The Dragonsong2795 Archive

by Dragonsong2795

Please read the first chapter for a Summary. In short, a complete copy of all of my stories as up to date as possible.

29. DA GR

Toaru Majutsu no Index (Earlier this Year)

GUARDIAN Reborn

Awakening Part I

Level_5 Kamijou_Touma

The Hidden Guardian of Academy City

The Room of the Superintendent, Day after Touma's Battle with Accelerator.

"Aleister, you broke the deal" a voice says distorted by the phone.

In a room with no doors and with the walls, ceiling and floor covered with circuitry is a glass cylinder filled with a strange liquid, inside the liquid a white haired human whose age and gender cannot be determined hangs upside down connected by wires and tubes to the top of the cylinder. Around the cylinder are a number of holographic screens showing many things about Academy City, this is the room of the Superintendent of Academy City. The most urgent of these screens is the cell phone connection directly in front of Aleister, the Superintendent of Academy City.

"You have recovered your memories then?" a melodious voice which gives no hint as to the gender of the speaker asks.

A sigh "Mostly, I can't remember a week or so about a fortnight back for some reason, but I guess it's not important. You know what happens now don't you?" The voice asks.

"Yes, you GUARDIAN will now recover your Level Five Electromaster powers in addition to your… other power and will resume your position as the Number 1# Level Five in Academy City. If it's any conciliation, those involved in the 'RADIO NOISE' project have been arrested for breaking their contractual obligations which protected young Misaka Mikoto." Aleister replies.

"Yes that is comforting, and I thank you for using the nickname GUARDIAN, I much prefer it to my other epithet" The Voice replies with first relief in its tone later turning to disgust as it spits out the last word. "I'll hang up now, it's time for Heaven Canceller to remove my blocks" The holographic screen showing the cell phone connection disappears.

"The First Level Five, the one who achieved that august state at the age of four. The one to obtain two powers, the first Dual-Skill. The first successful Magician-Esper Hybrid, The GUARDIAN of Academy City, The 'Angel of Devastation'. Kamijou Touma" Aleister muses, Aleister then starts to laugh, all of its plans are coming together perfectly, although it is quite angry that those scientists broke the contract.

A Certain Hospital, Four hours later

Kamijou Touma lies on his bed thinking over his past. He remembers when he was five and he had the then three year old Misaka Mikoto following him around, as the years went on she grew to have a crush on him. When he was eight and she six, he disappeared from her life after making a deal with Aleister to protect Mikoto… no 'Miko' as she liked to be called from the darkness of Academy City. The doctor, Heaven Canceller comes in the room, "How do you feel Kamijou-san?"

Touma smiles "Better doc, now that my powers are back" Touma can feel the thrumming of electricity and the pulses of the machines nearby, he remembers when he taught Mikoto how to feel it out as she started to acquire Electromaster powers like himself. He smiles thinking of the halcyon days when he himself had no clue about the Darkness of Academy City, he also remembers the cute little girl who followed him around claiming that one day they'd get married. She was so happy when she found out her powers where the same as his, Touma knew better, he knew that it was because she willed her personal reality to be the same as his that she got the same powers, he wondered if she knew her powers were much stronger than she thought, she had been a level four but then she'd been reduced to a level one and had her memories of him sealed to protect her. Mikoto had done the impossible and combined her personal reality with his, so when he forcibly expelled most of his energy to save her from a horrific fate, she had most of her energy sealed to match his. That she had managed to not only reach level five but to remember her version of his signature move 'Railgun Barrage' and it's big brother 'Divine Hammer', Touma couldn't be more proud of his little Protégée, however other at the time called her an Acolyte, one who follows a god, in this case the 'god' was Touma.

Heaven Canceller smiles as he watches his favorite patient reminisce happy memories, and then frowns as he notices the sorrow on Touma's face as he remembers why he had his powers sealed in the first place, he places a can of soft drink on the bedside table and says "Even though I'm not supposed to, here's some soda, also you should start practicing with your Electromaster powers, you haven't used then in almost seven years"

Touma smiles and replies with "Yeah I guess you're right doc, I might be a Level Five again but I need to recover my powers fully, man I'm tired if it's alright with you I'm going to sleep right now" Heaven Canceller nods and walks out the door.

The next day, A Certain Laboratory.

Kamijou Touma stands in the middle of a large warehouse style room with a target over two hundred meters away, in front of him are twenty eight pieces of metal each weighing between 2-4 kilograms (4.4-8.8 Pounds). A digital screen on the wall to his right reads twenty three, it slowly counts down. Overhead a group of scientists are observing the procedure along with the (Former) number four Level Five Mugino Shizuri (Who doesn't know why she'd been asked to watch).

The clock reaches ten seconds and Touma starts preparing, even though he doesn't need any more than two milliseconds to charge up he still likes to be ready early. At four seconds the two wings of lightning that got him the nickname of 'Angel of Devastation' surge out of his back and hover in mid-air startling the scientists and Shizuri, the timer reaches zero and suddenly all the metal pieces in front of Touma rise up and start to spin.

Touma cocks back his right fist to the piece hovering right in front of his chest and then he slams his fist into it shouting "Railgun… Barrage" Suddenly all of the pieces of metal shoot forwards at mach three and hit the target at two hundred meters, impacting through a vertical waterfall moving at mach 2 and then into a Inertia Transference Field (ITF) behind it. The scientists hadn't believed Touma when he told them his maximum range with a two kilogram piece of metal was nearly half a kilometer (0.3 of a mile) and his range with a four kilogram piece was double that. He inwardly smirks at the thought of their reactions if he was to tell them that his most (Theoretically) powerful attack 'Divine Hammer' involves him levitating himself to nearly 15.24 Kilometers (50000 Feet) high in the atmosphere along with a 1 ton (1.102 US Ton) and shooting it back towards the Earth at Mach 8 (6,089.65 Miles per hour). The estimated force would be nearly 757 Newtons or 7.71 Gigatons. To compare the 'Little Boy' nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima was only 16 Kilotons.

Touma was banned from ever using this unless in an absolute emergency, he never argued that until one day, and even then he was persuaded not to on the basis of his attack killing too many innocent civilians in the city in which his targets had gone to ground. Therefore the 'Divine Hammer' remains a theoretical idea that gave a team of experienced UN nuclear weapon inspectors nightmares for years. Especially with the highly classified and deeply buried 'Infernal Retribution' alteration.

Mugino Shizuri watches with horror filled eyes at the monstrously (Even by Level Five standards) powerful Electromaster standing in the testing chamber, around her the scientists gape at the power unleashed by the seemingly harmless teenager. So when Shizuri's cell phone rings she automatically answers it with a very quivery "Mugino h-here"

Over the phone comes a Certain genderless voice "Mugino Shizuri, AKA 'Meltdowner' I am Aleister, the Superintendent of Academy City. The reason I had you watch 'GUARDIAN's' little test was simple, I wanted you to be completely satisfied with the reason you are now the Fifth strongest Level Five. Do you have any questions"

Shizuri immediately says the first thing that comes to mind "Please don't send that monster after me"

Aleister laughs softly "Not to worry my dear, however you should hope he never discovers your actions against the 'Railgun'. That little girl is his prodigal student, however many other considered her his most devoted acolyte, even if she doesn't remember he does. As you've seen he is very powerful, what you don't know is he's also very protective, the last time he used that level of power… Was to obliterate a dangerous group who had kidnapped 'Railgun'. You best hope he's grown more forgiving" The phone then goes dead.

With a pale face Shizuri locks her phone, puts it in her pocket… and faints in terror of what Touma would do to her. Unbeknownst to her, Touma was already aware of what she did and was planning on punishing her in the most horrific way possible. He was going to do… absolutely nothing to her, and then he would let her own fear conjure up the punishment. Not only was it vicious as all hell, but he had to do nothing but drop hints occasionally. He notices her unconscious form and cackles mentally, 'Step 1 Complete'.

After the test is done Touma walks out off the laboratory with the seed of an idea, an idea for a new and special division of Judgement. One set up with a single purpose in mind. To counteract any hostile magician's within Academy City. To set this up he calls a friend of his… The phone rings, it rings and then it picks up "Tsuchimikado Motoharu here"

Touma smiles "Tsuchimikado, I need to meet with you. Can I see you at the District 15 Park in twenty minutes?"

Tsuchimikado immediately replies "Kami-yan, what's up. Why are you calling me, why do you want to meet"

Touma plays his ultimate card "You'll find out when you get there, Fallere825"

Tsuchimikado's gasp of surprise can be heard over the phone, then he immediately follows it with "I'll be there"

Touma nods in agreement, even if Tsuchimikado can't see him "Good" he says and then hangs up. Touma smirks, it had been far too long since he'd done this. Touma lets his wings of lightning appear and launches himself into the air using the extreme heat from the lightning his wings are made from to produce force to propel him through the air. Landings are tricky, but Touma had mastered that skill last night… Painfully.

Fukou Da.

Twenty Minutes later, District 15 Primary Park.

Tsuchimikado pants as he runs towards an open plaza in the centre of the park where he can see Touma standing.

As Tsuchimikado walks up Touma laughs and says "Any long and I would have thought you weren't interested Fallere825"

Tsuchimikado while pants wheezes out "How *pant* do you *gasp* know that *wheeze* name?"

Touma's deadpan reply sends chills down Tsuchimikado's back "Aleister told me, he didn't want his 'GUARDIAN' unaware of the current situation"

Tsuchimikado gapes at Touma. GUARDIAN, was once the stuff of nightmares for the Magical side. When a group of Roman Catholic priests with the help of a Saint attempted to kidnap the then level four and now level five Misaka Mikoto. GUARDIAN wiped them and the church they hid in off the map. According to rumor, GUARDIAN took down the Saint… in one shot. This event had led to the creation of the delicate 'Balance' between the Science and Magical sides, but everyone on the Magical got the message loud and clear. They would lose in any attempt to assault Academy City, however after eight years and no more sightings of GUARDIAN, the Magical side had grown careless. Only Necessarius still remembers the power of GUARDIAN.

Tsuchimikado then regains his ability to talk and says "So you, Kamijou Touma. Are the infamous GUARDIAN of Academy City"

Touma frowns "Infamous?"

Tsuchimikado gapes again at Touma "You didn't even know! You defeated a SAINT"

Touma 'Ohs' in surprise "That's why that guy was so strong"

Tsuchimikado just shakes his head "How did you even defeat him anyway?"

Touma just grins with mischief "Railgun"

Tsuchimikado frowns at Touma's answer "But how, she was restrained"

Touma just points at Tsuchimikado and lets out a spark that hits his left shoulder and says "And who do you think inspired Mikoto to 'create' her signature move?"

Tsuchimikado looks up in shock both at what Touma said and what he did "You're an Electromaster?"

Touma laughs and says "Yep, I'm also the first Level Five and Dual or maybe Multi-skill"

Tsuchimikado concentrates and thinks out loud "There's his Electromaster powers and the 'Imagine Breaker', what other skills does he have?"

Touma having heard the murmured thoughts of Tsuchimikado simply says "Immortal Blood"

Tsuchimikado doesn't even react he just looks up and says "Extreme Regeneration?"

Touma nods "That's why I can get the shit beaten out of me and still get up, and that was in sealed mode. Fully awakened I can survive anything short of decapitation or destruction of my brain, also with the decapitation if my head and body are reconnected in under four minutes I can heal that as well"

Tsuchimikado frowns "So you are pretty much immortal"

Touma nods an affirmative and then shakes his head in a negative "Yes and no, While I can regenerate from almost everything and like all Espers I have no natural life-span. I have limits like any human, I must still breathe, eat, drink, relieve myself and sleep. Also while my powers will protect me they can be worn out. If I am forced to do major regenerations multiple times my body can run out of nutrients and simply shut down as my power starves me to death. I'm not a God Tsuchimikado, just immensely hard to kill. Also I can't create anything but electricity so in certain environments my Esper powers are useless"

Tsuchimikado catches something "Esper powers, Do you have others?"

Touma grins and summons up mana to write in blue flames 'Aethereus000' and then says "The Ethereal and Heavenly Guardian who protects the innocent"

Tsuchimikado's eyes nearly vacate his skull with how wide they are "You… you… You're a… magician?"

Touma nods while grinning at Tsuchimikado's expression of pure shock. "With my extreme regeneration I can easily heal the 'load' of casting spells and using mana. However if I use a high Mark IV, Low Mark V spell it can overwhelm my regeneration leaving me temporarily unable to do anything but groan for a few minutes"

Tsuchimikado nods at the explanation, so at least there was some weaknesses to the GUARDIAN. However they would require several Saints in order to utilize against him. Truly he is a monster beyond all others. Tsuchimikado then sighs in acceptance and says "So why did you call me here? I doubt it was just to inform me of this"

Touma grins in anticipation "You're right of course, I called you here for another reason. I've noticed how both Index and Aureolus Izzard were able to sneak into Academy City, and how Stiyl, Kaori and the Roman Catholic Thirteen Knights were able to invade in order to chase the aforementioned individuals down, so I had an idea. But first I'll call up Aleister so the superintendent can offer a opinion, this involves Aleister as well" Touma's phone rings "Right on time"

Touma opens his phone, answers and hits the speaker option, over the phone comes a familiar voice "What is your idea, GUARDIAN?"

Touma smirks and then says "I want to create a special division of Judgement using Level fours and five to defend against Magical threats. It would require some dispersal of information regarding Magic and the Magical side, as well as the creation of some infrastructure to accommodate the new division. Any questions?"

Tsuchimikado shakes his head, while thinking of ways to explain this to Necessarius. Aleister's voice speaks up with "What would you think of naming this division"

Touma smiles at the somewhat approval from Aleister "I was thinking 'CERBERUS' The three-headed watch-dog of the gates of the Underworld"

Aleister hums "Very appropriate, I agree but with one condition"

Touma frowns "What's the condition?"

You can almost hear Aleister's glee "That Tokiwadai will be your primary recruiting ground. I'll provide a special spell that will prevent 'Mental Out' from reading applicants minds or controlling them"

Touma sighs, and then says "When it rains… it pours, I guess Mikoto wouldn't let this go once she found out anyway, I agree. When would we be able to have the first recruitment drive?"

Aleister hums in thought "How about tomorrow afternoon, around 2:30?"

Touma automatically nods "Sure thing, Just send me the spell page and I'll add it to the Scientia Grimoire" Touma's phone beeps as Aleister hangs up and a second later a detailed image of a parchment. On the parchment magical symbols and arrays combine with complicated mathematical equations to form a sublime masterpiece of fusion.

Tsuchimikado stares in awe at the image "What is that magic?"

Touma laughs "Psy-magic. A fusion of magic and Esper power to allow Espers to read and gaze upon it without harm, also those who aren't Espers and are non-religious but scientific in nature can use this magic without harm, or side effect from lack of belief. They see scientifically accurate formula and their mind uses that to shield itself from the true nature of magic, because of this it is slightly weaker in some aspects to true magic"

Tsuchimikado then glares at Touma "What's this Scientia Grimoire?"

Touma laughs again "In a city lead by the former magician Aleister Crowley. You didn't think it wouldn't have a Grimoire did you?"

Tsuchimikado just shakes his head "Only you Kami-yan, could end up in possession of the only unknown Grimoire in the world" He then frowns "But where did you keep it?"

Touma laughs "I had a… Queen hide it"

Tsuchimikado frowns in thought "A Queen, well it's probably not the Queen of England. She would have to be in Academy cit- Oh you clever bastard. You had Shokuhō Misaki hide it didn't you?"

Touma nods "In two places, one in the physical copy she hides in her handbag. Another 'mental copy in the one place even she cannot reach without help"

Tsuchimikado frowns "And where is that?"

Touma grins "Why in the mind of the illustrious 'Railgun' of course"

Tsuchimikado frowns "But her Electromagnetic Shield would prevent… Unless of course you deactivated it with your power"

Touma nods "Come on, we have work to do"

Tsuchimikado nods "That we do"

As the two walk off Touma thinks to himself 'Should I have the other two Level Fives in hiding, "Ice Empress" and the "Mistress of Distortion" brought back into the fold as well?'

Awakening Part II

Special_Division_CERBERUS

The Watch-Dog of Science

Aleister smirks slightly as Aleister reads the new file Kamijou Touma had created and uploaded an hour after their conversation

CERBERUS

Judgement Special Forces Division

For the Countering of Hostile Magicians

Recruitment

The majority of CERBERUS's Espers will be Level Four and Level Five. However 'RADIO NOISE' will be employed as a combination Intelligence Network/Fire Support Auxiliary Unit for CERBERUS.

The first recruitment drive will be held at Tokiwadai Middle School (ID PS-46-TPS) on the 24 of August at 2:30PM. The hoped for results are at least fifty-five percent of Level Fours (Approximately Twenty-Five Students) join and at least one of the two Level Fives join. This would result in enough personnel for two and 6 tenths of a standard squad.

In order to entice recruits, they will be offered the following (With approval from you of course)

Level A access to the Database

Class B Payment.

Weapons permits (Unrestricted)

Special training in ALL Academy City weapon systems

Immunity from Class B and below offences

Vehicular operation training and permits (Unrestricted)

As stated the incentives are subject to approval and may be altered if required.

The schools will also be offered 100,000 yen per student to sign up, as an incentive to train up new recruits for the next recruitment drive and to provide alibis for CERBERUS operatives. This is also subject to your approval.

Aleister hums as it thinks, Aleister then decides to allow the incentives. The more effective CERBERUS is the easier the execution of its plans will be.

More recruitment drives will be considered based on the success of the first. If over eighty percent of Tokiwadai Level Fours decide to join (Thirty-Seven Students) then Recruitment will be placed on hold until the original recruits are fully trained in order to allow the most efficient and effective use of training periods and equipment possible.

CERBERUS Breakdown

CERBERUS will be broken into Three groups or 'Heads'.

The First Head is SWORD and as the name implies SWORD will be the primary offensive force within CERBERUS. SWORD members will have medium tactical power armor and may load-out as needed or desired by the individual Espers, however despite the primarily offense based natures of their powers. All SWORD members will be required to carry at least a Pistol, SMG and Assault Rifle.

The Second Head is SHIELD and as the name implies SHIELD will be the primary defensive force within CERBERUS, should a Magician prove a high enough threat SHIELD will immediately take up positions around the most Strategic targets within Academy City. SHIELD will be equipped with Experimental Heavy Titanium-Aluminum Alloy Power Armor and may load-out most weapons with the exception of explosives. The only explosives they may carry are Anti-Tank weapons. All SHIELD members will be required to carry a Pistol, SMG and Melee weapon. They will also be equipped with Shields, currently made of a similar alloy as their armor. Research will be invested into light-based energy shielding.

The Final Head is SUPPORT and they will be the supportive arm of CERBERUS, their primary tasks will be procurement of supplies, research, communications, advanced intelligence and Base construction. Their primary equipment will be light power armor with hard points for the attachment of profession specific equipment. They will be required to at least have a pistol and some sort of melee weapon that is easily concealable.

All ranged weapons will have both 'Rubber' bullets for incapacitation was well as the experimental 'Grooved' bullets for elimination. Before they are allowed to equip the 'Grooved' bullets each squad is required to contact their section leader to gain approval first. Section leaders will be taught the appropriate lessons on reasonable force and allowing fatal force to be used.

If the hoped for goal of the first Recruitment drive is met then each section will have at least one standard squad of ten and there'll be seven to eight 'drifters' who will act as emergency replacements should a squad member be injured or eliminated.

Standard Operating Procedure

Each member of CERBERUS will be taught to incapacitate magicians and transport them to a magic nullified prison in the CERBERUS main base (Location undecided – Preliminary plans suggest use of mountainous terrain in District 21 – possibly close to Military Base 14 and it's runway)

Should a magician prove too difficult to capture or too inimical to uninvolved civilians or students they will be terminated after being given two warnings.

Should a magician be openly attacking either under orders or on their own volition they will be terminated, any magical items on their person will be seized and not returned to the magicians home cabal or organization.

CERBERUS forces will still attend their schools unless an emergence occurs, this is both to allow their education to remain unaffected and to provide discretion and secrecy for CERBERUS itself.

Unless commanded CERBERUS will remain a classified secret to the majority of Academy City with the exception of Judgement and Anti-Skill forces.

These procedures are open to change should you suggest a better method or wish to alter the procedure upon meeting a Magical Side member.

Rank, Command Structure and integration with Judgement and Anti-Skill

The Rank and Command structure will be as follows.

Rank (Notes) (Insignia)

Recruit Level:

Initiate (No Insignia)

Advanced Initiate (At least sixty percent of their training is completed) (One Square)

Squad Level:

Private (One Diamond)

Corporal (Two Diamonds)

Sergeant (Three Diamonds)

Lieutenant (One Hexagon)

Division Level:

Captain (Should there be more than two squads) (Two Hexagons)

Major (Should there be more than six squads) (One Star)

Section Head (Must be a Level Five. Will be regarded as a Colonel) (Two Stars)

Command Level:

Special Aids (One Circle)

Radio Operators (Technically outside chain of command) (One Triangle)

Commander-in-Chief (C.I.C) (Will be regarded as a General) (One Pentagon)

CERBERUS Overseer.

The Superintendent of Academy City

Insignia will be colored based on the section the owner is in:

Red = SWORD

Blue = SHIELD

Yellow = SUPPORT

White = Command Level

Members of CERBERUS who are already in the mainstream Judgement will act as communication lines between the two, they will provide explanations to the various Judgement forces.

Section Heads will be the secondary point of communication between CERBERUS and Anti-Skill/Judgement. In order to do this they will require at least the power to override on-site Anti-Skill/Judgement Personnel.

The Commander in Chief will be the primary point of communication between CERBERUS and Judgement/Anti-Skill High Command and the Board of Directors (If required) as well as being the sole communication point between CERBERUS and the Superintendent.

Special Requests

CERBERUS would also like to request the use (and activation) of four individuals. These four are:

Fallere825 (Tsuchimikado Motoharu) the Necessarius-Academy City Double Agent. CERBERUS will need him for his expertise in magic and his contacts with Necessarius.

Tokiwadai Outer Dorm Mistress (Suzuki Yumi) as the primary command centre operator Code-named "Overwatch" Her reputation and ability to disable Espers would make her useful to CERBERUS

Ice Empress (Name Classified), Level Five (Sealed) Her powers and experience would be very useful to CERBERUS's aims, also she has personal knowledge of and experience with the Magical Side.

Mistress of Distortion (Name Classified), Level Five (Sealed) While not personally acquainted with the Magical Side. Her powers and her ability to control rumor is second to none, she has been able to manipulate both Kumokawa Seria and Shokuhō Misaki (Both experienced manipulators themselves) in the past, this is no small thing. Finally her ability to integrate with the lower Levels without problem make her invaluable as both a Recruitment aid (Should a war with the Magical Side be on the horizon a special plan is being assembled) and a source of information.

Also CERBERUS would like to request:

The use of Secure Communication Channels A30 Through A50.

A Standard Weapons Depot.

A Experimental Weapons Depot.

Twenty HS-PA-MK II Heavy Power Armor Suits. (Unconstructed)

Twenty PA-MW-MK VII Medium Power Armor Suits. (Unconstructed)

Twenty MS-AFS-PA MK IV Light Power Armor Suits. (Unconstructed)

Construction Materials for a base of at least a Square Kilometer in size.

One Off-site Laboratory.

The Remnants of the 'RADIO NOISE' project facilities and equipment.

The 'RADIO NOISE' Researchers, Yoshikawa Kikyou and Amai Ao.

One Standard A-1 Supercomputer with a Class-S Processor core bank.

One Advanced Military Radio Centre Equipment set.

One Advanced Air Control Equipment set (To be combined with the Military Radio Centre Set)

Air Traffic Control Channel AC-500 for Reserved use.

A Hundred Meter Exception zone around the CERBERUS Main Base.

Use of Military Base Fourteen as a Vehicle Depot, Aircraft Hanger and Runway.

And Finally Ten Standard Automatic Construction Bots, Five Excavation Bots and a Advanced Co-ordination Bot.

Signed CERBERUS C.I.C

Kamijou Touma (GUARDIAN)

File received at 8:30 August 23rd 2025.

Aleister hums in amusement, 'GUARDIAN appears to be covering every base' Aleister thinks. Aleister debates the requests for less than a minute before signing off on every GUARDIAN suggested. Aleister grins slightly, this would accelerate its plans immensely, but it knows that if it's plans become a threat to the city or to humanity, it would be stopped. Aleister despite the possibility of its plans being disrupted feels pride, finally would someone rise up to counter the Magical Side's arrogance. If the cost was the disruption or destruction of its plans, then so be it. It would be worth it just to see the Magical Side humbled Aleister muses. At least Necessarius understands the threat of arrogance, they still fear GUARDIAN.

The Next Day, Tokiwadai Middle School.

The Level Fours and two Level Fives of Tokiwadai walk into the auditorium with curiosity plainly written on their faces, the most common questions whispered between the students is "What's so secret that they're going to these lengths?" and "Are we going to learn something classified?"

The students settle down, then a familiar boy with black spiky hair walks onto the stage and says "Welcome, Level Fours and Fives of Tokiwadai Middle School. Today you have been given a important honor" The girls burst into whispers "Quiet down please. You will be given a choice today, if you say yes you will get special benefits, but you may be in danger. If you say no, you'll be asked to leave and not mention anything that went on here. So to make it easy here is the choice. A Special Division of Judgement is being formed with the express purpose of dealing with situations that are even for Academy City, Abnormal. If you say yes you will get the following Benefits" Every girl in the hall is hanging off the seats in anticipation.

Touma clears his throat and says "You'll be given Class A access to the Academy City Database. Class B Payment, which is Twenty-five thousand Yen a fortnight. Unrestricted Weapons permits so you may do your jobs. Special training in ALL of the various Military weapon systems used by Academy City. The right to learn to drive any vehicle within Academy City, that includes Aircraft and Watercraft in addition to both Civilian and Military Land vehicles, and finally you'll be given immunity to Class B offenses and below, so as long as you don't commit murder, treason, rape or grand theft auto. You cannot be arrested. Now here is the choice, those of you who don't wish to be part of this, which is fine as your life will possibly be on the line. Please walk out the door now and forget this ever happened" Not a single girl moved, while they were all rich Ojou-samas. Their money was based on a allowance, so getting Twenty-five thousand a fortnight along with the ability to get their licenses early and nearly unrestricted access to the Database. Nothing on Earth could have moved those girls. Even Mikoto and Misaki the two Level Fives were drooling slightly at what was being offered.

Touma turns to the principal of Tokiwadai and says "Looks like all of your Level Fours and Fives will be joining up, Unfortunately you and the teachers except Suzuki-san will have to leave. Tokiwadai will receive 100,000 yen per student to both encourage the school to inform us of any up and coming students but also to remain adamant when questioned that all forty-nine girls are still students. So basically if you and the teachers, except Suzuki-san walk out right now and pretend these girls are still students. You'll get 4.9 Million Yen towards your school" The Principal nods in agreement and then he and all the teachers except Suzuki Yumi disappear out the door like they were never there in the first place.

Touma turns back to the girls and says "Now I will introduce myself. I am Kamijou Touma, Level Five. For eight years my Esper powers were sealed as part of an agreement with the Academy City Superintendent, however a project named 'RADIO NOISE' (Mikoto looks down with sadness) violated that agreement and allowed me to regain my powers. I won't go into depth with details of 'RADIO NOISE' but suffice to say it involved the creation and slaughter of twenty thousand clones with a interconnected neural network. I became aware of the situation after the 10031th clone was slain and later defeated Accelerator with my Level Zero ability (The girls except Mikoto gasp in surprise) in order to cause the cessation of the project. Accelerator was involved as a attempt to reach Level Six. Later on the 'RADIO NOISE' clones will be part of the division. (Mikoto looks up in surprise) That reminds me, the august division you have now joined is called… CERBERUS" On the screen behind Touma a image of a three-headed dog appears.

Touma then smiles at the exclamations of surprise from the girls due to the high detail of the image (you can actually see the rightmost head drooling). "As to what the division is going to combat. I need you for the next few moments to forget your skepticism, what I am about to tell you is completely real and is not a hoax" the girls are on the edge of their seats in suspense of what Touma is going to say.

Touma takes a deep breath and takes the plunge "The thing we are going to combat is… Magic" The girls all look at Touma in surprise "Before you immediately scream that magic isn't real, let me tell you that it most definitely is. Not only have I been affected by it, but one of the girls in this room was abducted by magicians eight years ago. Her memories were sealed to protect her, unfortunately this caused some other problems. Her powers were reset as well" The girls return to the edge of their seats in suspense except for Shokuhō Misaki who helped erase the memories and Misaka Mikoto who was beginning to remember some of her past.

"That girl was Misaka Mikoto" The girls gasp and Mikoto's mouth drops in surprise.

"I was called in to rescue her, I succeeded but she was critically injured. Using magic I sealed a portion of my power into her in order to allow her to regenerate, I regained that power but its presence sealed Misaka-san's powers back to Level One, her memories were also sealed to prevent her from suffering from nightmares" The girls of Tokiwadai were all whispering and Shirai Kuroko was crying silently for her Onee-sama. Touma then says "I will say it right here and now, none of you are going to hassle Misaka-san about this. If she remembers on her own it will be her choice whether or not she speaks of it, I imagine you all have events that you would rather not speak of" The girls quiet down at this, they all had secrets. It was part of being an Esper.

Touma sighs and then says "To continue what I was speaking of before. Magic is real, it has practitioners called many names: Magician, Sorcerer, Alchemist, Necromancer and even priests. Magic can be practiced but only with the help of Religion. Religion allows Magicians to shield themselves from the horrors of Magic, which would tear their minds apart" The girls shiver in terror at this.

"Now for some backstory. Magic was created to allow ordinary people to achieve the powers of those with natural-born abilities, which we now call Gemstone Espers. However with the creation of the Esper Curriculum and the ability to create Espers comes a schism in the World Order. On one side is Magic, deeply entrenched in both the Religion and Government of the West. On the other is Science, which has only one city to its name"

"Each side has capitals, Magic has many: London, Moscow and the Vatican are some examples. The Primary Magic cabals for each Capital are in order: Necessarius, the church of Necessity. A sub-set of the Anglican Church, they are a group of Witch Hunters that use Magic themselves. Annihilatus the Russian Magical Cabal sub-group of the Russian Orthodox Church created to defeat Magical Anomalies and the Roman Catholic Church of the Vatican. Then you have the Science Side and its lone capital. Academy City. We are in the heart of the Science Side" The girls are all listening with rapt attention.

"Because of that one fact, we have a most distressing problem. Any Magicians with a problem against Science will come to Academy City and attempt to damage it in any way they can. That is where we will come in CERBERUS will be the SWORD and SHIELD of Academy City. You'll be taught how to take down Magicians, primarily we will simply restrain the Magicians and send them back to their cabals after being paid a simple fee" The girls all nod cautiously, they can sense that there is more coming "However, if a Magician openly attacks or they cause harm to innocents. There will be no other option, we'll take them down permanently and let their God or Gods deal with them. I won't lie, you may have to kill" Some of the girls begin to panic.

"However"

The girls calm down slightly.

"Most Magicians we will simply take down and place in a special prison cell that stops their Magic from working. Killing will always be a last resort because it could lead to a war between Magic and Science. If we are simply acting as a police force nothing will happen. Both sides know the other is spying, if they simply have to pay 10,000 yen to get a captured spy back without incident, the Magical Side will. For now, they may become more aggressive later on and we must be on guard. To facilitate that I will now talk about the three 'Head's of CERBERUS"

The girls settle down and listen to Touma, unbeknownst to him his special thing affectionately called the 'Kami-yan' disease by his classmates and friends is working it's 'magic' on the girls of Tokiwadai, even the 'psycho-lesbian' Shirai Kuroko is beginning to feel respect for Touma and his idea to protect the people of Academy City.

Touma then takes a breath and says "The three 'Head's are: SWORD" A picture of a Katana stuck in the ground on top of a flame background appears on the right of the CERBERUS image on the screen. "SHIELD" A European knight's kite shield on top of a background composed of waves appears on the left "And SUPPORT" A Red Cross on top of a silver caduceus appears between the Sword and the Shield.

Touma continues his explanation "SWORD, will be the offensive part of CERBERUS, they are the ones who will actually go after the Magicians" Around fourteen girls including Kuroko and Mikoto look interested. "They will be equipped with a PA-MW-MK VII Medium power armor and must carry a Assault Rifle, a SMG and a Pistol. Other than that they can carry any weapons they like or that can amplify or be used by their ability" A picture of a streamlined armor with a crystal screen left visor appears below the SWORD symbol (Think Mass Effect Sheppard's Basic N7 Armor with a Visor that goes horizontally over the left eye sized to fit a girl between the ages of 12-16)

Touma then continues with "SHIELD, will be the defense part of CERBERUS, they will protect the main CERBERUS base as well as places of Strategic Importance in Academy City like the airports, transformers or School Garden" A large number of girls look interested "They will be equipped with a SMG, a Pistol, a Titanium Katana and a Titanium-Aluminum Dense Alloy Shield, that is theoretically able to stop two of Misaka-san's full power 'Railgun's however that is only theoretical and has obviously never been tested. They'll wear a HS-PA-MK II Heavy Power Armor Suit" An extremely bulky suit of armor with a helmet appears below the SHIELD symbol. (Think Spartan Mark VI from Halo but more bulky and sized to fit a girl between the ages of 12-16).

Touma finishes this part of the explanation with "SUPPORT, will be the logistics, eyes, ears and voice of CERBERUS. They'll build forward bases, acquire supplies, provide in-field communication and intelligence. They'll also be the medics. They'll be equipped with only a Pistol, but they can take extra weapons if they wish and a MS-AFS-PA MK IV Light Power Armor" A picture of an armor that consists of a metal chest plate, greaves (Armor pants basically) with boots and wrist protectors also made of metal with a thin black fabric between them. The head is uncovered, but there are connection points all over the armor for additions to be added, appears beneath the SUPPORT symbol. "As you can see the SUPPORT armor has hard-points for stuff like construction equipment or field Medic packs to be added. This is to allow the members of SUPPORT to fulfill any role while still being protected and able to evacuate a dangerous battlefield"

Touma then stops and looks at the girls watching with rapt attention and then he says "Would all those interested in being a member of SWORD, please raise your hands. Also be aware that you'll have the highest fitness requirement of the three, which will be double the Judgement requirements" Even with that warning fourteen hands rise up, thirteen Level Fours including Kuroko and Misaka Mikoto.

Touma enters their names on a tablet he took from a table he was standing next to. He then says "Alright, SHIELD. your fitness load is one and a half Judgement requirements" Twenty hands rise up. Touma enters them and nods

"Lastly, SUPPORT. You'll have to match basic Judgement Fitness requirements" Fifteen hands rise up. Fourteen Level Fours and Shokuhō Misaki. Touma nods and enters them.

Touma then turns to Suzuki Yumi who'd been listening in throughout the whole thing "Suzuki-san due to your great ability as the outer Tokiwadai Dorm Mistress, CERBERUS would like to offer you the position of Base Commandant and Radio Operator. You'd not only make sure the girls are not breaking base rules but would also act as the primary radio operator sending information and reinforcements out. What do you say?"

Suzuki Yumi looks interested and says "What would the pay be like? And do I have a specific uniform and regulations to conform to?"

Touma smiles "You'd be paid triple your current wage, you'd also have to wear a SUPPORT Light Armor and pass the SUPPORT Fitness Test. However you'd have equal rank to the Section heads, and would only answer to me. Is that acceptable?"

Yumi nods "Alright, would you handle my resignation, I'd like to see the base if there is one already"

Touma nods "Of course, The base is in the mountain next to the Former Military Base Fourteen which is now the CERBERUS Logistics Base Alpha. The Military personnel have been informed of CERBERUS's existence and will help us out by guarding one of the entrances to our base, keeping our vehicles and aircraft supplied, fueled and in order and by pretending they're still a Military Base" Touma hands her a ID card which has her name, an ID Code and the image of a CERBERUS on it "Show them this and they'll show you to the base"

Yumi takes the card from Touma and heads out the door. Touma turns to the girls and says "We'll be heading there shortly girls, but first you are to head to your dorms and pack your clothes and essentials up, while you'll have to wear your armor while on duty. When in the base and not on duty you can wear casual clothes, however you'll still have to wear your Tokiwadai uniforms out in public to reinforce the public story of you still being Tokiwadai students. Now if anyone asks your now part of a specialized program to enhance your use of Esper powers that is only available to Level Fours and up. Also when you get to base I'll explain more about Magic and cast a spell on you that will prevent Mental Reading or Control. Not only will that allow Shokuhō-san to relax without hearing your thoughts, but a lot of Magicians have mind controlling magic and the only way to shield from it is to totally cut it all out. However this will still allow telepathic communication. Now go on, meet me at the front gates in half an hour, as incentive an allied Magician will be meeting us on base. Also your furniture and non-essentials will be moved by a trusted moving firm" The girls couldn't move fast enough within seconds they were out of the room, except for the two Level Fives. (Mikoto had asked Kuroko to pack her stuff, and Misaki sent a command to some of her Level Three drones to pack her stuff.)

Misaki just hugs Touma and says "Thank you, the constant buzz of thoughts is very annoying" Misaki then leaves to oversee her stuff being packed.

Mikoto walks up and says "Is it true was I really kidnapped?"

Touma nods "Yes, but there is more to the story. You were kidnapped because of something unique you managed to do"

Mikoto looks at Touma in confusion and asks "What was it?"

Touma laughs "Officially it was called 'Merged Reality" unofficially you merged your Personal Reality with someone you admired and kept saying you'd marry when you got older. Because you looked up to that person who'd been part of your life for three years. You wanted to copy their powers and merged both yours and his Personal Realities together"

Mikoto blushes at the fact she'd been told, (By someone she'd begun to form a crush on) that she used to go around saying she'd marry somebody. Mikoto then asks "Who was the person?"

Touma lets loose a massive grin and begins to make sparks roll over his left hand "Me, the person you admired was me. I found you as a sad three year old who no-one wanted to play with. So I played with you and eventually you came to admire me, I became the one you considered your anchor, the one you'd follow anywhere. I called you my prodigal student, but others referred to you as my acolyte. It was like you were a priest following their god, that's how close you were to me. Maybe when you remember everything, you'll remember why you thought of me that way. I never found out why. You'd never tell me when I would ask" Touma grins at Mikoto and walks off to first arrange the shifting of Suzuki Yumi's possessions and then walk to the front gates of Tokiwadai.

Mikoto's blush covers her whole body but her first thought is 'I don't need to remember I know, the reason I admired you Kamijou Touma. It's very simple, no matter what you'd always be the hero who rushes in and helps others, with no thought to how much you got injured. Someone that selfless, can possibly be called a God. Because even with all your power your first thought is always to help others' Mikoto snorts with amusement 'Misaka Mikoto, High priestess of Kamijou Touma. It doesn't sound that bad' Mikoto then heads off to help Kuroko pack her stuff.

Awakening Part III

Solitas_BASE

The Solitary Fortress of CERBERUS

Touma watches as the forty-seven Level Fours and two Level Fives of Tokiwadai Private School gather in front of him carrying bags packed with their essentials and clothes. Behind him a specially commissioned auto-bus with armor plating waits. "Okay girls, you should know the drill. Load up on the bus, keep your carry-on stuff in the overhead compartments and your suitcases in the cargo bays"

The girls load up the cargo bays and then load in and once they are all seated Touma takes a seat near the front of the bus. Touma then taps on his digital tablet and the bus starts moving. As they're heading towards the base Touma explains some things "Okay, I'm going to tell you how this will work when we get to the base. First you'll all be shown your rooms where you can leave your stuff. Then the Anti-Mind Control and Reading spell will be placed on you. It is done between your shoulder blades and doesn't require you to remove any clothing, be careful about that as some magic rituals and spells require nudity. We'll then have your first magic identification lesson. Then we'll head to the base training grounds to have a fitness trial to see how fit each of you girls are and see how much training you'll need to reach your required levels of fitness. Then to put on your armor which will have been sized for you based off of measurements from your last physical at Tokiwadai. If those measurements have changed since then that can be adjusted with minimal difficulty. Then back to the gymnasium for basic training in how to move at speed in your armor, then you'll be split into your sections for individualized training in the special features of each type of armor by female armor smiths from CERBERUS's Logistics Base Alpha. Any Questions?"

The girls shake their heads or answer "No"

Solitas Base

After getting their IDs from Touma the new recruits of CERBERUS walk to the hidden elevator entrance near the Logistics Base and head up to the main base. Touma shows the girls how to enter the base with their IDs. He leads them to a long rectangular hall with seven doors, five opposite the entrance, and one to the left and right. The hall is about ten meters wide.

Touma stops and turns to the forty-nine recruits following him. "Okay, here is where we start our little tour, you can see behind me are five doors. The ones with the SWORD, SHIELD and SUPPORT symbols are your barracks. They consist of 100 hundred bunk-beds, six bathrooms and a private bedroom, office and bathroom for the leader of the division. The leaders will be chosen tomorrow after school following your first squad exercises. The door with the CERBERUS on it leads to rooms for the Commander, that's me. Radio Operators, like Suzuki-san and Special Aids to the commander. The door with the tree on it leads to a underground artificial park that doubles as our gym. Its 150 square meters of underground parkland and training zones. The large door to the left leads to the armory where your weapons are kept, that's where you'll get your armor, it will then remain in a special storage rack on either the left or right of your bed, depending on which side you choose as each buck-bed as two racks one on each side of the head-board. The door to the right leads to the Command Centre where the Radio Operators will work. That is also where my office is. Again any questions?"

A brunette Level Four asks "Where is the mess hall?"

Touma snaps his fingers "Ah, That's what I forgot to mention, the mess hall is in the artificial park, just to the right as you enter. The auto-chef has pretty much everything on the menu." Several of the recruits openly drool at this. Touma mentally laughs at their expressions. He then shakes his head and says "Okay, go in to your barracks, each bunk has names on it. Your ones will be the furthest from the door for defensive reasons. Then return here for the next part of your orientation to CERBERUS" The girls… err… recruits, head off gossiping towards their rooms. Soon after the girls disappear into the rooms Suzuki Yumi walks into the hall from the Command Centre wearing her armor. Touma nods to her and says "I had your stuff moved, it'll be here with the rest of the stuff being brought from Tokiwadai"

Yumi nods "Thank you" She then bows and enters the Command Level barracks. Soon afterwards the first of the recruits start to filter back into the hall.

Tsuchimikado walks in and stops next to Touma. "Hey Kami-yan, How'd you do with the recruitment drive?"

Touma snorts "Full sweep, Every single one of Tokiwadai's Level Fours and Fives are working for CERBERUS, at least we'll be able to train them up without having to look for more recruits, speaking of that! Did you bring the materials for their magic recognition class?"

Tsuchimikado nods and lists "One fake Grimoire, twelve Holy rituals from Basic all the way to Master. Five minor Dark runes. Seven Voodoo dolls with differing effects, eight shrunken heads with potent mojos attached for area defense. An Aztec Obsidian sacrificial knife. A Norse Rune hammer, an Egyptian Magi Staff. Some Greek enchanted arms and armor, Roman Catholic Holy Artifacts, low level of course. An Annihilatus torturing set. And of course a Necessarius war pack, fully outfitted. Also some Amakusa base magic items and ritual lay-outs from Nee-chan. Finally a roster of Saints, at least a partial one anyways" As Tsuchimikado had been listing items the recruits had been gathering around them and of course listened in, they are currently looking a bit confused.

Touma looks up from the list of Saints to the girls and says "Recruits, this is Tsuchimikado Motoharu, he's a former magician for Necessarius, Now he works for Academy City and Necessarius as a combination Ambassador/spy, he is also the CERBERUS magical liaison and advisor. Now please follow me into the Park, it's time for your mental shields to be placed upon you" Touma walks towards the door with the tree on it with the recruits and Tsuchimikado following.

The underground park is in short a marvel of engineering and technology. Overhead a giant screen created from over 1 hundred thousand hexagonal screens capable of replicating Sun, Moon and starlight to perfection shows what the sky would look like if it didn't have the Academy City skyline (And if it wasn't buried inside of a mountain).

As Touma had stated to the right is a collection of around twenty-five picnic tables with what looks like an all-you-can-eat buffet set into the wall next to it, there are obviously locker rooms and trashcans set there as well. The locker rooms are like many communal lockers, they have an out portion for storing clothes and valuables and a inner portion with public toilets and showers with some wooden benches. However further in is a large swimming pool of warm water for the girls (and guys) to relax in, the entrances have large warning signs (In English, Japanese and Chinese) stating that the swimming pool is shared by both the male and female locker rooms.

Beyond the mess hall is a small garden with flowering plants. Directly in the middle of the park is a medium sized lake. To the east of the lake is a flat area with an oval for fitness trials and training and the testing of new power armor and training in the use of power armor, to the north is a firing range where Esper powers and weaponry skills can be trained safely. To the west is a small stone amphitheatre where classes on various subjects like magic and wilderness survival are taken, finally to the south is the mess hall and park entrance.

Touma leads the CERBERUS girls and Tsuchimikado to the amphitheatre to begin both the girls mental shield castings and just as importantly their first lesson on magic, or more accurately their first lesson in identifying magic. Tsuchimikado was actually looking forward to teaching the girls, he had taught some members of Necessarius his particular branch of magic and had enjoyed being a teacher.

When they reach the amphitheatre the girls immediately head for the stone seats but Touma calls out "First all of you stand on the stage directly on top of that symbol"

The girls immediately follow his instructions, they are buzzing with excitement on being able to either see magic at work and/or finally having a rest from the sea of thoughts surrounding them (Misaki and a couple of level four telepaths)

Once the girls are positioned Touma stands at a specific point in the symbol and shouts out "Animus, Rerum Medium Deféndi" (Mind, Centre of Thought be Defended) The symbol begins to glows a light blue.

"Tekii no Ito ni Taisuru Bōgyo" (Figuratively: Guard against hostile intent. Literally: Protection against the intent of hostility)

"Sit ne Quis Intrarent in Ecclesiam Tuam Sanctissimum Locum" (Let no-one enter your most sacred place)

"Nentō no mono Yūrei no Yō ni Naru" (Be as a ghost to those of the mind)

"Mundus Erit Sciat Meo Iussu" (Let the world know my command)

"Shinseina Seishin-tekina Tate" (Sacred Spiritual Shield)

The symbol beneath the girls changes to a golden glow and they all feel a pressure on their shoulders, however instead of being scared or worried by this all they feel is content and happiness. Between each girls shoulder blades an ancient rune appears, based on a beyond ancient dialect of Japanese this rune cannot be properly translated. However its most basic meaning is 'Protect'. The rune is actually fairly simple, one vertical line with two diagonal lines parallel to each other crossing through the vertical line from the upper-left to the lower-right. Surrounding the symbol is a perfect circle.

Touma smiles as some of the girls ask others to look at the symbol they had been told would be on their backs. Before they can do anything he says "Before you start lifting shirts (in front of two guys at that) first we should have a lesson in identifying magic, you all saw a example of ritual magic with what I just did. Tsuchimikado Motoharu here" Touma extends a hand towards Tsuchimikado who nods and waves while grinning "will be your teacher"

Tsuchimikado smirks and says "Thanks Kami-yan for that introduction, now first would all of you girls please find a seat. I have to explain some of the various types of magic and that is easier when you are sitting down rather than standing" The girls rush to the seats eager to learn more about magic. Once they are all sitting down Tsuchimikado pulls out the fake Grimoire and says "Now, one of the most powerful and dangerous artifacts of magic is a Grimoire, now this is only a fake that doesn't have any power but let me explain why they are both powerful and dangerous. A Grimoire is the basis of most magics, its where spells are collected until they reach a critical mass, upon which they become a 'true' Grimoire. That critical mass varies depending on both the number of spells and the power of the spells, stronger spells means the Grimoire reaches critical mass faster. When that happens the second part of a Grimoire comes into play, the side-effects. A Grimoire contains magic, it's in the very pages and ink themselves, this means however that even the weakest 'true' Grimoire can cause severe mental and spiritual damage if the mind and soul aren't protected. The easiest way of doing so is by belief, which is one of the primary reasons for the creation of organized religion, by believing in a God or Gods, a person is able to shield themselves from the damaging effects of a Grimoire, however that still depends on the willpower of the person in question, if their willpower is too weak they'll still suffer severe damage to their mind and soul"

Tsuchimikado pauses to watch as the girls think about the side-effects of reading Grimoires. He then pulls out the Greek, Aztec, Egyptian and Norse artifacts and says "Now onto our next type of magic. Ancient Cultural Magic. These artifacts are based on the religion and culture of the place they were created, like this pen here" Tsuchimikado holds up what looks like a simple pen, until he removes the cap and it becomes a three-foot long bronze short-sword "This is an ancient Greek weapon designed to slay the monsters of their mythology, it has a name but to be honest I don't remember it. It's all ancient Greek to me anyways" Touma snorts at the lame pun.

Tsuchimikado then spends the next half-hour describing the various kinds of magic both light and dark, benign and inimical and heavenly and infernal. He talks about dark voodoo magics and holy rituals, Norse weapons and Egyptian staves. By the end of the half-hour the girls look overwhelmed, but also eager, they want to learn this. So they can protect the city (And for the perks, but none of them will ever say that out loud) Touma smiles at both the enthusiasm and the hidden reason that he and Tsuchimikado can see plain as day (Not that they'll ever tell the girls that, they aren't THAT stupid, close though)

As Touma steps forwards to talk to the girls he trips over the small blue pen-sword from earlier and slams into the ground, the girls all look concerned until a shout of "Fukou Da" sets them and Tsuchimikado to busting their guts laughing.

Touma lifts himself off the ground and chuckles slightly before he comments "Okay, now that we've all had a laugh at my expense, lets head over to the other side of the lake for your fitness trials and armor fittings. Come on girls, follow me. Tsuchimikado if you go back to the main hall and then to the door with the CERBERUS your room is the third on the left, before you ask yes I will endeavor to allow Maika clearance to stay here" Tsuchimikado nods and runs off to the entrance. "Come on girls, let's go"

Touma leads the girls to the east side of the lake where the armor units are still being calibrated by female technicians from the Logistics base. Touma takes them to a large field area similar to the Judgement Training Grounds. Shirai Kuroko looks around for a few seconds and then she says "This is identical to the Judgement Training Grounds!"

Touma smirks and says "Of course, we are still a sub-division of Judgement and Anti-skill. We just have more toys then both of them combined. If I remember correctly the average fitness requirement for Judgement is four two hundred meter laps in under three minutes, twenty sit-ups, push-ups and crunches (A crunch is where you drop form a standing position, do a push-up and return to the standing position rapidly usually jumping at the end but jumping is not required). Is that right?"

Kuroko nods an agreement, Touma smiles then and says "Alright then, that's what SUPPORT will do for their fitness trials, SHIELD will do six two hundred meter laps is under three minutes and thirty sit-ups, push-ups and crunches. Finally SWORD will do eight two-hundred meter laps in under three minutes and forty sit-ups, push-ups and crunches. First we'll start with SUPPORT" The SUPPORT girls run up to the field for their trail, when they are in position and stretching Touma yells "First do your laps and then run to the centre and do the three exercises"

Touma then begins the trials with SUPPORT, by shouting "BEGIN" he then turns to the SHIELD and SWORD girls and says "You may want to warm-up while waiting" the girls immediately begin a series of stretches while watching. Five minutes later the SUPPORT trials are over, three of the girls Misaki being one of them fail the test. Touma comments "Not bad, for those trying for a SUPPORT role, increase your fitness or you will remain a desk-jockey here at base. Now SHIELD your trials"

The SHIELD girls line up for their trial. Touma raises an arm and shouts "BEGIN" The SHIELD girls take off running and Touma says to the SUPPORT girls "SUPPORT you may wish to do some cool down stretches or exercises so your muscles don't lock up" The girls nod and follow his suggestion next to the warming-up SWORD girls.

The SHIELD girls only have one failure, and that was a close one. The SWORD girls get in position, Touma once more raises his arm, however he is standing with the SWORD girls. Before they can comment he shouts "BEGIN" The girls and Touma rush forwards running as fast as they can but also trying to keep a steady pace. To no-one's surprise, Touma, Mikoto and Kuroko all cross the eight lap mark at the same time and first and then they immediately rush to the centre for the exercises. Touma finishes first, followed hotly by Kuroko then Mikoto. A couple minutes later the rest of the girls had finished, in a surprising turn of events none of the SWORD girls or Touma had failed their trials.

Touma, while panting a little walks up to the girls and says "Well, that was a good run, now it's time for you to get your armor, please head over to the technicians, they'll fit you out with your armor, don't worry they are all women as I stated earlier"

Touma then walks over to the technicians, with the technicians are about fifty cylinders, they have four different symbols on them, one has a CERBERUS, Fourteen have the SWORD symbol, Twenty have the SHIELD and Fifteen have the SUPPORT symbol, the last two don't have symbols and appear to be control modules instead. Touma walks to the CERBERUS cylinder which splits in half and opens to reveal a harness. Touma sits in the harness. Immediately the machine begins to place the pieces of armor over his body, starting with the torso and waist. After they are placed the machine automatically calibrates each piece of armor to match Touma's physical structure. Next the shoulders, arms and legs are covered, finally the boots, gauntlets and visor are placed on Touma. A female technician then begins testing his connections and controls. In under two minutes Touma is standing before the girls in a streamlined matte black armor with a white pentagon on the left shoulder plate and the CERBERUS on his right shoulder plate.

Touma steps forwards and smiles at the girls and then says "The process as you see is quite simple, using measurements from your last physicals the armor is created with a general fit, the machine then refines the fit and will adjust the armor as you grow to retain a perfect fit, because of this anyone who tries to appropriate your armor will discover they might not like the fit. The symbol on the right shoulder plate will be your division symbol, because I'm the commander mine is the CERBERUS like special aids and radio operators. The one on the left is your rank insignia, mine is unique as the commander. I'll explain the other insignia once we are finished getting your armor fitted"

The girls quickly get their armor fitted by the technicians who had practiced and the highly efficient machines used to place the armor on them. After a few moments to get used to the armor Touma calls the girls to him.

Touma looks up as the girl finish gathering, they look far more intimidating in the armor they now wear, they aren't schoolgirls anymore, they are warriors waiting for orders.

Touma smiles and says "Okay, let's go over the rank insignia and ranks"

Touma coughs and next to him a holographic screen with various symbols and names appears.

"The lowest rank is Initiate and they have no symbol, you girls will note that for the first sixty percent of your training you are Initiates"

Touma points to the next name in line "The next rank is Advanced Initiate and the symbol for an Advanced Initiate is one square."

Touma then moves to another cluster under the first two "Above the Trainee or Recruit Level is the Squad Level, the lowest ranked members of a squad are Privates who have one diamond, above them are Corporals with two diamonds, above the Corporals are the Sergeants with three diamonds"

Touma then points to the last symbol "Each squad, which will consist of ten members is led by a Lieutenant whose insignia is one hexagon"

Touma moves to the next cluster "Above the squad level is the Division Level, if a division has two squads they'll have a Captain whose insignia is two hexagons. If the division then goes to have three Captains they then have a Major whose insignia is one star. Each Captain has two squads, each Major has three Captains. Finally there is the Section or Division Head who leads each division, their insignia is two stars, if they are to be addressed by military forces their rank is Colonel"

Touma then moves to the final cluster "The last level and the highest is the Command Level. Despite being the highest, of the three command level ranks only one is above a Colonel while the other two are equal to a Colonel. The first of these is the Special Aids to the Commander-in-Chief, more commonly called Special Aids or just Adjutants. They have an insignia of one circle and while equal to the Colonels are in fact still part of what ever division they are originally from, they just have special talents better served at the command level. The next rank is technically outside of the chain of command and only answer to me, but can take orders from the Colonels, they are the Radio Operators. Their jobs is to monitor the CERBERUS communications and transmit information to the squads, their insignia is one triangle"

Touma moves to the last rank on the list "The final rank, my rank is Commander-in-Chief, C.I.C or General. My insignia is one pentagon and I have command over all of CERBERUS"

Touma then looks at the clock on his heads-up display and says "It's getting pretty late, how about we go have dinner and then get some sleep, tomorrow you are all going to go to school at Tokiwadai and then do your first squad exercises, also you'll select your division head tomorrow. So go get some food and go sleep" The girls run off to do as he ordered

Awakening Part IV

First_Day

CERBERUS' First Day of Official Operations.

Solitas Base. 0532 (5:32 AM) August 25th 2025. Kamijou Touma's Personal Quarters.

Kamijou Touma sighs as he looks up at the roof of his new bedroom. He'd been forced to leave Index with Komoe-sensei and that hurt him a little, he wasn't going to tell her yet, he'd wait a while. But today, today he had big plans, today he was going to reveal his new status at school. Tsuchimikado had been informed so that he could act suitably impressed, he still needed to keep his undercover cover intact after all. Touma frowns as he thinks of 'Ice Empress' and the 'Mistress of Distortion', they are two of his childhood friends and have had to keep up a ruse that they don't know him personally since that day, to prevent suspicion from falling on both them and himself.

Touma smiles, while the Ice Empress's powers were fairly easy to figure out from her namesake, she is a Level Five Cryokinetic after all.

The 'Mistress of Distortion' was more difficult, many would think that her powers have to do with distorting senses or memories, they couldn't be more wrong. Touma wasn't certain, but he pretty much knew that she was behind the 'Wonders of Academy City' online rumor forum. Why? Because of her power. What is her power? It is called 'Whispers of Illusion' she had the power to spread rumor, to an unbelievable potency. People would believe whatever she said, wrote or typed with this power, no matter how outlandish or incorrect it was. If she wished she could even re-write history simply by re-writing peoples belief and what was written down. Truly a devastating power, they had used it last time to remove Touma's and the two girls existences as Level Fives. The powers only weakness was that those who practiced magic or were personal friend (Or Lover/s) of the user couldn't be effected by this power. Otherwise it was the perfect power for hiding people from the rest of humanity.

Touma shakes his head to remove the thought of his old friends, he then heads to his bathroom to get changed into his school uniform for one last time. He hopes that Komoe-sensei doesn't get too emotional; he wouldn't be able to handle that.

Touma yawns slightly as he walks out into the Mess Hall in the Park. Picking up some eggs and bacon on toast he sits down to eat, noting that the Tokiwadai girls are all in their uniforms and prepared for a day of pretending that they're learning at Tokiwadai. Mikoto sits down next to Touma with Misaki and Kuroko on the other side of the four-person picnic table. Touma nods a hello to the girls, who all nod back as they are busy eating. Kuroko has eggs and bacon on toast like Touma, Mikoto is eating some porridge and Misaki is having some Onigiri.

Touma waves to the girls as they head off to Tokiwadai and then starts walking towards 'A Certain Highschool' next to him Tsuchimikado is walking, Tsuchimikado turns to Touma and says "What do you want to bet the class is going to go nuts when you show off your powers"

Touma snorts and replies "No bet, that's a sucker bet no matter how you look at it"

Tsuchimikado looks forwards again "Yeah, I guess you're right"

Touma grunts and steps forwards onto a can which causes him to slip and slam face first into the ground "Fukou Da"

Tsuchimikado laughs his ass off at Touma's misfortune, then he starts to growl as a couple of hot chicks from one of the local high schools come over and ask if Touma is okay, Touma gets up and waves them off while he says "I'm fine, but thanks for the concern"

Tsuchimikado mutters under his breath for the next few minute, then Touma murmurs "Huh?" Tsuchimikado looks over to see Touma holding what looks likes scraps of paper with phone numbers on them.

Tsuchimikado drops to his knees and shouts "DAMN YOU KAMI-YAN"

Touma just sweat-drops at his friend's antics and pulls up the number for the Academy City Mental Health Institution on his cell phone… just in case.

A Certain Highschool

Touma walks into his classroom with Tsuchimikado at his side, as he sits down in his usual window seat with Tsuchimikado behind him and Aogomi Pierce next to him, he ponders over what he is about to do. After today he won't be coming back to this school (However he'll still be listed as a student on record) he idly wonders what Index will do when she finds out the truth of what he is. He smiles as Himegami Aisa walks into the class with Fukiyose Seiri A.K.A 'The Iron Wall Girl' talking to her about something, probably some new product in some magazine. Soon after the teacher Tsukuyomi Komoe walks in smiling "Okay class, today we have a rather full schedule so let's get any notes and such out of the way"

Touma stands up and smiling sadly walks to the front desk, Komoe looks at him with confusion in her eyes "Kamijou?"

Touma places a file down on the desk and says "I'm afraid, Komoe-sensei that I'm no longer going to be a student of yours, it's been fun having you as a teacher though"

Komoe immediately opens the file and scans through it, her eyes widen and she says to Touma and a shocked and silent classroom "L-level F-five?"

Touma holds up his right hand and lets loose some sparks from his right index finger and then he nods "Yes, I'm a Level Five, specifically I'm the Number One Level Five"

Komoe's eyes almost burst out of her head and a number of male students in the class collapse in shock while the majority of women sit there with dreamy smiles on their faces and hints of sadness in their eyes… Touma notices this but dismisses it as something he'd be better off not knowing. Tsuchimikado sobs to himself as he watches the Kami-yan disease at work, he sobs harder when he notices Fukiyose, the only girl immune also looking at Touma with interest.

Touma again smiles sadly at his former teacher who is crying slightly "I'm sorry Komoe-sensei, I have to go now. I hope you enjoy the rest of your year" Touma then slowly walks out of the classroom to the crying of Komoe-sensei (Along with most of the girls and Tsuchimikado) Just before he exits though he turns and says "Oh and by the way, just because I'm not part of this class doesn't mean that I won't be helping the school out, come the Daihasei festival" This causes the males of the class to cheer, they knew with a level five they had a massive chance of winning, most of their competitions.

Touma then walks out to go to an important meeting.

Three hours later Touma walks out of a joint meeting between him, The Anti-Skill Commissioner and the Judgement commander, they had agreed, bartered and compromised on a number of things including the fact that CERBERUS was now also the Military Police of Academy City and would be involved in taking down any Espers Level Four and above, as well as any attempted rebellions by factions of Academy City. Touma reading over the records was shocked at the amount of foiled rebellions, Twenty-seven times some aspect of Academy City had attempted to take over from the Superintendent.

The last thing the meeting had agreed on was the activation of Operation: UNDERTOW. The aim of the operation was to hide as much of CERBERUS' presence as possible, to facilitate that every underage member of CERBERUS except him would be going to school in order to further their covers as ordinary students, they would also make use of Misaki's abilities to alter memories in order to erase knowledge of their existence from those who weren't allow to know of them.

Touma then races back to Solitas Base to set up the exercises that the girls would be doing this afternoon. He'd already planned everything out and had a good idea of who the Division Heads would be, he also had plans to recruit some extra help as he rushes back he sends out a couple of texts from his secure phone.

Ice Empress

Overlord has allowed reactivation

Meet me at Delta Point tomorrow

Mind Slut will be there also

GUARDIAN

Mistress of Distortion

Boss has released seals

Meet me at Omega Rally tomorrow

Frigid Bitch will also be there

Be Nice

Angel of Devastation

Touma snorts to himself as he uses the nicknames the girls had for each other, those two were (and still are) best friends but they fought so much you'd think they were worst enemies (a notion which they did nothing to disprove to people) He would be happy to see them again, although he'd seen 'Ice Empress' quite a bit lately.

After School has finished, Solitas Base Park – Training Ground

Touma clears his throat and shouts "Alright girls, it's time for you to begin your squad exercises, first we'll get you used to working with each other and then later on we'll begin to send you out on patrol, but that won't be for a while yet"

Touma divides the girls into squads, 1 SWORD squad, 2 SHIELD squads and a SUPPORT squad. He then puts them through their paces with a clever an ingenious idea… He gives them all paintball guns and tells them to play paintball, but they must remain within ten feet of each of their squad members, if they don't a buzzer will sound and they'll be out.

After an hour of this a bunch of paint splattered (Or in Kuroko's case, Covered) power-armored girls stand before him, they're all exhausted and more than a few of them hate the smug grin on Touma's face, Touma then says to the girls "Well done, we'll be doing two hours of this every afternoon until all of you are ready for outdoor operations. Now it's time for you to choose your division heads, if you want you can wait until later or let me choose"

The SWORD girls immediately shout "Misaka-san" while Mikoto tries to turn it down Touma marks her down as the division head.

The SUPPORT girls shout "Shokuhō-san" Misaki tries to act coy but she had suspected that she'd end up the Division head.

Touma turns to the SHIELD girls and says "Haven't made up your mind yet?"

The girls shake their heads, they look pretty put out. Probably because unlike the other two Divisions, they don't have a Level Five to make a Division Head.

Touma thinks for a minute and then says "If you're willing to wait I might be able to get some-one pretty powerful to be your Division Head, they might take a bit of convincing though"

The SHIELD girls whisper amongst themselves before agreeing to Touma's proposition.

Touma claps his hands then "Alright, now let's do some more exercises, girls who failed the fitness test, head over to the track you'll be doing workouts with some soldiers from the Logistics Base Alpha"

Touma then opens up the message bank of his phone having felt the buzz indicating income texts during the paintball session, both texts were simply one word 'Roger'

Awakening Finale

Ice_Empress and Mistress_of_Distortion

The Ice Queen and the Rumor Empress

Warrior Café, Omega Rally and Delta Point. 0930 August 26 (1 Day before Angel's Fall)

Warrior Café, apparently it gets you ready for war, what war that was exactly Kamijou Touma didn't know, probably daily life. He sighs as a familiar sound that he hadn't heard in years graces his ears. The sounds of two women fighting, no to be more precise the sound of Ice Empress and the Mistress of Distortion fighting. Touma slowly walks outside to see a crowd of guys watching a catfight of epic proportions , well to them at least, he personally would give it a six, they weren't even using their powers, just pulling hair and scratching with a side of name calling.

Touma claps loudly and says "Alright girls, stop fighting. We need to talk, come on" The girls after glaring at one another get up and start following Touma. The guys watching the catfight either boo or murmur things like 'Lucky Bastard' and 'Two of them, Asshole'

Touma just sighs as a constant barrage of 'Frigid Bitch's and 'Mind Slut's pass between the two as they walk towards a secure building for their re-orientation as Level 5's. After walking into the building the two girls turn to face Touma who is finishing up some paperwork on his tablet as he walks. He stops and says "It's nice to see you two again. Ruiko-chan, Seiri-chan" Touma smiles at the two girls.

Fukiyose Seiri just smiles back and says "You saw me yesterday, or did you forget already?"

Saten Ruiko grimaces at Fukiyose she then turns to Touma and smiles "It is good to see you again Touma, I've missed talking to you over the years, we just get to chat occasionally on the internet"

Touma smiles a obviously fake smile and says "Yes and we need to talk Ruiko-chan, about using dangerous technology like the 'Level Upper'"

Fukiyose snaps her attention towards Saten "You used it, what happened?"

Touma snorts "She collapsed, most likely because the strain of the interaction of the AIM network and her own Personal Reality grew too much"

Saten looks at Touma with confusion evident in her eyes and Fukiyose asks the obvious question "Why would the interaction of the two affect her? I thought the extra computing power would make her stronger"

Touma takes on a lecturing tone "Yes it would, if she was a Level Three or below, once you hit Level Four it becomes useless and at Level Five it causes damage as your Personal Reality starts fighting to get rid of it. You were extraordinarily luck Ruiko-chan that your powers didn't burn out, you can't merge your Personal Reality with anyone else at Level Five or beyond without extreme consequences"

"Beyond?" Fukiyose wonders out loud

Touma nods "Yes, there is a point beyond Level Five, but the strain it causes means that it can only be used for short periods of time, around one to two hours before your body collapses from shock. This point is called Awakening and to show how rare it is of the ten Level Fives. I'm the only one who knows how to use it"

Both girls look at Touma in shock.

Touma however continues with his lecture "The reason Level Five and Fours don't gain any benefit from the 'Level Upper' is because of the fact that our Personal Reality Equations are completely different than normal. You see a Level One through Three has a standard set of algorithms for each different power, so a Pyrokinetic Level Three's equations will work for a Pyrokinetic Level One. But a Level Four's will cause damage to a lower level due to the fact that the Level Four's base equations are radically different, this is why the jump between Level Three and Four is almost as insurmountable as the one between Level Four and Five. To put it more simply from Level One to Three we all use stock equations, then at Level Four we have a… 'First Shift' if you'll excuse my 'Infinite Stratos' terminology"

Fukiyose (Who enjoys watching the anime Touma referenced) continues the simile with "So Level Five is like a 'Second Shift' we've already personalized the equations and algorithms to fit use better so we optimize that personalization… right?"

"Dead on Seiri-chan" Touma grins at the blushing Fukiyose.

Touma then clears his throat and says "Now girls, let's get you up to speed with my project. A Judgement Special Division codenamed CERBERUS"

Sakugawa Middle School 1525 (3:25 PM)

Touma frowns as he wonders at what Ruiko had told him 'Keep an eye out for my signal, I might have a master hacker for you' She hadn't told him what the signal was so how would he know-

"U-I-HA-RU" Saten's voice rings out and a feminine squeal of embarrassment and indignation causes Touma to turn to see Saten with her hands in the air next to a girl with a flower headband in her hair wearing the same school uniform but with her skirt fluttering up. Touma shakes his head at the sight while absentmindedly thinking 'Teal with white stripes huh? Nice choice' about the poor beleaguered girl.

Five minutes later at a public park

"Saten-san, why did you bring me here?" Uiharu Kazari asks her best friend Saten Ruiko.

"I've got someone who wants to meet you, he's an old friend of mine. He's with Judgement like you" Saten answers.

"So where is he?"

"Right here" Touma says from behind the two.

Uiharu jumps a foot while Saten doesn't even react (Touma had done that to her dozens of times over their years of friendship and she'd gotten used to it) Saten just turns to Touma and says "You know that get's really annoying after a while" Touma just grins roguishly at Saten.

Saten then does the introductions "Kamijou Touma meet Uiharu Kazari, Uiharu meet Kamijou Touma. The new Number 1 Level Five AKA GUARDIAN or ''The Angel of Devastation'"

Uiharu's eyes nearly vacate her skull "L-l-level F-f-five, N-n-number O-o-one" she stammers.

Touma smiles at Uiharu and then says "It's nice to meet you Uiharu, Now let ask you something. How'd you like to work for a special division of Judgement that specializes in… extreme and unusual situations. The choice is of course ultimately yours, but Ruiko-chan mentions you'd like to meet the other Level Fives aside from Mikoto-chan. Including myself there are five Level Fives working for this division with two more on the short-list for recruitment. So what do you say Uiharu-san, are you in?"