EN: I'm not sure on the how or why, but I ended up being extremely productive last weekend and busted this whole thing out in addition to most of the previous chapter and the epilogue. Aside from the first scene (where I ended up doubling the length), this one was pretty kind to me.
"Misaki!"
Mental Out looked up at Mikoto, holding her pounding head as she sat outside a hospital room. She let out an indignant huff and tried to suppress her rising blush.
"Goodness, Railgun, calling after me with such familiarity? Your brashness could give people the wrong idea." But she chickened out at the last second, averting her eyes. Purely from how arrogant Mikoto was acting and NOT because she was embarrassed and definitely not because she wouldn't mind those wrong ideas.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Mental Out." Mikoto dismissed casually with a tired smirk, waving Misaki's objection away with her free hand as she leaned her weight more into her cane. "How's Uiharu?"
Misaki tilted her head slightly toward the door. "She's being treated now in a regenerative tank, she'll be largely recovered within a few hours."
"Eh? I know those things work fast, what's wrong that warrants multiple hours?" Mikoto shuffled over to the bench and sat down next to her. To her annoyance. She sighed again.
"Lacerations, extensive bruising, a moderate concussion... eleven cracked ribs and three hairline fractures in her skull."
A brief tense silence followed as Mikoto tensed in the seat next to her. "What the hell happened?"
"She defended your sister from Kakine Teitoku," she responded primly. The choked gasp had her chance a look to her right to see Mikoto's eyes wide and filled with rage.
"I… see." Mikoto hissed quietly through clenched teeth.
"Mmmhmm..." Misaki closed her eyes, seeing the memory clearly, "Spat in his face when he told her to get out of the way and called him an idiot after he threw her."
A tense silence followed with the exception of a small, weak chuckle at Uiharu's brave audacity, the humor lost under the anger.
"He... he almost killed her for it. It was... close."
Misaki said the last words softly, and she looked down at her lap and the cast covering her right hand and wrist. It bothered her that it was obvious how bothered she was. How easy she was to read when it came to her brilliant little flower.
She knew, deep down, Uiharu Kazari was her greatest weakness.
She started when she felt a tentative hand on her shoulder and turned to meet concerned brown eyes.
"That must have hurt. I mean, like, obviously but, I mean... gaaaah, it hurts when they get hurt, you know! So you're hurting and that sucks, but it's okay to be hurt! Er, I mean, like, you're allowed to hurt? The hurt means you care and no one's gonna look down on you for letting yourself feel that for a bit." Mikoto sighed softly, lips thin with a hint of frown. "You look kinda like I felt after I found out what happened to Kuroko so I wanted you to know: I get it. I... I'm sorry I wasn't there. If you need someone to talk to..." she trailed off awkwardly and just as awkwardly pulled her hand back. The danger was over and they had returned to staring fixedly ahead.
Still...
"I... appreciate the offer... Mikoto-san. Thank you." She didn't even entertain the thought of teasing Mikoto over her awkwardness. It would be uncouth and she was too tired. So she gracefully, graciously changed the subject. "And you? How are you and Shirai-san handling…" Misaki trailed off, unsure precisely how to broach what she knew was a sensitive topic.
"We're fine, uninjured. Turns out Indigo's not actually all that good in a scrap, so I kicked the crap out of him before everything fell apart." Mikoto answered, looking to the side down the hall. Misaki admittedly blinked in surprise. She had never considered Aihana Etsu anything less than an existential threat- but then again, she wasn't a fighter.
"He was really… it was that easy?" Misaki asked softly, casting a raised eyebrow at Mikoto.
"I mean, he's still a Level 5. We don't do 'easy'. But it's relative. Compared to, sayyyy... heck, even Mugino, who I hard-counter, would give me more trouble. Probably. She did before, at least. Point is, by Level 5 standards, he's nothing if he can't set the terms or have a hostage to hide behind. And compared to someone like Accelerator…" Mikoto let out a heavy, burdened sigh.
Misaki found herself tensing- this was the first time Mikoto had been able to bring up Accelerator, let alone actually say his name. She knew Mikoto had a deep trauma around him… which made knowing that he was actually in the same building as them at that very moment exceedingly tense. She hoped Mikoto could just not run into him and remain blissfully ignorant, but hope was not a plan, and Misaki always needed a plan.
"Say, Mikoto-" she ventured, but was cut off by the most blood curdling scream she'd ever heard in her life. As one, they shot to their feet,, Mikoto next to her tensing visibly, coiled for a fight.
"That voice…" Misaki breathed as she looked at Mikoto with dread.
The pair ran headlong into a massive scene in the middle of the Emergency Room lobby.
Kuroko held a young man a foot taller than her pinned against the wall by his collar. The young man in question was quickly losing his cool as his attempts to calm her down fell on deaf ears. Understandably so, as Kuroko looked like she was on the verge of breaking his neck.
Despite this very visible problem, neither Mikoto or Misaki could immediately respond, both of them staring in shocked horror at the other half of this scene.
In the middle of the lobby, all other patients having retreated to the edge of the room, medical staff were doing their best to restrain Frenda- the woman who they were fairly certain was Frenda. She was thrashing and screaming in agony, crying even though no tears could mark her cheeks. Misaki's gut churned at the sight of Frenda's burned out eye sockets that seeped blood where the intense burning ended. It was like someone had held a plasma torch to her face.
"SEDATE HER!" One of the doctors yelled as nursing staff did their best to pin her to the gurney she was on, making no intelligible noises through the pained howling coming from her increasingly hoarse throat.
"Let me," Misaki said quickly, pulling out a remote and turning off Frenda's sense of pain and consciousness both. She made a tweak that should encourage good dreams and slumped. The staff were professionals and immediately took advantage of their patient falling into quiescence to get her moving to surgery. Misaki caught the eye of a passing emergency physician who recognized her and held up four fingers and mouthed "hours" at him. He nodded and followed after the fading sound of the nurses, barking instructions. They would take care of Frenda.
Unfortunately for the young man, his struggling pierced the silence left behind and drew all eyes to him.
"C'mon, please don't do this, I didn't do anything wrong! I swear I'm innocent! Don't tear me in half!" She snorted. She'd seen Hamazura Shiage's rap sheet- he was a former Skill-Out leader and highly placed in ITEM; his hands were anything but clean. The sound caught his attention and he noticed two more Level 5s were now looking his way. "Awww, come onnnn, this reeeeeeeally isn't my fault!" he complained. He was clearly rather terrified they might actually rip him apart and Mikoto and Kuroko both looked willing to oblige.
"We just might, if you don't-" Mikoto began, but Misaki was quick to bar any movement with her arm and cut her off.
"I'm still here, you know," Misaki grumbled, "give me a moment." Raising her remote again, he stiffened then went slack as she quickly unfurled the tapestry of his last eight hours of memories. She took a second to process the information as she received it, clenching her jaw as she learned everything.
"Shirai-san, please let him down… This man saved both Frenda and Ruiko." Her militant-minded compatriots still looked at him with suspicion. She couldn't rightly blame them, "saved" was a… strong word for what happened with their friends. Friend and Frenda? Not important.
Thankfully, they both looked to her for an explanation, Kuroko releasing her prisoner almost-non-violently so he could scuttle away and massage his aches. Almost reluctantly, Misaki caught the eye of a triage nurse and subtly indicated that he should also be checked for injuries. The KuroMiko pair's combined gaze was intense, and she understood why- they were concerned for their friend. They were scared for their friend. Breaking the news, though... how to say that? She sighed deeply. She was doing a lot of that, lately.
"It seems Ruiko's rescue of Frenda did not go smoothly…"
"Onee-sama."
Mikoto snapped out of her thoughts, calming her anxious bouncing leg slightly as she looked up at one of her little sisters.
"Hey…" Mikoto closed her eyes for a brief second. "...10046." She said with a hint of self-doubt, but she received a tiny smile in return.
"That's correct, Onee-sama, Misaka says while concealing her happiness that Onee-sama made the effort to know her number."
Mikoto smiled softly at her, letting her own emotions quietly filter out of her brain and into the Misaka Network. She wasn't sure why, but sharing her affection for her sisters via the Network felt… more pure? She couldn't really explain it, even to herself.
"How are Saten-san and all present, Misaka asks, expressing concern for Onee-sama's intimate peer group," the clone, briefly glancing at the others in the room. Kuroko was next to Mikoto, quietly asleep against her shoulder. Uiharu was curled up on a bench, probably asleep, and Misaki was pacing through the room, snapping at anyone who asked her to stop. They were all in the waiting room as Saten underwent surgery… Saten had been under the knife for seventeen hours now.
"Still waiting," Mikoto said softly to her sister, the worry on her face leaching into the greater consciousness of her family. "And you are still…?" Mikoto began quietly, trailing off since the Sisters didn't need to even hear her speak to know.
"Yes, we are still watching over person of interest Frenda Seivelun. Records indicate her eyes were beyond salvation. They will be replaced with cybernetic simulacra once the bacterial infection and local tissue damage is repaired, Misaka says as she flagrantly violates medical privacy and data security."
"That's…" Mikoto couldn't help but let out a small nervous laugh at her sister's behavior… and admittedly wondered how much of it was being picked up from HER… "That's good? I guess...?"
Misaki paced and paced and paced. Her eyes drifted toward Mikoto and Kuroko alongside the Sister that was updating her. She heard every word, but didn't intervene, her thoughts elsewhere.
Her eyes drifted to Kazari, her little flower currently pretending to be asleep… and she worried. Kazari was a gentle soul who wished others well… But when the doctor warned them that Ruiko might not make it out of the surgery…
She had never felt such deep, encompassing malice pour from her lover before. Misaki hoped for Ruiko's recovery, hoping it would all be healed- but she was so worried. What would Kazari do if Ruiko was permanently crippled?
What would she do if Ruiko died?
Even in their memory palace, Misaki wasn't certain. Kazari was in a dark place without certainty. This was far from the first time her friends had been hurt, and Kazari had always managed to reject those vindictive impulses, but her snapdragon had been through and seen so much so fast and this might have finally been one time too many…
Misaki was frightened. Unbidden, her thoughts returned to ways to use her powers to alleviate the situation. She quelled that line of reasoning yet again, it wasn't the right choice. That sort of control was not what their love was built on, it was built on trying- on talking and communicating, not telepathy!
And so Misaki paced, frightened for her little azalea's's well-being.
The only sounds within the room were the medical machines watching her vitals and her own uneven breathing.
How?
How had it all come to this?
Frenda didn't even know anymore. She… she didn't know what to do. She had sat in the bed in motionless silence since the doctor had quietly told her- told her that Ruiko might not make it.
And it was her fault.
If Ruiko... died… what would she have left? No more ITEM. Ruiko's friends would rightly hate her. No more Ruiko. No more…
"I can't cry…" Frenda whispered to the room, raising her hand to her cheek, unable to shed tears after the destruction of her eyes. She wondered if the replacements the doctor had mentioned would give her that ability back.
Her head jerked up as she heard a sound, a high pitched whistling sound.
"He-hello?" She asked the blackness, the crack in her voice laying her fear bare for anyone to take advantage of.
"It's me. Shirai." That... was the vicious teleporter who was in bed with Railgun. Her visitor's footsteps approached the foot of the bed.
"Oh." Frenda wasn't sure what to say- she'd never really talked to Shirai that much. She was honestly the last person she expected to see- to hear. At least she wasn't hostile yet?
"I figured I'd stop by and update you. Ruiko is still in surgery, which uh… you know, doesn't… doesn't bode well." Shirai ended that last sentence in a mumble- it was clear she was also in pain, but trying to keep it together for others.
"But the doctor here is the best there is, so… there's still hope." Shirai said softly. "If you need anything, just let us know. If it counts for anything, I know what it's like to lose something that's a part of you."
What?
No, really, what? That was it?
Where was the anger? The blame?
The accusations and threats?
Moments crawled by in silence, Frenda opening and closing her mouth several times before managing to weakly utter a single word. "...Thanks."
"Certainly." Kuroko responded softly. Frenda didn't need her sight to see the wan smile of pity she received.
Ah.
Kuroko sighed as she walked through the waiting room again. It'd been twelve hours since she'd spoken to Frenda. She'd swung by again to check in, maybe try to ease the clear aura of small trapped animal she radiated, but she had been taken to another wing for surgery- evidently when you didn't have strange alien metametal blocking where your prosthetics would go, they could get them fitted rather quickly.
Her eyes drifted to Mikoto, who was asleep on the bench where she'd been dozing just recently. At this point, they were sleeping in shifts as they all refused to go home until they knew what was going on with Saten Ruiko.
"This is wrong, something is wrong," Misaki broke the silence, clenching her jaw. Kuroko looked at her curiously and with concern- Misaki hadn't slept a wink, and Kuroko was confident she was forcibly keeping herself up.
"What do you mean?" Kuroko asked, glancing toward Uiharu who was now sitting up attentively.
"We've not been given any updates, and if she's still in surgery, that's nearly thirty hours. That is… something is wrong." Misaki didn't stop to elaborate, instead striding out of the waiting room with Uiharu at her heel looking as worried as Kuroko felt. She cursed silently and quickly followed.
"What are you going to do?" Kuroko demanded, worried that Misaki was going to do something unwise because of sleep deprivation.
"This." Misaki stopped abruptly, clicking a remote the nurse on station. The nurse in question perked up with literal stars in his eyes and Kuroko shuddered at the reminder of what Mental Out could do so trivially.
"What's the status of Saten Ruiko?" Misaki asked firmly, at least doing them the kindness of not just eating the information telepathically.
Her thrall consulted the computer for several seconds. "The procedure with the patient experienced several significant problems. Treatment was paused twice to resuscitate the patient after she flatlined. She was taken to a secure isolation chamber under guard once she was stable enough to be temporarily moved. The move was ordered by the hospital director due to security concerns."
Misaki clicked her remote again, not waiting for commentary from either of them, even if Kuroko was about to have a stroke from this information.
"How long ago was this?"
"Six hours ago."
Misaki clenched her jaw as she looked at Kuroko, and almost immediately she realized what she SHOULD have been doing, closing her eyes and focusing her senses at the space around them. It was still a relatively new ability but…
She let her senses traverse the hospital's topology, trying to consider how she might feel which person was Saten…
"Where is this isolation room?" Thanks, Misaki.
"Ninth floor, back hallway."
Kuroko focused on that spot, finding a room not unlike the room she'd stayed in and no perturbations in the manifold to indicate a person- it was empty.
"She's not in there," Kuroko relayed quickly, opening her eyes widely, her terrified gaze meeting Misaki and Uiharu's.
Misaki opened her mouth to resume the interrogation, but that train of thought quickly ended.
With the rattle of gunfire.
Frenda growled as she pulled herself from the hospital bed, grabbing hold of the IV pole for support, trying not to put too much weight on it and rolling away onto her face.
Her eyes were clenched shut hard- even trying to open them after forcibly removing the bandages was a nightmare, everything was a million times too bright and awful. She was fairly certain she was told specifically to NOT immediately try to use the implants after waking up an hour ago, but gunshots compelled her to move.
Gunshots and that infernal ringing in her ears.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, can't we just catch a break?" Frenda half-sobbed as she started to roll toward the exit, just barely cracking her eye and moving toward the indistinct shapes and lights that she was pretty sure was the exit at least.
"Need… to find… Ruiko…" She whimpered as she slowly made her way out of the room, the ringing growing louder in one ear, compelling her to turn her head- the ringing quieted.
"...this way?"
The young man looked up from the game on his phone and rolled his eyes as his tapping heel stilled. He leaned forward in his chair situated in the hospital's main lobby and smirked at the chucklefucks who decided THIS was a good idea.
Two dozen men in heavy armor and armed to the teeth, all looking real scary to every random asshole who saw them.
"See that line right there, nublets? That's the aggro line." Accelerator pointed at the threshold of the doors, causing the soldiers to pause momentarily.
"If you wanna get instagibbed by a superboss, just step over." He grinned as he pushed himself off the chair, sliding his hands into his pockets as he gave them a crazed look.
"Come on. TRY YOUR LUCK!"
The last twenty seconds had been a wild ride for Mikoto: waking up with a gasp from the sound of gunfire, noticing that she was alone in the waiting room (thanks, guys), and then hearing the voice of Heaven Canceller nearby.
"I would not test your luck, my friend, but do try to survive. As long as you're alive, I can heal you."
Mikoto stumbled out into the hallway, looking around and spotting the frog-faced man hanging up his phone with a resigned sigh.
She shook her head as she heard radio chatter in her ear, though she was still too dazed from the sudden wakefulness to fully make it out- but it sounded military.
"Doctor!" Mikoto called out to him. "I hear radios coming downstairs, I think people are trying-"
"To break in, yes. Don't worry about the lobby, I think it best you avoid it- it's being handled by another. You should protect your friend. Room 904. Someone on the board wishes to acquire Saten Ruiko more than anything," he spat with a rare expression of distaste.
She didn't need to be told twice. "Thanks, doc."
That ringing, that goddamn ringing, what was it?
Frenda leaned into the wall of the hall she was in, using it for support as she slowly shuffled along, both hands clutching the IV pole as she used her shoulders to skirt along. She followed the ringing sound in her ears that seemed to quiet and increase as she moved in different directions.
Dimly, she recognized that she really should have just stayed put because the odds of her finding Ruiko were...
But.
"Ruiko… You have to be okay." She whispered quietly, desperately. She just… she just wanted to tell her. Needed to tell her.
...so she would keep going until-
"Frenda, no, stop!" Frenda jumped as she heard the voice of the group's teleporter, and felt the disturbance of displacing air as Shirai appeared next to her, grabbing her.
"You're going to kill yourself! You shouldn't even be moving!" Shirai scolded as Frenda felt her strong metal arms gripping at Frenda's own weak limbs. She heard footsteps behind her, her heart racing in fear until she heard the voices being friendly.
"I… I have to find Ruiko," Frenda weakly protested, earning her a dead silent response and a slight tightening of the arms around her, almost like she was being hugged. She wasn't sure what their expressions were, but she wasn't betting on positive- she knew they must hate her. She did too, after all.
"DRONES AT THE ROOF!" The voice of the Railgun cut through the awkward moment, the girl seeming to arrive by LANDING next to them- probably flung herself with magnetism if the wind that hit her upon Railgun's impact on the floor was any indication.
"Mikoto! The roof- oh, oh no." Frenda heard Shirai next to her, and felt her hold on her arms tense almost painfully.
"Ruiko… Ruiko is on the roof! Everyone hold still!"
Frenda gasped as the sensation of everything around her suddenly changed. Shirai- Kuroko had brought her along. She was outside, on the roof of the hospital, and it was cold as hell, wind blowing over her and raising goosebumps on her whole body through the thin hospital gown. She expected to hear gunshots or explosions or… something.
But she did smell smoke on the breeze. No one around her said a word. That infernal ringing was dead silent. Frenda… needed to know.
She grit her teeth as she forced her new eyes open, her head now in searing agony that saw her nearly faint as a pounding headache set in almost immediately. But she got her eyes open. And…
"Ruiko?" Frenda said softly as she saw her- saw Ruiko.
She stood on the roof, looking out over the city, unharmed. Entirely unharmed. A hospital shirt was clutched in her left hand, her top bare and covered in heavy sweat, her arms heaving up and down as she panted. Her back was bare before them, and Frenda saw… nothing. No wounds, no cuts, no blood… no injuries at all anywhere on her body.
Evidence of injury, sure. Her entire back was covered in jagged and irregular ivory-coloured scarring where her injuries should have been.
And around her, surrounding her in a halo of destruction, piles of destroyed drones smoked and sparked, ripped apart and blasted to pieces. As Frenda stared at Ruiko, she rubbed her eyes and blinked. They must have been kind of buggy, because Ruiko's skin looked like it was glowing beneath the surface. Then she noticed the subtle flickering shadows; Ruiko really was glowing.
"Ruiko, are you… are you okay?" Frenda asked weakly, reaching a hand out, her eyes unmoving off of the tall, powerful woman with an immovable presence.
Ruiko answered with such confidence, the shirt in her hand waving wildly in the wind.
"I am here, without pain, without failure, and I feel like I could fight a god. And above all else…" Ruiko turned partly toward them, her head tilting to look down her shoulder at them, the arm clutching her shirt raising up to cover her chest for some modesty. Her eyes glowed so brightly, her wide smile beaming with joy and confidence- her beautiful, illuminated ivory eyes.
"I saved you, Frenda." She said softly, raising an arm and offering her hand. Frenda broke away from Shirai, who had been holding her up for strides she hadn't even realized she'd been making, grasping that offered hand, so gentle and soft to the touch.
"I have never felt better."
Frenda's lip quivered as she felt terrifying words building in her chest, her heart pounding, her eyes burning, as she stared at Ruiko, legs shaking as they threatened to give out.
"Ruiko- I… I-" Frenda ignored the pain, ignored the soreness of her new eyes, pushed herself to say the words she'd wanted to say through this nightmare.
"I love you." She said it in barely a whisper, liquid pouring down her face as she rediscovered her ability to cry.
In a single movement, Ruiko stepped toward her, pulling Frenda to her chest.
"I love you, too."