"You're late." Misaki smiled, "Just as expected. Well, what trouble did you get into again?"
Touma sat at the plastic mat set up by Misaki in a grassy field. It was a cold night, so Misaki grabbed hold of Touma's hand to keep warm. She realized that his hand was actually quite cold, but Misaki enjoyed holding his hand, so she didn't mind.
"Long story. Basically, Misaka was being annoying again, so I was delayed for quite a while."
"Oh... Misaka. I tried my best to befriend her, but it seems as though she hates me for some reason."
"Maybe it's because of your remote. You should try to make friends without it. Misaka probably thinks that all your friends are actually your mind-controlled puppets, so she has a bad impression on you."
Misaki pouted, "I do, I do! Am I that socially inept of a person that I must use my remote to make friends?"
"Alright, I'll be Stranger A. How would you start making friends with this Stranger A?"
Misaki sat facing in front of Touma and cleared her throat, "Hi. My name is Shokuhou Misaki, nice to meet you."
"You're fat."
Without hesitating, Misaki took out a remote from her bag and pointed them at Touma.
Touma sighed, "See. You rely too much on your remote. You should at least ask him why is he saying such strange things before you consider taking that remote out."
"B-But Stranger A called me fat, so I have to take out my remote to see if there's anything wrong with his head. I'm not fat at all!"
Touma's childhood friend, Shokuhou Misaki, was an attractive blonde girl with an impressive chest that was impossible for her middle-school uniform to conceal, and slim legs worn over white, silky stockings.
She was definitely far from fat.
What was most striking about Misaki was the sparkling, gold stars in her eyes.
Because of those eyes, she was abandoned by her parents due to social pressures. Even in Academy City, Misaki ended up being alienated by those kids living in the same Child Error facility as her because of her starry eyes.
As a result, except for Touma and a few other people who did not mind her starry eyes and became friends with her, Misaki had some issues with trusting and forming meaningful relationships with other people.
Which was why she chose to take her remote out instead of asking Stranger A why is he being so weird and take his word for it. Misaki also trusted Touma, so she was willing to be honest with her reaction if she were to be in a similar situation like this.
A strange pattern that Misaki noticed is that her Mental Out is ineffective against all her true friends.
But it doesn't matter if I trust them anyway.
Perhaps it was because of this that when Misaki realized that her Mental Out doesn't work on Mikoto; though she felt uncomfortable not being able to read her mind, perhaps she might make a good friend after all. So Misaki tried her best to befriend her, but somehow Mikoto seem to hate her.
Do I really suck in making friends without using my remote at all, or is it her problem that she's biased against me because of my Mental Out like what Touma said? Never mind, I guess I have to try harder.
Misaki put her remote back, "Enough of this Stranger A thing. It's time for your punishment for being late!"
"What?!"
Touma saw that the stars in Misaki's eyes were twinkling. He had a bad feeling about this.
"Kiss me."
Touma fidgeted slightly, "Eh? Really?"
"Are you feeling nervous at the thought of kissing such a lovely queen? That's why it's called a punishment. But if you wish to go further than this, I don't mind. There's no one around."
"Thanks but no thanks. I'll just accept my punishment."
"You're boring. Isn't doing it out in the open every man's fantasy? Now I'm offering you this one in a million chance, and you reject me so easily."
"You must have a warped perception of men from being in a girl's school for too long."
Touma closed his lips and pressed it against Misaki's lips. She tried to pry open his lips using her tongue, but failed.
"Nice try. I won't fall for that again."
Touma laid on the mat and looked up towards the starry, night sky.
A lot has happened.
Touma had infiltrated Europe to achieve a power greater than God.
He needed that much power because he wanted to create a miracle.
A miracle that will change the world for the better.
But all the major organizations in the world thought that he was a villain who wanted to change the world for his own selfish purposes. So they started to oppose him. Which was why Touma ended up creating a magic cabal network with Misaki that was powerful enough to fight against a nation.
Nevertheless, he managed to obtain two critical grimoires.
Necronomicon and The Book Of The Law.
Using the knowledge in Necronomicon, Touma erased the consciousness of that Invisible Thing inside his right arm, took its power for his own, and obtained complete mastery over it. However, he was unable to fully utilize its power at 100% because of his human body.
Then, he used the knowledge in The Book Of The Law to transform his human body into an angelic body, allowing him to fully utilize its power at 100%.
The final piece to his miracle was Shokuhou Misaki.
Her Mental Out was an artificial embodiment of a miracle. Applied on an international scale, she could create world peace using it. Touma needed her ability to alter the people inside the world that he wanted to change to truly create a miracle.
With that, he achieved a power greater than God. However, he was stopped by one Magic God, and the Index Librorum Prohibitorum at maximum power.
In the end, they reduced him to the level of a Saint by negating 95% of his knowledge from each of the two grimiores he had acquired.
Without enough knowledge from both grimoires, like a bug in a program when missing a few parts, his powers began to work differently.
Firstly, there are two modes, the de-powered angelic body mode aka Saint mode, and the Imagine Breaker mode.
In Saint mode, he has super-strength and speed, but unable to negate and manipulate supernatural phenomenons with his right hand.
In Imagine Breaker mode, he no longer has super-strength and speed, but he regains his ability to negate and manipulate supernatural phenomenons with his right hand.
What is consistent in both of these mode are enhanced durability and healing.
If he uses his Saint mode for too long, it will gradually switch into the Imagine Breaker mode. Similarly, if he uses his Imagine Breaker mode for too long, it will gradually switch into the Saint mode.
Hence, Touma must constantly alternate between the two modes to achieve a balance.
Regardless of what mode, I should be okay even if things get serious.
Misaki rested her head on his chest.
"I'll watch the stars like this."
Touma nodded as if this was a normal thing, and looked back upwards.
Does he actually have feelings for me as well? Misaki thought.
She may not be able to read his mind, but Touma probably thinks of her as a strange friend who likes to do intimate things with him because its interesting.
Actually, it was because Misaki had taken a strong liking to him and eventually fell in love with him. But if she confessed her love, and he rejects her, then she would not be able to do all these things anymore.
Maybe it's fine if we stay like this...
Misaki turned her head sideways to feel his heartbeat.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The rhythmic pounding gave her a sense of security.
As long as you're here beside me, we can overcome anything.
Somehow, she had drifted off into a deep sleep.
After some time, Touma noticed that Misaki had fallen asleep.
What a sleepyhead.
For some reasons, Misaki liked doing things that an intimate couple would normally do with him. He thought that this was probably her way of expressing her friendship towards him.
What if it was because she has feelings for me beyond just friends?
Touma frowned. He decided to ignore this perplexing question that was constantly bothering him, but Touma found it difficult this time, so he let the question linger around his mind for a while before trying again.
Whether you see me as a friend, or as a lover, thank you.
He gently stroked Misaki's hair.
I wish that these peaceful days would last forever.
A small, blonde girl dressed in a black and white goth outfit with a black bag with a skull design slung over her shoulder was in an alleyway.
Instead of being frightened, she had a carefree look as she looked around her surroundings.
"Is Academy City that fucking safe during the night?"
She let out a sigh and continued walking.
"What do we have here?"
A group of thugs had appeared from the shadowy depths of the alleyway and surrounded the girl.
"I spoke too soon."
Despite being surrounded by thugs who were about three times her size, she let out a small chuckle.
"Are you seriously robbing a little girl? As you can see, I have no money."
A thug pointed at her bag, "What's inside that bag then? Fucking sweets?"
She calmly zipped open her bag, revealing a few cigarette packs inside.
"My sister prefer sweets. I prefer cigarettes."
Another thug said, "We'll make do with cigarettes. Hand them over, or we won't be nice."
While it was strange that a girl her age was smoking, all the thugs were only concerned about getting free cigarettes from this seemingly helpless little girl.
What they didn't know was that there was a ballistic knife concealed underneath the cigarette packs.
It was a knife with a detachable blade that could be propelled from a distance by pressing a trigger on the handle. Thanks to Academy City's technology, the blade had a smart system installed. This means that the handle could be used as a remote to control the detached blade from a distance.
The girl reached inside her bag, took out the knife and fired the blade at one of the thugs. Then, she waved her handle about like a conductor.
Blood was spilling all over the place as she conducted her symphony of death.
She gave a small bow after the last thug fell to the ground with his head almost sliced into two.
"Hope you enjoyed my performance."
The girl went over to the mutilated corpses and fished out a few wad of dollar notes from their pockets.
"Must be what they got from stealing other people's money."
She stuffed them inside her black bag together with her stained ballistic knife and headed towards a convenience store.
Sitting at a bench in a park was two identical blonde girls. They had the same clothes, but their bags were different. One of them had a black bag with a skull design, while the other had a pink bag with a heart design. Also, one had two locks of hair sticking out, while the other had five locks of hair sticking out.
The blonde girl with the pink bag and two locks of hair sticking out was Febri. The other girl was Maycia.
"This melon bread is really good! Do have some as well." Febri smiled while munching on her food.
Maycia gulped down her beer, "I'll pass."
After finishing her food, Febri remained silent for a moment before she decided to ask.
"Hey... will we able to save Janie?"
Maycia lit up a cigarette, "I have no fucking idea."
They were artificial ESPers created by a group called STUDY.
Maycia was created as a prototype in an attempt to reproduce the #1's ability known as Vector Change. Unfortunately, she was no longer connected to the Diffusion Ghost network because of her escape together with Febri, so she could not perform the necessary calculations to use that ability.
Janie was forced to become the Diffusion Ghost network core, and their purpose of escaping was to seek outside help in saving her.
While Maycia had been out hunting foolish people in alleyways for money, she was also looking for powerful individuals who sometimes lurk about in such places. They may not be helpful people, but if she were to offer herself as a valuable prototype that could be sold for a lot of money, the organisation that they belong to will not hesitate to help her.
Disappointing.
Maycia crushed the cigarette butt under her foot.
Five days. If I can't find anybody to help me save Janie before that, we'll fucking die.
Technically, they were Chemicaloids, artificial ESPers made from chemicals. As their metabolism processes causes their cells to secrete a poison that will kill them if too much is accumulated in their bodies, they needed special lollipops to remove the poison.
Maycia was different and had a higher resistance to the poison than Febri, so she could settle for ordinary cigarettes and alcohol as a lousier substitute to partially remove the poison, but she'll die after five days if she doesn't take those special lollipops.
Febri only had enough lollipops in her bag for five days. Maycia wanted to leave more lollipops for Febri, so she refused to take any from her.
From a distance, Maycia spotted two figures. It was dark, so she could not see their faces properly, but one figure must be girl judging from her rather impressive chest.
I don't have time, so I'm going to take a stab in the dark that at least one of them are secretly strong.
Maycia took out her ballistic knife. She meant it both metaphorically and literally.
Don't disappoint me.
And the blade was fired in their direction.
Author's Note: I created Maycia as a contrast to Febri. I thought it'd be interesting to have a smoker+drinker version of Febri. By the way, Maycia is based on the month of May which is a subtle reference to the Dark May project.
I was bothered with how the filler arc in Railgun S could be done much better, so I came up with my own version of it. STUDY will probably remain as a darkness reject, and nobody is going to suffer from any plot induced stupidity like Mikoto in Episode 22. I cringed when I saw Mikoto inject that thing into her arm. It was unbearable. If this happened before the Sister's Arc where Mikoto had a taste of the darkness in Academy City, I would have accepted it as Mikoto being too naive.
Okay, enough of my rant.
Anyway, the balance system for Touma's ability was inspired by Luminous, a MapleStory character. Each mode has its advantages and disadvantages, but he must switch around and cannot rely only on one mode. Also, with enhanced healing and durability in both modes, at least Touma isn't so weak like in canon anymore.
Oh, and one last thing.
Congrats Guest for getting even the order correct :D
Your virtual pizza will magically appear in your desktop... someday if my deliveryman isn't slacking off.
As for the rest, you can check the answers below, and claim your virtual pizza or cookie in my virtual shop.
1. Othinus
2. Aleister
3. Ollerus
4. Touma
5. Fiamma
However, remember that Aleister is supposed to be dead to the world, so the ranking that everyone in the story recognizes is as below.
1. Othinus
2. Index (John's Pen Mode)
3. Ollerus
4. Touma
5. Fiamma
So actually there are six people who stood at the top, but five only because Aleister is supposedly dead and we all know he isn't really dead.
Combined ranking as below
1. Othinus
2. Aleister
3. Index (John's Pen Mode)
4. Ollerus
5. Touma
6. Fiamma
Oddly, Touma has the same rank as Misaki now.
And one last last thing.
Thanks for your reviews, fav/follows and what not. I'm glad that you people enjoyed this fic. If you have any comments, just leave them in the review box below :)
See ya.
