Important note: This is and will remain a "T" rated fic. This chapter may skirt a few lines but I assure you that it never steps over it, even when it looks like it might.

Toaru Karada no Shōgai

A Certain Disturbance of Body

A familiar feeling fell over Misaka as a gentle pressure, warm and slightly wet, pressed against her lips while another, slightly rougher, pressure was applied to her chest with a skillful hand.

Misaka sighed internally. 'Great another one of these dreams…" she thought to herself. She was getting rather tired of them, and tired of replacing the singed bed sheets each morning. She was glad that Kuroko had been so busy these past couple mornings. It would have been embarassing if she knew about Misaka's little problem.

She felt a gentle prodding against her lips and opened her mouth to allow Kuroko's tongue entrance.

As tiring as they were getting, there was nothing to do other than play along until it was over, not that that was a particularly unpleasant process. In fact this felt…

Felt…

The gears in Misaka's head started to turn slowly trying to work out exactly what was wrong with this picture. Of course the entire concept was shameful, but that was not what was bugging her. Something else about this simply felt… off.

'Wait… if this is a dream then how can I feel something?'

It took a second for this to sink in but when it did the reaction was immediate. Her eyes shot open to see that her "dream" was no dream at all. Kuroko hovered over her kissing her in real life.

In an instant she pushed her perverted roommate off of her onto the other side of the bed. She sat up straight, flushed completely red with a mix of embarrassment and rage. She glared at the other girl and opened her mouth to yell at her, but her scolding died in her throat as she noticed something odd: Kuroko was flushed as deeply as Misaka was. That was not the only thing Misaka saw as Kuroko laid on the bed shivering, her breathing was shallow and fast. The teleporter's eyes were glazed and unfocused, every sound and movement bespoke pain.

Misaka put her hand on Kuroko's forehead. "Kuroko, you're burning up," she said as she felt the heat that radiated from her. Misaka estimated it to be around 39.5 degrees [C].

"Onee-sama," Kuroko said in a half-whimper half-moan. Her head pushed against Misaka's hand as she rolled over onto her side and reached out to her. The movement was clumsy as shaking rattled her entire body.

"You're really sick," Misaka said, as if Kuroko were unaware of this fact. Kuroko meanwhile had wrapped her arms around Misaka's waist. One hand played across the skin of Misaka's back as she gently kissed the bare skin of her stomach.

"That doesn't mean," Misaka said slowly, her anger rising with her blush at this fawning attention, "that you have no control. So get off," with this she pushed Kuroko off once again. Kuroko made a noise, a whimper of pain, as Misaka did this. Despite that she was back at Misaka's waist the next second saying "Onee-sama" with much the same intonation, or lack thereof, that a zombie would demand brains with.

'Or maybe it does...' she thought. Recently Kuroko had been much better at following her cease and desist demands so the fact that she wasn't now might be an indication that this was worse than she thought. There was the possibility with Kuroko that it was all some elaborate ploy but that possibility was low and Misaka decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. She sighed and carefully pulled Kuroko off her again. Then she stood up, "I'm going to get changed and get a cold rag for your forehead," she shoved her pillow into her grasp, "you can hug that until I get back," she said as she began walking for the closet.

Before she could get halfway there she heard Kuroko call out to her, "Onee-sama?" in a concerned tone of voice. "Just be patient," she responded and kept on walking.

When she had just gotten to the closet she heard a thump from behind her. She turned to see Kuroko had fallen out the bed. She lay on the floor, her head gazing around the room in a panic. "Onee-sama? Kuro?" she asked, and in her voice Misaka heard something that had only heard from her twice before—Fear.

Seeing this reaction Misaka rushed back over to her and picked her up, "I'm here Kuroko," she said comfortingly. Now Misaka knew she was not faking, that panicked voice could not be faked.

"Onee-sama?" the frightened girl asked again. She pressed her quivering head against Misaka's chest. After a second or two she said, "Onee-sama," once again, this time as a statement rather than a question. The fear had disappeared from her voice. "Kuro gone, Onee-sama here." the now calm but still shivering girl said nonsensically. For a second Misaka wondered who or what Kuro was but she decided that it wasn't that important.

'All right... so I can't leave her alone,' she sighed, 'that means I can't even move around unless I carry her with me.' It looked like Misaka's day had been booked. "Looks like our date will have to be canceled," she said as if the temptation of that alone could magically cure her of all ailments, and knowing Kuroko it might.

Of course that brought up the issue of schedule. Her day had been free anyway, which is why she had scheduled the date for today, but she did not know if Kuroko had work. Kuroko's schedule was on her phone which was on her desk.

The logistics involved in moving even that short distance were too complicated, so Misaka picked the easy route and magnetized the phone sending it shooting to her hand. After the accidents involving her first two, Kuroko had decided to get an insulated phone. This meant that Misaka's maneuver did not damage it. Now that she had it, she filtered through the various menus until finally she found the schedule. It did indeed list today as a work day, which meant that Misaka had to call in for her.

Misaka dialed the number for the Judgment offices. It rang once...twice... then halfway through the third ring the dial tone cut off as the other end of the line hung up.

Misaka raised her eyebrow at this but decided that it was nothing and she would just call back later. Then, just as she was about to put Kuroko's phone away it rang. She checked the screen to see that there was an incoming text from Saten.

"Hey, do you and Misaka want to hang out today?"

Looking down at the girl attached to her hip, she soon texted back, "Kuroko's sick and I'm looking after her so we can't. Sorry. -Misaka"

Kuroko was not actually sick though. Misaka did not know it but the fever was neither a sign of nor the result of an illness, but rather of a tantrum. The tantrum wasn't a ploy or a cry for attention though; Kuroko had no control of this particular tantrum. She wasn't even the one who was throwing it.

Kuroko had been under a lot of stress recently, and the emotional stress had only been a small part of it. The physical and mental stress from the past two weeks alone were far beyond what someone her age, what someone any age, could reasonably be asked to handle. She received numerous injuries, took in less food and sleep than a dieting bat, and had pushed almost every part of her body to and past its limit repeatedly. This had caused her brain to have a little fit over its poor working conditions.

It had happened only three times before. Once when she was six, one two years later on April 11th (one week after the clock had struck 12:01). The last time it had happened was two years ago. The first time it had happened it wasn't very serious, but the second time was severe. This one was probably slightly worse than halfway in between the two. Each time it had happened it had been triggered by extreme exertions and stresses of both body and mind. In response to this stress her brain had panicked and it was now in the process of checking if all systems were still functional.

The process itself had no medical precedence; it was a direct result of Kuroko's unusual and unique neurochemistry. Specifically the cause was a problem that her brain had in reading the signals from her two neural control centers. Normally it could work around this but sometimes, in situations of extreme mental and physical stress, the lack of signals from Shiro that happened when Kuro assumed control of certain portions of the brain would be read as death. The brain would read this as a malfunction but conducted a check on all systems to ensure that they were still working and that Kuroko was not, indeed, dead.

It had never been studied so it had no scientific name, but if Kuroko had to assign a name to it, she would likely call it Hell.

During Hell, the stressed little girl's hypothalamus, possibly the most neglected portion of her brain as of late and the controller of many functions including her core body temperature, inflicted her with a high fever in an attempt to defend her body during the process. The fever also effectively immobilized her body and shutting down any ability to form rational thoughts, preventing her from applying additional stresses to her body for the duration of Hell.

Now immobilized, the hypothalamus began to test its other functions to ensure that they worked as well. She was inflicted with a terrible, insatiable hunger and a horrible, unquenchable thirst which would fluctuate for the rest of the day, causing her to feel like she was starving one minute than stuffed the next, with similar cycles of deep sleep then vague wakefulness. It also triggered an incredible feeling of fatigue and an inexplicable sense of fear. Meanwhile the rest of her brain and body were doing the same. Her adrenals flooded her system with adrenaline causing her heart to race and her breathing to quicken. Her body would flare with constant and severe pain as her nervous system checked each and every nerve ending. Her sense of sight and hearing were dimmed so that the sensory information would not disrupt the rest of the process. Her sense of taste and smell were as acute as ever and her sense of touch was actually heightened due to the nerves increased sensitivity.

All the while the part of her brain that maintained a dim sentience struggled to react to this. The pandemonium of the rampaging neurochemicals and hormones, combined with the fever's delusions and hindrance of rational thought, caused her to default to her most primal behavioral pattern in which she would attempt to ensure her own safety and security, and meanwhile fulfill another desire stirred up by her hyperactive hypothalamus.

If either of them had known this is what she was doing then it could have been considered a compliment, even an honor. Never before had she seen another person as a source of security. Normally the only name on her tongue during a cry for help was Kuro's. She hadn't ever had anyone else on whom she could truly rely; she hadn't ever had anyone else to whom she could show weakness. Had Kuro been able to form rational thoughts she might have commented upon the irony of this, but she had fewer words at her command than Shiro did at the moment.

Putting Kuroko's phone down on the floor where she could easily reach it again if necessary, Misaka thought about what she would need to do. She thought back to those days as a kid when she had a fever and her mother took care of her. Then she looked back down at Kuroko.

"First things first. You need fluids and a warm meal," she said, "my mother always used to make me this special soup when I was sick. It's one of the few things that I actually know how to cook."

Misaka stood up, this time picking the sick teleporter up as well to prevent her from panicking again. She brought her over to the kitchen and seated her in a chair. It took many complex maneuvers and far too much time, but eventually she managed to get the soup ready. She sat down in the chair next to Kuroko and set the bowl in front of her. She held out a spoon for Kuroko.

Kuroko looked briefly at the proffered object and then reached out to it, but rather than the spoon she took Misaka's hand in her own and said, "Onee-sama."

Misaka rolled her eyes. "What are you? Four?" she asked. Her crimson blush was quite deep at this point with all the physical contact and it was only getting worse as time went on. 'playing nurse is one thing and plenty bad enough, but playing nurse in this stupid thing' she thought, referring to the choice of nightwear that Kuroko had picked out for her last night as a final birthday request, 'I must have been out of my mind! She must have hypnotized me or something.' It was not particularly naughty considering that it was Kuroko who had chosen it, but it left far more bare skin than her usual pajamas.

Still... "Fine... I'll feed it to you. But you better eat it, I worked damn hard to make it" she said taking the spoon in her own hand and dipping it into the bowl. She blew on it to cool it down then held it out to Kuroko again. "Say 'Ahh'."

Kuroko, seeing this, pried her head away from her Onee-sama and smelled the hot soup on the spoon. The soup smelled delicious and came just as she was struck with her ravenous hunger. She looked at Misaka and opened her mouth. Spoon after spoon went by like this until the bowl was empty.

After that Misaka thought of what else needed to be done. She noticed how sweaty Kuroko's pajamas were and that caused her to remember what her mother would do when this happened to her. She would wipe her down with a damp cloth and get her a change of clothes. The thought caused Misaka's blush to deepen and a slight panic to overtake her as she questioned what she should do.

Finally she reached her decision, "this is all for you so you better be damn grateful," she said to Kuroko, who looked to be half-asleep but still clung to her. She filled a clean bowl with water and put a washcloth in it then took it and Kuroko over to her bed, careful not to spill. The bathroom was too small to do this easily in.

Now came the difficult step, she needed to get Kuroko out of her top. Misaka didn't know when she had started to care about Kuroko's nakedness; certainly she hadn't cared when the overeager teleporter had flashed her after Misaka's horrible experimentation with Judgment work, but now she found herself uneasy at the prospect. She made sure to look away as she began unbuttoning Kuroko's pajama top (which was for once actually more conservative than Misaka's). Her hands shook as she undid the buttons and she had to remind herself not to peek while at the same time questioning why she had to remind herself.

Eventually she managed to unbutton the entire thing and slip it off of Kuroko's slender frame. She reached down for the washcloth as her mind continued to race, 'It's not really peeking, I need to look for this next part... it's just a quick look," she said, finally deciding to take maybe one quick glance at Kuroko's bare chest.

After that she picked up the washcloth and began ringing the water out of it. Then she dropped it back in as she did a double-take, her eyes wide and disbelieving.

The sick, shivering girl's entire torso was covered in bruises. Splotchy discoloration marred nearly every inch of the flesh. The parts that were not dyed purple by bruises were even worse off it looked. At the bottom of her stomach was wrapped a bandage. On the left side of the bandage was a large bloodstain which looked dried. There was a similar bloodstain on the other side suggesting that something had impaled her to inflict the injury. On her shoulder and back were two large electrical burns.

The only other spot free from discoloration were five thin white lines that sliced up across her entire torso. Misaka reached out. She placed her fingers on each of these lines and followed them down, trailing her finger across the Kuroko's injured torso. She knew what the scars were from; they were from Kuroko's fight with Ita.

Kuroko stirred from her near sleep state as her brain randomly switched from tired to alert in a flash. With this also came a flood of new tortures as another wave of hormones were unleashed on her brain and body.

"Onee-sama," she said simply to the horrified looking girl hovering over her. She reached up and grabbed onto her pulling her down onto the bed. Then she rolled over on top of her and began kissing her deeply.

Misaka was startled by this sudden aggressiveness and moved to push her off, but she stopped her hand just as the fingers touched the scarred tissue on Kuroko's skin. At the feel of the teleporter's horrific injuries, the electromaster hesitated. Now that she had seen Kuroko's condition, Misaka found herself afraid that Kuroko would break if she touched her, as if she had just discovered the rotting timbers that supported an otherwise structurally flawless bridge.

Misaka couldn't risk hurting the feverish girl further considering how much pain she already seemed to be in from the sickness. Misaka couldn't push her away or discourage her physically, nor could she, in the state that Kuroko was in, discourage her any other way. So she simply found herself lying there trying to ignore the distractions and work out what had gone on and when it had happened.

The source of the burns were quite obvious to the electromaster. She had caused them herself. Her dreams the past couple of nights and the viscous electricity that they produced were easily powerful enough to burn even the hardy teleporter. The knowledge that she had once again hurt her girlfriend cause Misaka to feel a crushing guilt.

But thought she knew when this had happened the other injuries were harder to tell. The last time she could remember seeing the normally "loose" girl's bare chest had been the day before the incident with Ita. She could recall Kuroko worrying about having scars. She had asked if Misaka would consider her beautiful even with them and Misaka had comforted her telling the teleporter she wouldn't care. Still, since that day, the normally shameless girl had not once revealed her chest to her roommate. Her conservative choice of nightwear recently must have been to hide these from her.

'It seems she didn't trust me enough to tell the truth,' Misaka thought to herself sadly as her fingers mindlessly traced the scars on Kuroko's stomach and back.

Kuroko never showed her injuries to Misaka and never showed her pain to anyone. Kuroko could hide it so well that, during the Level Upper incident, Uiharu had had to tell her about Kuroko's state of being. The fight with Ita was the perfect example. Kuroko must have been feeling pain equal to or greater than Misaka had been feeling, yet she stood and fought while Misaka had been paralyzed. She had withstood all that and more without showing an single ounce of pain or sign of discomfort. But if that was when she had received the scars then what about the other wounds? The bruises couldn't be from too long ago, the discoloration wasn't dark enough for that, so it had probably been in the past couple of days. Could it have been something at work? And what about the bandage wrapped around her stomach, the wound that had gone straight through her, when had that been and what had it been from?

'Kuroko…' Misaka thought sadly, 'what have you been hiding from me. And why?'

Saten was bored. Her best friend, Uiharu, would probably be buried in that game of hers for the entire day.

"Oh well," she said with a shrug, "I have other friends." She got out her phone and looked over her contact list. Kuroko would probably want to hang out with her, she had seemed quite happy about her gift yesterday. Not only that but it would probably be a good chance to make sure that Misaka wasn't too mad at her about it.

With that sorted out she sent Kuroko a text but was fairly surprised to read the response. In contrast to the illness-prone Uiharu, Saten had never heard of nor seen Kuroko sick. It worried her slightly so she decided to drop by and check up on her. She stopped by a bakery on the way, hoping that something sweet might help her feel better like it helped Uiharu.

She decided to surprise them so she didn't bother texting in advance. She was slightly surprised to hear that Misaka was looking after Kuroko. Misaka didn't seem to be the motherly type nor was she the type to hold back if Kuroko tried anything just because she was sick.

'I hope she's taking good care of her' she thought as she opened the door to their room and took a step in, "Hey Misaka, Kuroko. I thought I'd stop by and…" she stopped as she saw the scene in front of her.

It seemed that Misaka was indeed taking very good care of Kuroko. Both of them were, to the extent that Saten could see, naked on Misaka's bed. Kuroko was on top of Misaka making out with her and the most surprising thing was that Misaka wasn't resisting. In fact the embrace that she held Kuroko in seemed to pull her closer. It seemed that they hadn't heard Saten because neither of them reacted at all, simply continuing their "fun".

Saten dropped the bag of pastries and, without another word, quietly stepped back out of the room and closed the door. She sat down outside the door and tried to pick apart what she had just seen and make sense of it.

As she sat she heard voices from within.

"Please oh please tell me that did not just happen," Misaka pleaded her voice unsteady with some unidentifiable emotion.

"Onee-sama…" Kuroko said weakly and drearily, her voice sounding as if she had just woken up. "Returned from the grave" would probably be a better description for her tone.

"I need to calm down. She has no reason to suspect that that was anything other than you being you right? She doesn't know about our relationship," Misaka said, trying desperately to comfort herself. "I'm sure I can just sort this all out… right?" there was a pause then she heard Misaka whimper, "Kuroko please get your hands off… I'm trying to clean up your mistake here."

Saten had heard a little more than enough. She stood up and walked off, thinking all the while. One phrase in particular stuck in her head: "Our relationship". That was what Misaka had said. So that meant… 'Misaka's boyfriend… was Kuroko?'

The more Saten thought about it the more it began to make sense. All the little hints over the past weeks became clearer and clearer the more she thought about it. The description that Misaka had given her about her "boyfriend" matched Kuroko exactly. The timing matched as well and it certainly explained how she could have had a "boyfriend" for so long without them realizing it. It also explained the pairs odd behavior as of late. They were probably spending less time with her and Uiharu because they were spending more time with each other.

The whole thing seemed so obvious now and Saten wondered why she hadn't figured it out before, but the aggressiveness with which Misaka always denied Kuroko's advances had been extremely convincing. Added with Misaka's apparent childish naivety, Saten was still having trouble believing that she was involved in such a "mature" relationship and with Kuroko to boot.

Still… "What does this mean? How should I react to this," she asked herself. The answer was simple enough in a sense. Saten would of course support their relationship to her fullest. Though this revelation certainly made her rethink a few things, it did not affect her opinion of either Misaka or Kuroko at all. She understood that the reason they were keeping their relationship a secret was probably a fear of persecution, but they had nothing to worry about from her.

That wasn't the difficulty of the question though. 'How should I react to this,' she repeated again in her mind as she knocked on the door in front of her. 'I suppose this is the place to start. After all if they are like that…'

The door opened up. "Saten-san? What are you doing here?" Uiharu asked with a quizzical look.

Saten stepped forward, leaned down, and kissed Uiharu briefly. "I think I love you." She told her simply.

It had taken a while but finally both Misaka and Kuroko had calmed down a bit. Misaka was still a little bit frantic, though for the most part she had convinced herself that things would work out. Kuroko looked like she was sleeping at the moment, but the strength with which her hand gripped Misaka's arm was far higher than it should have for someone who was half asleep. Still it was not enough to hurt Misaka, if just barely. Kuroko had never hurt her and never would; it was the one thing she could count on.

The lull in activity allowed Misaka to wash off Kuroko and redress her (and get a change of clothing herself as well), but the image of Kuroko's maimed chest still reverberated in her mind.

She felt her arm being squeezed and turned to look at Kuroko who had begun to writhe in pain again. This time she began to speak as she writhed, though the "words" were unintelligible gibberish. It sounded more like she was spouting off the alphabet and other random sounds than like she was truly speaking. Only the last sentence made any resemblance of sense.

"Kuro….help…it hurts…" she whimpered.

A second later the writhing stopped and her face fell, "shhh Shiro. I'm here, it's all right," Kuroko whispered. This was followed by a few more strings of unintelligible gibberish then she fell silent. Her chest slowly rose and fell only slightly faster than usual, signaling that she was now peacefully asleep.

Misaka sighed inwardly, she was glad that she seemed to be feeling a bit better. "Honestly first a nurse then a toy and now a safety blanket. You can never complain ever again, is that understood," she said to the sleeping girl sternly but to no one's surprise she did not receive an answer.

Now that Kuroko was asleep, Misaka distracted herself with what any distraction she could find within an arm's reach. She did this for the next hour or so until Kuroko woke up again. Her eyes cracked open slightly. She let go of Misaka and simply said, "water".

Now that Misaka was free from Kuroko's grip she could go to the kitchen without the hassle of bringing Kuroko along. She fetched a glass of water and went back to the bed. Sitting Kuroko up, she helped her drink the cold beverage. Then she laid her back down on her back and put the glass of water back in the kitchen.

This continued for the next while as Kuroko would occasionally wake up and speak a single word, like "hot" or "food", and Misaka would attempt to satisfy the request and she would lapse back into a half-sleep. And eventually, later on in the evening, Misaka fell asleep beside her.

The next morning Misaka found herself wrapped in Kuroko's embrace like usual. She could feel that she had cooled down considerably which was good.

She shifted in Kuroko's grasp and shook her. Her eyes slowly opened, however, her gaze still seemed a little dead. "Pere-," she mumbled her voice as flat and dead as it had been yesterday, which worried Misaka. Then Kuroko leaned forward and kissed her, just a gentle peck. This time, when she pulled back her eyes and face perked up and she smiled. "Good morning my lovely Onee-sama," she said, her voice as chipper as ever as she hugged Misaka, "are you ready for our date today?"

"That was scheduled for yesterday," Misaka corrected her.

Kuroko cocked her head, "didn't you say Saturday?"

Misaka cocked her head in return, "yeah… that was yesterday. Today is Sunday. You were sick all of yesterday, don't you remember?"

One side effect to Hell was that Kuroko could not remember it. This was probably a good thing as the experience was nothing but unpleasant, but the gap in memory was annoying. Kuroko had been slightly confused as to why Kuro had been in charge when she had woken up, but she had chalked it up to something else.

'I was sick? But I don't remember a thing,' she thought, 'does that mean…'

"Ne… Onee-sama… did I happen to do anything unusual yesterday," she asked as she surreptitiously scanned herself, the room, and her Onee-sama for any abnormalities. She could not remember the experience but she had been told of what had happened during her previous bouts of Hell. She was told that her behavior was odd , odder than usual at least.

The first time it had happened Kuroko had been told that she had clung to Jericho for the entire duration, spouting nonsense and saying that she would protect her from the monsters that existed in her mind alone. The teachers had a difficult time that day and could not separate the two at all even when it seemed that the feverish little child had fallen asleep. The couple times after that she had to be hospitalized during it, and both times it was not because of the fever.

This was why Kuroko was glad to see that the room, herself, and her Onee-sama seemed to be undamaged and why she was even more glad to hear Misaka say, "No, you were just your normal perverted self." There was a slight sharpness to her Onee-sama's tone that Kuroko didn't hear though.

Kuroko smiled. "Ok, sorry for the odd question," she said as she got up, "I'm going to go have a shower." She felt quite icky right now, probably the result of yesterday's ordeals, whatever they might have been.

When she came out of the bathroom she began getting ready. Because of yesterday's misfortunate events (or rather two days ago) she would need to return the stealth-suit and her other toys that were still in her exercise bag to her safe house, so she made sure to double-check the bag's location next to her normal schoolbag.

"So, Onee-sama… since I was sick yesterday how about we go on our date today? I have the day off." She said as she turned to Misaka only to find her looking at her with a serious face on.

"We need to talk first…" Misaka said, and a foreboding chill ran down Kuroko's spine.

Author's Note: One bad day for Kuroko and one "bad" day for Misaka. Things are even on that front I guess.

Anyway…Imagination is a powerful tool. Sometimes the author benefits more by letting the audience create their own scenarios and simply laying out the groundwork. Sometimes implication is more powerful than explanation, and in this case implication is far more family friendly.

On that note I have a question: Is the scene Saten walked in on "not what it looks like" or "exactly what it looks like"?

Dedications: I would like to dedicate this chapter to the wonderful writer Cun and his superb fanfictions. He has been a great influence to me as a writer.