Relatively short chapter, only because I want to slow it down after that previous fight.
Well anyway, let's get started.
Emillia narrowly managed to dodge the railgun Mikoto fired. She should have known that the walls of ice would be no match for Mikoto's ace move. She breathed a sigh of relief and looked up to see a coin on the thumb of Mikoto's bleeding right hand.
Before she knew it, it fired straight at her. Emillia, who already analyzed the previous Railgun, decelerated the beam completely. Mikoto's eyes widened in shock as someone had stopped her ace move, and Emillia didn't let that chance go to waste. Emilia leapt on top of the ice walls and used the lack of friction on the ice to further accelerate her movements.
Right in an instant, she ended up above Mikoto. She used the movements of particles to fire a projectile made of air straight at Mikoto.
As a last ditch effort, Mikoto levitated almost all the iron sand in the area and used it to shield herself.
"Emillia, please listen to me!" She cried out, but Emilia didn't listen. She kept firing the condensed wind at the black shield Mikoto made. It barely did anything, but the shots didn't stop. Emillia kept firing the projectiles as if they were arrows flying through the air. Mikoto had to keep the shield up, or else she'd get hit by the arrows. She tried countering, but she couldn't. The arrows fired too quickly. As 20 more arrows were shot, Mikoto eventually grew extremely exhausted. So, she let her guard down for only a second, and it finally ended for Emillia.
Once a wind arrow pierced through Mikoto's stomach, the iron sand dispersed and went back to its original state. Mikoto fell to the ground, desperately clutching the wound. It was no use, of course, there was a literal hole the width of a pencil in her stomach, all the way through.
Emillia knelt down to Mikoto and said a few words before she left the world.
Mikoto didn't say anything, or couldn't. She died.
Emillia took a few deep breaths, but threw up anyway. This was the third time following her first two missions. This specific fight probably affected her the most.
She didn't even bother calling X. She slowly walked to the hospital she used to visit every week, entering the dark, inactive room. She entered Azusa's room and saw her sitting up in her bed, looking out the window.
Emillia, a bit confused, looked at the time. It was 3am. How is she awake at this hour?
"Azusa?" She said.
Her best friend turned around and gave an innocent smile. "Emilia? What are you doing in the middle of the night?"
"I could ask you the same thing. Come on, you're being discharged from the hospital. I have no clue why they would call me in the middle of the night."
"Really?" Azusa asked with tears in her eyes. "I can finally leave!" She cheered with much joy. She threw the bed sheets and spun around so she could put her shoes on. Emillia walked forward and bent to help Azusa out on her shoes.
Suddenly, she felt a dagger to her throat. Shocked, Emilia noticed her dagger wasn't there, and Azusa was holding it to her throat with a smug smile.
Emillia slowly straightened up as Azusa kept the dagger to her throat. She was too shocked or confused to even speak.
"I know what you've been doing, idiot." Azusa said.
Emilia gasped internally and remained silent. She was completely frozen from what she was seeing.
Azusa slightly pushed Emillia to the wall, and Emillia, of course, gave no resistance.
"Why did you kill all those people, Emillia?" Azusa asked, returning to her original innocent face. "You even gave unnecessary injuries to the 7th ranked, well, the 8th ranked now."
"I-I did it for you, Azusa." Emillia stuttered, still not knowing what's going on.
"Exactly what makes you an idiot. You'd do anything for me? Cut the bullshit, Emillia."
Emillia flinched, and spoke the same way. "I swear, I did it so you can leave the hospital. Your life was on the line."
"And what if X doesn't free me?" Azusa asked in a serious tone.
Emillia opened her mouth, but silently closed it.
"You had the power to destroy everyone who was in charge of this, but you took up their offer and worked for them." Azusa said, inspecting her nails, with the dagger still on Emillia's throat. "Tell me, did you enjoy killing all those people?"
Emillia gave a stunned silence.
"ANSWER ME!" Azusa almost nearly screamed, pressing the dagger harder, drawing blood.
Emillia continued to stay silent.
"Wake up Emillia! Wake up! I need answers!" Azusa yelled.
Emilia felt the ground disorienting. She was already crying, and felt like she was going insane. Azusa's voice grew more distant, and everything looked more blurry.
"Wake up! I need answers!" She continued to hear.
Emillia woke up violently in cold sweat. She looked like she was in a hospital herself. She looked up to see Mikoto sitting on a stool.
"I need ans- oh, you're awake." Mikoto said.
Emillia stared at Mikoto as if she saw a ghost. It was a dream. If that's the case, did I lose? If I did, how am I here?
"You… didn't kill me?" Emillia asked, using the little courage she had left.
"How could I?" Mikoto said in a gentle, patient tone.
Emillia grit her teeth. She noticed her weapons on a nightstand, far from her reach. She made a small ice cube in the dagger's place, making it bounce off the nightstand. Emillia then accelerated the dagger's speed, making it fly to Emillia's hand.
She caught it, but instead of attacking Mikoto, she placed it around her neck and attempted to slit her own throat. Of course, Mikoto merely grabbed Emillia's wrist, and made the metal object fly out the window with her magnetism. The glass shattered through the air, and the dagger was almost long gone out the building.
"Emilia, please. I'd like to hear the full story. I'm sure there is a way we can talk this out." Mikoto said.
Emillia said nothing. She looked down on her lap with a distant frown. The blue color in her eyes again, seemed to drain as soon as she knew what was going on.
Mikoto heaved a sigh a well, and stood up to leave. "I'll give you all the time you need. Just… don't get in my way."
Emillia opened her mouth to say something, then shut it. Mikoto clearly had something else going on with her plate. There should have been some reason why she was attacking the facilities in the first place, but it wasn't her place to ask.
Mikoto slowly walked out the building, with Emillia staring at her back.
Emillia felt her ribcage. Something was patched up there. Emillia's rib cage was broken, but thanks to the doctor's talents, it wasn't permanent damage. She sighed and thought about what she was going to do with herself. Was she going to try and redeem herself to X? No! I can't do that, not when Mikoto spared me. It was clear that Mikoto probably didn't want anything to do with Emillia, and her friends would be disgusted to see what she was.
Days and days went by, until Emilia finally was discharged from the hospital. She finally got a text message, and unfortunately, from X.
"Come. You failed your last mission, so the contract has not expired."
Emillia had her thumb hovering over the "block" button. Her fingers quivered violently. She stared at the message, and threw the phone onto the pavement. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" She screamed. Despite everything, Azusa was still in danger.
Did he do this to give me false hope? Did he know I was going to lose, thus him telling me I was about to be freed?
Emillia heaved a deep breath. She hasn't lost her cool in a while. She picked up the phone and walked along the pavement. She walked along the dark sidewalk until she was met with a spikey haired boy running on the other side of the road, from the opposite direction.
Huh, this guy seems to be in a hurry. Missing curfew? Wait a minute… is that Kamijou?
The boy glanced at Emillia with his eyes widened in disbelief and ran across the road. "Emilia! Please come with me! This is an emergency!"
"What? Is it about Mikoto?" Emillia asked dryly.
Touma flinched, but he stood his ground. He held out his arms beseechingly. "Mikoto is dealing with some messed up project, don't you want to help her?"
"Help her? Why would I?" Emillia demanded.
"Because she's your friend!" Touma said. "Even if she was a stranger, you should still help them!"
"And if she was an enemy?" Emillia countered. "How do you know about this project?"
"I-I found out myself."
Emillia shut her eyes and thought for a good while. Clearly the project is confidential, as they didn't even show me the details. For him to finally find out… Killing him will be another step forward to save Azusa. Nobody will care about a useless person like him.
"Well, so much for that." Emillia said. "I decided that you know too much."
Touma raised his hands. "Hey, hey, now. This project is seriously insane and immortal, if you cou-"
Emillia snapped her fingers and launched a fireball at Touma.
The boys held his hand out and negated it, backing off several steps. "I should have known this isn't going to be easy… Such misfortune…" He charged at Emillia with his right hand forward.
When he touched Emillia with his right hand, he smiled with relief. But Emillia promptly grabbed him and flipped him, making him fall on his head.
Touma rolled to the side, away from Emillia.
"You think you won just cause you negated my ability?" Emillia asked. "Please. You can't win even if I didn't have my ability."
Touma sighed, and shook off the pain. "You're right. But Mikoto still cares about you! We won't you help her back?"
Emillia stared at him in silence.
"I see, it's for someone else right?" Touma said.
Emillia stood there in shock. Did he just read me? It is written all over my face?
"That's the only logical explanation, you aren't that kind of person! But, even if you're doing this for someone else's life, doesn't mean you can mess with others! There's always a good ending in everything!"
Emillia was frozen. She never had someone understand her so much. Before she knew it, Touma came charging again. She didn't have time to react.
"That's why I'm going to break that messed up Illusion of yours!"
Just for the record, Emillia is not being shipped. Seriously, I have seen enough stories about Touma having a harem.