And at long last, after more than half a year, we have reached the end of the first arc! Damn, didn't think it would take this long. Or go this far. But when your as busy as I am, it takes a while to churn out content. But now we're here at the grand finale of Zeroes War/The Level Eater Arc!
Make sure to stick around the end for news of what comes next. First though, reviews!
DN Works: You're right, problems will arise at the appearance of so many children to a timeline they should not exist. This whole arc was born by the interference of one of those kid's after all. Make's you wonder how the canon events will change compared to a simple interaction with one Level 0? The fight with Mila while controlling the The Level Eater was an interesting one to come up with. Wait till you get to the real fight this chapter; now that was fun! As for the dregs left behind by the Magic God of Ruin, they do play an interesting part with the time traveling children as you've already noticed. Emotions is only a small part.
BlueJack22: Really? Ooh, I feel that you might have something to say at the end of this finale.
Anti-Mage29: Pfft, you think that's insane? Get ready for what's to come this chapter. Fight's just begun!
TazalTerminals: Just because Arden's one of Touma's kids, doesn't mean that he'll act the same or be as kind. No doubt they carry his will, but no one ever said that was a good thing, or bad really. And you're wrong about his mother being Seiri; for one he has light blond hair.
ArmoredCoreNineBall: Honestly, I couldn't have everyone ignore shirtless Touma, even during the confrontation with Mila. It was just too good to pass up and became the highlights of the chapter for me too. As a fan of action scene, I had fun with this one and the next one for sure. Even if the ending is a little. . .breaking. Oh, so even you realized who's fault all this mess truly is? Nice one, but that's something that won't be touched on without handing out spoilers for the future.
Lordrednight: Well get ready to fall of the edge with this chapter, and than some with the ending. As for the reveal of Toka's mother, you'll have to wait until the Epilogue and SS for a clear answer there. Get ready to make guesses during this chapter though! Got a whole batch of kids revealed this chapter, so I expect some guesses when next we meet!
FearMeHorror: I know this isn't part of the latest chapter, or even concerning this story, but I might as well answer ya on that front. Be patient, for I will be updating one of my RWBY stories and going back to updating during my break.
Now, we're here at the end of the first major arc! No more waiting, let's see what lays at the end of that lonely road, once and for all!
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to A Certain Magical Index. All rights are reserved to Kamachi Kazuma.
I'm honestly surprised I got to finish this chapter at all with all my time being sunk into Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I've got almost 90+ hours on this thing since launch. Should have finished it a week ago, but I'm both a micromanager and a lover of supports. And waifus, so many waifus.
Chapter 9: Wish Upon a STAR.
What_Your_HEART_Desires.
When the pixel like lights in the wake of the spell that whisked Kamijou Touma away from the decimated secret facility below the Hoshi Nuclear Reactor fell, a collective shuddering breath was finally released from those three mysterious boys.
The blond leader, Arden, felt his very face grow slick with a cold sweat that chilled him to his very core. His eyes trembled while he gulped with some struggle after witnessing what had laid beneath the container that was Imagine Breaker.
IT was as sinister as they had been warned. No, it was beyond that. Words couldn't even describe what that Thing had made them all experience. Terror was nothing compared to the utter horror that had gripped their hearts when its numerous malevolent gazes sought them and snapped its row of infinite teeth at them. It wasn't for his older brother, Hachiman, and his ability to control minds on a level beyond his mother's capabilities, than they would have been done for. All that work that had been done to bring them to the past would have been for nothing in that moment.
"And yet, Tou-san had still lost to that Magic God?"
It brought an even broader perspective towards what they were up against.
"What's the plan now, Arden-nii-chan?"
"The final stage in the experiment is underway as we speak, Hachi-san. I doubt Arden-san has any need to do much else now that Tou-san has returned to the stage."
Gathering his cool, Arden cleaned off the sweat on his face and answered as he walked over the remains of the heavily damage steel wall that appeared ready to fall apart at any moment. His gaze went over all those there; from the dead Skill-Out leader in their future, to the silver haired nun who would come to cease control of the English Puritan Church. His gaze stopped on Angela and Toka, noting the injuries on their person.
"It's as Shinzo-onii-san says; the final stage in the Event is underway. At this point, there is nothing we can do that will not interfere with the natural flow of events to come. Though we are the cause for it, the results to come must be decided by those who rightfully create the world and its history. The least we can do without getting in the way of Kamijou Touma is ease his mind and take care of his friends."
With his left hand stretched out, a healing spell was cast over those important figures.
"Seeing as things are about to get a little chaotic, I believe it would be safer to keep them here until it's safe to move them. After all, an embodiment of 2.3 billion Espers is running amok in its path for revenge against the world that had created her. That does make one wonder, doesn't it?"
A grin, full of a dangerous curiosity and greed grew on Arden's face.
"What would happen if the hopes and fears of all Espers gathered together? Just what exactly would be born from that manifestation of their voices shared as one?"
The remains of the Hoshi Nuclear Reactor should have been a warning to whoever dared to walk onto the scene and tell them to turn back now. Bodies were spread about like trash, rubble spelled the tale of destruction that had played, and a massive hole could be seen jutting out from the ground as if a massive lance had stabbed out from deep below the earth to pierce everything in its way.
Something had torn its way out of the nuclear facility. And that something was now making its way past District 10 for a straight path towards District 7.
The gang leader known as Viper had the unfortunate task with searching the large facility for any survivors. It was the last message Mila had sent him before everything had gone weird.
All around the city, he could hear the most transcendent song being sung by an unknown girl. Whoever it was singing had the voice of an angel in his opinion. But there was something about that voice that tickled him wrong.
Viper grimaced slightly, feeling his temple throb once again. Ever since that song began playing everywhere he went, he developed a growing headache. When he had the chance, he was looking for some painkiller's to deal with this shit. He deserved an entire pharmacy's worth after all the crap he had been put through. His face still needed a proper patch up thanks to that plain faced fuck.
"What the hell? Who the hell had the balls to ice Dangan? Shiiiiiiit, whoever busted his skull has my thanks."
With what left over members of Drop Out he had left, Viper had walked over the carnage of the Hoshi Reactor's entrance to the steps leading up. Once there, he found the familiar black and yellow hair belonging to the notorious arms dealer of District 10 and leader of the Gunners; Dangan Chishi. Viper whistled as he kicked the cold corpses body, finding himself impressed.
It wasn't any secret that many of the Top Dogs of Skill-Out, affiliated with Komaba Ritoku or not, weren't the biggest fan of the trigger happy molester. Even Viper, a ruthless thug who could care less with slashing an Esper's throat, felt himself disgusted by the Gunner's leader. There were some lines you just didn't cross. If it weren't for the large control Dangan held, and his ruthless military like tactics, he would have personally put a bullet to the bastard's head.
Oh well, one less problem for him to deal with in the long run of things. Considering he survived whatever that blond french brat was cooking right now.
"Times like this; I should have just stayed in the States. But nooooo! Why not go to Academy City? Become some killer ass Esper who could bend spoons with their minds? Get payed for being psychic! It's a once in a life time opportunity! What's the worst that could happen?" Viper exaggerated out loud while delivering a few more kicks to Dangan's corpse. Behind him, his gang nodded along in understanding.
Like their leader, they had all been fed false promises and hopes. All to fall short and end where they stood now. Powerless. Worthless. Weak. And reduced to nothing more than thugs who could only make up their shortcomings with guns and knives.
'All I wanted was to be just like them. To be special.'
A much more intense headache split Viper's head like the edge of a blade scrapping from inside his skull. He grit his teeth, cursing the pain that he unknowingly shared with the others of his gang. All around, those fellow Level 0 thugs were gripped by a gnawing pain from within their minds.
That voice. . .it didn't belong to him. So, why was he hearing it?
". . . . ."
The sound of footsteps walking out of the entrance of the facility caught Viper's attention, enough to ignore the pain of his odd headache. Amid the heavenly song that continued to play in the background, the sound of those footsteps stood out to them for some reason. Viper turned his eyes up to the top of the damaged stairs splattered by blood and rubble, only to find a sight that caused him again to grit his teeth with a feral snarl.
At the top stood a plain faced Level 0. The boy's body was littered with numerous wounds ranging from slashes, burns, shots, and blunt trauma. He had no shirt, exposing his chest to the world and school pants that were close to filthy, red iron stained tatters now. But what had strangely caught Viper's attention from that boy was his right arm.
While the spiky haired boy's body was covered by wounds, his entire right arm was free of any scratch or blood. It alone stood free of any damage after all the fights he had walked through.
Viper felt a vein ready to pop at the sight of that Level 0 who had gotten in his way earlier this morning. He had really hoped that he wouldn't have to see him again.
"You're still kicking around here, Spiky?"
Touma didn't say anything back at first. Mostly because he was still trying to regain his bearings of the situation around him.
Earlier, he had been defeated by whatever had been born from Level Eater in the form of the girl that was Mila Etoile. A great and powerful attack had struck him with enough force to reduce everything beyond the field of negation his right had created to dust and pebbles. His body had finally realized just how damaged it had been and brought him to the edge of passing out on his knees. His right hand had been mangled, twisted, and rendered useless to his commands. There had been nothing more he could do for anyone.
And then a haze.
Touma flinched as his unharmed right hand gripped the side of his head as a disoriented stream of memories trickled into his mind.
He remembered three figures, boys(?), who had come out of nowhere when he had hit his last leg. And than they had begun speaking to him from what little he could remember.
Than there was a great deal of pain after words. Something. . .cruel had begun to emerge. And than there was nothing, no pain, no sinister presence, as if he had never suffered anything at all. It was like he had been seeing an illusion, that his right arm had never been cut off despite the fact he had seen his severed limb laying on a pool of red. He swore he could curl his own fingers even though his right hand was gone.
More was said, a conversation Touma couldn't recall that well. He grew worried, wondering what happened to his friends at the hands of those strangers. He wanted nothing more than to run back to them and make sure they were safe from harm.
A somber melody played in the background of District 10 amid a war among Level 0s. To many, it was nothing short of beautiful, sung by what could only be an angel descended onto the godless city that was Academy City. But to Touma, he could only hear the sorrowed cry of a lonely girl.
He still wasn't sure how he found himself teleported to the top floor of the Hoshi Reactor facility. Or how his mangle right arm had been completely restored. It didn't matter at the moment, he could ask all the questions he wanted later after he finished dealing with a girl caught in her own illusions.
His right fist could properly form a fist again. Which meant it had a lot of work to get to. Stumbling his way out of the building, Touma turned his sights to chasing after Mila. Only instead of finding any clues to her whereabouts, he found a familiar face at the bottom of the entrance stairs.
"Cobra?" Touma blinked at the sight of the dark skinned, dreadlocks haired thug.
"It's Viper, you fucking nosy bitch!"
"Really? Than why aren't you called Cobra? You seem to be able to strangle people with your chains; you didn't fight with poison earlier either. It would make much more sense to go with that logic when you think about it."
"You know, he's got a point."
"Why don't you go by Cobra? It sounds the same to me, boss."
"I think Cobra sounds more bad ass."
"Wait, I thought Cobras and Vipers both used venom? I don't think either one constricts."
"Than shouldn't we call boss 'Anaconda' or 'Python'?"
"What about Gator? I like Gator. It's fierce!"
Cobra could now feel that throbbing vein on his temple burst violently as he listened to the idiot conversation happening around him. At this point, his blood pressure could boil an egg.
"THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BE DISCUSSING MY THUG NAME, DAMN IIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT!"
The raging shout from the dark skinned American delinquent shut the conversation about his street moniker down with a flail of his chains striking the ground viciously. Viper was seething, his shoulders trembling as he stared up at the nervous faced spiky haired boy who was honestly the center of all the delinquent's trouble.
It had first started with that normal high school girl, who gave off a vague familiarity with that spiky haired delinquent look alike, running away with their target in broad daylight at the tram station. Than, just as he and a few of his boys were closing in on them, that spiky haired nobody butted into their business. All by himself, that high school boy had taken them out with just his fists; no weapons on hand at all, making them lose sight of Dr. Tatsumi which resulted in a threatening earful from that red suited motorcycle helmeted boy, Deadlock. To make up for their failure, they were to continue their objective of framing other factions against another to further rise the tension. And lo behold, just as they lucked out and found one of Komaba Ritoku's right hands, that same plain faced high school showed up to screw things up again!
And now? Once again, that god damned head of spikes stood in his way just as before. Every time Viper had failed today, it had something to do with that punk ass!
Viper had honestly had it. He was a notorious thug within District 10, one of the Top Dogs of Skill-Out who wasn't affiliated with that prick, Komaba Ritoku. Anti-Skill would love nothing more to catch him with his pants down and cuff him on the spot! He had killed more than enough assholes in his way to deserve the proper respect from those lesser than him!
And yet, that spiky haired punk looked at him as if he was nothing! As if Viper, leader of Drop Out, one of the Top Dogs of District 10, was just an annoyance.
Just like those high and mighty Espers who lucked out with a Personal Reality. Some average faced Level 0 who was no different than him, who was in fact lower than him, had the gall to look at him the same way someone with a Level 1 ability looked at him.
That was just something Viper couldn't stomach.
"Oh, I'm going to fucking enjoy this more than I really should." Viper sneered with a crack of his neck.
Seeing the pissed off gang leader take a step towards him with the intent of beating his fists into his face, Touma grimaced in frustration. Behind Viper's back, his gang had raised their guns and rifles to lock onto him, ready to fire at their leader's command.
Now was not the time to be caught in some pointless fight with a thug. There was someone who needed a reality check, and he felt he was the only one who had a chance of delivering that check up. Imagine Breaker was solely capable of stopping whatever Mila was doing. The newfound power she wielded may have been capable of annihilating an underground secret facility with just one attack, but it was still supernatural in nature. And it seemed that the only thing capable of cutting off that overwhelming power was his right hand.
That was why he needed to chase after that lonely girl with everything he had. He had already failed to reach out to her once. Now that he was given another chance to try, he was more than ready go at it again.
But Touma's misfortune would never allow such an event to play out so easily. Obstacles would always get in his way due to the very power that allowed him to face off against individuals well beyond his level.
With an internal growl of frustration, Touma spread his feet apart, his fist clenched tight, and positioned himself to evade whatever bullet hell would greet him.
"Lower your fucking weapons! Did you hear me tell you idiots to aim for that punk ass? Keep out of this; this is between me, and that bastard!"
Touma was stunned at what he heard, even more when those thugs lowered their firearms, albeit with hesitation and puzzled expressions. Like him, they were struggling to understand what they had just heard.
At this very moment, they could unleash every bullet in their chamber and score at least one critical hit. They had Touma cornered like an animal waiting to be slaughtered by a ring of fatal teeth.
Viper grinned viciously at the expression on Touma's face as he threw off his old summer school uniform, leaving him in nothing but the red tank top, his pants, and sneakers. He rolled his shoulders with a faint clink of the rope of chains wrapped around his shoulder to his elbow, loosening them up as he went on to explain the strange action to the others.
"Do I really look like the type of prick to just kill you like that? That's too easy, not to mention such a tactic reminds me too much of that piece of shit." Viper spat, both verbally and physically, at the cold corpse that was Dangan, "You've gotten in my way far too much to go without a personal beat down. I'll kill you, no doubt about that fucking fact, but it'll be because I personally bashed you into oozing red mush! I owe you a few punches after all!" he hissed, mentioning the bandages across his face from their first throw down.
"You want to fight? Now?!" Touma said in disbelief, "Do you even know what's been going on this entire time?! There's far more important things that need to be addressed than some stupid school yard fight! It's not just this district that's in trouble, but possibly all of Academy City! Don't you care about the innocent lives that you've put at risk with allying with Mila and Deadlock!?" he shouted in frustration.
"Don't care."
"What?"
"I said, I. Don't. Fucking. Care." Viper stressed with a narrowed gaze of indifference. He stretched his left arm over his chest, warming himself up for the long awaited beating at hand, "This was just a job for me anyways. That french girl with the fake sweet smile was just an opportunity to make some cash for causing trouble to people I already didn't care for. I don't care about her honey coated words of freeing us from Academy City's status of hierarchy, I don't care about something as retarded as revenge, and I certainly don't care about ruling over what's left of whatever shit show she's got playing right now. I'm simply in this for the Bank Cards, and the respect."
Touma ground his teeth.
"The respect?"
"Yeah, the respect." Viper grinned widely with a gesture of his arms spread out, "The only way a Level 0 like us get get any kind of street cred' is through busting down the skulls of others! Fear, brawling, intimidation; those kind of acts are the only way we can garner respect from those who think something as special as abilities makes them top shit! You know, there's an old saying I heard once back in the states; If you can make God bleed, people stop believing him as almighty. And that person to make god bleed, is seen as above god."
"So, what? You're whole plan was to harm Espers who were stronger than you, to gain some kind of notoriety akin to a god?"
Viper shrugged his shoulders casually, "That was what Drop Out strove for. Through whatever tactics we could find, with whatever weapons we could get our hands on, we failed Espers would make those 'godly' figures bleed and fear those below them. It's what I plan to do in the chaos that bitch Mila is stirring up. Spread the word that Viper is more than tough and resourceful enough to knock down even an Esper at Level 3 without any ability to speak of. And, if I see the chance, I'll hijack whatever little weapon Mila has gotten her hands on. I've been planning on back stabbing her this entire time anyways." he explained as if it wasn't any big deal.
He'd never trusted that french girl's plans. He knew that they were simply her little pawns to throw around the chessboard for her own agenda and goals. A snake recognized a snake. So, he had done his best to stay in her good light, to find some way to get close to her, and the moment he found her guard was down; strike with his own toxic fangs. But of course such plans had failed the moment the spiky haired punk got in his way to deliver Mila her key.
"That girl is a monster. She's more ruthless than me. A lost cause like her wouldn't be missed. After all, she's just another Zero who's worth no more than the dead lab rats surrounding us." with a twisted grin as he gestured his arm to the lump of cold, red soaked Level 0s around them.
The punch of another Level 0 had met another Level 0 without hints of hesitation.
When Touma had heard those callous words, his legs had sprang to send him leaping down the stairs with a chambered right fist to Viper's already bruised face with a ferocious roar. Viper had seen the blatant attack despite how quick it had been. He threw his left arm back and shot it forward to collide with Touma's fist with the sound of bones cracking against another.
Viper smirked at the raging dark eyes glaring into his own. Quicker than Touma could react, he let go of his fist to latch onto the high school boy's wrist. Left arms bulging from the strain, he spun Touma's body around and threw him to the ground.
Touma hit the ground with a roll, stopping on his side with a grunt. Several of Viper's men moved to help Viper with guns focused back on him.
"I said; Don't butt in. And I meant it." Viper commanded coolly.
The guns turned away from Touma as he gingerly rose back up to face the dark skinned gang leader again. His glare never left his face, causing Viper's smirk to grow further.
"What? Ya got something to say, punk?" Viper mocked before kicking off the ground with his fists set in a boxing form.
A flurry of right and left cross punches rained upon Touma, forcing him to throw his arms up to block the powerful blows that kept him stepping back. His face twisted through the barrage, finding Viper connect a few body blows through his defense. Those muscles on the gang leader weren't just for show after all.
"Come on! Fight back like you did this morning, when you got in the way of my plans! Didn't you spout some crap about getting in my way because you felt like it? Don't tell me; you don't feel like it now?! Were you just lucky back then?! A weak little Level 0 like you was just lucky, wasn't he!? There's no way that someone far below even a Level 0 like myself could ever seriously beat me! It was luck, right!? It's the only way a worthless Level 0 like you could have survived the streets of District 10 this far!" With a cruel laugh, Viper's fist slipped through Touma's forearms to drill itself into his left pectoral. It felt like an unseen force blew out his back and dragged his breath from his lung.
With a deep gasp, Touma's arms dropped. Leaving him wide open.
Viper grinned in victory and moved to throw all his weight into his next punch. But such an attack also left him wide open too.
Biting back against the pain, Touma clenched his right fist and threw it up with all his strength in the form of an uppercut swing. Viper was ready to curse as his arrogance got the better of him, only to find his tongue biting into his teeth from the connecting knuckles knocking below his chin.
"FFFFFFUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK!"
Viper screamed in both anger and agony. He stumbled back slightly, sticking his bleeding tongue out as red mixed with saliva dripped onto the ground. He held his chin, his face expressing a livid rage at the panting, glaring, spiky haired punk.
"W-Why. . .is everyone. . .so god damned obsessed with some number!?" Touma spoke between gasps for air.
It didn't make any sense to an amnesiac like himself. How could everyone in this city be so obsessed with the Level some machines and researchers handed down like it was the deciding fate of your future? It was just the label of one's AIM! A scientific marker to start off and grow from! And yet, because of that Level handed down to the students, it became the excuse to act as they did. They believed that their Level would excuse them for being arrogant, vain, deserving, weak, helpless, powerless, and cruel.
Exactly what kind of excuse was that for all the crap he'd seen?!
"Just because you're a Level 0, you think that allows you to turn to dirty tricks and cruel means to be better than those with an actual ability? You think that makes you better than those who do the same to you?! WHAT KIND OF BACKWARDS ASS THINKING IS THAT?!"
Charging ahead with another straight fist, Touma found his attack dodged with a well timed side step. But he didn't stop moving there; turning his left punch into a swinging elbow strike to the face. Viper found himself unable to block or evade, suffering the blunt elbow strike to his right cheek. The blow's force was enough to form a visible blue and green bruise on his face.
"How else do you expect us Level 0s to stand up against those assholes?!" Viper growled before throwing his right leg to strike the side of Touma's thigh. The heavy blow caused the high school boy to fall to his knee, leaving him open for the sneaker kicking his face back. He fell back to the ground with a grunt turned gruff shout as Viper lashed another kick to his face as he tried to get back up. Even though the kick disoriented him, he still found it in him to roll out of the way from the heavy stomp meant to cave in his face like brittle ice.
Blood trailed down Touma's busted lip that he cleaned off as he got back on his feet, just in time to deflect Viper's twisting fist with a swinging punch that careened the attack to the far left.
"It's only fair that we fight back with whatever cards we got under our sleeves! Without any power, we got to resort to whatever underhanded tricks we can to exploit those gifted pieces of shit who stare down at us like dirt! What's wrong with garnering respect with the only means we Level 0s can play?"
Catching himself in his stumble from the deflect, Viper twisted his foot, spinning on the balls of his feet to whip a roundhouse kick to the side of Touma's ribs. Touma threw his left forearm up, reacting in time to dampen the blow. It did little to stop the thug leader; several leg strikes struck at his forearm with fevered succession that left Touma grunting with grit teeth.
"I told you this before! Whether you like it or not, this is how we Level 0s get by! Through tooth and nail, we use whatever means to stand back up after being pushed down! That's what it means to be a Level 0 in this world!"
With a furious roar, Viper delivered one more lashing swipe of his leg to Touma's arm that broke his guard once again. With the loss of his throbbing left, Touma swiftly turned to his right arm and moved to mirror the jabbing cross fist to his face. Once again, the two Level 0s crashed fist against fist. Both refused to back down and fought to overpower the other with faces twisted in struggle.
"Get with the damn program, ya failure of a Zero! Even that high and mighty Komaba Ritoku results to these tactics to get by! So, why condemn people like you for doing their best to prove those higher fucks that we're not to be underestimated!?"
"Because normal Level 0s like me aren't so desperate for such excuses!"
From Viper's unseen left, that throbbing left arm he'd been kicking at ruthlessly flew up to smash the side of his face like a hammer. Several more fists followed suit, knocking the snake nicknamed thug around his feet like he was some movable punching bag. Droplets of red splattered the street with each echoing blow.
"You're right, those large majority of students who study hours on end to gain an ability all their own want nothing more than some form of recognition, or respect! But they'd rather earn that recognition through their own hard work, because that's what it means to be a normal Level 0! The one that needs to get with the damn program here, is you!"
Growing fed up with the back and forth of punches, Viper ducked under the next punch and skipped back a few steps. Bruised, face stained with splotches of blood, and sweating, he grinned none the less as he undid the coils of silver gleaming links around his bicep. Fuck playing fair, this was what Drop Out was all about! Fighting with whatever tools failed students like them could grasp to come out on top!
With the chains on hand, he swung them rapidly above his head like a lasso. And with a snap of his arm, he spun them around to coil tightly around his right arm as he raced back to the surprised high school boy. The links covered his wrist to his bicep in three inches of layered metal. It was almost as if he was wearing some kind of medieval chain mail armor.
"So, what? Do you believe that 'normal' Level 0 way of yours is better suited for stopping people like Mila than the ways of Level 0s like me?! If so, prove it! Don't give me cheap talk, show me what a normal Level 0 who rejects the way of Skill-Out can do in a city that preys on the weak!"
Taking advantage of the added weight wrapped around his right arm, Viper threw his arm straight out to strike against Touma's neck to perform a wide swing lariat. He spun on his foot, adding momentum to the neck snapping blow to send the high school boy flying like a rag doll across the street. Even without running over to check up on the damage he dealt to the spiky haired boy, he knew he delivered a crushing blow. The red seeping from his chains told enough of the story as did the cruel snap of bone.
Viper scoffed as he gazed at the unresponsive body of the nobody. Not a twitch. So, that was it then. Nothing but talk as he thought. How disappointing. He turned away from the defeated Level 0, not even bothering to deliver the killing blow. Just as fighting him, it was a waste of time.
"I will give that piece of shit this though; he was more durable than your average Level 0." Viper noted with a slight scowl.
Average normal Level 0, huh? If that wasn't some bull he had ever heard before. Your average Level 0 would have crumbled after one hit from him.
"Y-You want proof? Than. . .I'll give you proof!"
'. . .No. No, no, no, no! NO FUCKING WAY!'
Viper's body locked up on the spot, his eyes snapped open in disbelief as he heard that oh so familiar voice again. His chains rattled in response to his body trembling to the sound of someone picking themselves off the ground from behind. He wouldn't admit it, but a sweat began to form on his forehead as he glanced back with a face expressing a livid bewilderment.
That nobody, a Level 0 with no weapons or real notable skills other than taking a hit, stood up right with his naked forearms raised up to continue the fight. Visible bleeding bruises in the shape of chains spoke of how he had taken the blow; raising his forearms up just in the nick of time to block the arm of weighted steel that threatened to crush his larynx. Another injury to add to the many others on his form that should have kept him down.
Eyes that refused to back down, bold with determination that Viper swore lit up with a gleam of burning willpower, stared back. Those eyes spoke of unyielding to whoever stood in their line of sight.
"Why?"
He didn't understand. That nobody wasn't even in any shape to be talking shit to begin with. It was obvious from just looking at him that he had been through hell already. Burns, lacerations, bruises, a sprain or two, and other wounds marred Touma's body. He should have been ready to keel over! And after adding in Viper's own blows to that spiky haired boy's already worn out body, it should have been enough to take him out. Yet, there he stood, up for another ass kicking.
Why? How?
Flinging his left arm out, Viper undid the remaining chains on his person to wrap his forearm with a clink of metal to deal fatal blunt damage. With both arms braced with hard steel, he charged back to that simple nobody with a frustrated yell.
"Why won't you just go down!? You're already swaying on your feet, filthy with blood and bruises! If you're really a Level 0, than just give up already! JUST FUCKING FALL TO YOUR OWN WEAKNESS!"
"Sorry, but this is how a normal Zero fights against those who look down on them! Believe it or not, but giving up isn't in the nature of Level 0s! What you call weakness. . .IS NOTHING SHORT OF STRENGTH!"
Touma didn't move to get out of the way of the charging swinging arms of muscle and steel. He breathed deeply, focusing his sights on the livid faced dark skinned thug leader's movements.
He didn't have some ace up his sleeve, some hidden power, or was in any position to gain some kind of awakening state at the last second. As always, he was going to match face someone much stronger, gifted, and clever with what the previous Kamijou Touma left him on that summer day.
As Viper reached him, Touma ducked under the spinning lariat that parted the air with a whish and swept his hair. And with his elbow, he stabbed it deep into the thugs spinning abdomen, stopping his momentum, and breaking Viper's attack. He didn't stop there, twisting on his leg, he spun around Viper's doubled over form and stood up right to smash his other elbow into his spine.
Even with his breath robbed and his spine crying out, Viper retaliated with a wide swing of his arm, striking Touma's chest with the added weight of five pounds. The blow should have knocked the spiky haired boy off his feet, but Touma endured with a visible show of ground teeth. He than latched both of his hands onto said arm, entangling his fingers into the coiled chains with a grimaced grin. What he did next was an old wisp from the previous Kamijou Touma's playbook.
Latched firmly onto his arm, Touma spun around, back pressed against the surprised thug leader, and with a surge of strength, threw Viper's body overhead and slammed him onto the street with all his dwindling strength. The force of the slam was enough to echo with the sound of of bone cracking as the snake moniker thug gasped hoarsely on his back.
For a good minute, Viper laid there on the street, gagging from the pain and loss of breath that he struggled to hold in. He couldn't move no matter how hard he tried to get back up. His entire back screamed as his muscles failed to get him up. It was like that single move had cracked his entire spinal column! As much as he didn't want to admit it, that judo throw had been more devastating than he thought it would be.
The fight between two Level 0s was over. And between a thug leader, and your average high school boy, the winner stood victoriously.
Touma panted tiredly, flinching as his newest injuries flared up. Great, even more wounds that he was sure a certain frog faced doctor was going to lecture him about. It looked like his left arm suffered a fracture somewhere. And even more to come, he was sure of it. Thank god for whatever weird drug one of those blurry figures injected him with. If it wasn't for that, he wasn't sure he would have the energy or will to move with his injuries. Brushing the sweat and blood from his face with his naked, bruised forearm, Touma scowled down at the defeated thug.
"J-Just s-stay there, and watch t-this Level 0 put an e-end to your m-mess!" Touma said between breaths.
Viper didn't say anything back, going silent. But he didn't have to.
The clicks of, about what Touma estimated on sound, twelve firearms spoke for him.
Right, he almost forgot about Viper's gang watching on. That was an important detail he should have took notice of.
'Crap!'
One of the thugs, dressed in some old school uniform with intentional tears here and there, and dyed dark red hair, stepped up from the ring of armed delinquents formed around Touma. The Drop Out thug sneered, aiming his handgun sideways at Touma.
"And where the hell do you think you're going, dead man? The only place you're going is two feet under the other dead fools around you!" he spat.
Touma gulped anxiously. Okay, how was he going to get out of this one? Other than Imagine Breaker, he didn't have any other tricks up his sleeve to handle Espers, especially Espers who didn't posses any abilities. Just guns. A whole lot of guns.
"Such misfortune."
Okay, what to do with the many, many, firearms ready to make him into oozing red swiss cheese? Fighting off one thug was do able. Maybe two. Three was drawing the line and he would rather run.
Thirteen? And with no way of escaping without adding a bullet to the list of wounds on his person? Touma's bad luck really was having a field day today.
"Oh, shit! Brake! Hit the brakes!"
The focus on the spiky haired boy with the plain face that had somehow managed to defeat their leader was quickly taken away by the sounds of tires hastily skidding along the road. Whatever rubble created from the earlier attack between Level 0s was thrown up in the air by what the Drop Out thugs could only make out as a heavily armored vehicle storming past the check point to their location. Clouds of dirt arose as several more followed behind, alerting them to a new enemy. No longer were the gun focused solely on Touma, but whoever stepped out of the armored vans.
Touma breathed a sigh of relief, glad to see that he was no longer the thugs target. He wasn't sure he could find a way out of that one without a miracle. And miracles didn't exactly have a thing for him. Actually, did this count as a miracle? For once, did some glimmer of luck fall onto the ever unfortunate Kamijou?!
A shot was fired. One of those Drop Out thugs fell to the ground with a bullet zipping through his left pectoral. Another bullet cut through the air, knocking down one of the thug's buddy's along with him with the splatter of blood. Like bowling pins, the rest of the remaining members of Drop Out were taken out with Touma could only guess as sniper fire through the veil of dirt hiding the newest faction's form. From the sounds of groaning and curses, it didn't appear that any were fatally injured.
As all other threats were taken out, Touma quickly found himself the center of attention of whatever group hid behind the slowly settling smoke screen. Ah, so that single golden grain of luck was actually the glittering gravel of Fool's Gold? As expected on one Kamijou Touma's fortune.
"Wait, is that Kamijou? The hell are you doing here? I thought I told you to scram!"
To Touma's further surprise, a certain headband wearing ninja/thug stepped out from the dirt clouds now lingering around their feet with a scowl.
"Hanzou?" Touma frowned, not sure if he remembered the Skill-Out who had treated his wounds after his first fight with Deadlock.
Hanzou quirked a brow, looking Touma up and down before smirking slightly. He noted all the wounds over his body, all due no doubt from several fights he had been caught up in while in the middle of the gang war.
"Are you sure you're not one of us? Because you're looking like your average no good delinquent to me." Hanzou chuckled.
Touma ignored the comment, addressing the more confusing matter. Like the half dozen heavily platted vans carrying Skill-Outs across the street.
"What are you guys doing? I would have thought you would still be dealing with all the fighting spreading around."
"We are. Even now, a few other of Komaba's Skill-Out is handling all the other idiots caught up in this mess. It's been a giant pain in the ass to deal with all those fakes further instigating the violence." Hanzou spat, "We've had to round up whatever remained of our forces and even patch up our old pacts with those who followed along with Komaba's leadership, to get those idiots to settle down, or go down. At the moment, we're rounding up what's left of the Skill-Outs under this unknown hidden boss who's caused this shit show, with a main team that I'm leading to go lend Komaba a hand. Last message I got from Hamazura was that he and Komaba were dealing with the the bastard responsible for all this crap at this nuclear plant." he said impatiently.
Thanks to Hamazura's messages to both Komaba and himself, Hanzou was able to learn of the bigger picture at play in all the chaos. So, it had turned out this entire street war was part of some prick's grand master plan for their own personal agenda? That boiled Hanzou blood to nearly erupt in a rage. All this fighting, all this bloodshed, all this back stabbing, all this death, was just a series of well played moves for some bastard hiding in the shadows of all the suffering these Level 0s had gone through.
Once he had learned of the reason for District 10's war on the streets, Hanzou had immediately took action to prevent that cowardly boss's plan from continuing any longer. He had gathered the remaining forces who followed Komaba's Skill-Out and moved to take out those who threw oil to the fire. It didn't matter who's factions those thugs belonged to, Hanzou took them out with the help of his brothers in arms. He did his best to not inflict any lethal wounds on those false Skill-Outs, but did use the opportunity to take out the more toxic factions while he had the chance.
In his move to diminish the fighting, he had also rounded up the factions that had once affiliated themselves with Komaba or at least stood on good ground with him. Factions like the newly reformed Big Spider, Punishment, and Lockpick were a few of the remaining standing gangs that had decided to lend their arms to shutting down all the ensuing fighting to return District 10 to its original state.
With a small army gathered together, all that was left to do was go to Komaba's aid. The unspoken leader of a majority of District 10 was currently engaging with the master mind of District 10's chaos at the Hoshi Nuclear Reactor alongside Hamazura. It wouldn't be much longer until everything was returned to normal. Or as normal as things could be after so many gangs had wiped each other out.
Craning his head in a gesture to leave, Hanzou went to work on ridding the road block.
"Look, I don't have time to waste on you anymore, Kamijou. We're in a hurry to put this crappy day to a rest, so run along back to your dorm or whatever. This is a Skill-Out matter. And we intend to deal with it." Questions of exactly why the spiky haired nobody was here weren't important.
They were on their way to the Hoshi Nuclear Reactor to help Komaba? Touma frowned grimly. It was a little too late for the cavalry to arrive. Mila had gotten what she wanted. Komaba and the rest were injured from her last attack and resting. The least the small army could do to help would be helping them out.
"I wouldn't do that. Mila's already left the Hoshi site and moved on to the final step of her plan. Not to mention the others can't be of much help now." Touma explained bitterly.
"The hell did you say?" Hanzou glared.
BOOOOOOOOM!
Before Touma could further explain, a massive eruption sent tremors running along the road, courtesy of the explosion overhead the buildings. The explosion was strong enough to nearly trip everyone standing as they all witnessed a brilliant ray of light shine from the center of the blast that could be traced to a nearby district. An unknown energy slithered up into the skies of Academy City, taking form of countless tendrils of pale blue light.
That newborn light in the wake of the city shaking blast was in District 7. Touma knew that without a doubt as he stared at the familiar overhead tendrils with a frustrated scowl. They branches of light stretched high into the sky as far as the eye could see.
Was he too late again? Was Mila already acting on her need for revenge and causing others to suffer in her war path to payback those faceless figures at the top of Academy City? Could he not even reach his hand out to stop her after coming this far?
No, there was no way in hell he was just going to accept that!
Hanzou found himself staring at the strange tendrils of lights that almost resembled wings with a dumbfounded expression before they seemed to glitch, vanishing without a trace. Just what the hell was going? Were his eyes playing tricks on him?
While the gathered small army of delinquents were busy scratching their heads at the sudden marvel of lights that disappeared like some illusion, Touma had begun to plan out his next move. Mila was no doubt responsible for the odd light. Who knew what she was capable now with the gathered mass of AIM she had absorbed. Every minute here was precious time he was wasting from stopping the girl from further crossing the line she seemed to be more than gleeful to tear apart.
His eyes wandered over to the gathered force of Skill-Outs. Or more specifically, the armored vans that were no doubt stolen. He was almost afraid to ask, but he really had no other choices laid out in front of him.
"Hanzou-san, can you do me a favor?"
Snapping out of his stupor, Hanzou nearly scoffed at the pleading expression on the spiky haired high school boy.
"A favor? I ain't got no reason to do you any since you're not part of Skill-Out. Besides, we're busy dealing with much bigger matters than listening to some high school idiots pleas. I don't have time to be further wasting it with you."
"LISTEN TO ME, DAMN IT!"
The eyes of all those Skill-Out watching the interactions between Komaba's right hand man, and some ordinary shirtless boy, grew wide in surprise as they witnessed said spiky haired boy grab Hanzou by the collar of his shirt. The random boy's eyes, who popped out of nowhere, glared at Hanzou with desperation, determination, frustration, and regret as he shouted his plea.
"Right now, all of Academy City is in danger because of someone suffering under the title of Level 0, just like all you! She's endured for years the pain of being told she was worthless, powerless, with no one to tell her any different! Like you, she couldn't take all the pressure, the mocking, the failure, or some stupid ass number! It had gone to the point she found herself swallowed whole by her own despair to turn her suffering onto others just like her! And now, she plans to bring down the cause of her pain while harming whoever so happens to come in her way. If we don't stop her, the other districts will resemble what remains of District 10!"
"So what?"
Touma's grip stiffened as Hanzou met the boy's glare with one of equal fury.
"If what you say is true, than this is Academy City's fault. It's because of those faceless figure heads, the Governing Board, and that bastard Head Chairman, that we Level 0s have turned to violence. You think this turf war is solely our fault? Who's fault is it that we're even Level 0s?! Who's fault is that we're treated like shit?! Who's fault is that we're seen as weak!?" Hanzou furiously argued back, butting heads with Touma.
Throwing the bruised right arm off of him with disgust, Hanzou turned his eyes ahead to the nuclear power plant.
"I don't know what the hell kind of crap you're spewing, and I don't care to listen. Whatever is going on over there doesn't concern us Powerless Zeroes; leave to those high and mighty Espers to handle their mess. After how this city had treated us, why should we bother lending them any kind of help?! Let those with Power save themselves."
Bare, cut and dried blood crusted, bruised knuckles slammed against the left side of Hanzou's face. The blow had nearly thrown him to the ground if he hadn't caught himself as he stumbled from the heavy blow. He found himself more stunned than in pain as he stared at the trembling shoulders of the spiky haired boy responsible for the punch. The ninja/thug couldn't believe such an ordinary boy could throw such a hefty hit!
"Powerless? Strong? Just what the hell does some stupid number have to do with protecting others!? What right does some label give you to play cruel!?"
By now all eyes fell onto Touma. No guns were drawn, everyone finding themselves listening to the odd spiky haired boy who had nearly knock down Komaba's right hand man with a single punch. Before they could act to the aggressive action, all of Skill-Out who followed Hanzou were taken back by the spiky haired boy's seething words.
"I'm sick and tired of hearing all this nonsense about Level 0s! So what if you're labeled as One Without Power?! Don't let it be an excuse to turn back on others in need because of something as idiotic as power ranking! That kind of cruelty is no better than the ones you've all suffered, right? Your lack of an Ability shouldn't be cause for you to give up on trying. Whether that means trying to break your limits, trying to reach your hand out to others, trying to break free from your past self, or trying to be kinder; you have that power to keep clenching your fists with a power that can't be defined by some stupid scientific label!?"
In front of a small army of Level 0s who had all gone through the stigma of being labeled the weakest in the city of Espers, Touma spoke to break through the illusion born by a number; a number that spoke of their apparent value to the city that owned them.
Level 0. That was the sole cause for everything today. The reason why this District had been abandoned. The reason why all these students had joined gangs. The reason why a turf war had erupted. And the reason why one girl had created such an event for her own means of revenge. And Touma had enough of it.
"Take a good look at yourselves! How are you any different than those now suffering at the hands of a Level 0?! Those cries, those pleas, those tears, HOW ARE THEY ANY DIFFERENT THAN YOUR OWN!?"
Without a doubt, others were suffering in all the mayhem Mila was causing in her trek to the Windowless Building. Someone was calling out for help with a weak voice. The Level belonging to that voice didn't matter, that cry for help was no different if it was uttered by even a Level 5. Did that mean that they had no reason to be saved?
Class? Level? Hierarchy? What the hell did that crap have to do with lending a simple hand?
Touma grew a fierce scowl as he began to step past the stunned Hanzou and the others Skill-Out gangs. He knew a simple speech wouldn't be enough to turn anyone over a new leaf. People weren't so simple. They needed to face their own weaknesses and faults head on before changing who they were. Arguing with a bunch of stubborn delinquents wouldn't get him anywhere any time soon.
"I'm a Level 0; one without any kind of Ability born from science or miracles. I've accepted being a Level 0, and I've learned to move past it. I won't allow it to be the reason why I turn my back to others, or to turn to mirrored cruelty to those above me. Because a Level 0 isn't some powerless coward with nothing but excuses to show for his work. And if you truly believe that's what defines Level 0s; stand back as I shatter those pathetic illusions!"
Exhausted, wounded, aching all over, Touma moved past the heavily armored vans with Skill-Outs on his destination to face Mila. He didn't look back to Hanzou for any response.
It didn't matter how long it took, he was going to reach that lonely girl and stop her. And he wouldn't let anyone or anything get in his way of that mission.
"You're not going to get wherever you're going on your own two feet in time, ya know? You'll be far too late to make up for your pretty little words without any kind of transportation."
An amused, silky voice, called out to Touma before he could step past the final stolen Anti-Skill van. He glanced back to the front door of the van and found the owner of the voice stepping out to meet him.
Touma blinked, finding his eyes going up to meet green twinkling orbs. The girl stood at six foot with a mane of silky creamy pink hair that fell to her waist, and a pale face that would belong to a high school beauty queen if it wasn't for the three inch long scar running across nose to her right cheek. Her clothing reminded him of the average wear of a girl delinquent; an open black leather jacket and white tank top that stopped right above her belly button, a long dark colored school uniform skirt that ended at her knees, and scuffed sneakers. To finish her outfit off, she wore a small military cap on her head and an Anti-Skill issued Stun Gun and Stun Baton clipped to her waist.
The pink haired female delinquent quirked her brow at Touma, smirking at the staring spiky haired boy. How curious, his eyes were meeting her own and not at her chest. Impressive.
"You gonna keep staring, Spiky Stuff, or are you open your pretty little mouth and say something?"
Touma gulped, feeling embarrassed. Not since he woke up with no memories did he met such a tall girl before. Or a female delinquent. Those were two clashing archetypes! Shaking his head, he closed in on what he heard from the cherry blossom hair colored delinquent.
"I'm sorry, but what did you say? It almost sounded like you were offering to lend me a hand." Touma said unsure with a scratch at the back of his head.
Said pink haired delinquent shrugged, "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. It all depends." she said firmly, stepping closer to Touma to stare intently down at him, "Were you just spouting nothing but empty words to those idiots, or were you serious about proving to them that you were more than just what Academy City's labeled you? After all, it's one thing to spout boasting speeches; and another to act on those words with a firm stance."
The female thug put Touma on the spot, eyeing him up down. She took note of his already beaten form, the multitude of injuries that would have caused any normal delinquent to pass out or cry out in pain, and the bags under his eyes. The kid was worn out. He was in no condition to be going anywhere if she was to be honest. He was better off passed out in the streets.
Yet she found herself grinning broadly as that heavily wounded spiky haired boy responded to her question with an unwavering and relentless stare. She couldn't help but feel a tingle crawl along her skin!
"I don't need to prove anything to you, but trust me when I say I mean to make those words a reality. So, either get out of my way, or give me a hand to stop any further innocent people from getting hurt."
The pink haired leather jacket female delinquent leaned her head down, her expression hidden from Touma. Her shoulders began to tremble slightly before a roar of laughter erupted from her lips. For a moment, she was afraid she couldn't breath. It took Touma back as he stared at the scar faced beauty who surprised him with a slap of her hand on his shoulder.
She looked at him, clearly amused with some tears in her eyes as she grinned.
"She was right, you are something. I would have thought you were just some moron spouting a bunch of crap from his whiny hole, but she said that you were worth your words. While I'm still not entirely certain, I must admit; your eyes do add some weight to your lip service. Guess I'll just have to see if you live up to your own boasts, Spiky-kun."
Gesturing her head to the back of the van, the pink haired thug spoke with a smug smirk as she turned back to the driver's door. By now, the rest of those gathered Skill-Out had begun to make their way into the Hoshi Nuclear Reactor in search of Komaba, leaving only herself and Touma in the bloodied streets.
"Get in the back, Spiky-kun. We'll take you to where all the true action is. That friend of mine that vouched for you said she has a pretty good idea to where you want to go, and I might as well do something besides following some punk who can't even respond back to a boy who could fall over at the slightest of push. If what you say is true, than it's only fair that a Level 0 settles the chaos of another Level 0, rather than higher leveled Esper."
Not waiting for a response from Touma, the pink cream haired female delinquent made her way into the driver's side, and shut car door, leaving the poorly confused teen boy. Touma scratched his cheek, turning his eyes to the back door of the armored van with knitted brows.
"She?"
Someone vouched for him? A complete stranger who said he meant every word he said without ever meeting him? He couldn't help but grow curious as he moved to get in the back.
"Zzzzzz..."
Meeting said mysterious stranger hadn't gone as he expected.
Touma wasn't sure how, but the girl who's head rested on his shoulders was able to sleep through the bumps rocking the back of the van designed to restrain Espers on their journey to the District 7. Even stranger was the fact the girl's eyes remained open even in her sleep, her vacant dark eyes staring at nothing as she snored lightly. Even as another bump in the road caused the inside of the armored van to bounce Touma's body up, causing his wounds to cry out, the sleeping, dull eyed girl didn't so much as blink in her sleep or react as her body bounced beside the boy she had never met.
Boing!
Twitch.
A light haze of red dusted Touma's twitching face as he couldn't help but notice the impressive bust of the older girl bounce with every motion. Seriously! The girl's jiggling capital D mounds were ruining the tense lead up to the final battle! This wasn't the time for such events!
The girl in question had dark blonde hair, braided like twin snakes overlapping the other to fall all the way down to her waist. Unlike the other delinquents, she didn't wear leather or her old school uniform. She instead wore a tight fitting black and gray windbreaker jacket with a figure tight pair of yoga pants along with bright yellow sneakers. Her eyes were a simple stony black, nearly dull as they continued to stare off in her sleep.
Touma hadn't gotten the girl's name when he had hopped in, having the door shut behind him with a click before the creamy pink haired leather jacket female delinquent drove off with the pedal to the metal. Once the stolen Anti-Skill van had hit the streets with a thunderous vroom, he had been knocked in and found himself slamming into the dozing girl who didn't make a sound when a strange spiky haired boy's face had rammed itself to her cushy chest. All she did was give a light snore.
The memory of such soft, bouncy, airbags meeting his face caused Touma's face to once again heat up. Well, at least she hadn't done the stereotypical beatdown like most girl's in her position would have. Though she hadn't given him a slap to his face, she hadn't really done anything at all. That was kinda bothersome. It was kinda like she wasn't even there.
A rough turn from the stolen vehicle brought a deep hiss to escape from Touma's dry lips. His entire body was a mess of various wounds he had accumulated through out his adventure in District 10; a simple poke at his body was enough to warrant a yelp of pain. He'd been beaten with knuckles, cut by knives, grazed by bullets, burned by explosions, shocked by stun weapons, lashed by chains, and even sliced by winds. All before lunch had even come to challenge his wallets ability to fed a monstrous nun's appetite.
That was one Kamijou Touma's life. Or, at least the current Kamijou Touma's life now. One full of misfortune at every turn. Despite wanting nothing more than your average normal high school life, he would seem to find himself heading off towards the greatest misfortune rearing its head close by. It had only been a few weeks since Touma had been 'born' and he was once again battered to such a degree that would have put any normal person to fall apart on their knees.
When Touma stopped to think about it; how did that Original Kamijou Touma withstand such ventures? Just how powerful and determined had that original boy been? Even now, Touma could feel his eyelids begin to weight down from the exhausting chain of events that have lead to his near death more times than he could count. Whatever drug he had been injected with to help him this far was beginning to lose its effect. At any moment, he felt he would lose the strength to continue on. Just one blink, and he would be out of the fight.
He couldn't help but grin bitterly, a bitter grin that spoke of unfair stroke of luck he had been left with.
Mila had said that all her wrath had been the fault of Academy City and its faceless figures, right?
Than, couldn't Touma himself say that his misfortune was the fault of that faceless hero who had abandoned him to live in his stead? That even Mila's suffering was the fault of that grand Level 0, who seemed capable of doing what he couldn't, who failed to hear her cries of help?
This entire situation; being powerless, having little funds to support himself and two nuns, the ever-present bad luck, the sense of wanting to save complete strangers to the lengths of putting his life on the line, the fake life and sense of right and wrong; wasn't that the fault of Kamijou Touma?
'GRRRRGGGGGWWWWWIIIIEEEEEEE!'
A terrible, ill yet relieving, shredding sensation ran through Touma's right arm. As if some unseen Thing was shaking and rattling from a cage it wanted to shatter. The drop in his mood, the slow realization that his terrible day, and days to come, were the fault of that Level 0 who abandoned him to take his cursed place, resonated with that terrifying sensation.
His weakened body, tired mentality, and drained stamina, caused that simple Level 0 to begin doubting his own wishes. Wishes he questioned; were truly his own to call his own, or just that ghost's ever demanding will. He couldn't help but silently ask, his teeth scrapping against another like grind stones, his fist trembling weakly;
'What. . .what can I call my own?'
". . .Kamijou-san?"
A voice, soft and lazy, speaking with what sounded with a yawn close behind her words, broke Touma's sullen thoughts. He looked to his right, finding those same stony onxy eyes now staring back at him with their head still resting on his shoulder. He couldn't help but grimace in guilt. Did she wake up because of his trembling? And yet, the bumps on the road didn't so much as get a frown of discomfort. What a weird girl.
"Ah, sorry if I woke you up, GoGa-chan."
The Snoring Girl didn't show any displeasure from the nickname of the stranger who didn't know her name. Strangely, a small, almost unnoticeable tug of her lips could be seen. As if she had already gotten use to the nickname from an old friend she hadn't seen in long time.
"It's. . .fine. I was just. . .taking a light nap. Are we almost. . .there yet?" she asked in sleepy tone. He couldn't tell if she was still tired or if that was just how she normally talked.
The mention of their destination to a girl who wished to topple Academy City caused Touma to scowl bitterly.
"No, not yet. I don't know when we'll get there honestly. Or how you girl's are able to pin point the location of Mila-san's rampage."
It wouldn't be long though. He could feel it, a chill in the air from even within the heavily armored vehicle designed to withstand attacks of Espers. Eventually he would have to confront that suffering girl and put an end to her delusions. Because that was what the lingering embers of Kamijou Touma pushed him to do. And to protect the smiles of those who continued to hold that Kamijou Touma in their hearts, he wouldn't fight the pulls and tugs of those embers with wills of their own.
That was just. . .his misfortune. That was what he, the current Kamijou Touma, could call his own.
". . .There's someone. . .who's in pain. . .right?"
Touma slightly jumped at the snoring girl's voice. Those dull dark eyes looked at him, searching through him almost knowingly. He turned his eyes away, nodding slightly as he thought to Mila.
Someone was in pain. And the Original Kamijou Touma's abandoned heart demanded him to save that girl.
"Why?"
"Hmm?"
"Why. . .are you going to save them? Why you?"
It was a child like question, full of an innocent curiosity as if she was asking why the sky was blue. And yet, it carried a heavy weight to Touma as his face grew conflicted. He fought the doubt with a simple smile, answering honestly. Just as the previous Kamijou Touma would.
"Because I can't stand to let that person suffer and ruin her life out of something as foolish as revenge. It just wouldn't sit right with me if I just stood aside and let her destroy herself. It would go against everything Kamijou Touma believed in to ignore her silent cry for help."
What Kamijou Touma believed was that no one should have to suffer and live without a smile on their face. Without even being told that, Touma had learned of that unmistakable thought process and belief when he had awoken to a silver haired holy Sister. That shaken, teary smile was all that he had needed to go by as to what the previous Kamijou had wanted from him. And he would live up to that will. . .because he honestly had no other idea what to do if he didn't.
That was just the sad, unfortunate truth.
". . .Does. . .it make you happy?"
. . .Happy?
He found himself turning back to face the sleepy faced blond braided girl, his face speaking of surprise and confusion. Her question was one that he found himself asking himself.
'Does. . .does following along to those embers of that Level 0. . .make me happy?'
Even though he found himself being beaten, left in the hospital, growing hungry at not being able to fully fill his stomach, never having enough money to pay for things he needed or wanted, and was labeled as One Without Power in a city that valued potential; was he happy?
'Touma!'
An elated, excited, voice full of joy happily cried out his name. The face of that silver haired Sister he now cared for in place of his previous self came to mind. A girl only two years younger than him who ate with the ferocity of a collapsing star, who acted like a brat, and bit him for the slightest misunderstanding. Someone who was more of a nuisance than a friend.
What was the answer to that innocent question, you may ask? That simple answer laid in the boy's expression.
A warm smile grew on Touma's bruised, blood dried, faced as his vision grew misty.
That sense of happiness, of warmth, was something that he could call his own, right? Though the previous Kamijou had most likely felt the same way; this emotion was his own to call and treasure, right? And everything else he had felt after every fight, the sense of relief and happiness born from saving the smile of some complete stranger; that was undoubtedly in his own right, as a human being, to claim his own? Even if he was simply a husk living this life on a borrowed heart.
"Yeah, it does."
It belonged to Him. Not the previous him, but Him.
The shaking stopped. His clenched fist relaxed.
The uneasy presence in his right arm melted away as Touma breathed deeply, thankful that his brooding had been thrown away. What was up with him anyway? It wasn't like him to give in to despair. He scratched the back of his spiky head with embarrassment. He must have been really exhausted from his stay in District 10 to be questioning why he was going to save someone.
The reasons didn't matter. It just felt like the normal thing to do. Whether that was because of the previous Kamijou Touma or not, as long as he could honestly say that the end result of what he did made him happy, Touma would continue to do whatever he believed was right.
Because that decision was what he could honestly call his own.
The sleepy faced girl made a sound of amusement, seeming to be happy with his own honest answer. Uncertainty no longer painted that spiky boy's face, only a firm resolve. And she was pleased to see that.
It wouldn't do to see the man who had made her father who he was in the future, with such a pained expression on his face.
"Thank you, GoGa-san."
". . .Zzzzz."
"You're asleep again, aren't you?" Touma said exasperated, his words of thanks to the dozing stranger going on deaf ears as he dropped his head, "Couldn't you have at least told me your name?"
Another bump in the road rocked those inside of the back of the Anti-Skill van as they came closer to their target. And in that rattling metal van, he could have sworn he heard a light mutter.
". . .Hirunehime."
The path to happiness had to be obtained with one's own hands. Not through the hands of others, not with the aid of strangers, and not on the prayers of faith. No, to obtain one's happiness, ones wishes and desires, one had to grab a hold of them with their own hands. Mila realized that now.
Mila should have made those faceless figure heads, who judged and labeled her worth to the world, recognize her potential. Even though she remained stagnant at Level 0 for so many years despite all her hard work, she should have gone about discovering ways to threaten, blackmail, force those up top to show her parents that she was worth enough to be loved. Instead, she had sulked and given them silent scorn. She had wished for power, when instead she should have gone out to find it. It didn't matter where she would find it, from the underbelly of Academy City's Darkness, through the gangs who also loathed their status and regularly caused the city trouble, or through the lowly whispered occult that went against what the city of science taught them to believe; she would take the power to make those who turned her into a worthless symbol among zeroes.
But Mila knew better now. She truly did. It was why she had gone along with her new friend's plans after he had gotten her to open up to him in less than an hour. He had promised her power, the ability to prove to those faceless researchers that she wasn't as weak as they stated. All she had to do was take it for herself.
It was as if a spark of Rebellion had been ignited in her heart from that boy's words.
"Take cover! All those who can still stand, form a barricade and aid the students to a safe z-AAAAGGGHHHH!"
The streets of District 7, a district that was primarily designed for middle and high school institutions along with their dorms, were in flames. The heat of the destruction created heat lines, seeming to warp the very area with odd flickers of overlapping outlines. The chaos wrought by the hacked autonomous robots that were programmed to care for the students lives were once again engulfed by fighting. But unlike last time it wasn't a small army of machines.
It was one girl responsible for all the destruction.
From the street underneath their feet, Yomikawa watched as the asphalt rose up by the command of a Judgment member with the ability to control and mold earthly materials and form a wide wall of durable stone like a curved crescent. The newly made barricade stood ten feet tall, towering over them with a shadow that hide them from what laid behind.
Yomikawa rose her riot shield up alongside other remaining Anti-Skill officers in the shadow of the stone wall. Several students, Levels 0-3 stood behind them, huddled together in the wake of the monster that attacked them in the lull of violence from earlier. They all knew despite the asphalt wall that stretched a great deal to protect from any attack from the front, that it was pointless.
Cracks couldn't be seen. For the force that completely demolished the street wall created by a Level 3 Terrakinesis resembled a flashing light of obliteration. Even the riot shield created to withstand Level 3 and possibly Level 4 abilities shattered as all those behind the barricade were swept back by the crashing ability.
It had taken all of Yomikawa's remaining strength to remain standing in the wake of whatever ability reduced their defenses to nothing. She panted with sweat trickling down her face, blood trailing down her forehead from a piece of rubble that struck. Her Anti-Skill uniform and armor was butchered, torn apart in various places. The riot shield in her hand had been reduced to a small shoe box sized piece of tempered protection held by the handle.
'What the hell is she?! How could she posses such firepower? It's almost as if she's fighting with the ability of a Level 5! Just where did a monster like her pop out from?'
A cloud of rubble lingered in the open streets that spoke of countless attacks of varying abilities. Fire cackled, sparks zipped along metal surfaces, ice melted under the sun, and pillars of stone cracked. It was almost as if an army of Espers had gathered for some kind of retaliation against the city.
But no, it was all caused by one student. One who walked alone with a sinister aura.
As the dirt cloud settled, Yomikawa warily watched the girl slowly walk closer to them.
The girl appeared to be sixteen, her platinum hair reached to her waist with drill tips that fell to the sides of her face. She could be mistaken for a foreigner with her features that were nothing like ones born in Japan. But that was were her human resemblance stopped.
What could only be described as a mass of torrential magenta energy flooded from the foreign girl's back in the form of countless ribbon like wings that touched the skies above. An odd substance, a deep seeping purple formed around the girl's arms like a membrane to form a set of thin yet powerful lanky clawed arms. The girl's wide eyes were absolutely glowing with red gleam of raging hatred for all things in her line of sight with an inhuman creeping grin on her face. And even more strange was the odd segments of lines circling her head, almost resembling a halo of sorts.
Yomikawa absolutely hated to think it, but the girl didn't even resemble a human any more. Her appearance was nothing short of demonic.
The Anti-Skill officers that joined her to protect the students not capable of fighting, alongside the members of Judgment, were still trying to regain their footing and stand back up from the devastating attack as she alone stood in the way of that demonic Esper girl.
A lip stretching grin grew in the face of seeing the blue haired woman still standing in Mila's way. All others had fell, but this one woman stood tall with a firm, stern glare of an adult. It was amusing.
"Oh! So, despite being One Without Power, you go against your label and still stand? My, my, aren't you a tough little officer?" Mila coed sweetly as she swept her right arm to the far side.
A single finger was laid out. From that skinny, twisted finger tip, a roaring clump of tangled sizzling deep orange-red flames grew at double her height. At the summoning of cruel flames, those mass of wings on her back released a faint pulse of bright red as it was fed the calculations of countless Espers who specialized in Pyrokinesis from Levels 1-4.
Among those students and even Judgment members in her line of sight, two of them suddenly doubled over in excruciating pain. They screamed as they felt a terrible splitting headache from deep their minds, as if an invading bug had wormed itself in their brains before clamping down its greedy fangs into the folds of their thoughts. They grew silent, their eyes dulling with an empty gaze as they hit the ground without another word.
A devious smile greeted Yomikawa and the few members of Anti-Skill and Judgment rose back up.
"Tell me, officer; Where is the quickest way to the Windowless Building? I think I might be a little lost. Won't you help this poor lost child on her way?"
A mad giggle followed the clump of unstable flames that was launched at Yomikawa and the rest. It sped with a growing vicious bright yellow light that scorched the battered road below it in its path. Yomikawa grit her teeth, knowing she lacked any ability to possibly defend against such a sure kill move. She was a Level 0 after all.
"Get down, Officer-san!"
The shout and instincts warned Yomikawa to duck down as a platinum blur sped overhead. She watched with a baited breath as a student, not a Judgment member, flew off her feet with a coat of green sparks running along her body towards the mass of blazing fire. She moved to stop the female student, to tell her to turn back and run away with the rest of the students, but found her words falling silent.
Why?
Because she just witnessed the platinum, ringlet haired student in rich Tokiwadai uniform clench her fist and completely snuff out the racing blaze with a mighty punch. The force that impacted against the blaze was enough to create a buffet of wind to blow past the girl and slightly push those Anti-Skill officers and fellow students back on their feet.
Even Mila found herself stunned by the display of superhuman strength by an Ojou-sama. It was true those who attended Tokiwadai Middle all possessed abilities that were at least Level 3, but it was hard to believe such a dainty girl of such high class status could perform such a brutal blow. Mila furrowed her brow, her mind searching for how the platinum haired girl could do such a thing.
Level Eater had done its job, and so had those tools known as Skill-Out. The final phase of the operation was underway now that her mind had linked with all those Espers in Academy City. She was the Administrator of The Level Eater Network, having free control of the amassed computation power of 2.3 billion students and their abilities. It could be said she was now a physical human representation of the Bank, the share of all the recorded abilities in Academy City.
You could no longer label her with the title of One Without Power; Level 0. She was beyond such an insult. She was a walking mass of combined AIM that could replicate any Ability connected to The Level Eater Network. Her calculating ability was something that even Level 5s would balk at, she was sure of it.
At the moment, she was the closest student in Academy City to ever see the line breaking through human boundaries into the realm of the divine.
She was the one with the truest potential of reaching SYSTEM; Level 6.
Several pulses lite up the AIM wings stretching from her back to the skies of Academy City, but yet she could not find what she was searching for. Mila scowled in displeasure. True, she now possessed the ability to replicate and even Level Up whatever ability connected to the The Level Eater Network, but it had only just awoken. It would take time until she could gain complete and refined control of her mass of abilities. Right now, searching for such a unique ability was like looking for a rare coin in a pool of coins.
No matter, all Mila had to do was just rid the girl in her way. She had all the firepower and ability to do such now.
"You know, I truly mean you all no harm. I swear. If you all just moved out of my way, you would live a lot longer. I have no business with Espers and Level 0s; my sights are locked onto the one who stands above all others." Mila spat as she stretched three of her right hands fingers out.
Another mass of raging flames was summoned, this time alongside a lump of crashing waves and sparking electricity. It was a Multi-Skill ability, something only ever done by the creator of the base of Level Eater; Harumi Kiyama. A feat that was all but impossible by any student, no matter their Level.
Hokaze Junko, the platinum purple ringlet haired girl who blasted the previous blast away with a punch, stood her ground in the face of such an impossible skill. A sheen of sparks from her Rampage Dress popped around her right fist, the very fist that had met against the twisting flames that melted the streets like butter.
To those who had never seen or heard of her unique ability, Rampage Dress; Heavenly Garment Equipping, was an ability that allowed her to manipulate the electrical signals in her body's cells for a variety of feats comparable to super humans. It allowed her to increase her strength, her speed, her senses, and even regenerate.
The superhuman punch was due to her manipulating her arms muscles to deliver a monstrous blow while simultaneously speeding up her bodies cells to regenerate the burned skin.
Of those students who were monitored to posses the potential to reach Level 5 next, Hokaze Junko was one of them.
It was that Level 5 candidate that now stood in Mila's way with several pops of electrical sparks running rampant on her body's figure. Junko met Mila's displeased stare with an adamant glare.
"You mean to harm more in your rampage, do you not? Such behavior is very unladylike for someone of your power. Do you not care for the lives you trample on in your reckless walk?" Junko questioned with a disapproving frown.
Mila nearly erupted with laughter at the ringlet girl. Was she an honest to god Ojou-sama? She thought that was just a stereotype!
"I thought I told you to get lost, Ojou-san! But if you really want to be an eyesore, than I'll help by turning you into a disgusting smear on the bloody streets!" Mila roared gleefully before aiming her elemental orbs at the Rampage Dress girl.
At the sidelines of the two powerful Espers, Yomikawa had already used the momentary distraction to help the few officers and the two collapsed students away from the line of fire. She didn't like the idea of any child being dragged in adult matters like this, but she needed to make sure no others were hurt either. She went back to pulling the ringlet haired girl away from the dangerous Esper of unknown Level once the heavily wounded were out of the way, only for her eyes to grow wide as a ball of rushing water appeared in her line of sight.
Junko's face was frozen stiff, having witnessed the orb of water double the size of the foreign girl blink out of thin air. Against what scientific laws she had learned of Esper powers, she had witnessed another Multi-Skill.
Teleportation+Hydrokinesis.
"Bye, bye, Officer-san~!"
One might say; How could a ball of water ever pose any kind of harm? After all, all it would do is get one wet and soak their clothing. How could you ever get hurt by water being thrown at your face?
Well, water carries weight. Imagine a water jug commonly found in an office to dispense water. If one were to pick up, how much would it weigh? 41.7 pounds. Now, imagine all that weight smacking into your face. It would be enough to smack a grown man off his feet with a broken nose.
Now, imagine that at twice the size of a teenage girl in the form of a ballistic ball. Such a blow would no doubt be fatal.
More than a hundred pounds of blunt aqua death shot at Yomikawa. She immediately acted to defend with her riot shield, only to curse loudly as she only found small remnant attached to the handle of the shield. She couldn't even dodge at such distance.
It was over.
"Wannai!"
"On it!"
Before that mallet of a water ball could crash into the blue haired female officer, it was suddenly broken apart into clumps of water that swam around Yomikawa. She stared at the dispersed attack with confusion until she found two girls step by both of her sides.
Both girls were of Tokiwadai, wearing the standard tan vests and skirts. One had wavy light brown hair with a pretty face that also spoke of gentleness. The other had dark bluish hair that went down to her waist with matching eyes and soft features that equaled her friend's air of kindness.
Junko recognized the two girls from school, and as the two friends of a rising Level 4 Aero Hand user.
"Wannai-san, Awatsuki-san?!" she shouted in shock before finding herself on the receiving end of two cannon shots of fire and electricity by the magenta demon girl. She activated her Rampage Dress, using her increase in speed to dodge both attacks as they crashed into an abandoned bank close by with explosive booms.
They were still here? She would have thought they had left with the other Tokiwadai girls that had strolled out for lunch before the first attack by the malfunctioning bots. She knew for a fact she had sent the other girls that were part of her Queen's clique to leave and inform her of the sudden attack.
Mila noticed the two girls who seemed to want to join in on the fun. She grinned, sending a pulse of red up the network of AIM she was connected to to disable them.
The Level Eater Network actively ran and devoured the Levels and Abilities of all the students who had heard her little song. Thanks to the Skill-Outs she had under her thumb, she now had several Radio Towers in the form of obelisk's created by Arden to send her song to ever piece of hardware in the city. Her MELODY should have been heard by everyone. There was nothing more infections to act as a virus than song after all.
And when Mila searched the network for an ability to use, she connected with those countless Espers minds. Sadly for those students, it created a backlash to them that rendered them unconscious and fall into a coma. All she needed to do was search for Hydrokinesis and both girls would be out of the fight!
. . . .Nothing.
Now Mila was growing frustrated. Her all powerful network and power couldn't even lock on to their ability. It seems they were another case of unique abilities. Simple powers like elemental kinesis, she could take with ease. But the more complicated ones were still just out of her reach at the moment. The best she could do was do a random search and get lucky enough to knock one of them out, like a game of Russian Roulette.
No matter, it was much more fun to take her ever expanding abilities out for a spin.
"The is your last warning, ladies. Get. Out. Of. My. WAY!"
Mila tapped the ground once. A tremor expanded to shake the entire street before small fissures ran along the road like scars. The warning should have been enough to send even grown men running in fear of a child.
And yet, despite how nervous the Tokiwadai girls appeared, their faces glistening with an anxious sweat of the monstrous aura she gave off, they stood rooted in place.
"I don't know what you're planning, but whatever it is, it would mean the harm of others. I can already guess that everything that's happened so far has been the cause of you." Junko said firmly as she squared her shoulders.
Several students and adults had been harmed by the riot of robots. Even a few of her own clique had been taken away due to injuries that would leave scars. And when the violence had ended, a new threat had shown up to take its place. The two couldn't have been unrelated.
Junko had every right to leave, to seek safety as any school girl would do. But in the face of the cause of all that pain and hysteria that threatened many others, she found her feet couldn't move back. Only forward.
Wannai and Awatsuki were in the same boat. Their friends had been harmed, the adults who acted as their shields were badly wounded, and a person who acted so noble, the picture of an Ojou-san, stood to fight of some threat for their safety by herself. For reasons they couldn't explain, they gulped anxiously and moved to stand beside Junko with nervous fists.
There was no shame in running. But their was no pride in leaving a fellow student behind.
"If you wish to hurt others for some pointless purpose, than we have no other option than to stop you! No matter how strong you are, we'll take you down with everything we have! For anyone who means to relish the destruction of all that lays in their path and harm students is an enemy of Tokiwadai!"
Those three Espers of a the famous Tokiwadai Middle stood together in the face of a great threat with brave faces. And they would fight with their all to protect those around them.
"Boring~!"
A bolt. A bolt of reddish black tinted lightning stroke down from the skies like a fanged cobra. In a single moment, that very vile bolt of electricity called down from the torrent of wings annihilated the three girls in a flash of white before Yomikawa's very eyes.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Eyes stricken with tears, she could only watch as that lightning bolt obliterated the street and vaporized everything into not even dust. Yomikawa's legs went to jelly, causing her to nearly stumble back. She watched those brave girls stand up to that demonic girl while the adults could only watch. Their job was to protect and for the kids to stand back; not the other way around.
As an adult, she failed. Utterly, absolutely, completely, failed.
"T-That. . .was a close one!"
Yomikawa's heart nearly leaped out of her chest. In blitz of sparks, she found the ringlet haired girl appearing in front of her with the other two Tokiwadai ladies in her arms. Junko's entire body was like a haywire of circuits, popping with bio-electricity that went to work on healing the heavy damage of the lightning bolt.
At the very last second, she had utilized her Rampage Dress's abilities to its limits. Not only did she dodge a strike of lightning, but also pulled both Wannai and Awatsuki out. Though it was a hair's breath away and still suffered a few shocks that should have left her skin a charred mess.
Wannai and Awatsuki were barely awake. Like her, they had suffered some damage along with whiplash from her superhuman maneuver. Despite being Espers, they were still human. Their bodies weren't meant to be moved at the speed they were pulled from.
Yomikawa breathed a shuttered breath of relief. She wasn't sure if there was a god, not with everything Academy City had taught her, but if there was; Thank god they were safe.
"Do you understand now? How pointless it is to put on a brave face and play hero? That I can in any moment utterly decimate everyone here? If not, how about another demonstration?"
The students and officers watched as Mila lifted her hand up high above her head, aiming one finger up at the gathered mass of AIM wings connected to her. Than they witnessed another impossible feat.
It wasn't just flames she summoned, but a gathering of elements. Balls of fire that ranged in hues of temperature, chunks of ice swimming in waves of water, bolts of lightning striking the ground like fevered hammers all around her, columns of earth born from nothing along with crystals and metals. A gathering of elements controlled by kinesis, a show of earthly forces manipulated by one girl was as displayed to them.
All at the tip of her finger.
'Is this. . .still too much?'
Mila was thankful for the attentive stare at her performance. Otherwise they would have seen the chink in her armor.
Her forehead pulsed visibly from the strain of such an act. Small trickle of blood seeped from her nose. And her vision grew blurry.
At the same time, she could hear them. All the voices connected to The Level Eater Network.
Arrogant, nervous, pleading, sorrowful, prideful, sadistic, weak, powerful, hopeful; all manner of voices shouted in her hammering head. The voices of all those she used spoke to her and relieved all their stress, wishes, fears, and expectations to her to the point she nearly blacked out.
But Mila fought back against the tremendous strain with a vain grin.
It didn't matter. Whatever pain or suffering she was delivered for this mass of power didn't matter a damn to her. Even if it meant she was destroyed from the inside out, it didn't matter. Not as long as she could achieve her goal before than.
Balling her fist, Mila compressed all those elements of nature into a hovering star of bright light. Like a small miniature star overhead, she held it like a hammer, ready to smash those who stood in the way of her most cherished wish.
Yomikawa knew that this was it. From what she could see of the platinum haired ringlet girl, she was still recovering from that one amazing feat. The others of her group were still out of breath and injured. She was the only one who stood in the way of destruction with the ability to run away.
"Get behind me, NOW!"
Her shout held no room for protest. Even though Junko was a Level 4, a possible Level 5, she was still a child. And when adults spoke in that tone, their was no arguing.
Yomikawa smiled gratefully to the girl and the others who now huddled behind her back. She was the only one could properly stand, the only not wounded or exhausted to a crippling degree, the only who could do anything.
She could run. Save herself and live another day. She was only in her late twenties for god's sake! She hadn't even married yet. She still had a bright future ahead of her. She could save more lives by living. She could give birth to more lives to replace the ones she failed to protect. She could prevent something like this from ever happening again.
But she could never take back the regret or shame she would live with by doing so. Nor could she ever smile again.
She gave those behind her a bright smile, one free of any worry or fear. That was a lie. She was very much afraid of what was to come. She had very little doubt she could stop it. But she had a way of living, to make those she protected smile back.
In their final moments, she would make sure they went away with ease and smiles. That was the least this failed adult could do. Even in death, she would go out as a shield, however flimsy it may be.
"It's okay, everything's going to be alright. I promise, I'll protect you. Alright?"
Such an honest and pure assurance was enough for those young students to smile back hopefully. Those adults who had failed as she did responded back with solemn smiles, understanding what was to come as they hugged those children close. Junko understood as well, shutting her eyes as she hugged Wannai and Awatsuki with a few tears slipping out.
A bright light shone down and blocked out all shadows in the face of that great hammer of elements ready to decimate everything in sight. Mila raised the almighty gathering of compressed powers higher, ignoring the streak of blood now spilling out of her mouth..
Was this hopeless situation her fault? Were these innocent lives about to perish on her? No, it was all the fault of Academy City and its system. These very events were to blame on those who created her. Yes, she was a monster, a demon, another creation of Academy City.
She shouldn't have felt an ache in her chest at those poor souls as she slammed the great ball of destruction onto them like a nail.
"OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The uproarious shout came from out of nowhere. Through the empty streets that were left abandoned by the fleeing citizens, a single figure could be seen running with all their strength to make it in time of the falling mini sun of fused elements. Yomikawa and the rest couldn't make out the stranger, only the stretching shadow born by his body appearing in front of them all. She tried to get a look of the brain dead idiot who thought he could do anything but throw his own life to the already doomed, but could only make out a head of spikes before Mila's attack crushed them all in a detonating blast that would wipe away a good chunk of District 7.
Shattering glass could be heard instead of the sounds of destruction. An overbearing pressure was exerted below those beneath the hammer of energy like a force of gravity. The street below their feet quivered and cracked. A sweltering heat tanned their skins from the great blinding light of destruction that eagerly wished to smash into them.
Yet it could not. Not when it couldn't so much as break the right hand keeping it at bay.
Fighting the blinding light, Yomikawa finally recognized the head of spiky hair she had seen countless times back at A Certain High School. Her mouth fell open, lips quivering as she watched that spiky haired boy from Komoe's class stand in the way of the massive ball of elements with only his right hand.
"K-Kamijou!?"
Touma didn't have time to respond back in kind. He was far too busy holding up the crushing ability with only his right hand supported by his left. A series of shattering breaks could be heard continuously negating the attack, seeming to have enough power to keep up with the mysterious power of Imagine Breaker.
But all things that did not belong in this world would eventually be destroyed by that right hand of his.
It was as if it had never even been created. With one last otherworldly whine and sound of shattering glass, the Omni Ball was negated. Smoke lingered from his right palm as Touma flexed the creaking fingers with a wince. That was a first. To think there were things powerful enough to withstand Imagine Breaker's nullifying force. It almost felt like his hand would have broken at moment from the strain of such heavy and condensed power.
Waving his still aching hand around, Touma glanced at the girl responsible for the further destruction of a district. His stern eyes met Mila's pale white face. She was stunned to the core to see him.
"You're alive?" Mila whispered lowly.
That should not have been impossible! The last attack she had thrown at him below the Hoshi Reactor was the gathered and condensed collective of AIM of 2.3 billion Espers! Or at least close to that as she had just connected to the network. Either way, it should have snuffed him out along with the others.
Was this an illusion? Was the shirtless boy with spiky hair and the strange right hand nothing more than a figment of her imagination created by the back lash of commanding a city's worth of minds? It had to be, nothing else could explain some plain old high school boy standing in front of her despite facing a collective blast of countless AIM signatures.
Just to be sure, Mila summoned a spark on her left finger. She aimed it at the sweating, blood and dirt caked, injured boy who could only pant from running who knows how far. A zapping streak of azure electricity shot forward like a lance.
Despite how tired he was, how worn out his body had become, Touma none the less faced the palm of his right hand at the streaking lance of pure electricity born out of a supernatural phenomenon.
All those watching the back of that spiky haired boy who came out of nowhere to their rescue bore witness to another impossibility. The lightning lance struck his hand and disappeared with the sound of shattering glass and an otherworldly whine. It was as if it was never even there.
It was there again. That unknown sense of fear in Mila's heart. Only for some reason it was much more powerful and profound. Her body which had absorbed the collected AIM of the city's students was hit by a primal sense of anxiety and terror of that right hand. Against her better judgment, she found her feet taking a step back as Touma tightly balled his fist.
One might say it was a miracle that he had made it in time to save those cowering behind him from the out of control girl. Touma wasn't sure if he could admit to that, but for once, he had found a small grain of luck in the form of the mysterious girl, Hirunehime. Somehow, she had been able to keep track of where Mila had been going; she must have been an Esper, it was the only explanation to the accurate directions she begun to fire off over the hidden mic she kept in her windbreaker. As they made their way towards Mila, Hirunehime had suddenly alerted him to the sign of a great gathering of AIM that was being used for an attack against a group of students and Anti-Skill.
The way she had described what was about to happen had cemented the thought that Hirunehime was an Esper, one that seemed to be able to track AIM. He didn't question it at the time, focusing on kicking the Anti-Skill van's doors open as they nearly reached Mila.
Every muscle in his body had gone above its call of duty to carry that boy's already battered body to the sight of several students and officers in the bask of a deadly miniature sun of elements. All he needed to then was simple reach his right hand out to that city block decimating blast.
Right fist clenched, Touma threw it down to the side with a barking shout.
"THAT'S ENOUGH, MILA! THIS WISH, THIS DREAM, THIS DESIRE FOR REVENGE AGAINST THIS CITY; IT'S OVER! I'M PUTTING AN END TO THIS NONSENSE, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOOOOOOOWWWWWW!"
The death, the blood, the destruction, the fear, the hopelessness; it had to stop! No more, no more was he going to allow another second of this disillusioned girl's twisted wish to go on.
Countless students were in pain because of what had become of Mila. The Level Eater Network born of a ghoulish machine was going to be shutdown. And he was going to make that stupid girl realize just how wrong her desires were.
He didn't care about the innumerable wings of AIM that stretched from her back, of the odd magenta aura that she seemed to be made of, of the claws, red burning eyes, and distorted halo that spun above her head. He didn't see a demon born of energies of Espers.
Touma could only see Mila, a girl who's cries had been ignored for far too long.
"I'm going to stop you. And you can bet your ass that I'm going to save your from drowning any further in your despair. So, stand still and wait for me to drag you out of your own hell!"
Mila blinked. Did that idiot just say he was going to save her?
"PFFFTTTT, WHAT BULLSHIT!"
Mila laughed before swiping her left arm at the charging spiky haired boy. A great fanning wall of flames flew to turn him to cinders from her outstretched fingers. The Espers with Pyrokinesis calculated the strength, width, and range of the fires to make it so that not even drifting ember would remain.
Touma could already feel his body sweat as he leaped at the flames. With a thrust of his right hand though, not even the flames that would rival a Level 4 in the field of Pyrokinesis could fight back. Shattering the flames, he reached Mila's personal space, pulled his right arm back, and threw in his weight for the punch.
Mila grit her teeth at the approaching fist. Once again, that sense of fear struck at the sight of that right fist. Already she began to formulate a counter to that fist. He could negate her elemental attacks, so what about something completely different? After all, it wouldn't be possible that he could simply negate all her powers.
The countless minds she was linked to sorted through the many abilities she could now perform. She found one should allow her to protect her from that flying fist. To the unseen eye, the skin cells on her face began to harden to resemble scales, like a fleshy chain mail had formed over her features. The ability allowed her free control of the skin cells over her body. She could harden them, regenerate them, and even change the pigment.
So, that odd fist was about to smack into the face of what could be comparable to steel as thick as a tree trunk.
And yet, that fist plowed right through the sturdy human scales without so much as a struggle. Mila's eyes flew open wide as she felt the knuckles of the boy send her flying along with the gathered wings of AIM that allowed her to perform calculations on the scale of a god.
The Level Eater Network glitched, the contact with that hand somehow cutting her off from performing anymore abilities. Within several seconds, Mila found the AIM she had stolen and taken into her body had been erased completely. She found herself in her old clothing without the veil of AIM. It was like a bucket of arctic cold water had been dumped onto her.
And then the connection came back with snap.
The rush of countless minds speaking up all at once hit Mila's mind. Her hand flew to her mouth, stopping her from retching as a nauseating vertigo took her back. Her eyes nearly rolled back, blood seeped from left eye. Even as she felt her body regain the form she had taken and the wings once again spewed from her back, she still felt her body reeling from the whiplash of returning power nearly topple her.
"DON'T YOU DARE FUCKING TOUCH ME AGAIN!"
That fear was well placed. Screeching at the top of her lungs in rage, Mila kicked off the street with the boost of an ability that increased the muscles in her legs. At the same time her demon like claws of AIM stretched and curved like crescent blades as she swung them for Touma's head for a cleaving slash. The claws grew an intense eye blinding white with the combination of a heat raising ability for an added cruelty.
Touma timed the charged and met those metal melting claws with straight punch. The contact with his Imagine Breaker reduced Mila's claws back to her dainty human hands. Mila's face twisted as she felt his fist not only drive her back but once again cut her connection to The Level Eater Network off. A left knuckle pushed her back and left a bruise on her lower jaw. Her entire flicked from her body of AIM to her Level 0 state like an interrupted radio signal.
Before another punch could be thrown her way, Mila teleported back to her original spot. Her face was twisted with rage and disbelief as she threw both her arms up. From all around her, the rubble of the day's chaos gathered above her and flew in the air like drifting wood on an ocean's bed.
Flames, ice, and electricity coated each newborn piece of street meteors. Mila grinned sadistically at the faces of fear from those still gathered behind that simple boy. So, straight forward attacks weren't working. And that right hand had the power to cancel out her abilities, something she still couldn't comprehend with even the absorbed AIM fields of nearly 2.3 billion students. But as before, she knew how to deal with that.
"Everyone, get back and head for safety!"
Yelling at the people behind him to move out of the way, Touma ran forward to lock those elemental meteors onto him. The others couldn't be dragged into his problems. If someone was to be hurt by that sadistic girl, it would be him!
"Terrakinesis+Cryokinesis+Pyrokinesis+Electrokinesis!"
Those meteors of fire, ice, and electricity zoned in on the charging spiky haired boy. Like a shotgun shell, the were fired in a scatter shot burst for wider range. Touma stopped as the elemental coated rocks were fired all around him with one of chilling rubble headed straight for him. He didn't have time to think of anything better to do than fire his own fist at the approaching meteor.
Like fireworks those balls of rubble created by a combination of elemental telekinesis went off in colorful detonations that swallowed the street in waves of flames, water currents, tendrils of electricity, and an uproar of earth.
Mila grinned as she had seen Touma's sihouette swallowed in the flash of the explosions. Even with that strange right hand, even he couldn't have blocked such a field consuming attack!
She couldn't help but wonder if even a scrap of that annoying Level 0 was left behind. She swept her arm at the wafting smoke of the explosions to clear it away with a gust of wind.
Her grin fell at what she found instead of a burnt red smear.
A battered knuckle obscured her vision the moment the cloud of smoke was cleared to send her flying off her feet.
"FFFFUUUUCCCKKK!"
Mila's body bounced along the street for several feet before regaining access to The Level Eater Network. Rising with the help of her AIM wings, she shot a furious glare at the should be dead high school boy before a burp of blood rose from her throat. And at the bitch standing beside him.
"Thank's. . .uhh. . ."
"Hokaze, you can call me Hokaze."
Next to Touma's side was the purple platinum haired ojou-sama. It took Mila a second to realize what had happened as she connected the dots.
Seeing the imminent danger, that girl, Hokaze, had leaped to the rescue with the help of her ability. Within the time span of the launched elemental rubble and the detonation, she had grabbed hold of Touma and pulled him out the line of fire in the blink of an eye. And as Mila had cleared the smoke, she had helped to send that boy flying at her like a javelin.
More and more annoyances, obstacles, stood in her way. Those who wished to stand in the way of her most cherished wish continued to deny her; just like those faceless figures who denied her any worth.
A pulsing headache split Mila's head, enough to cause a frustrated cry to leave her lips. Those voices of the students who's abilities she had devoured began to scream at her like hollering monkeys.
'Why can't I become anything more than a Level 0?'
'Level 1? Is that all I can achieve after all these years?'
'Just one more session! One more, and I'll finally gain an ability like the rest of them! I. . .I have to!'
'As a Level 4, those lower than me should recognize just how great I am! They should bow before their greater!'
'Losers, the lot of them. Anyone who can't so much as break the border of Level 0 are nothing but trash.'
'Am I really fine with Level 3? Can't I do better?'
'If I just continue to play along to that idiot's belief that I'm his friend, I can get all I need from him to improve my Level! What a dumbass!'
'It's useless I'm. . .worthless.'
Those poisonous thoughts drilled themselves into her head with a monstrous fever. She nearly doubled over as she lost hearing in her left ear and sight in both her eyes. A problem that was easily rectified with a stolen Espers regenerative ability.
'So far. . .that's almost 2 billion.'
In truth, she didn't have complete control of all 2.3 billion AIM fields. She was steadily absorbing them with every minute. And it wouldn't be long until she had them all in the palm of her hands. Once she had them all, all that would remain would be a measly seven students.
The Level 5s. She knew without a doubt that once she consumed the AIM fields of those monstrous Espers, their would be nothing stopping her.
Until than, she couldn't fall to the strain of not even 2.3 billion.
Reacting to her emotions, the swarm of wings from her back wriggled madly and bent from the sky to stab down around Mila's position like spears to the earth. She smiled madly, the pain coursing through her body affecting her own mental condition as she began to giggle. The whites of her eyes grew a jaundice yellow along with several rings forming around her iris in colors of green and purple. The membrane of AIM stretched from her arms to being consuming the rest of her body in a similar form as the Level Eater machine.
Mila's platinum locks were now a deep, seeping magenta that wriggled behind her like tentacles. The broken halo shattered to pieces, its remnants forming onto her forehead like horns. She was becoming less angelic and completely demonic.
It was as if she was transforming into a humanoid AIM Burst. The grin on her no longer resembled a humans but that of an otherworldly beast.
"I WON'T LET ANYONE GET IN THE WAY OF MY DREAMS ANYMORE! DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, PLEASE JUST DDDDDIIIIIIIEEEEE!"
A cry fueled of both rage and despair was let loose from Mila's lips as she accessed the ability to enhance the volume and strength of her voice to create a rippling shock wave powerful enough to break apart the road underneath her feet.
Touma shot his right hand out while enduring the sharp pain in his ears from the sound wave blasting their way. He was able to shatter the sound wave and protect Junko from the attack.
"Mental Shutdown!"
Without warning, Imagine Breaker alerted to a negation Touma couldn't even see. An odd tickle in the back of his head told him what it could have been.
A mental attack. Too bad for her. Imagine Breaker held a passive ability to reject such abilities. Hearing it negated though told him how powerful it must have been.
Not even mental abilities worked? Mila's ever-growing rage was reaching an erupting point. The AIM wings stabbed into the ground wriggled, signaling an action. The streets trembled with quakes before lancing tendrils pierced up to rush forward at the spiky haired boy. At the same time, Mila teleported out of sight.
Touma kept his right hand forward, intercepting the trail of rushing AIM spikes. His senses blared, warning him of an incoming attack. His head swiveled, searching for the unknown attack from the girl capable of just about any Esper ability.
"BE CRUSHED!"
From thin air, Mila appeared a few spaces from Touma and Hokaze. She grinned maliciously, effortlessly levitating a small red car in her hand before throwing it forward.
The attack wasn't one of supernatural phenomenon. It was simply being manipulated by it. Could that boy's odd right hand block more than 4,000 pounds of steel as easily as a massive bomb of elements? Well they were about to find out!
"Telekinesis+Velocity Manipulation+Impact Multiplier!"
A sparking platinum blur of emerald sparks shot past Touma's side before he could properly react to the deadly attack Imagine Breaker couldn't possibly guard. Junko's right fist took his place in meeting with that colliding force with an equal sonic boom. Empowered by her ability to increase her cells abilities to grant her arm's muscles superhuman strength, she crushed the hood of the car and sent it flying back like a crumbled cannon ball.
Mila clicked her tongue in annoyance as she teleported out of the way her own attack sent back at her. That little bitch! She wasn't involved in this and yet she was butting her head into their business?!
"Sense Cutter+Emote Toggler: Anxiety Up!"
Utilizing her ability to teleport, Mila flickered out of sight and appeared beside Junko with a her arm raised for a chopping motion. It didn't matter that she jumped back from her falling chop, Mila had already cut off her five senses. Touch, Smell, Taste, Sight, and Hearing; they were all cut away from her like strands. To make sure that girl didn't get any ideas to fight back, she also increased her level of anxiety to hysterical heights. All that needed to be done was to finish her off.
Junko's face broke out into a mad sweat as she found herself unable to speak, see, hear, smell, or even taste. Her body trembled horribly as her heart speed up like rapid beats of a drum. A dreadful wave of despair struck her left her immobile to anything coming her way.
"Hokaze-san!"
The sound of something shattering snapped Junko out of her plunge into despair as her five senses were returned to her. The first thing to come back to her was her sense of touch, feeling the hand of a boy on her shoulder. Her sight was returned in time to witness that spiky haired boy snapped his right hand back and spread his fingers out in the face of sparks flickering in the air in front of them. She smelled propane in the air before the sound of multiple explosions followed the rupturing blasts Touma negated.
She wasn't sure how, but she saw the explosive flames swim past her and that strange spiky haired boy like water against a rooted boulder. Not even the heat touched her skin, only a cooling breeze as she could only stare at the naked, bruised and bloodied back of that boy.
"Hokaze-san, please, evacuate the area with the others. This is a fight I can't involve others in. So, please leave and don't look back!"
As the roar of explosive flames died down, Junko heard that boy's stern words and frowned. Run? And just leave him to fight against some monster by himself? To do such a thing would be nothing short of cowardly! She may have been what others would call an ojou, a ladylike Esper who acted with manners and grace befitting one of higher class, but that didn't mean she would turn her back to others in need.
'Protect him. . .At all costs, no matter what. . .'
And than there was that voice, a voice belonging to someone precious and held closely to her heart. That pleading, begging, voice to the girl she looked up above all others.
'Please, protect that gentleman, Junko-chan.'
Before all this chaos and destruction began this morning, Junko had a psychic link established with the Queen of Tokiwadai. They had actually been chatting about plans for later that day when Junko's lunch with a few other members of her click had been ruined by a wandering Service Bot. And through it all, she had maintained the connection to rely the situation back to her Queen and better act as her second in command. But that connection had been cut off at that spiky haired boy's touch. Just before it was destroyed though, she had heard what she guessed was her Queen's last words before their link was gone.
It wasn't a command by. It was a plea. One that Junko didn't understand, but would certainly oblige.
"I've already made sure that the others evacuated the area with the help of the female Anti-Skill officer. By now they should have made a safe distance from the fighting. All that's left is do deal with this rowdy girl who posses a threat to my friends."
Touma moved to argue, but found his attention taken by Mila and the scene of about twenty laser pointers summoned from thin air around her. A sense of foreboding struck as those simple laser pointers lit up with a bright white intensity.
"Wave Conductor+Light Angler!"
Those light conducting pens fired a twinkling barrage of lasers that bent in their flight towards Touma and Junko. They were calculated to bend in various directions to better avoid the negating hand and skewer him with bloody holes along with the platinum haired girl.
Junko's eyes lite up with the increase of her sight as her entire body went through a superhuman change. Without warning, she grabbed a hold of Touma and carried him away from those chasing lasers intent on piercing them cleanly through. Various lasers struck, only to miss and hit the street as the rest feverishly chased after them like heat seeking missiles.
Touma was more than mortified despite the tense situation. Why? Well that would be because of the fact that the ringlet girl was carrying him like some fairy tale princess riding on the wind!
'Shouldn't this be the other way around!?'
"Mental Shutdown!"
Sensing Junko begin to trip as her Rampage Dress disappeared and her eyes dulled, Touma was quick to touch her face with his right hand to negate the mental attack. Those chasing lasers hadn't paused and took advantage of the momentary lapse in movement from the loss of Junko's speed.
No other way around it than. Falling back on his feet, Touma intercepted what lasers he could with a wide series of swipes to protect both himself and Junko. Most of the attacks were nullified, but he found himself with more injuries piled onto his body in the form of grazing burns and at least four small ballpoint holes.
"S-Shit!"
Blood didn't drip as the lasers cauterized the wounds. He didn't know if that was good or bad anymore.
"Worm Gate+Move Point+Ignition!"
The attacks just didn't stop coming.
Four swirling gates of dark colored energy formed on the ground in front of Mila as she teleported four vans above the worm gates to drop them in. Around Touma and Junko they found those gates forming around them and firing the vans at them like bullets. Small embers peppered the vehicles, warning the Level 0 and Level 4 of their explosive potential.
"Hokaze-san!"
"Hold on tight!"
Those two students had never met. Not even in passing. But somehow those two battle skilled Espers were able to work in tandem in the heat of the moment. Junko gripped Touma's left arm, careful not to touch the mysterious right arm that nullified her abilities, and carried him off his feet. Like a rocket, she sped through the bombardment that detonated in a roar of flames and smoke behind her. She set her sights on the demonic girl while evading the assault of ice chunks fired her way like a machine gun.
From her back, Mila commanded several of the cable like wings to lash out at the charging emerald spark clad girl. Like vipers, they snapped with ever intent to eviscerate her.
But that simple right hand reached out to the slithering wings and shattered them into oblivion.
Mila moved to teleport out of the way, the vast collection of Personal Realities adding her in calculating the correct method of teleportation to distance her and counterattack.
But than her vision was disoriented along with the rise of an ax splitting headache. Blood flew out her lips at the sight of three mirrored images of her attackers lunging straight at her with barreled knuckles.
The backlash of nearly two billion minds and rising reared its ugly head in the moment. The human container that was Mila was undeniably cracking under the stress.
A knuckle of negation and a knuckle of amped electrical signals rammed into Mila's face with a gruesome crunch. Without the protection and amplifying abilities of The Level Eater Network, she was once again reduced to a lowly Level 0.
And she loathed it.
Touma thickly swallowed the guilt born from watching Mila's body skip back on the battered road like a used rag doll. He had seen the effects of absorbing so many AIM Diffusion Fields. Though he had punched her a few times, her face was covered in red streams that bled profusely. It wasn't natural for one person to contain that much power.
That suffering girl who believed herself to be worthless to the world was killing herself.
"This. . . isn't worth dying over. It can't, IT SIMPLY CAN'T!" Touma yelled in pain from watching the once human girl struggle to get back up as her AIM membrane flickered and consume her.
Mila's eyes morphed once again, bleeding red with eyes of a sinister being born from the collection of AIM. Several clusters of what felt like mini bombs erupted in her head, causing her to hold her face as she felt even more Levels devoured over the network. Through the slits of her fingers, she glared at the high school boy who's face was pictured with remorse and grief.
"Just how little do you value your own life!? To throw it aside to achieve an empty wish that won't reward you with anything other than your own destruction! Do you truly believe that just because you've been deemed as a Level 0 that your own life equates to some fucking lousy digit!? Your life, whether its a life with power or without power, with or without money, with or without recognition, with or without reward, with or without talent, FUCKING MATTERS MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER MEASURE!"
The despaired cry of a Level 0 reverberated through out the streets. He was in pain but not of his own wounds for once. No, he was hurting deep within his core at watching some girl destroy herself for some empty wish of mirrored suffering.
Even more headaches erupted inside Mila's head, causing her eyes to roll back as saliva mixed with blood seeped from her groaning mouth. The voice of that ignorant Level 0 only amplified her pain tenfold.
"W-What the hell w-would you know?! You talk a-as if y-you're like m-me! Were you ever abandoned by those who loved you!? Were you ever replaced for a better version!? Were you're cries ignored!? Were you ever fed false hope!?"
An odd phenomenon began to occur to the world around them in response to Mila's despaired yells. It was as if the buildings, streets, cars, and sky was flickering to. . .another world. A world of shimmering lights began to overlap with their precognition of their world.
The stream of countless magenta wings began to bleed into that flickering City of Shimmers. Those wings that absorbed the thoughts of nearly 2.3 billion suffering Espers was an unwanted and alien element to that reality. Its very touch was toxic.
"STOP TRYING TO PLAY HERO! AS IF YOU COULD EVER UNDERSTAND MY PAIN! I'M WORTHLESS, TRASH, UNLOVED! EVEN WITH ALL THIS POWER, ALL THAT STILL STANDS! THE WORLD HAS SPOKEN AND SHOWN ME WHAT I'M WORTH IN ITS EYES. I'M JUST AN EYESORE THAT WOULDN'T EVEN BE MISSED! A WORLD THAT SEES ME WORTH NOTHING MORE THAN AN EMPTY VALUE DESERVES TO BE ERAAAAASSSSSSEEEEDDDD!"
Mila felt it. The powerful pulse from deep within her chest that spread through out her body as the final drop in the piling sea of power she had been devoured dropped.
2.3 billion. With the exception of those Level 5s, all 2.3 billion were successfully linked to The Level Eater and registered. She could see it all in her mind, a literal index of abilities of ever living Esper that resided within Academy City. It was like a click in her mind.
She had a wish; To annihilate those who had labeled her as worthless. That was all she had desired. But now, she found a new wish.
It was this world that she had been born in that was at fault. This twisted, cruel, ugly world that she continued to breath with a shuddering muffled cry. Its very sight disgusted her.
So, she would do away with it. To this worthless, loveless, despicable, hopeless world.
THUD!
"Hokaze-san!?"
Junko's eyes fluttered before her swaying body hit the floor. Touma had reached his hand out to catch her, but was stopped by what he could only describe as his brain exploding like a cluster of grenades. Out of instinct he reached for his head with his right hand; Imagine Breaker. And than he heard the all too familiar sound of shattering glass.
Unknown to him this reaction was occurring all over Academy City. Students who had been aimlessly going about their lives found themselves with the same head splitting headache before falling over wherever they stood. It was as if some switch had turned them from ON to OFF. All activity within the city came to a stop. An eerie silence draped over the city.
The only ones to remain conscious in that city of science were two Level 0s.
And than they were gone.
"Where. . .where am I?"
All Touma had done was blink. And the world had completely and utterly changed.
He was still in Academy City. There was no denying that. But at the same time it wasn't.
To describe the pseudo Academy City he now stood in would be. . .desolate.
It felt as if there was no form of existence at all. There were no shadows, no weight, no air currents. A lifeless mirage like realm beneath the surface of Academy City.
A City of Shimmers.
At least that was what would have greeted him.
Pith black greeted Touma in the form of the sky. The building were drained of color and resembled empty husks. The air tasted stagnant. And haunting red signals were released every once in a while from that empty city. These signals were wisps of crimson with ebbing black on the edges that would slowly drift along the world with no real direction. One of those crimson red and pitch black wisps grew close to Touma. He reached his hand, hesitantly, before poking it. The wisp dinged, shifting its body to form a strange triangular crystal that vanished from sight.
It was a City of Wisps.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? A world build and centered on the hope of one lonely girl."
The sound of a familiar voice brought Touma's attention to the very end of the road they had been fighting on. All the damage that been wrought was gone. Leaving the girl known as Mila Etoile to freely walk ahead.
The foreign french girl no longer resembled a demonic beast. She had returned to her old frilly blouse and blue and yellow checkered skirt. She had returned to being a normal girl.
But her light green eyes were colored red. A reddish purple halo spun above her head like a chakram blade. And from her back, vine like wings of pure darkness coated with seething red thorns lazily wriggled and nearly blended into the background of the dark city.
From a human, to a phantasmal beast, to a demon; Mila now resembled a dark divine being. A Fallen Angel.
She smiled sweetly like a poison apple at the shocked face from Touma.
The pain was gone. It was as if her body, the vessel of all those Personal Realities she had been devouring with The Level Eater Network, had been broken down and rebuilt. Her worthless Level 0 body that could not break through her limits had gone beyond her human limitations to reach a new plane of existence. And the world that she so despised had been broken down and rebuilt to suit her new being.
She had done it. She had departed from that world that deemed her with no value. In this new world she had created, she could find value. She could be something. She could be. . .loved.
This empty world would love her. It would exist for her. It would give her what she had always desired.
Worth.
Except it had one ugly speck staining that picture perfect world. A piece of trash that had found its way thrown into her utopia.
Mila stared at Touma with an empty gaze, eyeing him as if was some piece of litter she felt far too uncaring to pick up but knew she would have to throw out. Yes, that boy was all that stood in the way of her dream being realized. How he had shown up here, she had no idea. That didn't matter though.
The thorn wing like vines arced and aimed themselves for that spiky haired boy. Touma found himself taking a step back at the threatening action, gritting his teeth in frustration as he realized things weren't over.
The Abilities of all those Espers were no longer needed. The power she now wielded was beyond the realm of Levels.
"A Level 0 like yourself is not welcomed in my world. Just as that world rejected me as worthless and tossed me aside, you can fell the same sting as that poor little girl."
The final battle begun with a thundering machine gun burst of piercing thorn wings.
Touma had already moved to evade those thrusting wings on reflex. Those thorny machine gun like bursts grazed his left arm, shredding the skin like an iron wool brush. He grit his teeth, ignoring the new injury in favor of swinging his right fist at the next burst. Those corrupt, sinister yet angelic wings were shattered to pieces.
Mila's face contorted into a vile sneer of loathing.
"Even now, with all but the Level 5s AIM within my body, that mere right hand nullifies my attacks!?"
Thrusting her left palm up high, a vortex of sparking scarlet energy formed above her head at the width of ten feet. With a clawed motion of her fingers, she slammed it onto Touma's head like she would a basketball. The impact alone would crush him with its density. The detonation would completely obliterate him.
It didn't matter how powerful the ability or attack. When Imagine Breaker so much as grazed it, it would be destroyed. It was a lesson that newly minted Fallen Angel had yet to understand.
Touma ran forward with his right hand raised up. His fingers scratched the overhead sparking vortex as he closed the distance between Mila and himself, shattering the overkill attack without any trouble.
"What did you do, Mila-san!?" Touma asked angrily as he swung his fist at the platinum blonde girl.
Mila smirked, countering that fist that seemed to be able to nullify just about everything she threw at him. She was no longer that powerless girl from before. She was no longer dying to her power. She was in control.
She stomped her foot, letting lose a stone column from the newly born world to ram into Touma's stomach at a ninety degree angle. Touma's eyes bulged as he lost his breath and dry heaved as the earth column carried him away from Mila. He moved both his hands to try and escape, quickly finding Imagine Breaker capable of reducing the column to nothing. Hitting the streets with a wheeze, he had to move quickly to deal with the rapid series of rising columns focused on him. Punch after punch greeted each newly created stone column, shattering to his blows as he grew cautious to avoid the ones that threatened to fling him up or skewer him.
So, even the parts of this empty city were weak to Imagine Breaker? Did that mean everything he was seeing was just a creation of that girl?
At least that meant that the Academy City he was in wasn't real. Did that also mean he could destroy this fake city and return them back to their own?
Mila tsked but was not deterred in the slightest. She was testing out what she could do with her newfound power. The Level Eater Network was still in working order as she could still feel all those connected to the network performing all her calculations and devise her next form of attack. Academy City was still in tact then, how unfortunate.
"I can't honestly answer that. I myself don't know what to make of this new world, or how you of all people followed me here. I would guess that would have to do with that right hand of yours. Tell me, what is it? It seems like an ability, meaning that you can't possibly be a Level 0." Mila spat venomously.
Her thorny vine like wings fired again with the velocity and ferocity of a machine gun. Touma found himself dancing through the mad fire, switching from evading what he could and negating what wings came dangerously close. The attacks switched up in style from that of a machine gun burst to the lashing swipes of cracking whips, to bending stabs. He ducked under a far reaching vine, rolled out of the way of three lashes that scarred the streets like claws, and threw his right palm out against the volley of thrusts centered for his chest. He felt a sudden rumble from below his feet, warning him to jump far back from the piercing rush of wings that dug out like wriggling worms. He didn't want to allow Mila to command those wings to continue to attack and opted to chop them down with Imagine Breaker.
A beam of sparking red energy was fired at the size of a small city townhouse in the midst of the attacks. Touma didn't bat an eye as he thrust his clawed hand at the vaporizing beam, holding it in place as he waited for it to be completely nullified.
"I told you, I'm a Level 0. Just like you, the System Scan defines me as One With No Power. It's actually funny; compared to every single Esper in Academy City, I'm the lowest of the lowest." Touma smiled bitterly, "You could say that I don't emit any AIM at all. My scores come back as my Level, Zero. And it's all because of my right hand."
The one to blame for everything that went wrong in his life was undoubtedly Touma's Imagine Breaker. The Illusion Killer. Because of it, he was left to live the shadow of someone far greater and pretend to keep his memory alive without any smiles lost. It was this unique power that labeled him as worthless.
But that right there was an illusion. And he knew just what do with illusions.
The stunned face on Mila's face had caused a stop in her attacks. She had never heard of anyone who had undergone the Power Currently Program with a test score of Zero in their AIM assessment exams. Even Mila herself had a score despite how small it was.
It didn't make sense. If that boy was truly the lowest of the low in terms of Level 0, how could he possibly have some kind of ability? How could he even continue living with the fact that all his hard work meant nothing? That he could never become anything more than worthless in the eyes of that cold world?
Just how could he muster up a smile when he wasn't even worth more than someone as replaceable as her?!
"I don't know much about it, but this power that allows me to stand up to you is also what labels me as a Level 0. It's completely useless when facing with the norm, but when facing against those who run amok with strange abilities, it actually gains some worth. And it's with this right hand that I will break you out of this empty world you've created!"
"Break me out? Why the hell would you do that?" Mila giggled before stomping her foot down hard.
Touma reacted to the action by readying his fists to break apart whatever pillars Mila sent his way. But he was mistaken, falling for a feint as that Fallen Angel girl blinked away.
He was far too slow to react to the fist swung at the left of his face.
Something cracked as he found himself flung away and crashing into the side of a colorless truck. His vision swam, he couldn't utter a word other than a choking gasp, he felt a tooth had been chipped with the birth of an ugly bleeding bruise on his face.
Blood freely puddled below his feet as he stumbled off the side of the truck, confusing him greatly before he found the culprit. Or culprits.
Three spike coated vine like wings pierced his body the second he twitched. One below his chest, one at his left shoulder joint, and one dangerously close to his lungs. Each one not just pierced his body but everything past him. Buildings, cars, trees; the wings went on for miles upon miles across that empty world. He felt his body tremble as the pain hit him before grunting deeply as Mila ruthlessly yanked them out, the spikes aiding to tear flesh out and increase the bleeding. He nearly fell to the ground right than and there; his right hand tried the stop the bleeding close to his lungs as he weakly glared at the happily smirking Mila.
She spoke to him, her voice soft and nonchalant as she flicked the dripping blood off her wings.
"Why would I ever return to that world that deems me as nothing more than Zero? To a world that has no one who sees me worth anything more than trash cluttering the streets? Where I continue to live without a voice to be heard? To a world that has no one waiting for me or to love? Where I'm just replaced for failing to be anything deserving of love? Don't you see? This here, this world, is all that I could have ever wished for."
A world that was born because of her. That existed for her. That needed her. A world that saw value in her existence. It was a world that would miss her if she were to disappear.
In a way, she no longer longed for the deaths of those who had ruined her life. Why would she when she now had the world?
She gestured her arms and her spiked vine wings to the entirety of the soulless world.
"I no longer want revenge. I just want to live in peace in a world that actually values me. That's all I want now." she said serenely with a small smile.
Yes, that's all she wanted now.
. . .Than again.
That small smile twisted cruelly as she felt a spike in her power.
"But I suppose I can't make all those I've used have their deaths go for nothing! I can't just live in this world in peace knowing that those monsters who would nonchalantly destroy a little girl's life go unpunished. That world isn't worth keeping. So, I'll just reduce it to nothing!"
She currently had almost 2.3 billion AIM Diffusion Fields devoured and amplified. Enough to create this world. But to make that number complete, she was missing seven very special individuals.
The Level 5s. Those whose Levels could not be compared to any other. They possessed the power to decimate an entire army by themselves. And their powers and strengths varied by number.
It had taken her time, but she had finally found a connection between them all. It wasn't complete yet but she just needed a little time and than those monsters would be added into the sea of power to become a brilliant star. Than there would be nothing she couldn't do. Such as attacking that world from her own.
Her spreading wings lengthened, reminding Touma of a great tree that could be seen from every corner of the city to touch the heavens, its infinite branches bare of any life but those glinting red thorns, aiming their tips up at the pitch black sky with sparks that would call down earth ripping bolts. An innumerable barrage would strike that world wherever it laid. Following the connection of The Level Eater, she would send those world ending bolts to ravage everything in destruction born of justifiable vengeance.
By doing so, wouldn't that mean cutting off the link that allowed her this power? And this world?
She didn't care. If this world collapsed too, than she would die happy knowing she died in a world that valued her more than a world that continued to spin without any care for her own existence.
A trickle. That was how it had begun. Just a trickle from The Level Eater registering a single Level 5's Personal Reality was enough to visibly rock her body and cause a euphoria of pleasure to strike every nerve. She couldn't help the loopy ecstatic grin from spitting her face as she slowly begun to devour the power of One With Super Powers.
Finally, her wish would be granted.
"That world. . .isn't worthless. I-It's. . .It's not something so. . .weak, ugly, or cruel for you to kill."
Blood splattered heavily across Touma's body as a few of those sinister wing branches struck him like spears, running through his upper body with sick, wet squelches. Those sadistic wings pinned him back, fighting to keep that boy from acting anymore than he did.
It should have been enough to finish him off. The pain alone should have swallowed his senses and left him to wither there with agonized cries.
But somehow, that Level 0 that could be found anywhere on the streets of that world she wished to destroy, moved his bloody lips to speak deathly low.
"You're right, there are sides to that world that are better off destroyed. There is a darkness I couldn't possibly ever see or understand. It's not my job or right to understand that kind of evil. After all, I'm just some high school boy who only wishes to walk in the light opposite of that darkness. But. . .I knowingly can't ignore that side of my world either. That's why, no matter how deep, cold, or cruel the darkness is, I won't turn my back from the cries that reach my ear. I'll face that great despair and cruelty no matter what to try to pull that pleading voice along the same light a common idiot like myself can take for granted."
Something ruptured.
The euphoria Mila had been seeping in had been abruptly cut off with the suddenness of a guillotine's chop to her neck. She felt it, the wings she couldn't possibly count swell like water balloons being fed an oceans worth of energy. Not even the fallen wings born of AIM of nearly 2.3 billion Espers could absorb the Personal Reality of the lowest Level 5.
A single Level 5 had caused a large majority of her wings to burst violently and shower the hollow realm with radiant tears that gleamed like rainbows. Mila panicked at the sudden development before scrambling to stop anymore of the Level 5s connection with her network.
But she had underestimated the hunger of The Level Eater Network. It was an abyssal hunger that was borderline starving for the smallest of scrap on the ground. It's need to devour whatever AIM was connected to the network with a gleeful gluttony was the main reason the project had been shut down.
Mila hadn't realized it until this moment. She may have been the Administrator of The Level Eater and been given all the privileges of operating the functions and abilities of that network, but she was never truly the one in control.
The Level Eater was its own being. It was and had always been doing what it wanted to do with no trouble going about its wishes. And it only had one wish.
Devour.
Against her control and commands, the vessel for The Level Eater's desires devoured and tried to absorb the abilities of the seven Level 5s of Academy City. And each failed attempt to sink its teeth into those dishes caused something akin to the The Level Eater's teeth to crack. The backlash to the form of Mila's nigh infinite wings to explode as that human puppet's knees hit the ground.
Mila felt it, the insane and godly calculations those Level 5s regularly performed everyday with the floodgate of AIM that threatened to render her brain dead. Each Level was counted for and caused parts of her body to continuously break down like brittle ice and regenerate.
The Number 7.
The Number 7.
The Number 6.
The Number 6.
The Number 5.
The Number 5.
The Number 4.
The Number 4.
The Number 2.
The Number 2.
The Number 2.
'W-Wait! How can there be duplicates! N-No, NO! That's not it! Those signatures, those calculations, those abilities, they're nothing alike! That can only mean one thing!'
Academy City only had 7 Level 5s. It was public knowledge to everyone in the city that worked to create as many high Level Espers as possible. The Level 5s were the brightest trophies they could possibly attain and loved to show them off.
But what Mila was devouring weren't 7.
There were 11.
Several more of Mila's beloved wings were destroyed. They didn't erupt, explode, or rupture like the rest. No, they were simply destroyed as if they were never even there.
The right hand of an Esper who's even comparable to a small dew to the sea of power she possessed shattered the harpoon like wings piercing his body, allowing him to take a fumbled step forward.
Touma was going to die. The amount of blood he was losing already made his skin grow pale and his heart to struggle to maintain its beats as it lost a majority of its fuel to run. He fumbled in his steps again taking one, than two, than three. Each step felt like twenty. He was completely worn out and could no longer continue fighting as he did.
His eyes spoke different. Though his body swayed, blood seeped from his wounds, and his own vision began to blur, he refused to drop. Even as death had found a small crack to slip through and finally curl its fingers at the soul of one who could not die a normal death and continually dodge its culling blade, that spiky haired boy kept his firm and stern gaze at that suffering girl.
"I told you, I would break you out of this empty world you created. I would tear you out from the clutches of your own darkness, and help you to bask in the same light as I've come to enjoy. You think your own life is so worthless as to toss it aside? You think that the world is the final judge to what you're worth? You believe that no one in this world would ever miss you if you were simply dead? Sorry to make you look like an idiot, but those are worthless illusions!"
Long ago, that foreign girl's tears had hit the floor. No one had paid them no mind. If she were to cry, no one would have paid her any attention. That old scene had been born once again in that empty world that was no different than the one she escaped to her ever fading sight.
"This morning, a kind, sweet, and caring girl with platinum blond hair, sea foam green eyes, and a fragile smile had met a lost Level 0. She gave him some first aid. She even caused that idiot's heart to thump at the sight of a pretty girl. At that moment those two common Level 0s met, a bond had been formed. One that the weak, pathetic, naive spiky haired boy had collected and defined."
That little girl, abandoned by those who said to love her more than the stars, sniffled and heard her cries grow quiet. She found herself all alone. That little french girl with No Power crouched down and hid her face in her arms, feeling the world grow dark and cold as strange, gleeful, sadistic, curious, hands reached out from the darkness to play with the girl worth the number forever stamped above her head. In that abyss of loneliness, she found a wisp of strength left to whimper one last wish before those hands dragged her away into a luxurious guinea pig cage.
'I. . .I just wish I had someone to. . .'
"I've given that small bond value. Mila-san, you're worth more to me than the false affections of those bastards you call parents! The one's at fault for everything is not Academy City, the Power Curriculum Program, Espers, or those faceless figures; it's those idiots who thought they could put any number of value on their own daughter, and abandon her for expectations those dumb asses could never possibly attain for themselves! So, what if they don't think you're worth anything!? So, what if Academy City thinks of you as nothing more than a Level 0!? Because to me-!"
A hand.
An illusion. Through that figment of Mila's shattering mind, she found a small hand held out to her. She blinked past her tears in confusion, staring at the small, weak, hand reaching out to her as if it was normal. Those cruel shadowed hands shrieked back at the sight of that normal hand as if it was acid, remaining to stand at the girl's back with wavering, cautious fingers. The little french girl tilted her head up head up and saw him.
A little boy. His hair was spiky, gelled because he thought he looked cool like those popular boys in magazines. She couldn't make out his blurry features, but felt a longing warm from the hazy smile on his face. He was a normal little boy her age. And he had heard her unheard cries and done what no others, no adult, had ever done.
He gave out his hand and answered those cries with a bright smile.
The pain devouring Mila grew a hundred fold. It brought her to the edge of madness, breaking her mind. Despite her own loss of control and her body beginning to break under the pressure of The Level Eater's black hole of an appetite, she found her left hand slowly, trembling like a shuddering leaf, reach out in front of her.
She was escaping into that blissful illusion she believed to be born of the countless Personal Realities she had taken within herself. In that wonderful, bright, and embracing illusion, Mila grasped desperately for that spiky little boy's welcoming hand that seemed to always be out of her grasp.
"YOU'RE WORTH MORE THAN ALL THOSE PIECES OF GARBAGE PUT TOGETHER!"
A bright green beam cut through the air.
From the tips of those fallen angelic wings that continued to rupture and regenerate in its attempts to munch on to the Personal Realities of those Level 5s, they reproduced what little calculations they had scrapped their teeth at to replicate some of those Level 5s abilities. What bits it could ingest were fired to put an end to the human who was getting in the way of its feast.
That spiky haired boy didn't know it, but an attempted copy of the #4 Level 5's Meltdowner was aimed for his head. Not even an atom would be left.
The green beam of particles fired at high speed that would normally incinerate anything that it met, vanished as it was faced with Imagine Breaker. Like what it intended to do, nothing remained.
Forget the pain, screw his own body's demand to quit, and fuck the old doubts of his desires only being the embers of someone else.
This weak and brittle bond in front of him belonged to HIM! Like all the others bonds Touma was left with. And he would treasure than more than the world itself!
Touma kicked off the street with his right fist thrown out to destroy the false realities that began to rain down upon him.
A telekinetic force was thrown straight at him like an amazing punch using calculations that made no sense. That unexplained tearing explosion carved the empty city's streets like a bulldozer's steel blade. The cannonball of pure force was shattered with a punch of equal amazing capabilities.
The moisture in the air was flash frozen by a mental command of all things. But the frost could only make that boy breath a puff of cold air as he back handed the spear like mental command following behind.
He wasn't sure what he had negated next, it was an odd power Touma couldn't make heads or tails of. Whatever it was fell apart none the less.
A great bombardment of electric spears were fired to char his body. An old instinct had lead Touma to move his right hand out and attract those spears like a lightning rod, negating them while batting away the new volley amid dodges born of forgotten reflexes. He seemed overly familiar with that tactic.
The next attack involved those sinister wings spreading out from Mila's left in a wide swinging motion. From the vine like branches, alien like feathers of pure white sprouted to form a wingblade made of material that shouldn't exist in this or the other world. It swung in a wide angelic slash that would slice the entire city cleanly in half. It shouldn't have been a surprise that even those unexplained wingblades were destroyed by a backhand.
The final assault came in the form of those vine like wings covered in seething red thorns simply accelerating forward like drills. Even as they spun, they revolved around another to increase the vectors of velocity to utterly reduce that boy into watery mesh red pulp. The gigantic corkscrew of buzzing spinning directional force would surely do what all others could not.
It was after all regarded as the Strongest.
"IT'S TIME FOR YOU STOP LIVING IN SOME CHEAP ILLUSION!"
Weakest met Strongest.
The sound of shattering glass was resounding.
Those wings withered away like dead plants. All those psychic abilities that could be regarded as another form of miracles were all nullified. None had stood a chance.
There was only one last action it could take. An attack that had proved to be just enough to pose resistance.
Touma had to break as a familiar brilliant light was released from Mila's body. Those wings fell around the broken minded girl and gathered the full bank of Personal Realities it had thus far ingested. The attack had been enough to create a massive gaping hole that extended up from the depths of the Hoshi Reactor at a ninety degree angle and crippled that mysterious right hand when it had just gotten its first taste.
If one were to give that attack a name it would be; All Reality.
It was a continuous beam of overwhelming AIM Dispersion Fields that could not be defined by Level. Even without the complete meals known as Level 5s in its belly, The Level Eater's attack could be considered above them in pure power ranking rather than application ranking. Despite being a culmination of nearly 2.3 billion AIM Dispersion Fields it had no scientific ability that required accurate and complex calculations.
It was simply overwhelming. A mixture so twisted it could not form its own personality or define its own traits. One could say it was those colliding mixture of abilities that gave it its killing power. For whatever was hit by it would be consumed by All Reality and lost to oblivion.
It could not be blocked. It could not be evaded.
Touma knew that dealing with that over kill special attack normally would only end with him either losing his arm, or dead. Neither option sounded great right now. So, he was going to have to get creative. He watched as those wings finished charging, blinding him as a world obscuring continuous beam of All Reality barreled forward like a rushing stream of high pressured rainbow tinted water.
The imagery gave Touma an idea. One he had no other choice to test out as he acted blindly at the devouring mixture of nearly 2.3 billions Espers.
The right hand, Imagine Breaker, stabbed forward in a knife hand motion. His fingers were flat like the fine blade of a chef knife, his nails acting as the tip as All Reality greedily moved to swallow him within the great chasm of powers.
But like a large rock in the middle of a riverbed's stream, Imagine Breaker stood its ground and parted All Reality in half as it continued to be fired. Shards of oddly colored energy sprayed past Touma as he bore witness to an immense wall of rushing realities breaking apart with the sound of rushing glass.
If there were anyone else in that empty world to bear witness to the spectacle, they would say the firing realities were split like a V right before that right hand and evaporated every building.
Blood spurted from Touma right hand as his nails were cracked. Even thought Imagine Breaker was now able to stand against that attack, it didn't change the fact that his right hand was human. It was a fragile thing. If this continued for any longer, he wasn't sure he'd like the outcome. In only moments of meeting that attack with Imagine Breaker, he could feel the bones in his right arm shudder and crack.
All Reality though was fueled by the The Level Eater Network. As long as it remained untouched and unharmed, it would fire away endlessly. It was infinite.
That infinite supply of AIM grew unstable.
Like light waves it began to lose its straight firing form and waver. All Reality was losing its power.
Neither Touma or Mila knew of that. No one inside that City of Wisps knew of the events that were playing behind the scenes of the main event. After all, they only knew of those Espers who were part of the Level Eater Network losing consciousness. Students and Teachers alike fell.
Except for those special individuals who proved to be tougher to chew for The Level Eater's teeth.
"What the fuck is that?"
The Number 4, Level 5 Meldowner, Mugino Shizuri aimed her hand an odd mechanical tower of polished sheen blue steel. It was like a landmark that stood at twenty feet, reminding her of an antenna tower that produced radio waves. What exactly it was or what it did, didn't matter a damn to her. All she knew for sure was that it was an annoyance. She flicked her long tea colored hair back, eyeing the crude obelisk with a bored indifference.
The high school girl who could be mistaken for either a third year or forth year, wearing a violet dress, shorts, black thigh high socks and white boots, glanced back at the only awake member of ITEM. The model figured Ojou-sama woman still wasn't sure about including that person into her team. After all they were a rather recent edition. One she wasn't keen on trusting with his level of power. Especially after he had proved to show the same level of resilience as a Level 5 like herself.
"Let's just say it's connected to the mission that Board Member handed down to deal with those Skill-Out fucks. It's also the reason why Kinuhata-chan, Frenda-chan, and Takitsubo-chan are taking a nap. I don't see why we should even ask questions."
The new member of ITEM grinned savagely, a grin anyone in ITEM would have thought to themselves reminded them far too much of their leader, while aiming his right hand at the obelisk with his finger gestured like that of a gun. A single bullet shell was aligned his finger.
An orb of high speed electrons floated in front of Mugino's hand.
A scorching bullet of what appeared to be flames formed along the newbie's finger like a loaded shell.
"The sooner this shit's down, the quicker we can wrap this crappy mission up and go for some Sushi. I hear they just opened a new diner that sell's some top quality salmon bentos."
Mugino didn't trust the boy, he was beneath her like all the others before her Meldowner. He had no right to talk to her as one would an equal. But at least he had some good tastes. She would admit that.
"Tch, you're paying, brat."
"Eh, pretty sure we're the same age, Mugino-san."
"Shut the fuck up, Kaen."
A high speed beam of electrons and an erupting shell of combustible flames left that obelisk to scrap.
"AMAZING PUNCH!"
"MAJESTIC KNUCKLE!"
Outside the playground of an elementary school yard, a towering obelisk of steel surrounded by the knocked out forms of Skill-Out was crushed between a supposed telekinetic force and a dazzling explosion from both sides. It wasn't even scrap, it was a flat sheet of metal that stood up like a smoking slab before falling over with an earth shaking thud.
Two boys suddenly met in the middle of the school yard as the odd obelisk those Skill-Out punks had set up was no more. Each of those boys was responsible for taking out a good half of that large force of no good trouble makers causing trouble to a place where children should have been happily playing, not cowering in fear.
On the left stood an obviously Asian boy with spiky hair swept back with a white head band over his forehead. He wore a white open jacket over his shoulders like a flowing cape, proudly displaying the shirt with the rising red sun of Japan and white pants. He carried with him what one might call a Gutsy aura about him.
On the right stood a boy of french origins with blond hair neatly combed and braided in a short tail that touched his neck. He wore fancy red long sleeved jacket with golden buttons resembling shields, a blue tie was decorated with crowns, and dark blue dress pants and brown loafers. His white skin added in telling others he was not of this country along with his dark blue eyes. He carried himself with an air of nobility, a charming aura if you asked him.
The Number 7, Level 5 Attack Crash, Sogiita Gunha eyed the french who had gallantly arrived to the scene to aid in punching out the delinquent's with a challenging grin.
"I don't know who you are, but anyone who can fight like you has some serious guts! I would love to pit my own super amazing guts against a guy like you, uhh?" Sogiita mumbled dumbly, earning a chuckle from the french boy.
The blond swept his hair back, emitting a brilliant sparkle over his face that must have been due to his ability as he grinned charmingly.
"You my dear comrade, may address me as Charmante, The Prince of Heroes! And I would love to accept a challenge from such a gallant knight as yourself! A great man such as myself is always scouting for new squires after all! AHAHAHAHA!"
Sogiita, admittedly one of the weirdest and over passionate of the Level 5s, blinked at the smug laughing french boy. One thought came to mind as he watched the blond pose heroically like some fairy book prince.
'Is he sparkling? Is that. . .gutsy?'
An obelisk set atop of a high class hotel toppled over as its bottom found itself missing.
Well missing would be an incorrect way to put it. It was more like it was shaved completely off. One would think that it was cleanly cut off by a blade.
The real truth was more scientific.
The bottom five feet were actually teleported off by an Esper.
A girl of sixteen wearing her school's dark blue jacket around her waist and a sleeveless grape red string strapped shirt sat at the edge of that high social hotel roof. Her skirt reached her knee caps and her sneakers were lazily kicking the air. Her red hair was styled like a Princess's cut with a few braids at the right of her face.
Her dark blue eyes watched the obelisk fall to the streets, its shadow looming over the passed out bodies of students who had found themselves affected by the radio waves the false idol produced. She was quick to swipe her right hand, which held a pocket knife, at the obelisk. Her knife's shadow cut the falling tower with precision, hacking the steel with her teleportation ability until nothing remained.
She sighed in exasperation, finding what she was doing boring before her stern dark blue eyes wandered over to another rooftop where she spied another nuisance in the form of an obelisk.
"Why do I have to deal with this crap? I was in the middle of planning on how to better kidnap Tou-san before the other bitches got to him first! I didn't cross fucking time itself to lose the war of affection for Tou-san's love to the other fake Daddy's girls or likes of Kaa-san this early in the game!"
A creepy grin that would send shivers down a certain high school boy's spine appeared on that red haired teleporter's face before she teleported to the next obelisk with the snap of a finger.
Several slashes scratched the next obelisk. From those slashes, the chunks of the past obelisk popped out to into the world to destroy its brother from within and corrupt the radio signals.
She looked like a sullen angel.
Ashen white hair that matched her white complexion. Her body was light and lithe, showing little muscles yet showed she was flexible and more than capable of running a long distance. In short, she had the body of a cross country runner.
She wore a simple white sailor school uniform with the typical cliché blue skirt, red tie, long black stockings and shoes. Her silky white hair fell back to her waist with two long bangs going over her shoulders to her modest breasts. If it weren't for her complexion, she would have looked like an athletic girl who went to any old high school.
Than there were her eyes. Red orbs without any pupils stared at the lone obelisk with melancholy as it sent out a series of radio waves to whatever had caused the sudden drop in brain activity in all the Espers wandering the streets. She stood in the wide air plane field of District 23 that was currently devoid of any personal or planes.
And all around her laid the horribly beaten, mangled bodies of Skill-Out. They were alive, but no one would say they would live well for all the chaos they caused. Not unless a certain frog faced doctor patched them up.
The ashen white haired angel hummed boredly before shutting her eyes. She relaxed, feeling the cool breeze that was flowing all around. She could feel the very direction of the worlds currents.
She swiped her arm at the obelisk that laid what she could guess was ¼ a mile away. An intense current of wind followed her arm, whistling like a bell chime as an unseen force cut the obelisk diagonally and rendered it useless.
"This was just a waste of my time. I could have encountered Tou-san or Oji-san by now. Guess I'll just have to go back to Amata-san, maybe he's awake now."
With nothing else to do, the ashen angel walked away with a lazy whistling tune on her lips.
In a certain below ground mall frequented regularly by the students of Academy City, numerous unconscious bodies were strewn about on the floor with their shopping bags or treats laying next to them. But among the normal regulars were another knocked out bunch.
Members of a Skill-Out gang known as Devil's Mouth were among those affected by The Level Eater's signals. Unlike a few of their fellow gang members though, there laid Skill-Out that had found themselves with various odd wounds that had rendered them unconscious. One thug had blood trailing from his forehead as he laid face down, as if he had slipped. Another had their right arm burnt with shrapnel pieces belonging to their gun, which appeared to have blown up. A few even appeared to have struck the person next to them by accident.
In the silent underground mall, someone could be heard humming pleasantly to a tune that had not yet been born to this world. That person was a girl who wore simple white collared shirt over an orange shirt that threatened to pop against her busty chest, a simple blue skirt, and red checkered sneakers. Her ink green long hair went past her waist, close to her thighs, and appeared wet despite being dry. And the strangest part of all was her eyes.
They were a violet purple that gazed at all the silent bodies with a cheer demeanor.
"I'm guessing that would be the cause for everyone taking a nap?"
The ink green haired giggled pleasantly as she stopped in front of a large water fountain. Her eyes stared up at the out of place metal spire that those Skill-Out thugs had somehow managed to set up. They mostly likely had done it while everyone was in panic over the robots that had gone berserk.
Delicately, she stepped into the fountain, smiling at the cooling water around her ankles before walking over to the occult obelisk. She carefully eyed the strange symbols, seeming to understand their meaning despite being on the side of Science.
Supposedly.
"Boo! Because of all these hooligans, I was deterred from meeting with Touma-sensie! Ahhhh~! I was so close from being under his loving gaze again! I could practically feel his ever cursed aura somewhere close by!"
The depressed ink green haired girl sighed longingly as she tapped a single finger onto the steel structure responsible for her own misfortune.
"How unfortunate."
What were the odds of that steel obelisk completely collapsing because of one loose bolt?
One hundred in this case.
The magical structure came apart into a heap of metal as it just came apart at the touch of that odd girl. Water splashed onto her, soaking her buttoned shirt to show off her lovely busty chest to the world and even reveal the dark hint of her bra. She couldn't help but pout at the lost cause without a certain someone there to see her.
The silence of Academy City hadn't lasted too long. Within the span of five minutes, an uproar of violence had sprung forth to rectify that sudden lull of activity and life.
Those who lived in the present with powers that put them above others had moved for their own purposes to target the strange obelisks that ruined their peace.
And those who lived in the future with powers that had yet to be properly measured moved to target the objects that were in the way to happy days to come.
Level 5s and. . .other unique individuals of another side of the world worked separate and together to cut off the conveyor belt that fed a great and starving appetite of a beast.
The feast was over.
CRACK!
All Reality emitted the sound of the strongest and most durable glass straining under the pressure of an even greater power.
Like glittering shards, the barreling stream of crushing realities began to come apart against the knife hand it was only seconds from destroying. Without the endless supply of AIM from the world of science it could not continue on any longer. It lost its strength.
A clench of the fist was all that was needed to finish it off.
The disruption of those who had proved too tough for Level Eater's stomach had weakened its mixture of impurities enough to allow the final nail to be struck. All Reality shattered before Touma's clenched fist, leaving only the scar of its crushing attack in its wake as he finally got a clear view of its hosts among the glittering shards that fell over them.
Mila, a girl consumed by her own low self esteem and loneliness, abandoned by a world that said to have loved her and promise her power, sat on her knees as a great and terrifying malestorm of vile, corrupt, toxic energy colored a dark magenta bellowed from her unresponsive body. Her eyes starred at nothing, lost in some illusion she had created as her mind had broken under the stress of tasting a lick of those known as Level 5. Her body was filthy with blood due to her being being constantly broken down and repaired.
And somehow, tears freely trickled from her eyes without being tainted by the red or dirt on her face.
The Level Eater Network had lost its endless conveyor belt supply of free meals. All it had left were what it had ingested as its own. It could no longer regenerate what powers it lost to the right hand. Whatever was destroyed by that boy would no longer return. If this was a video game, than it had lost all its Healing Items, it could no longer recover its HP or SP, and was left with only a dwindling blaring red bar of HP.
The malestorm of devoured AIM twitched at the sound of footsteps drawing near as the empty world began to flicker between the desire born from its vessel and the world that had labeled her as nothing.
It reacted to the presence of that simple spiky haired boy with a vicious roar as it began to take shape in its final desperate attempt to fight.
The dark magenta AIM transformed into a great and towering maw of teeth with infinite teeth and a lulling tongue that flew out hungrily. It had the face of a starving and greedy behemoth with crimson red eyes. Its head appeared to be made of a muscle tissue with streams of pitch black flowing from its head. The behemoth's face resembled that of a great canine beast as it bore down at the annoyance that had gotten in the way of its meals.
It's great jaws snapped wide open and fell down to scoop that boy whole to satisfy its own gluttony.
"Please, I've faced an even greater appetite from a certain nun that puts your hunger to shame. Your hunger can't hope to compare to the appetites I've satisfied with a Level 0s worthless salary. So, SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH AND SPIT THAT GIRL OUT OF YOUR FAT HOLE!"
It had only taken a slap of the wrist.
The entirety of that City of Wisps and the AIM Burst known as Level Eater were cracked by the slapping right hand. A touch of Imagine Breaker rendered whatever was born of supernatural phenomenon useless and returned things to their proper state.
It was yet to be known to that boy, but he held the Reference Point of the world in his right hand. It was a power that restored harmony to that which had been corrupted form its natural form. All twisted creations would undoubtedly be restored to that which brought them harmony.
Level Eater and the City of Wisps shattered apart in cracks that spread across the realm. The world of Academy City appeared behind the cracks and broken illusion as Touma felt his legs give out under him.
He was done. No question or doubt about it. Throwing his right hand out against that abomination had taken all his remaining and dwindling strength. Touma was exhausted, bloody and dirty, and he was more than positive several bones were either broken or fractured. He was even worse off than when he had fought Aureolus Izzard. No one would blame him or insult him for his knees buckling before hitting the flickering and illusion cracked streets.
His eyes shuttered, threatening to stop fighting the need to rest and recover all the stamina he had spent over his limits. The human body was never meant to move around with that many wounds or that amount of missing blood. It would be wise to just shut his eyes and be rewarded with a nice nap.
But Kamijou Touma wasn't finished yet. There was still something he had to do.
Touma mustered a smile in the face of that broken minded girl's face that stared at nothing. As the world she had created gave off one last sound of cracking glass before returning them back to Academy City.
"Do you need help getting up, Mila-san?"
It was strangely as if the rampage that scarred the city block had never taken place.
Those two Level 0s found themselves back on the streets of District 7 on the same road they had once been fighting on. Except their were no flames, no craters, no remains of elemental supernatural powers, or damage in general that Mila herself had created while she was connected with the Level Eater Network. It was as if she had never been there the entire time. The only signs of destruction to be seen were from the hijacked robots that had distracted Anti-Skill and Judgment earlier.
Warmth.
A hand had touched Mila's cheek, its very touch restoring the shattered remains of her mind and banishing those ill meaning hands. It was not the touch of that right hand, Imagine Breaker, that had met her but Touma's left hand. He was having some difficulty moving it at the moment, so he opted to for his left to snap Mila out of her own despair. Hopefully it work the same no matter which hand it was.
The little boy in Mila's illusion withered away, dragging her back to the world she had abandoned in return. It was as if that kind boy had grown up right in front of her eyes to become that spiky haired boy she had stumbled upon hours ago. That high school boy who didn't belong in the territory of delinquents and violent Level 0s like herself had walked through hell she had brought around him and people he treasured.
And like a dragon, he had protected his treasures and defeated whatever had threatened to take them away from him.
Those threatening claws that had ruined her plans, beaten her flesh, and shattered her happiness, were reached out to her with nothing short of tender, kind warmth.
It was a sensation she had longed for since she was a child who had been born to a cold world of ever high expectations. It was a hand that she had desired for with all her heart from those who said had loved her.
It was a wish a young eight year old who was abandoned by the world was now being realized in front of her eyes after too many years of loneliness.
What was it that she wanted again? Was it the love of those despicable parents who saw her more as an object than a daughter? Was it the recognition from those who only ever saw her as some test monkey? Was it the power similar to those who saw all others below them as trash?
Or was it this?
A caring and nonjudgmental hand that would reach out and hold her own hand no matter what the world says of her or what she was worth?
Had she. . .been searching for that in the wrong direction this entire time?
No, that wasn't it. She had never been searching for that. She had been too obsessed with her own desire to be loved and valued by those who weren't worth the blood and tears she had paid for no reward. She had believed that no one would come to her rescue from her own pit of despair. That no one would think she was worthy of being called. . .a friend.
Something inside had been. . .restored. Purified. That ebbing darkness born of her own despair and Level had been washed away. A light had been born onto a new day.
The afternoon sun stood above the skies and shined down onto the back of that common boy's body. A radiant smile was aimed her way despite how blood stained it was, at the way of a Level 0 who could never hope to develop as anything more than Zero. At a Child Error. At a girl who would kill others for own selfish and self destructive desires.
Despite everything Mila had put Touma through and being the reason he was battered, he waited for her to take his hand so that he could help her up on her feet.
Was what he was doing what one would call normal? Mila wasn't sure of what to call what he did, but found herself slowly, hesitantly reaching her right hand out as Touma struggled to stand back up on his tired legs.
"K-Kamijou-san?"
Mila bit the bottom up her quivering lip at that boy's gentle smile. Tears sprung up and cleaned the dried blood on her face as they fell.
After everything that had happened today, all the lives that were lost, all the distrust, the lies, she was solely responsible for; did she deserve to take that hand that would drag her into the light? Would it be right to just ignore everything, and take that happiness for her own? Wouldn't one call that Evil?
Neither Level 0 had the answer to such a complicated question. They were in the crossing section of good and evil. Right and wrong. They had no idea to the future that would open up to the two of them for going against what others would call justice. It was strange and terrifying territory.
But at the end of that bumpy and messy road, without a doubt, they would find each others hands clasped within the others.
"I told you that I would break you out of there, didn't I? As if I would leave someone so precious in the darkness."
Caution and anxiety were thrown to the wind. Two right hands reached out to the other, more than ready to face whatever the future had in store for them.
"Kamij-. . .Touma-kun."
Those hands that had beaten each other touched and gripped onto another with pure smiles in the wake of violence.
CRACK!
A dull sound of shattering glass rang out as Academy City and its people rose up with bleary visions and confusion.
And a lone cry of despair, of agony, of pure tragedy and heartbreak echoed in that city. Once more, the cries of a Level 0 were ignored in that cold world of science.
"I'm deeply sorry, Tou-san. But. . .certain actions must be done to ensure your good deeds power aren't misused."
No one would ever notice the boy speaking to himself from the roof of a convenience store a few blocks away from the scene of a fight between a Level 0 and a Level 0 who crossed into the edges of SYSTEM. Anyone who's eyes would take notice of him would find that they had no memory of the blond boy. All thanks to his control over the minds of whoever fell to his ability.
He was what you could call a pretty boy, the kind you would find at some host club who entertained the ladies. He wore a red pricey velvet school uniform jacket with silver stars on the cuffs, white pants, and black shoes with yellow lace. His honey blond medium hair was combed back with a few spikes falling over his forehead to tickle the brow of his dark blue eyes. And like a certain high leveled Mental Out, he had stars in his eyes that were silver instead of gold.
A bitter sigh escaped his lips as he stood up and cleaned off his stylish white pants. He had been hasty to get to the scene in time, making sure to avoid detection by either two of his brothers. And though he had a hand in this great tragedy, he had made sure to fix the damage and stop the threats. A mentalist like himself was always up to his own schemes after all.
A widescreen remote was held in the blond's hand that began to lower now that it's target had disappeared.
"I'm sure Arden-nii-san isn't going to be happy to find his plans thwarted. And he'll no doubt no longer have any trust in me either. But that's fine. I don't expect forgiveness from either one."
He smiled with melancholy before turning his back to the tragic scene of a heavily wounded spiky haired boy crying onto the streets, alone.
"Tou-san, please, grit your teeth. Above all others, I know you're will power is far greater than even this tragedy."
That hand is known as The Illusion Killer for a reason. Good intentions or not, it will undoubtedly shatter even the kindest or most innoccent of creations of the supernatural.
Failure. A poor subsititue for even an average Level 0. You face a pit of despair born of your own need to save, only to kill.
This is only just another step of a long journey ahead. Don't trip now.
It's still far too early for you to break again.
And that's that! After so long, the finale is here and over with. What had started out as going out for a simple breakfast because of a small stroke of misfortune had lead into stumbling into a gang war, fighting old demons, meeting new friends, uncovering a hidden plot involving a lonely Level 0's revenge, and a battle against a being born of science. All because Touma had seen Angela's panties. Funny how things start, huh?
Now, I'm sure everyone's got a lot to say about this chapter. I mean, did ya see that ending? Plus all those new figures dropped in? I suggest reviewing, let me know how the ending turned out, guess who's child is who, and wait for the closing chapter.
That's right! We still got one more chapter to complete this arc. The Epilogue to Zeroes War/The Level Eater arc will be released this weekend! It's already finished, just working on some edits before I upload. I'll also be answering any questions anyone has about the arc before we go on break. I'll be leaving this story for a month or two until I've reloaded my story clip with at least 3 more completed chapters. In the meantime I'll be releasing a bonus chapter to make sure you all know this story hasn't be abandoned; An SS for all to enjoy. This break will also allow me to get back to uploading my RWBY stories too, so it's needed. Along with completed that special project I've discussed with one of my buds.
Let me know how this arc went! Read and Review, it's common courtesy.
NeoShadows fading in and out.