6_Epilogue_ Only One

EPILOGUE Only OneID_Not_Found When Kamijou opened his eyes, he was in a dark hospital room. There was a strange sensation around the area of his lips, possibly because of anesthetics. He looked around without moving his head. It was the same old private room, and it seemed to be the middle of the night. The only sound in the quiet room was the weak noise of the air conditioner. When he noticed the lack of a change of clothes or any fruit, he deduced that not much time had passed since he was brought here. After all, the only person in the room was Little Misaka, quietly sitting on a chair at the side of the bed— “Yes?!” He nearly jumped out of the bed in surprise, but his anesthetized body refused to budge. Little Misaka’s usual form was dotted with bandage wrappings. That was all well and good, but then he heard a black cat meow. He wasn’t able to see it from this angle. It must have been curled up underneath the bed. Lastly, he noticed Little Misaka’s hands embracing one of his. It didn’t really matter, but she was holding both her hands to her chest, and Kamijou’s own had been brought to the boundary between possibly touching her breasts and not touching them. “Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Misaka…? Huh? That’s odd, how come I’m experiencing such a happy event? I don’t remember anything about having triggered those sorts of flags!” The black cat under the bed, startled at his shout, let out a shriek. “…Your words are as incoherent as ever. Just to make things clear, you were the one who grabbed my hand, says Misaka in easy-to-understand modern lettering.” “That’s a lie! I can’t possibly be so unfulfilled that I would grab a girl’s chest after nearly dying while under the effects of full-body anesthetics! It’s a liieee!” He lamented and wanted to bury his face in his hands, but of course, his body wouldn’t be moving any time soon. Little Misaka gave an impassive “?” expression, and after witnessing his disgraceful conduct, she spoke. “You only went so far as to grab Misaka’s hand, explains Misaka helpfully. It was Misaka’s own intention to bring your hand to this position, so I do not believe that any fault lies with you, she answers.” “…Princess. Mayhap you might inform me of the reason you did such a thing?” “I was simply measuring your brain waves and pulse rate via your bioelectric field, responds Misaka. There is no particular sexual meaning included.” Se—?! Kamijou thought he would stop breathing, but suddenly he realized something. Huh? Wait, so that means it is touching? My hand is touching it now? You know, I can’t feel anything because of the anesthetics! Agh, damn it, I can’t even move a finger, either! Damn iitttt! “D-damn it…What amazingly rotten luck…” “Odd, I do not detect any abnormalities in your speech center, says Misaka, offering reasons as to her unease.” Little Misaka looked stoic as usual. The black cat under the bed mewed sleepily. Kamijou gave up on his useless effort and looked back at Little Misaka. “Well, we both got out of that somehow, huh?” he said, sort of poking fun at it, but there was definitely something welling up inside him. Actually, he’d be worried if there wasn’t—he wouldn’t know why the hell he’d risked his life like that in that case. “In regards to that, answers Misaka,” she said, petting the cat. “Misaka cannot return to the same world as you yet, she declares straightly.” Kamijou’s shoulders twitched. Was the experiment still going on? “No, nothing like that. It appears to have been decided that the experiment would be phased out along with the defeat of Accelerator, reports Misaka kindly and thoroughly.” She paused for a moment. “The problem Misaka has right now is the issue with Misaka’s body, explains Misaka.” “Body?” “Yes. I am originally a clone created from Big Sister’s somatic cells, and my body was stimulated to grow extremely quickly through the administration of various drugs, explains Misaka. A clone already has a short life span, and in doing so, it is decreased even further, says Misaka, asking if you understand.” “…” He was at a loss for words. Because that was just too much. Everyone had combined their strength and pulled her out of hell, and yet her time to live was limited to begin with, and whatever choices she made and however she proceeded, she could never be together with everyone? She had still fought without voicing a single word of complaint… And now, no matter how hard she tried, she had nothing left in her hands. “So I will temporarily go back to the research institute and undergo adjustments to this body…Are you listening? asks Misaka, glaring at you.” “Huh? Adjustments?” “Yes. By adjusting the hormone balance that originally stimulated my quick growth, and by tuning the rate of cell reproduction in the cell nucleus, it is possible to recover a certain amount of life, responds Misaka…Hello? You hadn’t translated that to mean that the story was over, did you? demands Misaka.” “Those adjustments…They’ll make you better?” “…I seem to detect an implication that you don’t believe it can make me better, says Misaka, growing irritated.” Then the black cat under the bed meowed. Little Misaka gathered up the slightly frightened thing, then headed for the door with an “Excuse me.” “Ah, wait. You’re leaving already?” “It’s all right,” she replied without turning around. “We will be able to meet soon, asserts Misaka.” “I see,” he said, closing his eyes. That was fine. Leaving some kind of special promise would make it feel like they’d never meet again. If they could see each other soon—if she really believed that—then the most serious words of parting were the ones said normally. The story hadn’t ended here. They would go on until one day, today’s events would be an insignificant memory. He heard the door shut through the darkness of his closed eyes. Medicine-induced sleepiness washed over him. But still, Kamijou smiled, dreaming of the day they would surely meet again. When he next awakened, dawn had already broke in the hospital room. “Oh, you’re awake?” Mikoto Misaka was the one saying that. Her face was thickly colored with exhaustion, but she still managed a smile. “Here you go, I brought you a cookie as a present. I picked out one of the kind of expensive ones in the basement of the department store, so it’s probably pretty good. At least, I think? Make sure you tell me how it is. If it’s bad then I’m never going to that shop again.” “Mm. Homemade cookies really are the best.” “…What kind of character were you expecting me to be exactly?” “No, well. You know, like the clumsy character trying so hard in her own clumsy way and making a messed-up cookie?” “Again, what the hell were you expecting?!” Kamijou and Mikoto spent their time bickering like they usually did. He was happy that they were standing in the normal world, having a normal time. “Oh, right. Little Misaka came by in the middle of the night.” He told her about what had happened the night before. About how Little Misaka would go back to another research agency for a while so they could fix up her body and how she promised to come back to Kamijou again. “Uh-huh.” That’s all she said. She narrowed her eyes like she was watching over something important, but at the same time, there was a shadow somewhere in her face. Mikoto was indeed able to stop the experiment. And she was able to save the lives of close to ten thousand Sisters. However, she couldn’t save the other ones. Because of the DNA map she had carelessly provided, twenty thousand Sisters had been born just to be killed. That fact was probably something that would weigh on Mikoto’s back for the rest of her life. Even if no one blamed her for it, even if everyone in the world forgave her, she would carry that burden as long as she lived. “But, you know,” Kamijou said. Mikoto quieted and looked at him. Her eyes looked like those of a child left alone in an unfamiliar city. He couldn’t bear to look at them. “If you hadn’t given them your DNA map, none of the Sisters would have been born in the first place. There was definitely a lot of messed-up stuff with that experiment, but I think you should be proud that at least the Sisters were given life.” Mikoto was silent for a while. Finally, she said, in a voice like a child about to cry: “…Even though more than ten thousand of them got killed because of me?” Kamijou answered with affirmation. Saying that something is hard. Thinking that something is painful. Those simple things that anyone can do are still things they couldn’t do if they weren’t born. “So the Sisters don’t hate you or anything. That experiment was screwed up all over, but I think they still thanked you at least for the fact they were born despite that.” Mikoto gulped at what he said. Seeing her with that expression made his face smile a little through the anesthesia. “So you can smile. The Sisters definitely aren’t wanting you to be down in the dumps all by yourself. The Sisters you wanted to protect aren’t so petty as to be satisfied with shoving the pain of their own wounds onto someone else, right?” The next time he opened his eyes was for his three o’clock snack. However, he couldn’t eat the cookie Mikoto had given him. The reason for this was because Index was glaring right at him as he laid on the bed, peering into his eyes from super-close range. “Touma, don’t you have something to say?” “Umm, good morning?” That immediately got the top of his sleepy head bitten. His body jolted up in the bed as if her teeth had been a stun gun. Just how far would she go to be satisfied? Just ask the shriek that his mouth unleashed like a cat whose tail was stepped on. “Wait! Wait a second! I’m hurt too much this time for jokes and stuff, okay?! Besides, why don’t you act a little like a housewife and worry about me some—” “I did worry about you!” Index cried, cutting him off. He unintentionally sucked in his breath at her voice. She sounded like a spiteful child. “…I did…worry about you,” she repeated once more. She released her teeth from Kamijou’s head, then wrapped her arms around it like she was hugging a pillow. Kamijou thought for a moment. If their positions were reversed, what would he have thought? If Index had gone off by herself while he wasn’t looking, did some crazy stuff, then got carried to the hospital. How much would he blame himself for not talking to her about it, staying in his own little carefree world? Kamijou gave a single “sorry.” Index replied that it was okay, then released her arms from his head and smiled. That was the decisive difference between the two of them. She was the kind of person who was able to laugh here instead of getting one-sidedly mad at him. “Anyway, you faced a problem by yourself, again, again, again. If you don’t wise up and talk to me a little about it, I might actually have to seriously lecture you, I think.” Kamijou gave a hearty laugh to evade her. When it came down to it, he was still hiding his amnesia, too, after all. She sighed. “Well, it won’t do any good to say much further, so it’s okay. In the end, what were you fighting for, Touma?” Kamijou gave a “hmm?” to confirm what she said once, then answered. “For myself, of course.” Just like that, his normal daily life began anew today. Touma Kamijou would walk the same path he always did, without turning to gaze back on the past. Whether or not his path led to a combined dream with Little Misaka didn’t matter to him. Whatever the case, he just wanted there to be a future so happy it would even surprise Little Misaka upon their reunion.