In the space of 12 hours, Haru suffered multiple life-threatening injuries. Namely, getting hit by a full-fledged lightning from the sky. Who knows how many volts and amperes that lightning had. Misaka was careful not to directly hit him with lightning (or he would have been killed), but by goodness did that hurt. And 10 hours later, after absolutely no medical treatment, he got his jaw fractured with a (literally) air shattering punch.
At this point he did not care about deportation; he cared about his life. He checked himself into a hospital, and now was currently sitting on his bed, eating his breakfast, after an extensive treatment and a nice nap. While his injuries were not serious to the point where he needed to rewire his jaw, he still needed medical attention, and after some repairs, he kinda sounded like Al Pachino when speaking.
Touma Kamijou, upon learning that Haru fed Index the other day, and after witnessing his actions to protect Index (Although, the main reason Sanlaf kidnapped Index in the first place was because of her interaction with Haru, and Sanlaf theorized that Haru cared about her to an extent, although few made this connection), decided to pay him a visit to the hospital along with Index. The funny thing was that Haru was currently residing in the same room Touma himself rested within several times.
"So, Kamijou," Haru said while taking a sip of his drink. "That ability of yours, it's interesting. How did you manage to shatter Sanlaf's shields? Not even bullets can penetrate a well set shockwave barrier."
The room they were currently in had soft sunlight shining through, vines and their leaves using window as their support, becoming part of the overall view. It gave Haru a comforting feeling, in a way.
"It's my right hand." Touma stared at his hand while replying. "Imagine Breaker—it has an ability to break anything supernatural, even divine blessings."
Imagine... Breaker?
"One minute, the name itself is confusing to me." Haru straightened up on his bed. "You have this power—which is only located on your right hand—that can break imagination?"
"Weird way of describing it, but yeah."
The entire concept sounded way too odd for him. The conclusion he came up with made too much sense. Was Touma's ability some sort of inside joke?
"... Kamijou." Haru replied after a deep thought. "Is this Imagine Breaker... an euphemism for masturbation?"
A short, awkward silence ensued before being interrupted by Touma's sputter.
"Touma..." an angry Index slowly bared her fangs. Red lights glowed from her eyes.
"Whoa, hold on! Why are you angry with this innocent Kamijou-san? I didn't do anyyyyythiiiiinnnggggg!" he screamed and dragged out the last word of his sentence the moment Index began to bite his head in anger. "FUKOU DA!"
A few minutes later Haru managed to calm Index down by offering his share of breakfast to her. Pacified, Index began to devour his food while Touma massaged his head.
"So, um, sorry about that." Haru scratched his head, looking regretful. "Probably shouldn't have asked that question. Does it hurt much?"
"Eh, well, I'm used to it." Touma sighed, bite marks around his head comically visible. "So, that's my power... What about yours? I assume you have some sort of doppelganger ability?"
Touma saw two mirror images of Haru appearing in the swift battle before.
"Bit close," Haru leaned back, hands behind his head. "Have you ever heard of Theoretical Particles?"
"I've heard about them."
"Well, what our universe is exactly composed of is the question humanity have been searching for eons. Then atoms were discovered, and a long while later, electrons. Flipped the entire world upside down. And in an increasingly teasing way, the deeper we looked, the more incomprehensible and mind-blowing answers and solutions were just beyond our reach. That's where the theoretical particles come in; particles that should theoretically exist if our predictions in our scientific knowledge were correct, and would be able to give the answers we were looking for. Strangelets, Gravitons, Preons, etc. Tachyon is one of them, and I have the ability to control them to an extent."
"Tachyon?"
"A theoretical particle that can travel only faster than light. It is still theoretical as no one managed to produce one in labs as of now. I can kinda control the relationship between causes and effects with this. Let's give an example." sitting up straight, Haru clasped his fingers together under his chin. "Someone named A sends a message to someone named B. B receives the message. Now, using tachyons, A sends a message to B again. However, as tachyonic particles exceed the speed of light, B receives the message even before the message is sent. Should be impossible, hmm? Which brings up a philosophical question: is there even a free will? At this point, who dictates when the message is exactly sent?"
"So it's basically a time traveling power."
"If you want to put it that way, then yes."
"That sounds... pretty powerful actually." Touma looked impressed. "I mean, you virtually can do anything with time travel. Go back in time, go to the future, all sorts of stuff."
"I wish Time Travel was that simple." Haru smiled in bittersweet way. "The only way I can travel through time is when I transform into actual tachyon particles themselves. That action alone greatly drains my energy as trying to completely control the actions of wildly scattering faster than time particles is incredibly annoying and frustrating. Right before transmigration (as I call it) I have to make tons of calculations surrounding Standard Model, General Relativity, Special Relativity, and more. A slightest miscalculation will result in tachyon particles scattering in all different direction, leaving me divided infinitely along the space and time for eternity... Fortunately, that's the worst case scenario, where the chance of that happening is near non-existent with the limits I have placed myself in. The longer the distance of time I go back, the more calculation it requires, and more room for error can occur, equaling the larger possibility of me being screwed. The longest, or farthest I should say, I have ever risked is a single day, I think. And finally, I have a self-made rule never to travel back in time to undo my mistakes."
"I don't see any reason why you shouldn't, to be honest." Touma looked intrigued.
"Alright, lets give an example..." Haru paused for a moment. "Congratulations Touma, it's your birthday!"
"But today is not my birthday." Touma literally did not know when his birthday was, due to his memory loss. "I mean, I'm almost completely sure it isn't."
"It is your birthday for the argument's sake." Haru waved that detail aside. "A genie appears and gives you a time machine for your present. You can go anywhen you want. And you decide to go back in time and kill Hitler before WW2."
"But I don't think I would want to use my first time travel to kill someone..."
"Details, details. You go to 1920's, and before Hitler publishes his book, Mein Kampf, you kill him. And then you come back to the present time. Do you follow me?"
"I think."
"Alright... But now what? This whole situation becomes a paradox. Who knows what will happen after you change the natural course of history (or if there even is a 'natural' course of history). You have serious problems in your hands now."
"Alright, now I am confused." Touma replied. "I don't see the problem here."
"Okay, let me explain. Why did you enter the time machine and go to 1920's?"
"To kill someone."
"Alright, and you succeeded. But now, you no longer have any reason to go back to 1920's and kill him, since he is now already dead in this modified timeline."
"But..." Touma interrupted. "I would remember that I went back in time to kill Hitler, right?"
"Ah, but how do you know? You are playing with time, a dangerous game. No one knows the rules. Is there a single, unified timeline? Do you even remember what you did while you traveled back in time? Do non-time travelers even remember the original timeline? Are there multiple universes, filled with what ifs and what could have been?"
"There is also a possibility of you not being born due to the actions you took while you are in the past." Index said in the midst of her meal.
"Index brings up a good point. You can potentially destroy yourself in this process. How would anyone risk anything in this situation?" Haru leaned back, sly smile upon his lips. "No one dares to mess with time, lest they doom themselves. I assume you have dealt with magicians, Touma, seeing you are accompanying Index."
Touma stared at Haru in surprise. "You know about magicians?"
Haru let out a bitter laugh. "Touma, I'm in one of their top hit lists. The mere thought of someone who can alter time without the need of magic shakes them in their boots. They wish to control time all by themselves, and time magic is one of the most heavily guarded secrets of the grimoires; those who could control time and space are the supremacists who could control history. Of course, the trick is to somehow use it without causing an unwanted chain of events, easier said than done. Every single thing you do while traveling through time, even the action of simply existing outside of your normal timeline, causes an anomaly. You can't prevent that. You forfeit any right of keeping the timeline 'normal' the moment you travel through time. Many schools of magic have pondered this problem and have failed. Sure, one could travel through time and make yourself not able to interact with the occurring events, like some sort of ghost, perhaps by using pocket universe trick; but that already defeats the purpose of time travel, unless your goal is knowledge, not manipulation." Haru looked up. "To be able to manipulate time to do your bidding... who would oppose you?"
Well, except for Imagine Breaker, Haru supposed. If his right hand can negate any supernatural ability...
Could it negate the alteration of timeline events? What then?