"Aneki! Aneki!"
Those familiar words echoed around the deserted construction site, bouncing off the red steel girders and mounds of earth that might one day become a towering skyscraper, but at the moment spoke only of unused potential.
Sharp eyes flashed in the noontime sun, darting towards the source of those words. They did not need to dart far, as the person who spoke them soon knelt in front of her deferentially as she leaned against one of the many pieces of construction machinery left around the site.
The teenager who knelt in front of her was perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old, with hair dyed blond and gelled into backwards facing spikes that could not help but give the impression of a hedgehog.
He wore the uniform of his high school though the pants had been cut above the knees to give his long, powerful legs greater freedom. A green cloth bandana was tied to his ankle above a pair of expensive running shoes.
Everything about his appearance and the aura around him screamed one word; delinquent. And indeed that's what he was, what everyone gathered around in this construction site was.
And in front of this teen stood the top delinquent, the Sukeban who ruled their gang with an iron fist, and it was to this girl who he now spoke.
"Aneki," he repeated once more with an excited smile that could only mean one thing.
"They're on their way, Fujin?" The girl leaning on the crane asked. Her own voice was calm, but a skilled ear could hear the impatience cutting into her words. She was not a patient person to begin with, used to having everything done instantly, and she had been waiting here for far too long.
The dirt and dust that the wind blew off the earthen mounds was starting to dirty the skirt and vest of her uniform, and the rivets of the crane's treads were digging into her back uncomfortably.
"Yep, about thirty of them," the teen, Fujin, confirmed, standing up again.
The girl's eyes scanned the area again, resting upon the nine people who stood there. She heard one of them laugh. "Outnumbered three to one? Not the best odds... should half of us go home to give them a fighting chance?"
Fujin nodded in agreement with his comrade's confidence, but continued with his report. "Several of them have weapons as well. The usual bats and pipes. I think I saw a chain too," He chuckled at the cliché, "not sure about knives or smaller weapons though."
The girl nodded. The teen's ability was speed, not clairvoyance, so the basic picture was all she could get. Well that wasn't exactly true...
Her head shifted almost imperceptibly to the left and her gaze met the dark brown eyes of one of the other men. He nodded as he saw her eyes on him and said, "Sixteen level 0's, seven level 1's, five level 2's, a level 3, and a level 4. The level three feels a little like an Aero Hand but I'm not entirely sure. The level four is definitely a Hydrokinetic."
The girl allowed herself a little smile as she reached into her bag and pulled out a rope made out of eight differently colored bandanas all tied together, looking almost like a magician's cloth.
"It's him then," she noted as she tied the rope around her waist and walked out into the middle of the construction yard. The other nine boys and girls moved to cover her. Then they waited.
They didn't need to wait long as the group they were expecting soon rounded the canvas covered fence that surrounded the construction site.
The leader of the group was at the front; he was a muscular man with sea blue eyes and a ridiculously big and gaudy hairstyle. His school uniform was plain, with a jacket which he had draped over his shoulders, pants that looked like they had been through a blender, and an aqua blue bandana wrapped around his forehead. It was the same bandana worn by the other twenty-nine people as well.
As he entered the construction site he glanced towards the center of the wide open area where the ten people were gathered and stopped for a second. Then he grinned and signaled to his men. They flooded in and spread out several yards away from the other group.
He had been expecting this confrontation. Up until recently, he and his gang had a prosperous business selling drugs and alcohol to the students of Academy City. But several weeks ago he got word that one of his dealers had been taken out in the middle of a deal.
At first he suspected a Judgment or Anti-Skill sting, but the dealer hadn't been arrested, so he chalked it up to a bit of bad luck. That was until more and more of his dealers had been taken out one by one,with almost surgical precision.
This time he had decided to come to the deal himself, along with his personal guard, and figure out who exactly had been getting in the way of his business.
He could say that he was not disappointed to see his opponent, but that would be a lie. The girl who seemed to be in charge wore the uniform of a middle school for high class little ojou-samas who probably wouldn't lift up their own cup of tea for fear of breaking a nail.
She was less than five foot tall with limbs that seemed as thin and breakable as sticks. Her auburn hair was long and flowed freely down her back, looking more fit on a noblewoman than a delinquent.
Really, the only hints that the girl in front of her was indeed the person who he thought she was was the faded green cloth tied around her neck, the athletic tape which wrapped around her - covering her fists, forearms, and elbows as well as her shins, and knees-, the black bands of iron construction nails on her thighs, the blue pieces of cloth dangling from her left fist, and of course the belt of bandanas around her waist.
She stepped back a half step with her right foot. To the teen it seemed as if she was drawing back out of fear, but in actuality she was simply getting into her stance.
Then she spoke in a voice that was a few degrees too cold for someone her age, "You are Mizuchi, leader of the Aqua Rectangles, sellers of illegal substances and general scumbags correct?"
Mizuchi stepped forward and laughed. "Indeed I am," he responded, before glancing at the ten delinquents arranged out before him. His gaze lingered for a second each time he spotted the green cloth tied to their hair or arms or legs.
"So this is the infamous Verdict? And you are its dreaded leader, Shirai Kuroko?" He laughed louder, this time everyone of his gang joining in on the mirth. "You really expect me to believe that a little brat like you managed to take down eight of this district's gangs?"
His gaze moved to the eight bandanas around the little girl's waist, each supposedly taken from the leader of a fallen gang, but more likely picked up at a fabric shop in that prissy little Garden of Education that housed her little Ojou-sama school. The pieces of cloth clutched in her left fist were undeniably the bandanas of the Aqua Rectangles, but that didn't mean anything.
"It will be nine after today," Kuroko responded, her sharp voice full of confidence. However there was a difference in the confidence she had and the confidence he had. His body exuded self-assurance and arrogance, his shoulders were relaxed, his chest was puffed out, and his chin was held high to allow him to look down on his opponent.
Kuroko sounded every bit as confident, but her stance was tense and low, like a compressed spring or a cobra ready to strike. The Sukeban's trained eyes darted around, making sure she knew the battlefield and could use it to her advantage. His confidence came from numbers and apparent power; hers came from herself.
"Oh really? You should just go back to playing with your dolls..." He chuckled, his chin rising an inch and a smirk crossing his features, "What makes you think a pathetic little brat like yourself could possibly beat us?"
All eyes were on Kuroko as the corners of her mouth twitched upwards in a smile, "Because... I am Verdict..." Suddenly she disappeared, reappearing an inch in front of Mizuchi, "And my verdict is guilty," she declared as she took a step forward with her right foot, placing it between his own, and driving her padded elbow directly into his collarbone.
She could feel the clavicle give way and break, disabling his right arm. The step also placed her directly in his guard, letting her grip the back of his head with her right hand and throwing him down onto the ground
The twenty-nine remaining members of the Aqua Rectangles were stunned. They'd all heard the stories of the teleporting devil of Verdict who will tear apart your body and soul if she catches you, but after seeing her appearance, they could not help but assume those rumors to be gross exaggerations.
Everyone always underestimated Kuroko, a fact she used to her advantage to gain the first strike. Then, while everyone was stunned at seeing this little girl so easily dispatch their boss, she would quickly follow up.
In most cases this follow up took the form of the bandanas she had collected from the defeated grunts of the gang being used to destroy any weapons the gang members had.
Chunks of bats and pipes fell away and clattered on the ground, the clanging metal ringing loudly in the stunned silence that permeated the air.
The clanging reverberated around the area, bouncing off the earthen mounds and piles of steel and concrete that littered the construction site. The sound was like a gong announcing the start of a match, and fittingly it was at this noise that the Level 3 that was Mizuchi's lieutenant recovered from his shock.
He stepped forward, drew back his open palm, ready to use his ability to blast this little girl into the bulldozer twenty feet behind this action was interrupted by Fujin's knee, which collided with the man's cranium with the momentum of an anvil dropped from a fifth story window. Had it hit him in the temple it would easily have caved his skull in, but as it was, it only clipped the top of his head, giving him a nasty concussion but no permanent damage.
Fujin's powerful jump, fueled by his ability, also served to propel him over the heads of the other members of the gang. He landed behind all thirty of them. Kuroko teleported behind them as well, to the right of center. Then the eight other members of Verdict charged in and the silence was broken.
It would be wrong to call Kuroko a bloodthirsty person. She did not revel in hurting others, she did not enjoy the feeling of blood caked under her fingernails, she did not seek out fights for the sake of fighting. To Kuroko, fighting would always be a means to an end, and that end was justice.
However, there was no denying how natural the fray felt to Kuroko. The smell of her opponent's sweat and blood; the taste of her own, unpleasant sensations anywhere else but on the battlefield. They were intoxicating, a rich perfume that summoned up something primal in Kuroko's heart.
But despite the primal nature of the act, Kuroko was exceptionally calm and levelheaded. One could easily tell from her eyes. They darted around, scanning everything around her, taking in every movement, every step, every twitch, every glance that her opponents made.
Years of martial arts training had taught her to read these seemingly benign motions and anticipate what her opponents would do and, when combined with the combat instincts that only months of almost daily street fighting could grant, react to their punches before they were even aware that they had thrown them.
The brutality of her street fighting experience, combined with the precision of her martial arts, made sure no movement was wasted. Each step brought her into position for one of her attacks, or out of range of one of theirs. Every change of stance allowed her to exploit an opening in her opponent's guard or to cover up any openings in her own. Every strike was quick and precise, meant to take down her enemy as quickly as possible.
The entire thing lent her movements a sort of fluidity and grace that almost made it seem as if she was dancing. An elegant waltz in which Kuroko danced to music she herself created. A brass section of their panicked breaths contrasting with her own calm exhales, a string orchestra of their pained groans mingling with her grunts of exertion, and finally the percussive beats of her fist and feet colliding with their flesh.
A beat where and when it shouldn't be meant something was wrong. It was Kuroko's only warning. A footstep from behind, though taken with care, was loud as a war drum to her. In the almost meditative state that the battle had induced, she had unconsciously gone too far into the fray and left her back open. She stepped to the side with her right foot, putting her back to a pile of girders and getting a view of her new opponent.
She was a little too slow to completely avoid his attack though as she felt sharp steel cutting into her flesh as a knife aimed at the base of her spine grazed her cheek instead. The wound was shallow and small but it stung like a hot brand on Kuroko's skin.
However, the pain didn't bother Kuroko. If anything it was fuel to the fire of her zen-like battle trance. She saw the massive opening the desperate lunge had created. She knew striking now would open her up to the opponent she had been engaged in before, but if she didn't then the man with the knife might recover, and a strike from a knife was worse than one from a fist.
So Kuroko took a half step forward and drove her left fist into the man's torso, just beneath his sternum, driving all air from his lungs.
Almost on cue the other one struck at her left shoulder. She rolled with the punch, using her right hand and his own momentum to flip him over her shoulder and straight into the chest of the other man.
After dealing with them she took another step back to the girders, allowing her to cover her back as she examined the battlefield.
She was slightly surprised to see that the battle was winding down, with only a few of the Aqua Rectangles still up and fighting, a fight that didn't last long as Verdict quickly knocked them out.
As the last member of the Aqua Rectangles fell Verdict quickly drew back, getting out of range of any not-quite-unconscious arms that could lash out at them. None of the ten were strangers to fighting, and caution that surpassed confidence had long been beaten into all of them.
Even with the battle over and the last echoes of the combat's sweet waltz dying out, the tension in the air was palpable. When a sudden noise cut through the silence one could almost see as Kuroko's heart and the heart of the others jumped out of their chests as they glanced around for the source.
As it turned out it was Kuroko's cell phone. The teleporter gave her heart a moment to slow down below hummingbird levels before answering it. "Moshi moshi?"
"Moshi moshi," was the polite reply from the other end. The voice that spoke was low, feminine, and almost melodic, but spoke with such little emotion that it was hard to imagine it coming from a human at all.
There was only one person Kuroko knew who spoke like that. It was her other lieutenant, Kaga-Tsuchi, who was currently out with the rest of Verdict cleaning up any hideouts that the Aqua Rectangles had.
"Our mission has been successful. All branches of the Aqua Rectangles have been destroyed. We have seized seventeen crates of various illicit substances and several thousands worth of currency in cash cards. We are awaiting your orders."
"I just finished up here too. I'll swing around to dispose of the crates, so just gather them all in one place. Ensure that nobody sneaks anything out of them and distribute the cash cards appropriately," Kuroko ordered Kaga-Tsuchi with a sigh.
"Understood," was her robotic reply.
Kuroko hung up and looked around at the other nine members of Verdict. "Mind handling clean up here?"
Fujin nodded. "No problem." His nose was bloody but didn't look broken. A few red spots that might turn into bruises colored his arms and legs, but otherwise he didn't seem too injured.
Kuroko nodded in reply, then teleported over to Mizuchi, reaching down and yanking the blue bandana from his head. Taking off the rope around her waist, she tied the newest addition onto the end before tying it back on. When that was finished, she disappeared from
sight altogether.
As Kuroko hopped through dimensions and between rooftops she could feel the wind whistling through her hair, distracting her from the stinging of her cheek and the throbbing of her shoulder.
She quickly arrived at the nearby hideouts and subsequently disposed of each and every crate of the alcohol and drugs that had been the primary source of the Aqua Rectangles income. She did this by teleporting them eighty meters down into the earth.
Perhaps it was not the most environmentally friendly solution, but it was the only one that didn't involve having highly illegal substances in their possession for what might be days before they could be properly disposed of.
When she completed that task Kuroko allowed herself to smile a little. "Not bad for a days work," she noted patting the blue bandana at her hip.
Kaga-Tsuchi nodded numbly before looking at her, "Don't you have somewhere to be?"
Kuroko looked confused for a second before her eyes widened. She checked the time on her phone and nodded before disappearing without another word, not that she needed words to speak to a mind reader like Kaga-Tsuchi.
As Kuroko once again went from rooftop to rooftop thoughts of her recent victory were dancing in her mind. She couldn't say it was very surprising that she had won either.
The Aqua Rectangles were a small time gang primarily dealing with drug trafficking. They chose their members with a focus on stealth rather than combat ability. Verdict was not only a gang focused on combat, or rather focused on justice in Kuroko's mind, but it also had several more members than the Aqua Rectangles could claim to have.
The only reason they were outnumbered in the construction site was because Kuroko had sent most of her forces to deal with the hideouts.
Verdict had had over two-hundred and fifty people join its ranks over its 5 month long history, most of them from other gangs which had been defeated by Verdict. But though they had had such a large number of recruits their current forces numbered only seventy-three, including Kuroko and her two lieutenants, Fujin and Kaga-Tsuchi.
Unlike most gangs their numbers hadn't been culled through the arrests, death, or severe injury of their members. Rather it was because Verdict had incredibly strict rules that most delinquents found off-putting, making most of the recruits quit within the first couple weeks in the gang.
Kuroko did not allow her underlings to do any sort of drugs, alcohol, or even smoke. Any crime more serious than petty vandalism, especially if it involved hurting innocent civilians, was punished harshly by Kuroko. And because of Kaga-Tsuchi's level four mindreading ability, such a crime could not be hidden for very long.
Despite being delinquents, Kuroko ensured that the members of Verdict were perfectly law-abiding citizens other than the frequent assault and battery they committed on members of other gangs.
But somehow those fights always seemed to happen in places without cameras or agents of Judgment or Anti-Skill on patrol. This meant that ever since its inception, none of Verdict's members had ever gone to jail.
Because of this, whereas the members of other gangs spent the majority of their time harassing innocent people or committing petty crimes, most of the delinquents who were in Verdict spent their free time training. Training their skills, their ability, or their bodies. This meant they were a far more capable fighting force than the majority of other gangs.
But even ignoring the advantages Verdict had, the fact was that Kuroko rarely lost. Whether it was her gang or herself she typically won the battles that she was involved in.
It wasn't that she was undefeatable. Indeed, several months ago, before she had formed her gang, she had been beaten to a pulp almost every night that she went wandering the streets looking for enemies. But she had quickly grown strong and skilled enough to deal with most of the opponents she faced, and determined enough to deal with the rest.
That wasn't to say she had never lost since then, however. As ashamed as she was to mention any of her defeats, There had been a fair number of them.
One such defeat happened on the night she had come across Musujime Awaki, another delinquent teleporter whose ability, she begrudgingly admitted, was far superior to hers.
Kuroko had been utterly thrashed until a call had come for Awaki and the older girl had reluctantly, but immediately, needed to leave. But she had learned a valuable lesson on not depending on her abilities as much. If Kuroko were to fight against the other teleporter once more, she certainly would not depend on her ability so completely. Instead, she would rely more on her combat prowess to beat Move Point to a pulp.
Another fight she could not claim to have won, but would certainly never admit to losing, had been against Sogiita Gunha, the seventh ranked Level five who had beat up a couple of her underlings. His inexplicable ability had completely thwarted everything Kuroko could think to throw against him.
After trying everything and failing miserably with every attempt the teen had laughed, patted her on the back, and complimented her guts before leaving without fighting back at all. She had vowed revenge for the humiliation, determined to immediately root him to the spot next time with her nails or use a similar instant pin move.
Her vow was short lived however, when it was revealed that he had only beat up her underlings because he was protecting someone else. Because he had not set out to hurt her or anyone else, Kuroko's sense of justice would not allow her to persecute him.
Of course, she could blame those two losses on the differences in the strength of their abilities. One was a Level Five and the other was the most powerful teleporter in the city and a candidate for Level Five status.
Not every defeat she had suffered could be justified with that excuse though.
A few months ago she had the misfortune of running into Komaba Ritoku, the leader of Skill Out. Skill Out was a gang which Verdict had never gone after.
Though filled with level zeroes, their numbers and combat ability made them a force to be reckoned with, and any sort of all out war against the two would certainly end in Verdict's defeat.
However, Kuroko had been certain she could beat its leader in a one-on-one battle. After all, though he was considerably more physically powerful and a better trained combatant than she was, he was only a level zero. Her speed, more refined fighting style, and ability to teleport would easily bring her victory.
As it turned out, however, she had underestimated her opponent, placing far too much confidence in the advantage that her ability would give to her. But more importantly, he had not underestimated her. People assuming that Kuroko was weak was what allowed Kuroko the element of surprise that let her to end most fights within five seconds. The fight was far closer than the others had been, and, while there were injuries on both sides, in the end Kuroko had lost.
She had, however, earned Komaba's grudging respect, and in turn he had earned hers. More importantly he had taught her the valuable lesson to never underestimate anyone just because her ability was more powerful than theirs. With that lesson she was sure she could defeat him in a rematch.
Kuroko was a quick learner after all, and a single fight with someone was usually enough to teach her how to defeat them if she ever fought them again. Though she had not fought with any of those three again she was certain she could defeat them in a rematch. She was certain that nobody in the city could defeat her more than once.
It was an arrogant theory that was surely false, but up to now she had only received one piece of evidence to that falsehood. Out of everyone she had lost against a first time, only one had ever beaten her in the rematch as well. And that person was...
"Misaka Mikoto," Kuroko declared as she appeared on the ground. She stared at messy chestnut hair that covered the back of the girl's head as the electro master stood facing away from her.
Kuroko had met Misaka-san a couple of months ago after saving the girl from a group of delinquents who had cornered the electro master in an alley. Upon seeing this, Kuroko had immediately teleported behind the three and knocked them out before they even realized she was there.
She had turned to the girl and saw that she was wearing the uniform of Tokiwadai, the school that Kuroko had just recently been accepted into. The school was full of ojou-samas with more money than sense and the sort of arrogance that would cause them to not feel any fear about walking through strange alleys late in the evening.
It took all of Kuroko's self control not to roll her eyes as she said, "You should probably get going back to the dorms. These alleys are dangerous at this time of day and next time you might not be so lucky as to have someone like me to rescue you."
Normally this would be the point where the person who had just been rescued would nod and hurry off, eternally grateful to the mysterious individual who had saved them. Thus it was quite jarring to hear the girl scoff.
"You think I needed you to rescue me?" the girl asked derisively.
"No, I'm sure your daddy's a very important person in politics and he would never let anything bad happen to you," Kuroko mocked as she rolled her eyes. These rich girls were all the same, relying on their family and wealth to pave the way to a good life rather than building it with their own two hands.
It made Kuroko sick to think she had once been just like them.
The girl's eyebrow twitched and a humorless smile tore across her face. Kuroko could feel a dangerous aura settling in around her, weighing her down.
But Kuroko didn't particularly care. If this girl tried to hurt her she could always avoid the blow with teleportation and give her a good smack upside the head in retaliation.
"You're really starting to get on my nerves. I don't need you or anyone else to defend me."
Now it was Kuroko's turn to scoff, "I've heard people stronger than you say that and I've seen as they come crawling to me to help them when they run against something they can't handle."
"Stronger than me?" The girl glared at Kuroko. "You clearly don't know who I am do you?"
"An arrogant brat." Kuroko helpfully supplied.
The only warning was a sudden flash before Kuroko's skin was singed by heat and numbed by shock. She backpedaled a couple steps, feeling oddly faint and itchy all over. She felt her heart racing in her chest. Her legs felt like jelly and were in danger of buckling out from under her any second.
"Hmph, you're durable I give you that, most people take one bolt and they're down for the count. I warn you though, nobody can take two," the girl said, her voice holding a dangerous edge to it as sparks of electricity danced among her fringe and over her skin.
"I'm not gonna go down that easily," Kuroko growled as she returned the electro master's glare and lunged at her.
Kuroko could see the surprise etched across Misaka's face when the second lightning bolt had also failed to put her down. Though stunning her and halting her, charge the electro master had needed to fire a third bolt which finally managed to knock her out. To Kuroko's eternal shame those next two lightning bolts put her down in less than ten seconds. Never had she been so easily and quickly beaten, without even landing a scratch on her opponent.
Like with Sogiita, she blamed her loss on her opponent's Level 5 status, a status she found out about during the school entrance ceremony a week later. But unlike Sogiita there was nothing holding her back from swearing revenge on her. It was a vow of revenge Kuroko tried to exact with extreme regularity.
In fact it happened with such regularity that Misaka didn't even turn around when she heard her name being called. Instead she looked at the person manning the crepe stall and said, "Make that two actually," before grabbing another coin out of her purse and sliding it across the counter.
The person nodded and went to prepare the confectioneries. "You're late..." Misaka said, still not turning around to face Kuroko.
Kuroko tapped her foot anxiously on the ground. The soft leather of her school issued loafer hardly made a sound as it impacted the cobblestone beneath. She was currently standing in a large open area with scattered trees and vegetation wedged between spiralling cobblestone pathways in what many would probably consider an aesthetically pleasing manner.
There were a few benches scattered around the area along with two vending machines for drinks and the lone crepe stand in the center.
It was a good place to go to relax if one could ignore the somewhat heavy traffic that the road was almost always full of.
"Well excuse me for disrupting your busy schedule." Kuroko faux-apologized, rolling her eyes. "But I do have more important things to deal with."
Misaka almost laughed at this, but managed to control it. Instead she simply scoffed quietly, whispering under her breath, "And yet you come and do this every day."
"Here you go," the crepe seller said with a smile and a bow as she handed the two strawberry crepes to Misaka.
"Thank you," Misaka replied with a nod as she took one in each hand, holding one back towards Kuroko. "Hungry?" she asked the teleporter. "We can have our rematch after we eat."
Kuroko was about to decline sharply when her stomach growled. She blushed slightly and stepped forward, taking the proffered treat. "Thank you," she responded politely, before taking a bite.
She heard Misaka chuckle before taking a bite of her own crepe.
"What's are you laughing at?" Kuroko growled and glared at Misaka. Then she felt her heart skipping as she saw the sunlight framing the electro master's delicate features. A gentle gust of wind tussled her hair. Kuroko felt her slight blush grow several shades darker as she forced herself to tear her gaze away from Misaka and glare down at her own crepe instead, as if it had been the one laughing.
There was a pause as Misaka finished chewing and swallowing. "The way you change so suddenly from your delinquent speech to your high class speech. It's..." Misaka began but stopped.
There was a short silence before Kuroko heard Misaka taking a step towards her. The teleporter glanced up just in time to feel the electro master's hand cupping her left cheek.
Kuroko could practically feel steam coming out of her ears as her blush turned almost luminous in its intensity. Despite the lack of pain she was positive Misaka had zapped her again with one of her lightning bolts.
Kuroko's skin was on fire, she felt faint, her heart was racing, her legs felt like jelly. 'It's been getting more powerful,' she noted. Despite only being struck by a single lightning bolt -for surely it was a lightning bolt and not this simple, gentle touch- she already felt like fainting.
She felt Misaka's thumb slowly sliding across her cheek, leaving fiery hotness in its wake.
Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone as Misaka withdrew her hand. Kuroko felt oddly numb as it left, as if that powerful lightning bolt had drained her of all life.
Yet despite the awful effect it had, she couldn't help looking at the hand and wishing it was back on her skin. Then she glanced at the thumb and saw that it was stained red with blood.
Kuroko recoiled slightly. She hadn't felt Misaka cut her at all, and with what blade? How could she have let her guard down so completely?
Misaka sighed and said, "I suppose you got that from your important things?"
Suddenly, Kuroko remembered. Back in the construction yard she had been cut. The wound had completely slipped her mind, but now she felt the dull aching of the still fresh cut, and the warm dampness of the blood as it oozed down her cheek.
"That's..." Kuroko began, though she wasn't sure what she was supposed to say. Should she explain how she got it? No, that wouldn't work. Should she lie? No, she didn't want to do that, and even if she did, what would she say? "It's nothing important," she finally settled on.
Misaka sighed again and handed Kuroko her own crepe. "Wait here," she ordered before walking off.
"Wait, are you running away? We haven't had our rematch yet." Kuroko protested weakly, not wanting her time with Misaka to be over just yet. Or rather, not wanting to let her go without
another rematch. Yeah that was it!
"Yeah yeah," Misaka waved dismissively, "don't worry about that, I'll be right back. I promise," she said as she turned the corner.
Kuroko stood there fuming. "Just leaving me here to hold her crepe like a... like a..." her anger suddenly dissipated as she glanced at the crepe she held in her hand.
Misaka's crepe.
She stared at it like it would jump out at her and bite her head off. Then, her gaze softened as she peered at the bite that had been taken out of it.
'Her lips have been here...' Kuroko found herself thinking before she could catch herself. Then she found her tongue tracing the bite mark, tasting the cream. She wondered why it was so much sweeter than her own crepe had been.
Suddenly she caught herself and pushed the crepe away from herself so fast someone might think it actually had jumped out at her and bit her head off. Again she felt her heart racing.
'The power of a Level 5 is truly frightening,' Kuroko thought as she breathed deeply, 'striking me with this invisible lightning without being anywhere nearby.'
"Hey, Kuroko," she heard Misaka call out.
"For the last time don't speak to me so familiarly," Kuroko screeched, so hot and bothered and confused with it all that she lashed out at the first person she saw, who was only by coincidence the source of her irritation.
"Alright, Shirai-san, sheesh. Anyway, come over here." Misaka huffed as she stood near a bench, holding a bag in her left hand as she gestured Kuroko over with her right.
Kuroko teleported over to the bench. She did not do so because she wanted to get close to Misaka as soon as possible, it was simply because she wanted to get this over with as soon as possible... right?
"Here's your crepe back," she said, holding it at an arms length as if it were the deadliest poison imaginable.
"Hold onto it for a second longer," Misaka said as she got her Gekota handkerchief out of her pocket. Kuroko frowned at the childish pattern on the fabric, but for some reason she couldn't comment on it past the lump that had formed in her throat at the older girl's close proximity.
Misaka leaned over and wiped the blood off of Kuroko's cheek before folding the handkerchief to make sure it wouldn't stain her skirt as she put it back into her pocket. "This might hurt a little," she said as she pulled a bottle out of the bag and poured a little of the liquid therein into a cotton swab.
Then she dabbed the swab at the wound. There was a slight stinging but Kuroko found herself too lost in the electro master's eyes to notice.
"Wow, you didn't even flinch," Misaka said, sounding impressed as she screwed the lid back onto the bottle and put it back in the bag. "Back when I was a kid, I used to try and hide my scraped knees because the antiseptic hurt so much. But my mom would always find out and put it on anyway. I would always cry but then she would put on a fun little band-aid." Misaka smiled in reminiscence as she held up a green band-aid with Gekota on it before plastering it onto Kuroko's cheek. "Then she'd kiss it better and tell me what a brave girl I was." The electromaster said before lifting her index finger to her mouth and kissing the space between the second and third knuckle and pressing it gently to the band-aid.
Kuroko was completely stunned as Misaka stood up and took her crepe out of Kuroko's hand, taking another bite out of it as she turned around. After a few seconds of chewing she swallowed and said, "It's late... what do you say we reschedule this rematch for tomorrow or something?" She smiled back at Kuroko, waving at her before turning and walking off.
Kuroko watched her go, following her with her eyes as she got farther and farther away before turning around a corner and disappearing from sight altogether.
Suddenly Kuroko was looking up at the sky. She wondered what happened, then realized she had fallen off the bench. Her heart was still pounding faster than a racehorse and she found she had no strength at all in her limbs.
"Such powerful lightning," she said as she gazed into the vast expanse of blue that stretched into infinity above her.
Dedications: I'd like to dedicate this chapter, this fic actually, to four people. Cun, ReaperLuca, GreatSnapper, and XXBakaAkki for their input and help, with a special mention to Cun for inspiring the idea and ReaperLuca for insisting I turn it into a story.
Author's Note (Message to long-term fans of my works below): This story is like many other "what if" stories in that it all started with a simple question. It's a question I've asked a few other times without going too far into. How would things be different if Kuroko was on the other side of the law?
Kuroko's sense of justice is far too strong for me to imagine her as a criminal without having it be a whole other character all together, so I went with the vigilante route like in my trilogy. However this time she has backup. The thought process I went through to come up with this idea is confusing and I've mostly forgotten it, but it ended up with this idea in my head of Kuroko as a dreaded Sukeban of a gang. from there a conversation or two with another author made me decide to write it down. I hope you enjoyed it.
I decided to change my writing style a little for this story as well, focusing a little more than usual on visual descriptions and things like that. I also made sure all these chapters were far more thoroughly beta'ed than most of my other works. I hope these alteration worked for you guys, be sure to tell me if you think it did.
Message to Long-term Fans (WARNING! LONG!): First of all, just to assure you, none of my other works have been abandoned. I intend to handle all three of them at once.
As you guys probably know I am usually someone who updates their stories pretty regularly, so I understand it's a bit jarring that I haven't updated my Final Judgement trilogy since a couple of months into this year. To be honest I've tried hard to write things for that, but things like life and stress prevented me from working on it.
That's when I came out with a new story. It a sequel to one of my personal favorite works of mine -Addiction- called Side Effects. If you haven't read or heard of this it's pointless to search, as many of you probably saw I took it down after writing 3 chapters.
I have explained this to those who have asked, but to those who haven't here's what happened. I was unhappy with the quality of my work and the little feedback I received from my fans wasn't enough to counterbalance a few discussions with people who managed to convince me that it could be a lot better. So I took it down in order to rewrite it and post it in a better state while ensuring that a whole bunch of people wouldn't read the poor quality work in the meantime.
The people who I previously explained this to might think it a bit odd to see me posting another story. I know if I was following a big story like my trilogy and the author started another story I would think that the big work had been abandoned. However I will not abandon my trilogy until it is done.
That isn't to say updates won't be slower. In addition to the fact that I am working on a couple other stories I have decided that my trilogy needs a beta from now on. Working just by myself I could, working tirelessly, get an 8000 word chapter out every week or so, but the quality isn't as good as when it's read over by others. I've been told many times that it's quality that matters so I'll assume that that's still true and start having my chapters read by someone before posting them.
However since my Betas are not the same for each story what I hope to do is write several chapters at once (like in this where I wrote four chapters within 2 weeks) for each story, then have them beta'ed as I post some of the chapters from a story which has already been beta'ed, meaning I'll hopefully be able to post something at least once a week. I hope that's ok for you guys and makes up for my long hiatus.