Chapter 9: Reconstruction

"…And then, a gruff old man was lying in the middle of the crater, and I could smell the stench coming off from him."

"Thank you," Yomikawa-sensei said as she wrote down everything I said. "I think that's just about everything, I just need—"

There was a loud commotion outside before the door burst open and Oni-chan and Misaka-san stalked inside. Their faces were so close to touching each other and they were screaming so loudly at each other that their faces were red like tomatoes. Behind them came a middle-school girl with shoulder-length black hair. She had the same school uniform worn by Uiharu. Her shoulders were shaking with laughter, though she kept her face from view. She slipped past the arguing couple and made a beeline for Uiharu's desk.

"What are they arguing about this time?" Uiharu-san asked as soon as she got close. The girl guffawed and said, "Oh! You know, the usual…her wasting money over trinkets and him always meddling with her affairs."

"I'm not wasting my money!"

"I don't meddle because I want to!"

Misaka-san and Oni-chan snapped at the same time. Misaka-san whirled around and fired back.

"If you hadn't been there, I could've gotten that limited addition pink Getoka superball!"

A long sigh issued from Shirai-san, who was sitting on the couch. "Again? With that Getoka stuff?"

Oni-chan snorted. "Oh please! That machine was obviously rigged. I bet you've been playing that thing all morning!"

The unknown girl nodded and Uiharu-san snickered.

"I was thiiiis close to winning!" Misaka-san cried, standing on tip-toes and pinching the air infront of Oni-chan. "You could've warned me when you walked up so close!"

"I didn't even speak to you!" Oni-chan's arms flew out wide and I could see that he was holding a little book, "Saten-san was calling out to me! I didn't even see you squatting there, next to that plastic machine! Don't blame me when you get so jittery!"

"I almost fried the machine!"

Shirai-san facepalmed. Meanwhile, the unknown girl and Uiharu were doubled over with laughter.

"Again, that's not my problem!" Oni-chan scoffed. "For someone called level five, you seem to have trouble controlling your power."

Just like that, all the giggling stopped. Uiharu-san and the unknown girl frozen and eyeing Oni-chan with horror.

"Heh," a strange smile appeared on Misaka-san's face, "I'll show you how I control my powers!"

Blue sparks suddenly appeared around Misaka-san, and I felt my hair stand on their ends. Shirai appeared and dragged me behind the desk just as a bolt of lightning erupted from Misaka-san's bangs and streaked right towards Oni-chan.

My mind went blank and I heard myself I cry out in shock. I bolted towards Oni-chan but strong arms kept me pinned to the floor. Then suddenly, there came a strange noise like glass being broken, and the electricity went away like dust on the wind. I watched agog as Oni-chan retracted his right hand, smiling a wryly at Misaka-san. "Nice control. Yeah, I am totally convinced."

I wasn't the only one, either, as Uiharu-san and that other girl were staring at Oni-chan with, and their eyes were wide like dinner plates. We didn't even here the door open until...

"What's going on here? Wha—!"

Everyone turned to see Konori-senpai standing at the door, with a large bag of white take-out boxes dangling in her hand. She took one look at the burn mark and immediately glared at the two perpetrators.

"Misaka-san!?" she snapped, "Again, with the temper tantrums!?"

"No Konori-senpai it's not…"

"How many times have we gone over this? You can't just make a mess of the office! I know you get angry easily because of him, but this is unacceptable!"

Misaka-san and looked down at her feet. Her arms were behind her back, and she looked very small. "Sorry Konori-senpai."

"And Kamijou-kun!"

Oni-chan took a step back, as if stung by her sharp remarks. "What? What did I do?"

"Must you provoke Misaka-san so much?" Konori-senpai growled. "It's bad enough that I have deal with the governing board members to even let you in this room!"

"Why are you blaming me? She was the one who attacking me!"

"That's because you are the only reason she snaps like this!"

"Hey, I'm the victim here! Didn't you see? She just tried to fry me!"

"It's not like that ever works," Misaka-san rolled her eyes.

"ENOUGH!" Konori-senpai shrieked, silencing everyone else. "If you keep this up, I will have no choice but to force you to leave!"

"But Konori-senpai!"

"Both of You!"

"But Konori-san!"

"NO EXCUSES!" She planted the bag on her desk and plopped into her chair. "God! It's like I'm scolding two children!"

She let out ragged sigh and–after a few seconds—untied the bag.

"Lunch-time! I bought some Chinese takeout for everyone!"

All at once, Uiharu-san, me, and Shirai-san all went over to open the boxes. Immediately, the strong whiff of red pepper and meaty smell invaded my nostrils. Bright red mapo tofu were mingling with some pepper steak strips and twice cooked pork. The other box had lighter vegetable and tofu dishes along with a large serving of fried rice. Shirai-san distributed some plates and chopsticks, while Misaka-san came over last to help divvy out the food. However, both Oni-chan and the unknown girl stayed behind. Konori-senpai noticed and motioned them over.

"…Come on Saten-san, Kamijou-kun, there's food for you too."

The long-haired girl bowed low.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble, but I already ate before coming here." The Girl said.

"…And I was going to take Otohime out for lunch after this." Said Oni-chan.

"Unfortunately, we need to get you to the Anti-skill detention center," Konori said to Oni-chan, "So there won't be time for that."

Both came over and grabbed plates. Then, the unknown girl turned to me. "You must be Otohime then," she said, "Kamijou-san has been talking about you all week." She held out a hand. "I am Saten Ruiko by the way. Please call me Ruiko. I go to Sakugawa Middle School. It's nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you. I'm Otohime," I said, shaking her hand, "You must be Uiharu-san's classmate then."

She beamed and nodded. "Yup."

I turned around and froze at what I saw in front of me. The carpet was scorched except for where Oni-chan was standing mere moments before. How was this possible?

"I can never get use to that," Saten said, "Misaka-san being bested by Kamijou-senpai, I mean. It's not every day that you see a Level 0 going toe-to-toe with the strongest electromaster in the city."

"Strongest? Misaka-san?"

Saten-san nodded. "Yep! She's only the third ranked Level 5 esper. She's top of the class!"

"I didn't know that!" I sat back down at Shirai-san's desk and started eating when Oni-chan walked over to me and pulled a set of keys from his pocket.

"Oi, Otohime," he said, "Here you go. These are the keys to your dorm and room. Keep it safe, alright?"

"Okay." I said and pocketed the key fob, but my eyes were on his right hand.

"Was that your esper power then?" I asked. "A power that negates other powers?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah something like that." Oni-chan laughed nervously, "It's a little hard to explain though."

Just then, a voice came through the computer. "That looks delicious!"

"Oh!" I jumped and glanced at the screen. Yomikawa-sensei was still connected with me. Her chin was propped up by her hands, and she was smiling at me. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize—"

"Oh no, don't worry about it. It's always like this when that bickering couple shows up.

"We're not a couple!" snapped Misaka-san just as Oni-chan barked, "We don't bicker!"

Everyone else just snickered or rolled their eyes.

"I will be sending a car to pick you up," Yomikawa-sensei said, "See you then."

She hung up. At the same time, Konori-senpai got up from her desk and motioned to Oni-chan.

"Kamijou-kun, a word if I may."

"Of course. What is it?"

Oni-chan put his book down on my—I mean Shirai-san's—desk and followed Konori-senpai outside, and the door closed behind them.

My eyes fell on the book Oni-chan, which said "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" on the cover, and I thought back to the strange interview with Fremea-chan. Then I thought back to the conversation with Hamazura-san and Takitsubo-san, and I was even more perplexed. I looked back at the desk, at the closed laptop, and at the photos. I was still staring at them when Ruiko-san came up to me and said, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I said, "I just…"

I hesitated. "I've been wondering," I asked, "How did Oni-chan get a desk here in this office anyway? Is he really not a Judgement member?"

Everyone froze, and the carefree atmosphere all but disappeared. The girls were all trading glances with each other, as if daring each other to answer my question. Finally, Misaka-san groaned and spoke first.

"It's complicated. Like I said last night, this…" she gestured toward Oni-chan's desk "This was a special arrangement set up between Anti-skill and Judgement."

"Sou-desu-wa!" Shirai-san said, "Even then, the circumstances had to be very particular for everything to work. If it wasn't for all the chaos these past months have brought, all of this may have never happened anyway."

"Why? What happened?"

All the girls looked each other in hesitance. Then, Uiharu-san took a deep breath and started speaking.

"For us to answer that question, we must to talk about what happened two weeks ago, when the Bank—that's Academy city's massive database—became corrupted and all the data inside were lost." Uiharu-san sipped some tea. "The circumstances behind the meltdown was unknown at the time, but Anti-skill and many other government-run institutions lost everything. Research data, student attendance, test scores, Anti-skill databases, and hospital records were all wiped out. Consequently, criminals serving detention had to be released and many students had been pushed out from their schools."

"That's right," Shirai-san said, "To deal with the growing chaos, the board of directors declared a a two-week holiday for all schools while they wrestled with reconstructing the missing information. Meanwhile. we Judgement and Anti-skill members had to deal with the increased crime rate as well as accomidating the disenfranchised masses."

Uiharu nodded. "Fortunately for us, most of the schools were planning on an early winter break anyway, and most schools, hospitals and research facilities had kept their own backup servers."

"There were a lot of school mergers though," Ruiko-san said, "A lot of students and faculty members went home after being pushed out of their schools. That's why Konori-senpai and Kamijou-senpai would have shared the same class."

"At least that's what was supposed to happen," Shirai-san sighed. "But that idiot decided to ditch school to get more involved in rebuilding Academy City."

"Well, he really didn't have a choice did he?" Misaka-san, who had stayed silent finally spoke up. "How could he have gone back to that life? Not after Aleister Crowlery went and destroyed the world he lived in."

That name brought an utter chill in to the room. Misaka-san's face had contorted into a snarl like nothing I had seen before. Everyone else were visibly uncomfortable, Saten biting her lips and fiddling with the straps of her purse, and Uiharu-san rocking in her chair.

Unfortunately, that name meant nothing to me, and I had to ask. "Aleister? Who's he?"

Misaka-san sneered. "Only the ex-general superintendent of Academy city. It turns out that he was the reason behind the Bank's corruption. After his so-called ascension, he had no more use for this city and so he tried to destroy it."

Ascension? I didn't understand, but Misaka-san wasn't finished.

"He's behind everything wrong about this city, from the terrible experiments committed to all the shady dealings in the underworld. ITEM, GROUP, Level-upper project, or even that insane Agitate Halation experiment… he's the mastermind behind all of it!"

"Quiet," Shirai-san said suddenly, appearing in front of Misaka-san. "You know very well that, that is classified information. We can't talk about that in front of Otohime-chan!"

"No offence." She added as she glanced at me.

I waved it away. "But what does all this have to do with Oni-chan?" I asked, "Why did he quit school?"

"Because he felt responsible for the City's demise," Misaka-san said, "He was right next to Aleister when that bastard sent the virus to corrupt the Bank."

"Which is Ludicrous!" Saten-san exclaimed, "If what you're saying is true, there wasn't anything he could do anyway!"

"You know how he is." Misaka-san sighed, "That idiot blames himself for not taking a more active role in the city's well-being. That's why he gave up his life as an ordinary High school student."

"Ma-ta-ke!" Shirai-san groaned, "Anyway, over the past two weeks, we've been slowly rebuilding our databases by using information from the various schools and institutions. Unfortunately, our authority has diminished considerably, and many facilities are reluctant to contribute more data, and so we've had to get the information the hard way."

"Hard way? Like going door-to-door?"

"Exactly." Uiharu-san nodded. "You're Oni-chan has been helping us out in completing a census of the city. He could negotiate with the new liberal arts schools—especially those run by the English and Russian churches—into providing student records. It's amazing thathe has such connections while all of us couldn't even get a face-to-face meeting. You won't believe all the people he knows in the city!"

"Heh, and he calls himself the unluckiest man in the city," Saten-san said, laughing. The others rolled their eyes.

"So what does he do now?" I asked. "Is the census still going on?"

"Yes and no." Uiharu said, "We're almost finished with documenting district 7, and now we're helping out with the other branches. You see, our branch have many contacts in other districts like religious schools, friendly Skill-out member, and other less well documented organizations, so we're is uniquely qualified to helping out with the other districts."

"Anyway, Kamijou-senpai is working on a different side of the case." Uiharu-san said. "So far, we've uncovered a long list of missing persons who either worked for or was a victim of the darkness that once blanketed the city. So, he's been leading private investigations into those cases."

"I see."

Just then, the front door opened, and Konori-senpai peeked in.

"Otohime-chan, it's time to go! Misaka-san, Shirai-san, please come along as well."

"Hai!"

All three of us trooped out together and out the door. Just before the door closed, I glanced back at the room and the scorched carpet.

What on earth was my Oni-chan involved in?