Toaru Yume no Yoru

A Certain Night of Dreams

Kuroko's eyes slowly opened to be greeted by nothingness, no sign of anything, no floor nor walls nor ceiling. Just an infinite span of silent void. It was then that the void spoke.

"You give so much yet recieve so little," it said in a voice of honey and thorns, "you love that girl so much but she does nothing but hurt you, take advantage of you."

That girl? It could only mean one person. "That's not true, my Onee-sama cares about me!" She shouted back at the voice, resolve steeled in defense of her love.

"She answers your love with nothing but pain and you think she cares? Hurting the one who does nothing but love and help you is not loving, it's not caring, it's hate. She hates you so hate her back."

It had a point. Her Onee-sama did have a habit of hurting her just for trying to show her affection. "But Onee-sama... she does care... She'll love me... she will someday..." she said, her resolve shaking with each word as the voice echoed in her ears. Stop doubting yourself, you're being weak again. Stop listening.

But she found she couldn't as the voice continued. "Do not love someone so unworthy of you, hate someone who has caused you only pain. Hate Misaka, and show her the pain she has caused you tenfold."

She resisted it, resisted the voice with all her being, but the roots of anger and hate sowed themselves within her, burrowing deeper and deeper, and as they burrowed the voice kept repeating "Hate her, hurt her." in a captivating melody that, try as she might, she could not ignore forever.

Then suddenly a sharp pain shot through her being. Her eyes shot open and she looked around, confused. "Was that just a dream?" it had felt so real to her, she could still hear the voice ringing inside her head.

Then the sharp pain that had, moments ago, jolted her from her slumber shot through her again. She looked down at the source of the pain to see a still asleep Misaka, her arms wrapped around Kuroko's waist, pulling her closer to keep herself warm as a cold breeze ran throughout the room.

Kuroko froze, everything else forgotten as she was stunned by this surreal sight. "This is a dream," she thought, "something this magnificent couldn't possibly happen in real life." This theory was quickly scrapped as a spark jumped from the fringe of Misaka's hair to Kuroko's chest where her head was pressed against, shocking her with an all too real pain.

Not trusting herself to move just yet, Kuroko stayed still and lapped up the sweet nectar of this sight while she was still able to.

It was certainly not the first time Kuroko had seen Misaka asleep. With her work at Judgment and Tokiwadai's demanding homework she was often awake long after Misaka went to sleep. Still, each time she saw it the sight entranced her so.

Even in a setting as hectic and dire as they were in now, her face was calm, relaxed, peaceful. There was no sign of the fierce, determined, and slightly frightening expression which she often wore. Instead her face bore a sweet look of such childlike innocence it made Kuroko smile.

She was motionless save for the gentle rising and falling of her humble chest as she calmly breathed in and out, as well as the occasional instances when she would unconsciously grip tighter to Kuroko: whether for warmth or security or comfort or perhaps all three.

Several more sparks leaped from Misaka's temple into Kuroko, each accompanied by a sharp jolt of pain. But she hardly felt it, so focused on the sight in front of her that the pain was completely lost on her.

Finally gathering her daring she decided to make her move. She moved slowly, as if she were working with a bomb or a wild animal, bringing her hand up slowly then moving it towards the head of the sleeping beauty in front of her. As it drew close her hand was assaulted by a stream of small sparks which issued from her temple. She felt her fingers go numb but she ignored the unpleasant sensation. Soon her hand hovered an inch away from its destination. She hesitated for a second then placed her hand on Misaka's smooth, soft hair. Gently, soothingly she stroked her lovely brown locks. She felt Misaka's grip shift as she subconsciously moved closer to Kuroko's comforting touch.

The sparks subtly reacted to her touch, shooting off in greater numbers every time her hand ran through her hair, reacting most noticeably as her thumb brushed over Misaka's temple and behind her ears.

Kuroko was ecstatic. Her Onee-sama was so close, and of her own accord. Not only that but she seemed to react, even enjoy, her touch. She craned her neck, hovering over her forehead and slowly moved in to kiss it.

But as she drew close a large spark discharged, travelling straight into Kuroko's puckered lips. She instinctively flinched, drawing back.

"Onee-sama…" she sighed quietly, "Even in your sleep you chastise me so harshly for my love, even as you seem to be encouraging it…"

"She answers your love with nothing but pain and you think she cares?" at her thought the voice from her dream suddenly echoed in her head again.

All of Kuroko's happiness from the moment before evaporated as her dream came back to her in vivid detail. The doubt which had flared up at the voice's words came crawling back like a spider.

She sat there, motionless save for her hand, still mindlessly stroking her Onee-sama's hair, whether this was a bigger comfort to herself or Onee-sama she did not know. Her thoughts were cloudy and a tempest of doubt, anger, and despair roiled about within her.

She sat there for a couple of hours brooding, even as the first spears of dawn's light pierced the barely intact windows of the building.

The rays of light fell upon the sleeper's face, briefly stirring her from her sleep before she retreated deeper into her pillow to return to the sleeps sweet grasp, the light pleasant touch that she felt running through her hair relaxing her as the soothing, enjoyable pressure lulled her back to sleep. It was several more minutes before she was aware enough to realize that her pillow felt different, far softer than the small, firm pillow that she had fallen asleep on. She was far too warm and comfortable to be in that same place that she had found so unpleasant the night before.

She slowly opened her eyes to see a small expanse of pale skin with an almost non-existent bump barely hidden by the transparent fabric of a provocative purple negligee. Realization soon fell upon her. Her eyes shot open and a blush lit up her face from the compromising position she found herself in, clinging to her friend like a teddy bear. Not only that but… it felt nice. Kuroko was warm and soft and her gentle stroking felt so nice and calming. She didn't want to move, to let go of Kuroko and leave this comfortable, pleasant place she found herself in.

These wishes and feelings confused and embarrassed Misaka, and soon that confusion and embarrassment transformed into an emotion she could deal with far more easily, anger. She looked up at the source of these emotions, expecting to see that perverted grin and lecherous eyes that would justify her anger or at least give it an acceptable target. But Kuroko wasn't grinning; she wore a troubled, thoughtful frown with a hint of sadness. Her eyes looked far off and unfocused. This confused her even more. She didn't know what to do. So she did what came naturally, lashing out blindly, enveloping her body in a cocoon of electricity which flowed into the nearest object. That object just happened to be Kuroko, who was strongly shocked by the unexpectedly powerful jolt of electricity.

The pain broke Kuroko's reverie as her hand flew back instinctively and she struggled to escape from the electric grip around her.

Misaka soon released her grip on Kuroko's waist and pushed herself away from her. She swung her legs over the bed, stood up, and stormed into the next room of the clinic.

Kuroko sat on the bed, her body still twitching from her Onee-sama's most recent punishment. Why did she just do that? 'What did I do to deserve such a severe shock? She was the one who attached herself to me, not the other way around. I controlled myself all night and endured her little shocks for hours, just to make her happy. I've been doing my best for her since I got here and she repays me like this?"

Her body stopped its spasming as tears filled Kuroko's eyes, 'No matter what I do or how hard I may try my love is rejected.' She wiped the tears away. Whatever… let's just get this matter over with, there will be time to cry then. Kuroko stood up and began changing, locking up her broken, heavy heart behind an iron veil of professionalism.

In the next room Misaka leaned against the wall and sank to the floor. She had come in here to think. 'Why did I do that? Why was I hugging Kuroko like that? Why…Why was I enjoying it.' She had always been on the receiving end of these interactions and usually in the worst possible places for them. So she had always felt justified in pushing away Kuroko's bold advances and public displays of affection to prevent embarrassement.

But the thing was, even though Misaka was loathe to admit it, even to herself, she didn't mind all of her affectionate little actions, she even enjoyed some of them. Whether it was the clingy hugs she received daily, or the barrage of kisses that Kuroko had showered her with after the fight against the AIM Burst, they made her feel loved, wanted, and accepted like almost nothing else. But the enjoyment she got out of them always confused her. She wasn't supposed to feel this way, not about her best friend and not about another girl. Even in the face of Kuroko's certainty that her love was pure, even if it was with another girl, Misaka had doubts. So she always rejected her, pushed her away in the perhaps futile hope that she would give up her advances and give up on her. She hoped to prove that this was just a stage for the two of them, a stage that would pass in time, like having an imaginary friend. But Kuroko's persistence and passion in her pursuits cast doubt on this hope time and time again.

Reaching no conclusion, Misaka simply sighed and stood up. These thoughts would be more suitable to dwell upon during a later date. She had more important matters to deal with than these strange emotions. First she needed to apologize to Kuroko, then she would wrap up this stupid contest as soon as possible. She changed into her uniform and went back into the main room.

Kuroko was already changed, packed and ready to leave. She was hanging by the door impatiently, her face steeled and carrying an obvious air of testiness.

Misaka walked over to her and said in a genuinely apologetic voice, "I'm sorry for zapping you Kuroko. I severely overreacted. Please forgive me."

Kuroko barely spared her a glance before saying, "whatever. Are you ready to go?"

Her response surprised Misaka. 'Kuroko… is angry with me? She's never been angry at me before. Did I really go that far overboard this time?' She thought, then decided to try again, "Kuroko…" she began once more before being abruptly interrupted.

"If you're ready then let's go." Kuroko said before doing just that. Misaka stood there for a second, confused and distressed over Kuroko's sudden change in attitude. Then she followed her out the door and briskly walked up to her, heart set on working this out. Once she had caught up to Kuroko's fast, irritated pace she tried again to say something, "I…" she had yet to get the second word out when Kuroko teleported 20 meters ahead of her.

This act disconcerted Misaka further. 'She's really hurt…. And it's all my fault,' regret for her impulsive action earlier welled up inside of her, 'I'll make this better Kuroko, I swear I'll make this up to you. But for now I'll give you a little time to yourself.' Having a little thinking time always helped her calm down.

So Misaka trailed a considerable distance behind her as they walked through the abandoned streets of District 17 towards the first possible hiding place for The Queen. She was a notoriously snobby and spoiled person who would always prefer to stay in a nice, safe, comfortable place as she delegated any actual work to her legions. Because of this it was highly unlikely she would be hiding in any old, rundown building. She was probably in a big secure building that had withstood the years. These criteria had greatly narrowed down the search possibilities, though it still left several possible locations for them to search. But maybe they would get lucky and find it in the first place they looked.

However luck was obviously not on their side. Before they even reached the first location they were ambushed as a group of ten or so thugs poured from the alleys behind and in front of them, grinning at the success of their devious plan as they spread out to prevent the pair's retreat.

"Well well, what have we here, you two really shouldn't be playing around in such a dangerous place you know. You might get hurt." One of them said, confidence ringing in his voice. After all, it was 10 against 2 and the 2 were little girls, good for a little teasing but not the most fun to fight. "The Railgun" must just be overhyped, there was no way this middle school girl was anything other than just another arrogant little ESPer who thought she was better than everyone else.

Misaka gave off several intimidating sparks, "just back off, we have no business with you," she warned them, hoping to avoid a conflict and an unnecessary drain on her energy.

"Oh but we have business with you," he said drawing a handgun as a couple of the other thugs did the same, "Now I suggest you surrender nice and peaceful, or do you think your little zaps are faster than our bullets?" ESPer's weren't so special. Not even a level 5 is bulletproof after all. Soon he would have the mighty Railgun begging for her life. Then he heard a small thud come from his gun, he looked down briefly to see a needle lodged directly in the barrel.

"You stupid uneducated thug," Kuroko said, the morning's built up anger not helped by this turn of events and slowly venting, "Lightning strikes are 20 times faster than that little gun. So don't you assume that, just because you have some shiny little toys, you are untouchable?" A small bit of her anger vented at the hapless thugs, she teleported aside, several meters away from Misaka and the thugs.

Misaka, in turn, took this as a signal to let loose, which she proceeded to do with extreme prejudice, her own anger fuelling her powers as she shocked each and every thug. Expending a bit more energy than necessary as she sought to release all her pent up anger and worry and confusion. It was over quick but her feelings had mostly been worked out on the now charred smoking bodies of their attackers.

"Do you know nothing of restraint Onee-sama? How about proportional retribution? All they did was threaten you and you think it's necessary to shock them until they're half-dead and burnt to a crisp?" Kuroko scolded, acid in her voice.

"They pulled a gun on us," Misaka retorted defensively.

"A gun which had been disabled when you began shocking them to hell and back. You have absolutely no restraint whatsoever do you?"

"A lecture on restraint coming from you?"

Kuroko leveled her with a pained, angry glare before slowly replying "At least when I lose control, people don't get hurt."

Misaka's eyes widened as she realized what she had just said. Regret washed over her. Kuroko was right... once again her blind anger had hurt people. Time and time again she shocked people excessively.

Not only that but her anger had also caused her to be callous towards Kuroko, the very same person who she had promised not half an hour ago not to hurt, she had screwed up again.

'What am I saying?' Kuroko thought. She was confused, her mind was clouded in an anger she didn't feel. Her mouth spewed forth twisted, hurtful versions of her words, and those words were hurting her Onee-sama. 'Stop, stop, stop'. She repeated in a mantra to herself, trying to crush down the anger and betrayal and doubt that were building up inside her and lashing out at Onee-sama. Yet as much as she tried to beat them down they were held up by a single thought, what she was saying was true. Kuroko had an incredible amount of restraint and the few times she lost control she did little worse than hug or grope her Onee-sama, to which she responded with violence.

"Let's just go," she said out loud, resigning the unwinnable mental battle and walking off. Misaka followed her without a word, wondering where all of this had gone so wrong. They'd been best friends for several months and nothing had changed in that time. Even before Kuroko had forced herself into being her dorm mate she had always been "clingy", desperate for physical contact and affection and many times before Misaka had asked herself why she endured it but in all this time she had never asked why Kuroko endured their friendship. Though Misaka had to endure all the little inanities and perversions that Kuroko endlessly bombarded her with, Kuroko had to endure just as many, if not more, trials. It couldn't be easy to be the friend of a level five, especially one who caused so much trouble...

'What am I talking about? It's not me, it's her.' Misaka thought to herself, her despair slowly turning into anger 'Uihara doesn't face any problems, Saten-san doesn't. It isn't my fault for being suspicious of Kuroko's actions; anyone would be in my position. It's not my fault she gets burned when playing with fire. I don't hurt the innocent... but maybe I do hurt the guilty too much.' she took a second, recalling what Kuroko had said about restraint. 'she was right. All things considered, with her power she could do far worse than she does.' She shuddered for a moment remembering when, drugged by aphrodisiac, she had teleported her underwear right off her body. Since then, however, she hadn't exactly done anything too bad. 'Even Kuroko has more restraint than I do…"

Her anger soon turned into resolve, a resolve to exercise more restraint in the future, proportional retribution as Kuroko had called it.

"Hehe, looks like our lucky day. Our prey has come to us." said a voice startling Misaka out of her thoughts. As she looked up she saw 4 more thugs, blocking the alley that they were walking down.

She rolled her eyes, "not more of these guys." she said to herself.

"Now give up and we won't have to hurt you," the biggest one of them said drawing a knife to highlight his point. Then the girl in front disappeared, he felt a hand on his back and the next instant he found himself looking at the sky. Before his buddies could react however, they too found themselves on the ground as their muscles spasmed and gave out beneath them in a wave of pain.

It had been less than half of her normal output, at the range that most stun guns operated and aimed low to minimize risk to the heart. It was just a tad bit more powerful than her "chastise setting", yet it seemed to be enough to bring them down easily enough. She then walked over to Kuroko and the now pinned leader.

"Attacked twice in 5 minutes by people who seemed to know who we are and want something with us," Kuroko began.

Misaka saw where this was going, "I doubt it's a coincidence," she agreed.

"But they're obviously not Queen's forces, not a single one goes to our school."

"The Queen could have forces outside the faction at school."

"But would she tolerate such barbaric thugs being associated with her?"

"You have a point there," Misaka said, glad that they were having a somewhat normal conversation, even if it was strictly business, "but what other explanation is there?"

"In which case..." Kuroko turned to the still struggling thug, "Where is Queen?"

"I don't know who you're talking about!" he yelled with hate and fury in his voice.

"Are you sure about that," Misaka said, walking forward, "If you know who I am then you know what I can do to you if you're lying."

He gave a short smile before a stream of acid gushed from his mouth directly at her, catching Misaka off guard. Kuroko's insticts, however, were sharper, sensing danger the moment before she teleported in front of Misaka, intercepting the caustic projectile. She immediately registered a sharp, biting pain and a hissing sound as the acid ate away at her shirt and the flesh underneath. Pushing the pain aside for a second she focused her mind just enough to teleport the caustic acid off of her flesh before it burnt her any more than it had.

Misaka quickly zapped the leader disabling him from firing any more acidic sprays, in her rage forgetting for a second to restrain herself, shocking him with far more volts than the others. "Kuroko, are you okay?" She said after she had taken care of him.

"I'm fine" she said holding her side. She had managed to get it off before it ate away at the flesh too much but the pain was incredible.

"I'm... I'm sorry Kuroko... for everything," Misaka said. For the second time in as many days Kuroko had saved her, even when she had been furious at Misaka she still looked after her and was willing to put herself on the line to protect her.

The sincerity in her voice touched Kuroko, as she looked at her and remembered why she endured all the things she did for Misaka. She loved her, that was all that mattered. All the doubt and anger and despair that she had been feeling disappeared. How had she forgotten something so important as her never-ending love for her Onee-sama? It was a bit embarrassing really. She would do anything to make Onee-sama smile, even though her feelings would never be returned.

"You couldn't have known... don't worry about it." She responded.

Misaka was glad to be forgiven and to hear a trace of happiness back in Kuroko's voice, but she couldn't help but feel guilty, especially over how easily she had been forgiven. Kuroko always forgave her so easily, it made her wonder if she truly deserved it. "Are you sure you're ok?" she asked again.

"I'll be fine," Kuroko repeated, "so we should probably get back to business neh?"

"I'll take care of it, you treat that injury ok?"

"Ok Onee-sama, I'll leave it to you," she said as she got the supplies from her backpack.

As she did that Misaka walked over to one of the guys who she had stunned, "If you don't want to end up fried like your boss then you'll tell me why you're here and where Queen is."

"I don't know who that is," he said in a frightened voice, "honest. We're just here for the bounty."

"What bounty?"

"Someone spread the word around the streets that if you capture the Railgun you get 2 million yen, and told us you would be in district 17."

"Anything else?"

"No, honest, we don't know anything."

Misaka accepted his story and walked back to Kuroko, who had just finished bandaging herself up. "You heard that?"

"Yeah. what a mess... we need to find The Queen quickly."

"Are you ready to start searching again?" she asked, concerned.

"Yep," she confirmed, putting on her backpack again, "though we should probably stay off the main roads or we'll probably run into another ambush."

So they began their long and arduous search of the district. However even keeping to the back alleys they were attacked several times. The conflicts were easily resolved but still an annoyance, adding to the frustration of the failures of their searches. They had checked 5 buildings and each of those buildings had been a dead end, completely abandoned without a trace of The Queen. Now it was getting dark and they hadn't found a single clue.

Once the sun fell it became surprisingly dark. Normally Academy City was lit up by numerous streetlights and other lights, but these ones seemed to have been turned off, and the electromaster couldn't risk giving away their positioning by powering them up.

Power... that's it. "Kuroko, where's the district power control?"

Kuroko got the map from her pocket and found it for her, "should be over there... why do you ask?"

"The Queen is probably not going to let herself be in the dark so the power should be on, and if it's connected to the main grid I should be able to find out the location."

"Genius Onee-sama," Kuroko said impressed, "Shall we take the short route then?"

Misaka nodded. Kuroko took her hand and began a series of teleportations to take them to their destination. She had reserved doing this the whole time because she wished to conserve energy, but night was almost upon them and it would be best to get to their destination soon.

They soon got to their destination. Misaka approached the door, a little unsteady after all those teleportations. Easily overriding the electronics she opened the door and stepped into the building. It was small but had experienced very little wear over the years, all of the fully automated control systems still working perfectly. This made it quite easy to hack the systems and pull up the distribution map, which would tell her which regions power was being sent to. The only problem...

"It's all black... nowhere in the district is using power," she said confused, "a dead end."

"Not necessarily," Kuroko said thoughtfully, "in fact this narrows our search down a lot. If our assumption is correct in that the building is powered yet no buildings are using energy from the grid then it means that they are using energy off the grid. The only thing I can think of that does something like that is a hospital, which this district happens to have. We can check it out tomorrow."

"I suppose this is a pretty safe place to sleep." Misaka said walking back over to the door and closing and locking it, "I don't suppose you have a bed in that bag do you?"

"I am restricted by weight Onee-sama, if I took too much then I couldn't teleport the two of us, so no I did not." Kuroko replied, taking her seriously.

"It was a joke," she clarified, "but you do have more food right?"

"Plenty," she took out some more of Misaka's favorite as well as some water for some tea. Misaka heated up the kettle with her power and the pair were soon eating. After that, however, came the difficult part.

Kuroko blamed herself really, she hadn't expected things to turn out like they had when she had packed only one blanket and pillow. Of course she had planned to sleep with her Onee-sama every night, how could she pass up such an oppurtunity after all, so she had only packed one set. Blankets took up a lot of room as well so it was a logical explanation. However after last night... Onee-sama was really uncomfortable sleeping with her it seemed. So she simply took them out and handed them to her, saying "you take these, I'll be fine."

However, like Kuroko, Misaka too thought she was the one to blame. She had zapped Kuroko pretty harshly, she probably wouldn't want to be anywhere near her after that. She pushed the blanket and pillow back to Kuroko, "No, you brought it, you use it."

"I brought it for you," 'Well... us... but still'Kuroko pushed the blanket back towards Misaka.

"After all you've done for me, I can't accept this." The older girl pushed it back.

"It was my pleasure," The younger girl did the same.

"Your pajamas cover less, it makes sense you should take it," the electromaster said, getting frustrated as she pushed them back once again.

"We can trade for the night," the teleporter offered somewhat less than seriously as she pushed them back.

"I don't want to be a burden," Misaka said, practically throwing the blanket at the the other girl this time.

Kuroko sighed then stood up. The younger girl knew Misaka felt guilty, that she thought it was all her fault. The teleporter knew that reassurances would be lost on her though so she decided to try another tactic which would work much better, even if it could turn out badly for herself. She walked around behind the electromaster and sat down. Misaka turned to look at her, confused as to what she was doing when she felt Kuroko's arms shoot up her shirt as they began groping her breasts through her bra.

Misaka's face turned a bright crimson as she sat there, frozen for a moment by the unexpected assault. When she had regained her composure she turned around and pushed Kuroko away.

"Wh...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" she yelled at her, still blushing uncontrollably.

"Payment. I'd say we're even for all I've done after that."

Embarrassment at the groping, anger that Kuroko would do such a thing so thoughtlessly, shame at having enjoyed it, or relief that Kuroko was back to "normal". Seperate emotions fighting for dominance within Misaka. Surprisingly though it wasn't anger that won. She took a deep breath, still blushing slightly. "We... can share... I promise... that I won't hurt you again." she said slowly. She didn't want today to end as badly as it had begun.

"Onee-sama doesn't mind?" Kuroko asked, slightly surprised at the reaction.

Misaka shook her head, "no... but grope me again and you're sleeping outside."

After that they changed and laid down on the floor. It was cold and hard, but not unbearably so. Misaka rested her head on the far edge of the pillow, facing away from Kuroko.

"Goodnight Kuroko."

"Goodnight Onee-sama."

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, this chapter is quite long and took quite a bit of cleaning up. I'm still not totally satisfied with it so any suggestions for editing would be greatly appreciated and worked in as soon as possible.

Also, if you're curious, Misaka was dreaming of unicorns and washboards.