The fifth chapter! hope you enjoy it!
'To aru majutsu no Index doesn't belong to me, only my OCs'
Chapter 5: The flickering of the light
"And now to the news: Last night around 11p.m systems detected seismographic turbulences. theorists are searching for answers what had caused them. Supposedly it has something to do with the crater five hundred meters away from academy city. The diameter of the crater is around 100 meters and the depth is 75m. There is a thesis for saying it being an declaration of war, but who gave the declaration isn't known. Now to the weather..."
Misaka listened interested to the radio while eating breakfast. Kuroko was away since last evening so she had a peaceful night.
'Hope the things that are keeping Kuroko so busy aren't from the alarming kind.', she thought while sipping at her tea.
At that moment Kuroko came inside the cafeteria , spotted her and came to her table.
"Good morning, Onee-sama", she greeted her.
"Morning", Misaka simply replied.
"Kuroko,", she began and Kuroko's fantasy run wild on what she wanted from her.
"What kept you all night up? you weren't in the room or dorm and the manager said you were excused, but didn't want to tell me specifics."
Kuroko began to sweat and said: "W-Well, it was just an exercise...", but got interrupted by the radio.
"And here the breaking news: Two corpses were found at the west wall, killed in gruesome ways. The two victims were not citizens but trespassers. It was most likely the work of an esper. Anti-Skill and Judgment are still investigating and hadn't found the murderer yet."
"Just an exercise, huh?", Misaka asked rhetorically.
"Cat out of the bag like it seems. But Onee-sama, you are not allowed to investigate by yourself", Kuroko ordered her.
"Yeah, Yeah. But you can tell me information, right?"
"Like said, the two victims got killed in a gruesome way. The first was only sludge on the wall. The second got scattered all across the area."
At that explanation Misaka needed to cover her mouth with a hand and tried not to chuck up.
"I had the same reaction when I saw it. Luckily I didn't eat. Well, back to the topic, there were traces that indicated that the two had 3 more companions, but they couldn't be found."
"Some ideas who could be the culprit?"
"The culprit needed to be an esper to achieve such results. Probably an telekinetic, the cause was most likely kinetic energy. But because it's an common ability the amount of possible culprits is large."
Whilst hearing to the telling Misaka was in thoughts.
She remembered something that she heard a while ago.
*FLASHBACK*
"Ok, now after I showed you my ability, I have a question for you:"Kumiko began: "What did I do with the impudent robber who proposed me to interact with them in nightly activities for the money I needed?", she asked while she returned to her cooking.
"You increased the energy behind the push?", Misaka answered.
"Not quite. If I did that he wouldn't have been just unconscious, considering the distance he flew.", Kumiko replied shooting the thesis down instantly and happily stirred the content of the pot she was working on.
*FLASHBACK END*
'Why do I think about that? she couldn't be it. I mean, she has an sadistic side but she isn't an murderer. And that doesn't match up with her overzealous and warm personality.', she said to herself and remained in thoughts.
"Onee-sama, remember what I told you: Don't do anything!", Kuroko pulled her out of her thoughts.
"AH, uhm, why do you think that I plan to do something?"
"Onee-sama, please, I know you better than most. I can tell if you are up to something."
'Dammit, Kuroko.', Misaka thought frustrated and denied it instantly.
Kamijou Touma survived last evening through, what you could only call, a miracle.
When he came through the door to his room Index flew already towards him, teeth bared and ready to pierce Touma's head ,who had 'forgotten' her and left starving.
Touma in response activated his K.O shield with a 50/50 chance of success, namely opening the keep-fresh package he got from Kumiko.
The smell of food had an instantaneous effect and the bared teeth got drawn back, Index landing on the floor without harming him.
whilst eating the food for dinner She and Touma started tearing.
'It's heavenly!', they thought in unison and Touma thanked Kumiko for making his life easier than it would be while enjoying the food which he, if he didn't know it was made from Kumiko, would have thought to be from a first class restaurant.
But It seemed that this one single fortunate occurrence would leave an aftershock to drag Touma down to the reality of his misfortunate life.
Literally.
They both were already sleeping when the seismic turbulences reached the area his dorm was located.
The effect was devastating.
All water taps and the showerhead got destroyed, leading to a flood in the bathroom Touma was sleeping in. He let himself drifting through the water and watched his rubber duck swimming past him.
'Such misfortune', was his only thought before the chain of events began to get longer.
Index opened the door when the water was around 1,50 meters high.
She did that because she got woken up by the turbulences thinking it was an attack or some other deadly danger.
The very moment she opened the bathroom door ,she unleashed the flood.
But the result of a completely soaked dorm room was not the only thing Touma needed to worry about.
Touma, who drifted motionless in the water, got dragged through the door by said flood towards Index.
He ended up on top of Index. That in turn unleashed the concentrated fury of a bite-happy nun on Touma.
The only way he could bring Index to stop biting was to promise her to get more food cooked by Kumiko.
Touma decided to go to her tomorrow to ask for more.
He was about to go to Kumiko and plead her to make more when Index had the brilliant idea to go with him to see the, like she called her, 'angel who brings the heaven's fruit'.
So the two of them walked out of the room, locked it and were on their way to the apartment of the Kurokamis.
Touma looked up and saw the news zeppelin flying over academy city, broadcasting the same news that were in the radio earlier.
'I bet that this is the damn magicians doing.', Touma thought bitterly.
When they arrived at the apartment and used the door bell, the door got opened after some time by Kureno.
"Kamijou-san, nice from you to visit. What's up? And who is that girl?", He asked.
"Nice to see you too. Well you see, I wanted to bring back the empty
keep-fresh package back and Index here wanted to see the one who made it."
"How does she know about the food?"
"I'm living in his room. And the food was great.", came the answer from Index before Touma could find an excuse why exactly she knew about the food.
"Ah, what she mean is...", Touma began but got interrupted by Kureno midway.
"No need for an excuse. To live with a girl is not really a crime and no different than living with another boy, right?"
'Such innocence!', Touma thought thanking god for Kureno still not knowing about things like that, but couldn't help but wonder why.
"More importantly, I would like to get more.", Index said, drooling at the thought of getting more of the food from Kumiko.
"I'm sure she would love to make you more. Unfortunately, she isn't home at the moment. But I can say her that you would like to get more."
"Thank you, and sorry for bothering", Touma thanked him.
"Nah, nah, that isn't bothering at all. I'm sure she is going to be happy that you enjoyed her food and that you brought the keep-fresh package back."
"Then... bye.", Touma said.
"Bye."
And with that Touma and Index walked away and Kureno closed the door.
Kumiko was in a very bad mood. She had turned off her handy and tried to clear her head.
This night she couldn't sleep much like always when she did a 'mission'. Mission was an embellishment for the work she did. It was just simple annihilation.
The annihilation of persons who got on the bad side of Aleister Crowley.
The dream that kept her from sleeping was the same like the one after the missions she did before.
*FLASHBACK*
In the dream she stood alone in an endless pool of blood. Every person she killed came out of the pool, now as decomposing corpse, and attacked her. She couldn't move. They grabbed her and...
Then she woke up, sweating and breathing erratically.
*FLASHBACK END*
She walked along the streets aimlessly when she heard an yell. A familiar yell.
"HELLO, KUMIKO! HOPE YOU'RE AS GUTSY AS EVER!"
Then an boy fell from the sky and landed in front of her. He had black, spiky hair and wore a T-shirt with a red sun on it.
Yeah, that boy was Sogiita Gunha, the #7 Level 5 of academy city. Wearing a excited expression on his face that literally gleamed from happiness, he smiled at her.
By passers looked at him bewildered but shrugged it off fast with thinking 'that is just how this city is.'.
They both knew each other for around a year.
At that time a scientist betrayed academy city and brought an esper to a research facility outside.
But he was very unfortunate or simply dumb: Out of all espers in academy city he chose Kureno, her brother.
That of course brought her near the point of snapping. She wanted to hunt him down immediately, but Aleister let her only outside when she would take a Level 5 with her. Aleister chose Gunha who immediately accepted, wanting to help her to get her brother back.
The Superintendent did that probably to prevent deaths, caused by her fury, that would strain the relation from academy city to countries other than Japan.
Over the hunt that ended in britain he became the closest to being her friend.
"Hey, Gunha. What are you excited about?"
"I did it!"
At that Kumiko raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner.
"Gunha, what exactly did you manage to do?", she asked concerned, knowing in what reckless ways Gunha used his ability.
"The attack you did back then. It was hard, but with enough guts I managed to do it too. You know, the one you used to blast the building away!"
"AH, that one...", she said out loud and remembered.
*FLASHBACK*
After they retrieved her brother and Kumiko carried him out of the building, Gunha spoke up and bumped his fist in the air.
"Mission completed! I don't think they will ever do something like that again after we infused them with guts now!"
"Don't know ,but hope it. For their sake.", Kumiko replied and then asked: "Gunha, did you do what I asked you for?"
"Yeah, anyone is out of the building, safe and with guts!"
"Wonderful~," she said cheerfully and ordered then:
"Gunha, hold my brother for a moment! But Drop him and I drop you!"
Gunha, who gulped, took Kureno with extra care fearing what she would do with him if he dropped her brother.
"What are you going to do?", he asked the girl, who now had an dangerous expression on her face.
"Payback", she simply said, turning around to the building and crackling her left fist which she then moved in a punch-ready position.
Then she began to accumulate, concentrate and spin plasma around said fist.
Some seconds passed, then she punched forward in the air, unleashing a continuous wave of plasma which engulfed anything in a 60 degree angle in front of her.
A few seconds, after the plasma was fired, the stream stopped, revealing the former building now being molten to a puddle of liquidated building material.
she turned around and saw Gunha looking at her excited.
"That was an attack full of guts!", he exclaimed with respect in his voice.
"Thank you, I guess... ?"
"Let me try!", he said and gave Kureno back to her.
Gunha copied her movements and tried, but didn't manage to do it correctly.
"It seems I must accumulate more guts to be able to do this!", he said then, apparently a little down because he didn't had 'enough guts'.
"Just keep trying and I'm sure you can do it.", she said to lift up his mood and gave him an teeth showing smile with a tooth seeming to blink.
"Your right! I will work till I have enough guts!", he exclaimed happily and full of enthusiasm.
*FLASHBACK END*
" I named it 'Godly Annihilation'. Let me show you!", he said excited and got in a pose, left leg in front, right arm behind him, raised and ready to punch, his upper body slightly leaning backwards.
'WHY THIS STUPID AND MANGA LIKE NAME!', Kumiko shouted inside her head but held back not to yell.
"Goodlyyy...", he began and plasma started to spin around his right fist.
He made a punching motion. But before he got to complete the punch and unleash the plasma Kumiko hit him on the back of his head.
Hard!
Gunha's head slammed in the ground and the plasma dissipated harmlessly.
she successfully stopped an disaster from happening.
He sat up on his rear with a bloody nose, leaving cracks and an imprint of his face in the ground.
"Why did you stop me from showing my guts?", he asked, tears in his eyes from not being allowed to complete what he was about to do.
"Because you were about to fire a stream of plasma in a crowded area!"
"Oh", he said while now noticing the crowd surrounding them, some of them already fled from the area.
"Seriously, I need to tell you 'Think before you do something.' all the time. And now too!", she continued.
"Sorry, my guts told me to simply do that.", he said as an answer while rubbing the back of his head and smiling sheepishly.
Seeing that expression on his face that is as rare as an gemstone her mood lifted up and she began to chuckle.
"Don't worry, it's just your way. And... thanks. I needed that.", she said and showed now a genuine smile.
Gunha, who had no idea what she meant, simply said: "You're welcome!", and stood up.
"So... shall we go eat something?", she asked him not wanting to be in the middle of attention any longer.
But before Gunha could reply, a familliar and teasing voice said: "Uhhh, Kumiko-san, is that your Boyfriend?"
Both turned around and saw Saten looking at them with a mischievous smile and glint in her eyes.
"No, Saten-san, he is not my boyfriend, he is...", she answered, looked back at Gunha for a few seconds, looked back to Saten and then continued: "A rather... special individual with a... special mindset. And because he is so... special, someone needs to watch over him and stop him from doing anything... special.", she explained to Saten.
"And his name is...", Saten started and waited for Kumiko to finish the sentence.
"His name is Sogiita Gunha, #7 of academy city. And beware of the day when he or someone finds out what his ability is!", she introduced him and Saten looked happy, knowing one Level 5 more.
"Nice to meet you. You look like someone with guts!", Gunha said and gave her a thumps up.
Saten seemed perplex about that and didn't know how to react.
"Don't think too much about it, he is always like that.", whispered Kumiko to her and helped Saten with that out of the dilemma she was in.
"Hello, I'm Saten Ruiko.", she introduced herself.
"So, ...shall we go eat?", Kumiko asked again.
"Sure. Gutsy food would be great.", came an answer from Gunha and Saten nooded.
"Then, let's go.", she said and led the other two to Joseph's.
After they ate they decided to stay and talk about different things.
Well, it was more a conversation between the two girl's and some commentaries from Gunha, the full sense in them only known from Gunha himself, that were mostly about how the told stories and doings were related to guts.
Whilst they chatted cheerfully, Kamiko spotted a familiar blonde with messy haircut, accompanied by a dumb grin and sunglasses.
To see this person made her furious, but she didn't show it. Knowing the person wanted to talk, she said without changing her mimic:
"Sorry, I need to go now. Gunha, be a gentleman and pay for us!"
With that she took off, not giving the others a chance to say something.
Saten, finding herself in a weird situation alone with the #7, said:
"Well, ...how was your day?"
In an alley Kumiko slammed Tsuchimikado, with one hand grabing his collar, against a wall.
"What do you want, Blondie?", she asked, now showing her fury.
"Nya~, calm down, Miko-chan. Believe me, if I could I wouldn't bother you, the one and only 'Valkyrie'.", he said half jokingly, half serious.
"You didn't answer my question.", she said, ignoring the nickname.
"I want you to do me a favor.", he answered, now with a completely serious tone.
At that Yumiko couldn't help but laugh. Not a warm laugh of someone who heard a good joke. It was a cold laugh that froze the blood in your veins.
"A favor? Did you, the 'backstabbing blade', out of all people just asked me to do you a favor? What kind of sick joke is that?"
"It's not a joke."
At that Kumiko 'mhpf'-ed.
"Listen, the magic side is now serious. they want him. Alive. And you know why they want him. You know the true identity of it, what it means."
"And what has it to do with your favor?", Kumiko asked, fury fading and already suspecting what he was about to say.
"I want you to protect him. from both sides: Magic and science.", he requested.
"Two things that are coming to my mind: Firstly, why do you even go to such lengths for him? You, the 'backstabbing blade'? And secondly, why the hell should I even do that?"
"I do that because I consider him my friend. I know that something like this, coming from my mouth, sounds silly, but it is the truth: He is my friend and I want to protect him. But I don't have enough what it takes to do the job!
And why you should do that: I am going to owe you big, and your brother won't be ripped out of the wonderland you created for him.", he said, looking her in the eyes while still being pressed against the wall.
They stayed in this position, she thinking about it. Then she let him go. She was about to walk away, but then turned and moved her mouth close to Tsuchimikado's ear.
Then she said quietly, almost whispering:
"Fine, I'll do it. But when there is a single lie you told me now, I'm going to rip the beating heart out of Maika's chest in front of your eyes, before torturing and killing you in a way, so horrifying, that even the #1 will shiver in terror."
And with that she walked away, leaving a pale Tsuchimikado behind.
When she was alone she slammed her hand against the wall.
'Why did I do that? To think that I become more like a monster the more I want to protect my brother from monsters; such irony...', she thought, laughing bitterly.
Then she walked out of the alley on a street.
She bumped together with a person. Said person was an boy who had a really petite build, white hair and red eyes. He had a cane in his hand and an electrode around his neck. If she would have had an clear head she would have recognized him.
"Hey fucker, watch were you walk!", he yelled at her.
"You know what: I'm in a reeaally bad mood now! So piss off, you damn albino, before I add you to the wall!"
"Huh, really?", the albino said and moved his hand to the electrode.
The next moment hell broke free.
Two of the 9 monsters living in academy city are going to clash. I think that the next chapter is going to become really interesting.
With this chapter I brought in two more Level 5's. If I add more... only I know.[muhahaha(completely misplaced laugh)]
I found it hard to write Gunha in this chapter. That was because I didn't how much, I don't now a better word, Gunha-ness I should add to the way he speaks and his behavior.
The next chapters are going to bring in more fights and the puzzles I seeded will get closer to get solved.
But of course not at the same time, that would be boring and anticlimatic.
Remember to give feedback or reviews or whatever you want to write(flaming is not part of the things)!
With that, I'm out! Bye