Toaru Kumo no Hito
A Certain Person of the Clouds
Misaka had been wandering around since school had ended. Her mind full of thoughts and her thoughts full of annoyance. Though some others might disagree, she worked hard to make sure that she did not have many enemies. So why, despite all her hard work, did she continue to make them? Did being a level 5 make people inherently hate you?
Misaka sighed, she knew the answer to that. Yes, it did. Sure not everyone hated her but most people, out of jealousy, spite, or envy, disliked her before they had even laid eyes on her. Even her friends had, apparently, felt the same way before they met her. But Misaka was also lucky, in a sense, to have people who looked past that. True friends who didn't care whether or not she was a level 5. Friends who, because of her, had gotten hurt.
The thought saddened her and filled her with guilt, but it also reminded her that she had not seen Saten or Uiharu since the incident. Maybe she should pop by Judgment to see how they were doing. She knew Uiharu and Kuroko had work and hoped she would find Saten there as well.
A short walk later had her arrive at Judgment Branch 177 offices, where she found Uiharu and Saten but, curiously, no Kuroko. "Hey guys," she greeted, "where's Kuroko, didn't she have work today?"
They looked at her, "hey there," Saten said, "she was here just a minute ago but then she just disappeared without a word."
"I'm worried, she's been acting differently recently. Do you have any idea what's going on?" Uiharu asked.
Misaka took a step back, not quite sure what to say. Kuroko was acting a little oddly, but that was probably because they were in a relationship now, and she couldn't exactly tell them that. "I uh... I haven't really noticed it." She said.
"See, I told you it was probably nothing. Maybe she was just searching for a big lingerie sale and needed to rush to get to it in time," Saten joked
"She takes her job more seriously than that," Uiharu defended.
"Not like another Judment officer I can think of."
Uiharu huffed at Saten's comment, folding her arms and turning around. "You don't need to be so mean about it."
"gomen gomen. You know I was just joking Uiharu, you're a great officer you know that." She comforted, wrapping her arm around Uiharu's shoulder.
Misaka smiled to see them playing just like usual. They seemed fine, despite yesterday's trials. Though she was feeling a little bit like a third wheel here as they joked around with each other. "Well I should probably get going," she said excusing herself.
"Ah, wait. I'll join you. We don't want to disturb Ms. Employee of the month do we?" Saten volunteered, "We'll bring something sweet back for you k Uiharu?"
"Thanks," she said, Saten's slight forgiven at the promise of a snack.
With that the two girls left, "where are we going," Saten asked as they went outside.
"Well... I hadn't exactly planned on going anywhere in particular. Did you have some place you wanted to go?"
"Let's head to the crepe stand, I'm feeling like a banana cream crepe and we can get Uiharu a strawberry one to match."
"Match what?" Misaka asked.
"Her panties," Saten replied.
"You say that so casually..." Misaka said, slightly embarrassed by the comment, "why do you always flip her skirt anyway?"
"It's a habit. I've been doing it since the day we met."
"Why did you do it then?" It was a somewhat awkward conversation for Misaka but her curiosity overrode her embarrassment. She had witness Saten flip Uiharu's skirt countless times, and had always wondered why.
"Well you know that expression, 'have your panties in a bunch'? Well I wondered one day if that actually happened, so I walked up to the nearest girl and flipped her skirt to check." Saten told her with a straight face.
Misaka's jaw almost dropped when she heard that. It was completely and utterly ridiculous, "you can't be serious," she said.
"Nope, I'm not," A smile broke across her face as she began laughing.
Misaka facepalmed, wondering how she could have been so gullible as to believe that story for even a second. "just forget I asked," she said. It was a silly question anyway.
"Sure thing," She replied. After that the two were silent for a short while, then Saten spoke up again, "So how are things going with your boyfriend?"
"Uh... fine I guess," Misaka replied, still not entirely comfortably with this topic.
"Does Kuroko know you have a boyfriend? Is that why she's acting strangely?" She had had the idea back at the office but couldn't exactly discuss it in front of Uiharu.
It made a bit of sense but she was still unsure. What she had heard through the hospital door yesterday seemed to indicate that she had no idea, but Misaka could have told her while they... were doing whatever it is that they were doing. It would explain her distant behavior.
But Misaka crushed that theory quickly, nervously saying, "no... not exactly. Besides, I'm sure it's nothing, maybe just some random moodswings. I get them myself from time to time." She rambled slightly as she tried to think up excuses.
"Isn't that just you being a tsundere?" Saten teased, making Misaka blush.
"I'm not a tsundere," she said a little too loudly, drawing a few stares and making her blush even more as she hurried onward to escape the eyes.
Saten picked up the pace to catch up, "gomen gomen," she said, apologizing for the 13th time today (A pretty big number though it wasn't even close to her record of 57 times that one time in 4th grade)[1]. "though it's kind of weird. Knowing how long you kept that a secret makes me wonder what else is going on with my friends that I don't know about. I wonder if Uiharu has a secret boyfriend stashed away somewhere..." The tone in her voice had gone from chipper and excited to slightly melancholy. Whether she was saddened more by the thought of her friends hiding things from her or by the thought of Uiharu having a boyfriend Saten wasn't sure.
"Some secrets are necessary," Misaka said, trying at once to comfort Saten and to assuage her own feelings of guilt, "It's not always a matter of trust. Sometimes it's a matter of protection. Sometimes you have to keep secrets to protect yourself or the people you care about."
"I suppose your right, but still... don't you feel just bad when you learn that someone was keeping a secret from you?" Saten said as they approached the crepe stand and ordered their crepes, and Uiharu's as well. "Should we get one for Kuroko as well? In case she came back while we were out?"
"Nah," Misaka decided, "She can just share mine if she wants some."
Saten giggled, "she'll be excited by that. Try not to tease the poor girl too much, or she truly will be devastated when she finds out." Though Misaka was her friend and she understood her reluctance to inform other people that she was in a relationship, Kuroko was also her friend. Saten knew that this would end badly for them when Kuroko learned of this. She could become seriously depressed, and she really didn't want that for her. She hoped Misaka would let her down gently but ever since she had learned of this neither had acted as if anything was going on. Despite her support of Misaka she truly understood how Kuroko felt and couldn't help but think Misaka was handling this all wrong. But she kept up her cheery facade as they got their crepes and left.
Misaka didn't respond, but shifted nervously as they walked back. After that there hung a silence between the two as they walked back. Saten was lost in thought and Misaka was too nervous about letting something slip. After a much longer feeling trip, they arrived back at Judgment. They went back upstairs to see that Kuroko still hadn't returned. Uiharu was at her computer screen as usual, scanning the cameras in the area. When she heard the door close she jumped in her chair and quickly shut down the program. She had been looking for Kuroko and was focused on the task when the sound had startled her.
Saten walked over and handed her her crepe as Misaka looked at Kuroko's unmanned workstation. "I'm gonna go now, I've got some homework I need to do," she remarked.
"Oh yeah," Saten said, "me too. Help me with it k Uiharu. Also if I could borrow your fourth hour notes."
Misaka left the two others as she left the office to wander around a little more. She wandered aimlessly through the familiar district for a long while, too distracted to do her homework like she had said. She grew tired of all these secrets but was loathe to reveal them. There's was a necessary existance but one that still gnawed at Misaka's conscience.
"Hiya there Misaka-senpai," a voice called, jarring her out of her thoughts. A girl stood in front of her on the streets. She wore a Tokiwadai uniform and had light teal hair that hung down below her shoulders, matching her sea blue eyes. Her smile was bright and cheerful, she looked like a person without a care in the world, "I'm Hayami! I'm from STORM and I'm here for field combat training."
"Huh?" was Misaka's reply. She was from storm... so did that mean she was here to attack her? But what did she mean by "field combat training"?
"I was told to come here to attack you, so it must be for practice. Battling a level five is a perfect for seeing how strong I am. Also they said something about waiting for a buse or something[2] I wasn't really listening too carefully."
Misaka sweatdropped as she listened to the girl ramble, "Do you mean they told you to ambush me?" She asked, trying to understand her intentions as well as the intentions of STORM.
"Did they?" Hayami asked confused, her smile turning into a cute little pout, "aww... that'll probably hurt my grade. Guess I gotta try my hardest in the rest of the practice to make up for it." With the last sentence her smile returned in full force, "I hope you're ready."
"Wait," Misaka began still hoping to get more information, though it seemed that this girl was as clueless as she was. Hayami seemed to genuinely think that this was some sort of training, maybe if sh could just talk to her she could get her to see reason.
But Hayami didn't hear her as she raised her hand. From her palm shot a small blue ball that zoomed a meter in front of Misaka before expanding explosively with a massive roar. It felt like she had just run into a wall and she was knocked back a step by the concussive force. "Kaminarite (Thunderhand)!" Hayami proclaimed proudly, "That's what I call my power. How do ya like it?"
Misaka recovered quickly and sparks began emitting from her forehead. 'New plan,' she thought to herself, annoyed, 'teach her a little respect then talk some sense into her.' But before she could get in a shot another ball rocketed forward and she was hit again by the concussive blast of Hayami's "kaminarite". By the time she recovered from that hit Hayami had run down the adjacent alley.
"You're it, come catch me," she yelled excitedly to Misaka.
Misaka took the bait and ran after her but as soon as she rounded the corner another sphere flew at her, exploding, driving the air from her lungs again as the sensation of charging into an invisible brick wall ran through her body once more. It hurt a little but more than anything it annoyed her and as soon as she recovered she ran down the alley and shot a lightning bolt at the other girl.
Hayami heard the distinctive crackling of the lightning as Misaka charged her bolt up though, and before she shot it off she aimed her kaminarite at the ground at her feet and fired as she jumped. The force propelled her upwards as the lightning missed her completely. She flipped twice in the air and turned her body around before landing gracefully.
Misaka was surprised at her impressive dodge. But she was even more surprised when Hayami gave her a bow and proceeded to do a handstand in front of her. Her skirt fell down revealing adorab-... childish teddy bear panties as she began to talk, "two years in the gymnastics club at elementary school plus I'm in it this year too," Hayami informed her, "I can also do origami and play the drums."
Misaka rolled her eyes. This person was crazy, completely airheaded. She turned around, deciding not to waste any more of her time in this silly fight. But when she did a blue sphere shot past her colliding with the brick wall of the building and exploding in a much smaller sphere of force. The impact completely shattered several of the bricks surrounding it and cracked many others. It was a far more powerful blast than the others, maybe even lethal. Misaka turned around immediately.
"Come on now," Hayami said, she was upright again and pouting, "I've come all this way to practice with you. It's a big honor to fight a level five, so don't just leave before our training is over."
"This isn't training," Misaka quietly, slowly tried to explain to this girl.
"Of course it is," Hayami corrected quickly, "Why else would I be sent here to have a battle with you?"
Once again it seemed that Misaka had no choice but to play along. So, with a sigh, she prepared to fire another bolt at her. She charge and shot it quickly but not quickly enough. Hayami fired her kaminarite behind a nearby dumpster, shunting it forward into the path of the lightning, blocking it. Then she fired again shooting the now charred, charged hunk of metal down the alley at Misaka.
It shot forward quickly and Misaka barely had time to react. She barely managed to repulse it with her magnetism, slowing it down before shooting it backwards down the alley at high speed where it crashed into the building at the far end. Hayami had turned into the next alley and peeked out at Misaka from behind the corner. She smiled and said, "thank you very much for taking the time out of your schedule for me. It means a lot to me." She then turned and began running down the alley happily, still thinking this was all a game.
'I suppose it's better than someone who's actually trying to hurt me...' Misaka decided as she followed her, 'I might as well humor her.'
As she turned into the alley Hayami turned around, quickly trying to shoot off another kaminarite, only to have it go high, detonating several feet above Misaka's head. Misaka began readying another shot when she heard the creaking of metal as the ladder to the fire escape above her swung downward on it's hinge colliding straight with Misaka's back as Hayami fired another shot directly in front of her as she was quickly hit from one side and then the other.
In the couple of seconds it took her to recover Hayami had already turned around the next corner. Misaka took another few seconds to catch her breath. She wouldn't run too far away after all. She was good, Misaka had to admit. She used her power and the environment well. She was maneuvering and using these alleys so well Misaka wondered if this wasn't all planned out.
Then Hayami appeared back from the corner. She gestured with a thumb down the alley she had just come from, "Dead end," she remarked before firing a kaminarite at her feet, propelling her further down the alley away from Misaka at a very quick speed.
'Or she's just blindly running around and having a lot of dumb luck,' Misaka decided following her.
She continued the chase for a while longer. They exchanged "blows" few of which had any effect at all and those that did had such little effect as to be easily shrugged off. Misaka herself hadn't gotten a single hit in, too distracted by each kaminarite burst to let off a measured, restrained shot and not willing to attack someone who was also holding back with an unrestrained bolt. But she was also quickly learning, quickly figuring out how to dodge the blasts, by the end she was hardly getting hit by any of them, but she still couldn't quite get a shot in, and now she was quickly tiring.
Hayami was still treating this like a game, "am I doing well," she asked Misaka, "well enough to pass?" Though tired herself she was keeping ahead of Misaka and managed not to run into more than 2 more dead ends. But they had gone quite a distance and they were out of the alleys now. So Hayami, trying to maintain the advantage, ducked into one of the warehouses. She ran in, Misaka still a distance behind but catching up. But as she ventured farther in the dark, nearly empty building something began to bug her. Something that Yoshinko-sama had told her. It had something to do with a warehouse... She stopped running to think, trying to remember. By the time Misaka had entered the building, out of breath and severely annoyed, she just continued to stand there deep in thought. Misaka got ready to attack but saw that her opponent seemed distracted, her back to Misaka. Misaka looked around, wary for a trap, but it was dark. Still Hayami didn't seem like the type to do something like that. So Misaka stepped forward and called out to her, "hayami-san? Is something wrong."
She turned around, "yeah... forgive me for this but there was something they told me before I left. Something about a warehouse with the Honogun sign out front. But I wasn't really listening, it didn't seem to have anything to do with practice."
Then the lights came on illuminating the mostly empty room. Around the edges were a few crates. The high ceiling was held up by numerous steel beams that rose from the ground. And several meters in front of Misaka was a large robotic exoskeleton, similar in design to MAR's troops but larger and more advanced. It was a few meters away from Hayami, but with a burst of speed it was next to her and with a swing of it's arms sent her flying across the room. "Excellent work," a voice emenated from the exoskeleton, "Honogun-sama didn't think you could actually accomplish this task but you seem to have brought The Railgun here successfully. You have done well, but you aren't needed any longer." The robotic suit turned towards Misaka. "Now it is time to fulfill my task and terminate you."
Misaka unleashed a massive spear of lightning towards it. It hit dead on but didn't seem to phase it. 'oh well, a bolt like that should have fried it's electronics at least.'
But Misaka was proved wrong when it charged forward, rolling fast on wheeled feet it attacked. Misaka quickly polarized it and herself with the same charge, when he swung his fist it pushed Misaka back but never actually made contact, saving her from crushed ribs as she soared backwards through the air and collided with a pole. her impact was softened a little by her powers but it was still enough to knock the wind from her lungs for what felt like the ten thousandth time that day.
Misaka recomposed herself. If it wasn't affected by her lightning she would need to try something else. She got a coin out of her pocket and flipped it up into the air. But before it could even reach the top of its arc, her opponent was on her again. She quickly propelled herself forward with her powers but saw as its punch ripped straight through the thick iron beam, using the rotational momentum from the blow to turn around and face her.
"Impressive isn't it?" the person in the suit said, "it has no electronics so your little lightning can't disable or take control of it. I don't know how it works but it sure does work. You're going down Railgun, you afraid." the robot rolled forward preparing for another hit as Misaka was still trying to figure out a plan and recovering. Misaka ducked low timing her dodge but the robot gained a sudden burst off speed and was upon her the next moment.
It brought it's fist back for the final blow when suddenly it was knocked off course by a sudden impact from the side as Hayami, recently recovered from her blow to the head, shot her thunderhand at the mean person. Though not enough to send it flying back the full powered blast was enough to divert it from it's collision course with Misaka into the steel beam next to her. It ripped through it suffering mild damages as it's acceleration was halted.
It would only take a second to recover from that but that second was all Misaka needed. Stepping forward she used her railgun on the robot itself, sending it shooting backwards across the warehouse, hitting the wall with a heavy crash. Then, gathering the iron particles in the dirt and air into a small Satetsuken, Misaka cut through the top of the beam which the robotic suit had just crashed through. Within a second it fell free and Misaka sent it shooting after the robot, wrapping around it and pinning it to the wall. The person inside struggled but could not free the suit from the girder. Not only that but, with the chest blocked, he couldn't even escape from the suit.
Misaka walked up to the struggling, crippled thing. "Now I need you to talk."
"I'm just an employee," the person explained, "I don't know anything."
Misaka got a coin out from her pocket, "are you sure about that?" she asked as she flipped it a few times.
"Yeah, I'm telling you, I really don't know a thing." He said, sounding very scared now.
Figuring he was telling the truth she put the coin back in her pocket and left. As she was leaving the warehouse Hayami skipped up to her.
"I guess that means we won," she remarked happily, "an interesting training session indeed. So how did I do? Did I get an A?"
Misaka looked at the girl, opening her mouth then closing it again. She sighed and patted Hayami on the head, "yeah, you get an A." She said, too tired for anything else. "But you should probably quit STORM, you know."
She smiled, "if you say so. Hey thanks again for training with me. I had a really fun time. And that robot thing was awesome, though the person was a little mean, hitting me that hard."
"Yeah, it was pretty fun," Misaka had to admit. It had been an annoying exercise in futility but it was certainly invigorating. One of the more unusual fights she had had in a while, "Take care of yourself then, I'll see you around I guess." She said in farewell as she turned in the direction of home. It would take some running to get back on time so she set off at a good clip.
"Bye bye," Hayami said waving her off before going on her own merry little way, humming a cheerful little tune as she walked into the setting sun.
Author's Note: I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of the hardest things about having a powerful protagonist is the fact that it is difficult to come up with long, interesting fights. Normally how people handle this is to make the antagonists even more powerful (which is a recipe for disastrous escalation) or introduce someone who their powers aren't effective against (which, unless done correctly, is just as boring and disastrous). I'm guilty of doing the second thing during the very first chapter and I admit that I'll do it more throughout, though I won't take the easy route and simply say "it doesn't work because I said so" and try to come up with interesting, realistic countermeasures.
However there is another way to make a battle against a super powerful person draw on long enough to be interesting without either of those methods. One of Misaka's big weaknesses is her alignment (which I'd classify as chaotic good, same with Kuroko though she has several Lawful elements to her that Misaka doesn't). Because she's good she holds back in all her fights, though less in some fights than in others. So rather than make the antagonists really powerful I decided I could make them weak but not bad people. Misaka would never give a fight against someone like Hayami her all, no matter how long it drew on. Sure in the back of your mind you're yelling at Misaka to just zap her and finish it, but it's better than the other options.
[1] Finally Saten's power revealed: the ability to remember tiny, unimportant things flawlessly. (well actually it's that wind manipulation thing, the memory's more of a made up quirk). In my mind Saten actually identifies the date of significant events in her recent life by the type of panties Uiharu was wearing that day.
[2] Once again I'd like to highlight that they are talking in Japanese. Which is where the misunderstanding came in. The word for ambush is Machibuse which she heard as machi buse, machi is a word for wait and Hayami doesn't know what a buse is. Basically it boils down to the fact that she isn't very good at listening to others.