It was the late afternoon the day after. All of the mages had spent the previous day resting and healing, and then most of today helping the city rebuild. Now they were all back in the castle, sitting down in the garden to relax. The mages from Blue pegasus noticed Raiden approaching, and they got everyone else's attention.
"Do you need something Raiden?" Makarov asks as the cyborg walks over.
"No. Actually i was coming to fulfill a promise. People wanted me to explain things, so thats what i am going to do now," Raiden explains. He sets down a small metal box, which immediately opens up into a computer and a projector. He sets the projector to project to the shaded side of the castle so everyone could see the things he wanted to tell them.
"So where do you want me to start?" Raiden asks.
"Start with telling us about where you, Mikoto and Touma come from," Lucy asks. It seems like everyone else agrees, as they nodd their heads in agreement.
"Okay so lets start with this. We come from a different universe, one where the planet we are on is called Earth. Our Universe also is also a little bit ahead of yours, allowing us to be able to look to your universe and see the future, well the future to your current selves, but the present for your world in comparison to ours. Also our Earth is farther advanced then yours, with a wide spread use of technology to advance everyday life. Also magic is a minority, along with espers. In reality, about 20% of the worlds population has the chance to be an esper or a magician, and most dont ever become one. Another trait of our world is that an esper can not use a magic created from our world, as the magic in our world was created to fight espers, thus it will kill the esper if they try to use magic, and the other way around," Raiden begins to explain. He continues on, showing on the projector pictures of the world as he goes along, also with pictures or videos of espers and Magicians. He shows pictures of each of the major citys in the world, explaining everything that was going on in them. Finally he gets to Academy City.
"Now onto Academy City, the City Mikoto and Touma are from," Raiden says, showing a quick video of daily life in Academy City. He continues, "Technology in Academy city is said to be ahead of everywhere else on the planet, this is because of the reason for the very existence of Academy City. It is a city focused on the students that live their, with the students making up about 90% of its population. The majority of these students are espers, making Academy City the city with the largest Esper population in the world. This is for a reason, as the purpose of the city is to study Esper abilities and how they progress. In the beginning the Citys officals were only interested in studying abilities and helping potential espers become espers, or those already an esper to become stronger espers. The beginning of a chance happened around the time when Mikoto came to the city, as around this time the appearance of level 5 espers began to accelerate. This shifted the Officals focus from helping the students and studying them, to turning students into potential assets or weapons for other governments. So eventually this corruption became the underlying heart of the city, which grew to affect Mikotos and Toumas lives greatly, which leads me onto the next topic, how I meet Touma and Mikoto, and how Mikoto got as strong as she did."
"Please continue, we have a right to know all this," Makarov states.
Raiden nodded his head and continues explaining, using videos of Mikotos time before she meet him, along with her first encounter with Touma to help explain everything. He then talks about the level 6 shift program, and how Mikoto came to know about it, and how her attempts at stopping it drew his attention. He showed her fight against Meltdowner, who he explained to be another level 5. The mages were shocked that this was the same person, as she was showing nowhere near the levels of power she is capable of today. He then covers his time helping Mikoto become a better fighter, in which he showed just how quickly she was able to progress. He talked about her first attempt at achieving level 6, and then Her fight against the robbers using her then new HF Blade. This all lead straight to the moment that changed everything, the day she would achieve level 6. He showed them the video of what had happened that day explaining as it went down, and the moment that Touma was shot, even some of the mages let out a few tears. They also watched as Mikotos body erupted into her level 6 form, and the beating that she gave Mental Out and those she was controlling. Raiden was about to continue when a voice was heard from above.
There standing on the balcony that was off to the side and above, was Mikoto. The wounds that had not been healed by Wendys or Shelias magic were bandaged up, and while she appeared to be awake, her voice had no energy behind it. She was looking out from the balcony, not even at the mages or Raiden as she spoke, "I didnt know that you had video of that day."
Raiden looks up at this and says, "And I didnt think that you would be awake by now? Shouldnt you still be resting, you still have a long way to recover."
"Couldnt sleep anymore, got tired of being tired," Mikoto responded, a faint smile forming on her lips. She leaped off the ledge of the balcony, landing unsteadily, barely managing to stay on her feet. She steadies herself and then walks over to Raiden.
"So you thought you could explain everything without me here?" Mikoto asks, light returning to her eyes at teasing Raiden.
"I was expecting you to still be out cold," Raiden responded curtly.
"Well im not, so lets continue then shall we?" Mikoto says.
The two then explain everything else leading up to Mikoto coming to this world, with Raiden explaining that the reason for sending her was to actually fix the future. Supposably a good future where they beat Acnologia and Zeref was the original, but then something happened to the timeline and Acnologia and Zeref killed everyone. The discussion ends with Raiden stating that everything should be corrected now, though he held back on saying that he thinks something, or someone messed with the timeline originally.
"So Mikoto, what does this mean for you now?" Natsu asks.
Mikoto looks at Raiden and then back at those she now considered her friends and says, "Well, i guess im going to be going back to my home planet. We still have things we need to fix over their, and thats also the only real way for us to see if what happened the other day fixed the timeline."
"Your going to leave us?" Wendy asks, sadness entering her voice.
Mikoto doesnt answer immediately, instead she slowly walks out into the garden. This gives her a good view of the land that lies behind the castle, and then she responded, "For a time, yes. Though this will not be for long. I hope to come back here every so often, hopefully to just spend time with those i consider my friends and family."
"Just to ease everyones mind, Mikoto, Touma, and I plan to be here for at least another week. So enjoy your time together, and then at least Mikoto might be back in a couple of months,"Raiden adds in.
"So onto that point," Mikoto says, hanging her sentence as she walks towards a small pond in the garden. Her walking was still slightly unsteady, but when she went to step into the pond, small amounts of electricity shoot out across the water and Mikoto started to walk across it.
Raiden was looking on in worry and yells out, "Mikoto, now is not the time to use your abilities. Your only just recovering, using them so soon may permanently damage your body!"
"Dont worry about it Raiden, im not calling on that much of it, just seeing how it feels," Mikoto responds. But this statement did not ease Raidens worry, and he was relieved to see Touma stepping out into the garden.
Raiden walks over to Touma and whispers, "If Mikoto uses any more of her power, i want you to grab hold of her with imagine breaker. We cant risk her injuring herself while trying to use her ability too soon."
Suddenly though, a situation Raiden was even more afraid of reared its head.
"Hey! I know! Lets have a fight Mikoto! If you cant go full power it just gives the rest of us a chance!" Natsu exclaims, getting everyones attention.
Mikoto walked out from the pond with a smile on her face and replies, "Bring it, i can still beat you."
"Oh Really?" Natsu replies, flames appearing in his hands as he smashes them together.
"Im game to join this as well. Maybe a small battle Royal, last person standing?" Gray suddenly says, joining in. This peaks the interest of some of the others, though the only ones who actually decide to join in are Gajeel, Sting, Rogue, Jura, Laxus, and Erza. They all exited the castle grounds and found a close area of the city that was previously destroyed to fight in. Raiden attempted to stop Mikoto but she wasnt having it.
"So What should be the rules of this fight?" Erza asks, preparing herself for this little battle.
Mikoto looked around, checking everyone that was going to participate. While everyone looked mostly healed up, she knew that going full force now would not be beneficial, not just to herself but to others as well. Then she remembered a little training drill Raiden used to make her do.
"Lets do this. Everyones goal is to land 3 uninterrupted strikes against an opponent. Once you do that, that opponent is eliminated from the battle. This will be done till only 1 person remains. How you achieve those hits is up to you, but if a strike is blocked, or dodged, you have to restart the count. Is everyone good with that?" Mikoto proposed. Everyone nodded their heads, agreeing with her.
They all separate out, waiting for the signal for it to start, which was to be given by makarov firing a flare. He fired the flare, and immediately the fight began. Sting and Rogue went after each other, while Gray, Erza and Gajeel engaged each other. Jura, Laxus and Natsu all charged each other. This was a mistake, as they were giving Mikoto time, time she could use.
Mikoto slammed one of her hands into the ground, and a massive bolt of lightning struck the ground as she powered up.
"Mikoto! You cant risk it right now!" Touma yells out, worried for his Girlfriend. Was she trying to go level 6? If she was it might be too soon, and she could seriously hurt herself.
Toumas fears were quelled slightly as Mikoto hair changed colors, but not to blue, but to black as it also grew longer. She had transformed into her Level 6 restrained form. She then leaped forward, at an astonishing speed, to appear between sting and rogue.
"Hello Boys," Mikoto says with a wink. Before the two could respond, She strikes out. She spins around, landing a kick on rogue and a solid punch on Sting, knocking them both back. This gets everyones attention as they turn to see mikoto walking forward, large amounts of electricity being expelled from her body.
"Shes in her restrained form," Erza comments. Mikoto charges forward, this time going for Erza, Gray, and Gajeel.
"Ice Make: Floor!" Gray yells out. His attack looks like it will work, when suddenly Mikoto is behind him. She blasts him with a large amount of electricity, which sends him onto his own ice floor. She then ducks under a strike from gajeel, giving him a punch in the gut in return. This is when Erza attacks her. Mikoto attacks quickly summoning in Excalibur to block the sword strike from Erza. The two of them engage in a sword fight while the others keep fighting. Gajeel gets up, and is about to fire an iron dragons roar at the both of them, when suddenly he has to dodge a strike from gray's ice make lance. The fight continues for a little while longer, until the first elimination is made. Sting manages to land a third strike against Rogue in a row, eliminating him. But his victory is short lived, as suddenly he is frozen in ice and then hit twice by Gray. but the time Gray took to do this left him open to Gajeel, who then eliminated Gray as well. Mikoto was still fighting Erza, but she took this opportunity, and used her incredible speed to land 3 hard hits against Gajeel, eliminating him. Then a stray lightning dragon's roar hit her, engulfing her in a large blast of electrical energy. This attack was a benefit to her, as when it cleared, she had just received a powerup. Using this now surplus of energy, she quickly transforms up to level 6. Now at full power, Mikotos eyes flashing as she leaped back into the fight. She charged Laxus down. He managed to block a few of her blows, always blocking when it came down to it, especially after she got 2 hits on him. But he miscalculated Mikotos strength in her level 6 form, and she forces her way through his defenses, landing that third strike. Immediately she spun around, drawing her HF blade to counter a strike from Erza. With her HF blade now drawn, she completely overpowered Erza. Every blow that erza tried to block was just cut right through, and Mikoto was to fast for erza to effectively dodge. Thats when natsu came in, actually managing to land 2 blows on mikoto. Mikoto then landed a third strike on Erza, but at the same moment, Natsu fired a point blank fire dragons roar. The blast connects, eliminating Mikoto at the same time that she eliminated Erza. This means that the victory is given to natsu, to many peoples shock.
Mikoto got up from the attack, exiting her level 6 form to walk up to natsu.
"Well done natsu, you got me while i was distracted, smart move!" Mikoto congratulated him. All of the fighters get together, discussions the moves they each made along with the mistakes that allowed for them to be eliminated. The other members of the guilds soon joined in. A little while later, a group of royal guards came walking over, drawing the attention of the guilds.
Out from behind the guards the princess walks out.
"Is there something you need from us princess?" Makarov asks, stepping to the front.
"I came here to invited you all to a party the king will be hosting tomorrow night in the castles dining hall. We know that some of the guilds were preparing to leave, so we wanted to do this quickly, but still giving you all enough time to heal from the fights. The party is being held to congratulate all of you on your victories in protecting the city of Fiore from the dragons and from acnologia," The princess explained.
Makarov looks back at all the wizards behind him, and the general excitement they were all showing. He then looked at the other guild masters to get their approval before turning back to the princess to respond.
"It would be our honor to join in the party," He replied with a smile.
The princess smiled back and responded, "Good. Make sure everyone that attends dresses up in formal clothes, as is the custom for these parties. If they don't have something like that, the castle will provide it." The princess says. She then turns, nods to her guards and begins to walk back to the castle, with the guards now following her back. The excitement between the guilds grew, they were to be celebrated in a royal party! This was a remarkable honor, an honor that none of the ever expected to receive. The day was brought to a rapid close after that, as most of the wizards spent the day prepare for the party the next night. None of them knew that tomorrow would also be Mikotos last day in this world for a while.