A/N: Special thanks to Khan, my editor, for greatly helping in expanding this chapter and cleaning it up.

Kuroko quietly crept into the room she shared with Mikoto with mischievous intent, though that idea was quickly discarded once she spotted her lover. The sounds of Mikoto at work filled the room, and her intense focus would make any teasing far too easy. Clicks and scrapes echoed through the room as Mikoto seemed to fiddle with something in her hands, using various tools in turn to remove or add parts from piles of metal pieces spread across the desk in front of her. In the midst of the chaotic arrangement lay her crutch.

Mikoto's head jerked up as Kuroko seemed to cross some kind of invisible line, her intense focus broken as she set her screwdriver down, turning in her chair to face her girlfriend and meet her curious expression.

"Hey. What are you working on?" she asked, partly out of genuine interest, and partly to maintain the pretense that she wasn't about to do exactly what she had originally come to do.

"Huh? Oh. It's…" She turned back to the device. It was about a foot long and roughly cylindrical, but enough parts were missing that Kuroko couldn't really make out what it was supposed to be yet.

"A possible solution to my balance problems." She smiled, putting her tools down. "...And a portable toolbox, of sorts." She pushed herself off the table, grabbing her crutch. Kuroko glanced at it, and she noted little markings along the crutch's length at various points, prompting another raised eyebrow.

"You'll see. I was thinking of running… hobbling… strolling! Right, strolling down to the store for some more parts. Wanna come?"

The flash of unhappiness in Mikoto's eyes as she struggled through that phrasing showed her jaunty smirk for a lie, and it wounded Kuroko's heart. Kuroko could understand the pain of growing used to a disability, and Mikoto had previously been an incredibly fit and athletic person. Now… she struggled a great deal to get around. Still, Mikoto had been there for her through the loss of her arms.

Kuroko took the chance to snatch Mikoto's hand with a big grin on her face.

"Did you even need to ask?"

The high tech hardware shop that Mikoto favored had an abundance of both metal bits as well as electronic bobs, and the Electromaster herself seemed like a kid in a candy store. Kuroko followed along at her heels as she went up and down the aisles, and it didn't take long for Kuroko to figure out that Mikoto wasn't just shopping, she was browsing intensely. Oh, was she easily distracted in this treasure trove!

"Electromasters and their toys…" Kuroko muttered quietly as she watched Mikoto wander with a smile on her face, some electronic devices periodically coming to life on their own, most likely due to Mikoto's own excited electromagnetic field.

"I heard that, you know." Mikoto said, huffing a bit as she seemed to deflate a little, looking through a selection of some devices that Kuroko didn't recognize. She gave Mikoto a soft smile.

"Don't mind me. I don't really understand your particular fixation, but… I get it. I have… had similar experiences, so I am not really one to judge your unladylike hobbies. It led me to joining Judgement, actually." Kuroko said with a reassuring tilt of the head, her smile unwavering. Mikoto looked at her with a very curious expression.

"Really?" she asked, and for a moment, there was a strange look crossing Mikoto's face. "You know… I kind of just realized… even though we're d...dating… I don't really know much about your past. Like, before we met, I mean. I never… really asked." As Kuroko watched Mikoto's expression, she realized Mikoto was feeling a bit ashamed over that fact.

"Well, I'm a very forgiving type, so you could always ask me whenever you wish." Kuroko said in a very fake-haughty tone as she gave Mikoto a very large smile, before getting on to her tiptoes to peck her cheek, "Don't worry about it."

Mikoto blushed, still prone to embarrassment at public displays of affection, but returned the smile. A few moments of silence stretched on as Mikoto returned to browsing, Kuroko watching her with the same curiosity as before, seeing the thoughtful expression on her face.

Kuroko's mind returned to its curiosity for what they originally came here to do, Mikoto first examining various ball-bearings and gauging some intrinsic quality that couldn't have been mere weight, levitating them with her powers occasionally. Then she moved on to do similar with several fabrics and cushions, pressing them against her forearms, bicep, or neck and coming to conclusions that Kuroko could only make bewildered guesses about.

Better late than never, right? That was Mikoto's thought process, at least.

"So, Kuroko…" Mikoto broke the silence, and Kuroko's focus on her partner's shopping. "What was it that you meant, then? About having the same thing as me with my love of machines and electronics?"

Kuroko blinked as they returned back to the previous topic before smiling once again, seemingly in excitement. "Oh! Well, you know how people in the Power Curriculum Program tend to develop odd quirks and hobbies related to their personal realities? For Teleporters it usually manifests as a sort of preference for teleporting certain kinds of things." Kuroko turned and seemed to idly look at the various items on shelves as she reminisced, Mikoto still looking for the items she needed, but the bulk of her focus remaining with Kuroko.

"Materials. Or densities or weights or sometimes abstract shapes. One boy I read about had a serious issue with the topological genus of three: he literally had trouble keeping his shirt on. Rarely, it might be one's own self. But yes, there are things that just…" she trailed off for a couple seconds, struggling to describe the sensation. "It just feels right," she said, grinning widely.

"Huh, that's pretty interesting. What's your- wait, how did that lead you to becoming Judgement?" Mikoto interrupted her own train of thought as she noticed a slight leap of logic from Kuroko's earlier statement that didn't quite add up. She said that her preference for teleporting certain objects led to her becoming Judgement.

"Hm? Oh…" Kuroko shrugged a bit, not looking directly at Mikoto, smiling with some nostalgia. "I got arrested."

Mikoto froze mid-grab. There was a pregnant silence as she processed what she was almost positive she heard wrong. Once she was absolutely sure that, no, it wasn't an auditory hallucination, she turned her head to look at Kuroko with a very baffled and off-balance expression.

"Wait. I... what? You." Kuroko nodded slowly. "You, Shirai Kuroko, got arrested."

"Y-yeah... hahah, not my finest moment I assure you," she admitted sheepishly.

"Like, the same Kuroko that shows up to a crime scene gripping her armband with a super serious frown saying 'Judgment desu no!' before she brutally takes down any and all comers with ruthless efficiency."

"Mikotooooo," Kuroko whined, covering her face to hide the pained blush that mixed pride and embarrassment.

"You're telling me the infamous ace enforcer and thug destroyer of Branch 177...was arrested."

"Don't you think you're overreacting a bit, dear?" Kuroko responded primly.

"I'm sorry! It's just... wow, I never would have expected it from you of all people."

"I was ten!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Mikoto decided to reconcile before things escalated further. They were in public and it was just mean. She'd have plenty of time to ruminate on it later. Maybe she could even confer with her Sist- Nope, not ready to go there. Some other day. In the future. Yeah.

"Would milady do me the honour of relating the rest of the tale?"

Kuroko smacked her shoulder playfully and she managed to not wince at the- likely unintentional- force behind it. "Flatterer. Very well, then! I suppose I, in my magnanimity, can oblige!" She held the serious expression for only a second before giggling.

"I… well, it's really easy to steal things when you can just touch them and make them disappear. So I was young and stupid and starting to get quite good at my exercises, and, well… I stole things."

Mikoto stared at Kuroko as she listened to her, not uttering a word. She didn't really know what to say, who could have expected this from Kuroko of all people?

"As you might imagine my little stint as a master thief didn't last long. And by 'not long', I mean, maybe a few weeks before Judgement caught me? Needless to say, my penchant for stealing thankfully did not include anything of exceptional value, so after a truly vicious lecture the whole incident was expunged from my records on the condition that I served some community service with a Judgement member." Kuroko smiled a bit, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet.

"Not a day after I ended that community service that I joined Judgement training. I learned that abusing my powers like that was wrong. That I had… an expectation of responsibility." Kuroko put down the random item she had been examining, moving over and leaning into Mikoto, and Mikoto reflexively wrapped an arm around her.

"I'm sorry, I know that's not the most flattering story of me."

Mikoto, at that moment, was shocked more than anything, but felt nothing but respect for Kuroko. Really, Mikoto went on a property destruction rampage without learning much of anything. Kuroko had a minor thieving stint as a child, and dedicated years of her life to Judgement.

"Kuroko, you're…" Mikoto smiled, resting the top of her head on Kuroko's. "You certainly learn faster than I do." She said, with envy in her voice. "You never cease to amaze."

They departed from the hi-tech hardware shop not long after with Kuroko more than happy to carry the bags.

In truth, she had to keep reminding herself she was carrying things. Heaven Canceller was a genius for certain- the procedure where they installed the prosthetic interface had reinforced her stumps (and the muscles therein) appropriately for the metal arms. And then the arms themselves… well, suffice to say, it was more strength than she was used to.

"Thanks, Kuroko." Mikoto smiled as she... strolled along, the shorter girl beaming up at her, meeting Mikoto's side-long look.

"Tut, tut, don't even think to trouble yourself, It's the least I could do after you listened to me spill my tragic backstory, my love." Kuroko grinned, her tone as teasing as it was deliberately over dramatic. "Even if it means being stalked by Anti-Skill…" she mumbled. Both gave a small half-chuckle, half-sigh. The sad truth was they knew they were under constant surveillance. It was just the reality of it.

"Yeah, well… What can you-" Mikoto began, but was interrupted by an exceptionally excited and foreign sounding voice.

"Oh, wow! What are the odds of meeting such famous people!"

Both Kuroko and Mikoto turned their eyes forward toward the individual who'd suddenly placed themselves in their path. He, and it did take them a second to mark him as a boy with his long blonde hair and pretty face, was quite clearly foreign, and dressed quite unusually: An eye-watering yellow shirt clashed with a rustic brown-red poncho, accompanied with a pair of brown pants, and yellow shoes that matched his shirt. A pair of wildly-patterned belts around his waist would normally be eye-catching were his flamboyant movements not so distracting.

"Mikoto and Kuroko, right?" He leaned in earnestly, "I recognize your faces from all the news reports! They aren't exactly quiet about their heroes." He began to speak through his heavily accented Japanese, his rather flagrant and rude usage of their first names catching both off guard. His entire mannerism caught them off guard in fact, but while Kuroko was about to tear the savage's head off, a squeeze at her arm stopped her. Mikoto looked momentarily thankful that Kuroko could feel through the metal prosthetic. Kuroko could see the look on Mikoto's face beyond that… what was bothering her?

"I know you two must get bothered so often, but I just couldn't help myself! I mean, for two so young, what motivates you to help so many?" He asked, stepping in closer and acting as though he was seeing a fascinating lab specimen. This was well past the point Mikoto would usually start puffing up and making threats at creeps like this, but she wasn't even moving. She was just silently staring him right in the eyes. And in response he was just… grinning cheekily? Why were they staring each other down?

"...You're a foreigner, aren't you?" Kuroko spoke up finally, breaking the building tension before it could get any worse, deciding to be diplomatic instead of what she wanted to be, which was vicious.

"Indeed I am, but a visitor. My name is Rym." Kuroko raised her eyebrow slightly. Well, that was certainly a foreign name. Wait… visitor?

"Visitor? When did you... arrive?" She asked cautiously, and it was at this point, she noted that Anti-Skill had yet to intervene as they so often did these days when they were approached in public, which was... moderately alarming.

"Oh… recently. I don't quite remember." Rym tapped his chin in a bit of thought, his blue eyes flicking to Mikoto's hazel yet again, the grin widening on his face.

Kuroko glanced to Mikoto and saw the intensity had not faded from her glare at all. What was bothering her so much? That, more than anything, was what concerned her. What could make Mikoto this tense?

Why was this person in front of her like a black hole of electromagnetic energy?

Her electromagnetic radar was still functioning perfectly fine; she could sense other people properly! But when it came to this blonde-haired boy, it was like it sunk into him and vanished, like it was devoured up into a hungry gullet. She'd suspect he was an Electromaster like her, but nothing else about him seemed to indicate that. He didn't give off the electromagnetic field that they all started to generate around Level of 2.

That didn't rule out him being Level 1. Which would be fine, of course; she didn't care about people because of their Level… but someone like this? Someone who could suck down electromagnetic energy like some kind of bottomless pit. That was an unknown. Possibly a very dangerous one, as she had discovered in the events leading up to Treefall.

AND HE KNEW HE WAS DOING IT.

"So?" She was broken out of her thoughts, finding herself staring into the eyes of the young man again, his bright baby blues boring into her. "How do you motivate yourselves? To such grand heroics?" He asked in a somewhat pushy manner. It was in that moment, as she snapped out of her focus, that she let herself feel out farther than their conversation. She glanced to Kuroko, and saw the worry on her face. The same thought.

Where was Anti-Skill? They would have intervened by now. And as she stretched her senses, her radar reached out, echoing across the landscape, into the nearby buildings and shops and alleys, she found a more pressing question to ask.

Where was everyone... and every living thing?

Mikoto's eyes refocused on the simpering blonde and saw the glimmer of amusement in his eyes for what it was, that he knew what effect he had on her senses, too, and enjoyed watching her squirm. It was then that she remembered what he'd said about his arrival. He'd only just arrived in Academy City recently? The city was still on lockdown, that was impossible. Unless... As the yawning emptiness of the lifeless world around them ate away at her dwindling resolve, she felt suddenly very, very vulnerable under the gaze of this... person?

"...I don't know. Do we need a reason or a motivation?" Mikoto asked in a low tone, her hand squeezing down on her crutch. She felt Kuroko glance up at her from the side, before her eyes flicked back to the person in front of them, who leaned back away, seeming to consider that answer.

"Hm… I suppose not. It's just so much less exciting…" He drawled out, his eyes moving to look at her again. "Unless you're lying, of course." He said, his eyes half-lidded, his pleasant expression becoming something more feral. He immediately took several steps backward as Kuroko began to step toward him raising up an an arm, still holding onto a bag full of parts, seeming ready to feed him a metal fist to the exceptionally rude young man.

"Whoa, whoa! Just kidding!" He laughed, raising his hands up in defense, backpedaling defensively, though paused in his laugh as his gaze looked up toward the skyline.

He glanced back down at them, tapping his chin again, tilting his head again at them. "It is strange though. You both seem like the crusading types. Driven, with certain sparks of… righteousness." He said this as he crossed his arms, seeming even more thoughtful.

"With powers like yours, do you not feel an obligation to-?" He began, pausing as his eyes darted up at the skyline once again, head twitching to the side as he frowned, a dark look flashing through his blue orbs.

"Hmm… times up. Guess I overstayed his tolerance…" Rym looked to the girls again, who looked confused at his random outburst. With a flourishing bow, he gave them another plastic smile.

"Sorry to trouble you so, but thank you for entertaining a visitor such as I. I hope we meet again." The blonde grinned, raising up from his bow and his eyes glancing up at the skyline once more.

Both Kuroko and Mikoto glanced over their shoulders to see what had spooked him so. ...The Windowless Building?

"What-" Kuroko began, but as they turned back, Rym was gone without a trace. Mikoto blinked in bewilderment… and gasped as she felt everything rush back. People and animals and a Sister and plants and the power grid were all suddenly there again, like the empty space in the shops and buildings was suddenly filled. How… how had-

...Had that man… Had Rym been manipulating her radar?

Kuroko felt angry - furious, in fact - at the bizarre foreigner that had so rudely interrupted her date with Mikoto, bombarded them with strange comments and questions, treated them so familiarly, and then just vanished.

"Honestly, who did he think-" Kuroko looked up, and for the first time since they'd woken up from their respective comas, she saw something nostalgic in Mikoto's face. It wasn't a self-loathing anger, or a depressed sulk.

It was an immature contained tantrum of Mikoto wanting to punch or electrocute someone who had made her angry but was in too public of a place to explode in lightning and glass the whole area. It was something so dearly familiar, yet Kuroko felt like she hadn't seen it in forever.

"You OK?" Kuroko asked, smiling a bit, unable to help it. It was just… so, so nostalgic. She felt far too young to be feeling nostalgic, but honestly? She was far too young to have dealt with a lot of things.

"Fine. Just fine. Just… going to… seethe…" she growled out, her hand squeezing down on her crutch tightly. Kuroko leaned over and into Mikoto, grinning even more.

"Well… just let me know when you're ready to go home. I think we can work out some stress…"

Kuroko laid down on their bed as Mikoto worked, face buried into the comforter, whining pitifully. This wasn't fair. Everything hurt.

"You have no one to blame but yourself. You know we've been needing to." Mikoto said from the desk as she worked.

"When I said 'work out stress', I didn't mean sparring…" Kuroko moaned as she looked up from the bed, giving Mikoto crocodile tears.

"I know."

"So cruel…"