"This is bad."
Uiharu looked up from her computer, looking questioningly at Misaki who was staring out the second story window down at the pair of amazons currently going at each other.
"What's bad?" Uiharu asked, confused.
"He's been silent. Indigo. My network has been working in overtime, but he's been remarkably quiet." She looked at her phone, noting the date. December 18th. "That psychopath has only ever been so patient since before Treefall. When he was in control." She bit at the tip of her finger, her eyes narrow. "Combine that with Dark Side organizations reportedly having increased hostilities with each other, death tolls of subordinate organizations rising, and I just sense this is going to reach a breaking point…" Misaki growled, rubbing her face.
Uiharu got up from her table and hugged Misaki from behind. Misaki let out a quiet sigh, smiling just a little. Uiharu was one of the few people that got to see Misaki like this. Brief moments of weakness or frustration that she never let anyone else see.
"We're doing our best… You're doing your best." Misaki sighed and turned around to embrace the shorter girl tightly.
"I only hope that is true." She whispered quietly.
Said two aforementioned amazons were Mikoto and Kuroko, who had taken to sparring in an attempt to revitalize themselves. Unfortunately, their sparring was fairly lackluster, since Mikoto still had to rely on her crutch for balance much of the time.
"W-whoaaa!" Mikoto wobbled around, her crutch warping its shape to reach out and bend to grab at the ground as she bent it with her mind, stabbing into the ground and righting her.
"A-are you OK?" Kuroko said with concern, holding up her one arm with concern, wincing.
"Fine! Just fine. You worry too much. I'm not going to get better if I don't push myself. We've only been at this a couple of weeks." Mikoto adjusted her winter jacket, grateful the snow had been very sparse this winter. "How about you? How's your arm holding up?" She asked, looking at it with concern. She had been, admittedly, been pulling her punches. Both of them had been having a very difficult time going at each other without restraint.
"Well, I went in for the usual maintenance check-up, and he said that it didn't need any repairs." She said quietly, looking at the arm with some suspicion. Mikoto tilted her head.
"Isn't that good, though?"
"No, I mean… No repairs. AT ALL. None. It was in perfect working order without a single tiny scratch. He was absolutely sure that this, while not technically impossible, was statistically impossible." She says, glaring at the arm, before looking up at her. "Remember what I told you about the bridge? That girl who broke Gunha's arm. She caught my punch, and seemed surprised when nothing happened… what if that was supposed to happen to my arm?"
Mikoto stared at her, her brow furrowing as she bit her lip and grew more and more thoughtful. "But… what does that even mean?"
"Mikoto, I want… to test something. It's… kind of dangerous. I want you to shoot a low power magnetic shot at my palm, OK?" She said, raising her arm up. Mikoto looked at her like she'd gone completely insane.
"Have you lost your fucking mind? Absolutely not! If I am off by even just a bit, I could kill you! No! No no no!" She swung her crutch through the air repeatedly for emphasis.
"Please, Mikoto! I… I think I have an idea what is going to happen, but I just… I trust you! I know you won't hit me." She says, trying to give her a confident smile, but clearly not moving Mikoto.
"No, that kind of vague crap is not going to do it, try again." Mikoto scoffed, looking beyond angry.
"Mikoto… I… I think that this might help me understand why I lost my powers." She said softly, clenching her artificial hand. "Please… Please. I trust you with my life. I know you won't hurt me." She said, with such absolute faith that it made Mikoto's heart throb painfully.
Mikoto shifted around uncomfortably for awhile, pacing around as Kuroko gave her begging eyes.
"OK… Just… It'll be weak. If I miss, it'll sting like a bitch." She said, fishing out an arcane coin. She was going to pull back a lot of power, throttle this back a lot. Fuck she needed to not miss this. Kuroko smiled to her and raised the hand up, looking jittery.
"R-Ready?" Mikoto asked, focusing her jittery nerves as she pumped up the electronic charge.
"Yes. Let's do this." Kuroko nodded, taking deep breaths.
Mikoto felt the charge build up, the coin vibrating between her thumb and finger before, with great reluctance, she fired it at Kuroko's waiting palm. It felt like it went so much faster than it should have! Did she do it too fast!? Kuroko's eyes went wide as she saw it make a straight shot at her, visibly flinching as the crack echoed through the air.
A moment of tense silence filled the air before Kuroko looked at her synthetic hand, which in a very realistic fashion was shaking in anxiety. Mikoto quickly hobbled over to her, looking her over.
"Are you OK? Are you hurt? Fuck, this was a stupid as hell idea." She said, kicking herself. Kuroko was looking over her shoulder as she got to her, looking around the area. Mikoto blinked at her in confusion. "What's wrong?" Kuroko's eyes returned to her beloved, confused, excited.
"Where… did the coin go?" She asked, raising up her unharmed hand.
Frenda reached up to cover her nose. There was something about the smell of cooking human meat that you could never get used to. Even as an explosives expert, this was… excessive.
"Super done." Saiai said as she walked into the room. She paused for a moment as she scanned the room of the latest facility raid they'd just completed Saiai had been tasked with accompany Rikou, their Esper Tracker, through the facility to find their target, an Esper working for SCHOOL under that insanely powerful Rank 2, while Frenda had been partner with Mugino, the Meltdowner.
And Frenda… she had a poker face. She was good at pretending she wasn't bothered when she wasn't being goofy. Her eyes drifted to her boss. Mugino had always been a touch crazy, but…
The slaughter that was before her right now… Bodies littered the room, over two dozen people, including noncombatants, just staffing of the facility that had the misfortune of being in the room, and Mugino had just carved through them all. And now she was… she was…
...Just going through her phone. What the hell? This was a new level of cold and cruel.
"P-Please… H-help…" Frenda's gaze turned to one survivor who was crawling on the ground, somehow still breathing. He was a burnt, scorched mess, half his face seared off and missing a leg.
"U-um, Mugi-" Frenda began to say, but was interrupted by a bright flash of green energy as Meltdowner turned the man into a smear of slag, the Rank Four not even looking up from her phone. Frenda didn't say a word. Frenda had done her fair share of kills during this mission, she was no angel. Everyone in this building knew what they signed up for. That's what she needed to keep telling herself.
"Saiai, is the target dead?" Mugino asked pointedly, awaiting her answer. The smaller girl simply gave a quiet nod.
"Yes." She answered simply.
"Good. Frenda." Frenda nearly leaped out of her skin.
"Y-yes?" Frenda asked, letting out a nervous laugh at her somewhat more volatile than usual boss.
"Give me a report on your current mission. I take it your manipulation of that little whore is going well?" Mugino asked, still texting on her phone, presumably to their subordinate organization. Frenda found herself bristiling a bit, but kept it buried deep inside of her gut.
"It's going fine." Frenda began, her mind turning a million miles an hour, trying to think of what in the world Mugino wanted to know. What did she want to know that she didn't already know? "I mean, based on what I've seen, she honestly strikes me as just… a teenager." Frenda said as delicately as she could, to which Mugino scoffed, giving Frenda a disgusted look.
"Spend less time molesting your target and more time actually getting me what I want, Frenda. She's a target, not another one of your sluts." She said, before resuming ignoring her entirely, turning and storming out of the facility.
Saiai spared Frenda a somewhat sympathetic look on her usually emotionless face before making her way out as well. Frenda stood there for a moment, surrounded by burning corpses.
Sigh.
Ruiko sighed a little, looking around, shifting a bit uncomfortably. Ruiko had wanted to start training outside of her minor exercise equipment in her bedroom, so she'd bitten the bullet and asked Misaki for some help.
And man, did rich girls like to flaunt their money. Saten was now all alone in a small private gym in the School Garden. Misaki had gone to great lengths to point out that this was a facility normally reserved for Tokiwadai's Level 5's, but seeing as school was suspended until April due to Treefall, she saw no harm in Saten making use of it. Evidently, Misaki tended to get whatever she wanted.
She was alone, but it felt so awkward. She decided to banish the awkwardness by beating the ever-living tar out of the punching bag that was in the room. She allowed herself to get lost in it, every punch and swing of the arm, until beads of sweat were dripping down her forehead.
"Easy there, killer."
Ruiko broke herself out of her trance, spinning toward the voice to see Frenda grinning at her, a bag over her shoulder.
"Frenda!"
"The one and only!" Frenda let out a cheeky, playful grin, sticking her tongue out at Ruiko. She dropped the bag onto the ground with a relieved sigh, stretching her arms out.
"Ready to start your trai-" She began before Ruiko grabbed on to her and planted a kiss against her lips, Frenda looking momentarily surprised. There was a moment she began to sink into it. That moment ended when she blinked and saw and smelled a pile of burning corpses. She pushed against Ruiko, gasping for air as she smelled them still, infecting her nose.
"...F-Frenda?" Ruiko said, sounding just a little hurt. Frenda took a few deep breaths as she regained her calm, shaking her head, raising a hand up.
"It's fine. It's fine, you're fine, it's just… I… I'm still…" Frenda stood up a bit straighter. "Please don't forget who I am, Ruiko. I just got off work. And I really… really don't want to mix those memories with memories of you. Let's just focus on training, OK? Please?" Frenda asked, going to her bag, sparing a look over at Ruiko, who looked more than a little conflicted.
"Right. So what are we doing today?" Ruiko asked, adjusting her sports bra and sweatpants.
"So, you're a level 0. You're gonna have to rely on your wits and speed to deal with some real nasty powers." Frenda pulled out…
"U-um… Frenda. Is… Is that a gun?" Ruiko said with serious anxiety. Frenda grinned at her with nothing short of sadism.
"Relax… It's fine. They are filled with stun bullets. They can't hurt you. Academy City's finest in non-lethal rounds. I even modified them myself! Less damaging." She assured her. "Slower, too. Easier to dodge than actual stun bullet would be." She added in, sounding proud. "Now, you need to learn how to dodge even the fastest projectiles, move based on how things are GOING to move."
"A-and…?" Ruiko began to back away slowly from Frenda.
"And I am not going to chase you around this building and shoot you with this until you learn not to get hit!" Frenda grinned, pulling the slider back to load a round into the chamber, her grin widening even more than it had before. "Teehee!"
There was a pregnant pause in air as Ruiko realized with horror that Frenda wasn't joking. Ruiko turned and bolted, and immediately learned as she felt an impact somewhere between her shoulder blades that while yes, Frenda MAY have reduced the DAMAGE these bullets caused, oh man, the PAIN was REAL. There was no way that was by design.
"ACKAGHILEKZCH!" Was the strange alien sound that came out of Ruiko's mouth before she collapsed onto the ground, twitching.
"Oh, this is going to be so fun!" Frenda's chipper, gleeful voice said as she waited for Ruiko to peel herself off the ground twitching. "Surely a little shock hasn't beaten the fight out of you, no?"
Ruiko was twitching as she got onto her feet, breaking into another run and into a zig zag, trying to use training equipment as cover as Frenda resumed firing with a mad laugh, clearly having FAR TOO MUCH fun tormenting Ruiko.
At best, fifteen seconds had passed before Ruiko was writhing around on the ground again from the electricity. Used the equipment to pull herself up, Ruiko gave Frenda a very accusatory look.
"T-T-This i-i-i-ssss turning y-y-you o-on isn't i-" She didn't get the chance to finish her accusation before Frenda, who had been watching her from a perch on top of a piece of workout equipment with a big grin on her face shot her her again, causing her to fall over and writhe.
"Hey! That's mean to accuse people of things!" Frenda huffed as Ruiko writhed around. "...And oh, you have no fucking idea." She grinned widely.
This was going to be a very, very long day.
Frenda would be lying if she said she felt guilty as she walked down the quiet night streets of the School Garden, her bag hanging behind her legs, and a drooling Ruiko riding piggy-back behind her.
"Frenda, you schuk…" She groaned out, still lightly twitching, filled with static as she was.
"You did so good though! By the end of the night, you were really starting to get good at dodging them! You know, until I started getting more serious, but that's progress! And what's progress without some pain?" She grinned brightly. "And that face of yours all contorted into ecstatic pain…"
Ruiko made a sound that sounded like a mixture of humiliation and frustration. "Why do you tease me so much?" Ruiko mumbled against the back of the blondes head, prompting the girl to snicker and stick her tongue out a bit.
"I dunno. I've always been kind of wild and kinky. Your reactions are just so precious." She grinned, moving to the automated train and slipping on, putting Ruiko down onto the seat carefully, letting her rest, her head lolling back on the seat, unable to support its own weight.
She turned to face the girl.
"Do you want me to stop?" She asked with a smile and a curious look. Ruiko paused, looking even more embarrassed than before. She mumbled something incoherent, causing Frenda to lean in closer.
"Hm?" Frenda winked at her.
"No…" Ruiko mumbled quietly.
"Huh… I wonder why." Frenda wondered aloud as the train began to move. She idly played with Ruiko's hair without permission, the younger girl blushing. "I wonder if you're more like me than you care to admit." Her grin widened.
Ruiko began to lean forward, her head swaying forward before Frenda caught her, mildly surprised.
"Ruiko?"
"...You're so silly, Frenda…" Ruiko muttered tiredly, sounding half-asleep. "So silly… But still…" She mumbled. "You make… my world brighter…" She slurred out, before her breathing began to even out. Frenda found herself holding onto Ruiko before shifting her to hug her.
"...Damn it, Ruiko…" She grit her teeth. She felt herself tense up, trying to ignore the words echoing in her head. Words she knew were true.
"...You make my world brighter too." she whispered so quietly, even she could barely hear it.