There was a heavy thunderstorm outside as nature lashed out against the city of science, pelting the towers that challenged the sky with powerful lightning and a thick torrent of rapidly falling rain.
Outside it was cold, owing to the rain that fell from the sky, and the darkness of the night was only interrupted by the bright flashes of light that struck from above. But inside the dormitories of Tokiwadai Middle School it was warm, bright, and it offered shelter from the harsh elements of nature.
But the atmosphere of a certain dorm room was just as vicious as the skies above.
It was herfinal year, but Kuroko had another year to go through before transferring to the High School half a kilometer away. That should have been fine.
It should have been. But the issue was not about sharing dorms. The argument had nothing to do with that.
The spiteful words, the hateful tones, the sparks of electricity and teleportation of metal darts had nothing to do with simply sharing a room.
Even now, in her nightmares, Kuroko could still see those eyes staring back at her with so much hatred, so much anger and vitriol.
For that was the true storm that night.
Kuroko Shirai woke up with a strong startle, shaking the bed as she violently shuddered and took in a deep, guttural gasp. Sweat poured from her body, and her forehead was slick with a cold fever. Her heart beat rapidly, too rapidly, and it scared her as much as the nightmares that had resurfaced over the past month or so.
But as quickly as it came, she suddenly lost her lucidity. Her vision seemingly blackened and she felt as if she was being pulled into another state of being.
"Kuroko, my gosh you're soaked!" Misaki sounded from beside her, pulling on the girl to put her on her back. Looking down she saw the troubled and tormented teleporter desperately trying to calm her breathing and her throbbing, frantic heart. She was staring into nothing, and her eyes were unnaturally dilated. Setting aside her own panic, Misaki placed herself over Kuroko and lowered herself down, softly holding the teleporter by her cheeks.
"Kuroko, dear, look at me!✨"
Staring deeply into eyes that did not see her, Misaki pushed through the mind of Kuroko to try and settle her down. She steeled her own nerves and fears and focused her power on the teleporter below. It was still a relatively risky thing to do, but Misaki was half blinded by a desperate need to calm her panicking girlfriend, and half unwilling to leave her side for even the briefest of moments.
Peering into her mind, Misaki felt overwhelmed at the noise that reflected into her. It was a mess of nightmarish visions and terrified thoughts. But there was more to it than that. Within those streams of extreme emotions and vivid horrors was a cacophony of arithmetic. Vectors, calculations of simple math combining with that of dimensional coordinates. Misaki could see the grids in her mind, all of these locations and methods to move from one place to the other, as well as to shift other objects to different places.
The shock of it all, and the information that flooded into her as if a dam had burst, made Misaki think she had temporarily become a teleportation esper herself. She did what she could to refocus, to not put that outrageous possibility to the test...
But it was so difficult.
"Kuroko!" Misaki shouted again, almost screaming, moving her hands from Kuroko's cheeks to her shoulders and shaking her. Fear enveloped the Level 5 like a cold, dark shroud. This was beyond just a normal nightmare, surely, and something was deeply wrong with Kuroko. Misaki felt that her worst fears were becoming realised, that something was happening within the teleporter that was beyond both of their control.
Another gasp from Kuroko, and Misaki suddenly found herself staring into the terrified and bloodshot eyes of her lover.
Now lucid, Kuroko could only lock her gaze onto Misaki's. Panting hard, she tried again to regain her bearings, but her heart continued to quickly and powerfully slam into her ribcage. The strength of her heartbeat made her entire body shake, and the adrenaline that coursed through her veins only added to it. Her eyes felt dry and her mouth course, completely lacking in moisture, and her throat stung with every rapidly passing breath that flowed through and out of her.
Looking into her girlfriend's eyes, however, was calming. It was entrancing, even. Those stars in her eyes had a way of captivating a person, even when she was not using her powers. Kuroko chalked it up to it being some kind of passive effect of her power, but the allure and exotic nature of them were a draw in their own right.
"Ahh…" Kuroko made a weak, strangled noise as she began to register everything. Misaki above her, her body covered in sweat, the bed now uncomfortable, soggy and hot. "Damn…" She struggled to utter, the word shuddering as her body continued to vibrate with adrenaline.
"Shush, shush. Breathe." Misaki whispered, though the whisper still betrayed her emotions. It was an experience unlike any other seeing Kuroko in such a state. She had seen Kuroko in hospital before, beaten, bruised and cut up from a serious operation or ambush, but at least there was an element of control when she saw her in the hospital bed. At those moments she was under the care of doctors, nurses and valuable machinery, and Misaki could stand guard and push a button if anything went seriously wrong.
But there were no doctors here, no nurses, and no pieces of tech that could truly monitor what was going on with Kuroko.
It was just them two, alone.
But for Misaki, it needed to be this way, regardless of how much that necessity plagued her.
"This… is too much." Kuroko said rapidly between breaths, her heart still beating hard and fast. Maybe it wasn't just the adrenaline coursing through her veins that made her shake and shudder, but also the pace of her blood as it raced through her.
"I know, but the nightmares will go away soon." Misaki said, trying to reassure her partner. Her hands moved from the teleporter's shoulders and back to her face; one stroked her cheek and the other landed on the top of her head.
"But, it's not just… that." Kuroko shook her head slightly and winced as she swallowed on reflex, prompting a spike of sore pain in her throat. "So vivid, so much… the headaches." Kuroko brought up a weak arm from her side and placed her hand on her temple, rubbing at it as the onset of a fresh dose of pain approached.
"Mm, but we have the pills, even my powers."
"Not enough... happening too often…" Misaki's argument did little to satiate Kuroko, who was still struggling to speak out a properly formed sentence. "It's like they do nothing." Kuroko bemoaned, bringing the back of her hand from her temple to her forehead, her elbow sticking out and getting quite close to the drawer and the china that laid atop it. After a few moments she spoke again, feeling weary and resigned.
"We should go to a hospital."
"You-" Misaki caught herself, her eyes wide. "No, it's not necessary…" She shook her head to hide the expression that adorned her features. Kuroko did not fail to notice, looking confused about her girlfriend's reaction to such a simple request.
"Wha-?" It did not make any sense. "But why? They'll know how to help." Kuroko choked out, her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to understand why her partner denied her this. 'I thought she wanted me to rest...'
Misaki looked away for a moment, staring at nothing in particular, pulling her hands away as she straightened herself out. Her right hand settled on her left arm and she rubbed at it, trying to find some measure of comfort. The starry-eyed blonde had the same frown as Kuroko did, but for different reasons, reasons that alluded the teleporter. Seconds passed by with nary a noise but that of breathing; one heavy, one light.
Misaki turned her head back around, returning her troubled gaze to the auburn haired Level 4.
"They will poke, and they will prod… I don't trust them." Misaki said with some insistence in her tone, as well as a hint of disdain over the darker elements of Academy City. Kuroko thought that, perhaps, Misaki was being a little too overprotective, over dramatic even.
"Over a headache? Endless, vivid nightmares?"
"..."
Misaki said nothing in reply to that, and she shifted atop of Kuroko's hips. Her fringe fell a little, covering her unique and special eyes. From this angle Kuroko could not see them, and it hid the true extent of Misaki's feelings on this matter.
'What are you keeping from me..?' Kuroko thought, her mind becoming filled with worry, but also a powerful intrigue and curiosity. Whether Misaki picked up on that or not, it did not matter to Kuroko. The seed had been planted.
"What did you dream about?" Misaki suddenly spoke up again, snapping Kuroko from her internal conversations. The blonde put on a forced smile that Kuroko instantly knew was fake, and her lips curled downwards; not in anger but in sadness.
"You know that… you're changing the subject…" It was such an obvious deflection, made even more obvious since Misaki was 'Mental Out', the most powerful telepath in the world, and had likely just seen what had plagued her dreams. Still, Kuroko didn't detect any malice with the poor attempt at a topic change. "What's bothering you?" Kuroko asked instead. Her free hand, which had stayed by her side throughout, reached out to gently grasp Misaki's outer thigh. It was the closest part of the blonde that she could reach. She rubbed her thumb on the exposed skin in an attempt to get across to Misaki her own worry and care for her.
"Please, just trust me about this." Misaki was insistent again, but Kuroko could pick up just a little bit of panic in her voice. This was beyond abnormal, and what came next fuelled that abnormality. "Please? Like with the remotes, my powers."
"I-"
This was not a tactic that Misaki deployed often, if at all. Hell, Kuroko could not remember a time when the blonde had done this before. Her heart, which had begun to calm and settle to a more normal rhythm, began to beat just a little bit faster. An uncomfortable, burning sensation encroached on her stomach, and her toes involuntarily curled and uncurled as a nervousness creeped into her psyche.
In the back of her mind, a tiny, tiny little thought cropped up, hoping that the reason she did not remember an instance like this happening was not due to the use of those remotes.
"I trust you when you say you will be safe, when you say you have everything under control." Misaki continued, focusing Kuroko once more. It was not like the Level 5 was wrong. "And my gosh, is it hard when you are like this. But I do." Determination danced across her brow and her hands returned to Kuroko, gripping the teleporter's sides. The grip was firm, but not painful, and the stare that Misaki held towards Kuroko carried that strange mixture of determination and desperation.
It was just about enough to make Kuroko concede.
"...okay, I will."
At least for the time being.
Then a silence enveloped the two. A minute or so passed with the two struggling to maintain eye contact with each other. Doubt and unease had crept into their relationship, sticking to it like chewing gum beneath a restaurant table.
Kuroko yawned and glanced at the clock on Misaki's side of the bed, her eyes gliding past the curtains that hid the rays of sunlight which fought for entry into the darkened bedroom. It was just past 8am. Kuroko figured that she must have gotten at least seven or eight hours of sleep, at least when factoring in the moments in the night where she woke up. It could have been worse, but it could also have been better. She sighed, and attempted to turn her gaze back to her partner.
The tension slowly dissipated, and as it did so, Misaki made a move to draw herself closer to her partner. She knew that this was not really the best time to be having an argument, and all she really wanted to do was comfort her girlfriend. She lowered herself down, slowly drawing herself into a hug. Although the sheets were damp from the sweat that had cascaded off of Kuroko, she ignored it to convert the hug into a cuddle. Kuroko was more than willing to reciprocate it, and her hands and arms followed Misaki as she got closer and closer to her. The teleporter did not want a fight either, and the questions raised by the feud they just had could be answered later.
A few more minutes passed in an increasingly more comfortable silence. Misaki snuggled into Kuroko's neck, and Kuroko brushed her fingers into the golden, silky locks of the telepath. She tenderly scratched and massaged at Misaki's scalp, and the blonde could not help but let out a few noises from her enjoyment of it.
It brought a smile to Kuroko's lips, something she needed after her rough awakening.
"...Kuroko?" The silence was finally interrupted by Misaki as she spoke into the neck of her partner. Kuroko hummed in acknowledgement.
"Mm?"
"Rest more." She subtly bargained, poking at the soft tissue above Kuroko's ribs for emphasis, pouting a little to make the point stronger. "If it still persists-"
"I will try."
"You will?" Misaki's voice had a little bit of pitch to it as she darted up from her comfortable position nestled into Kuroko's neck. She was surprised, grateful even, and hopeful that maybe this was a positive step in the right direction. Her eyes had widened and her lazy smile had become more energetic.
"Mhm… but Judgement does need me, and my coursework can't be ignored either."
"I know." Misaki nodded, a plan already forming in her head to sort out that little problem. "Let me do something about the education stuff."
"Please don't brainwash teachers into giving me good grades, you dolt." Kuroko said teasingly, shaking her head and poking at the blonde's belly. Misaki gasped in an over exaggerated way, giggling and swatting away the attacking hand.
"Heh, shush now…" She started, her giggles finishing up but her smile remaining. "No, I won't make it that easy for you."
"Mm…"
Kuroko hummed and Misaki lowered herself down again, reaching her partner's lips and giving her a small, light kiss. They stayed that way for a while, cuddling again and exchanging a soft kiss or two every minute or so. It would be another dozen or so minutes before the two would start talking again, with it being Misaki who broke the comfortable, loving silence.
"Sorry for being so insistent." She said into Kuroko's neck, her voice muffled and her tone a little more neutral than before. Kuroko shook her head again, a part of her hoping it would not prompt another round of headaches.
"No Misa'… no you have your reasons, experiences… I understand." Thoughts of the past reared their ugly heads, of all the sadder, darker moments in their lives. "I know more about the dark side of the city now."
"Mhm."
They tried to bury those pains of the past. It simply was not worth thinking about right now, not when everything had been settled and sorted, not when it no longer had such a weight upon them. They had moved on, after all.
It was not like how memories were being wiped, suppressed or altered anymore…
At the behest of a certain someone else.
"Really, you're just not resting enough and are overworked. All that stress…" Misaki continued, trying to move on in her way, telling her partner off but in a fake manner. Kuroko giggled, poking at her girlfriend's side.
"Okay, okay, I get it." Kuroko's smile grew larger, and so did Misaki's, her loving and caring gaze now visible to the teleporter as the blonde pulled away from her neck.
"My silly teleporter." Misaki said with no hint of a tease in her voice. "I love you, Kuroko." Another peck landed on Kuroko's lips.
"Me too, Misaki."
A few more blissful minutes passed, but not before Kuroko forced down her medication for the day, her dry throat hardly accommodating in such an endeavour. Misaki teased as the teleporter grimaced and bemoaned the struggle, massaging her throat like you would when feeding an unwilling cat.
With that done, the two took their time in properly waking up. Misaki allowed Kuroko to nap a little, keeping a watchful eye on her just in case. She listened to the heartbeat of her girlfriend, thankful that it had calmed down and normalised.
Perhaps an hour had passed now, neither of the women were too sure about that. Misaki found that the blissful comfort made time meaningless, and Kuroko was simply happy to get some extra rest. Eventually however, the discomfort of the damp sheets became a bit too much. In the end it was Misaki who broke the morning quiet.
"You need to shower, if you're ready to get up?" The request was disguised in a question, adorned with a little kiss on Kuroko's neck. The teleporter nodded.
"Mm, yeah… I feel ready enough." She said, stretching her legs. "We'll definitely need fresh sheets, ugh, how unseemly of me." Kuroko bemoaned, sighing in a way that felt like she was adding emphasis to the sorry situation.
"I'll call in a maid." Misaki stated simply, rolling off of her girlfriend and having her own little stretch. After that she quickly dashed into the living room towards the kitchen, and Kuroko could hear the clinking of a glass and the flow of water coming from a faucet. The blonde returned a few moments later with two glasses of water, her own half drunk already. Kuroko gladly accepted the hydration, guzzling down the fresh and crisp water in one go.
She set the glass onto the dining tray that still sat on the drawer before walking towards the bathroom. She did not fail to notice Misaki's sneaky attempt at tailing her. She smirked a little and, not turning her head, called out to the Level 5 behind her.
"Following me in, are you?" She commented, feigning the implication of it all. Misaki huffled a little, knowing giggling.
"Of course, I have to make sure you do not slip and fall." She said in jest, reaching towards Kuroko who had paused her strides to the shower. She wrapped her bare body around her partner's own, brushing aside some of Kuroko's auburn locks to kiss the back of her neck.
"Oh I'm sure that's the only reason and you do not intend to defile my maidenly soul." Kuroko smiled as she felt Misaki's hands land and rub her toned stomach, slowly but surely reaching lower and lower. Misaki hummed her next giggle, placing a kiss in the crevice between her teleporter's neck and shoulder.
"Ah, though a lovely bonus did not slip my mind~"
"And while I'm ill too, for shame, for shame~"
By the time the two had finished up in the bathroom, the sun had reached its highest point in the sky. Kuroko felt rejuvenated and fresh, and even the mild little ache in her head was easily ignored. She wore a simple white shirt and blue, ripped jeans.
For emergency maneuverability of course.
Sipping at a fresh cup of tea, with just a drop of milk to take the bitter edge off, she admired her partner who was reading at the other end of the table, wearing a flowing, long sleeved blue dress, made in the finest satin.
"Must you read those trashy magazines?" Kuroko commented wearily, trying to suppress her smirk at her teasing attack. Misaki laughed and dismissed her with a wave of her gloved hand, winking before turning back to her fashion mag.
Kuroko finished up her toast, lightly glazed with a sweet strawberry jam, washing it down with her tea. She browsed the news with her normal phone, looking through it for any interesting stories or happenings of note.
Weather reports, stock figures, park events, power outages, football scores…
'Oh?' Kuroko paused.
'Power outages… I wonder-'
Suddenly her phone blurred with a ringtone and pulsing caller screen. Judging from her Judgement phone also ringing on the living room table, it was Kazari, and Kuroko then remembered asking yesterday to be called at around this time. She tapped the green phone icon and brought her phone to her ear.
"Hey Kazari."
"Hi Kuroko!"
"Gah, not too loud." Kuroko winced at the onslaught of noise, her voice pitching in despair. Her eardrums were not quite ready for the day ahead yet. She could already picture Kazari scratching the back of her head in embarrassment at the scolding.
"Sorry sorry, headache and all that, of course." Kazari snappily apologised before continuing. "Anyways, sorry to get straight to Judgement stuff but I've gone through the data from last night."
"Ah, don't apologise, it's okay." Kuroko said; it was the reason for the call request last night after all. "Do you want to tell me in person?" The teleporter then offered, already expecting the words that came next.
"Preferably, it's easier to show and tell after all." Kazari said with some resignation, having wished to keep Kuroko at home and well rested for as long as possible. She continued: "There are a lot of dots here, and we all need to get our heads together for it."
"Understood." Kuroko nodded her head unconsciously. Misaki subtly watched from the other end of the table as her partner talked to her friend on the phone.
"Oh, and on that note, Ruiko is in this morning too." Kazari pointed out suddenly. A part of her hoped that the presence of her best friend would reassure Kuroko that the branch was well staffed without her for the day. Kuroko hummed.
"Good, and the new recruit?" The teleporter then asked, her tone neutral and not revealing any of the doubt she had over the new addition to the branch.
"Yup, Yoshika helped me through the night when I needed to nap. We swapped every few hours" Kuroko could hear how pleased Kazari was towards the girl, and she could not help but smile a little, genuinely pleased at her contribution to Kazari's data crunching and securing.
"Ah, that's good, glad to hear."
"I know you're skeptical about her, but she did do a good job, I can vouch for that." But Kazari was not too sure if Kuroko had meant it, given the… rough introductions and such.
"And I believe you, don't worry." Kuroko then said however, figuring that black haired girl would say that. The computer wizard hummed down the phone, smiling in relief.
"Who knows how much schoolwork she is missing right now, nevermind the trouble she might be in with the dorm watchers!" Kazari giggled a little, while Kuroko hummed her own little chuckle.
"Yeah, I know from past experiences how brutal they can be." Kuroko laughed a little more, reminiscing at the awful neck snapping she had to go through back in Tokiwadai. Kazari giggled again at the reminder of all of those horror stories, and the times she saw them happen, before yawning strongly.
"Mhm. I'm taking a nap again so please take your time, hehe. Ruiko is here today after all, nothing will go missing, I promise."
"Hm, I would hope so." Kuroko said with a slightly sarcastic voice, her memory quickly flipping through the few times where pieces of paperwork would go missing or a (hopefully) empty USB would vanish overnight, only to return the next week. "Okay, I'll be there in an hour or two, have a good nap." She bid a farewell to her friend, who offered one in kind.
"Thank you, see you then Kuroko." The phone disconnected, and Kuroko put it back onto the table, forgetting the local news story she had just come across.
With her arrival at the Judgement branch arranged, Kuroko went to finish off the now cold toast that remained on her plate before rising from her seat to wash her dishes. Meanwhile Misaki returned her full attention to the magazine she was reading, only breaking it again to sip at her tea. Some thoughts of her own danced across her brilliant mind, and she was keen to act on the ideas that sprung up from them. She kept them at bay for now.
As midday shifted to afternoon, Kuroko finally felt the weariness of last night and her frayed sleep ebb away, replaced by a new day's energy. She was finishing up her usual stretches as it reached a few minutes past 1pm, and she began stuffing into her pockets her phone and wallet for the trip ahead.
Then a voice cleared from the sofa behind her.
"Hm, I'll come with you to Judgement." Misaki declared, switching off the television and setting down the remote for it. Kuroko turned her attention to her girlfriend.
"Oh will you now?"
"Yup, and you can't stop me~" Misaki trailed and stood up from her seat, performing a little stretch of her own. She reached for the khaki bag on the glassy living room table, the one which contained her special remotes rather than one for the large and wide flat screen.
"Alright, alright." Kuroko conceded quickly, not at all wanting to miss any opportunity to spend time with her partner. She was usually busy after all, so any time spent with her was good. "You can use your fantastic memory 'ability' to relieve my poor head I suppose." The teleporter half-teased, not wanting to waste using Misaki's powers for some pain relief if the aches hit her hard again.
"Hey, that's my thing!" Misaki spoke in a fake aghast voice, placing her white-gloved hand on her chest for emphasis. "Keeping track of a mind's traits and ability levels are very important." She argued, puffing out a confident breath and frown. Kuroko laughed, shaking her head at the display.
"Of course of course, how silly of me to doubt that."
"Indeed, indeed."
Misaki followed her precious teleporter out of the dorm room, and the two began to enjoy their walk in the sun towards Kuroko's Judgement branch. She had a feeling that it would be a long day.
