Blah, why the hell do I actually do this? It's such a pain. If you haven't guessed, I'm Accelerator. I know, I know, the number 1 is actually going to answer your questions again. You all better understand how lucky you are. I'm not even in this chapter so I could give a shit who this Cain guy is. If he gets in my way, I'll just slaughter him. Can't wait to see how this Birdway girl messes with the hero though. Well, I guess I should answer your questions so I can leave.

Yakutsu Zaishiro" Of course I will. That piece of trash can't stand up to me.

naruhinasakufan1: I have no idea what you are spewing out of your mouth. Who said I was best friends with the damn hero? He just doesn't annoy me as much as others.

Brosephg: It pisses me off all the time. I don't even know why I don't just beat the shit out of all of them.

wildarms13: You mean those wings? I don't really know what causes them yet. I suppose if something stupid like that is actually an issue about last names, I could find out what my name use to be.

Willgm: Hah, ghost girl actually does something? I would like to see that. Eh, people naturally gravitate to people in power, developing a harem is only natural for the strongest. Still annoying though.

Salishious: That's an easy question. The Saten girl would cause him the least trouble. She's actually not that annoying either.

AxelLord20: I mentioned this before, but I would go with the girl who annoys me the least.

general ironox: I think the others are saying Worst, Awaki, and Bayloupe are also part of my harem. I really don't pay attention.

Ravenala: It's actually an improvement from being experimented on and killing clones. It filled a weird void that had been bothering me for years. Though, they all still annoy me TO DAMN MUCH!

Generation Zero: Trash is still trash, regardless how they try to improve. I don't really care about magic, but I might learn about it if I have nothing better to do. Because that guy is an asshole.

Sesshoru : I would throw away the collar and the batteries.

MarkJ: I assume you mean which girls from the hero's harem I would be willing to date? The only girl that doesn't annoy me is the Saten girl.

Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index or any of the characters. Reading this story may cause you to burst out in laughter or start yelling at fictional characters. This may cause nearby people to assume you have gone crazy. Please read responsibly.

"Cain?" Touma asked. I know I've heard that before. Something told him fighting this guy by himself was not a smart thing to do, so he started inching toward Index, who was closest to him. He reached out his right hand and gently touched her hand. The sound of breaking glass was heard and Index stumbled slightly, able to move again. Touma tensed up and turned his focus back to Cain, but he didn't seem to care Touma was saving the others. He was just standing there, watching Touma with unblinking, glowing red eyes.

"Why don't you ask the Index Librorum Prohibitorum?" Cain suggested. "And you might as well free your acquaintances too. If you wish to last against me, you will need them." Touma was surprised Cain was being so accommodating, and also suspicious.

Is he trying to let my guard down? Touma thought, inching in front of Index in case Cain tried anything. Or is he so confident of his abilities to take us all down? His eyes darted over to Juliet, who had descended onto the ground far behind Cain and reformed into her human form. She had an uncomfortable look on her face, like she wasn't happy Cain was here. Even Juliet is weary of him. "Index," he whispered. "What can you tell me about…?" He felt her reach up a hand and grab the back of his shirt. "Index why….?" He stopped as he felt her hand tremble. Is his magic affecting her again? He reached back and grabbed her hand with his right hand, but nothing happened.

"You need to break the others free first," Index whispered, her voice shaking. "Then you all need to run as far away as you can. You can't sense it, but he's in an entire class of his own."

"I can't abandon…"

"Save everyone else," Index told him, a little firmer, but the fear in her voice was still evident. Touma wanted to argue, but he saw the resolve on her face, even though she was terrified. He vowed to himself to not leave her behind and ran over to Mikoto, who was nearest. He reached out and grabbed her arm. He heard the sound of his hand activating, she stumbled and turned her head to look at him, but he was already moving to Lessar and Leivinia. He touched both of their arms and they broke free of their restraints too.

"What happened," Mikoto asked, crossing her arms and rubbing them. "I couldn't do anything. I was so…"

"Scared," Touma finished and Mikoto nodded. "We all got hit by it." They turned their gaze back to Cain, who still was just standing there, watching them. Touma also noticed Lessar and Leivinia were slowly moving toward their location, their weapons held out in front of them, but never taking their eyes off Cain. "Index," Touma asked again. "What was that?"

"It is as he said," she answered. Touma and Mikoto saw she was still shaking. "It's a type of magic commonly called Hunter's Presence. It's based on how prey always instinctively fears predators. Most religions reference something about it. Prey will freeze in fear in hopes their predators will not notice them, the magic is based on that."

"I understand," Mikoto said. "It's like when a hawk perches on a tree branch, all the mice tend to hide out of fear. If they can't hide, they don't move to avoid detection." Index nodded.

"But how would that affect us?" Touma asked. "We aren't prey."

"You don't know who he is," Lessar replied and Touma saw her hands were gripping her Steel Glove so tightly they were turning white. "I don't know if he is who he claims to be either, but he is definitely one of them. You two can't feel it, but we can." Touma assumed they had to be talking about something magical base, because that was the only difference between them.

"One of what?" Mikoto asked, turning to look at her. "You mean one of the Fallen?" Lessar shook her head, and Mikoto understood the seriousness of the situation. "Is… is he not human?"

"You may not know everything about them," Leivinia told her. It was weird for Touma to actually hear her voice without a superior, manipulative, or antagonizing tone in it. She knew full well what kind of situation they were all in. "But even the science side has heard rumors about them." She took a deep breath. "He's a vampire."

"A what?!" Mikoto and Touma half yelled together.

"You mean the blood sucking, weak to sunlight, crosses, and garlic vampires?" Mikoto asked.

"Those weaknesses are actually a myth," Cain told her, causing everyone to turn and look at him. "I can hear your conversations quite clearly. Please, do go on. It's best for you to understand your fate."

"They shouldn't even exist," Index spoke up. "Magicians have been trying to prove their existence for centuries." Touma actually knew vampires had to exist, at least at one point, because his friend and classmate Aisa Himegami has an ability called Deep Blood. It was power to kill vampires. She mentioned before how vampires were just like humans, they laughed, they cried, they felt regret, but they were immortal. Index was unconscious during the fight with the alchemist Aureolus Izzard and wouldn't know that. He now remembered were he heard about vampires. They were also known as Decedents of Cain.

"Are you even sure he's a vampire?" Mikoto asked. Her eyes darted back to Cain.

"Judging by his level of mana," Leivinia said. "And the fact he can use Hunter's Presence so easily on us, I would say he is as close to one as possible."

"What do you mean his level of mana?" Touma asked. He couldn't feel anything related to mana, neither could Mikoto, but both felt the sheer weight of Cain's presence.

"One method of creating mana is by processing inner life force, similar to how crude oil is refined," Lessar explained quickly. "Since mana comes from life force, immortal beings would possess an infinite amount of mana."

"Immortal?" Mikoto gapped.

"We are about to find out," Leivinia said, holding her wand out in front of her.

"I'm more worried about who he says he is," muttered Index, but decided on holding that information for now. There probably wasn't time to go into details. "I'll do what I can. If I can analyze his spells, I might be able use Spell Intercept on it. It's not dependent on how much mana they use, but he could just overwhelm what I can control."

"You really should give up," Juliet called out. "I'm just trying to help you. Cain is really patient, but once you start fighting, he tends to go overboard. I don't want to step in and try to snap him out of his blood frenzy."

"I could hardly call myself the leader of my group if I slunk away from a difficult fight with my tail between my legs," Leivinia declared, appearing to finally regain her composer. She twirled her wand in her hands and took a couple steps forward. "I don't believe you could possibly be THE Cain, no matter how much mana you possess. I'll show you it's the quality, not the quantity."

"How frightening," Cain replied. His tone wasn't scared, sarcastic, or even amused. He was commenting on her words like most people comment on the weather. "I'll give you the first blow and even stand still for you." Cain's feet spread out slightly and it looked like he was ready to receive a couple blows.

"How kind," Leivinia replied, the corners of her mouth twitching. "I hope you don't come to regret it." She hated to be looked down upon. Leivinia whipped her wand in a single fluid motion, causing a wall of flames to erupt from it. The further it moved away from her, the larger it got. Cain didn't even bother to dodge and he disappeared from sight as the flames engulfed him. A normal person would have been burned alive, but Touma had a bad feeling.

There's no way it would be that easy.

Boom!

The sound of air being displaced reverberated through them, a second before the wall of flames was shattered. The flames were torn and spread out in every direction, leaving Cain standing amid the burnt rubble, looking completely fine. He had simply swept his right arm in front of him, yet was able to cause enough power to negate Leivinia's attack with air pressure alone. Leivinia was too skilled to let a single failed attack shake her, her wand had already transformed into a sword, and she swung it down. Touma couldn't see the actual attack, but a line being cut in the ground was indicating the attack was a high pressured wind blade. Cain's tilted head was the only sign he gave he even recognized her attack. The wind blade hit him and his body jerked back a fraction of an inch, his hoody was cut open, revealing pale skin, but the attack didn't cause any actual damage. Judging from Leivinia's scowl, she had expected it to do something.

"Are those really you best attacks?" Cain asked. "You should come at me with all of your strength, or this can't even be called a fight." He turned his head as Lessar jumped at him, swinging her Steel Glove down at his head. While Leivinia had distracted him with her attacks, Lessar had grabbed and compressed the air around her. When she swung her glove at him, she released the ball of air and, after a second delay, it quickly expanded, causing an explosion of pressure on Cain's left side. He swung his left arm, to create his own air explosion, mitigating Lessar's explosion.

"Don't forget about me!" Mikoto yelled at him, as a large electrical bolt flew at him from his other side at the same time. Cain was forced to raise his right hand, palm facing outwards, and blocked the attack. Mikoto's electrical discharge acted like it was hitting a wall and bounced harmlessly to the sides and ground. Cain was taking their strongest attacks like they were nothing. However, there was a slight opening now, because both of his hands were occupied. They had one person on their team who, through countless fights with stronger opponents, knew how to spot and take advantage of a moment of weakness. Touma had charged right at Cain, when both of his arms were away from his body, and swung his fist at Cain's face.

His fist passed through nothing but air.

Cain had jumped backwards.

This surprising move baffled Touma for a moment. I expected him to try to dodge or counter attack, but why would he dodge? He was blocking everything a second ago. Cain had leaped tens of meters in the air before landing with a dull thud on the ground. He had put quite a bit of distance between himself and Touma. Is he scared of my hand? Touma turned toward Cain, preparing to charge him again, when several objects flew past him. He only managed a brief glimpse of dozens of stone daggers flying past him and directly at Cain. Touma expected him to just block the attack like he did before but, to his surprise, Cain moved at speeds and reflexes far beyond a normal human to dodge the blades. Damn, his movements are just like Kanzaki's, but why did he change strategies? Cain kicked a large piece of metal debris at Lessar, forcing her back, and then blocked one of Mikoto's electrical attacks, before being forced to dodge one of Leivinia's air blades.

"Touma," Index called out to him. "I figured him out."

"On why he suddenly changed his fighting style?" Touma asked, and Index nodded.

"Cain was originally a great farmer in Christianity," Index explained quickly. "He would always offer up the best of his harvest to God. This would imply he has a connection with earth. When he sets up a specific position, he can take this connection into his own body. He becomes stronger and sturdier, like how tree's roots prevent them from falling over, even in powerful storms. He will be virtually invincible as long as he is in that position." Touma remembered Cain had changed the way he was standing before Leivinia launched her initial assault. "When he dodged your attack, his connection broke."

"But why did he even dodge my attack?" Touma asked. Several explosions cause the ground to shake slightly. The others were keeping up their assault, but Cain was either dodging or blocking them with relative ease. "What would happen if my hand touched a vampire?"

"I…" Index paused for a moment. "I really don't know. There is no precedence for this. Your hand may negate his immortality, but that's part of the myth surrounding vampires. If you can negate it, then they would just be normal people who feed on blood. They were born that way, so your hand might consider them part of this world and not affect them much. At the very least, you should be able to remove any defensive spells. Vampires are supposed to just be myths…" She frowned and looked over at Cain.

"Then I guess I have to go over there and punch him in the face," Touma muttered and Index forced herself to smile slightly.

"Be careful," she called out, as Touma walked over to the fight. "His mana reserves are so vast, I can't see the end of it. Right now, he's just using some to fortify his body, giving him speed and strength equal to a Saint. If he uses it to actually attack, I don't want to think about…" Her voice trailed off.

"Index," Touma told her firmly and she looked up at his determined face. "We will stop him, and then we will all go back home. Believe in us, and I'll believe in your ability." Index nodded, and felt a sense of hope well up from within herself, as she watched Touma rush off into the fray.

Mikoto was getting frustrated to say the least. No matter what she, Leivinia, or Lessar threw at Cain, nothing was working. The only signs of their assault were the destruction to their surroundings and a couple small tears on Cain's clothes. Lessar was striking at Cain with her Steel Glove, either using it to increase the power of her direct attacks or throw a heavy object. Leivinia seemed to be able to control all the elements. Besides the flame wall and the wind blade, she could make daggers out of a stone pillar, and created a water umbrella that threw out waves of white dagger like blades. Yet he's not doing anything except dodging or blocking. It's like he is just playing with us.

Mikoto unleashed another bolt of electricity, but she might as well have thrown at paper wad at Cain. He knocked it down with a slight sweep of his hand. I can't treat him like a normal person. Instead of focusing on a direct attack, she used her magnetism to pull all the iron sand from the ground she could, and focused it on a point below Cain. As Cain jumped into the air, to avoid one of Leivinia's wind blades, which could cut steel beams in half like paper, she forced the iron sand to erupt from the ground and into the air. She focused it into a point and shot it upwards like a spear. Cain moved both of his hands in front of him to block it, but Mikoto grinned. Finally, all those fights with Touma finally paid off. Before the iron sand hit Cain's outstretched hands, it suddenly parted to either side of him and combined back together behind him. Mikoto then made it impact him full force in the back. Yes! She cheered silently, as Cain was thrown into the ground, causing dust from the impact to fly high into the air.

"Nice one Sparky," Lessar said, jumping backwards to avoid being blinded by the dust.

"Don't let up," snarled Leivinia, sending another wall of fire into Cain. The fire exploded when it made contact and formed a small pillar tens of meters high.

"Is he down?" Touma asked when he reached them.

"No," Lessar and Leivinia said together, simultaneously raising their weapons. Before Mikoto or Touma would respond, they saw the two girls were correct. A gust of wind from within the pillar of flames exploded outwards. The fire flew in every direction, before disappearing into the wind, along with the dust. Cain stood up and started to dust himself off, his hoody was in tatters, but he seemed to still be fine. His hood was completely burnt away and they all had a clear view of his face.

His facial features made him look young, clean shaven and smooth. The obvious sign he was a lot older then he appeared was his hair. Most of it was a light brown in color, but it was streaked with silver. His eyes were clearly visible and didn't seem to glow anymore, but were now a deep blood red. With his hoody in tatters, his upper body was revealed, exposing his well-defined muscles. Touma eye's unwillingly focused on an obvious tattoo on Cain's face. It was a blood red, just like his eyes, and appeared darker then it was because of Cain's pale skin. It looked like a backwards F, but with three jettisons instead of two, and the lower two being slightly separated form the body of the letter. Touma gulped when Cain's eyes narrowed.

"It seems I have let you all warm up enough," he said, his eyes darting to each one in turn. A smile slowly formed on his lips, but it was a dark smile, one reeking with ill intent and not a trace of humor. "No complaints if I attack you now." He raised his left leg, and took a single step forward. Small ripples in the earth started traveling toward each of them. Touma didn't know what it was going to do, but he decided it was best not to find out. Touma reached down with his right hand and touched the ground in front of the ripple coming toward him. His hand created the sound of breaking glass and the ripple flickered out of existence. Touma then turned to the others to make sure they were okay.

Mikoto's danger sense had gone off and she magnetized herself to jump up onto the wall of a nearby building. She didn't know enough about magic to know what was going to happen, but she knew enough to know something would. I don't like the way he's so confident. All those attacks we threw at him was just a warmup? What kind of ridiculous power does he have? It's England all over again. She glanced over at Lessar, who jumped up onto a nearby light post. She can jump as well as usual. A small white blur to her other side caught her eye and she noticed Index was moving away from the ripple coming at her. Before Mikoto could do anything to try to help, Touma had already arrived and negated the attack. He's always a step ahead of me. Our combat experience is really different.

Leivinia moved away from ripple in the earth, but it followed her. She didn't have any type of high speed movement magic prepared, but instead turned her wand into a disc. A stone pillar rose from the ground between her and the ripple. She continued to back up as the ripple hit the pillar. Instantly, massive spikes made of stone, dirt, concreate, and asphalt erupted form the ground and speared the pillar full of holes. The spikes collapsed back into the ground and the ruined pillar followed, leaving a small mound of rubble. "That could have been messy," she commented dispassionately.

"You could say that again," muttered Mikoto. The actual attack was so fast, I know I couldn't block it. She turned her head back to Touma and Index. "Any of you have a bright idea?"

"If we can get him off the ground," Index said thoughtfully. "It would vastly reduce his offensive power. The issue will be striking him with enough force the moment he is in the air."

"Sparky can be our attacker," Lessar said, jumping over to them. "She just needs to call one of those lightning bolts from the sky." There was an explosion of flames Leivinia conjured to engulf Cain before she moved to meet them.

"Well," she said. "Sounds like a useable plan. I suppose I could get him into the air. But someone will have to distract him." She pulled out a pack of cards and removed three of them.

"Guess that will be me," Lessar volunteered. "Kamijou can provide back up. Cain is afraid of your hand, so it might work if you can land a blow on him. At the very least, he will have to keep his guard up around you." She decided it was best not to mention if Cain went all out, they would probably be annihilated.

"Have you finished your strategy?" Cain called out, walking through the wall of flames like it wasn't even there. "I have to say, holding back on Eve's orders is quite difficult when food rushes so willingly to their deaths."

"Bite me," Lessar said, jumping toward him and swinging her Steel Glove at him.

"If you insist," Cain replied, reaching up with his hand and grabbing her glove, stopping it immediately. Lessar let go and tried to retreat, but Cain reached his other hand out and grabbed her throat.

"Ack…" Lessar hacked, unable to say anything as Cain increased the pressure on her throat. Her face was turning red and there was a small amount of foam forming on her lips. Cain dropped the Steel Glove on the ground when Lessar's grip on his arm weakened and looked her right in the eyes.

"Pathetic." He opened his mouth, revealing his teeth. They were pure white, and two of them were longer and more pointed then the others, his fangs. He pulled Lessar closer to him and opened his mouth wider.

"Let go of her," Touma yelled, swinging his fist at Cain. Cain had been so distracted by feeding on Lessar, he had ignored everything else around him. Touma had been approaching him from Cain's other side, but charged when Lessar was about to be bitten. Cain took his eyes off Lessar and turned at Touma, a sour look on his face. Lessar took the opportunity, her face turning slightly darker, and kicked Cain between the legs. Cain flinched, but didn't collapse. He obviously had protection spells in place, but there was always the instinct of what should happen if a man got hit there. During that brief instance, Touma fist came within inches of Cain's face. Cain dropped Lessar and jumped back to avoid Touma's blow, swinging his arm in a sweeping motion. A gust of wind lifted Touma and Lessar off the ground and threw them back ten meters. Touma grabbed Lessar and held her close, as he hit the ground hard, scrapping his back and tearing his shirt.

"You okay?" he asked, gasping, as the wind was knocked out of him. Lessar didn't immediately answer him, she was too busy coughing and rubbing her neck.

"Y-yes," she finally said. "Looks like you saved me again. I thought I would enjoying being choked, but it looks like it's only when you do it."

"When did you do that?!" Mikoto demanded, looking at them as her face turned bright red.

"I didn't!" Touma yelled back. "Lessar, stop spreading weird rumors."

"Maybe if we survive this fight," Lessar sighed. She jumped up to her feet and Touma imitated her actions. The sky seemed to darken slightly and a lightning bolt appeared high above them all. Hmm, Sparky wasn't generating this much electricity earlier. Does she only do it when she's embarrassed? Leivinia threw a rune card on the ground and glanced up too. The same through passed through her mind. Cain was standing there, watching Touma closely, with a curious look on his face.

"I still never understand why you always get involved with us," Cain said. "Eve told you she would ignore you and your friends if you didn't oppose us, yet then you go and join other magic groups to fight us. What goes through your mind?"

"I don't need a reason to help someone," Touma replied.

"He's just crazy," Leivinia added, and then started muttering something incomprehensible. "You better be ready science girl."

"I don't know if I can strike him with enough force to stop him," Mikoto answered truthfully.

"Just generate the same electricity you used against Eve in England," suggested Lessar. "Or do you perhaps need some encouragement?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Whoever does the most work during this fight," Leivinia told them. "Gets to have the boy all to themselves tonight. No one else will interfere."

"WHAT!?" Mikoto and Index yelled and Lessar's eyes sparkled.

"Sounds good," Lessar said. Her eyes glanced over at her Steel Glove laying on the ground next to Cain. I need to get my weapon.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Touma asked.

"No," Leivinia answered, before smirking. She could see the expression on Mikoto's face. It went from red to scarlet and Mikoto was now mumbling to herself. Dark clouds were rolling above them and lightning was becoming more prominent. "You all can watch me pull ahead." She smiled as her ritual activated with Cain as the focal point. A crack in the ground formed five meters in front of Cain and started to rotate around him in a perfect circle. Cain's eyes darted downwards and followed it with mild curiosity. When the circle was completed, the ground below Cain started to rise. The section of earth then shot up a hundred meters into the air, with Cain still standing on it. When it reached that height, the remaining ground exploded, sending chunks of dirt, asphalt, concrete, and stone in every direction. The force of the explosion lifted Cain a little higher in the air. "Now!" she ordered Mikoto.

"On it," Mikoto replied, concentrating everything she had to bring down a lightning bolt strong enough to defeat Cain. Right before she unleased the strike, Lessar spoke up.

"So if Lover Boy belongs to the winner," she asked. "Does that mean anything goes?" Her eyes never left the explosion to see where her Steel Glove landed and she grabbed it before moving out of the way.

"Obviously," replied Leivinia.

"What if he wins?"

"Then he chooses which one of us spends the night with him."

"What?" Mikoto's face flushed an even deeper red. Even though ability users in Academy City were incredibly intelligent for their age, they were still students. Mikoto was in middle school and was prone to delusional daydreams. Having Kuroko describing her sordid fantasies didn't help either. At Lessor's and Leivinia's words, her mind immediately began thinking of inappropriately aged activities. The least was her and Touma laying together in the same bed, with limited clothing. Her thoughts then turned to what would happen if she didn't win. Her previous thoughts now featured Lessar and Touma, rather than her. Touma was temporarily stunned by Lessar's words and he could swear smoke was coming out of Mikoto's ears, but then he saw her fist clench tightly.

"Mikoto," Touma said softly, taking a step back as she unleashed multiple minor electrical discharges. He finally found the words, as he imagined what would happen if the girls actually followed through with that bet. Spending a night with any of them would be… tempting to say the least, but he also knew what Lessar was like. He wasn't sure what kind of person Leivinia would be, but his instincts warned him that if she won, he needed to run and hide immediately. "Lessar is…"

He never finished his sentence as an earth shattering boom echoed across the entire city. Cain had begun to fall back down to the earth and the sky opened up to unleash the second largest lightning strike recorded in the city's history. The largest one was when Mikoto had been forcefully pushed toward level 6, but few people knew about that. It was as if heaven had unleashed its full wrath upon Cain. His body was engulfed by the electricity and the ground below him was turned into a crater. Touma was temporarily blinded by the light from the strike and all he could see was whiteness for a moment.

"Damn Sparky," Lessar said impressed. "Remind me not to get on your bad side."

"Not a bad strike at all," Leivinia added.

"Mikoto," Touma called out, rushing to her side. She had staggered and Touma supported her. "Nice job."

"Thanks," she grinned. "Glad I wasn't useless." She had been worried about how none of her attacks could do anything to Cain. First it was Carissa and now him. The world really is a big place. While she never bragged about her title, she didn't realize there would be so many Accelerator class people outside the city. It actually made her feel slightly uncomfortable, knowing Touma continued to face these kinds of people, even without her.

"We now have one more person to take down," Leivinia said, interrupting their celebration, twirling her wand and turning to Juliet. "Looks like you are all alone again."

"You can't seriously believe you defeated Cain so easily?" Juliet replied slowly. Her eyes looked down at the ground and Touma could see she was uncomfortable. "All you did was make things worse." Before any of them could respond to this ominous pronouncement, the ground near Cain shook and started to rise. A great stone hand rose into the air and stretched out, as if to crush them under its weight, now that they were together. Mikoto was still disoriented from her overzealous attack and Touma tried to get her out of the way, but he wasn't going to move fast enough.

Shit, he thought. If I negate it, we both will be crushed by just the weight of the stone.

"SFTWT! DTBTHR! (Shift the weight! Divert the blow to the right!)" Index yelled. After analyzing the magic her opponent uses, she can use short hand to intercept the flow of mana and take control of the magic or even outright cancel it. She wasn't exactly using magic herself. The stone hand twisted in midair and hit the ground to their right with a loud thud.

"He's still alive?" Mikoto gasped in shock. "He's as big as monster as the princess."

"This is what we get for fighting a vampire," Leivinia muttered. "Immortal and unlimited mana." She pulled out her phone. "Mark, I need everyone in position for a full offensive. We are currently fighting a vampire under Eve's command."

"A vampire?" Mark replied, sounding skeptical.

"Are you questioning me?" She took his silence as a no. "We are going full out. Annihilation Spell at the ready. I'll set the target."

"Understood." Leivinia snapped her phone shut and put it away. In the distance, an earth mound rose from the crater, revealing Cain. He was smoking slightly, but appeared unhurt, though his hoody was completely gone. The pressure around him was increasing and it was obvious to everyone he was no longer amused.

"So what does the great leader have as a backup plan?" Lessar asked.

"My men are gathering in position," Leivinia told her. "Once they start the ritual, I activate the target beacon. We are going to destroy him with one final attack. Continuing to attack him with weak blows is getting us nowhere."

"What should we do to help?" Touma asked.

"It will take a little time for them to get into the right locations," Leivinia explained. "This is a pretty complicated magic ritual. All you have to do is protect me until it's ready. If I go down, I can't plant the target."

"It doesn't look like Cain is planning to go easy on us anymore," Mikoto pointed out, pushing herself off Touma. As much has she enjoyed leaning close to him, she couldn't risk burdening him. She was feeling better now and was almost back to normal. Touma looked over at her.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm not use to using that much electricity at once," Mikoto told him. "But I'm fine now. Focus on him."

"I think we only have to worry about what range attacks he plans to use," Lessar pointed out. "He doesn't seem to move a lot except to dodge."

"It's because he has a connection with earth," Index said. "Earth is immoveable and stationary." She frowned and took a step back. "Incoming. His flow of mana has changed, he's preparing something big." Touma turned and looked at Cain. He had his right hand held out and gripped tightly into a fist.

"When the earth swallows blood," Cain chanted. "All living…"

"Stop Cain!" Juliet yelled. "You heard Eve. If you cast a spell like that, the entire city will fall."

"Quiet," Cain growled, waving his left hand at her. There was a flash of light and Juliet was thrown backwards into a wall with a crash. Her body shimmered into a shadow for a moment, before turning back into her human form.

"Dissension in their ranks?" Mikoto asked confused.

"Index," Touma said nervously. "What is he doing?"

"He's trying to cast something," Index replied, her hands shaking. "So much mana… Juliet's right. If he finishes a spell like this, the entire city will be consumed. We need to stop him."

"On it," Mikoto and Lessar said. Mikoto pulled out a coin and prepared to fire, while Lessar swung her Steel Glove at nearby metal debris. Mikoto fired her Railgun with a loud boom and it flew right at Cain. Lessar followed up with a barrage of metal shards being thrown like projectiles. "What the hell…" Mikoto muttered, stunned at what happened next.

Cain had reached out with his other hand and caught her Railgun like someone just tossed him a baseball.

"Pathetic," Cain mumbled, as the barrage of metal berated him, but it had no noticeable effect. He dropped the coin and his left arm fell down to his side. His right arm was still held out in front of him. "Now where was I…? When the earth swallows blood, all living things suffer from its curse. Earth, which gives life, also takes it back." His hand tightened and a single drop of blood fell from his hand. When it hit the ground, it turned pitch black. The earth around Cain started to crack and then move in a circular motion around him.

The broken concreate, asphalt, steel, stone, and dirt started to spin around him in a vortex. The whirlpool of earth, rather than water, continued to grow. As it grew bigger, larger pieces of the broken warehouse started to get sucked up and mixed into the moving dirt. As Touma watched, it continued to grow exponentially and soon covered a ten meter radius around Cain, with no signs of stopping. The weirdest thing about the whirlpool was how smooth the earth looked the closer it was to Cain. Touma's eyes locked on one large steel beam and followed its path of being absorbed. The beam continued to sink as it spiraled and then eventually disappeared beneath the surface of the earth. That beam was at least four meters long and it sunk vertically. I can't tell how deep it is. He figured he had to negate it, but he wasn't sure if touching the edges would do anything and trying to get near Cain was impossible. The current was way to strong and he would sink in the quicksand like substance. He took a step forward determined to do something, when Index grabbed his arm.

"Don't," she said. "The magic's origin is Cain. You would have to hit him directly to negate the spell. Touching the vortex won't do anything. He's using an interpretation of when Cain spilt Abel's blood on the ground. He was no longer able to farm the barren land. The spell is causing the ground to draw all life back into the earth, including things built by man."

"You know," Mikoto said, somewhat irritably. "You really should tell us everyone about the person we are facing instead of bits and pieces."

"Sorry Short Hair," Index scoffed, puffing out her cheeks in anger. "We don't always have the luxury of giving you a history lesson."

"I can barely follow the order of what information you give us."

"Fine, when this is over I'll give you a true history lesson of everything related to the bible."

"Everything about Cain will be enough."

"How far will this spell spread?" Touma asked.

"It depends on the user's mana," Index replied softly. "Since we can't grasp the depth of his reserves, we can safely assume the entire city will be swallowed up in its attack."

"I don't have any powerful long range attacks," Lessar admitted. "Even with the strength boost from my glove, I can't hurt him." She looked over at Leivinia who had her eyes locked onto Cain and muttering to herself. "And it looks like Birdway is busy preparing her attack and won't be able to help. Sparky, can you blast him again?" She looked at the vortex now over twenty meters away from Cain. "Hurry please. It's growing faster."

"I don't think I can strike him like before," Mikoto answered honestly. That lightning strike felt like more than a billion volts. I'm getting stronger and still can't beat this guy? "But all we have to do is knock him out his that spot to stop his magic?" She looked over at Index for confirmation, who nodded. She scanned the rubble around them and located a large clump of metal. It looked like it had been melted, which caused several pieces to be fused together. That must have been left over from Birdway's fire magic. It's perfect though. She started magnetizing it and lifted it off the ground. She moved it towards herself, until it was between her and Cain. Lessar, Index, and Touma watched in silence.

Mikoto took a deep breath, and unleashed all her concentration, using magnetism to hurl the ball of debris as fast as possible. It may not have been as fast as her Railgun, so it didn't have as much piercing power, but it probably had greater or equal momentum because of the weight. The clump of metal flew through the air at Cain, but he didn't seem to be too concerned. In fact, only movement in his eyes betrayed he ever paid attention to it. When Mikoto's projectile was about halfway across the whirlpool, something happened. A hand made of earth, though looked closer to sand, erupted from the spinning current and grabbed the metal clump. The metal hit the hand and sand flew in every direction, but Mikoto's attack was stopped. The metal fell into the whirlpool and sunk beneath the surface. "What sort of cheating magic is that?" Mikoto fumed, trying to magnetize the metal and pull it out. To her surprise, she couldn't find any. "Does his magic make things vanish?"

"Everything consumed by that vortex will turn to earth," Index explained after a moment of silence. "We can't touch it and because it's made of earth, he can control it to protect himself. This is bad."

"Birdway," Touma called out. "Hurry up." Leivinia didn't say anything, but gave him a curt nod to let him know she heard him and he needed to shut up. He glanced over at the vortex and saw it had grown to over thirty meters in radius. While the radius wasn't growing alarmingly fast, the area it covered was. The area of a circle is pi times the radius squared. So each meter the radius grew, the area was growing at a much greater rate. Touma and the other girls started backing away, trying to gather more time as they tried to think of a plan. Touma was seriously debating trying to negate the vortex, when he heard a whistling sound. "Do you all hear that?"

"I do," Mikoto said, rubbing her ears. "But what is it?" They looked around in confusion and slightly worried. Mikoto and Touma were afraid another problem was going to be added to their already serious situation.

"In the sky," Lessar pointed. Everyone looked up and saw several large shiny objects descending toward Cain. "What are those?" Touma squinted, but wasn't able to get a full view until they were almost upon them. Three long silver octahedron shaped, which were two pyramids sharing the same base, shards were spinning in midair as they fell. The spinning was forcing the air to whip around them and caused the whistling sound they all heard. They landed in perfect sync about ten meters away from the current edge of Cain's whirlpool. The asphalt and concreate cracked loudly as the metal objects drilled through them. A little less than half of the object was planted firmly in the ground, in a triangle formation around Cain. "Either of you two have any idea what those are?" Mikoto and Touma shook their heads.

The metal shards hissed and the top half sides opened up like a flower, revealing a system of electronics. The top piece had what looked like a small radar dish crossed with a megaphone. Each of the three shards positioned themselves to face the other two with their radar. Cain actually looked interested at the unexpected interruption, and he kept turning his head to look at each one. His attack continued to expand and would soon consume these unknown objects. Leivinia frowned, but she continued her muttering. She had to constantly adjust coordinates of the spell until her group was ready. Every slight movement caused by Cain or the others required the coordinates to change. She had some knowledge of science, more than most magicians, and she knew the strange devices had to have some purpose.

"Touma," Index asked. "What are those?"

"I don't," he replied. "Mikoto, any ideas?"

"Never seem them before," Mikoto answered, and she frowned. "They have to be someone from the science side. You think they noticed Cain's attack and are trying to stop it?"

"Whatever it is," Lessar said, shaking her head. "It won't do any good. Science hasn't progressed enough to stop an attack of this level. Look, it's about to be sucked up anyways." The edge of the whirlpool was closing in on the metal shards, before something happened to make Lessar take back her words.

The radars started to glow softly with a white light before turning so bright Touma couldn't look straight at them. A buzzing sound filled his ears and he shook his head, but the noise continued. It didn't hurt him, but it was annoying him to no end. He suddenly felt a heavy pulsing in his right hand but, when he looked, there didn't seem to be anything wrong, yet he could still feel it. What is this ominous feeling? He glanced over at his friends and received a surprise. They had grabbed their heads and looked like they were in pain. "What's going on?"

"That sound," Mikoto mumbled. "It's like a pounding in my head."

"Damn it," Leivinia said loudly. "I can't concentrate. Everyone is in position, but I can't activate the spell with this noise." She was grabbing her head with her free hand, the other one still clutching her wand.

"Why aren't you two affected by it?" Lessar asked, in similar position to Mikoto and Leivinia. Touma and Index looked at each other in shrugged. Index had no idea of science technology and if it wasn't giving off some kind of mana or magical relevance, she was clueless. Touma just didn't know anything about advanced science. None of them noticed Juliet in the far distance was shaking and parts of her body were flicking from shadow to human.

"I don't know," Index answered, turning back to them and gasped. "Whatever they are, they are actually interfering with Cain's mana." Cain's earthen whirlpool actually stopped less than a meter from the metal devices. The current's vortex seemed to slow and now small waves were rising and falling randomly from the surface. Cain was clutching his head with both hands as the whirlpool around him stopped circling and instead was randomly throwing dirt into the air. Whatever was causing headaches in Mikoto, Leivinia, and Lessar was obviously exponentially worse for Cain.

If those devices are sending out a frequency that hurts magic users, Touma thought. We must just be getting a small dose. All three of those machines are targeting Cain, so they must be magnifying each other. He looked over at Mikoto. But why is she being hurt by it? She doesn't use magic. Could it also affect ability users? What has this city been making? He had several more questions when his thoughts were interrupted.

Cain had let out an animalistic howl, as he fell to his knees still clutching his head.

"Damn you pathetic humans," he roared, his voice losing all sense of humanity. It started to sound dark and monstrous, becoming lower and full of hatred. "You dare to attack me in such a manner? I'm going to turn this city into hell on earth and slaughter everyone!" He shakily stood up while yelling the last part. The earth around him erupted like geysers and Touma could feel the earth shake under his anger. Touma saw his eyes were glowing dark red and his face was contorted with rage.

"Touma," Index cried. "Get back with the others." Touma turned back to her, but decided to follow her advice. He didn't want to be anywhere near Cain right now. The earth erupted into the air only a couple meters away and he was unwillingly covered in dirt. While Mikoto, Leivinia, and Lessar had massive headaches, they could still move and joined him and Index farther away from Cain. Cain raised his hand high in the air.

"I present the offering of the earth," Cain called out. "Whether accepted or not, it bears the fruit of my strength." The earth shook again and the ground beneath the metal devices exploded. Great, dark green, scraggly vines, over a meter thick, erupted from the earth, carrying the devices high into the air. The further away it got, the weaker its effect appeared on Cain. More vines started erupting all around him and the vines holding the metal devices threw them far into the distance. Cain was now surrounded on three sides by a giant wall of plants, easily six stories high. One of the vines twisted down, grabbed a tree and ripped it from the ground, before throwing it at Touma and his friends.

Boom!

Mikoto fired a railgun past him and caused the tree to explode in midair before it reached them. Touma's head was ringing from the sudden noise of her attack, but he had to admit it was better than being crushed by a tree. Cain seemed to be moving from pure desire to kill them because, unlike before, he was now throwing attack after attack. The vines stretched out and came at them like spears. Touma held out a hand, preparing to stop at least one, when Index spoke up. SPTGF!(Separate the great flood!) The vines parted in the middle and tore into the ground on either side of them. The force of the vines ripped up the streets and then crashed into nearby warehouses, causing walls to collapse and dust and debris to fly everywhere. Touma gave a sigh of relief, until he noticed Cain had disappeared from his spot.

"Look ou…!" Touma started to yell, but Cain had already appeared in front of them. Cain reached out a hand and grabbed Lessar. She yelled out in surprise, but Cain didn't bite her, he just threw her over fifty meters away. The ground between the rest of them exploded and caused Mikoto, Touma, Leivinia, and Index to fly in different directions. Touma caught himself and rolled to mitigate the damage, and saw Mikoto do the same. Leivinia's landed in some brush and appeared unhurt. Index wasn't as lucky. She hit a wall and fell unconscious. "INDEX!"

"I got her!" Mikoto yelled back, running over to Index. Mikoto grabbed her and then jumped up to a nearby building with magnetism. Mikoto prioritized moving Index out of harm's way instead of attacking Cain. Cain had so much power, his attacks could cover a huge area instantly. Index wouldn't be safe anywhere nearby. "Come on, wake up." Mikoto shook her and pinched her cheeks, but Index was still asleep.

Touma felt a wave of anger rush over him when Index was hit. He charged at Cain and tried to deliver a punch to Cain's face. Cain simply turned his head when Touma was only a couple feet away. When Touma saw Cain's expression, his body froze and his stopped almost instantly. Cain's eyes were nothing but red glows, his face lined with darkness. There was no mercy, no kindness, no trace of what would be considered humanity, only a monster stood before him. It wasn't a magical fear, as his hand didn't negate anything, it was the innate fear of monsters you can't understand dwelling within the human mind. Cain raised a hand and his mouth grinned, while his tongue licked his lips.

"I'll kill you first," he said in a harsh grating voice. "Then I will feed on your friends one by one." He was bringing his hand down, while Touma tried to force himself to move. Before Cain's hand could make contact with Touma's neck, darkness engulfed Cain. Cain's body was lifted into the air and thrown backwards by Juliet's shadow form. No longer being in close proximity to Cain, Touma could move his body again. He glanced over at Juliet in shock. "Why would you help us?"

"Eve's orders were clear," Juliet huffed. "You need to survive. If you don't I won't be able to get what I want. I could care less about the rest of your friends. He just entered blood frenzy, so he's going to be seeking destruction. If you have a way to stop him, you better do it now. He just keeps growing stronger with each passing minute."

"Then I'm going to annihilate him," Leivinia spat out angrily. "Hold him off for just a moment. I need to adjust the targeting."

"All of you will die right now!" Cain yelled. He stood up and raised a hand into the air. "The light of the sun fuels the life the earth gives, but it can also lay the land barren." In his raised hand, the air began to shimmer. Everything, including the landscape, around him seemed to become shades darker, almost as if he was concentrating all the light within the palm of his hand. His hand began to glow with a white light. As the light grew brighter, all the air around him began to shimmer. Touma's eyes widened as he realized what was happening. All the energy from the sunlight was being concentrated in his hand, and the excess heat was being released into the air. Hot air bends light and, since hot air rises, it caused the light in the air to shimmer.

"Get out of the way Kamijou!" Lessar yelled. "He's going to send a monstrous attack at you." Touma nodded and was about to start moving, when he realized something important. Leivinia was down on one knee with her right palm flat on the ground. She looked up at him and Touma know what was crossing her mind.

I might be able to live if I dodge, but then she's going to get roasted. Touma's eyes darted to Juliet, who had floated into the air and was spinning around above them. Juliet isn't interested in saving the others either. He took a deep breath and realized what he had to do.

"Burn," Cain told him, as he lowered his hand. The air around his hand disappeared as a beam of white light shot toward Touma. The beam came so fast at Touma that dodging would be out of the question, all he could do was raise his right hand. The ground beneath the beam of light was burned away into nothing, before it collided with his hand. The constant sound of breaking glass was heard as the Imagine Breaker kept negating the attack. Touma grunted and used his left hand to brace his right arm. The attack was too powerful for him to negate completely and he could feel heat slipping through his defense. His hand was beginning to get hot from maintaining prolonged contact.

It's passing the negation speed of my hand, Touma thought, panic flooding through him. He glanced back at Leivinia, who was staring at him with wide eyes. She obviously didn't expect him to take an attack like that for her. "Whatever you are planning to do, hurry up!"

"Couple more seconds…"

Touma gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the slowly growing pain in his right hand. His hand opened up, but he didn't know if it was by reflex or instinct. His arm tilted his hand back slightly from the pressure of Cain's attack, and then something miraculous occurred. Instead of being completely negated, the beam of light hit his opened palm and reflected upwards into the sky. It was only by dumb luck the force of attack tilted his hand back, if it had tilted toward, the ground below him would have been annihilated. His hand was still negating, but the excess energy was being deflected back up into the sky, away from the city and his friends.

"Done." Touma turned around when Leivinia spoke up, her voice overflowing with confidence once again. "Annihilation Spell activated, target Cain." The weight on Touma's hand was lifted and he turned to face Cain. Cain was surrounded be small golden orbs, spinning around him in a dome shape. The orbs were only about a meter away from his body and Cain took a step forward. He reached out a hand to bat it away, when he was blown back by an invisible force. He landed in the middle of the dome and stood up. He gave a roar of anger and the very earth seemed to warp under his hatred. "You think I'll give you a chance to blast your way out with your ungodly mana?" sneered Leivinia. "Fat chance. Fade from this world you monster." She brought her wand down like a conductor in an orchestra.

The dome of orbs became a mass of gold light, far brighter than the explosions Touma had seen Leivinia use on him and Jason earlier that day. It also might have appeared that way because the sun was beginning to set. The dome of gold light grew to over thirty meters in diameter, before fading away in the blink of an eye. The only thing left as evidence the explosion took place was a deep crater in the ground, everything else was gone. Juliet floated off and materialized at the edge of the crater. "Wow," she commented. "You actually stopped him."

"Of course I did," Leivinia replied proudly, though Touma felt like she was trying to hide her fatigue. He also noticed Lessar approaching them, swinging her Steel Glove slightly, as if testing out her body. "Anyone who opposes the Dawn Colored Sunlight will face the same fate. Now, why don't you be a good girl and tell us all about Eve's plan here?"

"I could," Juliet nodded in agreement. "But as I said, I rather not have her tan my hide. None of you are combat capable anymore, so if we actually fought, do you think you could win?" Leivinia frowned, but didn't say anything.

"I'm still here!" Mikoto called out, jumping down to the rest of them, clutching an awake Index. Touma was relieved Mikoto had managed to wake her up and the blow wasn't serious. "If it's a fight you want, I'll be more than happy to oblige." Mikoto was actually bluffing. She was exhausted and hurt all over, but wanted to act tough to chase Juliet away.

"So many people want to pick on me," Juliet replied, pouting slightly. "I guess I have to retreat for now. Oh, Imagine Breaker," she turned to Touma as if she just remembered something important. "Eve wants to talk to you at some point. At least hear her out, as a favor to me for saving you." Before Touma could respond, Juliet turned in her shadow and floated off into the distance, disappearing behind a building.

"She annoys me to no end," Mikoto sighed, kicking a rock on the ground. "At least we are all alive."

"Not many people can say they fought a vampire and lived," Lessar added proudly. "I doubt anyone will believe us though."

"Thanks a lot you two," Touma said. "We couldn't have taken him down without your help. I wish we didn't have to kill him…" His voice trailed off as he remembered Index, Mikoto, and Lessar being attacked mercilessly. He stared off into the distance. Mikoto noticed how he was feeling and patted him on the shoulder.

"I know," Mikoto said softly. "But if she didn't use that attack, we all would have died. Look around us…" She gestured to the carnage around them. Several warehouses had been destroyed, not counting the one they started in, and several nearby buildings had suffered major structural damage. The ground around them had been upturned, not counting the crater, and trees and light posts had been uprooted. "He was going to do the same to us."

"I know," Touma admitted sadly. "But there should have been away to end this without any deaths."

"Touma," Index added. "He was an existence that was counter to God's plan. It was probably the best we could help him pass on."

"A vampire shouldn't exist in today's age," Lessar said. She rubbed her neck unconsciously. "It would be a national catastrophe. If he was let loose in a city, the streets would have ran with blood and the vampire numbers would only grow." Touma didn't say anything and just continued to stare off into the distance. Leivinia frowned, sighed, and spoke up in a curt voice.

"You really are soft," she said. The others turned to look at her. "Fine, I'll tell you a secret. That wasn't a real vampire. It was one of Eve's creations."

"What!?" Everyone else let out a gasp.

"When my Annihilation Spell destroyed him," Leivinia explained, looked vastly superior. "His body broke apart into paper. You know what that means, right?" The others nodded. "Well, that raises another cause for concern. Eve can actually create powerful monsters like that. However, if she could have made him in numbers, why waste time on those weak master troops she keeps using? The only conclusion I came up with is she can't mass produce her elite fighters. There must be a special method to create someone like Cain."

"That would make sense," Index said slowly, deep in thought. "He didn't seem like one of her puppets, but there were traces of her essence. I thought that might have been because of their family tree."

"So he wasn't really alive," Touma sighed, looked relieved. Mikoto saw him smile slightly and she felt a lot better. He had looked so depressed and there wasn't a lot she was able to do. She gave him another pat on the shoulder.

"So all this time we were just fighting a copy?" Lessar asked indignantly. "I never want to meet Eve in a dark alley alone."

"I must be off," Leivinia spoke up. "I can't sit here and chat with you all forever." She pulled out her phone and contact Mark. "It's finished, the spell worked perfectly. We will meet up at rendezvous point 4."

"Understood."

"Well," Leivinia continued, snapping her phone shut. "I can't say it wasn't interesting watching all of you show off your abilities. It gave me an idea of what I'm working with." She looked directly at Touma. "I'm busy tonight, but I'll be sure to contact you about collecting my winnings."

"W-what are you talking about?" stuttered Mikoto.

"Obviously the bet we made," Leivinia explained. "As the one to actually deliver the final blow, I contributed the most."

"All you did was wait till the last minute," Lessar argued. "None of your earlier attacks had any effect."

"It's not like your attacks did anything," Leivinia pointed out.

"W-what about me?" Mikoto interjected, still stuttering. "I k-knocked him down many times to give us time. I-I o-obviously w-won."

"So all you did was stall for time while I did the real work," Leivinia said, smirking as she looked at Mikoto.

"She did more work than you," Lessar argued. "I was the one who took the most of his attacks protecting you guys. I deserve a night alone with Lover Boy. I really want him to try choking me. I didn't know I would like that, but I felt all tingly."

"L-Lessar?" Mikoto sputtered. She wanted to say more, but her face was burning as her overactive imagination turned on full blast. Small sparks started to appear unconsciously around her.

"Pervert," Leivinia spat out.

"Bitch," Lessar retorted. Both of them glared daggers at each other.

"I helped too," Index cried, waving her arms. "I stopped several of his attacks."

"A couple defensive maneuvers aren't enough to make you the MVP," Lessar said, rounding on her.

"The grownups are talking," Leivinia added.

"Hey!" Index yelled. "You both are younger than me."

"So you're an old hag?" Leivinia questioned, causing Index's face to grow red.

"Short Hair is my age," Index replied, pointing toward Mikoto.

"So she's old too," Lessar shrugged.

"What did you say?!" Mikoto yelled, as her mind crashed back to reality. "I'm still young!"

"How about we say everyone contributed equally?" Touma suggested and then immediately regretted his words.

"Stay out of this!" Mikoto snapped.

"You want to spend the night with all of us?" Lessar asked surprised. "Well, I'm okay with that. Your bed might be a little crowded, but I'm pretty flexible."

"Touma!" Index reprimanded him. "How could you suggest such a thing? You need to repent to God and save your soul."

"I wasn't…" Touma said, raising his hands to defend himself. "Lessar, stop misinterpreting everything I say!"

"I just say what you really mean," Lessar replied with a wink.

"I think you should stop saying those things," Mikoto said, calming down enough to think rationally. "He's going to have a heart attack or run away if you keep it up." Touma wasn't going to admit it, but he had been about five seconds away from running for his life.

"I'm leaving," Leivinia announced, turning from them and walking away. She gave a brief wave with her hand when Touma said good-bye but, other than that, did not appear to care anymore about their situation. She was in deep thought about something she said and why she did it. It wasn't the argument with Lessar, Mikoto, and Index about who did the most work, Leivinia was a proud girl and would always try to be the best. She had told Touma that Cain had been a puppet made my Eve. This had been a lie. Cain was a real living, if vampires were actually alive, creature. When she had saw Touma about to sink into a state of depression, she spoke up and lied. She still wasn't sure why she did it. I'll chalk it up as his payment for helping me. He did stand in front of me during that last attack. It was pretty brave, can't say I dislike that…

Back with the others, Mikoto turned to Index and Lessar. "Can you finally explain who he was?"

"I would like to know too," Touma admitted. "But can we hold that off till we get back to my room? I rather not be standing in the middle of this," he gestured to the ruins surrounding them, "when Anti-Skill gets here." The others looked around, nodded in agreement, and they started making their way at a brisk pace back to Touma's dorm.

Across the city, in a large room surrounded by computers, two young girls and a golden retriever had been watching Touma's, Mikoto, Leivinia's, and Lessar's fight against Cain. The first was a young girl who looked to be in middle school. She wore a pink sweater, a miniskirt, and torn black stockings with asymmetrical boots. Several devices hung down from her neck including a cell phone, a small 1seg TV, and a handheld device. After the fight had entered, she turned to look at the girl next to her. "Did you find what you were looking for Yuiitsu-oneechan?" she asked nervously.

"For the first field test," Yuiitsu commented. She looked more professional than the first girl. She was wearing a ready-made cheap suit, making it look like she was going to a job interview , and covered by a long white jacket. "It wasn't as poor as I thought it would be." She glanced over at a monitor to the left. "We finally received verification this new weapon worked and then sensei gets a call from the superintendent saying we needed to release it now. I would have preferred calibrating it better before using it in the field." She glanced over to the golden retriever next to her, who was also watching the monitors with interest. "But I was getting bored of just testing it in the lab."

"You saw the power the intruders wielded," the golden retriever spoke up. He sounded like a man in the prime of his life. "Should we not have acted, our research was in jeopardy. Between good and bad, not acting immediately was the bad sort of stupidity." Not only could the dog talk, he also had a backpack with robotic arms attached to it. His name was Noukan Kihara. Noukan was granted intelligence by one of the original seven Kiharas. Those seven individuals were normal scientists until they fell into madness. Then the concept of Kihara was formed, a family dedicated to the pursuit of science, whatever the cause, whatever the means. No sacrifice was too much for the advancement of science. The other two girls, Yuiitsu and Enshuu, were also part of the Kihara family. Kiharas did not have to share blood relations. They only had to devoted their life to science, and ignore moral and ethics if they are counter intuitive to progress. "Why don't you give us a run through?"

"Glad to sensei," Yuiitsu replied. "Maybe you can come to a realistic conclusion. Because of the intruders, we have been pulled off our regular duties in order to ensure our goals are not interrupted. It gave us a chance to test several new inventions, so I can hardly complain. Our latest attempt involved the Anti-AIM field, AAF for short, one of our associates discovered. I have to compliment him on making a major scientific breakthrough, but even he couldn't find a way to mass produce it greater than a small softball size field. It was thanks to your hard work sensei, we were able to extend the radius of effect by combining it with Capacity Down. Its effective area has increased dramatically, even if we need multiple emitters."

"Yet the intruders were not completely incapacitated by it," Enshuu pointed out. "The man went insane rather than losing his ability."

"The intruders have developed abilities outside of Academy City," Yuiitsu continued. "While they do not emit an AIM field, they still possess a wide variety of abilities. What is even more unique is they seemed to have developed multiple abilities. Earth manipulation, accelerated plant growth, and even photon absorption. It is possible they actually managed to develop Duel Skill or even Multi-Skill. We never had a chance to test the Anti-AIM field against them, until now. Because the intruder's abilities started to go out of control, we can conclude they are affected by the AAF. Why it did not negate it completely remains to be seen."

"There are many possibilities," Noukan acknowledged. "Combining the AAF with Capacity Down could have weakened the negation effect, or even modified it to an attack frequency that interferes with brain activity rather than pure negation. It also might be a possibility of the intruder's ability could exist in a different path than our science." His tone implied he knew something more and Yuiitsu frowned.

"Sensei," she said slowly. "You make it sound like there is something else beyond science. It's quite un-Kihara like to talk about something like the occult."

"You seem to be misunderstanding me," Noukan replied, his tail wagging. "Occult and magic are just terms for things people have yet to understand. I have seen many strange things over the years and have experience with unknown abilities. In the end though, the world is simply filled with science. It is why I brought Enshuu-san with us. As he will not willingly cooperate with us, her talent is the next best thing. In some ways, he too lacks certain necessary requirements to be a Kihara."

"Ok Nouken-ojiisan," Enshuu replied, slightly timidly, and took a deep breath. Enshuu was actually an anomaly among the Kiharas. As a Kihara, she had an unnatural aptitude toward science, but she couldn't perform the multiplication table, write even katakana, much less kanji. It's not like she was stupid, she just was never taught those things. Even without this fundamental knowledge, her mind naturally comprehended science from everything around her. It was believed being a true Kihara required being taught by another Kihara, but Enshuu had been kidnapped at a young age. She eventually killed her captures, after learning all the science around her, and returned to the Kiharas, and now was constantly trying to prove her Kihara-ness.

Enshuu true ability was the ability to mimic thought patterns. To compensate for her lacking Kihara-ness, she used the gadgets she carried on her to display graphs and other information that displayed one or more particular thought pattern. She could access over 5000 different thought and combat patters of the Kihara family, though it is theorized that she would be able to use thought patterns from other people outside the family. The graph started moving on her neck device and changed colors. "I need advice Jason-oniichan," she said slowly. "What would a Kihara do in this situation?" She paused and shook her head, looking uncomfortable.

"Well?" Yuiitsu prompted, sounding almost bored.

"Jason-oniichan said the world is a big place," Enshuu explained. "Immediately writing something off as an impossibility is un-Kihara like. Examine, learn, experiment, and then arrive to a conclusion. If something is a threat, remove it, but wasting a valuable resource is a greater sin."

"A well-reasoned argument," Nouken agreed.

"Should we be worried about the Railgun and that boy who was there?" Yuiitsu asked.

"No," Nouken answered, shaking his head. "The Railgun is not a threat, but if you get involved with that boy, you will incur the wrath of someone far scarier than those intruders."

"Ack." Touma flinched and gripped the chair he was holding.

"Quit being a baby," Mikoto snapped, spraying disinfectant on his back.

"You need to worry about yourself more instead of others," Index told him. "Then this wouldn't be necessary."

Out of Touma, Index, Lessar, and Mikoto, Touma was the most injured. Mikoto had minor scrapes and bruises, Lessar did too, but also had a red mark around her neck, and Index had a bump on her head. Touma, however, had scrapped his back almost raw when he landed on the asphalt. His shirt was in tatters and that's how Mikoto and Index noticed it. Mikoto wanted him to go to the hospital to get treated, but he adamantly refused. There was no way he was going to pay for a hospital visit with only a scrapped back. He had survived much worse. He and Mikoto argued a bit, before reaching a compromise. Mikoto ran into a nearby convenience store, which was still open, and grabbed some disinfectant and bandages. When they got back to Touma's dorm, she forced him to sit on a chair while she cleaned and bandaged his back.

"It still hurts," Touma muttered, feeling a sharp stinging sensation when the spray hit his wounds. Thanks to Academy City's advanced formulas, he knew his would weren't going to get infected and would be almost healed overnight.

"You should see her face," Lessar said. "She's turning bright red every time she looks at your back. I have to say, you got a lot of muscles."

"Huh?"

"Turn around and I'll slap your back as hard as I can." Touma froze at Mikoto's threat and he stared straight ahead. Because Touma was trying not to cause any problems, he didn't notice Index and Lessar were also staring at his chest intently. He had removed what was left of his shirt so Mikoto could treat him. He admitted silently to himself it was nice having someone helping him, because it would have been difficult to wrap bandages around his back well by himself. "All done," Mikoto said a couple minutes later. She had passed the roll of bandages to Touma to wrap around his torso until the wounds were covered and she tied it tightly. "That should hold through the night at least."

"Thanks a lot Mikoto," Touma said gratefully, turning around and smiling at her. Her face turned red at his praise.

"I still think you should have gone to a hospital," Mikoto told him sternly.

"I told you," he replied. "My financial situation could not take the blow."

"I would have paid," Mikoto said softly and Touma's eyes widened slightly. They both looked away from each other.

"If you two lovebirds are done flirting," Lessar interrupted and both of them jumped. They had temporarily forgotten Lessar and Index were there. Lessar was watching them with an amused look, but Index was glaring at them with a combination of anger and jealousy. "Didn't you two have questions for us?"

"Ah yea," Touma answered, her wards giving his brain a jump start. If I can distract Index, maybe she won't try to bite me. "Who was that Cain guy supposed to be?"

"You only gave us random bits of information," Mikoto added. "Can you also tell us more about vampires?"

"I only know basics," Lessar admitted. "I'll let Index tell you everything."

"I'll start at the beginning," Index explained. Mikoto sat down in the empty chair next to the table and she, Touma, and Lessar turned to Index to listen to her story. "When God threw Eve and Adam out of the paradise known as the Garden of Eden for eating the forbidden fruit, they traveled across the land. Cain was the first child born to them. He was the first human born on earth."

"He's Eve's child?" coughed Touma.

"But she and Adam look around our age," Mikoto gasped. "That means they had s… se…"

"Sex?" Lessar said helpfully and smoke started coming out Mikoto's ears. Lessar gave a short laugh before continuing. "Eve and Adam were adults when they were cast out of Eden. We still doubt those two, who have been attacking us, are truly the first two humans, but it would be an easy task to change their appearances."

"What's special about Cain?" Touma asked. "Besides being the first human born."

"Cain focused on farming," Index continued. "He was able to cause the earth to produce vast wealth of crops to feed him and his family. Eve's second son, Abel was the shepherd in charge of their flock. In time, Cain and Abel presented God offerings. Cain presented God with the land's bounty, while Abel presented God with his flock's firstborns. God was pleased with Abel's offering, but did not spend much time on Cain's." Index paused. "This is where things went wrong. God could tell Cain was upset, but let him go. Cain then brought his brother Abel into the field… and killed him."

"He killed him?" Mikoto asked slowly.

"It's why Cain is known as the first murderer," Lessar said.

"I could understand being frustrated at being overshadowed," Touma said hesitantly. "But that's no reason to go and kill someone."

"There's more," Index told them. "God questioned Cain on his brother's whereabouts, and he feigned ignorance. God knew better. Abel's blood cursed the earth and Cain could no longer receive food from the earth. God then placed a mark on Cain as punishment for his brother's murder. He could not die and was forced to wonder the earth aimlessly. He was forced to feed only on what he could find, unable to farm the land. The mark on his face symbolized his immortality. It was written he eventually died after centuries. His decedents are known as vampires. The cursed mark passed on to his children."

"If what Birdway-san said was true," Mikoto said, thinking about everything she just heard. "Eve created a new Cain based on the bible then." She sighed. "All these stories are so dark. Don't you guys have happy magic side stories?"

"The bible is supposed to teach lessons Short Hair," Index answered curtly and the two girls glared at each other.

"So all his magic," Touma interrupted, trying to keep them from fighting. "Controlling the earth, creating those plants, and controlling light were all based on his attributes as a farmer?"

"You are getting better at understanding how magic works," Lessar said impressed.

"No no," Touma replied, shaking his head. "I have no idea how it works, but Index has told me enough about magic that even I can put two and two together."

"It's really tough thinking about magic as based on past events and beliefs," Mikoto added. "Seriously, ever sense we met The Herald in Rome, things have been spiraling out of control." She grabbed her head with a hand. "Princess Carissa was able to actually cut dimensions, and then Eve was able to create living things out of paper, including this vampire." Even when I go all out, I barely make a dent against any of them. I need to get stronger or Touma's going to keep moving forward into this madness and leave me behind. He's not going to stop until everyone is safe. Why do I feel so stuck?

"Magic has been around a lot longer than Academy City," Index said fairly. "We have had millenniums to refine our techniques. Your city has only been around a fraction of the time."

"I still wouldn't want to fight you seriously," Lessar said truthfully. "The ability to call down lightning strikes like that would cause a lot of magicians to wet themselves. You are referring to a very small number of magicians who can do what they can do."

"What about vampires?" Touma asked. "Stiyl told me about them once a long time ago, but I forgot most of it."

"There really isn't much more then what we told you already," Index said shrugging. "They are immortal with high speed regeneration. Because of their immortality, they can refine unlimited mana."

"All those stories about weaknesses," Lessar added. "Like sunlight, crosses, garlic. None of that is true. They don't have weaknesses. If they bite you and you don't die, you also become one, if not, you become food."

"So when he said he would turn this city into hell…?" Mikoto said softly, her eyes widening.

"He was either going to kill everyone or start turning people into vampires who only wanted to feed on others," Lessar explained. "The situation would spiral out of control quickly and might not even stop there. The entire country could fall."

"I'm glad Birdway was able to stop him then," Touma said relieved. "We have a lot of friends living here."

"Would his hand be a weakness?" Mikoto asked. "Cain didn't seem to want to touch it."

"It might have been because he was one of Eve's creations," Index chimed in. "Your hand hitting the wrong spot might have caused his body to break apart. Vampires actually have a weakness, though it's not well known."

"What is it?" Mikoto asked.

"There's an ability called Deep Blood that's supposed to kill vampires," Index said. "However, it's never been proven because you need a vampire to show Deep Blood exists." Touma went silent. He knew Aisa from school had that power, but he promised her to keep it a secret. Stiyl had gotten the church to seal her power, but he didn't think Index knew about it.

"I suppose it doesn't matter anymore," Mikoto sighed. "He was taken care of…" Her phone started ringing and she looked down at it. "Ah crap, it's Kuroko. She's probably calling about why I'm out past curfew." She grimaced for a second before answering. "Hello?"

"Onee-sama," Kuroko's voice came out loud and clear. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Sorry Kuroko," Mikoto apologized. "I got distracted and lost track of time."

"I'll cover for you until you get back," Kuroko said. "The Dorm Supervisor has been getting suspicious. What on earth have you been doing?"

"Thanks," Mikoto said graciously. "I was helping some friends who got in a spot of trouble and then got caught up in a story."

"Hey Shirai-san," Lessar called out cheerfully.

"Was that Lessar?" Kuroko asked surprised. "You were helping her?"

"Yea," Mikoto confirmed. "Along with…"

"It was me, Index, and Lover Boy," Lessar interrupted. Mikoto and Touma realized the problem her words were about to cause, but they couldn't react fast enough. "Now we are all in his room and things are just getting fun."

"His room… fun?" Kuroko sounded shell shocked.

"WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?!" Mikoto and Touma yelled at Lessar.

"That's what I wanted to do," Lessar answered unbashful, shrugging and putting her hands behind her head.

"But that's so… so… sinful," Index stated, finally finding the words.

"I'LL KILL THAT APE!" Kuroko roared suddenly, causing them all to jump.

"Kuroko," Mikoto said hastily. "I'm heading back to the dorm now, I need you there to teleport me in or she's going to catch me. Please, I'm counting on you."

"Okay onee-sama," Kuroko answered, in a voice of determined calm. "I want a full explanation when you get here." Mikoto hung up and sighed, before rounding on Lessar.

"Do you know what you could have caused?" Mikoto hissed.

"It all worked out," Lessar said. "Besides, it's not like I'm going to see you two much tomorrow. You have that game thing right? He mentioned it before."

"Ah that's right, we do." Mikoto had completely forgotten about it, but now remember Kuroko talking about it a lot the last few days. "Sort of forgot about it with Cain's attack." She turned to Touma. "Are you going to be okay with your back?"

"I'm a fast healer," Touma replied, smiling. "The doctors are always surprised how fast I recover. I'll be fine tomorrow. Plus, you helped me bandage it up well, so there's no risk of infection either."

"Glad I could help," Mikoto replied, trying to sound casual, but feeling butterflies in her stomach from his thanks. "So no excuses if Kuroko and I catch you and your friends?"

"You better go easy on him Short Hair," Index said indignantly. "He's still injured."

"My friends have a lot of plans for tomorrow," Touma said. Mikoto was surprised when he suddenly sighed. "I'm only participating because I need the extra ability development credits. My friends are just using the chance to cause trouble while helping me, even Accelerator. Jason's planning to capture Uiharu-san to spend time with her because he didn't see her all week."

"Kuroko's been strategizing all week on how to take down Kagere-san," Mikoto sighed. "I bet she's going to demand my help with it. They just had to go and make that bet. I don't even want to think what Kuroko has planned."

"He hasn't mentioned it the few times I saw him," Touma said thoughtfully. "But that doesn't mean anything. I bet he has already planned something bad if he wins." Mikoto and Touma sighed.

"Don't you have to go Short Hair," Index asked impatiently.

"Yes she does," Lessar agreed. "Go ahead and leave. I'll take GOOD care of Lover Boy."

"I'm not going to leave until you swear you aren't going to try anything," snapped Mikoto, glaring at Lessar. She could trust Index wouldn't try anything over the top, but Lessar would in a heartbeat.

"Since that isn't going to happen," Lessar said. "I take it you will be spending the night? I guess we can have fun together." Mikoto and Index's mouth fell open, and Touma face palmed.

This is going to be a pain. Such misfortune.

"I'm here," Shizuri announced, kicking the door open. She had obviously been expected since the door lock scanner was keyed to her handprint. She just kicked the door open for the hell of it, rather than necessity. She walked into the lab, with Rikou walking silently behind her. "You better not be pulling my leg, or you know what's going to happen."

"Yeah yeah," Jason replied dismissively, trying to stifle a yawn. "Only fifteen minutes late, I should be honored you graced me with your presence."

"Your sarcasm is going to get you killed," Shizuri snapped, trying to keep herself relatively calm. "You said you have a way to increase my ability. Is that what this machine is for?" She gestured to the left of Jason. There was a large cot like bed, suspended from the ends, but nothing under it. Attached from the ceiling was a large donut shaped piece of machine at one end of the cot. Judging from the way it was attached to the ceiling, it would move up and down over the cot, scanning whoever was laying down on it. Jason was sitting down on a chair, several computers behind him, and an electronic data pad in his hand.

"The machine isn't directly going to increase your level," Jason explained. "It's going to allow me to accurately monitor your AIM field so I can administer the correct combination of drugs and music." He waved a hand to the table on the other side of him. There was several syringes fill with chemicals, along with a laptop, a music player, and other handheld electronic devices. "You probably already figured it out, but I need you to lay down on that bed for the scan." His voice suddenly turned curt and business like. "For accuracy purposes, remove any jewelry, metal, electronics, and so forth. I'm going to be measuring even the slightest changes to your AIM field and this machine is incredibly sensitive. Remove your outer clothes too, if you're embarrassed, there's a thin robe on the chair over there."

"I didn't realize Kamijou's friend was such a pervert," Shizuri sneered. "What would your girlfriend say?" Jason raised an eyebrow at her, but maintained eye contact. Both of them knew they weren't going to tell anyone else about this experiment. It would be detrimental to them in different ways. "Fine," Shizuri said. "It's not like I'm ashamed of my body." She removed her long sleeve dark yellow top, and form fitting lilac pants. All she was left with was some very exotic black underwear. I bet Kamijou would have a nose bleed if he saw me. She actually grinned at the thought, before she handed her clothes to Rikou. "Take these," she told her, and then her voice became a whisper. "If he tries anything suspicious, take him out."

"Yes Mugino," Rikou replied, before turning to Jason. "You said I would be needed, when will that be?"

"I'll explain everything as we go," Jason said, spinning around in his chair and hit a couple buttons. The machines around the cot started flashing and humming softly. "Mugino-san, would you please lie down and try to move as little as possible. Normally, movements wouldn't affect AIM readings, but I'm trying to be several times more precise than we normally need to be." Mugino strutted over to the cot and spread out on it. Jason clicked a button and the donut shaped machine near her head started moving down the cot and around her body.

"How long is this going to be?" Shizuri asked.

"Several minutes," Jason answered. "Now, this is my last warning on what we are about to do. As I told you, this is all theoretical treatment, based on what we saw happen to Mental Out. We have no other precedence for what I am attempting." Shizuri wanted to nod, but she remained still. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rikou nod her head slightly.

Good, she's paying attention.

"We are going to scan your AIM field and determine the exact minimum dose needed to overload your ability right above the cap your body can handle," Jason continued. "This is why accuracy and precision is important. Takitsubo-san" Jason turned to her, "you have the most important job, in fact, Mugino-san's life will depend on it." Rikou's eyes widened slightly and Shizuri frowned. "Because I am raising her ability above her cap, it won't take place instantaneous. It will take at least twenty four hours. When her power reaches a critical point, it will start going out of control and her body will not be able to stand the stress. This is when you need to use your ability to take control of her AIM field. At this time, you need to force it back into her in order to forcefully break her cap. If you do it too soon, the cap won't break, too late and she will be crippled or even die."

"Why not just fucking overload it now?" Shizuri demanded. "It would make more sense to have it run out of control in a lab than out in the streets."

"Because I would have to raise the dosage," Jason explained. "If it increases too fast, your body will break before Takitsubo-san can take control of your AIM field." He paused for a second and took a look at the computer. "Hmm, same as the last scan but I found a few traces of progress from recent activities." He turned back to Shizuri and Rikou after a couple minutes of staring at the graphs and data. "Last chance to back out," he suddenly said, when a bell went off. "Once I start overloading your ability, we can't stop half way. There is a serious risk of crippling your ability permanently and even death."

"Do it," Shizuri said without hesitation. I am tired of the others constantly surpassing me. I saw the sympathy in Kamijou's eyes when he tried to reassure me. No more. I will not allow myself to be looked down on by others anymore. That princess brat still pisses me off. If I ever see her again, I'm going to blast her off the face of the earth. Jason nodded and turned to his equipment. He hit a button and Shizuri heard some high pitched music near her ears on the cot. Speakers must have been built in right below her. The machine scanning her slowed down and stopped at the head of the cot.

"Ready?" Jason asked. He had three shots ready and was looking down at her. She gave a curt nod, and her eyes darted to Rikou. When they made eye contact, Rikou nodded. The music near Shizuri's head got louder and her head started pounding slightly from the noise. The first shot went into her arm, and she ignored the slight stinging sensation. She was getting really tired of the music, but it wasn't until the second shot in her shoulder did something happened.

"Arg!" she yelled, as her head felt like it was about to split open. Everything turned red for a moment. Her eyesight returned to normal just as fast, but it made her dizzy when she sat up. "What did you do?" she hissed, trying to move Jason into focus. Her head wasn't hurting to badly, but everything was kind of blurry from the sudden pain.

"Hang on," Jason said. "This last one needs to be injected fast." He rushed to her other side and injected the third shot into her other shoulder. The pain in her head and her eyesight returned about thirty seconds after. She sat up and looked at him, as he glanced at the monitor. "Normal AIM field signs returning, it's slightly stronger and infrequent wavelengths showing overloading is happening."

"I felt like my head was splitting open," Shizuri muttered.

"Common sign of overloading," Jason confirmed. "For the next twenty four hours, you will have those a lot." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Overloading an ability is actually pretty easy. The issue is developing the ability without causing it to overload takes a lot longer. Your ability was already fully developed, so now we just have to wait."

"…Your AIM field is fluctuating slightly," Rikou confirmed to Shizuri. "Is there anything I should know about when I need to act?" She posed the last question to Jason.

"I can't say exactly what it will look like when it happens," Jason said. "All I can say is it will be obvious to you since you can see her AIM field. She's going to have periodic symptoms until then. You can't act on those or this entire experiment will fail. I would advise not leaving her side until you complete your task. Oh, that reminds me." He turned to Mugino, who was sitting up and rubbing her head, looking irritated. "Refrain from using your powers until then. I can't tell you what will happen if you use Meltdowner while it's unstable. You might kill yourself outright."

"Damn it," Shizuri growled. "How the hell am I supposed to relieve my stress from this fucking headache?"

"I never said you couldn't kill anyone," Jason told her helpfully. "Just don't use your ability to do it." Shizuri looked at him and he smiled innocently.

"Stop pretending to be pure when you talk like that," Shizuri spat out. "It's disturbing." She stood up and took her clothes from Rikou. "I take it we are done?" She started to put them on while Jason talked.

"Yep," Jason said. "You are free to leave. Remember, don't let Takitsubo-san leave your side. I want to see this experiment succeed too."

"Let's go Takitsubo," Shizuri said, leading the way out of the lab. "I don't want to be here any longer." Rikou nodded and followed, while Jason watched the leave.

Let's hope this works and she doesn't ruin it, he thought. Losing one of the four important level 5s would be a huge setback. I wonder if Saten could be used to replace her? She would certainly fulfill the requirements. The trick would be to experiment on her without notice, or have her come to me.

Why not the number 2 person?

He's unstable, and doesn't meet the relationship requirement. Besides, with his creation ability, he has other uses, as long as he doesn't get killed for stealing all that research information. Seriously, what on earth could he be thinking?

It was a clear night and the sky would normally be full of stars except, with all the lights in Academy City, few stars could be seen. The sight of Cain's rampage was closed off by Anti-Skill and construction plans were set in motion to start the following day. Right now, the area was deserted and the only sound was a slight breeze moving between the nearby buildings. Suddenly, the wind stopped and everything became eerily calm. Not a single sound, not even an insect, was heard. Then a single crack broke the silence and a dark rift opened up next to the crater Leivinia's attack left behind. Eve stepped out of it, followed by Juliet.

"So," Eve said, walked down the side of crater to the lowest point in the center. "Everything went according to plan?"

"Yes," Juliet confirmed. "I saved The Imagine Breaker from Cain and told him you wanted to have a chat. He should at least listen to your request. I didn't expect them to actually defeat Cain though."

"Oh they didn't," Eve smiled. She looked down at the ground and kicked it. "Get up, your job is done." Juliet's eyes widened in shock as the ground shifted and several vines rose up, forming a pod like structure. They opened up and Cain stepped out of it onto the ground. He gave Eve a slight bow and stood up straight. He was perfectly fine, except he didn't have his normal hoody. "At least you held back," she paused. "Well, until the end. I felt your last attack and thought I may have had to interfere."

"The city unleased some weird device that made it hard to think," Cain explained. "Did you get what you needed?"

"Sure did," Eve said happily. The air behind her opened up and she reached into the dark void, pulling out a large sheet of black metal. "My friend gave me a nice size sample. I'm going to see if I can make it, if not, I will have to wait until he can procure more. He had an appointment so I couldn't stick with him. Science side people are always so busy." She looked over at Cain. "What did you think of science abilities anyways?"

"You mean the girl who could control electricity?" Cain asked. "She was pretty powerful, for a human. I could have ended her in an instant if you wanted me to."

"Shame," Eve replied, throwing the metal back into the void behind her. "There might be one person in this city who could challenge you in a straight fight. It would be fun to watch two monsters clash when I'm not involved. We may need the little girl who is always near him."

"If you say so."

"Can we hurry this up," Juliet finally spoke up, exasperated. "We are so close to my Romeo, I can feel his warm embrace."

Feel free to leave a review, comment, suggestions, or ideas, I love reading them. If you have a question you wish I ask and would like a quick answer, feel free to message me directly. I try to respond to those within a day or two. Comments, I tend to respond to in the next chapter.

Before anyone says anything, a friend told me Cain's last attack reminded me of the Pokémon move Solar Beam. This was not intentional, and I don't want to hear about it. Every comment I see with it will delay the next chapter a day (naruhinasakufan1).

Kuroko: Next chapter is the big game and the perfect chance for my revenge.

Jason: If you beat me but, even then, I doubt your command will be that bad.

Kuroko: I have a plan for that. If I win, I'm going to get advice from the readers on what I should have you do.

Motoharu: Damn…. She just raised the bar.

Accelerator: I'm actually impressed the brat thought of that.

Jason: I'm going to be forced to try to win aren't I?

Ruiko: You should focus on Uiharu, she's been talking about it the entire time.

Kazari: Saten-san!

Motoharu: And now Kami-yan is going to spend the night with three girls.

Touma: Don't be silly, Mikoto is going to head back soon.

Mikoto: Not until Lessar promises.

Lessar: I promise to not take advantage of him…. (Until you leave.)

Mikoto: What was that?!"

Misaki: I haven't gotten much screen time lately.

Ruiko: Don't worry, Author-san told me we will get some next chapter.