Everything burned.
Every step, every breath, every beat of her heart. Her blood boiled and her sweat sizzled on her skin. Just trying to keep moving was agony, but she hardly even noticed the pain. Her eyes were focused on the ground in front of her as she took another step, and then another and another, moving steadily towards her goal.
The dorm. If she could make it back to the dorm, then she would be able to rest and everything would be fine. Kuroko would have questions. Well, let her ask. It didn't really matter. All that mattered was that it was working. She was making progress.
But still… it still wasn't enough. Her hands curled into fists and she growled. She could still hear his mocking laughter ringing in her ears. A flash of white, those laughing red eyes. Mikoto hissed as she shook the apparition away. If he appeared in front of her right now, would she be able to beat him? She doubted it. Even after everything she had endured, she wasn't strong enough.
Well then fine. She would endure more—as much as it took.
As long as she got strong enough nothing else mattered.
Blood thundered in her ears. She could feel her power surging just beneath her skin, tingling, like a million billion little ants crawling around, biting and pushing and trying to get out. The sensation was maddening, but she held it in. She was the one in control here, not her power. Doctor Kamui didn't know what she was talking about.
A faint chuckle escaped her lips as she staggered down the sidewalk, making her way back to the main street that would lead her home. As if she could ever really lose control of her powers. She'd been living with them for almost her entire life. The electricity always obeyed, always answered her call.
Lighting snapped off of her body, burning out a nearby street light, but Mikoto didn't break stride.
Yes, she thought with a grin, it was hers, her power. The researchers, the scientists, the doctors… they were all fools who thought they could control her. But no matter what they did they'd never be able to. Control was her birthright, and she'd be damned if she handed it over just to satisfy some nobody's curiosity.
She paused, taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm the storm brewing inside of her, but it did no good. How dare they? How dare they? The familiar anger she had felt when she'd rampaged through the city, trying to dismantle the Level 6 Shift experiment, was growing inside of her, and it was all she could do to keep herself from unleashing her power all at once. They treated her like some lab rat, just another source of data. They'd even tricked her into giving them her DNA map. It was infuriating. She hardly noticed when the air around her became charged with static.
It was becoming impossible to concentrate. She clenched her eyes shut, gritting her teeth and digging her fingers into the side of her head until she felt droplets of blood dripping from where her nails broke the skin. It was too much. All of it, everything. She hated them all. They needed to pay, but she needed more, what was the point, how could they how dare they how dare they howdaretheyhow-
"Hey, are you alright?"
A voice, soft and concerned, cut through the growing cacophony in her head and her eyes snapped open, bloodshot and crazed. There was someone behind her. How had they managed to sneak up on her?
"Is that blood?"
They leaned in and Mikoto could feel their heart beating in their chest, could feel the mass of neurons firing in their brain, sending signals down along their spine and through their body. It had never been this clear before. It was like she could see their whole nervous system outlined in her mind. She could almost touch it.
"Holy… You're hurt! What happened? Here let me call an ambulance." A hand touched her shoulder and Mikoto tensed, eyes wide as she stared into the past.
"Nice to meet ya."
She whirled around with a scream of rage. Electricity surged from her body, swirling around her and pushing the person back just as the ground erupted in a shower of black sand and shattered concrete. She panted, staring with wild eyes at the figure on the ground. The hazy figure of her hated foe dissipated into that of a terrified woman, and Mikoto pulled back before her eyes narrowed in a venomous glare.
"You… are you another one of those researchers? I bet you thought you could use me too, didn't you?"
"W-w-what do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about." The woman shrank back as Mikoto took a step towards her. "Please! I just wanted to see if you needed help!"
"I don't need your help!" A red haze filled her vision. "I don't need anyone's help! Why can't you just leave me alone!?" The power spilled out of her, unchecked and uncontrolled but she didn't care. It reached high into the air, filling the clouds above until the sky flashed with light. Thunder cracked, rattling windows and drowning out the terrified scream of Mikoto's would-be benefactor as she scrambled to her feet and fled.
"I don't need anyone!"
Mikoto stood, panting, eyes searching frantically for something, anything, to unleash her fury upon. It was all too much. The secrets, the tests, the condescending way those damned scientists always looked at her, and especially the fact that no matter how hard she worked she still wasn't good enough. She screamed, lashing out and watching in satisfaction as the iron sand leapt to obey her, cutting a jagged groove in the road before slamming into a parked car and carving it in two.
Her breathing started to calm as her focus sharpened, and she started walking again, electricity leaping from her body like angry snakes searching for prey. Iron sand slithered and twisted in her wake, a deadly shadow. Above her, the clouds flashed and rumbled, growing larger and darker by the minute.
It was fine. This was perfect. All she needed to do was let her power grow. Let it grow and grow and grow until it filled the sky from one horizon to the other. As long as she did that, no one would ever be able to stand in her way again.
The last traces of sunlight were just disappearing over the edge of the horizon, the sky bathed a deep blue, as Kuroko lighted upon the roof of the hospital. She shivered as a sudden gust of wind blew across the rooftop, her pigtails fluttering behind her as she scanned the area for her targets.
Getting to the hospital had taken about as long as she'd anticipated. Even anxious, her teleport worked as flawlessly as ever, and she'd zipped across the skyline of Academy City like a ghost, reappearing only long enough to get her bearings and sight upon her next destination before vanishing into the eleventh dimension.
Unfortunately, even five minutes was long enough for her two suspects to disappear into the city. She had no idea which direction they'd gone or where their destination was.
She touched a hand to her ear. "Uiharu, any sign of them yet?"
"Not yet! I'm starting with the cameras closest to the hospital and then working my way in a circular pattern outwards. I've got them leaving the hospital about nine minutes ago, East entrance. Looks like they headed for the bus stop."
Kuroko stifled a curse. If they'd hopped on a bus, then the amount of ground they could have covered would be greatly increased. Although…
"Give me a moment, Uiharu."
She teleported off the roof and down to ground level, startling an elderly man as she reappeared next to the bus stop. Her eyes quickly scanned over the schedule, searching for any buses that could have left within the last ten minutes.
"Uiharu, focus on cameras along the Yamanome, Ichinohe, and Toe bus lines. Those are the only three that have had departures within the last ten minutes, so if they got on a bus then they'll have to be on one of those."
"I'm on it!"
Kuroko narrowed her eyes, studying the bus routes. Just where could they be going? Where would they try to run to, if they suspected pursuit?
"Excuse me, young lady."
Kuroko turned, startled out of her thoughts. She had forgotten about the elderly man.
"Ah! I apologize for startling you before." She bowed slightly. "I am in a bit of a rush."
The man nodded. "Well, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I've been sitting here for oh, about twenty minutes now, and the only other people that have gotten on any buses was a young man and a dark-haired girl. I'd say she was maybe a few years older than you, though my eyes aren't what they used to be. Could be those are the ones you're looking for."
Kuroko felt a surge of adrenaline. That certainly sounded like them. "Do you happen to remember which bus they got on?"
"I believe it was the northbound Yamanome, though I can't be sure." He tapped the frames of his glasses. "The eyes again, I'm afraid."
"Thank you very much. Uiharu? Did you get all that?"
"I did! I'm searching along the northbound Yamanome line. No sign of them yet, but I'll see if I can get into the bus cameras as well!"
"Good idea. Keep looking, I'll be in pursuit." She paused, turning and offering the man another bow. "Thank you very much for your assistance. I need to be on my way."
The old man chuckled. "Of course. Good luck now."
With a small wave, Kuroko disappeared, heading north. "Keep an eye on the other lines, just in case," she said as she landed on top of a telephone poll. "I doubt he was lying, but I don't want to limit our options."
"Right!"
"And keep me updated on anything new, I'll check each stop along the way in case they're still in the area, but I'll be trying to catch up with the bus."
Uiharu made a small noise of assent, and Kuroko reappeared on a nearby rooftop, scanning the darkness and following the streetlights. The sky was completely dark now, and thunder rumbled in the distance.
"Anything else on that device yet?"
There was a rustling on the other end of the comm before Saten-san's voice came through. "Not yet! Still just the same stuff; names of people probably affected by Power Pox. There are some sections I can't get into though. Hey, Uiharu!"
Uiharu's voice sounded muffled and indistinct, and she lost track of the rushed conversation as she teleported down to the next bus stop, looking around quickly before heading back up to the rooftops.
The rustling sound returned. "Yeah, Uiharu says she can probably get us in; she had me plug it into the computer and she's running some kind of program on it. I bet we have it cracked in no time!"
Kuroko frowned. That really didn't sound like something Uiharu should be keeping on the Judgment computers. But there would be time to worry about that later. "Understood. Just keep working on finding them for now. We have a pretty good idea of what that device is used for anyway."
"Ahh right, that thing about it being a record of the Power Pox victims. So they go around infecting people and then record the results?"
A young man screamed as she appeared not a foot away from him, glancing up and down the street for any sign of her quarry before disappearing again.
"Maybe. But we don't know yet what the cause of the incidents is. The only thing we can assume right now is that they're connected to these events somehow. Both they and the device are the only things we've seen that appeared at more than one scene. It's possible they are also the cause."
Rain sprinkled against the rooftops and peppered her skin with tiny drops of moisture. The dark clouds gathering overhead rumbled ominously.
"Huuuh, but how would that even work? Uiharu says they're listed as Level 0s in the Bank."
The comm crackled for a moment before Uiharu's voice came through. "That's what it looks like so far! I haven't been able to dig any deeper yet, but their profiles list them as Level 0."
Kuroko pondered this for a moment. "It could be anything then. If that information is accurate, then it seems unlikely that either of them is the cause, but I'm not going to rule it out just yet."
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Saten-san's voice returned. "I don't think- woah!"
"Shirai-san!"
Uiharu's voice screamed over the comm and Kuroko flinched, her ear ringing.
"Uiharu! Not so loud!"
"Ah, sorry! But I found them! Where are you?"
Kuroko skidded to a halt, the ringing in her ear momentarily forgotten. "I'm right by the Shiratomi Research Institute!"
"Then you're maybe five stops behind them! About two miles, they just got off on the outskirts of the industrial district."
She was moving before Uiharu finished speaking, teleporting as quickly as she could. She knew the area Uiharu was talking about. The industrial area had far fewer cameras than the rest of the city. If they made it in there, then Uiharu wouldn't be able to track them nearly as effectively. Getting there before they could disappear into the maze of warehouses was the only way she was going to catch them.
"I'm in pursuit! Keep your eyes on them as long as you can, Uiharu!"
"Understood!
The world flickered in and out, the speed of the transition jarring, but she pushed forward. At this rate, she'd be on top of them within a minute. She just had to keep moving.
"They're heading into C block! From there it l-"
There was a blinding flash from the dark clouds overhead, and a tremendous clap of thunder before the comm shrieked and went dead. Kuroko stopped, startled by the flash of lightning, and tapped her ear.
"Uiharu? Uiharu can you hear me?"
Nothing.
She pulled her phone from her pocket. A yellow light blinked and she flipped it open and a message flashed on the screen.
'Emergency mode. All functions besides text and emergency calls currently disabled.'
Kuroko bit back the urge to curse. Loudly. Why did this have to happen at a time like this? With a heavy sigh she pocketed the earpiece and tapped out a quick message to Uiharu.
Communications out, resuming pursuit. Will contact you as soon as possible.
With that, she flipped her phone shut and took off in the direction of the warehouse district, C block.
As she teleported, she eyed the black clouds billowing overhead. A massive flash of lightning, her communications equipment going out… it was all very familiar. She bit her lip. The communication devices used by Judgment were not exactly top of the line, but they were superior to what most civilians had access to. Her cellphone too was shielded against anything barring the strongest electrical surges. For this to happen now could only mean…
She shook her head. Even if Onee-sama was behind this storm, there was nothing she could do about it now. She needed to focus on the task at hand. If she let herself be distracted, then she would lose her chance of tracking those two down forever.
Lightning flashed again and Kuroko blinked forward, her face set in determination.
'Onee-sama… I hope you're alright.'
"-ooks like they're heading towards a group of abandoned units!"
There was a fizzling sound, and then only static. Kazari blinked in momentary confusion as thunder rumbled in the distance.
"Eh?"
Saten-san leaned over the back of her chair. "What's up, Uiharu?"
"The comm died."
"Really? You don't suppose something happened do you?"
Kazari frowned. That was exactly what she was afraid of. Shirai-san was a very capable member of Judgment, and a powerful esper, but they didn't really know what they were getting into here.
Her phone buzzed and she nearly dropped it in her haste to pull it from her pocket. Her eyes quickly scanned the message and she let out a sigh of relief.
"Shirai-san is fine. Her comm failed, but she's resuming her pursuit of the suspects."
"Yep, sounds like Shirai-san alright." Saten-san chuckled. "That girl is as determined as they come! I don't envy those two when she catches up with them.
Kazari let out a sigh, leaning back in her chair. "I hope you're right. Something about this whole thing just doesn't seem right to me."
"Hm? Like what?" Saten-san plopped down into the chair beside her and picked up the small device, the cracking program working diligently away. With a few keystrokes Kazari was able to check its progress. It was being a lot more stubborn than she'd been expecting.
"I don't know, it's just a feeling I guess. I just—" She paused, shaking her head. "I feel like we're still in the dark here."
"Well, once Shirai-san catches our suspects and beats some answers out of them I'm sure we'll have a clearer picture. And besides, once you've finished working your crazy voodoo on this little guy I'm sure we'll have it all figured out!"
"I hope so." She scanned the cameras absently. It was true that there wasn't much she could do to help Shirai-san at this point. There were very few cameras in the part of the city they were in now, and with Shirai-san's comm out there wasn't a whole lot she could do to notify her anyway. Still though, she felt anxious.
"I guess… I really just hate sending her off alone all the time."
"Uiharu…" Saten-san smiled and slid closer, throwing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into an awkward half hug. "Don't worry about Shirai-san. She knows you'd be out there with her if you could, but she doesn't want to put you in danger either right? Besides, there's a lot more you can do for her here than if you were out there. So buck up! Show them the awesome powers of the Goalkeeper!"
"Who?"
"Oh come on. You!"
Kazari couldn't help but smile at her friend's exuberance. "Well then I'll do my best!"
They were interrupted by a sudden beeping, and Saten-san looked down at the device in her hand. "Oh hey. Guess it's done."
Kazari's heart raced with excitement. This was the chance to get the answers they were looking for!
"Quick give it here!" She practically snatched the device from Saten-san's hands.
"Whoa there, watch it. You could have taken my fingers off!" Saten-san scolded, her serious expression morphing into a smile as she struggled to keep in her laughter. "You know, I always love Serious Mode Uiharu!"
"Not now, Saten-san," Kazari said as she plugged the device into her main terminal. The screens flashed for a moment before files began scrolling. There were dozens of them, maybe even hundreds. Some she recognized as former victims, but some she'd never seen before. Had all of them been victims of Power Pox?
"Woah that's way more people than I saw when I flipped through it before. Did they all come down with Power Pox?"
Kazari bit her thumb, scrolling through the menu options that popped up. "I'm not sure. If this really is a list, then there's a good chance some of these people were going to be targeted in the future. Then again, if it's true that the incidents have been getting worse and worse, then there might be some that we didn't even know about."
"Yeah, that's true." Saten-san leaned in, hand on her chin as she studied the screen. "Oh hey." She pointed at a file labeled "Progression Report". "This was one of the locked options before. I wanna see what it says."
Kazari obliged, clicking on the option. A cascade of sub-files dropped down, each labeled with a two letter designation followed by a date. She clicked the most recent one. A picture of Wannai-san popped up on the screen, along with several photos of the aftermath of her accident. Kazari's stomach twisted, and beside her Saten-san sucked in a sharp breath.
She tore her eyes away from the pictures, scrolling down past a few graphs and tables that she wasn't able to make heads nor tails of. Beneath that, there was a single paragraph, and as she read it she felt icy fingers closing around her heart.
"Subject showed adequate response to initiation of AIM overlay. Response time has been dropped by 17% over the last nine subjects. However, subjects have shown increased signs of mental and physical deterioration while being forced to adapt to the Parent AIM field. Additional testing required but deterioration is within acceptable levels, and the rate of synchronization is growing at above anticipated rates. Recommend that frequency of tests be increased in order to adequately utilize latest Parent data."
Kazari's mind reeled as she finished reading, collapsing back in her chair and staring blankly at the screen. So that was it. Power Pox wasn't an illness or an accident. Someone was making it happen, subjecting innocent people to these… tests. She remembered Wannai-san, unconscious in the hospital, and the scene in the waiting room as people frantically tried to check on their friends or loved ones. Someone was behind all of it, and for what? Just some new experiment?
Her initial feelings of sorrow were quickly being overwhelmed, replaced by a fierce determination. Well if that was how they worked, then they would stop them, no matter what. She didn't care who they were. If they were hurting people, hurting her friends, then she would put a stop to it.
"That's… wow."
Kazari stole a glance at Saten-san. The other girl's expression was blank, but Kazari could tell she was just as troubled as her.
"It mentions a "Parent". Do you know what it's talking about, Uiharu?"
Kazari blinked, turning back to the monitors. "I think there was something… ah, there!"
She clicked on another menu option, this one labeled "Composite Data (Parent)". This one had only a single option in the drop down menu. The labeling was different from the ones in the other file.
She opened it, and her blood ran cold.
"W-what? That's… that's Misaka-san!"
Kazari couldn't formulate a response. She stared numbly at the screen. There was a picture of one of her closest friends, dressed not in her school uniform but in an outfit that looked more suited to a delinquent. Underneath was written "AIM Field Parent Subject. Misaka Mikoto. Level 5 Electromaster."
"Uiharu, what… what the heck is this?"
Saten-san's voice managed to pierce through the fog that had steadily begun to cloud her mind since the picture of Misaka-san popped up. She tore her face away from the screen. Saten-san was pale, her eyes wide.
She shook her head, trying to get her thoughts back on track. This was no time to sit around like a slack-jawed idiot. "I… I don't know." Tears formed in her eyes, threatening to spill from her eyes. "I don't know!"
And she didn't. How? How could it be possible that Misaka-san was involved in something like this? She couldn't… she couldn't possibly know what was going on, could she? No, of course not. Misaka-san would never hurt anybody, at least not on purpose.
That thought stuck, nagging at her for a moment as the silence dragged on.
"Wait a sec."
Saten-san leaned forward, tapping the screen. "Here. It says, "AIM Field Parent Subject". And before, didn't it say something about AIM Fields?"
Kazari's head snapped up. "That's right!"
Her fingers moved like lightning across the keys as she brought up the other display. "AIM Field overlay…"
"Overlay? As in like, putting on top of?" Saten-san frowned. "That sounds real weird."
Something clicked in the back of her mind, and Kazari gasped. Overlay. Matching. "They're trying to force other espers' AIM Fields to match Misaka-san's!"
"But I thought the AIM Field was a result of each espers personal reality." Saten-san leaned in, staring at the screen. "If they were gonna try and make other fields match Misaka-san's then—" her eyes widened and what little color was left drained from her face. "Oh. Ooooh man. That's bad."
There was a sudden crack of thunder and the lights flickered. The screens went dead momentarily, and Kazari could hear the telltale sound of the computer fans as the system rebooted. Her phone beeped again and she pulled it from her pocket.
"Ah, there's been a massive power outage, near the border of District 7." Her hand shook. "It's near where Shirai-san was heading."
The pair looked at each other for a moment, their expressions grave.
"There's no way that's a coincidence, right," Saten-san asked, her eyes hard. "That's gotta be Misaka-san."
"Ah… probably."
Saten-san stood and walked over to the window, peering out into the growing storm. "Can you get ahold of Shirai-san?"
Kazari shook her head. "I've been trying to ping her phone for the last few minutes to see if I could figure out where she is, but I haven't been able to get anything. Her phone is either dead or in emergency mode."
A grim smile stretched across Saten-san's face. "Guess there's no helping it then." She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and then spinning to face Kazari with a wide grin. "Alright! I'm going to go out and find Misaka-san!"
"Eh?" It took a moment for Kazari to process those words. When she did, she leapt to her feet, nearly knocking her chair over in the process. "You can't! We don't know what's going on out there right now! You could get hurt!"
"That's exactly why I should go. Misaka-san could be in trouble. So could Shirai-san. But I can't do anything if I stay here. At the very least, I need to tell Misaka-san what's going on."
"B-but…" Kazari's arguments died on her tongue and her shoulders slumped. She doubted she'd be able to convince her friend.
She steeled herself, taking a deep breath and forcing back the tears that were threatening to spill. "Then… then I'm coming with you!"
Saten-san shook her head. "Sorry, Uiharu, but no can do. You need to stay here in case anything happens. You're in charge of the 177th branch right now. You can't be abandoning your post." She smiled slyly. "I, on the other hand, am not a member of Judgment. So if I were to go out for a stroll and run into one of my friends, well… then it's just another day, right?"
Kazari could do nothing but stare, speechless, as Saten-san turned and walked out the door.
"Wish me luck!"
And with that she was gone, leaving Kazari alone in the office.
"Ah… good luck."
For a few moments she simply stood there, staring at the door. Then she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. She sat back in her chair, fingers working furiously at the keyboard and eyes flying over the screens as she ripped the data from the device file by file.
Her friends were out there, putting themselves in danger to do the right thing. She wouldn't let herself do anything less than her best.
Rain was starting to fall in earnest by the time Kuroko reached the bus stop that Uiharu had indicated. There was no sign of either the man or the girl, but Uiharu had given her an idea of which direction they were headed. The warehouse district would be hard to search if she didn't catch them soon. Fortunately, there weren't likely to be many people in the area, so she wouldn't have to sift through crowds trying to track them down.
She took to the rooftops, scanning the alleys and trying to push her growing anxiousness down. The loss of communications was disconcerting, and the storm over head was growing in intensity. Lightning flashed and raced across the clouds, and Kuroko's stomach twisted itself in knots as she teleported from one building to the next, searching for her quarry.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't help but connect the malfunction of her phone and comm and the sudden onset of the storm to Onee-sama, and that was more than a little concerning. Despite the fact that she was frequently careless with her ability, she rarely caused anything on this scale. If she really was responsible for all this, then something was very wrong.
She teleported again, trying to force herself not to conjure up images of what her Onee-sama could be doing at that moment, and something caught her eye. She turned just as a pair of figures turned the corner at the end of the alley.
She wasted no time, teleporting to the next building and peering over the edge. The pair was walking at a hurried pace, and she could hear voices drifting up from the street below, indistinct but familiar. There was no doubt about it. It was them.
Kuroko teleported down to the street. "Stop." The pair froze. Shou stared at her, wide-eyed and slack-jawed while the girl, Youko slipped behind him, her eyes narrowing in a sharp glare.
Kuroko hardened her gaze, her eyes darting between the two as she displayed her armband. "This is Judgment. I am hereby placing the two of you under arrest for the assault of several Academy City students. If you refuse to come quietly I will be required to take you by force."
It took a moment for Shou to regather his composure, and Kuroko fixed him with a glare. "Ah… hey, Judgment girl. Fancy meeting you out here. What brings yo-"
"I would appreciate it if you didn't treat me like an idiot," she snapped, cutting him off. "I know that you two are involved in the recent outbreak of incidents relating to esper abilities going out of control."
The pair exchanged a glance and Shou chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Uh, look, I really don't know what you're talking about. Are you sure you didn't just get us confused with someone else? I mean, we're the victims here in all this, you know?"
"That's enough." Kuroko's eyes narrowed. "We found the candidate list."
Shou flinched. "How did you—gah!"
Youko elbowed him in the ribs before fixing her glare back on Kuroko. She met the dark-haired girl's gaze before a small smile crept across her face.
"I don't suppose you're going to keep trying to deny it? There's really no point in that now is there? Face it; you're caught."
For a moment, it looked as if he might try to argue, but then he sighed heavily and his shoulders slumped. "Yeah, guess you're right, Judgment girl. Dammit. Really should have been more careful last time." He gave her a grin. "Really thought we were gonna get out of this one though. We were practically home free."
Kuroko didn't ease from her guarded stance, nor did she make to approach them. Something was wrong. This was too easy. Her eyes flicked to the sides, and she found herself wishing again that she could contact Uiharu. She always felt better with the other girl watching her back. "Just what were you trying to achieve? What were you trying to record with that device?"
Shou shrugged. "Well you know how it is. You get a job offer, they say "Don't go asking too many questions now, just do your job and you'll get paid." Who am I to turn up my nose at something like that?"
"So you were just in it for the money, is that it?" She grit her teeth. It always seemed to come back to greed.
"What else? Not like we have some secret agenda, we just do what we're told and take the money."
"I see." Something still felt wrong about all this. "And what is the purpose of these incidents?"
"Ah... I really shouldn't say."
Kuroko growled and her hand flew to her thigh. A metal spike appeared in the ground between Shou's feet and he leapt backward with a cry of surprise.
"I am in no mood to play games! Answer me!"
"Okay okay! Fuck, you need to calm down." He shared a brief look with Youko. The girl nodded and he sighed, running his hands through his hair. "Look, I wasn't lying. We really were hired to record the results of some tests. That's what the device you got was for. Espers lose their shit, I record it, done deal."
Kuroko pulled a pair of spikes from the belt at her thigh and held them threateningly. "What are the tests for? They must have at least told you that much."
Shou made a helpless gesture with his hands. "It's something about trying to boost esper's power levels rapidly. None of the ability curriculum stuff. Guess they're trying to find a way around all that, but they never told me why. They just had us measure the results when they forced their AIM Fields to adapt."
"Adapt to what?" Kuroko frowned. This was starting to sound disturbingly familiar.
"Yeah I guess they've been working with some Level 5. Turns out she's got a really unstable growth pattern to her field, so they tried to make the other espers match it." He frowned. "I mean, it certainly looks like it works, but it does get kinda messy, ya know?"
Kuroko barely heard him. She stared ahead, eyes wide as her heart hammered in her ears. This was too much of a coincidence. She wanted, more than anything, to believe that he was lying or he was talking about one of the other Level 5s. But she knew. In her heart she knew, even as she opened her mouth to ask. There was only one person he could be talking about.
"Who…" She paused, licking her lips and trying to keep her hands from shaking. Her throat was dry. "What's the name of the Level 5?"
He shook his head. "Dunno, they never said and I didn't ask. Guess there's only so many people it could be though, right? I dunno, they said "she" so I guess that narrows it down a bit."
It took several seconds for Kuroko to get herself under control. This… she would have to deal with it later. Now, she had to do her job.
"I've heard enough. It's time for the two of you to come with me."
"Well… about that. Sorry, Judgment girl. We're not actually gonna be able to go anywhere with you." He actually did look apologetic, but Kuroko tensed. So it would be a fight after all.
"You know, we're actually a little more involved in this whole thing than I'd like. Forcing an esper's AIM Field to change isn't easy, ya know? You can actually only really do it if you have an ability like Youko's."
Kuroko's eyes snapped to the girl, meeting wide, bloodshot eyes. Adrenaline surged through her body and she began the calculations needed for her teleport just as something seemed to explode inside of her head. She screamed and fell to the ground as a strange, foreign sensation surged through her.
It felt like every nerve ending in her body was vibrating, pulsating with energy. The familiar calculations slipped from her grasp and accelerated until she barely recognized them. The feeling of her power seized her like a vice and the world shifted.
Shou stared in silence at the empty crater where the teleporting Judgment member had stood just moments before. After all the other times they'd done this, it felt somehow anticlimactic for her to just… disappear. His stomach twisted uncomfortably and he turned away from the sight.
"Hey, time to go," he said, placing a hand on Youko's shoulder. It was shaking.
"She could die."
He flinched, before letting out an exhausted sigh. "Yeah… she could." He suddenly felt completely drained. "This is so fucked."
Youko staggered forward a step before her legs gave out and she fell. Before she could hit the ground Shou grabbed her and lifted her back to her feet. She leaned heavily against him, practically dead weight. Her eyes were unfocused and sweat was running down her face. Loose strands of black hair stuck to her forehead, and Shou grit his teeth.
"Dammit." He was getting tired of having to jump just because he was told to. It was too much. Too much for Youko, too much for him, and certainly too much for that Judgment girl.
"I don't want to do this anymore." It was barely more than a whisper, but he heard it.
Shou nodded and shifted to support her better.
Youko didn't say another word, and her breathing became slow and even. She had passed out. Well, good. She needed the rest.
For a moment, Shou's eyes lingered on the crater, before he tore his gaze away and set off towards the facility. It was time to turn in their resignation.
Her vision spun and the ground beneath her was suddenly uneven. It was as though everything had suddenly tilted, and she rolled until she hit something solid, smacking her head in the process. She heard screams and the screeching of rubber on pavement before something slammed into her and she was knocked to the ground in a daze.
Her head was still throbbing and her whole body felt like it was on fire, but she cracked her eye open just enough to be able to make out the shape of a car, it's front end destroyed from where it had impacted… a boulder? She frowned and clutched her head, a low whimper escaping her lips. It wasn't a boulder. It was…
Her insides froze as she realized what it was. It was a chunk of the road she'd been standing on not a moment earlier. She'd teleported, and she'd taken it with her. Panic began to grip her heart as she looked frantically at her surroundings. She didn't recognize them. She'd teleported without meaning to, and on top of that she'd exceeded both her range and weight limits at the same time. That could only mean one thing.
"Oh no."
Her stomach lurched, and she blinked up at the night sky before she began falling. She turned her head and tried not to scream. She was high above Academy City. At least a kilometer up. That was an unprecedented jump in the level of her ability, but she didn't care at that moment. All she cared about was the fact that she was falling, and she couldn't control her ability. Her eyes widened as the ground rushed up to meet her and she could feel the panic bubbling up her throat just as she was struck by another sudden shift, even more violent this time.
She was still trying to get her bearings when the pain hit. She screamed, the entire left side of her body in agony. She tried to move, but she couldn't. She was stuck. Fear unlike anything she'd ever known in her life gripped her as she realized she'd teleported half of her body inside a wall.
'This can't be happening!' She heard voices shouting nearby but she shut them out, trying desperately to focus and make herself do the calculations that would let her get free. It hurt. It hurt so much! It-
The pressure disappeared even as she felt her insides catch fire. There was a tremendous crash beside her as the chunk of wall she'd been attached to a moment before crashed through the roof of the building she'd landed on. It groaned, giving way just as she jumped again.
She fell to the ground, looking up through hazy eyes at her surroundings. This was by the branch office. She'd teleported over two miles. Her stomach heaved and she vomited, emptying her stomach onto the sidewalk. She barely had time to recognize the taste of blood before she disappeared again.
A Train station. People screaming. The sound of a horn and a blinding light.
Jump.
Can't move. Can't see. Pressure crushing on all sides can't breath oh God no no nonono-
Jump.
The sky again again, dirt everywhere, can't focus.
Jump.
A mall. Screams. It hurt so much. Vision going dark.
Jump.
Jump.
"Onee...sama…"
Jump.
A/N: Another chapter done! And now I have a pretty solid plan for how this whole thing is going to wrap up. We're not there yet, but we are approaching the conclusion. Are you excited? I'm excited. I've been working on this thing for so long now that it feels strange to think of it ending, but at the same time I'm looking forward to it. Still some chapters to go before we get there though, so I hope you'll stay with me until then.
Originally this chapter was going to be released a lot earlier than it was. I had to take a pretty long look at what I had and figure out where I really wanted to go with it. I had some help in that regard, so big thanks to my betas Cun and Digeridoodler, as always. Would be rather stuck if it wasn't for their help, and they've certainly helped me get the writing in these chapters to a better place.
This chapter and the next are going to be heavy on the drama, so I apologize if that's not really your thing. That said, I imagine it will appeal to some number of you as well, so maybe it's a wash. I'm really enjoying all the feedback I've been getting from people, so if you have any questions or comments or anything of the sort, please leave me a review or drop me a PM! I love hearing from you guys.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter!