Welcome back. Sorry that it took more than half a month to get the next chapter out. I will try to get faster at writing, but can't promise anything right now, with my life being a bit hectic at the moment. As an (unintentional) thing, this chapter ended up being 50% longer than I anticipated, so it's something at least, right?
calvinhobbesliker: Yeah, while I find it difficult to write interactions between these three, as there aren't that many of them in canon, I still think that there is a lot of potential in them talking, which is why I tried to include it into this chapter as well. And you have to wait to see what I have in plan for Shokuhou.
Blankow: Yeah, magic being in the open now is quite the change to how it was before. I am also looking forward to read what Kamachi has planned for it. And yes, Aleister will probably be quite angry about what happened in GT, and Accel has his work cut out for him to keep AC together. And thank you for telling me that you found the Misaki parts nice, as I had doubts if I could write her properly. And congrats for publishing your own fanfic. I am looking forwards to its updates.
fencer29: Yeah, Othinus has a lot of life experience and knows Touma very well after everything she put him through, so getting advice from her is probably very helpful. And yes, I doubt that Shokuhou would hike up the mountain, when she could just have someone drive her up there. But having Hokaze just carrying her up there would also be a funny scene to write.
And the 'neat' think about the Coins of Nicholas is that they don't take any mana from the user, but they store it up from the leylines. So even espers can use them. But her has only one charge left, and it probably won't refill until next Christmas, so she has to be careful how she uses it.
Stryper88: Yeah, I hinted quite heavily towards a memory fix in that chapter, as I think that it is a plot point that Misaki deserves to get resolved. And it is nice that you liked their interactions. But to be clear, Touma didn't listen to that confessions. He is just too unlucky to overhear stuff like that, so the universe would probably need a lot more external help for something like that to happen.
And what I meant with the 'used to it' was that both Index and Othinus are used to call people by their first names as they are originally from Europe. So Touma calls her Mikoto in front of them when he speaks about her, but Misaka when he is speaking directed to her. I hope that makes sense.
Vegitta: Nice that you liked the chapter. But I think your message was cut off, so I don't know what you wanted to say afterwards.
Hauhentai70: Even though Misaki warmed up to Mikoto a bit more and vice versa, I still see Touma as a point of contention between these two.
Sentient Mop: Nice that you liked the story so far. I sometimes have doubts as the beginning goes slower towards action than I would wish for, but I wanted to characters to actually communicate with each other, which already takes some time. And setting everything up is another time consuming tasks, but I am really looking forward to write action soon. And yes, I think that their relationship would get a boost from them moving together, but it won't make them a couple in an instance, as Touma probably never really thinks about who he likes, and Mikoto still has self imposed obstacles before she wants to fully pursue Touma romantically.
united88: I plan on revealing what happens exactly with Mikoto's plan to save the sisters in either the chapter following this one, or the one after that, so I hope that you will like what I have in plan for that.
And yes, the rings are quite the Chekhov's gun, so you can be sure that I have planned something for them already.
Touma saw the houses pass by. The drive went by in silence so far, aside from the grumbling stomach of Index. As they reached the edge of district 21, the driver of the truck, a man Touma would guess to be around 30, spoke up, with a hint of contempt in his voice.
"So you know the Railgun personally? Quite the fucked up situation she is in there. Just this morning, I read the theory that she has a crush on the first ranked, so she volunteered her DNA for the clones so he could get stronger. All in the hope that it would make that monster love her back. I have to say, it sounds quite believable to me."
Touma clenched his fists. The pain of his fingernails digging into his skin helped him a bit in staying quiet.
"Yeah, so I hate that I have to drive her stuff around now. But my boss forced me to."
The driver let out a sigh.
"So, why are you moving with her? Are you her bodyguard or what? Wouldn't really want to switch with you. From what I heard, a lot of people want to take revenge on her for the pain these innocent clones had to go trough."
(Damn, that guy is an asshole. I should better make him stop, before he finds out our address. I don't even want to know what he would do with that information later on.)
So far, Touma only told the driver to head towards district 21, so if he could find a good way of forcing him to let them out soon, their location could remain hidden. But how should he do that? While that guy was definitely deserving of a punch, doing that while they were moving would probably lead to a crash. And as all of his and Mikoto's belongings were in the back, he didn't want to risk that. But luckily, him coming up with a plan soon turned redundant, as someone else already took action.
"Ahhh, what was that? Something just bit my leg!"
Touma saw the shape of a small human dashing away towards Index's habit, where it quickly hid. Being thankful for the opportunity, he quickly improvised.
"ARGH, I SAW JUST SAW A RAT. And it just bit me too! Stop the truck, we have to get out of here."
The driver, while looking shocked and confused, just complied and pulled over. Index, Touma and him all got out and looked inside of the cabin, where no rat could be seen.
"It probably went to the back and is right now chewing through all my stuff."
He looked up at the sky, and saw that it didn't look like it would rain or snow in the near future.
"Let's quickly get all boxes out of there! I don't want your sloppy company hygiene to ruin my belongings."
The driver nodded.
"Sorry, I don't know how that could have gotten into it. Let's quickly get all the boxes out, and I will call for a colleague of mine to bring a new truck."
Touma tried to muster the sternest voice he could manage.
"No, that won't do. If there is one in there, there will most likely be also at least one in the next truck you will send over. I will rather take my business elsewhere. And now open up the back so we can get to work."
The answer came back with a mixture of embarrassment and surprise.
"Alright, if that is your wish, then I will just help you dump out all your stuff here in this forest."
The driver went to the back, with Touma following closely. Index, who stayed quiet during the whole ordeal, just slumped down and sat on the road, probably realizing that the promised food was slipping away again.
"Alright, that should be quick."
The doors were opened, and Touma jumped inside and started handing boxes to the outside. As no big pieces of furniture were in their possesion, the work went by quickly. Soon, the truck was empty.
"Weird, I can't see any hole where a rat could pass from one side to the other. But that doesn't matter, if we lost your trust, there is nothing I can say right now to change that. So, should I recommend you some of our competitors and wait with you until they arrive?"
(Mhh, I shouldn't gamble on the next guy being nicer, especially with my luck. But we are already quite close, and there don't seem to be any people around, so Mikoto should probably mange this easily.)
"No, that should be fine, you can go now. I already have another company in mind. We will manage."
The driver just nodded, shoved his pant legs into his socks, and got into the cab. After having a quick look around inside of it, he closed the door and quickly drove off. Right when he was out of view, Touma saw Othinus peek out of Index's habit.
"Nice improvisation human. This shows again why you are my understander, and why I am yours. Now we just have to think of a way to transport this stuff the rest of the way."
Index looked up, still seeming like she was in a daze. Touma guessed that she wanted to ask what everything was about, but couldn't find the strength in her to do it, so that she just stayed quiet.
"I already have an idea for that, Othinus."
Touma took out his phone and send a message to Mikoto, shortly describing their current situation, and what he thought she could do to help them.
"Okay, now we just have to wait".
Mikoto had been sitting on the couch, waiting for the moving truck to arrive, when she received a message from Touma. It told her that he was now stuck some way down the mountain, with all their belongings just standing on the road. He didn't explain exactly why that happened, just that he would tell her later. He also said that they were in an area remote enough that it shouldn't be a problem if she would openly use her powers in a larger scale. She immediately thought of the same plan she saw Touma describe in the next lines. Not wanting them to have to wait for too long, she quickly went into the workshop area of the garage and took out multiple large panels of metal she had previously spotted when she had a look around. She went up to the motorcycle, opened up the garage door and drove off. This time though, large pieces of metal were following her closely.
Touma saw the motorcycle come down the road. Mikoto did as he had instructed her and brought large panes of metal where they could place the boxes on. She stopped the bike and placed them next to each other on the ground, and took of her helmet.
"Hi again, I hope you didn't have to wait too long."
She flashed a big smile, which caused Touma to smile back at her.
"Nah, you were even faster than I expected. Could you help me please to place the boxes on the metal, so we can get going again soon?"
Mikoto just nodded, and walked over to the pile of boxes.
"Ok, you know best how to arrange the items so they don't fall of, so I will just follow your directions."
"Ok!"
The work went by quickly again. Soon, the last box was put into place.
"So, what are we supposed to do with Index? She hasn't moved at all since I arrived. I doubt that she could walk, or even sit on the motorcycle."
"Can't we just lay her next to the boxes? You carried Index around multiple times by now, so I trust you to not drop her. And Othinus can just sit next to her, taking care that she doesn't move while you are driving."
(Hehe, and with her on one of the metal plates, there is space for me on the back of the bike.)
"Mhh, fine by me. I think that I should manage that."
Mikoto picked up the comatose Index and placed her carefully on a still unused spot. Afterwards, she went over to her bike again and took up her helmet. Shortly before she put it on, she turned back towards Touma.
"So, I will try to find some food for the nun, and then we will start unpacking while you are walking, is that okay?"
"W-wait Misaka. Why do I have to walk? I even have my helmet here already."
He presented his helmet while looking at her with puppy eyes.
"Tsk, as if I would take such a gamble. Imagine what would happened when your right hand would just brush me once because of your idiotic misfortune. No, you can just walk up there again."
Touma slumped down.
"Such misfortune. But oh well, I can't refute your logic."
He mustered the best smile he could.
"Have a safe trip."
Mikoto smiled back at him.
"You too, you idiot. Get home soon."
Touma thought that he saw her blush slightly when she said the word home, but she quickly put on her helmet.
"If you humans could stop with your flirting and hurry up, I would be forever grateful. As far as I know the grimoire library, I can say that this low energy phase won't last forever. Soon enough she will start eating everything that is in sight, so we should better hurry."
Even though both Mikoto and Touma stiffened a bit when they heard the allegation that they were flirting, they quickly nodded in unison. Mikoto got on the motorcycle and began levitating the metal sheets. Touma gave her a quick wave with his right hand, and saw her accelerate carefully, all while keeping the boxes and Index balanced nicely. Touma thought that it shouldn't take her too long to get to their house, even though she couldn't drive with the same speed with which she came here. He on the other hand had some more kilometers of walking ahead of him.
"I at least hope that they will be done when I arrive."
He let out a sigh and started walking.
Mikoto saw the house appear around a corner. During the drive, she got more proficient in counteracting the acceleration and the wind by tilting the metal sheets in precise angles. But as she didn't want Index and Othinus suffer too much because of the wind, she still kept the speed down to a reasonable level. When they finally arrived, the garage door was still open, so she drove in immediately while setting the boxes down. After she closed the door, she went over to Index. Othinus was sitting on top of her head, her legs hanging down and dangling around.
"Just carry her inside and put a bowl with crackers in front of her. That should get her going quite quickly."
Mikoto bend down to pick up the nun. Othinus used the opportunity to to climb up Mikoto's arm to sit down on her shoulder. Mikoto lifted up Index completely and started carrying her through the foyer into the living room to lay her down on the couch. Just when she passed into the foyer, she heard Othinus starting to speak.
"As my understander isn't here right now, you will have to do as my temporary mode of transport, human, so you can feel honored."
"Heh, fine by me. But I would ask you to behave yourself, as I have seen how you bite or pinch that idiot. I sometimes spark uncontrollably when I get startled and I wonder how such a tiny body like yours deals with electricity."
To emphasize her point, a small electric arc shot between two strands of her hair, dangerously close to Othinus. But the tiny goddess just smirked.
"Oh, so I see that you aren't such a pushover like my understander. But I am the nordic god of war, so don't think that I won't use your personal weaknesses to gain the upper hand over you. Having another personal servant that is living with me sounds quite helpful."
The doll-sized god turned her head towards Mikoto.
"Even though I have no proof of the little confession you did earlier to use as leverage, I can still use the fact that you like him to my advantage. How do you think my understander would react if I told him about the effect he has on women? I myself am quite content with the position I am in, but what would he do when he realizes that he has a harem that he can just chose from? And if I won't even mention you, do you think you have the time and courage at that moment to also express your feelings to him? And would he even chose you then?"
Mikoto felt Othinus lean a bit closer to her ear, but she stayed silent. After a few seconds, the tiny goddess started speaking again, this time in the most imposing voice she could probably muster.
"But as I am a god after all, I am of course able to be swayed by you pitiful humans. I just need an appropriate offering. A dollhouse, which would shield me from that awful cat would be a good start, in my opinion. Lay down that nun quickly and take out your phone. I already have an appropriate model in mind."
Mikoto, who just now reached the couch, set Index down onto it, placing a pillow underneath her head. After she had done so, she started heading towards the foyer again, Othinus still on her shoulder.
"Pff, okay, we can have a look while I am searching for something edible."
While walking, she took out the phone. Othinus shifted on her shoulder, trying to get to a position where she could see the screen properly. When she finally had a clear line of sight, she developed a puzzled look on her face.
"Euhm, human, that is not the website of a web shop, this is not even an application with which you can reach the internet. I thought you were proficient with technology. Here, let me show you."
Mikoto felt Othinus climb her way down the arm that held the phone. This time, it was her turn to smirk.
"Oh, you see, I am quite proficient with technology."
With a click of her thumb, she started playing a voice recording. After only a few seconds, Othinus began shaking Mikoto's sleeve, so she quickly paused it again.
"A recording of me, really? And why can't I remember ever saying something like that?"
"Just be quiet and listen!"
Mikoto started the playback again, right as she reached the door to the basement. She made her way down and started looking for something Index could snack on. It was hard for her to hold back a big smile, as she felt Othinus slowly making her way up to Mikoto's shoulder again. When the recording stopped, Mikoto had just found a pack of chips. Right when she picked them up, she heard Othinus starting to speak from her shoulder, but this time with a noticeable weakness in her voice that Mikoto never really heard before. Having a quick glance at her, one could even think that the gods face even had an unnatural shade of green on it.
"Euhg, I-I think I have to puke. As if I EVER would do such a thing. Especially with THAT cat. When did you even create that audio file, as I am certain that I wouldn't even say such things when I would be drugged out of my mind."
"Oh that? I just made it all up when I noticed that you wanted to blackmail me."
"You made it all up. In such a short amount of time? How dirty of a mind do you have?"
"Tsk, wasn't that still quite tame?"
Mikoto flicked a bit of hair out of her face.
"But to be clear, you understand what that means? If you ever mess with that idiot's love life, he will get to hear a recording like that one."
Othinus crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"As if my understander would ever believe such scandalous things about me."
"Are you really thinking about the same dense 'understander' that I am thinking about? And even if he doesn't believe it. Aren't you even a little bit scared that in a small part of his brain, he can only think about where your arms might have been on that poor cat's body?"
Othinus looked at Mikoto.
"Mutually assured destruction it is then."
Both stared into each others eyes intensely, seemingly not wanting to be the one that would look away first. After a few seconds both started laughing. Soon, Othinus began to speak.
"Oh, I think we will get along nicely human. The grimoire library is way too pure and lazy to give some stimulation to my existence. Her letting the cat chase after me is the most she ever does."
"Well, thank you for taking my mind of other things right now. I never actually created counter blackmail on the fly before. It was a nice test of my abilities. And while your psychological manipulation had its strong points, it still has nothing compared to that blonde bimbo. That one REALLY knows to pull my strings. So yeah, let us try to get along."
Othinus face lit up.
"Depending of course what that idiot tells me later about what happened on Sargasso."
Mikoto didn't notice a small frown that rushed over Othinus' face.
"Ok, enough with that for now. Let's get Index a bit of food, so we can start bringing all that stuff from the garage to the appropriate rooms."
"What do you mean with 'we'?"
Mikoto just snickered as she started walking upstairs again.
When Touma walked into the living room, he saw that everything seemed to be coming along nicely. Index was already running around, begging for more food, which indicated to him that Mikoto managed to feed her at least something so that she regained her energy. But as the nun was as useless doing physical work as ever, it seemed like Mikoto was bringing their belongings into the rooms all by herself. In an attempt to help her, he hurried into the garage, just to trip over a box laying around, spilling all of his underwear on the ground. This incident caused Mikoto to yell at him, which in turn made him just quietly pick up his clothes, while she carried the rest of the boxes upstairs, with steam coming out of her ears. After Touma finally carried the box he tripped over earlier into his room, he came down to see Index entering the living room with Sphynx's transport box in her hands.
"So Sphynx, this is where we will live from now on, all because Touma always has to anger people. But for you at least it has its advantages. I can let you roam freely here, as there are almost no cars that could drive over you. So here you go."
With that last sentence, she opened up the door and a calico cat jumped out. It started looking and sniffing around the room immediately after it landed. After only a few seconds, it seemed to have picked up a familiar scent, which made it lunge forwards into a full sprint. Following the direction the cat was running to with his eyes, Touma spotted Othinus sitting on a pillow on the ground next to the couch on which Mikoto was sitting on. Both were watching some TV show. Or at least they were, until both of the spotted that cat. While Othinus already got ready to run away, Mikoto jumped up in excitement.
"Oh, how I will miss the time that this beast was still caged."
Saying that, she shook her fist towards Sphynx and started running, the cat hot on her trail. At first she tried weaving through the legs of the table which stood in front of the couch, but Sphynx was still gaining on her. Apparently seeing that her current plan wouldn't work, she began heading towards Mikoto, who was standing with sparkles in her eyes, trying to beckon the cat towards her.
"ESPER, a god demands your assistance."
Even though Othinus put way more desperation into her demand than what would be expected form a god, Mikoto continued to ignore her, just mumbling the word 'Cat' over and over again. Not seeing any another way, the tiny goddess continued to run straight through Mikoto's legs, screaming for Touma to come stop their fight, as she threatened that otherwise, she would have to carve her way out of the cat's stomach.
(Tsk, as if something serious ever happened to her. The worst that I saw so far was that Sphynx chewed up her hat a bit and left a tiny scratch on her.)
Still, Touma started making his way over from the bottom of the stairs. He saw Othinus turn around while still standing between Mikoto's legs, staring right at the charging beast and getting into a fighting stance.
"Come at me. I will show you the might of a god of war."
But right before the cat reached her, it abruptly stopped, as if it was suddenly pushed away by something it didn't want to come near to. Being a bit closer to the scene now, Touma was able to spotted Othinus showing the widest grin he had ever seen.
"Hah, so you finally recognized me as the goddess I am. Took you long enough!"
"Euhm, I think this is rather my fault."
Touma shifted his gaze and spotted a sad look on Mikoto's face.
"Because of my power, I involuntarily emit EM waves which some animals can sense. And as mine are so powerful, they react like you can see right now. They don't even want to come close to me."
She let out a sigh.
"I really like cats, but no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get close to them. I can only really remember one time where I was able to pick up a cat since I became an Electromaster, but that was also an abnormal situation."
Touma saw Othinus move a bit under Mikoto's legs so that she was able to look up to her face.
"Why are you looking so sad, human? You are blessed by the gods. Oh how I envy you, and now it is not only because you are normal sized."
She turned towards Touma.
"And you, understander, have been useless enough all this time. From now on, whenever I am close to that beast, I will ride on the espers's shoulder."
Saying that, she climbed up Mikoto's pants, onto her hoodie, to then finally come to rest on her right shoulder. Mikoto appeared to be quite shocked by the sudden development, as she was just standing there, speechless. Othinus turned her head to the left.
"And I am way cuter than that beast anyways, so if you really want to, I will allow you to massage me instead."
Index, who until now just looked at the scene while putting away the transport box came over as well.
"Mhpf, as if you would be cuter than Sphynx."
She picked up the cat that was up to then still circling around Mikoto, and placed it on her head. She then turned towards Touma.
"And now, I am starving, so you better prepare us a lot of food, Touma."
Touma just nodded and started walking towards the fridge, to see what he already had on this floor, and what he would have to get from the basement. Suddenly, he remebered something the others could spend their time with already.
"But you two can already start explaining Magic to Mikoto while I am cooking, okay?."
The other three nodded at him, and sat down at the kitchen table. Touma finished looking into the fridge and had a mental list prepared of what he still needed, so he headed towards the foyer. In the background, he heard Index starting to speak.
(Phew, now I just have to cook really slowly until the complicated stuff is already explained. Then I can just join them later and Mikoto won't find out how little I still understand about Magic.)
Othinus had the feeling that the explanation on how magic works went better than expected. Mikoto seemed like a quick learner, and readily accepted the explanations on how magicians generate and wield their power.
(It is probably easier right now after she already fought against so many magicians. From what I was told about espers when I still was the leader of Gremlin, I can guess that she would have not accepted anything we told her right now, without us demonstrating it. Which would have been a problem.)
Touma was unusually slow while cooking today, and he seemed to have forgotten ingredients multiple times, so that he didn't really participate in the discussion until most of the theory has already been laid out. The food he brought was eaten quite quickly, especially thanks to Index, whose speed of eating seemed to have left Mikoto speechless for a while. After they were done and the table was cleaned, Touma, Index and Othinus all told some stories of them fighting against other magicians, and how they analyzed their magic and how they won against it. Othinus thought that hers and Index's explanations were the least useful for Mikoto, as Index was able to use spell intercept, which Mikoto couldn't do, and she as a magic god had never really struggled in the recent past in any fight (not counting the fight against Touma). But there was also another thing she noticed. As she knew of Mikoto's feeling towards the boy, she already expected her to glance towards him as often as she could. Which she did, and that in an amount of times which probably gave her the feeling of being still very inconspicuous (she wasn't, but as the only one with life experience on the table, Othinus was the only one who noticed). What surprised her more was that fact that Touma, her understander, also looked at the esper more often than what she would have expected. In the beginning she just brushed it off as him wanting to make sure that Mikoto wouldn't feel left out of the already established group. But after the three girls already started making jokes on Touma's expense, and his glances continued, she couldn't think of any other reason for it right now besides one.
(Is he also interested in her? And is he himself even aware of it? Tsk, pesky humans and their feelings. Well, it isn't my problem, is it?)
She was taken out of her thoughts by hearing Index's stomach rumble.
"Touma, it is already getting dark outside, I demand some more food, right now."
"Alright, alright. Misaka, I think that Index and Othinus gave you one of the best overviews about magic you could receive in the entire world, given their expertise. But I feel like I learned best about how to deal with magicians by fighting them. But if you ever have any question, just ask any of them."
Mikoto nodded.
"Mhm, that sounds fine. It feels nice to finally understand the logic behind all that bullshit they always throw at us, even though some stuff still feels like cheating."
Othinus saw Touma flashing a smile at her while nodding.
"Yeah, I can totally understand you. I have a lot of more stories with overpowered magicians."
Othinus saw Mikoto blush.
"Oh, w-would you m-maybe tell me some of them later?"
Touma, evidently not noticing her embarrassment about asking such a simple question, answered flatly.
"Ok, how about after I made dinner? I guess that Index will want to watch television down here, so we could go to my room, as it should be more quiet there."
"O-ok."
While Touma walked away towards the kitchen, Mikoto seemed to have started to overheat, as her head turned bright red.
(The esper seems to have bitten off more than she can chew? How will she even survive being in the same room as him for a longer period of time without just dying? Well, not my problem, the season finale of 'Magical Powered Kanamin' is airing today, so she is on her own. I just hope that the nun succeeds in keeping the cat under control."
She made her way over to the couch, which already took her a considerable time. Index was already sitting on it, holding Sphynx tightly, which put her a bit at ease. She sat down on the pillow from earlier and started watching the pre-episode discussion. This evening should at least bring some relaxation, she hoped.
Mikoto was carrying something she did not recognize. She looked down and saw lots of burned skin. Having her eyes wander up, she spotted a only slightly singed patch of spiky hair amid large burned areas on which appeared to be someones head.
"T-touma, is that you? What happened?"
He seemed to try to answer, but only a gargled sound escaped his lips. Mikoto began to sob, and tried to carefully caress a mostly untouched area of his face.
"No, please stay with me, I don't want to lose you!"
She saw that Touma opened his eye lids and looked directly at her. His cracked lips moved slightly, but no word could be understood. She had a suspicion what he had said, but thinking about that would only leave her in more pain.
"T-touma, p-please!"
Her sobbing increased, and tears started falling onto his face, washing away some of the soot, exposing brightly red colored flesh. He seemed to have realized as well that nothing could be understood, so he seemed to simply try his best to form a smile while looking into Mikoto's eyes. But as he did so, she saw the strength flow out of his eyelids. It seemed like he was fighting to keep them open, but someone was piling on more and more weights that seemed to try to force them shut. After only a few short moments, his eyes were closed completely, and his breathing stopped. Mikoto didn't know what to do, so she simply pulled the limp body into a hug, while large tears were falling towards the ground.
Mikoto awoke drenched in sweat.
(It was just a dream. Just a dream. Touma is sleeping peacefully in the room next door. He is okay. He is okay.)
She tried to remember how exactly she got into this position:
The evening went better than Mikoto expected. After a nice dinner which they all ate while watching TV, she went up with Touma to his room, where they sat on his bed and just talked about his and their shared experiences with magic. And there were a lot of them. As Touma wanted to describe them in detail, they barely scratched the surface on their first talk. But one thing was becoming clear to Mikoto: Touma got hurt. A lot. Even more so than she already knew about. They both got tired quite early, as they had woken up at 5 in the morning, so they said good night to each other and went to bed, where Mikoto fell asleep almost instantly. Which made her end up with that nightmare.
(It might have been a nightmare, but the situation I saw was quite similar to the one we experienced in Scotland.)
Mikoto realized that she still didn't really talk about what she saw there with anybody. Right after it happened, she went into shock and just cared for a freshly healed Touma, albeit he was still short one arm at that time. And after he got it back, more crazy things happened, so she just suppressed thinking about his near death experience.
(It was probably triggered by him reminding me tonight how often he gets hurt.)
Mikoto felt a dryness in her throat and quietly got up. She went out of her room and was now staring right at Touma's door. Against her rational side advising against it, she snuck over and opened the door slightly. On the other side, she was able to hear rhythmic breathing and some quiet snoring. Mikoto smiled.
(That's the nicest thing to hear that I can imagine right now, as it means that my idiot is still here with me.)
She closed the door again carefully and headed downstairs. When she reached the kitchen, she took out a glass, filled it with water, and sat down at the kitchen table. Right as she was about to drink it, she heard a small voice from the distance.
"Can't sleep, esper?"
"Oh, Othinus, sorry, I forgot that you would sleep here."
"No worries, I still not a human after all, so rather than sleep, I just like to lay back and relax. Which is now made more relaxing than before as the nun took the cat up to her room."
"Oh, so I didn't wake you at least. That's good."
Othinus began to make her way over to the kitchen.
"Yep. So, let me guess: All that magic talk gave you nightmares?"
"H-how did you know? And it was only a single bad dream I had."
Mikoto contemplated whether she should tell Othinus about her dream. She still was not sure what kind of relationship they had right now? But she was also sure that Othinus cared a lot about Touma, so that meant that she should probably be one of the best persons around to talk to regarding Mikoto's fears of losing him.
"When that idiot told me about this battles, he spoke so casually about his injuries. It seems to me like he doesn't care about his personal well being at all. And this all reminded me of that incident in Scotland, where he ended up more dead than alive."
Mikoto continued to speak, while sobbing quietly throughout.
"And I was as useless as ever. I am just so weak compared to him and his enemies. But how should I ever manage to catch up? The AAA felt like a dead end. And as my body is just incompatible with magic, I can't even use that. It all just feels so hopeless."
Othinus, who by now had made it to the kitchen table and had successfully climbed on top of it, walked over to Mikoto's arm that was holding onto the glass and gave it a hug.
"Esper, you aren't alone with worrying about my understander. And sadly for me, worrying is not the only thing I do."
She stopped the hug and spun around on the spot. With one swift motion, the tiny god was now sitting on Mikoto's forearm, while looking up at her face. A tiny shadow seemed to have appeared on her face.
"I just feel so guilty, you know? For what I did to him when you all came to the Sargasso to fight me."
"You mean how you rebuild the world into a one without any sadness, just to mess with his hopeless ideals?"
A small smile appeared on Othinu's face.
"Right, I had forgotten that he told you about that in Denmark. All the memories back to that time still feel a bit hazy. Remind me some day to thank you for setting him straight back then. You really did a good job."
The smile on Othinu's face disappeared.
"At least, if you still want to talk with me after what I am about to tell you next."
"Huh, what do you mean?"
"Well, so if you remember back to our talk about magic from earlier today, I told you about phases, right?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"So, I didn't only recreate the world once. I did it multiple times, all to make my understander break."
(She did it multiple times? Did he have to go through multiple torturous world? Maybe even dozens of them? Oh no, poor Touma.)
"Yeah, so even I lost the accurate count after a while, but as a rough guess, I would say that I saw him die more than a billion times. And that in some of the most gruesome ways you can imagine."
Othinus braced for an impact. Or a zap, or some pain at least. She knew how angry Mikoto could become, and right now she admitted to having tortured the boy she loved beyond any imagination. Suddenly, an impact shook her hat. But it was weaker than expected. And … wetter. She looked up and saw big tears running down on Mikoto's face.
"B-b-billions of times? W-why does the world hate him that much? He is just a nice person, he shouldn't have to suffer like that."
Othinus saw Mikoto rub away her tears. But that didn't stop her sobbing, which made it a bit more difficult to piece together her sentences.
"W-why did you do that? If you wanted to kill him, why not do it once and get it over with?"
Othinus didn't really feel anger in her voice. But it seemed to ooze with sadness. Sadness she probably felt for the boy who carried the world on his shoulders, all while wanting to just live a normal life.
(Better show her right now how selfish I am. If I ever want her to forgive me for what I did, I better start now with being honest.)
"So what you have to understand is, is that I am not from this "world", as one would say. When I became a magic god, I changed it in a multitude of ways. But what I found out that while doing so, I had lost my way back. All the people that I cared about previously were gone. And I felt just so alone. But then I thought of my understander's right arm. That I could use it to get back to my original world and finally feel like I belong again. But for that I needed his cooperation."
Mikoto nodded slightly.
"So I tried to break him. To make him help me. But it just didn't work. He kept on fighting, determined to get back to all of you. And that's when I realized that he is probably the only person alive that truly understands me and my struggles. So I brought him back to this world. Which ended up in me almost dying and him volunteering to save me, as he forgave me. But you know the story from then on."
Mikoto's face slightly twitched. Othinus would have wished to know what was currently going on inside of the esper's head. Was she thinking of the best way to punish her? Would she just storm out, never to speak a word with Othinus again? But what came next surprised her.
"Well, I can't really judge you for that, can I?"
"Huh?"
"How does the christian saying go again? 'He who is without sin shall cast the first stone', right."
"Yeah, that's correct, but what do you want to say with that?"
Mikoto began fidgeting with her fingers, which felt like a small massage to Othinus who was still sitting on her forearm.
"I did a similar thing to that idiot back when he found out about the experiments they were doing on my sisters. That night, I planned to die in a fight against Accelerator to show the scientists that were involved that I was just worth nothing, so that they would stop the experiment and spare their lives."
Othinus saw a smile flash across Mikoto's face, that so far had only been frowning.
"But right when I was talking myself up to do it, he shows up and says that he won't allow me to die. Which meant, same as for you, that he stood in the way of my perceived happiness. So I attacked him, while he didn't defend himself at all. He just took it all. And even when he was laying on the ground, hurt and barely alive, he wouldn't give up. Which made me stop with my plan. And that in the end saved my sisters AND my life."
Mikoto's smile widened.
"Gosh, that idiot is really so idiotic. But that's why we like him, right?"
"Yep, carrying me across Denmark wasn't the most rational thing for him to do. But he did it anyways, and it was the nicest thing anyone ever did."
Mikoto just nodded.
"So you see, we both thought that we would find our way to happiness by going through him, while we could find it inside of him all along."
(She has a way with words, I have to admit. It's the same like in Denmark where she found the right words to say to him on the spot.)
"That's true."
Othinus stood up from the arm, and quickly shook some teardrops from her hat.
"But Othinus, let us try to stop him from suffering any more, with all our might, okay?"
"Yes, let us do that."
Othinus looked up at Mikoto.
"And the first thing we can do for that is to see if we can't make you more effective in helping him against magicians. That grimoire library and me have a lot of combined magical knowledge, so even though you can't use conventional magic, there might still be a good chance of us finding something to help you. Let us have a talk tomorrow morning after you two have woken up."
"So you think there is a way?"
Othinus heard the excitement in her voice.
"Well, I would say that the odds are in our favor. And another thing regarding why you came down here in the first place: You aren't the only one with nightmares in this house. The grimoire library is lucky that her sleep is as deep as it is. There were multiple nights in which I heard my understander howling from behind the bathroom door like an abused dog. He never really shows it, but he is also heavily impacted by what happened to him, and especially during the more quiet times, it seems to come up. I myself am probably the reason for most of the bad things he sees in his dreams, so I should probably not be the one to ask him about it. So I would suggest that when you do want to talk about it, talk with him. While he will probably feel guilty about making you feel that way, I can guess that he most likely will be glad to see that other people he perceives as strong are also struggling. Of course, a proper therapist would be best. And with magic becoming known to the world right now, there might be a chance for him to find one in the near future. But until that point, please help him and let him help you, okay?"
Mikoto sighed.
"You might not know it, but it is a bit hard for me to share my feelings when I am around him, even of the non romantic kind. I am very good in hiding it, so that might come as a shock to you, but I wanted to warn you."
Mikoto paused for a moment.
(Is she as dense about herself than my understander is about her? They really are a match made in hell.)
"But yes, I will try to talk to him soon."
Mikoto quickly drank up her water and stood up. Thanks for the talk Othinus. And I am looking forward to tomorrow. Good night!"
"Good night, esper!"
While Mikoto headed upstairs again, Othinus kept sitting on the table. She started mumbling something to herself.
"Ok, how can we help her to get stronger? Let's see, what do I know about esper powers so far ..."
It seemed like there wouldn't be as much relaxing as she hoped for this night.