"So what happened?" Asked Touma with an extreme look of worry on his face.

The two were walking towards the Tokiwadai dorm rooms. Kuroko was still limping a little from earlier. Touma's question hung in the air for a while, but Kuroko still didn't want to get him involved. She had seen firsthand how powerful the teleporter was, she knew that Touma was strong, but she didn't want to see him getting hurt like he did when he fought Accelerator.

"O-Oh, you know… I just got into a little scuffle with a criminal…" She laughed nervously.

Touma didn't look convinced, "You got pretty injured for 'just a scuffle'. Aren't you one of the best teleporters in Academy City?"

"I am! She was just better…" Was all Kuroko could think

"The criminal just caught me by surprise, nothing to worry about."

Touma turned and looked her in the eyes, all she did was look at the ground.

"You know, if you ever need help, I'm here for you. You just need to ask." He said in a quiet voice.

"I wish I could, Touma, but…"

Her thoughts were interrupted by Touma, "Well… we are here."

The two had arrived in front of the Tokiwadai dorms. Most of the lights were already off, except in the main area.

"Ah ok, thanks for walking me home, Touma."

He turned and looked at her, "Please take it easy for a few days, Kuroko. Your injuries need time to heal."

Kuroko looked down, "Sure, Touma…" His kindness made her smile.

He gained a smile on his face, "Good! I'll be seeing you, Kuroko." He said as he waved and started walking away to his own house.

She gave him a smile as he walked away. Once he was out of sight, a look of determination filled her face and she rushed to her dorm.

Misaka Mikoto was not at the doom, as Kuroko had expected. She entered her bathroom and began to rebandage herself. Even though Touma did a good job, she needed to reapply the ointment. While she was in the bathroom, she heard the door open to their room and Misaka Mikoto walked in.

Misaka saw that all the lights were out except in the bathroom, and she saw no sign of her roommate, "Kuroko?"

She heard a response from the bathroom, "Yes?"

"Ah, you are in the bathroom? When you are at home, at least turn the room light on."

Kuroko didn't want Misaka to get suspicious, so she changed the subject, "What were you doing out so late, Misaka?"

"Oh, you could just say that I am looking for some accessories…" There was a pause, "I just can't seem to find them… Anyway, I just came back to get something that I had forgotten, I have to go back out."

"Hey Misaka… Be careful…" Kuroko said, slowly.

There was a silence.

"Thanks for worrying about me. I'll be back home soon…"

Kuroko heard her dorm room door close, and with that Misaka was gone.

Kuroko got changed then exited the bathroom. She sat on her bed and thought over the events of the day.

She wanted to help Misaka, but she couldn't find a way to do it without Misaka knowing about it.

Then… an idea popped into her head.

A couple minutes later Kuroko was teleporting across building tops, heading towards a specific location given to her by Uiharu.

She was trying to catch up to the other teleporter. Uiharu had told her that her name was Musujime Awaki and that she couldn't teleport herself properly due to an incident that happened a few years ago. Using that information, Uiharu was able to locate a possible escape route and Kuroko was heading towards it.

While in the air, Kuroko saw a construction site that looked like it had been a battlefield. It was close to where Uiharu predicted, so Kuroko decided to check it out. She teleported down and hid behind a cement pillar. It didn't take long before she heard a loud noise and a surge of electricity.

She peeked out to see Misaka had just fired one of her railguns at seemingly nothing.

"Come on out of there, you coward!" Misaka yelled, her voice full of rage.

Kuroko was confused, Misaka was yelling at a stack of metal poles. Misaka fired her railgun at them and split them in two, but nothing was behind them.

But as the smoke faded, a figure became visible on one of the construction beams above where Misaka had just fired.

"My, My, you sure are in a rush tonight. Could it be that you are worried that the experiment might start up again?"

Misaka stayed silent.

"Based on your silence, I guess that I am right." The teleport then gained a smile on her face. "Have you ever asked yourself how many people you have dragged into this problem of yours?"

Misaka started gaining sparks around her, which spurred on the teleporter.

"Probably… quite a few." In the blink of an eye, unconscious people started teleporting out of the sky and fell to the ground. This caused Misaka to hold back her attack long enough for Awaki to teleport away.

Kuroko was able to narrow down where she went…

...And she prepared for a fight.

"Touma! Someone just knocked on the door!" Yelled Index, she was watching TV on Kamijou's couch and she couldn't be bothered with getting up and missing part of the show.

"Jeez, Index, I'm doing homework. You could've helped me out a little." Sighed Touma as he got up to answer the door.?

He was surprised to see Misaka standing in front of him.

"Misaka…?"

Then he saw the headset that she was wearing and her expressionless face, and he realized his mistake.

"You are one of the clones."

"Misaka's identification number is 10032, Misaka explains for clarification, haste evident in her voice."

Touma was confused by her response but he could see that she seemed in a hurry.

"What's the problem?"

"We need you to save the Sisters again, Misaka says seriously."

It took Touma a second to register what the clone had said.

"W-What?!"

"A remnant from the tree diagram has been recovered from space. With it, the experiments can be restarted."

Touma's eyes widened and there was dead silence between them. This explained why all of the world was sending rockets up into space, and it also answered why Misaka had been unusually quiet in their encounters recently. He thought about the implications of the remnant being retrieved.

"That would mean the experiments would definitely start again…"

He looked at the clone in front of him, although they couldn't feel human emotions, he could sense a fear in her.

He then thought back to what had happened earlier that night.

"Wait… did Kuroko know about this? Is that how she got injured?"

He grabbed the clone's shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

"Where do I have to go?"

To say that Shirai Kuroko was not doing well right now, would be the understatement of the century. She had found Awaki and had injured her to bring it to a somewhat level playing field. But Awaki was an extremely skilled fighter and seemed to be predicting her every move. Kuroko quickly found herself at a disadvantage, and knew that she had to do something fast.

She charged at Awaki and teleported into the air. Awaki quickly teleported the luggage at her and smiled when it made contact. But Kuroko had predicted it and had teleported herself right behind Awaki and slammed into her. Awaki was on the ground and Kuroko prepared to make her next move, but before she could, Awaki teleported the chairs and table that were next to her right above Kuroko. Kuroko's instinct was to teleport out of the way… but…

"I can't teleport?!"

That was all Kuroko could think as the furniture collapsed on her head, pinning her to the ground and temporarily knocking her unconscious.

When she woke up, the other teleporter was sitting on the luggage in front of her, with a smile on her face.

"So, you couldn't teleport because of the pain, huh?"

Kuroko didn't answer, but the grimace on her face made it apparent that Awaki's guess was pretty spot on.

"I don't get it, the great Misaka Mikoto needs her underclassman to do all her work for her." She paused and smiled at Kuroko, "And now you have to die."

Kuroko's eyes widened.

"Don't get me wrong, you were a very strong opponent, but you are nothing without your powers. And now that your injuries have taken those from you, look at yourself now… so helpless."

Kuroko felt tears on the brims of her eyes, she was feeling genuine fear. Awaki was right, she was nothing without her powers. Flashes of her life were coming back to her in that moment, until she hit her memories that she had made with Touma.

Then it hit her.

Touma didn't have any special powers.

Sure he could cancel out attacks, but when he attacked it was all him, no powers needed. And despite having no powers, he was still able to do the impossible.

Mustering all her strength, she pushed on the ground.

"If Touma can do it…"

Awaki's eyes widened.

"If Touma can do it..."

The furniture started falling off her back until she was standing on her own two feet.

"Then so can I!"

Awaki found herself slowly backing away.

"I am not dependent on my powers, they are a part of me, but I don't need them…" She glared at Awaki, "To beat you!"

Kuroko stumbled to a lamp that was nearby, picked it up, and charged at Awaki. Awaki was so shocked that she didn't have time to teleport elsewhere, she went with her only other option, she pulled out her gun…

...and shot Shirai Kuroko…

"What building was she in?!" Said a panicked Kamijou Touma.

He and Misaka were running in the streets looking for the building that Kuroko was in. Misaka got reports of two espers fighting in a building nearby so that's where they were heading now.

"I don't know, but it's nearby."

They were looking around, but then Misaka saw something in one of the windows of the buildings. It was her roommate on the ground with the other teleporter kicking her.

But all of a sudden, the other girl teleported away with the luggage, and then a rumbling noise could be heard from the building that Kuroko was in.

"The building is going to collapse!" Touma screamed.

Misaka had to think fast in order to save the girl that meant so much to her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out an arcade token.

"Can you catch her?" She said looking at Touma.

Touma saw what she was planning and nodded his head, and started sprinting towards the building.

With that Misaka fired her railgun next to where Kuroko laid on the ground and she fell through the hole on the ground.

Kuroko couldn't tell what was happening, because she was in too much pain, but she heard her roommate call her name as she fell.

"Misaka?"

And just as she was about to hit the floor on the ground level, something caught her and broke her fall.

Her vision was blurry but she could make out the worried face of the boy who had already saved her life once before.

With that, Shirai Kuroko fell into unconsciousness…

She woke up in the hospital the next morning.

Misaka was the only other person in the room, she was watching over her roommate with worry painted all over her face.

"Misaka?"

"What were you thinking…" Misaka said, fighting back tears.

Kuroko sat up, and winced a little. Her injuries were catching up to her and she was realizing just how hurt she actually was.

"It's fine, I just needed to help you out a little." She said, smiling at her crying roommate.

"B-But you could have died because of me!"

"But I didn't. You were there to save me and everything is all right now…" Kuroko's eyes widened, "Wait! What happened to Awaki?! Where is the Tree Diagram remnant?!"

"Calm down, Awaki was found nearby on the streets. She looked like someone had just beat her up badly, and the remnant was in pieces surrounding her. It's been rendered unusable."

Kuroko sat back a little and breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she remembered something.

"W-Was Touma there? Last night?"

Misaka smiled, "He was the one that caught you once I fired my railgun. Looks like he has saved your life twice now."

So Kuroko's memory wasn't wrong.

"Where is he now?" She asked worriedly.

"He's in the hospital lobby. He wanted to stay in the room overnight but he was quickly branded a pervert by the nurses and was slapped repeatedly. It was quite the show." chuckled Misaka.

Kuroko smiled, that was something that Touma would try to do. He was extremely smart, but he didn't seem to realize that there are some things that you can't do when women are involved.

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Kamijou Touma entered the room and smiled when he saw Kuroko awake.

"Ahh, you are all right. You had me worried."

Kuroko smiled, "I'm fine, Touma."

"The doctor said that you have to be here a few more days."

"Yeah, I guess that's what I get for overusing my powers."

Touma and Kuroko looked at each other.

"Next time… promise you will ask me for help?"

There was silence.

"I promise, Touma."

They smiled at one another.

"Well, I have to get to school, I'm in danger if I miss another class."

"Ok, Touma, I'll be seeing you."

"Yep, see you later."

With that, Touma left the room with Kuroko smiling at him.

Misaka had watched what had just gone down, and she had a smile of her own.

"I have to get back as well, you know how strict they are."

"Yeah, I'll see you later, Misaka."

Misaka started to walk out of the room.

"Oh, and, Kuroko. I'll make sure to tell Touma that you want him to come visit you after school ends."

"Wait! Wha-"

But Misaka had already run out of the room to a flustered Kuroko.

Author's Note:

Greetings! As you may have noticed, I changed a lot in the Tree Diagram Arc. As I have stated before, I really wasn't focusing on the action side of Index, I'm writing this more for the romance. I'll admit that I'm not the greatest at writing 'action', that's why I tend to avoid it, but I hope that this chapter was still semi-entertaining. Also, HUGE MILESTONE, this is my first story to hit 100 followers, so thank you for reading this. It means a lot because I really like this story and its great to see that others enjoy it as well. I made this chapter a bit longer in celebration, so I hope you enjoyed it. Last chapter got a lot of reviews so I want to thank the people that did that, it means a lot. I don't know when the next update will be, but it should be soon.

See you next chapter-Gabriel