Note: I have greatly modified this chapter, especially the starting, after the first publication. I hope that you will find this one better.

Killer. Killer. Killer.

A lone killer must be Misaka Mikoto.

It was already two hours past the 6 pm curfew, so there were few people still out there. And the street, more desolate than ever before, was almost devoid of any form of human presence except for the few occasional passers-by. The storefronts were devoid of displays, which was just as well, because not a single person was there to admire them. The traffic light swung in the breeze, telling all the nonexistent drivers to stop. The "walk" sign was on, letting all the nonexistent pedestrians step out onto the faded white lines. Every 10 metres, there was a street lamp stubbornly projecting little circles of white onto an empty, vacant sidewalk. It was as if they simply loved to share that amber glow, regardless of if anyone admired it.

Mikoto walked along the street step after step slowly, very slowly. Cars went past her, winds blew at her and the night enveloped her with endless, boundless darkness. Carelessly she looked up and saw the city, bright and glittering. Again she looked down and faced the black and blank bricks which made up the sidewalk. She sighed, as the overwhelming loneliness in this densely populated place was strangling her at every step she placed on the floor - so long, heavy and weak.

One. Two. Three. Four. Those footsteps echoed in the bleak streets.

And she stopped again. She saw a large glass window, and with the faint reflection due to a nearby street lamp, she could see herself. If eyes are the reflection of a person's state of mind, Mikoto's brown eyes definitely reflect her despondency. They were blank and bare, colourless and clueless, unmoving and uninterested. When a person is stripped of the meaning to live on, he/she is reduced to a soulless creature that resembles no life. This creature had hair - not long, barely covering the back of the neck - which had, to Mikoto's eyes, lost its natural brown. Mikoto felt she could see spots of red lurking among the brown. Whether that's her hallucination or the truth, she was not at all sure.

'I'm just a monster.'

She imagined those red spots expanding and emerging on her hands and her fingertips. As blood accumulated, it dripped down Mikoto's fingertips, forming pools of blood, crimson red and so excruciatingly painful. One moment it seemed to come out of her own body, but another moment it seemed not. As if, almost, she had stabbed someone multiple times. The blood clung onto her to seek justice. Would justice be done? Would an unforgiven culprit, a malicious criminal, and a complete scum of human get what she deserves?

Mikoto shut her eyes for a moment to shake those phantasms away. Opening her eyes, she saw her Tokiwadai Uniform: the white blouse, the yellowish shirt and the grey skirt. They were torn; they were ravaged. Winds blew, causing Mikoto's clothes to tightly wrap her body, sketching her lines out. That was the slender body of a middle-schooler. Going down from the neck, it swells a little at the chest before narrowing down again in the middle. Beneath that skirt, white under-skirt pants could be seen. This is the only feature which distinguished her from those people whom she wanted to protect the most but had hurt the most.

There was no meaning, no reason and no justice in Mikoto's continued life. The moment she learnt about the downfall of the Tree Diagram supercomputer, she knew that there was no way she could justifiably continue to exist.

Mikoto knew that tomorrow, the saddest person on Earth would be Kuroko. She vowed to carry out her duty even if she would turn her Onee-sama into her enemy. However, that would assume that her Onee-sama would even exist at all.

Again, Mikoto walked. Slowly, she went more and more deeply into the night.

One. Two. Three. Four. Those footsteps echoed in the bleak streets.

Regardless of what happened to anyone in the city, the night was still night, and it was quiet. The sun had long set, and the moon silently emitted faint light which could only draw out indistinct silhouettes from everything on Earth: leaves, buildings and human beings. There was hardly any movement, as the heat absorbed by men from the sun which caused them to move around so much during the day seemed to have dissipated into the cool night air, giving everything an appearance of peace and tranquillity.

But there were conflicts in the night as there always are. Beneath the peaceful appearance were insects fighting hard for their survival, students who are struggling against the flow of time to revise as much as they could, and, ultimately, Academy city's struggles against all limitations. Physical limitations, be they natural or bodily, are what the Power Development Curriculum was designed to overcome by training espers' brain. Arbitrary boundaries, such as moral and ethical considerations, are more often than not ignored and thrown aside.

In Tokiwadai Middle School's dorm room number 208, Kuroko did not feel peaceful. At all. Her Onee-sama, the level 5 esper Misaka Mikoto, was Kuroko's biggest worry. Misaka had not returned to the dorm despite that it's way past curfew, and she had been out all night the previous days too. Misaka always said that she just had trivial matters to look after but Kuroko knew that Misaka was into things of no little significance. Because Kuroko remembered how Onee-sama trembled in her dreams and was all beat when she did return to the dorm one day. She must have been suffering from a nightmare she must work very hard to address.

Of course, Kuroko would not hesitate at all to help Onee-sama out. But she always stopped at the last moment. 'Cause Kuroko wanted to believe in Mikoto, in that she would ultimately resolve her issues and return home safe and sound. She wanted to believe that ultimately, her worries were unfounded, that she was just thinking too much and that she really should trust Misaka Mikoto, the ranked 3 Level 5 Railgun.

But Kuroko couldn't stop worrying. She didn't know how, but trepidation had furtively crept into Kuroko's heart and mind. At particular moments, her heart felt pinched, twisted and punctured, as if it was assailed by sudden strokes of agony and utter frustration.

Is this what people call 'hearts that beat in sync'?

She collapsed onto Misaka's bed, while the more she thought about her, the more intense her worries about Mikoto became.

'Onee-sama, where may you be without me? What is happening to you?' Kuroko sighed as she pulled Onee-sama's pillow closer to her chest. Pressing her face against that soft pillow, Kuroko's gentle mumble sent out sound waves which vibrated to reach only herself.

'Why is the self-proclaimed life-long partner of Onee-sama, Shirai Kuroko, so weak that she can't help the person she cares the most about?'

'Why am I so weak and useless...'

….

….

Kuroko's breath intensified as her face was turning red.

'No, I mustn't. Being surrounded by Onee-sama's scent only makes me lose focus,' she grumbled, and yet slowly went into a daze as she couldn't stop greedily sniffing Mikoto's pillow.

...

'Ding-dong'

'Yes! Who is it?' The sound came as a surprise, as Kuroko sprang up and hopped towards the monitor while putting on her shoes.

'It's quite rare to have a visitor to the dorm though, so just who-' she paused as she recognised that face.

The Gentlemen Caller from yesterday?

'Is- Is that Misaka?'

What is HE doing here? Did he stalk all the way here to visit Onee-sama?

'Ehh…Misaka Mikoto. Room 208. That's right, isn't it? Did I get the wrong room somehow?' The spiky-haired boy said as he looked to his side. 'But this should be the right one...'

What is he contemplating? Does he want to use a home visit to deepen the relationship with Onee-sama's and win over her precious heart?

The only reason I have allowed him to live up to now is to make Onee-sama develop immunity to guys of his kind. But to let him go this far is simply not possible.

Kuroko turned and walked away from the monitor only to sprint back at it.

Wait! Maybe he knows what's happening with Onee-sama!

'Ah, don't do this!' the boy said, pushing the black cat climbing onto him off his chest.

She pressed the speaker.

'No, no, this is indeed Onee-sama's room. I'm her roommate. Onee-sama is still not back, so you may just come in and wait for her in the room.'

'OK'

...

'Knock knock'

'You may come in. The door isn't locked.' Still lying on the bed, Kuroko didn't even bother to look up as she instructed.

So the door opened. Kuroko sat up to face the spike-haired boy, who was staring at her with a difficult-to-read expression. Kuroko tried to think of nouns that may aptly describe it but failed. Anger, frustration, suspicion, fury, impatience—maybe a mixture of a bit of each them. But Kuroko didn't care. No matter what, he couldn't hurt Kuroko, the prideful Level 4 teleporter and a master of martial arts.

At least, Kuroko believed so.

'You may have a seat on that bed if you wish.'

'...'

'Hello?' asked Kuroko, who now sat up to face the boy.

'Where is Misaka?' The boy said, clenching his fists into balls.

Air solidified. Kuroko slightly widened her eyes and looked right into that boy's eyes. As Kuroko promptly noted, they were ignited by bright fires, which threatened to consume him and go berserk.

This guy's interesting. He, a harmless-looking high schooler, dared to shout at me, the powerful and formidable Shirai Kuroko, who he ought to fear.

She finally began to take him a bit more seriously.

'As I said, she is not yet back. You can wait for her here while-'

'She must be back right now! She must explain this to me right now! I will never forgive her for what has happened!'

The two stared at each other for a few sparked seconds before the boy released his tension a little bit and backed down.

'I'm sorry for shouting so loudly,' said the boy, who quietly went to the bedside and sat down.

'It's ok. Rather, I wish to hear your concerns.' Kuroko just waved off that apology, as she was more concerned about whatever that imbued this young man with so much resentment than anything else.

'Are you sure you are ready for this piece of information?'

'Kuroko is ready for anything,' Kuroko was quite uneasy with people warning her as if she was a weak, feeble child. Nevertheless, though her pride enabled her to put up that brave demeanour, her heart skipped a beat when she thought about what might be brought up by him.

'Therefore, please start for the very beginning of events.'

'I witnessed death and something worse than death.'

Kuroko tensed. That is a judgement case without a doubt. But she decided to continue listening instead of making a case report.

'This afternoon, I was accompanied by one of Misaka's ... little sister,' his teeth observably clenched at that word, 'who picked up a cat, and both of us walked around in the town. I saw a bookstore and thought it was good to do some research on cat raising.'

Onee-sama has never told me she has little sisters. How many siblings does she have? How do they look?

Kuroko wondered, oblivious of the atrocity she was about to hear.

'But when I came out of the store, she disappeared, and the cat was left behind on its own... So I decided to search for her in one of the... back alleys.

'When I had travelled a distance and thought that she was... not there anyway, I saw... marks of explosion and broken pieces of glass all over the ground. So I continued to search.

'Then I met... one of her shoes and her broken headgear.'

Kuroko's heart squeezed.

'Not far away was her other shoe. I knew she was near, so I ventured further inwards.'

There came what horrified Kuroko; at that instant, she could not deny that she was actually not ready for this piece of information.

Because Touma stated with a stumbled voice,

'I found her... Misaka Sister... in a pool of blood... Her body was ravaged as blood spilt... No. Out of every pore and every hole on a human body; from forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, belly, arms, hands, legs and feet, blood was streaming out... It splashed everywhere, and I... I was so shocked I was petrifi-'

'Then Why are You Sitting Here? This is a MURDER! Why did you not make an anti-skill report?' Kuroko tried to keep her composure at his shocking description with scolding.

'Do you think I didn't? No, I did. But the corpse, along with the blood and all, were gone when the police officers arrived..'

WHAT?

'And...And, a sister came out. I thought she was safe and nobody had died... But then...I saw the bag that she carried...I saw Misaka Sister's hair sticking out...'

Kuroko stopped breathing at that instant; she could feel it.

'I asked...her what it was, and came the reply...

"This is a sister."

'What horrified me even more was that more Sisters came out.'

Kuroko's eyes shot open.

'One after another, they took turns to speak the following sentences.'

'Clones of Misaka Mikoto Onee-sama, we are Misaka Sisters.'

'One sister has died in today's experiment. Her serial number is 10031.'

'But no worries. All MISAKA's here are MISAKA.'

'They said they are clones created for an experiment which will kill them in the process, and I.. and I...'

By now, the boy's hands were shaking violently. He couldn't seem to continue with his narration.

'Clones? Murder? And what was that?... Experiment?' Kuroko mumbled almost to herself. She felt her heart bumping three times slower than usual as if dragging a tired pace due to laboriously catching up with processing information.

Is this what has been bothering you, Onee-sama? But just...what IS happening?

And how many have already been killed in this unthinkable 'experiment'?

Kuroko needed no more to be propelled into action.

'As a member of the Judgement', Kuroko said in a solemn tone though with a trembling voice, 'I must look into this.'

But she turned and pointed her right index finger at the boy, 'However, I will pierce you into pieces if you have lied.'

'The Almighty is the witness; I'm no liar.'

Let Kuroko investigate this and prove this boy wrong. Academy City is not a gruesome place where clones are created in violation of international laws and where they are killed without a blink.

She hoped she was right.

The first thing to do is to lodge a report and begin a Judgement investigation, but she needed something.

'What is your name?'

'Touma. Kamijou Touma.'

'OK,' said Kuroko, who had somewhat gathered herself by then, 'let's root this out, Kamijou-kun.'

She took out her phone and dialled a number, but she paused before calling.

'Where, specifically, did this incident occur?'

Onto a steel bridge, Mikoto stepped.

One. Two. Three. Four.

And she stopped. The waves on the river reflected moonlight, illuminating Mikoto's perimeters.

So gently. So sadly.

Mikoto turned to face that faint melancholy. She shut her eyes, feeling the wind travelling past.

For the last time in her life, she would greedily enjoy the happiness of being alive.

She doesn't deserve a life.

Mikoto didn't know why, but she kept recalling Kuroko's face. She remembered shutting the doors when she was out attacking labs. Mikoto still remembered Kuroko so worried about her and so tempted to help her, only to be rejected by Mikoto because of her desire to keep her friends, especially her best partner, away from her problems.

Mikoto faintly smiled. She knew Kuroko would know everything by tomorrow. Mikoto knew she would cry, shout, scream and agonise, but she knew she would adapt, and everything would be fine.

But Mikoto didn't know that she had failed. And she was wrong.