"I can't believe you left a god with that tiny human." the fifteen-centimetre god said, sitting on Mikoto's shoulder.
"Are you still complaining about that? It was meant to be a couples' trip to Paris. Me and Touma, Ruiko and Kazari and Touma's parents. There was no way we were bringing you along and Last Order was the only one who was able to look after you."
"Hmph. I'm a god, not a child. I didn't need to be looked after." Othinus said, crossing her arms.
"Your fifteen centimetres tall you stupid ex-god. I highly doubt you would have been able to survive on your own when you can't even reach the food."
"Ohhh? How very brave of you to talk to a god like tha-"
"Ex-god." Mikoto interrupted.
"Perhaps that human isn't the only one in need of divine punishment."
"If you stick your fist in my ear again, I'll pump you with a billion volts."
Both of them started wrestling in the middle of the arrivals area in Academy City's International Airport in District 23. It was an odd sight for all the people around them as they gave weird stares to the High School girl trying to get a hold of the palm-sized blonde girl scantily dressed, with an eye patch and a witch's hat who was on her shoulder.
Mikoto paid them no mind and finally managed to get a hold of Othinus with her thumb and index finger, however Othinus kept struggling and flailing her arms about.
"Enough Othinus, or I'll lock you in with the cat next time we go to 10032's apartment."
Othinus immediately stop struggling and looked away.
"I-I'm not scared of that beast. It is no match for a god."
Mikoto held the palm sized Othinus up to her face and raised her eyebrow. She could see Othinus sweating buckets. She sighed, deciding to drop the subject and placed Othinus back on her shoulder.
"Are you sure about this, human?" Othinus asked.
"Sure about what?"
"About pitting Science against magic? Yes, the relationship between both sides has greatly improved since the pervert and the demon lost control of each side but having a science versus magic battle still isn't a good idea."
"You don't have to worry about that." Mikoto argued. "I'm not pitting magic against science. I'm only asking some sorcerers to find Touma with magic. I'll take care of the rest. Besides, they aren't part of the science side. They're a rogue group who need to be dealt with as quickly as possible. Asking for help from the magic side shouldn't cause any hostilities. Add to the fact that we're saving Touma, and there are a lot of people who would be more than happy to help."
"Yes, and quite a lot of them are female."
Mikoto's eye twitched. That was clearly a sensitive subject for her, yet Othinus brought it up so casually. However, before she could retort, a large group of nuns making their way over caught her eye.
She waved over to the young girl with the reddish hair tied into thin braids at the front of the fifty or so nuns. Normally, the group consisted of 250 nuns, but that wasn't deemed necessary for this mission, and so only fifty were selected to travel to Japan.
"Hello Miss Misaka. It's good to see you again. I just wish it were under better circumstances." the girl with the reddish hair greeted.
"Hello Miss Agnese, as do I. I hope the flight over wasn't too bad."
"It was good, thank you for your concern. Sister Angelene wasn't too happy about the lack of snacks, but apart from that, there were no issues."
"Excellent, because the next flight is going to suck."
"I see. In that case, may I ask that we have a break before the next flight. We've just travelled straight from London to Tokyo and some of us are feeling the effects of that long journey."
"Of course. The plane I organised isn't ready yet. I'll take you to the departure lounge and you can rest there until it's ready. Will an hour be enough?"
"Probably not, but we'll make do."
"Thank you, this way." Mikoto said, leading the group through the airport and to the departure lounge. They bypassed security thanks to Mikoto's position and soon arrived at the departure lounge where countless shops and cafes surrounded them. Mikoto stopped and turned to face the group.
"You have an hour. You can have a look around and there are secure lockers over there to put your stuff in if you want to go for a quick nap. These shops also sell Academy City experimental foods, so if you try any of them, please tell us what you think. Once your hour is up, please make your way to Gate 1 and the plane should be ready." Mikoto turned towards the gate she had mentioned and started walking but stopped after a few steps. "Oh, and thank you for coming in such short notice, all of you. It means a lot."
She then continued walking, intending to check on the status of the cargo plane she had asked for. She hadn't expected Agnese to fall into step with her, but she didn't let that surprise show on her face.
"Shouldn't you be resting up?" she asked.
"What exactly is the plan?" Agnese asked, getting straight to the point and ignoring the question.
"We're going to try to use Imagine Breaker." Mikoto explained. "I want the Agnese forces to stretch out their magic as far as it can go. It doesn't need to be powerful, just enough so that Imagine Breaker will cancel it out."
"Is that even possible?"
"Othinus?"
"Theoretically, yes. But it will be difficult. I'll try to walk you all through it as best as I can." Othinus explained.
"Right. I don't expect it to reach all of Japan or anything ridiculous like that, so we'll be moving you across Japan until you feel the spell break. Once that happens, we can start to reduce how far your magic is spread out and once we hone in on Touma's position, I can start tearing up the place." Mikoto finished her explanation.
"That seems a little risky, does it not?" Agnese asked, concern etched into her face.
"Don't worry, I'm not that reckless. Once we find the place he's being held, I'll scout it out. Once I've done that, I can come up with a plan of attack."
"Wait, you don't even have a plan of attack?" Agnese asked, shocked.
"There'd be no point yet. We don't have any information on the place or the area around it, a plan without those isn't really a plan."
"Very well. But, if I may, you said we'd be searching all of Japan. It will take a while and it will be extremely tough, but I think we can manage it. However, what if he's no longer in Japan?"
Mikoto stopped.
"I … don't know. I suspect Accelerator has a way of finding him, but I don't think he'll let us have access to it."
"Let's worry about that if the time comes. I'm sure I'll come up with something before then, I'm a god after all, and I owe that human quite a lot." Othinus offered from her position on Mikoto's shoulder.
"Then I'll leave that to you, Othinus."
Mikoto started moving again towards the gate where her sisters were waiting with a large cargo plane. She strode with purpose, hoping to rescue her boyfriend as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, said boyfriend was stuck in a two-person cell with four other people, three of which were terrified of every sound that came from the other side of the only door. It was cramped, to say the least.
The two girls curled up on one of the beds and holding each other close were a pair of friends from Ninoude High who had been on a shopping trip to District 3 when they were taken. The Japanese girl with short brown hair was named Himari and the European girl with the long, straight black hair was called Valeria.
Finally, the small, middle school boy with the very short, needle like hair and wearing the Minamikawa Middle School summer uniform was sitting on the floor at the back wall, holding his knees to his chest. He was a Japanese boy called Haru and he was simply exploring District 3 with his friends when the attack came. He had tripped and been taken before his friends could do anything. They had tried to call for help, but none came in time, and they had to flee themselves. Haru didn't blame them, he blamed himself for tripping and getting caught.
"Who exactly are these people? They attacked Academy City, kidnap a bunch of kids and free a bunch of Kiharas. How do we beat them?" Touma asked as he and Luna sat in the corner of the cell furthest away from the other three kids, whispering so as not to scare them any more than they already were.
"We don't. This doesn't have anything to do with you or the rest of Academy City. Me and my family are the only people this concerns." Luna tried to correct, but Touma wasn't having any of it.
"Don't give me that, Luna. They attacked Academy City; I think that brings us into the equation as well."
"Touma, these people are dangerous. Like, extremely so. You helped out in Paris, yes, but I bet there's a reason you and Misaka didn't intervene until that Ezio guy started using magic, right?"
"Yeah, we were playing back up. We don't have to be front and centre every fight and you guys seemed to have it handled."
"So, can that right hand of yours destroy something that isn't magic? Like bullets or fists for example?" Luna asked, trying to make a point.
"No." Touma admitted. "It destroys anything supernatural, like esper abilities and magic, but even then, if it's too powerful, it can't completely negate it." he explained.
"There we go. How can you fight these guys like that?"
"But I'm still part of the board and we can ask Accelerator and Mikoto and Sogiita and the other level 5s for help. Luna, you sound like you're scared of these people, so let us help. Or at least explain who they are. We'll need to fight them soon to get out of here, so the more information you can give me, the better chance we have of finding a way to get out of this alive." Touma begged Luna to start sharing with him.
Luna looked at the boy in front of her. To Touma, it looked as though she was determining whether or not she could trust him. He had thought he had already earned that privilege, but apparently not.
Finally, she let out a heavy sigh.
"Fine, you make a good point." she conceded before starting her explanation. "I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. Basically, they're a group of mad scientists, a little like the Kiharas. I imagine that's why they broke a bunch of them out, they must have been looking for more of their own kind and found out about them somehow."
Touma guessed that was most likely from Therestina.
"Their technology is about five to ten years ahead of the rest of the world, but still about ten to fifteen years behind Academy City, so these guys are packing quite a lot of firepower. They also have that Gemstone that we faced in Academy City and, judging by that incredibly annoying sound, they've found some sort of deterrent against espers. We need to be very careful when planning our escape. I don't want to have to fight any of these guys again.
It was clear Luna wasn't telling him everything about this new threat, but Touma decided not to push it too much further, but there was still one thing he wanted more information about.
"This Gemstone. Do you know who he is?"
"Arata? Yeah. They got a hold of him when he was born and haven't let him go since. Dad's tried to rescue him a number of times and failed every time. Now, it looks like it might not be possible to save him."
Touma raised an eyebrow.
"Your dad? Did he know this Arata guy?"
"Of course he knew him. He's dad's brother. My uncle."
A/N Well, that took a lot longer than I wanted it to, sorry about that. Uni started up again in September and then I hit some pretty bad mental health issues which made it very difficult for me to write, but now that I've started recovering a bit, I've started writing again and I was able to get this arc finished, finally.
As for this chapter, how did yous find it? I've started to delve into the Arikimo family a little and there'll be a few more reveals later this arc that you can look forward to, so I hope you'll all like them, but that will have to wait.
For now, I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and I wish you all a Happy New Year, hopefully this will be a case of third time lucky with everything that's happening. I hope everyone has a good week and I'll be back next week with the next chapter. Bye.