Hey, dear readers, a little warning. This story takes place during OT times, but is best enjoyed if you've read GT9. It takes place in an alternative universe, so characters may behave in slightly different ways than usual. I wish you a good read!

Chapter 1 - Off the scale

Sometimes, Kamijou Touma paused to reflect on the repercussions of his actions. These moments, so fleeting and simple, were becoming increasingly common as he aged. A spirited teenager like him didn't usually keep his mind occupied with philosophical questions for long, or so he preferred to believe that everyone shared his perspective.

But the truth was that this boy couldn't be measured by normal scales.

"Really... such misfortune," sighed Kamijou, leaning his back against the walls of the grimy alley.

It was July 19th.

He just wanted to enjoy the manga he had bought earlier, lying on his bed uncomfortably while dealing with the fact that he was single and had no future goals. The sentiment he experienced at that moment could only be attributed to the constant presence of couples every night he glanced around.

"No love lasts forever, I guess."

Kamijou shrugged, his gaze now drifting down the alley, specifically observing the diverse group of boys surrounding him. No, this wasn't an alley fight. Not anymore. In fact, it wasn't a fight from the beginning. All those unconscious kids never stood a chance.

"There you are!"

That angry female voice was followed by a burst of light illuminating the dim alley. A plastic bag sailed through the night breeze, transforming into a sticky liquid upon being inadvertently struck by a bolt of lightning that escaped from the girl's bangs.

"Hey, Biri-Biri. You took your time."

Kamijou kept his gaze on the clouds above him, not even paying attention to the person who was sending a massive amount of hostility in his direction.

"Good grief," said the girl, her eyes fixed on the sprawled unconscious boys. "It's always like this. You show up, lure them away from me, and then defeat them before I get the chance. Did you know I was in the middle of something important today?"

"Yeah, yeah... you have a talent for making trouble." He gestured disinterestedly with his hand.

The truth was that Kamijou used to do this intentionally just to irritate the girl, but today he merely sought to blow off some steam, as he had for the past few days. It was his coping mechanism for a certain issue caused by another eccentric girl. He felt accomplished in killing two birds with one stone. Maybe today was his lucky day?

"Lucky, huh?" He looked at his right hand. "What a joke."

"What are you mumbling about... no... you know what, never mind." The girl's finger was now pointed inquisitively at him. "Today's the day. Get ready because I-"

"Can we skip that part? There's no need to talk so much in an alley fight. It's not like we're about to get into a duel with the fate of the world at stake. Do you think this is a manga?"

The chestnut-haired girl clicked her tongue, and soon after, a lance of lightning with a power of one billion volts flew from her bangs, ripping through the air and leaving a deafening noise behind.

But just like every other time, that attack missed the mark.

The boy wasn't even paying attention; he kept gazing up at the night sky, as if admiring an eclipse that occurred only once every hundred years. The spear of lightning simply bent in mid-air, and he didn't even flinch. The attack dissipated harmlessly, causing no damage to people or structures.

"No effect," said the girl in frustration, although she had expected it.

The girl's name was Misaka Mikoto. She was one of only seven level 5s in the city, one of the strongest people in the world if we use the scale of power in that place.

But something like that was totally irrelevant to this ordinary-looking boy.

"If you're satisfied, could you leave me alone?" he asked, one hand in his pocket, expression unshaken. "Beating up these guys had a different effect than I thought it would, I feel even more depressed than I already was. I guess my powers don't make me immune to heartbreak. Such misfortune."

"For God's sake, at least take this seriously. My pride as number three is at stake here."

"I don't understand why you have such an obsession with this Kamijou-san."

Finally, he pushed away from the wall and kicked a soda can. The abrupt noise made the girl jump in place, probably thinking it was an attack. That's how high her guard was. They used to encounter each other by chance, and she would always initiate a confrontation. The outcome was consistently the same, no matter how hard she tried. At times, Kamijou found the entire situation amusing, but today, he wasn't in a very good state of mind.

"I mean," the boy took one of his hands out of his pocket and held the back of his head as he shrugged. "What should a level 0 like me mean to someone like you? If you want validation, just ask someone on the street and they'll tell you who's the strongest between me and you."

"Why do you keep saying you're a mere level 0 when you clearly have such a powerful ability? What is your power anyway? How can you stop my lightning so easily? Are you an electric esper too?"

"I'd rather not answer any of those questions."

"Okay, if that's the case." She reached into her skirt pocket. An arcade coin was now resting on her thumb. "Answer this one then." A mischievous smile appeared on her face. "Do you know what a railgun is?"

"Yeah. It's a type of warship weapon that fires metal projectiles using super-powered electromagnets. The principle is the same as that of a linear motor train. You can imitate one with your powers, right?"

"You bet I can."

A shockwave rippled through the alley, triggered by the orange light that trailed the coin thrown at three times the speed of sound. The projectile's path shredded the asphalt beneath them, knocking over trash cans with the force of the wind, and bags of garbage took flight through the night sky. That was the card up the sleeve of the third strongest esper. The fact that she used something so powerful against someone made it clear that she considered him a person she didn't need to hold back against.

"Did it get him?" But her voice still sounded worried. She didn't want to become a murderer after all.

"It was close, Biri-Biri."

The voice didn't come from the middle of the dust and rubble, it sounded right behind her. The girl suddenly froze. The alley was wide, there was room for him to get out of the way and run towards her, but she didn't even see how he managed it. It seemed as if he had just appeared there, as if a single step had covered all the necessary distance.

Kamijou made a simple gesture, just lightly touching the back of the girl's head with the tip of his index finger. It wasn't an attack, more like a playful touch that a friend would make when taking another by surprise to scare them.

"I think that puts an end to our fight," he said, walking away towards the street. "See you later, 'Railgun'. I want to see an attack as creative as that next time."

Despite being momentarily frozen by the sudden "attack," she smiled at that moment. When she turned around, the boy had already seamlessly blended into the crowd, likely a result of the commotion she had caused.

"Huh?" She was surprised, but not because of the mysterious boy's sudden disappearance. "Is that his doing too?"

The alley should have been badly damaged after that attack by a level 5, but oddly enough, everything was in place. She had been careful not to hit the unconscious boys lying on the ground, but she hadn't worried about damaging everything else. The fact that the boy even managed to avoid any damage, even if he wasn't the cause, made something clear here.

"He's so far away," she said, staring up at the night sky, just as he had a few minutes ago. Was she seeing what he was seeing? "I still have quite a way to go." But she smiled at that all the same.

x-2-x

The apartment door opened with a single push. Kamijou didn't bother to think much about why the door was unlocked, probably his dorm manager had used the master key to check something and forgot to lock it.

He was tired. Not physically speaking, more the weight on his conscience.

Lying face down on the bed, his mind wandered back to years ago, when he was nothing more than a lab rat.

His reason for coming to Academy City was different from the vast majority of students: he wasn't looking to gain powers, after all, he had already been born with one. But that didn't stop scientists from locking him in a facility and testing all sorts of things on his body in a process they called "optimization".

Kamijou Touma was special. From the day he set foot in this city, the board chairman personally dispatched one of his most devoted subordinates to extend an offer. The subordinate in question was a talking dog. It made him smile when he remembered this strange fact. It was a good choice, talking animals are a hit with the kids after all.

"I wonder if that was an offer I could refuse."

Talking to himself was a common occurrence for him. Although to say that he was talking to himself wasn't quite right, after all, he was never alone. And he'd rather his "companion" wasn't so quiet. They were probably both in a bad mood.

"Huh?"

Kamijou was careless.

He realized too late that there was actually someone else there with him, in that apartment. What gave her away was that cheerful melody being hummed, coming straight from his bathroom.

But it couldn't be, what was that person doing there?

"Yo, handsome, did you miss me?"

Turning in the direction of the voice, he saw her. Standing there, one hand braced against the bathroom door frame, draped in nothing but a white towel. Her light blue hair was messy as she had just got out of the shower, but that didn't detract in any way from the scale of her attractiveness.

Kamijou could only sigh.

"Don't react that way," she said, her lips curving into a peculiar smile, revealing sharp teeth reminiscent of a reptile's. He found it oddly alluring, perhaps due to his own nature. "Go on, ask your questions, don't hold back."

As it turned out, that girl was the primary, and in fact, the sole reason he felt so disheartened, so seeing her in that state left him bewildered. Even bothering to ask how she got in here was irrelevant, the professional delinquent that she was had dozens of methods of opening a lock without damaging it. And that was without using her powers.

"Is this some kind of joke?" said Kamijou, holding his head with both hands as if a sudden migraine had struck him. "Or am I really not over all that and you're just an illusion? Yes, my head is playing tricks on me-"

"There are certainly illusions here, but I'm not one of them." She shrugged and then opened a small closet where she used to keep a few changes of clothes in the past. "Oh, you didn't throw them away, good."

The girl quickly pulled the white towel from her body, which caused Kamijou to roll over in bed and change the focus of his vision. Kamijou Touma was a gentleman; that would never change.

"Kimi, what the hell?" he complained. "At least give me a warning first."

"I don't know why you bothered to turn around, there's nothing here you haven't seen before."

Kamijou took a deep breath and waited until the girl had finished dressing, although it was difficult to determine without looking. But she signaled this by lying down on the bed next to him. This only served to make the boy get up and cross his arms, walking around the place in circles while Kimi looked at him with that strange smile on her face.

"Now that you've finished dressing, it would be nice if you went away, I've had a busy day and some sleep would be great."

"Jeez, are you even going to bother asking what I'm doing here?"

If he had to be honest, he wouldn't have given a damn.

Shundan Kimi was a complicated girl, always had been, since the day he met her years ago in that facility for "special children." Like him, she was what scientists called a holistic esper. To be technical, she was fundamentally different, as scientists had managed to prove that she was indeed something quite rare. In Kamijou's case, it was just a theory. His powers were too strange even for those people.

Perhaps it was this extra "strangeness" that the two possessed that made them become so close over time. They had been friends since childhood, and despite the initial turbulence in their relationship, he couldn't recall a time when the two of them didn't trust each other more than anything in the world.

"I'll give you ten seconds," said Kamijou, still with his arms crossed defensively.

"Okay, if that's the case, then I'll be very quick." She shook her head in confirmation and then got out of bed, walking with slow steps until she was right next to him. "I want you to take me back as your girlfriend."

"What?!"

Bewilderment flashed across the boy's face as he had no idea what to feel.

Yes, those two had been good friends in the past, but about a year ago, they decided to take an extra step. They had been attracted to each other for a while, and it was just a matter of one of them having the courage to admit it out loud. In this case, Kimi was the brave one. Kamijou still remembers the way she said she liked him in the most casual and apathetic way a human being could produce, it even sounded like a strange joke, but it was serious.

The two of them were crazy about each other, and it remained that way until one day when Kimi decided that she wanted to break up with him. A decision that seemingly came out of the blue.

And... there was a big problem with all this...

"Kimi," said Kamijou, trying to remain calm in the face of this situation. "Is this some kind of joke? Did you set up cameras or something to show your gang?"

"Um... no." She made a disinterested gesture with her right hand, making that strange white poncho she was wearing move dramatically. "Come on, why would I do that to you? Just answer truthfully, I bet you haven't been able to get me out of your head all this time."

"It hasn't even been a damn week!" Kamijou couldn't take it and shouted, rubbing his temple with the tip of his index finger. "You break up with me out of the blue, shatter my heart, and then, a few days later, show up at my apartment asking me to take you back. How can you expect me to interpret this as anything other than a damn joke?"

"Whoa, whoa, easy there. You're not the only one hurt in this story."

Kamijou planted his foot firmly on the ground at that moment, the air almost palpably thickening. No, it really did.

"Aha... now things are getting interesting," said Kimi, putting that unique smile of hers back on. "I love it when you get angry. Come on, break a few things, you'll feel better."

Hearing that, the boy calmed down momentarily, as if he didn't want to give her that satisfaction.

"Go away," he said. There was no anger there, he just pointed at the door with disinterest.

"I'll go when we're a couple again. Although I know you'll ask me to stay."

"I didn't want to take it seriously, but knowing you it's better to know the whole story before making rash decisions, so could you at least tell me why you broke up with me?"

The fact that he was so comfortable asking this was a testament to the fact that their relationship was indeed rather unique.

Kimi tilted her head to one side before giving her answer.

"It's not my fault, okay?" She pushed her hands away, palms open in an exaggerated gesture. "It was that stupid therapist you made me go to because you said I needed to open up to someone other than you."

"Wait... what?"

"Yeah, she told me that my relationship with you was probably the most toxic thing she'd ever seen in her entire life, and that it was the cause of all my psychological problems. Which is strange since my brain is basically a milkshake at this point after all those experiments. But the bitch convinced me somehow and so I decided to take a break from you and test the theory."

Kamijou's face was a complete blank now. What he heard was so absurd that he first thought of laughing, then crying, but in the end, he did neither. If it had been anyone else he would have had this kind of overreaction, but it was his crazy childhood friend/ex-girlfriend standing there.

"Um…" she continued after giving him time to process everything. "Now you know my side of the story. It hurt me as much as it hurt you, so there's no point in continuing to hurt each other like this. The only solution is for us to accept that therapy doesn't work and go back to being a couple." She paused, but Kamijou continued with an expressionless face and without saying a word. "Come on, Touma-kun, take me back."

"No."

"I know you've dreamed about it every night. Come on, come on, come on."

"No."

"All right." She shrugged and nodded.

"Huh? Okay, that was easy."

Not a second later, the air in the place became dense once again. It was as if another presence had appeared there, making the atmosphere adjust to contain it. The girl underwent a transformation. There were wings around her, translucent, with a pallor like the sap of an exotic tree. It was as if it were something unholy, something that couldn't exist without tarnishing the natural order of things. Or the complete opposite. As if it were normalizing what was wrong.

"Kimi, don't do that," urged Kamijou.

Even though his voice sounded like a desperate plea, he was completely calm. With his hands now in his pockets, he tilted his head and shook it in disapproval.

"You know how things are between us, Touma-kun," she replied. The translucent wings around her curved menacingly. "Either you accept my love, or you accept my hate. Although the two things are actually one and the same on the scale we both use, aren't they?"

"The answer is still no."

"Great. I needed to let off some steam anyway."

A second later, the boy was thrown by a merciless blow from those wings. He flew across the room, smashing through the wall behind him, and all the others across the night sky.

x-3-x

"Such misfortune."

Kamijou had stopped saying that so often after the two of them had started dating, perhaps because he thought he was lucky to have that crazy woman as a girlfriend. He was just as crazy as she was, so it made sense.

He was now inside another apartment building. After being thrown for dozens of meters, he landed in this totally ordinary room after breaking all the concrete walls on the way. Obviously, that attack didn't leave a single scratch on his body. Not even his clothes had any damage. It was within his capability to neutralize the attack entirely, yet, in the final moments, he chose not to.

"The therapist was right," he muttered to himself. "But only the first part."

An instant later, Kimi landed next to him in that room, flapping wings that seemed to have a life of their own.

"So, are you ready to give yourself to my love?"

"Kimi, for the last time... NO!"

"Excellent."

The wings recoiled and surged toward the boy once more, causing the air in the room to be violently displaced in all directions. Furniture shattered as it succumbed to the aftermath of the assault.

But the boy didn't even blink. Nonchalantly, he lifted his arm and casually slapped it away with the back of his hand, not bothering to remove his other hand from his pocket. The attack was deflected, resulting in a minor explosion of sound as two tremendous forces collided.

"You didn't stop the attack perfectly, hehe," said the excited girl. "Not because you can't, but because you didn't want to. Is this a way of trying to annoy me? Are you trying to demonstrate your superiority here?"

"I know you well enough to know that you'd like it if that were the case." He scratched his head and stared at the night sky through the hole in the wall. At least that was a bit of fun. "What's your point anyway? You can't just force me to take you back."

"And you can't force me to stop loving you, so we're on the same page."

"You need therapy."

"Touma, weren't you listening to the story? That's exactly what got us into this situation, so you have two options..."

Kimi gracefully swept her right arm horizontally, executing an almost theatrical gesture. The ethereal wings surrounding her were no longer the sole spectacle. Emerging in mid-air was the possessor of those majestic wings: the colossal white serpent that had taken residence within the girl's form since the day Kamijou made a fateful decision.

It was known as the "Angel Dragon".

A monstrous beast that could not be defeated by conventional methods, impervious even to high-level espers within the city of monsters. Such was the extraordinary scale to which this girl belonged.

"Accept my love," she said, smiling from ear to ear as she was surrounded by that gigantic mass. "Or... make me submit to you. What will it be Kamijou Touma?"

"Is there really a choice here?"

"Haha... that's why I love you."

This time it was the boy who made an exaggerated gesture with his right arm. A sound like plastic breaking was heard, and then... silence. It was as if a taboo had manifested itself in the world, but it was already there, yet no one had noticed it, just like a gas leak that was subtle at first, but impossible to notice once it had permeated everything. His presence demanded that everyone and everything bow to his will.

It was something that should have been kept sleeping in his coffin, but that abnormal boy's companion was always there, by his side. It was his weapon and his shield. A large jaw, with a reptilian tongue sticking out of it, a robust, translucent body, and claws bigger than a human torso.

The Dragon King revealed himself in the midst of the chaos.

"Bravo!" said the girl, clapping her hands as she looked at that menacing form. "That's what I'm talking about. You can't be powerful in this town if you don't have a screw loose, so they say. That proves we're a match made in heaven."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

The fact that they were speaking in human language seemed strange in that scene, so they decided to leave words behind and communicate in the language they both knew very well: Violence.

It barely lasted a moment. The two teenagers threw themselves at each other head-on, as did the dragons that always accompanied them. Space compressed, and light struggled to escape the epicenter of impact.

Within half a second, the victorious figure nonchalantly cradled the defeated one in his arms, his expression betraying boredom.

Once again, someone had been subdued.

x-4-x

"That was good fun!" said Kimi, squirming uncomfortably on that bed.

Since the day he could remember, they had always fought. More among themselves than against other people, and that hadn't changed even after they started dating, nor had it decreased in frequency.

"I hope you've calmed down now, because I'm in a bad mood so consider yourself lucky that I didn't go too far."

As soon as he said that, he lay down on the bed next to her and started staring at the ceiling. Fatigue weighed heavily on him, manifesting in various forms.

"I feel slightly calmer now," she said, trying to approach in the awkward way that was left as an option. "Could you untie me? This is a bit uncomfortable."

A fact that wasn't mentioned is that the girl was tied up from head to toe with adhesive tape from a discount store.

After effortlessly defeating her, Kamijou transported her unconscious form into the apartment and took pleasure in securing her in the most humiliating manner he could devise. He took his time, like a little revenge.

"I thought you were enjoying the work of art I've made," he remarked in a voice tinged with boredom and a hint of playfulness, all the while avoiding eye contact. "I mean, that bondage outfit you're wearing goes very well with this situation."

"The tone you're using makes it seem like you're criticizing me, which is strange since you're the one who chose this outfit for me."

"The other options you gave me were just as bad." He threw a pillow in the girl's direction. "Now be quiet, I need to get some sleep."

"Are you serious?" The duct tape caterpillar began to squirm in protest. "You can't leave me tied up like this. What happens if I need to go to the bathroom?"

"This adhesive tape is waterproof. It'll be fine."

For a moment, it seemed as if a tear had welled up in the corner of the girl's eye when she heard that venomous comment. That boy was certainly enjoying the moment.

"That won't hold me for long," she said, putting on an apathetic face. "Angel-chan will recover soon and then I'll be free. Any time now."

"The state I left him in, I doubt it. And the way you refer to your dragon sometimes makes it sound like it is a girl. You know it's a male dragon, right?"

"Huh? Have you gone mad? Angel-chan is clearly a classy maiden. Trust me, I've showered with her several times, I know what I'm talking about."

"If you say so."

"It's true. My dragon is female, and your Dragon King is male, so they can be a cute couple. Don't try to take that away from me."

"You wish."

"See, you've run out of arguments."

"Good night, Kimi."

"Wait, don't sleep. What kind of teenager are you anyway? If you're going to tie a girl to your bed in such an embarrassing way, at least do something with her, you coward!"

He ignored her and closed his eyes, allowing tiredness to finally overtake him.

x-5-x

The next morning, Kamijou woke up feeling two unusual things. First, the air conditioning had broken, which left the room feeling like a furnace because of the summer heat, and the second thing was that weight on his body. It wasn't hard to guess what was going on.

"Good morning, handsome. I hope you slept well."

Kimi was mounted on him and her face was only a few millimeters from his. This situation was so commonplace between them that the most the girl could get out of him was a yawn of disinterest.

"You've gotten stronger," he said, his hand smoothing her wavy hair. "You can get the dragon back completely in just a few hours now. Impressive."

"Isn't it? Soon I won't need you to feed her. Angel-chan will have everything she needs coming straight from my black holes."

As a holistic esper, Kimi worked differently from an ordinary esper. Instead of using the micro as a way of manipulating the macro, the process she used was the other way around. Like Kamijou, this oddity made it appear that she didn't emit any AIM diffusion fields, which caused scientists to mistakenly give her the title of level 0.

Even though she was treated so unfairly, the girl didn't mind at first, or at least she didn't seem to mind. If she had no powers, then she tried to be strong in some other way. It was obvious that someone like that would end up becoming a notorious delinquent.

"Could you get off me?" he asked between yawns. "I overslept, I'm going to be late for my extra classes."

"Take me back and I'll be an obedient girl." She smiled again with her pointed teeth showing.

"We both know that you don't know how to be obedient, and it's not like I wanted you to be."

"See? That's why I regretted it so quickly. How am I supposed to be able to date someone else? The same goes for you. You're not going to get anyone better than me."

"There are very convincing arguments to the contrary, crazy girl."

He smiled slightly as he said it, which made the girl instinctively lean towards him, bringing their lips perilously close. Yet, Kamijou evaded at the last moment. His sense of betrayal lingered, making it only fair that he anticipated something specific from her before considering reconciliation.

"I was serious at the time," he said, his gaze not meeting hers.

"I know... I..." Kimi let that tired sigh escape her lips, even though she didn't want to. "I'm sorry, okay? I don't know what I was thinking. It's weird, but that therapist really got through my defenses, she even reminds me of you. But I think she was manipulating me on purpose, unlike you who do it so naturally as you breathe that you don't even notice."

"Once again, I don't know what you're talking about."

It was Kimi's turn to reciprocate the smile as their eyes locked. It seemed she might attempt to kiss him once more, but this time, her lips traced a different course, gently grazing against the exposed skin of his neck. An intense shiver coursed through him, shaking his entire body. She knew how to breach his defenses as well.

"Come on, Touma-kun, I've already said I'm sorry," she said, her warm breath brushing against his neck and forming intense waves through his body. "Which is something I only usually do in your presence. It would be cruel to make me so vulnerable and then keep acting so cold."

And she dared to say that he was the one manipulating her, such hypocrisy on her part. But it had always been like that between them. Their relationship was like a train with its payload at the brink, hurtling down a hill well beyond the speed limit. And this situation wasn't one that could spontaneously resolve without consequence. That train had derailed a long time ago, but the wreckage of the accident had been gathered together and forced to keep moving downhill.

And frankly, they didn't care. And they never would.

"All right," he said, rolling his eyes. "Tell you what, cook me a decent breakfast and I'll think more carefully about your case."

"That's it!" The girl's eyes lit up as she punched him 'lightly' in the chest. Only from the point of view of those superhumans, it could have killed a normal person. "I won't let you down."

"You never disappoint," almost slipped out of his mouth. But that hadn't been true recently.

With a lazy motion, he rose from the bed and headed to the bathroom. After a quick shower, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. He had changed. But no one but him could notice something like that. Sometimes he didn't even know where he ended, and where the illusion began. Even looking at his own shadow didn't help him understand now.

A good smell flowed through the kitchen now.

Kimi wasn't always an excellent cook. The same could be said of Kamijou, although at least he always made an effort from an early age to learn the basics. At the science facility where he grew up, every child had to take part in at least one basic extracurricular workshop, and he ended up choosing cooking. It was important for the espers there to be good at more than one thing, so that various areas of the brain were stimulated more often, which was then analyzed so that the "optimization" was as effective as possible.

Remembering those times made him feel like a worse person than he was.

Scientists kept telling him that his thought patterns were unique, even among those strange boys and girls.

An anomaly.

Someone destined never to lead a normal life.

"What are you up to?" he asked, settling down near the Kotatsu and turning on the TV.

"I bet you can tell by the smell. By the way, there isn't a wide variety of things in the fridge, so I beg you to forgive me if breakfast doesn't meet my standards of haute cuisine."

They were omelets. To be precise an Omurice. She had repurposed the shredded chicken from yesterday's lunch, added an extra dose of olive oil, and opted for a concoction crafted from fresh tomatoes and blueberries instead of ketchup.

No, he didn't need to glance in the direction of the pans or worktops, as the girl mentioned; just the aroma was sufficient. It even bothered him at times. His senses, particularly his sense of smell, were keen enough to detect things that a regular human might overlook. Some scientists even asserted that his sense of smell was akin to that of a reptile, deeming it a focal point of their research. In the end, was he genuinely choosing that workshop? Or was it something that had always been preordained?

On TV, the horoscope was beginning to be mentioned, which soured his mood. Seeking some form of refuge, he turned his attention to the girl tending the frying pans, moving gracefully while humming a song he knew very well.

"Hmm..." She let it out loud enough to get his attention while she sipped something from a wooden spoon. "Something tells me you're looking at my ass."

Well, she had hit the nail on the head. The boy didn't offer a response; he simply smiled slightly and returned his focus to the TV.

"If you're an Aquarius, born between January 20 and February 18, you will have extremely good fortune in love, money, and business! No matter how improbable the circumstances, only good things are headed your way. Go buy a lottery ticket! But no matter how popular you may be, don't try dating three or four girls at the same time."

"That's not so wrong," said Kimi, placing two plates on top of the Kotatsu.

"Could you explain your line of thinking? Because I don't see myself being lucky in love, money or business." He picked up the spoon and started playing with the omelet. By the way, Kimi had drawn a heart being torn apart by a claw. Cute.

"1 out of 3 isn't so bad." Kimi didn't want to play with her food, she just started devouring her plate with those sharp teeth without any class. "I mean, this town treats us like crap, but at least you have me."

"And that's supposed to indicate that I'm lucky?"

"How many people out there have someone who doesn't care how screwed up their partner is?"

She had a point.

Kamijou knew exactly what she would say, he just wanted to hear it one more time.

"You know," she continued, pausing to take a bite, "this city should treat us better. I don't understand why those Level 5s get more money than us."

"Because we're Level 0? And don't pretend we're not getting more than a typical Level 0."

"It's not enough." She punctuated her statement by turning off the TV with the remote and then using another one to turn on the sound system. "That bunch of losers all get paid a fortune and think they're the hottest shit around because of it. Doesn't that piss you off?"

"Sometimes yes, but it's not as if this city owes us anything after all we've done in the past anyway. And you continue with your delinquent tendencies to this day."

"And the same can be said of you, Mr. 'I'm going to pick fights in the alleys at night because I'm bored'."

"But that phase of mine is over, or almost, and I'm not the one who has a gang terrorizing the districts at night for no reason."

He had her there.

But it wasn't as if the girl was ashamed of something like that anyway. Those two just liked to throw crap at each other as much as they could. One might even call it a form of therapy.

A comfortable silence arose when a cheerful song began to play. It was a typical song with a young target audience, talking about lighthearted romances and fun parties.

"Oops, wrong album." Kimi quickly changed the song to one about anarchy and freedom. Strangely, it was the same band. "There, now that's a timeless anthem."

"You're definitely the kind of person who peaks in high school."

"How can you say that? You know I hate this new teenage fad. Why did my favorite band have to indulge in all this nonsense?"

"You're proving my point, and the worst thing is that you don't even realize it."

Kimi pivoted around the kotatsu, reaching out to take his hand and effortlessly pulling him up to stand. His hand found her waist, while she held the other.

"Weren't you the one who said in the past that this was our song?" she asked, trying to guide him in that strange dance. "'We can do whatever we want, Shundan-san, that's the best way to deal with all this.' That's what you told me."

It wasn't what he wanted to say. That was one of the only things he wasn't sure whether the girl had understood or not. He always hoped that she was just pretending not to, never summoning the courage to correct her if otherwise. Their relationship was like that. This train would never stop.

"Strange," said Kimi, looking towards the balcony as she danced, now being guided by the boy. "Touma-kun, your tendency to accidentally attract girls is getting worse."

"Huh?"

"Don't look now, but a little girl in a nun cosplay is on your balcony."

He stopped dancing and turned off the sound system.

With a bad premonition screaming in his head, he went through the open transparent door and out onto the balcony. There really was a girl there, hanging from the railing like a futon, wearing a white outfit with gold details, her body bent in such a way that her feet and hands were pointing straight down.

"See?" said Kimi, following him. "Just to be sure, this isn't your new secret girlfriend that you got after we broke up, is it? I know you said you wanted to try out new things, but I'd like to be consulted first. At least she's cute."

Ignoring his "ex-girlfriend's" musings, he observed the girl, who must have been fourteen or fifteen, and was probably a foreigner. Her head slowly rose, and her green eyes locked onto his blue ones.

"I..." she began, her voice weak.

Was she injured? This kind of problem used to fall into his lap from time to time.

"I'm hungry."

Well, at least she spoke Japanese. Kamijou's English had never been good, so that was a relief.

"Now that's a good way to break the ice," Kimi commented, approaching the girl and starting to poke her like someone checking to see if an animal in the street had died. "How did you get there, little girl?"

"I'm hungry," she repeated. "It would be great if you gave me food until I was completely full."

The two troubled teenagers who were supposed to be a couple looked at each other in surprise, and then Kimi shrugged and looked in the direction of the girl almost falling off the railing.

"Well, this is your lucky day then, little girl. Me and the handsome guy here are excellent cooks. Here, let me help you." Kimi grabbed her with one hand and pulled her along casually, the girl didn't even resist. In fact, her eyes sparkled like emeralds. "My name is Shundan Kimi, and this is my 'ex-ex-boyfriend', Kamijou Touma."

The little girl finally stood on firm ground and then smiled graciously at them.

"My name is Index."

Well, that was clearly a false name. What kind of strange situation were those two getting into?

It wasn't as if Kamijou Touma cared about this kind of problem, after all... if he wanted to, he could kill even God.

Author's notes: By now, I'm completely lost in the universe of crack ships.

Hey, readers. This story was originally supposed to take place after GT9, but then I realized that my stories are all set during the GT times (that was kind of a spoiler for one of them, lol).

In the end, I decided to go back to the beginning. Don't expect a retelling of all the scenes with minor differences. This story was created because I had a lot of fun reading the fourth chapter of GT9 and thought about creating a fanfic full of over-the-top fights, so the focus will be more on that and also on the bizarre relationship I've cooked up here.

Thinking about it, are there any stories that use Kimi as a recurring character? In any case, they're a "dragon couple" here. I hope you like the premise.

To the amazing people who read my other stories, I just wanted to say that none of them will be abandoned. Over the last few weeks, I've been really busy and yet I've made an effort to update both stories even during the hectic end of the year. It kind of cost me. I write because it helps me "clear my mind", so to avoid author's block or burnout, I decided to take a short break from writing... by writing something else. Yes, I have problems, but don't worry, I'm a psychologist, so I'll be fine... probably. I should start writing the next chapter of "Shattered at Dawn" soon.

That's all for now. NioMoon leaving.