Fictions Mentioned: Doctor Who, A Certain Magical Index, Case Closed/Magic Kaito, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Re:Creators, Code Geass, Science Adventure, When They Cry
Episode 4 - Keep Moving Forward
OP Song:
Higurashi - Ayane - Complex image - Sub. Español
Location:
Multiverse Clusters: 07th Verse
Temporal Powers Alliance (TPA) Member Territory: The Witches of The Senate
Universe: Higurashi Verse
Location: Hinamizawa
Touma Kamijou, Rika Furude, and Hanyuu have finally done it.
After a whole century of nothing but endless time loops and dead worlds, after a whole century of excruciating torment, after a whole century of being subjected to constantly watching their loved ones turn against one another, and after a whole century of repeating the same blood-stained tragedy over and over again, they finally manage to prevail over The Endless June.
The Imagine Breaker and The Furude Girls weren't really sure on how to comprehend and deal with it all if they were to be completely honest. They once viewed the world itself as a twisted battlefield; a mass living graveyard that furiously fiddled with their sleeping sanity. Each and every single time, Touma, Rika, and Hanyuu struggled against their horrific dilemma, they were often met with the same results that varied and diverse greatly which always ended in tragedy in one way or another. Fate itself was almost as if it were a sick band and a bane of their entire existence. The same is especially true with regards towards Touma Kamijou.
It was rather fortunate, for once in the life of Touma Kamijou, that they weren't really truly alone in this misfortunate peril. Touma and The Girls have best friends (The Afterschool Gaming Club) who, although were plagued by the evils of distrust and hatred through no fault of their own because of a certain disease (The Hinamizawa Syndrome) that twisted them into persons who were not them, were willing to risk their own lives to assist the spiky-haired pre-teen boy, the bluenette, and the bluenette's horned ancestor goddess in need. The group of friends who had managed to set aside their differences and stood united as one against the mastermind and instrument of their endless torture, a blond nurse (Miyo Takano) whose intentions were for the eradication of the entire village in the hopes of completing her grandfather's (Hifumi Takano) research.
And their fierce endeavors had eventually finally managed to be paid off in full.
Last they heard from the blond antagonist, she was residing at The Irie Clinic, receiving treatment for the very same illness that proved to be Hinamizawa, Okinomiya and possibly one of the multiverse's greatest threats as the possibility of the weaponization of this virus has been in one of the plans of the making by Takano's Superiors.
TOKYO.
And by extension.
Their hidden masters.
The Committee of 300.
The Doctor had told and warned Touma and his fellow childhood best friends/fellow companions (Shinichi Kudo, Kyon, Sota Mizushino, Lelouch Lamperouge) everything that he needed know about any known and unknown information regarding this organization in the last four weeks that had passed as he tells him that he has been investigating The Committee for quite some time now since his first encounter with them in his first incarnation and has battled them in his many incarnations up to the present day.
Touma and the others were rather alarmed and intimidated by the scale that The Committee of 300 seemed to operate in and on as they have hidden members in every government, every society, every religion, and every organization all over the multiverse at large and have very hidden and subtle control in the shadows through their use of their multiple front organizations that were established throughout all over space and time, such as TOKYO, and their power and influence extend towards religion, the economy, science, social platforms, and military intelligence agencies, among other things of importance, whether major or minor.
Touma and his fellow companions had been wondering to themselves on how the heck were they supposed to fight something like this on this large of a scale as they were just five people, not counting The Doctor since he's The Doctor, and that it was already bad enough that Touma had to fight them all on his own without any assistance or back-up against an entire front organization that was actually connected to them which was dedicated to the restoration of the government and state of Imperial Japan before their dissolution after World War II and by making the nation of Japan a dominant superpower in the world at large.
As TOKYO's sub-branch, The Alphabet Project, was created with the intent to weaponized The Hinamizawa Syndrome, with the possible intent to use it against the superpowers of the world such as The United States and The Soviet Union in order to find possible ways to weaken them as they were still the two most known active superpowers at this point in time on this universe and they could possibly end up to become a great threat or a nuisance to their plans once again just as they once were in World War II.
Little did they all realize that it's puppet masters, The Committee of 300, have other big plans in store in the making for the virus itself as they wanted to use it to change the course of modern history, modern technology, and modern warfare.
One of their nefarious plans involves targeting this virus on potential threats that they have deemed a danger to their plans in the past, in the present, and in the future to come whether they were major or minor.
Many of these potential targets just so happen to be the many families, friends, and love ones that The Doctor, Touma, and his fellow companions had made in their various and diverse travels throughout the known and unknown multiverse.
Naturally, The Doctor, Touma, and his childhood best friends couldn't allow this to continue on as this was now personal to them.
It had been over four weeks since then, as Rika, Hanyuu, and their friends from The Club were all living peacefully together, happy and content to bathe in the waters of their own happiness while being devoid of any profound melancholia. The dreaded month of June had passed on in the sands of time, leaving behind the fresh beginnings of the month of July. Everyone was quite content with their own current lifestyles, though Rika herself continued to struggle over a single inquiry. One that had lingered in the expanded regions of her mind for the past four weeks.
"What can I do from here on out?" Rika muttered to herself seriously.
Hanyuu gave a wry smile to her descendant. "I don't suppose you could give up your grotesque tendencies of drinking."
Scoffing in mild annoyance, Rika sent a cold gaze to her relative, gripping onto her egg-shaped, half filled glass resting in her left palm tightly before shifting her focus back to her drink.
"Keep on dreaming, Hanyuu, This vintage red wine is very valuable to me. It's one of the many things that keeps me going."
"Touma wouldn't approve though." Hanyuu said with a twinkling in her eyes and with good ancient humor.
"Touma's not here though, Is he?" Rika said as she pointed that out with a somewhat resigned and depressing voice as she begins to recall a Certain Spiky-Haired Boy (Touma Kamijou) that was travelling the multiverse along with his best friends and a Certain Time Lord (The Doctor) at this point in time and wonders on when will he be coming back to Hinamizawa even though it's only been a few days since she last saw him.
She understands greatly on why he may not be able to stay in Hinamizawa for too long as he has certain people back in his own universe that are probably waiting for him but she can't helped but be a little saddened at every single time when Touma would leave but not before he says goodbye to her which hurts her little by little at every single time.
"You could just call him you know. Didn't Lord Doctor once leave you with that… That… What was it called again? A cellphone? (Inter-Dimensional Space-Time Cellphone), " Hanyuu said as she raises her right hand to her chin as she tries to remember the gift that The Doctor gave her while trying to process on how such a convenient tool that was invented by humans could actually exist in the not too distant future.
"That's a huge risk, Hanyuu. And you know it. They might be in some hostile world or universe for all that we know and they might be a little too busy dealing with important matters in their hands such as saving people left and right while trying to find ways on how to survive while also planning on how to resolve the situation that they gotten themselves into. It's honestly expected really given The Doctor and his habit of running into things." Rika said all this with a serious and no-nonsense tone as she begins to see the many dangerous and unpredictable risks that could be involved if she were to just try to contact them randomly and with no important reason. So she usually just let's Touma or one of his best friends and fellow companions or The Doctor to call her if there was something truly important to talk to her about or if they have some free time on their own, which was ironic considering they were travelling in a time machine, so they could be anywhere and anywhen by now.
The Doctor had given her an emergency number just in case, that she could use to contact him and reassured her that if she were to make an emergency call to him in her present moment in time, the cellphone would transmit the signal into the present meta-time as one of the safety precautions that he had managed to install due to anticipating the possibility of time travellers meeting out of order.
Both girls were resting at their home, quietly conversing with each other. They were on their second week of July, late in the starry night of Sunday. Outside, the majestic moon shone faint phantasmic radiance, laboriously showering all of Hinamizawa's hissing, gliding trees and bushes with its crystalline moonlight. The dead of night shed life, its numerous supply of shimmering stars dispersed through the expansive reaches of the world.
Rika, indifferent with the beams of natural luminescence and invisible cool wind coating her light skin, sat perched on the edges of the opened window, partially blocked the peering light in sight.
The pensive blue-haired child shook her glass of wine delicately, watching the blood-like undiluted liquid inside rebound from the translucent walls in every direction.
"Let's be serious about this. Our lives are no longer trapped in bondage, and we have the freedom to do as we please. There's just so much out there for us, and I just can't figure out what to do."
"Oh my sweet, sweet child." muttered Hanyuu, glancing at her descendent with a soft expression as she sat on her knees. "You mustn't be so impatient. Unlike all the other dead worlds we've ventured through for the past hundred years, this one will bring the future you so desire into existence. You all have all the time that you need here in order to decide what you want to do in your own life and with a space ship and a time machine like The TARDIS, you would literally have all the time in the world."
Rika thought deeply about what Hanyuu had said as she begins to realize that she had a point as The TARDIS is a time machine and a space ship that can travel anywhere and anywhen in time and space as she begins to remember what The Doctor had offered her in the last four weeks.
"Would you like to travel with me?"
Rika was a little intimidated about the offer that was given to her as there were many possible unknowns that can happen while travelling in a ship like The TARDIS and the risks involved in travelling to all of these unknown worlds with all of their unknown possible dangers. Couple with the fact that Touma wouldn't always be around to help her all the time as he has his own problems to deal with back in his own universe and she will eventually have to face her own problems in her own life head on, with or without him, which if she were to be honest was rather terrified of that current prospect as she and Touma had always been together since the very beginning.
He was there throughout all of the constant suffering that she had to endure in The Endless June. To never be with him ever again was something that deeply unsettled and left her frightened to the core.
Nevertheless, as she begins to be reminded about Touma and her certain hidden feelings towards him along with the promise that he had made to her after their ordeal of their century long suffering was over, the blunette brought the tip of her beverage glass to her mouth, allowing its inebriating contents to seep effortlessly into the crevices of her light pink lips.
Draining the remaining red wine off its brittle-material prison, Rika gulped down her intoxicated drink and gently placed her cup down on the floor beside her. She raised a hand and wiped her lips, flicking off small traces of the red wine before bitterly grumbling. "Well s***. That's not really helpful at all."
Hanyuu recoiled over the sudden expletive as she looks very displeased as she quickly chastises her in a hissing voice.
"Rika!"
"Mmmm… mmmmm… ugh…" two voices suddenly jumped in, stirring.
Both conscious girls cringed visibly as they glanced over to the side. They inspected the sleeping forms of their roommates.
Satoshi Hojo and Satoko Hojo.
Whose eyes were on the verge of snapping open. Though their worries skyrocketed, it soon dissipated. Satoshi and Satoko gave up on breaking their strings of slumber, turning their backs away from The Furude Children.
"…nnnhh… mmmhhh…"
Rika breathed a silent sigh of relief, before glaring at Hanyuu, sneering, "Way to be subtle, Hanyuu. You almost woke the siblings up. Do you not remember that you are in your visible body right about now?"
"Au, au, au." Hanyuu whimpered, this time more discreetly than her previous outburst. "I apologize. I'm still not used to being out of my spirit form yet even though Lord Doctor has been helping me for the last four weeks on how to get used to it. Hmmm, on a side note, I'm glad that there isn't much of a physical difference between both of my forms. It's great to look like a human child as opposed to taking the appearance of a… a… demon, even if I am still cursed with these horns."
Guilt washed over the child with lapis hime-cutted hair as she watched her lilac-haired ancestor irritably pick on the pair of dark-purple horns that grew on both sides of her head. She recalled how sensitive Hanyuu was over the demon topic. It wasn't pleasant. Retaining her cold exterior, Rika responded rather uneasily.
"I- I… just… whatever. Forget about it. Let's just move on."
Hanyuu then began to have a maternal expression on her face as she said with a maternal tone.
"Honestly, I don't see why do we need to talk about this so soon. I already said it once, and I will say it again- just take your time; really think to yourself about what do you really want to do and then go from there."
The troubled Rika sighed exasperatedly as she realizes that Hanyuu wasn't going to drop the serious topic, "Hanyuu-"
But her relative was quick to interrupt her. "I'll give you credit, Furude Rika; you are as judicious as ever in ruminating your own new future, but you shouldn't be so fixated on this topic. Do not neglect the fact that while you may be a century old in mind, from outer appearance, you are still eleven years of age, fairly young. Much younger than myself and Lord Doctor who is far older and ancient than the both of us. So enjoy what life begins to offer to you to the fullest while you still can. Don't focus just solely on your own conflictions, otherwise you will forever remain an old bitter woman, resting tragically by death's door."
"Thank you for useless preaching, o' wise one." Rika deadpanned sardonically. "Though in case you have forgotten already, I'm already a bitter old woman as it is. Why are you so laid-back about this, Hanyuu? We have only one life. One life. Like you said, The Doctor is far older than both of us and has lived far longer than any of us and has seen and suffered and lost far too much in his own lifetime than any one of us could've even begin to count or imagine. Which is why we mustn't be so dismissive. This beautiful miracle of a world is a blessing, probably the only kind we'll ever get. If there was a single slip-up, just one, then it's all over."
Silence smoldered the room in a hidden mist. Rika's cynical persona persisted, piercing through the cool, collected form of Hanyuu with stern orchid optics. Hanyuu wasn't fazed by this though. Through all the hundred years of always staying by Rika, and by extension, Touma's side, Hanyuu was much too used to her descendant's pessimism to be thoroughly intimitaded.
Following an agonizing long minute of tense stillness, Hanyuu's face began to lit up. She tilted her head off to the side, allowing her back-lengthened lavender hair to flow down deeper. Marginally raising her a hand, Hanyuu caught the strands of her hair between her two fingers, massaging them tenderly as she voiced.
"You know what, Rika? Assuming that you are still so insistent on worrying over your own future, there is one idea that I have in mind that could finally settle the matter with satisfaction to all parties involved."
"Oh? And just what, pray tell, would that be?" Rika questioned, her one eyebrow quirked in curiosity.
Hanyuu flashed a welcoming upside-down frown. "Love."
The bluenette came close to choking on her own breath as she stared disbelievingly at Hanyuu. Her vibrant violet irises contracted, and her mouth was left gaping. Rika couldn't help but let the stutter pass through to her dark adult voice.
"L- L- Love?! You can't be serious!"
"I am very serious about this, my child. " giggled Hanyuu, heavily amused with her next of kin's reaction. As she fiddled with her hair, Hanyuu elaborated, "What better way to ease your mind than to be intimate with another individual? This would also help your little problem in figuring out your next step towards the future. To me, that's a win-win situation right there, au au~"
Her blue-haired descendant spat in reaction, "Don't be ridiculous! Hanyuu! As if I would degrade myself to display such disgusting romantic affections. Humph!" Rika crossed her arms as she averted her gaze from Hanyuu, staring off into the idyllic night through the opened glass window with an indignant huff. "And besides, who on Kami's earth would fit best for me as a lover?"
Hanyuu's teasing visage broadend as her strands of lavender hair coiled around her two fingers. "Oh, now that one's easy. Who else, other than… Kamijou Touma."
Almost immediately, Rika snapped her head back, away from the pleasant scenery to her mischievous ancestor. The blue-haired child's amethyst irises screamed in hostility. Though her facial features expressed bloody murder, the lovely shade of bright red glazed on her cheeks told a different tale.
"What did you just say?!"
"Touma would be the perfect lover for you." Hanyuu uncurled her locks, using her two fingers to reach out and point over to Rika. She winked shamelessly. "Don't think for one second that I and Lord Doctor would never have noticed. During our time in Minagoroshi-hen, you and Touma have a lot of interesting interactions together whenever you two were alone. Just when we were on the brink of giving up, he was there right beside you at every step of the way in order to support you and bring you back on your own two feet." Hanyuu went on. "Not only that, but he knew how distressed you were when Satoko was imprisoned with her mean uncle, so he did everything that he could to bring her back, going so far as to round up all of Hinamizawa and Okinomiya, and even stood up to Mion's scary grandmother for it. All so you could be happy again."
Rika blushed heavily at that as she remembered that event clearly and thought that he looked so cool when he was taking charge of The Club as a natural-born leader, despite being 11 year old in his physical appearance but was actually far older mentally and was the same age as she was, both physically and mentally, and when he punched the uncle in the face with his right hand, she remembered his sharp-pointed words very clearly as he did what he had to do in order to save Satoko.
"If you think that I'm just going to let Satoko-chan get hurt and harassed by you any longer, then you leave me no choice, I am going to break that damn illusion of yours."
She thought that it was the coolest thing that she ever saw.
"He contributed the most out of all of us." continued Hanyuu. "And there's more, Rika. He manage to give you so many lessons on how fate could be overcome and overpass. Touma was the one who truly twisted our century long cycle; he was the one who helped Keiichi to remember all of his sins in the previous loops, and because of this, Keiichi tried to redeem himself. Touma was the one who really saved you from The Endless June, through his astounding miracles and undying determination. He's the prince… to your princess, au au."
The blush on Rika's cheeks intensified. "Hanyuu, you have a very sick imagination."
"Me? No, this is all coming from you." uncharacteristic smugness overtook Hanyuu's beaming expression. "Our senses are linked together so I know how you feel at all times. What I say about Touma is really all of what you think of him. You regard him as a knight-in-shining-armor, the one person you only sought interest in. You see him as a great change; a fantastic addition to Hinamizawa. I distinctively recall you saying that the other worlds were depressing when he wasn't around."
"Because they were. He wasn't there to make a difference. Things weren't as good as they were without my Touma." Rika mumbled to herself, and instantly regretted her words.
Hanyuu caught on to her descendent's statement, eyes gleaming in playfulness.
"Your Touma, huh? My, my, how and why did you suddenly grow to be so possessive over the young man? Hmm… could it be that I'm right about what I just said and that you're in complete denial over the fact that you looove him?"
Rika remained completely silent.
"Au, au, what am I saying ? Of course I'm right. The deep blush on your cheeks serves as explicit evidence for that theory." Hanyuu pointed out, staring attentively at Rika's red cheeks.
"H-Huh?! Mii!" Rika placed one cupping hand to her left cheek, feeling the fiery heat sear the skin of her palm.
Cursing to herself inwardly, the bluenette leaned off to the right, looking at anything that wasn't Hanyuu. She fumbled over her words marginally before speaking up, "W-Whatever. What does it matter anyway? Even with all that you were spilling out of your mouth is true, what makes you think that Touma and I could ever get together? There's other girls who-"
"-who could steal him away?" finished Hanyuu. "Well, yes. That is to be expected. Competition is essential to everything, and love is no exception. If it were really that easy, then life as a whole would be stagnation, which is more or less death when you think about it."
The flustered Furude Princess fidgeted slightly, her cheeks cooling down slowly.
Hanyuu's amused smile then begins to falter after seeing her descendant's expression as she sighed heavily.
"Rika… you mustn't dawdle. Love does not assist the shy; it only rewards those who try. You have all the infatuation to win Touma over as your boyfriend. All you need to do is express it, otherwise your feelings turn out pointless. Think of it like knowledge; it's redundant to possess it if you never have the wisdom to expose it."
Her cerulean-haired relative revolved around her head back to Hanyuu. Rika's violet pearls met its parallel.
This time, Rika looked more unsure.
"When you put it that way, I guess it makes some sense. But still, what about the other girls?"
"You mean the other girls in The Club?" Hanyuu laughed in a haughty but subtle voice, careful not to wake up The Hojo siblings. "My dear child, you need not worry about your rivals. For most of them see Touma as the little brother that they never really have and of course they have feelings towards the other boys in The Club such as Keiichi, who has Mion and Rena competing for his affection, and Satoshi has his girlfriend Shion. So I wouldn't really worry about them except for Satoko. Although, now that I recall, Lord Doctor did warned me once that in the near or not too distant future, Touma himself would eventually gained an unwanted harem and be surrounded by so many women due to his heroic nature, his desire to save people whether they were innocent or guilty, and his dream to make people smile, so at the very least, you have the advantage of a head start. Fortunately for you, I, Furude Hanyuu, master of matchmaking, am here to assist you in your pursuits."
Rika was a little worried at The Doctor's warning of the future that was still unknown to her while she begins to snort at Hanyuu's claim of matchmaking.
"Don't flatter yourself, Oyashiro-sama, You may be a god, but matchmaking is a stretch for your caliber."
The small deity shook her head.
"That's not the point. Rika, you have a chance. No one else is reaching out to Touma at the moment. If you heed my words and tell him about your feelings, you could potentially get what you desire the most in your heart."
"And you suppose that would be Touma?" inquired Rika, her head leaning slightly towards Hanyuu.
Hanyuu nodded, placing her hands on her thighs. "Without a doubt, au au. I've seen Touma; he truly does care about you. Its very vague and its very subtle, but I know that his relations with you are romantic as well. He was never really that good when it came to grasping the complex concepts of love and women due to having no time to deal with such things partly because of his misfortunate life and partly because he is always off on his adventures as he, his best friends, and Lord Doctor save the world, or in this case, the multiverse, which is why you should be the one who teaches him that he may understand the complexities of women. He loves you, you love him, and both of you are still developing in wisdom. This would be a great way for you two to be happy together, as well as to each other and learn about the many aspects of life that have yet to be discovered."
At that moment, Rika's attention departed from reality. The sole Furude heiress plunged into the fissures of her century-old mind, strapped into tight harnesses of contemplation. Touma Kamijou was definitely a mystifying individual, being able to produce miracles with the power of his right hand that always seemed to throw and blow her expectations out of the water. Even through one hundred years of anguish, Rika could never get tired of the spiky-haired boy.
She couldn't deny Hanyuu's words; there was something special about Touma that left her mesmerized by his entrancing charms. In that short amount of time, Rika very briefly began to consider her ancestor's suggestions, believing that maybe, just maybe, she could have been right. But then quickly, her unyielding pride resurfaced, drowning out any signs of hope that grew within her.
Rika blinked, finding herself in the same bedroom she had yet left out of, with Hanyuu sitting passively before her. A thick frown plastered on her face as she bitterly said.
"This is a waste of my time. Love is for brainless idiots. I'm going to sleep."
"If that's the case, then I guess that makes you and Touma the most idiotic of them all and I think Lord Doctor would agree with me on that." Not offended in the slightest, Hanyuu replied back in a chirpy voice, sustaining a positive smile that- oh so- tempted Rika to punch angrily.
"Quiet, you." hissed Rika lowly. Getting off on the edge of the window, Rika landed on her barefeet softly as she started to walk over to her futon. "I don't have to listen to your nonsense. Good night."
Hanyuu watched, keeping her scanning pupils glued to her moving indigo-haired relative.
The disgruntled Rika slipped in between the thick, colorless blanket and quilted mattress. She rested her head on top of the soft, cushy pillow that lulled her to deep sleep. Though she was fairly resilient to alcohol, due to the many years of indulging in countless beverages throughout her suffering despite Touma's possible protests and misgivings on the matter, the red wine's influence had just enough power to attack its drinker at her weakest.
Rika, her strength gradually diminishing from the intoxication, loosened her grip on consciousness and gave in to the world of unmoving darkness.
As for the other Furude girl, Hanyuu blinked blankly at her inebriated child as she was sighing exasperatedly with a disapproving shake of her head.
"Oh, no, no, no. This won't suffice at all. Love is not something you can easily dismiss, Furude Rika. There is definitely something going on between you and Touma, and you know it. If you won't cast away your pride and accept this great gift, then I have no choice but to take drastic measures. Mark my words; you and Touma will get together. I and Lord Doctor will make sure of that."
Putting her divine declaration to rest, the divine goddess stood up and shuffled her feet over her futon, which was placed neatly next to Rika's. Hanyuu slid her small slim form inside, before she, too, surrendered herself to the dark sharp claws of sleep.
Next Scene:
Insert Song: Start
I'll Be There for You (Theme From "Friends")
"Damn you Hanyuu. I should consider drowning you in a sea of wine and kimchi" Rika thought internally as her eyes pointed down to her moving feet in great interest, ignoring the other two female companions that she was walking with.
It was a five days – close to the end of the week – following the discussion that night, and currently, Rika was walking with Hanyuu and Satoko over to their school. They took the long way, wanting to bathe longer in their home village's refreshing scenery.
Disregarding the glaringly obvious contrast to its lunar counterpart, the sunrise struck a marvelous sight, that rivaled its polar opposite in quality. Vibrant blue sky stretched its whole body across the atmosphere, decorated in scrumbles of puffy white clouds.
The air – not hot, not cold, but fair in temperature – that swarmed about felt pleasantly soothing to the pedestrian trio in unhampered serenity. It followed the boy and the three girls from behind, massaging their backs tenderly. Through perfect synchronization, the strolling winds flowed with the clouds rhythmically to one direction.
Rika silently sighed to herself. "That infuriating creampuff-loving brat just HAD to get into my head, didn't she? Great. And even on this nice Friday too…"
She couldn't stop thinking about Touma.
Posterior to that little chat with Hanyuu, the lavender deity stopped at nothing to try and put Rika and Touma together once he got back from his trip in The TARDIS, much to the bluenette's annoyance. It started with simple nudging that forced the two next to each other physically, whether they were deciding where to sit or when they were about to leave after a long school day. This usually left Rika blushing and Touma giving casual apologies to the bluenette.
But then came the comments.
Hanyuu would subtly – or not so subtly depending on awareness – leave suggestive remarks on how Rika, a beautiful young princess, would look even cuter with a charming prince who'd stay by her side eternally, or how Rika desperately needed a handsome male hero to pull her out of "lonely street" and guide her to "lovely street". There were all kinds of statements thrown out revolving around Rika and Touma as a perfect couple.
She even tried shifting over to Touma to clarify the implications. That, and Hanyuu simply wanted to humor herself in unadulterated amusement from her young descendant's reaction. Obviously, Rika knew, and she was none too pleased about it.
For Shion Sonozaki, a long, green-haired teenage girl of mischief herself who had a knack for teasing others, understood quite easily and was very much entertained by the suggestive comments.
Her tomboyish, older twin sister, Mion Sonozaki, would simply keep quiet and blush in response. She was very sensitive and helpless against the ropes of romance.
Rena Ryugu, another female teenager with auburn-hair who reveled in all things cute, would let her imagination run wild and gush over the small bits about Rika being a princess before making attempts to take the blue-haired child home. Unfortunately for her and fortunately for everyone else, she never succeeded due to Touma always getting in the way somehow.
For Satoko Hojo, a notorious prankster who had a tendency to piss the hell out of most people through her snares, she would give a tilt of her head off to the side and stare questioningly at Hanyuu. Unlike the wiser and mentally-older Furude duo, the blond child was too young and innocent to understand the concepts of romantic love, so she was often perplexed at Hanyuu's jokes.
For Keiichi Maebara and Satoshi Hojo, one just had to tease the poor boy while demanding that he fest up and admit the truth to them all with regards to whether or not he likes her while the other was only curious as to what was his actual relationship with her and simply nodded along with Keiichi in order to find out the truth as well.
As for the boy in question? Much to Rika's bafflement, Touma Kamijou was entirely oblivious to what was going on. Every single time, he'd brush everything off aside with a hearty laugh laced in subtle puzzlement, pointing out on how funny Hanyuu could be when she joked around.
Rika felt torn on with Touma's blunt responses. While part of her was relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with him discovering her true feelings, there was another side to her that was screeching for the truth to be exposed. She didn't know why, but it hurt her deeply to see the spiky-haired boy to dismiss Hanyuu's suggestive remarks with his incomprehensive confusion.
And it wasn't just her ancestor's meddling that affected her usual behavior either.
Sometimes, moments between her and Touma spurred on naturally. There were times when Rika felt her knees weaken over the sight of Touma, and there were other instances where the two would accidently graze each other's hands whenever they tried to pick something up.
Even the club activities they had together would throw her off balance. Rika was always distracted with her mixed thoughts on the boy, and it occasionally sent her on the breaking point of losing. She almost lost a few games if it weren't for Touma, who would usually have a trick or two up his sleeve in order to help her avoid the penalty game, to which she was most thankful for.
Rika shook her head, rubbing her arm uncomfortably. "What's happening to me? Why am I pestered continuously with that boy? Is he really that special… to me? I just don't understa- ack!"
Insert Song: End
Insert Song: Start
Steins;Gate OST - Believe Me
Then, as if right on cue, a sharp throb assaulted the boundaries of her sacred mind, making Rika wince in pain. The troubled Furude grabbed onto one of her temples, her head rubbing it soothingly. As she did so, flashes of images played in her head, and Rika ended up wide-eyed in shock. That was when she started to remember.
There was a time – a distinct memory Rika Furude could now recall so vividly. It happened roughly around the earlier years of her eternal anguish, where she wasn't the stoic, judgmental, full-fledged spinster who was trapped inside a child's body, but rather an innocent hatchling that lacked complete understanding of the world and its spiteful hardships.
Back then, as a young girl, Rika had a much harder time adjusting to her time-looping prison, even with a supportive Hanyuu by her side. She often cried because of it almost every time. Everyone around, naturally, was very concerned over Rika's melancholic behavior and would offer her assistance, before being met with polite rejection from the bluenette. No one could fathom why Rika was always so sad, and it pained them to see that they couldn't help in any way.
But then came the other lot who were less affectionate. There were those who grew vexed over Rika's constant wailing, resulting in verbal lashing sent out at the child angrily. Some people just simply wanted to shut the hell up, but there were those who thrived over the sick notion of tormenting the weak- and they had placed Rika as their prime target on the list.
Once, on a sunny day just two weeks before Hinamizawa's annual Watanagashi festival, Rika settled alone on a long bench, licking away a blueberry ice cream in hand without any care in the world. At that time, she was currently residing in Okinomiya, parked near a motionless ice cream truck. She happily laved in the warming sun, taking no heed to the murky puddles that stained the smooth but dirty grounds as a result of the rainy weather prior. Just when the blissful girl was close to finishing her delectable frozen treat, trouble arrived.
Another female child around her age – who could have been an Okinomiya denizen, or one of her classmates who just so happened to be in the area; hell, it might've been Satoko – approached Rika with a cruel sneer. She smacked away the ice cream in Rika's hands, sending it crashing deep to the ground.
The beaming expression Rika held before quickly contorted into a pain-stricken look as she watched the splattered remains of her ice cream dissolve into an abnormal – blue pond, its water body cracked into millions of pieces that accessorized the colorful mess. At first, Rika sniffed. Then her eyes watered in hot tears. And lastly came the angel's weep.
Rika struggled with wiping away the streaming tears that leaked out of her optical spheres tremendously, and she failed to prepare herself for her bully's next actions. The mean – spirited child yanked Rika off her feet, before hurling her off face-flat to the decaying remnants of the blueberry ice cream. Rika's whole front was painted in her sweet dessert's blood, and The Furude Girl sobbed even louder.
The bully retaliated aggressively. She marched over to her fallen victim and was about to kick her when suddenly a voice was heard.
"WAIT!"
Rika and the bully picked up the sound of that voice as they turned towards the direction where the voice came from.
The person appeared male, to be their age, with spiky hair, wearing a black shirt and white short pants as well as his deep-black spheres that reminded Rika of the dark night sky with its twinkling stars as the vast seas of ravishing oceans were eclipse in the pale of moonlight.
He carries a determined and unfavorable expression on his face as he begins to ask the bully with a mature and experienced tone of voice that was unnatural to someone his age.
"Just what do you think you're doing?"
The little rascal could not answer the sharp-pointed question that was presented to her as she begins to run away back to wherever she came from in fear of the boy. Once that was done, he begins to walk towards Rika's position on the ground and crouched towards her level and locked the bluenette in a warm embrace. Rika did nothing to resist and simply stared at the boy.
For once, Rika didn't feel like crying. She felt a sense of welcoming elation emit off her comforter's invisible aura – so unlike the usual hostile resentment or unneeded sympathy from those around her. Her small form lossened, assimilated in the fuzzy solaces of this young individual who was the same age as her, who made her feel… loved. Rika felt her heart race and her face heat up a deep shade of red as she slowly surrendered to the heavenly robust torso of whom could easily be mistaken for an angel.
And that was when the realization dawned on Rika. She knew this boy. She was familiar with who he was, an ordinary boy that was found in the dumpster for the last 4 months who had become quite acquainted with the peaceful residents of Hinamizawa and Okinomiya. As Rika finally submitted to her comforter's selfless love and empathetic embrace, as the stained dry tears of her face evaporated, The Furude Princess uttered softly.
"…Touma…?"
"Yeah, it's me." Touma said softly and kindly while smiling confidently and directs a comforting gaze on Rika which causes her heart to flutter. Keeping an arm hung around her back, he raised his other hand over to her head before patting her blue-indigo hair gently. "Y'know, Rika-chan, it's illegal to cry around this Kamijou-san. No beautiful girl around my presence should ever be trapped in the cold chains of sadness. And you're no exception to this."
"M… me… You think I'm… beautiful…?" questioned Rika in pure shock.
Touma suspended his chin up-high, his smile growing wider. "Of course! You're the most beautiful of them all, and I'm honored to be associated with you." he flashed a thumbs-up. "I promise to always make you feel special, and to make all those who would dare try to harm you, get a taste of my right hand," the spiky-haired boy begins to raise his right hand and begins to clench it into a fist to prove his point as he continued. "as I smash their petty illusions and send them hurling towards the ground. You can count on that!"
Rika's lips curled into a broad beaming expression, a complete contrast to her usual frowns of misery. She even giggled lightly over his promises.
"Yeah, THAT'S more like it, Rika-chan," Touma lifted her off her butt gently, keeping her in a caressing hold. His black shirt was smudged with the sticky blood of the deceased blueberry ice cream, though that didn't deter the boy's focus on Rika. "All cute girls should always give cute smiles, and since you're the cutest, you'll have to be extra, extra happy. It's a challenge, but I'm sure you can pull it off."
"Mii hi hi…" a tittering Rika wiggled shyly in his bridal embrace, blushing. "I'll try. Although I have a selfish request."
Touma was curious as to what that was. "Name it."
"Please call me Rika from now on. Not Rika-chan. Rika." Rika said as she gazes at the boy's with hope in her eyes that he would accept her request.
"Alright, Rika." Touma said with confidence as he let it sink to himself as he begins to realize on how much their relationship has changed due to the lack of honorifics as begins to bring her closer to his chest. "What I ask is all that I ask. You should always stay positive from here on out. Now, let's go get you some new ice cream. I'll even buy one for myself, so that we can have fun together that way."
"N… nnii… nniiiii… nipaaahhh ~ !"
Breaking out of her trip down memory lane, the present-day Rika Furude blinked blankly to herself before giving a light shake to her head. In hindsight, that distinctive spectacle between her and Touma seemed incredibly cliché, not that it was a bad thing, awfully similar to a child's fantasy. And – oh, Holy Hanyuu – she couldn't even get herself to start on how corny and cliché Touma sounded when he spoke to her at that time.
Though Rika still cherished the moment in spite of the corny reminiscence. To her, it was one of the greatest memories she recollected out of that temporal hell.
Touma was there to help her in her time of need. He didn't question her dejected behavior, nor did he pry into her business, and he certainly didn't react to her in hostility. No, he simply treated her with tender affection, complementing the positive, innocent attributes she once possessed back then and spoiling her rotten with various edible sweets.
That boy was a major factor in her life. He was her inspiration to move forward – to always stay positive and happy, and to never forget the loving companions that she would always have by her side. He was the one who taught her love. He was the reason why she even came up with her "Nipah" catchphrase in the first place.
Rika, once again, traced her thoughts back to those earlier years.
Following that ice cream incident, she and Touma started to hang out more often. The longer Rika associated with him, the more open she was with those around her. Her constant crying ceased, and in its place lied inhumane rhapsody akin to Touma's, though more child-like and charming in terms of cuteness.
All the mixed persistent concerns and merciless bullying everyone shot at her disintegrated. The denizens praised and swooned over the reformed bluenette, who was very grateful to be blessed with their kindness over their asperity, though there was only one person – a certain spiky-haired boy whose name started with 'T' – she would ever respect the most.
Sadly, her eternal prison couldn't leave well enough alone. It wasn't long before the village was suddenly infested with toxic gases. Rika and Touma miraculously escaped the disaster that slowly started to rot their home and their love ones to an agonizing death, sprinting off into the woods together to leave Hinamizawa – only to run straight into Takano and her Yamainu legions. From there, Touma was shot to death repeatedly while trying to defend Rika in vain as she was disemboweled at the front of The Furude Shrine.
Rika hissed lowly under her breath in remembrance of that accursed pain. Things took a dark turn around those years, and it only worsened in time. It was at that point that The Dark Years had officially begun. She grimly recalled on how persistent she was in retracting those cherished moments following her tragic death that day. She did everything she could to escape her fate and to reunite with Touma again.
The latter wasn't an issue. Touma remained the same, blunt-but-caring-and-reliable guy that he had always been throughout Rika's peril. It was very easy to get well-acquainted with him since he was also revealed to be suffering the same hell as Rika and has been trying to find a way to stop all of this ever since The Endless June began. The two began to work together closely as they begin to plan for every single event that may or may not happen but despite all their admirable endeavors, however, they were ultimately futile as every action they took, their confinements would find baffling ways on how to counter them.
Their tussles tickled to weeks, stretched to months, and eventually expanded to dreadful years, and by then, Rika broke down in exhaustion. The bluenette stopped reaching out to everyone, and the outer, overwhelming joy she created with his help devolved into a sugarcoated and bland façade, used solely to ease any arousing suspicions that potentially placed their secrecy at risk.
Nothing else notable happen afterwards. All Rika did for most of her century was to endure, passively taking on the adversities that dare struck her ruthlessly while also opted to not turn to any of her other friends as if they couldn't escape this hell, then neither could they.
But Touma refuses to just simply give up which surprises her every single time as in each different world, Touma became much more mature, battle-hardened, and experienced as each loop gave Touma a slight opening and a slight chance that only he can somehow manage to see as he navigates through the turmoil of the storm.
Through all of this, a solemn Hanyuu, who had expressed nothing but divine pity for her descendent and the boy that was important to her, stuck to Rika and Touma, using her divine powers to repeat the same month over and over again, just for the sake of a miracle.
She once asked Touma on why was he still doing all of this when it was all just futile in the end as the cycle would just continue again and nothing was going to change no matter how much he or she tries. He responded with these very words.
"Rika, Do I really need a reason to save someone and make them smile?"
That answer made her come to the realization that this boy, Touma Kamijou, has a dream that was such a rarity that only a few people seemed to have, if any at all.
That dream which was to make people smile for the sake of smiling whether they were innocent or guilty.
For the boy has experienced pain and suffering far longer than hers as he began to tell her of a story that involves his childhood in his own universe which was where he originally came from before being sent here to Hinamizawa.
The story that Touma told her would give her unhappy feelings as her heart begins to break little by little as the boy that she loved described his sufferings one by one.
He told her of a time when he was just shunned by everyone around him, because in their own eyes, he was just a plague, a pestilence, nothing but trouble.
Misfortuante Events seemed to happen at random for no inexplicable reason which was usually followed by him getting blamed for said misfortunate event.
His parents tried so very hard to give him a normal life in such a hostile environment, but to no avail, as everyone around them, whether children or teenagers or adults, who were not a part of their family have either avoid him, hate him, or spite at him.
They called him names such as The God of Pestilence.
Then, it all came to a head when one day, a bankrupt superstitious businessman, who came to A Certain Park in order to look for the one who caused his misfortune in the first place and have his revenge, and in his search, he saw what he was looking for. The Kamijou family were just there in his bloodshoted sight and viewpoint as they embrace each other because of the remembrance of their miserable life that the parents and Touma himself had to suffer in every single day with no stopping or faltering. The businessman blamed Touma for his misfortune and was just about to hurl him towards the ground and stab him in the back with a knife when suddenly a man with a brown suit with a brown coat who wore Converse All Stars managed to subdue the man into unconsciousness as he introduces himself to them by a name that was not a name to ordinary eyes but it was to unordinary eyes.
The Doctor.
Touma told Rika about The Doctor and how he was the one who taught him everything that he knew and has applied them throughout the years of being stuck in The Endless June as he was now beginning to adapt to his surroundings.
He also told her that The Doctor was not human and was from an ancient alien god-like race that was well known, feared, and respected throughout The Multiverse.
For their myths and legends were known across every one of The Higher Species, Temporal Powers, and Pantheons.
For their myths and legends told of the vast and diverse accomplishments that they had made before humanity in any universe or multiverse had even existed.
For they were no different from nigh-omnipotent gods.
For they were born in a chaotic universe were a chaotic and contradictory force known as MAGICK reigned supreme.
For they were born in a chaotic universe were there were gods, monsters, and demons of all shapes and sizes.
For they challenged them all.
For they defeated them all.
For they banished them all.
For they made space and time as it is written.
The Gods to The Gods.
The Powers That Be to The Powers That Be.
The Gods to The Kamis.
The Keepers of The Law and The Order.
The Watchmakers.
The Kings of Reason.
The Masters of Space.
The Lords of Time.
The Time Lords of The Planet Gallifrey.
A grand title for a grand race who watches the known and unknown multiverse from their own red-orange planet with powers that be that can control and bend reality to their divine will just as they see fit.
As if it were a piece of clay that can and will be molded to their liking.
Their word is Law.
Their word is Order.
Anyone and anything who tries to disobey their laws will be dealt with harshly, effectively, efficiently, and swiftly.
All who would defy them would find their entire timeline and existence utterly undone.
When she asked Hanyuu about The Time Lords, Hanyuu's response was unexpected and surprising, as she begins to tremble and cower in fear as she begins to say in a very respectful manner, with the look of divine adoration on her face accompanied by a divine fear that was present to the lavender goddess's heart which was followed by a divine respect to their authority as she and countless deities and pantheons have heard of them and confirmed that the myths and legends that Touma had told her all about was just as real as they come.
When she asked Hanyuu about The Doctor, Hanyuu's response was more unexpected and surprising, as she begins to tremble and cower in fear even more as she begins to say in a very respectful manner, with the look of divine adoration on her face accompanied by a divine fear that was present to the lavender goddess's heart which was followed by a divine respect to his authority as she and countless deities and pantheons have heard of The Doctor and his reputation throughout the known and unknown multiverse.
Hanyuu described to her who and what The Doctor is and who he truly was.
He was known as Time and Life's Champion.
He was known by those who idolize and admired him as The Lonely God or The Man Who Makes People Better while he was known by his enemies as The Destroyer of Worlds and The Oncoming Storm.
He was the man who has seen both Heaven and Hell.
He was the man who have fought gods, monsters, and demons of all shapes and sizes along with their powers of known and unknown description.
He was the man who could tear down entire worlds and make whole armies and empires run away in the whisper of his Name.
He was the man who walked away from The Last Great Time War.
He was the man who marked The Passing of The Time Lords.
He was the man who saw the birth of the universe and watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. Neither Time nor Space. Just him.
He was the man who walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a madman.
He was the man who watched universes freeze and creations burn.
He was the man who has seen things that no one could ever believe.
He was the man who has lost things that no one could ever understand.
He was the man who has secrets and knowledge that must never be spoken.
He was the man who was like a beacon in the turbulent sea of time.
He was the man who stands vigilant.
He was the man who was like fire and ice and rage.
He was the man who was ancient and forever.
He was the man who burned in the center of time and can see the turn of the universe.
He was the man who was always wonderful.
It was right then and there that Rika Furude had the growing desire, when all of this hellish nightmare was over and done with, to meet the man who has greatly influenced and raised the boy that she had grew to care for and eventually fell in love with after all of these hundred years.
And she did eventually meet him and she was definitely not disappointed.
But that was a story for another time.
It would only be in a hundred years later that hope has finally been given in the form of their friends in The Club as hope began to resurfaced and inspire her to endeavor again, only this time succeeding after assembling together as a group while planning out their survival accordingly.
"It's so sad on how I could so easily forget the special bond I once held with my friends in those times. And it's tenfolds are as depressing as when I actually consider the notion that I'd be better off without them or those happy recollections in my torment." mused Rika.
The Furude Princess' optics drooped slightly. "Oh, well. It's reassuring that, despite my horrendous actions, Touma was still willing to save me from my prison through his miracles and words of wisdom along with the power of his right hand. Despite succeeding one hundred years, the boy's undying will and compassion never ceases to amaze me. Not once has he given up on me. I feel… touched; truly touched… perhaps, for once, Hanyuu was right. Maybe I am in love with Touma Kamijou. He has always been there for me the most. As my hero, as my guardian, as my-"
Insert Song: End
"Rika!"
Pulled out of her musings once more, Rika Furude reacted in a violent jolt, her ears groaning over the sharp address of her name. The sapphire-haired child fizzed piercingly to herself as she placed a caring hand over one ear. She wheeled her face over to the right, her clear vision taking in a slightly-agitated blond subject staring at her.
Satoko Hojo narrowed her magenta orbs, revealing more of her irritation. "Haven't you been listening to a word I've said."
"No." Rika acknowledged flatly, not bothering to hide her adult voice as she kept a stone expression on her face. "And I'm not sure I want to either, not after you scared the life out of me"
Fortunately for Rika, Satoko didn't take note of her deep-tone voice. With pinchable cheeks puffing up in balloons, her fanged friend huffed exasperatedly, "Oh, come on! You know how much I hate repeating myself Rika! And to think, I tried so hard to explain to you the complexities and creativity of my newest creation, too." the little blonde crossed her arms in pouty fashion as she sunk her head lower to her shoulders. "Humph!"
Hanyuu walking next to Rika's other side, gave a consoling smile at the sulking Satoko. "Au, au, au, it's okay, Satoko. You can always show Rika your new trap."
"Yeah, I guess." She cheered up slightly.
The three were close to reaching the branch school they attended daily. As they caught sight of the rural building, Rika's orchid pearls squinted, focusing on the broaden trail that led to the white-door entrance hooded with a dead green roof.
A strange rich-purple carpet, bordered in gold, sat in front, appearing completely out of place with the school structure's usual attire of mahogany and dull green colors. Rika blinked blankly. "What's with the carpet?"
"Oh, ho, ho! So now you're curious." grinned Satoko, eyes gleaming in mischief. She covered her lips with one hand in a snobbish manner, "That right there is my masterpiece. Hidden under the carpet is a traphole, deep enough for its victims to crawl out of, though not before greeting to a… nasty surprise. Oho ho ho ho ho!"
"That's not complex or creative at all. Isn't she always making s*** like this on a daily basis ? I mean, the carpet's new, but still. Originality is clearly lacking here." immediately, Rika's adult mind began to nitpick at Satoko's so-called masterpiece.
Outwardly however, through the child voice she often used to go along with her adolescent masquerade, the bluenette simply pointed out, "Hmmm… sorry, Satoko. But you've made better snares before. I don't see how this one is special."
Satoko scoffed. "I did tell you about the surprise inside the traphole, but – ooooh no – you had to go off and ignore this amazing Trap Master's elaborate explanation, and for that, you will just have to see the surprise for yourself. Consider it as a punishment for disrespecting the almighty trap expert."
Rika sweatdropped. "Vanity has met it's match."
"Okay, moving on." Satoko continued. "It took me the rest of the afternoon yesterday to set all this up. You have no idea how taking it was to find what I needed to put a hole, so you better be grateful for this, Rika. I've also made sure to inform everyone of my work ahead of time just so they don't trigger it by accident. Right now, they're taking the back window into the school. All of our classmates know what to do… well, except for A Certain Peasant (Touma Kamijou) who I'm positive will fall in this time, and this time, he will not escape me so easily, hue hue hue ~"
In response, Rika simply rolled her eyes. It was mind-boggling how Satoko never got tired of her antics. Her pranks were amusing in the first few worlds she'd been into, but later on, they grew to be boring and bothersome. Added in with the seldom amount of times she got caught in Satoko's snares, it was a miracle how Rika could tolerate it all under her fake persona. She was even more surprise on how Touma could tolerate these annoying antics since it seems that he was enjoying every second of it.
Rika didn't know on whether to be happy or jealous due to the close relationship that Touma and Satoko seem to have as eternal rivals in their prank wars.
With Satoko being the trapper and Touma being the dodger.
Hanyuu, on the other hand, applauded and cheered, "Yay! Au, au, au. I'm sure your trap will do great, Satoko."
The blonde bowed mockingly. "Thank you, thank you. But please, Hanyuu-san, save your applause for when my work is sprung into action."
"Alright then." Hanyuu nodded in confirmation before glancing over to her lapis-haired relative. The innocent smiled donned widened to her cheeks as it sullied in playful diablerie.
Her descendant's optics sharpened sternly, not taking too kindly to the all-knowing grin sent her way, Lately, Hanyuu had done nothing but tease her over Touma constantly. Not a shed of decency exuviated from her actions. Rika felt pessimistic suspicion arise. That creampuff-loving child was no doubt up to something mischievous, and whatever it was, Rika didn't like it one bit.
And she was even ready to preempt on that. "Okay, Hanyuu. I've played long enough. Stop your childish games. I don't know what kind of stunt you have in mind, but I suggest that you put an end to this nonsense now or I'll-"
"Hey, look!" Satoko interrupted, pointing a stretched finger out in the distance. "They're coming; he's coming."
Hanyuu and Rika both broke off their staring contest before glancing before glancing to where Satoko directed. The grinning lilac-haired goddess bobbed her head approvingly while her next of kin froze stiffly.
From afar, six figures – three males alongside three females, most teenagers, one pre-teen spiky haired boy – trekked their way up to the school. Two of them look identical, with the glaringly obvious exception of different emerald-colored hairstyles and clothing. The other female had shoulder-length reddish-brown hair, appearing to be the shorter in the group height-wise. Lastly, there were the three boys.
The first boy, with brown hair and blue eyes, who wears a white collared shirt over a red t-shirt, black pants, a belt, and black shoes.
The second boy, with blond hair and red-violet eyes, who was one year older and slightly taller than the first boy, who wears a white collared shirt with a light blue undershirt, black pants, a belt, and black shoes.
But Rika kept her eyes glued towards the third young boy who was the same age as her, both physically and mentally, who was advancing with light footsteps as her heart felt that it skipped a beat, who possessed spiky-black hair that seemed to be unnatural and has captivated its audience through affluent aspects. His orbs radiated massive quantities of the clear night sky, retaining the best ravishing ultramarine atmosphere and oceans under the light of the stars in its tight, optical grasp. His hidden toned arms exposed its well defined muscles as his bulky shoulders and chest were hidden through his orange undershirt and white collared-shirt layers.
With flushed cheeks heating up gradually, Rika thought to herself absentmindedly, "T… Touma…"
"Man, this sucks." Keiichi Maebara grumbled, stomping the ground with slamming feet. "Why can't time go any faster? I just want to get school done and go home. Or go to Angel Mort. Whichever works."
Rena Ryugu gazed softly at her disgruntled friend, concerned and saddened. "Haauu… it isn't like Keiichi-kun to be so moody. Usually, he looks forward to attending school. What's troubling him, I wonder, I wonder?"
"I'd rather not talked about it." responded Keiichi abrasively.
Before Rena could press on, a dramatic laughter ferociously stabbed the air, nearly deafening the travelling teenagers. Keiichi and Rena glanced over to their right, met with the sight of the cackling girl with leaf-colored hair tied in a ponytail. The girl chimed provocatively, "Nyaha ha ha ha ha! Kei-chan's rather salty today. Must be all those times where he always had to suffer the penalty game."
"Shut up, Mion. You and your stupid rigged games." Keiichi glared.
Mion Sonozaki stuck her nose up and smiled smugly as her teal orbs clashed with the boy's blue ones. "Keep feeding this old man your tears. It makes Uncle Mion so happy."
The aggrieved Keiichi scowled back more intensely. For the past few weeks, he had been subjected to unbridled horrors as a result of losing almost all the club activities. There were times where he was given a break whenever Rika lost and there was that one time where he actually managed to win thanks to the assistance of Satoshi and Touma and gave the girls their overdue comeuppance, but even then, those occasions happened so scarcely and it was only a matter of time before he was sentenced back to his loser status.
Sometimes, he wished that he had Touma's luck (IRONY!) when it comes to these irritating games due to the fact that Touma always somehow never manages to lose and has been trying to ask him for any tips and advice on how to finally beat Mion in her own twisted game to which Touma looks straight into his eyes with a serious and battle-hardened expression that was on his face as he said seriously.
"You don't want to know."
Which, if he were to be honest, had made him anxious, scared, and concerned due to how Touma had said all of that with a straight no nonsense face that looks as if it has undergone so much suffering that no one seems to know about and has experience in fighting a war that seems to be hidden in the shadows. In his eyes, that seems to carry a sign of an ominous warning and premonition. Not just to himself, but to all the members of The Gaming Club. It's because of this that he decided to just drop the matter entirely as a way of respecting Touma's privacy, for now anyway as he knew that it would only be a matter of time before he and the rest of The Gaming Club would be involve in another form of trouble.
Being the leader of The Gaming Club, Mion spared no expenses dishing out his punishments. She forced Keiichi to sport various girly outfits bought just for him, some of them more revealing than others. Once, Keiichi had no choice but to wear a pink bikini and strike many poses that made others around him questioning his sexuality. Luckily enough for him, Satoshi and Touma (whenever he comes back from his long or short trip in The TARDIS) would always be there to step in if it goes a little too out of hand or if it goes a little too far, to which he was eternally grateful and glad that there were two guy friends that he can hang out with unlike in the past when he was the only boy in The Club and made him feel a little outnumbered.
Keiichi shuddered at the gruesome thought. Most of the girls in The Club were brutal, especially Mion, who – for whatever obscure reason – took very sadistic pleasure in torturing the boy through cross-dressing measures. Lately, the elder Sonozaki twin had been paying a lot of special attention to her favorite victim, much to his disdain. Mion went so far as to even come up with a horrible nickname for him, calling him-
"Whipping boy!" Mion hollered, causing Keiichi to cringe over the loud volume. "Live up to your title as "Magician of Words", and keep on ranting. You have such a way with words, even as a sore loser, and frankly, I wanna hear more of your petulant whining."
It took everything Keiichi had to hold his scream.
Then, a new voice joined in on the conversation. The third and final teenage girl, with long lush emerald hair flowing down in a straightforward path to her curvy back, added in, "You have to admit, Kei-chan. Although Onee is extremely critical about it, she makes a valid point. You haven't exactly been doing a great job these past few weeks."
"Oh, gee, I wonder why that is, Shion." Keiichi bristled before mumbling silently. "…filthly cheaters…"
Shion Sonozaki whipped her face left-to-right and flicked her hair, letting her dainty fingers graze the gold ribbon that tied strings of her hair down from the top rear. She simply winked back, not minding the sarcasm hurled at her.
"Now, now, everyone. Let's not make Keiichi-san even more irritated and moody than usual." Satoshi Hojo said as he raises his two hands while trying to defuse the situation without any further incident as he gives a sympathetic look towards Keiichi, who in turn, looks at him with grateful eyes.
Insert Song: Start
Steins;Gate OST - Gate of Steiner
Meanwhile, when all of this was happening, the spiky haired pre-adolescent eleven year old teenager or one hundred year old man at this point, Touma Kamijou, The Imagine Breaker, was having deep reflective thoughts about his adventures and misadventures in Hinamizawa and Okinomiya, along with The Nightmare of The Endless June, The Hinamizawa Syndrome, and the organization that was known as The Committee of 300.
He remembered all of the fun times that he had made in The Club as he gained more friends that makes up for his lonely life back in his universe.
He remembered all of the fun times when he had to dodged everyone of Satoko's complex and creative Traps that were created and designed just for him, with him succeeding in dodging every single one of them, to The Club's surprise and enjoyment, and to Satoko's ire, annoyance, and consternation, as she declares to him boldly to his face one day that he is to be her eternal rival in the game of who or what is the trap and the one who is being trapped.
He remembered and experienced all of those horrible atrocities that were committed by the villagers and by all of his friends that he had made in his 4 month stay in Hinamizawa due to a parasitic virus (The Hinamizawa Syndrome) that triggers whenever a native of the village attempts to leave the region for whatever reason or when the infected in question undergoes physiological or psychological stress due to issues that they may or may not have which turns them into monsters in human form as they begin to slaughter anyone in their path with no hesitation.
The infected would experience anxiety and paranoia accompanied with delusions which would force the infected to commit seemingly unprovoked violent acts which includes suicide and murder. The infected would also feel the sensation of insects crawling under their skin, which was a real-life symptom that was known as formication, which leads to the infected clawing at their own skin, especially over the lymph nodes of the throat. The infected in the end-stages of the virus may claw out their own throat and die from the resulting blood loss.
He remembered facing down against Miyo Takano and the organization that she answers too, TOKYO, which by proxy, was facing down against The Committee of 300 in one of their many front organizations across the multiverse.
He remembered the long blue-violet hime cut miko girl, who wears a white sort sleeved shirt with a pink bow, a navy-blue skirt, navy suspenders, white socks, and red or brown shoes on their school days. While on their free days, she would wear a green sundress, with a white bow in the front and white sandals. During special occasions such as The Watanagashi Festival, she would wear a traditional miko uniform, complete with an ornate hoe topped with tassels.
He remembered becoming mesmerized by the girl as she was performing a sacred dance filled with movements of grace and harmony which is accompanied by the rhythm of the musical instruments that were being played in the background as a form of worship and appeasement towards the local deity known as Oyashiro-sama.
He remembered saving the girl from a random girl that was picking on her, when the bully in question smacked her ice cream and forcibly sent her towards the ground. The bully was about to kick her in the abdomen when he suddenly just waltzes in at the last second and asked in a sharp-pointed question.
"Just what do you think you're doing?"
The little rascal could not answer the sharp-pointed question that was presented to her as she begins to run away back to wherever she came from in fear of the boy. Once that was done, he begins to walk towards the girl's position on the ground and crouched towards her level and locked the bluenette in a warm embrace as he recalls a certain conversation that he had with her while carrying her in his sturdy arms.
"…Touma…?"
"Yeah, it's me." Touma said softly and kindly while smiling confidently and directs a comforting gaze on Rika which causes her heart to flutter. Keeping an arm hung around her back, he raised his other hand over to her head before patting her blue-indigo hair gently. "Y'know, Rika-chan, it's illegal to cry around this Kamijou-san. No beautiful girl around my presence should ever be trapped in the cold chains of sadness. And you're no exception to this."
"M… me… You think I'm… beautiful…?" questioned Rika in pure shock.
Touma suspended his chin up-high, his smile growing wider. "Of course! You're the most beautiful of them all, and I'm honored to be associated with you." he flashed a thumbs-up. "I promise to always make you feel special, and to make all those who would dare try to harm you, get a taste of my right hand," the spiky-haired boy begins to raise his right hand and begins to clench it into a fist to prove his point as he continued. "as I smash their petty illusions and send them hurling towards the ground. You can count on that!"
Rika's lips curled into a broad beaming expression, a complete contrast to her usual frowns of misery. She even giggled lightly over his promises.
"Yeah, THAT'S more like it, Rika-chan," Touma lifted her off her butt gently, keeping her in a caressing hold. His black shirt was smudged with the sticky blood of the deceased blueberry ice cream, though that didn't deter the boy's focus on Rika. "All cute girls should always give cute smiles, and since you're the cutest, you'll have to be extra, extra happy. It's a challenge, but I'm sure you can pull it off."
"Mii hi hi…" a tittering Rika wiggled shyly in his bridal embrace, blushing. "I'll try. Although I have a selfish request."
Touma was curious as to what that was. "Name it."
"Please call me Rika from now on. Not Rika-chan. Rika." Rika said as she gazes at the boy's with hope in her eyes that he would accept her request.
"Alright, Rika." Touma said with confidence as he let it sink to himself as he begins to realize on how much their relationship has changed due to the lack of honorifics as begins to bring her closer to his chest. "What I ask is all that I ask. You should always stay positive from here on out. Now, let's go get you some new ice cream. I'll even buy one for myself, so that we can have fun together that way."
"N… nnii… nniiiii… nipaaahhh ~ !"
It was definitely to his great admittance one of the happiest moments in his long misfortunate life.
He recalled as he looked into the girl's eyes as he spots a familiar and similar feeling that has followed him before The Doctor came into his life.
Pain.
Whereas the denizens of Hinamizawa and Okinomiya saw fresh life sparkle brightly, Touma spotted pure agony glisten dimly. Everyone bought the plastered fake smile on her face hook, line, and sinker; all but Touma. He saw through the false pretenses partly because he was very good at reading people and partly because he also experienced The Endless June since the very beginning and finds an ashen woman, who was the same age as him both physically and mentally, trapped in the chains of suffering, trying to reach out to him in order to helplessly escape from her cruel fate.
Touma felt complete empathy for her. He knew what it was truly like to be imprisoned since he also experienced this pain since childhood up to the present day. The more his black orbs collided with Rika's violet ones, the more relation and understanding Touma sense between himself and the girl. Both of them were confined against the world's sour truth; its veracity feeding on their freedom and happiness.
They were like two birds marked in bleeding scratches harsh reality had unleashed upon them, locked away in cages, kept hidden in cold shrouding darkness and forced away from the warm light. The duo could only sit in their confinements together and watch the whole world around them decay into dust.
There was something else too. Little by little, Rika seemed to know him as a person as they traversed together across this endless hell as the years passed by them with all the pain and suffering that entails while feeling powerless to stop the madness happening all around them.
It was so strange, yet... uplifting ? For whatever reason, Touma felt a sense of happiness blossom inside of him, almost as if he wanted her to recognize him. And somehow, he also sensed the signs of familiarity that linked him and Rika together, almost as if the red string of fate has somehow managed to connect to the duo since the very beginning to the very end of time, despite The Imagine Breaker and its nature and power.
He once remembered a conversation with The Doctor about his uncertain feelings towards Rika as he mentions it in private to The Doctor when no one else was listening besides The TARDIS. The Doctor in turn gave his advice and encouragement to him that sounds as simple in hindsight as it sounds difficult in perspective.
"Why don't you just talk with her, Touma? Be honest with her. For as it stands now, the both of you are the same age, whether in a physical way or in a mental way, and have both experienced the same obstacles and challenges that had been forced down upon you, that made the both of you to grow up into a mature young man and a mature young woman, whether in a positive way or in a negative way, while becoming more experienced and battle-hardened as the both of you tried, failed, and succeeded in over a hundred years, all just to save your friends and Hinamizawa itself from its dark and terrible fate. Without any assistance on my part, mind you! Any normal person of your age would have just given up by now and would have gone utterly mad and would have been the next possible victim for the virus itself, but not you. No. You did not let all of that slow you down. You were her anchor that hoisted her out from the deep ocean of depression and passivity that she would almost plunge herself into as you begin to fight the long fight of the century with all you that have and all that you are while never giving up and never giving in. And in all that time, I could only watch from afar as I was forbidden to intervene as I saw your determination and quick-thinking. I was so very proud of you then. Touma. And I still am now." The Doctor said the last bit with an approving expression and a proud paternal smile as he begins to walk over towards him, and as he begins to draws close to his current position, he bents towards his level of height and places his right hand on his shoulder as he continues in haste and seriousness. "Tell her how you truly feel Touma and I can promise you that you would never regret it. Take the risk, like you did all those years ago, when you would always try to reach out to others with the power of your right hand. Who knows ? You might learn something new about the concept of relationships, whether a thing or two, when you could and would always be by her side as her equal and lover."
"Maybe The Doctor was right. Maybe I should just be honest about how I feel. I should go talk to Rika sometime later, preferably when school's over. I haven't really interacted with her that much anyway besides the fact that I can only talk to her in my phone (IDST (Inter-Dimensional Space-Time) Cellphone) and vice versa due to the fact that I was always away from Hinamizawa, and was either back in my own universe or having adventures and misadventures in The TARDIS alongside my four best friends. It'd be great for me to get clear answers on what is truly going on between the two of us seeing as I was starting to notice that Hanyuu has been acting weird in the last few days since I last visited this universe. That, and I really did missed her." Touma considered carefully as his optics looked up absentmindedly. "Hopefully she isn't absent."
"Mii!"
Insert Song: End
The next thing Touma knew, he was suddenly tackled by a barreling blur that nearly sent him down on the ground. He felt smooth, organic branches wrap around his waist lovingly. His footing faltered slightly, but not enough to collapse, so thankfully, the boy managed to prevent himself from falling.
Touma redirected his sharp eyes straightforward. His optical pupils pinpointed the origins of his assailant: a small petite figure with a vibrant curtain of lapis-lazuli cascading down to her delicate back, her spellbinding violet orbs scintillating in a confusing mood – mixed between happiness and subtle concern – as they stared back at its captive's orbs.
Recognizing the name, two optical spheres that never once ceased in fascinating him, the spiky-haired teenager addressed her kindly with a smile on his face and with longing in his soft voice, "Rika, it's been a while."
"Miii~" Rika clung onto the boy, her arms tightening around his waist in tender grasp. She buried her face into his left shoulder, nestling it affectionately as she uttered in a silent adult voice to his left ear. "It's good to see you again, Touma."
Touma begins to hold her tightly as he says. "It's good to see you too, Rika."
Around them, the club members eyed Touma and Rika with interest at the heartwarming scene before them.
Rena swooned over how cute their two friends looked together and was on the verge of falling into her signature " take-it-home " mode but managed to control herself somehow for once due to the special nature of the scene in question before her. Satoko and Hanyuu, who weren't too far from the group, also shared different reactions. The former became very confused – and slightly jealous and embarrassed – over the scene before her while the latter simply stared at Rika and Touma with an all-knowing smile.
Keiichi (whose mood had slightly improved upon watching Touma and Rika) and Satoshi were watching the scene with interest and intrigue in their eyes as well while watching it in silence as they somehow knew to themselves, as they looked to each other with a smile and a nod of agreement between guys, that this was an intimate moment that should not be ruined by any of their usual bantering and shenanigans and that they should remain as the silent support and respect for their other male friend.
Shion and Mion were also watching the scene with interest accompanied with knowing smirks on their faces as they knew for a while that there was more to Touma and Rika's relationship than meets the eye and they were trying to find hidden and subtle ways on how to see that relationship come to fruition.
Mion quipped with a good humored warning. "Ha ha ha! Be careful Rika-chan. I wouldn't cling onto Touma in public if I were you. People might get the wrong idea."
"Oh, I don't know, Onee. Based on their previous interactions, I'd say that is already too late as most of Hinamizawa and Okinomiya might be aware of this by now." Shion remarked.
Satoko hauled her attention away from Touma and Rika before glancing at Shion, the glitters in her optics brightening joyously. She rushed towards the younger twin and embraced her lovingly. "Shion-san."
Giggling lightly to herself, Shion reciprocated the affectionate gesture. "Hah, hah. Nice to see you too, Satoko-chan.
"I know I've said this an absurd number of times, but it is really great to have you here. Good of you to transfer to our school after that whole fiasco with Takano-san."
Satoko said in excitement as she broke the hug, flashing a beaming smile.
"Yeah." Shion laughed. "You've been bugging me a lot to attend school with you around that time, and well, who was I to deny the request of my surrogate sister."
The blond blushed in response.
"Hey, Satoko-chan. What about me? Don't I get a hug from my little sister?" Satoshi said humorously while feeling a little left out from the family bonding.
The blond girl then begins to beamed with a wide smile which was full of joy and sunshine as she begins to run towards her older brother in full speed and begins to hug him tightly to herself, to which the elder Hojo reciprocated willingly, as a constant reminder to herself that her big brother is finally here talking to her and is now awake from his three long year coma, all because of The Doctor, who had managed to wake him up with a little help from The TARDIS and is now an active member of The Club once again, to Satoko's happiness and excitement, as she was finally getting what she had always wanted and dreamed about, which was for her brother to return to her and to spend time with her and Shion for the rest of their days like never before.
"Mmmmm…." Rika hummed fondly, pulling her face off of Touma's shoulder, She aimed her soft gaze at the boy in front of her before commenting.
"...something wrong, Touma?"
Touma blinked, his mind fuddled in confusion over the sudden question. "What?"
"You are upset about something. I can see the rancor dancing in your pupils as clear as day." elaborated Rika. Her pupils fluctuated in size as her eyelids drooped. "I hope I'm not the source of your problem."
The male in his sweet eleven waved his hands wildly in a surrender gesture, flinching over the bluenette's dejected appearance. "Oh, no, no, no! There isn't any issues I have with you, Rika. And I'm not that upset either. It's just-" he said as he remembered a certain organization (The Committee of 300) with a calculative look and a serious frown. "-an itch that I have a very hard time scratching that's been bugging me. Never knows when to quit."
Rika's deflated countenance arose in high spirits. She hid her arms behind her back, allowing both hans to intertwine.
The indigo-haired girl's eyes straightened and reverted back to their zest nature. "Ah, yes. A twitch of an inch, gripping the power to quiver one's serenity so aggressively. Sure sounds troublesome, that-is-so. Hmmm… well, I know a friend who deals with this kind of difficulty daily. If I remember him well, I would imagine him to focus more on what makes him happy and just leave the itch alone until it departs. Itches only feed themselves from discontentment, after all."
"Heh, heh, heh." Touma chuckled, completely aware of who she was referring to. Uplifted away from bitterness' acidic grounds, he felt his usual buoyancy gradually return. "Your probably right. As usual. Being negative is a no-go. It is better for me to look more into the positive. Can't believe I forgot all about that. Thanks for reminding me, Rika."
"No, thank you. You were the first to teach me such a lesson a long time ago. It's the least I can do to repay you for that. You pry me away from my itch, I pry you away from yours." Rika's lips stretched outwardly to her cheeks, forming a broad grin of pure innocence. "Nipah~!"
Everyone laughed wholeheartedly.
"Alright everyone. We should probably get going now! Off to class! Otherwise, we might get punished by Rumiko-sensei for tardiness." Mion said as she begins to remind them of their limited time before class starts officially.
The joyous howls ceased. Rena piped up. "Hauuu, definitely. It isn't good to be late to school."
Then suddenly, an imaginary light bulb begins to form in the back of the pre-teen spiky-haired boy's mind as he begins to think of a way of getting into the classroom in accordance with the ways and concepts of fun. That, and he knew to himself that Satoko herself had laid traps just for him to which he anticipated with interest and that he wanted to spring the traps in style as he thought before coming here and now as he looks towards Satoko, who notices and was rather intimidated by the look of determination and confidence in his facial expression and optical senses.
"Challenge Accepted, Satoko-chan"
Insert Song: Start
Blondie - One Way or Another (Lyrics)
"Ha, ha, ha! Race you all there!" Touma darted towards the entrance of the school, expecting the various and diverse surprises that was awaiting him there.
Everyone blinks at that reaction.
After the blinking expressions, Keiichi begins to follow suite as well as he was inspired by the spiky-haired boy's sudden action and wanted to follow him as an example. "Ha, ha, ha! Wait for me, Touma!" then he turns his back towards Mion. " And while we're at it, kiss my a**, Mion."
Mion glared daggers at the scampering boy. "Why you… !"
Satoshi begins to follow suite as well as he wants to join in on the fun as well. "Ah! Wait just a minute you two! I'm coming as well!"
" Wait! Satoshi!"
" Wait! Nii-nii! (Big Brother!) Wait! Don't go with them!"
Shion and Satoko said with their hands raised as they tried to stop him from being pulled into her trap that was meant only for Touma as they begin to follow suite as well.
"Oh my. Touma and the other boys are wasting no amount of time, it seems, au au. Too bad. I wonder if they can prepare themselves for what was about to happen next. " Hanyuu, faking to be worried, stared at the male in question before averting her gaze over to Rika. Raillery flooded all over her gleaming orchid spheres. " I'm sure you know where I am going with this, Rika."
Her relative, adorned in a vibrant cataract of azure hair, paled tremendously, The thought of Satoko's special surprise began to rush through alarmingly in memory. "Oh, no…" and before she knew it, Rika's feet were already shuffling swiftly towards Touma, struggling to catch up. "Touma! Wait! Don't go! Don't go!"
"Uh oh, this is definitely not good. Rena, Let's go." Mion said as she followed suite.
"Yeah. You go it." Rena said with nod. as she begins to follow right behind Mion.
The boys are trying their very best to outrace the other as they reached for the entrance of the classroom. Touma was in the lead, with Keiichi being the second and Satoshi being the third, as he was running faster than the other two boys as they now begin to dodge the various and diverse traps that were laid out before them such as but not limited too: water buckets, bowling bowls, automatic paint guns and water guns, water balloons, and many other things of improvise traps that were somehow laid in their respective positions in one way or another.
Now, you all may be wondering as to how all of these traps were set up by a girl who was no less than 11 years old.
Well, to put it simply and rather bluntly, she really is that good at what she really does and is an expert and a professional when it comes to making traps of all shapes and sizes in the formation of their complex designs. She also got all of these goodies through The TARDIS, in accordance with The Doctor's permission and instructions, in order to use them to her very heart's interest and content, as long as no one truly gets hurt from said traps. Naturally, Satoko took full advantage of this and has been doing all of these practical and complex stunts for the last four weeks as she has every intention to use them in order to get back at Touma, who she had declared as her eternal rival and will stop at nothing to insure that he finally gets the reckoning and comeuppance that he deserved for all the times that he had managed to escape her and her traps.
This and so much more is the very reason why she was called by a certain nickname in The Afterschool Gaming Club.
A nickname that she well earned and well deserved.
The Trap Master.
"Almost there." Touma said as begins to dodge the carpets that were laid out to him on the wooden floor.
Meanwhile, to those in the backside of the race.
"Oh man. It's been so long since we've been this close to beating the other girls at their own game." Keiichi said as he was enjoying this chase which has managed to improve his mood.
"You and me both, Keiichi-san." Satoshi said as well in excitement and anticipation.
But...
Just as thing seemed to be going in their positive direction, something unexpected happened.
"Ack!"
"Ack!"
Keiichi and Satoshi lost their footing and tripped towards the ground with their faces flat, with its cause being one of the hidden wires that were placed there on the school by Satoko just for Touma, who managed to dodge all of them by chance as expected, as their eyes were in full dizziness mode. This results in them being out of the prank trap race.
"Ugh!"
"Ugh!"
Shion and Satoko went towards Satoshi's side while Mion and Rena went towards Keiichi's side.
"Satoshi!"
"Nii-nii (Big Brother)!"
"Keiichi!"
"Keiichi-kun!"
Meanwhile, to a certain bluenette who was still trying to stop her beloved from getting caught in the blond-haired girl's trap.
"Achk! Why does he always not listen to me? Oh, that boy and his reckless behavior, I swear." cursed Rika internally. She raced faster, marginally closing the large gap between herself and Touma. "Touma, Touma, Miiiiiii!"
Through forces unexplained, Rika's sprinting feet picked up massive quantities of momentum, bolting towards Touma in lightning speed.
"And with this last step… marks the end of the race." the eleven-year-old male youth was only a step way from his destination with a victorious smile on his face. He extended one hand out to the closed doorways, paying no heed to how close his feet were in stamping the inapposite carpet. "Flawless Victory!"
His right foot was just centimeters above the rich fabric.
"Nnnnoooooooooooooooo!"
"Uhngh!"
Splash!
Insert Song: End
An enormous column of light-pink erupted from where the carpet once rested. Emerging as a strange and unidentifiable liquid , the rising pillar dispersed into showering rain, descending down on the motionless earth and school building in full glory.
One person was situated near the volcanic traphole that exploded. They sat on the dirt ground with eyes as wide as dinner plates, their gaping mouth nearly reaching down their neck in shock.
All the other club members that were a few meters away from the incident in yonder were wide-eyed as well. They briskly scuttled over to the scene, letting their stomping feat jab the faint dust out of the terra firma repeatedly. Most of the club members catered to the pothole that served in place of the missing fabric, cringing for reasons unknown.
Only Rena tended to the shell-shocked person. "Haauuu, are you alright?"
"Yeah." nodded the fallen figure as Rena helped them spring up to their feet. "I can't believe what transpired just now. Did it really…?"
Rena displayed a gentle smile. "It did. I never saw it coming either. Who would have thought that a day like this would occur? A time where you almost fall into one of Satoko-chan's traps. Astounding, isn't it… Touma-kun."
" Understatement of The Year, Rena-san." 'Or Century ' Touma, now revealed to be the person in mystery, admitted truthfully, with the last part silently in his mind. He glances over to the small crater in concern. "I hope Rika's okay. That trap Satoko set up looked pretty intense."
Seconds later, a high-sonic screech busted out from the deep opening. Everyone around had either recoiled in trembling alarm, or had covered their sensitive ears to protect their hearing. Touma rose on his feet posthaste and strode over to the pit-trap, with Rena accompanying him from his right.
The two joined their friends and inspected the screaming hole. Their noses were instantly clogged in a miasma of overwhelming aroma, leaving all of them to swallow the threatening urges to puke.
Inside, there emerged a seething Rika Furude, drenched in faint rose-colored liquid. Her school clothes were all saturated to the hilt, and her flooding-cerulean hair was sullied. Rika pinched her nose tightly as she floated in the aberrant pond, screaming. "Oh, Kami! Hot sauce and rotten milk! Ugh! You have got to be kidding me! Some of it managed to seep in my mouth! Bleh!"
All the other club members scrunched their noses in disgust, using their thumbs and fingers to seal any open entrance off for the welcome stench. Satoko, fuschia orbs glimmering in guilt, shot a fixed look of remorse at her best friend. "Sorry, Rika. I didn't mean for this to happen to you."
"Well, it did! Inconceivable! Egad!" a sickening shade of green eclipsed The Furude Princess' face. Firmly keeping one hand placed on her compressed nose, Rika moved her other hand and swung it vigorously through the floundering mixture of spicy condiments and decaying dairy. She upraised the reeking liquid towards Satoko, spraying her clumsily. "Here! Have a taste of your own crap! Damn it, someone get me out of here!"
Satoko squealed shrilly, flinching over the warm wet touch of concocted fluids that assaulted her green dress harshly. The snare specialist stumbled back.
Touma reacted the quickest. He crouched down, bent over, and stretched an open hand out to the irate bluenette, who blatantly swam closer and accepted the open fist in moment's notice. Grabbing onto the appendage securely, the spiky-haired boy levered Rika up, keeping her suspended in midair momentarily before helping her out of the deep hole.
The child with lapis-lazuli hair let out a low hiss, mumbling inaudibly to herself as she wiped off the little remains of hot-sauced milk that dawdled down her arms and legs. Rika grabbed a handful of her indigo mane and distorted it in a tight braid, squeezing out the parasitic fluids that soaked her hair through heavy twisting.
She then dug into her backpack and pulled out a metallic water bottle, which she used to guzzle down on, drowning out the grotesque stale tastes invading her mouth.
Placing the now half-filled container back in her bag, she glanced down at the crater in contempt, momentarily eyeballing the stained carpet that wafted mindlessly through the foul-smelling pond.
After that, Rika shifted her focus back to Touma, who had taken a few steps back from her so as not to be caught in her circle of rage. Any residuals of lingering anger dissipated from Rika entirely. Her scornful visage alleviated, and at the same time bringing life to a more appreciative, lighthearted look on her face. She said graciously. "Thanks for helping me out, Touma. I knew I could count on you."
Touma, sitting down on one knee, sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, It was nothing." And at that precise moment, veins suddenly popped out near the sides of his head, throbbing strenuously. Bothered tremendously by the dull aching, he clutched onto his head, cringing as he groaned, "..hnnghh… nhhh…"
Everyone noticed his ordeal, scrutinizing him with worry in their eyes. Hanyuu asked in concern, "Au, au, is everything okay, Touma?"
Rika became concerned as well as she begins to come closer towards him as she touches him on the right shoulder. "Touma, are you alright?"
At first, Touma didn't respond due to the constant headache that seems to be forcing him to puke on his insides as he remembers forcibly all the many different timelines that he had experience in The Endless June as a side effect of his other ability besides Imagine Breaker due to the constant time jumps that seem to be taking a toll on him as a result of all of the timelines and dead worlds that he jumped from along with Rika and Hanyuu.
Reading Steiner.
The Reading Steiner is a term referring to an ability that some humans possess, after switching timelines and world lines, retain memories of events that have occurred (from the person's perspective and point of view in question) before the switch. This ability is also referred to as The President's Disease in The Science Adventure Verse, as those with this ability remember Vladimir Putin as the President of Russia instead of General Secretary of The Soviet Union.
Déjà vu is one of the main factors for Reading Steiner and are highly related to each other.
Déjà vu is the feeling that one has lived through the present situation before. This is a French phrase that translates literally as "already seen". Although some interpret déjà vu in a paranormal context, mainstream scientific approaches reject the explanation of déjà vu as "precognition" or "prophecy". It is an anomaly of memory whereby, despite the strong sense of recollection, the time, place, and practical context of the "previous" experience are uncertain or believed to be impossible.
Two types of déjà vu are recognized in the official scientific community:
1.) The pathological déjà vu usually associated with epilepsy.
2.) Or that which, when unusually prolonged or frequent, or associated with other symptoms such as hallucinations, may be an indicator of neurological or psychiatric illness, and the non-pathological type characteristic of healthy people, about two-thirds of whom have had déjà vu experiences.
People who travel often or frequently watch movies are more likely to experience déjà vu than others. Furthermore, people also tend to experience déjà vu more in fragile conditions or under high pressure, and research shows that the experience of déjà vu also decreases with age.
In popular culture, the Mandela effect is equivalent to Reading Steiner. The term "Mandela effect" was coined in 2010 by self-proclaimed "paranormal researcher" Fiona Broome in 2010 and has become popular. It refers to the memories that people have which are apparently false in their universe, but which they believe are correct in some parallel universe, and believers in the Mandela effect typically believe that they were originally in a universe where those memories were correct, but then somehow got transported to another current universe where their memories differ with reality. Several examples of the Mandela effect are remembering Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, remembering The Berenstain Bears books being spelled as The Berenstein Bears, remembering Looney Tunes cartoons being called Looney Toons, remembering Billy Graham dying in the 1990s, and remembering a 1990s movie staring Sinbad called "Shazaam" where Sinbad played a genie. In 2017, believers in the Mandela effect even theorized that experiments by CERN resulted in the Donald Trump from a parallel universe becoming President of the United States in another universe.
The actual explanation for some of these phenomena is that people simply have false memories, and that sometimes many people have the same collective false memories, for a variety of reasons. For instance, in the case of the Berenstain Bears being misremembered as the Berenstein Bears, this is because names ending with -stein are much more common than names ending with -stain, and children are usually not that good at spelling, and when someone remembers their childhood as an adult, their adult brain fills in missing details. In the case of the fictional Sinbad movie "Shazaam", people are actually remembering the Shaquille O'Neal movie Kazaam where Shaq played a genie, but Shazaam is a more common word for magicians to use than Kazaam, Shaq was mostly a basketball player who did not do much acting, and Sinbad did plenty of comedic acting around that time. In the case of Nelson Mandela, people are likely misremembering him being released from prison in 1990 as him dying in the 1980s, because news stories about people dying are more common than news stories about people being released from prison, Nelson Mandela was already fairly old at this time, and as far as getting the date wrong, 1990 was several decades ago and practically in the 80s. Pretty much all examples of the Mandela effect have very easy logical explanations like this.
However, the Mandela effect is notable in that it works in the exact same way as Reading Steiner, namely someone having memories of an alternate reality as part of a multiverse, with their consciousness and memories having shifted from one universe/worldline to another. The fact that a popular Mandela effect conspiracy theory involves CERN (equivalent to SERN in The SAS (Science Adventure Series) Verse) doing experiments that result in shifting from one universe/worldline to another is also notable. Since the Mandela effect was thought of independently from Reading Steiner around the same time, and works in the same way, this is an example of synchronicity, an idea that The Doctor and other people are fond of using in order to explain coincidences, which is also one of the 11 articles on We-Key Pedophilia, The SAS (Science Adventure Series) Verse alternate version of Wikipedia.
Through after half a minute of silent and dreadful waiting, the boy withdrew his hand away from his head, showing no signs of pounding vessels nor a strained expression evident on any part of his face. He smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, sorry everyone, I've been getting these migraines for the past few weeks since travelling in The TARDIS. But nothing too bad, it usually just goes away every few seconds or so."
It didn't really reassure everyone at all, since Touma basically told them to their face that this wasn't really the first time that this had happened and as a result, Mion suggested that they should probably bring him back to The TARDIS where he would be checked-up by The Doctor due to a possible illness that he may have gotten in his adventures and misadventures. Naturally, they all agreed, with Rika herself volunteering alone to take Touma back to The TARDIS all by herself as well as to allow Touma and herself to get cleaned in the ultrasonic showers of The TARDIS.
Next Scene:
Meanwhile, Rika and Touma were walking together at the forest, all alone with no one around to intrude. Rika was beaming ecstatically at Touma, much to his puzzlement over her cheery comportment. Her arms hid behind her back playfully, her heels hopped over and over in excitement while her toes remained attached to the ground, and her eyes dilated, revealing more of her sparkling orchid bubbles.
"So, uhh," Touma began awkwardly as he walks alongside her. "I see you're happy… to, erm, see me. And you want me alone, to talk."
"Yup!" Rika tweeted before giggling cutely, heavily entertained with the boy's nervous state. "Are you embarrassed to have a cute girl pull you over in private, Touma? It's okay if that's the case. This isn't something that occurs naturally, especially for a boy like you. But you mustn't be so timid. This kitty cat doesn't bite. Nipah!"
Touma fidgeted slightly, feeling chagrined. Though he couldn't resist revealing the bright grin that crept slowly on his facial features. There was never a single moment when Rika would ever fail at making him happy. He sniggered. "Yeah, I know better than to believe you would ever bite. I'm just very surprised, is all. So… what exactly did you want me for?"
The Furude Princess stretched her vivacious smile ear-to-ear. She swayed towards Touma, moving in such blissful, elegant grace that would send any awe-stricken human groveling down at her feet. Rika stopped in her travels, grabbed Touma by his shoulders, and leaned in. She was inches away from his flushed face. "I want to thank you, Touma."
"Huh?" mumbled Touma, the heat on his cheeks cooling off. He plainly blinked under confusion as he went on ahead in his questioning. "Thank me for what? And why?"
Rika stops as she lifted one hand off from one of the male's shoulders and dragged it over to his head, patting the turts of his spiky hair fondly as she answered. "For all the numerous things that you have done for me when I needed help, and for always being the only one to really be there for me. For all the wonderful things that you did when you were helping out all the members of The Club. I'm extremely grateful. Earlier from that surprise Satoko nearly pulled on you, I pushed you out of the way. That was me trying to repay you for your good deeds, though, ermm… obviously, I ended up needing you to get me out of trouble again, as usual."
"Hey, now that's okay, Rika." Touma eased kindly, feeling Rika's patting hand slide back down to his open shoulder as he pressed on. "This Kamijou-san would be more than willing to assist you with anything in any way. No exceptions. There's no need to thank or repay me for it all."
"You're wrong." the sapphire-blue haired child shook her head. Her child-like voice deepened in tone, a swarm of solemnity invested her speech invested her speech and crumbled any residual pieces of joy that in its way. She said maturely. "For me, it is necessary to express my gratitude. Believe me when I say that you are a great significant part of my life. I would have never gotten this far in life without you. You're the best gift this world has ever given me."
Discernable astonishment made its way up to Touma's face. "R.. Rika…"
Refusing to acknowledge his great surprise, Rika persisted in talking. Her face heaved onward, gradually erasing the invisible force that blocked off the face of the young man before her.
The couple's cheeks flared in crimson, though Rika's manifested more intense heat. She said. "Lately throughout the past weeks of this new July, I was stuck between a rock and hard place, wondering without end over what you were to me. My first and grievous mistake in this conundrum was to regard you as a good friend, but now I start to see the truth clearly."
Touma gulped, irritably agonized Rika's snail-snaking motion. It was as if time judged movement through observing the dragging hours. His mind already started to see where the whole situation was heading, but decided to play ignorant as he wants to know the truth as well. "What do you mean? What truth?"
"You silly, silly boy." Rika felt her eyelids drape halfway as she puckered her lips slightly. "I'm saying that I don't view you as a platonic companion. I perceive you as someone who I can fully connect with in body and soul. In my clear perspective, you are my hero: the one who scorches my burdens with hopeful luminescene, my guardian: the one sent down from heaven's paradise to look out for me, and, you're the one my beating heart is drawn to…"
The bluenette halted her advances, her face standing just an apple's stem away from Touma. With the subtle movements of her lips, Rika Furude enunciated the conclusion of her finishing statement: the words that perfectly described her relations with the male visible in her unblinking vision, and that would, once and for all, uplift the curtains blinding Touma Kamijou's cognizance of romance. "…my partner."
And at that moment, Rika pressed her soft lips against Touma's.
It was a kiss that had lasted no more than fifteen seconds at most. But that wasn't the case for the two kindred souls entwined through lip contact. For them, the display of affection stretched over to eternity's distant range. Rika pushed deeper, squeezing the smooth, slippery flesh that watered her own. She gripped onto Touma's shoulders in tender tightness as her lips sank deeper into the kiss.
A feminine groan of pleasure roped between the mouths of the duo, signaling the overwhelming passion and long overdue desire that pranced about.
Rika's viewpoint was pitch-black through the beginnings of this eventful moment, but halfway, her optics shot open in shock. Her body jolted taken aback by the unexpected pressure from her lips that shoved her head rearwards. The girl let out a muffled gasp before whimpering lightly, perceiving the strong, gentle, and warming soft arms coiling around her tiny waist cordially.
She couldn't believe what was transpiring. "Touma… he's… he's kissing back…"
"Mmmm… mmmnnhh…" moans ejected from both parties, muffled voices of sonorous male and female resonated in flawless unison. Rika felt the on-going surges of pure love intensify, plunging her in heated dizziness. She twisted and rotated her lips around in a myriad of directions, with Touma mirroring every one of her maneuvers perfectly as she did so.
The duo joined in mouth-to-mouth welcomed the oozing warmth together, happily sharing at partaking in the compelling magic that hopped vigorously around their connected lips through its exhilarating wild sparks.
Eventually, succeeding a fourth of a minute, Rika and Touma split away from their passionate parade of love, both puffing for air with raptured smiles plastered on their searing hot faces.
Touma gave an embarrassing stutter as he tried to process what had just happened and what did they just did. "Wow… uhm… that was… incredible ! I.. uh… I… just… um…"
Rika giggled with pleasure at the spiky-haired boy's reaction to what they had just done as she complimented. " Excellent way to describe our new-found experience together, Imagine Breaker. Indeed, this feeling was an occurrence that should have been non-existent to reality, yet the both of us joined as one and managed to create this enchanted spell. Amazing… once again, you brought your miracles to life."
"No, Rika." Touma clarified. "We have brought this miracle to life. Together."
They both chortled. To them, their kiss was the prime epitome to life itself. Both parties felt the enormous rupture of jouissance explode from their hearts, its sizzling particles climbing up to their lips, blanketing them in cozy tenderness.
Touma and Rika could only quiver in pleasure as they recalled the caressing warmth transmit over to one another, tying them together in concerted snuggles. With that kiss, the couple felt whole, completed, united as one.
"I feel like a lone spirit conjoined with another soul possessing certain attributes, ones that blend and conflict amidst my own. I see you as the optimistic side of myself I've lost all those years ago, and as the courageous person whose valor defines you as your own individual." Rika use her dainty hands to knead Touma's shoulders. " You're the second half to my life, and I don't ever want to depart from you."
Touma's pupils and black glimmering rings fixed at Rika's, enlarging in amazement. Doing his best not to submit against the easing massages, he grabbed onto the small pair of shoulders the bluenette carried around, squeezing them gingerly. "You really love me that much, Rika?"
"Yes." the sole Furude heiress cheeped bashfully and boldy. Her amethyst spheres veered to her left, staring off in the open isolated environment of the campus. She croaked. "I do."
And it was then Touma noted a particular facet to Rika's outward appearance upon closer inspection. "Hey… are you crying?"
Beads of fresh salty tears moderately inundated the edges of her eyes. Bothered by the stinging heat around her optical spheres, Rika wiped off the looming tears with a simple wave of the hand across it, leaving a dried line of water tracing over her left eye and side of her face. She sniffed. "I suppose I am. But these are happy tears. This is the first time in so long since I've been able to indulge in joy."
Touma smiled a little at that as he raises his left thumb towards the optics of the bluenette's face as he begins to wipe her aqueduct tears as gently as he could as he said in a serious tone. "You know... sometimes... when a girl cries, it's not usually over just one thing. It's all the built up emotions that she's been holding in for too long without anyone noticing. Sometimes... it's okay to cry every now and then, since the sky does that too whenever it decides that it's time to bring down the water on the earth. This Kamijou-san would normally never allow anyone, especially girls, to cry when he's around, but in this case, I can make an exception. I believe that we should always remember and hold on to these tears whether if it is happy or sad for they remind us constantly of what we have lost and what we have found as we move forward in our life. Tears are a very special language in the multiverse, you know. Tears are just words that the mind and the heart cannot just normally express. It's one of the few known common languages that can be understood by basically anyone of any race or nationality or origin. So it's better to cry than to hold it in, because holding it in tends to hurt oneself and others while tears flow silently through the soul and cleans the heart."
The ultramine-haired child blinked at the words of wisdom that came out of the mouth of the spiky-haired child as she simply shakes her head, puzzled and intrigued as she said with a curious tone. "Did The Doctor taught you all that?"
The spiky-haired child then gave a slight embarrassed expression as he raised his right hand towards his head scratching as he said. "Uh… Well, actually I got some of that from the internet, the rest I just made up on the fly as I draw from said history lessons."
"Inter-net?" The lavender-girl tilted her head in curiosity and confusion.
"Well…" Touma said slowly as he begins to explain. "It hasn't really been introduced to Japan yet at this point in time since if I remember my History Lesson right, it would be somewhere around September 1984, which would be next year, when a man named Jun Murai connected Keio University and Tokyo Institute of Technology with a 300 bps line using a telephone line instead of the physical delivery of tape media. The rest is history and if I were to explain to you every single one of them in detail, we'd be here all day."
Rika smiled lovingly and amusingly at the boy's attempt to divert her tears with interesting information about the future that she was pondering about not a few days ago.
"Speaking of the future." Rika thought as she begins to ponder and recall on what Touma's world was really and actually like, since in that world, science and technology had advanced so rapidly, with new discoveries and inventions coming in every now and then, as the city that Touma lives in was the designated place were science reigned supreme, as magic and the supernatural would be shunned as superstitious and unprogessive.
Academy City.
As the city's name suggests, it is a city of several schools and institutions of higher learning from kindergarten to university level that learn side-by-side along with the scientists who research on psychic powers and higher technology, the latter being one of the primary reasons for its establishment. It is the most advanced city in the world and its technology is said to be 20 or 30 years ahead of the world. Academy City is composed of 23 districts, called School Districts which are simply numbered from one to twenty-three and each of these districts have a specific purpose.
Located just west of Tokyo, it is apparently located in a region where there is a constant wind that flows within the city, allowing its wind turbines to generate power. Climate in Academy City is probably the same in Tokyo and other surrounding areas, though through its technological advances they are able to predict the weather much more accurately and can actually give schedules on when the weather might change. Academy City is roughly 1/3 the size of Tokyo.
As stated, Academy City is composed of 23 districts, which are simply called School Districts and are numbered from one to twenty-three. Each of these districts has a specific purpose; below lists all 23 School Districts of Academy City, including their functions and purposes.
District Number Functions/Specializations/Noted Locations:
1 - Where most of the city's administration is located.
2 - Training areas for Judgment and Anti-Skill, military-related facilities.
3 - Accommodations for authorized outsiders (which also includes hotels, private pools, etc.).
4 - Food-related facilities, including experimental crop growing.
5 - Mostly filled with universities and junior colleges.
6 - Recreational facilities, which also includes an amusement park.
7 - Middle and high schools, school dormitories, boarding houses, hospitals, the "Windowless Building" where Aleister Crowley Himself is located.
8 - Mainly for the various teaching staff of the city.
9 - Industrial arts and fine arts schools.
10 - Reformatories, nuclear energy research facilities, the city's only cemetery.
11 - Goods transfer.
12 - Theology system schools.
13 - Kindergartens and primary schools.
14 - Accommodations and various other facilities for overseas students.
15 - A large district consisting of the city's major shopping district and mass communications facilities.
16 - Focuses on commerce.
17 - Railway cargo storage and organization. Location of a special prison for high profile criminals.
18 - Kirigaoka Girls' Academy and Nagatenjouki Academy.
19 - Uncertain; has been in a decline recently.
20 - Schools focused on raising athletic students along with their esper abilities.
21 - Dams for water storage; observatory in the mountains.
22 - The smallest district in terms of surface area; this district is mainly for developing technology for an underground town in the face of land shortages in major cities.
23 - Airline companies and aeronautics and space development.
She once suggested to Touma on whether or not she could attend such a place as it seems to be an interesting place and that she could be close to Touma and not have to be far away from him all the time, but Touma discouraged her very heavily on that idea since one, she might have to leave all of her friends behind in Hinamizawa and Okinomiya and that he doesn't want that to happen and two, he said that Academy City isn't all that great along with the fact that it isn't really all sunshine and rainbows.
For instance.
Academy City is the first to successfully create artificial espers, because of this however, many organizations such as The Science Association and other Science Side organizations desire the secrets of the program, as well as the ire and suspicion of The Magic Side. As consequence to this, security in the city is extremely tight with three surveillance satellites above the city, including a wall that separates the city from the outside world among others.
Some of the scientists who research psychic powers try to increase a person's powers, especially if said powers are unique, via unethical methods such as dangerous drugs and experiments.
Some of these methods achieve their desired results, but others fail horribly, ending with its participants traumatized, injured, or even dead. In fact, some of the most powerful espers in Academy City are the result of these dark programs.
It is implied, through the fact that the city is always under surveillance, that Academy City's Board of Directors are aware of these experiments, but choose to turn a blind eye to them and allow the scientists that run them to do as they wish as long as the public does not know and said experiments have achieved their desired results.
Furthermore, The Doctor (who has known all about Academy City since his seventh incarnation and wasn't really shocked by it when he found out about what lies in the dark due to encountering it so many times before across his various adventures but he was rather furious at what had been done to the children of the city as they were forced to unknowingly become lab rats to unethical science experiments and how most of the adults there were practically ignorant, incompetent, cold, and cruel in taking care of them and has made multiple contingency plans in the event when he would one day free the children of Academy City from their cruel fate), Touma, and his best friends found out to their shock and horror that Academy City itself was preventing the majority of espers from developing their powers via The Parameter List.
The Parameter List is a database of espers and their potential levels. It is used as a basis of comparison for esper development procedures and the efficiency of said procedures.
Because of the lack of facilities for espers with slow growth, some students give up entirely in attaining an esper power and become criminals or Skill-Out, armed Level 0s that are against espers. Strife between Skill-Out and espers continue to grow in Academy City, with harmless Level 0s being taken in the crossfire.
Moreover, Levels are used as a status symbol for students, and especially apparent in schools such as Tokiwadai Middle School, the higher levels are more likely to treat lower levels poorly even with disdain.
List of Level Categories:
Powers are filed under one of the following stages accordingly with their strength:
Examples:
Level 6 - Person with Absolute Powers
Powers of an extent that they're considered immeasurable. However, nobody has been able to achieve it yet, with many institutes in the city trying to find ways to attain it. Not yet achieved
Level 5 - Person with Super Powers
Powers of an extent that their wielder can fight alone against a military force on equal terms.
Level 4 - Person with Great Powers
Powers of an extent that their wielder acquires tactical value of a military force.
Level 3 - Person with Strong Powers
The degree when powers are considered convenient in everyday life, ability-wise this is the Level when one starts to be treated as part of the elite.
Level 2 - Person with Unusual Powers
Just like Level 1, powers are not very useful in everyday life.
Level 1 - Person with Low Powers
Powers of the degree to bend a spoon, many students belong here.
Level 0 - Person with No Powers
Exceptions aside, cannot be considered completely powerless, but is considered one of the so-called "students that can't keep up at school". Might possess some degree of power, but unable to truly control it.
That, and if she thought that Miyo Takano and TOKYO were bad, that was a mere nothing compared to what lies in the city's dark underworld belly. The one place where people lose their innocence along with their hopes and dreams as they become forced to turn themselves into living weapons that were to be used at the city's beck and call.
The Dark Side of Academy City.
The Dark Side of Academy City refers to the criminal underworld of Academy City. Reaching to the very top of the city's administration, as stated, it is often engaged in criminal enterprises, such as human experimentation, espionage, and assassinations.
The origins of The Dark Side of Academy City apparently evolved out of the need for the higher-ups of the city to have more security to protect the city's assets like the various research institutions.
Officially, Academy City is guarded by two organizations.
Anti-Skill and Judgment.
Anti-Skill is the term used to refer to Academy City's police and security forces. Unlike Judgment, members of Anti-Skill are ordinary adults who work in the city. One is essentially a volunteer when they join Anti-Skill, and as such is not paid to do Anti-Skill work; however, the city compensates for Anti-Skill members' help in the experiment by giving them various gifts and privileges.
Judgment is a term used to refer to Academy City's student-based disciplinary committee. They are composed of students of varying grade levels and power, and along with Anti-Skill, they are tasked to maintain peace-and-order within the school system. Judgement members can be recognized by the armbands they wear over their right sleeves, which are green with white stripes and which have a shield symbol.
However, due to the powers of espers, as well as the developed military technology of the city, the organization's structure and equipment with dealing with them has been weakened. This "Darkness" fills the role of security where Anti-Skill and Judgement cannot provide. People from the Darkness provide protection and security to important people and the various research institutions. This is born from the members of the Board of Directors and other important persons hiring personal bodyguards as well as companies and research facilities hiring private armies. The people the Darkness hire are composed by a variety of people, from individuals with esper powers and special abilities, to failed students or persons who are selected for a specific purpose. Though each organization and the personnel in them has their own quirks and skills, somehow or another each of them has a dark past behind them.
Apparently, factions from the Darkness are all known to Aleister Crowley, and can be controlled by him as he sees fit, in accordance with his unknown plans.
Much if not all operations done within The Dark Side of Academy City is done in secret. This attribute has likely contributed to the unique subculture of the dark side of Academy City. An example of this unique culture is that those who have been sold into an organization can be hunted down by others if they attempt escape.
Another is the case of an apparent "execution", where it is revealed that when agents of the dark side are convinced that someone is executed and dead, they will not go after that person again because they have convinced themselves as it is an etiquette of the dark side.
Espers are either used for experimental purposes or are recruited to the dark side of Academy City. Most espers were used for experiments in their younger days and later become operatives in the "Darkness" using their powers to aid their organizations.
As the Board of Directors are involved, both Judgment and Anti-Skill are often powerless when it comes to dealing with the forces of the dark side, often with the higher-ups meddling through sheer bureaucracy and red-tape or the withholding of vital information.
Money is still a powerful motivator for organizations however. The Factions of The Dark Side are paid for the missions they successfully complete. However, there exists organizations that are in the "Darkness" out of principle in their quest for justice in the city or gathered armed Level 0s to oppose abusive espers, can be found in Academy City.
And if it wasn't really bad enough, there was one dark side organization that was the most dangerous, the most feared, and the most ruthless of them all.
The Kihara Family.
The Kihara Family is one of the largest gatherings of scientists that work for Academy City's dark side and the forerunners of the most twisted human experiments. As a result, many if not most of them are highly influential scientists with high-ranking posts over multiple organizations under Academy City.
The one trait that all Kiharas have in common is a natural aptitude in science, as well as the gravitation of their actions to the most evil to most human standards. The Kiharas completely ignore all moral and ethics of science and humanity for sake of experimenting. Due to the fact that all family members are highly intelligent combined with no sense of morality; the results of their experiments have yielded tremendous success at the cost of traumatizing or killing many people. This blatant disregard for human life extends to their own kin as well as some of them were experimented on by their own family. Most of them have little remorse or problems on their conscience as they killed with no hesitation.
If Academy City, the bastion of science, were to be destroyed, The Kiharas would simply spread throughout the world causing grave and untold consequences. They reside in Academy City because it is the capital of science and nothing else bounds them to it.
That, and some of their members just so happen to be sleeper agents to The Committee of 300 who would use The Dark Side Organizations of Academy City to their advantage as they fund the various Dark Side Projects officially and in secret in order to gain the useful and necessary information about psychic research by any means necessary in accordance with their nefarious plans with no qualms of morality and ethics.
In other words, Academy City just so happens to be one of their enemies home bases and territories and going to that place ignorant and unprepared would be tantamount to suicide.
The only reason Touma Kamijou was safe in Academy City at all is because The Chairman of Academy City is interested in him and his right hand as he has plans for him in the long and short run, to which his plans remain unknown to many but The Doctor, who hasn't really told Touma yet since it was not yet the perfect time for him to know for it might have consequences in his own future and that relying too much on future information could lead him to forget on what's right in front of him. That, and Aleister is the only one keeping organizations such as The Kiharas in check.
All of this and more made Rika think very carefully from now on as to how to approach Academy City with care if she does have interest in going there one day. Maybe not now but sometime in the future.
As the duo were still holding on to each other, Rika began to ask Touma in her serious adult voice, "Touma, there something that's been bothering me lately, just what exactly happen back there at the school since you were holding your head in pain for a few minutes and we all thought that you were suffering some kind of headache."
Touma responded. " Remember when I had that migraine earlier today? " Rika nodded. "There was more to it than that. You see, I've been getting all of these constant dreams and nightmares lately, those which deal with the many different timelines and worldlines of the past, the present, and the future, to which was a constant pain in my butt in the last few weeks to months and since then, I tend to feel it in a sort of phantom pain like matter and I'm not just talking about The Endless June where I can feel all of the times where, when, and how I die."
"They were, as it were, like distant memories that you could just not totally grasp and remember, almost as if you were swallowed up in the deep ocean as you try to swam your way towards the mainland with the turbulent waves of the sea making things more difficult in the long run. Most of these memories tend to come towards the future." Touma then had a grave voice along with his urgent black orbs that begins to denote the seriousness of this topic. "My future. Remembering people that I have barely met yet or events that have yet to happen, although I have some idea, beyond that I don't their names or their faces or the specific events in question or anything about them really. It almost feels like a blur. A shadow that seems to follow you wherever you go."
"This ability that I gained seems to be called Reading Steiner, according to The Doctor."
Rika grimaced in thought as she experienced what Touma had, only in a much less limited and painful matter. "Of course, So just like me, Touma had experienced all of these constant headaches that triggered memories that seems to have no origin point to them, meaning the memories could somehow be remembered in backwards or forwards in time."
While Touma was explaining all of this to Rika, he remembers having told The Doctor and his best friends (who became concerned as to what other possible side effects that may come about it besides remembering all of the dead-end worlds.) all about his condition when these problems started cropping up to him little by little as the constant migraines keep getting worst to worst.
The Doctor checks him up every now and then in The TARDIS Med-Bay as he scans his brain for any signs of an anomaly or a phenomenon that might be the origin behind his little predicament. The answer that The Doctor got was that the constant time loops that Touma experienced in Hinamizawa and Okinomiya have allowed him to access Reading Steiner unintentionally. This led to Touma spending days without end in The TARDIS Meditation Chamber in order to allow him to heal and unwind his many memories and experiences through constant breathing meditation techniques as he begins to focus and meditate all of the memories one by one as it flows through him naturally by the end. It was still a working progress as far as Touma was concerned.
And so after their little discussion, they went towards the direction where The TARDIS was located, with their hands joined together as they made their resolve to strengthen each other and one another as they begin to face their known and unknown future with bold confidence.
As they arrived in The TARDIS, A man begins to notice them as they walked inside. He was wearing a brown coat with goggles on his eyes as he carries the sonic wrench as he was fixing up the console room due to their last adventure that involved The TARDIS being caught in a supernova storm as he begins to notice the duo with their hands and with a smile that was wide, he said. "Well, it's about time you two got together. Although." The Doctor begins to notice their messy appearance along with the smell of hot sauce and rotten milk in their person. "Let me guess, Satoko."
"Satoko." The duo said in a deadpanned tone as they both confirmed The Doctor's deduction.
"Alrighty then." The Doctor nodded in acceptance as he suggested, "TARDIS Showers are on the left, right, and to the left again. Touma, you stay here for a bit while Miss Rika goes first." The Doctor suggested.
"Alright." Touma said as he looked at Rika for one last time and vice versa before letting go, despite their hesitance on the matter, as the bluenette begins to walk towards the direction where The TARDIS Showers were located in order to get cleaned up first but not before looking back towards Touma one more time with a look that denotes love and care, to which Touma responded with his own loving and caring look.
After this, The Doctor gave Touma a silent look of approval regarding his relationship with Rika as he begins to give Touma the sonic wrench, which Touma accepts, as they get to work in fixing the console.
ED Song:
Kitto Ieru きっと言える Yukari Tamura 田村ゆかり FULL
Characters:
The Tenth Doctor - A: David Tennant
Touma Kamijou (11 years old) - VA: Abe Atsushi
Rika Furude (11 years old) - VA: Yukari Tamura
Hanyuu Furude - VA: Yui Hore
Keiichi Maebara (14 years old) - VA: Soichi Hoshi
Rena Ryugu (13 years old) - VA: Mai Nakahara
Mion Shinozaki (14 years old) - VA: Satsuki Yukino
Shion Shinozaki (13 years old) - VA: Satsuki Yukino
Satoko Hojo (11 years old) - VA: Mika Kanai
Satoshi Hojo (15 years old) - VA: Yu Kobayashi
Timeline:
Doctor Who/Faction Paradox:
Tenth Doctor - Post-Journeys End, Pre-The Next Doctor
Era: Post-Time War Era, Pre-Day of the Doctor changes
A Certain Magical Index:
Pre- Biohacker, Pre-Index
When They Cry:
Post-Matsuribayashi-Hen
DW TV/EU Reference:
* The Rings of Akhaten (TV story)
* Human Nature (TV story)/The Family of Blood (TV story)
* The Empire of Glass (novel)