What's Left Unsaid

by Akemi Ryuji

In the relative peace following the end of World War 3, Kamijou Touma and Misaka Mikoto find themselves spending a lot of time together. As the two grow closer and the lines of friendship start to become blurred, they begin to wonder- at what point do you call hanging out with someone you like a "date"?

5. Manhunt

Itsuwa explained that the Amakusa Church had been tasked with hunting down a criminal- more specifically, a magician that had escaped prison recently and fled the country. Why this criminal had come to Academy City no one yet knew, but the intelligence network of Necessarius was quite certain that they were here.

"I'm assuming Tsuchimikado knows about this?" Touma said as he walked with the two girls back to his apartment.

"Mhm." Itsuwa nodded. "He's said that there's been no alerts about an intruder in the city."

"So either this person has some sort of spell that got them in undetected, or they slipped in legitimately somehow…" Touma frowned. Glancing at the silver-haired nun next to him, he asked. "Index, how easy would it be for someone to use magic to slip in undetected?" It was something that seemed to be happening a lot recently.

The girl stayed silent.

Touma slowed down a little, inching away from her. Now that he was looking at her, he was starting to notice a rather ominous air hovering around her.

"... Index-san?"

She crossed her arms.

"Toooouuma."

"Y-yes?!"

She turned to him, glaring. "You said you would explain it, remember?!"

"Explain what?!"

"Why you ditched me to go on a date with short-hair!"

He flinched back. Index looked like she could start biting him any minute. "It wasn't a date!" He insisted, suddenly feeling warm again. "We just happened to run into each other, it was completely a coincidence! I'm sorry, I lost track of time."

"And what exactly were the two of you doing that got you to lose track of time?" She demanded.

"Well… she won herself a toy… then we went on a few rides… then we had something to eat… and the folk dance thing happened…" He trailed off nervously, realizing that everything he was saying was making this girl angrier.

He supposed not calling it a date wasn't going to make it sound any less like a date when he described it.

She bared her teeth, canines flashing sharply as she launched herself at his head. "Touma, you jerk!"

"Just my luuuuck!"

Two minutes and ten bite marks later, the three were back to the problem at hand.

"There are many forms of magic that allow people to go undetected by other people and by any magical forms of searching," Index explained. "But there's almost none that would render a magician invisible to Academy City's technology. They're very rare."

Touma rubbed the new sore spot on his head absent-mindedly, considering that. "So they probably didn't use magic to get in." He decided. "If that's the case, then there's gotta be someone on the inside helping them out."

"Is it likely that there are magicians that we don't know about hiding in the city?" Itsuwa asked. "I thought this place was under constant surveillance."

"It is. But it might not be a magician. He might've made contact with someone from the science side to help get inside. I'm sure there's a number of groups you can hire for things like that." He glanced back at Itsuwa. "Wait, how do you guys know this criminal is in the city if even Tsuchimikado doesn't know about it?"

That guy was a handful, but he was a very effective spy. Touma could only think of a single time that a magician had infiltrated the city and Tsuchimikado hadn't known about it.

"We were able to follow his trail as far as the outskirts of Tokyo before he vanished. We aren't sure what he did to mask his traces, but we set up a net around the city as soon as it became clear he was heading here. If he'd left, we would catch him."

"No offense to the Amakusa, but if he's already made himself invisible to you guys, how are you sure you can catch him if he leaves?"

Itsuwa puffed her chest out proudly. "Because our Saint is patrolling, of course! Magical tracking might not be working, but it isn't such a simple task to escape the eyes of a Saint."

"Ah, Kanzaki is here?" Touma said with the slightest sense of relief. Kanzaki was an absolute beast of a fighter. Having her around was always reassuring.

"Yep. She won't be entering the city unless it's absolutely necessary, though."

He heaved a sigh. Yeah, it was a bit too much to hope that she would be fighting alongside them. That level of fortune was beyond him. "So how are we supposed to find this guy?" Touma asked.

"We're monitoring the city for any signs of magical activity. Even if we can't pinpoint his exact location, we should be able to detect traces of his activities. Once the others have found something, they'll contact us and tell us where we need to go."

Touma put his hands behind his head. "So we just need to sit back and wait, huh?"

Itsuwa smiled. "Yep! The Amakusa will take care of everything else!"

Touma smiled back. Itsuwa was one of the sweetest girls he knew. Kind, considerate, modest, and one of the only girls who'd never gotten angry at him for misunderstandings. He appreciated having her as an ally. He really did.

…. So what was with this odd, restless feeling in his chest?

Itsuwa hung back a little as Touma walked ahead.

Usually, she was thrilled at the chance to spend time with him. Her fellow Amakusa members went out of their way to let her be near him, and she was incredibly grateful. But something was different this time… and it came back to that folk dance challenge, and the high-level esper he'd been partnered with.

Matching her pace with Index, Itsuwa lowered her head and asked quietly "The Railgun… are she and Kamijou-san close?"

Index's eyes softened for a moment as she looked at her. Itsuwa thought she sensed a hint of pity, and it made her stomach drop. She answered. "Mm. Touma and short-hair… Mikoto… They're together a lot. They meet up places, and spend hours together. Schoolwork, meals… she spent the night with us once, too."

Itsuwa was suddenly feeling a little weak. "Wait… but isn't that… are they dating?..."

"Good question." Index frowned a little. "I don't think so. At least, they're not calling it that. Not yet."

Not yet.

Index didn't think those two were official, but she was expecting it to happen sometime soon. That was the kind of relationship she felt those two had.

Itsuwa didn't want to believe it… but how could she argue against the girl who lived with him?

She shook her head, gripping her hand into a fist and trying to pump herself up. Railgun might have the advantage, but if they weren't calling it dating, then she hadn't lost yet. She would stand her ground. Itsuwa wasn't a quitter.

She sped up her pace, catching up to the boy to walk next to him.

"How have you been?" She started, striking up a casual conversation. "I heard you fought Fiamma of the Right during the war, and someone mentioned you crashed into the ocean…?"

"Ah, yeah.." He said, looking down at his right hand with a small smile, remembering the fight. "I'm fine though. No one else got hurt, and Birdway's group pulled me out of the ocean."

"Birdway?" She asked, her eyebrows shooting up. "Leivinia Birdway? The leader of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight?"

"That's the one." He answered with a grimace. He was grateful to the magician and all, but that girl had had an overwhelming presence. She'd warned him before they parted ways that she would come find him the moment his Imagine Breaker was needed, and he was dreading the day she would show up at his door and drag him off, most likely in front of Mikoto and Index, who would both get instantly ticked.

Itsuwa was in awe. She'd heard stories of the young faction leader, but she'd never had a chance to meet her. "Wow. I wish I could've been there…"

"Were you fighting in the war, Itsuwa?" He asked, suddenly curious. He knew a lot of people had been involved, but with the way he went into it, he'd never gotten a clear picture of everything that went down.

"Mm, the Amakusa were among the forces that the English Puritans sent in to intercept the French forces at Dover Straight."

"I see…" He frowned a little. A lot of people had been affected by the war… he hoped that the Amakusa hadn't suffered any casualties. By the way Itsuwa talked about it though, he doubted that they did.

The sound of a phone ringing cut into their conversation.

Itsuwa pulled out the device, her expression immediately turning serious as she answered "Yes?"

She went quiet as she listened to what the person on the other end had to say. Index and Touma both came to a stop as they waited for her to finish.

"Understood. We'll head there immediately." Itsuwa finished after a minute, ending the call and putting the phone away.

"Did you guys find something?" Touma asked.

"There's been traces of spell activity in District 2." She said.

Touma looked up, orienting himself by the easiest of Academy City's landmarks- the windowless building. "We're pretty far from that." He noted. "We'll need to take a bus."

"Then let's get on the nearest one. The trace won't last for long."

---

They got to District 2 about twenty minutes later. Itsuwa led the way, her phone out with a GPS app guiding her to the location marked by her colleagues.

Touma watched the surroundings uneasily.

District 2 was primarily used as a training ground for Judgment and Anti-Skill. There were military-related facilities all over… which meant any number of weapons could be lying around. Naturally the area was under a tight guard, but if the magician had slipped past people so far, Touma wasn't confident that Academy City's systems would be able to stop him from sneaking in.

Movement caught his eye, and he hissed "Get down!", pulling Index by the arm and pushing Itsuwa forward a little so they were better covered.

Itsuwa glanced back. "Did you see someone?!"

"It's security robots." He explained. "This place is mostly military facilities, so security is tighter here."

"Military facilities…?" Her eyes clouded over in a troubled expression. "Why would he risk coming to a place so tightly guarded?…"

"Touma," Index tugged at his arm, emerald eyes fixed on something in the distance. She pointed toward a fenced area a few hundred meters away. "There's traces of magic in that direction. Derived from the Roman Codices… it looks like he's established a territory. But how is he marking the perimeter…?"

"Established a territory?" Itsuwa repeated, looking back at Index in alarm. "Does that mean he's boxed himself in?"

"It's an open field, where would he be hiding?" Touma pointed out.

Index shook her head. "He probably left as soon as the territory was established. This form of the spell isn't defensive in nature: It's meant to boost magic power by accumulating celestial light. It'll be most effective at high noon."

"So he plans to use this thing to power up?" Touma clarified, clenching his fist. "Which means all I have to do is cancel it out, right?"

"Wait!"

Itsuwa grabbed his arm, pulling him back down before he could run into the field and cancel out the magic. "This is our only lead so far." She explained. "It could be a trap. And if it isn't, he'll still know wherever he is that the spell was destroyed. If you cancel it now, we'll be no closer to finding him."

"I guess…" He agreed a little reluctantly. "So what do you want to do? Wait until the spell is charged?"

"The magician will have to be standing within the territory for the boosting effect to take place." Index told them. "He'll need to come back for that."

Itsuwa nodded slowly. "Yes…. I think waiting is our best option."

Touma sighed. "Getting back here in the middle of the day is going to be harder." He warned them. "The magician might have his own technique and all, but the cameras and the guards will see us coming long before we get back here."

The only reason they'd made it this far was because there was minimal security around this particular area outside the hours of operation. During the day, security robots would be crawling the grounds.

"Hmmm…." Itsuwa frowned. "It's true that no one in the Amakusa would be able to do much about the Academy City surveillance… we could send out a request for assistance, but I don't know how fast of a response we would get…"

"Anti-Skill getting involved would just cause more problems." He murmured. "But if all we need is someone to hack the surveillance…"

Index tilted her head at him. "Are you gonna call short-hair?"

"... Yeah, I think so. There's no one better at this sort of thing than her." Smiling a little, he added "And if I didn't call her for help with something like this, she'd kill me."

"Hmph."

Itsuwa glanced back and forth between them, baffled. "You plan to get the Railgun involved?" She was suddenly regretting her lack of scientific know-how.

"Mikoto knows the basics with magic, and she can hack anything." He explained quickly. "Index, you said this power boost thing needs to be used at noon, right?"

"That's right."

"Let's head back to my place for now." He told them. "I'll call Mikoto in the morning and we can come back here then."

Itsuwa sighed. "All right. I'll call the others and let them know what's going on."

Quietly, the three of them retreated out of the second District.

---

Mikoto woke up that morning to the sight of her roommate kneeling next to her bed, leaning in just close enough for her radar to pick up the girl's presence. She jolted up immediately, subconsciously sending a shock Kuroko's way. The younger girl took the attack full-on, and was sprawled out on the floor in the next moment, smoke coming off of her as she muttered a weak "Good morning, onee-sama."

All in all, a pretty average morning.

She set her new Gekota plushie on her pillow as she made the bed, arranging it neatly with a smile. She kept most of her collectibles tucked away, but this one… the one she'd won at the amusement park while she'd been hanging out with him… this was one she planned to keep with her.

Kuroko frowned as she watched her onee-sama fuss over the new stuffed toy.

She didn't know the details on how she'd gotten it. Whether she'd won it herself, or if that troglodyte had won it for her… she had no way of guessing. Kuroko wanted to believe onee-sama had won it herself, but the way she was smiling as she adjusted it was quite suspicious. Unfortunately, Mikoto hadn't been the least bit forthcoming about the details of her afternoon with that boy. The most Kuroko had gotten out of her was that their meeting there had been a coincidence.

What was going on?

Kuroko knew onee-sama had certain feelings for that boy, as much as she didn't like it. It was plainly written on her face. She could still clearly recall the look that had come over her when she'd decided to go after that boy in Russia… and the look she'd had when she'd come back without him.

Yes, onee-sama definitely had a special place in her heart for that boy.

But even so, she'd never gotten the impression that there was much to their relationship. He'd treaded the line a few times, sure– the Daihasei Festival comes to mind first– but overall, Kamijou Touma had an unthreatening aura about him. Kuroko didn't believe that boy was interested in pursuing her onee-sama.

Or at least she hadn't believed that. But yesterday… seeing them together during that folk dance… The look in that boy's eyes had changed.

'Mikoto', he'd called her.

She didn't like it one bit.

As Mikoto slipped her winter uniform jacket on, her phone's odd ringtone piped up. She pulled it out and flipped it open, her eyes widening at the name on the screen.

She answered immediately.

"Touma? What's up?"

It's that troglodyte!

Kuroko gripped her own jacket in frustration. What did that boy think he was doing, calling onee-sama first thing in the morning?! And after the two had spent an afternoon together a scant half-day prior! When did this boy get so bold?!

Mikoto turned away from her roommate, ignoring her reaction.

"Hey," He started. "I hate to ask you to skip school, but Index, Itsuwa and I need to sneak into a facility in District 2. Feel like hacking into the security system?"

She froze, her eyes going wide. "You're… actually asking me to help?!"

"You're the one who told me to call!"

"You're stubborn. I wasn't really expecting you to." She grinned. "I'd already thought up a few ideas on what I was gonna do when I found you in that hospital room."

He sighed. "Don't write me off so easily–!"

"So? Where and when do you want to meet?"

He paused for a moment. "You're sure it's fine? You won't get in trouble with your school?"

"Unlike you, my school trusts me, so it's fine for me to skip every now and then. Worry about your own attendance."

"Yeah, yeah." She could imagine the sullen look on his face. The boy had a shaky attendance record from the crises he was constantly getting caught up in. His improved grades were helping, but she knew he still stressed about it. "Can you meet us in 20? I'll send you the address."

"Got it."

Mikoto was smiling as she hung up the phone.

There was no telling what kind of crisis this would be. Magicians were hard to predict with their odd, story-based powers, and she knew that there was friction between the science and magic sides. That spy had already warned her once about espers interfering with magician disputes, and she was acutely aware that she was treading a very thin line by helping Touma.

But he'd called her. He'd asked for her help. For the first time ever, he'd decided that he needed her and was reaching out.

How long had she been waiting for him to do that?

Mikoto put her phone away, turning to her roommate, who was still looking incredibly dissatisfied with the situation. "I need to head out." She told her.

"Onee-sama, are you really going to let that boy talk you into skipping classes like a delinquent–?!"

She flicked the other girl's forehead, cutting her off.

Kuroko didn't know the full extent of what Touma got involved in, but she did know that he got caught up in serious things. It was Kuroko who spotted him in Russia on surveillance during the war. And so Mikoto had no problem scolding her a little by saying "He wouldn't ask if it wasn't something important."

Kuroko pouted. "But still–!"

"I'll be fine." Mikoto insisted, slipping her shoes on and heading for the window. "You'll be the first one I call if things get out of hand, okay?"

Kuroko lowered her hands from her forehead with a sigh, realizing there was nothing she could say to talk Mikoto out of this. Forcing a smile, the girl straightened and said "All right. Be safe, onee-sama."

Mikoto smiled back.

In the next moment, the electromaster was gone.

---

"Touma!" A voice a fair distance ahead called back to him as he put his phone down. "Don't fall behind!"

"I'm coming." He answered, jogging lightly to catch up with his silver-haired roommate and their guest.

Index waited until he came to a stop next to them before resuming her walk. "So?" She started. "Where are we meeting short-hair?"

"I'm sending her the location now." He said, typing the info into his phone and texting the information to her. "She'll meet us there in 20 minutes."

"Hmph."

As Touma put the phone away, he glanced toward Itsuwa to his left, who was looking noticeably subdued. "Is everything okay, Itsuwa? You've been looking down all morning."

The girl started. She hadn't realized her feelings had been so apparently etched on her face. "It's nothing!" She insisted quickly.

Touma raised his eyebrows at her, but he didn't press the matter.

The three hopped onto a bus and rode the distance to the edge of District 2. Touma knew they could've walked and still made it in time to meet up with Mikoto, but he didn't want to risk something going wrong before they got there.

As he'd anticipated, the District was much more heavily guarded during the day. Most of the security appeared to be electronic, but there were now also a few guards patrolling the perimeter. The three had to keep low to the ground to avoid being spotted.

"Is the magician really going to be able to get past all of this?" Itsuwa muttered uncertainly.

"He must've snuck past worst to get into the city." Touma pointed out. "If he really did have some sort of hired help getting in, then they could probably deal with the electronic security, and then he would just need to use magic to get past the guards."

"If the electronic security is already hacked, then do we really need help with it?" Itsuwa said, her voice oddly tinted with a touch of hope.

Touma shook his head. "They might set the security to attack any intruders. It's probably a bad idea to let anyone else take control of the system."

Itsuwa gave a small sigh.

Touma tilted his head. There was that dreary mood again. He was considering pressing her about it, but before he could say anything, the sound of someone landing behind them caught the group's attention.

"Geez, you know we could've met up somewhere that doesn't put us at risk of being spotted." Mikoto said with a hand on her hip. "You weren't exactly easy to find."

He smiled.

Ah, he noted, that weird, restless feeling is gone.

"I knew you'd find us." He told her.

Itsuwa grimaced a little, noticing the red hue on the electromaster's cheeks.

"So," She started, crouching down with the rest of them. "What's going on?"

Turning to Mikoto, Itsuwa quietly gave her a quick rundown of what the game plan was.

"The magician has set up a territory in the field over there." She nodded in the direction of the field, although they weren't anywhere near it yet. "In order for him to use it, he will have to return to this location by noon. The plan is to wait for him to reveal himself and take him into custody before he has a chance to activate the magic."

Mikoto raised her eyebrows. "Isn't that risky? Waiting until right when he's about to use this magic?"

"Unfortunately, if we don't use this opportunity, then we will have no way of tracing his movements. Our best means of apprehending him is to wait for him to reveal himself."

Touma added "We think he might have some help from the science side. Apparently, there's been no alert of an intruder in the city."

Mikoto thought about that, her eyes narrowing. "The surveillance hasn't caught him? That might mean he had inside help… But those last guys got in without tipping off the security grid, right?"

Index piped in. "That was a result of multiple spells and extensive preparation on the part of their order. Levka herself cast a third of it. Without mimicking the components of the process exactly, it would be impossible to recreate the effect."

"How easy would it be for people on the science side to hack into the city's systems?" Touma asked Mikoto.

"Depends." She answered. "For me? No problem. But aside from high-level espers with specific abilities for hacking, I've only met one person who can hack into those systems on technical skill alone. And there's no way she would be involved in this."

He sighed. "So if there is a hired group involved, the best we can guess is that they have a skilled hacker…"

His sentence trailed off.

Something was wrong.

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. He glanced around quickly, trying to figure out what had tipped him off.

Mikoto was the one who put her finger on it. "The guards and the security robots… they're gone–!"

"Get down!"

The group barely had a second to respond to Itsuwa's shout when something black and thin cut through the air above their heads, slicing into the metal container they'd been hiding behind.

Touma rolled, immediately checking on the girls. "Is everyone okay?!"

Index coughed a little, and Mikoto and Itsuwa both pushed themselves up into a fighting stance. "We're fine." Mikoto answered him.

"You missed, Nagi."

The new voice came from their left, where a silhouette could be seen sitting atop a crate a few dozen meters away.

"I can see that."

The second voice was to their right. Touma and Itsuwa turned to face this one, while Mikoto kept her eyes on the first.

This second person was much closer, and much easier to make out. A teenager with dark gray hair, taller than Touma. He wore a long black trench coat, and a large bag was strapped to his back. He fixed the group with cold, piercing blue eyes, his expression as blank as his tone.

Itsuwa brandished her staff at the newcomer and demanded "Who are you?!"

Touma glanced at her for a second before fixing his attention back on the newcomer. Not the magician they were looking for, then.

"Just some hired hands." The boy answered them flatly.

He tensed nervously, his eyes darting around the field. Hired hands. Espers, if he had to guess– which meant this was a dark side organization. And if he knew his dark side organizations, then he could be sure that there were more than two members of this group. At the very least, there had to be one more… unless one of these two people were the hacker they'd guessed was involved.

"Sorry about this!" The person Mikoto was fixed on, on the crate further away, waved cheerfully. "We're under orders to keep this area clear of any trespassers, which, unfortunately, includes you. Curse your own luck for being in the wrong place at the wrong time." The person jumped down from the crate, landing softly on the ground. "Unless, of course, you're after our client. I'm hoping for that one, personally. Since talking things out is boring."

"At least give them a chance to leave, Riko." The first boy said.

"Yeah, yeah."

Addressing the boy, Touma said "Do you know who the person who hired you is?"

"Doesn't matter to us." He answered. "As long as we get paid at the end of the day."

That figures.

To the others in a quiet voice, he asked "What do you think?"

"We've been discovered." Itsuwa whispered back. "If they report back to the magician that we were here, we lose any chance we had of ambushing him."

"Assuming they haven't reported back already." Mikoto added.

Touma grit his teeth. Neither of these guys had an obvious communication device, but that didn't rule out the possibility of them having contacted someone before attacking, or having a device they couldn't see. And if a communication esper was involved, then none of that mattered anyways.

It was probably safe to guess that they'd lost the element of surprise.

"So what's it gonna be?" The boy asked them. "If you leave now, no one has to get hurt."

Tempting. He was rarely given the courtesy of a chance to back out of a fight, so having this boy offer it was refreshing.

Unfortunately, it wasn't an offer he could accept.

Before he had a chance to say anything though, a storm of dark sand burst from the ground around them, swirling like a tornado and forming spears that shot at the two enemies faster than either could blink.

The person Touma was assuming was a girl rolled sideways. The boy blocked with his own swirl of black material.

The girl, Riko, jumped back up with a grin. "That's what I'm talking about!"

Touma glanced back. "Mikoto?!"

The swirl of black sand was something he'd immediately recognized– iron sand, a staple of her arsenal of weapons. But he hadn't been expecting her to attack.

Lightning cackled around her. "We need to take these guys on." She told them calmly.

"But–!"

"Trust me."

That was it. That was all she said. She didn't try to explain herself in any way. But he knew from her tone what it was she wasn't saying: that she had a plan.

He didn't even have to think about it. He put his faith in her and played along. "All right."

Riko countered first. With a wide grin, she raised her hand, and flames started dancing in her palm, glowing red, then orange, then a bright yellowish-white in the space of half a second before launching at the group.

"Pyrokineticist." Mikoto growled in frustration. She raised her arms, and two nearby metal plates responded, forming a shield just as the flames hit. The heat that rolled off the metal seared the hairs on his arms.

At the same time, Itsuwa charged the boy, but the black substance solidified into a spear to match Itsuwa's, blocking her attack.

Touma stood in front of Index, feeling weird that both enemies were being taken care of by someone else, fully prepared to jump in the second he could.

Mikoto launched one of her metal shields toward her opponent, and the flames cut off as Riko dodged the projectile. The girl quickly rolled back to her feet and broke into a sprint, circling the group.

"Are you a magnetism manipulator?!" The girl shouted gleefully, hurling balls of fire at them that Mikoto intercepted with her metal sheet. "Telekineticist? Or maybe a high-level electromaster?!"

Mikoto grit her teeth. In the few spare seconds after the fire deflected off her shield, arcs of lightning burst forth and streaked toward the enemy. Touma flinched sympathetically, remembering what it felt like to get struck by her attacks, but the girl didn't miss a beat. Riko ducked to the ground, scooped up a few pieces of metal debris, then scattered them in the air in front of her before jumping back. The impromptu lightning rods drew Mikoto's electricity away from its intended target before she could adjust.

Riko launched another volley of fireballs while Mikoto's attack landed. Touma's eye traced the path of the attack, and sensing that it might get around her defense, he jumped into the line of fire, raising his hand and canceling out the flames.

"Hot!' He exclaimed, shaking his hand a little. He could erase the flames themselves, but that didn't mean he couldn't feel the heat.

"Ah!" Riko paused, her eyes glittering like a kid in a candy store. "You erased my flames! That's so cool! How'd you do that?!"

From the other side of the field, the boy engaged in a fight with Itsuwa shouted "Focus, Riko!"

"These guys have cool powers, Nagi!" Riko shouted back in excitement, clearly ignoring him. To Touma's group, she said "Hey, hey! Is there a limit to what you can cancel? I can make it hotter! What about blue?! Can you cancel it?! Can you?"

As she ranted, flames started dancing around her body. Touma wasn't sure if she was doing it intentionally or if her power was responding to her emotions, but there was an instant and very unfortunate side effect.

"Uhh…" Touma's eyes darted away from the girl, fixing on something to the side, caught between wanting to cover his eyes and wanting to keep his attention on the threat.

"O-Oi!" Mikoto shouted, pointing at the girl, the red in her cheeks having nothing to do with the heat of the enemy's attacks. "W-what the hell do you think you're doing, showing off like that?!"

Riko blinked in confusion at their reactions. "Huh?"

Her partner Nagi dodged around Itsuwa, then yelled at her "Riko! Your clothes!"

Her eyes widened, and the girl quickly looked down at her outfit.

Or at least, what had been her outfit. The only thing still hanging on was her pair of jean shorts. Her top– and her bra– had completely burned away.

The girl put her hands on her hips and thrust her chest out, the considerable packages she was sporting bouncing jovially. "Ha ha! Enjoy this treat while you can, my foes!"

"Pervert." Index growled.

Flustered, Mikoto launched her shield at the enemy, and the girl, caught off-guard, was thrown back so far that she vanished from their line of sight.

The boy, Nagi, immediately broke away from his fight with Itsuwa and ran after his partner, erecting a wall of black to block the group from chasing after them right away. When the wall fell, the boy was gone.

"Geez." Mikoto growled as Itsuwa rejoined them. "Showing them off shamelessly just because she has something to show off… It's just rude. How does she think the rest of us feel?"

"A girl who's jumped a size recently shouldn't complain about things like that."

Silence.

It took Touma a moment to realize what he'd said, and another few for him to turn to the girls in his group, sweating nervously.

Mikoto threw her arms up to cover her chest, her face glowing a deep red as she stumbled back "H-h-h-how did you kn-know that-?!"

Touma immediately bowed, nearly falling over in his haste. "I'm sorry! I noticed right away!" He confessed.

Kamijou Touma was a guy riddled with misfortune. One of the curses that plagued him was a frequent contact with breasts. Whether pressed up against his arm as a girl clings to him, or an accidental groping, or a face-full of it after stumbling, Touma encountered them often. And even though he gets punished for it every time, as a healthy teenage boy, he couldn't really stop himself from taking note of it when it happens. The result was that he'd become very good at judging at a glance what size a girl was.

And, as much as he tried to keep this skill locked away, the reality was that he'd gotten a good look at Mikoto- just once, during that fiasco where she'd nearly been forcibly shifted to level 6. He'd been too caught up in the situation to think about it at the time (and thankfully, she'd been too), but the memory had popped up later and his impulsive assessment had been that she was an A. On the small side, but still bigger than Index.

(Index had bitten him immediately. He still had no idea how she'd known what he was thinking.)

Still, that really didn't excuse the fact that he'd noticed Mikoto's sudden growth spurt so quickly. He didn't know if it was the tighter fit of the winter uniform, or the fact that he'd spent so much time with her recently, or if something else had tipped him off, but he'd looked at her the other day and he'd thought immediately 'she's up to a B'.

Then he'd proceeded to bury that thought as deep as possible so he wouldn't face retribution for thinking it.

Clearly he hadn't buried it deep enough.

"Toooouuuumaaaa!" Index growled, baring her fangs and lunging at him.

He didn't even try to dodge, accepting that he was going to face punishment for this one no matter what he did.

Mikoto sank to her knees as she watched the other girl deliver retribution, too flustered to do anything herself.

Itsuwa watched the whole exchange with a red face and a disgruntled expression.

He even pays enough attention to the Railgun to notice something like that?

The other girl might be wholly embarrassed, but Itsuwa couldn't help but feel a spark of jealousy. She could tell he was focused on her. The night she'd spent at his dorm had made it obvious– the way his eyes would glaze over, unfocused, as he absent-mindedly fiddled with his phone and the little mascot character attached to it… a mascot she'd thought nothing of until Index had explained to her that it was a matching set.

Yes, Kamijou-san thought of the Railgun a lot. But to be so fixated as to notice a small detail like that… was there any other way to interpret that level of attention?

On Mikoto's part, there was definitely a piece of her that was legitimately flattered that he'd noticed. It was a small change, after all. Something she barely noticed in the shower, despite being immensely excited about it. Having him point it out was a satisfying thrill. But the rest of her was utterly appalled and confounded that her gut reaction wasn't rage.

Pushing herself back up to her feet shakily, she turned away from the boy, whom Index had finally let go of, and stuttered "W-we need to go after them. C-come on!"

"You're not mad?" He asked impulsively.

He watched her freeze, and Touma wished someone would shove a foot in his mouth. He'd almost been in the clear, why did he have to say something?

The lightning storm broke out.

"I'M TRYING TO DROP IT, YOU IDIOT! PLAY ALONG!"

It took a good minute before the sparking calmed down enough for the group to start moving.

"H-hey, Itsuwa," Touma started, trying to divert, still watching the electromaster nervously. "That guy… any idea what the black stuff is that he's controlling?"

Itsuwa held up her staff, looking closer at the flaked remnants of the substance while the other two girls looked back. With her finger, she wiped off a bit of the stuff, rubbing it between her thumb and index.

"Ash…?" She guessed, surprised.

Touma frowned. "A pyrokineticist and a person who controls ash? That could be a pretty dangerous team-up…"

"Don't forget they could have other teammates." Mikoto added.

"Right…"

They reached the entrance to a warehouse. When Mikoto had launched Riko away with her metal shield, the garage doors for this structure had been open and the girl had landed somewhere inside. The doors, however, were now closed.

"Trap?" Touma guessed immediately.

Mikoto put a hand on the control panel, concentrating for a moment. "These doors have a barcode lock." She declared. "They definitely have a hacker tucked away somewhere. Unless the guy stole a keycard off of someone… but there's been no sign of anyone else having been attacked."

Touma started a little as he realized she was right. The guards and security robots had disappeared, but there had been no sign of unconscious bodies, or any indication of a struggle at all before they confronted their group.

Itsuwa shifted anxiously. "Is it a good idea to follow them?" She pressed. "If it's already gotten out that we're lying in wait, then we need to reassess our methods and come up with a new strategy. We can't let this person escape."

Touma glanced at Mikoto with a question in his eyes.

She met his gaze, pressing her lips together in a moment of hesitation. Then, very discreetly, her gaze shifted up to the left for a couple seconds.

He followed her line of sight with his peripheral vision as best he could, and instantly realized what it was she was pointing out: the camera.

If the opposite team had a hacker, then they were probably being watched. Mikoto could hack the camera herself in a snap, but there was no guarantee the enemy wouldn't overwrite her hacking before they were done talking. In other words, she couldn't explain her plan.

He turned to Itsuwa. "We need to go after them." He insisted.

"But–!"

"We have no other leads. These guys were hired by the magician, right? Then we might be able to get some info from them. They're our best option."

Itsuwa paused, sighing a little. "Right… I suppose I hadn't thought about that."

"We should split up." Mikoto told them, stepping away from the door's control panel. "We can't go through here, since they're probably waiting for us. Based on how the electricity is running from this door, there should be a couple other entrances on either side of the building. Covering both means they won't be able to escape through one while we go for the other."

Itsuwa's eyes widened in alarm. "Split up?!"

Her imagination ran wild right away with images of Kamijou-san and the Railgun getting intimate the moment they were alone. Her face started to burn, and she gripped her staff so tightly her knuckles turned white.

Mikoto continued. "We're facing espers… but that magician might come out at any point, right? In that case… I'll take the silver sister to cover the left. You two cover the right."

… Eh?

Isuwa blinked a few times, shocked at the unexpected division.

Mikoto wasn't a huge fan of the idea of leaving Touma alone with this magician girl, but her decision was based on practicality. She and Touma were best suited to handle espers. She didn't know much about what Itsuwa could do, but she handled the ash esper and knew who the magician they were looking for was. Index, for her part, didn't know what this fugitive looked like, but she could recognize and intercept magic.

Splitting the team this way gave everyone the best chance no matter who they ended up facing.

"Okay." Touma agreed, a little reluctantly. Splitting up made sense and all, but that didn't mean he was comfortable leaving the two girls he was closest to, no matter how much he trusted them to handle themselves. "Call me if you need backup."

"That's my line." She scolded him. Glancing at Itsuwa, she said to the girl "Don't let him do anything stupid."

"I'll do my best!" She promised wholeheartedly.

"Oi!" Touma protested.

The girls ignored him.

With that, the team split.

---

The silver sister was quiet.

Mikoto glanced back at Index as they walked, trying to assess the other girl. She wasn't hurt in any way, or noticeably worn out. But she was intentionally not looking at her. From the moment they'd split away from the others, the sister had started trailing behind her and fallen completely silent.

She's mad at me.

Mikoto found the thought oddly troubling. She and Index had reached something of an understanding on the night she stayed over at their dorm, and they'd gone out to supper as a group a couple times since, so the cold shoulder treatment wasn't just odd– it bothered her. It felt wrong. They'd been getting along all right, hadn't they?

Mikoto put her hand to the panel on the door they'd reached. She picked this entrance because it was the only other door that had an electronic lock. Of course, the system was no match for her ability. One quick spark later, and the console beeped, the door sliding open and letting them in.

"Are you gonna tell me why you're mad?" Mikoto started.

Index's eyes flickered to the electromaster for a second.

"I'm not mad."

"Yes you are."

"I'm not."

Mikoto looked back at the other girl, fixing her with a blunt, unimpressed look.

Index pouted, looking away.

"See? You're mad."

Index sighed. She fiddled with her outfit a little, dropping the pretense of a carefree expression and letting the full force of her feelings morph her expression into something a lot closer to hurt.

She wasn't mad. She was upset.

"You said Touma's feelings wouldn't change."

Mikoto stopped, sensing this wasn't going to be as surface-level as she'd thought. "What?"

"You said how much he cared about me wouldn't change." She repeated, clenching her robes tightly. "But he ditched me yesterday. He forgot all about me because he was spending time with you."

Mikoto's heart dropped as she took in the unshed tears glistening in the corner of the other girl's eyes.

She'd had a blast the day before. Nothing would change that. But it was also true that she'd completely ignored the fact that he'd shown up at the park with Index. Mikoto had taken his insistence that she'd be fine for a couple hours on her own at face value, and then she'd completely forgotten that Index was in the park at all until they crossed paths again later.

They'd had fun, but that didn't change the fact that Index had been left alone.

She turned to the nun, facing her straight-on, and bowed. "I'm sorry."

Index's eyes widened, taking a step back in surprise.

Mikoto continued. "That wasn't fair. I knew he'd shown up with you, and I shouldn't have forgotten about it. I shouldn't have let him forget about it. So I'm sorry."

Slowly, Index smiled. "Mm." She acknowledged the apology. "It's okay. I know you and Touma are special to each other, so you're going to spend lots of time doing things together… I just…"

"I won't let him ditch you to hang out with me." Mikoto promised. "I swear it won't happen again. Touma and I can make plans. It doesn't have to cut into your time with him."

Make plans.

She could feel her face burning from the implication, but it wasn't the time to get worked up over what to call their 'hang-outs'.

The gloom that had been hovering over the nun finally dissipated, and the girl smiled brightly. "Thanks, Mikoto." Taking hold of the electromaster's hands, she added "I'm rooting for you."

Mikoto didn't even want to know how red her face was.

The two continued for a little while in companionable silence through the dimly lit halls of the facility. It was odd, Mikoto decided quickly. It was the middle of the day, so why was the area completely empty? Only the auxiliary lights were on, as though the place was closed for the night, and yet it was the middle of the day. The place should be busy with activity.

"Hey, short-hair," Index said, slowing down as she peered down a hallway. "...Do you smell that?"

"... Huh?" Mikoto stopped, trying to detect whatever the sister had smelled. Thinking it over for a minute, she guessed "Fried rice? Maybe someone's lunch. What about it?"

The nun's eyes glazed over. "It smells so good… it's almost time for lunch too…"

"Mm, maybe we can all go out after this–"

She paused, blinking a few times.

"Wait, why are we talking about this?! There's enemies running around in this building, you know!"

Index started, snapping out of her hunger haze. "I know that!" She defended.

"Touma might've run into them by now." Mikoto continued, fretting a little.

"Touma will be okay. Itsuwa's there too." Index said.

Still, anxiety prickled at the back of her mind, and Mikoto's thoughts were starting to spiral. "If he runs into that pyro girl again… she's probably still naked too… aah, I'm worried about it–!"

Index tilted her head at the electromaster curiously. The possibility bothered her too, but she'd never seen Mikoto express that same feeling so openly. "There's no point worrying about it now." Index reminded her.

Mikoto flushed deep red.

What was she saying?! Yes it bothered her, but saying something as embarrassing as that out loud-!

She shook her head, trying to set her mind back on the immediate task.

It was shockingly hard to do.

Alarm bells started ringing in her head.

Something was wrong. The thoughts themselves weren't unusual- Index spent most of her waking hours thinking about food, and Mikoto spent a shameful amount of time worrying about Touma- but voicing those thoughts, actually letting it distract them… it was odd.

A thought occurred to her.

There might be more members of the enemy group. Two of them were front-line fighters. What were the odds that they would have a mental esper supporting them behind the scenes?

Were they being attacked?

Mikoto went up to the nearest door panel, touching the electronic device and concentrating.

The facility was mostly shut down at the moment. Which meant that electricity use was being minimalized. In that case, she should be able to trace where the most power was being used and use that information to find the control room for the security system.

"This way." She gestured to the corridor on their left, and was moving before the sister had a chance to respond.

Someone was watching them. Mikoto was going to use that to her advantage.

---

On the other side of the building, Itsuwa was dealing with her own internal struggles.

She was happy for the chance to be alone with Kamijou-san. Honestly. But the more she saw of the way he looked at the Railgun, the more she felt like maybe trying to win him over… might not be okay.

Had he already made up his mind?

Touma glanced back at his companion, noting that her expression had darkened again. This had been happening on and off since the night before, and he had no idea what was triggering it.

"Are you sure you're okay, Itsuwa?"

She jumped, his voice catching her off guard. "Eh?"

Touma continued. "You keep getting this serious look. Worried about this fugitive?"

She fiddled with her staff. "No… well, yes, I am thinking about that, but I'm not too worried. As long as everyone gives their best, I'm sure we'll figure something out."

"Then what's wrong?" He pressed.

"I wouldn't say anything's wrong… I was just a bit surprised."

"Surprised?"

She winced, scolding herself for speaking so carelessly. Slowly, so she could consider each word before it left her mouth, she said to him "Mm. The Railgun… I've met her before, in passing. I didn't realize she was involved in the magic side…"

Touma smiled a little. Was she worried about involving outsiders in the church's affairs? That was something he could understand pretty easily. "Mikoto only really knows the basics." He said. "But we're together a lot, so she gets involved sometimes. Even though I'd rather she didn't when she doesn't have to…"

"You really care about her, huh?" She noted quietly.

Touma could feel a heat rising up his neck.

He wasn't sure what he should admit, or even why Itsuwa was curious about it, but just thinking about it sent his insides into disarray. Yeah he cared about her. Undeniably. But there was something in Itsuwa's tone that made him think she was insinuating something more… and he couldn't refute that. He'd be lying if he did.

"... Yeah." He answered slowly. "Mikoto… She means a lot to me."

Itsuwa's shoulders slumped a little.

A new voice cut through the darkness ahead of them, and they both tensed.

"Oh? Only two? Don't tell me the other half got lost."

Touma wanted to cry as the girl stepped into their line of sight. Of course he'd be the one facing the nude pyro. Why would he ever expect things to go any other way?

Riko grinned, hands on her hips, still displaying everything she had to offer without a hint of embarrassment. "Lucky! The one guy came after me! I'm going to have a lot more fun than Nagi or Yun!"

Yun?

Putting aside the confirmation of a third group member for the time being, Touma took a defensive stance, trying to ignore the display.

Which, surprising even to himself, was oddly easy to do.

It's too much, his brain whispered, contradicting everything it had ever told him before. Looks swollen. Kind of smothering. A smaller size is better.

Since when?! The other half of his brain cried out.

That odd little voice of criticism refused to elaborate.

He forced himself to shake off the confusion. At some point, Touma was going to have to sit himself down and take a good moment to think about how and why his tastes had shifted without him noticing, but at the moment, it was definitely working to his advantage, and that was all that mattered.

Riko frowned at the boy's firm expression. "Eeeehhh? Don't tell me you're one of those high-and-mighty types who go on about only being attracted to what's on the inside or whatever. It's no fun if you don't get all flustered!"

Touma relaxed his defense a little and told her loudly "If you think you're the first naked person I've faced, guess again! Kamijou Touma won't be phased by another exhibitionist!"

Riko blinked at him, face morphing into something between pity and distaste. Even Itsuwa gave him an odd look.

Ah, that came out wrong.

"No wait, that doesn't mean–!"

"Mm-hmm, everyone has their hobbies. No shame. I can respect that." Riko nodded to herself.

Red in the face, Itsuwa said "I-I won't judge! Boys will be boys, I suppose…"

"Don't just accept it!" He cried as the misunderstanding got worse.

Riko suddenly shifted, and a second later, a ball of flame was rushing toward them. Touma didn't have time to think about it, but his body reacted automatically to the threat, his right hand lifting to meet the flame and making it vanish.

"One way or another, Nagi will get mad if I don't take you out." She said, launching fire at them again. Touma and Itsuwa dodged in opposite directions, and the flames landed on a pile of something that was definitely combustible, because the fire took to it immediately.

"Watch what you're hitting!" Touma scolded the girl, a sweat breaking out as he watched the fire grow.

"Don't be a wimp. This is a testing facility for firearms and explosives, there's plenty of systems in place to control fires."

As she spoke, she ran between piles of wood, stacked as though their only purpose was to be turned into bonfires, setting each one ablaze. The materials lit up far too fast for it to be natural, burning a bright, almost white color, washing the room with an intense heat.

Itsuwa pulled out a talisman, quickly casting something on herself. The air around her shimmered a translucent blue.

"Sorry," She told him. "I would cast this on you too, but…"

"It's fine." He assured her. Defensive spells obviously had no effect on him. He was happy enough that she still chose to cast it on herself despite knowing it wouldn't work on him too.

Touma focused on Riko, who was grinning widely as she peaked around her newest bonfire, drenched in sweat. Clearly her ability didn't protect her from the heat.

He assumed it wouldn't protect her from smoke inhalation either, but Riko hadn't been kidding about the systems in place. The moment the bonfires started up, vents had opened above them, drawing the smoke out of the space.

Unfortunately, no sprinklers kicked in to put out the fires, though.

"It's easier to control fire than it is to create it." the girl said, gesturing with both hands. The flames responded, arcing out from the piles and converging on them.

Itsuwa raised her staff, murmuring "adopt the traits of the river and imbue the element of water."

The blue shimmer around her quickly extended over her weapon, and she swung it to intercept the fire closing in behind them while Touma blocked the flames from the front.

This was bad.

Touma didn't have a means of putting out the bonfires. It might've been triggered by an ability, but once Riko was no longer in control of the fire, it became a natural phenomena that he couldn't cancel out. He didn't have strict proof of this, but his gut was telling him he could only cancel the fire she shot directly at them.

What was the end goal? Was she really just giving herself fuel? If that was the case, she was in trouble, because whatever substance was speeding along the burning process was doing a bit too good of a job. The first couple bonfires were already starting to shrink as the fuel disintegrated into ash.

He paused.

Ash.

Where was the guy who could manipulate ash?!

"Itsuwa, you wouldn't be able to put out those fires, would you?" He asked in a bit of a panic as he blocked more incoming fire.

"Not like this." She answered quickly. "I don't have the tools to summon any actual water."

"Damn." He scanned the area, looking for any sign of movement. Where was he? There was no good hiding spot in this area. They would've noticed the guy Nagi if he was here by now, right? Was Touma giving this girl too much credit? This is the same girl who burnt off her own clothes by accident, after all.

He needed to get in close to Riko. But she wasn't giving either of them enough breathing room to cover any ground.

This was a poorer match-up than he'd thought it would be.

"What's wrong?" Riko taunted gleefully. "Feeling a little trapped?"

Itsuwa swung her staff, deflecting another stream of fire. "Are you aware that the person who hired you is a fugitive?!" She shouted. "Do you think a fugitive really has the means to pay you?"

"We got paid in advance!" She answered easily. "So we gotta live up to the contract! Nagi says so."

Touma could commend Itsuwa for trying, at least.

The heat in the room started to abate, the light from the bonfires dying down, but the reduction in potential firepower for the pyro was not reassuring him… especially because Riko's delighted expression wasn't faltering in the slightest.

His fears were confirmed when the remnants of the fires started shifting on the ground around them.

"You guessed by now, right?" Riko prodded them, sweat glistening on her brow. She was panting from the exertion, but her eyes sparked with triumph. "What the bonfires were really for."

The piles of ash erupted.

Touma braced himself, but the ash didn't come directly for them. Instead it started circling them like a cyclone, creating a wall of black closing them in.

He still hadn't spotted the guy controlling the stuff, even though he had to be close. Esper abilities almost always had a set range of effect. So where was he?

There wasn't time to worry. Touma started running forward, trying to close the distance to the twister, reaching out with his right hand. But before he reached it, something rolled under the black wall. He jumped back instinctively.

Just in time– the object ignited, and a ring of fire instantly came to life around them, blocking access to the wall.

This is bad this is bad this is bad!

He wasn't sure what the substance supporting the ring was, but he was sure that it was scientific. He hadn't seen her scatter it. It might've been there the whole time, and Riko had been leading them around by the collar. Bottom line was that they were trapped. His right hand was powerless so long as he couldn't reach the swirl of ash.

Itsuwa jabbed her staff toward the fire, and a gust of wind followed her, but the air force didn't dent the flames. She grit her teeth. "I'm sorry, everything I have prepared is designed to take on the magician. There isn't much I can do."

"Hey," Came Riko's voice from the other side of the wall. "Have you ever heard of volcanic lightning before?"

His stomach dropped.

"See, when you get enough particles of ash colliding, it creates static electricity." Riko continued. "And when enough of it builds up, boom! Lightning! Pretty cool, right?"

Static started cackling in the air.

Touma dropped to one knee, ready to brace himself.

Could he block it? Would his right hand work? He had no idea. Nagi's ability was controlling ash, not creating electricity. This wasn't the same as blocking a charge from Mikoto. This was a naturally occurring side-effect. Like the ignition of the bonfires. If it truly existed separately from the esper's ability, then Touma was nothing but a sitting duck.

"I'll toss my staff." Itsuwa suggested at his back. "It's metallic, so it should draw the electricity away from us."

Touma grimaced. He knew from his most recent study sessions that they were too close to the blast radius for that to guarantee anything for them. It might spare them from getting killed, at least, but the force would probably still be enough to knock them out.

"Bye bye, lewd hobby guy." Riko called out.

"I'm telling you, that wasn't what I meant!"

Another voice cut in, and it was as if everything had come to a standstill. The panic that had been running through his veins froze, like someone had hit the pause button on him.

"I'm not even going to ask."

He had no idea where she'd dropped from, but suddenly Mikoto was there, in the center of the tornado of ash in front of them.

In the next instant, the lightning struck.

Touma had to cover his eyes, and for a moment he was scared for her. How strong was the electricity? He knew she could handle incredible levels of voltage, but what if it caught her off guard? Did external electrical attacks work differently for her than her own electricity? The fears raced through his mind, one after the other, and he tried to push himself to his feet.

But when the light spots faded, Mikoto was standing there like nothing had happened, brushing off her sleeve.

"My turn." She announced.

And the real storm began.

Lightning flashed around them, shooting off at dozens of angles, tearing streaks through the wall of ash. From the other side, a panicked screech could be heard, and he guessed that she'd hit Riko with one of the stray blasts.

The ash morphed, halting the tornado and breaking into a dozen pieces, reforming into spear-like projectiles and speeding toward the group. Mikoto blasted through the ash in front of her, and Touma and Itsuwa covered her back, deflecting the ones that got past her.

As the ash dissipated, floating through the air, Mikoto tossed a coin, closing one eye and lining up her shot.

The railgun blasted up into the rafters. Touma's eyes widened as a flailing shape came falling out of the debris. The guy only just managed to orient himself and soften his landing with a pile of ash.

The group ran up to him, and Nagi froze.

He raised his hands in surrender, cautiously getting to his feet. "How did you know where I was…?" He started.

Mikoto tapped her ear, and the guy lifted his hand to the same spot on his own head, where a small electronic communication device was sitting.

He sighed, chuckling dryly. "You really are the Railgun, huh?"

"That's right."

"Damn it." He sat on the ground, and the ash that had been hovering just over the ground settled, the esper dropping control of it. "Yun…?"

"Ah that mental esper?" Mikoto guessed. "I traced the electricity to the security control room and knocked him out. The silver sister is looking after him. I was holding back, so he should be fine."

"Much obliged for your consideration."

Mikoto looked back at them, an eyebrow raised. "You two okay?"

Touma glanced at Itsuwa to make sure the girl was fine, then answered "We're fine. Thanks for the save."

She smirked, her eyes sparkling proudly.

"If you people were hoping that we could lead you to the client, you're out of luck." Nagi warned them. "He never met with us in person. All communication was through calls."

Itsuwa's face fell for a moment, but Mikoto waved off the comment.

"Ah, that won't be necessary. We already had a chat with your communications guy."

"Yun?"

"We made a deal." She explained. "Once he saw who I was, he was pretty cooperative."

Nagi gave another long, drawn-out sigh. "That moron…"

"Can you explain what the game plan is now?" Touma pressed, still watching the esper out of the corner of his eye.

"I got their communications guy to relay a message to their client." Mikoto said to them. "It said 'targets neutralized. Area clear.'"

Ah.

The idea hadn't been to beat these guys and prevent them from reporting, or even giving off the illusion that they'd been drawn away. The plan had been to make it look like they'd been eliminated.

"Wait," Itsuwa glanced back and forth between the other two. "You mean you didn't know what the Railgun's plan was…?"

Touma shrugged, putting a hand on Mikoto's head with a smile, answering Itsuwa "No, but I trust her."

She flushed crimson. "Don't pat me like a little kid–!" She protested.

Itsuwa bit her lip, staying quiet while the Railgun swatted Kamijou's hand away in flustered embarrassment, a response that made Kamijou-san smile with indulgent affection.

Turning her attention back to the defeated esper, Mikoto said "You should take your team and get out of here."

"You're just going to set us loose?" Nagi asked skeptically.

"That was the deal. Oh, the communications guy wanted me to relay a message too– the payment was suspicious, or something like that."

His expression soured.

Looks like Itsuwa's shot in the dark about the magician's ability to pay had something to it after all.

"In that case, do what you want." He said, getting to his feet. "We don't work for scammers."

Touma watched the guy as he went back to where Riko lay unconscious, still unconvinced that the guy was just giving up on the job.

With how often he faced magicians, it was easy to forget that in Academy City, fighting a level 5 was pretty much an impossible hurdle. To the espers of this city, Mikoto was terrifying. Even a dark side organization will jump through any hoop they need to so as to avoid a confrontation with her.

It took him a good few minutes to convince himself of that.

"It's almost noon." Itsuwa announced, her tone pitched up in alarm. "We need to get back!"

"Where's Index?" Touma asked Mikoto as they darted after Itsuwa.

"She should've been watching from the control room. She'll meet us back outside as soon as she can."

"Who was that communications guy, anyways?"

Mikoto explained "He was the one responsible for clearing out the area. His ability lets him intercept and manipulate residual thoughts, apparently, so he was able to steer people away without them realizing what was happening."

"Does that sort of thing work on security robots?" He asked, confused.

"Of course not. He hacked those."

A mental esper who was also a hacker? Sounded like an incredibly useful ally. Touma almost felt bad for him. Running into Mikoto had been a stroke of bad luck. If she hadn't tracked him down, someone like that would've easily been able to counter any plan the rest of them could've come up with.

They reached the yard, and Itsuwa led them closer to the 'territory' that Index had marked out for them, hiding behind the crates as they approached.

"There he is!" Itsuwa hissed, sounding thoroughly surprised, as though she hadn't really expected the plan to work. "Jordan Fletcher."

She pulled out her phone, dialing the Amakusa team on standby and quickly told them "Confirmed visual."

She nodded firmly at their quick answer, then turned to them as she put the phone away and said "They'll be here within 10 minutes. We just need to keep him contained."

Touma peered around her to get a look at the guy.

He was pacing around the open area, eyes fixed on the ground, occasionally kneeling to mess with something on the field and muttering to himself.

"What is he doing?" He muttered.

"Preparing a spell, I'm assuming." Itsuwa answered. "The church he's from specializes in using a fusion of Roman and Catholic forms of magic. Roman rituals require very involved levels of preparation."

"What kind of spell would this guy be casting in the middle of Academy City, of all places?" Touma wondered. "It's weird that he came here in the first place. What was the point in risking breaking into a city as tightly locked as this one?"

There was strategic significance to Academy City, Touma knew, but he couldn't imagine that holding true for a fugitive. The only confirmed allies he had within the city was the dark side organization that he'd hired. There was always a chance that the guy had been after Index, but if he was, he'd done a very poor job in going after her. So why? What was the point?

"There might be a specific trait to the location." Itsuwa hypothesized. "It's likely the timing is also important. He was only sentenced to a few months, after all. There must have been a reason why he couldn't wait."

Mikoto raised an eyebrow. "A few months? And people are going through all of this to hunt him down? What the heck did this guy do?"

"I was told that he stole one of the original grimoires kept in the vaults."

Touma and Mikoto both paused, looking to Itsuwa in surprise.

"This guy…" Touma said slowly. "What church is he from?"

"It was called Evangelical Covenants. Or it was… it was disbanded recently."

As recently as a couple weeks, if Touma had to guess. Evangelical Covenants… he'd only heard the name once before, but he was pretty sure that was the organization Levka Devin and Aiden Reeves had been from. He hissed a sigh.

"This is one of those guys?" Mikoto said, recognizing the name as well.

"You're familiar with them?" Itsuwa asked, shocked.

"Yeah, we got a bit involved with the whole situation around that stolen grimoire." Touma explained. "Two members of the group came after Index a couple weeks back."

"That still doesn't tell us anything about why this guy came here, though." Mikoto pointed out. "Those two were after Index, but this guy hasn't tried to go after her at all."

"We can't sit around speculating!" Itsuwa jumped to her feet. "Whatever he's doing, it's almost noon. We have to stall him until the others arrive."

"Itsuwa, wait–!... geez."

The girl ran out of their hiding spot before Touma could move to stop her, leaving him with no choice but to follow.

"Jordan Fletcher!" Itsuwa called, pointing her staff forward.

The man stopped, slowly looking up from the ground as Mikoto and Touma caught up and came to a stop just behind Itsuwa.

"Puritans…?" He muttered, his voice quiet and strained. His eyes had a dark, hollow look to them, like he was seeing them, but wasn't properly registering that they were there. "Bad, that's bad. There's no time… running out of time…"

"Surrender peacefully and we won't have to use force." Itsuwa warned him.

Touma couldn't say what exactly happened next.

One moment, the three of them were facing the magician. The next, pain exploded into his chest, and the ground at his feet disappeared. Everything spun, then his back slammed into something, knocking the wind out of him. He gasped and coughed roughly, trying to draw air back into his lungs, and when the spots in his eyes started to clear, he was looking at the sky.

What…?

Once he could breathe again, he pushed himself up onto his elbows, wincing harshly at the searing pain shooting through his chest and abdomen from the movement.

He looked around for his teammates immediately.

To his left, Mikoto was standing with her back to a metal crate, her arms crossed in front of her chest and remnants of electricity dancing around her. Good, Touma thought. It looks like she managed to block whatever it was.

Itsuwa, in front to his right, was still standing where she'd been when the attack hit, something mostly translucent shimmering in a sphere around her.

"I'm prepared to handle your techniques." Itsuwa told him. "Your expulsion won't work."

"Empirical ordinance." He corrected, taking a step back and narrowing his eyes.

Itsuwa lunged, aiming her staff straight for the magician.

His response couldn't be called dodging. It was more like he vanished and reappeared behind Itsuwa. But it looked like she anticipated as much, because she adjusted mid-swing and blocked the attack coming down on her back.

"Your magic designates a set space as your territory," Itsuwa explained, twisting to face the magician and lunging at him again. He stepped back, moving twice as far as that movement should've allowed for. "You're able to freely manipulate natural forces within that space, right?"

"Am I supposed to be impressed that you know my technique?" The magician said, raising a hand. Itsuwa braced herself, and Touma got a proper look at the attack that had knocked him and Mikoto back- a wall of wind. Itsuwa cut through it, her defensive spell shimmering.

"Your territory has to be marked," Itsuwa continued. "What do you use? Talismans? Chalk? Totems?"

"You expect me to tell you?" Jordan Fletcher knelt to the ground, and the dirt at his feet broke apart, creating a spire that shot toward Itsuwa. Her eyes widened in alarm, and she tried to dodge, but the ground at her own feet had softened, causing her to sink into it like mud and halting her movements.

Before Fletcher's attack landed, though, a beam of light tore past Itsuwa and met the spire of dirt, scattering it to dust.

The magician's expression soured as he followed the light to the middle-school girl that had shot it. Evidently, he'd forgotten that Itsuwa wasn't alone. Quickly, he looked for the collapsed form of the teenage boy that had taken the full brunt of the first attack– but the teenager had vanished.

Itsuwa hadn't been explaining the magician's power to gloat or glean more information from him. In fact, she hadn't been talking to him at all.

Talismans, chalk, or totems?

Touma wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for, but something was marking out the magician's territory. All he had to do was find it and touch it with his right hand. So he ran, behind the metal crates, looking for anything out of place.

How large was the area of effect of his magic?

He had no way of guessing. So all he could was run around, trying to block out the sounds of the girls fighting.

He wasn't expecting any kind of lucky break. He really wasn't. And so when he came across something, he nearly ran right past it.

He doubled back, looking at the markings on the crate. Written on the metal was what appeared to be latin, although Touma couldn't read it. It was scribbled in regular black ink, so he very nearly hadn't seen it, camouflaged as it was next to the crate's official printed markings.

He touched the writing with his right hand.

The sound of the Imagine Breaker rang out, and the letters melted away as though washed out by the rain.

Well clearly that did something. Satisfied, Touma started running back to the two girls.

Mikoto and Itsuwa were both looking a little ragged, but otherwise unharmed. Mikoto had an iron sand sword in her hand, and the girls were on opposite sides of the magician, blocking him in. Fletcher's face was a mask of panic as he moved to avoid the attacks, forced to dodge normally and only just holding out.

As Touma stepped onto the scene again, a sound like a gong echoed across the field, and everyone froze.

Fletcher reacted first. Reaching into his coat, he pulled something out, scattered it in the air in front of him and shouted "Converge on me!"

Light rippled across the field, and Touma was forced to cover his eyes.

It took him a second to realize what was happening.

It was noon.

The territory maintaining the magician's offensive magic and the territory Index had noted that was designed to boost magic power– they were separate things. And Touma had only canceled out one.

Before anyone's vision had a chance to fully recover, the light was morphing, swirling around the magician and forming dozens of small darts.

Touma knew he was in trouble before the darts started flying. There were hundreds of them, and no time to react. Even so, Touma knelt instinctively, trying to minimize the surface area exposed and raising his hand to block what he could.

And fly they did. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Itsuwa get pushed back, although whatever defensive spell she had cast was at least protecting her from getting impaled.

He tried to check on Mikoto, but there wasn't time. The projectiles reached him. A few aimed for his head got canceled out, but a couple more shot past his defense and dug into his side and shoulder. He grit his teeth, waiting for the rest to hit.

They never did.

Touma had narrowed his eyes to slits, trying to watch the attack despite the brightness, but a sudden wall of black in front of him cut off the light source enough to let him open his eyes completely, and he was able to see what it was that had shielded him.

Iron sand.

He immediately turned to Mikoto, scared that she'd sacrificed her own defense, but the level 5 wasn't so limited. Not a single dart reached her, despite the force having pushed her back as well. Relief washed over him.

The darts of light ran out, and the three stood up tensely, recovering. But Fletcher ignored them. The light gathered again in the palm of his hand, and with a desperate look on his face, he slammed the magic into the ground at his feet.

They waited.

And waited.

Nothing.

Confused, Touma hesitated. The magician didn't look surprised by the lack of any effect. In fact, as the light vanished, the man slumped over, collapsing in a heap.

Silence echoed across the field.

Itsuwa made it to him first, kneeling next to him and checking his vitals as Mikoto and Touma came up behind her.

"He's just unconscious." She told them, looking about as baffled as Touma felt.

"Did he run out of power or something?" Mikoto wondered. "That last one didn't do anything."

"Maybe…"

With the threat gone, Touma started to relax. Which was a mistake, because the moment he let himself breathe, pain washed through his body, and his knees gave out.

"O-Oi!" Mikoto started, seeing him fall and kneeling down next to him.

"I'm okay." He insisted immediately, trying to smile. "I've had worse."

"That doesn't make it better, idiot." She scolded. She reached out, looking him over quickly, watching him wince as she lightly pressed into his ribs. Her eyes darkened. With a stern expression, she told him "I'm taking you to the hospital."

"It's not that bad…"

He trailed off, the words dying in his throat against the weight of the look she was giving him. "I will knock you out and drag you there if I have to." She warned.

"I'll walk!" He insisted quickly.

As Mikoto helped him get back up to his feet, the rest of the Amakusa showed up on the scene, led by Kanzaki.

"Good work, Itsuwa!" The High Priest patted the girl on the back as the Saint and a couple others went to restrain Fletcher.

She waved her hands emphatically. "Aaah, I didn't do that much, Kamijou-san and the Railgun did most of the work…" She frowned. "And it wasn't us that knocked him out…"

"Hmm?"

Now properly tied up, Kanzaki lifted the fugitive over her shoulder. Facing the rest of them, she bowed as much as the extra weight would allow and said "Thank you for your assistance in this case."

"No problem." He answered her, smiling a little awkwardly and feeling bad for the careless way the magician was flopping around from the movement.

"You injured, Kamijou?" The High Priest asked. "Need a ride to the hospital?"

"That's–"

"If you wouldn't mind." Mikoto cut in, shooting him a quick glare, sensing that he was about to refuse.

He grinned apologetically.

One of the Amakusa members offered to take them to his car.

"... I'm sorry." Mikoto murmured as she helped him walk. "If I'd been a little faster…"

Touma tapped her lightly on the forehead before she could finish that sentence.

"What are you talking about?" He said. "This would've been way worse if it weren't for you."

Having Mikoto around had really been a lifesaver. The fact that he was still walking was entirely thanks to her. He didn't want her to feel bad. Him ending up in the hospital was inevitable, anyways. He was just glad that she came out of it unhurt.

She smiled softly. And even though he could feel his face heating up, he smiled back.

"You gonna bring me cookies again?" He teased.

"That depends. Are you going to complain about them being store-bought?" She shot back.

"Hmm... Guess I can live with that if I have to."

She rolled her eyes.

His eyes softened, and impulsively, he reached up with his free hand and tucked some loose strands of hair behind her ear. She blushed, looking up at him questioningly, and he looked away, stubbornly staying silent.

The High Priest watched the two teens from a distance with a frown.

"Perk up, Itsuwa!" He told his subordinate, putting a hand on her shoulder. "A man's heart can be a fickle thing! If you step up your game–"

"No."

The Priest blinked a few times, looking down at the girl in surprise.

"Kamijou-san… knows what he wants." Itsuwa said slowly with an oddly calm look. "So I'm going to respect that."

He smiled at her.

"I see."

---

They piled into the car about ten minutes later, Index now in tow, who'd only just caught up to them and was disgruntled that she'd missed the fight entirely, although Touma was personally relieved she hadn't been there.

Itsuwa had decided to return to England with the bulk of the group, so she stood outside of the car to see them off.

"Thank you so much for the help." She told them. "None of this would've been possible without you."

"Stay safe on the way back, Itsuwa." Touma answered her.

Mikoto was the last one to get into the car, and Itsuwa held her back for a second before she joined the other two.

"Thank you for protecting Kamijou-san." She told the other girl quietly, hanging her head. "There wasn't much I could do for him…"

"Don't worry about it." Mikoto told her, a little cautiously. She didn't quite know what to make of this magician girl.

"If you don't mind… Please keep looking after him." She requested, bowing her head.

Mikoto stared, taken aback.

"... You're okay with that?" She asked quietly.

Like most girls that hung around Touma, Itsuwa's feelings were far from subtle. Mikoto knew she was interested in him, and she probably could guess how Mikoto felt too. So the request kind of felt like… like she was conceding.

She gave a small smile of resignation. "Kamijou-san has made up his mind." She answered. "So I'm going to root for him… and for you."

Mikoto blushed.

"Mm." She answered, looking away. "I'll take care of him."

Itsuwa waved the group off with a smile.

---

The Amakusa packed up and returned their fugitive to England that day. The last update they'd gotten was that Fletcher hadn't regained consciousness. The theorized that his final attack had been intended to reform the ground, but a miscalculation had caused the magic to backfire on him and knocked him out.

They never did find out what brought the guy to Academy City in the first place. They had ideas, but nothing concrete. The only thing to do would be to wait for Fletcher to wake up and ask him directly. In any case, it was over. The magician was in custody again. He couldn't do any more harm.

Touma was uneasy about it. He couldn't shake the subtle sense that something was off. But there was nothing more to do, so he put that feeling aside and focused instead on appeasing the two girls fussing over his injuries.

---

Deep beneath District 2, in a half-finished tunnel long forgotten, something stirred.

---

[Author Notes]

Few. That was a long one.

So we've officially reached the halfway point of this story. I predicted after writing the third chapter that the halfway point would push 50k words, and sure enough, here we are. Things between Touma and Mikoto are getting less subtle, which means their scenes are getting more and more fun to write. I love having them flirt. The struggle from here on will be holding back on the flirting. Gotta get through 5 more chapters, after all.

I know I left this on a bit of a cliffhanger, but we will be returning to the laid-back stuff for the next couple chapters. You can expect to see this storyline pick up again down the line, though.

Let me know what you think! Reviews really are a huge motivator. Thanks so much to everyone who's been reading, and extra thanks to the people commenting!

I'll see you guys next time in the tentatively titled 6th chapter "Sports Day"