So it looked like the three main options people were looking at with Kuroko was either Touma saves himself, Jason saves him, or Hanabi saves him. All three ideas have merit and I experimented with all three of them but decided on one. Thanks to everyone who put forward an idea. I always tend to run though them to see if they will work well with the story.

HAHAHA you did it again. I freaking love your comments. I laughed a lot.

Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index or any of the characters.

"Umm, hi Shirai-san," Touma stuttered and took a step back. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh you know what I mean," she said in her sweet but deadly voice. The ice cold smile never leaving her face. "I see everyone knows the way you act around girls. First you try to seduce onee-sama, and then you add Saten-san to your list. In order to protect them, you have to die."

"Whoa," Touma said holding out his hand and taking another step back. "You got it all wrong. This was just a trick played on me by my classmates. Even Jason could vouch for that."

"Like I will believe anything you or that liar says," Kuroko said her smile faulting for a minute. "If you hold still this should be relatively painless." She twirled the metal spikes in her hand. "I suppose those points will be the fastest way with the least blood," she muttered to herself.

"Wait Shirai-san," Touma said. "Mikoto wouldn't want her friend to be a murderer."

"How dare you call her by her first name," Kuroko yelled at him. "Someone like you should only call her by sama. I was going to make in quick but now I'm going to teach you a lesson first." She took a step toward him.

Touma was actually worried now. Kuroko was pretty violent to him a lot, but outright murder? Something must have happened to her. His first priority right now was to protect himself. He took a step towards her but he wasn't very confident. If he could touch her and prevent her from using teleportation he might have a chance, but Kuroko was trained in hand to hand combat though Judgment so it was still risky. As soon as he let go she could begin teleporting. "I'll stop you," Touma said confidently even though he didn't feel it. "I can't let Mikoto's best friend go past the point of no return."

Kuroko hesitated for a second. "Of course I am her best friend," she said hesitantly. Touma saw in her eyes she was beginning to doubt this course of action. "But I need to protect her from you."

"Do you think she would want this?"

Kuroko opened her mouth to speak when suddenly a wave of dark water like substance engulfed her from behind and Touma was no longer able to see her. "Ah, I wondered what she was up to when she left her post," a familiar voice said. Touma looked and saw Jason walking toward him as his shadow formed a sphere around Kuroko with a string attached to him. "Hey Touma, I think she got a little too much sun and freaked out."

"Yea thanks," Touma said relieved. "She looked ready for murder."

The shadow started to recede from Kuroko and she was now being levitated upside down a couple feet off the ground and a couple feet behind Jason but with her arms bound to her side and legs bound together. "So Shirai," Jason said casually to her. "You left your post when we needed a teleporter. I hope you have a good reason."

"I had to protect onee-sama!" Kuroko began yelling. "Dang it, why can't I teleport out of this."

"No viable reason I see," Jason said sighing. "Dang, now I'm going to have to write you up or just throw you somewhere." He walked off the way Touma had come from. "Good luck with the tournament Touma, even though you lost the bet for me." As he left he could hear Kuroko still yelling unrepeatable unladylike things at Jason and about Touma.

Touma smiled remembering Jason thought he would be hospitalized after the first round. Serves him right but I got to remember to thank him later for saving me. Touma continued down the hallway and after awhile he heard other student's voices informing him he was close. He got several looks as he was still in costume, but Touma ignored everyone. He was reading the names of the schools next to each locker room until he found the one he wanted, Tokiwadai Middle School. Previous experiences have told him never to open a door without announcing anything because it always ended up with a girl half dressed and trying to kill him. Instead, he tried a new tactic, he knocked. A couple seconds later the door opened a little and a girl stuck her head out.

"Can I help you?" she asked then seeing who it was her eyes widened.

"Hello," Touma said cheerfully. "Is Mikoto Misaka available to talk?" He was worried he might have been a little too polite but, with some of this rich ojou-sans, it might work to his advantage.

She looked him up and down for a moment then said politely, but maybe a little stiff, "One moment, I will check." She went back into the locker room and the door closed.

Touma sighed and leaned up against the wall of the hallway opposite of the door and waited patiently. Because he was no longer looking for the right room, he was now painfully aware of the people nearby pointing and talking about him. It happened to be all young girls. It made sense for the sponsors to put the all girl schools together in the same vicinity.

"Is that the Harem King?"

"He's not as tall up close."

"You think he would give me his autograph?"

"What are you doing here?"

Touma recognized the last voice and turned to see Hibiki marching toward him with a look of disdain in her eyes. She still had a bandage wrapped around her head where she hit it during the first match. He should have known the Tokiwadai would have the high school was near the middle school. "Just waiting for a friend," he said nonchalantly. He really didn't want to get into another fight with this girl like Accelerator had. She obviously was very prideful.

"A likely story," she sniffed. "I bet you are here trying to pick up girls."

"You caught me," Touma said rolling his eyes and his voice dripping with sarcasm, though no one could see him rolling his eyes because of the mask. He wasn't normally sarcastic but he was tired and still nervous for the rest of the matches. He was also aware of the other girls watching him. "I am obviously here doing exactly that." Maybe some of them will leave now. Please hurry Mikoto. I don't want to be here for very long.

"Are you sassing me?" she asked getting angry but Touma was spared any further conversation with her when the door in front of him opened and Mikoto walked out.

"Sorry I took so long," she said to Touma a slight smirk on her face as she saw he was in costume. "What brings you here?" Touma noted her demeanor was a lot different in front of the other girls then she was with him and their friends. She was a lot more polite and emitted a nobler aura.

"I wanted to talk to you," he said and looked around. "Preferably without an audience."

She nodded, turned, motioned him to follow her and said, "Ok." Touma took off after her in stride but he still heard all the other girls whispering. Hibiki was in shock.

"Wow, he knows the Railgun."

"You think they are dating?"

"Is the Harem King really flirting with her?"

"Hey Harem King," someone called out and he turned around to see the girl who answered the door. "She took so long because she went and did up her hair when I told her it was you." Touma's face turned red but the mask prevented anyone else from seeing it, but Mikoto was not as lucky. Touma saw out of the corner of his eye she had turned bright red.

"Is that true?" he whispered unable to hide a smirk.

"Shut up," she whispered back determinedly not looking at him. When they were away from everyone else she turned to him. 'So what did you need?"

"Just wanted to congratulate on your flawless victory," Touma said leaning up against a wall.

"That it?" she asked surprised. "You could have just called or texted me."

"It's more personal this way," Touma laughed and Mikoto blushed slightly. "Besides, I left my cell phone at my dorm."

"You really are an idiot," she laughed shaking her head then sighed. "Now I have to deal with all those rumors of The Harem King coming to see me."

"I'm actually surprised you didn't shock me for wearing this getup."

"You want me too?" she asked a little angrily as several sparks surrounded her.

"No no," Touma panicked waiving his hands in front of him. "Please don't shock this poor Kamijou. I was just surprised."

She laughed and the shocks disappeared. "I heard from Uiharu-san and Saten-san that some classmates did a prank on you. Originally I was going to electrify you into a scorch mark on the ground. Jason really saved you there."

"I guess he did."

"Oh," she said remembering. "I'm glad you took your promise seriously. I watched the first match and saw you try. You also saved an opponent from an overzealous Accelerator."

Touma waved his hand dismissively. "When I make a promise I will carry it out to the end."

"I know," Mikoto muttered looking at the ground blushing as she remembered another promise she overheard him say a long time ago to an imposter. She then gathered her resolve and looked at him in the eyes. "When we meet in the finals, I want you to go all out and not hold anything back, understand?"

"When, not if?" Touma asked laughing then met her sharp gaze and he became serious. "Yea I understand." She looked satisfied. "I have to get back to my class though. The next round should be starting soon." She nodded again in understanding and waved to him.

"Good luck," she called out and she went back to her classroom after he waved back and disappeared around a corner. She sighed. When she heard he had come to visit her she thought of so many other possibilities besides just wishing her luck. Since she heard he was acting polite, she knew it wasn't an emergency. She shook her head, was she really having those kinds of thoughts. What was I really expecting? She looked up as she entered the locker room and saw a lot of girls staring at her.

"Umm?"

"So Misaka-san," a girl called out. "Tell us about your boyfriend."

"EHHHH?"

Touma and Accelerator once again found themselves in the middle of the arena facing their opponents for round two. The two males were just as Touma saw in the last match. The geomancer had a sturdy build with brown hair and the mind control ability user was really skinny with shoulder length black hair. Touma still didn't know how it worked except the electrical string comes from his hand and could manipulate people. Both of the teams greeted each other, at least there wasn't a fight like last time, and then each team went to their respective corners.

"What's up?" Touma asked noticing Accelerators expression. "You looked pissed."

"Worst," Accelerator spat out. "She really enjoyed the damn team name we got stuck with. To make everything worse, she lied to Last Order about the definition of lolicon."

"What did she say?" Touma asked curiously. "I know Worst likes to make life difficult."

"Tell me about it," he muttered. "She told the brat lolicon was the adult way of saying a person who is watching a kid. Now the brat is going around saying I'm….Damn it, I want to kill the b!^$#." Touma let out a small chuckle and Accelerator turned to him. "You want to die too hero?"

"Don't take it out on me," Touma said defensively waving his hands in front of him. "I'm a victim too."

Accelerator glared at him and stopped talking. He wasn't sure why he talked to the hero about his problems. It wasn't like him. What made it worse was he actually felt microscopically better talking to the hero. Damn, I really have changed, he thought to himself. I still want to know what his damn power is. He was spared thinking about useless things when the signal rang indicating the start of the match.

It took everything Accelerator had to hold back but he managed to do it. Instead of dashing forward he just moved with Touma around the large bolder formation. They looped around the bolder but still didn't see the other team. "Where the hell did those losers go?" Accelerator raged at Touma.

"I don't know," Touma said looking around. "One of them has a type of earth ability, so let me try something." He bent down and touched the ground and the sound of broken glass was heard. The earth around them sunk a little and both of them swayed back and forth as they kept their balance. About 10 feet away the earth parted and both members of the other team jumped out as the tunnel behind them collapsed.

"What happened?!" the skinny guy yelled at the geomancer.

"I don't know." He replied shocked. "My ability just stopped working." They both turned to see Accelerator and Touma looking at them only a few steps away. "Shit, it's them. Quick take one of them." The skinny one nodded and shot his thin electrical cord from his hand at Accelerator who just eyed it with a bored look on his face. As soon as the cord touched accelerator it immediately rebounded easily twice the speed back at its creator.

"Arg," the guy cried as the cord made contact with him and he fell back stunned. His eyes were wide open but he wasn't moving.

"You ok?" the geomancer called out to his companion but received no response. "Shit." He looked at Accelerator. "You could have seriously hurt him. His ability interferes with the brains neural activity and he can manipulate the flow of the signals. But now you stunned him and no one is sending any signal, he could be out for days."

"Sucks for him," Accelerator said shrugging. "I didn't do anything."

"A$$hole," the guy spat at Accelerator and he punched the ground sending a ripple though the ground at Accelerator and Touma. Accelerator yawned and taped the ground with his foot right before the ripple hit him and the ripple just reversed direction. The geomancer did not react fast enough and consequently was knocked down. He immediately found Accelerator standing over him.

"Pretty dull," Accelerator said as he reached a hand toward the terrified geomancer's face with a very evil smile on his face

"I give up," he yelled before Accelerator could touch him and the signal for the end of the round echoed though the stadium. Accelerator stopped, shrugged again, and walked away while the geomancer took a breath of relief.

"Your friend is fine now," Touma said standing up. While Accelerator had been talking with his opponent, Touma had gone and touched the skinny guy in the head. The skinny guy woke up to find Touma walking away from him.

"Ah did we lose?" the skinny guy asked his teammate.

"Yea," he replied sighing. "We didn't have a chance in hell. The Harem King guy even saved you from your own ability."

"The winner of the match is Team LOLICONS OF MISFORTUNE!"

Their class once again celebrated their classmate's victory in the locker room and this time they brought a cooler of drinks for everyone. The party lasted only for about five minutes before the announcer said the next match was starting and everyone else went to watch the next match. Touma had stood up to follow them but then he heard Accelerator call out to him.

"Wait up Hero. I want to talk to you."

"Sure, what's up?"

"What the hell is with your ability?" asked Accelerator angrily. "I watched you last round and all you did was touch things with your hand and you canceled out their ability. I know my reflection doesn't work on you either. How do you interfere with everyone's ability?"

Touma sighed, he knew this was coming. "My ability is called Imagine Breaker. My right hand can cancel out any supernatural ability." Touma held up his right hand. "I don't really hide it, but I tend not to spread it around to everyone. However the system scans do not detect anything from it so I am labeled a level 0."

"Bullshit," he spat. "If you have an ability like that, you should be at least level 5 since you can cancel out other level 5 abilities. How the hell did you get that ability?"

Touma shrugged. "No idea. I was born with it and since I don't generate an AIM field it probably isn't a scientific ability."

Accelerator stared at him but his glare was less hostile and more like he was thinking. "So it sounds like a Gemstone ability science can't explain yet. It reminds me of a certain annoying person."

"I just started getting it examined last week," Touma added. "They hypothesized it actually negates the AIM field of individuals and that causing abilities to get canceled."

"What kind of shit did they tell you?" Accelerator said. "Canceling an AIM field? That shouldn't be possible."

"I don't know much about it either," Touma said. "But direct contact with my hand will prevent someone from using any abilities."

"Who the hell is the scientist who told you this?" Accelerator demanded. "I'll wring the answers I want from him."

Touma smiled and thought this was perfect chance for some revenge. "You won't believe me, but it's Jason from our class."

"You want to die?"

The rest of the round went pretty smoothly even though all the teams fought well. Match two and three were pretty intense with even the winning teams suffering some severe injuries. Mikoto's team was the only other match that went as smoothly as Touma's and Accelerator's. After her first round demonstration of her powers, the other team immediately split up during the start of the match in hopes of avoiding the rain of electrical energy. This did not work as all Mikoto did was take down one first then the other. It seems their abilities of camouflage and metamorphosis were not very well suited to stop a rain of lighting. The final round looked like it was already decided by the audience as everyone was chatting about which team with the level 5 was going to win.

For some reason an announcement went out saying the next round was delayed. As it was only about 11a.m., a lot of people were moving around and getting lunch while they waited. Touma got up to stretch a bit but regretted it instantly. He got bombarded by more people asking for autographs and pictures. He wondered why so many people were interested in him instead of Accelerator. However, when he turned and looked at Accelerator, he was surrounded by a large number of people. He was obviously sleeping though and ignoring them. This did not stop the fans who were taking pictures but as long as no one disturbed him, Accelerator stayed asleep.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are terribly sorry about the delay. We had to check the status of a couple of our teams. It seems like two of our four remaining teams will not be able to participate in the next round. They received too many injuries in their last match for us to allow them to continue. As you know, safety for our students is very important. The final match will start in ten minutes between teams Lolicons of Misfortune and Thunderstorm."

The audience started booing because they wanted to see more matches but it quickly subsided when everyone started to talk about finally seeing the level 5s face off. Though, a certain number of people in the audience had very different reactions to the news.

Touma's mouth dropped. He knew he would meet up with Mikoto eventually if they both kept winning but he didn't prepare himself for the fight yet. Accelerator was a little happier. "Finally," he muttered. "One more round till I can leave."

Mikoto gasped when she heard the news too. I knew this was going to happen but I thought I would have another round to prepare for this. She smacked her cheeks with her hands. Get a hold of yourself Mikoto, you can do this. He promised to do his best and afterwards you can con… You can do this.

"Onee-sama is going to destroy him," Kuroko said mainly to herself from her Judgment position in the arena Jason had forced her back into. "There is no way that creep and troglodyte can beat her."

Kazari and Ruiko were conflicted and looked at each other. "Who do we cheer for?" Ruiko asked."

"You obviously want to cheer for Kamijou-san," Uiharu said grinning. "If I cheer for Misaka-san then we even it out and we help both of them."

"Maybe I want to cheer for Misaka-san," Ruiko said trying to sound casual but failed dismally.

"Sure you do Saten-san," Kazari said sarcastically but still smiling.

Ruiko looked at her then said, "You are hanging with Kagere-san too much," she said then flipped Kazari's skirt. "Pink this time, not bad."

"SATEN-SAN!"

"Both teams are making their way into the arena. The first team sure had made a big impression on all of us, made of a level 5 and a level 0. But after the last two matches, does anyone believe he is really a level 0? I present the first team, THE LOLICONS OF MISFORTUNE." Touma and Accelerator walked into the arena to a round of cheers and applause. It seems like the audience did not care about their name anymore after seeing their matches. Though a lot of people wanted to see Accelerator in action against a powerful opponent, a large number of people were holding up signs and chanting Kami's name. "Their opponents are no pushovers though. The team is made up of the third rank level 5 along with a very experienced wind user. They won their previous matches in a very efficient and one sided manner. I present team THUNDERSTORM." Mikoto and her teammate entered the arena while waving to the audience as they received applause and cheering. They met Touma and Accelerator in the middle of the arena.

"Hey, don't I know you?" Touma asked the girl next to Mikoto.

She nods, "I delivered your message to Misaka-san." Touma looked closer and she was indeed the girl he talked to at the locker room. She had her long black hair tied up into a ponytail instead of combed down like she had it earlier. She also had bright green eyes and looked a lot more comfortable with him then last time. "So," she said smiling. "You and Misaka-san…."

"Umm," Touma said rubbing the back of his head but before he heard a crackle coming from his right side and saw Mikoto had a weird smile on her face, her eye was twitching, and she was letting out some sparks.

"Flirting with my teammate right in front of me, eh," she said coldly.

Touma waved his hands in front of him while taking a step back. "Of course not, I just thought I met her before." The girl giggled.

"You two are such a good couple."

"We aren't a couple," Touma and Mikoto both said together. Both turned red but no one could see Touma's face due to his mask, only Mikoto's. The girl laughed but her eyes showed she didn't believe them.

"Quit your flirting," Accelerator sighed. "Let's just get this over with so I can leave."

Mikoto pointed to Touma, "Remember you promised not to hold back. I definitely won't so make sure you are prepared."

"Yea I know," Touma sighed. "Let's not turn me into a burnt mark on the ground though."

"That's up to you," Mikoto said smiling.

"Ugg," Accelerator groaned. "I don't even care about this and you two obviously want to fight. Hey girl," he turned to Mikoto's teammate who stiffened up at being addressed by Accelerator. "Don't get involved and let those two fight it out. They obviously have some issues to sort out." She looked confused and opened her mouth to argue. "If you argue I'm going to go after you only and crush you." She quickly closed her mouth and agreed. Well, now I can observe the hero's power without interference. Let's see if he was telling the truth. He walked up to the large center bolder formation they were standing near and touched it. The boulders flew every direction leaving the center of the area clear.

The judge ran up, "Hey, you can't alter the arena before the match."

Accelerator rolled his eyes then looked at the judge. "Don't care, besides, we decided only those two are going to fight. Both of us are going to sit this out." He points to Touma and Mikoto then to himself and the other girl.

"This is a two on two tournament," the judge said paling under his stare. "You can't just…"

Accelerator strengthened his glare. "Try saying that again." The judge's face went pure white and he dashed over to the other judges and started talking to them. Accelerator chuckled to himself and he and the other girl walked away from the center of the field and found a place to sit near the edge of the arena to watch.

"We have a small change in the main event. It seems like only two of the contestants are going to fight in the final match. First, she may be young, but she is the third most powerful level 5, the Railgun, MIKOTO MISAKA!" The crowd burst into cheers as Misaka waves to everyone from her side of the arena. "Her opponent, the mysterious individual who has no background, the man who can attract any women he meets and smashes through all of his opponent's abilities, KAMI THE HAREM KING." The crowd's reaction was instantaneous. There were a huge number of cheers from a lot of Touma's classmates and followers along with a good section of people yelling insults at him. "This is sure to be an exciting match. I hope both of them are ready to give it their all." A horn echoes throughout the arena. "Let the match begin!"

The second the announcer said they could start, a huge electrical bolt flew from Mikoto right at Touma. This was nothing new to him and he simply put out his right hand and the electricity dispersed on impact. He looked across the field and saw the familiar sparks around Mikoto. He sighed. How can I beat her without hitting her? While he was thinking another two bolts flew at him and he negated them as well. So far, he has yet to take a single step. He suddenly got a bad feeling and jumped to the right dodging an electrical arch from above him. He put his hand on the ground to stabilize himself. "You really are serious," Touma yelled. "And you learned some new tricks too."

"I told you I was going to be," she yelled back smirking. "I learned a lot from our past fights." She raised her hands and black sand started to fly from the grounds all around them. The iron sand, as Touma had seen before, started to gather in her hands and form the shape of blades. In just a few seconds, she was now holding two 3 foot long black blades. These blades were vibrating at incredibly high speeds and were incredibly deadly. He faced these before but with how easily they could cut, they still scared him. To demonstrate for the audience she slashed a nearby rock and the blade went right through it like a hot knife through butter.

"Those blades look dangerous. I hope the Harem King has a plan or this fight could be over and pretty messy."

"I think you are trying to kill me," Touma called out taking a step back. She smiled and charged straight at him crossing her arms and keeping the blades at her sides. Touma didn't have much choice so he charged right back at her. He could tell this surprised her and when they closed in she swung one of the swords at him as he raised his hand. The second the sword connected with his hand it started to revert back to the black sand.

"Hah, I got you…." Touma started to say but then the sand started to swirl around him obscuring his view.

"You think I would keep doing the same move?" he heard her call out from somewhere behind the wall of sand.

The sand was swirling around a couple feet from him. He would have to step up to touch the sand and that could be a trap set by Mikoto. His danger sense suddenly went off and he ducked. An iron sword extended through the sand wall right where his head was. Dang it, she's getting careless. I could have died right there. He raised his hand and grabbed the sword which reverted back to sand then he ran at the wall in the direction the blade came from. The wall parted like a curtain with just a slight touch and he saw a surprised Mikoto. He didn't slow down and charged right at her.

He was still a good twenty feet away and another electrical bolt came right at him which he blocked. He was only fifteen feet away from her now. The next attack wasn't a single bolt but several scattered tendrils of electricity come at him from several directions. He rolled to the left and blocked the one headed right at him while the others passed through where he was only seconds before. He looked at her and saw she was smiling and he found himself smiling too. He knew she wasn't trying to kill him, but wanted to go all out against him. He doubled his resolve to give it his all for this fight, but he would beat her without hitting her. He got to his feet and charged her again. "You are getting better," he says.

"You really seem to be trying," Mikoto said unleashing another set of electrical tendrils. "Show me what you got."

Touma had to keep moving but couldn't touch every one of those electrical tendrils. He dived to the ground and only had to use his right hand to block one of them and rolled towards her while closing the gap between them even more. He kept rolling and jumped to his feet using the momentum to keep moving forward. Mikoto looked surprised and tried to quickly move backwards. Touma's danger sense went off again half a second before a giant lighting strike decided from the sky and struck him when he was only five feet away from Mikoto.

"Wow, I don't think anyone could survive that. I hope Harem King is ok. There is too much dust to see what is happening. Wait, what's that? I can't believe it. HAREM KING IS STILL STANDING! What tenacity and resolve."

The dust cleared and Touma stood there with his hand raised. The dust was caused by the extra electricity around Touma and the wind from the sudden electrical burst. Mikoto stood there in shock. She thought she finally managed to surprise him. Touma took advantage of this second and charged her once again. She started to generate sparks but he finally got close enough to grab her wrist. All the electricity around her immediately disappeared. "Got you," he said smiling.

"Dang it," she yelled trying to break his grip but he held firm. I can't feel any of my electricity. This is the power of his Imagine Breaker? I should never have let him get close.

"Give up?" Touma asked.

"Never," Mikoto cried. "I still have a trick up my sleeve."

"What…?" Touma started to ask.

"CHASER!" she yelled and then she kicked him in the leg.

Touma was shocked long before he felt the pain. He knew Mikoto used that battle cry when kicking the vending machine but he never thought she would use it on him. Once the pain hit, he felt his leg buckle under his weight and he knew he couldn't stand up. As he was falling he used all of his determination to not let go of Mikoto's wrist and brought her down to the ground with him.

"It seems like Misaka has given up on using electricity against the Harem King and has resorted to hand to hand combat. It might even become a wrestling match as the Harem King still has not let go of her."

Touma struggled and managed to hold Mikoto's right arm against her back and grabbed her left arm from behind her. His leg was still aching and partially numb. If he let go of her, he was going to be in trouble. With his hurt leg, dodging was going to be tough, if not impossible, and Mikoto would be aiming around his right hand. He had to keep his hold on her. Mikoto was very athletic and knew a little hand to hand combat but with his current hold on her, they both had to resort to pure physical strength. Touma had the advantage as he was bigger and stronger and he was able keep her pinned. He was kneeling on the ground on his hurt leg and stood on the foot of his good leg. Mikoto was sitting in front of him with both of her arms pinned against her back by Touma.

"Let go," she yelled as she struggled.

"I don't want to get shocked," Touma replied. "Just give up. You can't use your electricity on me."

"I never give up," she said. "Besides you haven't won yet. I am still able to fight."

"There's your competitive side again," Touma sighed then said seriously. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Eh, what?" Mikoto sputtered turning red.

"I don't know what they are talking about but with that position Harem King is whispering something in her ear and she is turning red. I bet this is how he got his name."

That b $%^$, Touma thought to himself as he turned red too but once again, thanks to the mask he was safe from others seeing it. The announcer was just making this worse for him. His words seemed to awaken Mikoto and she started struggling harder than before. Touma sighed and figured out the only course of action available to him. "Please forgive me Mikoto," he said then…..

He let her go.

She found herself suddenly falling forward and caught herself. She turned around and Touma was struggling to get to his feet. His leg must have still been hurting. "What are you doing?" she yelled at him. "You could have won this."

"I can't hurt you," Touma replied. "So I'm giving up."

"Don't you give up idiot," Mikoto yelled angrily. "You promised to try your best."

"I did try," Touma replied slightly irritated. "I still won't hurt you."

"Why you…ouch," Mikoto cried as she put her hand on the back of her head after a small spark flickered.

"What's wrong?" Touma asked concern.

"It felt like someone tried to enter my mind," she said shaking her head. "I have felt something similar to this before but it's definitely different."

"Hey hero," Accelerator called out. "Something is going on." Both Mikoto and Touma turned to see Accelerator heading toward him supporting Mikoto's teammate who seemed to be falling asleep. "Look." He pointed to the crowd. Mikoto and Touma had been too preoccupied so they didn't realize the crowd had gotten quiet. When they looked around, they saw nearly everyone in the audience was asleep or in the process of falling asleep.

"What's happening?" Mikoto asked looking around surprised.

The sound of breaking glass was heard and Touma looked at his hand. "I think it's magic." Mikoto and Accelerator looked at him.

"You sure?" Mikoto asked quietly.

"Magic?" Accelerator sneered. "You hit your head again?"

"I can't be sure but my Imagine Breaker went off and it doesn't seem to be an ability user."

"Looks like we have company," Mikoto said bitterly. "Friends of ours." All three of them looked around and saw men wearing robes and golden masks of a sad man running through the bleachers of the sleeping crowd. They were jumping down onto the field. "Those guys again."

"Who are these pieces of trash?" Accelerator asked.

"They attached a museum last week," Touma said. "They were stealing artifacts. Mikoto and I chased them away but they are incredibly dangerous and will kill without hesitation."

"Hmph," Accelerator said grimly flexing his hand. "I'm glad the brat's asleep. She won't have to see this then."

Suddenly several loud foot prints echoed though a hallway and across the arena. All the masked men turned to the noise and saluted. Through the hallway a man of outrageous size ducked through the entrance to the arena. He had to duck because he was at least ten feet tall, and extremely muscular. He could have been playing American Football and been a star lineman. He was completely bald, not a single hair on his head, and his muscular body was heavily scarred. Touma thought it would be harder to find a spot on him that wasn't scarred. He was wearing a golden mask too, but like the women from the museum, it was a human with a happy face and he did not have a shirt, only black pants. He slowly walked towards Touma's group in the middle of the area while all the masked men watched the exits. He stopped when he was about thirty feet away from them.

"Come…with…me…Imagine…Breaker…" the huge man said slowly and deliberately as if each word was difficult to say.

"Who are you and what have you done?" Touma demanded.

"I…am…Sloth…," the huge man said in the same slow way. "We…put…them…to…sleep..."

"He must be around the same level as the women called Wrath," Mikoto said as several electrical sparks started to form around her.

Accelerator looked at both of them then at the man then. "So I guess there won't be any complaints if I go all out then?"

"Nope," Touma and Mikoto replied at once.

"Great," Accelerator said smiling evilly.

"I…don't…like…to…fight…," Sloth said and he sounded even more tired as he raised his hand. "My…curse…sends…you…into…the…endless…abyss…"

Touma opened his mouth to reply but found himself becoming dizzy. Everything had gotten fuzzy and started to fade away. His strength left him and he could no longer stand up. As he fell to the ground and the last of his sight was fading to nothing, he looked at the blurred outline of the man called Sloth and muttered, "Shit." Then everything went black.

Well Touma died. Guess we need a new protagonist. I'm leaning towards Accelerator or Mikoto.

"Don't kill me off yet," Touma cries.

"Hmm, I could be the main character now," Accelerator says thoughtfully.

"Don't get any ideas," Mikoto yelled. "We need a female lead."

"Why?" Touma muttered. 'Such Misfortune."

So the plot thickens. I might actually have to start going over some ideas with someone soon. A lot of big things are going to happen and having someone review my ideas might actually make things easier. Though anyone who helps will have extreme spoilers and won't get to enjoy the new chapters as much. It's just something for me to think about.

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.