It was the first time Kamijou's parents had truly asked him for a favour. "Misaka's parents can't get into Academy City straight away to see her. With the world knowing about the clones can you check up on the poor girl." His instincts had screamed no, but here he was on a bus, off to a family onsen in a strictly residential district, with 5000 yen given to him by his parents for the occasion burning a hole in his pocket, and one of seven level fives sitting next to him. The problem, with his luck this evening was destined not to go smoothly.

The Onsen

It was a dimly lit dead end back alley full of bins that served the adjacent restaurants with a wall at the end. It was like many alleys in Academy City except this wall had motion sensors, thermal imaging cameras, and razor wire on top. The only sound was extractor fans blowing the smells up from the kitchens and the clicking from the razor wire that was mounted on electrical insulators. On the other side of the wall was the School Garden, and the person Kamijou Touma was waiting for was about to break out.

Touma was alone. He pulled out his phone and checked the time on his phone. He was surprised. Touma couldn't quite believe it himself, but he was early. When faced with the choice of an increasingly hungry Index, an empty fridge, and this rendezvous he'd decided that leaving early was probably the best course of action. This was definitely going to be the more pleasant experience than staying back at the dorm. He wasn't sure he'd have said that a few months ago.

A familiar figure moved from behind the bins.

"Hello Biri Biri." He stopped for a moment as he realised this girl was wearing goggles on her head and was beginning to angle her head slightly to one side. She also had hoodie fleece, a black T shirt with three love hearts and green pants. "Oh, you're one of the sisters." A smile, no more than a curl at the corners of her mouth, appeared on the girl's face. The boy was suspicious. "That will make this evening a lot more pleasant."

The smile turned to annoyance in a millisecond. "You … you…you...," and just before she blew, he interrupted.

"Your smile has more emotion than the clones. It gave the big sister away."

"Oh." The third emotion in not that many more seconds. Even by the faint light of the fire exit signs Touma could see she was red. He watched for a few seconds as the girl pulled herself back together, "We need to get out of here, before we get caught" Those words were accompanied by a tug on his coat as the level 5 dragged him out of the alleyway.

"Where are you trying to take me Misaka?"

"As far away from here as possible…Are we going in the right direction?"

"It's this way." It was his turn to tug, and they ran across the road through a break in the traffic to a park across the road. "That's better, the bus is from a stop the other side of the park." The park was as dimly lit as the alley, and many of the lamp posts were damaged from the events of the past month. The path through was a straight line of slippery brick pavers, and they made their way across quickly, but not too quickly. "The bus leads to a residential part of the city in the hills of School District 21. Thing is there are no schools there, so I thought …"

"We'd be away from the other students."

"Yes. I thought where we're going you…we'd… be left alone. You brought your towel and swimsuit for the onsen?"

"Is any part of you thinking that this feels like a date?" There was an edge to her voice, but he couldn't quite work out what it meant so he ploughed on.

"It shouldn't. It is a 250 year old family onsen. There's an outside stone fringed pool fed straight from the source. Tsuchimikado says he takes his sister there. It's not like I'm taking you to the cinema or the amusement park, is it? You know. The classic dates in this city."

"I know Maika. It's probably as you say." There was a hint of disappointment there, and the words of Othinus on the trip back from Los Angeles were ringing in his mind. 'Are you really sure human that the short haired girl doesn't like you?' It was a thought he dwelled on as they finished the final 20 metres across the park.

"Run Misaka!" A bus was standing at the stop, and a buzzer was sounding, and the two charged through the door which immediately slammed shut behind them. They tagged on with their transport passes and made their way to the back of the bus and they sat down next to each other. Mikoto was on his left and had grabbed the seat by the window. They were the only students on the bus, and with the noise of the engine making it difficult to overhear them Touma asked the two questions he was dying to ask. "Why are you now in the school garden, and why are you pretending to be a clone?"

"The School Garden is easy. Tokiwadai thought the School Garden dorm would be more secure and I'd be hassled less. To be honest I'm missing, and really not missing, having Kuroko sharing my room. They gave me a large room of my own. The clone outfit is a bit more complex."

"…which means Misaka?"

"When I go out as a clone I'm hiding in plain sight. People are definitely interested in the level 5 who has been cloned. They aren't that interested in the low level esper clone. I'm used to people recognising me, but when you are a clone, particularly without the uniform, it's different. There's no expectation when they look at me." She'd been looking intently at her lap, and then Mikoto turned in his direction, "Kamijou… I'm beginning to understand again what it means to be ordinary. I'm not so sure I dislike the sensation."

"I never expected you to say that."

"I never expected you to listen quite so attentively as I said it."

The eyes were searching his face, possibly for a sign of weakness, and her expectation of an answer finally got the better of him. "Misaka?"

"Yes Kamijou?" The stare was intense, as only a level 5's could probably be, and he took a deep breath before going on. It was as much as he could do to ask the question, but he couldn't bring himself to look at her as he asked it.

"Othinus says you like me. That you like me…a lot." Then he waited. A whole city block passed before the answer came.

"Given our parents sent us on this 'date' they seem to think it runs both ways."

"Our parents…" His voice said everything that needed to be said. The jerk of his body, the constriction of his pupils, and the dropping of his jaw were not needed to fully understand the situation. Then his mind focused back on the unsaid.

"You said runs both ways, but how do you feel."

"I saw how you reacted to the High Priest's letter that day and you're expecting a confession, to you, from me." That tone was the same one from the phone call to Los Angeles where she'd told him off. It was that conversation Othinus had pointed out to him, and the hope the magic god was wrong was evaporating before his eyes. The snort she used to sell the line provided no comfort at all.

Touma looked across at his travel companion. Mikoto's eyes were glued straight ahead, and he sensed any conversation was over for now. Why had he expected Misaka Mikoto confess to him? Did it really matter? He was determined to his core not to go out with a middle schooler, but…he had to admit…it would have been sweet….and if she were a high schooler? He looked at his raised right hand. He was beginning to think its prime function in life was to make sure he didn't have a girlfriend, let alone offspring. The battles, the hospital visits, walking in accidently and embarrassing girls, behaving like 'an idiot' in front of a girl who possibly did. He cast his eyes sideways again and noticed the level five's almost immediately go back to the straight ahead.

The bus kept rolling through the city block after block. Occasionally a student got on, but they soon disembarked. Only the adults stayed on. The road began to twist as they neared their destination. At the start of the journey they had the occasional tall building. Then the odd single story building appeared. The road narrowed to only two lanes and began to twist as it wound its way uphill. Now the buildings were disappearing, and forest clung on the steep bank on one side of the road. Finally, the bus pulled into what was more a village square hemmed in by a wooded valley.

The two teens hopped off the bus, and Touma watched Mikoto's face as she scanned her right hand for some reason, then turned her attention to the buildings in the square. He knew her well enough to know that she was processing something in her mind. The buildings that surrounded them were all wood, typically two stories, and the odd three story apartment block burst through the tree cover. The square's perimeter was a selection of restaurants, in which every patron was an adult, and there were convenience stores, except for one side. A low rise building filled one side and even from the bus stop on the far side of the square there was a faint whiff of sulphur.

"Kamijou. Have you ever heard of 'Teacher Town'?" He turned his attention back to his travel companion.

"The place in urban legend where mostly teachers live and there are no students."

"I think we're there. I could imagine that if there was a really good onsen here the teachers would make sure their students didn't know about it. Come on."

He was practically jogging as she pulled him by the hand across the square toward the onsen. As they got closer he could see steam rising from the outdoor pool on the far side of the building. It was cold here but what was on the far side was definitely very warm. Through the double door entrance they were confronted by two vending machines and an empty counter, with a bell sitting on it. The wall behind had a price list. The sign gave the name of the establishment Hinansho Konyoku.

"Touma it's, konyoku, a mixed bathing onsen."

"We knew that Misaka, so why are you turning red," and it wasn't just red. It was a shade of red he hadn't seen before.

"You…you…didn't check it was…"

His fingers followed where her hand was pointing. The sign that made it clear there were 'no swimsuits'. Sparks were beginning to form, and he placed his right hand on her back to defuse her, as by this stage Mikoto was hyperventilating.

"It's OK Touma. You can remove your hand." That smile on her face. He'd seen that devil before. Something had changed. Even more concerning for somebody with his luck, something was about to happen.

He watched as Mikoto walked up to the vending machine. The first thing she did was put an ID card into the machine and pull it out.

"Why did you do that Misaka?" Her finger pointed to a sign. It was an evening session for guests over 16 years old. Not surprising for Teacher Town. "How did you get past that."

The grin hadn't gone away as she showed him an ID card. Misaka 12571 who'd turned 16 years old two weeks ago. "I thought it may come in handy." He heard a drop of a towel from the machine. That was what must have calmed her down. It wasn't unusual in a mixed onsen that for an extra fee that you could hire a towel for modesty. Then Mikoto started walking toward the female changing rooms along a wood panelled corridor. That smile and the wave should have alerted him.

Touma followed her lead and started with his school identity card. "Proof of age verified. Payment method verified." Then he selected an adult entry. He pressed the towel and a buzzer sounded. He pressed again to the same effect. Touma then paid attention to the red message scrolling across the bottom of the screen, and he began to tense. 'The hiring of a towel is an invalid option for male patrons. Towel supply is limited and available only for female guests. We thank you for your understanding." Touma also knew that limitation was typically Japanese, and for the first time in his life Kamijou Touma seriously wanted to kick a vending machine.

"You…you…Misaka!"

A head popped from behind a curtain in the corner of the foyer. "Is everything fine." A plump middle aged woman was looking at him with a motherly concern of the type he didn't get from his own mother. His reflexive reaction was to abruptly turn back to the machine to hide his face from her.

A deep breath to calm himself. "Yes, everything is." Touma could see that his reflection in the screen was as red as the level 5's ever got. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself further.

"I thought you…have a nice evening", and he heard a swish of the curtain as the attendant went back to what they had been doing.

Kamijou kept looking at himself in the screen and out came a whispered growl, "I'm not going to let a middle schooler get the better of me."

It was his turn to change. The male changing rooms were white tiles wall and ceiling with wooden benches and blue lockers. He had the room to himself, and he could take time to look at himself in the mirror before going into the pool. Droplets of water covered his body from the brief shower he'd had before entering the pool. Another convention. Fortunately, he had no bandages at the moment, but for a sixteen year old his body had an amazing number of scars. The frog faced doctor had done his best, and most were fine lines, but they were still there. He braced himself then released. "Alright Kamijou, let's do this."

There was a single irregularly shaped outdoor pool of opaque steaming water. It looked over a mountain stream burbling below into a woodland. This place should have been in any tourist brochure for Academy City, yet it wasn't. To his right he saw the back of Mikoto's head as she sat near the women's entrance. The towel she'd hired was in a rack on the rocks behind her, and fortunately she couldn't see him. She'd wound him up, but she also didn't want the embarrassment to progress any further. That made sense with regard the Onee-sama he knew.

He put his foot on the first step down into the pool. It was a green sulphurous pool with a milky texture. His foot all but disappeared. Slowly he stepped into the pool. The source temperature was nearly 60 degrees, and although the air was cold the water was searing, and he stepped down into it slowly. The disaster happened the second step from the bottom.

"Hi Kamijou. … I thought you'd be studying Kamijou? … Is that girl over there with you Kamijou? … I thought you were in America?" If those word had come from one person it may have been bad, but it was four separate voices. He'd been watching his feet as he stepped down, fortunately his waist was still above the water when he looked ahead, or the consequences may have been even worse.

Four people were sitting along the side of the pool with only their heads above the water and they were all looking in his direction. Tsukuyomi Komoe, Yomikawa Aiho, Oyafune Suama, and to finish it off counsellor Saigo. In that moment with the shock, with the heat, Touma started falling backwards, the world was a fog, and the last thing he remembered was seeing stars.

'Crack.' The slap from Saigo would have woken a rhinoceros. A sixteen year old boy was jolted back to the real world. The shake that followed nearly gave him whiplash, and his jaw was slightly numb at the impact point. "Are you OK Kamijou?" The face of Saigo was opposite his. Touma wasn't sure if any other pupil at his high school had seen the face of Saigo when he was concerned, but he knew what that looked like as he looked into the face only a foot front of his.

"I think I'm fine. Where's Misaka?"

"I'm good thanks." He looked toward where the voice came from, and it was obvious Mikoto had been talking to the three women before he'd woken up. She was looking over her shoulder and gave him a little wave.

"Humph." That came from Saigo. "It's not normal for a Japanese person to faint in these situations Kamijou. This is part of our culture. Look, if you need my help, you know the door is always open Kamijou. Don't be the macho teenage boy and bottle things up."

"Yes, sir." It came out dazed. Touma was still trying to process this alternate reality where Saigo was nice and Mikoto appeared to be best buddies with his teachers.

He watched as the three women, and Mikoto made their way over to him.

"Misaka 12751 seems a lot nicer than those two idiots you usually spend time with in class. Why didn't you introduce us earlier" That was his pint sized homeroom teacher. Behind her Touma saw Mikoto desperately holding her hand over her mouth trying not to laugh. He'd guessed what had happened. Mikoto could be the respectable big sister type, although for some reason practically never with him, and she'd clicked into this mode with his teachers.

"I'm impressed Kamijou that you wouldn't hold against the girl the fact she's a clone." That was his black haired PE teacher. Off her left shoulder he could see a string of bubble emanating from where Mikoto had been. If she ever told anybody else about this evening she was dead, that was if she didn't die from laughter first.

A head burst out of the water; he was no longer the centre of attention. Quickly. Mikoto started making her way toward him, and in those seconds she also became his saviour. "It's nice meeting you all but this level two came here to have a private chat with this level zero." She nodded to each of the teachers in turn and began drawing him back to where she'd been seated when they first arrived.

"Please don't tell anybody about this?" A nod came from the girl to his right. "If I kill Tsuchimikado Motoharu, will you cover me?"

That was met by a slight giggle. "I was wondering when you'd figure out this was a set up." As Mikoto spoke her tone became more and more serious. "I'm willing to bet Maika has never been here… Kamijou. If Saten did this to me I'd be making the same request to you."

"I'd cover for you."

"Thanks, and thanks for bringing me here. I think Maika may have missed out. It's a really nice onsen. We also need to talk about Los Angeles and you leaving me behind." The big sister type at the folk dance all those months ago hadn't switched off when she stopped talking to the teachers. This was a change of tack from the level 5, and one she kept at for the rest of the conversation.

"Touma. I've told you before we're on the same path. We both save people. We both can be too proud for our own good sometimes."

"I wouldn't say…" He was interrupted before he finished, and the accusation hit home.

"What's your attitude to middle schoolers?"

"Ummm."

"Exactly, and I don't want to see you hurt. I think you don't want to see me hurt too. If you were badly hurt and I could have saved you I'd regret not being there... but does the same apply in reverse?"

"Yes, but…"

"It needs to work both ways." That was a slight scold then the abnormal service resumed." You asked once at the folk dance if you were my friend. You definitely are, but friends look out for each other. I find it really hard as the level 5 to let my friends look after me, but you make me look good."

At that point the mask dissolved, the face looked down, and became bright red.

If when she'd spoken she'd been agitated, if she'd been a sea of embarrassment, if she'd been aggressive, anything else it would have hit home less. This was Mikoto as a straight shooter, and he had just discovered he didn't have a defence against that. It was very much the same reason why when his classmate Fukiyose spoke she often had more impact than others could.

"I promise I'll try to be better next time Mikoto."

A small but grateful voice came from the girl who didn't look up. "Thanks Touma."

The next twenty minutes they sat there in silence side by side in the pool soaking in the warmth. Aches and pains that had been there for months he now realised had been there for months dissipated. Out here he could also see the stars more clearly, and he started picking out constellations. Then Mikoto started picking them out next to him. For once it didn't feel like a competition. Eventually he looked over his shoulder and saw that his teachers had left. A voice came from beside him. "If you need to get back to study, I understand."

"You know about my grades?"

"It was the second thing I asked. The first Saigo reassured me he had in hand. Why didn't you say something? I could have helped."

"It has something about being too proud to get help from middle schoolers, but if I can't figure something out I'll call you now."

That response got a smile. "Come on, it's time we were going." He watched her get out of the pool. With the towel he saw nothing, but he did notice she had great legs. Why did he not notice that when she had the Tokiwadai skirt? Maybe it was the location? He made his way separately across the pool and back up the steps into the male changing room.

Quarter of an hour later they met in the foyer. Mikoto was standing in front of a vending machine, full of milk. It was time to reach into his wallet. "Would you like a milk Misaka?"

"Yes please. I was wondering when you'd spend some of the 5000 yen on me."

"Yes, I am, but how did you know?"

"My father, Tabigake, doesn't quite approve of the matchmaking so he filled me in. Still, at this rate we could come back here a few times and I like this place"

"We'll see Misaka." It was an indefinite answer, but Kamijou noted that Mikoto seemed pleased enough with it. He paid for the two milks and handed her one first.

"Touma. Doesn't it seem odd to you we grabbed a cold drink on a winter night?"

"It does, but I thought drinking milk has something to do with helping growth." He kept his eyes deliberately focused on her face as he said it.

That earnt him a raised eyebrow. "You read too many Shonen manga. After World War Two Japan had a lack of refrigerators and a milk producer had the clever idea of distributing milk at bath houses because they did. It combined what were two luxuries in the same visit. Now the two are invariably linked together in Japanese culture." She clinked her bottle against his.

A nod toward the bus on the other side of the square and they walked across the square sipping on their milk. They threw their glass bottles in the recycling bin at the bus stop and boarded the bus that would take them home. As they had done on the journey to 'Teacher Town' they went down the back of the bus again but this time they didn't really need to. The bus was empty on the way back, but the back seats still had some advantage. The heating worked better near the engine, and it was slightly colder up in the hills than in the main part of Academy City.

As they left the hills Mikoto began the conversation again, and she was still in big sister mode.

"Touma. Have you ever thought about going out with a middle schooler?"

"Mikoto. I'd get hell from my classmates about going out with any middle schooler, or any girl much younger than myself. You know how Academy City works. If it were a person I was going out with when I left middle school that would be easier, but once in high school this barrier goes up."

Mikoto came back quickly. "So, for you it would be easier if a girlfriend was at least 16, probably not a high level esper, and not going to middle school." He guessed she was probably looking at him with a raised eyebrow, but for what he was about to say it was easier to stay looking ahead.

"It may not strike you as fair but we both know it would be the cold reality." The high schooler in him was nodding as he said this, but there was also a side of him that felt like he was shooting himself in the foot. He couldn't blame this on his hand. Yet, for some reason his response didn't get the level 5 down.

"You could go out with someone like Misaka 12751 quite easily though. She's 16, which your teachers can attest to, not at middle school, and only a level two, which your teachers can also confirm."

Kamijou Touma squirmed in his seat. This was a new kind of awkward. He could lose a friend in a nano second here, even though what she said in a way made sense.

"Mikoto. I know you've been behaving differently the last hour and I appreciate it, but I can't…" A finger across his lips stopped him.

"Let me tell you a story Kamijou. Once there was a couple stalked around the underground mall. Not long ago she saw a photo showing of both of them holding hands, at the time she didn't realise it." The level 5 was still in big sister mode, but there was now a fragile edge to it. It was almost as if that if he interrupted, she'd shatter in front of him.

Eyes darted across to his face to see if he was paying attention. He didn't believe he'd held hands that day, but on the other hand there were photos.

"The same girl was too proud to admit she wanted to go out with the boy and denied it, to her friends, even to herself for a long time. Her mother and her friends understood what was going on and thought her behaviour 'adorable'."

Mikoto nodded her head, indicating he needed to look down. Touma saw his hand placed on top of hers, and in response he quickly pulled it away.

"You've been doing it all night Touma. On the way here. Under water when we sat next to each other in the onsen. Across the square you held my hand, and now on the journey back, just like that day in the underground mall. You woke up from that faint and the first thing you did in panic was enquire about me. You didn't notice but I did."

Kamijou Touma sat there stunned. He was thinking of something to say, but somehow words were failing to come out.

"I need to go shopping now Touma. This is my stop here. I'm getting off early. You, I think, have something you need to consider on the journey back."

He watched as Mikoto got up, carefully put back on the goggles, and walked toward the exit door. Touma sat their immobile, as Mikoto exited the bus and waved him goodbye. It was all he could do to wave back.

It was a block and two more stops before he could even utter a word. "Oh crap."

"I can't think why you thought that went badly."

The voice belonged to a head, with an impish grin, that was poking out of his backpack on the floor between his legs. It was looking directly at him.

"Othinus. Have you seen everything that happened tonight?" Damn it. Possibly another witness.

"Yes, including the episode with your teachers which was highly amusing."

The palm of his hand reflexively hit his forehead in response to that.

"Please don't tell Index."

"I understand that would be bad for you. There is one thing I want to say however human."

The spiky haired boy squinted at his pint sized roommate as she said that. Touma understood that whatever was about to come out was likely to annoy him.

"What is it Othinus?"

"I feel like Mikoto's friends. Tonight, you were 'adorable'."

His hand attempted to swat her for saying that but struck thin air. By the time his hand reached the end of the swipe he also realised that he wasn't proud of that particular moment. Touma crossed his arms as a cackle, which he proceeded to ignore, emanated from inside his pack.

He opened his phone and proceeded to look through the address book instead. He scrolled down and pressed Mikoto's number and was about to text her something. Then Touma stopped and thought better of it. He had to admit to himself that she was probably right. This was something he definitely had to think about. He was also beginning to realise in which direction he was most likely to go. If that was the case, he also realised that it would be best to have Mikoto, no 12751, around when he told Index. If he didn't do that, he'd end up looking like he'd been attacked by a giant meat tenderiser.

From his pack a slight cackle still could sporadically be heard. For what was about to happen Touma would need her advice, and probably not that of the other two 'idiots'. Hopefully, she'd calm down soon. As he got out of the bus he threw his pack over his shoulder, which was accompanied by an 'ouch' and looked again at his right hand as he held it in front of his face. "Nothing's ever simple with you around. Is it?"

Author's Note:

This story is getting a decent amount of traffic. The original outline was posted on a forum where most people know OT12 says the following, "They were currently walking around town hand in hand, but for better or worse, neither one was aware of that fact." It is the crux of the whole story.

I've also been asked a few times now, but this is definitely no longer a one off. Originally I didn't want to write this as a series or novel, then the ideas started flowing so I've written the first (the Onsen again but from Mikoto's perspective which includes what happens the next morning) and have 3 ideas for 'one shot' sequels I'm churning over in my mind.

I made the initial suggestion on the kamikoto reddit forum for a 'date idea', then realised that maybe I'd like to write it. Two days later, and after a manic Sunday night this came out. It was posted quickly to remain 'fresh' with the forum so I didn't check as thoroughly as I usually would. It's a bit raw as a result, but I plan to keep it that way. In contrast with Oiso Blankow and Stryper gave me feedback, and I didn't touch it for nearly four weeks so I could look at it with fresh eyes.

Therefore, thanks to those who pointed out a couple of flaws I've now tried to correct. I really now need to return to Oiso in Paradise, which I'm nearly a quarter of the way through, the successor to Patient. If I ever get there the plan looks like this: "Monster's Uprising" (prequel), "The Oiso Patient", "Oiso in Paradise", "Oiso in Anime" and finally "The Oiso Kidnap". To answer another question I've been asked on that. Misaki appears in parts 1,3 and 5.