Welcome back. At first I wanted to put New Year's eve all into one big chapter, but right around the 5000 word mark, a convenient break point appeared. I am still quite far in to the second part, so you can expect that pretty soon I would say.

Blankow: It will take some time for her powers to reach a usable level, but I am also looking forward to use them in fights in the future.

Aminadab Brulle: Yes, Othinus is really quite the convenient plot device, as she is is versed in science and magic. And she is also quite sarcastic and rude, which fits a bit to my own personality, which makes it easier to write her than other characters.

calvinhobbesliker: I am glad that you liked where I am taking the story, and it is also nice that I can share some theories about the power system of Toaru in this form. And using her Level 6 shift as a starting point for a powerup just seemed like the most logical thing for me.

SaSaltyDog: Good that you think that my way of giving her a powerup seems to excite you. But I don't want her to awaken it in an instant, so we won't be seeing it for a while. You can imagine that Mikoto spends a lot of her free time practicing with Othinus up in her room.

Yus: I am thinking about giving Touma more power as well. But in one interview, Kamachi said that the series will end soon, when Touma can reliably fight against a person wielding a gun or a trained martial artist. And while I don't agree with that sentiment 100%, I know that giving Touma, who likes to solve things by using his words, a powerful 'weapon', can lead to some poor character utilization.

fencer29: Yeah, her parents probably wanted to be with her right the instant that they heard the news. But I needed some more things to happen before they can meet with Mikoto, so having them far away for a while seemed like the best idea. And yes, I wonder if Tabikage is angry with himself for not looking more into the existence of clones of his daughter.

It was the morning of New Year's Eve, and Touma was currently sitting at the kitchen table, eating the breakfast he had prepared for himself and the others. Right when he was about to finish, he saw Mikoto coming down the stairs. Spotting him seemed to have startled her, as some kind of jolt went through her body, which apparently led her to straightening out some strands of hair. After she had done so, she went over, grabbed something to eat as well, and sat down.

"Good morning Misaka, did you sleep well?"

With a hint of nervousness in her voice, she answered.

"Yep, and you?"

"Yeah, me too. I have to say that sleeping in a bed is a lot more relaxing than doing it in a bathtub."

Touma looked at Mikoto, who had just now taken a bite from her food, probably to have an excuse to not go into his philosophical ramblings about actual beds. Seeing as this topic would probably not be the best conversation started, he quickly thought of another one.

"Say, did you have any plans for New Year's that my rotten luck ruined for you now?"

He saw Mikoto frown a bit. She swallowed down her last bite.

"Well, yeah. My friends and me planned on having a small party together. Tokiwadai doesn't allow us to be out until midnight, so we wouldn't have been able to celebrate the actual new year, but still, spending some time with friends sounded way better than how I spend it last year."

"Huh, last year? What was different back then?"

"Well, you see, I have always been kind of a loner. I thought I found a great friend during my first year at Tokiwadai, but she turned out to be not that nice of a person. And my status as a Level 5 didn't make it any easier to become friends with other people."

"Huh, why is that? I would expect that a lot of the girls from your school would be eager to hang out with you. There should be at least some in that group that you could have become good friends with."

Mikoto shook her head.

"Nah, it is not that simple. You see, to the outside world, I always have to present myself like this refined, high class lady. And while I think that I am capable of doing that, it is just not who I am. I would rather stand in a store reading manga than going to a tea ceremony. But people who would be up to do such stuff are often already intimidated by the ojou-sama outside, so that they don't even think of hanging out with me."

She let out a sigh.

"So yeah, last year I spend New Year's by sneaking out of my dorm, climbing up the highest building, and watching the fireworks."

Touma felt a sting in his heart.

(So she was looking forward to hanging out with her friends. And I ruined that by involving her in my life. And now she can't even meet them properly down in the city until Accelerator does whatever he has to do to give her back at least a sliver of a normal life. Speaking of…)

"But you know. If someone would have told me one year ago that I would spend my New Year's eve together with a fairy sized goddess, a human library of books which can kill you when you read them, and one friendly idiot, I would have laughed at them."

She flashed a big grin towards Touma.

"But right now, I am looking forward to celebrate with the new group of friends I have up here."

Touma smiled back. After a few seconds of eye contact, Mikoto looked back towards her breakfast and continued eating.

(Mhh, she seems to already have warmed up towards the other two. But still, it must suck to be forced into a specific way to celebrate. Maybe I should think of a way to make her day a bit better at least.)

Touma finished his food, but continued sitting at the table, thinking of things that Mikoto might like. He slipped one hand into his pocket. In there, he felt his phone, as well as a small Gekota strap that was attached to it.

(Mhh, she likes that frog character. A lot. But having seen the stash she had in that suitcase, I would be unsure if I would be able to find one she doesn't already own.)

That suitcase also brought back the memory of the small black box from Cupid Arrow. At first, he tried to forget about it, so that he would not invade Mikoto's privacy. But yesterday, when the three women were upstairs, his curiosity got the better of him.

(So she bought them most likely in Hawaii when she went there with me. And as I doubt that she will get married soon, it will most likely be a promise ring she would give to a boyfriend or a girlfriend.)

Touma couldn't really explain why, but his heart ached a bit when he thought of Mikoto giving a ring to someone. But he also knew that he was probably the reason for why Mikoto couldn't see that person again for the foreseeable future.

(And as I know her, she probably hasn't even confessed to them yet. She is acting like such a tsundere towards me all the time already, what would she even do to a person she has romantic feelings for.)

Touma shuddered a bit internally.

(But okay, I can't really ask her about it, as she would just deny it. So I will file that plan away for another time.)

He continued thinking, while letting his gaze wander through the room and then outside of the windows which were facing the garden. Now that the sun was starting to rise, he could see the outside world much more clearly. It looked different than yesterday.

"Oi, Misaka, it snowed."

Mikoto, who had just now finished her food, looked out as well. She turned back towards Touma, her eyes glowing with excitement.

"Oh, get dressed properly you idiot. We have to go and build a Snow-Gekota."

With that, Mikoto quickly jumped up, put away her dishes and sprinted upstairs. Touma just let out a sigh, cleaned up as well, and made his way to his room. He heard a quiet giggle which seemed to have come from the couch.

When Touma came back out, Mikoto had already started with the construction. He looked around in the garden, which he hadn't really inspected so far. It was large, maybe around 3000 square meters. While some flower beds were visible, most of it was made up of grass. Or it would have been, if it hadn't been covered in snow.

(It sure is lucky that we have these cleaning robots. They should take care of mowing the lawn as well.)

Right that moment, Mikoto passed him, rolling a large mass of snow in front of her.

"Come on, no lollygagging. The snow is very nice to build a snow sculpture right now, so lets try to make it a big one."

With that, she passed on the large ball of snow onto Touma and began to work on two smaller orbs. Touma started to roll it through the so far untouched snow, picking up more and more. After a while, Mikoto seemed to approve of the size of the mass of snow he was constantly enlarging, so she gestured him to roll it over towards its destination.

"Okay, let me do the rest!"

Mikoto placed her two orbs of snow onto the larger one. She then gathered some iron sand, and began shaping the sculpture with it. At first she started with a rough outline, which she refined further and further to her liking. Afterwards, she started engraving fine details into it, like it's pupils or mouth.

"Wow Misaka, I didn't know that you could control the iron sand in such a precise manner that you could engrave things with it."

Mikoto finished up the last details, and inspected the whole sculpture again. Absentmindedly, she answered his last remark.

"Pff, this isn't even close to how fine I can engrave stuff. Just yesterday, I *cough cough*, sorry, got something in my throat."

She coughed multiple more times. After she had stopped, she immediately spoke up.

"So, that looks fine I think. You know, I was quite disappointed that I didn't have time to build one in Denmark. First, I had to find and protect you. Then I had to beat some sense into you. And finally I had to defeat all that cheap copies of me, only to be hurried back to Academy City. And while I like a good fight, I also appreciate the small things in life, you know."

Touma nodded. Mikoto gave him a quick smile, before she turned towards the Gekota again, admiring her work.

(Right, she also likes to fight. And it seemed like her win against me didn't quite fulfill her as much as she would have liked.)

Without much further thinking, he just went for it.

"Misaka, would you like to fight me? Like, shall we have a sparring match?"

"Huh?"

She raised her head.

"Well, you see, I remember you telling me that we had multiple fights before I lost my memory, which I apparently all won. But you see …"

He started scratching his neck.

"As I can't remember any of that, all I think about is my loss in Denmark. So I demand a rematch, right here, and right now!"

(I hope that this is something that will actually cheer her up. But what if she doesn't like …)

"So you finally know how it feels. Hehehehe. But don't think that I will go easy on you out of pity. Now that I have started my winning streak, I intent to keep it going."

(Okay, she seems to like that idea.)

"Well, you don't have to go easy, but I won't either okay?"

"Obviously."

"Okay, but first for some ground rules. Please try to keep your attacks to the non lethal kind. So only blunt iron sand weapons, and have a low amperage in your lighting strikes. If you hit me with any of them, its your win, as I know that I could be dead by then if you were fighting me for real."

Mikoto nodded.

"As if I would ever want to harm you. Even the beat down in Denmark probably hurt me more than you. And as for the rules for you: If you touch me even one time with your right hand, you win? I want to make it fair as well. But please no dragons or other strange stuff, okay?"

Touma gave her a teasing grin.

"Well, that all depends if you can manage to not cut off your arm."

Mikoto grinned back.

"Well, it all depends: As long as your bad luck doesn't make me do it on accident, I think I will manage."

Mikoto and Touma were currently facing each other with around ten meters of distance between them.

(Okay, we both know that my win in Denmark doesn't really count, so to him, we are still 0-0. But while he might not remember our previous fight near that bridge, I still do.)

She was already sparking from excitement, which Touma apparently noticed as well. Even though the snow on the ground seemed to muffle his voice somewhat, she was still quite certain what she heard him mumble.

"This might have been a mistake after all."

With a lot more force in his voice, he continued.

"Okay, let's start on 'go':"

He raised his right hand into the air, three fingers extended.

"Three … Two … One"

Only his index finger remained. Mikoto readied herself, sending electricity into her muscles to speed them up, and already taking aim at Touma.

"GO!"

With his hand now made into a fist, Touma leaped ahead towards Mikoto. She saw his rapid approach, and quickly fired a lightning spear at him, which he casually swatted away with his right hand.

(Ok, that was expected. But lets see what he thinks about this.)

Touma was stopped dead in his tracks, as a cage of lighting appeared around him. Through the crackling of electricity, he heard Mikoto's voice.

"Seems like I caught you. So, want to give up?"

"Give up? Tsk. Give it your best!"

Mikoto's response came almost immediately, with a cheer in her voice.

"Well, you won't be able to dodge this one at least."

The cage began to shrink.

(Okay, I have to come up with something quickly)

The cage he was currently trapped in was made out of straight lightnings which seemed to appear around 3 meters above the ground, to then shoot straight down into the earth. And while the diameter of the cage started at around 2 meters, it was now constantly shrinking.

(The 'bars' are too close to each other. I can't create a gap wide enough with my Imagine Breaker to slip out.)

He looked down at the snow, an idea forming in his head.

Mikoto finally had him cornered. She made sure to eliminate all of the weaknesses she had previously seen on herself when she fought him. Instead of having all of the lightning come out from a single spot, which might have looked cooler, she instead created it in individual units, therefore taking away Touma's ability to negate everything at once. The drawback of having multiple smaller arcs of electricity next to each other was on the other hand, that they would really like to combine into few, but larger ones. Therefore, it required tremendous control to keep them in the desired form, which placed a limit on the speed she could shrink the cage at. But Touma wouldn't know that, and probably just think that she was playing with him.

(Should I go even slower to give him the chance to think again about giving up?)

Right as she was thinking that, a snowball flew out of a gap between the lightning bars. But it seemed to have been poorly aimed by Touma, as it wouldn't even come close to her.

"Getting desperate now, are we? You know, even if that snowball had been coming right at me, I could have just vaporized it. So what were you even thinking?"

She could hear a quiet chuckle coming out of Touma's direction.

"Well, Misaka. If you fight against as many villains as me, you pick up one or two of their tricks. And I learned that if you can't fight against the main enemy, try to attack someone helpless instead."

"What do you mean, someone helpless? There are just us two out here."

Even though the cage was shrinking further and further, Touma spoke with confidence in his voice.

"Is that so?"

Suddenly, it dawned on her. Turning her head, she followed the path the snowball had taken, only to see where it had landed.

"Y-y-you really dared to do that?"

In front of her eyes, she saw the damage Touma had done to their Gekota. A part of its face had fallen apart, and one eye seemed to be missing as well. The whole world turned red in Mikoto's eyes, and she lost her composure.

(Screw all the plans I had, I will teach him a lesson that he won't soon forget.)

Lightning after lightning came forth, with Touma seemingly struggling to defend himself from all of them, while he was in such a confined space. But going all out also had its drawbacks. Her concentration slipped for just a moment, which caused the electric cage to change its shape. Through one of the enlarged gaps that appeard, Touma quickly escaped.

(Shit, losing my cool was exactly what he had hoped for. Okay, calm down Mikoto, you can just force him to rebuild it afterwards, when you have tasted sweet sweet victory.)

Calming herself down, she saw Touma approaching quickly. She started running towards him as well, while gathering all the iron sand she could find under the snow. She pulled it towards her, but made sure to keep it hidden underneath the snow, so that it would also be kept hidden from her opponents sight. When they were only a few steps apart, she shot out the black mass towards Touma's feet. This led to the desired effect of turning his rapid approach into an uncoordinated stumble, with all the momentum he had before being now completely out of his control.

(Okay, now is my chance.)

Mikoto reformed the ironsand into a blunt spear and shoot it up towards Touma's torso. Surprisingly, he seemed to have seen that attack coming, as he twisted his body, evading it narrowly. This forced her to have it turn around for another attack, which meant that she lost precious time, in which Touma came steadily closer.

(Connect first god dammit!)

She saw his fist approaching her right shoulder. Right as it reached its target, so did the iron sand. Even though she lost all control over it, the momentum it carried was not lost. And as Touma had little control over his movements before, this just made it worse. He kept on tumbling, crashed into Mikoto and pulled her down as well. They were now laying there, side by side in the snow.

Touma was laying on the ground, catching his breath. He quickly glanced over to Mikoto, who seemed to do the same. After a few moments, he stood up, brushing some snow from his pants. He turned towards the girl and offered her his right hand.

"Well, looks like a draw, don't you think so too?"

He tried to give the most genuine smile he could muster.

"And let's rebuild the snow sculpture, okay. I feel bad for having fought so dirty, but I also knew that you wouldn't have been happy if I had seen an opportunity but then had not taken it."

Mikoto sat up, grabbed his hand and nodded.

"Yep, a draw sounds find. And snow is at least easily fixable."

She pulled herself up, letting go of the hand when she was standing securely. Now that she stood in front of him, Touma saw that a lot of snow had been caught up in her hair. Not wanting it to get wet, he quickly extended his left hand and started brushing it away.

"W-what are you doing?"

Mikoto's face turned red, until it suddenly changed into a serious expression.

"Oh, I am just …"

A lighting bolt shot out of her forehead, barely passing over Touma's spiky hair.

(What did she do that for? If she would have wanted me to stop, she could have just told me. But I had the feeling that she wouldn't say anything about it. Is my Biri-Biri-radar so out of whack?)

A loud thud behind him brought him out of his musings. He heard a third voice.

"Ohhh, finally I was blessed by her whips of affection again!"

Flashback, some minutes earlier:

Saten, Uiharu and Kuroko were currently walking up to a house which was located in the mountains of district 21. Yesterday evening, Uiharu had tracked Mikoto's phone to this location. After a bit of research, they found out that it apparently belonged to a dark side group, which supposedly fled from Academy City during Operation Handcuffs. But what if the reports had been wrong, and some bad people would still be there right now? Bad people that had kidnapped Mikoto, because why else would she bee there? The reveal of her clones might have angered some people who now pushed the blame onto her, but Saten doubted that these scumbags would actually attack Mikoto. So her getting kidnapped by the dark side, probably for another sinister experiment, made the most sense to the three.

(And they also probably took her phone, which explains why all her answers are so short, and why she never picks up. They took their concerns to Anti-Skill, but it was still in disarray after the failed clean up of the city, so no one wanted to take responsibility. Which led them to the current situation: They took it upon themselves to check out the location, and if necessary, rescue Mikoto. And even if they could just gather some information, maybe that would be enough to convince Anti-Skill to act.

(What have you gotten yourself into now, Misaka-san?)

When they got close to the house, they hid themselves between the surrounding trees and snuck up closer. Saten closed the gap she had to Kuroko, who seemed very eager to rescue her former roommate, and whispered something into her ear.

"They will probably have the most security on their front side, so let us approach from behind."

Kuroko nodded, and quietly teleported next to Uiharu, whom she told their plan as well. They made their way around the house, and Saten tried to have a look inside already. Sadly, it seemed that all windows were either covered, or only showed darkness on the other side. Going on, they were suddenly able to hear some voices from further back.

(Doesn't that sound like Misaka-san?)

They approached the border of the forest. On the other side of the trees, she spotted a very large garden.

(Misaka-san and Kamijou-san? What are they doing here?)

She suddenly felt Kuroko lean over to her ear. With a quiet voice, which was still filled with hatred, she began to whisper.

"So that ape abducted her. I know that he was not to be trusted. Do you think that more people are hiding right now, or should I jump out and deal with him already?"

Uiharu leaned over as well.

"It doesn't really look like Misaka-san is scared right now. Let us maybe wait and watch for a moment to see if we can find out a bit more."

Saten nodded, and saw that Kuroko did so as well, albeit seemingly very reluctant. It seemed like Mikoto had just put some finishing touches on a giant snow sculpture of the frog character she likes so much. Soon after, Touma challenged her to a fight, which she agreed to in a heartbeat.

"Hehehe, does that ape have death wish? Onee-sama will obviously defeat him before he can even move a centimeter."

Saten on the other hand wasn't so sure about that.

(Misaka-san would not be so excited to fight if it would be easy. I know her to well for that. And why do they keep talking about Denmark? What happened between these two, that they apparently both have been to a country on the other side of the globe?)

After the two had laid out some ground rules, they started. Even though Saten thought that the match wouldn't be a total domination, she still thought that Mikoto's title as the third ranked would mean a clean victory for her. But that assumption was already overturned the second the match started. Saten almost let out a scream, when she saw that a bolt of lightning was approaching the spiky-haired boy. But when he just casually swatted it away, her ability to produce sounds went away instead.

(Didn't that guy say that he has no ability at all? So why was he able to negate that lightning?)

The rest of the fight went by quickly. Touma appeared to have been trapped, only for him to make Mikoto's concentration crack for a moment, allowing him to break out.

(He doesn't seem to have any offensive ability? So is it just that he is invulnerable to lightning? But then he would have just left that cage immediately. Mhh…)

The clash ended with a mad dash, which ended with both of them lying on the ground. Him touching Mikoto seemed to have angered Kuroko immensely, so Uiharu placed a hand on her shoulder, whispering into her ear to at least spectate for a few more moments. But all that restraint vanished in an instant, when he started to brush out the snow of Mikoto's hair, which caused her to blush.

"Ok, Kuroko, we can maybe go out now and tell th …."

With a quiet sound, Kuroko teleported above Touma's head, ready to deliver a savage kick. Sadly for the Level 4 esper, Mikoto seemed to have noticed the attack, as she quickly intercepted it by stunning her with a lightning bolt. Saten and Uiharu jumped up, and followed their friend into the garden.

"KUROKO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

Mikoto was quite shocked, as she had just seen her friend appear out of nowhere.

(I didn't want to tell them that I moved in here with Touma and the other two weirdos. Saten and Uiharu will probably tease me for living in the same house as a boy, and Kuroko will probably have a freak out.)

Right when she thought that, she already saw the other two of her friends approaching as well. Kuroko tried to give an explanation, even though her voice was still trembling because of the high voltage shock.

"Well, you see onee-sama, you ignored us so much that we thought that you had to have been kidnapped. So we started this rescue mission. And we were apparently right on time, as I was able to stop this ape from defiling you any further."

A vein popped out of Mikoto's forehead.

"He wasn't defiling me, he took some snow out of my hair. If you really think that this already counts as an assault, then what do you think you have done to me all this time?"

"What I have been doing? Showing my love of …"

Uiharu, who had just now reached them, covered Kuroko's mouth with her hands. Saten, who had also just appeared, spoke up instead.

"Oh hello, Misaka-san and Kamijou-san. Sorry for interrupting your date like that, but we were worried about Misaka-san's wellbeing."

"D-date, don't say that, or she will fry you. We were just out here, building a snow sculpture, that is all."

A lightning shot out towards Touma, who casually blocked it.

"See, you angered her, and I have to play the lightning rod again. Just typical."

(Grrr, why does he keep on angering me with being so dense. But still, I have to deal with the three of them now.)

"Euhm, we haven't seen you building that sculpture, but rather your fight. But Kamijou-san, you told us that you didn't have an ability. How was it then that you could handle her lightning without a problem?"

"Mhh, I think I told you that I didn't have an esper ability."

He showed her his right hand.

"But my right hand has the ability to negate everything supernatural. So I can negate her lightning. But as it doesn't show up during the system scan, I am quite certain that it is not an esper ability. And as it also negates my AIM field, I am officially the weakest Level 0 in Academy city."

Saten looked at the hand full of interest.

"Mhh, I think I read some urban legends about such an ability. But if it isn't an esper ability."

Her eyes began to sparkle.

"Does that mean that you are a magician?"

More to himself, Touma began to mumble.

"Oh right, magic is out in the open now."

(Oh god dammit, is now the time where I should tell them about all the stuff I had kept hidden from them? With magic being public knowledge right now, it is possible that they could get tangled up in some incidents. But what if they would want to support me and that idiot, I mean Touma, in our fights? From what I have seen, that would be suicide for them.)

Mikoto let out a sigh.

(But by not telling them about me moving, I made them concerned and forced them into a potentially dangerous situation. So maybe keeping everything a secret should stop right now.)

Taking a deep breath, she began to speak.

"Okay, I haven't been totally honest about the incidents that idiot and I have been involved in in the last couple of months. But I think that you deserve to know. So let's get inside, and I will tell you, okay?"

Touma, apparently relieved that he wasn't the one who had to do all of the explaining alone, noticeably relaxed. The three guests looked at each other, but nodded soon after.

(Okay Mikoto, you just have to tell them about the boy you like being one of the most important beings on the planet, without giving Saten and Uiharu enough ammunition to tease you with. But maybe Kuroko would at least stop her habit of calling him an ape if she knew the full story.)

She made her way inside, with the others following close by. After taking off her jacket, she walked over towards the couch and sat down. Kuroko, Uiharu and Saten did the same. Touma got himself a chair from the kitchen, placed it next to her, and sat down as well.

"Okay, so let me start by telling you exactly what happened on the night that the experiment with my sisters was stopped: So as I said before …"