Hi! I'd like to say thanks for making it this far. All of your kind reviews are what's keeping me going.
I truly appreciate the love.
I didn't really want to keep you waiting, so I didn't check for errors as much as the other chapters. Sorry!
If you spot a grammar or spelling error, please type a review. Even if it's just a nitpick. It'll help me a lot. (Please don't be hostile about it though. Just please don't.)
Well, let's get started.
A man took a sip of his tea, still waiting patiently.
"Emilia is a bit late, isn't she?" He said to himself. He sat in his office chair, with his feet on his own desk. The ticking of his clock was the only active sound alive. He kept waiting, enjoying the calm silence. He took another sip of tea, enjoying the feeling of the warm liquid heating his throat.
As the clock continued to tick, he looked at his watch. Emilia was significantly late.
Unfazed, he removed his feet from the desk and picked up the phone. The phone line wasn't working. He gasped slightly, but maintained his composure. He simply used his cell phone instead, tapping in a number.
"Yes, our little girl is finally making a gamble." He simply said. He was sure the receiver knew what to do.
Touma and the clone have been safely escorted to the hospital. After that, Mikoto and Emilia walked out, and began to run. Emilia took the lead. "So, where is this 'X'? Do you know his real name?" Mikoto asked.
"Of course not. He's always usually a step ahead of his opponents, it might be easier to have him come to us, rather than trying to find him."
"Any ideas?"
"Well, he mainly got me roped up in this by threatening the life of a dear friend of mine. So if anything, we should save her first." Emilia said.
"Geez, even his methods are disgusting." Mikoto commented.
"But clever." Emilia replied. She let out of a depressed sigh. "I just don't understand how or why I put up with him for so long…"
"It's all the past now. Where is she located?"
"Another hospital west of here."
Mikoto began to use her magnetism to levitate, and leaped to the top of a nearby building. She then landed at the roof. Emilia accelerated herself towards the building, and caught onto a window frame 3 fourths up the same building. She lifted herself ever so slightly upwards, and used her ability a second time. As Emilia made it to the top, she briefly saw Mikoto jump off the same building, with bluish sparks near metal objects. Emilia sprinted for the same edge Mikoto jumped off, then jumped off herself.
Doing a wall kick from the building she was originally on, she gave herself the boast she needed to fly to the next tall building. She passed Mikoto midair, accelerating linearly.
Emilia landed on the building and took a look at the streets. It shouldn't be far from now. Mikoto landed right next to her, making a silent thump as her running shoes hit the roof.
"I never thought I'd see a friend of mine keep up with me like this." Mikoto laughed.
Emilia's eyes widened at the word 'friend'. She felt touched for a moment, but knew she couldn't get distracted. She pointed at a shorter building. "The hospital should be on our sights once we get on that roof over there." She said.
"Piece of cake!" Mikoto said.
They both moved to the building Emilia pointed at in their own ways. They both landed on the building at the same time. Emilia gazed at the hospital and saw several cars pull over at the entrance of the hospital. "Shit!" She cursed under her breath.
"What?" Mikoto asked.
"They got to the hospital before us. We could beat them, but there's no chance we will get to Azusa before they can."
Mikoto said nothing. Then she finally had an idea. "Hey, Emilia."
"Hm?" Emilia snapped out of her thinking to listen to Mikoto.
"Your ability can accelerate anything that moves, right?"
"Yes."
"Accelerate me to the hospital, then I'll use my ability to break through the window. If your friend is on the upper floors, I may get there faster than they can take the elevator. Then, you can handle the mastermind."
"I'm all for it." Emilia said instantly. "She's in room 1729, please don't forget it."
Mikoto levitated a piece of scrap metal from the building. "I'd never forget the Hardy-Ramanujan number." She said with a smile.
"Ready?"
Mikoto nodded.
Mikoto was accelerated at an abnormal speed towards the side of the building. She used the metal scrap she levitated to smash through the window. She made it.
She looked at two numbers next to each other and saw their numbers saying 1734 and 1735, respectively. She gasped at the convenient floor she was in. She calculated which story to accelerate me to?
Mikoto knew the room was 1729, so she sprinted left, where the numbers would be decreasing. 33… 32… 31… She counted down.
She froze in place at the next room she saw.
1743.
Why is 43 here!? Mikoto internally screamed. She looked ahead and saw that the numbers began to increase instead. What is wrong with this layout?
Mikoto turned around and ran the other way. She pasted the hole in the wonder she resentful made and looked around the corner.
To her horror, she heard a ding ring out. She was looking at the elevator room, and several men were marching towards a sign that read '1715-1730'.
Mikoto couldn't find any way she could reach the room before the men could. She would have to get in a fight. Her heart dropped in defeat.
Mikoto remembered the scrap of metal earlier she used to break through the window.
That's it!
Mikoto sprinted back where she originally was, past the same hole and took the piece of metal along the way. She counted each room as she ran. Once she reached the 14th room, she entered it. It was room 1744.
She entered it, and it was empty. Mikoto threw the metal at the wall, revealing a teenage girl on the other side of the wall.
"Azusa?" Mikoto asked.
"Y-yes?" The girl stammered.
Mikoto drew a sigh of relief and saw the door burst open. It was the same men she saw earlier. It was lucky that the men were marching rather than running.
"Give the girl back!" One roared. Gunshots flew out, but none of the bullets harmed Mikoto or Azusa.
Mikoto proceeded to electrocute them all at once.
"Who are you?" Azusa asked.
Mikoto smiled and introduced herself. "My name is Misaka Mikoto. I'm a friend of Emilia."
The name didn't ring any bells for Azusa. "Wow! You know Emilia? You're very strong!"
"Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go help Emilia with something. "I'll take you to judgement now."
"Okay!"
Emilia walked inside the hideout. No one was there. She checked her phone and realized that X was in the original faculty Emilia guarded. The same room where X ordered Emilia to kill her dear friend.
Emilia felt relief and frustration at the same time. Relief that X wasn't there. Frustration that she wasted time. She gazed and skimmed through the files on X's desk. She drew a deep breath as she walked over to the other hideout.
The walk was probably the most significant 10 minutes of Emilia ever experienced. It was too long that she was submitted to X.
The fury of everything she was forced to do.
The tension of what's about to happen.
The spark of hope that she might actually live a normal life.
She finally arrived at the entrance of the faculty.
"Hey! This is an author-" The voice was cut off but a blunt hit to the head, knocking him out instantly.
Only one guard outside? Emilia thought to herself.
She felt the heat signatures on the other side of the door. Ah, there's what I expected. She burst open the door, revealing several armoured men carrying rifles. She fired her pistol, but the helmets the men were wearing protected them from harm. She threw a rock and accelerated to a deadly speed, knocking one of the men out.
The rest of the men raised their guns, but Emilia only dismantled all the guns at once. The men froze in place, stunned. Emilia walked past all of them, and none of them dared to get in her way.
Emilia walked calmly through the building, dismantling pistols, rifles, shotguns, and SMGs left and right. She noticed a man with a rocket launcher, but all she did was catch the rocket then reduce the kinetic energy.
Eventually, she made it to the office and didn't hesitate to kick the door open.
"Why hello. Emilia" X greeted, sipping tea.
His calmness pissed Emilia off. "I got past your guards. It's almost cowardly how many of them you deployed."
"Do you want to hear a story, Emilia?" X said suddenly.
Emilia drew her pistol. "I'm sick of your shit."
Despite this, X went on. "I met a boy named Yuki Kitaguwa."
"This boy had a powerful ability. But he was very passionate about playing the violin. When I first met him, I found out that he's putting everything on the line to put up a successful concert."
"I said ENOUGH!" Emilia yelled, as she shot the cup of tea X was holding. But this didn't stop him.
"I thought to myself: 'what a waste of potential'. So, I got rid of the source of what's slowing him down. His dream. His passion. His love. After I ruined his concert, he worked for me."
He looked at Emilia with gleaming eyes. "I guess what you could say is that I'm only making people more useful."
Emilia clenched the pistol, her muscles strained. She hated to think about it, but it was clear as day that there were children who were in the same position as her. Everytime it raced through her mind, she got it out, only because she didn't want to think about it.
The man stood up suddenly, and walked around his desk. Emilia continued to point the pistol at the man. He approached Emilia silently. "I have a goal, Emilia. I'm only doing what it takes to fulfill it. You'd understand, right?" He gently laid his hand onto the barrel of the gun, gently moving it downwards.
Suddenly, a shot rang out.
The man looked at his hand, and noticed a bullet sized hole dead center in the palm. As he looked back at the girl, he sweatdropped. Almost completely speechless. However, he shut his eyes and smiled.
"You should have figured it out by now, right? Don't you remember a certain time when you first arrived in this faculty?"
Emilia couldn't comprehend what the man was saying. She almost concluded the mastermind was mentally ill, but it hit like a moving truck.
"First, I'm going to need a little bit of your DNA." A voice echoed in her head. Emilia's eyes widened, with a silent gasp.
The man laughed, and opened his eyes. He was completely disregarding the wound on his hand. "So, you finally remember, huh? It's currently being sent to a dear friend of mine. So Emilia, I'd like to strike a deal…"
X was interrupted with another gunshot. This time, to the shoulder. X screamed at the sudden impulse, and fell backwards. He sat against the wall, clutching both of his bullet wounds.
"This is the end. Goodbye." Emilia simply said. She froze up the room. The bookshelves, desk, and all other furniture paled as the temperature decreased. "You'll eventually die in the cold there." Emilia turned around, walking slowly out the door.
"Y-You murderer." X cackled, as he accepted his fate.
Emilia felt her cell phone ring, and picked it up. She held the phone between her cheek and shoulder as she rummaged through the files in the file cabinet labeled the current year.
"How's Azusa?"
"Fine. You?"
"We're good here. There's another problem though." Emilia reported to Mikoto as she flipped through the log activity.
"What is it? Mikoto asked.
"The bastards got a hold of my DNA. We need to stop it before it reaches a certain location." Emilia said quickly.
"Wha- Slow down! How?"
"I was a slave to them. Without thinking, I gave it to them. The mastermind attempted to use the DNA as a bargaining chip for his life. This means we still have a chance at stopping it before it gets in the wrong hands."
The two both knew they had no time to waste. "Do you know where it's going?" Mikoto asked.
"I'm looking for it right now. You should get to a higher vantage point so you have an easier time getting to a given location."
For a few more checks she finally found the record she wanted. Records regarding the level 5, Zero.
Emilia opened and finally found the details.
-Acquired the DNA of the esper.
-Esper identified female.
-[REDACTED]
-DNA sold to sponsoring faculty for a [REDACTED] project.
Emilia kept reading until she found the route of the truck carrying the DNA.
"I got it! I sent you the route of the truck and it's destination. You go to it's destination, I'll try to stop it in its tracks."
"Roger!"
Emilia kicked and accelerated the file cabinet she was searching, giving Emilia an exit. She jumped through multiple holes and finally got out of the faculty. The sky was lighting up, turning into an orange color. It was already morning.
It wasn't hard trying to find the moving target; all Emilia had to do was follow the closest path to the truck's destination. With her acceleration ability, it only took mere seconds to spot a suspicious vehicle.
To Emilia's surprise, it was a limousine rather than a truck. This almost made Emilia dismiss it, but the fact that Emilia only felt the heat signatures of armoured soldiers in the car and no one else, had convinced her. There's no 'VIP' of any kind in the car. It could only mean that the soldiers were protecting an object. That object without a doubt was her DNA.
Emilia began to calculate the area and temperature to stop the car in its tracks, but she hesitated.
It was morning, several people are already strolling on the sidewalks, about to start their day early.
Emilia instead kept following the vehicle, making sure she wouldn't lose it. She tried to find a good opportunity, but it was no use. There was always at least 1 car that would also be in danger if Emilia tried anything. Suddenly, Emilia had an idea. I could freeze a component in the vehicle, stopping it. I'd have to get in close to actually perform the calculation though. Emilia realized that her target was nearing a highway, meaning no roofs or buildings Emilia could stand on.
It was now or never. She leaped off and landed flat onto the roof of her target. She made a thump sound that even startled herself. Shoot, they know I'm here.
Emilia felt something open behind her, and it was the sunroof. A man popped out, assault rifle in hand. Just as I thought. Emilia heard herself think.
Emilia was about to disassemble the gun as she did last time. However, the car she was on made a sudden turn to the left, throwing her calculation off course. Emilia felt the hail of bullets coming her way.
Emilia had to calculate for the right combination of points to freeze in the car so it doesn't crash violently. She also had to calculate the correct component to freeze in the gun so it successfully dismantles. Finally, she had to calculate the properties of every single bullet being sent to her.
Clenching her teeth, she put her brain to work. Calculating the car's driving patterns, she froze the driver's hands onto the wheel, hearing the muffled scream of pain through the window. She perfected the timing so that the car would be going completely straightforward. Then, Emilia calculated a formula she could set up to render the bullets harmless while her mind was onto other things.
Once she was done, Emilia almost breathed a sigh of relief, now that most of the pressure was gone. She dismantles all the firearms in the car, including the one that was firing.
Alright, now all I have to do is calculate this car's-
The car made a suddenly sharp turn to the right, making it fly out a bridge. It plummeted down a different, busier street.
Emilia hesitated in shock. Did the driver sacrifice his hands in order to get me off the car? In the single time frame she was falling, her eyes confirmed it. The man twisted the wheel, making his hands snap off his wrists due to the abnormal cold.
Emilia fell on another car, expecting the chaos to unfold. However, blue sparks surrounded the limousine, and the car floated above the street. The car levitated into the sky, and eventually back on the original highway it was on.
Emilia smiled, and leaped back onto the highway herself. She forced the side door open, and took a look. Emilia wasn't exactly sure what she was looking for looked like, but seeing what the men were doing, it was clear as day. She took the cylinder component, catching a fist as she squeezed through the car. Emilia inspected the cylinder, it looked a bit like a transparent scroll.
"Got it?" Emilia heard Mikoto ask.
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Anytime. That thing there is your DNA, right?" Mikoto asked, pointing at what EMilia was holding.
"I think so." Emilia responded in a blank face. She proceeded to smash it onto the ground and burn it with her ability.
"Should we destroy the entire car, too? I wouldn't be taking any chances if I were you." Mikoto offered.
"H-Hey, wait!" A soldier yelled. "If you destroy this car, you'll be paying for it!"
"That's not a problem for us." Mikoto shot back.
"Hey… thanks a lot." Emilia said. "Like really… thank you."
Mikoto smiled like the rising sun. "You're my friend. That's what friends are for, right?"
"Yeah…" Emilia agreed. She hugged Mikoto suddenly, and began to weep on her uniform. Mikoto comforted her by patting Emilia's back. Eventually, Emilia let go.
"Well, I'm tired. I'm going to bed." Mikoto and Emilia said together, at the exact same time.
After a moment, they both realized what they said, and laughed their hearts out.