Although her neck ached, the Dorm Mistress's wrath had been largely given a stay of execution until she had time to arrange a suitable punishment. Perhaps the swimming pool had yet to get dirty again fast enough to warrant it—or, more likely, draining and refilling it simply to punish a schoolgirl or two for missing curfew would have been incredibly inconvenient to those that had cause to use it during the summer break.

Onee-sama seemed uncharacteristically subdued after returning to the dorm and the teleporter had no idea why. She would have liked to blame Kamijou but their interactions had been considerably livelier and it was doubtful that they had found some other time to meet up after splitting.

Meeting the Sister in the park had dampened her mood somehow. It was impossible for Kuroko to guess why, exactly—the difficulty in keeping knowledge of all the Sisters from spilling out? Regret at being unable to put a stop to all the experiments sooner? Or maybe she was simply uncomfortable with the number of lookalikes. Kuroko could think of nothing better to see more of but, then, she wasn't the one cloned without permission.

"Onee-sama?"

"What is it?"

If it was the latter, maybe she only needed more exposure to the Sisters as people. People with an unusual manner of speaking, but… "I was planning to visit the hospital tomorrow. Maybe you should come?"

The girl behind her said nothing, long enough Kuroko thought there might be no answer. "The day after, probably."

It was better than nothing. Maybe once the idea of everything had normalised, onee-sama would be more willing. Satisfied with at least having some willingness, the smaller girl returned to brushing her hair.

"Say, Kuroko."

"Yes? What is it, onee-sama?"

"If… just if… if I caused a calamity in Academy City, what would you do?" That got Kuroko out of her chair and facing the older girl.

"Is this about the facilities? You already know the answer to that. Although I would never want to approve of vigilantism, sometimes…" Sometimes, Judgment and Anti-Skill would be too slow to arrive or gather evidence. Or they might be deliberately impeded. Or Judgment might be there in the form of Kuroko herself, but outside her jurisdiction. "If there is no other choice."

"Not like that, where it's obviously right! I meant… I meant doing something more fundamental to Academy City."

This was why onee-sama was so down. She was worried about what she might do? After meeting yet another of the city's Level 5's, it had to be more of a concern than normal, what she had done. What she might end up doing with such a disproportionate amount of power.

"If someone were to threaten the peace of this city, be it you or anyone else, Kuroko's duty remains the same." If it were onee-sama, if it were Accelerator again, or some hypothetical future troublemaker… the situation was more complicated than she had ever thought, the permissible methods larger, but the outcome had not changed.

"I see… you call me onee-sama, but that's how much meaning there is to it…"

"Th-That's not what I meant! I know that you would never do such a thing!" Kuroko teleported over. How could onee-sama question her devotion like that! If there was one person she wanted to protect this peace for, even if it meant standing in her way, of course it was—

The flick in the head was rather unnecessary.

"Just kidding. I'm just joking with you."

"Onee-sama!"

By the morning, the older girl seemed to have recovered some of her previous good cheer, though it felt… off. It would make a pleasant surprise if the other girl's response to her affection would be less volatile in general, but since Kuroko's clinginess in the hotel had gotten the usual attitude receiving a pat on the head instead was unsettling.

It was a concern Kuroko didn't have much time to dwell on, the two roommates going their separate ways in the morning. Uiharu would no doubt want to assure herself that the teleporter's scarceness and emotional distance wasn't driven by a growing dislike, and it wasn't as if she had a more immediate concern.

It would have been nice if Saten hadn't dropped in and teased her about wounded pride after her 'accident'.

It was getting rather late before Kuroko arrived at the hospital, stopping outside the door in surprise at the sound of voices coming from inside. Had she arrived at a bad time? It seemed unlikely Miyu would have many other visitors.

"'Give it back,' demands Misaka-9982 with some frustration at her limited movement."

"'It's only a little thing,' says Misaka-19090, smugly positioning herself just out of reach."

Oh.

Seeing no reason to not enter after all, Kuroko was greeted by the sight of the two Sisters… well, it wasn't "playing". It might actually be more easily described as bullying, given their comparative disadvantages. With almost the entirety of her left leg gone, Miyu was left limited both in her ability to maintain her balance and reach out to where 19090 was standing. By contrast, from behind, 19090 didn't seem like a clone of Misaka Mikoto at all; Nunotaba clearly hadn't felt confident in cutting the girl's hair and had dressed her up in a frilly Gothic Lolita dress that Kuroko was certain you would have had to force onee-sama into.

Out of place with the frilly ensemble was a certain green badge, held, as the Sister had announced, just where Miyu would have no ability to reach it. The semi-identical girls had looked in her direction, but immediately gone back to arguing. Good, that would give her time to get it back.

"'But onee-sama gave it to me,' argues Misaka-9982, straining herself to reach Misaka-19090."

"'Misaka-9982 described it as lame', counters Misaka-19090."

The argument over the badge was brought to an immediate halt as it reappeared in the teleporter's hands instead, although she immediately gave it back to its owner. Faint as any expression was on the older clone's face, there seemed a trace of unmistakeable relief at getting her treasured gift back—even if it was a lame, childish thing like this.

It was increasingly unfathomable to Kuroko how any of the researchers had thought the clones had no emotions despite the blankness. Particularly Nunotaba: how could you ensure a system that would allow for expressing emotions in a verbal form if there were no emotions experienced?

"I wasn't expecting another visitor," Kuroko said, pulling up a seat.

"'I required an examination to ensure that no unexpected side effects had been caused by early removal from calibration,' explains Misaka-19090, 'I was simply being a good sister by visiting after.'"

Ah. In her defence, Kuroko hadn't known that this might cause some extra regularity, and they had been preparing to burn everything down… not that that was likely to help her case if she ever had to make it.

"'What sort of good younger sister steals her older sister's things?' asks Misaka-9982, remembering the delicious chocomint ice-cream she took from onee-sama."

What sort of future headache had Kuroko unleashed? If this was a preview of how onee-sama and Miyu were going to be, she was going to be spending so much time trying to mediate between the two. Where had they even learned to be so irritating to each other?

"Could you try using your name instead?" Kuroko suggested, fishing for a change of topic. She could only imagine the clones used serial numbers to differentiate themselves in a situation like this, but it could still be a bad habit to have in public, even if the chances were high that anyone exposed to it would end up very aware of how many clones there are.

From the ever-so-slight glowering coming from the frilly 19090, this wasn't as safe a topic of conversation as she had expected.

"'It's not fair,' says Misaka-19090, airing her complaints in a non-specific fashion."

It put an unusual spin on fishing for attention, Kuroko thought. "What isn't fair?"

"'Misaka-9982 gets a gift from onee-sama, will get to spend time with onee-sama, gets a unique name, and doesn't even have to take part in the experiments any longer,' complains Misaka-19090, petulantly not mentioning the cost."

"But you're all free from the experiments, the companies went bankrupt," Kuroko said, seizing upon the point that she didn't personally agree with. The placid tone rather undercut the whining, but if someone else were spending all their time with onee-sama and she wasn't, oh how that would be infuriating…

"'The Level Six Shift project is ongoing,' says Misaka-9—Miyu, correcting a misunderstanding."

Ongoing. It was… ongoing? Even after all those involved had shut down, it had just been passed around? And—onee-sama had gone off with a Sister yesterday.

"If I caused a calamity in Academy City, what would you do?"

She had to—no, she couldn't rush off. Not again. Every failure, every attempt to thwart the experiment, had only gotten the Sisters killed all the faster. If Kuroko rushed in without any sort of plan or even some idea where to go, why would this turn out any different?

"You don't want to die," it wasn't a question. 19090 had, perhaps without thinking, admitted it. Even if the Sisters were still calling themselves artificial or lab animals, that thought had spread into the Network. That was the thing about life, it was a habit that got under your skin. "Why not just refuse to take part?"

"'If Misaka refuse to take part in the experiment, the Network will be terminated, and a new group of Sisters created. The cost of retaining combat data would be the only obstacle', explains Misaka Miyu."

Of course. If any individual clone was only 180,000 yen, producing another ten thousand to finish the experiments would be expensive but not detrimental to a large company. If the cost was widely distributed, even smaller research facilities would be able to continue the Level 6 Shift for as long as they needed.

There had to be something that could stop this! Someone had to be running it, but if it was being passed between companies, the knowledge of the project was too disseminated to stop it by just finding whoever had been in charge before onee-sama's arson.

This experiment did have a single irreplaceable point of failure. Red. It was red everywhere, the same as all the other times. It was even flecked with white fragments.

"If someone were to threaten the peace of this city, be it you or anyone else, Kuroko's duty remains the same."

She had a duty. To Academy City. To the Sisters. To onee-sama. Even if it seemed impossible or reckless, Kuroko couldn't simply give up and hope that things would turn out for the better in the end.

Every power had its limitations, and every user their weaknesses. If this wasn't true, there would have been no need for the Level 6 Shift in the first place. Rushing in blindly for a third time had no chance of working but if those limits could be found first, then…

"Then Accelerator needs to be defeated."

Looking around the switchyard one more time, Kuroko wished there was more that could be done. But there was only so much for her to work with, and if the site of the next 'experiment' was too obviously disturbed, it would only make Accelerator more suspicious or give him obvious ammunition to work with.

She was taken completely by surprise when someone called her. Even more surprising was the identity of the caller: Kamijou Touma.

It was tempting to refuse to answer. He only had one reason to use her number and she found it incredibly unlikely that any calamitous plan would somehow involve an unremarkable spiky-haired boy. Which raised the question: why was an amnesiac calling her this evening?

"This is Kuroko."

"Um… what do you know about Misaka's younger sister?" What an odd question. He had only seen the Sister in question for a few minutes and he was asking about her?

"Everything." Or as close to everything as there was to know about the clones as a whole, the individual specifics were a bit much.

"So that definitely was her sister, then…?" Why was…?

The city's back alleys weren't that deserted. Not at this time of day, and it hadn't been that long since the previous experiment. Kuroko had tried to use that to her advantage; Nunotaba had tried for even longer.

"You saw something terrible and met the Sisters, didn't you?" Maybe she should tell him to stay out of this. If everything worked, it would be over tonight. The chance that it didn't work… onee-sama said that Kamijou had defeated her, and her lightning had done nothing. If there was the chance to pull something unexpected into the fight, maybe…

Explaining this might take some time and she needed to leave the switchyard before anyone else might arrive. "Kamijou-san, where are you?"

"'Experiment' 10032 is at 20:30," Kuroko finished. At least covering the gist of the experiments had taken less time than expected… after Kamijou had finished explaining why he was running around with a cat. If he might contribute to the fighting, a kitten wouldn't help terribly much. That the cat was 10032's was something of a complication, as it meant having nowhere stable to leave the animal.

"She knew about this?"

"Onee-sama has been trying to stop the project!" the teleporter said defensively, jumping to her feet. The stairs they had been sitting on were hardly comfortable, anyway.

"Won't she be getting involved, then?"

"Somehow. She wouldn't even tell me that the experiments were continuing, and she hasn't interrupted any of them since she found out." But he had a point, they needed to stop onee-sama from doing something rash. She wouldn't be answering her phone, so they would have to look—

Kuroko stared at her hand on the boy's shoulder.

"What are you doing?" She was the one that wanted to ask that question!

"Trying to teleport," Kuroko stated, lifting her hand, and hopping backwards. It was definitely Kamijou that wasn't moving, even though everything seemed like it should have worked. "Your immunity to onee-sama's lightning works against teleportation as well?"

"My right hand negates any powers it touches," Touma said, though he seemed somewhat confused by that too. Perhaps because Kuroko had been holding his left shoulder.

"And I can only teleport complete objects…" which obviously ruled out teleporting Kamijou anywhere. If they split up, she could probably find onee-sama faster, but then she would have to come back and find him or give co-ordinates to the switchyard. It would be faster to go on foot.

If they could find onee-sama fast enough. Being restricted to walking speed and low vantage points would heavily restrict how they could search. Where she might usually be wasn't useful; Kuroko couldn't see her going to an arcade or returning to their dorm.

"There's no wind." That was true, but what did it have to do anything? Why was he looking at the skyline? There were only buildings and… wind turbines. Turned by some unseen force on a windless evening.

"A cat?" Misaka wondered, looking around for the source of the meowing. What was a cat doing out here?

What was he doing here, with her roommate of all people?

"What the hell are you doing?"

Fine then, she could just act casual and blow them off, even if it was a mystery why a troublemaker and a Judgment member would be together. "What do you want? I do whatever I want. Ask Kuroko there, she's complained enough about it. Who do you two think you are, telling me I can't—"

"Stop it, onee-sama." Kuroko was serious, too?

"What are you talking about?"

"I know that the experiments haven't finished. Kamijou-san knows about them, too. The Sisters, the experiments. Don't pretend you just came here for the view."

They found out… "That's pretty good. He only found out about the Sisters yesterday, and already you managed to share information? Maybe you should get him to join Judgment, you need more good detectives."

But he was a meddler. There was no way that he could look past this. As far as he knew, she was just an accomplice in this entire project, the one that had provided her DNA map to facilitate the clones. Kuroko couldn't be any better, even if she knew more. All the crime and property destruction, and she hadn't even slowed the experiment down.

The only reason these two could have to come here together was to blame her. Maybe that was better; if she knew they blamed her that would be one less attachment. It would be calming.

"So, you blame me for what I did?"

"Are you—"

"—stupid?"

Kuroko was looking at her like she'd grown a second head. Misaka couldn't imagine her expression was much different. That wasn't the reaction she had expected at all, and when would Kuroko ever treat her like that?

"We were worried, onee-sama!"

No… her hand was shaking. Don't say that. It only makes it harder. "Even if you don't mean it, I appreciate hearing it. If only you meant it…"

"I'm not lying." Why? Why did they care? This was her fault. If she'd never helped, nobody would have had to die.

"We were worried!" No, Mikoto, don't cry. Not now. Look at the cat.

"You know, those girls call themselves guinea pigs without second thought. Like rats or marmots," If she just explained, they would let her go. "They have their bodies tampered with for the sake of experimentation. And when they're done, they're thrown out like garbage. They actually know what 'guinea pig' means. They know… and yet they still call themselves that.

"It's all my fault. That's why I need to save them myself." There. Her legs weren't shaking, she just needed to walk past the two.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"There's another experiment tonight. Before it happens, I'm going to settle things with Accelerator."

Why were they blocking her?

"Do you think you can win?" Kuroko asked. Ah… she still seemed possibly optimistic. Good old Kuroko, endlessly believing in her onee-sama.

"She told me the Tree Diagram's simulations predict you would die in 185 moves. Do you really plan on winning?"

"You're right. Even if I go all out, I won't be able to scratch him. But then, what am I worth?"

"Onee—" She couldn't give Kuroko time to interrupt.

"If I were to lose in the very first move, then it would contradict the simulation completely. If the scientists saw that, then they might have doubts about the plan. They might even want to re-evaluate the simulations. This way, I can still be useful somehow."

"You plan on dying?"

"Onee-sama, do you really think your death will stop the plan…?" Kuroko sounded horrified. Why shouldn't she? This would hurt her more than most. But she had other friends, and that clone to visit.

"Yes. For those scientists, the predictions made by the Tree Diagram are absolute. If after the first move I were unable to do anything more than run while coughing out blood, then the scientists would be bound to think, 'The Tree Diagram's predictions can be wrong.'"

"And if they recalculated, your death would be in vain!" What was with this double act? It was unfair, if only one of them had shown up she would have been able to go by now.

"That won't happen. Someone shot down the Tree Diagram three weeks ago. They won't be able to recalculate."

"Hey… how do you know that?"

"You did?" At least one of them didn't know everything about what was happening.

"Do you get it now? Let me through."

"No!" In sync, again?

"If your plan was to take down Accelerator, maybe I would consider it! But there's absolutely no way I can let you go to your death!" Seriously, Kuroko had seen this guy, would she really have considered it anyway?

A first bolt of electricity between them, as warning.

"What do you propose, then? Do you have any other ideas?" Kuroko opened her mouth again, but she wasn't going to stop talking. Her best friend would always claim there was something, wouldn't she? "There's absolutely nothing you can do. Don't just spew your pretty words and ideals." Justice? That they were worried for her? "You make me sick."

"I still won't let you pass." If that was how he wanted to play… she built up the arcing, threatening. Let her? Then he just needed the reminder.

"That's some sound reasoning. So, you mean to tell me you don't care if the clones die or not? If you don't want to let me through, then I'll have to go through by force. If you don't want that, then step aside! Both of you!"

Why weren't they moving…? Even with the electricity whipping so close to their faces?

"I see. So, you want me to do it the hard way. I may not have won one fight against you so far, and I may not know what on Earth your power is, but this time I can't afford to lose. And if you think being my best friend will stop me, Kuroko…" her fist clenched.

"So, you'd better come at me seriously. If you don't… then you're going to die."

They could do it. One of them could do it. She couldn't even hurt him, and Kuroko could incapacitate just as fast as she could. With all this warning, so why…? Why were they just standing there!?

"What's this?"

"We're not going to fight you."

"What?"

"We're not going to, onee-sama."

"What? Are you stupid? Do you really think I'll go easy on you? There's no other way for me. I don't care if you don't resist. If you're in my way, I'm going to take you down!"

"Even so…"

"We're not."

"Damn you!" Just fight! "If you're going to fight, then put up your dukes. If you're not, then get out of my way! Don't trample all over my wishes with your half-assed reasoning!"

It just didn't make sense. If they wanted to stop her, they could stop her. If they didn't, then why were they getting in the way? What was this meant to show? "I'm telling you to fight!"

Misaka never expected her lightning to hit both of them. No way…? Her power shouldn't work on him. He always nullified it half-way, but… it hit. And without that protection… Kuroko should still have tried to dodge! She had seen the teleporter follow a helicopter, there was too much warning here!

"Maybe now you understand. I won't hold back—"

No. They were getting up again and… still? "Why?"

"We told you—"

"We're not going to fight you."

"Why?! You know how messed up these experiments are, don't you?! I'm trying to stop it all! Why are you getting in my way?!"

"Yeah, they are wrong. There's no reason for someone to get hurt by that." See? He even knew it. But why…?

"So—"

"But, the way you're handling it won't save you, onee-sama."

"That's why we're not moving."

"What the hell are you saying? I don't deserve those words anymore… Even if there were a world where everyone could live happily, I would have no place there!"

"Do you think your remaining sisters would appreciate that? I know you understand. You know this won't save anyone."

Even with all the lights on the bridge shattering, they still didn't do more than flinch?

"Shut up… there'll be at least some form of peace if I die. There's no other choice than for me to die." Why hadn't they left? Why wasn't Kuroko getting them to safety? She could feel how little control she still had over the electricity around her, even if she wanted to stop it now. "If one life can save the lives of ten thousand, then isn't that a wonderful thing? Wouldn't that be fine?"

"So, please…"

They'd lowered their arms. Shared a glance. Maybe… they'd seen sense? They would let her go?

"We're not moving."

Ah, she couldn't hold onto it any longer…

It was not, Kuroko was able to say, the smartest approach they could have taken. Even for someone astonishingly accustomed to taking electric shocks on a regular basis… that went far above and beyond anything that she had ever expected to receive from onee-sama.

What choice could there have been? There was no explaining to someone too distressed to listen that you had a plan. Nonlethally subduing any Level 5 on her own would have meant doing more damage than Kuroko was entirely comfortable with, especially when nobody else was in danger. With Kamijou choosing to hold back as well…

She had no idea what could have been going through his head, but she appreciated the choice. Even if her body did not.

"You really are stupid." That was onee-sama's voice, and from so close… ah, if only this were a better situation to be receiving her lap as a pillow. Even shared. "Both of you. This has nothing to do with you. Just close your eyes and pretend you never saw anything."

… really, onee-sama, they already knew those girls. How could they ever pretend to have seen nothing?

"You could still go back to your ordinary life. Why would you let yourself get beat up like this? Your hearts might have stopped for a bit too."

"How can you keep smiling like that?" But she wasn't smiling. How could she ever smile if onee-sama was crying like that? Oh, Kamijou, of course…

"Because I'm glad to be your friend. So… don't cry." If Kuroko's arms were co-operating more, she would have joined in, but onee-sama's head seemed so far away.

At least, her voice seemed to be working again.

"We know how to stop the experiments. All we need is to prove that the predictions are wrong," it hurt less to sit up than she thought. It didn't really feel like anything at all, even if that made finding her feet all the harder. "If Accelerator is supposed to defeat the Railgun 128 times, what if he loses? Kamijou-san is just a Level 0, and Accelerator won against me before."

At least Kamijou seemed to be having much less trouble standing. If he had been so affected, that would make the fighting all the harder.

"You can't! If you've fought him before, you know he's on a different level than me! He's a monster who would just laugh if the world's military were sent after him!"

"I said before, onee-sama. If someone threatens the peace of this city, my duty is the same. For your happiness and the happiness of those girls, Kuroko will fight Accelerator a hundred times."

There, she was on her feet. If she had that and her teleportation, she would be fine against Accelerator.

"It's my dream to go back home smiling, without having lost anything." That was why he let himself be shocked…? This fool. "Just wait here. I'll bring back younger Misaka."

"I promise."

AN: There were other ways to handle it, but if Misaka continues to dominate the flow of the conversation, then... well, they're both idiots in a situation like this.

I promise, though, that this is the last time there's going to be so much dialogue-mining from canon. All the main relationships are altered now, so on top of the extra character involvement...

This isn't supposed to end at just the Sisters Arc. Some of the Index-side things are going to change a bit before it gets to Tree Diagram Remnant, and that and the Daihaseisai are really going to change.