Fictions Mentioned: Doctor Who/Faction Paradox, A Certain Magical Index, Case Closed/Magic Kaito, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Re:Creators, Code Geass, When They Cry, Science Adventure, Zettai Karen Children, TYPE-MOON, Rocky Balboa Franchise, The Manifold Trilogy, H.P. Lovecraft, Marvel Franchise, Evil Dead, Back to the Future, Full Metal Alchemist, Shokugeki no Soma

ACIB Episode 2 – Total Recall

Location:

Multiverse Cluster: Kamachi Verse
Universe: Toaru Verse

Location: Academy City
Date and Time: July 19, 2XXX
Period: Night

Insert Song: Start

Geri Halliwell - It's raining men

On A Certain Night, A Certain Satellite was in orbit as it begins to zoom in on A Certain Location in Academy City.

"Ahh! S***! S***! Kami damn it! This is just too much misfortune!"

Even as he realized his cries sounded rather strange, Kamijou Touma showed no sign of stopping his tremendous flight.

As he ran through back alleys late at night, he glanced over his shoulder.

There were eight of them.

He ran frantically all over for almost two kilometers, but there were still eight of them. Of course, Kamijou Touma had no way to win in a fight against that many unless he happened to be a former foreign unit's cook or a cyber-ninja that had survived to the present day, and there were so many people that he knew who could fit that description. In a fight between high school students, anything beyond 1-on-3 was out of the question. That could be called "impossible" even before taking any skill he might have had into account due to the various forms of martial arts training that he learned from The Doctor as a way to defend himself.

Venusian Aikido FTW (For The Win).

Kamijou kicked over a filthy plastic bucket and frightened off a black cat as he continued running.

It was July 19th.

The fault lay in that date. Because summer vacation would start the next day, he was in such high spirits that he grabbed A Certain Manga at A Certain Bookstore despite a glance at the cover telling him it was no good, entered a family restaurant to treat himself, for once, to a nice between-meals snack, found one middle school-aged girl (who actually happened to be an old friend of his) surrounded by clearly drunk delinquents, and decided that some rescuing was in order.

But, he had not expected more of their comrades to come swarming out of the bathroom.

He had sometimes thought that going to the bathroom in groups was something only girls did which tends to plunge him towards trouble as Lelouch once pointed it out to him that one time.

"I had to run out of the restaurant before the hellish Goya and escargot lasagna I ordered even arrived. I didn't even get to eat anything, but I'm being treated like a dine-and-dasher. What kind of misfortune is this!? Gyahh!"

Kamijou scratched his head as he ran out from the back alley and into the moonlit street.

Even if Academy City were as large as a third of Tokyo, he could see nothing but couples no matter where he looked. That was also surely because it was July 19th.

"It's all July 19th's fault!" Kamijou, shouted in his heart.

The three blades of the wind turbines located here and there throughout the area glittered in the pale moonlight and the lights of the city nightscape, making them look like the tears of rich bachelors.

Kamijou sliced through the night, tearing couples apart.

He glanced down at his right hand as he ran. The power that resided there would be of no help in this current situation. So he just decided to just run like hell while making sure they were following him in order to help them avoid the wrath of A Certain 3rd Rank Level 5 Esper (Mikoto Misaka). Why was he helping them again, he has absolutely no idea. He could try to call for back-up due to being a member of Judgment, but he thinks that this situation demanded a more peaceful resolution without even more violence that was already needed.

"Uuh… Such misfortune!"

If he escaped this group of delinquents now, they would possibly use their phones to call in reinforcements and bikes down on him which would bring even more problems down the line for him as he would then be forced to call for back-up if that ever happens. In order to simply run down their stamina, Kamijou Touma had been letting them catch occasional glimpses of him as bait so that they would continue to run and wear themselves out.

It was akin to letting boxers hit you to weaken them. His experience with A Certain Boxer (Robert "Rocky" Balboa) who was an old friend to The Doctor, taught him that when The Doctor and the guys (Shinichi Kudo/Conan Edogawa, Kyon, Sota Mizushino, Lelouch Lamperouge) were visiting his universe in order to get tips on boxing, learning it's history, and how it would actually apply to real life and experience.

Kamijou's goal at this point was only to save any possible victims whether they were innocent or guilty.

If he could lose them and have them give up without getting into a fistfight, he would win. Then take them into custody.

Incidentally, Kamijou had confidence in his long distance running due to always having to run all the time when you are always travelling The Multiverse in your free time as a Companion to The Time Lord known as The Doctor who was known to always be around death worlds and be involved in certain spatio-temporal events. His pursuers, on the other hand, had already ruined their bodies with alcohol and cigarettes, and the boots they were wearing weren't made for sprinting. On top of that, running full speed for long distances without pacing one's self was impossible by its very nature.

As Kamijou alternated and weaved in and out through roads and back alleys while seemingly simply clumsily running about in a panic, he saw one and then another of the delinquents drop out of the chase, leaning forward with their hands on their knees. He felt his plan was the perfect way of resolving the situation without any injuries.

"D-damn it. Why do I have to waste my youth on this stuff!?"

Everywhere he looked, he saw nothing but couples full of dreams and happiness. Unable to stand it, Kamijou Touma felt as if he had somehow ended up on the short end of life. The date need only change and it would be summer vacation and yet he had neither love nor comedy to speak of.

It made him feel like quite the loser.

Kami, he missed Rika. He really needs to call her every now and then after this is all over.

He then heard one of the delinquents shouting from behind him.

"Hey! You f***ing brat! Stop, you master runner!"

It only angered Kamijou more to receive such a violent love call.

"Shut up! You should be thanking me for not turning around and knocking you and your monkey-level IQ out cold!" Kamijou shouted back despite knowing it was just a waste of stamina.

"He really should thank me for going this far out of my way to keep him and his friends from getting electrified."

After another two kilometers of sweaty and teary running, he exited the urban area and came to a large river. A large metal bridge spanned the river, about 150 meters across, and no cars could be seen on it. The sturdy iron bridge wasn't even lit up, just blanketed by an eerie darkness reminiscent of the sea at night.

Kamijou glanced back as he darted across the bridge.

He was now in his planned destination where he would begin to talk some sense into them to show the error of their ways. But if they would force his hand, he was going to have to take them down with Venusian Aikido.

He then stopped: at some point, he noticed that all of his pursuers were gone.

"What the- Oh no! Don't tell me?!"

Kamijou desperately suppressed the urge to sigh in exasperation and facepalm as he begins to sit down right then and there as he stared up into the night sky that was full of the shining twinkling stars of light that enlighten the planet.

He was hoping that he would actually managed to resolve everything without having to punch anyone every single time. But he guess that things weren't so easy.

Then he begins to hear a familiar voice.

Insert Song: End

"Really now, what are you doing idiot? Do you really think that protecting those delinquents makes you a good person? Are you some kind of overzealous teacher?"

Because the bridge had no lights, Kamijou had not noticed the girl standing about five meters ahead in the direction he had been running, a completely normal middle school girl wearing a gray pleated skirt, a short-sleeved blouse, and a summer sweater. Kamijou stared up into the sky and seriously considered collapsing onto his back. The girl before him was the same one from the family restaurant.

His old middle school friend from Tokiwadai Middle School.

The 3rd Ranked Level 5 Esper of Academy City.

Mikoto Misaka.

"In my defense, I was about to take them down anyway if things do get out of hand. So, you managed to take care of them?"

"Yeah. They annoyed me too much, so I just roasted them while calling Kuroko and Uiharu-san to deal with them."

The zapping sound of bluish-white sparks echoed. Rather than a stun gun, as her shoulder-length brown hair swayed, sparks flew from it like an electrode.

The moment a convenience store bag in the wind passed by her head, it was blown away by bluish-white sparks reminiscent of an interception device.

"Ugh," sighed Kamijou wearily.

July 19th. That was why he had grabbed a manga at the bookstore despite a glance at the cover telling him it was no good, entered a family restaurant to treat himself, for once, to a nice between-meals snack, found his old middle-school female friend surrounded by clearly drunk delinquents, and decided that some rescuing was in order.

However, Kamijou had not a single thought about rescuing the girl. Instead, he had tried to rescue the boys who had carelessly approached her instead.

Once again he sighed. The girl was always like that. He had seen her here and there sporadically for almost a month or two now. In all that time, a lot of things happened between him and her. They had learned each other's names. He was introduced to her other friends who became his new friends. All of them were middle school girls. One of them was Misaka's roomate in Tokiwadai (Shirai Kuroko), while the other two went to Sakugawa Middle School (Uiharu Kazari, Ruiko Saten).

She was the one who was always coming up to him all haughty, saying she'd reduce him to a heap of trash, and Kamijou's job was to just shrug it off. Without a single exception, it went that way and he won every single time, to the girl's ire and constant annoyance.

If he had actually lost, the girl would likely be satisfied, but Kamijou was such a terrible actor despite his friend Shinichi Kudo/Conan Edogawa helping him out every now and then with his acting skills. He once tried to fake his defeat that one time and as result, she chased him like a demon for the rest of the night.

That was how it was with her. He felt that even a character in a fighting game would have a more detailed incentive.

To derail this thought between him and her, let's talk about A Certain City of Science that Touma Kamijou has lived in ever since his childhood.

Academy City.

This city, unlike others, didn't follow the traditional scenario where street thugs were the toughest. Those delinquents that were pursuing Touma before, could not keep up with the esper powers development Curriculum.

They were called Level 0's.

The powerless.

The truly strong in this city, the top-tier students, were espers.

You could possess a talent that only 1 in 328,571 have. But if you want to live a long life, you should always keep your head down as you begin to notice that there are some shady aspects of this city that feels somewhat bleak and full of darkness, to which anyone sane should avoid at all cost due to the consequences of just stumbling in to an operation that is illegal by its very nature. That consequence would usually end in someone in a body bag.

If you couldn't bend a single spoon after having various crazy things done to you like have drugs injected directly into your blood vessels or have electrodes stabbed in through your ears and into the brain, what could it be but lack of talent?

It's The Law and The Order around these parts.

That was indeed the kind of place Academy City was.

The other side of Academy City could be seen in how means of developing the brain had been calmly added into the Curriculum under the name of " documentation methods " or " memorization methods ".

However, not all of the 2.3 million students living in Academy City had ceased to be human and became something like a manga protagonist.

Just under 60% of the whole population were utterly useless Level 0s who could only bend a spoon after focusing their brain to the point their blood vessels burst.

If he needed to bend a spoon, he can just use pliers, and if he need fire, he can just use a cheap lighter. Also, what does he need telepathy for when he has his cellphone (IDST (Inter-Dimensional Space-Time) Cellphone) that The Doctor gave to him since stepping foot in Academy City in order to call his parents and cousin-sister every now and then?

Are esper powers really that great?

That was the question and thought of one Touma Kamijou who had been branded as useless by Academy City's physical examination sensors.

He then recalled his travels with The Doctor and the guys (Shinichi/Conan, Kyon, Sota, Lelouch) when they were visiting A Certain Universe (ZKC (Zettai Karen Children) Verse) where they met The Certain Absolutely Lovely Children (Kaoru Akashi, Aoi Nogami, Shiho Sannomiya) who were so much better at being espers than most of anyone else in this damn city due to being trained by B.A.B.E.L since they were children and who also happens to be one of their closest friends after helping them out with A Certain Problem (read: The Phantom Daughter brainwashed The Commander of the Zettai Karen Children Team, Koichi Minamoto and turned him into her loyal servant.) that they managed to stumble into as The TARDIS brought them to B.A.B.E.L. HQ as The TARDIS's way of trolling and leading The Doctor towards the various and diverse problems that he would always have to solve one way or another.

That, and Commander Koichi Minamoto was an old friend/companion/student of The Doctor.

"I wonder how Academy City would react to the existence of Level 7 Espers? That would sure shake the status quo and cause a huge scandal, a huge uproar, and a wide panic among the general populace, especially among The Level 5's, causing all manner of political shitstorms and all manner of misunderstandings and problems down the line."

He had all of these thoughts as he hop along the trip down to memory lane as he recalled all the many families, friends, and love ones that he had made over the years.

"I really came this far, haven't I?"

Everyone's priorities are all messed up in this city in Kamijou's opinion. They're all rejoicing over the byproduct that they call esper powers, but isn't their real objective something beyond that?

But it seems to him that these lucrative side effects, which are no more than cheap tricks, were far more important to them than that objective and a lot of shady people tend to profit from it, with streams of the blood of the innocent and the guilty flowing down the drain.

There was an old saying that he had learned since spending time in Academy City.

"Humans cannot calculate god, so we need to acquire a body that exceeds humanity before we can arrive at god's answer."

That quote brings him to mind of what Humanity would eventually become when they finally reached their ultimate potential.

One of The Greatest Temporal Powers of The Multiverse.

One of The Members of The Temporal Powers Alliance (TPA).

Humanity's Ultimate and Final Evolution.

The Descendants of The Far Future.

The Rulers of The Manifold of Manifolds.

The Downstreamers.

Academy City's other face was somewhere that Brain Development—using more palatable names like Mnemonics or Memorization Techniques—was quietly included in the Curriculum.

And yet Kamijou Touma could do nothing.

Academy City's measurement instruments had verified a complete " lack '' of talent in him.

That was because of one simple reason.

The Imagine Breaker.

Esper powers ranged from the ones mocked on TV to the ones established with numerical formulas in Academy City. Anything using that kind of supernatural power, even if it were part of God's system (The Rules of His Universe) or any other system in The Multiverse, would be negated without question by that supernatural power of his, barring a few cases here and there ( e.g. The Natural Order, The Laws of The Time Lords).

Which was why throughout the constant travels in The Multiverse, Touma Kamijou would sometimes be forced to wear A Certain Glove that keeps his right hand from negating any supernatural being in his vicinity and accidentally killing them.

The Imagine Breaker was one of two things.

A Blessing and A Curse.

A Blessing.

Because of the multiple ways that he can use to his advantage as he can negate various and diverse powers of any origin or nature in any known or unknown universe whether if it was magic, esper, supernatural, etc...

A Curse.

Because of the great power and responsibility that was entrusted to him as he begins to realize just how much power did he actually have and how it could either be used to save someone or hurt someone.

There was an old saying that Touma had heard from one of The Doctor's old friends (Peter Parker/Spider-Man).

"With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility."

That quote has never been more relevant to him as it is now.

However.

The Imagine Breaker only worked on the supernatural power itself. Simply, he could negate an esper's fireball, but he was still vulnerable to the concrete shards broken by the fireball. Also, the effective range was only his right hand and wrist. If the fireball hit him anywhere else, he would be burned.

And yet…

Kamijou Touma's calm and composed expression stiffened awkwardly. Even with a right hand that could completely negate those light-speed lightning spears, it was sheer coincidence that they struck his right hand.

His heart was pounding in his chest as he desperately tried to force a mature smile onto his face.

"I guess you could say that was either some misfortune or you're just unlucky."

With just one comment in his thought, he seemed to be summarizing everything about himself in one single phrase.

"I'm just really extremely unlucky aren't I."

"Well, Aren't you going to come with me?" Mikoto asked as she placed her hands placed on her waist in an impatient wating position.

"Hmm?"

"You do remember that this was the night when we would finally settle the matter once and for all. Right?"

Touma then begins to recall A Certain Matter (The Beach Incident) that she was referring too.

"Oh! Right!" Kamijou sighed as he continued in confident stride. "Alright, I'm coming. Let's settle this so we can finally call in for the night."

OP Song:

To Aru Majutsu No Index OP 1 HD [Creditless]

Location: Academy City
Date and Time: July 19, 2XXX
Period: Night

The streets of Academy City were peaceful and quiet. However, the same could not be said about A Certain Riverbed. Down by it were two students, one, a high school boy while the other was a middle school girl. The boy was none other than The Unlucky Level 0 known as Touma Kamijou. Across from him was the third ranked Level 5 Esper, Mikoto Misaka. At the top of the hill not too far away stood three other middle school girls, these people being the mutual friends of Touma and Mikoto.

Kuroko Shirai, Uiharu Kazari, and Ruiko Saten.

After discovering that she had accidentally broadcasted herself playing at the beach in a swimsuit, Mikoto had been extremely flustered and furious, especially when she learned that Touma had seen it. Touma knew why she was mad considering that she was embarrassed that she was broadcasted on live television and he was expecting that she would be directing her anger on him because he knew that she had some complicated feelings for him.

Despite popular belief, Kamijou Touma was not dense.

Being together with a smart and wise girlfriend such as Rika Furude would do that to you.

So he tried to compliment her about it in order to defuse the tension, saying that she looked cute and she would never have to be ashamed of it. Miraculously (Irony!), that only seemed to make her even madder. So mad in fact, that she strong-armed him into fighting her once again, saying that if she won, he had to forget about the incident. Seeing as he didn't have any other way out, Touma reluctantly agreed, with Kuroko, Uiharu, and Saten tagging along to watch from the sidelines.

"Is this really such a good idea?" Uiharu asked with concern.

"I'm sure it will be fine." Kuroko said reassuringly. "Onee-sama just needs to blow off some steam. Kamijou-san is just the right guy to hold an Esper at bay. Plus, he would never go all out against someone for no good reason."

"Do your best you two! Good luck!" Saten cheered, before realizing what she said. " Actually, scratch that last part ! Just do your best ! "

"Looks like it's about time we get started." Mikoto said with a smirk. "You ready?"

"Ready when you are. " Touma said as he begins his battle stance as he prepares himself mentally for the fight. "Let's get this over with."

"I've been waiting a long time for this rematch. Let's settle this, here and now!" Mikoto yelled.

Insert Song: Start

Advent Children - Those who Fight (Piano Version) [HQ]

Mikoto reached towards the ground and sent a pulse of electricity through it. Within an instant, an iron sand sword formed in her right hand.

"That trick again huh!" Touma thought to himself as he begins to analyze his opponent. "What makes this so different from last time"

In an instant, Mikoto gathered electricity in both of her hands and manages to shape it into two swords as she gripped it firmly and took a fighting stance. Touma became alerted and intrigue at this new trick as his sharp narrowed eyes were drawn at the sight of these new weapons that was conjured up by the girl.

"I call this my Lightning Blade. Let's see how well you can dodge both of my swords!" Mikoto yelled as she charged straight at Touma.

As soon as he was in range, Mikoto swung wildly at Touma, interchanging which sword she swung. Sometimes, she would swing with both blades, either along parallel or intersecting paths, in an attempt to throw Touma off balance. Unfortunately for Mikoto, Touma managed to dodge every single strike. He did everything he could to not get hit, from sidestepping, to ducking, to rolling, to sliding. While the task proved difficult, he still managed to get away rather unscathed.

Years of training in The TARDIS Danger Room would do that to you.

"Hold still!" Mikoto yelled, bringing her hands together.

As soon as the blades met, they combined. The lightning blade merged with the iron sand sword, coating it in a cloak of electricity. Mikoto swung the sword with two hands over her head and brought it down on Touma. However, the weapon only met with his right hand. The instant they touched, the sound of shattering glass was heard, and the blade fell apart into regular iron sand. Touma took the opportunity to step back and put some distance between him and Mikoto. He had just destroyed one of her weapons, he was not about to stay close enough for her to attack him with another one.

"This was almost too easy." Touma observed. "I don't think I like were this is going." He thought as he knew from experience that whenever something seems to be easy, it's actually a whole lot harder.

Mikoto then releases a quick pulse of electricity, covering a large area around her. The electricity charged the iron sand in the area and magnetized it, allowing Mikoto to manipulate it much like when she created the iron sand sword. The iron sand swirled into the air, forming a storm of iron sand above Mikoto's head.

Touma prepares his right hand in a battle-ready stance.

The storm itself split apart into even smaller storms, several dozens of them in fact. These miniature iron sand storms swirled and condensed before finally taking shape. Mikoto had created dozens of iron sand swords, all of them floating in the air above her, aimed directly at him.

"You like it? I call it my Unlimited Blade Works." Mikoto taunted. "Your right hand can only negate what it touches. Even if you negate one of these swords, two more will take its place and the iron sand from the destroyed blades will be used to create even more swords."

"Did she really just unknowingly referenced my old friend's (Shirou Emiya) Reality Marble while making it the name of one of her own special attacks?" Touma thought with a raised eyebrow to the right as he recalled The Doctor teaching him all about it along with The Rules and The Lore of The TYPE-MOON Verse in his History Lessons of The Multiverse alongside his four best friends.

To those of you who don't know what he's talking about, let's start with a brief explanation.

Unlimited Blade Works: Infinite Creation of Swords ( localized as "Universe of Endless Blades") is the Reality Marble of Shirou Emiya and the Noble Phantasm of the Heroic Spirit EMIYA and his Fate/EXTRA counterpart. EMIYA does not have a true Noble Phantasm that is the crystallized embodiment of a hero's existence like many demonic or holy swords, but if a Noble Phantasm is considered to be a symbol of the Heroic Spirit, then the Reality Marble is his Noble Phantasm. It is a high-class thaumaturgy that embodies their internal worlds and imprints them upon the World as a Bounded Field for a short amount of time. It is their one true specialization of magecraft, the result of "Sword" being both their Origin and their Elemental Affinity, and the basis of their projection and reinforcement skills. It is the definite answer obtained by someone whose life was saved by a sword, actually merged and lived with a sword, and acted as a sword all of his life.

Touma admitted. "Impressive. You've really thought this through, haven't you?"

"That's right. Now, let's see you worm your way out of this one!" Mikoto yelled, sending a couple of iron sand swords on the direction of the spiky-haired boy.

Touma dodges them as he begins to run as fast as he could, circling around the field as Mikoto throws more and more iron sand swords at him. Every single time a sword got too close to hitting him, Touma instantly negated it with his right hand. The rest of the swords hit the ground, kicking up dust before dissolving into iron sand and returning to Mikoto who begins to form more swords to send in his way, rinse and repeat.

Up on the hill, the girls could only watch as the fight escalated.

"Man, she's really going all out." Saten noted. "She's so determined, I'm surprised she hasn't used her Railgun yet."

"Don't even joke about that, Saten." Kuroko scolded. "Kamijou-san's Hand only negates the supernatural, not its after effects. We don't even know if his right hand could negate it."

"I'm getting really worried. I can't see what's going on down there, there's too much dust." Uiharu said.

"I know, I don't think even Kamijou-san and Misaka-san can tell what's going on in there." Saten added.

"Girls." Kuroko said in realization. " I think that's the point. "

"Quit running, idiot!" Mikoto yelled, continuing to fire her swords. "Take this fight seriously!"

However, she did not get a response. Aside from some electrical buzzing, there was just complete and utter silence.

She looked around her surroundings, trying to find her spiky-haired opponent, but could see nothing but dust surrounding her. It was only then that she begins to realize on just what kind of situation she had made by her own hand, for she had surrounded herself in a cloud of dust that she could not see out of, leaving her unable to locate Touma.

Unfortunately, she realized this too late as she found a right hand grip in her right shoulder. In an instant, the sound of shattering glass rang out, indicating the temporary loss of her ability. Without her power to apply and control the electricity, the iron sand wave above her head fell to the ground, creating a gust of wind that blew away the dust.

Insert Song: End

The girls on the hill could barely believe what they were seeing. When the dust cleared, they saw Touma with his right hand gripping Mikoto's shoulder, holding her in place. Mikoto turned her head to see Touma behind her, wearing an expression on his face that was carrying both a battle hardened and serious expression. It honestly intimidated her a bit. Mikoto immediately flinched, turning away and pulling her arms to brace herself, thinking that she was about to be punched as he had a perfect opening in his position while forming small tears in her closed optics.

"Not again" Touma thought, as he begins to let go of her shoulder instead, sighing in parental exasperation. Mikoto noticed that he was no longer holding her and turned around to face him in confusion.

"What's the big idea?" Mikoto asked. "You had a perfect opening. Why didn't you take it."

"Seriously?" Touma replied in a serious no-nonsense grave tone which brings the atmosphere of the surrounding area to stillness and silence. "You call that a 'perfect opening'? Every single time you make me fight you, you always tell me to never hold back and to always take you seriously, but when I do, you just flinch and start acting all defenseless as if you have no power or ability at all."

Then Touma begins to say his sharp pointed words at the girl as he wants to make himself absolutely clear on A Certain Matter that was very close to his heart.

"Let me make this absolutely clear, I am not just some brainless idiot and some heartless monster that just attacks anyone with no valid reason whatsoever, especially if that anyone in question was just middle school girls, just because I was told to do so. If someone did that willingly and with no hesitation on their conscience, they'd be one serious messed up bastard. Look at you, you're crying, just like all of those other times when you make me fight you. Are you seriously trying to tell me to just hit you when you looked so scared and so frightened at what you might think on I was about to do to you."

Touma begins to say his final words on the matter. "I will never, for any reason, use violence to ever solve my problems, ever, for violence begets violence, for violence leads to cruelty, for cruelty leads to anger, for anger leads to hate, for hate leads to suffering. You would do well to remember that."

It was in that moment that Mikoto Misaka, and the girls in the distance who managed to hear the serious conversation, were rather silent and speechless at what the spiky-haired boy had just said as they begin to look towards him with surprised and astonished looks while noticing that his black orbs was denoting something that was hidden from ordinary eyes.

That he was someone who has and had experienced far more than what he was usually letting on as he appears to know how it truly feels like to look down towards the deepest abyss as the hidden darkness and the hidden shadows would catch you just unawares if you weren't careful, but he manages to conquer it all through sheer willpower and stubborn determination that he had learn in his many years of adventure in A Certain Blue Police Box (The TARDIS).

It was on that very night that The Railgang (Mikoto Misaka, Kuroko Shirai, Uiharu Kazari, Ruiko Saten) begins to see another hidden side to their male friend, as they begin to ask themselves these questions as they went home for the night.

How much do they really even know him?

How much of his past did they really know?

How many other secrets was this spiky-haired boy hiding?

However, as they were thinking about all of this, random thunderclouds had suddenly appeared from the once clear night sky as it begins to pour down heavy rain downward towards the ground as Touma and the others begin to take notice and make a run for it in order not to get drenched by the random thunderclouds as Kamijou begins to shout his famous catchphrase as he runs like hell.

"Such misfortune! (Fukou da !)."

Meanwhile, A Certain Time Lord (The Doctor) was watching them all from a distance, while holding an umbrella that has question marks written all over it, begins to laugh wholeheartedly and with good humor at the children's unexpected situation that he had intentionally caused due to A Certain Plan ("Keikaku") that he was doing in the background.

"I am so sorry about this Touma, but don't worry, you'll thank me later."

He was here watching with intrigue and interest, the spectacular battle between The Imagine Breaker and The Railgun, as he was most impressed at the skill that Touma displayed in battle all the while beginning to think to himself on how he would plan for the next day that was about to happen which was what he was preparing Touma for all these years.

The First Meeting Between The Imagine Breaker and A Certain Magical Index.

The Day when he would have his very first close encounter with The Magic Side.

The Day when he would lose all of his memories.

The Doctor had made contingencies plans in his spare time in the event when something like this were to occur. All he would have to do is play his cards right as the chess pieces are now being set up as The Game of Chess was about to begin. Two Players are now on the ready.

Chairman Aleister Crowley being The First Player.

Archbishop Laura Stuart being The Second Player.

The Doctor being The Third Unknown Player.

The Doctor knew that this day would come and he had been preparing himself mentally for this very day as he begins to plan his next move.

The Doctor sighed heavily in resignation as he begins to say in a solemn voice. "Well Touma, I hope you're ready. Because Time seems to have finally catch up with us."

The Doctor then begins to leave the premises discreetly while entering towards The TARDIS, as by the time he enters it and closes the doors, The TARDIS Engines sounded as it begins to dematerialized at it's known location as little by little, it disappears into thin air, with no one around to notice it.

Vworp Vworp Vworp

Date and Time: July 20, 2XXX
Period: Day

"If you're an Aquarius, born between January 20th and February 18th, you will have extremely good fortune in love, money, and business! No matter how improbably the circumstances, only good things are headed your way. Go buy a lottery ticket! But no matter how popular you may be, don't try dating three or four girls at the same time."

"...Y'know, I knew it would be something like this, but still."

It was July 20th, the first day of summer vacation.

Kamijou Touma was at a loss for words while remembering the constant misfortunate events that happened since all his life even with travelling with The Doctor.

His dorm room in Academy City was once ruled by a boiling heat due to a broken air conditioner that one time but he had managed to fix it with the help of his Sonic Screwdriver that The Doctor gave him as a birthday present for his 15th birthday, because apparently, due to the random thunderclouds literally appearing out of nowhere last night, a random lightning bolt had struck during the night and had taken out eighty percent of the electrical appliances in his dorm room and that also meant that the contents of his fridge had been wiped out, to which of course, he had Certain Countermeasures in place just for these specific misfortunate circumstances through the use of his secret bigger on the inside safe room which was installed by The Doctor, where he stored all the extra stash of food and drinks for their own protection in case of emergency situations and special occasions, and as such begins to place them on the repaired fridge.

When he had tried to eat the cup of yakisoba that he kept as emergency rations but somehow managed to spill the noodles all over the sink due to Certain Misfortunate Circumstances, he also had planned A Certain Countermeasure for this scenario, to which he has an entire stash of yakisoba and other noodle packs which he kept in store in the same secret safe room.

Then there was that one time when he decided to just eat out at a local restaurant due to the desire to taste various and diverse food and drinks like a professional critic while planning on how to make his own food and drinks in case of any emergency situations and special occasions, but he somehow accidentally stepped on and broke his ATM card while searching for his bigger-on-the-inside wallet, which in actuality he was already anticipating from a mile away as he also planned Certain Countermeasures accordingly for it by having as many ATM cards in his bigger on the inside wallet just in case.

When he got back to his dorm and crawled back into his bed in order to get some sleep, he had been awakened by his ringing IDST (Inter-Dimensional Space-Time) Cellphone. It was his homeroom teacher conveying a heartfelt message: "Good morning, Kamijou-chan, you're an idiot, so you need supplementary lessons." when in point of fact that he wasn't truly an idiot and knew all about what was in The Power Curriculum Program due to being taught by The Doctor since his elementary days and the only reason why he was acting dumb and stupid in the first place is because well, for one, he can't use esper powers due to his right hand which already draws enough suspicions as it is and two, he doesn't want to draw attention to himself any more than usual to the wrong kind of people.

Case in Point: The Committee of 300

On the bright side, when The Doctor gave him The IDST (Inter-Dimensional Space-Time) Cellphone which was basically indestructible in and of itself, despite so many misfortunate circumstances that was dealt with it due to being made from A Certain Metal that was not known or existed on this Earth and Universe and has many special features to go along with it besides being able to contact his parents, cousin-sister, friends, etc...

One of the special features includes having an available multiversal hotline for the various contacts from the different peoples, friends, and acquaintances of the many similar and different types of foregrounds and backgrounds that he had made throughout his many adventures in time and space alongside his four best friends, Shinichi Kudo (who at this point in the timeline goes by the Alias Conan Edogawa due to A Certain Incident in A Certain Theme Park (Tropical Land), Kyon (which is an abbreviation of his actual name, to Kyon's constant annoyance and is the caretaker of one Haruhi Suzumiya), Sota Mizushino (who is a huge fan of anime and games in general and also an aspiring creator) Lelouch Lamperouge/Lelouch vi Britannia (The Exiled Royal Prince of Britannia and The Mask Vigilante known as Zero) and was able to used it to call them and anyone in his contact list at any time at any place in the multiverse to his personal use and discretion.

One of those contacts being of course includes the contact number of A Certain Girlfriend (Rika Furude), whom The Doctor also gave an IDST (Inter-Dimensional Space-Time) Cellphone and taught her how to use it in order to call him to her convenience and pleasure, despite her world and time period not having actual cell phones yet, was at this point in the timeline attending St. Lucia Academy and became one of the most brightest and top students of that notorious and prestigious school to which this Kamijou Touma would remain the always proud boyfriend that he is and will happily boast about it towards everyone and the highest of the heavens if it were possible.

He had a very good feeling that his relationship with Rika was balancing out his misfortunate luck in his misfortunate life by just about a margin of a miracle to the point where when Kamijou was spending so much time with Rika, things tend to be going along way too perfect for him as the guys (Shinichi/Conan, Kyon, Sota, Lelouch) and A Certain Afterschool Gaming Club (Keiichi, Rena, Mion, Shion, Satoko, Satoshi) can at least attest to due to the many times that he somehow manages to never get the punishment treatment for the losers for the various games of the club while always ending up either the winner of said game or a tie at best for some reason and also somehow manages to avoid all the constant complex traps of "Trap Master" Satoko for the nth time of the century, so things were looking good for him so far, barring possible exceptions such as The Truck Incident which ended up with him spending time in The TARDIS Medical Bay for two months in a coma while recuperating from said incident that made everyone (especially Rika and The Doctor) worried about him which resulted in him getting grounded by The Doctor for one month along with bike riding being banned as part of the punishment.

But that was a story for another time.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, he had sometimes felt that horoscopes given on TV like weather forecasts tended to be just as that sometimes, forecasts, but he was unable to laugh it off when it was that far off for him especially since one, it did not really apply to him due to his "Imagine Breaker" and two, he knows and has read about a few alien species that can use the power of the horoscope so it's not like the concept was anything new to him.

"…I really do get it. I really do. I even understand the concept of a horoscope, I even know about a few alien species out there who can use the power of a horoscope, but I can't fully grasp it without saying it out loud because it really doesn't apply to me."

The horoscope was always wrong about Kamijou which is not surprising to the say the least especially since he has actually encountered many good luck charms, Saten's Good Luck Charm being the example, because it didn't really work on him without the charm itself getting negated with his own right hand. That was basically the summary and simple everyday life for the one Kamijou Touma.

He had thought once upon a time that the fantastic extent to which his luck has deserted him ran in the family, but his father had won first prize (about 1,000,000 yen last he checked) in a lottery contest, courtesy of The Doctor for finding the right numbers easily and giving it to him as a present, which is A Certain Exception to the rule considering how The Doctor is very good at manipulating the concept of probability and his mother of course had managed to score free drinks from the vending machine jackpot multiple times in succession. It was enough to make him wonder sometimes if they were even related by blood to him, but he knew better than that as he wasn't harboring a crush on his little cousin-sister (Tatsugami Otohime) for he already has A Certain Girlfriend (Rika Furude) to keep him company and wasn't in line for royal succession like A Certain Best Friend (Lelouch Lamperouge), no good would've come of it if it were to be discovered that he wasn't his parents' son which is very not true.

To sum it all up, Kamijou Touma experienced nothing but misfortune and misadventures since childhood.

It was to the extent that it could pretty much be called A Certain Running Gag of The Multiverse at this point and you wouldn't really be wrong.

But he had no intention of just giving up and lazing around looking all depressed because of that.

Kamijou did not rely on luck. In other words, he had a lot of drive. he had the free will to act.

"…Now then. The immediate problems are my card and those supplementary lessons."

Kamijou scratched his head and looked around his room. As long as he had his bankbook which was given to him by The Doctor, he could get a new card easily enough. The real problem was his classes. They called it supplementary lessons but he was so sure that he was about to be forced into taking Methuselin pills and Elbrase powder for the sake of powers development despite the zero chances of it working. Doing that on an empty stomach would not be a very good idea and would not be recommended.

As he changed out of the T-shirt he wore instead of pajamas and into his summer uniform, Kamijou considered stopping by A Certain Convenience Store on the way to school. Living up to his position as an idiot student, which was all just a cover considering Kamijou was actually smart and was trained by The Doctor since childhood and has mastered several subjects in his adventure time, had been staying up all night as summer break approached when he begins to remember calling Rika while remembering her sweet Ojou-Sama voice.

'Making up for four months' worth of cut classes in a single week is a pretty sweet deal, anata (dear)'

He smiled at that, with his mood rebounded to the extent that he suddenly muttered, " The weather sure is nice. Maybe I should air out my futon."

Kamijou then opened the screen door to the balcony. He expected the futon to be nice and fluffy once he got back from his supplementary lessons.

But on that seventh floor balcony, the wall of the neighboring building was less than two meters away.

"The sky is so blue, and yet the future is pitch black."

His spirits dropped sharply. Forcing himself to say it cheerfully only had the opposite effect.

Having no one around to act as the straight man (Kyon) only tormented him with a feeling of loneliness as he used both hands to grab the futon on his bed as he began to think about all of his fellow companions/best friends and Rika.

"Failing all else, I have to at least get this nice and fluffy."

Just as he had that thought, he felt something soft squish under his foot. He looked down to find a yakisoba bread still in its plastic wrapping. It had been in the aforementioned ruined refrigerator before he had managed to fix it, so it had surely gone bad and it was on its expiration date.

"…I just hope it doesn't suddenly start raining this evening."

Voicing a sudden bad premonition he had, Kamijou headed out to the opened screen door and to the balcony…

…and spotted a white futon (?) already hanging there.

"?"

It may have been a school dorm room, but the layout was exactly like a one-room apartment, so Kamijou lived alone whenever The Doctor or his best friends or Rika or anyone else weren't around to keep him company. As such, there was no one besides Kamijou Touma who would be hanging a futon over the railing of his room's balcony.

When he looked closer, it was not a futon hanging there at all.

It was a girl wearing white clothes.

"Huh!?"

The real futon fell from his hands.

It was a mystery. In fact, it was nonsensical. As if she had exhaustedly collapsed across a metal rod, a girl had her waist pressed up against the balcony railing and her body bent such that her arms and legs were dangling straight down.

Her age was… about fourteen or fifteen last he checked. She looked a year or two younger than Kamijou. She's obviously a foreigner because her skin was pure white and her hair was white…no, silver. Her hair was rather long, so it completely covered her upside down head, hiding her face from view. Kamijou guessed it must have gone down to her waist normally.

And her clothes were…

'Whoa, it's an actual sister in my balcony of all places. The nun kind, not the sibling kind.'

She's wearing a strange looking habit that he had not seen from any regular nuns before but nevertheless it was an outfit that you would expect to see on a nun in a church. Her clothes looked a bit like a long dress that reached her ankles, and she wore a one-piece hood over her head that was a bit different from a hat. However, while normal nun's habits were jet black, hers was pure white. Was it made of silk? Also, at all the important points of the outfit, embroideries made of golden thread had been sewn in. Kamijou could definitely believe by experience on how much the impression given by the exact same design of clothes could change just by altering the coloring. What he saw reminded him of a nouveau riche teacup.

The girl's lovely fingertips twitched.

Her head slowly rose from its hanging down position. Her silk-like silver hair smoothly split to either side like a curtain and the girl's face appeared from between the long, long hair.

Overall, the girl's face was relatively cute. Her white skin and green eyes were a new experience for someone with overseas skill level of exactly zero like Kamijou, and she somehow seemed like a doll to him.

"I…"

The girl's cute but slightly dried lips slowly moved.

"I'm hungry."

"…"

"What!" Kamijou thought.

"I'm hungry."

"…"

"What!" Kamijou thought.

"I'm hungry."

"…"

"What!" Kamijou thought.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm hungry?"

The silver-haired girl seemed to get a little mad at how Kamijou just stood there frozen.

"Ah, umm… sure" he said slowly as he stared at the girl draped over the balcony railing. "Would you like to come in?"

"Yes! Thank You Very Much! May God Bless You!" said the Sister as she leapt herself off the balcony and head towards the floor while getting inside the dorm.

After that strange meeting, Kamijou Touma managed to cook a delicate set of food dishes that he had learned from A Certain Someone (Soma Yukihara) who was good in the kitchen and prepared the meal to be eaten by A Certain White Sister (Index) who approved of the meal as she begins to pray to God to bless the meal as she started eating and after this they had just started A Certain Conversation that was a long time coming that could determine how the events would play out.

"I suppose I need to start with an introduction."

"Actually, I would rather you started with explaining on why you were hanging in the balcony."

"My name is Index."

"Index?" Kamijou questioned while remaining in full attention and interest since that wasn't really a name to ordinary eyes but it was a possible name from unordinary eyes due to being his guardian calling himself The Doctor.

"My full name is Index Librorum Prohibitorum, my magic name is Dedicatus545 - The dedicated lamb protects the knowledge of the strong, and as you can see from the clothes that I wear, I am from the Church. That is important. Oh, but I'm not from The Vatican. I'm from The Anglican Church."

"Anglican? Index Librorum Prohibitorum? Dedicatus545?" Kamijou thought deeply as he remembered the many types and branches of Christianity that exist along with the many religions that exist throughout The Multiverse that was a part of The History Lessons that The Doctor gave to him and his best friends and fellow companions in order to learn of the different social-cultural points of views regarding the different sets of beliefs, the designated behavior, religious doctrines, morals, worship practices, etc... that is involved in each and in its own way with its own cultural origins, backgrounds, circumstances, and stories.

"She said that she was Anglican but why does she have a name that is connected to A Certain List of Forbidden Books that was deemed heretical by The Roman Catholic Church."

Kamijou also thought about her name "Index Librorum Prohibitorum" because that sounded familiar from said History Lessons.

The Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of Prohibited Books") was a list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former Dicastery of the Roman Curia), and Catholics were forbidden to read them without permission.

There were attempts to censor individual books before the sixteenth century, notably the ninth-century Decretum Glasianum, but none of these were either official or widespread. In 1559, Pope Paul IV promulgated the Pauline Index. While it has been described by some as "the turning-point for the freedom of enquiry in the Catholic world", the effects of the Index were minimal and it was largely ignored. After less than a year, it was replaced by the Tridentine Index which relaxed aspects of the Pauline Index that had been criticized and had prevented its acceptance. The 20th and final edition appeared in 1948, and the Index was formally abolished on 14 June 1966 by Pope Paul VI.

Pope Paul IV established the Index of Prohibited Books which banned thousands of book titles and blacklisted publications, including the works of Europe's intellectual elites. This index condemned religious texts, readings of romance, and graded authors based on their degree of toxicity. The stated aim of the list was to protect the faith and morals of the faithful by preventing the reading of theologically, culturally, or politically disruptive books. Such books included works by astronomers, such as Johannes Kepler's Epitome astronomiae Copernicanae which was on the Index from 1621 to 1835, works by philosophers, such as Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and editions and translations of the Bible that had not been approved. Editions of the Index also contained the rules of the Church relating to the reading, selling, and pre-emptive censorship of books.

The canon law of the Latin Church still recommends that works should be submitted to the judgment of the local ordinary if they concern sacred Scripture, theology, canon law, or church history, religion or morals. The local ordinary consults someone whom he considers competent to give a judgment and, if that person gives the nihil obstat ("nothing forbids"), the local ordinary grants the imprimatur ("let it be printed"). Members of religious institutes require the imprimi potest ("it can be printed") of their major superior to publish books on matters of religion or morals.

Some of the scientific theories contained in works in early editions of the Index have long been taught at Catholic universities. For example, the general prohibition of books advocating heliocentrism was removed from the Index in 1758, but two Franciscan mathematicians had published an edition of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687) in 1742, with commentaries and a preface stating that the work assumed heliocentrism and could not be explained without it. A work of Antonio Rosmini-Serbati was on the Index, but he was beatified in 2007. Some have argued that the developments since the abolition of the Index signify "the loss of relevance of the Index in the 21st century."

J. Martínez de Bujanda's Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 1600–1966 lists the authors and writings in the successive editions of the Index, while Miguel Carvalho Abrantes's Why Did The Inquisition Ban Certain Books?: A Case Study from Portugal tries to understand why certain books were forbidden based on a Portuguese edition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum from 1581.

"Or at least that was what was said of the history books from other universes but maybe the information could not possibly apply to my universe or to this girl specifically due to the fact that she could be a version of the Index from my universe for all I know." thought Kamijou.

And the term "magic name" seems like a secret code name relating to her and possibly to some other people as well.

It would also refer to the magic system in his universe that he knew somewhat from his History Lessons.

"Dedicatus is Latin for dedicated or devoted, but dedicated or devoted to who or what exactly? And then there's also the three numbers behind the name. What do those stand for exactly?"

If he were to take an educated guess, the magic that Index could be referring too would function to exist in order to fulfill A Certain Wish for A Certain Magical User in question. Accordingly, if she possess a magic name in order to set up a goal that she wish to set her desires around summed up as a Latin word (i.e. Fortis, Honos, Regnum, etc.). She would dedicate the rest of his or her life by whatever means to achieve those goals that have been carved into his or her soul. To conclude, a magic name concludes with a three digit number so as to avoid identical names and is accompanied by a phrase often as a description of who they are and an elaboration of their disposition. Meaning, there were more possible magic users out there besides Index, with their own goals and ambitions, to what pursuits they would go to, Touma could only think to shudder in dread, as half of the magic systems that he had encountered in his travels seemed to always have A Certain Price that must be paid, most of the time anyway, which was why he would usually keep himself on constant alert if he ever hears the word magic as it could mean many things with their own definitions and circumstances of origin between different cultures throughout the centuries. Some magic is far more fatal than others and is definitely not worth the price of your own soul.

And while Kamijou was having these thoughts of deep reflection, The Sister called Index continued speaking.

"Anyways, it would be great if you could feed me enough food to fill me up."

With the wording of that statement, Kamijou had a feeling that this girl was a very lively eater which was ironic since she was supposed to be a nun who was dedicated to the practice of the spirit of mortification and self-control in order to dedicate them to The LORD and to the service of the common good.

"Alright sure, I'll just head to the kitchen then and make some more."

Kamijou silently headed towards the kitchen and began to open the extra amount of food that was defrost that was left inside the fridge in order to feed her. He figured it would be fine if it was heated. He dumped everything left into a frying pan and made something similar to stir-fried vegetables.

'Come to think of it, where did this girl even come from?'

Of course, there were foreigners in Academy City. The Doctor visiting every now and then does not count considering he's not even human. However, she did not have the characteristic "scent" of a resident. But it was also strange for someone to come in from outside.

Academy City was treated like a city made up of hundreds of schools, but it was more accurate to think of it as a city-sized boarding school. It was large enough to cover a third of Tokyo, but it was surrounded by a wall like The Great Wall of China. It was not as strict as a prison, but it was still not a place you could just wander into.

…Or so it was made to look. In reality, three satellites launched for experiments by a technical college were constantly monitoring the city. Everyone going in or out of the city was completely scanned and if any suspicious person who did not match the records at the gate was found, either Anti-Skill or members of Judgment from all the schools would immediately head there.

'But there were random thunderclouds that I and the girls noticed in the sky last night. That may have hidden her from the satellites. Why do I have the strangest feeling that it was The TARDIS that intentionally caused those blasted thunderclouds which resulted in 80% of my appliances getting completely wrecked in the crossfire.' Kamijou thought in annoyance as he knew how much of a troll The TARDIS Herself usually is after all of these years of travelling inside of her.

"So anyway, why were you hanging out to dry on my balcony?" Kamijou asked the girl as he put soy sauce on the stir-fried vegetables-like dish he was making with purely good intentions.

"I wasn't hanging out to dry."

"Then what were you doing ? Did the wind blow you here or something?"

"…Something like that."

Kamijou had meant it as a simple joke in order to lighten the mood and stopped moving the frying pan as he turned around to face the girl.

"I fell. I was trying to jump from rooftop to rooftop."

'Rooftop?'

Kamijou looked up at the ceiling.

Cheap student dorms lined the area. More of the same type of eight-story building were lined up and one glance out to the balcony showed there was a gap of two meters between buildings. It was true that a running jump could get you from one rooftop to the other, but…

"But… that's eight stories high? One wrong step and you'd be headed straight to hell."

"Yeah, you don't even get a grave if you commit suicide," said Index cryptically. "But I had no choice. I had no other way to escape."

"Escape?"

Kamijou frowned at that ominous word.

"Yeah," said Index like a child. "I was being chased."

"…"

Kamijou's hand shaking the hot frying pan stopped moving once more.

"I made my jump just fine, but I was shot in the back in midair. "The girl naming herself Index seemed to be smiling. "Sorry. It seems I got caught on your balcony as I fell."

She gave a pure smile in Kamijou Touma's direction without even a hint of self-deprecation or sarcasm.

"You were shot…?"

"Yeah? Oh, you don't need to worry about a wound. These clothes also function as a defensive barrier."

"What did she mean by a defensive barrier? Was it some kind of bulletproof vest or something else?" Kamijou thought as the girl spun around the place as if to show off her new clothes and she certainly did not look injured. Kamijou had to wonder if she had really been shot. The idea that she was delusional or making it all up seemed more realistic to some people.

But Kamijou Touma wasn't just some people.

The fact remained that she had indeed been hanging from his seventh story balcony which was already suspicious to Kamijou.

If, hypothetically, everything she was saying were true…

"Who had she been shot by?" Kamijou thought.

He thought about just how determined one would have to be to hop between the rooftops of an eight-story building. He also considered how lucky she was to be caught on his seventh-story balcony. And he thought about the hidden meaning to the fact that she had collapsed.

She had said that she was being chased.

He thought about the meaning of the smile on Index's face when she said that. Kamijou did not know yet on what circumstances Index was in but he had understood what the few things she had told him about had truly meant. Most likely, he would only understand all of it if Index explained everything from start to finish and he would likely have a multiple set of ideas on how to even start by the time she explained it all.

'Shinjitsu wa itsumo hitotsu ! (There is always one truth!)' as his old best friend Shinichi Kudo, now Conan Edogawa, would always say as his catchphrase.

With a tightening in his chest, he understood the fact that she had gotten caught on his seventh story balcony when one wrong step could have sent her straight to the asphalt below.

After feeding Index again, Kamijou began to resume the conversation with her.

"Alright, you said that you were being chased. Chased by whom?"

Kamijou once again asked about the biggest issue in her story.

"Hmm…" she said with a slightly dry throat. "Now who was it? Maybe it was the Rosicrucians or S∴M∴ aka Stella Matutina. I think it was some group like that, but I don't know their name yet. …They aren't the type to find meaning in names ."

"Rosicrucians? Stella Matutina?" Kamijou thought deeply back at The History Lessons again.

Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts that purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking its knowledge attractive to many. The mysterious doctrine of the order is "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe, and the spiritual realm." The manifestos do not elaborate extensively on the matter, but clearly combine references to Kabbalah, Hermeticism, alchemy, and Christian mysticism.

The Rosicrucian manifestos heralded a "universal reformation of mankind", through a science allegedly kept secret for decades until the intellectual climate might receive it. Controversies arose on whether they were a hoax, whether the "Order of the Rosy Cross" existed as described in the manifestos, and whether the whole thing was a metaphor disguising a movement that really existed, but in a different form. In 1616, Johann Valentin Andreae famously designated it as a "ludibrium". Some scholars of esotericism suggest that this statement was later made by Andreae in order to shield himself from the wrath of the religious and political institutions of the day, which were intolerant of free speech and the idea of a "universal reformation", which the manifestos called for.

An example of the rosy cross symbol predating the early Rosicrucian manifestos is that shown on the central panel of the Harbaville Triptych, which is Byzantine and comes from the 10th or 11th century. The symbol is a Calvary cross with a rose in its centre, which is identical with what the masonic/rosicrucian scholar Manly Palmer Hall claimed to be the original symbol of the rosicrucians.

In his work "Silentium Post Clamores" (1617), the rosicrucian Michael Maier (1568–1622) described rosicrucianism as having arisen from a "Primordial Tradition" in the following statement: "Our origins are Egyptian, Brahmanic, derived from the mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace, the Magi of Persia, the Pythagoreans, and the Arabs."

By promising a spiritual transformation at a time of great turmoil, the manifestos influenced many figures to seek esoteric knowledge. Seventeenth-century occult philosophers such as Maier, Robert Fludd, and Thomas Vaughan interested themselves in the Rosicrucian world view. According to the historian David Stevenson, it was influential on Freemasonry as it was emerging in Scotland.

In later centuries, many esoteric societies have claimed to derive from the original Rosicrucians. Rosicrucianism is symbolized by the Rosy Cross or Rose Cross. The largest and most influential of these societies has been the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which consisted of several well known members of society. The other is the Rosicrucian Order, A.M.O.R.C, an international, initiatic Fraternity, which involves itself in several educational and cultural activities worldwide.

The Stella Matutina (Morning Star) was an initiatory magical order dedicated to the dissemination of the traditional teachings of the earlier Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Originally, the outer order of the Stella Matutina was known as Mystic Rose or Order of the M.R. in the Outer. When occult author Israel Regardie released documents of the Golden Dawn to the public it was the teachings of the Stella Matutina that he revealed, not those of the original order. The Stella Matutina was one of several daughter organisations into which the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn fragmented, including the Alpha et Omega led by John William Brodie-Innes and Macgregor Mathers, the Isis-Urania Temple led by A.E. Waite, and others.

After a revolt of London Adepts against the then-head of the Order (Samuel MacGregor Mathers) in early 1900, the Order segmented into two new groups. Those who remained loyal to Mathers took on the name Alpha et Omega, while the London group took on the name Hermetic Society of the Morgenrothe. The latter group retained such members as Robert Felkin (a British doctor), John William Brodie-Innes, A.E. Waite, William Alexander Ayton, W.B. Yeats and others.

The Morgenrothe had a very short existence before it, too, schismed into two groups. Those who were most interested in Christian Mysticism (led by A.E. Waite) took over the remnants of Isis-Urania, and formed the Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn, and later the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. Those from the Morgerothe who were more interested in occultism (led by Dr. Felkin) formed the group "Stella Matutina"- naming their Mother Temple "Amoun."

The outer order was changed by Dr. Felkin and other members of the Golden Dawn based in London. Among others who helped form Stella Matutina was J.W. Brodie-Innes, though he soon made peace with Mathers and left for the Alpha et Omega.

The first gesture of independence brought a committee of twelve to govern for a year. Further developments forced them to realise that this was far from satisfactory. With pettiness and further dispute, they abandoned every reform and went back to the original scheme of appointing three chiefs to lead and govern them.

While visiting New Zealand in 1912, Dr. Felkin issued a Warrant for the Smaragdum Thallasses Temple No. 49 (commonly referred to as Whare Ra (Māori for "House of the Sun")), which operated in the basement of his purpose built home at Havelock North, in the Hawke's Bay Region. Felkin's visit was closely associated with the New Zealand Province of the Societas Rosicruciana. The stay was supposed to be permanent, but Mr. Meakin, who was to take over as chief of the Amoun Temple, died in the autumn of 1912.[5] Felkin returned to England, but moved to New Zealand permanently in 1916.

During the next few years, Felkin established Hermes Lodge in Bristol, the Secret College in London, and Merlin Lodge, also in London.

The Amoun Temple of the Stella Matutina in London closed its doors in 1919 due to two members becoming schizophrenic, one of whom, a clergyman, was later to die in a mental institution.

In 1933, Israel Regardie joined the Hermes Temple in Bristol, and resigned from Amoun Temple in 1934, finding it, according to him, in a state of low morale and decay. Many of the original Golden Dawn's Knowledge Lectures had been "removed or heavily amended, largely because they were beyond the capacity of the chiefs." These same chiefs claimed "extraordinarily exalted" grades, but Regardie found them lacking. As an example, he recounted that no one in the temple knew how to play Enochian chess, in fact the Order's chess set had never been used. He constructed his own boards and he challenged his superiors in the Order to play: all refused with excuses.

By 1939, Stella Matutina became largely dormant, although the Hermes Temple continued until 1970. Whare Ra in New Zealand continued until 1978.

"Both of these societies have a historical connection to The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn." Kamijou thought.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (Latin: Ordo Hermeticus Aurorae Aureae; or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn (Aurora Aurea)) was a secret society devoted to the study and practice of the occult, metaphysics, and paranormal activities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Known as a magical order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was active in Great Britain and focused its practices on theurgy and spiritual development. Many present-day concepts of ritual and magic that are at the centre of contemporary traditions, such as Wicca and Thelema, were inspired by the Golden Dawn, which became one of the largest single influences on 20th century Western occultism.

The three founders, William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Liddell Mathers, were Freemasons. Westcott appears to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn.

The Golden Dawn system was based on hierarchy and initiation, similar to Masonic lodges; however, women were admitted on an equal basis with men. The "Golden Dawn" was the first of three Orders, although all three are often collectively referred to as the "Golden Dawn". The First Order taught esoteric philosophy based on the Hermetic Qabalah and personal development through study and awareness of the four classical elements, as well as the basics of astrology, tarot divination, and geomancy. The Second or "Inner" Order, the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, taught magic, including scrying, astral travel, and alchemy. The Third Order was that of the "Secret Chiefs", who were said to be highly skilled; they supposedly directed the activities of the lower two orders by spirit communication with the Chiefs of the Second Order.

Which basically means one thing.

Apparently, she was being chased by a group or an organization that is somewhat similarly connected to these secret societies that was dedicated to the study of magic and to the study of the occult.

"Was this group that was chasing you by any chance affiliated with magic?"

"Yes," said Index surprisingly calmly. "There a magic cabal/society."

"So I was right." thought Kamijou as he managed to guess it right on the money.

"Why were they after you in the first place?"

"…It is because I am The Index."

Kamijou could not help but pay attention to the play on words of her name "Index" for the name and term could stand for an alphabetical list of names, subjects, etc., with references to the places where they occur, typically found at the end of a book.

"Explain."

"They are likely after the 103,000 grimoires I have."

"103,000 grimoires" Kamijou thought as he began to think about what a grimoire was from said History Lessons.

A grimoire (/ɡrɪmˈwɑːr/ grim-WAHR) (also known as a "book of spells") is a textbook of magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination, and how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, deities and demons. In many cases, the books themselves are believed to be imbued with magical powers, although in many cultures, other sacred texts that are not grimoires (such as the Bible) have been believed to have supernatural properties intrinsically. The only contents found in a grimoire would be information on spells, rituals, the preparation of magical tools, and lists of ingredients and their magical correspondence. In this manner, while all books on magic could be thought of as grimoires, not all magical books should be thought of as grimoires.

While the term grimoire is originally European and many Europeans throughout history, particularly ceremonial magicians and cunning folk, have used grimoires, the historian Owen Davies noted that similar books can be found all across the world, ranging from Jamaica to Sumatra. He also noted that in this sense, the world's first grimoires were created in Europe and the Ancient Near East.

"And she likely has these 103, 000 grimoires stored somewhere in her own person." Kamijou thought gravely.

"What kind of grimoires were they exactly?"

"The Book of Eibon, the Lemegeton, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Cultes des Goules, and the Book of the Dead are good examples. The Necronomicon is so famous there are all sorts of imitations and fakes, so it isn't very reliable."

Kamijou then began to pale and widened his eyes, with his mouth wide open in shock, and with the feeling of fear and dread as Index began to mentioned at least some of these grimoires one by one as he recognized those names before.

The Doctor had warned him and his best friends about them in their History Lessons given that he and The Time Lords have dealt with these books before and The Powers That Be that are behind these books and that they banned them and made them illegal throughout The Multiverse at large because they were far too dangerous to be used by any user and practitioner of magic and science, especially if these users were untrained, unknowledgeable, and unskilled for terrible consequences could happen if misused wrongly by accident like A Certain Someone with a Chainsaw for a Hand.

("cough" Ash J. Williams "cough")

What were these books you all might ask, well, let's all start with the first book that Index mentioned.

The Book of Eibon, also known as the Liber Ivonis or Livre d'Eibon, is a grimoire by the magician Eibon of Mhu-Thulan.

The book was passed down by secret cults to the present day. Never printed until the 20th century, there are many editions which vary widely, from tablets to scrolls. It is a key text in the Tsathogguan Cycle.

The Lesser Key of Solomon, also known as Clavicula Salomonis Regis or Lemegeton, is an anonymous grimoire on demonology. It was compiled in the mid-17th century, mostly from materials a couple of centuries older. It is divided into five books—the Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria.

Unaussprechlichen Kulten (also known as Nameless Cults or the Black Book) is a fictional book of arcane literature in the Cthulhu Mythos. The book first appeared in Robert E. Howard's 1931 short stories "The Children of the Night" and "The Black Stone" as Nameless Cults. Like the Necronomicon, it was later mentioned in several stories by H. P. Lovecraft.

Unaussprechlichen Kulten is believed to have been written by Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt. The first edition of the German text (referred to by some as "the Black Book") appeared in 1839 in Düsseldorf. The English edition was issued by Bridewall in London in 1845, but (being meant to sell purely based on shock-value) contained numerous misprints and was badly translated. A heavily expurgated (a full quarter of the original material) edition was later issued in New York by Golden Goblin Press in 1909, but sold few copies as its high production costs made it prohibitively expensive. Original editions in German have a heavy leather cover and iron hasps. Few copies of the earliest edition still exist because most were burnt by their owners when word of von Junzt's gruesome demise became common knowledge. An edition is known to be kept in a locked vault at the Miskatonic University library and some book collectors/occult scholars have managed to find copies. At least one copy is known to have been present at the abandoned church on Federal Hill in Lovecraft's short story "The Haunter of the Dark".

The text contains information on cults that worship pre-human deities such as Ghatanothoa and includes hieroglyphs relating to the latter. There is also information on more recent cults including that of Bran Mak Morn, The Dark Man. It is from this work that the tale of the doomed heretic T'yog is most commonly sourced. The principal obscurity of the book is von Junzt's use of the word keys—"a phrase used many times by him, in various relations"—in connection with certain items and locations, such as the Black Stone and the Temple of the Toad (possibly associated with Tsathoggua) in Honduras.

Cultes des Goules, or Cults of Ghouls, is a book of black magic written by Francois-Honore Balfour (Comte d'Erlette) in 1702. It was published in France and later denounced by the church. Only a handful of copies are in existence. One of the known copies was kept for 91 years in an arcane library of the Church of Starry Wisdom in Providence, Rhode Island. After Robert Blake's mysterious death in 1935, Doctor Dexter removed the grimoire and added it to his library.

August Derleth claimed to have invented the fictional text, but this was denied by both Lovecraft and Bloch himself.

Cultes des Goules is mentioned numerous times in the works of Caitlin R. Kiernan and plays an especially important role in her 2003 novel Low Red Moon. The text is also prominently mentioned in her short story "Spindleshanks (New Orleans, 1956)" — collected in To Charles Fort, With Love (2005).

The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BCE) to around 50 BCE. The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw, is translated as Book of Coming Forth by Day or Book of Emerging Forth into the Light. "Book" is the closest term to describe the loose collection of texts consisting of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife and written by many priests over a period of about 1,000 years.

The Book of the Dead, which was placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased, was part of a tradition of funerary texts which includes the earlier Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, which were painted onto objects, not written on papyrus. Some of the spells included in the book were drawn from these older works and date to the 3rd millennium BCE. Other spells were composed later in Egyptian history, dating to the Third Intermediate Period (11th to 7th centuries BCE). A number of the spells which make up the Book continued to be separately inscribed on tomb walls and sarcophagi, as the spells from which they originated always had been.

There was no single or canonical Book of the Dead. The surviving papyri contain a varying selection of religious and magical texts and vary considerably in their illustration. Some people seem to have commissioned their own copies of the Book of the Dead, perhaps choosing the spells they thought most vital in their own progression to the afterlife. The Book of the Dead was most commonly written in hieroglyphic or hieratic script on a papyrus scroll, and often illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased and their journey into the afterlife.

The finest extant example of the Egyptian Book of the Dead in antiquity is the Papyrus of Ani. Ani was an Egyptian scribe. It was discovered by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge in 1888 and was taken to the British Museum, where it currently resides.

And last but definitely not the least.

The Necronomicon, also referred to as the Book of the Dead, or under a purported original Arabic title of Kitab al-Azif, is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in stories by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in Lovecraft's "The Nameless City". Among other things, the work contains an account of the Old Ones, their history, and the means for summoning them.

Other authors such as August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith also cited the Necronomicon in their works. Lovecraft approved of other writers building on his work, believing such common allusions built up "a background of evil verisimilitude." Many readers have believed it to be a real work, with booksellers and librarians receiving many requests for it; pranksters have listed it in rare book catalogues, and a student smuggled a card for it into the card catalog of the Yale University Library.

Capitalizing on the notoriety of the fictional volume, real-life publishers have printed many books entitled Necronomicon since Lovecraft's death.

So yeah, as you can see, while the first two books such as The Lesser Key of Solomon and The Book of the Dead both come from the Thelema and the Egyptian Mythologies and that they can be successfully contained easily enough, many of these other books are connected to A Certain Multiverse Cluster (H.P. Lovecraft Verse) that The Time Lords put on Lock Down due to the danger they represent as a whole to reality and for the safety of the lesser/younger species.

"I really, really hope that this version of The Necronomicon which actually exist in my universe is not similar or connected to A Certain Other Book (Necronomicon Ex-Mortis) that has the power to harness the power of The Kandarian Demon and the ability to control both the dead and The Deadites." Kamijou thought with caution and dread.

What is The Necronomicion Ex-Mortis, What is The Kandarian Demon and Who are The Deadites you all asked and why should we care?

Well prepare for " SPOILERS " to borrow Professor River Song's catchphrase, because it's not gonna be pretty for this available information comes from A Certain Multiverse Cluster (The Horror Verse) that The Doctor tends to visit frequently every now and then in his spare time.

Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (Also known as "The Book of the Dead" and "Naturom Demonto") is the antagonistic object in the Evil Dead franchise. It has power to harness the Kandarian Demon's ability to control both the dead and Deadites, as well as summon the Kandarian Demon itself.

History

Creation

The origins of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis varies from universe to universe, though most state that it was written by one of The Dark Ones long ago, back when the they ruled the Earth and the seas ran red with blood. In two realities, the birthplace of the book was in a temple of what would be considered modern Egypt. Regardless of where it was created, the Ex-Mortis contained pages made from human skin, with it's images and Sumerian text inked in human blood. According to one account, the book's cover comes from the flesh of a powerful demon who had more control over Deadites than The Dark Ones did.

In another universe, the Necronomicon was written by a human named Abdul Alzeez in the year 730 AD. The Ex-Mortis of that world was actually a collection of ancient texts written by The Dark Ones, translated by Alzeez.

Written in the book were prophecies, funerary incantations, and demon resurrection passages. It is unknown how many copies and variations of the Necronomicon were written by The Dark Ones themselves before their banishment to another dimension, as the number varies from universe to universe, though most seem to have at least three copies at the minimum.

Discovery In 1300 AD

These three copies were eventually discovered in a graveyard in modern England (although how these books ended up in this graveyard is unknown). In 1300 AD, the time-displaced Ash Williams journeyed to this graveyard and took the real book back to Castle Kandar, where it was locked away in a tower for many years. Shortly after Ash brought the book to the castle, Evil Ash and his "Army of Darkness" attacked the castle, wanting to take The Necronomicon and use it to conquer the world, but the combined armies of Lord Arthur and Henry The Red defeated them.

Rediscovery In The 20th Century

Long after the castle was abandoned by the knights and kings, the ruined castle was where Professor Raymond Knowby, Henrietta Knowby, Annie Knowby, and Ed Getley discovered the Necronomicon and the Kandarian Dagger in the early to mid-1980's. Raymond and his wife Henrietta took the book and dagger back to their cabin in the mountains and left their daughter Annie to continue her work at the archaeological site. At some point between the time-displaced Ash taking the book to the castle and Professor Knowby rediscovering it, a handful of pages were torn out of the book and hidden in the ruins castle, with Annie Knowby finding them after her father and mother returned to their cabin. When Raymond Knowby arrived to his cabin, he began to study and translate his latest find, reading out-loud and recording a passage that awoke an evil spirit in the woods surrounding the cabin, causing his wife to become possessed by a Deadite. A week later, a group of five friends found the cabin and decided to spend the weekend there, and unknowingly summoned whatever evil the Knowbys unleashed just a few days ago by playing Raymond's recording of the translations. After fighting his Deadite friends for most of the night, Ash Williams finds himself surrounded by his possessed friends. Just when all hope seems lost for him, he decides to toss the book of the dead into the fire in the fireplace, causing the book's flesh bound cover to let out a scream, and stops the Deadites in their tracks. It's presumed that this version of the Necronomicon was eventually completely destroyed and reduced to ashes since it was left in the fireplace for several hours.

The following day after Ash Williams destroyed the book brought to the cabin by Raymond Knowby, Annie Knowby brought the missing pages of the book to the cabin. One of these pages contained a spell which opened a hole in time and space, and another contained a prophecy describing the arrival of "The Hero From The Sky" in 1300 AD. Annie later used the page containing the space-time vortex spell to send the Kandarian Demon back in time. The usage of this spell also caused Ash Williams to accidentally get sucked into the vortex also, thus fulfilling the "The Hero From The Sky" prophecy mentioned on the other Necronomicon page.

The Book In The 21st Century

At some point after returning from 1300 AD, Ash Williams discovered another copy of the Necronomicon (quite possibly one of the other copies he discovered in the graveyard since the one he left at the cabin was destroyed). Williams then sought the help of the employees of the occult bookstore Books From Beyond with translating some of the spells within the book. This copy was then hidden away in a wooden trunk in Ash's Trailer for roughly 30 years, until (while under the influence of marijuana) he read aloud the spell that summoned the Kandarian Demon, once again throwing him into the world of Deadites and demons.

When Ash returned to the Knowby's cabin to try to bury the book in the cellar (which he believed would put an end to the demons once and for all), the blood of the deceased Evil Ash touched the book, and caused it to start talking. The Necronomicon told Ash that without him, Ash is a nobody, but when the book unleashes its evil, Ash gets to play hero. Ash then placed the book in the refrigerator, wanting to ignore the fact that what the book was telling him was true.

The Living Manifestation of The Book

When the book's creator, Ruby, cut the flesh face off the book using the Kandarian Dagger, the face flew across the main room of the cabin and landed directly on the face of Pablo Simon Bolivar. Although Bolivar did not know it at the time, the book had chosen him to become the book, slowly transferring the spells and incantations from its pages onto his skin.

Before his death, Pablo used his new powers "as the book" to try to send the demon Baal back to Hell, although Baal ended up transferring his spirit into Bolivar's body.

The Kandarian Demon is an ancient demonic spirit that is the primary source for the creation of Deadites and several other types of supernatural occurrences upon the world of the living.

History

Origins

The exact origins of the Kandarian Demon itself is unknown, though it is possible that it was a creation of The Dark Ones during their time as the rulers of Earth to seek out victims to become Deadites, or it was a pre-existing entity that had been "tamed" by the Dark Ones to do their bidding. At an unknown period of time (presumably prior to or shortly after the banishment of the Dark Ones from Earth), the Kandarian Demon was put into a sleep-like state, awaiting for someone to re-awaken it from it's slumber using a spell written in the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis.

1300 AD

The next known sighting of the Kandarian Demon was in England, circa 1300 AD. Very little is known of its activities during this time period prior to the arrival of the time displaced Ash Williams, though it is known that it attacked the people of both Lord Arthur and Henry The Red.

After Ash Williams had departed from Castle Kandar on a quest to retrieve the Necronomicon, the Kandarian Demon chased him through the woods outside the castle walls. Williams was able to outrun the Demon, locking himself within a nearby windmill. It's possible that the Demon later assisted Evil Ash with the creation of his army of the undead.

Resurrection In The 1980s

The Kandarian Demon once again laid dormant for several centuries, until it was accidentally summoned by Professor Raymond Knowby while he was translating several passages from the Necronomicon in his secluded cabin. The Demon attacked his wife, Henrietta, and turned her into a Deadite. After Raymond managed to "kill" the Deadite Henrietta and bury her under the dirt floor of the cabin's fruit cellar, the Kandarian Demon soon claimed his soul.

A week passed, and the Kandarian Demon still roamed the woods surrounding the Knowby's cabin. When Ash Williams and four of his friends were approaching the allegedly abandon cabin for a weekend trip, the Demon demonstrated the ability to have influence over Ash's Oldsmobile, spinning the steering wheel in an attempt to send the car into the path of an oncoming truck. Once the group arrived at the Knowby's cabin, they discovered a tape recording of Raymond Knowby translating the Necronomicon. After the recording of Knowby's translations were played out loud, the Kandarian Demon became more active. Cheryl Williams was the first of the group to have an encounter with the Kandarian Demon, with her hand temporarily influenced by the Demon while she was drawing a sketch of a clock. Later that evening, Cheryl was attacked and violated by possessed trees after she believed she heard voices coming from outside the cabin. The Kandarian Demon chased her after she managed to free herself from the grasp of the trees, eventually making it inside the safety of the cabin. Cheryl begged her brother Ash to get her away from the cabin, and he reluctantly agreed to drive her to the nearby town for the night. Their journey to town was cut short when they discovered the Kandarian Demon had destroyed the only bridge wide enough for a vehicle, twisting the steel gutters into an hand-like shape.

The Kandarian Demon was inactive for the rest of the first night, later making one final attempt to attack Ash Williams during the early morning of his second day at the cabin. The Demon picked up Ash and sent him flying across the woods, eventually steering him directly into a tree. When Ash emerged from a mud puddle that cushioned his fall after hitting the tree, he had become a Deadite himself, however, both the Kandarian Demon and the Deadite spirit that possessed him would be driven back into hiding by the morning sun. The Demon would periodically attack Ash (and later the new arrivals to the cabin) throughout his second night.

Following the arrival of Annie Knowby and the "missing pages" of the Necronomicon, she and Ash devised a plan to turn the Kandarian Demon into a thing of the flesh and send it back in time using spells written on these lost pages. Annie managed to successfully complete the spell to turn the Kandarian Demon into a thing of the flesh. When the now physical manifestation of the Kandarian Demon busted down the front door of the cabin, it frightened Ash to the point where a grey streak appeared in his hair almost instantly. In this flesh form, the Kandarian Demon used nearby trees to create "hands" to reach into the cabin with. Ash, caught in the Demon's grasp, fought the monster with a modified Chainsaw attached to the stump of his right hand, jamming the blade into the Demon's eye. Annie, with her dying breath, completed the spell that opened the time portal, successfully pulling the Kandarian Demon inside.

The Kandarian Demon In The 21st Century

After more than 30 years of inactivity, the Kandarian Demon was once again accidentally unleashed upon the world of the living, this time by a stoned Ash Williams. The Kandarian Demon would directly be responsible for the possession and deaths of several individuals who would cross paths with Williams or his associates, such as the partner of Officer Amanda Fisher and Kelly Maxwell's mother.

While Ash Williams was occupied dealing with Kandar The Destroyer, the Kandarian Demon was "seen" possessing many of the residents of Elk Grove, Michigan. What happened to the Kandarian Demon following the defeat of The Destroyer is unknown.

Deadites are undead spirits that seek to possess a body and feast on the souls of living creatures.

History

Pre-Banishment

Prior to the rise of mankind, Deadites had free reign over the Earth, making up a large portion of the world's population. How the Deadites were created and where they originate from remain unknown, but one creature simply known as The Faceless Man once claimed that he was the first Deadite. Like their masters The Dark Ones, the Deadites were eventually banished from the Earth and trapped in an alternate dimension.

Post-Banishment

Following their imprisonment to another realm, Deadites would periodically be released upon the Earth through history. When and where they appeared vary from universe to universe, though most seem to occur between 1300 AD to the mid-21st Century.

But you all might still be asking these Certain Questions such as who are The Dark Ones exactly and why should we care?

The Dark Ones are centuries-old creatures who once ruled the Earth and its inhabitants using magic and their armies of Deadites. Cast into another plane of existence, their rule over the world ended and humanity was free to thrive.

History

Origins

According to one account, The Dark Ones were born in another realm outside of the spaces humanity is familiar with. Some have claimed that The Dark Ones are demon nor fully human, while others see them as large inhuman beings that vary in shape. Through means unknown, the Dark Ones broke through the barriers of their realm and found their way into the universe in which humanity inhabits. Eventually settling down on Earth, The Dark Ones enslaved the primitive humans that populated the planet, and used creatures known as Deadites to keep the slaves in-line.

Banishment

The Dark Ones rule over the Earth lasted generations, with many humans never knowing of a time when the god-like creatures didn't walk among them. As The Dark Ones are creatures that inhabit many universes, there are several variations on how they came to be exiled from the Earth. In two realities, a human selected by God (dubbed "The Chosen One") was given powers to combat the Dark Ones, resulting in their banishment to another realm called the Mirror Dimension. In another reality, a Dark One which identified itself as "Ruby" united with a sorceress named Kaya to expel all of the Dark Ones (excluding herself) and Deadites from the face of the Earth. Regardless of the exact circumstances, humanity was now free to grow and develop, eventually becoming the dominate species of the planet.

Legacy

Though they were now trapped in another world, The Dark Ones still had a lasting impact upon the Earth they once ruled. In one reality, a philosopher named Abdul Alzeez discovered ancient texts written by the Dark Ones, text which he would translate and compile in a book titled the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. Another source implied that the Dark Ones were able to influence humans on Earth throughout history (such as Adolf Hitler) with promises of power, leading the humans to search for methods to release the Dark Ones via artifacts (such as the Necronomicon) from their time as rulers of the planet.

Release & Escape

One of the earliest known release attempts of the Dark Ones in the multiverse occurred on Earth-818793, where Herbert West and Wilbur Whateley opened a portal to the dimension where the Dark Ones were trapped, though that reality's version of Ash Williams closed the portal before any of them could escape. The next known release of the Dark Ones also occurred on Earth-818793, when a red demon and the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse successfully brought the old gods back to the world of the living, though Ash Williams once again foiled their plans and altered history mere seconds after their unleashing.

The only known successful attempt at bringing back the Dark Ones was brought about by Ruby and Kaya, the same pair that had banished the creatures centuries earlier in their native universe. While Ruby and Kaya intended to kill the Dark Ones once they were back on Earth, the Dark Ones almost immediately managed to kill the pair and acquire the Necronomicon, which they used to bring about the apocalypse.

Plus The Doctor himself has encountered and dealt with these mentioned above eldritch abominations many times before in his many untold and unknown adventures that weren't really recorded due to being lost to history or due to The Time War and has multiple contingency plans and the multiple countermeasures that he had created and designed accordingly just for them.

Plus the fact that they have encountered these horrors before in their many adventures with The Doctor.

But that was a story for another time.

So yeah you can all see how this is definitely going to be a problem for the world and the universe at large if this gets out into the wrong hands and if it does, there will be panic and chaos all over the place as these abominations and many unknown others might take full advantage of this to their amusement, sadistic pleasure, and delight.

He began to pull himself back together from that eldritch nightmare of a thought as he then begins to ask a question once again to confirmed some of his suspicions. "So… where are all of these 103,000 books if I may ask?"

"I have every single one of the 103,000 grimoires with me in my head." Index said while pointing towards her head.

"Oh dear Kami." thought Kamijou who just stared at this girl with amazement as he was wondering to himself as to how the heck was she even still alive at this point with all of those dangerous books that was crammed into her head.

"How exactly does that work?! How the- Oh! never mind! I'll deal with it later, for now, I have some other questions that I might need to ask this sister."

"So... do you any other abilities besides being an index to grimoires?"

"Here are these clothes, they're the highest quality of defensive barrier called the Walking Church." Index said as she presents her clothes to the spiky-haired boy.

"Walking Church? What's that?"

"As explained by Idol Theory, the Walking Church symbolically takes the essential elements that constitute a church - and since the church provides protection to the needy, the Walking Church will replicate that protection for its wearer. For example, The Walking Church uses specific cloth-weaving, line stitching, and embroidery to successfully recreate all essential elements that make up a church. Because of this, anything that would not destroy a real church would be rendered ineffective against the wearer."

"Huh, so it's basically a defense barrier of a sort." Kamijou thought.

"What's Idol Theory?"

"Idol Theory or Idolatry Theory (偶像の理論ぐうぞうのりろん Gūzōsūhai no Riron? ) also called Idol Worship, is the term used to refer to the phenomenon wherein an imitation of a whole or parts of a subject, the source, gains properties and attributes that are inherent to that source. It is used as an explanation on how magicians draw their power, and how they wield it. It is also known as Imitative Magic (類感魔術 Rui-kan Majutsu? ) and is the opposite of Infection Magic."

"Huh, Interesting." Kamijou thought as he began to ponder on the implications and explications of this magic system of his universe while making a note to himself on not touching The Walking Church with The Imagine Breaker and telling The Doctor, Rika, and the guys (if he and them have free time on their hands) about this.

Kamijou's mind then had started to come back to reality for he remembered about his "supplementary lessons".

"Oh that's right! I have supplementary lessons today!" Kamijou glanced at the clock on his IDST (Inter-Dimensional Space-Time) Wristwatch. "Um… I have to get to school, so what are you going to do? If you're going to stay here, I can give you a key."

The option of simply kicking her out is not an option in his century old mind due to some unknown magical society that is chasing after her due to these dangerous books.

"…That's okay. I'll leave."

However, Index stood straight up and made that dramatic announcement. She then slipped past Kamijou's side like a ghost.

"Wait! What! Why?!"

"If I stay here, they will likely come after me. You don't want your room blown up, do you?"

"That doesn't matter! Let me help you! We can figure this out!"

Index stared blankly at him.

From just that look, she truly, truly seemed like nothing more than a normal girl.

"…Then will you follow me to the depths of hell?"

She smiled.

It was such a heartbreaking smile that Kamijou was left speechless for an instant and then began to think on those words with the implications and explications that was spoken from her.

Index had used kind words to implicitly say, "Do not come with me for your own sake." as if she was trying to warn him about something.

Or someone.

"Don't worry. I am not alone. If I can escape to the church, they will shelter me."

Kamijou was still hesitant as he doesn't want her to leave while knowing that there was a hidden society that was after her but he decided to continue this conversation while planning possible ways on how she could stay or if she can't stay due to reasons, he could at the very least make sure that she would be safe.

"…Hmm. So where is this church?"

"In London."

"Well that's just ironic and convenient, that's The Doctor's favorite place on any Earth and where The Doctor is, there's bound to be at least trouble." Kamijou thought.

"That's a very long way! How far exactly are you planning to run!?"

"Hm? Oh, don't worry. I think there are a few branches in Japan," replied Index as her nun's habit that looked the result of a bullied wife fluttered.

"A church, hm? There might be one in the city."

The term "church" brought many things to his mind, but the examples in Japan or at least in his Universe's Japan were pretty shabby. First of all, the culture had little to do with Christianity. Also, a country with so many earthquakes had few historical buildings. The churches Kamijou had seen out of train windows had all been small prefab buildings with a cross on the top.

"Oh, but it can't just be any church. It has to be the British style I belong to."

"Why?" Kamijou asked as he was curious as to the reason why it has to be a specific type of church.

"Um, there are lots of different kinds of Christianity," said Index with a bitter smile.

"First, there is the distinction between the old style Catholics and the new style Protestants. Also, while I belong to the Catholics, there are various types of them as well. For example there is the Roman Catholic Church centered on the Vatican, the Russian Orthodox Church with its headquarters in Russia, and the Anglican Church with its core at St. George's Cathedral."

"…What happens if you accidentally go to the wrong church?"

"They would turn me away," said Index with the same bitter smile. "The Russian Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church primarily exist within their respective countries, so Anglican churches are rare in Japan."

"…"

Things were not looking so good.

Was it possible Index had tried going to church after church before she collapsed from hunger ? What had she been feeling as she fled and fled while being turned away at each church she went to ?

"Don't worry. I just have to keep at it until I find a British-style church."

"…"

For just an instant, Kamijou thought about the power in his right hand.

"Hey! …If you're ever in any trouble, you can always stop by here again."

That was all he could say for now.

He had the power to kill even God (depending which version throughout the known and unknown multiverse) and yet that was all he could say for now.

"Sure. I'll stop by if I'm hungry."

Her sunflower-like smile was so perfect that Kamijou could not say anything in response out of respect for the girl.

"By the way..."

"Hmm..."

Index tilts her head in cute fashion.

"My name is Kamijou Touma, just thought you should know."

"Ah (Yes)," Index nodded with a bright smile, "I will remember that."

And then a cleaning robot passed by, having to go out of its way to avoid Index.

"Hyah!?"

That perfect smile was blown away in an instant. Index jumped as if she had a cramp in her leg and then tripped backwards. With a horrible sounding thud, her head struck the wall behind her.

"~ ~ ~ ~! S-some weird thing just showed up like it was nothing!"

Index had tears in her eyes, but she completely forgot to even hold the back of her head as she shouted out.

"Don't point at it and call it weird. It's just a cleaning robot."

Kamijou sighed.

Its size and shape were similar to a drum container. It had small tires on the bottom and a circular rotating mop similar to those on a street cleaner. It had cameras in order to avoid people and other obstacles, so they were quite hated by girls in miniskirts.

" …I see. I had heard Japan was a leading nation in technology, but I didn't know you had made mechanized Agathions."

Kamijou was a bit concerned by how impressed Index seemed to be and how she managed to mistake a cleaning robot of all things with the concept of another (most likely) supernatural being. "This is Academy City. You can find those things all over the city."

"Academy City?"

"Yes. It's a city made by buying up the entire western area of Tokyo where development had slowed. The name comes from the fact that it has dozens of universities and hundreds of elementary, middle, and high schools in it." Kamijou explained. "Eighty percent of the residents are students, so all the apartment buildings you see are dorms."

He omitted the fact that it had a hidden face where powers and bodies were developed alongside the studying.

"That's why the city is a bit odd. The city is overflowing with university experiments like the automated disposal of kitchen waste, the wind turbines that function well enough to be practical, and the cleaning robots like this one. Thanks to all that, our level of culture is about twenty years ahead of anywhere else."

"Hmm." Index carefully examined the cleaning robot. "So are all the buildings here part of Academy City?"

"Yup. I guess it might be best to leave the city if you're looking for an Anglican church. All the churches here are probably teaching institutions for theology or Jungian psychology."

"Hm."

Index nodded, then she started looking around on the floor and a question mark appeared over her head.

"Oh, I know! That electric Agathion!"

While still mistaken, she made a dash after the cleaning robot and disappeared around a corner of the passageway.

Kamijou look at the door to his room and then down the passageway. Index was nowhere to be seen. There had been no farewell, tearful or otherwise.

"From the looks of her, I get the feeling that I'll see her again somehow. Even if the world and the universe ended up getting destroyed."

He had no proof of that, but nevertheless that was the thought that he had at the moment.

Then he started looking at his IDST (Inter-Dimensional Space-Time) Wristwatch again and checked the time.

"I still have a few more hours to go before the supplementary lessons."

Then he started dialing the number of The Doctor and after a few moments of waiting, a line was picked up, with The Doctor's voice coming out of it.

"Touma! What made you call?"

"Doctor, I have a question, what do you know about a girl named Index Librorum Prohibitorum?"

"Ah, so you finally met her then!"

With The Doctor's happy and expected response, Kamijou deduced that he knew that this was going to happen as he begins to deadpanned.

"You knew that this was going to happen, didn't you."

"Yeah, sorry about that; now, listen very carefully Touma, since you have officially met Index, do not let her out of your sight at all cost."

"Yeah, it's too late for that Doctor, she just left a while ago while following a cleaning robot that she mistakes for an Agathion."

"Oh! So it's just your first meeting then, not to worry, you'll see her again, eventually."

"Doctor, what can you tell me exactly about Index?"

The Doctors sighs heavily when he ask him this question.

"Well..., I can't exactly tell you much Touma, one of the reasons of which is because she's a part of your own future history and timeline and well, I've long since been preparing you for this very day ever since you were just a kindergartner and I can't exactly intervene in the events to come concerning her until right at the very end but don't worry, everything will work out in the end, I'll make sure of it."

Somehow that both comforts him and keeps him somewhat at the dark at the same time, but as always, he trusts The Doctor to do what needs to be done. He never doubted him then and was sure as hell was he going to doubt him now.

"But I can definitely tell you this Touma, the girl known as Index Librorum Prohibitorum will become involved in so many events of your universe that could potentially decide everyone's fate and she definitely needs someone to look after her due to so many people out there who are interested in those dangerous magic books of hers that she keeps on her head in storage accompanied with the price of her memories being erased for a year and the fact that you are supposed to be her established guardian at this period of time is a bonus in and of itself along with the fact that the poor girl needs a familiar face every now and then due to all the constant hardships that she has had to endure when she was a child and I have been watching her from the shadows for a while now so I can definitely say that the girl needs a break every now and then, don't you agree.

When The Doctor said all these things to him with a serious and paternal tone, He knew that now was the time that he had to shut up and listen while promising to take care of Index who's situation reminds him of his own misfortunate life.

"Alright, thanks Doctor, I promise I'll take care of her, listen I gotta go, supplementary lessons are coming up soon so I may need to hang this call up."

"Alright, take care Touma, and remember, if you see Index again, don't let her out of your sight for one minute."

"Yeah, you got it."

And so Kamijou ended the call with The Doctor while he went to his " supplementary lessons " with Komoe-sensei as he leaves his dorm with his hover board that he got from Certain Old Friends (Marty Mcfly and Dr. Emmet Brown) from A Certain Town (Hill Valley) in California as he uses it to arrive faster towards A Certain High School.

"Okay then let's begin the extra lessons. I put in some effort and made a quiz for all of you so I have the handouts for you all."

Even after spending an entire term in that class, Kamijou was still not surprised by the fact that she was small just because he's seen smaller. The homeroom teacher of Year 1 Class 7, Tsukuyomi Komoe, was a ridiculous teacher who was so short that only her head could be seen when she stood behind her desk. That little girl teacher was one of the school's seven mysteries, she was 135 cm tall, there was a legend saying she was refused riding a roller coaster due to safety concerns, and she looked to all the world like a twelve year old who should be carrying a soprano recorder and wearing a yellow hard hat and a red randoseru.

Once again, appearances can often be deceiving.

One of the many constants of The Known and Unknown Multiverse.

"I won't stop you from talking amongst yourselves, but you need to listen to what I say. I put a lot of effort into making a quiz, so if you do poorly on it, you will be punished with the See Through Punishment Game."

Naturally, the class sighed heavily at that as Kamijou begins to think about that Certain Game with his right eyebrow raised. 'Isn't that the one where you play poker with a blindfold on!? That's part of the Curriculum for Clairvoyance! I've heard that you can't leave until you win 10 times in a row despite not being able to see through your cards, so the people who can't and wouldn't know how to beat the game would be forced to be stuck in this classroom until morning? Yeah, I'll take the punishment games of The Club and Satoko-chan's Traps over this in any other day of the week.'

While the spiky-haired boy was having these thoughts, two of his friends from the same class were talking to each other with regards to the game.

One of them has blonde hair and is always seen with his sunglasses on while the other has blue hair and is the class representative.

"The "see through one" one? Isn't that the one where you play poker blindfolded?" Tsuchimikado said.

"She won't let you go home until you win ten games in a row at that..." Aogami said as he turns his back to Tsuchimikado.

"Sheesh... (Yare Yare) We were forced to stay through the night last time." Tsuchimikado said.

"Oh, but Kamijou-chan, you don't have enough development credits, so you'll be doing the See Through Punishment Game regardless."

"Ugh." Kamijou was facepalming with his right hand when faced with the salesman smile of a salaryman teacher.

"…Mhh. I see. Komoe-chan finds you so cute she just can't help herself, Kami-yan," said the blue-haired pierced-eared 7 (male) class representative who was sitting next to Kamijou.

"Aogami... …Do you not sense malice coming from that teacher's back as she enjoyably stretches up to reach the blackboard?" Kamijou deadpanned as he turns his head and eyes slightly to the northeast.

"What? What's wrong with having such a cute teacher scold you for failing a quiz? Getting physically abused by a little kid like that gets you a ton of experience points, Kami-yan."

"I knew you were a lolicon, but you're a masochist, too!? You really are hopeless!"

"Ah hah! It's not that I like lolis! It's that I also like lolis!"

Kamijou thought. "You're omnivorous!"

"You two over there! If you say a single word more, you'll be stuck with Columbus' Egg."

Just as one would expect, Columbus' Egg involved standing a raw egg upside down on a desk without anything supporting it. Those specializing in Psychokinesis could keep the egg from falling when they worked to the point of the blood vessels in their brain almost bursting. (It was actually an extremely difficult challenge because the egg would break if the Psychokinesis was too powerful.) As with the previous example, you would be stuck there until morning if you could not do it.

Kamijou and Aogami Pierce stared at Tsukuyomi Komoe while forgetting to breathe.

"Okay?"

Her smile was quite frightening.

While Komoe-sensei loved being called "cute", she got incredibly angry when she was called "small" whether if it was intentionally or unintentionally which kinda reminds him of A Certain Alchemist (Edward Elric) who does not like to be called short and if you call him that, there will be consequences as everyone who knows him can testify, and the other one who was A Certain Companion (Ace) to The Doctor when he was in his seventh incarnation who once told him and the guys (Shinichi/Conan, Kyon, Sota, Lelouch) about A Certain Story that was set around the time of The Dalek Civil War between The Renegade Daleks and The Imperial Daleks and that it involves A Certain Dalek calling her small which resulted in The Dalek's hilarious beat down by being hit with a baseball bat which was powered by the Hand of Omega.

Flashback Video: Beginning

Ace vs. Dalek

Flashback Video: End

Note to self: Never call random people small, otherwise you will feel the burn of your mistake.

However, she did not seem to mind being looked down on by the students. Part of that was just something that could not be helped within Academy City. The city was a veritable Neverland where over 80% of the population was students. The opposition to salaryman teachers was harsh even compared to a normal school, and more importantly, the " strength " of a student was based on both their academic ability and their power.

The teachers were the ones that developed the students, but the teachers themselves had no powers. Some, like the PE teachers and guidance counselors, seemed like they were from some foreign unit because they had to train Level 3 monsters with their own fists, but it would be cruel to expect that of a chemistry teacher like Komoe.

Then the blue-haired class representative begins to talk again.

"…Hey, Kami-yan."

"What?"

"Would it turn you on to get lectured by Komoe-sensei?"

"I'm not you! Just shut up already, idiot! If we have to play with a raw egg even though we don't have Psychokinesis, we'll be spending our entire summer vacation here ! If you get it, shut that fake Kansai dialect mouth of yours!"

"Fake… D-d-d-d-d-don't call it fake! I'm really am from Osaka!"

"Heh, Tell that to Hattori-san (Heiji Hattori) " thought Kamijou as he remembers A Certain High School Detective from Osaka.

"Shut up. I know you're from a rice region. I'm in a bad mood, so don't make me play the straight man right now."

"I-I-I'm not from a rice region! Ah. A-ahhh! I sure do love takoyaki."

"Stop trying to force yourself into the Kansai role! Are you going to bring takoyaki for lunch just for this role?"

"What are you talking about? Not even someone from Osaka eats only takoyaki, right?"

"…"

"Right? I think that's right…no, wait. But…but yeah….but huh? Which is it?"

"You're falling out of character, Mr. Fake Kansai," said Kamijou before sighing and looking out the window.

He felt like he should be by Index's side rather than dealing with this pointless supplementary lesson that he already knows by now since this was a part of The History Lessons that The Doctor taught him.

The Walking Church nun's habit she wore may indeed be able to protect her for a while, but Kamijou doubted that it could do that forever.

Even so…

"I guess the fish that escapes into the water always seems huge."

Kamijou sighed again.

"…"

"Come to think of it, what was with those 103,000 grimoires that she mentioned?"

Index had said that a magic cabal/society was after her.

Was a cabal/society something like a group, corporation, or an organization?

Nevertheless, they seemed to be pursuing her because they wanted those 103,000 grimoires. And apparently, Index had been fleeing with those 103,000 grimoires in her possession.

The fact that she has books such as The Necronomicon which is a cause for an emergency alarm in and of itself is not helping.

When Kamijou had asked where all those books were, she had simply said. "Right here." while pointing towards her head. Remembering his adventures, Kamijou Touma could definitely see that it was definitely possible due to seeing it being replicated through science and technology and while he was having these thoughts about A Certain Sister and how can he manage to help her, his friend Aogami started speaking something stupid that he would ended up regretting.

"Sensei? Kamijou-kun is staring out the window at the fluttering skirts of the girl's tennis team"

Aogami Pierce's forced Kansai dialect sent Kamijou's focus in a U-turn back into the classroom.

"…"

Kamijou was now seriously glaring sharply at Aogami, who noticed immediately and went pale, scared, and hid behind his chair due to thinking how and why Touma was glaring at him that way with an angry and scary look for such a simple joke, for that accusation due to the fact that ever since he was dating Rika all those years ago, he resolved to always look only at her and remain faithful to her with no set backs, no take backs, and no excuses of any kind whatsoever.

Because ever since the two were living together during The Endless June, Rika was the only one besides Hanyuu who really understood his pain and powerlessness of saving their own friends, their own families, and the entire village from their unfair, horrible, and terrible fate while all he could really do was just watch it all happen and die while heading towards another loop that was different each and every single time, with Rika and Hanyuu being with him along for the ride, as the loops continue on and on into a century.

And in all that time, whenever there was that constant temptation to just give up and abandon everything and leave his friends and Hinamizawa to its fate, he ended up thinking about The Doctor and how he still manages to carry on with his life despite being several millennia years old, has fought in the front lines in the most brutal and terrible war The Multiverse has, had, and ever will know in the past, present, and future, although he did not know that back then as The Doctor had not told him yet, had seen so much loss, suffering, and death to the point where anyone could have just given up already and just either retired and disappeared forever or allowed themselves to just die and no one would really blame them for it, but he didn't, even if it was only temporary, for he always manages to bounce off with his own two feet and somehow still carries on in spite of it. He always kept on moving forward and kept running with The Hope and The Fear that was sketched into his hearts as he brought Hope to All while bringing Fear to his Enemies which is one of the main reasons why his Name is so famous throughout The Multiverse.

Because of the plain and simple fact that he was just being kind.

He also remembered Rika and how she was feeling about all of this madness due to her being deemed The Queen Carrier of A Certain Virus (Hinamizawa Syndrome) and her powerlessness of watching those she cared for died due to A Certain Virus ( Hinamizawa Syndrome ), A Certain Nurse (Mio Takano), and A Certain Organization (TOKYO) with ties and connections to The Committee of 300 who are one of the most dangerous enemies of The SCP Foundation. With time, they managed to find strength, encouragement, and solace with each other while trying to find ways on how to save everyone and survive the endless hell.

It's because of all of these events that made Kamijou Touma himself into the man that he is today and had matured through the pains and the hardships and bled both literally and figuratively, through them all with a sheer force of an indomitable will, remembering all the moral and scientific lessons that The Doctor taught him, and with the added bonus of his newfound love and devotion for Rika along with the love and friendship that he had treasured for all the members of A Certain Afterschool Gaming Club, he tried every single possible way in order to get to that desired ending where everyone can be happy as it was his dream since he was a child and after many, many, many tries like trying to navigate through the routes of the game while avoiding all the bad ends and the good ends and reaching towards the true route where he finally manages to break the cycle with the help of his friends from A Certain Afterschool Gaming Club and after all of that, they were finally free to pursue their hopes and dreams, with Kamijou and Rika promising to always love one another and support each other which was one of Kamijou's happiest and most treasured memories while making The Witches of The Senate both surprised and speechless for he managed to defy both Miracle and Certainty.

While all of this was happening, everyone (Komoe-sensei, Tsuchimakado, and the whole class) felt completely in surprise, concern, fear, and silence due to how serious Kamijou Touma was acting now with his hardened face and eyes that seem to not match the age of a teenager of 15 and in all their years of knowing him, not once did he ever glare at anyone like that, not even to his own friends.

And for the rest of the day no one dared spoke a word while Komoe-sensei tries to barely continue her lesson while also thinking about what set off her Kamijou-chan to trigger that level of seriousness from him.

Period: Afternoon

While it was called a supplementary lesson, even though everyone was silent but the teacher due to Kamijou glaring at Aogami for his stupid and unnecessary remark, they had been stuck there until the time when all students were supposed to have left school.

"…Such misfortune." muttered Kamijou as he gazed at the three propellers of a wind turbine glittering in the sunset. Any kind of nightlife was forbidden, so the last bus and train in Academy City were set to go out when the students were all supposed to have left school.

Kamijou was just trudging along with his hoverboard through the scorching shopping district that seemed to go on forever. A security robot passed by him as he did. It was also a drum on wheels and it functioned as something like a walking security camera. They had originally been improved versions of robot dogs, but children would gather around them and block their path. For that simple reason, all the work robots had been made into drum container shapes.

Kamijou then arrives at the 177th Judgement Branch Office. He found all the girls present and gave them all a half-hearted greeting, not even using the nicknames that he gave them. The girls could clearly tell that he had a hard day, especially considering he came in late.

"Alright, Kamijou-san, time for some therapy." Saten said, guiding Touma towards the couch. " Now tell us what happened today this time. "

Touma then recounted all of the unlucky events that he had faced this day. Which of course, also includes the part where he glared at Aogami for what he said and that resulted in everyone becoming silent and as a result, the class continued with no interruptions for the rest of the day. Needless to say, the girls were pretty stunned at what they just heard.

They all knew that Touma had a girlfriend since he told them when they first met, but to think that he would react this strongly was alarming due to the fact that his friend had blatantly suggested that he was looking at other girls as a form of a joke, but it seems that Touma took that too personally and so the girls were at a lost as to how to handle this delicate situation.

"Well… that's certainly quite the day you've had." Uiharu slowly commented.

"Tell me about it. " Touma said in a serious no nonsense matter.

"In any case, speaking about your right hand, the rumor about you has been getting a lot of resurgence in popularity recently," Saten said, trying to hastily divert the sensitive and serious topic.

"Is that so?" Touma inquired.

"Yeah. Ever since you shared the existence of your power during The Level Upper workshop, your rumor has been skyrocketing in popularity," Uiharu confirmed, pulling up the discussion board, "They're even trying to come up with names to call your power."

"What have they come up with so far?" Mikoto asked, looking over Uiharu's shoulder at the screen.

"So far, they've come up with 'Anti-Skill', 'Negation', 'Effect Veiler', and 'Vanity Shatterer'," Uiharu listed off the many names that Touma was being called by.

"That's... a lot of names." Kamijou thought slowly, "Why do I have a terrible feeling that I might end up getting called by other names in the not too distant future just like The Doctor."

Kamijou was a little worried about this since he remembered the fact that his second father/guardian/mentor, The Time Lord known as The Doctor, has earned many names and titles as a result of his adventures and misadventures throughout The Multiverse since his first incarnation.

Title such as but not limited too:

To His Family, Friends, Acquaintances, and Allies:

1.) The Man Who Makes People Better.

2.) The Lonely God.

To His Enemies whether Main, Major, or Minor:

1.) The Oncoming Storm or Karshtakavaar.

He was called by this title by The Draconians, by The Doctor Himself as Kamijou recalled that time when he and his best friends/fellow companions were with him as The Doctor made A Certain Unforgettable Conversation with the almost dead tortured Dalek on The Wayfarer, and in the ancient legends of The Dalek Homeworld (Skaro).

2.) The Destroyer of Worlds or Ka Faraq Gatri.

The Daleks called him that since his second incarnaton and earned it in his seventh incarnation when he destroyed Skaro before being brought back again by The Dalek Prime Emperor through a Xanatos Gambit Plot that resulted by swapping The Planet Skaro at the last second with The Planet Antalin.

Kamijou was very worried that this might possibly come back to bite him in the a** seeing as The Doctor was usually being challenged by the various and diverse gods, monsters, and demons out there in The Multiverse as one of the results of his Myths and Legends, and considering his luck and misfortune in life, he might just have to encounter those very same gods, monsters, and demons eventually which does not make him feel better at all and just made things a whole lot worst.

"They seem pretty hit or miss if you ask me," Kuroko commented.

"I'm not going to wake up tomorrow to find my dorm surrounded by people wanting to fight me like Biribiri, am I?" Touma asked as he was extremely concerned that there may be some people out there who might not be as kind as Misaka was when she asked him to fight him.

"I don't think so," Saten said comfortingly, "The discussion board is full of skeptics, trolls, and misinformation. I don't think a lot of people honestly believe the rumor. If they do, they have no clue who you are."

"Well, that's good to know," Touma replied in half relief but he was still taking note of this particular issue, as he was walking over to his desk, "Now if you'd all excuse me, I have some work that I need to catch up on."

"Are you sure you're in any condition to do any Judgment work?" Uiharu asked in concern.

"I'll be fine," Touma insisted.

However, he soon tried on a stray piece of paper and fell to the ground.

"Maybe you should take the day off. Uiharu and I will cover for you," Kuroko suggested as she helped Touma up, "You've had a hard enough day as it is."

"Seriously, I'd hate it if the guy that beat me ended up collapsing from too much stress," Mikoto added.

"Shirai and I can take care of it," Uiharu insisted.

"Get some rest, Kamijou-san," Saten encouraged.

"Well… if you all insist," Touma said slowly and begrudgingly as he left the office.

Period: Night

After using his hoverboard to drive off to a gyudon restaurant to eat, he approached his dorm building with the sun having already set.

The place seemed deserted.

It was the first day of summer vacation, so everyone was probably out having fun. The building looked like a stereotypical one-room apartment building. Pathways along one wall of the rectangular building had doors lined up on them. The metal railing had no plastic sheets to prevent peering up girls' skirts because it was a guy's dorm.

The front doors and balconies on the opposite side were built on the sides of the building going back as seen from the road. In other words, they were in the gaps between buildings.

The entrance to the building was self-locking, but the distance between buildings was only two meters. One could easily sneak into it by jumping from roof to roof as Index had done that morning.

Kamijou went through the self-locking entrance, passed by the storage room known as the dorm manager's room and got on the elevator. It was just for fun that the elevator was more cramped and dirty than the elevator for bringing items into a factory, but the "R" button, indicating the roof, was sealed with a small metal plate in order to prevent Romeo and Juliets from heading up to the roof night after night.

With a microwave oven-like ding, the elevator stopped on the seventh floor.

Kamijou pushed aside the door that clanked as it opened and exited to the passageway. He was on the seventh floor, but there was no wind and it seemed even hotter and stuffier than before due to the neighboring building being so close.

"Hm?"

Kamijou finally realized something. Down the straight passageway and right in front of his door, three cleaning robots were gathered. Seeing three of them was rare. For one thing, he was pretty sure only five were ever deployed to that dorm.

From the way they were trembling and moving back and forth, they seemed to be cleaning up quite a horrible mess.

For some reason, Kamijou had an intense feeling of impending misfortune.

Those drum robots had enough power to cleanly rip up gum that was stuck to the floor, so what was giving three of them such trouble? Kamijou shuddered at the thought that his neighbor Tsuchimikado Motoharu might have gotten drunk while acting like a delinquent in order to lose his virginity and had ended up vomiting in tremendous quantity while using Kamijou's door in place of a telephone pole.

"What happened…?"

People had an unfortunate tendency to want to see horrible things.

After taking a few more subconscious steps forward, he finally saw it.

The mysterious girl named Index had collapsed.

He could not see all of her due to the robots being in the way, but someone wearing a white nun's habit covered in glittering safety pins was clearly collapsed face down there.

Even though the three drums were doing nothing but ramming her, Index was not moving at all. It made her seem all the more pitiful, just like if she was being pecked at by city crows. For one, the cleaning robots were made to avoid people and other obstacles, so why was she being treated as not human even by those machines?

"Index!?"

Kamijou Touma would not have been surprised to see his face in the mirror at that moment.

He had a worried expression that was on his face.

He had been worried about the sister's safety ever since this morning and with this misfortunate scen that was being shown before him, his fears were ultimately justified as he begins to call out to her.

"INDEX!"

He called out to her and ran over.

Index had not yet noticed him.

Kamijou Touma was not surprised as he runs towards her direction as he finally gets a clear view of The White Sister.

She was lying in a pool of blood.

"No…"

The first thing he felt was shock as his eyes begin to widened.

He had been unable to see it before because the group of cleaning robots had been in the way. As she lay face down, he could see a single horizontal strike near the bottom of her back. The wound was from a blade, but it was so straight it looked like someone had used a ruler and a box cutter. The end of her waist-length silver hair had been cleanly cut off and that silver hair was dyed red by the red substance flowing from the wound.

For an instant, Kamijou manages to comprehend that it was human blood.

The three cleaning robots continued to move back and forth while making a clanking noise. They were cleaning the stain on the floor. They were cleaning the red substance spreading across the floor. They were cleaning the red substance flowing from Index's body. Like digging at a wound with a dirty rag, they were sucking out everything inside Index's body.

"Stop! Stop it! Damn it!"

Kamijou's eyes finally came into focus with reality. He frantically grabbed at the cleaning robots gathered around the seriously injured Index. The robots were made unnecessarily heavy to prevent theft and they had a good bit of horsepower, so he could not tear them away from her.

Of course, the cleaning robots were only cleaning the continually spreading stain on the floor, so they never actually touched Index's wound. Even so, Kamijou saw them as bugs swarming over a festering wound.

And yet he was having trouble moving aside even one of those heavy and powerful robots, much less three. While his focus was on one of them, the other two would head for the stain.

He was supposed to have the power to kill even gods.

And yet he was unable to move those toys out of the way.

Index said nothing.

Her pale purple lips were so still he was not even sure if she was breathing.

"Damn it!" Kamijou shouted out in worry as he begins to scan her with his Sonic Screwdriver for her injuries. "What happened? What the hell happened!? Kami dammit! Who the hell did this to you!?"

"Hm? That would be us magicians."

Insert Song: Start

Advent Children - J-E-N-O-V-A (FFVII AC Version) [HQ]

And that was exactly why the voice coming from behind him was not Index's.

Kamijou spun his entire body around as if to confront the person that spoke behind him. A man was standing there who had come from…no, not the elevator. It seemed he had come from the emergency staircase next to the elevator.

The white man was over two meters tall, but his face looked younger than Kamijou's.

His age was…probably fourteen or fifteen just like Index. His great height was characteristic of foreigners. His clothes were…a pure black version of the habits worn by priests in the church. However, it was unlikely you would find anyone who would call that man a priest even if you searched all across the world.

It may have been because he was standing upwind, but Kamijou would smell the horribly sweet perfume on him even though he was over fifteen meters away. His shoulder-length blond hair had been dyed red like the sunset, silver rings glittered on all ten of his fingers like brass knuckle, he had poisonous earrings on his ears, a cell phone strap could be seen sticking out of his pocket, a lit cigarette moved at the edge of his mouth, and as if to finish it all off, he had a barcode like tattoo underneath his right eye.

You could not quite call him a priest and you could not quite call him a delinquent.

The air around where the man stood in the passageway was clearly odd.

It was like the area was being ruled by completely different rules from the ones that Kamijou had used up until that point. That strange feeling spread out throughout the area like icy tentacles.

What Kamijou felt first was neither fear nor anger.

It was alertness and unease. It was a desperate loneliness like his wallet had been stolen in a foreign country or a foreign universe where if it weren't for his History Lessons and The TARDIS Translator, he would not be able to comprehend the language. The icy tentacle-like feeling spread through his body and froze his heart, but then Kamijou realized something.

This was a magician.

He has now officially made his first step into the other side of his universe where strange things like magicians exist.

He could tell at first glance based on his appearance.

He could tell this was definitely a resident of somewhere beyond the world he lived in.

"Hm? Hm, hm, hm. She got her pretty good." The magician looked around and the cigarette in the corner of his mouth waggled as he spoke. "I heard Kanzaki sliced her, but this is… I thought there wasn't anything to worry about because there was no blood trail…"

The magician looked at the cleaning robots gathered behind Kamijou Touma.

Most likely, Index had been "sliced" elsewhere and had barely escaped here with her life before collapsing. She must have left fresh blood as she went, but the cleaning robots had cleaned it all away.

"But why did she?" Touma muttered to himself as he was wondering why she was here of all places as this misfortunate incident happens.

"Hm? You mean why she came back here? Who knows. Maybe she forgot something. Come to think of it, she had her hood when I shot her yesterday. So why did she become this way?"

The magician standing in front of Kamijou had said "came back".

In other words, he had been following Index's actions all day.

Index had said something about the magicians searching for the magic power of her grimoires.

That meant that the magicians had been following Index by detecting the supernatural power that was in her Walking Church as if it were a radar or a detection system. They would have known that in the event when the Walking Church was to be destroyed, the "signal" would be cut out.

But then Index had to have known.

She had known, but she still seemed to have relied on the defensive powers of The Walking Church.

"I knew that relying on The Walking Church was a stupid idea. I never should've let her go. I should have found a way to convince her to stay." Kamijou thought to himself as he begins to ponder on what Index was doing here of all places.

"—Then will you follow me to the depths of hell?"

Suddenly, it all clicked.

Kamijou remembered something. That one phrase that ran shivers down his spine as he begins to recall what The Doctor had said to him since this morning.

" Alright, take care Touma, and remember, if you see Index again, don't let her out of your sight for one minute. "

The Doctor was trying to warn him in a subtle way that this was going to happen as he now begins to think about the many possible scenarios for how Index ended up here lying in a pool of her own blood as he recalled that he had never touched the hood of The Walking Church and made absolutely sure to not let The Imagine Breaker get near it. In other words, The Walking Church still had magic power that should have been able to protect her. Which means that someone or something must have sabotage her Walking Church when she was fleeing from the magicians. Someone or something was hunting her down besides them. Someone or something who seems to not be affiliated with these magicians who were chasing her.

Index herself must have thought that the magicians who were chasing her might detect her damaged Walking Church and so she decided to head here and lure them right back to him.

As if she trusted him.

And so Index had braved the danger to "come back".

"Oh, Index, I am so sorry."

There had been no need for this. Index did not have any obligation, duty, or right to protect or trust Kamijou.

Even so, she had not been able to help but head back.

Kamijou Touma was a complete stranger she had met less than half an hour before.

And yet she had not been able to help but risk her life and head back to because she trusted him that he would protect her from the magicians.

It would appear that his misfortune just came back to him in full force.

Kamijou knew that one of the causes of his misfortune was due to his right hand.

As if his right hand can manipulate the concept of probability.

As if his right hand was subconsciously negating even the faint supernatural powers that were things such as The Divine Protection of The Gods and The Red String of Fate.

His Years of Travelling in The TARDIS can attest to that experience.

The Red String of Fate was another complicated matter entirely as this thread between him and A Certain Girlfriend (Rika Furude) were somehow linked together ever since they first met all those years ago in that simple village of Hinamizawa.

If Kamijou were to take a guess, he figured that it was due to the intervention of A Certain Witch (Lady Frederica Bernkastel) that brought him to Hinamizawa in the first place as a Test to prove himself and his character.

To her and her fellow witches surprise, he passed their Test with flying colors.

Index's unmoving back got on his nerves as he felt completely useless as he stared towards the magician with a battle hardened, analytical, and calculating expression which was noted by the magician in question.

"Hm? Hm, hm, hm? C'mon, I can't have you looking at me like that." The cigarette in the corner of the magician's mouth waggled as he spoke. "It wasn't me that sliced her and I doubt Kanzaki meant to turn this into something bloody. The Walking Church is supposed to be an absolute defense, after all. Really, she shouldn't have been injured at all by that. …Honestly, what twist of fate led that being destroyed? Unless St. George's Dragon has come again, I don't see how a pope-class barrier could have been destroyed."

That last bit had been spoken to himself and his smile disappeared as he said it.

However, that was also only for an instant. The cigarette in the corner of his mouth twitched back up as if he had suddenly remembered to smile.

"Why?" Kamijou said in a serious tone despite not expecting a clear answer from the magician as he pointed his right index finger to the girl lying on the floor to prove his point.

"You ganged up on this little girl, chased her all over the place, and then injured her this badly. Can you honestly really say that you're just when this misfortunate reality is staring at you right in the face!?"

"Like I said, it was Kanzaki that did this, not me." The magician paused for a second. Kamijou's words had not hit home with him in the slightest. "And whether she's injured or not, we have to retrieve her."

"Retrieve her?"

Kamijou was curious as to what the magician meant as that term could mean anything.

"Hm? Oh, I see. You knew the word magician, so I assumed you had been fully filled-in. I guess she was afraid of getting you involved." The magician exhaled cigarette smoke.

"Yeah, we need to retrieve her. Technically, it isn't her we need to retrieve though; it's the 103,000 grimoires she has."

There was that again. Those 103,000 dangerous grimoires that was stored in her person.

"I see, I see. This country isn't very religious, so I guess you don't understand," said the magician in a bored sounding voice despite the fact that he was smiling. "The Index Librorum Prohibitorum is a list created by The Church of all the evil books that will sully your soul just by reading them. Even if you announce that these dangerous books are out there, people can still unknowingly acquire one if they don't know their titles. Thus, she has become something of a crucible of poisonous books with 103,000 such books. Oh, but be careful. Reading just one of the books she has would make a vegetable out of someone from an irreligious nation like this."

'Thanks for the information, but I already knew that.' Kamijou thought to himself as he decides to find a way to continue this conversation, with his plan being that the information that could be provided by this magician could slip unknowingly to his advantage.

"So, where are these books that you speak of exactly?"

"Oh, they're there. They're in her memory," said the magician as if it was obvious. "Do you know what a perfect memory is? It seems to be the ability to memorize anything you see in an instant and never forget even a single sentence or letter. Simply put, it makes you a human scanner." The magician smiled disinterestedly. "It has nothing to do with our occult or your science fiction. It's a natural condition. She has been to the British Museum, the Louvre, the Vatican Library, the Pataliputra ruins, Château de Compiègne, Mont Saint-Michel Abbey, and everywhere else that has grimoires that cannot be taken from where they are sealed. She stole them with her eyes and stores them as a grimoire library."

'Perfect Memory.' Kamijou thought to himself as recalled from his History Lessons regarding that topic.

Exceptional memory is the ability to have accurate and detailed recall in a variety of ways, including hyperthymesia, eidetic memory, synesthesia, and emotional memory. Exceptional memory is also prevalent in those with savant syndrome and mnemonists.

Hyperthymesia is a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormally large number of their life experiences in vivid detail. It is extraordinarily rare, with only about 60 people in the world having been diagnosed with the condition as of 2021.

American neurobiologists Elizabeth Parker, Larry Cahill, and James McGaugh (2006) identified two defining characteristics of hyperthymesia: spending an excessive amount of time thinking about one's past, and displaying an extraordinary ability to recall specific events from one's past. The word "hyperthymesia" derives from Ancient Greek: hyper- ("excessive") and thymesis ("remembering").

Eidetic memory (/aɪˈdɛtɪk/ eye-DET-ik; more commonly called photographic memory) is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision for a brief period after seeing it only once, and without using a mnemonic device. Although the terms eidetic memory and photographic memory are popularly used interchangeably, they are also distinguished, with eidetic memory referring to the ability to see an object for a few minutes after it is no longer present and photographic memory referring to the ability to recall pages of text or numbers, or similar, in great detail. When the concepts are distinguished, eidetic memory is reported to occur in a small number of children and generally not found in adults, while true photographic memory has never been demonstrated to exist.

The word eidetic comes from the Greek word εἶδος (pronounced [êːdos], eidos) "visible form".

Synesthesia or synaesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes. Awareness of synesthetic perceptions varies from person to person. In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme–color synesthesia or color–graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be "farther away" than 1990), or may appear as a three-dimensional map (clockwise or counterclockwise). Synesthetic associations can occur in any combination and any number of senses or cognitive pathways.

Little is known about how synesthesia develops. It has been suggested that synesthesia develops during childhood when children are intensively engaged with abstract concepts for the first time. This hypothesis – referred to as semantic vacuum hypothesis – explains why the most common forms of synesthesia are grapheme–color, spatial sequence and number form. These are usually the first abstract concepts that educational systems require children to learn.

Difficulties have been recognized in adequately defining synesthesia. Many different phenomena have been included in the term synesthesia ("union of the senses"), and in many cases the terminology seems to be inaccurate. A more accurate but less common term may be ideasthesia.

The earliest recorded case of synesthesia is attributed to the Oxford University academic and philosopher John Locke, who, in 1690, made a report about a blind man who said he experienced the color scarlet when he heard the sound of a trumpet. However, there is disagreement as to whether Locke described an actual instance of synesthesia or was using a metaphor. The first medical account came from German physician Georg Tobias Ludwig Sachs in 1812. The term is from the Ancient Greek σύν syn, 'together', and αἴσθησις aisthēsis, 'sensation'.

Emotion can have a powerful effect on humans and animals. Numerous studies have shown that the most vivid autobiographical memories tend to be of emotional events, which are likely to be recalled more often and with more clarity and detail than neutral events.

The activity of emotionally enhanced memory retention can be linked to human evolution; during early development, responsive behavior to environmental events would have progressed as a process of trial and error. Survival depended on behavioral patterns that were repeated or reinforced through life and death situations. Through evolution, this process of learning became genetically embedded in humans and all animal species in what is known as flight or fight instinct.

Artificially inducing this instinct through traumatic physical or emotional stimuli essentially creates the same physiological condition that heightens memory retention by exciting neuro-chemical activity affecting areas of the brain responsible for encoding and recalling memory. This memory-enhancing effect of emotion has been demonstrated in many laboratory studies, using stimuli ranging from words to pictures to narrated slide shows, as well as autobiographical memory studies. However, as described below, emotion does not always enhance memory.

'The question is what kind of perfect memory does she have, and if I were to take a guess, I'd say she has an eidetic memory.' Kamijou thought deeply as the magician continues to speak.

"Well, she has no ability to refine magic power herself, so she's harmless." The cigarette in the corner of the magician's mouth moved up happily. "But since that stopper was prepared, the Church must have some concerns. Well, that has nothing to do with a magician like me. At any rate, those 103,000 grimoires are quite dangerous, so I came to shelter her before anyone who would use them comes to take her away."

"Shelter her?"

Kamijou Touma was utterly curious and astonished at what the man had just said in the face of such a blood-red scene?

"Yeah, that's right. Shelter her. No matter how sensible and good hearted she may be, she cannot stand up to torture and drugs. The mere thought of handing a girl over to the likes of them hurts my heart, y'know?"

"…"

Kamijou's body was trembling in places.

It was not pure anger. Goosebumps covered his arm. The man before him viewed himself alone as right. He lived not seeing his own mistakes. All of that put together sent a chill across Kamijou's entire body like he had just plunged into a bathtub filled to the brim with tens of thousands of slugs.

The term "mad cult" oozed into his brain and there were many that he knew who could fit that description.

The thought of magicians that hunted people down based on these groundless beliefs made him feel like the nerves of his brain were going to burst as he begins to realize the full gravity of this situation.

"Who are you?"

"I would prefer to name myself as Stiyl Magnus, but I guess I'll have to go with Fortis931."

"Fortis931." Kamijou narrowed his eyes in thought as he begins to take note of the Latin word "Fortis" as to its meaning.

Strong.

The magician himself was completely motionless expect for the wagging of the cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

After muttering something under his breath, he spoke to Kamijou as if introducing the pet black cat he was proud of.

"That's my magic name. Not familiar with those? It seems we magicians cannot give our true name when we use magic. It's an old tradition, so I don't really understand why myself."

They were 15 meters apart.

Kamijou Touma filled half of that gap in just three steps.

"Fortis…I guess in Japanese, that would be 'the strong'. Well, the etymology doesn't really matter. What's important is that I have given that name. For us magicians, it is less a magic name for when we use magic and more like…

Kamijou Touma took two more steps down the passageway.

Even so, the magician's smile did not crumble. He seemed to be saying Kamijou was not even an opponent worth getting rid of his smile over.

"…a killing name, I guess."

The magician named Stiyl Magnus grabbed the cigarette from his mouth and flicked it away to the side.

The lit cigarette flew horizontally, over the metal railing, and hit the wall of the neighboring building.

An orange line traced the cigarette's path as an afterimage and sparks flew when it hit the wall.

"Kenaz (Flames)."

The instant Stiyl muttered that, the orange line exploded.

A sword of flames appeared in a straight line as if someone had turned on a fire hose loaded with gasoline.

The paint gradually changed color like a picture being scorched by a lighter.

He was not touching the flames, but it still felt like his eyes were being burned just by looking at it.

"Purisaz Naupiz Gebo (A gift of pain for the giant.)"

Past the right hand that was covering his face, Kamijou could see the magician smiling.

While smiling, Stiyl Magnus swung the blazing flame sword horizontally at Kamijou Touma.

The instant it touched him, it lost shape and exploded in all directions like an erupting volcano.

Heat waves, flashes of light, explosive noise, and black smoke burst in every direction.

"Maybe I overdid it."

Stiyl scratched at his head in front of what looked like the aftermath of a bombing. Just to be sure, he looked around to see if anyone was coming out to see what was going on. It was the first day of summer vacation, so most of the residents of that boy's dorm would be out. However, it would be bad if some friendless shut in was in one of the rooms.

He could not see directly ahead due to a screen of flames and smoke.

However, he did not need to check. That strike had created hellish flames of 3000 degrees Celsius. At temperatures higher than 2000 degrees Celsius, the human body would melt before it burned, so the boy likely looked something like the metal railing that had melted like a sugar sculpture. He was likely splattered across the dorm wall like a used piece of gum.

Stiyl shook his head in annoyance and spoke as he peered into the smoke one last time as if he could see through it.

For an instant, the magician froze in place at that voice coming from those hellish flames.

The wall of flames and smoke swirled and was blown away.

Kamijou Touma no longer stood there.

The metal railing had been melted like a sugar sculpture, the paint on the floor and walls had peeled, and the fluorescent lights had melted and dripped down in the intense heat, but what got to his attention was that the boy and Index were no longer there in the middle of those hellish flames and scorching heat.

"What?"

The magician then looked around frantically at the scorched passageway as he begins to realize that Index was no longer in sight and he had just been tricked.

"That bastard!"

While he was saying this, the dorm fire alarms suddenly activated as the sprinklers became active as it rains down the water that was extinguishing the remaining flames as well as spraying the magician who was becoming more annoyed by the second.

Insert Song: End

"Haah, I knew that this Wristwatch would come in handy one day." Kamijou sighed heavily in relief as he looked towards the unconscious body of Index that he was carrying in his arms.

Kamijou had used the opportunity that was given to him by the magician, now known to him as Stiyl Magnus, to get away by using his IDST (Inter-Dimensional Space-Time) Wristwatch to teleport him and Index away from his dorm as he triggers the fire alarm with the help of his Sonic Screwdriver to alert the authorities and scare off the magicians who were chasing them for a short while.

It was night. The sirens of fire trucks and an ambulance rang from the main road and passed by.

The dorm seemed to have been mostly abandoned, but setting off the fire alarm and starting the sprinklers had changed matters. In no time at all, the empty dorm was filled with fire trucks and onlookers.

Kamijou had used his right hand to destroy the tracking function of the hood before taking Index with him. Normally he would have abandoned it in some arbitrary place in order to fool the pursuers, but he had a feeling that the sister in question would obstinately insist that she would take it with her.

Kamijou Touma clicked his tongue in a back alley. He was holding Index's bloody form in his arms as he could not let her wound touch the dirty ground.

He could not give Index to an ambulance.

Academy City fundamentally disliked outsiders. That was why walls surrounded the city and three satellites were constantly monitoring everything. Even the drivers of the trucks that supplied convenience stores needed an exclusive ID to get in.

For that reason, information on an outsider without an ID like Index would get out if she was hospitalized.

And her enemy was part of an organization.

If she was attacked there, the damage would spread to those around her and she would be defenseless if she was attacked while recovering or in surgery.

"But I can't just leave her like this."

"I'll…be fine. If you…can only stop the bleeding…"

Index's voice was weak as she said this.

"Hey, hey! Can you hear me?" Kamijou said as he lightly shakes Index. "Is there anything that can heal wounds in those 103,000 grimoires of yours?"

Kamijou's idea of magic is due in part to his adventures and misadventures in The TARDIS and his History Lessons and Bedtime Stories so he thought that there was something in her grimoires that could at least help her condition.

Index's breathing was shallow but more due to the blood loss than to pain. Her pale lips trembled.

"There is…but…"

Kamijou's face lit up for an instant until the word "but" belatedly caught in his mind.

"You…can't do it…" Index let out a small breath. "Even if I…taught you the spell…your power would surely…get in the way…ow…even if you perfectly…imitated it."

Kamijou was honestly expecting that answer as he looked down at his right hand.

Imagine Breaker. The power residing there had indeed completely negated Stiyl's flames.

So there was a chance it would negate Index's recovery magic in the same way.

That just means that he needed to call someone.

But who exactly?

He can't call The Doctor considering what he just said to him this morning about not interfering until right at the very end, he can't exactly call his fellow companions as they have their own problems to deal with back in their own universes, he can't call his girlfriend without putting her in danger, and he can't bring in Judgment as this could potentially create problems such as the fact that an outside context problem such as magic is involved and would cause vast and diverse political shitstorms that are far too unpredicatable and may come to bite him and his best friends/fellow companions in the a** once again since it was already bad enough that they were fighting against A Certain Organization (The Committee of 300) that has multiple fronts and branches throughout The Multiverse, with some of them being involved in Academy City's Dark Side.

Then Kamijou began to remember four middle school girls that he became friends with for the past two months or so.

He was just about to call them when he hears two familiar voices from this side of the alleyway.

"Kamijou-san?"

Before her eyes was Kamijou Touma's dorm building, smoke coming from his floor. Not only that, but the faint glow of left over flames could be seen as well. Mikoto couldn't do anything but stare at the spot where his dorm would be. The sight just made her freeze up. Something about the situation just hurt her inside. However, her thoughts were interrupted when a familiar voice called out to her.

"Onee-sama, what are you doing here?" Kuroko asked as she approached, "I thought you were heading back to the dorm."

"I was, but I saw some fire engines heading this way, so I came to check it out," Mikoto explained.

"You worried about Kamijou-san too, huh?" Kuroko deduced.

"Give me a break, Kuroko," Mikoto denied, "As if I would come all this way for that idiot's sake."

"Then why did you come all this way then? This is out of the way from the dorm. You could have just ignored it. I, on the other hand, am here on official Judgement business, as would Kamijou-san be if this were anyone else's dorm," Kuroko countered, before noticing something in the distance, "Say, isn't that Kamijou right there."

"Eh!" Mikoto said as she turn towards the direction were Kuroko was looking at.

Poking his head out of an alley was Touma Kamijou himself as he was carrying A Certain Sister that was bleeding heavily in his arms. Mikoto and Kuroko exchanged a look before nodding in agreement and chasing after their friend and the mysterious girl. Eventually, the two girls found Touma at a public bench with the girl sitting on it, still passed-out. The Esper girls approached slowly before making themselves known.

"Kamijou-san?" Kuroko asked, announcing their presence known.

"Shirai-san, Misaka-san," Touma greeted, "Seems I wasn't careful enough when I snuck out."

"Is she okay?" Mikoto asked in concern, "Who's she?"

"Oh! her! Her name is Index, and she's definitely not okay," Touma admitted, "She's hurt badly and needs medical attention."

"If that's the case, I'll call Uiharu and we can get Judgment's support," Kuroko deduced, pulling out her phone.

"Wait," Touma interrupted, grabbing Kuroko's wrist with his right hand, "We need to keep this under wraps. If we bring this to Judgment, it will only attract more attention from the magicians chasing her. I just used my right hand to negate the magic still in her hood that they were using to track her back to my dorm. I'm not going put another tracker on her in the form of Judgement Officers."

"Magic?" Mikoto asked skeptically. "Seriously?"

"I know it's rather hard to believe but I just fought a man that could create a fire monster by chanting specific unknown words that was coming out of his mouth." Touma explained as he stared at them with his eyes that denotes seriousness, "Magic is real, Misaka-san, and we can't let this news get out to the public, less we cause a wide panic in the city or draw unwanted attention to Index. Please, Shirai-san, don't report this. I'm begging you."

Kuroko looked straight into Touma's black pleading eyes and took his words into consideration. As much as she wanted to contact Judgment, she knew that Touma was right. This was too much, and secrecy was important for this situation. Not to mention, the idea of magic would either turn people away or make them panic. They couldn't let this get out.

"Alright," Kuroko conceded, "I won't tell Judgment, but at least let me tell Uiharu. If we can't get the help of Judgement as an organization, we can at least get help from friends in Judgment."

"Thanks, Shirai-san," Touma said, letting go of her wrist, "I appreciate it. Your right, though. We really are going to need all the help that we can get. You can call Uiharu-san if you want to, just remember to tell her that it must stay a secret."

"Touma…," Index whispered weakly, earning everyone's attention, "Is something wrong? You look so tired and pale. Who are these people?"

"These are my friends, Mikoto Misaka and Kuroko Shirai," Touma replied, kneeling down look her in the eye, "But never mind that right now. Why are you worried about me? We need to do something about your injuries."

"I'll be alright, really. If we can just stop the bleeding…," Index said weakly, before starting to fall over.

"Can any espers in this city used magic?" Touma asked with clarification.

"No… Some Espers are born with their psychic abilities. Some developed them over time. Magic isn't a power that one can be born with, but something that can be learned. It was created by the people who saw the Espers and desired a power of their own. Magic and Psychic abilities are mutually exclusive."

"So, no Esper in the whole city can't use magic?" Kuroko deduced.

"Correct," Index confirmed.

"What about people who don't have any Esper talent?" Touma proposed, "Can they do magic?"

Index's only reply was a weak nod.

Kamijou smiled.

Without thinking, he looked up at the bright gray moon in the night sky as he had a hopeful look that was directed at it as a constant reminder of his first trip in The TARDIS.

It was true that 2.3 million students lived in Academy City and that they had all been developed to have some kind of esper power.

But the teachers that developed them were normal humans.

"I just hope she isn't already asleep."

The face of A Certain Teacher appeared in Kamijou Touma's mind.

It was the face of Tsukuyomi Komoe, the 135 centimeter homeroom teacher of his class who a red randoseru would suit despite her being a teacher.

Kamijou, Misaka, and Shirai, then began walking with Index's limp form on Kamijou's back.

"This is the place…"

Kamijou said as they arrived at their current destination after fifteen minutes of walking from that back alley.

Utterly unbefitting of Komoe-sensei's twelve year old appearance, it was a two story wooden apartment building that looked so old and worn down Kamijou felt it must have weathered the bombing of Tokyo. Since the washing machine was sitting directly out in the passageway, it must have had nothing like a bath.

After checking the nameplates on the first floor doors, they climbed up the run-down and rusty metal staircase and checked the doors up there. When they reached the farthest back door on the second floor, they finally found "Tsukuyomi Komoe" written in hiragana.

Kamijou rang the doorbell thrice as he and the others waited.

"Cominggggg!"

The door clicked open and a pajama wearing Komoe-sensei's head poked out through the crack. Her relaxed expression made it clear she could not see Index's back wound from her position.

"Wah, Kamijou-chan, Misaka-san, Shirai-san, what are you all doing here?!"

"Sorry to bother you sensei," said Kamijou with an apologetic and serious tone. "but we're in a bit of trouble, so we'll be coming in. Excuse us."

"W-wait, wait, wait!" Komoe-sensei frantically tried to block Kamijou's way as he pushed her aside. "I-I can't have all of you suddenly coming into my room. And that isn't just because my room is a horrible mess with empty beer cans littering the floor and cigarette butts piled up in the ash tray!"

"Sensei." Kamijou said in a serious and urgent tone.

"Yes?"

"Look behind my back and tell me what you see."

"Eh?" Komoe-sensei made a confused sound as she looks towards his back as instructed as she realizes that Kamijou is carrying someone who has a wound on her back.

"Oh my goodness!" Komoe-sensei said as she makes her way towards the wounded sister, "What happened to her?!"

"We'll explain later, sensei," Kuroko said in a professional tone, "But we need to set her down somewhere immediately, preferably a clear space on the floor."

"Right! Of course!" Komoe-sensei nodded seriously as she and the others went inside her apartment as they manage to clear all the countless empty beer cans strewn across them, and the silver ash tray had a veritable mountain of cigarette butts in it.

Kamijou sets Index face down on the floor as gently as he could while ensuring that her wound did not touch the floor.

The way her clothes were torn hid the actual wound from view, but a dark red liquid was flowing out like fuel oil.

"Sh-shouldn't we call an ambulance? Th-the phone is over there."

Komoe-sensei pointed toward a corner of the room with a trembling hand. For some reason, her phone was a black rotary dial phone.

"The mana in the blood is flowing out along with the blood."

Kamijou, Misaka, Kuroko. and Komoe-sensei reflexively turned toward Index.

Index was still sprawled out limply on the floor, but her eyes were silently open even as her head lay on its side like a broken doll.

Her eyes were colder than the pale moonlight and more precise than the gears of a clock.

Kamijou's century old eyes begin to narrow while the two middle school girls begin to react in shock and surprise.

"What!"

"Wh-What is this?!"

Her eyes were so perfectly serene that they looked inhuman.

"Warning: Chapter 2, Verse 6. The loss of the life force known as mana due to blood loss has exceeded a certain amount, so John's Pen is being forcibly awoken. …If the current situation persists, my body will lose the bare minimum of necessary life force and expire in about 15 minutes according to the international standard minute defined by the clock tower in London. It would be best if you followed the instructions I am about to give in order to perform the most efficient treatment."

Komoe-sensei and the girls stared at Index in shock.

Kamijou could hardly blame them since this was not natural in the slightest.

For he knew that there were Certain Hidden Things and Powers out there that go bump in the night that might clash with everything that they thought was their correct reality and correct worldview.

For he knew that there were Certain Hidden Things and Powers that are far older than humanity.

Kamjou was not surprise at this at all as he simply got used to it due to the fact that he has met stranger.

That, and he remembered all of The History Lessons and Bedtime Stories that The Doctor taught him about.

"Now then…"

Kamijou looked over at Komoe-sensei and thought.

If he just straight out asked her to use magic, she would surely tell him that it was hardly the time to be pretending to be a magical girl and that she was much too old for that kind of thing anyway.

So how was he supposed to convince her?

"Sensei!"

Komoe-sensei turns her eyes towards The Spiky-Haired Judgment Officer as he says in a concerned and serious tone.

"Since this is an emergency, I'll keep this short. I need to tell you a secret, so come over here."

"What?"

Kamijou waved his hand like he was calling over a small dog and Komoe-sensei approached with no caution whatsoever.

"Sorry," Kamijou apologized to Index under his breath.

He lifted up her ripped clothes to reveal the horrible wound hidden beneath.

"Ee!?"

"Eh!?"

He could hardly blame Komoe-sensei and the girls for jumping in shock.

The wound was so bad that it had even shocked Kamijou to his very core. The wound was in a horizontal straight line across her back as if it was a cardboard box someone had used a ruler and box cutter on. Past the red blood, pink muscle, yellow fat, and even something hard and white that seemed to be her backbone could be seen.

If the wound was viewed as a red mouth, the lips around it had gone utterly pale like someone who had been in a pool.

Kamijou then had his eyes narrowed in righteous anger as he carefully lowered the clothing that was wet with blood.

Even when the clothes touched the wound, Index's icy eyes did not move in the slightest.

Kamijou then turns towards Komoe-sensei as he begins to say in a grave and serious tone.

"Sensei!"

"Eh? Yes!?"

"You need to listen to what this girl has to say and do whatever she says."

"Eh!?"

"Just make sure that she does not lose consciousness. As you can see from her clothes, she is religious. Shirai and I would need to go to my dorm apartment seeing as it got burned down by a fire and I would need to be there to provide a report to the authorities seeing as I live there."

If she viewed it as nothing more than consoling the girl, she could continue to view magic as impossible. For that reason, Kamijou had changed the focus in Komoe-sensei's mind from treating the wound to continuing the conversation by any means necessary.

Komoe-sensei was nodding with an extremely serious expression and a pale face.

"Misaka-san," Kamijou turns towards Mikoto, "Stay here with Komoe-sensei, I would need someone to guard these two while Shirai and I conduct Judgment Business.

Misaka then nodded seriously, "Alright."

Kamijou then turns towards his partner, "Let's go, Shirai-san."

Kuroko looks towards him as she nodded in turn as they both left the apartment with Kamijou using his hoverboard while Kuroko was using her esper ability of teleportation to keep up.

After the duo left the room, Index moved her pale lips which brings the attention of the two women.

"What is the current time in Japan Standard Time? Also, what is the date?"

Komoe-sensei and Misaka looks towards each other for a moment before they turned back towards Index as Komoe-sensei said in a concerned and serious tone.

"It is 8:30 PM on July 20th…"

"You did not seem to look at a clock. Is that time accurate?"

"I do not have a clock in my room, but my internal clock is accurate down to the second, so do not worry."

"…"

A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun were rather silent at that declaration.

"You all don't need to doubt me that much. I have heard that some jockeys have internal clocks accurate to a tenth of a second and you can regulate it with certain eating habits and rhythms of activity," replied Komoe-sensei in puzzlement.

She may not have been an esper, but she was indeed a resident of Academy City. The idea of what level of knowledge was normal from medical and scientific fronts was different between those within the city and those without.

Still lying face down on the floor, Index glanced out the window with only her eyes.

"From the location of the stars and angle of the moon…that matches the direction of Sirius with an error of 0.038. Now to check once more. The current time in Japan Standard Time is July 20th 8:30 PM, is that correct?"

"Yes. Well, technically it is now 53 seconds past that, but…Ah, no! Don't get up!"

"Wait! Don't get up!"

Komoe-sensei and Misaka frantically tried to push Index back down as she tried to sit up which would further damage her already injured body, but Index's gaze did not waver in the slightest.

Her gaze was neither frightening nor piercing.

All emotion had simply disappeared from her eyes like a light switch had been turned off.

There was no real presence in her eyes.

It was like her soul was missing.

"It is no matter. It can be regenerated," said Index as she headed for the tea table in the center of the room. "It is near the end of Cancer. The time is between 8 and 12 midnight. The direction is west. Under the protection of Undine, the role of the angel is the cherub…"

The sound of Komoe-sensei gulping could be heard throughout the room while Misaka paid close attention with a serious expression that was on her face.

Unexpectedly, Index started drawing some kind of figure atop the small tea table with her bloody finger. Even those who did not know what a magic circle was would recognize that it was something religious. Komoe-sensei had already grown timid, but now something overwhelmed her to the point that she could not speak.

After drawing a circle of blood that filled the tea table, Index drew a star-shaped symbol known as a pentagram.

Writing in some strange language was written all around it. Those words were likely the same thing Index was muttering. She had asked about the constellations and time because the words written changed depending on the time and season.

As Index put together her magic, she showed none of the weakness of one who was injured.

Her extreme focus made it seem like her sense of pain had been temporarily cut off altogether.

A silent chill ran down Misaka's back as she heard the dripping of blood coming from the girl's back as she begins to say in a somewhat curious and frightened tone.

"Wh-wh-wh-what is this?"

"Magic." Index paused after that one word as she begins to speak to Komoe-sensei once more. "I will now be needing your help and your body. If you do as I say, no one will meet any misfortune and you will not be the target of anyone's resentment."

"H-how can you say that so calmly!?" Misaka said bewilderingly.

"Please," said Index without changing her expression in the slightest.

A mix of fresh blood and saliva was dripping from the corner of her mouth.

There was no intensity in her. There was nothing ghastly in her either. But that calm and composure was scarier than either of those. The way everything she did seemed to widen the wound made her seem like a broken machine continuing to run without realizing anything was amiss.

"If we do anything that makes her resist, her situation could become even worse." Misaka thought in a sighed expression. She of course still have some doubts on whether to believe in magic or not. However, Kamijou had told her in a serious no nonsense tone that it does exist, that it was real, and with that kind of sureness and conviction which is accompanied by a tone of experience as if he dealt with this kind of situation before, she couldn't help but believe him.

"So, what should we do exactly?"

"I thank you both for your cooperation. First…take that…that…what is that black thing?"

Komoe-sensei took note of what the Sister was pointing at as she explained.

"? Oh, that is a video game memory card."

"? …Well, fine. At any rate, take that black thing and place it in the middle of the table."

"Technically, it's a tea table…"

Komoe-sensei and Misaka did as she was told and placed the memory card in the middle of the tea table. They then took a mechanical pencil lead case, an empty box of chocolates, and two small paperback books and put them on the tea table as well. They also took two small figurines that came with her food, and lined them up next to each other.

Komoe-sensei and Misaka begin to wonder on what the point of it was, but Index was still completely serious despite looking about ready to collapse.

All of their complaints and concerns disappeared before the Japanese sword-like gaze coming from that pale face.

"What is this? You called it magic, but isn't this just playing with dolls?"

Misaka asked in a bewildered tone as she looks towards what could be called as a miniature version of the room.

The memory card was the tea table, the two books standing up were the bookshelf and closet, and the two figurines were in the exact place of the two people in the room. When glass beads were scattered over the tea table, they seemed to stop in the places that exactly replicated the beer cans scattered across the floor.

"The substances do not matter. It is the same as how a magnifying glass magnifies regardless of whether the lens is made of glass or plastic… As long as the form and role are the same, the ceremony is possible," muttered Index as she dripped with sweat while directing her gaze towards Komoe-sensei as she says. "I just need you to accurately carry out my instructions. If you mistake the order, the pathways in your brain and your neural circuitry could be fried."

"What!?" Misaka reacted heavily at that while Komoe-sensei looked confused as to what she meant.

"I am saying that failure will turn your body to mincemeat and kill you. Please be careful."

"Bh!?" Komoe-sensei almost spat out, but Index continued without paying it any heed.

"We will now create a temple for the angel to descend into. Follow my lead and chant."

What Index said after that went beyond words and become nothing but sound.

Without thinking about the meaning, Komoe-sensei tried copying just the tone in something like humming or singing.

And…

"Kyahh!?"

Suddenly, the figures on top of the tea table started to "sing" as well. "Kyahh!?" one of them screamed with the exact same timing. The figures were vibrating. Just as the vibration is transmitted along the string in a string telephone and comes out as a voice in the paper cup on the other end, the figure vibrated and reproduced Komoe-sensei's voice.

The reason Komoe-sensei did not panic and run from the room right then and there was likely because she lived in a city with 2.3 million espers in it. A normal person would have thought they were out of their mind.

Misaka was just staring at the scene with a face that was full of amazement, surprise, and wonder as she thinks to herself, "So, this is magic huh."

"Link complete." Index's voice and the voice from the tea table made it sound double.

"The temple created on the table has been linked to this room. To put it simply, everything that happens in this room will happen on the table and everything that happens on the table will happen in this room."

Index pushed the tea table lightly with her foot.

In that instant, the entire apartment shook under Komoe-sensei's feet as if from some great shock.

She could feel the stuffy air of the room growing as clear as the air in a forest in the early morning.

However, nothing like an angel was present. All that was there was what could only be described as an invisible presence. A feeling assaulted Komoe-sensei's entire body like she was being watched by thousands of eyeballs from every direction.

And then Index suddenly shouted.

"Imagine! Imagine a golden angel with the body of a child! Imagine a beautiful angel with two wings!"

When carrying out magic, determining the field was important.

For example, a pebble thrown into the sea does not make much of a ripple. However, a pebble dropped into a bucket makes quite a ripple. It was the same as that. To alter the world with magic, the field in which the alteration would take place had to be demarcated.

A protector was a temporary god in a small demarcated world.

If one properly imagined a protector, fixated its form, and freely controlled it, one could more easily cause mysterious things to happen in a limited field.

Komoe-sensei did not receive any such explanation and she was having a hard time imagining an angel. The term "golden angel" only made her think of that thing about one gold one or five silver ones.

As the image in Komoe-sensei's mind lost coherence, the surrounding presence followed suit and lost its form. An unpleasant feeling ran down Komoe-sensei's back like she was wrapped in the rotten mud from the bottom of a swamp.

"Just imagine it! This will not actually call in an angel. It is just a gathering of invisible mana. It will take form according to your will as the magic user!"

She must have truly been desperate because even the voice of that cool, mechanical Index grew sharp as an icicle.

Komoe-sensei's eyes opened wide at that sudden change and she hurriedly started muttering under her breath.

"…A cute angel, a cute angel, a cute angel."

Hazily, she frantically called up an image of the girl angel she had seen in a shoujo manga long ago.

Whatever it was that felt like invisible mud hanging in the air of the room took form as if it had been shoved inside a human-shaped balloon…or at least that was how it seemed to Komoe-sensei.

She timidly opened her eyes to check.

"…Huh? This will not actually call in an angel?"

In the instant that doubt entered her mind, the human-shaped water balloon burst and the invisible mud splattered across the room.

"Kyahh!" Komoe-sensei and Misaka reacted.

"…The fixation of its form has failed." Index looked around with her sharp gaze. "If the temple is at least protected by a blue color Undine, that is enough. …Continue."

Her words were positive enough, but Index's eyes were not smiling in the slightest.

Komoe-sensei flinched back like a child whose parents had just seen a failed test she had tried to keep hidden.

"Chant. It will be over with just a bit more."

That sharp order would not let Komoe-sensei lose her composure despite her rising confusion and flagging thoughts.

Index, Komoe-sensei, and the two figurines on the tea table sang while Misaka continues to observe silently.

The back of Index's figurine on the table began to melt.

It was as if it was rubber being held up to a lighter. It melted, the surface lost its unevenness, it grew smooth, it cooled and hardened once more, and its form came back together.

Komoe-sensei and Misaka both felt like their hearts would freeze over.

Currently, Index was sitting across the tea table from her.

She did not have the courage to circle around and see what was happening to Index's back.

Index's pale face was covered in oily sweat.

Her glassy eyes still showed no sign of pain or suffering.

"Replenishment of mana and stabilization of condition confirmed. Returning John's Pen to dormant mode."

Like a switch had been flipped, a soft light returned to Index's eyes.

Like a fire being lit in a cooled fireplace, a warmth filled the room's atmosphere.

The look in Index's eyes was so kind and warm that Komoe-sensei and Misaka couldn't help but feel that warmth. It was the look of a normal girl.

"Now if the descended protector is returned and the temple is destroyed, it will be over." Index smiled painfully "This is what magic is. It's the same as how apple and ringo15 mean the same thing. You do not need a glass wand when a plastic umbrella is just as clear. It is the same with tarot cards. As long as the design and numbers match, you can perform divinations with the cut outs from the back of a shoujo manga."

Index's sweating did not stop.

Komoe-sensei and Misaka grew even more afraid. They started to think in concern that what Komoe-sensei had done had only made Index's condition worse.

"Don't worry." Index looked about ready to collapse even then. "It's the same as with a cold. You need your own strength to get over it. The wound itself has been closed up, so I'll be fine."

As soon as she said that, Index collapsed to the side. The figurine fell over, too. The tea table shook slightly and the room linked to it was assaulted by a thundering tremble.

Komoe-sensei and Misaka were about to run around the tea table to Index, but Index began to sing.

When Komoe-sensei followed along and sang one last song, the strange atmosphere returned to being the normal stuffy atmosphere of the apartment. Komoe-sensei and Misaka cautiously shook the tea table, but nothing happened.

"Thank goodness." Komoe-sensei and Misaka said in a sigh of relief.

As they both closed their eyes in relief, Index spoke.

They both would have thought that anyone would be glad to have their deadly wound healed, but the nun said something else entirely unexpected.

"I'm glad I did not burden anyone with anything."

They both stared at Index in surprise.

"…If I had died here, he may have had to bear the burden."

Index closed her eyes like she was dreaming and said nothing more. When that girl had been sliced in the back and collapsed and when she had performed that strange ritual, she had never once been thinking about herself. She had been thinking about the person who had carried her there.

"What do you mean by that?"

Komoe-sensei asked as she could not think in the same way. She had no one to think that way about. But Misaka knew who she was talking about as she remembers A Certain Spiky Haired Boy that brought her here.

"That idiot, always being the hero and getting the girls left, right, and center even though he actually has a girlfriend." She thought as she begins to shake her head in annoyance and exasperation.

"I don't know."

Index did not really understand, but when she was with him, nothing ever went as she wanted and she felt pushed around.

And yet those unexpected things were so much fun and made her so happy.

She did not know what the feeling was, though.

This time, Index fell into a deep sleep with a smile on her face like she was having a pleasant dream.

Soon enough, the duo found themselves at Kamijou's dorm building. As a member of Judgment and a resident of the building, Kamijou was given free reign when investigating the cause of the fire. He went up to his dorm room and searched his place before coming across the item he had come to retrieve. The item was A Certain Large Multi-Subject Notebook with multiple paperclips lodged in it that has a blue cover that resemble the exterior of The Doctor's TARDIS. Making sure that no one was around to see, he quickly hid his notebook under his bigger on the inside pocket for safe keeping.

With his notebook secure, Touma then gathered a couple of old notes, newspapers, and a small bowl. He then went to his balcony as he was holding the collected paper that was in the bowl and zaps them with his Sonic Screwdriver, burning them slightly and creating ashes, which he collected in the bowl. He then scattered the papers and ashes around his room and out of the door, creating a trail that lead back to an outlet in his room. Kamijou then reported to the fire department and Anti-Skill that the fire was simply a freak electrical fire caused by his carelessness and the aftermath of the power outage. After checking Kamijou's room, the officials bought his story and said they would take care of it within the next couple of days. With the case of the dorm fire 'solved', Kamijou and Kuroko took their leave.

"I have to admit, that was a rather impressive plan that you manage to come up with," Kuroko commented, "Planting fake evidence to blame the fire on some faulty electricity from yesterday's blackout was pretty smart thinking."

"I'll take that as a compliment, partner." Touma replied as he smirked slightly.

Kuroko smiled a little at that as she continued, "So, what was so important for you to go back to your dorm to get anyway?"

Touma's only reply was to pull out his notebook from under his shirt.

"A notebook?" Kuroko inquired, "I know that you care an awful lot about your grades, but isn't that a little bit too far?"

"It's not just an academic notebook," Touma clarified, "It's my journal. I've been writing in it ever since I first came to Academy City. It holds a lot of the more significant stuff that has happened to me, information about the people I know, and, of course, tips for dealing with my misfortune. I might not have lasted this long if I had not recorded all of the things so that I could at least learned from my mistakes."

"That thing must be really important to you," Kuroko observed.

"Can you blame me? Memories are important," Touma replied, "They're a major part of what makes us who we are. If we're stripped of our memories, we'd pretty much just be blank slates."

"When did you become so philosophical?" Kuroko asked in a raised eyebrow to the left as she was honestly curious as to how much wisdom and learning did her partner really have.

"Years and years of experience" Touma replied in a mysterious and matter of fact tone.

Kuroko was rather silent on that as she begins to ponder it for a few moments while concluding, "Then again, I shouldn't really be surprise that my partner is always like this."

"So, what now?" Kuroko questioned.

"For now, I'm going to find some place to stay for the night," Touma explained, "You and Misaka should head back to your dorm. I'd hate it if you two died because your dorm manager had a go at you."

"Don't remind me," Kuroko said with a shiver while asking in a concerned tone, "But what about you though?"

"I'll stay at Aogami's place. He's been lodging at a café for a while now. Tsuchimikado should be there already, considering he's my next-door neighbor. That or he's staying with his stepsister, Tsuchimikado Maika," Touma explained, "We'll meet up at Komoe-sensei's apartment tomorrow to check on Index. Bring along Uiharu-san if you think she can help."

"Alright." Kuroko nodded as she begins to teleport towards Komoe-sensei's Apartment in order to fetch Misaka while Kamijou uses his hoverboard and heads towards his current destination.

Date and Time: July 21, 2XXX
Period: Day

The morning of July 21st, the group met up at Komoe's apartment, just as they agreed. Kuroko had brought along Uiharu just as she had said she would. However, Uiharu had ended up bringing along Saten as well. Saten's innate ability to detect rumors and secrets allowed her to figure out that Uiharu was hiding something from her. That inevitably lead to Uiharu spilling the beans to Saten, forcing her to bring Saten along. As much as Kamijou wanted to keep the information as confidential as possible to avoid any unpredicatable complications, he figured that if Saten wanted to help and learn the truth, there was truly no stopping her as he knows her all to well.

That, and Kamijou trusted her.

After filling everyone in on the situation, the group entered the apartment to find an awfully strange sight.

After dawn came, her symptoms were very similar to those of a cold.

Index was bedridden with a high fever and a headache. She did not have a runny nose or a sore throat because it was not due to a virus. It was simply a matter of regaining her missing stamina, so no matter how much immunity-strengthening cold medicine she took, it would not solve anything.

"…So why are you wearing only panties down below?" Kamijou deadpanned while facepalming.

As Index lay with a wet towel on her forehead, she must not have been able to stand the hot dampness inside the futon, so she had one leg sticking out in Kamijou's direction. She was wearing a pale green pajama top and yet her bright skin-colored thigh was sticking out up to its base. Due to her fever, the skin was a bit pink.

The towel had grown lukewarm, so Komoe-sensei stuck it into a basin of water and splashed it around while glaring at Kamijou.

"…Kamijou-chan. I think those clothes were a bit too much."

"Those clothes" likely referred to the safety-pin-covered white nun's habit.

Kamijou doesn't know on whether or not to agree with her 100% on that as he figured that while her habit would warrant unwanted attention from unwanted people, on the other hand, Index looked like a displeased cat over having her familiar habit taken from her to which he already expected from a mile a way.

Apparently, due to Komoe's small stature, Index was able to wear an extra bunny onesie that was laying around. Of course, Komoe wanted answers just as much as Saten did, so Kamijou had no choice but to explain it to her as well. However, when she also told him that she intended to tell Academy City's governing board, Kamijou began to insist that he had to keep the governing board out of the loop so as to not get her any more involved than she needed to for her own safety, the fact that Index was being hunted by an unknown organization who are an outside context problem for the city as a whole as they used an entirely different system besides espers and that she might draw unwanted attention on herself and a target would be painted on her back, and the fact that this could cause a bunch of unpredictable problems in the political side of this matter. In the end, Komoe decided to reluctantly agree as she was hearing the same serious no nonsense tone that Kamijou uses all the time to denote the gravity of the situation as she then decided that she will go out for grocery shopping.

As she left, the students could only look back and reflect at the turn of events that have happened.

"Looks like we're in the clear," Mikoto commented, "For now anyway."

"Thank Kami," Touma sighed in relief.

"She's a very nice person," Index said.

"Are you talking about Komoe-sensei?" Touma asked.

Index merely nodded.

"We should keep her from getting further involved," Kuroko pointed out.

"Yes," Index agreed, "It isn't safe for her to use any more magic."

Index went on to explain to them just how exactly dangerous the grimoires, and by extension magic, could be. She explained that the knowledge of the grimoires was not meant for normal humans to read. They create a sort of second world within themselves through their contents and that second world is toxic, damaging the brains of those ill prepared to take on that knowledge.

"Grimoires are dangerous. Written in them is aberrant and uncommon knowledge as well as twisted laws that break the common laws of this world. Whether they are for good or evil, those things are toxic in this world. Merely learning knowledge of a 'different world' will destroy the brain of the one who learns it."

Uiharu couldn't help but think of the parallels between magic and the concept of Personal Reality for Espers. Both create a second reality that imprints itself on True Reality. The key difference being that Esper abilities rely on the personal beliefs of the individual while magic relied on the religious beliefs of a collective.

Misaka tried to translate the explanation in a way that she understood.

"So is it like forcefully running a program that is not compatible with that computer's OS?" Misaka thought.

"My brain and spirit are protected by religious barriers, and magicians who attempt to exceed being human must exceed the boundaries of their own common knowledge to arrive at the desired state of mind which could almost be likened to a type of insanity. However, for a normal person from a weakly religious country like Japan, it could all be over after just casting one more spell."

"Well, that's a shame. We were at least hoping that you would be able to perform alchemy for us. You know alchemy, right? It can turn lead into gold." Saten said almost excitingly.

"Well, there is a technique for that called Limen Magna, but preparing the tools with modern materials would cost…um…7 trillion yen in this country's currency."

"Well, in that case, that definitely isn't worth it," Kamijou said as if it were a matter of fact.

Index smiled weakly and said, "…Yeah. Turning lead into gold accomplishes nothing more than making nobles happy."

"But…wait. Now that I think about it, what does that do? How does it work? If you're turning lead into gold, are you rearranging the Pb atoms into Au?" Misaka asked.

"I don't really know, but it's only a fourteenth century technique."

"Wait just a moment," Misaka said as she raises her hand as if trying to process what she had just heard while saying excitedly, "Do you mean what I think you mean? It might actually be changing the atomic arrangement!? You mean you could cause proton decay without a particle accelerator and nuclear fusion without a nuclear reactor!?"

"?"

"Um. If you're wondering just how amazing that would be, that kind of thing would let us easily create atomic robots or mobile suits!"

"What are those?"

Kamijou begins to cut off the conversation with a cough which brings the attention of the two girls. "Girls, as interesting as this topic is, can we please try to get back towards the actual discussion."

And so Index and Misaka have no choice but to decide begrudgingly to put their conversation on hold, for now at the very least.

"Anyway, the holy swords and magic wands used in ceremonies can be made with modern materials as substitutes, but there is a limit. …This especially goes for sacred items related to God such as the Lance of Longinus, Joseph's Holy Grail, or The_ROOD. Even after 1000 years, it seems no substitutes can be made…ow…"

As Index talked on and on excitedly, she started holding her temple like she had a hangover.

Kamijou Touma and the girls looked at Index's face in worry and concern as she lay in the futon.

She had 103,000 grimoires in her head. Just reading one of them could drive you insane and yet she had put each and every letter of all those books in her head. How much pain had that process caused her they all wondered?

And yet Index never once complained of her pain.

"Do you all want to know?" she asked as if apologizing to Kamijou and the girls while ignoring her own pain.

Index's usual cheerful tone had set a context that made that quiet voice stand out and seem to hold even more determination.

Index's situation did not particularly matter to Kamijou. Whatever situation she might be in, there was no way he could abandon her. As long as he could keep her safe, he saw no reason to dig into her old wounds.

"Do you all want to know what my circumstances are?" repeated the girl naming herself Index.

"Do you all know why?" Index asked. "The Christian Church was originally a single organization, but now there are the Catholics, the Protestants, the Roman Catholics, the Russian Orthodox, the Anglicans, the Nestorians, the Athanasians, the Gnostics, and more. Do you know why this split occurred?"

Kamijou knew why of course as he thought deeply about that Certain Question that was a constant throughout The Multiverse. "Of course, people's ideas on things naturally differed. Some wanted to make money with the Word of God while others refused to allow that. Some felt they were loved by God more than anyone else in the world while others refused to accept that. And this is barely scratching the surface of this complex and fundamental problem that we all have no matter what universe in the multiverse. That we are all truly and fundamentally different in each and in our own way. We all have different opinions and ideas. And yet," Kamijou thought about that Certain Catchphrase from his best friend/fellow companion, Shinichi Kudo/Conan Edogawa, "There is only one truth."

"It was because politics were mixed in with the church. Sects split, opposed each other, and fought. In the end, even people who believed in the same God were each other's enemies. Even as we believe in the same God, we each walk a different one of many scattered paths."

"After the sects stopped interacting with each other, we each underwent our own isolated development which gave us our individual characteristics. We changed in accordance to the situation in or cultures of our countries." Index let out a small breath. "The Roman Catholic Church manages and controls the world, the Russian Orthodox Church searches out and eliminates the occult, and the Anglican Church I belong to…"

Index's words caught in her throat for a second.

"England is a magic country," she said as if that was a bitter memory. "So the Anglican Church is especially advanced in anti-magician culture and techniques such as witch hunts and the inquisition."

"The Anglican Church has a special division," said Index as if she was confessing her own sins. "It investigates magic and develops countermeasures with which to defeat magicians. It is known as Necessarius." She sounded exactly like a nun.

Kuroko begins to take note of the similarities between Necessarius and Judgment, using Espers to fight other Espers and help keep the peace in Academy City.

"If you do not know your enemy, you cannot defend against their attacks. However, understanding an impure enemy will make your own heart impute and touching an impure enemy will make your body impure. That is why Necessarius, the church of necessary evils, was created to draw all of those impurities into one place. And the most extreme case of this is…"

"The 103,000 grimoires." Kamijou said as completed the sentence.

"Yes." Index gave a small nod. "Magic is something like an equation. If you skillfully reverse the calculations, you can counteract your opponent's attack. That is why I had these 103,000 grimoires put into me. …If you know magic from all around the world, you can neutralize magic from all around the world."

"But if these grimoires are so dangerous and you know where they are, why don't you just burn them without reading them? As long as there are people to read and learn from these grimoires, magicians will continue to appear without end, right?" Misaka asked in a tone of curiosity.

"The actual books are less important than the contents. Even if you got rid of an Original16, the magicians who knew the contents would pass that on to their followers, so it would be pointless. Although someone who does that is known as a sorcerer17 rather than a magician," explained Index.

"Also, a grimoire is nothing more than a textbook." Index sounded like she was in pain. "Just reading one does not make you a magician. Magicians change it up to suit themselves and create a new type of magic."

"Because as I said before, grimoires are dangerous." Index narrowed her eyes. "When disposing just a copy, an expert Inquisitioner must sew his eyes shut to prevent pollution of his brain, and even then it takes 5 years of baptisms to fully rid him of the poison. The human mind cannot handle an Original. The only option for the 103,000 Originals scattered about the world is to seal them."

"But can't magic be used by any normal person excluding espers? Then wouldn't this spread throughout the world in no time at all?" Misaka asked in concern.

"You… all don't have to worry about that. The magic cabals do not recklessly let the grimoires get out to the general public."

"? Why not? Wouldn't it be better for them to have more comrades to fight for them?" Misaka asked.

"That is exactly why. If every single person who had a gun was friends, there would be no war."

"So in other words, it's like there's a bomb inside your head, and some people out there want to get their hands on it," Touma concluded grimly.

"…Right." From her voice, it sounded like she was about to die. "With the 103,000 grimoires, you would be able to twist everything in the world to your will without exception. That is what we call a magic god."

Index whispered all this depressingly, sinking deeper into the blanket of the futon.

"Magic God." Kamijou thought gravely as his eyes begin to narrow as he somehow managed recognize that term that seems to denote his very own future as a result of his other ability that he had gained as a result of all his loops in Hinamizawa.

Reading Steiner.

Kamijou then gave Index a sympathetic and understanding look as he knew how dangerous grimoires can be when they fall into the wrong hands and he knew what terrible consequences could ensue should this come to pass.

Seeing this depressing scene that was before him, Kamijou began to call Index in a comforting tone as she draws her full attention while raising her face towards him.

"Cheer up, Index," Touma declared comfortingly and confidently while holding out his right fist as he mentions his right hand, "No one is going to touch you. Not when we are around. Not while I have this right hand which can dispel their magic as if it were an illusion so you don't have to worry one bit for we will keep you safe. That I can surely promise so you don't have to worry."

Index begins to tear up and smile gratefully while Misaka thought to herself with a smile. 'There he goes again, acting all cool, idiot,'

"Index, right," Mikoto chimed in as Index turns towards her, "We haven't been properly introduced yet, have we? I'm Misaka Mikoto."

Then the other girls started to introduce themselves one by one.

"And I'm Shirai Kuroko."

"Uiharu Kazari."

"Saten Ruiko."

"Thank you all." a smiling Index said in a happy and grateful tone. "My full name is Index Librorum Prohibitorum but you can just call me Index."

While this heartwarming scene and conversation was taking place between A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Gang of Rail Girls, Kamijou begins to think of making various and diverse plans in the event when he would have to encounter the ones chasing her and the unknown culprit who managed to penetrate The Walking Church to the unawareness of everyone involved. He figured that since meeting that magician in his dorm apartment that there was still something that he was missing in this complicated puzzle regarding the relationship between Index and her pursuers and thought to himself that it might actually be possible that Index's pursuers are actually from Necessarius since Index said that she was from The Anglican Church, ergo, it stands to reason that her church would send their special division in the event when Index might escape from their grasp as this was one possibility that was in the considerate mind of The Imagine Breaker.

By the time Komoe-sensei had come back, she offered to house Kamijou and Index for the time being until the whole ordeal could be sorted out. In the meantime, Misaka and Kuroko agreed to help Touma guard Index whenever she went outside while Uiharu and Saten searched the internet for any sightings of the sorcerers. If any suspicious characters were sighted in a specific distract by anyone, Uiharu and Saten would alert the others to avoid that area.

About six hundred meters away on top of a multi-tenant building, Stiyl took his binoculars away from his eyes.

"I've looked into who this boy Index is with. …How is she?"

Without turning around, Stiyl replied to the girl who had spoken to him.

"She's alive. But that must mean they have a magic user."

The girl gave no response, but it seemed she was more relieved that no one had died than worried about a new enemy.

The girl was 18, but she was about a head shorter than Stiyl who was only 14.

But then, Stiyl was over two meters tall, so the girl was still tall when compared to the average Japanese height.

Her waist-long black hair was tied in a ponytail. At her waist was sheathed Japanese sword over two meters long. It was a type known as a "command sword" that was used in Shinto rain calling ceremonies.

However, it would be a bit difficult to call her a Japanese beauty.

She wore used jeans and a white shirt. For someone reason, the left leg of her jeans were completely cut off up to the base of her thigh, the extra cloth at the bottom of her T-shirt was tied off so her midriff was visible, she wore knee high boots, and her Japanese sword was hanging down in a leather holster like it was a pistol.

She looked something like a sheriff from a Western who had traded his pistol for a Japanese sword.

Just like Stiyl the perfume-smelling priest, her outfit was hardly normal.

"So who exactly is this guy, Kanzaki?"

"The thing about that is…I was not able to get much information on the boy. At the very least, it seems he is not a magician or supernaturally powered in some other way."

"What, are you trying to say he's just a normal high school student?" Stiyl lit the cigarette he pulled out just by staring at the tip. "Just stop. I may not look it, but I'm a magician that has fully analyzed the existing 24 runes and developed 6 new powerful runes. This world is not kind enough to let a powerless amateur drive back Innocentius's flames of judgment."

This boy had manage to put together a plan that managed to trick him into revealing his name and was just stalling for time while disappearing in the act as he managed to trigger the fire alarm on the building which alerted the authorities to which forced him to make a tactical retreat. Plus there was that strange right hand of his that manage to block his flames. If that was a normal person in Japan, then it truly was a country of mysteries.

"True." Kanzaki Kaori narrowed her eyes. "The real issue is that someone with that much battle ability is categorized as nothing more than a hopeless student who is prone to getting into fights."

Academy City had a hidden side where it was an institution that mass produced espers.

Even if the organization under which Stiyl and Kanzaki worked was hiding Index's presence, Stiyl and Kanzaki had contacted the organization known as the Five Elements Institution beforehand to get permission to enter the city. Even the magic group that was known as the greatest in the world could not remain hidden within the enemy's field.

"Perhaps the information is being intentionally blocked. Also, Index's wounds were magically healed. Kanzaki, do any other magical organizations exist in the Far East?"

They had decided that the boy must have an organization other than the Five Elements Institution on his side.

They mistakenly believed that this other organization was thoroughly eliminating all information on Kamijou.

"If they're doing something in this city, the Five Elements Institution's informants must have picked up on them." Kanzaki closed her eyes. "We have an unknown number of enemies and no chance of backup. This is a difficult development."

It was all a misunderstanding. Kamijou's Imagine Breaker had zero effect unless it was being used on supernatural powers. In other words, Academy City's System Scan was unable to measure his power because it used machines to measure it. And so Kamijou had the misfortune to be treated like a Level 0 despite possessing a top class right hand.

"In the worst case scenario, this could develop into a magical battle against an organization. Stiyl, I heard your runes have a fatal flaw when it comes to waterproofing."

"I've already compensated for that. I laminated the runes. The same trick won't work on me again." Like a stage magician, he pulled out the runes that now looked almost like trading cards. "This time, I will place the barrier two kilometers around the area rather than just on the building. It will take 164,000 cards and the preparations will take 60 hours to complete."

Unlike in video games, real magic took a bit more than just chanting a spell.

It may have seemed that was all it took at first glance, but quite a bit of preparation was necessary behind the scenes. Stiyl's flames were the type of thing that had instructions along the lines of "Take a silver wolf's fang that has soaked up 10 years of moonlight and…" For this reason, Stiyl's speed was actually that of an expert.

In short, magical battles were a matter of reading what was to come. When the battle started, you were essentially caught in the trap that was the enemy's barrier. When defending, you had to determine what the enemy's spell was, and find a way to turn it back at the enemy. When attacking, you had to predict what kinds of counterattacks would come and rearrange your spell accordingly. Unlike simple martial arts, you had to think 100-200 steps ahead amidst constantly changing surroundings. While savage terms like "fighting" were used, it was actually more of an intellectual battle.

For that reason, an enemy force of unknown numbers put a magician at a serious disadvantage.

"…She looks so happy," said the rune magician suddenly as he stared six hundred meters ahead without using his binoculars. "She looks so very, very happy. She always lives such a happy life." His sounded like he was spitting out some kind of thick liquid.

"How long do we have to keep ripping that to pieces?"

Kanzaki stared six hundred meters ahead from behind Stiyl.

Even without using binoculars or magic, she could see clearly with her 8.0 vision.

Through the window, she could see the girl having a pleasant and lively conversation between the boy and four middle school girls.

"It must be a complicated feeling," said Kanzaki like a machine. "For someone like you who was once in that same position."

"…I'm used to it," replied the flame magician.

He truly had experienced that feeling many times before.

Date and Time: July 24, 2XXX
Period: Night

On the night of June 24th, Touma decided to take Index on a trip to a local bathhouse. Mikoto and Kuroko had to do some shopping and Uiharu and Saten gave them the all clear, saying that no suspicious characters were spotted in the area that day.

"Bathtime Bathtime " sang Index as she walked next to Kamijou, holding a wash basin in both hands.

As if to say she was done being sick, she had changed from the pajamas and into her safety-pin-covered nun's habit.

Kamijou had no idea what kind of magic trick she used, but the bloody habit was perfectly clean. He had a feeling it would have been torn to pieces if she had thrown it in the washing machine, so he wondered if she had taken it apart and washed each individual piece.

"Does it bother you that much? To be honest, I don't care about the smell."

"Are you the type that likes the smell of sweat?"

"That's not what I mean and you known it."

After three days, she was finally well enough to head out and a bath had been her first request.

Komoe-sensei's apartment did not have anything even remotely resembling a bath, so their only options were to borrow the one in the manager's room or head to the nearby run down public bath.

And so the young boy and girl were walking along a footpath at night with wash basin in hand.

"Just what era of Japanese culture are we living in?" Komoe-sensei had commented with a smile as she explained the public bath system. She was letting Kamijou and Index stay in her apartment without asking for details on their situation. Kamijou was going along with freeloading with her because he did not want to return to his dorm that was undoubtedly being watched by the enemy.

"Touma, Touma," said Index in a muffled voice because she was lightly biting the upper arm of his shirt.

Because of her habit of biting people, that was nothing more than a gesture similar to grabbing at someone's clothes to draw their attention.

"…What is it?" replied Kamijou.

"Nothing. I just like calling your name even without a reason."

Index's expression was like that of a child going to an amusement park for the first time.

Index seemed very attached to him.

It was likely due to what had happened 3 days prior, but Kamijou was less happy than he was unsure how to feel about the fact that no one had ever said something that basic to Index.

"Komoe said the Japanese public bath has coffee milk. What's coffee milk? Is it like a cappuccino?"

"You're not gonna find anything that elegant in a public bath. Don't get your hopes up so much," said Kamijou. "Hmm, but the giant bath might be a bit shocking to you. In England, the cramped baths like those at a hotel are most common, right?"

"Hm? …I don't really know." Index tilted her head to the side as if she really did not know. "The first thing I remember is being here in Japan. I don't really know how things are back in England."

"…Hmm. So that's why you speak Japanese so fluently. If you were here since you were little, then you're practically Japanese yourself."

That gave her certainty that she would be safe if she escaped to the Anglican Church a little less credibility, though. He had thought she would be heading home, but she would actually be heading to another country she had never seen before.

"No, no. That isn't what I meant." Index shook her head, shaking her long silver hair back and forth. "Apparently, I was born and raised in London's St. George's Cathedral. Apparently, I only came here about a year ago."

"Apparently?"

Kamijou frowned at that vague term.

"Yeah. I have no memories from before about a year ago when I arrived here."

Index smiled.

Just like a child heading to an amusement park for the first time in her life.

It was the perfection of that smile that showed Kamijou the fear and pain behind it due to seeing that same twisted smile throughout his adventures and misadventures in The TARDIS.

Case in Point: Rika Furude, the only woman that he truly loved after all these years.

"When I first woke up in a back alley, I had no idea who I was. All I knew was that I had to run away. I couldn't remember what I ate for dinner the night before, but knowledge of things like magic, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and Necessarius were swirling around in my mind. It was so scary…"

"Then you don't even know why you lost your memories?"

"That's right," she replied.

Kamijou knew that Index had memory loss due to The Doctor telling him that in his phone call that he had with him a few days ago so he was not really surprise in the least. He could deduce that there were two major causes of amnesia: receiving a major shock to the head or sealing a memory that your heart simply could not bear. This situation with Index seemed far more complicated due to the fact that Index's memories tended to be on reset in every one year of her life. On that, Kamijou didn't know why but he thought that it may have something to do with those dangerous books that were stored in her head.

"Kami dammit…" muttered Kamijou as he looked up into the night sky.

While he did feel righteous anger towards the people who would do that to a girl like her, he was mostly overcome by a sense of powerlessness.

That same powerlessness that now drives him towards hope as he would now reach her hand with his right hand that she may be able to smile once again.

He now knew why Index had covered for him and grown so oddly attached to him. It was simply that Kamijou just so happened to be the first person she had gotten to know after spending a year alone in the world without knowing anything.

This did not please Kamijou in the slightest.

He was really pi**ed off about the answer that was given to him and he knew exactly why this was so.

"Mh? Touma, are you angry?"

"No, I'm not."

The question had caught him off guard for a moment, but Kamijou managed to feign ignorance.

"If I upset you in some way, I apologize. Touma, what has you so mad? Is it puberty?"

"No it isn't that Index. It's just..." Kamijou made a hesitant look on his face as he begins to say in a tone that seemed far older than his actual physical appearance. "It's just that you shouldn't have to live through any of that. No one should have to live through any of that."

Index gave the boy a surprise look that was adorned on her face as well as being touched at the concern that Kamijou was giving to her. They have only just met for the past few days alongside his four female friends but this boy is already feeling concern and empathy for her.

A stranger.

Then there was that strange tone in his voice.

A tone that denotes experience.

A tone that denotes understanding.

A tone that denotes kindness.

A tone that denotes compassion.

A tone that denotes mercy.

This made Index realized that there was something about this boy that seemed to look like an ordinary high school student, but in actuality, he seems far older than what he makes himself out to be.

This boy had been nothing but understanding regarding her situation.

When she told him about magic, he believed her immediately with no hesitation.

He never doubted her.

He paid very close attention to her and to her explanation regarding her name, her religion, her books, her Walking Church, her explanation of Idol Theory, and her complicated situation.

Something that she had noted when she thought back to their conversation on his dorm apartment and made her deeply think to herself on who was this mysterious spiky-haired boy.

His other female friends didn't believe her immediately at first.

That she could tell based on some of their reactions regarding the existence of magic.

No one who has no knowledge of magic would ever believe almost immediately.

That Index knew.

And yet...

This boy did.

He even asked questions regarding her Walking Church and about Idol Theory.

Index guessed that this was a boy-

No.

Not a boy.

A man.

This man that was now taking her to the bathhouse was a man who believe her immediately.

She wanted to know who this man was.

The man who accepted her with open arms.

Then there was his ability that she had found out a few days ago.

The Imagine Breaker.

She didn't think that such an ability to negate her magic would be possible.

But it would appear to be the case since he had managed to negate the tracker that was on her hood in order for her pursuers to not catch her.

The Imagine Breaker.

The ability to negate any supernatural ability.

Who was this man?

Who is Kamijou Touma?

What hidden secrets does this boy hide from the eyes of the ordinary?

These were all her thoughts as they made their way towards the bathhouse.

To Be Continued:

ED Song:

Toaru Majutsu no Index Ending 1 HD

Characters:

The Tenth Doctor - A: David Tennant

Touma Kamijou - VA: Abe Atsushi

Rika Furude - VA: Yukari Tamura

Index Librorum Prohibitorum: VA - Yuka Iguchi

Stiyl Magnus - VA: Kisho Taniyama

Kaori Kanzaki - VA: Shizuka Ito

Mikoto Misaka - VA: Rina Sato

Kuruko Shirai - VA: Satomi Arai

Uiharu Kazari - VA: Aki Toyosaki

Saten Ruiko - VA: Kanae Ito

Komoe Tsukiyomi - VA: Kimiko Koyama

Tsuchimikado Motoharu - VA: Anri Katsu

Aogami Pierce - VA: Yoshihasa Kawahara

Timeline:

Doctor Who/Faction Paradox: Tenth Doctor - Post-Planet of the Dead, Pre-The Waters of Mars

Era: Post-Time War Era, Pre-Day of the Doctor changes

A Certain Magical Index: LN Volume 1, TV Episodes: 1-6

DW TV/EU Reference:

** The End of Time (TV story)

** Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)

** The Snowmen (TV story)

** Prisoner of the Daleks (novel)

** War of the Daleks (novel)