"You know, I've always wondered. People go around with that quote 'Ignorance is bliss.'"

"What about it?"

"It may be true, but, even if that is the case, why would anybody want that?"

"If you've been in conflict your whole life, surely you desire some rest."

"Is that so? I've never thought to myself that I would like the fighting to completely stop. I always just carried out whatever mission was assigned to me. Is that bad?"

"I don't think it's bad… But I can't say that going through life just following orders is nice, either. Maybe it's the feeling of a lack of freedom or maybe it's just boring, but…"

"Are you saying that you would leave all of this if you could?"

"I don't have the smallest doubt in my mind that I could escape all of this."

"Then, why haven't you?"

"I wonder…"

"Index!"

The girl appeared next to her master, flying by his side.

"Yes, Master?"

"I need you to do me a favour. Go to all of the points I've set up and activate them. Connect to the forbidden archive. Execute volume 3, page 218."

"Executing volume 3." A book appeared in front of the girl and flipped open. "Page 218. The Shogunate found."

Kamijou landed on the roof of a building and looked to the girl.

"Cast that spell on all of the markers."

"Master, I feel the need to remind you that this spell has a minimal casting time of 2 minutes. I will need to cast it on every single one of your markers. I do not believe you will be able to avoid confrontation while I carry out your command."

"That's fine. I can handle myself. Now go!"

"As you wish, Master."

With that, she disappeared.

"These guys are just pissing me off now. I'm not going to mess around with this one. If I can hold them off for thirty minutes, then I win. Just te-"

As he was about to complete that thought, he felt a strong throbbing in his head and fell to one knee.

"Agh... Now of all times… Can't you just give me a break?" Visions flew through his head. He saw Uiharu again and this time others. It was hard to make out details, but he was sure that they were all laughing. But were they laughing at him or with him? "What…?"

Suddenly his eyes widened and he felt a churning in his stomach. Unable to swallow it back down, he vomited all over the ground in front of him.

His breathing became heavier and even more so when he saw that the vomit was mostly blood.

"First my mind and now my body? Ha. If only I had time to think of another way to save her back then. Well…" He stood and wiped his mouth. "There's no use in regretting it now. I'll just have to hope that my body can withstand a fight."

"How terrible you look right now."

A soft-spoken voice reached his ears. And it sent chills down his spine when he recognized it. Slowly, he turned his head.

And sure enough, the person who had as of yet only visited him in his mind, someone who, as far as he knew, was dead, was standing before him.

"Uiharu…"

The girl smiled kindly and reached a hand out to touch his shoulder.

Instinctively, he took a step back and her hand stopped, but the smile didn't leave her face.

"What are you scared of, Touma? It's not like this is the first time we're meeting."

"You…"

Before he could register any sort of movement, Uiharu was standing in front of him, her face centimeters from his. And she whispered so quietly that he could barely hear it despite their close proximity.

"It's not nice to treat your friends like that." One of her hands went to his shoulder. The other went to his chest… or rather, through his chest.

Kamijou tried to speak, but he felt an ice cold hand gripping his heart. Breathing suddenly became much more strenuous for him and he could feel his legs about to give out at any moment.

"After breaking your promise to me… You still treat me so coldly. Oh, that's right. You don't remember, do you? I'll gladly remind you."

The hand around his heart squeezed it and Kamijou almost vomited that instant, but swallowed it back.

"Who… are you…?" He managed to get out.

"You kn-"

"You… speak with her voice… and look just like her…" Every word was strained and he felt as if he was going to black out at any moment. "But… You're not… Uiharu…"

Something like a flash of anger showed on the girl's face for a moment before she smiled once again.

"You're so funny, Touma." She squeezed tighter and the boy lost his ability to breathe. His body felt as if it were shaking.

"-a!"

A distant voice reached his ears.

"It looks like they're trying to take you away. How unfortunate since we got to spend so little time together in person after so long."

"-ou-sama!"

The voice became clearer in his ears, but he heard the soft voice of Uiharu laugh.

"Until next time, Touma."

She gave one final terrifyingly painful squeeze to his heart and he blacked out.

"Kamijou-sama!"

"Ahhh!" Kamijou screamed as he opened his eyes, causing Kuruwa to jump away from him. "What…?"

He was on his hands and knees on the roof of some random building. Frantically, he glanced around, looking for Uiharu, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Kamijou-sama, are you alright? You look terrible…"

Only then did he notice that he was drenched in a cold sweat. He listened closely and could hear his heart beating rapidly.

"I'm… fine. It's just another side effect, I'm sure. How long have I been out?"

"Around five minutes."

"Five minutes? Nothing's happened in that time? No attack? Has the enemy shown themselves?"

Many questions were flying through his head and his chest still felt cold.

"No. Nothing has happened. It's very strange. I don't detect any magical presences besides known ones."

Kamijou swallowed and nodded.

"I'll take a look just in case." He reached into his pocket and took out a small vial of water. "Watch my back for a minute."

As he said that, he glanced in Kuruwa's direction and her face told him that she had a thousand questions, most of which were likely linked to the state she had found him in.

"I'll answer all your questions later so… Just bear with me, for now."

She nodded and turned away from him, scanning the skies and rooftops.

Kamijou poured the water in a circle, the liquid not reacting to the wind at all. He held one hand over the centre of the circle, palm facing down. And he closed his eyes and spoke.

"Oh, how ignorant I am. I am but a blind man lost in a field of stone. Great immortals, who make your presence known to all across the lands, grant pity and give this man sight. For I am the one who will see to it that your lands remain pure. From your eyes…" Small lights appeared over the hand facing the sky and fell into his palm. "To mine… Calculations complete. Activate spell." As the last of the lights fell through his palm, he held it facing down and the light began to flow out of his hand.

A light that resembled that of a projector shined forth from the circle and a sphere appeared in the air above it.

Kamijou slowly opened his eyes.

Kuruwa looked in his direction, but could not see the sphere.

Small specks of light started to appear in various places on the sphere.

"Strange…" Kamijou spoke up. "I also don't see any strange presences. I'm completely sure that my barrier was broken through though. Index."

Immediately, Index appeared next to him.

"Yes, Master?"

"Cancel that last order. I want a specific wide range magical detection cast for any anomalies. Connect to the forbidden archive. Execute volume 261, page 193."

"Executing volume 261." She closed her eyes for a brief second. "Page 193. Eyes of the Gods found."

"Execute spell."

"Yes, Master." Index closed her eyes for a few seconds and spoke incredibly fast in a language that neither Kamijou nor Kuruwa could comprehend. And when she opened her eyes, a red ring appeared in front of each of them.

"Scan the entire island and the surrounding waters for 10 kilometers."

"… I am not detecting any unregistered or unnatural presences within the specified area. If someone is concealing their presence, they must be using a deity-level or higher spell or an unregistered ability."

"Is that so…? That's fine then. That's enough."

The rings disappeared and Index nodded before disappearing in a flurry of pages.

"You're not going to let it go at that, will you, Kamijou-sama?"

"Of course not, but there isn't much that I can do about it, is there? If Index can't detect them with that spell… By the time I could cast a deity-level detection spell, they would be well out of range of it."

Sighs escaped both of their mouths.

"Let's head back. I'm hungry." Kamijou flashed a smile to the ninja and she nodded, following him as he set out.

"There you are. What are you doing out here?"

Misaka spoke breathlessly, the run up this building proving physically taxing. Her breath appeared in front of her and she pulled her scarf up a bit.

"Hm? What are you doing in Alaska, Miko-chan? Weren't you on your way to New York?" Kakine smirked and looked up at the night sky, the full moon shining brightly overhead. "I'm just admiring this place while I'm here. Is there something wrong with that?"

Contrary to the girl who wore a long coat and scarf, the boy wore nothing but his school uniform and did not seem the least bit bothered by the frigid air.

"You know what I mean. You were supposed to be heading to New York as well. Once I arrived and heard you were nowhere to be seen, I hired somebody to perform a long-range teleportation spell. It didn't take a lot of questioning of the other members of Last Order to find out where you were."

"Those guys are so creepy, knowing where I am at all times." He let out a sigh and watched as the frigid air made his breath visible. "You know, I've been thinking about leaving lately."

"Leaving? You're traveling all the time, what do you-"

"Leaving Last Order."

Misaka froze up a bit at that and had to struggle to get her next words out through a lump in her throat.

"W…What? Why would you do something like that? You know, the rest wouldn't let you leave, right? Besides, if you leave…"

The taller boy walked up to her and placed a hand on her head, ruffling her hair a bit.

"Come on, we're not supposed to be fans of each other in Last Order. Don't look so sad. I'm not leaving right now even if I decide to."

She looked up, her face a mixture of emotions, her cheeks flushed.

"So what!? What prompted this? You've never said anything about any of our operations regardless of if you agreed with them or not! So, why now!? Don't you realize how crucial a time this is for us with Sorcery running about and now this guy has shown up talking about Uiharu! It's…"

Realizing what she had just said, Misaka stopped and stammered for something to say.

"I knew you had met up with him. Kamijou Touma is an interesting guy, wouldn't you say?"

The girl swallowed hard and nodded.

"I fought him. Of course, I held back, but he's exceptionally strong. I can't see how someone like him was overlooked by Last Order for so long."

"He wasn't." Before the girl could ask what he meant by that, he continued. "Myself and that other man have known about him for a very long time. We just never felt the need to bring it up as he didn't pose any threat at the time. Now it seems that he poses a threat to the very balance of the world."

Misaka wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"You mean because of the creation of Myth?"

"Indeed. I didn't expect him to officially declare a faction of his own. Moreover, he possesses a Key, a former member of Broken Light, and other strange characters. He certainly did surprise us all."

Kakine turned and walked back to the edge of the roof they were on. Snow covered the ground in every direction, caking the world in a bright white.

The girl walked a bit closer, but left some space between them.

"You mentioned Uiharu, didn't you?"

"Ah… I…"

Kakine just glanced back at her with a blank look.

"Yes. Kamijou asked about her. Of course I didn't leak any information, but the fact that he knew her surprised me."

The boy looked like he wanted to say something, but he just continued looking out over the landscape.

"Teitoku?"

A whisper reached her ears, so low that she would have missed it if the wind had blown at that time.

"How do you think she got cursed in the first place?"

"I don't think that I'll ever get used to walking into the place where I should be living alone and smelling a freshly cooked meal."

Kamijou grinned as he and Kuruwa walked into his apartment and saw Othinus and Frenda preparing dinner.

Taking a deep breath he sat down heavily on the couch. And a little smile cracked, followed by a snickering.

"Is something the matter, Kamijou-sama?"

Kuruwa looked at him a bit uneasy despite his seemingly chipper attitude.

"I was just thinking… I guess I've been doing a lot of that lately." Another deep breath. "I was just thinking... So much has changed in such a short period of time. When I first came to this island, I expected a few battles here and there, but I thought that the only people I would be in contact with were my superiors. To think that I've met all of you now and… that we can just be peaceful like this."

All of the girls smiled.

"To be honest, it makes me a bit scared." He held his right hand in front of him. "When I first woke up, I was told I had the power to destroy anything that threatened me. Whether it be bullets, tanks, espers, or a ray of destructive light from God himself. Despite that, I feel so uneasy now. I want to protect all of you, but my power is limited. Another battle will come and when it does…"

Kamijou heard a giggling and before he could look up, two soft hands caressed his cheeks. They drew his head up so that he was staring at Othinus. She smiled and that alone almost made all of his worries fly away at that moment.

"You've sacrificed so much to protect me, Touma. To protect me, a girl you had just met. Even if I were to die in a battle, I will remain eternally grateful to you. But I trust in you to protect me. And I want you to trust in us that we will do our best to protect you."

A light laugh escaped the boy's mouth and he placed his hands over hers and took a look around the room and the others who were nodding their agreement.

"Everyone… Thank you."

Thank you for reading, everyone!

Woah, this one is a bit late. Let me give a short explanation for that. I'm a physics major in college right now, so I have to invest a lot of time into school. I'll be trying to write more, as it proves to be a good stress relief.

Anyways, I really enjoyed writing this chapter even if it isn't so long. The next one will be pretty long, probably one of the longer chapters I've written for any fanfic. There's a lot of stuff I need to include.

Also, hype for Index season 3 in 2018! I'm looking forward to it a ton, especially since the Accelerator and Kakine fight will be in it. I've been wanting to see it for a while now. Plus, I'm interested in how Kakine will look in an animation.

As always, my humblest thanks to you readers. The new ones who might pick up this series and the ones who have been here from the start. I can't express how grateful I am to you for reading my works. I look forward to speaking with all of you more in the future. Feel free to send a private message if you have any questions or just want to talk.

Well then! Be seeing you.

~ Mayuri