Author's note:
So begins the next installment in this series, Exceed. Like Fragments, this is only some of the chapters involved in the story, only those that are sufficiently completed to be in any kind of readable form. This literally follows Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Episode 12, AIM Burst – for the most part rendering this story into the realm of Alternate Universe. It centers on Miyuki's contribution to this, so if she is unable to observe, the story does not switch to another character.
Continuity information: One point to make for clarity is that Miyuki has relented to using her father's family name of Ayanokoji. The members of G.E.O. will still tend to refer to her as Nakamura-san when appropriate or Miyuki otherwise. Uiharu and Saten were introduced to her at some point between the stories and she introduced herself as Ayanokoji. She also transfers from Garden of Education Judgment branch to 177, after the Eyebrow incident, due to their high workload verse that of the Garden's.
Warning: This and all the other small one off stories are O.C. centric.
Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, nor any of its characters.
Toaru no Kanpeki na Genjitsu
Reberu Appā
Misaka headed towards the door leading to the stairs from the Judgment office as she arranged the earpiece she had been given by Kuroko. She reached for the handle to the door as she tested the communicator's functionality.
"Kuroko do you hear me?" Misaka inquired while opening the door.
"Hai onee-sama, just… please be careful." Replied Kuroko her voice filled with worry.
Misaka smiled to herself as she exited the building, "I got this, don't worry."
Just coming up the steps as Misaka was heading down the same was Miyuki, looking a bit winded as she affixed her Judgment armband. "Oh, Misaka-san I managed to secure you a ride to the scene. Antiskill has a blockade setup on the highway, and traffic behind them is being diverted, but if we take surface streets we should be okay."
Before Misaka could respond, Ayanokoji gestures to her earpiece, switching it off. Misaka gives her a questioning look, but puts it on mute. Miyuki gestures to the sports car below.
"We don't own a Lamborghini Gallardo or Ferrari F430, my father is not a fan of Italian cars. However, a partner of his in business did give us this as gift and I managed to sneak out with it."
Not as exotic as the two cars she mentioned, but the metallic red, with dual white racing stripes, Ford GT (this is the GT40 inspired mid-engine sports car, not some meek Mustang) would get the job done.
Flashing the keys, Miyuki opened up the driver's side and slipped into the seat While waving Mikoto to the passenger side, she buckled her seatbelt. As Mikoto entered the car she gave Miyuki a questioning glare, "you can drive? But, we're the same age!"
Miyuki giggled a bit and stuck her tongue out at Misaka's comment, "well I know how to drive, but you know, not legally so, yeah. Heh, that's why I wanted you to mute the mic for a bit, what no one knows can't get me into trouble."
Misaka gave her a wry little smile as she finished securing her own seatbelt, "works for me, are you sure you're Judgment?"
She held up her hands defensively after starting up the car, "I'd only do this as an emergency and Uiharu-san being kidnapped by some stripper lady is definitely an emergency. Now hang on, this is a fast car."
The two espers were off speeding towards the Antiskill blockade, not at all observing the speed limits, and with Misaka carefully managing the street lights in their favor. The two of them arrived at the standoff location with only a half-dozen close calls and maybe only one life apiece shaved off their respective lifespans.
Misaka collapsed out of the passenger side onto her hands and knees panting, "I thought you said you knew how to drive?"
Miyuki scratched the back of her knew as she laughed nervously, "I have all the high scores at the arcade and I'm really good at Need for Speed…"
Taking a deep breath and shaking her head Misaka ran towards the gate for the utility walkway up to the raised highway, "okay Kuroko I'm here…"
Meanwhile, Miyuki secured the car and followed up after Misaka, using a bit of teleportation to shave off a bit of distance and effort in walking. At the top she found Mikoto standing defensively in front of a blue Lamborghini Gallardo and facing off against a tall woman in a lab coat.
"Misaka Mikoto… One of the only seven Level 5s in Academy City." The woman turned to face Misaka, the wind blowing the smoke and her hair, which coupled with her one red eye gave the rather dull scientist a sinister air as she continued her soliloquy, "I doubt that even you have fought against an opponent like me. Will you be able to stop me, when I control 10,000 minds as one?"
Mikoto coolly regarded Kiyama as she replied, "Will I be able to stop you, you ask?"
Miyuki joined her and with a look between them, Misaka replied while springing forward, "Of course we will!"
The valiant rush was cut short as circular holes were opened up beneath both of their feet. Both girls were able to avoid the traps, but were briefly thrown off-balance. Both Mikoto and Miyuki avoided the subsequent blast Kiyama directed at their area. Mikoto pressed forward while Miyuki stumbled a bit brushing concrete fragments from her hair.
Mikoto squared off against Kiyama again, "You surprise me. You really can use many different abilities, huh?"
With a determined grin Mikoto readied herself for an attack, "I'm getting a kick out of this 'Dual Skill' of yours."
Kiyama slowly raised a hand, replying in the same even tone she had maintained this whole time, "My ability is different in method from that theoretically impossible one. You can call it… 'Multiskill'."
"Yeah that's not unoriginal at all." Miyuki quipped as both she and Misaka both dodged to the side of sheet of some kind of wind or force as it cut a swath into the street. Miyuki's attempts at analysis were all over the place. I can't get a clear analysis on this, the interlocking fields are too dense to parse. I might need to just strip the whole thing and hope I can hold it or have an aneurysm. Something should have stuck out as odd at how cheerful she was at that whole thought, but the fight was now, logic later.
"It doesn't matter to me what you call it!" Mikoto yelled as she charged her electricity, "It doesn't change what I'm going to do, after all!"
The bolt of electricity struck a dome of some sort, channeling the current into the ground. This caught both of them by complete surprise.
"What's wrong?" Kiyama asked with a bit of a smile, "You didn't expect me to be able to use multiple abilities at once?"
Miyuki frowned readied a fireball before teleporting right next to Kiyama, "try my multiskill, you old b…"
Miyuki did not get a chance to release the fireball or even complete her quip as a flying Antiskill van smashed into her side, tossing her all the way back and into the side of Kiyama's car.
She could barely make out someone screaming her name before darkness overtook her. In the swirling void she was vaguely aware of someone trying to rouse her, her body being shaken before the featureless void was assaulted by images, scenes of a teacher and children, of the slow building of bonds and affection, to experiments and a hideous inhumane decision of an old man that she found vaguely familiar.
The same voice tried again to rouse her and this time Miyuki responded with a groan. Uiharu's face slowly resolved in her foggy vision as the ringing in her ears slowly gave way to a voice, "…nokoji-san… Ayanokoji-san? Oh thank goodness you're awake. You're hurt, and your head is bleeding a bit. Don't move and stay awake, Antiskill medics will help you out. I'm going to check on Misaka-san."
Miyuki would have reached out to grab Uiharu to stop her, but in trying she painfully realized that her right arm was dislocated. The only good thing in this situation seemed to be despite her impact with a van, she had not lost her glasses. She might not need them to see normally, but they were useful interfaces for other reasons.
One of the Antiskill officers skilled in first aid had just begun to assess her situation when the most unworldly of screams she had ever heard pierced the air and spiked a hot knife of pain in her head. Distracted by the scream, it took a moment for the officer to notice her having collapsed and grasping her head.
"Hey are you okay?" Asked the officer.
The scream ended and the spike of pain disappeared, but it wasn't a moment latter that an even more powerful one poured forth from below, causing her even more agony. Her AR display registered 'Metamorphose' and an in-calculable telepathic spike, but she did not pay it any mind, her head was almost literally splitting open.
"The voices… pain… make it stop!" She cried clutching her head as tears streamed from her eyes. The Antiskill officer, not knowing what else to do readied a tranquilizer, but Miyuki grabbed it with her left hand, "no, no… it's okay, I got it under control just a bit overwhelmed for a second."
I left a telepathic circuit wide open when I was bombarded by… Kiyama's memories? I guess that's what that was… just need to shore up the defenses.
While she closed the circuit and re-established her typical mental defenses, the officer had wrapped her head a bit and applied other emergency first aid. As he finished, the AIM Burst rose up to the highway level causing Antiskill officers to engage it with live rounds.
"Stay put." The officer told her as he picked up his gun and joined in support of the others.
Not one to usually follow orders when interesting things were happening, she staggered over to the stairs down. Leaning against the wall it was apparent that her ankle was really hurting, though it only seemed to be bruised. Looking briefly at the wall she leaned on, she pushed off to a standing position. Steeling her courage, she performed one of the emergency techniques she had learned in her combat skill training with Yuko some years ago.
Miyuki stifled a cry as she forcefully re-seated her shoulder in the socket. Her vision swam and threatened to send her into unconsciousness, but she forced it down and steadied herself. After wiping the tears from her eyes, and catching her breath. She briefly tested her right arm to make sure she had some motion back before braving the stairs.
At the bottom she saw Uiharu and Misaka briefly as they both made their way under the bridge for some purpose. With her ankle protesting, she risked a teleport and appeared at the bottom. She quickly limped and managed caught up with the other two as they confronted Kiyama.
Misaka gave her a critical worried eye as Uiharu was conversing with Kiyama. Miyuki wasn't paying attention to their dialogue, her headache was a bit distracting. She waved off Misaka's stare, "Daijoubu, I've had worse."
That statement had Uiharu staring at her as well, "okay, maybe not really."
Again, the conversation was mostly lost to her, but she did catch the action plan and made an effort to respond to which Misaka abruptly interrupted, "and you will stay right here."
Misaka's tone brokered no argument and in a situation like this, even Miyuki did not see it wise to be stubborn so she merely nodded and slumped against the wall next to Kiyama.
As the adrenaline of the past few minutes wound down and with more pain then she had ever experienced in her life, she would have gladly given in to unconsciousness except that Kiyama had left the relative safety of the underpass to head out onto the field in pursuit of the AIM Burst.
"Chotto matte!" Miyuki called out after her. The injured girl made to follow the scientist, but when she put her weight on her ankle she was met with sharp pain, before collapsing to the ground. The fall, combined with all her other aches and pains, and the ever present dizziness, put her over the edge and she again passed into unconsciousness.
Miyuki did not know how long she was out, but a strange tone ringing in her ears forced consciousness upon her. When it ceased, she dared to open her eyelids ever so slightly. The huge beast that was rampaging seemed to be down, but from her vantage point she was able to see it open the multiple eyes scattered across its body.
Teleporting, she arrived next to Kiyama as she yelled her warning to Misaka. The Level 5 was not deterred though and after Kiyama directed her towards the core, she resumed her relentless assault. The sheer power of Electromaster shocked both of them.
Shaking off her awe, Miyuki focused on tearing apart the AIM fields surrounding the creature. Forgoing finesse for efficiency, she literally embodied her nickname of AIM Eater as she pulled material only she could see from the air and literally consumed it.
Misaka's discharged her railgun, ejecting the core into the open air. In a moment of pure ambition, Miyuki grasped a hunk of metal from the rubble, transposing it with the core at the moment of explosion. Acting quickly while both Kiyama and Misaka were distracted by the explosion and 'death' of the AIM burst, she hastily forced the damaged and destabilizing core into her own body. Once within herself, she de-rendered it into pure data dumping it raw into her C3's permanent storage memory.
Kiyama gave her a sidelong glance to which Miyuki merely shrugged as she grabbed a wisp of energy from the air and ate it, "I missed lunch?"
"Hmmm, I see." Kiyama replies in her dull toned voice.
The trio, with Miyuki supported by Mikoto, made their way back to the Antiskill officers up on the highway where Kiyama was taken into custody. The officer who had initially treated Miyuki's injuries was waiting for their return where he gave her a stern talking to as she was loaded into an ambulance bound for a certain hospital.
Daijoubu – used in this context as a statement that "I'm fine/ok."
Chotto matte – Wait a moment.
Extra:
Meanwhile, all the way across town, Yuko wanders about an outdoor shopping district. She is munching on a crepe as she shops, stopping briefly to use her raffle tickets.
With some amount of amazing luck, she wins the grand prize an all-expense paid trip to a famous and very exclusive hot springs resort.
After that, she takes a walk to a certain park. Feeling a bit thirsty, she decides to grab a drink from the local vending machine. Paying the required price, she presses the button for the drink she wanted only to find the machine is out of the flavor.
Sighing, she hits the change return only for the machine to spit out a ¥ 10,000 bill. She takes the bill and regards it with fascination before the vending machine suddenly spits out the can of soda she wanted despite it registering as out of stock.
She shrugs while pocketing the money and popping the tab on the can.
"What a thoroughly wonderful day." Yuko muses.
