Part 5
In a different part of the world entirely, the sun would soon begin to set.
"She is in fact another Sister like myself' Misaka says to begin the explanation."
As the other group of girls, which had comprised of Himegami Aisa, Tsukuyomi Komoe and Tsuchimikado Maika had left, the Misaka clone felt freer to talk about the current situation without worrying about implicating others into the problem. Facing Touma, whose attention was more or less divided between listening and being distracted, Misaka Jun was unsure if she should continue. She sat on the floor in the traditional Japanese manner, unlike the teenaged boy who sat with legs forward.
The only other person in the room was a small silver haired nun whom Jun had seen before, and was thus more unsure as to whether to keep talking about their situation; a situation that involved a long haired girl who held quite a resemblance to her and a certain Level 5 ESPer. It was only on the word of Kamijou Touma, known as the Savior to the remaining 10,000 Sisters in the world, that she allowed this information to be made known to the other girl. The silver-haired nun sat in a cross legged manner in a way that was allowable under the long skirt of the nun's habit.
"…As to her specific identity, the Misakas including the Administrator believe to think that she is none other than Misaka 00000, Full Tuning' Misaka reveals in a dramatic fashion."
It was difficult to form an ominous tone through her monotonous way of speaking, but the short-haired Sister was nonetheless disgruntled by the lack of full attention paid to her. This was supposed to be a staggering revelation, as another part of the original SISTER project was revealed to the Savior. Another Sister was mentioned whom Misaka Jun had bet that the spiky-haired teen would jump into action as he did when he saved herself and the rest of the remaining Sisters during the project's heyday.
Instead, Kamijou Touma kept his sullen eyes aimed down toward the remains of a phone in his upturned hands.
"Haa…that doesn't change the fact that it's totally fried…"
Looking over the now defunct device in his hands, Touma tossed his cell phone onto the carpeted floor in front of him. While it wasn't the first cell phone he's ended up needing to replace, it would be the first time not even the SIM card was unusable.
When he said that it was "fried", Touma meant the chips, the processing board, the SIM card, and even the screen and keys were slightly melted because of the apparent heat obvious from an electronic device that had seemingly exploded.
It was only a miracle that Touma didn't feel the heat nor find his pants on fire from such a strange happenstance.
"Touma! Stop trying to change the subject with your communication device!"
The girl who had just spoken in such a commanding tone was Index, the silver-haired girl dressed like a nun. Sitting on the carpeted floor to the left of Touma, Index pouted as though the boy had recently committed a heinous crime such as eating her favorite food…which of course, was all food in general.
"Please explain why short-hair's sister and you came back with this girl who smells like…" wanting to speak further but unable to because of Misaka Jun's presence, Index couldn't come up with a creative euphemism so simply ended her question there.
It was a rule like a high and thick wall built around a bank to protect a treasure; the rule not to tell those unaffiliated with a thing such as magic. Especially not with those very obviously entrenched in the Science side like the girl known as "short-hair" and the girl sitting amongst them who was apparently related to her.
"…why did this long-hair have a Vodun protect spell around her?" She pointed without looking at the still girl lying on the only—proper—bed in the apartment.
"A 'vo'-what? You're probably mistaken."
Despite the lame excuse, Touma felt this was the best way to continue in order to keep Index out of trouble and becoming involved and placed into danger.
"Does she smell? I didn't really smell anything!"
Since he accepted Misaka Jun's cry for help Touma determined that he would be the only one putting himself into danger to save the long-haired Sister.
While mired in his thoughts, Index crawled forward with impeccable speed like a cockroach and shoved her face improperly close to Touma's while she interrogated the spiky haired teen. As the keeper of 103,000 magical grimoires and texts, Index definitely couldn't be mistaken about such a thing. "Uguuuu…" Index growled at such an admission from the spikey haired boy and promptly snapped at him.
Unfazed by the strange turn of events between the two tussling in front of her, Misaka Jun tried once more to gain Touma's attention in the interest of the Sisters that were listening in through the Network.
"The one known as Full Tuning…"
"Agh! Miss Index! Please spare this Kamijou Touma such a punishment!"
"…though she was created before the Sisters…"
"Touma! Stop avoiding your punishment for your lechery!"
"WHAT LECHERY?"
"Smelling a girl? Why would you smell a girl! And an UNCONCIOUS one at that?"
"I didn't smell any girl, damn it!"
"…Full…"
[I could smell the use of a fetish dedicated to Ghede to deny evil Lwas from possessing her body while outside but it disappeared before I could even investigate it! What did you do, Touma!]
"How can I understand what you're trying to say while your mouth is wide open and trying to bite me?"
"Fine then!"
"Owowowow! WHY ARE YOU PINCHING MY NIP—"
In a blur of motion, an object slammed against Touma's head sending him backwards and the surprised Index was pulled along, her grip tightening until she was thrown off the yelping teenaged boy and onto the carpeted apartment dorm floor, become a two-person pile-up.
"She is awake.' Misaka announces her observation." The Sister said in her usual tone.
Sitting upright in the bed, the long-haired brunette had scrunched her lips and eyebrows toward the center of her face, contorting her pretty visage into a-less-than attractive scowl. Her arm was outstretched, and from a quick glance at where the object—Touma's cell phone—had flown from, it was plain to see that this girl was the culprit of the violent act.
Their fight stopping as quickly as it started, both Touma and Index quickly shuffled over to the previously unconscious girl in an effort to have their questions answered. A red mark was clearly visible on Touma's forehead while the nun's habit on Index's head was mildly wrinkled and misaligned from the previous tussle and fall.
"…" The long-haired girl opened her mouth to scream at them. 'You're too loud, idiot!' She wanted to say, but found no such complaint was produced.
Blinking at the seeming cross wiring between her mind's motor signals from her brain to her voicebox in her throat in between what she felt was the proper intake of air in her lungs and prepared enunciation of her lips, tongue and mouth to manipulate the result of vibrations of her vocal chords, the girl scooted back a bit from her spot on the bed. "…!" She tried to shout now, but only a sharp exhale was heard while her face plainly displayed her intent to scream at idiot sitting eagerly close to the bed like an idiot.
'My…voice…? Why can't I…?'
She felt herself begin to shake. She didn't want to start shaking, no, she hadn't told her body to tremble slightly at this terrifying turn of events, after waking up in a strange apartment and finding herself in the company of a stupid looking teenaged boy. The same boy who she remembered was there before when a searing pain led to her blacking out in the first place.
There were thoughts and faces that floated and hurtled through her thoughts. Identical faces, faces wearing masks; bright lights and sharpened surgical tools. Hearing a cold voice command her, her responding to the serial number-like name that was spoken at her, not to her.
'What happened to…?'
A soft touch against her trembling arm alerted her to the boy coming close to her.
The sight of a hand, covered in sterile white doctor's gloves appeared in her mind which followed the feeling of terrible pain.
"…!" 'GET AWAY!'
She screamed out loud in her head, hitting away the boy's hand and jumping further back against the wall that the bed was lined up along.
"Hey zero-zero-zer…uh…Rei, are you alright?" Touma reached out for the girl without regard of how this would look and affect the feelings of the other two girls in the room.
"…" the long-haired girl opened her mouth to speak but didn't, while smacking Touma's outstretched hand away from her. "…!" In an instant she fled away from his presence, pressing herself against the wall of his apartment as far away as she could from him.
'Did my hand hurt her?' Touma glanced warily at his offending hand that caused the long-haired girl to panic.
The previously loud-mouthed girl who had no problems running him around in a circle had such a drastic change since she woke up. The look of shock was plain to see as no sound at all escaped from her lips despite how loudly it looked like she was trying to yell or scream.
As he had already met the Sister known as "Last Order", Touma wasn't all too surprised to see yet another variation of the Sister's unlike most of the others who generally looked like a certain Electromaster.
While not as radically different as a ten year old girl, the long-haired sister seemed to be slightly older by a year or two than the normal Sisters, but just as unpredictable in behavior as the Administrator to the Misaka Network.
It was to Touma's understanding, as Misaka Jun had explained it to him about the Sister, that she was known as Full Tuning, Misaka series model 00000, much like how Jun was 10032.
However, because of the zeros, and how a name of "Full Tuning" didn't really sit well in his mind, Touma in a sudden need to calm this girl down, had simply shortened the long-haired Sister's name to "Rei".
"Intriguing, there does not seem to be any sorts of transmissions occurring unlike earlier!' Misaka displays her astonishment at the turnaround in the situation."
"…" the long-haired Sister furrowed her brow toward the other brunette's analysis of her. Her eyes rang of recognition of Misaka Jun, while calming her down seeing her also seemed to make Rei quietly tense and anxious toward the short-haired brunette.
'She's being awfully quiet now…' Touma thought as he watched the girl with caution.
Just a few hours ago the long-haired brunette sitting across from him was one of the most boisterous and spiteful girls he had ever met.
"Touma…why can't she talk…?" Index asked quietly, hoping for the girl not to hear. This didn't seem to be the case unfortunately, as Rei's brown eyes flickered toward Index but slowly drifted downwards to stare at the sheets as though it was what asked the offending question.
Index's unease proved to Touma that this wasn't a result of Magic, or if anything, it was something that was not even listed in 103,000 forbidden books.
Was it then a result of Science? As a Misaka Sister, was this some sort of affect of her growth as a clone? Was it related to what had affected Misaka Jun? Was it part of another experiment being carried out by the darkness of Academy City?
Touma's eyes lit up for a second as he stood up and reached to the side of his desk and grabbed his backpack from under a mess of paper and a large math textbook, stuffing his hand into it as he searched for something.
"Here, why don't you use this?"
Taking his hand out of his backpack, Touma returned to the side of his bag and offered the girl a notepad and pen to write what she wanted to say, leaning toward her in a much more deliberate, careful manner.
"Oh, quite an innovative solution.' Misaka says in marvel at the Savior's unexpected quick thinking."
Index couldn't help but nod in agreement while crossing her arms.
"Geez, it's not like I'd rather have any more misunderstandings to happen!" Touma sighed at the low expectations of his character by others.
By then, the notepad and pen had already been grabbed as quickly as a stray cat snatching an offering of food held out by a passerby. Returning to her spot of pressing against the wall while sitting on the bed, the long-haired Sister began to scribble onto the paper furiously.
Touma sighed and conceded that while a bit rude; this was still progress in finding out what was going on.
[What did you do, idiot? (*￣m￣) ]
"I didn't do a thing, you brat!" Touma finally snapped, unable to handle the girl's ongoing abusive treatment."
"…" Her eyebrows furrowed and after tearing out and throwing away a crumbled page she returned to writing on the notepad.
[What did you do, idiot? (*￣m￣) (ò_ó) ]
"What the? All you did was add another of those stupid emoticons! You didn't have to write that all over again!"
She tore out another page and wrote into the pad.
[That's because you won't answer my question, idiot! (,,#ﾟДﾟ):∴]
Having the pad shoved into his face this time, Touma tried to slap it away but was restrained by the other girls who took his place asking the girl questions about what was happening.
"Was your voice the price you paid for the Vodun spell, long-hair?" Index jabbed a finger into Rei's shoulder.
"Does the term 'SISTER Project' mean anything to you?' Misaka begins her attempt to reassess the level of your programming."
By this point the long-haired girl was no longer pressing herself against the wall but rather sitting in a most relaxed posture while hunched in order to write her response into the notepad. Although it took a few tries and two ripped pages, she revealed the page for the others to read.
[Just because I can't speak, it doesn't mean I'm deaf! Idiot, help me with these two! （ ﾟ Дﾟ）]
"All of a sudden you want my help? Sheesh!"
Getting back to his feet, it didn't take him much effort to pull the two girls away as they continued their battery of questions aimed at the long-haired girl.
"Touma! Don't you understand that it's important to know who cast that spell?"
"It would be most detrimental to myself and the other Sisters if another incident occurred that stemmed from Misaka 00000' Misaka tries to say while investigating a potential rival."
Not paying attention to the girls' particular complaints about his interference, Touma planted his focus into figuring out the long-haired Sister's sudden loss of voice as well as the reason she was such a scare for Misaka Jun.
In his mind, the image of the girl suddenly looking hypnotized came into being. She began sputtering out words that were like computer code, and immediately the girl known as Misaka 10032 fell to the ground.
"Please…help Misaka protect her…"
'There has to be something I can do…' Touma thought to himself as Misaka Jun's plea echoed from earlier. 'But I need to deal with Index first. There's no way I can involve her in this at all!'
It didn't take long for his eyes to register a pattern of lines that hovered over a white background appear before his face. Looking ahead, Touma was staring straight at the notepad, from which the long-haired Sister was holding so close that the words were nearly blurring from its proximity to his eyes.
[I'm hungry (¬_¬)]
Touma simply smacked the growing irritancies of the girl's messages to him down onto the bed, surprising her and causing her to jump slightly. He saw that in order to have shoved the notepad at him, the girl had to leave the wall entirely, kneeling at about halfway forward on the bed as her short arms would have been unable to reach from where she sat earlier.
Looking around, Touma noticed the growing mess of crumpled up balls of paper strewn all over the floor. And glancing at where the notepad fell, the charred remains of his cell phone reemerged in his consciousness as a point of frustration as a teen living in Academy City.
Considering that he planned to get another cell phone to replace his damaged one, "I figure that it'll be better if I get you a phone so you can type in it so you don't have to keep writing on notepads." Touma sighed at how his good idea slowly began to drain on his patience now.
"Alright…" Touma acquiesced as he thought up what to do. "Since it'll be on the way to getting those phones, how about we go out for a bite? My treat, ok?"
At that suggestion, the girl's eyes flashed with a new emotion that Touma hadn't yet seen; excitement.
"…" The girl scrambled for the notepad and pressed the pen tip onto the paper, writing a bit more hurriedly than she had with the last few notes she had been writing, even when compared to the speed of her scrawls when answering Index and Jun's questions.
[So…my name can really be Misaka…Rei…? (ーー;)]
"I mean, if you want it to be, sure! I just thought instead of calling you 'Full Tuning' or all of those zeroes that Rei would be shorter. Unless you want to be called something else, or—"
Immediately shaking her head, the long-haired girl with almost panic in her eyes quickly jotted down into the notepad and displayed what she wanted to say in slightly messier handwriting than before.
[No! I like it, please call me that! （ ﾟ Дﾟ）]
"Oh. Sure thing, Rei." Touma smiled, thinking she wanted to be called that specifically.
With a severely reddened face and mouth agape, Misaka Rei slapped Touma out of nowhere.
Part 6
In the 7th District, there are a number of places such as arcades, stores and restaurants that cater mostly to the student population during their off-hours. In Academy City, where 80% of the 2.3 million residents are students, it would be madness for a shop-owner not to tap into such an obvious market.
Of all restaurants, Touma decided on a popular venue called "Akuto no Imouto-tachi" for a particular reason. Primarily that because of the nature of the restaurant, Touma was sure that no one he knew would likely be present whereas many of the other restaurants and take-out joints in Academy City were frequented often by classmates or people who'd most likely cause trouble upon happening on a threesome of cute girls like the set that were with him.
While the outside of the establishment was quite plain, almost like an office building, the fact that he learned of the place's existence from Aogami Pierce would mean a lot to anyone who knew the blue-haired, piercing wearing-teenager. Leading the way, Touma and the girls were confronted by a plain-looking office worker who stepped in front of the arbitrary-looking door.
"The password, sir?"
"Uh…what did he tell me, again? 'Sisters…are the cutest'…?"
"Eh? T-Touma!" Index's cheeks flashed red while Misaka Jun glanced away in order to hide her own blush. Misaka Rei leered at the boy in an attempt to hold back from openly attacking him.
Looking intently ahead, the teen was unaware of all of what was happening behind him, focused more on the office-worker standing in front of the door.
"Hmm, that's an old password, sorry." The man shrugged and stayed planted in front of the door.
"The heck? That lousy Aogami didn't tell me the passwords changed…"
"Oh? You know Mr. Aogami? Well…that changes things, then…" he said, scratching the back of his head at Touma's name dropping. The man bowed apologetically while stepping away from the door and opened it for the four as he did so. "Please send my regards to Mr. Aogami when you see him next, dear customers."
Ushering the quiet long-haired Sister into the restaurant, Touma, Index and the short-haired Misaka Jun each followed suit and walked up the stairs into the building. The door closed behind them, but their attentions were grabbed by the striking contrast of the gentle colors and lighting that greeted them upon reaching the top of the stairs.
In fact, cheery cute music was distinct enough from the blaring j-pop that was heard outside of the building by the other stores and restaurants that very much added to the mood. At the top of the staircase, the area opened up to a single room about 20 meters by 30 meters wide. Several booths and tables were set up and they were populated by a various number of customers, each of whom seemed quite content by both the scenery and the waiting staff that walked around the booths providing orders or standing around and chatting.
There was a sign that stated in bubbly text "Masters and Mistresses may take their own seats"
Seeing an empty booth nearby, the four went over and took their seats and ordered their drinks from their waitress who arrived promptly.
While not dressed in a maid costume, the girl was obviously in a non-traditional waitressing costume of some anime or manga origin, or at the very least was inspired by the genre as the many frills of her clothes and the short length of her skirt that met with matching knee-socks seemed to espouse such a theme.
The waitress, who smiled politely at the group couldn't hide a look on her face that was amazed at how a single teenage boy could be accompanied by so many cute girls, yet despite that her amazement wasn't noticed by someone has dense as Touma.
"I'll be back when you're ready to order, masters!"
The waitress dressed in a brightly colored outfit said anxiously as she rushed to another table where the customer was asking for more water.
Sitting next to him, Index was busy munching on some sugar cookies that were present on the table when they had arrived, while the Sisters sat across in the other seats. The two girls looked very much like fraternal twins, as the longhaired Rei seemed to take the role of an older sister whereas the shorthaired Jun looked about in curiosity at the set-up of the café they had been brought to.
It didn't take long for the food they ordered to arrive and in a few moments it had already been finished.
"So, now that we got that done and over with…" Touma began with a somber sigh, returning his wallet that was now much lighter after paying the bill into his pocket, "…let's try to get this Full Tuning thing figured out. What can you tell us, Jun?"
Part 7
Amai Ao was feeling anxious and paranoid.
He was driving an old car, which because it was an Academy City-made model, was still about 10-20 years ahead of the technology available in the outside world.
He had managed to buy the car using connections to the dark side of Academy City, because as an illegal guest who had entered the city under a false identity, he had no way of being able to buy from a dealership or rent a car from a rental company.
Because he had once been a major part of Academy City's plans but had betrayed them for another faction within the Science side, Amai Ao felt afraid for his life as a principle, but the feeling was aggravated exponentially every minute he was in the very city he had betrayed, as though he were trapped within a heavy smog on a humid day.
Despite this feeling, even while he was in the center of the Science side, there was a "condition" that prevented Amai Ao from being detected even though people were after his life.
Not only was this condition unbelievable, especially to a scientist and researcher like him, but it was astounding that he never knew how much it related to Academy City's enemies outside of its walls, especially outside of Japan focused within the great city of Rome. That same enemy, that lived within a city that was sovereign and responsible for its own actions within Rome, was just like Academy City, being a city not subservient to Tokyo or the country of Japan.
This enemy was not only similar to Academy City in such a respect but it was also the central power within another world that was not of Science, but of an unbelievable thing called "Magic".
In other words, the Vatican, which commanded about 2.1 billion Catholics around the world.
This very Vatican had announced that it would be rebuilding a great church just outside of Academy City, which was secretly an enemy of Science and had an ongoing conflict unknown to most everyone in the world.
Unbelievably, because Amai Ao had defected to another faction within the Science side, the condition that prevented his capture by those after his life was based in the concept of magic.
Because it was something he completely didn't understand, he was amazed at its effects at how he was yet to be caught while succeeding in finding the thing he was looking for: a short-haired girl who was sitting in the seat next to his, still and unconscious.
It was a simple enough task to actually retrieve a Sister in order to continue plans that required Full Tuning despite the extremely stressful search it took him the past few days since she "escaped". It was now only a matter of waiting until the girl known as "Full Tuning" would come to him, unlike the slight danger that was involved in taking the girl currently in his possession. Misaka 19090, who was ordered to stay with the original Misaka Mikoto was more or less defenseless without the Level 5 to protect her.
He could have sworn that there were supposed to be other girls associated with the Electromaster, but as it turned out that he didn't have to deal with them, Amai couldn't care less where they were.
All that mattered now was getting Full Tuning in order to get his full revenge on Academy City.
As the creator of the Sisters, Amai had secretly added a program into the prototype Sister to return to him when an error was detected in any way, whether it was losing connection with the passive and active signals sent to her or any sort of bodily harm. With most ominously an issue that needed looking into, the sudden disappearance of the transmissions responsible for Full Tuning's communication abilities had ultimately led to this point, his waiting for Full Tuning to come to him.
While the missing transmissions that originated from his computer lab in America, where he had been staying since betraying Academy City, would need addressing, such an occurrence had played into his hand this time.
Unlike the primary Misaka series after her, Full Tuning was only a prototype.
She was first created in the hopes that she could replicate the power of a Level 5 Electromaster as a special soldier series for "Radio Noise" but when that was found to be impossible, as the Tree Diagram predicted that the clones would barely be a significant enough percentage of the original's potential, the full 20,000 Misakas were planned for production for the "Level 6 Shift".
That plan, the Level 6 Shift, was a calculation that Misaka Mikoto who was the third ranked Level 5 had to be killed 128 times by Accelerator but because this was impossible, and Level 5 clones had been found impossible, 20,000 Sisters considered at Level 3 would be used to fight Academy City's number one Level 5 and help him achieve Level 6.
Full Tuning however, as Misaka # 00000, was not part of the Level 6 shift.
For the most part, there was too much that prevented the further production of a Sister like Full Tuning, since there was too much external computing needed to process the many calculations for an ESPer clone even one as low level as she was.
While the full Sister series would eventually have Misaka # 20001, Last Order, as an Administration unit, Full Tuning lacked that.
To compensate for not being part of the Misaka network, Full Tuning was connected to a series of computer mainframes stationed in several places related to Academy City both within and outside its boundaries.
However, several complications forced those mainframes to fully move outside of Academy City in order to keep it from harm when Misaka Mikoto began an attack on many research facilities related to the project and Level 6 shift.
Amai Ao, who was deeply familiar with the dark inner workings of Academy City and the head scientist and researcher in charge of the projects, could only watch as his investments burned away as piece by piece of it was ruined.
Not only by Misaka Mikoto's constant interferences but finally by Accelerator, Academy City's strongest ESPer and the number one Level 5, when he was defeated by a Level 0 teen.
Far from incapacitated, Accelerator continued on, leaving the experiment shamed, but relatively unscathed.
Ao on the other hand lost everything that night; His investment, his reputation and his career prospects within Academy City.
The night of his betrayal, when he planned to leave Academy City in ashes, that very same Accelerator interfered and nearly killed him. Even more disturbing was the fortuitous outcome of his confrontation with Yoshikawa Kikyou. His injuries prevented his original plan of using Full Tuning to boost the chances of making the Sisters go on a rampage, which obviously led to its failure.
This time there was no way he would let himself trip up because he knew that Academy City could not be destroyed without using Full Tuning. And there was no way anyone would let him live should fail this time. Not even his allies.
When he came across her standing outside of a plain-looking building waiting for pickup, it seemed almost too easy a conclusion to his worries. He had already stepped out of the care and approached the longhaired girl in the most casual way a paranoid researcher with a price on his head could, and succeeded in grasping his hand around the girl's wrist when another Sister sprang out to stop him.
"Misaka won't let you kill another Sister!" the girl viciously scratched at Amai, surprising him by the amount of anger she was able to express as he wrestled against the smaller girl clinging onto him.
But then the prototype Misaka 00000 acted out on its damage assessment protocol, disabling the Sister with a short range electromagnetic pulse by thrusting an open-handed stab at the girl's gut charged with the proper level of electricity before entering the car. She was programmed to return to Amai for repairs and to neutralize any obstacle to achieve that goal.
In a panic now, the researcher rushed into the driver's seat and stomped on the accelerator, squeeling away from the scene with the two girls now in his car. While there was a pair of witnesses to that scene, Ao figured he had lost them long ago, as saw no one pursuing him when he glanced in his rear view mirror.
All that he had to do now was take Full Tuning to Galen Lifeline and Ao could finally be safe from Academy City forever.
Going so far as to steal a person's scooter, Kamijou Touma and Index chased after the person who had kidnapped Misaka Rei.
It was a most disturbing thing to see when he and Index returned from the bathroom to find both Misakas missing from the booth. It took the pained scream of a girl that followed the crackle of electricity outside of the restaurant to lead them downstairs and outside to find Misaka Jun falling onto the sidewalk as man in a white lab coat got into a car and sped off.
While it was obvious to see Misaka Rei, sitting blank-faced and robotically still like she had when she recited code in the backseat of the old car, it was the unconscious Sister in the front passenger seat that really alarmed Touma.
"Hey! Stop!" He shouted in vain and attempt to chase down the car as it squealed away and took off down the road.
"Touma!" Index wanted to try following after, but directed her attention to the short-haired brunette who struggle to sit up on the sidewalk. "Short-hair!"
"Go! Please help him…" Misaka Jun groaned through gritted teeth.
Index nodded and rushed off after Touma, jumping onto the backseat of the scooter before he could ride off.
"Index?" He hollered at the sudden bounce of the scooter while he revved its engine.
"Go Touma! I smell that vodun spell from that car!"
"Right!" He acquiesced, realizing the implications of her statement. The man in the white lab coat had not only kidnapped Rei and another Sister, but was involved in the same kind of magic that was used on the longhaired Sister. There was no way he was going to let such a central figure get away and cause further harm for his friends.
He barely paid attention to where they were going; only focusing on following the car that held the girls and their kidnapper. If anything, Touma noticed how familiar the area was becoming as he headed toward a large building that spanned a few blocks.
"Touma!"
"Yeah, I know, Index!"
The car had a significant advantage as it disappeared out of sight for a moment, but as the gears in his head began to crank from seeing where it had turned, Touma knew where the man had escaped to.
Slowing to a stop, Touma and Index stepped off the scooter and looked ahead at the familiar sight.
Before him was an encompassing set of buildings, nearly finished in its construction.
They had arrived at what was once called the Church of Orsola.
Between the Lines 5
There is a man in a white researcher's lab coat. Sitting behind a panel of computers and electrical equipment, he is looking through a wall of specially made safety glass into another room. This other room, brightly lit as opposed to the darkened room where the man sat watching the experiment, had a long table where a young boy was strapped down and attached to a number of wires that carried collected data into the computers.
While it did not seem like it, this was now the third part in a battery of experiments to determine the pain threshold of the boy that was lying on the table, scared and panting and covered in sweat. The bright lights caused the boy to squint while he panted, looking upwards at the ceiling of the sterile white environment of the experimentation room. The boy was trembling in pain at the third application of high voltage sent into his body from a number of electrodes taped amongst the various sensors to register his body's vital signs.
In slow drips, a yellow puddle formed on the floor as the boy had succumbed to his muscles unable to fully control their contractions.
"Ha! This is the extent of a Gemstone, eh? I'm embarrassed."
"I'm…very s-sorry, sir…"
Their voices were carried by use of microphones between the two rooms and each heard the other's comments through speakers that slightly distorted the quality. A number of cameras were focused on the boy in the other room, and they each correlated to four screens in the dark observation room that were trained on different angles of the subject.
"Hmph…I guess I have no further use for you the-" He leaned over to switch the intercom to an outside line when the subject pulled against the straps and stared pleading at the observation window.
"NO PLEASE!" the boy shouted out suddenly. "Anything but that…I-I can keep going…sir!"
"Oh, really?" The man smirked at the boy's eager response. His finger, hovering over the "Line 3" button, slowly withdrew to a comfortable spot on the panel while his other hand tapped its fingers in a pattern. While it wouldn't be too unexpected for a Child Error to volunteer to continue, as that would mean being sent back to a facility and probably used for an experiment that had a much lower survival rate, the scientist was intrigued by how far the boy was willing to go to stay in his good graces. His hand pressed down on the "Talk" button to let the boy hear his voice as he spoke into the microphone.
"Fine, fine…you're doing a fine job as an adopted son of the Kihara family."
"Thank you…" the boy trembled as the wild contractions of his muscles continued. He gasped out for air as relief was obvious in his voice. "Thank you, sir!"
To this, Kihara Gensei gave an approving smile.
Author's Note:
As always, I hope you appreciate the number of turns I've provided in the story. There are a few answers, but also some more questions seeded as we move ever closer to the climax.
Busy with class and hit with a major case of writer's block, I offer this chapter with a bit more content than I originally planned as a way of saying "sorry" to make up for the long period between updates. I want to thank all of you who've perused through this story for the past month or so and especially more thanks to those who've kept reading since I first posted this fic.
To "Lazyman12", and "HoloHoro" welcome and thanks for being my most recent reviewers. Jordon, thank you for your frank observations on my writing for every one of my full chapters!
By the way, Rei is a translation of zero in Japanese, while Akuto is an "engrish" way of saying "act"
Next up: Touma and Amai Ao meet? What are his plans with Full Tuning? What's happened to Mikoto?
- All characters not otherwise stated as Original Characters belong to Kazama Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura as author and illustrator, respectively.
- Thanks to fellow To Aru Majutsu no Index writers and their works for inspiring me with drive to continue whenever I hit a wall.