Important Note: (as of August 8th 2012) I have added a little bit to the last chapter, which is important to understanding the beginning of this chapter. Sorry for the retroactive writing but please bear with me and read it. It's at the very end so you don't need to reread the whole chapter though.

Toaru Shiro no Line

A Certain Line of White

"Why must you be so freaking embarrassing?" Misaka asked in a voice loud enough to convey her ire but quiet enough to avoid the dorm mistress's fury. The two girls were back in their room much later that day, having spent quite a bit of time shopping with their friends and hanging out. Now they had returned and Misaka was ready to unleash everything she had stored up that day.

"I don't see why you're complaining, I spent maybe ten minutes looking at those dresses," Kuroko replied innocently.

"While talking about which colour scheme would be best for our wedding. I thought you promised to keep this whole relationship low key."

Her tone of voice made Kuroko pause. She took a step closer to Misaka and looked her in the eyes, "you're really upset with me aren't you?" she said, slightly taken aback by how seriously she was taking this ordeal.

"Of course I'm upset stupid. You were acting like a complete idiot, fawning over which dress I should wear to a wedding that ain't gonna happen. It's only been a week, and besides, if you hadn't noticed we're way, way too young to even start considering it." Misaka was still 2 years away from the minimum age and Kuroko was 4 years away. Even if this relationship lasted that long she would never drop school for a marriage.

Kuroko's eye twitched involuntarily but her soft smile didn't falter. "Excuse me for a second," she said politely before teleporting away to a nice secluded spot outside in the back of the dorm buildings. Here nobody could hear her, she was all alone. Only now did she let the smile drop, to be replaced by an altogether more hostile expression, "too young, too young, too goddamn young!" she seethed, "I'm tired of hearing that all the freaking time. I may be twelve but I'm no child and I'm DAMN TIRED OF BEING TREATED LIKE ONE." She felt like hitting something but the only thing around was the wall and Kuroko wasn't stupid enough to punch solid stone purely out of anger. She would save the urge for when she went to train her martial arts. Right now she took a deep breath and teleported back into the room, calmer than before at least.

"You're right Onee-sama," she admitted, smile back on her face, "It is too early to begin talking about it, but I can still revel in the fantasy can't I?"

"Revel all you'd like just don't do it verbally," Misaka responded. Kuroko stepping out had given her a little time to calm down as well, which was probably why she had done it.

Kuroko bowed, "forgive me my love, I simply lost myself in the joy." She said with a genuine tone of voice.

Misaka turned away from her, "you are so embarrassing, you know that."

Kuroko silently crept up on her and whispered seductively in her ear, "and you are so cute when you are embarrassed." She said and planted a short, sweet kiss on her cheek.

The same shiver from before ran down Misaka's spine, "that doesn't make me feel better about it," she said as she pushed Kuroko away.

Kuroko sighed and decided it would be best if she left Misaka alone for the rest of the night.

After that the night, morning and next day at school all passed by normally. Despite their fight they still slept together, ate together, and went to school together as if nothing had happened at all. They made no more mentions of the fight, both pretty much forgetting about it by the last bell of school. They were used to having fights, and were used to working past them.

After school Kuroko had Judgment work and Misaka had nothing better to do, so the two walked together to the office. Saten and Uiharu were already there, as was Konori who was currently buried in her work with Uiharu while Saten sat on the couch and read a magazine she had brought.

"Ah, Shirai-san, you're here," Uiharu said noticing the opening door. She waved her over, "we need your help."

So Kuroko went over to them while Misaka joined Saten on the couch. "What's up?" Kuroko asked them.

"It's about yesterday," Konori informed her, "Anti-Skill has run into a little problem in their investigation… or rather they haven't."

"Huh?"

"That thing yesterday, the jamming device. They said they looked into it but could find no information regarding it. There was no information on it anywhere, and it was the first time they had seen such a thing. They would have no idea what it was or the significance of it had you not told them… which brings up the question how exactly you knew. They were hoping you had more information and that you could tell them your source."

"I don't really have any more information actually. The only reason I knew it was a jamming device is because I don't see why anything else would have a big red button with the word "Jam" on it."

Konori sighed, "that's what I was afraid of. Yesterday supplied a wealth of information but it looks like this lead is pretty dead."

"What else are we following?"

Uiharu piped up to answer that one, "well one of the guys had some money in his briefcase, along with a lot of slips of paper, like receipts that seemed to list how people and dollar amounts. It's like you said yesterday, there is a whole gambling ring centered around this. But unfortunately the people aren't named, there just given a series of numbers, so we can't track them down. And the money retrieved was a relatively small amount. So there isn't much information from that lead either."

"So basically we have nothing?" She said, annoyed.

"Don't be like that Shirai-san," Uiharu said comfortingly, "I mean you were the first person to stop a race before it began, plus you arrested 13 people. That's awesome."

"Not really," Kuroko noted. Her power was not one of mass destruction after all. She could quickly finish a single opponent but compared to Misaka's ability to take out 20 opponents in the same amount of time, it kind of paled, "anyway, if we have no leads I'll go and see if I can dig some up, the races are still continuing right?"

"Well yeah but…" Uiharu began, but before she could finish Kuroko teleported off.

Konori sighed, "she's always so restless when she gets on these cases. I'm going to go as well, one of us should be on patrol at least. Uiharu, you stay here and provide backup like usual ok? And no goofing off." She straightened up her desk and stood up to leave, "And you two, don't distract her understood. I don't mind you being here but try not to cause any trouble for us."

"Hai," they confirmed as Uiharu went over to her work station. When she logged in and brought up the necessary program she let out a sigh, "it seems Kuroko's turned off her microphone again."

It's probably a good thing the device had such an obvious function. Otherwise our knowledge might have raised more suspicion than it did. You need to be careful what knowledge you let leak.

"I know I know. This whole thing aggravates me though. If I use my knowledge from my… less tasteful ventures I raise suspicions but if I don't then I feel guilty. And then there's the promise I made not to use the knowledge to investigate anyone from Birdy's 'family'"

It would be best not to use the knowledge to investigate anyone. We can still use it in the future, but I don't think we would be able to if we made an enemy of them. Besides, their crimes are hardly the jurisdiction of Judgment. They're under the jurisdiction of the various government agencies that deal with such things, Judgment deals with local misconduct and delinquency.

"You do have a point… but it still feels wrong and then there's this whole thing with Riko, the information broker. Is that legal? Is that right?"

I don't see how it could not be. It's just information, knowledge. Police use people like them and call them "crime consultants". You need to ignore all these "feelings" of yours and focus on the rationality of the situation.

"One of us needs to feel, or else we'd be nothing more than a robot. But you have a point… If the information is used for good then who cares if I had to pay for it."

Exactly.

With that settled for now, Kuroko got back to work.

Back at the Judgment office, after being told off by Konori, Saten and Misaka decided that they shouldn't hang around here and distract Uiharu. So the two girls went off to waste time elsewhere until the two got off.

"So… how's the boyfriend doing?" Saten asked.

"Every day I wonder how someone can be that annoying. Yet I can never bring myself to hate him… It's just so… ugghh."

She giggled, "well that's love for you. No matter their flaws you look past them."

"Isn't that what friendship is, not love? You can feel the same for anyone without having to love them."

Saten looked off into the distance, "they're similar and sometimes the line between them blurs."

Things were quiet after that, and after a short, awkward pause they resumed talking about less… embarrassingly accurate things.

After half an hour of fruitless investigating followed by an hour and a half of standard Judgment work, Kuroko clocked out and headed to her other business of the day. Taking out the small slip of paper Birdy had given her yesterday she started towards the address listed.

It wasn't long before Kuroko found herself at her destination. The building she stood in front of was one of the many towering skyscrapers located in the northern regions of District 7. It stood at 15 stories tall with a flat roof, though part of the building seemed to extend a story higher than the rest, creating a sort of two-tiered, somewhat awkward looking thing. The dull white exterior had occasional widows of varying sizes along its somewhat irregular face.

Her gnawing doubt, though not as strong as it had been, still made her hesitate before the door for a moment, and then she opened it up and walked into the lobby.

The building did not belong to any single company, but rather rented out its office space to many different companies, like many other skyscrapers in the city did, so the lobby was little more than a small room with a couple of couches and some fancy potted plants. The rest of the first floor was taken up by the storerooms and offices of other various businesses.

Kuroko walked over to the elevator at the very end of the room. Next to it was a large wooden board which had the names of all the businesses printed on it as well as the floor and room number(s) on which they could be found. The slip of paper Birdy had given her had said it was the floor 16 so she looked at the listings for that floor. Since it was significantly smaller than the other floors there was only one single listing for it: Simurgh Associations. The name was written in roman letters and seemed to be a foreign word; she wasn't even sure how to pronounce it.

But still, despite the fact that she wasn't sure of the name of where she was supposed to go, it was the only one on the top floor, so she guessed it had to be it. So she entered the elevator and pressed the button to the floor 16. Soon she was standing in front of a luxurious oak door with a shining prismatic plaque that read "Simurgh Associations: We think so you don't have to". Despite her nervousness she had to roll her eyes at that. She reached up to the doorknob and opened the door, stepping into the room.

The office seemed to be one single room, though a large one. Bookshelves lined the walls as well as a couple of doors on each side. A desk rested at the far end, framed by a large window that displayed a brilliant vista of the city. On it sat two monitors, one on each end angled towards the center. Behind the desk was a large soft-backed chair, though its occupant was nowhere to be seen.

The door had been open and Birdy had said he would be in, but Kuroko could not see him anywhere. 'He's probably in one of the side rooms doing some business, I guess I'll just wait in here.' So she decided to look around the room. The bookshelves were full of books of all types and lengths, several were even in other languages. In the wide open area between the front door and the desk were a few chairs set here and there as well as what looked to be a chess set resting on a small table near one the wall on the right. Kuroko walked over to the board and examined it. The pieces looked handmade, carved from rock with a considerable bit of skill. Kuroko picked up a piece. It was smooth and looked quite new, the rock shone with the brilliant sheen of polished obsidian. "Kuro," she remarked. The piece she held was the black knight, and the valiant figure atop his noble steed couldn't help but remind Kuroko of her own knight in dark armor. At least you didn't make me the bishop.

"I'll take Shiro then," said an unfamiliar voice. Kuroko turned to the source. A tall, lanky teen, maybe 18 years old leaned on one of the bookshelves. His demeanor was casual and welcoming, like he was inviting her into his home rather than his office. His face was lit up by a wide, playful smile. And though he looked like a nice friendly person Kuroko was still put a little on edge by his eyes. She had heard the term "to undress someone with your eyes" before, but he felt more like he was dissecting her with his. His gaze was piercing, hawk-like, catching each and every detail it landed on and analyzing it, "pawn E to E4." He said.

Kuroko put down the chess piece in its rightful place, "I'm not here for a game. I'm here for business, you're Riko right?" She said, though she moved to white pawn to its designated spot anyway.

"Despite your words you certainly seem interested in a game, and come to think of it so am I. I am indeed Riko, by the way. We'll do business as we play, would you care for some tea as well?"

Kuroko opened her mouth to protest but decided against it. She had been expecting someone more... shady. This cheerful hospitality and casual atmosphere was a welcome surprise, even if his gaze unnerved her slightly, "Some tea would be nice, thank you." She said politely, then, when he had turned around to go into one of the side doors she said, "King's knight to F6."

After a minute Riko came back with the tea. Kuroko had taken a seat at the table and he set a cup on the table in front of her before taking a place on the opposite side and making his move. "So Kuroko, what can I do for you?"

Kuroko looked at him and rolled her eyes, "Ok... I'll ask. How did you know my name."

"The way I see it people come here knowing what my name is and what I do. I don't like being at a disadvantage like that so I make sure I know as much about the person coming to see me as they do about me. What kind of information broker would I be if I couldn't do that much."

"Well then, do you know why I'm here?"

"Nope, if I did I would've said so already. I do like showing off after all, it adds to the mystique. I do know that it's your first time at a place like this, you're far too nervous for a veteran. Which does make me curious. What great question could have brought a Judgment agent to my office here on the thin white line of the law? I doubt it has to do with your current case, it isn't too complex, and besides that you made considerable progress yesterday. Given your overconfident nature you wouldn't come here when you think you could still solve something by your own. Of course there could be more to you than it seems, your playing is remarkably defensive and well thought out considering how impulsive you seem."

'Actually that isn't my playing,' she thought to herself. Move your bishop to F5. While Kuro was telling her what moves to make she was considering what Riko had just said. The thoroughness of his knowledge on her was more disturbing than amazing. Though most of that could be considered common knowledge it was his information on the case she was working that was most disconcerting. No ordinary person should know yet, the only civilians she had told were Saten and Misaka. "I guess you are pretty good," Kuroko remarked, "I'm here because I need to find something. Suitcases with sound systems embedded into them. There are six, built by the inventor called Jericho."

"Ah yes, the capacity down systems. That is indeed quite an interesting query. I don't quite know the current locations of all of them yet, but I can tell you that none of them are available, they've all been sold, does that matter to you?"

"No." Kuroko responded simply.

Riko chuckled, "even more interesting. Well then I can find out the owners in relatively short order. So let's discuss payment. I accept three forms of payment, money, information, or entertainment. If you give me information in return for the information I give you I can lower the fee or even drop it entirely if it's good enough."

"I get those two but what exactly do you mean by 'entertainment'?" she asked, confused.

He grinned in response, "Simple. I love my job, I really do. I love working with all the knowledge that I can get my hands on, hoarding it like a dragon, and handing it out to others in small doses and seeing how that little drop of knowledge can spark out of control. The money is more of a side effect than a goal. That's why I can sometimes be convinced to waive the fee if the information I'm giving out will have particular entertaining results. This is not one of those cases however, so unless you have some information the fee will come to 50,000 Yen."

"Quite the price for someone to whom money is but a 'side effect'."

"I'm the best at what I do, so my prices can afford to be a bit steep. Besides, the more money it costs the more it encourages others to dispense information to lower said cost."

It was a tempting offer but Kuroko was hardly willing to just give out information on her classified judgment work just to lower the price. Besides, her parents didn't monitor her expenditures so she could spend as much money as she wanted without a hint of suspicion. 'You need to care to be suspicious after all.' "Fine, I'll pay. Do you accept checks?"

"Yes, though it's been a while since I've last had to. Most people prefer not to leave a paper trail you understand. At least my customers don't." He said jokingly.

Kuroko didn't respond, simply taking out her checkbook and writing out the check, then she handed it to him. "Here you go. Thank you for your time but I'll be going now."

"No, thank you," Riko replied as he took the check, "and we'll have to continue this game sometime, it's turning out to be quite interesting." He saw her nod before closing the door.

When she was gone he reclined in the chair and smiled, picking up a small metal instrument from the table where it had suddenly appeared just a moment ago. It was a bug, a little surveillance device of his own design, he had planted it on the girl back when he had given her her tea. "Yes… this game is quite interesting indeed." He retreated back into his sanctuary. "Let's learn a little bit more about this Shirai Kuroko shall we? She could be quite fun."

Author's note: yeah… sorry this took me so long. A week for one of my shorter chapters... Anyway I hope you enjoy despite the wait. My big announcement for this chapter is that I got a beta reader, so that's cool.

Other than that… not much to report. I'll get the next chapter in as soon as I can, I promise. Until then, (various forms of goodbye followed by an exit-stage right)