A Simple Chat

The_Brakes_are_missing

Dust floats on through the air of the empty warehouse where Kumagawa finishes with the beginning of his encounter with vampires.

[Then we fought and stuff. Does that answer your question, Enshuu-chan?]

Touma, Index, and Enshuu wear shellshocked faces. Touma raises his hand.

[Yes, you there, with the dopey looking scrubs on.]

"The mystery was whether or not you ate rat isn't it."

[Yes. Excellent question. Next question.]

"That wasn't a question but was that chef really lying about the rat? Pretty sure if I was him, I'd have served rat."

Kumagawa nods.

[So, your question is, did chef feed me rat, correct?]

"Yeah."

[Good question, next question, yes. Enshuu-chan.]

Enshuu crosses her arms as she raises an eyebrow.

"How did you come up with the idea that it could be better as a jerky?"

[Right, right, so your question was-]

"How did you know?"

The bravado leaves him at this one.

[...Looked it up.]

Index's face grows pale.

"Wh-what? You….gave me jerky the other day."

Touma's face starts developing strained blood veins on his temple.

[I-what-no! No! Nooo. I did not do the thing you're thinking I did. Look, can we just get back to figuring this vampire den out? We haven't even searched this place yet. Let's uh-]

Enshuu presses the point even more.

"How did you know about the meat's pungent taste was in line with how rat tastes?"

Kumagawa breathes in deeply before speaking his sigh aloud.

[...Aiight then, fuck it. Imma head out.]

Grabbing his head with both hands; he twists his head around until it snaps, leaving his lifeless body crumpled onto the ground.

The three just stare at him for awhile.

"...Tch. Just like him to leave me alone with this 'vampire' nonsense. I'll go drag him into a dumpster or something. You guys can feel free to search elsewhere."

Enshuu walks over to Kumagawa, and by making him her enemy in her mind; she uses All Fiction to partially nullify his weight and drags him off.

Index walk off into the halls to go search for clues, as well as a toilet to purge herself of the suspicious meat she had eaten.

Touma, by himself, sighs.

The Rat Dilemma was an interesting one to be sure, but what was more interesting was his story. He fought with and then alongside an Annihilatus squad of some kind, fought off some sort of inferior enslaved vampires, and then went face to face with a real vampire. A being that has none of the mythological lore sorts of weaknesses like crosses or garlic.

But why?

Why did Kumagawa take such interest in following the girl, Agnessa? At what point was he going to decide to reveal himself? Would he have at all? Then there's the matter of how well he seemed to have gotten along with the vampire, Eva. His face lit up while he was speaking about her. Not in the standard way of his reactions to females. It seemed to Touma...there was a genuine sincerity in the pride, admiration, and respect of his general demeanor when it came to Eva. Was she still alive? Could Kumagawa be covering for her? Perhaps she snuck in with his help. Perhaps he means to use the shear raw power of this vampire to achieve his ends.

...Could Touma really accept such a dangerous entity being under the command of this ever changing variable? Kumagawa's motivations and whims cannot be described in their randomness and purpose.

"Hmmm~ So you're finally starting to doubt him. It's honestly safer for you that way."

"...Can you not do this now?"

Turning his head, he sees Ajimu sitting on top of a printer, legs swinging innocently One that he vaguely recognized as one from his school.

"I know you overheard your friend talking with little Index-chan. Do you not find it suspicious that he took ALL of the printers and monopolized the gym? Fukiyose was clearly talking about his Skill Outs being the ones he called on. Despite this, Index-chan didn't even bother to mention that to you. That and-"

"You want me to investigate because you don't know."

Her legs stop moving.

"...What makes you say that?'

"Your reaction just now."

"Hahahahaha! Now that's how you think like a Minus!"

Touma narrows his eyes but soldiers past that comment.

"You don't know because the author hasn't written it in yet, right?"

Ajimu's face remains cheerful, but the air felt as though cold and sharp against the skin. Otherwise, she stays silent. Touma gulps his nervousness down, knowing full well what type of waters he waded in.

"Kumagawa visited me a few times at the hospital, you know. I asked him about the author of this story since I figured that with you two coming from the same place, he'd have the same perspective as you. That he could 'read ahead' like you. But he can't, apparently. He only makes wild assumptions of him that could be true or not. 'The author is nothing more than fate with a personality attached and the characters all share his knowledge. So even if the characters are supposed to be intellectuals of some kind; if the author is just a dumbass then it turns those sorts of characters into just another in a great sea of intellectual dumbasses.' I couldn't understand him too well then but...if the author doesn't know yet, then how could you?"

The air melts as her smile spreads a bit further.

"Well my previous statement about you still holds true but I guess you aren't as slow as I thought. I'm sorry for underestimating you. That's somewhat correct though; I think the author knows but since he doesn't want me to know just yet, I won't be able to learn about what Kumagawa is up to. Suppose it was unfair of me to bring that to the table when you've already made it clear what side your on. Let's just move on from that. Unless, you want to continue? I do have my motives but I'll table them for sake of keeping your company!"

Touma was completely in shock.

"Hm? Did you think I was going to go on some evil tirade? Talk about how 'Even if you know, it means NOTHING' or something else along lines? I'm not someone so stubborn as to lie, bluff, or otherwise shrug off your words, should they have some truth to them."

"I, I really don't-"

"Of course you don't understand. You are you. All of your experiences, lessons learned, your mindset, etcetera; that is all yours and yours alone. The same applies to me. True understanding would be difficult without living enough to reach the other person's years of life. Or mind reading but that comes with it's own drawbacks."

Touma's fists clench tightly as the perfect counter comes to mind.

"Does age really matter when it comes to wanting to understand someone?"

"Of course it does but just not in the way you're thinking. It's not a matter of years lived as much as it is years of life experienced. There is no way you can possibly imagine how I've lived for all these eons. In the same turn, I can't understand how you have lived your life. What little of life you've experienced this far in, is just a grain of sand being dropped against the desert that is my life experiences."

"So what?"

He had a feeling of how she wanted their conversations to go. She presents overwhelming amounts of things to doubt to slow his way of thinking down, shutting him out of anyway to say anything.

"Come on, I'm not trying to say it like it's something I hold over-"

And so, he goes along with the mindset of a Minus, yet again, to breakthrough. He'll show her what he thinks of being railroaded into her agendas. Well, in all honesty, he couldn't give a damn about any of that in the moment.

Touma just really, really, really felt like wiping that smug look off her face.

"Shut up, hag."

Silence booms between them. Ajimu's cheery face does in fact slide off now, to Touma's credit. But as chills rack his body, he realizes that it was more of a mask. As he sees what's behind, a powerful sense of dread nearly forces him to pass out. For Touma, those descriptors and many, many more come to mind, as though like wave upon wave of information to try to protect him for what was to come.

It had only been 4 seconds.

Ajimu sighs and tilts her head, the back of her left hand propping the side of her face up.

"Gh!"

Touma crumples to the ground holding his heart.

"How does it feel? To have your heart frozen in place without anyway of getting it to beat? Must really suck."

Touma slaps at his chest with his right hand but nothing happens.

"Must be worse to not know how it's been done. Is the source internal or external? Is it something you can negate or did I maybe poison you? Could it be something else entirely? Sorry but I just can't understand the thoughts of you young, childish, reckless, fucking wastes of oxygen that should be reduced to carbonized ASH...kids~"

She smiles so sweetly yet so cruelly as he tries to fight against whatever is hurting him by whatever means he can flail to. Eventually, he pushes himself up to his knees and stares Ajimu down, flashing a pained smile.

"You...must be going...senile..."

"...Excuse me?"

"You-"

Ajimu hops down and crouches next to Touma, hands holding her skirt down, as she presses her finger against his lips.

"Keep in mind that I sort of have an urge to use a power on you that I traded a few shitty powers for; in another story that I poked my head into. Disaster Ball. You know what it does? It's a special type of power that spreads a virus which only infects men. It will first inflict all diseases known to me, onto you. Of which, I know quite a few by the way. The second stage is much, much worse though. It'll cause you to hurl out an anomalously large amount of semen and your balls will literally explode. Once used, you will die in the most violent way I feel like coming up with at the moment. Such a fun, easy power! So, with all of that being said, could you run that one from before by me again?"

She slowly pulls her hand back as Touma hastily wipes off his face with the sleeve of his shirt before grinning again.

"You...need to be...put in a retirement home...hag."

The silent rage she had put on, disappears. In it's place is exasperated apathy.

"Haaaa. Guess there's no point in uselessly trying to get an idiot like you to understand anything. Disaster Ball would be better suited in using on your absentee teacher anyhow. You just reminded me of him a tad bit is all."

As she stands back up to return to her printer, the hold she had over Touma is released.

"You really have a knack for emulating the worst sorts in unexpected ways, you know. Maybe that empathetic link is what blinds you to what's happening. Ah well, suppose there's still some time left to convince you later on but my current time is nearly-"

"...I'm not finished yet."

"But I am, sorry to say."

Ajimu stops, leans on her lead foot and goes to spin herself back to look him in the eye from where he was on the ground.

"But I'm not."

She instead finds him standing right in front of her, right hand gripping her forearm as tight as he can manage.

"...Oh my! Guess I really need to revamp my whole outlook on you, huh?"

"I care as much about however long you've lived for, or how much of it you've lived, or whatever you want to call it; as you do for anything outside yourself. Does any of that actually matter to you? You keep gloating about how apathetic you are as though it's some badge of honor for you but then you start going on about how I'll never understand because of life experience. What does any of that matter when it comes down to wanting to understand someone!? I already know that I'll never fully understand anyone, never mind understanding you, but it doesn't stop me from wanting to try. How do you expect anyone to understand you when you don't even try to make anyone understand yourself!?"

Ajimu's harsh gaze turns soft and somber in less than an instant, finally showing just how defeated she felt.

"Because understanding is vastly overrated."

Her tone throws Touma off enough to drop his guard and let go of her, but this wasn't some ploy by her to accomplish as much so she could get the upper hand.

"If one in a million can understand me in a single lifetime, then that's around 7000 in a sea of billions that I'll lose in maybe 70 to 80 years and that's adding in the generous factor of my being able to meet them before they die. That's only a measly, combined total of 560,000 years of life against my three trillion four hundred two billion and change. A number that just never stops growing."

All it was, was the loneliness of a girl who had godhood beyond godhood thrust upon her before she could ever had a say; by a being that she can't touch even with her absurdly enormous arsenal of Skills.

"Do you know how many people that I've actually been able to met in my life that could understand my feelings? More than I can count, for sure. They truly were just one in a million. They were my equals...but I can hardly remember them anymore. I don't say that out of some callous tendency or some kind of nihilistic mental acrobatics. It's just...makes things hurt a little bit less if I can manage to forget them. But only a little. ...Until next time."

Touma blinks, she disappears.

The whole experience leaves him frozen in place. Her emotions changed so rapidly over the course of their conversation that it left Touma no closer to really seeing her perspective. Where the lies and truth lay exactly was unknown. Her personality went well beyond terms like sociopath and psychopath. He wanted to help her but it was like seeing an astronaut go drifting out into space and once he has gotten geared up and out the ship to rescue the poor bastard, that's when he somehow just notices the black hole that they're in the pull of.

Now how astronauts could get in range of a black hole without noticing or getting ripped to shreds or with any of the many in an inexhaustible list of impossibilities happening at all in that scenario is anyone's guess. But even that much isn't entirely irrelevant to the current situation. The very concept of attempting to understand a shred of the thoughts, feelings, and personality of someone who has lived long enough to witness the birth of the universe a couple hundred times over is just as impossible, after all.

He can understand loneliness. He can understand depression and loss. Usually, this has been enough in spite of whatever other differences there are. All it ever took was the genuine empathy to break through to even the coldest of the enemies that Touma has fought; so that they could be saved from whatever personal hell they made for themselves. But that isn't enough.

He can get something of a gist when it comes to how Ajimu feels but there's a whole world of information that gets lost in translation. As much as he hated to admit it, there was something to be said for the age difference. He just can't see himself in her shoes.

"Touma? Are you ok?"

He turns to see Index has returned.

"Ah yeah. I'm alright. I just-"

She sighs loudly.

"No you aren't. You should go back to the hospital and get some rest. We'll have things figured out here soon enough."

"But-"

"Hm?"

Her exasperated expression aside, Touma couldn't find the words to explain why he had to stay. With Ajimu involving herself more and things with Kumagawa picking up momentum, he couldn't leave any of it alone. This was more than his natural inclination towards helping people. He had a feeling that if he so much as looked away from the situation for a second, everything would come crashing down around him.

But how could he explain any of it? If you had told him, two weeks ago, that his world was in danger of being destroyed by an impossibly old, suicidal high school girl of even more impossible power, he'd believe it honestly but he still wouldn't have anything resembling a grasp on just how insane the whole situation is. At least with Gremlin and Othinus, he has some knowledge. Ajimu is well beyond the simple matters of Magic Gods.

Touma did figure that Index could be able to get a better idea than him on how to handle it all. Hell, any fresh perspective would be great but she's someone he had come to rely on for explanations in the past. However, this is exactly why he needs to keep her out of it. She may be involved already if what Ajimu was implying is any indicator; he still can't draw her any further in than he has already.

"Well, how about this? If this is the work of some thugs or even if it is some vampire magician making their move on Academy City, then I'm sure that Kumagawa can handle that just fine. He's got the experience for it. If it turns out to be something like that, then you can take me to the hospital and I'll get us some food from somewhere along the way."

Index's eyes light up.

"What about that cake store? The one that says they can make the cakes taste like your favorite song?"

"Sure, just be careful of what song you choose. I heard some people picking out foreign songs without really thinking about it getting sick."

"Hmph, probably because of xenophobia."

"More like they honestly put no thought at all into what song to use and they wind up saying 'Oh, wouldn't it be funny to try some heavy metal stuff?' Then they're in the hospital, throwing up everywhere."

"I'm going with the theme song to Magical Kanamin so I should be fine!"

"...Don't they have parts in the lyrics about getting high off magic though?"

"It's a metaphor."

"A metaphor for what? You're just going to wind up overdosing once you shove the whole cake into your mouth the moment it's in your hands!"

From here, the two bicker and argue about musical cake for awhile. Touma was just happy to have distracted her from her wish to see him back in the hospital again but somehow he still felt uneasy about the prospect of having Index being able to somehow get high of any magic she comes into contact with.

Eventually Touma catches some movement out of the corner of his left eye and looks over as Enshuu observes them both with a look of bemusement.

"Don't let my reappearance stop you, Touma-oniichan. If you and Index-chan want to keep on with your lover's spat then I'll just go explore the hidden area I found by myself."

Index's face goes red at the comment but Touma only sighs; far too focused on the idea of there being more to this place, along with the fact that his face was already turned away from being able to see Index's, to fully acknowledge Enshuu's comment in full.

"Honorifics aside, you really are a friend of Kumagawa. We're coming."

He walks over to Enshuu with a mildly irritated Index following suit.

As they walk through the building, passing empty office rooms and storage areas, Touma figures this as good a time as any to ask some questions.

"Hey, uh, Enshuu-san?"

"Yes, Touma-oniichan?"

"...Why do you call me that?"

"Hm? Touma-oniichan is Touma-oniichan. I'm not sure I get the question."

"Well it's just...I lost all my memories from before July. So...if I knew you before then, I wouldn't now."

"Oh. I get it now. We've never met before last week so don't worry."

"I see...wait. Then why the oniichan bit?"

Enshuu only tilts her head in confusion. He was curious but on the other hand, he had heard about the Kiharas before. While he did want to reserve his judgment in his wish to trust in the good in people, he also remembered how closely she had held that knife from when they met the the first time. So, in order to not trigger some psychosis or another in the little girl, he sets his curiosity aside.

"Ah, never mind that. What I was going to ask about before was, why do you help Kumagawa?"

"Hmm. Well, he's already helped me out a lot so I guess I feel like I should."

"How did he help you? When did the two of you meet anyway?"

"That's sort of a long story but we met only just a little bit ago. About a few weeks ago, actually. I was lost, figuratively speaking, and he helped me find a way when I thought there was none. He saved me. I know I don't really show it but I'm grateful to him for it. That's all there is to it, really."

Touma initially smiles, but as he thinks on it, no interaction with Kumagawa can be that simple. No matter how small or great the interaction was.

"Grateful huh? ...You feel that way even now? He-"

"I know he's been using me to achieve his own goals. He was very upfront about that, even if I have underestimated how difficult those goals really are. I guess...I know that if I was in his shoes and he were in mine, he'd do everything he could to help me. So, I'll just do the same for him."

Those feelings were genuine but still, Touma felt an unease at the aspect of this little girl being involved in the sort of business that Kumagawa gets into, never mind the usual perversions he gets up to as well. That's when a new thought occurred to him.

"Oh, where did you take Kumagawa to anyhow?"

"Hm? I told you guys already. I found a dumpster and threw him in, locking it up after the fact. He's going to reek of Italian food by the way."

Before he could respond to that bit of absurdity, Touma realized they had come to a dead end.

"Is it behind the wall?"

"Hn, hn. I was wandering around, knocking on walls, before I came to get you two. I've looked up the blueprints to this place and there wasn't supposed to be anything behind there. After I bashed a hole in though, I'd say that was a lie."

Touma squints his eyes to see in the dark as Enshuu pulls out a heavy duty flashlight, turning it on with the business end burning Touma's retinas.

"AAGH!"

"Oops."

"How is that an 'oops'?!"

"I didn't see you there. That's why I got this out."

"Don't just explain that away like I'm some kid that just touched the stove! We had only been talking just a second before you turned it on and I know you can't be that dumb since you were the one leading things at that weird arcade last week!"

"...Well. Moving on."

Enshuu gives the cold shoulder to Touma, like a parent might to a tantrum throwing child, and points the light to the wall. Touma grumbles under his breath but looks over along with Index, who cocks her head at the sight before asking a simple question with a simple answer.

"So how do we get in?"

Enshuu doesn't look over at the nun but she answers as she kneels down and lights a fuse.

"Thermite."

"Hm? Wha-"

Before Index could even ask what it was Touma had scooped her up, sprinting them both off into another room with Enshuu trailing after. He tries to yell at her for being so reckless but she stops him by jamming something his ears as well as Index's afterward. It just barely helped against the cacophony of destruction that came from the hall.

A few moments later, when it had become quiet, Touma takes out what was put in his ears.

"Earplugs...thanks but why couldn't you have at least told us to get back first?"

She sighs loudly as she turns her unamused face toward him.

"Do you want Kumagawa-oniichan to 'wake' up and complicate things up more or do you want to get to the bottom of things as quick as possible?"

"...Right. Sorry, I didn't realize how hard you've had it up til now."

"As long as you know."

The remains of the wall smolder in it's ruin and beyond it, an elevator with a lit up panel for a key card.

"Those blueprints, did you see what this place was before it was abandoned?"

"Hn. It's the Special Ability Institute. The research facility that was looking into developing Dual Skill."

Outside the facility, Kumagawa wakes up in a dank, dark place.

[Urgh. Why does it...sniff...smell like garlic bread? Oh hey, free snack.]

As he bites into his dumpster bread, he hears a muffled voice from outside.

[HEY! MIND HELPING A FELLA OUT OVER HERE?]

"Huh? Who is that?"

Normally, most people wouldn't have alerted themselves to some unknown person skulking about an abandoned facility but it should be noted that a man who eats dumpster bread without any hesitation and is perfectly fine with rat dumplings isn't someone who fears much at all anyway.

[Ah sorry if I startled you. My friend played a bit of a prank on me and, well, as you can see I need some assistance so if you would be so kind...]

The voice, sounding like it belonged to some younger girl, comes closer.

"Typically people don't just lock others away in dumpsters without a reason. Especially when they've put a car on top of the lid. How did they manage that?"

[Ahaha! That scamp really went and did it huh? Well I can't really say much of anything to get your trust in this position. Tell you what, I will do you one favor if you let me out.]

The girl laughs.

"A favor?"

[Yeah! One favor that you can redeem at whatever point you'd like for whatever purpose suits you! It could range from a cookie to the whole world if you want. I'm a pretty agreeable guy right now so I can't say many others would get this kind of deal y'know!]

"Heh, alright but all I'm going to do is put it on your tab. Doubt I'd need a favor from a dumpster man, no offense."

Kumagawa tears up at this and sobs quietly.

"Uh...that was just a joke. I didn't really mean anything by it."

The girl's voice showed that she actually regretted her words. She wasn't trying to hurt him like that but Kumagawa's mood had already shifted in the direction of, 'ah man, I'm going to harass the hell out of this one later,' as he fakes forgiveness.

[Ahhhhh! I see! You were just kidding. I get it. But how do you plan on getting me out anyway? Can you lift the car? Are you some kind of Amazon warrior princess? There's a pretty crazy gap in the image that I have in my head being paired with a voice like that but hey, big muscle-bound girls can be pretty cute too!]

"...Somehow I just got the oddest chill up my spine but whatever. Just keep your head down and plug your ears. This is going to be a bit loud."

Kumagawa does as he's told, staring up at the bottom of the lid in anticipation. Blueish-white light and the sound of crackling comes through his solid ear protecting technique of his hands against his head. As the light grows brighter, he notices a note taped up on the lid.

Dear Kumagawa-oniichan,

Since you enjoyed your dumplings from before so much, I've done you the service of bringing you straight to the source of your favorite meat. There's food in there so you should be fine for awhile. Please stay where you are.

[Oh please like I'd-]

As he reads on, the sound of a great cannon being fired blows away whatever comment he was going to make.

P.S, I loaded the car up with all the thermite and leftover explosives I felt like dropping off so have fun with that.

P.S.S, I also set up several canisters of flesh-eating bacteria to go off inside the dumpster when the thermite does.

See ya soon!

The last thing to go through his mind was pride for the growth of his little protegee's deviousness.

Well, actually it was several shards of burning, metal shrapnel but the point remains.

The elevator's second stop off, as well as last, was buried a bit underground and opened up to a well-lit tunnel. The three trekked off, initially worried about getting lost since this seemed like a much larger place than they thought. But the tunnel's concrete walls stretched smoothly down it's entire length until they reached a door with no locks. Touma and Index argue about going and Enshuu walks right through without a care, forcing the other two to begrudgingly follow.

The place they found themselves in now has ceiling lights high above them, in between various catwalks intersecting and stretching on and on, but very little of it. The only other light, was the purple glow that came from a few of the many large capsules that ran through the hanger-like space in row after row.

"I'm not seeing too much dust around the immediate area. This place must still be used by somebody."

"Shouldn't that mean we ought to slow down a bit, Enshuu-san? Whoever that 'somebody' is, they're probably still around."

'Isn't that all the more reason that we should rush in? We have the element of surprise for now."

"For now."

"Yes. I'm glad we can agree on what I just said, Touma-oniichan. Come on now, lets go find these 'vampires'."

Suddenly, Touma didn't feel so worried about Kumagawa being a bad influence on the little mad scientist. Now he was more worried about her effect on Kumagawa than anything.

Enshuu wasn't the only lackadaisical one about, Index runs to and fro as she marvels at all the unknown technologies.

"What is all this?"

"Yeah, what is this place anyway?"

"Hn, well this whole place is filled up with some of the larger-ends of Testament machines that I've seen..."

"Testament? ...Does this have to do with the Sisters?"

"The Radio Noise Project? ...Maybe in the past but those capsules there are filled with some liquid that I don't recognize from what I read about the project. There's some canisters here that I can take a look at so I can-"

"That's not necessary. I'll give you the answer."

The trio whip their heads up to the catwalk. A younger man, dressed in a surgical gown, smiles amicably down at them. He was on the lankier side but otherwise seemed more the kind to be in the doctor's shoes than a patient's paper ones.

One odd thing, was the splotched birthmark on his right temple.

"It's just the leftovers from a completely separate project that also experienced failure. Must say though even if STUDY was inefficient in it's research, I'm glad that they had enough data for better minds to continue."

A look of sudden recognition hits the man's face as his grin widens.

"Ah! Hello, Enshuu-chan. It's a pleasant surprise to see you on the hero's side for once."

Touma looks over at Enshuu.

"Do you know each other?"

"I don't think so? Unless..."

Her eyebrows scrunch up in thought before her eyes go wide.

"Gensei...ojiisan?"

The man laughs.

"You're almost right but I won't ruin the surprise. We Kiharas thirst so much for knowledge don't we?"

By the look of shock on her face, Touma assumed she had nothing to do with any of this. So he confronts the enemy before him.

"Are you the one behind all the vampire attacks?"

"Haha. I'm not THE one but sure."

The man, Gensei, jumps from the catwalk, around 50 feet above them, and lands smoothly on his feet.

"If all you want is someone to thrust your righteous anger upon, then I suppose I don't mind-"

Touma instinctively throws himself into Enshuu as he gets them out of the way of a blueish-white blast.

"Oops."

Touma flinches at the voice as he looks back at the impact area. Past the smoke, he could see the burnt out corpse of the man he had briefly known as Gensei.

"Funny. Guess it really is hard-wired for me to not care for myself at all when it comes to pursuing my own research."

He sees the corpse and yet, the man still speaks.

"Ah well."

The same voice but from behind Touma now. He turns around, fearing that his hunch might be right.

"There should be enough of me at least to see my research through this time."

Five more Genseis walk from the tunnel with , green, glowing orbs, white wings, and black wings.

"Gentlemen, lets begin the experiment. Can the Imagine Breaker survive against all the powers of the current Level 5s at once?"

Touma immediately takes off with Enshuu in tow, blasts of all kinds being lobbed in his general direction, and picks up Index as well before darting in between the spaces between capsules.

"They want me so we're splitting up right...now!"

After going through a few of the rows, he pushes the two girls away as he runs back the way he came.

"First test, how does the Imagine Breaker handle the #1's past and present forms combined?"

An arm swipes at Touma as he bends wildly out of it's way. The Gensei clone charges at him as a flash of blueish-white strikes the clone's head, the lightning reflecting off and blasting the Testament capsules in front of where Touma was moving toward.

The clone's arms thrash violently at Touma but they had none of the inexperience Accelerator had in their first fight nor had it the sort of wild madness about it that had been present in their last one.

Every strike was calculated. Every strike was getting faster and faster.

Black wings sprout as Gensei spreads his arms wide. Touma ducks back into the previous row, black masses of war incarnate tearing through everything in it's wake.

"My, my. I feel like things might have actually been more interesting had the #1 managed to kill you. But then again, I doubt things would have so conveniently fallen into place if that had happened."

Gensei rockets forth with incomparable speed, lashing out a kick for Touma's chest. With his prey thrown into the ground by the shear force of the near miss, the clone slowly approaches.

"Level Upper, Chemicaloid, Misaka Network. There's been a great deal of projects that have their assets either collecting dust or simply neglected. Isn't that a sad thing? All that hard work that so many have sacrificed time, money, blood, sweat and tears into. Wasting away. It's truly a pity."

Touma grimaces as he tries to stand. Gensei grins at the attempt.

"I would never have been able to use them all in this way if you had just kept to yourself. So thank you for so callously crushing the efforts that went into all the projects you have, directly or not, stuck your nose into. Hehehe, we might have been friends in another life. A shame that I'll have to end you but I need to get at that power of yours. Well, that and my generous producer has wished for your death. She is a bit of a pain but I really must-"

[YEEEEEEEHAW!]

A blur rams itself into Gensei, who explodes into a puff of ash, and then crashes into a capsule nearby.

"Touma!"

"Touma-oniichan, are you okay?"

"Yeah but ugh...why did you guys come over? It's too danger-"

[...Yeah, I'm ok too guys! Look! My arm is a bit dangly but that'll buff right out I'm sure. Hahahahaha...please pay attention to me too.]

Touma glances over to see Kumagawa, sans most of the bones in his right arm from the look of it.

[Didn't say I wanted your attention, bastard.]

"Why're you getting mad at me?"

[...You're lucky that we're such good friends and all. Else I woulda busted you upside the head for that comment. Regardless, you should go back to school already if I'm beating you in your best subject.]

"Don't recall having a class for fighting insane mad scientists with Level 5 esper powers."

[Meh, it was before your time then I guess. So what's the plan, sports fan?]

"How are you asking me for a plan right after saying all that? Whatever, lets-"

"EW, what are you covered in?"

Index wrinkles her nose before covering it. Soon enough, the other two got a whiff as well and were following suit.

[Ahem. That would be garlic bread. Which is totally-]

"Don't say it's your friend's fault, perv. You were munching on those even after you somehow crawled out of that freak explosion."

From the direction Kumagawa was shot from, Misaka Mikoto walks up to the group.

"Misaka? What are you doing here? Wait, what freak explo-"

Too angry at the insanity of it all, Mikoto lashes out without hearing his incomplete, third question.

"That's my line! I came by because of the reports but aren't you supposed to be in the hospital right now?"

"That's-"

Blast from multiple directions flare out wildly, mostly missing their mark completely with the exception of a green beam that melted everything nearby.

Gensei's voice echoes over to them.

"Hey! If you don't come to us, we'll come for you, you know?"

Kumagawa frantically snaps all the loose bits in his arm back into place as he snarls at Mikoto and Touma.

[Can you knock it the fuck off already!? We might die here!]

Everyone present glares at Kumagawa.

[...Well not me but still!]

Enshuu crawls over to the ash pile that was the clone.

"I don't know what could have caused this. He had Accelerator's power so he should have been able to defend himself against a tackle of all things."

[Can't you take half of their power with your Skill, Enshuu-chan?]

"No. I already tried to but it doesn't seem like I can use it on them at all."

Kumagawa's eyebrows shoot up with his smile following after, much to Touma's chagrin.

"Kumagawa, what is it?"

[They all have a Minus Skill. Whether or not they have the same one or not, being clones and all, the fact that Enshuu can't affect them with Zero Sum means that much at least. Which means, Anshin'in-san has to be involved one way or another.]

The grin on his face stretches wider and wider, disturbing everyone else in the group.

Well except one.

"Zero Sum?"

[What about it, Enchuu-chan?]

"Why?"

[I bit my tongue.]

"Don't care about that. Since when did my Skill have a name?"

[Uh...the whole time right? Right. Let's just move past that. We kinda have bigger problems than your naming sense. I mean, some may hopefully consider it an homage, and you may feel that way too, but it's still kinda weird to bring up out of nowhere like this. Almost like you're taking the name from something else with better concepts and ideas than this drivel. What? Shut up.]

Suddenly, Touma jumps up from where he had been sitting, looking around the walls until he sees it.

'We can take them all out in one shot."

[Oho, really? And how might we do that? Should I tear off that arm and throw it into the closest one before your demon zoo eats everything?]

"I think you might like my plan better."

"Hmm, they are really taking their time over there."

The Gensei clone up on the catwalk, starts to slowly walk in the direction of where he saw the clone using Accelerator's power.

"Let's send them a bit of a sense of urgency."

He motions to the other clones and they race off with whatever mode of travel their powers allow for.

They race their way inside when Gensei sees Touma running off with Index in tow.

"Aha! Get him he's over there!"

The other clones start to give chase but then their spotter notices Kumagawa running off with Enshuu over his shoulder.

"Oh? Trying to use your newfound friend to distract while you get away? Well it probably isn't like that. It's likely 'they can only go after one', right? Two of you, go after one while the others go after the other!"

Split in half, the Gensei clones chase their quarries with all the power they can lash out with.

"Kehehe...now that just leaves us, right?"

Gensei causally looks behind him to see Touma sneaking up.

"Haha...yeah, you caught me."

"Hahahaha! Using Kumagawa to double for you by looks alone and the Railgun to double for Kumagawa by wearing his clothes. Pretty clever."

Touma walks up slowly with his hands raised in the air.

"Thanks but I don't care for your compliments. What are you planning? …Did Anshin'in really tell you to kill me?"

Gensei laughs.

"It was her messenger who gave me the Rad Vlad Skill. So take that as you will."

"Fine then."

Touma stops just a few feet away from Gensei.

"...Are you going to surrender?"

"Would you really want me to, Kamijou-kun? ...sniff. Hm?"

The rancid, garlic smelling Touma, almost as though in competition, smiles widely.

[Dunno man, you're really asking the wrong guy. Know what, let's ask your friends.]

He leans over the rails and shouts below, his right hand outstretched.

"HEEEEEEEEYYYYYY YYYYOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUU GUUUUUUUYYYYYS!"

As Gensei peers past (fake) Touma, he sees his clones below look up, seeing their true prey defenseless to their united attack.

"...KeheheheheahahhahahaHAHAHAHA-"

Gensei's laugh is cut short as blasts of energy crash through the catwalk and onward to the ceiling above, causing sunlight to freely shine in.

Once the smoke cleared, Touma, Index, Mikoto, Enshuu, and Kumagawa all come together as they look down on the last Gensei clone.

"Hahaha...guess the original's ability to see through the plots of others isn't hard-wired. How unfortunate. Hahaha..."

All that was left was his torso, the rest had been burned off by the sunlight.

"Your Skill gives you vampire abilities with all of the weaknesses that the ones in myth have. It must be intensified as you spread the Skill to more of your clones. Otherwise, you might have still escaped with your legs at least. Given that you were the one hanging back and giving orders since the beginning, I'm guessing that you have access to the Misaka Network or something similar right?"

Even in a near death state, Gensei smiles with glee at Touma's scowl.

"Something...similar. Hehehe. Ah. Well that was interesting for a first round."

"First?"

"Oh? Yes, of course. These are far from the last of the clones I have. ….This network is devoted to granting the original the vampirism that's native to this world while removing all the weaknesses inherent to the Skill itself."

Kumagawa crouches down and grabs him by the collar, nearly dragging the rest of the clone's body into the light.

"What are you talking about?"

Despite the seriousness, or rather because Kumagawa was being serious, Gensei laughs some more.

"Kehahahahagh! Oh, just ask your friend about the alchemist. I'll have his research data pieced together in something of a patch for the Skill I was given. Then-"

The clone winces in pain as he turns to Touma, a maniacal, crooked grin plastered on his face.

"Then I'll come to test you, Kamijou-kun. Until next time..."

With that, Gensei wrenches himself out of Kumagawa's grasp and into the sunlight, instantly vaporizing himself.

Everyone remains silent as they allow all the info to sink in. For several minutes, all they can do is stare off at the ash pile as though they might find some better answers in them. Unfortunately, things aren't that easy.

"My, my. An interesting first round, indeed."

The room, lit only partly by a wall of monitor screens with the rest coated by a subterranean darkness, booms with maniacal, static-crackling laughter.

"Oh? Are you not impressed? You just have too much a bias, I think. Granted, no powers were really used, but we see how they function as a group. Mentality, not power, is the trait we have to focus on."

The voice came from a black, streamlined, full-body armored suit. More akin to a motorcycle riding suit but more like standard, knight's armor; with gaps in the armor that have lines of purple lights glowing softly from within.

"These types of kids...regardless of if they have the ability to or not, no matter the odds; they'll always want to butt into the world of the adults. Hm? ...Kehehe! No, no, no! I'm not on some silly hero hatefest like Yakumi Hisako! No...I've just come to understand their character better. That type of attitude gives them momentum that I simply couldn't destroy with all the power I could muster."

The suit lay entirely immobile, kneeling in front of the monitors on it's knees.

The voice though, had none of the respectful tone that one would assume from such a stance. Instead, it sounded more like an old professor telling a student some grand, sardonic life lesson.

"But, despite our differences, power remains our shared focus and weakness. They see what they believe to be the starting point since the very thought of it is so absurdly grand but really, everything has started long ago, behind the scenes, at too insignificant a point to ever see coming. Some say the opening move ought to be the final one. It's true to an extent."

The voice begins to chuckle darkly.

"But I much rather enjoy the idea of forcing my enemy to fight their best out and once they win, let their guard down... I tear them to shreds! Hahahahaha! ...That's what Shokuhou-kun would do at any rate and that's exactly the method I will use to destroy everyone involved. Is that level of revenge good enough for you, Genjitsu-kun? ...Good, then keep up with the good work on your end and let me do mine."

One of the screens flickers off.

"Well, guess I'll go back to my nap for awhile. It'll be interesting to see how they handle things from here."

Now outside the smoldering ruin of a facility, the group gathers.

"Kumagawa?"

[...Yeah, Touma-kun?]

"Do you know anything about this Rad Vlad Skill?"

Kumagawa scratches at the back of his head for a few before shaking it.

[As far as I know, she didn't have such a Skill but given that she has so many; it's not too far out the realm of reason. Though I still find it to be odd that she'd have such a Skill drawn out now.]

Index frowns as she voices her own concern.

"Why would Ajimu need vampires for, anyway? Aligning the traits of vampirism from our world into the Skill shouldn't do anything for her right?"

Kumagawa shrugs at this.

[Honestly, it's anyone's guess. Maybe there's something to this world's vampires that could somehow make her weak enough for her goals once she has reattained the Skill. There could also be some other factor involved that we're unaware of...hell, this could just be some red herring she has set up to distract us all from whatever her main plan really is. The number of possibilities that branch out from here are seriously too many to even bother thinking about right now. Or at least, with as little information as we have at the moment. Enshuu? Are you sure that guy was this Gensei guy? I thought the records you let me look through said he was dead.]

"He should be but...I have no doubt that it was him. Gensei-ojisan has the same birthmark that those clones had and acted very similar in terms of personality. It could be that the plans to have him cloned were already in motion prior to his death and one of Ajimu's Terminals are using them for their purposes but in that case, there's no way that anyone else could utilize the resources from the other projects in this way other than Gensei-ojisan or another Kihara."

Touma turns to Enshuu.

"Those other projects...I already know about the Sisters but what is Chemicaloid and Level Upper?"

"Well, to give a brief synopsis of them both, the Chemicaloid Project was created by the STUDY corporation as a competing replacement of the Power Curriculum Program in creating espers through the production of artificial humans. Level Upper was an esper power strengthening network developed by Kiyama Harumi to connect as many espers to her network through an audio file in order to gain calculations on par with Tree Diagram. In Gensei-ojisan's case, he's likely using the assets and information from Radio Noise and Chemicaloid to create these clones of himself with the powers of the Level 5s and then having the network from Level Upper involved to boost the individual clone's abilities through a separate batch of clones from the ones we'll be up against, tailor-made to boost the overall calculation power of the network. Though it's probably intermixed quite a bit more than that. Gensei-ojisan was, or I guess I should say is, someone that heavily supported the Level 6 shift and was a lead researcher into SYSTEM. He, of any Kihara, could twist any of these projects into tools for furthering his own research."

"And it'll be even worse than that if he manages to turn them into proper vampires."

[Oh, that's right. He mentioned something about an alchemist that you know about. Was he talking about that Lizard guy?]

"Izzard, but yeah. He was researching vampires as a method for saving Index from having her memory erased as a part of a lie that the Anglican Church told. But he had his face surgically altered, his memory erased, and then he got sent off someplace by Stiyl after we fought him at Misawa Cram School. Unless Gensei found him and got his memories back, I don't know how else he could get a hold of Izzard's research."

Enshuu's eyes light up as she chimes in.

"Psychometry. If this Izzard person researched vampires at the cram school then Gensei could easily send down clones and have them scan the whole building with psychometry, using Kakine's power. After that, it's only a matter of time before Gensei-ojisan gets the information he needs."

"Oi."

Everyone turns to the one who has yet to speak until just now, Mikoto.

"Look I understood the bit about how the clones were made, if only because I was involved with all of those dark side projects one way or another, but what do churches and vampires have to do with this, exactly?"

Touma scratches the back of his head nervously.

"Well, it's a bit of a long-"

[Vampires are real. Magic is real. I know because I've seen one before. Also I'm from another universe where we have powers based on another system from this world's and that Gensei guy was given such a power by a girl with over 12 quadrillion individual powers.]

Mikoto raises an eyebrow questioningly, her doubtful expression becoming stronger as Kumagawa pulls a piece of garlic bread out of his pocket.

[How else do you explain those clones turning into ash from sunlight and garlic? How else do you explain me coming out unscathed from a thermite dumpster fire and a blast of pure Level 5 esper power?]

Startled confusion replaces her doubt as she tries to think of answers while Kumagawa takes a bite of his pocket snack, talking around the mouthful.

[Anyways, methinks I got a plan. We split up. Enshuu-chan, Index-chan, and Touma-kun. You guys go hit up that cram school. See if those clones have already gotten what they need from there or if there's any clues to found as far as to where they might have gone afterwards. Miko-chan? You said you were involved in the other projects right? Know anyone that might be able to tell us about weaknesses or backdoors that no one else would know about?]

"Huh? Not sure about how I feel about that nickname but whatever. One person that comes to mind is Kiyama Harumi but I'm not sure how willing she'll be in giving you that information, if it's even there for her to give in the first place."

[Hmm, could you help me convince her?]

"Haaa. Can't really say that I want to but if that idiot over there has to sneak out of the hospital for this one, then I guess I'll lend a hand."

Touma's blood freezes.

"Hey, wait a-"

[Hm? Is something wrong with the plan, Touma-kun?]

A look of guilty realization flickers on Kumagawa's otherwise cheery face.

[Ah. Right, sorry I didn't realize. You and Index can head off actually. Enshuu-chan can find that cram school on her own, I'm sure. As soon as I'm done talking with this Harumi-chan, I won't mind if you take off too, Miko-chan. This doesn't really involve you guys as much as it does me and Enshuu-chan. Actually, you can-]

Enshuu smacks the bread out of his hand.

"Don't just bring me up at the last minute like I've got a choice in this. I'm helping whether you like it or not."

Mikoto scoffs.

"Kind of a bit late for me to back out of this anyway. Things are more than a bit too dangerous for me to just leave to some random pervert, even if he's a bit difficult to kill."

Index puffs her chest out.

"Since this scientist guy is chasing after knowledge from the magic side, you'd need me now more than ever."

Kumagawa is taken aback but smiles warmly at everyone's support.

Touma, however, is still hesitant.

From what he's gathered from his conversations with Ajimu thus far, she shouldn't know enough about Izzard or Gensei to be able to just use them in her plan. Even if one of her Terminals did have that info, why would she care? She barely cared enough to threaten Touma earlier. Her anger, as well as any of her other emotions, get swallowed up by her unfathomable apathy quicker than he can comprehend. How could someone like that weave such an intricate plot that involves powerhouses from both the magic and science sides? She'd sooner wait things out until she sees the most opportune moment to waltz her way to victory.

It is convenient in how easily lead they were to getting to the thick of things. It could very easily seem like a trap that Ajimu set up to lure them all in. But it's far easier to draw these conclusions than anything else.

Which makes it all the more suspicious to Touma that Kumagawa wouldn't question any of that and just roll with it all, stringing them all along in as efficient a manner as he can.

Kumagawa has, at least from the outset with all the information that Touma has available to him as of the moment, wandered into this situation and is now using everything and everyone available to him so he can get closer to Ajimu.

It was an eventuality that Touma thought he had expected but he had underestimated Kumagawa's ability to manipulate, even after all he had been put through.

That is, if he was even manipulating anyone. He could be genuine in his appearances. Ajimu could very well have planted the seeds of doubt that deeply into Touma's head.

And yet, what could he do either way?

[Hm? You good there, Touma-kun?]

Snapped from his inner turmoil, Touma groggily answers.

"Wha- ah! Sorry about that. I was uh lost in thought I guess, hahaha!"

As he nervously laughs, Kumagawa smiles softly with a serious glint in his eye

"Hey man, don't worry. I understand."

"Oh...you do?"

"Come on now, I know I'm a lazy bastard but I definitely understand wanting to help friends out, no matter how beat up I am. It's all right though. I've got more than enough help here and you can trust that I'm stubborn enough to get things settled nice enough to see that everyone gets a happy ending to this craziness. Well. Most of everyone but everyone else helping now should be able to cover the bases well enough to eliminate my ability to ruin things. You should seriously head back to the hospital and get some rest in, if only so you don't have the frog man and the nurses getting into a hissy fit about your disappearance."

Mikoto and Index begin to lecture Touma, to the end of convincing him to go back to the hospital, but he's too shell-shocked by Kumagawa's words to respond to anyone for a few. Just before the two girls go nuclear on him though, he speaks up.

"Thanks Kumagawa, everyone, but I'm going to stick around. How could I rest up while there's a clone army of Level 5 vampiric Kiharas running about the city?"

The heroines look at each other in exasperation and sigh while Kumagawa laughs.

[Well that makes plenty of sense!]

"Could I come along with you though?"

[Hm, sure I guess. Mind if I ask, why?]

"Well, it'd be better to have someone extra with you guys who can protect Kiyama, in case of an attack. I'd just be a third wheel when it comes to analyzing things, unlike Index and Enshuu-san."

[Alrighty then. Enshuu-chan! Play nice with Index-chan!]

Enshuu looks over at Index while she replies to Kumagawa.

"Sure. I wanted to ask her more about the 'magic' side stuff anyways."

Index gives some smug nods at this before she realizes something.

"Where should we meet up after we're done? Here?"

[No, this is kind of a sketchy place to be having this kind of a planning session anyways. I've already told Matoi to wrangle up the Skill Outs and have them start setting up a base of operations over at Touma-kun's school's gym.]

Touma's eyebrow raises.

"...Kumagawa-san?"

[Yes, yes, Kumagawa-san here.]

"Why at my school?"

[It's strategic.]

"How- Just- How in the hell does that make sense?"

[I mean, it'll be an empty area on top of a hill once nighttime comes around.]

"Oh...well, fine I guess but could you at least, tell me when my school is going to be used for some supernatural battle? I still want to finish school."

Kumagawa laughs as he nods, dismissively shaking his hand.

[Don't worry! It's not going to come anywhere near that!]

Touma gave a half-baked smile back. He had a feeling that much was true but not exactly.

He had a feeling this could turn into a full blown war, right in his face.

And there was little he could do.

Hey guys, sorry it took me another year to get a chapter out but given how crazy things have gotten in the world, I hope for your understanding. I also hope that everyone is doing alright, staying safe and all. Things is seriously getting scarier and scarier by the day out there. Anyways, hope you like the chapter. Really want to explore the personalities, or I guess my headcanon on it if you'd rather, of Kumagawa and Ajimu with this arc and show how Touma would deal with someone he grows to trust decently well doing suspicious shit. Kumagawa may be a good dude at times but remember, he can be an even worse dude at all times. Also, there's going to be a lot of stuff pulled from the spinoffs in this arc, as well as the concepts/characters leftover from certain arcs in the original LNs. Haven't started the next chapter yet, don't know when I might get time either since I'm competing with depression sapping at my motivation and calling all the government aid people back, but I will try my best.

Stay safe everyone and see you hopefully soon!