The sunrise was especially pretty that morning. Mikoto would know– because she and Kuroko were up at the crack of dawn cleaning the dining hall.
She stifled a yawn as she trudged through the chore, glancing at her roommate out of the corner of her eye, who was still half asleep enough that she didn't even have the energy to try and jump her.
She wasn't looking forward to doing this every day for the next week.
Despite the menial task, Mikoto's hand drifted up to her hair, where a new pin was clipped, and lightly traced the shape.
She didn't regret staying out at all.
Kuroko likewise didn't have any regrets for the tasks that kept her out past the unreasonably early curfew enforced by the dorm manager. Honestly, she was working! Did that old lady not have a single sympathetic bone in her body?! The Judgment branches were all swamped with work, cases that Anti-Skill were unable to handle in their current state of affairs. The one her branch was in charge of was a particularly tricky one, and it was proving very difficult to track down suspects. Staying out had been necessary.
That didn't mean she wasn't immensely suspicious of what had kept her Onee-sama out, though.
Mikoto had come back to the dorm with a most alarmingly airy look on her face. Like a girl walking on clouds. Kuroko had wondered immediately if she'd been brainwashed, or drugged, or perhaps been replaced by a clone– but a quick electric punishment had chased those ideas away.
She'd told her that she'd been out acquiring a new accessory. A rare hairpin that was now clipped to her hair. The proof was irrefutable, but Kuroko couldn't help but linger on the fact that Onee-sama hadn't looked her in the eye when she'd given that explanation, or how she'd jerked away with a pink dusting on her cheeks when Kuroko had nearly caught sight of something on her phone earlier that morning.
To make matters worse, Onee-sama had been dreaming most vividly overnight… and Kuroko was quite sure she'd heard her say something…
The teleporter slapped her cheeks, shaking her head roughly. No, she must have misheard. Even in a dream, her bashful Onee-sama would never express such a thing out loud to another. Her own fantasies were simply getting the better of her.
"Onee-sama," Kuroko asked as the two wrapped up the task. "Will you be joining us at the branch today? Or do you perhaps have another tutoring session?"
"I'll go with you." Mikoto answered her. "You guys are still looking into that property damage case, right? I don't have a study session planned for a few more days, anyways."
Kuroko smiled. "I see."
A day with her Onee-sama at her side… score!
"Uiharu mentioned that Saten-san will be joining her too." Kuroko added, the two packing up their equipment and getting ready to head out. "Looks like all four of us will get to be together…? Onee-sama? Is something wrong?"
At the mention of their friends' names, Mikoto had jerked to a stop. She felt a nervous sweat start to break out.
Mikoto thought back to the text her friend had sent her the previous night… and the thing she happened to oversee. A thing Kuroko had very nearly seen that morning when she'd been checking her phone. She thought it might be safer to just delete the image, but it was a shockingly good picture. She couldn't bring herself to do it.
"It's fine!" Mikoto assured her, trying to force a smile. "It's been a while since we all got together, right? We should all go out!"
"Need I remind you that this is for work…?" Kuroko sighed.
The two arrived at the Judgment 177 branch office about 20 minutes later. Despite the early hour, Uiharu and Konori-senpai were already there, working away on their computers.
Mikoto set her bag down on the couch while Kuroko sat down at her desk. Glancing around the room she asked "Saten-san isn't here yet?"
Uiharu answered without looking up. "Her last text said she would be here soon."
Mikoto grimaced, though none of the other girls saw it.
Trying to distract herself from the impending conversation with her fast-approaching friend, Mikoto started to move toward the door, saying "How about I make some tea for everyone?"
Konori smiled. "Mm, that would be greatly appreciated."
The kitchen area of the branch was in a separate room from the office itself, so Mikoto was on her own while she brewed tea for her friends.
The privacy gave her a chance to start worrying again.
What was she going to say? What could she say? She was on pins and needles trying to come up with a way to put what was going on into words. She was at a complete loss.
And yet at the same time… she was excited at the chance to talk about it with someone. Because she really needed to. She needed to get some of this off her chest. Especially after what had happened the night before.
"Miiiisaka-san!"
A pair of hands landed on Mikoto's shoulders, and she jumped a foot in the air.
"Saten-san!" Mikoto complained, turning to her grinning friend as her face flushed red. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Sorry, sorry. Should've figured you'd be feeling keyed-up after last night." Her grin widened, her eyes narrowing a little.
Mikoto quickly glanced at the door, putting a finger to her friend's mouth and insisting "Ssh!"
"Sorry." She apologized again in a quieter voice as Mikoto dropped her hand. "So? Tell me the details! When did you and Kamijou-san start dating?"
"We're n–!" The denial came automatically, but Mikoto cut it off before it could be completed.
Going quiet, Mikoto's hand unconsciously came up to her cheek, touching the spot that the boy in question had kissed the night before, her face heating like a frying pan.
If they weren't dating, then what the heck had that been?
Saten's expression faltered at the partially voiced denial. "Come on, Misaka-san," She pulled out her phone, bringing up the picture and showing it to her. "That is not two people who are 'just friends'."
"I know that! Sheesh!" She pushed the other girl's phone down. Looking at that picture was not helping her maintain composure. "Honestly… I don't really know what to call it."
"What do you mean?"
"Touma and I are... close." She tried explaining. "And we usually treat each other as… more than f-friends… but we haven't really… talked about it." Mikoto was practically folding in on herself from embarrassment.
"You 'haven't talked about it'?" Saten pressed.
"Mm." She admitted quietly. "We hang out a lot, but we never call it dates. There's never been a… a c-confession… or anything."
"Have you kissed?" She asked excitedly.
Mikoto couldn't even look at her friend, her hand coming back up to the spot. She could swear that there was still a bit of a tingling feeling left over. "Once… last night… on the ch-cheek…"
Saten couldn't help the squeal that escaped her, and Mikoto started to panic.
"Saten-san! Too loud–!"
"Misaka-san!" Saten grabbed her friend by the hands, forcing the girl to meet her eyes. "Even without a confession, I'd say that's pretty definite!"
"Y-you think?"
"What do you think?" Saten turned the question back on her. "How do you think Kamijou-san feels about you?"
How does she think he feels?
Mikoto thought back. To the night before, where he'd called her out just to cuddle with her because he'd had a rough fight. To before that, and the many times he'd messed around with her, teasing, competing, playing games. The times they just hung out and talked, sitting right next to each other like a magnet was pulling them in. The times he would fiddle with her hair or hold her hand, and the many times she'd caught him staring at her when things went quiet. And, most tellingly, the kiss on the cheek he'd impulsively given her.
Kamijou-san has made up his mind, Itsuwa had said.
Touma looks at you differently, Index had noticed.
There was really no other conclusion to make. As much as her anxiety tried to cast doubt on the idea, Mikoto was almost completely sure that he liked her… and that he was completely aware of those feelings.
Mikoto answered Saten "He l-likes me… probably… I think."
"And you like him, right?"
She ducked her head, still steaming, and gave a very slight nod.
"So what do you need a confession for?" She pointed out. "It sounds like you two have basically already decided what you want."
"I guess…" Mikoto conceded.
She understood where she was coming from. And to an extent, she did agree. Not voicing their feelings didn't seem to be holding them back. But there was still a part of her that wanted to know what to call it. And that same part of her burned with the small wish of hearing what she already knew in his voice.
"I'm guessing Shirai-san doesn't know about any of this?" Saten continued.
"No. Well, it's Kuroko, so I'm sure she's guessed how I feel, but I don't usually tell her where I'm going when Touma and I are meeting up."
"I'm kind of surprised you've been pulling it off." Saten noted. "Between school and those tutoring sessions you've been doing, how do you find time to meet up with him?"
Mikoto pressed her hands together bashfully. "Actually… the person I've been tutoring… that would be Touma."
Saten froze for a second in surprise, then her face split into a sly grin. "Oh? You don't say…"
"W-w-w-we really are studying!" She insisted. "I swear! Just… usually not the whole time…"
"I see. So the rest of the time–"
"We hang out!" Mikoto cut her off before she could say anything to get her imagination going. "Just casual stuff… around the park, or at the mall, or just watching TV in his dorm…"
"In his dorm, eh?"
"Aaah! Geez!" Mikoto hid her face in her hands, trying to hide the brilliant shade of red blooming there.
Sensing that her friend might pass out if she overheated any further, Saten let up on the teasing. "Honestly though, Misaka-san, I'm really happy for you."
Slowly, Mikoto peaked through her fingers at her friend. "Saten-san…"
"I can tell he means a lot to you." She continued. "So I'm glad things are working out."
Saten didn't have the faintest idea what went down between those two, but she knew it was something big. She wasn't as close to Misaka as Shirai was, but even she had picked up on something being majorly wrong at the end of August. Everyone had accepted her sudden bounce back with relief and no questions, but Saten hadn't failed to notice that said bounce back had come with the added bonus of a new crush, and she remembered Misaka admitting that she owed him for something.
Whatever Misaka had been struggling with, Saten believed that Kamijou-san had saved her from it. And if Kamijou was really the type to drop everything to jump to the rescue of a level 5, then he absolutely had Saten's support.
"Mm." Mikoto slowly lowered her hands with a small smile. "Thanks."
The kettle sounded, and Mikoto turned her attention to pouring everyone's tea.
The two girls brought the prepared tea back to the main office room of the branch, where the three girls were already hard at work on their computers.
"So?" Mikoto started, putting down a cup of tea on the desk next to Kuroko. "Anything new?"
The teleporter frowned deeply. "Yes, in fact. Something rather serious just came up."
From next to Uiharu, Saten looked over and said "Serious? What happened?"
Uiharu was the one who answered her. "Anti-Skill responded last night to a case of property damage like the ones we've been investigating, but it looks like something went wrong. They've sent out a request for help to any available branches."
"Anti-Skill is asking Judgment for backup?" Mikoto clarified, shocked. Relegating cases was one thing, but asking for backup on the field was something they never did. Technically, Judgment wasn't supposed to engage with criminals the way Kuroko often does. That sort of thing was supposed to be Anti-Skill's job.
Konori-senpai noted "It's unusual, I agree. They must really be stretched to the limit to send out a request like this."
At her monitor, Kuroko pulled up the security footage of the location. "This is the area in question." She said. "I'll start sorting through the footage. Uiharu, if you could respond and let them know that we'll be providing assistance–"
"Kuroko, wait."
Mikoto leaned in, eyes narrowing at the monitor. Pointing to a section on the ground, she asked "Can you zoom in on that?"
A little confused, Kuroko did as Mikoto requested, isolating the area and zooming in to get a closer look. Saten and Uiharu both leaned in a little closer to see.
The girls immediately saw what Mikoto had noticed.
"What are those? Some kind of symbols?" Saten asked. "And is it just me, or do they look like they might be glowing?"
Indeed, the scribbled pattern that the four could just make out on the ground appeared to be faintly glowing, although it was hard to say for sure through the image on the monitor.
"I believe that's Latin." Kuroko assessed, fiddling with the settings a bit to get a clearer image. "But why on earth would such a thing be sketched into the ground in District 2?"
Uiharu pulled up her phone. "The request for assistance from Anti-Skill says that 3 teams have already gone in. Apparently, they have information that the perpetrators are keeping hostages. It's worded vaguely, but it looks like they've completely lost contact with everyone who's tried to go inside."
"How long ago did they lose contact?" Kuroko asked.
"It doesn't say, but I can hack… I mean, I might be able to get access to the details." Uiharu answered.
Kuroko gave her partner a firm nod. "If you could."
Uiharu returned to her computer, and her hands started flying across the keyboard. True to her legendary hacking ability, it took her barely a minute to get into Anti-Skill servers. Reading over the details, her eyes widened. "Looks like the last team went in… 3 hours ago?!"
"And they're only sending out a request for assistance now?!" Kuroko exclaimed. Pushing herself off her seat, she declared "We must join them on-site immediately."
"Wait."
The group turned to Mikoto at the unexpectedly forceful tone.
The electromaster paused, uncertain.
Kuroko was right. That was Latin writing. And the area this camera covered was uncomfortably close to the place where she, Touma, and Itsuwa had faced the magician Jordan Fletcher just a couple weeks ago. The odds that this wasn't related were incredibly low.
She knew she should call Touma… but she couldn't help but hesitate. He'd ended up in the hospital last time. Sure, his injuries hadn't been too bad, but she'd still had to take him there, and she'd hated that. Things were worse this time. They had no idea who or what they were dealing with, and there were potentially multiple victims already. If she got him and Index involved, and either one got hurt, that would be entirely on her.
But going in blind when magic was involved was too much of a risk.
"Onee-sama?" Kuroko pressed.
Mikoto sighed. "I guess there's really no choice…" She grumbled. Pulling out her phone, she dialed the familiar number.
It only rang once before he picked up. "Mikoto? What's up?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Mikoto could see Saten's eyes light up as she realized who it was she was talking to. Ignoring her, she got straight to the point. "Hey Touma. There's something going on… a request for assistance from Anti-Skill that Kuroko and the rest of us are responding to. I need to double-check something. Is Index there?"
Kuroko tensed at the sound of the name, a dark aura falling over her as she too realized who Mikoto was talking to.
"Index? Yeah, give me a sec, I'll put you on speaker."
A few shuffling sounds came through, and the silver-haired girl piped up. "Short-hair? Is something happening?"
Mikoto switched to speaker herself. "I'm going to send you a picture. I need you to tell me what you make of it."
She snapped a picture of the monitor, zoomed in on the glowing Latin on the ground, and sent it to Touma's phone.
It went quiet for a moment as the image loaded on their end.
The reaction was immediate. "That's–! It can't be…"
"Bad, I'm guessing?" Mikoto asked.
Index answered. "Very. You need to make sure no one crosses into the boundary set by those symbols."
"Too late for that. Anti-Skill has information that there are hostages being kept underground here. Three teams have gone in already. They've lost contact with all of them." Mikoto told her.
Touma jumped in "You mean there's people in trouble?"
Both girls immediately knew what he was thinking.
"Touma!" Index cried. "This is a magic problem, I can handle it on my own!"
"You really think I can sit back and let you go alone?"
"After what happened yesterday–"
"I didn't end up in the hospital, did I?"
Mikoto piped up "Stop using that one like it's some grand accomplishment!"
"Mikoto–"
"I know." She cut him off with an exasperated sigh. "I wasn't actually planning on trying to stop you. Remember where that Fletcher guy went rampaging a couple weeks back? Meet us there."
"... Thanks."
Kuroko started to protest as soon as Mikoto put away her phone. "Onee-sama! We can't just involve civilians in a matter of public security–"
"This isn't something we can risk going in blind on, Kuroko. Believe me. I don't like getting more people involved either, but we need those two."
Saten asked "Misaka-san, have you run into things like this before?"
"Kind of." She admitted. "It's hard to explain, but it involves a set of rules from outside Academy City. I doubt Anti-Skill is equipped to handle it."
"A set of rules from outside Academy City…?" Konori-senpai repeated in confusion.
Kuroko frowned. "If you say so, Onee-sama, then I will trust it…" She looked away, disgruntled. "But does it have to be that gorilla?"
Mikoto looked away from Kuroko, carefully staying quiet, feeling the heat on her cheeks and hoping it wasn't too obvious.
Uiharu folded her laptop, slipping it into her backpack and slinging the straps over her shoulders. "I've let Anti-Skill know that we're on our way." She said. "We should get moving."
With time of the essence, Kuroko didn't have any more opportunities to complain about the situation, following her two colleagues out of the branch office with a sigh.
Mikoto and Saten brought up the rear of the group. Saten waited until the rest of the girls were far enough ahead to be just out of earshot, then leaned in and whispered "Nice that you get to see him again so soon."
Mikoto's temperature skyrocketed. God, she hadn't even thought about it when she'd called him. He'd kissed her last night. On the cheek, but still. Would she be able to keep a straight face? Was he going to say something about it? Would she say something about it? Aaaaaaaaah, she wasn't ready! She didn't know what to do!
"Misaka-san?" Saten pressed, noticing her friend's eyes starting to swirl. "Don't think about it too hard. It's not like you're officially introducing your boyfriend to your friends." She smirked teasingly. "Unless you want to introduce him as your boyfriend."
She glared at her friend. Saten was enjoying this too much.
Mikoto took a deep breath, shaking her head and slapping her cheeks lightly. "This is completely normal." She tried convincing herself. "No need to get worked up. This is a crisis, not a date."
Watching Misaka talk herself down from her own anxiety, Saten began to understand how her and Kamijou managed to avoid talking about the state of their relationship despite all the time they spent together.
"Onee-sama! Saten-san!" Kuroko called out to them from ahead, where the other three girls were climbing onto a bus. "Hurry up!"
The two girls ran to catch up with the others before the bus doors closed on them.
Fifteen minutes later, the girls reached their stop. It was another few minutes of walking before they reached the location where Anti-Skill had set up a temporary base of operations. Mikoto nervously glanced at a field they passed on their way in.
They were very close to the place where they'd fought that other magician.
The Anti-Skill member in charge was someone the girls were familiar with– a tall teacher with long, dark hair tied in a ponytail. She was speaking with a few other members with a grave look on her face when she noticed the girls approaching.
Her eyes widened in recognition. "It's you lot…?"
"Judgment Branch 177." Kuroko introduced the group officially. "We're here to respond to the request for backup."
Yomikawa briefly glanced at Mikoto and Saten, who obviously didn't have Judgment armbands, but she chose to stay quiet about it. "I'll be honest, having to ask children for backup doesn't give me a good feeling." She stated. "But we can't be picky about our methods right now. We appreciate any assistance."
"What's the situation?" Konori-senpai pressed.
Yomikawa sent the two officers she'd been talking to away, then turned her full attention to the group and briefed them.
"Early this morning, we responded to a call related to breaking and entering. This facility right here? It's an Anti-Skill training facility. Something tipped off the sensors. When we showed up, we found signs of damage to the building. A team entered the facility to investigate, but they were faced with hostilities almost immediately."
"Hostilities?"
"It seemed like an ability, but we haven't been able to locate any nearby espers, so we can't verify this. If it is a phenomenon caused by esper abilities, then we're dealing with a large group. The form of hostile interference changed as the team moved deeper into the facility. The first team reached the bottom-most level of the building and reported a hole had been dug into the ground. They descended into the space, assuming the hostiles might have escaped through it. Once they were down there, they received a staticky transmission of what sounded like a young girl asking for help. We weren't able to communicate directly with her, but some signal tracing indicates she's further below, and what we caught of the transmission indicates something is holding her hostage."
"How can someone be so far below the building?" Kuroko asked.
Uiharu had already pulled out her laptop, setting it on a fold-out table nearby so she could use both hands in her search. "About that– there's an old set of tunnels underneath District 2. They fell out of use a few years ago and most of it is completely boarded off. It was an experimental site for mining equipment, apparently."
Yomikawa confirmed it. "We dug up some old maps of the tunnels and we have a rough idea of where the signal probably came from. We have two teams covering the other tunnel exists, so theoretically, any hostiles hiding out should have no way of escaping. But the problem is that the three teams we've sent into the tunnels themselves have gone silent."
Kuroko asked "I am assuming it is not just a simple matter of communication being cut off."
Yomikawa nodded gravely. "Comms are working, and their general location and biological data is still coming through. We know where they are, and we know everyone is still alive… but something stalled them, and they're not responding to us so we have no idea what it is."
"Someone's ability, most likely." Konori-senpai guessed.
Mikoto pressed her lips together. This was probably magic, she knew. But it's not like she could start explaining that to Anti-Skill and expect them to believe her. The issue was that several of the assumptions they were making based on the idea that they were facing espers were likely not true.
Over the phone, Index had said that the symbols had set a boundary, which meant that what Anti-Skill were judging to be multiple abilities was probably a single area of effect created by one person. Fletcher had used the concept of an 'area of effect' as well, so the idea holds up. The magicians Mikoto had faced so far had stuck to a pretty narrow range of attacks– Reeves had used wind, Devin had summoned creatures, the third had used optical manipulation, and the most recent one, Fletcher, had exerted his will over natural forces within a marked boundary. These were things she could easily compare to esper abilities and make sense of. But Touma had warned her from the start that it was possible for a magician to do any number of things, and she had a feeling this one was going to drift a lot further from her scientific worldview than any of her previous encounters.
The sound of raised voices suddenly reached the group, pausing the discussion.
"Oi! This area is closed off, you can't just–!"
The two teenagers that the Anti-Skill officer had been trying to hold up ignored him entirely, slipping past him into the restricted area. In the lead was a silver-haired girl in a full nun's habit.
"Mikoto!" The girl called with a wave, running over to them ahead of her spiky-haired partner.
Mikoto stepped away from the group to meet up with the two.
"Hey," She started. "Sorry for getting you guys involved in this…"
"You sound like Touma." Index scolded her, putting her hands on her hips and tilting her chin up proudly. "Leave the magic problems up to me!"
"So what's happening?" Touma asked, coming up behind his roommate.
Mikoto's heart-rate immediately picked up at the sight of him. As much as she'd thought she'd put the distracting thoughts aside, she couldn't help but flash back to the night before, and it took her a second to force down a blush and calm her buzzing mind.
"We were just being briefed." Mikoto gestured to the group behind them. "Come on."
Yomikawa's eyes widened again at the new arrivals. "You're–?! What are you doing here?"
"I called them." Mikoto admitted readily.
The adult fixed a stern look on her. "You called in civilians? This is a matter of public security, you can't–"
"If anything, you lot are the ones who shouldn't get involved." Index interrupted, already turning her attention to the Latin writing marked on the ground a few yards away from where they were gathered.
Mikoto and Touma exchanged a look, then went after her, leaving the bewildered adult behind.
Index knelt down once she'd reached the writing.
Behind her, Mikoto took a shot at reading what was written. "Ego sum via in urbe vae… Ego sum via, derelicta populus… ego sum via in aeternum dolor…"
"Which means…?" The single-language-speaking Touma asked.
Mikoto wracked her brain, thinking back to her Latin lessons. "I think it's something like… 'I am the way into the city of woe, I am the way to a forsaken people, I am the way into eternal sorrow.' … Actually… that kind of rings a bell."
Index picked up the rest of the translation. "Sacred justice moved my architect. I was raised here by divine omnipotence, primordial love and ultimate intellect. Only those elements time cannot wear were made before me, and beyond time I stand."
She paused, taking a breath, then recited the last line, sending a chill running down the other two's spines.
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."
Mikoto crossed her arms, a grim expression coming over her. "That's from the Inferno, right?"
The title was one Touma happened to be familiar with by pure coincidence– the subject of old religion-derived fiction was something Mikoto had covered with him recently.
"The Inferno?!" He repeated in a bit of a panic. "As in, these are lines that are supposed to be inscribed above the entrance to hell? That's what's written here?!"
Touma and Mikoto, both Academy City natives, were about as far from religious as one could get. But magic was derived from stories. That, at least, was a fact. So what kind of magic would result from a story describing a land of eternal torment?
"Hell, at its core, is essentially a prison." Index continued. "This is a spell that recreates the space in accordance with the setting laid out in the divine comedy in order to create a perfect prison. It is intended to keep people out as much as it is meant to keep something in. It's a spell that creates many layers of effect that attack different portions of the mind and body. Only a person completely devoid of sin would be able to pass through unaffected."
"Keep something in?" Mikoto repeated. What in the world would require measures equivalent to hell to keep them trapped?
"I can't just cancel the whole thing out by touching the writing, can I?" Touma clarified.
Index shook her head. "This is a spell with a single, continuous source. Unless you take it out directly, canceling out the spell entirely is impossible."
"And if I step into the boundary?" Touma pressed, reaching his hand forward.
Yomikawa, from a few paces away, saw what the boy was doing and shouted in alarm "Wait–!"
A second too late. Touma had already touched the border of the spell, his Imagine Breaker quietly ringing out for a moment as the area of effect split around the interference.
The spell responded to the intrusion immediately. In the distance, near what they could only assume was the center of the area of effect, several spheres of light formed and shot in their direction in haphazard arcs.
"Everyone, get behind the barricade!" Yomikawa yelled.
Kuroko and the others responded to the Anti-Skill officer, but Mikoto, Touma, and Index stayed where they were.
Emerald eyes tracing the path of the incoming spell, Index said to the other two "Touma, Mikoto, I'm redirecting the attack to converge here."
Understanding the implication, Mikoto crouched to the ground, lifting as much iron sand as she could as Touma got into a better stance to brace himself.
"R-T-T-T-C-O-M" Index chanted.
The beams of light responded to the spell intercept, and the arcs that had been aiming to cover a wider range shifted mid-flight, going straight for the three teens.
Mikoto lifted a wall of iron sand, then shaped it into a huge funnel, forcing the attack into a single, narrow point and preventing a potential scatter effect.
With nowhere else for the attack to go, those beams of light went straight for Touma. With a single touch of his right hand, the offensive spell shattered.
Mikoto dropped her control of the iron sand as particles of light dissipated into the air. Touma shook his hand a little, brushing off the heat of the beams of light.
The group that had been crouching behind a barricade nearby and watching them stood up slowly.
"Wow." Saten whispered in awe.
Kuroko huffed.
"I suppose that was my fault." Yomikawa admitted, walking cautiously toward the teens. "That effect activates whenever someone crosses the border. The damage isn't excessive and it's relatively easy to dodge, but I should've warned you. I apologize for that."
Kuroko clarified "'Crosses the border'? You mean to say that this attack only occurs when someone passes over the writing?"
"That's right." Yomikawa answered. "As far as we can tell, the type of attack changes according to where you are within the area marked by the writing. We tried to erase the writing, naturally, but it seems to restore itself no matter what we do."
A few paces back, Saten nervously raised her hand as though asking a teacher a question. "Uumm…" She started. "This might be a dumb question, but couldn't Shirai just teleport people past the affected area right to where the hostage is? You guys said you had the location, right?"
Kuroko grimaced. "That would be an ideal solution, but unfortunately, in this case, it isn't possible."
"Why not?" Saten asked, surprised.
Uiharu was the one who answered. "The tunnels beneath the complex have been out of use for several years. There's a good chance that the schematics aren't entirely accurate. The ground might have shifted, and some tunnels have collapsed entirely."
Kuroko finished the explanation. "Since my ability uses calculations within an 11-dimensional space, if I don't have a precise grasp of the area I'm teleporting into, then there's a great risk that I'll end up teleporting directly into the ground."
Saten paled at the image that explanation had conjured. "Right. No teleporting. Got it."
Yomikawa sighed. "That's too bad. I'm hesitant to send another team along the same path the others took, considering what happened to them."
Touma clenched his fist, his eyes on the area beyond the latin writing. "It's fine." He said. "I'll go."
"Not alone, you won't." Mikoto retorted immediately.
"I'm the only one who can go in without being affected by the spell, right? So–"
"Not affected?! You were just targeted a minute ago!"
Index frowned. "Sending Touma might be our only option." She admitted begrudgingly.
"Oi–!" Mikoto protested.
"Not alone, obviously." The sister quickly amended. "This type of spell is a continuous one, which means magic is constantly being emitted from the source and blanketing the area. Think of the flow of magic like a river. Touma's hand creates a break in that flow, so as long as people stay close to him, they should be able to escape the effect of the magic."
"Then what was that attack just now about?" Mikoto demanded.
"An automatic system targeting any intrusion into the boundary. It's true, that sort of thing will target intruders regardless of Touma's right hand, since all it's recognizing is a disturbance in the flow of magic. Bringing Touma will only protect us from the effects that target the mind. It'll still be dangerous."
The electromaster crossed her arms, fixing a stern look on Touma. "You heard the sister. You aren't going in alone."
Index stood up, putting her hands on her hips. "That's right! You wouldn't be able to find the source without me anyways."
Touma shrank a little in the face of the stubborn finality the two girls were glaring at him with. He sighed, grumbling "You two are scary when you team up like that, you know?"
The girls exchanged a quick, triumphant grin.
The Anti-Skill officer grimaced. "I don't know what you lot have been on about, but it sounds like you have a better grasp of what's going on here than we do. You're saying we'll be able to make some progress if we send a team in with Kamijou here?"
Mikoto answered "That's right."
"We'll need to keep the group small though. No more than 3 or 4 extras." Index added. "And I'm going."
"So am I." The level 5 insisted.
Yomikawa rubbed her temples as though the whole situation was giving her a migraine.
"Allow me to go as well." Kuroko said, addressing Yomikawa. "Once I've seen the area, I'll be able to teleport back here directly and bring in reinforcements past the affected space."
Slowly, the Anti-Skill officer nodded. "Unfortunately, this seems to be our only option." She conceded. "Give us 15 minutes. We'll prepare comms for you."
"Thank you very much." Kuroko bowed politely to the adult.
Mikoto frowned nervously. Kuroko was a dependable ally, but with everything that had been going on with Touma, she couldn't help but worry about what Kuroko might notice once they were on their own… and what she might do.
Regardless, there was nothing to be done about it now. Uiharu, Konori-senpai, and Saten went to set themselves up in the communications tent that Anti-Skill had set up nearby. Index spied a table with some snacks and water laid out and was gone within seconds.
Kuroko hesitated, realizing that if she left, she would essentially be leaving Mikoto and Touma alone together, but Uiharu called her over, and so she had no choice but to go join her colleagues, leaving her Onee-sama with the troglodyte. She sent a swift glare toward the boy.
I'm keeping an eye on you, the look said.
Touma gulped, understanding the threatening look perfectly.
"That girl is going to kill me one of these days." Touma said with a sigh as soon as Shirai was out of earshot.
"I'll admit she goes overboard a lot… I'm going to have to talk to her." Mikoto exhaled in resignation. "She doesn't actually hate you, you know."
"She doesn't?!"
"She has her moments, but before anything else, that girl is a member of Judgment. Of course she's going to respect any person that goes out of their way to help others."
It was mostly conjecture on Mikoto's part. She and Kuroko had never really talked about Touma with each other. But she remembered what happened with her first roommate, and… well… let's just say that if Kuroko truly hated Touma, then Mikoto would have a much harder time meeting up with him.
"It's not like Shirai and I have ever sat down and talked about our philosophies." Touma pointed out doubtfully.
She rolled her eyes. "You don't need to. Kuroko knows you've helped me out before. That's all she needs to know."
Touma remembered, vaguely, what the teleporter had said to him when he'd gone looking for Mikoto at her dorm during the fiasco with the sisters.
I just wanted to catch a glimpse of that support system, was it?
Mikoto had a point… but that didn't reassure him too much. He grumbled "Even so, it's never stopped her from drop-kicking me."
She smirked. "She hasn't done that since the end of the Daihasei. What are you worried about?"
Touma crossed his arms. "If that girl decides she's going to start punishing me every time I get inside your bubble, then I'll never catch a break."
She felt her face start to burn, words abandoning her for a moment as the implication sunk in. Flashes of the night before intruded on her mind, forcing a wistful longing to the surface.
Aaaah, she wanted him to hold her again.
Mikoto's heart-rate immediately tripled, mortified at the thought. She shook her head, trying desperately to scatter those images.
"Is that so?" She shot back jokingly, trying to mask her flustered state and gesturing vaguely to an imaginary boundary around her. "Are you planning to live in this bubble?"
There was something immensely satisfying about seeing his face flush three shades of red.
"Well, I have permission, don't I? I plan to use it." He grumbled, partially looking away.
"Permission?" She tilted her head at him.
He smirked "What was it again? Something like… "if you want to hug me, you can hug me"."
And once again, Mikoto was the one steaming at the ears. "I-Idiot!" She cried, shoving his arm lightly in indignation. "Don't repeat it out loud–!"
He laughed a little, taking advantage of the close proximity to reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear, his finger pausing for a moment as they brushed over the new hairclip. Mikoto froze, her heart pounding.
Some detached part of her brain noted that whatever distance still existed between them was going to dissolve some time very soon. The urge to close the distance herself was getting stronger every day, and she could see those feelings reflected in his eyes.
Why can't she? Some restless part of her mind complained. She knew how he felt, didn't she? She'd been pretty sure of it when talking to Saten earlier. So what was the big deal? Why couldn't she say anything?!
But now was not the time. And maybe that was all it boiled down to. As soon as she'd started wondering if she should bring it up, suddenly it was like the timing was never quite right.
His expression softened, and a hint of hesitation came over him. Mikoto narrowed her eyes at him a little. There was something in that expression… a shadow of an anxiety she wasn't used to seeing.
Was he nervous about the magic problem? It wasn't like him to get worked up. This idiot always rushed recklessly into dangerous situations, especially when there were people in trouble. She seriously doubted he would suddenly start hesitating.
But she had seen that anxiety in him before… just once, for only a second, when she'd asked him why he'd called her out to the bridge. She might not have remembered it at all if it hadn't happened the previous night.
A magician that wove nightmares… what exactly was it that he'd seen?
"Are you okay?" She asked him, almost impulsively.
He blinked, as though his mind had been somewhere else and her question had just jolted him back to reality. He tilted his head like the question confused him. "I'm fine. Why?"
She looked away, a little embarrassed. It wasn't easy for her to express concern for him so openly, and the fact that she'd done so this time on pure impulse didn't help. "You just… look bothered." She answered quietly.
For a moment, he was taken aback. He'd been carefully burying his anxiety since she'd first called him that morning, so he hadn't expected her to notice, much less bring it up.
It was a pointless little feeling, he knew. Just something left over from his last battle. The night before had done wonders to make him feel better… but some things weren't so easily erased.
"... I'm okay. I promise. Just… glad you called me." He admitted quietly.
She crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow.
Touma trusted Mikoto. More importantly, though, he knew she trusted him. She relied on him, turned to him when she needed help, and expected him to do the same with her. That was the sort of relationship they had now.
But it hadn't always been that way. There'd been a time when even if she was driven into a corner, wounded and desperate and at her wit's end, she still wouldn't reach out to him. She would rather whisper her cry for help into the dark where no one could hear instead of directing it at him.
What if he had accepted that back then? What if he'd let her go?
Touma wasn't one to dwell on what ifs. Maybe that was why he'd been so unprepared when the magician yesterday had made him think about it… made him see it.
Mikoto considered pressing him a little. It was a poor time to be distracted, after all. But before she could bring it up, the two were interrupted.
"Onee-sama!"
Kuroko didn't waste time physically running over. The moment she'd had an opportunity to slip away, she teleported over to Mikoto, pushing herself into the space between the two of them. Kuroko wrapped her hands around Mikoto's arm and forced a smile "Let us go, Onee-sama! Yomikawa-sensei has requested our presence." Dropping the smile as her eyes turned to Touma, she added "Ah, you too, I suppose."
"Right…" Touma said placatingly. Mikoto, who'd tensed as soon as the other girl grabbed onto her, looked ready to scold her roommate, but Kuroko teleported them away before anything could be said, and Touma was left to run after them.
Yomikawa was ready with the comms when the group gathered around her, Index still with a few snacks in her hands. Mikoto shook the teleporter off of her as Touma caught up.
"Here's the rundown of what you should expect." Yomikawa started. "You already know what happens when you cross the writing. If the light hits you, it'll cause some burn damage, but as long as you watch the trajectory, you should be able to dodge it. Once you enter the building, you'll face an oxygen displacement effect." She lifted a face mask, a small thing with a rubber-like texture and two tiny tubes along the side. "You'll each get one of these. It'll regulate your oxygen intake so you can breathe normally."
Index examined her mask with wide eyes, entranced by the advanced piece of equipment, but the other three, who were accustomed to Academy City tech, hardly spared it a glance.
Yomikawa continued. "The first and second basement levels involve some sort of water-based attack. The earlier teams reported that the water was hitting them with enough force to bruise. We can provide you with shields–"
"That's okay." Mikoto interrupted. "I can improvise a shield if we need one. Taking some with us will just weigh us down."
"I'll take your word for it." Yomikawa sighed. "For the third and fourth basement levels, the team reported some sort of gravity interference, in which their weight was greatly increased. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can provide you to help with that one. Best advice I can offer is just power through it."
"You'll find the entrance to the tunnel in the center of the basement level. The location is marked on the maps sent to your phones. I can't tell you what to expect beyond that, so be careful. Watch out for each other, and don't take any unnecessary risks."
"Yes, ma'am." The teens chorused.
To Shirai, the teacher added "If you find the members of the other teams down there, would you be able to assess their condition and bring them back here?"
"Of course."
To the whole group, she said "Remember, this is a recovery mission. Your goal is to find and retrieve the missing teams and pinpoint the location of the hostage. Do not engage the hostiles unless given no other choice. Do not move to recover the hostage without backup. Ultimately, if things go well, Shirai here will be able to teleport us to the hostage and we'll be able to take it from there. Understand?"
"Understood." They repeated automatically. Mikoto glanced sideways at Touma with a pointed glare, something he saw but chose to ignore.
No matter what Yomikawa-sensei said, things very rarely 'went well' for Touma. If it meant saving someone, he was prepared to improvise as much as he needed to.
As Yomikawa moved on to explain the comm to Index and affix the device to her ear in a way that it wouldn't fall off, Touma got a call on his phone. He stepped away from the group to answer it.
"Kami-yan," Came the voice on the other end. "How's it looking?"
"Not good." He sighed. "Anti-Skill thinks someone is being held hostage, and the teams they sent in are MIA. We're going to go in after them, try and pull them out if we can."
Tsuchimikado paused for a moment. "Naturally. Is the List of Prohibited Books going in too?"
"Her, and Mikoto. And Shirai Kuroko."
"Shirai?"
"A girl from Judgment."
"Another one, Kami-yan? And here I thought you were settling down with Misaka-san."
Touma blanched, imagining for one horrifying moment a world where Shirai Kuroko tried to flirt with him. A chill ran down his spine at the image. "What the hell are you implying?!" He complained.
"By the way," Tsuchimikado continued, completely brushing aside the comment, "I got in touch with Stiyl. Apparently, Jordan Fletcher hasn't regained consciousness."
Touma felt a weight drop into his stomach. A few paces away, Mikoto saw his expression darken and turned her attention to the half of the phone conversation she could hear.
"Why?" Touma pressed. "What happened to him?"
"They're not sure, but the lovely Miss Devin and her partner-in-crime Reeves did some digging. The running theory right now is that Fletcher did something called soul diffusion."
"Which is?"
"I won't bog you down with the logistics, but the principle behind it is to exponentially boost the potency of a spell by diffusing the essence of your soul into it as you cast it. It's a self-destructive move, but it basically guarantees that the spell will be successful."
Touma grit his teeth. "Why the hell would anyone do something like that…?"
"Who knows? It's not like we can ask Fletcher about it now."
He clenched his fist.
A self-sacrificing move?
Touma had been right there. He'd been standing barely a dozen meters from that magician when he'd cast that spell. Close enough to reach out and touch him. And that's all it would've taken, right? His Imagine Breaker would've stopped that spell in its tracks.
But he hadn't reached out.
He hadn't even realized that the person he was facing needed him to.
"Will he recover?" Touma asked quietly.
"Potentially. Given a few years. It's hard to say. Sometimes they wake up, sometimes they don't. This is the first case I've ever seen, personally. Putting Fletcher aside, though, the point is that soul diffusion isn't something you can do with just any spell. And the one you're looking at? It isn't one of them."
Touma considered that. "So… you're saying it isn't related?"
"I'm sure it's related." Tsuchimikado corrected him. "What I'm saying is that Jordan Fletcher did not cast the spell. And there's been no indication of an intruder in the city."
"That hasn't meant much with this group, has it? They've slipped in unnoticed before." He pointed out skeptically.
"Every member of the Church of Evangelical Covenants is accounted for. It isn't one of them."
He grimaced.
As soon as Touma had heard about what was going on, he'd reached out to Tsuchimikado to ask about Fletcher's group. There's no way that this complex spell popped up so close to where they fought by coincidence, right? He'd been hoping to get an idea on who they were dealing with here.
No luck, naturally. If anything, he just had more questions.
"Sorry, Kami-yan, but I don't have the green light to help you out with this yet. You're on your own. I'll see if I can dig up some more information in the meantime. Try not to get in over your head, yeah?"
"When am I not?" He retorted.
"Point taken. Don't have too much fun with all those girls~"
"Oi! You–!"
He hung up.
Touma sighed, glaring at his phone for a few seconds before putting the device away. He had a suspicion that he might know who coined the term 'harem' to describe his luck with girls, after all.
"Talking to your spy friend?" Mikoto guessed, having come closer while he was on the phone.
"Yeah," He told her. "But he wasn't much help."
Briefly, he summarized what Tsuchimikado had told him about Jordan Fletcher and the spell they were dealing with.
Mikoto frowned. "So basically," She started as Index joined the group, now with a comm secured to her ear. Kuroko stood a few paces behind Mikoto, not exactly part of the conversation but clearly paying attention. "Fletcher cast something. Something he was willing to sacrifice everything for. And it wasn't this spell, but it's probably related. Right?"
"Right."
"And there's been no notice of an intruder." She continued.
Kuroko piped in. "Judgment would have received an alert if an unauthorized individual had broken into the city. There's been no such notice."
Mikoto sighed. "I guess we're going in pretty blind on this one."
Index patted her on the back and smiled brightly. "Don't worry, Mikoto. We'll take care of it!"
She smiled hesitantly back at the nun, thinking that she might've felt a bit more reassured if her encouragement hadn't been delivered with a mouth full of snacks. "Right…"
Kuroko kept her distance, feeling apprehensive. She didn't understand everything that they were talking about… but it was the fact that her Onee-sama did seem to understand that was really getting under her skin.
It was like she had suddenly become aware of a divide between them. A divide she hadn't known existed. And Kuroko didn't like it at all.
"Are you ready?" Yomikawa asked the group as she came up to them, putting the spare comms away in her pocket.
"We are." Kuroko answered for them.
"Shira-san!" Uiharu called over. "Make sure to maintain regular updates."
She grimaced, tilting her chin with a small huff. "Naturally."
The four teens went up to the writing, pausing in front of it for a moment.
"All right." Touma said, taking the lead with his Imagine Breaker. "Here it goes."
Together, they stepped into the boundaries of hell.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Silence.
A breath.
And then again.
Drip. Drip. Drip…
The pattern repeated. Again. And again. A hundred times. A thousand times. Many more times than could be counted.
The distant sound echoing through the space was the only indication that this was a place. Something solid and tangible. A somewhere.
But where? Where was he?
He? She?
Who were they?
Amidst the endless echoes of the drip in the darkness, a small shape huddled on the ground began to question its existence.
Eyes? Did they have eyes? They felt as though they did, but there was nothing to see. Blind? They weren't sure.
Ears. They could definitely hear. The presence of sound was the only thing grounding them to reality.
Arms? Legs?
Wait…
The shape in the dark stirred.
Something was wrong.
Limbs. A body. They could feel that they did have it, but the shape was one that they did not understand. Length. Thickness. Even the texture… no. This was not right. This was not what their body was supposed to feel like.
The breaths started to speed up. Shorter. Haltingly. And it understood that the breaths were their own.
What was going on?
The panic began to set in. The body that was not their own trembled, unfamiliar hairs standing on end, and they curled up tightly, opening their mouth instinctively to cry.
"..."
Nothing.
They slammed their mouth shut, shocked, then slowly opened their mouth and tried again.
"..."
They thought perhaps they heard a growl. Or a moan.
That was it.
They could not speak.
And since they could not speak, had tested this and proven it with certainty, they knew that the voice that broke through the darkness was not their own.
"Is someone there?"
[Author Notes]
When you're pushing 10k words before the action even starts, I'd say it's a good sign that a chapter needs to be split into 2. There's so much to unpack in the next part. Better for my mental state and yours that I split this up.
Let me know what you think! I'm being very delicate in the way I'm crafting this one. I'm super curious about what ideas you might have about what's going on.
Anyways, better get back to working on part 2. I'll see you guys soon!