July 19th.

Three significant events took place on this day. Three events that should have never happened according to the endless conversation of the Strings, of Energy, of everything the worlds were compromised of.

"This wasn't planned" inside a giant tube filled with an orange liquid within the large closed off space of a windowless building, floated a person upside down.

It's long silken white hair waved with the current of bubbles rippling through the fluid. The person's apathetic eyes watched into the distance, seeing what couldn't be seen through a network of carefully woven sparks that coursed alongside the billions of ley lines beneath the ground of Academy City.

Through the night a thunder struck.

It was the bridge connecting one city side side with the other, nothing special aside from its red color and the two people currently on it and the fact that smoke was rising from burned metal.

The stench of burned flesh was slowly filling the air and of the two occupants atop the man-made construction one stared in wide wonder of what just happened.

"I-I won" nothing more than a mumble escaped her lips, slightly parting, gradually widening until the corners turned upwards "Oh my gosh! I won! I won!" Delicate fingers covered the girl's mouth at first but they quickly flew upwards when the brown haired girl's expressed her joy.

Jumping up from where she stood, she began to dance around her initial position like as if Christmas and Easter fell onto the same day and Santa Claus with the Easter Rabbit were going "Congratulation" alongside their countless minions just for her.

At least until the other occupant on of the bridge began to groan "Argh…you-you should better be grateful that I'm an Heaven Canceler or you'd have one more death on your account…" clutching his slightly burned arm the boy groaned once more, his face laying flat atop the still hot metal ground.

"Huh? Huh? Wait…wasn't your ability something…something that could cancel others?!" the girl stared at the slightly burned skin of the dark haired boys right arm -feeling only a little guilty, but not much- she pointed her finger at him, her lips quivering lightly.

His breathing was shallow but when he tried to steady his body enough to get up, he began to wobble "That's…what I wanted to tell you…I don't have it any longer" his huffs became louder, covering his words, the more he tried to stand up straight "Don' know why but…Guess it's your win, huh princess" when he felt sure that his mind calmed down enough he walked past the rubble that nearly burned him with its heat, past the smoking track from the blast earlier that nearly hit him.

A strange feeling of euphoria was growing in his belly, the pain in his right arm however wouldn't allow him to grin So this is how it feels to be lucky he thought passing the girl.

Strange…Is- is this how it feels to win? Her brown eyes followed the disappearing back of her opponent Why…Why a light redness invaded her cheeks while her lips began to curl upwards and twinkle appeared in both her irises "Why does it feel so~~good!? I have to tell Kuroko about this!"

And once more the girl started to jump and twist around the air.

"Index, wait! I beg you wait!" Her voice carried through the sullen air, moving fast past old and new buildings. No matter how many times it was needed to repeat these words, she was going to call out the one running from her ans many times possible.

The night in this city were illuminated by the light from all these business buildings, running atop their roofs gave both the chase and the chased an otherworldly glimmer.

"Index! I beg you!"

"I don't want to!"

Her eyes widened and her steps haltered a little. The girl in front of her spoke up for first time since they started this game of cat and mouse.

"I don't want to return! I don't want them to erase my memories again! I don't want to forget Kaori!" The tears streaming down those pale cheeks illuminated by the artificial light of the city had a beauty that once again shook the the chaser's resolve.

"Then what am I supposed to do? I don't want you to die!" Really, what was she supposed to do? It hurt, it hurt right in her chest…that very thought of Index forgetting her was already close to unbearable, so she didn't dare imagine what a world without the younger girl would be. A brief notice was given to the edge of the roof that was approaching.

Right before the abyss the girl stopped "I don't want to…I just don't want to forget you again…" if it hadn't been for her extraordinary hearing, she might have missed the words the light blue haired nun whispered – she might also have missed the light quivering of the younger girl's body.

"Why?! Why d I need to forget and make you all sad over and over again?! Why do I need to make Kaori cry every time?! I-I" the girl turned around to face her, hands clutching above the younger girl's heart, tears fell freely onto the white nun robe she wore with her voice cracking at the end of her sentence. And the older one felt her own eyes moistening.

"I-I understand your feelings-…But" she just couldn't will herself to continue.

"I don't want you to be sad anymore…I don't! I can't bear to be ripped apart from you again!"

With each following word the little nun spoke her resolve crumbled "I-I…what about you? When -If we don't use the rite then…then- I can't live in a a world where I have to see you die! Not if I can safe you-…even…even if it is against your will…" She couldn't bear to see her friend leave her like that again,

"But there has to another way! A way that I don't need to throw away my memories! I-I- The time we spent together, laughed together, cried together…The times when we went to the national library together or the other day when we went to the zoo -there are so many things that you can only experience in real life- the time-...the ti we nursed each other when we became sick, even if it was mostly me. And when we went to the sea…just us two…" she cried, even screaming and Kaori wanted nothing more than to hold her and never let go "I don't want-…to let go of the time we spent together anymore! I want to life a normal life with all of you! The-There has to be a way…"

Not knowing what else to say, the taller one didn't more but only said the one truth she knew, even if her voice was becoming hoarse "But…there isn't…"

The desire to ram her blade into her guts was so intense when she said those words, when she heard those sobs of her friend, that the only thing that kept her from doing so were those sincere tears and those eyes full of affection that looked at her "There always is"

The shorter girl stepped backwards -closer to the edge- yet those strong emotions twirling within those jade colored eyes shoe with an intensity that the taller female never saw before "You never know until you try- maybe here we might be able to find a solution.

Do you know where we are?"

Kaori's eyes widened.

"Even if the magic side can't do a thing, maybe the science side- this very Academy City might be able to find a way- You will find a way, Kaori" the raw emotions the smaller girl convey with her words were so strong, that firm believe in her and that Kaori will find a way to break free from these shackles – it numbed her.

Why? How can she believe in me so much? But her friend leaned backwards over the edge.

Immediately all alarm signals within her went off and her whole body accelerated after the slowly falling girl.

"I love you Kaori"

And she fell.

"INDEX!"

Tears fell from her eyelids like an endless downpour of rain whilst her mind only repeated those last words over and over.

Her mouth felt dry, her hands began to sweat uncomfortably and her feet carried her too over the edge of the building. However she realized midair that in her internal strife too much time passed and therefore couldn't make out her friend within the darkest sides of this normally artificially lighted Academy City.

She crashed into the concrete in some back alley all while still looking far a sign of her friend having fallen close by, but the side that greeted her in this place was more than enough to make the blood boil.

In the middle of the alley stood a boy with pale skin and white hair whose hand impaled the body of a much younger appearing girl…the body exploded but his appearance was untouched by the red liquid.

The girl had looked around Index age -only having brown hair-…

That girl could have been Index…

The albino looked at her. She looked back Everything that could endanger Index needs to be eliminated with a firm mind set on that thought Kaori readied herself.

It had been a while since she was allowed to sleepover at her best friend's place, even if the two of them were practically together all the time -sometimes at the flower head's work place- and had plenty of sleepovers the past few weeks.

It still made her happy that she and Uiharu were progressing smoothly.

"Why are you laughing? Lemme guess, you imagined something perverted again, right?" the girl next to her -with that same flower band in her hair as when they first met- looked at her with mild amusement, swinging the shopping bag with it's obviously not yet delicious contents with both hands from side to side.

"Sorry, sorry. But isn't the perverted one of us two…you?" she laughed lightly at the pouting expression on her friend's face "Oh come on, Uiharu don't make that face now or else you're making me want to mess with you again!" the flower head continued to pout which made her feel a little bit guilty but before she could say or do anything both of them heard a loud thud followed by the sound of a few trash bins getting thrown over,

the flower headed girl immediately looked for the source and the slightly taller girl helped – but she only needed to look to her side to see something move in one of the many side streets of this city.

Her eyes widened slightly when she saw a white form laying not far from them on the ground. She grabbed the other girl's attention with her silence who looked at her first before following the line of side to the white form.

"Oh my gosh! Saten-san! Come quick!" the girl started to run to the unconsciousness appearing body, pulling Saten along with her to examine whoever or whatever landed there. On closer notice she became aware that it was a nun that was laying on top of waste that probably cushioned the strangers fall.

Wondering where the stranger could have fell from, her eyes turned upwards, but the district they were at had mostly only dormitories and business buildings that were to high for a normal human to survive a fall off. Her attention returned to Uiharu who tried to wake up the strange girl and also checked for ay injuries.

"I think she only lost consciousness after landing, it's a wonder that she doesn't seem to have any outer wounds. But we should make sure that she doesn't have any internal wounds…Let's take her to an hospital firs Saten-san!" Saten had always been impressed with how fast her friend was able to cope with situations and how she got right to business- but she agreed and extended her right ahdn to help Uiharu pick up the unconsciousness nun.

"Two things you shouldn't do" a male voice suddenly spoke up and something came shooting at them.

Saten barely had been able to register what was happening, so her body reacted on reflex.

The flames that were trying to engulf them, with it's brilliant colors, its firy nature that turned all those who lost themselves in admiration to ash, disappeared around her right palm.

When the heat subdued and the temperature cooled down again, the figure of a long red haired male in a black priest attire appeared.

"One, you shouldn't bring her to one of your hospitals. We aren't from this city and she will likely be send out of this god-foresaken city with your doctors doing nothing. Secondly, you shouldn't mess with the affairs of the church" flames appeared around his palm once more "or else you're going to get purged."

The male approached them. Therefore Saten out of pure instinct positioned herself in front of Uiharu and the nun "Hey! Why did you attack us out of nowhere? You could have asked all nice and friendly!"

He looked at her in surprise, his head slowly turned to the side -partly to light the cigarette with his summoned flame- "Sorry, you are right,- It's just that that kid has been running from us the whole day and I'm already on edge…so could you return her to me?"

He smiled, but Saten could see by the way his lips curled that it was a forced one "Sorry, but we refuse!"

He once again looked a her surprised, then confused, the cigarette at the corner of his teeth began to quiver "Like I said, you could have asked nicely but instead you threw whatever it was at us and even said it yourself: She ran from you. That's more than reason enough to refuse to hand her over to you."

Uiharu still listening to the on going conversation wasn't sure what to make out of this situation -Saten-san's strange display of bravery, even if her fingers and legs trembled, or the stranger that suddenly attacked them. It was a little confusing but she remained calm. She pulled out her portable computer and did what she always does – Find a way out.

"Look, could you stop making this more complicated than it is and just hand her over – I promise that I won't cause you or her any harm." he tried to reason with her, knowing fully well what could happen to him if her even so much as accidentally burn one strand of hair on the nuns head -He shuddered at the thought-

"I refuse"

But it became harder for him to remain calm "Don't say I didn't warn you!"

Right when he readied his flame at shoot it at them, a large tremor followed by various explosions broke through the tranquil night sky.

The man immediately turned to the closest flash "No way-…Kanzaki-san!" The read head screamed when his sight was blinded by the set closest flash.

"Now is our chance!" Uiharu's voice broke through the noise into her ears. Not one to wait for second chance Saten grabbed the nun's right shoulder with her left while Uiharu mirrored her action on the other.

They made a run for it.

The red head shook his head a few times to ease the thumbing in his head and quickly spun his head back to where the girls should have been. They weren't there any longer.

Ruffling his hair in frustration he thought of two things then: They still had time until the date of the rite. And he might as well check out what kind of monster Kanzaki-san fought that forced her to nearly go all out.

He walked through the back alleys, passing a few lightly damaged buildings and a larger quantity of totally wrecked ruins that once were branches of proud businesses.

After a short while and marveling how much destruction was caused without killing anyone, he found the person her was looking, bleeding and slumped against a crushed wall "Kanzaki-san!"

"Stiyl…" the woman leaned forward in an attempt to stand up, but was stopped by the arriving red head.

"What the hell were you fighting against to end up like that?" his voice didn't hold any compassion towards her, but the bleeding woman couldn't care less "Just fighting against this cities strongest monster…"

"Huh?"

She looked at him, her eyebrows lightly raised and a smile on her lips that the red haired hadn't seen since the first time of Index's rite.

"Stiyl,…looks like I've won…"

He wouldn't get to understand the true meaning of those words until much later.

That day July 19th had three major events…however only one was widely know to have spread out within the city.

July 19 th.

The day Academy Cities strongest was defeated by an outsider and hospitalized with heavy wounds.

However that lead to an unexpected meeting of two individuals that would afterward forge a strange yet special friendship.

Supernatural Rejector Saten

by

Sha Yurigami

Sue me for writing this but I wanted to jump on the newest bandwagon and do an alternative that was spinning around in my head for a long time.

Give me a little feedback (R&R) and I consider writing more...

By the way if you are wondering about the pairings, it should be pretty obvious given the guy(me) who wrote this story. And last ut not least, if you're wondering just what the f

f*ck was going on with Touma during this chapter...he won't get an important role inthis story so he doesn't need a certain power anymore XD (And yes I did try to find an Ability that (actually) exists in the T aru world that fits him the best_well just await the backgroundstory of June 12th.



Until next time,

Yours dear

Sha Yurigami