Chapter 2

The hallways of the laboratory were bright and almost buzzing with electricity; it almost felt like it was coming out of the walls. Ominous beeps filled the rooms we walked through over however long it was.

"Didn't you say the reason that clones didn't get emotions added was because they'd be easier to control, and less likely to rebel?" asked the younger scientist, as I followed the two women through the bright hallways.

"Yes, and we probably would have terminated this clone if it wasn't for the orders the Board of Directors gave us." She pushed her glasses up with a sigh. "Still, a potentially disobedient Level 5 is better than an emotionless guinea pig any day of the week."

"I'm right here, you know," I whispered - not loud enough for them to hear, but loud enough that I could hear myself. Hearing about how amoral the scientists of Academy City were and experiencing it were two totally different animals.

To them, the Misaka sisters - including me, I suppose - were just pieces in an experiment. We weren't people; we were just artificially grown guinea pigs.

I hated it.

At least the project would eventually get shut down with the help of Touma-

Panic flooded my mind. Touma. I couldn't let Touma touch me. I don't know how I got here, but theoretically, if Touma touched me, he could potentially destroy my personality - destroy what made me, well, me.

I didn't want that to happen. That might have been a selfish thing to say, but I didn't want to be destroyed. I wanted to help people - at the very least, I wanted to help my sisters.

It was a selfish desire, but I'm a bit of a selfish person, you know?

And if that was going to be the case, there was no way I was going to let Touma touch me.

I shuddered. Even thinking about the idea of my conscious existence just… stopping was nightmarish.

Shaking my head, I tried to get that out of my mind. There's no reason to think about that sort of thing happening; I could probably talk to Touma about it if we ever met, even. Not like chances of that were exactly high, of course, but still.

"Alright, we're here."

I blinked, looking at the older scientist. She'd stopped in front of a futuristic-looking door, the younger one beside her.

"Now, go on." She took a card out of a pocket, pressed it to a card reader, and the door slid open. "Go."

Through the doorway, it looked like there was a large lounge room. I could see a car park outside from the windows through it.

"Uh… isn't this a bit, well, abrupt?" I asked.

The scientist arched an eyebrow. "Normally, before allowing a clone to leave the facility, we do some physical testing to make sure that the clone is in good shape. However, we've been assured that the person who the higher-ups have assigned to fix the issues with your body can make sure you're in shape without having to go through those tests. The person who should be taking you there will be there soon, too. Now, go on." She gestured to the open doorway. "Go."

"...Alright." I stepped forward, then through the doorway. It's not that I wasn't happy to get out of sight of those people, but weren't they a little more attached or anything like that?

The door slid shut behind me, and I shook my head. No, that wasn't exactly correct; Academy City researchers were mostly amoral and cared more about science than anything to do with the human condition. I probably should have expected that to happen.

I looked around the room. It was mostly empty of people, aside from someone sitting at the reception desk; a young woman, probably unaware of the types of experiments going on here. She probably got paid enough to ignore the sorts of things that went on in here, to be honest.

There were a couple of plants in the lobby too. A large black ceramic pot held a small palm tree that grew up to the roof next to my seat, in fact.

I walked over to a couch, turning around and sitting on it, making sure to keep my legs - my really thin legs, compared to before - close together. God, this Tokiwadai skirt was short. Like, really short. No exaggeration here. I'm not gonna lie, at that moment I understood why Misaka - well, that is to say, Mikoto, wore shorts underneath her skirt more than ever before.

There was a TV screen in the corner opposite me, above and to the left of the metal door I had just walked out of, playing on some sort of news channel. The news anchor looked young - mid-30s at the oldest - and was talking about some sort of recent Esper related incident.

Wait. Esper related…

I thought back to the discussion I'd been having with the scientist earlier. She'd mentioned that I was a Level 3 Esper, with the potential to become a Level 5. The strange feeling of electricity I'd felt while walking down those hallways.

I was an Esper now.

My chest full of excitement, I focused slightly, thinking about what I'd have to do to create a small spark. The mathematical formula came to me easily, even though I had never done it before, so I held up a hand and just… did it.

A spark leaped between two of my fingers.

My eyes widened. "Holy crap," I breathed.

Being told you're an Esper and actually using your ability are two different beasts. The first feels exciting, of course, but the second…

It feels like you have the whole world at your fingertips. Like it's your own world - you control electricity, and electricity is everywhere.

"I guess this is what's meant by a 'Personal Reality,' huh?" I said, smiling. I could use this.

I couldn't stop the experiment on my own - Mikoto Misaka, a Level 5, couldn't, while I was only a Level 3. I didn't doubt that if I tried, they'd be able to eliminate me in an instant.

Still, I'd at least be able to make a difference in this messed up world. I could even have some fun in the meantime.

The next few minutes, I was occupied by nothing more than holding up my hand and causing increasingly complex sparks and currents to move around it. I couldn't see the electricity in the air, but I could sense it well enough to manipulate it to an extent.

When my hand almost looked like a Tesla coil, the crackling and zapping noise of the electricity drowning out the rest of the world, I heard someone clear their throat.

I started, my calculations thrown off, and the sparks fizzling away. "Gah!"

"Well, looks like someone's already testing her ability out - and in a pretty frivolous way, too."

A slight blush appeared on my face, and I rubbed the back of my head. "U-uhm, yeah… I can explain-"

The woman in front of me sighed, a slight smile on her face. She had short black hair, and was wearing a long lab coat and long pants. "No need to explain. If I had an ability, I'd likely do the same. It's like a child playing with a new toy, right?"

"...right," I said, just barely resisting the urge to correct her assumption of me being a child.

Then again, I was one, wasn't I?

"It's interesting; I'd heard that you were going to be different to the other Sisters, but you're far more emotive than I expected." Her smile grew slightly wider. "I'm Yoshikawa Kikyou; pleased to meet you."

That name sounded vaguely familiar, almost like I'd heard it before. Still, she seemed oddly kind, in comparison to the earlier scientists.

Standing up, I stood straight and bowed forward slightly. "It's nice to meet you too. I guess you already know my name, though." My voice was a little bitter.

Yoshikawa chuckled. "No need to bow. I'm just here to take you to the person who's going to fix you up. They've explained to you why you need to go there, right?"

"...Yeah." I smiled.

Meanwhile, inwardly, I was panicking. Oh god, was I not supposed to know about the clones dying after long enough? Hopefully I would be able to hide that I knew that from people - or, better yet, hopefully those two scientists just didn't care enough to remember much about me.

"As for your other question… yeah, I remember the designation you were given by the project heads. It was 'Misaka BEST,' right?"

"Right," I muttered disdainfully.

She blinked. "You… don't like that name?"

I could have gone on a rant about how I wasn't just some clone, and how I was a person too - how I didn't want to be seen as some kind of tool.

Instead, I just shook my head.

"...hm." Yoshikawa stared at me, an odd look in her eyes. Turning towards the door, she looked over her shoulder. "Follow me; we're going to go to that doctor now."

Suddenly, a scene from earlier popped into my head. "...Wait. The older scientist said you were here earlier. Why did you take so long to come in?" I asked.

"Ah, that's because I was talking to a friend on the phone," Yoshikawa said, and chuckled. "She held me up for quite a bit, and just as I'd parked, too."

"...okay, then."

"Anyway, come on, won't you?" She nodded at me, then turned around and started to walk towards the doorway.

I followed, actually prepared this time instead of being caught off guard. Once I was outside, I caught my first glimpse of Academy City, in the flesh.

The carpark was circular, with the facility I'd just been in encompassing the majority of it, multiple stories high. I looked around for an exit, spotting an undercover one underneath the facility's second floor to the left. In the distance, through that exit, I could see a small urban landscape.

"Hey, don't be too long," Yoshikawa called. Looking over at her, I saw she was already next to one of the few cars in the car park - presumably the one that was hers. "This might not be too time sensitive, but we really should get there on time."

"O-okay!" I hurried over towards the car, pulling the left front door open and clambering in before pulling it shut. I put my seatbelt on and waited.

Yoshikawa climbed into the other side and took out a key, starting the car.

As the car backed out of the parking space, she spoke up. "So then, Testament's probably told you a bit about Academy City, but you can't say you've seen it until you've experienced it first-hand. I've heard it can be pretty overwhelming. So, are you ready?"

I opened my mouth, then shut it. Was I ready? That question had a lot of nuance - it could have meant a lot of things. 'Are you ready to see Academy City,' for instance, or 'Are you ready for your new life.'

I know what she meant, but my brain kept cycling through all the potential meanings. 'Are you ready to die to Imagine Breaker?' 'Are you ready to be a Level 5 Esper?' 'Are you ready for this world?'

I banished those questions from my head, Best to just answer what she asked me, right?

"...I guess," I said.

Yoshikawa smiled. "Alright. We're off." Out of the parking space now, Yoshikawa drove the car towards the exit.

Pulling up at the exit, she stopped in front of a boom gate, and a mechanical arm with a rectangular object at the end descended from the ceiling. The rectangular object turned towards the car, and a green glow flashed on.

I winced when green light appeared in my vision. Then, the arm retreated, almost comically being sucked up into the ceiling, and the boom gate opened.

Yoshikawa drove out, and I saw Academy City.

My mouth opened wide, and my head turned to the left window as Yoshikawa turned right. People had gone on about how Academy City was the city of the future when it came to what kind of a city it was, but the show hadn't done it justice.

The facility we'd left was opposite a giant, undeveloped field of grass. From where we were, I could see a lot of Academy City.

The very first thing that stood out was the enormous structure that I vaguely remembered being a space elevator. It was huge - large enough that it felt like I could almost touch it even from how far away we were. Even so, the skyscrapers that dotted the landscape were no slouches; it felt like they actually scraped the sky, from what I could see of them. They were nowhere near as large as the massive space elevator, but they were still huge - almost like something I'd expect from New York.

"It's enormous, isn't it?"

I blinked, turning back to look at Yoshikawa. "Huh?"

"Academy City. Don't worry, you're not the first to react like this - other Misakas have seen how big the city is and reacted to it with shock and surprise too. Of course, their response is a little more muted than yours." She kept her eyes on the road as she talked.

"Well… yeah. I know that it's supposed to be this city of the future or something, but I didn't expect it to be as impressive as this," I said.

Yoshikawa chuckled. "Sometimes, with situations like this, I don't think Testament has done a good enough job of imprinting how impressive the City is onto clones. Oh, that reminds me!"

I blinked. "What is it?"

"You seemed like you didn't really like being called… well, by your official designation. Do you wanna be called something different?"

A word popped into my head instantly. "Yeah, actually," I said. "Call me Minami."

"Minami, huh?" She sounded happy. "That's a good name."

I was quiet for a second. Then I spoke up. "This doctor we're going to... Do you think he'll really be able to do it? That he'll be able to fix me up?"

"Yes, Minami." Her voice was firm with confidence, and although hearing my new name felt a bit weird, it wasn't bad at all. "Yes I do."

AN:

Sorry if this chapter's a little short; I'd rather do introductory chapters where I introduce the characters than jump right into the action personally.