A couple of things need to be addressed here. This chapter should answer a lot of questions people had in the comments but I will personally address three things.
First, most of you are horrible perverts. I approve.
Second, Touma won the argument about which swimsuit is the best. It seemed like most people who answered liked the two piece spider suit. BUT, there will not be a swimsuit contest where Touma is the only judge. Well, there is no plan for that any time soon.
Third, I was going to have an accidental kiss with Mugino but many of you immediately talked about wanting it. So in order to troll you I edited it out. HAHAHAHA. I did not want to be too obvious.
Enjoy the chapter. Wow 300 comments, I love you all.
Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index or any of the characters.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Mikoto yelled at him again. Earlier that night, she received a call from Touma but when she answered, he wasn't speaking to her. She was pissed he might have accidently called her, but then she heard him and another girl talking. The girl in the back sounded familiar but the volume was too soft to be sure. It was like Touma's phone was still in his pocket. She was listening to the conversation and was confused at the way Touma was talking. He sounded a lot more confident then he normally did. Was he trying to act tough? Then she heard the girl say he was going to die. Mikoto realized Touma must have called her for help like he promised, but she didn't know where he was. Then she heard Touma say they should move to a field near a bridge he fought at before. He must mean there. Mikoto fought him a couple times near an old bridge when she was still trying to beat him. She snuck out of her dorm and ran as fast as she could.
She missed the last train so she had to run. Luckily, she could magnetize her shoes to just run and jump over several roof tops to save a lot of time, but it was still a long way to the bridge. When she got close, she saw a flash of green light in the distance followed by a small explosion and her stomach dropped. She had seen that light before and it was not a good thing. It looked like the Meltdowner ability from Shizuri Mugino. If it was really her, no wonder he called. She ran even faster knowing one hit would be the death of him if he missed the attack with his hand. Mikoto knew Shizuri was ruthless and would kill without hesitation. The last time they fought, Mikoto was barely able to win. However, when she got there, she found Touma sitting on top of Shizuri grabbing her chest. She was confused at first but confusion was quickly replaced by anger.
"I can explain…" Touma started to say but he was interrupted by a large bolt of electricity headed right toward him. He stuck out his right hand in front of him and managed to negate the blast before it hit him and Shizuri. "CAN YOU GIVE ME ONE SECOND TO EXPLAI…OMPH." This time he was not interrupted by Mikoto but Shizuri. Touma had to move his arm from holding her left arm to block Mikoto's last attack which meant Shizuri now had a free hand. She immediately used it to punch Touma in the gut. She was really strong and Touma was left breathless and in pain. His body immediately keeled over, and since he was leaning forward already on his left hand, he only had one direction to fall. He fell face first onto Shizuri who was not expecting that result. She had just automatically hit him as a reflex when her arm was free.
"TOUMA!" Mikoto shouted angrily.
He tasted something sweet before he felt the final blow.
Shizuri just kneed him right between the legs.
Touma gasped in pain and entered the fetal position rolling off of Shizuri. No man could resist a blow below the belt. He was in so much pain and was about to vomit. He could barely register Shizuri standing up and towering over him with a look of pure fury on her face. Her hair was standing on end as she gazed down at him. Several green orbs appeared in front of her. "You…" she started to say but was interrupted by Mikoto.
"Get away from Touma!" Mikoto yelled. Shizuri turned to look at her the orbs not moving. Mikoto had pulled out a coin and was preparing to flick it at her. Shizuri's anger changed slightly to an almost amused look as she looked Mikoto up and down.
"Well well," Shizuri said. "Why are you here? I guess the rumors are true, you are his girlfriend."
"Shut up," Mikoto snapped. "Turn those off and get away from him." He hand was shaking slightly. She may be mad at Touma right now, but she was also scared because he couldn't move to defend himself.
Shizuri looked at her then back to Touma, who was still on the ground unmoving, and back to Mikoto. She was considering all possibilities. The guy interested her in a weird way, but she assumed it wasn't romantically. Shizuri never had those types of feelings. If someone got her interested in them, she would keep them close until they didn't anymore. When she looked at this guy, an ordinary boy with a weird power, she got a weird feeling in her stomach. She glared at him thinking. If he let him leave she could take her time to figure out why he interested her. She could also find out why he was able to look her in the eyes and seemed to be stronger when someone else was in trouble. On the other hand, he could be a threat to her at some point. Also, the Railgun obviously liked him so it would hurt her if Shizuri killed him. Both ideas had merit, but the threat of being shot from behind tipped the scale. It would be risky to try to defend against the Railgun attack when she wasn't facing Mikoto.
"I was bored anyways," Shizuri says as the orbs disappear. Mikoto lowered her coin in response. She looked back at Touma who was beginning to get some feeling back besides pure pain. "I'm sure we will find time to talk again. It will be a lot easier if you just don't run." She turned from them and walked away with the other three girls following her.
"That wasn't like you," Saiai commented once they were out of earshot. "You super would have just killed them normally." Shizuri didn't say anything to this because she was too busy thinking.
"Basically, it is surprising," remarked Frenda offhandedly. "But I am glad you didn't."
"Oh," Saiai said turning to her smirking. "Could it be you are super into him after he saved your life?"
"T-that's not it at all," Frenda denied venomously but it might have been more convincing if she didn't stutter and blush at the same time. 'Basically, it would at most be returning a favor."
"Shut up," Shizuri snapped and both of them quickly stopped talking, but Saiai continued to smirk at Frenda. She didn't know why she suddenly got annoyed, but at least it was quiet now. Right now, she wished everyone could be more like Rikou and talk a lot less. So the Railgun called him Touma. I guess it is time to dig up information about him.
Back at the bridge a much more romantic scene was taking place. While Touma was recovering, Mikoto sat next to him and put his head in her lap. It had been a long time since this occurred. It was right before he beat Accelerator for the first time so long ago. He looked up at her when the pain subsided enough for him to focus. She had one hand on his head. "I can explain," he said.
She shook her head. "I caught enough from the phone call to know roughly what happened. As for when I found you, I can guess what happened with your luck. I am glad you survived her though. She normally doesn't care about killing."
"I noticed that," Touma chuckled. "Thanks for coming so fast."
"I had to sneak out of the dorm," Mikoto sighed. "I hope Kuroko doesn't question me to much when I get back."
"You have it rough," Touma commented.
"Not as much as you do," Mikoto laughed. "Really, I'm surprised how much trouble you get into. Is there any of the level 5's you haven't met yet?"
"Uhh," Touma said thinking. "Numbers two and six?"
"Hmm," Mikoto said thinking. "I haven't met them either." Touma started getting to his feet. "Whoa, not so fast. Are you ok?"
"Yea I think so," Touma said getting shakily to his feet. "I have to head back anyways."
"You have something on your face," Mikoto pointed out. And he wiped his face with his hand and something red came off. His ears turned red when he thought of what it was. He looked at her and Mikoto seemed to be glaring at him slightly.
"It was an accident," he said quickly.
Mikoto sighed. "I know but now let's see, you kissed Shokuhou and now Mugino. Do you kiss just anyone?"
"You know I don't," Touma said and then he thought he saw sadness in her eyes when he looked at her. Ah crap, I made her sad again. I really need to think about what I say first. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but he grabbed Mikoto's hand as she started to walk off.
"W-what are you doing?" Mikoto said red faced.
Touma gave her a hug and it just made her redder. "Thanks for coming all this way to help me," he said. Mikoto looked up at him and saw him looking down at her smiling. She couldn't say anything and she felt her face burning. "I am also looking forward to our date Saturday." That was the last straw for Mikoto and her vision blurred slightly as her brain started to fry. She managed to get a hold of herself quickly enough to avoid passing out.
"I think I know what it will be," she said trying to sound casual. "A carnival is coming to Academy City. It should be fun."
"Hmm," Touma said. "Sounds interesting and hopefully nothing crazy will happen so we can enjoy ourselves."
"Haha," Mikoto laughed. "You make it sound like every time we hang out something bad happens." Touma opened his mouth and she punched his shoulder while quickly added, "Don't you dare." He closed it again smirking. "I got to go, Kuroko is going to freak if I am not back soon."
They walked back to their dorms for most of the way in silence with occasional small talk. Then they split up to go back to their respective dorms. The only problem was neither of them was aware of another person who was watching them since Touma had used Mikoto's head as a lap pillow.
Earlier that night at the Tokiwadai dorms, Kuroko had just exited the shower when she saw Mikoto sitting on her bed and seemed to be really concentrating on a phone call. "Onee-sama I'm out," she called out cheerfully.
"Hush," Mikoto said waving her silent while she was listening to her phone. Kuroko was now interested in who she was talking to, but after a while, she still didn't hear Mikoto say anything. When Mikoto finally hung up and suddenly stood up, Kuroko finally broke the silence.
"What was that call about?" she asked.
"Sorry," Mikoto said clapping her hands together. "I got to go out for a bit, please cover for me." Before Kuroko could say anything Mikoto had dashed out of the room.
Kuroko's forehead narrowed as she thought about it. Onee-sama is dashing out after curfew so she has to be meeting someone. But I didn't hear her say anything so who could it be? Don't tell me…the ape? Kuroko quickly teleported off her nightgown and switched to a shirt and skirt then teleported out of the dorm by looking out the window. She instantly teleported onto the roof in order to see which direction Mikoto ran off in. Catching sight of Mikoto running down the streets, Kuroko followed her by teleporting from roof to roof. She watched Mikoto dash to the train station but when she walked out it looked like she missed the last train. Where is she trying to go? Kuroko was about to teleport down to talk to Mikoto directly but suddenly Mikoto dashed away at full speed. She actually used her electricity to magnetize her feet to jump from building to building.
Kuroko knew something big must have happened to cause Mikoto to run so fast. Maybe she isn't meeting someone but trying to help them? Kuroko stopped for a moment, thinking, but realized she had to keep moving to keep up with Mikoto. She just lost sight of which way Mikoto went. She teleported up to a taller building and looked around trying to find out which direction she went. Running around blindly was not going to do her any good. For now, she had to look for a sign of what could be causing Mikoto to head there. After a minute she couldn't see anything and started to teleport to nearby buildings.
"ONEE-SAMA!" Kuroko called out but there was no answer. Mikoto was either too far away or just didn't answer. She sat down on the roof with her eyes watering. "Onee-sama," she sniffed. "If you just told me what the problem was, I would have helped you." She looked around again and in the distance, near a bridge, she thought she saw a flash of lighting. "Onee-sama," she said a little louder. She recognized that electricity anywhere. She could cover that distance in just a few minutes but the buildings ended a good distance before the bridge. She would be spotted for sure if she got to close. She teleported as fast as she could to get to the last building and see what was happening.
When she got closer she saw a couple girls walking down the street from the bridge area where she saw the electricity. None of them looked like they had been electrocuted but the one in the middle seemed to be a little muddy. Kuroko decided to ignore them. Interrogating them would waste precious time to find Mikoto. She thought she saw a small figure in the distance sitting in the field near the bridge. She decided to approach cautiously by teleporting around them from the other side of the bridge entrance. She peered out from behind the bridge and her jaw dropped.
IT CAN'T BE, she yelled in her head. Sitting on the ground was Mikoto with the ape lying down next to her with his head in her lap. What was worse, Mikoto looked really happy to have him in that position. Kuroko couldn't hear them but it looked like the ape was hurt. After a minute, he stood up shakily and Mikoto stood up next to him. They talked a bit more and Mikoto pointed to his face. He wiped his face with his hand and said something to Mikoto. Mikoto turned away from him and started to walk away but he grabbed her hand and pulled her close. Kuroko started to bite her hair in anger and emitting such a powerful killing aura she was surprised they didn't feel it. The only thing stopping her from attacking him now is that Mikoto had been getting angry at Kuroko for saying and doing bad things to the ape and Kuroko had to see what was going to happen. They said a few more words and walked back into the city. At least they aren't holding hands. I need to talk to onee-sama about this.
Kuroko teleported back to the roofs and watched Mikoto and Touma walk back to their dorms. After a while they split up and Kuroko decided now was the time to get back to the dorms first to meet Mikoto there. She rushed back to her room and waited for a couple minutes before her phone buzzed. Mikoto had texted her to teleport her inside without being seen. Kuroko looked at the message for a moment then teleported outside to meet Mikoto. Mikoto waved to her and Kuroko shook her head at her.
"You need to stop breaking curfew," Kuroko said.
'Sorry," Mikoto said sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck with her hand. "Something important came up and I had to take care of it."
'Oh really?" Kuroko said but her voice came out slightly cold and Mikoto noticed.
"Is something wrong?" Mikoto asked confused.
"Nothing onee-sama," Kuroko said and teleported them back into the room. Mikoto started to change into her sleepwear while Kuroko just sat on her bed and watched her. Mikoto could feel Kuroko's eyes on her but it didn't feel like then normal predatory gaze, it felt darker.
"Ok Kuroko," Mikoto said sitting on her bed, crossing her arms, and looking directly at Kuroko. "Something happened. Are you going to tell me?"
Kuroko looked closely at Mikoto's face. It was full of concern for her but Kuroko wasn't sure if she should just come out and tell her yet if Mikoto was keeping secrets from her. "Who did you go out to meet this late?" Kuroko asked crossing her arms too.
"Ah there was a sale I needed to catch," Mikoto lied and her eyes looked away from Kuroko. Kuroko felt a stake pierce her heart. She was hurt Mikoto was lying to her.
"Why are you lying to me onee-sama?" Kuroko asked. "I know you went to meet that guy."
"How did you know?" Mikoto asked in surprised but then changed direction. "Did you follow me?" Kuroko nodded. "You shouldn't have done that."
"You shouldn't have lied to me," Kuroko said a little louder. "I worry when you keep sneaking out at night or coming in late. Then it turns out it is just to meet that ape!" She started to get even louder.
"I told you to stop calling him that!" Mikoto said loudly. "Besides, I can meet anyone I need to."
"Onee-sama," Kuroko said tears filling her eyes. "I thought we were a team and yet you leave me in the dark just to rush off seeing that worthless barbarian. Who knows what kind of inappropriate stuff you do with him?" A vein pulsed on Mikoto's head but she managed to avoid shocking Kuroko, for now.
"Let me get this through your head," Mikoto slowly said irritated. "One, he needed my help and called me specifically. Two, if any of my friends were in trouble I would do the same for them, including you. "
"But you want to be more then friends with that ape?" Kuroko asked. She took the way Mikoto's face turned red as an indicator she was right.
"Three," Mikoto continued as if she had not been interrupted. "Stop insulting him all the time. He is one of the nicest guys I know. Everyone else thinks well of him, why don't you? He even saved your life and doesn't bring it up at all."
"Because he is trying to steal you away from me," Kuroko said her eyes filling with tears. She suddenly teleported behind Mikoto and wrapped her arms around her grabbing her chest.
"Kuroko!" Mikoto said shocked and turned red.
"I can't lose you to that ape," Kuroko cried and teleported all Mikoto's clothes off of her along with her own. "I only have one option, I have to take you all for myself now….." Whatever she was going to save after was cut short as Mikoto shocked her with a lot more electricity than usual. The lights over their head flickered then turned off as they short circuited and, from the sound of several other girls yelling, most of the floor was probably out of power.
"KUROKO!" Mikoto yelled angrily and threw Kuroko off her bed onto her own. A normal person would have been unconscious from the shock but Kuroko had developed a strong resistance to Mikoto's electricity from constant exposure. She stirred feebly letting Mikoto knew she could hear her while Mikoto covered herself with her arms to keep some dignity. "I am tired of you constantly trying to molest me and insulting Touma. I can't talk to you anymore right now." She grabbed her clothes and got dressed and covered herself in her sheets to go to sleep. She didn't turn and see the tears running down Kuroko's face.
The next day Touma was heading to school early. There were a couple reasons for this. One, Index was not happy with him because he took forever to come back last night and didn't bring any food. He woke up early and quietly made breakfast with what little ingredients were left in the dorm. He knew Index would not be happy with the bland breakfast so he snuck out of the house before she woke up. Second, Motoharu said it was important for them to discuss something before school starts. When he arrived he saw Motoharu, Pierce and Jason at their desks discussing something with serious looks on their face.
'Why did I need to get here so early?" Touma asked yawning.
"How could you forget?" Pierce asked incredulously. "Don't you remember what comes out today?"
Touma opened his mouth but then remembered. Today was the going to the release of one of the most anticipated Gal Game of the year Ultimate Paradise World G. It was suppose to be a very complicated and realistic dating game with 250 possible girls in it. What the company promised was every decision you made, no matter how small, would affect the entire game. The game developers said it would be improbable, though possible, to get all 250 girls in one play through so they issued a challenge. Anyone can upload their game to the company's website and the first person to get all 250 girls would get a fully paid week's vacation for them and a group of friends anywhere in the world. The Delta Force naturally decided to take up this challenge but with all the recent events, Touma forgot about it. "That's right, it comes out today."
"Now he remembers," Motoharu said face palming. "Now we can buy the game today but it won't activate until 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. So after school we need to get it and then start planning."
"Ah," Jason said sheepishly. "I can't. I have work after school today. Can you pick me up one if I give you the money?" Motoharu nodded and Jason handed over a wad of cash.
"I can't go with you either," remembered Touma. The reason he and Jason couldn't go was they were going to research his hand this evening. "Pick it up for me too."
"I'm charging you a service fee to do it," Pierce said seriously.
"What why?" demanded Touma.
"Skipping out on us to go on a date," Pierce said glaring. "It's supposed to be bro's first."
"It's not a date," Touma said indigently.
"Sure it isn't Kami-yan," Motoharu said smirking.
"Nah it isn't," Jason said leaning back in his chair. "He is helping me with something before I have to do any Judgment work."
"Fine," Pierce said. "I suppose I can waive the service fee."
"Your kindness knows no bounds," Touma said rolling his eyes.
"Hey," Jason said. "Look who just walked in. I bet he could help us." Everyone turned and saw Accelerator walk in and take his seat near them.
"Hey Accel-kun," Pierce said. "Want to join us on the most important mission of our lives?"
Accelerator looked over at him for a moment his interest was barely aroused but he knew this couldn't be true. These idiots probably had some stupid or perverted idea and just wanted help or a distraction. "Ok I'll bite," he said. "What is this so called important mission?"
"There is this new ultimate masterpiece of a game where we have to capture all 250 girls…" Pierce began but Accelerator immediately tuned him out.
"Sounds stupid, I don't want any part in it."
"Don't be that way," Touma said. 'The winner gets a week paid vacation to anywhere in the world from the company."
"Still don't care."
"Dang," Jason said but his smirk indicated his thoughts didn't match his words. "I thought Accelerator was a real ladies man and he would be a prime candidate to get all the girls. But if he can't do it, we might have to rely completely on Touma. After all, he can get any girl he wants."
"Who said I can't do it?" Accelerator said angrily. No way was the hero better than him.
"Well obviously you," Jason said shrugging while Touma, Motoharu, and Pierce smirked behind their backs. Jason was really good at manipulating people. "Someone of your skills should obviously be able to get the ladies and be able to clear this game in no time, but for some reason you don't think you can."
"I can do anything," snapped Accelerator.
"Prove it," Touma said joining in while Accelerator glared at him. "Let's see you beat all of us in the number of girls you can get."
"Fine," Accelerator said. "Get me a copy of this game and I'll show you who the best is."
Touma, Jason, Pierce, and Motoharu all smirked. Accelerator was so easy to manipulate if you pretended he couldn't do something.
Mikoto was walking down the street after school alone. She didn't speak to Kuroko at all in the morning and Kuroko did not meet her after school. She felt a little angry at herself for over reacting so much to her friend but the stubborn part of her did not want to apologize. She purposely went a different way than usual because she did not want to run into Ruiko or Kazari. She was worried they might know about Kuroko's and her fight and she was not in the mood to explain it. She stopped and sighed. Why did I act like that? Was it because she kept insulting Touma? She shook her head and continued walking. Then she saw something to surprise and interest her.
She saw Touma and Jason walking toward the middle of the city. Since they were friends, this was not what surprised her. As she was about to call out to them she stopped because she noticed Accelerator staying a good distance away from them but obviously watching and following them. Curiosity made her sneak around behind Accelerator and ask, "What are you doing?"
Accelerator turned around and glared at her. "Shut up. I'm following the f#$%*$ hero to see what research station he is going to."
"Research station?" Mikoto asked. "Why?"
"They finally are examining his hand," he said as he began walking after Touma and Mikoto followed interested. "I want to know about it. I was told some pretty stupid things about how it worked that can't be true."
"Like what?" Mikoto asked frowning.
"That it actually destroys AIM fields." Accelerator spat out.
Mikoto's eyes widened. "That's impossible, interference maybe, but not outright destroying." Accelerator nodded in agreement and both of them continued to follow Touma and Jason. It took awhile but eventually they arrived in District 1 and watched both of them enter a skyscraper. "Do you know which research division this building is with?"
"Nope," Accelerator said just strutting into the building without a care and Mikoto quickly followed. They entered the well decorated lobby and past the large marble water fountain. They walked up to the front desk where a young woman looked at them. 'I want to see the two people who just entered a minute ago."
"Do you have an appointment?" she asked.
"No," he said but then grinned evilly. "You have 1 minute to get them or you find out why I am called Accelerator." The women's face paled and she grabbed the phone on her desk and started dialing while Mikoto sighed.
He's a big of a bully as ever. However she was glad he was here, it sure made it easy to get in.
"Sorry to bother you," the women said. "We have two people looking for you."
They both heard Jason's voice, "Is it a crazy looking guy and a girl?" Accelerator's eyes narrowed and the woman was afraid to respond but Mikoto just shook her head.
"Yes," Mikoto said loudly to the phone ignoring Accelerator's glare now directed at her.
"Send them up," Jason's sighed but he sounded almost amused.
"Right away," the women said and hung up. "Take those elevators to the 16th floor and make an immediate right to the end of the hall." Mikoto thanked her but Accelerator just glared at both of them and they went up the elevators. When they got to the room, they saw Touma sitting in a chair in the middle of the room and he waved to them in acknowledgment. The room was filled with a lot of equipment and several smaller machines were close to Touma rotating around him measuring something.
"Hey Mikoto, Accelerator," he said. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard they were going to experiment more on your hand so I wanted to watch," Accelerator said in the tone of someone who can do whatever he wants. "There is no way the bullshit you fed me was true. The third rate just followed me because she was bored."
"Hey," Mikoto said indigently.
"And I told you everything I knew," Jason said walking up to them from the corner of the room. "Not my fault you didn't believe me."
"The bullshit about creating an Anti-AIM field can't be true," Accelerator said. Jason shrugged but the only other person in the room, a brown haired woman, spoke up.
"It is possible it is in fact not that," she said. She wore an expression of being tired with dark bags under her eyes. "But our last scans only led to that conclusion. Now that we have the proper instruments, we are hoping to get a full picture of his hand's ability."
Mikoto gasped when she realized whop the women was. "Harumi Kiyama, what are you doing here?"
Kiyama looked at Mikoto. "Ah Misaka-san, it has been awhile. I still work part time as a researcher. Kagere-san here specifically requested me to help him." Mikoto looked at Jason who shrugged.
"She is good at what she does," he said. "Well anyway if you two can just take seats away from the middle of the room we can start."
Mikoto and Accelerator took their seats and watched the experiment. As level 5s, they both have been subjected to countless more experiments then most people in the city. They also had really bad experiences with the results of those experiments so they were watching the experiment on Touma with a weary expression. Jason took a seat across from Touma and his shadow surrounded him and Touma in a semi transparent dome. "I am going to start the same way we did last time to verify the same results," Jason announced and Kiyama nodded. Several shadow tendrils moved from random directions at Touma's hand and kept being negated with the sound of breaking glass. After a couple minutes of this, Jason said, "Moving to continuous negation." A larger tendril crashed into Touma's hand and the sound was heard while it was being negated. However, the tendril kept flowing into the hand but was being negated as fast as it hit. After a minute of that Jason got up and went to talk to Kiyama who was monitoring the data.
Mikoto walked over to Touma. "So doesn't seem that dangerous of an experiment."
Touma laughed. "I specifically requested the non painful ones. So far they just did exactly the same thing as last time but it seems like they have a lot more equipment."
"So they are trying to figure out if you hand destroys AIM fields?" Mikoto asked. "That sounds unlikel.." She was cut off from a shout from Accelerator.
"What bullshit is this," he said. Accelerator had walked over to observe what Jason and Kiyama was doing. "This isn't possible."
"Well this seems to say otherwise," Jason said grinning but looking at the data flash across the monitors. "His hand is emitting an Anti-AIM field capable of negating even level 5 abilities."
"We even have the wavelength it uses," Kiyama said scanning the information. "Hmm, Kagere-san, take a look at this." Jason leaned over her shoulder. "After I isolated the Anti-AIM frequency, I started trying to see if there was a frequency that would cause some kind of reaction. This frequency here had the only results, albeit just a small one." Jason frowned. "Do you think you can duplicate it by modifying yours slightly?"
Jason's eyes flashed and he nodded. "Though I am not sure why that frequency should have caused a reaction." He walked over to Touma and Mikoto. "We might have something so if you could stand back Misaka-san. I am going to try something." She nodded and moved back to her seat. Accelerator was still standing next to Kiyama watching the monitors. Accelerator may be a student, but the stronger the ability user, the smarter they were. Ability users had to be smart to do the complex calculations for their abilities. Accelerator could understand most data better then a lot of top level scientists.
"So what did you find?" Touma asked curious.
"Well," Jason said. "There is a certain frequency that when we projected on your hand there was a very small reaction that was almost unnoticeable. I am going to try to modify my shadow's frequency to imitate that specific frequency to see if we can cause a larger reaction. I am not sure what will happen but should be interesting."
"Wait what," Touma asked. "You don't know?"
"Nope," Jason said. "But that's why we are going to find out. Stay still and don't talk. I need to concentrate." The shadow tendrils started wrapping around them again creating the transparent dome. This time however, at the top of the dome, several shadows were joining in one spot creating a small black orb. A piece of the orb extended downwards and from it came a single black sharpened point, like the end of a pencil or a spear. It continued to stretch toward Touma's hand and it was vibrating ever so slightly.
Touma frowned looking at this but didn't say anything. He didn't know why it was moving so slowly, but judging by the look on Jason's face as he was watching his tablet, he was doing something that took all his concentration. Touma never saw Jason's shadow vibrate either. Has he done this before or is he trying something new? When the shadow spear was about a foot away he felt something. His hand was pulsing like the first time he met Jason and helped him retrieve his shadow. He looked at it but he didn't see anything unusual but he FELT it. It was like his heart was beating fast in his hand. The closer the spear got to him the faster and harder his hand pulsed. "Uh Jason," Touma mumbled unable to take his eyes of the spear about to hit his hand. "This might not be a good ide.." The spear made contact with his hand before he could finish.
CRACK.
The sound of a single piece of glass breaking, like a rock hitting a car windshield, echoed through the room. At the same time his hand let off a white light. The light turned into a wave of light and emitted from his hand in all directions causing all the shadows within a couple feet of him to disperse instantly. The force did not cause any damage to Jason who was right in front of him but his hair and clothes were blown back slightly as if a breeze came through the room. The rest of the shadows disappeared after that. "What the..." Touma said as he felt angry for no reason. Everyone suddenly stood up in alarm but a huge grin split across Jason's face.
"Well," he said rubbing his face. "That was definitely progress. Kiyama, what happened there?"
"He expanded the Anti-AIM field as a wave to about 5 feet away from his body where it faded away instantly," she said her eyes scanning all the information on the monitor. "Your entire AIM field disappeared from all scans when the wave encompassed you. It's as if by being covered in that wave caused you to temporarily lose your AIM field."
Jason raised an eyebrow and walked over to her. "Let me see." He examined the information while Accelerator looked at the monitor too with interest. "Hmm, it seemed like that was the case. I couldn't feel my ability when the wave hit me for a second. If we slow down the data we can see just the ability and AIM field being destroyed here," he pointed to the monitor, "then when it hit me, here, the rest of my ability disappeared even though it wasn't within the five feet."
"It looks like his signature disappeared right after that wave ended," Accelerator said pointing to a sudden drop in the Anti-Aim field wavelength.
"It seems like after the wave his hand takes a moment to recollect so his hand won't negate for a second or two after using it. That's weird but not unexpected. However if you look here, the wavelength is not quite as strong…" He, Kiyama, and Accelerator started talking in detail about this and eventually Mikoto walked over to Touma.
"Wow," she said to Touma sitting on Jason's recently abandoned chair. "That was unexpected."
"Yea," Touma muttered. "Tell me about it," He stared as his hand. The pulsing stopped and it felt just like normal but he couldn't let go off the strange feeling. Right when the shadow touched his hand, the pulsing stopped, but he had felt a sudden rush of anger coming from deep within him he couldn't explain. It disappeared as fast as it came, but he still remembered the feeling. Mikoto's hand reached and gently grabbed his and he looked up at her. She was staring at him with concern because of the way he was acting.
"You are hiding something," she said watching him closely. "What happened?"
"I felt strange there for a second," he said.
"Strange how?" Jason asked. Neither of them had heard him move toward them. Mikoto quickly let go of Touma's hand.
"I felt a rush of anger for no reason," Touma muttered and he realized how stupid it seemed. "Ah never mind... It's nothing."
"No tell me," Jason said looking at him while writing down everything he said. "I don't care what it is; tell me anything that was even slightly unusual."
"I felt a sudden rush of anger when your shadow hit my hand," Touma elaborated. "It felt like part of me wanted to punch you. It disappeared just as fast but it was definitely there."
"Hmm," Jason said frowning. "I can't say what might have caused that. Do you want to continue? I was planning to do that same thing a couple more times."
Touma nodded. "I was just surprised but it wasn't anything really bad. I will let you know if it gets worse." Jason nodded and looked at Mikoto who just got out of his seat.
"Well then let's do this a couple more times," Jason said taking his seat. "Kiyama, you ready?" She nodded.
Touma watched Jason do the exact same thing again. As soon as the shadow spear hit his hand the wave of light caused all the nearby shadows to disperse. Jason had moved back a couple feet so he was just outside the range of the light burst. This time all the shadows did not disappear, only the ones in the blast. A few minutes passed while they took notes and then they tried something else slightly different. Several thicker tendrils were right outside the estimated radius of the light that came off Touma's hand. The third time Jason used the spear to strike Touma's hand, right when it made contact, the thicker and stronger tendrils came forward at the same time. The blast of light dispersed most of the tendrils but some of the ticker ones remained near the end of the blast. They were smaller but still managed to stay intact. After the third time Jason got up and started talking with Kiyama. Touma felt the same familiar rush of explainable rage every time his hand sent out the light wave.
"What the f%&^ is your hand made of," Accelerator said walking forward to Touma. "If I saw those readings anywhere else I would have said the machines were broken."
"Was it that unusual?" Touma asked.
'Unusual doesn't begin to describe that," Accelerator spat out and sat down without explaining anything else.
"Now we know how you manage to beat us," Mikoto said. "None of us would have expected an ability that could actual destroy AIM fields." Accelerator made an angry noise at this but didn't say anything.
After a few minutes Jason walked over with looking at the screen on his tablet. "OK well," he said. "We have a lot of solid data now and definitely discovered some interesting things. It does in fact appear your hand generates an Anti-AIM field that actively destroys any AIM fields and the abilities created through them that enter its range. We still do not know why it stops just around your hand, but until we can replicate the Anti-AIM wave, we won't be able to experiment with it. I don't know how we could do that yet though."
"You want to replicate it?" Mikoto asked. "Why?"
"Because it would be easier to experiment with the frequency and wavelength of the Anti-AIM field without any risk to Touma," Jason said as if stating something obvious to a kid. Mikoto glared slightly at him. "But that is still a long ways away before we could do that."
"What did you find out about the burst of light?" Touma asked.
"A lot of things actually," Jason said grinning. "It was really amazing. The light wave was the boundary of your Anti-AIM field. It was forcefully expanded by contact with this specific frequency. We still don't know why it just decides how far it can go before it just stops. The force of the expansion should have carried the field a lot farther than just a couple feet. But now we have a lot of information about that field and the wave so we should be able to eventually experiment on it specifically. This might tell us more about your hand and the possibilities it holds."
"Why does that certain frequency cause the range to forcefully extend itself?" Accelerator asked. "From what I saw, there shouldn't be a reason for it."
Jason frowned. 'I don't know either. While I focus on keeping that specific frequency with my shadow, it actually loses all of its offensive ability. Even if it wasn't the Imagine Breaker, the shadow at that frequency probably couldn't pierce a piece of paper. There has to be a reason why Touma's hand reacts so strongly to that specific frequency. That frequency might also be what causes those rage flashes of yours, Touma."
"Anything else?" Touma asked. "It is getting late and I still need to do some shopping before heading back."
"There is one other thing," Jason said. "When your hand does the expansion of the field, it leaves you vulnerable for 2 seconds after the initial blast. Your hand won't negate anything during that time so be careful if it ever activates. We still have to go through all this information before I can give any more specifics or explanations. Oh that's right." He reached into his pocket for a small envelope and handed it to Touma. "It's the normal payment for your participation." Touma nodded in thanks while Mikoto and Accelerator looked at him curiously. They all left Jason to continue his research and left the building together.
"What's with the money," Mikoto asked.
"Ah," Touma said. "I originally joined because of money problems and Jason said he would pay to research my hand. Though now it is less about the money and more about actually wanting to learn about it." He held up his right hand.
Mikoto's forehead narrowed in confusion. "That's weird."
"Why?"
"Because," Accelerator said speaking up. "Experiments are just part of being in Academy City. We usually don't get paid for each individual experiment. Exceptions are some shady experiments that can't be advertised to the public." His face darkened and Touma knew what kind of experiments he meant. "However, even those kinds of experiments had money directly deposited to our account from different sources to make it appear legit."
"I'm not sure what you are getting at," Touma asked but he had a feeling it wasn't going to be good.
"Idiot," Mikoto said looking at him. "If he is paying you cash that might mean this experiment might not be authorized by the higher ups. He is doing this all on his own or in a small group."
"What?" choked Touma. "Jason may be unusual and have his secrets, but he hasn't done anything bad. He even helped us several times."
"I'm not saying he is up to something shady," Mikoto said quickly. "I know he seems like a great guy, but I am just saying it might not be authorized."
"He could be doing this experiment on his own time," Accelerator said shrugging. "He could be paying you with his own funds. He mentioned to me when I 'questioned' him, after the tournament, that he worked for the curriculum research division. I heard they made a lot of breakthroughs recently in making level 1s and 2s so he might have gotten some kind of bonus."
"I would just be careful," Mikoto said patting Touma on the shoulder. "I bet a lot of people would want to know about your hand so I probably wouldn't spread that information around."
"Thanks," Touma said smiling at his friends. Mikoto smiled back but Accelerator looked away. Their words made him think a bit though about how much he knew about Jason. Jason saved him and his friends several times and he was a good friend at school. But outside of that, he really didn't know much about him. He began to realize how Mikoto felt when he kept running off and disappearing while she had no idea what his life was like except when she found him in the hospital. Maybe I should try to find out more about him.
Little did they all know, walking in the same direction as them were two normal girls with long hair. They were laughing and talking about clothes for next weekend but one thing was different about them. One of them had yellow stars in her eyes.
Not a lot to say down here this time, but there is lots of plot in this chapter and many unresolved issues. They need to get resolved in the next couple chapters though. But does anyone really believe a good guy like Jason could be up to anything bad?
Yay more stuff with the Imagine Breaker. Can't wait to see how far the research goes.
Shizuri and Misaki will obvious try something at some point. We all know no one will feel sorry for Touma because he can get at least one girl no matter who wins. Also, I lied about the accidental kiss.
Feel free to let me know what you think. I enjoy reading reviews, comments, and suggestions.