Anti-Skill's Most Wanted
Kuroko's life had become unsavorily more... deceitful lately. Granted, she was no stranger to being deceitful; she was the one who innocently feigned innocence after not-so-innocently making not-so-innocent advances on her dearly beloved Misaka after all. But this type of deceitfulness... It was an alien breed to her. Frightening, almost, for it was a breed with consequences. Consequences with which she had never dealt. She never wanted to deal with those kinds of consequences. They made her, someone with a will of iron, timid.
Tomorrow, she was to engage with that sort of deceitfulness, but, for the moment, she wished to see just how deceitful she was soon to be. Needless to say, quantifying her deceitfulness did not lessen her uneasiness toward the ordeal. Despite however she felt, she was obligated to stand her ground.
She sat in class, bored out of her dear mind. In the meantime, her fingers mindlessly fidgeted with her yellow pencil. The utensil flipped, twirled, and spiraled, but the show wasn't interesting enough to garner any attention; not a soul, classmate or teacher, paid her any mind. She was not disappointed. If anything, it was exactly what she wanted, for it gave her plenty of peace to focus.
The pencil... She could teleport it anywhere, couldn't she? Anywhere, so long as the destination matched up with the coordinates in her head. Frighteningly impressive, given she had time to concentrate. Certainly more impressive than the measly eighty-one point five meters she could teleport objects before the... incident... she and Misaka refused to talk about, especially with other people.
Speaking of Misaka...
The ground quaked suddenly. The force was powerful enough to rattle the entire building. The lights above the class' heads flickered, but everyone was far more fixated on looking out the window to notice. A tidal wave in the school's swimming pool was dying by the time Kuroko got the chance to look as well. The sight put a quaint smile on her face, especially when the wave began to clear. Standing at the edge of the poolside, balancing on the diving board, she could barely make out the form of her sweet Misaka, strings of blue caressing her body. As though it were raining, water poured down on her, wetting her hair, skin, and clothes.
"That Misaka Mikoto, always scaring us when the System Scans roll around..." muttered the teacher at the head of the classroom. She cleared her throat to regain the class' attention. Almost all the students returned to the blackboard, save for one. That one was busy making the pencil in her hand disappear.
Later that day, while on a typical patrol (which doubled as a friendly walk with her one and only idol), Kuroko skipped up to Misaka's side. The latter had just finished giving the usual vending machine a good roundhouse kick, and when it finally spit out a soda, Kuroko knew it was safe to move in. Her sneaky little hand, experienced from more... devious missions... slipped into the pocket of Misaka's skirt while she bent over to retrieve her drink. However, Kuroko's experienced hand was not quite experienced enough; Misaka shot her a deathly glare barely a second after she felt the intrusion. With a single hand, she cracked open her soda can. The sharp noise was a noise Kuroko found foreboding, so she distanced herself slightly, though refusing to allow her palm to flee from Misaka's clothes.
"What're you doing?" Misaka asked gruffly, taking the first sip. After tirelessly searching through the pocket, Kuroko's fingers finally found what they sought: a yellow pencil, which she pulled out and earnestly presented to her pitiless judge. The judge's brow only raised, and she maintained a frown, a hint of confusion gathering in her dark pupils. "Hm. Must be one of your pencils. It sure isn't mine; I hate those junky wooden ones."
Kuroko nodded.
"I teleported it into your pocket a while ago."
"When was that?"
"Right after you fired your first Railgun during your examination."
"Were you in class?"
"Uh-huh."
She saw Misaka smile slightly, but it was not entirely a happy smile, nor was it entirely a sad smile. She took an abnormally long drink after receiving the news.
"I was pretty far away from your building... You're definitely getting the hang of things." Kuroko did not have to ask what those "things" were. "The System Scan for your age group's tomorrow, isn't it?" Misaka continued down the street, not checking to see if she had a follower (she didn't have to). Kuroko, like the loyal shadow she was, prepared to run after her, but she caught her Judgement sash fleeing from her sleeve. While recovering it, she blamed the mishap on the bobby-pin.
"That's the reason I sent that pencil to your pocket today. I wanted to do the real test for myself."
"Except participants aren't allowed to evaluate themselves," Misaka started. At first, the harshness of her tone made Kuroko's heart sink. Of course, that was before she spotted the playful smirk tugging at the corner of her lip. "Want me to do the honors?"
"My Sissy? Evaluate me?" Kuroko began to redden as she pranced nearer. Too near, actually; Misaka gently elbowed her out of her personal space. Kuroko was so used to it she hardly noticed. "What would you say, Sissy?"
Misaka rewarded her with a thumbs-up.
"That much accuracy at that long of a distance? I'd say that makes for a bonafide Level Five, Miss Shirai. Congratulations."
It was nice to only hear that from Misaka.
The next day, that was, thankfully, not what she heard. It wasn't what she expected to hear anyway; she played the entire faculty like a fiddle.
Pretending to try her hardest, Kuroko sent the weight in her hands to a target painted on the ground, where it appeared just shy of the center. Coaches scrambled to measure what little distance was between the weight and the bullseye before scribbling the results on their clipboards and clearing the circle. At her side, another coach crossed his arms and nodded confidently.
"Looking better, Miss Shirai. You've improved a little since last time."
Proudly brushing aside a ponytail, she turned to the coach.
"I've been practicing pretty hard lately. I think I want to be Academy City's eighth Level Five, that way I'll be just like my Sissy."
The man chuckled slightly.
"Your 'Sissy', eh? Ha! I didn't know your sister was a Level Five."
Kuroko's smile dropped.
"N-No. I mean Mikoto Misaka."
"Mikoto Misaka's your sister?"
"No! Anything but that!" The mere thought of Misaka being her blood relative made her want to die. If Misaka were her sister, they couldn't get married! The horror! The tragedy! The heartache! The...
That wasn't what was important.
A stiff woman sat at the desk in front of her, gazing at her coldly. Her professional demeanor made Kuroko shrink in her presence, especially as she slapped a clipboard on the table. If she'd slapped it down any harder, the board probably would've shattered, and then a shard would've probably struck one of her eyes... a mere taste of her aura's maliciousness. Part of Kuroko feigned nervousness for her little act, but another part legitimately felt nervous.
The woman cleared her throat.
"You gave a disappointing performance today, Miss Shirai. The results indicate you underperformed by three point five six percent compared to last semester's System Scan." She fixed her glasses. They now sat at the perfect angle that would not allow Kuroko to see her harsh gaze. "Here at Tokiwadai, a margin that large is simply unacceptable."
Though it was probably a mistake to do so, Kuroko opened her mouth.
"But... The coach told me I-"
"It doesn't matter what the coach told you. This is what the numbers tell me."
"W-Well... Let me explain..." Kuroko continued, anxiously taking a ponytail in her hand and absentmindedly toying with it.
"It's best you do."
"See, last night I got in a pretty big argument with my... um... significant other. I'm still pretty upset about it, so I had a hard time concentrating out there today..."
The woman hardly looked like she bought the story. It was that very moment that made Kuroko realize she to up her game.
"Quite the curious story. I have no clue how you manage to maintain a relationship with someone while you attend an elite all-girls school. Do you see him on the weekends when you're supposed to be studying?"
"She's also a student here."
A brow raised.
"Ah, isn't that nice... And this argument? What was it about?"
"Social politics."
"Social politics."
" Social politics. "
She barely got off the hook.
Well, she was pretty sure she got let off the hook. Her little secret, as far as she could tell, was safe and sound, completely out of the question.
Then she got to work.
Like most days, Kuroko shoved the door the the office open, allowing herself inside. She was pretty relaxed. There was no reason not to be relaxed. At least, not until she looked forward.
"I'm he-" She choked on her saliva before she could finish, for, just a ways away from her, a tall, long-haired woman stood in the office, arms crossed while she monitored an underling pushing a cart of boxes around the room. Both mystery women wore an identical black and navy blue uniform, an emblem printed across their bullet-proof jackets. That emblem was what gave Kuroko the mini-heart attack in the first place: Anti-Skill.
After turning to her, the taller woman gave her a quick nod, then took a few steps closer.
"'Afternoon. Not too good with surprises?" she inquired. Her tone was friendly enough, but, with everything that had been going on recently, Kuroko remained on guard. She attempted to make her uneasiness as unreadable as she could.
"Just a little alarmed..." Kuroko weaved around her, making her way deeper into the office. Uiharu was there, typing away at her many monitors, and Konori stood in the corner, stirring something into her steaming cup of tea. Everything seemed calm thus far, but that was before she turned to the new pair of gigantic piles of boxes that took up more space in their already cluttered office. The second, shorter Anti-Skill officer had just finished sliding the final box off the cart. Kuroko's brows dropped at the sight. "Um... Everything okay here?"
"Just waiting for you to show up," Konori sounded after taking a sip of her drink. The steam fogged up her glasses for a moment, and when they returned to normal, her eyes went to the tall woman making her way back into the office. "Did the two of you want something to drink? I just brewed a pot of tea."
With a wide grin, the shorter officer whipped around.
"Tea? Can I have some? It smells great!"
"Tessou! No teatime on the clock!" barked her coworker.
"Y-Yes ma'am..."
"Anyway..." The woman's arms crossed again. "Is everyone here now?" When she received a nod, one of her brows anchored, especially after redoing a quick inventory. "Yikes. This branch is smaller than I thought..."
"We do have a fourth member, but she's the ghost member. I hardly remember the last time she worked a full day here," Uiharu commented while disengaging herself from her monitors. She rolled her swivel chair away from her desk, facing their visitor intently.
The more the conversation deepened, the more Kuroko calmed; she could conclude the officers weren't for her, thank goodness, so she had all the energy she needed to focus on what was currently at hand. After her coworker reported to her side, the tall woman cleared her throat and put on a professional demeanor.
"Alright everyone, I'm Lieutenant Aiho Yomikawa of Anti-Skill Branch Seventy-Three. This is my junior, Tsuzuri Tessou. It's a pleasure to meet the three of you."
After setting down her tea, Konori dipped her head slightly, hands stiffly at her sides.
"Mii Konori. Chief of Judgment Branch One Hundred Seventy-Seven, Level Three esper." She nodded to Uiharu, who, once realizing she had attention, smiled and waved as though there were a camera. "Kazari Uiharu, our resident computer geek. Level One esper."
"Computer geek? At least give me a little more credit than that..."
Konori cleared her throat.
"And Kuroko Shirai, our field officer. Level Four esper."
Yomikawa nodded contently, hands sliding down to her hips.
"A fine group, but now that we're all introduced, let's finally get down to business. I'm sure at least one of you's heard of the facility epidemic that's been going on since last year... right?" Her audience nodded. "Good, means I don't have to explain myself too much. My branch is mainly in charge of tracking all this havoc. We've come to a conclusion after noticing familiar patterns at all the crime scenes: every single one of these incidences are related, likely committed by the same offender... or offenders. Our culprit is either a very strong esper or a coordinated team, professionals either way." She approached one of the two piles of boxes, the right one she pat roughly with her hand. "These boxes contain all the field reports from last year. The offenders entered a dormant state around six months ago, but activity just recently started back up again. Same time of night. Same type of target. Same type of fire. Something must've triggered them out of inactivity, and boy are they back with a vengeance. This is where you come in: plain and simple, with how frequently attacks're happening, my branch is overwhelmed with work. We need to lease some of the paperwork out to one of the Judgment branches to make sure we can keep our focus where it's needed."
As Kuroko's brows thoughtfully furrowed, Yomikawa finally eyed toward her, observing her top to bottom.
"Shirai, was it? That a Tokiwadai uniform you got on? This case must be personal."
Quickly, Kuroko nodded back.
"What's happened to those facilities recently happened to my dorm. If that was this group's doing too, I don't see why they would attack a school after targeting nothing but research facilities... unless they're trying to muddle their m.o. and confuse us. If they're blowing up research facilities, they must have a political agenda, and if we figure out they have a political agenda, that makes us one step closer to finding out who they are and stopping them."
The woman smirked confidently.
"Heh. I like the way you think, kid. Since you got a bit of an edge here, I'll put you in charge of making sure all the crime scenes're properly documented. If that's fine with your chief, of course..." She eyed Konori, whose head bobbed.
By furrowing her brows, Kuroko displayed a determined expression.
"Easy. I'll make sure to take care of everything so we can nail these guys."
"Attagirl." She gave her a hefty pat on the shoulder. "I knew we came to the right place. Told you we didn't need to go to Branch One Eighteen, Tessou."
"S-Sorry, ma'am... Even numbers're just more appealing sometimes, don't you think?"
"Yeah... no. We'll discuss this later." The woman faintly shook her head. "If you're not busy, Shirai, there's been an investigation on the eightieth block for a few weeks now. If you can, it'd be best for you to head there today and get started. The guys there'll tell you what we need done."
For an investigation to span a few weeks, the site must be frightfully large. Unfortunately, that was a correct assumption to make.
Armed with a digital tablet and some needles strapped to her thighs, Kuroko arrived at the eightieth block. She struggled not to twist her ankle, for she landed on a mountain of uneven rubble. Like the night, the pile was black, charred beyond recognition. Moments after she took everything in, she breathed in deeply, held it, and released when her throat began to burn. She'd seen devastation depicted in films, but witnessing devastation first hand was far more chilling.
She, along with other Anti-Skill investigators, carefully traversed various piles, cautious not to disturb the scene. A few officers, having recognized her green arm band, gave her a nod and a wave as she passed. She returned the notion subtly, focused far more on finding where she was even supposed to start her work.
Before she took her notes, Kuroko trotted up to a trio of officers, who seemed to have trouble moving a large heap of ruined machinery. After checking her surroundings, she instructed them to move away, then pressed her hand across the object's side. It disappeared, but it reappeared a handful of meters away. As if she were some kind of hero, the trio gave her wide grins and a thumbs up.
"Wow, a teleporter. Haven't seen many of those," a voice sounded behind her. She was caught off guard, but only for a moment; when she turned around, she met the voice face-to-face. What she found, however, was not too out of the ordinary: it was a man, middle-aged, but still quite healthy, for he stood stoutly with a confident face. "Kuroko Shirai? Yomikawa told me you were on your way. I was starting to wonder how you got here so fast... Looks like my questions have been answered now." He dipped his head only a little. "Name's Tachibana, Captain of Anti-Skill's Branch Seventy-Three. Glad to be working with you."
Out of respect, Kuroko dipped her head much lower.
"Pleasure to be working with you too," she replied, eyes sauntering off to the side. Again, they were captured by the flawless wreckage of what was once a complex, powerful building. "I can see why you guys needed help now..."
"No kidding. And this scene's considered old. We're running way behind. Almost gotten to the point where I can hardly sleep at night." Tachibana smiled slightly while turning back to her. "Judgment may be mostly full of kids, but it's still a big relief to get you lot involved too. Here, follow me and I'll show you how everything needs to be done."
Like Tachibana requested, Kuroko spent the rest of the day in his company, observing and marveling at the remains. There had to be at least thirty or so officers on the scene; Kuroko started counting, but she gave up when she realized there were just too many. Most didn't seem to be slacking either... That meant she was in for plenty of work.
"How many bodies've been found, Mr. Tachibana?" Kuroko inquired, ducking under a ruined archway. In response to her question, Tachibana's eyes widened.
"Zero. Can you believe it? These officers've been out here for nearly two weeks. Not a single body. Unless they're all buried deep underneath all this rubble, it's starting to look like nobody got seriously hurt from the explosion. That's been a trend in our perp's m.o.: they attack at night when nobody's around to see 'em or get hurt. I like to call them the 'Humaniterrorists'. Pitched the nickname to the press once. I wanted to see that term everywhere; news, newspaper, billboards, pamphlets, wanted posters..."
Kuroko looked up from her tablet.
"And...?"
"Yeah... They didn't take it. "
"That's too bad. It has a nice ring to it." She paused, eyes growing glassy from thought. "But it certainly tells us a lot about our culprits, though. If they were planning to destroy the entire building, it wouldn't matter if someone in the building saw them; they'd be dead before they could report any suspicious activity to the authorities. They're definitely trying to minimize collateral damage, which is an awful lot of empathy coming from a gang of terrorists... This group must have plenty of women, or at least a woman's the one calling all the shots."
Tachibana spit on the ground.
"Come on, us guys have hearts too, you know."
"Th-That wasn't what I was trying to say! I was just using a little criminal psy-"
"Oh, Miss Shirai, you can take a joke can't you? Come on, let me take you to meet Ueno."
Kuroko expected Ueno to be another Anti-Skill leader like Tachibana, but all she found was a pudgy woman sitting in the ashes. She did not wear any sort of uniform, normal clothes instead. Kuroko observed her harshly at first, but that was before she realized the woman busied herself with carefully brushing aside ash, as if in search of something. Shortly after Kuroko and Tachibana arrived, the woman carefully pulled a long string out of the blackened ground. Some of the delicate string crumbled between her fingers.
"Is that copper?" Kuroko asked, kneeling for a closer look. It certainly looked like copper; where it was not black, it bore a familiar, lustrous brown hue.
"Was copper. Same as usual. Electrical fire. Circuit got overwhelmed."
"I... thought we already determined this was done by the same perpetrators..." Kuroko sounded, slowly rising back to her feet. She brushed off her shins, which had begun to suffer from chalky ash.
"We keep Ueno around to make sure our records're accurate. You know what they say: assuming makes an ass out of you and me."
A thumb ran across Kuroko's chin as she studied the ruined copper wiring more. Her teeth grazed over her bottom lips anxiously. When she began biting too hard on her lips, she bit on her thumb instead.
"So they overwhelmed the circuit to make it combust... Would that mean this is the work of an Electromaster?"
"Best guess we got. We thought about getting a warrant to interrogate everyone with electric esper abilities, but they're a dime a dozen in this city. It'd take forever to sift through them all thoroughly."
"Never told me that," Ueno spoke up as she also stood. She dusted off her pants before clearing her throat. "If I'd known, I would've said a little more." Kuroko took her words as a cue to whip out her tablet again, prepared to scribble valuable notes. "The amount of voltage needed to overwhelm a circuit that covers a building this large would be tremendous. We're not dealing with some pansy Level Two or Three espers. This is the work of someone that's probably a Level 4. Hell, I wouldn't even put it past that darling from Tokiwadai. All those Level Fives're crazy..."
Misaka was crazy.
Loafing on her bed on the opposite side of the room, Misaka shook her head insistently, making Kuroko's brow raise.
"Yeah, I don't think it's a good idea to get caught up in this case, Kuroko," she muttered. Her tone was pronounced, but not harsh. Forgiving, but not gentle. Kuroko stared at her, utterly speechless, from her own bed.
"Um... What?"
"That's just my opinion. You said you pinned the dorm fire on these... eh... Humaniterrorists, right?"
"Yeah."
"Those Anti-Skill officers are smarter than you think, you know. If you hang out with them for too long, they'll start to connect us to the dorm. We were absent from the campus before the fire started, I'd gotten shot in the leg, I'm an Electromaster, the entire administration considers us partners in crime... Pretty suspicious. That suspicion will probably start with you, since you're part of the investigation and a student from Tokiwadai, and then they'll eventually lasso me in too. The moment that happens, it's downhill from there. Once they find out I'm the one who blew up the dorm, then they're gonna start suspecting me to be the Humaniterrorist. The way I destroyed the dorm is the exact same way those research facilities were destroyed, so it'd pretty much be two plus two for them."
Kuroko gazed at Misaka, her idol. Oh, how she loved that girl. It pained her to part her lips again, prepared to ask an ugly question.
"But... That's not the case... is it? You have nothing to do with the facilities, right?"
She and Misaka locked eyes. It was quiet. As if Misaka hesitated thoroughly. The silence, the lack of an immediate response, was more than a push toward an answer Kuroko did not like, but jumping to conclusions seemed foolish... especially in the midst of such a serious matter. She didn't want to be lied to. No more lies. No more secrets. "Please be honest with me..."
Before Kuroko could start to become truly worried, Misaka broke out a huge grin, and she snickered profusely.
"Of course not, Kuroko. The most damage I've done is to the dorm... and it wasn't because I wanted to. It was all out of necessity."
"Then how did you know both fires were from an overwhelmed circuit?"
"An overwhelmed wha?"
"An electrical fire, Sissy," Kuroko's brows furrowed. "Everything I just told you was public information. That wasn't public; the press hasn't heard a peep about how the facility fires started." When she saw the way Misaka reddened, a bubble of heat swelled in her gut. Her stomach churned. "Are you lying to me?" Misaka shook her head. Kuroko didn't buy it. "Then how did you know?"
Misaka's back hit her bed, and she sprawled out over her comforter until she was content... except she never felt content. Or comfortable. She kept tossing and turning around... stalling for time. Kuroko was not stupid.
"Alright, you got me. Guess I gotta fess up," she admitted after finally settling. She turned slightly to her neighbor. "I have this... let's call it a hobby. I like to use my PDA to... um... do a little investigating in some of the big cases going on right now. Learn all the names, the suspects, the crimes... It's kinda intriguing. Sorta like watching a mystery movie, except everything's real."
"So you're using a private device to illegally access Anti-Skill's database," was how Kuroko redefined it. Her words made Misaka squirm a little, brows shifting up and down.
"You make it sound malicious when you put it that way."
She watched as Kuroko swung her legs over the side of her bed. Unlike the bed at their old dorm, which was now a pile of ashes across the campus, it was short enough for her to set her feet on the floor. She drew circular patterns on that floor as she thought. She thought for quite a while, refusing to even look at Misaka. A long, long while. Judging by the look on Misaka's face, she anticipated another question... a more accusatory question.
"I'm going to go take a shower now," was the most that came from Kuroko's mouth, however, leaving Misaka perplexed. The somber tone of her junior made her sit up, watching as she made her way to the washroom. Just before she shut the door, Misaka decided to speak up.
"Hey." Her words made Kuroko stop shutting the door. When she peeked between it and the doorframe, Misaka knew she had her attention. "I haven't been sleeping all that well lately... so... um... you're welcome to keep me company... if you want..."
Kuroko only narrowed her eyes.
"Yes, Sissy. I am a bit weary of you right now."
"Figured. Just wanted to make sure."
Without a word more, the two simply exchanged stares for a while longer, and Kuroko gently pulled the door shut.
By the time she was finished showering, Misaka appeared to have already fallen asleep. The lights in their room were turned off, and her body remained motionless on her bed. Kuroko intended to check on her like usual, but an unfamiliar room made it easy for her toe to find the leg of a coffee table. She did not want to howl, as it would awaken her roommate, but she could not stay silent either. As a compromise, she sounded with a hiss and hopped around until she felt better.
After stumbling around a little more in their new room, Kuroko arrived at her desk, where she pried open her laptop. For the next hour or so, she engrossed herself in work, typing away at a fresh document and constantly referring to her tablet. When her eyes grew dreary, she woke herself back up by quickly shaking her head and blinking as many times as she could. Once back awake, she continued her work.
She planned to finish the document in one night, but, about two hours in, when she was the most focused, her ears captured a noise. A strange noise. A mewl, steady and distressed, rose from Misaka's side of the room, and it immediately had Kuroko's full attention. Torn from her work, she turned her chair around, and she silently observed the scene. Thanks to the glow of the computer screen, she could barely see her dear, who fidgeted and wrestled with the blankets. Her chest, as though she were running, rose and fell quickly, each gulp of air audible. The more Kuroko watched, the less she could sit still.
Looks like she was done for the night.
With the computer shut down, Kuroko returned the room to darkness, into which she swam when she rose from the desk chair. A little more experienced, she successfully made her way across the room without stubbing her feet on anything. There, she stood patiently, listening as her dear continued to pant. The more she listened, the redder her face grew. Gently, her hand glided toward a forehead, which she lightly stroked. As expected, the forehead was soaked, bangs sticking to one another.
"Guess you weren't lying about that," she muttered softly. "Feels like we've switched places, doesn't it?" One of her legs, as if it had a mind of its own, proceeded to take her aboard the bed, where she climbed over Misaka and plopped down between the wall and her love. It took a while to get comfy; Misaka's old bed, the one that was also reduced to ashes, was older than this one. It was broken into and cozy, and it had just the most calming scent. But this new one... It was stiff and rigid, unwilling to offer any hospitality. It was as if it insisted they did not belong there.
She thought she'd never find comfort on that bed, but that was before Misaka rolled over, lying face-to-face with her intruder. Kuroko did not know if she had awoken and attempted to see who was with her.
"Sissy...?" she whispered. "Are you okay?"
Misaka grunted. Even Kuroko could not decipher what the noise meant, so she was left to wonder, especially after she then began to murmur various gibberish.
"The Fujinami tower... sheeps with a... telling me to lose if I... No... Come back here..." The muttering continued. Her every word was weak, as if she hardly invested any air into them. If the room had not been quiet, it would have been nearly impossible to hear her.
But then, in a moment's worth, her words became sharp. Stout.
"Kuroko." The listener's heart burned, but she remained silent. She was sleep talking... It wasn't as if Misaka expected a response. Or did she? She spoke again. "Kuroko." One of her palms reached out, as if seeking something very important to her. First, her hand waved around in the air, but when she lowered it, it landed on Kuroko's face. It was what she wanted, for her fingers intently began to explore the ridges of her cheeks, nose, and mouth. As slowly as she could, Kuroko took that hand with both of hers, and she held it still against her.
"Yes...?"
On a dime, the distressed panting subsided. There was a sigh of relief. A gentle sigh. She'd come to love that noise. It made her want to hang on to her hand forever, massaging it tenderly.
"What would you do if..." Her voice dropped off into another tired sigh.
"If what?"
"If I was the one who'd been destroying all those facilities?"
Kuroko stopped rubbing the hand. She stared, mortified. She no longer felt the right to hold onto Misaka so dearly, so she released the palm to its own vices. It remained where it was on her cheek, unmoving. It was notably stiffer.
"I'd..." she started, "have no choice but to arrest you."
"Kuroko... Please... I don't want to be alone again."
Kuroko didn't know it at the time, but that was only the beginning.
Author's Note: Hello again, everyone. Welcome to the sequel I said I would do! However, before we get all excited (if you're excited at all), I do have a few things that need to be addressed.
1. This story's summary is more than likely to be changed in the future. I believe the current summary is pitiful, but it at least manages to get the point across.
2. As of now, this work is currently on my back burner. That means it is not my top priority... But it is the penultimate on my priority list. I have published this first chapter in hopes of building up an audience before I proceed on this project full throttle.
I hope you enjoyed what I have to offer so far, and be sure to stay tuned for updates in the future!