There was a certain sense of irony in him working so hard to save the city when, until now, he'd been working very hard to corrupt it. Well, it was the place where he kept all his stuff. Including all the sexy booty waiting to be found.
Strictly speaking he shouldn't <i>need</i> to do anything. The city would push things in the direction he wanted, to suit Eros. Hence, suiting perversion. However, depending on that when dealing with one of the most powerful mages in the Christian faith was, bluntly, about as fine a tactical move as putting a loaded gun in your mouth while keeping your fingers far far away from the trigger.
Of course there was also the fact that he did not actually know about the exact potential of “Eros”. Currently, it was simply a powerful large scale magic and as far as he knew that was as far as it would go. In his defense, there was only one recorded case of an “idol” creating its own ‘original’ in the form of the 47 Gates of Japan. In truth, even now the ‘spell’ was slowly growing in awareness, becoming more and more active and aware of everything going on in the city. An awareness that didn't quite rival Aleister's yet... but it would not be long before that would change.
The secret ruler of Academy City wasn’t all that worried, as such perversion did not really get in the way of his plans. As for if such a problem came up, he had plans for dealing with gods.
"Do you have a plan?" asked the cute busty girl running alongside him. His first real convert to the cause. "Aside from finding Touma, I mean."
"Not especially," Veritas admitted. "My spells tend towards misdirection, but that could still be useful in a fight. A moment of distraction when in a battle with someone of equal power can change the entire course of a duel. Though to be honest I'm punching above my weight here.”
Veritas wasn’t even sure if his tricks would go through whatever magic defenses this assassin of the church had. It was so frustrating, why did they have to send such a crazy murder-
"Yipe!" Asia suddenly yelped. Oh dear, a gust of wind had billowed out of nowhere, lifting up her skirt and flashing her panties for the world to see. "Huh... Normally I'd deck you for seeing them, but now I kind of want to make that happen again."
Veritas gave her a thumbs up and kept right on running. He didn't know how close he'd come to getting knocked out by Vento's spell: Think poorly of her, wish her harm at all and you're out like a light. Doesn't matter where you are in the world. You could be sitting in a cafe in Madrid, minding your own business. Then she activates the spell in New Zealand. A minute later you remember that bitch with the piercings who cut you off in traffic a year ago - and you're out cold. No seeming rhyme or reason to it.
"I hope Touma is home..." Veritas grumbled to himself. And so well it was, for another gust of wind tore down the street, lifting up a bunch of skirts in an order that seemed almost to point down another street. "Aha! The city itself is trying to guide me!" he realised. Of course! The spell would do everything it could to guide him to his destination. He could only hope it wasn't too late!
<hr>
It was too late for Academy City. This place was already... It was without question, without hyperbole, without the merest trace of exaggeration a lost city.
Vento of the Front swung her giant barbed hammer, causing a gust of wind to billow down the street. "This city might well be lewder than Sodom!" she screamed in frustration. "You two! You're both girls, stop kissing each other! You two, stop taking pictures of those girls! Ahhh! Stop posing for their pictures! You're all a bunch of total perverts!"
Irredeemable. She'd already come to that conclusion when the city became the sole supporter for the 'Science Side' of the upcoming war, and she didn't think it would be possible for it to be less redeemable than absolute zero. And yet! It found a way!
"Hey, you're hot! Love the pierci-"
Wham! This was also getting annoying! Vento had never, never, never been 'hit on' or 'flirted with' before, and she immediately decided that she hated it. Hated it. Hated. It. She had considered using her powers to rip these fools to pieces a few times already, but decided that it was not worth doing it. They would all die due to the large scale spell killing everyone affected by her magic in the city anyway.
"I swear, it's as if the city itself is working against me," Vento grumbled. Then she considered the weird effect she'd noticed earlier. "Actually... maybe it is?"
Something about that idea almost brought a smile to her face. Hah! The enemy city, already lost before she'd started. But no! No, she couldn't allow herself to enjoy that. It would mean that another magical faction had taken the city. Which was a bad thing, because another magical faction was <i>still</i> very much an enemy that had to be defeated.
"Swing that hammer again!" a pretty blonde girl in a white dress yelled. "I wanna Marilyn Monroe it up!"
One of Vento’s eyes twitched and she pondered whether she could keep someone conscious while beating them up with her hammer. If she clobbered them repeatedly, maybe they wouldn’t have the time to feel malice towards her due to the pain?
<hr>
It was probably a bad sign that people were falling down in the middle of the street for no apparent reason. Right? That reeked of magic. Without question. Touma wasn’t sure how it worked. How did it work, what were the condition for it to activate? Was it like a gas, or a field affecting everyone in range? Hell, given that magic was powered by faith and legends, there could be any number of answers to these questions.
The other troubling factor was that he wasn't completely sure where the mysterious invader was. Otherwise, he'd be rushing up to them and punching them hard in the face with his right hand. If only he knew where to look...
"Touma!"
That voice! Asia? Touma turned around, and yes it was. Running side by side with that weird exchange student who had joined their class.. his name was Veritas right?
“Damn, you run fast.” Said the aforementioned blond haired male. "Hold on a moment, let me catch my breath."
"You need to exercise more," Asia said. "Touma, is something strange going on? You'd know, you living trouble magnet."
“Oh, nothing important.” He said, instantly trying to wave them away. The last thing he wanted was for one of his classmates to get involved in this sort of crazy.
Asia flicked him on the forehead. "None of that," she said. "Unless you mean to tell me all these people looked at Mexico and said 'that siesta idea sounds fun'."
Right... yeah. Those unconscious people littering the streets was, uh, pretty damning evidence that something big was happening wasn't it?
“Look, I get that you don’t want to get us involved.” Veritas interrupted before Touma could try to come up with any further excuses. He took another breath, trying to calm his beating heart a little. “I am kind of a magician and heard that someone is targeting you and the city.”
Touma twitched, feeling a strange mix of surprise, shock and relief. So the new exchange student was a magician, that made a disturbing amount of sense. “Are you from the English church?” He asked, pausing only long enough to think about what to say next.
“No, you could say I just came here because I won a lottery.” Right, Academy City did hold lotteries to decide who got inside. Though he didn’t know that this wasn’t <i>quite</i> what the boy meant. The pitter patter of rain continued regardless of the conversation. "I want to help. Whoever this is, they're opening up a giant can of worms. Not only the people in this city will be in danger, but all across the world greater conflicts among mages may start to heat up. Please let me help you!"
Touma was conflicted. On the one hand, this guy was a magician whose allegiance he didn't know. On the other, he seemed sincere with his request to help. He didn't want to get anyone else involved if he could help it, but if he was a magician then he could probably handle himself alright... and having a bit of magic on his side might be exactly what the doctor ordered.
"Alright fine," he said. "But Asia, I want you to go home and stay safe."
“You cannot be serious, after hearing all of that how could I just leave and happily act like nothing is happening?”
"Because you'll get in our way!" Because you'll be in danger. Her innate talent was the ability to attract and kill vampires. So far as he knew their enemy was not a vampire. Probably. In any event he would have to be a bit harsh to get her to go.
“He is right, frustrating as it may be, you have no offensive abilities. And I doubt that whoever the Church sent will just ignore non-combatants.”
"I suppose you could always track down In- My unwanted roommate and keep her out of harm's way..." Touma conceded, taking care not to mention Index's name in front of the <i>magician</i> who might well be here to find her. "Meanwhile, can you scry for the location of this attacker? I haven't the faintest idea where she -"
"DIE PERVERTS!"
A gust of wind flew right by them, hitting and wrecking through the building behind them. As it passed the suction made Asia's skirt billow up. Touma took the strategic option of looking towards their enemy as he'd rather not get slapped right now (though actually Asia wanted him and Veritas to look). A yellow clad nun, sort of?
The female turned her head slightly and he could see her face-
It was a nun with very heavy makeup that made her look pale and so many piercings that it utterly ruined her appearance. A golden chain with a cross attached to it dangled down her chin and connected to her tongue with another piercing.
Also of note: That was a large chuffing hammer.
“Holy shit, she blew up that shop! Run for it!” And these were the voices of the ‘perverts’ that had angered her so much. Vento shouted again as they ran as fast as possible. But then her head whipped around as she noticed the newcomers to her little rampage. Her eyes went from the dark haired busty girl and the blond who was clearly not of japanese descent. Then they immediately took note of Touma and after a few moments where she mentally went through a series of descriptions, a strange smile appeared on her face.
“Finally! I was planning to kill some time by ripping a few members of your board of directors to pieces. But it looks like the main target just decided to come out right away.” The young woman laughed madly, her voice echoing through the streets eerily.
<hr>
What none of them knew was that in another part of the city, a man named Kihara had managed to finally catch Last Order. He had brought her to a certain building and began to insert a special code into her, one which would use emergency codes to take control of the Misaka Network. This would allow one of Academy City's special secret weapons to activate.
<b>“Kihara!!!!”</b> Though the #1 would absolutely not allow such a thing. Their fight would go on and much blood would be spilled by both of them. It would culminate in Accelerator’s victory in the end, with Misaki Shokuhou taking care of the “virus” that had been used on his charge’s mind in exchange for favors owed.
But that's another matter. For the time being, our focus must settle elsewhere as a Goddess would appear within Academy City.
<hr>
Huh... this was the violent equivalent of blue balls. Veritas had to admit though, this was his kind of way to interrupt a fight. In front of him, Vento of the Front was waving around her hammer and... hitting it against her cross every single time. Interesting! He could've used that tell... if it was actually causing those freakishly destructive gusts of wind.
But no. There was nothing going on right now. Much to Vento's apparent frustration and confusion, which was oddly satisfying to see.
"What's going on?" she yelled. "Why isn't it working?" Then she pointed at the girl who had appeared out of nowhere right in between them. "And who are you supposed to be? Another whore of this modern age Babylon?"
"Well, I find whore to be such a telling word," the girl said, making a motion like adjusting her glasses while her skirt gently swayed even though there was no wind. She had a killer set of legs, and an amazing figure. Veritas could tell at a glance. "What's wrong with enjoying sex?"
“Hyouka? Are you feeling alright? Normally you don’t act so.. bold.” Touma said, turning back and forth between the very angry nun and his friend. The atmosphere around the latter was.. odd to say the least. He had never seen her so self-confident, in fact the Hyouka he knew was always a bit awkward even if there was a core of steel within her.
'Hyouka' turned and smiled at them. "Sorry Touma. You're right, I'm not feeling like Hyouka right now. Hrm... Right now I am the living embodiment of the city's defense. Hence the anti-magic field that I've cast around this location."
Vento leaped forward and brought the hammer down upon Hyouka's head. It then broke in two.
"In this form, I am... a brand new Goddess," Hyouka continued, eyes sparkling with mischief. She lazily reached out her hand and placed it upon Vento's head. The grip looked gentle, yet as unbreakable as the strongest vice.
“Goddess? You are adding idolatry to your many sins?! Argh, let go!" The young woman that had once seemed so threatening struggled in the busty girl’s hold. Her eyes were still filled with anger, but there was a hint of panic within. She clearly knew that there was she had ran into something out of her experience. This city, they had turned towards worse than mere science worship, rather they had gone right into paganism.
"Repent for thy sins invader," Hyouka said. "I am a Goddess of Love, and I reject violence in all its forms!" After a moment she stopped to correct herself. "Well, all non consensual violence at any rate."
At this point Hyouka pulled the screaming Right Hand of God into a firm embrace. It looked warm and loving, like a grandmother welcoming their favourite grandchild.
"Let go of me!" Vento yelled. "How dare you! I will - Ooh... Wh-what are you doing? St-stop that! Let me - Ah! Ahhh, what is this feeling? Stop it, I don't - Ahhhh! Again? Ah! Not again! You - you're making my body betray me! Noooo!"
"Hyouka, that's enough!" Touma yelled, reaching out to her - initially with his right hand by instinct, but then he stopped himself. To touch the one called Kazakiri Hyouka with his right hand, it would mean destroying the ‘illusion’ that was her existence. Still, he couldn’t help but look disapprovingly. Was this some form of torture?
"Okay!" Hyouka said. "If Touma is protesting, then I am going a bit too far."
And so she let Vento of the Front slide down to the ground, unconscious but thrusting her hips out on instinct. Her tongue had lolled out the side of her mouth, and there was a bit of froth around her lips starting to form.
“Huh.. I didn’t expect this ending.” Aisa said, tilting her head and looking at the shuddering form of the unconscious Vento.
"Ahem! I'd better take her in," Veritas said.
“I apologize, but that isn’t possible.” A male voice interrupted them and all of them blinked as suddenly a man stood next to their unconscious foe. A blue cross upon his white shirt and blue jeans. He was muscular, with brown hair and sharp eyes gazing at them.
“Heh? A new enemy appeared!” Touma shouted.
The man bent over slightly to lift Vento with one arm and then looked at the one who had taken him out. “I have no interest in fighting any of you today, I simply wish to recover my comrade.”
“And who would you be?” The self-proclaimed Goddess of Love asked, her gaze focused on the newcomer. Even she had been surprised by his sudden appearance.
“Acqua of the Back, another member of God’s Right seat. I suggest we avoid a battle for another day. After all, I do not think even a ‘god’ can simply neutralize the powers of a Saint.” He said that without a hint of worry, though if one looked closely they would have seen his muscles tensing.
A saint, one of the less than twenty monsters, who could be conquered to walking weapons of mass destruction. Veritas felt his mouth go dry. Even if this Hyouka could win, he did not want to see the ensuing collateral damage. Or get caught inside the battle for that matter.
It seemed that the Goddess felt the same, as after a few more moments of silence she nodded. “As you desire no harm to the city, and a conflict would lead to potential lives being lost, I shall allow your retreat.”
In the blink of an eye, Acqua was gone. Phew. Normally Veritas hated an anti-climax, but this time around he'd offer up forgiveness!
"You're welcome," Hyouka said.
"Hey!" Touma said. "I don't know who you are, but let Hyouka go back to normal."
"Or what? You'll use that right hand to erase both of us?" Hyouka playfully asked.
He scowled, then raised his left arm and formed a fist. It seemed that even after seeing her defeat a dangerous foe sent to destroy the entire city, he did not hesitate to fight.
"If I have to, I'll shatter the illusion behind your wicked personality. Even if I have to use my other hand to do it."
"Mmm, that's why you're the centre of a harem of cute girls," Hyouka said. "Although, you really should try to return their attention. They're all working so hard."
“What are you talking about?” He asked, feeling like he was being play with. “Do you think I am that kind of character? That sort of thing doesn’t work in real life!”
"And that's the reason you're still a virgin," Hyouka shrugged. Then she turned her attention to Veritas. "You're a magician as well, right?" she asked. "Well... I don't sense any ill intention towards this city from you. In fact, you would have sincerely fought by Touma's side if I hadn't appeared.” She tilted her head and nodded again. “The support forces that came along with the main intruder are also retreating after a short fight with that one guy, so it seems everything is fine.”
"I'll see you again soon... Sooner than either of you think."
And then... Hyouka flashed. Her clothes changed to those of a regular high school girl, who promptly collapsed to the ground.
"Hyouka!" Touma yelled, rushing to her and being extremely conscious of his right hand.
"T-Touma?" Hyouka meekly asked. "Where am I?"
"You're back to normal," he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Do you have any idea of what is going on right now?" Veritas asked Asia. She shook her head. Not a clue. Well... this was fine. It kind of felt like the aftermath scene in some shonen anime, where the big bad was defeated and everyone's going through a cool-off period.
Except you couldn't really call that a fight. More like a one sided stomp by the city's biggest secret weapon. Man, Veritas was super happy he'd been able to get away with that.
“Hey, did anyone see the intruder?” Interrupted a dark haired student with a white shirt emblazoned with a red sun who had just turned a corner. “I wanted to beat them up!”
Huh, well it looked like they weren’t the only ones who had to deal with an anti-climax.
- Meanwhile, back with Misaka and Index.
- What's going on with Hyouka right now?
- Vento has an uncomfortable debrief, the pope is not amused.
- Meanwhile, a certain telepath is investigating the odd spate of perverted tendencies.
- Something else
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