Toaru Tsugi no Iki
A Certain Second Wind
Misaka sighed as she walked down the streets. She had parted company with Saten a while ago when she had decided to go back to Judgment to see if Uiharu was done with her work yet. She had been invited to join her but right now Misaka needed a bit of alone time. It had been a tough weekend for her, quite emotionally jarring in an already high stress situation like she currently found herself in, what with this whole STORM ordeal.
Misaka found the conflict distasteful and the person behind it even more so. But what truly aggravated her was the fact that she couldn't tackle the problem head on. Her enemy went to the same freaking school and yet she was more elusive than The Queen. She couldn't be touched in school, and couldn't be touched out of school. This was not a problem she could solve by normal means.
But then came the question: How could she solve it? Could she at all? Was she fighting an unwinnable fight? Even if she fought with them out of school, she couldn't hurt them too badly. They could just go running back to Yoshinko, ready to attack her again and again.
She mulled it over in her head, happy to take her mind off of everything else that was going on. 'Yeah, this whole thing is just one big mess. No wonder I was so aggravated this weekend. It's just the stress...' It was a good distraction, and a good excuse.
She continued wandering for a bit longer, lost in her thoughts. However she was jarred from her concentration by a familiar voice, though she couldn't quite place it's owner. It was a light, happy voice, laughing a short distance off. She looked over in the direction.
It was coming from the nearby park where several little children were playing with a teal-haired girl in a Tokiwadai uniform. Recognition soon set in, it was Hayami, from a few days ago. The first STORM member she had been attacked by. Though attacked was hardly the right word for the event. Attacks usually inferred some hostility existing between the attacker and the attacked.
Misaka wondered what she should do, or if she should do anything. They had not parted as enemies. Misaka wasn't sure if they had ever been enemies, and Hayami seemed to judge her as a friend, though Hayami seemed like the type to judge everyone as a friend. At the end of the last fight she had requested that she drop out of STORM... maybe she should go and say hello, ask how she was and maybe learned what had happened after that. 'It would be best to confirm who my "enemies" are and aren't after all.'
So she strolled on over to the park. Hayami saw her as she came over and waved to her with a smile on her face just before being tackled by a couple of the six year old children as the rest of the group of 8 gathered around her. "Gotcha Hayami-Onee-chan!" one of them cried out happily. Hayami giggled, "yep, ya got me." she said to the child, then she turned to Misaka, "heya there Misaka-senpai, here ta play?" she asked in that same fast, happy voice that she had had before, though her speech was considerably more casual than before, and the accent showed through.
"uh... actually I'm here to talk."
"Ya came to a playground ta talk? A little odd but oh well. Who ya here ta talk to?"
"You," Misaka answered simply.
"Well I'm here ta play so we'll have ta compromise," Hayami remarked, then she knelt down and talked to the children, "hey how 'bout a game of hide and go seek? You guys hide and me and Misaka-Onee-chan will go and find ya." The idea was met with approval and she smiled at them, "k then go and hide somewhere, but don't wander too far, wouldn't want ya to get hurt or lost now would we?" They nodded and all ran off to find hiding spots. Hayami turned back to Misaka, "We can talk as we look right? Then everyone gets to do what they want."
"Uh yeah I guess," Misaka said. This girl was odd but still, her warm, kind demeanor brought a smile to Misaka's face.
"So what did you want to talk about?" she asked, then she began to count, "one, two, three"
"Just wanted to see how you were. Wondering what happened after that thing,"
"Ten, Eleven, I got fired, Thirteen"
"Huh?"
"Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty. Ready or not here I come." She finished counting off, then she looked at Misaka, "I got fired. I was gonna quit, like ya told me ta. But then Yoshinko-senpai asked what happened. I told her there was a big robot but that ya defeated it. She got angry and said that I had failed her, then told me ta leave. She has a very low tolerance for failure, ya let her down and she kicks you out. Kinda harsh really but oh well." She said as she begun scouring the park for the hidden children finding one hiding quite obviously behind a tree. "Found ya Kiki-chan"
Misaka considered Hayami's words. A plan was beginning to form in her mind. Perhaps there was a way to win this. If she really reacted badly to the failure of her underlings perhaps they couldn't just go running back to attack her again ad infinitum. Maybe a single victory would do. After all if they weren't part of STORM they no longer had reason to attack her. It might just work.
The only problem was she had no idea how she was going to pull that off. She couldn't just sit by and let them come to her again and again. Nor could she let them hurt her friends again. But she couldn't just attack them either. She couldn't do it in school and she had no idea where to find them out of school.
"Kinda a pity though, now I won't get ta use that warehouse any more." Hayami rambled on.
"Huh?" Misaka asked, "warehouse?"
"Yeah. The warehouse with the robot. It used ta be where I trained. That's why most people join factions, ta get access ta various training facilities they might not otherwise be able to access on their own. That's why STORM is so popular. Yoshinko-senpai let us use the warehouses of her family's company ta train in. she even helped customize each one to suit the person training. Considering most of the people in STORM have fairly destructive powers, a place where you can train without hurting other people is important. All the crates and stuff in that warehouse were great targets, it's a pity I only got to play there for a couple of days. But at least I managed to help while I was there, moving the crates over to the truck to be loaded and stuff like that."
"So each member of the faction has their own warehouse?" Misaka asked, trying to stop Hayami's rambling and direct the conversation to more useful lines of questioning.
"Nah, some people don't have one, some people share one. There are quite a few but not enough , especially considering the influx of new recruits."
"Do you know where the warehouses are?"
"I wasn't in STORM for very long so no. But my friend's been in for a long time now, she should know. Her name's Mai, she's really nice and sociable. I know where you can find her... kinda."
"Kinda?"
"Well it's one of two places... but I can't remember which. I remember hearing the address of one of them while I was helping the people load up this massive crate back when I was still in STORM and I can't seem to remember which is which."
'It's still something,' "Tell me both and I'll check them out." She said.
"Oh, sure, that works." she said as she said both of them, finishing the second just as she found the last child, hiding underneath the jungle gym. "Found ya Gen: you're the last too so come on out and we'll go see the rest." They went back to the other seven children, "now how 'bout I treat ya to some ice cream," Hayami said to them all. The idea was met with cheers, "Yay, Hayami-Onee-chan is the best!" They cried.
One of them looked over to Misaka, "are you coming too Misaka-Onee-chan?"
Misaka smiled, "I'm afraid I can't. I have something I got to go do now."
"Aww... will you come back again sometime?"
"I'll try ok?"
"Let's go then," Hayami said, "bye Misaka-senpai," she said waving farewell. This was followed by a chorus of "Bye Misaka-Onee-chan." as the kids went off to get their ice cream with their playmate.
Misaka went off now. She slightly regretted not going with them but she had hatched a plan, and now all she needed was one last thing. "If only my source was slightly more reliable," she sighed, but truth be told it was more than she could have hoped for, surprisingly informative for the ramblings of an airhead. She would check one of the places right now, and hope it was the right one. After all the odds were 50-50, and even if she picked the wrong one she might still not be attacked. And even if she was attacked she was sure she could beat the other person... then she would have one less enemy to worry about later on. Then she would check out the second warehouse if need be.
So she made her way to her first destination, chosen from the two with a coin flip. After a long walk there she arrived later on in the evening, when the sun had begun to set in the sky. She walked around first, scouting out the building and surrounding area. It was a large building, though not very tall, set in one of the many regions in Academy city which held many such buildings. It was sectioned off into two distinct parts, one larger and one smaller. However the larger portion had no visible means of entry. The smaller section had a set of large garage doors to allow trucks in as well as smaller doors beside the large ones and in the back of the building. When she was done searching Misaka chose to enter through the latter, for simple virtue of being both nearby and unlocked.
The inside of the building was far less cluttered than the other warehouse. The few crates lay neatly against the wall rather than strewn all about. The few lights that were on provided a dim glow. Through the poor lighting she couldn't see anyone in the building but she took a few hesitant steps into the building to look further. As she walked the lights began turning on in response to her presence. Each row turning on as she walked down. The atmosphere in here was hot, heavy and humid, far more so than outside, there was also a pungant scent of fuel hanging in air. It was unpleasant and slightly tiring. Misaka paused when she was a third of the way in and began to look around as the progression of lights continued without her.
Suddenly she heard a noise, a loud hiss. She turned to look at the source of the noise. Twenty light blue canisters let out their contents spontaneously, and all at once. The canisters read O2 and had the standard diamond warning label.
Then Misaka heard another noise, a voice this time, coming from the other end of the warehouse. "well well well. What do we have here? If it isn't Misaka Mikoto, Ms. Ace herself. I was just about to leave to, how serendipitous that I caught you." The tone was all too familiar, that haughty mocking tone that she had heard far too often recently. However the voice itself was not familiar. She looked at the girl who stood at the other end. She wore a Tokiwadai uniform much like Misaka herself. She was much the same height but looked slightly younger. Probably a first year. Her bearing was the standard Ojou-sama pomp. Her jet black hair was short but cut in an elegant style.
"Who are you?" Misaka asked her.
The girl put her hand to her chest, "I am Sozoku[1] of STORM."
"Ah," she replied simply. It seemed that this was the wrong place after all. "I guess I'll be going then," she said. She didn't want a conflict unless it was necessary. Even if she was in STORM she wasn't necessarily guilty.
"Where do you think you're going so soon eh? Didn't you know that you're STORM's enemy now? You think I could just let you leave?"
She sighed and turned around. "Look," she began, "this whole thing is just..." she stopped suddenly. She couldn't breathe. Or rather, she could but it wasn't working. She inhaled deeply but the breath felt odd, failed to fill her lungs and satisfy her need for air. She felt as if she was drowning in a sea of air.
Sozoku was grinning at her Misaka returned with a glare, not saying anything in an effort to preserve the what little air she still had in her lungs. "You really shouldn't be so dismissive you know. So how do you like my power eh? I can control the oxygen concentration in air. A simple power, nothing like yours, but you'd be surprised how useful it can be, given how vital oxygen is to the body. You don't last long without it." She taunted.
Misaka looked towards Sozoku. She had wished to prevent conflict but now that she had levied the first act of aggresion, all bets were off. Misaka raised her arm towards her, ready to finish this quickly with a lightning bolt. But the instant the first spark cleared her palm a large ball of fire erupted on the spot. Misaka reflexively shielded her face with her arms. The fire lasted for less than a second but it was hot. Misaka's clothes and hair weren't ignited but her arms probably suffered some minor burns.
A slow clap came from the other end of the building. "Bravo bravo," Sozoku said sarcastically, "how brilliant, using electricity in a high oxygen environment. What's your next tactic? Breathing fire on a keg of gunpowder? Hitting some nitroglycerine with a rock?"
Misaka bristled at these comments. She could win even without her lightning. She magnetized the air and gathered the iron particles on the ground to form her Satetsuken. Her opponent was unarmored so she did not make the particles vibrate, not wanting to hurt her that badly. Still, even without the cutting power it was a powerful weapon, more than enough to defeat this girl.
She raised the makeshift handle above her head the black cloud swarming above her as her eyes locked their steeled gaze upon Sozoku. But she appeared completely undeterred at the swarming mass of razor sharp iron particles. She only said, "predictable," in a bored tone of voice.
This irked Misaka even more and she swung downward, sending the cloud right on top of her opponent. But instead of the mass of black crashing down upon her head, it was a cloud of red dust that wafted downward between the two. "You really aren't too bright are you?" Sozoku said in the same bored tone as before, though this time it held a much more intense hint of malice, "Don't you know what iron does when exposed to humid air and oxygen? It rusts[2]. Such small particles in such a high oxygen environment take seconds to rust. And rust isn't magnetic."
This wasn't good. Misaka was being outmaneuvered easily. Hayami had mentioned that each training area was customized to suit the person who used it. She was fighting on Sozoku's territory.
She underestimated STORM's members once again, and this one wasn't playing like Hayami was. She was running out of air too. She considered running for a second. She glanced back at the door. It wasn't too far off but her pride made her reluctant to leave.
"oh ho, thinking of running away are you?" Sozoku said, noticing her momentary glance to the back door, "I don't think so." she said as she pulled out a match. She made a show of striking it against her skirt to light it. Then she casually tossed it to the side. It flew through the air for a meter then suddenly burst into a much larger flame. The fireball lit a wall of fire which trailed forward past Misaka and wrapping around behind her. Unlike before the fire stayed much longer this time, cutting off Misaka's means of escape for several seconds. Then Sozoku took out another match and said, "move and the next thing to burn will be you."
But now she didn't have to. Misaka had noticed something, the match hadn't erupted into flames when it was first struck. That meant that the region around Sozoku wasn't high oxygen. In fact the match had only had a tiny flame, so it was probably lower than average to prevent the fireballs from hurting her. All Misaka needed to do was get close, but the minute she moved Sozoku would burn her alive. She had a plan for that, however.
She stood completely still. When she saw this Sozoku grinned, "oh it looks like you can follow commands. I guess I just need to keep it simple for the slow little puppy. Stay. Good girl." She mocked.
A few seconds later Misaka took off towards Sozoku. "tsk, looks like you're a bad dog after all. Time to punish you." She said as she began to strike the match. But as her hand brushed her skirt a lightning bolt arced between the fabric and her skin. The static electricity that Misaka had slowly, carefully charged the air with made Sozoku's arm go numb and caused her to drop the match.
This delay allowed Misaka enough time to get close and grab her blazer. She saw Sozoku's eyes grow wide a moment before she shocked her directly. Despite her anger she reined in the voltage to just below her usual incapacitation levels, adjusting for her smaller mass.
She collapsed in a spasming heap as Misaka took a deep breath. The air around her still had a lower oxygen concentration but it was better than nothing. When she had finally recovered she turned to leave.
But before she could even take a step, the door that went into the larger section of the warehouse burst open as another of the robot suits burst through the door. The design of this one was different however. On each shoulder was a set of four large clamps reminiscent of the claw of the suit that that awful Therestina woman had been in. They were considerably smaller but they seemed to be deployable in much the same fashion. And if they could then... she looked over at Sozoku. She was an unpleasant arrogant person but she could be killed by those things, and Misaka couldn't just stand by and let that happen. But what could she do.
She thought frantically but not fast enough. The pilot took aim and pushed the fire button. But as the clamps slid downward, lining up with the target, a small spark was produced by the friction of the grinding metal in the still static filled air. This small spark erupted in a massive fireball. The force of the explosion pushed the suit backwards just as the clamps were firing, sending them shooting way off course, into the ceiling where they tore through most of the steel support beams.
Misaka, untouched by the fire in Sozoku's low-oxygen zone, saw the oppurtunity. As the pilot's vision was cloudy and his suit reeling, she shot off towards the ceiling, magnetically clinging to the nearly ruined beams. She had to act quickly. She took a small plastic container out of her pocket and opened the top. Ever since she had fought the human lightning rod in district 17 where there had been no iron sand in the surrounding ground to use for her Satetsuken, she had been carrying around a small container-full, in case of emergencies. It was only enough for a small circular-saw-like blade but that was enough. She used it to quickly slice through two parts of the beams.
After a few seconds spent dazed by the explosion the pilot recovered. He pressed the retreival button for the clamps and looked to reacquire his target, only to see the girl had gone from the spot. She scanned from side to side but saw now sign of her. Then something caught his eye. He looked up to the clamps that had gone wide off their mark to see that they were reeling back in carrying a large hunk of steel from the beams in the ceiling. Perched on top of this hunk was the girl. "Fu-" the pilot didn't even have time to swear before the huge piece of steel collided with the suit sending it staggering backwards as the beam bounced off, itself deformed by the blow.
Misaka jumped off the beam moments before impact, landing behind the mech and readying her sand saw as she spun around to face the massive machine's back. Then she saw, housed on the back of the machine, what looked to be the machine's power supply. Misaka smiled, happy some part of the battle was going her way as she reached out and shocked the battery, pumping it full of electricity and overloading it. It sparked dangerously before exploding in a small upward plume of fire and shrapnel, shutting the suit down.
Misaka heard as the chest opened and something soft hit the ground. 'Hopefully this pilot knows more than the last one' She thought as she walked around. However it appeared that this one had been knocked unconscious by the impact and the explosion.
She sighed annoyed at the complete waste of time this had... She looked again at the pilot and noticed something. The suit he was wearing was the exact same as the other one, even though the robot was different.
From what she understood of powered suits they operated in two parts. The outer layer and the inner layer. The robotic exterior was only half of the device. The inner layer was actually far more sophisticated than the outer one. It was what the pilot wore and acted as the controls using advanced neural uplink technology. In even more advanced suits it could even heighten the user's cognitive abilities and reflexes, allowing their mind to function in high enough capacity to utilize the suits' capabilities in ways a normal human couldn't.
Normally a single inner layer could only be used for a single outer layer, yet this one seemed to work with two, or even more. Not only that but they were also made by two different manufacturers. The outer suit had the Honogun logo proudly displayed but, on the back of the inner suit, was the name of a company Misaka didn't recognize:Vulcanus Industries.
Misaka reexamined the scene but could gather no further information, so she simply left with a sigh. She was tired and she still had quite a walk home without much time to do it. She would have more time for this investigation later on.
Kuroko sat on Misaka's bed, relaxing and thinking. As she was thinking she glanced over to her bed. It was made and perfectly neat, a state it had not been disturbed from for almost two weeks now. The only purpose it had served recently was a place to hide things under.
The idea that she was now sleeping with her Onee-sama every night was almost unbelievable, but it was true. Even if it was for a far more... "PG" reason than Kuroko would have hoped, but things would change. "Someday, someday soon we'll be lovers." Kuroko declared with a smile.
Kuro found it hard to hold her "tongue" here. But this time she had to. She knew that this was one thing she could not talk to Shiro about, knew it would do nothing but anger her, and Kuro wanted Shiro's happiness, even if it meant staying silent about this most dire of grievances.
A minute or so later the door opened and her Onee-sama walked in. She looked tired and dirtied. She had probably been in a fight... again. Kuroko rolled her eyes but decided not to lecture her, instead greeting her with a "hello Onee-sama."
"Hey," she replied briefly before going into the bathroom. Kuroko heard her start a bath.
She waited on the bed until a few minutes after the water stopped running then stood up and went to the bathroom door. She opened it and poked her head in with a smile, "Would you like me to wash your back Onee-sama?" she asked as she gazed into the stunned girl's eyes.
'3...2...1...' Kuroko counted before moving her head backwards, moving with the shampoo bottle that her Onee-sama had just thrown at her, lessening the impact. It still hit hard and it still hurt but not quite as badly. She exaggerated the impact though, like usual, flinging herself dramatically backwards onto the floor, looking up at the ceiling and rubbing her head where the bottle had hit, "oww..." she said.
She could've teleported away, she could always teleport away. She had always known that. She was a trained martial artist with reflexes honed further over the years by her use of teleportation. Her Onee-sama's clumsy attacks had and would never actually hit her without her permission. But she allowed it each time, preferring Onee-sama's anger to be let out by a quick whack on the head and a bit of yelling rather than building up into a lasting grudge.
Speaking of yelling, "what the hell you ecchi! Baka! Don't come in when you know I'm taking a bath!" Misaka screamed in anger.
Kuroko just layed there, slightly relieved that she was angry now. The moment she had walked into the room Kuroko knew there was something up. She seemed troubled, even more so than this morning. She was a little bit worried.
"You left the door unlocked," Kuroko said, more as a statement of fact than an excuse. It had been conclusive proof that something was bothering her. Normally she never would have done such a thing with Kuroko as a roommate. "What's bugging you. Is it what I did yesterday? Are you still angry at me?"
"No. It's just that... uggh, can we talk about this later?" Misaka said confused by the caring tone of Kuroko's voice. It was becoming harder and harder to tell the difference between perversion and concern with Kuroko.
"You're brooding and unhappy. We can talk about it later but I'm your girlfriend and I don't like to see you unhappy."
"Kuroko..." she began quietly then sighed, "it's not you... or not all you. Yes, yesterday and the day before were... not the most pleasant of experiences, but that's as much because of me than because of you. It's just that lots of things have been going on and it's just... uggh... it's making me so damn frustrated." She said getting angrier and angrier, "It's all so messed up. I was forced into some stupid, pointless contest that got us both hurt. And just when I think that's the end of it suddenly there's this whole thing at school with the factions that gets all my friends hurt. And the whole thing just so happens to be my fault for being in that stupid contest that I was forced into. Every single step has been a disaster which sets off a bigger disaster. Nothing is going right."
The next instant she felt Kuroko's arms wrap around her in a hug, her head resting on Misaka's shoulder. It would have been a sweet, comforting gesture had she not still been in the bath. Because of that, instead of feeling warm and fuzzy, her anger just grew exponentially, "Kuroko..." She began in a warning, voice tinged with barely restrained rage, then she noticed that she was shaking and her voice became concerned rather than angry, "Kuroko...?"
"Something's gone right," Kuroko said, interrupting her, "don't say everything has been a disaster unless you mean everything. Things may be bad but I have you and you have me, which means it's good enough for me."
"You're unhappy too," Misaka said, "You claim to be happy but you've been more hurt than anyone else. You smile but you're as troubled as I am. Your nightmares have been getting worse too. How can I be happy when you aren't?" Forgetting her state for a moment Misaka turned and hugged Kuroko back, "you need to be happy Kuroko. You're much prettier when you're happy."
"It would make me happy to see you happy. I work so hard to show my love and make you happy... I want to see you as happy as you make me. So if you are going to ask me to be happy you have to promise me you'll work on being happy as well."
Misaka looked into Kuroko's eyes for a second then leaned forward and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. "I promise," she said, blushing at her bold move. But it had the desired effect, Kuroko's face lit up with a true, happy smile as she stood up and left the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
'Maybe some parts of this aren't so bad after all.' Misaka thought.
[1]: Another dual language pun. Sozoku means "heir". Unrelated to the word for air in japanese but a homophone in English. (Yes I am so bad at using puns that you need to be bilingual to understand them at all...)
[2]: I have mentioned before my adherence to the laws of science in my fanfictions which is why I put a massive amount of research into this part to see if it was even possible. In her Satetsuken Misaka most likely uses magnetite, which is what is commonly meant by "iron sand". Magnetite is highly magnetic, however it is already an iron oxide so I wasn't sure if it would rust or not. As it turns out it can, though the rust isn't quite the same composition as common ferrous oxide (which is the red stuff).
Author's Note: After receiving considerable positive feedback I decided to once again include Hayami in my fanfic. I'd also like to take this opportunity to give a response to the popular theory that she is behind the whole STORM thing while Honogun is simply a scapegoat. I am sorry to say that this is not true. The real mastermind behind this whole affair is the Shiba Inu in the control room. (bonus points if you can figure out the reference)