"italics" - thoughts

Bold - Emphasis

Italics Bold - Magic names or titles

"normal" - speech

Disclaimer:I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index nor its characters. All rights belong to Kazuma Kamachi. Except for my own characters that I create.

Chapter 1: Life? Or Misfortune?

When Touma awoke from his pain-induced knock out, he found himself lying on the floor, a cushion set under his head. Moving his hand to his head, he removed the now warm, damp cloth. Looking around, the first thing he saw was Othinus sitting on Sphynx, the cat himself looking at Touma with what looked like a concerned look. Seeing that he had awoken,Sphynx padded over to the spiky haired boy to paw his arm, concern(somehow) showing on its face.

"What happened?" Touma asked Othinus as he comforted the small cat, scratching and petting his head. As the calico rubbed his head against Touma's hand, Othinus hopped off from her place on Sphynx's body.

"You fainted." Othinus sounded unconcerned as she gave Touma what felt like a status report. "And landed rather painfully, might I add, on the table."

"What?" Blinking his eyes, Touma looked around him. As Othinus had said, he had fallen on the table. Its remaining remains were scattered all around Touma's previously prone body. Most of the smaller pieces had been cleared, leaving a large part of the table top and a few legs as evidence of its existence. Why and how it broke after him falling on it, he did not know, nor did he want to know. In fact, he could just sum it up to his usual misfortune.

"This monster and I removed the pieces we could carry between the two of us." Othinus jabbed a thumb at said 'monster'. The calico, however, just continued to rub its head against Touma, ignoring Othinus's jab at him. "While Index prepared a bowl of cold water and a small rag for your head."

"Thank you, Othinus, Sphynx." Touma gave the cat one last pet before he stood up. Stretching his limbs, he checked the time. "Where is Index anywa-. Crap, I'm going to be late!"

Moving quickly, Touma moved to the bathroom, his usual 'bed', to freshen up. Whilst Othinus calmly moved to the door, she answered Touma's previous question. "She went out a while ago. It seems like she got an invitation from a friend of hers, so she went out to meet her."

"Did she have money for food?" Touma scrambled out of the bathroom, rummaging in his closet for a change of clothes.

"Yes. She took out a portion of the cash the church sends you monthly for food, as well as for some limited edition anime release that they were going to later." Othinus started to make her way to her objective.

"Wait. The church sends us money?" Pausing, Touma took in the fact that the church was helping him with Index's living expenses. Reality then came crashing down, and he hastened his movements once more.

"It is a recent development." Othinus spoke from her position at the counter-top. "Just two months ago, in fact. It seems that those higher ups have finally realised how much food that nun of yours eats, so they have started to send over some money to lessen your monetary troubles. It was all enclosed in a letter."

"Well, it does not help me if I did not know about it!" Dashing out, Touma did a check on his belongings. "No use complaining about it anyway. This is my luck. Such misfortune." Sighing, he looked at Othinus. "...I suppose you will be coming along?"

"Of course human." With a hop, Othinus leapt onto Touma's palm, where he deposited her into his front breast-pocket. "I will take any chance to get away from that calico, feline stalker. And it does bore me to be cooped up in this place. A Magic God would get bored, even if they have shrunk and was living in a single room dormitory space. I require some different form of entertainment."

"Just remember not to do anything unnecessary." Touma sighed out, shutting the door behind him and locking it as he left for his destination.

"He is late..."

Sighing, a girl checked her phone. Flipping it, she noted the time. Sighing again, she placed her phone back into her pocket, looking around once more to ensure that she had somehow not missed the idiot, as she liked to call him.

"Sorry I'm late, Misaka-san!"

"Finally!" Mikoto thought as she waved at the approaching form of Touma. " Your late, Idiot! What took you so long?"

"Sorry, Misaka-san." Kamijou panted as he neared the impatient girl. "Had some troubles the night before. My misfortune struck again." Having caught his breath, Touma stood up straight. "Shall we go, Biri-biri?"

"Stop calling me that." Despite what she said, Mikoto smiled at him. "Alright, let's go for some food first, then we can continue where we left off."

"Sure thing. And this time, I am paying." Touma tried to pay for their meal. 'Tried' being the keyword.

"No." Mikoto rejected it almost instantly. "And, like the past 3 times, I will be paying. What with your fortnightly cash revenue being so little, and the fact that the nun is a glutton, you cannot pay for our meals."

"But-"

"No buts." Mikoto dragged Touma off, effectively cutting off any arugement he would have given. "I am paying, and that is final."

"Alright." Touma relented. The first time this happened, when he tried to pay for their lunch, his usual misfortune struck again. As he forked over the cash, a waitress holding a plater full of food tripped. Acting on instinct, Touma moved to save the girl, only for the girl to dump the hot, scalding soup she was holding all over his pants, as well as elbow him in the chest. Apparently, the girl had taken some martial art as a self defence.

On the bright side, he did not have to pay for the meal, and he managed to get a free meal for when he next came to their establishment. Of course, he received some...other rewards...courtesy of the girl he had saved, both physically and financially. When the manager discovered that the waitress had tripped on nothing, he was so mad, he wanted to fire her on the spot. Touma managed to save her job, if barely. Resulting in the other rewards he received minutes later.

This, of course, caused Mikoto to change her view on his luck, and taught her a lesson. Should they wish to continue these meet ups, she would have to pay, and not the misfortunate boy. And this was insistence to pay was increased tenfold when she discovered the low stripend Touma got(via Saten), and the enermous amount of food she recalled witnessing the small nun devour. Eventually, Touma was forced to go along, as usual.

Walking for a bit, they reached their destination. Looking up, he read the name of the place they were eating this time.

"..Jo..seph?"

"You brought her along?"

"Hmph! This human cannot stop the wishes of a Magic God, no matter what he does!"

"Says the 15cm midget who, last I checked, could be drowned in a cup of water."

"Say what you want, human. But it is a fact that I have a better figure then you, no matter our size."

"Grrr..."

"Can you two please stop? We came here to help both me and Misaka-san, not fight like past time."

As Touma sighed, he nudged the tiny former goddess's head with his index finger, while his right hand supported his head, which was currently facing thw two arguing girls. He quickly averted it, however, when he was faced with two glares. One from a Level 5 electromaster. The other from a 15 cm wargoddess.

They continued to glare at Touma for a few more seconds, before they stopped, allowing Touma to sigh in relief internally.

"As I am loath to admit it, this human of mine is right." Othinus quickly leapt from her place on the table to Touma's jacket pocket, her feet finding footholds in the creases the jacket made. "Well then, please continue your business with this human." Yawning, the former Magic God tucked her head under the pocket, the lump in the pocket the only indication that the former goddess of war was there.

"That little..." Mikoto ground her teeth in frustration. Whenever she saw the former Magic God, her only thoughts were of anger, pain and sadness. Pain for what Touma had to go through. Anger for what Touma had to face. Sadness for Touma not asking for her help. All because of what Othinus did.

Calming herself, Mikoto took a deep breath, before she looked at Touma.

"So. About where we left off..."

Unknown to Mikoto, her friends were doing something equally as secretive as what she was doing.

Kuroko heaved a sigh. Her thoughts were a mess. In fromt of her, Kazari and Ruiko looked at their friend.

Both of them were rather confused. One minute they were walking into the 177 Judgement Branch Office, the next, they were sitting down in a nearby cafe, some sweets and drinks ordered. What made them even more confused was what Kuroko had ordered. Coffee. Now, this in itself could have been dissmissed by her friends as a way for Misaka to view her as a woman. But there were two things that stood out. Mikoto was currently not with them, nor was she meeting with them that day. And the fact that the coffee ordered was, in fact, black. No sugar, no milk, no sweetener of any sort was added inside the coffee.

"Shirai-san. What are we doing here?"

"No need to ask her Uiharu. I bet it has something to do with Misaka-san, as usual."

Kuroko ignored the words of her friends, instead tapping her foot against the wooden floor of the cafe the were currently in. Usually, she would be doing her Judgement duties around this time, together with her partner Kazari Uiharu and Konori Mii. However, instead of this, she had dragged her partner, and Saten, who happened to be taging along with the two, to a nearby cafe that was relativly empty around this time.

"Ah! Shirai-san! I nearly forgot!" Uiharu cried out in surprise, causing the few patrons in the cafe to look at the cause of the outburst. Upon seeing the blushing face of the seated girl, they shrugged their shoulders and resumed their own conversations, the small outburst already forgotten.

Blushing in embarrasement, Uiharu continued in a lower tone. "We still have to do the paperwork for the last few cases that occurred these past few days." Hearing this, Kuroko's frown deepened. It was true that in the past few days, the number of cases that had occurred was extremly abnormal. Small thefts, sudden destruction of buildings, and even small groups of students suddenly getting injured with small cuts or wounds, even though there were no espers nor sharp objects even remotely close to them. How these incidents occurred was a mystery in itself. However...

"There is no need to worry, Uiharu." Kuroko said, causing the other two girls to fall silent. "In fact, that is exactly why I brought you two here today. Because all of the paperwork had been completed."

"Eh?" Kaziri could not help but gasp in surprise. After all, out of the three members of the 177 Judgement branch, Kuroko was the one who did the least. And as Mii Konori, the other member of their branch, was not available during this time as she was visiting her friend, the only other alternative was that Kuroko finished it.

"In fact, when I came into the office this morning, ALL the reports we were supposed to fill had been done and organised." Kuroko continued, her face not betraying a thing.

Ruiko and Kazari became shocked. Had Konori actually done all the reports by herself?

"Then, Konori-senpai did all the reports for us?" Uiharu asked, a sad expression on her face. "I guess we should get her somethig as a thank you gift. Perhaps-"

"No." Kuroko cut Kazari off. "In fact, when I looked through the security tapes, I discovered that it was not Konori-senpai who did all the paperwork. It was a hooded figure who did all of them."

Sighing, Kuroko drank from her cup of black coffee, ignoring the gasps of surprise and shock from the other two girls that were sitting with her. "And when I looked through the reports for a clue as to who did it, I found this." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out...

"An earpiece?" Both girls blinked when they saw what their friend found in the empty Judgement office.

"And this." Reaching into her other pocket, she pulled out a smartphone. Normally, this would not be surprising. However, Academy City did not sell these type of phones so readily. In fact, these type of phones were not easy find. Smartphones in general were not that developed in Academy City. Seeing as most of the advancements were used for some form of warfare technology, or used to help bolster Academy City's connections with the rest of the world, most of the scientists saw no need for any developments in the communication sectors. Hence, to ensure that the students would not get 'out of touch', so to speak, with the rest of the world, including their families, the teachers decided to request for a phone that had Academy City's advanced tech. The result:a flip-phone that had a greater range, longer battery life, and was harder to destroy than the average flip phone

That was not to say that there were no sales of the smartphone. It was just that the flip phone was more convenient, cheaper and portable for the students to hold a flip phone then to buy a smartphone. After all, in the minds of the majority of the students(which were level 0s to level 2s), the flip phones in Acdemy city were as good as the smartphones sold worldwide, with the added benefit of being able to survive longer in a city full of esper abilities that could melt, freeze, crush etc. a phone. So, finding a smartphone, complete with a touchscreen, was rare. And for it to be left behind was considered to be either stupid if you had a low income. But, if you were a level 3 and above...

"One would consider this sort of act just fine" Kuroko muttered under her breath, attracting the attention of the two close friends, who were busy fiddling with the smartphone.

"Did you say something, Shirai-san?" Uiharu asked as she took her attention off the phone, giving Ruiko the chance to examine it more closely.

"Ah, yes. Uiharu, I need you to hack this phone and unlock it. This came with the phone and earpiece." Unfolding a piece of paper from her wallet, Kuroko handed it to Uiharu, who took it and read its contents aloud.

"Hello, to whoever finds it. If you are Konnri Mii, please pass this to Shirai Kuroko, Ruiko Saten or Kazari Uiharu. If one of the three is currently reading this, I would like you to gather the rest, excluding the 3rd strongest esper, the 'Railgun'. Afterwards, I would like the Goalkeeper to hack open this phone. Further instructions would be found inside the folder labelled as "Breaker000". Please keep calm once you read these instructions, as well as follow them closely. Otherwise, you would be unable to find out the secrets that I wish for you to discover."

"How does he know that I am the Goalkeeper?" Kazari asked Kuroko in an undertone, her hands shaking slightly. If whoever did their paperwork was in fact someone from Judgement, she would not be so worried. But that was the problem. They did not know who sent the letter. Should the person who sent the letter, as well as did their work for them be from a hostile organisation...

"First, hack the phone. We might get more information that way." Kuroko took the phone from Ruiko and handed it to Kazari.

Accepting the phone, Kazari booted up her laptop, which Kuroko had teleported to get, and connected it to her laptop. Keyboard clacking away, her grim expression became one of bewilderment, before finally becoming one of confusion. "Huh."

"Huh?" Kuroko and Ruiko repeated what Kazari had said. "What did you find, Uiharu?" Ruiko asked curiously, leanig over to look at what the screen displayed. Wordlessly, Kuroko teleported herself to beside Kazari as well to look at what had caused her partner to change her expressions so quickly.

"Congratulations! Looks like you got in huh. Well, its a little late, but I must say, I do enjoy watching you guys work. Seeing the four of you work together is great and all, but what makes this sort of thing super interesting to me is the small secrets that a person would keep from even their closesest friend, if it was for the sake of keep their friendship or protect them. Oh, and I'm not refering to your group in particular. This is referring all people in general.

So, back on track. I suppose the Goalkeeper is wondering why the Judgement system is implemented onto this phone. Short answer: I copied it through some mysterious methods. If you really want to know, you would have to wait until we have met face to face and have uncovered the minimum jumber of secrets that I know.

Now then, for the info I promised you three. First, open the folder named Breaker000,. Further instructions in the folder." Ruiko read aloud for the three students, who had frozen up while reading, thier eyes unblinking.

"What does he mean he copied the system?!? In fact, how is it possible?" Kuroko asked their resident hacker, shaking Kazari's shoulders as she did so, stunned by how easy the hacker/helper had written it.

"Z-ztop zhaking me, Shidai-zan." Kazari managed to speak through the shaking. Kuroko stopped shaking her partner's body vigorously, giving Kazari some time to speak.

"Theoretically, it is possible to do so with time and the right equipment. However, based on the fact that an alert would be issued if there was an unauthorised user on the servers, I doubt that it would be possible for it to work for a short time. That is for the system itself. But, what this person did was copy the old Judgement encriptions and placed it into this phone, with a few unique pieces of code to trick those who are not part of Judgement's ranks into thinking it is a high ranking encription that can only be decripted by the military."

"How can you tell it is from Judgement's old encription?" Ruiko asked her best friend. Although she was a level 0, and was not part of Judgement, she knew that the old encriptions were tough to crack unless you were a skilled hacker or an electromaster of level 4 or higher.

"These parts," Kazari pointed to some seemingky completed pieces of code "are part of the more complicated pieces of code that only Judgement techs could recognise, or skilled hackers that can hack. Electromasters level 2 and below would not be able to hack past this, seeing as their abiities are far below the needed output to hack open. And as there are a low number of electromasters who have connections with Judgement.."

"...only a select few can hack it." Ruiko caught up to what Kazari was trying to say. "But, why were you so surprised earlier?"

"Ah." At that point, Kazari blushed hard, causing her two friends to tilt thier heads in confusion. "The code itself is not hard to crack. It is the password needed to unlock it that surprised me."

"Password?"

"Yeah." Kazari nodded her head as she moved to look for the folder that they needed in the phone, her blush fading a little. "The code is the first layer. The second layer is at least military grade protection software with a password that can only be discovered through a question by only those who recognised the first layer could decipher."

"What was the question?" Kuroko asked curiously. If there was such high grade protection below the first one, why was there even a need for the first layer in the first place?

Blushing harder than before, Kazari answered in a small voice. "-o is the-"

"Hm?" Kuroko focoused her attention on Kazari. "I could not hear you, Uiharu. Can you please speak up?"

"It was "Who is the person who flips the skirt of the Branch 177 member?"" Kazari screamed in an undertone, miraculously not catching the gazes of the cafe's other customers. Acting in sync, the two looked at the culprit. Noticing their gazes, Ruiko took charge of the phone and looked through for the folder.

"I suppose this means we should be even more cautious of this mysterious helper of ours then." Kuroko finally sighed out, causing Ruiko to heav a sigh of relief in her heart. "If he knows who our friends are, he or she could target them anytime."

"Then, should I-"

"Found it!"

Ruiko's low exclamation stopped Kazari's and Kuroko's inpending conversation. "Here it is... it just says call this number via the bluetooth earpiece, Shirai-san." Ruiko spoke after a short pause, taking the time to look for the number, as well as reading the message that was in the folder.

Taking the phone, Kuroko scrolled through the list until she found the number they were looking for. Dialing it, they waited for a response.

They did not have to wait for too long.

"Hello, this is your informant speaking."

AN

Right, so this chapter is going to be released early. A late Christmas and New Year present for all lovers of the A Certain Magical Index series. Now, lets see... Ah. First on the list, the date this is set.

First off, I altered the timeline a little for my fic to run as great as possible, so don't be surprised by the date. It would be January 2nd, the year after Touma lost his memory(Im calling that year Alpha Year)

For those who dont know, this day is during one of the 3 break times for the average Japanese student. Im making it as close I can to being the average day of a high school student. Of course ,some info would be wrong or missed as I am not a Japanese student.

Would you guys like some sort of entertainment section at the end or start of each chapter? It would be much appreciated. This review would last until the start of June next year, so please review!