Zero Divided From The Minuses
Ask_Yourself:_What_Would_Kumagawa_Do?
They had only about a few hours until Tsuchimikado Motoharu fully lost himself to his revenge, which was being generous as far as the time was concerned. There was no clues as to where or when he would act to avenge the loss of his step-sister. They hadn't even come anywhere near as to exactly why he was going to such lengths either. But regardless of this, Kumagawa Misogi and Kamijou Touma race across the city for answers, an escape, and some fun for one half of the unfortunate duo.
"I'm surprised you even know how to drive."
[Why? I may not look it but I'm older than my face may appear. Besides, if I know how to hot-wire a car, shouldn't logic dictate that I can operate it as well?]
"Sure. But you didn't hot-wire it. You just smashed your elbow into the driver's side window, jumped in, All Fiction'd the event so car alarm would shut up, and then you jammed a screw in the ignition to start the thing!"
[Semantics.]
"You didn't even have to do that! This isn't a car that needs a key since the ignition is just a fingerprint scan start. It's not like you had to jam whatever in there to turn anything inside there. You could have just touched the scanner and used All Fiction to make it recognize your prints as being the owner's."
[But that's boring. My way is tacti-COOL.]
After having successfully escaped from Ajimu's Terminals, Kumagawa found a car for them to travel in and, as it had been mentioned, 'hot-wired' the car so they could expedite their search for Tsuchimikado.
[At any rate, I think I ought to give you a lesson in fighting Skill users for future reference. Odds are we may find other Terminal's along the way.]
Touma looks sidelong at the driver with a great deal of exhaustion.
"Do we really have time for that?"
[Oh no! Don't worry! I'm not planning on fighting you or throwing you at random passersby until you wind up in a fight with some rando Skill user! It's more of a lecture than anything. Plus, I'm still waiting on a text from she-who-can't-be-remembered to tell us where your friend is at. We don't really have the luxury to go looking around on our own otherwise.]
"That tone of yours doesn't inspire a lot of confidence there but do I really need it? Not to sound overconfident here but you guys have enough similarities with espers to cope well enough on that knowledge alone."
[Tsk, tsk, tsk! You sweet, sweet little noob. Personal Realities and Skills have a bit in common, I'll admit, but the fundamentals of it all are too different from what you know.]
As he watches Kumagawa wag his index finger, Touma inwardly sighs as he prepares for what he feels will be a major pain in his ass and possibly an even bigger waste of his time.
"Hows that?"
[For example, I was able to take advantage of that unremarkable leader of those Terminals by using that loophole in his Skill to the fullest. His Skill was defined as being able to force 'what is normal to society' on his surroundings, which is why I was unable to do anything at first. But by provoking him to see what's 'normal' to society here, I was able to put a spin on that power. Thus allowing the two of us to use our abilities in the full capacity of what's 'normal to society'!]
"So you were just pretending to be pissed off at him then?"
[PFFFT! Of course! Do you really believe that I could have my nerves rattled by an idiot like that?]
"...You really weren't mad?"
The driver that was having his motivations questioned stays irritatingly silent for a time before he responds.
[...Maybe a little but that just helped to make the performance all the more believable. The point I'm trying to make here is that whenever he decides to bug me again, he won't have that loophole anymore. That's the main difference. Personal Realities allow for one to essentially warp reality but they are constrained by that reality they manipulate. An esper with pyrokinesis can't suddenly spout water from his hands nor can a pyro go beyond the set definition of their ability unless they can perform the calculations for it. Skill users don't have that problem. As long as one has a decent enough control over their own psychology, a Skill user can bend those definitions as much as they want without any need for complicated algorithms. As much as I hate to admit, Sei must have at least that much power over his self to be able to twist Anshin'in-san's Skills to become his own like that. He'll go from having a Skill that 'enforces societal normalcy' to 'enforcing normalcy as he, alone, sees it'.]
"Wouldn't that make him unstoppable?"
[Nah. No matter what, he's still a human being with very human reasons and wants. As long as his personality remains in that realm, he can still be understood. If he can be understood, I can find a weak spot to hit one way or the other. Skill users are by definition constrained by the limits of their psychological will, as I've said. They can only use their Skills how they want, on whomever they want, and whenever they want. They can't go against that on principal alone. You gotta fight them on the mental level more than the physical, you know.]
"That still sounds like it'd be near impossible when he can dictate what powers work and what powers don't work."
[Hmm. Ever hear of the riddle called Room with No Windows?]
Touma raises an eyebrow.
"Can't say I have."
[Okay so, you're in a room with no windows or doors. The only things inside it with you are a table and a mirror. How do you leave the room?]
He thinks on it for a bit before asking for a hint.
"...Well, I assume this isn't one that can be thought out rationally, right?"
[Correctumundo!]
"I'm really not good with these kinds of mind games but...does it have to do with the mirror?"
[Obviously, yeah.]
Touma thinks on it some more but he hadn't really gotten too focused on it. Not just because riddles of that nature just wasn't his thing but also because he had a feeling that Kumagawa wanted to give him the answer to prove some unknowable point.
"Ahhhh, I give up."
[Okay! You look in the mirror and see what you saw. You take the saw and cut the table in half. You put the two halves onto a wall since two halves make a whole. Then you just crawl through the hole!]
"Oh, so you just have to play with the wording a bit to get the answer. But what does that have to do with fighting Skill users?"
[All you have to do is gather what the Skill user's reasons and personality is like to gain an understanding of them. From there, you just have to play with their emotions and reasons like the wording of that riddle until a weakness reveals itself or is otherwise made for you. But given how I've heard about your fighting style, that should be plenty easy for you.]
Touma narrows his eyes at the sudden change of conversational tone.
"What are you talking about?"
[Oh come on! You have to realize by now that those speeches aren't just to make your opponent see how their wrong about whatever it is they are doing. They have been working exceedingly well to mess with their judgment and get them to trip up enough for you to fill the experience gap.]
"That's not what-"
[Well, you probably aren't even doing it on purpose given your personality.]
Touma turns to yell at him out of annoyance.
"I'm not doing that at all, consciously or not! I'm honestly trying to get them to stop deluding themselves into thinking it's alright to do the messed up things they do!"
[So it's just a coincidence that they either stop fighting you or start becoming a lot sloppier in their movements and actions after you speak to them from a position that was gained from hearing them lay out their motivations and observing their actions?]
He couldn't outright deny that. It was true that he simply wanted to help those people out of whatever hell they had found themselves in but who could really say whether or not the methods he used to force them to see their errors was just some subconscious response like the actions of his right hand from time to time? Is it really just his goodwill toward others or is it some rationalized attack pattern carried over from before he lost his memories? The man himself certainly hadn't the answers to that one, much to his chagrin.
"That's..."
[...Well. Whatever. With how you fight, my advice might be useless since none of what I said matters as long as you just sneak up and sucker punch the hell out of whoever is in your way. Miss 50-first-dates still hasn't gotten back to me so I'll just go get Enshuu-chan and see if she can help here.]
"I've been wondering for a bit now but who have you been referring to with those odd names? Do you have a hard time remembering her or something?"
Kumagawa gives Touma a rather odd look that he can't quite figure out.
[First off, you know what 50 First Dates is?]
"No, I just assume it's the same person as she-who-can't-be-remembered. Is that some manga or something?"
[Phew, don't worry about it. It's just some foreign movie. The fact that you don't know just means that we are out of the range of any Terminals. For now at least. Let me make a call real quick.]
Kumagawa clumsily tries punching in the numbers but after nearly running another car off the road, Touma swipes it from him and connects it to the car's hands-free Bluetooth functions.
"There. Just say who the contact is and the car will take care of the rest."
[Holy shit! I knew this city was advanced but that's super cool!]
"Pretty sure that technology isn't limited to just Academy City though."
His uttered comment was ignored as Kumagawa called out the contact and got the connection almost immediately.
[Damn, that was fast Enshuu-chan! Did you really miss me that mu-]
"No but I was about to call you about her anyway so this is just as well."
The voice that came from the speakers was in no way alike the middle-school aged mad scientist girl but it was a familiar one despite that fact.
[Oh hey End-of-the-Century Emperor! Hows it hanging?]
"Sup Kumagawa. Do you mind swinging by and picking Enshuu up? I'm kinda worried about sending her home like this."
Hamazura Shiage's voice was relatively calm but a loud slurred voice and some other agitated ones shrilled over quite a few of his words.
[Guess I don't mind since that was my plan but what's going on over there? I hear a lot of noises.]
"You're going to enjoy this-hey. Am I on speakerphone?"
[Yeah, yeah! I'm driving over to your place in a car I stole with Touma-kun. You know, the friend of yours that I fought back on that bridge. Remember?]
"...I do. Do you remember throwing me off that bridge? Is all of that really something you should be saying on an unsecured line? Hi Touma."
Touma smiles at the meek greeting in the mutual understanding of how frustrating it can be to be roped into something with Kumagawa.
"Hey Shiage."
[To the last half, do you think I care about doing sensible things? It's in my nature as a man nearly old enough to be a wizard to act in total irresponsibility. To the first half, yes, I remember. Pretty sure we called that one even when I came over and All Fiction'd your vision to see past the first layer of clothing for an hour and a half. Or do you not remember?]
"You keep quiet about that goddamnit."
Touma speaks up at that comment.
"...Seriously?"
"Are you questioning my resolve as a man when faced with the temptation of such an ability?"
"Stop making it sound cool! You were just sitting there like some kid with cheap x-ray glasses!"
[But these were x-ray contacts, technically speaking. And they WORKED.]
"You stay out of this! Actually, scratch that, I'll just punch the two of you later for that so just get on with what you wanted from your fellow pervert!"
[Right on, right on. Go on Zura-chan. Ignore the protagonist that's too dense to realize his own desires.]
"...I don't know if I really want to be grouped together with you in that category but whatever. At any rate, we were celebrating some stuff that I uh don't feel too comfortable talking about-"
[So Moogs and Thigh-ai had done some unsavory acts for bargain prices and you were all celebrating the wealth brought in at the expense of someone else's life slash lives. Right?]
"...Some stuff I'm not comfortable talking about-"
Kumagawa turns to Touma with a horribly disguised hush in his tone.
[Called it.]
Hamazura, to his credit, soldiered on through Kumagawa's usual provocation.
"That was around when Enshuu showed up at our door looking for you. Said something about you leaving a letter this morning saying that you were going to take a trip into School Garden to flip some skirts and eat some pastries with a friend of yours."
[Yeah, think I remember that.]
"So Kinuhata offers for her to stay and wait for you here since you'll be likely to be chased out of School Garden and show up wherever there's a congregation of cute girls, to which Enshuu agrees. Now, we had some liquor out for this party. Not a lot or anything but enough to get something going. Your little Kihara says she's never drank before so Mugino, in all her sadistic wisdom, decides to get her plastered. Starts her with a beer, she drinks a bit, then a lot, and the next thing you know everything goes totally insane. Like, she goes mad scientist and starts MacGyvering all kinds of crazy shit."
[You know MacGyver?]
"Only because of Kinuhata and her odd hobby. But anyway once she got drunk, everyone else started to have a good buzz going and they all wanted to rile her up out of some sick curiosity. Though I'll admit it was pretty impressive to see how she handled those damn telemarketers. Even if I'm sure the poor guy is dead."
[Whoa, whoa, whoa. Tell me everything.]
Touma interjects out of interest for the time sensitivity of their situation.
"Kumagawa."
[Shhhh! I need to hear this man! Go on!]
"So the girls start complaining about the telemarketer that had been calling when Enshuu suddenly jumps and shouts, 'PHONE SPIDERS', before tearing the tv remote apart and turning it into some robot spider things. She dials the number for the place and some dude named, 'Rick', picks up."
[Rick? Who is that guy fooling? He could at least just use his real name and say he's some a part of some foreign exchange program or something.]
"Right? Anyway, she sends the spiders through the receiver and, with a LOT of screaming from the other end, I can safely say our telemarketing problems are over.'
[Wait, how does that work?]
"Beats the hell out me. Enshuu just said she had some connection going to the thought patterns of some American Kihara that lives in some castle by the South Jersey Shore or something. Says that she can't get access unless her mental state is precariously unstable, such as when she's drunk off her tiny ass. Really don't know how she can put that much away without hurling. I'm pretty sure I've seen grown men get alcohol poisoning from less than what she's had but she seems fine for how much she's drank. Anyway, she just got done making some kind of serum out of a milkshake and some mayo that'll apparently cause you to explode whenever your blood is exposed to air. She hadn't given a reason for that other than, 'just in case'. So, I'd appreciate it if you came and got her before she drinks the house dry and makes an actual nuke out of the oven and some paperclips."
[Yeah, I'm coming. See you in a bit.]
"See ya."
With that, the extraordinary conversation ended with a dial tone before Touma disconnected the phone from the car's Bluetooth.
"Do you really think it's a good idea to let-"
[YES. Come on man! From the sounds of it she's become mad science at it's best! That sort of stuff will totally come in handy here! Plus we can get info on which of those Board of Directors is after your bud.]
"What makes you think it's them?"
[You said he was a double agent of a sort right? Well, his place gets torched and his sister is presumed dead on official channels. If it was the other side, that would be a super ballsy move to pull off in enemy territory. Not impossible exactly but still damned improbable. So if the likely option is Academy City, then it must be one of those Directors that did it. Enshuu is a Kihara, Kihara's got the underground connections, so all the pieces are there for her to know the likely targets in this one. As long as we get there before your friend does, we've cleared this event!]
"That's...that's actually pretty well thought out. Should I be concerned about that?"
[Dunno. Probably. It's some pretty dang dodgy stuff we're dealing with so you might just die today. When you get to Hell and find it to be chillier than you imagined, that would be a good time to start worrying about mundane stuff like that.]
"I'm only allowed to worry when I'm dead huh? Well that does make some sense, unfortunately. Though, I get the feeling that I won't even be allowed to relax in death anyway."
[The sky is so blue but our future is looking pretty dark.]
"That sounds familiar...where did you hear that from?"
[Wouldn't you like to know. Probably your Momma.]
"Sounds like she's pretty drunk though…do you really think she'll be able to help at all?"
The car stops at a light as Kumagawa frowns.
[Makes me feel pretty lonesome when you ignore an obvious insult like that but yeah. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me to find out she knows a solution for getting instantly sober. If not, boom, All Fiction.]
"Well. All right. As long as we can finally get to saving Tsuchimikado. What do we do when we find that Director before he does?"
An ambiguous smile comes over the driver as he stares ahead at the green light.
[Don't worry about that. One we have Enshuu-chan, I'll be able to go ahead with the perfect plan for putting a stop to that guy's revenge.]
Touma wanted to question that comment but the sight of a small, wavering girl with a duffle bag over one shoulder and a bottle in her hand halts that train of thought with her odd singing.
"Chicken attaaahaaak! Chicken atta- Kumagawa-oniichan! Ohoho! Touma-oniichan too! Now ish a partay!"
They pull up to the curb as she starts to polish off the rest of whatever she had in the bottle. The whole time, Kumagawa had his phone out to commit it all to video for the purpose of embarrassing Enshuu later on.
[Heheheh. This is awesome.]
"...I'm about 99% sure she has nothing to do with your plan and you just wanted to see her drunk."
[You're only figuring that out now? Wait, wait, wait! That was a joke! Please, stay in the car.]
Touma shuts his door with no small amount of hesitation and regret. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, an Anti Skill officer had just begun to head over to the disheveled girl.
"Excuse me miss? I'm pretty sure you aren't old enough for alcohol, but I already made that mistake with a teacher earlier this week so can I see some ID?"
Touma felt twin emotions of respect and guilt at that moment. Respect for the man that was simply doing his job in caring for the citizens of the city and guilt that he would have to trouble that man with some improvised lie to get her out of that situation and into the car. Before he could do so, however, Enshuu chucks the bottle at the Anti Skill officer's face and jumps into the back of the car through the open back window.
"SHTEP ON IT STEVE! GO, GO, GO!"
"WHAT THE HELL!?"
[But I'm not-]
"JUSHT GO FORE THE PIG GETS UP!"
The car screeches away from the crime as they bolt down the road and around a corner.
"SHE JUST BELTED AN ANTI SKILL OFFICER IN THE FACE! WITH A BOTTLE!"
[Meh, I used All Fiction before we left. Memories and injuries are gone so stop flipping out you drama queen.]
"THAT'S NOT THE PROBLEM HERE!"
[So who the hell is Steve, Enshuu-chan? I wasn't aware you had friends other me. You're making me jealous over here.]
With some frustrated noises that sounded more like he was being strangled than human speech, Touma gives up and silently hits his head against the glovebox repeatedly to quell his emotions.
"Ohhhh, Shworry bout that! I'm still using uh who wash it? Oh yeah! That Weird-ojisan! I'm still using his thought patterns caushe he's so fun! He talks a lot about some guy named Steve. Says he needs his right lung for a hat or something."
[Does sound fun. But we need you sober for some stuff so get your head over here for a sec.]
"Kaaaay!"
Her small head juts out in between the seats and not a moment sooner does Kumagawa slap her forehead with his free hand.
[Boom. All Fiction.]
"OW! What's going on? Why are we in a car? Since when could you drive? Touma-oniichan?"
"Onii-chan?"
[Never mind all that, I'll explain it to you later. Do you know where all the board of director guys are?]
Kumagawa glances at the rearview mirror as Enshuu rubs her forehead with a frown on her face.
"Yeah?"
[Do you know who Tsuchimikado uh, what's the guys first name?]
Touma tries to answer but the answer comes from the backseat.
"Tsuchimikado Motoharu? What about him? Is he why Touma-oniichan is here?"
[Really gotta ask why he deserves an 'onii-chan' honorific but yeah, can you think of any of those directors that might want him gone? To be more specific, which one would torch his apartment to get at his step-sister?]
"Hmm. Give me moment to check some stuff."
[Cool. I need a moment myself to do something too.]
He fumbles with his phone for but a second before Touma takes it again and connects it to the car.
"Who're you calling?"
[Just a sec.]
The phone rings for a few tones before the one on the other end picks up.
"Whatcha need boss?"
[How many times do I have to tell you, Matoi-chan! You need to be right behind me or something whenever I call so we can do the bit!]
"But I can't teleport boss! I wasn't given that kind of Skill!"
[Tch! ...Fine, moving on. Tell the guys to track down, hold on. Deflated pin-cushion man? What's that step-sister's name?]
The one that had been given a name that would be fitting for some D rate superhero sighs loudly.
"Just when I thought you were going to stop with those stupid names. It's Maika."
[Right, Tsuchimikado Maika. Tell them to find her and post a video with her tied up on the Internet. Don't care where as long as it can get spread out fast.]
"Got it. What should we say?"
Kumagawa's grin stretches to the point where Touma half-thinks that his face will split in half.
[Say that if her brother doesn't come to pick her up in the next hour, she'll be food for the worms.]
Kumagawa ends the call and disconnects the phone, all without stumbling once, as Touma gapes at him.
"...I'm...I'm going to keep calm and hear you out because there's no way-"
[What's Tsuchi-chan's motivation in all this, Touma-kun? He wants to get at the people that targeted his sister's life. But why is that so important to him? Sure it's his sister but I think the issue is something slightly subtler than that. He probably puts far more effort into keeping her away from the dangerous side of his life than he does for anything else. The fact that she was targeted at all made all those carefully laid out plans and lies go up in smoke. Therefore, wouldn't the best best way to destroy the part of his heart he lent to that girl be to get her so involved that she won't be able to go back to a normal life anymore?]
Touma had heard enough. He slaps down at his buckle release and lunges for Kumagawa but a firm hand and the feeling of something sharp at his throat stops him from moving any farther.
"You should stay seated, Touma-oniichan. You never know when an accident might happen."
Her cold words force him back into his seat as he glares daggers at Kumagawa.
[That's a pretty scary look! But just how far does that determination go, I wonder? If I wasn't here, you might have found him by now but there's no way you'd be able to stop him. Really stop him I mean. He's already done some horrible stuff today. Do you think some kind words and a soothing pat on the back can pull him from that? Your way is too inefficient for this. We need to cut down to the issue at it's root. Having him see his sister get totally torn from normal life, with no lie good enough to convince her that it'll be alright or that he has nothing to do with it, is the perfect way. Oh, don't worry though! I'll hit him with enough Bookmakers that he will hardly have the will to move a finger, much less commit suicide!]
"Do you really think that I'll just let you go through with that?"
The antagonistic look on Kumagawa's face softens ever so slightly.
[That's what I'm counting on. Enshuu-chan, the door?]
The passenger side door opens and before the sharpness leaves his skin, Enshuu whispers into his ear.
"Remember to tuck and roll, Touma-oniichan."
He scrunches up his eyebrows in confusion just as the next moment has him sent flying out the car from a swift kick by Kumagawa. Thankfully he remembered the dispassionate advice that Enshuu gave him but rolling about on the hard sidewalk after being kicked out of a moving car still hurts like hell no matter what you do. After groaning from the pain for a minute, he props himself up on his elbows.
"Damnit! I should have known that he would do something like that! What am I supposed to do now? Going after Tsuchimikado would be pointless since I'm sure he'll come running once the video hits the internet but I have no idea where the hell he sent Maika..."
His fist clenches till the whites of his knuckles show as he groggily stands. His options were virtually nonexistent here. There was no way he would be able to find that place unless he were to follow Kumagawa's stolen car but Touma lacks the skill required to both hot-wire a vehicle as well as drive it well enough to catch up. He could hijack a car as it was stopped but the security systems on the cars within the city didn't allow for just any novice to pull that off. Never mind the matter of having Anti Skill come after him for it. He hadn't a clue of what to do next and it was killing him.
But then, an unregistered number rang from his phone. At the slightest chance for an opportunity here, he answers.
"Hello?"
A mysteriously seductive voice replies from the other end.
"Hello!~ Hows things with that pseudo little brother of mine?"
Both that question as well as the voice were confusing for him.
"I don't know what you're talking about but I don't have a lot of time-"
A deep sigh echoes into his ear.
"What did Kumagawa do? Actually, never mind that. I can take a guess based on his personality. He's going to kill your friend's step-sister, right?"
It was odd for him. Despite not knowing who this person was, he didn't think they were involved with what Kumagawa was doing. It was clear that she knew him and it couldn't be mere coincidence that she would just 'guess' Kumagawa's actions but even so there was no doubt of her character. Perhaps he had known her before he lost his memories, he thought initially. Any sort of questions along that train of thought would have to wait, however.
"Yeah, that's right. Can you help me?"
Her soft laughter answers him.
"I realize you don't remember but who do you think I am?~ I found out where that step-sister was awhile back in case this happened. While you run over there, I'll tell you exactly what, without a margin of error, it is that Kumagawa is going to do."
It had taken him 45 minutes to get to the strange building in District 6, where Maika was sent to. The search for the place wouldn't have been so hard if the place wasn't already a maze of places built solely for entertainment. When he had asked about what the building looked like after being given it's address, his mystery caller simply laughed and replied that it's the strangest building in the entire district. She certainly wasn't wrong.
It was impossible to tell what the architect that designed the place was going for. There were Roman marble pillars, the roof had a Chinese Imperialistic style to it, on top of the sloped roofing was a dome reminiscent of the Taj Mahal, and the front doors were like two giant barn doors that automatically opened. There was so many differences, both geographically as well as culturally, in every single piece of the building that it was as though some god of architecture had gotten drunk and used what was thrown up on the blueprints for this abomination. Apparently it was supposed to be some sort of eccentric arcade.
The games they had there were all made by various game companies to have a place to showcase their more experimental work. Some of the games didn't have an end goal. Some barely even counted as games. But since they were all free to the public, it's not like people could complain about it too much.
"I don't even know how I'm supposed to sneak into here. This place is too complex for me to even know if what I'm looking at is the front entrance or not but either way, it's a good thing the place seems otherwise closed. It would get even worse if those Skill users could just mix into the crowd of regular people."
According to the girl that called him earlier, Tsuchimikado likely chose this place because it was closed and was also very hard to find, even when you know the address. It didn't help either that some of the games inside could connect to your phone without you knowing and screw with all sorts of things, making things like GPS nearly worthless when you got within a mile of the building. It was sort of like those computer games that would be able to read your save files, whether you deleted them or not, or that could create files for you to find on your desktop. It was meant to be something clever where the characters in-game could call you or you could find that you might be able to give them buffs by playing a song you enjoy. It's neat but many of the arcade's neighbors complain about it quite often.
Touma ignores what appears to be the front entrance in favor of a side alley, hopeful for another entrance. The side was very different from the front. In all appearances, it was more like any other building in the city.
"Did they just spend all their effort on the front and decide the rest was too much effort? Guess it's good they got lazy. I'd rather not have to go searching for some trick door here. Although, even something like that might be fine to waste time on. If she's right, then things won't really start until Tsuchimikado meets his sister. But I still can't let him see her yet."
He finds a side door and goes to open it but stops on seeing an odd symbol next to the door.
"Huh? Is that...supposed to be a zero? No, it's shaped differently."
It was simple in design. An octagon with a large slash going diagonally past the lines of the octagon on both sides.
"...It looks like the head of Kumagawa's screws."
Which would mean that his Skill users were definitely inside. But more concerning than that was where it was placed. Touma doubted that Tsuchimikado would go through the front, so this side entrance should be another avenue of thought for that double spy to follow. The symbol, however, made it seem like this could be a trap. They might have all sorts of unknown things lined up the way behind this door to slow whoever entered. Or perhaps not. It could just be a Red Herring. It could also be entirely coincidental. It could mean nothing or it could mean everything to the ones that wanted to rescue Maika.
Despite the high level trap in front of him, Touma chuckles softly to himself.
"You've really rubbed your influence off on these guys huh, Kumagawa? Though, if it was you, then there's no way you would have bothered to put in the effort to think so far ahead when you've already worked so hard to lure Tsuchimikado here. Well, I suppose that goes for me too."
He unhesitatingly opens the door and steps into the darkness within. It seems like this was something of a maintenance passageway due to how dull the lighting was. He follows it for a bit of a ways until he finds another door. Upon opening it, he finds a wide space lit only by the backlights of the arcade games within. Touma crouches as he enters, silently closing the door behind him. Voices come from a distance, sending Touma frantically for back of the ticket counter desk. From what he could tell without looking, one was a girl around his age while the other must've been a male teacher judging by how old he sounded.
"What's with that girl anyway? Since when did Kumagawa have a freaking Kihara around?"
"He mentioned her before, weirdo. Just keep quiet so we can at least pretend like we give a shit about keeping those two out of here."
The words weren't lost on Touma. His mystery caller had said to be careful because Kumagawa's intent wasn't just on getting Tsuchimikado there but to drag Touma there as well. The reasons for that were unknown even to that girl who seemed to know quite a lot about Kumagawa's personality. Presumably this was all just a feint for him to go somewhere else and do something that would go against both Tsuchimikado's and Touma's wishes. She had suggested that he just go after Kumagawa in that case but there was no way he could just leave things alone here. Whatever was going to happen to Maika, Touma knew now she wasn't to be killed. Even so, it would destroy the lives of his friends if he were to chase after Kumagawa. He had to throw those plans off enough to mitigate the damage.
"Though, I swear I'll punch his lights out the moment I see him."
Touma mutters this promise to himself as he reaches around the top of the desk for something to use. He had no idea of what abilities they had but he had already experienced a Skill with the power to make Imagine Breaker functionally useless today. He had to bring something unexpected with him to hopefully throw them off even a bit so he can close the gap between the oddities that they bring with them. All that he manages to grab is a phone with a corded handset but at least that's something.
His head peeks around the corner of the desk for but a moment before blurs past his face and forces him back. No sooner had he pulled away does another blur come rushing down on him from above. He rolls away from that one but a boot follows after, slamming into his ribs. Touma sputters some coughs as he eyes his assailant but despite the leg being there in front of him, the rest of the body was hidden somewhere else.
"What? Is that some kind of weird invisibility? Crap!"
From around the side, a disembodied arm comes flying around the leg with a fist aimed for Touma's face. He successfully dodges but to avoid being pinned there, he runs out from his now useless hiding spot. In between some of the machines stands a high-school aged girl, shoulder length hair and a school uniform, and a man who looked old enough to be her father. The girl's eerily clear, glowing eyes follow his every moment while the man, who was currently a floating torso with his arms and legs gone, smiles at his attempts at escape.
"Sorry kid but you aren't getting past this point. Your friend's reunion with his sister isn't to be interrupted. Boss's orders."
Touma stops where he stands, the man's four limbs hovering nearby him.
"...Why do you guys follow what Kumagawa says? You have to realize that he's just using you. I don't know what he had told you but-"
"We know that. He told us as much after he gave us these Skills."
The girl now speaks up.
"It's fine if he uses us. We used him in kind, after all."
"For what? What could possibly make you need someone that carelessly ruins lives the way he does?"
The man's smile flips as the girl's eyes gain a melancholic look to them.
"We're both some pretty useless folks. This guy here was a teacher that got fired on some hemmed up molestation charges when he called out some girls that were bullying kids in my class. When I found out, I tried confronting them myself but they just used their esper powers to beat me down in a place where there wasn't any security cameras. I only have a Level 1 Aero Hand ability you know? Though, that's only just barely within the definition for Level 1. Compared to those Level 3s, neither of us don't stand a chance on our own."
"You couldn't just go to Anti Skill?"
The man's frown deepens in disgust as he spits out his feelings.
"You think we hadn't tried? Those bastards refused to even investigate because we had no 'real' proof. They won't believe a criminal like me or a girl like her when it comes to those high level brats. They've got the right amount of pull with the school's board to be effectively untouchable. But, Kumagawa personally helped us. He gave me my Skill after he gave one to Rei and told us to do as we will with them. My Skill, Arm and a Leg, isn't much on it's own. All I can do with it is detach my limbs and move them independently of my body. But that is pretty useless when my limbs are just inching across the floor while my torso lies defenseless on the ground."
The girl, Rei, smiles at her teacher's self-defeatist comments.
"Yeah. My Skill is better by comparison. Fairy Vision lets me see things at a far broader spectrum than normal humans. I can see through objects, have thermal vision, or even zoom in on distant objects. But that isn't much on it's own either. My Aero Hand didn't get leveled up just because I got that Skill. The most I can manage is 4 points of propellant power. Though, that's just on it's own. My Fairy Vision and Aero Hand. Sensei's Arm and a Leg. Combined we were able to humiliate those girls by bringing evidence of the bullying to Anti Skill and had them get kicked out of school regardless of their rank."
The teacher looks at Touma with an apologetic gaze.
"With that, I was able to get my job back. We owe Kumagawa for helping us. I'm sorry if that means hurting you and those other two kids but...if it's what Kumagawa wants, then I know it must have some reason behind it. You might not believe it but-"
"Oh, I've known that much already."
The two across from him were shocked at Touma's strained words.
"Well, I definitely had to calm down first and think it through but I think I have come to a general understanding of his motivations. Though, I can only use such noncommittal phrases like, 'I think', because of how often my understanding changes. I know there's a good intent for his maddening methods. It's...not too dissimilar from my way of doing things, honestly. He just wants to see misfortunate people happy. His way of going about that is twisted beyond belief but I know that however he's going to have Tsuchimikado confront his sister, it'll be to stop him from doing something he'll regret. Even so, I can't say it's for the best. It's definitely the opposite knowing him. Rather than simply pointing out what's wrong about their motivations and letting those people choose their own path, he brute forces an understanding of it on the people he saves. I know I do the same but that's where the similarities end. He preys on the weaknesses of others and makes them face that ugly side no one ever acknowledges themselves until the reality they've built around themselves lays in ruin. Regardless of whether or not the person is right or wrong, good or evil, or whatever, he unilaterally sees anyone that challenges his reality destroyed. It's selfish beyond anything I can think of but even so...I can't deny the end results."
The hand holding the receiver tightens it's grip.
"I understand what he does and why he does it but that doesn't mean that I accept it. There's just no way I can accept this 'the end justifies the means' crap! I refuse to go along with this situation where my friends have to sink down that far into the abyss he creates just so they can be saved!"
The student-teacher duo respond to his speech by narrowing their eyes at him before unleashing their powers on him. A right hook whizzes by Touma's head as he darts for where they stand. Two legs shoot for his chest to provide some kind of stopping power to slow their charging foe but he dodges at the last second, turning with their flight path and tosses the end of the wired handset with the receiver at one of the legs. Once it had gotten wrapped around the limb, he uses the momentum to spin it all the way around and just before he had begun to face the pair again, he lets go of the cord. With a great, loud smack, Rei is sent crashing into one of the machines, knocking her out cold. Without the esper generated air propelling them, the teacher and all his parts fall flat onto the ground.
"Hey! Rei, wake up! Damnit, you really want your friend to destroy himself? Kumagawa has it set up so that he'll be fine again afterwards so why are you fighting this so hard?"
"Because I don't want him getting hurt in the first place. Plus, he wasn't ever accounting for his plan to work in the first place. I'm sure now that my being here is what he was really planning for."
Touma turns to walk away but the voice of the previously assumed to be unconscious Rei stops him.
"I suppose I can give that an A for effort but when it comes down to it, I can only give you a D- for the logic you used, Kamijou-kun."
It was nagging at him but if he could remember when he had meet Misaki in the body she had borrowed, the effect would be similar. This was no longer the brusque, young voice of the girl he had fought just now. It was the voice of vast experience, elegance, and the subtleties of madness.
"You're almost as equally twisted in your own means to achieve the end you desire. Your potential honestly scares me a bit. Maybe I'll see this whole shit story go up in flames for the peace of mind that not having two Kumagawa's around can provide me."
He turns around to face the now standing Rei, or whoever it was that was using her body. If the difference wasn't apparent before, it was now as he looked upon her face. The teacher, somehow, had been knocked out without Touma being aware. In fact, after looking at the rest of his surroundings, it was like time had somehow been frozen.
"...Are you another one of those Terminals?"
She laughs quietly.
"That deserves at least a B for how close you are to the answer but I'm afraid you still don't quite make the passing mark. If you want a hint, then lets say that I'm the source of those Terminals."
"Source? What are you talk- Ajimu."
Touma's eyes go wide as he recalls what Kumagawa had said. There was no need to read any further than that when faced with the shear number of powers before him. But he couldn't think of what he could do in such a situation. This was someone that even Kumagawa couldn't truly beat on his own despite the casualty destroying Skill he has. Touma wracked his brains until they hurt but- nothing. With the sort of anxiety that comes from being inside the eye of an apocalyptic storm, he silently gauges Ajimu's expression. The composed smile strains under his gaze before she bursts into laughter.
"Hahahahaha! My, you get worked up so easily! Why would you think there would be a final boss fight here when the story isn't even halfway through? Anyway, there's no need to be so formal with me. Just call me Anshin'in-san."
Touma's body couldn't relax in this kind of situation when his mind was fueling it's nerves with the anxiety brought on from an overclocked imagination at just what she could be capable of but ever so slightly, his face unwrinkled itself.
"You aren't here to attack me?"
Ajimu waves her hand back and forth in front of her face.
"No, of course not! Even if I wanted to, the reality this story revolves around is way too fragile for me to be going through that sort of needless effort. What I'm here for, Kamijou-kun, is to negotiate."
"Negotiate? What are you talking about?"
"You wish to save your friends but that right hand of yours isn't enough to get there on time. Ah, I should add that I have used a Skill to ensure time is stopped so we can talk for as long as I'm able to stay here for. But back to the topic at hand, the Skill users ahead as well as what's waiting for that siscon friend of yours is simply too much for just punches and some words. What I can offer is a Skill that can used regardless of that hand as well as being perfect for that disposition of yours. You won't have to worry about facing any kind of enemy with it!"
Honestly, he was personally against gaining any other type of power right now. Even without considering just what kind of mephistophilian deal she would broker, he already had too much on his plate without having to worry about some other force going on in his body. But he did have to pry some kind of information out of her. Considering her feelings for the world in regards to her self, according to Kumagawa at least, it would be in both Touma's as well as the rest of the world's best interests if he were to see a glimpse into her plans.
"And what do you want in return? I doubt that this is all out of the kindness of your heart."
"That hurts me! You can't just use such cruel language with a dainty lady such as myself."
Her outrage is punctuated by a pout, much to Touma's chagrin.
"Dainty?"
It could hardly be called within the blink of an eye. It was all done in such a way that he had to wonder if she had simply just been right there all along. But Touma had no room in his mind to think of that. All that ran through his head was the cold, baleful eyes before him. In other words, Ajimu had moved across the room and stands a scant few centimeters from Touma's face.
"You should watch your mouth you little shit."
He jumps back out of instinct and hits his back against the counter, expecting her to follow up with something more, but the girl does nothing. The frozen over daggers that came from her only intensified for awhile before she lets out a great sigh.
"Ahhhh. Sorry about that. I couldn't help but provoke you a bit when the chance to get what I want is right in front of me."
"Chance? At what, exactly?"
He couldn't understand her meaning. Kumagawa had mentioned that she was suicidal but couldn't die due to her powers. Did she expect that Touma could do it? There was absolutely no way that he could. It was less a matter of whether he'd be comfortable with killing her as much as it was being able to. Honestly, he doubted that he could negate even the smallest fraction of her Skills with just Imagine Breaker. But Ajimu paid his questioning no mind and just mumbled to herself.
"Geeze...even though I know that it would be useless as I am now, I still went and tried for it. Well, never you mind all that! That's just something we can talk about in the next story arc. Though odds are it would be more like in about 4 or 5 months when the author decides to stop dragging his feet and blaming everything on writer's block but whatever. Back to what I was saying though, what's your decision? Will you try to keep on as you are? Or will you accept a much earned power up?"
"...You already know the answer, I think."
"Well, I suppose so. But is siding with Kumagawa really alright by you?"
"...What are you talking about?"
"Come now! He's already hurt your friends before just because he didn't like you and here he is doing it all over again just so he can 'save' that siscon friend of yours. He's the sort that mind breaks someone just for looking his way. If you believe that he's doing anything other than what he wants for the sake of what he wants, then you are as much a fool as he is."
"And you aren't the same?"
"Touche. But there is still a difference between his and my general lack of care towards the lives we muck about with. He goes out of his way to ruin people. I, on the other hand, only do that to the people that purposefully come my way. Even then, I still have a pretty hands off policy when it comes to their lives. Why would I bother with the effort there? I promise you that if you help me kick Kumagawa from this story, then I won't bother with anyone else here."
"Until you find a way to kill yourself, you mean."
"...Ha ha. So he told you, did he? Well, I'd be lying if I said it doesn't concern you but I have taken great pains to ensure that my death will have no effect on this story at all!"
"Maybe. Maybe it'll turn out like that and everything will just go back to normal but-"
"But you're uncomfortable with assisting with my desire for death?"
"That's a part of it but it's mainly because I can't trust someone that sees this world and everyone in it as mere characters in a story. I'm sure you aren't conceited enough to exclude yourself from that but that just makes me want to stop you even more. If you can't value yourself and others as being human beings in reality then I doubt you'd really care whether or not you take this world with you."
"That still doesn't detract what I said about Kumagawa."
"It doesn't but I'd rather side with the devil I know than the one I don't."
"Even at the cost of your friend's lives?"
"If he didn't care at all, he wouldn't have bothered doing everything he could to tell me what he was going to do beforehand. Kumagawa is far too good at lying to not be able to come up with something that could mislead me. He might be exactly the kind of bastard you say he is but he's not the sort that would unhesitatingly sacrifice people for his own sake."
"And thus, you have proven my point. Have it your way. But I won't be so accommodating towards your disposition next time."
"Before you go, can I ask you something?"
"Hm?"
"Why...why do want to die so badly?"
"...Think about it. I'm just some character in a story. Even worse at this point, I'm a character in a mediocre fan made crossover. Add that to the fact that I've been living longer than you could imagine, there's little wonder that I'd want to just die already. I know that you can't understand nor accept that way of thinking now but you'll know that pain soon enough."
Before he could ask what she meant, Rei's body hits the floor as it's uninvited guest makes her exit. Those last words perturbed him quite a bit but he had no choice but to move on.
Enshuu Kihara sits within a viewing room overlooking an arena a few floors up from where Touma had entered in from. The arena itself is used for an experimental mecha game that relied heavily on holograms. It was originally going to be far more accessible to the masses than this, to the point where players could battle it out on the streets of Academy City using their phones and VR equipment, but due to budgeting issues, it was canceled early on into it's development. The arcade still had the prototype for the game for people to play it regardless.
From behind Enshuu, a girl walks up. She stands on the shorter side in terms of height with long, blue-dyed hair and a school uniform on.
"It's good that Kumagawa-oniichan isn't here. He would have gotten to worked up over seeing you and all the other girls in their school uniforms. So, how is Touma-oniichan doing, Matoi-chan?"
"He just beat the two we left on guard duty by the west wing. I can't tell for sure but something had interrupted my abilities for a moment. Well way less than a moment, it was more like less than a second but still..."
Enshuu leans back in her chair to look Matoi in the eyes.
"Hm. Hm. I could make a few guess but if Touma-oniichan is still alive and on the move then, we don't have time to worry about that now. Go get Reality Faxer and have him start sending people down to stall for time."
"How far should they all go to do that?"
"Preferably without hospitalizing him but this is Touma-oniichan we're talking about here. He's the only one I know that can match Kumagawa-oniichan's stubbornness so have them go all out from the start."
Matoi nods and leaves the room. Enshuu turns to the girl seated next to her.
"You're up, Maika-san. Head down and have that talk you wanted to have with your brother."
Touma runs through the halls with his eyes darting this way and that. There was no way that those two downstairs were all there was. But honestly, he wasn't too worried about it. Those two from before certainly had strange abilities but it could hardly compare to anyone else he's had to fight. At this point he was almost positive that Skill users like Ajimu and Kumagawa were outliers among their kind. If it's just two or three more of those weirdos then he could definitely get there before anything happened.
It would be great if that was true, huh?
Touma whips his head around at the sound of the voice but finds nothing other than laughter.
Sorry to say but you aren't going to find me. My Skill, It's Your Problem, is pretty convenient in letting me stay a fair distance away. Oh and no need to bother with that right hand of yours. There's nothing like an AIM field being used to connects us so your negation won't help no matter how many times you slap around your head.
He tries anyway but finds the effort to indeed be fruitless.
"Okay you have some form of telepathy, so what? The best you can do is get a song stuck in my head while I head over there and stop you guys."
The voice continues it's laughter as he runs onward.
Ahahaha! Are you just trying to bluster your way around the fact that you really did slap at your empty noggin? Haaa. It doesn't matter. This isn't really me using telepathy. If anything, I'm forcing you to use telepathy to speak with me. My Skill makes it so anyone I choose is forced to acknowledge my existence and I theirs. Right now I can see and hear everything you do just as you can right now for me.
The walls ahead of him distort and sizzle with arcs of lightning zapping this way and that.
Which of course, makes it very easy for coordinating with my comrades in sending them straight to you.
The material coming off the walls morphs into the forms of several people. As the first one finishes forming, Touma darts into a nearby room to escape.
"What the hell? Were those some kind of constructs?"
I'm not really obligated to say but that's the Skill of one of those comrades I mentioned. Reality Faxer. It allows him to scan anything or anyone and then immediately send them to wherever he wishes. Speaking of, heads up.
Touma immediately looks above him with his right hand outstretched to whatever threat was coming his way. There was nothing but ceiling. A noise from the other side of the room catches his attention as he instinctively swats away several screws that fly from the wall.
Hahahahahaha! You are so gullible! Why would you honestly follow what I say?
"Damn it!"
The wall next to him is liquidized by an unknown Skill as the others outside come rushing into the room. A giant of a man swings his mountain of a fist down on Touma who decides to match with his own. As the hit lands, the man shatters to pieces with three boys of the later end of elementary school in terms of age, sitting on each others shoulders, come tumbling down to the ground. There's no time for him to worry as an old man comes for his throat with a giant scythe. He ducks under that but a beam of white light hits Touma in the stomache, sending him flying for the opposite side of the room.
If it was just one or two different Skills, you might be able to manage. You do have a knack for learning on the go from what I hear. But you can't quite cope with several powers, each of vastly different characteristics, all at once can you?
Touma can do nothing but cough violently from having the wind taken from him.
Sorry but you just plain can't do anything without the proper information to fight back. Maybe if you had more time to analyze things, you could come up with a plan but we're just here to hold you back a bit. Don't worry though! We'll allow you to meet with your friends in another ten to fifteen minutes or so. Can't quite speak to their condition though.
The old man leans on his scythe as he chuckles.
"Matoi-chan. I know we're here to play the role of the villain but there's no need to provoke him so much at this point. Or are you just trying to get the most fun out of this because of your Skill forcing you to the back lines?"
Everyone else laughs along amicably as Matoi fumes. They all have a bond that is nigh unbreakable, that much Touma can see. Considering how Kumagawa had gathered them, this would be expected. Hardships can bind even the most antagonistic of people together in a way that next to none could hope to stand up against. Matoi was right about the lack of information being his weakness but that was nothing next to a close-knit group with a shared goal. Even if he could understand what each of their Skills were as well as the downsides to them, he didn't stand a chance against them. The fact that he is so completely outmatched has reminded Touma of something that he rather didn't want to think of. But he was left out of options.
"...Matoi-san, was it?"
If there's nothing else he had learned from Kumagawa, it was that even the strongest of trusts could be broken rather simply.
There's no need to use honorifics with me but what is it? Do you have some words to try to convince us to let you go?
He looks up at the ceiling as he speaks to Matoi.
"No. I know that your trust in Kumagawa isn't so cheap as to be ruined with just a speech."
So what then? Are you going to stubbornly fight on?
"Of course but that's not what I want to talk about."
Oh?
"You mentioned that Reality Faxer can somehow scan and send people wherever right? How does the process work exactly?"
Hmm. Well, it's not like it would help you any to know. Not unless you want to stick that hand in the middle of them coming in and become a murderer. Once they've been scanned, they have their body's destroyed instantly so that their consciousness can be sent along to the other side to fill what is essentially a new body composed of the atoms from whatever happens to be around.
Touma smiles ambiguously as he chuckles to himself.
"Huh. That's interesting."
Well, I'm not going to hold my breath for you. What?
"How are the bodies destroyed?"
His Skill disintegrates them, I think. Oh? Yeah...yeah Reality Faxer disintegrates them. But do you plan on letting me into whatever the hell you're thinking of? Because I don't feel like explaining anything more than-
"No, no. That's fine. You've given me all the information I need. Tell me one last thing though."
His head drops down from it's tilt as he stares the other Skill users in the eye.
"How do you know for sure that these guys are real?"
Everyone in the room looks around at each other in confusion but otherwise they just laugh at his words. That much is perfect. Though even so, Touma has his reservations about what is to come.
What? Have you snapped or something?
"Bear with me here. They get scanned, destroyed, and then they have their bodies recreated and filled with the consciousness that was copied over. Which means that no part of them comes from the originals of themselves. Who's to say whether or not the Reality Faxer guy hadn't added or taken away parts of you he didn't like personally?"
One of the boys laughs at Touma's accusations.
"What are you talking about? There's no way Seki would do that!"
"Of course he wouldn't do that on purpose but that isn't the point. What is there to say that you all are the ones that were destroyed? How do you know that you even existed in the first place? Your memories and bodies are entirely fabricated based on what some absurd power had supposedly copied over from your previous forms. Which brings me to the part that I find interesting about all this, my doubt that Seki knows what his Skill is doing to his friends. Don't you think so too, Matoi?"
C-calm down Seki! Calm down already!
Looking around him, Matoi and Seki weren't the only ones affected. Between this new revelation and having Matoi's feelings rack around their already precarious heads, the Skill users here were in an utter disarray. He figured that once Seki had realized just how evil his power could be, he'd lose his mind for a bit. Which of course would make Matoi rather distraught over her friend but this also had the side effect of forcing her current mental state on all the others due to her own Skill.
What he had done was less in line with how Touma, himself, would deal with such a situation and more with how Kumagawa would have acted in his stead. That action only reinforced what Ajimu had said about the parallels between the two but there was no time to dwell on it. Touma was far too desperate at this point to stop Tsuchimikado from becoming anymore broken than what he already was.
One of the Skill users had noticed Touma standing back up and pointed a flashlight in his direction. As he turns the light on, Touma swings his right hand out horizontally as though swatting aside a bug. The light makes contact with his hand and forcefully knocks the light away from him as the Skill user's flashlight is knocked from his hand.
Touma attempts to bolt out but the old man from before comes rushing in like the Grim Reaper incarnate. Touma puts a little more energy into his next step to get into the old man's guard as he grabs onto the scythe's handle but almost finds himself reflexively letting go from the sudden cutting pain that shot through his arm. Whatever ability the scythe had, he gritted his way through the pain while he gives the old man a savage left straight.
He keeps on running for the open side of the room when the floor turns to mush. Touma whips his head around to see a wincing teen gripping into the floor with both hands. Before he could do anything however, one of the boys that made up the illusionary giant swings out with a long, muscled arm for his gut. Touma ducks under the arm while swinging his right hand out behind him as he steps forward, shattering the illusion with enough force to propel his body into a slide along the viscous ground. The teen holding the ground notices this and lets go but not before Touma leaps up. The swamp below turns solid once more, sealing the other Skill users in the room by their feet. As he flies through the air, Touma cocks a fist and superman punches the teen in the face, sending him crashing into the opposite side of the hall outside.
The one that had used light as weapon from before had retrieved his flashlight from nearby, just before the ground solidified. He tries to swing the beam of light into Touma's back but he instinctively grabs onto it and shakes the flashlight on the other end from his attacker's grasp before smacking the boy in the face with it.
With that resounding slap echoing n the room, the fight had ended. With that, he currently had no more obstacles between him and Tsuchimikado Motoharu and his sister.
"I still don't know why exactly you needed to keep me here but I'm done playing along to your tune, Kumagawa. As soon as I'm done here, I'll prove to you just how little of a damn hero I am by punching you clear across this city just to satisfy my own anger!"
It both surprised him as well as unnerved him when he came across no other Skill users on the way to the arena. This variable only told him that they didn't need to waste the effort anymore.
"Please. Just let me make it!"
Touma's heart hits his stomach hard as he bursts into the large room. To his right, was a bloodied Tsuchimikado. To the left was a masked girl in a maid outfit. They both turn to his appearance.
"...Hey...Kamiyan. Guess you wound up seeing through that lie about the magician in School Garden after all."
The double agent was clearly worn down to his next to last breath.
"Heh. Suppose I have that Kumagawa bastard to thank for that. If I wasn't so sure that he'd steer clear of something as troublesome as my situation, I would have done everything in my power to ensure that he didn't. But here I am, fighting against some random Skill user and now you're thrown into the mix."
The wounds were less due to external influences, from the initial look, as it was the fact that he had clearly been using up a dangerous amount of his life to cast the magic that would conflict directly with the esper power within him.
"Though that's the thing about foolproof plans, isn't it? It always underestimates the ingenuity of a true fool."
"...How the hell do you think your being so casual about this affects me right now?"
Tsuchimikado tiredly remains silent. Not out of any contempt but because he knows the exact answer to his friend's answer.
"You've thrown me into a totally fabricated scenario just to keep me out of it. You burned down your apartment, faked your sister's death, and sent her to some random place to keep her out of it. I don't know about whatever else you did to keep that act of revenge up so you could get at the person who targeted your sister but I can see what it's doing to you. But you're fine with that right?"
Tsuchimikado's expression darkens in anger.
"So what if I am? Are you going to lecture me on how I'm affecting the ones I care about by going through with all this, just like that naive girl over there? You really are-"
"Of course I'm going to go after that!"
In comparison, Touma's rage had grown far larger than his friend's. The sheer quantity of fury being directed at him silences any other words from Tsuchimikado.
"Yeah, I'm naively, stubbornly, and selfishly shoving my ideals down your throat! I don't care if admitting that is just repeating those traits of mine! My childishness doesn't erase what you've done to your sister and I! So I'll just spit your own damn words right back, so fucking what!? Do you really think that calling me out on my downsides will make you right here? Two wrongs don't make a right, but two rights don't prevent the next wrong!"
"...You don't think I don't already know that?"
"Obviously you don't. If you did, you would have realized who that girl is over there!"
"What're you-"
"That's clearly your goddamned, precious sister that you've nearly killed yourself fighting over moron!"
Tsuchimikado's face goes slack. It wasn't as though he hadn't realized this fact until Touma had screamed it. He was just trying to look away from that ugly truth. He looks over at the masked girl with a look of hopeless determination for seeing his actions through, despite the situation.
"...Maika."
The girl doesn't respond verbally, though her body shakes at the mention of her name as she slowly takes the mask off. Maika's eye's stare holes into the floor before her. Silence reigns in this moment, giving none of the three parties involved any room to speak until she finally glances back over her brother.
"So it's true then."
"...I-"
"Stop. Just what part of me made you think that I wanted you to go so far for my sake!? Did you think that I would smile on at your gravestone when you had sacrificed yourself for me!? There's no way I'd be alright with losing you!"
Her sorrowful cries dominate the flow of conversation. Her will replacing the previous silence as sovereign.
"I knew all along. Maybe not, no, definitely not as far as to what you were doing but I knew that you were doing dangerous things every time you left our apartment with that fake smile you'd wear out the door. But I thought that no matter what, you'd always come back home and we could go back to our normal life together. Laughing and having fun together just as we always had."
She looks back down at her feet as she clenches her fists.
"...But you never intended to come back this time, did you? You really were going off to die, weren't you?"
Tsuchimikado's eye's dart away from her as he speaks.
"N-"
But that lie could never be allowed as long as Touma stood there.
"Don't. You can't keep running at this point. Just tell her the whole truth."
"...Yes. I was planning on taking that adage about revenge to heart and letting that second grave be mine."
The one that was the only successful magician-epsper hybrid, the one that had constantly betrayed the entire world, bore his true face for one of the few times in his entire life.
"The truth is...I'm a spy. I'm a magician that was sent into this scientific city to keep an eye on the goings on here. That was the reason why you had been adopted as my sister to begin with. But I was found out by the Board Chairman rather quickly. At that moment, I had to become a double agent just to survive."
Tsuchimikado's words come pouring out now that the levy holding back all his lies had been broken.
"To tell you the truth, I didn't really care about you when you were first assigned to me. You were just an asset to enforce the cover I had. Honestly, I had felt more disappointment than concern for you when that cover was blown after just 36 hours. Back when you had taken interest in moving in with me, I had thought it was because of your background as an orphan that made it so you simply wanted to become more useful to me as a defensive instinct stemming from not wanting to become abandoned. But that wasn't it at all. That's just a result of your kindness. Despite the fact that you had to have known that I was just using you the same as one would some tool, you were so kind to me. You became less of a liability to me and more of...a treasured part of my life that I didn't want taken from me no matter what. Eventually, my job changed less from ensuring my own survival and more about making sure you kept the life you had. Time has a funny way of changing a man. Before I came here, I had set my life up to never have to rely on or trust anyone. I never cared for anyone nor had anyone cared for me."
Not once had he looked away from his sister since he began to bare his heart out to her. But now, more than ever, does he stare on at Maika. Despite having forced himself to betray not just her but his own sworn code of never involving her into this side of his life, he soldiers on to give the only one in his life that he cared for the complete, unadulterated truth.
"When I found out that you had been targeted by the dark side of this city, I was totally consumed by my rage. I knew it wasn't anything personal against you. I knew that it was all just to attack me. But none of that mattered at all. They had stepped into the territory that I had called home. I knew that I wouldn't survive my quest for revenge but that didn't matter to me either. If I died, then that just meant that they wouldn't have any more reason for trying to hurt you. I knew that you wouldn't be happy with my death….but that, just as everything else, didn't matter to me. If my death could secure your life, that's all that mattered to me."
Maika's body shakes in wrath even more than ever.
"...Weren't you just about to tell off Kamijou-kun about his selfishness?"
"Yeah."
"You really think whatever words you had for him would have been cool when you were prepared to commit to such a selfish act?"
"…."
"You're an idiot."
"Yeah. I am. Sorry."
Tsuchimikado wearily walks toward his sister.
"Sorry? How convenient. All you have to do is say 'sorry' and it's expected that the other party has to accept that regardless of how they feel. Do you expect that? That I'll just tearfully accept your apology because you think I'm oh so kind?"
"Sorry."
"Stop saying that! I don't care if you have nothing else to say! Just stop saying that you're sorry!"
"I really am sorry."
Maika snaps her gaze away from her limping brother.
"Why? Is it just because you feel bad about what you've done?"
By now, Tsuchimikado stands no more than a foot away.
"That is a part of it. But really, since the beginning of all this, I've been sorry for the fact that I had to get you involved at all with this side of me."
"...Do you really feel that way?"
Maika, for the first time since her brother had spoken back, looked up from the floor back at Tsuchimikado.
"If that's really the case...then promise me that you won't just keep me out of that part of you. Promise me that no matter how dangerous it is that you'll tell me everything."
"...I can't do that. I know, as well as you do now, that if something else comes up, I'll just keep you in the dark again."
Maika's tears pour even more in frustration at Tsuchimikado's stubbornness.
"But...I can promise that I won't hide that side from you any longer. If I have to serve whichever side in a way that'll risk my life, I'll tell you about it beforehand. I can't tell you about situations that directly involve you but...this much I can do for you, Maika. If it means that you'll stay by me, I won't hide any more of my life from you than I already have. You probably won't accept tha-"
In a way that had exceeded his low expectations, Maika had sprung herself into his chest.
"Of course I'll accept that! I wouldn't let such an idiotic brother go over something like this! If you lie to me for my sake again, I'll just have to call you on it! So don't go off and try to die for me, okay?"
Tsuchimikado didn't know what to do. He really hadn't seen any way that his sister would accept and forgive him at this point. Clearly one half of that couldn't be met but it was just as apparent that Maika was going to accept that treacherous side of him in spite of everything. In the face of such true love and kindness, that double agent who had betrayed everyone else in his life had no choice but to return the embrace of the one person that he cared for more than anyone else.
As the two adoptive siblings reconcile their differences, Touma smiles on grimly. This was all going according to Kumagawa's plan. Which could only mean that the crowned prince of Academy City's misfits was moving right along with whatever it was that he had wanted to do with Touma out of the way. A fact that had been frightening the right hand wielding teen all the while. If he would set up such a scenario for the sole purpose of distracting Touma, then what Kumagawa truly wanted must be even worse.
Small footsteps come from behind Touma.
"...Where is he then?"
"Hm? Who do you mean, Touma-oniichan?"
Touma turns to Enshuu with all the energy he could possibly muster.
"Stop playing with me. Kumagawa's plan for me in this place has ended here so I know that he had meant for you to send me off to him."
"Hmmm. Well, Kumagawa-oniichan isn't someone that's capable of planning that far ahead but if you really must know, he's finishing what Tsuchimikado Motoharu started."
In front of a high-rise building, Kumagawa Misogi finishes off a large disposable cup as he dashes it against the street. The worst Minus grins as he struts up to the entrance.
[I'll have this mess wrapped up before my Cantonese picture drama comes on at 10.]
This overdue update has been brought to you by copious amounts of Captain and Coke! Remember, if you ever have issues over thinking up interesting stuff for a story just drown for a bit in mankind's best friend, alchohol! A bit drunk at the moment so if the latter half of this chapter is screwy, that's why. I just wanted to deviate a bit from the formula the source material follows but I couldn't think of anything for awhile. Made this one a Touma centric chapter because 1, I had troubles with writing him as anything more than a tsukkomi, 2, this story is supposed to be more along the lines of Kumagawa and Touma do Academy City than for it to be so absolutely focused on Kumagawa, and 3, I wanted to give Touma more screentime for the sake of him being just as much a favorite character of mine as Kumagawa. Speaking of 3s, if you are as tardy to the party as this announcement, season 3 for A Certain Magical Index has been announced! I nearly cried when I heard about it. I just hope the first episode, since it'll inevitably be a recap, will at least start out with Tsuchi throwing Touma out the plane before a record scratch sounds off a typical cliché as it moves onto the recap. I'll accept nothing less. But moving on, this arc will continue for about 2 more chapters at the most before I move onto the next one. Expect a lot of buddy cop chapters. That is if Beverly Hills Cops had vampires roaming around a sci-fi Beverly Hills with a meta-joker, reality rending girl laughing at everyone behind the scenes. I won't be diving into the Magic God Othinus arc right away though. There are some things that need setting up before that since I plan for the MGO arc to be the longest one that I do. It may not be so in terms of chapters but the length of those chapters will be seriously long as hell with all the stuff I have for it. MGO was my favorite of the NT arc's so far. Hopefully you like what I have planned but regardless, I'll just have fun with it since that's the whole point of me writing. Let me know if you think I got Touma's characterization wrong. I won't go back and change him this chapter for reasons but I'll definitely use your input moving forward. Even if I don't say it often enough, thank you all for reading my story. I may do it for fun but the fact that people enjoy it helps me a lot in giving me motivation for updating this. So thanks for keeping up with my story and hopefully my next chapter doesn't take nearly as long to write!