Chapter 09-
Seek Salvation, Sought by Salvation.
Beneath_the_Anthill.
1
0-7-1-4.
Four separate pitches rang out as Mitsuari Ayu tapped the four numbers on that keypad.
"For the time being, let's get inside the warehouse and out of the rain."
That was what she had said when everyone had been hit by the reality that Kamijou Touma had been taken from them. She, of all people, knew she was not the best person to make a quick decision in this kind of situation. Her hand was quivering as she tapped on those four digits. Luckily, she could find some solace in that the smaller girl in black seemed to give a look of (relative) approval while the others were still trying to process everything.
She was truly a callous girl.
But trampling on their feelings now was preferable to letting things get worse later.
And so, the door to the warehouse called "Ideal Image" opened.
"Everyone inside." The next person to speak was the eternally pissed-off looking girl in black. "Don't stand and gape at everything like idiots."
"She's right. We're not going to find the human if we keep waiting here."
"Yeah, let's go."
"Right..."
"Hold on, Touma. We'll find you."
Ayu wasn't sure what had just happened, but she had watched the others who had just been staring listlessly finally take some steps forward, albeit at the behest of the terse command from the short, edgy girl.
It was so bizarre.
It was so far from the route she had attempted.
The girl who had lived her life treading the midline between competence and incompetence had finally felt the liberating sensation that was complete incompetence.
Was it the fact that for once, a failure hadn't spiraled into something even more horrendous? Was it the fact that it wasn't something she had even a shred of capability in? Did total incompetence really feel so unfettering?
The girl without even an iota of charisma held a tiny smile as she closed the door behind everyone and groped around the walls for the lighting panel. It took a few seconds, but she felt her fingers brush across a protrusion in the wall and slid it up.
As the button went up, a set of lights behind a shelf near them lit up. With the next motion, she slid up the remaining light switches at their sides.
The ceiling lights illuminated what looked to be a hangar. Before the group, on their right, was a pair of metal brackets that were large enough to fit a small vehicle or—
"I'm guessing that's where you put your powered suits?" Kumokawa Maria was the first to bring up the likeliest possibilities. Based on the various placements of bolts and restraint mechanisms, it was obvious that what had once stood there was not a vehicle but some form of mobile device.
"The one on the left was for the Out_Sider model. The one on the right was where the true FIVE_Over Modelcase_"MENTAL_OUT" was stored." Mitsuari gazed at the now empty spaces where the two devices once stood. It wasn't even a week ago that they were still sitting there, waiting on standby for the plan to actualize Shokuhou Misaki's data. "But what I told Kamijou about was further behind that."
Between the shelves with piles of papers, parts, and tools, and the empty hangars, the girls walked until they reached what was a large desk with multiple monitors sitting on the desk and a giant monitor sitting on the wall.
As Maria placed the unconscious girl she was carrying to the side, against the wall, the girls could do nothing as they watched Mitsuari Ayu start everything.
From underneath the desk, Mitsuari Ayu picked up a thin keyboard and a wireless mouse before pressing the power button located on the tower underneath the table. Rather than sitting, she stood as she watched each of the monitors start to display the boot-up sequence.
"Alright, let's begin."
2
With the suits all gone and the parties in the fight having been separated, one would have been safe to deduce that whatever trail Accelerator had been following had likely run cold.
However, there were three points that Accelerator and Misaka Worst had to work on.
1. The amount of FIVE_Overs the enemy meant that they had to have some way of moving around materials and storing them.
2. Movement of massive amounts of powered suits should leave greater trails, whether it was through individual parts or suits themselves.
3. Said resources were also involved in creating vehicles used to (possibly) monitor AIM Diffusion Fields.
"That means that tracking them the analog way you were going about it was far less efficient in the long run. This Misaka figured that it would be more interesting to go after the trail based on what you already picked up from what you've seen. This Misaka wasn't there to see the monitoring vehicles, so everything will be secondhand to her."
The hard sounds of rainfall continued above them as Misaka Worst operated a portable terminal from her hand and held an umbrella with the other.
"I may have found out the meaning of some of their pieces, but I don't know their objectives."
"Of course you didn't."
"But there's also the fact that one of them came out to greet me himself. I still haven't found the meaning of that." Accelerator sighed as he walked, holding the umbrella in one hand and his cane in the other.
"This Misaka wonders if they were trying to just get rid of you because you were buzzing around?"
Was it simply getting rid of an eyesore? Based on the tone of the original voice, it was possible.
"No, it wasn't. Even if I didn't have the right avenue yet, I would have come to a proper conclusion eventually."
It was like running through a differential diagnosis. The more he investigated, the more he could rule out incorrect possibilities.
That, too, was dangerous.
"So, they were trying to eliminate me before I got to the right answer or to stall me before things got to the point of no return."
In which case…
"Doesn't that mean that that point has already passed? This Misaka thinks we may be going a bit too leisurely if that's the case."
The data on the screen seemed to almost speed up in response.
"It doesn't matter. Just focus on being accurate."
As Accelerator glanced at the screen, he watched the numerous raw numbers passing by on screen.
"It's better to accurately narrow down five locations than quickly get 10 at this stage."
Materials were not something that could be moved around easily, especially when they were used at the scale the enemy was utilizing them at. With a mass quantity of powered suits and trucks at their disposal, there were a few options.
They could be completely decentralized in order to keep a movement of their materials as low-key as possible. However, even that would require some locations be set up for maintenance, resupply, and retreat.
In other words, there was some set of centralized locations that they were using. Even if they tended to shift locations on a regular basis, they still couldn't do that on short notice. If they could trace the movement of goods, or even the movements of one of the trucks or powered suits, they could find a litany of locations that they could search out and eliminate one by one. Accessing the digital trail was nothing short of child's play for Misaka Worst.
Narrow down the search criteria based on specific materials and that would cut down those locations to a paltry few that they could quickly search and crush.
"You owe this Misaka. We've got six hits."
The data that had been flowing before now displayed six sets of numbers.
And the closest one was not even a few blocks away.
"It's time we paid these bastards a visit."
The destroyer's path was once again set before him. All that was left was to wait for the inevitable trail of wreckage.
3
Anthill_Summer.
After she entered that password, two windows displayed upon a large monitor within Ideal Image.
"These were FIVE_Over Modelcase_"MENTAL_OUT" and FIVE_Over (Out_Sider) Modelcase_"MENTAL_OUT"." Ayu hovered the cursor above two images that were displayed on their respective windows. The former was a large mechanical entity that resembled a scorpion wasp. The latter was a large sphere with numerous large eyes on its surface and multiple tentacles coming from the bottom.
"My activities revolved particularly around these two devices."
As she hovered over various parts, text boxes showing large descriptions of different parts popped up. From instructions to significance to specifications to repair alternatives, myriad information was stored on those diagrams. If she wanted, she could likely open up more intricate schematics and documents showing individual breadboards, servos, and even the programming. But those details were beyond her realm of knowledge. She may have been one of the many intelligent girls at Tokiwadai, but specialized knowledge for these devices was not something that could be expected as general knowledge, even for them.
"As I explained to Kamijou-san, the end goal was the completion of the former. By capturing her, and using the suit to forcefully activate her power, it would have gathered the necessary data to be a true FIVE_Over. Any questions so far?" Ayu turned around to see the young nun raising and waving her hand, all the while giving a stern scowl.
"What's a FIVE_Over? And what does this have to do with Tou—"
"Calm down, Index-san." The girl who had an understanding of science that made paltry look like an overstatement found her mouth covered by the girl with glasses (and a pronounced chest).
"The FIVE_Overs were designed for the purpose of replicating the Level 5's powers through machinery. Kamijou-san—"
"Skip the preamble and get on with it! You can explain it to her later. We still have the root of the problem to deal with. All of this was connected to a Shundou Toshizou, right? What happened to him?"
Kuroyoru crossed her arms and repeatedly tapped her foot, refusing to let her building ire be hidden. With that interruption, Mitsuari began to type away at the keyboard and began clicking around again.
"I don't know. He had last communicated with me before I had begun the final attack on Shokuhou, but..."
After triggering a few prompts and inputting passwords, a new window eventually popped up on the screen.
"The last use of the consolidated database was me before I enacted the terminal stage of my plan."
Though there was not a single name listed on the log, Mitsuari hovered the cursor around the last one.
"This was me from one of the mobile stations I used to monitor Shokuhou. In fact, with the exception of this one and this one..." Her mouse hovered over one that was just below the last access and the one three cells below that. "The last 6 were all my access."
"And the rest are?" Maria pointed to the two exceptions. She had already come to an answer, but she couldn't help prodding for a bit more confirmation.
"Likely both belonged to the man himself. He never liked to use one consistent entry point, so he would spoof his IDs to avoid detection. Unlike him, mine all depended on what my access point was and so they tended to be consistent. It's like an IP Address."
"And his last access was…?"
"Shortly after I had caught Shokuhou in...the details don't matter. About 48 hours ago. Which is..."
Mitsuari Ayu leaned back in her chair as she furrowed her brow in confusion.
"This was his own library of data and frameworks."
"I'm guessing from what you're saying that he wasn't the type to leave his database alone for long?" Maria chimed in.
"No. I've only met him person a few times before he went into hiding after IDEAL, but that man was beyond egotistical, obsessed, and methodical. He would never leave this alone without accessing it or updating it."
Could he have been in a situation that prevented him from doing his regular maintenance? He had already been forced into hiding once. Had Mitsuari's failure forced him to hide once again? Was that why another back-up plan had been in the works? Or had the worst happened to him?
As many possibilities as there were…
"None of those matter." Kuroyoru spoke up. "If he hasn't accessed it recently, then that means we don't have anything obstructing us."
That was right.
There was no need to ponder the possibility. They just needed to find the back-up plan that was causing the current chaos.
"Yeah. He's not the important matter." Quickly minimizing the log file as well as the current open files, she backed out of the file and found a list of new projects.
"It's not IDEAL. It's not the CSF retrieval. That failed shortly after IDEAL. It's not Queen Diver. It's not Crimson Flower." Scrolling down, she listed off each and every one of the plan names—some of which she had been a part.
"It's not..."
"It's not..."
"It's not..."
She kept scrolling down until she reached one name that made the nun raise an eyebrow. "Materu Familiasu?"
"Mater Familias." The nun who had been kept silent up till now had finally spoken. "In Rome, there was a concept known as Pater Familias. It was the term left for the oldest man in the house—the person you'd theoretically call the patriarch of an estate."
"And Mater Familias? Is it the oldest woman of the estate?" Kuroyoru asked.
"It was a term for matron, but it's not one that was used in any comparably significant cultural parlance like Pater Familias. So, the definition ends up being lost to time and far more open to interpretation. Since we can't discern a meaning from the name alone, let's just say it means the family's mother."
After taking a moment to listen to Index's tangent on the meaning of the folder name, Mitsuari Ayu took a breath and gazed at that name and the names around it for a bit longer.
"It's the one plan left on this database that I know hasn't failed yet...or at least didn't fail before my plan did. In other words, this is likely what we're looking for."
It was straight after the file folder that listed her own plan. In other words, it was the next one in the line for the egotistical scientist.
Without hesitation, she double clicked on the file.
Within an instant, the warehouse fell into a curtain of darkness.
4
And so the road to destruction passed the point of no return.
5
Though it was almost deafening, the grand curtain of darkness lifted as it was penetrated by the lights of the warehouse reactivating once again. Though all lights and all screens had returned to their ambient luminescence, the curtain had been replaced by a separate veil that weighed down upon every (still conscious) girl in the room.
It was like blinking while driving and finding a car tailgating too close for comfort. The oppressive feeling that ate away at reason and prevented one from taking a new action in fear of tipping the balance in an unforeseen and dangerous manner permeated throughout every nook and cranny of the room and the girls as even Mitsuari refused to move the mouse in her hand or even move her fingers off the buttons and keys they were on.
The counterfeit equilibrium was one of which they were completely aware. Yet, the moment something moved, they would fall off that precipice.
"Click on it."
Everyone turned to look at the tiny doll-sized magic god who had finally broken through the silence.
"Even if we don't know what happened, we'll watch the human float away if we just sit here like deer in the headlights. Everything we need is behind that 'Mater Familias' folder. For better or for worse."
No matter how much they didn't want to press forward, they knew they had to. The equilibrium was merely an illusion—a false sense of safety like a screen door on a submarine.
That was the illusion they had to break.
A double-click resounded throughout the warehouse.
Mitsuari Ayu would open the 'Mater Familias' file.
However…
"It's not opening?"
Despite her clicking on the icon, nothing seemed to happen. The file folder was not opening.
No, something else was opening. An unfamiliar icon popped up on the task bar before a separate window opened. In the center, a rotating wheel, symbolic of a buffering video, showed itself for a few seconds before disappearing and leaving behind a new image—the face of a young woman.
"It really is nice to finally meet all of my pursuers at once."
She was a young woman with wavy pink hair, pink eyes, and a cordial smile that the girls could all describe as strangely familiar despite none of them having ever conversed with her.
"You're the person who abducted Kamijou-san…" The one person who had seen this young woman had spoken up. The venom in the maid-in-training's voice was unlike anything anyone had ever heard from her as it seemed like it could melt through the metallic frameworks surrounding them.
The young woman, however, remained unperturbed, maintaining the cordial smile while she straightened her hoodie out.
"My name is Kizuna Kanon. Call me whatever you like. Kanon-chan. Kizuna-san. You bitch. I've heard it all before." After taking a quick pause to look at all the girls she spoke again. "I am the one who took Kihara Enshuu and Kamijou Touma."
"YOU BITCH!" Kuroyoru shouted.
"I did say I've heard that one before, little one."
The young girl growled in response, but she slowly silenced herself.
"That's better. Now, seeing as you've gotten as far as you have, I figured it would be some level of courtesy to inform you of a few things."
Unperturbed and still smiling, she continued.
"Let's start with the avenue you're currently traveling. Shundou Toshizou had a lot of plans made as back-ups in case his primary ones failed. You've gone through a litany of them and seen that list of failures, but as you guessed, I am linked to that last plan—Mater Familias. Unfortunately, I do have to question the morality and manners of children like you rummaging through the important files of a dead man."
None of the girls smiled as they heard those words.
"He's...dead?"
The first to react was Mitsuari Ayu, her eyes glazing over as she heard the name of a man who had been both her benefactor and the cause of many of the ills in her life dying without her ever knowing.
"I would imagine you would have been the happiest to hear this news."
It was like waiting and watching until someone who had wronged her kick the bucket—an unpleasantly cathartic feeling. No matter how much she had hated him, she could not shake that unpleasantness that came with the death of someone like him. It took all of her will to prevent her from falling down the pretentious rabbit hole of belief that life was all about waiting for those who had hurt her to die.
"It's hard to pin down the time, but it was some time during the tail end of your plan or possibly just after. It's why he hadn't accessed his own database in a long time. The one entry in the log before your last one was yours truly."
"How? Why?"
Even so, it was hardly a satisfactory answer.
"Despite heralding multiple projects and playing benefactor to people like you and I...no really because of that, he was the kind of person who preferred to stay hidden and keep himself confined to what he believed would be a safe place. And so, that meant he stepped on the toes of many people and eventually someone bit back hard enough. Didn't you know? He even transplanted his brain into the body of an orca before he actually bit the dust. I think that was his form even when he reapproached you. That's a sign of how many dangerous people he crossed."
Mitsuari stared blankly as the torrent of information left her awash.
"So, congratulations. One of your greatest shackles and threats has finally been removed from your life." Kanon gave light applause that matched her smile before continuing. "But that's not what you care about, I imagine."
After giving a light tap to the table that the camera she was using was on, a rectangular window popped up on the corner.
"Touma!"
"Kamijou and Enshuu!"
Though the images of them were slightly distorted by a plexiglass cover, it was certain that the two who were being shown on that new window, lying asleep in what looked to be some sort of pods with electrodes attached to their heads, were the people they had called out the names of.
"What was the point in taking them?" Mitsuari Ayu and Kuroyoru Umidori asked simultaneously. They did not need to gasp or stand in shock. They cut that preamble and glared at Kanon who continued to maintain her uncomfortably familiar smile.
"What indeed?" Kanon leaned back, looked up, and started fiddling with her fingers.
"There was no need for either of them, to be frank. It was pure coincidence and my plans would have continued without them. It's just that...it was like looking at a crying, mud-covered kid on the side of the road on a rainy day. You can't help but want to take them in, dry them off, and give them a warm bath."
As she finished speaking, nobody seemed to even respond. Even Index, who was no stranger to picking up strays, remained silent.
"Honestly, I imagine it's not just you all involved, but what did you all do to him?"
The confusion remained constant before Kanon's words bit deep into half of the girls who had sat there.
"I wonder how much of a role each of you played in that poor boy's fractured heart."
Interlude 09
Hard clunks resounded in that empty room where anyone could even hear a simple water drop fall. As much as Touma had resigned himself to the reality that the door was locked, he still had a part of him that needed to hope that one extra push would break through the stagnant reality before him.
But that was far from what would happen in the end.
"So, what next?"
The boy took his hand off the door and crossed his arms as he gazed throughout the room. Was there anything he could search through to find some tools that could help? Perhaps a toolbox or a closet?
But no matter how much he looked around, he couldn't see anything of the sort.
When inspection failed, the boy quickly placed his hands against the wall and began to run his hands across it as he moved around the room's perimeter. But the more he tried to search, the more he came to realize that nothing was out of the ordinary. There was neither door, nor window, nor secret button, nor imperfection.
The few minutes he spent in an attempt to eke out any secrets turned up nothing.
He could do nothing but come to a simple realization.
The only entrance and exit to the room was the one that he had found to be locked before.
There were no keys. No materials.
No matter how much he wanted to puzzle out a way out of the room, there was no point if there were no elements that could create a way out.
"That's not how you do it, Touma-oniichan."
After a slow examination of the space, Touma finally heard from 'Enshuu' and turned to see her pointing towards the door knob. He walked towards the door knob to see what in particular the girl was pointing to, but when he tried to examine the knob, he saw nothing more than a normal doorknob one could find anywhere.
"What are you talking about, Enshuu?"
The girl turned her (half-existing) face towards him. Come to think of it, was that the first time he had referred to her by name since had awoken to whatever this was?
"This is our collective unconscious. That means—"
She flicked at the door knob and what happened in that moment made Touma almost question if what he was seeing was real. The durable knob that had resisted his multiple attempts to force it open had bent in response to that single quick flick of the Index finger.
"Some of us have escaped this room before. Whether someone pulled them out or whether we did it on our own, each of us did so at one point. You're no different. That's why you're here. And so, the collection of escapes can resonate until you can escape your own."
Was she speaking metaphorically or literally? Touma could not recall any instance where he was confined like this. However, he could not believe that she meant this in some sort of metaphorical sense. After all, the people who had started this were all caged within the dark side and were people who were referred to by Kanon as having 'fractured souls'.
"Just hold your hand to the door and watch it resonate."
Touma looked back to his hand and then back to 'Enshuu' before once again reaching for the door.
Sparks surrounded the boy's right hand. Brilliant embers of sky blue and lemon yellow followed by embers of shocking pink and emerald flew out and as his hand started to melt into the door before it swung to the side, shattering the knob, the latch mechanism, and even parts of the wall near those as if they were panes of glass.
"See? Just like that, Touma-oniichan." The girl smiled before pressing her hand against the door.
The experience was almost surreal. And yet…
That didn't feel like a resonance?
The girl had brought forth terms like 'resonate' and yet, what he had felt before he had broken the door—that strange feeling and sight—while it felt ethereal, it felt like it was something that came from within.
"Come on, let's go." The smiling girl pushed the door and a great light that threatened to sear their eyes had almost suddenly made itself present, as if it had blocked even when the door was left with a great hole.
And...
What lay beyond the door enclosing the pair in that dark, damp room was an entirely different hellscape. For two people who looked as young as Kamijou Touma and 'Kihara Enshuu' did, the scene before them was far from appropriate and one that any good parent would quickly change the channel at the sight of.
Despite it being his first step out of the door, the boy found himself quickly taking a step back. His eyes pivoted downwards as his mind finally caught up with the action he had taken.
The boy could say that he had privy to a plethora of repulsive sights both during his short 16 years of life and that expanse of infinity he had experienced with Othinus. But, no matter how much he had seen, he was a normal person. He would still step back reflexively at what he was viewing.
Who wouldn't?
Was that thing before him something that could even be called a human body?
What was once a man lay on the ground in the form of what looked to be a wax sculpture. Though most of his body was that waxy substance, there was still a clear, defined humanity to the face that had mostly been spared that grisly transformation. Upon his countenance was an expression of pure regret.
Kamijou Touma could hardly fathom what was going through his mind or what circumstances had led to him being left with this form, though he could hazard a guess as he remembered what space he had just exited when he opened that door.
"I hope he was proud when he saw how I escaped and surpassed him." The girl with him giggled as she looked at the entity that could no longer be called a living man. It was a dissonant exuberance.
But the more he kept his eyes fixed on the figure, the more something else seemed to force its way into his vision.
"He got what he deserved." A voice different from Enshuu's spoke out as parts of the waxy figure transformed skin bloodied by bullet wounds before returning to its waxy form.
"Frankly, it was too good for her." The voice beside him was now clearly masculine and the body was engulfed in a pulse of static before it turned into a female one with a clear imprint on her neck and then back.
And the static arose once again as it had turned into a man in a suit and handcuffs, one that seemed to force Touma to step back, hyperventilating, once again before it reverted to the waxy form he had seen at first.
Quickly, the boy turned his head behind to look at the room that he had just walked out of. But the same pulses of noise that had changed the body were fluctuating through the room, morphing it into a different state than the one he had exited.
One was a lab with numerous pieces of test equipment covered in blood, leading to a gun in the center.
One was a dark room with numerous symbols unlike any language in common use that almost seemed to run its own syntax and meaning, filled with what looked to almost be mathematical proofs.
One was…
One was…
One was…
The world behind him seemed to almost have a tenuous presence. Yet despite that tenuous presence, it felt abjectly familiar and warm.
As familiar as the handcuffs that had suddenly appeared on his left arm.
As familiar as the reality that his right hand was no longer there.
…
…
…
A/N: Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? The good thing is that I'm not dead, though I am busy. But the tale must be spun until all threads are left unraveled. But as the narration said, this is the beginning of the end. We're moving into the final phase of the story and things are going to pick up in a total rush of insanity if my interlude segments with Touma hadn't indicated. On that note, let's reply to all the reviews.
[whwsms: I sure hope the site still sends updates almost a year later. :3]
[Guest 1: That's high praise. Thanks~]
[Guest 2: Indeed I have.]
[Question: Gracias. Espero que el resto de la historia esté a la altura de sus expectativas.]
[RandomAlchemist: I hope I update it too.]
[J for Joker: Hmmm. Yeah, that's a mistake I made with the language. Missed that subtle nuance, that I did.]
[tommthecommie: Not a med student anymore. Doctor now. *smug*]
So we've finally made an explicit mention of what the theme behind Kizuna and the antagonist posse for the fic. Admittedly, I wanted to try and come up with an archetype the series hasn't tapped into before. The concept of maternity is something that's much more difficult to use within the setting of Academy City given its nature as a setting. While Kiyama in Railgun came close to it, there is some nuance that creates a difference between what a mother does and what a teacher does. Moreover, given her (presumed) age, Kizuna functions more as an adoptive mother rather than a biological mother-something that also tracks with the setting of Academy City.
She's the kind of person to take in a dirty young child in the rain, clean him up, and feed him after all.
The mother is a glue that holds a ragtag family together. And the mother's strongest will-what is it in the end?
If you can think along those lines, you will hold the key to Kizuna as a character and the key to the end of this story.
With that, I lay the pen down again until next time so I can pick it back up for my magic side story.
There are probably acid trips less confusing than what Touma is experiencing, when you think about it.