CH4: Five Minutes
"... I-I'm not panicking! I'm just wondering what Miss Misaka would want with me. There's rumours that she has an exhibition match today. ... There's no way that's true. Why would it be me? ... Where?"
"Hey!" Mikoto waved from a distance. "Glad to see you're here."
"Miss Misaka..."
"By now you've heard about my exhibition match right?"
"I actually didn't hear about it until today."
"That's because it was just thought up today," Mikoto starts explaining. "When me and Kuroko handed over our report. I requested the free use of one of the fields to test your abilities."
"W-what?"
"For the time being the school will accept our report but they also want to see your powers for themselves. Your level and the evidence at the scene don't match. Which is why this was all arranged. But to everyone else, it's just a show where I am given a 'random' opponent."
"Just to hide the fact that it's part of an investigation? Won't this just attract attention to the incident?"
"Kuroko and Uiharu will be there to represent Judgment, and a representative from Anti-Skill will also be observing. But other than them everyone else is just a spectator. The school is going to use this as propaganda so it'll be recorded."
"Seriously?!"
"I know how you feel, but this is the only way I can test you without getting us into trouble."
"That really doesn't help me at all."
"Just do your best."
"But I don't want to do my best..."
"You really don't want to do this, huh?"
"Of course not!"
"Then how about a challenge? A bet!" Mikoto confidently points her finger at Lilian. "That should get your fighting spirit up!"
"But I don't want anything..."
"Then how about servitude?"
"What?"
"One day," Mikoto demonstrates with a finger. "For one day, the loser will have to do what the winner wants them to do. Every question answered, every request fulfilled. And I already have a few things I'd like to see you do for me... hehehe..."
"M-Miss Misaka...?"
"This is something you can't back out on, understood? I'll see you on the field in a couple hours." Mikoto scurries away.
Lilian stands dumbfounded at this turn of events. "What am I going to do? ... I can't let you handle it! You're the one that got me into this in the first place!"
XXX
"Welcome everyone!" an announcer broadcasted to the audience, full stands of Tokiwadai students, a couple Judgment members and a mature woman from Anti-Skill. "As you all have heard, our very own Ace of Tokiwadai, Miss Mikoto Misaka, will be giving us a demonstration of her powers."
There were loud cheers as Mikoto walks out onto the field.
"For this the school has selected one random student to take part in this event. And the lucky one is..." the announcer opens an envelope and reads the name. "Miss Lilian Isolde Sterling!"
There weren't as many cheers as Lilian tries to walk to her place as composed as she can, although she's visibly shaking. There were a lot of murmurs amongst the crowd though.
"So that's her?" the Anti-Skill officer asks the two Judgment.
"Yes Ms. Yomikawa," Kuroko answers.
"She doesn't look the type."
"That's what Sissy and the school believes too."
"That's why Miss Misaka had all this set up," Uiharu adds. "To see if it's true."
"Shirai?"
Kuroko turns around to see Kihuno and Maaya behind her. "Awatsuki, Wannai, you're here too?"
"Who wouldn't be here?" Maaya asked. "But tell me, this has something to do with what ever happened with Sterling, right?"
"That's right, I can't tell you anymore at this moment, I'm sorry."
"I just hope things will turn out okay," Kihuno prays.
The announcer just finished the introductions of both Mikoto and Lilian, there were a lot of murmurs on Lilian's story.
Mikoto then mysteriously stretched out her arm and showed off her open hand. "Five minutes."
"Huh?" Lilian wonder what Mikoto could mean.
"I'll give you five minutes before I start attacking. I'll still use my powers to protect myself, but I won't attack until five minutes are up. Give me whatever you've got!"
"Annnnd... Begin!" The announcer chops the air then rushes off field.
Lilian gathers mist in her hands and throws them as ice balls. Without even moving, Mikoto shoots them down. The blue haired girl gathers mist between her hands and shoots it as a straight cloud that's as fast as the wind to where Mikoto is standing.
Not risking contact with the mist, the electromaster readies to launch an electric blast, her hair sparks. Her opponent notices the sparks and has the tip of her mist stream freeze into a shield. An electric blast hits the shield of ice. The shield expands in size as it continues to tank the electricity. Mikoto stops firing her attack and Lilian stops her mist.
"The ice and the mist aren't conducting," Mikoto mumbles. "So she's using pure water for her ice. And her ice spawning ability is limited to where she can throw her mist. There must be a range."
"She let me notice that spark so that I can block her counter," Lilian talks to herself. "Not only that, she's able to react to my mist's speed! I'll need to think of something else. Something I can throw at her really really fast." Lilian kneels down and places one hand on the ground. Mist spreads out from her hand as she lifts off her hand to create a small stand. At the top she placed a ball of ice. In one of her hands she forms a baseball bat.
"Baseball?" Mikoto looks in wonder. "What is she doing?"
Lilian swings as hard as she could, the stand shatters and the ball is sent flying. Mikoto... did nothing, it was a total miss. Lilian repairs the stand and places another ball on it. She swings again, barely hitting the ball and it just plops a step away. One more try, Lilian swings again. This time the ball is sent flying towards Mikoto.
Electromaster stood still as the ball enters her protective field and gets fried.
"What was that?"
"I give off a magnetic aura that warns me of any attacks from all directions," Mikoto explains. "I can also create a normally invisible electric barrier that shields me from small attacks."
"And not even something the size of a baseball going that fast can break through it."
"I have to say though. If that first ball wasn't a miss, it would've hit me. I have to concentrate to produce and keep that barrier, and I had to strengthen it to block that last one."
"What to do now?" Lilian mutters to herself. "... The bat?" She looks at the ice bat that she's holding, she lets it drop to the ground. "No, I won't do that. There has to be something..." Lilian makes a wide circle in front of her with one of her arms, the mist forms into a kind of gigantic shield with legs connecting to the ground.
"What's this now?" Mikoto watches as Lilian pushes the shield with all her might. "A ramming attack?"
The shield's legs have skates on the bottom, and Lilian's mist hovers around them to create a path of ice for the shield to skate on. Mikoto unleashes an electric blast right at the shield. It doesn't stop or break and just continues to get closer.
"She's repairing it as I attack!" Mikoto notices something else she can attack. The electromaster blasts the legs of the shield, causing Lilian to fall forward into it.
The shield doesn't stop but it's now sliding on the ground into Mikoto's direction. The electromaster boosts her legs with magnetism and jumps high enough to let the shield, and Lilian, pass below her.
Lilian creates a curved ramp pipe to stop herself. But the shield flips over and traps her underneath it. The blue haired girl tries pushing it off with little luck. She creates a pillar of ice that pushes the shield off for her. Lilian gets up and dusts herself off.
"Didn't really think that one through, did you?" Mikoto asks.
"It almost worked," Lilian responds.
"Nothing really impressive so far," Kuroko notes. "What she's done up until now are all perfectly within a level 3's capabilities."
"Do you think she's still holding back?" Yomikawa questions.
"She might be," Uiharu answers. "It looks like she's trying to cause as little damage as possible."
"Sterling is going to need to get more serious," Kuroko speaks out. "The free time that Sissy gave her is almost up. And Sissy will take this seriously."
"One more attack," Lilian creates skates on her feet. "Just one more thing I can try!" Her hands gather mist and she skates full speed to Mikoto.
The electromaster readies herself for whatever Lilian might pull off.
Lilian gets closer and closer. Her hands gather more mist.
Mikoto stands still. (What is she planning to do?) One of Lilian's hands stretches out forwards. (That's-?) Mikoto rolls to the side as the blue haired girls skated by. (She's trying to freeze me?) Lilian turns around and heads for Mikoto again. (I can't attack yet.) Mikoto charges her legs and tries to jump over the ice girl.
Lilian raises one arm and creates a thin pillar of ice above her. Mikoto flies into it face first and breaks the small pillar, then tumbles to the ground. Lilian stops skating and turns to Mikoto.
"Miss Misaka?"
"Mnyh!" Mikoto tries to respond but somehow her tongue got stuck on the icicle. "Nmmph! Nrmph!" The electromaster lets out some sparks around the ice pillar until it melts off of her tongue. "Bwah!" Mikoto puts her tongue back in her mouth and seems to be sending electricity to her mouth.
"Are... are you alright?" Lilian asked worriedly.
"NyaI'm Ffinne," Mikoto points at Lilian. "Futhfs thymes uff."
"What?"
Mikoto swallows. "I said, time's up!" She quickly sends a blast the flew by Lilian's face.
Lilian's eyes widened in shock as a large electrical explosion roared behind her. "That was ... Yeah, I felt it too. ... I can't react that fast!"
"That was a warning, get ready now!" The electromaster pulls out a coin and flicks it upwards. "I'm not holding back here!"
"T-that's-!" Lilian freezes in a panic.
"Sissy's using THAT?!" Kuroko gets up and turns to the crowd. "Everyone get ready to shield yourselves! Anyone that can make a protective barrier around the stands, do it!"
Lilian observes Mikoto sparking up. "... Do what? I can't stop her! ... Attack with what? Her field will stop anything I throw at her. ... I can't dodge that! I know you've seen the pool explode every time they test her power!" Instinctively, Lilian unleashes a large amount of mist at the ground in front of her, creating a thick wall of ice that continues to expand. She readies her body with a thick layer of mist that will freeze instantly against any attacks that try to come in contact with her, almost like she's glowing some kind of gas, but will it freeze the coin fast enough? Just in case, Lilian creates a thick layer of ice around her body to absorb whatever her wall doesn't. "I can't avoid it, but I hope I can stop it." With her blue eyes, Lilian watches the coin fall closer to Mikoto.
Mikoto preps her arm and her aim. (It looks like she doesn't want to dodge. Well, I hope she has more faith in her defenses than I do, this is going to hit very, very hard.) The coin drops on Mikoto's thumb and she flicks it at three times the speed of sound.
The coin tears up the field as it flies over. The stands are protected from the force of pressure by various Espers and their variety of powers. Mikoto's railgun flies into Lilian's ice wall and instantly destroys it, sending shards of ice flying everywhere.
Lilian's body flies, tumbles and rolls along the ground before a great distance before it comes to a complete stop. Her armor had frozen the coin just before it could pierce her but there was still enough force to knock her out. The frozen coin looked like a comet right next to her.
"Sterling!" Maaya and Kihuno stood up, worried.
Mikoto dropped her arm and looked at Lilian's body. It didn't seem to be moving.
XXX
Author: Lilian's design was pretty simple to come up with. I looked up all the ice users I know of and decided to use King of Fighter's Kula Diamond. Her hairstyle is simple, just blue, and I changed Kula's red eyes to blue, to match the (dyed) hair. So basically she's Kula Diamond in a Tokiwadai uniform.
Oh yeah, Lilian's blue hair is dyed, another reference to Kula, when Kula uses her powers her hair goes from bright brown to ice blue. I'll have to remember to put it in the story, but in case I forget, the reasoning for this is that because of her powers and eyes, she started liking the color blue, especially sky/ice blue. (even though ice is normally clear/white XD). So she went and dyed her hair.
She's also 14-ish (appearance wise) so it works well to match with Mikoto and the other Tokiwadai students (bust seems to be a little bigger though, but don't tell Mikoto that XD). Though she seems like she could be taller than the other Tokiwadai girls. *shrug*
Since using Kula for the basis of her appearance, she's also been quite the influence on Lilian's powers, like the ice skates. But I'll talk more about that in the next chapter.
There's also something... special... about Lilian. You should have noticed it by now. The way she...