Volume 3, Epilogue: Only One.

When Kamijou awoke, he was in a dark hospital room.

Perhaps due to anesthesia, he felt an odd feeling in the area of his lips. He moved only his eyes to look around. He was in a standard private room and it seemed to be the middle of the night. Only the sound of the air conditioner could be heard in the silent hospital room. From the fact that a change of clothes or fruits from visitors were not lying around, it seemed it had not been long since he had been brought to the hospital. The only other things in the room were a chair next to the bed and Misaka Imouto who sat within the chair.

"What!?"

Kamijou tried to jump up without thinking, but his anesthetized body did not move.

Misaka Imouto had bandages wrapped around her body in places. He also heard the mewing of the black cat. Kamijou couldn't see it from his location, but it must have been curled up beneath the bed.

Also, Misaka Imouto had her hands wrapped around Kamijou's hand.

It really didn't matter, but Misaka Imouto had drawn her hands up to her chest, so Kamijou's hand had been brought to the border of touching a certain bulge.

"M-M-M-M-M-Misaka-san? Wait, this is odd. Why is such a happy event occurring? I don't remember activating any flags in this direction!"

Kamijou's shout must have surprised the black cat beneath the bed because it let out a frightened mew.

"...Your conversations are as incoherent as ever, but just so you know, you were the one who grabbed Misaka's hand, says Misaka using the modern kana usage to make herself easier to understand."

"No way! I refuse to believe that I'm so desperate that my hand moved to a girl's chest while I was under general anesthesia!"

Kamijou of course wanted to yell and hold his head in his hands, but his body would not move.

Misaka Imouto stared questioningly at Kamijou's crazed behavior with her expressionless eyes.

"All you did was grab Misaka's hand, says Misaka in an supplementary explanation. It was Misaka who brought your hand to this position, so that was not your fault, responds Misaka."

"...Princess, why would you do something such as that?"

"Misaka was merely measuring your brainwaves and heart rate from the flow of your bodily electricity, responds Misaka immediately. There was no sexual meaning to it."

"Se-!?"

Kamijou thought his breathing was going to stop when he suddenly realized something.

(Huh? Does that mean I'm touching it? My hand is touching it? But I can't feel anything because of the anesthesia! Ahh, dammit! I can't move even a finger! God damn iiiiiiiiitttttt!)

"D-dammit...What misfortune...!!"

"Misaka does not see any irregularity in your speech centre, says Misaka expressing a matter of worry."

Misaka Imouto was as expressionless as ever.

The black cat mewed sleepily from beneath the bed.

Kamijou gave up on his pointless efforts and looked back at Misaka Imouto's face.

"Well, at least we both managed to return home after that."

Kamijou had said that lightly, but he truly meant it. He had to mean it because what would he have been risking his life fighting for otherwise?

"About that, replies Misaka." Misaka Imouto was petting the cat. "Misaka still cannot return to the same world as you, says Misaka honestly."

Kamijou's body started to tremble. Was that experiment still continuing?

"No, it is not that. The experiment seems to be headed to its end since Accelerator's defeat, thoroughly reports Misaka." Misaka Imouto fell silent for an instant. "The problem for Misaka is her own body, explains Misaka."

"Your body?"

"Yes. Misaka's body is a clone body created from the Original'sOnee-sama cells and it was rapidly grown with the use of various chemicals, explains Misaka. Cellular clones have shorter life spans to begin with and that rapid growth only made it shorter, says Misaka hoping you will understand."

"..."

Kamijou was left speechless.

That was just too much. They had all finally worked together to free her from that hell and now they could not be together no matter what they chose because of the girl's short lifespan.

The girl had fought without complaining even once, but in the end, she had nothing left no matter how hard she struggled.

"So it is necessary for Misaka to temporarily stay in a research facility in order to be adjusted...Are you listening? asks Misaka as she glares at you."

"Hah? Adjusted?"

"Yes. By adjusting the hormone balance that brought on the accelerated growth and by adjusting the nucleus division rate, Misaka's life span can be recovered to a certain extent, replies Misaka. ...Hello? By any chance, did you just assume the story was over here? questions Misaka."

"Will this adjustment thing heal you?"

"...You seem to be implying that Misaka would not be healed, says Misaka in a displeased manner."

The cat below the bed mewed.

"Misaka will be going."

Misaka Imouto picked up the slightly frightened black cat and headed for the door.

"Ah, wait. You're going already?"

"Do not worry." Misaka Imouto did not turn back around. "You will see Misaka soon, announces Misaka."

"I see," said Kamijou as he closed his eyes.

That was fine. If they made any kind of special promise, it would give him the feeling he would never see her again. Instead, he was just going to see her soon and he truly believed that. That more casual parting was much better.

The story was not over.

There was enough still to come that he would remember that day as being nothing special.

In the darkness of his closed eyes, he heard the sound of the door closing.

He was then assaulted by a drug-induced sleepiness.

Even so, Kamijou smiled as he dreamed of the time he would see her again.

The next time he opened his eyes, day had come.

"Oh, are you awake?"

Misaka Mikoto had said that. Her face was thickly covered with weariness, but she still smiled.

"Here, I brought you some cookies. I chose some pretty expensive ones from the basement of a department store, so they might be kind of good. Tell me what you thought of them later. If they aren't any good, I'll never go back to that store."

"Mh. If you're gonna go with cookies, homemade is best."

"...What kind of character do you think I am?"

"No, no. I'm talking about having a clumsy character clumsily doing her best to make some misshapen cookies. Well, you probably just don't understand."

"Again: what kind of character do you think I am!?"

Time passed as Kamijou and Mikoto argued back and forth. It made Kamijou happy to be able to spend that usual time while being in that usual world.

"Oh, right. Misaka Imouto came by last night."

Kamijou told Mikoto what had happened the night before. He told her that Misaka Imouto was staying at another research institution to heal her body and that she had promised to come back to Kamijou someday.

"I see."

That was all Mikoto said.

Her eyes narrowed as if she was watching over something precious to her, but there were some shadows floating in her eyes.

Mikoto had managed to stop the experiment.

And she had managed to save the lives of almost 10,000 Sisters.

But she had not managed to save the lives of the other Sisters.

Due to the DNA map she had carelessly shared, 20,000 Sisters had been born solely to be killed. That truth would weigh on her back for the rest of her life. Even if no one else blamed her for it and everyone in the world forgave her for it, she would still carry that around with her for the rest of her life.

"But," Kamijou muttered and Mikoto silently looked over at him.

Her eyes were like those of a child left alone in a strange city, but Kamijou was not looking at them.

"If you hadn't shared your DNA map, the Sisters would never have been born in the first place. There may have been a lot wrong with that experiment, but I think the birth of the Sisters is something you should be proud of."

Mikoto remained silent for a bit.

Finally, she poke in a voice that sounded like a child who was about to cry.

"...Even though over 10,000 Sisters were killed due to me?"

"Even so," Kamijou responded.

Saying painful things were painful and that difficult things were difficult was something that anyone could do, but they could not do them if they had never been born.

"I'm sure the Sisters do not resent you. There were a lot of twisted aspects to that experiment, but I'm sure they're thankful that they were born."

Mikoto's breath caught in her throat.

Seeing her face, a small smile appeared on Kamijou's anesthetized face.

"So it's okay for you to smile. The Sisters don't want you alone to be down like this. The Sisters you wanted to protect are not so small-minded that they would be satisfied with having their pain forced onto someone else, right?"

When he awoke again, it was three o'clock. That was the time for snacks.

However, Kamijou did not get a chance to eat the cookies he got from Mikoto.

This was because Index was staring at him from extremely close range from atop the bed.

"Touma, don't you have something to say?"

".............................Um, good morning?"

The instant he made that joke, she bit down on his entire head. His body twitched around on the bed like he was being shot with a stun gun. Index was fully in kill mode and a cry escaped Kamijou's lips like that of a cat having its tail stepped on.

"Wait! Wait!! My injuries this time aren't something to joke about! And weren't you worried at all about your landlord!?"

"I was worried!" Index yelled.

Kamijou's breathe caught in his throat when he heard her yell like a stubborn child.

"...I was worried," Index said once more.

She stopped biting Kamijou's head and wrapped her arms around his head like it was a pillow.

Kamijou thought for a bit.

What if their situations had been reversed?

What if Index had been doing such absurd things without him knowing and she had ended up in the hospital? How much would he blame himself for remaining peacefully carefree without her discussing any of it with him?

"I'm sorry," Kamijou said.

"It's fine," Index said as she let go of his head and smiled.

There was a definite difference between Kamijou and Index.

She was the kind of person who did not simply get angry. She was also able to smile.

"And Touma, once again, once again, once again, you kept the problem all to yourself. If you don't discuss these things with me, I'm gonna have to give you a serious lecture."

"Ah ha ha," laughed Kamijou so he did not have to give an actual response.

He had to hide the fact that he had lost his memories.

"Hoo. Well, discussing it any more won't help anything. So what were you fighting for, Touma?"

"Hm?" Kamijou said to check what Index had said before responding. "For myself."

And so, his usual everyday life began again on that day.

Kamijou Touma walked down the usual path without turning back to the past.

If the dream of the future he had dreamt involving Misaka Imouto ended up actually happening, that was great. And if it didn't, that was fine, too.

All that mattered was that the future was so happy for Misaka Imouto that it surprised her.