"This is absolutely ridiculous." Kuroko sighed as she threw another three vials onto the table in the Judgement office, right on top of a giant pile of at least three dozen vials, all filled with the copper neurotoxin they'd been chasing down for the past several hours, long past curfew and starting to burn the midnight oil, and not for the first time over the past few days. Uiharu had dug up a few leads, and those leads had led to even more leads, with Kuroko finding an absurd amount of vials scattered throughout the city in the most ridiculous of places and in the hands of the weirdest people.
"Pawn shops, street vendors, Skill-Out, lost-and-found Judgement boxes, shipping company's…" Uiharu listed off the various places with a sigh, having not even said a tenth of the places and people they'd found the vials. Kuroko groaned as she flopped onto the couch of the room, burying her face into the cushions. Uiharu rolled over on her computer chair to the couch, patting the back of Kuroko's head.
Kuroko sighed and looked up from the cushion, half her face still buried in the cushions. Even Uiharu had to admit it was kind of cute.
"I'm starting to get a bit suspicious, honestly. You think someone knows we're looking into this?" Uiharu asked, Kuroko sighing as she sat up.
"It feels like someone's been wasting our time." Kuroko sighed, getting off the couch and stretching out her sore muscles. Uiharu turned to look at her computer, furrowing her brow as she slid back over to it. She began to rapidly type at the keyboard, eyes dashing across the display, her expression growing more and more serious. Kuroko opened her mouth to ask, but was immediately cut off by a raised finger calling for her silence. Kuroko was stunned wordless at the sudden assertiveness from Uiharu, and simply waited.
"This is... " She looked baffled, before turning to look at Kuroko. "I called in a few favors at forensics to get those cans you brought in tested for the toxin. After that, I had them test all the cans in that machine." Uiharu began to explain, Kuroko's eyebrows raising at the latter half.
"The only can that was poisoned was Misaka's." Uiharu said, looking at Kuroko with a grave expression. Kuroko blinked at that. Then blinked again.
"ONLY her can? But… how would they have possibly… I never took my eyes off it, I swear, there's no way someone could have slipped something into it without my seeing it, and the number of teleporters who can do that in Academy City I can count on one hand, and one of them is me." Kuroko said adamantly, to which Uiharu nodded.
"Right. And, the can showed signs that it had the poison both in the liquid AND within the metal can itself. So the next logical conclusion was that it was poisoned before either of you arrived. And the fact that only Misaka's was poisoned comes down to two possibilities; either they poisoned one and trusted in luck, or they knew which can Misaka was going to buy." Uiharu deduced.
Kuroko furrowed her brow deeply, looking infuriated as she often did when Misaka was in danger. "Precognition." Kuroko filled in the blanks, Uiharu nodding gravely in response. Precognition, the ability to predict the future. Even in Academy City, powerful Pre-cog's, as they were sometimes shortened to, were exceptionally rare.
"It'd explain how her food keeps getting poisoned so accurately. The culprit can predict what she'll be eating, and poisons it ahead of time. Thing is, I've never heard of a Pre-cog with that level of specificity, or the power to be that broad." Uiharu said with a frown, putting a hand to her lips in thought, her expression twisted into one of concern.
"Do you think this person could be that Indigo mystery we saw on that database?" Kuroko asked, sitting on the armrest of the couch, her mind racing with theories. Uiharu joined her in quiet, dire contemplation. The very notion of trying to investigate and track down someone who could see the future was a troubling prospect.
Their thoughts were not to remain interrupted as a loud explosion could be heard in the distance. Both of them leaped from their seats, Kuroko teleporting over to the window and throwing the blinds out of the way.
"What was that!?" She hissed as she looked around, spotting smoke trailing up in the distance. Uiharu was at the computer, typing away as she pulled up various security cameras across the city.
"A facility has had an explosion of unknown cause! It's… Oh no." Uiharu said in a hushed whisper. "...It's the Shinasame University DNA Map Analytical Laboratory." She said, turning to look at Kuroko with something akin to horror on her face. The same building they'd infiltrated. Kuroko returned her horrified gaze with a matching one of her own.
"Would they… would they be so extreme to cover their tracks?" Kuroko asked, an inkling of fear spreading up from her stomach, which was quickly interrupted by another explosion. Followed by yet another immediately after. Kuroko grabbed the string and nearly snapped the blinds off with how fast she pulled it, the window exposing the cityscape, showcasing several inferno's and towers of smoke emanating from across the city, and every few moments, another explosion occurred. "Oh my god…." Uiharu covered her mouth in horror as she whispered in shock.
"I'm going out, get into the camera's, find out what's going on!" Kuroko yelled, grabbing her bag and teleporting through the window as she began to rapidly flash across the city, heading first toward the Shinasame University. Landing on top of a light post several blocks away from her destination, she reached into her bag, removing a monocle-like device that connected to an earpiece like the one she usually wore, snapping it around her ear and letting the lens fall in front of her eye. "Uiharu?" She called to her partner before teleporting yet again toward her target.
"I'm here. It's bad, really bad." Uiharu sent an image onto the monocle, a satellite view of the location which showed it wreathed in flames. Arriving, Kuroko looked down from a building at the burning building, which periodically let out loud pops and bangs as machinery within detonated. "The other buildings?" Kuroko asked with a consciously rigid voice.
"Just as bad. Anti-Skill is pouring onto the scenes now. They're describing it as a series of explosions from electrical equipment. They're still unsure on injured and casualties." Uiharu explained, who Kuroko knew was flying across her keyboard. "They're requesting Judgement help with evacuation of any bystanders and injured."
"Acknowledged." Kuroko vanished from the roof and landed down on the ground, dashing toward the burning building, and went to work.
With any luck, they could contain this disaster.
But, really, when was she ever lucky?
The past week had been like something out of a nightmare. While the wide-scale and coordinated devastation had not been repeated, two to three research facilities had been attacked by an unknown number of assailants, and no statement had been made by any claiming credit for the attacks. Kuroko and Uiharu had been like many other Judgement officers, called in to assist to both safeguard civilians and prevent a public panic. More than once, both Kuroko and Uiharu had collapsed onto the couches in their office and fallen asleep then and there after more than one all-nighter.
And through it all, Kuroko found her worry for Mikoto growing. Unable to investigate the conspiracy she just knew was orbiting around Mikoto, and unable to properly guard her with her presence, divided as she was by duty to Academy City, and her love for her Onee-sama. She had been forced to resort to texting her periodically throughout the week, but her replies troubled Kuroko. They were almost always one-word responses, and sometimes she did not get a response at all. The few times Kuroko had made it back to the dorm, Mikoto had not been present, and it didn't look like she'd been home all night.
Then one night, she tiredly opened the door to her dorm room, and felt her heart flutter as she saw Mikoto sitting on the edge of her bed. "Onee-sama! You're here!" She gasped in surprise, earning a huff from Mikoto.
"Is there something wrong with me being in my own dorm room?" She questioned in a harsh tone that was like an icy spike into Kuroko's gut.
"I-It's just, you've been so scarce lately, and there's been a lot of dangerous things going on, I'm sure you've heard and noticed how busy Judgement has been with it all." She attempted to interject, but Mikoto just sighed and looked away from her.
"Really? I haven't noticed." She said in an aloof manner. Why… Why was Mikoto treating her like some stranger?
"Is there something… bothering you, Onee-sam-" Mikoto twisted her head at her and snarled at her.
"NO." Kuroko physically winced at the sudden rage, struck speechless at the unprovoked anger. Silence filled the room, its terrible weight suffocating Kuroko. Mikoto, after a time of sitting in the silence and looking away from Kuroko, stood up. "I'm going out, I need to finish something." She said, striding toward the door. Kuroko, in a moment of impulse, reached out and grabbed Mikoto's arm. The poison, the terrorist attacks, her behavior, the conspiracy she found herself prodding at, it screamed at Kuroko that Mikoto had gotten herself involved in something dangerous.
"Please, Onee-sama! Let me help! I can tell something is wrong, please just let me in-" Mikoto spun around at her, giving Kuroko a look that chilled her to the bone. It was anger, yes, but it was also… despair. Pain.
"Don't get in my way, Kuroko. You'll only get hurt." She said in a tone that frightened Kuroko, her hand loosening its grip on Mikoto's arm, who turned away without another word and slammed the door shut behind her, leaving Kuroko standing alone in their room. Kuroko's arms fell to her sides, her head hanging down as she stared at the ground.
"I guess… you can't rely on me… huh?" She asked the silent room as she felt warm tears falling down her face.