Toaru Taifu no Me

A Certain Eye of the STORM

Misaka's eyes shot open as an odd, slightly painful, but not entirely unpleasant sensation raked its way across her back. She quickly got hold of her senses and tried to identify the source. She noticed immediately that Kuroko had returned sometime during the night after she had gone to bed… once again. She also noticed that she was still asleep; a fact that wasn't too surprising considering it was still an hour or so until their alarm even went off.

As always they had wrapped around each other in their sleep. Kuroko was holding onto Misaka tightly with arms and legs, acting as clingy as ever. But, oddly, she also seemed to be keeping her distance. Her chest and head were drawn as far back as possible while still maintaining the bear hug, like she was at once repulsed by and dependent on what she clung to. Misaka guessed from her movements that she was having another nightmare, the sensation running across her back, she could now figure out, was Kuroko's fingernails digging into her skin as her hands clenched and unclenched.

Normally such a thing wouldn't bother her but it just so happened that the hands were up her shirt and doing this in the exact spot that Kuroko would use to "calm her down". The spot that seemed to melt away all her anger and stress and left her feeling so...so weak. Not even she herself was in control of her anger, and yet with nothing but a simple touch Kuroko could be? She felt like a puppet, with someone else so easily pulling her strings. She had always been annoyed by Kuroko's pace, it was far too fast for her. But now that they were in a relationship it was even worse, because now she was being pulled along by it, whether she wanted to or not.

She couldn't let herself be pulled along. She didn't want someone else taking control of her. She needed to be stronger, she needed to fight fire with fire, she needed to stop being so afraid and embarrassed by a simple good morning kiss.

She looked over Kuroko's face. It was calm and peaceful despite her body's thrashing, almost like it was frozen in place with a blank look. But despite seeming as cold and still as a statue, her lips still looked as warm and soft as ever. Misaka's heartbeat quickened as she strengthened her resolve. She leaned in and their lips met for a brief moment before withdrawing just as quickly. Her face held a light blush but it was more from her boldness than the kiss itself. It was a step on the path of victory, a step forward, a step closer to being the one to set the pace, a baby step perhaps but a step nonetheless.

Kuroko stopped her struggling as her eyes slowly opened, awakened by the kiss like Sleeping Beauty. She looked at Misaka with eyes still dull with sleep, then she smiled, leaning forward and nuzzling her, "Onee-sama…" she cooed blearily, pressing herself against the soft warmth of her bedmate.

Misaka's blush deepened at this, but she remained composed. "Kuroko," she said, keeping her embarrassment from her voice as she tried to give it an edge of authority, "since you're awake, please let go of me so I can get ready."

"Puu…" Kuroko whined, disappointed. But she relented nonetheless, reluctantly disentangling herself from her Onee-sama. Despite her rough night and the throbbing pain in her stomach she was still fairly happy. She had had a nice dream where her Onee-sama had actually been the one to kiss her and had woken up to her favorite sight in the world. Or rather her third favorite; her favorite was the image she had conjured of her beloved Onee-sama at their wedding in her beautiful white wedding dress, and her second favorite was her Onee-sama shortly after their wedding out of that wedding dress. Sadly those two particular images were still dreams for now.

Once they were free from their entanglement they stood and stretched then went to get ready. It was very early but they were awake anyway and it would be pointless trying to get back to sleep. After they had both gotten ready, Kuroko made a quick breakfast. Ever the romantic, she insisted that the two of them take it outside to watch the sunrise together. Misaka agreed and the pair found themselves on the roof of the dorm with a lovely view of the city as they watched the sun began its ascent into the sky.

Kuroko enjoyed the scenery and her Onee-sama's presence, smiling despite her pain. Her smile widened when her Onee-sama actually put her hand on Kuroko's own. She was blushing of course, and looking away, but there was a look of determination on her face. It was so cute to see her so driven by something as minor as holding hands. It was progress, slow and overdue, but progress nonetheless.

They stayed like that for several more minutes as the sun cleared the horizon, talking about light inconsequential things. They continued chatting until it was time to go, then the teleported down to the ground and made their way to school.

School went the same as usual for Misaka until lunch rolled around. She met up with Kuroko and they went together, sitting down at their normal spot. Today however Kuroko looked deep in thought. Misaka decided to ask her what was going on, "what's up Kuroko? You haven't said a word all lunch."

"Just thinking…" she replied simply.

"About…" Misaka prompted.

Kuroko looked at her and tried to put her thoughts into words. "There's a story," she began, 'about a British king who once sat in his throne on the beach and tried to stop the tide from coming in. He failed, but… could he have succeeded? With enough power can we hold back the tides? If we used all the windmills in Academy City, could we push back the wind?"

Misaka took a long hard look at Kuroko, considering what she had said before answering her, "You can never underestimate a person's determination. The king did nothing but sit there and order the tide to abate, but perhaps if he had put in enough effort he could have pushed them back. As for the windmill thing… I'll have to try that sometime but I think there is actually some merit in it," Misaka smiled, partly joking but partly curious as to whether or not it could actually work. "Though it is an odd topic to be considering. What brought it on?"

"I kind of made the dorm mistress just a little bit mad at me… It seemed a fitting allegory for the chances of me making it through this still breathing."

"I think pushing the wind back would be easier," Misaka said completely seriously, her smile gone along with the happy mood, replaced with an air of fear and concern.

"I'm going to try and apologize after school. If I don't make it through this please make sure you put flowers on my grave every now and again…"

"You're not going to die," Misaka said, though her voice had a tremor of uncertainty, "you'll make it through this. Promise me you'll make it through this."

"Don't worry Onee-sama, I have a plan. I'm sure it will all turn out all right," Kuroko said with a smile as the bell rang, "I'll see you tonight ok?"

"Ok," Misaka said as she gathered up her stuff, "I'll be returning around 8 or 9 so don't worry about me. And don't do anything stupid."

"I give all of you so much," Yashinko began, each syllable bubbling with exasperation and barely suppressed rage, "a place to train, resources, support… I am exceedingly generous. And I don't ask for too much in return. So tell me you four, tell me why, when I give you one little task, you fail so utterly? I sent four of you to capture one single teleporter. It should have been easy. How in the world did you mess this up?" She demanded.

She was tired of this failure. She knew that declaring war on a level 5 would be no easy task, but this string of losses was beginning to get ridiculous. "Her" first attempt at "persuasion" had not only turned out to be an idiotic psychopath who had not only violated the contract "she" had gotten with his company, but had also began this entire unwanted, unnecessary conflict by being so trigger happy. He had been beaten by that damn teleporter, despite how expensive the service had been. Not only that but the entire mercenary company that he belonged to had been destroyed.

But of course her own people had hardly been luckier. The rookie she sent, Hayami, had completely mistaken the purpose to her assignment, seeing the whole thing as a training exercise or playtime rather than the information gathering mission it had meant to be. She had made sure to express her displeasure at her incompetence with a stern lecture and a curt dismissal. But Sozoku, who was actually competent, though far too bloodthirsty for her tastes, had also failed to do anything but get another armored suit that her father had been building destroyed.

Her father was the driving force behind this entire thing, encouraging her activities with STORM and providing as many of his company's and his "company's" resources as he could. So far he had been very proud of what she had accomplished. But now that these resources were being slowly lost to this "war", and the profit to be gained by studying and utilizing the powers of STORM's ESPers was falling behind these losses, his support would begin to be restricted, giving her even less freedom to do what she wanted to than she already had and limiting her ability to provide for STORM. She needed to make this worthwhile again.

"it's not our fault," Kai spoke up, the only one of the group not too terrified to talk, "It wasn't what we expected. She had this thing, it made this awful sound and we couldn't use our abilities. You didn't tell us anything about that, how do you expect us to fight against something like that?"

Yashinko turned to Kai and, without a word, slowly began walking up to her. Though Kai tried to stand strong and appear brave, she was still terrified, fearing for her life for the third time in less than 24 hours.

Yashinko stopped shortly before Kai and looked at the four girls that had been sent out yesterday. Then she raised her hand, Kai flinched but, rather than being struck, she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. She cracked open her eye to see Yashinko standing there with a small, pleased grin on her face.

"You're right," Yashinko said, "I suppose it isn't truly your fault. I didn't have that knowledge either. So I apologize for putting you through this. If there is anything I can do for you just talk to me. Have a nice day; see you at the next club meeting." Her voice, which had been so full of anger before, was now completely calm, even pleased.

However the four girls chose not to question this change of mood. Instead they thanked their gods and hurried out of the room.

"You should have punished them," A voice from behind Yashinko called. Further in the room which functioned as their club's headquarters were two couches. One was taken up by her second in command, Rya, the one who was talking to her, "you are not harsh enough on them for their failures." It seemed that Rya had forgotten it had been she who had chosen the people for the assignment.

"On the contrary, harshness should be reserved for one's enemies. I am…. annoyed at their failure, but I am not so annoyed or enraged that I would lift a finger against one of them. You should treat your colleagues with compassion, sympathy, and respect if you wish to earn their loyalty. Fear is a powerful tool but should be reserved for manipulating one's enemies, not one's allies," Yashinko lectured, "you're father handles his business that way and he seems to be doing well."

"Don't go spouting your Machiavellian bullshit to me," Rya spat, "My father is a fool whose making a fraction of the profits he could be. So why don't you be quiet about that and tell me what this really about, why'd you go from pissed to happy and what exactly are you planning? And while we're at it, what exactly does that teleporter have on you that's making you so cautious?"

"You know the answer to the first two already. As for the third question, it's a personal matter," Yashinko stated as she sat down on the couch opposite Rya, next to her head of security Kazege.

Rya rolled her eyes then got up. "Yeah, whatever. I'm out of here," she said as she left.

Yashinko waited for a while then sighed. She felt something warm wrap around her.

"You're scared Ya-chan… and worried."

Yashinko smiled, "yeah Ka-chan, I am. Things aren't turning out how I wanted at all. I was so terrified when I first met with Mikoto that I completely messed things up and every step that I've taken to fix it has just backfired on me. Rya is so convinced that fear is the way to motivate people that she's trying to paint me as some sort of monster. There's a difference between cutthroat and psychotic. Maybe she's doing it on purpose though, trying to undermine my authority… she's so indecipherable that it's hard to tell her motivations for anything. I'd kick her out of STORM but her power is far too useful."

"It also makes her cynical," Kazege said, "knowing everybody's' intentions, motives, and plans would quickly corrupt your view of the world. Plus she can't even turn it off. I hear some telepaths who can't control their powers go insane. Even though she can't hear full thoughts it would still be maddening wouldn't it?"

"I can have sympathy for the devil but it doesn't make him any less cutthroat," Yashinko replied earning a giggle from Kazege, "I need to go write an email to my dad, then we'll go out for some dinner, ok Ka-chan?"

Kazege let her go and nodded. "You're quite lucky. Your dad lives in the city, you can see him every day," she said as Yashinko walked over to the computer in the corner.

"I know, it's great. But you have family here too you know. I'm your family right imouto-Ka-chan?"

"I'm six months older than you," she huffed indignantly.

"perhaps… but which of us is scared of thunder and sleeps with a stuffed animal?" Yashinko wryly asked, only to receive a pillow to the back of her head, "ack… don't worry I won't tell anyone about Biki and you know I think it's kind of cute. Perfect for my little sister."

Kazege sighed, "Siblings are nothing but trouble."

Yashinko understood. It was a common problem among their social class. People think that being born rich guarantees an easy life free from all worries and stress, but the truth was far from that. Being born to rich parents created several problems. In Yashinko's case she was the only child, the indisputable heir to the Honogun fortune and, by extension, the crime family. However this meant that she had no real freedom to do what she chose. From birth her father had raised her to be his heir and would not condone his expectations being broken. This whole deal with STORM was because her father wanted her to show her leadership skills. She didn't want to be part of some stupid club, and sure as hell didn't want to be in a stupid war with a level 5. But her father insisted, and she could not disobey his wishes, she needed to make him proud.

Rya was the third child, having one older brother and one older sister. The chance of her inheriting the family business was slim. She would more likely be stuck working under one of her siblings. The only chance she had to take over was via pure skill or underhanded tactics, and she didn't have the necessary skill.

Kazege was even worse off. Not only was she the fourth child, having three older brothers, but she was a child of the second wife. She could never inheiret the family business and her brothers and other relatives had nothing but disdain for her. As soon as she was out of school she would have to fend completely for herself, with no aid from her family at all. The only advantage she had from being rich was going to good, expensive schools, though that in and of itself was a considerable advantage.

"Yeah, that's probably true," Yashinko said with a smile, "but even if I do cause you trouble imouto-Ka-chan, I couldn't imagine life without you."

"I wasn't talking about you, you don't cause me trouble. I was talking about real siblings, siblings by blood," Kazege tried to clarify her statement, not wanting to insult her dearest friend, "you are like a sister to me but…but…"

Yashinko stopped in the middle of writing the email and stood up. She walked over to another room, then came back and sat next to Kazege again, "you get flustered so easily Ka-chan. Don't worry, I understand what you're trying to say. We don't have the same blood flowing through us so we're not true sisters. But we could be."

Kazege cocked her head, confused by that last part, "huh?"

"Give me your finger," Yashinko said as she brandished a clean scalpel she had retrieved from the first aid kit. Kazege immediately complied, completely trusting Yashinko and not afraid at all. "This is going to hurt a bit," Yashinko said soothingly as she smoothly, carefully cut her pinky just deep enough to draw blood, then she bent her head down, licked the wound clean, and swallowed the bitter, coppery blood. Then she put a band-aid on it before handing a new, clean scalpel to Kazege and offering her own finger. Kazege understood and did the same thing. Not a word was exchanged through the process. Nothing needed to be said. They were as close now as they could be, and each reveled in the closeness. Now they were a part of each other.

After it was over they shared a hug and a smile, then Yashinko went back to her email while Yashinko cleaned the scalpels and put them away. Yashinko quickly finished up her email and turned off the computer.

"Well then, shall we go? You can pick where we eat if you'd like imouto-Ka-chan," she said as she got ready to leave.

"The usual sounds ok imouto-Ya-chan," Kazege replied with a wry grin.

And so the two girls, now blood-sisters, walked to their favorite restaurant, talking and laughing, forgetting all about their troubles. However there was still a question that Kazege wanted answered. "Why did what the girls said make you so happy anyway Ya-chan?"

Yashinko smiled in response and simply answered, "Because now this whole thing isn't my problem anymore. This war won't be affecting my club or its members any further." Now she had a reason to leave this conflict in the hands of someone more capable than she, who was more interested in war than her as well.

[1]: As I was writing this I remembered a scene almost the exact same as this in the anime The World God Only Knows. It was in the second episode and it was such an adorable scene.

Author's Note: From this point on my updates might begin to get slower as life interferes with writing. To make up for that, I might soon have a quintiple update for you, four chapters and some bonus material, all in one day. I tend to think about my story in a non-linear fashion so several chapters are partially written quite a while beforehand. So just bear with me for now my faithful readers. Now, onto another matter.

In all honesty I hadn't planned on doing this chapter at all. But while I was writing the brief interaction between Yashinko and the four STORM girls, I decided to go more in depth about STORM and its leader. Until now there hasn't been much seen of Yashinko and that which has been presented paints her in a poor light. But that doesn't mean that that is all there is too it. The question to consider for next time is this: How many villains are evil and how many just have bad publicity?