It was the late morning of the next day and Kuroko Shirai was buttoning up her dark-blue blazer, looking at herself through her reflection in the bedroom mirror. Her eyes occasionally glanced through the window to her side. Judging from the scene through the clear glass, it was a cloudier day than usual, the sun often partially or fully obscured by fluffy white clouds. Finishing up the final button, Kuroko glanced at her phone, curious if the extra cloud cover foretold any rain later in the day. Fortunately no rain was forecast.
Kuroko inspected herself in the mirror, looking over her university uniform to check for any errors or blemishes. Everything looked fine, from the blazer to the white shirt underneath, as well as the fresh knee length skirt.
All that was missing was the green and white Judgement armband.
Reaching for the coat stand next to the mirror, adorned with caps as well as jackets and the like, Kuroko grasped the armband. She had not worn it since that night over a week ago and, after affixing the cloth around her right upper arm, felt a sense of comfort in seeing it attached to her again. She was not completely healed up - a day or two more resting would likely have done the job - but, to her, it marked her recovery.
Misaki, sitting at the edge of the bed behind her, was unconvinced.
"Kuroko, dear… are you sure you want to return to the branch today?" Misaki asked wearily, concern dripping from her voice like water from a faucet. Kuroko looked over her shoulder before turning her whole body around, smiling sympathetically at her partner.
"I do. It's an active situation with The Railgun and we need to try and prevent any further murders from her, if at all possible." Kuroko said, internally noting how weird it was for the moniker to roll off of her tongue. She had rarely referred to her former best friend and crush in that way, and the foreign feel of the word was indeed quite odd.
Misaki observed Kuroko carefully, a little proud that her teleporter was able to mention Mikoto's moniker without cringing or wincing. Perhaps her professional side was already taking over, ready for the long day of officiating ahead of her, but Misaki still considered it an achievement given everything that had happened as of late.
"Saten-san also needs some guidance and advice on the missing persons case she is working on." Kuroko said, continuing her answer. Turning to the side, she looked for her bandolier of spikes, finding them hanging from a row of wooden pegs which were attached to the wall.
"Ah, Kazari-san mentioned that when she visited." Misaki said while watching Kuroko first reach to grab the leather strap then move into a crouch to attach the special bandolier to her thigh. It was covered and hidden by the knee length skirt, and the way it was constructed meant that the spikes rested at an angle, and the flat end of the spikes were almost constantly touching her skin. Kuroko did not need her hands to teleport the deadly, sharp spikes at this point, simply relying on having the objects touching a part of her.
It was a technique that she had been training on for years, even back in Tokiwadai. Shifting her entire body to be her centre-point for teleportations, as opposed to her hands, gave her a much greater tactical advantage in the field, as well as a greater understanding of her powers.
"Mhm, I'm thinking of visiting the sites of the disappearances with her." Kuroko said, clipping the ends of the leather straps together before pulling on some strings to ensure it was tight against her thigh. "See if we can try and find some patterns."
"Do you think it is related to Mikasa-san?" Misaki asked, feeling it was a very appropriate question given the circumstances. Kuroko hummed.
"Maybe, maybe not." Kuroko started, standing up from her crouched position on the floor. "I can't rule it out, obviously, but the two cases don't quite fit to be honest."
"How so? Murders for one, going missing for other?" Misaki questioned, trying to piece together the logic herself.
"Essentially, yeah." Kuroko quickly replied. "I wasn't told much else in the text from Uiharu-san, so I need to discuss it further with Saten-san." Finishing up, she approached Misaki on the bed, who began to stand up. "Until then, it's just a hunch."
"Mhm." Misaki hummed while reaching out for Kuroko's shirt collar, adjusting it to her liking. "Well, I cannot stop you, but please be careful." The blonde requested with a flat, almost resigned voice. Misaki was already fearing the worst and no level of reassurance from Kuroko, even her placing a hand delicately on one of Misaki's outstretched arms, would quell that worry.
"I'll try."
Misaki immediately frowned.
"You're still recovering, be careful ." Misaki repeated with emphasis, pulling a little tighter on the collar she was holding. Kuroko tried to smile it away, but her furrowed brow showed just how awkward it was. The teleporter nodded, putting some pressure in her own hold in an attempt to pry the insistent and worrying blonde off of her shirt. Misaki relented.
"It should be a routine investigation, a normal day." Kuroko said, trying to reassure her girlfriend. The teleporter could immediately sense the counter coming for Misaki, intervening before it came. " And… if that changes, I'll call you."
"Hm…" Misaki was not entirely convinced. "A 'normal day' for you often includes a criminal or two…" Misaka said, and in her eyes was fairly pointing out the reality of Kuroko's statement. Almost every day on duty involved some kind of intervention against a criminal enterprise, and that meant physical exertion and risk; something that Kuroko was meant to be avoiding.
"Misaki…"
"I know I can't stop you, but at least try to avoid any conflict, okay?" Misaki pleaded, a look of desperation lightly coating her face. She shifted her arms and hands to hold onto Kuroko's while the teleporter turned her head away, feeling awkward and unsure.
"You say that, but- uh…" Kuroko cut herself off, but failed to restrain a seed of doubt that had been planted within her. Misaki caught the words quickly, quickly deciphering the meaning.
"I'm not using my powers on you." Misaki said firmly, her desperation fading into the background. Her tone was serious, and the features on her face hardened. Kuroko's eyes glanced slowly and cautiously towards Misaki, worried that she may have angered or upset her, or both.
"I, I know, just…"
Both of the teenages felt they were treading a fine line, balancing on some kind of tightrope of their own imagination. Each feared that they were pushing their partners against their own wishes. For the first time in a long while, something unpleasant was encroaching into their thoughts.
'She wouldn't… force me to stay, would she?' Thought the teleporter.
'She would not just… ignore me, right?' Thought the telepath.
"I should head off." Kuroko said suddenly, pulling away from Misaki. The starry-eyed blonde let her hands slip from Kuroko's palms as her serious expression drowned into concern. A feeling of helplessness rose up through her body as she watched Kuroko walk away, a strangled gasp of air escaping her throat as the words she wished to say failed to materialise. The teleporter opened the door before pausing at the halfway mark.
"I'll be back sometime this evening, okay?" Kuroko called out over her shoulder, stopping by the half opened bedroom door.
It was odd, in Misaki's vibrant, golden eyes. Kuroko could have just teleported away if she wanted to, a simple goodbye before phasing out of sight to reappear elsewhere. But, instead, she was standing by the half-opened doorway, looking at her with an expectant look on her face.
'Is she…?' Misaki immediately buried that line of thinking beneath a ton of metaphorical mental bricks. She was not doing… that.
Surely?
"Yes, yes… that's okay." Misaki said simply, her voice a little shaky and quiet. She forced her lips to adorn a smile, her eyes closing. "See you later my love."
"Mm, I love you too." Kuroko replied, a small, forced smile on her lips, before turning her head away from her partner.
Then Kuroko pulled the door fully open, walked through the archway, and then closed it. From the other side of the doorway, after a few seconds of silence, Misaki could hear the distinctive shrill and woosh of air from Kuroko's teleportation. Just like that, Kuroko was gone.
Misaki sat back down on the bed, her shaky knees unwilling to hold up her weight for any longer. She trembled, she worried, and she bemoaned. The conversation from last night was now an even more glaring warning alarm than before, and the attitude displayed by Kuroko clearly heralded a rooted influence of Mikoto's insidious words, rather than a curious thought.
Now that the doubt within Kuroko was there, Misaki had no idea how to get rid of it. She was boxed in when it came to the words she could choose to defend herself, and she was completely opposed to using her own powers to fix the problem; she would never fall to such depths, no matter the temptation, even if it made all the sense in the world to do so in her brilliant mind.
A cry of frustration escaped her, and she slammed a fist into the spongy mattress. She brought her hands to her head, grasping at her blonde hair, pulling it from its roots. The sting of pain did little to rid herself of the pressure upon her shoulders, crushing her like a hand squeezing an empty soda can.
Stress upon stress was piling on top of her, and she could not help but let some tears slip down her cheeks.
Kuroko was faring only a little better.
As she zipped through the air, her chest felt uncomfortably heavy. For a moment she worried that she had not taken her heart medicine, but the water in her eyes quickly invalidated that thought in a heartbeat. Kuroko had truly felt that the prospect of her mind being altered was not necessarily a bad thing, or even something worth considering. If it had happened, she thought, it had happened, and there was nothing she could do to change that.
She was happy. Life with Misaki was wonderful, Misaki was wonderful.
But…
Maybe she was kidding herself. Her thoughts last night were fuelled by fatigue and depression, a sickening resignation born out of the sadness of the past and prior week, all built upon months of searing, blinding headaches.
However, after everything that Misaki and herself had been through, surely all of that talk was meaningless.
Surely..?
A few minutes passed and Kuroko was about to land at the front of her Judgement branch. With a final teleportation she settled upon the firm paved ground, and she looked up at the building. It was the same as before, a few stories high and glistening with glass, highlighted by stripes of brick, mortar and concrete. She calmed herself and pushed away the doubts that were beginning to rot her from inside, and began her march towards the entrance.
She greeted the receptionists, logged her entry down for them, and then proceeded to the elevator. Kuroko wished to spare some of her teleportation energy for later, so a trip up the elevator was a sure-fire way of doing so. In and out within less than a minute, Kuroko officially arrived at Branch 177 of Judgement, and just as the clock struck 10:30am.
Walking briskly, she traversed the length of the very short corridor, reaching the main room of the branch, glancing from side to side as she looked over the comfortingly familiar environment. Between the many filing cabinets that were crammed within the space, she noted a few extra bits and pieces that had been added to the scenery since her absence. On the other end of the room was a large cork board, half filled with pins, strings and illustrated paper.
'Ah, Saten-san really is on top of this…' Kuroko thought, happy and proud of her friend's forward thinking drive on the matter of the missing persons.
Her gaze then returned to the many filing cabinets, stacked with folders and loose papers, where she noticed what she thought were a few extra pieces of gear. These were not just some extra bandoliers, spikes and communicators, but vests of some kind, as well as what appeared to be some thick rubber gloves. She was curious and wanted to inspect them further, but an excited, chirpy voice rang out from a certain Level 0's desk.
"Ah, Shirai-san! Welcome back!" Ruiko shouted formally and happily, something that Kuroko found impressive given her usually unprofessional way of addressing her friends during work. Kuroko glanced over as Ruiko finished, a warm smile on her lips and a bright expression on her face. She wore a simple white shirt with the top button undone.
"Good morning, Saten-san." Kuroko spoke more calmly, watching Ruiko bounce off of her seat in a rush towards the teleporter, revealing her plain dark grey trousers. Within a matter of seconds, Ruiko had reached the Level 4, pulling her into a bone crushing hug. Kuroko giggled a little at the enthusiasm, counting her blessings that her wounds had mostly healed and her bones were firm and solid.
"I'm so glad you're alright!" Ruiko spoke loudly into her ear, twisting Kuroko about on her feet. The teleporter, meanwhile, was returning the hug, patting the long-haired girls back through her hair.
"I am feeling better, thank you." Kuroko said softly. "But please, you're too rough on me!" She then teased, chuckling a little more as Ruiko pulled away with a slightly embarrassed look and a hand scratching the back of her head.
"Sorry, sorry!" Ruiko said in return, her expression returning to her jovial norm.
"Where's Uiharu-san?" Kuroko then asked, wondering where the computer wizard was. "She was meant to be in today?" She finished, her tone curious but confused. Ruiko nodded her head.
"Yeah, Uiharu-san should be in at around midday, said she had some school work to finish up." Ruiko explained, receiving an eye roll from the teleporter.
"Ah, another night spent on video games I suppose."
"Most likely!"
"And Kohaku-san?" Kuroko then said, her tone equally as curious, though lacking the confusion. Ruiko instantly understood why she had asked that question.
"She will be in this afternoon. Uiharu-san told me about this little issue around her." Ruiko answered, informing the teleporter of her knowledge on a certain, intriguing matter. The Level 0 was as shocked as anyone else about the possibility of Yoshika being something more than she appeared, the girl having appeared relatively innocent and clumsy more than anything, but she was old enough to not dismiss the improbability.
"Have you noticed anything odd about her?" Kuroko asked next before turning on her heel and walking towards one of the office chairs, with Ruiko following behind her.
"Nadda, not a single thing." Ruiko said, leaning against the wall and folding her arms as Kuroko sat down on the black, cushioned chair. "Now I love my conspiracies, but even this is a stretch for me." She finished, her cheek scrunching up a little as she frowned with her lips. She might not be dismissing the issue outright, but it still sounded incredulous to her.
"Well, we're not expecting her to laugh maniacally or ominously stroke a cat."
"Sure, but, there's nothing else to suggest she is doing anything suspicious." Ruiko countered quickly, humoured at the exaggeration but having nothing to confirm even the most mundane of odd behaviours. "No suspicious searches, no rerouting of data, no delays in completing tasks…"
"But she could cover for it, knowing her skills." Kuroko then retorted, prompting Ruiko into a shrug of the shoulders.
"Sure, but… ack, she's fourteen or something, I just don't see it." Ruiko shook her head, a combination of reluctance and humour seasoned upon the features of her face.
"Anything is possible in this city…"
"Oh for sure, and I intend to keep an eye on her." Ruiko followed up snappily, completely agreeing with Kuroko's sentiment. Ruiko shook her head. "Just don't expect anything, it might have been a fluke or something." Ruiko shrugged again.
After this they spent a few dozen minutes catching up. They had not spoken to each other since the incident with Misaka, and their friendship needed the refreshment of a fun, honest and interesting conversation. They spoke of Kazari's fretting, of Yoshika's fumbles and of Ruiko's many experiments and practices with new recipes. Kuroko talked about her Esper exam results, leaving the Level 0 in a congratulatory amazement. Ruiko had always been amazed at the powers of her higher Level friends, but the news of such a jump in skills was incredible.
Then Ruiko broached onto the topic of the mystery of the missing persons case.
She spoke of her first endeavours into the case, how she attended a meeting of the highest performing branches of Judgement and how she was briefed on the matter. According to her, Anti-Skill had little interest in the case, apparently focusing on 'more important matters', whatever that had meant. What little investigation they had done in the past three months was light at best. When the offers were made to the branches to pick up the case, Ruiko was the first to accept, which earned a nod of approval from Kuroko.
"Since then I've been compiling the data gathered by Anti-Skill and the other branches, as well as what is publicly available." Ruiko said before gesturing towards the cork board on the other end of the room, prompting Kuroko to politely glance over her shoulder. "I've been marking down the locations approximate to the scale of the city."
"Good, very good." Kuroko complimented simply, returning her gaze to Ruiko.
"I want to get a proper map at some point, I can't seem to find one stored here, unfortunately." Ruiko said regretfully, knowing that it meant a few Yen knocked off of the budget. Kuroko hummed in acknowledgement, tapping her fingers on the desk.
"What's our first priority, boss?" Kuroko asked, half serious and half teasing. Ruiko smirked, pushing herself away from the wall by her shoulder. She went to walk towards the cork board, pushing at the chair in a teasing counter to the teleporter, prompting the auburn-haired girl to have a humoured smirk of her own. Kuroko stood up from her chair, following the branch boss to the cork board.
They reached the cork board, looking at the pinned up evidence dotted around the board. Next to the board was a separate pile of folders and papers, things that could not just be stuck onto some cork.
"I think we should attempt to prevent any more people from going missing." Ruiko suggested, looking over the various locations of the incidents. There was no apparent pattern to the madness, the sites dotted all of the way across the city.
"Do we know if it's one person? It might just be one big coincidence." Kuroko asked, briefly explaining her rationale.
"Admittedly no-one is sure, it's why Anti-Skill ignored it for so long and then passed it along to us." Ruiko admitted, her arms crossing once more. There was a hint of disdain in her voice when it came to Anti-Skill's actions, disapproving of their lackadaisical approach and apathy.
"Clearly enough people have gone missing to be noticed, and it's far more than usual." Kuroko started. "If someone or some group is kidnapping people, it makes sense to spread it out across the city."
"At this scale?"
"Yes, it makes it more difficult to pinpoint a base of operations." Kuroko concluded, turning her gaze from the cork board to meet Ruiko's. The dark-haired girl nodded and hummed, accepting the teleporter's point of view.
"So… how do we stop it?" Ruiko asked Kuroko, hoping for some kind of answer to quite a difficult question. Kuroko looked away and thought for a moment, her head tilting as it worked on an idea. An idea came quickly, and she turned on her heels.
"Let's visit some of these sites, I want to confirm something."
"Sure, I can use the branch car-"
"No." Kuroko interrupted Ruiko, cutting off her offer of transport. Her mouth was left agape for a moment before closing, her head tilting in curiosity. "I'll teleport us there." Kuroko then said, leaving Ruiko's eyes to go wide in excitement.
"Oooo yes, of course!" Ruiko cheered happily. "That'd be soooo much quicker!"
"As long as you don't throw up on me." Kuroko teased with a grin-like smile. Ruiko fought back with another shoulder shove and laughed, assuring the teleporter that her university uniform would not end up ruined by day's end.
Before setting off, Ruiko brought out her phone from her trouser pocket. There she had marked each location on a digital map, which was perfect for Kuroko to use to navigate. Offering either her hand or her back, Ruiko chose the latter, preferring not to risk slipping to an early end. She was sure that Kuroko could catch her, but it was also a good opportunity to tease the auburn-haired girl.
"I hope Shokuhou-san doesn't catch us, she'll scramble my brain for sure!"
Kuroko laughed at the joke, a genuine reaction tinged with a slight uncomfortable twinge in her tummy. Ruiko could have the absolute worst timing.
With Ruiko safely attached to the back of the teleporter, a hand grasping the shirt beneath the girl's blazer while the other was free for her phone, Kuroko made a final check-up to see if the Level 0 was ready. With a nod and a hum she gave her answer, and Kuroko began her first teleportation. She had flung herself into the open skies of Academy City, and the sight was amazing in the deep-blue eyes.
Below her were the glittering reflections of glass and metal, with the spacious roads and pathways of the city warping around the modern and grand apartments and towers of the metropolis. The cars looked like ants and the people like breadcrumbs, tiny and insignificant. From here she could see the horizon, the rolling hills and mountains and even the sea, as well as the city of Tokyo, harbouring Academy City like it was a grown-up, talented child. Each new teleportation heralded a fresh perspective, a new view, a different way to view the city and to explore its technologically deep dominion.
Ruiko cheered as Kuroko made a rather bold jump higher into the air, spoiling the Level 0 with her talents, allowing gravity to bring the two further down to Earth before teleporting towards a skyscraper. Kuroko balanced upon the perch at the top of the building, and Ruiko quickly showed her the phone she held. The dark-haired girl pointed in the general direction of the closest incident point as Kuroko scanned the map, judging the distance and location for her calculations.
Once more she teleported, heading off towards the nearest site.
Over the next few hours, the two girls toured the sites of the missing persons, analysing every corner and every building within them. Each area was based off of security cam imagery and recordings, marking the last known sightings of the people who had vanished. Some were regulated to one or two alleyways, and others had to take into account entire buildings.
Each of the incident points had their own distinctions, and seemingly few common similarities. Counting sets of stairs and elevators seemed pointless, and while garbage bins were of some interest, it did little to help connect some dots. The two girls did not have the authority to stop the bins from being collected either, but every report noted a lack of any bodies dumped within them or nearby ones. Therefore that plan of action seemed off the table.
But Kuroko was starting to pick up something, confirming a hunch of hers.
With each site she was sure to check the positioning of every on-site and nearby security camera, checking whether it had an automatic rotation, if it were static, or if it had been tampered with. Kuroko detected no foul play, and each camera's sight overlapped with another regardless of whether it stood impassively or moved on its joints.
But she had noticed some blind spots.
The first two sites had one, but it was not enough to confirm a pattern until the pair had reached the fifth site. At that point, with each sight having some kind of blind spot, it became clear what tactic was being used. Regardless of how small the blind spots were, they were still large enough to cover for whoever might be instigating these disappearances.
"The problem is, I don't see how we can get enough manpower and resources to scout and secure the areas we don't know about." Ruiko said after Kuroko's conclusion. "I can likely have the blind spots on these sites fixed, but who knows how many more there are in the city." It was a difficult dilemma that Kuroko could accept, but it was not as if she was not disgruntled with that reality. Perhaps if she were in Anti-Skill or, hell, a Level 5 she might have had the grunt to get those resources expended.
But, alas, this case had been passed onto Judgement for a reason; the upper brass and administration did not really care.
Still…
"We can, at least, look through the footage of the days prior to the person going missing at each site. At least then we can determine if it is a single individual or a group." Kuroko offered, which Ruiko agreed to, though the Branch leader had an issue with the proposal.
"It is also possible that it could be someone with access to the wider security network."
"True, and if we see no-one suspect, that makes that more likely." Kuroko countered quickly, leaving Ruiko to make a noise of understanding.
"Ah, of course, of course." Ruiko nodded before looking around the area the pair were in right now. It was another alleyway, split into a T-section near the middle of the main length. Down that split-off were other, narrower pathways, and one of those pathways had the blind spot that Kuroko had spotted.
"I can have Uiharu-san and Kohaku-san divvy up the footage analysis, see what they can find." Ruiko said, knowing that the two's skills with a computer made them the perfect match for the task. Kuroko looked a little weary at the mentioning of Yoshika, but there was no reason to stop her doing her job; she had done nearly everything to perfection so far, at least.
"Alright. What time is it?" Kuroko asked and Ruiko, in response, took out her phone. The time read…
"Uh, it's just gone past three."
"Huh." Kuroko uttered, a little surprised at the time read out. "Well, we did take a quick lunch break." She remembered, and also recalled how in-depth their investigation into the sites were.
"Yeah… Anyway, that's eight of the eleven sites-" The idea of eleven people going missing in the span of three months was disturbing to Kuroko, a little shiver running up her back as the words were spoken. "-and all eight have the same blind spot issue. I've marked the places we've visited, so we can check the other sites another time if we want to?" Ruiko offered, and Kuroko was inclined to agree. There was almost no doubt that the other three sites had blind spots of their own, so it was a fair assumption to make. The teleporter agreed.
"Alright, I was asked to take it easy anyway." Kuroko smiled and shrugged.
"From ya girl, aye?" Ruiko teased with a wide, cheshire grin. Kuroko rolled her eyes with a little smile of her own, trying to ignore the argument of sorts in the morning between herself and Misaki.
"Yes yes, let's get going." Kuroko quickly brushed it away for her own sake while Ruiko evilly giggled, walking up towards the teleporter to attach herself to her back. Like a walking backpack she grabbed hold of the Level 4, ready for the trip back to the branch.
"Alrighty! Let's go!" Said Ruiko enthusiastically, a fist pumping into the air. Kuroko smiled at the silliness of it, enjoying Ruiko's own enjoyment, before the pair vanished from sight with a shrill.
The air quickly filled in the empty space, creating a light breeze and a slight whooshing sound.
A silence filled the alleyway, with only the commercial and social bustle of the city streets nearby providing a sound in the background.
…
Suddenly, a grinding of rubber on concrete.
A few moments later, a distinctive tapping sound rang out, echoing within the walls of the tight and narrow alleyway.
From a corner, a certain Electromaster appeared, dressed in a worn-down shirt and skirt. It was torn around the sleeves and unkempt.
A small, ominous smile rested on her lips.
"See ya later, Ku~ro~ko~."
