Here we are again with another chapter. Man, this story is just continuously picking up at this point. With this arc nearing it's end, I'm getting really anxious for future chapters. I can only hope whatever comes next comes together nicely. Still, I must thank all of you for your support in this story. I realize this is mostly a rehash of the original story, but I'm glad you've all been so supportive with constructive criticism and patient regarding potential deviations. Trust me, after this chapter, deviations are really going to pick up. I've been experimenting with ideas for potentially expanded lore that may or may not borrow elements from other franchises. What those expansions will be is still up in the air, but I think they might be quite interesting.
Anyway, let's get some Q&A out of the way so we can get to the chapter itself.
Bluejack222: I can see where you're coming from. Giving Touma a weapon and expanding his combat capabilities was something I was always on the fence about, but I needed some way for him to face off against more science side threats. Since most science mooks are swarms of robots and powered suits, it didn't seem believable for him to fight with just his bare hands. In my defense, the weapon at this point is a prototype, untested, and nonlethal. Glad you liked the chapter though.
ConnivingG: Same. She is actually one of my favorite characters from Railgun. I wish there was more from her.
OnePunchPlayer: As awesome as that all sounds, I don't know what half of that stuff is and I don't think it would be believable. This is a Judgement Issue, Prototype weapon. It wouldn't have anything lethal and the tech should remain within the bounds of reality.
ArmoredCoreNineBall: Trust me, I know how well crazy ideas can end up. I regularly read your story, "The Bust Upper Incident". Glad the speech turned out okay. They are such an integral part of Touma's character that I just really don't want to mess up. Thanks for being so patient.
MrQuestionMark: I was a bit on the fence about including ODD, but I'm glad I did and that it was so well received. In the words of BlazingAzureCrow's Abridged Shirou Emiya, "Literally everything has a pipe somewhere probably," and poles are just solid pipes. And we all know how useful Shriou's pipes can be in battle pre-projection. Glad that the speech came out well. Hopefully, I can keep it up with more original speeches in the future.
RedSS: Just a little Taiga Fujimura quote. I'm actually running out of them and have been recycling them.
Kim454: Such high praise, I'm flattered. That thing with the chapter number is a really weird set of coincidences. For the Silent Party and Angel Fall Arcs, I was actually planning on having them occur concurrently like in canon with something like video chats to keep the characters in contact with one another. I felt that having the Railgang along for Touma's trip would be a bit awkward since it's supposed to be a family trip for him while he's laying low after the Sisters Arc. Then again, it would make for some great comedy. Well, I've got time to think about it. Thanks for the timeline help. Glad to have such a dedicated reader.
Generation Zero: Glad you liked the character interactions last chapter. They are always something I try to nail in each chapter. Trust me, Touma's sister will see him soon enough. You might be surprised by how she handles the reunion when it comes around. As for tools like ODD, they will definitely stick around and have a lot of experimentation. I have a couple of other ideas, but those are still on the fence since they might deviate too much from canon.
Guest (1): Yeah, timelines of multimedia works are always a pain. But hey, it's the hell I chose to walk into. Thanks for the timeline help.
SoulReaver267: Glad to have such an enthusiastic new reader. Touma fighting with his new ODD will definitely show up more in later chapters. However, Mikoto being starstruck feels like the least likely reaction from her. She's always had a crush on him but was in denial, so the Accelerator fight isn't a good example. If anything, she'd at most be mildly impressed with a hint of competitive enthusiasm.
Kamijou Touma (Guest): Story of your life, right?
guess (Guest): Eh, to each their own.
Kami (Guest): Glad you're enjoying the story so far. I changing the character dynamics was the main objective of the melding of Index and Railgun, so I'm glad to see that it's being so well received. Hopefully, I can create some unique situations with these new relationships.
mohamadstar94: It might not be what you were expecting, but I think the upcoming fights will be enjoyable. Next is the Sisters Arc, so I will implement elements from both Index and Railgun.
Okay, no more lolly gagging (that actually sounds really perverted now that I think about it), disclaimer!
Disclaimer: All characters and plotlines of the "A Certain" franchise are credited to Kazuma Kamachi.
Chapter 24: Human Error
"So, the ten child subject who have been missing are now securely installed at MAR's laboratory?" Konori asked for confirmation.
The morning after their reunion with Dr. Kiyama, Touma and Mikoto reported their findings to the rest of Judgement Branch 177 and its associates.
"Yes," Touma confirmed.
"So, they've been found, finally," Uiharu said absentmindedly.
"It's that great, Uiharu?" Saten asked, slapping a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Oh, yeah," Uiharu replied, still lost in her own thoughts.
"And the woman responsible for the Level Upper incident is behind this situation as well," Konori noted.
"She said she didn't care if the city was destroyed so long as the children were saved? That's a pretty extreme stance, wouldn't you say?" Kuroko mused.
"So, Therestina said she was going to find a way to wake up Edasuki and the others?" Saten asked.
"That's what she said," Touma confirmed, crossing his arms.
"Well, it looks like this case is closed," Kuroko cheered, "Great work, although I do wish you could have handled it a way that fell more in line with protocol."
"That's rich coming from you, Pigtails. You don't exactly do everything by the book either," Touma pointed out before his attention was shifted towards Mikoto.
It wasn't so much what she was doing that drew him in, but rather what she was not doing. After helping him with their report of last night's events, she had kept completely silent.
"Something wrong, Zapper?" Touma asked innocently.
"Huh?" Mikoto replied, shaken from her thoughts, "Oh, no. It's nothing."
"Okay, now I know something is wrong," Touma argued, "You hate it when I call you 'Zapper'. The only times you don't react is if something is bothering you or you have some other target for your anger."
"I think I know what's going on. You're still concerned about Kiyama and unconvinced that taking the children away from her was the right move," Kuroko deduced, "Am I right?"
"I'm just not sure," Mikoto replied weakly.
"Then be sure. You made the right choice," Kuroko encouraged, "At least that's what I believe."
"Besides, you're not the only one that feels bad for her," Touma added, "I was holding her at taser-point and threatened her unless she gave up on her sole purpose for all these years. Which is ironic, since you're usually the one doing the former."
"That terrible joke aside," Mikoto grumbled, "I guess you're right. Not much we can do about it now anyway."
"Still, that was reckless of you two!" Kuroko suddenly snapped, "It's bad enough that Sissy pulled another vigilante stunt, but you too, Kamijou?! I expect better from my student!"
"Sorry, Kuroko, geez!" Mikoto snapped back, trying to calm down her roommate.
As the pigtailed girl continued to rant at her seniors, Saten shoved Uiharu out the door. The more energetic of the two girls insisted that her friend go visit her hospitalized roommate. Despite the young girl currently yelling at him, Touma couldn't help but watch as the flower wearing girl was sent off to meet her friend. Everything should have been fine now, but part of him still felt like something was off. Call it instinct, a sixth sense, or just pure speculation, he just didn't feel right about the situation. A glance at Mikoto when she noticed Uiharu leave told him she felt the same.
Once Kuroko had finished ranting at her friends for their recklessness, everyone returned to their usual routines at the office. Konori and Kuroko got straight to work on their computers to deal with all of the records they would need to sort out with the Poltergeisting Case closed. Mikoto and Saten simply lounged around the office, not having anything better to do. Saten did however brew a couple cups of tea for everyone, just to show her appreciation for everything that had happened recently.
The only person not quite back to normal was Touma. Rather than doing his paper work, Touma distracted himself by flipping through his journal. Whenever something bothered him, he found it therapeutic to just skim through the book and glimpse at the past he had forgotten. Besides, he might just find some answers to his predicament in his old entries. Part of the journal's pages were dedicated to dealing with his misfortune.
"What'cha doing?" Saten asked, offering Touma a mug.
"Thanks," Touma replied, taking a sip.
He paused for a moment to appreciate that Saten went out of her way to prepare his favorite brand of coffee just the way he liked it; black, no sweeteners.
"I was just going through my journal," Touma explained, "It helps me clear my head."
"Anything interesting in there?" Saten inquired.
"If I did find anything like that, I wouldn't tell you," Touma quipped, "You're not exactly the best at keeping secrets."
"What about Imagine Breaker, or magic?" Saten countered.
"Well, according to this, during the Level Upper Case, you ended up telling the AIM Burst about Imagine Breaker, making it more cautious of me," Touma replied, gesturing to his entry on the incident.
"As if that one was might fault," Saten complained, feigning offense.
Touma chuckled as he continued to flip through his journal, going farther back into his forgotten past. At random, he stopped on a certain entry regarding his lost friend, Yuri. Apparently, it was from the last time the two childhood friends saw each other. The two boys had said their goodbyes and promised to find each other again someday. Afterwards, Yuri parted ways with his friend as he drove off in a car with a researcher. However, it was the name of the researcher that caught Touma's attention, Amata Kihara.
'The researcher who studied Yuri's ability was a Kihara?' Touma thought to himself in shock.
There was so much going through Touma's head at that moment. Did Amata have any relationship to Gensei? Were they all researchers? Did they all have amoral views on research? Was Yuri subjected to similarly terrible experiments as Kiyama's students? Touma had so many questions, he almost didn't hear Saten talking to Uiharu over the phone.
"Hey Uiharu, it's Saten. Where are you? … What's wrong?" Saten asked, quickly growing concerned, "What's the matter? Uiharu? Come on, I can't understand through all the sniffling. What is it?"
"Her name is Therestina Kihara? Are you sure that's what she said?" Kuroko asked her flower wearing girl, "And what about Kiyama? What about her?"
"I don't know," Uiharu replied, still crying, "She… went… somewhere…"
"Take it easy," Saten said, attempting to comfort her friend, "It will be okay."
"Found her," Konori called out from the computer, "Yes, Therestina Kihara Lifeline. Gensei Kihara's granddaughter… oh my."
"What, is there more?" Kuroko asked.
"She's included in the personal data from Kihara's lab from the time he wrote his thesis," Konori explained.
"So, she was his research assistant?" Touma assumed.
"I would think so," Konori replied, "Wait, it says here Therestina was the first test subject for the Ability Crystal."
"What?!" Touma asked in shock.
"How can that be?" Konori pondered.
"Wait, let me get this straight. You're saying that Kihara's first human test subject was his own granddaughter and that Therestina helped with his research, the same woman that has the Child Errors under her protection?" Saten surmised, "What's going on?!"
Touma just stood there, taking in everything that he was hearing. Once again, the wool was pulled over during a big Judgement case. Once again, the person they trusted to be their guide was the criminal mastermind all along. Once again, they failed to see it coming. Even worse, there seemed to be an even bigger game at play, and the name of the game masters seemed to be Kihara. Three times now, someone by the name of Kihara was responsible for the suffering of others in the name of research. First there was Yuri, who had long since gone missing since Amata Kihara took him in. Then there was Dr. Kiyama, who was strung along by Gensei Kihara to take part in an experiment that put her students in comas. Finally, there was Therestina Kihara Lifeline, the granddaughter of the mad scientist that assisted in his research and now has taken the comatose Child Errors as potential lab rats.
Touma was so lost in thought, it barely registered in his mind when Kuroko slapped the crying Uiharu to get her to focus and do her job. He did however notice that a certain Electromaster was completely quiet the entire conversation and had gone missing. It was all too clear where Mikoto had gone, just as it was clear where Touma needed to be.
Touma made his way towards the door, making no efforts to hide his intentions.
"Kamijou, where are going?" Konori asked, stopping him just before he opened the door.
"Sorry, chief," Touma apologized as he called his ODD to him from his desk, "There's somewhere I need to be."
Without another word, Touma left the office, his destination clear.
As Touma approached the MAR Research Lab, he was greeted by four bits of suspicious behavior. First, there were the two MAR trucks that seemed to have come from the facility, almost begging to be followed. Next, there was the high-pitched ringing that he recognized as Capacity Down, the same weapon Skill-Out used to incapacitate Espers. Then was the roaring thunder, something that should not be possible on such a clear day. Finally, there was the explosions and plums of smoke coming from the facility just ahead of him. At that point, Touma had started running at full speed.
When he finally arrived at the facility's front gate, he was greeted by the sight of Mikoto being strangled against a concrete pillar by a purple Powered Suit wearing Therestina. Acting on instinct, Touma took out his ODD and shifted it into its crowd control pike mode. He lifted the weapon over his right shoulder in a reverse grip and pulled back before letting the improvised javelin at his target.
"Let her go!" Touma yelled as he let the weapon fly.
Although surprised by his sudden appearance, Therestina quickly dropped the now passed out Mikoto and turned to face the high school boy. She managed to shield her face from the flying Omni Defense Device, preventing any injury. However, she was thrown slightly off balance as the weapon bounce off her mostly harmlessly.
"Well, if it isn't the Certain Strange Addition to Judgement," Therestina mused, "You here to save your little girlfriend?"
"I came for answers," Touma declared, ignoring the girlfriend comment, "Why are you so involved in this? Is the entire Kihara Clan a pack of psychotic, immoral scientists? What's your relationship to Amata Kihara?"
"Funny, she asked a lot of the same things," the woman sneered, "You two really are a match made in heaven, aren't you? Like I told the brat, I don't have to answer to anything. At least she had the guns to try and stand up to me. Based on the fact you're not collapsing on the ground with Capacity Down active, you're clearly not an Esper. Not only that, you've also already tossed you're only weapon at me. What do you plan on doing now, punch me in the face?"
"If that's what you want!" Touma yelled as he took of sprinting.
As the Level 0 charged at her, Therestina took a few steps forward and lazily reloaded her grenade launcher. As she took aim, Touma stretched out his left hand and mentally called for his ODD to return to him. The device flew right past Therestina and knocked her firing arm off target by a few degrees. This interference in her shot caused the grenade to fly past Touma's face, barely missing him.
As the explosive detonated behind him, Touma used the shockwave to accelerate himself forward and retrieve his recalled weapon. Just before closing the distance between him and his opponent, Touma shifted his ODD to its crowd control pike form and swung it down on Therestina's head. With him right on top of her, the head of MAR was forced to discard her grenade launcher and defend herself with both hands.
Therestina could hardly believe what she was experiencing. By all lines of logic, someone in Touma's situation would not charge headfirst into a one-on-one confrontation like this. His opponent was heavily armed and armored, he had no special ability with offensive purposes, and he was only armed with a nonlethal prototype weapon. Anyone could see this was a no-win situation and the only option was to flee and hope you were not caught. Instead, Touma stood his ground and made the first attempt to go on the offensive. Even if she didn't take that attempt very seriously at first, the boy clashing with Therestina and used every advantage he could get to achieve a nearly impossible outcome. The odds were staked against him, but he still thought they were good enough to bet on.
"You're a really piece of work, you know that, brat?" Therestina snarled, "You must be insane to think you have a chance of winning this fight in your condition and still advance somehow."
"I don't need to hear that from a psycho like you!" Touma cried as he broke away from the interlock.
He pulled his ODD back in his right hand and shifted it into its shock baton mood. As if wielding a sword, Touma swung the weapon towards his opponent's head, intending to zap her brain into unconsciousness. However, Therestina caught the weapon in her armored left hand, stopping the attack dead in it's tracks. Despite the powered suit clearly being electrocuted, it was well designed, much like everything else in Academy City, with electrical insolation for the inner workings and the surfaces touching the operator.
With her opponent now trapped, Therestina grabbed Touma by his neck and hoisted him up. To her surprise, rather than try to struggle out, Touma attempted to retaliate by swinging his left fist at her face. Luckily, the head of MAR was holding him far away enough so that his fists could not reach him. In all honesty, it was a rather smart move. Anyone with some common sense would know that prying open a mechanical hand with their bare hands would be a fruitless endeavor. Instead, Touma attempted to take out his attacker to render her chokehold moot. It starkly contrasted from his nearly senseless charge at her at the beginning of the fight.
"I really don't understand you. You seem to be reckless, but then show signs of having some form of logic in battle. It just doesn't make sense," Therestina mused, "Regardless, I have more important things to take care of. I'll just leave you with her!"
Therestina threw Touma into the concrete pillar of the building, placing him right next to the passed out Mikoto. Despite the pain in his back, Touma propped himself up with his ODD and face Therestina. However, his view was cut off when a group MAR powered suits surrounded him.
"They will take care of you two and take you in for testing," Therestina laughed, "Have fun trying to get away!"
"Get back here! I'm not done with you!" Touma yelled as the powered suits closed in on him and Mikoto.
Left with no other options, Touma took is usual spearman's stance in front of the unconscious girl. While he was somewhat confident in his ability to fight a singe powered suit when minimally armed, he did not like his chances with five of them. Not to mention he had a liability on his side as well.
'Rotten luck,' Touma thought to himself as he analyzed his situation.
"Just a moment," a female voice interrupted.
Everyone conscious and present turned to a girl in a hospital gown that Touma recognized from his journal.
'Isn't that the airhead from my journal?' Touma asked himself.
"I'll have you know that those two are some very good friends of mine," the supposed airhead declared, flashing a green fan across her face, "And you do not what to cross Mitsuko Kongou of Tokiwadai Middle School."
'Yup that's her,' Touma confirmed, recognizing her speech pattern in his notes regarding her quirks.
"Get lost, brat," one of the powered suit operators demanded, "This is official business, so go back to your hospital room until we clear you for release."
As the surrounding powered suit operators distracted themselves with telling Kongou off, Touma discreetly collapsed his ODD into it's portable form and picked up Mikoto on his back. Despite of the pain, he bared Mikoto's weight on his shoulders. Waiting for the right moment, he watched as Kongou picked up a nearby pebble and applied her ability to it. With the ability Aero Hand, Kongou created an ejection point of air on the pebble and released it, launching the pebble like a small missile. While it was nothing compared to Mikoto's railgun, it had enough force to knock one of the powered suits off it's feet upon impact and shack to others off balance as they collided like a trail of dominos.
"Run!" Touma yelled to Kongou as he took of running for the facility gate.
Realizing what Touma was planning, Kongou complied and followed after him in suit. Unfortunately, the powered suit operators quickly recovered and gave chase as well. Noticing this, Touma spotted a turned over van with an exposed gas line. Extending his ODD into its pike form, Touma swung at the gas line as they ran past it, causing oil to leak out.
"Nice thinking," Kongou complimented, "but an oil slick will only slow them down."
"Good thing that's not the plan," Touma replied, offering the back end of his ODD to her, "I need you to create an ejection point right here. Lots of pressure in a quick burst for maximum velocity. Release it when I give the signal."
Although not entirely sure what Touma had in mind, Kongou complied and did what she was asked to do. As soon as they were past the gate, Touma stopped to find that the powered suits did indeed slip on the oil slick and were in a pile on the ground. Seeing his chance, Touma lifted his ODD over his right shoulder in a javelin position and shifted it to electric pike mode.
"Now!" Touma yelled as he threw the weapon.
Normally, a javelin throw would be pretty much impossible with someone on the thrower's back. However, Kongou's boost was just enough to give the weapon the velocity it needed to reach its target. As soon as the electric tip of the weapon struck the oil slick, the surrounding area caught fire and the air ejection point Kongou created on the weapon ran out. Touma instantly recalled his ODD to his left hand, just in time for the flames to trail back to the truck they originated from and detonate its fuel source, catching the powered suits in a giant explosion.
While some might call this course of action overkill, Touma knew that those powered suits were made to be resilient. The pilots wouldn't be hurt, but the suits they were operating would definitely be put out of commission for the time being.
"Come on," Touma ordered as he carried Mikoto away from the MAR Research Lab, "Let's get Zapper here some medical attention. I know a really good doctor."
After getting Mikoto to Heaven Canceller's hospital, she woke up in one of the hospital rooms to find herself surrounded by Kuroko, Uiharu, and Saten. After filling her in on everything that had happened since she passed out, Mikoto realized that she still had unfinished business with Therestina and attempted to leave.
"Sit back down, Sissy. You need to rest some more," Kuroko begged.
"Get out of my way," Mikoto ordered, "I don't have time to lounge around in bed now. I need to go. I need to help the children."
"You're staying here, Sissy," Kuroko insisted.
"Kamijou was right. I was an idiot to go zapping things inside of a dead laboratory like I did," Mikoto lamented, "I found the children, but I led Therestina straight to them as well. And now they're all gone. They're gone and it's entirely my fault. Don't you see? I have to stop her and make this right, so stand aside, Kuroko!"
Mikoto pushed her roommate to the side and trudged her way to the door. However, before she could reach it, the door opened on the other side, revealing Touma blocking her path. He was in a worse than Mikoto, having bandages wrapped around his head and over his chest and right shoulder. He had his summer uniform lazily thrown over his upper body, exposing his chest and showing clear signs of a hasty arrival.
"Idiot, what do you think you're doing out of bed like that?!" Mikoto reprimanded.
"Let's be honest, this is not the worst condition you've caught me in. I've lost my memories and an arm within a few days of each other," Touma replied flatly, "Besides, you're in no condition to be saying that either."
"Just get out of my way," Mikoto demanded, "I'm not going to let you stop me. This is my responsibility."
"I'm not trying to stop you. I'm just give them a chance to," Touma clarified, nodding behind her.
Mikoto turned around to see all their friends looking back at her with sad and worried eyes. Without words or even Telepathy, they confided their thoughts on to her, leaving Mikoto with a sense of shame and regret.
"I'm sorry," Mikoto apologized, hiding her eyes behind her hand, "I was being selfish, and I've gone and caused trouble for all of you again."
"It's no trouble at all," Saten insisted, "But I'd rather fight together with you than worry about you all on your own again. That's what makes me so glad that Kamijou went after you when you went missing."
"Saten's right," Uiharu agreed, "And the rest of us are here for you too."
"Don't feel bad about being acting selfishly either," Touma added, "While I did go to help you, I had my own reasons as well. I thought I found a lead to finding my friend Yuri when I learned that Therestina was a Kihara, but it only gave me more of a reason to help you. Being selfish should be a reason for you to want your friends involved."
Mikoto looked around the hospital at her friends before giving them all a warm smile.
"Yeah, you're all right," Mikoto said, "Thanks, everyone."
"You're next, Uiharu!" Saten declared, "You'll apologize to Shirai and Kamijou! Tell them you're sorry for how you've been treating them through all this."
"Hey, that's not fair!" Uiharu protested.
"You guys too, Shirai, Kamijou!" Saten added, "Both of you apologize for slapping and yelling at Uiharu, respectively."
The three Judgement Officers gave each other a look before giving their apologies.
"I'm sorry for how I behaved," Uiharu said meekly.
"Yeah, me too," Kuroko replied.
"Same," Touma added.
"And Kamijou, button up your shirt," Saten demanded, "You look like the protagonist of a battle harem story!"
"Right! Sorry!" Touma yelled embarrassedly as he quickly fixed his shirt.
"So, don't you have something you'd like to say to me as well?" Kongou asked, having barged into the room while no one was paying attention.
"Yeah," Mikoto said gratefully, "Thanks, Kongou."
"It was nothing," Kongou insisted, hiding behind her fan.
'She really is an airhead," Touma thought to himself.
After checking Touma and Mikoto out of the hospital, the group regrouped at the 177th Branch Office. Through collaboration with Anti-Skill, the Judgement Branch got to work on tracking down the missing children. Uiharu and Kuroko manned the computers, working through every surveillance device in Academy City they could access to track down their targets. Konori and Touma oversaw snacks, providing the team with the sustenance they needed to get the job done. Mikoto and Saten were on stand-by, overlooking the information being brought in and preparing for whatever confrontation they may be faced with. Kongou was just there, having tagged along for no real reason other than that she was lonely.
They eventually located MAR trailers they believed to be carrying the children on Urban Expressway 5, in route to District 17 and one of Gensei Kihara's private research facilities. Based on satellite footage, they determined that Dr. Kiyama was also tailing the suspected trailers, clearly intent on saving the children herself. With a clear objective in mind, the group equipped themselves appropriately for what was sure to be the final confrontation. In addition to a couple of ear pieces, Konori donned her old leather jacket, Saten grabbed a metal baseball bat, and Touma equipped himself with his Omni Defense Device. With everyone properly equipped, the team headed out.
"All right then," Mikoto declared as she led everyone one out the office, "Let's get going."
And that's that! Next chapter is the penultimate chapter of the Poltergeist Arc, so keep an eye out for that! Not a lot happened this chapter, but I think the short fight was decent enough. At the very least, it sets up the final chapter well enough.
Did any of you catch the MCU reference? I'm so hyped for Infinity War that it's seeping into my writing.
Anyway, see you all for the final chapter of the Poltergeist Arc!
Humans are multimedia.