Would you look at that, time off over the summer does give you lots of free time. How long has it been since the last chapter? 3-4 days? Have I proven my dedication? Have I?!
Okay, joking freak out aside, it's great to be back with another chapter. Admittedly, this one covers multiple episodes from Touma's perspective, so it might feel a bit empty and rushed, but I feel like it was the best I could do without just retreading the same events verbatim. Still, I think it turned out well and I hope you all enjoy it as well
Before we start, let's get some Q&A out of the way.
ArmoredCoreNineBall: Glad you liked Touma's smart-ass attitude in the last chapter. He's always had a bit of a sharp tongue if I'm being honest. I was on the fence about the OC, but I think the risk was worth it. I'm pretty much the same with editing. No matter how much I try, at least a few typos making into the published product if I check by myself. I'm sure the deviations will be interesting.
ahsoei: Oh, I know the OVA. I just can't find a full, quality version of it anywhere on the internet. Trust me, I've tried. Honestly though, I don't think there would be much to change in that event. I'd hate to put out a pure rehash with very little in addition.
Kim454: Just a huge coincidence. I actually only had another page or two to write when you posted your complaint.
Bluejack222: Well, technically he is.
Anonymous Noob the 2nd: If it's in the anime by the time I get to the writing the chapter, it's going in this story. I have plenty of time before October, especially with how much content there is before WWIII.
RedSS: Yeah, kind of the norm of arc first chapters. I see you're going to do that every time I drop the title in a chapter.
animelover (Guest): Here you go.
Guest (1): Thanks! That was more of a nod to what happens to Touma than foreshadowing for Saten. I already have plans for how I want the other girls to find out, and it won't happen in this arc.
GhostofTime: Glad you liked the chapter.
Exiled Soul Nomad: Of course. Touma is only one of five protagonists or six protagonists at this point, so I don't want him to overshadow everyone else. Even if he is awesome.
The unlucky boy: Good to be back. As much as that idea sounds interesting, there are some inherent flaws. First, Nunotaba is a whole year older than Touma, so they would be in different classes. Second, she is a genius and most likely went to a top tier middle school, unlike Touma who would have gone to a standard middle school. Thrid, you posted this just as I was finishing up with this chapter, so a bit slow on the roll there. Still, interesting idea.
Guest (2): Did you just combine the two halves of Shizuri Mugino's name? Sorry, I'm not planning on have a Touma vs Shizuri fight. Their reunion with be a bit more on the emotional side.
Well, that's pretty much all of them. Disclaimer!
Disclaimer: All characters and plotlines of the "A Certain" franchise are credited to Kazuma Kamachi.
Chapter 27: A Strange Feeling
It was just another day for the unfortunate Touma Kamijou. In the midst of summer, he was stuck taking remedial classes a Certain High School. As a result of all the Judgement work and big cases he was involved in over the last month, the classes he was supposed to take got spread out over the entire summer. So now he was stuck halfway into the summer with only a fraction of his needed remedial classes completed. This also meant that the only other people in the class beside the obvious answer of Komoe were Tsuchimikado and Aogami. Since they did so poorly during the last batch of remedial classes, the stuck around for the second batch which Touma had bleed into.
For the meantime, the minuscule class was on it lunchbreak, leaving the Delta Force to eat and talk among themselves. One would expect the ultimate trio of idiot high school boys to have a debate about the merits of different types of girls. However, the topic today was drastically different.
"Yo, Kami! Have you heard about that rumor about the money cards?" Tsuchimikado asked out of the blue.
"Money cards?" Touma replied, confused.
"Yeah! Apparently, they're scattered across the city in out of the way places," Aogami explained, "Tsuchimikado and I have been searching for them during our spare time! Could you imagine all the gal games we could get with that kind of money?"
"Now that you mention it, I think I have heard of it before," Touma mused before snapping his fingers, "Oh, right! Judgement has had a huge case recently about these money cards. We've been trying to collect them all and figure out what their deal is. From what we could tell, it's being done on purpose. Unfortunately, students have been getting in trouble because of them; stealing from each other and wandering into Skill-Out territory."
"Man isn't that the truth!" Aogami laughed.
"Yeah, we got into quite a few scuffles over the money cards!" Tsuchimikado joined in, "Good thing the two of us were able to fight off all those guys that kept attacking us and get away with all of our cards and theirs!"
"Wait, you two have been looking for money cards, and stealing them from other students?" Touma inquired.
"Just from people who try to steal them from us first," Tsuchimikado replied, "All the other ones were found by our own hands."
"Yeah, check out our haul!" Aogami cheered as he slammed a two-centimeter-thick stack of money cards on his desk.
"You do realize I'm going to have to confiscate these, right?" Touma asked flatly.
"Come on, man! Gal games!" Aogami begged pathetically, "Please don't do this!"
"You're not going to sway me," Touma responded, his face a stoic as before.
"You're so cruel, Kami," Tsuchimikado complained as he took the stack of money card from Aogami and handed them to Touma.
"I guess you two are rubbing off of me," Touma replied calmly, stowing away the cards and his empty bento box into his bag, alongside four other bento boxes.
The rest of the remedial class went normal enough. The only abnormal thing about the class was the death glare Aogami was giving Touma over the money cards. Touma didn't even think it was possible to glare at someone when your eyes were constantly closed, but Aogami managed to do it.
By the time the remedial class was over, the sun had started to go down. Regardless, with how big of a case the money card situation was, Touma headed to the 177th Judgement Branch Office to help out. In cases like these, everyone spent extra time at the office to get the paperwork and reports done. It was also why he prepared the four extra bento boxes. Everyone needed to eat at such a late hour.
"Hey everyone," Touma greeted as he walked into the office, "How are we with the money cards?"
"Welcome back, Kamijou," Konori greeted with a smile.
"Hi, Kamijou," Uiharu called out from her computer, "Just finished todays count. Grand total of 73 incidences."
"Might want to raise that count a little bit," Touma said, placing his stack of money cards on Uiharu's desk, "I snatched most of these off of Tsuchimikado and Aogami during remedial class and the rest are from students I ran into on the way here. That about 35 additional incidences."
"So many," Konori mused, "That a grand total of 108 incidences today alone. The number just keeps getting higher."
"Say, where's Pigtails?" Touma asked, "I don't see her anywhere here."
"Oh, Shirai left early," Uiharu answered, "Apparently, she had something important she needed to take care of."
"Rotten luck. And after I went to all the effort to make all of us dinner," Touma moaned, taking out the four bento boxes he had prepared.
At the sight of the extra bento box, Konori peaked over Touma's shoulder to get a better look. Wide eyed and drooling slightly, she eyed the extra bento box with some cross between the eyes of a predator and the eyes of a begging puppy. Touma had to admit, it was pretty cute.
Chuckling to himself, Touma took to bento boxes off the pile and held them to Konori.
"I take it you want the extra one, right Chief?" Touma asked, slightly amused.
"Y-yeah, I appreciate it," Konori studdered, taking the meals off of Touma's hands, "I can't wait to taste it. So, you two ready to eat?"
"Just a minute," Uiharu said as he phone began to ring, "I need to take this. Just set up without me."
While Uiharu was busy on the phone, Touma and Konori prepared the short table with all of the bento boxes Touma prepared. Opening each bento box revealed a bed of rice topped with a cherry tomato. The rice was accompanied with a couple of omelet rolls and stir-fried vegetables. As for the main dish, it was none other than a Salmon and Mushroom Butter Foil Wrap topped with wasabi-mayo sauce.
"Wow! This looks delicious!" Uiharu cheered as she joined the group, ogling the food.
Konori just sat next to Touma, wordlessly looking at the meal in awe.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Dig in," Touma encouraged.
"Thank you for the food!" the girls chanted, clapping their hands together.
"Thank you for the food," Touma followed suit.
Upon taking their first bites of the meal, the girls were instantly engrossed in their own words. Uiharu just sat there with a content smile on her face, chewing slowly as she indulged in the meal. Konori on the other hand was wide eyed at the flavor, taking huge bites of the meal and savoring every single one. Touma couldn't help but laugh at the sight before him as he ate his own cooking.
"I take it it's good?" Touma asked.
"Of course it's good! You made it!" Konori yelled enthusiastically, "This is even better than the curry you made during that photo shoot!"
"Glad to hear it. So, Headband, what was with that phone call?" Touma asked.
"Huh? Oh, the phone call!" Uiharu yelped, snapping out of her food induced trance, "It was just Saten telling me she found even more cash cards."
"Should have seen that coming," Touma sighed, "Knowing Flipper, she was probably sniffing out every card she could get hands on."
"That's not all. Apparently, Misaka has a lookalike," Uiharu added.
"Seriously?" Konori asked, taking a pause from her food.
"Yes, Saten said she saw her earlier today," Uiharu explained.
"Now that you mention it, there were stories about Level 5 clones a long time ago," Konori mused.
"You're joking, right?" Touma asked in disbelief.
"According to the story, there was a facility somewhere that used cloning technology to mass-produce Level 5s," Konori elaborated.
"That does sound like Academy City," Uiharu mused, "and like a rumor Saten would sink her teeth into."
"Well, knowing that girl, if it's unconfirmed information and fantastical in some way, she'd look into it until she confirmed it one way or the other," Touma commented, stuffing a piece of salmon into his mouth.
As soon as the Judgement officers had finished their meal, the got straight back to work on finishing their reports on the cash card case. As they worked, they got a report of a small fire in an abandoned building in District 7. They were informed it was really small, so there was no need to rush in to help. Besides, the fire was too far away from the office for them to actually get there in time to be of help. Once they finished their work, the group closed the office for the night, ready for a well-deserved rest.
After a relatively uneventful trip back home, Touma took a quick shower before laying down on his bed, ready to sleep. The only issue was he had a weird chill down his spine that wouldn't let him relax.
"For some reason, I have a strange feeling someone I know is perversely snuggling up to that giant Gekota plushie I won for Zapper a while back while thinking about the both of use," Touma said to himself.
The following morning, Touma had not gotten any sleep at all. With that weird feeling in the back of his head, he could relax all night. He had bags under his eyes and was clearly exhausted. The worst part was that he had another remedial class that day, meaning he was going to get a load of it from Tsuchimikado and Aogami.
"Man, Kami, you look like crap!" Tsuchimikado yelled, slapping the unlucky high school boy on the back.
"Did you have a hot date last night that wouldn't let you sleep?" Aogami asked.
"Not even," Touma lamented, slumping at his desk, "I had this strange feeling that someone was perving out over me and Zapper while snuggling the giant Gekota plushie I won her at that carnival. I wish I could meet a nice girl to date. At least then I'd have the reassurance that I'm loved and not just lusted for."
Before Touma knew it, his chair was pulled out from under him and he was on the classroom floor. This was then followed by a barrage of punches, kicks, and piledrives from Tsuchimikado and Aogami. Clearly, Touma said something wrong, but he had no idea what.
"What did I say?!" Touma yelled, begging for mercy.
"You have no right to say that when you hang out with a group of cute middle school girls every day and have a busty girl our age as a superior at your Branch Office!" Tsuchimikado yelled.
"Yeah, man! Just pick a girl already and give the rest of them to the rest of us guys!" Aogami added.
"What do they have anything to do with this?! Rotten luck!" Touma cried to the heavens.
"My classroom as become a rumble pit!" Komoe followed suit after walking in to see the chaos.
By the time remedial class was over, it was late afternoon. Touma trudged through the city, utterly exhausted. The only lucky thing to happen all day was the absence of Judgement work for the day. Everything else was pretty much hell on Earth.
As he walked past Seventh Mist, he saw a handful of familiar faces out of the corner of his eye. The sight of his friends enjoying a nice drink together was enough to put a smile on his face.
"Hey, girls!" Touma called out, moving towards their table, "Didn't expect to see you here."
"Oh, hi Kamijou," Saten replied, greeting him for the group, "You doing alright? You look like crap."
"That's what Tsuchimikado and Aogami said," Touma chuckled stiffly, "Remember that giant Gekota I won Zapper a while back at that carnival?"
"Kind of hard to forget when Sissy sleeps with the thing every night," Kuroko responded, much to Mikoto embarrassment.
"Well, for some reason, I had this strange feeling last night that someone or something was perversely snuggling the thing with both me and Zapper in mind," Touma explained, "Kept me up all night. Weird, right?"
"Oh, yeah, weird," Kuroko agreed, sweating profusely.
"Do you have something you'd like to share, Kuroko?" Mikoto asked with a dangerous look in her eye.
"A-anyway, it's your turn to share, Sissy," Kuroko stuttered, "What would you do if you had a clone?"
"Is this about that clone rumor?" Touma asked, trying to catch up.
"Yeah, we're sharing what we would do if we had a clone," Index explained, "Kuroko wanted to use her clone to avoid their dorm manager, Ruiko wanted her clone to do her summer homework, and Kazari, Erii, and I wanted our clones to help us eat all the food we wanted."
"My own clone, huh?" Mikoto said thoughtfully, "I guess I would find it pretty weird to see an exact copy of myself. I guess I would just want it to disappear."
"Doesn't that seem a bit harsh?" Touma asked.
"Well, what would you do then?" Mikoto argued.
"Me? Well, I guess I'd help him form his own life," Touma said simply, "He may be created in my image, but that doesn't mean he has no value as a human being. I would want to help him form his own identity, create a name for himself, live his own life."
"So basically, treat him like a younger sibling," Saten summarized.
"Well, I wouldn't put it like that, but pretty much," Touma shrugged.
"That's so nice of you, Kamijou," Uiharu complemented, "Now I kind of feel bad for just considering a clone as a tool."
"Yeah, me too," Haruee agreed.
"Well, that's Kamijou for you," Saten laughed.
"Treat them like a younger sibling, huh?" Mikoto mused quietly.
The next day was rather slow compared to the last couple of days. Touma had no remedial classes that day, so that just left Judgement work for him. He was told to patrol a large sum of the area of District 7 for money card hunters and other notable instances of suspicious behavior. For the most part, he didn't find too much of note. By the late afternoon, there were only about a dozen cases of money cards and even fewer cases of other suspicious behavior. In most cases, a quick talking down was all that was needed to get people to hand over the money cards they found, and if things got violent a quick judo throw was all that was needed to incapacitate the perpetrators. Aside from tripping over a few abandoned soda cans and helping a few people with directions, nothing happened that was worth writing home about.
Things only got interesting when Touma pasted by a train station as the last stop on his patrol.
"Hey, it's big brother!" the unfamiliar call of a little girl cried.
Turning his attention to the voice, Touma saw a group of six elementary school kids gathered around a set of toy vending machines. Not too odd of a sight if not for the several shopping baskets of toy pods sitting nearby. In addition, none of the kids were operating the machines. Instead, there was a seventh person solely focused on one of the machines, and it was a person Touma was very familiar with.
"Zapper? Is that you?" Touma asked, approaching the group just as the girl in question turned the nob of the machine.
In an instant, the girl froze in place, completely unable to move. She then turned her head ever so slowly, revealing that she was indeed Mikoto Misaka.
"What are you doing here, idiot?!" Mikoto shrieked in embarrassment, jumping up from her squatting position.
"Um, going on patrol?" Touma replied lamely, "I should really be the one asking you that."
"Hey, big sister, look!" the little girl that called out to Kamijou earlier interrupted, holding out the pod that just came out of the machine.
After a quick glance at the pod, Mikoto immediately took it from the girl and opened it up, revealing a Gekota button. She held it up to shine in the sun, barely holding back tears of joy at the sight of the button.
"You did it, good job!" the little girl cheered as she and the rest of the children applauded.
"Isn't it pretty?" Mikoto asked, suddenly oblivious to Touma's presence.
Touma took this time to observe and analyze the situation. He noticed the large number of other pods in baskets, each one holding a similar, non-Gekota button. He also observed that the children seemed to be exhausted from the grind they must have gone through to collect all of those buttons. Finally, he saw that one of the girls in the group was wearing an identical Gekota button.
"I get it now," Touma mused, "Your Collector's Fever, right?"
"What Collector's Fever? I don't have that," Mikoto denied.
"Really?" Touma smirked, "I remember being dragged around a carnival playing every game we had a chance of winning just so you could get every piece of Gekota merch you could get your hands on."
"Carnival? Are the two of you dating?" one of the children asked.
"No! It's not like that!" Mikoto denied, sparking slightly, "I would never date someone like him!"
"Geez, you don't have to deny it so strongly," Touma lamented with tears in his eyes.
"Don't feel bad, big brother," the girl that called him over said reassuringly, "I think you're really nice! I'm sure any girl would be lucky to date you."
"Thanks," Touma replied with a somewhat lighter tone, "So, Zapper, why are you hanging out with these kids anyway."
"That? Oh, I was just minding my own business when this little girl recognized me and invited me to play with them," Mikoto explained, "You remember right? From the Seventh Mist Graviton Bombing? You were helping her shop before the bomb went off."
"Oh, right!" Touma said, playing along, "Now I remember."
"That's right! Big sister saved me from the bomb that day!" the little girl cheered, "She used her super powerful Electricity Ability to protect me!"
"Really?!" one of the children asked in surprise.
"Was that really you?" another child asked.
"Actually, I didn't do anything," Mikoto admitted sheepishly.
"Huh?" all the children said in response.
"Yeah. Really, you should be thanking him," Mikoto said, nodding to Touma, "Even though he is a Level 0, he has a much cooler ability than mine."
"A Level 0 with a cool ability? Please, you're making that up," said one of the boys, completely unconvinced.
"Oh no, it's true. He has the ability to negate other abilities. That's how he stopped the bomb," Mikoto explained.
"Okay, now I know you're making that up," the same boy cried.
"Well, how about I give you a demonstration!" Mikoto yelled, firing an electric attack at Touma without warning.
Acting on instinct, Touma jumped back and held out his right hand. As soon as the attack collided with Imagine Breaker, the sound of shattering glass was heard, and the attack vanished as if it was never there to begin with.
"Would you quit doing that!" Touma yelled in indignation.
"Wow, it's true!" the little girl that recognized the older students cheered.
"What did I tell you? Totally negated," Mikoto smirked.
"Thanks for saving me back then, big brother," the girl said with a smile.
"It was nothing, really," Touma insisted, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, "So, what exactly are you planning on doing with all these buttons."
Upon bring the conversation back to the topic of the buttons, everyone else present simply shrugged their shoulders. Clearly, no one considered what they would do with all of the remaining buttons that came from the hell that was the toy vending machine. Pinching his nose, Touma let out a sigh of frustration.
"Alright then, you kids help yourselves to whatever buttons you want," Touma instructed, "I'll get some bags to hold the rest of them. I think I know a place I can take these."
"What exactly do you have in mind?" Mikoto asked.
"Let's just say this place is filled with children that could use something extra to smile about," Touma said vaguely as he went to grab some grocery bags.
After getting all of the extra buttons into a couple of bags, the sun had started to go down, signifying that it was approaching curfew. Thus, Touma and Mikoto escorted the children to the bus stop so they could go back to their child care facilities. Each of the children had taken about two or three buttons each, each on pinned on some location on their shirts. Then entire scene was actually a bit humorous. With Touma still wearing his armband, one might think the two older students were running a babysitting service and were returning from a field trip.
"We played for hours and hours!" cheered the little girl that knew Touma and Mikoto best.
"Just because you're on vacation doesn't mean you can do nothing but play games. You have to do your summer homework too," Mikoto instructed, "You don't want to end up like this idiot."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Touma cried in indignation.
"Relax, I'm just kidding," Mikoto laughed.
"Not laughing," Touma replied flatly.
"You two act like an old married couple," one of the boys in the back of the group commented.
"Hey, I thought I told you it's not like tha-" Mikoto began to deny before suddenly stopping in her tracks.
She just stood there, starring into space. Touma found this very off-putting. Normally, she didn't let anything stop her from denying something that was clearly not true, especially if that something was embarrassing. Yet here she was, stopping before she could finish her sentence.
"Hey, Zapper, are you okay?" Touma asked in concern.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing," Mikoto replied, snapping out of her thoughts, "I'm fine. Let's keep moving."
Touma didn't buy it for a second. He just called her by the nickname she hated so much and didn't react to it at all. Clearly, something was occupying her thoughts enough for her to not register minor annoyances like that, forcing her to put up a façade of being alright. He would leave it alone for now, but this wasn't the end of it. That much Touma knew.
Eventually, the group found a bus stop heading in the direction of the children's home. Coincidentally, it was also headed in the same direction that Touma was going.
"Thanks for playing today," the little girl said thankfully as she and the other children got on the bus.
"Any time. You stay safe going home," Mikoto replied.
"Don't worry," Touma said reassuringly, "I'll keep an eye on them until we part ways. Just make sure you do the same, Misaka. I don't want you to end up in some sort of situation where I or anyone else, including you, can't help you."
Mikoto was slightly taken aback by this. Touma rarely ever used her actual name. The only times he ever did so was if the situation was serious, like during combat or something like that. Yet here he was in a totally relaxed state, using her actual name. This could only mean he considered the situation as serious. Thus, he feared for her emotional wellbeing.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine," Mikoto insisted, albeit unconvincingly.
"Okay then," Touma resigned, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye," Mikoto replied as the bus door closed.
As the bus drove away, Touma took a window seat near the back of the bus with the rest of the children. Looking out the window, Touma could see Mikoto rushing off somewhere, clearly chasing after whatever was bothering her earlier. All Touma could do was watch and hope it was nothing too serious. He actually considered it a blessing that he was taking all these buttons to Asunaro Park. It would give him a chance to speak to his old caretaker, Kazuko Shigenomori, for some much needed advice.
The children's stop came before his, leaving Touma alone on the bus until his destination. Soon enough, he got off the bus and found himself at the front door of Asunaro Park. After knocking on the door three times, it opened up to reveal the smiling face of Kazuko Shigenomori.
"Hi, Miss Shigenomori," Touma greeted his old caretaker, "or is it Mrs. Daigo now?"
"No, it's still Shigenomori," the aged woman laughed, "It's nice to see you again, Touma. What brings you here?"
"Through some certain circumstances, I happened to have collected a large number of buttons," Touma explained, holding up the multiple grocery bags worth of buttons, "I figured I would bring these here for all the children. May I come inside? There's also something else I needed to talk to you about."
"Of course," Miss Shigenomori replied, "I'm sure the children would be happy to receive such a gift, especially from you in particular. Please, come in."
Once inside the building, Miss Shigenomori called all the children into the play room where Touma presented them with the bags of buttons. He told them to go to town and take whatever buttons they wanted so long as they didn't fight over them. Of course, he wasn't expecting there to be any fighting considering Mikoto drew pretty much every button they had in stock before finally getting her Gekota button.
With the children preoccupied, Touma and Shigenomori went into the kitchen to talk. The caretaker made the two of them some tea before sitting down at the table to hear Touma out.
"So, what did you need to talk to me about?" Miss Shigenomori asked.
"Well, do you remember my friend, Misaka?" Touma inquired, "The Level 5 that volunteered here a while back."
"Oh yes, I remember her. She was such a big help," the aged woman replied, "Is something the matter with her?
"That's the problem, I'm not entirely sure," Touma explained, "Recently, she's been extremely jubilant, more so than she normally is. From what everyone else was telling me, she was bouncing off the walls the other day. When I ran into her today, she was playing with a group of children and trying to get a specific button. She's actually the reason I had so many buttons in the first place."
"Well, aside from a case of Collector's Fever, I don't see anything particularly wrong with her," Miss Shigenomori observed.
"I thought the same thing, but then, as we were walking the children home, she suddenly froze up, like she had a strange feeling about something. It was like the happiness was a façade and the strange feeling just broke it," Touma went on, "Not only that, she's recently heard about some rumors involving an experiment to clone Level 5s, with her as the prime candidate for the base of the clones. There's so going on that I'm not sure what to make of any of it. I want to help her if she has a problem, but I'm completely in the dark about this."
"Well, I'm not sure about cloning experiments, but it seems like you care deeply for her," the old caretaker noted, "You want to help her in any way you can, right?"
"Of course I do!" Touma exclaimed, "She's my friend, so of course I want to help her. Not only that, but she's helped me in so many ways that I couldn't possibly thank her enough for. I just want to be able to return the favor in some way."
"Then just keep doing what you're doing," Miss Shigenomori encouraged, "I know it's not much of an answer, but I think it's the best one. If you really want to help Misaka like you say, then keep an eye on her. Take note of the signs and step in if you think she really needs it. I'm sorry if this wasn't much help."
"No, don't worry about it. You've helped plenty," Touma said, releasing a breath he didn't realize he was holding, "I guess I just needed someone to talk to, get it all off my chest. Thank you, Miss Shigenomori."
"Don't mention it," Miss Shigenomori replied, "I told you, I'll be here if you ever need anything."
"I appreciate it," Touma said as he got out of his seat, "I better get going. It's getting late and I have remedial class tomorrow. I'll show myself out."
"Feel free to come back any time. Be sure to stay safe on the way home."
"I will. Congratulations again on the engagement."
After a quick goodbye to the children, Touma left Asuanaro Park and took the bus home. When he got home, he made himself a quick meal and got ready for bed. Touma knew that he would have to wait if he wanted to help Mikoto. Until then, he would stay observant and do what he could to help her. The best way to do that was to be properly rested. By nine o'clock, Touma had lied down in his bed, ready to rest up for tomorrow. However, just like a few nights before, he could get himself to fall asleep.
"For some reason," Touma whispered to himself, "I have a strange feeling that something just went terribly wrong."
Well, that's the chapter. Lots of episodes covered in one chapter this time around, all from Touma's perspective. I'm going to be jumping perspectives every few chapters or so, depending on whose perspective is most important for telling the narrative. Next time, we'll be checking in with Mikoto as she has her first encounter with Accelerator, or as Touma knows him, Yuri Suzushina. Now that's going to be a massive can of worms.
I'll see you all then. Leave a review if you like.