Touma walked into the huge reception area for the hotel with all of its elegant, gold designs and red carpet, it looked more like a royal palace than a hotel. Touma realised how out of place they must have looked, especially coming from that small French car that they arrived in.

"Oh, wow. This is crazy," Saten said, looking around. "Doesn't it make you feel like some sort of VIP, Kazari?"

"Yeah…" Uiharu said offhandedly, not really paying too much attention to Saten.

"Come on, you guys. Let's get checked in," Mikoto said, walking passed the entranced trio.

She walked up to the reception, gave the female receptionist her name and was given two white cards. She gave one of them to Uiharu and kept the second to herself.

"We're on the sixth floor. You two or 602, we're 603 and I believe Touma's parents are 601, right?" she asked, turning to the two adults.

"Yep, we'll be next door to you lot, so if you need anything, don't hesitate to knock on our door," Touya offered.

The adults then led the group to the closest elevator and selected the sixth floor.

"You know, I'm quite hungry," Uiharu stated. "Can we look for a café or restaurant nearby?"

"Kazari, we had food before the plane and on the plane, how can you still be hungry?" Saten asked.

"Hey, it was a long flight and it's been a few hours since we had the food on the plane, can you really blame me?"

Mikoto couldn't help but laugh.

"Kazari's got a point. We'll get some snacks after we've unpacked," she said as the elevator doors opened.

The group entered the long, wide hallway and each pair went to their own rooms with Mikoto and Touma's room being the furthest out of the three from the elevator.

They opened the door to find a large room with a huge, king-sized bed in the middle. There was a large 55-inch smart TV on the wall nearest the bottom of the bed so they could watch movies before going to sleep.

On the left of the bed was a door leading to a bathroom with a shower that looked like it could fit a whole family and a bath that looked like it could do the same.

On the right of the bed was a wardrobe that could easily fit all the clothes they needed, even if they were staying for an extra week.

Finally, there was a small table in the corner of the room with a chair on either side of it, probably for any meals they ordered from room service.

"We're finally here," Touma said as he stumbled into the room about ready to collapse.

"Wow, you don't look great, do you?" Mikoto observed as she turned round to look at him.

"Well, what do you expect? I haven't gotten any sleep since Academy City."

"Right, well, let's unpack and then I'll let you get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay."

The pair quickly unpacked their suitcases, stored all their clothes in the wardrobe provided and put all their toiletries in the bathroom.

Once all that was done, they both collapsed on the bed.

"Ahhh, finally," Mikoto sighed. "I'm starving after all that, do you want anythi-"

Mikoto stopped when she looked over to find her boyfriend already asleep. She shook her head and smiled.

"Honestly," she muttered. "What am I going to do with you?"

She pulled him up the bed so his head was resting on the pillow, kissed him on the forehead and, as quietly as she could, left the room, slowly closing the door behind her, trying to make as little noise as possible.

She walked over to Saten and Uiharu's room and knocked on the door and heard a commotion coming from inside.

"Ruiko, will you get out of there!!" came Uiharu's panicked voice.

"I just want a teaser," said Saten. "Oh, these one's look cute, can you wear them tomorrow?"

Deciding she had to save Uiharu, Mikoto opened the door to see Saten quickly stuff something into a drawer.

"Oh, Mikoto, hey. You guys finished unpacking?" Saten asked, trying to act innocent.

"Yeah, we're done. Touma's asleep right now," Mikoto explained. "You guys want to get something to eat?"

"Oh, I saw a café round the corner when we were on our way here. Can we go there?" Uiharu asked.

"Sure, let's go. Let me just tell Touma's parents where we're going."

"Okay, we'll get changed quickly and meet you in the hall."

"Okay," Mikoto said and walked out and over to Touma's parents' room.

The door opened pretty quickly after she knocked on it. Touya looked out to see Mikoto waving at him.

"Mikoto? What's wrong? Did something happen?" he asked.

"Oh no, nothing, I just came to tell you that me, Ruiko and Kazari are going to a small café round the corner."

"Oh? Is Touma not going as well?"

"No, he's fast asleep right now and I don't want to wake him."

"Ah, okay, be careful then."

"We will," she said as she turned round to see Saten and Uiharu waiting for her.

"Wow, that was quick," she said, looking at the two girls.

"Yeah, well, you know how Kazari can be when treats are involved," Saten explained, rubbing Uiharu's head.

The trio made their way out of the hotel and to the café that Uiharu had mentioned. It was quite quiet by the time they got there, so they got a seat fairly quickly.

The three of them looked over the menu with Mikoto translating for the other two.

"You have your bog-standard American drinks like coke, then you've got French drinks like the Orangina, Diabolo Menthe and Gini Lemon. You've also got some interesting milkshakes as well, oh wow, there's one that's even snail flavoured," Mikoto explained.

The other two girls looked at Mikoto and scrunched their faces in disgust at the idea of a snail milkshake.

"Hey, don't be like that. Snails aren't actually that bad," Mikoto tried to defend them, but the look of disgust didn't leave the girls' faces.

Eventually, the pair decided on a strawberry milkshake that they shared between the two of them as well as a pair of pains au chocolat, whilst Mikoto decided to try this snail-flavoured milkshake as well as some crepes.

When it arrived, it looked sickly green, causing Saten and Uiharu to go pale. Their faces somehow got even paler when Mikoto started to drink it.

"Hmm, that's pretty good actually. You guys want to try some?" Mikoto asked.

Both girls frantically shook their heads, rejecting the idea vehemently.

"No thanks, we're good," they said in unison, before sticking their straws into the large glass in front of them that held their much more normal strawberry milkshake.

The trio chatted whilst they enjoyed their orders.

"So, I was looking through one of the usual sites, and I saw someone talking about magic, like real magic, like magic beasts and people fighting them with fire coming out their hands. Apparently, they saw them in Academy City as well," Saten explained with crumbs on her face.

Uiharu sighed.

"Not this again, Ruiko. You always find these ridiculous rumours on these sites and that's all they are. Rumours," she said as she handed her girlfriend a napkin.

"You say that Kazari, but this was the same site that claimed there was someone with the ability to negate esper abilities," Saten explained as she wiped her mouth. "Back me up here, Mikoto. If they were right about Touma, they could be right about this."

"You know, you shouldn't believe everything on that site, Ruiko," Mikoto said, not looking either girl in the eye.

They continued chatting until the sky started to turn orange when they decided to return to the hotel to get ready to explore the festival with Touma and his parents.

Mikoto walked into her and Touma's room to find Touma still asleep on the bed. She smiled at her sleeping boyfriend's face.

"You look so peaceful and happy," she muttered as she wondered over to the bed and stroked his spiky hair. "I prefer this face to the one you wear when you're getting into all your fights."

"Hmmmm."

Touma started to stir from his slumber and slowly opened his eyes.

"Sorry, did I wake you?"

"No, you're good. What time is it?"

"About half eight. We're about to go check out the festival, you coming?"

Touma yawned and rubbed his eyes as he fully woke up.

"Sure, let me get changed first," he said as he picked himself off the bed and walked over to the wardrobe. "Were you away somewhere?"

"Yeah. Kazari, Ruiko and I went to a café round the corner to get a drink and a snack."

"Oh? Was it any good?" he asked, searching through the wardrobe for clothes.

"Yeah, it was great. The only problem was that Saten stumbled on something dangerous on one of her rumour websites."

"Again? She does seem to be a magnet for trouble, doesn't she?"

"Yeah, except this time, it's pretty bad."

Touma turned to her with a t-shirt in his hand and raised his eyebrow, wanting her to continue.

"She stumbled across someone claiming to have seen magic," she revealed.

Touma tensed up for a moment.

"Did you try to dissuade her?"

"I tried, but your guess is as good as mine whether or not she still believes it."

Touma sighed.

"Well, there's not much we can do about it now. Let's just finish getting ready, and we'll head down to the festival," he said, as he picked out the remainder of the clothes he had chosen to wear, a simple orange t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. It was best to wear something comfortable if he was going to be walking around.

He went into the bathroom and changed whilst Mikoto picked out her clothes, choosing to go for a white t-shirt and a pink skirt with white poke dots on it.

After Touma finished getting dressed, Mikoto went in to get changed as well. As she walked out, Touma looked her up and down and smiled.

"You look cute," he said.

Mikoto grinned.

"Thanks, you're not too bad yourself."

Touma was glad she had gotten out of the phase where she would blush heavily and zap him every time he complemented her. The pair had been going out long enough that they didn't even blush too much when the other said something nice about them.

Mikoto walked up to Touma, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, wrapped herself around his arm and said,

"Shall we go have a look at this festival?"

Touma smiled.

"Yeah, let's go."

The pair walked out to find Saten, Uiharu and Touma's parents waiting for them. The group walked out the hotel and made the short five-minute walk to the festival.

The festival was busy, with people crowding in the streets to watch someone singing on one of the stages, or a circus performance on another stage, or one of the hundreds of acts that were being showcased throughout the streets.

There were also a number of food stalls for people to eat, such as crepe stands, hot dog stands and even a stand where someone was selling boiled snails, which Mikoto was still adamant tasted really good, but no-one was willing to take her word for it.

At some point, Touma and Mikoto realised that they had gotten separated from the group in the large crowd.

"What should we do?" Mikoto asked.

"We don't have to panic just yet, if something happens or we don't see them at all, then we can call them, but right now, I think we should go for some crepes," Touma suggested as his stomach growled.

Mikoto looked at him and started laughing.

"Okay, okay. I'll get us some, what do you want?

"I'll take chocolate."

"I'll have strawberry and then we can share them, that okay with you?"

"Sounds perfect."

The pair walked over to the stand and Mikoto ordered their crepes, being the only one who could speak French. They watched as the man behind the counter made it in front of them, wrapped them up and handed them over. Mikoto paid for them, and they each took a bite out of the other's crepe.

"Mmmm, that's good," Mikoto said as she tried the chocolate crepe.

Touma, spurred on by his girlfriend's assessment, went to take a bite out of the chocolate crepe, but before he could, he was kicked in the face.