A Certain Magically and Scientifically Screwed Up Fanfiction

by Archie Rapha

From the first moment, he loved her madly. The catch? She, herself, has an unrequited crush on suicide. It had been his life's work to stop her. He did it once. A friend did it again. As he leaves everyone he cared for and what few cared back, he intends for the third time being the charm. New world, new city, new enemies, new friends. Among it all, can he find a way to save her?

19. Chapter 19

Meaningless Battle

Suicide_Defined

---

Touma had approached the main gate of the Learning Core, alone, with caution due to the sounds of an overwhelming amount of fighting coming from inside. Once he looked in, he had lost nearly all hope of getting in. Beyond the gate lay thousands of people, all battling it out to be the hero that saves Fremea. He might have felt safer if he had Saiai around still but she had split away from him halfway, saying she needed the rest of her team.

"She said that one of them was a Level 5 but unless it's Accelerator I don't see how just one Level 5 can help me break through this mob without having them kill themselves to do it. Damn it. What do I do here?"

[Dude just saw off your right arm again. That'll get people to clear away from the shear sight of it alone, if not for the power.]

Touma turns to his partner in ill fate and smiles wearily.

"I really don't like being sans an arm though. Could you use your Skills to do it?"

[I could but I don't wanna.]

"Kumagawa, please."

[Hey now! I never said I wasn't already ahead of you there! It's just that my feet hurt, it's past my usual bedtime, I'm hungry, I'm already missing my favorite anime, and-]

"Yes, yes. Your life sucks. But what do you have in mind here?"

He says nothing in return but Kumagawa walks out from behind their cover and moves toward the mob, stopping just before the outer rim of the throng of people.

[CALLING ALL SKILL OUT BUDS! CALLING OUT ALL SKILL OUT BUDS! COMMENCE OPERATION: I'M BETTER THAN MOSES!]

Touma thought he was just trying to gain the mob's attention so he can start breaking their wills en masse but he soon saw what he had done. As the mob of heroes had begun to fill the space of the Learning Core, Kumagawa had slipped his Skill Out members into the mix. Everyone else here may number in the thousands compared to those Skill Outs' being around only 250 or so. But that was nearly perfect. Those thousands of people were near totally anarchist in their actions compared to the unification that the 250 some odd had. Now all he need do was call out to them and they will follow his directions. His Skill users push their opponents away to create a path for their leader. With a direct line leading up to the steps of the building known as the Lightning Rod, Kumagawa then turns back to Touma with a smirk.

[You coming?]

Even if it could be possible, it was still weird for him to be so prepared but just as with any other weird thing his brain marks as such, Touma pushes the thought into the 'not necessary for the time being' pile and moves on. They stand before the heavy security shutters and stare at it's impenetrability.

"Ok. So what now then? Since you seem so intent on not using your Skills, I'll assume you want to use brute force. But I don't think you can cut down all this with just your screws. That and how do you know whether or not Fremea is in there?"

[Well look at it! It's a freaking fortress! Fremea is a smart girl so I'm sure she'd have hid here somehow or another. At the very least, out of all the other places here, this is the most secure. Odds are that she would have been found by now in the other spots and since those guys are still being rabid turds, she must be here!]

"Huh. That does makes sense but would they all really stop if just one or two of them found her? They don't have the sort of organization to spread that information so quickly. Wouldn't they just keep fighting no matter what?"

[Come on now! You read the same papers that I did from that old dude we nearly killed. It mentioned in there that the 'heroes', see: rioters, are connected by their collective urge to protect Fremea. There must be some sort of subconscious way for them to know whether or not she's safe or dead or whatever her current condition is or else they would be out there making a mess of things.]

The reasoning was sound but that aspect made Touma feel uneasy. Kumagawa is the sort that would hide what he's really doing under such logic. But Touma couldn't think of what he could possibly be hiding. As far as he knew, they were on the same page with saving Fremea and ending this night as soon as possible. At this point if Kumagawa really does have something planned, there's no way of knowing until everything comes crashing down.

"Heh."

Kumagawa turns to Touma with a frown on his face.

[Hiding a joke from me? I don't like feeling left out, you know.]

"I know but I think I'll hold onto that for later. I'm sure you know as well as I do that you'll be the first to know. Now, how are we getting in?"

Kumagawa's frown deepens but he turns back to the shutters.

[Well back to your lack of belief in my tools, you may be right that a few screws can't get us in but if quality can't solve the issue-]

A terrible symphony of tearing and shredded metal in the form of a constant downpour of screws upon the shutters halts all the fighting from behind Touma and Kumagawa, due to the noise nearly destroying the eardrums of everyone present. By the time it was done, there was nothing left of the entrance at all. No shutters, no doors, even the surrounding material of the building's walls were reduced to scrap and rubble.

[Then quantity can!]

"WHAT!?"

[WHAT!?]

"DAMNIT KUMAGAWA! WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE AT LEAST SENT ME BEHIND COVER OR SOMETHING BEFORE YOU MADE ME DEAF!? YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME TO COVER MY EARS! THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SLIGHTLY BETTER THAN HITTING THE SHUTTERS WITH ME RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM!"

[CAN'T HEAR YOU MAN!]

Touma screams obscenities as he hauls Kumagawa into the building, after which Kumagawa uses All Fiction to undo all the damage caused in their breaking into the building. This is followed by a continued blast of verbal abuse from Touma but, of course, Kumagawa's ears are just as destroyed so Kumagawa All Fictions the damage to their ears too.

[There, that better?]

"Yeah, finally! Wait...how did you repair the damage on me? My hand stops the supernatural from healing me."

[Because I only specified All Fiction to go to work on your eardrums. That Imagine Breaker of yours might prevent full body healing from the supernatural but as long as I'm not targeting that hand, I can use All Fiction to revert the damage!]

"Wow, that's pretty useful actually. Thanks."

[Yep, yep! No problemo!]

They enter the building slowly, cautious of ambushes. The Lightning Rod museum was so named to bring to mind the idea of overcoming natural calamities through knowledge. Which may sound contradictive to it's contents, being comprised of art galleries, dinosaur exhibits, and so on, but the museum's curator had made it a point to showcase not just the future of preventive and post-disaster measures but also the history of our world's natural disasters.

Touma cups his hands to his mouth as he shouts into the empty darkness.

"FREMEA! FREMEA!"

[Dude if you wanted everyone to know where we were, why not just put a neon sign around your neck and blow an airhorn?]

"We can't be worrying about that right now. Her safety comes first. Besides, when have you been worried about being ambushed?"

Kumagawa shrugs but otherwise says nothing else. They continue to walk through the museum with Touma shouting for Fremea. Eventually, they came upon a dinosaur exhibit. The area was dimly lit by the moonlight behind a giant glass window. There were various skeletons of long dead creatures lining the walls and a very large, carnivorous looking one right in the middle of the room.

"FREMEA! Damnit. Even if she hears us, she won't immediately trust us huh?"

[Yeah, especially me.]

Touma turns his head slowly to his companion and stares at him through exasperated eyes.

"...Why do you say that?"

[Cause I had threatened to molest her for a few laughs. Well, there MAY have been some ulterior motive there but- OW!]

Touma punches his arm, hard.

"NO WONDER SHE WON'T COME OUT THEN YOU IDIOT!"

[HEY, I'M NOT THE ONE THAT IMPREGNATED DOZENS OF INNOCENT SCHOOLGIRLS THIS MORNING! A RAPIST LIKE YOU HAS NO ROOM TELLING ME OFF FOR SOME LIGHT MOLESTATION!]

"THAT WAS ALL LIES AND YOU KNOW IT!"

[YEAH, I KNOW! BUT I THOUGHT IT'D BE FUNNY IF FREMEA HEARD ABOUT IT! IT'S PRETTY FUNNY, RIGHT!? I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME YOU MIDGET!]

"NYAH! IN THE FIRST PLACE, WHO'RE YOU CALLING A MIDGET!?"

The two idiots go completely silent at the high-pitched scream that followed Kumagawa's provocation.

[Oh, Fremea-chaaaaaaan? Where, oh where art thou?]

"Stop being a creep. Fremea! Kinuhata Saiai sent us!"

[Zura-chan is looking for you too, so hurry up and get your pint-sized butt out here!]

"Nyah! Nyah! Shut up perverts!"

Touma's heart was a bit rattled at the prospect of being grouped with Kumagawa's reputation but they follow the sounds of the shrill voice until they come to the front of the large skeleton. Her small head pokes out of the mouth of the creature, of all places. There was no way for either of the two boys to get up to her without risking their weight snapping the supporting wires as it wasn't really designed for the added weight.

"Kumagawa, can you use All Fiction to make your weight into nothing?"

[I get what you're thinking but that's not really how All Fiction works. Granted, I say that I make things into nothing as a way of simplifying things but it's much more complicated than that. I don't really know physics well enough to know what would happen if an object lost it's bond to the Earth's gravity but it's more than likely she'd suffer the same amount of damage that she'd get if she were to jump out now if I were to try carrying her out of there.]

"Damn. What can we-"

A brighter than bright light floods the room and nearly blinds it's occupants as something crashes through that giant window. It rolls along the floor until it leaps upright and stands with hands on it's hips. Once their eye's were adjusted to the light, they saw a long-haired person with a metallic, magenta body. A savage grin spreads across the person's face.

"Hey. Hey, hey, hey! Rensa-chan's here now, so I think you need to give up. Anyone who gives up gets a quick death. Then again, your fate has already been decided either way. Hee hee hee~."

Touma braces himself for a fight as he stares the new challenger down and talks to Kumagawa without looking away from Rensa.

"Kumagawa, do you know anything about her?"

[Hm? Yeah, I fought her back over by Fremea-chan's place. Thought I screwed her good enough to not worry about her coming back but I guess that's just my luck, huh?]

Rensa glances over at Kumagawa with a raised eyebrow.

"Hah? Don't think I've seen you before so you're probably talking about the most recent Rensa right?"

[What? Did she tag you in or something? Am I going to have to Stone Cold Stun both of you?]

"Hahahahahaha! Man you are a funny guy! Here."

She pulls something out of her long hair and rolls it along the ground. Kumagawa casually stops it by lightly stepping on it with the toes of his shoe.

[What's this?]

"That's the hypothalamus of the previous Rensa you had fought with~."

[OH GROSS!]

With that scream, Kumagawa kicks the cylinder away as it crashes into a pillar, releasing it's contents across the floor.

"...Wow. That's pretty cold of you. Couldn't someone like you have just held onto that while also holding onto the faint hope she could be saved?"

Kumagawa crouches down to wipe uselessly at his shoe as he speaks.

[Sorry but I just don't do too well with the icky, gory stuff. If I get so much as a papercut, it's all over for the lunch in my gut.]

"Guess I can't say that I didn't see that coming considering the data she had gained from her fight against you. Though, there is some data that isn't accessible for some reason but oh well. The show must go on! When I had said 'previous' in reference to the Rensa you had fought, I wasn't speaking of another body. This cybernetic countermeasure for Level 5s costs way too much to make and maintain for there to be any more than one right now. That and individuality in something this strong is a danger to the ones in charge. So Rensa was created to be able to freely exchange brains, pilots, much like an arm or leg on this body. No matter what, as long as this body isn't beyond repair, Rensa can be piloted by anyone."

Touma pales at her explanation.

"Why? Why would you go so far to kill Fremea when they have reduced your worth to being little more than a battery?"

"Huh? How do you know- ah, actually it doesn't really matter. You're both going to die anyway. My master saved me from a situation far worse than this. I don't feel like spilling how bad it was to a bleeding heart like you but considering that my current life is FAR better now, that alone should tell you just how bad it was for little, pathetic me. For my master, I would do anything. If she wants that little girl dead for her plans, then it couldn't make me happier to watch the life drain from those tiny eyes~."

Touma says nothing in response but narrows his eyes at Rensa. Kumagawa, on the other hand, had finished wiping nonexistent germs away from his shoe and takes a few steps forward.

[No need to be so pissed, Touma-kun. She is capable of replicating the powers of the Level 5s but if that's all then there's no problem. If she's all there is between us and saving Fremea-chan, then we just need to mess this Frankenstein up real good!]

"Hey now. Who said I was here to fight either of you?"

Kumagawa and Touma stare at her in confusion, much to her sadistic glee.

"It's already over. You were all led here from the very beginning!"

This voice hadn't come from Rensa but had instead originated from something much closer. At some point, Fremea had come down from the dinosaur's mouth and had hid herself behind Touma. She glances down with horror at the voice. It had come from Fremea's pocket. It was the artificial voice created by the vibrations of beating wings from the Dark Matter beetle she carried with her.

"Hee hee hee~. If you're gonna trust your comrades, you have to doubt them sometimes too. This thing tried to stop you so many times. 'Don't do it!', 'Don't go there!', 'Please, listen to what I'm trying to say!', and 'Please, at least destroy this body of mine!'"

Anger rose from Touma as he saw the look of betrayal on Fremea's face.

"You bitch."

"Whoa! Whoa! Calm down now! I just said that it was all over anyway so there's no need to waste your energy on being mad at me. I've placed explosives all over this building. All I need do is flick the switch and watch you all die. From the moment you all set foot in here, your fate was already sealed! Even if Kumagawa brings you back with that All Fiction crap, she will still die and be the trigger needed for my master to ascend beyond! No matter what, you have all lost!"

Touma had initially moved to protect Fremea but soon saw the futility. He can't stop her from activating the bombs as she was too far and could likely use some function within her cybernetic body to send the signal out to her bombs. He couldn't save Fremea if the building's central pillar was destroyed and it all came crashing down on them. He couldn't rely on Kumagawa since he would need to know where the bombs were to use All Fiction and would have a hard enough time surviving through the carnage to follow on his own to save anyone else. Even if he could count on him making Fremea's death into nothing, it would still be enough to allow Yakumi's plan to come to fruition.

As Rensa had said, there was nothing he could do.

"Safety release. Password input complete. Okay, everyone! Time for an explosion show with no special trick to it! Bombs activate!"

Touma, as useless as he knew it to be, had moved to cover Fremea's body. He braced himself for the inevitable but found nothing but silence waiting for him. His tightly shut eyes open cautiously as he looks around him. Everything was as it was.

"What? Hey. Why didn't my fireworks go off!? What did you do Misogi!?"

Kumagawa impishly tilts his head in confusion.

[Why ask me? I can't do anything unless I had already known where the bombs were. But I wouldn't be worrying about me right now. You have other problems.]

From behind Rensa, an explosion rings out as something crashes into the helicopter outside. She whirls around and meets the green eyes of a giant, hovering, white beetle.

"Is this some kind of joke!? I had you completely powerless with my interference!"

Without even bothering to watch the helicopter crash to ground with black smoke, the rhinoceros beetle spoke with its artificial voice while also flapping its thin wings to fly.

"The primary consciousness means nothing with Dark Matter. You even used that characteristic to restrict my actions. But that also means I do not particularly need my primary consciousness. Unlike the Misaka Network, each individual unit is not controlled by one large consciousness and each individual personality is not given importance either. The more I split apart, the more my consciousness is split apart into independent minds and they join back together into a single consciousness when I join back together. If you break a cookie in two, it still tastes the same and it regains its original form if you place the two pieces back together. But that doesn't matter. I have something to say to you people who enjoy creating collisions between heroes like a game of billiards."

The giant beetle flew through the broken window just like Rensa had. He caused his own outer shell to shatter for his true, human, form to come forth.

"Do not underestimate a Level 5."

With a great roar, giant pure white wings burst from Kakine's back. Prompted by the other boy's will to fight, Touma stood up from Fremea and held up his fist while Kumagawa produced a screw from emptiness into his hand.

A Level 5 at one side. A Minus and Level 0 on another. Rensa was surrounded but still, she laughed.

"Heh… You really are amazing, doctor. Hee hee hee~. So you took this all into account! It makes sense. Why would you need me to simply monitor an explosion? …But you should have just told me from the beginning! Fuck!"

"It's over for you Rensa."

Touma speaks as he walks toward her.

"There's three of us. You may be able to copy the powers of the Level 5s but that's meaningless here. You're facing a Level 5 that had put Accelerator at a stalemate and someone from another world that had beaten them both. Then you have me with Imagine Breaker. There's no way you can win here with these odds against you!"

From his side, Touma feels the slimy aura of Kumagawa's smile.

[That's right, Rensa-chan. YOU can't win here no matter what. So to that end, I'll be your ally.]

Before anyone could react, Kumagawa had crossed the length of the room and rammed his screw into Rensa's gut, her body losing function as it leans onto his chest.

"Guh! Wh-what are you-"

[That's enough out of this Rensa-chan. It's time for a switch.]

He reaches up into that wild hair and presses against something, Rensa's consciousness going with whatever it was that was pulled out of her head as well as the screw in her chest. Kumagawa takes a cylinder out of his pocket and replaces the one that was in Rensa's head with it. As she awakens again, her eyes reveal an entirely different personality as she turns her expressionless face to Kumagawa.

"Rensa pilot 29 online...hm. I assumed our plan worked, Kumagawa Misogi?"

[Without a hitch! Though I did have to sorta kill you by shattering that container your, ah, co-worker had so carelessly rolled over to me to keep up appearances but not to worry! I successfully fooled everyone here by distracting them with meaningless conversation so I could All Fiction you back to my feet and stuffed you into my pocket before anyone could see!]

Rensa sighs and pushes herself away from Kumagawa.

"Well that is regrettable but it's her fault for actually being air-headed enough to throw my container to someone like you."

Kakine raises his voice as he yells.

"Why!? Why would you help her!?"

[Come on now, Ringo-san. You should know that I would obviously be on the side of whoever is the weakest. Rensa-chan here may have access to all the powers of the Level 5s and she may seek Fremea-chan's death but that doesn't take away from the fact that she has every hero in this city after her, including the two of you. Everyone between Level 5 and 0 wants Rensa-chan's head. That's not something I can ignore. I'm an ally of the weak, after all.]

Kumagawa stands at Rensa's side with Kakine and Touma at opposite ends of the expanse.

[You'll win here. That's just a fact when I'm the one fighting on the other side. But it's also a fact that no one has ever felt even an ounce of victory after fighting me.]

Hopelessness and despair radiates from his cold eyes as he looks back and forth between the two. Screws appear in both of his hands as he points them to either side.

[I'll make sure you both know how a true loser fights a losing battle.]

To have lost Kumagawa as an ally is a huge blow to those that wish for Fremea's safety. It's true that he isn't invincible and with every Level 5 outside fighting, they'll eventually be dragged into the fray. Even with someone as quasi-immortal as Kumagawa, he can't win against so many all at once. As long as they focus a decent portion of their forces on him and have a smaller division to take down Rensa, they can win. But as he had said, this Minus is the kind of person that can snatch that feeling of triumph away from those that beat him. In all reality, there would be no victors this night.

Which is why it stunned everyone to hear laughter from an unexpected side of the room.

[...I've already told you that I hate being left out of a joke and yet you provoke me when there's such a heavy mood. My, my, I seem to have taught you well, Touma-kun!]

Touma was doubled over as he laughed even harder. Everyone else could only look on in utter confusion but Kumagawa only wore a small, knowing smile. Eventually he managed to compose himself enough to stand and return Kumagawa's smile.

"I knew that you'd do this. Even when you had pulled that act off so perfectly, I knew. Yet, I don't feel the slightest bit of despair or rage. No matter who wins or loses here, it's all the same right? Really, all of this tension was for nothing in the end. Damn it...I feel like you could have set this all up from the beginning and yet have just winged it the entire time."

[Maybe. But aren't you worried about Fremea-chan? Rensa here wants her dead after all.]

"Maybe. But aren't you worried about your show? This will definitely take up a hell of a lot more time then if you had just stayed on our side to begin with."

[Well, that's just my luck you know? I can't, in good conscious, leave a cute girl like this to fight such odds all by her lonesome. Besides now that I have her with me, I can achieve a harem squared ending with Rensa-chan and Enshuu-chan! Two harems worth of girls for the price of only two girls! With such powerful women at my side, I can finally compete with the harem that you have gathered! Look on my works and despair, ye deflated hedgehog!]

The Crawling Minus points both of the screws he wields as well as the dozens in the air that became projected by his will at his foe with a Cheshire Cat's smile.

"I won't let that happen. I won't let anyone else get corrupted by you, you fake hedgehog!"

The Imagine Breaker crouches before taking off in a dead sprint with his right hand clenched and a relieved grin on his face.

These two that walk the path of misfortune do not disapprove of the actions and motivations that led the other here. They both fight for the ones they view as defenseless and could easily see that even the slightest deviation in events could have put either one on the other side of this fight. But more than that, they both know that no matter what, the ones they want to protect will be saved regardless of the outcome. So then, as the question naturally arises, why is it that they fight?

Kumagawa may be an easier case to see through as he's just simply the kind of person to take the most undesirable path and enjoys the impossibility of it but what about Touma?

His ideal way is to resolve an issue in as quick and painless a way as he can. Granted, he has almost never been able to actually achieve anything like that but that is still something he strives for. Even when he had fought with Thor, the experience crazed member of GREMLIN, Touma hadn't felt as nearly into the fight as his opponent was. He just wanted to stop Thor from fighting so he could get himself patched up from the self-inflicted gunshot wound he took on as a handicap to match Touma's own wound.

Even though everything else had been resolved about the incident those two had wrapped themselves up in, Touma couldn't stand having to fight Thor. He couldn't stand hurting someone that had fought at his side. Which makes this all the more strange. Kumagawa was someone that had antagonized him and hurt his friends, of course, but he still fought as hard as Touma has to protect people he doesn't even know when he has far heavier matters on his plate.

Perhaps Touma has come to realize that Kumagawa is simply playing both sides and has no real malicious intent toward Fremea.

Perhaps it's the fact that Kumagawa has corrupted him into accepting misfortune as he does, with a simple smile and a laugh right in the face of risk and death.

Perhaps it's the fact that no one will stay permanently hurt from this battle and everyone will be saved as he had so earnestly wished.

Perhaps it's the fact that this long, long night will finally come to an end.

Perhaps it's a variable unseen by anyone that influences Touma to smile right back at that mass of negativity given flesh.

Whatever the reason, Kamijou Touma clenches his right hand and sprints over to Kumagawa Misogi for their second fight.

Kumagawa faces him as he approaches rapidly while speaking to Rensa at his side.

[You get Ringo-san. I'll take care of this shitty protag.]

"Understood."

The two race towards their respective opponents and throw their full power at them.

Screws come soaring through the air for Touma. Their number was too great for him to outright avoid and the twists that run along the pointed end would shred his hand if he were to try batting them away. If he took a step back and dodge just before they hit, it may be possible to clear the volley but then there's still the matter of Kumagawa chasing right after all that. So Touma does the only thing he can. He presses forward.

As soon as one of the screws nears him, he twists his body to let one pass his right side and grabs it while continuing to sprint. The numerous screws that shot at him were batted aside by the one he held or otherwise shattered as he punched at them.

[Wha-]

"Those screws don't have the same quality to them all, right? You told me yourself that you have a tough time producing that many screws at once in a fight. Since those things likely come from your force of will, the quality of screws depends entirely on that will. This screw has enough to stay even when I grab it with my right hand while the others can just be smashed by it. But that's not all you got is it? You set things for us to fight so stop playing dumb and throw everything you have at me!"

The screws dissipate as Kumagawa relinquishes his delusions from reality and leaps backwards through the air, landing on top of the skeletal dinosaur.

[You really want to amp up the difficulty here? Fine. How about this then!?]

He drives a screw, underfoot, into the spine of the dinosaur as Touma halts his advance.

It should be reiterated that All Fiction has been shown to be capable of denying death.

Even if that death was millions of years ago.

As the flesh and blood monster of prehistoric times rears it's massive head back towards him and roars, Touma sprints the other way.

"WHAT THE HELL!? WHEN I SAID TO THROW EVERYTHING YOU HAD AT ME, I DIDN'T MEAN TO SIC A BEAST LIKE THAT ON ME!"

Kumagawa had worked his way up to the pursuing dinosaur's head as he called after his prey.

[HAHAHAHA! Sorry but you know I've got a heart of pyrite! If you tell me to give it my all, of course I'd just cheat and bring in a T-rex! Now stop being so cruel and let Rex-chan have her multi-million year delayed dinn-]

The Tyrannosaur stops chasing Touma as it realizes that there was a meal closer by it that was making himself known. It's head shakes Kumagawa off and sends him flying into one of the building's pillars as it stalks toward him. Before he could grasp what had just happened, Kumagawa gets the upper half of his body chewed off by the carnivore. Touma felt just a slight amount of pity before the beast turns it's now bloodied maw back toward him and curses his late opponent's name as he runs away.

---

Kakine was having a hard time with his opponent as well.

Once Rensa had closed the distance, he had thought he had known what to expect. That she might try interfering with his abilities again or make use of Accelerator's to brute force matters but what had happened next was far beyond what he could have foreseen.

He had been sent flying back through the broken window by a giant, pink, cartoonish hammer.

Kakine stands back up from that insane attack and gets ready to fly back through the window but sees that Rensa has followed.

"...Why are you out here? Wasn't your mission to kill Fremea?"

"It still is. However, Kumagawa Misogi's condition for his cooperation was that he would be the one to kill her. So therefore, I shall buy him time to accomplish that task."

He didn't know by what power she had used just now to attack him but Kakine knew it had to have been a Skill, considering Kumagawa's involvement. But he doubts the current Rensa would tell him what her Skill is. If it was that last one, then maybe she might have gone at length about it just to assert her arrogance over him but this one is far too cautious for that. Instead, he'll just have to make due with the knowledge that she has a Skill and figure things out during their fight.

He launches over at her at a blinding speed, swinging white wings of dark matter. Rensa crouches under the left wing and swipes at it as it passes. Kakine's left set of wings jerks his entire body as though something of an unimaginable strength had gripped onto it. He awkwardly turns his head to look back and is hit by a wad of burning spit. He screams as visions of someone else's life, a life of experimentation that was more like sadistic torture, slams into his head.

"Skeleton Key followed by Acid Drop and finished with Syphilis Sympathy. It doesn't work quite the same as esper powers but Skills can be used with a surprising amount of efficiency."

From the sounds of it, she was shifting usage between multiple Skills. Kakine figures that Kumagawa must have traded her ability to copy espers for copying Skill users. The good thing about it was this was something entirely new to her and thus, she's having to learn on the go just as much as he is. The bad, however, was in the fact that she was learning how to use Skills, and multiple ones at that, rather quickly. If he didn't end things soon, she would destroy him.

Kakine detaches his wings as well as the portion of his mind that was being manipulated into seeing those horrific memories as he turns back to Rensa. Before either of them could move the sound of someone clicking their tongue forces their attentions on the newcomer.

"God damn. I realize you're new to this business involving the dark side, number 2, but I still can't believe you're getting pushed around by this fucking tin can."

From around the corner of the building, Accelerator comes casually walking over to Kakine's side.

"Where's your brat?"

"Fremea should still be inside but the cyborg is too much for me, alone. As far as I can tell, she can copy Skills."

Accelerator's eyebrows raise at his words. Not with surprise or apprehension but just with a mild amount of amusement.

"That explains all those Skill Outs that Kumagawa has out there. They've been handling the fake heroes well enough that I thought I could leave it to them and go the fuck home but I guess I should've known better when that piece of shit is involved."

Rensa looks between the two of them for a moment before speaking.

"Do you plan on trying to take me on alone, Accelerator, while you let Kakine back inside? Your powers would have been more than a match for my copied over vector control ability but Skills are still something beyond your comprehension, are they not?"

"Heh. Maybe. But that hasn't stopped me before. Besides, I already know that spiky haired idiot is inside. Why would I need to go through such a cliché as letting the hero run off to save the princess when he's already in there? I'll just kick back and let this be a good opportunity to figure that Skill shit out while the number 2 and I mop the fucking floor with you. So don't die too quick on us you overpriced hunk of scrap metal!"

Black and white wings roar from the backs of the two strongest espers in Academy City as they hurl themselves toward the Skill using cyborg.

---

Fremea slowly stood up as she gathered all her strength and announced what she truly wanted to do.

"This time, I will be the one to-"

Before she could do anything though, a hand clapped down on her shoulder, making her jump nearly to the ceiling.

"Ah. Sorry about that. I was trying to wait since it seemed like you were having some cool revelation and it would've been rude to interrupt but-"

"THAT MAKES IT BETTER TO JUST SCARE ME AFTER THE FACT!? IN THE FIRST PLACE, WHO ARE YOU!?"

The girl who had scared this little blonde as though she had seen a ghost was taken aback by this shrill blast of acoustics but she recovers quickly enough.

"Well let's just call me a manager of sorts for now."

"A...manager? Sorry but I have something I need to do so-"

"I know. But what you're trying to do has a proper place and time for it. Now isn't that time."

Fremea was suspicious from the start but all of this was making her really consider her options until Enshuu sighed.

"I'm not saying you can't, I'm saying you need to wait for the right timing. As it is now, you might just complicate things for everyone fighting those monsters. I have things set so everyone can go home happily and in one piece should you use that power of yours at the most opportune moment."

"Others have tried using that kind of logic to manipulate me before..."

"I won't deny that. Nor will I deny my attempt at manipulating you. Fact is if you use that power now, all of my planning goes right down the drain. I won't try to lie and tell you that I have your best intentions in mind or that I'm going to help you because I care for you or the others out there because I really don't care about any of that."

"Nyah...you're really honest for someone that needs my help."

"Because I'm not trying to win you over with some sugar-coated lies or twisted reasoning. I want you to go along with what I have planned of your own free will. Nothing else will work alongside that power of yours if it goes against your own will. I can't really stop you either way. It's your choice."

Fremea wasn't sure of how to think about this girl or what she proposes. She's brutally honest and seems to have an agenda of her own but she doesn't seem to be lying about wanting everyone to come out of this alive and well. She also seems to be hiding something else but...well there was no way of telling for Fremea.

She could end this whole thing now but could she really say that it won't somehow hurt the efforts of those trying to save her? This hesitation on Fremea's part may seem contradictive to her strong urge to become the hero to save all who were protecting her but this wasn't hesitation out of fear for her life but rather fear for others lives.

Fremea felt that this whole situation was her fault.

Everyone fighting out there was doing so because of her.

They were being hurt because of her.

And, most importantly for her, they may die because of her.

If this manager girl was right, everyone could be saved unilaterally without any complications. But if she was wrong, or if she was simply lying, all of Fremea's motivations to become the hero would be moot. It was like being given a switch that could solve world hunger in an instant but then being told by someone that it isn't the right time, saying that it would do more harm than good if it was used at the wrong time. Could you really trust that person to know better? Could you really trust that they don't?

"...I'll hear you out. But if this starts going anywhere bad, I'll end this there and then. So make it quick because I can't afford to lose anymore time."

"Hmmm. That'll be slightly difficult but oh well. Just...wait until the end of my explanation before you make any decisions."

"...Why is that?"

"Because my plan relies heavily on the actions of a total wildcard on this chess board."

---

Touma has been through worse. Fighting off the black wings of death against Accelerator, stopping an angel from destroying the world, stepping up to superhuman saints, the list goes on. But this was probably the worst he's had to experience since Russia. How else could one describe the horror of having to sprint away from a carnivorous living fossil?

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WHAT THE HELL, KUMAGAWA!? THERE'S PLAYING DIRTY AND THEN THERE'S THIS MADNESS! WHY DID I HAVE TO INVITE THIS KIND OF MISFORTUNE ON MYSELF BY FEELING ALL RELIEVED!?"

He screams his bemoans of fate as he runs his legs ragged getting away from the Tyrannosaur but it was gaining on him. More importantly, he was running out of options. Touma hadn't been to the Learning Core, never mind this Lightning Rod place, before so he had no clue about the layout and was rapidly fearing having to hit a dead end somewhere.

It didn't help that he was essentially killing any chance of escape by messing up his precognition. It's not really his fault though. The primal fear that comes from a giant monster like that was making him unintentionally force his ability. The more he ran, the more he would overthink his options. The more he overthinks his options, the more useless his precognition becomes as it requires him to not think on it to begin with.

But it's not as though such a horrifying situation can't be turned into an advantage.

If there's one thing that can be gained from modeling your actions after Kumagawa, it is the fact that no weakness can't be turned into a strength and vice versa.

With the semblance of a plan in mind, Touma veers around a corner with the heavy stomps of the Tyrannosaur behind him. Not far down the tall hallway was the dead end he had feared coming to before. There were some windows on either side of the walls next to him but these were not part of his plan. Rather than despair, triumph paints Touma's face. He puts his back to the wall and faces the charging behemoth head on.

It's bloody maw widens with a roar, belting his senses with the rank stench of decay and rot, as it leans down to scoop up it's next snack but Touma stands firm. With no more than 15 feet separating him from death, he sprints into a baseball player's slide underneath it's head. The sound of bone shattering against the wall replaces the Tyrannosaur's warcry as it is silenced, though that isn't because of the impact killing the beast.

Just as death can be undone, so can life.

Clinging to the ribcage of the returned fossil, was the Minus with the Cheshire Cat's grin as he springs to the ground and rushes Touma with a speed next to none can react to.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex may have become a skeleton again but that hardly stops it from becoming a lethal problem. Now that it hadn't any living tissue to support it, the bones followed the laws of physics and began to crash down on the two underneath it.

Just as when he had faced the onslaught of screws from earlier, his options are limited. Any which way he goes, he'll have to throw himself wildly out of the skeleton's fall but that would leave him vulnerable to Kumagawa's attacks. The same would apply to fighting right here and now with the exception being that Kumagawa would come out of it unscathed while Touma would certainly be crushed by these old bones.

But a question occurs to him, would he be in any actual danger either way?

One way to find out.

As Kumagawa draws within range, Touma lashes his right hand out as he grabs onto the boy's messy hair with a death grip on every follicle of hair he had. But no more is done, he simply holds tight onto the hair. It takes all of a second for Kumagawa to register what he was doing before he plants a foot into Touma's chest and, with something of a spin, he kicks the both of them out of the way of the crashing bones and out the windows.

Outside was absolute chaos. Skills, esper powers, and normal weaponry were being used and flung everywhere. Touma looks up from the ground to see Accelerator and Kakine fighting Rensa to a standstill. She was freely exchanging and weaving Skills on the fly as the two strongest espers flew at her with blinding speeds. They were keeping up but only just barely. It wouldn't be long before her use of Skills outpaces their own unnatural abilities.

[That was impressive! Honestly I didn't think you'd have it in you to pull something like that off. You fooled me right til the last second and even when I caught on, it was far too late. Geeze, I wish I didn't have that promise I made to Misaki-chan hanging over me so I can take you out of commission for my own peace of mind!]

Touma smirks as he stands to meet Kumagawa as he approaches from around the corner.

"I knew you weren't really going for the kill. If that was the case you'd have just let us both get smashed by that skeleton."

[Really? It could also be because you latched onto my hair. I haven't the slightest clue if I could use All Fiction on myself, let alone you, with that No Fun Allowed hand you got on me. What if I just saved us both out of pure survival instincts? Aren't you trusting me a bit too much?]

Kumagawa's grin widens dangerously but Touma only raises an eyebrow.

"I seriously doubt it. It's not like I've seen for sure but I have the feeling you would care even less about your own safety without All Fiction. Though, I have to admit to that last part, I wouldn't have been able to pull that off if it was the first time we met."

[Aw! Does that mean I've finally grown on you like a stray dog that follows you everywhere?]

Touma chuckles at this.

"More like a tumor actually."

[Ooooo! Nice one!]

"To be honest, it's less about whether I've come to accept you more than it is the reverse."

[Huh?]

"If you still hated me like you had before today, you'd probably have let that skeleton smash us both. I'm sure you would make certain I'd survive the experience, but that'd be the extent of what you'd do. That's not the case anymore is it?"

Kumagawa fidgets like a shy schoolgirl and speaks with a falsetto that would fool absolutely no one as he playfully punches Touma's shoulder.

[G-geeze! You're gonna make me blush, you baka!]

Every light punch was making Touma's stomach churn with disgust.

"...Ok, now I wish you had let me get crushed so I wouldn't have to have witness this."

[Hey, anything to wipe that smug look off your face. I would've done it with a screw or two but I kinda need you intact for just a while longer. After that, I'm done with this crap and I'm done with any other crap that'll come along for the next few weeks.]

"Yeah, yeah. I doubt things will go that well for you but-"

[DON'T YOU STIFLE MY DREAMS!]

"-but what now? That Rensa girl is still fighting it out so I assume she's not in on whatever you have planned. How do we stop her before she gets strong enough to overpower those two?"

Kumagawa looks on at the battle before them with melancholy.

[We do nothing. It's all up to the power of someone much more suited for the role of a hero than you or I.]

---

They were being outpaced in power and speed now. Rensa's growing acclimation to using Skills was becoming too much for Accelerator and Kakine to handle. Perhaps that is due to her previous capability as a vessel for emulating esper powers. Regardless of how it was she could learn so quickly, the two strongest were beginning to fight a losing battle.

"This is making me wonder why this body was designed for esper powers to begin with. Skills seem to be far better in suppressing esper abilities."

It's not as though the two were totally helpless against individual Skills but this torrential multitude of powers that were being freely exchanged and mixed was becoming too much for them to analyze and come up with a countermeasure for. Given time, they might come up with something but this was not a situation where they could spare that. Any time they came up with one for a particular Skill combo, Rensa would immediately abandon it for another and then another and so on.

"Well. At this point, I don't think I even need to bother with going on the offensive with you two. I'll go assist Kumagawa Misogi in terminating Agitate Halation."

"Like we'd fucking let you, tin can!"

Accelerator kicks a chunk of the ground at Rensa with a furious speed. She uses several Skills to destroy it before it could get close but Kakine is already flanking her with an attack of his own, firing blasts of Dark Matter. Old Skills are ditched and new ones are combined to increase her evasion in vain as Accelerator grabs her face and reverses the vectors all over her body's make up.

Blood flow, neurons, brain waves, it all becomes scrambled and destroyed within her.

She should have exploded into red paste right there and then.

But with one hand clasped on her shoulder and another gripping the screw embedded into Accelerator's chest as he slumps to his knees, Kumagawa saves Rensa.

[Sorry, Accel-kun, but I've got other plans for this nurse.]

Accelerator looks up at him with what little strength he can muster while being under Bookmaker's influence and sighs.

"You goddamn...bastard."

There was no animosity in that utterance, just resignation. But Rensa doesn't quite pick up on this, sighing herself.

"I'm sorry about that Kumagawa Misogi. I got too arrogant with these Skills and it had left me vulnerable. Thank you."

[...I wouldn't thank me if I were you. After all-]

Kakine charges in with Dark Matter wings outstretched toward Kumagawa under the assumption of the worst possible scenario.

"HOW DARE YOU-"

[-it's not what you think.]

All across Learning Core, everyone present had screws pin them to the ground by their clothes. Several of the stronger ones had Bookmaker screws impaled through their chests.

Kakine glowers from where he had fallen while Rensa looks across the courtyard with a shocked expression.

"That was...impressive. Why couldn't you have done this sooner? And what did you mean by it's not what I think it to be?"

Kumagawa grins as he walks away with his back turned.

[Hmm. Where to start? As to why I couldn't do it sooner, I needed all the pieces to fall into just the right places. Kind of impossible to ask of someone as chaotic as me to bring proper order to this mess but that's why I have a smart friend to do all the hard thinking for me! As to the later half of that-]

"Guh-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WHAT IS THIS!?"

Her screams as well as the unnerving sounds of something being stretched beyond it's limits stops Kumagawa.

"That's your answer."

Her stomach expands wildly like there was something trying to escape from it.

"B-but this is some kind of esper power! It's AIM based but I shouldn't be able to-"

"Hee hee! This is how it ends huh.."

Two voices echoed from within Rensa's body as her eyes widen in confusion and pain.

"Enshuu-chan gave me this plan earlier while you were knocked out. She told me how that bitch was using some supercomputer to somehow transmit her thoughts or soul or whatever into the atmosphere so she could transcend humanity and blah, blah, blah. I don't give a shit. The whole thing went over my head to be honest. But what I did understand was that Fremea-chan's power can cause small change that can translate to far larger change than what your doctor can control herself. From there, Fremea-chan can just grab hold of that piece of shit and throw her into something we can manage. Or in other word's, you."

To expand on his less than layman's understanding, Yakumi was utilizing the Shading Computer that used the AIM diffusion fields as a medium to transfer her consciousness into the AIM diffusion fields of the city and become a AIM thought being with the ultimate goal of having the system use all other manner of fluids, like oceans and wind currents.

But that is her Achilles' Heel.

The shading computer uses every movement of the target fluid to perform its calculations. Which includes even the most minute of fluids, namely Fremea's Agitate Halation. It may be a small scale AIM based power but as long as the connection exists, even that small amount of influence can be made to cause great levels of change on the system as a whole. All that was needed was for Fremea to become aware of this fact. A fact that could only have come about when she has been as involved with her power as she as tonight.

Her newfound degree of control has allowed her to throw the existence known as Yakumi Hisako into Rensa's system.

"That...doesn't make sense! I no longer have the ability to become a vessel for AIM based abilities!"

"Yes, you do. The part that makes you, you, is what is blocking you from using that body for it's intended purpose but that doesn't mean the body has changed at all, right?"

The cybernetic vessel known as Rensa was designed for AIM based power, not Skill powers. In those terms, her body had simply become inert for it's original purpose as she used Skills more and more. It's not as though her body has ceased to function. It's more of a communication issue between her and the body itself. The reasoning for why AIM based powers and Skill based powers were seemingly incompatible is a mystery to all parties concerned but there are other matters for them to get to.

"Really. If your good doctor hadn't been so goddamn blind in her insanity, she could've seen this coming. I'm sure this result would have come about with or without me but at least...it is with me. Not that is good for you. I'm sure that's how you'll feel about it in a minute at any rate."

"W-what? No. I won't let you take her!"

Her desperate cries of betrayal make Kumagawa wince but he turns to face her. If only out of respect.

"You really do care for her huh. I wish we could have met sooner but...there's no sense in stalling over so many 'what ifs'."

"NO! ENOUGH OF THIS!"

Through the pain, confusion, and rage, Rensa gathers up all the Skills she has made use of over the night and throws their collective weight at Kumagawa.

"...Sorry."

The sound of a great many something's shattering booms across the courtyard.

"W-wha-no. NONONONONO! NOOOOOOO!"

This wail of someone who knows they are about to lose everything is stopped just as suddenly as her new gathering Skills were, with several Bookmaker screws impaling her.

"...You didn't have to be here for this part, you know."

Touma stands from where he had been when he negated a portion of that Skill spam.

"I do though. I need to see this through to the end."

Kumagawa gives no reply but instead walks over to Rensa's slumped over body as it laughs uncontrollably. Bookmaker affects the entirety of it's target but since Yakumi wasn't the target for it, she must have escaped it's influence.

"Hahahahahaha! Your screw may have taken Rensa out but I'll have control soon! I may not be able to fight for long BUT-"

"Shut up already, you cliché."

Kumagawa's hand jabs straight into Rensa's enlarged gut and as he pulls it out of her-

"All Fiction."

-Yakumi, in complete human form, comes out as well, restoring Rensa's body to how it was before.

"Huh? What? I don't-."

"You tried so hard to force me onto one of two paths that you forgot that I'm exactly the type to say screw that and forge my own path."

Yakumi doubles over with laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAAAA! This is too rich! I'm saved by the anti-hero!"

Screws bore through multiple points on her body to pin her down.

"Is that what you think is happening here? You really don't know me at all if you seriously think I'm kind enough to let your insanity remain in this world."

Even with all the metal protruding from her, she laughs.

"Hee hee...and your own insanity is somehow alright here? Isn't that hypocritical?"

"Yeah. It's what I am."

"Haaaa. But how are you going to kill me then? Rensa should be proof enough that humans can survive all sorts of travesties and should I manage to survive, I'll just crawl my way up through the muck and destroy everything you love!"

"Oh, I have the perfect way for taking care of you."

She grins sickly at all the ideas her mind conjured up. But none of those could apply.

Kumagawa's hand gently rests onto the top of her head, eliciting legitimate bewilderment from Yakumi.

"Though I never said I was going to kill you. Not at any one time."

She frowns initially but as the realization hits, her face goes blank with a sobering fear that pierces straight though her insanity.

That same realization strikes another as they raise a hand as though to stop him, but it's too late once you see it's too late. Still, a voice falters on in the face of inevitability.

"Wai-"

"All Fiction."

With that, Yakumi Hisako was no more and this long fight had ended.

The hand hesitates for but a moment, then drops with their half-made intentions.

---

The sun rises over the bustling city of science as the rioting ceased in the Learning Core. The estimated 7500 fabricated heroes snapped out of their fugue state with little memory of what, when, where, or why anything had happened. They knew they had been fighting for something...or was it someone...either way, it just didn't seem to matter as much to them anymore. Throngs of these former heroes leave the Learning Core with the vaguest sense they had been involved with something strange but in time, they'll forget about it all.

Touma watches the morning sun from his hospital bed. The horrible events from the night prior left that beautiful scene little more than a facade for him as he recalls everything. At least Fremea and everyone else made it out safely. Hamazura and the girl he was with were hurt quite badly but they're being treated now, just as he was, and they should be leaving this hospital soon, with Touma leaving a day or so after due to the wounds he received from fighting Kumagawa. On top of that, he had brought the two tubes filled with the pieces of the previous Rensa pilots as well as the location of the other ones for the frog-faced doctor here to do something about them. If anyone could return some semblance of life back to those poor people, it'd be him.

There was so much that went right about last night in spite of everything that it should make Touma at least set aside those awful things that had transpired. But even so, no especially so, he just can't let it go.

[Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. I'm getting real tired of having to look at that depressed ass face. Seriously, look how beautiful it is out there!]

Touma turns to the door way to see his partner in crime from the night before with a look of disgust on his face. He smiles a bit and raises his arm in greeting, sitting up in his bed as he does.

"Hey Kumagawa."

[That's slightly better but I get the feeling you'll just go back to being emo afterwards...do you want the same X-ray vision treatment I gave Zura-chan? You'd get to see the really good bits behind the uniforms of the cute nurses here!]

"Absolutely not."

Kumagawa walks up and sits on the end of the bed, stroking his chin pensively.

[Hmm. Guess I know what you mean. It's the uniform that gives them their appeal but it'd be even better to just simply KNOW that they're nurses without their uniform on!]

Normally Touma wouldn't engage in this sort of a thing but he also wanted to find a way to stop Kumagawa from using his ability to make it so girls everywhere would have their clothes made into nothing. As a champion of the people and a veteran fighter against his fellow Delta Force members, he had to stop the ever looming menace of Kumagawa's perversion. He just needed an opening.

"That doesn't even make sense. Do they even need to be nurses in that case?"

[Nah man! See, it's kinda like glasses on a girl, it's hot when they're on but even moreso when they're off!]

"Still then it shouldn't be necessary that they be nurses."

[Oh you poor, poor bastard. How could you not understand even that most basic of universal truths? Take ponytails for example. They are usually up all the time and therefore, the moment they're down, it allows the female to radiate 60 to 70 percent more sexiness on average.]

There it was.

"So that truth is that things that are worn on a woman will make the woman herself even more sexier when taken off?"

[At last you see the light my brother!]

"But isn't it so that what little skin a woman shows, it increases her inherent sexiness more than when it's all off?"

[Hmm.]

"Doesn't that kinda poke a hole in that so-called truth of yours?"

[HMMMMMMMMMMM. This is...honestly concerning. I'll have to give that a bit more thought before I can give a proper answer to you.]

Touma pumps his arm where Kumagawa can't see.

"That's fine. But...well thank you."

Kumagawa looks over with an eyebrow raised.

[Huh?]

"You didn't have to do as much as you had last night, even with that promise to that girl you know. That and for helping me take my mind off last night, even if it was for just a bit."

Kumagawa lets out a low sigh and looks out the window for a bit, seemingly to collect his thoughts. After a few minutes he turns back to Touma, his eyes showing a more serious glint to them than they had when he walked in.

"You're still hung up on that crap? Before I get into that, don't underestimate my promises to the ones I can consider friends. If Misaki-chan asks me to help you save your friends, that's exactly what I'll do. It doesn't matter to what extent that goes to. I'll give her that much effort. As far as the rest goes...none of that was your fault. That was just me being selfish in taking my anger out on that woman. I wouldn't have let you get in my way even if you wanted to."

Touma clenches his fists as he stares at his lap.

"But I did want to. I know. I know she was insane and she would have just infected the world like a cancer if she was alive. Even so...I killed her before that point. I killed her without even hearing her out. And all because she chose that. She wouldn't listen to me so I refused to listen to her just because my friends were still in danger. If it ended there, I...wouldn't be fine exactly but I would accept it eventually. It was my decision in the end so I would have to accept it if I wanted to keep going but then...she came back by your power. Even if she was evil, even if you would have stopped me, even if I had been fine with her death at my hands before...I could have saved her. I had that chance in front of me but all I could do is meekly raise my hand a bit when it was too late to do anything. Maybe-"

"Maybe you could have given her another chance. Maybe she could have been saved, rehabilitated even. Maybe, just maybe. That's all it really is."

The venom in his words stuns Touma but not because of it being directed at him. He couldn't know for sure but it almost felt like it was for Kumagawa himself.

"...Tell me, Touma-kun. What is it that you think All Fiction to be?"

"Huh?"

"Do you think that Skill to be some miracle maker? Do you think it should be used in some other manner, like to end world hunger or something? Because it can do that. Just as I could make the world into nothing, I can do the same with world hunger or disease or any other thing that plagues humanity. I could end all the Four Horsemen with just a snap of my finger and make this place a utopia. But I don't. I could save so many but I never do by choice. Do you know why?"

Touma says nothing, waiting on his reply.

"Because nothing can't solve anything meaningful. Reality is the way it is because there are so many horribly bad and good things in it. There would be an immeasurable number of consequences for saving the planet from all those things but I'll start with world hunger."

He stands up and walks to the window on the other side of the bed, staring out of it with a sadness in his eyes.

"I make it so no one can suffer from famine again by making famine into nothing. Food becomes worthless to the majority and it would likely just be some luxury item as no one would need food again. People all over rejoice at this loophole in reality as they no longer have to suffer from hunger again. But to think all suffering ends there is just plain ignorant. All industries involved in food making would collapse basically on the night people realize that they no longer need to eat. All those people would be out of jobs, resulting a global collapse of the economy. War and crime rises along with death all over as people try to make sense of their new world, failing miserably as this new reality is too illogical for them. Humanity would rise up again, I'm sure. We're as stubborn as cockroaches in that regard."

His whole body tenses with anger as he spits his words out.

"But the cost would be way to high for me to do something so reckless, as hypocritical as that sounds. No matter what, reality needs good, evil, and everything in between to function properly. That doctor is included in that. Her evil was necessary for good people to rise up and stop her and vice versa. I cannot deny her purpose but I am still allowed to hate it. That's why I made her into nothing. For something as childish as 'I hate her so I don't want her to exist anymore'. Such selfishness is all I will allow All Fiction or Bookmaker to be used for. Because at least small scale things like that can be managed easily enough to only have a localized Butterfly Effect. Everything else...is simply too much for a loser like me to handle properly."

"...I hadn't thought that far into your Skill. To be honest, I hadn't thought you would have either."

Kumagawa laughs sardonically as he faces Touma again.

"I may be an idiot but I'd like to think that I know how to use my Skills in a more or less responsible way. So stop thinking so hard about what ifs or you'll just get bogged in bullshit for you to drown in."

"...Right. I'll remember that. Thanks."

Kumagawa sighs in relief as he puts the old, worn mask of a fool back on with a smile.

[Now THAT, I'll accept thanks for! Had me worried you might go into some Demon King phase if I let you keep that crap up!]

"Heh, yeah maybe I'll start leaning towards that in a 100 billion years or something when Index goes into 100% beast mode on me."

[...Don't go saying shit like that. You're gonna tempt that sadistic dominatrix, Fate-oneechan, into putting us both through exactly that.]

The two misfortunate bastards receive a large chill down their spines.

"Uh yeah. Let's just ignore that."

[Seriously! I have more important things to worry about!]

"Like what?"

[Like finding a place to sleep for the night. Enshuu-chan keeps kicking me out of her lab whenever she's working because I'm supposedly a distraction. Psh! I sit in my corner and read manga quietly like the good boy I am and this is how I'm treated!]

"Haaaaah. That sort of misfortunate just reminded me. My attendance is going to take a serious hit again from my stay here. And that frogman won't let me leave even if I say I'm alright! He even has nurses posted at all the entrances and exits because he knows their kind auras will force me to go along with what they say!"

Kumagawa stops his shared groan against luck with a confused expression.

[Eh? How are you in that much trouble? Couldn't you just have a friend or something answer for you when it comes to the attendance?]

Touma's heart stops.

"...What."

[I said-]

Suddenly, the Imagine Breaker chucks one of his pillows at that Crawling Minus like it was a rock being lobbed at someone sentenced to stoning. At least, he was wishing that was the case. After all, how could anyone accept such a basic, though never thought of despite that, idea coming from Kumagawa of all people.

"No I heard. I just can't believe I'm so stupid that I hadn't even considered that option...WHY DIDN'T I MEET YOU SOONER SO YOU COULD TELL ME THAT SOONER!? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE SO LATE YOU BASTARD!?"

[Whoa! Calm down before you tear something! Besides, that technique can only work a few times before your teacher either realizes the voice is off or they're patience with it wears off. You should choose those moments to use that carefully.]

"Damn it...wait. ….You...look like me with your hair gelled. Maybe a bit scrawnier but-"

[Hold up there duder, what makes you think I'd just go with that plan?]

Touma leaps eagerly to sway his prospective chump into saving his high-school career from being extended.

"Because you can stay in my apartment for the time being!"

[Oho? But don't you have a girl there? Index-chan, was it? Who knows what would happen between us with you out the picture?]

The two are silent for some time, to the point where Kumagawa was even feeling like he had gone too far before Touma roars with laughter, tears streaming down his face as he thumps the side of his bed with one arm.

"PFFFFFFT! HAHAHAHA!"

[...Annoying me here bud.]

"Sorry but you'll have to see for yourself on that end. Here's my keys, unless you don't want to stay there."

[...Weeeeeell, putting aside your really unappealing response, I ain't gotta choice anyway! Thanks!]

He pockets the keys as he turns to leave.

"What now then?"

[I'm going to finally watch my goddamn anime is what now then!]

"I mean...about Ajimu.."

Touma had been considering whether or not to tell him that they had met but he wasn't all that sure of what Kumagawa's response would be. After all, he said that he had spent the majority of his life to stop her. That combined with his generally unstable mental state, made Touma more than a bit uneasy about telling him.

[Ajimu huh? She can wait another day for me to worry about. I mean, she's waited so damn long to do anything about it in the first place so I'm pretty sure when she does go on the move, we'll know. Plus, I'm fucking DONE doing anything at all for awhile! I'm just gonna chill at your place and ogle some cuties at your school to relieve some stress.]

"Haha...I see. Um, hey I-"

Before he could get a word in, the worst possible opener to a joke that Touma could ever experience happened, a nun and a Japanese schoolgirl walk into the hospital room with an alien visitor to meet them.

To be specific on their identities, it was Index and Misaka Mikoto that entered.

Index came on the suspicion that Touma would be there while Mikoto came because she heard he was there from Misaki after the business at the Learning Core. The two had their typical banter between each other as they walked up but now, they are both silent in the face of seeing Kumagawa. For Index, it was simply because she didn't know him at all.

But for Mikoto, the reason was shear rage as sparks begin to fly while she glares daggers at Kumagawa.

The man in question was sweating profusely at this unexpected encounter. Normally he'd just laugh at tease her a good bit but this was already eating into his much desired decompression time. He wanted out of this mess. So with the slow starting sound of an old lightbulb going off, he chuckles softly before walking back towards the bed.

"And where do you think you're going, pervert? I still owe you for that 'magic trick' you showed me."

Touma shivers from the cold and savage smile that little brunette gave to Kumagawa's back. He knew that he had to have done something bad to Mikoto but he still had to empathize with him even so.

Kumagawa stops just at the foot of Touma's bed before looking his electrocutioner in the face.

[My dear, I have assessed the situation and have decided that I must go.]

"Reeeeeaaaally now? And where to, might I ask?"

[I need to go return some video tapes.]

"Wait wha-"

[Before that, here's what you asked of me, my most cherished FRIEND.]

With that odd punctuation, he tosses something at Touma's face. As he pulls it from his face to see what it was, Kumagawa gives him a casual salute with a smug look about him as he runs full force into and out the window.

"What the hell? Er, sorry about that! He's kind of an awkward guy but he's a good person."

Mikoto's face was discernible from under the hair as she stares down.

"So, he is your friend then huh?"

"Well...yeah. Though that's something of a changing-"

Something strikes him.

Mikoto being angry at Kumagawa for something, presumably, perverted.

Kumagawa chucking something at him while emphasizing the word, friend, before running out of a window on the 5th floor of the hospital.

What is it that Kumagawa would do when confronted by a situation he'd rather not deal with?

Touma looks to his hand for the answer, wadded into his hand.

Why, he'd just press all the responsibility onto someone else in the absolute worst way of course.

There was a pair of white panties, in full view of the two angriest girls in his life.

"Toooooouuuumaaaa…."

"You…."

Before his punishment by way of cannibalistic scalping and electrocution, he shouts out his window.

"KUMAGAWA YOU BASTAAAAAAAAAAARD!"

Off in the distance, laughing and crying can be heard over the sounds of the waking city.

---

The end was as he had expected but the journey was not. Aleister Crowley rewatches several scenes of the previous nights events.

It was a situation had set up for the sake of his original plan but it also served decently well with his side plan as well. But things were going far too slow on that end. If he was to stop her, he needed to start cutting some corners.

But first, he needs to address the immortal in the room.

"So, do you care to explain yourself?"

The screens close themselves as he stares Ajimu down. She smiles warmly from on top that desk, that seems more like an accessory for her at this point than anything else.

"What would I have to explain? The fact that I sicced my Terminals on your golden boy?"

"That's self explanatory. You clearly sent them to groom your own 'golden boy'. What I mean is your attempt to provoke Kamijou Touma into a fight."

"Ahhh. That. Sorry to say but I've decided on involving him into my own plan."

"Really now."

He already had his suspicions but at this point she was just mocking him with that. Ajimu laughs at his unamused expression.

"Don't sweat it! It's not going to impede your progress there or anything. Honestly it would give him some much needed EXP."

"I don't see how. The Imagine Breaker isn't strong enough to repel your Skills, much less kill you."

"Oh? But what about what you've had growing behind that?"

Aleister raises an eyebrow.

"That isn't meant for something like you. With your Skills commanding magic, I would think it would be meaningless to you."

"Because of little One Eye breaking it? Well that may be true if my Skills could involve the magic of this series."

"Hm?"

"I have spent quite some time pondering my death. I was so concerned over the how of it that I never thought on the why. I was honestly about to abandon this place until I saw it spring from his stump of an arm to attack Kumagawa. What he saw then, wasn't a lack of weakness but rather a lack of definition."

"Definition? I can't see what-"

"Getting to that, Edd. His Imagine Breaker is a very well defined ability but that is what makes it weak against me. There are upper and lower limits to it. But that thing behind it has none of those. It is a complete and utter unknown that I couldn't possibly have a defense for, being a person so separated from this series system for powers. Should that strike me, I'd die without so much a fight or casualty. It's the most bloodless a suicide as I can get to."

"Hmph. And what if I were to give the information on how it works to Kumagawa then? By that logic, it would become worthless in it's ability to you and he would be able to come up with a counter measure to you."

Ajimu's smile disappears so quick, that it may as well have never been there, as she stares deep into Aleister's eyes.

"...Then I would have to abandon playing nice completely. Besides, that fake loser couldn't be any weaker than his original."

Aleister needed more information so he just shrugs off her threat and moves along.

"Fake? What do you mean?"

"You wouldn't know but he is drastically different from the one I know. Not his fault for having a shitty writer using him here. This one curses like a sailor, he makes references to shitty western movies and the like instead of manga, he uses Bookmaker FAR more than ever did, and he is a great deal more serious. Even if it can be said to be plausible, that doesn't make him the same. Thus, he is even weaker in essence than he was in the source material."

"Doesn't that apply to you as well?"

Ajimu chuckles as she swings her legs over the edge of the desk.

"Touche. But I have taken great strides of caution in how I act here. My limited presence in the story has allowed me to remain closer to my original self."

"Well either way, going by your own delusions, you can't actually die here if this is just some fan based work, right?"

"And that shitty writer's segue spewing from you decently let's us get to the core of this. The plausibility of my death!"

She leaps from the desk and walks over to Aleister's life support tube.

"It's a lot like those pointless arguments over what character can beat who, like Goku vs One Punch Man. They just spit mean facts about what the characters can do and say 'Yeah! He'd totally stomp him into the ground!' without any real thought to it. That's just ignorant. It's not as though those things don't matter but they are just one small piece of it. Why do they fight? When, where, how? Without that level of definition behind it, it becomes only a matter of who the mediocre author writing that fanfic wishes it to end."

With a light hop, she floats up to Aleister's eye level and smiles darkly.

"Such as it is with this. This writer doesn't wish for such a simple end. He'd rather drag it out like his updates. He could just have a confrontation between myself and Kamijou-kun where I die to that thing but that would be rather unsatisfying wouldn't it? My death requires that plausibility. Soon, or in Freeza seconds really, this world will be destroyed by that One Eyed cutie and she'll throw your boy into an endless hell of fabricated worlds. Given there are so many, couldn't it be said this very story is but another of those? Should I die in that, it could be plausible for the readers to accept the events here as being possible in the original story. It can be possible that my canon self would die here. And thus, I have a chance at finally, finally, FINALLY ending this shitty immortality that was written into my character."

"...And that wouldn't affect the residents of this world? You really think assisting with your suicide is something that can be in Kamijou Touma's character?"

She pokes the glass in a bemused manner with the nail of her index finger.

"Again, touche. But even if that screws with the result, it's a chance I'll have to take. As such, I'm ending our business relationship."

With that, she drops to ground and turns away, walking off.

"...I'll still stop you even if I can't keep an eye on you like this."

Without stopping or even twisting her head to look at him, she lets out a dry laugh.

"So you admit it. Well that's fine. Because I'm going on the offensive now and there's nothing a loser like you or that fake can do to stop me. Hope your own plan goes well, Edd! If nothing else, I do admire your determination to your cause."

And then she was gone. She was one of the first people to come into his life as a magician. Rather than teach him magic, Ajimu taught him a way of life.

Success or failure. Good and evil. Strong or weak.

None of that really matters.

It was the kind of philosophy he was sure that he would have learned over the course of his life but she had presented it in a clear cut way from the very beginning of his career in magic. It hadn't changed anything for him but at least she gave him the tools needed to temper himself into the man he needs to be in order to see his will through to the end.

And for that, never mind the fact that the world might end, he wanted to save her.

Or rather, he wanted the one meant to save her to get to it already.

But if there was anything right about what Ajimu had said, it was the fact that Kumagawa was unfit for being that person as he is now. Therefore, he just needs to be molded into the proper person for the task of saving a suicidal immortal.

"...Is she gone?"

"You can never quite tell with her. She could be simply content on watching from afar or she could just as easily be waiting to appear right in the middle of conversation. Though if it's any consolation, I don't think she'd do that now."

On a screen that had just reopened, was a hyper-intelligent, cigar-smoking, mad scientist Golden Retriever by the name of Noukan Kihara.

"Between good and evil, she is neither at heart but between like and dislike, it's a rather fierce dislike. She's way too unpredictable for someone so absurdly strong. It makes things so much harder on our end."

Aleister smiles at this.

"True. Well? How did things go there?"

"Well enough other than the odd bits here and there. Yuuitsu was more than successful in implanting the Kihara mindset into Yakumi so she'd go out of control with the Agitate Halation Project and we were able to take care of those rioting so they'll forget about the whole thing. Honestly, there's some promise with that project. Though I'm not really that interested in pursuing it currently. But moving on from that. Are you sure we should really be using little Enshuu like this? Or rather, why are we going this far anyway? Kumagawa's Bookmaker should be capable enough for sealing her powers so he can just All Fiction them away."

"He's already done tried that before, unfortunately."

Noukan's snout scrunches up in thought as he puffs on his cigar.

"Hmm. Then, even moreso, why him?"

"Because he's the closest one to her. He's got more than enough determination to boot. All he needs is a bit of...rewiring. If we get him closer to how he was when they met, he'll be able to stop her for good."

"I know you care for her as someone that had helped you so much in your youth but do you really think it's a good idea to use Kamijou Touma for that?"

"Yes. Being so close to someone he'd have to constantly compare himself to should have a nice effect on him."

"Even though that influence works both ways?"

"Even so."

"Very well. I will continue with my end of things then. Talk to you later."

Aleister nods before cutting the connection.

That was his plan. He would guide Kumagawa about in a similar manner to Touma in order to help shape his personality into being one that can properly take on Ajimu. That was why the plans had to shift with that Agitate Halation. He needed these two to meet and interact so Kumagawa could see someone as damned in fortune as he and had yet had all the things Kumagawa yearned so much for. He needed Kumagawa to face reality. Because only once he had finally grown past the angry nihilist of his bygone days, can he finally defeat his truest enemy.

To this end, Aleister turns his thoughts away from why he meddles with these otherworlders and moves back to the how with a cascade of screens opening as he makes his plans.

---

To everyone just coming across this and, especially, to the ones that have somehow returned here after so long, thanks for reading. So sorry for the late update. Between how long I knew this update was going to have to be to finish this arc and real life, I had no motivation to go with. It does make me feel bad though to leave something I've put so much work in. I suppose, in that case, it's not like I had a choice but to get me off my lazy ass huh? Anyway, this was a pretty long one. Dunno about longest in the story but it's the longest I've done in a bit. So long I don't even really know how to go about these afterward deals anymore! Hopefully I've made all the exposition and action interesting enough. Really wanted to make it show that Touma had come to trust Kumagawa enough to know that no matter what, they'll pretty much be on the same page when it comes to saving people. Though, Touma's view is a bit wrong at the moment. Not his fault when he hasn't really seen the kinds of lengths he'd go to save Ajimu. Her plans for suicide would, of course, have to be meta as hell. How else could a girl like her get killed off? Next arc will be about vampires coming to Academy City with Touma and Kumagawa going off on a buddy cop adventure! There'll be action, backstory into how Kumagawa first came to this world, and a few of the older characters in the Toaru series. Just...wait a bit for that. I hesitate to give any deadlines as I just never know when I'll feel like writing or when I'll be able to but nonetheless, I will continue this until it's logical end! ...Wherever the hell that is.