A Certain Time Travelling Imagine Breaker - Chapter 10 (Patreon)

The walk towards the Seventh Mist shopping mall from Tokiwadai took a little longer than it usually would. Mostly because of the daihasei preparations and many roads being closed off to prepare for parades.

But also because neither Touma nor Mikoto were really in any rush and were quite content to just walk hand in hand. Which was good for Touma as well since it gave him a little more time to plan the date out.

"So where are we headed then?" Mikoto asked curiously when they finally reached and entered the huge shopping mall.

He led her by the hand through the ground floor towards where the elevators were, "Top floor." the spiky haired boy replied simply.

Seventh Mist wasn't just your average mall. For one, it was huge. And for two, it was geared towards the youth. So while it was a shopping mall, it also had multiple cafe's and such, a movie theatre and even a whole floor at the top dedicated to recreational activities.

Touma only rarely visited Seventh Mist, but he remembered there being a pretty awesome arcade on the top floor, among other things such as a kind of testing room where espers could show off their powers in public, but there were a lot of those spread throughout the city anyway, and there were even a few stores that specifically sold manga, games and such.

"Not taking me to get something to eat or to watch a movie?" Mikoto asked. That was honestly her first thought when he decided on Seventh Mist.

"Too cliche, right?" Touma turned to her and grinned, and as he did, a flash of green caught his eye and in the window of a store he caught sight of a familiar frog character on a sign, above a bunch of green onesie pajama's, he filed that away for the moment as he continued, "I figured you'd have more fun if we hit up the arcade for a bit."

"Huh...you know me pretty well huh?" Mikoto's lips quirked up into a smile.

"We've known each other for a while." Touma pointed out with a shrug. Ignoring the times he was outside the city, and losing his memories of the first little while they knew each other, he ran into Mikoto almost every day at some point, especially at that thieving vending machine.

It was in a large part to her he wasn't failing his classes before they came back in time after all. It was only thanks to how high his grades were, that he wasn't going to be held back then despite his piss poor attendance record. Mikoto had tutored him quite a few times after all.

Really, Mikoto was the one he spent the most time with outside of Index and then later Othinus. And even that that was more because they had lived with him.

"We have, haven't we?" Mikoto mused, agreeing with a nod.

                                                                             ____________

The change between the atmosphere of the top floor and the other floors was immediately noticeable.

Unlike the lower floors that were brightly lit, the lights of the top floor were more dimly lit, casting an almost ambient purple shade over the place.

As far as marketing strategies went, Touma had to praise whoever was behind the idea. While it wasn't so dark it was hard to see, it cast a kind of exciting mood over the place and had a way of instilling the idea in kids that 'the adults can't see' letting them throw off many of the restrictions on their behaviours and cut loose.

"You know, now that I think about it," Mikoto hummed looking around the darker floor, "The lighting actually really sets the mood for a date right, especially when you want to feel alone even with people around you." the tea haired girl smiled at him and leaned in closer to him, to the point where she was practically under his arm.

Touma decided to just go the full way and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "It does," he nodded, he actually hadn't been thinking of that when he thought of here, but more just on the fact that Mikoto would be way more into this than a typical standard date, "Though you don't really need an excuse to be close to me." he teased, using his arm around her shoulder to pull her into his side a bit more.

Mikoto bit her lip before snorting, "W-well obviously, that's my right now as your girlfriend...right?" she asked, and then smiled brightly when he nodded and wrapped her arm around his own and pulled them both along deeper into the arcade, "Now what should we do first?"

"How about that?" Touma asked, pointing towards a two person shooter game. It was a large booth like game titled House Of The Dead, with a pair of connected guns holstered in the front.

Mikoto's eyes lit up, "Oooh, I love these, yeah let's do it!" she cheered, "I can never get to play these usually cuz' Kuroko always whines about me being unladylike and stuff."

Touma rolled his eyes, that sounded like Shirai for sure. He wouldn't deny the girls competency nor how much she cared for Mikoto, but she had a weirdly over inflated opinion on Mikoto.

He preferred to keep his distance whenever the twin tailed teleporter showed up around Mikoto when he was hanging out with her. There were only so many times he could be called an ape or troglodyte before it got old, and the second he had any physical contact with Mikoto she was liable to teleport into his 'blind spot' and drop kick him in the back of the head.

It wasn't easy letting her get away with crap like that. His body's first instinct was to grab her leg with his imagine Breaker and pull her up over his shoulder and slam her face first into the ground. But, annoying as Shirai was at times, he wasn't going to smash her face in like that just because she was incredibly jealous and possessive of her 'onee-sama'.

"Let's do it then." Touma agreed and let Mikoto pull him over. She pulled away from him and pulled out one of the two guns when they reached it, the blue one and tested it in her hand while he pulled out his wallet and grabbed one of the arcade coins he'd bought on the way in

"You didn't need to pay you know, I can pay for myself." Mikoto interrupted him before he could put the the token in. Since her plan hadn't gone through yet, he was still a level zero right now, as such she had access to way more money than him.

"Don't mind it, a day at the arcade is hardly going to impact my money much at all," Touma waved her off, inserting the money, "Even for level zero Kamijou-san this is chump change, especially compared to what I paid food wise for Index in a day."

Seriously, a shot at these games in the arcade was one hundred yen each. He'd be lucky to pay only five thousand yen a day on food for Index. It was seriously no contest, especially for one date.

"Besides," he grinned at her, "Ojou-sama or not, this is kind of my prerogative as the boyfriend here."

"Z'at so?" Mikoto raised an eyebrow at him before snorting and shaking her head, "Well, whatever you say 'Ouji-sama'." she teased.

Touma's eye nearly twitched. Somehow, that felt way too insulting, "No need to get snippy just because you won't be able to keep up with my score." the spiky haired Kamijou retorted, pulling out the second gun, the red one and holding it up as the game loaded.

"You think so huh?" Mikoto grinned at him challengingly, "Don't forget who won last time you challenged me to a competition." she reminded him. She had been the clear winner of the penalty game.

"Outlying circumstances, magicians were trying to take over the world on the first day and I got injured," Touma scoffed waving her off and grinned right back, "If not for that my school would have crushed yours!" between him and Tsuchimikado, he'd been pretty confident they could have beaten out Tokiwadai.

"Excuses," Mikoto scoffed right back, "But fine, let's put this to the test, me and you one on one at these games, we'll see who wins properly this time and you won't be able to make any excuses!"

"Bring it on Biri biri!" Touma laughed, "I'll make sure to kiss the boos boos better when I kick your pretty little ass again."

Mikoto's face burned with heat at his words, but thankfully, the lighting on the floor made the flush on her cheeks hard to see and she stubbornly forced down her embarrassment, "O-oh? So you want to k-kiss my a-ass huh?" she shot back, stuttering only a little bit.

Touma gave a start, before his grin got wider, "Well like I said, it is a pretty ass." he teasingly flirted.

Mikoto's mouth dropped and her head went fuzzy. 'Is...is he being serious right now?' she gaped in wonder and shyly looked away from him. He'd never said anything that blatant to her, ever.

And while the tea hared girl was distracted, the game finally loaded up, zombie's appearing on the screen. And Touma wasted no time in bringing his gun up towards the screen and pulling back on the trigger.

In no time at all, a series of bangs rang out from the game system and the first few zombies on the screen were killed.

"H-hey you cheater!" Mikoto growled, the sound breaking her from her daze at his words and bringing her gun up.

"All's fair in love and war!" the spiky haired boy merely laughed in return.

                                                                       ____________

"What the hell?" Mikoto shook her head as they left behind the fourth game they had played so far together, "How the heck did you beat me in dance dance revolution of all things?"

A game they played against each other that resulted in another win for Touma. Bringing the score up to three to one. Out of the four games they'd played in House Of The Dead, a virtual racing game, Alley Fighter and Dance Dance Revolution, he'd won three of them in more or less a landslide, only losing out in the virtual racing game.

"It's not exactly proper dancing," Touma pointed out, following behind his girlfriend with an amused grin on his face, "It's just stepping on panels corresponding to the screen and I just have better reflexes than you." now if it was actual dancing, he wouldn't have had a chance in hell. He'd only ever been in a few dancing classes in his life and that was back as a small child before ever coming to Academy City, and more of a whim of his mothers than anything of his interest.

Mikoto grimaced slightly. Touma didn't mean anything special by what he said, nor was he bragging, but the tea haired girl was well aware of how monstrous her boyfriends reflexes were. He casually caught lightning strikes on a daily basis practically, after all.

Hell, as far as his reflexes went, there probably wasn't a better expert on them than her. Even enhancing her own reflexes and body speed with Rampage Dress hadn't let her keep up in the games that mattered when it came to it.

Sure, this body of hers wasn't used to it, and she still wasn't anywhere near as skilled with it as Junko, but still!

Damnit, she hated losing! Well, at least they hadn't decided on any punishment game for the loser, because at this rate it would definitely be her.

Still, she couldn't wipe the smile that was on her face. She was having a lot of fun, no doubt about that.

"How about we take a break?" Touma suggested, placing his hand on her shoulder and directing them towards a vending machine, "We can grab a drink."

"Sure." Mikoto agreed with a shrug and let her boyfriend direct her over to the vending machine.

"So what do you want?" Touma asked after inserting some money into the vending machine.

Mikoto rolled her eyes at his need to pay for her because of it being a date, "I'll just take a soda." she replied and casually reached under his arm to press one of the buttons, a soda dropping down in response.

Touma nodded, before hitting one himself, though for him, he chose a can of MAX Coffee. He wasn't expecting a random vending machine to have his favourite drink, but he was not at all complaining.

Bending down, he grabbed both cans out before holding the soda out to Mikoto. His girlfriend took the offered can and popped it open, wrinkling her nose as he did the same and took a swig of the sugarless black coffee within.

"How the hell can you drink that stuff?" Mikoto asked, "It's so bitter!" she didn't know how anyone could enjoy a drink of black coffee.

"Kamijou-san is just a manly man," Touma grinned at her, "With a refined and mature palette unlike a little girl like you who still needs five sugars and half the liquid being milk."

"Don't treat me like a kid just because I don't like bitter stuff you idiot, I'm only a year younger than you," Mikoto rolled her eyes, "Are you sure you don't just like it cuz you're trying to pretend to be mature?"

"Nah only little kids try stuff like that and pretend to like stuff they don't to be cool." Touma shook his head. He didn't have time for that kind of nonsense in his life anyway.

Mikoto froze and looked away from him to hide her suddenly red cheeks. She remembered once upon a time, in this very building, where she'd hid her interest in a pair of cute pink pajamas from her friends because they thought they were childish and lame.

And of course this idiot boyfriend of hers had found her right after and called her out on trying to subtly try them on.

God, that seemed so long ago. Things were so much simpler then, back when all she had to worry about was chasing him down and making him fight her. Before her sisters came into the picture, before Accelerator, before the dark side of Academy City, before magic, magicians, gods, demons and who knows what else but in and made everything so complicated and hard.

A hand wound around her shoulders and she was pulled gently back, out of the way of a guy walking past, breaking her from her thoughts and she found her back leaning steadily against her boyfriends chest.

"So, as far proper first dates go, how's this one so far?" Touma asked.

She looked up over her shoulder at him and grinned, "Negative one hundred out of ten." she teased

"Ouch," Touma winced, playing along easily, good naturedly "I must suck at this dating thing."

Chucking, Mikoto turned her head back around and let it rest against his chest, "I'm having fun, don't worry about that," she assured him, "It's just that, it's not really all that much different from what we usually do beyond the fact that well we're doing what we're doing now." though she was quite happy with that factor to be honest, being able to be casually physically affectionate with him.

"That's a good thing though isn't it?" Touma mused, "If we can't have fun together, is there really any point to us dating in the first place? You can't spell girlfriend or boyfriend without friend after all."

"True," Mikoto agreed, "And I do like it like this." it just meant there was add on benefits to being with him compared to before. Their relationship hadn't changed, just became 'more'.

She wasn't expecting it to be so simple, but she couldn't deny it was a relief and very welcomed.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, making small tack and enjoying their drinks together in close company.

It was while doing that though that Mikoto let her eyes wander over the arcade and her hazel eyes settled on something interesting. Interesting enough to make her eyes go wide.

She pushed up off of her boyfriend and began making her way towards the target of her case almost on instinct.

"Mikoto?" Touma gave her a confused look, before looking passed her to where she was walking, and then promptly palmed his face and groaned, "You've gotta be kidding me."

It was a simple red coloured machine, though the colour was hard to make out in the dim lighting. He said simple, because all the was to it was a large circular cushion like device.

And at the top of the machine was the title 'Strike it!' in big bold lettering, while in smaller letters read, 'Beat the score and win the rare top hat and cane Gekota!' with a picture of that weird frog mascot Mikoto liked so much dressed in a suit with a top hat on its head, monocle over its right eye and a cane clasped to its hand.

Typical Biri Biri.

Sighing, Touma downed the rest of his coffee and tossed it into a nearby garbage can and followed after her.

He caught up to Mikoto just as she was talking to a woman sitting behind a counter beside the machine, shelves behind her filled up with plushies of the top hat wearing, cane wielding gekota mascot.

"So how do I beat it?" Mikoto was asking, her eyes having a strange intensity to them that almost made Touma shiver.

Almost.

He was used to that intensity these days.

The women behind the counter gave a yawn before pointing at the machine, specifically besides the cushion like device. There was a digital meter on it displaying the number, '116,114 PF'.

"You just gotta beat the pounds of force with a single punch," she explained, before snorting lazily, "Good luck with that though, that record hasn't been broken yet, this is a test machine and the first guy called in was a level three with the power Stat Boost that made him basically superhuman."

Mikoto nodded and bit her lip, eyeing the record score, "Turning that to newtons and then PSI, that's what, nearly ten times the force of your typical professional boxer?" she asked.

"Around there, yeah." the woman behind the counter shrugged.

"How'd you know that?" Touma wondered.

"I got curious after watching you punch out so many people," Mikoto shrugged back, "How much to try?" she asked the woman.

"Just a single token." she replied.

"Here," Touma pulled one out and handed it to her and then looked at his girlfriend, "Think you can do it?" he asked with a grin.

"Only one way to find out!" Mikoto nodded determinedly and walked over to the machine. She took a deep breath and brought up her right fist and concentrated.

Electricity sparked into existence around her fist, before with a shout, she twisted her shoulder and unleashed a punch with all her strength.

Immediately the record number was replaced and began to rapidly tally up numbers.

'22,518'

"Not even close!" Mikoto sighed, shoulders slumping. And that was the max she could enhance her physical strength right now.

"It's not a bad score," the woman behind the counter yawned again, "You're a little slip of a girl and you just punched higher than your average professional boxer." she pointed out.

It did nothing to console Mikoto, and she turned to her boyfriend with a pout on her face.

If she couldn't do it, she knew who could.

"What?" Touma raised an eyebrow at her.

She stuck her lower lip out a bit more, "I was just thinking my big strong boyfriend should be able to do it easy and win his girlfriend the prize, right?"

Touma sighed, "I can't control my strength well right now, I'll end up totalling the machine." he pointed out. He hadn't had much time to learn any restraint with the Dragon Shell.

Mikoto made her bottom lip wobble.

"Fine, fine." Touma caved instantly. He was such a sucker and he knew it. He pulled out another arcade token and placed it on the table in front of the woman.

"Yeah!" Mikoto lost her pout instantly and pumped her first into the air. She leaned up on her tiptoes and pecked Touma on the cheek as he took up the spot in front of the machine, "You're the best Touma!"

Well, he couldn't use the Dragon Shell, or well, he wasn't going to first. But, he could punch pretty hard. It wasn't really anything special for this city, but even without it, he was pretty strong at least.

Gritting his teeth, Touma clenched his fist and with a shout, unleashed the strongest right hook he could. He punched it so hard, that his knuckles ached even from just hitting the cushion and the machine itself shook hard.

"Holy...!" the tired look on the woman's face disappeared and she gaped in shock at the number that appeared.

197,394.

"Huh." Touma blinked, shaking his fist out. He hadn't ever really had a measure of how hard he hit before. But, that was kind of ridiculous wasn't it?

"I knew it!" Mikoto squealed happily and wrapped her arms around him, "There's no way a level three could out hit you!"

No no no, he may have tried but he shouldn't have even come close to that. That was just raw strength without any esper ability! And it was just a whim!

"Gimme gimme!" Mikoto demanded of the woman after pulling away from him, eagerly pointing at one of the top hat wearing Gekota plushies.

Touma just stood there and gaped at his result. That couldn't be right, surely? That was nearing nearly double the result of the record held by a level three with an ability that made them physically superhuman.

"Gekota!" Mikoto cheered as the wide eyed woman handed one of the plushes over and the tea haired girl spun around with it held in the air excitedly, "I never even had this one before!" she hollered loudly.

She came out of her spin besides her boyfriend and couldn't held it, she leaped up on top of him, arms winding around his shoulders and legs wrapping around his waist and smashed her lips into his.

"Mmffff!" Touma went wide eyes, the tongue of his girlfriend forcing its way into his mouth and the sudden weight of her jumping on him breaking him out of his daze.

she pulled back after a few seconds, a massive bright smile on her face, "You're the best boyfriend ever Touma, I love you!" Mikoto beamed and jumped off of him and continued to excitedly fuss over her new Gekota.

Eh?

Ehhhhhh?!

Touma's eyes flew wide open and his cheeks went burning red, 'L-love!?' he sputtered internally. It was so shocking he could have passed out!