A Certain Time Travelling Imagine Breaker - 3 (Patreon)

When Touma awoke, he found himself intertwined with a middle schooler, atop his bed. He was laying on Misaka's soft chest, the rhythm of her heart beating lulling gently in his ears, comforting in a way. Her small and soft hands were wrapped around his head, fingers threaded in his hair as she hugged him to her slender body.

For a moment, he just lay there and the comforting feeling the girl provided, and the utter lack of a headache he felt. His memories had settled while in his sleep.

The spiky haired boy looked at the peaceful, sleeping face of Misaka and couldn't help but smile a bit. She was strong. When he had awoke, back a year in the past, he'd panicked hard, and the onslaught of memories assaulting his head hadn't helped, for a bit, he'd even been a bit manic.

Yet Misaka had rushed right to his side to confirm things before all else. Where as he...the thought of going through all he had since he lost his memories had made him seize up with terror and let panic overwhelm him. The thought of having to deal with Izzard, Accelerator, Acqua, Fiamma and most terrible of all, his understander, the Magic God Othinus as a full fledged enemy once again was just too much for him to not be overwhelmed by.

'I don't even know what I would have done if she didn't turn up when she did.' Touma mused, breathing a sigh of relief. He had not at all, been in the right frame of mind.

He knew Misaka had been dragged along, though that information, passed on to him by that dragon bastard had been buried under the onslaught of his old memories assaulting his brain. The reason she'd been dragged along, was because of that time back at the Daihasei. The dragons had devoured her excess power that was forcing her along the road to level 6. Energy produced from her Personal Reality, her mind. As such, there was a link.

Now that he knew about the link, he could feel it to. Touma wasn't sure how to describe it. The second he knew of the first dragon back with Izzard, he could always feel it after. And the same could be said for the other ones that popped out to save Misaka. It wasn't like a physical feeling. It was like how you couldn't feel your hair, but you knew it was there regardless.

His eyes idly roamed over the peacefully sleeping girl beneath him, and felt his chest warm up. Despite how selfish it was of him, he was so glad Misaka had been pulled back alongside him. For a while now, the girl who he used to consider little more than an utterly, annoying yet somehow endearing friend, had moved to the centre stage of those he treasured, and had become one of, if not the biggest pillars that supported him.

When he had been at rock bottom, Misaka had been the one to give him a kick in the ass and get him moving again. When his mind was in disarray after returning from the Omega World and destroying that perfect world, it was Misaka who laid him out and beat sense into him. When Aleister had revealed the dark truth of the foundation of Academy City, and why it was the way it was, it was again Misaka who got through to him and crushed the despair that had threatened to swallow him.

'Somehow, she's become utterly irreplaceable.' Touma thought idly. His mind drifted back to the High Priest. And the utter rage he had felt when the Magic God had been deriding Misaka, looking down on her, mocking her as if she had no worth at all.

Even just thinking on it now made his arm tingle and the embers of rage flare, even though the High Priest was dead and gone.

He banished those thoughts quickly, no need to dwell on them, they wouldn't accomplish much.

Gently, he eased the younger girls arms from around his head and slowly lifted himself up off of Misaka, making sure not to rock disturb her. It was a bit of a challenge, but he managed it well enough.

When he fully stood up, the tea haired electromaster mumbled a bit in her sleep and turned over on her side, "...Idiot.." a small smile splaying across her lips even in her sleep.

'Oi, oi, and you always give me into trouble when I don't use your name.' Touma shook his head. Lifting his arms into the air, the boy stretched them as long as they could go, easing out the kinks in them and his back.

Unable to keep the smile from his own face, he bent down and lifted the small, powerful girl up and moved her to the top of the bed, laying her down on the pillow and tucking the cover over her to keep her warm.

He marvelled for a moment, just how small and light Misaka was, despite the amazing power she wielded.

With that done, his eyes moved to the microwave atop his fridge. 11:47 it read. Classes for the day had already started it seemed. Oh well. From what he knew now, even in middle school his attendance wasn't the greatest, but at least he wasn't in danger of failing because of it right now.

It was odd, Touma mused as he made his way into the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. Very odd to just have the memories he'd lost, or at least, the vast majority of them suddenly back in his head.

The things people had said to him before, that he lacked the context to understand properly. Beauty-senpai. And Ayu. Touma grimaced at the thought of the fluffy haired girl and how she ended up.

The part of him that he'd just regained was overjoyed that she was alive and well, as well as could be when you had fallen into the depths of the dark side of Academy City at least. But at the same time, there was a bitterness in his chest.

He'd been depressed for well over a year after thinking he'd failed to save the fluffy haired girl. As overjoyed as he was, it was still a bitter pill to swallow.

'Best lay it to rest for now.' he decided rinsing his mouth and leaving the bathroom behind after checking Misaka's clothes hanging from one of the towel racks to see if they were dry. Almost. 'Heh, gekota panties.' how very fitting for Misaka.

He made his way into the kitchen and opened his fridge, checking to see what contents he had to work with to make some breakfast for him and Misaka, since odds were, with how early she had appeared at his door this morning, it was likely she hadn't eaten anything.

'..It's beautiful.' he thought in awe and just stared the full contents of the fridge. He'd never seen his fridge like this. He almost cried, the sight was that moving to him. Because of the sheer amount Index ate, half the time he didn't even get stuff in the fridge before the glutton of a nun was trying to eat the stuff he'd bought.

Not to mention, because of how much she ate again, and how much he had to spend on her regularly, the times he could splurge and fill up the fridge were few and far between. As a level zero, the amount he got funded by Academy City was a set amount of one hundred thousand yen per month. Roughly the minimum wage of a part time job. Not exactly a lot, but with food cheaper in Academy City, liveable.

That went right out the window when there was a nun that ate five times as much as him, multiplying his food expenses exponentially, among other expenses.

Really, he loved Index like a little sister, and didn't mind looking after her at all. But there was only so much even the king of thrift Kamijou Touma could do with how little money he got.

He pulled some eggs, rice, nato and more out of the fridge. For once, he could fully go all out and make a full on traditional Japanese breakfast. And a real filling meal would do him the world of good right now before he really began to think things through.

He moved over to the sink after taking them out, setting them down on the counter and reached out with his right hand to grab a few plates. But, when his eyes landed on Imagine Breaker, he paused.

The dragons and the connection to Misaka. Those were not the only things he could feel. Even with Imagine Breaker back with him now, he could feel it. That power he'd been using before, when his power itself made off with Imagine Breaker after escaping from his arm.

Though, the feeling was ever so slightly different. Like it was just right under his skin, and felt like a coat dangling from it in a way, like if he jerked his arm the right way, the coat would fly up into the air and cover his arm.

He concentrated on that feeling, and his right arm rippled, and in a flash, became sky blue and lemon yellow once again. He clenched his fist, and felt the overwhelming, violent strength he had before flow through his body, strength enough to match a Saint like Kanzaki.

This was nothing as simple as Imagine Breaker's ability to negate supernatural power being bypassed. If anything, it was more like Coronzon, whom Imagine Breaker's power couldn't negate because of her human form, making her power a natural thing. This draconic arm, Imagine Breaker recognised it still as his arm, even in this form. Just the same as it had done for his imposter, even able to use Imagine Breaker when he was reverted back to his true dragon form.

..This state, was natural for him. What that said about him, he really would rather not know.

A symbol of bloodlines and family. That which was beyond good and evil. The One Who Purifies God and Slays Demons. The Guardian of Treasure. A Dragon.

Quite frankly, Touma really had little idea beyond a few guesses how all that applied to him. What he did know, was, he would not reject this power. He couldn't. Not when it was his fault things ended up the way they were. He would own the mistakes he made. Regardless of him not meaning for any of this to happen, it was still because of him, and it was his crime to bear. This power, was his, and was the symbol of what he'd wrought, if he rejected it, it would be like spitting on the effort of those who had helped him try to reclaim what was stolen from him, and would stain the kindness and acceptance Misaka had shown him even after he'd dragged her into this in his own foolishness.

For that alone, he refused to allow himself to reject it, no matter the distaste he felt about it. '..Well, at least being able to fly will let me save money on train fair.' That was a nice silver lining for the thrifty boy.

One cannot underestimate the simple joy of a poor student saving just a little bit more of their money. If Hamazura was here, he'd understand, and cheer him on, even if Accelerator would call him a 'fucking moronic hero' or something like that.

He was going to miss that dynamic.

It took him just over half an hour to get the full breakfast prepared. In the meantime, Touma played around with his arm in a bit of fascination. Switching from normal to dragon arm, back and forth, over and over again, watching he arm ripple from normal skin tone into sky blue and lemon yellow fibers was trippy and fascinating all in one. While he didn't really care for the power it brought, it was cool. Like, it reminded him of a video game he had that he liked, where the protagonist had the arm of a demon.

He totally wasn't plagiarising when he mentally labelled it 'Dragon Bringer'. It just made sense, since with it on, it let him pull out that dragon shell around his body.

It was as Touma was setting the plates on the small table in the middle of his room, in front of the television that he remembered another resident of his dorm from the future.

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"Oh crap! How the heck am I going to find that damn calico cat?"

Mikoto blinked awake at the sound of a familiar idiots voice. 'Hmm?' the tea hared girl drowsily noted that she was tucked warmly in an unfamiliar bed, resting her head on a comfortable pillow that was definitely not her own, and could smell that idiot all around her.

It took a few moments for everything to come rushing back and her eyes flew open, 'it wasn't a dream!' Mikoto screamed internally, feeling her face heat up. That guy, she'd hugged him and played with his hair and lulled him to sleep, before getting caught up in it and falling asleep herself!

Despite the heat on her face and the butterflies in her stomach, she couldn't help the way a big smile stretched across her face.

Another lovely stream of scents hit her nose, the aroma of food making her mouth water, so Mikoto lowered the cover over her a bit to see what the idiot was up to, just in time to see him set a few plates of food down on the table not far from the bed.

It was quite the sight. Many differing plates, all towards a large traditional Japanese breakfast. It was actually impressive in a way, since she could barely cook rice. And the food looked amazing, right up there with the best of the food served at the Tokiwadai dorms. 'This guy could probably be a chef if he wanted to.' she thought.

Her mind went blank though, when he pulled the towel he was carrying over his right arm off, and she caught sight of sky blue and lemon yellow. 'That's..!' she panicked internally.

But his arm was normal earlier. She didn't know he could pull that stuff out without getting his pulled off.

A pit formed in her stomach. 'I don't have the A.A.A.' he was already stronger than her, capable of taking on enemies that she couldn't even with the Anti-Art Attachment, but at least she could provide some how. But..but.

'If he can use those powers of his...he doesn't need me at all.' she realised, the pit in her stomach filling with dread. She couldn't even know if the A.A.A would be in the same place. At this rate, it was just going to be a repeat of before. Her struggling to keep up while he went further and further ahead.

Touma stood up and scratched the back of his head with his draconic blue and yellow arm, "I should probably wake up Misaka, she couldn't have had breakfast this morning before rushing over here." he mused out loud.

He turned towards where she was laying in his bed, and Mikoto shut her eyes on reflex. 'What am I doing!?'

His shadow fell over her, she could see it even through her closed eyes. Mikoto opened her eyes just a tiny little bit to see what he was doing, just in time to see his right arm, suddenly normal again reaching out towards her and a moment later softly pat her on the head, "Kinda wanna leave her sleeping a bit more, she's been getting jerked around a lot lately because of me," he said softly and her mouth quivered. Touma heaved a deep sigh, "You know, I'm the worst type of guy. I hate that I got you dragged into this, yet I can't help but be happy at the same time that it's the strong, reliable Misaka who came back with me."

The pit of dread in her stomach vanished in all but a moment, replaced with a giddy relief. Somehow, even without ever being prompted, this guy always knew what to say.

His hand stopped rubbing her head and pulled back. But she didn't want it to end. Her own hand shot up and grabbed his hand and pulled it back to her head and she opened her eyes to meet look up and meet his own as he leaned over her, "I-I didn't say stop idiot." she admonished.

"Oi, you were awake this whole time?" the spiky haired boy raised an eyebrow at her, but he resumed rubbing her head nonetheless, "And you let me say something embarrassing like that?"

"Don't act like something like that will embarrass a guy like you, you come out with much worse stuff than that, Mr 'I'll protect her and the world around her,'" Mikoto retorted, the soothing, strong hand rubbing her head igniting her courage, "I like to hear stuff like that as well every now and then you know? I've always been chasing after you, but you never ever let me know where you stand in regards to me."

"Ha, I knew you were listening that day," Touma rolled his eyes and replied, sitting down on the edge of the bed, his weight shifting her body a bit on it, "Do you think I was going to make some insane promise like that to some random guy I met that day, right after he tried to kill me, just because he stalked you and got infatuated with you?"

Her eyes widened. "You knew I was there?" Mikoto gaped. And she was actually wrong this whole time, it wasn't misleading words but something he meant completely?

"Course I did, I saw the sparks from your magnetism that saved that guy, Kamijou-san might be dumb, be he isn't that big of an idiot," the spiky haired boy retorted, he looked down at her with warm eyes, "As for where you stand from my perspective. You're completely irreplaceable to me, one of the people I care about the most in this entire world. You could even say you're one of the few people I care about more than the world itself."

Her eyes went a bit hazy from his words, and if it weren't for his hand on top of her head, negating her powers, no doubt she would have lost complete control over her electricity. "...Funyaaa!" she pulled the covers up and buried beneath them to escape the embarrassment and his soft gaze.

This also had the effect of forcing his hand off her head, and releasing the uncontrollable sparks of her power all around her body. "Don't funya me while short circuiting!" Touma screamed, "Such misfortune!"