Chapter 10
Back for more? Leave a review. Anyways, I've been on the slow transition to a more serious arc now that the quirky one is nearing its end.
"I still can't believe it.", Misaka mumbled.
Kuroko and Misaka were walking to their dorm at the late afternoon. It had been three days since the fiasco at the cafeteria, Three of Seno's goons and Domen were long discharged from the clinic but what surprises her the most was Seno Ayume herself. The girl was studying, exercising and most baffling of all, smiling. She welcomed the goons, that was for sure but she also apologized to Domen. She apologized publicly, in the cafeteria, a public place, a very public place. "It- it's not her style. What the heck?", Misaka thought.
Kuroko threw her onee-sama a glance. She had been stuck in a thinking posture ever since they started walking. Her eyes were a bit livelier but she's still worried. She seems off these past few days.
"Onee-sama, let's just be happy. The fiasco's over.", Kuroko tried to cheer her up.
"Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. I should calm down and continue to go to school like normal", Misaka forced a smile while sipping a can from the vending machine.
Her fingers were twitching and she was heavily agitated. She felt like she drank a gallon of coffee. She couldn't sleep the past few days and "what is with this increased paranoia?", she thought. She had a small bout of coughs. Tiredly, she brushed her fingers in her bangs to let the air hit her warm forehead, much to Kuroko's delight. She practically drooled on the action. "Onee-sama, I love you", she jumped at the older girl, forgetting her early dilemma at the call of sensual nature.
oOoOo
"Arcade, it is", Misaka hummed to herself.
After classes, Kuroko and Uiharu still had Judgement reports to be done while Saten had to review for a study and that leaves Misaka to stand-read a manga. After a hefty amount of reading, she proceeded to go to the arcade to let off some steam from the day. She was so active that she ended up raising her hand in every question at class. "Am I approaching a period or something?", she sighed.
Grabbing some money from her wallet, she approached the door and the stand. She placed the bill in exchange for some arcade coins. A small amount was placed in her uniform pocket for her trusty railguns and the others were dancing on her hand's electricity.
Right, Left, Right, Left, Up, Down, Left, Right, the joysticks were moving in impressive speeds. Misaka had attracted quite a crowd. "Piece of cake", she thought. At this rate, she was sure that she would get a new high score.
"I swear, I see that girl every week in here", a man behind her said.
"She's scary", another man joked.
Misaka paid them no mind and continued on to beat the high score she set a week ago. "Just a bit more left", Misaka focused all her strength to reach it when this weird noise came out of the game. It was a descending tone in the piano that goes from C to a B then a B flat then an A. The game stilled to a black screen then a colorful image, resetting the sound to a cheerful tone with a save option.
"No!", Misaka grumbled.
She lost right before the pivotal part. She hated this. Grabbing another coin, she inserted it into the machine and continued the quest to beat the high score. "Here we go!", she excitedly thought to herself.
She lost again.
"Another try", she whispered to herself.
She lost again.
"Are you kidding me? Why can't I beat this high score I made?!", she grumbled to herself.
Unknowingly, small sparks of electricity were appearing around her and it alarmed the crowd. The arcade owner came by to warn her with the use of esper abilities, "Miss, this is a safe place. I don't recommend the use of esper abilities". Misaka had the decency to look sheepish at the comment. "If it's okay Miss. I would really want you to vacate the area. Take out your aggression somewhere, not my arcade.", the man sighed.
Misaka's fingers were twitching. "This is the worst day", she was saying to herself as she walked to the park.
Back at Tokiwadai, before she hit the arcade, she felt incredibly twitchy at class. "What I was thinking?", she threw her head back in exasperation.
Her teacher was simply writing a problem in the board from the textbook, showing it as an example. "7?", a girl was called to answer the motion problem. "That's not the answer I was looking for but close enough, it was a 5", the teacher said.
With a ridiculous nerve, Misaka raised her hand. "I think she's right", she spoke even before the teacher permitted her.
"Misaka, I do wish you speak in an orderly manner but what was that?", the teacher looked back.
"The answer's 7. It would have to be a 1 in the given rate and not a 7 for it to be a 5", Misaka answered.
After careful pondering, the teacher looked back at her book. "Oh yes, I seem to have mistaken the 1 and the 7. They do look quite a look alike. Thank you Misaka for pointing that out", the teacher smiled. And in that second, people slowly tilted their heads towards her direction. No one else couldn't point out changing the "1" even if they were sure it was not a "5" as the answer.
At the looks, Misaka snapped out of her trance. "Ah-ah, Ehhhhh. I just caught it 'cause I think I saw a similar problem before. Aha-Ahahahaha", Misaka rubbed the back of her head.
"This is all because of that girl Seno. She's been causing havoc at school, bullying people because of her. She even touched the topic of her sisters. She even had the nerve to call her out that people are hurt because of her and that thing with Shokuhou too. Why did Shokuhou help me? Of course, she can see Seno's plan from a mile away. Shokuhou's adept at reading people but why would she help me?!", Misaka rumbled her head after recalling the painful memory from hours ago.
"No- no! I don't want to. Let go!", a girl shouted.
"What?", Misaka turned away from the vending machine she was going too and looked to her right. Near a thick line of trees, an older girl was trying to shout with a man's hand on her mouth. There were four men, all dressed like hooligans. Ugly T-shirts with big prints of skulls and snakes were stretched by their fat bodies. "The sun's still shining. It isn't even night time", Misaka thought to herself as she walked over.
"Relax, sweetie. Don't shout or we'll be forced to get rough", the tallest man gave a sadistic grin.
The girl could only look at the guy with tears clouding her vision. She was horrified but out of nowhere, a young girl appeared.
"What the heck do you think you're doing?", Misaka said.
"Another little girl", the one who had her hand on the girl's mouth spoke.
"Playing hero maybe?", the tallest said.
"Listen kid, if you don't move away now. We'll let you join the fun whether you want it or not", the supposed leader said. Misaka noticed the proud face.
"It's the afternoon. Don't you guys get embarrassed or something?", Misaka sneered.
"Listen you little Tokiwadai girl, you might be a Level 3 or even a Level 4 esper but were four men and we're espers too. That's gonna pose a challenge, no matter your level. You hear me?!", the tallest said.
"You know what, grab her. Let her join in!", the leader laughed.
Two men charged, the tallest and the supposed lackey who haven't spoken yet. The lackey summoned a weak ring of fire to encircle Misaka and trap her while an entrance poked out for the other man to charge inside. The man threw a punch and Misaka dodged. She heard a loud beat of wind at the fist. "Strength? That sounded like a really strong punch", she thought. She continued dodging the fists.
"N-no", out of her peripheral, Misaka saw the girl being grabbed inappropriately.
Her anger hardened at the sight. "They have no guilt at all!", Misaka screamed in her mind as she saw the leader laughing manically as she pried open the girl's vest.
"Stop it!", blue wisps of electricity surrounded her body.
"Electromaster! Knock her out quickly!", the leader said. His focus was shifted from the crying girl's body.
"Too late", Misaka electrified the thugs. The pyromancer couldn't control the fire quick enough to subdue her. They laid sprawled out in the ground before the other two could even reveal their abilities. Unfortunately, her electricity set up the alarm for a technological disturbance. "Really?!", Misaka sighed. "Well, nothing to be done now. I'll call judgement to explain".
"They're –perverts", the stranger sniffed. Her eyes were rimmed red and she could barely button her white top. Her vest was thrown in the ground. "It will be a while before these guys wake up. Honestly, Academy City shouldn't accept guys like them.", Misaka said as she picked up the cloth on the ground.
"Thanks", the girl cried out as Misaka handed her vest. She noticed how the girl seems like a high schooler, a few years older her. "It's really no problem. After what happened to you, they deserve to be put in bars and you deserve to be treated well", she smiled.
Suddenly, the girl hugged her. "I'm sorry. I-I just feel so-so weak right now and you're, you're a savior", she seemed to cry harder than before. "Why did you have to say those kind words?!", her tears were staining Misaka's uniform now, not that she minded. "U-umm. It's okay really. You—you can cry all you want. No, that sounded wrong. Umm.. Let's see, just think about how everything might be better tomorrow. Aha-Ahahaha.", Misaka really did try her best to cheer her up. "I'm not the best at situations like these.". Misaka's blush at the girl's sudden proximity was prominent. She's rarely hugged by the girls from her school, let alone strangers. If it wasn't for what happened earlier, she would've been electrified.
"It's okay", the girl chuckled, to Misaka's delight.
The delight was short-lived apparently.
"ONEE-SAMA!", Kuroko's whole body twitched.
The stranger slowly let her arms fall to look at the judgement girl who suddenly teleported. "Oh, Judgement got here fast", she smiled. A silence enveloped the trio after that sentence, "Huh?".
Kuroko was convulsing, if that's what you call it. Her body laid in the ground and she trashed like a feral animal. Misaka could only look at the sight, urging the stranger to get away from this "display of illness".
Kuroko saw it all. Out here in the tree line of the parks, where there are very limited people, this girl was rendezvousing with her Onee-sama. "How desperate of you! To throw yourself in the arms of Onee-sama with your vest off and your top open! No girl from Tokiwadai would dare steal a hug from the Railgun! You might have a mature figure and the air of an older age but I'll have you know Onee-sama likes cute little girls like me not old mothers!, Kuroko shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Ku-ro-ko!", Misaka electrified Kuroko to the ground while the stranger just stared wide-eyed at the pair. "This girl was a victim of lewd behavior and if anyone's stealing hugs here, it's you, you perv! Now go do your Judgement duty with the gang of thugs back here! Honestly".
"Onee-sama!", Kuroko cried out before she did her duty at the blue spark of warning.
Misaka sighed, "Here, I'll tie your ribbon. Sorry with the weird judgement girl". Kuroko could only viciously look at the pair like candy was stolen from her and she was mocked with it. "Weird Judgement girl", Kuroko repeated with a mocking voice.
"What was that?!", Misaka shouted at the pink-haired junior. "Nothing, Onee-sama!", Kuroko shivered.
Suddenly while Kuroko was cuffing the thugs, a black van came rolling in. "Anti-Skill?", she thought. Misaka and the stranger looked on to the black van as two men came out, fully equipped with weapons and armor.
"What happened to the men, here? We were notified with a disturbance. A group of four thugs were described to be harassing someone. We suspect that it's the notorious esper gang, Snakes.", the guy interrogated.
"Well, here they are. I cuffed them.", Kuroko sarcastically commented.
The guy's mouth twitched with irritation. "This is out of your jurisdiction and acting on it is punishable. We'll take it from here."
"Excuse me but I was notified of an electrical disturbance before I saw what was happening here", Kuroko countered.
"And you? What are you doing here? We see no judgement band.", the other guy said.
"I saved her from assault. She was about to get molested in broad daylight!", Misaka said in frustration.
"You severely damaged these guys and you're a civilian? That would have consequences, kid. We need to know what really happened here. The Judgement girl will say the story", the officer said.
"Why you?!", Misaka's anger was rising. She had just saved a girl and now, she's being punished! "Onee-sama", Kuroko grabbed Onee-sama's arm to tell her to stop.
"The girl you can see right here", Kuroko brought the stranger forward. "was being assaulted by a group of four. I arrived here and her vest was removed and her top wide open. Misaka Mikoto, a civilian, saw the scene and saved her, just in time. There are scorch marks on the ground from a pyromancer and the savior is an electric manipulator. Clearly, a fight has broken out to save the girl and that explains why they had to be subdued with force because they didn't let the girl go. By all means, this girl saved her", Kuroko calmly explained.
The officer clicked his tongue, "Fine then".
Meanwhile, Misaka was boiling with anger. She let out an agitated cough. This day had been a very bad day and it was seeping into her skin and mind. She just felt so on edge and her head was aching and her skin was tingling.
"I wouldn't have to save her, if it weren't for you guys always arriving late!", Misaka shouted.
"Onee-sama", Kuroko grabbed her arm. "Onee-sama, please, this is hardly the time to let out your frustration. We must go to the dorm before curfew.", Kuroko pleaded with her.
"Listen to your friend, kid", the Anti-Skill officer's tall figure went right in front of Misaka.
Misaka coughed. "This, this, this useless excuse of an officer had the nerve to go right in front of her and tell her to scram?! He didn't even do anything good! I bet- I bet this old guy doesn't even have the same fighting experience as half the people her age. There are those people her age that work for the dark side, she herself had to fight her way for her sisters.", she thought. Unknowingly, sparks of electricity were appearing.
"Wielding your esper ability is threat of assault. We can give you a warning for that", the guy said.
Her anger rose and for a second, she wanted to shock the annoying guy when, she suddenly felt like falling. Her head throbbed. "Wh-what?", she whispered. Faintly, she could hear the two girl's voice calling after her, "Onee-sama" and "Are you okay?". She couldn't respond. She was coughing so much that blood actually started to come out of it. She couldn't even hear Kuroko getting red and angered, "What did you to her?!". The panicked voices sounded so faraway. She kept coughing and a sudden shoot of pain went to her heart. "Ah!", she clutched it. Kuroko was shouting orders to the Anti-Skill to just fix everything while she takes the civilian to the nearest clinic by teleportation. Misaka clutched the piece of cloth above her chest and she pushed pressure instinctively to block out the pain. She fainted before Kuroko could even lift her from the ground. "Onee-sama! Wake up please!", Kuroko shouted as she teleported in succession to the nearest hospital.