Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index

The Trinity of Tokiwadai

Chapter Ninety Nine: War in Paradise - The Battle of Coral Street Mall

Naru was rolling on her queen size bed in her hotel room in Halekulani with a smile on her face and an earpiece synced to her phone as she spoke with her girlfriends, Shu-chan and Arisa-chan, as they enjoyed the pre-arranged call they had set up. She would have video called them, but Naru had very deliberately asked her beloveds not to do that. You see, she had a tricky little plan in mind and it would be best carried out if they couldn't see each other.

Sometimes imagination tops reality. Naru thought to herself smugly at her genius, prompting an exasperated huff from Kurama as he retreated deep into his home inside her soul so she could have privacy whilst she spoke to her girlfriends.

Even as inspired as she thought what she had in mind would be, she still felt a little disappointed that Shu-chan and Arisa-chan couldn't be there with her in Hawaii. A regret that she freely gave voice to.

"It still sucks you couldn't come join us." The blonde said with a pout as she felt the silky sheets on the bed comfort her, but only a little.

"Naru, you know we did not have a choice." Shu-chan chided her in that stern onee-san way of hers. A tone that as always had the Number 2 shivering in delight.

Does that make me weird? Naru asked herself only to conclude a moment later. …Nah.

All whilst expertly ignoring the resounding "Yes" that Kurama couldn't resist shouting at her from the depths of her being.

Unaware of the effect she was having on her girlfriend, Shu-chan continued. "The Board wouldn't allow us to leave the City with so many of the heavy hitters already involved in the mission. Its defenses are reduced enough by your absence. In addition, concentrating even more of our firepower in one overseas mission like this is diplomatically risky as is, adding to it further is unwise."

"I know! I know! I still can't help but find it a shame though." Naru said, puffing out her cheeks adorably.

"Naru-chan," The soft and melodic voice of her Arisa-chan spoke up next. "Maybe the Board will change their mind and let us join you. From what we've been hearing from Oyafune-sama, the Americans are being strangely accommodating with us operating in their country. So since that means the second point is less of an issue…"

"Don't get your hopes up though, Naru-chan." Shu-chan cut in mercilessly. "Just because the Americans are accommodating so far doesn't mean that'll last for the duration of the mission. Taking that into account, I doubt the Board will want to risk things more than they already have by sending your team there in the first place."

"I guess." Naru said in a slightly sulking tone as she rolled to her left and right a few times, trying to burn off the… ahem, excess energy that Shu-chan's no nonsense tone stirred in her once more.

It wasn't easy, but Naru managed it soon enough and was able to actually make sense of what her girlfriends said. And as she did, she had to agree that things had gone pretty swimmingly so far. They had gotten away from New Honolulu International Airport even after Birdway decided to blow it up without any trouble. Sure, Dawn-colored Sunlight covered their retreat, but even then it was super easy, almost like the Americans let them get away without even trying to stop them.

"Though what do you mean by the Americans being 'strangely accommodating', Arisa-chan?"

"We don't know much." Shu-chan answered with a sigh. "Only what Oyafune-sama told us. According to her, the Americans seem distracted, or even rattled, about something. So that may be why they are acting so accommodating about this little Trinity operation in their borders."

"Eh? But we aren't heading this op!" The Level 5 countered.

Arisa-chan replied with a soft scoff, "Please, you might as well be. What with you girls and Accelerator being the lead operatives."

"Yes, I do have to agree with that." Shu-chan added in.

Rolling her eyes, Naru said. "Yeah, okay, I'll give you that. But! Enough about my mission. Let's not talk about it anymore, okay? I called you two for other super important reasons!"

"Oh? What reasons, Naru-chan?"

"Fufu~" Naru smirked at Arisa-chan's ever so innocent question. "Well, duh. It's 'cos I miss you lots and lots, Shu-chan, Arisa-chan! I miss you two so much that I just need to hear your sweet voices to ease my doki doki heart! And, well, maybe discuss a little of what we can do once I'm back to celebrate what a good job I'll no doubt do."

A squeal of joy was heard and Arisa-chan gushed. "Naru-chan, that's so sweet of you to say! Even Shu is blushing~"

"I-I am not!" Shu-chan coughed over the line, her voice giving off a deadpan tone. "And don't be so sugary sweet. I know you just want to have phone sex."

"Ah, I've been caught." Naru shamelessly agreed. "But, does that mean you don't want to do it with your innocent and darling Naru?"

Giggling, Arisa-chan said, "Now now, don't pout our little Lop-chan. [1] I certainly didn't say I didn't want to."

Even as she allowed herself a victorious smirk at that, Naru pressed her advantage. "So… Are we doing it?"

"Oh! Yes, let's do it." Arisa-chan said enthusiastically. "What do you think, Shu? Wanna do it?"

Naru could practically hear Shu-chan rolling her eyes as she replied with a scoff. "Of course. Why else do you think I agreed to answer this call dressed as we are?"

"Oh! You two dressed up for me?" Naru asked excitedly as the fire of her lust started to build within her for what was to come. It had been a while since she and her girlfriends had the chance to have some fun together and she was really looking forward to this opportunity.

"Yes," Shu-chan began, only for Arisa-chan to continue with a giggle. "To be more exact, we've dressed down for you."

"Funny you'd say that, Arisa-chan." Naru said, some of the passion she felt leaking into her voice. "Because that's what I did too."

"Oh?" A slightly breathless sounding Shu-chan asked. "What are you wearing?"

Affecting a sultry voice whilst doing her best to hide how her breath was starting to hitch with expectation and want, Naru answered. "Well~ I'm in nothing but a burnt yellow triangle bra and panties set made out of lace right now."

"Now, time for you to return the favor, Shu-chan, Arisa chan. What are you wearing?" Naru added, excited to hear the answer.

"Ah, hm, th-this is more embarrassing than I first thought." Shu-chan muttered over the line. "I don't know if I can-"

Arisa cut her other half off, "Mou! Shu-chan, you are too shy! Naru-chan, we're wearing a white wireless bra set with little bows as detailing."

"Eh~? So we're on the same wavelength, huh?" Naru said with a grin so wide that her cheeks tingled. She could already picture teasing the lace right off her girlfriends as they directed her downwards towards-grrr! She wanted them here right now!

"Um, y-yes, I agree." Shu-chan stammered adorably. Kya~! She wanted to snuggle the heck out of her!

"Arisa-chan, Arisa-chan! How did you convince Shu-chan to do this?" She asked in an eager puppy-like manner that never failed to get her singer girlfriend melting.

"She, she didn't though!" Shu-chan rebutted with another sputter. "I didn't need to be convinced to do anything. I want to d-do it too, you know?!"

Hehe~! A bullied Shu-chan was downright adorable!

"Yes, she did!" Arisa-chan enthusiastically agreed. "I didn't have to convince her to do anything~ Though, Naru-chan, we should start, correct?"

"Yeppers!"

"Y-Yes." Shu-chan agreed.

"Ara, we're dressed so perfectly for the occasion, if only we had our little Lop-chan to snuggle and spoil." Arisa-chan sighed wistfully.

Naru found herself nodding. Yikes, Arisa-chan's onee-san energy was super strong! "Yeah, we may only be able to talk about it right now, but why don't we try it out once I'm back~?"

"Oh? Will you model what you're wearing now for us when you get back? We'll have to inspect you after all, fufufu~" Arisa-chan giggled.

"Y-Yes, we'll have to unravel you l-like a present to inspect you properly." Shu-chan added in shyly.

"Oh~! Definitely~! But for now, let's do this!" Naru said expectantly. "Hmm… Where shall we start? Ah! Why don't we start by setting the scene?"

"Good idea! Let's imagine that we're in public." Arisa-chan chirped excitedly. "A park in the City maybe?"

"I-In p-public!?" Shu-chan stammered in shock.

"Oh! Daring~! I like it. Let's go with that!"

"Not really, Naru-chan. I mean we did make out while topless in the woods of District 21 during the Daihaseisai."

"Don't remind me, Arisa." Shu-chan whined. "You and your exhibitionist kink."

"Hush, Shu-chan." Naru scolded. "You're one to talk. Don't you walk around your apartment in nothing but your underwear all the time?"

"T-True…" Shu-chan admitted in clear embarrassment, only for her voice to trickle off into Arisa-chan giggling at her other half's expense. Laughter that Naru joined in on. "Let's just continue shall we? So we're in our underwear in a public park in the City. Now what?"

Smiling in amusement at how cute Shu-chan was being, Naru was almost tempted to continue teasing her but thought better of it. There were better things to do after all.

"So, since Arisa-chan set the scene, I get to make the first move then?"

"Sure."

"Y-Yes, go ahead."

Her smile growing wider at the license being given to her by her girlfriends, Naru continued. "Then~ I want to start by playing with your perfect breasts, Shu-chan. Whilst I do that, I hook my fingers under the edge of your bra and slowly, teasingly, trace my fingers up your side until I can pull down its straps."

"Oh~! So daring! You're taking off our bra as the first move?" Arisa-chan asked teasingly as there were the faint sounds of fabric ruffling. If this was a video call, Naru wouldn't be surprised to see Shu-chan, with Arisa-chan talking she imagined she left it to her other half to handle controlling their body, carrying out Naru's command. But even without that video link, just imagining her girlfriends doing it was enough to get the blonde's heart pumping. Heck! It was even more effective in doing so!

Like I said, imagination really does top reality. Naru thought as her breath hitched at the mental image her imagination conjured for her. All the while, Kurama giggled in amusement at her behavior.

"Yup. I'm impatient." Naru admitted in reply to Arisa-chan's question. "Now then, Shu-chan, Arisa-chan, what's your move?"

"I set the setting, so you get this one, Shu. What do you want to do?"

"I, um, unhook our bra and finish taking it off. Then I pull Naru-chan's face to one of our nipples and…"

Even as Naru was confidently having phone sex with her girlfriends back in Academy City, Mikoto felt a bundle of nervousness swell within her from simply sitting at the table of a cafe along Waikiki beach with a majestic ocean view. Why? Because sitting across from her was none other than Kamijou as they enjoyed a pair of sodas together. Though so far, they sat in naught but awkward silence.

It was only as the fizz slowly died down in the cans that Mikoto finally built up the courage to properly converse with her crush. Trying to play it cool, she tipped her can so that it tittered on one edge of the bottom and was kept from tipping over only by her holding it steady, Mikoto looked over at the idiot and said. "So, shouldn't you be helping Birdy girl with interrogating that Gremlin Magician we captured?"

"Ah, well, you see, Birdway-san said she could handle it. Besides, I don't really have the stomach for that kind of stuff." He said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his bare neck.

Stupid jerk not wearing a shirt while they were at the beach!

No, focus, Mikoto! Focus!

Determined not to let Kamijou realize how flustered he was able to make her, she did her best to give him an unimpressed look.

He hastily held up his hands. "H-Hey, just because I get involved in all these kinds of incidents, doesn't mean I'm up for torturing someone."

Mikoto could only arch a brow at that. "Who said anything about torturing the prisoner?"

Kamijou gave her his own unimpressed look. "You honestly expect that they won't resort to that? Especially after Saten-san couldn't get past her mental defenses with her emulated Mental Out?"

Shrugging, Mikoto took another sip of her drink which, thanks to the heat, was already somewhat lukewarm. "I guess it's likely, but it isn't inevitable."

Leaning over the table they shared, she frowned at him and continued. "What I meant was why aren't you watching over that crazy girl you're allied with?"

"Uh, Birdway is our ally, isn't she?"

"Psh, as if." Mikoto snorted and shook her head. Was he really that much of an idiot? "She's your ally and yours alone. No one else in the team trusts that lunatic. We're only here because we trust you. You might be an idealistic fool who keeps getting involved in issues you don't need to, but there's no doubt that you're a hero of the City and you have our respect for that. Enough that we signed up to come on a mission on just your say so. So we're your allies, not Birdway's. That's two very different things."

Kamijou's frown deepened at Mikoto's observation and nodded. "Okay, I get it. I'll do my best to keep an eye on her. But right now Accelerator-san and Hamazura-san are doing it and I really don't want to see torture so I'm here instead."

Mikoto nods. "You left Accelerator in charge? I guess that's fine then."

"Only Accelerator-san?" Kamijou said, tilting his head curiously. "You don't trust Hamazura-san?"

Mikoto shrugged and replied honestly. "Not as much Accelerator. He's Ruiko's boyfriend so we've worked with him lots of times. Hamazura-san, not so much."

The [Imagine Breaker] nodded in understanding.

"Why don't we change topics?" He requested. "I came down with you to grab a drink to relax, not to get reminded about the serious stuff we're all involved in."

"And what do you want to talk about?" Mikoto asked with a roll of her eyes.

Despite being the one to request the change in topic, Kamijou didn't seem to have a new subject in mind. Instead, he took a long moment to ponder the matter.

Mikoto was tempted to tease him about it. She would have done it if he was any of her friends. He wasn't, however. She wasn't anywhere close enough with him to try that. So instead, she just took a sip of her soda and waited patiently for Kamijou to come up with what he wanted to say.

"Hey, Misaka-san, is it just me or are there a lot of cameras here in Hawaii?" He asked at long last whilst pointing to a camera mounted on a pole a short distance away."I've been to a couple of places recently and I don't think I've seen as many of them around anyone else. It's like they're everywhere here. It's even worse than back in the City!"

"Yeah," Mikoto said as she nodded in agreement. "According to Ruiko, it's because of a trial internet service called Free Compound Eyes or the FCE that was provided by an American media conglomerate, the Blueshake Media Network, that is being rolled out across Hawaii. It allows for the easy setup of internet connected cameras and the construction of a secure camera network at a much more affordable price compared to purchasing an expensive plan with a security company. It supposedly applies to any Wi-Fi ready electronic equipment that has cameras already pre-installed. The service is hosted by the major search engines and is provided by the three major internet service providers in America. Thanks to that, everyone and their grandmother in Hawaii has signed up for the service."

Kamijou blinked in surprise. "Does Saten-san know everything?"

"It feels that way at times." Mikoto said with an amused giggle. "But no. When I asked Ruiko about it, she just pointed to an ad for the service on a nearby electronic billboard."

Kamijou blushed. "There were adverts for it? Really? I must've been blind then, 'cos I missed them."

Mikoto shrugged. "To be fair, I didn't spot the ads until Ruiko pointed them out to me either, so you're not alone there."

"I see." Kamijou nodded before he smiled nervously. "So you were blinded by the allure of being in the tropical paradise that's Hawaii too, Misaka-san?"

"I suppose so." Mikoto allowed with a laugh. "I mean, I know we're on a mission, but this is Hawaii! How could I not enjoy the sun, sand, and sea that's on offer?"

"I know, right?" Kamijou said with an empathic laugh. "And you're certainly dressed for the occasion, aren't you, eh, Misaka-san?"

Kamijou coupled the question by giving Misaka a once over, taking a moment to admire her current outfit that consisted of an oversized red and white striped top that she'd worn over a red swimsuit and a pair of espadrilles. A look that had the [Railgun] blushing hard.

"I, uh, was thinking of going for a swim later." Mikoto confessed.

Kamijou nodded. "I guessed as much. Like I said, you're dressed for the sun, sand and sea. You look good by the way, Misaka-san."

At his praise of her looks, Mikoto's blush threatened to go atomic. Fortunately for her, Kamijou didn't seem to notice and simply continued. "On another note, do you mind if I join you during your swim?"

Doing her best, and mostly succeeding, in preventing her blush from going thermonuclear, Mikoto nodded. "S-Sure. Though! Are you sure you're dressed for it? You're wearing trunks under those shorts of yours?"

"Yup." Kamijou said with a smile and a nod. "Like you, I want to enjoy as much of Hawaii as I can before this mission inevitably turns hectic."

Mikoto nodded nervously. "I guess we're on the same wavelength then. But the beach is kinda crowded."

They both glanced at the packed Waikiki beach they were sitting next to.

"We could use the hotel pool? It's a lot less packed." Kamijou suggested.

"Good idea." Mikoto praised. "Let's finish our drinks and head over to the hotel pool."

"Deal!" Kamijou said with a charming smile that had Mikoto's heart running wild.

Between that smile and the prospect of going swimming with her crush, Mikoto was on the verge of being overwhelmed! It was almost like she was on a date with her crush!

Desperately trying to distract from how excited that made her feel and embarrassing herself by coming across as a lovestruck schoolgirl, which she was, she played it cool by quickly gulping down her soda. Finishing the can in a matter of seconds.

"I'm done." She said, after tilting her head to the side and hiding a burp behind a hand. "You?"

Chuckling at her enthusiasm, Kamijou put his own can to his lips and downed it just like Mikoto had before he let out a small burp.

"I am now." Kamijou said with a smirk. "Let's go."

Smiling back, Mikoto nodded and stood, followed shortly after by Kamijou as they headed off towards the Halekulani's pool to enjoy their swim together.

"Argh! Onee-sama~! You could do so much better!" Kuroko groaned as she watched her beloved Onee-sama and Kamijou-san continue their little date by leaving the beachside cafe they had been sharing a drink at and were now heading back to the hotel via the video feed provided by one of Kazari's Fly drones that was providing surveillance over the members of their team and was being projected on one of the screens of the extensive array of such that they had set up.

"Is she always like that?" Kuroyoru-san said, looking at her with a look of amusement from where she was lounging on a sofa of the living room of the suite that she and Kazari shared, which had been converted into the operations room for their little mission.

"When it comes to Mikoto-san? Yes." Kazari answered without looking away from the computer terminal that she was working at as she tried to trace who had provided Gremlin with the THeMIS IIIs that they had used during the skirmish at New Honolulu International Airport in the hope that doing so would provide them with more intel on their enemies. Unfortunately, despite the [Goalkeeper]'s prowess, she was getting nowhere. It seemed that whoever had supplied the combat drones had done so without leaving any meaningful digital traces of the transactions.

Kazari's answer had Kuroyoru-san guffawing with laughter at Kuroko's expense, earning her a glare from the tawny haired Teleporter. "What's so funny?"

"You." The combat cyborg retorted with a smirk and without missing a beat.

Kuroko's hand twitched and began to drift towards the band of nails she wore strapped to her thigh under her skirt. However, before she could do anything, Kazari spoke up warningly.

"Kuroko-san!" The tech wizard said heatedly.

Letting out a growl, Kuroko relented and backed down.

"Whipped." Kuroyoru-san said with a smirk, prompting Kuroko to shoot her a glare and her hand began moving towards her nails again but again she was preempted from doing anything.

This time though, the intervention came from Kinuhata-san as she picked up a pillow from the sofa where she was seated across from Kuroyoru-san and threw it at her fellow Dark May survivor. The aforementioned cyborg was too busy smirking at Kuroko to notice and, much to the Teleporter's satisfaction, the pillow slammed into her face.

"Hey! What was that for, Onee-san?"

"First off, I'm not your sister." Kinuhata-san said, as she looked up from the book she was reading to shoot the cyborg a glare. "Secondly, stop being an ass and picking fights with our allies."

"If you're not my sister then why should I listen to you?"

"'Cos we're both Dark Siders and I'm offering you advice?"

"Well, I'm a veteran Dark Sider too so how does being one give you the right to tell me what to do?"

Ignoring how the two Dark May survivors started arguing about whether they were sisters, something which they seemed to do every other conversation they had, Kuroko turned to Kazari. "What are they doing here anyways?"

Before her Judgment partner could answer, Kinuhata-san, in a transparent bid to step away from her conversation with Kuroyoru-san, did so instead. "Because we didn't want to just stay in our rooms alone and had no one else to hang out with. Mugino went shopping and neither of us wanted to be her pack mule. Rikou and Hamazura are off doing Science knows what-"

"Probably having sex." Kuroyoru-san chimed in cheekily.

"Probably." Kinuhata-san said with a sigh even as she shot a glare at the cyborg.

"Wasn't Hamazura-san supposed to be helping Accelerator-san oversee Birdway-san as she interrogates the Gremlin Magician that we captured?" Kazari-san asked with a frown as she turned to look at the two Dark May survivors curiously.

"He was." Kuroyoru-san said with a giggle. "But he was dragged away by Takitsubo-san to-"

"Do couple things." Kinuhata-san cut the cyborg off, shooting Kuroyoru-san a warning look.

"Hey! I'm just calling it as it is." The cyborg said with a shrug. "Those two might start doing something else but they always end up having sex before long. The way they get up to it like rabbits, I wouldn't be surprised if they pop out a kid soon."

"Not likely. Hamazura and Rikou are both using protection. I asked." Kinuhata-san said with a shake of her head.

"Oh? Contraceptives are never perfect though. What do they plan to do if it fails? Are they keeping the baby?" Kuroyoru-san asked with open curiosity. Something that Kuroko shared.

What would a Dark Sider couple do if they conceived a baby together?

"They haven't decided yet, but Rikou did say she thinks she'd want to keep it. And with how whipped Hamazura is, she'll probably get her way." Kinuhata-san said with a sigh.

"Kuroko-san, could you please entertain them? I need to focus on my research. They're a bit of a distraction." Kazari said as she turned her attention back to her computers. "I'm sure I can get us some useful intel. I just need to dig a little deeper."

Kuroko frowned. Considering how little progress that Kazari was making, she doubted that even her partner would manage to find anything. That said, she would nevertheless do as her partner asked. After all, if anyone could achieve a miracle it would be the [Goalkeeper].

"Kinuhata-san, Kuroyoru-san, let us not distract Kazari. If you want company, let me provide it. Perhaps somewhere else?"

"Sure, I don't mind." The cyborg said with a shrug.

"Same." Kinuhata-san agreed.

"Wonderful." Kuroko said with a polite smile. "Let us go to one of your suites then. We can watch a movie or perhaps play some games on its entertainment system?"

Receiving nods from both Dark Siders, Kuroko led them out of the room to do just as she suggested whilst receiving a grateful smile from Kazari.

Whilst her friends and allies relaxed as they awaited the completion of Birdway's interrogation of the captured Gremlin Magician so they could plan their next move, Ruiko was doing the same whilst leaving Accel to keep watch over their tentative ally. For her, this meant spending time with Frenda-chan at one of the many private beaches along Oahu's coastline. One that she had booked for their exclusive use.

A trip that had her dressing in a white bikini set that she complimented with a turquoise sarong that she had wrapped around her waist. It was a relatively daring look but it paled in comparison to Frenda-chan's adventurous choice of swimsuit that consisted of a red cross wrap halter bikini top and matching bottom, which was cut in such a way that left little of her fantastic body to the imagination.

"It's such a shame that Accelerator-sama couldn't join us." Frenda-chan lamented as the two girls laid down a pair of towels on the beach's beautiful white sands as they prepared to lay down so they could sunbathe.

"I couldn't agree more." Ruiko said with a sigh. "But someone had to make sure to keep an eye on Birdway back at the hotel and I don't trust ITEM enough to leave it to them. And he volunteered."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Frenda-chan agreed as Ruiko laid down on her spread towel. "But if he was here, we could have settled things between us."

"I suppose." Ruiko said noncommittally. "I know we have to and I know what I want, but… I honestly do not know what to say."

"We'll figure it out. We're in this together." Frenda-chan said with a shrug without so much as doubting the nature of the relationship that they wanted. That of them being together whilst Ruiko continued to maintain her existing relationship with Accel.

"Yes, we are." Ruiko agreed, offering her prospective girlfriend a smile and saw that the blonde had knelt down beside her. A move that prompted her to look at the Norwegian questioningly.

"Someone has to help you put on your sunscreen." The blonde said with a smile as she picked up a bottle of the sunscreen they had brought with them. "So just lay down and let me spread it over your back, Ruiko-sama."

Offering the other girl a smile, Ruiko just smiled and nodded. Smiling back, Frenda-chan enthusiastically agreed and got to the task.

What followed was almost ten minutes of teasing touches as Frenda-chan playfully spread the sunscreen all over her back. She even slipped Ruiko's bottoms down and rubbed it nicely into her buttocks, massaging them quite nicely. Nicely enough that it got Ruiko all hot and bothered. And when the Norwegian got to her upper body? She 'innocently' brushed against Ruiko's breasts, and even not so innocently pinching her nipples at one point. That proved enough to push the [AIM Sovereign] beyond just hot and bothered and got her outright wet. Very wet.

"You are an evil tease, Frenda-chan." Ruiko said as she shot Frenda-chan with a slight glare as the other girl got done and shifting into a sitting position, she finished the job by applying the sunscreen to her front on her own.

"I am." The Level 0 agreed shamelessly. "But that just means you can return the favor, no?"

"So that's your game, eh?" Ruiko said as she gestured at the blonde to lay down on her front so she could do as she requested. "Well, I'm certainly happy to oblige."

"I'm at your mercy, Ruiko-sama." Frenda-chan said with a smile as Ruiko began applying sunscreen to the other girl's back.

Intent to return the favor for what Frenda-chan had done to her, she happily proceeded to repeat the same kind of teasing and not-so innocent touches as she spread the photoprotective topical cream over the blonde's back. Touches that started, in an inversion of what had been done to her, from the Norwegian's top and saw her happily, and quite shamelessly, squeezing Frenda-chan's ample breasts whilst she also pinched and twisted her nipples. Moves that had the Level 0 gasping with pleasure before she finally moved down to her lower body. There, in a bid to trump her prospective girlfriend, she pulled down Frenda-chan's bikini bottom and not just massaged the sunscreen into the other girl's shapely butt cheeks but let one of her hands drift under her body towards her sex. Something which had Frenda-chan's breath hitch in anticipation.

However, just before she was about to slip a finger past Frenda-chan's labia…

What am I doing!? Ruiko thought as she pulled her hand away as if she'd been burned.

"Ruiko-sama, why did you stop?" Frenda-chan asked, as she looked over her shoulder with a pout.

"I-I can't. I have Accel. We need-"

As if fate was reinforcing her realization, this was the exact moment that Ruiko's phone began to ring. An incoming call that her emulated Electromastery and her Caller ID informed her was from Accel.

"Ruiko-sama?" Frenda-chan asked, her look turning questioningly.

"Pull up your bottoms and finish applying your sunscreen, Frenda-chan." Ruiko said with a shake of her head to help her steady her mind. "I need to take this call."

Using some emulated Telekinesis, she pulled her phone out of the small sling bag she had brought along with her for the day. As it floated over, she used more of her emulated Electromastery to answer the incoming call and put it on speaker. "Hello, Accel. I'm with Frenda-chan, so I've put you on speaker so she can hear what you have to say. Why are you calling?"

"You're alone with the Norwegian?"

"Yeah," Ruiko said with a shrug as she plucked her phone out of the air and put it down on her towel. "Mikoto-senpai went off with Kamijou-san and I didn't want to spoil her time with her crush. For her part, Naru-chan wanted to call her girlfriends, probably to flirt, if not outright have phone sex. Kazari is trying to dig up what she can about THeMIS IIIs we fought in New Honolulu whilst Kuroko-san is playing her helper slash bodyguard like the good partner that she is. Who else was I supposed to hang out with?"

It wasn't even a lie. Ruiko mused.

"What about ITEM?"

"Yeah no, Accel-sama." Frenda-chan piped up. "Things between me and Mugino are still a little tense. So I'm keeping my distance."

"And between hanging out with ITEM or Frenda-chan, I'd of course choose Frenda-chan." Ruiko added. "You know I don't exactly get along with Mugino-san either."

Accel grunted acceptingly to that logic.

His easy acceptance spawned a small burst of guilt within Ruiko's heart. He trusted her so much but here she was going behind his back to spend time with Frenda-chan. But she quickly squashed the guilt.

It's fine. I just need to tell him what's going on soon. I'm sure he'll forgive me and accept what I have in mind. He has to…

Because if he didn't, she wouldn't know what she would do.

Now was not the time for her worries and doubts however, despite appearances, she was on a mission after all. Thus, she pushed them aside for now and focused on the here and now.

"So," Ruiko said in a serious tone, signaling to both Accel and Frenda-chan that she had her game face on. "Now that your jealous suspicions have been mollified, can you tell us why you are calling now?"

Snorting defensively at her little dig, he obliged and answered her question. "The interrogation of the Gremlin Magician is a bust. She injured herself seriously under the influence of the magic of some other Magician before the Mesugaki could even get started and is now too hurt for questioning."

Ruiko frowned. "That cannot be all. If it was, you could have waited to tell me that. We were already expecting Birdway's attempt to fail."

At her side, Frenda-chan nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I know. No, I'm calling because the Mesugaki said that the magic that the other Magician used was a form of mind control. They apparently used it to remotely activate a command in the one we captured. It was what caused her to injure herself. Considering how dangerous something like that can be, I decided to call you ASAP to let you know about it. Plus, the Mesugaki wants my help to try and get our hands on the mind controlling Magician."

"I see." Ruiko thought with a frown. Dealing with an opponent like that might prove tricky.

She wasn't worried that the enemy would use their mind control to manipulate members of their team. Most of them came from Academy City and with the [Queen] and her Mental Out being a major player within the City, everyone had effective counters against such mental manipulations. As for Birdway? With mind control magic being if not common then at least something that was known to exist and thus needed to be guarded against, a leader of a major magical cabal like Birdway had to have her own defenses.

What did worry her was what the Gremlin Magician could do with such a dangerous power. If they proved powerful enough to control large groups, and being a member of a cabal as dangerous as Gremlin, they likely would be, then they would have to be worried about anyone they passed by potentially being an enemy sleeper agent or the possibility that the enemy could turn the masses against them until the Magician was dealt with. Whilst neither was a wholly insurmountable threat, it would make fighting this Magician tough.

"So Birdway wants you to somehow help her capture this mind controlling Magician?"

"Yeah." Accel agreed. "Either the Magician or, more likely, another of their pawns. If we get lucky and score the Magician themselves, we can interrogate them instead or failing that and we snag one of the pawns instead, we at least get a chance to examine their mind control magic and work on a counter if need be."

Ruiko frowned and tapped her chin consideringly.

"That sounds like quite a reasonable request on Birdway's part." Frenda-chan chimed in. "We do need more intel on what Gremlin intends. At this point, outside of knowing they plan to carry out some kind of major operation here in Hawaii, we don't know anything else. And if we want to stop them, we need to know more. And even if we do just get one of the Magicians' pawns, working out a counter to the enemy's mind control is a good idea too."

"That's what the Mesugaki said too."

"Yes, her request does make sense." Ruiko concluded with a sigh. "I think you should do as Birdway asks, Accel."

"Gotcha. Then I'll go ask her for the details of what she wants me to do and brief you about it."

Ruiko rolled her eyes. "You don't need to check in with me on everything, Accel. I trust you to know what to do. Just call me back after you're done securing the target, either the Magician or one of their pawns, that Birdway wants you to snatch. We'll check in then."

"Alright. I'll leave you alone to relax with the Norwegian then."

"Thank you."

"No problem. I'll call you back later. Bye."

"Bye, Accelerator-sama."

"Bye, Accel." Ruiko said before she ended the call.

As she did, she turned towards Frenda-chan.

"So shall we get back to sunbathing?"

"Sure!" Frenda-chan said with a grin.

About an hour after calling Ruiko, Accel found himself waiting in the cafe in the lobby of some Honolulu hotel called Hotel Firefly at the Mesugaki's instruction. Apparently an important aide to the American President, Roseline Krackhart, and one of the country's high-ranking generals were running a secret op from out of one of the hotel's rooms upstairs. A woman that the Mesugaki felt that with the failure of her comrade's attack on them, the mind controlling Magician would likely target next. She was a softer target after all. Despite that, the woman had a privileged level of access to the American President and if the Magician could get her under their control, they could easily use her to do the same to her boss.

Just the thought of the American President becoming mind controlled by Gremlin sent a shiver down Accel's spine. The country was the world's hyperpower and not even Accel wanted to see what kinda bullshit it could pull out of its arsenal if it became their enemy. No country became what the United States was without amassing a crapton of power.

The Number 1 Esper was just suppressing yet another shiver at the prospect of fighting the Americans when the earpiece he was wearing crackled to life.

"Head to Hotel Firefly's front parking lot, Accelerator-san." The Mesugaki informed him. "Our target has arrived. Sadly it's only a pawn."

The pseudo Albino frowned in disappointment at the latter bit of news and standing, abandoning his half-finished coffee in the process, he began making his way to the hotel's front parking lot.

"Who am I looking for?" He asked as he walked.

"You can't miss him. It's the man in the gaudy custom-made suit that just illegally parked his car."

Stepping out of Hotel Firefly's lobby, Accel spotted the man the Magician described rushing out of his expensive car. The man really was impossible to miss. That gaudy burnt orange suit was an unmistakable eyesore that would allow him to be spotted from a mile away.

Well, that makes things easier for me. Accel thought with a shrug as he conjured a set of tendrils of air that he used to pull down a nearby billboard off its moorings and send it crashing down on the man. As he did, he carefully moderated the force of the hit to be just enough to knock the guy out but not enough to cause permanent harm.

And as the man collapsed under the billboard, Accel further tapped into his powers and used it to enhance himself so that he could race forward in a blur of superhuman speed, haul the man out from under the wrecked advertising structure and jump into the sewers via a manhole he had opened with his wind tendrils whilst he'd been moving to extricate the man. A feat he accomplished in only a few minutes and before any of the normies on the scene could even react.

And that's why they call me the Number 1. Accel thought to himself with a smirk as surrounded by a bubble of churning air that kept the muck of the sewers off him, he shot through its tunnels to deliver his prize to the Mesugaki so she could get what they wanted out of the man.

A few hours after the enemy's pawn was captured, Kazari and the rest of the team that she and her friends were a part of during their mission to Hawaii found themselves meeting in a cafe in the Coral Street Shopping Mall. Why were they meeting in public? Well, they reasoned that since their opponent was a Magician, they would likely want to avoid drawing attention to their activities. Even with the existence of magic having been revealed to the world thanks to World War 3, Magicians still shunned the limelight to avoid getting too much scrutiny. Besides, old habits die hard. Thus meeting in a mall should be safe. That it also let them enjoy delicious food and drink, including the ever necessary cake, as they talked was just a bonus.

"Alright. Now that all of us have our food. Let's begin." Leivinia Birdway-san said with a disapproving frown even as she rather hypocritically took a bite out of one of the cupcakes she had ordered. "So based on analyzing the mind control magic used on both the enemy Magician we captured and the poor pawn, a most unfortunate Mr. Edward Torke, I have been able to decipher the nature of the magic used by our opponent and through that their identity."

"You have?" Naru-san commented with a frown. "If her magic alone allowed you to figure out their identity then it must be super rare."

That makes sense. Kazari thought as she continued to nibble away at her slice of black forest cake. If their magic was common then it would be impossible to use it to identify them, wouldn't it?

Birdway-san nodded.

Mugino-san just huffed. "Cut to the chase, Birdway. Who the hell are we dealing with?"

Frowning at Mugino-san's brashness, Birdway-san nevertheless complied. "Our opponent appears to be a Russian Magician by the name of Saronia A. Irivika. She's from Yekaterinburg and was formerly a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. During World War III, the Church deployed her to Vladivostok to stop Academy City forces from landing-"

Naru-san snorted. "She probably had little to do during the war then. The City never bothered to make an amphibious landing, it primarily used supersonic planes to launch its invasion of Russia."

This observation prompted Kazari to nod, something that was emulated by a good number of the gathered City residents.

A fresh frown appeared on her face at the interruption, but despite her visible irritation, Birdway-san barreled on ahead before anyone could say anything else. "According to what I've been able to unearth, Irivika later disappeared in the confusion following the end of the war."

Hamazura-san nodded. "Okay, so we know who our enemy is. But what exactly can this Russian Magician do? She must be pretty powerful since she was expected to protect Vladivostok on her own. Or am I misunderstanding what you were saying about her and this Irivika is just a grunt Magician?"

Birdway-san began nodding in satisfaction, seemingly pleased by the notion that someone wanted to hear her wisdom.

She's really like a little kid in how she always wants attention. Kazari thought with amusement as she enjoyed a slice of cheesecake.

"Oh, she definitely wasn't a grunt." Birdway-san said with a shake of her head. "Whilst Irivika was not expected to hold Vladivostok entirely on her own, she was the lynchpin of its defense during World War III. As for her capabilities, I haven't deciphered every detail of Irivika's magic but what I have uncovered is that it revolves around her symbolically making herself the Leshy, a woodland spirit of Slavic mythology, of her surroundings. Using specific plants, some kind of Russian plant I'd imagine considering her origins and Russian conifers in particular for magical reasons that are too complicated to explain, as cores she is able to create 'enclaves' where she holds dominion and can work her magic. Within these enclaves, Irivika can take control of people's minds through suggestions that manipulate the group psychology of the 'residents' of said domains."

Hmm… If that's how the Magician's mind control works-

"That's good to hear. If the Magician's mind control is that indirect then our standard techniques to resist Mental Out will work against it." Mikoto-san said with a sigh of relief, completing Kazari's own thoughts on the matter.

"Yeah, it should." Hamazura-san agreed as he looked at everyone from the City. "Everyone has got their Anti-Mind Control bands?"

Kazari, Kuroko-san, Frenda-san, Kinuhata-san, Takitsubou-san, and Kuroyoru-san all nodded, with Kinuhata-san emphasizing the point by pulling the collar of the blouse she was wearing aside to reveal a small choker band around her neck.

"I didn't know we had something like that." Kamijou-san said, blinking in surprise.

Seriously!? Kazari couldn't help but think, so surprised that she actually paused in savoring the sundae that she was eating. Considering how many Incidents he's been involved in, how can he not know!? Did he never research the kind of gear the City can give him to help him when dealing with them?

Again, Mikoto-san voiced Kazari's thoughts. "Kamijou, are you a fool? Anti-Mind Control bands have been around for a while now. The Black Knights developed them and sells them openly. You can get a band from any electronic store in the City!"

"Oh. How does it work?" Birdway-san asked curiously.

Kazari frowned. Was it a good idea to tell her? They might be allies on this mission but they didn't actually trust her. Kazari and her friends fully believed that she would be their enemy in the future. So was it really right to share what was probably secret City technology with her?

"It's not all that complicated so there's no real reason to not tell you." Ruiko-san said with a shrug. "Senpai, the principles are more in your wheelhouse. Would you like to explain?"

Mikoto-san rolled her eyes but obliged. "They basically monitor the brainwaves of those who wear them and if they detect irregularities that match mind control, they'll deliver a shock that should disrupt said control or failing that can be used to remotely knock the wearer out. They aren't foolproof but they work well enough."

As Mikoto-san finished her explanation, a sudden round of applause erupted nearby and the group, some more lazily than others which included Kazari who had to pause in her snacking on some double chocolate chip cookies, turned to see that it came from a group of about a dozen children standing just a few feet beyond the cafe's seating area. And as they got their attention, the children spoke in English and with eerie unison.

"Being able to decipher the nature of my magic so easily? You truly are brilliant, Birdway. As is Academy City's ability to develop a counter against mind control."

As they finished speaking, the children all proceeded, much to the horror of the surrounding civilians in the mall, to pull out guns.

"This Magician's mind control is good. The kids are holding those guns like experts, something they probably couldn't manage without her manipulation." Frenda-san observed the children's gun handling critically.

Seeing this development, Kazari should have panicked. However, with Ruiko-san there, she didn't so much as flinch. Instead, completely confident in her best friend's ability to handle the situation, she just happily continued snacking on her cookies.

A faith that was substantiated when before the children could pull the triggers on their weapons, they all summarily collapsed.

"Disarm them please." Ruiko-san said with an unhurried yet commanding tone. Truly her best friend was a true ojou-sama.

"Leave that to me." Mikoto-san said as she used her Elecromastery to pull the guns from the childrens' unresisting hands and began piling them next to Kazari's partner. "Kuroko, get rid of those guns, would you?"

"Sure, Onee-sama." Kuroko-san said with a nod as she began reaching down and teleporting the weapons away, presumably to somewhere where they could not be readily recovered.

"Rui-chan, just to check. How did you knock the kids out?"

"Mental Out. What else? It's the same thing I used to get the civilians to evacuate so they won't get caught in the crossfire." Ruiko-san said with a shrug as she gestured at how everyone around them was making their way in an orderly manner towards the nearest exits. She had barely finished doing so when a bullet deflected off Accelerator-san's Redirection barrier but ignoring it with a poise befitting the ojou-sama that she was, she turned to the leader of ITEM.

"Hamazura-san, could you please take your team and hunt down the sniper? We'll handle things here."

"What!? How dare you ask my team to do anything without consulting me?" Mugino-san protested with a harsh glare. "You think you can just order us around, huh!? Well, you can take that attitude and sho-"

"Mugino, enough!" Hamazura-san barked as he cut his team's Level 5 off before turning to nod at Ruiko whilst another bullet was deflected off Accelerator-san's Redirection barrier. "Leave the sniper to us."

"Tsk. The shooter's still at it." Accelerator-san observed irritably.

"Well, they're determined at least." Naru-san agreed with a chuckle.

"I'll go with you." Birdway-san as she stood alongside ITEM and Kuroyoru-san. "Considering you aren't familiar with magic at all, you might need a Magician's help."

"Can you just go already?" Mikoto-san said in exasperation.

"Now the [Railgun] is ordering us around too?" Mugino-san said with a growl even as she nevertheless followed the rest of ITEM, Kuroyoru-san, and Birdway-san as they took their leave to go take out the sniper that was still shooting at them every so often.

"I'll go with them too!" Kamijou-san said with a frown as he stood. "You know, to keep an eye on Birdway-san."

Mikoto-san smiled slightly at this for some reason and nodded.

Offering the Number 5 a smile in return, the [Imagine Breaker] turned and raced after the others.

Watching him go, something that Ruiko-san had said tickled Kazari's curiosity and prompted her to turn to her best friend. "What do you mean by how we need to 'handle things here', Ruiko-san?"

"See for yourself, Kazari-chan." Naru-san answered instead as she pointed at a flower shop at the far end of the wing of the mall they were currently in where a number of ambulatory plant monsters were stumbling, crawling and/or prowling out of the store. "It seems that this Irivika Magician can do more with her Leshy-based magic than just mind control other people like Birdway-san said."

"Well, to be fair to Birdway-san, she did say that she hadn't deciphered the full extent of our enemy's magic." Mikoto-san reminded her.

"Can you guys shut it for now?" Accelerator-san said with exasperation as he used conjured wind tendrils to gently pull the knocked out kids that Irivika had used as pawns to safety. "Could you focus on dealing with the enemy in front of us instead?"

"Yes, please." Ruiko-san agreed as Kazari, Kuroko-san, and Frenda-san stood.

""Sorry."" Naru-san and Mikoto-san chorused.

"Let's engage in some deforestation." Frenda-san cheered enthusiastically as she pulled out a perfume bottle, of all things, from a hip pouch she was wearing.

"That's a lot of monsters." Ruiko-san said airily, as if there wasn't a horde of plant monsters advancing towards them and she took a final sip of the tea she was drinking before standing.

Seriously! Can't she take this more seriously!? Kuroko thought with exasperation as she began making preparations for the fight ahead.

This took the form of her hastily popping open the briefcase she had brought with her, pulling out the long bandoliers full of her Nails within, and proceeding to strap them over her chest. At the same time, Kazari had opened up the backpack she'd brought with her and with rapid taps to her tablet, commanded the Flies within the bag to begin zooming out and deploy themselves for the fight ahead. Frenda-san was likewise making her own preparations as she attached a nozzle to the large perfume bottle she had pulled out and with a flick of a switch, turned on a small pilot light at the end of said nozzle, thereby transforming the perfume bottle into a flamethrower.

And how did the remaining Level 5s besides Ruiko-san that shared their table react? Perhaps expectedly, Accelerator emulated his girlfriend's nonchalance as he took one last gulp from his cup of coffee before standing. Naru-san was more prompt in leaping to her feet but instead of immediately jumping into the fight, she instead began doing a series of stretches. Only Onee-sama seemed to show any urgency as she not only leapt to her feet but also simultaneously shot off a bolt of lightning at the incoming floral horde.

"They seemed to be grouped up in types." Naru-san observed as she finished one last set of stretches. "Shall we split up as we deal with them?"

"Sure, Usagi." Accelerator agreed. "I'll take that big shambling humanoid."

"Go ahead." Naru-san said with a shrug. "I'll take care of those mushroom men then. Everyone else?"

"I guess I'll take that anemone thing." Mikoto-san said after surveying the incoming horde. "Though isn't it a little too convenient that they're all split up into different types like that?"

"Not really, Senpai. I just reviewed the security footage of the store they came from and they're like that simply because they were created out of different types of plants and said original plants were on sale at different parts of the store, so as they were transformed into these things and started marching towards us, they naturally started clumping up according to their different types." Ruiko-san explained as she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "As for my choice of opponents, I will take those woody humanoids."

"That leaves it to me, Kazari-san and Kuroko-san to deal with those dog sized rose monsters?" Frenda-san observed as she gestured as a pack of the aforementioned creatures. They were monsters with a central mass crowned by a giant rose with a tiny set of jaws inside the large red flower that was in turn surrounded by numerous large leaves and had a glowing yellowish-red sac at its base with the rest of its body consisting mostly of long prehensile vines that the floral abominations used to move around. "You okay with that, Kazari-san, Kuroko-san?"

"Sounds good to me." Kuroko agreed easily enough as she ran her hands over a pair of her Explosive Nails, using the brief touch to teleport her weapons into the body of one of the rose monsters and watched with satisfaction as her experimental opening attack proved deadly as it reduced the abomination to a smoking, pulpy mess.

"I'm okay with that." Kazari replied as well whilst she simultaneously ordered her Flies to blitz around another rose monster like a swarm of their namesake insects. Though they proved far more deadly to the plant than any actual fly could ever be as they opened fire on it with their lasers. The weapons of Kazari's Flies were relatively weak, primarily designed for cutting through the chassis of mechanical targets to expose their internal circuitry so that the drone could then connect to it and allow the [Goalkeeper] to hack into its systems. However, they nevertheless proved more than deadly enough to slice the rose monster to smoldering pieces in mere seconds.

"My, my, looks like our opponents are pretty damned fragile." Frenda-san noted as she pulled out a Handheld Anti-Tank Missile Warhead from under her skirt.

How!? There's no way that fits under her skirt! Kuroko couldn't help but think as she watched the Norwegian fire off the missile as long and broad as the other girl's forearm at the enemy's ranks that ended up blasting a trio of the rose monsters apart.

"Yes, they do." Ruiko-san agreed with a nod. "I think you'll be fine handling them but if you run into trouble, let us know alright?"

"We will, Ruiko-sama." Frenda-san assured her before gesturing at the other Level 5s who had all already moved off to deal with their selected monsters. "Now go handle the monsters you picked out and leave these rose things to us."

"Yeah, Ruiko-san, go." Kazari agreed as she scorched another rose abomination with her Flies' lasers. "We can take care of ourselves."

"Okay. I know when I'm not wanted." The [AIM Sovereign] said with a laugh. "I'll go engage in the deforestation of some wood men now."

As Frenda-san and Kazari giggled at her joke and Kuroko herself snorted in amusement, the Number 3 finally teleported away to wreak havoc on her chosen foes. As for Kuroko and her own little makeshift team, they were continuing to do the same with their own.

Kazari played her part in these efforts by using her Flies to chop down any rose monsters that got within range of her Flies' lasers. At the same time, Kuroko used her Esper ability to teleport a mix of her Explosive and Cryo Nails into their bodies, destroying them with fire and ice. The plants proved themselves as vulnerable to being turned into frozen statues as they had being blown apart. Though as effective as Kuroko's Explosive Nails were at the latter effect, Frenda-san and her Handheld Anti-Tank Missile Warheads did more killing by that method than Kuroko could manage.

Though that came at a cost.

"Tsk. I'm out of missiles." The blonde complained as she stepped in front of Kuroko and Kazari after firing off her fifth missile and raised the perfume bottle flamethrower she'd been holding in her off hand till now. Though considering a flamethrower was a relatively close range weapon, perhaps it was for the best.

Though the fact that she's using it now is a little worrying. Kuroko mused as she used her Nails to take out another quartet of their floral adversaries. They're getting a little too close.

If Frenda-san agreed, she didn't show it. Instead, with a bloodthirsty grin, she casually chirped. "Well, I guess it's time for a good ol' fashioned forest fire then."

At that, she unleashed a surprisingly powerful tongue of flame from the tiny bottle that was her weapon. A blast of flame that consumed a whole dozen and a half of the rose monsters and reduced them to ash. Annoyingly, there were still plenty more of the damned things.

The Magician must have transformed every flower in that shop's inventory into one of these things. Kuroko thought with a frown as she used her Nails to take out a trio of the flower monsters who tried to skirt around the cone of flames Frenda-san had unleashed from the right whilst Kazari did the same for the couple that tried the same from the left.

"Argh! How many more of these damned things are there?" The blonde said with a frown. "I'm almost out of Ignis Crepitus!"

"Then fall back, Frenda-san." Kazari told her. "We'll cover you."

"Thanks. But I can manage for now." The Norwegian returned as she let up on her flamethrower, presumably what she meant by her Ignis Crepitus, and tossed the by now mostly empty translucent bottle at the incoming floral hordes alongside a handful of the pyramid shaped micro explosives she liked to use. The blasts of the latter tore at least five flowery crimes against nature to pieces but more importantly said explosions also set off the contents of the bottle of Ignis Crepitus, leading to a detonation that took out two dozen more!

This effectively cleared the entire immediate area around the Norwegian of enemies. Something that would have allowed her to retreat should she choose to do so. She did not however retreat. Quite the opposite in fact. Drawing a pistol from under her skirt, which she quickly swapped the magazine of, and fishing out more pyramidal explosives from her hip pouch, she instead began advancing towards the mob of flower monsters!

Kuroko would have been worried about her but with expert motions she waded into the ranks of the floral tide and began reaping a deadly toll on their numbers. Her pistol must have been loaded with Flare Bullets she'd purchased from the City's black market because every shot she scored on the plant monsters, which was every one she took, set them ablaze from within. She accompanied this by tossing explosives like confetti into their midst, not just her pyramidal explosives but also rolls of some kind of exploding tape that detonated with the force of a grenade as well.

"Wow." Kazari said, giving voice to Kuroko's own thoughts as they watched the veteran Dark Sider in her element. "I knew Frenda-san was a good fighter but-"

"You never imagined she was this good did you?" Kuroko said, finishing the thought.

"No. No, I didn't." Kazari agreed.

"Hey! Kazari-san, Kuroko-san, a little support here!" Frenda-san called out from amidst the hostile green tide. "My weapon supply isn't unlimited you know! I'll need help cleaning these guys up! I really should've brought my backpack!"

"Why didn't you?" Kuroko asked as she teleported beside the Norwegian and, grabbing her shoulder lightly, teleported them back to the relative safety of the cafe where Kazari was and thus evading the leaping flower monster that had been just about to jump onto the blonde's face.

"Thanks for the save. I probably didn't need it. I saw it coming and was about to duck under it but thanks anyways, Shirai-san." Frenda-san said as she shot the monster that Kuroko had just helped her evade, setting it ablaze with a Flare Bullet. "As for why I didn't bring my backpack, I wasn't expecting a fight so I left it back at the hotel. I only brought my standard load."

"Your 'standard load' seems to include a lot of firepower, Frenda-san." Kazari pointed out as she had her Flies rush in with their lasers blazing to prevent any of the flower creatures pressing the advantage they'd gained by Kuroko pulling the blonde back from the frontlines.

The aforementioned blonde just shrugged. "A girl needs to be prepared to defend herself. Especially a girl who works on the Dark Side."

Kuroko couldn't stop herself from making a sound of distaste at the mention of the Dark Side but Kazari was a lot more tactful and just nodded. "It's always a good idea to be prepared."

"Glad you agree, Kazari-san." Frenda-san said with a smile as she reloaded her magazine. "But enough chit chat. There's more of those twisted flower monsters to kill. So let's get back to it."

Kurko nodded. "Indeed. Let's finish them off before they get the chance to wander off and hurt a civilian."

With that resolve in mind, Kuroko sent a dozen of her Nails into just as many of the floral creatures, killing them in explosions or by freezing them solid. A course of action that was soon followed up by Frenda-san once more charging ahead with pistol in one hand and explosives in another. All whilst Kazari supported them with her Flies.

Thus did the weeding of the threat of the rose monsters continue.

Accelerator just looked up at the elephant sized shambling mound of vegetation with a vaguely humanoid shape that he'd chosen for his opponent and shook his head in distaste. The faceless twisted mass of mushrooms, vines, roots and other plant and fungal material that barely managed to maintain a vaguely humanoid appearance was a damned ugly thing.

"Oi, oi, you're seriously underestimating me if this tripe is all you can throw at me, you know that right, Magician?" He told the Magician animating the creature before him with some annoyance.

With an application of his Esper powers, he shifted the vectors and through it the oxygen in the air and began to concentrate it around the monster.

It's a plant, right? And plants are weak to fire, aren't they?

It was with this logic in mind that with a twist of a few select vectors, he proceeded to ignite the oxygen rich air with a friction spark, causing the hulking plant beast to be caught in a conflagration of roiling flames.

"Just like Pokemon." He said with a smirk as he admired the literal tornado of fire that he had conjured which had engulfed the now screeching plant monster.

It's over. Accelerator thought with a frown. This is such a disappointment.

His sense of victory however was short lived as the damn thing lumbered out of the flames, its burning outer husk peeling away, showing not blackened greenery, but bright and vibrant vegetation underneath.

"You gotta be… are you a plant or a snake? Make up your damn mind!" Accelerator glowered in annoyance as the affront to nature charged towards him.

In what to an outsider appeared to be a fit of pique, he kicked a nearby discarded ladies' handbag - which probably belonged to one of the civilians that Ruiko had used Mental Out to send running for their own safety - at the shambling mound. Courtesy of his powers, the makeshift projectile hit the creature with enough force to blow a wide gaping hole right through its center mass. Damage that was sufficient to get the abomination to falter for a moment before vegetation moved to fill up the wound. Though its overall mass did go down a bit from having to do so

I'm going to have to just erase this whole thing, huh? The pseudo albino thought with annoyance as he rolled his neck.

As it rushed him, he hobbled forward himself, a hand ready to lash out.

Accompanied by a quick burst of computations, he casually used some emulated Aero Hand to fly around the creature's clumsy but powerful swing that it attempted to use to swat him and close the remaining distance to put a hand against its body.

The moment he did, the creature's body bubbled as the powerful shockwave that he'd used his powers to create using the kinetic energy of his soft touch of its side as a seed ripped through its mass. Just to be sure that the things stayed dead, Accelerator had taken the further precaution of using his powers to make sure that the shockwave shot through every little cell that made up the creature. Thus as it burst apart into piles of mulch, he was fairly confident that it would not be able to reform even if it was capable of such a feat.

Best to be doubly sure though. For all I know, this Leshy thing doesn't just give this Magician plant powers but Necromancy too. He thought as snapping his fingers, he provided the friction he needed to serve as a seed to conjure a fresh firestorm. A blaze that he proceeded to use to immolate the monster's remains.

"Well that was a waste of my time." He grumbled as he suppressed his conjured flames a moment later and found naught but ashes.

"Well, there's no helping it that my enemy is just too weak for their own good." He mulled to himself. "I guess I'm done early. I might as well go help someone else. Hmm… I wonder if Ruiko needs help."

With that thought in mind, he crouched down before taking a power assisted leap that cracked the ground beneath him as he got airborne.

"To be honest, you guys look pretty cool." Naru said as she teleported in front of the humanoid mushroom creatures that she'd chosen to confront. "It's too bad that I've got to kill you all."

If the fungal men could understand her, they didn't deign to answer her. Instead they just lifted their arms and began to shoot streams of spores at Naru. Spores that the Number 2 would place good money on being toxic.

Yeah, no way am I letting that touch me. Naru thought as channeling her chakra, she took a deep breath before exhaling and using the action to unleash her shaped chakra as a wall of flames ahead of her. A flaming barrier that easily burned away the streams of spores shot her way.

Yes, burn it! Burn it all! Kurama ranted from the depths of her soul. Burn every last plant! They deserve to be wiped from existence!

Uh, Kurama, you do realize that would cause a total ecological collapse, right? Naru asked her partner as she casually began spitting fireballs at the mushroom men, setting them alight one by one.

I don't care! Plants are evil! They all deserve to burn!

Kurama, partner, best buddy, anything you want to tell me? Naru asked, legitimately a little worried about her furry partner. His reaction was super out of character for the fox.

Sure, she knew that plants or plant adjacent things, especially if they were unnatural like these fungal creatures she was fighting, could set him off. But she had never seen him react this badly.

Long story short? I was once part of a giant magic plant known as the Juubi that was used to drain worlds of its chakra to feed its master. Kurama said with an angry growl even as Naru switched from fireballs to breathing a stream of fire at the mushroom men. I literally wasn't alive until my father extracted the chakra from that accursed thing and made me and my siblings out it.

Uh. That doesn't exactly explain why you hate unnatural plants. Just how you were born. Naru pointed out. At the same time, with plenty of fire already available for her to play with, she stopped conjuring more of it and instead switched to manipulating the wind to fan it instead. She thus conjured a gust of wind that at once fed the flames and directed it towards the surviving mushroom men. Unless you, um, don't like how you were born.

No, of course not. Kurama refuted with a snort. I was just setting the context. The real reason I hate plants is because my crazy grandmother is obsessed with rejuvenating her little world devouring plant and that requires it to consume me. You can imagine how averse I am to that idea.

Yeah, I can. Naru agreed as just to add insult to injury for the mushroom men, she pulled earthen walls out of the ground with her chakra that boxed them in with the enhanced flames whilst simultaneously creating an effect not dissimilar to the inside of an oven thus causing the intensity of the inferno consuming them to step up a notch. Did she ever, you know, try that? Have her pet monster plant try to eat you?

Once. Kurama said with a shiver.

When? Naru asked excitedly. Her partner could be so cagey at times, especially about his past, so hearing him tell her about it was just fascinating!

When you were a baby. My grandmother came to this world from our homeworld and brought a cutting of her plant with her. She never got a chance to actually use it, but just being in its presence for the precious few seconds before your handlers got you out of there… Kurama shivered fearfully. I never want to feel that again.

Wait! Your grandmother is the crazy white skinned, three eyed alien lady that tried to kill me as a kid and whose corpse Crowley keeps in that sick museum of his?

Also kind of your ancestor too, but yes. Not that she'd ever acknowledge either relationship.

Geez, no wonder you didn't like it when I went to those botany lessons.

Can we just not go there? Kurama said with another shiver.

No way am I letting him live this down. But I guess since he shared his past with me just now, he deserves a reprieve for now. Naru thought to herself. I'll just have to tease him more later about it.

He probably heard that but he didn't comment. Instead, he just changed the subject.

Looks like your mushrooms are done cooking.

Turning her attention to the dying flames of the makeshift oven she'd created to incinerate the mushroom men, Naru was pleased to see that her partner was right. Her opponents had been reduced to nothing but charred remains.

Hmm… I wonder if they taste good. She thought teasingly with some mild hunger.

Don't even think about it!

"Is this really all you can do?" Mikoto asked the green plant creature the size of a bear which she had chosen to deal with. It was a twisted mockery of a plant with an anemone-like head, a large mouth lined with sharp teeth, and an abundance of tentacles that it used as arms and to drag its bulk across the ground. And even as she spoke, she created vibrating blades out of iron sand and used them to cut the vines that the monster used to lash out at her like whips.

The monster couldn't understand her of course. Probably. You never knew with magic. But just as she finished speaking, it coiled its vines under itself like springs and launched itself at Mikoto.

Huh? Can it actually understand me? Mikoto mused curiously as she used some careful application of electromagnetism to perform a Olympics worthy leap to avoid the plant monster as it crashed into the ground, its giant maw first. A fanged mouth that snapped shut around the spot where Mikoto had been standing just a few seconds ago and bit a big chunk out of the floor. Nah! It's probably just changing tactics because its earlier attacks were failing. Either that or the Magician that created it heard me somehow and is the one who ordered it to change it up in response to what I said.

"So you can jump? That's honestly not much of an improvement, you know that, right?" The [Railgun] told the monster with a roll of her eyes as she sent a bolt of lightning at it.

The bolt struck home and scorched it quite badly, but sadly was not enough to take it down. In fact, all it did was make it angry. At least that's the impression that Mikoto got from the screech it made and the way its vines lashed out all around it chaotically like it was having a tantrum. Oh! And it was regenerating. The burn marks created by her lightning along its vines were slowly shrinking and being replaced by fresh, unblighted green flesh. It happened slow enough that it would have been missed by most people but Mikoto spared regularly with Naru and was thus very familiar with regenerators and so was more than able to see the signs.

"Ugh! I hate fighting regenerators!" Mikoto said with a frown. Spars with Naru were just so annoying because of that particular power of her kohai's. Still at least she was fun to banter with! "Just die already!"

Gathering a vast amount of iron sand together around her monstrous opponent, she proceeded to shape it into a giant tornado and proceeded to use it to blend the botanical travesty into compost.

"And that's th- Oh! You've got to be kidding me!" Mikoto said with a groan as she saw the shredded remains of the monster she'd just killed begin to bubble and reshape themselves into new, smaller versions of their parent monster. "This is why I hate fighting regenerators!"

Despite her complaints though, the Number 5 nevertheless threw herself back into the fight. She had told her friends that she would deal with this monster and she would damned well live up to that promise!

Whilst the rest of their extended team dealt with the Gremlin Magician's monsters, Shiage and his team chased after the sniper from earlier alongside Kuroyoru-san, Birdway-san and Kamijou. An effort made possible by Rikou, who wasn't just an excellent tracker because of her Esper ability. At least not any more. Ever since they got back from Russia, she had been working hard to expand her abilities and with liberal help from Indian Poker cards she had become something of an expert mundane tracker too. Among other things too. It was thanks to her skill, that they caught up to the perpetrator in minutes.

"Don't let him get away!" Birdway-san shouted unnecessarily as she pointed urgently at their target. Everyone on their side knew the need to prevent the sniper from escaping.

All the Magician's stating of the obvious achieved was to let the sniper know that he was about to be cornered.

Shit! Shiage cursed as reacting to Birdway-san's shout, the large black man panicked and spun around from where he was almost out of the mall's main entrance, leveled the AR-15 he was armed with at Shiage and his team and began laying down withering fire that forced him and Rikou into cover behind a pillar whilst Kuroyoru-san dove into a nearby store. Meanwhile Mugino and Kinuhata ignored the gunfire and kept advancing, the former shielding herself with a barrier of plasma that disintegrated any bullets shot her way that she kept between her and the gunman and the latter thanks to the insane defensive power of her Offense Armor.

Shit! Where's Birdway-san and Kamijou!?

Scanning the area, Shiage spotted the Magician had stopped heedless of the gunfire and was looking at the gunman curiously. Her curiosity cost her as she was soon hit several times but instead of getting killed, she just winced.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" The Magician loudly complained as she was belatedly pulled behind a pillar for cover by Kamijou, who was careful to not touch her with his right hand as he did so. "The Hanged Man might redirect the piercing damage, but the damned kinetic power behind a bullet is still going to leave a bruise! I'm going to have to fix that somehow when I prepare the new one to replace the one that just got destroyed."

What in Science is she talking about? Shiage thought as he shot Rikou a curious look even as Kamijou started scolding her for freezing up out in the open and letting herself get shot regardless of whatever magical protection she might have.

His girlfriend just shrugged. "Magic is weird."

Shiage just nodded. What Rikou said was undeniable. To take a page from Kinuhata's book, magic was super weird.

Speaking of his brown haired teammate, a quick glance at her showed that she had almost made it to the sniper that was their target. Something that had caused the man to be on the verge of a total meltdown and prompted him to shift his gun towards her whilst firing it at full auto.

Idiot. Shiage thought with a shake of his head. Does he think he's got infinite ammo!?

Shiage had just finished that thought when, as if in an act of fate, the man's gun clicked empty. To his credit, even in his panic, the gunman did not just stand there uselessly pulling the trigger on a gun without any bullets left. Instead, he tossed the empty rifle aside and pulled out a pistol that he proceeded to put to his head.

"You're not taking me alive!" The man shouted. "She said she would kill my kids if you do and I can't let that happen!"

"Stop him!" Birdway-san shouted. "He isn't mind controlled! He might be a willing enemy operative! We can get intel from interrogating him!"

"Yeah! Yeah! We get it!" Kinuhata shouted back as she charged forward in a burst of speed, tackled the man before he could pull the trigger and swiftly wrestled the gun from his hand before tossing it behind her. "Mugino!"

At the prompt, the [Meltdowner] responded by causally vaporizing the gun with a low yield Particle-Function Waveform High Speed Cannon. And as she did, Kinuhata pulled out a heavy duty syringe and stabbed it into the gunman's neck, sending a dose of tranquiliser into his bloodstream and knocking him out.

"Okay, now what?" Kuroyoru-san asked as she stepped out of the store where she'd been taking cover.

A grumpy looking Birdway-san, who was rubbing at the spots where she'd been shot gingerly as she stepped out of her own cover alongside Kamijou, answered the cyborg's question. "Now we wait for the others to finish dealing with Irivika's plant monsters before we counterattack."

"Counterattack? That sounds right up my alley." Mugino said with a vicious smile. "I like how you think."

"Were you really so bored that you had to join me after you dealt with your share of the monsters?" Ruiko asked her boyfriend as she tracked a wide breadth particle beam that she had conjured with her emulated Synchrotron ability over a dozen of the humanoid plant monsters that were those among the Magician's floral horde that she had chosen to deal with. Humanoids that had heavy and muscular builds, covered in thick bark with a crown of stubby branches on the head, a featureless face, hands made out gnarled branches and feet formed from masses of black roots.

"Would you rather I just stand around and do nothing after I got done?" Accel said with a shrug as he finished off the last of the wooden humanoids by conjuring a barrage of lances of twisting air that he'd set on fire.

"Hmm… Fair enough." Ruiko said with a nod before turning to the side. "Just in time."

"Looks like." Accel agreed as they both saw Kamijou-san, ITEM, Kuroyoru-san, and Birdway-san headed their way whilst dragging a large black man, the sniper who had been shooting at them earlier, along with them. "You set this up, Ruiko?"

"No." Ruiko shook her head. "Coincidences do happen sometimes. Though, in this case it was just Birdway deciding to stay back until we got done."

"Well, I couldn't risk our prisoner getting caught in the crossfire, could I?" The blonde Magician retorted airily.

Ruiko rolled her eyes. "Fair enough. If you're bringing him to me, you want me to do something to him, correct?"

Birdway-san nodded. "Could you read his mind and see why he is working with Gremlin?"

"He wasn't mind controlled?" Ruiko asked with an arched eyebrow.

"No, he wasn't." Birdway-san confirmed.

"I see. I'll see what I can find in his mind." Ruiko replied with a frown as she began to use her emulated Mental Out to reach into the gunman's mind. Only to have her frown deepen at what she found.

"Saten-sama, what's wrong?" Frenda-chan asked as she and the others began gathering back together, having also finished dealing with their share of the horde of floral abominations.

"It seems that this man attacked us because Irivika is holding his son and daughter hostage and threatened to kill them if he didn't do as she asked." Ruiko said as she gestured at the unconscious man.

As if on cue, - And since she was fairly sure the Magician was observing them somehow, it likely was - three men and one woman suddenly rushed out of a nearby shop whilst firing wildly at them with the Uzi machine pistols they were armed with. Not that they were much of a threat. Even as the bullets were safely deflected away by Accel's Redirection, Ruiko promptly reached out towards their attackers' minds with her emulated Mental Out and knocked them out. The whole thing hadn't lasted more than ten seconds.

"And they are in much the same position." Ruiko said, gesturing towards the newly knocked out attackers.

Suddenly, Birdway-san let out a triumphant cry. Turning towards her, Ruiko saw the Magician pointing at a nearby camera.

"That!" The leader of Dawn-colored Sunlight said excitedly. "That's how the enemy is monitoring us."

I suppose that would make sense… Ruiko thought as she began to consider the possibility. Yes. Yes, everything makes sense. I can't be 100% sure but there's a very high probability that she's right.

Ruiko turned to Mikoto-senpai, who just frowned and asked her, "It's the FCE, isn't it?"

Ruiko nodded. "Most likely. There's an 89% probability that it is how the enemy is surveilling our movements."

Sighing, Senpai used her Electromastery to short out the local internet network, both wireless and wired, thus shutting down the FCE. And the moment she did, Birdway-san pulled out a magical device reminiscent of a walkie talkie and began barking orders, presumably to her subordinates, to seal off the mall's exits.

"Um, Birdway-san, why are you doing that?" Kamijou-san asked, looking confused.

Naru-chan just sighed and stepped up to answer on the Magician's behalf. "Creating and, more importantly, controlling things like those plant monsters earlier isn't something most Magicians can do from a distance. Which means Irivika is likely still in the mall."

Birdway-san smirked and added. "I'm sure she is. And with the mall sealed, now it's only a matter of hunting her down."

This prompted Mugino to smirk as well. "Oh ho! I'm liking you more and more, Magician girl."

Sitting in the cafe of the bookstore in the Coral Street Shopping Mall where she was hiding, the girl with shoulder length blonde hair; blue eyes; and dressed in striking green clothes that consisted of a turtleneck, miniskirt, and a green hairband seemingly made out of tree branches, and which was complemented by thigh high brown boots and a satchel, that was named Saronia A. Irivika fought down a shiver as she tried one last time to get in touch with her allies. Unfortunately, all she heard over the fancy cell phone that her allies had provided her was static.

So much for its undisruptable connection. Irivika thought as she discarded the deadweight that the phone had become. I suppose I will have to make my own escape without my allies' help.

It wouldn't be easy. Not against that monster Leivinia Birdway and her ability to readily decipher the nature of her magic and seemingly easily worm her way out of even the carefully thought out attack plan that she had formulated. Especially not when she was supported by Kamijou Touma, no less than five of Academy City's Level 5s and their teams. But she would manage it. Somehow.

She had to. For Mother Russia! If she wanted to force Academy City and its allies to make reparations to the Russian Federation for all the devastation that they had caused her beloved homeland during World War 3, she needed to escape. She would not allow herself to be captured until her mission to get Mother Russia her just dues was accomplished! Even if that meant working with Gremlin to accomplish whatever nebulous plans they might have and doing things which fools who did not understand the meaning of doing what needed to be done would call cruel.

To that end, she turned to the throng of three dozen adorable children, all under the age of ten, she had enthralled in front of her, and with a smile Irivika addressed them. "Hello my little darlings."

She waited for them to return her greeting before in a voice that was filled with faux cheer, she spoke to them in their native English tongue. "Now, do we all have our happy buzzers?"

""Yes, miss!"" They all replied with genuine cheerfulness. Some of them even raised the Uzi machine pistols she had equipped them with up above their heads for her inspection.

Smiling brightly at their eagerness, she continued with her questions, "Do you all have some of the special clay I gave you too?"

Once more, she received a cheerful confirmation from the children with some of the kids raising their hands to show her the blocks of explosive clay she had given them to carry on their person and to use if they were ever 'caught' by adults.

She clapped her hands. "Wonderful! You are all just such sweet darlings."

Smiling at a plan coming together, she was just about to order the children to go launch kamikaze attacks on Birdway and her allies when all the children suddenly collapsed into unconsciousness. On top of that, the enemies she was about to attack began teleporting in around her.

Shooting up from her seat, Irivika gasped out. "How?"

How? How had she suddenly become surrounded by some of the heaviest hitters on the Science Side!?

This was the worst case scenario.

A smirking Namikaze Naru, speaking in fluent Russian no less, answered her question, "Ваш контроль над разумом — это что-то вроде подсказки, понимаешь? Все, что для этого понадобилось, это кто-то, кто мог читать мысли в приличном радиусе и пау! Легко тебя заметил. Нам просто нужно было отправиться туда, где вы собрали большую часть своих пешек. А что вы знаете? Так уж вышло, что моя лучшая подруга может подражать Mental Out. Жаль, так грустно. (Your mind control is a bit of a tell, ya know? All it took was someone who could read minds in a decent radius and pow! Spotted you easily. We just needed to head to where you had gathered up most of your pawns. And what do you know? My bestie just so happens to be able to emulate Mental Out. Too bad, so sad.)"

Irivika's heart leapt to her throat as she shot a fearful look at Saten Ruiko. Only to take a fearful step back at the death glare the AIM Angel was giving her as a near feral growl rumbled out of her throat. "I'll have your head for daring to use children, children younger than my daughters, as weapons!"

I might have miscalculated. Perhaps Leivinia Birdway was not the most dangerous of our enemies in this mission.

"Ruiko!" The Accelerator barked at his paramour. "Think on how to punish this sick monster later. Right now we need to focus on getting the weapons away from these kids and keep 'em safe."

Thankfully, the [AIM Sovereign] nodded and looked at her Teleporter friend, the name of which eluded Irivika at the moment, who had just finished teleporting in the last members of their group. At the look, the tawny haired girl nodded and the two immediately began teleporting her pawns away.

Shit.

"Don't let the bitch get away!" Namikaze Naru loudly addressed the others before she proceeded to help the two other teleport capable Espers in removing Irivika's pawns.

As they did, Irivika glanced at the door to the bookshop only to be blinded by a green flash of some kind of beam that left a smoking scorch mark just ahead of the entrance. Drats, she liked browsing here.

Shizuri Mugino smiled cruelly at her. "Don't even try to run. If you do, I'll vaporize a limb. Which one though? Hmm… Which would hurt more?"

The Number 5 Esper had spoken in Japanese and Irivika was not wholly fluent in that tongue, but the older woman's intent was clear enough for the Magician to have gotten the message despite the language barrier. As a result, she gulped nervously, How in the world am I going to get out of this?

Suddenly, a massive explosion rocked the entire Coral Street Shopping Mall, leading many of those surrounding her to look alarmed and scan the area. A smile curled on Irivika's face as she made a break for it in the confusion, tossing a handful of seeds behind her as she did.

Sadly, the Russian barely made it five feet before a green beam streaked in her direction. However, instead of striking her and possibly killing her, it hit one of the floral simulacra of herself that she has created with her magic to serve as decoys.

At the same time, Irivika channeled the magical power of the Leshy that she embodied into her body. With its power coursing through her veins, she was pushed beyond mere human limitations and was thus able to blur out the store all whilst her enemies, including a panting and just arriving Kamijou Touma, were left holding the bag so to say as they were forced to deal with her decoys.

Shame that~

"After her!" Accelerator shouted as he and everyone else not attending to the children rushed out to chase down the Gremlin Magician, something that he did by flying off atop a twister.

A task not made easy by the dozens of decoys of her the blasted floral Magician created as she ran, each of which they had to deal with just in case it was the real deal. Luckily, the lightest hit had them dropping the illusion that they used to appear like their creator and revealing the skeletal, vaguely humanoid plant creature that they truly were. At which point, they could just pulp them. Something Accel eagerly did by introducing them to a variety of Aero Hand tricks he'd picked up like vacuum blades, twister lances, wind hammers and anything else that struck his fancy. The damned things didn't even put up any resistance, so why not experiment a little and have some fun?

Such thoughts were shelved however when Accelerator suddenly felt a hail of gunfire slam into his Redirection barrier

Turning towards the gunfire, he frowned as he saw a squad of soldiers with assault rifles. For a brief moment he thought they might be from the US military and were responding to the Gremlin attack but the complete lack of fear they seemed to be showing at his Esper powers easily deflecting their gunfire was strange.

Are they some kinda spec-op unit familiar with Espers? Accelerator thought, his frown deepening. If that was the case, then attacking them might be a bad idea. They weren't here to start trouble with the USA after all. But at the same time, he didn't think letting these gunmen just traipse around the battlefield was a good idea either. He and the heavy hitters among his allies might be functionally bulletproof but many of the others weren't. If they ran across these guys…

It's safer to just knock them out and be done with it. Accelerator concluded. If these guys are from the American military, I can just explain things and ask them for forgiveness later.

With his decision made, Accelerator charged towards them. However, he'd barely made it ten feet when he started coughing out blood.

Wha-!? Shit! Self-sacrifice for others and hoping for forgiveness? Combine that with the Telesma that's part of me now, I accidentally performed the movements of a magic ritual. My body can't take that outside of my Angel Mode! He realized as the twister keeping him in the air dissipated and he crashed to the ground just short of the gunmen, helpless due to his foolishly self-inflicted injuries as the gunmen prepared to finish him.

Not like this! I won't die like this! Accelerator thought defiantly as he struggled through the feeling of drowning in the blood filling his lungs to call on his powers, any aspect of it, to defend himself. Sadly, none answered. He was just too injured to properly focus enough to channel them.

Just as he was about to die however there was a burst of gunfire from behind him, a hail of bullets that shredded a few of the gunmen that were seconds from becoming Accelerator's executioners and sending the rest running

"You okay there, kiddo?" A large Hispanic man with a muscular physique, swarthy-skin, swept hair back, and a thick chin curtain beard said in perfect Japanese as he stepped into Accel's line of sight. A man who was armed with a machine gun that looked like it would normally take two men to operate but which he managed to use all on his own whilst making it look easy. A weapon that was quite the juxtaposition with the business wear that the man was dressed in and the silver attache case that he had strapped to his back in some kind of carrier.

"Ye-Yeah." Accelerator forced out with a grunt

"You don't look like it. I tell you what? Let me take you somewhere safe where you can reco-"

His savior didn't get to finish his offer before Ruiko teleported in.

"ACCEL!" She cried out in a worried wail as she all but threw herself at him and activating her Angel Mode immediately began channeling its powers to heal him.

"My word!" The man who had saved him gasped in surprise at Ruiko's Angelic form. "The reports do not do your Angelic beauty justice, Miss Saten."

Glancing away from him for a moment, Ruiko shot the man with the machine gun a cross look at his attempt at what Accelerator hoped was a one liner and not a pick-up line. Because if it was the latter, then his savior or not, when Accelerator was healed, he was kicking the man's ass.

Once Ruiko got a good look at the man however she gasped, confusing Accelerator until she disbelievingly questioned the older man. "Mister President?"

What!?

"Oh! So, you recognize me? Yes, I'm Roberto Katze, President of the United States of America. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Accelerator and Miss Saten Ruiko."

[1]: Arisa's pet name for Naru is a reference to lop rabbits, which thanks to the blonde's hairstyle she resembles. It basically shares the same root as her Usagi nickname.

Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!

Another big chapter for the Hawaii Arc! Of course we get some coupley lovey dovey time with some pairings, potential pairings and some teasing ships. Naru is as always Naru, one that is deeply in tune with her GFs, at least Shu is going along with the horny Naru and Arisa. Mikoto is trying to win 'her' man, and doing well? Hard to say. Ruiko and Frenda are flirting hard and Ruiko is struggling to remember that she has, you know, a BF. Frenda just makes it hard!

Nameless: So… If you're familiar with Saronia A. Irivika, you'd have realized by now that we've significantly buffed her abilities from canon. Why? Because for someone who is supposed to serve as a main antagonist for a whole arc and definitely the main antagonist in the arc's fights, her canon iteration is kinda… lackluster. As such, we decided to make her more of a threat. How is this justified? Well, since this is her first appearance in the TOTverse, there's no real need to justify it. She just is more powerful than canon. If you really want a reason, it's because TOT!Irivika is more in tune with her Leshy patron than her canon counterpart. What do we mean? Well, you should be able to guess if you recall an existing character we introduced in the WW3 arc and a certain inhuman Magician.

Yeah, this bitch is totally messed up. Though I do agree she needed a buff to handle, you know… what with all these top tiers tossed at her. It would have been even more of a curb stomp then a usual Level 5 mob fight if she hadn't been.

You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!