I am sorry I have been able to upload in exactly 3 months now, there has been various things that have stopped me. One, I have had huge writer's block about all the possibilities this fan fiction could go. Two, school…. Enough said about that! Third, my slight laziness about writing this chapter and I want to clean up all the other chapter's grammar issues soon.
I hope you enjoy the latest installment of The Revival of The Black Swordsman
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or Toaru Majutsu no Index
The sound of boots resonated off the walls in the dark alley as the two boys navigated the alleyways of Academy City. They walked slowly and cautiously, as they checked every aspect of the narrow alley. Snapping toward the slightest sound, Kazuto almost even chopped off Touma's head by accident, to the owner of the head's dismay.
"Ummm… Touma, about what you said before about your hand…" Kazuto began as he whispered.
Touma, still watching the area cautiously, returned, "What about my hand? Are you talking about its ability to nullify any esper attack?"
"Yeah… Is that your esper ability?"
"Well, I won't say it's an esper ability. Its more of something natural ability or supernatural."
'Its not an esper ability? That's weird, even though I have not been here so long, I am pretty sure the only abilities they have here are esper powers. But, what do I know, I have never heard of these esper abilities before, and to think this location of these powers were somewhere in Japan. At this rate I am going to find people who have the ability to use magic….'
"You also mentioned something about your right hand being the reason for your unluckiness right?" Kazuto continued as he kept following the footprints.
"Yeah, my hand seems an effective tool to nullify, maybe too effective because it negates God's blessings like luck." Touma sadly said.
'Well that explains his luck… wait did he just say his hand negates God's blessings? Is that even a possible feat?' Kazuto thought as turned around to gaze at the unusual boy.
Ending the conversation there, the two boys continued on until they saw the trail of destruction increase intensity. It climaxed with a weird crescent shaped hole that had burn marks in every direction except for the center of the crescent. It appeared as if the middle of the crescent had been shielded and reflected the explosion the opposite direction. Both boys looked at the hole in confusion.
'What could have caused this? Shape charge… No, shape charges don't work like this. Claymore… No, they don't have such a powerful blast and there would some remains of the claymore or wiring.' Kazuto thought as he inspected the area.
'Is this the work of a pyrokinesis? Fire patterns match… but nothing else matches. Hmmm… Hopefully Kazuto has something.' Touma thought, but to his dismay, Kazuto seemed just as baffled as he was.
"Did you think of any esper abilities that could cause this? I am not a weapons expert or anything, but I never heard of such an explosive that could cause this sort of explosion where the origin is complete intact." Kazuto stated.
"Yeah, probably it's an esper ability. Although I can't think of one at the moment." Touma replied.
Kazuto theorized, "Maybe someone who can control explosions? There has got to be someone like that out there."
"Well its possible," Touma replied slowly, "But I have never heard of any ability like that."
"Anyway, do the footprints end here?" Touma resumed as he focused on their main objective.
Turning back on his Tracking skill, Kazuto saw the tracks continued onward, and said while hold his sword in a defensive position again, "Nope, they still go on, prepare yourself, I have a feeling that we are going to meet something bad."
Meanwhile in a Certain Windowless Building
"Everything is going just as planned," Aleister said to himself as he formed a slight smile, "All the pieces are falling into place as I…"
"Excuse me sir, but can please stop whatever you are doing and start the Board of Directors meeting!" His secretary raised her voice.
His secretary pointed at the time, "Its already 30 minutes past the time when you were suppose to start the meeting, and they have been patiently waiting! So, finish your evil plan another day!"
The 12 board of directors sat there awkwardly as they did their best to pretend they had never heard the majority of the plan. Some of them seemed to be taking mental notes of what they heard, while other plainly drowned out all of the one-sided conversation they heard.
Aleister closed the screen for his plan and expanded the screen of the directors til it covered 180 degrees of his tube, "All right then, we have some important matters to discuss regarding…"
On a bus in the 23rd District
'What did they do to deserve this cruel fate?,' Mikoto thought as she leaned forward on the chair in front of her, 'They never asked for it nor did they volunteer for it…'
Mikoto's face was dead, showing no emotion, she had let out all of her tears and fear in the research facility. The atmosphere she gave off made the lone bus driver feel deep sense of fear, and he occasional glanced back at her to make sure she did not do something dangerous. But, Mikoto did not have emotional stability to do anything bad, she was just depressed and trying to figure out a solution to her biggest problem.
'How am I going to stop the level 6 shift project? Kill Accelerator?… impossible. Destroy more research facilities?... no, Academy City's scientists have too research facilities they have at their disposal. What am I going to do!' Mikoto thought as depression turned to frustration. She banged her fist on the chair as all her ideas she thought of couldn't work. Suddenly she began to laugh, a laughter that was filled with pure insanity and hopelessness that resembled a laugh of a cornered animal.
"That's it! That's it! I know how I can stop it now!" She exclaimed as she continued to laugh. 'It's the perfect plan; I bet this will mess up everything! Its fool-proof!' Mikoto continued in her thoughts.
By this time she had arrived at her stop, and when she tried to pay the bus driver, in fear, he told her the ride was free. As the bus door closed and drove away, Mikoto just stood there in the night until the sound, "pit" "pat" could be heard. Tears rolled down her face and hit the ground as she whispered,
"But, I have to die…"
Back in a Certain Alley
The trail of destruction seemed to go on endlessly as both boys continued to grow more anxious. Their fears were not for no reason, this trail of destruction was on the level of war zone. Bullet casings, ammunition magazines, and collateral damage from where bullets hit were everywhere. Even though Kazuto could clearly see down the dark alleyway with no issue it that did not help calm his restlessness. Touma walked closely behind his friend hoping that were no armed gangsters waiting for them around the next corner.
As Kazuto turned the corner he saw something he feared, blood. He faltered a bit as some memories of his time in Sword Art Online came back. Touma, seeing Kazuto recoiling back a bit, looked over his shoulder to see a small pool of crimson blood, which also made him falter.
"Is it Misaka's Imouto's blood?" Touma asked with a slight quiver in his voice.
"I hope not…," Kazuto replied, staring at the puddle of blood, "I honestly don't know, my Tracking skill can't tell me her status at the time…."
Touma navigated around Kazuto and bent down to inspect the blood, which by this time had already started to coagulate, but was still mostly liquid showing that it was still quite recent. Looking in the direction they were heading, Touma saw the blood path continue on.
'Whoever was bleeding seemed to have lived, but I doubt he is going to live for much longer unless they get immediate medical attention.' Touma thought.
Standing up, Touma motioned for Kazuto to continue but Kazuto just stood in place pensively inspecting the scene.
"What's wrong, Kazuto?" Touma wondered as he waved his hand in front of Kazuto's face, "Hey, hey! Wakey-Wakey."
"Shhh!" Kazuto exclaimed as he still stood there looking at the scene.
Touma gave Kazuto a weird look as he backed off. Kazuto, after a few more seconds of thinking, sheathed his sword and bent down, not to the blood, but toward the wall. This action confused Touma even more and it did not help that every time he requested what was going on he got no response.
'This has to be gun… Well what's left of it.' Kazuto thought as he inspected the pieces.
As an avid video game player, he had at one point been into First Person Shooters. So he knew the basic parts of a gun and how they worked. The random assortment of broken plastics, metals, and springs would look like a scrap pile, but to FPS gamers and gun enthusiasts it would like a disassembled gun.
'The entire gun is destroyed, the metal parts are all snapped or warped, the plastic is almost dust, and most of the other parts I bet were turned to dust.' Kazuto thought.
"Touma, I think these pieces are from a gun, specifically from the gun that was shooting." Kazuto stated, which surprised Touma.
"Are you sure? Those piece you were looking at could be from anything." Touma reasoned as he also inspected the parts.
"Pretty sure, everything matches up, the bullet casings, and ammunition magazines all point toward a gun, and I can't believe that someone just happened to disassemble a gun in this specific alley way." Kazuto cross-examined.
"Anyway, we don't have time for small chat! Misaka's imouto is probably still alive, but maybe in critical condition, we need to hurry!" Touma shouted.
Kazuto noded and unsheathed his Elucidator as they both ran full speed into the darkness with the hope of finding Misaka's imouto well.
At the same time in Certain Windowless Building
"My, my those two truly are unpredictable factors in this city. Actually progressing a few seconds ahead of schedule." Aleister said in usual calm collected manner.
Aleister had been keeping a close watch over the two to make sure nothing went wrong as the plan was still in its' premature phase. This seemed to annoy his secretary to no means end, as she had to constantly had to deal with stacking appointments.
"Aleister," His secretary growled in her stern voice, "I know that you deem whatever you are doing is important, but…"
"But…?" Aleister replied as slightly gulped at the sight of his secretary in stern mode.
"You have city to run for heaven's sake! Academy City is the world's leader in technology and technological…"
"I get it. I get it." Aleister interrupted her speech that he had heard at least a hundred times.
He opened 200 screens of new laws, research requests, and economic reports that came in just today. Sighing as continued to work on them, but he still every once in a while he viewed the screen that showed Kazuto and Touma.
A little while later at a Certain Boys Dormitory
After, leaving Kazuto and Touma she brought the cat back to the only place she felt comfortable, which was Kazuto's room. While, she was resting on his bed, she had thoughts about what would happen to Kazuto when she was gone in real life and weirdly all she thought about was Kazuto buying too much food. But, when she thought about him in Sword Art Online, she envisioned floor bosses, Laughing Coffin, and countless other dangers. This gave the shivers and she did her best to avoid these weird thoughts, as it would cause unnecessary fear for Kazuto.
'What am I thinking! I am his girlfriend, why would I not worry about my boyfriend!' Asuna exclaimed out loud.
She started intensely blush after saying such an embarrassing statement, lucky she was alone in the room otherwise it would have intensified. Believing it was the right choice, she convinced her self to go back to make sure he was ok.
Back to the Alleyway
The two boys did not need to go too far before they found her…
Eyes wide and trembling both boys stared at the mess of blood. Kazuto was gripping the wall with his left hand trying to stead himself. Touma was bending down trying to stop his food from coming up his throat. The scene was too horrific to even begin to describe.
Blood covered the wall like paint accompanied by the sickening smell of iron. The body, or at least what they imagined was a body, had organs and bones leaking out of it. A metal pipe went stood up from her chest, and like the surroundings were covered in blood and organs. Most of her extremities were detached or totally decimated and looking like a balloon that had popped. The only thing that allowed the body to be recognized was her clothing and her unique goggles.
"Wh…wh….who could do s-s-such a thing…..?" Touma stated as he was finally able to regain some of his sanity.
"I have no idea. But, whoever did this was did not simply kill her….' Kazuto replied as his voice faltered as old memories resurfaced.
Touma slowly walked forward, dragging his body toward Misaka's Imouto, the person they hoped to find alive. Feeling something was slightly off about Touma's attitude, Kazuto gripped his shoulder.
"Hey, lets quickly get the police so we can get the bastard that did this to her." Kazuto whispered, knowing it wasn't Touma's and his place to be bringers of justice.
Touma turned around and looked Kazuto in the face, which made Kazuto look away because Touma's normal face was replaced with a dead, empty version. Touma without saying a word followed the path they came from back out the alley leaving behind Kazuto.
Kazuto before leaving took a good look around to make sure he had not somehow missed the murderer nearby before turning around and walking away.
Entrance of a Certain Alley 30 minutes later
Asuna had sprinted to the entrance of the alleyway when she saw the police lights from a block away. Even when an officer blocked her, she did not stop pushing until she reached the arms of Kazuto's embrace. This obviously caused some commotion, but was not as serious as what Police was really called there for.
"Lead us to the body," The officer commanded, "This better not be any funny business, Anti-Skill has a lot of other duties to attend to."
With no hesitation Kazuto and Touma nodded, and began the journey to the body. As the small group of two officers and three teenagers moved through the labyrinth of alley ways, it soon became clear that someone in the period of time they had left had cleaned up the evidence. A normal alleyway with no signs of its previous state replaced the trail of destruction they had seen only minutes ago.
Asuna whispered, "Are you sure that you really saw Misaka's Imouto's body? Could it be just a figure of your imagination?"
"I swear I saw it. Death is something I do not joke about and is not something I do or hope to see on a daily basis." Kazuto reassured.
The two bumped into the Touma as he stood still not moving. Noticing this one of the officers spoke up,
"What seems to the problem? Don't tell me you don't remember where the body was."
Kazuto then also realized this was the same place where they had found the body. Just before Kazuto could turn around and explain the situation, Touma exclaimed through grinding teeth,
"It appears officers, that I was seeing things. I am sorry to take up your time…."
"Huh, kids these day making up things. Let go ,officer Kenji." The superior officer said as he sneered.
Asuna and Kazuto were about to argue back at the officers before Touma grabbed both of their shoulders.
"Are you sure you want it to end this way, Touma?" Kazuto questioned earnestly.
Asuna joined in to supports Kazuto's point, "Yeah, we still have time to tell the Police all you sa-"
"I did…." Touma replied, which effectively made Asuna close her mouth.
"Thank you. Says Misaka-10032. For not exposing us to the authorities."
The three slowly turned around to see Misaka's Imouto standing with a black trash back slung over her shoulder.
"Bu-bu-but we just saw you dead here on the ground." Touma declared in shock.
"Oh, that was Misaka-10031. I am Misaka-10032. States Misaka-10032 as she realizes the confusion. I was the one you have been interacting with the entire time."
"So… the one that died before was a clone of you…" Touma asked as he tried to calm himself with the knowledge at least the one everyone had interacted with was still alive.
"Correct and Incorrect. Says Misaka-10032 as she tries to find the best response."
"Wait if you numbered… how many more are there copies of Misaka-chan are there?!" Asuna questioned as she tried to keep up with the situation.
"Before I answer let me apologize for involving you in the situation. Says Misaka-10032 apologizes dearly."
Appearing almost out of thin air, another copy of Misaka's imouto came of the darkness to reveal herself, scaring the trio.
"There are many copies-" The first Misaka said.
"Of us. We can communicate like this-" The second Misaka said as she came out of the shadows.
"Because we use the power of electricity to link our brains-" Another Misaka continued.
"Into almost one being. Misaka-10098 says."
Soon a small army amassed around the small group surrounding them from both sides.
"What are you….?" Touma asked in awe.
Misaka-10032 replied, "We are mass-produced clones to be used by the military. We were made from copies of the 3rd ranked Level 5, Misaka Mikoto's DNA map. States Misaka-10032."
It dawned upon Asuna, that these girls were calling themselves clones to be used by the military, almost referring to themselves as weapons, devices that were conceived for pure destruction. Holding her hand over her mouth Asuna muttered,
"That…. is just sad…. You girls think of yourselves as just weapons."
'This attitude, demeanor, face expression… all remind me of when I was subleader of the KoB. I acted like a machine designed to kill monsters and not have any thoughts and emotions!' Asuna thought as those bad memories started to resurface.
But, those memories soon subsided as she looked at her savoir, a light to her darkness. Kazuto had taught her to live again and value everyday, even if it was a virtual prison.
'Maybe someone can show them the bet-' Asuna's thoughts were interrupted by a gentle squeeze on the shoulder.
Kazuto smiled at Asuna, bring her down from her hyper, overthinking state. Turning back to Misaka-10032, he decided it was time to get some information.
"What are you and your clones doing here?" Kazuto asked in a friendly way.
"We are doing an experiment, a small simple experiment at that. Replies Misaka-10032 sternly."
Looking around him, Kazuto reasoned, "If you have these many clones, which appear to be participating in the simple experiment that you claim, this experiment can't simply be small scale. Also, based on your number, 10032, there has to be at least that many number of clones, if not more. So can you tell us what kind of experiment are you clones or whatever you girls are referred to as?"
"Collectively we are called sisters. If you would like more information please input the code:_"
Realizing that they could not get anymore information out of the 'sisters' Kazuto decided it was about time to leave.
'But, how do we leave if they are so many….' Kazuto thought with a groan.
"Umm, can we leave now…" Kazuto questioned as he prepared to reequip his battle clothing set and weapon to test the clone's reaction speed to see if their claim as clones designed for the military was really true.
The sisters quickly detected his hostility and without warning pointed all their hands at the small trio. The combined power of all these sisters could easily turn Touma, Asuna, and Kazuto into ashes. But, it was the speed in which they accomplished this that surprised Kazuto, which made him realize the strength of this small army. Sweat dripping down his face, Kazuto carefully asked,
"Can we leave, we don't want to interrupt anything that is going on, but I want to confirm something before going."
Misaka-10032 nodded her head, but still made sure to keep her hand still raised toward him, along with the others.
"Touma, you do realize why everything was clean and there was not evidence of it right?" Kazuto tested, knowing how Touma can be a bit slow in grasping concepts or situations.
"…. They cleaned it up in order to hide evidence of whatever they are doing. But, that does that mean they have the body of Misaka-10031." Touma explained.
"Correct, as for the body's whereabouts…." Kazuto revealed, as he nodded toward the black bag that Misaka-10032.
Touma's pupils seemed to widen at this revelation as he looked toward the ground allowing a shadow to form over his eyes. Looking up with a slight fire in his eyes, he shouted at the 'sisters',
"How can you clean up the body of your 'sister' with such calm faces! Do you not realize that she is your sister-"
In the middle of the sentence the 'sisters' started to dissipate into darkness leaving the trio behind.
"Hey! I am talking to you!" Touma roared as he tried to grab Misaka-10032's shoulder only to be stopped by Kazuto's firm grip.
Misaka-10032 remained silent as she disappeared into the darkness.
Well one chapter down, X number to go! I hope to keep a consistent upload over the summer through the fall!
I apologize for any grammatical errors in this chapter. ^.^" So please don't be afraid to let me know any errors. Thank you so much for reading everyone!
BTW: If I have any time from writing the new chapters to summer activities, I will try to clean up all the errors of previous chapters.
