A Rare Day Off

Chapter 5: Confessions...

At long last, another chapter. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it works

As usual, not my anime, not my characters, just my fanfiction

It took awhile because I had to rewatch the early episodes to refresh what we laughingly call my memory...

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To recap the last chapter:

"Index, I can never thank you enough for everything today. It is getting a little late, but I would still love to please hear the story of how you and Kamijou met. I will send him a text telling him we are together and that I will treat both of you to dinner tonight. I would love for you to meet some of my friends tonight too. Would that be ok? Please?"

Index considered things for a few moments. She knew she wasn't supposed to discuss things like that, but she and Misaka were now good friends and she knew she could trust her. Plus, food! And Misaka was looking at her with those big eyes that are hard to resist.

"OK, Misaka. Let him know and set a time for dinner and I'll tell you the story."

"Let me just send these texts really quickly..." Misaka sent out two texts, with the second one going to a certain boy...

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"Misaka, you could say that, like many of the people he knows, I just fell into Touma's life. Literally. You need to know some of my background. Now, as you have trusted me to keep your secrets, I will trust you to please keep mine. What I am about to tell you is not known to many and just by knowing it, your life can be endangered if certain people find out you know."

"What's a few more enemies?" Misaka responded. "I promise to keep your secrets to my grave."

"Thank you," replied Index. "As I told you before, my name is Index Librorum Prohibitorum..."

Misaka interrupted her, "I'm sorry, but is that your real name?"

Index blushed. It was her turn to blush and whisper. "I honestly do not know. My memories have been tampered with on orders of the church for many years by two of the Church's Magicians. So, for all intents, my name is Index."

"Tampered with?! That's horrible! It sounds like something a certain Level 5 I know would do." Misaka actually started growling under her breath.

"Misaka, let me tell you my story to clarify things a little. It all begins when I was younger. Somehow, I became a ward of the Church. It became evident that I had an ability: I remember everything I see. Perfectly. You would call it 'Photographic Memory'. The Church decided to take advantage of this by having me memorize all of the prohibited magical grimoires in the world, to protect anyone else from reading them."

"How many books as that, Index?"

"103,000 books."

Misaka choked. "Ha, ha, how many?"

"All 103,000 of them. That is the entire number of banned or forbidden grimoires in the world and I needed to take them in and hide them inside myself. I travelled the world, memorizing them, I've been told, but I have no memory of this. My memories only start from when I arrived in Japan a few months ago. Everything else is gone."

"How horrible!" exclaimed Misaka. "Index, if I may ask, how old are you to have done so much?"

"I.. I'm not sure Misaka. But I think I'm around 15 years of age, based on what some of the Magicians have said. I truly do not know. [Embarrassedly] I'm not very womanly in figure, so it's hard to say..."