Chapter 12:
"Everyone, I'm happy to announce that the SOS Brigade is going to Academy City!"
After those words have been said all of us became speechless, it was like someone just pulled the rug below our feet and made us fall into the ground… only that there was no ground but rather a huge void that would be the universe if we let this be, personally I felt like I had just been slapped in the face and it must have really showed because even Haruhi seemed to notice.
"I know, I know… I can totally relate with being speechless, I was too when Mr. Crowley first contacted me."
"Mr. Crowley?" Koizumi finally snapped out of the daze he was when he heard that name.
"Yeah, Mr. Edward Alexander Crowley, he's the general director of the city, I got his address from the pamphlet I had and wrote him a mail explaining about us, I must admit I thought I was wasting my time at first but he actually answered me back and after some discussion he allowed me to go, he even agreed to cover all of my expenses, take care of my lodging and even promised to get me a tour guide so I can meet the entire place…"
'Snap!' that would be the sound Koizumi's face would do if it could; he was so shocked that he was having trouble keeping his smile intact.
"...Apparently he thinks I could qualify for a scholarship there so he wants me to have an interview with him and despite that I'm not interested in changing schools, I accepted so he would let me into the city."
'Crack!' Eventually his smile shattered completely and what was left was nothing but an empty stare that just looked at our leader in disbelief and he wasn't the only one at that, the rest of the brigade had similar expressions… well maybe not Nagato or Ichigo san, but their mouths were arching downwards a little.
"I can't believe I was so lucky, we were having trouble setting the date of the visit since apparently a normal weekend wouldn't do; but then they announced that the school will be closed next week for 3 days; that way I won't have to wait until the next holiday!"
Suddenly she stopped talking and finally noticed that we looked like she just announced our execution.
"Eh… why the long faces? Oh wait I know, how could I be so careless?"
She shook her head slowly and then looked back at us.
"I got so excited about the trip I made it sound like I'm the only one going, of course you're coming with me, I had to do some convincing on my part but in the end Mr. Crowley agreed to let you guys go to into the city too; there's no way I'd forget about my precious brigade and the wonderful people on it, we're a team and we have to go there together!"
I must admit that hearing her speaking so highly about us definitely makes me feel better and it seemed to have a similar effect on my colleagues as well.
"But unfortunately he's not so kind to pay for your expenses too and he's charging us 500$ per person besides me for the lodging and transportation, that's around 40.000¥ each just for that and look…"
She got all serious for a second, but you could see she was still cheery.
"…I know that's a lot of money to get in such a short time and that is kind of unfair for me to get everything for free while you guys have to pay but…"
She made a fist and looked at us with extreme confidence.
"…don't worry about anything, we still have a week before the trip and I promise you I'll find a way to get the money, I'm not entirely sure of what I'm going to do yet, but I'll get it!"
Then she kind of mildly blushed and looked at us with a little tenderness.
"It's the least I can do, after all when I was ready to throw in the towel after I learned the truth about Touma kun, you guys cheered me up with that wonderful performance you made for me and I decided that there was no way I was giving up and letting you guys down so because of that I started going through all of my evidence again… it was you who made this possible!"
You know usually this is the part where I would do a comment about how she shouldn't have bothered… but if she says it like that then I'd feel like a bastard for doing it, it's not fair!
"Well… that's about everything I had to say…" She cleared her throat and went back to the usual Haruhi. "…Now I know there are some arrangements you have to do and I hope there's no trouble getting permissions or anything, so I'm going to finish this meeting early today, but before we leave are there any questions?"
…
"Come on guys, say something! I know it's hard to believe, but it's true!"
I have to admit I don't know how should I feel right now, I mean on one hand I have this horrible felling of impending doom, but after seeing Haruhi's smile filled with joy I found it impossible to get mad at her, she's even happier than when we were being attacked by ITEM.
"Well Haruhi… I don't know what to say… congratulations!"
"Thank you Kyon!"
"Suzumiya san… are you sure we can trust this Crowley person?"
Koizumi looked like he was still a little shaken and the tone of voice he used to speak to her was slightly different from his normal one.
"Yes, I can't blame you for being cautious Koizumi kun, I must admit I also found weird that they'd let a foreigner build an independent city in Japanese territory, so I'm guessing he must be someone really important and I'm not doubting he's in some shady businesses too; but still for what I could tell I doubt he has second intentions, I mean what could he possibly gain from doing this? Nothing!"
I noticed Koizumi made a little 'tsk' sound and then forced his expression back to the usual one.
"I see, I suppose you're right."
"Of course, well… if it's there nothing more to add then… you're all dismissed; please remember to make all the necessary preparations for the trip and if there's any trouble at all please talk to me about it, I'm sure we can work it out; now if you excuse me I need to get going, I have to speak about this at home… man I can't wait to tell Saten chan the news!"
She grabbed her stuff and left the room as we could do nothing but stare at her powerlessly, it was only a few minutes later after she was gone that I just had to ask the question everyone had on their minds.
"So… any ideas about what to do now?"
"I… don't know…"
Koizumi was really affected by this, the guy looked like he was about to snap.
"…If Suzumiya san goes to Academy City then she'll find out about the existence of espers and that would be it, but at the same time…"
"She's so happy about going that if we stopped her the consequences would be even worse."
Kanzaki san was also a little shocked, although not as much as he was.
"What if we make sure she can't get the necessary money…? Misaka says offering an alternative."
"That's impossible, it may sound like a good plan, it's not easy for a high school student to earn 240.000¥ so fast, but if its Suzumiya san we're talking about then getting that much money is nothing."
Just like when she managed to find sponsors for the movie I suppose.
"How about trying to prevent the school from being closed…? Misaka states another alternative."
"That's not possible either, chances are that it was Suzumiya san herself that made the problem appear in the first place, so even if we solved it then another one would just pop up."
"What if one of us pretends to be sick or injured? Judging by her words earlier, she wouldn't travel unless the entire brigade is going too… Misaka starts grasping for straws."
"That's a possible solution, but then we'd only be delaying the inevitable…"
"…Not to mention that if she finds out that we're sabotaging her trip… that we're betraying her, then… I don't even want to think about what would happen. "
After Kanzaki san said those words we all shuddered.
"Still there's must be a way to stop her from going…"
You know I must admit that not letting Haruhi go to Academy City is probably the easiest solution but...
"…I can't stand this… I just know that place must have something awesome in it … I don't know exactly what it is… I want to see it… but I can't reach it… so close but still… I just can't… I give up."
"…Having the thing you wish the most so close yet still being unable to get it… that is indeed a horrible feeling."
"What if we just let her go to the city?"
As I said that everyone looked at me like I was insane.
"Listen I know it sounds crazy, but think about it, trying to stop her from getting the money is no good, if anything we should make sure she gets it so she doesn't end up destroying the economy or something worse and even if we prevent her from going there next week it'll only postpone the inevitable until the next holiday at best. What we have to do is take her there and convince her that everything is normal; I'm guessing that Crowley guy is not stupid, the thing that is in the most danger if Haruhi finds about the whole esper thing is Academy City itself, so I doubt he's planning to just tell her outright; if we take that into account then basically we just have to prevent her from seeing anything supernatural… that's the same thing we do here! And if we pull it off then it would be the end of this whole Academy City business for good, we won't even have to worry about her changing her mind about the whole scholarship thing. Basically we just have to protect her illusion!"
There was a little silence after I made my speech, but soon it was broken by the sound of Kanzaki san chuckling.
"That was quite nice speech; the catchphrase at the end was backwards though."
"I know, I think Touma was starting to rub on me."
She chuckled a little more before looking at me with confidence.
"Ok, I guess what you're saying is true, taking Suzumiya san to Academy City is probably the best way to solve this, count me in."
That's one down. "What about you Asahina san?"
"Well…" She placed her index finger on her lips and looked away a little before looking back at me with a smile "…I guess you're right Kyon kun and if everyone helps I'm sure we can do it."
Two down, I looked at Nagato and Ichigo san and they both just nodded, I'm taking that as a yes, so there's only one left.
Koizumi just sighed and recovered his smile "I guess there's no helping it; I must admit I'm not crazy about this idea, but we don't have much choice… Ok, count me on this too."
"Great, you know, I'm thinking I could call Touma and ask his help with this problem, maybe he can get into contact with Mikoto san too."
"Perfect, there's no doubt we'll meet with her and the rest of her group there so it's better if we inform her beforehand; actually we should try to get as much help as we can, this is kind of an emergency, so anyone we can trust is fine, especially if they're local or know about the city."
Everyone nodded.
"Speaking about that, we should also try to find as much information about Academy City as possible."
"I can help with that… Misaka offers her explanations."
"Seriously? That would be really helpful Ichigo san."
We turned our attention towards her as she quickly took place in front of the group.
"Academy City is located just west of Tokyo; it was established as a place where scientist could conduct research on higher technology and physic powers, the latter being the reason there are many education institutions, ranging from kindergarten to university level, thus giving the city its name… Misaka states the basic information."
"I don't get it, if the city is located just west of Tokyo how could they expect to keep the whole thing a secret."
"That's because while its existence it's not openly advertised to the general public, the city itself it's not a secret, the research conducted on it however is; usually students are handpicked by a research team that measure their potential and parents aren't even informed that their children will take part on the psychic development program until they've sign a Non Disclosure Agreement in order to ensure their silence… Misaka explains Academy City recruitment polices."
I guess that explains why Haruhi couldn't find the requirements for taking the test; there was never a public one to begin with.
"Ok, now tell, us if we go to there what are the chances of seeing an esper?"
"Really high, the city has an estimated population of 2.3 million people, around 80% of that are students and out of that percentage 60% are able to demonstrate a slight amount of psychic ability, that means that there are currently about 1.104.000 espers ranging from level 0 to 5 residing in the city, so if we stay there for 3 days the possibility of seeing one is nearly 100%… Misaka calculates the odds."
So essentially what we need to do it's kind of like going to Akihabara and prevent Haruhi from seeing an otaku.
"Still in order to succeed on this mission we don't have to do that, after all Suzmiya san meets at least two espers everyday without trouble, the thing is that as long as no one uses psychic abilities near her there shouldn't be a problem… Misaka analyze the victory conditions, if we take that into account then the probabilities of success while still heavily against us, become far closer to the realm of probable… Misaka recalculates the odds."
"Two? Oh yeah, I never thought about it until now, but you're an esper too aren't you Ichigo san?"
"That's correct, Misaka is an electromaster just like Oneesama, but unlike her who is a level 5 I'm just a level 2… Misaka explains the limits of her abilities."
She raised her hand a little and made a few sparks appear with it, as she did that Koizumi placed his hand on his chin and looked at her with extreme curiosity.
"Speaking about that, I must admit I'm not entirely familiar with the whole 'level' scale you people use to measure your abilities, all I know is that there are seven espers who are considered stronger than the rest, could you please explain us more about that?"
"With pleasure… Misaka says happily, the level scale is used in order to measure the degree one can expand and alter our personal reality, in other words how much can an esper manipulate the space around him by projecting his vision about how it should be… Misaka tries to make her explanations easier."
"I'm guessing the higher your level the more you can do that."
"Correct… Misaka answers, a level 0 is someone who despite going through the curriculum either cannot manifest or control his ability in any way whereas a level 5 would be someone that has perfect or almost perfect control over all the details about it; usually the main difference between levels would be their processing capabilities, the more calculations a person can do the more they can modify reality to fit their vision of it; for an example while Misaka is just a level 2, thanks to the shared processing power that comes as a result of the Misaka network my level can be raised to 3 and my abilities are increased as a result… Misaka explains the basis of the level system."
"So that's what the 'Railgun emulation program' you used in the fight against ITEM was all about."
Both Nagato and Ichigo san nodded.
"Currently there are only 7 registered level 5 in the entire world, all of them ranked according to how much their abilities are useful for research; so far we have been in contact with numbers 3, 4 and 1… Misaka recounts our encounters with them."
So I guess that means Haruhi actually got away with hitting the strongest esper right on the tip of his nose… you know if that weren't so scary it would actually be kind of awesome. Anyway I think I understood this whole 'level' stuff, but there's still there's something that Mikoto san mentioned the other day that's been bothering me.
"Ichigo san, is level 5 really the highest an esper can go? I noticed Mikoto san said something about a level 6 when we were explaining her about Haruhi last week."
Ichigo san looked down and her mouth arched a little downwards, I'm not sure since I'm not able to read her expressions all that well, but I have the feeling that I kind of struck a nerve with that question; however she answered me regardless.
"Theoretically speaking, it is possible for an esper to become a level 6, that is to achieve SYSTEM which means that someone is capable of understanding the will of the heavens; but in practice all the experiments trying to develop a level 6 esper have failed or… were terminated due to unforeseen circumstances… however despite these failures, creating something beyond a level 5 is still the main goal of the esper developing program… Misaka hopes these explanations are enough."
She took a long break before continuing.
"I believe that when the general director of the city refers to Suzumiya san as 'the ultimate esper', it's only a way to call her a level 6 without actually using that term directly, as just that would be enough to bring a lot of unwanted attention towards her from the several factions and organizations involved in the level 6 experiments… Misaka states a theory of hers. "
"I see, if Crowley really thinks that Suzumiya san is a level 6, then it's obvious he'd want to keep her near, or at least meet her so he can have an influence on her…"
Koizumi sighed and lowered his shoulder a little.
"…No wonder Motoharu sold this information to him; he must have gotten pretty much anything he wanted out of him."
"He did what?"
Kanzaki san spoke and for some reason she seemed really pissed; now that I think about it she did say she knew that guy when I mentioned him back when we first met.
"Oh yeah, according to Motoharu himself, he was the one that sold off the information about Suzumiya san to Academy City."
Funny, you know I admit I always have trouble reading Koizumi's smile, but the one he has right now has the word 'payback' written all over it… scary.
"I see… I must remember to give him a special punishment next time I see him."
And Kanzaki san cold expression was even scarier; you know stuff like this makes me glad I happen to be on the same side as these people. Anyway, after that sudden death sentence, Kanzaki san turned towards Ichigo san to ask her something.
"Ichigo san there's something I don't get about your explanations, what do you mean when you say 'Someone capable of understanding the will of the heavens'?"
"It means that in order to completely understand things that go beyond human comprehension, one must be something that goes above a human… Misaka explains what SYSTEM means."
"So it's kind of like the Gnosticism from our side, the only difference being the methods… I see, thank you Ichigo san."
She just nodded.
"Anyway, I think we got a little sidetracked… Ichigo san, what about the geography of Academy City? It'd probably come in handy if we know the locations we might be visiting beforehand."
Ichigo san took a second to acknowledge Koizumi's request and quickly searched for a sheet of paper and a pencil, then she gave it to Nagato who sat near the table and almost instantly drew a big circle with several irregular lines that were dividing it in several sectors, each with a number on it; however the thing that called my attention the most was a black square that was near the bottom left part of the circle.
"This is a rough map of Academy City, the city is divided in 23 districts simply known as School Districts, each one of them has an specific function, however since explaining them all would take too much time and most likely be unnecessary, I'll limit myself to the districts we'll most likely be visiting… Misaka explains the layout of the city."
She then pointed at a sector in the upper left.
"This is School district number 3, this is the place where the facilities for authorized outsiders are located, so it's really likely that will be staying at one of the hotels there … Misaka now points two districts down and to the right. This is district 6, it has an amusement park and several other recreational facilities, so chances are will be going there eventually… Misaka moves her finger to the district located three districts to the left. This is district 15 it has several shopping facilities as well as some mass communications ones, so we'll be definitely visit it at some point… Misaka then focuses her attention on the district to the right of that one."
The one she was pointing right now was the sector with the black square.
"This is one is the district where the general director of the city lives, his residence is known as the windowless building, if Suzumiya san is scheduled to meet with him then we'll have to go to this place as the general director never leaves his house… Misaka finishes her explanations of the districts we'll definitely be visiting."
"What about that black square, what is it?"
"That's a place known as the School Garden, that's where the top 5 elite all girls schools are, it's a restricted area where only people affiliated with those schools can enter; it's important to note that students from there can invite other people inside the facilities and Oneesama and her ponytailed partner are currently enrolled in the Tokiwadai middle school which is located inside… Misaka thinks there's a possibility we might get invited."
"I guess that'll depend on whether or not Suzumiya san would like to… ok, I suppose that's enough for today Ichigo san, thanks a lot."
"You're welcome… Misaka follows courtesy procedures."
Ok, now that the info dump is over… "Well then, I guess it's better if we go home for today."
"Yeah, everyone please remember to contact your superiors for assistance…"
Koizumi took an almost imperceptible glance at Asahina san.
"…Listen I know our organizations aren't exactly friendly with each other, but I believe a situation like this means that cooperation is a necessity."
He smiled as he usually does as everyone agreed with him.
"Also we should try to convince Suzumiya san to let us pay our share for the trip or at the very least let us help her with that; like Kyon kun said if we leave her unattended who knows what she might do."
After he said that, we all said our goodbyes and left the clubroom.
The next day:
"…So that's pretty much what's going on."
"I see… of course I'll help you Kyon san, just tell me what I need to do and leave it to me."
"Thank you Touma, by the way could you try to locate Mikoto san and tell her about this too."
"Sure no problem, she finally gave me her phone number back on the train last week so I can just send a message to her later."
"That's wonderful, Haruhi seems to be really attached to her group, so she'll be a great help … Well then, I've to go now; I'll be contacting you later to tell you all the details about the trip."
"Perfect, talk to you later Kyon san."
"Bye."
I hung up my phone and looked at the horizon from the rooftop; lunch break was almost over so I had to go back to the classroom but just when I was about to turn around I felt someone covering my eyes with (hopefully) her hands.
"Guess who."
"Asahina san?" Funny I didn't thought she was the kind of girl to do this kind of stuff.
"Correct."
She let go of me, so I turned around to face her and noticed that it was indeed Asahina san... just this was the adult version.
"Hi Kyon kun, how you've been?"
"Fine…" If you ignore the whole part about the trip that could end life as we know it that is "… what can I do for you?"
"Actually this time I came here to tell you to leave things up to me."
"What do you mean?"
"Right now everyone is gathering people to help you in the visit to Academy City right? Well I'm volunteering myself to be the commander of that group."
"Really? Why?"
"Because taking Suzumiya san to Academy City for 3 days without her noticing there's something wrong about that place is impossible, unless…"
"Unless, someone that knew all the details about the trip is helping us; I get that, what I meant is that I thought you weren't allowed to do stuff like that."
"Yep, that's correct, that's why I'm only offering my guidance in this matter, everything else will be done by someone else…"
As she said I noticed someone revealing himself, he was a huge red haired man with a barcode tattooed on his face and a cigarette in his hand.
"Kyon kun, allow me to introduce you to Stiyl Magnus, he's a member of the church of Necessarius and he's going to be assisting me on this mission."
He took a step forward and took a good look at me.
"So this is the one closest to that person, I see… nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." Stiyl Magnus huh? For some reason I'm not as intimidated by this guy as I thought I would, must be because he's nowhere near as threatening as the Albino from yesterday.
"Well then…"
As she was speaking the door on the rooftop opened and Kanzaki san entered the place.
"Kyon san, are you here…?"
She stopped talking as she noticed surprised that I had company.
"Stiyl and…"
"Kaori!"
And after she saw her, Asahina san (older) ran to where she was and hugged her.
"Kaori! It's been so long, I missed you!"
Kanzaki san looked at the person hugging her confused.
"Who…"
You know there's something about this scene (most likely the way Asahina san (older) is pressing herself tightly against Kanzaki san chest and it's also kind of rubbing her face to the side of her neck) that just inspires admiration, mainly the wrong kind of admiration. Crap! Why am I remembering the thing Taniguchi asked about yesterday?
Asahina san (older) moved her face closer to Kanzaki san's ear and whispered something.
"Mi… Mikuru…?"
"That´s correct, I made a few unreasonable requests to be able to meet you today and I'm confident that I explained this situation to you recently."
"You did tell me someone from your organization wanted to meet me, but I didn't think it would be… you."
"Strange isn't it?"
"I apologize for interrupting your reunion, but it's getting late and we have to finish this meeting quickly."
"Stiyl, what are you doing here? I thought you were in London taking care of the Archbishop."
"New orders, she sent me here to protect this woman."
"I see..."
The red haired guy took his cigarette out of his mouth and took a good look of Kanzaki san as he blew out some smoke.
"Funny, I never thought I'd see you like this, wearing a uniform and going to school every day like a regular girl your age, I was worried this mission would make you feel uncomfortable but you seem to be fine… maybe even enjoying it a little."
He chuckled a little but Kanzaki san didn't seem to mind his comment.
"That's none of your business, if that's all you have to say then I've to go to class."
"Go to class you say…" he chuckled some more and took a long sip at his cigarette "Actually the reason I'm here is to tell you vital information about the trip that person is going to make, as you can probably guess, our church and this woman organization are cooperating right now, so you're supposed to follow her orders to ensure the whole thing goes well."
Kanzaki san nodded and Asahina san (older) quickly got in front of us.
"Kyon kun, Kaori, please convince everyone to let me take care of this, once you do that tell the people you manage to get help from to go to the Hakumeiza on Wednesday night, it's an abandoned theater in eastern Tokyo that's just about 3 kilometers from Academy City. Once there they'll have to follow Stiyl's instructions to be able to talk with me, I'll be giving them directions through communication talismans; you know I can't show myself to them and using radio communication is unsafe, so the best I can do it's to use him as a proxy."
"Ok."
"Understood."
"Perfect, now we have to go, there're still a few preparations left to do and you guys are late for class, so goodbye."
She and the red haired guy quickly moved towards the door, but before she left Asahina san (older) turned around.
"Also, Kyon kun, I know you don't like the idea and I've to admit I don't like it either, but… please remember to call everyone who could be helpful."
She sighed and went through the door, leaving me and Kanzaki alone in the rooftop.
"Well… that was unexpected."
"Tell me about it, I didn't think I'd ever met Mikuru like this."
"Yeah that surprised me the first time it happened to me too; by the way, that person that was with Asahina san right now, he's from the same church as you isn't he? Can we trust him?"
"Styil? Yeah, don't worry about anything, he's a really capable mage despite his age and if the Archbishop entrusted him the mission of protecting Mikuru then you can be sure nothing bad will happen to her."
"That's great, but… what do you mean with 'despite his age', how old is he?"
"Stiyl is 14."
OK… what the heck? Do the people at your church eat growth hormones for breakfast or something? As if I could ask her that.
"We should go now."
"Yeah, I guess so…"
"By the way Kanzaki san, weren't you looking for me?"
"Oh yeah, Koizumi kun asked me to inform you we're meeting after school to decide what we're going to do about the money problem…"
Prelude to an invisible war II
Academy City, Judgment branch 177:
It was already quite late in the afternoon when Misaka Mikoto entered the building where her friends worked; she quickly said hi to everyone and took seat as Uiharu served her some tea, however she couldn't even take the first sip of it before she was interrupted.
"Everyone, I have big news!"
Huh? They all turned around and found the last member of their group, Saten Ruiko, she was standing in the doorway panting as it seemed she just ran all the way there.
"Saten san, what's wrong?"
Uiharu brought her a chair for her to sit and a cup of tea that she gulped down in just one sip.
"That hit the right spot, thank you Uiharu!"
"You're welcome Saten san; what's the news you have?"
"Oh yeah, remember Haruhi san, the girl we met when we traveled to that town a couple of weeks back."
"Yeah, what about her?"
"Well, you're not going to believe this but, apparently she got invited to meet the city by the general director himself, so she and the rest of her brigade are coming here for 3 days next week."
As she said that both Uiharu and Kuroko looked at her surprised, while Mikoto remained quiet for some reason.
"Saten san, are you sure about that? I've never heard of something like that happening before."
"Yeah, I talked to her yesterday and she confirmed it, I thought she was kidding at first but then she sent me a mail she got from him and it's as legit as it can be, he even invited her to meet him in person."
"No way! That makes no sense, not even Oneesama has met him and she's a level 5."
"Eh! Really? It's that true Misaka san?"
Meanwhile Mikoto was lost in thought, she already knew Haruhi san was coming to the city since he had sent her a mail during lunch break explaining the situation and asking for her help; she didn't believe him at first but if Saten san had the same story then that meant it was true and so were her suspicions about her.
The thing is that if someone as important as the general director wanted to meet her for no apparent reason what so ever, then everything Koizumi san and the rest said last week made sense, Suzumiya san was… a level 6; it's unbelievable! she had experienced so much pain because that, so many of her SISTERS murdered by that monster just because a bunch of scientist wanted a level 6 badly, but couldn't be bothered to check if one just happened to live nearby! The whole thing was so ironic it made her want to cry.
"Hey, earth to Misaka san! Are you ok?"
Mikoto snapped back to earth as she noticed everyone was looking at her.
"Yeah, sorry… what was it again?"
"I was asking if it's true you've never met the general director."
"No I haven't, but I think daddy has met him a few times though."
Saten and the rest looked at her with amazement.
"I see… Misaka san's father must be a really important person then."
Mikoto sweat dropped a little.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that; anyway what are we going to do about Haruhi san? Are we going to have a party or something?"
Saten then moved back and made a grin as she grabbed her chin with her hand.
"Of course we are, also we have to show her some of the best tourist spots of the city since she was so helpful with us, although she did say she's going to have a tour guide so maybe that's unneeded; and we need to plan how we are going to tell her about the esper development program; man I felt so bad lying to her last time, I can't wait to tell her the truth about us!"
"I bet she's going to be really happy when we do!"
Saten and Uiharu chuckled as they made their plans, Mikoto however couldn't help but remember a few things Koizumi san mentioned last week:
"…Her powers are highly unstable and she could easily change this universe for another one if she ever gets bored or depressed enough…"
"…They can't reveal their identity to her, since that would cause her to accept their existence as a natural thing and therefore become boring…"
And while she wasn't completely sure about what he meant with that, it was pretty obvious telling Haruhi san about espers wasn't a good idea.
"Are you sure we can? I mean it's not like she's a student here."
Both her friends turned around completely caught off guard with that question.
"Well, I think that if the general director of the city invited her then he probably wants to offer her a scholarship or something, so it should be ok I guess…"
"But then that means her parents haven't signed the N.D.A. or anything so we can't tell her… right Konori senpai?"
She tried to get help from the chief of the branch they were in, Konori Mii, she had been listening to their conversation from afar while she finished some paperwork.
"Misaka san is correct, if she's not an student here we technically can't say anything to her; not that it matters, if someone's coming here for 3 days then she'll find out sooner or later and there's nothing in the rules against that."
Once she got her senpai's help, it was time to use that momentum to put her plan in motion.
"Not to mention, I don't think she would like if we just told her outright, it'd be better if she finds out on her own and then we explain everything; kind of like a surprise party."
Saten seemed to consider the idea for a while before nodding happily.
"Understood, you're right Misaka san, it's more exciting that way!"
Mikoto nodded back at her with a smile on her face.
"Of course! We just have to remain quiet until she finds out, I suppose that means that if she doesn't then we can't tell her anything, but that's impossible anyway."
Her friends nodded and she breathed a sigh of relief as her plan had worked; she still wasn't sure about all the details or how were they going to stop her from seeing anything; but at the very least she was going to keep her promise.
Suddenly Saten made a weird grin.
"By the way Misaka san… Haruhi san also told me something interesting about you."
Her words caught Mikoto completely off guard, so all she could do was blush red like a tomato.
"Don't tell me she told you…"
"Yep, I know everything."
"I can explain, what happened was that I…"
"Seriously, why didn't you tell us you had an identical twin sister? Or that she's a child genius that goes to the same high school as Haruhi san and it´s even a part of her brigade? No wonder you wanted to go to that town so badly, you should've introduced her to us. "
So she meant that, Mikoto breathed another sigh of relief as she honestly thought she was talking about the little scene she made last week, thank god!
"EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Oneesama has a twin sister? How come you've never mentioned that?"
Kuroko was looking at her with tears all over her eyes, she has always considered herself Mikoto's confidant, her best friend she could trust and tell everything she wanted, but she hid the fact that she had a sister and not just any kind of sister, but an identical twin for so long without her noticing, in a sense she felt a little betrayed.
"Yeah… her name is Ichigo chan and I couldn't introduce you to her because… because… I was just checking the place she was going to live before she moved in so it was impossible and I didn't mention her because I was embarrassed you'd think of me as an overprotective big sister."
She finished her improvised explanation and noticed her friends looked convinced and Kuroko's tears slowly changed from sadness to admiration.
"Oneesama, to be worried about your sister so much… And to think I misunderstood you and thought you dragged us there to meet that barbarian, but it was for such a noble cause… I'm so ashamed of myself!"
"Eh, yeah… don't worry about that, it's partly my fault for not explaining myself properly; by the way I suppose I shouldn't have to mention this, but she's off limits, she's a normal girl and I don't want you to take advantage of that."
"Don' worry about that Oneesama, even if she looks just like you, I'd never do something inappropriate to your precious little sister, I'll keep my hands off her and on you."
Mikoto sighed "That's no good either, but I guess there's no helping it."
"Great! That´s settled then, now everyone, we have a party to prepare!"