Content Warning: This chapter includes graphic descriptions of torture. You have been warned.
I know many of you have been waiting quite awhile for this one… Well, here you go! Hope it was worth the wait.
It was a long, long journey back… home.
Frenda wasn't sure why- yeah, no, she was at least self-aware enough to know why calling the place "home" was nothing but a farce now as she arrived back at the building ITEM used as a base. It was all just so… stupid.
But the time had finally come! Time to go back to her mindless hedonism, and everything… would be fine.
"Hah, right…" Frenda muttered to herself as she stepped into the elevator and punched a button, leaning listlessly against one of the walls as the elevator did its elevating thing. Sweet lies only worked if you believed them.
The doors slip open with an old-fashioned ding. She had always thought of it as a charm point, but now… she eventually gathered her will and pushed off the wall, sticking her arm in the opening to prevent it from closing all the way. She was so lethargic, tired… unmotivated. She felt like complete shit, like the fucking waste of space that she was after she verbally abused Ruiko.
Frenda sighed loudly as she wandered into one of the living spaces, freezing as she saw it was not unoccupied.
"H-Hey Mugino…" Frenda said softly, her boss barely taking note of her presence as she sifted through her phone. Outwardly, she was calm, but her mind felt like it'd just been plugged into the Biribiri main circuit.
"Hm? Ah, Frenda. Good." Mugino stood up from the couch she'd been sitting on, tucking her phone away. "I was hoping you'd get back soon."
Frenda felt her heart skip a beat. A mixture of emotions collided with the adrenaline flooding her system. There was a faint hope that maybe, just maybe, Mugino was ready to stop this madness. Also, an unbridled fear that threatened to consume her. What was she going to say?
"I think your mission is over, I don't need anything else." Mugino shrugged cavalierly, pulling her phone out again. That was good, right? That tiny bit of hope huddled in the pit of her stomach grew to a sliver.
"And I am almost absolutely sure where SCHOOL's HQ is, so we'll be taking care of them next." She continued to explain, Frenda silent and listening. That was vaguely encouraging, if only because they might finally stop this run around and battling across the city, but… Rikou...
"I have what I need to kill Railgun," she remarked blandly, as if she were commenting on boring weather. What? She continued, "So I need you to start crossing off her friends." Mugino turned away without even bothering to look at her, and it was only for that reason that she did not see Frenda's horrified expression.
"B-but, Mugino…" She began to object, her thoughts racing as she tried to find something, any excuse to buy herself some time to… she didn't know what. "Rikou is still horribly sick, if… if we push her any farther she might not survive another mission, can't we wai-" The thought remained unfinished however, as in a flash, Mugino whipped around and grabbed Frenda by her hair, slamming her down hard, smashing the side of her head into a nearby tabletop. Frenda let out a cry of pain as she felt her head split open and Mugino's weight push on her skull. She was gasping for air, it hurt so much, like her head was going to splatter out onto the floor!
"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly." Mugino's slow whisper was laced with daggers as her face came into view. Frenda stared blearily up at Mugino with her single available eye wide and filled with tears. Please don't kill me, please don't kill me, please don't kill me!
"Would you like to repeat that?" Mugino asked softly, her spare hand coming into view near her cheek heated to a near-scalding degree, shimmering emerald with electron plasma.
"N-no, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Frenda slurred out quickly, voice laced with desperation, violently shaking underneath Mugino as tears mixed with the blood pouring down her face. Mugino held her in place for several minutes without a word as she did her level best to not relieve herself in outright terror. Slowly, it dawned on her: Mugino was basking in her fear, savoring her suppressed sobs as she prayed silently for her life. Finally Mugino smirked cruelly and traced a searing finger along her cheek then let her go and left her there against the table, without saying another word.
Frenda shook on the table for several long minutes before flopping off it onto the ground and levering herself upright. She leaned against the couch and hugged herself, recovering from the myriad agonies inflicted on her by someone she used to trust with her life. The blood matting her hair eventually stopped dripping and she managed to stand on shaky legs, limping toward the elevator. Her mind wandered to the people at that other house…
The headstrong (but kind) Railgun and her sweet, loyal girlfriend, Shirai… That cute little Uiharu always attached to that insufferable (generous and protective) telepath. And… Ruiko. Ruiko.
She had her orders… to kill… them…
They were good people. Good people who had never tried to hurt her…(aside from that one time with Mikoto, admittedly, but she started it).
With a trembling hand, she pulled out her phone and stared at it. "No…" she said softly, breathing several deep breaths before she straightened up, grip tightening on the phone. "No." Her declaration, her resolve, was clearer now. She was tired of being scared. She was tired of being miserable. And she was so very tired of hating herself every day. She clicked a number on her speed dial, looking around anxiously as it rang.
"Hey Frenda, what do you nee-?" Came the voice of Hamazura Shiage, but she had no time.
"Shut up and listen to me." Frenda whispered in a voice so quiet it was almost inaudible. "Mugino is having us go after SCHOOL's HQ soon. Like real soon."
"What? Rikou can barely move, she's gonna give her time, right-?"
"No," she cut him off sharply, "No, she's not. Shut up and listen. Take Rikou, and get the fuck out of here. Run. Just run. Mugino's lost her fucking mind." Frenda whispered, her legs shaking as she spoke in her near-silent whisper, finger hammering on the down elevator button.
"I… you… Mugino would kill you for this. Why would you, of all people...?" Shiage sounded shocked. How could she blame him? She wasn't the type to do this for others, she was the type to save her own skin first and foremost.
Right?
"Whatever, who cares. Just take her and run. It's not worth her dyi-" Frenda paused as she heard footsteps running behind her, spinning around just in time to see Saiai rushing at her, just a few feet from reaching her, a deadly serious look in her eye. "Shit!"
Frenda hadn't even realized she was in the building! She began to move, but she knew it was a futile gesture. Saiai planted her foot, gracefully shifting her weight to pivot in place, and a brutal roundhouse slammed home in Frenda's side, sending her flying into the elevator just as it opened. Frenda gasped for air, looking up quickly… just in time to see Saiai leaping back and a massive emerald beam of energy searing into the ground and melting a hole where Frenda had just been standing.
Oh… Oh no…
SHE'D BEEN HEARD.
Oh gods no, oh gods no!
Time seemed to stretch out as Saiai looked her dead in the eyes and then rushed at her, shocking her with a leaping wheel kick that would never hit…? By the time she realised Saiai's true target, it was already far too late..
"Saiai, no-!" Was all Frenda got out before Saiai's leg, enhanced by her Offense Armor ability, carved through the wall above the elevator and the cables holding the car like a knife of pressurized nitrogen air. As gravity suddenly took hold, Frenda let out a brief scream as she grabbed onto the support rail, holding on for dear life as it fell. The last thing she saw as the doorway faded into the distance was Saiai retracting her foot and turning back to face an enraged Mugino.
"You, of all people, are really standing against me?" Mugino asked incredulously, glaring at Saiai like a household pest, as free electrons gathered into eye-burning miniature emerald suns under her will.
"For super sure." Saiai firmed her stance, glowering at Mugino. "I don't know who you are, I don't know if this was hidden inside of you all along. But you are not the boss I swore loyalty to. You've become a twisted monster and I won't work for you anymore… or kill my friends."
Mugino's glare turned to flinty ice as she stared blankly at Saiai, devoid of empathy or compassion, before her expression twisted into a cold sneer.
"Then you can die."
Frenda was panting as she pried the elevator doors open with a spare crowbar and fell out, hitting the floor hard. She was alive only because the elevator's emergency brakes still worked well enough to make up for the gas spring at the bottom she'd stolen for a prank one day. Pushing herself up and balancing on unsteady feet, her ears ringing and body aching, she stumbled out of the building.
A booming explosion drew her attention upward, flashes of light and gouts of fire blasting out the windows of the penthouse level she'd just left.
"Saiai… fuck…" She whispered quietly. She… She needed to run. She needed help. She could not let Mugino catch her. Frenda turned and bolted - inasmuch as she could - across the street into a narrow alley.
She managed a loping jog through dark, shadowy side streets and back alleys, desperate to get as far from Mugino as possible before she collapsed. Then she would… yes, first she would hit up Shiage, hunker down to dress her wounds, and then she could-
Crack!
-she grunted as she felt something impact the armoured insert of her dress (thankfully, the one that didn't already have Saiai's bootprint on it) and then herself impact the opposite building wall hard, knocking the wind out of her. Slumped against the brick, gasping, fighting through the dizziness of yet another blow to the head and swimming vision, tears flowing freely, she was finally able to get a look at her assailant standing casually in a door alcove, and felt dread.
Smirking down at her was Kakine Teitoku, wiping her blood off his knuckles. Blood!? How!? What human could hit that hard?
"Well, well… Target One down. Take her." He nodded at a towering tough standing next to him, who approached Frenda. She clawed at the ground futilely, but didn't have the strength to stand.
Blood pouring down her face, she gave them the best defiant glare she could muster before she felt the stab of a needle and her vision went dark.
Four days later
Hotel Nikko Academia's Viewpoint Penthouse boasted excellent views over the fortified city walls, affording vistas that included Mount Fuji to the West, Sagami Bay to the South, and the forested foothills of the Tanzawa Range to the North. In a sense, it was rather lovely. For a cage.
Misaki swept into the common lounge of the four-bedroom suite and plopped down on the couch with an undignified grunt. Too many things to take care of and too much care needed to accomplish them while Indi- Aihana Etsu still roamed free. Wordlessly, Kazari changed position, making herself at home in Misaki's lap with an affectionate kiss and a warm smile.
They exchanged mental greetings, but the siren call of network security ended the conversation as the legendary Gatekeeper went back to... intense fiddling with her new mobile. Misaki smiled wistfully and loosened her hug a little. She didn't understand how that setup worked, but her flower insisted it was perfectly functional and the last time she asked for details had resulted in her perched, bemused, in an office chair as she was treated to half an hour of breathless passionate lecture about the intricacies of handshakes, tunnels, quantum curves, and people named Alice and Bob. It was, if nothing else, a relief to see that fire hadn't died in the traumatic experiences they'd survived this time.
Lacking the will to do any more work for the day, she watched the other end of the couch, where Mikoto and Kuroko were truly disgusting levels of affectionate for each other - Kuroko was quite literally in Mikoto's lap, nuzzling up into the crook of a blushing Mikoto's neck. Mikoto herself couldn't seem to decide whether to hug Kuroko close or keep her hands to herself while stuttering out something unintelligible. She tried so very hard to not let her excitement show and the whole scene was cuter for how miserably she failed.
Misaki smirked. "Honestly, you two, what would people say to such a shameless display?" she asked pompously, sticking her nose up at them. In response, the pair stared at her, and jointly pointed.
She looked down to find Kazari was being held to her chest in a near death grip and kept making tiny squeaking sounds from the too-tight hug.
Oh. Oops?
"That's hardly the same," she huffed, nose even higher in the air, but she subtly shifted her embrace to make sure her flower was no longer suffocating in her cleavage or getting crushed.
"Uh huh." Both Mikoto and Kuroko said in a disbelieving tone, shaking their heads while suppressing giggles.
"I'll believe that when-" Mikoto's retort cut off, her playful smile morphing to a grimace as her hand went to her head with a low groan.
"Mikoto? Another headache?" Kuroko asked softly, radiating concern. "This is the third day in a row… maybe we should see the doctor."
Misaki frowned.
"Perhaps…" she spoke up hesitantly, "Perhaps I could help?"
Mikoto and Kuroko came back from their own little world and stared at her hand, at the remote she held up (aimed away from to appear less threatening). There was a silence that hung in the air, wearing at the edges of her brittle smile. She closed her eyes and started to withdraw the device. "Ah, sorry, I shouldn't have presu-"
"Sure."
Misaki's eyes flew back open, meeting an uncertain gaze and wan smile.
_
Having played a bit of musical chairs so Mikoto and Misaki were in the middle, bookended by Kuroko and Uiharu, Misaki began her work.
Minutes crawled by in silence. Mikoto started to badly squirm as she noticed she had become the center of attention under the Queen's ministrations. Desperate to divert the focus from her, she glanced at Kuroko.
"Your powers! They're back!" She stated the abundantly obvious. Wait, that just made things worse. Embarrassed, but already committed, she forged onward. "S-so… uhm, are they working right?"
"Better than alright!" Kuroko burst out excitedly, suddenly making it really obvious that prim and proper Kuroko had been containing the urge to gush about how awesome she was out of some sense of misplaced consideration.
"It's all so much smoother now, I kept overshooting! Reorienting my AIM field along the eleventh dimension and using the seventh as the primary axis made the calculations so much simpler, I'm kicking myself for not seeing the possibility before!" She was practically vibrating in place, as she went off on a tangent about manifold contour conservation. It was cute seeing her so exuberant about her ability for the first time in… how long? A few years at least. And as Mikoto mused, words poured from Kuroko without interruption.
"My arms don't hurt anymore no matter what I do, not even through the receptors built into the prosthetics, and there are these really unusual spatial phenomena coming out of my back, and I have noooo idea what that's about, plus I can kind of... FEEL everything around me like I'm touching everything all at once- Oh and and-"
"Breathe, Kuroko," Mikoto said with a smile as she watched her girlfriend with the single eye she could spare from her headache. Kuroko did just that, taking some breaths to calm herself.
"There's just… so much! I never lost my powers at all. They… I mean… I think I subconsciously moved my AIM field into the 11th dimension when I overexerted it. That's why no machines could detect it, and why I couldn't move correctly. My calculations were based on the location of my arms and my arms melted into my AIM field in a dimension I regularly pass through-!" She stopped short, and looked at everyone's face. Mikoto worked her jaw back into place from where it had fallen on the floor. That was… that was a lot to unpack. For example, Kuroko literally stated her arms had melted, which… yeah. Time enough to touch that later. Much later. For now?
"If it moved to another dimension and you didn't know," she ventured with a grin, "doesn't that mean you lost it?"
"What!?"
She couldn't help it. The poleaxed expression of betrayal on Kuroko's face sent her into a fit of giggles.
"Like 'oh dear, there they were in the back of my closet the whole time!'" Mikoto wheezed through the stab of pain. "You lost your keys, wallet, and your powers in another dimension! Was my watch in there, too?" Mikoto wasn't quite sure why she found the situation so amusing, but the tittering around the room as the dour mood that came with mentioning Treefall lifted was worth the aggravation to her headache.
"A-anyway," Kuroko picked the thread of conversation back up, "I'm sure there's a lot we can learn once we can spend the time to study it." She smiled sheepishly. She was blushing. So cute.
"Kuroko mentioned you've been getting these headaches for a few days, right , Mikoto? Anything out of the ordinary?" Misaki brought the conversation full circle and their attention bore down on Mikoto again. But with the levity they'd shared she felt… not as bad as before. She could handle it.
So she sighed and shrugged in response. "Nothing comes to mind. I'd say maybe I overtaxed myself, but that schoolyard scuffle was hardly the most intense I've had." She tilted her head slightly, yielding to the gentle pressure of Misaki's gloved hand adjusting her position. She still wasn't completely comfortable with someone (other than Kuroko) touching her so… intimately? She felt her cheeks warm involuntarily and curled in on herself in shame. This is completely innocent!
"Hold still." Misaki huffed as she kept doing her thing. She could feel the probing of another reality encroaching upon her own and, as much as she tried to relax, to open a peephole, to allow it to visit, her electromagnetic field held fast.
Now that I think about it, isn't it a little weird that simple physical touch feels more intrusive than getting mind-poked?
"Hm… I wonder if-" Kuroko never finished the thought because an insistent knocking drew all eyes to the door.
"Who…"
Ruiko sighed as she shuffled listlessly about in her hotel room, sifting through the plethora of items she'd bagged up on their way out of the house. For someone so skittish, Frenda sure made a habit of leaving her stuff lying around… was it wishful thinking to believe it was because she'd grown so at home in Ruiko's room? Hard to say.
Still, it was good that some of the things left behind were of the more dangerous variety. They would become the tools Ruiko used to save her from a doomed future.
And that's a promise.
She grabbed her phone, checking for the fifth time that hour for messages or missed calls. None. She tried calling again, but it went straight to Frenda's chipper voicemail. Just like the last 43 times.
"Damn it…" Ruiko groaned for the thousandth time, shoving things haphazardly back into her duffel bag. She paused at the pistol. The one Frenda had picked out especially for her. She dropped the magazine, pulled the hammer, press-checked, flipped the safety… before she knew it, she had it field stripped on the writing desk. She looked back over to the school bag she had leaned up against her bed. Hopefully the rest of the girls wouldn't notice she'd-
A knock at the door interrupted her meditation. She looked down at the neatly arrayed parts, shrugged, and kicked the duffel bag under the bed. "Coming!" she called out, wiping her hands before standing up. Shirai was standing in the door once she opened it with a… suspicious look on her face? For the briefest of moments, it felt like Shirai's eyes were focused on her bed where she'd just hidden her bag.
"...We need you downstairs, something's arrived. Something weird." Shirai finally said, not pressing her. Ruiko somewhat recalled an offhand comment about topology senses or something and she dearly hoped Shirai could not sense INSIDE of things now. At least she missed the gun.
"...OK?" She began to follow Shirai out into the suite's common room. "What is it?"
"Well… It looks like an ordinary thumb drive. Mikoto is looking at it now."
As they rejoined the rest, Ruiko faltered momentarily at the odd scene that greeted her. Mikoto was sitting on one of the seven stupidly expensive couches, glaring at a thumb drive in her hand but also in rather awful pain if her expression was anything to go by. Next to her was Misaki, who had one hand up to the side of Mikoto's head and the other with a remote, seemingly trying to do… something. Last she'd heard, Misaki's powers bounced right off of Mikoto, so she wasn't quite sure what the game was.
"What's going on?" Ruiko asked softly as she looked around, spotting Uiharu by the TV, fiddling around with it.
"Just trying to see what this does, but I've had the worst migraines for the past couple days." Mikoto muttered, sighing. "The thing here isn't dangerous. No viruses or anything like that, just some kind of communication program, I guess," Mikoto noted. She glanced over to Misaki, who looked unusually exhausted. "It's fine, you don't need to keep trying… I'll just grin and bear it until it fades. It's probably just a normal headache."
Misaki gave her a rather displeased look, huffing indignantly. "Please, give me some time, it's not my fault your EM field is interfering. Just… let me focus." Misaki insisted, earning another raised eyebrow from Ruiko. When had those two gotten so friendly? Well, friendlier, at any rate. Sorta.
"The reason we called you out is that it showed up at the front door with that note," Uiharu spoke up, pointing at a scrap of paper lying on the table that looked like it'd come out of a fortune cookie. Ruiko walked over and picked it up so she could read.
"Ominous," she blurted out. "Where are my lucky numbers?"
Watch me. All of you.
That was all it said. Mikoto tossed the thumb drive to Uiharu, who plugged it into the holographic television then looked down to her phone and tapped furiously for a couple seconds.
"And… got it." She clicked one last button as the screen came to life. It took a moment to focus before…
Oh shit.
On the screen was a face she never wanted to see again, smug as ever. In the corner of the screen, a red dot blinked with the word "LIVE" next to it.
"Thank you for FINALLY tuning in to JTTK this evening, ladies and minions! I'm your host, Kakine Teitoku, coming to you live from Academy City!" On a normal person, his smile might be described as winning, but he managed to make it sinister.
"Tonight, we'll be having a little chat with Railgun and Mental Out! Well, I say 'chat', but this is TV, so you don't get to annoy me by talking back. And the topic of our discussion is… your repayment plan." He traced his finger along a nasty burn on his face that he didn't have when he tried to kill her at the mall.
"Oh, but before we begin, I need to introduce our special guest for the evening!" He reached forward and grabbed the camera, turning it…
It was like the icy hand of Death wrapped around her. Her body stilled and her hackles rose. She felt like she was suffocating from the horrific sight before them.
Handcuffed and hanging naked, bloody, burned, and bruised from a butcher's hook… was Frenda.
She wasn't moving.
"Now, why don't you introduce yourself?" Teitoku held up a small box with a switch like it was a microphone, but...
Ruiko wasn't ready for what happened when he flipped the switch. With a crackle and pop of electrical contact, Frenda's body immediately leapt to life, her eyes wide and her mouth open in a choked, silent scream as her body contorted and twisted in agonizing, sickening ways. Legs thrashing violently, back arching, wrists burning. Teitoku watched and let it hang for several seconds before he turned off the switch. Frenda slammed into stillness as she suddenly lost the current going through her muscles. Smoke faintly emanated off of her as she hung there nearly motionless, save for the occasional twitching.
"Oh, yes, yes, I see, that's fascinating! It's a pleasure to have you on!" He was mocking her. It wasn't enough to torture her; he was using it as a fucking PROP in his sick show. Her breath became ragged and tears tracked down her cheeks.
"Ladies and worms, that was Fff… Francis? ...Sure, Francis. It's a better name than 'incoherent screeching', be thankful... the rising star of the night time circuit." Teitoku grinned widely. "I must say I'm impressed, though. We've been torturing her for days and she still hasn't given us anything on you lot. Probably shouldn't give her too much credit… I expect no less from the power of Mental Out." He laughed again, shrugging. Ruiko's stomach churned. How? How did someone like this exist?
"And now, dear viewers, it's time for the treasure hunt! For those of you playing the home game, here! Are! The rules! For the first challenge, there is a facility in District 2, the coordinates of which will be shown on screen now." Sure enough, they started scrolling by in a ticker along the bottom and Uiharu was quick on the draw with taking screenshots. "Contestants must enter the dungeon and retrieve the shiny gauntlet located there!" Another image. More screenshots. "Once you get it, just plug this thumb drive back in and I, your fantastic host, will congratulate you with the instructions for task! Number! Two! Woooow!" His face contorted from his gaudy persona once again to a twisted sneer "And if you don't play… well…" He looked over his shoulder at the motionless Frenda.
"I'll start cutting pieces off and sending them to you," he hissed. "I'll be sure to let you watch me saw off her head if you push me. And in case you think I'm bluffing, my lovely assistant here…" He upnodded toward someone off screen who walked into view, a burly man that began to approach Frenda. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out something metal, flicking it open- pliers. "...will now perform a magic trick with our guest star!"
Frenda managed to weakly tilt her head and saw the tool in the man's hand, her eyes going wide in recognition as she began to struggle and panic anew.
"No... no, no, please..." The snarky composure they'd always seen on Frenda was gone, utterly shattered after days of torture, trying fruitlessly to get away from where she hung off the ground. Adrenaline fueled struggling wasn't enough and he gripped Frenda by the hair while she sobbed incoherently, so desperate and despair-filled that Ruiko could practically feel her pain and terror. Misaki reached over and grabbed a shocked Uiharu, pulling her face into her chest and covering her ears.
"Don't watch!" Misaki whispered harshly, closing her own eyes. Shirai watched with grim intensity, while Mikoto was holding her throbbing head with one hand as she glared at the screen, clenching her jaw so tightly Ruiko thought it might break.
Frenda's thrashing and muted screaming was cut off with a "hurk" as the man brutally planted his fist in her gut. Then she was obscured by his bulk, his upraised arm only hinting at what he was doing. Finally, with several rough and violent twists of his arm, there was a tearing, crunching sound followed by a muffled howl of pain. The man walked away from Frenda, leaving her hanging there, choking loudly on her own hyperventilating sobs, blood pouring from her mouth.
Ruiko felt the single most intense murderous rage of her entire life flowing through her at that very moment.
"Wasn't that just amazing? Give a round of applause to Frank for being such a good sport and our fabulous plierman for his exemplary technique!" Teitoku took something from the big bastard and walked up to the camera, holding up the bloody molar that had just been ripped out of Frenda's skull.
"Clock's ticking, viewers! THANK YOU, ACADEMY CITY! WE LOVE YOU! GOOD NIGHT!" He grinned before turning and walking toward Frenda, leaving some parting words as the camera turned off. "Now… where were we?"
The last image they all saw was the wide-eyed, tear-filled broken expression of pure anguish and torment on Frenda's face as the hope faded from her eyes.
An overpowering silence smothered the room. The better to plan. The better to prepare. Slowly, Ruiko became aware, through the haze of wrath, of eyes on her. Finally, she spoke.
"I am going to kill them all."