Footsteps echoed through a dark alley.
Index was wrong when she thought she would finally be safe inside Academy City.
A fireball bounced off her Walking Church, a white habit with gold outlines. While the magical defense of her Walking Church was powerful enough to protect her from even the legendary Dragon Breath spell, she could still be physically captured by the red-haired man behind her.
Or the swordswoman who caused a mini earthquake when she landed in front of her.
"There's no place left for you to run. If possible, I'd like for you to come with us peacefully." The swordswoman said.
"And then steal the 103,000 grimoires in my head for your nefarious purposes? Not a chance. Romans 12:19, do not ta-"
The tip of the swordswoman's blade touched Index's throat.
"Try anything funny and the blade goes right through your throat." The swordswoman said.
Index's lips quivered, and an invisible force blasted the woman and the red-haired man into the night sky. This was a spell based on the line from Romans 12:19 "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord." in the Bible that was triggered when she finished the required incantations by moving her lips in a very specific manner rather than chanting the words out loud.
Index slipped into another alley from the backdoor of a building. There were twenty-three districts in this city, and Touma could be in any one of them. District 7 seemed promising, but it was still a large area, and also the largest district in the entire city.
There was something she wanted to tell Touma before Necessarius erases her memories again.
"Oh no, my mana supply is running low from casting that spell."
There was a mana restriction system placed inside her. Each day, she could only use a certain amount of mana but her mana will automatically recharge itself when the clock strikes twelve. The original system inside of her had completely destroyed her ability to use magic until Touma changed that with his blasphemous right hand.
An odd feeling struck Index. The flow of mana around her had changed into something not of this world... it's not Telesma but it would not be wrong to define it as mana that belonged to an unknown Phase similar to Telesma.
From the faint lighting, she could make out a starry-eyed girl in the literal sense with blonde hair.
The starry-eyed girl took out a remote from her pocket, "Sleep."
A pair of white wings sprouted from Index's back.
The wings behind her back were just an illusion created by mana, but casting magic was based on Idol Theory, where the caster would find ways to mimic the properties and attributes related to the spell to make said spell more effective. In her case, she was trying to align herself closer to the body of an angel by creating angel wings to make the spell related to that verse in the Bible more effective.
If her defensive spell based on Psalm 91.11 had activated, this meant that whatever she was trying to do did not qualify under magical nor physical attacks.
"Shokuhou Misaki? You're the Level 5 esper who appeared as a guest speaker during last year's Daihasei Festival."
Misaki groaned, "Thanks so much for reminding me about that disaster last year. Do you... by any chance remember what happened?"
"I wasn't even in Academy City last year. Anyway, what do you want from me? The 103,000 grimoires inside my head?"
"Gun. 12 rounds. Fire beyond human recognition at the non-vital parts of the human body."
A blue aura surrounding Index absorbed the barrage of bullets.
The wings behind Index glowed and a huge beam burst forth.
It was the legendary spell known as Dragon Breath.
"Disappear." Misaki said.
The huge beam vanished.
Index blinked. "That's… odd."
What Misaki just did wasn't exactly magic, and her esper ability wasn't supposed to be able to alter reality. It must have something to do with the strange mana from an unknown Phase.
"With Ars Magna, anything I say becomes reality. Or at least I thought it was that straight-forward, but I suppose one has to also factor in the magic ability of the target first."
Ars Magna was an alchemy spell that allows its caster to turn their thoughts into reality via modelling the world and all of its laws.
Index muttered a few incarnations and the desolate street faded away like a movie transiting to the next scene into a building lobby she slipped into after blasting her two pursers away.
However, there were no magical artifacts nor spells that could model the entire world and all of its laws, so any implementation of the Ars Magna were merely theoretical in nature.
Misaki may appear to be using Ars Magna, but her whole setup was just a very convincing fake. She was using something else that could not be analyzed properly because it was relying on that strange mana to function. It was sheer dumb luck that her Spell Intercept worked.
"If anything you say becomes reality, why don't you just remove my Walking Church and finish me?"
Misaki wiped blood from the corners of her lips with a chuckle, "I admit defeat. Your Walking Church is too powerful. The exit is right behind, you may leave."
The exit behind Index was an glass door with no handles that refused to open despite being close enough.
"What's wrong? The mighty Index Librorum Prohibitorum defeated by an automatic sliding door? I'm sure there must be something inside the grimoires that could help you open one." Misaki said.
"I guess I don't have a choice."
The strange mana from an unknown Phase had also covered the area in the form of an almost transparent membrane. The most reliable way out of this pseudo-barrier imprisoning her was to take down the source itself.
Index summoned a flaming sword. This was a spell based on Archangel Michael banishing the morning star Lucifer from Heaven.
Misaki made the sword disappear with her remote.
Fireballs rained down as the area burst into flames. This was from 2 Peter 2:6 where God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. Erasing magic, a blessing from God, is considered an act by the ungodly.
Misaki's eyes turned silver and round in shape while her hair turned pale yellow. "Why do you have to be so difficult?"
A raging storm of fire and ice erupted between Misaki and Index.
Index ran out of mana, and eventually the ice froze most of her body. All Misaki could probably negate with her fake Ars Magna were magic related to dragons. That must have been the focus behind her implementation of this setup.
"I get it now, you're after Touma! No wonder your entire setup is so odd and confusing. All you need now is my 103,000 grimoires to finish him."
"There are so many other people out there after Touma. It might as well be me who would finish him."
The last Index saw of Misaki before being completely encased in ice was a wistful smile.
Blood oozed from Misaki's eyes, noses, lips as she coughed out blood before collapsing on her knees. This was the consequence of an esper attempting magic. The AIM energy field that all espers subconsciously emits creates a backlash effect when it comes into contact with mana, a power source for magic. Even if she was drawing power from an alternate dimension known as the 'Pure World', it had to be converted into mana to use magic of this world.
A girl with ringlet curls tossed Misaki into a recovery pod. She pressed a button, and the recovery pod lit up.
Misaki felt her consciousness slip away as the regeneration process started to intensify.
The last time she was so close to death was the time before Touma and her entered Academy City to escape the vengeful people who pinned all their misfortunes on them.
Her memories at that time were hazy, but she could vaguely remember Touma hugging her, promising her that he would get her out alive.
It was around that time that she completely fell in love with him.
That's why…
"I'd do anything for your sake, even if it means you'll hate me to the point where you think I'm better off dead."
It was break time from classes in Misawa Cram School, so Touma and Misaki decided to grab something to eat at the cafeteria.
Mikoto tagged along, unwilling to leave him alone with Misaki. Being a student of this cram school was surprisingly easy, and she was also 'coincidentally' placed in the same class as the both of them. All of this must be Misaki's doing. What exactly was she planning? There was no point in investigating when Misaki could just tamper with people's memories and render any information unreliable. Disgusting.
Mikoto glared at Misaki who smiled back in response.
Touma took a spoonful of curry rice and fed Misaki, "Thanks to your warning Mikoto, I just realized how much danger I am in right now."
"That's right. I'm a very dangerous lady when I don't get fed by my beloved King." Misaki said.
Mikoto suppressed an ominous crackle. "Can't you feed yourself? What are you? Five?"
"I don't want to hear that from someone who is still wearing those childish Gekota panties." Misaki said.
"Ho-How do you even know that, you pervert?! Serves you right for getting your panties exposed during last year's Daihasei Festival opening speech."
Misaki whipped out her remote with her face flushed red. "Th-That's just an urban rumor! It's not true at all!"
Mikoto winced at the recoil as Misaki applied her powers around everyone else to erase their memories. "Geez. You don't have to be that paranoid."
Misaki pouted as she pushed a spoonful towards Touma, "I can't finish my food. Could you please finish it for me?"
Touma took the spoon away from Misaki with a sigh, "Thanks, but I can feed myself."
"Are you alright Touma?" Mikoto said. Something seemed to be troubling him. Maybe he was trying to remember something, but couldn't.
"I'm fine, just a little tired from classes." Touma said.
Touma swerved behind to block a kick from Kuroko.
Kuroko teleported away but Touma grabbed her by the neck as soon as she reappeared.
Touma flashed an embarrassed smile as he dropped Kuroko. "Sorry, I didn't know it was you."
Misaki pressed a remote button. Everyone else in the cafeteria gave Kuroko a quick glance before returning back to their food like nothing has happened.
"Kuroko, why are you here and why are you attacking Touma?" Mikoto said.
"I just simply cannot stand this bimbo trying to steal your boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend!"
Kuroko pointed a finger at Touma, "Is this some sort of a cruel joke that you enjoy playing with my onee-sama? Do you really remember nothing at all? Do you at least remember what Shokuhou Misaki did in the past?"
"I need some fresh air." Touma left the cafeteria with a dark scowl.
"Hey, wait up!" Mikoto said.
Kuroko held Mikoto back from chasing Touma, "There's something I need to tell you."
Touma leaned over the railing at the skyway.
The bustling scene of the district seemed like a mirror that reflected the chaos that was running amok in his mind.
Kuroko was right. It was cruel to pretend that he lost all his memories in front of Mikoto. He really shouldn't have appeared that night, but he had to at least fulfil his promise before he actually lost all his memories for good.
Stiyl lit up a cigarette, "I really shouldn't be bothering you, but Index has been captured and I think even Kaori might not be powerful enough to defeat Ars Magna."
"You want me to save Index? To be honest, I'm not so sure if I still have enough power to do so."
Stiyl was a towering man wearing a robe with a barcode tattoo under his right eye, but it was incredible how his actual age was actually 14.
"Tell me, what exactly happened to you?"
Touma negated a bloody fist hurled towards him casted by the shrine maiden Himegawa Aisa.
Aisa manifested a bloody sword construct and swung the blade overhead which shattered into nothing upon contact with Touma's right hand.
"Like I'd believe the Devil would be reduced to nothing that easily." Aisa said.
Aisa raised a hand, "Critical Blood Curse."
A red magic circle appeared underneath Touma. The pain felt like a thousand needles stabbing at his internal organs all at once, but it wasn't going to kill him. He was still misfortunate enough to survive a nuclear bomb.
A fiery wave from Touma's right hand flashed through Aisa, and her curse magic fell apart.
He was called the Devil not only because of his magic negating flames, but also for tempting people to consume the forbidden 'fruit of knowledge' stored within his Imagine Breaker.
Aisa was someone who consumed the 'fruit of knowledge' and now she could cast specialized magic despite being a Gemstone.
"Why are you asking this scum for help? We should be eliminating him for the good of the Magic Side. For you all know, he might be the one behind Index's kidnapping." Aisa said.
"Aisa, I know you still bear a grudge against Touma, but it's not the time for that."
"Kamijou Touma, if you still care about Index, then meet me at the lobby of Misawa Cram School." Aisa said before leaping off the skyway.
Stiyl let out a puff of smoke, "You know, pretending you have memory loss is the cruelest thing you could do to someone who still cares about you."
"I have my reasons."
Touma leaped off the skyway. No one should really care about a sinner like him anyway.
Mikoto sat at a staircase just outside the cram school building with several juice cans lying about.
Why? What was going on? Why was he pretending that he lost all his memories?!
A British girl with a metal tail sticking out from the back of her skirt picked up a juice can, "Mind if I take one?"
"You're Lessar, right? What exactly is your relationship with Touma?"
"An ally."
Lessar was the one who told Kuroko about Touma's pretence and the scene with Touma and two other person at the skyway confirmed it.
"What happened? Why is Touma pretending that he lost all of his memories?"
"He's… He may not look like it, but he's suicidal and depressed. You see, he started a war that killed millions of people and the guilt for failing to achieve anything out of this was probably too much for him to bear."
"Why did he start th-"
"It's a long story. Listen, someone is being held hostage inside the cram building."
"Index?"
"Yes. It's a trap to lure Touma into a place where he can be killed. Touma knows this because I told him, but he doesn't care. It's hard to explain the details to someone outside of the Magic Side but just know that once Touma enters a specific location inside the building, he dies."
"Who wants him dead?"
"Shokuhou Misaki."
Mikoto dashed into the cram school building.
That idiot! And to think he was the one who lectured her about the importance of living on!
Author's Note:
Thanks to ArmoredCoreNineBall, I made some slight changes on Chapter 1 and 2, but Chapter 2 has the most changes, especially the part where Mikoto was spying on Touma from above the rooftop.
So for this chapter, we have Misaki using magic... not exactly in the normal way, but there will be more details in the next chapter.
And regarding the "fruit of knowledge" inside the Imagine Breaker, it would make sense that being the reference point of this world, the Imagine Breaker would contain knowledge of the entire world and all of its laws.
Lastly, as for Touma starting a war, there is a clue in Chapter 2 to why he did that, but the reason will be revealed in the next chapter. It's my personal interpretation that a Touma who didn't lose his memories would have a clear reason to why he was fighting to save others (even if he doesn't say it out loud directly) instead of the Touma in canon who doesn't need a reason to save others. I think the canon Touma simply doesn't remember the reason why because of his memory loss, but the feelings remain.
Anyway, hope you like the chapter :)
