After a particularly cold day on January the 7th, Kamijou Touma had returned back to his dorm room carrying a plastic bag full of groceries in each hand. An event that was usually considered a miracle as he would have usually lost over half of his groceries due to his misfortune. But he hadn't the need to worry about that anymore, after all. It wasn't his problem anymore, as he opened the door to his humble living space, he was greeted by the warm air rushing outside from the inside of his room, thankfully he didn't live alone. Meaning someone could warm up their living space while he was out, though that didn't ease his worries due to his roommates.

On January the 6th at 11:58pm, the boy known as Kamijou Touma had undoubtedly died due to lethal wounds caused by Alice anotherbible. Yet here he was coming home after some grocery shopping to feed his roommates, more specifically all four of them. It was twice the number from the usual nun and former goddess, plus the cat.

"You're awfully late" said a woman with long silver hair. The same one that had been at his side since December 31st in Shibuya when she had torn his body into pieces twice, yet here she was in his kotatsu warming herself up.

"I bought groceries" Kamijou said simply as he lifted both arms up to present the plastic bags full of living necessities as well as food items.

The spiky haired boys eyes darted to the side, he had noticed the nun roommate staring at him momentarily before looking back at the TV. This was what he was so nervous of.

Several Hours before

3:48am

The grimoire library, a little girl capable of perfectly remembering 103,001 grimoires had been sitting inside the hospital lobby, sobbing to herself with her hands covering her eyes. She had been sitting there since they had arrived. She had felt useless, the boy she had loved had been taken away from her. It had happened before when he had crashed into the Adriatic sea, though he had came back several days later. But this time she had been faced with undeniable proof, she had seen his corpse with her very own eyes, and the lethal wounds inflicted. What good were the books inside her head when she couldn't even save one boy from his demise, not once but twice.

Her hands gripped her face tightly as her nails dug into her skin leaving marks. Soon her nails would start to draw bloo-

"Index"

A familiar voice had called out, she turned her head to look up, it was the same spiky haired boy that she had just been crying over without even a nick on his face. He was in perfect shape

"T-Touma..?" Her voice still trembled as she called out, his appearance had made her shed even more tears as they came running down her cheek. Her body had trembled again as she saw the boy she had thought she lost.

"T-Touma.. how are you here?.., I thought.. I thought I would never see you again.." She moved her arm and placed her left hand on his right wrist, pulling it close to her body before she had intertwined her right hand with his own. It was warm, it was how a living person felt. She had no intention of separating their hands for a few hours.

"its... a long story so.. can we talk about it after school?"

"…?"

It had taken a moment to register, but she still wondered if she heard him right. He had only wanted to talk after school? The hospital doors slid open with a distinct sound as two figures walked inside, one was a tall person with red hair and a barcode under his eye, while the other was similarly a tall woman with asymmetrical clothing wielding a 2 meter long nodachi

"Index.. we've come to take you home…?"

The woman Kanzaki kaori had spoken, her voiced trailed off as she saw the person she least expected to be standing next to the small nun. How could he be there when his body was confirmed and announced to be dead?, she looked over at her partner. He didn't seem any less shock with his yes wide open and the cigarette in his mouth on the verge of falling off.

"Kanzaki! Stiyl! Perfect timing, can you two look after index while I'm at school?"

Before the duo could respond he had already ran out, still in his hospital gown as he left the three inside the hospital without looking back.

Now

The spiky haired boy had looked over at the grimoire library, expecting her to start asking questions about what had happened while he was dead. And more importantly how he had overcome death itself, but to his surprise she had stayed completely silent. Focused on watching the kanamin girl anime, which prompted him to start conversation first to try and ease the slightly tense atmosphere.

"So.. where did kanzaki and stiyl head off to?"

"They went back to london since they didn't have to take me back anymore"

She said without elaborating further, it had only made things more awkward inside the room which made him divert his eyes to the 15 cm former magic god on the table. Though she only gave him a look which said 'don't worry about it' and at this point he knew better than to doubt her words, so he gave only slight shrug before turning his head to the Goddess of witches sitting next to him. They had briefly interacted after he woke up shortly after escaping the hell tour, and had promised to speak to her about his experience after he had arrived home from school. As he parted his lips she spoke before him.

"You don't have to explain"

Index slightly jumped, but was unnoticed by Kamijou as he had her back toward her.

"I could tell that you were uncomfortable earlier, and even more so that you wanted to avoid coming home to your own room to avoid this. So explain whenever you want to"

The spiky hair boy looked down, feeling guilty at his actions and the grief he had momentarily caused them for the short while he was dead. But he was tense, he was tempted to take her up on her offer. But shook his head, he knew what had to be done.

"I'm… sorry, i'm sorry that I died… I only thought about the ending that I wanted… I wanted to save alice, I didn't want to hurt her especially with everything that she's been through-"

He was silenced by Aradia as she placed her index finger upon his lips, she sighed before speaking in an exasperated expression.

"I said you didn't have to talk about it until you were ready"

This had confused the young boy, wasn't he just talking about the recent events regarding his death?

"We didn't want to hear your apologies, what are you even apologizing for? Did you finally realize how important you are to us you fool?"

He grimaced when he heard the word fool enter his ears. And what was that part about being important to them!?

"Wheres Anna?"

The witch goddess motioned at the bathroom door, he noticed that the door handle broke off the door itself, leaving a hole in its place.

"Asleep"

He raised his eyebrow at that before he got up and went over to the bathroom door, pushing it slightly open. It was dark inside but he could make out the faint silhouette of a girl inside the bathtub as well as the slight motions of the shadow moving up and down as she breathed, he stepped back out to let her sleep.

"Did you tell her that im alive?"

"Naturally, I told her most of it, but I have a feeling she knew that before I did"

Aradia had gotten up and picked up the plastic bags, rummaging through them to place the groceries in their rightful place, sighing when she saw several items inside. She pulled out a bag of potato chips from the bag and held it out for him to see.

"These are bad for your body you know?, maybe alice did you a favor" she sighed.

Magic god Othinus had somehow gotten on top her hat as she spoke.

"Trying the big sister plan huh?" She was quickly shut down as Aradia had placed her under her hat.

"I guess it cant be helped, i'll watch over your diet and cook your meals for you now my little witch~" The goddess of witches winked with a smile at him which made him blush slightly. The comment she made had almost awakened something in him before he cleared his throat.

"Wheres alice? And the other transcendants"

"At the consulate, Alice has been placed under house arrest with Anna Kingsford as her temporary teacher"

Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Anna Kingford since the had completed their hell tour together.

"Kingsford is here?"

"My, my. Its only been several hours and you've already missed out on a lot? I suppose you didn't notice the magicians targeting you all day?"

"Wait what?"

Othinus had escaped the humid prison from being sandwiched between the top of Aradia's hair and hat.

"Waves of magicians had been breaking into the city trying to find imagine breaker, it's a stupid idea since you no longer have it. But its not stopping them from trying to interrogate or kidnap you"

Aradia nodded at that

"The board chairman has hired us to deal with those magicians as a kind of community labor, I guess its only fair"

"Well… why aren't you at the consulate with the others?"

A knocking sound came from the door, as Kamijou went to answer it the door flew off its hinges. Boom!, he was knocked back into the wall as the door sandwiched him in place, he felt the surrounding area around him heat up as the door began to heat up as well. It suddenly stopped as he heard a sound of a dull impact coupled with the sound of a man groaning before slumping to the floor.

As he moved the door aside, he saw the body of a man wearing a suit and tie with Aradia standing next to it with her head facing Kamijou Touma.

"That's why"