All of the characters herein are from works written by our lord and savior, Kamachi Kazuma, which includes (but is not limited to): A Certain Magical Index: New Testament, A Certain Scientific Railgun Spinoff: Astral Buddy, and A Certain Magical Index SS: Biohacker.

This continues the story of a girl forgotten but not gone. You might want to read that first.

Chapter 1 – The Twenty-Ninth Day of November.

Part 1

"I hope you aren't looking down on me because I'm only fifteen centimetres tall now. Do you want me to show you what happens if I jab an arm or a leg into your eye or your ear?"

After inflicting sufficient pain, the shrunken Othinus calmed down and stared into the sky.

"You must forever watch the world of happiness you went as far as suicide to look away from. This is the greatest punishment humanity can give you, now that we have achieved victory over a Magic God."

Those had been the words said to her, before she had been sent into Kamijou Touma's care.

A punishment, hmm? She knew that it could have been much worse. That she could have easily been returned into one of the infinite hells that she had previously experienced, this time with no way out.

Now, even with her powers stripped from her, the punishment felt like no punishment at all.

Not since she could sit by her Understander's side.

She would never admit such a thing out loud, but some part of her still wanted to die, still thought that she had gotten off entirely too lightly.

Then again, the guilt from "not being punished" might be punishment in itself, eh? How wonderfully devious.

It was a unique sort of suffering that you could not find even once in those infinite hells, because it could only be inflicted on those that were 'saved'.

She gave a bitter smile as she stared her Understander, who was now in the jaws of an angry grimoire library.

For the first time in several years, there was nothing that she needed to do. That gave one plenty of time to think.

Peace did not suit a god of war.

Maybe I should have found a better solution.

To keep moving forward, or to return everything to what it was before–those had been the two options that were visible to her, represented by herself and Kamijou Touma respectively, the two combatants of the fight between them.

But seeing her Understander charge head-on into yet another incident made her wish for a third option.

She had, after all, been able to save everyone except herself. She could have easily given Kamijou Touma a happy life (or at least put him in a position where he would have landed in one) along with the many others in that world, but she had not.

And after all was said and done, she had been too heartsick to contemplate anything else except to return to Kamijou Touma's original world and face her deserved judgement.

She could have been a benevolent god, and created heaven on earth. That was what she should have done, if she had wanted to make everyone happy. But long before she had ever attained the rank of a Magic God she had been a magician, and magicians were selfish and single-minded by nature.

Even so, in that perfect world, designed to break Kamijou Touma or not, there had been cracks. I had dominion over both the living and the dead, but everything that does not fit neatly into that binary slips through the cracks.

And she thought of one more thing.

Clearly, there were also cracks in the world where Kamijou Touma is concerned. With all the research I had Gremlin conduct, there were still many incidents hidden away that even I could not grasp at with Huginn and Muninn. I expected aberrations to exist, but never one that was able to figure out the truth of the world and rise up against me.

But Mitsuari Ayu certainly had been an interesting girl. I must admit, I was surprised to see her again so quickly after what had happened–

An chill, completely separate from the temperature of the November day, ran down her tiny spine, and several possibilities occurred to her, ranging from the mildly disastrous to the catastrophic.

Possibilities that had not occurred to her at the time when they had first met.

She hopped away from the bite-ridden Kamijou Touma.

~~[z]~~

Meanwhile, the girl that had become a target of Othinus' interests was dreaming.

Somewhere, sometime, she was playing with everyone from Ideal, with Iruka, with Rakko, with Junko, with Senya, with everybody, looking out at the sunset from a rooftop somewhere, where at the end of each day one looked forward to the next–

Then the scene changed, and the sunset was shining through the window, and she was on top of Kamijou Touma, and was kissing him furiously, and he was kissing her back, holding her tight. It felt so good, and she didn't want it to end, but there was also a deadly premonition in her heart, that something was coming, and that it was all going to end, all going to go wrong, that she would never feel this happy ever again–

The door opened with a bang, and "someone" charged in. There was a rapid thumping of footsteps on the wooden floor, and then a punch sent her flying–

And she sank, down, down, down, through the waters of the tank, the lake, until she was below the world itself.

And a voice asked her: who are you?

Me? I'm just a nobody! But you? Why are you doing this–

Mitsuari Ayu woke up with a start, a soft cry splitting the air.

Sitting up and breathing deeply, she clutched her blanket to her chest. Looking around the unfamiliar room made her panic, before she finally calmed down and remembered where she was.

The Reformatory in Academy City's 10th district.

Right.

She had made alterations to the plan to capture the Mental Out, and caused a lot of property damage on the way. Her benefactor that had previously been so encouraging fell silent after her arrest, and all her calls had been met with no response.

She had been used and left to die. She realised that much.

Well, she was an esper, even if she was only a Level 3. She would probably be spirited away to become a test subject and be wrung out until she was dry.

But she didn't mind death. There was really nothing else to look forward to.

What caused her more unpleasantness was the profound unfairness of the whole situation. Shokuhou had stolen away her chances at Level 5, had stolen Kamijou away when she had needed him the most, and now, somehow, inexplicably, he had shown up to save her and not Ayu.

(She reached a hand to her cheek. Academy City's medicine was good, and the bruise had faded overnight, but she could still feel its tenderness from where Touma had stopped her.)

And the worst thing was that she could do absolutely nothing about it all, while the other girl smugly looked on from above.

"Go and get his help. Get enough of his help that you'll actually accept it this time."

"Somehow, being patronized irritates me more than outright being hated." She spoke out loud to herself, testing her voice, but there was nobody to hear, except maybe the surveillance cameras. The Reformatory's cells were all soundproof as well, so even shouting at the top of her lungs would only cause a small murmur to be heard outside.

The door slid open with a clack, and Ayu started in shock, her heart twisting.

She would think about the strange dream later.

If there ever was a 'later', that is.

"Mitsuari Ayu. You are to come with us. Again, we would like to stress that attempts at resisting will be met with punishment." The guards were armed and wearing sunglasses, but it wasn't as if she would care to remember their faces.

Were she more of a delinquent she would have interrupted them and asked them to get on with it, but a short stint in the dark side did not really compete with her natural tendency to follow the rules.

I don't have to be a good girl…right?

The thought from another time and place passed her mind, transient as a bolt of lightning. For a moment she thought of somehow escaping, but the impulse faded quickly.

Even if the guards weren't in their usual powered suits, they were still grown adults, physically stronger than her, a middle-school girl. And while she could theoretically use Mental Stinger with just her fingers, her power without a cellphone camera focusing it was pathetically weak, only useful for using it on herself.

In any case, there were still the AIM Jammers. If she tried to use her ability, she would probably wipe out ten years of her own memory and begin to hallucinate ants crawling out of the walls.

Obediently, she followed the guards, arms dangling limply at her sides.

The wires and the machinery of the AIM Jammers had a low background hum, which was resonating with the ever-present mild headache that she had ever since she had been dumped in this place.

It was making it hard for her to think, which was a shame, because thinking was the only weapon she had left.

Through a corridor here, down some stairs there, another corridor here, and…

"Wait here quietly for further instructions."

The guards left, and the thick metal door closed with a clonk, which echoed around in the plain room that held only two chairs and a table.

Seated at a table, Mitsuari tried to turn her chair to face the room's single door, but found that it was bolted tight to the ground. Giving the room's lone security camera a hard look, she stood up and rested against the table instead, glaring at the entrance.

Minutes passed, and Ayu began to think once more.

If I ever get out of here, I'll take up self-defence lessons. Maybe I'll go back to Junko, beg for her forgiveness, and ask her to teach me. Ah, but she uses her power, right? Then that's no good…

Maybe if it's a male guard, I can go for the…between the legs and run for it? Or maybe the eyes? She glanced down at her right hand, flexed her fingers into a "V", and imagined herself jabbing it at the face of an unwary guard.

The mental image of squished eyeballs made her squeamish, and she dropped her hands back down to the table.

I probably would get lost in here, but if I can steal an access card, I may be able to get past the locked doors. But if I somehow managed to overpower a guard, they'll go into alert and lock down stuff everywhere anyway, right?

Or maybe I should wait and see where they take me? But am I thinking that because I'm scared, or because it's sensible?

There was another clack, and the door began to open.

Whatever! I'll just go down fighting!

It revealed a girl wearing a peculiar pink nurse's uniform, whose eyebrows shot up in surprise at the sight of a lunging Mitsuari Ayu.

But Ayu was slow, untrained, and weak, and the girl easily dodged the strike. With a quick circle around her aggressor, the girl delivered an elbow jab to the small of Ayu's back, which sent her falling flat to the ground in the doorway.

"Ow ow ow…."

"I really wasn't expecting that. Guess you've developed a bit of a killer instinct there, huh, Little Miss Ant?" Without waiting for a reply, the girl dragged her by the feet back into the interrogation room.

Ayu, still stunned from the pain all over her body from the fall, only moaned in protest.

"Can't have you lying there like some educational poster for anatomy and showing up on the cameras. Back in you go!"

When the door was safely shut again, Ayu rolled around and sat up on the floor, leaning against the wall of the room. Then, apparently still not satisfied with herself, she slowly rose until she was standing unsteadily, palms on the table for support.

All the while, the unknown girl watched with interest.

"Ohh…that's a good look you have on your face." She sauntered around to the table's other side and took a seat. "She said that you would be more of a victim than an actor, but that doesn't seem to be true."

"Who are you?" Ayu asked finally. She did not sit.

"Kouzaku Mitori, at your service. Nice to meet you⭐"

This story attempts to be canon-compliant up to Railgun chapter 130 and Genesis Testament volume 4.

That's right. I liked Mitsuari so much that I'm continuing. How's that?

Review please!