A Certain Two Sides

September 16th

Kuroko Shirai winced a bit in pain as her wheelchair thudded against the stone sidewalk, jostling her whole body. She seethed as she rubbed her thigh tenderly to sooth the pain from the aggravated gunshot wounds she had received — courtesy of a fight against that sadistic Level Four Awaki Musijime.

She had thought that handling a bit of teleportation to get around would be harmless, but she relied on teleporting within inches or feet above where she went — to avoid any injuries — and the resulted hard landing courtesy of her wheelchair's wheels being inflexible caused incredible pain. "Seriously," she grumbled. "This is ridiculous, if only Uiharu was here…then I wouldn't be having this much trouble trying to get up here," she went on, referring to having to go up a series of stairs to get to a shopping center she was trying to reach.

Kuroko's Judgement friend, Kazari Uiharu had been called away to help with security control. Originally the flower head band wearing girl had wanted to stay with the pigtailed Level Four teleporter to help wheel her around as she did her shopping, but Kuroko insisted that Kazari had a duty to uphold, and so had made her reluctantly leave – she was kicking herself for having made that decision for them both.

"I really should've brought Sissy along…" she went on. "She could've wheeled me along, and then felt it in her hear to feel sorry for me, and then would want to do anything to make me feel better! Hehe…" she cackled, thinking of all the different things she could make Sissy do for her. After all, she thought, Sissy couldn't ignore her whilst she was handicapped. She was just thinking of how to make the Level Five help her strip her clothes off—

— SMASH! —

"Agh!"

"Eee!" Kuroko jumped in surprise, it sounded like whoever it was got pretty hurt. She wheeled around to see if there were any serious injuries – her worries disappeared as soon as she saw who it was.

"Ugh…erg…rotten luck," muttered a familiar face. Kuroko's countenance became that of a scowl as she took in 'troglodyte.'

Meanwhile, Touma Kamijou tenderly rubbed his face after his face plant. As he stood up, he caught site of a wheel chair, and attached, a certain Judgement officer. "Oh hey, Shirai," he said greeted half-heartedly. She didn't answer him, and all he got was a huff after she turned her head away from him. Touma sighed, and looked spitefully at the soda can he had tripped over. "The people of Academy City must not know how to throw their own trash away," he mused.

Kuroko looked over and tutted disdainfully at the sight of the can. "It is utterly uncalled for them to do that."

"Yeah…" said Touma. He sighed as he rubbed his head. Kuroko took note that he was carrying some bags with him.

"Going shopping?" she inquired.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I gotta buy some new cutlery and food…" He sighed, the only reason he needed new cutlery was because Index had managed by some grace of God to horribly smash up and mangle his cooking tools. On top of those expenses he also had to buy her and Meigo Arisa food for dinner, he didn't look forward to knowing how far that would set his monthly budget back. "No doubt," he added, "they'll be expensive to buy, just my luck."

"Er — um — good luck with that," replied Kuroko, Touma didn't answer back, he just laughed dryly before turning around to do his business, with her too wheeling off into the mall…

OoOoO

The Level Four smiled, but also did her best to hide her exhaustion from the concerned onlookers. She may have been young and full of energy, but having to rely solely on her arms to wheel herself around, on top of picking out what she needed to buy, had in fairness, somewhat tired her out. She had finished her shopping at a perfume shop and wheeled herself out. She sighed and allowed her composure to give in to exhaustion once she thought she couldn't be seen.

She grumbled as she attempted to hang the bag on top of her other lingerie and hair care product filled bags. She ended up having to leave the wheelchair, it didn't hurt that much, but having to push herself around had taken a strain.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid…I can handle cleaning up whole swimming pools, fight Level Upper enhanced Espers, deal with the mental strain of knowing countless students that were in a coma relied on you to help them wake up, autonomous robots, yet I can't even deal with a little bit of physical pain…?"

She finished seething and collapsed into her wheelchair and went out. She winced at the sight of the stairs. She thought about teleporting, but the feeling of the wounds on her thigh and rib cage told her otherwise…

"Need help, Shirai?" came a voice.

The girl in question jumped and craned her neck to look up at Touma. Said teen had a ragged, yet concerned look in his eyes. His hands were weighed down by bag filled with ladles, cooking spoons, and a carving board, a new pair of cooking chopsticks, along with another that had green onions, noodles, bok choy, carrots, and packages of meat.

Kuroko thought about her situation, he had saved her when she was down and beaten up, but she knew she was strong and independent, and certainly didn't want to be pitied by the likes of him. "I certainly do not, thank you very much," she retorted, turning away from him with a smirk.

"Then why are you hesitating to go down then?" Kuroko's eyebrow and confident smile twitched at his blunt call out.

"What are you talking about? I am perfectly capa—"

"You don't need to hide the pain. You're obviously still reeling from that fight you had, you don't have to be so strong all the time. Don't be afraid to ask for help, Shirai. It's not as though I'm in a rush to get home or anything." Kuroko wanted to fight back, but couldn't deny the fact that she had been read like a book. She looked down at the sidewalk far away and conceded.

"Fine! I'll let you help me. My doctor has forbidden me from using my ability to get around anyways, and you just happen to be around. So get to it!" she snapped.

Touma sighed and looked at his heavy bags. "Do you mind making room then?"

"Fine," said Kuroko. She took her underwear bags and placed them on her lap.

Touma pushed her down the ramp; as he did, he spoke again, asking, "Hey Shirai, are you going home or do you need to do more shopping?"

"I was planning to go home. Why?"

"All right," replied Touma, and began to push her to the left.

"Huh?" asked Kuroko. But he didn't respond, and he kept with pushing her. "Uh…where are you going?"

"Taking you back to your dorm, that's where."

"Wait, huh?"

Touma could only smile in amusement at her seemingly ignorant response. "You're not going anywhere else, besides, you're no good at hiding the pain."

"I can handle myself!"

"Sure…" replied Touma, his tone seeping with sarcasm. "It's not as though I didn't see you struggling to move along. It's not that you're weak, but there's no need to exert yourself if someone else can do the work for you."

" 'Someone else can do the work for you', huh?" repeated Kuroko. Yeah right, tell that to Saten…

"Of course, this is Academy City after all, a place…"

"…where eighty percent of its population is made up of students," they finished at the same time. Both students flinched at the synchrony. "Anyways," continued Touma, "we're all just kids, doesn't hurt to help each other out and get involved if someone needs help."

"But what if it isn't your place to help out?" questioned Kuroko. Touma paused, his thoughts drifted off to a conversation he had on a certain iron bridge with a certain young Tokiwadai girl…

"It's never about if someone needs help or not," he answered. "If someone needs help, you help, simple as that."

"Oh really?" said Kuroko. "Sounds rather more like vigilant behavior to me than just."

"You make it sound like it's a crime to help whenever there is trouble…"

Kuroko scoffed. "It's a problem when one over pushes themselves too much without any proper plan," she claimed, unaware of her own irony just a day ago. "Take Sissy for example, every time she gets into a scuffle with some nasty ruffians, she zaps them without thought! And it's always before I can apprehend the vermin myself." Touma choked and seriously questioned if Kuroko would ever show up to defend him if Mikoto attempted to electrocute him. "She's always 'zap people senseless first and ask questions later'. What to do with her sometimes…well she is Tokiwadai's electrifying Ace…"

"Yeah right, Misaka acts more like a crazy bug-zapper than a refined young lady." Touma's expression hardened once he realized he let that slip out.

"What?!" cried Kuroko. "A 'bug zapper'?! You really are a good for nothing troglodyte, aren't you?"

Touma sighed. "Eh…look, it's not my fault she always lets her electricity loose whenever she sees me. It's just my rotten luck to have a Middle School girl harassing me on top of everything else…"

Geez, I guess you really aren't all that smart after all if you can't notice why she zaps you, thought Kuroko. "That's Sissy for you," she said out loud. "That said it's not as if she doesn't mean well. She hates conflict, so if there's anyone she'll really let loose on, it's troublemakers."

"I…guess I know what you mean," replied Touma, as he turned the wheelchair around a corner. "No matter the intentions, there's no denying that a lot of people go about things the wrong way and hurt people needlessly. People like that make me sick…all in the name of what they believe in."

"Hmm-hmm, people just like Ms. Harumi Kiyama."

"Who now?"

"Are you serious?" Kuroko asked, looking back at Touma. "Does news about a woman being behind the Level Upper fiasco ring any bells?"

Touma's mind raced, he had no clue what Kuroko was talking about, leaving him to assume that was an event from before his memory wide, he nervously asked when the event was. "Really now?" chided the Teleporter. "It was in the middle of July or so you simpleton."

"Huh, sorry, guess I had too much going on at the time to notice that — had a lot of things going on." Touma sighed to himself — Kuroko just had to chastise him with events before July 28th when he awoke with no memories of his episodic life.

Kuroko groaned. "A lot of things going on?" she repeated. "If you want to know a busy life, join Judgement, then you will know busy."

"Yeah, that's not really for me…" replied Touma. "I busy myself with…other occupations." Mainly a starving Nun and her crazy English Puritan friends…

"You're sure? Hmm, come to think of it though, you do seem to live a hectic life." Touma sighed at the epiphany. "Tell me something — at the start of this month you were somehow involved with fighting that terrorist in the Underground Mall, just what were you doing, and why did you have that Nun with you?"

Touma froze, and remembered that Kuroko and Mikoto had both been there when he and Index had stumbled over each other, and when he declared that he would stay behind because he could deal with the issue. "Um…well…she's a good friend, and I was accompanying her and her new friend," replied the boy, as he sweated profusely.

Just a friend, huh? Thought Kuroko, as she recalled how flustered her Sissy was when the Nun called Index questioned Mikoto over her relationship with Touma. "Now answer this since you avoided it," Kuroko went on. "Why did you decide to jump into helping Anti-Skill with apprehending that terrorist?"

"Well…uh…" Touma blanked, if he remembered correctly, Sherry Cromwell has somehow sent a message to him and the two girls through some kind of magic spell. "I…had a hunch where I felt I could help them out in dealing with the terrorist," he said as smoothly as possible. "And as a matter of fact I successfully helped in that situation as I believe you saw me in the aftermath of that incident with the crumbled rocks."

"Hmm…" murmured Kuroko. "That is a fact." She went silent for a bit, she didn't know that the woman she had fought had been a magician. "Still though, there are a lot of other things that I can question you about."

"Damn it," groaned the High Schooler under his breath.

"Hey, Troglodyte, stop here," said the Middle Schooler authoritatively. Touma did so and saw where Kuroko was looking. It was a café shop, and from what he could tell it was one of the expensive ones that sold tapioca drinks, among other confectionaries. "Go get me something to eat and drink."

"W-what…? You want me to pay for your food?! Ugh, just my luck…"

"Tch, I didn't say that you were paying for it," said Kuroko scornfully. She reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out her wallet. Touma couldn't help but stare enviously as how nice it looked — and plus, it was filled with money. The young lady pulled out twenty-five hundred yen, handed it to him, and gave him the names of what she wanted. He flinched at how expensive they sounded. "And whilst you're at it you can buy something for yourself," she added. He stared. "What? What I want isn't that expensive."

He blinked, and went inside, bracing himself to see how much her drink would cost. Kuroko meanwhile took the time to lean back in her chair and stretched.

OoOoO

When Touma came back, he supplied Kuroko with her change, cakes and estranged tea related tapioca drink. He himself bought a plain chocolate one with tapioca, plus a normal lemon cake. If Index knows I had these, she'll really try to bite my head off…

"Sheesh Shirai," said Touma once he started pushing. "Fifteen hundred yen for your stuff alone — fifteen hundred, the tea was the priciest out of all of them!"

"Sheesh Kamijou," mimicked Kuroko. "I shall spend my money however I want to. What, do you seriously not have enough funds just to afford these luxuries?" Kuroko knew that even if he said it was because he said 'Level Zero' — for whatever reason, surely, she thought, a guy who couldn't be teleported by her was just a Level Zero — it wouldn't be that. Her friend Saten was a Level Zero herself, yet she is financially stable.

"It's because I'm a Level Zero," said Touma, causing Kuroko to choke slightly on her drink. He quickly patted her on the back. "That and my folks have my finances on a tight leash," he added, he certainly didn't want to tell the Judgement Officer about how he was also supporting a teenage Nun and cat at his place. That and it was topped off by his numerous hospital stays, plus Arisa.

"Does your family not get enough to get by and to support you here?" asked Kuroko, slightly alarmed once she found her voice.

"Yeah no, that's not the case. Most of it gets spent by my dad during his business trips. Plus we aren't that well off. Unlike you girls at Tokiwadai…" he added, with an exaggerated look of despair that the Teleporter couldn't see.

"Okay…AND WHAT THE HELL!?" she suddenly shouted. "How is it that you're just a Level Zero?! Surely you can't be if you were able to prevent me from teleporting you."

"As I said to you before," said Touma, sucking on his straw, "or rather before you interrupted me back then, it has to do with my right hand — it can negate anything supernatural with a touch."

Kuroko blinked, surely it couldn't have been that simple, but her brain already felt overworked and exhausted so she let it slide. "Weird," she said, and went back to munching on her cake.

Touma yawned, and proceeded to eat his lemon cake, he was glad that Index was nowhere to be seen, and that Mikoto also wasn't around to let her temper off on him. Everything else may have been too much to test faith on. They continued on, all whilst Kuroko silently seethed — she hated the stares and mutters of people they were passing as she was pushed along, and she hated the one pushing her. She couldn't figure what his deal was.

"If it's all the same to you," she said, suddenly breaking the silence, "I'm returning to the questions." Her chaperone gave a sigh. "How is it that you came to know Sissy? She doesn't get around much in the social department, how did you know her?"

For the second time in their encounter, Touma winced from the questions. It annoyed him how some of her questions concerned events before the 28th, he truly only ever remembered his first notable encounter with Mikoto when she had given him grief at the vending machine, at a stretch he could say her going off on him at the Tokiwadai Dorms during an open house day. "Um…well…" he faltered. "...she started out by fighting me around the city. She hated that I can hold my own against her."

"Ugh…" the Teleporter groaned. "That's just like her, any chance she gets and she decides to fight. So un-lady like of you, Sissy, I almost feel bad for you…however," she paused impressively. "You yourself act as if you aren't opposed to hanging around with Sissy, let alone be involved in her affairs."

"Huh?"

"On August 20th I saw you and Sissy together in the park, and she was completely normal compared to the days before where I noticed that she was worried about something. Then the next day you came to visit our dorm, clearly knowing something of what Sissy was dealing with as you came to ask her about it," said Kuroko. She left out however that she had a sneaking suspicion of what Mikoto had been stressing about. Awaki Musijime had been useful in that regard, something about clones, but to avoid upsetting the Ace of Tokiwadai, Kuroko wisely kept what little information she had to herself. "Clearly you knew what was wrong — so what was it?"

"That's Misaka's secret to keep and reveal if she wants, not mine," answered Touma, staring off into the sky. "Besides, I don't know all the details exactly either; it was her ordeal, not mine."

"A fair answer," she said, feeling slightly impressed. Darn it! I was so close to figuring what you were doing Sissy! Why didn't you ever turn to me for help, but let him help?! She screamed inwardly, sucking angrily on her straw, she then aggressively chewed on the tapioca balls.

All the while Touma kept up with pushing the wheelchair, he felt much better with food in his stomach, and the typical late summers wind lifted his spirits. "Y'know, despite all of the darkness that exists in this world, it is amazing how beautiful it can look at the same time," he said, thinking about everything he had seen and experienced since he awoke with a new chapter. Necessary Evil Churches, the Roman Orthodoxy, the Sisters' Experiment, Hyouka Kazakiri, 'Kamijou Faction'…all of it in some way was shrouded in a darkness that was extremely frightening, yet everything still seemed fine and looked as beautiful as though nothing could ever be lost.

It was that bright spark that he saw amidst it all that gave him hope and made everything he had fought for so far well worth it, be it magic or science.

Kuroko couldn't tell under what context Touma was thinking about, but somehow the words resonated with her. "I…guess so," she conceded. "This world isn't perfect, though I guess you already know that. There's so much to it that makes it evil, those blasted Kiharas, the misguided Dr. Kiyama, STUDY, radicals…my Dorm Mistress," she paused before shuddering, "…Mitsuko Kongou."

"That's a new name on me."

"Good, never learn that one," said Kuroko as she bit down on the last of her cake. "But you're right as well," she went on, looking around at the happy smiles on people's faces, birds flying, and the lush green trees. "There is a lot of beauty in this world too. So much to fight for, Sissy's happiness, the general well-being of the students here in Academy City, the prospect of your first time…hehe…"

Touma flinched at the implications of that statement coming from a Middle School girl. Kuroko meanwhile drooled at her own perverted thoughts of a certain female's figure. "…but all the same," she added, sobering up a bit. "A lot of beauty to fight for — much like fighting for the peace I love so much." She paused to think. "Speaking of which, that brings me on to a final question of mine — why did you help me that night in the restaurant? You don't know me…I didn't even want anyone to save me, if any one did, they would've been killed by the 4,520 kilograms that Musijime was about to teleport onto me. Why did you risk yourself like that?"

The High Schooler gave a small smile, remembering an impersonating Aztec magician. "I met a guy who likes Misaka, and I promised him that I'd protect Zapper and her whole fragile world from any harm." He smiled at her. "And that'd include you, Shirai. Misaka looked pretty concerned that night once she realized you were involved, there was no way she could rescue you and herself when that teleportation portal from the eleventh dimension was about to open up. Besides, as if I'd standby and watch you get flattened."

The Teleporter blinked and looked down at the sidewalk beneath her. "How noble of you, troglodyte. Very altruistic thing to do for someone you don't know."

The teenager smiled, but didn't respond, he just allowed the silence to speak for itself, leaving Kuroko to mull over his words.

She soon felt their momentum come to a halt. She looked up and saw that they had made it to the Tokiwadai Dormitory. "And here you are," said Touma.

Kuroko was about to thank Touma for his help, when a girl with short brown hair yelled out. "Hey, what are you doing here?!" Kuroko craned her neck to see her beloved Sissy scowling in her direction.

"Oh, hey Zapper," greeted Touma. His tone was mono.

Mikoto gritted her teeth, sparks were emanating from her hair at the use of the nickname. "Why you…"

"Sissy…" And before Mikoto could check her, Kuroko teleported in front of her and stood up. "Oh Sissy, it's been too long since I've laid eyes on your gorgeous face!" cried the Level Four enthusiastically.

"Wha…?! Kuroko, get away from me!" squealed Mikoto in surprise, feeling completely embarrassed. Touma watched the interaction with a bored look on his face. He turned around to leave, but the Railgun saw fit to stop him.

"Oh no you don't!" she yelled, she forcefully pushed Kuroko away from her and into the other girl's wheelchair. "What's this I hear about you housing Arisa at your place?!" she thundered.

Touma winced, but Mikoto didn't give him a chance to reply as she sparked dangerously before firing a thunderbolt towards Touma.

"No, Sissy!" yelled Kuroko, worried for Touma's sake if he got electrocuted by Tokiwadai's Ace. But Touma quickly threw out his right hand, which to Kuroko's surprise negated the electricity as the sound of breaking glass rang out and the electricity dissipated.

Mikoto panted. "Why you…!"

"Gah! Rotten luck!" cried Touma, and he quickly turned round to run away.

"Why you…!" She tried to go after him, but Kuroko's wheelchair appearing in front of her stopped her.

"Aww Sissy! Poor Kuroko is handicapped, yet you pay more attention to that troglodyte than me," she whined. All the while Touma quickly made his escape.

Mikoto yelled at him, but was unable to pursue her quarry as Kuroko had her arms wrapped around her waist and was pulling down. Eventually, the Electromaster gave up and gave in to the Teleporter's cries and hugged her back.

"Ah," said Kuroko, satisfied when returned to her seat. "That felt good."

"Say," said Mikoto. "Just what were you doing with that idiot anyways?"

"He was helping me back here after I finished my shopping," said Kuroko indifferently. "We talked, and I honestly don't see what you see in him. He's a bland ape with no refinement, and his memory of what goes on here in Academy City is truly pitiful. I just don't understand what you see in him, Sissy. All I can see is that he can block your electricity and…" she trailed off as realization struck her — her calculations unable to teleport her when touching him, Awaki's portal.

"SATEN'S URBAN LEGEND ABOUT A BOY WITH THE POWER TO NEGATE OTHERS WAS TRUE!"

OoOoO

Author's Notes: And with that, there's my first ever contribution to the A Certain Magical Index fandom! Hope what I've done is good enough as I feel quite out of place in the 'A Certain' community given that my only exposure to the franchise has been through the anime as I've never read the novels, or the side mangas. In addition, I literally only happened across this series during this summer.

Hope you all enjoy!