Disclaimer: I sold the trout and bought Touhou: Perfect Cherry Blossom (I wish!)

Author's Note: Well…it's longer? Sorry for the super long wait everyone! Thanks to everyone who reviewed/favorite/alerted; I hope this chapter is up-to-snuff. Also, I'm going to apologize in advanced for the slight shift in terminology; I just got slapped in the face with the fact that Index has all this really weird terminology for esper powers, and it's slightly confusing but I hope I got it right? Eh, whatever. Ragner: Hehe, sorry, sorry! Didn't mean to freak out on you. Peace? Enjoy the chapter, though. GamingBookworm: Glad you like. I'm still deciding that, actually, but hopefully I've provided enough here to make it interesting. I've been trying to do my research, and all I can say is that Academy City politics confuses the hell out of me.

Chapter 7: Lies and Leads

Unsurprisingly, once they had a lead, no one in Judgment's 177th division was willing to defer following up on it to a more reasonable hour. Uiharu had switched the tea for coffee, Saten-san had left to purchase take out, and the rest had converted the cramped headquarters into a debriefing room. Conversation was minimal; the only sounds were the rustles of paper, the steady clacking of fingers on keyboards and the mummer of voices in a conference call against the background of a city's night life.

It was much later, once the mad rush for information had died down, that life was slowly breathed back into the stillness of the office once more.

"Before we begin," started Konori, setting a thin ream of papers on the table before her while leaning on the back of the chair in front of her and turning to face Misaki, "I would like to thank you for your help. Without you, I don't know what would have happened to Kuroko," she added, smiling weakly at the girl in question. "However," she emphasized, leaning forwards, "while we still have official jurisdiction over this case, I'm going to have to ask you to leave, and agree to submit to surveillance until it is resolved. Just a precaution, you understand."

Mikoto looked justifiably outraged. "What?! You can't do that, Konori-san! Come on, she's already been a great help to us!"

"Us," asked Konori, raising an amused eyebrow. "I don't remember you joining Judgment either, Misaka-san."

"Oh, well, umm…"

"But sempai," Kuroko cut in, "onee-sama has already helped us out on cases like this." A long suffering sigh. "And I don't think we could stop her, anyway."

Mikoto looked smug. Kuroko and Misaki groaned simultaneously.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Ahem. Well. I understand that asking me to leave and submit to surveillance might be standard protocol in an ordinary situation, but this is most definitely not ordinary." Misaki smiled pleasantly. "I am afraid that you are going to need me. None of you are familiar with a marionette ability, is that not so?"

"Be that as it may, it does not change the fact that I do not want you on my team," Konori said firmly.

"K-Konori-sempai," exclaimed Uiharu.

"That was blunt," Saten-san stage whispered.

"But it's true." Konori gestured towards the papers before her. "This is your file, Shokuhou-san. Everything that I could find in the major databases. It's riddled with half-truths, evasions, and outright lies. I'm not going to trust you without some answers; especially when you obviously have the ability to falsify data. Anyway, how do we even know if you're not somehow in league with the culprit?"

"In league with him?! That's an outrage!" Mikoto snarled, flying to her feet.

"In case you've forgotten, Misaka-san, Zaruthra's ability is mind-control. Shokuhou-san might not have a choice." Konori's eyes hardened, as she drew a paper from the stack. "Furthermore, Shokuhou Misaki and Zaruthra Ginjo are listed as being housed in the same Child Error facility."

Mikoto really didn't have a response to that.

There was slow, heartfelt applause. "You do your homework quite well, Konori-san."

"Umm…Konori-san," Saten-san interjected. "I don't know Shokuhou-san all that well. But Misaka-san trusts her, and from what I've seen, she's not our enemy. Anyway, I doubt those type of attacks would work on her!" She studiously ignored Misaki's sudden, penetrating gaze as she broke into nervous laughter.

"That's a kind sentiment, Saten-san, but I'm not willing to let this go, especially not when we're chasing an esper with mind-control type abilities. I need answers."

"So you say," said Misaki, leaning back in her chair, crossing her legs comfortably, the picture of aristocratic poise. It was designed to provoke.

It worked.

"Anyway," Konori ground out, eye twitching, "let's start with something simple. What's your actual power level? I received some very interesting reports earlier this afternoon about a Tokiwadai student in the main shopping district who somehow managed to send over four city blocks worth of pedestrians to hospitals with what appears to be damage due to an unspecified mental attack. Not to mention the heart attack. Needless to say, a Level 3 has nowhere near that kind of power."

"You did WHAT?!"

Misaki ignored Mikoto. "What makes you think it was me? I can get people to verify that I was at that café at that corner between the downtown supermarket and bookstore."

Konori replied thoughtfully, "I'm sure you can. However," she added sternly, "you made quite a stir. Very noticeable. And the heart attack was most insistent. His savior was his attacker. A Tokiwadai student. Well developed. Blond hair. A demon's eyes."

Misaki flinched slightly, before wry amusement flitted across her visage. "Huh. I suppose it is true after all, what they say about good deeds."

Konori's expression softened, almost against her will. "I have found," she said quietly, "that secrets and lies are very much like sand. You can't build anything lasting upon such foundations, and when you sink too deep you'll find yourself trapped with no hope of salvation."

"Wait," Mikoto cut into the expectant silence, holding up a hand for emphasis. "Misaki," she turned towards the girl in question, "you don't have to answer. We can leave. Right now. You and me, we can go hunt down that sick son-of-a-bitch, and no one can stop us. Not the two of us," she was grinning fiercely.

"Somehow, I doubt that," Misaki mumbled, smiling almost shyly, even as she tugged Mikoto back into her chair, keeping a firm grasp on her hand. "I just can't win, can I," she whispered softly.

Straightening, serious eyes flicked around the table, before settling on Konori. "You were right of course, Konori-san. That amount of power, that level of mental attack, is only possible for a Level 5 psychometry type ability." There were the requisite short intakes of breath. "I am the 5th Level 5 of Academy City, better known as the Queen of Tokiwadai. I would ask that you keep this information to yourselves, but I suspect it's a moot point by now."

Still more silence.

"Come now. Surely it's not that unusual?"

Stare.

"And would you stop laughing?!"

More laughing. A swift kick under the table.

"Ouch! What was that for?!"

"Hmph!" A rustle.

"And damn it, stop with the sweets already! You're getting fat!" A pause. "Ow!"

Uiharu blinked again, before leaning over towards her friend. "Somehow, I never thought my first meeting with the two most amazing ojou from Tokiwadai would a boke and tsukkomi routine."

"Huh." Saten-san responded.

Some small time later, Mikoto had calmed down enough to ask, "Seriously, what happened to all that secrecy? I mean, you were about to…well, you were very determined to preserve it a while back."

Misaki sighed. "That was before I saw Ginjo. Now, I'm beginning to think it's high time I came back with a vengeance, as it were."

"So you do know him," Konori cut in.

"Yes. As you have surmised, we lived in the same Child Error Facility, and were thus part of the same experiment."

"Experiment," whispered Mikoto, more subdued.

"Don't sound so surprised. You know Kiyama Harumi's story, after all. The projects were even similar, in the beginning: inducing the berserker state; produce the chemicals necessary for Body Crystal. Unfortunately, this process had an unforeseen side effect on me, due to the true nature of my ability. I didn't die, or become comatose. I actually went berserk. Like the Norse warriors of legend. Instead of simply producing those chemicals, I apparently utilized them myself, as a sort of pseudo-Body Crystal. I heard later that I spawned a full-blown Poltergeist event; I know I destroyed…everything…in that testing center." She let out a bitter laugh. "Of course, all the lead researchers were overjoyed; they had a new experiment to start, one where I was the star test subject. They received a lot of support from the higher ups for it, too."

"Is that why Zaruthra called you…?" Mikoto trailed off uncertainly.

"Berserker? Yes. I suppose if you're the Ace of Tokiwadai and the Railgun; I am most accurately considered the Queen of Tokiwadai and the Berserker."

"Then why have we never heard of you before now?" Kuroko asked curiously.

"Because I removed all traces of myself as Berserker from the Academy City databanks. No information should be floating around anymore; no research, no notes, no episode documentation, nothing."

"That seems a bit convenient," Kuroko mumbled, annoyed.

"It is." Misaki smiled. "But then, my power is convenient."

"What is your ability, by the way?" Konori added. "I assume it's not Touch Scan."

"No," Misaki responded, laughingly. "My ability is Mental Out. I suppose at its simplest, it is complete and utter psychological control. I can do many things with this power, but for our purposes, suffice to say that the berserker abilities are the result of an 'amplification of will.'"

"Uhh, this is interesting and all," said Konori, uncertainly, "but it really doesn't help us get any closer to Zaruthra…"

"Oh? I thought I made that clear?" Misaki looked a bit puzzled.

Saten-san rolled her eyes. "Not really."

"Ah. Well, what I meant by telling you about that project was that I know who the main researchers were. Are. And if anyone knows where Ginjo is now, what he's been up to, it'll be him. Masashi Hiro."

Still, the faces around her were relatively blank.

"I mean, I know where Masashi-sensei is. I know where we can find him."

"Well dammit, why didn't you just say so?! Come on, let's go!"

Saten-san leapt from her chair even as Mikoto made her way towards the door. Kuroko practically flung herself out of her chair, a human weight to stop the single-minded girl. "Don't be an idiot, onee-sama. It's nearly midnight."

Misaki studied Konori carefully. "Am I in?"

Konori, looking just as thoughtful, considered the blonde before her before nodding sharply. "You're in. Welcome to the team, Shokuhou-san."

"I thought you said you knew where you were going!" Kuroko's voice, already rough, came out of the static-filled earpiece sounding like the audible equivalent of sandpaper.

"I did! I do," Misaki huffed in exasperation.

"Are you…sure?" Mikoto asked hesitantly, looking around the dark alleyways and dank nooks of the bad end of the dumping grounds of Academy City's gangs. "I thought you said this Masashi fellow was a government sponsored researcher?"

"Well…he was. He was living by the labs up in district 2 until about a year ago, it seems. I have no idea what he's doing here."

"Seeing as you were hiding," came Saten-san's voice over the earpiece, "wouldn't it be safe to say he's hiding, too?"

"That's what's got me worried," Misaki mumbled tiredly. "I was hiding from him, and by extension most of Academy City's research division. What could be so bad that the higher ups actually dropped him and may or may not be actively hunting him down?"

"Oh," Saten-san whispered.

"You know," Mikoto said lightly, "you could just be being ridiculously pessimistic."

"I prefer to call it realism," Misaki sniped back.

"Oh, everyone? We've got to hurry. Looks like Konori-sempai was right; I just got a text saying that we're going to be taken off the case; Konori-sempai says she's stalling, but we don't have a large time frame."

"Why am I not surprised?" Misaki turned towards Mikoto. "There. You see? Justified pessimism."

Kuroko cut Mikoto off before she could respond with something suitably chirpy and irritating. "Shokuhou-sama, you need to be more positive. Remember that while you wear that uniform, you represent all that is respectable and commendable in a person. Your overly paranoid outlook towards life is neither and will have a negative impact on Tokiwadai's image."

Misaki looked stunned, absolutely flabbergasted, her mouth opening and closing uselessly.

Mikoto smirked. 'Paranoid' she mouthed.

"Why, hello, girlies. What's a pair of pretty little things like you doin' here? Wanna have some fun?" Slinking from the shadows, a group of teenagers, not quite boys and not yet men hovered menacingly. The one who had spoken shifted his stance, holding his belt buckle provocatively.

"I'll leave this to you, Misaka~san." Mikoto shot her companion a dirty look. "What? It's what you're here for!"

A roll of the eyes. "Hai, hai." She waved Misaki away. "You just get those directions, or something." Mikoto turned towards the gang members. "Alright, why don't you be good little boys and go on home already…"

The leader's eyebrow twitched. "Don't get too cocky, brat. We'll have our fun one way or another." He flexed his hand, and the dust and dirt and sand on the ground rose up in a thin column, compressing and solidifying until he held a dirty glass blade in his hand. He raised the blade triumphantly, crowing: "and don't think this is ordinary glass! So long as I will it, this blade is unbreakable! Muwahahaha!"

Mikoto sweat-dropped. "I don't think you're supposed to tell me that…"

"Arrrrgh! Get her!"

It didn't take too long to deal with the idiot with the glass blade. A well placed bolt of electricity had him out cold, and the weapon turned to sand without his calculations to force it to retain its form. A swirl of magnetized dirt and sand formed a temporary shield against the twin fire wielders; theirs was a more interesting attack: one created large sweeping blasts of flame, the other pinpoint blasts. Unfortunately, while the twins certainly worked well together, the group as a whole definitely didn't. A fourth gang member managed to turn the consistency of asphalt into that of molasses, but ended up sinking most of his fellows as he tried to catch Mikoto.

"Dammit! Shou," one boy swore as he flailed uselessly, before bringing his arm across in a sweeping movement that had rubble attacking the other boy in the head.

Mikoto, meanwhile, had managed to get out of being thigh-deep in liquid asphalt with little difficulty; it was just a matter of aligning her magnetic field and that of the steel bars in the reinforced concrete building behind her and letting magnetic attraction work its magic. Although it hurt to be slammed into concrete quite that hard. She grimaced, and two more bolts took out the telekinetic and the density shifter, leaving the two flame users trapped in asphalt up to their waists by happy coincidence. A blast of fire blew up nearly in her face; okay, so their hands weren't trapped. Don't they know when to stay down? Two more bolts of lightning as insurance, one more for good measure, as a warning to all idiots to stop being idiots.

It seemed the last two had more common sense; they made to turn tail and run. Or at least, they tried to run.

"Ah ah ah," Misaki sang cheerfully, wagging her remote for emphasis. "Now, we're in a hurry~! So, which of you has a more extensive knowledge of this area's geography?" She punched another combination into her remote, and Mikoto watched as the boys' expressions shifted from shock to pure unadulterated terror.

"I know this feels uncomfortable, but don't worry," Misaki tutted, "there are no lasting effects. But really, it's what you get for thinking such disgusting thoughts about such a 'harmless, pretty young girl.' Although I don't really think Mikoto is harmless. Ahah! Found you!" She turned towards the boy with the shoddy die-job. Catching hold of his chin in a delicate-fingered grip, she gently turned his head, so that he was staring, horrified into her eyes. "Mmmm. I never thought my eyes were that bad." She smiled beatifically. "Do not move. Await further orders."

She stepped back, nodding thoughtfully to herself. Then, she turned to look at the boy, a dark-haired, puny thing, who had just wet himself. She glided towards him.

"Misaki." It was Mikoto, looking a little unnerved. But she still grabbed the other girl's wrist, stopping her, before spinning the blonde around and placing her hands on bare upper arms. Warm, earnest brown met molten gold, illusive and fey. "Enough. That's enough. No more."

There was a tense, endless second, before Misaki seemed to ease. Her answering smile was weak, but understanding. "Alright." She turned to the last standing boy, gestured with her remote, and commanded: "sleep." He dutifully collapsed.

She turned to the other still under her control, and said, "Take us to this address. Shortest route without being seen. Here are some landmarks." She didn't verbally give any address, so Mikoto guessed this was an instance of plant-the-information-directly-into-a-mind. Mikoto and Misaki followed the boy in silence.

They made it to their destination in good time, without further trouble. It was a patchwork place, with peeling paint and warped and rotting wooden siding. Nothing at all like Mikoto was used to, and certainly not what one pictured when entering Academy City. The entire building reeked of fear and decay.

Misaki's voice was suitably hushed as she gave her final commands to their guide. "Return to where we left the others from that fight. Make no detours, talk to no one. You will forget that you led Mikoto and me to this place, you will also forget the existence of this address, and the importance of these landmarks. Instead you have remained with your friends, waiting for them to awaken, or wandered in search of help; some suitable story. You are your own once the first of your associates has regained consciousness. Go." The boy turned and walked away, fading into the shadows.

Mikoto was staring after the retreating figure, a frown on her lips. She shifted to find Misaki watching her seriously. "Will he," she began, uncertainly, "will he remember any of that? Being controlled like that?"

"Only the very end of the fight, when I stopped both their movement and prevented access to their abilities." She sighed softly. "And when I sifted through their minds, but they won't remember what I was looking for. I don't normally allow people to remember, but this time…"

"Maybe they'll have learned something," Mikoto finished.

"We can only hope," Misaki agreed.

"It's a frightening power."

"Yes," came the quiet reply. "But it is my power."

There was companionable silence for a moment, before Mikoto straightened. "Well, shall we," she asked, with a sweeping gesture.

Misaki nodded, "Let's."

They made their way across the street, wordlessly scanning the area before Misaki took a step forward, plastered a smile firmly in place, and then knocked smartly on the door.

There was no answer.

The street, the insides of the houses, all was suffocating under a fear-laden silence.

The two girls glanced at each other uncomfortably, before Misaki tried again. And then a third time, louder. She had just raised her hand to knock for a fourth time, when the door swung open, revealing a pallid face with sunken eyes. An angry voice snarled, "Alright, dammit! Who the fuck do you think you are?"

Misaki's smile widened, predatory. "Hello, Masashi-sensei."

The man's eyes widened. "Oh no. Oh hell no." He jerked back, already moving to slam the door shut, but Misaki had already wedged her foot and shoulder in-between the door and jamb, and with surprising strength, had pushed her way inside.

"Oh yes, Masashi-sensei. I am afraid, we will have words."