Hello, everyone! This chapter will be similar to the previous one, in terms of showing slice-of-life moments between Mikoto and Touma at the hospital, as well as another update from the Railgang.

Blankow: Yeah, the couple doesn't really have much luck making out on Touma's hospital bed so far. And hopefully Mikoto's grand plan will be worth the wait.

Aminadab Brulle: Hmm, perhaps...

PhantomDiamond: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and all the character interactions. I'm looking forward to writing even more of these interactions in the future. And thanks again for your kind words.

SuddenBetrayal: Yeah, I really wanted Mikoto to meet Will, since she hasn't yet done so in canon. I also did want characters to discuss things with each other, since that also rarely happens in the novels. And yes, Mikoto's comment might be a bit of foreshadowing.

xellos540: Unfortunately, Mikoto and Touma didn't have much luck this time either. It is a shame that Will can't appear too often. Mikoto is becoming more perverted, though her intended target would actually enjoy it. A month definitely is a long time in this series. Mikoto did her best to explain the Othinus situation without talking about magic. Shokuhou will indeed show up in the near future, as will a hotel room.

dragonghoul9707: Touma would enjoy Mikoto in a Christmas outfit. Quite a few interesting arcs are coming up, including the ones with Shokuhou, St. Germain, and the High Priest, and I'm looking forward to writing about them.

SaSaltyDog: Thanks, I hope you enjoy this new chapter.

DBZLEGEND154: Yeah, I wanted Mikoto to meet Will, even if it can't happen often. Shokuhou will be an interesting addition to the story, and Mikoto's grand surprise is coming up. NT13 will be quite the arc to write, it'll probably be multiple chapters, and Touma will definitely be even angrier at the High Priest for insulting Mikoto. I am planning quite a few fun scenes for Christmas, both modified canon scenes and new scenes. This new chapter is another slice-of-life chapter before NT11.

Rekuta: Thanks for the link. It's definitely a funny scene, and I think it happened at the beginning of NT12, so I might indeed end up writing it.

Stryper88: You'll have to wait to see what exactly Mikoto remembered from Hawaii. She is becoming more perverted thanks to her relationship, and yeah, people don't seem to knock at all. The Railgang is getting quite close to finding out about magic. It was a little tricky to decide when to have Shokuhou find out, but I always wanted it to be either at the end of or after NT11. I also liked the Mikoto-Othinus interactions in the recent chapters of Fallout. The starting point in my fic is somewhat different, since Othinus isn't fully established in Touma's life, and Mikoto knows about how she tortured Touma, but their relationship will have the opportunity to develop. Tabigake does know about them dating, but not about them having sex. He could certainly become very scary to Touma if he finds out, though.

Vegitta: Yeah, the Railgang is getting closer and closer to knowing about magic. Touma and Mikoto haven't had a lot of luck fooling around in his hospital room. This chapter is another interlude before NT11. Thanks for the congratulations, it's been a long journey, but I'm looking forward to writing even more chapters!

LordChorizoCosmico: Things are going fine for me. 50 chapters is a big milestone, and it's been a big journey from my initial intention to write a few slice-of-life chapters to the fic I have now. I'm looking forward to writing future chapters, especially as NT heats up. Mikoto and Touma tried again to fool around in his hospital bed, and he didn't pass up the opportunity despite being injured. However, they got interrupted yet again. Maybe they'll succeed one day in the future. They did get to have a nice private talk, though. It definitely helped Touma to have Mikoto by his side after such a traumatic experience, and she had also gone through an experience which induced her to try to commit suicide. I'm glad you liked Mikoto's talk with Will. Even in canon, they were the ones who got through to him and refuted Othinus's perfect world, so I wanted to have them meet and affirm that they'd both do whatever it took to save Touma. Touma would probably do something like that if they went to an expensive restaurant. Yes, Mikoto's plans do involve some seduction, since they haven't had sex since that time in Hawaii. The Railgang finding out about magic could indeed be dangerous, though they've already learned about some of the events related to the Magic Side. When they do find out, Mikoto will probably have to urge them to be very, very careful.

The following day, Mikoto once again went to visit her boyfriend in the hospital. Since Touma needed to catch up on his schoolwork, she had previously gone to his dorm and picked up the necessary school supplies. And because Index had returned home, Mikoto was looking forward to having another study date with Touma.

Once she reached the hospital, she quickly walked towards Touma's room with an eager and blissful smile on her face, looking forward to spending some more quality time with him. But when she opened the door and entered the room, she was surprised to see Othinus sitting on the nightstand by Touma's bed.

Mikoto looked at Othinus with a bewildered expression and asked, "Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you'd gone with Index." When she thought back, she realized that she hadn't seen Othinus in Touma's apartment, but she'd just assumed that Othinus had been hiding or something.

Othinus scoffed, "Why would I go there and put myself at the mercy of that beast named Sphinx when I can stay here with him?" After her traumatizing experience being the cat's plaything the previous day, she didn't want to be near it while unprotected.

Mikoto placed a hand against her hip and sighed, "I guess that makes sense."

Touma nervously scratched his head and said, "Sorry about that. Biri-Biri. I know we planned to have a study date, but she really didn't want to go home with Index."

Mikoto felt a pang in her heart as she heard him officially refer to his dorm as Othinus's home. Before she could reply, Othinus said, "Look, Railgun, I won't interrupt your date. And if you two want to have sex or something, I can leave for a bit and find somewhere to hide."

Both Mikoto and Touma blushed at her blunt statement, and Touma sharply protested, "What? Mikoto's just here to help me study! We're not going to do anything like that here!"

Othinus rolled her eye and retorted, "Please, I'm certain you two did naughty things yesterday when you asked me and the nun to leave. And even if it just starts with studying, I doubt that you two horny teenagers will be able to keep your hands off each other for very long."

Mikoto's face reddened even further as she recalled making out with Touma the previous day. She then shook her head to dispel those thoughts and replied, "Well, Touma really needs to catch up on his schoolwork! So we'll keep our focus."

Othinus wasn't sure how much to believe her. But she shrugged and replied, "All right, I guess I'll stay then. Human, what are you studying anyway?"

Mikoto walked around the bed, got under the blanket, and sat down on Touma's left side, with their shoulders and legs touching. She replied, "It's math homework this time." She laid down his textbook, as well as some paper and pens, and asked, "So, which specific sections do you need to go over, Touma?"

As his girlfriend casually flipped through the book, Touma replied, "Um, I think we've been going over eigen...things? I don't remember the exact name."

Mikoto glanced over at him and said, "You mean eigenvalues and eigenvectors? Oh, so you're doing some linear algebra now, huh? That's a pretty fun subject!"

Touma narrowed his eyes at her and retorted, "Fun? Are you crazy? How could you think it's fun?" He wasn't that bad at math, but there were a lot of concepts to keep track of, even if he didn't regularly miss days of school.

The girl playfully nudged his shoulder and retorted, "I'm not crazy. Math is actually really cool, especially when you see how different areas all connect with each other. In fact, Linear Algebra is one of my favorite subjects in math!"

Touma smirked and nudged her back, saying, "That's good for you, but I don't even know all of the basics here, so I can't appreciate the beauty of mathematics like you can."

Mikoto laughed and then said, "You have a point there. So let's get started." She skimmed through the table of contents of the textbook and asked, "So do you know the previous linear algebra stuff? Like matrix multiplication, linear independence, span, dimension, range, null space, matrix inverses, and determinants?"

The boy became more and more nervous as his girlfriend recited each successive concept. He scratched his head and nervously replied, "Well, those words are familiar, and I think I vaguely have an idea of what most of them mean, but I wouldn't say I fully understand them."

In response to this, Othinus groaned and said, "How are you so good at understanding me and people in general, and yet so bad at understanding simple school subjects?" She then corrected herself, "Though he's not so good at understanding girls' feelings for him."

Mikoto glared at the tiny god and exclaimed, "Hey, you don't get to lecture him about this. Almost all the recent incidents he's had to skip school for are your fault!"

Touma wanted to avoid an argument between them, so he gently squeezed Mikoto's hand. When she turned to look at him questioningly, he said, "How about we just get into the lesson?"

Mikoto sighed and conceded, "Yeah, all right." She checked ahead to the homework problems he'd been assigned, and mused, "Okay, it looks like it's mainly computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors of specific matrices, so nothing too complicated. I'll go over what they are, and if there's something you don't understand, I'll explain it along the way."

The boy replied, "Sounds like a good plan." He knew it would take much too long to carefully go over all the previous topics.

Thus, Mikoto began, "Okay, I'm assuming you know what it means to multiply a matrix by a vector?" When he nodded, she starting writing on the paper and continued, "So if you have a square matrix A, a nonzero vector v, and a scalar number λ, such that Av=λv, then λ is called an eigenvalue of A, and v is called an eigenvector of A."

Touma pondered the definition for a bit, before saying, "So the vector is just scaled by a constant? And I guess you can't use the zero vector since multiplying it by any matrix will give zero again?"

Mikoto nodded, "Exactly! And it's pretty much the simplest thing that a matrix can do to a vector, which is why it's so special." The girl began writing up an example, "So say you have this 2x2 matrix with all 1's. Can you find an eigenvalue and eigenvector for it?"

The boy took the pen from his girlfriend and tried a couple of vectors. He went through a few unsuccessful ones, but eventually, he found, "Oh, if I multiply the matrix by the vector [1, 1], then I get [2, 2], which is a multiple. So [1, 1] is an eigenvector and 2 is an eigenvalue."

The girl grinned and explained, "You got it! And since matrix multiplication is linear, any multiple of [1, 1] will also be doubled. And this matrix has another eigenvalue. If you multiply it by the vector [1, -1], you get the zero vector, so 0 is another eigenvalue."

Touma tilted his head and mused, "Hmm, so there's another eigenvalue? Are those two the only eigenvalues for that matrix? And does every matrix have eigenvalues in the first place?"

Mikoto answered, "Those are the only two eigenvalues. You can only have as many eigenvalues as the size of the matrix. So a 2x2 matrix can only have 2 eigenvalues, and a 3x3 matrix can only have 3. As for whether every matrix has an eigenvalue, it depends if you're looking over the real or complex numbers. Every matrix, real or complex, has a complex eigenvalue, but some real matrices don't have real eigenvalues."

The boy groaned, "I have to deal with complex numbers too?"

Othinus took this moment to chime in, "You know, the name 'complex numbers' is really a misnomer. They actually make algebra, calculus, and physics a lot simpler and more elegant."

Touma looked over at her and said, "Othinus, how do you even know so much about math? You're supposed to be a Magic God, not a genius schoolgirl like Mikoto."

Othinus scoffed, "You think I could manipulate the entire universe without understanding one of the basic concepts of mathematics? You really are a fool."

Mikoto raised an eyebrow at her and wondered, "Hold on, if you really are a god who knows everything about the entire universe, do you know the answer to unsolved problems like the Riemann Hypothesis, or P=NP? And not just math, do you know what dark matter and dark energy are made of? And do you know if there's a Theory of Everything that explains both general relativity and quantum mechanics?"

Othinus crossed her arms and replied, "I do happen to know the answers to all those questions, and more. But I'll let you humans have the joy of discovering them on your own."

Mikoto smirked, "You know, for some reason, I don't quite believe you!"

Othinus shrugged, "Well, it makes no difference to me whether you believe me. I'm secure in my godly knowledge."

Mikoto rolled her eyes, deciding not to press the matter further. Instead, she turned back to Touma and said, "Well anyway, she's right about complex numbers making things simpler, at least in this case."

The boy sighed and said, "I'll take your word for it. So how do we find eigenvalues in general? I don't think it'd be easy to look at a random matrix and find them by guessing and checking."

The girl told him, "Yeah, so there is a general way to calculate them. With the example we looked at, there was an eigenvector with eigenvalue 0, which meant that the vector was in the null space of the matrix, right?" Pausing to make sure he understood, she then wrote on the paper and said, "To generalize this, if Av=λv, then you can rearrange that equation to (A-λI)v=0, where I is the identity matrix."

Touma looked carefully at what she wrote, before saying, "Okay, that makes sense. So λ is only an eigenvalue if there's a nonzero vector in the null space of A-λI?"

Mikoto patted her boyfriend's knee and replied, "That's right! And do you remember how to tell if a matrix has a nonzero null space?"

The boy scratched his head, thinking for a few moments, before nervously trying, "Um, I think it was something to do with the determinant and the matrix being invertible?"

The girl nodded, and explained, "Yes, more specifically, you want A-λI to be noninvertible, which means that its determinant has to be 0." She then wrote out generic 2x2 and 3x3 matrices, subtracted λ from the diagonal entries, and wrote out the expressions for each determinant.

Pointing to these expressions, she explained, "So you get a polynomial in terms of λ. The degree of the polynomial is the size of the matrix, and the eigenvalues are the roots of the polynomial. Since every polynomial has a complex root, every matrix has a complex eigenvalue. But a real matrix might not have an eigenvalue, if the polynomial has no real roots. Though every odd-dimension real matrix will have an eigenvalue, since every odd-degree real polynomial has a real root."

Touma furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and said, "Wait, every polynomial has a complex root? That sounds familiar, but I didn't really know that!"

Mikoto nodded, "It's actually a pretty amazing fact, enough to be called the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra! All you need to do is add a square root of -1, and that's enough to give every polynomial a root!" She then pointed at some of the homework problems, saying, "Why don't you try these?"

Touma looked at the problems, seeing that they asked him to compute the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of 2x2 and 3x3 matrices. Since the determinants were straightforward to calculate, and since they resulted in simple quadratic polynomials and easily factorable cubic polynomials, he was able to solve them without too much trouble. There were some with distinct real eigenvalues, some with just repeated real eigenvalues, and some with two imaginary eigenvalues. After finding the eigenvectors of these matrices, he observed, "Hmm, so if the polynomial has a repeated root, then there are that many dimensions of eigenvectors?"

The girl brought her hand up to her chin and answered, "In these cases, yes. But that's not always true. Here's an example." She pointed at another homework problem. It had a 2x2 matrix, with a 1 in the upper-right corner and 0's in the other three locations. She explained, "Here, 0 is the only eigenvalue, but only multiples of [1, 0] get sent to 0. So the eigenspace is only 1-dimensional."

The boy scratched his head and muttered, "Hmm, so when do the dimensions match? Does it just depend on the matrix, or is there a nice way to tell?"

Mikoto frowned and replied, "It sort of does depend, but there is a method to tell. It involves trying to diagonalize the matrix, though I think you won't get to that until later."

Othinus had been watching and listening to them, since she was a little interested. She now said, "Human, it might be worth studying those later subjects now, since you'll likely end up missing school again."

The boy groaned and replied, "I know you're probably right, but I don't want to plan for it like it's certain!"

Mikoto smirked at her boyfriend and said, "I think it's a good idea! You don't have anything else to do now, so why don't we study ahead!"

Touma slumped down, groaning, "Ugh, my rotten luck!"

Mikoto held her hand up to her mouth and giggled for a bit. But she then ruffled his hair, kissed his cheek, and said, "You're doing great so far! We can take a break for now and continue later."

The boy let out a small smile, replying, "Thank you for being merciful, Mikoto-sensei!"

At that moment, the door to the hospital room suddenly began to open, so Othinus quickly moved behind Touma to hide from whomever was about to enter. The new visitors were the four usual Misaka Sisters, Misakas 10032, 10039, 13577, and 19090. Misaka 10032 was also holding her cat, On Hold.

Mikoto looked up and greeted them, "Oh hey, guys!" She wasn't too surprised to see them visiting Touma. She got up out of the bed and walked around it to reach her sisters, giving each one of them a hug.

After that, one of them finally spoke. "Hello, says Misaka 10032, returning your greeting. We came to check on the boy's health." The four Sisters immediately crowded around Touma, looking intently at his bandaged arm.

"How are you feeling, softly asks Misaka 19090 with a worried expression, while she gently rubs your arm." She was soon joined by the other three sisters, who all softly ran their fingers over his damaged arm, trying not to hurt him.

Touma felt a little embarrassed being doted on by them. He nervously rubbed his neck with his left hand and said, "Don't worry, 19090-chan, I'm fine! It should be healed pretty soon." He could tell that they were all still worried, so he held out his left arm and brought each of them into a hug. Mikoto sat back down on the edge of the bed and silently smiled as she watched the sweet scene, though she saw Othinus giving her a questioning look.

"You were incredible out there, fighting against the world to save Othinus, even though she was a terrorist, says Misaka 13577 in an admiring tone."

"But you put yourself in a lot of danger, scolds Misaka 10039, hoping you'll learn to take better care of yourself."

Mikoto thought to herself, "They're pretty accepting of this, aren't they? Though they do have the experience of Accelerator, plus they saw Touma and the world leaders urge the world to give Othinus a chance at redemption."

"We saw that Othinus ended up dying, but at least she was happy and content in the end, notes Misaka 10032, attempting to console you, knowing you must be devastated."

The boy awkwardly glanced over at Mikoto, not knowing whether to tell them the truth. After an awkward silence, Othinus sighed and walked around from behind Touma's back. As she appeared to the Sisters, she announced, "I'm not actually dead. As you can see, I survived in this smaller form."

The four standing girls all narrowed their eyes and silently glanced down at Othinus. Othinus was unsure how they would react to her, but she didn't expect what happened next.

Misaka 10039 reached down and wrapped her hand around Othinus's entire body, picking her up and bringing her up to eye level. "Wow, she's been turned into a living doll, observes Misaka 10039.

"Is this how powerful magic and Magic Gods are, that they can even survive death, asks Misaka 13577."

At this point, Othinus wiggled around and protested, "Hey! Stop manhandling me like a toy!" Only her head was visible, and since Misaka 10039 was squeezing her body, her arms and legs were stuck together.

Misaka 19090 then recalled an important fact. "Come to think of it, she was responsible for the attack on Hawaii, which led to those cooperative institutions defecting, recalls Misaka 19090. Because of that, the Misakas at those facilities had to abandon their homes and escape for their lives, further notes Misaka 19090."

"That's true, so we should punish her for putting those Misakas' lives at risk, fervently declares Misaka 10032." As soon as she said this, all four Sisters showed devious smirks on their faces.

Othinus knew that they had a point, so she didn't feel she had any right to complain. Touma reached out his arm and said, "Hey, wait! She's already been punished, there's no need to do anymore." He was somewhat worried that they would try to electrocute Othinus or something.

But instead, Misaka 19090 reached out and poked Othinus in the cheeks. "Heh heh, this is fun, says Misaka 19090." Misaka 10039 opened her hand a bit, exposing more of Othinus's body, allowing Misaka 13577 to tickle her exposed belly with one finger.

Othinus started involuntarily laughing, writhing around in a futile effort to defend herself, shouting, "S-st-stop! S-stop!" After Misaka 13577 eventually stopped, Misaka 10039 proceeded to move her arm around erratically in the air, causing her prisoner to become dizzy.

When Misaka 10039 paused to rest her arm, Othinus looked over at Mikoto and pleaded, "Railgun! Can you please rein in your sisters? This is cruel and unusual punishment!"

Mikoto crossed her arms and gave Othinus a dangerous grin, saying, "Oh? But they're having so much fun playing with a nice new toy! As their Big Sister, I can't possibly disappoint them!"

Othinus then looked over at Touma and desperately said, "Human, help me! That cat was bad enough, but now this?"

Touma, seeing that she wasn't in fact in any real danger, just shrugged and replied, "Sorry, but I have to stay here so my arm can heal. I'm sure they'll be gentle with you."

Othinus, with her last hope having disappeared, could grit her teeth and think to herself, "Just because they're gentle with you doesn't mean they'll be gentle with me."

Misaka 10032, who hadn't yet joined in, came up with an idea. "You know, there's an interesting physics thought experiment about how high a human could jump if they were shrunken down to a small size, states Misaka 10032. It's believed that they could jump to the same absolute height, since the decreased strength of their leg muscles would be matched by the decreased weight they would need to lift. We can now test this, excitedly states Misaka 10032."

She took Othinus from Misaka 10039's grasp and placed her on the nightstand. "Now jump as high as you can, commands Misaka 10032."

Othinus crossed her arms and defiantly declared, "As a god, I'm not going to just jump at your command. You can torment me all you want, but I will never become your pet!"

But Misaka 10032 knew exactly how to make her comply. She silently let the black cat out of her arms, and it leaped onto the table. This sudden move startled Othinus, who sprung into the air while letting out a yelp.

"She jumped about 30 centimeters, about double her height measures Misaka 10032. We now have empirical evidence that a shrunken person can jump as high as a regular person, concludes Misaka 10032 with a pleased expression."

While she spoke, Othinus ended up falling onto On Hold's back. This startled the black cat, who then jumped down to the floor and started running around, with Othinus riding on its back, screaming and desperately trying to not fall off.

The Sisters' eyes tracked the cat's movement as they all wore smirks on their faces. After some time, Othinus finally fell off the cat's back and onto the ground. She got up with a groan, rubbing her side, but her ordeal was not yet over.

Oh Hold wiggled its tail and peered at Othinus. From her previous experience with Sphinx, she knew she had to run. She used all her might to run away from the cat, who immediately began chasing her. Othinus eventually became cornered against the bottom of the nightstand, and she instinctively closed her eye as she prepared to be lifted into its mouth.

But instead, she felt a soft pressure against her body. When she slowly opened her eye, she saw that the cat was merely pawing at her. Othinus let out a huge sigh of relief, before muttering, "Well, at least you're much better-behaved than that other beast."

As soon as she said this, Oh Hold stuck out its tongue and licked Othinus's body from bottom to top, knocking off her hat. She immediately picked it up and put it back on her head, holding it in place, but the black cat continued licking her, while she shouted, "Stop, please, someone stop this beast!"

The Misaka Sisters merely watched with amusement. "Cats lick humans to show affection, so it seems On Hold likes you, observes Misaka 10032."

Mikoto laughed while watching Othinus struggle, but after some time, she decided that Othinus had suffered enough. She got up off the bed and then kneeled down in front of On Hold and Othinus. The girl reached out to pick up the black cat, but it drew back away from her, due to her stronger EM waves.

Mikoto sighed and thought, "Guess it's still not accustomed to me yet." She reached back her other arm and gently touched her boyfriend's bandaged right hand. With her powers negated, the black cat now nuzzled into her hand and allowed the girl to pick it up.

The girl bat back down on the bed, petting the cat in her lap with her left hand, while keeping contact with her boyfriend's right hand. Mikoto cooed, "Good kitty!"

Othinus, finally free, did her best to wipe herself with her cape. She was annoyed that Mikoto had taken so long to take the cat away, but also begrudgingly grateful that she'd done it at all. She then sighed and observed, "So it's really true, your electromagnetic waves repel animals, even one that is accustomed to a lower-levelled version of your power."

Mikoto smiled as she continued stroking the cat's back, saying, "Yeah, it's a drawback of my ability, unfortunately. I used to be pretty depressed whenever cute cats would run away from me, but I can now finally play with them thanks to Touma!"

In response, Othinus just muttered, "I wouldn't mind having that 'drawback' now."

Once she was done, Mikoto held out On Hold, returning it to Misaka 10032. "Big Sister, what are you and the boy studying, asks Misaka 10032, noticing the school supplies on the bed."

Mikoto answered, "Oh, he's going over eigenvalues and eigenvectors. We agreed to take a break, but I think it's a good time to get back to studying!"

Touma groaned and placed his head on his left hand, saying, "All right, you're the tutor." He wasn't particularly looking forward to more studying, but he knew it was necessary.

"May we stay for your study date, asks Misaka 13577, noting that all of us are a little bored right now."

The boy looked at his girlfriend, who merely shrugged, indicating it was up to him. He smiled at the Sisters and replied, "Sure!"

Mikoto returned to her original position, next to Touma's left and under the covers. Her four sisters also sat on the bed, surrounding Touma. Misaka 10032 and Misaka 19090 sat to his right, and Misaka 10039 and Misaka 13577 sat at the foot of the bed.

Since Misaka 10032 was still holding her cat, Othinus climbed up to the back of Touma's shoulder in an attempt to protect herself.

Touma's cheeks reddened as he felt the soft skin of the five Misakas around him. He looked at his girlfriend and asked, "H-hey, is this okay?"

Mikoto chuckled at his reaction and answered, "As long as you're fine with it too. I don't mind my little sisters being here with us."

"Do you not want us here, asks Misaka 19090 with a pleading look in her eyes."

The boy quickly replied, "No, no, it's fine with me."

Othinus raised her eyebrow and questioned, "As his lover, aren't you being a little too indulgent with them, Railgun?"

Mikoto grinned and answered, "Hey, it's my job as the older sister to indulge them, right?" She thought back to when Misaka 10032 had said that to another pair of sisters after having been saved from death. Mikoto would do whatever it took to make sure her sisters were happy.

She then kissed Touma's cheek and said, "Anyway, try not to get too distracted, okay? We still need to study!"

Touma nervously gulped as he gazed at the five cute girls around him, saying, "I'll try my best." They then got back to studying.

Later that evening, Kuroko and Uiharu were over at Saten's place to hang out, while Mikoto was with her boyfriend. They had just finished having dinner, and they were now sitting around the table in Saten's bedroom.

Since Mikoto was not with them, Kuroko was able to bring up a topic she'd been pondering about. She said, "You know, it seemed like onee-sama was't telling us the full story about those GREMLIN terrorists and their leader, or about what happened in Denmark."

Saten brought her hand up to her chin and mused, "Hmm, I think you're right, Shirai-san. But there were probably private moments between her and Kamijou-san that she didn't want to reveal."

Kuroko waved her hand and replied, "I'm not talking about that, Saten-san. I mean how she was quite vague about the battle against Othinus and the fighting in Denmark when Kamijou-san switched to her side."

Saten nodded, "Hmm, that's true. Hey, why don't we search for news from Denmark? Maybe it'll tell us more information about what happened there. Since there was an international coalition against GREMLIN, it should be major world news." As she said this, she took out her laptop and opened her internet browser.

As Saten began to search for that information, Uiharu looked over at the computer screen and noted, "Well, I don't think GREMLIN has been mentioned on the news at all, so Academy City probably wants to keep it a secret for some reason. If that's true, I don't think we'll be able to find too much useful information on the public web."

But Saten pulled up a website with news from Denmark, replying, "Maybe it's not much, but look at this! In just one day, there was a meteorite sighting, a supposed UFO crash, and a giant shadow!" There weren't that many details, but they were certainly strange occurrences.

Kuroko rested her hand against her cheek and mused, "Ordinarily, I'd say that it's just meaningless nonsense, but those phenomena could be the result of various espers fighting against Kamijou-san. So there probably were battles in Denmark, like onee-sama indicated, but that still doesn't tell us what we want to know." She paused for a moment before suggesting, "We could try searching for information about GREMLIN and Othinus."

Saten nodded and did so, trying various search terms. But there weren't really any results about the terrorist group GREMLIN, just that gremlins were mythological creatures that damaged machinery. When she tried searching the name Othinus, she noted, "Darn, there aren't any results for this."

Uiharu then pointed at something at the top of the screen and said, "Maybe try clicking on that?" The search engine asked if they meant "ODINUS" instead. When Saten clicked through, she found a few results about a proposed European space mission to send orbiters named Freyja and Freyr to Uranus and Neptune.

Saten frowned and said, "Ugh, this doesn't help us at all!"

But Kuroko then said, "Hold on, there might be a clue here. Freyja and Freyr are both Norse gods, so maybe both Othinus and ODINUS are named after one too." She took the laptop and searched for Norse gods, quickly finding, "Here! Odin is the king of all the Norse gods. So maybe Othinus is just a female version of Odin?"

Uiharu's eyes widened and she excitedly said, "And she's from Denmark, so that makes perfect sense!" However, she continued in a confused tone, "But that just explains the origin of her name, it doesn't give us any real information."

Saten then turned to Uiharu and said, "Hey, Uiharu-san, could you use your hacking skills to find the information that Academy City is keeping a secret?"

Uiharu thought for a moment before replying, "I could definitely try, but since Academy City's internet servers are separated from the rest of the world, I can only get to information stored in Academy City itself."

Saten nodded, "That should be fine, though. Misaka-san got an email from the city's higher ups about this, so there should be some information about Othinus."

At this point, Kuroko warned, "Uiharu, I know you've done this before, but we could get in a lot of trouble for using hacking to get this information, especially since it concerns national security."

But Uiharu smirked and retorted, "Don't worry, Shirai-san. Misaka-san already directly fought against Academy City's war machines, and she didn't get in trouble. Plus, I know how to avoid revealing myself." She was totally confident in her hacking skills.

Uiharu proceeded to hack into Academy City's highest security databases, searching for references to GREMLIN and Othinus. It didn't take her long to get some results. As Kuroko and Saten looked over her shoulders at the screen, they all saw documents about how GREMLIN had been a major threat, having caused major incidents in Hawaii, Baggage City, and Tokyo.

Saten tilted her head and muttered, "Baggage City? What happened there?"

Uiharu looked further for information about it, and soon found, "After Misaka-san, Kamijou-san, and others intervened in Hawaii, a number of Academy City's cooperative institutions defected in protest. Apparently, they ran a tournament in Baggage City, in Eastern Europe, to develop supernatural powers outside of Academy City. But Academy City sent its military forces to bring them to heel, and they all were forced to realign with Academy City."

This was fascinating and somewhat disturbing information, showing yet another hidden dark side of the city they lived in. But Uiharu then found even more intriguing results, about Touma and "Magic God Othinus" fleeing to Denmark, and how Academy City sent the Level 5's and the Five Overs after them.

Kuroko then asked the critical question, "What on earth do they mean by a Magic God?"

Saten answered, "It sounds like an all-powerful magician, like from a fantasy novel or an RPG."

Kuroko scoffed, "But this is real life, not a fantasy novel! Magicians don't actually exist!"

Saten quickly replied, "I'm not so sure about that. If supernatural esper powers can exist, why not supernatural magic powers?

Kuroko considered her point for a moment, before countering, "But esper powers have an actual scientific basis. I could perhaps believe that other places have developed esper powers, but magic powers that aren't based on scientific laws make no sense."

Uiharu then noted, "There is a difference between esper powers and other scientific technology. Kamijou-san's right hand negates the former but not the latter."

Kuroko brought her hand up to her chin and mused, "Hmm, that's true, but it could somehow be an AIM-destroying ability. But now that I think about this, he did have those dragons, right? Those weren't really explainable by esper powers."

Saten then brought up another point, "And remember what happened in Liberal Arts City? They were trying to develop psychic powers for the US, and we went up against those weird war machines that I'm pretty sure were not based on esper powers or pure scientific technology. Maybe they were somehow based on magic?"

Uiharu's eyes widened, and she recalled, "Come to think of it, there was also that attack on September 30. There was never any explanation for just how those people fell into comas, but Academy City did say that the Roman Catholic Church had attacked Academy City with psychic powers under the codename 'magic.' But what if it was actually real magic?"

Kuroko was starting to believe this theory, but remained a little skeptical. She said, "Okay, let's assume that magic is real. Even then, would it really be possible for a magician to gain god-like powers?"

Uiharu pointed out, "Well, both Accelerator and Misaka-san were targeted for Level 6 shifts, so if it's theoretically possible for espers to reach a god-like state, maybe it's not impossible for magicians?"

Saten then excitedly deduced, "Then it makes even more sense that Othinus is named for a Norse god! And if she had that much power, it's no surprise that she was able to gather a large organization to support her, and why the entire world formed a coalition against her."

Kuroko wondered, "But if she had that much power, was Kamijou-san really able to defeat her? And even if he did, and then switched sides to keep her from being killed, why would the world be content with just imprisoning her, when she would have the power to break out?"

Saten suggested, "Maybe she was somehow able to give up her power? Is there any more information about how it all ended?"

Uiharu searched for a bit, and said, "Hmm, there are mentions of Accelerator being defeated, and Misaka-san siding with Kamijou-san and Othinus and destroying the Five Overs. Oh, look at this!" She brought up the footage of Touma and Othinus's final confrontation, and continued, "It looks like she decided to sacrifice her life to end the pursuit and free him from being targeted by the world."

Saten then realized, "Hold on, Misaka-san told us that Othinus wasn't killed and that she's currently being punished. So that was a lie?"

Uiharu frowned and mused, "Maybe, or perhaps something else happened afterwards that we can't see. This footage does cut out abruptly, after all. We should probably talk to Misaka-san and Kamijou-san to get the full story." She and the others were upset that their friend had seemingly lied to them about Othinus's fate, but they assumed and hoped that there had been a good reason for this.

Kuroko then realized something else, "By the way, if magic is real, and if Kamijou-san's power works against magic too, that would explain why he's been involved in so many international incidents. And now onee-sama's getting involved in those same conflicts."

The three girls had come across a major revelation. If magic powers truly were real, then everything they had previously believed about the prominence of Academy City's esper powers was utterly false. If Othinus had truly had god-like powers, then she would have been infinitely stronger than the city's vaunted Level 5's, and it was very possible that there were lesser magicians which still had comparable or greater power than the Level 5's. They had truly stumbled upon knowledge of a completely new world.