Chapter 5: The True Meaning of Trust

-Three days later-

Kamijou returned to Komoe's room, where Index had been staying at the time, due to the fact that his apartment was accidentally destroyed, mostly being his own fault. He had just finished checking on how the two members of Necessarius were healing up. They had used numerous healing spells to return themselves to a functional state, but they were in no shape to fight. Kamijou, on the other hand, only kept growing in terms of power. Aleister Crowley would have to start making Levels 8, 9, and 10 at this rate. His power had started affecting others around him, where they seemed to get a boost in their abilities, in both a natural and unnatural way. One way to notice the effect was that the affected person's ability would have a noticable galactic purple tinge or aura when used. Another was a change in personality, as when Skill Outs who were affected suddenly became more "good-natured" when using their powers. Since then, crime rate started to lower in District 7. Although, it concerned Kamijou if there were still remnants of the Magic Side that he had believed to have been annihilated. He had even gone as far as to kill all but one of the Magic Gods. But such things were in the past, and Kamijou needed to focus on the present. Looking into some of the alternate realities, he found that he could have been knocked unconscious and would wake up just about now. Though such a thing was actually concerning, what had got his attention now was that Index was starting to show signs of health deterioration.

"Index?" Kamijou said.

"My head," Index said, "it hurts."

Kamijou then looked into her brain functions, his irises glowing purple as he did so. The nerve cells were starting to die from being overstrained in memory capacity. But the memory capacity itself was suspiciously far smaller than that of the average human. Either way, she was dying. Predictably, the two magicians arrived to take Index. As they tried to make a move, they were met with an energy field that would give off a static discharge, forcing them back.

"I am not letting you near her," Kamijou said.

"You don't know how important she is," Stiyl started. "Much of the Churches activities depend on her. What she has in her memory is the only reason we've been able to keep moving."

"She only has until midnight," Kanzaki said. "She'll die if this goes on any longer.

Kamijou then pondered on what he should do. He would need a little more time to find the problem, since the brain is a highly complex system. And killing simply wasn't the answer anymore.

"Look, I don't want to hurt anybody, but I will resort to that if I must. If you would just give me a little time to find the problem, I should be able to fix this."

"I guess we don't have a choice," Kanzaki said, looking at the field blocking them.

The two magicians then left Kamijou and Index by themselves. Kamijou then turned to Index, who was still clutching her head.

"Index, you don't mind if I put you to sleep?" Kamijou asked. "It should help with the pain."

Index nodded, and with the wave of a hand, Index had fallen asleep, showing no indication that she was in pain. Kamijou then went outside, where the two magicians were waiting.

"I think I have an idea with what is happening to her," Kamijou said. "It's best that we do this in an open area."

Kamijou then created an Interdimensional Shift and they were now in a field near the bank of the river running through the city. Kamijou then went to Index, who was still asleep. Continuing his search as to where the two magicians could observe as well. Kamijou then found that her brain wasn't going into a shutdown, but rather was being affected by an outside source to look like so.

"They lied to you," Kamijou said.

"Just how would they lie to us?" Kanzaki asked.

"Obviously, someone with this kind of knowledge would be extremely dangerous, so they restricted her memory and took away any ability to use magic."

"But she can't use magic as she doesn't have any mana reserves."

"Actually, she has enough reserves to let every International Coalition carrier run on said reserves for ten years each, if you converted it to fuel. Most of it is from what appears to be replenishment spells from the grimoires. But it's being suppressed. The question is, by what?"

Kamijou then started looking for anything of relevance. A symbol, a mark, even a disruption. Upon searching, he found nothing on the surface of her body. Then something came to realization.

"They couldn't have..."

Kamijou then looked into Index's mouth. There was a magic symbol on the roof, which Kamijou found was acting as a Collar. But there was no time to find the leash. Kamijou then put his hand into Index's mouth, trying to reach the symbol that was slowly killing her. Upon touching it, he quickly pulled his hand out before Index nearly bit down, not out of worry that he would lose his fingers, but that Index would break her teeth trying to do so. But when she opened her eyes, they were no longer the blue eyes she had, but were now green and gold. She started chanting and made Kamijou the target.

"John's Pen has been activated," Index said. "Selecting the intruder as the primary target."

"Well, could this get any worse?" Kamijou said.

"Selecting most successful method against the intruder." Index then began chanting the spell, and runes appeared in front of her.

"Guess I don't get a say in this, huh? Such misfortune."

The possessed Index then fired the Dragon's Breath spell at Kamijou, completely engulfing him. The two magicians were shocked at the sight. They had truly been lied to, and now, he paid the price of the truth with his life. Or so they thought. The now night sky suddenly became pitch black, not even a single star was visible. Lights became dim. Purple and red streams of energy soon filled the sky. As the smoke cleared, what now stood in Kamijou's place was a floating humanoid figure made of galactic purple energy. Index then continued the attack, firing Dragon's Breath at the figure. But the figure put it's hand out, and blocked the attack, disentegrating the spell as it approached him. There was a noticable dome forming where the spell became utterly useless. Then the figure moved forward at it's own pace while blocking the continuous bombardment, showing just how futile it was to resist against such a being of power. The figure then stopped in front of her, and launched it's own attack. It punched her across the field, completely destroying the magic spell. Index herself remained uninjured.

"John's Pen... failing..." Index said before falling unconscious.

The figure in question then started generating an organic sheath, revealing to be Kamijou himself. He then landed as softly as he could on the ground, but still ended up generating spider web cracks on the ground, the gravel lifting up and hovering in his prescence.

"She'll be fine," Kamijou said. "It's just exhaustion from the fight. I'll leave her to you for the time being."

He then vanished in the same manner of leaving shards of a former reality no longer a part of the current timeline. Arriving back at Komoe's apartment, he looked out the window to notice that the sky was still filled with glowing energy. It would dissipate and expel into space soon enough, by Kamijou's prediction. It had then come to mind that he now had a 'discharge event' whenever he removed Imagine Breaker and used his full power, resulting in the streams of energy. Then he also realized what would happen to the sattelites in space when the energy was expelled. At this point, the supercomputer Tree Diagram was suddenly incinerated in it's final moments of recording and sending footage of what appeared to be a glowing freak storm powerful enough to drain and absorb sources of light and heat, and expel itself into space, and found to be five times the size of the largest hurricane. If that wasn't crazy enough, the eye of the storm appeared to have the same physics as a black hole, minus all the molecular-level shredding. As for witnesses on the ground...

-Tokiwadai Middle School, Misaka's View-

Misaka woke up, now feeling a strong sense of discomfort. Kuroko also woke up as well.

"Onee-sama, what is... going on?" Kuroko stopped in speech upon looking in the same direction as Misaka, now seeing the night sky turn pitch black with streams of glowing purple and red energy.

"The lights arent working," Misaka said as she tried to turn on the lights.

They were working, it was just the storm 'casually' sucking away all the light. The sounds of the other students in their respective dorms could be heard as well, having been attracted of their attention by the current event. Then the dorm headmistress entered the room.

"What is everyone doing being..." the headmistress' tense voice stopped abruptly. "...noisy?" she finished in a normal tone.

Even the headmistress had gone silent upon seeing such an event. It seemed the only thing missing was some angelic chorus to go with the theme. Everyone started going for the nearest TV they knew of, and the headmistress was all too bewildered to interfere. Upon turning on the TV, every channel was showing footage collected by weather satellites, and all the news reporters commenting on the storm. Well, they call it a storm, but there wasn't even as much as a tiny breeze to go with it.

What is even happening anymore? Misaka thought to herself.

If the supernatural was considered normal in Academy City, then the events that would have everyone astonished could only be considered beyond that.

-Komoe's Apartment, the next day-

Kamijou had been training himself in his abilities, being able to manipulate matter so he could remake his body from the bones up, as his organic sheath would only be temporary. He had also recieved another ability from the Greater Being, though he had no need to use it for the time being. While being able to go back to his own apartment would be nice, it was still under repair. And Kamijou seriously did not to be invading his teacher's apartment anymore. Index arrived and opened the door, then moving up to Kamijou with a peculiar look on her face, as if she had been thinking rigorously to come up with something.

"Touma..."

"Hello, Index."

"I... I just wanted to say... thank you..."

"You seem to be at a loss for words."

"Yeah..."

"Well, I don't blame you. Most people aren't sure what to say to someone who saved their life. So, you think you can trust me?"

"Yeah."

Trust is a hard thing to earn, Kamijou. Now you know it takes more than a bond. It takes the will to risk your life for their own, although you're practically invincible in your current state.

Yeah, there's still alot ahead of me, though. Guess I'd better prepare.