"CASE 1551
Judgment 177 Branch
Date of occurrence: January 30, 2011
Date of report received: February 4, 2011
SUMMARY
2:50 a.m.: The propane tank in the basement of the 122nd Judgment branch administrative building lost pressure, releasing flammable gas throughout the building.
2:55 a.m.: The fire alarm activated, and the building was evacuated in approximately 7 minutes. Due to an electrical glitch, the fire department was not notified when the alarm was pulled.
3:05 a.m.: An explosion from the basement of the building ignited a fireball that quickly engulfed the floors above. The fire apartment was called at this time by one of the workers.
3:08 a.m.: The perpetrator fought against Kamijō Tōma and Misaka Mikoto in front of the branch office. The perpetrator, named Dante, was able to overpower both students and steal Misaka Mikoto's esper abilities.
3:16 a.m.: The first fire response units arrived at the scene. No witnesses were found regarding Dante's whereabouts after the fight.
4:23 a.m.: The fire department extinguished the fire.
Damage report: The building's steel frame held together, but a large volume of equipment was destroyed. Initial figures estimate four to five hundred million yen worth of damage. However, all 15 people inside the building evacuated safely; no one was injured."
KONORI MII THANKED Kazari for the report and asked if there was anything else to add. Kazari, Kuroko, and Mikoto shook their heads in unison. Kazari handed the report to Mii, who placed it in a thin file labeled "Case 1551".
"And how are you feeling, Misaka-san?" asked Mii.
"Day by day," she replied.
"Good," said Mii. "We've confirmed that there were no additional witnesses at the incident. Judgment has already sent out a request to Tokiwadai to excuse you from all esper-related tasks."
Mikoto nodded solemnly.
"Misaka-san, Shirai-san, Uiharu-san," continued Mii, "I've said this before, but let me reiterate: everything that was said in here stays in here. If students start finding out that a man is running around Academy City with the third ranked esper's abilities, things will get very ugly very quickly."
Mikoto didn't like how much emphasis Mii placed on the two "very"s. It was as if whoever found out about it would go mad in panic and transmit the disease to someone else. And then that someone else would spread it to another person, and then so on and so forth ad infinitum until the entire world was infected with this information.
She grumbled.
"One last thing before we all break for the weekend," said Mii. "Any ideas on how powerful this Dante character is?"
"Well, we know that he's a level 5 at least," said Kazari.
"Maybe we can send Anti-Skill after him. Shoot some tear gas at him, bring out the .50 caliber rifles, bang, bang, and we're good. He probably doesn't even know how to use electricity that well," said Kuroko.
Mikoto pursed her lips and shook her head. Dante was skilled. Much more skilled than she was as an electromaster. Five days ago, she witnessed him use her (or his) power only once when he discharged a bolt at Tōma before his jaw was shattered. It must've been about 10,000 volts; not enough to kill a man, but enough to paralyze him. Yet that steely sprig of lightning sprang so effortlessly from his fingertips, that she instantly knew how powerful he was. Somehow, she just knew.
"Guns won't work on him," said Mikoto. "He'll just magnetize the air around himself and deflect the bullets."
Mii nodded and pushed her glasses up against the bridge of her nose.
"Well, I can't think of anything except sending in the other level 5 espers, but that's too dangerous," said Mii. "I think we ought to play it safe for now. I'll send a message to my superiors to see if we can get a telepath to read his mind. We'll see what he has planned, and we'll act from there."
Kazari and Kuroko nodded. Mikoto was lost tracking a mote of dust in the far corner. It drifted out of focus.
"It there isn't anything else," said Mii, "then I believe this meeting is adjourned. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to make a copy of this report for the archives."
Mii left the office and the three girls remained in their shared silence.
"Don't worry about it, Misaka-san," said Kazari. "It'll be fine!"
Mikoto said nothing. She didn't have the energy to. She felt drained ever since the fight. It was a combination of her vulnerability and her anxiety. Everything looked different without her powers. She had grown so used to the field lines that not being able to see them was a handicap. The world seemed incomplete and unpredictable without the magnetism guiding her like contour lines on a map. Cars swished by her in their abruptness, refusing to warn her with any electrical pulses as they once had. No longer could she walk through downtown Academy City at night without fear. She wouldn't be able to fight off even one man let alone a gang. She was naked without her powers, and that nakedness carved at her sanity like a dull blade.
The anxiety was worse. Watching, thinking about Dante using her powers, Mikoto felt as if she were abetting his crimes. Every volt of electrical potential that coursed through his blood had once been hers to command, and now he had ripped it away from her flesh. Visions of Dante electrocuting students invaded her thoughts, and Mikoto tried to ignore them without success. She almost wished she never existed.
"Are you okay, Onee-sama?" asked Kuroko. A cold, painful lump sat in the pit of Mikoto's stomach like a stone. She felt like vomiting.
"It's my fault, isn't it?" said Mikoto. Kuroko rolled her eyes and slung an arm across her shoulders.
"Sheesh, Onee-sama," said Kuroko. "First of all, it's not your fault. It's not like you're pulling the trigger, right? And second of all, no one's died. Alright, so a building's burned down. So what? That can be replaced, and when we catch this Dante person, we're gonna have him rebuild it with only his bare hands as punishment. After that, we'll send him back to District 10 where he belongs, and he'll rot in jail there until we send him to the electric chair. You can even do the honors."
Mikoto looked away and released an uneasy breath. "I need to be alone for a bit," she said. She bolted out of the conference room, and the door eased shut behind her. Kuroko and Kazari looked at each other and shrugged.
Mikoto sped down the hallway, almost tripping over herself, and exited the Judgment 177 Branch Office. She crossed the road and traversed the quad to her dorm. In her room, Mikoto yanked her mobile from its charger and punched in Tōma's number. She hadn't stored it in her phonebook for fear that Kuroko might snoop through her recent calls. She pressed the phone against the side of her head like a pillow and listened to the steady ring on the other side. Her limbs felt distant and detached, and the phone seemed so heavy that she almost dropped it. Her stomach twisted into a knot and threatened to shove its contents up her esophagus. She almost began to cry until finally the voice of Tōma made its way to her ear through a mesh of static.
"Biribiri?"
"Tōma," she exhaled, her voice quivering. "I need you right now."
TŌMA REVIEWED THE CHAPTER on entropy as he whistled a familiar tune to himself. Outside the library, the sun rode the clouds past its zenith and prepared to descend into its nightly grave. Hordes of students had crammed into the library today to prepare for their midterms. Tōma sat on the second floor of an attachment to the library called "the hyphen". It housed shelves of old books that no one ever borrowed. The collection itself was named after some important bigwig that donated those books to the library. The place was hidden behind a maze of corridors, so rarely anyone studied there. Today, the place was empty except for him.
Tōma rubbed his neck and looked around. The walls were taupe and made of foam that absorbed stray sounds quite well. Beams of ghostly light poured in from the thin windows and highlighted the dust that wafted through the room. A gust brushed against the outer walls, and the windows shuddered. It must've been below zero outside, but inside, it was toasty.
Tōma returned to his textbook and squinted at the words on the page, which had long ago conglomerated into blocks of blurred letters. Science exams were the worst. Academy City's curriculum in the winter featured the six courses with the lowest medians in the entire catalogue: Electricity and Magnetism, Organic Chemistry I, Genetics, Advanced Telekinesis, Introduction to Pyrokinesis, and Introduction to Teleportation. Tōma just happened to be enrolled in the toughest one out of those six, Electricity and Magnetism. Historically, the median for that course was a C. Tōma buried his head in the pages of his textbook and groaned. If I could get a B, he thought, I would be happy.
He felt a firm nudge on his shoulder. A wave of amber hair brushed his face as he turned around to see who it was.
"Found you," said Mikoto as she settled in the seat next to him. "I was looking for you for five minutes. Jeez."
"Oh, you made it," said Tōma. He stretched out and yawned. "Well, you were the one who told me to wait for you in the hyphen. No one ever comes here, so it's not my fault you couldn't find me right away."
"Jerk." Her voice was weak, and its echoes were quickly absorbed by the foam walls.
"How's it going?" asked Tōma.
"It's going," she replied.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means I'm not feeling as good as I could be feeling."
"Speak up, Mikoto. No one's around. I promise."
Mikoto sighed and anchored her chin on her chest. Her fingers rubbed and pinched one another.
"I said, 'I'm not feeling that good'," she repeated.
"Will you feel better if I hug you?"
"I don't know."
Tōma hugged her. Head beside her ear, Tōma whispered, "Do you feel better?"
"A bit, I guess," she said.
Tōma leaned back and cupped her shoulders with his hands. "Mikoto," he said, "I want to know if you're alright."
Mikoto said nothing. She gently lifted Tōma's right hand from her shoulder and placed it on her cheek. She leaned her head on his palm and smiled for the first time three days. Her skin felt warm against his. The windows rattled from the wind outside. She closed her eyes. Another gust slammed against the walls, and the building creaked.
"What are you studying?" she asked.
Tōma glanced back at his textbook to remind himself of what he'd learned only a few minutes ago. "Physics. I'm studying physics."
"I know that, dummy. Which chapter?"
He peeked again at the pages and spotted the word "entropy" in bold and size 24 Helvetica.
"Entropy," he read.
"Oh, the second law of thermodynamics," she said as she nestled her cheek further into his hand. "Do you remember what the law states?"
"Probably something to do with molecules and how organized they are," he managed. "The universe … uhhh…"
"…tends towards disorder," finished Mikoto.
"Uh… yeah. I didn't really read through the chapter," he admitted.
"The universe tends towards disorder. That means everything is fated to go to its lowest energy state and disintegrate. The clouds, the stars, your hand. All of it will fall apart until the universe is a uniform soup. Kind of creepy, don't you think?"
"I try to, but it never really works out."
"What?"
"You asked me, 'don't you think'," said Tōma. "I'm telling you that it doesn't work for me."
"Then let's stop thinking."
Mikoto lifted her head. Her eyes were glassy, and the pink tint that used to occupy her cheeks had dissolved. She looked so delicate that one misspoken word would shatter her. Yet Tōma found a kind of girlish charm in her daintiness that had been buried beneath her façade for so long. She needed someone to lean on, someone to tell her that it would all be alright even if it wouldn't be. In her vulnerability, she looked more comely. She was like the Venus de Milo and her missing arms; she was no longer an electromaster, but it was that same lack of power that lent her a new sort of beauty, a projection of what could've been. The flush from her face had gone, but her lips were still red, and between the lub-dubs in his chest, Tōma found the right moment to kiss her. As their lips met, something thumped from the deepest chambers of his being. She was powerless now, and he wanted – needed – to be her protector. He regained his breath and kissed her one more time.
"People might see us," she whispered.
"I hope they do," he said. Her heartbeat pulsed through her tongue and synced with his own. "But you know, we can't really be an official couple until Kuroko finds out."
Mikoto pulled back and frowned. "I suppose so. When are you going to tell her then?"
Tōma widened his eyes and squeaked out a nervous laugh. "Eh…. Not me. I'm sure as hell not doing it. She's a hurricane. You're her roommate, so why don't you tell her?"
"Wait a sec. Did you hear that?" asked Mikoto, pushing Tōma away.
He shook his head. Mikoto's eyes darted around the room. "I think someone's coming in."
"I think it was just the wind—"
And then the 13 year old girl, the one with rosy pigtails that drooped to her shoulders, the Teleporter working for Judgment, the queen of brashness and bad manners whose name was Shirai Kuroko, unleashed a scream so deafening that the windows almost shattered.
"ON. EE. SA. MAAAA~~~!"
The girl disappeared and then reappeared above Tōma and a draft of cool air followed. Her foot crashed into his head, and he hit the floor with a loud thump.
"Damn, that hurt!" yelled Tōma as he rubbed the back of his head.
She clenched her fists and scrunched her face into an ugly knot. Her small frame stood redoubtably over Tōma. "So you're not satisfied with the anguish you've already caused Onee-sama?
Tōma ignored what the crazy girl just asked. "Damn, that really hurt."
Kuroko's body language cursed at him.
"Spawn of Satan, did you hear what I said?"
"Yeah, I heard what you said, and I plead the fifth."
Kuroko smacked him on the side of the head and Tōma tasted the floor for the second time. "We're not in America, dumbass!"
Mikoto tugged on Kuroko's shoulder. "Calm down, Kuroko."
"Onee-sama," she blurted, "did this man hurt you? Did he threaten you? Touch you even? I'll return his wrongdoings tenfold!"
It was amazing how cleanly Kuroko could switch between hostility and compassion.
"I'm okay," said Mikoto, "but how did you find me in the hyphen of all places?"
"Well, that's…"
"You followed me, didn't you?"
"I had to make sure you were safe! If some dirty scoundrel such as this man accosted you, you would have no way of protecting yourself!"
Tōma rubbed the second throbbing bump on his head. Kuroko had a strong hook. "Mikoto can protect hers—"
Kuroko smacked him for the third time. "Don't call her Mikoto, you garbage-eating, snot-twizzling spacker!"
"Kuroko!" shouted Mikoto, "That's enough!"
Another point of pain pulsed on Tōma's head. He sat up and massaged his scalp. That one didn't hurt as much, probably because he was numb all over his upper body from the first two hits.
"Sorry, Onee-sama. I might have overreacted a bit there."
"Yeah, you definitely overreacted," said Tōma.
Kuroko glared at him and squeezed her fist. Tōma flinched. He held up his hands in front of him and tried pathetically to disarm her with a nervous smile. "Eh… well, I think I'm entitled to my opinion."
"True," said Kuroko, "but that doesn't mean that I'm entitled to your opinion. The Ace of Tokiwadai lost her abilities because you, and now, some villain is going around and burning buildings. If anyone dies because of him, you better feel responsible, Kamijō Tōma. Once I've beaten and arrested this man, you're next."
"So should I be cheering for this guy then?"
Kuroko pulled a dart from her thigh in one automatic action and made it disappear like a magician. The dart reappeared in Tōma's shirt and tagged him to the wall.
"Do it and you'll be tasting my unadulterated fury."
"Damned if I do, damned if I don't," muttered Tōma.
"What was that?"
Kuroko had another dart in between her fingers. Tōma hadn't even seen her reach for one. Mikoto stepped in and plucked the dart away. "Kuroko, you're right. I think we better go back to the dorm."
"Oh, we could," said Kuroko, turning to her, "if you answer a question I've had on my mind."
"What is it?"
"Just why were you and this man together at three in the morning last Saturday?
Tōma's eyes widened. The room seemed to shrink. The pain in his head was muffled in the presence of a coming wave of claustrophobia. He stared at Mikoto and wondered if she would spill the beans right then and there. He imagined Kuroko receiving the news that they were a couple and her pulling the rest of the darts out of the holster on her thigh and teleporting them into his non-vital organs. Non-vital so that he didn't die right away. He could almost feel the cold, metallic pain in his body as if someone had inserted a blowtorch in there. It would be a slow and agonizing death. What misfortune.
"Kuroko, listen very carefully. What I'm about to tell you is the truth. We were—"
Oh no. I don't want to die just yet, thought Tōma. He sprang from the floor and the dart ripped a patch of fabric from his shirt. His right hand extended forward. His fingers sliced through the air and landed around Kuroko's wrist. She couldn't use her powers now.
"—studying!" shouted Tōma. "We were studying!"
"What the– Get off of me!"
Kuroko thrashed her arm like a whip, but Tōma held steady.
"We were studying the second law of thermodynamics. Look, I can even prove it to you: The second law of thermodynamics says that the universe tends to organize itself! See?"
"Do you think I'm an idiot? Also, you got it completely wrong!"
"Okay, I was lying. The truth is that Misaka-san and I are dating."
...Misaka-san and I are dating.
Not even the soundproof walls could absorb those words.
Kuroko stiffened. Tōma felt the heat drain from her arm. Her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets. She shuddered.
"O…o…onee-s…sama. Is this true?"
Mikoto's face was as red as a thousand degrees. "It's true."
Kuroko gasped in one last breath before she tilted back and landed supine on the floor.
Tōma stood up and brushed himself off. The pain in his head began to whine again. He tapped Kuroko twice on the cheek. No response.
"Well, at least she knows now," said Mikoto.
"Yep, and you should tell the coroner to look for darts in my body when he performs the autopsy. Save him some time."
Tōma lifted Kuroko onto his back fireman style and carried her down the stairs and out the backdoor, where fewer people would see him. Mikoto followed. They received a few perplexed stares as they crossed the quad and back to Mikoto's dorm, but most of the students were inside avoiding the cold. Along the way, Tōma cycled through two lingering thoughts. The first one was about how Kuroko would react when she came to. He guessed that she would either lodge a dart in his brain and turn him into a vegetable or lodge a dart in his heart and kill him outright.
The second thought was about the second law of thermodynamics. The universe tended towards disorder; the fate of everything from black holes to specks of dust alike was chaos. Anarchy was the endpoint. Shit was inevitably going to hit the fan.
Sometimes, physics had a strange way of making sense.
