A Certain More Honest Railgun

by calvinhobbesliker

The night after the penalty game, Mikoto wonders where it all went wrong. She recalls her sister telling her she wasn't being honest about Touma, and so decides to see what would happen if she takes her sister's advice the next time she sees him. Mikoto might just find that it works even better than she expects.

48. The Heaven-Sent Girl Loved by Electrons

Hello, everyone! In this chapter, Mikoto and Touma finally have their confrontation. This is the longest chapter I've written so far, so I hope you all enjoy it!

PhantomDiamond: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the previous chapter.

Blankow: Yeah, I figured that Mikoto meeting Shokuhou at the airport would make for a fun scene. President Katze was definitely the most willing to negotiate with Touma and listen to his reasoning. Mikoto finally makes her appearance in Denmark in this chapter, and I hope you'll enjoy her confrontation with Touma.

Lazhel: Yes, Mikoto and Touma didn't quite get to meet up and talk in the previous chapter, but that'll happen in this new chapter.

Stryper88: It was a pretty funny scene, and Shokuhou may be in for a ride awakening soon. Mikoto was pretty perceptive about Touma's motives, since she knows him very well. I did think about ending the previous chapter with Mikoto's appearance, but it was already quite long, and I decided that I wanted all the Mikoto-related scenes in Denmark to be in this chapter. Yes, my scenes with Mikoto thinking about Touma going to Denmark and encountering Shokuhou at the airport were original, though I got the latter idea from someone else, who thinks that Shokuhou went to the airport off-screen to try and turn back anyone who was going to try to kill Touma. Yeah, including the full details of every fight, most of which would be exactly the same as in canon, would have been way too much.

Vegitta: I'm happy you liked my airport scene with Mikoto and Shokuhou. Shokuhou will find out about them soon, and it'll be a fun scene to write. My version of the confrontation between Mikoto and Touma is definitely quite different from canon.

Rekuta: Yeah, NT10 was really an amazing volume for Touma. You'll see in this chapter what happens between Mikoto and Touma in Denmark. A scene with both Touma's class and the Railgang would definitely be interesting, so maybe I'll try to fit one in somewhere in the timeline. As for your fic, I noticed that you directly copied and pasted my scene in "After the Battle" into your chapters. I get that you wanted to have a similar scene, but I would've much preferred if you'd at least written that scene in your own words or paraphrased it.

Sentient Mop: Thanks, I'm really pleased that you've been enjoying my fic. I hope to continue it all the way into GT and have plenty more KaMikoto scenes.

dragonghoul9707: Yeah, Othinus will have to redeem herself, and Touma may have to watch out for Mikoto and Index before the fight is over. Shokuhou will certainly have an astonished reaction when she learns about Mikoto and Touma's relationship.

0 Jordinio 0: I have gotten quite far, and I'm glad I've been able to incorporate Mikoto and Touma's relationship into the story pretty well. Thanks for the dialogue suggestion, I'll continue making sure to include more descriptions, though I think it would be a bit clunky to do it for every line in a long back-and-forth dialogue. You make a very good point about Touma's fighting skills. It is true that him being in a slump might partially explain why he had trouble fighting against easier opponents, but he should still be quite strong. I'm still not quite sure how I'll handle the Kamisato arc, but Mikoto may indeed help make him less unsure of himself.

xellos540: In canon, Touma sort of left them behind to go after Othinus, and then teleported to Denmark. The four girls then made their way to Denmark by other methods. It is strange, but maybe "Magic God" was explained like a powerful esper power? Or maybe it was so dangerous that they took the risk of revealing magic to the Level 5's? Aleister probably had the message sent but still expected Touma to survive. There was probably some way to magically find out about Touma and Othinus's appearance in Denmark. Touma does still have his phone, but he doesn't really want to explain things in a phone call, especially since he may need to fight at any moment. There was no airport scene in canon, but someone has the theory that Shokuhou went there off-screen to turn back anyone who wanted to kill Touma. Mikoto probably won't tell her about magic until it's absolutely necessary. Yeah, Shokuhou thinks that Mikoto is planning to somehow turn her fight against Touma into a romantic scene. Trying to hitchhike on a car with women may work out for Touma, though they might not like him being with Othinus. GREMLIN used both magic and science, so it makes sense that she'd know about technology. The bomb was a giant sphere of water itself, no explosives. Othinus just said that a fuel-air bomb could also create a mushroom cloud. It looks like you're right, pure water can cut softer materials, but you need to add abrasives to cut steel. Yeah, Accelerator lost on purpose, so he didn't really intend to kill Touma. Will met Accelerator during the Ichihanaran Festival, and Accelerator is saying that she's only alive because Touma stopped him from killing the rest of the Sisters. Yeah, Sasha has misunderstood a few things, I guess. That guy did fit six of the sins to Touma. Lust because Othinus is an attractive girl, and sloth because Touma doesn't try to not get angry and wrathful when lives are on the line. Carissa did have Curtana there. I guess I didn't make it clear enough, but Touma separated from Othinus to fight Sasha and Vasilisa. Kanzaki wouldn't kill anyone, so Touma isn't special in that regard. Well, the president may not know that GREMLIN now opposes Othinus, and they do have a lot of members, since Thor beats up about 50-100 of them later near the end of NT10. Touma and Othinus do try to eat and rest when possible, but they don't always have that opportunity. Othinus will probably fall for Touma, if she hasn't already, but there's not much she can do about it, since he's already taken. The other Level 5's didn't really want to go and were deterred by Accelerator losing. Itsuwa never showed up in NT10, maybe she didn't want to fight Touma, or didn't think she was strong enough to go against him and Othinus?

SaSaltyDog: Yes, both the Five Overs and Mikoto will appear in this chapter. I hope you enjoy their scenes!

---

Touma and Othinus then began to head towards Fredericia, where they would be able to cross the bridge onto the island of Funen. They needed to pass the American tanks in front of them to get there, but those had apparently been a diversion, and the entire operation had been called off, so they should have had no problem walking past them.

But as soon as they took one step, the tanks were enveloped by a white explosion, and the two of them were knocked back to the ground. Soldiers frantically escaped from the tanks, and then the tanks all burst into pieces, with flames and smoke appearing from their wrecks. From his position on the ground, Touma looked up and saw what had caused this to happen.

Another group of weapons was looking down on them from the sky. They resembled praying mantises, and their arms consisted of railguns arranged like a Gatling gun. The names of these powerful weapons were written on their bellies, "Five_Over, Model_Case_RAILGUN."

Touma groaned in fear and said, "Damn it, they're finally here. Our next enemy is Academy City!"

They then heard an electronic tone followed by a synthesized voice, "Beginning biometric scan for Othinus and Kamijou Touma. Any interfering elements will be physically eliminated. All noncombatants, please display your intent to disarm immediately."

The boy initially assumed the voice came from one of the Five Over machines flying above, but it had actually come from the tanks, which had apparently been hacked. As the warning was repeated, about half of the Five Overs descended to the ground, and the soldiers who had been in the tanks now lay on the ground, with their hands on the back of their heads. The machines ignored them and occasionally blew up the empty tanks in their way.

One of the American soldiers from the commando unit roughly gripped onto Touma's shoulder. She asked, "I thought you talked it out with the president, so why is Academy City attacking the tanks?"

Touma protested, "Do they look like they're on my side? I might live in Academy City, but I'm just a high school student."

Othinus then snapped, "Stop complaining and think rationally. According to the warning, their targets are me and the boy. As long as you disarm, you'll be safe. Can you do that?"

The soldier shook her head, "No, we're forbidden to be taken prisoner, no matter the circumstances. If we're captured, then a bullet in our breast pockets will activate and kill us."

Othinus replied, "Then we should work together, and he can give you information on Academy City."

The soldiers' resulting stares made Touma flustered, and he nervously said, "I've ridden on them a few times, so I know that Academy City's supersonic planes can carry materiel and personnel at 7000 kilometers per hour. So they can send this kind of firepower around the globe in a few hours. That's what they did during World War 3 and the incident in Baggage City."

The soldier replied, "That would infuriate the Company. And what about the praying mantises?"

Touma explained, "I saw a few of their remains in Baggage City. They're Five Overs, and they're modelled after the 3rd Ranked esper of Academy City. Each one can fire railgun shots like a Gatling gun. These attacks are equally or more powerful than her famous attack, and they can fire thousands of shots every minute."

As the American soldiers listened to that fantastic-sounding explanation and looked at those weapons of war in the skies above, they could only curse god in their hearts.

One of the soldiers then asked, "Why is Academy City actively attacking our troops? Their internal affairs are disturbingly unclear, but they want to defeat Othinus too, right?"

Another soldier retorted, "But Academy City wasn't even part of the international coalition. It seemed like they were acting on their own during the battle in Tokyo Bay."

Not even Touma could tell what Academy City was doing. Maybe they wanted to capture Othinus, like with Fraulein Kreutune, or maybe they didn't trust that other world powers had what it took to kill Othinus.

He'd seen in one of Othinus's hells that Academy City was very vulnerable to an international military coalition. So why were they risking such a conflict?

Othinus then observed, "By the way, why are the Five Overs scanning this area specifically? If they'd located us by satellite, they would've ignored the tanks and come right here."

Touma replied in a puzzled tone, "Hmm, I thought they were scanning all over the place because they didn't know where we are?"

Othinus shook her head, "No, then they wouldn't have already narrowed it down to this plain. They must have some general information that we're in this area, but they don't yet know our exact coordinates. That vague information had to have come from somewhere."

One of the American soldiers shook unnaturally and said, "Don't tell me that they intercepted American military transmissions! We've been hiding our location from our leaders and from the president, so the diversion unit shouldn't know we're here either!" But even so, Academy City's technology had clearly been able to track the diversion unit's transmissions.

Othinus snapped her fingers and pointed at one of the soldiers, saying, "You owe us one now."

The soldier protested, "What? None of this would've happened if it weren't for you, terrorist!"

Touma tried calming everyone down, saying, "A-anyway, the Five Overs don't have our exact location, so we should be fine if we escape." With this, they all agreed to get out of there. Since the Five Overs were completely unmanned weapons, it would not be possible to talk their way out of the situation.

They ran away across the snow, soon taking cover in a nearby forest. The synthetic voice played the warning once again, and the Five Overs began firing into the forest, felling the trees with tremendous force. The trees all dropped down to the ground, and sharp fragments of wood rained down. Touma covered Othinus to protect her, and as a result, he felt stabbing pain in his back.

In any case, they had to continue on, so Touma and Othinus followed behind the soldiers, staying low while the torrent of steel continued.

A soldier then realized, "Wait, none of the shots are hitting us. Are these supposed to be warning shots?"

Touma immediately answered, "They have too much power. The girl those machines are based on, her railgun's projectiles melt after about 50 meters due to air resistance. I assume the same is true for those shots too, and they're firing from kilometers away."

The soldier asked, "So we're safe for the moment?"

As the boy observed the machines, he retorted, "Not necessarily. See, they've analyzed the situation too, and they're all approaching at once."

They all ran with all their might, but their speed was no match for those machines traveling through the sky and along the ground like attack helicopters and tanks. Once they reached close enough, they would all be torn to pieces. Thus, Touma shouted at the soldiers, "You all need to surrender! There's no point sticking with us any longer!"

One of the soldiers protested, "But we can't be taken prisoner! A commando getting captured would be a bigger scandal than a CIA agent defecting!"

Touma retorted, "But they aren't taking prisoners! If you put your hands up, they'll pass right by you. Give up your pride and survive, they silenced 50 tanks in minutes, and you know better than an amateur like me how much of a threat that is!"

They were indecisive for a moment, but the American commando soldiers soon all stopped and put their hands in the air. Touma passed by them, still supporting Othinus against his shoulder.

Othinus shouted at him, "You should abandon me too! You're only a target because you sided with me, so you'll be able to escape by leaving me to my fate!"

Touma shouted back in desperation, "Don't be ridiculous, I've already been deemed a target by that warning, so we're in the same position! Let's find a way to get out of here, no matter what it takes!"

Othinus looked over at him. His feet were buried in the deep snow, he was cold and trembling, he was supporting her own weight, and he was desperately fleeing from machines of death. But still, he was smiling.

She asked him, "And then what? Even if we do manage to escape, an even more brutal enemy will arrive next, and this will continue on and on. So what is the end goal here?"

Touma looked at her and answered, "It's your life, so you're the one who has to decide that answer! You'll retrieve your eye from that spring, cast aside your power, and surrender. You'll make up for all your crimes with a long prison sentence, but once that's over, you can do anything you want with your life!"

With those words, Othinus's face relaxed ever so slightly, despite the countless deadly weapons approaching from behind. They would soon reach the range to kill with deadly accuracy, so it would take a miracle to save them.

---

Somewhat earlier, Mikoto had arrived at Copenhagen Airport. When she'd arrived, she had seen the news reports of various strange events occurring in different places in Jutland. She'd immediately known that they had been the results of Touma's battles with different opponents.

From the timings and locations of those strange events, Mikoto had deduced that he and Othinus were travelling south across the peninsula. Thus, after purchasing a thick duffle coat for the snowy weather, the girl had boarded a train heading towards Fredericia.

Once she reached that major city on the peninsula, Mikoto noticed that several American tanks were stationed around the city. She didn't know if they were being operated by the American or the Danish military, but from their activity, she guessed that Touma and Othinus were not too far away. Knowing that conventional military forces were pretty much the worst opponent for Touma, she was highly worried about his safety.

Before she could figure out what to do next, she encountered a much more disturbing sight. She saw a swarm of metal praying mantises flying through the air. Mikoto had faced a similar-looking machine during the Daihasei Festival, but the words "Five_Over" and "Model_Case_RAILGUN" painted on their bellies revealed that they were a much, much greater threat.

Her boyfriend had mentioned seeing the remains of these machines in Baggage City, so Mikoto knew about these machines modelled after her. She knew that they could fire railguns at rates similar to a Gatling gun. And unlike her own Railgun, these attacks couldn't be negated by Touma's Imagine Breaker.

At this point, Mikoto took a deep breath, smirked, and muttered, "Okay, let's see if I can't use those pieces of junk!" She held up her arm and created a magnetic force between herself and one of the machines flying in the sky hundreds of meters up. By doing so, the girl was able to quickly pull herself up into the air, and she soon landed on top of one of the praying mantises. She hoped that by hitching a ride on one of them, they would lead her directly to Touma.

While the machines were primarily designed to fire railguns, Mikoto figured that they would also be able to detect her presence and then take measures to eliminate her. Therefore, she used her ability to hack into the Five Over she was sitting on, as well as some of the nearby ones, so that they wouldn't regard her as a threat. As a result, she was able to follow the swarm from the rear, just by having her machine follow the ones in front of it. She smirked to herself, "That was a piece of cake."

It only took a few minutes for the Five Overs to reach a certain snowy plain. During the entire flight, Mikoto could sense some external radio transmissions coming from the direction the machines were travelling towards, so she concluded, "They must be heading towards the source of that traffic." Once she was at the location, she realized that the radio signals were coming from the tanks she could now see below.

Immediately, Mikoto heard the synthetic voice warning that the Five Overs were targeting Touma and Othinus, and that everyone else should disarm. She saw the Five Overs chase after some figures dressed in white military suits, as well as two other figures she could tell were her boyfriend and that blonde Magic God. Fortunately, they were too far away for the railguns to hit them, and they were able to flee into an adjacent forest, but the Five Overs began relentlessly pursuing them.

It was now time for Mikoto to act. The soldiers in white suits had just finally decided to disarm, but her boyfriend was still in danger. She extended her hacking to every single one of the Five Overs. It was a bit tricky doing it at a distance, but she was able to manage it. As a result, all the machines in the air, including the one she was sitting on, lost their balance and crashed into the ground, some of them even colliding with the machines which had already been on the ground.

This chaos immediately halted the machines' attack on Touma and Othinus, and the two of them took cover as the snow and dirt around them was torn up in explosions. When everything settled, Mikoto had arranged the approximately 150 machines to surround them in a formation that looked like a giant flower from overhead. She climbed up onto the head of the central unit and looked down at Touma and Othinus. When she saw how physically close they were, she gritted her teeth and thought, "I know he's just trying to give her cover, but does he really have to cozy up to her like that?"

Touma, who had heard the clanking sound from her stepping onto the praying mantis's head, looked up. His eyes widened in shock, and he exclaimed, "Mikoto?" He had feared that he and Othinus were finally finished, but his girlfriend had suddenly appeared and saved them.

Mikoto smirked at him and said, "Nice to see you too, Touma. But just to be clear, I'm not going to blindly join your side. I'm not that convenient a girl." She then held out her arms, gesturing to the army she now had control of, and continued, "I've hacked all of this firepower. So, let's see if you can defeat me!"

For Touma, seeing her again brought back his conflicted feelings about Othinus's perfect world. He hadn't given it much thought until now, since he'd been focused on protecting Othinus from the world's wrath. But he had vowed to apologize to the people in his life for destroying their happiness, and his girlfriend was perhaps the one whose happiness he'd trampled on the most.

Not completely sure what to do, Touma lowered Othinus onto the ground and nervously asked Mikoto, "Are you mad?" If she was already angry with him for siding with Othinus, he couldn't imagine how much more furious she'd be when she learned the full truth.

Mikoto crossed her arms and replied, "You know, I'm actually not as mad as I thought I would be, given that you ditched me to run away with a girl who'd previously been our enemy. Because I think I know why you did it."

Touma's eyes widened, and he questioned, "You do?" He was surprised by this, since he hadn't given her any explanation.

The girl smirked at him and replied, "Yes, but I'm not going to just let you off the hook so easily. You decided to take on the entire world to save her, and you do still owe me an explanation. So let's fight and come to an understanding!"

The boy smiled, recalling how he'd earlier said something similar to Accelerator. He then shouted, "All right, Biri-Biri, you're on!"

He quickly thought about the situation he was in. He was surrounded by Five Overs that could fire thousands of railgun shots, and they were all under Mikoto's control. Even though she wasn't going to kill him, she could still do a lot of damage with those machines. So his first objective was to disrupt that control.

Touma immediately ran up to the nearest machine and pressed his right palm against it. Since Mikoto had used her ability to hack into it, his right hand freed it from her control. This was a big gamble, but he had no choice other than to leave it up to the machine. Would it target him and Othinus like previously, or would it turn its fire on the girl who had hacked into the military network?

Mikoto frantically shouted, "Ah, wait!" Her first thought was to try to re-hack into that machine, but the boy was keeping his hand pressed against it, making that impossible.

The freed Five Over then turned its arm against her. As the railgun barrel began to rotate, she paled and quickly used her magnetism to raise another Five Over in front of her as a shield. The bullets tore through that shield with a deafening noise, and Mikoto knew that it wouldn't last too long before she would become wide open once again.

Thus, she gathered some iron sand from the ground and formed it into a sword. She used it to cut off the arms of the machine that had rebelled from her control. Even when literally disarmed, the machine then tried to tackle her, so Mikoto decapitated it with her sword, muttering, "Honestly, just when you think you've cornered him, he comes up with something like this."

She then looked around and saw that Touma hadn't been idle while she was dealing with that single rogue Five Over. He was now running around and pressing his hand against machine after machine, and all of them quickly moved to physically eliminate the source of the cyber attack.

Now, it was a battle between Five Overs. Mikoto controlled most of the 150 machines on that snowy plain, and Touma could only secure the machines he could physically touch. So in terms of numbers, she still had the overwhelming advantage.

But there was one big problem. It was hard for Mikoto to keep track of all the machines outside her control, so she was at risk of getting hit. Even she was vulnerable to being killed by a railgun shot, so she was forced to use multiple iron sand swords to destroy every machine that Touma freed, meaning that her numbers began dwindling.

By the time she'd finished destroying several Five Overs, she realized that her boyfriend had vanished from sight. She used her radar to search for him, and also sent orders to the Five Overs to scan the area. She quickly determined that he was actually right behind her.

Mikoto turned around and saw that he had indeed climbed onto the same machine as her. In terms of protecting himself from the Five Overs, it was actually the safest place to be, since any attack on him would have a good chance of harming her as well. Plus, in the process of climbing it, Touma had removed the Five Over from her control.

Touma smiled and clenched his right fist, saying, "Hey, Mikoto. I'd rather not use this on the girl I love. But are you still going to make me?"

The girl shrugged, "I don't like it that much either, but we agreed to fight it out to a resolution, right? So this isn't the time to stop."

She then gathered a large amount of iron sand around herself and smirked, "Hmm, by the way, did you think that fighting me directly would be easier and safer than fighting these pieces of junk, Touma? I see how it is."

The iron sand formed into eight whips, all emanating from a large black sphere behind her back and passing over her shoulders or under her arms. As these whips writhed around in the air in front of Mikoto, Touma raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh? You're going to use those tentacles to beat me into submission? I didn't know you were this kinky, Mikoto!"

This comment caused the girl to blush a bit, but she gave him a dangerous smile and said, "You really like mocking me, don't you? Well, since you're confident enough to be making jokes, let's see how you handle them!" With there only being less than ten meters of footing on the machine, Mikoto sent her eight whips forward to clash against Touma's single right fist.

Touma felt that the iron sand sword was the most dangerous of Mikoto's repertoire of attacks. Her lightning spear and railgun had a large potential for destruction, but they travelled in a straight line, so they could be dealt with by throwing off her timing or making her fire in the wrong direction.

On the other hand, the iron sand whips moved around like a living creature. He could only negate them with his right hand, so he was scared of a blade that could complexly alter its trajectory, since it could move around to avoid his hand and strike at his arm instead. And there was not just one, but eight whips moving to attack him.

He should've had no way of stopping them all with just one right hand. But as soon as Touma grabbed one of the whips flying towards him, all eight of them completely disintegrated.

Mikoto looked around in confusion as her weapons disappeared, muttering, "Huh?"

Touma looked towards her and explained, "Well, I knew your iron sword would always vanish from tip to base whenever I touched it. So since all eight of your whips were connected to the sphere behind you, I guess the destruction spread to all of them with a single touch."

The girl could only facepalm and berate herself, "I'm such an idiot! I should've predicted this and kept them all separate."

The boy put his hands behind his head in a carefree pose and said in a happy tone, "This is such a nice feeling. I was risking my life in a bunch of dangerous battles before this, so this is a nice change of pace. Thank you for the relaxing battle, Biri-Biri!"

Mikoto crossed her arms and glared at him with a pout, "Shut up! Don't just put me in the comedy battle category!"

Touma smirked and needled her further, "You know what, Mikoto, you're like a hot spring on a snowy mountain, or an oden stand during winter."

Mikoto growled, thinking to herself, "This idiot really isn't taking this seriously is he?" She considered trying to attack him with iron sand whips again, this time disconnected, but figured that he'd manage to find some way to get out of that predicament too. She recalled in frustration, "In all the times I battled him, no matter which of my abilities I used or how I used it, he would always find some way to counter it."

Thus, she decided on a different strategy. Since Touma didn't have his right hand on the machine, Mikoto hacked into it again and had it rotate in order to throw him off of it and into the snow, and she immediately proceeded to jump down after him.

If using her abilities wouldn't work against Touma, then Mikoto decided to try fighting him like a normal girl. With him sitting in the snow, she swung her fist towards his face and exclaimed, "Hey, I thought we were working together to destroy GREMLIN at their Sargasso base, and stop Othinus from creating that lance! So how did you end up getting along with her so well?"

Touma dodged her fist and muttered, "Not good! I can't do anything about normal fists that don't use abilities." He then exclaimed to Mikoto, "I have my reasons!"

Mikoto then tried to climb on top of him, and while he did somewhat enjoy the physical contact, he still had to avoid her attacks, so he rolled along with her in the snow. She used her clenched fists, as well as her elbow and forehead, to strike his face, while asking him, "What happened to defeating Othinus, Touma?" This was the main question she wanted answered, and why she had decided to fight him. She understood that Touma wanted to save Othinus from being killed by the world, but she still didn't understand how Othinus had stopped being an enemy in the first place.

The boy endured her assaults, keeping his right arm wrapped on her waist so she couldn't shock him. He exclaimed, "We don't need to do that anymore!"

The girl demanded, "Why not?" She would not rest until she got an answer out of him.

Touma hesitantly replied, "Um...I'm not sure where to start, but Othinus destroyed the world."

Mikoto was surprised to hear this, but she had known that it was a possibility. She wasn't quite sure how to think of all the implications of that simple statement. After a moment, she nodded and said, "Okay, and how did that lead to you and her suddenly becoming allies?"

As the boy looked into his girlfriend's face, he painfully recalled what he'd done to her in that perfect world. He shouted in an anguished tone, "This isn't just about her anymore!" While doing so, he bent his right leg, placed his foot against her stomach, and gently launched her away from him.

Both of them stood up in the snow and silently stared at each other for a few moments. Mikoto then whispered, "What do you mean?"

With a shaking voice, Touma explained, "There was a really long time between when we arrived at Sargasso and when the attack on Othinus began, but everyone else didn't notice. I know it's really hard to believe, but it's the truth!"

Mikoto gave him a pensive look, before replying, "I can believe you. Magic Gods are that powerful, right? So after she destroyed the world, I assume you were left alive? What happened during that time?"

He said, "During that time...a lot happened, so much happened." But among all those countless hellish worlds, there was one that was the most important to tell her about. This was the moment of truth. As soon as Touma told her about that perfect world, she would likely hate him forever. But keeping it a secret from her would only be tormenting himself.

Touma took a deep breath and said, "Mikoto, would you believe this? I saw all 20,000 Sisters alive and happily attending a festival together. You didn't have to suffer at all, and all of you were smiling together as friends. That scenario really did happen, and it wasn't an illusion, a dream, or a parallel world. This world truly had that happy paradise! But I destroyed everyone's happiness just to come back here. It wasn't just you and your sisters, I rejected a world where all six billion people were perfectly saved!"

Mikoto looked at him with a confused expression. He knew that she wasn't forgiving him. The reason she didn't feel angry was because it didn't feel real to her. It would be horribly misguided for him to assume that she had accepted his actions.

She finally gave him a vague smile and said, "I'm not quite sure what you're talking about, Touma. Did Othinus create that world?" Lots of thoughts were racing through her head regarding what he'd just described, but she wanted to get the full story.

Touma exclaimed, "Yes, and the very fact that you don't know what I'm talking about shows how much I've trampled on your dignity! I promise I'll work to understand what you've lost and what you've gained! But I need Othinus for that. In fact, once I tell you the full truth about that happy world, you might stop hating Othinus, and you'll hate me instead! But you shouldn't forgive me until you fully understand!"

The girl indeed didn't fully understand the true feelings behind his words, since she didn't know about what he'd experienced. But she knew enough to say, "Touma, I could never hate you. I know you would never do anything so bad that I'd end up hating you."

Those words were meant to reassure him, but they only caused him pain, since they were a reminder of what he'd really done. Touma shook his head and said, "You're wrong about that, Mikoto. Like I said, I destroyed that perfect world to come back here. I want to live happily with you and everyone else in this world. But that's exactly why I have to settle everything and pay for my sins. And Othinus's testimony is needed for that, I can't avoid the issue by letting her die and hiding my crimes from public view. I may have done more wrong than Othinus, and I have so much to pay for before I can return to a peaceful city!"

Mikoto was starting to piece together just what he'd gone through in that world. She still didn't know the full story, but what she did know was more than enough for her to reach a firm judgement.

She crossed her arms and repeated, "So, there was a world where all 20,000 Sisters were saved and everyone could smile without grief?" When he nodded, Mikoto narrowed her eyes at him and said, "After everything you've been through, why would you cling to such a convenient and terribly naive world?"

Touma was stunned at her response. He still thought that it was the best option for the world if all six billion people could smile. He had overcome that ultimate argument with his own selfish personal hopes and desires, but he'd never actually refuted that argument. He still believed that Othinus's answer was right, and he had accepted the sin of being wrong for rejecting it. That was the full truth, or at least it should have been.

Mikoto walked straight towards him through the snow, with an angry expression on her face. But it wasn't the kind of anger he'd expected. She spat out, "Do you really think that's the same as saving people? There's no fixed definition of happiness. As soon as everything is unified under a single set of values, the next round of misfortune and discrimination has already begun!"

Mikoto punched him in the chest, knocking him back. She then continued speaking, "I can't even imagine what happened to you during that time. But even if you're the one who experienced it, that doesn't mean that all your interpretations and conclusions about it are correct."

She moved her legs, and Touma jumped back, fearing having his legs swept out from under him. He couldn't relax just by gaining some distance, because she sent electric shocks from her feet in every direction, forcing him to thrust his right hand into the cold snow to negate the high-voltage currents.

Tremendous amounts of sparks appeared around Mikoto's entire body, centered on her fist. She exclaimed, "Even if Othinus remade the universe and the world from scratch, even if people lived there with no crimes, sins, or mistakes whatsoever, and even if some girl named Misaka Mikoto ignorantly smiled there…that doesn't change the fact that my actions led to over 10 thousand deaths! Even if everything and everyone could be saved one second from now, and all the records could be rewritten, I don't want to run away from my sins!"

For just an instant, Touma's thoughts came to a complete halt. And in that moment, Mikoto's second wave of shocks hit his feet, and he began to lose his footing, screaming, "Gah!"

Mikoto pulled up on his collar to support him, and shouted, "There's no such thing as a perfect world, you idiot! Even if it looks perfect on the surface, you'll always find something twisted hidden beneath. It was the same with that experiment. You didn't accept my view that my plan to deliberately lose to Accelerator would make everyone happy! So if you understood that back then, why did you change your mind now?"

She slammed her forehead into his, pushing him down to the ground, and then climbed on top of him, straddling his lap with her legs. Mikoto harshly grabbed onto his arms and shook him back and forth, exclaiming, "Those six billion people all had a single set of values forced onto them, where they were only allowed to smile! They didn't have the freedom to be sad, or frustrated, or angry at anything! Anyone who didn't smile was treated like they didn't belong! If you see something like that, Touma, you're not supposed to just sit there being jealous! No matter how painful it is, and even if you're all alone, you're supposed to clench your fist and say it's all wrong!"

Mikoto did not hold back with her words, because she needed them to get into his thick skull. She concluded, "You came back to this world, and you sacrificed everyone else to do so? If so, you're not supposed to envy the world you turned your back on! You should be glad that you returned to this world! Even if it's imperfect and incomplete, you should be glad that you were born into this world, and you should be proud that you've returned to it!"

Touma desperately looked up at his girlfriend's face and countered, "Of course I was going to change my mind! You were smiling. You don't have any memory of it, but you really were smiling in that golden world! When I remember that, of course I'll attack my previous thoughts and admit I was wrong! But in the moment, if I know that continuing on will drop me off a cliff, I'll readily change my beliefs and ideals! I'll change what I say any number of times based on what I think is best at the moment! Even if I end up being a hypocrite, it's still a win as long as someone's smiling in the very end!"

The girl gave him a thin smirk, replying, "Oh, so you do understand!" He gave her a questioning look, so she continued, "There's no reason to fall off the cliff while bound by meaningless principles and ideologies. If you're reaching for the happiness that you alone believe in, it's fine to choose the best arguments for the situation. It doesn't matter if you have to spit on your own previous words, as long as it all works out in the end."

Mikoto wrapped her arms around Touma's back, pulling him into a gentle embrace. Before he could place his right hand on her, she sent some small shocks into arms to prevent him from moving them, making sure not to cause him any pain.

The girl then removed her hands from his back, and intertwined her left hand with his, making their rings clink together. She gently kissed his forehead and said, "Unfortunately, there isn't a second Touma here, so I'll have to do your job this time."

Touma looked up at her with a confused expression, muttering, "Huh?" He wasn't quite sure what to make of her mixture of affection and aggression, but he sensed that the two of them had reached a key moment.

With her left hand still squeezing his own hand, Mikoto clenched her right fist and exclaimed, "If you truly think that you alone have to bear the weight of my future, my sisters' lives, and the fates of six billion people…"

By this point, there wasn't much Touma could do to defend himself. He couldn't move his right arm, and she was again going for a normal physical attack rather than just shocking him. Thus, he instinctively closed his eyes, bracing for impact.

But then, something unexpected happened. Instead of her fist smashing into his face and knocking him unconscious, he felt a gentle tap on his forehead, and heard her soft voice say, "...then I'll just have to destroy that illusion!"

When he opened his eyes a moment later, Touma saw his girlfriend looking at him with a grin. She pulled her fist away and chuckled, "Well, I think we can count this as a victory for me...though it feels a bit emptier than I'd imagined."

While starting to regain feeling in his arms, the boy reflected back on what two different Misakas had told him about the perfect world. In that hell of happiness, the Will of the Misaka Network had saved him by telling him that he could pursue his own selfishness over the ideal of saving the world. But now, Mikoto had taught him that perhaps that perfect world was not necessarily worth saving in the first place. Humans weren't so simple that such a convenient world would be enough to make everyone unconditionally happy.

Touma smiled at the girl in front of him, squeezed her hand back, and said, "Thank you, Biri-Biri."

Mikoto warmly smiled back at him and replied, "Good, it looks like you get it now. But now that that's over with, you still owe me a full explanation on everything that happened between you and Othinus during that time."

The boy gave her a hesitant look, saying, "Well, it's kind of a long story. A really really long story, actually." He winced a little as he tried to imagine just how long it had been.

The girl could tell that there was much more to his hesitation, but replied, "It's fine, we have some time. Those remaining Five Overs are still affected by my hacking, so they shouldn't interrupt us for a while."

Touma nodded, "Okay. Um, let me start with this: That perfect world I told you about was just one of the many, many worlds that Othinus created and destroyed. There were so many different worlds that I don't even remember most of them."

Mikoto's eyes widened, and she began to realize that what he'd experienced was on a much, much larger order of magnitude than anything she could've imagined. She recalled that even someone like Index with a photographic memory could store 100 to 200 years' worth of memories, and so a normal human like Touma would perhaps be able to partially remember thousands of years' worth. So if he had completely forgotten about most of those worlds, then he must have been stuck with Othinus for an unfathomable amount of time.

After a few seconds, she trembled and muttered, "H-how long was it? And I guess that would be possible for a Magic God, but why would she bother doing all that anyway?"

The boy nervously gulped and replied, "Othinus would probably have a more accurate measurement, but there might have been millions, billions, or even trillions of worlds. And the reason…" He looked down, not knowing if it was worth causing his girlfriend anguish to tell her everything. He eventually finished, "Look, Mikoto, it was a traumatizing experience, and I don't want to inflict even a fraction of that trauma onto you."

Mikoto's eyes began to water as she tried to think about just what he could've experienced at Othinus's hands during that eternity of time. But she was not about to be deterred. She placed her hands on his shoulders, looked him directly in the eyes, and replied, "Touma, I don't know exactly what happened to you, but just from the one world you told me about, I know it wasn't good. If you were able to survive all that, the least I could do as your partner is listen to what you experienced."

Touma sighed, thinking, "She's as stubborn as ever, huh?" He then said, "All right, but don't say I didn't warn you." She silently nodded at him, urging him to continue, so he revealed, "Othinus wanted to torture me with those worlds, both physically and mentally."

He felt her grip on his shoulders tighten. Mikoto began emitting sparks from her head and growled, "What? Just what did that bitch do to you?"

Touma immediately wrapped his arms around her, cancelling out her sparks. She then said in a soft voice, "It's okay, Biri-Biri, I'm fine now. And let me explain everything first."

His warm hug quelled her anger a little bit, but she replied, "Fine, but I'm pretty sure whatever you tell me is only going to make me more mad at her." Just how much pain and suffering had he gone through in all those worlds?

The boy winced, "Yeah, I can't argue against that. Well, I'll start at the beginning. At Sargasso, Othinus created the lance herself and said she would destroy the world, which she did. When I woke up, I was in a completely pitch-black world, with no features or landmarks anywhere. I walked around that world for who knows how long, looking for you or anyone else, but there was nothing there except me and Othinus."

Mikoto tried to picture such a world in her mind. She realized how terrified she would be if she were forced to wander a featureless world with no one else to talk to. She wrapped her arms around his back and leaned her head on his shoulder, softly saying, "That sounds really scary, Touma." She began rubbing his back in an attempt to comfort him.

Touma did feel comforted by the feeling of her embrace and her soft hair against his cheek. He pulled her a little tighter against him and continued recounting, "Anyway, I eventually went back to Othinus's location, and she told me that she couldn't just kill me and let Imagine Breaker escape somewhere, so she pledged to mentally break me to trap it."

The boy felt his girlfriend shudder against him. She lifted her head, and he could see that tears were forming in her eyes. He hated that he was making her feel that way, but he knew it would be even worse to hide it all from her. He silently raised his hand and gently stroked her hair, and she leaned into his hand. He wanted to tell her not to cry, but he knew that would be pointless.

So instead, he said to her, "Anyway, I remember the first world pretty well. Othinus created a world where I was targeted by the entire world. There was a global coalition that blockaded and attacked Tokyo to make sure I died. And all the people around me wanted to kill me to end their own suffering."

Mikoto tried desperately to hold in her tears, and she said, "W-why? How could she be so cruel? She had unlimited power, and that's what she decided to use it on?"

Touma continued cradling her head and replied, "You know, I wondered that too, but I'm pretty sure I figured out the answer. She was basing these worlds on her own experiences. This world that I just told you about mirrors how the entire world hates Othinus now. I guess she wanted me to feel the same pain that she felt."

The girl was starting to see why he empathized with Othinus. If Touma felt that Othinus had gone through the exact same pain that he had, then it was no wonder he'd now want to protect her from the wrath of the entire world. But, she firmly noted, "Hold on, the situations aren't the same at all! First of all, just because she might have suffered doesn't mean it's okay to inflict the same suffering onto you. And second of all, she's hated by the world for a very good reason! She was behind terrorist attacks all over the world, and put thousands of people in danger. Her actions totally justified the world's hatred!"

Touma chuckled and replied, "It's interesting you say that, because Othinus told me that the actions I've taken would also justify the world hating me. I've intervened in a lot of conflicts that I might not have had any business being in, and the only reason that people don't hate me is because they only looked at the positive aspects rather than the negative ones. Othinus just had to change everyone's point of view, and everyone did hate me." Looking back on it now, the boy was still a bit unsure of how much Othinus's argument was true.

However, Mikoto had no doubts. She narrowed her eyes and exclaimed, "Okay, that's complete bullshit! People haven't looked at the negative aspects of your actions? Are you kidding me? Do you think that I liked learning that you went into my dorm room that night without my permission and searched through my private belongings? Or that time you rejected my help and almost died in the Arctic? Didn't Saronia and a bunch of other GREMLIN members dislike how you affected the outcome of World War 3? And didn't those cooperative institutions dislike how you, me, and the rest of us from Academy City interfered in another country's conflict?"

The boy's eyes widened at her argument, and he took some time to think about her points. But he soon replied, "You have a point, but those were only a small number of people. Maybe I deserve even more contempt, but most people still mainly looked at the positive aspects."

Mikoto rolled her eyes and said, "Why are you assuming that it's wrong to take the positive aspects into account? I didn't like you snooping in my room, but in the end, you still managed to save me and my sisters. I didn't like you abandoning me in Russia and making me think you were dead, but you saved Index and stopped that archangel from causing untold destruction. And similarly, you've resolved all those conflicts and saved the people threatened by them. The reason that people, including me, see you as a hero isn't because you stayed in your lane and refused to intervene in problems that didn't involve you. It's because you trampled on those boundaries, clenched your fist, and saved everyone's smiles!"

Touma stared at her with an open mouth as he took in her impassioned defense of him. A few moments later, he sighed and replied, "Yeah, maybe you're right."

The girl smirked and said, "Of course I'm right! Don't ever let anyone tell you again that you deserve to be hated for trying to save people." She could only guess how much pain he'd suffered from being hated by the entire world, so she wanted to cheer him up in any way she could.

The boy chuckled, "All right." He then frowned as he recalled how that world had ended for him. With Mikoto giving him a questioning look, he revealed, "So I said how everyone around me wanted to kill me to bring the war to the end, right?"

The girl nodded, having a very bad feeling about what must have happened next. Indeed, Touma then revealed, "It wasn't just the police and random civilians. It was my classmates too! Fukiyose stabbed me and Aogami broke my arm. But the worst part was…"

Mikoto hugged him tighter and just said, "Was…?"

Touma started to tear up, and said, "It was Komoe-sensei who finished me off with a kitchen knife. And...and while that was happening, I saw on TV my parents denouncing me from some courtroom. It was because of me that all of them were suffering so much! It was all my fault!"

The girl covered her mouth in shock, and tears began to fall from her eyes. How horrifying it must have been to be attacked by his friends, to be denounced by his own parents, and to be killed by someone so sweet as Komoe! She felt her boyfriend rub her head again, though that didn't do much to stop her feeling of despair. If he had died so brutally in just this one world, just how many painful deaths had he experienced in that eternity of hells?

But there was one thing she had to make clear. She removed her hand from her mouth, glared at her boyfriend, and said, "No, Touma, it wasn't your fault. It was the fault of that evil god who only created that entire situation to torment you, for no better reason than because you were there."

Touma sadly looked at Mikoto and said, "I guess so." He raised his hand and gently wiped the tears away from her eyes. It was hard for him to look at her anguished expression, especially since it wouldn't be going away any time soon. He then asked, "Mikoto, do you want me to continue telling you the rest? Because it's not going to get any better."

Mikoto nodded, "Yes, like I said before, I want to hear everything. Don't worry about me, not knowing what happened to you would be worse than knowing it."

The boy sighed, "All right. The second world maybe wasn't as bad as the others, at least physically. In that world, I had to watch some other guy live out my life as 'Kamijou Touma.' He was with my friends in class, he went shopping with Index, and I even had to watch him make plans with you to spend a night in a hotel!"

The girl winced at that, knowing how awful she'd feel if she had to watch him with some other girl. She raised her arm and gently ruffled his hair, saying, "I'm really sorry you had to see that. So she had some imposter basically steal your life, while all you could do was look on from outside?"

Touma nodded, "That's right. Othinus told me that anyone who'd done the same things I did would be in the same position. They would surround anyone who saved them, no matter who it was." Looking away from the girl, he continued, "She wanted to show me how weak my bonds with everyone really were, if they could be so easily substituted."

Mikoto clenched her fists, thinking to herself, "Man, she's even more psychologically manipulative than Shokuhou!" She rested her hands on the boy's shoulders and said, "Look, I get that you might have partially believed Othinus, since she was literally the only person you could properly talk to. But honestly, if you really think about it, her argument there was pretty stupid."

The boy tilted his head in confusion and replied, "Really?"

The girl replied, "Yes. It's true that your bonds with me, Index, and your other friends are based in part on your actions, and that someone else might have been able to perform the same actions and thus achieve the same bonds." She wasn't sure that someone else really could've been able to achieve the same feats as her boyfriend, but she decided not to argue that point, since she knew he'd stubbornly assert otherwise.

She saw him look at her with a puzzled expression, since she was seemingly agreeing with Othinus's argument, but then she continued, "But that's true for anyone! If your bonds with everyone are meaningless because they could be altered by past circumstances, then every relationship in the world would also be meaningless! And maybe they are meaningless to an arrogant, uncaring god like Othinus who looks down on humanity, and sees people as nothing more than toys to play with. But to us, those bonds are some of the most important things in the world!"

Touma thought about what she said, and soon admitted, "You know, I never thought about it that way."

Mikoto gave him a smile and replied, "Yeah, it's sort of like those silly people who say that love and other emotions are meaningless because they're just electrical and chemical signals in the brain. Just because these phenomena are built up from more mundane things doesn't mean they have no value."

The boy sighed, "That's a nice way of looking at it. When I was there, I could only admit that I wasn't entitled to those bonds, and all I could do was try to form new bonds with them."

The girl frowned and said, "I get that it was a situation contrived by Othinus to break you. But remember, Touma, even if someone else could've done what you did, you were the one who ultimately did it. You were the one who originally put in the work, so I'd say you do deserve the bonds you have."

Hearing her heartfelt words, Touma felt some of the pain in his heart lessen a little. He replied, "Thanks, Biri-Biri. I think I understand that now, but I was a wreck back then. Hell, Othinus even had me believe for a bit that I was someone besides Kamijou Touma!"

Mikoto frowned, saying, "That's awful!" Just how much had Othinus's malicious words damaged his mind to make such a disturbing scenario happen? But with Othinus being the only person he could talk to, there couldn't have been any way for him to get reassurance from someone else.

Touma then rubbed the girl's shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I didn't doubt myself for too long. Othinus was actually really surprised when I said I was the real Kamijou Touma!"

The girl grinned and said, "I bet she was!" She was glad to see that her boyfriend had been able to foil that all-powerful god, even if it was in a small way.

The boy then nervously rubbed his neck and recalled, "Well, I guess that made her angry, because then she sent me to a bunch of different worlds where I died slow and painful deaths each time. I drowned, was hung, eaten alive, buried alive, stranded in a desert, exposed in outer space, and experienced a bunch of other painful deaths that I can't even remember. If you think of any horrible way to die, it probably happened to me." He knew that this would upset his girlfriend a lot, but he wanted to give her the full story.

Mikoto's heart dropped as she listened to her boyfriend casually list off some of the different ways he had been physically tortured. She felt her wet tears drip down her cheeks, and couldn't stop herself from sobbing. She clung onto his shirt with both hands and cried into his shoulder, exclaiming, "Why? Why do you always have to be the one who suffers so much? It's not fair!"

Touma couldn't really think of a good way to cheer her up. So he just pulled her tightly against himself and started caressing her hair again. His hoodie got a little wet from his girlfriend's tears, but he continued comforting her as long as she needed it.

When she finally looked back up at him, Touma said in a gentle tone, "It's okay, Biri-Biri. I'm back now, that's all in the past."

Mikoto furiously shook her head and replied, "No, Touma, it's not okay! It's not!" She then remembered something he'd said earlier, and asked, "After all she did to you, how could you even say that you've done more wrong than her? Just because you chose the world you know over that twisted utopian world that she only created to torment you?"

Touma nervously gulped, feeling a little hesitant to reveal the full story. But soon, he began recounting, "So, like I said before, everyone was happy in that world, because Othinus saved them from all their suffering. More specifically, they were happy even though none of them knew me anymore. You were with Accelerator and your Sisters, all of whom were alive. Index was playing with Stiyl and Kanzaki, since I wasn't needed to save her. And the same happened for everyone else I saw too."

Mikoto looked at him with an anguished expression, and said, "So Othinus made everyone happy while leaving you lonely. I and everyone else were made to forget about you. That must have been heartbreaking."

Touma nodded, "It really was. Almost everyone just ignored me. Index talked to me a little bit when her soccer ball rolled over to me, but it was only as a stranger. But actually, you sat next to me on the bench and had an actual conversation with me."

The girl was happy that she had at least talked to him in that cruel world, but she was worried that she'd only caused him pain. She nervously asked, "And what did I say?"

The boy smiled at her and answered, "You were really sweet. You noticed my ring and asked about it. I said it was a gift from my girlfriend, and you said I was very lucky. Pretty ironic, huh?"

He saw Mikoto wince, so he added in a reassuring tone, "Hey, hey, it's okay! If it makes you feel better, you noticed that I was sad. I said that I missed my girlfriend, and you comforted me." He then scratched his cheek and added, "Though it did hurt when you said you had a boyfriend, so I had to ask you to let me be alone."

The girl sniffled and said in a distraught tone, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I was so cruel to you." It pained her to know that Othinus had used her to hurt Touma, even going so far as to make her have another boyfriend.

Touma shook his head, "No, it's fine. Given that you didn't know, you were really kind to me as a total stranger."

Mikoto didn't feel too reassured by this, and could only look at him sadly.

He then looked down and said, "The worst part was what Othinus said to me after you left."

The girl gritted her teeth and growled, "What did that bitch say to you this time?"

Touma bit his lip as he remembered that especially painful moment. He replied, "She told me that our relationship is built on your pain and suffering. That if you and your sisters never needed saving, then you would've never fallen in love with me. And so...and so I have no place in your happiest possible life."

Mikoto's jaw dropped, and she was completely stunned by the absolute audacity of that evil god. But that was not all, for Touma then added, "She pointed out that, by wanting to return to you here, I would be killing your sisters all over again and restoring your mental scars just for my own selfish desires."

If her boyfriend's right hand weren't still on her, Mikoto would have exploded in sparks at that moment. She was filled with the urge to get up and brutally kill Othinus, who was resting a fair distance away in the snow. But Touma just hugged her tightly, probably trying to prevent just that scenario, so Mikoto decided to focus on something more important. She looked him directly in the eye and demanded, "Be honest with me, Touma. Do you still believe even a single word of that nonsense?"

Touma nervously tried to avoid her gaze, and he answered, "W-well, it was hard for me not to believe it at the time. But even now...I can't help but still think that it had some truth to it. I mean, you did start falling for me in earnest after I saved you and your sisters, right?"

Mikoto took a deep breath and muttered, "Okay, it looks like he's still being an idiot, so you'll have to explain it again, Mikoto." Then, she spoke directly to him, "Touma, listen to me carefully. Yes, that incident was a big catalyst for my feelings towards you. But I don't love you just because you saved me a couple of times. I'm not that shallow."

The boy replied, "I know that, Mikoto. We've also spent a lot of time together outside of fights, and we both fell in love with each other because of those everyday interactions. But Othinus created a world where you never had to suffer, and you were able to be happy with your sisters, your friends, and another guy. And I figured that that life for you was happier than the one you have now, where half of your sisters are dead, and you have to get dragged into my misfortune."

The girl groaned, "You still don't fully get it, huh? Like I said before, I don't want to live in that twisted world where my sins are just washed away and the boy I love is condemned to suffer. And I don't mind getting dragged into your misfortune, because it means I can spend more time with you."

Touma looked at her in surprise, not having expected such a fervent response. She continued, "And as for your other point, who's to say that I wouldn't have fallen in love with you even if you never needed to save me or my sisters? We ran into each other often, so we could've still become friends, gotten to know each other better, and then started dating."

The boy replied, "Perhaps, but it would've been less likely, don't you think?"

Mikoto retorted, "Perhaps, but so what? Maybe if circumstances were different, I would be with another guy, and you might even be with another girl. But you know what, that's fine! It doesn't mean our relationship is meaningless. If we would have fallen in love no matter the circumstances, then it would only mean that we've been forced together by destiny."

The boy tilted his head and said, "And that's a bad thing? Don't a lot of people go on about soulmates and destined lovers and whatnot?"

The girl resolutely answered, "Yes, it would be a bad thing! Instead of our relationship being inevitable, it's the result of choices we made of our own free will! We had the freedom to do the things that made us fall in love with each other. It's the very fact that it could've been different that makes our relationship even more meaningful. And that freedom is exactly what was missing in that perfect world she trapped you in."

Touma's eyes widened as he took in her argument, and he eventually replied, "Wow, that's a really nice way of thinking about it. I guess that's what you meant when you said they didn't have the freedom to be sad or angry."

Mikoto nodded, "Exactly! Pain, suffering, and negative emotions suck, but they're also a part of life, and learning to deal with them is important. You know, a lot of people argue that a benevolent god would never allow so much suffering to exist in the world. I do partially agree with that, but I'd say that Othinus showed the negative side of a world without suffering, even if you ignore the fact that she created it to make you suffer."

The boy smiled at her and said, "I think you're right. Thanks for getting rid of my doubts." With this, he felt the remainder of his guilt for returning to this world wash away.

She then asked him, "So, I'm scared to ask, but how did you get out of that perfect world and eventually return here?"

Touma replied, "I had to gain the resolve to reject that world and stand against Othinus. But I just couldn't do it at first. I had no idea what I was supposed to do in that perfect world that had no need or want of me. So Othinus told me that the only thing I was supposed to do...was kill myself. She said my very presence would eventually cause the world to be destroyed, and me dying was the only way to save it."

Mikoto looked at him in absolute shock, clenching her fist in front of her heart. She clenched it so hard that her nails were digging into her palm, almost drawing blood. Now she knew why this had been the most painful world for him. She had thought that he'd just been conflicted for trading a world filled with happiness for his original world, but this was so, so much worse than that.

If it hadn't been clear enough already, she was now certain that Othinus was the most evil person she had ever encountered. But again, she had to check in on her boyfriend before giving into her anger. She looked at him and pleaded, "Please, tell me you didn't…"

The boy looked down guiltily, and only said, "I'm sorry."

The girl gasped. Soon, she began crying again. She pounded her fists against his chest and sobbed, "Why? How could you do that? After you stopped me from sacrificing my life for my sisters, why would you turn and do that? How could you break your promise?"

Seeing how much pain this was causing his girlfriend, Touma couldn't help but cry as well. He said, "I...my mind wasn't in a good state. I thought that it would be evil for me to destroy the happiness of six billion people to save just myself. And since I wasn't part of your world anymore, and since my presence would destroy your happy world, I thought the only way to keep my promise to you was to kill myself."

Mikoto gritted her teeth, trying to control her fury. She reached out her arm and rubbed Touma's head, saying, "Saving yourself wasn't evil. Othinus was the evil one for having so much power and deciding to use it to put you in that moral dilemma when it wasn't at all necessary. She's the evil one for using my relationship with you, my sisters' deaths, and everyone else's happiness and suffering as a cudgel to beat you over the head with."

Touma squeezed his eyes together at her comforting words, trying to stop his tears. A few moments later, he opened them again and said, "I know that now, but it was really hard to think otherwise back then."

The girl nodded, "I know. And let me say this again, I don't want to live in that world, especially now that I know that you would have to die in exchange. And it's not just because you're the guy I love. I wouldn't choose to kill any person, even if it meant bringing my sisters back. Hell, at this point, I probably wouldn't even choose to kill Accelerator to get them back. It's not right to just look at the numbers and declare the side with more people as the morally correct choice."

The boy then said, "I know, I might've said the same thing if it were someone else being sacrificed for the greater good, but it was hard when that person was myself. Anyway, I was really lucky that someone saved me when I tried to jump off a roof."

Mikoto was utterly relieved to hear that, but also a little confused. She asked, "Who saved you? Everyone else was Othinus's puppet, right?"

Touma smiled and answered, "It was one of your sisters, or that's what I thought. But actually, she said she was the Will of the Misaka Network, made up of all 20,001 clones."

The girl repeated, "Will of the Misaka Network? Is that really a thing? I suppose the Misaka Network acts like a single entity in some ways, since they all have a common memory."

The boy nodded, "Yeah, apparently she's formed from the combination of all the Sisters. As for how she was outside of Othinus's control, since about half of the Sisters are dead and half of them are alive, the Will was both dead and alive, sort of like Schrodinger's cat. Othinus's magic only dealt with dead people and living people, so she slipped through the cracks."

Mikoto said in a marvelled tone, "Wow, that's pretty cool! I'm relieved that she was there to help you."

Touma smiled and recounted, "Yeah, me too. She did all she could to get me to stand against Othinus. She made me realize that no one remembered the original world, and that no one would be happy if they knew that I would need to die for them to maintain their happiness. Though that didn't completely convince me."

The girl sighed and said, "Let me guess, you concluded from that that the best thing to do was keep everyone ignorant and happy, right? If no one knew about you, no one else would suffer if you died."

The boy chuckled, "You got me there. Well, in the end, she told me that since I've always saved people from suffering, even if it might have been justified in the grander scheme of things, it was fine for me to fight to save myself."

Mikoto lightly punched his arm and said with a smirk, "Good, I'm glad someone was there to knock some sense into you!" She then once again embraced him tightly, and softly said in his ear, "I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you, Touma. But I'm so happy that you were able to save yourself. You deserve to be saved, just like everyone else. Thank you for coming back."

Touma took this chance to hug her back, burying his face in his hair. As he rubbed her back, he said, "I'm glad I came back. And, in a way, you were there for me. If it weren't for you, Will wouldn't have ever existed in the first place."

The girl pulled back a bit and softly smiled at him. She said, "I guess you have a point there. But now I feel conflicted. Should I be partially glad that 10,031 of my sisters died, since that's the reason Will was able to save you?"

The boy thought for a bit and replied, "Instead of thinking of it that way, why not just be happy that their deaths weren't in vain? You said that you don't want to run away from your sins anyway."

Mikoto pondered his suggestion for a bit and then said, "Sure, that's a good way of looking at it. So after that, you finally fought against Othinus, right? How did that go?"

Touma answered, "It was an uneven battle from the very start. She always slaughtered me instantly before I could do anything. And each time, just before I died for good, she reset the cycle, and we started all over again. My memories are hazy, but I think I had to go through all those worlds each time before getting to the next round of the fight."

The girl wondered, "Just how many cycles were there?" She couldn't even fathom the magnitude of time he must have taken to pass through those worlds.

He scratched his head and shrugged, "I don't really know, since I lost count. For all I know, it could have been hundreds, or thousands, or even millions."

Mikoto then wondered, "But why would she keep bringing you back? Was that just another way of breaking you? And how did you win in the end?" Since he'd managed to return to this world, Mikoto thought that he must have somehow managed to defeat Othinus.

Touma smirked and told her, "Yeah, Othinus was trying to get me to break, and she didn't want to kill me for good because she didn't want to lose Imagine Breaker. My only strategy was for Othinus to get tired of defeating me over and over again. I hoped that she would break before I did. And it actually worked!"

The girl looked at him with a puzzled expression, asking, "Wow, it's amazing that you managed to tire her out! But why did she want your Imagine Breaker?" She was astounded at his mental fortitude, and she knew that she would have likely broken within just the first cycle.

He looked over at Othinus, who was still resting motionlessly at a distance, and answered, "She had her own original world that she wanted to return to. She could use her power to create new worlds that looked identical to hers, but she would still have known the difference. She used her power so often that she forgot where she came from. But my Imagine Breaker gave her the chance of erasing all those changes and returning to the original world. That's why she kept me alive through all those cycles."

Mikoto hadn't expected anything like that. She repeated, with a dumbfounded expression, "She had an original world she wanted to return to?"

Touma nodded, "Yeah. And because of that, despite being able to create worlds filled with happiness, she still felt crushed and lonely. I think that's where she came up with the idea for that perfect world."

The girl frowned, "So again, she wanted you to feel the same pain that she felt, even though you had nothing to do with it. I guess in this case, she didn't necessarily deserve the suffering she felt, but that's still not a justification to inflict that same pain on you!"

The boy sighed, "True, but at least I understand why she did it. Anyway, at some point, she gave up on breaking me, so she decided to finally finish me off for good. But I used all of my deaths to analyze her combat patterns, so I was able to evade her attacks."

Mikoto's eyebrows raised, and she reacted, "That's incredible! Though with how strong you are in fights, including your precognition, maybe it's not that surprising. So is that when you finally defeated her?" She was excited to hear how their battle had concluded.

Touma answered, "Well, because of the experience I gained, I was able to destroy her lance when she attacked me with it. But the battle didn't end there, because she was able to use another form of power."

Mikoto questioned, "Another form? Wasn't she trying to get the lance to increase her probability of success to 100%, or something like that? Did she have a second way to do that?"

The boy explained, "Yeah, just before we got to Sargasso, Ollerus and Fiamma tried to use a spell to turn her from a Magic God into a fairy. But while it did damage her, it also allowed her to get a 100% chance of failure, which she could use in the opposite way."

The girl was a little confused by this. She scratched her head and said, "Hmm, I still don't get how that probability thing works, but I'll take your word for it. So you ran into trouble with her new form that you hadn't trained against?"

Touma laughed and replied, "Yeah, you guessed it! She used this crossbow attack that fired a bunch of arrows. I was able to avoid most of them, but just before I could reach her, the last one shot through her body and then into me. She was able to heal herself, but I could not."

Mikoto reacted in a disappointed tone, "Oh, so you lost." In hindsight, this was the most likely outcome, no matter how strong her boyfriend was. She then smiled and rubbed his shoulder, saying, "Well, it's still really amazing that you were able to get to that point! But if Othinus won, why did she return you to this world?" That was the only possibility. With Othinus as the victor, the only way he could've come back to his world was if she chose to make it that way.

In response to that question, he smiled and replied, "I don't know exactly why, but I guess my words got through to her. Just before I died for the last time, I told her to be selfish and make the world how she wanted it, or else she'd end up just like me, crushed by a happy world. For some reason, she ultimately decided to concede the world to me. Maybe she regretted what she did to me and wanted to make it right, or maybe she decided that she didn't want to go back to her original world anymore."

The girl was now starting to understand why he was now getting along so well with Othinus. She said, "Well, winning a victory with your words when your fists failed is even more impressive, I'd say. It's hard for me to believe that she suddenly regretted what she did to you, but she did bring you back, so something must have happened."

Mikoto then took a deep breath and asked, "So just to make sure, you never got to punch her in the face during your battle right?"

Touma was hesitant to answer that question, because he had a good guess as to what the result would be. But he said, "No, I didn't."

The girl nodded with a determined expression on her face. Placing her hands on his shoulders, Mikoto finally got up from his lap saying, "That's what I thought." She then turned and walked towards where Othinus was sitting.

The boy immediately stood up as well, shouting, "Wait!" He knew that his girlfriend was justifiably angry at Othinus, but he didn't want Mikoto to go attack her in a frenzy.

Mikoto stopped walking and said with a somewhat cold expression, "Relax, Touma. I won't kill her. That would be much too merciful for her, after all." She saw him flinch at what she said, so she turned to fully face him and placed a hand on her hip, asking, "Why are you so willing to forgive her, anyway? Is it just because you think she went through the same pain, and now you empathize with her?"

Touma nervously scratched his head and answered, "Yeah, pretty much. Honestly, by the end, she wasn't that bad to get along with."

The girl sighed, "Look, I get that you spend an eternity being only able to talk to her, and so you formed a connection. But for that entire time, she was torturing you, so it sounds a little like Stockholm Syndrome."

The boy shrugged, "Maybe it is, but that's still how I feel now. I don't think it's right for the world to just kill her in a frenzy. Look, I'm not saying she shouldn't be punished for her crimes. If she has to be locked up for decades, so be it. But that fairy spell that Ollerus and Fiamma used against her is currently in the process of destroying her. We're going to a certain spring to retrieve her eye, so she can turn back into a normal human and survive. That spell has actually removed her power as a Magic God already, but I told the American president earlier that we were going there to remove her power and then surrender to him."

Mikoto crossed her arms and said, "I see, so that's why you came all the way here to Denmark. How many people have you had to fight so far anyway? I saw new reports of some disturbances all across the peninsula."

Touma answered, "Well, the very first one was Accelerator. Then I had to face off against forces from the Catholic Church, then the Orthodox Church, and then the Anglican Church. After that was Marian Slingeneyer, then the American military, then the Five Overs, and finally, you. So far, I've been able to win or at least negotiate my way out, but I don't know what's going to happen next."

The girl grinned at him and said in an impressed tone, "Well, you've done great so far! You always find a way to win, whether it be with your words or with your fists, so this time should be no different." Compared to him facing against Othinus in those infinite hells, Mikoto didn't think that this world would be able to produce any challenging opposition for him.

The boy's cheeks reddened at her praise, and he replied, "Thanks, Mikoto."

She then sighed and said, "Well, anyway, spending decades in prison won't even come close to making up for what she did to you. But it's still something, and she'll still be punished for the crimes she committed against everyone else. And since she's already lost her power, she won't be a threat to the world ever again."

Touma relaxed, glad that his girlfriend understood his motivations. However, she then added, "Touma, you're a much better person than me for being able to forgive her for what she did to you. And I get that you want to give her a second chance, especially since she returned you back to this world. But even if you can forgive her on your own behalf, I can't. I can't forgive her for using me and my relationship with you to hurt you. I can't forgive her for exploiting my sisters' deaths to drive you to suicide. But most of all, I can never forgive her for torturing the boy I love for an eternity."

Mikoto then resumed walking towards Othinus, concluding, "Like I said, I won't kill her. I won't try to get revenge on her. But I will have a little talk with her, and I will do to her what you didn't get the chance to do back then."

The boy felt conflicted about what she was about to do, but he figured it wouldn't be too bad. And perhaps his girlfriend and Othinus could at least start to come to an understanding by talking to each other. Touma decided to trust his girlfriend, and stayed where he was.

---

Othinus had been observing the confrontation between Mikoto and Touma from a distance. She hadn't been able to hear what they said, but their body language alone was enough to get a good understanding of what was going on.

So she was not surprised when Mikoto walked up to her with a cold expression on her face. Othinus sighed and softly said, "So, he told you everything, I assume?" She had known that Touma would probably tell his girlfriend about what had happened to him. Now, there wasn't much for Othinus to do, except accept whatever punishment she received.

Mikoto clenched her teeth and her fists and replied, "Not everything, but he told me enough, more than enough." She wanted to pull Othinus up by the collar, but she wasn't wearing one. So Mikoto just clenched her right fist, put all her weight behind it, and slammed it into the other girl's face, knocking her down into the snow.

While breathing heavily a bit to recover from the exertion, she waited for Othinus to get back up. She didn't have to wait too long, before Othinus slowly sat back up, holding her hand to her cheek. Seeing that Mikoto wasn't making any further moves to attack her, Othinus wryly asked, "What, was that really enough to satisfy you?"

Mikoto let out a dark chuckle, replying, "Of course not. Any amount of pain I could inflict on you would be infinitesimal compared to what you did to him." She crossed her arms and, unable to keep tears from forming in her eyes, asked, "How many times was it? How many hellish worlds did you put him through? How many times did you kill him?"

Othinus looked up at her for a few seconds before replying, "Do you really want to know the answer to that question? It will probably hurt you more than it would help you."

Mikoto felt a shiver down her spine. Did she really want to know the exact number? But she eventually nodded, "Yes. I know it won't do much to help me understand what he went through. Even if I were a mental esper, and he agreed to let me look into his memories so I could visualize them myself, I wouldn't be able to understand even a tiny fraction of what he experienced, and I would probably just end up traumatizing myself. Heck, even his memories haven't retained the vast majority of those worlds. So ironically, the only one who truly understands the scale of his pain and suffering is you." She thought to herself, "Well, the Will of the Misaka Network was probably there in at least some of those worlds, but even with 10-20 thousand brains, she might not have an accurate count either." Mikoto then reiterated, "It might hurt me, but I still want to know that exact number."

Othinus sighed, "All right, but don't say I didn't warn you." Mikoto silently nodded, so she continued, "He probably told you that there were cycles, where I sent him though a large number of worlds, and each cycle ended with me quickly slaughtering him in a direct battle. Coincidentally, there were 10,031 cycles that ended with me killing and then reviving him. On the 10,032th cycle, he destroyed my lance, but I still managed to kill him, though I then brought him back to this world."

Mikoto clenched her fist against her chest as she heard those poignant numbers, 10,031 and 10,032. Othinus knew exactly what those numbers represented to Mikoto: the last of her sisters who had died, and the first of her sisters who had survived. Mikoto felt her knees shake as she imagined her boyfriend going through as many cycles of death as her sisters had, except that each cycle for him had consisted of an uncountably large number of individual deaths.

The girl looked at Othinus and fearfully asked, "How many deaths in total? And how much time did he spend there in those hells before you finally grew a conscience?"

Othinus winced before answering, "The number of worlds in each cycle varied, but it was always hundreds of thousands to a few million. Over more than ten thousand cycles, I killed him exactly 13,808,513,270 times. He lasted for an average of about an hour in each world, so the total amount of time was approximately 1.6 million years. Though like you said, he only remembers a miniscule portion of that time."

Mikoto closed her eyes and trembled, repeating, "13.8 billion deaths. 1.6 million years." That was more deaths than the age of the universe in years. And the amount of time the boy she loved had suffered was many times larger than the amount of time that humanity had even existed on Earth.

Othinus looked down in shame, not knowing what more to say.

Tears fell down Mikoto's cheeks, and she tried desperately to contain her fury and despair. Eventually, she looked again at Othinus and angrily sobbed, "Why? Why did you do it? Why did you have to torture someone who didn't do anything to you? Did you really have to drag someone else down because of whatever suffering you experienced in the past?"

Othinus was a little surprised that Mikoto was acknowledging that she had suffered in the past. She answered, "He probably told you that I wanted to return to my original world, right? That's what I thought, but what I really wanted was for someone to understand me. Maybe you know that feeling a little as a Level 5 esper, but it's even harder for a Magic God to find someone who can understand her. I originally hoped to find someone like that in my original world, but I realized that there was no guarantee of that. On the other hand, that human has spent so much time with me that he now fits that role."

Mikoto wasn't sure how to feel about that fact, but she deduced, "So that's why you decided to return Touma to his world, instead of going back to your own." Othinus silently nodded, so Mikoto turned away, sighed, and added, "I see, I think I have the full picture now." She really didn't like how much Othinus and her boyfriend had bonded due to that torturous time. But it was something she would have to accept.

Othinus felt very awkward in this situation. She eventually looked down and said, "Look, I truly am sorry for what I did to him, even if it allowed him to understand me. I'm ready to face whatever punishment is deemed necessary for my crimes. And this may not mean much to you at this point, but I am sorry for what I said about your relationship with him. It's much stronger than what I said or even thought it was."

Mikoto bit her lip as she recalled Touma telling her all the painful and malicious things Othinus had said about their relationship. She eventually replied, "Fine, since you did bring him back, I'll believe that you actually are sorry." She then walked away, heading back towards her boyfriend.

When he saw her approach, he asked, "So, is everything good?" He was glad that Mikoto had limited herself to a single punch, and it seemed that she and Othinus had talked it out a little.

Mikoto nodded, "As good as it can be, I guess." She now knew what she'd come to Denmark to learn, so she was ultimately satisfied with the results.

Touma turned to walk towards Othinus and said, "All right, I guess I'll be going now."

The girl smiled at him and asked, "Because you have to?"

The boy shook his head, "No, because I want to."

Mikoto shrugged and said, "All right, you should get going, then."

Touma asked to make sure, "And you're not going to stop me?" Even if she now understood the situation between him and Othinus, he would've expected her to be more conflicted about letting them continue on their journey.

Mikoto smirked and said, "Maybe I was able to beat you earlier, but I don't think I could beat you now no matter how hard I tried." Now that his guilt was gone and his resolve had strengthened, she knew that nothing would be able to stop him from achieving his goal.

The boy approached closer to her and softly asked, "And...you're not going to join me either?"

The girl placed her hands on Touma's shoulders and pulled him into a kiss. They both closed their eyes and enjoyed it for a few seconds, before pulling apart. Mikoto then replied, "Like I said before, I'm not that convenient a girl. Besides, you pridefully decided to fight against the entire world to save that one girl. After successfully fighting against a god to save and return to your world, you were ready to fight against that world to save that same god. So I'll let you achieve that goal on your own, just like you wished."

Touma was surprised to hear her response, but soon replied, "Thank you, Biri-Biri!"

Mikoto then wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into one final hug. As she felt him return her embrace, she rested her head on his shoulder and said softly in his ear, "I will promise you this, Touma. When, not if, but when you achieve that goal...after you succeed in saving her, I will be waiting for you back home in Academy City. And when you come back home, I will properly welcome you back to this flawed, imperfect, yet wonderful world that you fought so long and so hard to return to."

As she said this, both of them teared up. Touma was overwhelmed with a grateful feeling, and he felt in his heart the significance of her words. He hugged her tighter and said, "I'm so glad I was able to come back to this world. I can't wait to go back home to you, Mikoto."

They continued hugging for a while, but then eventually pulled apart. Touma headed towards Othinus so they could continue their journey, but he gave his girlfriend a wave in parting. Mikoto waved back and then watched him leave with a content smile on her face.

When he was finally gone, Mikoto let out a sigh. She had achieved what she'd come to Denmark to achieve. But there was one last loose end to tie up. Those Five Overs from earlier were now starting to break free from her earlier hacking, so she would once again have to deal with them in order to cover Touma's advance.

This would be a truly modern battle, between the girl and the war machines based on her that had been sent to kill her boyfriend. But Mikoto was not worried in the slightest. In fact, she was thrilled. She gave a ferocious smile, pulled some coins out of her pocket, and said, "Now it's time for me to have some fun! Let's see if these hunks of junk truly are stronger than me." Plus, if the American soldiers lurking nearby got a front-seat view to the power of the original esper, then that would just be an added bonus.