Hello internet and happy Fathers's Day! How you all had a great time with your old man!

Now, the day I am posting this is a very special day, an not it is not because it was Father's Day. Today, I am posting the 50th chapter of this story! We did it everyone! 50 chapter milestone! Woo! But not only is today the day I reach 50 chapters, it is also my birthday! Somewhere in the world when I am posting this, it is June 17, 2019, and thus it has been another whole year since I was born! So consider this my birthday gift to all of you, an consider giving me a birthday gift in the form of a review for this chapter!

Now, I must warn you, this chapter is going to be a doozy. It is easily more than three times the length of previous chapters and more than double the length of the between Touma and Accelerator. This chapter is loooooog! In addition, I have a music selection which I will list below in a little with recommended songs to listen to when reading, just to give this chapter a bit more umph. Cues will appear in line breaks telling you when to start and stop each song. I suggest you find the original version of each song somewhere on Youtube before you start reading.

Songlist:
-"Sister's Noise" by fripSide
-"Eternal reality" by fripSide
-"Future gazer" by fripSide
-"LEVEL 5-judgelight-" by fripSide
-"Links" by Sachika Misawa
-Toaru Majutsu no Index II OST 2 Track 8: Electrical Chase

Quite a lot of fripSide, which I am only now realizing is the Japanese pronunciation of the phrase, "flip side".

Now that the semantic stuff is out of the way, let's look at the reviews you left last chapter.

awardedall: Finally hit the mark. Thanks for the kind words.

Healthcare: Glad you liked the last chapter so much. I think you're going to like this chapter even more. Part of the reason the chapter was so long was because I amped up the imagery a lot since such a large portion is fight scene oriented and original content. No plans for Accelerator to appear again prior to his appearance in the Three Stories Arc outside of some potential flashbacks. His mentality will be more reliant on Touma due to their closer connection.

felixiglesias8: You will find that out here and now. Glad you liked the chapter.

ahsoei: Glad you like how I've handled the blend of stories so far. Magic Side events will be getting more focus in the near future now that the Railgun S events are over. It was simply a matter of how the timeline lined up that kept Magic Side events on the back burner for so long.

ArmoredCoreNineBall: Here we are at the climax, and my last chance to do this story arc's original concept some justice. Hopefully, the deeper background of the main antagonist and a much more paralleled story structure thanks to the inclusion of Touma will make the arc much better.

mohamadstar94: What can I say? I am Kamikoto trash.

Anti-Mage 29: Thanks for the kind words. Here's the thing about Accelerator, he sees himself as a villain, but that doesn't mean he's not a protagonist. The revamped version of his character arc is going to be something similar to what I have for Shizuri: a person with blood on his hands trying to live a peaceful life despite his personal demons. Accelerator is going to try as hard as he can to be the Yuri Suzushina that Touma remembers, but will struggle as his twisted mentality and dark background continue to haunt him. Basically, a more extreme and nuanced version of his canon struggle to live in the light as a being of darkness.

janjakennen: I wouldn't worry too much about Hamazura's relationship with Touma at this point. I've already got it all planned, plus Touma's a pretty chill guy. Lampshades will be hung regarding the circumstances though. Again, I already have plans for Shizuri to learn about Magic, and its coming much sooner than WWIII. I won't exactly reveal when though. There's a handful of Magic Side events between know and the Battle Royale Arc, so I'll let you guess until it shows up. With how I've planned everything, Accelerator hanging out with GROUP more post WWIII will definitely be a possibility. As for the Daihasei, the Railgang will assist in some minor ways with Orianna, but I have yet to have the chance to fully read the Railgun Daihasei Arc, so the only thing I really have planned for that is how the climax plays out. However, I can guarantee it will be pretty spectacular. I may add the events of A Certain Scientific Accelerator if I deem them worthy of inclusion. I never got around to finishing the first arc and I've heard some questionable things about its quality. If it looks like I can do something with the events that are completely fleshed out, I'll consider it. Fun fact, this story and A Certain Scientific Accelerator have the same acronym, ACSA. More best friend parallels!

BlueJack22: Eh, I think this one is going to go out with more of a bang than a whisper.

OnePunchPlayer: Hopefully my efforts have made this arc a little more bearable for you. Sorry about the lack of Magic Side events. It's just how the timeline played out.

Anime-ted Life116: Glad you liked the chapter. I actually foreshadowed Touma duel wielding waaaay back when he first got the Mark 2 prototype ODD, way back in chapter 26, about half this story's current lifespan. You'll see how Touma handles the fight in this chapter. No, Shizuri is not a bro-con. I'm not some degenerate.

GENO BERSERK: The thought never really crossed my mind. However, you will be in for a big surprise regarding the Rank 6 Level 5.

Herox100: Thank you!

Isokage (Guest): Glad you liked the chapter. Don't worry, I have all the stuff up until post-WWIII planned out with everything you've been wishing for. If you want to see a crossover between Animan Temple and Tiger Dojo, I suggest you head over to my collaboration work "Swords of a Brother Unlimited" since that is a Nasuverse crossover that would actually make sense for the Tiger Dojo to show up in.

Rajarshi Sarkar: Well, I've kept up the good work. You might be surprised to see that STUDY is going to be exactly "silent" following this arc.

DATONEGUY (Guest): Glad you like the balance I've struck so much. This is sort of my passion project, so keeping quality up for this long was an absolute must. I like to think the quality has actually improved exponentially since I first started.

Kami (Guest): Oh, you know it! I didn't write the longest chapter in my history as an author just to have it fall flat!

And that's all of them. You all know the drill by now right? We've only been doing this for 50 chapters. Woo!

Disclaimer: All characters and plotlines of the "A Certain" franchise are credited to Kazuma Kamachi.

Chapter 50: Party Crashers

From the safety of their base of operations, the members of STUDY watched the video feeds from their Powered Suit army in amusement. Stationed at each of the four Academic Reach Assembly venues was a small handful of students, teenagers to be precise. In total, there were eight of them, three at two of the sites and one at the remaining sites each. To the members of STUDY, the sight was so absurd in was amusing.

The odds were stacked against the students and they were outnumbered 2500 to 1. While most of the students were unknown to the researchers, they did not seem to pose a serious threat. While half the students were Tokiwodai girls and thus high level Espers and one of the girls was in command of a sizable number of Security Robots, STUDY knew that even powerful Espers eventually tire and can be overwhelmed with pure numbers. It was a tactic tried and tested by many disgruntled Skill-Out gangs who had the guts to target powerful Espers. Even the urban legend known as Touma Kamijou wouldn't be too much of a threat. The young man may fight and defeat Level 5's on a regular basis, but even he can't fight a whole army singlehandedly. In short, STUDY was certain they had nothing to worry about.

"So, we have some uninvited party guests," Aritomi mused, "Poor things. Facing down twenty thousand Powered Suits? I think we can handle one or two gawky teenagers."

However, his confidence quickly transformed into surprise when the video feeds updates to show that the opposition was far greater than he originally anticipated. Behind the original eight students arrived dozens more, enough to possibly number into the low two hundreds. These new students were equipped with crowd control pikes and shields. The shields were all branded with a green and white emblem depicting a shield and stripes, the same emblem seen on all the students' armbands.

"You have disrupted the peace of Academy City!" Uiharu yelled out for the Powered Suits to hear.

"You've hurt our friend, an innocent little girl!" Saten cried out in outrage.

"This shield is a symbol of duty," Konori and Aomi chanted in unison.

"And that duty is to stop you!" Kuroko declared defiantly.

"You may have Anti-Skill under your control, but they're not the only law in this town," Aomi pointed out.

"You were so worried about locking down the big guns you forgot to account for the hidden blade," Touma remarked, "Now who's being neglectful of the little guy's capabilities?"

"I say we do this Shirai style," Konori suggested, much to the confusion of the Teleporter.

Acting in unison, every other member of Judgement present pulled on their armbands, making them clearly visible for all to see.

"Judgement is on the scene!" they all yelled in unison for STUDY to hear.

"Eh!?" Kuroko cried in confusion.

For a moment, a look of concern washed over Aritomi's face. As a testament to his own genius, he had taken every precaution to lock-down any resistance he and STUDY could have faced. He gained influence over Anti-Skill and suspended troublesome figures within the organization. He delivered the instruments of his revolution through official routes so that if they were ever discovered by nosy Judgement Officers, the students would be in the wrong if they acted out. However, he never would have expected the students to stage a large-scale counterattack, especially with how outnumbered they were.

Despite the new opposition, Aritomi remained calm, quickly recomposing himself. It was just a simple matter of the Powered Suits slipping and/or breaking past the forces of Judgement. Surely, twenty thousand autonomous Powered Suits could handle that.

"Proceed as planned," Aritomi ordered the rest of STUDY, "We will not let this stop us."

"Sister's Noise" by fripSide [Start]

At Kuroko's venue, the Powered Suits made a mad charge for the gate, intending to plow through all the students and escape into the city. The first Powered Suit rammed straight through the iron gate but was stopped by a group of Judgement Officers intercepting it with their crowd control shields, holding it in place. With the suit stopped in its tracks, Kuroko reached into her duffle bags and pulled out three javelins. She then teleported the javelins into the halted Powered Suit, effectively making it incapable of function and thus useless to the Diffusion Ghost operating it.

Charging ahead of the rest of the Judgement officers in her group, the Level 4 teleported into the air and pulled out another set of javelins. With practiced and trained precision, she teleported her weapons into the next wave of Powered Suits, causing them to stumble and collapse on the ground, no longer operational.

"By all means, come and get it!" Kuroko dared, standing on top of one of the fallen Powered Suits, "I am Kuroko Shirai, Sissy's right-hand gal, and by my pledge, none of you will get past me!"

At Konori's venue, the chief of Judgment Branch 177 and her deputy was expertly directing the many Judgement Officers under their care on how to attack the Powered Suits. Since only a small portion of Judgement were high level Espers with considerable combat strength, overpowering the massive number of Powered Suits was not an option. Instead, the plan was to exploit the simple programming that the Diffusion Ghosts operated on to keep the Powered Suits distracted.

One Judgement Officer would attack a Powered Suit with a crowd control pike, gaining its attention and getting its to follow him/her. Then, a group of shield wielding officers would rush in and block the Powered Suit's path, giving the previous target the chance to escape. From there, another officer would attack the Powered Suit from the other side and the process would repeat for as long as possible.

"Careful now! Don't forget our main objective," Konori ordered over her commlink, "to prevent these things from leaving the premises!"

Over at Saten, Uiharu, and Touma's venue, they and their group of Judgement Officers were using a similar tactic, made simpler by Uiharu's use of Security Robots and Touma's Imagine Breaker.

"We're buying time!" Saten called out, slamming her bat into a Powered Suit to gain its attention, "Misaka is sure to come up with something!"

"I for one am glad that these machines are run with simple, easily controlled programming!" Uiharu yelled as she typed away at her handheld, sending another squadron of Security Robots to distract a Powered Suit.

"Even if they are effectively robots, they're still operated by an Esper ability!" Touma cried as he charged at a Powered Suit, "Which means, I can still do this!"

With his two ODDs in hand in baton mode and a bracelet on each wrist, Touma parried the Powered Suit's crowbar as if he was wielding a pair of duel swords. Knocking the robot's weapon out of its hand, the unlucky Level 0 tossed the Mark 1 in his right hand aside gave the machine a quick tap. Instantly, the sound of shattering glass rang out the Powered Suit fell limp, the Diffusion Ghost dispelled. Turning his attention to another Powered Suit, Touma passed his Mark 2 over to his right hand and shifted it into spear mode. With a boosted throw curtesy of the later model's additional thrusters, he lodged his Mark 2 into the headpiece of the Powered Suit, cracking its visor and earning its attention. With the second suit now charging at him, Touma mentally recalled the Mark 1 back to his right hand in staff mode and did the same.

"My biggest weakness is normal weaponry," Touma yelled as he pole vaulted over the second Powered Suit, "but STUDY did me a favor and made all their machines easy target!"

As he jumped over the Powered Suit, Touma abandoned his Mark 1 on the ground and grabbed his Mark 2, still lodged in the suit's headpiece, with his left hand. The force of Touma's jump and subsequent grab knocked the machine off balance, tipping it over on to its back and giving Touma a gentler landing. Once on the ground, the high school boy gave the Powered Suit a quick slap on the head with his right hand, dispelling the Diffusion Ghost with Imagine Breaker.

At Kongou. Wannai, and Awatsuki's venue, the trio of Tokiwodai girls had a more offensive take on their agreed battle tactic. Manipulating the water she stored in her thermoses, Wannai attacked several Powered Suits with a simple water whip, drawing their attention towards her and Awatsuki, the latter of the girls carrying the former in her arms.

"First you pick a target," Wannai summarized as she returned her water whip to one of her thermoses.

"Then it's all just a matter of maintaining aggro!" Awatsuki concluded, rushing off with several Powered Suits on her tail.

With a combination of Wannai's Hydro Hand ability and Awatsuki's Float Dial ability, the two were able to create a very effective mode of transportation. By manipulating a small amount of water under Awatsuki's short board and increasing the buoyancy of said shortboard, the two Tokiwodai girls were able to create a small, localized wave of water that allowed them to freely surf anywhere on the battlefield. With their superior mobility, the two girls were able to stay well ahead of the Powered Suits pursuing them and lead them straight to the waiting Kongou.

"Those are my friends. Don't you even think about harming them," Kongou declared, opening her fan to prove a point, "I simply won't allow it."

As soon as the Powered Suits were in range, the Level 4 Aero Hand user sprung her skillfully planted trap. On the ground in front of her were several ejection points she had placed ahead of time. Once all the suits were in position, she activated all of them, releasing multiple massive jets of air underneath the suits' feet. These geysers of air were several meters high, launching the Powered Suits caught in them just as high. When the geysers ceased, the suits fell to the ground with enough force to scatter their pieces everywhere, leaving them unable to function.

All across Academy City, Judgement was fighting with everything they had to keep this army of Powered Suits contained. They used every strength, skill, ability, weapon, and tactic available to them to make sure the job was done. STUDY had planned to threaten the entire city, but Judgement wasn't about to let that happen. So long as there was something worth protecting within Academy City, Judgement would step in to do what they could to help.

"They're better than I expected," Sakurai mused as she watched several of the video feeds from their Powered Suits go dark as the suits were disabled.

"Yeah well, our attrition rate is still running at less than 2%," Sekimura pointed out confidently, trying to find a reason to not have to worry too much about the opposition.

However, Aritomi knew better. This counterattack to their revolution could only have been the work of the Railgun. After all, she was the one who broke into one of their labs in the search for answers and later escape, thus making her the only logical person who would have known enough to organize such a counterattack. Even if she currently wasn't present among those intercepting their Powered Suits, it would be safe to assume that she was somehow involved, undertaking some other related task.

"I want to know where Railgun is," the leader of STUDY ordered, "Once you do find her, let Kosako and Madarame loose."

"Nunotaba, I'm increasing Janie's operating ratio. Keep everything regulated," Sekimura instructed the imprisoned researcher.

While Nunotaba was obedient in her instructions, her mind was occupied with other things. She was not focused on STUDY's plans, nor was she too concerned with Judgement's counterattack. Rather, she was mentally occupied with her own decisions up until now, the ones that ultimately lead to Judgement launching this resistance.

'Why did I do that?' Nunotaba thought to herself, 'Of all names, why did I give Febri that particular one? Was it because I believe in her? Yes, maybe that's it. I just hope I'm right. And what of that boy, Touma Kamijou? Misaka seems to have a lot of faith in him, but why is that? He doesn't look like anything special. Even if he does possess this mysterious Imagine Breaker and has defeated Accelerator, he's still a pretty normal student. What is it about him that Misaka has so much faith in? Should I be able to believe in him as well?"

Before Nunotaba could come to any clear conclusion, she and the rest of STUDY head a massive explosion, shaking her from her thoughts.

"What was that!?" Sekimura asked in a panic.

"We have an intruder!" Sakurai replied, typing away at her computer console, "Is that… Railgun!?"

Sure enough, on the video feed for the exterior of their base was Mikoto Misaka herself, along with Febri in her arms.

"How did she find this place?" Sekimura asked in utter confusion.

While the rest of STUDY was stumbling for answers as to how they were discovered, it didn't take long for Aritomi to put it all together. When Mikoto escaped from their imprisonment, she was not the only prisoner in the cell. Nunotaba was with her the entire time, the perfect opportunity to reveal the nuances to their plans. With this inside information provided by their treacherous slave, it was became all too obvious how Judgement was able to create such an effective counterattack.

'Damn that girl,' Aritomi growled in his head, gritting his teeth as he eyed the traitor.

Following Febri's directions, Mikoto had found herself in the middle of one of Academy City's massive sports arenas. It was a special stadium normally used for large events during the Daihasei Sports Festival, the largest annual demonstration of Academy City's Espers. As a metaphor, the choice of location for their base of operations made a twisted amount of sense. STUDY released their army from the Reach Assembly venues, the centers for celebrating scientific research, while pulling the strings from sports arena, the center for celebrating Esper abilities. It was as if to say, "Our intelligence will bring chaos to this city, all because you were all too busy celebrating Espers."

"Hello, Railgun," a familiar voice called out over the stadium's loudspeakers.

Turning to the source of the voice, Mikoto saw a video feed of Aritomi somewhere within the stadium's lower levels.

"Sorry for the mess," the man said in faux politeness, "I didn't expect company, but you seemed to have arranged your own invitation."

Reaching under frame, Aritomi pulled out a beaten and bruised Nunotaba. Clearly, the enslaved researcher had been found out.

"Shinobu?" Febri cried, "Shinobu!"

"And now that you're here, I'm afraid you leave us with little choice!" Aritomi declared with a crazed smile, shoving the injured girl out of frame, "Please enjoy our hospitality!"

On command, several hundred Powered Suits rolled out on to the stadium field. In no time at all, they had completely surrounded Mikoto and Febri, leaving them with no means of escape. Looking at all the machine around them, Febri couldn't help but feel a little scared.

"Don't worry," Mikoto said comfortingly, "We'll see her soon enough."

"All you Espers have one common weakness: you're only human," Aritomi explained rather smugly, "Which means you will eventually tire. And you are no exception to this rule. I don't care what level Esper you are. When you're this outnumbered, you don't stand a chance."

"Yeah, you're right," Mikoto admitted, "If I were all alone, this would be difficult."

Memories of her encounter with ITEM flashed in her mind, reminding her of how painful the struggle was.

"However, things are different this time."

The memory of Touma promising to save her, her sisters, and Yuri flashed in her mind, reminding her of the relief she felt when someone so dear to her heart offered a hand.

"All of us…"

The thought of all of her friends holding off STUDY's army of Powered Suits crossed her mind, insuring her that everyone she knew was trying their hardest for her and Febri's sake.

"… are fighting against you together!"

With a defiant scream, Mikoto released a massive surge of electricity, tossing the first wave of Powered Suits aside with massive amounts of electromagnetic force. Moving Febri to her back, the Level 5 rushed at the next wave of Powered Suits as the previous wave fell on to the ground as piles of scrap. As ran through the mob of machines, she unleashed uninhibited amounts of electricity upon them all. When she first encountered one of these suits, she held back, believing there to be someone operating it inside. But not this time. She knew they were all empty and hollow. She would not hold back this time. Determined to get STUDY's control room, she unleashed all her power and used her ultimate attack, her railgun, to utterly decimate the Powered Suits opposing her. Once was once hundreds of suits strong was reduced to a mere couple dozen. However, that didn't mean the fight was over just yet. Soon enough, dozens more Powered Suits arrived to take the place of destroyed battalion.

"Sister's Noise" by fripSide [End]

"Incredible," Sakurai gasped in awe, genuinely impressed by Mikoto's power.

"We have planned for this situation!" Aritomi barked, determined not to lose, "Activate scenario B-7! Send Kosako and Madarame, now!"

Across Academy City, Judgement continued to fight the army of Powered Suits with everything they had. However, their attack and formation slowly began to erode. For some reason unknown to the students, all of their wireless devices started to malfunction. Communication between the different groups was cut off, as was that between leadership and foot soldiers. Uiharu was quickly revoked of her ability to command her Security Robots, and Touma's ODDs immediately collapsed into stand-by mode, unable to properly connect with their respective bracelets.

"Rotten luck," Touma growled as he narrowly dodged an attack from a Powered Suit he was fighting before backhanding it with Imagine Breaker.

Once the Powered Suit was dealt with, Touma stowed away his malfunctioning weapons and rushed back to Uiharu and Saten to regroup.

"This is bad!" Touma cried out, "STUDY's jamming all our wireless devices! We have no communications and both my ODDs are malfunctioning!"

"Same with me!" Uiharu panicked, "I can't get any commands to my Security Robots!"

"And I think it's about to get even worse!" Saten lamented, pointing towards the venue's parking lot.

Following Saten's directions, the members of Judgement was two new arrivals to the battle. Standing in the middle of parking lot were two massive armored vehicles. They were covered in black bulletproof armor, had bulletproof one-way glass, stood on six legs tipped with massive wheels, and were equipped with twin Gatling Guns. It was the kind of machine one would expect to be used in a full-on war between countries, not so much a rebellion against a perceived oppressive society.

"It is time for you all to learn a lesson," Kosako lectured over one of the vehicles loudspeakers, "Intellectual prowess cannot be neglected, or we will all become helpless sheep enthralled by the Espers."

"Would have been a lot more satisfying to go up against Railgun," Madarame mused, "Well, what are you going to do!?"

To the shock of everyone present, the two members of STUDY piloted their machines with no mercy, charging at the battalion of students at full speed and unleashing a deadly curtain of Gatling Gun fire.

"Everyone, scatter!" Touma yelled out the order to everyone within hearing range, taking command.

As the massive machines tore up the venue parking lot, the many members of Judgement ran frantically to take cover anywhere they could. As Touma did the same, he noticed off on his left that one of the officers, a high school girl about his age, had tripped in the panic. To make matters worse, STUDY was wielding their guns wildly, completely oblivious to the fact that they're line of fire was drawing closer to the collapsed girl. Acting quickly, Touma made a sharp turn left towards the girl, picking up one of the many discarded shields scattered across the parking lot.

"Get down!" Touma cried as he pounced at the girl.

Just as the girl was struggling to get up on her feet, Touma tackled her on to the ground and pressed her underneath his body for cover. With the massive shield in his left hand, he planted it into the ground on its side as to cover the entire length of his body, barely managing to block the curtain of fire.

Once the hail of bullets had passed, Touma pulled himself off the girl to give her some space.

"Are you alright?" Touma asked, his breath heavy.

The girl simply nodded with a nod and slight blush.

'This is bad,' Touma thought to himself as he watched the two members of STUDY rampage, 'They're using heavy weaponry on a couple of teenagers. They're completely insane.'

Unknown to Touma, the situation was far worse than he realized. At each of the other Reach Assembly venues, another pair of Large Mobile Weapons was unleashing the same kind of carnage, operated via Janie's Diffusion Ghost ability. At the sports stadium, Mikoto was faced with three more Diffusion Ghost operated Large Mobile Weapons, each one equipped with a Particle-Function Waveform High-Speed Cannon modelled after Shizuri's own Esper ability, and to make matters worse she was starting to get worn out. Now, not only was Judgement severely outnumbered, they were laughably outgunned.

Prioritizing getting everyone to safety, Touma helped the girl he just saved up and ushered her towards higher ground. With any luck, the top of the venue's stairs should be unreachable for the wheel transferring Large Mobile Weapons. Racing towards the stairs himself, the unlucky high school boy was regrouped with Uiharu and Saten. Unfortunately, the two members of STUDY were right on their tails, and outrunning a high-speed, mobile vehicle did not seem to be within the realm of possibility. Thankfully, they didn't have to.

"Eternal reality" by fripSide : Start

Out of nowhere, a massive white truck of some sort with the words "Kongou Airlines" printed on it raced on to the scene and rammed aside the two Large Mobile Weapons, flipping them on their sides. The massive machine stopped in front of the three students and opened it door to reveal a very familiar teacher.

"Sorry we're late," Yomikawa apologized, greeting the students from the door, "But your friend suggested I bring this along."

"Wait, isn't this…," Saten gasped in awe.

"Let us take care of contacting the other sites, okay," a very familiar student greeted from inside the massive machine.

"It's Haruue!" Uiharu cried in joy.

"That's right! And Banri is helping as well," the Level 2 Telepath confirmed, "We're creating a network of Telepaths!"

True to Haruue's words, several Telepaths of various levels had positioned themselves at the other Reach Assembly venues, relaying messages between one another so all of Judgement could communicate even without their wireless electronics. It was all part of Konori's plan. After all, the only way to beat a chess master with multiple contingency plans was to have more contingency plans.

"Hey Kamijou!" a third passenger on the large truck called out, "Thought you saw the last of me, didn't you?"

"Doctor Bakuya?" Touma asked in confusion as the good doctor climbed down from the vehicle, "What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd drop by and give you this," the doctor replied, pulling something out of his lab coat.

At a first glance, the object the doctor brought along didn't look like anything special. It was just a simple metal disk no larger than a dinner plate with what appeared to be a touchscreen on one half of its face. However, a simple press on said touchscreen expanded the disk into the form of a shortboard.

"Is that…," Touma gasped in awe.

"It is," Dr. Bakuya smiled proudly, "The first working prototype of my experimental hoverboard, capable of interfacing with your ODD's systems and has voice command and A.I. assist in the event it can't connect. I was hoping you could do some field testing for me."

"And you can start by heading for the sports arena in District 7," Haruue added, "According to the Telepath Network, Misaka's there right now surrounded by several Powered Suits and Large Mobile Vehicles. It looks like she might need some help."

"I see we're not the only ones to have a couple of new toys," the voice of Kosako echoed behind the group.

Turning around, the group of Disciplinary Committee officials and associates looked on in horror to see that the two Large Mobile Weapons had recovered from the previous attack and now had their Gatling guns trained on them.

"Too bad you won't get the chance to use them!" Madarame taunted as he and his partner prepared to fire.

Unfortunately for STUDY, something else stepped in to interfere with their attack. Just before the vehicles fired their weapons, two small objects bounced on the tops of each of them. As soon as they made impact, the two objects exploded with a splat, leaving behind massive blotches of an orange substance on the windshields of vehicles, blinding the pilots.

"What is this!?" Madarame cried in confusion, "Is this paint!? Who attacks with paint!?"

"Veterans of paintball, of course," a familiar, cheeky voice called out, "I thought you guys were supposed to be geniuses?"

Turning towards the source of the voice, Touma was rather surprised to see just who had arrived to save the day. Standing on top of one of the many cards scattered about the parking lot was Motoharu Tsuchimikado himself, equipped with a paintball rifle in his hands and two more paintball grenades attached to his belt.

"Tsuchimikado?" Touma asked in confusion, "What are you doing here? And what's with the paintball gear?"

"Saving your sorry ass, obviously," the blond teen grinned, "Sorry it took so long. We had a lot of paintball gear to prepare."

"'We'?" Uiharu asked, puzzled by the choice of words.

On cue, six more students came out from behind the car Tsuchimikado was standing on top of, among whom included Pierce Aogami and Seiri Fukiyose. Each of the students was equipped with a couple of paint grenades and some form of paintball gun. For most, it was some form of assault rifle model, while for Aogami it was a sniper.

"Fukiyose and Aogami too?" Touma asked, his confusion not dwindling in the slightest.

"Tsuchimikado told us about how you were dealing with something big and had to skip on paintball, so we decided to lend you a hand," Fukiyose admitted with a shrug, "We can't let you die on us just as you finally do something worthwhile."

"Harsh," Touma deadpanned, not appreciating the fact that his classmate overlooked all his other contributions to Judgement.

"It's not just us, either," Aogami grinned, "The whole class is helping out, distracting all the other Large Mobile Weapons at the other sites with paintball fire."

"I can confirm!" Haruue called out, "I'm getting multiple reports of students with paintball weapons fighting the Large Mobile Weapons at the other venues, distracting them and jamming their joins!"

"Really?" Saten asked in amazement, "That's pretty intense."

"My class takes paintball very seriously," Touma shrugged.

"You just go help the Railgun," Tsuchimikado instructed, "We'll keep these pilots occupied while you get away on your hoverboard and the girls start up their own machine."

"Can I trust you to do this?" Touma asked wearily.

"Only when it counts," the blond double agent smirked in reply, as did the rest of the students present.

Despite himself, Touma couldn't help but smirk in return. Tsuchimikado was a liar, he proved that much after the Angel Fall incident, but he was still someone Touma could have faith in. No matter how many lies he tells, when the chips are down, the blond Esper/Magician hybrid was someone Touma could trust to get the job done.

With a new plan of attack, Touma grabbed the prototype hoverboard from Doctor Bakuya's hands and started running in the general direction of the sports arena Mikoto was in. After a few taps on the hoverboard's touchscreen, the board's air jets sprung to life and the voice command and A.I. assist activated. With the hoverboard fully active, Touma threw the board on to the ground in front of him and jumped on, immediately taking off through the streets of Academy City.

With Touma on his way to Mikoto's side and Uiharu and Saten making preparations within the machine Yomikawa had brought along, Touma's classmates stepped up to the plate with Aogami in the lead.

"Alright everyone! Let's show these bastards what Year 1 Class 7 is capable of!" the blue haired class representative cried, rallying his classmates to charge ahead.

As the two STUDY pilots struggled to clean their windshields and regain their visuals, the students from A Certain High School continued to pelt them with a curtain of paintball fire from all angles. Up in front, the likes of Tsuchimikado and Fukiyose assaulted the machines with rapid fire paintballs, repeatedly coating the windshields with paint to prevent Kosako and Madarame from seeing what was going on. At the same time, several other students aimed for the joints of the machines, specifically those of the Gatling guns, clogging them with paint and limiting their movement. All the while, Aogami stayed in the back, firing precise sniper paintball shots at sensitive parts of the machine to utterly cripple it, all with his eyes closed.

One might ask how a totally normal high school boy like Peirce Aogami could possibly making such sniper shots while his eyes were closed. In truth, he wasn't a normal high school boy. Unknown to many Aogami was actually a Level 5, the sixth ranked to be precise. As for his ability, it was the ability to see other people's perspectives. No, he couldn't easily empathize with others, rather he was able to hack into other people's brains and retrieve the signals and records that originated from their eyes so long as they were within his hypothetical line of sight. This effectively gave Aogami access to everyone's ocular memories in real time so long as they were within a certain position relative to his eyes. With the ocular memories of everyone attacking the Large Mobile Weapons, Aogami was able to triangulate specific locations and target them with extreme accuracy. This was the Esper Ability known as Mind's Eye.

On a rather unrelated not, this ability is the reason Aogami has such a deep appreciation for all forms of fetishes. Since he can see the ocular memories of anyone who enters he hypothetical line of sight, he has seen all existing fetishes from the perspectives of those who appreciate them and has grown to appreciate them himself. As for why he still bothers trying to peep on girls if he has this ability, the long and short of it is he enjoys the sport.

As Touma's classmates continued to pelt STUDY's machines with paint, Uiharu and Saten boarded the Kongou Airlines vehicle and began to prep it for battle.

"Isn't there a manual for this thing?" Uiharu asked, desperately trying to grasp the controls in the back seat.

"Yeah, Index and I were studying it all night last night," Saten replied, gripping the controls in the front seat.

"So you know how to operate it?"

"Well, I understand the basics," Saten admitted weakly, "But that's were Index comes in."

In a Judgement Branch Office somewhere in District 7, Index sat in a chair in the middle of the room with only Sphinx and a single Judgment Level 4 Telepath boy as company. They were far from the battle with STUDY, but for their jobs in this conflict they were exactly where they needed to be.

"And you promise you won't look into my other memories?" Index asked warningly, "There will be dire consequences for you if you see any memories that you're not supposed to."

"Of course," the Judgement officer replied, "Just keep the information you want to transmit in the front of your mind and everything else in the back. As long as you do that and I don't go digging, your friends will get the memories they need."

"Alright then," the nun-in-training conceded, "Let's begin."

Taking a deep breath, Index focused on the memory of the instruction manual she had studied the night before. While she herself was extremely inept with technology even with complete understanding of its composition and construction, she could still perfectly memorize everything one needed to use any piece of technology effectively.

Placing his hand on top of the girl's head, the Level 4 Telepath acted as a transmitter, relaying the frontmost memory in Index's mind, i.e. the manual she had studied last night, to those who could use said memory to good use.

Suddenly, everything within the cabin of the Kongou Airlines machine made sense to Uiharu and Saten. They had a full understanding of every component, every control, every function. The memory of the controls for the machine affectionately named Ekaterina II S by Mitsuko Kongou herself were so clear within the two girls minds, it was as if they had been piloting the machine for their entire lives.

"Alright!" Saten cheered, "We're ready to go!"

"Activating transformation sequence!" Uiharu reported, typing in the now perfectly memorized command into her control console.

Inside the machine's cockpit, Saten's seat moved downward while Uiharu's moved forward, allowing both girls an uninhibited view out the windshield. The exterior of the machine itself changed shape, starting with its overhang canopy splitting in half and swing out to the sides. Next, lower half of the machine folded in on itself, raising the cabin into the air and bring the front and back set of wheels closer together, effectively forming feet and legs. Then, the arms and main engine block and overhang swung downward, forming arms and a body. Finally, the back portion of machine closed around the cockpit, forming the head. What was originally a heavy-duty truck had transformed into a massive battle-ready mech.

"Alright everyone, pull back!" Aogami ordered his classmates from his sniping position, "Let's leave this to the mech pilots!"

Following their class representative's instructions, the students of Year 1 Class 7 immediately ceased their attack and pulled away from the two STUDY machines. With the assault of paint stopped, Kosuko and Madarame were finally able to clean off their windshields. This was a decision they would quickly come to regret, as the first thing they were able to see was the massive mech looming over them.

"What the hell is that!?" Kosako screamed in terror.

"Pull back! Pull back!" Madarame ordered in a panic, putting his machine in a hard reverse.

As his compatriot made a strategic retreat, Kosako tried to do the same but quickly discovered that he couldn't. Thanks to Aogami's sharp shooting and all the paint that accumulated in the joints, his machine's gear transmission had been cut, effectively leaving him unable to change gear settings. With him unable to run away, Kosako quickly fell victim to the massive mech's powerful fist. With deadly force, Saten dropped the mech's left arm on top of Kosako's machine, pinning it to the ground. Once the machine was pinned, Saten activated the mech's pile bunker, devastatingly crushing the Large Mobile Weapon's engine, rendering it useless.

Angered by the sight of his fallen ally, Madarame attempted to retaliate, intending to onload all its remaining ammunition on the offending mech. However, with all the paint that had been plastered on from the previous attacks, that course of action backfired in the most spectacular way possible. With so much paint clogging up the Gatling guns' mechanisms, the weapons ended up exploding from trying to fire. With no offensive options left to him, Madarame was left with only one course of action: run. Unfortunately, even that was outside the realm of possibility for the STUDY researcher as paint caught in the wheels increased friction and made travel much more difficult.

"Damn! Damn every last Esper!" Madarame cursed as he futily tried to fight back.

Even if his machine wasn't clogged with paint in every nock and cranny, Madarame had no chance of escape. In addition to its superior mobility specs, the Ekaterina II S also sported grapping clamps that could be launched and reeled in to capture unfortunate opponents. In this case, Madarame's machine was that unfortunate opponent, and was easily reeled in for the killing blow.

"You hate Espers? Well, I'm actually a Level 0!" Saten announced proudly as she drove the pile bunker through the second machine.

Once again, the tables had turned, this time in favor of Judgement and its allies. With the help of Ekaterina II S and A Certain High School Year 1 Class 7, STUDY was on the ropes.

When Touma arrived at the sports arena, he could hardly believe the sight. The field was filled with hundreds of Powered Suits, some destroyed, most still operational, all surrounding Mikoto and Febri. Directly in front of the two girls were three massive Large Mobile Weapons armed with additional cannons. On the jumbotron behind them was a video feed of Aritomi, overlooking the whole scene from the safety of his control room.

"These models are equipped with weapons made analyzing the city's fourth ranked Esper," Aritomi explained smugly, "Think of it as our version of Meltdowner. Enjoy your firsthand look."

'That made those things by analyzing Shizuri's ability!?' Touma thought to himself in horror.

Worried for the girls' safety, Touma pushed his prototype hoverboard to its absolute limit and raced to his friends' side. With Imagine Breaker stretched out in front of him, Touma weaved and bobbed through the crowed of Powered Suits, negating any and all Diffusion Ghosts standing in his path. Unfortunately, but the time he reached them it was already too late.

"Fire!" Aritomi commanded his machine.

"Mikoto!" Touma cried desperately as he reached out to her in a hopeless attempt to push her and Febri out of harm's way.

However, it turned out that not only was the rescue attempt hopeless, it was also pointless. With very little effort, Mikoto backhanded the blast from the machine with an electrical fist, redirecting the blast straight into the jumbotron, destroying it and cutting off Aritomi's transmission. Once the attack had passed, Mikoto finally took notice of Touma's arrival, more or less brushing it off.

"Oh, hey idiot. When did you get here?" Mikoto greeted nonchalantly, noticing the new piece of hardware recently gifted to him, "Nice ride."

"…Thanks?" Touma replied in an unsure tone, "I heard you two were in trouble and came to help as quickly as I could."

"Did you really think I couldn't handle these things on my one?" Mikoto deadpanned, "I've survived a life-or-death fight with your sister before, and that thing is nothing like the real deal."

As if on cue, three Meltdowner beams blasted through the lead machine's cockpit, destroying the hair capsule conduit inside and the Diffusion Ghost projected by it. With its operating system gone, the massive machine collapsed on the ground, making it the perfect podium for the clearly superior Shizuri Mugino Kamijou to make her appearance.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Shizuri growled, three orbs of frozen electrons orbiting around her, "That was the shittiest imitation I've ever seen!"

Turning to the Large Mobile Weapon to her left, she effortlessly destroyed it with some well-placed shots. Detecting a hostile force, the last remaining machine trained its weapons on the fourth ranked Level 5, only for Shizuri to utterly decimate it without even looking.

"Oh, give it a fucking rest!" Shizuri snapped, continuing to assault the last machine, "I'm sick of these pieces of crap."

After efficiently blowing up the last remaining Large Mobile Weapon, Shizuri finally took notice of the three younger children that had happened to see her little outburst. Focusing on Touma in specific, she gave him the classic interrogation glare, a common tool among older siblings for keeping their younger siblings out of trouble.

"Hello, Touma," Shizuri greeted in an icy cold voice.

"H-hey sis," Touma greeted in reply, sweating profusely.

"Care to explain why you, the princess, and the innocent little girl are doing in a stadium filled with weaponized Powered Suits and modified tanks?" the elder sister asked in a cool and collected manner.

"Tracking down the leaders of a terrorist attack in a Judgement run antiterrorist operation?" Touma answered in a way that seemed more like a question, having decided to go with the blunt honest route.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Shizuri let out a long, heavy sigh, as if conceding to the fact that this was a probably going to be a regular occurrence in her life thanks to the double nature of it.

"I'll scold you about this latter," Shizuri sighed.

Resigned to the current turn of events, she blasted a path through the Powered Suits that lead to one of the many doors in the stadium that lead to the lower levels.

"That door should lead you to the masterminds behind the whole fiasco," Shizuir explained, "I'll take care of the rest of these piles of scrap metal. I need to vent on them anyway. Now get out of here before the rest of my team sees you."

"Y-yes ma'am!" Touma stuttered, turning his hoverboard to face the path Shizuri had carved out for them, "Hop on, Mikoto."

"Wait, but-" Mikoto protested.

"I said hop on!" Touma repeated more urgently, prompting Mikoto to hop on to the back of the board and attach herself with magnetism.

With everyone on board, Touma tilted the hoverboard forward and surfed right through the door and down the halls of the stadium's inner structure, leaving Shizuri to unleash her fury on the Powered Suits outside. When Febri asked about Shizuri's more violent outburst, Touma tellingly avoided the topic outright, refusing to answer. There was no scorn much like that of an angry older sister, and Touma would prefer to avoid it as much as possible.

"Eternal reality" by fripSide : End

As he continued to watch the battle rage on from the various video feeds from the Powered Suits, Aritomi couldn't help but feel his anger rise to a boil. After losing contact with Kosako and Madarame, their revolution only seemed to spiral further into chaos. Attacks from paint of all things caused serious internal damage to many of their Powered Suits and Large Mobile Weapons. Interference from Judgement kept their Powered Suits distracted and contained within the Reach Assembly venues, preventing them from sowing the havoc they were programmed to. A massive mech piloted by a couple of amateur teenagers was making quick work of the Large Mobile Weapons. And worse of all, both the third and fourth ranked Espers were responsible for laying waste so some of their greatest weapons.

This was supposed to be their moment; they're chance to show the city what the as researchers were capable of. It was supposed to be the revolution that changed Academy City's very social structure; the revolution that make the city of science actually value what science was about. Instead, the revolution they planned and worked so hard on was being used as yet another display of Esper superiority; a showmanship of how the fantastical abilities of Espers should be valued over the painfully earned knowledge of researchers. What was originally meant to be their triumphant moment was instead being used as another example of the wonders of Espers.

"It is not over!" Aritomi growled, "It is not over! We have not been defeated!"

"See, that's where you're wrong," a familiar female voice interrupted the researcher's breakdown.

Turning towards the source, the remaining members of STUDY were greeted with the unpleasant surprise of Touma, Mikoto, and Febri standing at the entrance of their control room.

"You…," Aritomi snarled in outrage.

"By order of Judgement," Touma stepped forward, presenting his armband in an official manner, "You are to cease your attack and release your prisoners. You are all under arrest for illegal experimentation, disrupting public peace, and terrorist activity."

"Shinobu!" Febri cried in joy upon seeing the girl that freed her.

"Hi Febri," the injured researcher greeted in turn.

"Well, we came back for you," Mikoto smiled at Nunotaba, "Like I said, when this idiot makes a promise, you can pretty much consider it done."

"… This disgusts me," Aritomi growled, typing away at the main console, "Espers reveling in their triumph!"

Looking at the console her longtime lab partner was typing into, Sakurai's eyes widened with horror upon seeing what exactly the leader of STUDY was doing.

"Aritomi! What are you doing!?" the cofounder of STUDY cried in horror.

"Code input confirmed," the robotic voice of the computers chimed, "Initiating Final Phase."

Suddenly, all the monitors connected to Janie's capsule started going haywire, blaring various sirens and warnings. Up on the surface and around the city, the thousands of Powered Suits operated by Janie's Diffusion ghosts halted their attack, raising concerns among those who were fully aware of STUDY and their behavior.

"No! Don't Aritomi!" Sekimura begged.

"You can't be serious about this!" Sakurai cried in denial.

"You're setting the system to a runaway state!?" Nunotaba asked in shock, reading the nearby console.

"If I force the connection to break, Janie will die," Aritomi explained in a calm yet detached voice, "This is the Final Phase, also known as the last possible resort. I'm going to turn Academy City into ashes."

"Oh yeah?" Mikoto challenged, "And what exactly is your plan?"

To everyone's horror, Aritomi's immediate reply was to pull out a pistol and hold it up to the side of his head. It was obvious what he was planning: a suicide attempt before he himself was caught in the destruction.

"Come now, do you really expect me to tell you?" Aritomi taunted.

"What are you doing!?" Sakurai cried, apparently unaware of this part of Aritomi's plan.

"There's not much time left," Aritomi said, visibly quivering, "I hope you're ready. It's time to die!"

Faced with the inevitability of death, the rest of STUDY clammed up in despair. Watching their leader about to blow his own brains out made them freeze up, unable to process what was about to happen and how to stop. However, before Aritomi could pull the trigger and end it himself, a single voice cut through the silence, bringing everyone back to reality.

"Is this really what you want?" Touma inquired, surprising everyone else present.

"W-what?" Aritomi stuttered, his grip on the gun in his hand wavering.

"Is this really want you want?" Touma asked again, stepping forward in front of Mikoto and Febri, "To end it all right here and burn this city to the ground as your final act? Do you honestly think people will recognize your intelligence by going through with this? If you're really that smart, you should have realized it yourself, but this isn't going to get you the attention you desire!"

"W-what do you know!?" Aritomi asked in outrage, "You're just a Level 0 who happens to have a special right hand nobody can recognize! You're just like me, a person a great potential overlooked by those with more spectacular talents!"

"Even so, I'm content with my lot in life!" Touma countered, holding his position firm, "This right hand of mine gives me nothing but rotten luck, and does me no favors in making life in this city easier for me, but I'm okay with that! It gives me the power to help others, to make something of myself, to give me fulfilment in the simple act of helping others! You wanted to be recognized for you genius, but all you did was squander it! If this city goes up in flames, no one is going to remember you as an intellectual! They won't even remember your name! You'll go down in history as nothing more than the terrorist that destroyed Academy City! Is that really how you want to be remembered!?"

Suddenly, Touma started sprinting full speed at the suicidal man, his right fist chambered back.

"S-stay back!" Aritomi stuttered, gripping his right wrist with his left hand to steady his aim.

Seeing this Level 0 rush at him like a madman, Aritomi's reflexives overrode his cognitive thinking. Before now, he had had hesitations about going through with his suicide. It was a human's natural desire to live, after all, and that desire couldn't easily be overridden. But at the same time, he had to stay true to his convictions. He made his choice, so he was going to see it through. These two parts of his mind were in constant conflict as he held the gun to his head.

However, now that Touma was rushing at him, Aritomi didn't know how to react. He couldn't think straight anymore, and his survival instincts were driven over the edge. With no clear direction on what action to take, he could only do what came impulsively. In this case, that impulsive action was closing his eyes tight and pulling the trigger.

When the gun fired, the entire room fell into silence. No one watching the events that just played out dared to say a word, for they had no words they could use to describe what they saw. The gun had indeed fired, and the bullet was released, but it did not land in Aritomi's head. Rather, it harmlessly lodged itself in the ceiling.

Opening his eyes, Aritomi was shocked to see that in the time it took for him to pull the trigger, Touma had closed the distance between them and grabbed the gun in his right hand and redirected it upward into the ceiling, missing the researcher's head entirely. However, Touma himself did not get through the scuffle unscathed. Although he wore a protective Kevlar glove on his left hand, the hand that was now gripping the gun, the glove does not protect very well against piercing and scraping strikes. Because of how he grabbed the gun and pushed it way, the bullet had shot right between his fingers, tearing through the Kevlar glove and the flesh underneath it, drawing blood.

Now Touma stood face-to-face with Aritomi, with a bloody left hand holding back a fired gun, and a clinched right fist chambered for a punch. Gritting his teeth and steeling his gaze, he looked Aritomi in the eyes and spoke in a low voice.

"If you really wanted to the people of this city to acknowledge you, you should have given them something worth acknowledging. You should have used your intelligence to help the people of this city. Instead, you used it to hurt innocent people in what amounts to a childish temper tantrum," Touma growled, "If you honestly believe that using your talents in this way will give you the recognition you so crave, then I'll shatter that messed up illusion!"

In a single swift motion, Touma pulled his left hand back, taking the gun with it, and launched his right fist forward, unleashing his signature right hook right into Aritomi's left cheek. The impact knocked Aritomi off his feet and on to his back, right into the console he had just used to condemn everyone in Academy City to death. His glasses were knocked off his face, one of the lenses cracking once it hit the floor. The leader of STUDY sat there defeated, still conscious but barely there.

"You know, you're wrong when you say that nobody recognized your genius," Touma added, his voice now much calmer, "I was there two years ago at the Reach Assembly. I recognized your genius and praised it. But looking at where you are now, I can't help but feel disappointed."

Taking a closer look at the boy who just socked him in the face, Aritomi couldn't help but feel stupid for not realizing it earlier. That spiky black hair, that average appearance, that blunt honesty in his words. How could he have missed it all this time.

Two Years Ago

"This is amazing," the young man gasped in awe, marveling at the piece of technology in front of him.

As part of a personalized display of their project, Aritomi and Sakurai created a special program for their nanomachines just for their special audience of one. After loading a few quick commands into one of the containment capsules, the nanomachines, once released, wrapped around the middle school boy's right arm, binding together into a gauntlet of sorts. As for the other capsule, it was programmed to have the nanomachines reconfigure themselves into various handheld objects, simple tools you could find in any workshop toolbox.

"Your invention is so versatile," the young man complimented, "I'm not surprised you managed to win first place this year."

"Thank you," Aritomi smiled solemnly, "It's nice to see someone appreciate our hard work."

"Yes," Sakurai agreed, "I only wish more people could know about."

"I'm sure you'll get there," the spiky hair boy encouraged, "If you keep at it, I'm sure you can turn these nanomachines of yours into something great. If you can turn them into something that could benefit regular people, they'll surely appreciate you and your work for it. You just have to keep researching the topic and find ways to expand on it."

"Perhaps," Aritomi admitted, although he had his personal doubts.

People knew Academy City best for its Esper abilities. Perhaps the best course of action was to create a new innovation in that field.

"By the way young man, could you please tell us your name?" Aritomi asked politely, "You never did introduce yourself."

"Really? Sorry about that," the middle school boy chuckled, "My name is Touma Kamijou. It's nice to meet you."

Present Day

Seeing this boy in front of him, the boy who gave him such encouragement all that time ago that he simply discarded in favor of a path of grandeur, Aritomi couldn't help but drop his head in defeat and disappointment. Not disappointment in how his plans had fallen apart, but rather disappointment in his own inadequacies as a person. Touma had given him a path to follow when they first met, one that allowed him to continue to uphold his belief that research should be done for the sake of knowledge, and he tossed it all aside for what amounted to a get-famous-quick plan. And in the process, he became what he hated most, even more than Espers. He became a researcher who cared from results more than the process itself. But the final nail in the coffin was that he had be proven undeniably wrong. There was no counterargument to be made, no rebuttal to Touma's claims. He was simply in the wrong, and now he had condemned everyone in the city to death, his most foolish mistake.

Meanwhile, Nunotaba couldn't help but watch Touma in awe as he triumphed. All her life, the world had appeared in to be nothing but ugly shades of grays. She saw it as a cold, unforgiving place that would chew you up and spit you at if you weren't careful. She had seen a couple of things in this world that gave it color, like the Sisters and Chemicaloid twins, artificial beings who were far more capable of seeing the world's beauty than she herself was. But now she was faced with something so full of color and warmth it made look everything else look pale in comparison. In that moment, Touma Kamijou looked more radiant than anything she had ever seen before in her entire life. He was a beacon of hope the shone brightly within a world of hash realitys.

'I see now,' Nunotaba thought to herself, 'This is why Misaka has so much faith in him.'

"You're supposed to be a genius, right?" Touma asked firmly, looking down at the defeated leader of STUDY, "Well, here's your chance to prove it. How do we stop this Final Phase of yours?"

"I-I," Aritomi stuttered, avoiding the Level 0's gaze, "I don't think…"

"It's too late now!" Sakurai yelled at the top of her lungs, finally fed up with all the melodrama, "The Final Phase can't be stopped! The plan involves scattering five thousand filaments into the skies of Academy City, and then running the Diffusion Ghost ability out of control, triggering a decay chain in the AIM Diffusion Fields that fill the area! The launch mechanism is located in some construction equipment in stationary orbit, thirty-five thousand kilometers up! Every second, it travels seven kilometers closer to us, so it can't be stopped! Not by anyone! Not even the master of vectors himself could stop that many filaments from reaching the city! Not a single one of you have a chance of stopping it!"

"You're right," Mikoto cut in, stepping forward, "Not a single one of us cab stop it, but that doesn't all of us can't."

"Future gazer" by fripSide [Start]

Using STUDY's base of operations as their own, Touma and Mikoto used the computers available to them to contact the rest of their friends still scattered across all the Reach Assembly venues. When they told everyone about the impending doom that was STUDY's orbital missile, they all immediately jumped at the chance to help in any way they can. All the while, the remaining members of STUDY sat at the sides of the room in handcuffs, unable to interfere in anyway, not that they would at this point.

"Hey, Febri is looking flush," Saten pointed out over the joint video call.

"Huh? Show me your lollipop," Mikoto requested in urgency.

"I guess it's all gone," Febri lamented, pulling out the used-up lollipop stick from her mouth.

"Tell me she has more!" Kuroko begged in a panic.

"That was the last one!" Touma cried, clearly worried.

"Let me handle this," Nunotaba interrupted, stepping behind the little girl and comfortingly placing her hands on Febri's shoulders, "It's not a matter of can or cannot, I will find a way. I'll do this somehow. Anything is possible because I know I'm not in this alone."

Despite how dire the situation was for Febri in particular, Touma and Mikoto couldn't help but smile at the sight. For as long as either of them had known the prodigy researcher, she had seemed to be the kind of person who preferred working alone. It was nice to finally see her start to work along with others.

As the team of Judgement Officers and associates continued to work towards stopping the incoming missile, they hit more than a few road bumps along the way. The first of these road bumps was the issue of actually computing the mathematical complexities of the incoming missile. As Uiharu quickly discovered, even if they had all the specs and information on the missile curtesy of the original designer, Judgement's systems just weren't powerful enough to handle such complex calculations in the amount of time they had available. They would need a supercomputer comparable to the now destroyed Tree Diagram or a computer network comparable to the Level Upper Network to be able to run the calculations as quickly as needed. Thankfully, Mikoto knew just the girls for the job, her sisters and their Misaka Network.

As the students worked tirelessly to save their city, Aritomi and the rest of STUDY looked on from the sidelines. Even if these children had foiled his plans, Aritomi couldn't help by admire them. Yes, among the group were high level Espers whom often overshadowed his work as a researcher in the past, but most of them were regular students. Despite their lack of spectacular powers, they were still making an effort to save this city from his mistake, using nothing but their ingenuity and creativity to make the best use of the resources they had available. They were the picturesque example of what he original envisioned research and innovation to be: people working together and sharing their knowledge and skills to solve problems and the mysteries of the universe together. They were the vision he had lost in his quest for recognition.

"It's an ingenious design," Uiharu explained over a video call, "When the missiles warhead reaches thirty thousand meters, it's set up to then subdivide into five thousand micro warheads. Once that happens, it will be too late. It's imperative that the missile be shot down before the split occurs, and the only way to do that would be to fly up to intercept it."

"Okay then, what do we do?" Saten asked, "Are we going to send Kamijou up so he can punch the thing and negate all the Diffusion Ghost before the warhead splits?"

"Please don't joke right now," Touma complained, "What are you expecting me to do? Turn into a dragon and fly up there myself? I'm only human here!"

"I could use my Aero Hand to rig Ekaterina II S into a makeshift, multistage rocket," Kongou suggested, "It will be rather taxing, but I believe I can pull it off if I can pinpoint the exact locations need to maintain a steady flight."

"That's a great idea!" Mikoto cheered, "If we do that, Kuroko and I can fly up to intercept the missile, then I can use the mech as ammunition for my railgun and shoot it down. Afterwards, Kuroko can teleport us back to the ground safely."

"I must admit, it's a pretty good plan," Kuroko reluctantly agreed.

"One problem though," Touma rebutted, "Three thousand meter above sea level is really high up, and you need to go even higher if we want to shoot down the missile before its warhead subdivides. At that high, oxygen is going to be scarce and the temperature will be way below freezing. Unless we happen to have some spacesuits on hand, I don't think intercepting the missile like that is going to be very effective."

"Then what do you suggest?" Mikoto inquired, dying to hear Touma's alternative answer.

"I think I may be able to help," a familiar voice cut in.

Turning towards the sound of the voice, Mikoto and Touma were rather shocked to see Aritomi of all people offering his help. Although he was still shaken from Touma's earlier punch, he was standing on his own two feet with his hands still bound by handcuffs and his head hung low.

"I have a set of items in storage here that can be of use to you," Aritomi explained in a calm and honest voice, "They are part of an old project Sakurai and I worked on together. If I can retrieve them, I can program them here to serve your purposes."

"Why should we trust you?" Mikoto asked somewhat bitterly.

Further adding to the student's shock and confusion, Aritomi fell to the ground on his hands and knees, his face hidden behind his hanging head.

"Please, let me do this," the leader of STUDY begged, "This is all my fault. This city is in danger because of my misguided ambitions. Just please give me the chance to try and fix this. Let me have the chance to actually make my intelligence useful to the people of this city, just for once!"

As Aritomi made his plea, his voice and body quivered uncontrollably, The entire time, he was unable to make eye contact with the people he was talking to, constantly looking at the floor in their general direction, showing interest but no confidence to maintain equal footing in a conversation. In that moment, he was simply a man who knew he had sinned and was desperately trying to find a way to make up for it. He was nothing more than a sorry, sad excuse for the man of brilliant intelligence the originally built himself to be.

As the leader of STUDY kneeled on the floor, he was fully expecting rejection. He had done so much to the people before him that he honestly didn't think he deserved forgiveness or even a second chance. He wasn't looking for either of those things. He was just looking for an opportunity to actually do something worthwhile with his intelligence.

However, to his and everyone else's surprise, there was clicking sound originating from his wrists, like the sound of a door being unlocked, and his wrist felt much more comfortable. Looking up, he saw Touma Kamijou now kneeling in front of him, a key in his right hand, a pair of handcuffs in his bandaged left hand, and a genuine smile on his face.

"This old project of yours, where are you keeping it?" Touma asked patiently, picking up the researcher off the ground as if none of the animosity between them had ever existed.

"I-its in a storage room one level below us," Aritomi stuttered, still shocked that Touma would be so accepting of his help, "Look for the silver briefcase and bring it here. You'll also find a duffle bag of the Chemicaloid neutralizing agent in the same storage room."

"Kamijou, are you sure about this? The man is a terrorist," Konori asked over the video call in concern, "Can we trust him?"

"It's either that, or the whole city goes up in smoke and everyone dies," Touma shrugged as he activated his hovering board, "I be back as soon as I get what we need. You girls work on getting that mech made into a rocket."

As he watched Touma disappear down the hallway on his prototype hoverboard, Aritomi couldn't help but feel a small glimmer of hope in his heart. He was going to pay for his crimes, that much was certain, but that didn't have to be the end for him. He could power through his sentence, whatever it may be, and start over. After all, if the young man known as Touma Kamijou was willing to trust him, a man he has every right to hate, Aritomi couldn't be that hopeless.

By the time Touma returned to the control room with the briefcase and duffle bag, Saten and Index had arrived on the scene to watch over Febri along with Nunotaba and help her hang on for as long as possible. Once he saw them, he quickly passed the duffle bag of lollipops over to them before returning to the waiting Aritomi by the room's main console.

Having received the new supply of lollipops, Febri quickly began sucking on one of them like her life depended on it, mostly because it did.

"Thank goodness," Nunotaba sighed in relief as she typed away at Janie's console, "This will buy use a little time."

"It's a good thing Touma had that hoverboard thing from that Dr. Bakuya guy," Index mused, "I was worried he wasn't going to make it in time."

"So what now?" Saten asked the researcher, "What's the next step of the plan?"

"First, we need to free Janie from the runaway system," Nunotaba explained, never looking away from her work, "To do that, we're going to need Febri's help. Right now, Janie is in a state where she will accept no outside input, but if we can get a strong emotional response from Febri, who is basically identical to her…"

"That makes sense. Because when all else fails, love can still get through, right?" Saten interrupted, winking.

"Uh… okay…," Nunotaba blushed, looking away, "…yeah…"

While Nunotaba was preparing Janie's capsule so they could free her from the runaway system, Touma and Aritomi were busy preparing the devices the Level 0 retrieved from the storage room. Taking the briefcase off Touma's hands, Aritomi opened the case to reveal its contents. Nestled in the bottom half of the case in specially designed slots were two disks with a single on top of each, the containment disks for Aritomi and Sakurai's joint project from two years ago. Also in the bottom half of the case was an extendable USB cable that Aritomi connected to the main computer console. The top half the case consisted of a touch screen with a list of programs with two check boxes for each item on the list.

Having written the necessary program while Touma was retrieving the briefcase, all Aritomi needed to do was import the completed program from the console to the case. Afterwards, he selected the newest program added to the list on the briefcase touchscreen, " ," and loaded it as the primary program for both capsules.

"it's done," Aritomi announced, adjusting his cracked glasses, "To activate the program, just affix the disk to your chest and press the button. If it works as I expect it to, the nanomachines will form a pressurized suit around the user's body. Once you're done, just press the button again and the nanomachines will recede and deactivate."

"Are you sure it will work?" Mikoto asked skeptically.

"Only one way to find out," Touma said, removing one of the disks from the briefcase.

Doing as Aritomi instructed, Touma affixed the disk to his chest and pressed the button. In a matter of seconds, the nanomachines poured out of their capsule and covered every centimeter of his body before linking together and consolidating into a pressurized suit. The suit was solid black with the only not black part being the faceplate, formed by a layer of nanomachines thin enough to see through but strong enough to maintain air pressure. The suit hugged Touma's body closely, creating a less detailed silhouette of himself.

"It works!" Touma cheered in awe, pressing the button again and retracting the makeshift suit, before returning it to suitcase.

"Huh. I guess you can do some good after all," Mikoto mused, mildly impressed.

"Remember, this is just a pressurized suit. It will not supply you with an indefinite supply of oxygen," Aritomi added, "By my calculations, it will at most be able to sustain you for ten minutes given the atmospheric density at ground level."

Taking the briefcase out of Touma's hands, Mikoto quickly made her way out of the building to the launch site of their missile counterstrike operation.

"That will be more than enough time," Mikoto replied confidently as she left.

"Future gazer" by fripSide [End]

At the launch site, Mikoto and Kuroko were both equipped with the disk capsules containing Aritomi's nanomachines. The two Tokiwodai girls were on board the Ekaterina II S, preparing for launch.

"It took some doing, but I had Kongou rig the airframe so that all 8092 jet points activate to a precision of 1/1000th of a second. Theoretically, this should work," Uiharu reported over her commlink, "But, how did you get such a complex calculation done in so short a time?"

"Oh, well… you know…," Mikoto stumbled, avoiding the topic of her little sisters.

As Kuroko did some final checks for the machine's launch, Mikoto saw it as the perfect opportunity to get some things off her chest.

"Sorry Kuroko," Mikoto apologized, "I never had any intention of dragging you into this."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Kuroko replied, much to Mikoto's surprise, "I'm really glad. There's nothing that would make me prouder than having you rely on me to assist you. Your confidence means the world to me."

Surprised by the response as she was, Mikoto couldn't help but feel glad to hear it.

"Thank you," Mikoto said wistfully before adopting a look of determination, "Alright then, activating pressurized suits now."

Following her roommate and idol's orders, Kuroko followed Mikoto's lead as they affixed their respective disks on their chests and pressed the button. In a matter of seconds, they were equipped with full body pressurized suits made from nanomachines, ready for the low-pressure environment of the upper Troposphere.

"All systems are go!" Mikoto reported over the commlink, "Ready for launch!"

Outside the massive machine, Kongou complied with the order to begin the operation. With a pained swing of her fan, she activated the ejection points she installed on Ekaterina II S.

"LEVEL 5-judgelight-" by fripSide [Start]

With a great rumble in the ground, the massive machine slowly but surely lifted into the air. Once it broke the first 2000 meters, the mech discarded its legs, decreasing its weight and increasing it speed, effectively playing out its stage one separation. With its decreased weight, the incomplete mech continued to rocket higher into the sky, carrying with it Academy City's best and last hope of surviving this crisis.

In STUDY command center where Janie slept, Nunotaba, Saten, Index, and Febri were making final preparations to free Janie from the runaway system. Following Nunotaba's instructions, Saten and Index lifted Febri up to meet her older sister face-to-face. Upon seeing Janie, the little girl began to endlessly ramble on about all the fun times and happy memories she had made with the friends she found in the outside world. All the while, Nunotaba was focused on the console next to Janie's capsule, monitoring the brain activity of the two Chemicaloid twins.

'Please work,' Nunotaba silently begged, 'I know I'm asking for more than I deserve at this point. If not for me, for them. Let Febri's emotions get through to her sister.'

Outside, the Ekaterina II S rocket just passed the upper bounds of the cloud layer, climbing past the 7000 meter mark and discarding its arms in a sort of second stage separation. Inside the cabin, Mikoto and Kuroko held on for dear life as the rocket shook and exterior oxygen grew thin. Thankfully, the suits Aritomi programmed worked perfectly, keeping the air pressure within their suits identical to how it was on the Earth's surface.

'This processing speed can't keep up,' Nunotaba lamented in her head as it became obvious that the computers would not be able do the job she required them to do on their own.

However, that despair quickly turned into surprise when she saw processing power suddenly increase.

'Outside interference?' Nunotaba thought in confusion.

"I will give you a hand, okay? Asks Misaka, retroactively seeking approval after having already acting," a Sister informed Nunotaba over the commlinks.

"Why would you do this?" Nunotaba asked in confusion.

"To say thanks for the fragments of our mind we received from you," the Sister replied simply.

"Your mind… I…"

"By the way, this MIsaka's serial number is 19090."

Nunotaba recognized that serial number all too well. It was the Misaka she tried to give genuine emotions to the whole network through during her attempt to stop Project Level 6 Shift before being caught by ITEM and sold to STUDY. An attempt she had, up until now, believed to have failed.

"Do you mean… what I did before… it reached you?" Nunotaba asked with uncertainty.

"That's right," Misaka 19090 replied, "And moreover, those two girls have a thought base program that is identical to the MIsakas. Which means they are basically like family to the MIsaka Sisters. Does an older sister really need a reason to want to help out her younger sister? Asks Misaka, adopting a tone wisdom and sisterly affection."

When the cabin of the makeshift rocket reached 10000 meters above sea level, the remaining ejection points created by Kongou's Aero Hand ability shut off, leaving the cabin in a stall. Having reached their destination, Kuroko teleported Mikoto and herself to the top of what was left of their rocket. Exchanging a silent nod, the pigtailed Judgement Officer jumped off and entered a freefall while the Electromaster used magnetism to rotate the cabin so she would be between it and the Earth.

With her inherent ability to detect electromagnetic fields, Mikoto located the quickly approaching missile several kilometers above her, pinpointing its location.

"Like those girl, we too would like to know…"

With a scream and right hook that would make Touma proud, Mikoto fired her railgun right at the incoming missile, using what was left of Ekaterina II S as ammunition. With a massive sonic boom, the railgun ammunition rocketed towards the incoming missile at Mach 3, piercing through the body of the missile with deadly accuracy. From her position several kilometers away, Mikoto smiled in satisfaction at her work as a massive yet brilliant explosion went off in the sky.

"… how bright and beautiful the world can be when you are not alone."

Closing her eyes in satisfaction, Mikoto landed in the arms of the waiting Kuroko, who was equally as satisfied with the result. With their jobs done, Kuroko teleported the two of them back towards the ground, one jump at a time.

"LEVEL 5-judgelight-" by fripSide [End]

"Good morning, big sister," Febri cheered jubilantly as she was held up in the air by Saten and Index, "Shinobu! Big sister finally woke up!"

On the console next to Janie's capsule, it was clear as day that Janie's brain activity had risen to that of a fully aware person. Janie had been freed and was finally awake.

"So she has," Nunotaba sighed in relief, touching Janie's capsule, "Good morning, Janie."

"Go on now, Febri," Saten encouraged.

"You have something to give Shinobu, remember?" Index reminded the girl.

Gasping in realization, Febri reached into her bag and pulled out a single, plastic wrapped rice ball. It was a bit misshaped and had bits of filling sticking out, but overall still plenty appetizing. She then held out the rice ball to the girl that was responsible for programming her mind and orchestrating her escape, Shinobu Nunotaba.

"Here," Febri offered, "Take it. It's for big sister and for you, Shinobu. Do you like it? I made it myself."

"You made it… for me?" Nunotaba asked, her eyes watering

"What's the matter?" Febri asked in confusion,

"It's nothing," Nunotaba insisted, wiping away her tears, "There's just so much to do. So many beautiful things I want to show you."

Standing behind the control room's main console, Touma gave Aritomi a firm pat on the back, much to the sinning researcher's surprise.

"Congratulations," Touma said in a very genuine tone, "Your invention just help save Academy City."

"You give me too much credit," Aritomi replied in melancholy voice, "I'm the man that caused the crisis in the first place. You and your allies are the actual heroes."

"Still, you finally made good use of your intelligence," Touma encouraged, "You should be proud of that."

"One good deed doesn't erase years of sins," the researcher countered, holding out his wrists to the Judgement Officer.

Touma raised an eyebrow at the action in response, earning him a sad chuckle from Aritomi.

"Don't act so surprised," the researcher reprimanded, "You're a smart kid. We both knew this was coming."

Sighing in defeat, Touma pulled out a pair of handcuffs, granting Aritomi his wish.

"Haruki Aritomi, by order of Judgement, you are under arrest," Touma recited as he reluctantly slapped the handcuffs around Aritomi's wrists.

After Mikoto and Kuroko returned to the planet's surface, Anti-Skill arrived to deal with the rest of the aftermath regarding STUDY's failed rebellion. Clean up teams arrived to clear the Powered Suits, forensic teams arrived to confiscate any equipment belonging to STUDY, and detainment teams came to take the members of STUDY in. As the members and founders of STUDY were loaded into an armored vehicle to get them process, Touma was present as the representative of Judgement in the official handing over of apprehended criminals.

"Guess this is it," Touma sighed as Aritomi was next to be handed over.

"So it would seem," Aritomi nodded solely.

"I'm sorry it had to turn out like this," the Level 0 apologized.

"Don't be," the researcher insisted, turning to face the disappointed Judgement Officer, "Truth be told, I'm glad. If it weren't for you, I would not have realized what I had become. I would have remained ignorant to the fact that I had lost myself in my mad quest to get my efforts recognized. For that, I am grateful."

"What do you plan to do now?"

"For now, I'll serve my sentence, whatever it may be," Aritomi summarized somewhat sadly, "If and when I finish it, I'll continue my work, this time following the correct path you showed me. I'll work for the purpose of research itself, never getting caught up in whether or not it's immediately appreciated. I continue working until I can create something that will earn me this city's respect, no matter how long it takes or how hard the struggle may be. I will not stray from my beliefs again."

"You seem to have everything planned out," Touma mused with a smile.

"All thanks to you," Aritomi replied as he stepped into the van, returning the smile, "Thank you, Touma Kamijou. I owe you my life."

"And I owe you mine," Touma answered back as the doors to the Anti-Skill van closed.

As the van drove away with STUDY in tow, Touma pulled out his phone and made a quick call. There were a few people he needed to contact.

"Hello? Doctor Bakuya?"

Deep within STUDY's former base of operations, Uiharu was hard a work scrubbing down the facility's computers, looking for any important information regarding STUDY's recent activities. More specifically, she was looking for research notes on the creation of Chemicaloids and the stolen files on Touma Kamijou and Imagine Breaker. After she and everyone else learned that the city knew more about Touma's mysterious power than they let on, she knew such a file was absolutely necessary to retrieve.

Sadly, Uiharu wasn't having much luck in either department. looking through all the files, it appeared that everything regarding Chemicaloid research had been wiped clean from the system, with the only surviving copies of the data being stored in auxiliary drives. If she had to guess, the Final Phase of STUDY's missile plan most likely involved erasing all their data as to not let anyone else obtain their research. Thankfully, the most important information, the formula for Janie and Febri's neutralizing agent, was safely stored in an auxiliary drive so the young girls wouldn't have to worry about overdosing on their own toxins.

After that dead end, the young hacker continued to search the data banks until she finally found the second file she was looking for. Locked away in several password locked folders was a single folder labeled "Imagine Breaker". With anxious fingers, she opened the folder to find a single file. However, it was not what she had hoped to fine inside. Rather than information regarding Touma and his mysterious ability, all Uiharu found was a single, five-second-loop video of a tapdancing monkey in a diaper and top hat.

"…Eh?" Uiharu asked herself in confusion.

Within his tank in the Windowless Building, Aleister Crowley quietly hummed to himself as he examined the files he had stolen. Overzealous as they were, the researchers of STUDY did some very good work on their Project Chemicaloid research. It would be a shame to let such useful research in the development of artificial Espers go to waste, and a crime to let such research fall into the hands of others.

It was a simple matter to hack into STUDY's databases and collect their research notes, as well as destroy all traces of them within their computers. While he was at it, Aleister figured he may as well delete STUDY's rudimentary files on Imagine Breaker. Best to keep the important information close to the chest, no matter how basic it was. The less Touma Kamijou knew for the time being, the better it will be for his plans. Besides, it was always fun to leave behind that video of a tapdancing monkey just to mess with people.

The ride in the Anti-Skill van was a rather silent and uneventful one. Artiomi and Sakurai sat on one side of the van, while Kosako, Madarame, and Sekimura sat on the opposite side. They all knew they were going to face serious charges for their crimes. It didn't take a genius to figure that out. Still, they seemed to be content with their fate.

"Everyone, I'm sorry for dragging you all into this," Aritomi apologized, "In my blind jealousy and misplaced strife, I dragged all of you into my personal vendetta. It is my fault you all are about to be punished."

"That's not true at all," Sakurai insisted, "We are all responsible for this."

"That's right," Madarame agreed, "You and Sakurai may have founded this band of ours, be we all made it possible."

"We chose to follow you," Kosako added, "It was our choice to get involved."

"The blame is as much on us as it is on you," Sekimura included.

"Don't blame all of this on yourself," Sakurai encouraged, grabbing hold of her long-time partner's hands, "This is our burden to carry too, so let us share the weight with you."

Despite the dire situation they were all facing, Aritomi couldn't help but chuckle. It seems this band of researchers was going to stick together through to the end.

"Thank you," Aritomi whispered, "all of you."

Not too long after, the van came to a stop and the back door was opened by none other than Captain Yomikawa herself, who ordered them to all get out and follow her.

When STUDY exited the van, they were rather surprised to see where they were. While they were definitely at a Disciplinary Committee facility, they were not at the facility they were expecting. Instead of the correctional and containment facility used to imprison convinces, the members of STUDY found themselves at the doorstep of the Disciplinary Committee headquarters, where all major elements of law enforcement intersected, including training, weapon development, and regulation.

Following Yomikawa through the building, STUDY was led through a facility that was clearly intended for the development of weapons and other equipment used by all branches of the Disciplinary Committee, including Judgement and Anti-Skill. Soon enough, they found themselves in a very high-tech lab, whose sole occupant stood in the middle of the room.

"So, you're the young researchers that managed to outperform me in equipment development for Anti-Skill," Doctor Bakuya mused upon seeing the captive researchers.

"What's going on here?" Aritomi asked, confused beyond belief.

"Kamijou put in a good word for you," Yomikawa explained as she undid all of their handcuffs, "He told us about your contributions towards avoiding the crisis that was your mistake of a missile and suggested an alternative punishment."

"He suggested I look into all of your research backgrounds, and I must say I was quite impressed by what I saw," Dr. Bakuya added as he pulled up STUDY's individual research profiles, "Multiple honors in chemistry and pharmaceutical fields, built a legitimate business from the ground up after dropping out of school, and of course besting myself in being Anti-Skill equipment supplier. I was especially intrigued by your nanomachine invention. You all have some impressive credentials. It's a shame they'll all be tainted with a criminal record."

"Which is why, after pulling a few strings, we've arranged an alternative to whatever prison sentence you all would have served," Yomikawa concluded.

"What do you mean?" Sakurai inquired.

"I would like to hire all of you on to be part of my research team," the good doctor replied, much to STUDY's shock, "I do a lot of work here developing new and improved equipment to help Judgement and Anti-Skill maintain peace within Academy City. Sadly, I lack the expertise in certain fields, fields you all excel at, that keep me from pursuing certain projects. I would like you all to help me make those projects a reality."

"If you chose to work with us, it will be treated as though you were under a prison sentence," Yomikawa further explained, "You will not be allowed to leave the facility, but you will be provided for. Any money you would have earned had this been a normal job will go to paying off your bail. Once that is paid off, you will be free to go on you own, or continue working here at employees."

"So, what do you say fellas?" Dr. Bakuya asked with a smile, "Want to help keep this city safe?"

The members of STUDY could hardly believe what was happening. When they were arrested, they were all ready to face punishment for their crimes. Instead, they were being given a second chance to make up for their mistakes and pursue the goal they set out for themselves after paying for their wrongdoings. All of this was made possible by some simple persuasion from Touma Kamijou. It was too good to be true.

'It would seem I owe you my life a second time, Touma Kamijou,' Aritomi thought to himself, chuckling.

Looking towards his fellow researchers, Aritomi knew they had all come to the same conclusion he did. A squeeze of his hand from Sakurai served to encourage the leader to speak for them.

"What's our first assignment?" Aritomi inquired, adjusting his still broken glasses.

"Links" by Sachika Misawa [Start]

The next day, Mikoto, Kuroko, Saten, Uiharu, Nunotaba, Febri, Janie, Nunotaba, Index, and Touma all gathered at Kongou Airlines private airport. After Nunotaba and Janie had been freed from STUDY's control, Febri's reservation at Asunaro Park had been cancelled and arrangements had been made for Nunotaba and the twins to leave Academy City. They were headed to a facility in Russia to get the twins reconditioned and to find a permanent solution to their toxin problem, with Nunotaba acting as their guardian.

Everyone was saying their goodbyes in one way or another. Touma was preparing a camera and tripod to take a commemorative photo. Saten, Uiharu, and Index were bawling their eyes out as they said their goodbyes to Febri. Kuroko was gifting Janie a four leafed clover as a good luck charm and memento of them all. Mikoto and Nunotaba were discussing the researcher's plans for the future now that she was leaving.

"Guess that's it then," Mikoto mused, "So they'll be going to a facility overseas to examined and reconditions? That's too bad, now that we've all become such good friends."

"It's difficult to believe how well everything turned out," Nunotaba added, now dressed in a Gothic Lolita outfit similar to the ones she gifted Febri and Janie, "Almost like the bad parts never happened at all, as if the record of events had been rewritten."

"Oh, really?" Mikoto asked, feigning innocence rather poorly.

"Electronic records can be so, well, unreliable, wouldn't you say?" the older girl inquired, shooting Mikoto a knowing glance, "Anyhow, I get the feeling that some of the human memories have been doctored as well."

"Oh, um… yeah," Mikoto admitted, "Well, if your willing to put differences behind you, swallow your pride, and reach out, the results can be… impressive."

As much as Mikoto really didn't want to, she had turned to Misaka Shokuhou, the fifth ranked Level 5, Mental Out, to help with clearing Nunotaba's records. After all, everyone in Academy City's Underworld had known about Nunotaba being sold to STUDY up until then, so those memories had to be erased if Nunotaba were to live peacefully. It still didn't make the act of asking the Queen of Tokiwodai for help any easier to stomach for Mikoto.

"I guess it's my turn now, huh?" Nunotaba mused as she watched everyone say their final goodbyes from a distance. "It will be okay. I know I can do this. After all, I'm not alone anymore."

"Hey girls!" Touma called out, "The camera's all ready! Get together!"

Getting in position in front of the private jet Kongou had lent them, the girls lined up to for the photo while Touma made some final adjustments and set the timer. Janie and Febri stood front and center with Uiharu and Saten flanking both of them on their knees. Behind them stood Nunotaba with Mikoto and Kuroko on her left and Index farther down on her right. Once he got the timer ticking, Touma quickly ran to join the girls in the photo, positioning himself between Index and Nunotaba. After a flash of light and a click, the camera printed out two copies of the photo, one for Touma's journal and one for Nunotaba, Janie, and Febri to remember them by.

"Here you go," Touma said, handing Nunotaba her copy of the photo.

"Thank you," Nunotaba replied, gratefully accepting the photo.

"You ready?" Mikoto inquired.

"Just about," the older girl answered, "I only wish there was more I could do to pay you all back. I'm really sorry I wasn't able to tell you more regarding the files on Imagine Breaker STUDY stole."

"Don't worry about it," Uiharu insisted, "It's not your fault someone deleted them and replaced them with a video of a tapdancing monkey."

"I still don't get how or who did that," Kuroko mused, "And why leave behind a tapdancing monkey of all things?"

"Well, there's no point in worry about it now," Touma shrugged, "Just keep in contact. If you ever need help with anything, anything at all, don't hesitate to call."

"Trust us, just call for help if you need it," Index giggled, "Touma's the kind of person to go halfway around the world if it means saving someone."

"Let's not overinflate that claim," Touma deadpanned.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to jinx it. He might just do it," Saten joked with a grin.

"I'll be sure to remember that," Nunotaba smiled wistfully, "Still, I wish there was someway I could pay you all back."

"Really, you don't need to," Mikoto insisted.

"Actually, I think I may have an idea," the older girl replied.

"And what would that b-UMPH!?" Touma began to ask but was suddenly cut off.

To everyone's surprise, Nunotaba had stepped forward towards Touma and planted a kiss right on his lips, standing on her toes to reach. The girls behind Touma looked on speechless with the young twins behind Nunotaba simply tilted their heads, oblivious to the context of the act. After about three seconds, the young researcher pulled away and stepped back, a small smile plastered on her face and her cheeks a luminescent pink. Touma's own face had become deep red from a combination of shock and confusion.

"You told me to stop telegraphing my attacks, so I did," Nunotaba said after a moment of silence.

"W-why?" Touma stuttered, ignoring the pervious comment regarding her fighting style.

"As a thank you," Nunotaba replied simply, "Plus, from what I was able to gleam from your in-depth file before it was lost, you have a thing for older-sister-type girls. Do I not qualify as such?"

"Um… I guess you do?" Touma answered, scratching the back of his head whilst trying to compose himself.

Satisfied with the answer, Nunotaba gave the rest of the group a quick nod goodbye and ushered the twins inside the plane. Once on they were on board, the plane ran down the runway before taking off for Russia. As the group watched the plane leave, they finally regained enough sense to get out of their shock induced trance.

"Links" by Sachika Misawa [End]

"Did that just happen?" Mikoto asked with a hit of jealousy.

"I think it just did," Kuroko replied, still trying to process what happened.

"Kamijou really is a lady's man, isn't he?" Uiharu mused.

"That's Touma for you," Index sighed.

"So, how was it, Kamijou?" Saten asked slyly.

"I… guess it was nice," Touma answered in an unsure voice, "Not how I would have wanted my first kiss to happen, but it was enjoyable… kinda."

"Don't you think you should be a bit more upset that your first kiss went down like that?" Mikoto asked, her bangs starting to spark.

"Well, not like there's anything I can do about it now, right?" the high school boy shrugged, "Why? Are you jealous or something?"

"AS IF!" the Electromaster cried as she fired a massive electrical blast at the misfortunate boy.

Toaru Majutsu no Index II OST 2 Track 8: Electrical Chase [Start]

Senseing the danger approaching, Touma quickly stepped back and raised his right hand, barely managing to defend with Imagine Breaker. Seeing as Mikoto still looked rather furious, he began running across the airfield in hopes of outlasting her in chase.

"Whoa! Easy there! I was kidding!" Touma cried as he ran, "There's no need to get all violent!"

"Get back here so I can punish you!" Mikoto screamed as she chased Touma in circles, firing ineffective electric attacks all the while.

"Punish me for what!? This wasn't my fault!" Touma yelled at the top of his lungs, "Rotten luck!"

As Mikoto continued to follow Touma on a wild goose chase, the rest of the girls couldn't help but laugh at the scene in front of them.

"Wow! There really is never a dull day in Academy City," Index giggled.

"Not when those two are around!" Kuroko, Uiharu and Saten agreed in unison.

Special End Card Segment: Animan Temple

On this special day in the Animan Temple, the entire central room of the temple was decorated with red, green, blue, and white flags depicting the sword Mugen and confetti was scattered everywhere. It was of course the birthday of the owner of the temple himself, Animan von Elysium X, whom was currently wearing a red, green, blue, and white party hat while blowing sound-makers.

"Happy birthday to me and happy 50th chapter day!" Animan cheered as he waved a pair of flags in the air.

"Please tone it down a bit, Master," Priestess Number 1 Himegami sighed as she ate her cake.

"Sorry about that," the master of the temple apologized as he took of his party hat, "Anyway, that was the end of the Silent Party Arc. I'd say it ended pretty well."

"You gave Aritomi a deeper backstory and a redemption arc," Himegami noted, "I can't say for certain if it was earned or not, but it certainly a nice touch."

"Not to mention I revealed the 6th ranked Level 5 and gave Touma some serious action scenes and a new addition to his harem!"

"Please don't remind me...," the young assistant sulked, "I'm becoming an even less likely option..."

"Anyway, we're going to get back to my birthday celebration for now, so we'll see you all next time for the start of a new original arc with the next chapter, 'Warm Home'," Animan announced with a wave, "We'll see you then!"

"Bye now," Himegami said weakly, still sulking.