Wow hey I'm back!
Slightly shorter chapter because it felt right to end this one where I did. I'm pretty sure I know where the story's going at this point, which is a new one for me with fanfic. Usually I just sorta wing it and stick things in because they're funny and they work. This one might actually have a real plot or something!
Chapter-specific warnings: Language, stalkers.
Enjoy!
Chapter 2: In Which Mikoto Overthinks a Lot of Things and Shokuhou Misaki Gets Some Disturbing Text Messages
(Mikoto)
Mikoto doesn't hear anything from Touma's weird neighbor for the rest of the day.
She also doesn't hear anything on the news about a certain Level Five psycho being found dead in a back alley, riddled with needles, and Kuroko returns to the dorms pouting, and announces that "the scoundrel got away before Onee-sama's honor could be avenged."
Mikoto does not sleep, because when she closes her eyes, she sees pictures in the back of her mind of Kamijou Touma tied to a chair, with a knife to his neck, with a bloody nose, and even though she knows that's highly unlikely to be happening it still hurts that she can't do anything.
The next morning is Monday, so Mikoto dons her uniform and brushes her teeth and goes to class. The morning passes silently. Mikoto keeps checking her phone for texts from Touma's neighbor. There never are any. She hopes he didn't toss out her phone number the second she'd left. She wonders if she should've given Accelerator her phone number too, and then shudders and dismisses the thought as the stupidest thing that's ever crossed her mind. The last thing she needs is to have any kind of connection to that freak. It's bad enough that he suggested working together to save Touma.
Mikoto isn't having any of it.
There has to be a catch. There has to be some kind of a catch. She hates Accelerator for killing thousands of the SISTERs. He hates her right back for being indirectly responsible for their creation in the first place. Hate hate hate all over the place, they could go on a horrible hate-date if they really wanted to, and order nasty food for each other and tip the candle on the table into each other's drinks, and afterwards they could find a nice, quiet back alley to try and kill each other in.
And on top of that, he sucks time away from Touma. Tons of time that Touma could be spending with her, but instead he's off fighting magicians with Accelerator and that other guy who looks like a thug.
Of all the days for her to pick to finally have gotten up the courage to tell Kamijou Touma that she didn't… hate… him… as much as she used to, which isn't of course to say love, who said anything about love, ha ha ha, no, but not hate either, but it's not like she loves him or anything- of all the days she could have possibly chosen to confess this to Touma, Accelerator just had to show up and encroach. It's not like that jerk had something quite that important to tell Touma, after all. What could he have possibly needed from him at that hour of the morning?
Maybe they were going to kill more stupid magicians, Mikoto thinks.
It also hadn't helped at all that Touma hadn't been there when she'd decided to tell him. Not like he'd up and vacated the premises or something, oh no. Not like he'd been potentially freakin' kidnapped or anything.
Seriously.
At lunch is when the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan and Shokuhou Misaki all but corners Mikoto on her way to the cafeteria. Mikoto debates the option of electrocuting her on the spot as revenge for mind-wiping her friends during the Daihaseisai, but she changes her mind after a few seconds.
The reason she changes her mind is because Shokuhou Misaki looks like she's about to cry. Her knees are shaking. Her lower lip is trembling. Her knuckles are white.
"I know where your boyfriend is," she says, trembling.
"He's not my boyfriend!" Mikoto squeaks, on principle. "Wait, what did you say?"
"I know where Kamijou Touma's been taken."
...
The empty classroom that Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki decide to use for their conversation is far enough away from the cafeteria that nobody will walk in on them. Mikoto won't sit down. Shokuhou is leaning on the edge of the teacher's desk. She won't look at Mikoto. She's pretending to smile. It looks painful.
"Explain everything," Mikoto says. Shokuhou nods tightly.
"I was contacted late last night on my cell phone. The call came from a blocked number and I didn't recognize the speaker. They told me they knew where I was and had been tracking me invisibly without my knowledge for the past week, and they had me surrounded right now," she says. "And that if I didn't do exactly what they asked, they'd kill me. They said they were armed with this thing that blocks out Esper powers, something like Capacity Down or something."
"I've heard of it," Mikoto says, nodding. More than heard of it. It's not something she particularly wants to encounter again.
"And so the person on the phone told me to control a random, uninvolved person to kidnap Kamijou Touma-"
"So he has been kidnapped!"
"He has. Control someone, kidnap Kamijou Touma, and take him to the drop-off point. I followed the man I used after he kidnapped Kamijou, all the way to the drop-off, and when I got there these two terrified-looking Anti-Skill members put him in the back of a van and drove away. They were headed for the south side of the city."
"Do you know where they went?" Mikoto asks.
"No, but I got the license plate number," Shokuhou says. "Here." She passes Mikoto a slip of paper with a series of letters and numbers. Mikoto stuffs it into her pocket.
"Why are you telling me this anyway?" Mikoto asks. "I thought you couldn't stand me."
"I'm telling you because I need your help," Shokuhou whispers.
"With what?"
"They're still here."
"Huh?"
"They can't hear us, but they're still watching me, right now. And I can't find them. I don't know where they are, but I keep getting texts from the undisclosed number that says they're still watching me."
"How do you know for sure?" Mikoto says, leaning up against the teacher's desk next to Shokuhou. She fakes a smile, since she knows she's being watched.
"The undisclosed number keeps telling me where I am. And what I'm doing. And it's always right. This morning it texted me the color of the bra I'm wearing!" Shokuhou's fake smile wavers. Mikoto notices tears in the corners of her eyes.
"I'll get them off your back," she says softly. "But just because of the information you gave me. Don't think for a second that this makes us friends."
Shokuhou nods.
"Can I see your phone?" Mikoto asks, holding out her hand. Shokuhou nods and silently hands it over. "I can trace the number through the network with my electricity. This shouldn't take too long."
Mikoto turns on the phone, and as she's about to set to work Shokuhou receives a text message from the undisclosed number. She opens the text, aiming to start from there and work her way through the network.
When she reads the text, she drops the phone in shock and covers her mouth to keep from gasping.
The text reads: Pink Gekota panties today, Misaka-san.
The phone buzzes again as it receives a second message. Mikoto scrambles to pick it up.
"What is it?" Shokuhou asks. Mikoto bites her lip as she reads through the text. "What does it say now?"
"It says," Mikoto whispers, "that you shouldn't have told me. And that they're coming tonight to eliminate you as a liability."
"Excuse me?"
"They're gonna kill you, Shokuhou-san. Tonight."
Review if you'd like to. Next chapter will be Accelerator again. I'm gonna switch off whose POV I narrate around each chapter. I'll try and make the chapters longer from here too.
