Chapter 2 Dire Consequences

With the deal I made with Misaka still on my mind, I stopped by Pizza Hut for lunch at the 7th district. I heard that this place was popular outside in western society 30 years ago... How nostalgic.

Getting a phone call, I pulled out my phone, one of those cheap model phones produced in Academy City. As it's produced by Academy City, it for some reason is fitted with more functions than regular smart-phones.

I shudder to think what Academy City smart-phones can do.

"Ne Ryu-kun, Len found that rumored "thing"."

"He found it? I thought it was an urban myth?" I replied, ducking into a nearby alley to avoid being overheard.

"Well, we saw a women stripping at a cafe while she was with some Tokiwadai ojou-sama so not all urban myths are fake right? Anyway, meet us at the 9th district park ok?"

Cutting the line before I could reply, I simply closed the phone while heaving a sigh before taking a nearby bus to the park. Sitting around one of the tables looking at something on the table, a sudden wave of nausea hit me like a sledgehammer as Len and Tsubaki leaned over something, their backs blocking what they were looking at as I approached.

Whatever it is, it's small and it's wasting my time. What I wouldn't give to just have a few hours catching up on anime or fooling around at the arcade.

"Yes Tsubaki-chan... What is it..." I said, dragging my voice to show my irritation.

"Nah don't blame Tsubaki, I would've made the call but my phone ran out of credit. But seriously, I found it!"

"Found what... Len-kun, if this is another hoax I swear I'm going to call you Len-chan for a week."

"Stop it! It's bad enough Tsubaki does it but you?" Len screamed, covering his ears.

"Len-chan... You have a problem with being called that...?" Tsubaki growled, towering over Len with an aura of death emanating from her.

Well it's now clearly established who's the dominant one in this relationship.

"No no Tsubaki-sama! Please don't hurt me!"

It was only after this that I remembered why Len was so afraid of Tsubaki.

Len is a telepath. Level 2. It made distributing the answers in tests very easy, but the range of his ability was 10 meters. And he could only communicate with one person at any time.

Tsubaki is a telekinetic. Level 3. She could move things quite efficiently but nothing heavier than 10kg. She often used her ability on Len in various ways.

Ways that I myself would not want to think about.

"Anyway Len, what have you found? All I see is your mp3 player photosynthesizing on the table."

"It's not what is on the table Ryu-kun, it's what's INSIDE what's on the table." Tsubaki said eagerly, eyeing the player like it was a treasure chest.

"And why did you call me here for this? I'm sure you can operate the mp3 player by yourselves."

"We thought it'd be nice to share it with you, don't you want to boost your ability?"

Ability? Try ABILITIES. Copying abilities is no mean feat, you have to understand the change in Personal Reality, memorise the AIM field before you can use the ability, create your own Personal Reality based on the ability (obviously using someone else's Reality will not work, that was how the disasters occurred in the first place)

I have thousands of AIM fields memorised, but with no matching Reality, the ability is extremely unstable.

"No thanks, there's no such thing as an easy way to being a level 5. Haven't you heard of scams?"

"But we didn't have to pay for it! It was free on this hidden website!" Tsubaki protested.

"And doesn't the fact that the website is hidden tell you something? What do you think Academy City is? Pokemon? And this is your rare candy? If this thing was really so great, the teachers and school would be recommending it. Face it, it's not safe."

"C'mon don't be a chicken!" Len said, pulling out a set of earphones and starting to listen to the player.

"Sorry, count me out. I already have enough problems controlling my ability at its current level. Even if that thing DOES do what it's said to do, I'll have a higher chance of losing control of it than anything else." I said, waving my hand as I walked off, leaving the happy couple to listen to their "Powerup".

Walking by a family restaurant, I couldn't help but notice two girls making funny faces into the glass window at the patrons inside.

Honestly, girls these days...

Upon closer examination, the patrons the girls were making fun of, turned out to be Misaka, a girl from her school and a researcher.

Coming out to fetch the two, Misaka dragged the two girls in before noticing me. Glaring daggers at me, I was dragged along as well and dumped into one of the seats in a corner booth.

"Onee-sama, who is this ape? I thought you already had one object of your desires, don't tell me there's two?"

Already had one? She must be talking about Kamijou.

"Neh, I'm not an ape, I have a name you know, Ryusuke Isha." I replied, looking at Kuroko with a bored expression on my face.

"Yeah, hush Kuroko! I just thought he'd be useful in this investigation!" Misaka snapped.

"If that is so... Good afternoon sir, I'm Shirai Kuroko, a teleporter from Judgment." Shirai said, sounding like a total aristocrat.

Her voice sounds a bit pretentious to be honest.

"Hi! I'm Uiharu Kazari, I work with Shirai at judgment!"

The legendary Gatekeeper huh?

"Yo! I'm Saten Ruiko, Uiharu's friend and level 0!" Ruiko said, forming an "o" with her thumb and index finger for emphasis.

"Ruiko, one's level is nothing to be ashamed of, there are cases of abilities being there that cannot be measured by SYSTEM scans. Since the scans only measure abilities that cause a change, pure passive abilities tend to be undiscovered. My ability was a bit like that."

"Anyway Saten-san! How often have I told you to stop introducing yourself like that!" Uiharu whispered, clearly flustered.

Not saying another word, Ruiko simply put a hand on Uiharu's skirt and lifted it, peeking at her panties while showing everyone else what Uiharu was wearing as well.

Blue stripes. I didn't look away fast enough.

While Uiharu screamed and started to attack Ruiko, the researcher calmly waited for both girls to finish.

She really needs sleep, the dark circles under her eyes are really obvious.

"As I've said before I'm Kiyama Harumi. I'm a researcher that specializes in AIM fields."

"We were discussing the level upper." Shirai said, obviously for the benefit for those who just arrived.

"About the level upper... I..." Ruiko said, cut off by Shirai who continued, "We're considering giving those who possess the level upper protection."

"What? Why?" Ruiko asked, her previous sentence forgotten.

"It appears that users of the level upper experience side effects, as the investigation is ongoing, there is nothing concrete as of yet. However it is shown that those who used the level upper always walk the path of a criminal."

"What kind of side effects?" I asked, my mind in a silent war between being silently grateful I didn't join Len and Tsubaki in trying the Level Upper, but incredibly worried at the same time.

"There is no conclusive evidence as of yet. So I can't give an answer to that." Shirai replied.

Noticing the color draining from Ruiko's face first, Uiharu spoke up, "Is something wrong Saten-san?"

"N-nothing!" Ruiko said, swinging her arm out and knocking over the nearby cup of ice tea onto Kiyama's skirt.

Ruiko... So she has it too...

Standing up and pulling off her skirt in response Kiyama was quite unfazed with the wet skirt, "Don't worry, it'll dry once I take it off."

What is this? A party of strippers and flashers?

Taking my leave before the fuss erupted with Kuroko and Ruiko screaming at Harumi for carelessly stripping (apparently this isn't the first time). Pulling out my handphone, I quickly dialed Len's number, only to hear, "I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is out of range."

"Dammit! Pickup!" I yelled to nobody in particular, redialing and getting the same response.

Tsubaki's number then.

Still no answer.

Snapping the phone shut, I ran to the park, speeding my body along with energy absorbed from the surroundings. Doesn't make much difference since my body can only run so fast but at least I feel like I'm doing something to run faster.

Reaching the park where Len and Tsubaki were, the park was empty, all of the people probably gone home since curfew was in less than 20 minutes. Good thing I stay near Len, his dormitory is near Touma's.

Heading past Touma's dormitory, a sudden explosion sprang out from the 7th floor with a river of fire shooting down the corridor only to be negated.

Only one person in that dormitory can negate Esper abilities so easily! Touma!

Running up the stairs to see what was going on, I felt my jaw drop at what I saw next. Touma was squaring off with what I assumed to be an Esper but the man was clearly in his twenties as he threw fireball after fireball at Touma only to have it negated each time.

If this guy's a pyrokinesist why is he giving a ling chant before he attacks?

Raising a hand above his head, the man summoned a fireball and started another lengthy incantation, "One of the five elements of this world, the great fire of genesis. It is the light that gives birth to life, and the light of judgment that punishes the wicked. While it itself brings a gentle fortune, it is also the cold misfortune that destroys darkness. It's name is fire, it's role the sword! Appear! Consume my body and give me strength! Innocentius!"

Swinging his hand down and summoning a flame that took the shape of a demon, Stiyl slowly held out his hand, clearly in contempt of Touma.

This heat... I'm so far away and yet I feel like I'm being boiled alive. If that man can summon something this hot, Touma and I... We really might die.

Blocking Innocentius with his right hand, I started to move out from my hiding place when the flames did not vanish, but simply reformed giving birth to Innocentius once again!

This is impossible, Touma's right hand should negate any Esper ability!

Shaking in fear, even after mustering all the courage that I had, all I could do was shake in fear. That monster melted even the metal door handles and labels in the corridor. Those metals were made of an alloy designed to resist temperatures of 2500 degrees Celsius. And he just melted it so easily.

Holding his right hand out to stop the demon from swinging a massive flame cross down on him, Touma was locked in a fierce stalemate where neither side was given an inch.

"Rune."

What? The girl at the man's feet just spoke!

"An ancient language used to cast magic."

Did that girl just say... Magic?

"Destroying Innocentius is impossible without first removing the runes used to summon it."

"Are you... Index-san?" Touma asked warily, addressing the girl that was at the man's feet.

"Yes, I am Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the grimoire library of the sect "Necessarius". But you can call me Index for short. I am currently acting under John's Pen Mode..."

Cut off by a foot being stamped on her face, the man grit his teeth as he turned back to Touma, "Don't think that you can stop me so easily, this entire building is covered by runes. For someone like you... Beating Innocentius is not possible."

That's my cue.

Taking the stairs down to the level below, I found the entire corridor covered in papers with a strange letter on it.

Are these... Runes? No way, there's too many of them. Even if I started tearing them off there's no way I'll be able to finish...

My thoughts cut off by Touma running down the staircase, the flame demon in pursuit, I quickly took the other set of stairs up to where the man was, now with his flame demon no longer at his side.

This guy... Doesn't have an AIM field?

"Who are you?" the man asked, turning to stand and face me after crouching over the girl.

"I could ask you the same question. You don't seem to be an Esper. What are you doing here."

"I'm not an Esper because I'm a MAGICIAN."

"No... Way... Magic doesn't exist!"

I refuse to believe it. This man is spouting rubbish, but everything until now has pointed in that direction, the use of props, of chants and incantations. Magic, does exist?

"Fortis931. Looks like I'll have to take care of you and that brat."

I don't think so!

"Dust to dust..." the magician said raising one hand summoning fire in it.

"Ash to ash." he said while raising the other with another handful of flame.

It's coming!

"Vampire killing cross!" He yelled, letting loose a flame attack in the shape of an "X"

Raising my hand to summon a wall of water, the flames simply boiled through the weak shield I had created and continued through.

I had expected that!

While siphoning heat from the flame cross, I raised my arms, absorbing more heat directly from the flames but still feeling my arms burn slightly, the pain searing through my forearms.

Two floors below us, Touma had fallen over the railing and had started to roll off the roof.

"Touma!" I yelled, leaping down the staircase like a firefighter reaching out for his hand even though he was still one floor below me, not to grab it, but to try and reach him with an ability I had come in contact with but never tried, "Telekinesis."

Something, anything! Just slow his fall! I am painfully aware that using an ability I haven't practiced has an incredible chance to fail, and in some cases even blow up in my face. But this time... This time!

Slowing his fall only slightly, Touma fell several stories down onto the bicycle shed roof, falling through that too onto a few bicycles.

That's got to hurt.

Running down to the ground floor, dodging the flame demon on the way down, I quickly helped Touma to his feet after pushing several bicycles off him.

"Ow... Ryu-san?"

"Come on get up! Before that flame thing comes after us!"

"What are you doing here?"

"That isn't important! Hurry up get up and... Eh?" Looking up to where Touma was pointing, Innocentius was leaning and roaring over the railing, but not chasing after us.

"It seems that it's movement is restricted to where the runes are placed." Touma muttered, a look of concentration crossing his face.

"Cool, let's get out of here before that crazy red haired magician comes after us."

"I can't." Touma sighed.

"Why the hell not?"

"I promised to save that girl." Nodding in acknowledgement, I slowly let him sand back on his own two feet, "I understand."

Pulling out my handphone, I started dialing the emergency number, "I'm calling Anti-Skill."

"No, don't." Touma said, pressing my phone hand down, "The girl I'm trying to save, that girl you saw before, isn't a resident of Academy City. We can't call Anti-Skill."

"Well then the fire department." I said, changing the number.

"There's no need." Touma said as he headed for the lift.

"Why?"

Pressing the lift to go up, Touma turned and smiled, "Just get the hell out of here, and trigger the fire alarm before you go."

Watching Touma enter the lift and close the door, I slowly walked over to the fire alarm trigger, broke the glass and pressed the button. The response was immediate, a blaring sound tore through the night, followed by the sound of rain as water shot out from every sprinkler.

Grinning at the magician's reaction upstairs, I took my leave, trusting Touma to do the rest.

-End of Chapter 2-

Annnnd done! This story is fairly new and I already have so many fans! I'll try and update as fast as possible so keep reviewing, favouriting and signing up for story alerts! They keep me going =3