Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Sixty Four: Glitchy Reality
Beta:
One Saturday afternoon, almost a week after the Mutagen Incident, Naru was hanging out with the rest of the Trinity and their friends Shirai-chan and Uiharu-chan at their favourite diner, Joseph's Coffee and Restaurant.
"Oi Uiharu, what's that on Saten-san's phone that's got you so mesmerized?" Shirai-chan asked as they all settled into seats in their regular booth, gesturing at the tech wiz who had done so without taking her eyes off the phone that she'd borrowed from their mutual best friend.
Uiharu-chan exchanged a look with Rui-chan and upon receiving a nod from the Number 3 happily turned the phone around for the rest of them to see what had so captivated her.
"This!" She declared as she showed them a photo that looked like it had been taken by said phone.
It was a snapshot of the little family Rui-chan had made for herself taken at some park or the other. On the extreme left was her boyfriend Accelerator with a somewhat forced smile, looking like he wasn't sure what in the world he was doing but still playing along. On the extreme right was Rui-chan smiling as brightly as Naru had ever seen her best friend smile. Between them were the three girls they'd adopted. Starting from the right was a confused looking Janie-chan followed by the enthusiastically smiling Febrie-chan and Last Order-chan. It looked incredibly sweet.
"Let me see that," Mikoto-sempai asked Rui-chan as she leaned over towards Uiharu-chan and upon receiving a nod from its owner took the phone to take a closer look at the photo.
"It is a great family photo." Shirai-chan commented as she leaned in to look at it more closely alongside Mikoto-sempai.
"Yeah, it definitely is Rui-chan." Naru agreed. "Is there a story behind it?"
"I don't think it's much of a story but-
~ Flashback ~
It was a pleasant Wednesday afternoon as Ruiko, Accel and their daughters walked through one of the City's many parks on their way to one of its playgrounds. Something that they did as a family regularly. The only difference from the norm was that Ruiko had chosen to break the Tokiwadai dress code today and forego her school uniform in lieu of a round neck floral print blouse and a simple mini skirt. As much as she enjoyed being a Tokiwadai student, its policy of requiring all its students to only ever wear its uniform even outside of campus and school hours was just ridiculous.
She understood the need to promote themselves but stifling their students' self-expression like this was just excessive. And if she, the former [Robot], could think that then she could only imagine how annoyed her schoolmates were with the draconian rule.
"Ruiko, why is the brat messing with your phone?" Accel asked, gesturing to an enthralled looking Last Order who was busy going through the photo library of Ruiko's phone.
"No idea," Ruiko admitted with a shrug. There wasn't anything on her phone that her daughter would so eagerly look for as far as she knew. Especially not in her photo library. The only things in there were a handful of photos of her family and friends. She wasn't exactly a photography enthusiast.
"Order-chan said she wanted to check something so I handed it to her."
Accel's eyes narrowed suspiciously and he used his cane to tap their oldest daughter's shoulder, causing her to stop and turn to him with a questioning look.
"Oi, brat!" He said once he had Order-chan's attention. "What are you looking at on Ruiko's phone?"
"Misaka wants to see if we have a family photo, Misaka Misaka explains." The chestnut haired ten year old said with a pout. "But Misaka can't find one, Misaka Misaka notes, crestfallen."
"Family photo?" Janie asked, blinking in confusion. "What's that?"
"It's a photo where everyone in the family is inside." Febrie explained to her twin, before turning to her older sister with a frown. "We really don't have one Order-nee?"
"We don't," Ruiko confirmed instead. "We've never taken one."
Febrie and Last Order gasped at that whilst Janie just continued looking adorably confused.
"Uh, is having one important?" She asked her sisters.
"It definitely is! Misaka Misaka asserts." Order-chan insisted, hopping on the spot. "Every family has one! Misaka Misaka adds. We need one too. Misaka Misaka demands indignantly."
"Un! Un!" Febrie said, nodding her head in fervent agreement.
"What the hell brought this on brat?" Accel asked, shooting their eldest a narrowed eyed look. "Why are you suddenly all concerned about this?"
"19871 just took a family photo with her neighbours who, in her words, 'have practically adopted' her, and has been crowing all about it on the Misaka Network. Misaka Misaka reveals. Misaka refuses to let her be the only one who has one. Misaka Misaka adds defiantly."
"We should have one too!" Febrie said, echoing her big sister's sentiments.
"Janie?" Ruiko asked, looking at her middle daughter. "What do you think? Should we take one?"
"I don't mind." The little blonde said with a shrug that had her ahoge bouncing as she did so.
Ruiko nodded and turned to her co-parent. "Accel?"
Her boyfriend looked at their brood, especially Last Order and Febrie and their pleading looks before sighing. "Alright, let's do this."
Ruiko offered him a happy smile and conjured a stand for her phone made out of Dark Matter, placing the device in it and activating its camera. All whilst in the background Last Order and Febrie cheered.
"Let's keep in casual." Ruiko suggested, gesturing for her family to gather around her phone. "Gather round and smile."
~ Flashback Ends ~
Back in Joseph's Coffee and Restaurant, Naru smiled as Rui-chan just shrugged.
"I don't think it's much of a story but we just realised we haven't actually taken a photo of all five of us before, so we decided to do just that."
Naru blinked at that. Wait. Was it just me or did Rui-chan repeat herself a little there.
Considering no one else seemed to have noticed… Yeah, it's probably just me.
"My turn," Naru said, shaking off the case of deja vu and stretching out her hand for Rui-chan's phone.
"Here you go," Mikoto-sempai said with a pout as she handed it over.
"Thank you," Naru replied politely as she began to examine the photo.
"Oh! It looks great Rui-chan."
And don't get her wrong it did. But like she'd thought, Janie looked a little confused. "Just why is Janie-chan looking like that?"
"We're not a photo taking bunch as you'd guessed by this being our first family photo," Rui-chan said as she took her phone back at last. "So she was a little perplexed with the sudden need to take one."
"Ah." Naru nodded in understanding. "And let me guess Last Order-chan is the one who decided you guys needed it, right? She looked the most enthusiastic in the pic."
"Sounds like the munchkin," Mikoto-sempai agreed with a sigh. "I sometimes can't believe she's one of my Sisters. I don't remember having as much energy as she does at her age."
Everyone giggled at the [Railgun]'s little self-deprecating joke.
"Yes, it was Order-chan." Rui-chan confirmed. "I can tell you guys the whole story later if you want. But for now why don't we place our orders? I'm famished."
"We'll hold you to that promise." Uiharu-chan said, even as Shirai-chan waved over a server to take their orders. They were so familiar with Joseph's that they hardly needed a menu to pick out what they wanted.
"Of course," Rui-chan said easily as a waitress walked over.
Naru had split up with her friends after lunch. She'd had a date with her girlfriends to get ready for. So after the meal, she'd said her goodbyes and teleported back to her dorm to take a quick shower and change into a sporty chic outfit consisting of a purple polo tee and a blue, belted, pleated, irregular hem tennis skirt that she complemented with a pair of gladiator sandals before heading out. Her destination was an up and coming shopping area in District 15 that was aping School Garden's architectural style in a bid to, as its marketing described, "bring a taste of the elite School Garden experience to the masses". She'd have arranged to have her date in the real deal but since she'd chosen to dress for the occasion and thus flout Tokiwadai's draconian dress code, she'd chosen not to risk the exposure of doing so in her school's backyard. Whilst she hadn't exactly gotten in trouble for having done so on their first date, the warning she'd gotten from her home room teacher afterwards was something she'd like to avoid a repeat of.
"Huh? I'm here first?" Naru observed as she teleported to the spot where she'd agreed to meet Shu-chan and Arisa-chan and found that she was the first to arrive.
It wasn't exactly a common occurrence for their dates. Her girlfriends, or at least Shu-chan, was as serious about punctuality as she was about everything, which was a lot. She was thus almost always early. The only times she was late…
Oh! I can't wait to see what Arisa-chan managed to finagle Shu-chan into wearing today. Naru thought with an enthusiastic smile, happily looking forward to what miracle the more fashion savvy of her girlfriends had dressed their shared body in.
"Naru," Shu-chan's melodic voice greeted suddenly and Naru spun in its direction and laid eyes on her beautiful girlfriend.
It seemed that despite their agreement to dress casual for the day, Arisa-chan had outdone herself. For whilst the outfit made out of a black cinched waist dress, black pantyhose, a blue jacket, a mauve handbag and a pair of flats wasn't exactly earth shattering, it nevertheless gave them a girl next door look whilst making them seem classy at the same time. It made Shu-chan and Arisa-chan look absolutely amazing.
"Have you been waiting long?" Shu-chan asked, smiling in welcome. "I'm sorry for being late, but Arisa didn't agree with my initial choice of outfit."
Naru was too lost in her admiration of her girlfriend to reply.
"Have you been waiting long? I'm sorry for being late but Arisa didn't agree with my initial choice of outfit." Shu-chan repeated herself.
"Huh?" Naru said, blinking slightly in confusion at the uncharacteristic behavior on her girlfriend's part before shaking her head and dismissing it.
It was probably me getting so caught up in leer- Uh, admiring Shu-chan and Arisa-chan that I misheard her.
"Naru-chan, are you alright?" Arisa-chan asked in her kinder tone.
"Oh, I'm fine, just busy appreciating just how pretty my girlfriends are that's all." Naru confessed shamelessly.
Said girlfriends blushed prettily at the praise.
"From what Shu-chan said, I have to thank you for the heavenly sight today, Arisa-chan?"
"Yup," the songstress replied playfully. "Shutaura's idea of casual was a plain blouse and a pair of slacks. Which whilst okay for normal casual definitely is a little too casual for a date."
"Yes, as you spent a whole hour explaining to me while we got ready." Shu-chan shot back.
"Hey, it's not my fault that it took that long to convince you."
Naru couldn't help it. She giggled at her girlfriends' banter.
"I'm so glad we could entertain you, Naru." Shu-chan said in a deadpan even as she rolled her eyes.
"Oh, lighten up Shutaura." Arisa-chan chided her other half. "Besides we are funny when we get going. Even your Crows think so."
The leader of the Black Crows just pouted at that and Naru giggled even harder, soon joined by Arisa-chan as she took control of the body she shared with Shu-chan.
It took both of them a couple minutes to stifle their giggles but once they did, Shu-chan took control of her shared body once more and rolled her eyes at them for having a laugh at her expense.
"Alright, enough laughing at me. Why don't we get this date started?"
Smiling brightly, Naru grabbed Shu-chan's hand.
"Right," she said. "Follow me! I've got everything all planned out."
"Lead the way then," Arisa-chan said with a giggle.
"Yes, lead on." Shu-chan said, returning Naru's enthusiasm with an amused grin and a light blush.
"So what should we do after this?" Naru asked her girlfriends as she finished taking a lick from her cone of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sprinkles. "I mean, we can't exactly walk around the whole day can we?"
"I thought you had everything planned out?" Arisa-chan teased with a giggle as she swallowed a mouthful of her own cone of rocky road and they continued their pleasant stroll through the park that surrounded the ice cream vendor where they'd purchased their sugary treats.
"Yes, didn't you have any plans?" Shu-chan added with her own amused smile.
"Sure, I did." Naru said with a smirk. "I allotted time for what you two would want to do, ya know like a good girlfriend would? So Shu-chan, Arisa-chan, any ideas?"
"You're too kind, Naru." Shu-chan said with a shake of her head. "But no, I have no ideas. Arisa?"
"I have one!" Arisa-chan said enthusiastically.
Apparently, Arisa-chan's idea for the next stop on their date was to stop by an antiques shop to buy some things to spice up the apartment she now shared with Shu-chan.
"Oh! Oh! Naru-chan, Shutaura, look! A vintage Victorian globe! Can we get it? Please?" Arisa-chan pleaded as she held it, looking to the blonde adorably. "It would definitely liven up our apartment."
"What about this weathered wooden chest too?" Naru helpfully as she pointed to the aforementioned item.
"Ooooh, I knew coming here was a good idea. It's so old looking and fits perfectly with Shutaura's tastes."
"M-My apartment isn't that plain!" Shu-chan flustered as she looked at the globe in her hands.
Naru put a hand on her shoulder, leaned forward and pecked her cheek. "Sweetie, leave this to us. Now! Arisa-chan, what about this stained glass lamp?"
"Eh? Eh! It's so cute, we have to get this too! The glass gives off some great relaxing colors." Arisa-chan said, spinning on her feet to look.
"I'm going to be paying for all of this?" Shu-chan asked, once more in control.
"Let Arisa-chan have some fun and splurge. It's not like it'll hurt your account." The petite blonde informed teasingly.
Seriously, the two were rolling in money with the jobs they did. That and all the money they'd manage to 'inherit' from Ladylee. For a crazed loli, she'd still made a killing on the stock market. Being immortal certainly made holding long-term positions easy. And even if they'd only managed to siphon off a fraction of her assets after the bitch's downfall before someone, either Ladylee herself or Aleister and/or the City's Directors, stepped in to secure the rest, Naru knew for a fact that her girlfriends had gotten enough to have become overnight billionaires.
After they had arranged for the antiques that Arisa-chan had purchased to be delivered to her girlfriends' apartment, the trio had decided it was time for some cuddling.
"C-Can I go first?" Arisa-chan fidgeted as they sat in the purple and pink themed room Naru had paid for in the love hotel she decided to bring her girlfriends to. Sure, she could have gotten a private room at one of the many salons in the City, but the stuttering look on her girlfriends' face when she dragged them here? It was too tantalizing to miss!
"A-As the first girlfriend, I should go first." Shu-chan argued with a brilliant flush on her cheeks.
Too cute! Naru's girlfriends were too cute, even when bickering.
"B-But you've gotten to kiss Naru-chan more than I have. It's not fair!"
"Maybe you two can share control at the same time?" Naru purred suggestively as she unbuttoned the top of her polo. "Have you tried that?"
In what must've been something that was incredibly disorientating, her girlfriends' had their eyes stare into each other in a cross eyed look.
"Why didn't we think of that?" Her two girlfriends said, their two voices mixing together in a harmonious melody.
"There," Naru said with a triumphant grin. "Now you can both kiss me at the same ti-"
Before the blonde could even finish, her girlfriends caught her in a passionate kiss even as they pushed her down onto the bed in a show of uncharacteristic, but not unwelcome want.
When they finally broke the kiss, faces flustered and breathing heavily, Naru could only say one thing as her brain rebooted.
"...Eh?" The petite girl squeaked as the girlfriends' strong fingers on one hand held her chin in place. Even as the other hand, trailed sensually up and down her side before coming up to cup one of her perky breasts. Shu-chan's hair was like a curtain around them, that blocked out most of the dim light of the room and made it so that they could only see each other.
"Naru~ For being such a tease, we're going to punish you a little for being a bad girl." Shu-chan and Arisa-chan said in the beautiful chorus of their combined voices and squeezed her breast harshly, eliciting a pleased moan from the Level 5.
The Number Two could only meekly nod, entranced by this, this assertiveness!
"D-Do your worst!" Naru stammered, a small part of her pleading for them to do so.
"Did you really have to whip out the fuzzy cuffs?" Naru asked, blushing terribly as she rubbed at her wrists meaningfully as her girlfriends escorted her back to her dorm. Her regeneration had of course long since dealt with the chafing the cuffs - One of the ahem!amenities that the love hotel offered its patrons. - had caused, but the reminder of the injury, slight though it was, that the little toy that her girlfriends' had used in their games back at the love hotel elicited the blush she'd been looking for just like she'd planned.
Shu-chan looked away, her face crimson. "Y-You were being too uppity! Arisa said w-we had to sh-show some dom-dominance. A-And don't act like you weren't thrilled!"
"I'd thought stripping me down to my panties was enough." Naru said with a playful whine. "Did you really have to cuff me too?"
"Please stop trying to tease Shutaura, Naru-chan." Arisa-chan cut in. "You enjoyed it, so please stop. Trust me, she's so sexually repressed that half of the things we did earlier, tame though they were, have already melted her mind. I have to share a head with her and hearing her muttering incoherently about it as she tries to process and accept it is bad enough. Please stop adding fuel to the fire."
"Fi~ne!" Naru sing-songed, but gave a catty smile. "I'll leave the deviant ideas to you two~ I am a pure and innocent Ojou-sama after all."
"You? P-Pure and innocent?" Shu-chan sputtered out. "I've checked your search history, you deviant."
"Yeah, but I wasn't the one who cuffed their almost naked girlfriend and had their way with her breasts now did I?" Naru couldn't help but shoot back.
"Naru-chan~!" Arisa-chan whined, her face a brilliant red. "You promised."
"Sorry, I couldn't help it." Naru apologised. "But honestly, what's Shu-chan's deal? I mean it couldn't have been all you back at the love hotel right?"
"It was both of us," Shu-chan confessed as she fiddled with her clutch. "Both Arisa and I but-"
"-Shu-chan is having, I guess, the best analogy is buyer's remorse? Yeah, that."
"Why?"
"'Cos she didn't think she's ready to go that far with you." Arisa said with a shrug. "I think it's silly, I mean she has no qualms with you doing the same things back to us but that's what she thinks."
Naru paused in her steps, a cold pit forming in her stomach and she reached over to grab one of Shu-chan's hands softly, using it to pull her close. "I'm sorry, Shu-chan. I wasn't trying to force anything back at the love hotel. I just wanted to see your cute blushing face. It's super okay if you aren't ready yet."
"I know," Shu-chan said with a reassuring smile. "If I didn't want to do it, I would've stopped. It's just, I-I am embarrassed that I wanted to do it. That I actually did it. I know it doesn't make sense but it's just how I feel."
"Shutaura is probably still getting over how our previous division left her sexually repressed." Arisa-chan said musingly. "Her libido shot up after we merged again. I know mine did. But mine was always pretty healthy to begin with, but Shutaura's? It was there, but she kept it on such a tight leash that now-"
"-I'm having trouble dealing with the change." Shu-chan confessed. "But I'm getting better at it. Don't worry about it, Naru-chan. You did nothing wrong."
"Right," Naru nodded uncertainly. "Just to confirm though, you don't mind me sucking on your breasts? Or me seeing you topless? Or the other way around?"
"I'm okay with the first two," Shu-chan agreed with a blush. "I really want the latter too and am working to be okay with that."
"Good, then I don't feel bad doing this!" Naru declared as she used a little wind manipulation to leap upwards slightly to match her taller girlfriends' height and wrap her legs around her waist whilst pulling her into a deep kiss even as her hands cupped both of the older girl's breasts and gave them a playful squeeze.
Before the other girl could react, Naru let go and with a little help from more Aero Hand she pushed away to land a short distance away, just in front of the gates to the Tokiwadai campus.
"Bye Shu-chan, Arisa-chan, see you soon." She said with a teasing wave as she ran into the compound before her thoroughly kissed and still very much disorientated girlfriends had regained their bearings.
That night, Naru found herself suddenly strapped down to a bed inside a cave and being tended to by an old woman in medical garb with long, brown hair which she kept in a high ponytail, dark eyes, and barely visible creases at the corners of her eyes. Oh and she was pregnant! Very pregnant if her swollen belly was anything to go by.
"W-What? Where am I?" Naru asked, as she struggled against her restraints.
Aren't I asleep? I remember saying goodnight to Awatsuki-chan and going to bed in my bed in the dorms. A confused Naru thought to herself as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place for her.
"Oh Science is this another fetish dream?! But then where's Shu-chan and Arisa-chan?"
"Has the pain made you delirious Kushina-chan?" The old woman said. "You're inside the specially prepared chamber we set up for you to deliver your baby. Don't you remember?"
"Do you think it could be the pain getting to her, Biwako-sama?" The recognizable figure of Naru's father asked the old lady.
"Wow! I see where my genes come from." Naru couldn't help but comment as she looked at her father super close. All whilst she instinctively used her Esper powers to direct her chakra to at once dull her pain and suppress the very familiar churning mass of chakra trying to escape from her navel.
"Okay, Kurama should be tame for now. I don't know why he was chained to a rock, that's just barbaric." She frowned in annoyance for her demon, who was strangely silent despite her intervention and her efforts to speak to him.
"Kurama?" Her father asked in bewilderment.
Wait! Papa!? Does that mean that right now I'm Mama!? I think I need to see my therapist. I think I might have an Electra Complex now.
"His name, duh. Now shush, I'm trying to talk to him." Naru said, sighed as she used her chakra to suppress her pain from apparently giving birth! To herself!
"You can do that later." The old woman, Biwako apparently, said as she glanced in between Naru's legs. A rare privilege. "I see the baby's head. You need to push!"
"Um, alright. Pushing. H-How hard should I push?"
She didn't want to hurt herself! Baby self. Ugh, this was confusing!
"Just push as hard as you can," the Biwako woman said encouragingly.
Naru honestly didn't know what she was doing but she followed the older woman's instructions. Her body seemed to though, probably whatever coaching her Mama had gotten before she'd ended up in her body taking hold. So it was that in just a few minutes of pushing, a process that reminded her of nothing else but taking a dump, she saw the old lady extract a wailing baby with blonde hair from inside her.
Huh? Thought it would be crazy painful but I guess my standard pain suppression works on birthing pains too. Good to know when I decide to have a baby for real. Though this is a dream, so… Well, I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it.
"The baby is safe, Minato-sama. It's a girl." The older woman told her Papa. "Could you check if the Kyuubi is secure whilst I clean her and Kushina-san up?"
"I told you, Kurama's locked tight. He's not going anywhere. Can I get some water, my mouth feels like I swallowed cotton or something."
"Let me just check dear, please?" Papa said with a face that she herself has made many times to Shu-chan and Arisa-chan.
Pouting, she huffed. "Fi~ne, but I reserve the right to say I told you so."
Papa was just placing his glowing hands over her, or was it Mama's, suddenly shrunken belly when out of nowhere there was a spiraling patch of darkness behind the distracted Biwako-san from which stepped out a man in black robes adorned with red clouds and wearing a orange mask decorated with a spiral design and a single eyehole over the wearer's left eye.
Before anyone could react, the man lashed out with a kunai and slit Biwako-san's throat and snatched Naru's baby self out from the old woman's arms.
Seeing herself, her baby, held by the masked man caused something to snap inside Naru as a wave of primordial rage overcame her.
"...You have three seconds to hand over that baby or I will tear out your intestines and hang you by them." She commanded in an ice cold whisper that echoed throughout the silent room.
"Now, now, such a temper when your baby is in harm's way."
"Is she now?" Naru asked smugly as she used her version of Move Point to teleport her baby self out of the crazy's arms and into her own.
"Papa, please hold me, uh Naru-chan, while I kill this shitheel." Naru smiled wickedly as she dumped her wailing baby self in her father's arms, ignoring his protests as she did so. "I really need to break something right now. And that's you, bitchboy."
Bubbling red chakra shrouded her. Far more potent than when she used Kurama's in fact as she ripped herself free of the bed where she'd just given birth, her obscenely long thigh length red hair trailing behind her as she did and she flexed her hands as claws of corrosive energy sheathed them.
"What technique was that?" The masked attacker asked, sounding curious above anything. "Such precise time-space manipulation is unlike anything that I've ever seen."
"It's called the Fuck You and Die style. Now please hold still while I eviscerate you~!" Naru cooed as she teleported above the scumbag and slashed at him with her clawed hands.
Only for her claws to slip through him as he phased out of reality slightly.
Teleporting away from his counterattack in the form of a fireball, she hung from the ceiling. "Intangibility huh? A cute trick for a third-rate babynapper. No matter. I'll kill you this time. I'll be sure to make a cup out of your skull."
"I know they say motherhood changes a woman, but isn't that a bit demented?" The masked man said as he cocked his head in bemusement.
"Uh, Kushina-chan, you sure you don't need help?" Papa asked, looking concerned.
"Papa." Naru smiled darkly. "Shh, Mama is working!"
With that Naru teleported next to the masked man and lashed out at him with her claws again. Again the man went intangible but this time she saturated the area with her chakra and as he rematerialized to counterattack, it seeped into his chakra system.
Spinning out of the way of the kunai he thrust at her heart, Naru got behind him and raked her claws at him.
He tried his intangibility trick again but as he did, she used her Esper powers to command the small bit of her chakra that she had used to infect his system earlier to surge violently. It was smothered quickly by his own chakra but it was enough to disrupt his technique. Even then he somehow managed to dodge somewhat, though it wasn't perfect.
"Oh, you still managed to dodge that? Looks like it cost you an arm and a leg though." Naru observed tauntingly
"The fuck did you do?!" He roared in pain, hobbling against the wall of the cave as his stumps bled out.
"I injected some of my chakra into your own, disrupting your intangibility. It's pretty simple really, even a child could figure it out." Naru explained tauntingly as she pointed a clawed hand at him. "Now, tell me what the fuck you thought you were doing here and I promise you'll die quickly. If not I will tear the rest of your limbs off and then have some birds pluck at your internal organs for giggles."
Unfortunately for Naru, she never got the chance because that was the moment that an extending, oversized staff suddenly shot from behind her like a bullet and crashed the attacker's head.
"Dammit! He couldn't go intangible. There goes answers." Naru grumbled as she sighed at the rather unprofessional attack.
"That was for Biwako," A old man in a black jumpsuit, a samurai helmet and who sported a goatee said as he retracted his staff. "Minato-san, Kushina-chan, are you two and the baby alright?"
"I'm perfectly fine, so is Papa and my baby se-, uh, Naru-chan. I'm sorry about your wife. Let's just hope he didn't have allies."
"Yes, we can only-
Papa never got to finish the sentence when suddenly the world froze before everything was replaced by a field of prismatic colours.
What's happening? Did someone slip psychedelics into my dinner or something? Naru thought in a slight panic even as an ominous purple color slowly but surely began to dominate the others until it filled her vision.
What is this!? What's happening? She thought, trying to puzzle together what was going on as everything faded to black.
"Thank Science! That was a dream!" Naru breathed out in a sigh of relief as she bolted awake in her familiar bed in the Tokiwadai Interior Dorms. She looked down and patted her belly, just to be sure. "Yes, I'm not pregnant!"
"Everything alright, Namikaze-sama?" Awatsuki-chan asked from where she too was getting out of bed. A concerned look on her face.
"Uh, yeah, just a weird dream."
"A nightmare? Did Sequenzia-san get you, um, pregnant?"
"Not quite," Naru said with a shake of her head, cheeks a glowing blush at the very thought. She'd save that thought for later. "Just a weird one. I was somehow my mother and was married to my father. And the freakiest bit? I ended up giving birth to myself!"
"That's freaky," Awatsuki-chan agreed with a frown. "I think you might be watching too many strange things before bed again."
"Maybe," Naru allowed.
Or maybe this has something to do with whatever happened to Kurama. A lot of the details in the dream were too accurate to be something my subconscious dreamed up. Was that something based on his memories? Naru thought with a frown. Damn, I hope he gets better soon so I can check with him what's going on.
"Anyways, I'm just glad it's over." Naru said with a sigh of relief, to which Awatsuki-chan agreed with a sleepy nod.
"Yeah, let's just get ready for the day." The Float Dial Esper said with a smile. "Today's a Sunday! Let's not let a strange dream spoil it."
To that Naru could only enthusiastically agree.
Having spent her Saturday afternoon and evening with her girlfriends, Naru had set aside her Sunday to hang out with the Trinity gang. She had to get the chance to brag-ahem! Share the success of her date with her friends and compare scores with Rui-chan about her own latest activities with her own boyfriend. There was no way she'd lose to Accelerator! Honestly, her bestie had the worst taste in boyfriends.
Her mind was occupied with the thought of potentially, however unlikely it was, somehow setting her bestie up with someone better as she distractedly finished getting ready for the meet up. She had just finished her shower and was using her brand new hair dryer to dry her freshly washed hair, when much to her annoyance the device suddenly died on her without warning.
"What the? Oh come on! This is the third gadget this week!" Naru scowled as she dropped the offending electronic and just heated the air around her hair to dry it herself. It was slower and might cause a few loose ends, her heat manipulation wasn't exactly precise enough to be as conducive to her hair care as a proper hair dryer. But beggars can't be choosers.
Sighing in annoyance with the situation, Naru just pushed it aside and continued getting ready for the day. Using some skilled usage of wind manipulation, she did up her hair as her ribbons tied themselves up.
"Now I have to buy another one. Awatsuki-chan is going to be pouty if I don't get it by today too."
Once she was presentable, Naru left her dorm room. Shaking her head, the blonde turned to both sides of the hall, only to suddenly be hit by a short bout of vertigo. When her sudden moment of disorientation cleared, she found herself walking out of her dorm room again. Something that caused a frown to cross her face.
"Again?" She whispered to herself as deja vu hit her once again.
It was as if deja vu was an aggressive stalker of hers lately from how often she'd been hit by the phenomenon. Had her routines become so by the clock that she felt she was dealing with the same events over and over again?
Hey, Kurama? Have you noticed it too? Naru asked her inner demon, but once again silence was all that greeted her.
The young girl wasn't going to lie. With how quiet Kurama had become after the Mutagen Incident, Naru felt truly alone at times. Like a part of her was gone and she wasn't going to get it back.
J-Just keep resting up, Kurama. I hope you wake up soon, friend. Naru thought to him and squared her shoulders as she moved on with her day.
"Argh!" Shirai-chan groaned in dismay as Naru finished recounting her date to her friends. "Must you and Saten-san be that sexually active, Namikaze-san? You do remember we're only twelve, correct?"
"Shirai-chan, just because you're sexually frustrated, doesn't mean I have to be chaste." Naru teasingly pointed out as a smug air radiated off of her.
"Plus, it's not like we're truly sexually active." Rui-chan added. "We do understand the meaning of restraint."
"Yeah, restraint." Mikoto-sempai scoffed. "The only reason you haven't jumped Accelerator and had him put a baby inside your belly is that that would likely get him arrested by Anti-Skill."
"You're just jealous that Accel and I have a healthy relationship, Sempai." Rui-chan shot back, rather conveniently sidestepping the accusation leveled against her.
"I've gotta side with Saten-san and Namikaze-san here," Uiharu said with a shake of her head at the two Tokiwadai roommates. "I mean, they're the ones in a relationship right? Who are we, as people who've never experienced anything close to it, to judge them?"
"Yeah, what Uiharu said." Naru said firmly. "We've got plenty more experience than our resident ero-Teleporter and tsun-tsun Sempai has gotten."
Both aforementioned girls pouted at the reminder of their lack of experience with romance.
"Stop reminding uuuuuuuuuuussssssssss."
Naru blinked as Mikoto-sempai's words slurred strangely. It wasn't just her though, strangely everything around the Number 2 was suddenly moving in what could only be described as slow motion.
What the heck!? Naru thought even as the world suddenly snapped back to normal.
As it did, suddenly all four of their phones suddenly beeped and as one they instinctively fished their devices out of their pockets to see what had triggered the alert. Well, all of them except Rui-chan who was just frowning.
"That's strange," she muttered to herself before she glanced off to the side.
"Oi, Ruiko, why are you hacking into other people's phones suddenly?" Mikoto-sempai asked, looking away from her phone towards Naru's bestie.
"I'm checking something."
"Does it have something to do with why all our phones just alerted us that our clocks fell out of sync with City standard at the same time?" Shirai-chan asked, looking at Rui-chan suddenly.
"It's not just us," Rui-chan said with a frown. "The phones of a number of the other patrons in Joseph's were affected too to varying degrees. Extrapolating based on the level of the desync and the location of those affected… Hmm… Curious."
"What is?" Naru asked with a nervous frown. Her gut was telling her that whatever it was, it wouldn't be something she wanted to hear.
"It seems Naru-chan, that whatever caused the phones to desync, you were the centre of the bubble of effect."
"Really?" Naru asked, gaping in shock. "Did I just dunno... Unconsciously release an electromagnetic surge or something that caused everyone's phones to desync?"
"I do not believe so," Rui-chan said with a shake of her head that was copied by Sempai, all but ruling out that hypothesis. If the City's highest ranking Electromaster said it wasn't electromagnetic in nature then it wasn't. "My emulated sensory abilities aren't exactly great, especially on the scale I need it to be for this, but based on ambient radiation due to natural atomic decay in our vicinity and the like that I can detect, I think the effect was temporal in nature. Or something equally esoteric."
"Chibi, when could you manipulate time?" Sempai asked with a bewildered look on her face.
"...What? Whoa, whoa, how did you come to that conclusion?!" Naru sputtered in surprise. Such an ability, even Science hadn't come that far in Esper Ability.
"Like I said, I measured the atomic decay of our surroundings. My detection abilities in that area are lacking, but it's enough to allow me to make some observations and my hypothesis is that whatever the phenomenon that triggered the desync of our phone clocks is either temporal or can affect atomic decay. Since the latter would likely be a lot more obvious than what took place, I'm leaning towards the former option."
"It seems a stretch," Shirai-san mused.
"It's a starting point," Rui-chan admitted. "Naru-chan, have you been suffering or observing any strange temporal phenomenon lately?"
"Uh, I dunno if it counts but I've been encountering unusually high instances of deja vu lately."
"That fits the description of an unusual temporal phenomenon," Uiharu reasoned as she rubbed her chin as she contemplated the situation. "Since when did these deja vu instances start happening?"
"Since the Mutagen Incident I guess?" Naru replied as she thought on the matter. "I don't think I noticed them until a couple days ago though."
"They've been growing in intensity?" Mikoto-sempai asked with a frown.
"Okay, something is clearly not right here." Shirai-chan concluded. "Namikaze-san I think you need to have to get this checked out."
"But who-"
"Naru," Rui-chan said sternly, putting a hand on the Number 2's shoulder. "You know who you need to call. There is only one group of people who can help you with this."
Naru let out a small hiss, murder in her eyes as she looked at Rui-chan for the mere suggestion. Yet her bestie continued to look at her with kindness and understanding.
"I know you find it hard to do so, but they are really the only ones who you can turn to for this. Besides, you trust Miyahara-sensei don't you?"
The mention of Miyahara-sensei seemed to finally clue the others in as to who Rui-chan was talking about and they followed Naru's lead in hissing in disbelief. Naru was heartened by the reaction. The knowledge that her friends stood with her on this matter was heartwarming. But…
Rui-chan was right. Only they could help her with this. They were the only ones equipped to do so.
"You're right." Naru admitted reluctantly. "Okay, I'll call them now."
"Naru, if you don't wa-"
"It's okay Sempai, Rui-chan is right about this and more importantly I'm a big girl. I can handle this." Naru reassured her worried upperclassman as she pulled out her phone and dialed her… Power Development Team. Her new one that is. While some faces were the same, others were new, even then…
Naru still felt she couldn't trust them after what had happened to her.
Sadly it looked like the blonde didn't have much choice at this time.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
And so it begins! The new arc of Naru's. The Mutagen arc left its mark on her and it's time for it to be unveiled! I hope you enjoyed all the cute and steamy moments in the chapter, as per usual the Narushurisa couple is cute af to write and I could do fluff pieces for them easily. Please be sure to check out the fanart we have on the couple and the Saten family over at Ao3 and if you are on Ao3, please enjoy the art from ShadyR_Studios. It was well worth the commission!
Nameless: Indeed, the art rocks! Thanks for the good work ShadyR_Studios. Not only are they beautifully done, they also served as fantastic bits of inspiration for us to flesh out the earlier parts of this chapter which serves to make the whole thing so much better than we originally planned.
Giving Naru this new ability is honestly something big I think. While magic has shown free rein with the usage of time manipulation, I think showing it from the Science Side should be a nice change of pace.
Nameless: It's definitely new at least. Though, iirc except for Othinus i.e. Magic Gods, I don't think the Magic Side can pull off temporal magic either. And even then, it was less actual time manipulation but Phase manipulation. *hint hint*
As for Naru? Without Kurama I think she's honestly feeling isolated because whether or not she admits it, Naru has been a co-dependant for as long as she can remember and I hope we were able to show her loneliness despite how much she has been with her friends and girlfriends. No one liners, snide remarks, suggestions and other demonic advice, it really hits her how alone she can be and how it shapes her relationships with how clingy she is to those she cares for. She loves hard I think the saying is.
Nameless: On another note, hope you guys didn't miss the one liner where Naru confesses how she truly feels towards Kurama. If you did, well… Just consider that a major subtext of this chapter is how lonely Naru is without her resident inner demon for company. It is after all why she's being so clingy with her friends and girlfriends. Not that she needed the excuse, but the lack of Kurama's company is definitely serving as additional impetus for her on this front.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!