Toaru Mishou Kamijou Touma

Chapter I

_Accelerator_

(I)

20 AUG 2070

8:35 PM

Academy City

District 7

Takashimaya Office #2

_Misaka 10031_

"Beginning Scenario 10031."

"Crosswind is strong."

"Adjusting Scope three clicks to the left."

"Wind due to swirling from three directions."

"Adjusting Scope one click to the right."

"Misaka will now begin the experiment"

"Target codename: Accelerator."

Misaka 10031 muttered as she peered through the scope of the F2000R; a gun which prioritized low recoil using experimental shock resistors in the bullet chamber, designed and manufactured in Academy City. Attempting to line its crosshairs on the head of a white haired boy codenamed Accelerator. Once she had succeeded, she unflinchingly pulled the trigger.

The rifle let out a blast of light, propelling the 5.56mm Anti-Material type bullet straight towards the heart of the boy.

The bullet tore through his skin and clothes from the back, easily burying itself in the depths of his right ventricle before smashing through the tissue and rib and flying out of his chest. Causing the boy to fall onto the pavement.

Dead.

Lying on his own pool of blood.

Or at least it should have.

In a seeming freak occurrence, the bullet did not instantly incapacitate the boy, let alone touch him.

Instead, the bullet turned around halfway through, as if it was a ball that was caught and thrown back, not a projectile traveling at 850 meters per second with enough force to smash though DU type vehicle reinforcement like a knife in hot butter.

With the sound of flesh being crushed, a red hole appeared on Misaka 10029's shoulder.

Despite the severe injury, Misaka 10031 ran towards the fence, discarding the half destroyed gun whilst clutching her wound in pain.

"Gh...Arh..!"

She staggered but managed to reach the fence, using her ability to repel a portion of it away, she slid down the building.

"C'mon, what is with you shitty clones? Always using projectiles to kill me... Don't you know that its a futile attempt?"

Misaka 10031 heard a crazed laugh. Looking up she saw the white haired boy's leg coming down to crush her skull.

Misaka 10031 rolled across the dirty ground and evaded the downwards swinging foot of the white haired boy.

"How 'bout this,' The white haired boy smirked as launched another bone breaking kick. 'What power am I, Accelerator using now?"

"If you answer correctly, I'll give you an extra 5 minutes to live... If not, its death for you!" Accelerator laughed as he continued.

Misaka 10031 now without a weapon, launched a lance of lightning towards him.

The boy named Accelerator did not move.

He did not even blink.

The lightning that was soon approaching him suddenly changed in trajectory and flew back towards her.

The girl was knocked back to the ground with a shock that felt like she had been struck in the chest with a hammer. Her breathing stopped and every muscle in her body moved irregularly.

The girl's trembling lips managed to put together a single word.

"Re…flection…!?"

'Haha, thats not entirely correct, still it looks like I'll have to give you two and half minutes for your half baked answer.' Accelerator replied before continuing on, 'The complete answer is vector alteration! Motion, heat, electricity. I can alter the direction of any kind of vector that touches my skin. I have it set on default though, 'cause it be a pain to have to regulate it consciously!'

Misaka 10031 who was trying desperately to back away looked up in shock.

The 2.3 million Espers in Academy City were indeed special humans, but not many of them could defeat even a handgun with their power. And if they could defeat a handgun, you would use a machine gun. If they could defeat a machine gun, you would use a tank, a fighter aircraft, a battleship with submarines, or as a last resort, even a nuclear missile.

There were no Espers who could defeat something like that. In fact, it would just be a lot easier to buy a handgun rather than controlling the brain and altering the arrangement of genes to create a ability that could fight against a gun. It just seemed absurd to create a huge psychic powers development institution that slipped past international law in order to create something on the level of a cheap weapon that could be bought in American supermarkets for about 30,000 yen.

That was why Academy City's goal was not to create Espers. The Espers were nothing more than a type of litmus paper. It seemed what was truly important was why Espers had been born and what mechanism brought them about.

Yet the boy was different.

That boy could alter all vectors be they motion, heat, or electricity, so he would not be injured even if he were directly hit by that last resort of a nuclear missile. He would just reflect the shockwave that would blow everything way, the heat that would scorch everything, and the neutrons and radiation that would kill everything.

He was Accelerator, Academy City's strongest Level 5.

Although impressive, Misaka 10031 was not shocked about his ability, she and her 20,000 counterparts where already aware of his ability. What had stunned her was the fact that he was deflecting all her attacks unconsciously.

'This is impossible, if we can't take him by surprise how are we supposed to-' ,Misaka was cut out of her thoughts as Accelerator made an announcement.

"Okay time's up for you. Now let me ask you another question-," Accelerator stuck his slender index finger into the dark red hole in the girl's right shoulder. It was like the action of a child squashing a bug on the road.

"…!"

There was a sound like a red fruit being squished and the girl's body stiffened in intense pain.

"Now, it's time for the question for the consolation round," Accelerator said mockingly. "I'm touching your blood. I'm touching the flow of your blood. Now, if I reverse that vector…If I reverse the vector of your blood, what will happen to your body? A correct answer gets you a nice peaceful sleep!"

A blank expression appeared on the Misaka 10031's face as if she did not understand what was going on.

An instant later, unimaginable pain assaulted her entire body.

20 AUG 2070

8:53 PM

Academy City

District 7

Kinokuniya Bookstore

_Kamijou Touma_

Kamijou Touma was in a bad mood.

This was of course, was incited by several reasons, spanning from a 'Mad Genius' Director keeping secrets from his trusted advisor (him) to a nun freeloading in his apartment.

'That girl is getting on my nerves... I swear Index if you bite me again... I'll throw you into Academy City's one and only Detention Facility!'

Even though Touma had such thoughts he knew that he could never act upon them, after all he was the one who had decided to save Index and despite all his troubles and apparent lack of appreciation he received from doing so, he decided to stick by his former decision through and through.

'After all if I don't, I'll be breaking my promise with him'

On that thought Kamijou Touma idly flipped through a book titled 'How to Raise Cats' taking note of a cat's needs written down in one of the pages.

This was due to the fact that his apartment's freeloader, a fourteen year old nun named Index had found a stray; which she named Sphynx, and without the permission of the apartment's owner (him) decided to keep it as a pet.

'And of course all the responsibility on raising it is on me huh? What bullshit... And there's the problem with this entire Magic Incident... Damn that Aleister. He better have the courtesy of not assigning me another job to do for the next few months after keeping magic from me for 5 years. Trusted Assistant my ass... If he does, I'll smash through that hidey-hole of his, Impact Defusing Compound Material be damned.'

However, that was not the only problem Touma had, his friend Misaka Mikoto had been acting strangely when he had met her at their usual meeting spot, and he suspected that the information he had received from the UNDER_LINE network regarding cases of unexplained fires and evidence of cyberterrorism in several research facilities had something to do with her.

'Ah well, I'll check it out tomorrow. Its not like its too severe of a problem, after all if it was Biribiri would have told me. And besides, Misaka Imouto is waiting for me outside'

"Huh?" Touma said upon leaving the bookstore with a paper bag in one hand.

Misaka Imouto was nowhere to be found.

'Perhaps she got mad that I forced her to take the cat, so she left.'

Even so Touma knew that something was amiss, as after spending the day with her, Touma knew that the reason he thought of contradicted Misaka Imouto's personality

Furthermore the cat alone was sitting there on the ground.

Touma picked up the cat as it laid its ears back and trembled a bit. He looked around the area again, but everything about the street tinted in the colors of twilight seemed normal. A lot of boys and girls wearing private clothes were walking along the street as they returned to their dorms after an exhausting day of fun.

"…?"

As Touma tensely looked around, he felt something from that normal scenery. He spun back around and looked at the alley between the used book store and the multi-tenant building next to it. Something about it drew his attention.

'What is it? What's wrong with that alley?'

Touma looked closer. A tile walkway headed along in front of the entrance to the alley and a wind turbine spun nearby. The entrance must not have gotten cleaned often because quite a few leaves and a single girl's shoe were gathered there. The tiling of the pathway ended right at the alley entrance and the ground in the alley was made of incredibly makeshift-looking asphalt.

…A single girl's shoe?

That was when Touma knew that something was very very wrong.

Still holding the black cat, Touma approached the entrance to the alley. A bad feeling crawled up within him like a centipede, a feeling he was well acquainted with, when something when wrong with the assignments the higher ups tasked him with. There was definitely just one girl's shoe there. It was a small brown loafer that looked like something that would be required by a school. The shoe was clean and had no dirt on it, so it couldn't have been there for long. Additionally, the shoe looked vaguely familiar to him.

Touma stared into the alley.

The sun was already sinking below the horizon, so its light did not reach the gap between the buildings. The darkness made it look like the entrance to a cave and he could not see anything within by just peering in.

"…"

Touma took one step into the alley.

With that one step, it felt as if the temperature had lowered 2 or 3 degrees. A feeling of having stepped into some unknown place slowly rose from his foot up to his body.

Touma continued on. There he found the other vaguely familiar shoe lying on the dirty ground of the alley. He continued further on. The bad feeling grew.

Tensing, he flexed his left arm 'feeling' the electric fields in the air, prepared to fire of a beam of electricity at any moments notice.

As he walked ever-so slowly forwards, he saw something lying on the ground further ahead in the darkness. No, it was someone collapsed on the ground. He could see the legs from where he was. He could see two legs, but he could not see the upper half of the body as if it had been eaten by the darkness.

Something clicked in Touma's head.

Misaka Imouto's disappearance.

The pair of familiar looking shoes.

'Misaka Imouto?!'

He headed closer as if he were cutting through the darkness obscuring his view.

And there she was.

Misaka Imouto's corpse was lying on the ground.

She was lying face up as if she were staring up at the rectangular visible portion of the purple sky.

There was a sea of blood. So large that it made one wonder if a single human body really held that much blood. It wasn't just on the ground. Both walls were painted red up to eye-level. It looked like someone had wrung out a human body to get every last drop of blood out.

In the centre of that explosion of red lay Misaka Imouto.

The arms and legs extending out from the short-sleeves and the skirt were torn up. It was most likely the same on her skin within her clothes that he could not see. Her school uniform had been dyed so red that its original colours could no longer be seen, but the clothes themselves were not torn at all.

Her body seemed to have been torn apart from the inside along the paths of the blood vessels as if someone had passed narrow wires through all of them and then forcibly torn the wires out. Her torn-up arms were reminiscent of a diagram of a dissected frog. The torn-up girl had nothing that could actually be called a "face". Instead, she had what looked like an open flower or a peeled boiled egg. It was a dark-red cavity with pink muscles and soft yellow fat inside.

It reminded him of the disposal room where the corpses of Child Errors where hidden.

'R-reversal of blood?!'

'L-liquid Manipulation? Which fucking Esper would do that to her?!... Or could it be another one of those Magicians?!'

However Touma's reasoning shot down the idea as the chances of someone from the science side being killed from someone of the magic side was near impossible due to extreme likeliness of a massive world war breaking out if such an incident occurred.

'No, those Magicians are extremely conservative in both their actions and thoughts... THe wouldn't want a war breaking out...So an Esper huh? But no Esper would kill indiscriminately... Plus that bastard is most likely a high level Esper... Around level 4? The blood is still wet, so the bastard must be around somewhere. Then if I use my original ability to look at the Espers...'

Touma turned around after setting the black cat down on the floor, manipulating the magnetic fields that where braced on him to repel the metal supports in the concrete walls of the alley, he was sent flying up in the air. He then 'flew' around the city using his ability to look for the surrounding Espers that fit that category.

20 AUG 2070

8:43 PM

Academy City

District 23

S-Processor Pathology Analysis Research Laboratory

_Misaka Mikoto_

Misaka Mikoto was in a state of shock.

She had just witnessed the death of one of her sisters from the live monitor of the research facility's control room.

Her hand was still stretched out as if she could reach in and pull her sister to safety, however the screen above mocked her with its display was dyed red from blood.

Over the speakers she could still hear the dripping of blood from the alley.

"No...No...Please tell me that this is fake….Please…", Misaka pleaded uselessly as her legs dropped to the ground.

'The level 6-Shift project... By killing Railgun 128 times, it is predetermined by the Quantum-Electrode Silicorandom Synapse Parallel Computational Simulator: Tree Diagram, that the subject can clear the Level 6 ability threshold...'

Despite her trauma Misaka ran through the details again, looking- No, hoping for a way to save her sisters.

'Wait... Tree Diagram?' Misaka remembered report she obtained through hacking the previous research facilities database.

'I see... So thats what I should do...'

For the first time in days, Misaka smiled a true-but bitter smile.

20 AUG 2070

9:46 PM

Academy City

District 7

IATA Telecommunications Radio Tower #5

_Kamijou Touma_

"Damn it!"

'I shouldn't have let her stay outside! Fuck! What was I thinking! How am I supposed to break this to Misaka now!? She was already acting strangely! This just makes it worst! This is all my fault... If only I had persuaded her to stay with me-'

Self guilt and regret clawed at Touma's heart. With every minute he felt as though his temperature dropped by a degree, with his heart sinking in dread in the same fashion.

Touma had been scanning the area for more than fifteen minutes but to no avail. Amongst the crowd, there where only a total of 68 Level 3 Espers. Furthermore out of the 68, none of them were capable of liquid manipulation.

'Shit! Looks like he escaped!'

Touma bit the wall of his mouth in anger, wanting to find the killer and make that person pay for what he had done.

"And when I find the bastard..."

His face broke out into a thin smile, a smile that-

'Calm down! There's no fucking use in getting angry.', Touma berated himself. It wouldn't help anyone if he descended into a mad fury. The culprit was likely a Level 4 and had to have backup (for if not Touma would have found him already) 'Now, I need to take care of the body, it would do if someone outside stumbled across it. I don't want anyone getting into this mess. Then I'll have to do some-'

Thoughts of the similar patten flowed through his mind as Touma walked back to Misaka Imouto body.

He blinked.

"Am I going insane?!"

"Oi..Oi... What the hell is going on here?!"

Touma was at the crime scene, preparing to swipe his handheld phone on to alert Anti-Skill. However, this action was stopped due to the fact that Misaka Imouto's corpse was no longer on the floor. Instead in the middle of the massive blood puddle was:

Misaka Imouto.

More specifically, another Misaka Imouto carrying the dead Misaka Imouto on her shoulder covered by a semi transparent body bag.

Touma compared her with the Misaka Imouto he remembered.

They were both wearing the same clothes.

They both had the same features.

The same face.

The same eyes.

The same hairstyle.

The same goggles.

They looked exactly like each other to the millimeter.

It wouldn't be a stretch if they were-

"Clones.", Touma unintentionally spoken his thoughts aloud.

"Oh? Are you a part of this experiment? Misaka says as she tilts her head in curiosity."

"…Experiment?", Touma was utterly shocked and confused.

Perhaps because of this confusion, memories of Touma's childhood ran through his mind.

_Inject the neutralizer, the subject cannot take▆▆_ _What an astounding ability... With this we can now understand the inner ▆▆▆▆▆ ▆▆▆▅▃▂_

"…? You do not know? asks Misaka in return. As you entered the testing site, Misaka assumed you were related to the experiment, but…yes, it is true that you do not look like someone related to the experiment, responds Misaka based on her intuition."

Touma fell silent, his mind running through the possibilities.

'Don't tell me that this experiment is one of those fucked up 'Kihara Brand'-'

Before he could continue this line of thought, the other Misaka Imouto spoke again.

"Just to make sure, Misaka will check using the passcode, says Misaka as she does as she says. ZXC741ASD852QWE963, says Misaka testing you."

"…Q-9, W-6, E-3, A-8, S-5, D-2, Z-7, X-4 and C-1"

The code was rather simple, for letters revealed the order in which the numbers were to be in and likewise the other way around.

"Correct, Misaka says as she nods her had in affirmation. Misaka will now need your 8 digit and 1 letter ID, says Misaka asking for the vital conformation ID."

Touma blinked in surprise, in Academy City, your ID code was rarely used in any form of documentation except for in A-ranked files.

'If so then those asshat Board of Directors must have something to do with this... This experiment reeks of the darkness... Well I'll give it a shot, after all I do have S ranked Network Terminal Security, regardless of how limited it may be.'

"39824653V"

"..."

After a few moments the other Misaka Imouto replied. During this time, it looked as if she was consulting a list from somewhere in her head.

"That's strange, Misaka exclaims in surprise. Your NTS Rank is indeed at the proper clearance level, But it seems like you are not on the list for permitted access, Misaka says as she apologizes profusely. Perhaps there is an error of some kind, Misaka says as she attempts to explain this odd anomaly. You should contact one of the Board of Directors to explain this strange situation, Misaka says as she attempts to provide advice."

"..."

Touma cursed. It looked like he was going have to delay the punishment of those responsible.

'But at least,' Touma thought viciously, 'I already know the main puppeteers.'

"If that is all, Misaka would like to leave now to meet up with the rest, says Misaka as she-"

"Wait. What the fuck do you mean by rest?", Touma interjected hurriedly, it seemed that was more going on that what he had originally thought.

"I'll let you in since you have S Ranked Clearance, says Misaka attempting to justify her reasons for leaking secretive information. The others will be arriving soon to clear the scene, explains Misaka as she gestures to the area around her.", The girl who liked to speak in third person replied.

Suddenly, a voice that sounded like the other Misaka Imouto continued 'Misaka 1085 concurs with your decision, Misaka adds as she voices her agreement.'

"W-what..!"

The voice had sounded like it was coming from a ways down the alleyway.

This was not mistake in Touma's senses. With the sound of more footsteps, someone approached from behind the other Misaka Imouto.

"Misaka apologizes for leaving the cat behind, states Misaka"

The person who had appeared from the darkness was a girl who looked exactly like the Misaka Imouto standing before him.

"What the hell..."

"However, she did not want to get an animal involved in unnecessary conflict, says Misaka explaining her actions."

However, that other girl's footsteps were not the only ones Touma could hear.

"Misaka wishes to apologise to you for the same reason as well, says Misaka as she lowers her head."

There were two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…a seemingly endless number of footsteps.

"It seems the experiment caused you unnecessary stress, says Misaka as-…"

"But you do not need to worry…"

"It seems like you were going to call the authorities…"

"That would be the appropriate decision however…"

"Is the cat okay, asks Misa-…"

"Every Misaka here is Misaka, explains…"

"But what would you have done if Misaka had been the murderer?"

"The details are classified even for you, so Misaka cannot explain, but there was no trouble here, responds Misaka."

"W-what the fuc-"

Touma involuntarily stepped back as Misaka after Misaka appeared from behind the first. His back ran into something. He turned around and found more Misakas with identical expressionless faces.

"What…?"

' ... Don't tell me that...'

"How many of there are you?!", Touma asked, almost afraid of the answer.

'Currently there are 10,032 Misakas alive, with an original number of 20,000, answers Misaka as she answers your question' One of the Misaka's answered behind his back.

'T-this goes beyond insane... How the fuck did I not notice this?!'

Touma spun around looking at the area and then looked back at the body bag.

It seemed they knew him. It seemed they knew of the black cat. But then Touma had to wonder who the girl he had thought was Misaka Imouto had been. Was she with them or were there still more Misakas? Or was the Misaka Imouto he had been in contact the one inside the body bag?

'Are they using some kind of electronic communication-'

"Do not worry, responds Misaka."

The Misaka holding the body bag spoke to Touma who was frozen in shock.

"The Misaka you were in contact with previously today was Serial Number 10032. In other words, this Misaka, responds Misaka." She pointed toward herself with her free hand. "The Misakas use their power to manipulate electricity to link their brain waves. The other Misakas merely share #10032's memories, explains Misaka."

Brain waves differed from person to person like fingerprints and voice prints. Having someone else's brain waves flow into your brain would just destroy your brain cells, but if two people who were identical on the genetic level did it…

But Touma didn't particularly care about that.

"Who are you?", he asked.

"The Misakas are the Sisters, cellular clones created as mass-produced military models of the Original, one of the seven Level 5s of Academy City, answers Misaka."

"..."

'Hahaha... I get it now. So this is what Misaka was worrying over. No wonder the Board of Directors were involved... Mass-produced military models huh? Those bastards just want to take over the world don't they...'

"Well, if that's all then please excuse us, Misaka says as she takes her leave.

The group of Misakas had disappeared as if they were melting into the darkness. They were likely taking the corpse to eliminate every bit of evidence. And the experiments would continue. He didn't know the details, but those Misakas were being killed and then taken off somewhere without him knowing.

Touma was suddenly all alone as he leaned against the alley wall while holding the black cat.

'Looks like I have to do some digging around...'

'Let's start from the Board and work our way down, shall we?' Touma thought sardonically as he bent down, picking up the black cat from the floor where it had waited obediently.

Touma headed home to his apartment, not to sleep, but to deposit the cat.

It wouldn't be until the next 2 days before he returned to do such a thing.

20 AUG 2070

9:59 PM

Academy City

District 7

LEX Private Apartments

#08-01

_Index librorum prohibitorum_

"Toooooouummmmaaaaa~! Whereeee areeee youuu!?"

A teenaged European sliver haired, green eyed girl moaned as she rolled comically across the wooden floor of a 5LDK mansion she called home.

Normally in Academy City, an average teenager would not be able to experience such a luxury. This was due to a multitude of reasons, but it was mainly due to a lack of land for housing purposes, so much so that there had been several recent proposals for underground expansion in the city. But a more obvious answer would be that a teenager would not be living in a massive 5LDK mansion, but rather in a fugal 1K dorm apartment.

However this girl was nowhere close to normal, she was dressed in a white nun habit (something that was virtually never seen in the scientific and secular Academy City.
Additionally, she was currently the only Magician that had the ability to permanently reside in Academy City legally.

However you could say that her roommate was even more unique.

For out of the 2.3 million who lived in Academy City, he and 7 others stood above them. He and them were known as the Level 5s of Academy City; the crystallization of all of what Academy City stood for.

And out of these 8, he ranked #2.

But that was not all, the roommate of hers, Kamijou Touma had a mysterious power in his right hand: Upon direct contact it could cancel out all supernatural phenomena be it sacred miracles from God to fatal curses from the Devil.

The was evidenced from the fact that her clothes had to be stitched together by safety pins. Her clothes were once a pope-class protection artefact Walking Church, however upon coming into contact with his right hand, the artefact turned into useless pieces of fabric which did to be stitched back to remotely resemble clothes.

'GROWWL~'

Suddenly, a loud growl could be heard.

"Touma~ I'm hungry~~~~~"

"Where are you~~~ ? I want my mid-supper snack~~"

This nun could be heard complaining. However, there was no one else in the mansion except for two cats, one black and one ginger yellow-white respectively.

"Geeez that Touma~! Always running around the place while forgetting about me~~! You just dumped the cat here and ran off again"

At this point the nun was repeatedly banging her fists at the floor.

"I'll protect you, he said, I'll take care of you, he said."

"Lies all of them!"

But even though she said that, she knew that it was not true, for there was an instant curry tonkatsu bento cooking in the microwave and fried rice being heated in the rice cooker. Plus taped on the dining counter there was a wad of 10,000 yen notes, with a map highlighted with all her favorite restaurants and a contact list written on the back.

But before she could think/complain about it anymore she was distracted by ding of the microwave.

"Oooohh~! The tonkatsu is done!", Exclaiming in bliss she rushed to the kitchen before grabbing the bento with a 'Life is perfect' expression. The previous complains about her roommate where all forgotten.

In the end, it seemed that all she cared about was the food.

20 AUG 2070

9:59 PM

Academy City

District 1

Board of Directors Executive Office

_Kamijou Touma_

Academy City's first district was lined with administrative and judicial facilities and it did not have the sense of livelihood that other, more normal districts had. It had almost no residences or restaurants. In exchange for gathering together all of the functions needed for smoothly operating such a large city, only the bare minimum of functionality for people to live there was prepared. The extremely mechanical cityscape helped reinforce that image of the district.

A single terribly unique building was mixed in with the mostly consistent cityscape of District 1.

It was an office of the board of directors.

Since it took up an entire skyscraper, it went beyond the level of what one would normally think an "office" was. Since its maintenance was paid for entirely with tax money, it would have been more accurate to call it an "official residence".

At any rate, the luxurious building had actually only been prepared for the sole use of one of those 12 influential people within Academy City: Thomas Platinaburg.

However, the person now in his office seat was not the man himself. Rather, the person occupying it currently was a spiky-haired 16 year old boy named Kamijou Touma.

" .Oi.. Are you fucking kidding me?! I knew that something big was up, but this takes the cake.", Touma remarked incredulously as his eyes zoomed across the monitor.

_By the use of various combat scenarios, the Sisters will gain important combat data. Through this, the Sisters will be able to self-evolve though the network (see page 26) for combat against the subject. Leading to incremental increases of difficulty for the subject which will serve beneficial to the overall growth and refinement of his ability_

"Why the fuck is Academy City, the pinnacle of science and steeped complexity using such a caveman-like method of natural selection? Those scientists must be shitting themselves… Since when did the apes become our bible to decorum?!"

If anyone who knew the normal day-well manned, caring yet slightly hot headed-Touma, they would undoubtedly be shocked at his current use of language, not to mention his severe personality change.

However to many of the scientists who had formerly headed the Dark-May Project, they would have been astatic, for they would have never imagined that mental compartmentalisation of Accelerator's personality was possible even after the input of his calculation pattens into Touma's brain.

"Enough of the chatting k'ay?'I've got a test tomorrow you know~!" The starry-eyed Shokuhou Misaki complained with a smile as she hovered over Touma's shoulder, taking extra care to apply pressure to his shoulder with her well-endowed bosom.

"Besides why did you need me here anyway? You can just use Accelerator's Vector Manipulation to whip past the security can't you?", Misaki continued.

"You didn't know? I thought that you already found out from your clique. Well, here's a newsflash: Academy City's Tree Digram has been destroyed, so I can't externally calculate the vectors anymore.", Touma leaned away, preventing himself from falling to the temptation while pointing at his bare neck that once held a satellite transmitter.

"Ara! Isn't that sad…All you have now is Misaka's ability to rely on now! Hehe.", Misaki replied with a faux sympathetic tone. All while ignoring the verbal jab at her information gathering skills.

"I appreciate your sympathy, it really helps", said Touma sarcastically as he rolled is eyes, "Now will you stop trying to distract me? Misaka really needs my help."

"Alright. Alright. I'll stop.", Misaki raised her hands in mock surrender.

Besides, I highly doubt that doing it here with others watching would be fun.", Misaki smirked while gesturing to the men at the back of the room that had strange star pattens in their retinas.

"Unless…Of course you're one of those people who has a exhibitionist fetish?…My. my. my. , I never knew that you where that kind of person", Emphasising the word 'that', Misaki continued in mock horror.

"And FYI, I don't really care about Misaka-chan's problems, both of us aren't exactly best friends in school. In fact, it would actually help me expand my influence if she disappeared.", Misaki continued coldly as she flipped though the files on the desk.

"Fine fine, lets get out of here.", Touma replied as he deleted the search history. At this point, it would be simply better to abandon the conversation than to continue it and he was most definitely not going to be the middleman between the conflict of Misaka and Misaki.

'No. No. No. That's never happening. I've got enough on my plate as it is. But still I wonder, which side would I take? M-' At that point, Touma was pushed out of his thoughts.

"Ara. Ara. Don't tell me you're going to punish me by forcing me to do it on the streets with you?!", Misaki teased, rejecting his withdrawal, "I didn't know that your fetish was that severe~! I wonder what Misaka-chan would say when she finds out? "

"She'd probably start hitting me and screaming: Touma you baka hentai! or something like that with a blush.", Touma replied while standing up, hoping to sedate her verbal onslaught by humouring her while not justifying her first statement with a response.

"Puffft. And there I thought I would be able to have some late-evening entertainment.", Misaki pouted childishly.

"Well, there's your entertainment", Touma gestured to the men standing at the corner of the vast office, hoping that they would help sedate her boredom.

"Ohhhoo! Touma, nice idea!", Turning back to the other occupants in the office, she ordered, "O'kay then, you guys, knock yourselves out in 15 minutes. Oh, and challenge yourself to damage this office as much as possible during that time. "

"C'mon, let's leave this place before anymore guards come.", Touma requested as he offered a hand, mentally giving an apology to the poor enslaved guards who would no doubtedly be fired the next morning.

"Sure! Sure! It be a pain if I have to brainwash-power them again" Misaki coquettishly smiled as she grabbed Touma's hand. "By the way.", Misaki continued, "That will be 5 million yen!"

"DON'T I GET A DISCOUNT FOR BEING YOUR CHILDHOOD FRIEND?! PLUS YOU'RE TOTALLY OVERCHARGING!", Touma complained as he attempted to free himself from the arm linked to his.

"Nope~! Not happening!" Misaka replied striking her trademark pose which involved her right hand forming a 'V' sign horizontally next to her eye and her tongue stuck out in a curtsey manner.

"FUKOU DA!", Touma screamed horribly as he tried to resist her charm.

In the end, Misaki left the office with her hands busy stuffing her wallet, while Touma left with his wallet significantly lighter.

"Oh yeah, you don't have to worry about the Exterior project mess anymore, I cleared up the discontent between the board and the researchers. Turns out that they'll be happy as long as you continue to maintain the facilities. Those bastards just wanted the fucking data.", Touma revealed as they walked towards the direction of Tokiwadai School Dorms.

"They killed my friend. They were the ones who approved of the project. I won't forgive them.", Unlike her usual cheeky tone, Misaki's voice turned icy cold.

"I know.", Touma grabbed Misaki's shoulders forcing her to look at his worried eyes. "I'm not telling you to forgive them. But you're my friend, so please, before you do anything, tell me first. I will be able to help… No matter what it is."

"T-touma…", for the first time in months, Misaki looked like a flustered 14 year old girl, with her lips forming a '^' shape, "I-I'm…"

Giving up on speech entirety, Misaki merely nodded, making her blond bangs flip up and down in a adorable manner.

"Good.", Touma took her nod as a sign of agreement, before stepping back, noting their current compromising position.

But before he could do so, Misaki's shy smile reverted back into a full-blown cheshire grin.

"So… You really want to do it outside do you! Forcefully grabbing Misaki like that! Misaki was really shocked you know~!"

"NO! NO! NO! How the hell did you come to that conclusion?!", Touma yelled franticly arms fraying in the air. But unlike his actions, his thoughts were full of relief, "Take it for Misaki to revert back to her usual self so quickly. I almost thought that she would do something drastic. Phew!"

Soon amid casual chatter, both youths arrived at their destination: The Tokiwadai School Dormitory.

"Kuhh…", Touma looked up at the 'dormitory' that looked more like a A-list apartment complex. "Hmm?", Misaki tilted her head in curiosity.

"No I just realised that Misaka has a roommate…And from what she says, 'A terrifyingly harsh neck-snapping Supervisor'…"

"Ahaha! Well the Dorm Mistress will be the least of your worries,", Touma tiled his eyebrow, asking the unasked question.

"Well, from what I hear", Misaki elaborated, "Her roommate, Shirai Kuroko is-ah, rather infuriated with your girlfriend, let's just say that she may turn a little-ah surprised when you show up. Hehe!… Oh! And look at the time! Its already 10 minutes past 10! Gotta go!"

Misaka begin skipping towards her block.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" ,Touma grabbed on to Misaki's purse, pulling her back. "You definitely said 'surprised' differently didn't you!? What do you man by that!? And Misaka's NOT my girlfriend!", Touma piled up his accusations.

"She's not your girlfriend!?" Misaki said in mock surprise. "I thought that after all the weekend outings for 'Training' she had with you, you would have already reached second base~ Looks like Misaka's not being honest with herself at all~"

"Don't ignore the main question!", Touma spat.

"You'll see! I won't want to ruin the 'surprise'! Tehehe!"

Seeing as he wouldn't get anything out of her Touma reluctantly let her go.

'After all, how bad can this be?!'

10 minutes later, Touma regretted even stepping into a 100 meter radius of Tokiwadai School Dormitory.

"ITS YOU! YOU APE! BARBARIAN! You where the one who intruded on the date Onee-sama and me had weren't you?! What have you done to Onee-sama!? How dare you sully her body with your-!" ,One auburn pigtailed Shirai Kuroko exploded as she went ballistic on him.

"Now, now. Shirai-san you won't want the dorm mistress coming here, right?!", Touma said in fear, wondering how she had came to that conclusion. 'We're not even dating!'

"Is that a threat!? If it is I'll teleport this stake into your skull!" ,Kuroko levelled a death glare at Touma as she removed a metallic stake from her garter belt.

Touma shivered unsure is she would actually carry out with her threat.

'I know that I can reflect it away but still…', Touma unconsciously stepped back from the fuming woman.

"I was only here to check on Misaka! Not do what ever you think I wanted to do!~~", Touma yelled in a last-ditch attempt to calm her down.

Surprisingly, it worked. The once fuming woman sat down on her bed, leaving Touma to stand awkwardly.

"Well?" Kuroko raised an eyebrow, gesturing to the bed, "Sit down."

'That way, I can get more information on Onee-sama's preferences for dating! And perhaps he knows why Onee-sama has been acting strangely and coming back late… Watch Onee-sama, how your darling Kuroko is so willing devoted it you!', Kuroko thought.

"Even though its Misaka's, isn't it impolite to sit on someone's bed without permission?", Touma scratched his head in question.

"Ho? You're surprisingly polite… for a ape."

"Kurhh.", The fact that Kuroko was genuinely surprised was a larger blow to Touma than her previous insults. 'Is it going to be so difficult taking to her!? How bad of a impression does she have on me already!?'

"But your concern is not needed", Kuroko continued oblivious to his pain, "That is my bed. Like I will let a barbarian sit on Onee-sama's, that's paramount to treason!"

Touma gave up arguing, sitting down, he asked of Misaka's whereabouts.

"I don't know,", Kuroko looked depressed, "She's been wandering off, sleeping in class and coming back extremely late…with her clothes in tatters"

'Aha! So the mysterious fires and shutdowns where her doing, she must be trying to shut down the backers.'

"So do you know whats going on with her?" Shirai Kuroko asked.

Not wanting to lie to Misaka's friend, he nodded before saying, "But if Misaka hasn't told you yet then I shouldn't, this is a private issue of hers."

Kuroko sighed, expecting that reply before responding, "What she's doing is opposing the officials in Academy City, isn't it?"

Touma almost did a double-take.

"I'm in Judgement where we constantly have to do things under the book… Plus Onee-sama being Level 5 wouldn't need to sneak around like this, unless she has lost or can't use official support." Kuroko elaborated answering the unasked question.

However before Touma could reply, footsteps could be heard in the distance, it seemed as though a student was returning back to her room.

Kuroko jumped up from the bed.

"Oh, no. That sounds like the dorm supervisor making her rounds!"

"…Hah?"

Touma was taken aback by that unexpected comment and Kuroko waved her arms about.

"Wh-what do we do? This will get very bad if the dorm supervisor finds out about you."

"You seem awfully sure. Can you tell just from the footsteps?"

"She is dangerous enough that you need to be able to tell it's her just from her footsteps. Anyway, she is an evil existence that checks on people's rooms without warning, so you need to hide under the bed."

Kuroko suddenly started pushing on Touma's head to force him under Misaka's bed. The bed creaked in dissatisfaction.

"Ow! Wait, dammit! I'm not gonna fit in that space!"

"It is not normal for a gentleman to be in Tokiwadai's dorm! Ahh, this is a pain, so I'll just teleport y-…huh? Why won't my power work on you!?"

"Oh, that's probably my ability. It-….ow! Listen, damn you!"

Eventually, Touma stuffed under the bed like luggage being stuffed into a car's trunk. Surprisingly, the area below the bed had been cleaned nicely, so there was no dust.

'But they wear their shoes inside here, so there's really nothing different about this than pressing my cheek up against the ground outside!'

Not only was the area under the bed cramped, but something was already there. Touma was being pushed into a large stuffed bear about as tall as he was.

Just as Touma was considering pushing the bear out of the way, he heard the door open without even a single knock. He heard a low female voice.

"Shirai. It is time to sleep, so switch off the lights. …Where is Misaka? I have received no notification of her being away and roommates are responsible too when someone breaks curfew, so I hope you do not mind receiving a demerit."

Apparently, it really was the dorm supervisor.

He then heard Kuroko speaking.

"Oh, I believe she had rather urgent business, so she did not have time to submit a notification. I believe in Onee-sama, so I cannot accept a demerit."

It seemed the dorm supervisor pushed Kuroko out of the room to talk. Touma waited tensely under the bed for a bit. He could not tell what was going on while under the bed and it would not be too surprising if the dorm supervisor came back, so he couldn't just casually crawl out from under the bed.

"Ho…It'll probably be difficult to leave the dorm with things like this."

Touma sighed and then looked over at the stuffed bear under the bed with him.

At first he thought it seemed fancier than he would have thought Misaka would like, but when he looked closer, he saw one of its eyes was covered with an eyepatch, it had bandages wrapped around its entire body, and it had stitches like with Frankenstein. It was more funky than fancy.

Touma dragged it towards himself to take closer look.

'It looks super Misaka Mikoto-ish', Touma thought.

He then ran his hand over the fabric. He felt something hard and crinkly inside the stuffed bear. It was like something was inside the bear.

Looking closer, he could see that a few of the stitches had been remade into zippers. It had quite a few small pockets in it. He stroked the bear to check and felt something like a small bottle inside.

'Perfume? If I recall correctly, Tokiwadai doesn't allow perfume doesn't it. Something about it reducing focus in lessons'

It seemed Misaka used the bear to hide the objects that were against school rules. It was almost like someone running drugs.

Given the size of the stuffed bear, Misaka must have had a lot of things she didn't want people finding. Touma sighed and took his hand off of the bear.

"Huh?"

He then noticed something.

The bear had a thick collar around its neck that looked a bit like a belt and it said "Killbear". That was likely the bear's name, but that didn't really matter.

Looking from above, a zipper around the neck could be seen hidden by the collar. It was made so it could not be opened with the tight collar in the way. Also, the collar had a large padlock on it that doubled as part of the decoration. That zipper was clearly used differently from the others.

Most likely, what was in there was the thing Misaka least wanted anyone to see. Touma didn't want to pry, but the zipper was still half open. It seemed there was paper inside. The corner of a piece of paper was sticking out of the half open zipper.

It wasn't right to pry, but the paper had the following written in typed lettering:

Test Number 07-15-2005071112-A. Using the Radio Noise Sisters to Shift the Level 5 Accelerator to Level 6.

Taking special care not to take anything else out, Touma pulled out the stack of paper, noting the post-it stuck to it.

"Bingo." Touma muttered as he scanned through the handwritten note:

Shinaame University DNA Map Analysis Laboratory (X)

Geomagnetic Anomaly Research Laboratory (X)

Foreign Medicine Research Centre (X)

Biomedical Genetic Research Facility (X)

Movement and Cognitive Research Institute (X)

Ryuden Sports Human Engineering Development Centre (X)

Duchenne Dystrophy Research Centre (X)

Mizuho Organisation Pathology Analysis Laboratory (X)

Kanasaki University Muscular Dystrophy Research Institution (X)

S-Processor Pathology Analysis Research Laboratory (X)

And written behind, in hurriedly scribbled text was:

Failure, they have the board of directors in this, going to have to destroy Tree Diagram data centre. Kuroko, everyone. Please forgive me for not telling you, but I couldn't get you all into his mess, I'm so-

The rest of the ink was blotched likely from tears

'Misaka… You should have told me…Besides Tree Diagram has already been destroyed, your plan of disrupting it via Tree Diagram won't work', Touma sighed tracing the words, 'But still its all right, you haven't done anything too drastic yet.' He wondered how much anguish Misaka was suffering currently and felt his anger being directed towards the higher ups.

'Damn those bastards, I'll give them a piece of their mind later.'

Touma ranted as he looked through the file for anything he had missed. Shaking the paper to look for any wedged items, out fell several envelopes. Most of with where addressed to people he didn't know.

'Saten-san? Uiharu-san? Must be her friends. Hmm, I wonder if she wrote me one…', Just as he came to that thought, he spied an envelope addressed to his name. Opening the letter resulted in several boughs of laughter.

"Geez. Misaka, you're such a tsundere. Only in your last moments, you'll be honest with yourself!?" Touma bit out between chuckles before 'flying' out of the room through the window with letter in hand.

Authors Note: Well that's it from me. I was genuinely surprised when the prologue received almost 900 views! Thanks for all the support! I had originally intended to finish writing the entire Arc before posting, but decided against it. Do tell me if you would have liked that better. Oh and check out the fanfic: Minds, Memories and Misfortune! The author's characterisation of the characters is great! It feels so much like cannon.

Oh and don't worry about Touma being overpowered. His ability doesn't allow him to freely copy other abilities. If you think you know how his ability Clone Copy works (There's a hint in this chapter), send me a PM and whoever gets it correct gets a virtual cookie and a special mention in the next chapter! :D

Answer it like this: First, Touma needs to ▆▆▆▆▆, then he needs to understand the concept and the theory. After that, he needs to do whatever calculations the ability requires before he can execute the ability.
Replace the ▆▆▆▆▆ with your guess.

Be sure to leave a review! And if you liked it, be sure to do the former and follow! (You can check my profile to see my progress.)

... And I just realised that the editor/publisher software can't make/read star icons or heart shapes nor strikethroughs. :(

Deusand

(Edited 31 OCT 2013)