"Well, there doesn't seem to be any major injuries, so you should be good to go." the young doctor said as she pressed something on her PDA.
"And everyone else?" Mikoto asked, sitting on the hospital bed.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to check on them yourself, but from what I saw, they seemed okay. Would you like me to tell you their rooms?"
"Nah, I know where to go for Touma." Mikoto replied, hopping off the bed, and making her way to the door. She was only in there for precautionary checks, she had been in a pretty nasty crash after all, so once she knew there was nothing wrong with her, she left quickly.
When she arrived at Touma's room, she saw Heaven Canceller shining a light on Touma's face.
"Well, that should be everything. I don't see anything that will keep you in for the night." he said. "At the risk of sounding like a broken record, please be careful in the future. You've had too many visits here for someone your age and I don't think the people around you particularly like seeing you here, I sure don't."
"I'll try doc, but I can't make any promises." Touma said. Heaven Canceller sighed as he turned round and saw Mikoto waiting at the door.
"I would ask you to try talking to him, but you yourself have been making more frequent visits here, so you be careful as well."
Mikoto sweat dropped.
"I'll just re-use his response." She said, pointing at Touma.
Heaven Canceller sighed again. What was with these kids? Was the hospital too appealing? Maybe he should have a look at fixing that. As he walked out of the room, he stopped and looked back at the two students inside.
"Now, I should warn you, I believe Accelerator is wanting a report, so I would wait until after that before you use the bed." he said.
And then he walked out.
Mikoto and Touma stared at the door, unsure what to do or say.
"Did he just suggest what I think he did?" Mikoto asked.
"I'm not sure I want to answer that to be honest."
Mikoto turned round to see Touma's face with a few bandages on it, including one on his right cheek and one on the bridge of his nose. Mikoto walked up to him and brushed her hands over the bandages but stopped when she noticed Touma wince.
"You know, if you're going to get scars anyway, I'd rather them be on your chest or back. I like having your face nice and clean." she said, eyeing the bandages.
"It's just a few bruises. The doctor said nothing will scar, so you don't need to worry." Touma assured her.
"Hmm, they better not."
Mikoto then leaned in for a kiss and Touma happily obliged. The couple continued their kiss for a while before someone cleared their throat behind them.
They broke off their kiss and let their heads drop.
Mikoto sighed before saying,
"Never a moment a privacy, huh?"
"We are in a public hospital." Touma reminded her.
They both turned to see Luna at the doorway, sporting a few bandages of her own.
"Sorry to interrupt. Just wanted to see how you guys were doing. But you seem to be doing fine." she said, walking into the room. She walked past the bed where Mikoto and Touma were and walked straight to the window to look out over Academy City.
"How do you think Edward's doing?" she asked suddenly.
"They're sorcerers, I'm sure they have some sort of healing spell. I suspect we'll see him again, and in good health." Touma suggested.
Not long after they had left the VTOL, they had come across a blonde, western woman, wearing a hat similar to the one Edward had been obsessed with and clothes, similar in style but red with a gold embroidery and ordering them to return Edward.
She had aimed an old-fashioned flintlock pistol at the group who were still carrying the man they had met in the now destroyed facility. Unsure of whether or not to trust her, the group had been ready to fight her and bring her back to Academy City to determine who she was. However, they were stopped by Edward, who had regained consciousness enough to explain that the woman in front of them was his 'Captain.'
And so, they had let him go and waved goodbye, Edward with his 'beloved' returned to him and atop his head. It wasn't long after that when Academy City found the group and brought them back home to Academy City.
"Oh, right. You said Edward had used some sort of magic to help you escape, right?" Mikoto asked as she sat next to Touma on the bed.
"Yeah, and if that woman is his captain, they'll most likely have a crew." Touma responded.
"You don't think it's just the two of them in some tiny little wooden boat, do you?" Mikoto asked, an image in her head of Edward rowing a small, wooden boat, only big enough for two people and his captain sitting in front of him, ordering him to row faster as they slowly made their way across the vast, never-ending ocean.
"I hope not, that would be really disappointing."
"It would be hilarious, though." Luna chimed in.
As she turned round to look at them, Accelerator and Worst walked into the room, followed closely by Etzali and Awaki.
"Is this the girl you were talking about?" Accelerator asked when he noticed Luna at the window.
"She is. She should have quite a bit of useful information for us."
"Such as?"
"Luna? Care to share what you know?"
Luna sighed.
"Not particularly. As I said before, I'd rather not get you guys involved if at all possible. These people are dangerous, just let us handle it." she tried.
"Not a chance."
She was instantly shot down by everyone in the room.
"Whoever they are, they attacked Academy City and broke out Kiharas. We're already pretty involved, so there's no reason to keep us in the dark." Accelerator said.
Luna still looked hesitant to share her information with them, so Accelerator reached for his collar, hoping to scare her a little.
However, before he could flip the switch and regain his powers, another hand reached the battery, closing around it and preventing Accelerator from turning it on.
The next thing he knew, the tip of a sword was at his neck.
"I'd be very careful about what you do next, kid." came a man's voice from directly to his right. The voice was low and deadly, warning those that heard it that it belonged to someone you didn't want to mess with.
No one had noticed them until it was too late, but there was now a man and a woman on either side of Accelerator, ready to act at the slightest hint of trouble.
It took everyone a moment to process what was going on, but as soon as they did, they surrounded the pair who had effectively taken the board chairmen hostage. Bluish white sparks came from Worst, whilst Etzali and Awaki dropped into combat stances. Touma stood up as well, waiting for an opening to swing his fist at the two attackers.
The atmosphere grew tense as both parties eyed each other up until Luna broke the silence.
"Enough! Mum, dad, let him go. He's on our side and I'm pretty sure he's the board chairman, so maybe attacking him isn't a good idea." she said, making her way between everyone.
"You lot should stand down as well. Mrs Arikimo won't kill him or anything, she's just protecting her daughter." Mikoto explained to everyone else.
"She's right, and Touma, keep that right hand of yours away from him. That would end very badly." Luna said, pointing at the man holding the battery for Accelerator's collar, Kahaku Arikimo.
At the two girl's request, both parties stood down and Touma made sure to keep his distance from Kahaku.
"Imagine breaker, right? Haven't seen that in a long time." Kahaku said, looking at Touma. "Aleister talked a lot about you."
"You can discuss that later, I'd quite like to know about these people who invaded Academy City. Your daughter seems less than willing to explain anything to us." Accelerator interrupted.
"I suppose you'll have to fight them again, won't you? So information on them will be key." Kahaku started. "They're a group of mad scientists, basically. Similar to the Kiharas, in that they solely look to push science as far as they can without considering any of the moral implications, which would most likely explain why they sought to free the Kiharas. They never had the funding that the Kiharas did, though, so their technology hasn't reached their level, but it's still pretty advanced stuff."
"And how do you know all this?" Mikoto asked.
"Because I spent my childhood in their grasp. After they gave birth to me and discovered I had what they were looking for, they experimented on me to unlock it's secrets."
"They experimented on their own child?" Touma asked in disgust.
"They experimented on all of their children. In fact, that's why they have children in the first place, to experiment on them."
"What happened to all the other children?" Mikoto asked.
"When I was younger, I freed most of them. All except one, my brother, Arata. I failed to save him, and you've seen what they did to him." he said, his expression clouding over.
"You said they gave birth to children to experiment on. Why? They could've attempted to kidnap people or cloned someone." Accelerator asked.
"They were looking for something specific. They did look for people who might have it, but they never found it, and it was easier to keep their experiments hidden if no one, not even governments knew the people being experimented on even existed. As for cloning, as I said earlier, they didn't have the funding the Kiharas had, cloning would have been way too expensive."
"This something they were looking, what was it?"
"A Gemstone." Kahaku revealed. "They searched for a long time and had many children, until they eventually hit the jackpot. In fact, it was even luckier than that, they managed to get two."
"You and Arata?"
"Yep."
"Wait, so you're an esper too?" Touma asked.
"I am, however, I can't use my ability right now. Or rather, I'm using it constantly and don't have any leeway to use it any more than that." Kahaku explained.
"And what are you using it for?" Accelerator pressed for more information.
Kahaku smiled.
"Sorry, kid, but that's not important when it comes to them, and I'd rather let a few of my secrets stay secret for now. It would get dangerous if that came out." he said as he walked to the door.
"If that's all, we'll be off. Luna, please be careful and don't do anything stupid."
"When have I ever done anything stupid?"
"Are you sure you want me to answer that?"
Luna started sweating buckets as her father left the room, followed closely by her mother.
Once they left, Mikoto sighed.
"Okay, can you guys leave as well? I'd quite like some alone time with my boyfriend." she said pointing at the door.
"You can have your 'alone time' later. I want a report on everything that happened." Accelerator immediately responded.
"Accelerator, come on. I just got the all-clear from the doctor. Let us have some time to relax a little and we'll get our reports to you as soon as we can." Touma pleaded.
"Tch, fine." Accelerator relented. He walked out the room but stopped in the corridor. "I want those reports first thing tomorrow morning, you hear me? Otherwise, I'll find both of you and torture it out of you." he warned before leaving.
Mikoto and Touma audibly gulped.
"You don't think he'd actually torture us, do you?" Touma asked, uneasy.
"I really hope not." Mikoto turned to everyone else in the room. "Can you guys leave as well?"
Everyone slowly made their way out of the room, but Luna stopped briefly.
"You know, the walls are quite light he-"
She was interrupted by a lightning spear that convinced her to scamper down the hallway as quickly as she could.
"Honestly, that girl is worse than Ruiko and Kazari." Mikoto muttered.
She then lay down on the bed and patted the spot next to her, inviting Touma to lie next to her. He accepted the invitation immediately.
As he lay down next to her, Mikoto rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes.
"Are you really that tired?" Touma asked, looking at his girlfriend's face.
"A bit, we haven't managed to get much rest in a while, not with the attack in District 3 or trying to find and save you." She said, her voice soft and sleepy as her tiredness finally caught up to her.
"Please tell me you guys aren't going to be like this for too long, I want to go home, you know." the palm sized god who had been ignored throughout the entire conversation said.
Mikoto turned round to glare at her and fire a small lightning bolt at her feet before turning back around and letting herself fall asleep on Touma's chest.
A/N And that's the end of the arc. Had quite a lot this arc with the introductions of Edward as well as Thana and Valdis. There was also the reveal of some of Kahaku's background and there's still a lot to come for that, which I wanted to ask you guys about.
I have stories about Kahaku's past that I want to tell, but would yous prefer it to be interwoven through this story via flashback arcs, or have a separate story altogether, a sort of Arikimos Zero story that would have it in a bit more in depth?
As for this story, I'm currently trying to rewrite the first arc right now, so hopefully I should be done by next week, fingers crossed, but if not, then the week after, I'll try not to keep yous waiting for too long this time.
Now, for the comments.
limited.edition118: Thanks, but it's not really that consistent. I'm only able to get a chapter out each week because I write the whole arc out at once and then start uploading each chapter weekly. There tends to be gaps between each arc, but I try to keep them as short as I can.
Guest: Awaki was there when they freed Edward as well as when he freed Touma, so she would have heard his name at the very least when he called into Touma's cell.
And there we have it. I hope you guys enjoyed this arc and I'll be back soon with next one. Until then, I hope you all have a good week. Bye.