Here we are with chapter five of this fanfic and boy oh boy the fire has officially been lit and it's only going to turn into a roaring inferno from there. I don't know about you but I'm excited for this, there are a lot of things being eluded too going into the expanded lore.
5hadOwHand: Yes Aleister was behind the ID card scenario. Man has to be the one to cover all bases.
I just want to clarify in retrospect that the Indexverse and the Nasuverse are entirely separate realms that shouldn't no of one another, well until now at least. And for the curious, God mobilizing doesn't mean biblical Armageddon, however the conflicts to come way later will touch or outright be apocalyptic in nature.
So with that Index and Fate belong to Kamachi and Nasu respectively. Lets begin.
Chapter 5: Fox vs Saint
Tamamo's eight fold blessings flew at high speed towards Kanzaki, who narrowly dodged it, the saint then weaves her arms holding the blade around as if puppeteering something.
"Nansen!!"
Seven wires split into thousands as they converge on Tamamo who proceeded to cast a talisman to erect a barrier around her to deflect the attack, but as soon as it went down the saint rushed her and attempted to slash at her from the side only for it to be blocked by the divine mirror as it spun directly into the blade.
If Kanzaki hadn't imbued it with magic it would have broke upon impact, she then knocked the mirror away and sent a powerful kick to Tamamo's abdomen sending her careening back and winded.
Said fox thought to herself.
'Ok, she's stronger then me physically, so to let her close in is too dangerous.'
With that in mind, as Kanzaki once more charged the caster, an idea came to her mind.
"Blinding Heaven!!"
A powerful beam of light shot from her hand which blinded the attacking saint's eyes greatly.
"AAAAAAHHH." Kanzaki screamed.
Kanzaki's eyes were burning, Tamamo quickly took the opportunity to charge herself and while she was formerly of the caster class wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty from time to time when it mattered.
Tamamo rammed a fist into Kanzaki's gut while she was still blinded and assaulted her with a series of barrages before landing an uppercut kick sending the saint flying back into a wall.
That physical front took a lot of effort on her part, why did she have to be the fragile girl?
Kanzaki straightening herself as she analyzed her for, clearly a heavy reliance on magic combat, Shinto spells at the obvious, though the earlier assaults did sting they were nothing she couldn't overcome, but now she had to step up her game a bit more.
Tamamo then threw a series of ice talismans at Kanzaki only for the latter to counteract, with her own move.
"Red Lotus Flames!!"
More wires shot forth which were now imbedded with fire, which collided with the ice magic canceling it out.
Tamamo could barely see through the steam but if wasn't for her fox senses she wouldn't have caught an oncoming attack.
It seems Kanzaki decided to sheath her blade and go for fisticuffs as a means of payback for the earlier assault, and the difference was clear, Tamamo went on a major defensive trying to block high impact blows.
When the miko fox thought she found an opening she tried to kick her away only for the saint to block and telegraph with two consecutive knee strikes, one to stomach, the other square in her face.
Now dazed and out of breath Tamamo needed to get distance between her and the saint, collecting herself she set up more talismans and invoked a spell.
"Heaven's Great Flame!"
A mass wall of fire erupted to existence barreling its way toward Kanzaki who barely had time erect an ice barrier with her wires.
Kanzaki blew the steam away by pulsing out mana around her, she looked for her opponent before turning around to find her standing on top of a water tank, a glowing light forming in her hand.
Though Tamamo loathed to admit it, she was still rooted to Amaterasu, and she proceeded to fire a miniature solar flare directly at her target.
The sword saint's eyes went wide and immediately ducked away from the blast knowing a blow from that would be deadly, the attack hit the roof she stood on and created a massive explosion which sent both of them to the ground below.
Tamamo groaned from the impact, same with Kanzaki, the former took this chance to re summon her mirror which proceeded to once more fly around her.
Unbeknownst to her as she was preparing the solar blast a second tail sprouted behind her, she felt a slight boost in strength.
Before she could find out what to do next she heard another explosion a ways away, it was coming from the dorm! She could barely make out some kind of fire demon crawling about the balconies.
'TOUMAAAAA!'
She wasn't the only one witnessing the chaos.
"Looks as though Stiyl unleashed Innocentius the witch hunter king." Kanzaki stated.
Tamamo glared at the saint, she then held out her palm and a yari spear appeared, an acknowledgment of her summer lancer class self, she took it up the in the chance she ever needed to be a more direct fighter, and with a new living body she could try upping her strength this time.
"I've had enough of this game, I'm gonna end this quickly as the church must know of this, I'll also be taking you with me to find out what a fox yokai is doing in this God forsaken city.
Kanzaki proceeded to slowly increase her magic flow as she prepared to unleash an attack that would put an end to this fight.
Tamamo could only prepare herself to brace for powerful attack, when she heard a slight roar.
'Huh?"
Touma POV, eight minutes ago:
Touma was running from Innocentius in an attempt to find a way to stop it, he cursed his luck thinking back to when he had to separate from Tamamo who got caught up in God knows what, only to reach their home to find a cut up Index who was found by her sorcerer pursuers, because they tracked her habit that she forgot, now here he was at current fighting a guy named Stiyl Magnus who's intent on burning him alive!
So with that said in the middle of the chase he heard what sounded like an explosion go off on top of a nearby building, turning his head he saw he was right.
Within moments he heard a voice in his head.
'TOUMAAAA!!!'
Damnit, Tamamo was in trouble so he thought, but what can he do at the moment, the last thing he wanted was to loose her.
'RRROOOOOAAAAAAARRRR!!!'
He heard a roar in his head leaving him confused.
'What was that?'
'RRROOOOOAAAAAAARRRR!!!!'
Suddenly Touma under strange circumstances found himself starting to understand a bit even though he was still in the dark.
'Go to her!!' He mentally commanded.
Tamamo POV, present time:
The foxy witch was exhausted as she continually kept striking her spear at the defending saint now noticing the two tails and increase of strength as she wastrying to concentrate on pooling her mana while keeping Tama at bay, Kanzaki finally had enouph and rushed at the fox slamming and pinning her to the wall before jumping back.
Tamamo couphed as she slid down the wall onto her butt.
"Enouph of this, it ends now!"
Tamamo got back up in defiance and once more she heard a roar in her head.
In response Kanzaki burst with speed directly at her.
"Yuisen!!"
Rather then flinch and brace for impact she brought her right hand up in front of her as if to guide something.
Suddenly, coming out from behind her was a large bright golden entity, it looked like a long golden dragon of unknown length, it had bright shining armored scales, the head consisted of a sharp pointed nose, three shiny yellow eyes on both sides of the head, whiskers made of golden light and a mane of the same thing, the most prominent feature was the sun like ring around its head which gave of the occasional flare.
'Sun dragon?'
The sun dragon shot at Kanzaki before she could react to the new development, it slammed into the saint sending her into the concrete as it clamped its jaws onto her body.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
The immense heat of the attack burned her faster then her saint healing can keep up.
"STOP." Tamamo comanded.
The dragon releases it grip on the saint and made its way back to her, it proceeded to coil around her rather protectively, Tamamo turns to look at its eyes.
"Where did you come from?"
She was met with silence, she proceeded to bring her hand up to the dragons snout to which it closed in to complete the contact, golden sun light resonates between the two before the dragon fades out as if it was never there.
After that mysterious event, she looked back to where Kanzaki lay only to find her not there, she wasn't planning on killing her but she at least wanted answers after subduing her.
Well she would try to track her but her beloved's safety came first as she ran her way back to the smoldering dormitory after re disguising herself into a casual bystander.
First responders were already at the scene putting out the fire, Tamamo looked around to see any signs of Touma, so she focused on the link between them and followed the path ahead.
Meanwhile among the crowd was Mikoto Misaka who took in the entire scene before, she was wondering if that idiot was ok.
"Sissy!" Yelled Shirai as teleported next to her and clung to her arm much to her annoyance.
"Kuroko?"
"Talk about a real mess huh, I wonder who could be unlucky enough to live there?"
"Hey guys!"
Both Tokiwadai middle schoolers turned around to see Saten and Uiharu run up to them.
"What are you guys doing here?" Misaka asked.
"Saten really wanted to check out the scenes of alleged bombings in the area." Uiharu deadpanned.
"Hey come on, two different places get blown up in the same night, plus one of the areas looks like a battlefield, could you imagine the potential rumors to come out of it!"
"Said rumors could just boil down to rogue espers, or skillout causing trouble Saten." Kuroko logically stated.
"Hey look!" Said Uiharu.
She pointed in a direction a direction and the group looked to see a familiar figure running by.
"It's Miss Koyanskaya, what is she doing here?" Uiharu asked.
"She looks like she's looking for someone, does she know the person who lives here?" Saten added.
"Wait, someone like her might know that idiot?" Misaka cut in.
"Who's the idiot you're talking about sissy?" Asked Kuroko.
"Let's follow her before she gets too far, come on!" Saten suggested.
"Woah hold on a sec, are you serious?!"
Despite Uiharu's reservations she and the rest of the girls followed after as they chased down Tamamo's direction.
Touma POV:
Touma had fled to a bench away from the scene where he lay the injured Index down on a bench, he wanted to get her to a hospital but she told him she was already losing too much blood so a healing ritual needs to be preformed, but it came with a catch since espers can never do magic to exclusive laws, and he can't be around it hence his hand may interfere.
"Touma!!"
"Tamamo." She ran up and released her fox features as soon as she knew it was clear.
"Huh! Index! What happened to you?!"
Both Index and Touma explain what happened and Tamamo lamented on how she should have been there to assist, but they told her it was ok easing her worries just a bit.
They both immediately noticed that she had two tails now, but didn't bother to ask do to more pressing issues.
"Wait, Index Tamamo could be the one to perform healing magic."
"Touma, I think it would be better if someone else did it." Tamamo said.
"What why!"
"Because those sorcerers may still be around and the one I fought was strong." I would need to be lookout defense if they ever com back around after licking their wounds."
"Damnit, well there is only one person I can turn too."
"Miss Koyanskaya?!"
All three stiffened upon hearing a voice, and one that Tamamo recognized.
They all looked to see Mikoto Misaka, Kuroko Shirai, Kazari Uiharu and Ruiko Saten.
"Oh no." Said Touma.
"Hey idiot! You better explain what's going on here, who's the nun and why does Koyanskaya cosplaying as a two tailed fox?!"
"Tamamo we can't get them inv-"
He stopped mid sentence as Tamamo walked up to Misaka with a shadow caster over her eyes."
BAM!! A fist met the top of Misaka's head.
"THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR TRYING TO ELECTROCUTE MY HUSBAND!!!!"
'EEEEEEEEEEHHHH!!!!!!' Thought every girl present.
"Rotten luck."
"That ape gentleman is your husband!" Shouted Kuroko.
"Why yes of course, he is the love of my life and I will not tolerate you calling any sort of primate." She said with a mixture of false and genuine sweetness that made Shirai back up in fear.
"Tamamo we got to do something about Index fast we're wasting time!"
"Hold on is that nun injured?!!!" Uiharu yelled.
Tamamo sighed as he was right, she held up her right hand and unleashed a flash of light on the girls blinding them and made them clutch their heads.
"What did you do?"
"Brought them up to speed."
"What, you didn't erase their memories and put them to sleep, we can't get them involved in this!"
"Something tells me they'll be getting involved one way or another, so may as well hasten the process so they can better prepare."
When the railgang finally got their barring they looked on at the trio in confusion and shock... and some embarrassment over certain memory scenes.
"So... what now?" Misaka hesitantly asked.
"Touma you said there was someone you can go to that can perform the ritual, let's head to them right away." Said Tamamo.
"Alright, lets go!!"
The group made their way to an apartment complex, and upon reaching one of the doors Touma knocked.
"Miss Komoe, are you in there?!"
"You're gonna go to your own teacher Kamijou, isn't that a bit desperate on your part?" Saten asked.
"Look I know the first thing to do is get her to a hospital, but this is the closest place, and I can trust her!"
They then heard a voice on the other side of the door.
"J-just a minute, are you the newspaper salesman? Cause if you are then please leave."
"Miss Komoe it's Kamijou please I need your help!"
"Kamijou?!"
They heard the door unlock and to the surprise of the girls a little girl in a bunny onesie came out.
"Touma what are you doing here, who are all these girls, is that a sister, is she ok!?"
"Look we don't have time too explain we need your help."
"Wait wait don't come in, hold up!"
Everyone was witness to a messy room with beer cans and cigarette butts scattered around.
"Excuse me, but are your parents home, such living conditions are unfit for a little girl." Uiharu stated.
Komoe was in the middle of cleaning when she heard that.
"I'm not a little girl, I'm an adult!"
"She's telling the truth." Said Tamamo casually.
"Seriously!!" All the girls said in unison.
"Everyone , this is my teacher Miss Komoe."
Touma proceeded to lay Index as Komoe came to look at her shocked at the bloody injury on her back.
"What happened to her, Kamijou explain to me what's going on this instant!"
Suddenly Index's voice became cold and almost robotic as she sat up.
"Warning severe blood loss at critical levels, John's Pen mode activated for emergency protocol."
"Look Miss Komoe I know I'm asking a lot from you but I need you to trust me on this, can you do that for me?" Touma asked as he put his hands on her shoulders.
"Um... ok I-I'm gonna trust you, but I still want an explanation soon."
"Thank you so much!" He proceeded to bow.
"I have to go, I'll be back in a bit."
"Kamijou wait!"
"No, it's better he get some distance from here, he will only interfere."
Outside the apartment:
Touma, Tamamo and the railgang made their way to the street and started walking in a random direction to kill time.
They soon stopped to a nearby table, where Saten would break the ice by introducing herself to Kamijou.
"Ruiko Saten, nice to meet you."
"Touma Kamijou, same here."
"So Kamijou is it true that Miss Koyanskaya is your wife?"
"What?!"
"So yes?"
"She calls herself my wife but we're not actually married."
"Do you love her though?"
"I..."
Did he? Sure he was very attracted to her and from what he could gage, ticked off almost all boxes of his ideal interest, the only thing missing was being a dorm manager, the fox thing was a definite plus.
They hadn't even known each other more then a month, yet.
BA-BUMP
Thinking back to the time they spent together was definitely comparable to a loving couple, and Tamamo was just so forward with what she wanted, his mind drifted to their short make out session, she basically killed two birds with one stone for him, a first kiss and making out with a bombshell of a woman, hell she wanted to do THAT with him.
Saten saw his face turning a deep red as he reminisced making her break out into a shit eating grin.
Tamamo POV:
"Ok, the whole magic and fox thing aside, here's the important question, how are you in love with that guy?!" Asked Kuroko.
"How is that the important question Shirai?" Asked Uiharu.
"Because he just looks so...plain."
"He's my handsome love bug, I won't be with anyone but him."
"Oh, so sweet, such dedication is very hard to come by nowadays, it's almost fairytale like!" Uiharu swooned.
"This is still a lot to take in you know, to think magic actually exists and magicians are roaming the city of science of all places." Said Misaka.
"Hey you!"
The whole group looked over to see none other then the two magicians of note, well Touma knew about Stiyl magnus while Tamamo and by proxy the railgang, knew about Kanzaki who was currently bandaged up from her fight with the aforementioned fox priestess.
The group immediately went on guard upon seeing them.
"Relax, we're not here to fight, though you and I have unfinished business fox." Said Kanzaki.
"So what is it you want?" Asked Touma.
"We're here to tell you about Index's situation and why you should keep out of it, especially with you espers now involved." Stiyl added, his tone all businesses.
"And why would you do that mr. magic man." Mocked Misaka, her bangs began to spark.
Kuroko for her part brought out her signature spikes.
"It has to do with the grimoirs in her head."
Everyone looked at each other before coming to a group consensus.
"Alright, we'll listen." Said Touma.
"Good cause I'm only gonna do this once."
Stiyl went on to explain how after the church granted index knowledge of the grimoirs, they filled up 80% of brain and that she can only ever store up to a year worth of memory before they did an annual memory erasure.
"That's total bullshit, the human brain is capable of storing way more than that, at least up to 104 years worth as it's known."
"Even I can see the veil of lies the church seems to be feeding you lot." Sniped Tamamo.
"What do any of you know, we've been with Index for a long time and seen what she goes through, I will not have you sullying the severity of the situation." Kanzaki yelled.
"Well we're not letting you anywhere near Index, if have too then fight us." Touma said.
"While we wouldn't have a problem fighting you or your bitch, we can't risk fighting espers, there's an uneasy truce between magic and science that if broken will lead to all out war."
"Well we're not gonna abandon Index if that is what you're pushing for either." Saten boldly proclaimed.
"Tch, all of you are idiots, this will be your only warning, think this carefully."
Kanzaki walked forward glaring at Tamamo, who looked at her with a neutral expression.
"We've contacted Necessarius, as of now you are on notice by the Anglican Church."
"Let them come, before the might of the fox they will fall."
And with that the two magicians left.
"We should head back and check on index, I'm sure it's all done now."
The group agreed, they made their way back to Komoe's apartment relieved to find a healthy Index wearing the teachers bunny onesie.
"Index you're ok!" Said Tamamo.
"Yep, I'm all better now thanks to Touma's teacher!"
"Alright Kamijou I'm off to a late meeting and some errands I still need that explanation from you, don't think I've forgotten, it's better that index stay here for a couple of days to rest, your free to stay too after what happened to your place, as for you Miss?"
"Tamamo Koyanskaya, and I'll be staying by Kamijou's side here as well."
"Really, Kamijou I'm gonna have to lecture about being with a girl under the same roof and how inappropriate it is."
"Ah come on!!"
All the girls started laughing at his expense.
"I'll be back in a while." With that she left.
"She'll forget after awhile." Touma remarked.
"She's really nice." Added Index.
"Hey Kamijou, Koyanskaya, the four of us are gonna head back to our respective dorms before curfew hits." Saten said.
"We'll be back tomorrow to check up on things idiot." Misaka added.
"Good night to you zapper." Touma grumbled.
Saten and Uiharu said their goodbyes and left leaving the remaining three.
"Man today has been hell, let's say all three of us turn in tonight, I have to go to remedial lessons tomorrow as usual."
Touma had to do extra classes over the summer since he was behind (AN: Yeah that part slip my mind).
And with that two futons we're put together, one for Index, and the other for Touma and Tamamo.
"You're going to sleep together! Fornicating before marriage is a sin in the eyes of God Touma, you must repent and beg forgiveness."
"Hey it's not like we do anything crazy, and say we did it wouldn't be in front of a kid!"
That made Index mad and she barred her teeth again.
"Ah crap not again!"
"TOUMA!!!"
She lunged at him only to receive a fist to the head curtesy of Tamamo, who sported a frighteningly sweet smile.
"Index, I have a rule for you to follow, you will not I repeat NOT bite my sweetheart, is that clear?"
Index quickly nodded.
"Good, cause if I find out you put so much as a canine on him, you're sleeping outside, kapeesh."
"Yes ma'am!!"
With that said the three of them got settled and fell asleep to face the next day.
AN: man this might be my longest yet, so that officially marks the first of many battles to come, also did Touma grant Tamamo one of the countless dragons within him?
So now the railgang is officially involved in the affairs, what happens from here, more craziness.
Anyway thanks for reading and be ready for the next chapter to come.
Next chapter: Lost and Reborn
Bye!!