"DAMN IT!"

Kuroko angrily glared at the shattered glass cup that had suffered its fate between her new right hand at the kotatsu table, its shards and the liquid within it next to her plate. Saten stood up from the table and approached the dry erase board she had hung three days ago when they'd returned from the hospital after she'd had the arm attached.

"Saten, don't you dare!" Kuroko shouted. "DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!" Saten did not heed the warnings as she grabbed a marker and undid the cap, adding another tally under the words 'cups destroyed by Kuroko' that was now officially at twelve. Kuroko glared daggers at her as Saten grinned back. Maika sighed as she swept up the mess as Kuroko began to pout.

"It's OK, Kuroko…" Mikoto pet her head a bit as Kuroko sulked, staring at the rebellious mechanical hand that she was still learning to control.

"It's just so hard…" She whined out, leaning into the petting. Mikoto reached over and took the hand into her own, Kuroko jumping a bit, still getting extremely anxious when Mikoto grabbed her hand.

"You know you can't hurt me." She grinned. Uiharu and Saten, who sat back down from her dry erase board, as well as Miaka who resumed cleaning around the room, watched as Mikoto did indeed take her hand without an ounce of fear. They all smiled as Kuroko's mostly synthetic arm lightly twitched as electrical impulses rocketed up from where the pairs hands touched.

"S-stop staring at me…" Kuroko muttered as she noticed everyone in the room was staring very much at her as Mikoto used her powers to ensure that Kuroko's brain's electrical impulses didn't accidentally send incorrect instructions that might crush Mikoto's hand. Instead it allowed Kuroko to enjoy a firm, pleasant sensation of holding her beloved's hand.

The room giggled a bit before returning to breakfast, Kuroko sighed as she got some relief from the over-attentive eyes. She glanced up at Mikoto who was smiling down at her, before surprising her as she leaned down and pressed the tips of their noses together affectionately. Kuroko didn't even get a chance to respond before Mikoto just returned to eating her breakfast with one hand, eating waffles with her fork.

A month later from that confrontation in her bedroom, and Mikoto was starting to look better. It had been… a challenge. Kuroko scooted over to lean on Mikoto's arm, smiling a bit, opening her mouth.

"Kuroko… You don't need to be fed." Mikoto said in a scolding manner.

"Sure I do. My arm is being held hostage. I've only got the one." She said, grinning up at her from Mikoto's shoulder. She waved her other arm for emphasis, the sleeve of her short-sleeved hoodie flopping around her left arm stump for emphasis.

Mikoto sighed and shoved some waffle into Kuroko's mouth. Kuroko was seemingly grinning through the syrup-y goodness in victory. Kuroko was beyond pleased with herself, and it wasn't just because of the waffles. She'd convinced Mikoto return to therapy under the agreement that it'd be as a couple.

Kuroko looked up at Mikoto as she rested her cheek against Mikoto's shoulder, watching her face. It'd been tough. Even Kuroko had been… ignorant of herself. She liked to pretend she'd been more put together than she actually was. Deep within, all it actually was, was… honesty. Honesty that they were in pain. Accountability to each other, and to others.

She had an arm back. Eventually she'd have another. Maybe, just maybe she'd have some powers back. Even if she didn't, she would find a way to move on with her life. She glanced over at Saten and Uiharu, Saten who was trying to spy on Uiharu's cell phone, and Uiharu who was trying to compare her height to Saten, who seemed to perpetually be getting taller and taller. It was kind of absurd, she was turning into a GIANT. Uiharu snagged her phone away from a nosy Saten before standing.

"I g-gotta go. I have some errands to run." Uiharu said, scrunching her nose at Saten as she went off to bundle herself against the snowy cold that was outside in the November chill.

"Errands?" Kuroko asked curiously.

"J-just some stuff!" Uiharu responded evasively. It made them all quite curiously where she might be going so early in the morning. Saten, shockingly, had no comment on the matter as she continued eating her breakfast. As Uiharu made her way out, they looked to her with questioning looks.

She drank her juice before letting out a pleased sigh and placed the cup down, grinning at them.

"So, I stole her itenary for the day and know where she's gonna be at 2:30 with her SUPER SECRET CONTACT, all caps required. Wanna come?" Mikoto sighed with exasperation, and Kuroko could only help but laugh at Saten's audacious invasiveness, if only out of sheer nostalgia.

"Saten… you will never change." Kuroko smiled a little, shaking her head. Perhaps happiness, a happy ending, was not so far-fetched.

That same smiling visage of Kuroko rather suddenly found a knife through its center, though it was only a photographic fascsimile.

"Alright then." Indigo said calmly, casually even, with a more serene look on his face than he'd had in months. He spared a glance at the stoic expression of the young test subject, now fully clothed in an ankle-length skirt and sweater, posture passive as it stared at him without reacting.

He released the knife as it thrummed against the metal table and approached the large monitor on the wall, one by one, images of the Level Five's of Academy City appearing across its screen. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Eight.

"Time to knock the lot of you still breathing out of your comfort zones." His grin widened as his gaze turned to his stoic puppet standing staring into space behind him. Oh Crowley… If only you could see the mockery that had been made of his precious work. Yes… It was time...

"Let's watch this city burn."

"This feels WRONG." Mikoto said in their hiding spot behind a hedge at a table in some cafe in School Garden. The whole place was looking so much better, the vast majority of reconstruction completed at this point. The three girls were bundled up in the cold, but no intrusive snow could really be seen, and the climate control in this area of the city made it much more comfortable than the rest of the city. They could see Uiharu waiting in front of a shop all bundled up in a furry long coat and gloves, her flower headdress with white and blue flowers for winter on her head as she seemed to be patient waiting for someone.

"No, no, it's fine. We're making sure she's safe." Saten said in an extremely weak, no effort attempt at justifying their spying on their friend. "I mean, I've been snooping on Uiharu for months now. She's had this secret contact she's been talking to since you guys were in the hospital, and I HAVE to know who it is and why she's so damn secretive about it. I mean, we're her BEST FRIENDS, what would you do if someone was-"

"Stop." Kuroko cut in, sighing as she sipped her tea with EXTREME care, glaring at the cup as she tried her damn hardest to not break it. "You're not fooling anyone, and we're here, so just… ugh." Kuroko was getting a headache just listening to Saten.

"OH OH OH! SOMEONE IS HERE!" Saten practically leaped out of her seat. She peeked over the top of the hedge as someone approached Uiharu. Kuroko and Mikoto peeked with her despite their attempts to not care. The individual was dressed in an extremely fur coat coat and leather boots, leggings disappearing underneath the coat, long blonde hair hanging over the back of the coat. An expensive designer bag rested on one shoulder and across her chest to her opposite hip.

"Wow, she's a babe." Saten said, not recognizing the individual at all.

"Is… is that…?" Kuroko whispered in shock, her mouth hanging open.

"N-no…!?" Mikoto's voice was less of shock and more of one of sheer unfiltered disgusted horror.

The woman was flanked by a friendly and cheerful looking smiling girl that looked a bit older than the rest of the girls with truly impressive looking violet hair in enormous ringlets, dressed in a similar, but distinctly slightly-less-impressive dress style than the mistress she trailed. The girl on the opposite side with far shorter hair than the other two ojou-sama's, neck-length and a light brown.

The two flanking girls were named Hokaze Junko, for the giant ringlet girl, and Kobayashi Shimanaka for the shorter haired girl. A type of Electromaster and Telepath respectively, both Tokiwadai students. Kuroko and Mikoto both recognized them.

Their attention was not focused on those two however. Their attention was on the one at the center, the one they bowed to respectfully and departed from, leaving the well-dressed lady alone with Uiharu. The blonde adjusted her white gloves as she smiled down at Uiharu, who was fidgeting and blushing, evidently muttering something that the girls could not hear from this distance.

"Who is that?" Saten asked, glancing at her two friends, blinking and looking confused as she saw their expressions. "...Uh, guys?" She suddenly felt more worried as their expressions grew more and more expressive, Saten's gaze turning back to Uiharu.

Mikoto's eyes grew wider as events unfolded. Kuroko said exactly what Mikoto couldn't bear to let out of her mouth.

"The Queen of Tokiwadai… Shokuhou Misaki." Kuroko whispered, her jaw hanging open as they continued to stare at the pair from over the hedge at their cafe lookout. Misaki, smiling down at the shorter Uiharu, who she dwarfed by about three inches, reached down and cupped Uiharu's chin with two fingers and a thumb.

"Wait… Isn't that… Isn't that the other Level 5 of Tokiwadai?" Saten asked in a hushed whisper, her eyes wide as she tried to process that news, before her eyes darted back up at the drama beginning to unfold in front of them.

"No… nononono…" Mikoto began to mutter. Uiharu's face was guided to look up at Misaki's, and as Misaki began to lean down toward Uiharu, Kuroko had to lean over and grab Mikoto before the Railgun did something rash, like zap Misaki in the face. A lot harder to do with one arm. Uiharu's eyes began to flutter closed, her cheeks burning red, as the two drifted closer...

"NONON-!" Saten dove over and Kuroko scrambled around on Mikoto as best she could, muffling Mikoto's mouth before she made a scene, but they could all only stare in pure shock as they watched…

As Uiharu and Misaki's lips met.