とある成長の停止
Toaru Seichō no Teishi
A Certain Stopping of Growth
September 26th, 11:13AM
Judgment Branch 177 Headquarters
The embarrassment was palpable throughout the small office as a crimson red Konori began her hurried explanation to her roommate while an equally scarlet hued Misaka quickly took off her vest and used it to cover her nude friend to the best of the smallish piece of fabric's ability. Rather than brute force Misaka decided to go for precision for once and targeted the drunken girl's spine with a small jolt of electricity to paralyze her for long enough to get the vest onto her. From there a sustained stream of electricity in a different region distracted Kuroko enough to prevent her from being able to teleport anything else off of her.
"And during her mission Kuroko came into contact with alcohol fumes. She has a weak constitution when it comes to alcohol so she succumbed to it's effects," Konori explained, trying to explain it in such a manner to convince her friend that what had happened was most certainly not what it looked like.
Of course, given her audience, it didn't exactly work out like that. "Oh so she's drunk? And you're taking advantage of her while she's like this? For shame Mii-chan, I thought you were better than that."
"It's not like that!" Konori's voice broke in her embarrassment, "she was the one who started it, she gets really clingy when she's drunk and I was just trying to help Misaka get her off..."
Aomi's laughter rang loudly as she clutched her stomach. It was all too much for her, seeing the normally professional Kuroko-chan drunk and her equally professional roommate more flustered and embarrassed than she had ever seen her before.
Konori's blush became even deeper, if such a thing was possible, as her roommate and friend laughed at her and her kouhai's unfortunate predicament.
Suddenly the two older girls heard the electro master speak up, saying, "Kuroko what-" before a mighty thud sounded and the table that had been in front of the sofa was lifted up and slammed down a few centimeters away from Aomi's body so hard that it was a wonder to anyone who was not aware of the effect or existence of the nemean pelt how the table and floor and not broken from the impact. Needless to say the older girl's laughter died instantly.
"It ish irritating enough when my friendsh laugh at me," they heard a cold voice say as an oppressive dark aura filled the room, "having you laughing at me is completely unacceptable. I have shlain a dragon and defeated whole platoonsh of sholdiers. Drunk or not I am not shomeone who ish to be laughed at, is that undershtood?" the icy voice asked with a palpable air of malice dripping from each word like icicles.
Everyone in the room froze, as if the chill of the voice had literally frozen them in place. Then Konori took Aomi's hand, "we'll continue this outside," she said, a little shaken up but far more trained to deal with stressful situations than the other two, "Misaka there are blankets in the closet," she said, given the girl an excuse to put a bit of distance between herself and the once again awakened Kuro.
Misaka took the opportunity immediately as Konori dragged her roommate outside and closed the door.
"What was that about Mii-chan?" Aomi asked, now more concerned and afraid than teasing.
"Kuroko isn't herself when she's under the influence," the black haired girl half-lied. It was close enough to true and there was no need to tell Aomi about her kouhai's little... problem. "You heard her spouting nonsense about slaying dragons right? I guess she's just a mean drunk..."
"I thought you said she was clingy," Aomi pointed out.
"I guess she's only clingy with people she likes. She never really liked how you never show up for work..."
"Well it seems like I have a pretty good excuse not to come in today... so I think I'll be going..."
"What did you come here for anyway?" Konori asked.
"Oh yeah!" The other girl snapped her fingers as she remembered her original intent, she reached into her handbag and took out a bentou box, wrapped neatly in a patterned handkerchief. "I made it for my boyfriend but I couldn't see him today so I thought that you might like it instead. You never have time in the morning to make your own after all..."
Konori was a little surprised at the gesture. "Thank you," she said politely as her gaze was fixed on the box she held in her hand.
"There was something else that went with the meal if you wanted that as well," Aomi told her.
"Huh?" the black haired girl replied as she began to look up at her friend, wondering what she was talking about. Suddenly she felt a pair of soft lips upon her own as her friend gave her a swift peck before drawing away with a big grin on her face.
Konori's hand covered her mouth as her deep blush from before returned full force. "That's always my boyfriends favorite part of the meal... I hope you enjoyed it as much as he does," Aomi winked as she turned to leave.
Konori stood there for a moment, watching as Aomi casually walked out of her field of vision. Even with her power Konori had not seen that coming at all. For some reason her heart was beating really fast. She took a deep breath and looked at the lunch in her hand and decided to open it. She saw a lovely handmade lunch carefully laid out in the box. It had all of her favorites.
'That's weird,' she thought as she looked at the food arranged in the box, 'her boyfriend and I don't share tastes at all... so why...'
"I don't understand that girl..." she sighed as she opened the door and walked back into the room.
While that was happening outside the room, inside things were a little more tense. Misaka went to the closet and got one of the blankets from inside. Then she cautiously approached Kuro.
The drunken girl watched her, "I shwitched without thinking it sheems... There ish no need to be afraid pereshkia... I'm not going to hurt you. I guessh that wash an overreaction. My head jusht hurtsh and I'm shleepy and that woman'sh laughter was so irritating. It'sh not like Shiro liked her anyway..."
"I'd prefer it if you went back to Shiro first," the electro master told her.
"Come here and kissh me," Kuro ordered in response.
"No way, Konori is right outside. She could come back in at any minute. Besides... you hate me don't you? Yet you want me to kiss you? Why?" Misaka asked.
"I know you are shmart, you go to Tokiwadai after all. Shurely you are not so dense that you haven't figured it out yet. I can't change back to Shiro unlessh I kissh you." Kuro told her, adding in her head, 'Or Oneeni' but even drunk Kuro somehow understood that that part wasn't ok to share at this time.
"oh... That... actually explains a lot," Misaka admitted, thinking back.
"Konori's right outside," Kuro reminded her, "She could come in any second, so you might want to make it quick."
"Fine, whatever, but this is only so you can go back to being Kuroko. And if you're lying to me I'm going to punish you," The electro master warned as she went up to the girl. Then she bent down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Lipsh pereshkia..."
Misaka almost growled at that but kissed her on the lips regardless.
"Onee-shama..." she heard the teleporter say as she drew away. Her voice was back to that husky, passionate, emotion filled voice that Misaka was all too familiar with, "shorry about that..." the younger girl said, looking down in guilt.
"It's not your fault," the electro master sighed as she draped the blanket over Kuroko, patted her head and sat beside her again.
"It ish though... If I wash shtronger she wouldn't have to come out and protect me..." Kuroko said as she rested her head on her Onee-sama's lap, stifling a yawn as her eyelids began to flutter.
"You don't have to rely on her to protect you," the older girl told her, "you have us to protect you. Don't forget that."
"I won't..." she whispered as she drifted off to sleep just before Konori walked back into the room.
"She's asleep now?" the older Judgment agent asked, sounding a bit distracted, "that's good. Hopefully she'll sleep until all the alcohol is out of her system."
"How long exactly will that take?"
"I don't really know... two, maybe three hours?"
Misaka looked down at the girl in her lap. She wouldn't be able to get up without risking waking the sleeping girl. And with the alcohol in her system she'd prefer a sleeping Kuroko to a conscious one. Unfortunately that meant that she was stuck here for a couple of hours, "I see..."
"Sorry again for the inconvenience to you..." Konori apologized.
"Inconvenience," the electro master repeated, as her hand rested upon Kuroko's head and began stroking her hair, "yeah... that's what she is... just one inconvenience after the other."
"Pretty much," the older girl agreed as she crouched in front of the pair and affectionately reached out to tuck a strand of auburn hair behind the girl's ear, "but it's worth it..."
"Pretty much," the younger girl concurred.
"You know I've only seen her sleeping one other time," Konori told her, "She wasn't nearly as relaxed as this. She looked like a snake constantly ready to strike. When I touched her she literally threw me halfway across the room on reflex. You must make her feel truly safe to make her relax this much..." Konori smiled as she looked up to Misaka's face, "Since you're stuck here would you like me to go out and get you something to eat?"
"Thanks but I'm fine. There's a bentou in my bag that Kuroko made for me if you could get that though," she said. Konori got it for her and they talked as they ate. After that Konori did some paperwork while Misaka leafed through a manga she had brought.
This continued until Saten and Uiharu burst through the door excitedly. "We have a lead," Saten announced.
"On the assault cases?" Konori asked, "I thought that that was out of our jurisdiction?"
"There was an incident near here so it became our jurisdiction," Uiharu said and filled her senpai in on what had happened.
"I see... so what's this lead?"
"Well we learned that the only people whose blood was drained were ESPers and they reported a loss of power afterwards. We thought it was Skill Out but that turned out to be wrong," Uiharu began.
"We were wondering how blood could possibly be related to ESPer powers so we decided to go to an expert for help. So we talked to stripper lady and she pointed us to some research that was done a while ago," Saten finished as Uiharu put down the pieces of paper that she had been carrying in her arms.
"Apparently there was this researcher who was studying what made ESPers ESPers and trying to find a way to make a low level ESPer into a higher level ESPer. He looked for patterns within ESPers body to see what set them apart from regular people and he found that there was one particular substance that could be found in the blood of all ESPers. It's almost identical to the person's blood so it's hard to detect but it has a thicker consistency and the DNA is different than the person's own. He theorized that if this blood like substance was extracted the ESPer would lose their power," Uiharu summarized the reports.
"So this person wants to take people's powers away?" Konori asked.
"I'm afraid there's more to it than that," Uiharu said, sounding slightly despondent, "The researcher didn't get very far beyond that point before he disappeared, but his research was used by Kihara Gensei to create Crystalized ESPer Essence."
"Kihara..." Misaka gasped as the memories of that horrible family came back to her.
"If they're involved things just became a lot more serious..." Konori said solemnly.
"We need to-" Misaka began but was interrupted by Kuroko writhing around on her lap.
"too loud," the teleporter whined as she sat up. Then she stood, holding her head in her hands as the blanket fell, revealing that the girl was somehow fully clothed. She began walking towards the door, "I'm going home..."
"Kuroko, those clothes, how?" Misaka asked, confused.
"Magic," the girl remarked as she opened the door and left.
"Wait," Uiharu began as she turned to fetch the teleporter but Konori put a hand on her shoulder to prevent it.
"Judging by her behavior I'm guessing she's hung over, that means she's in no shape to do anything. It's best if she goes home for the day," she turned to Misaka, "perhaps you should accompany her, you are just a civilian after all."
"Sorry, but civilian or not I'm already involved with Gensei. I've dealt with him before. If anyone can help you with this it's me. Kuroko will be fine on her own."
With a pounding headache Kuroko began her journey home. She traveled down lesser known roads and alleys in order to avoid the bustle of the city that just made the pounding worse.
Suddenly, as Kuroko turned down an alley to escape the blinding, painful light of the sun, she felt a hard blow to the back of the head. Had she not been hung over she might have heard the person sneak up or been able to withstand the blow, but as it was she crumpled to the ground.
"Hehe, told you guys I could do it" a tall man in a leather overcoat said as he twirled the blackjack he had just used to incapacitate the teleporter. The man had bright red hair and a scar along his left eye, "the great scourge is no match for me."
"wow... you really did it boss."
"Of course. Teleportation is useless if you sneak up on them," he gloated as he crouched down and turned Kuroko onto her back, "now then..." he began as he put his hand on her face and opened her eyes, "bleed for me scourge," he grinned as his power forced the thick blood-like substance that circulated through her body into her eyes. The pressure built up within the small, weak blood vessels contained in the eye until they burst and, since only a small layer of fluid was between the vessels of the eye and the outside it was the best place to extract the blood. Once every drop of the substance was extracted he put it into a vial and tucked it into his jacket where several more just like it were tucked away.
"What should we do with her now boss," one of the man's underlings asked.
"Bring her back with us. Without her power we should be able to have quite a bit of fun with her, maybe we can even sell her off to someone," he chuckled ruthlessly at the thought as one of the man's underlings hefted her over his shoulder.
The man had drained seven people during this week long outing, so he figured it was around time to head back to their base.
Once they arrived the man said, "put her in the maintenance closet and cuff her to the boiler, I have to go see the kid."
"Indeed you do," came a voice from down the hallway as a small boy, probably no more than eleven years old, walked into view. He was completely bald despite his young age. He wore a lab coat that was far too large for him, with the sleeves rolled up several times just to avoid dangling over his wrists and the back of it dragging along the floor behind him. He looked between the people, "i see you gathered a few new faces since last week Hachi. But it seems like you're also about seven people short."
"Yeah, they ran into some problems. It was a couple of Judgment agents and a big group of Skill Out from what I heard from the one who got away before the cops showed up," the man, Hachi, replied.
"What did you do with him."
"Drained him of course. He failed me after all..."
"Boss... are you really taking orders from this kid? He can't be out of grade school even." One of the new guys said.
"You're right... what am I doing taking orders from him... I must be really weak," Hachi said as he glowered at the man, "how about you prove how strong you are and beat him up for me."
"With pleasure boss!" The person said, not catching the tone of voice that Hachi had used that may have warned him of the danger as he approached the kid, "You should've stayed in school." He grinned as he punched the kid in the face. Unfortunately for him the punch did him more harm than the kid as it felt like he had just punched a brick wall. He recoiled in pain, "dammit, why you little..." he began as he drew a knife and slashed at the kid.
The blade sunk into the flesh with a lot more resistance than it should have met leaving a far shallower wound than he had expected. Then the kid grabbed the wrist of the hand holding onto the knife, his arm moving with amazing speed. The grip was inhumanly strong as well but the power was the least of the man's worries as, the next second, he felt an immense pain as his skin and flesh was eaten away in the child's grip as the cut closed up. Then he was thrown to the side, hitting the wall at a high enough speed to knock him unconscious.
"Any other questions about who I choose to follow?" Hachi asked the others, who all gave a shake of the head.
"Who's the girl? Why did you bring her here?" the child asked
"She's the agent they call the scourge. I drained her but I figured we might get a bit more fun out of her if we brought her back." Hachi explained.
"I don't approve."
"Pity... cause she has a friend you know... a level five... if I drained her I might just be able to fulfill your little request."
The child's eyes narrowed, "Can you handle a level five?"
"Pretty sure I can," Hachi grinned, "so what do you say Seiiku. I do that and I get to keep that girl."
"Whatever," the child, Seiiku, sighed as he turned to walk away. Hachi smiled and told the guy who was carrying the girl as well as another one from his little group to go and restrain Kuroko while he turned and left to take care of the level five.
The two went to the boiler room/ maintenance closet and used the girl's own handcuffs to cuff her hands in front of her around a thick pipe.
"So what now?" asked the guy.
"Don't know. You heard Hachi, we have free rein as long as we don't kill her or permanently damage her," The girl replied.
"Pity she's so young..." the guy said looking at her up and down, "flat as a board too... so not my type."
"You like the older women?"
"Yeah, more developed and everything."
They heard a bit of clinking and turned to their captive, "looks like she's waking up," The guy said.
"So you aren't the type for that kind of fun but how about the other type? We can have a bit of fun hurting her."
"Sure, why not?" He grinned.
Kuroko saw red. Her eyes had stopped leaking blood but the amount that had already been spilled stained her eye and gave everything a slightly red tint. Her head hurt to an unbearable degree and she could hear people talking about her. About how they were going to hurt her.
Kuro had rarely had any more reason to step in than right now.
"So then," the girl said to their captive, "let me just tell you right now that there's no hope of escaping. You're cuffed and your powers have been drained. You're completely at our mer-" her eyebrow raised up.
"Wasn't her shirt red a minute ago, why'd it turn black all of a sudden?" The guy asked.
The sound of bending metal was heard and suddenly the cuffs were ripped apart like paper. "People are always underestimating me," She said as she reached up to take an ordinary claw hammer from off of the wall where the many tools were kept, "Now... Who is the one at the other's mercy?"
Seiiku walked through the hallway back to the labs. He found Hachi unpleasant but he was a necessary part of the plan. Only he could get rid of this curse that Seiiku had suffered with for far too long.
The child looked to the notes that were scattered among the table: his father's notes on ESPer's abilities. He was quite the genius. So many scientists working to find out what gave ESPers their abilities and none of them had been even close. But his father had been... his father had been close enough that Academy City itself had taken steps to ensure he wouldn't continue this research.
Now all that was left of him were these notes and papers which other scientists disregarded or mocked. Only a few people knew it's worth, the others were too distracted by the apparently ridiculous ideas posited by it, the idea of an original ESPer.
That idea was at the core of Seiiku's father's research. He found out that the blood like substance in the blood of every ESPer was in fact blood, just a bit thicker than most, containing denser blood cells and plasma. And all of that blood came from one person, the original ESPer, and was injected into an ESPer at the beginning of the Power Development Curriculum. His father had been attempting to track down this original when he had disappeared, back when Seiiku was only in 2nd grade.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the sounds of a struggle coming from the maintenance closet where the girl had been kept. The struggle was brief and decisive. Seiiku guessed this meant that it was the girl who had lost, since a person in that state could definitely not take out two fresh, healthy delinquents.
He turned around and walked back to the closet. Despite logic dictating that that was the way it had to be, there was something in his gut told him that he should go.
Kuro inhaled deeply as the last drops of her own blood returned to her body. Now the only blood staining her outfit was that of her two unfortunate wardens.
"You choose a pretty good spot you know... there are so many fun toys you could use to hurt someone in here..." Kuro said to the still conscious though incapacitated male in her most heartless, terrifying voice as she trailed her fingers over the various tools that hung on the wall, "However you couldn't even begin to imagine all the ways to use these tools to hurt someone. You might be delinquents but you're not psychopaths. I am though, and I know exactly what to do with all of these tools," She picked a blowtorch off the wall and turned it on, "So tell me everything you know or I'll start telling you all the fun things I can do with these," she began as she held aloft the hammer and blowtorch, "and then I shall demonstrate."
Needless to say this was more than enough to get the cowardly delinquent to sing like a bird and spill everything he knew about the operation. It wasn't much but she got a general idea of who was in charge and what they were doing.
Then she mentioned that Hachi, the person who had attacked her, was going after Misaka. At Shiro's insistence she pressed a bit harder, accidentally knocking him out without gaining any more information.
She sighed and got out her cell phone. She saw that there was one missed call, from the pereskia. She dialed her number and walked out of the door as she waited for the older girl to pick up.
"Moshi moshi? Kuroko? I called you earlier, were you asleep? How are you feeling?" Misaka asked, hoping her frustration at their lack of progress finding any sign of activity from Gensei did not come across in her voice.
"Asleep no, unconscious yes. I ran into a little bit of trouble, met the culprits of our little case," she said quickly as she was walking to the exit, she spoke fast in order to give the pereskia no time to interrupt with useless questions. As she walked and talked several of the delinquents that did not go with Hachi ran up, having heard the screams of pain from their comrades, to attack her. She held them off easily with her martial arts and brute strength, "a man named Hachi knocked me out, now he's coming after you. He's tall, in a trench coat, with red hair and a scar along his left eye. He shouldn't be too much for you to handle but feel free to avoid him if possible."
"Are you serious? Are you okay? Where are you," the electro master said frantically. Hearing her tone the others stopped momentarily in their search and looked over to Misaka.
"I don't know where I am I was unconscious when they took me here," She looked at the person, the kid really, who was standing in front of her. She momentarily took her mouth off her phone to ask him a question, "Where am I?"
"My father's lab," Seiiku provided helpfully.
Kuro nodded and put her mouth back to the phone and said, "I'm in some abandoned research facility once run by the father of the one who is in charge of this whole thing, Seiiku. I'm sure Uiharu can find this place very quickly. After you find it I need you to get over here. And bring me a clean set of clothes, I should have an extra in my desk. See you when you get here." She said before hanging up.
"So... you're a regenerater. Your eyes were damaged less than ten minutes ago but now they're fine."
"You could consider me a regenerater I suppose..." She said.
"And yet Hachi drained you correct? Meaning that your power worked even after the procedure... I'm sorry. I had no wish to keep you here but now I'm afraid you are too valuable a subject to let escape."
"I'm not so sure you can make that call... Don't think that just because you're a kid doesn't mean I won't rip you apart limb from limb if you try to hurt me."
"Feel free to try," Seiiku said as he reached for a button on the wall and pressed it. Suddenly the overhead sprinklers began raining water down on them. A second later Kuro realized that it wasn't water, but some odd orange solution, "People have tried hurting me before, but nobody could possibly put me through more pain than I live with every second. You see, I'm a regenerator too, but there's a big difference between you and me. I can't turn it on and off. I am regenerating constantly. A normal human's body recycles itself completely every 7 years. My body does it every seven minutes. Every cell in my body is seconds away from dying and being replaced and it hurts more than words can describe."
"That's why you drain the powers of other ESPers? I fail to see the link."
"I asked him to drain my powers but my body does more than constantly regenerate, it constantly evolves. The moment he began to put more pressure on the blood vessels they increased in durability. It's why I couldn't use needles, because my skin has become far too hard for them to pierce. He needs more practice before he can do it fast and precise enough to do it to me, so I let him practice on other ESPers and hide out here in the meantime. However if it turns out that the procedure doesn't work on regeneraters, as you seem to be proving true, then I'll need to rethink things."
"So what is with the sprinklers?" The girl asked, admittedly just trying to bide time. Kuro was not nearly as arrogant and headstrong as Shiro was and so did not want to go into a fight without full knowledge, and backup well on the way. This kid would need to be defeated but she saw nothing wrong with putting that off for as long as possible.
"Nutrient rich liquid used for all sorts of things in the lab. I hooked it up to the sprinkler system in case a fight like this ever happened. You see it's not like I can regenerate in any sort of unlimited capacity. I need food to produce cells. However unlike most people I am capable of absorbing nutrient through my skin and processing it much more efficiently." Constant bodily evolution did afford a few perks.
"And you want to get rid of your ability why?" Kuro asked skeptically, "It seems quite convenient."
"You think I give a fuck about convenience when I'm in agony every second of my god damn life?!" The kid yelled with a fury that was unexpected given his relatively calm demeanor thus far.
"I guess you wouldn't," Kuro sighed as she summoned her armor onto her, "and with that attitude, that thought of yours that you are experiencing the ultimate pain... I guess there's no threat or intimidation that would work against you. Meaning I have to resort to violence."
There was a sigh, "It's pointless. Without the shock of pain it's extremely difficult to incapacitate someone without killing them. And anything else you do... well..." he took a knife out and cut all along his arm, not even flinching when the blade dug into the flesh. Almost instantly the wound closed up, "With this stuff pouring on me I'm practically invincible."
"Let's test that out... shall we?"
Author's Note: Sorry this is a couple of days late... a couple of things just happened that have distracted me. Family issues on the bad side and getting GTAV on the good side... In any case I'm not sure next chapter's fight scenes will fill the normal word count so I might attach it onto this chapter instead. If I do that I'll make a clear marker to make it easy.