"No, Kuroko."
"B-but Onee-samaaaa!" Kuroko whined loudly pressing her face into Mikoto's lap, rubbing her face into the Railgun's skirt. While about a month ago, this would have prompted far more embarrassment, and it still got some in front of others, Mikoto was building up a resistance to it. The pair were in Mikoto's bed, with Mikoto leaning up against her headboard cross-legged with Kuroko sprawled out along the length of the bed, her face firmly buried in the aforementioned lap.
"NO." She said firmly again.
"But whyyyy?!"
"Because a body pillow of me is CREEPY! AND YOU KNOW IT!"
Kuroko turned her head to grin up at Mikoto with a lecherous look on her face that told Mikoto that she knew full well that it was creepy and disturbing. Mikoto was starting to suspect that these outbursts of her previous behavior, which she originally thought might disappear once they had started dating, was Kuroko's new form of teasing her. Mikoto huffed and blushed as she looked away.
"M-Mikoto…" She mumbled under her breath. Kuroko twisted in Mikoto's lap so the back of her head was resting there so she could stare up at her.
"Hm?" She blinked curiously. "What was that?"
"I said… Mikoto." She said again, looking away from her.
"That is indeed your name, Onee-sama." Kuroko said, smiling up at her with such blatant faux-ignorance that it made Mikoto want to shock her right then and there. Her face burned red and her cheeks puffed out in frustration. Kuroko was growing increasingly good at teasing her, and it was such a new behavior for the normally deferent Kuroko that Mikoto had no idea how to deal with it.
Mikoto pouted a bit, shifting around as Kuroko stared up at her expectantly. "I want you to call me... Mikoto. Call me by my name." She said, doing her best not to mumble, glancing away occasionally, struggling to meet Kuroko's eyes in embarrassment.
"Mikoto." Kuroko smiled up at her warmly, wiggling her nose a bit. "I think I can do that." She said softly, her expression matching her voice, her eyes closing.
"Kuroko?" Mikoto tilted her head as the girl closed her eyes, looking a bit curious, a touch concerned.
"Just basking in the moment." She said quietly, a smile still lounging on her lips. She did indeed look the picture of happiness, despite her physical disability. "I feel like at any moment I might wake up from a dream."
Mikoto shifted slightly before leaning down and lightly kissing Kuroko on the lips before quickly leaning back up and looking away, Kuroko opening her eyes and looking at her. "Still here, s-see? No charming prince waking you up or a-anything…" Mikoto said in an attempt to be teasing, but really only succeeding in being completely adorable.
"YOU'RE SO CUTE!" Kuroko nearly dove out of her lap on to an alarmed Mikoto.
Downstairs, their roommates could only wonder in teenage hormonal curiosity what in the world was happening up in Mikoto's room based on the noises they were hearing.
There was a pleasant piano soundtrack being played in the kitchen at the moment as Maika worked, and Uiharu happily had a pair of wireless earbuds in as she typed away at her laptop in her own favorite spot at the kotatsu table(which had quickly become HER spot). Saten had excused herself to run some errands out of the house.
This gave Uiharu the perfect opportunity! She set up her little camera robot on the stairs in case either Mikoto or Kuroko came downstairs, had her earbuds in so she could soak in blissful ignorance and not hear whatever was going on upstairs(she did not want to know whatever was going on in Mikoto's room. Kuroko and Mikoto were ladies. They would not be doing anything they thought was inappropriate regardless.)
Time to update her files! Interlacing her fingers and giving them a crack she began to type away, humming a little. She occasionally glanced at a small window in the top left corner of her screen. It had a program that was following Saten through Academy City's security cameras. Just to make sure she wasn't getting into any trouble. Thankfully, she'd long since gotten past the guilt of feeling like a stalker.
"Let's see… Guess I'll starts with me."
Name: Uiharu Kazari
Age: 14
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 108lbs
Measurements: …
"...Let's just skip those…" Uiharu said with deep sadness and envy in her voice, hanging her head.
Esper Power:Thermal Hand
The ability to keep the temperature of a touched subject at one point while contact is maintained.
Level: 1
Uiharu smiled as she continued to type away, though the rest of the entry just linked to her personal journal. No point and retyping the last years events.
She stretched a little before moving on.
"Guess I'll do Saten next."
Name: Saten Ruiko
Age: 14
Height: 5'8"(Saten is getting SO TALL! I wonder if she's gonna break 6'?)
Weight: 146bs(I had to sneak over her shoulder to get a peak at her scale for this. She swears it's her bust, but honestly, I've seen how much she's been working out, I think it's actually muscle… I wonder if it's a way of dealing with stress.)
Measurements: ...Bigger than mine…
Esper Power: Saten showed signs of the Aero Hand ability back during the Level Upper Incident, but since then has not shown any power. It is unclear if that is her true power, or if that power was artificial. She has not developed since.
Level: 0
Notes:
Saten has been undergoing severe depression since Treefall after she defended me from my assault during the incident. She avoided all attempts at therapy, and I was very lax at my attempts to get her to address those problems. I've redoubled my efforts on that matter, and it seems like forcing her into a confrontation with the doctor helped with that. I'm gonna check on that in a day or two and make sure she doesn't try to skirt away. Last thing I want to see is her getting self-destructive…
I guess the small consolation, if you can call it that, is that I haven't heard even a single insecurity about her lack of an Esper power. It's like it vanished from her mind. Either that, or it's just eating away at her. I worry for her so much… I really do.
Uiharu sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She had a lot more to do. Couldn't let herself get worked up and fret. Fretting did no good for anyone. Stretching, she went back to her work.
Name: Misaka Mikoto
Age: 15
Height 5'6"
Weight: 119lbs(Misaka is still very underweight. Her appetite is not that great, and I think it's because of how much she struggles to work up an appetite due to her atrophied muscles. She's working up her muscle mass very hard though. She was so malnourished after she woke up, it was terrible, her rib cage exposed and everything. The hospital had such a struggle caring for her, her powers were running haywire most of the time. People were getting injured just trying to treat her. Everyone decided it was better not to tell her… I'll elaborate more on this below, I'm getting off track.)
Measurements: BIGGER THAN MINE AND SATEN'S. NOT. FAIR. IT'S ONLY BEEN A BIT OVER A YEAR HOW HAS SHE GROWN THAT MUCH?! Oh wait, I've seen her mother. That makes so much more sense now...
Esper Power: Railgun - SO COOL
Level: 5 - Misaka's power has not diminished whatsoever. Honestly, I think her power might have even increased. Based on medical records I 'acquired', her AIM field and passive electromagnetic field have grown in activity, and shown significant strength beyond what she had before. It's possible Misaka doesn't know her powers have grown, but based on information that I've been digging up on, and what my SUPER SECRET SOURCE gave me… Misaka went and fought against Academy City's Rank 1 Level 5 Esper… And won. At the cost of her injuries… and Treefall. Though a bit more complicated than that. I'm going to have to talk to her about it at some point, but just not now… I don't really know how to bring a lot of this up, and everyone is in such a fragile mental state, and in so much pain.
Notes:
Misaka's physical condition is pretty severe, even if she tries her best to pretend it's not. Her mental condition is just as bad. The guilt constantly eats at her, intense depression, and lack of self-care. Keeping an eye on someone intimately aware of all electronic surveillance has been profoundly difficult, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried that Misaka was suicidal at times… In the end, I resorted to a more unorthodox method of keeping an eye on her. With a little help, I got a hold of three of Misaka's sisters. After explaining to her my concerns to them, Misaka-19090, Misaka-10032, and Misaka-10046, and my concerns that Mikoto(called such from this point forward for clarity) might be suffering from severe, potentially suicidal, depression due to what happened to the city, her sisters, her friends, and Kuroko, that she needed help keeping an eye on her, the sisters expressed to me that they would be happy to assist.
They informed me that my estimations were not far off the mark, and that they had intervened on several occasions already on what they had deemed to be "dangerously abnormal negative fluctuations" in Mikoto's emotions. Mikoto is made of strong resolve and determination, but Mikoto is also a human like anyone else… and it would be abnormal for her to not be traumatized after what she has gone through. I managed to get more details about what else Mikoto has gone through, and it has been horrific, to put it mildly.
I considered that more direct methods might be used to help Mikoto, out of deep concern, but I was informed that such methods were completely impossible for Mikoto.
I am… still very concerned. Mikoto seems much happier lately, especially after getting together with Kuroko. She DOES seem to be improving… I just worry that she's hiding her pain. I'll need to contact the Misaka Sisters, get an update.
Uiharu stretched and yawned a little, checking the camera both for the stairs and on Saten. Kuroko and Mikoto were actually going down the stairs, Mikoto distracted by Kuroko as they were heading to the baths, so it didn't seem like they noticed the robot thankfully.
Saten looked like she was talking with someone on the street. It seemed… friendly enough. Some blonde girl with long hair in a black beret. It made Uiharu smiled that Saten still was maintaining friendships outside of this house. She knew that it was hard to be social when you were depressed.
She turned to return to her work.
Name: Shirai Kuroko
Age: 14
Height: 5'2"
Weight: 86lbs(This was her weight BEFORE the weird metal appeared on her stumps. She obviously had a kind of low weight because she's lacking certain body mass.)
Measurements: LESS THAN ME! HAH!
Esper Power: Kind of a question right now… Before it was Teleport, but while the doctor suspected she had lost it, now she has no AIM field but he is uncertain? I have no idea what's going on, and the best doctor in all of Academy City seems equally at a loss. I need to hack into the hospital server and see if he has made any headway. The metal HAS to be related.
Level: Same as above.
Notes:
Kuroko has been a very difficult nut to crack. I thought she would be in as difficult a state as Mikoto, but I feel like I have repeatedly proven wrong. When she lost her powers, and was told she was no longer an Esper, both times I thought it would be a blow that would knock her down even deeper into depression. But…
She just hasn't. Every time life has hit her low, in some of the most unfair ways possible, it feels like she's just gotten back up stronger than ever. I talked to one of Misaka's sisters about it… one of them has become a friend. Misaka-19090. She forwarded me an internet meme that, while very, very crude and unlady-like, did make me laugh and felt very apt that I include here for posterity, if not for appropriateness. It feels like everytime Kuroko is smacked down to the ground her reaction is thus:
"She gets back up, wipes the blood off her face, looks life in the face and tells it 'You hit like a bitch'."
I'm not sure if that is ENTIRELY accurate, but it did make me smile. Kuroko does seem to take every obstacle in stride… though she now takes EVERY OPPORTUNITY to kiss Misaka. EVERY. ONE OF THEM. I feel like Misaka's face is going to explode from the redness. Maika has started smacking her on the head for trying to do it at the dinner table. Honestly, she might learn to fly with how much she's floating around out of joy.
Honestly, I'm happy for them both, and I really hope it genuinely develops into something healthy and happy.
Uiharu smiled and stood up stretching, checking her cameras again, letting her robot camera watch the bathroom door to give her friends privacy, and watching Saten and her friend walking toward the house' direction.
She sat back down and her smile fell off her lips. One last file she needed to work on. One she did not enjoy. One that filled her with bitterness and… an emotion that twisted inside of her soul, a soul that many called innocent. A terrible emotion. Hate.
Name: Unknown.
Alias: Indigo
Age: Late 30's.
Height: 6'2"-6'5"
Weight: Unknown, likely 180-230lbs
Status: Unknown, likely Alive- last known location had no body when searched by Anti-Skill.
Esper Power: While it is unconfirmed precisely what he is, he shows every sign of being an Esper of significant power. He showed the ability to warp the fabric of space, altering how matter flowed and how locations existed within causality, including how teleportation functioned within a range of at least 87.82 meters. Somehow, this power may also relate to a power of premonition, or precognition. Indigo expressed an arrogant mocking of Kuroko during their confrontation that his powers may be related, and if he is not lying, this may imply a misunderstanding on our part of how his powers function. It is likely that I am looking at this from the wrong angle. Much like how it would be inappropriate to look at Misaka's powers as the power over controlling iron, as opposed to the power of controlling electromagnetism, I believe that I need to find the proper angle to look at this.
Level: Due to the unusual nature of his powers and the lack of understanding, I can't grasp the true level of his power, or cannot grasp what I am looking at. Nor grasp if all of it is truly HIS power, it is possible he is using some form of parasitic technology to steal powers from others, or artificially replicate other esper's powers.
Notes:
I do not understand Indigo's motivations. I just know that this man orchestrated Treefall. Everything I looked over through the hundreds of hours of recordings and thousands of pages of recovered files shows that he had a hand in the Level 6 Shift Project, the Artillery Shell Misaka used, the attack on Kuroko, the attack on me, the poisoning on Misaka… all of it. And he seemed unnaturally relaxed when he attempted to murder Kuroko.
He knew what was going to happen, which adds credence to the notion of precognition. However, toward the end, he seemed to get things wrong… Things Kuroko and Saten and I did. I don't understand why quite yet. What is it we did that sent his plans awry, what did we do that interfered with such precise precognitive powers?
If this is the case, if we were the spanner in his works, then remove us from his supposed plan… Kuroko would have never saved the city. And Mikoto would have… and would have died. Was that his plan? To kill her? It seems like such an elaborate murder attempt… I feel like I'm missing something. And if he's still alive… was he the one who attacked the hospital? Does he know where we are? That is beyond troubling, but it would explain the security… but who is pushing all this security on us- Oh wait, no, I know where the security is coming from. Stupid question. But still...
Is he just some insane serial killer, some mass murderer, wanting to sow chaos?
No… No, I'm missing something… But what?
"I'm home!"
Uiharu heart nearly leaped out of her throat, both from the call and because she half thought she might have cracked the screen on her laptop with how hard she slammed it shut. A quick peek showed it was just fine. It was a tough thing.
Uiharu quickly leaped from her seat after closing the laptop again, moving to the front door.
"Welcome home- Oh!" She looked surprised as she saw Saten had brought a guest along. It was the blonde-haired beret girl she'd seen.
"I brought a friend!" Saten said cheerfully, grinning happily while carrying a bag of groceries.
"I don't believe we've met. I am Uiharu Kazari!" Uiharu bowed politely to the new arrival, who gave a wave in response, seemingly unfamiliar or uncaring of Japanese customs of greetings. She was dressed in a black blouse and checkerboard skirt with beige stockings.
"HEY!" She said cheerfully with a big grin. "Thanks for inviting me to dinner!"
"My name's Frenda Seivelun~"
A/N hahaha...HAHAHA AHAHAHAHAH!