Toaru Kage no Jikan

A Certain Time of Shadows

Kuroko stood in front of the bathroom sink looking into the mirror set above it. She opened up the mirror to reveal a medicine cabinet where they kept their toiletries and a few bottles of various pills. She retrieved two of the bottles. One of the bottles was the pain pills she had been prescribed a while ago. But though it was supposed to last for more than a month, there were only two left. She sighed as she took them to calm her aching shoulder and to dull the pain of her bullet wound. She then tossed the now empty bottle in the trash as she picked up the other one.

This bottle was more useful to her than oxygen. It was an over-the counter-supplement that warded off the effects of sleep deprivation and increased wakefulness. It was commonly used by students pulling off all-nighters to study for tests but she had also used it many times in the past for the infrequent nights when she would need to stay up late for Judgment work, but for the past couple weeks she had been taking them almost every day in order to function properly.

Considering that it was one in the morning and she had gotten less than four hours of very restless sleep, she decided that a double dose would probably be necessary to push her through until lunchtime. So she took the pills then put them back in the cabinet and walked out of the bathroom.

She now had several hours before her Onee-sama woke up. 'not that that really matters,' she thought to herself, 'it's not like I have to be here then. It's not like she even wants me around.' She clenched her left hand into a fist, 'No. I have more useful things to be doing than griping about things I can't change.' She got dressed and ready then picked up some things and teleported out of the dorm. She teleported several times in rapid succession until she reached one of her secret places.

There were 23 places that Kuroko had discovered which could only be accessed by teleporters. 19 of them were the roofs of buildings that didn't have a way to access them regularly, 3 of them were places where the paths to them had been obstructed, and 1 of them, her most secret and valued place, was underground and impossible to detect. She had found out about it through a complete accident during spring when she was just learning to teleport herself. In one of her first attempts she had accidently gotten the x and z coordinates screwed up in her head and teleported herself down instead of forward.

That mistake could have gotten her hurt or even killed had she not managed to teleport, by accident, into what looked to be an abandoned military compound. Though air flowed down to it through what Kuroko guessed were small cracks in the roof that reached the surface, there was no way to reached it through normal means. It was 50 meters underground and the corridors leading up to it were vitrified, frozen in glass, probably by the unknown previous resident.

It's walls were thick and heavy, lined with steel plates which protected the rooms dangerous contents. The room was a storage room and the walls were lined with weaponry: missles,guns, boxes of ammunition, two armored cars, a powered suit, and one large metal crate at the far end with multiple warning labels plastered onto it. Now there were a few more additions to that list, four suitcases more deadly than almost all of the other weapons due to their ability to disable ESPer powers. This was the only place that Kuroko could think of to store them where no one else could find them.

Kuroko had also made other, less dangerous, additions to the room. Because she lived in the dorm and had no other residence, this was the place where she kept everything she couldn't keep or didn't have room for in the dorm. There was her training equipment for her martial arts set up in the middle of the room. There were also a number of trophies from previous Judgment cases she had solved displayed in one corner alongside trophies that signified her other achievements, like her acceptance letter from Tokiwadai.

Today though she had no need for training and the room had few other benefits besides its remoteness. So she decided that she would go to another one of the remote places. This place was the roof of a massive white building, though at nights it glowed an eerie purple with red lines across its face. The building, oddly enough, had no doors or windows or ways to reach the top. But despite having no visible forms of entry and no way to access the roof, there was still a bench overlooking a small garden setup on top. She had never seen the gardener and indeed it never seemed that the odd flowers that populated the bulk of the garden were ever tended to, but they had always been in bloom and beautifully pristine when she came up here.

The flowers were odd in and of themselves. Kuroko had never seen anything like them. The thorny stems and velvet soft leaves were a deep crimson purple and looked almost artificial, or at least dyed. The flower itself looked an orchid blossoming within the petals of a lily[1]. The lily petals were pure white while the orchid petals were jet black. Through the middle of every petal, both white lily and black orchid, ran a blood red line that seemed to pool in the very center of the flower.

Even in the blackness of the night the garden was beautiful. The scent of the flowers wafted calmingly across the air. She sat down at the bench with the dim moonlight illuminating just enough to see. To most people in this situation this would be a time to curl up with a nice, enjoyable novel. Kuroko, however, was not most people. She didn't read much fiction at all and tonight was no different. She had with her the owner's manual for the suit of armor she was schedule to receive for tomorrow.

In addition to that she had also received something else yesterday before she had gone back to the dorms. It was the high tech headset for the armor disguised as an ordinary, if perhaps a bit gaudy, pair of mirrored sunglasses. They were not new technology, in fact Jango had had a pair of the exact same. However the technology was still amazing. It was capable of interpreting infrared and ultraviolet light and could even use a T-ray scanner which could be used to identify weapons under a suspect's clothing. Its HUD could be programmed with all manner of things including one of the more basic functions, a map of the area updated every fifth of a second by satellite imagery to ensure accuracy. Things like beacons could be added to the map to indicate a point of interest or, using the included tracking devices, track a target.

She spent the rest of the night here acquainting herself with all the functions of these glasses as well as the suit she would be receiving tomorrow after she took down the street racing ring… if she could. If she didn't mess this up like she had the bank robber case, or the graviton bombing case, or the…

What's wrong Shiro. There's anger and despair bubbling inside you but you haven't said a word.

"It's nothing," she told Kuro with a voice of finality. She knew already what Kuro would say and she knew already that she would be right in saying it. Despair was pointless. She was too tired of crying to be giving up.

She would succeed and show everyone just how capable she was, just how useful she was. She would never allow herself to be an inconvenience; she would never prove them right.

The moon is beautiful tonight isn't it?

Kuroko looked up at the moon. It was full tonight. "yes it is," she agreed with a slight smile, "a white white moon in a black black sky." After that she calmed down and continued to read until morning. Then she packed up her book and went to school, stopping on the way to pick up a bite to eat.

Misaka walked the streets of the Garden of Education. School had just ended and she was going to Judgment Branch 177. This morning Kuroko hadn't been in the dorm when she woke up, and she hadn't seen her at school either. It was abnormal and Misaka was worried that there was something seriously wrong with her. She decided that if Kuroko skipped work there would be sufficient reason to worry, but if she was there then there was something else that was going on.

Misaka had heard yesterday from Mai that she had encountered some STORM members and wondered if that could have something to do with why she wasn't there. But if that was the case then Kuroko would have been on her case about the matter already. Kuroko never missed a chance to scold Misaka about whatever she perceived was her most recent mistake. It was just another of those annoying things that she did that Misaka disliked, and yet relied on in a way.

Since Misaka hadn't received an earful of reprimands yet she guessed that it was another matter, unrelated to this STORM business. She had been working on a case for Judgment, so that was the likeliest cause. Kuroko took her work completely seriously. Kuroko's obsession with her work was perhaps the only thing that could match her obsession with Misaka . It was the only thing that could distract her enough to draw her away from her Onee-sama.

If that was the case then her odd behavior would be over as soon as the case was solved. And if that was true maybe she would benefit from the assistance of a level 5...

It would distract her from her own mission but she was sure it could be wrapped up quickly with her help and helping Kuroko was just as important to her as fighting STORM, if not more so. Of course Kuroko would object if she knew that Misaka was helping, like she always did, so she would need to help discretely. With this decided she left the Garden of Education and picked up the pace to her destination.

On the way she came across a familiar face. "Hey Saten-san," she said, walking over to her. Saten looked up and gave Misaka a slight smile, though her face seemed to have an expression of sadness and worry that the faked smile couldn't help to shake off.

"Oh, hey Misaka-san," Saten replied, her normally lively voice was far more subdued than usual.

"What's up? Where's Uiharu? Don't you two usually walk together?"

"I could ask the same of Kuroko…" she said then sighed, "I made a mistake and I think I made Uiharu mad at me. I'm not sure what I should do. I'm think I should go and apologize but…" she trailed off.

"What happened?" Misaka asked, curious as to what Saten could have done to make someone like Uiharu mad.

"Well, you see, this morning we were walking to school together. She had gotten up late and was still kind of sleepy and everything. So, in order to perk her up a little, I decided to flip her skirt…"

It seemed normal so far so what had happened that had embarrassed her? Saten flipped her skirt all the time so what could have happened to... Suddenly it dawned on her, "Wait… you don't mean to say that…"

Saten nodded, "she was so tired that she forgot them. There wasn't anyone around so I was the only person to see," she continued, clearly upset and with an air of guilt in her voice, "but when she realized, she ran home bawling. I saw her later on so she went to school in the end but I haven't talked to her since then. Don't tell her I've told you, I shouldn't have told you but I don't know what to do…"

"Just apologize when you see her. She'll understand if you say you're sorry."

Saten nodded again, "ok. I'll apologize as soon as I see her."

That particular event ended up being sooner than expected as, a couple of minutes later, Uiharu ran up to the two of them, looking slightly upset and tired. "what happened Saten-san," she demanded, "I thought we were going to walk to Judgment together, I waited for you."

This took Saten a bit aback. They had decided upon that yesterday but after this morning… "I wasn't sure you still wanted to go with me… I thought you were mad," She said.

"Why would you think that?" Uiharu asked, genuinely curious.

"Well… after what happened this morning…" she said slightly embarrassed.

Uiharu blushed, remembering what had happened. But still, "that wasn't your fault, why would I be mad at you for that? I mean I don't like you flipping my skirt but… at least it was only you who saw it right… it's not like you did it somewhere public …" She blushed deeper and deeper as she tried to make her point but only ended up digging her own grave.

"So you're not mad?" Saten asked, wanting to make sure.

Rather than risking another embarrassing rambling sentence, Uiharu simply shook her head. However she still ended up blushing the next moment as Saten enveloped her in a hug. "I'm glad," Saten said.

"Saten-saaaaan… people are staring," Uiharu said.

Misaka smiled at the scene. She was glad that nothing had happened between those two.

After that the three walked off together. "By the way did you find out about that thing we talked about yesterday?" Saten asked.

"No. Kuroko wasn't there this morning so I couldn't coax the answer out of her. I couldn't find anything on her schedule either."

"Oh well," Uiharu said as they arrived at the offices, "we'll find out."

When they entered the office they saw that Konori was there as well as Kuroko, who was sitting at her desk with her computer, typing away. This put Misaka's mind at ease and she walked up to her. "Hey Kuroko, how is the case coming? And what's with the sunglasses?"

"The case is coming along fine, in fact I am about to go investigate a lead," Kuroko said as she stood up. She looked to Uiharu, "I'll need you to provide backup but maintain radio silence," she said, "If I need to contact you I'll do it through personal cell phone, don't use the Judgment phones. Understood?"

Uiharu was surprised by the authority in Kuroko's voice. "Hai," she replied obediently.

"And why is radio silence necessary," Konori asked, though whether out of concern or suspicion Kuroko didn't know.

"In case they are in possession of another one of those devices," Kuroko answered, "don't worry. If I engage more opponents than I can handle I will be sure to get backup before engaging."

"Any more than 3 and you call in, understood?" Konori said.

Kuroko nodded and teleported away. She had everything necessary for her plan prepared and ready. It would soon be time for the meeting to begin so she teleported to the roof of the building adjacent to the warehouse.

Crouching down she looked at the building in question. It was a large warehouse that was completely unremarkable. She turned on the infrared filter on her glasses to attempt to identify whehter or not people were inside or not. This turned out to be a fruitless endeavor as, contrary to her expectations, the only heat it was picking up was that of the walls. So she switched to the T-ray imaging, which she found far better.

She could see through the concrete of the walls several bodies which the complex computer that the glasses ran on told her were humans. The computer, though powerful, was small enough to fit in her bag and used a wireless connection with heavy encryption to link with the glasses. The T-ray imagery also allowed her to see the massive iron beams that composed the internal ceiling and support structure of the warehouse. She identified the main one and teleported on top of it, getting her into the building onto a place where she could likely remain undetected for the entire duration.

Below her she could see several people in suits with suitcases, as well as one man in a chair with the signal detection and jamming device on his lap, working it diligently. She dug in her pocket for the photograph she had been given yesterday of the go-between between the racers and the bookies, Lao. He was the one who had organized this entire thing on behalf of the Agiko family. That was definitely him, which meant that this was definitely the right place.

Kuroko smiled and got to work. She set up the webcam and directional microphone that she had brought along, pointing it towards the meeting then turning it on. This setup linked directly to the internet, to a site that Kuroko had set up just prior to this engagement. Kuroko's computer skills weren't the best but it had been a simple task. The site streamed the image and audio from her setup and also had a chat box to allow her to communicate through a medium she knew wouldn't trigger the jamming all she needed was an audience.

For this she texted Uiharu. "I need you to go to this website and patch it through to Anti-Skill. Send comfirmation via the website when you have done so" She told her and sent the link. She was monitoring the website using the left lense of her sunglasses while the right lense was left clear to allow her to observe. As she waited she curled her body up into a lotus position and began meditating. She needed full concentration for this.

Soon Uiharu sent a message on the site that she had patched it through and asking what this was all about. However, as if to answer that question for her,the men began to speak. "They'll be arriving soon," Lao said, "What's the status on security?"

"No suspicious signals," the man in the chair said, "The four lookouts are on the street corners observing the roads with Hawk model-12 binoculars. Not even a rat is going to slip through." Hawk was the company that had produced the sunglasses (which were model-27) that Jango and now Kuroko wore. She guessed the binoculars had similar functions but, as earlier models, were far larger.

Lao took a walkie talkie out of his pocket. "Lookouts report in." There was a short pause as he held it up to his ear. Neither Kuroko's ears nor the directional microphone were powerful enough to hear what was said but Lao nodded as he heard it, "They're here," he said several seconds before a large truck rolled into the center of the warehouse. Several people hopped out of the truck and one walked back to close the door.

As this was happening Kuroko switched once again to the T-ray imaging and identified, one by one, the location of the lookouts. They were too far away for an accurate reading but they at least were easily identifiable on the crowded streets because of the remote locations they had chosen to view the streets. She checked the map of the area on her glasses and attempted to determine their blind spots.

Though they covered all the major avenues their field of vision did not overlap. So Kuroko put in her headphones to listen in to the conversation back in the warehouse as she took out the lookouts one by one, taking maybe half of a minute to complete the task.

As she did so the men back in the factory began to talk. "You've made it," said Lao once the door was closed, "I take it you brought them."

"Of course," Said the other man. Contrary to Lao's business attire this man was dressed quite casually, in a biker's jacket and jeans. He was a tall, old man and quite broad at the shoulders, once again contrasting with the short, thin and quite young Lao. He snapped his fingers and the side of the truck opened up like a garage door, revealing several motorcycles with people standing beside each of them. "10 new bikes and riders to replace the ones that your man got caught."

"This is neither the time nor place to assign blame Mr Ha-Li." Lao said, almost rolling his eyes at the man's ridiculous psuedonym.

"You were the ones who were supposed to ensure that we didn't get caught. And the second bloody day in this district we lose 7 riders."

"I am aware of these problems Ha-Li and rest assured that we will not allow a similar event to happen again."

By this time Kuroko had dispatched the lookouts and had returned. Before teleporting back to her perch though she stopped by the large metal door of the warehouse. This was the place where the truck had entered and it had, in addition to a newer electronic system, an old fashioned iron beam closing mechanism. When the iron beam was laid across from the inside then it was this had been discarded a while ago and now the iron beam simply lay on the ground outside, rusting away. Kuroko touched it, giving it a chance once again to fulfill its duty as a lock as she teleported it directly into the door.

Once that was done she sealed the other entrances with her nails and teleported back inside. She got out the keyboard that she had brought along and typed out on the keyboards special noiseless keys, "Lookouts disabled, doors sealed. Deployment is safe but only do so under radio silence."

After that she switched to infrared vision again. This time she looked at the truck and attempted to locate the engine. This time it worked far better. She could easily identify the hot engine even past the metal. Though she still didn't know anything about automobiles. So she simply filled it full of nails to disable it. Then she disabled the bikes using the same method as before, putting needles in the spinny things. This time she didn't have to worry about running out, as she had brought along her bandoleer this time.

"Truck and motorcycles disabled," she typed out before resuming listening to the dealings below her.

"Let's see if you can actually back up that promise this time. Those fancy devices of yours didn't do much last time."

"The Shimmer-Screens are the most advanced signal detection and selective jamming devices that there are equipped with advanced sorting and prioritization software developed by Simurgh Associations," the man in the chair said, "the problem was with your people. Eleven of your people lost to a single little girl."

"Silence," said Lao authoritatively, "let us get back to business. Do you have the specs on the new bikes and riders."

"Yeah I got your precious little numbers right here you glorified bean counter," Ha-Li said, brandishing a sheaf of paper, "specs on all the bikes and riders. Do you have our share of the loot?"

Lao walked forward and put his suitcase on the ground before opening it to reveal a significant amount of cash. "3 million yen," he said.

"What the hell, it was supposed to be 5 million."

"Your gambling debts as well as other debts accrued was paid off by the other two million."

"Tch," Ha-Li spat and threw the sheaf of papers at Lao who caught it deftly, "whatever. This meeting is over. It is unpleasant to be in the presence of a leech for too long." he said as he walked over to the door and punched in the combination to open it. It groaned but didn't budge. "Hey, leech. What did you do to the door?"

"Nothing. Perhaps you merely typed in the wrong password." Lao replied as his own men went out the other door only to find it unopenable as well. He fished the walkie talkie out of his pocket. "Lookouts report in." He waited for a while but didn't seem to hear anything.

"Start the truck. If this stupid door won't open well knock it down," said Ha-Li, still pissed from the meeting.

A second passed then the driver yelled, "It won't start."

Lao frowned then pulled out his gun. It was silenced so he could shoot the door open without drawing any undue attention and investigate this string of odd events. However when he lowered it to shoot at the door he noticed that a long needle was sticking in the barrel of his gun.

"All men check arms," he commanded.

They did so only to discover that each of their guns was in a similar state to their leaders, or as one so eloquently put it, "what the hell?! There's a *$#%ing metal pin through my gun."

"Oi leech, what the hell is this? Did you set us u..." He didn't finish his sentence before he collapsed.

Checking the site Anti-Skill said that they would be there in 3 minutes and to delay until then. Kuroko decided that, since she was still undetected, she could quite easily disable the vast majority of them, if not all of them. So she took aim and teleported a needle into the neck of Ha-Li and 3 of his buddies. Then she turned around and did the same thing to Lao and a few of his men.

One by one they dropped like flies. None of them having any clue what was going on as their friends were taken out the moment they presented a clear shot. Using her the filters of her glasses, which had very high resolution at close range and allowed her to make the difficult shots, she even managed to nail the driver of the trucks and the motorcyclists as they too panicked.

When Anti-Skill finally arrived each of the men was unconscious with a needle through their necks and Kuroko had just finished uploading the footage to two flash drives One to act as evidence and the other as a trophy. She turned off and packed up the webcam and microphone then put her sunglasses in her pocket then teleported down to meet the Anti-Skill agents.

"I apologize for the mess. They are uninjured but be sure to take the needle out carefully. This is the video evidence," she said presenting the flash drive "the physical evidence I have left untouched. Do you need me to stay here and help you from here or am I excused."

"your excused," said the Anti-Skill agent rubbing her temples with her fingers in exasperation. This kid was going to give her a migraine if she stayed here any longer. She would let her superiors deal with how to handle this.

Kuroko nodded and teleported away. She texted Uiharu saying that she had needed to stay behind and assist with the cleanup and that she could excuse herself for the day, then she turned off her cell phone. She went to Garu's office where Garu and Itora were waiting. "Ah, there you are," Itora said, "have you finished that task?"

"Yes, Lao and all his men are in custody and the bikes have been ceased as well as all the information on the riders. They will all soon face justice." Kuroko said, her voice surprisingly devoid of pride. Despite the resounding success she had just had she felt so empty, hollow. She didn't feel any of the usual pride associated with a job well done.

"You don't sound too happy about that... oh well, maybe you'll feel better once you receive your reward," Garu said with a smile as the armor was brought in. "You can change in the restrooms down the hall. The armor will automatically gather data in the field. All you need to do is bring it in every so often, perhaps once a week to allow us to gather that data."

Kuroko nodded and walked off to the bathroom. She stripped out of her clothes then put on the piece of chest armor. It fit comfortably enough, tight but very supple, feeling more like a second skin than clothes. She then put on her clothes over it. The other pieces would have to be put on as situation dictated, but the chest piece would stay on her most of the time, to prevent anything like the ambush by Ita from happening again.

She went back to the room to thank Garu and Itora.

"No problem," Itora said, "and I have something else to tell you. Apparently the Agiko have more surprises hidden away than just illegal gambling. They also have a certain device that they purchased recently with the ability to cancel out ESPer powers. I think Birdy knew someone who was interesting in those things, so if you see Birdy or her mystery friend would you mind telling them for me."

For only the third time that day Kuroko smiled. "Will do, thank you," she said then she teleported away with the rest of the armor to store it in her super-secret safe house.

[1]: I actually checked to see whether this was at all possible. They are in the same class but not in the same order, but the lily and the orchid orders are the closest in the order of similarity. I'm not sure about the rules of cross pollination so if someone more in the know could enlighten me as to whether it is possible to cross pollinate an orchid and a lily then would you please tell me.

Author's Note: When I was writing the beginning of this chapter I was a bit afraid the amount of seemingly useless detail may put off some of my readers. almost every single piece of information I gave is significant later in my story but because it is presented one after the other in a big block I am slightly worried that people will think I am just being needlessly verbose. Now I am sure some of my readers will write a review in response to that saying that they like the detail I put in and that I shouldn't be worried about being too verbose. A lot of people think that detail and long flowing descriptions are the things that make a story so good.

In a sense I agree to this and I am not saying otherwise. But I also believe firmly in the Law of Conservation of Detail. If you spend half a page describing a hat, then that hat better be significant later on. Needless descriptions one after another sound like some old man rambling on about his childhood and it is this quality I was worried that people would see.