Fanfic / A Certain Strange Addition

"What would happen if Touma's actions during the Graviton Bombings were discovered by the rest of Mikoto's friends. Just how much more misfortune and craziness can the unlucky Kamijou get involved in when he is essentially dragged into Judgement? Judgement!Touma fanfic. Harem with Touma x Mikoto focus (obviously). English dub terminology."

A Certain Strange Addition is a alternate universe fic for A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun by Animan10 in which Misaka brings the rest of the Railgang to meet Touma at the vending machine in the aftermath of the Graviton bombings, and ensures that he gets the credit he deserves. As a result, Uiharu and Konori recruit him into Judgement and both the Railgun and Index cast become much more involved in each others events, alongside many other changes.

Divergences so far have been small, though Word of God has stated that become larger later on.

Beware of Unmarked Spoilers!

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A Certain Strange Addition provides examples of:

• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • While Accelerator's actual motivation for participating in the experiment is rooted in the same belief as in canon, believing that sufficient power will stop people from challenging him, here it's explained by his friend Touma that rather than boredom, he's always hated how he hurts people when he fights and wants to find a way to just stop causing such pain. Notably, Accelerator himself privately acknowledges that, despite his act he can't really deny the guy's reasoning. What's more it's implied that the reason he went through with this is so that it will give him a chance to find and reconnect with his old friend without any interruptions.
  • STUDY is a downplayed example at first. Their motives are expanded upon, with it being established that in previous years their members developed many beneficial technological advancements, one of which included groundbreaking nanobots for medical treatment. While they still commit the same crimes as in canon, they all show sincere regret at how far they've strayed from their goals of helping people in the aftermath and are grateful for the opportunity to work as R&D for Judgement and Anti-Skill.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: The basic premise of the story is that Touma meets up with the Railgang, when at most he knew them in passing in canon.
  • As a result of frequently interacting with Touma, Misaka grows out of her habit of zapping him whenever she gets flustered, being much more amiable and even exchanging good natured ribbing frequently. The two also get a lot more Ship Tease, to the point that they seriously talk about dating by the time of the Three Stories Arc.
  • As opposed to the outright disdain she had for him in canon, Kuroko is willing to be professional with Touma as her patrol partner, and as time goes on develops genuine respect and comradery with him - and at points even wonders about romantically being with him and Mikoto.
  • In canon Touma and Accelerator do not interact for over ten volumes after the Sisters Arc, and while there is some begrudging respect, they don't develop much of a relationship until New Testament. Here the two were childhood friends who fell out of contact after a particularly nasty incident involving Yuri's (Accelerators real name here) ability and the escalating responses that ended with him willingly going to a research facility. Upon hearing about his brain damage Touma goes to visit him in the hospital to try and reconnect, even sharing the details of his own memory loss.
  • The relationship between Touma and Mugino in canon is practically nonexistent. Here they are brother and sister and quickly settle into their old roles, while being protective of one another.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Near the end of the Sisters Arc, after deciding to die against Accelerator in an attempt to end the experiment, Misaka has her encounter with Touma at the bridge, during which she offhandedly reveals her feelings for him.
• Badass Normal: Touma doesn't have any special power save for Imagine Breaker, making him this. This is the reason why Judgement's R&D likes to make him their prototype field tester: since he doesn't have any Esper powers, he can be counted on to use the prototypes, acting as the baseline for its use for other people.
• Bash Brothers: After resuming their friendship Touma and Accelerator prove to be an effective team in combat, showing a good understanding of each other's strengths and assuming tasks suited to their respective abilities with minimal communication.
• Big Damn Heroes: Touma's class for Judgement during the Silent Party Arc climax, as they join the battle with their paintball guns and help turn the tide against the robots. This, in turn, allows Touma to do the same for Mikoto.
• Big Sister Instinct: Mugino for her younger brother Touma, being violently protective of him against bullies when they were younger. This unfortunately led to an incident where she threatened some remorseful boys who wanted to apologize and thank him after she mistook their intentions. She also mentioned she chased off girls interested in him when he was younger, to his indignation.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Mikoto uses Touma's "Rotten luck" when she finds herself in the same room as Accelerator, Shizuru, and Last Order with no way to get out of it. She uses it again when he asks her, along with Saten and Uihari, to tell his sister, Shizuru that he won't be home when he has to leave Academy City briefly, which is essentially a suicide mission.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Mikoto and Shizuru crack up laughing when Last Order disconnects Accelerator from the Misaka Network, causing him to collapse to the ground.
• Crocodile Tears: Komoe knows her class hates seeing her sad, and exploits this when Yuri ignores her during class. The class death glares at him hard enough that he feels genuinely threatened and stops the attitude.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Accelerator's motive to reach Level 6 is to make sure that no one will hurt him again and to look for his Childhood Friend Touma so that they reunite once again. 10,032 murders later and he has forgotten why he killed the Sisters, his desire for peace warped into a desire for absolute power. Touma manages to beat some needed sense into him.
• Dramatic Irony: Touma tries to make Index promise not to tell his sister Shizuri any sensitive information while left alone with her, unaware that Index had already told her all about magic the night before.
• Famed In-Story: It doesn't take long for Touma to become quite known in Academy City as Judgement's "Certain Strange Addition".
• Fastball Special: Touma namedrops the trope when he asks Accelerator to throw him against Taotie.
• Fights Like a Normal: Save for Imagine Breaker, Touma does not have any special abilities like a good part of the cast. He gets by quite well with his fighting skills (which include some judo training) as well as the ODD.
• Foil:
  • Touma is this to Saten. Both are Level 0's, but while Touma has Imagine Breaker Saten has no discernable ability. Touma was Born Unlucky and was sent to Academy City so that he could have a proper childhood whereas Saten came from a typical family home and volunteered to go in the hopes that she'd develop an ability after receiving a good luck charm. Finally, Touma is content to go through day-to-day life and had to be roped into joining Judgement while Saten actively seeks out adventure in the form of rumours and joins in on the bigger cases at Judgement.
  • Saten also serves as one to Mugino. The former is a Level 0 while the latter is a Level 5. While Saten moved out from her family (parents and younger brother) to Academy City in hopes of gaining an ability (with little success), Mugino moved there specifically to look out for her younger brother and the fact that she developed a high level ability was unexpected and something she was mostly indifferent to.
  • Aritomi acts as one to Touma, since the author felt he worked better as an antagonist for Touma than Misaka. Aritomi is a brilliant scientist that has made several inventions that would greatly benefit mankind in day to day life, yet is overlooked by the more fantastical elements present in Academy City, leaving him bitter that his genius is passed over for Esper development. Touma an Ordinary High-School Student who is content with day to day life and being unknown but has a power that only comes into effect when dealing with the supernatural, and has actually granted him some notoriety to the general populace of Academy City. The biggest difference is that while both want to use their gifts (scientific expertise and Imagine Breaker respectively) to help people, Aritomi's bitterness over being passed over led him down a darker path, while Touma continues to help people regardless of whether his efforts are noticed.
• Heroic Lineage: The Kamijou clan has been passing down the role of keepers of an important power that became Imagine Breaker when Touma inherited it. One of Touma's ancestors was able to disrupt Isaac Rosenthal's plots by using a more powerful version of Imagine Breaker that he could manifest in a circle around himself.
• Hover Board: During the Poltergeist Arc, Touma gets Kongou to apply Aero Hand to a metal board so he can use it as one when he needs to reach Mikoto on time. Judgement's R&D department gets inspired by this to create their own prototype, which they grant Touma during the Silent Party Arc climax so he can test it. As the kinks get worked out, it soon becomes Touma's main transport method - particularly to keep up with Kuroko during patrols.
• Innocently Insensitive: Alongside Misaka, Touma bitterly lampshades how his pep-talk to Saten about her trouble developing her ability was undermined by coming from someone with arguably the most unique ability in Academy City, despite supposedly being a fellow Level 0.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The climax of the Level Upper Arc sees Touma reassure Misaka that he'll make sure everyone goes home safely. Misaka thinks that at that moment, he looks like the protagonist from an anime, manga, or light novel - the three mediums of the Indexverse.
• Like Brother and Sister: Despite not being related, Touma and Index quickly settle into standard roles, with the former being protective of the naive girl, and Index outright stating she views him as a brother.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Part of Mugino's deal with Academy City is that while she does darkside jobs, they look after and give her updates on Touma's (her brother) wellbeing. Upon meeting him and realizing he doesn't recognize her, she investigates and discovers they kept his memory loss a secret, to her ire.
  • Touma himself must omit references to the Magic Side when speaking with her, though he's not happy about it. As of Chapter 62, she has gotten the full truth out of Index.
• Meaningful Name: A conversation between Aleister and Tsuchimikado implies that the Kamijou family got their name (which could mean "He Who Is Above God" part) for a very good reason, one related to Imagine Breaker.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Played for Laughs when Uiharu accidentally gives Kuroko that idea to form an OT3 between herself, Misaka and Touma, lamenting how she's turned her friend into an even worse pervert.
  • Accelerator has an even worse case of this than in canon, realizing not only were the clones he was murdering actual people but that in trying to continue doing so he attempted to kill Touma, his childhood friend and the one he was eager to reconnect with after the experiment.
• Named by the Adaptation: Yuri Suzushina is Accelerator's name in this fic.
• Never-Forgotten Skill: Touma had to use a broom as a makeshift weapon in the past. The muscle memory from those incidents stayed with him even after he lost his memory, making it a fairly simple matter to learn how to use a crowd control pike.
• The Nicknamer: Touma quickly comes up with several for the Railgang. These include 'Zapper' for Misaka (as per canon), 'Pigtails' for Kuroko, 'Headband' for Uiharu, and 'Flipper' for Saten (owing to her habit of flipping Uiharu's skirt).
• Not So Above It All: Aleister Crowley, the most powerful magician in the world, one of the greatest Chessmasters in the setting and chairman of Academy City who faces the regular attempts to destroy his plans with careful manipulations while never losing his composure makes sure to scrub STUDY's files on Imagine Breaker so Touma and co. don't find anything that could derail his plans.... by replacing them with a gif of tapdancing monkey in a top hat. Even better, the narration implies this isn't the first time he's done so.
• Oblivious to Love: As per usual, Touma. Despite spending much more time around her, he still doesn't realize that Misaka has feelings for him at least until her Anguished Declaration of Love.
• The Paragon: Touma retains this attitude from canon, but also expanded to the antagonists of the Railgun series. For example, he gets Mugino to be less prone to violence during her work and convinces Aritomi to help stop his own plan and puts in a good word to give STUDY a chance to atone by acting as Anti-Skill's and Judgement's R&D.
• Porn Stash: Touma secretly buys lewd books and keeps them hidden in his bedroom. One day, Mugino discovers it and Touma has no choice but to lie by saying that Aogami brought those lewd books to his room and forgot to take them back on his way home. The day after, Touma is forced by Mugino to "return" the goods to Aogami, to the latter's surprise.
• Related in the Adaptation: Mugino is actually Touma's sister here.
• Serious Business:
  • The Delta Force runs a Shipper on Deck business for clients, and when told they have one, all three have a serious expression on their faces, with even Tsuchimikado making it clear he wouldn't joke about it.
  • Touma's class (in his own words) takes paintball very seriously, with their skills greatly aiding in the fight against STUDY's attack robots.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Saten greatly supports Touma x Misaka, even more so than in canon, thanks to knowing the two better.
  • The Delta Force is a professional version of this trope, being willing to help set up a couple for a client free of charge. Kuroko hires their services to help her dorm manager, and they quickly help set up numerous romantic situations for the woman while teasing out information about her crush's preferences.
• Shout-Out:
  • When the swimsuit photo shoot transitions to a yacht, Touma and Saten do the king of the world scene.
  • When the machine glitches and sends the group to a recreation of the Moon, they see a large black rectangular monolith. Touma instantly tells everyone to get as far away from the monolith as they can.
  • In her rematch against Touma, Misaka uses a large amount of iron sand to make several blades, and calls it Unlimited Blade Works.
  • During the Big Spider arc, upon hearing that a red-headed man defended Kongou from the thugs, Index suggests it may have been a magician who creates blades and fights for justice.
  • On their date, Touma and Misaka go to a place called Phantasm Carnival, known for their live-action skits.
  • Seeing Misaka use her powers to cling to the metal in walls, Shizuri wonders if she was bitten by a radioactive spider.
  • After a bullet grazes his side, Touma deflects Misaka's concern by pointing out it's better than when his arm was cut off and this was just a flesh wound. Saten comments that for the proper reference he should say that the arm loss was the flesh wound.
  • When scrubbing STUDY's files on Imagine Breaker, Aleister replaces them with a gif of a tapdancing monkey in a top hat, like a certain hacker looking out for his alien companions.
  • During the final chapter of the Necromancer Arc, Touma gets a glimpse of a draconic door hiding Imagine Breaker's true power, similar to the Door of Destiny.
  • Also from the Necromancer Arc, Shizuri uses her power to perform a Skyward Strike on one of the tentacles created by Isaac's golem.
• Supreme Chef: Living off cheap ingredients has given Touma great skill in making even basic meals taste much better. So, when he starts to live with his sister, he can take advantage of the better budget to make great dishes.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Misaka and Mugino do not get along at all, but both watch each other's back in the fight against Sherry Cromwell's Golem, since Touma cares about them both and would be devastated if anything happened to them.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • Touma gets recognition for his job at Judgement. He has also become a favorite of Judgement's R&D team as he is quite good with prototype testing, since he doesn't rely on an Esper power.
  • Touma does not have to bear the full task of housing and feeding Index on his own, with the girl staying with Saten, and Misaka offering some of her Level 5 funds to cover food costs, leaving him with more financial stability than in canon.
  • To help them reconnect, Mugino buys a shared apartment for herself and Touma, which is much larger, has better facilities, and being a Level 5 she is easily able to cover the cost.
  • Later on, Touma discovers that his sister has deposited an ample amount of money in his bank account, a rare stroke of good luck.
• Underestimating Badassery: Justified case with Mugino to her brother Touma, since she last knew the latter as a child, has only second-hand accounts of his feats, and likely assumes many are exaggerated.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: A downplayed case with Touma and Accelerator who frequently trade barbs whenever they interact, and finding humor in each other's (minor) misfortune. It's made clear though, that this is all in good nature, and the two are close enough to take it in stride. What's more, Touma is the only one Accelerator allows to call him Yuri.