Toaru Unmei no Pasu

A Certain Path of Destiny

Kuroko sat on her bed with the suitcase open in her lap. The Capacity down system nestled snuggly against one side. At the top of the device in the same golden script as before was the same signature that the other one held. The signature of Jericho.

"Considering how powerful a weapon that this 'Jericho' constructed, they must be some incredibly dangerous and evil person," Kuroko said.

Are you being sarcastic?

"I intended to be but the truth of the matter is that I don't quite know who it'll turn out to be. But I am going to find out."

You're going to find her?

"That's the plan."

And you're going to keep this whole thing secret?

"That's the problem. I don't want to lie and sneak around but…all things considered I probably have to. Hopefully this will end tomorrow when I find her, so I hope that I won't need to lie."

The pereskia will be back soon. Best to hide that and pretend you were asleep.

"Yeah…" Kuroko said as she closed it and teleported it away. Then she stood up and walked over to her extensive nightwear collection. She reached up for one of her usual see-through negligees but hesitated and grabbed instead one of the few "normal" sets of pajamas. Though the word normal wasn't exactly what most people would use to describe a name brand silk set of hand-embroidered light pink pajamas.

But Kuroko had taste. Even when it was something like this she wouldn't lower herself to childish, cheap Gekota-print fabric like her Onee-sama did. After all, she was privileged. She had money and she, unlike Onee-sama, would act like it. High-class people should be high in class.

After she changed she turned the light off and went over to Onee-sama's bed. She crawled under the covers and got herself comfortable.

Not five minutes later Misaka walked into the room and over to the bed, promptly collapsing on top of it and falling asleep immediately.

Kuroko looked over at her. She was slouched over the bed, half on half off. She seemed absolutely exhausted to fall asleep in such an uncomfortable position. Kuroko got up and laid her down on the floor. Then, moving the blanket aside, she teleported her an inch over the mattress. With her now properly in bed Kuroko crawled in beside her and tucked them both in.

"Welcome back my brave knight, I'm glad to see you home in one piece," she whispered to Misaka as she snuggled up to her before she too fell to sleep.

The next morning Misaka woke to the sound and smells of cooking. She sat up , yawned and stretched. Then she stood up to go to the kitchen, but instantly she rethought that idea.

"Kuroko," she called instead.

"Good Morning Onee-sama," Kuroko responded from the kitchen.

"Do you have clothes on this time?" She asked, yesterday making her understandably cautious about walking into her kitchen without a second thought.

"Unfortunately for you yes I do." She replied in a teasing voice.

"Shut up," Misaka replied eloquently as she began getting ready.

After that the two roommates sat down at their table to enjoy Kuroko's breakfast.

"How are you feeling?" Misaka asked.

"I'm feeling fine, they're all better now. They don't hurt at all," Kuroko replied, understanding what she meant, "what about you? How did your little crusade go?"

"Oh, it was fine," Misaka said, brushing it off. Even though she had given her blessing yesterday she did not want to worry Kuroko by telling her just how difficult the fight had been.

"I see, well that's good to hear." Kuroko said. She couldn't show too much worry or she might let it slip that she knew what had gone on. So she let the topic drop and they moved onto more casual subjects of conversation.

After that they went to school acting as if there weren't someone who had ordered an attack on them just to get her to join a silly little school club. Of course Kuroko didn't exactly know that, and Misaka didn't intend to tell her. Misaka worried that if she found out she would attempt to do something, get some sort of revenge. Her heart was in the right place but Misaka still worried about her tendencies towards violence and she didn't want Kuroko to get thrown out of Tokiwadai or get into trouble for her sake.

Completely oblivious to the hypocrisy in her reasoning, Misaka resolved to keep this secret from Kuroko.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened that morning. Misaka met with Kuroko and they went to lunch. They talked for a few minutes until Kuroko excused herself and left. Misaka was glad she did as, the next minute, she saw Yoshinko walking up to her table.

"Have you rethought my offer from yesterday?" she asked as she drew close.

"Yes actually," Misaka said barely holding back the anger that flared each second this person was in her presence, "it's gone from 'No thank you' to 'Not in a million years'. You really think I'm going to join after what you did?"

"What I did?" she repeated innocently, "I haven't done anything."

Her only answer was a glare.

"Very well," Yoshinko said, "I guess it's on to plan B. You know what they say after all: 'If they don't join you, crush them.'"

"I'll take you on any time," Misaka said aggressively.

"Tut tut, so impatient," she said with a smile as she walked away, "all things in time Ace of Tokiwadai"

As this was going on Kuroko was hanging out on the roof. She checked to make sure no one else was there . Once she was sure she was alone she began speaking, "Why must you insist on talking when you know I can't respond."

Because you don't need to respond, you just need to listen.

"I'm not going to listen when what you're saying has no relevance to what I'm talking about."

What you're talking about has no relevance to anything though. So why don't you stop wasting time talking about pointless bits and bobs and actually do something useful. Like coming up with a plan.

"You know my plan."

I know your plan to find Jericho, what about when we face her?

"I guess it all depends on who we're facing at that point."

So you should probably bring my weapons along just in case.

Kuroko had retrieved the belt with the tonfa and flash-grenades early that morning before Misaka woke up. "I guess but I doubt I'll need them."

Always plan for the worst, you know that.

"I suppose you're right… but still. We try to solve this my way first, ok?"

I know. I won't ever step in unless absolutely necessary, you know that. I know how it makes you feel and unlike some other people I actually care about your feelings.

With that sorted out Kuroko went back to the lunchroom. Misaka seemed a little on edge, perhaps something had happened while she was gone. Kuroko almost asked but decided against it. 'If she wants to talk to me about it she'll talk to me about it.' She justified. She needed to trust that Misaka would start being more open with her now that they were in a relationship. Besides, she had her own matters to deal with. Misaka could look after herself for the most part.

So they simply went back to talking about pointless things, both pretending that nothing had interrupted them to begin with but both lost in their own thoughts with their own problems that each knew they needed to bear alone.

"I'll be heading to Judgment right after school and I probably won't see you until tonight." Kuroko informed Misaka as the lunch bell rang, "so see you then."

Misaka gave a sound of acknowledgement then they went off to their respective classes.

After school Kuroko went off to the Judgment office. She didn't work for very long today but it would be a good opportunity to get some information. So she hurried there and sat down at her laptop, stopping first to say "Hi" to Konori-Senpai before she left to go on patrol.

With her gone Kuroko quickly got on with her real work. She began scrolling through the databases, looking for a clue as to where she could find Jericho.

As she was looking the door opened and Uiharu and Saten walked in, talking to each other.

When she saw Kuroko, Saten waved at her, "Yo. How are you today?"

"I'm fine," Kuroko responded without taken her eyes off the screen.

"Are you sure you should be working today? You did get hurt yesterday," Uiharu said, concerned for her friend and co-worker's safety.

"I'm fine,"

"Speaking of that…" Saten said, "what were those things you had yesterday?" Her curiosity had been building up all of yesterday and today. She wanted some answers, like where she could get a pair of those things.

"I'm fine," Kuroko said again.

Saten looked at Kuroko. Something seemed off. "Which Chinese queen was born in the 10th century?" she asked probingly.

"I'm fine," was her only answer.

Saten walked over to the distracted girl while Uiharu looked on, her concern growing. Saten tried to get a peek as to what was distracting her. But before she could get the screen in her field of vision, Kuroko closed it up and stood up. "I'm heading out," she said simply before teleporting away, leaving two worried girls to wonder what was going on with their friend.

Kuroko, meanwhile, made her way back to her dorm. She would need a few things from there first. When she got there she retrieved her weapons belt and one of the two suitcases. With those in tow she made her way to the address. It was a large, if cheap, apartment building in school district 14. It was several stories tall with a classic brick and mortar look.

Kuroko approached the large glass double doors. Along the side of it was a series of buttons with names that would activate a buzzer so the person you wanted to visit could let you in. She glanced at the names, finding the one she was looking for and noting the apartment number. But she still hesitated to press the button and lose the element of surprise that might become necessary.

Instead of pressing it, she looked around at the neighboring buildings as well as the streets. Security here was pretty shoddy. There weren't any security cameras around here at all. She sighed. "Considering all I've done the past few days, trespassing is a drop in the bucket. This is all your fault you know."

While I admit that the police brutality was all my doing, the rest were you I'm afraid.

"That police brutality led to this entire mess. Plus you were the one who brought the first Capacity Down home with you," she retorted before teleporting inside, past the door. Then she began walking up the stairs. Her destination was on the seventh floor so it was quite a walk but it allowed her time to think. Think of what to do, of what to say. She pondered who she would be facing when she knocked on that door. What would Jericho be like? Would she really be dangerous and evil?

Before she knew it she was standing in front of the door to Apartment 709, ready to find out once and for all. Taking a deep breath she knocked on the door. A few second later the door opened a crack as a deep azure colored eye gazed up at Kuroko.

The occupant hid timidly behind the door of her apartment, the light of the hallway illuminating the half of her face which peeked out. She was small, several centimeter's shorter than Kuroko and even a few shorter than Birdy. Her skin was pale and slightly gaunt. Her hair was beautiful, white as the purely driven snow shining though illuminated only by the dim light of the hall. It tumbled down her back like a bridal veil.

"C…can I help you?" she asked quietly. Her voice was timid and as week as a mouse. She was biting her lip and squirming uncomfortably. She had not been expecting a Judgment officer to be visiting her. She didn't ever expect visitors and especially not a law enforcement official. She scoured her mind, searching for things that she could have done wrong to deserve this visit. Not only that but there was something else, something that was bugging her about this Judgment person.

"Probably," Kuroko responded with a smile, "We used to help each other all the time."

As soon as she heard the voice the girl's eye widened with realization. The next second the door flew open and the girl wrapped her arms around Kuroko's waist. "Shiro-chan? Is that really you?" she asked, the shyness and weakness in her voice dropped for an instant as she was overcome with disbelief and happiness.

Kuroko hugged the girl back, "Yeah, it's me Jericho-chan. It's been a long time hasn't it?"

It was seven years ago but Kuroko remembered it well. After one year of grueling training under the Power Curriculum Program she had finally begun emitting an AIM field [1]. Furthermore she was one of the few people who had actually developed a bit of a power. Though in those days her teleportation was limited to teleporting a paper cup from one hand to the other. Without knowledge of the complex spatial geometry necessary to maneuver things around in 11th dimensional space, she needed to use her own body as a reference point for both point of origin and point of arrival. Still that, along with her natural intelligence, was enough to get her into the advanced classes.

After the Power Curriculum Program had induced an AIM field in a person the training became far less arduous and began resembling a normal school path, with grades 1-12 and then university. Though the Curriculum was geared towards strengthening your powers they taught many other things as well. And even though they still tended to be more specialized than schools outside the city, the schools still took a far more general approach than the extremely individualistic training that preceded it.

Kuroko couldn't remember her first day at school. Or even her first week. Though she remembered how lonely it had been. Kuroko had always been alone. For the first five years of her life she rarely had anyone to talk to. Nobody to tuck her in at night or read her a bedtime story. She had always needed to sing herself to sleep with her own lullabies. But she was fine with that. She never really knew that there was greener grass elsewhere, never knew the joy of having a friend.

That was until Kuro came. Kuro had been her first friend, taught her the joys of having someone who you could talk to and tell your secrets. Taught her what it was like to have someone listen to your every word and care for you.

But Kuro was inside her head. The first week she had watched as the other children laughed together and played together. How they would run around playing tag or hide and seek. How they could reach out to their friend and touch them. That was a luxury that she and Kuro would never have.

That was why she was so lonely. For the first time she was surrounded by people. She could see the meadow that stretched beyond the fence and could see just how green the grass was. She finally saw what she was missing, and she finally felt the loneliness that had never before had a name.

It was during her second week that she discovered that she was not alone in her loneliness. There was another girl who was always alone. She had very little presence, so quiet and small though she had a fairly remarkable appearance. Beautiful white hair and striking blue eyes. But because of her lack of presence, she rarely had any interaction with anyone, and when she did it was usually another classmate teasing her.

On the day the two finally met she was being bullied by one of the boys in their class as she sat there quietly, not reacting at all to the verbal abuse. But Kuroko couldn't sit by and watch it happen. She marched over to the boy and said, "Stop picking on that girl. You're not being a very nice person."

"So what you cootie-ridden freak. I don't need to be nice to people like her," he said as he pushed the girl.

"Hey!" Kuroko yelled at him, "You better apologize for that."

"Or else what?" He asked as he pushed Kuroko down onto the floor too. He was bigger than Kuroko by quite a bit and he knew it. He stood tall with a wide stance, trying to make himself look even bigger, "what's a girl like you gonna do to me?"

Calmly Kuroko got back on her feet. She took a deep breath as she face the bully and leaned back a little. Then she quickly stepped forward and rammed her head into his face. The surprise and the impact knocked him back a little as blood started dripping from his nose.

"Oww," he said as his eyes began welling with tears, "That hurt! I'm telling the teacher on you!" He wailed as he ran off. Kuroko walked up to the girl who still lay on the ground. She knelt down and offered her hand. Very hesitantly the other girl took it and Kuroko helped her up. Her grip was weak and frail in Kuroko's own, her hand shaking and unsure. But Kuroko held it reassuringly, happy to finally have someone whom she could hold hands with.

"Are you ok?" Kuroko asked. The girl nodded in response.

"I'm Shirai Kuroko, what's your name?"

Kuroko could barely hear the response, the girl's voice was so quiet. "Athura thothi" she said, lisping on the s's. a small blush coloring her cheeks as she realized she couldn't even say her own name.

"Asura[2] Soshi? That's a really pretty name. Perfect for a girl with such pretty hair and eyes." Kuroko said enthusiastically.

The girl blushed deeper at her compliments. She was usually mocked or teased about her hair, not complimented on it. Not only that but she was still holding her hand…

But before either of them could say anything a teacher came over and talked to Kuroko, telling her off for head-butting and injuring a fellow student before marching her over to say sorry to the kid. That was the first of what would become a long series of fake apologies, extending even to this very day with her work in Judgment. After that she was forced to sit in the corner for the rest of their breaktime and she didn't get to talk to Asura anymore that day.

But the day after that she made it a point to find her and spend time with her. As well as the day after that and for the next several days to come. They soon became friends, even if she hardly talked to anyone. Slowly Kuroko helped bring her out of her shell a little though and when it was just the two of them she would talk almost like a normal person, albeit an abnormally polite, shy, and quiet person.

Given her personality, her power shocked Kuroko. She could produce sound of different frequencies and intensities. One of the first displays Kuroko saw was her shattering a glass, though it took a lot of concentration and time. She was a genius when it came to sound. She had an audiographic memory and could remember just about any sound she had ever heard. She could identify all the properties of a piece of music or just any random noise. She had said that day she first showed her powers to Kuroko everything, like the glass, had a particular frequency at which it would resonate, and if that frequency was kept up for long enough it would break.

"Wow!" Kuroko had responded, impressed with the display, "so someday you'll be able to shatter other things right? You'll be able to shatter rock and send buildings crashing to the ground with nothing but sound. Just like in that one story, about that city, Jericho." Suddenly Kuroko got a great idea, "hey, you know how friends always give each other nicknames? How about I call you Jericho-chan? And you can come up with one for me."

Asura was surprised but also touched. She had never had a nickname before, never had someone to call her one. And she liked the sound of her nickname: Jericho. The only problem is that she wasn't very creative herself and she struggled to come up with one. "How about Shiro-chan?" she suggested meekly.

It was a little odd considering that Asura was the one with white hair while she had brown, but for some reason, it fit. Shiro sounds nice.

"I like it," Kuroko replied with a smile.

Those were nice days, happy days. But they could not last forever. After two years of friendship the two parted, each going to a different school. It was a sad time, but they had known it was inevitable and they eventually got over it to follow their own paths.

But it seemed that a paths diverged by destiny can also be rejoined by the same.

"It's been a long time," Kuroko repeated nostalgically as she held the shy little Jericho. She was exactly the same as Kuroko remembered. She had worried that the times had changed her but nothing had changed it seemed, even after so long.

After a second Jericho withdrew from the embrace, blushing. "um… sorry…" she said, her voice back to its previous level and tone, "did you want to come in?" she asked looking around slightly embarrassed.

"Sure," she said as she was led into Jericho's apartment. It was small and dark with several pieces of electrical equipment lying around next to a computer which sat on a table near the wall. It was very tidy, but Jericho never been that messy. Kuroko guessed she was living alone; the electrical equipment was likely used in her inventing.

"I… uh… I don't really have any chairs…" Jericho remarked, "Sorry."

"That's ok I'll just sit on the floor," Kuroko said before doing just that. Jericho sat across from her, facing her and looking at her, or at least looking somewhere on the floor to the right of her.

"umm…" she began, "I hate to sound rude but is there a reason you decided to visit after all this time."

"Actually there is. I had a few questions to ask." Kuroko said as she hoisted the suitcase up and opened it revealing the device contained within, "about this."

Jericho's eyes widened and she seemed to shrink, "I'm sorry," she said voice full of fear, guilt, and sadness, "I didn't mean to cause anyone trouble, I didn't mean for things to turn out this way." Tears started forming around the edges of her eyes as she hug her knees.

Kuroko put her arm around Jericho's shoulders and held her comfortingly. "there there, don't' worry. You're not in trouble. I just want to know what this is all about. What is this thing?"

It took a while for Jericho to calm down enough to speak again. When she finally stopped sniffling she began, "you know that day when we gave each other our nicknames?"

"Of course."

"Remember how I told you that everything has a frequency that will make it resonate and break. Well it's not just physical things that have that. And not all things have only one. That device produces one of seven different frequencies which resonate with an ESPer's AIM field and destabilize it. It completely nullifies their abilities and, as a side effect, creates a strong disturbance in the brainwaves physically disabling them as well without having any effect on level 0's or non ESPers."

"I see. You built it right? Why?"

Jericho sniffled again, "yes. My mother has recently grown very ill and my father's job can't fully support the family on its own, let alone pay for her medical bills. So I needed to find a way to help, to get money for her and my family. I decide to try and become an inventor. I've been doing it for a while now, though I've been operating under a pseudonym, the nickname you gave me all those years ago. I try to create things which use sound to help people and get enough money to help my mother as well. It was going fine but things were quickly falling behind, I just wasn't making enough. That's when I got the offer from a place called Vulcanus Industries to create these things."

"I'd heard of the concept before. I heard how it was used to hurt people and I told them that I didn't want to build a weapon. But they told me they intended to use it for good, to help people rather than hurt them, and they promised to pay me enough money to pay off all my families bills and debts. So I accepted."

"The other versions of this aren't very powerful or efficient you understand. Rather than try to break the glass by hitting the right frequency, they simply get to a frequency that's close enough and hope to break it by intensity. I looked into it and found six of the specific frequencies that made the AIM field resonate. Using those I built those devices, each one utilizes a single frequency and because it is so precise it can have almost the same effect as a van sized one for a tiny fraction of the size."

"The deadline came and I told them I had six. They said that was fine and we arranged the drop-off. Everything seemed to go fine but a couple days later I was told that the person who picked them up never returned, that he sold them off and then left the company and fled. The person I talked to was very kind. He said that because it was his employee it was his responsibility and that I could keep the money. He said the matter would take care of itself and I just needed to figure out the seventh frequency. But I've been worrying ever since. What if someone bad got their hands on it and hurt someone? It would all be my fault."

It was probably the most that Kuroko had ever heard coming from Jericho's mouth. And it took a good long while for all of it to come out with her pauses and intermittent crying. Kuroko was holding her the entire time she spoke, trying to help ease her mind and let the words flow. "There there," she said, "you don't have to worry about a thing. I promise that I won't let anyone get hurt by these things. I'll collect each and every one and make sure that no one uses it for bad. "

"Shiro-chan…" Jericho said, her head buried in Kuroko's shoulder, "I can't ask you to do that, this is my responsibility, my fault. I can't let you get hurt because of me."

"I won't get hurt; don't you remember what I am?"

Jericho looked at her for a second, scouring her memory. Then she smiled, "You're Shiro-chan, the hero of justice, the brave knight who protects the princess," she recalled what Kuroko had told her she intended to be when she grew up.

"Exactly. And what kind of knight would I be if I let the princess get hurt? I'll take care of it… I already have two of them."

Jericho looked conflicted for a moment. Then she looked deep into Kuroko's eyes and, seeing the determination burning brightly within them, she nodded. "Ok… I believe in you."

"Good," Kuroko said returning her smile, "now it's getting late and the hero must return to her ordinary life. How about we go out on Saturday, you and me. We can catch up without having to deal with all this stuff. It will be like old times?"

"I…. I'd like that," Jericho said as she hugged Kuroko one last time.

"Goodbye then," Kuroko said, sad that she had to go so soon, but it was getting dark. So she teleported off and away back home. She felt happy. She had regained an old friend, a good friend.

"Things are really looking up aren't they Kuro."

And indeed, even the cold, heartless Kuro had to agree with that.

Author's Note: It's very hard, as a writer, to keep a secret from your readers when a characters knows it and makes allusions to it. It's a careful balance of giving enough information without giving too much. I hope I did well enough with this little plot twist and I hope it was enjoyable for you to read.

It's an interesting story actually. Jericho was originally an antagonist, just a one shot villain that would be defeated quickly. She originally just had a power. That was until I made a classic mistake as an author. I gave her a name to go with her power. After that I didn't really want to have her show up only to be defeated in the same chapter. I wanted to give her more character, more background. I eventually decided upon this and thus was born The Jericho Arc. Which will probably be, somewhat ironically, the majority of the story.

Oh and I'd like to thank all my readers, with special kudos to my reviewers. You guys really make me want to give this my all. So once again, I thank you.

[1] Considering AIM stands for "An Involuntary Movement" this sounds a bit redundant (an An Involuntary Movement field ((which actually sounds really stupid… how can a movement be a field?))), but if you just put AIM then it doesn't sound right. I'd rather go with what sounds right than what sounds slightly unnecessary when you give it some thought.

[2] The name's not really appropriate I know. She's way more like Rei than Asura, but I needed a name with an 'S' in it.