MIST
Volume 1: Index_Breaker
Epilogue: A Certain Blank Slate.
(?)
He struggles to breathe. It's almost as if he's being pushed repeatedly into water.
(Why is everything so painful?)
His head throbs as his mind tries to work beyond its very limited capacity.
(Who…am I?)
He groans in pain as he tries to move his hands.
"T…!"
(T?)
He hears someone call out to him.
"To…"
Why does that voice sound so familiar to him? Why does his heart beat ever so slightly faster when this voice calls out to him.
"A…!"
He hears a different voice call out to him, this one is familiar but has a different feeling behind it.
What the hell is going on?
(Who am I?)
His eyes snap open.
(Shirai Kuroko) Monday September 17th
It's been a week and three days since Touma found Index. He's been asleep since then. According to Touma's doctor his body is perfectly fine but his mind is broken, destroyed even. The frog-faced doctor claims that it would be nothing short of a miracle if Touma remembers anything when he wakes up.
Even worse, in the time Touma has been asleep four more explosions have happened since the first one that hurt Index and Misaka. The first two explosions including the one that hurt Misaka and Index reminded the other members of Judgement of a kid learning about their semblance for the first time and not knowing how to control it.
However on the 13th everything changed. A rookie member of Judgement had been rushed into the hospital after seeing a male civilian lurking in the shadows of Vale. This explosion was far more controlled. Since then three more members of Judgement have been attacked.
And we know at least the last four were caused by the same person as they all describe the same thing. A male lurking in the shadows acting odd and as soon as they go to investigate the world around them goes black from the force of an explosion in front of them.
Misaka, Index and herself are now standing outside Touma's hospital room.
"Now, remember you three. Kamijou probably won't remember you three and saying probably is being generous. He almost certainly won't remember you three." The frog-faced doctor warns the trio.
"I…no we know that." Index replies as she clenches her fist.
Index must still feel guilty for making Touma save her. They open the door only to find Touma wrapped in bandages from head to toe. His body took some serious damage from whatever this Dr. White put on Index's body.
He's staring blankly out the window and he looks deep in thought. He turns to look at them. Index begins to sob.
"Touma!" Index exclaims as she rushes towards the boy and hugs him.
He sits there awkwardly and it's then that Kuroko notices an unfamiliar look on the teen's face. He simply doesn't recognise them.
She feels like crying.
"I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong room."
(Kamijou Touma)
His eyes open to the sight of a white room. He can hear the soft beeping of technology in the room. He looks around and sees a bunch of medical machines monitoring him. He wonders how he knows this.
On the bedside table of what he assumes to be a hospital room he sees some weird cylindrical device.
(A scroll.)
His mind supplies the answer for him. He picks it up and finds a way to open it and turn it on. The scroll, at least according to whatever knowledge his brain holds, is a device created in the most technologically advanced kingdom in all of Remnant.
That is not to be confused with Academy city. The most scientifically advanced city in Remnant.
He looks at his messages and scrolls through them, hoping to get an idea of who he is. He finds that his most recent notifications are messages of concern from his parents; he knows this since they are saved as 'Mom' and 'Dad' in his scroll. There is also the person saved as 'Siscon.'
If his admittedly very jumbled mind is correct, the term Siscon is used to describe someone who has an attraction or love for either their real sisters or sister characters.
Why the hell does he know someone so weird?
A doctor who has a face that looks like a frog walks in to check on him, he assumes that to be the case anyway.
"How are you feeling Kamijou?" The doctor asks the black haired boy.
Kamijou?
Is that my name?
"Ah. I suppose my hypothesis was correct then." The doctor murmurs to himself. "I take it you do not remember me then?" The doctor asks the teen in front of him.
The boy nods.
"Well then I suppose I should start at the beginning and tell you everything I know then." The doctor suggests and the boy nods.
"Your name is Kamijou Touma and your right hand bears an unbelievable power known as 'Imagine Breaker'..." The doctor begins.
He learns a lot in this talk of theirs. He finds that Kamijou just sounds wrong. It feels off. He feels like a fake in his own body. He remembers the doctor saying that Kamijou Touma liked being referred to as Kamijou.
His heart aches when thinking about his old self. He simply can't refer to himself as Kamijou because Kamijou Touma is dead and a fake has replaced him, at least for now. So as not to offend the memory of the boy he was before he believes it best he takes on the practice of the rest of Vale and refers to himself by his first name.
Touma huh?
He likes that.
He's staring out the window when he hears talking outside of the door. He vaguely recognises one of the voices. Considering he only knows and remembers the doctor due to their chat only an hour before.
He remembers what the doctor said about his supposed friends and teammates.
"Knowing you, even if you have lost your memories you will hide that fact from those that love you simply because you want to spare them that pain."
"So I'll give you a choice, you can decide whether to live on as the Kamijou from before and hide the fact that you've lost the memories or embrace the fact that you can't remember anything."
"But remember whatever choice you make you have a responsibility to yourself, so if you ever need to talk to someone I'll be here checking out the nurses if you need me."
It is pretty obvious that while the frog-faced doctor is a pervert he's also kind and cares about his patients. He's glad that the first person he met after waking up was someone so understanding.
He notices the door opening but he assumes that it's one of the nurses coming in to check on his vitals again. He turns to greet the nurse only to see three beautiful girls standing in the doorway.
Badump!
His heart begins beating rapidly. It's almost as if while he doesn't remember them his heart does. Does that mean that the old Kamijou is still somewhere inside of him?
The girl in the middle is wearing a white hoodie. He notices that the inside of her hoodie is a purple colour. She's also wearing a black skirt. His eyes look upward and are drawn in by the girl's unusually large green coloured eyes. Her back length silver hair sways as a gust of wind comes in through the window.
The girl on the right has shoulder length chestnut hair and an adorable flower hair clip. Her hair is not the only chestnut coloured thing about her, her eyes are a similar shade of reddish brown. She's wearing a snow white cap over her hair. She has a sky blue shirt on with some kind of green frog mascot in the middle and a pink zip-up jacket on top of that, the inside of the hood is a paler pink than the colour of the jacket. She's wearing beige shorts. He notices that her green and white trainers are scuffed as if she's often used to kicking with them.
And last but not least the girl on the left has tawny coloured hair tied up in pigtails with cute red ribbons that makes her look incredibly childish. She's wearing a dark grey skirt and he notices some kind wrap around her leg that holds some kind of needles and she has a bum bag around her back where he assumes she keeps spare needles in case she uses them all up. She is a huntress in training after all.
(How do I know that?)
Touma likes how her cherry coloured hoodie compliments the white scarf around her neck that trails behind her. Her brown eyes widen as she looks at him.
"Touma!" The silver haired girl exclaims before hugging him. He feels incredibly uncomfortable for she thinks she is hugging Kamijou Touma rather than a faker like him.
"I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong room." He says. He knows they have the right room but he ends up wanting to convey that he doesn't remember them without being so blunt about it.
However upon seeing the look of grief in the girls' eyes he makes up his mind. He doesn't believe that a faker like him has a place in the team before him but for the sake of the girls who care so much for the old him he'll pretend to be the boy they care about.
And so mustering all of the courage within himself he laughs. "Just kidding!" He says in between laughs as he points at the girls in front of them. He puts on the best smile he can and says "Man! I got you guys good didn't I?"
"Huh." The three of them gasp at the same time.
"But how?" The girl with chestnut hair asks.
"Yeah the doctor said that you had almost certainly lost your memories." The silver haired girl adds on.
"Oh, how do I explain this?" He asks himself as he tries to come up with some kind of bullshit excuse. "So you know my right hand, Imagine Breaker right?"
"Yeah?" The tawny haired girl replies.
(Here we go!)
"So because it can negate anything supernatural, all I had to do was touch my head with my right hand and my memories came back. It was so freaky waking up with absolutely no idea who I was." He explains and each word makes him feel guilty as he lies to the girls in front of him.
"Touma." The silver haired girl says in relief. "You…YOU IDIOT!" She says before biting his head.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow! I'm sorry." He apologises to the girl.
He talks with the three for sometime before his stomach rumbles loudly. The silver haired girl and the chestnut haired girl offer to go get him something to eat.
The tawny haired girl offers to stay behind and keep him company until they get back. He hears the door click shut.
"Now." The tawny haired girl says as she licks her lips seductively which is incredibly weird to see on such a cutesy girl.
"'What do you mean by 'now'?" He asks in confusion as his cheeks redden slightly.
"Well I mean now that we are alone, are you going to give your girlfriend a kiss?" She asks as she puts her right index finger to her lips.
(I have a…girlfriend? A really cute one too.)
The doctor didn't mention anything about having a girlfriend? Maybe it's a secret relationship or something?
"Oh right, sorry. My memory is still a little fuzzy. Let me get–" He goes to say but then the girl frowns.
"I knew it."
"You know what?" He asks in confusion as he frowns to himself.
She lets out a sob and Kamijou scrambles to his feet.
"You really have lost your memories…haven't you?" The girl asks Touma.
His mind then connects the dots and he replies with a question of his own. "You're not my girlfriend are you?" He asks the girl who confirms his hypothesis.
(Should've known I wouldn't be lucky enough to have a girlfriend.)
They sit there in silence for a moment.
"Tell me why." She orders the boy to explain.
"Why what?" Touma asks.
The girl pauses for a moment before stepping closer to the teen. Touma looks at her.
"Why did you lie to us, to her of all people?" The girl asks.
Touma didn't even need a second to think before answering the girl's question.
"Because of the look in her eyes." Touma replies.
The girl tilts her head with a look of confusion on her face.
"I didn't mean to lie at first but then I saw the look in her eyes. She looked so heartbroken by my lack of recognition that I couldn't bear to tell the truth and so I played it off as some kind of sick joke." He explains further.
The girl's eyes widened. "You haven't changed, even without your memories, you have a heart of gold." She mutters to herself.
"Right then, you know this will be hard." The girl says to the teen.
He nods.
(Does this mean?)
"And you still want to do this?" The girl asks him in concern.
He can sort of guess what she's thinking. He knows that what he's thinking of doing is mentally insane, for one it'll likely cause some serious mental health problems. Heck he already feels like a fake in his own body. Is it even his body? Is it not the body of the Kamijou Touma from before he lost his memories?
(Don't think like that.)
And yet…
BADUMP
Thinking about the silver haired girl who hugged him before makes his heart begin to beat faster. Is this some kind of leftover feeling from the old Kamijou Touma?
He doubts he'll ever truly know, but he does know he wants to keep on feeling this feeling. It makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He knows it's selfish of him but to protect the smile of a girl he doesn't even remember he'll go on pretending to be the old Kamijou Touma for a little while longer.
He nods once more.
Letting out an exasperated sigh the girl looks at Touma.
"I'm Kuroko Shirai, you can call me Kuroko or Pigtails. You liked giving people nicknames." The girl-Kuroko-or well Pigtails according to her says after a moment of silence.
"The girl with chestnut coloured hair is Misaka Mikoto. You can call her Misaka or Biri-Biri. I'm only telling you about her stupid nickname so you don't get caught so easily, you hear me?" She rhetorically asks the boy after telling Touma about Misaka.
(Yikes.)
Obviously Kuroko cares deeply about Misaka considering her very extreme warning. So from what he's gathered so far he was very close to Kuroko considering she lets him call her by her first name but she also seems very protective of this Biri-Biri.
(What kind of nickname is Biri-Biri?)
"And then there is Index. The silver haired girl who hugged you earlier. You don't have a nickname for her yet but you were thinking one up for her before you lost your memories. Also I feel like I should mention Index isn't just Index. Index is four people." She goes on explaining.
(Four people?)
"How is that possible?" He asks Kuroko.
"I suppose I should start from the beginning. It all started when a girl fell from the sky, this girl was a part of a certain project. The name of this project is 'IndexBreaker' and its goal. Well its goal is to kill you."
(?)
"How is the boy?" A feminine voice asks a girl in a crimson dress.
"He is progressing well my Lady." The girl in the crimson dress replies with her arms folded behind her back and stood upright with the best posture she could muster.
A chill runs down her spine.
Her name is Cinder Fall. Whenever she is in the presence of her master she experiences something that not many people can claim to have experienced in their life; true fear. For her master is a being who could be compared to a god.
Her master is Salem, the mother of Grimm.
"And has he started to show signs yet?" Salem asks her subordinate.
"Not yet. But he's certainly going to survive longer than the others." She replies to her master's question.
"Good…good." Her Master mutters to himself.
…
There is a pause. She shivers once more, the mere presence of her master strikes fear into the hearts of everyone, including her loyal subordinates.
"And what about him?" Salem asks as she spits out the word 'him'.
By 'him' her Master is referring to Kamijou Touma. According to her Master there are only two threats to her plan: Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon academy and Kamijou Touma.
She knows little about the boy. Aside from meeting him once around a month or so ago after helping Roman escape from a huntress and a girl dressed in red and black.
He had shown up out of nowhere swooping in like some kind of fairy tail hero. A concerned look on his face as he saved two girls from her attack. The most shocking thing was how he had somehow negated her attack with simply a touch from his hand.
"He is currently in the hospital for an unknown reason, however this may be because he was caught up in one of the boy's explosions." She tells her Master.
"I highly doubt that. That boy wouldn't be able to be taken out by such an attack. Not with that right hand of his." Salem murmurs to herself.
(What is so special about a mere teenager even younger than herself?)
(Stiyl Magnus)
He and Kanzaki are now standing in the office of a certain headmaster. This headmaster's name is Ozpin and he is the headmaster of Beacon academy, one of the five great academies on Remnant.
Why are they here you may ask? Well that question is an easy enough one to answer.
"Why are we here Ozpin?" He demands answers from the calm professor. Kanzaki stares at the man, silent as always.
Ozpin takes a sip from his mug. He pushes his circular glasses up and stares at them. "This is only the beginning as you know. Dr. White will be back despite being fired for his vile experiments on children." Ozpin replies calmly.
"And so what? You want us to go hunt him down or something?" He asks the professor.
Ozpin frowns. "I would never force you two to do something you did not want to do and while White is a problem he isn't my biggest concern as of now." He tells the two.
"What is it you want from the two of us then Professor?" Kanzaki asks the silver haired man.
Ozpin spins 180 degrees in his chair before standing up and looking out of the window behind his chair. He seems to be looking down upon the students who are discussing how their lessons went today and sighs.
Ozpin turns back to look in their direction and his eyes convey a sadness that Stiyl finds disturbingly comforting. Nobody truly cruel could have such a remorseful look in their eyes after all.
"I want you two and possibly one more person I have in mind to form a special task force. I want you to pose as a normal team of Beacon Academy and your goal is to protect team MIST for each of their members is important to the future." He explains.
Stiyl is confused. He looks at Ozpin. He gets Index being important and he can begrudgingly admit that the brat is of relative importance or well his right hand is. But the electromaster and teleporter are important as well?
"As you know people will come for the legendary 'Index of knowledge.' The one person on remnant that knows everything about academy city's groundbreaking research into Dust, semblances, Grimm and science. Other people will come for the infamous 'Imagine Breaker'. There is little need to explain why people would want Kamijou's right hand." Ozpin continues to explain.
Those were the same reasons he thought of; however he is far more curious about why the other two are just as important.
"Misaka Mikoto or The 'Railgun' is a level five and while she is certainly not the most powerful level five on remnant she is one of the two candidates in the whole world with the potential to become a level six." Ozpin explains and Stiyl's jaw drops. "I see you can understand the importance of her now. She is a valuable asset."
(I mean is it even possible…A level six?)
"And the teleporter?" Kanzaki asks and despite any lack of physical indicators Stiyl can tell she is curious.
"Shirai Kuroko, she is nowhere near as infamous as the others and as such she has no recognisable title. Her quick thinking and leadership skills are impressive however and in a crisis or some other disastrous situation I believe she could blossom into an unrivaled talent. Unfortunately she currently lacks the self-confidence to believe that she is better in any way than her precious 'Onee-Sama' and because of this I believed that it was best to put Misaka in charge of the team for the time being." Ozpin finishes.
"I still don't see why the teleporter is so important." Stiyl states looking at the professor.
The Professor puts his mug down and his frown deepens even further than Stiyl thought possible. Ozpin turns around and looks out the window into the horizon.
"Because I believe a crisis is coming. In fact I'm almost certain that without the members of Team MIST and the other talented youths of this generation, the world as we know it may come to an end." He replies.
Stiyl begins to frown too.
"So are you two on board?" Ozpin asks the duo.
Stiyl nods. Kanzaki replies with a "Very well."
The elevator leading to the Professor's office chimes.
"Perfect timing." Ozpin says. The elevator door opens and out walks a girl with long blonde hair. She's wearing a beacon uniform and long thin white gloves.
"This is Misaki Shokuhou and from today you three will be working together to protect team MIST"
(Kamijou Touma) Thursday September 20th
It's been three days since he decided to pretend like he had never lost his memories and now it's his first day back in class. He's spent the last few days recovering and slowly adjusting to the world around him.
He's met Team RWBY and Team JNPR. They didn't seem to notice anything was off and if they did they probably wrote it off as a side effect of his injuries. Kuroko has been filling him in on what she knows about him and the two of them have been looking through his scroll for more information.
He's learned a lot about himself or the 'other' Kamijou. He's supposed to send a letter weekly to let his parents know how he is doing. He waved away his missed letter by claiming it was due to the stress of school.
He doesn't know why he doesn't just message them. Speaking of messaging, he's been messaging this 'Siscon', his real name being Tsuchimikado Motoharu and one of Kamijou Touma's only friends in academy city.
He actually seems like a decent guy, aside from the blatantly obvious Sister complex that is. He enjoyed talking with the guy because oddly enough he doesn't have any close male friends here in Vale. While he does know Jaune and Ren from JNPR he doesn't feel all that close to them.
(Why am I only surrounded by women?)
Not that he's complaining or anything. They are great company, it's just not the same as when he talks to his friend Tsuchimikado.
"You ready?" Shirai asks from inside the team's bedroom as he finishes tying his tie.
"Nearly." He replies as he throws on his blazer.
This is his fresh start. He's wiped the slate clean and now it's time for him to learn and catch up to the others so he can one day become a huntsman whose ideals live up to the old 'Kamijou Touma'.
(This is only the beginning.)
As he opens the bathroom door he's met with the smiling faces of his teammates. However what he did not expect was how true Kuroko's statement was.
"You are the most unlucky person alive."
He trips on seemingly nothing.
(Oof.)
He gropes around as he tries to comprehend what he fell on that made his embarrassing fall so soft.
He squeezes something round, soft and tiny.
Oh.
He had somehow fallen on Misaka and was now groping her incredibly soft breasts.
"You…You…YOU PERVERT!" Misaka yells at Touma.
ZAP!
As a puff of smoke is released from Touma's mouth he can't help but think about another thing Kuroko said.
(So that is why her nickname is Biri-Biri.)
And so Index_Breaker is over. I hope to see everyone in the next chapter for the start of Volume 2: Aura_Overload.
Bye!