Curse of a Mark
Chapter 4: Searching
Koomahana
Disclaimer: Railgun is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site
Thoughts
Paragraphs are memories
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"Yomikawa-san!" she snapped around at the sound of her name, her eyes widening at the sight of a flying red haired middle scholar, "I'm Kuroko Shirai of Tokiwadai!" in the blink of an eye she was gone, barely a second later she was in front of her, landing softly on the ground, "I'm-I'm…"
"Easy there!" Aiho snapped, reaching forward quickly to grab hold of the girl before she could collapse, "How fast did you move?" Aiho asked as she gently led the girl to the ground, gritting her teeth at the sight of the red head's too pale face and trembling limbs.
"N-Not fast… enough," Kuroko gasped, dark smudges under her brown eyes, "Onee-sama… where?"
"We haven't found her yet," Aiho tried to reason with the girl, "We suspect where she might be but we haven't heard anything from that thing in a while."
"Take me there," Kuroko gasped, struggling back onto her feet, "She-Onee-sama… she could be hurt!"
"You're hurt!" Aiho hissed, grabbing hold of Kuroko's wrist, "don't even think about—" Kuroko disappeared again, leaving Aiho's hand empty and oddly cold, "Damn it!" Aiho jumped to her feet and ran past the few people she was surrounded by, heading straight for the metal orb, she reached the epic center just as the red head landed, falling onto her side when her legs gave out. "Shirai-san you idiot!" Aiho screamed, racing forward as fast as she could, "are you trying to get yourself killed?! You need to rest!"
"But Onee-sama!" Kuroko tried to protest
"Isn't going anywhere!" Aiho snapped as she slid to a stop and slammed a fist into the red head's head, feeling unsympathetic as the girl nearly blacked out from the hit. "You think your precious Onee-sama would like it if you died trying to get to her?! Rest is important if you want to be in good enough health to get to her!" Kuroko looked miserably up at Aiho, watching with terry eyes as the woman straitened and glared at the nearest anti-skill officer.
"You there!" Aiho snapped out, "Get someone to open that damn thing!"
"The crew is already on its way ma'am," the officer replied quickly, body snapping to attention, "The equipment should be here soon!"
"Equipment?" Aiho questioned with a slight frown
…
…
"How… how much longer," Touma panted, sitting back and nearly slamming his back into the girl trapped with him, "until… w-we're fr-free?"
"'N-Not long' Mai answers simply," 10032 gasped herself, staring dully into the complete darkness surrounding them, her strength to keep up the electric glow of her palm having died long ago.
"Your sisters?" Touma questioned
"'No, someone else… Judgement'," 10032 answered, panting softly. "Mai answers… trying to hide… how tiered… she-she is."
"Oh," Touma closed his eyes and turned his face towards the ceiling of their cage, "this should be fun."
"'Fun?' Mai questions in confusion" 10032 frowned in the darkness, "Mai does not understand how this could be 'fun'."
"No, not this," Touma corrected tiredly, "Explaining to Anti-skill and Judgement." He trailed off, dark eyes staring wonderingly at near suffocating darkness around them, "… it was… sar~casm."
"…Mai understands sarcasm," 10032 panted, her eyes dropping slightly, "Though she does not understand… it in this instance."
"You will," Touma coughed, "I promise you that… I'll t-teach you… wha-at th-that lab… for-orgot t-to"
"…'Mai estimates… that our oxygen is running low,' Mai says, explaining the boy's broken speech" 10032 comments slowly, her eyes slipping closed just to snap open only to repeat the process again. "'Mai suspects… that there isn't much time left… before we're out… of air…" Suddenly their cage rattled, Touma and Mai both jerked at the sound, their eyes widening as the very bottom of their cage slowly lit up with something bright white almost like light. They watched it hypnotized for a moment, gasping as fresh air surrounded them and they both breathed in deeply, trying to consume as much air as their bodies could handle. Together they both collapsed at the nearest edge, faces pressed to the ground and noses close to the gap, their breaths quick and uneven. As sudden as the lifting of their cage was, it slammed down again, cutting off their new air supply; Touma groaned loudly, closing his eyes as if he was in pain. Mai stared at his features barely hidden in the renewed endless blackness that surrounded them, she panted heavily for a moment before she pressed her fingers against the edge of their cage. Mai closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, she heard of the abilities of her sister, how she had a constant awareness of everything within fifteen meters of her position, in a perfect three hundred and sixty degrees. If she could do something similar, if she could send out her electricity to search out for something metallic that she could wedge between the cage and the ground, she could get them new air.
As if consenting to 10032's attempt for new air, the cage rattled again and lifted a little from the ground, almost half the distance of the first time. 10032's eyes widened and she sent out a burst of electricity, snatching up the closest metallic object and jerking it towards their location. Their cage fell again but not before it took five rail nails into the earth with it. 10032 closed her eyes as she breathed heavily, it wasn't enough of a gap to get them constant new air to breath, she had to get something bigger between the cage and the ground or else they were going to suffocate. 10032 waited patiently for the cage to lift, to fill her time she counted the seconds, she reached 93 seconds when the cage rattled for a third time. Again 10032 didn't waste any time, she sent out another electric shock, grabbing up as much metal as she could and yanked with everything she had at it. All at once it seemed as the world was crashing down on them, their cage shook and rattled, a mountain slamming down on it as if trying to squash it into rubble. The bottom of the cage where they laid filled with dust, forcing Touma and Mai to jerk back coughing. Once the dust was clear enough for them to 'see' what had happened, Mai nearly groaned as loudly as Touma did; the very bottom was filled with rubble, completely blocking off their air supply. With a small sound of distress, Mai crumbled back into her previous laying spot and pressed her fingers into the cool gravel blocking their air supply. Her fingers barely got two inches in before she felt something as cold as ice and as smooth as glass press against the pad of her fingers. Blinking dumbly, Mai scooped a handful of the gravel aside and pressed her fingers against the newly revealed object. Although she was once again bathed in completely darkness, Mai tried to 'see' with her fingers as blind people did; if her guess was right she was able to pull a piece of railway under the cage. Mai gasped and swallowed before she continued digging, it wasn't long before Touma was beside her doing the same; apparently having heard her and had guessed about what she was doing.
"You're something else, you know that?" Touma asked softly
"Mai does not understand," 10032 replied calmly, her eyes dilating in the darkness as she caught a spark of light
"Most other girls would be panicking," Touma explained, "they defiantly wouldn't have had the foresight to use their ability so quickly. You skipped over the panic stage and went straight to work on figuring out a way out of this mess."
"…Onee-sama would be disappointed if she couldn't teach Mai all of her tricks," 10032 replied simply. Touma glanced at her in the darkness, a soft smile slipping on his face as a sliver of light slowly revealed itself by lighting up the clone's face. As much as the girl looked 'identical' to Mikoto, she actually had ash-gray eyes and her hair appeared to be a little darker. They weren't completely identical, so they weren't perfect clones of Mikoto; they were just artificial life that took on a similar form as Mikoto.
"She's alive you know," Touma said softly pulling away the last of the soil to reveal one of the strips of rail that Mikoto had shredded in her fight against Accelerator. It sat upon the nails Mai was able to grab; this gave them a good two inches between the cage and the ground, giving them plenty of new air to breath.
"…Mai does not understand how you know so," 10032 said softly as she glanced at Touma, watching him smile sadly back at her. "'Does your ability allow you to for see the future?' Mai asks feeling curious about the boy who knows Onee-sama so well."
"It's not so much 'know' as it is 'hope'," Touma corrected with a slight chuckle. "And no, I'm a level zero but that's beside the point. Mikoto is a level five electro-master, the strongest electro-master in all of Academy City. We were surrounded in metal straight from the get-go, there's no way she couldn't have magnetized some of it to create a shield for herself."
"…like what Onee-sama saved us with?" 10032 asked, staring blankly at the black haired boy
"Yeah," Touma smiled and this time it seemed brighter than before, "She defiantly had to have saved herself if she had the strength to save us."
At least that was his hope
…
…
She was floating but laying
She was flying but falling
She was moving but still
What was she doing?
She could taste copper and salt
She could hear the wind in her ears
She could smell the scent of rain and earth
She could feel the frigid coldness of water on her skin
"You'll be okay," a warm breath of air ghosted over her face and it made her realize that her left side was significantly warmer than her right. She took a deep breath and smiled sleepily, the wind was still cold enough to make her feel as if she was an ice carving, so she snuggled a little closer to that warm thing. Suddenly that warm thing seemed to have stilled or at least stiffened, as if it wasn't used to something cuddling closer to it.
She felt another warm breath on her cheek that ghosted down her neck
"You'll be okay,"
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…
How long? Touma opened his eyes slightly, staring sleepily at the smooth face of Mai, noting her eyes were closed and her breathing was even; signaling that she was asleep. How long have we been in here? When was the last time he saw the sun? When was the last time he could stand to his full height without hitting something? When was the last time he could—
SCREEEEEEE
Touma nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a loud echoing sound rattle through the cage. Mai was instantly awake and trying to push herself up on trembling arms, trying to face the direction of the possible threat, sparks lighting up her hair and floating down her arms like silk threads. Together they faced the wall behind them, watching curiously as little by little more and more orange sparks bloomed into being. It took Touma seconds to realize that someone had found them and were attempting to save them from the cage that surrounded them protectively.
"Saved," Touma gasped, looking towards Mai with a bright smile, "We're saved!" Mai smiled sadly and collapsed, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, her body going limp like wet noodles. "Mai!" Touma shouted, shaking the girl's shoulder, "What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Touma watched as Mai gasped softly, sweat breaking out across her face, her body trembling slightly in the near darkness. He gritted his teeth and turned back to the growing lines of sparks, as the orange sparks grew into longer and longer lines along the wall, Touma could hear sounds from beyond his cage. Thinking cautiously, Touma carefully pulled Mai a little further away from the orange sparks; he didn't need that thing landing on her, it could break something that was currently keeping Mai alive.
Chink
The rectangle figure the glowing lines formed was finally completed and the center piece was free—free enough to fall on them. Touma gasped and spun on his heal diving over the knocked out girl behind him, hoping to protect Mai from the majority of the danger. However, just as the rectangle piece of metal started to fall towards them it stopped moving entirely; Touma blinked and looked dumbly at the possibly lethal piece of metal floating before him.
"You got it?" a gruff voice outside the cage asked, Touma moved slowly to his feet
"Yes Ma'am," answered another, Touma carefully pulled Mai into his arms, understanding that someone with telekinesis must've grabbed the piece of metal before it could land on them.
"Then get it out of the way!"
"Yes ma'am!" Touma flinched back as the piece of metal jerked itself free from the convenes of the cage, letting in a blinding amount of light. It took him longer then he'd like to admit to adjust to the morning sunlight streaming in from the outside, with nothing to block the intense brightness from him.
"You okay in there?" slowly Touma turned his eyes towards the rectangular opening, twitching slightly at the blinding brightness of the sunlight beyond it. Once his eyes were close enough to being adjusted to the bright light, Touma blinked slowly at the shadow of a woman standing just beyond the cage. The woman had long purple hair and matching eyes, she wore the uniform of an Anti-skill officer, she must've been a high ranking one if she wasn't wearing the helmet like most did.
"Hurry up the electro-masters can only distract the electricity for so long," the woman informed him, pressing one palm to the side of the opening as she pushed herself a little further inside, "Are you hurt? Can you tell if she's alive?" at the reminder of Mai being in his arms, Touma jerked back into reality and quickly looked down at the clone, examining her closely for any signs of life. That was when he noticed something extremely important, he had been too busy watching the glowing lines appear to notice her condition before but now that he stopped to study her, he realized just how big of a mistake that was.
"She's not breathing" the woman's face paled drastically and her eyes widened
"Get a medic over here!" the woman screamed shrilly, barely even glancing over her shoulder as she dived into the cage, nearly slamming Touma away from the clone as she set the girl on the ground. "How long as she been like this?" the woman asked sharply as she checked for vitals, her teeth grinding together.
"I don't know," Touma answered, "I wasn't watching her constantly but it couldn't be that long… she was fine when you started grinding through the cage for us, she feinted right after that."
"So not long," the woman bobbed her head and pressed her hands together over the clone's chest, without prompt she started pushing down on the girl's chest, preceding with CPR as quickly as possible.
"Onee-sama?" Touma jerked at the soft whisper, his eyes widening as he looked towards the entrance of the cage, his black eyes widening as he found himself staring at the horrified brown orbs of the familiar red haired girl he met with the night before. "What happened?! What's going on?!" the girls eyes swiveled and locked onto Touma, they were wide for a moment before the narrowed into a glare, hatred instantly etching itself over her face. "What did you do to Onee-sama?!"
"Whoa back up! I didn't do anything!" Touma quickly intervened
"So what, after you left the dorms you found Onee-sama like this?!" Kuroko asked, sarcasm lasing her words, "What did you do to her?!"
"Listen this isn't the girl you call Onee-sama!" Touma said desperately, "This is Mikoto's little sister Mai!"
"Onee-sama doesn't have any siblings!" Kuroko argued, "I already asked her!"
"I don't doubt that but when did you ask her?" Touma asked, "Mikoto only found out recently!"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" the woman asked, bending over to breath air into the clone's mouth before returning to moving the girl's chest herself, "what aren't you telling us?" Touma hesitated for a moment, the likely hood of them believing his story about 'Mai' being Mikoto's clone wasn't very high. If anything they would accuse him of doing all the damage to the girl and if she didn't wake up then it would only get worse and worse for him.
He couldn't tell them the truth but he could distort it a little…
"Listen to me and try to keep an open mind about this," Touma sighed, resigning himself as he looked back down at the clone. "When Mikoto Misaka came to Academy city she didn't come alone. She arrived here with her little sister Mai Misaka."
"I already told you that Onee-sama doesn't have any siblings!" Kuroko snapped loudly, her voice echoing in the close space of the cage, "She told me—!"
"Mai was kidnapped when they were still kids, before they became recognized for their talent with electricity," Touma interrupted coldly, sitting back in the cage, his back inches away from the still heated metal of the cage. Touma didn't need to look to know that his words had shocked both the girl and the woman into silence, almost making the woman still in her attempt of saving Mai's life. "Mikoto watched it happened and tried to intervene but they whipped her memory instead, it's possible that not even her mother remembers Mai's existence."
"…Who would do that?" the woman asked as she pulled back from the clone, relief filling her as the girl started to breath for herself, barely even coughing when she gained control again.
"I don't know," Touma answered, "I didn't read all of the papers Mikoto printed off."
"Do you still have these papers?" the woman asked, turning to look at him seriously
"No," Touma sighed, taking the clone's wrist into one hand and testing her pulse himself, "She destroyed them when I confronted her last night about it." The woman sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as she closed her eyes, as if she was in pain.
"This conversation doesn't go beyond us," the woman ordered, turning to glare over her shoulder at Kuroko, "None of you are allowed to speak of this again, that understood?"
"But—" Kuroko tried to interrupt
"Understood captain," Kuroko gasped and snapped around, her eyes wide as she stared at up at the teen standing to the side of the opening in the cage. "Don't worry; it was just the three of us, no one else heard."
"Good," the woman turned to regard the entrance and the two students hovering around the edge of it. "My name is Aiho Yomikawa, captain of squad 17, you three remember it."
"Yes Ma'am," the boy smirked, "I'm Akira Toshigawa, I'm a level three telekinesis."
"Um… I'm Kuroko Shirai," Kuroko sniffed, rubbing one wrist against her eye, "I'm a level four teleporter."
"And I'm Touma Kamijou," Touma sighed, as if he knew something ridiculous was about to happen, "and I'm a level zero." True to his predictions the other three stared at him as if he had three heads, six arms and eight legs; that is, before Kuroko and Akira started laughing hysterically
"…are you serious?" Aiho questioned in disbelief
"Yeah," Touma sighed, bowing his head in defeat
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It took Anti-skill and Judgement several more hours but they were able to find evidence of Mikoto's standing in the wrecked land of the switchyard.
The evidence wasn't very promising
Touma stared numbly at Kuroko kneeling on the gravel ground, she was wailing loudly as she clutched at a little piece of gray cloth—the only evidence they could find of Mikoto Misaka. Beside the red head was a kneeling navy haired teen, Aiho and another middle school girl wearing the same green Judgment badge as Kuroko. The high scholar beside Kuroko tried to calm her, rocking them both back and forth, whispering gently to the red head; as if that could make a difference. To Kuroko's other side stood a numb looking black haired girl, her short hair was pulled back with a large headband covered in flowers. He watched as the girl slowly lifted her cell phone and calmly dialed a number and waited patiently. Near the epic center of the site stood several Anti-skill officers, each holding a bag containing something, one had the misfortune to be holding the bag with the little, bloody, green phone inside. The phone rang and the officer looked down at it in confusion before he looked up at the flower haired girl with dawning realization. The girl ended her call, waited a moment and called again, she hung up, dialed and hung-up again; she repeated this process seven times before she finally processed that the green phone she's been staring at belonged to the person she was calling. Once she acknowledge this discovery, she clutched at her phone with both hands, as if she was praying. Then she calmly opened her phone again and dialed a number, this time someone answered and the girl tried to talk as calmly as she could but she ended up slamming onto her knees and crying hysterically herself. Aiho sighed heavily and grabbed the phone herself and relayed the information to the person on the other end.
"Sad," the girl beside him whispered, drawing Touma's attention to her, "they're all so… so sad." Touma sighed and looked down at the girl in question, she really should've gone straight to the hospital but for some reason she refused to do so; she wanted to stay at the epic-center a little longer.
"That's what happens when you lose someone precious," Touma finally replied as calmly as he could, slouching against the back of the ambulance. Mai blinked slowly, her fingers tightening around the woolen blanket that was wrapped around her protectively.
"Someone… precious" she repeated slowly, numbly, "Onee-sama… was she… precious… to you?" After Touma and Mai were freed from the cage, it was revealed that Mai's skull was fractured dangerously close to her eye (She might lose it), her collar bone was broken, her right ribcage had three minor fractures and one break, her left shin was fractured with three ripped tendons and five torn muscles.
"She is… was… a friend," he answered, still numb from the night before. As it turned out, Touma suffered from a broken leg (something he didn't realize right away), a fractured shoulder blade, bruised ribs, and a possible concussion; not to mention the hundreds of scraps and bruises covering his body.
"Why?" she whispered, sounding broken, "Why did she… Onee-sama… she took Mai's place." He didn't know how to respond, how was he supposed to tell her that some people are worth dying for? Even the psychotic priestess he lived with knew what grief was and how to deal with it, he's never had to explain something so complicated before…
"That's what big sister's do," he looked up at the soft voice, staring dully at the brunet Anti-skill officer calmly pressing an ice pack to his bruised fist; he hadn't noticed that he was making a fist with his still broken hand. "That's what it means to be the first born…" the woman tried to smile at them but it looked like she was fighting not to cry.
"You protect your siblings no matter what."
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…
"I don't understand," Accelerator sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I saw the clone use the railgun against her."
"And I'm telling you for the last damn time that it wasn't the railgun!" The woman huffed at him, she pulled back from the bed where Mikoto Misaka laid unconscious and vulnerable; her face glowing a faint crimson and clammy from sickness. "You see this spider web mark here?" the woman asked, gesturing almost angrily to the near perfect spider-web replication of dried, fried, cracked flesh on the teen's left side, "that's the effect of close proximity to the Railgun. This here," she pointed to an almost perfect looking circle on Mikoto's left arm, near her shoulder were the clone's 'railgun' slammed into her, "Is not the same. This is where the clone's attack hit her, yes?"
"Yes," Accelerator drawled lazily, "so if it wasn't the railgun, what was it?"
"She's a low level electro master right?" The woman asked, crossing her arms and glaring at him, "Surly a 'genius' like you can figure it out."
"…don't call me that," Accelerator warned lowly, his crimson eyes narrowing into a glare at the woman
"Have you figured it out or do I have to draw you a picture?" the woman asked, dismissing his order with a wave of her hand, as if she wasn't afraid of his power or the fact that he could kill her with next to no effort.
"…Electro-masters can magnetize just about anything metallic," Accelerator commented to himself, leaning back in his chair to observe Mikoto thoughtfully. "Her clone is nowhere near as strong as her so… she shot that nail at her," he gestured to Mikoto with a sweep of his hand, "I fail to see how that wasn't the railgun."
"You're hopeless," the woman groaned, pinching the bridge of her own nose. "The railgun takes a small object and forces it to move under immense speed and heat, which gives it a sonic boom, a crimson color and damn near untraceable with the naked eye."
"And?" Accelerator drawled
"The clone doesn't have that kind of fire power," the woman waved a hand at the unconscious form of the original. "Even she didn't achieve a true railgun until she was level five. What the clone did, what you saw, was the clone using some electricity to move the magnetized rail-nail to get in the way of the true railgun and protect the original. By doing this it wasn't actually the nail that hit her but the blast of the two 'bullets', as you call them, clashing and exploding on impact." Accelerator stared dully at the woman as she cocked a hip and placed her left hand on it, "I'm sure there's evidence of a rail-nail and half melted coin molded together at the scene."
"And if there is?" Accelerator asked, starting to feel curious with the conversation so far
"Well that depends on what you want to do with her," the woman gestured to Mikoto again, "Obviously you want to save her life or else you wouldn't have brought her to me."
"Obviously," Accelerator snorted, "Who else could heal the original other than the woman who single handily created the twenty thousand Misaka clones?" it was true, the woman standing beside Mikoto was on the team that single handily come up with the correct ratio to create a living—and lasting—clone, using Mikoto Misaka was just a bonus to her, "isn't that right, Misaka Misuzu?"
"…Don't you dare tell her," the woman replied coldly, crossing her thin arms; amber eyes glaring down at Accelerator in a mixture of misery and fury.
"Tell her what?" Accelerator smirked back, unperturbed by the positively lethal glare the grown up version of Mikoto gave him, "Oh~ you mean you don't want me to tell your daughter, Mikoto, that you are the source for all the pain and trouble she's gone through to protect those clones that you created?" Misuzu glared down at Accelerator, her own power sparking off her and making her chest nut hair begin to rise in agitation and annoyance.
"Don't forget boy," Misuzu hissed, "I am the reason your mate was even born and the reason she still breaths."
"Oh I won't forget," Accelerator drawled calmly, "I knew there was no way you could possibly kill off your own child. After all there is a difference between the clones and the original, no matter how small the details are." Misuzu stared down at accelerator, weighing the pros and cons of electrocuting the steal chair he sat in, before she let out a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"You like skating on thin ice don't you?"
…
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Thoughts are helpful
Opinions are wonderful
Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?
Please no cursing!
And don't forget to rate and review!
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