Emotional Fallout

~ o ~

Chapter 2: Everybody likes Cake!

.

A crash echoed across the room, drawing everyone's attention to the tangle of Christmas tree and child errors that a certain level-zero was meant to be supervising.

"Mikoto! ..errr umm, you as well! Come! Come! Help us decorate!" she cried as she reached the two of them and literally dragged them over to the disaster area. Someone had left Saten near the sugar-loaded cakes, and everyone was going to pay.

.

About an hour or so later the decorations were complete, everyone had collapsed onto the sofas and was resting. Mikoto was drawn out of her ideal daydreaming, in this case, of defeating that infernal Touma, by the movements of a body nuzzled up against her. With the slightest surprise she saw Raven, asleep, nestled up against her. Indeed it was quite packed for space what with most of the children, and most of their visitors, all competing for space to flake out, but she noticed Raven could have found somewhere else, somewhere amongst her peers, or even just flopped to the other side. But no, standing apart, albeit subtly, from the contiguous puppypile of teens and kids were Mikoto and Raven. Staring at her brought to mind the idea of a small animal, like a baby bird, all curled up on itself, to which Mikoto smiled to herself. After a while her thoughts tangented to her sister, 10032, and her attachment to stray cats. Then it tangented back around to that damned stray and his damned right hand.

.

Before she could dwell on the frustrating matter for too long, a handbell rung out, and with it many sleepyheads were brought back to the land of the living …and food.

.

Part way through the meal the topic of powers came up. Initially it was dominated by much excitement and interest in Mikoto, much to her embarrassment, but slowly started to spread out to others' abilities.

.

"…I guess it's not very exciting to watch, things staying the same temperature. Eheh… But then I am only a level-one." Uiharu excused.

" 'Spose you could do more interesting stuff if you got higher, right? asked a child.

"Oh, yes, definitely! …Although the teachers seem to, skirt around what though…."

"I'm guessing I'm the only sodding level-zero here then! … I bet you, Raven, even you have one." Saten snarked, letting more bitterness show than she intended.

"Uny-, me? Well I sorta do." Raven responded shyly.

"Sorta?"

"I mean, I do, …I guess."

Raven's admission plied with embarrassment trigger a breakout of speculation and questions from a few of the child errors who were part of the discussion, this quickly took on a life of it's own and spread beyond. After a few minutes of the ever louder rumour mill Mikoto remembered how the dorm mistress had introduced them and wondered if Raven needed her to step in. She coughed loudly, then spoke.

"Raven, you seem to know so much about my power, but I don't know anything about yours. Could you show me it?"

"O.. ok."

Raven gave an agreeing nod, looked over the contents of the table, picked up a half full glass of water, placed it in front of her, then started staring at it. Mikoto looked at Raven, then at the glass. Everyone else started staring at Raven, or the glass. After a minute the observers started to bore of watching something even less interesting than soup not-getting-cold but then it happened. A bubble rose to the surface then popped. Then another. And another. Then lots of them. Soon it was evident the water was, boiling! "She's a microwave" came one comment, "That's what a L3 Uiharu-san could do!" came another, "No, she's better than a microwave, she's a PSYCHIC microwave".

.

Suddenly Saten stood bolt upright and marched off to the kitchen with the face of someone who had just discovered the way to win a land war in Asia, and was determined to use it. Coming back several minutes later she presented an oversized mug to Raven, then placed it down beside the now quarter-full glass. Raven looked into the mug and eminently summed up the shared confusion "Uuuunyuu?".

"Mug cake!" Saten replied, beaming.

"What?" asked Mikoto, looking at the yellow slop within the mug.

"Mug Cake!" repeated Saten, seemingly convinced she had just been misheard, by everyone, rather than everyone simply thinking she was barking mad.

"It's a simple cake recipe designed for cooking in under 3 minutes in the microwave! I found it on the net! … If Raven can boil water, I thought maybe she could cook this."

The center of attention gave the mug another quizzical look and before long the slimy contents started to bubble and expand.

.

~ o ~

.

"I just really feel she's not getting the best environment here." remarked the Tokiwadai Dorm Mistress.

"I love this place, I hope there's no doubting that, but I don't think it the best place for Raven. She's dying of boredom, you can see that."

"Well, I concede you have a point there, ..buut isn't she just like all the other kids who don't get on so great socially?" queried the facility head, Shigenomori Kazuko.

"Hmmm, not really. For a start she's older than ALL the other kids by quite a bit, and secondly while it's just an estimate she shows all the signs of being a level three! And that's without any training."

"Since that's your area I'll take your word for that. But say she is, where else could she go? It's not like the city regularly provides for children like that. …well, ..not since those child error experimentation incidents."

The dorm mistress sighed, her friend had a point. "So, you're saying she here because this is the best the city has to offer."

"Hmm…. I guess that's sadly the case"

"Rrrrgh! This is supposed to be the best place for ability users in the world. There has to be something better for her. ….If we ignore her, we'll be hurting ourselves …as well as her".