As much fun as it had been to have another teleporter around at first, Kuroko was really getting tired of Taro. His insistence that "Perfect Dodge" wasn't teleportation was annoying, as was his using it to explain why he couldn't make some pretty simple and short jumps. She figured he was probably just a lucky Level 3 who could teleport himself, but not good enough to want to risk telefragging himself. He flat-out refused to accept that he could go around walls or up floors or anything of the like. It was annoying. Plainly and simply annoying.
Still, Ruiko and Kazari had warmed up to him fairly quickly, and they invited him shopping with them with some frequency. Bleargh, soon they were going to be going on dates or something. Disgusting. All three of them, though? That would be interesting. She'd like to see that… She was so lost in thought that she bumped straight into someone. "Sorry-" It was Taro.
He smiled. "No problem!" Oh god, he was about to start talking about something. A huge fan of the long-winded one-sided conversation, that one. Kuroko's phone rang. Thank god.
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's Mikoto. I'm at the Judgement Office right now-"
"Why are you at the Judgement Office?" Taro suddenly piqued up at the mention. Huh.
"Look, it's about Taro. I looked him up, and-"
"You hacked into my computer just to look him up!?" Taro froze in place. There was a look of complete, abject terror on his face.
"He's not real."
"What?"
"Nobody by the name Taro Tanaka is registered in Academy City. And that 'Perfect Dodge' of his? Not a registered ability, anywhere. Not by name, not by description."
Kuroko was speechless. She stared straight at Taro. He stared straight back at her.
"Who are you?"
"I'm nobody important! Just, you know, Taro. You know!" He looked like he was about to cry.
"Oh god." Mikoto's voice was almost pure horror. "He's right there, isn't he. Oh, god. Look, I'm trying to get a match on this picture I had a friend draw of-"
Taro's face snapped to complete calm in less time than she thought possible. And suddenly, he was gone.
The line went dead. Mikoto had hung up.
Mikoto looked at the broken phone on the floor. She hadn't dropped it, she was certain.
"Why did you have to do that." Taro was right next to her. How did he get there so fast? It was across the city, not even Kuroko could travel that far that quickly. He was completely stone-faced. She had certainly never seen him look so serious.
"Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter."
"I think it does." She eyed him carefully. There was a light beep from one of the machines. "And that'll be the picture lookup!"
"The what?"
She caught a quick glimpse of the screen, before it suddenly caved in on itself, but it had been enough.
"I did a picture lookup of you."
"That's not possible. I avoid pictures."
"Which is why I had a friend of mine who's a pretty good artist do a sketch. It took the machine a lot longer to run than it would for a real picture, but it still got there in the end. So tell me, why are you pretending to be a Level 3, Mr. Takeru Yamamoto?"
He grimaced. "I'd rather not answer that."
"You know, someone told me you were a dangerous psychopath. Should I believe them?"
"Was it a shapeshifting moron by chance?"
"Yes."
"To him, that is exactly what I am."
"And to me?"
"I had been hoping a friend."
Not exactly what she had expected there. "Well, friends shouldn't keep too many secrets. Why lie about who you were? I didn't know you by name anyway."
"I'm trying to stay inconspicuous."
"Why?"
He stood for a few seconds and drew a deep breath. "They want to recruit me into something called a Level 6 Shift experiment. I'd really rather not."
Mikoto went cold. No. Not possible. They couldn't bring it back. Not now, years after the fact. The sisters were scattered. Only three or four lived in Academy City still. Accelerator wouldn't allow it either. No, it had to be dead.
"What kind of experiment is this?" She heard herself ask.
"According to some calculations or other, I can reach Level 6 if I kill the other 10 Level Fives." He looked down at his feet as he spoke.
How strong was this guy? Even Accelerator would have had to kill her 128 times to achieve Level 6. "Why… why are you telling me this?"
"I gather you have previous reasons to oppose such experiments."
That was certainly one way to put it. "So why hang out with Kuroko and me all this time? Why bother?"
"I said I wanted to be friends. Goo-brain's already a lost cause, but I figure if I befriend the other Level 5s I can avoid trouble, and hopefully get away from whatever plans people have in place for me."
"How can I trust you?"
"I suppose you just have to!" He smiled again, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. And he was gone.
He hadn't moved, or left. He simply vanished. Even Kuroko made a bit of a sound when she teleported, and shimmered a bit. He was just… gone.
Mikoto went home for the night.