Hello, everyone! With Kihara Yuiitsu having stolen Kamisato's World Rejecter, this chapter will show the fight against her.

Rekuta: I'm glad that you're back to health. Mikoto was quite badass in that scene, and I hope to show more such scenes. Touma's classmates learning about his true life would definitely be interesting, though "Misfortune No One Sees Until Now" does a really good job with that already. This chapter will finish off NT15, and then it's off to NT16, which will have some fun scenes at Tokiwadai.

MarauderPrime12: Yep, it did.

Mugetsu700: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.

xellos540: Actually, it is the same school. Touma and Kamisato met in NT14, but I skipped that in my story. Accelerator would probably be able to beat Salome if he destroys her body enough. I don't think she can land a major hit on him. Yeah, Mikoto is feeling somewhat insecure now, but it helps that Touma has faith in her. Touma generally wouldn't want to have his friends risk themselves, but Mikoto is now a big exception. Kamisato was a dick in that scene for sure. I figured that since Accelerator took the Kamisato girls out pretty easily, Mikoto would be able to do so too. I guess the boys feel embarrassed/cringed out about those things, which is why they want to burn them. The Elements/Heat Wave arc is coming up next, after NT15 is over.

dragonghoul9707: GT6 is looking interesting. I would like to see Mikoto and Shokuhou appear again, but I don't have much hope. NT16 will definitely be fun to write about, with Touma surrounded by girls in swimsuits at Tokiwadai.

In the schoolyard, Kihara Yuiitsu stood triumphant, having stolen Kamisato's right hand and its World Rejecter power. Kamisato himself was still collapsed on the ground, so the ones who were able to fight were Touma, Mikoto, and some of Kamisato's girls.

Salome was the first one to move. She rushed towards Yuiitsu, and she moved so quickly that it was hard to visualize her movements. But the woman, despite wearing just a suit and lab coat, did not seem alarmed in the slightest. She just raised the stolen right arm, pointing it at her enemies.

Touma felt fear permeating through his body. World Rejecter had torn apart Imagine Breaker, and unleashed the mysterious power within. If that happened again here, Mikoto and the Kamisato Faction could potentially become collateral damage. He had to avoid that nightmare scenario.

But nothing happened at all. Yuiitsu tilted her head in confusion, and Salome managed to reach her. Salome swung both her hands around, while Yuiitsu simply raised her left leg to perform multiple kicks.

Surprisingly to Touma and especially to Mikoto, Salome was the one who was forced back. Her cyborg body was durable enough to resist electricity and a sharp iron sand blade, but a simple physical attack had forced her back?

Yuiitsu stared at her new right hand and said, "Yes, you wouldn't let something like that kill you. The shockwaves propagating from multiple impact points would collide in your body and create deadly bubbles in your blood vessels…if you were a normal human. Though I'm only using a cheap imitation of Amata-chan's technique, and it wouldn't be that romantic if you died here immediately."

Of course, she had more weapons at her disposal than World Rejecter. Touma tried to signal to Ellen and Elza, but Yuiitsu read his mind, saying, "Go ahead, don't mind me. Every second you extend his life is another second he'll suffer knowing what he has lost. Between good and evil it's evil and between like and dislike it's like. Which is perfect."

The woman opened her right hand wide and pointed it towards Salome. Kamisato's sister would be the perfect target to kill in front of him.

Touma shouted, "Damn it, watch out, Salome! Stay out of-" Before he could say more, he was silenced by his girlfriend slamming her hand over his mouth.

She glared at him and exclaimed, "You idiot! Don't tell her how it works!" Mikoto could tell that he was about to reveal how World Rejecter worked. As soon as she said this, she felt her boyfriend's face turn pale.

Yuiitsu then said in an amused tone, "Oh, that's unfortunate. Hmm, but I know there's something he says whenever he activates it. What was it again? Do you wish for a new world?"

Salome leaned backwards to dodge the blow, so instead, World Rejecter tore into the schoolyard behind her, causing the dirt to disappear. Salome flipped around irregularly to avoid the subsequent attacks.

For Mikoto, it was her first time seeing the effects of World Rejecter up close. Although Touma had told her about how powerful it was, it was even more frightening to witness it in person. It could completely erase anyone with conflicting desires, and she knew that she was currently full of those, so a single hit would be fatal to her.

Meanwhile, Yuiitsu marveled at what she had unleashed, "Amazing, this totally violates conservation of mass! Does it use teleportation? This supernatural phenomenon is so great, I wonder how it avoids triggering the explosions that come with splitting atoms."

Touma looked down at his own hand, recalling how Imagine Breaker had returned to him after being taken by Fiamma. Was Kamisato's World Rejecter not that convenient, or was it because it thought Kihara Yuiitsu was Kamisato Kakeru?

At this point, Salome looked back at Touma and Mikoto, and asked, "Could you cover for me for a bit? Just 30 seconds should do!"

The two of them glanced at each other and nodded. Salome jumped back, allowing them to move to the frontline. Mikoto was the one who attacked first, launching a lightning spear while also conjuring up an iron sand sword.

Yuiitsu sent out some of the amorphous Sample Shoggoth to use as a shield. It absorbed the electrical attack, rendering it harmless. Mikoto then sliced through the slime with her iron sand sword and tried hitting her opponent directly, but the woman activated her shockwaves, which broke up the iron sand before it could reach her.

She then moved for a counterattack, holding out her hand and chanting, "Do you wish for-"

Touma ran forward and punched Yuiitsu's wrist, aiming to divert it from targeting his girlfriend. But the woman wasn't fazed by this, and used the opportunity to knee him in the side.

This blow almost completely brought him to a stop, but Touma couldn't afford to pass out now, or else her shockwaves from multiple blows would prove fatal. As the boy tried to press his feet against the ground, he happened to step on Yuiitsu's lab coat.

Immediately afterwards, he was struck by a flurry of blows, and fell onto his back. Mikoto rushed over to him, gripping onto his shoulders and exclaiming, "Touma!"

Yuiitsu looked slightly confused at the fact that Touma had survived. But she quickly determined that him stepping on her lab coat had thrown off the careful precision of her blows, so her shockwave technique hadn't fully worked.

She then raised her leg and prepared to strike Touma while he was still on the ground. But Mikoto reacted promptly, using her fist to swipe away Yuiitsu's leg. This gave Touma the time to roll away as the woman targeted him with World Rejecter.

That power tore a hole in the dirt, which Touma looked at with a nervous gulp. He was able to stand back up, but he knew that he was a bad matchup against Yuiitsu, who had World Rejecter at her disposal, in addition to a few other techniques.

However, they had managed to hold off Yuiitsu for long enough, and now Salome was back. Salome jumped up into the air and sent out some sort of invisible attack, tearing through the ground of the schoolyard on the way to her opponent.

But Yuiitsu just spun around, letting her lab coat shield against the attack. Even though it was thin, it was still enough to divert the path of the attack and thus act as a shield. The two of them continued to clash, allowing Touma and Mikoto a moment of respite.

Those two were initially confused as to how Salome had replenished her power. It was apparent that she had wanted the extra time to somehow charge her chain back up, but what could she have done in under a minute?

Touma and Mikoto looked backwards on a whim, and their eyes widened as they saw the answer. There were several dozen girls lying unconscious on the ground, as if they had fallen in battle.

In fact, Salome had used her External Offering to destroy the weapons and abilities of the other girls and absorb their powers, tossing their bodies aside. And that process was not even over yet. As she and Yuiitsu continued fighting, more and more girls of the Kamisato Factor came in to sacrifice themselves to power Salome up. She fired a dizzying array of attacks against Yuiitsu, but the woman kept shielding herself with her lab coat, the Sample Shoggoth, and her shockwaves.

Touma realized that these girls were not being coerced in any way. They were sacrificing themselves of their own free will, in order to ensure a collective victory for the Kamisato Faction, and to save Kamisato himself, who was still suffering in pain on the ground. He muttered, "This is crazy. No wonder he doesn't think those girls fell for him naturally. This goes well beyond anything that's normal!"

Mikoto frowned as she considered what was happening. She thought to herself, "Is that sort of thing the only way I can be useful in these fights?" She wanted to believe that she could be more than just a sacrifice, but in contrast to Mikoto's efforts against the High Priest and against Yuiitsu, Kamisato's girls were actually having some success with their strategy.

Meanwhile, Yuiitsu realized that it would be disadvantageous to have a long battle, so she went for a finishing blow, pointing her stolen right hand towards Salome. Its shadow moved to cover Salome's body, and the woman said the magic words, "Do you wish for a new world?"

Touma's mind went completely blank, knowing that the power that had instantly wiped out Magic Gods would now "exile" Salome to another world. But in fact, that did not happen.

With a smirk, Salome explained, "Of course that won't work! Don't take the Kamisato Faction so lightly, especially when you're just borrowing that thing. We were all accepted by Kamisato Kakeru, so we've all proven we don't have any conflicting desires, don'tcha think?"

This condition wasn't known to Yuiitsu, especially since she had just acquired that right hand, and since Salome had made a show of avoiding it. And this single mistake was a big one, for now Salome was at full power. She could now easily slice a warship in half, and she casually swung her arm towards Yuiitsu.

In response, the woman gave up on shielding herself, and instead made a big jump in an attempt to dodge the attack. Even so, Salome's attack managed to partially sever that right arm from her wrist. It was still attached by a few threads, but that was good enough, and Salome boasted, "I'll be taking back that right hand. That belongs to my dam stupid brother, Kamisato Kakeru. It's his job to decide how to use it, not an outsider like you!"

But then something weird happened. Yuiitsu let out an eerie laugh and replied, "I may not know exactly how World Rejecter activates, but there's something you're missing too. Just like how Imagine Breaker is both the power to reject and a restoration point for everything, World Rejecter is both the power to accept and something like deletion software. It can erase Magic Gods by the dozen, but it does not completely destroy them. If you can never see them again, it might seem like death, but that isn't fully accurate."

Those words gave Mikoto and Touma an ominous feeling. The boy warned, "Salome, this isn't good. Fall back!"

The woman then continued, "If this right hand can cross territories, and send them to the other side, then it should be able to do the reverse."

Mikoto and Touma's eyes widened in fear, knowing that something very very bad was about to happen. They knew Yuiitsu had to be stopped now, but that was not possible.

Yuiitsu raised up her partially severed right hand and said, "Paging Niang-Niang." Something bubbled up from within that right hand, forming something resembling a sticky fluid. It wrapped around her body, rising up to behind her shoulder.

That material grew on the shoulder and soon took form, becoming a girl who had a charm attached to her forehead and wore a mini Chinese dress. It was indeed Niang-Niang, who Touma and Mikoto had met during their battle against the High Priest.

Both Touma and Mikoto screamed at the top of their lungs. Immediately, Niang-Niang spread her arms, and her ten fingers transformed into a wide array of sharp and deadly weapons.

These blades made clean hits on Salome, and chopped up her body into pieces. It was a gruesome sight, and Touma's face paled as he caught what was left of her. Everything below her waist had been severed, and her head was bent at an odd angle.

Yuiitsu was not done. Though one Magic God had done plenty of damage, she laughed and released multiple more figures from that right hand, each of which was a separate Magic God, until there were a total of five. She laughed out loud and boasted, "Ha ha ha! Yes, this right hand is really unfair! These gods aren't the strange ones, it's this right hand that allows them to appear again in this world!"

Mikoto trembled in fear as she beheld that awful sight. She and Touma had failed in their effort to stop the High Priest, and now their opponent could pull out those monsters by the dozen. Her mind went completely blank, and she was frozen in place.

Touma saw how his girlfriend was reacting, and knew that they needed to act quickly. He sharply said to her, "Mikoto, we need to run. We're no match for them!"

These words partially snapped her out of her trance. She clenched her teeth, knowing that they were in an even more desperate situation than against the High Priest, since they didn't even have that convenient acrobike.

Fleeing was the only option, so Mikoto quickly scooped up Touma into her arms, with Salome also hitching a ride. She then activated her magnetism to immediately accelerate them towards a set of buildings outside the school, and away from Yuiitsu.

This head start opened some distance, but Yuiitsu began following them. Mikoto frantically jumped between buildings and street signs, going as fast as she could. It was beginning to properly sink in for her just how dangerous this situation was. She guiltily spoke into her boyfriend's ear, "I'm sorry, Touma. I wanted some sort of stimulus to help me get stronger, but it ended up leading to this."

Touma knew that his girlfriend had been feeling insecure about not being strong enough against the High Priest, and that this was somewhat related to how she had ended up fighting Salome. He wanted to reassure her, but he wasn't sure of the best way to do so.

The boy was startled by a new voice. It was Salome, and she interjected, "There's nothing so bad as a depressed romantic, don'tcha think?" Mikoto flinched, not liking how Salome was describing her, but unable to refute it.

She and Touma were surprised that Salome was still alive and even conscious after losing her lower body, but that was a benefit of a cyborg body. Salome then muttered, "I guess this is karma for slicing Claire in half. But anyway, this isn't the best time to chat. That woman who's even crazier than me is after us!"

Indeed, Yuiitsu was hot on their heels. Five Magic Gods were still coming out of her split right arm. Niang-Niang launched her myriad weapons towards them in multiple directions. In response, Mikoto used her magnetism to sharply change direction in mid-air, which caused those weapons to barely miss her and stab into a nearby building wall instead.

But immediately afterwards, Yuiitsu's face appeared in front of her. She had rapidly closed the distance, and now twisted her body to deliver a powerful kick. Since the resulting shockwaves would kill a person with a normal body, Salome maneuvered her body to absorb the blow. This succeeded in minimizing the damage, but as a result, Salome was knocked off of Mikoto and fell down towards the ground.

Mikoto shouted out, but she didn't have much time to worry about Salome, since Yuiitsu sent Niang-Niang after her again. Mikoto fearfully thought back to when those same weapons had pierced her own chest. She immediately brought up a bunch of iron sand from the ground to use as protection. However, that shield was hit by multiple impacts, and Niang-Niang's weapons slammed into Mikoto, tossing her and Touma downwards.

They crashed through the window of a nearby building. Mikoto tightened her grip on Touma, and he clung tightly to her neck and shoulder. They only stopped moving when Mikoto's back hit up against an exposed column.

Touma rubbed his head and got up out of her lap, and the two of them looked around at their surroundings. It was clear that the building was under construction, but they had more important things to worry about, as Mikoto shouted, "Here she comes!"

They both rolled away from the column, just as a projectile came rushing in towards their previous position. Several more baseball-sized objects came in, and they weren't just ordinary projectiles. They were completely dark, and they seemed to be distorting the surrounding light. At that moment, Touma wondered whether it was the work of another Magic God.

Mikoto used her magnetism to pull over some metal rebar, and placed it in front of them to block the strange attacks. She was surprised to see that it was actually working, and she then pulled Touma with her to hide behind another column.

Now that he had a moment to breathe slowly, Touma muttered, "That's odd. This doesn't really feel like a Magic God's attack."

Mikoto rested her head on her hand and replied, "Hmm, I get what you're saying. Compared to the High Priest, these attacks haven't been as strong." Even Niang-Niang's weapons had merely felt like a blunt hit, rather than a piercing blow.

Touma nodded and exclaimed, "Exactly! The High Priest was able to fuse with a comet and come back down to Earth after being coilgunned into space, but a bunch of metal or a concrete pillar is enough of a shield here? That's not possible, the Magic God brand isn't that cheap."

After all, the Magic Gods had planet or even universe-level power. World Rejecter was one of the few things that could defeat them, and Yuiitsu had control of that power as well. The boy reasoned, "I think Kihara Yuiitsu is using magic, but she's using something other than the Magic Gods."

Mikoto was about to reply, but their pursuer then jumped in through the window. Yuiitsu cackled and sent Niang-Niang's weapons forward once again. Touma stepped up and used his right hand to effortlessly deflect those attacks, without even needing to make a fist. He then resolutely faced his opponent and declared, "Those aren't the real Magic Gods! And they aren't even what lurks within that right hand! They're just fakes you made to look like Magic Gods. Yes, you let Sample Shoggoth invade your body to attach that right hand, and you used the attenuated St. Germain virus to use magic! That virus can allow anyone, even those who are inexperienced, to use magic related to carbon."

Once Yuiitsu had seen that World Rejecter was not effective against Salome, she had switched her strategy. By bluffing with the power of the Magic Gods, she had hoped to bolster that right hand's reputation. Touma also noted, "Come to think of it, at Baggage City, Othinus crushed my right hand, and something came out. A bunch of other Kiharas were there, so were you there too?" Now that the boy knew the truth, there was no reason to be afraid of Yuiitsu.

Yuiitsu merely smirked and countered, "So what?" Now that the bluff had been revealed, she collapsed the forms of the Magic Gods and instead sent the Sample Shoggoth in a massive stream towards Touma, declaring, "My goal has been revenge from the beginning. It didn't matter if I reached the level of Magic Gods, as long as I could use them for my revenge. I just needed to mow down Kamisato Kakeru and everyone he cares for. Between good and evil it's evil, and between like and dislike it's dislike. This is my unique romance that not even Sensei could reach."

That parasitic life form would use its fangs and claws to take over his body, so Touma was forced to use his Imagine Breaker to blow that weapon away. But this left him vulnerable to a follow-up attack. The woman sent her foot flying towards him.

Mikoto knew that he would die if he got hit by that kick, so she rushed in and tackled him from the side, causing Yuiitsu to miss, but as a result, the couple became sprawled out onto the ground.

Yuiitsu then reached into the pocket of her tattered lab coat, saying, "I'm taking my own path, different from Sensei's. So I'm not picky about this kind of thing." She pulled out a weirdly-shaped gun. It sort of looked like a toy gun, more like a starter pistol for a race rather than an actual firearm.

But Touma and Mikoto sensed that it was a real threat. In fact, since it did not seem to be made of metal, it was perhaps even more of a threat to Mikoto than a normal gun. Yuiitsu said, "This is the UL Exploder. Though I guess you'd have no idea why it's named that or how it works."

She pulled the trigger, and the space around them immediately seemed to explode. Mikoto and Touma were immediately knocked out of a window. They had been on the 20th floor, so such a drop could prove fatal. Fortunately, Mikoto was once again able to use her magnetism, and she slowed their fall until they landed gently on the ground.

They looked up and saw Yuiitsu clinging to the side of the building and crawling down it, using the amorphous Sample Shoggoth. She then used her gun to trigger an explosion directly behind her. This accelerated her body directly towards them, with the speed of an artillery shell.

Mikoto immediately reacted. She kicked off the wall, throwing herself into the night sky with Touma in her arms. After missing her target, Yuiitsu stopped herself on the same wall, and aimed her UL Exploder at Mikoto. She pulled the trigger repeatedly, and multiple explosions, which were several meters wide, followed at Mikoto's heels.

Although none of the explosions directly hit her, the girl's range of movement had been severely limited. This time, Yuiitsu changed the form of her entire right arm, turning it into a black torrent that struck the girl's back from above like a whip.

This blow resulted in Touma falling out of Mikoto's arms. The two of them fell in separate directions. Mikoto tried to slow her fall with magnetism, but there wasn't enough time. She was only able to shift her landing point a little, and ended up crashing through the roof of a building.

Mikoto groaned in pain and held her head as she got up from the floor. She checked the parts of her body, testing their movement, but nothing was in serious pain, so she figured that her organs and bones were all intact.

Once she'd finished examining herself, she looked around her and saw that she was in what resembled a cold storage warehouse. Though since it was around room temperature, it didn't appear to be functioning.

But the strangest thing was what was inside that warehouse. It wasn't anything like ice cream or meat products. Instead, the room was lined with a bunch of weapons. And they were not ordinary weapons: there was a giant container-shaped missile pod, a long excavation drill, a flamethrower, and a plasma blade. And there was even the weapon from which she got her epithet of Railgun. Mikoto also saw the ammunition, fuel, power sources, and maintenance equipment for them all.

And yet, despite those weapons being powerful enough for military use, they did not seem designed to be equipped to tanks, armored trucks, fighters or attack aircraft, or warships. As the girl circled around the warehouse floor and closely observed the mountain of armaments, she realized, "No way! Are these weapons meant to be equipped directly to a person's body? What kind of crazy concept is this?"

It was clear that the cold storage warehouse was just a ruse to hide this arsenal. She then heard a roaring noise, as the collection of machines rose up and approached her, as if attracted to her body. They looked down upon her and started gathering together into a biological form. Mikoto wondered, "Is this thing…appraising me as its user?"

The girl traced her fingers along the barrel of a Gatling gun twice her size, and read out loud the engraved letters, "Anti-Art Attachment?" Mikoto did not know what that name meant. The abbreviation, AAA, reminded her of anti-aircraft artillery, and there was indeed an anti-aircraft gun in the arsenal. But she sensed that there was much more to it than that.

A thought then came to her. As Academy City's strongest electromaster, Mikoto figured that she would be able to hack into the system and hijack it for her own use. With the power of those weapons, she might be able to better oppose Kihara Yuiitsu, and thus save Touma.

She was sorely tempted by this, especially since she had been separated from her boyfriend. He was now potentially facing that woman on his own, and she wanted to help him out any way she could.

She felt tense at the thought of using the AAA, but she decided to at least examine it more closely. She ran her hand over the large Gatling gun, and tried using her hacking ability to understand the structure of its system. Almost immediately, Mikoto felt a strange chill down her back, which caused her to instinctually let go. The other machines also let out sounds as they started to link together. Was she prepared to pay the price to grab onto this power?

Mikoto's heart pounded as she discovered something potentially disturbing. Her powers were able to decipher any programming language and break any firewall. Even if the system was previously unknown to her, it should have already lost by relying on electricity in the first place. However, she was unable to completely analyze the system. There was a blank spot.

It wasn't that there was nothing written there. The weapons' operating system was readable in excruciating detail, but at that blank spot alone, the circle was closed, and didn't function as a circuit. And that blank spot was filled with something that Mikoto could not recognize.

What was this system built to control? It looked like a weapon, but it was not just a weapon. It seemed to be the product of cutting-edge science, but it could not be completely explained using science. In a way, it reminded the girl of the stimulation and possibilities she had felt in her clash against Salome.

Mikoto's eyes widened as she came to a realization. She muttered, "Does this thing use magic somehow?" That was the only thing she could think of to explain that blank space. And if it was true, then accepting the AAA's power would be even more dangerous for an esper like her to use, due to the backlash.

Perhaps she could take that risk, if the AAA opened her up to new possibilities and allowed her to help Touma take down Kihara Yuiitsu. But if she accepted that devil's bargain, she felt like she would no longer be the same Misaka Mikoto as before.

After some thought, she resolved to reject the temptation. She felt a threat from the AAA even greater than that which awaited outside. It would be far too much power to handle on her own. She couldn't touch this dragon, or else she may be irrevocably pushed in the wrong direction. If she wanted to remain by Touma's side as the girl she truly was, she could not continue down this path.

When Touma got up from the ground, he was initially surprised that Yuiitsu wasn't coming after him. That confusion was soon cleared up, when he saw that she was more focused on where Mikoto had fallen.

He wanted to go after Yuiitsu to prevent her from harming his girlfriend. It seemed like the woman was too far away for Touma to get to in time, but then Salome appeared and offered her assistance.

Apparently, she had been able to keep her chain going by sacrificing her own body parts. Thus, she was able to launch one final attack, launching her right arm towards Yuiitsu. This attack tore off the Sample Shoggoth wings that the woman was using, which left her to fall towards the ground.

Yuiitsu was able to use the parasite to cushion her fall, but that allowed Touma enough time to charge in and negate it with his Imagine Breaker. After that, they both launched attacks, Touma with his fist, and Yuiitsu with the Sample Shoggoth. Both attacks made partial hits, but Touma was knocked back onto the ground.

When the boy tried to lean on his right arm to get up, he felt a surge of pain through his shoulder. The parasite had gotten its fangs into his shoulder, and now his right arm lay limp.

With Yuiitsu about to get up, and having many options to defeat him, Touma slid his left hand along the ground, grabbing a hard object that he felt. When he looked at it, he realized that it was her UL Exploder, which must have been dropped at some point.

He didn't know exactly how it worked, but it caused an explosion in the space in front of it. He raised it with his unsteady left and and placed his finger on the trigger. If he fired it towards Yuiitsu, he might be able to defeat her. Despite her having control of the Sample Shoggoth, the St. Germain virus, and World Rejecter, she still had a normal human body behind all that, and an explosion would be harder to defend against than a simple bullet.

He would be able to stop Yuiitsu from going after Mikoto.

Touma clenched his teeth, but he suddenly remembered words from someone who was not there. Othinus, his Understander, had told him that his unique strength was his ability to reach out to his opponents, even those as evil and rotten as her. That him learning martial arts or using a weapon would only entice him to give up on people and cut them off.

There was a difference between having such a valiant ideal, and applying it in practice. He might still be right to pull the trigger. But the boy wondered if he could sully those words. Touma recalled his promise to Mikoto, to make sure to save himself, and questioned if there was another way to fulfill it, without having to go down that dangerous path.

But in the end, his hesitation had delayed him too much. Yuiitsu's arms became immense torrents and clamped down onto his shoulders, aiming to dislocate them. As a result, his left hand went limp, and the UL exploder fell from his grip.

Nevertheless, he looked up at the woman who was using violence for her crazed revenge, and muttered, "This kind of power…isn't what I wanted."

Yuiitsu approached him and grabbed his cheeks with her hands. She said, "I'm tired of messing with you, so I'll use a more certain method to end this. Now, it's time for romance. How would you like to die? Do you want your fat slowly melted away from the outside by the Sample Shoggoth?"

She then opened her mouth, revealing a dangerous red pill on her tongue, and continued, "Or do you want your brain infected from within by the St. Germain virus? It may have been attenuated, but it can't be a fun way to go if you have no resistance to it."

It was at this moment that Mikoto witnessed the scene. After resisting the temptation of the Anti-Art Attachment, she had left the warehouse through a staff exit. And she had stumbled upon a heart-wrenching sight.

Kihara Yuiitsu was holding Touma's jaw, and was about to feed him something poisonous from her mouth. There was not even time for her to be furious at the thought of someone else "kissing" her boyfriend. For Mikoto could deduce that the pill was the St. Germain virus, and that it would irreversibly destroy the boy's body from the inside.

She had to stop this immediately. But with all the powerful abilities and weapons that Yuiitsu had at her disposal, Mikoto doubted if even a point-blank railgun attack would accomplish anything.

No matter what, even if she had to violate a taboo, Mikoto needed to end this with a single decisive blow. Otherwise, she would lose the boy she loved forever.

The girl clenched her fists and exclaimed, "I can't let that happen!" Powerful electromagnetic waves emanated from her and towards the warehouse. The weapons inside were thus awoken from their eternal slumber. Previously, they had formed the silhouette of an evil plesiosaur, but this form now crumbled. They gathered around the girl in a flurry, broke apart, lost their original meaning, and transferred away from their original owner.

Now, they changed their design to suit Mikoto, their new controller. Countless weapons became attached to the armor on her limbs and on her back. There was even a support leg behind her to ensure she wasn't crushed by the weight. Overall, it made for a truly bizarre sight, but one that fit her perfectly.

There was a giant missile container, a laser excitation rod, a liquid weapon turret that could fire flames, liquid nitrogen, and acid, a Gatling gun, a rapid-fire cannon, and finally, the namesake of her signature Railgun attack.

That large caliber railgun was designed to destroy fortresses. Part of the system was missing, and the original owner had likely not meant for it to be used in this way. But Mikoto didn't care about that. If she could use this to overturn Touma's imminent death, she did not care how silly she looked, or the danger of using it.

In that instant, Kihara Yuiitsu was just millimeters away from forcing the red pill on her tongue into Touma's mouth. But then she sensed something just outside her field of vision. When she moved her eyes to glance to the side, all sound and light vanished.

It did not move at only three times the speed of sound, and it didn't have the small mass of an arcade coin. This blast had been made to annihilate fortresses designed to withstand even the most powerful tanks. If the slight miscalculation had been made, or if the Windowless Building wasn't there to absorb the shockwaves, an entire section of buildings would have been swept away.

Kihara Yuiitsu's body was torn away from Touma and vanished. The boy himself wasn't fully unscathed, as he was sent flying through the air, and ended up crashing into a nearby tree.

Touma couldn't see or hear anything for a few moments. When he did regain the use of his senses, he finally slipped down from the branches, crawling along the ground and looking out at the world with swollen eyes. He questioned, "What happened?"

A voice replied, "I don't know." It came from Salome, who was also lying on the ground as just a head, having lost her arms and torso. She continued, "But that cold storage warehouse had its wall blown away. Unless some complete stranger intervened, your girlfriend must have done something, don'tcha think?"

The bow slowly released a breath. He didn't know if Yuiitsu had survived, but in any case, she likely couldn't continue fighting after taking such a tremendous blast. Although he needed to remain cautious, this at least meant he had successfully survived the day. But he wondered, "Will it really work out that well?"

Salome replied, "That can wait until we check on my stupid brother back at the school."

Their strange right hands did not choose people at random; they based their selection on something. If Kihara Yuiitsu was neutralized, would World Rejecter return to Kamisato Kakeru? Perhaps, but perhaps not. If not, then Yuiitsu would be able to fight again another day. It all depended on Kamisato's condition.

Salome began hopping away with her head. But before he left, she left one final ominous warning, "Hey, you should keep an eye on Misaka Mikoto. She might take a step down the wrong path and break down. And it won't have anything to do with me messing with her."

The boy did not want to believe it. Sure, he knew that Mikoto had been feeling a bit insecure, but Salome seemed to be going too far in her prediction. As Salome left the scene, Touma decided to have a talk with Mikoto about this as soon as he found her.

He heard a loud series of metallic clangs as something approached him. He looked up, and his eyes widened as he saw that it was Mikoto. But there was much more than just his girlfriend in front of him. She was wearing a frightening array of war weapons on her arms, legs, and back. Touma's first impression was, "A demon?"

Mikoto had seen that Touma had also been caught in the blast. She had hesitated for a moment, not wanting her boyfriend to see that she had fallen into that temptation. But checking on his safety took priority over her embarrassment. So now that she was in front of him, she exclaimed, "Are you okay, Touma?"

The boy coughed and fiercely questioned, "I'm fine, but what the hell is that, Biri-Biri?" Now that he had some time to look at the weapons, he was not surprised that it had produced such a powerful attack, though he wondered if it was overkill for a mere human like Kihara Yuiitsu.

The girl crossed her arms and somewhat guiltily looked away, answering, "It's called the Anti-Art Attachment, and I found it in that warehouse."

Touma took a moment to check her out, and said, "Hmm, you do look cool and badass, but also quite scary. Are you sure that thing is safe to use?" He was starting to worry that Salome's warning might have some merit.

Mikoto smirked a little at his compliment, but replied in a serious tone, "Yeah, I was scared of it too. I didn't want to have to use it, but that woman was about to kill you!"

Touma flinched upon hearing this information. She hadn't said that in an accusing way, but he couldn't help but feel guilty. If he hadn't hesitated, she may not have had to go to such lengths to save him. He looked down with a sad expression and said, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault."

Mikoto tilted her head in confusion and questioned, "What?"

The boy explained, "She dropped her UL Exploder, and I was going to use it against her. But then I remembered what Othinus said about weapons not making me stronger and I hesitated. No, not just that, I decided in the end not to use it, because of my own stupid pride. And because of that, you had to use that monstrosity to save me."

Upon hearing this, Mikoto's eyes widened in surprise. It took a few moments for it to sink in, and when it did, she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him, replying, "Really, you idiot? Look, Othinus did have a point, but I don't think she meant that you should just let yourself die when you have a way of defending yourself. You have reached an understanding with your opponents, but only after you've beaten them and saved yourself and everyone else."

Touma looked down and sadly smiled, replying, "Yeah, and it's hypocritical of me to be pacifist like that and then have to rely on you using weapons to save me. I'm really sorry Mikoto, I almost broke my promise to you."

The girl sighed, reaching out her hand to help him off the ground. He accepted her hand and let her pull him to his feet. Mikoto then kissed him on the cheek and said, "Just don't do something like that again, okay? Though I don't regret using this to save you, no matter how dangerous it is to me."

It was Touma's turn to narrow his eyes, as he asked, "Wait, it's dangerous to you? How? You should have full control of everything with your ability, right?"

Mikoto shook her head and looked back at the weapons she wore, replying, "Not quite. There was some sort of blank space or black box in there that I couldn't analyze with my powers."

This surprised Touma, but then he noticed something else. He pointed out, "Hey, your nose is bleeding!"

Now that he mentioned it, Mikoto felt a wet, dripping sensation inside her nose. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tissue, which she used to wipe the red liquid from her face.

While she did so, Touma couldn't help but tease her, "Wow Biri-Biri, is this really the right time for you to be horny? Did you really get that excited from wiping out Kihara Yuiitsu in a single strike and seeing me again?"

Mikoto used her free hand to deliver a chop to his head, firing back, "Don't be ridiculous. You're just as attractive now as any other time." She then paid and frowned before muttering, "I think I have an idea of why it's happening. That black box might be magic."

That word was a big trigger for Touma, who immediately grabbed onto her shoulders and frantically shouted, "Magic? Are you serious? What were you thinking, you know that can damage your body! Are you hurt anywhere?"

The girl was a little flustered by him suddenly being so close to her. She placed her hand on his chest and pushed him away a bit. Mikoto then took the opportunity to check her body for any other injuries. She didn't feel any damage, even when she used her bioelectricity to analyze her internal organs and tissues. She announced, "Everything seems fine, except for the nosebleed."

Nevertheless, the girl figured that it would be best to get out of the AAA, so she detached herself from the weapons, leaving them in a pile on the ground. Once she was free, Touma reached out his arms and pulled her into a hug. While stroking her head, he said softly into her ear, "I'm so glad. Please don't do something so dangerous again." He didn't want to imagine what could have happened if her internal damage had been worse.

Mikoto hugged him back and muttered, "Well, I had no choice this time, Touma. It was a lucky coincidence that it happened to be in the warehouse I fell in, though."

Touma frowned and muttered, "That does seem suspicious. But I guess it worked out fine, at least this time."

The two of them continued embracing each other, and soon Touma kissed Mikoto. They both closed their eyes and deepened the kiss, relieved and exhilarated from surviving yet another near-death experience.

Once they pulled apart, Mikoto said to him, "I love you, Touma."

The boy smiled at her and replied, "Love you too, Biri-Biri."

She then glanced over at the AAA and asked the boy, "Will you be fine getting home? I'm going to put all this stuff back where it was."

Touma looked over at her as she lifted the weapons with her magnetism and began walking towards the warehouse. He questioned, "You're really going to leave it there? We don't even know who it originally belonged to, right?" A thought then came to him, partially triggered by Salome's previous warning, as well as his knowledge of his girlfriend's recent doubts. He pointedly asked, "Or is it that you want to keep the AAA available for future use?"

Mikoto tensed up, because she had been thinking about just that. She gave him a guilty look before glancing away, honestly replying, "I don't know, Touma. I'd rather not if I don't have to, but my normal abilities haven't been enough against the High Priest or Kihara Yuiitsu."

Touma gazed at her silently with a sympathetic look. It looked like she wanted to get her feelings out, so he listened to her patiently.

The girl spread out her arms into the night sky and exclaimed, "I'll admit it, the AAA's power is amazing! It's far beyond what I can do normally. I feel like I've stepped into a whole new world beyond this trifling city of science! I can see into the depths of the night sky, and there are endless possibilities for me!"

The boy's eyes widened at her speech, and he felt pretty conflicted. On the one hand, her words seemed kind of dangerous, but on the other hand, she seemed happier and more content than she had been since their fight against the High Priest. Touma eventually said, "I get that. But is it really worth it to just surround yourself with brute force so you can beat people up more easily?"

His gentle but firm admonishment brought Mikoto back down to Earth. She dropped her arms back down to her sides and conceded, "You're right. Having power for power's sake was never something I was interested in. And honestly, I'm not proud that I had to cheat by using a magical superweapon to defeat that woman. But this was about saving you, not demonstrating my power. Is it so wrong for me to take some risks and use whatever tricks I can to save you, when you've always done the same for me and for everyone else?"

The boy sighed and replied, "I guess it's not that wrong. I am worried about you risking your life for me, but I suppose that isn't new, and I do appreciate it, really!" After a moment, he added, "I trust you, Mikoto. Just be careful, okay?"

The girl nodded and affirmed, "I will."

With that, the couple parted ways, with Touma heading home, and Mikoto returning the AAA to the warehouse before going back to her dorm room. After that discussion, she ultimately concluded that it was probably best for her to not use the AAA again, if she could avoid it. But if a situation did arise again where the AAA could potentially be helpful, then Mikoto would have a difficult decision to make.