So I simply set up the chance of fluffy to make an appearance and everyone flocks to the comments. I'm going to assume everyone likes fluffy and his amazing powers. People also seem to want the Herald to get wrecked, I can't blame them. He's an a$$. I have a couple things to point out before the chapter.
Hahaha: Glad to see you return man. Your comment made me laugh a lot. Glad you didn't stop all the drinking and drug use. Don't be a quitter.
On a more serious note, I do not care if you do not like my story for any viable reason. The biggest thing I see is people not naturally liking the OC Jason, which is fine. I'm not going to get mad and start randomly yelling at people, everyone has their own preferences. What I do not want to see is people just going around and insulting others with posts. I have only had to delete like two over the entire story, but I don't want to do it. Please just be respectful to others.
Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index or any of the characters.
Kazari, Ruiko and Last Order rushed out of the arena in the opposite direction of everyone else. The main entrance was still opened and they were able to escape the coliseum without any problems. Ruiko had a tight grip on Last Order's hand so she would not decide to run back after Accelerator. They continued to move quickly through the open field around the structure until they saw a bus in the distance.
"There it is," Kazari said pointed. "Hurry up."
"I think we may have some company," Ruiko pointed out. Kazari and Last Order turned to look to see who she was pointing to. A red haired young man and a long black haired young women were also running out of the coliseum and heading toward the bus. "They don't look friendly."
"We have seen them before," Kazari pointed out frowning as they continued to approach the bus. An elderly man was leaning against it and waved to Kazari and Ruiko as well as the two suspicious people. "I think he knows them so they are probably on our side." They ran up to the elderly man, who greeted them friendly enough, and they were soon joined by the other two.
"I take it you are the people he was sent to rescue," the man said lighting a cigarette. "Have you seen a girl in a white nun robe?"
Kazari and Ruiko shook their heads. "We just got rescued ourselves," Ruiko added. "They were going after Touma since he was the only one who didn't come back yet. They think he is fighting the leader."
"Umm," Kazari interrupted. "Can you tell us who you two are?"
"Stiyl Magnus," Stiyl said swiftly and then pointed to the girl. "That's Kaori Kanzaki, we are acquaintances with Touma Kamijou. Shit," he muttered under his breath. "He better not let anything happen to her."
"I'm sure he will succeed," Kaori said confidently. "He has never let her down before." Stiyl frowned and looked a little crossed at her words.
"Were you two helping our friends?" Ruiko asked.
"We brought them here," Stiyl replied as he turned to look at the coliseum. "I wish we had been more help, but they sent us into a trap and we can't reenter the coliseum now or we have to fight that trap all over again."
"What trap MISAKA asks as MISAKA wants to know what a real life trap is." Stiyl and Kaori looked at her curiously at her way of talking.
"We get attacked by a large group of golems," Kaori said also turning to the coliseum. "It took a while to clear them so we could leave." Ruiko and Kazari looked at each other and mouthed 'golems?' They had read enough books to have a basic understanding of what golems were, but they were not familiar at all with magic. They have been lost for quite a bit of the conversations going on around them since they were rescued. "You feel that?" she asked Stiyl.
"Yea," he muttered. "There is a small amount of Telesma, and it's growing."
"What could be causing…?" Kaori asked. She stopped when several very large and elaborate white magic circles instantly appeared high in the sky. At the same time the amount of Telesma exploded. "We need to do something," she said. "If those kids are in the middle of that, they are going die."
"You think I don't want to," Stiyl growled biting his cigarettes in half. "You know it will take us at least thirty minutes to assess and bypass that spell. By then it will be over one way or another." They really couldn't do anything but watch, as Kaori got a really ominous feeling in her gut.
"What's happening?" Kazari finally asked after watching those two stare at the coliseum. Before any of them could answer, Last Order had opened her mouth and shouted.
"WARNING! Unauthorized access to the Misaka Network has been detected. First security layer breached, second security layer breached, intruder has acquired full access. Will initiate automatic restart to reset security measures in two minutes." Everyone suddenly looked at each other in confusion. None of them knew anything about the Misaka network or what Last Order's primary purpose was.
"What is that girl yelling about?" spat out Stiyl. "Can't you keep her quiet…?" He got silent as he felt something start to form in the coliseum. Kazari, who could not sense it, had knelt down next to Last Order and tried to talk to her, but her eyes were glazed over and she seemed to be in a trance. "Kanzaki?"
"I feel it too," she muttered shaking slightly. "It's definitely Telesma, but it's so twisted and dark. Do you think they are summoning a demon?"
"It's possible," Stiyl said. "But why is there more than one source of Telesma. The first source hasn't chang…" He was interrupted as a huge lightning pillar descended from the sky into the area, smashing through two of the magic circles in the process, and disappeared. "It seems like the magic space they are in absorbs power form the outside."
"I never saw a lightning strike that big," Ruiko gasped. "Misaka-san, was that you? It couldn't be natural."
None of them knew what was going on in the coliseum. They saw magic circles continue to appear in the sky, along with flashes of lightning and white light. Kaori and Stiyl were busy trying to figure out what was causing the different sources of Telesma. There was a brief pause in the flashes of light and everything went silent as they all almost thought the fight was over. Then they heard it.
A roar came from the coliseum and echoed across the grounds to them. It was not human, it could not be human. It was more fearsome then any demon and threaten to shatter their minds with fear. It stirred primal terror in all of them, even Kaori and Stiyl. Ruiko and Kazari screamed in fright, even Last Order came out of her trance, as the roar rolled over them and she cowered behind Kazari.
Misaki and Kuroko could only watch as Touma staggered toward the fight between Accelerator, Mikoto, and The Herald. The shirt Misaki had used to try to stop his bleeding was still attached, but it was completely soaked with blood. Misaki had no idea how he was even conscious, let alone able to stand and walk. However, she still remembered his words and continued to believe in him achieving victory. Kuroko was dumbfounded and couldn't even utter a single word. As Touma was a couple feet away from Sogiita, Sogiita turned around as he heard Touma's steps and his eyes went wide.
"You can't go out there in that state," he said, but Touma just ignored him. Touma took a step past him and the pressure wall Sogiita had been managing shattered instantly. Sogiita fell backwards as the recoil hit him, but he got back up to his feet quickly. "How did you do that?" Touma did not answer and just kept walking forward. The shatter did not go unnoticed by the three fighting. They all turned around and looked at him.
"You seem to be on your last leg Imagine Breaker," The Herald said giving him only a brief word as he conjured more light blades at Accelerator and Mikoto.
"You didn't think you could defeat the Imagine Breaker by simply cutting it off?" Touma asked loudly. At his words, The Herald slowly turned his full attention to Touma. Mikoto and Accelerator blocked his last attack and both turned to face him too. The vortex of despair and hate around them, including the killing intent, seemed to lesson slightly. All three of them felt something… inhuman and monstrous. Something so powerful it made the three monsters stop fighting and focus on a single individual.
"What are you?" The Herald asked as fear began to swell up inside of him. I don't sense any mana or Telesma from him so why am I afraid? I am powerful and backed by Lucifer's might, I should be unstoppable. He could not talk himself out of the feeling and what he saw next could not be unseen.
Touma grabbed the shirt with his left hand and pulled it off his arm. Blood immediately began to pour out from his wound, but it did not gush out to the ground. Instead, the flow of blood started to trickle in midair as it slowly made its way away from his wound. Slosh. As everyone watched, the blood was not randomly flouting in midair. It was outlining something, something very large, with very sharp teeth. Drops of blood started to fly off the tiny rivers of blood and splattered over the transparent creature, like throwing paint onto a glass sculpture. The outline started to move away from Touma's wound and continued to grow larger. As the outline finished, the speckle of blood covered it and the blood sparkled in the light, almost like it was covered in scales, The Herald could make out the shape. It was a head of a beast only talked about in legends, with a jaw over ten meters long full of razor sharp teeth.
It was the head of a dragon.
Its eyes were covered by Touma's dark red blood. When the Herald looked into it, he only saw one outcome.
His death.
The dragon opened its mouth and let out a roar. Its roar was so powerful; everyone could swear they saw the shockwave carrying the sound. As the roar ripped through the air, everything that it touched was impacted by its power. Sogiita and Misaki covered their ears and yelled as the roar threatened to make them lose their minds. Kuroko was unable to bare it and lost consciousness as she fell to the ground. As the sound wave hit Accelerator and Mikoto, they seemed to weaken. Accelerator's black wings dissolved to about half of their previous length, while Mikoto's ribbons tore into pieces around her. About half of the magic circles in the air shattered and their pieces turned to dust. The Herald was blown back a good twenty feet but continued to hover in the air.
A side effect none of them knew was Mikoto and Accelerator were now able to think much more clearly, after their powers dropped. Before, they had both been overcome by rage and hatred at The Herald for hurting Touma. The power had become a manifestation of that anger and overpowered their minds. The dragon's roar managed to shatter that darkness to give them their minds back. Both of them had the same thought. What the hell is that? Neither of them could do anything except stare at the monster coming out of Touma's right side.
"I won't lose to you monster," The Herald called out raising his left hand. "I wield the power of the first Archangel." As if in response to his boosting, the green gem glowed brighter and the green veins on his arm spread further into his side. From his back, a single ray of light exploded outwards. It was about ten feet long and suddenly disappeared at a point for no discernable reason. It was pure white on the outside, but the center core was platinum. It looked like a single wing made of light grew from The Heralds back, a strong contrast to Accelerator's pitch black wings. "Hahaha," The Herald laughed as Telesma flowed through him. "My master has granted me even more of his power." He no longer feared the Imagine Breaker or the dragon apparition that had appeared. He reached out his hand and an orb of light appeared. It stretched out until it became the shape of a spear. "I shall strike down that beast and bring forth a new world. I wield the power of the one who can rival God himself."
"My Imagine Breaker holds the power to erase even God's miracles," Touma stated. "Your illusion ends now for threatening my friends." The Herald smiled and started to fly toward Touma with the spear of light in hand. The head of the dragon stretched, almost like a neck was forming, as it moved toward The Herald with its jaw opened.
"He's not alone!" Mikoto yelled. She had regained her sanity and held out her hand, in it was a coin. The last remains of her ribbon started the wrap around her arm. She flipped the coin and launched it with all the power her form currently had. The ribbon added an enormous amount of electricity as her finger made contact. The boom was easily ten times as loud as her normal railgun and flew as a bolt of pure energy at The Herald.
"No one said I was out of this!" roared Accelerator as his black wings grew again. This time they did not shatter his mind, but he was still full of rage at The Herald. A boon was produced as his pitch black wings stretched out and pushed all the air out of his way. The ground was shredded by just being in their presence. The black wings split into many spiked feathers and flew toward The Herald at the same time. The Herald thrust the spear of pure white light forward and simultaneously struck Accelerator's black shards, Mikoto's empowered Railgun, and the dragon head.
An explosion rocked the entire coliseum and everyone was knocked backwards by a wave of light and force.
When the light faded away and everyone was no longer blind, Misaki and Sogiita stood up and looked around to see what happened to everyone else. Mikoto had fallen backwards and was sitting on her butt with her hands propping herself up. She looked normal again, but seemed to be barely able to move. Accelerator was in a similar position as his black wings had faded away. Touma was still standing, but was swaying slightly. They gasped when they saw his right arm was back to normal and the dragon head was gone. Touma was looking upwards and everyone else followed his gaze.
He's back to normal, Mikoto thought happily when she saw Touma then looked up. How is he still alive like that?
When did the hero have a monster in his arm? Accelerator thought then looked up. That f$^&er won't die.
I believed he would win, Misaki thought to herself blushing as she looked at Touma noticed the figure in the air. Wow, he's still alive, but Touma still won't lose.
His guts are amazing as ever, Sogiita thought before he looked upwards. Heh, I knew The Herald guy didn't have any guts, but what a monster to still be alive after that.
Unknown to everyone else, the first roar from Touma's dragon had weakened the cursed marks currently on Jason and he regained consciousness. He was still in a ton of pain, but he could at least think. He could not move, except for his eyes, and all he could physically do was watch the fight. Heh, who would have thought THAT dragon would be hiding in his arm. It was worth all the pain to come here just to verify that. The explosion caused by the combined attacks knocked him out again as he could not defend himself in his state.
Touma felt his body start to collapse under its own weight, but he refused to fall until The Herald was defeated and Index was safe. He looked up and his eyes went wide. How is he still alive! Half of The Herald's body was gone, his entire right side. What made this even stranger was what the remains of him looked like. His body was hollow while his skin started floating away like tiny pieces of paper. Touma saw one last look of rage from the remaining side of The Heralds face before it disappeared into the wind. All that was left was the green gem floating in midair. The sky was sunny again and the few remaining circles cracked and fell apart into nothingness. Then he saw something that made his heart sank. "INDEX!" he yelled. Index had begun to fall from the sky as the magic holding her up disappeared. Move, he roared at his body, but it took all his strength to take a single step. She was going to fall to far away.
"I got her!" Sogiita called out as he ran by Touma and jumped high into the air. He caught her effortlessly and held her tightly as he landed back on the ground. He walked over to Touma. "Looks like we rescued your friend too, it's our complete victory."
"Yea," Touma agreed and looked at Index. She was sleeping peacefully and appeared unhurt. "Well, let's get out of here…"
"TOUMA!" Misaki called. "Above you!" Touma looked up and a small piece of space behind the gem was beginning to crack. The crack spread out to about a ten foot diameter circle, then the air just disappeared. It looked like a small section of night had pieced the sunny day. It felt to Touma he was looking at the night sky through a telescope with an endless array of stars. Out of it stepped two people who just appeared instantly. One of them was a boy who was maybe a year or two older than Touma. He had jet black dark hair, and was a fair bit taller than Touma. His face was emotionless as he reached out and grabbed the green gem flouting in midair.
"That makes the seventh wing," he said to the girl next to him. "Five more to go." She nodded. The girl was around Mikoto's height with bright blond hair that reached her shoulders. Her eyes were sky blue and she seemed to have a permanent look of cheerfulness on her face.
"But this one was the hardest one to obtain," she said happily. "The last five should be easy."
"They almost ruined it," the boy said motioning to Touma and his friends. "We should kill them before they cause more problems." Everyone tensed up at his words, but he still betrayed no emotions. It was like he was simply commenting on the weather.
"Now there is no need for that," the girl said cheerfully. She looked down at them all and suddenly appeared right in front of Touma. She looked up at him with bright eyes and smiled. "I'm terribly sorry for all the trouble my doll caused for you. I hope you can forgive us."
"Doll?" Touma asked surprised.
"Oh let me show you," she said continuing to smile. She held out her hand and a book instantly appeared and flipped open. Several pieces of paper started flying out of it and tore into millions of pieces, way more than a couple pages of book sized paper should be able to make. Behind her the paper started to swirl into two spirals. The paper started forming together and Touma watched in stun silence as two people, who looked exactly like The Herald they just fought, materialized. "See, they are just dolls I make. I give them a task and they fill it out. My last doll got a little overzealous in his mission and got you all wrapped up in it. Again, I am so sorry." She closed the book and the paper dolls broke apart into dust and disappeared.
"How?" Mikoto asked shocked as she made her way cautiously over. "You mean the person we spent so much time fighting was just a doll you made?"
"Yep," the girl said smiling. "We just wanted to gather the wings of Lucifer but he must have gathered some weird information from the grimoires he stole." She pointed over to a corner of the arena near an altar. "The stolen books should be there. Feel free to take them back to their rightful owners with our apologies."
"Are you f^&$ing kidding me," Accelerator said stumbling over to them. His legs were really weak and his head was hurting him. Without the Mark of Pride, his wounds wouldn't heal and he felt like he was slowly reverting back to his old self. "You capture people we know and think an apology will suffice?"
"Be lucky she is willing to even apologize," the guy said in a monotone. "We both have enough power to destroy this entire country. Don't push us."
Touma felt a tug on his sleeve and saw Misaki had wondered over to him. "I think we should let them go," she whispered. "We have a lot of injured and they give off a weird vibe." Touma nodded in agreement. He did not think letting them go was a smart idea, but fighting them now would be even stupider. He never had a feeling like this before, his body both feared the girl in front of him, but at the same time he felt peaceful being in her presence.
"So The Herald had just gone crazy and talking nonsense about killing God?" Touma asked.
"Oh no," the girl said giggling. "We plan to revive our master and kill God. We just need to find the remains of his wings in order to resurrect him. This is the seventh. Lucifer was the most beautiful angel under God and brought forth light. While most angles only had four or six wings, Lucifer, as the oldest and most powerful, had twelve. Once we have all twelve wings, we will be able to perform the ritual to revive him."
"You can't be serious," Mikoto said as she began to process the information. She realized magic was real, but hearing of Gods and angels really began to stretch her imagination about these things. She did not, however, rule out the possibility anymore.
"Oh one other thing," the girl said putting a finger up to her cheek. "We promise to leave you all alone and not involve any of your friends in our work if you do not interfere with us. Doesn't that sound like a good deal? We would hate to have to kill you all now after you put up such a good fight against a wing of our lord."
Touma looked at her darkly, even through her smile, he could tell she was not to be trifled with. But why is she willing to make a deal when she is so much stronger than us? His eyes flickered to his hand. They must be afraid of the Imagine Breaker. He felt Misaki tug on his sleeve again and her eyes pleading with him to let them go. His eyes flickered over to Sogiita, who was staring at the boy with Index in his arms. Touma could tell he wanted to fight, but protecting the girl was his top priority. He sighed knowing he couldn't stop those two kids. "Fine," he said simply. "But before you go, what are your names?"
"I'm Eve," the girl said. "That is Adam." She disappeared from in front of him and appeared next to Adam in the air near the void circle. "That is excellent news. Now no one has to die. So long Imagine Breaker. No one told me how cute you were." Adam rolled his eyes as they disappeared into the void and it closed behind them.
The last thing Touma felt was a couple pair of eyes glaring at him like daggers before his fatigue hit a breaking point and he collapsed unconscious.
Touma opened his eyes to see a light above him. He was lying on a bed in a familiar looking hospital. He raised up his right arm and looked at the back of his hand. Damn, I always seem to end up here. At least I don't hurt. He sat up and stretched while looking around. No one else was in the hospital and there was one machine connected to his left arm measuring his vitals. There was also a small pile of assorted goods on the window ledge. How did I get all the way back here?
"Welcome back Kamijou-san," the Heaven Chancellor said as he walked into the room.
"Do you have to say that every time?" Touma asked grinning slightly. "How did I get here, and what about my friends?"
"Your friends brought you here," the Heaven Chancellor said. "You actually weren't really injured. It seems like you just had a complete lack of energy. You have been resting all night and most of the morning. It's Sunday now and almost lunchtime. Your friends refused to leave until they were sure you woke up."
"Can I see them?" Touma asked.
"In a little bit," he said. "I'm going to check some of your vitals first, and then I will let them in. I think a couple of them have a surprise for you." Touma raised an eyebrow confused at what it could be. After a nurse came in and monitored a couple stats on the machine, he was finally allowed visitors. He heard his friends before he could see them.
"I can't believe you got us to wear this."
"It looks good on you Misaka-san."
"This is so embarrassing."
"I was willing to do this by myself, but both of you wouldn't let me."
"Like we would let you take advantage of him while he's stuck in bed."
"Besides, he helped all of us."
Touma recognized the voices but didn't know what they were doing until Misaki, Mikoto and Ruiko walked into his room.
His jaw dropped.
They were all wearing pure white nurse outfits with even the matching hats. Misaki might have had trouble putting the uniform on because it was stretched tightly across her rather voluptuous chest. Her blonde hair really stood out compared to most dark haired nurses. She really was just stunning in that outfit. Mikoto could not pull that part of the uniform off, but for some reason she had a very short skirt. To top it off she also did not seem to be wearing her shorts underneath it so Touma could have sworn he saw flashes of her underwear. His eyes kept wondering to her smooth white legs. Then he saw Ruiko. She was sort of in between Mikoto and Misaki's good points. Her chest wasn't as large, but she still filled out her uniform well. What made her stand out was she seemed to radiate the feeling of a nurse. This wasn't something you could achieve with just a uniform. It was something you were born with. Pierce would tell Touma this constantly… for hours. Until today, Touma didn't think he would actually see someone who was not a nurse pull it off. His first reaction was covering his nose with his hand as he felt the beginning of a nosebleed as he turned red.
"See I told you he would like it," Misaki said cheerfully coming to the side of his bed and pulling his other arm into her chest. "I hope you are feeling ok. Would you like me to take your temperature?" She leaned forward toward Touma's face and he felt himself turn even redder.
"H-hey," Mikoto said running up next to her. "If anyone should do that it s-should b-b-be," she started stuttering and wasn't able to finish her sentence. Her face turned crimson while Misaki smiled insincerely at her.
"Well let's have Touma decide," she said and turned back to him. "Who would you prefer take care of you, me or Misaka-san?" She looked into his eyes and he couldn't speak.
"Hey don't just push it onto him like that," Mikoto protested.
Ruiko watched her two friends argue while she approached the foot of Touma bed. He caught her eye and smiled at her as she felt her heart beat faster. She clenched her hand tightly and took a deep breath. Come on Ruiko, you practiced this and even got help. She focused her willpower on the words she needed to say that Touma's friend helped her with just earlier that day.
"MISAKA wants to dress up too MISAKA demands as MISAKA tries to escape Accelerator's clutches." No matter how hard she tried through, Accelerator did not let her go. He started to pull her away from the others, who were holding up nurse uniforms and discussing how to greet Touma when he woke up.
"No," he said simply. "You are not going to catch their stupidity. Besides, you need to go back or Yomikawa is going to scream at me some more. Arg, so annoying." He muttered incoherently to himself while Last Order whined until he heard someone speak behind him.
"Um, excuse me, Accelerator-san?" He turned around and saw the long black-haired girl. He recalled her name was Ruiko Saten.
"What?" he asked.
"I was wondering if you could help me with something since you are Touma's friend and all," she asked hesitantly.
Accelerator raised an eyebrow in curiosity. He knew they were not enemies anymore, but calling them friends may be a little much for him. He opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly felt weird and frowned. He didn't really care about denying it and instead said, "Make it fast."
"Well," Ruiko said turning red. "I really like Touma, but so does Misaka-san and Shokuhou-san. They are both level 5s like you, so I was wondering if you could give me any advice in getting him to notice me over them." She couldn't look him in the eyes anymore and looked at the ground.
Accelerator was conflicted. His first response was going to be, throw yourself naked at Touma, but he stopped himself just before he blurted that out. Hmm, should I really help the hero get a girl? He always has like four around him all the time. The girl in front of him looked really embarrassed and he remembered she was a low level ability user. He thought about it for a second and grinned. He could help her AND mess with the hero too. Everyone wins. He walked over to the nurse's desk and took a piece of paper and wrote something on it. He handed it to Ruiko and said, "If you read that it should work, but the timing is up to you."
Ruiko looked surprise and read the note, then immediately turned scarlet. "I-I can't say this," she gasped.
"Up to you," Accelerator said shrugging, but his grin was plastered on his face. "I gave you my advice. It will be affective." He grabbed Last Order, who was trying to see what was written on the paper, and left the hospital. Ruiko could just stare at the writing on the paper in complete bewilderment.
"So how about a backrub from us Touma," Misaki suggested. "That way Misaka-san and I don't have to fight." Mikoto gave her a poke in the side. She was still bright red.
"I-um-eh," Touma stuttered as his brain refused to work properly surrounded by attractive girls in nurse outfits who were actively trying to take care of him. He was a man, so he was incredibly glad he was under the sheets to avoid an even more awkward situation. The male part of his brain was yelling at him to say yes. Then Ruiko spoke up.
"Or maybe I could give you a sponge bath to make you feel good," she said with her face pure red as she leaned over him smiling. Mikoto and Misaki both turned wide eyed at her boldness. Neither of them had thought she could pull something like that off.
This was the last straw for Touma. The combination of being surrounded by beautiful girls, Ruiko's aura in a nurse outfit, and her words, he could contain it no longer. His heart started pounding incredibly fast and blood gushed out as he started to have a massive nosebleed. His sudden change in status caused the machine to start beeping loudly distracting everyone. A minute later the Heaven Chancellor barged in and, with one glance, figured out what happen. He reprimanded them all for overstimulating one of his patients.
After Touma was able to calm down and the girls changed back to their regular clothes, they were brought lunch and ate in his room talking about what happened when he was asleep. It turns out, shortly after he passed out from exhaustion, Stiyl and Kaori showed up and brought them all back to the bus. Mikoto said Stiyl mentioned getting them out of the city as fast as possible before others could interfere. They assumed it was another magic group who did not like people from the science side. Anyway, since no one was in life threatening condition, they boarded the plane and flew back to Academy City where an ambulance was waiting for them. They were brought here and waited until Touma woke up.
"Accelerator-san and Last Order left shortly before you woke up," Ruiko added. "They were going to watch Index until you woke up. Gunha-san had to leave shortly after he got back to the city. He wanted us to let him know how things work out."
"What about Jason?" Touma asked and he suddenly got worried when their faces darkened. "What happened to him?"
"Well," Ruiko said hesitantly.
"We were hoping to cheer you up before we gave you the news," Mikoto said finally. "He's still unconscious. They don't know when he is going to wake up. Kazari was there for a while, but she had to go to Judgment and planned to be back tonight."
"They can't do anything?" he turned to Misaki. "Can't you help with it? I know they have used mental abilities to help people awaken from comas."
"I tried," Misaki said disappointed. She was actually sadder she let Touma down by not helping his friend then actually helping Jason. "He is not in a normal coma. It is like his mind had been shattered. It might be because of the magic symbols on him, but it was like smashing a glass vase into thousands of pieces and putting it back together. It's possible, but takes a lot of time and energy. I never messed with a mind like that and if I tried anything big, it could cause even more damage."
"I see," Touma muttered then smiled at her. "Thanks for trying Misaki." She blushed slightly.
"I'm sure he will be ok," Mikoto said looking at Touma. "He did save us after all. Even Kuroko thanked him when she was sure he was unconscious and couldn't hear her." Everyone felt their lips twitch into a smile at that thought. She sighed. "Any idea how long they plan to keep you here?"
"Actually, the nurse said they just wanted to monitor me for a little longer and I should be free to go this afternoon," Touma said glad he could give them some good news.
"That's great," Ruiko said. "We should celebrate tonight, and when Jason wakes up, we can celebrate again." Everyone laughed. Afterwards they all waved goodbye and left. They mentioned the dorm supervisor at Tokiwadai was going to be mad at them for disappearing last night so they had to think of an excuse. Ruiko also wanted to check up on Kazari.
Touma sighed and leaned back against his pillow. He was so bored now that all his friends left. Wish Accelerator had stuck around. I wanted to thank him. He slept for a little while to restore his strength and pass the time. When he looked at the clock he knew he should be released soon. He turned and looked at the small pile of gifts on the window sill. Most were cards from his friends, because they didn't know when he was going to wake up, along with some fruit they brought. One unusual present caught his eye. It was hastily wrapped and he opened it. It was two cans of mackerel and a note.
Touma Kamijou, I heard you got hurt and fish is good for you so I brought it over. It's not like I did it specifically for you though. We might need your help later so we need you fit. Frenda. P.S. Here is my number, let me know when you get this. I don't trust that doctor.
Scribbled below it was her phone number. Touma sighed and laughed slightly. He texted her a quick thank you and watched some TV. What seemed like ages, but was probably at most ten to fifteen minutes, the doctor finally said he was free to go. Touma packed up so quick to leave, he was almost to the front desk when he realized he forgot his phone. He left it on the table next to his bed after he texted Frenda. He had to walk all the way back to his room, which was near the top floor in the farthest corner. He passed a room when he heard a familiar voice.
"Thanks for telling them I wasn't conscious."
"I don't know why you wanted your friends to think that though. I'm also surprised you managed to fool the number 5 Mental Out." Touma's eyes widened and he leaned up against the door listening to Jason and the Heaven Chancellor talk.
"Well since I got these marks, my shadow ability has been running wild. If I try to use it, I'll probably accidently destroy everything around me. I already destroyed one room with just trying to move a shadow in my hand. If I try to actually use it for something, I'll probably blow up a building."
"That is a problem. I know you are ok with your ability now, but do you ever wish for your old one again?" Touma frowned. He thought it was impossible for someone to get a new ability after they developed one.
"Not really," Jason said. "This one has more uses and fits me better. Besides, I wouldn't have met Touma Kamijou without it." Touma leaned up harder against the door to hear better and the door opened and he fell through. He looked up to see the Heaven Chancellor looking down at him. Jason was sitting up in the bed looking at him in surprise.
"Umm," Touma said. "Sorry about that." The Heaven Chancellor sighed.
"I'll let you two talk," he said and walked out closing the door behind him. Jason looked at Touma and grinned sheepishly.
"I suppose you want to know why I faked the coma?"
"Yes," Touma said nodding. "Also, what did you mean you have a new ability compared to before? Your shadow wasn't always your ability?"
"Ah that is a really long story, but it does kind of fit with the sins we just fought."
"I got time," Touma said sitting down on a chair. "If you want to tell me that is."
Jason sighed and looked at the ceiling. "I suppose it started when I entered Academy City at the age of four. It turns out I was a gemstone and the city welcomed me with open arms."
"Well your shadow is really impressive," Touma said. Jason smiled.
"That's just it," he said. "My ability was not my shadow then. I had a completely different ability." Touma felt his eyes widen in shock. "Yes I know it is supposed to be impossible to change an ability once it develops, but listen to the entire story first. My ability was regeneration, but they called it Reconstruction. On first glance it acted just like regeneration, your cells split and are able to specialize into the injured cells. They ranked me as a level four with my high speed regeneration. However, they discovered something else. After I regenerated, the injured part got stronger."
"What?" Touma asked confused.
"Let's say I burnt my palm on something really hot to cause third degree burns. I could heal that pretty fast. After it finished healing, the skin on my hand would be more resistance to heat. Not a lot, but some. So I could handle hot things easier with my palm."
"So if you got injured enough times you could be completely immune to certain types of damage?" Touma asked. That sounds ridiculously strong.
"Possibly," Jason said. "The main flaw is that only the damage spot would get stronger, the rest of my body would not. I would have to keep throwing myself into boiling water to have my entire skin get more heat resistance. Then do it thousands of time and heal after each one. If a knife stabbed me, only that small part would become more resistance to cuts. It wasn't really that useful except for the regeneration. I wasn't stupid enough to try to injure myself entirely just to get a slight resistance to that particular damage."
"Ok but that doesn't explain how it changed to being a shadow."
"Well at the age of six, they realized I was incredibly intelligence and put me in a fast pace curriculum. For the next two to three years I finished all my work through high school. Shortly after I turned nine, I was offered to join a special experiment group. They said I would learn some special abilities outside of science. I was interested, but skeptical. For the next year I was outside of Academy City learning magic with five other Academy City students, two boys, and three girls. We never cast spells, only learned theory and basics. We were warned trying to cast magic without preparation would kill us. They would tell us when we were ready. The magicians watching over us kept pitting us against each other and encouraged rivalry. Only one girl actually was kind to everyone," his face darkened for a moment. "Finally they told us we were going to cast our first spell. They told us the spell we were going to cast could be done as a group to make it easier for newer magicians. This was a lie. It turns out they knew magic was dangerous to ability users."
Touma made a fist in anger. He knew exactly what Jason was talking about. He remembered being told what happens when someone tries to use both magic and an ability. They run on different laws and the laws conflict so they destroy the caster. Motoharu was the only one he knew, besides Jason, who could use both, but it always nearly killed him. "Those bastards," Touma growled. "Experimenting on kids."
Jason nodded his face dark. "We were chosen because they calculated, with some machine, we had the best odds of survival. Anyway, the spell we were told to cast was a forced continuous type of magic. It meant we could not stop until we ran out of mana or died." He stopped and put a hand to his mouth looking sick. Touma opened his mouth to say Jason could stop but Jason shook his head. "I'm good. Let's just say the results were not pretty. All the others fell one by one as blood erupted from their bodies. Finally, I fell as blood soaked my clothes. I was in pain beyond imagination."
"How did you survive?" Touma asked.
"Regeneration," Jason said turning pale. "I kept healing the damage the conflict between magic and science was causing in my body. I was constantly on the verge of death, unable to stop the magic. All I could feel was pain and all I could taste was blood."
"So regeneration allowed you to survive," Touma said thinking. "But that doesn't explain how you are able to use magic now."
Jason sighed. "Reconstruction's second step."
Touma frowned. His ability allowed him to make his body slightly stronger after repairing damage. So his body could withstand the conflict…. He stopped and stared at Jason for a second. "Your body was slowly repairing itself and making it resistance to the conflict of laws?"
"Yes," Jason said nodding. "I never died outright so my body was barely keeping up. Finally after ages of my body destroying itself and rebuilding, I collapsed. I assumed my body at this time was changed enough to handle the magic and ability at the same time, or maybe I was out of mana, I don't know. I could not move and my vision was blurry. I heard the voice of Greed, one of the sins who I fought in Rome, say the spell was a failure and to kill the survivors."
"Survivors? As in plural?"
"It turns out the girl I mentioned before survived too," Jason said and Touma saw him shake slightly. "Because I took the brunt of the spell, she barely survived. Anyway, I was unable to move and knew we were both about to die. I cried out for help with the remains of my link to the spell. I think that was the first time I ever really asked for help. Then I felt something surround my body. It was darkness covering me like a blanket. I still don't know exactly how or when I changed to allow the new ability. My reality must have been forcefully changed during the experiment. I could no longer use Reconstruction after this point. This is when things get cloudy for me. I heard shouting and yelling, but I was so full of rage and anger. I killed them; I killed all those magicians that used us for their own ends. I woke up surrounded by bodies. I ONLY woke up because the girl who survived used the last of her strength to wake me up." Jason clutched his head and looked like he was about to cry. This was one of the first times he ever showed weakness in front of others.
Touma sat there for a second in shock then answered forcefully. "You can't blame yourself. You were going to die and had no other choice. It was self-defense. You are not the first person who let their emotions control them, and you won't be the last. The important thing is what you do in the future." He held out a fist. "If you ever need someone to knock sense back into you let me know. I'll be sure to punch you in the face as many times as needed."
"My jaw still hurts from last time." Jason laughed and fist bumped him back. "After that, I wondered around aimlessly for a while and a small group of magicians taught me how to control my mana and my shadow. Afterwards I came back to Academy city to finish off my studies until I was captured by a rogue group of scientists and mages working together to study my ability. Then you found me and, well, here we are."
"If you hang out with me enough," Touma said. "You will learn about this hospital a lot more." Jason laughed again. "Well anyway, you should let Uiharu-san know you are ok. If you can't use your shadow, you should still be able to leave the hospital right?"
"Yea," Jason said nodding. "Until I can find a way to calm my mana, I can't use my shadow or it will go out of control. The best I can hope for is using the sin marks. While I was pretending to be in a coma, I was learning about them. Interesting abilities, immortality, steal, eternal devotion, sleep, pain, transformation, and travel."
"That reminds me," Touma said getting up. "How did you fool Misaki into believing you were not awake?"
"Reconstruction," Jason replied. "It messed with my brain enough after the magic experiment. She is use to reading a normal person's brain. She would have to study my brain for a long time to figure out how to use her powers on me. It was an unintentional side effect of the damage I took. If she studies it long enough, she should be able to affect me without problems. Don't tell her that though."
"You probably shouldn't use those powers though," Touma warned. "Index said they might have side effects. Anyways, I'm going to tell everyone else you're ok so we can all celebrate tonight. You need to tell Uiharu-san though. She probably wants to hear it from you."
"When did you knowingly become a ladies man?" Jason asked.
"Pssh," Touma said. "That's common sense isn't it? What do you mean knowingly? I have never been a ladies man." Jason rolled his eyes at his denial.
"So how did you defeat The Herald?" Jason asked.
Touma gave him a brief rundown about what happened. He briefly thought of editing his story to avoid talking about the dragon that came out of his hand. Jason has been studying it so he might know something. He started on what the Herald was trying to do and moved on to mention Mikoto's and Accelerator's transformation, followed by the invisible dragon head that emerged from his arm. "Then two people came out of a rip in space. The girl was young, blonde, and called herself Eve. The boy was, maybe, a year or two older than me with dark hair and called himself Adam." Touma continued to explain their power and the conversation he had with them.
"Hmm," Jason said thinking as he listened to Touma story. "The head could be a lot of things. I'll think on that for a bit before I can say anything for certain. As for those two, you probably did the right thing in leaving. They sound strong and we were definitely not in fighting shape anymore. As for Lucifer, I only know he is the fallen angel of Christianity."
"Well I thought I would let you know," Touma said shrugging. "So when you get out let me know and we can go meet up with everyone else." He reached down, to tell his friends Jason was ok, but his phone beeped before he sent any messages and he looked to see who it was.
"I have to do one thing first before I can meet with you," Jason said pulling out his phone too. "I'll let Kazari know I'll meet you all wherever."
Shizuri Mugino walked out of the shower with nothing but a towel around her body and her hair wrapped in another towel. She went over to the fridge and pulled out a drink. She then looked around the room at the other girls. Frenda was sitting in the corner of the couch playing with her phone and looking happy for some reason. Rikou was laying her head on a table watching the TV with a bored look on her face. Saiai was more involved in the movie, but she constantly threw glances at Frenda while smirking. They had all finished showing already. "Tsk," she clicked her tongue. "Blood is such a pain to wash out of hair. It smells really bad if you don't get it all."
"You wanted to super punch them instead of using your powers," Saiai pointed out. This was true. Their group, ITEM, had finally received a mission after their reprieve because of the intruders. The group they were sent to eliminate consisted of just normal people who smuggled guns into Academy City. They quickly fell before the girl's abilities, but Shizuri made sure to keep some of them alive. She then proceeded to pummel them mercilessly to relieve all the stress that had built up the last couple of days.
"It was necessary," Shizuri replied offhandedly. "I just felt like blowing off some steam. Frenda, what are you so happy about?" She turned her attention to blonde girl on the couch.
"N-nothing Mugino," Frenda said nervously hiding her phone. She was not going to admit Touma had just texted her, but Saiai could not resist the chance to mess with her.
"She super got a text from the Kamijou guy," Saiai blurted out grinning at Frenda. "She must be super happy."
"Good luck Frenda," Rikou said passively looking at her.
"Not you too," Frenda cried glaring at her. "Yes he texted me, so what? Basically, he was just saying thanks. I left him some food since he was hospitalized." Saiai raised an eyebrow and laughed again. It had been completely accidental Frenda and Saiai saw he was hospitalized. They were walking down the street outside the hospital and saw an ambulance pull up. They noticed the Number 1 and Number 3 ability users leave first followed by Touma.
"Whatever makes you happy," Shizuri said in a bored tone as she sipped her drink. "His number might be useful though. Make sure you save it and send me it." Frenda nodded. Shizuri turned away from Frenda, but for some reason she felt annoyed. She wasn't told Touma had been hospitalized and it bothered her for some reason. He was able to stand up to me, so what could possibly have harmed him. I need to watch him closer. When she thought that last part, she felt a weird feeling in her gut and she frowned unsure of what that was. She was spared further thinking about it when her phone started ringing. She picked it up after looking at the number. "What is it? We just finished the mission."
"An emergency popped up," a female voice said from the other line. Shizuri never did learn this person's name, but she was just a liaison who passed out ITEM's next mission. "I know this is last minute, but you need to be able to move out tomorrow. Your pay will be doubled."
"Oh?" Shizuri asked raising an eyebrow in interest. They normally don't offer more. It must be important so they don't want me to say no. "Let's hear it then."
"It seems one of the higher ups of Academy City is planning an assassination on the director Osamu Miyagawa. The way they planned it is the problem. We can't strike at this guy directly, so we need to take out his ability to assassinate Miyagawa."
"Sounds simple enough," Shizuri said yawning slightly. "We kill the assassin and…"
"No," the informant interrupted. "This mission requires two parts. If either part messes up, the assassination attempt can succeed. They plan to use a new design of nanobots which are programed to detect a specific biological organism and dismantle them at the subatomic level. The mission will consist of two parts. The first part is the easy one, there will be a shipment to a warehouse and I'll send you the specific location. The vial of nanobots will be in this shipment. The problem is the activation switch will be in another location, a very public one. If the switch is activated before the vial is destroyed, the nanobots will spread out over the city until they find their target. Once a single one finds them, all the others will converge and he will die. We can't let this happen."
"Ok," Shizuri said making a mental note. "That side sounds simple enough. What's the location of the switch?"
"The Yanadem Tower," the informant said.
"F#$%!" Shizuri shouted suddenly causing the other three girls to jump. "How are we supposed to just walk in from the darkness into that damn hotel? It's right in the middle of the city and the activity never stops there." The other three girls looked at each other confused. They had no idea what Shizuri was talking about, but they were smart enough to stay silent while she was pissed.
"We have two invitations for the auction being held tomorrow in the ballroom at six o'clock," the informant said. "We also have one room reserved tonight and tomorrow for one person. You can sneak someone in tonight. The issue is the invitations are for a male and female pair. We can send one of our men to act as your date. We recommend you go in disguised. I'll send you the description of the switch, though it will probably be disguised as something else."
"I don't want of your shitty subordinates ruining our job," snapped Shizuri. "Get those invitations here immediately. I'll handle the rest." She hung up and made a fist. Her eyes traveled over the other girls and stopped for a minute on Frenda. She felt a smile grow on her face. He did say if I ever needed help he would come. This should be fun. Frenda shivered when Shizuri's eyes stopped on her and fear radiated from her when she saw Shizuri smile. "We have a mission starting tonight into tomorrow," she said to the other girls. "Listen up because I don't want to repeat myself." She spent a good period of time explaining their jobs and the plan for the following day.
"Ok," Frenda said thinking hard. "Kinuhata and Takitsubo will take care of the warehouse." Saiai and Rikou nodded. "Basically, I'm going to get there tonight and set up surveillance equipment. But Mugino, who is going to accompany you? A single person going to one of those auctions is unusual and will draw attention."
"I plan to ask someone for help," Shizuri said her smile widening. "After all, he promised to come help us." Frenda's eyes widened when she realized who she was talking about. "Call him Frenda, and tell him I need his help."
"But what if he doesn't come?" asked Frenda.
"Tell him you super want to sleep with him," suggested Saiai. That innocent comment earned her a shoe to the face.
In the certain windowless building, Aleister Crowley, superintendent of Academy City, floated upside down in a cylinder of red liquid. The liquid resembled blood, but it did not seem to bother him. Instead, all of his focus was on the blonde haired boy standing in front of him. "Since everyone was brought back unharmed, we can skip the conversation about interfering with the magic side."
"That's good," Jason said grinning. "I was worried I would have to sit through another one of your lectures without a chair. Seriously, get something for guests to sit down on."
"Your humor is charming as always," Aleister said emotionlessly. "Let us move to the next topic at hand. I have been requested several times to persuade you to assist the Kihara's research again. You continue to pique their interest, especially after your outburst with the last meeting of the board of directors."
Jason pretended to think about that for a moment, but his face darkened. "I'm going to give you the same answer I gave them." He made a very rude gesture with his hand. "I don't care for their ways of doing things anymore. I'm past that point of my life."
"They will be disappointed to hear that," Aleister said, but in a tone that said he could care less. "Let us move to the most important topic today." Jason nodded. "Before you arrived at Academy City, only one of the level 5s had potential to surpass level 5. Due to outside influence, the experiment was cancelled. Two of the level 5s, had the power to awaken. I know you know what the awakening process entails," Jason had opened his mouth to say something and he shut it again frowning, "We will get nowhere if you pretend to be ignorant. Accelerator and Kakine Teitoku are the only two who possessed the potential. You have seen the black wings of Accelerator, have you not?"
"I did," Jason replied. "They were not complete though. They were still warped."
"I'm glad the information I gave you was not wasted," Aleister remarked. "Anyway, you said you were not interested in continuing any experiments on having the level 5s awaken or surpass to level 6. But something unusual happened I was hoping you would be kind enough to explain it."
"What do you mean?" Jason asked.
"You see," Aleister explained. "For some reason, a couple other individuals have suddenly developed the potential to surpass level 5. Though the chance is small, it is not zero. Number 3 has a 5% chance to reach level 6, Number 4 has a 1% chance, Number 5 has a 4% chance, and Number 7 has a 1% chance. These percentages did not change until shortly after you arrived to Academy City. Why do you suppose that is?"
Jason looked at him for a moment. "If I understand your underlying tone correctly, you believe I am secretly turning the level 5s into level 6s?" Aleister did not say anything so Jason took his silence as a yes. He started laughing loudly and clutching his side. "Best of all," he gasped. "You think I am doing this under your nose and you have no idea how I am doing this. I must be good." He suddenly got serious. "I want a pay raise since I am so amazing."
"I have several theories on what you are doing," Aleister said calmly, unfazed by Jason's laughter. "When you arrived, you made your very first priority to show the Parameter List was faulty. You did this by raising low level ability users, who should have been stuck at level 0 or 1and raised them to 1 and 2. It is also predicted your research will allow them to grow even further over the years. It makes sense for you to have knowledge to raise higher level abilities too."
"Sounds like a good theory," Jason acknowledged. "But why would I care about high level users? They already have power."
"Yes," Aleister conceded. "That does propose a quandary. I know you like to give strength to the powerless in order to satisfy your own curiosity. Your belief was, correct me if I am wrong, power does not change the strong, only the weak."
"I said that once or twice," Jason said. "But it's a lot more interesting to see what people without power do. Will they hold to their convictions or will they become what they hate."
"Is that why you do not use your research on yourself? You do not wish to be level 5?"
"I cannot achieve what I want to achieve with just power," Jason said. "Therefore, I have no point in giving myself power. These sin marks have set me back a lot. I need to control my mana or the shadow will run out of control and destroy everything around me."
"What do you plan to do when people see you with more than one power?"
"I'll just say I created multiskill or something," Jason said smirking. "That would be sure to drive the Kiharas into a frenzy. Most of what I say is a lie anyways." He laughed and turned around. "If you excuse me, I have people to meet with."
"One last thing," Aleister said. "We have recently received word For MultiMaxlon Entertainment. It seems that one of our level 5s have won a contest of theirs. Now, a liaison needs to be established between them and the level 5. However, few people know the identity of this individual. I take it you will volunteer for this duty?"
"Of course," Jason said. His back was turned from Aleister and a huge grin spread over his face. "It sounds so fun, I won't even ask for pay." He walked over to the wall and leaned against it as it turned white. "Lots of interesting things are sure to happen soon." He fell through it and disappeared.
Aleister turned his attention back to his monitors. I have many ideas of what he is planning, but no viable motive yet to narrow down the possibilities. I am 92% sure of his objective, but with him, I need to be at least 95% or he can outplay my predictions. Maybe I should just kill him and be done with it. I suppose I will just monitor him until I know for sure if he is a threat to my plans. If he insists on destroying my nanobots around him and the Imagine Breaker, I simply have to monitor them another way…
Season 1 is officially over with the Herald's death, but the story is just beginning. Now that the boring plot is out of the way, along with backstories, we can go and do all the fun hilarity that is sure to arise with the return of ITEM. Feel free to leave a review, comment, suggestions, or idea. I love reading them.
Mikoto: I'm worried about what Mugino is going to do to Touma.
Ruiko: I'm sure it won't be too bad.
Jason: He probably will just change from Touma to Tou-MAN.
Mikoto: What are you talking about?
Accelerator: Are you that dense? He means the fourth rate will take the hero's vi….
Misaki: NO! Only I can do that!
Mikoto: Who said you get to?
Ruiko: Guys wait up.
Accelerator: Think the fourth rate will actually do that?
Shizuri: Maybe if I benefit somehow.
Jason: She is good.