A/N:
A strangely-named chapter to release on this kinda holiday, huh? Well what can I say, I'm not that much of a romantic, lol.
So I actually have quite a bit to talk about. Some general review responses:
I realize that ones that have reviewed earlier chapters may have not gotten to this point yet, but I just want to make it clear when they do: Esper Powers, in my story, are an artificial awakening of an Origin to give a person an extrasensory perception (ESP), like Fujino Asagami or Shiki Tohno's Mystic Eyes. Except in this case, their extrasensory perception don't necessarily have to do with their eyes, but rather are a power based on what their Origin is.
So because it's supernatural by the source still, Espers can affect Servants. There's also a canon, Index-related answer as to why Espers may be able to tango with Servants, but I'll leave that explanation out of this for now. My story is following this fused continuity.
Next thing:
I feel like every time I speak about Touma, there's always a bit of pushback with how I treat his character. Which is totally, 100% valid and you're all entitled to your opinions, just as I am mine.
The way I want to write Touma is as if he's within the Type-Moon World. As you can likely tell, by the nature of this being a Holy Grail War, this follows Nasuverse storytelling a little more.
This means characters die. Ideals are challenged. Status quos are changed drastically, and permanently.
In Index, this doesn't happen that much. Of course there are exceptions, but for the most part Kamijou is never truly challenged. There's no obstacle that he and his allies don't eventually overcome— and even if he doesn't, his arm comes off and then whatever's within him solves the issue for him, lol.
And this is early Touma, still in Old Testament. For New Testament, you can make the argument that he's experienced the Othinus Saga, and been through hell and back. He hasn't gone through a lot of that in Old Testament- the worst he got was probably getting utterly beaten by Acqua, and maybe Fiamma dominating him for a little bit (until the arm came off).
Not to mention that Touma never actually had his memories destroyed (except for one person) in my story, and Index makes it clear that Pre and Post-Brain damage Touma are like two different people, but with the same core. So he's not going to act 100% like the canon.
Being in a world where almost nothing goes right for the characters- and especially in a Heaven's Feel-esq route where things run on Murphy's Law…he's also going to feel defeated a lot. The efforts he put in before, in previous arcs, just may not be enough.
In the end, the hero can very well lose. That's why there's so many bad endings in Fate/stay night: Shirou loses more than he wins. It would be the same for Touma.
Giving him a taste of what it's like to be utterly helpless; to not be able to save someone right in front of him, and nearly fail to save Shirou and Rin, too, after he had seen Saber give up her life to protect them…
Of course he'd crack, especially after being so exhausted, and so beaten down and tired, and not knowing when a Servant would appear and slit his throat.
This is what I believe would happen. You're 100% free to disagree, but it's what I believe.
Oh yeah, and just so anyone's not confused on this too: the whole battle that occurred the past few chapters happened in the Einzbern Forest, which is in the outskirts of Fuyuki, so Ciel (before she went to find out what happened with the big Excaliblast) was going to go into Fuyuki to rest.
Speaking of Ciel: yes, this is Tsukihime Remake continuity, so while other Remake characters are physically too young to really play a role (Kohaku, Hisui, and Akiha and Shiki Tohno are all kids), Ciel is actually old enough to be in the story, as well as theoretically others, but that remains to be seen.
Alright, I think that's all the reviews outta the way. Thank you all for continuing to support my story, and thank you for reading through the long author's notes.
Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day.
Chapter 15.5: A Certain Crawling Wrench
Overseeing Officiant: Firewall Filter
Subject: "Wrench" or "W" and "Railgun" or "R"
Log: 168/008
Date: 28 September 2004
Thank you for the approval, Board of Directors! I'll begin the test promptly at 2100 hours on the 28 September as listed, which is today. I do hope it will give us more insight on how Subject W's powers work, since they are almost as unnatural as the 8th Ranked. Don't ask me how his Ability works, I haven't even tried to figure him out yet.
I also do hope to get Subject R back to her Level 5 status; as I understand, she is an incredibly important figure for Academy City's public image, so if the news broke out that she had lost her Level 5 status…yeah, don't worry. I'll get her to working order soon. And have some logs on how the fight went.
No, I will not record it. I'm not here to analyze their tactics in battle, but rather if they can stabilize each other through combat. Although if I did, I'm sure it would get plenty of views on the internet. People these days eat up that stuff all the time. I will fax you the report, however.
Signed— Azaka "Firewall Filter" Kokutou, PhD.
XXXXX
P.O.V.: A Certain Firewall Filter
Squarely at eight-thirty in the evening, Azaka Kokutou scans her card to the restricted experiment observation room, and the metallic door swings open for her. "Sorry I'm a little late, everyone!"
A group of a dozen or so young men and women in lab coats wave her off. A short-haired girl with white locks, about the same age as Azaka, smirks at her. "Overslept again, Doctor?" She teases. "I know your ability gives you headaches after a while, but your naps might actually start cutting into our proactivity."
"Yeah yeah…" Azaka sighs, picking up a clipboard from her designated desk as she observes the room to make sure everything is aligned and in order. "I get it, Annette-san. Maybe I should order some aspirin, or something."
Azaka had been assigned a team of twenty or so scientists and graduate students, all around her age or a little older, to study her own Ability further. While she was a scientist herself, meant to be helping out Espers whose Origins are running amok, she herself was just as much of a lab rat.
There hasn't been an Esper Ability in the history of Academy City that has the capacity of her own Ability, after all, and its potential to shift the probabilities on the Parameter List got Academy City to focus on her efforts. The Parameter List- the algorithm that determines the growth of an Esper, also determines what Level they will end up as, and no amount of training or Power Curriculum Drugs could change that.
Until Azaka came along, anyway. There were only supposed to be seven Level 5s currently within Academy City at this time: Azaka had made it so there were eight, breaking the Parameter List's supposedly infallible expectations.
In fact, she was about to see the one that she had helped grow onto that prestigious list herself, in action quite soon.
"Alright…looks like we have everything set up." Azaka sets down her checklist and sits down on her chair with a satisfied sigh. "Thanks for putting everything in order while I was passed out in the break room, Annette-san."
Annette, once again, waves off her concern as she takes a sip of her coffee. "Ah, it's alright. Doing all the heavy background work is my job, anyway. Yours is to speak to the Espers. Which, speaking of, shouldn't we call them to the holding room soon?"
Annette was a couple years Azaka's senior, and was one of the first friends that Azaka had made when she moved to Academy City. While Azaka was good with field experiments, Annette had a knack for programming and technology; which made the silver-haired girl perfect for handling the facility's maintenance.
"Yeah…probably." Azaka opened up security camera footage on her computer, seeing that the two experimentees in question were heading their respective ways toward the cafeteria. "Let's let them eat first, though. Don't wanna fight on an empty stomach!"
P.O.V.: A Certain Scientific Railgun
A little earlier.
Mikoto had finished with her last experiments of the day. According to Kokutou-sensei, her parameters were nearing Level 4- lifting up that small car a couple inches off the ground apparently qualified as such. All told, she was making considerable progress since yesterday, she could barely let out a spark.
It did leave her tired extremely often, however. Kokutou-sensei had given her a set of light novels to read in the hours that she wasn't going through rehabilitation, but her headaches left her wanting to sleep more often than reading.
"Eh? It's a good series, though!" She could hear the doctor's surprised voice from yesterday, when she had said that she didn't want to read it. "A perfect boy-meets-girl story! With mechs!"
The cover art did look interesting, but Mikoto honestly couldn't be bothered to pick it up. She was so tired sometimes, she swore she could see double- definitely not optimal to read a novel, put lightly.
All she really wanted to do in her spare time was hug her teddy until the sandman took her.
Grrrrumble.
"Urgh…"
Or when hunger sets in, in any case. Groaning, because she was in a comfortable position in the bed, Mikoto threw the blanket off of herself and stood up to her feet.
A pang of pain still rang through her head, but she at least felt like she could walk with her own two feet; no cane needed.
Slipping on a pair of shoes, she sets out into the hallway toward the cafeteria.
XXXXX
Kokutou-sensei's cafeteria wasn't exactly stocked out with the finest foods, but it did the job nicely. Mikoto compared it to a middle-class hotel in terms of the food selection; and considering that this was primarily a research and rehabilitation facility, it was oddly impressive.
The cafeteria was rather small, less than a dozen circular tables situated in a modest room, with a buffet line in front of the kitchen— but if one were to compare it to a break room instead, it was a rather gigantic break room indeed. At the opposite end of the break room was a pool table, where she spotted a couple graduate students playing billiards, their lab coats hung on a rack.
'Neatly organized place,' Mikoto pondered. Almost shockingly so, in most senses of the word. It's as if Kokutou and her colleagues prioritized living arrangements and quality of life over pure results and experimentation; something she's never really seen before in Academy City. Of course, they advertise it as such to tourists and such, but the Railgun has had her fair share of encounters with the dark side that made it abundantly clear that the reality was anything but.
Not to mention the secret Holy Grail War happening right under the City's nose. Although…
'Yeah, the city is definitely behind this.'
She had learned in her investigations on the Level 6 Shift project that Academy City had eyes and ears everywhere, so there realistically wasn't any way that they didn't know about the Holy Grail War.
In fact…
'…I've been so distracted by the War itself…that I didn't even get to stop and think about why it exists.'
As she grabs a plate and starts piling on miscellaneous breakfast items, she keeps stewing on that thought. '…Why is Academy City letting a magic war like this exist in its borders? If they know it exists, then…'
She closes her eyes and tries to shove the train of thought down. She didn't know much of how the war itself works; trying to decipher the history on her own with no leads would get her nowhere fast.
She takes her bacon and eggs and sits down at one of the empty tables, shoveling the food down briskly yet quietly. Her lack of an external demeanor coupled with her vacant internal thoughts likely made her look somewhat unsettling to anyone looking at her, but she didn't quite care so much.
All Mikoto tries to do is stare at the food, and describe the texture and taste in her head. The more she focused on what's presently in front of her, the less her mind could wander to the what-ifs and intrusive impulses.
She had to admit- the bacon was decently cooked; she was suspicious that they had actually baked it instead of fried it, due to the fact that it seemed much less greasy than bacon normally is.
The scrambled eggs were also cooked to more of a custard texture than the solid chunks that she learned how to cook it as. From what she recalled, this was a more western method of cooking eggs; whipped up with butter as well, instead of oil, making them taste creamier.
She didn't know if she liked it less or more, but she appreciated the surprising quality. So much, in fact, that she didn't even hear the doors to the cafeteria switch open, and the slow pace of footsteps toward her.
As she picks at her meal more and more, feeling her already small stomach start to close up more, she sees the color of dark blue step into her periphery.
"Hello there."
A soft voice speaks to her. Mikoto breaks out of her food-based trance and blinks up at the completely novel voice that spoke so kindly to her.
A girl with long, dark purple hair tilts her head at her, carrying a slight yet benevolent smile on her face. Her eyes are a dark scarlet, almost the color of blood, which unsettled Mikoto just a tad despite her otherwise looking characteristically normal.
"H-Hi?" Mikoto waves nervously at her. Judging by the way the rather soft-spoken girl carried herself, the Level 5 judged her to be somewhat older than her- perhaps a second or third year in high school. The long-skirted uniform was also a giveaway that they weren't quite in college yet.
"May I sit at this table?" The girl asks. Mikoto raises a brow. There are plenty of other vacant tables for her to sit at, so she didn't quite understand why she's choosing to sit at an occupied one.
But alas, since Mikoto is too nice to outright refuse, she shrugs and nods. "Go ahead."
The girl gives another slight smile, before sitting down across from Mikoto with her own tray of food. A small bowl of what looked to be tomato soup sits at the center, bubbling like a miniature cauldron as steam radiates from it.
'Huh, must be an extra fresh batch.' Mikoto thought. She remembers the tomato soup being empty when she walked by it a few minutes ago— they must have just refilled it when she wasn't looking.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she sees the girl grab the thin bowl with her bare hands and starts drinking it like it was water. 'Wait, isn't it still kinda boiling—?!'
"Hey, uh—!" She reaches out her hand. "Maybe you shouldn't be drinking that so…fast…?"
The lilac-haired girl sets down her bowl of soup, which seems to be already half-empty and still steaming. Now that Misaka's looking at her closer, the shade of her hair looks oddly similar to Sakura's.
"It's quite fine." The young woman hushly responds. "Hmm…let's just say that I have quite the high pain tolerance. Temperature doesn't affect me very much…"
"Still, even if you don't feel it, wouldn't it actually start burning the inside of your mouth?"
The girl doesn't reply, and instead takes another hefty gulp. Mikoto almost cringes at how hot the soup looks from her perspective— when she breathes out in a satisfied sigh, a puff of steam comes out to confirm just how high the temperature was.
"…Well, to each their own, I guess." Mikoto shakes her head, and continues her task of picking at her eggs until she has an urge to take a bite again.
"A question, if I may."
The red-eyed girl speaks out to her again. The chestnut-haired Esper really wasn't in the mood to talk, but once again, she simply didn't have it in her to turn her down, especially when she otherwise wasn't being too obnoxious.
"Yes?" Mikoto asks.
"…Your eyes." The soft-spoken girl points at herself to hammer in her point. "Would you like to know what I see in them?"
"Oh yeah?" Mikoto says facetiously, turning back down toward her food. "…Enlighten me."
She was half expecting some sort of joke, or perhaps a poor-taste comment that would make her angry. Quite a many thoughts were running through her head, and just one off statement could throw her train of thought and sanity out the window.
"…I can see myself."
Instead, Mikoto was thrown a curveball. Tilting her head back up, the Esper blinks at her in a mix of confusion and curiosity. "Pardon?"
As soon as she looks up, she sees the bowl in front of the girl's face again, this time at almost a ninety-degree angle. A bead of uncomfortable sweat goes down the Esper's cheek. 'I still don't know how she's able to do that.'
After setting the now completely empty bowl down, the young woman continues her explanation. "I can see…helplessness."
'Helplessness, huh?'
For some reason, the stranger had oddly, yet accurately, hit the nail on the head.
Of course she's felt helpless. That one word has been haunting for for the past several days, and she didn't know when it would go away.
Couldn't harm an enemy.
Lost a friend.
Killed someone with her own hands.
Lost her own powers, and is only now starting to get it back with outside help.
She couldn't do anything on her own, and when she did, it all would fall apart. '…Dammit.'
She didn't know how this girl had gotten it so accurate, until they made direct eye contact.
For some reason, she could feel…something similar, radiating from the girl's eyes. It wasn't anything concrete, more so that it was just a feeling.
"I know how it feels," the girl continues, "but lucky for you and me…the feeling doesn't last forever. One day…we'll find something that we can keep moving for. Do you understand?"
"…"
Perhaps it was too soon to be hearing these kinds of platitudes, but she could at least understand and get behind those words logically, even if her emotions wanted to call out the girl for trying to understand a stranger.
She simply didn't have the mental energy to be angry at her. All of her focus was being hoarded into getting her Ability back in order. So instead, all she could say…
"…Yeah, I understand." Mikoto nods quietly. "…Thanks. Even if…it doesn't make me feel much better, thanks."
The girl smiles a degree brighter, and shakes her head. "Nothing a stranger could say would make you feel better. Time…it all comes down to time. Even then…"
The lilac-haired girl's eyes narrow just a little, holding at her stomach. "…the scars from your wounds might still remain."
"…Yeah." Mikoto sighs, standing up to her feet. For some reason, an anger was starting to build up in the back of her throat, but she didn't know what to direct the anger toward.
The innocent girl that was speaking to her? Herself? 'Ugh…I'm not hungry anymore at least.'
Sighing, she stands up to her feet, bowing to the girl out of nothing but politeness. "Nice talk with you."
They meet eyes one more time. Misaka suddenly doesn't find her gaze too inviting anymore.
The girl gives her another gentle yet uncompromising smile, as Misaka turns away and scrapes her leftovers in the trash.
'Well…I guess now I wash up and sleep, huh?'
She checks the clock by the door, reading 8:43 P.M. With no more testing, cleaning up and resting her head was the only option really left. She starts down the hallway, the words of that girl from earlier still replaying over and over in her head.
'…She doesn't know anything about me. I don't even know her name. So why…
…Why did she say those things to me?'
She blinks out of her thoughts as she feels someone lightly tapping her shoulder. "A-Ah!" She peers up to see a silver-haired girl in a lab coat and holding a clipboard. A strand of red hair runs down the left side of her face, and Misaka isn't sure if it's an attachment, or just a simple highlight. Underneath the white coat were some formal work clothes, and a lanyard that listed her name as well as her status as a graduate student.
"Hello, Misaka-san?" The girl says. "You alright? The intercom's been calling your name."
Mikoto blinks again in disbelief, but indeed hears the announcement repeating through the halls. In her deep thought, she barely registered it.
"Attention: would Patient Mikoto Misaka report to Testing Room 1-A, please? Repeat. Attention: would Patient Mikoto Misaka report to Testing Room 1-A, please?"
'…I really need to pay attention more to my surroundings.'
Mikoto sighs, turning on her heels as the older student walks alongside her. "Thanks for letting me know…" She reads the name on the I.D. Card on her lanyard. "Lena-san."
"No problem. Let's get you to the prep room, shall we?"
XXXXX
In most large facilities, there was a main experimentation room, usually always cube-shaped and two or so stories high, with white walls and floors to keep up the sterile nature of the facility. This was Testing Room 1-A, and where Mikoto was apparently going to perform an unscheduled testing.
While she was a bit annoyed that she wasn't given any prior notice, she went along with it anyway. The people in the facility have been nothing but helpful to her, so she figured that they were doing it for a reason.
While this would be Mikoto's first time in Kokutou-sensei's Testing Room, she had an idea of how it was already structured. Most facilities in Academy City had similar layouts in any case, and due to…a certain horrible experiment that took place over a month ago, she had an uncomfortable wealth of knowledge of how they looked.
She steps out of the restroom in a skintight black bodysuit, covered from the neck down, only her hands being left bare. She walks out feeling hot around the cheeks- the fact that it was so tight made her self-conscious about her curves- or in many cases, her lack of them. "Um…Lena-san…do I have to wear this?"
The person that talked to her in the hallway was also coincidentally the one assigned to brief her on the experiment. She's seen the girl in passing in the cafetera and in the halls, but this was the first time that she and Lena were actually talking.
Lena gives her a light-hearted chuckle as she presses some buttons on a device in her hands. Mikoto sees a reddish glow underneath her, and suddenly realizes that parts of the suit she's wearing are glowing with a bright red color. "Unfortunately, yeah. Sorry if it's a bit uncomfortable, but it simply allows us to track your vitals more closely."
'Huh?' Mikoto immediately wonders. 'Why would they need to monitor my vitals like this…?'
When her experiments were getting more strenuous, like when she was told to lift a car, they didn't attach her body to any machinery, much less any sort of clothing.
"It has built-in electrodes and other tiny gadgets all across the suit," Lena explains, "it'll monitor anything from your heart rate, to blood pressure, to even the movement of your G.I. tract."
'Why would they need to keep track of my bowel movements…? Y'know what, nevermind, I shouldn't question it so much.'
"I don't really know any other details, to be honest," Lena admits apologetically, "Annette is better with that kind of stuff. Normally I just help manage the kids; it's like a daycare, sometimes…"
Lena appears to press a few more buttons on her tablet, then gives a thumbs-up. "Alright. You should be good to go."
The student taps a few buttons on the large metallic door at the end of the room. Mikoto hears hydraulics within the sliding door whirring for a moment as the door breaks open, revealing a large, and mostly white room on the other side.
"Have fun!" Lena shouts as Mikoto steps into the brightly-lit room. "Oh, and more importantly: good luck."
Mikoto raises her brow as Lena shuts the door, leaving her alone in the room. Behind her, a red light flashes every few seconds above the only exit and entrance.
"Alright…"
She peers up to the massive one-way window situated on what would be a second floor. She could only see her own reflection, but she knew that there were people on the other side, likely observing her. "…So what's going on? And what have you all been not telling me?"
After a brief moment of silence, she hears the tapping of what is probably a finger on a microphone. "Ah— sorry about being pretty opaque about what's going on, Misaka-san. Hey, can we turn off the one-way function as well?"
Her own reflection fades, showing about a dozen people in laboratory coats either typing away at some computers, or looking into the room as well holding clipboards. In the center was Kokutou-sensei, leaning over a table with a microphone by her face. "We had to hastily put this together in such little time that even if we told you right away, it would have been short notice still. Sorry about that."
Mikoto crosses her arms. Again, she was moderately annoyed, but she managed to keep her composure.
'I can't afford to be mad at these people…focus my anger on who deserves it. Later.'
Flashes of those two horrid Matou family members pass in front of her eyes, making her fists clench tighter. "It's fine," she says, even though she likely didn't sound fine at all, "just tell me what I gotta use my powers on, and we'll be on our way, yeah?"
"Sure," Kokutou-sensei nods, "although it won't exactly be a…what."
Mikoto was ready to raise her eyebrow again— that is, until she hears the creak of the door behind her.
And following it, comes a set of footsteps.
As Mikoto turns her head, the newcomer makes her presence fully known.
"Hello again. Seems we're both in the same experiment, aren't we?"
She meets the eyes of that purple-haired girl once again, who calmly steps through the door and into the pure white room. She gives a neutral smile, which Mikoto almost found annoying.
"…What the…?" The Esper mutters, but her gears are already turning fast in her head. 'Why am I in an experiment room with…?'
A dark lightbulb turns on in her head, and she jerks her gaze toward the window, staring at Kokutou-sensei with a burning passion. "You…You're going to…!"
Of course…why did she ever blindly give her trust to these people? Just because they were nice? Just because they seemed like they were helping her?
She had to admit, they did indeed help her give her powers back…but she put the dots together faster than Kokutou-sensei could explain it to her.
She was going to use her power…on that girl.
'That's what's going on right? Human experimentation…of course…!'
Mikoto involuntarily senses electric lights start to spark and coil around herself. However, before she could really blow her fuse, Kokutou-sensei put up a hand.
"…I know what this looks like, Misaka-san. But I assure you, I'm not going to subject you or that girl to anything harmful or risky. We've taken every precaution to make sure every step of what I'm about to explain to you is as safe as possible, for all parties involved. I'm not the damn Kiharas, that's for sure."
"…"
Mikoto didn't know whether to believe her words or not. Perhaps it was her current, underlying, boiling anger clouding her judgment, or just her general demeanor and mistrust for Academy City's scientists in general, or some combination of both, but she suddenly felt like not listening to a word that Kokutou-sensei was saying.
"…The Kiharas…" Mikoto ponders on that name for a moment. She's had her run-in with a few of those family members, and, put lightly, they were a major reason for her current stigma against Academy City's dark side. Therestina and Gensei Kihara were beyond deplorable, and she knew there were more that were equally as bad.
But…
"…You said you weren't like them, huh?" Mikoto bites the inside of her lip and forces her fury back down. "…Okay. Then tell me what this is all about."
Kokutou seems to breathe a sigh of relief from across the window, and puts her face back to the microphone. "Put bluntly and briefly: I've scheduled you and this girl to a sparring match. Your Abilities are allowed…with my Firewall Filter limiting both of you, of course. I believe this will be the final push needed to get you back to Level 5, Misaka-san…or at least, it will help you greatly on your journey back to that path."
"Alright. But another question," Misaka points to the girl standing a few meters from her, who was staying oddly and eerily quiet this entire time, "who is this girl? Is she actually a Level 5 like I am…er, was?"
Mikoto couldn't quite tell from their distance from each other, but she swore she saw Kokutou-sensei smirk. "Well, how about she introduce herself in full? Don't be rude now, Asagami-san."
'Asagami?' Mikoto blinks, looking back to the violet-haired student. 'How come that sounds familiar…?'
"Right…apologies, Kokutou-sensei." Asagami says to the window, before turning to meet Mikoto's gaze. "And apologies to you for not introducing myself earlier, Misaka-san. My name is Fujino Asagami. Nice to meet you."
"Fujino…Asagami…" Mikoto repeats the name again, as its familiarity was just on the tip of her tongue. She swore- somewhere in her past conversations in Tokiwadai and the Garden of Learning, she's heard that name before.
But before she could run through her train of thoughts, Kokutou taps her microphone again to get their attention. "This will be a controlled fight between Espers. I want you both to be clear- your goal is to not injure the other, and if you're struck three times with the other's ability, then the experiment comes to an end. Non-lethal and non-injurious attacks to the other, you got that?"
They both nod in agreement. "Good. Now, take five more steps away from each other, and you'll start on my countdown from three."
As they're both stepping away from each other, Mikoto can't help but notice Asagami's…much more modest outfit than herself; she was wearing, from head-to-toe, a dark, dress-like student uniform that looked a little similar to a nun's habit. "Hey uh, how come you're not wearing what I'm wearing?" Misaka asks, gesturing to her own form-fitting outffit. She ends up crossing her arms over her chest out of self-consciousness.
"Oh I am, just underneath." Asagami replies curtly.
'Eh? That was an option? Lena-san didn't tell me about that…'
Huffing away her annoyance, they both stop after five steps, and look right at each other again. "So…what is your Esper Ability? Kokutou-sensei didn't tell me."
"Neither did I tell Asagami-san about yours. Consider it part of the experiment." Kokutou says. "Alright, you two ready? Remember: keep it civil, will ya?"
They both nod— although Asagami's was with a smile, while Mikoto could feel a scowl across her own expression.
"Okay…Taboo, Electromaster."
Misaka feels a dull pressure pass through her body, causing her to wince a tad- although at this point, she was used to the presence of Kokutou's Ability thanks to dozens of exposures to it.
Then…
"Taboo: Mystic Eyes of Distortion."
She sees Asagami take a step to brace herself as the same sensation seems to happen to her a moment later. Although Mikoto was less worried about Asagami, and more about the words that Kokutou had just said.
'Mystic Eyes of Distortion?'
A peculiar name for an Esper Ability, if she's ever heard of one. She didn't know of many Esper Abilities that originate from the Eyes…and certainly not ones that were called Mystic.
But she had no time to fret, as Kokutou-sensei didn't skip a beat.
"Alright, start in three…two…ONE!"
The red light shines green, and Mikoto reaches her ability out to the wall behind her, breathing in relief as she finds out that underneath the white tiling is some sort of magnetic, probably metal substance.
She sticks to the wall, immediately gaining distance between herself and Asagami, who continues to stand there, unmovingly.
'Is she even going to move?' Mikoto ponders to herself. 'Well…I guess I can end this early if I can hit her three times…'
Though still, she felt uneasy. Usually an opponent that didn't move meant not that they were weak, but that they were so ahead of their opponent that they felt no need to make any distance.
And, aside from all of the external reasons that she decided to compartmentalize for the time being, there is one thing still bothering her: Asagami's name.
It was eating away at her— like she had seen the name somewhere, but couldn't remember when.
"Oh my, having trouble, Misaka-san?" She could hear Asagami's crystal clear, soft voice from across the room. "Let me jog your memories for you then…Railgun."
'R-Railgun?
So she knows who I am…that doesn't narrow it down very much, though.'
Mikoto Misaka was arguably the most popular student in Academy City, due to her Level 5 status and the fact that the City uses her for its global advertising, as opposed to the…less agreeable Level 5s.
So this girl figuring out her identity wasn't quite a shocker to her.
No, it was what happened next that surprised her a great deal.
Asagami's mouth opens, and speaks with a voice that she swore she could feel whispering right against her eardrums even though she was a great deal away.
"Magaru."
A pressure suddenly crashes into Mikoto's body, suddenly petrifying her in place. 'Wha—?!'
Despite her best efforts and protests, she feels her body move against its will, ignoring her own commands as everything suddenly turns upside-down.
She peers down- er, now up as her legs spin above her head. Her body itself was perfectly fine— but she couldn't tell heads from tails anymore as she starts to fall haphazardly.
"Agh…!"
She reaches out her hand- hoping her electricity would catch onto anything as her head is quite literally spinning, her vision beyond blurry and more into just seeing random grey and white colors in the room.
She feels it latch onto something, and she immediately attracts herself toward it, somehow escaping the whirling vortex and righting herself in mid-air. She looks up— she had apparently caught onto the ceiling, and lands her feet on it, hanging upside-down like a spider.
"Hah…hah…"
The fight already started, and she was already sweating. Ten or so meters below her, Fujino still remained unmoved and unbothered, peering up at her with a slight smile across her lips.
"…What the hell kind of…Esper Ability is that…?" Mikoto pants out. She feels as if she had been whipped through a roller coaster, or went on a merry-go-round one too many times— too much spinning for her mind to keep her focused.
"I twist space, Misaka-san." Asagami explains. "At first, if I used it on humans, it was practically fatal…but I found a way to make it non-lethal. I believe the moniker that Academy City gave me…
…was Crawling Wrench."
Mikoto's eyes widen as the words finally sink into her head. Of course…one time, she had taken a look at the list of all the current Level 5s, since she herself was on that list. It only listed their nicknames; the ones based on their Ability, rather than their actual names.
Accelerator, Dark Matter, Railgun, Meltdowner, Mental Out…
…she couldn't quite remember the name of the sixth-ranked, but she knew the seventh and eighth all-too well.
'They're the Gemstones, I think…
And Crawling Wrench was the name of one of them.'
Everything clicks. She remembers, about a year ago, overhearing a group of girls talking in the Garden of Learning. They spoke of a girl whose abilities could rend anything apart- twist, or wrench them into pieces, and how their Ability, when it approaches you, feels as if it's crawling through your skin.
She felt that sensation, just not completely imperceivable, yet obviously present.
An absolutely terrifying ability, on paper and in practice.
Standing before her was a Level 5 Esper…just like her.
She gives a cursory glance to the window, where Kokutou-sensei and her colleagues continue to silently observe their battle.
'So this was their goal, huh? To have Level 5 Espers battle each other?'
Thoughts of the Level 6 Shift project pass by her mind, but she tries to hold thoughts away. At the very least, in this environment, there were no lives on the line. For all intents and purposes, this was just a very controlled exercise.
The Crawling Wrench peers up at her, tilting her head. Mikoto sees that her scarlet eyes had changed shade— a mix of crimson and a glowing viridescent, with a strange, unholy aura emanating from both of her irises.
"Magaru." Twist.
Mikoto grits her teeth as that same, sickening, crawling feeling shoots through her body. Instinctively, she magnetically latches to the other wall, rushing toward it before Asagami's bends could catch her.
"Magaru."
She moves again.
"Magaru."
And again.
'I'm getting nowhere fast…!'
Not only is her headache still present from being spun around like a top earlier, but the effects of Firewall Filter also is starting to pang in her head, telling her body to stop using her ability by stabbing into her pain receptors. As best she can, she ignores the pain and keeps moving.
'What if…'
As the Railgun swings across the ceiling, she locks eyes with Fujino, and shoots out her arm.
"Magaru."
Ignoring her words, Mikoto grits her teeth and ignoring the oncoming migraine, she fires a massive bolt of electricity. While seeming powerful, she had reduced its voltage to a tenth of an average lightning strike— only really enough to stun a person.
But in the middle of its trajectory, something completely unexplainable happens that takes the Railgun aback.
The lightning bends in mid-air- shooting off to the side and crashing against the wall, leaving a black, soot-colored ash where it landed.
Narrowing her eyes, she detaches from the wall and fires another bolt, this one slightly brighter and stronger than the last.
And again, it's sent flying in a direction that she didn't want it to. Fujino hasn't even moved a centimeter from where she was standing.
Now beginning to grow frustrated, the Railgun steps onto the solid ground and whips her arms forward, one after the other- releasing arc, after arc of blazing white, crackling light at Asagami.
But every time- only a meter or two from Fujino, it twists the other way, flying out of harm's way.
"Dammit, just—!" She ups the amperes, not caring how dangerous her attacks were growing as she launches another volley of electric shocks. The room itself starts to grow physically hotter as the sparks of lightning that surpass the heat of the sun's surface blast outwards again and again.
The pain in Mikoto's head becomes unbearable. Eventually, she has to switch her automatic electrical current calculations to manual, since her focus starts to stumble and blur.
She knew, at some point, she'd no longer be able to use her ability.
Eventually, the amount of light and electrical power starts to cause the lights to dim, and she hears the microphone tap. "Misaka-san, that's enough!"
Kokutou-sensei's voice sounds slightly worried, although she couldn't tell if it was for her, or for Fujino. "Didn't I tell you to not use any lethal attacks?"
Mikoto blinks, breaking herself out of her nonstop attacking.
'I…'
She bites her lip, remembering back to a few nights ago, when she had mercilessly sent her attacks at…that thing.
That black monster that her friends called Caster. She had done the same thing here, but to a regular person.
"It's fine, Kokutou-sensei…"
Although…regular was an quite erroneous description of her opponent.
As the dust fades, Fujino Asagami stands- her clothes completely unfettered, and her eyes continuing to glow an alluring reddish green. "…Yes, it's quite fine. Her attacks wouldn't be lethal to me, in any case."
The girl tilts her head, seeming curious- although to Mikoto, she found it mocking. "Would you like to try again, Misaka-san?"
"I…!"
The underlying, boiling rage starts to build up again. The conversation she had with Asagami less than an hour ago starts to come back to her mind.
'Helplessness.'
A feeling that she's felt one too many times recently…
…and she was starting to sense coming upon her, even now.
'No, I—!"
The Railgun shouts, stomping her foot on the floor as she releases her Ability all at once, most in the general direction of Fujino, whose mouth opens agape a little in surprise.
'I'm not helpless!'
Her cry of rage releases a forthcoming shock of fulminating light…yet she sees Asagami not retreat in fear, but walk forward with either blatant stupidity, or overwhelming confidence, or both.
"Magaru."
This time, Mikoto could see the space around her distort, forming a shell of twisting, writhing energy around herself as it takes in the oncoming lightning and twists it into being sent in another direction.
Hastily, and in her ringing pain and almost dazed confusion, Misaka fires a bolt toward Asagami's eyes, hoping it would temporarily blind her as she dashes behind her, using the magnetic wall behind her opponent to whip her around to Asagami's blind spots faster.
"…Getting behind me, are you?"
The soft voice cuts into her ears like daggers as Asagami speaks to her without turning around. "It's a decent strategy…I can tell how tactical you truly are, even if your emotions can blind you sometimes. Unfortunately…"
Misaka barely registers her words as she launches a strike of sparking light at Fujino's back.
…But that same twisting aura, invisible yet not, distorts into existence for a second as it immediately disperses her attack.
'So…it's not even sight-based?!'
She had gotten behind Asagami off of the assumption that her ability could only work if she was looking at Misaka- after all, she observed that every time her ability was used, the Crawling Wrench had to be facing her.
'If she can use her powers wherever, then…
Then…how do I even…beat her…?'
"I'm sure you're wondering how to get past my ability. But unfortunately, Misaka-san…your powers are ill-suited against mine."
Those words struck a nerve with the Railgun, whose body starts to burn to life with electric power once more. She utterly shatters through Kokutou-sensei's Taboo, gathering up her voltage and building it to the hundreds of thousands and beyond as Fujino calmly turns toward her, unperturbed.
Even though the girl's purple hair starts to float and stand on end from the static power surging through the room, she remains unbothered.
"Why…you…! I'm not…POWERLESS!"
She couldn't hold back her emotions anymore. With a cry of desperation, she launches her ability all at once, in reckless abandon.
"Ma. Ga. Ru."
And yet like a prophet parting the red sea, the intense flood of power is split apart all at once. Those imperceptible bends and twists of energy releasing from Fujino clash against the electricity, wrenching it into being flung into everywhere but their master.
The white floor becomes tainted with black as Misaka literally cooks it with her Ability— and so does the walls and the ceiling; everything is struck by her power. Unbeknownst to Misaka, Kokutou had ordered all of her colleagues to not touch anything metallic in their observation chamber in case any of the electricity overflowed into their room.
"I'm not…powerless…!" She screams again, holding her arms out, her hands gathered around each other as if trying to crush whatever she was imagining inside of her palms. A torrent of bluish-white light burns between her fingers, and fires out toward Fujino with all of the strength she could possibly muster. "I can…beat you…I…can…!"
"No."
The words cut through her struggles like a knife.
"You can't, Misaka-san."
Fujino Asagami speaks to her clearly, turning fully toward her and giving her a look of pity. This entire time- even as she had launched countless arrays of lightning at her, she remains utterly untouched. "Please…calm down. You broke your taboo— I'd say what you just demonstrated is quite close to Level 5 status…so please, calm down."
Mikoto feels her wet cheeks and notices how blurry her vision has gotten.
She reads Asagami's expression of sympathy, and bites her lip with the last of her sanity.
Despite her heart not wanting to, her mind forces her release her hands—
—and she gives up.
She falls to her knees, crumpling her arms to the floor in defeat as the light around her fades, and all that's left is a mess of sobs and tears and confused anger.
"I can't…do anything right…!" Mikoto mutters, gripping the ashen-colored ground, unable to raise her head and meet gaze with Asagami.
The feelings she kept bottled up since entering this facility…
'I couldn't protect Kuroko.
I couldn't hurt Berserker.
I couldn't stop myself from killing Shinji.
I couldn't…I couldn't do any of that.
And now I can't even…put a scratch, on…!'
…those feelings explode all at once.
She was the Third-Ranked Esper in Academy City. All but a few should rival her in strength. She was Tokiwadai's Ace, an absolute prodigy in all senses of the word.
And yet…when it came down to it…
'…I'm a failure. That's all…that's all I am. If I can't even protect…who I really love…then why the hell am I still here?!'
She opens her mouth, but can't find it in her to scream. Her body's too exhausted.
A cry of silence rings out, and everyone except herself can hear it.
She can't stop the tears from falling. There's no stuffed bear or stupid high school boy to comfort her. Just her and some burnt ground that smells of charcoal.
"…Head up, Misaka-san."
…And a certain Crawling Wrench. She hears someone kneel down beside her and place their hand on her shoulder. "Head up, I need to tell you something…and I'd rather do it face-to-face."
A large part of Misaka didn't even want to speak, or be near her. After all, she was the reason why she felt this powerless, right?
…right?
'…No. It's just me.
I'm the powerless one. She didn't do anything…'
She wipes the innumerable tears that flood out of her eyes and tries to look at Asagami. She was sure she looked a mess, and she didn't want to expose herself so willingly to someone she barely knew.
But those velvet-colored eyes soften when they look at her. No longer did they seem threatening or violent.
"My girlhood…is gone, Misaka-san."
Mikoto's jaw drops a little. For a moment, all of her anguish is silenced as she processes Fujino's words. "G-G-Girlhood…?" She mutters weakly. "What…do you mean by…?"
Asagami blinks slowly. "Put it more…crude terms…it's my…my…virginity. I'm sixteen; only a little older than you…but I lost it, unwillingly, when I was even younger than you are."
Asagami dropped that news like a bombshell, and Misaka could still not quite fathom it. 'Wait…but that…that…'
She couldn't think straight, but even she knew the weight of Fujino's words. Even if she couldn't truly understand it, she knew.
'That's…'
The thought of a girl her age or younger getting taken like that…the thought sickened her. She didn't think it was real.
And yet, there stands a person before her, whose reality was that. Is still that. "That…that is why I said I understand your helplessness, Misaka-san. Back in the cafeteria…I could read your emotions like a book from across the room. In you, I see me."
"…"
Asagami releases her hand from her. Judging from her nervous body language, she was just as nervous to be helping Misaka as Misaka was to be receiving it. But she takes a breath, and speaks anyway. "…I was told by Kokutou-san to help you…in not just rehabilitating your power…but help you, as a person. Just know…"
She tilts her head once again, but the pained smile on her face, Mikoto could tell is genuine. Her eyes also trembled, and seemed slightly more glistened with liquid than before. "…You're still here, wanting to fight. That's all the evidence needed…to show you're far from helpless.
I still hurt…even now, I can feel the remaining sense of pain from my past…but I have people around me who have helped me. I hope…I hope you have those people, too. I hope that getting your powers back…will help you get back on your feet."
Asagami gets to her feet, and extends her hand. "Stand with me, Misaka-san."
Mikoto stares at it for several moments.
The pain in her heart still stings endlessly. She didn't know if it would ever vanish.
But the words of the girl in front of her softens the pain, if ever so slightly.
Someone in front of her, whose pain is the same, yet different than her's. A trauma that neither of them can ever get rid of.
She grabs Asagami's arm, and pulls herself up to her feet.
But at the very least, they can accept it, and live with it…even if the road ahead is hard.
"…Thank you, Asagami-san." She weakly responds. "Thank…you…!"
She falls forward, her legs unable to carry her much anymore, as she leans against Asagami's body. For the first time, the Crawling Wrench takes a step back to support her weight. The tears continue to fall onto the purple-haired girl's shoulder.
Mikoto feels a hand gingerly touch, and then rub her back. "…Let's go get something to eat and then sleep, hm?"
Mikoto nods into Fujino's neck. "Alright."
As she starts to guide them out of the room, a small thought appears in Misaka's head.
"…but did you really have to go all-out against me?" Misaka mutters out, half-serious, and half-joking.
Asagami chuckles, as if content that her sense of humor had resurfaced, if ever so slightly. "…Consider it a lesson. You couldn't win against me, in any way.
…But you still stood back up. So I don't consider it a loss either, Misaka-san."
P.O.V.: A Certain Firewall Filter
Kokutou leans back in her chair, relieved that the experiment went well— in every sense of the word. She hears the claps of her colleagues and friends around her as they finally see the emotional barriers on Mikoto fall for once.
'…Yeah. She needed this.' Azaka sighs. A girl that age shouldn't be fighting in something horribly traumatic like the Holy Grail War. A voice to comfort her, and a shoulder to lean on is something she sorely needed.
"Alright everyone…experiment successful, for the most part!" Azaka claps her hands. "Misaka-san seems to be…almost Level 5? There seems to be some more mental blocks she needs to pass before she can get there, but…"
She peers out into the charred experiment room again, watching as Asagami walks Misaka out toward the exit. She nods to Annette, who manually opens the hatch and lets them pass. "…she's made amazing progress already."
"So what's the next step?" Annette asks, trying to act simply curious- although the wet tissues by her computer monitor and her reddish eyes show that she was just as invested in Misaka's recovery as everyone else in the room was. Azaka had explained to them— at least in mostly-truthful terms, what Mikoto had just gone through.
So everyone was pulling to see if she could break through— and she did, with some help of course.
"What's next?" Azaka replies. "Well, we sleep. It's gettin' late…" she peers up the clock. They had been working overtime, at this point— and even Azaka herself had to kick up her shoes and relax once-in-a-while.
"…And they rest too. She deserves it— both of them do."
So funnily enough, I do believe this fits for Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day is about love- in all forms, not just romantic. Love for one's family, friends, etc., beyond just a romantic partner.
At least, that's what I believe. Showing love and support for those who have gone through horrible things— by relating to them, or simply sympathizing and being there for them, is a form of love, too.
Our main heroes have been through a lot. I felt it right to help them back up, at least a little. And if I get an Esper fight out of it, then that's an extra bonus!
Oh by the way: there…may have been characters that may or may not have the same name, and appearance of characters from a certain light novel series that I got really into when I wrote this chapter…
Just wanna make it clear: this is not a triple-crossover (idk how that would even work lol). It's just a one-note cameo, because I love the series they're from. If you know what it is, congratulations lmao
I'll see you all soon!
Next Chapter: "A Certain Much-Needed Rest" (February 20th)