Misaka Mikoto kept running through a field of mist. She didn't know how long she had been running and finding a way to get out of it. There was no feeling of tiredness or how cold the mist was. Her dreams weren't as bad as this. The last bad dream she had was the replay of her younger self giving her DNA map to the scientist, who promised to cure the people who had the muscular disease, however it was all a lie.
Mikoto stopped in the middle of the mist, unknown on how long she was far on her starting point.
"I don't know what kind of motives you have, but if you want to challenge me, come out from the mist!"
There was no response.
Not a single breath of another presence or a gust of wind responded to the shout she unleashed.
She got into her attacking stance, pushing back her leg as she clenched hands into fists, her back bending forward and let out a spark of electricity from her forehead.
"Come out, you coward!" She released her electric spear from the forehead, traveling to the limitless end of the mist.
"Ow!"
A voice responded, but she didn't know where the source was, it was very far away for her to know.
"M-Misaka-san..."
The voice became clearer and familiar.
"Misaka-san, please wake up!"
Mikoto sharply opened her eyes and realized that she was back in her dorm room, lying on her bed and facing the wall.
"Geez, Misaka-san, what's with you shocking other people in your sleep?"
Ajime Kyouko's exasperated voice rang in her ears. She looked at the Cryokinesist with curious eyes, who was already in her school uniform.
"Did I... shock someone?"
Kyouko's expression shifted from irritated to curiousness.
"You don't know?"
Mikoto sat up slowly and put a hand on her head, feeling dizzy. "Not really, but I remember using my powers in my dream. It was so bad..."
"But, using your powers in your dream won't affect you in the real world..."
"Oh, yeah, Konori-senpai called me and Uiharu-san earlier on.." Kyouko added. "We'll have Judgment duties until 12:00 to investigate the current case."
Mikoto put down her hand and looked at her roommate. "It's not solved yet?"
Kyouko sighed. "Nope. We're currently at a dead end. Now we are required to have a half-day duty so we can narrow down the culprit."
Mikoto smiled at the branch's determination to track down whoever the "culprit" was. "I see. Good luck on your duty."
The other smiled back. "Thank you, Misaka-san." Kyouko went for the door and left the dorm room.
Mikoto looked at her desk to check on the youkai, but she was baffled when she saw how ridiculous Shirai looked.
Shirai was hanging on top of the headboard of Mikoto's bed and her lower limbs were supported by the chair. She was charred black as her name, and her nine-tails were spiky and explosive in all directions. Apparently, she was looking at how her companion was thrashing on her bed about some bad dream and got shocked when she came too close.
"Pffft..."
Mikoto couldn't help but laughed at the sight of the youkai who clearly received much more damage as compared to her roommate. It didn't help that she was covering her mouth trying hard not to laugh.
Shirai recovered from her misfortune and looked at her.
"Misaka-san, please don't shock us in your sleep." She pouted.
"W-Well... It's not like... I'm aware of it..." Mikoto said in between her laughters.
Washi, who had possessed another a body; this time a twelve year old student, along with his companion who disguised a high school student from a certain high school were in a restaurant, sipping on their juices.
"So," Washi began. "What is our lord's next orders now?"
His companion simply crossed his legs and looked at the younger student. "Our lord took his attention to the human girl that the Heiress is attached with."
"Now that you mention her, she seem to emit a spark of sorts." Washi said as he stared at his juice with a blank face.
"Spark? Like what Raijin could do?"
Washi looked at him, leaning on his right arm and rested his head on it, "I don't know. Our little talk ended with someone butting in."
"Interesting."
Washi knew that every time his companion was interested at something, he would always go off alone to check the subject of his interest. Since the bastard in the form of his companion always went back to their world and reported everything to their lord, he didn't get to know the full details, and wondered if he was lying about it.
"Since you're so damn interested, why not tell me our current orders first?"
"Our lord..."
In 177th Judgment Branch, Kyouko and Uiharu arrived in time for their chief to explain the latest situation.
"Right now, we've received more victims of the incident." Konori said as she looked at the paper that contained the said report. "I've thought of a possibility that this is caused by an esper who can use telepathy."
Kyouko put a hand on her chin. "But that would only widen the range of possible culprits."
"Should we ask help from Anti-Skill?" Uiharu said.
"Anti-Skill only responds to a bigger threat, so they're out of the picture."
"I've been skeptical about it, but I keep suspecting that this might be related to the urban legends that Saten-san mentioned a few days ago." Kyouko said.
"What urban legend?" Konori said as she looked at Kyouko. She was interested at what kind of urban legend did their resident Level 0 speak of this time.
"It's about 'something we cannot see', according to the urban legend."
"It could be just a coincidence." Uiharu said.
"Either way, we'll need to check the list of espers who can use telepathy and interrogate them, to be sure." Kyouko said as she walked over to her desk, with both Konori and Uiharu also doing the same.
Mikoto and Shirai were walking in the streets of District 7. The morning was calm and peaceful. Since Mikoto had nothing to do for Sunday, she thought she could give the youkai a walk outside.
"By the way, since you're free today, how about we take the time to spar?" Shirai suggested.
Of course, with Mikoto, she would never turn down a challenge from anyone. She only grinned at the proposal of sparring and started running across the streets, with Shirai following her behind.
Soon, they arrived at an artificial riverbank. This place is notable to be mostly deserted, sans for wild insects or bugs, much to Mikoto's chagrin.
The human and the youkai faced each other with a fifteen feet distance approximately between them. The former had sparks flowing out of her body and the latter had gotten into her battle stance.
"Don't blame me if I fry you." Mikoto said as she got fired up for the friendly spar.
"Of course, Misaka-san." Shirai nodded enthusiastically, and from her voice, she was now fired up as well. She haven't seen what her human companion could do. The only time she got to see her power was when she fried those thugs who wanted to hit on her. Too bad it was their fault for not knowing what the Electromaster could do against them. "I won't be going easy, though."
Mikoto made her first move by using her electromagnetic ability to manipulate the iron sand from the ground below them, forming an iron sand sword. By vibrating the sand particles that formed the sword, she could effortlessly slice through metal if she wished to.
However, the youkai didn't like the Electromaster's first move. "A sword!?" Shirai exclaimed at the sight of the sword. "Isn't that unfair?"
"It's just created with my ability." Mikoto said.
She dashed at the surprised youkai, but the latter quickly regained composure just in time and side stepped the downward slash.
Back then, during the peaceful times in her world, Shirai had been trained to deal with different kinds of situations along with different weapons that her opponents handled. She did not like to use or carry weapons as she thought it would only slow her down, thus she had focused on bare fist, disable and disarm techniques.
No matter how many times Mikoto tried to land a hit on the youkai, the other always had a faster reaction time and avoided all of her attacks.
Bored with the attack-dodge cycle, Shirai avoided the last slash and stayed in her position as Mikoto used the same downward attack.
She waited for the right time and-
clasped her hands between the lowering iron sand sword, stopping the attack.
"W-What!?" Mikoto was surprised at the youkai's way of stopping her attack.
She got out of the said surprise and dispersed the sword. Mikoto reached for the youkai's shoulder, the other only using her hand to stop it from holding her. Shirai used her foot to trip Mikoto and fell downwards, still holding the other's wrist.
Mikoto used her free hand and held on Shirai's ankle. Shirai conjured flames from each of her nine tails on standby, waiting for an opportunity.
The two stopped on their movements and looked at each other.
"Why don't we try who is faster?" Mikoto grinned with her hand on Shirai's ankle held tightly.
Shirai grinned back at her. "Don't blame me if I hurt you."
Several civilians looked at Mikoto, who was apparently burned on several areas. Unseen by them was Shirai who also was in a similar condition.
During the last part of their sparring session, both were fast enough to launch their attacks at the same time, causing the both of them to be fried as nicely as a barbecue chicken.
Mikoto was glad that the burns she received from the youkai weren't bad as with the electric shock she gave to her. There were nine burns on her body, which she was thankful for because it only hit most of her school uniform, which could be replaced easily. The remaining few burns were either on her arms, legs and even a random one at her shoes.
Shirai was in the same dilemma. The burns on her skin couldn't be compared to the Electromaster's burns. Her muscles were twitching at random times and moving on its own due to the shock. She thought that their spar could end in a proper manner, but it ended up with the both of them in such a bad shape.
Washi and his companion were walking slowly in the streets of District 7 and passed by the game center, hoping to find the Heiress and her companion.
"Hey, do you think this will really work?" Washi asked.
He had been told that their current mission was to attack them until the Heiress surrendered and pleads for mercy and go back to their world. Their lord wouldn't go as far as attacking them as their direct orders.
"Our lord wanted her back as much as possible." His companion replied with confidence in his voice.
"You sure are confident about this, Tora." Washi said.
"Of course." Tora nodded. "There couldn't be any other way."
"Then, if the orders are to now directly approach them, then the two of us can battle them, right?"
"No, only one of us, since we will be challenging the Heiress's companion only. So, if one of us manage to weaken her, then the Heiress will plead for us to stop and she'll obediently come back with us.
"Sounds cliché. If that's the case, you'll be facing the human, right? "
"It would be faster if I deal with her, since you're reckless."
Washi felt offended at Tora's remark, but he only kept quiet and put his hands at the back of his head.
"Tora, do you think there's something else going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why do we still call her Heiress if she's a traitor that killed over a thousand of the population?"
"I don't know." Tora's voice was strained, "There's a part of me that I couldn't bring myself to call her a traitor, even if our lord called her one."
Washi thought. Ever since their mission started, he did not know why they were doing this. They knew that they were up against someone stronger than them, yet they just complied and did what they were supposed to do. Every time he tried to remember what happened when he saw those white nine-tails, his memories always forced itself to focus on another part of his memories, like there was something else that prevented him from remembering it.
"Why are we doing this, really...?"
Mikoto and Shirai arrived in the playground, with the former had a paper bag of sweets and pastries.
The children in the playground were having fun playing with each other. Since the Electromaster had nothing to do for the day and Kyouko and Uiharu were in the Judgment office for the investigation, they went here to pass the time until the two Judgment officers had done their research.
One of the children, Hazamaya Kana[1], who had her bag stolen and recovered from the Graviton Bombings, noticed the Electromaster.
"Uwaah!" She yelled and pointed at the aforementioned Electromaster. "It's the Tokiwadai Onee-chan!"
The other children with her looked at her direction and saw it was indeed Mikoto. They ran to the latter and stopped in front of her.
Mikoto smiled at the children. "Good morning! I've brought sweets and pastries for today!" She brought up the paper bag that she had been holding and showed it to the children.
The children around her cheered as she gave the paper bag to Kana. She opened it while the surrounding children grabbed a random piece of pastry from the paper bag.
After grabbing a pastry, a spiky haired boy kid with a bandage on the left side of his cheek looked at Mikoto. "Why is Onee-chan all burned?"
Mikoto gulped at the question, but she knew they would ask the question since it was so obvious. She couldn't possibly tell those children that she had sparred with a youkai. "I fought a Pyrokinesist on my way here and got burned because he was a powerful esper."
"But, Mikoto onee-san is strong and she would never give up, so in the end she beat the esper." she said proudly, like she was telling a tale of another protagonist's adventure.
The children who listened to her "adventure" clapped their hands and cheered at Mikoto's victory over the Pyrokinesist. But Shirai was not amused at all.
"It sounded like I was the villain of your silly story."
Mikoto glanced at the youkai. She would deal with the youkai later once she was alone with her. Right now, she wanted to play with the children to kill time.
Time: 11:30
Mikoto waved goodbye to the children who headed off to a family restaurant to eat lunch. When they disappeared from her sight, Shirai walked up to the Electromaster.
"Those children had fun playing with you." she said, with a hint of sadness in her voice.
Mikoto nodded as she agreed with the youkai. "Yeah. Even though some of them are annoying, but they're really kind."
"If only I was a human being, I could also have fun playing with them." Shirai said as she looked at the ground below, displaying a sad smile.
"There you are."
Both the human and the youkai stiffened up as they heard a piercing gentle voice that could only mean hunting. Shirai recognized that voice. It was one of her pursuers back in their world. Tora. He was also the one who had passed by them yesterday.
Tora walked in the playground, approaching.
"You two are having such a good day under the sun, not thinking ahead of the dangers." Tora said. "By the way, I came here to challenge your companion." He pointed at Mikoto in a way that would make even the most noble man ashamed.
"What if I refused?" Mikoto asked.
Tora simply laughed at the question. "You can't refuse at this." he said as he snapped his fingers and white mist started to cover the whole playground. The said place was barely visible due to the mist that overlapped it.
...Mist?
Mikoto remembered the same mist from her dream. That dream was unpleasant since it had no end. There was no sign of life when she had been in it.
"This mist is only is merely an illusion space. So whatever happens here remains here and doesn't affect the real space. Think of it as an overlapped dimension. No one can enter or leave this space."
"What are you planning right now, Tora?" Shirai said.
"Nothing, in particular." Tora said. "Our lord had simply taken an interest to the human you're always with."
Shirai gritted her teeth. After all, she couldn't avoid Mikoto getting involved in her situation. Now her pursuers had taken drastic measures just to take her back in their world.
"So, human girl, would you accept my challenge?" Tora said as he looked at Mikoto.
Mikoto couldn't think of anything else but to accept the challenge. This may be the only way to escape.
"I'll accept."
Tora, disguised as a high school student, ignited himself and shifted to his armored samurai form. His flaming hand turned into flaming claws with three sharp fingers in each hand. It solidified and tuned into golden sharp claws.
He charged at Mikoto as she leapt sideway to dodge the claw attack from Tora before generating a ball of electricity in her palm and hurled it at Tora, who only slashed the ball, dissipating it.
Tora stopped and looked at her. "Just like what Washi had said, your power is very similar to Raijin. Are you his descendant?"
"Descendant?" Mikoto said. "What are you talking about? I only gained this by hard work."
Kyouko and Uiharu had met up with Saten who was waiting for them in front of Seventh Mist. Both Judgment officers still wore their uniforms while Saten was wearing a civilian attire.
This was a perfect chance for Saten. Once Uiharu was near her, she quickly flipped the poor flowerbed girl's skirt, as her form of casual greeting. Only for her classmate, anyway.
"Today is full of ducks!" Saten declared after she looked into Uiharu's panties.
"S-S-Saten-saaaan!" Uiharu stuttered, feeling embarrassed that not only her skirt was flipped, but even declared what was the design of her panties.
"Sorry, sorry. I got carried away." Saten apologized sheepishly.
Uiharu, after recovering from her embarrassment, looked around the area as she searched for a certain somebody.
"Where's Misaka-san?" Uiharu said as she looked at Kyouko.
"I don't know." Kyouko said as she looked at her cellphone. "I sent her a text that we will meet up at the gates of Seventh Mist, but I haven't received her reply yet."
"Is Misaka-san having problems?"
"Even if she had one, I wouldn't be able to know about it anyway."
In the distance, they heard voices of children talking and laughing. They recognized one of those children as the one who had lost and recovered her bag and gave Uiharu a frog shaped stuff toy that contained a graviton bomb.
They decided to approach those children, specifically Kana. Uiharu smiled at the child,"Little girl, have you seen Misaka-san?"
"Onee-chan played with us at the playground!" Kana chirped happily as she pointed the direction of the playground. "She was still there when we left to eat lunch."
"I see. Thank you for your help!" Uiharu said as she put her hand on the little girl's head.
Kana smiled one more time as she went back with her friends.
The trio walked to the playground that Kana had pointed to. They reached the place, but it was deserted. Not a single soul existed in the playground except for the blowing wind.
"Was Misaka-san really here?" Kyouko asked as she stared at the deserted playground.
"Kyouko!" Mikoto exclaimed as she saw her roommate staring at the playground.
"It's no use, human. No one will hear us from here."
Mikoto gritted her teeth and glared at Tora. Her opponent was very fast. He could dodge all of her attacks and could find an opening in all of it,
She used her electromagnetism and created an iron sand sword. After taking its form, she dashed at Tora and did a sideward slash at her opponent. But Tora used his claw to intercept the attack.
The two engaged in a claw-sword play duel as they kept attacking or blocking each others attacks. Neither could land a hit due to their quick reactions on blocking incoming attacks from the other.
They attacked simultaneously, and as the two weapon clashed, the both of them got locked into a stalemate as the both of them could not progress any further.
Shirai only stood in the distance as she watched their battle. Tora had also said that this was only a battle between him and Mikoto and she must not assist the Electromaster no matter what.
Meanwhile, Mikoto removed one of her hands holding the iron sand sword and directed it towards the ground. Using her ability, she made another iron sand sword and pulled away from the lock, slashing with both swords diagonally.
Manipulating one of the swords now, she turned it into whip approaching Tora like a roaring, metal snake. He noticed the incoming attack and dodged accordingly.
Seizing the opportunity, the sword and the whip dispersed into the wind as the Electromaster charged at the youkai and hugged him on his waist, grinning.
"Got you!" Mikoto exclaimed as she discharged a high voltage electric shock from her body.
"AAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHH!"
Just like her battle with Kiyama Harumi under the effects of the Level Upper Network, memories of the youkai started to flood her mind.
"Come on! There's a massacre going on!"
Different youkais in traditional Japanese attire, such as the hakama, who had triangular shaped straw hats ran through the forest as they looked for the source of the mentioned massacre.
They found the location and saw fifteen dead bodies on the ground. In the middle of the bodies was a human form of the nine-tailed fox standing tall. They couldn't make out the form, but they were sure its tails were white as snow.
The human-fox looked at them, but nobody could tell that it was looking at them.
"You!" One of the youkais said. "Why are you doing this?"
It didn't say anything and opened up its tails, conjuring white flames on each tip. The flame's size was comparable to an adult fist. The lone figure launched the flames at the group of youkais as it mumbled in a different language.
"W-What!?"
Being unable to move due to their fear, they were hit by the flames, engulfing all of them. They felt their bodies changing shape and they felt intense pain in their heads as they clasped their hands around it. They couldn't do anything to make the pain go away.
The flames dissipated, as the youkais from before were replaced by several golden armored samurais. One of them had a yellow flame that replaced its human features. It looked at its hands and saw it was on fire, and wondered why could the flames possess a form.
Mikoto froze up after witnessing all of Tora's memories. The unconscious youkai fell from her arms to the ground. There was a cracking sound on the belt part of his armor.
Tora stirred lightly and looked at the Electromaster. "You..." He spoke up weakly. "You saw my memories..."
Mikoto wasn't sure what to say at the youkai. She was sure that it was a nine-tailed fox who made them. But who? She knew it wasn't Shirai who did it since the flames she had were purple and not white.
The fallen youkai didn't wait for Mikoto to say anything and continued. "It doesn't matter... I'm done here, anyway..."
"After all, the Heiress is..."
A black Bishop chess piece fell down as the white Queen chess piece pushed it downwards.
Washi, in his golden samurai form looked at the chessboard silently. His lord noticed that one of his 80,000 soldiers had fallen down.
"Tora is as clever as a Bishop, but his plans aren't foolproof. He didn't make any replacement plansjust in case his first plan fails. That idiot."
"And I didn't tell him to challenge that human!" The lord said. "He may have told me that the traitor is being accompanied by somebody who can see her, but I didn't order him to use a direct approach to propose a challenge!"
Washi clenched his hands to fist tightly.
That liar…He knew that their lord would never order something like that.
"Either way..." The lord said, his voice now calm after his outburst. "Washi, you are a great soldier, but..."
Before the lord can finish his sentence, an unseen sword stabbed through Washi from the back, who only looked down shakily as he realized that his weak point had been cracked by a long sword. There was no blood, just a steel long sword through him. After all, the embodiment of him is nothing but an illusion.
He had been betrayed by his own lord. He thought he was going to get a bigger prize if he captured her, but he was wrong.
He heard his lord's final words before he died.
"All 80,000 of you are nothing but my puppets."
The mist that had overlapped the playground disappeared, returning Mikoto and Shirai back in the real space.
Mikoto thought about Tora's final words before he disappeared; his memories were also a part of her curiousness. There was something big going on other than pursuing a fugitive.
But she could deal with that problem later. She first had to approach the trio who had been looking for her.
"Kyouko!" She called out, who, along with Uiharu and Saten, looked at the source of the voice.
"Misaka-san!" The three girls chorused, glad that they had finally found her.
"Where were you!?" Kyouko said. "The children said you were here, but when we came here, you were not around!"
Mikoto put her hand on Kyouko's shoulder. "Don't worry, what matters is that I'm fine."
"Ehrm... I wouldn't call that fine, Misaka-san..." Uiharu said as she noticed the burns and scrapes around the Electromaster's body. There were also three parallel scratches on some parts of her uniform.
"What happened?" Saten said as she eyed the minor injuries.
"Ahh... That..." Mikoto said. "I had a battle with a Pyrokinesist, and I accidentally tripped while I was battling that esper who had brought a knife."
For some reason, Shirai felt angrier at how Mikoto had to lie that made her looked like a bad guy. Even though she wasn't the one being described, her powers had relation to fire and the Electromaster thought she could lie to had battled a fire-using esper.
"That's way more sillier than what you had told to those children before!"
Mikoto decided to ignore Shirai's yelling.
"Are you sure you're okay with that?" Kyouko said.
Mikoto nodded. "Yeah. I'm perfectly fine."
The four girls marched out of the playground, going to their usual place to hangout.
That night...
Kyouko was fast asleep as soon as the lights went off. But both Mikoto and Shirai were still awake. The Electromaster was lying on her bed while the youkai was using the chair to support her feet as she leaned on the headboard of Mikoto's bed.
"Are you still thinking about what Tora said?" Shirai said.
"Yeah." Mikoto nodded as she stared at the dark ceiling.
"After all, the Heiress is... not a traitor at all... Now I understand why I can't bring myself to call her a traitor... I was being fooled by someone, someone with a greater power who can frame anyone by fooling our memories... Too bad I couldn't tell this to Washi... Even I lied to him..."
Someone else was pulling the strings, abusing their power to frame someone who will gain power in the future. Mikoto suggested that it might be someone who had a grudge, but Shirai said that as far as she knew, no one had a grudge on her family. A fugitive nine-tailed fox might be causing it, but Shirai rejected it quickly as the only nine-tailed foxes were rulers since the beginning of time.
"So, a family member of yours?" Mikoto said. While she wasn't comfortable with that idea, she had to make sure.
"There's no way my family would do that." Shirai retorted.
"Oh, sorry. I just have to make sure." Mikoto apologized.
True, she and her friends had been tricked that Therestina Lifeline was nothing more than a chief of MAR, however, in reality she was the granddaughter of Kihara Gensei, but that's another story.
"Ah, I have to get to sleep." the Electromaster said as she remembered that tomorrow is Monday, another day of school.
"Good night, Onee-sama." Shirai said gently, looking over to Mikoto.
"Onee-sama? I'm not your sister or anything."
"It doesn't matter, what matters is that you act like a big sister and you treasure those important to you, and you're very kind."
Mikoto blushed at the compliment.
"W-Whatever. G-Good night..."
"Kuroko."
A/N: Probably the longest chapter I've written. Also, I've never been happy than installing Linux OS. I'm using Fedora 18. So, I only need to find a way to dual boot Linux and Windows 7 and I'm all set. Too bad my plans are on the Windows 7 HDD and I have to grab a lot of files from there. Until then, I'm so happy I'm using Linux. Chapter-wise, I really enjoyed writing Tora. I almost made him a traitor to our mysterious antagonist and assist Mikoto and Kuroko. But in the end, I killed him not because I don't want him a traitor, but I find it uninteresting that someone betrayed the antagonist so early.
Now that Railgun S is coming this coming Friday, I've already preordered the Opening Theme!
Also, credits to CrossFaded for being so generous to beta this chapter! Thanks, CrossFaded!
[1] – Yes, the little girl who appears frequently in the anime does have a name, in case for those who haven't played the PSP game.
