Networked (A Certain Scientific Railgun SI) #02.2

I'd been wrong, there had been another thing I knew: I was hungry.

How, so soon after throwing up and dealing with the stress of dealing with Mikoto's stupidity, I don't know. Probably best to just chalk it up to being a teenager again or issues with the clone bodies, either or worked. But at any rate, I was hungry, and with tempers needing to cool it was decided that a change of scenery to keep things pleasant. And what do you know, the dorm dining hall was open even at the early hours of the morning with everything on the breakfast menu available. And oh, oh the menu… I'd have to watch myself here.

So, there we were, sitting in a far corner table at the back of the hall with large windows looking out on the school to my right; far enough out of the way that no one should bother us. Although at the same time, there were enough people scattered that it should dissuade the other two from bringing up things better left unsaid in a public setting. I still put myself against the back wall to keep an eye on the room.

"Please enjoy." Bowing slightly, the waitress-maid-girl turned away and went off to help another table. I briefly stared after the black dressed girl and shook my head in bewilderment. Why is that an actual thing?

However, the no matter how ridiculous, the girl and getup couldn't distract me from the scents of loamy peanut butter, sweet maple syrup and dough wafting up on the steam coming off my freshly made waffles. And no out of the box junk either; good, hand made, fluffy and fresh from the waffle iron waffles. Grabbing the fork and knife from my place setting I quickly set to work cutting and mixing.

"So hey, what are you, really?"

Stabbing a fork into my stack of waffles, I looked up from checking the maple syrup and peanut butter saturation to see Mikoto glowering at me; arms crossed in front of her chest while her tea and toast went ignored. With her at least, beside her Kuroko was adding sugar cubes to her own cup of tea. "Hmm?"

"You said you were different from the rest of the Sisters," she elaborated, "The way you talked about the rest of them… it was like you held yourself apart. And you don't talk or act like the rest of them. So... what are you?"

Wut... Blinking, I peered through my bangs and glanced around the dining hall, my eyes briefly settling on the sparsely occupied tables while inputing variables into a formula to calculate the distances between—

"There's no need for that. I'm projecting an EM field around us that will filter out any sound waves passing in or out, so we won't need to worry about anyone overhearing us."

"Oh, neat." Damnit. Kuroko muttered something about using abilities in the dorm, but both of us ignored her.

"Yeah, neat," she deadpanned. "Now answer the question. In case you're too dense to tell, I'm still upset with you. So you better start talking."

Stuffing my mouth with a stack of heaven in response, I ignored her indignant glare and considered the question while savoring the gooey, artery clogging goodness. Or rather, how to best answer the question without making things more complicated for myself. I didn't want to lie, but explaining it without getting bogged down in the existential crap... "Well, I suppose you could say I'm like the fly that got caught in the teleporter. "

Looking down to my plate I speared another stack, "That's the best way I can describe what happened at least." Syrup and melted peanut butter dripped off the waffles and I leaned forward to keep from making a mess. "C'ose enough 'ough." Spearing a large piece of fluffy waffle I mopped up some syrup and peanut butter into a small pool.

"...Uh huh. That still doesn't explain how you're different, though. A teleporter? A fly? What the heck do those things have to do with… wait." A hum at the edge of hearing and the sudden change in tone made me look up and see Mikoto staring at me —or through me might've been more appropriate— with eyes widened and dilated to show way to much white, while her arms shifted so that she was practically holding herself more than anything. Goddamnit. Mouth, open, insert foot.

"Are… are you telling me someone made you this way? But the experiments, they can't be still going on, can they? Accelerator was defeated, they can't still be—" She jumped as Kuroko grabbed her shoulder and turned to see her friend smiling at her. "Huh, Kuroko..."

"Calm down, Sissy. She was making a reference, but I can't..." Biting her thumb, she briefly looked away into nothing before perking up. "Oh! Now I remember, it's a reference to an old Sci-Fi Horror film. The premise is that a scientist manages to build a teleporter and tests it on himself. Unfortunately, a fly gets in and sent along with him and afterward his body starts mutating into a monster because the fly's DNA became mixed with his own."

Continuing on with a brief synopsis of the movie, my own memories of it came to the fore and when she got to his skin falling off I was starting to get the idea that it may not have been the best comparison. And then when Mikoto glanced at me and turned a little ill… yeah, that may not have been the best comparison, especially if it makes her think I might rip my face off and try to eat her. But I mean, technically, it was a fairly accurate comparison of what happened. Albeit with me being the scientist and the clone and programming being the… actually no, this was just a shit comparison.

Kuroko sheepishly scratched that back of her neck and laughed. "Of course, nothing like that could really happen. With what we know nowadays the whole premise is more than a little silly."

It took a bit for Mikoto to recover, but after taking a long drink from her tea she her focus was on me once more. "So… what, you're supposed to be the monster? Does that mean something was added to you when you were being grown that's what makes you different?"

I sighed and absently poked at my waffles for a moment, the syrup and peanut butter cooling, then dropping the fork with a clatter I slouched back and looked between the two girls. To hell with it, complicated it is. "I suppose that wasn't the best analogy to use…" Sighing again, I kneaded the back of my neck. "Well, I think it's best if I start off by saying I'm an actual person." I held up a hand palm out to pre-empt Mikoto. "Yes, the Sisters are people too. Just let me finish, ok?"

Getting nods from the girls, if a reluctant one from the original, I continued. "So, three things to get out of the way before I go into what I know. One: where I came from before I woke up, there was no such things as Esper powers, or at least ones that weren't fraud psychics or works of fiction; two: mentally speaking, I'm twenty-two years old; and third: I was..." Trailing off, I looked past Mikoto to a short, black haired waitress-maid-girl holding a small serving tray to her chest as she walked up to the table.

Her eyes widened a little as she briefly stared. "Well, the rumors were somewhat true then. With the two of you sitting together you really do look alike."

"Huh?" Rolling her head back, Mikoto looked up at the girl as she stepped up beside the table. "Oh, hey Maika. What's up?"

"Well…" She side glanced at me, "I thought I'd let you know the rumors about you and your look alike are already be getting a little ridiculous. Just a heads up, you know?"

Reaching out she hooked her teacup in a loose hold and sighed. "Already huh. Figures. Thanks for the warning. Maika, this is Aka, my estranged twin sister. She's just transferred in for next semester."

"Oh re...lly..." She blinked once, twice, then gasped. "Wait just a minute! Didn't I see you with helping Kamijou and all those stolen soda's the other day?" Well, that wouldn't have been me, but explaining that it was actually someone that looked exactly like me… I just nodded and she her shoulders slumped. "Well, how rude of him, he didn't introduce us… and I could have gotten the inside scoop before anyone else too."

Mikoto doubled over as she gagged and snorted, her hand going to her nose and liquid dripped onto the table as she grabbed a towel.

"'This girls' assessment is indeed correct,' Misaka 10032 states in agreement, 'It was quite rude for the boy to not introduce us while we were aiding him in carrying the drinks that Big Sister helped him steal.'" Then through the network she sent me her memories of the encounter: Flashes of a tall apartment building at sunset, A tiled entry area, The weight of a dozen soda cans held in my arms, the glow of the setting sun illuminating a long row of doors leading into studio apartments that some of Academy city's students resided in, And the same maid-girl astride one of the city's automated cleaning robots.

Deciding to consciously ignore the last thing the waitress-maid-girl said, I smiled. "I remember. A pleasure to meet you and sorry about not introducing myself. I'm afraid I didn't want to but in and—!" Finally recovered, Misaka's fist abruptly slammed onto the table; rattling the dishes and cutlery and making me lunge to save my water.

"Now hold up! Maika, are you saying you know where that idiot lives?" Maika hesitantly nodded and Mikoto sank back, clearing her throat. "Excuse me. Do you, um, well…" A dusting of red rose on her her cheeks and she looked to the side. "I don't suppose you could give me his address? He helped me with something and I wanted to thank him."

Oh...Uh oh… but of course... Well, whatever, unless she starts going off the deep end it's not my problem. Just as soon as I thought that, though, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I noticed a difference in my connection to the ocean that was the Misaka network. It was almost as if there were a thousand sets of eyes suddenly looking at… oh. Oh hell no. 'Nope,' I sent over back to the observers, with only a smidgen of gleeful vindictiveness. Leave me hanging will you?

"'Please wait a moment,' Misaka 14—"

'Not. My. Problem.' And with an ease nearly to the point of reflex, I closed myself off from the rest of the network and the silly competitiveness of a thousand teenage girls.

Although on a disconcerting note, the difference between being connected and being largely disconnected was almost jarring as I felt myself… slow down, for lack of a better term, as the influence of the network faded into the background and the pleasure I'd found in the waffles waned.

Maika squinted at Mikoto for a moment before the corners of her lips fractionally turned up into a mischievous smirk. "Of course, I could even take you over myself if you wanted. He and my brother are friends and live next to each other you see, so bringing you along wouldn't be a problem at all."

"Thanks. I might see him today, but I'll definitely get back to you."

"Anyway, I've got to get back to work but is there anything else I can help you with? More water? Or would you rather like some orange juice or something else?"

The three of us answered in negative and she nodded. "Ok then. And Aka? If you haven't read the rules yet, the dining hall is open from five to nine so come in whenever and I can help you out."

Following her as she departed, I noticed some of the other tables had filled up and that more than a few of the teenage girls were either discretely sneaking glimpses or just flat out rubbernecking and staring at us… although, some of them looked away when I looked in the direction and… dammit. Or, of course, it was me they were looking at; as if I was the new attraction at the zoo or something.

"I can't believe you're still associating with that Troglodyte. You are the Ace of Tokiwadai, a Level 5, associating with someone like him is beneath you. And I didn't get a chance to tell you, but believe it or not he actually came to the dorm last night."

"It's nothing like that Kuroko. And thanks, but I already knew. I ran into him while I was out last night and he helped me with… with my Sisters."

Kuroko flinched and the hurt, no doubt still fresh from the earlier revelation and suddenly made raw again was clear enough to see and Mikoto looked away. "Bu- but Mikoto, why would you let someone like that help, but not—"

"Cavegirl says what?"

In that moment I was pretty sure I could've heard a pin drop inside our little bubble of quiet. Kuroko's head slowly swiveled to face me, a stiff smile plastered on her face. "Excuse me? I'm afraid I must have misheard you say something quite factually untrue."

"Oh, nothing," I mused nonchalantly, completely ignoring the metaphorical warning signs and Mikoto's eyes widening in horror. "Just thinking aloud is all… I just think it's rich that you of all people are calling someone else a troglodyte. With how you were acting this morning I'm surprised you haven't beaten Mikoto over the head and taken her back to your cave."

A vein in the girl's forehead pulsed as her smile faltered. "I so swear, I am only concerned for my Sissy's health and well being. And who are you to talk, hm?"

"Just someone with a perspective of the world beyond that of a middle schooler and the person you were dry humping." Another throb.

"She's not that bad."

I shot Mikoto an 'are you kidding me?' look.

However, my attention rubber banded back to Kuroko as her hand drifted toward the place setting she'd unrolled to use the spoon for her tea and set aside... Why did I start this again? Oh, right, to help Mikoto avoid the heavy stuff so I all but picked a fight with someone who can no sell me… why did I start this again?

The teleporter smiled at me and formula ran through my mind, the calculations from this morning coming easier than ever. But I didn't need something quite that intense, and a few tweaks resulted in a faint layer of electricity sparking over my hand and forearm like an ethereal gauntlet.

"Alright you two, that's enough!" I saw the smiling girl flinch at the same time an electric shock hit me in the thigh. It didn't do much, but I still felt it… Ow.

"Agreed!" I exclaimed, latching onto the opening and smiling. "Can one of you remind me where I was?"

"Oh, you were just telling us how you're really an extra-dimensional alien that's twenty-two years old," Kuroko quipped, smile still plastered in place and fingers flexing around— I blinked at the fork in her clenched hand. Wait. How… When...

"Right, um, number three was..." I glanced a Kuroko and confirmed that the vein was still throbbing away and that the fork was still in hand... better hold off on that. "I forgot. But whatever. Basically what happened is that while this Misaka—" I gestured to myself "—was undergoing her Testament personality programming, something happened to the hardware at some point in the process. I presume it was far enough into things that it couldn't just be stopped or restarted or something, but I digress. For whatever the reason, when it was over I was the one that woke up instead of a Sister while also having the Sisters programming and all that that entails. So, a few seconds after waking up and wondering 'where the hell am I' and 'why can't I move' I hear one of the Sisters talking to me over the Misaka Network and after a brief back and forth, she brings me up to speed regarding the… circumstances, of my current situation."

Taking a breath I took a sip of water. "Fast forward a little bit and when I hear a door opening I'm able to listen in on a pair of scientists. Apparently, there was some kind of untraceable power surge that appeared from within the system and overloaded a couple of components— and no," I quickly added, seeing Mikoto's eyes dilate, "this was during the day so it wasn't one of your attacks. Anyway, one of them said it had done a little damage, but nothing outside of the allowed parameters." I inclined my head, "Well, nothing as far as they knew. But then I doubt that something like what happened to me would be considered within acceptable parameters. From there, they let me out of the machine and I faked being Sister long enough to be sent on my way."

Finishing off my water I and nervously licked my lips. "And that's basically my story. After leaving I got a new kit, put myself up in a hotel and over the next few days I wandered around, saw the city, did some research, and experimented a bit with being an Esper... Any questions?"

Mikoto and Kuroko stared at each other and at Mikoto's shrug Kuroko took the lead. "How did you pay for the hotel you were staying at?"

"The Sisters have… had an expense account, that's what I used. I'm still getting used to this whole Esper thing so I couldn't hack my way in." Picking up my fork and poking the waffled I noted twitches from the two girls. "I'm not sure what the state of it is right now, but it was part of the reasons I got signed up to go here according to a Sister I talked to while in the shower."

"And the hotel?"

"Gold Star, somewhere between the eighth and fifteenth districts."

"You said you want shopping? Where did you..."

It went along like that for a little longer. Questions about what I'd done since waking up, where I'd gone since waking up, a bit about my past and the differences about where I'd come from along with more than a couple that were asking the same thing but in a different wording and so on. Kuroko had been in charge for the majority of the questioning and kept things random, but it hadn't taken long to spot the two lines of questioning: Things about myself that were asked again after a few other questions to see if I got caught up in a lie, or things that were verifiable… or at least that were maybe verifiable. People can be told to keep quiet, and video footage can be altered. I'd have to ask her what she uncovered— if she uncovered anything, that is.

"You never did answer why we found you in my bed in the state you were in," Mikoto asked, folding her little white flip computer thing and setting it aside. "Well?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. Like I said, they enrolled me here but you can blame the sisters for that. All I know is I passed out in the hotel room last night after misjudging my tolerance and woke up here."

"And then there's that," Kuroko interjected. "Where did you get alcohol and why in the world would you think drinking would be a good idea? You yourself said you had already misjudged your constitution multiple time before that."

I glanced at Mikoto and briefly caught her eye then looked back to Kuroko. "I'll parse that into two parts, the second part she will tell you about if she wants to. Ok?" At her nod, I sat back and folded my hands. "In terms of the booze... that's actually a non-issue if you think about it. I just found someone old enough with the right profile and convinced them to buy a bottle of sake for me in exchange for them getting something for themselves. As for the reason…" Staring down at my lap, I breathed out as I slowly ran my small thumbs over each other. For a moment specks of blood were splattered over my hands, when I blinked visions of mutilated corpses flashed behind my eyelids and the blood was gone.

Looking up, I glanced between the two girls before settling on Kuroko. "I was in a situation I had no way of influencing, nor was I being allowed to influence it. And that night… the Sisters are all connected you see, they all share an identical AIM diffusion field that lets them share memories, senses, computational abilities and have conversations. It's called the Misaka Network and how I talked to one while I was in the shower. In the first few days I was largely keeping myself disconnected, or as much as I could, and last night… I saw something regarding the circumstances of the Sisters creation and I needed to make myself numb."

Breathing out again I nodded to Mikoto. "Sorry." I picked up the peanut butter and syrup coated fork and stuck it in my mouth. "Any'ing elshe?"

The two shared a look, Kuroko, in particular, staring hard at Mikoto but the other girl shook her head. "Not here. Not now."

A pregnant silence descended on the table, each girl looking but not looking at one thing or another, lost in thought. Couldn't blame them, I'd revealed enough about my circumstances alone to make someone consider their place in the universe, let alone what they were going to do with that information or—

"What was the third thing," Kuroko blurted.

I blinked and remembered what I'd been about to say. I smiled at the girl who hadn't done anything to me, but… it was too good an opportunity to pass up. "I was a guy."

Her face went ashen and I heard distinctly squishy grumble. "A- a guy?! But I… I... "

"A guy," I repeated, "with muscles, and facial hair," she swallowed and her mouth twisted, as if she'd tasted something foul. I couldn't help it, my smile widened enough that teeth were exposed in my usually close lipped smile. "And I had meat, and potatoes," actually saying that… I was dying inside, and even if it made things more complicated seeing her go shriek, almost literally go green and teleport away might just have made it worth it.

Sparks danced around Mikoto's hand as picked up her cup and it began steaming. She grimaced at me before taking a sip. "That was a mean trick. And you shouldn't goad Kuroko like you were, she isn't as bad as she seems. You two just... got off on the wrong foot."

Ignoring the bold faced lie but commending her for standing by her friend… nodded, then I sighed and shook my head. "Not a trick, unfortunately. Speaking plainly, I'd rather not have to deal with that kind of thing again since I have… had," I corrected, "a niece her age and continuing what she was doing when I woke up…" I shook my head as the faint scent of orange chicken resurfaced. "The booze wasn't the only thing that made me sick."

"... I'll talk to her."

"I'd appreciate it."

A long moment of silence passed between us before Mikoto broke it again. "So… as insane as it sounds, let's say everything you said is accurate. Who were you? Aka isn't your real name, is it?"

Somewhat numb at this point all I could do was shrug. "I am who I am now, everything before that is largely unimportant."

"How can you say it's unimportant. You said you were a guy, that you had a niece— a family. That means you exist doesn't it, you can't—"

"It's unimportant because I don't exist," I said, interjecting before she could get too excited. She just blinked and sat back.

I sighed and pulled, bent, and tugged at my fingers but they refused to crack. Absently, I twisted my busted right knee to the same result. "It's just one thing I'd found while familiarizing myself with the differences between this place and where I came from. I don't exist, my niece doesn't exist, my family going back two generations back doesn't exist, and neither do the house's that I, my parents, and my parent's parents grew up in." I stared Mikoto in the eyes, "For all intents and purposes, I am no one but who I am now. And if I look back…" Opening my connection the Misaka Network some of the numbness went away, and raising a hand I made a single spark jump between my index and middle fingers. "Nothing good would come of dwelling on the past, so I don't, I can't, and I won't until I'm ready to."

While Mikoto studied the table, a motion over her shoulder drew my attention to a tall, brown haired woman with glasses in a dark, navy blue skirt suit entering the hall. Her appearance was familiar, but where… I squinted, and when she turned in my direction I saw her face: The Dorm Mistress. She started toward us.

A/N: Bloody hell this ended up longer than intended. I swear, this keeps happening for some reason… also why it took so long. Again, needed to balance things right, and again, I don't think I got this quite as intended… But let us move past this doom and gloom! Onward to… the next part! With delivery girls! And cars and drivers! And Toads! And plans! And… and… and my own room! With… with Blackjack and Strippers!

Note: Getting there in terms of my personal character development?

Note: Also couldnt figure out a viable alternative to Sissy, but I tried to keep it at a minimum.