Howdy everyone it's me and we are back to another installment of the Rebirth story, with the interlude now behind its time to move forward and get to the meat of the tale, we move into the time skip, like the last incarnation of this story it's a decade after and the two finally reunite.

Hope you all enjoy the story, big things are coming

Fate/Index belong to Nasu and Kamachi respectively. LETS GET INTO IT!!

Chapter 4: Reunited At Last

Ten years…

A full decade had passed since that day.

That awful day— the day Touma Kamijou and those closest to him suffered a very terrible incident. On that left a lasting scar on a young soul.

From nearly getting run over, something that befell his mother Shiina, to getting stabbed and nearly burning alive while bleeding to death.

What made it more heart wrenching for him was through the embers of that terrible time, he wasn't alone. With him was a girl— a cute girl with a mystical, foxy nature named Tamamo no Mae.

"Yeah, you're definitely strange…

…But. You're a good kind of strange."

A whole year they were together and happy despite the cruelty that seemed to surround them on a daily basis.

"…I'll be right by you the whole time to let you know you're safe."

They became close friends in the span of just one, single year.

It all came under heavy fire of his own misfortune. Misfortune so bad that it earned him the ire of everyone around him outside of his own family and only friend.

"I'm not leaving you Touma!!"

A superstitious and prejudiced town, a mad vengeful businessman that wanted nothing more than to murder him for bringing his life to ruin, an attempt that almost killed his mother no less, all because he shook his right hand that day…

…attempted arson.

"…I'm not gonna leave you like this…"

Her crying face. Touma hated seeing those tears then, he still sees them now in his dreams, in his nightmares, sometimes when he drifts into heavy thoughts. No child should have to experience what he did, nor should he have experienced it himself at all, it was not good for a psyche at the tender age of five.

"…I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE!!"

"Agh!!" Yelped Touma as he regained bearing, looking around and checking himself over— he realized everything was ok.

"Was I…

…daydreaming?"

Touma quickly looked around and found that people were looking at him, teenagers his age or older and the occasional grown adult.

"Rotten luck." Touma lamented.

He put his left hand up to try and block his face and quickly scurried away. Once he was in an area of few people and the distractions were all but void— Touma began to notice the wet sensation on his face.

Was it sweat?

Putting his hand to his cheek he could feel the liquid running down his face.

This was not sweat…

…these were tears

'Damnit…'

Not even the passage of time could heal the emotional wounds left from that day, the visions, memories deep rooted into the crevices of his psyche.

"Big brother?"

Touma was knocked out of his stupor when he heard a voice, it was a little girl of elementary school age, apparently she needed help finding a good clothing store and he was very much obliged.

The two were in the Seventh Mist shopping mall of Academy City.

Academy City was a technologically advanced city-state located in the Tokyo Metropolitan Employment Center of Tokyo, hosting a population of 6.2 million with 80% being students. While it's technology and self sufficient ingenuity we're a marvel decades ahead of the rest of the world— its pride lay only in its esper program, a program designed to grant students psychic abilities that can be ranked from levels going from 0 weakest, to 5 strongest.

Touma was a Level 0, despite taking the power curriculum program since middle school, they hadn't been able to bring out even a weak AIM Diffusion field, the source of all esper abilities.

This of course greatly affected Touma's living status within the city as students would be given stipends for providing research on their powers and where they stood level wise. Touma being the weakest Level 0 was dirt poor just barely scraping by with the money he had on top of what his parents sent him.

"Sorry, I was just thinking." Touma said with a smile

The little girl cocked her head to the side as she noticed the wet stains on his face.

"Are you ok big brother? Why are you crying?"

"I'm fine." Touma said once more. "Let's just keep going."

"Ok!"

As the duo walked Touma dug into his shirt and pulled something he considered precious, it was the fox necklace that his dear friend Tamamo gifted him a decade ago.

Even after all this time it glimmered like sunlight, a testament to his willingness to maintain this gift, this symbol of closeness that he held close to his heart.

'Are you still out there…

…Tama?'

The day he had to come to the City of Science was a day he realized he may never make good on his promise to find her.

He didn't despair however as he clutched the fox ornament in his hand, keeping the necklace on him always gave him the feeling like she was still close to him regardless of the distance they now face.

One question remained constantly bugging his brain…

…always eating his curiosity and making him worry.

Shaking his head he spotted exactly what he was looking for and pointed it out to his little companion.

"Looks like we found what you're looking for, come on."

"Yeah let's go big brother!" The little girl said excitedly.

The events that followed were interesting to say the least, but for Touma it was both an annoyance and another dangerous event in his already troubled life— first was meeting with Mikoto Misaka again, a bug zapping middle school Level 5 that always wanted to pick a fight with despite his wishes, thankfully that didn't happen this time.

The next headache was far more threatening, apparently a terrorist ability user decided to attack the mall, a graviton ability user knowless, Touma and all other people were safely evacuated from the building as reports came in that the belligerents were in the mall.

Turns out the little girl was still inside and when Touma saw Mikoto again quickly accompanied her back inside to look. This would prove to be a saving grace as when they did find the girl along with one of Zapper's friends the bomber was about to make another blast attempt, something Mikoto herself would not be able to block even with her signature railgun move, so as soon as the attack went off— Touma would be the one to render the attack void with his right hand.

Not long after Anti-Skill, the city's law enforcement made up of teacher volunteers were on the scene, but Touma was not around having left shortly after, Kuroko, a member of Judgement, a branch of law enforcement that was made up of students as a way to keep order and other espers in check was still within Seventh Mist next to ground zero of the last bomb attack after the offender was captured.

She would be joined by her friends Saten and Uiharu alongside the little girl who would all praise Mikoto for saving them, truth be told it wasn't her though, not that they knew that.

"Hey look there's something shiny!" The little girl shouted and pointed towards the explosion sight.

Yes, glimmering in contrast with the rubble was a shining golden necklace, but it wasn't just any necklace, it was the golden fox necklace that was worn by Touma.

Kuroko quickly picked it up and inspected it, and the little girl immediately recognized the necklace.

"Hey, that's big brother's necklace!"

"Big brother?" Saten asked, confused.

After Touma had prevented death by bombing he quickly left the scene and went back to his dorm, from there he settled on his bed as he let his thoughts unwind.

'Man what a day…

…one little shopping trip and and you're caught in a terrorist bombing incident'

As the plethora of thoughts swam in his mind like a school of fish he gently laid his right hand on his upper chest as his eyes closed— almost immediately his eyes flew open as he began to feel around.

'No…'

He scrambled from his bed and began to look anywhere: along the floor, under the chairs, anywhere he could look or reach under.

'No no nononono!!'

He barged out of his dorm room and began looking along the balcony, the panic appearing more and more prevalent as his face began to take something of a distressed look, almost crazed.

'I can't have lost it, I can't afford to lose it!!'

Touma went into the elevator hoping that what he was looking for was there, no dice. He decided to make his way to the bottom floor and look from there but the result was the same.

"No…

…no no, please no."

The realization was still taking time to sink in, but once it did, Touma dropped to his knees and yelled so loud that the whole city may have heard it.

"ROTTEN LLUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK!!!!"

Far out from the hustle and bustle of society, was a certain cave, the very same cave that housed a certain foxy girl.

The very cave of Tamamo no Mae. Since taking shelter in it she had long thought of the irony around being in a cave—long ago when she was Amaterasu she held up in a cave due to how upset she was with the other Shinto gods, now here she was in a cave again after a very terrible experience.

It wasn't too bad…

…at least she wanted to try and believe so.

The isolation for as much as absolutely abhorred it had offered her the opportunity to focus on regaining her strength she had lost, after so much effort she was back up to par and can even summon her mirror once more without exhausting herself.

Now Tamamo was sleeping peacefully, she had grown back into the buxom woman she was and even was wearing her standard mystic code again.

This rest would not last long though…

"ROTTEN LLUUUUUUUCCCKKK!!!!"

Fox ears twitching like they were being touched, Tamamo felt a disturbance that began to make her stir ever slightly, of course she didn't want to get up but once the sound of despair was registered her eyes shot open and she sat up fast.

"Hm? That voice…

…that phrase, could it be?"

Righting herself and standing on her own two feet she digested the distant call.

Rotten luck.

There was only one person that she knew could utter such a phrase. Once the realization kicked into full gear her eyes became as wide as dinner plates.

'He's alive…!'

The most precious person to her in this world she found herself in, who for all intents and purposes sometimes thought that the flames of that terrible fire had burned alive.

'HE'S ALIVE!!'

She began to fox herself up as she surveyed her cave that she had long turned into a workshop with 'Territory Creation' over the decade span.

Brushes, lipsticks, anything that helps her look presentable that she may or may not have snagged, sure she really didn't need any of that as she was a natural or supernatural beauty but she was a bit of a mess sometimes do in part to depression from loneliness and the possibility that her best and only friend was ashes, but it didn't hurt to highlight herself a bit more for what may be a long anticipated reunion.

Once everything was straightened out she stepped out of her cave into the afternoon sunlight, the rays glistening off her marking her connection and personification of the celestial body.

'Touma…

…if you're really out there, I'm going to find you.'

Taking a deep breath as she soaked in the fresh air she faces the direction of the echoe and proceeds to make her trek, wanting to believe that what was on the other side was who she hoped it was.

Touma ran like a madman through District 7 retracing his steps as best he could, hell he was willing to go all the way back into the mall if it meant finding his precious necklace again.

'Of all the rotten luck…

…of all the items I ended up losing.'

Touma did everything he could as he re-traced his exact path back to the Seventh Mist shopping center, even going as far as to ask anyone if they saw a peculiar gold necklace—luck was never in his favor though and always got the same answer. No.

'Come on! It still has to be back there, I just need to-!' Further thoughts were shunted when he finally got back to the Seventh Mist, only he would be unable to access the interior. The presence of Anti-Skill had a tight detail around the area, they would never allow a non-law enforcement person to get into the scene of a crime.

Hell, maybe there was the possibility that his necklace may be lost for good, or stolen…

"Dammit all…" Touma uttered in defeat.

"Of all the things I would lose to my own misfortune…

…It ends up being the last thing I would ever think of."

Touma was torn, he wanted to believe that he may yet get the necklace back but at the same time it was the opposite constantly gnawing at his brain.

"Hey you!"

Driven out of his own thoughts by a feminine voice, turning around he was met with a twin tailed tea colored hair middle schoolgirl, who was giving him a look of suspicion.

Not sure what she wanted, Touma decided to speak. "Um, that uniform, you're from Tokiwadai aren't you?" Kuroko nodded in gesture as she pointed to the mall.

"Best to move along, this is not a place for bystanders to be loitering."

Sighing, Touma nodded but not before asking a question if for a last ditch effort for any kind of hope. "Before I do, if you don't mind me asking, you would not have happened to find a peculiar necklace right?"

Kuroko gave a raised eyebrow before she gave Touma a closer examination, and in a moment her eyes widened just a bit.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have been in the mall with a little girl before the bombing incident occurred right?"

This caught Touma off guard but if it meant that it would help find what he was seeking then he was willing to answer. "Yeah actually, I was in the mall still when the bomb went off."

"Aha." Kuroko responded.

Touma felt a bit uncomfortable under this girl's piercing gaze, like she was trying to analyze him, but he went forward with his question just to get some sort of clarity.

"If I may ask, you wouldn't have happened to see a necklace around have you? It's golden and has a fox ornament on it."

Almost immediately Kuroko responded to the question by immediately pulling out the very necklace in question, to which Touma's breath immediately hitched upon looking at it. "Th-That's it! That's my necklace!! Thank you so much!" He would immediately attempt to grab at it only for Kuroko to pull her hand back while she locked a questioning gaze on him.

"This was found at the scene of the last bombing incident, the little girl you were with recognized it and described you." Kuroko then teleported directly behind Touma when he tried to make a grab at her, she continued her interrogation regardless of his impulsive actions. "I'll give this back to you if you can answer a specific question."

To his annoyance Touma sighed and decided to just not argue further.

"Were you there when the final bomb went off? Specifically at the place of detonation?"

With that Touma quickly went into panic mode, he didn't want to be the center of attention as the guy who was involved in a bombing incident, but the evidence was in the middle schooler's hand.

"*sigh*…yeah, I was there." He admitted.

"Hmm, if that's so, then did you happen to see a particular person block the blast?" Kuroko questioned further.

Touma then took the opportunity to spin the tale, after all he knew that this Judgment girl would not believe that someone like him would've rendered a bombing attempt a failure with just his hand.

"Well, there was this girl that had a really strong power, she was able to block the attack and save both me and the little girl, oh there was another with a flower headband as well." Touma summarized.

Kuroko gave him a calculating look before she continued on, it seemed he was being genuine in his answer.

"If what you say is true, then thank you for sharing the info." A second after Kuroko broke out into a goofy and dreaming look, one that perturbed the young Kamijou. "Ah I just knew my Sissy would be the hero at the end of the day…

…but I do wish she would not involve herself with law enforcement business, that girl."

'This one might have a complex…' Touma inwardly said to himself.

Snapping out of her own rant she looked back to the high schooler and extended her arm to him, presenting the necklace to him in her hand.

"Do be more careful next time, there are protocols for civilians to follow for a reason you know."

Touma quickly accepted the necklace and put it back on, he could once more feel the warm aura it had putting him in a state of comfort, memories of his time with the one who gifted it to him flashed through his mind like a filmstrip through a projector going fast forward.

"Hey? HEY!!?"

"Ah! Uh?" Touma was looking around to find himself back to reality, and the pigtailed Judgment girl looked at him with a bit of concern.

"Hey are you alright, you went quiet and started crying."

"Wait, I was crying?" It was then when Touma started to register the wet sensation around his eyes and face. "Oh…"

"Is there a story behind that necklace?" Kuroko asked.

Touma only nodded. "I'm going home now, thanks for keeping my necklace safe."

Kuroko only nodded as Touma walked past her. With a personal crisis averted, Touma made a trek down the city streets, feeling like a nice rest would do him some much needed good.

At night, Touma was fast asleep in his apartment and the City of Science was mostly quiet, not a sound to be heard for blocks.

On the outskirts of the city walls a lone figure walked along in the darkness, it was Tamamo who had now reached what she believed to be the end of her journey. She looked at the towering wall before her and had a strong feeling she may have found the right place. The glow of city lights illuminating passed the enormous barrier.

"Are you here? Touma?"

Tamamo clutched her necklace as memories flashed in her mind of better days. Flowing mana to her feet she began to float upwards till she reached the precipice of the wall, once she got a good view of her surroundings she found herself staring at what may as well be a completely different world.

The tall, illuminated skyscrapers dotted everywhere, the technological feel was very much evident to her, it was as if she was glimpsing a precursor to the future of humanity, one that had long left the need for gods or any celestial entity to guide them or control their destiny.

'Is this really where he could be?' Tamamo thought in her mind.

'Maybe…'

Focusing her senses she began to feel the energy around her, she had begun to feel the world's rediating mana alongside another energy, one unfamiliar to her.

As she pans around she spotted a particular spot, one that seemed more like a void, it was empty, and she recognized it from many years ago.

'IT IS!!'

Excitement swelled in her heart as she launched off the wall to the streets below.

As she walked through the quiet streets of the City of Science having hidden her fox features just before landing, she took in the sights and air of the metropolis.

"This place is incredible." Tamamo said to herself.

She never really encountered anyone else on her walk, only passing by the occasional cleaning drone moving along the streets.

One thing that did catch her attention was the fact that she was seeing phantoms of people along the way. 'Ghosts?'

No, they couldn't be, they may look like lost souls but they don't have the same energy as them. Not one to be distracted, she continued on till she eventually reached 3 skyscrapers, each one lined up together, but Tamamo was able to pinpoint the strange blank spot in the furthest one of the three.

"Mh, almost there."

Lightly smacking herself in the face she trudged on to reunite with a long lost friend.

In Touma's dorm room it was relatively quiet, not a single peep and the lights were off, the only noise made was the snoring of a tired unlucky occupant.

Touma was sound asleep looking to face another crazy day, he wished he could have some normalcy but then as he thought it, abnormalcy had allowed him to meet his first and most precious friend.

As he tossed around in his bed unconsciously trying to keep comfortable till he became stirred by the sudden sound of knocking.

'Uuuh who's visiting at this hour…

I swear, if it's Tsuchimakaido.'

Groggily getting out of his bed he hobbled his way over to the door while rubbing the Sandman's sleeping powder from his eyes and opened it to give whoever was on the other side a piece of his mind.

"Ok what do you want-?"

Upon opening the door he was immediately left speechless as in front of him stood the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen in his life…

…but that wasn't what made him stop for the most part, no what really got him was that he immediately recognized who was in front of him.

[AN: play index OST-In a Heart:)]

The silence in the air as it was all that was needed to tell the story.

"Ta-ma…" Touma barely let out, all while a flood of emotions and tears were present.

Tamamo only looked back at him as pure radiant happiness was present in the form of a beautiful smile, her own tears present as they fell from her eyes, she freed her fox ears and tail, the latter of which was waving back and forth in excitement.

Without a second thought the two reunited childhood friends immediately embraced each other, Touma especially held her close and tight enough to know that who he was holding wasn't an illusion that would be shattered the moment he opened his eyes.

[AN: end of OST]

Such a tender moment would come to an abrupt but all too familiar glass shattering sound rung out. Seconds after Tamamo's standard yukata was immediately shredded leaving her bare naked.

"Huh…" Uttered Touma as he slowly backed off from the embrace to see exactly what had happened…

…he got an absolute eyeful.

"Uh, ugh, mmmm…"

Tamamo slowly regained her bearings as she slowly looked from Touma's utterly red face to her own bare form, her cheeks lighting up as scarlet as the red Christmas lights.

"Pft…hehehehe-ehehehehehe…

…hahahahahaha!! Touma slow down! You missed me that much?~

Touma said nothing, he just stared, stared frozen in place as the blood was frequently running to both his face and to the breaches below.

"BLAAAAGH!!" Touma spouts to Tamamo's surprise as blood gushes from his nose and falls to the floor.

"Mikon!!! Touma are you ok!? Touma!!? Please wake up!"

XXX

Moments later the passed out Kamijou was placed on his bed and left to wake up later, meanwhile Tamamo was rummaging through his closet for temporary clothes.

"Sorry Touma, hope you don't mind if I commandeer something to wear." She muttered to herself.

She was fitted into a pair of green two piece pajamas, she left only two buttons in the middle of the top leaving cleavage and partial midriff.

"This should do."

She then went over to where she figured the bathroom was and began to look over herself to see if she needed to clean herself up from her journey, after a quick inspection from the vanity mirror she decided to just wash her face.

"Hello OG!! How are you holding up?" Perked a chipper voice.

Tamamo looked up to the mirror to find a familiar face in the spot her reflection was supposed to be in Tamamo Cat, sporting a red cut sleeve Yukata that contrasts with the blue one Tamamo usually wore, she had a cat like expression on her face, the most stark difference between Cat and Tamamo herself was her hands and feet had furry beast like claws, whether they were actually part of her or they were something she always wore, who knows.

"Cat?! What are you doing there?" Tamamo asked.

"What I can't say hello, well that's rude don't you think."

Tamamo then noticed something moving in between Cat's Bosom, and what looked like a tiny fox tail peeked out of the top of the luscious valley waving about, Tamamo stared dumbfounded before speaking.

"Um...Cat, you have something right-"

Cat looked down before Tamamo could finish and frowned. "Tamaki you little rascal, get out of my cleavage, what did I say about hiding there when I'm not looking."

"Wan!" Said a little voice as what looked like a mini lookalike of Cat peaked its head out of her breasts.

"Oh!! What the heck?" Tamamo blurted out.

"Yeah you're not seeing things OG, this is a mini version of me, her name is Tamaki." Cat explained as the little trouble maker crawled to her left shoulder and perched itself there.

"How did she come to be?" Tamamo asked still feeling completely put off by this sudden development.

"Remember when you split your eight other tails and inadvertently brought me and the other Tomamos' into being, well I ended up pulling a you and plucked a hair from my tail, the result is this little one right here, she's a bit wild so it's been hectic looking after her, she can be troublesome."

"Ok…" Tamamo said.

"…um if you're here, what does this mean?"

Cat cupped her chin in thought, then she shrugged. "Honestly I don't know, but one thing is certain me and you along with the rest of the 9 are once more together in a semi sense"

"You're kidding me!" Tamamo lamented. She didn't exactly get along with her variants.

"Seems we may have a couple of extras too." Cat muttered.

"Wait what-?"

"Wan! Wan Wan!" Tamaki voiced, cutting Tamamo off.

"Is that all she says?" Tamamo asked.

"I've been trying to teach her how to talk recently, come on Tamaki, say hello."

"Wan."

"No! He-llo."

"Wan!"

"Watch my lips, he-llo."

"Wan, Wan!"

"Nooo!! Not wan!" Cat said dejected.

Tamamo watched the exchange with interest before a devious idea sprung into her head.

"MIKOOON!!"

"MIKON!!" Tamaki parrots.

"Damn you OG!!"

Snickering to herself Tamamo's ears perked when she heard groaning outside the bathroom. "Touma!"

"Looks like that's my cue, catch you around OG." Cat waves.

"Hold on I'm still confused!!" Tamamo yelled exasperated.

"Honestly OG, so are the rest of us. Later!" Cat said as Tamaki waved before both faded out to leave Tamamo's reflection.

"Sigh…That Cat."

Taking a deep breath, she opened the bathroom door and stepped out. She looked over to the bed where her friend was sitting.

More silence followed as the two stared at each other, Touma of course was taking in Tamamo's current appearance and slightly blushed.

"Tama…"

Tamamo only smiled lightly as she walked up to the bed and sat right next to Touma. "It's good to see you again Touma, I missed you, we have a lot to catch up on."

The unlucky teen only smiled back before speaking. "Yeah, hmhm, we do"

AN: ITS DONE!!! OH YES!! FOR TOO LONG IVE PUT THIS OFF!!!

Anyway I've finally gotten this done and can move on, I'm happy and I hope you enjoy the read.

Next Chapter: Back to Back Madness

Bye!!