Three Stories Arc

The Three Stories Arc is a story arc that occurs in the Toaru Majutsu no Index storyline. The arc focus on three separate event that happen on August 31; two stories focuses on Touma dealing with magicians while the other focuses on Accelerator dealing with the aftermath of the Level 6 Shift, which would mark the first time Accelerator is featured as a protagonist to the science side.

Etzali and the Kamijou Faction

 * Main Article: Etzali

A month before the events of the arc, Etzali was tasked to infiltrate the Kamijou Faction, after being deemed by his magic cabal, the Return of the Winged One, as a threat to the balance of the magic and science side. As such, he enters Academy City and later abducts Unabara Mitsuki, the grandson of Tokiwadai Middle School, in order for him to steal his image and form and to get closer to Misaka Mikoto, and eventually take her form and then later take down Kamijou Touma, however, he unexpectedly falls in love with her.

Aftermath of Level 6 Shift

 * Main Article: Level 6 Shift

After the defeat of Accelerator at the hands of Touma, the Level 6 Shift experiments involving the 20,000 sisters had finally ended. As a result, Amai Ao - investor and director of the experiment - is heavily indebted after the failure of the project and installs a virus into the 20001st sister Last Order. As part of a self-defense program, Last Order breaks out of her incubation chamber, and later seek the help of Accelerator.

Yamisaka Ouma

 * Main Article: Yamisaka Ouma

At an undetermined time prior to the beginning of the arc, Yamisaka Ouma had met a girl in the hospital whom had cursed markings over her body. Mistaking him for a funeral worker, the girl had several conversations with Ouma who had begun to realize that this girl was cursed to die and that she had accepted her inevitable fate. Over a period of time, Ouma began to fall in love with the cursed girl and seeked to save her life through magical means. On August 31st, he enters Academy city in hopes of extracting a grimoire from Index that will presumably save the life of the woman he loves.

Prelude
August 31, 12:00 AM. Touma discovers in the middle of the night that due to his excursion during the summer with the magic and science, he has yet to do any of his summer homework, with roughly 24 hours left for him to do it all.

Meanwhile, at the same as this, Accelerator passes by the Kamijou Residence after defeating a dew delinquents trying to attack after discovering that Accelerator has been beaten by a level 0. Accelerator notes that there is something different about him after being defeated by Touma. He later discovers one of the Radio Noise clones following her, Misaka 20001, also known as Last Order. She tells Accelerator that since he has connections with research, he might be able to contact them to help her as to get her to an incubator since her body is still incomplete, though Accelerator is apathetic about this, Last Order continues to follow him, eventually arriving at his apartment, where both she and Accelerator discover that it has been ruined by persons unknown. Regardless of this, Accelerator allows Last Order to stay in his apartment overnight; Accelerator later sleeps afterwards.

Fake Date
August 31, 8:00 AM.

Misaka Mikoto makes an attempt to enjoy her final day of summer vacation by (somewhat involuntarily) going out to buy a manga for Tsuchimikado Maika. As she heads out, the grandson of the director of Tokiwadai Middle School - Unabara Mitsuki follows her; she notes that he has been trying to follow her everywhere all week, and her attempts to discourage him has been a failure (since she cannot handle him the same way she does with any regular male who accosts her), and he is determined to accompany her wherever she plans on going, much to her frustration.

Meanwhile, Touma walks by near Tokiwadai Dormitory, where he is with Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Aogami Pierce. Here, Touma tries to convince them to help him out with his unfinished homework, however, they are obviously unconcerned about it, and their conversation devolves into their preferred female character archtypes.

Conveniently, Touma, Motoharu and Pierce happen to walk by Mikoto, and as a last ditch effort to rid herself of Mitsuki's company, Mikoto claims that she was waiting for Touma for a date. Which fairly surprises both Motoharu and Aogami, and putting Mitsuki in a state of dejection. However, several students in the Tokiwadai Dormitory, have also seen the event unfolding with Mikoto and Touma; most notably Shirai Kuroko who is shocked to see Mikoto with Touma, as well as the Tokiwadai Dorm Supervisor impressed at Mikoto's brazen choice of meeting with a boy in front of the dormitory. With this, Mikoto is forced to run away with Touma in her grasps.

After getting Touma to agree with her plan, Mikoto explains how she’s been continuously stalked by Mitsuki and decides to take the opportunity to convince him that she’s going out with Touma in order to get him to lose interest. Touma however, is unenthustiastic about it as he has yet to do his summer homework. After an embarassing situation with Mikoto involving hotdogs, Touma asks what they could do look like a real couple. In an effort to look more like a couple, Touma and Mikoto decide to have idle talk which eventually leads to Mikoto informing Touma that less than 10 sisters remain in Academy City after the events of the Sisters Arc while the rest are out getting bodily repairs outside of the city. After easily helping Touma with his homework, Mikoto leaves Touma to go get drinks; while waiting for Mikoto, Touma spots Mitsuki and engages in conversation (while having him help with his homework), quickly learning that he genuinely likes Mikoto.

Upset with the current situation, Mikoto scolds Touma for befriending Mitsuki; however Touma is able to convince her that Mitsuki has no ill intentions and suggest that they call off her their fake date. Mikoto becomes guilty and hurt because of this, though she reluctantly agrees but decides to treat Touma, to lunch before they part ways, as a way to repay for all he has done for her today. While Mikoto makes her way through the crowd of the fast food restaurant, Touma and Mistuki once again meet eachother; though while the two chat, Touma spots a man that looks exactly like Mitsuki running into the fast food restaurant. Touma suspects that Mitsuki has a twin brother but Mitsuki assures him that he is an only child. Meanwhile as Mikoto makes her way out of the restaurant, the Mitsuki lookalike frantically warns her to run, much to Mikoto’s confusion.

Outside the restaurant, Mitsuki suspects that the lookalike that Touma saw is the work of an esper with the ability to change appearance and kindly ask that Touma goes to check the situation. Touma agrees to go but as he runs off he is punched in the back by Mitsuki. Though confused with the situation - Touma deduces that the man he has been talking to is not Unabara Mitsuki but before he can make any sense of what’s going on, he is interrupted by a magical attack produced by a black dagger wielded by Mistuki. After seeing the scale of what the attack could do and as to not involve minimize innocent bystanders, Touma begins to run for his life hoping to lead him to a secluded location, while Mitsuki gives chase.

Fake Unabara Mitsuki
While being chased by the impostor, Touma calls Index to see if she is fine as well as ask her on how to defeat the magician. Index says that the magician is using a replica of the Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (an Aztec deity), which uses the light from the reflection of Venus to destroy things; Index states that Touma can use his right hand to block the attack. Touma also asks about how the impostor turned himself to Unabara Mitsuki, to which Index states that the Aztec practice the skinning of sacrifices so that they could wear them, however, Index states that if its only for a disguise the impostor only needs a small portion of it. After hearing this, Touma cuts-off Index after stating his disgust for magicians which Index found insulting.

With nowhere to go, Touma runs into an empty construction site with the impostor right behind him. To keep the impostor from using the obsidian spearhead, Touma quickly uses a shovel full of cement dust to cover the impostor. Now with his weapon reduced to an ordinary dagger, the impostor is forced to fight Touma on his terms, though with the dagger he still has an advantage. Even theWith his confusion, Touma is able to punch the impostor in the face, breaking his mask and revealing his face Touma. With the impostor down, Touma demands answers from him. The impostor tells Touma that he was sent to Academy City because his organization believes that a growing faction composed of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, power magicians, as well as a level 5, is threatening the balance the world; that is the Kamijou Faction, an unstable but influential group that can destroy the balance of the world. The impostor continues by saying that his true target isn't simply Touma but the entire members of the faction, and his method was to destroy the faction from within by dissolving the relationships between the members. Suddenly, the impostor grabs hold of his obsidian spearhead and wipes the cement dust off, and then prepares for another attack on Touma; he fumbles his attack however, hitting the steel girders above instead, and giving Touma an opening to punch his obsidian spearhead, destroying it in the process. While the building slowly collapses, Touma tells the impostor that he thought that he could be friends with him, though the impostor simply ridicule him for this; Touma asks the impostor if his feelings for Mikoto were false as well, to which the impostor responds by saying what is wrong for an impostor having feelings, and continues by saying that there is nothing wrong with an impostor like him for having feelings for Mikoto. The impostor states that he didn't want to do this, and it is all Touma's fault that he has to lie to Mikoto. At this point Touma realizes that the impostor actually likes Mikoto. With the impostor being resolute at being Touma's enemy, Touma declares that he will destroy his illusions. With that, both Touma and the impostor go head-to-head inside the empty construction site. However, while they fighting the entire structure of the building collapses, and steel girders hits the impostor even though Touma tried to save him. When the smoke clears, Touma finds himself unharmed between steel girders being magnetically balanced as to not crush him, to which Touma immediately thought it was Mikoto's doing. Touma then sees that the impostor is pinned down by the steel girders; with the magician defeated, the impostor warns Touma that attacks will continue and asks to protect Mikoto, to be whenever and wherever she needs Touma, which he obliges. Meanwhile, Mikoto overhears their conversation and blushes to Touma's reply.

August 31, 1:04 PM.

Yamisaka Ouma
August 31, 3:15 PM.

After his fight with Etzali, Touma continues to try and do his homework back at his apartment, and is later forced by Index to go out for dinner. Later, after both Touma and Index left the building, Ouma, a magician wearing an Azusayumi gauntlet on his right hand, successfully enters Academy City and arrives at the apartment complex looking for Index. He uses his magic to jump several storeys and attack Touma's dormitory, ruining it. However, he discovers that no one is home and later uses another magic spell to search her.

Meanwhile, Touma and Index is in a certain restaurant, where Touma is still struggling to finish his summer homework. However, Ouma discovers them and attacks Touma, destroying a part of the restaurant. Touma survives the attack by blocking it with his Imagine Breaker, which surprises Ouma as he did not expect it to happen, though he is thankful that there was no unnecessary deaths as a result of his action. Touma however, the homework he was working on as well, and demands Ouma to compensate for it, though he is unperturbed. Now with Touma confirming Ouma as a magician who is after the 103,000 grimoires within Index; he is forced to chase after Ouma who has kidnapped Index, and used an invisibility spell to escape the area. Ouma later takes a Index to the roof a high building, to start his ritual after tying her up.

While preparing for his ritual, Ouma discovers that Index has successfully untied some of her ropes, which impresses him. Index however, is determined to not yield to torture and not tell him any information, though Ouma says that he will not hurt her in anyway and begins setting up the ritual location. Meanwhile, Touma has yet to find any leads towards finding Index, however, he bumps into Mikoto again, whose memories of the promise he kept with Etazali is still fresh and is embarassed around him. However, Touma ignores her as he is too busy in finding Index, much to Mikoto's dismay.

Ouma has set up a replica of a Bon Odori stage as a ritual location to enhance the power of his bow, and allow him to read Index's mind and gaining access to one of the grimoires inside of her mind. Out of pure concern for Ouma, Index protests his decision, stating the fact that he would get hurt if someone other than her were to read a grimoire. However, Ouma knows very well what would happen, and is unbothered by this as he begins his spell to enter Index's mind. Meanwhile, Touma overhears their converstation by phone and discovers the building where Ouma is doing his ritual, as his ritual location appears brightly in the dark night. Seeing this, Touma decides to head there immediately.

The ritual starts, and Ouma is just barely capable of taking in the grimoire from Index; as a result of the grimoire, he bleeds everywhere. The grimoire he is searching for is the Baopuzi, an ancient grimoire originating from China that is said to be able to cure any disease. Ouma recounts on how he met a woman who has a cursed on her body and was fated to die, however, he has come to admire her accepting her cruel fate. Ouma however, denies to himself that he is not going through all this, just for the sake of saving that woman. However, Index argues that he is wrong; since the bow's power has been amplified his thoughts have also flowed into her, as such she knows how Ouma truly feels. Index states that Ouma has truly fallen in love with the woman in the hospital, and wanted to save her. However, since he has committed sins in order for her to be saved, Ouma convinced himself that he is not doing it for her sake as so she would not be the reason for him to commit those sins. Index then tells Ouma to not die if here if he wants to save her.

At that moment Touma arrives and dispels Ouma's ritual location. Touma scuffles and argues a bit with Ouma (who faints afterwards), and is later awoken by Sphynx's scratches on his face, as punishment for destroying Touma's homework. Here, Touma convinces Ouma to have him take him to the woman he is in love with, and explains to him that his power is the Imagine Breaker and can negate any curse it comes into contact with. Ouma agrees, and they embark to the outside of Academy City.

September 1, 12:00 AM.

In Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
In the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga, prior to the events of August the 31st, Kongou Mitsuko successfully transfers into Tokiwadai Middle School. She later gets lost while trying to find her dormitory and meets up with Misaka Mikoto who uses her as a way to get away from Unabara Mitsuki (Etzali) who has been stalking Mikoto since the 27th.

They later hang-out together and enjoy each other's company, all the while Mitsuko is completely unaware of Mikoto's identity as Level 5 (Mitsuko confuses her name as Unabara as well). They later part ways as Mikoto is forced back to return to her dorm, which somehow disappoints Mitsuko as she recalls that they were only pretending to be firends.