questions for later or probably never.
"…Gekota…" she drooled as she paid for the whole purchase via card.
All the produce was taken outside the store and then Touma decided its best to shake her awake from her state only causing her to actually fall asleep right in his arms.
He slowly lowered her onto the ground and decided to tickle her.
His hands slowly reached her armpits and-
"Fureezu!" Some Japanese guy proclaimed the 'cop thing' from America right behind him.
"Fukou da." Touma sighed out and turned around, fully expecting a lifelong sentence for pedophilia or something at this point since Mikoto was actually younger than him.
Instead, he saw a guy wearing a beige fedora, a beige trenchcoat, aviator sunglasses pointing a 'finger gun' at him with the newspaper in his left hand, waving by his side.
Touma immediately was taken aback and looked disgusted.
"Shady." Touma said, recoiling from this shock.
"You're shady too. Your purchases and your manipulation of this girl are. I'm from Judg-" Kakine started talking with equal disgust before being interrupted by something unexpected.
"PLEASE FORGIVE ME!" Touma proclaimed as he entered a begging bow and fell onto the ground and knees.
Even though Kakine had no proof nor armband, Touma really didn't have any other choice there.
Kakine sensed an opportunity.
"Relax, I'm currently off-duty so I'll forgive you if you do business with me." Teitoku said with great confidence.
"Huh…" Touma was so shocked before that his tired-out face barely reacted to what was said.
"Business?" Touma shook himself awake.
"Yes. I do delivery. I work under 'Academy City Esper Delivery Limited'." Teitoku said.
"So, you could deliver this stuff, huh… How much do I-?" Touma was thankful but then remembered the catch and returned to being gloomy, but before he could finish, he was interrupted.
"A good word about us to your girlfriend. The legendary Railgun is a customer we really wish to have." Teitoku said calmly, still keeping his outfit and shades on which seemed to help mask that he was a Level 5 himself, not that Kamijou Touma would know him anyway.
"He found out, huh?" Touma sighed internally as he already resigned it all to that fate.
"I can't disagree then. Either I agree or you put me in jail, right?" Touma fell to his knees and nodded.
"No, I wouldn't put you in jail anyway, but thank you for agreeing. What's your address?" Kakine said calmly.
Touma told him his address and also mentioned Mikoto's for the big chocolate Gekota that was now wrapped with some beautiful packaging.
"Alright. We await your further patronage then." Kakine said calmly as he picked up the goods with the invisible variety of his Dark Matter.
"Wait up!" Touma exclaimed for some reason.
"First off, that's Telekinesis I believe, isn't it? Are you a Level 4?" Touma asked uncharacteristically. "If this is all fake, I'll at least know how to find you…" he thought a bit venomously.
"Yes, and yes." Kakine replied simply. His alibi was already done for him.
"What's your name?" Touma asked.
"John Smith." Kakine said nonchalantly, layering on his alibi.
"WHAT ARE YOU A HARUHI CHARACTER?!" Touma shouted out.
"No, that's my actual name." Kakine somehow maintained his calm.
"*Tch* Fine, 'John Smith'. But I promise to you that if you harm my food or the sleeping Railgun over here…" Touma eyed 'John Smith' with absolute fury.
"…no esper power will save you from me." Touma finished as he glared daggers at the 'delivery guy'.
"Noted." Kakine said simply and walked off, carrying all the goods with and around him up in the air. The big Gekota, the 100 liters of water and the 5 cubic meters worth of cup ramen.
Touma, meanwhile gaze Mikoto a piggyback as he decided to carry her to a park bench close-by, hopefully staying sane as the onlookers were killing him with embarrassment
Standing below a bridge beside a river was Gokusai Kaibi (already rid of her pathetic excuse for a disguise) only for her to be approached by none other than 'Jonh, Agent Dark, Smith' in full disguise still, holding the one piece he needed to steal.
"Are you done?" Gokusai Kaibi asked Kakine, who still had the wrapped Gekota with him.
"Yes. Now according to my genius plan they should've hidden something within this big piece. I will check for their intel that someone like those two could've easily hidden inside. After all, they-" Kakine was arrogantly adamant in his conclusion before his eyes widened as he found nothing inside. (Coincidentally his Dark Matter got in for the search via holes for the eyes that the Gekota chocolate figure had, despite being hollow inside).
"They are very normal people with extraordinary abilities, who at best fought off Accelerator amidst Level 6 Shift. Just like I told you." Kaibi sighed and said.
"Damn it… You're always right in terms of planning." Kakine fell onto his knees and slowly lowered the massive chocolate statue.
"I'm starting to feel like we'll fail at 'that plan' just because you'll be the one doing most of the planning as you've also already done a sizable chunk of that planning regardless." Kaibi blew air out of her nostrils and said with a slightly dejected tone.
"So, what do we do with this thing then?" she pointed at the wrapped Gekota.
"Look, Mayu! Kami-sama sent us that Gekota!"
"You're right! Odasaki-kun, you're so lucky!"
Some random child errors spoke below as Kakine (with Kaibi in his hands literally) watched from above. Kaibi didn't seem to mind.
Even still, it wasn't 'that' kind of relationship at all, truly. It may have just looked like it at first glance.
"Why this place?" Kaibi asked.
"Do you remember much about Yuzuriha Ringo…? I recently found out that she used to live in this place before…" Kakine grit his teeth "…before Dark May and before she died right in front of us like THAT…!"
"I…" his teeth ungrit "…I want the other children to never go through that again. At least by doing this, all of SCHOOL is paying her respects to some extent…" Kakine said and looked very irritable, dispirited and frankly…
…depressed.
"I see." Kaibi replied.
Soon enough, using Kakine's ability they flew off, never to be seen around that orphanage again.
"Misaka-san. Wake up, Misaka-san!" Touma said, while lightly slapping her cheeks and looking a bit concerned.
She lay on a bench in front of him and he stood over her, trying to wake her up.
"Ah… What… Where are we…?" Mikoto slowly blinked her eyes open.
"In a park. You… really were very impressed by that Gekota." Touma replied.
"Ah… I think I fainted or something, I can't remember. Did I do anything weird…?" Mikoto looked sleepily up at Touma.
"*Uhhhhhmmmm*" Touma averted his gaze.
"…Plenty, huh…?" She sighed out.
"I may have forced you to buy some food supplies for Index in that state." Touma nervously looked away again.
"…Much…?" Mikoto tiredly looked up at him from her lying position.
"Only cup ramen and 5-liter water bottles. It was their entire stock though." Touma surmised.
"Eh, should be fine." Mikoto flung her hand lightly forwards.
"So… where is all of that?" Mikoto rubbed her eyes, yawned and slowly sat up.
"Some telekinesist guy wearing a trench coat, a fedora, some sunglasses and called John Smith said he'd deliver it all for free." Touma replied.
Mikoto paused to check if Touma was serious. After the confirmation, she spoke.
"…Shady as hell." She said.
"That's what I thought too. Still, I think we should be fine. He said he's from 'Academy City Esper Delivery Limited'. That's a reputable place, right?" Touma explained.
Mikoto smirked.
"Well let's go check it out then." She lightly shoved his shoulder after standing up and motioned him to follow.
Soon the pair were by a nearby phone booth.
Mikoto cracked her knuckles as sparks started flying.
"Let's go then." She said enthusiastically as the hacking commenced via her trusty PDA. This both positively and negatively reminded her of hacking these booths back around the time of Level 6 Shift.
She looked back at Touma and motioned with her head to follow her inside.
"Aaaand yep. I'm in the classified search bar. What were they called again?" She asked.
"Hey, are we allowed-?" Touma was interrupted.
"The organization's name please." Mikoto frowned and seemed very insistent.
Whether it was illegal or not, this was the quickest method and the Railgun wouldn't get caught hacking.
"Academy City Esper Delivery Limited." Touma stated.
Mikoto swiftly typed that in with Touma monitoring her every step, quite curious about the entire process of how she did the high-tech stuff so well and quickly.
The result of the search was soon shown on the PDA screen.
The pair were aghast.
""Academy City Esper Delivery Limited's members mercilessly killed by terrorists."" They gasped the headline out loud.
They both checked the date…
…and the headline they just read was yesterday.
The two shared a look of concern.
"Any idea if John Smith is related to… …That…?" Mikoto asked.
"No… I think he isn't. If he was, he'd probably kill me and the unconscious you already." Touma gulped.
Mikoto lowered her gaze.
"I see." She said.
"I think it'll all be fine. Let's just believe in that guy and our safety." Touma smiled somewhat and gave Mikoto a nod.
"You really do have good life advice." Mikoto smiled back with more vigor and nodded.
The pair exited the phone booth after Mikoto cleaned the place of evidence.
They stood in front of each other as Mikoto held her hands behind her back awkwardly, looking equally awkward.
"Well, I'll uh… be going home. It was nice hanging out, Kamijou." She said.
"Yeah. It was a good date while it lasted." Touma gave her a smile, which made Mikoto pause.
"Say…" Mikoto nervously approached him.
"Hm?" Touma was ready to hear her out.
"What is-?" His words were interrupted.
"*Kmmmmcccchhh*" was the sound of her lips going in for the kiss on his.
She pulled away.
"I'd say dates are meant to end the same way they began, right?" Mikoto said, while blushing profusely.
"Y-Yeah, I'd say so." Touma replied with similar levels of blush.
"T-That's not to say that it's our last one, y-you idiot!" Mikoto said with an angry expression, warm words and that blush on her face.
"R-Right back at you, B-Biri-Biri!" Touma nodded while blushing and looking very serious.
Mikoto closed her eyes and turned around as she started heading away.
"Stay safe out there." She said, still blushing.
"You too." Touma replied as he smiled and started heading home too.
At home, things were as normal as ever.
Ever since Touma brought Index that sofa, he'd finally regained his bed. Index even preferred sleeping on the sofa.
It was a decently maintained old sofa that Tsuchimikado was about to throw away when he decided to get a new one, but Touma managed to take it off of his friend for free.
"*Knock* *Knock* I'm home, Index!" Touma knocked and exclaimed.
"You took your time, Touma!" Index exclaimed back, complaining. Her favourite show about Dracula was on and Touma could hear that weird Romanian dialogue. He swore the only words he understood were 'Dracula' itself and 'Vlad Tepes', the name of the guy that was supposedly Dracula himself.
Honestly, it was a question and a half of how many languages Index knew. Since she had shown knowledge of Hebrew, English, Japanese and now Romanian, Touma stopped on 'at least 4'.
Index switched off the TV and came to open the door for Touma, honestly resembling a wife in that sense.
But today Touma's heart was already stolen by another.
"Sorry, some things came up after I saved Biri-Biri. But I managed to get the food, right?" Touma tried to laugh it off.
"*Mhm* Some super shady guy came here and stockpiled the ramen and the water into our bathroom." Index said seriously. "Huh. I guess even Index considers him shady." Touma mentally noted.
"Would you like some cup ramen then, Index?" Touma asked as he went inside, took off his shoes and jacket.
"*Uhm*!" Index nodded happily.
Touma went to go get the things from the bathroom but once he opened the door.
"Uwaaah!" he shouted as a number of the heavy water bottles stacked improperly fell right on top of him.
"Fukou da!" he shouted from underneath the pile.
"Don't shout, Touma! That's bad!" Index shouted in return and bit Touma's arm right below his wrist.
It was back to what it was for Touma usually:
Misfortune.
And thus, Touma shouted his last words written on this very fate-deciding piece of paper:
"I guess you haven't given me a break after all, Kami-sama!"