Part 1

Kamijou Touma is one who wakes up early.

On school days when his cell phone alarm works, he wakes up early to not only begin cooking a large breakfast but also to start on homework that he should have finished a week ago, if not at least last night.

He had since given up his bed to the small light-haired girl in order to get a good night's sleep, whenever he had time to get back to his apartment dorm, that is.

In any case, the spiky-haired teen had even had to relinquish the floor as of yesterday, not because someone else had claimed it, but simply, as a growing teenager, Touma couldn't handle being in the room with two girls.

So, unwrapping himself from his spare sleeping bag, Touma stood up with a stretch of his arms and legs, and glanced at the counter immediately in front of him.

In short, he had slept on the kitchen floor last night.

Though there was a perfectly ergonomic bathtub that provided spinal support if he managed to find the perfect position, there was no guarantee that Touma wouldn't find himself in some predicament if one of the girls decided to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Just one such previous case involving himself and Index was enough.

With a yawn, Touma opened and inspected the inside of the cabinets and refrigerator.

Luckily, there were a great number of sales at a lot of grocery stores going on today, and having a few additional hands would help him take advantage of the multitude of food for sale that would surely be up for grabs.

Unfortunately that was not going to help with the current situation where at the moment the food that was left would have to be rationed until after school when they would have a week's worth of food.

Of course, that's a calculation assuming that he only had to cook and feed himself and Index.

Their newest roommate would obviously strain their resources a bit, but Touma believed deeply that that was only a temporary situation.

Surely, Misaka's sister would find somewhere else to live. Maybe even with Ms. Tsukiyomi if he managed to guilt her enough? There was only so long the teacher could hold out from taking in another boarder.

Taking a step back with a carton of eggs and a variety of other foods in hand, Touma's eyes went wide when he suddenly slipped but quickly recovered, dropping his wares onto the counter in a quick motion before losing his footing entirely in the impenetrable darkness of the kitchen.

"Gh…" He bit back the urge to yelp in pain in order to spare the still-sleeping girls from a rude awakening.

"May Misaka suggest you turn the lights on to prevent further self-inflicted injury?' Misaka offers while flicking the switch to the 'on' position."

Illumination revealed the mess of Touma wrapped within the sleeping bag like prey caught in a boa constrictor's ever tightening grip.

"Are you alright?' Misaka asks while covering her mouth to hold in her laughter."

"Such misfortune…" Touma sighed and pulled himself out from his entanglement.

Clearing the floor of any other potential hazards, he set out the food and proper cooking tools to begin making breakfast.

Organizing the carton of eggs, a plastic box of grape tomatoes, green and yellow peppers and salt and pepper on the counter, Touma moved swiftly to place a frying pan onto the stove and set the heat.

"Now while I prepare the other ingredients I want you to crack and scramble the eggs." Putting a large plastic bowl onto the counter in front of where she stood, Touma took a metal whisk and slipped the handle into her hand. "If you could do all of those eggs, that'd really help."

"But Misaka has never…"

"Oh come on, it really isn't that hard." Touma, stepping away from his other prep work, moved toward the short haired brunette.

To her surprise she found herself between him and the counter.

"Now you just have to grasp the first egg, ok?"

Pressed into from behind, the Misaka clone felt his hands over top hers as she was guided to pick up an egg. Her face felt warm; though not as much as the boy felt standing closely behind her.

She had since forgotten all about the impromptu cooking lesson as within her mind she realized that she had been spamming the entire Network to the annoyance of the Sisters.

Finally, she felt his warm breath brush against the back of her neck, causing the Level 5's clone to spark at the sudden strange feeling almost as though a cold chill had shot through her whole body.

Realizing what she had done, Misaka Jun spun in place with the worried prospect that she had hurt Touma with a stray static bolt.

The spiky-haired boy turned around from where he was standing in front of the stove, his hand on a pair of chopsticks as he skillfully skimmed the egg yolk that was accompanied with colorful vegetables while the other held the handle of the pan, leaning it side to side to let the yolk run where he wanted.

"Hmmm? Oh, its ok I got the rest. Why don't you just sit at the table and I'll have breakfast ready in a bit."

The brown eyed girl sighed and nodded, seeing that she had zoned out and went completely through the motions as Touma….saw…fit…

Her face warmed up again and she let out a heavy sigh to jog herself to breathe.

"Touma! Touma! Is the food ready yet?" Index, who had apparently woken up, skipped delightfully toward the table before the woozy-feeling Misaka girl managed to take a seat.

Dressed not in her nun's habit but a green pair of pajamas, the silver haired girl smiled ecstatically toward Misaka Jun sitting across from her as though she were a part of this morning for more than just a day.

"Yeah, yeah, it's finished." Touma called out.

With a large serving plate he walked toward the table with a colorful display of omelet as he stepped out of the kitchen.

As it had been a precaution to clear the kitchen space of any hazards so as not to endanger himself or Misaka Jun while cooking, Touma had unfortunately tossed his spare sleeping bag onto the floor between the living room and kitchen area.

As such…

"Oh!" Misaka Jun gasped.

"The food!" Index professed her concern for the large amount of omelet heading for the floor.

His feet, caught in the entanglement of the sleeping bag, pressed into the floor like a sprint runner would and pushed off with all their might, plate still held tightly in his hands.

Reaching his right hand to paddle forward on the floor, Touma would make any baseball fan scream in joy as he caught the wayward pop-fly breakfast.

He reluctantly wore a wide grin while putting the plate onto the table. "I guess…that was a lucky break, huh?"

Part 2

Kamijou Touma and Misaka Jun were walking side-by-side down the sidewalk.

As it was an inevitable fate for Kamijou Touma, a string of manga-like circumstances and numerous misunderstandings took place at school that day.

Ranging from Misaka Jun suddenly appearing before him to ask if she had put on her bloomers on correctly, to failing a the other day's quiz because he had accidentally skipped a problem and answered the rest of the questions out of order, to being given an overabundance of convenience store food from Himegami Aisa that had actually recently expired, Touma felt burdened by these kinds of things happening to him often.

Such a sentiment wasn't felt by Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Aogami Pierce, who berated him with their counter complaints and limited physical abuse such as pokes and arm punches.

School had since ended and they were now walking back from food shopping, effectively ending the surplus in allowance that Touma had managed to save for emergency situations.

The two were shopping again since a certain nun's eating habits were completely underestimated, while Misaka Jun's (temporary) joining had completely upset Touma's budget calculus.

Misaka Jun was walking to his right with a bag in each of her hands, while Touma carried three bags in his left and a single bag in his right, since the bags swung about in reaction to their arm movement. So by carrying the fragile eggs freely, nothing would break the carton while they walked.

The two had managed to navigate through the pedestrian crowds easy enough, as the wide roads and public transportation available in Academy City made car traffic a near non-existent factor in traveling between the districts.

'This corner looks awfully familiar…' Touma thought as dread crept in the closer the two came toward the end of the building on their right.

An anxious looking brunette came into view.

"Oh, Onee-sama…' Misaka attempts to wave but the weight of the grocery bags prevents her from doing so."

Resting against the wall, Mikoto hesitated after she took a step forward, with her hand formed into a fist tightly clenched as though ready to lash out in a premeditated manner.

Obviously the girl didn't expect a Sister to not only be present during her ambush, but be in the way of her attack.

The middle school student stumbled back as her spiky-haired target came into view, on the other side of her Sister.

It wouldn't have been the first time for her to find the teen with a Sister, especially this particular Sister who was adorned with a heart-shaped necklace atop her blue school uniform.

Furrowing her eyebrows, realization turned Mikoto's fluster into irritation aimed at the strangeness of this situation.

The crinkling and ruffling of the plastic bags was not too surprising as she knew Touma to live in a dorm by himself.

At the same time, it was strange to see him have so many groceries at one time that surely he couldn't be having for himself since there was so much fresh produce in many of the bags, and he was supposed to be a "poor student" as well.

Though not completely farfetched since she couldn't know his entire living situation, the second strange thing noticed about this strange meeting was when Mikoto's eyes settled on the blue uniform that was obviously not Tokiwadai standard.

"Why are you wearing that?" Mikoto asked in the same tone a parent would her daughter going down the stairs on a Friday night.

All eyes settled on the predominantly blue winter uniform with traces of white, which looked like a high school uniform unlike the shorter skirt and tan colored jacket pair of Tokiwadai, which was a middle school.

"Misaka is currently attending his school' Misaka says to quickly address your concern.

Mikoto turned her attention to the "his" in question.

Kamijou Touma was a high schooler.

Being a clone of her, the Sister was grown to be technically her age, at least superficially. So in that regard, saying that she was "attending his school" meant that the Sister, who was technically a middle school student, was "attending a high school".

The Sisters' ages were no more than a few years up to this point, so the only way for clones to have gained so much knowledge in such a short span of time was in the active use of Testament machines, that by sending out electrical signals into the brain, could input a large amount of information in a short period of time and affects all five senses of the body.

Using the Testament, information such as speech, logic, motor functions as well as the personality and emotions of the subject can be installed.

Of course, the nuances and inconsistencies of society were something to be desired in Testament's power to upload large quantities of information into the artificially grown Sisters, but then it couldn't be much of a stretch for the clones to have a wider depth of knowledge, as far as high school or even collegiate level intelligence.

"Oh…I see…" Mikoto paused, coming up with this explanation as a mix of envy and a feeling of depreciation coursed through her.

Being able to attend school with him, a co-ed high school with fewer expectations than an institution like Tokiwadai and thus more free time for socializing was allowed of students…

A touch of red began to grow from her cheeks to the rest of her face as she continued talking

"Then…it's going to be a long walk back for you to the hospital…you know, if you're going to help him with his groceries…so…why don't I help and you go ba-"

"There is no need for that since Misaka is currently living in his residence, Onee-sama' Misaka reveals with both embarrassment and excitement at the fact."

"Agh!" Touma took a step back when such an announcement was so boldly stated.

"I don't understand…" Mikoto said quietly. "...since he's a boy and you're a girl, surely, as even an idiot like him would understand, he wouldn't simply let a girl stay to live with him…"

"…Misaka simply pressed the issue and was quickly allowed to stay with him.' Misaka explains the superiority of her direct tactics to Onee-sama's indirect onces.

Partially relieved that Index's stay at his apartment wasn't revealed, Touma scrambled to take immediate disaster control of such a terrible public relations fiasco.

"N-n-now, Biri-Biri, you see…the way she said it is a lot different than what really happened…I mean, it's kind of right, but, there's a lot of subtlety as to what happened…"

"Oh…really….so…that's what's going on, huh…?" Mikoto quietly seethed with her head facing down, as sharp crackles filled the air with blue streaks of electricity flowing through the girl's fringe.

'Being able to socialize during school…living together in the dorm room…sharing dinners…going out to shop for groceries…!'

"Hey, I can totally explain this, I mean, it's not like she said anything about the same room, and it could be that she's just in the same building, right? So…let's all settle down and tal…"

"G-get away from my sister you…you…LECHER!"

"What the heck!" Touma called out miserably as the bag of eggs he dropped began to fill with the yellow of yolk.

This sort of tragedy immediately happened after he used his right hand to block the electric attack that had shot out at him.

With an increasing growl, Mikoto gritted her teeth and took heavy steps toward the still retreating Touma. "Don't worry. I'm not going to fight you today…I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

A second, then third, then a full succession of electric attacks flew at the distraught high school boy as he scrambled to jump away and used his right hand to nullify the ones he couldn't dodge.

"Take care of the food!" Touma dropped the bag of groceries in his left hand and felt lighter and more agile as a result.

"Tsk! COME BACK HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU!" Mikoto took chase and growled when another bolt veered into nothingness once it came into contact with Touma's hand as he disappeared around the corner.

Part 3

There was no difficulty in getting away from Amai Ao.

In fact, it would be better to say that it was "too easy".

Nonetheless, she figured that even if her escape was preplanned or at least expected, she might as well take advantage of her false freedom.

Though on one hand there wouldn't be a point trying to move anywhere if she could be picked up at anytime, there was also no sense in waiting around just to be picked up.

If she were picked up in either case, most likely she would go back to that hotel room to sit on the single sized bed, staring at the wall while the messy haired scientist muttered stupidly to himself; waiting for someone else who had yet to arrive so that something could start.

Without any currency on hand, walking was the only recourse to head for the downtown area of the city.

There were free buses from the hotel to a place called "Seventh Mist" but that would be a likelier way to be caught, or at least make it easier to track her actions by that dork of a scientist.

So she walked toward the busier downtown area of the city, where within larger crowds a person had a better chance to move a bit more freely or at least transition into a sparser inhabited area.

Glancing from the shaded alleyway, the sounds of people and vehicles moving in the daytime hours continued to try to draw her out.

When trying to evade capture, it was important for a person to understand their pursuer.

Amai Ao was definitely a person stupid enough to come collect her in such a public fashion, with whoever it was he was with once they met him.

But then again, those same people could have much more common sense and hope she tried to stay in more secluded and isolated places like the alleyway right now.

The girl whose brown hair reached to the middle of her back gave a sigh while contemplating this cost-benefit situation.

Finally, curiosity got the better of her, so the girl decided to wander about the crowded streets of Academy City while learning more about her surroundings.

Part 4

Kamijou Touma huffed as he deftly moved through the crowd.

Though he was one to never bring innocent bystanders in danger, he hid amongst other people because of his opponent, the Level 5 Misaka Mikoto. It was more instinct than a strategy.

In the wild, an animal must either be able to fight or take flight.

Since there was neither food, water, territory, nor young to fight over Touma chose to take flight.

When taking flight, an animal had to have a means to escape from a predator whether that was the ability to fly, swim, dig or run exceptionally fast.

Touma could neither fly nor swim nor dig nor run exceptionally fast.

So unable to simply escape a predator, an animal had to be able to evade capture.

In any case, hiding in a crowd was the best way to escape when in a city, and at this point he managed to find a spot to rest outside of the busy pedestrian traffic just next to a building where there were less people.

Going against his better judgment, the teen looked back over his shoulder to see if he was still being pursued, but then stumbled as he ran into someone in front of him.

"Oh, sorry. I wasn't looking where I was…"

He glanced at the person and felt a bit more embarrassment as the passersby glanced at him in disapproval for knocking down a young girl.

"Here, let me help you u-"

Touma offered out his hand but it was slapped away immediately.

As he was leaning slightly backwards in preparation to pick the person up, Touma lost his balance and stumbled until he tripped on an unnoticed soda can and fell back down onto the sidewalk with a wince.

Only someone as misfortunate as him could trip on litter in a city where garbage-picking robots existed.

Shocked at the girl's actions, Touma felt like he shrunk in size when the girl got to her feet on her own. After brushing off her clothes, she shot him a mean scowl and pout letting out a very audible "hmph" and crossed her arms.

"I don't need any help from you, stupid." The long haired girl announced in a most haughty way.

The girl, whose long brunette hair swayed as she adjusted herself, had features that more than simply resembled a certain Level 5 ESPer that had just vowed to kill him a few moments ago.

Rubbing his eyes, Touma doubted that Misaka Mikoto had an older sister. That is, unless one would mistakenly count Misaka Misuzu who was actually Mikoto's mother.

The girl standing in front of him was taller than the middle school ESPer but still shorter than him, with finer definitions of her face. If it weren't for the semi-permanent looking scowl causing her eyebrows to furrow and lips to downwardly arch she would be a very enticing high school beauty, at least in Touma's opinion.

"Wait… do I know you from somewhere?"

"Tsk" The long haired brunette eyed him as though to say "Whatever."

Letting out a sharp sigh, she brushed back her hair with a flick of her wrist and placed her hands on her hips. She leered at him with a slight frown.

Before saying any further the girl turned to leave, but a hand clasped onto her wrist, preventing her from doing so.

Her eyes widened as the hedgehog-headed boy immediately crossed into her personal space with a deep glare before backing away with a smile.

"Oh, so you are a Sister…for a second I thought you were Mikoto pretending to be one of the Misaka clones, haha. You could have fooled me since you're without your goggles!"

A sudden chill jolted up Touma's spine when a pair of furious brown eyes bore upwards at him.

"I can't believe that you're even more of an idiot than I thought…" The girl 'hmph-ed' and pulled her arm out of his left hand's grasp. "I don't know who this Misaka is or what clones you're even talking about, or who you are. And how did you know my name, anyway?"

"And the way you're talking isn't the same…wait, what?"

Tilting his head in wonder at the girl who was clearly related to Misaka Mikoto, Touma didn't know what to make of what she had just said.

Was this a new game the Sisters were playing?

"…" Touma tried to recall if there was anything that could have spawned such a strange and off-kilter game that only a network of 10,000 Sisters would find enjoyable.

"I know that I said that 'there was only one of you in the whole world' way back when, but I didn't mean that none of your other Sisters existed. I meant that all of you are your own person."

"I answered your question, so don't be such a loser by ignoring mine." She sent a disapproving glare at his persistence and took a step backward to create distance between them. "I better not see you around again or else you're going to be in a world of hurt!"

"Now now, you really ought to stop saying that. It would be a lot easier if you just…oh, hey, could you tell me what's going on here?"

Far from enthused by the idea of dragging her all the way to his apartment to speak with the Sister with the heart necklace, Touma was relieved to see a girl with goggles on her head approach them.

As she came closer, it was obvious that she was the same one who was staying at his apartment as the second loafer, Misaka Jun.

"We were wondering where you had gone since you ran off' Misaka uses such an excuse to get closer."

The short haired brunette, who wore the faintest of smiles on her face, took no further step forward when she noticed the person with Touma.

In fact she took a step backward, as though reeling from a skunk that had just crossed her path

Part 5

"Target has been found' Misaka exclaims with anxiety!"

"Target'?" Peering from behind a tripod mounted camera, Kuroko saw her model rush off of the pile of pillows and out the dormitory door, not caring to change out of the "Desert Princess" costume composed of satin garments and brightly colored silk scarves.

"Hey, wait!"

Shocked that her model had suddenly hurried out after she waited so long for her roommate to leave her alone with the younger Misaka, the twin-tailed girl seethed in a futile hissy fit before recollecting her thoughts and calming herself down.

There was no way that Mikoto would forgive Kuroko for taking advantage of her sister by pretending she need a model for photography class, a subject that she wasn't even taking that semester.

Using the dorm room as a makeshift photo studio, Kuroko went through the arduous task of moving the equipment such as lights and stands as well as a set from the previous semester's school production of "Arabian Nights", such as the nighttime balcony backdrop and dozens of pillows and a stuffed tiger, all taken from the theatre club after a few favors such as errands and even bribery in some cases.

Not wanting to be found out, Kuroko even went so far as to rearrange the room's furniture on her own so there was enough space for the entire set to fit.

If anything, the anger would be a lot worse if the younger Misaka was caught wearing that costume because such a messed up plan was in progress, rather than catch the end product of pictures of a photo shoot that had already happened.

In other words, it was better to hide what was going on by chasing after the younger Misaka rather than suffer another bout in the hospital.

Taking care to turn the camera off, Kuroko rushed out of the room, not teleporting since she didn't want her neck broken should she be caught by the dorm mistress.

Bounding out of the door to begin her search, Kuroko gasped at the body of a brightly clothed younger Misaka on the floor, facedown and unmoving.

Part 6

"How did you manage to get into the city?' Misaka asks while retrieving reconnaissance data from the extra-City Network to confirm the information."

"Haa?" glancing at the Sister, the long-haired brunette girl looked disturbed but calm when she saw the girl in front of her. "I flew into Academy City with that dork the other day on an airplane, how else?"

Misaka Jun did not respond but only stared as though trying to read the long-haired girl's mind.

Losing interest in trying to have her own questions answered, the long-haired girl turned toward the alleyway she had emerged from and quickly disappeared around the corner while Misaka Jun kept a close tail.

Not wanting to lose track of the Sister, Touma felt he had no choice but to follow after her, warily finding himself away more and more from the earshot of other pedestrians or even from any security cameras that were normally posted to keep vandalism to a minimum.

"…You're isolated from the network…? Please follow the protocol and state your model number' Misaka says while trying to ascertain your identity. This Misaka is Misaka #10032"

While all of this was going on, Touma was surprised that the Sisters weren't getting along to such an extent.

'So even Sisters can fight like this?' He thought back to the time in the underground plaza when Mikoto, Misaka 10032 and Last Order were squabbling over different reasons with him stuck in the middle of it all.

Before him wasn't a sort of sibling squabble but an antagonistic exchange between potential "enemies".

"Jeez! You just won't quit will you!" Stopping, the long-haired girl spun around to confront Misaka Jun once more, walking close to her until they were face to face.

"I don't care if you do look a bit like me, I already told this stupid idiot over there that I was the only Misa…" as though distracted her focus trailed off and her eyes suddenly glossed over, like an audience participant at a hypnotism show.

Her arms, which had been flailing about in an energetic fashion while she spoke, fell to her sides limply.

The angry scowl that seemed to be her defining characteristic thus far disappeared and was replaced with a blank stare.

It was a complete change of personality from the girl who was just blustering about like a rebellious daughter yelling at her parents for wanting to control how she acted and dressed.

Even the sharp breaths that acted like punctuation to her sour way of speaking was quieted into slow even paced breathing.

If anything, this Sister became more similar with the Sister with the heart-shaped necklace, but at the same time looked even less like a person as the girl continued to stare ahead with her back as rigid and straight like a robot's.

{SEARCHING FOR ENTRY MODEL 10032

MODEL 10032 RECOGNIZED.

MODEL 00000 ACCESSING PROGRAM.

INITIATING PRELOADED TROJAN PROGRAM.

PREPARING PROGRAM UPLOAD

FORCED DIRECT CONNECT TO MODEL 20001 ATTEMPTED.

ATTEMPT FAILED.

DIRECT CONNECT SUSPENDED

INDIRECT CONNECT TO MODEL 20001 INITIATING.

FORCED ACQUISITION OF NEARBY MODEL 10032 INITIATED}

"You're Model…? Gh!" The Sister seemed tried to step back from the girl in front of her but froze in place, and held her own head as though a terrible sound was being heard by only her.

Writhing to and fro, 10032 suddenly dropped her hands and stood normally. "…If so…Misaka…must…"

As he could only see her back from where he stood, Touma thought that she had managed to recover from whatever pain she just had, while the Sister turned to face him, opening and closing her lips and looking at him as though trying to say something.

Despite standing so close to each other, whatever she was saying did not reach Touma's ears.

The Sister wearing a heart necklace then suddenly fell toward the ground, her eyes rolling up visibly to Touma as though her very soul was suddenly drained from her body.

Rushing to catch her before she hit the ground, Touma stumbled at the awkward manner that she fell into his arms as his legs were not immediately steady to hold himself up.

"Mi…saka…? Hey, Misaka's sister? Jun! What's wrong!" Turning her over so she was face up in his arms, Touma stayed in a low crouch as he inspected the Sister who seemed to have developed fever-like symptoms in mere moments.

Her eyes, barely focused, tiredly looked up at the teen holding her in his arms.

"You called me…Jun…heheh…" she smiled then slowly closed her eyelids.

A heavy shudder of guilt draped over his shoulders from such a sight.

His teeth clenched tight as he laid her down gently on the ground before standing up, his face hidden by his messy bangs all the while.

'What's going on here?'

'Is it an attack that can affect me too, or…?'

'Why would she do that to her own…?'

'…I should've done something…' '…..'

'Is she really a Sister?'

'…Is it because of my hand that I'm not hurt?'

'What was Jun trying to tell me?'

'…..'

'Is Jun going to…?'

Such thoughts raced through his mind and overlapped in multiple voices before he finally opened his mouth.

He tried to scream out but hesitated once he laid eyes on the supposed perpetrator.

There was something happening, but Touma felt helpless as to what he could do.

There was no clear person or thing to fight and destroy the illusions of.

Before him stood neither a maniacal villain, nor a tortured person who sought vengeance for a wrong they needed to right.

He wasn't sure how he should act, because he wasn't even sure what was going on.

The girl known as Misaka Jun had suddenly blacked out, while the girl with long brunette hair was frozen in place, like Kazakiri Hyouka when she was bound as an angel while Vent of the Front invaded Academy City and endangered innocent civilians.

In fact he saw a thin trail of red streaming from her ear, troubling Touma even more so as before him stood a girl who simply stared blankly ahead, unaware of the pain she was causing not only to the other girl but even herself.

There was definitely something bad happening to these two Sisters.

"…H-hey, wait…stop it! You're hurting yourself too!"

Touma rushed forward but stopped just short of grabbing her.

The image of Kazakiri Hyouka flashed in his mind again, reminding him of the potential unintended consequences of using his Imagine Breaker without knowing the direct cause.

Still, seeing blood dripping from the girl's ears and nose, Touma gritted his teeth thought back to how she managed to slap his hand away when he tried to grab her wrist. "Whoever did this to you…I'll definitely kick his ass…"

Grasping her shoulders, he yelled out "You hear me! I won't stop till the person responsible for doing this to you realizes that you're not just experiment!" controlling himself all he could so he didn't simply shake her and worsen her condition.

As his hands touched her small shoulders, a sudden chill ran through his body, like wind quickly deflating before him.

It was immediate, like turning a thick piece of glass into sand just by tapping at it. Surely it was a familiar feeling that something had lost its form and only his right hand had the power to do such a thing.

Like the Sister before her, this Misaka clone lost any sort of the rigid posture she just had and nearly collapsed to the ground, if it weren't for Touma ready to catch her, holding her waist and leading her gently with less effort as he was more prepared this time.

Her breathing, so calm before as to seem silent, was loud and labored. Displaying the same feverish conditions as the other Misaka, Touma could only frown at the sad sight as movement caught his attention from behind him.

"Jun! Let me help you up!"

"There's no need…my…Misa…ka's…functions are all returning to normal…' Misaka says while trying to assuage your concerns."

The girl with a heart necklace propped herself to a comfortable sitting position rather than try to fake an immediate full recovery by jumping to her feet.

It was only rational that that would lead to potential stumbling and only stress the teenager even more.

"We must get her to your apartment' Misaka…urges before promising to explain the situation later."

"No way. That can wait after we get to the hospital and have the both of you checked out first!"

"There's no time!" She grasped at his uniform as tightly as her weakened grip could, stumbling slightly with a tired pant. Still unable to feel any strength in her leg muscles, the girl drew closer to him and leaned her weight into him using his frame as support.

"Jun…?"

"Please…help Misaka protect her…"

Part 7

In a Tokiwadai dorm room, there is a girl lying on a bed.

Though sleeping, she suddenly speaks out.

"Understood; Administrator's emergency procedure has been suspended. Returning to normal functions after limited maintenance checks are completed' Misaka says upon receiving #10032's report."

Opening her eyes, she sits up from under several layers of sheets of her original's bed. Misaka 19090 now also known as "Misaka Kate" took this moment to regain her bearings.

She was in the Tokiwadai dorm room that her Onee-sama and her roommate, Shirai Kuroko was living in.

It had taken some time and practice, but Misaka Kate had managed to persuade Mikoto to share her bed at night until the school delivered a bunk bed for their special situation.

Glancing at herself, she saw that she was still dressed in the exotic stage silk stage dress before the whole affair had begun, last remembering being in the hallway before blacking out.

Being the only one in the room, the girl let out a heavy sigh.

As they were so close to doing so what seemed like moments ago, the girl known as Misaka Kate was sure that the other clones, if not before, were now thinking what it would be if…

Between the Lines 2

"…the kitty was very soft.

"Now in international news; we all know of the protests and riots erupting in cities like Washington, D.C. and Avignon, France, but here's Samantha Carter with something quite surprising."

"It's definitely surprising indeed, Sean. Right now I'm in Tokyo, Japan but believe it or not the church I am currently standing in front of is not only slated to be the largest Christian building in the region, it is also only two square miles away from Academy City, the world's foremost center for scientific achievement and discovery. In the distance you can see the large walls that surround all of Academy City.

"Originally called the 'Church of Orsola', named so after a missionary who had traveled extensively in Asia to spread Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church has decided to restart construction on what will be Japan's largest church of any Western denomination, at the approximate size of a baseball stadium and can easily hold more than 250 people.

"In the middle of its original construction period, extensive fire damage and general acts of vandalism had prevented the beautiful building you see now from opening for services, of course, because of the costs cited for repairs on both the interior and exterior of the church. The Church is formed by seven chapels where every single chapel is planned as a place to carry out one of the Seven Sacraments.

"As recently as two months ago, the Vatican revealed that it had been in the process of repairing the damage and completing the church's construction and would be finished in as soon as two to three weeks from today. Bishop Sebastian Bennett, the Vatican liaison for the project as well as head of the Tokyo diocese has stated that the church will be renamed the 'Redeemer of Sins Church' for unspecified reasons. The project, which was originally scheduled to take up to a few years to complete is now very much ahead of its schedule thanks to technological innovation and help from an American construction company, Lyndon & Cyrna, which is owned by Kihara International, a worldwide conglomerate based in New York City and part owner of our news program.

"Strange as it may sound, with tensions as high as they've ever been in the world, the irony isn't lost on anyone when it's a well known fact that Kihara International is one of many global partners of, and is involved in a number of projects with, Academy City.

"What this revelation means for the tense relations between the Vatican and Academy City now is still up for debate.

"This is Samantha Carter, reporting live from Tokyo, Japan."

Author's Notes:

So we're into chapter 2 of the story, and starting to get to some meatier aspects of what I've been planning. In my head of course, everything is all "OH WOW! HOW ORIGINAL EVERYONE'S GOING TO LOVE THAT!" but then again, you never know, haha!

Some things are made to be painfully obvious and predictable while others I'm sure are still letting questions from previous chapters hang around.

Though I doubt I'll get the amount of reviews that my heroes on this site are getting, I swell with an addictive pride from the traffic of unique hits and repeat visitors so far. It'll probably be a bit longer until the next chapter is posted, because of the Spring semester ending as well as general story organization. I'll keep posting nonetheless, thanks for the story updates and favs so far as well!

- All characters belong to Kazama Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura as author and illustrator, respectively.

- References made to:"A Certain Pair of Goggles" by Blanket of Rain

- Thanks to fellow To Aru Majutsu no Index writers for inspiring me with drive to continue whenever I hit a wall.