Aftermath

"It's over you fools!" laughed the evil man. "Apocalypse is here!"

Touma and Mikoto look up to see a large gathering of energy in the sky.

"This is just like... that time..."

"Misaka," Touma calls for her. "Let's do this..."

"Right!"

Very quickly, Mikoto manages to pull together a cannon and fires both herself and Touma into the sky. Touma's right hand destroys the giant energy before it could do whatever it was supposed to do.

Mikoto gently lands both her and Touma on the ground. The Kamijou faction gather all around them.

"We did it, Misaka."

"We did..."

"We... diiid..." Mikoto's eyes twitched as she started to wake up. She slowly opens her eyes to find herself in an unfamiliar room. It appears to be a dorm, though it very lacking compared to hers. Mikoto gets up slowly, sitting on the bed, this room is quite cramped. (Where...?) She checks herself to see that she's wearing the costume she bought last night. (So, all that really happened? But... I can't remember...).

She hears a clicking sound not too far away. A door opens and someone walks out of it.

"Aaah..." Touma yawns with a hand in front of his mouth. "Huh?" He sees Mikoto sitting on his bed and raises his hand in greeting. "Morning, bug zapper!"

"Y-you!" Mikoto jumps up in surprise and points her finger angrily. "What are you doing here?"

"Me?" Touma answers casually. "This is my dorm."

There was silence for a few seconds as Mikoto processed the information. Then with a poof, her face went completely red.

"Y-y-y-y-your dorm!?" Mikoto panics. "W-w-w-what am I doing here?" For some reason, her hair starts sparking out. "What the hell happened last night?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down!" Touma jumps forward and places his hand on Mikoto's head. "Don't get all zappy this early in the morning."

With her electricity stopped, Mikoto suddenly calmed down, dropping her arms. Her face went redder than before.

"Alright," Touma slowly lifted his hand off of her head. "A lot things happened last night. But for now I'll make us some breakfast. I hope you don't mind eggs, that's all I can cook for breakfast right now."

"T-that's fine..." Mikoto sits back down quietly, but nervous.

Touma starts cooking fried eggs. "So, how much do you remember from last night?"

Mikoto breathes hard and calms down, trying to recall the events of the previous night. "The last thing I remember, is putting us down on the ground after stopping that attack."

"Yeah I thought so," Touma speaks out. "You just collapsed after that."

"So, what happened afterwards?" Mikoto asks. "With those two masked guys?"

"Two?" Touma tries to recall. "Oh, him." The second one was Stiyl with his pumpkin head. "Well, the guy in the pumpkin mask is some kind of secret officer. He was after the other masked guy."

"You seemed to know that pumpkin head."

"We've met before," Touma sighs. "Not because I wanted to though."

"Let me guess, one of your strange situations?"

"Yeah, more than one..." Touma sighs as he continues cooking. "Anyway, with his help, everything's settled. The other masked man is gone now, there's no need to worry anymore."

"Huh?" Mikoto turns to him worriedly. "Why do you sound so depressed?"

Touma realizes he let his voice drop a bit into a sad tone. The realization of who was inside that mask, as well as the story behind it, still haunts him. "It's nothing, I'm just worried about something else."

"Like what?"

Touma finishes cooking the eggs, placed on two separate plates along with some rice. "I think we need to figure out what to do with your sister and Shirai." He places the food down before Mikoto, he sits himself down to eat.

"One of my sisters and Kuroko?" Mikoto repeats, then she remembers. During the situation last night, her sister was injured, and Kuroko took her to a hospital.

"That's the reason I had to bring you here," Touma and Mikoto continue their breakfast. "I didn't want to risk someone seeing you and your sister in two different places."

"What time is it?" Mikoto searches around for a clock, she finds one and reads the time. It's still early, there's some time before visiting hours. Mikoto starts to think.

"Is there something wrong?" Touma asks.

"I'm worried about my sister," Mikoto answers. "Kuroko is sure to visit her at the first opportunity. I'll have to get there first." Mikoto quietly and quickly finishes the small breakfast. "I'm sorry, do you have a drink?"

"Just water," Touma gets up and takes the dishes. "If you're going to go, what will you do if someone notices you outside of the hospital?"

Mikoto looks at herself. "I should be fine, I just need my mask." She finds the frog mask on top of the TV. "Here it is."

"You're going now?" Touma hands a glass of water to her. She takes it and drinks it quickly, returning the empty glass to him.

"The sooner the better," Mikoto puts on her mask and opens the glass door to his balcony. "You know how Kuroko is. I need to get to my sister ASAP." Mikoto props herself up on the railing. "Thanks for breakfast." Mikoto jumps away.

"Guess I'll see you there," Touma put the glasses away and put on his shoes. "What kind of gift should I get them?"

XXX

Mikoto hurriedly jumps across the buildings. By chance, she spots a store on the way to the hospital. Despite her hurry, she decides to quickly buy something for her little sister, while in costume. She hurriedly scans the snacks isle, trying to figure out what her sister might like.

(Since they're similar to me, they might like the same stuff as me.) Mikoto quickly searches for something that she herself might enjoy. Some expensive cookies, the same kind she offered that one idiot after the incident with her Sisters and Accelerator. She doesn't even know why she took a liking to these particular cookies, maybe it's because it's something related to him? (Ugh, I can't waste time here. I need to get to the hospital)

Several customers gave her weird looks when she wasn't looking, but the female cashier was the kind that had seen it all, so she didn't care a single bit.

Mikoto hurriedly continues to the hospital.

XXX

Someone knocks on the room door.

"You may come in, Misaka responds to the knocking of the door."

The door opens, "Hello!" Otohime pops through the door.

"Oh, you're that boy's little cousin, Misaka remembers your face, giving a smile from seeing you in fine health."

"The doctor said I'm okay to leave now," Otohime happily skips to Misaka's bedside. "I just need to wait for Brother Touma to pick me up."

"I see, is 'Brother Touma' in this hospital too? Misaka asks in earnest."

"No, he's not here," Otohime answers. "I actually don't know what happened to him. All I was told was that we were brought here by Judgment."

"Oh, Misaka sighs, disappointed at the news, as she had hoped to see him."

"So how are you, Sister Misaka?"

"'Sister' Misaka? Misaka repeats slowly in surprise."

"You're a close friend to Brother Touma right? You two looked so cool when you fought that strange guy!" Otohime jumps and twirls excitedly. "You were like, bam bam bam!"

Misaka watches silently as the girl enjoys herself.

"Hey, whenever you're free of the hospital, the three of us should go somewhere fun!"

"The three... of us? Misaka questions."

"You, me and Brother Touma, silly!" Otohime smiles and giggles a little. "Thanks to those weirdoes we lost a whole day!"

"You're right, Misaka thinks about the proposition."

"I just hope Brother Touma doesn't act all weird again," Otohime started pouting.

"What do you mean, weird? Misaka asks curiously."

"The last time we were together," Otohime starts answering. "We went to the beach, but Brother Touma was acting all weird and crazy."

Misaka stayed quiet so as to listen to her story.

"I don't know what happened to him," Otohime continues. "He keeps calling me 'Bug Zapper'. It was like I was someone else to him. And a couple days later, he gets sent back to the hospital for something I don't know about. I wasn't able to spend much time with him, even though it was a long time since we saw each other before then, it was like he'd forgotten about me. But I will get him to spend some time with me this time for sure!" The little girl is suddenly fired up.

("Bug Zapper"? Isn't that that boy's nickname for Sister? And he was hospitalized? Judging by the number of known incidents which involved that boy, something else must have happened during that time. Perhaps I should inquire him about this later.)

"Huh?" Misaka turns to the window suddenly, as if she sensed something.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong, Misaka says in a reassuring voice."

"If that's the case, what do you think of my idea?"

"Please, let me ponder for a moment, Misaka kindly requests. 'Are there any places in Academy City during the school break that could provide a small group of people a lot of... 'fun'? Misaka asks openly.'"

"Actually, I don't know," Otohime tilts her head with a finger on her cheek. "I was hoping one of you might know."

(We have received your request #10032. Replies Misaka 10039.)

(Someplace 'fun'... wonders Misaka 13577.)

(Perhaps a carnival or an amusement park. Misaka 19090 suggests.)

(Awaaa! Misaka wants to go to an amusement park too! Misaka Misaka hops around at the- Ow! Why'd you hit me?! Misaka Misaka demands an explanation for the sudden attack!)

(Is there such a place open at this time? Misaka 13577 asks the network.)

(There are a few small ones, Misaka 10039 answers while searching the internet.)

(Stop hitting me! Misaka Misaka begins to fake crying as-)

(Ignoring #20001, which of them seems would work the best? Misaka 19090 asks.)

(This carnival seems to be the most recommended, Misaka 10039 reports. It's at the edge of the city though, but the prices for everything are slightly below average compared to the rest. It's also an indoor amusement park, part of a very large mall. It appears they have some sort of special costume day for tomorrow. Where you can come in wearing a costume, and a costume party late in the evening. Even if you don't bring your own costumes, the park will be happy to rent some out. Misaka 10039 concludes her report. Uploading data now.)

"That is perfect, Misaka suddenly speaks out loud."

"What?" Otohime is puzzled.

"There is a place we can go, Misaka tells young girl."

"There is? Yay!" Otohime twirls around a bit.

"If you are willing to wait until tomorrow, it's a costume day. We can wear costumes and go to a party. Misaka informs."

"Alright!" Otohime sounds even more excited. "It's a promise!" The young girl grabs Misaka's hand and pinky, which she wraps her own pinky around. "All three of us are going to have some fun tomorrow!"

"Promise...?" Misaka looks at the two hands locked with their pinkies.

Otohime suddenly shakes the hands up and down. "Don't forget, okay!? Otherwise something bad will happen to you!"

"But, should you really be out of your room? What if that boy comes to pick you up and they couldn't find you? Misaka asks."

"Oh no! I didn't think of that! I'll see you later, bye!" Otohime rushes out of the room.

Misaka continues to look at the hand and finger that made the promise.

After a few seconds of silence, the window opens by itself. Gekota-man climbs through. Misaka's hand returns to normal.

"Phew, I was worried someone would see me just sticking to the wall out there. It's a good thing you got that girl to leave before that happened."

"Sister... What's with that ridiculous outfit?"

Mikoto stumbles on one foot. "Not you too!"

Misaka tilts her head in confusion.

"Well, whatever." Mikoto stands back up and lays the bag down on the table beside the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel fully recovered, I am certain that the doctor will allow me to leave today. Misaka reports."

"That's good to hear," Mikoto breathes a sigh of relief. "So, who was that little girl?"

"She is that boy's little cousin, Otohime Tatsugami. Misaka answers the easy question."

"Huh? That idiot's little cousin?" Mikoto suddenly remembers that there was a young girl that was taken with Touma and her sister. "What's she doing here?"

"She came to visit that boy during the break, Misaka answers another easy one."

"No no no, I meant in the hospital."

"She was in danger of being injured, so I protected her. She only suffered minor injuries. Misaka replies."

Mikoto remembers that idiot explaining what happened to her sister the previous night, but somehow anything involving this cousin of his was completely left out.

"So that's how you got hurt," Mikoto puts all the pieces together.

"I'm sorry, Sister, for not being able to protect myself better. Misaka apologizes deeply."

"Don't worry about it, you did your best," Mikoto smiles proudly. "That's all I can ever ask of you."

"Sister..."

"But now we have a problem, Kuroko is the one that brought you here, and she's sure to come visit at any minute."

"Kuroko? Ah, Shirai Kuroko a.k.a. the #1 on the Misaka Network's avoid at all costs list. Misaka realizes whom you're talking about."

"Hey now, what kind of weird list does the network have?" Mikoto sighs. "Anyway, before she gets here we'll need to switch places. Since you're feeling alright there'll be no problems if the doctor comes too."

"Switch places? Misaka wonders what you might be suggesting."

"Just as I said, we'll switch places," Mikoto explains. "Kuroko is sure to spot the differences between you and I. You can just leave early and do... whatever it is that you do."

"Are you sure about this, Sister? Misaka asks for complete confirmation of this plan."

"Yeah, don't worry about me," Mikoto smiles. "I can deal with Kuroko."

"..." Misaka tilts her head.

"Is something wrong?"

"Did you bring some extra clothes that aren't so strange? Misaka asks hoping to avoid wearing the ridiculous outfit."

"Just switch with me!" Mikoto stomps, frustrated.

XXX

Touma waits patiently at the elevator, holding a small bouquet. The rooms he wanted to visit were only on the 2nd floor, but he was patient. That, and he's had enough of stairs, avoiding them unless there's an emergency. And at this moment, one such emergency catches his eyes.

Shirai Kuroko, the Level 4 Esper with the power of teleportation, and a hostile relationship with Touma, is that emergency. Although she and him were more worried for the girl that looks like Misaka last night, at this moment her hostility towards him will resume. Right now she's chatting with some friends of hers, totally not noticing him.

(This isn't good!) Touma bolts for the stairway and rushes upwards. (Is Misaka here already?) He runs through the hall, quickly checking the room numbers as he passed them. He finds the room he was looking for and immediately opens the door.

"Eh...?" Touma blinks twice quickly, making sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. With his luck he should've expected something like this to happen.

"..."

"..."

Both Mikoto and Misaka were standing in the middle of the room, their heads turned to his direction, likely from him suddenly opening the door. They were frozen, and didn't even have time to be surprised. It looked like they were just analyzing the current situation. Of course, Touma has been in this kind of situation several times before, and they never ended well. Mikoto finally gets herself together, her face redder than ever before, and grabs her gift to her sister angrily.

"WHY YOU SON OF A-"

"W-w-w-wait Misaka! Shirai-agock!" Touma's head is hit hard with the box of chocolates.

Mikoto quickly closes the door magnetically. She pants extremely hard. (Seriously! The nerve of that guy!)

"Sister, I'm finished changing, Misaka reports."

"How can you so calm about this?" Mikoto asks stressfully. "Don't you feel, I don't know, irritated?"

"Why would I be? This isn't the first time that boy's seen me naked. Misaka answers."

Mikoto suddenly freezes in shock, there seemed to be a dead air around her and her expression is completely dead stiff.

"Ah, come to think of it, because we are practically identical, wouldn't that mean that that boy has seen you naked too? Misaka tries applying some nonsensical logic."

(Wha-wha-wha-what? What the hell happened between these two? Why-how-whuh?) Mikoto's brain starts to fry thinking about this. Her head hurts so much that she holds it in pain. "Argh!"

Then a voice just outside the door snaps her back into place, "Well well well, what have we here?" It was Kuroko's voice, she's just outside!

"That's Kuroko!" Mikoto quickly grabs the hospital garb and puts it on. She pushes her sister to the window.

"Has my Sissy finally seen how worthless you are and rejected you? Ohohoho..." Kuroko continues speaking through the door.

"Go go go!" Mikoto opens the window. "You need to get out of here!"

"Eh? Why are you giving these to me? Why would I want something that Sissy rejected?" Kuroko seems to be making conversation with that idiot just outside the room.

Misaka 10032 gently hops out of the window while Mikoto jumps onto the bed and quickly arranges the covers on top of herself.

"She'll accept them if it's from you, right? Besides, it looks like you forgot to bring a gift."

"I-i-it can't be... In my hurry to see Sissy again, I had forgotten to get her a present of affection! Am I losing to this ape? No, no, NO! I can't let that happen! I'll be back with a gift!"

"Just take this, I haven't really thanked you for taking her and my cousin to the hospital. So, thank you. And besides, we both want her to feel better, right?"

Mikoto's face flushes a little, there was a moment of silence outside. Then all of a sudden...

"SISSY!" Kuroko warped in just above Mikoto.

"Kuroko!" Mikoto instinctively hits the teleporter out the still open window.

The teleporter instantly reappears right next to the bed, "That's mean Sissy!"

"Then don't do those crazy things while you're in the hospital!" Mikoto shouted back.

"You look really well, Misaka," Uiharu and her friend Saten comes through the door.

"Hey," Mikoto waves to the two. "It wasn't much, I was just knocked out. All I really needed was a good night's rest to heal up. I'm just waiting for the doctor to give me the okay to leave."

XXX

Touma moved on to another room that he wanted to visit. This is the room of his young cousin, Otohime.

"Brother Touma!" Otohime jumps to greet him.

"Whoa!" Touma fell backwards as Otohime hugged him.

"I'm so glad you're alright!"

Touma puts his hand on top of her head. "It looks like you are too."

The two of them stood up quietly.

"Come on," Touma reaches out his hand. "Let's get you out of here."

Otohime giggles as she held Touma's hand. "Hey, hey, Brother. Me and Sister Misaka made a promise to have fun together tomorrow."

"Sister Misaka?" Touma remembers that Misaka's sister was with them the previous day. "Oh, you did?"

"Yep! We're going to an amusement park, the three of us!"

"Huh? Me too? I've got homework and no money!"

"Big Brother!" Otohime starts pouting hard. "You'd rather do homework than spend time with me?"

Touma starts getting nervous, "N-n-no... of course not."

"Really?" Otohime press against him angrily.

"Really! Touma Kamijou swears he will put his little cousin above his homework!"

"That's better," Otohime giggles and smiles.

Touma hold his head and sighs hard. (Well, it's not like I was expecting to do them anyway. And besides...)

Take care of your younger cousin. It's me after all...

(I will... I promised, didn't I? Just watch me, from wherever or whenever you are...)

"Hey Brother Touma, did you already visit Sister Misaka?" Otohime asks as they're about to pass Misaka's room.

"KUROKO!" A loud noise is heard from inside the room.

"I think she's busy with her friends right now," Touma mentions. "I've already stopped by anyway."

"Oh really? Okay! So, what should we do when we get out of here?"

Touma merely puts a hand on her head and ruffles her hair a bit, Otohime giggles happily.

END

XXX

Author: I think the only change in this ending is that Touma and Otohime were going to meet up with Gekota-man by accident, with Otohime asking what's with that ridiculous outfit, and Misaka 10032 escaping.

Then a short epilogue focusing on Mikoto and her friends, Saten bringing up rumours of a vigilante in a costume, Mikoto spitting out a drink after finding out the vigilante is Gekota-man. Then an epilogue to the epilogue with Gekota-man getting a cartoon series, much to Mikoto's embarrassment.

Author Notes and Ramblings: And that's that. My first Index fic. I like to stay a few chapters ahead of my releases (plus I also like to make certain that I'll finish a fic now, after leaving a couple of them on hiatus for over a year before coming back to them -_-;), which is why I was able to put out several short stories in between chapters near the end.

...

Now, why did I make a story for Otohime? Honestly, I've forgotten. I just really wanted to make a ToumaxMikoto action fic, but somehow during the planning, the shift went from those two to Otohime, most likely from my problem of wanting as many characters in a fic as I possibly can (which also includes Stiyl and the originally planned Accelerator.) (I was likely doing some research into Mikoto when it mentioned Otohime during the Angel Fall arc and brought her in from there.)

Of course action fics need a good villain, some of the easiest characters to make use of (outside of OCs) are the ones that barely have screen/novel time, which Otohime fits that criteria perfectly. I just had to give her a reason and power.

While I try to avoid OCs, I do use them whenever I need to, however I'm (somehow) more okay with an OC-like characters based off of an existing character (in this case, Tempus is based off of Otohime), just gotta work the story around their personal stories and powers. Though it's still easy for them to fall into the same OC traps within fanfiction.

(Hell, did you see how overpowered I made Tempus? Holding back Mikoto, Stiyl and Touma and she's not even at full power, needing to set aside LARGE quantities of magic for her Wrath of Olympus spell, having been previously weakened by using Soul Split AND all five doppelgangers losing their respective battles. (Actually the only thing the doppelgangers have over the original is that they actually managed to injure their opponents, but we can just write that off as Tempus having better control of herself and not really wanting to hurt anyone XD))

As for her abilities and powers, I chose electricity/lightning just to give her a closer relation to Mikoto, that and it's one of my favorite powers (alongside ice, and her mask being silver is also because of favoritism, silver is my favorite color). The studying different magics and the doppelganger thing were to give variety to the battles.

I actually didn't think about making her electric powers Greek based until the actual fight against Tempus, I was trying to think up lightning/storm gods for her to call upon to defeat Innocentius. But since Norse and Aztec mythologies are taken, I went with Greek.

...

I do want to make a sequel with Touma and Otohime at the amusement park, but I haven't thought up a good story for it yet. I've got some ideas but nothing concrete, and not enough to make a whole fic out of.

The bit about the costumes was originally for a separate fic all together, set during New Testament, with everyone dressing up as Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9, 10, 13 and Dissidia characters.

(ie. WORST as Aerith, Accelerator as Sephiroth, Last Order as Eiko, the Sisters as Ellone, Selphie, Yuna and Garnet, Motoharu as Cloud, Aogami as either Zell or Kihmari, Seiri as Tifa, Shiage as Squall, Rikuo as Rinoa, Mugino as Lightning, Saiai as Fujin, Index as Prishe or tricked into a Malboro, Mikoto as Mikoto, several magic side characters appearing and participating for whatever reason, Touma forced as either a chocobo, tonberry or a mog, etc...)

But I have little to no knowledge/understanding of several novel only character's personalities, which would make the whole thing quite difficult to pull off. Not to mention the large quantity of characters would make managing such a story a nightmare.

Anyway, till the next story!

THANKS FOR READING!