"How are you feeling?" asked Mikoto as she closed the door to Tabitha's room.
"I...don't know," answered Tabitha and Mikoto nodded. It wasn't like they hadn't known this was coming, the problem was Tabitha had no where else to go. If the war with Albion was allowed to progress through Tristain then Tabitha wouldn't be safe here.
She would either be forced to return to Gallia and accept suicidal missions from her insane uncle, or fight with Tristain in the approaching war.
Of course she'd follow Tabitha regardless of what she chose. The problem she faced was Meltdowner wasn't currently aware of her presence in this world. Society merely thought Louise was incompetent with magic, not that she was a Void Mage, and other than the incidents with Mott and Fouquet she hadn't really demonstrated her overwhelming power. The amount of power she'd used could easily be attributed to that of a square or even triangle class mage. Obliterating an entire army however could not.
On the other hand if Tabitha returned to Gallia she'd be back on suicidal missions and whilst they may be considered such by society they weren't to her. The problem was Tabitha's uncle could visit, discover her, and she and Meltdowner would duke it out there and then.
Disastrous wouldn't even begin to describe that.
She sighed frustrated, silently wishing Meltdowner would grow up. It's not like they were even ranked in terms of power, despite what everyone thought. They were ranked in terms of potential to reach level 6. Gunha was only 7th because his power was difficult to measure and she didn't know anything about Phantom.
Shokuhou and Mugino on the other hand would probably never reach level 6. Unless Shokuhou figured out how to utilise her full power without her mediums, and Mugino dramatically increased her control, level 6 was out of their reach.
She on the other hand could reach level 6, and by connecting to the Misaka network within her mind she could level shift. Problem was her body simple could not handle that amount of power and honestly she wasn't sure she even wanted it.
"What do you think?" asked Tabitha quietly.
"I think the best option is to wait and see what we're up against before deciding. The moment Meltdowner catches wind of my presence she'll be down here demanding a fight, so the longer I remain out of her sights, the better."
"What's she like?"
"Meltdowner?"
Tabitha nodded.
"Petty, she's already tried to kill me twice so I know what I'm up against and how to counter it."
"Tried to kill you?"
"Yeah, the first time she showed up after I'd practically used up all my power fighting her ally. I escaped because I had better, more important things to do than fight her but one of her other friends was able to track me. I spent a while dodging her beams until she forced me to deflect one, that's when she realised who I was."
"What happened?"
"She went to my destination and challenged me one on one. I didn't have much choice but her friend that I used up my power against had rigged the whole building with explosives inside stuffed toys. I found 25 and put metal inside them so I could control them with magnetism, she fired at me and I duped her. Made her think I didn't have any left and slammed one full of metal into her head. With her out cold I went about my business and when I was finished she'd regained consciousness."
"How did you escape?"
"I outsmarted her. She was incredibly pissed and indiscriminately blasting everything in front of her. At that point I had 3 possible escape routes, one was too narrow to dodge her beams, another I'd be screwed if it was blocked so I gambled on the third. A metal bridge over a high drop, as I predicted she caught up to me at it. As I said her friend had rigged the whole place with bombs and explosive tape which she used to set off the bombs from a distance. The bridge was covered in it. I used a spark to light up the tape destroying the bridge and using what little power I had left to magnetise myself to it whilst Meltdowner fell."
"The second?"
Mikoto lowered her head slightly, "At the beginning of the war I was assigned a mission with one of Meltdowner's friends. There was a group of mages we needed to kill. They weren't particularly powerful all things considered but..."
She clenched her teeth and tightly gripped her trouser leg, only relaxing her grip when Tabitha placed a hand on hers.
"I hesitated and Meltdowner's friend paid the price...When I returned alone Meltdowner attacked me, I didn't fight back. Accelerator saved me and forced Meltdowner to back off. That day I promised myself, I would never again hesitate to kill."
"Sorry."
Mikoto shrugged, "Whilst I regret what happened I can't change it, all I can do is learn from it. Besides Meltdowner hated me long before we met, that incident really just gave her an excuse to openly show it."
"Don't die."
"I can't make any guarantees but I have no intention of just letting her kill me," she stood and pulled some pyjamas and a night gown out of Tabitha's wardrobe, "There's not much we can do right now, other than rest. We'll wait and see what we're up against and make a decision."
Tabitha nodded taking the offered night gown.
"Mikoto what happened to your hand?" asked Saito passing Kriche a note.
"I was practising magic when my blood vessels exploded," she answered.
The look he shot her was nothing short of incredulous.
"Louise fired you?" asked Kirche looking up from the note.
"Yeah she wrote this note and then disappeared," he explained clearly having no idea what was going on.
"She's gone to join Henrietta and Wales on the front lines hasn't she," sighed Mikoto.
"Probably," answered Kirche.
"Wait, what do you mean front lines?" asked Saito.
"Albion's declared war on Tristain," Mikoto answered.
"There's going to be a war!"
"Guiche signed up for defence duty but since I'm originally from Germania I'm thinking of scurrying back home before it all gets out of hand," shrugged Kirche.
"The academy's shut its doors for the time being so everyone's gone home, going home or joining the war," Mikoto explained.
"What about you?"
"I'll go where Tabitha goes, though ideally we'd want to stay here."
"So you'll be joining the war too?"
"Maybe, we'll see. Depends whether or not I'd have to go beyond square class capabilities."
"Why's that?"
"I'm trying to fly under someone's radar."
"Oh yeah, who?"
"Meltdowner."
"Meltdowner, sounds familiar."
"Level 5 esper."
Saito immediately paled, "Oh, er, aren't you friends?"
"Meltdowner despises me."
"You're going to fight?!" Poor Saito looked on the verge of fainting.
"Eventually but hopefully not for a while yet."
He nodded, "So Louise has gone to join the army," he mused trying to change the subject.
"Yeah, you know how blindsided Valliére can be when it comes to Henrietta."
He nodded, "So what am I supposed to do?"
"Think about your decision. You still have a day to decide whether you're staying or leaving."
"What about you?"
"You already know I can't go back."
"Yeah, I know."
Tabitha spent the rest of the day practising wandless magic, moving on from dot spells to line spells. At her rate of progress Mikoto believed she'd have it down within a month, then she'd go on to casting non verbal spells.
Maybe she'd teach her some chemistry and physics when she was done.
The term 'knowledge is power' best described how her ability functioned, without intricate knowledge she wouldn't be able to utilise it to its full potential. Tabitha's magic was different, it was more about feeling and manipulating her power to create the desired effect. She didn't need intricate knowledge of wind or ice to be able to cast her spells, but having it could increase her power and efficiency.
Unfortunately with the war that would have to wait.
Tabitha needed to be confident using wandless magic, not learn a load of things that will take time for her to fully understand and even longer to utilise efficiently.
Today was the day of the solar eclipse.
The day Saito made his choice.
"So have you made your decision?" Mikoto asked as she Tabitha and Kirche walked towards Saito. He was staring up at the zero fighter clearly lost in thought.
"I think so. I've decided to stay for the time being," he answered.
"What! Why?" gasped Kirche.
"If I go back now then I won't be able to return to my normal life, I'd constantly be worrying what was happening here."
"Ah sorry to keep you waiting," called Colbert as he approached with 4 floating barrels, "The dragon's blood, I think you called it gasoline. I worked all night and was able to replicate this." He lowered the barrels to the ground.
"Thank you so much sir."
"Have you made your decision?"
He nodded, "I'm staying for now."
"Really! I'm truly glad you came to a decision."
"Colbert," interrupted Mikoto, "Do you know how the war's progressing?"
"The enemy is already in the west end of Tristain, they've planted a battleship just outside Tarbes. Who knows when they'll reach here."
"There in Tarbes! Siesta's home village!" yelled Saito.
"Our army has already begun its advance under the command of our Princess."
"No! Siesta!"
"Just to be clear, it's only 1 battleship right?" asked Mikoto.
"That's what the reports say," answered Colbert.
She turned to Saito, "I can take the battleship if you take aerial support."
"Aerial support?" he asked confused.
"Griffons, dragons, whatever."
"Got it! Mr Colbert please fill up the tank."
"I'm sorry?" poor old Colbert looked very lost.
5 minutes later Saito was sat in the pilots seat with the propeller spinning as she destroyed part of the academy's wall.
Wrapping iron sand around her forearms she jumped on top of the plane behind Saito, lying as low as she could and securing herself with magnetism leaving Saito to move the plane forwards.
Picking up speed they shot through the gap in the wall and into the sky.
Tabitha, Kirche and Sylphid struggled to keep up as they raced towards Talb.
What they arrived to was pretty much what she'd expected, the warship was dominating against Tristain's ground forces and their dragon riders were destroying the Griffon Knights.
She knocked on the plane's window and Saito opened it.
"Fly over the ship, then engage the dragon riders."
"Right."
Not a moment later they shot through the dragon riders formation, utilising the plane's superior speed. Once they were above the ship she jumped off using explosions to slow her descent and manipulating the iron sand into a sword, clasping it in her right hand.
Landing on deck she immediately engaged the crew, easily slicing them apart. They were no match for her agility and the deadliness of her iron sand.
"By the brilliance of this light become my prisoner," was all she heard before it felt like the gravity increased.
Channelling electricity throughout her body she shot towards the blond man pointing a ring in her direction, her sword easily slicing through him.
"LORD CROMWELL!" one of the men shouted and she blinked in surprise before her eyes locked onto his ring.
Pulling it off his finger she pocketed it before returning to slaughtering everyone else on board.
With only a few mages left she felt the ship starting to fall, quickly killing them she jumped off easily landing on the ground as the battleship crashed behind her. Looking up she saw Saito had taken care of the dragon riders and began walking over to where Sylphid had landed.
"All the mages on the ship are dead and Saito's taken care of the dragon riders," she reported. Tabitha nodded whilst Kriche and Guiche just stared. "Guiche you're technically in the army so you can report this to Henrietta and Wales."
"What about you?" asked Guiche.
"I'm going back to the Academy, there's something I need to look up," she turned towards Tabitha who nodded and Sylphid lay down enabling them to mount her.
They took off ignoring Louise's shouts for them to come back and explain what's going on. Once in the air they headed towards Saito's plane which slowed as they approached.
"We're done here so we'er returning to the academy," called Mikoto over the wind.
"Got it," he called back picking up speed and leaving the battlefield behind them.