Toaru Puraido no Dekigoto

A Certain Matter of Pride

Unlike Saten and Uiharu Misaka was not awoken by an alarm clock. As usual she was woken up by Kuroko. Unlike usual it was not with a kiss but with a hug, though it was a stretch to call the bone crushing grip Kuroko held her in a hug rather than a pretty successful attempt to suffocate her. What was more unusual was that Kuroko was still clearly asleep while it was going on. Her face seemed troubled, even more so than it had been for the past several weeks.

Today's nightmare seemed to be worse than usual.

With her ability to speak greatly hindered by the suffocating grip and a limited ability to move Misaka resorted to desperate measures. She contorted herself as much as she could and managed to put her face just in front of Kuroko's. Then she kissed her; a knight in Gekota pajamas attempting to awaken a princess with a perverted streak a mile long.

Her efforts were soon rewarded as the crushing hug eased and her kiss was cautiously but still enthusiastically returned. Misaka pulled away but Kuroko pulled her back and buried her head in the crook of Misaka's shoulder. She tightened her hug for a moment as she began to kiss Misaka's neck with a surprising amount of passion for this early in the day (usually she was pretty restrained until nighttime came around).

Misaka tried to get away as she asked, "Are you ok Kuroko?" Her behavior was strange… was it a result of the nightmare maybe?

"I love you," was her response. Then she looked up at Misaka her eyes full of something that Misaka couldn't decipher, "do you love me?"

Misaka blushed at the suddenness of the inquiry but she quickly responded with an "of course." She didn't know where the question came from but it seemed like the teleporter needed an answer to it.

"Then I'm fine… as long as you love me I'll be fine so keep loving me please."

"Of course… but I can love you from more than a couple inches away so please get off of me," Misaka said.

Kuroko smiled and let her go, standing up and beginning to go towards the closet before turning back to the bed and sitting back down on it next to the now likewise seated electro-master. She took Misaka's hands in her own and spoke again, "Onee-sama… last night… what happened in the shower… did that really happen?"

Misaka's blush instantly deepened as her eyes widened and she instantly stammered out, "wh-wh-WHAT?!"

There was a look of doubt in Kuroko's eyes as she clarified, "last night were you and I in the shower naked together? Did you really let me wash your back and hair and everything else?"

"Wh-why are you asking," Misaka asked. Kuroko's actions this morning were so abnormal and it was so confusing. Why was she doing this? Why was she asking about something so embarrassing? Misaka didn't even want to think about it again. The dreams that night had been bad enough.

Kuroko sighed, "I… I have trouble sometimes… distinguishing between dreams and nightmares and reality… I trust your love is real I really do but… it all feels like a dream, a cruel dream that teases me with it vividness only to be yanked away," she looked up at Misaka, "tell me this isn't a dream."

The words sounded familiar. "You asked me that before… right after the Queen incident. My love wasn't a dream then and it still isn't. What happened was embarrassing but it was reality. Don't expect it to be a regular occurrence though ok." She reached up and patted her head and though her words were strict her hand was gentle.

"When you say that it makes me unimaginably happy," Kuroko said sounding half relieved with hope in her voice, "so if it is unimaginable it must be real right?"

"Right… I guess," Misaka said. The logic was a little bit shaky but it seemed to comfort Kuroko and she quickly adopted a more normal demeanor. Unfortunately the demeanor she chose was a mischievous one.

"Though I was even happier when you were naked…" the teleporter grinned.

Misaka's hand stopped it's patting and rested on her roommate's head. Still she decided to be forgiving. "Think about your next sentence very VERY carefully," she said. her voice was honey sweet but the sparks that were emitted from her forehead and the fire in her eyes belied the true potential danger that Kuroko was in. But if anyone knew that danger it would be her girlfriend, who had had more volts run through her than a power line.

This made Misaka even more surprised when Kuroko, in a show of either extreme bravery or extreme stupidity, chose to say, "your breasts have grown since we first met. Though they'd probably grow even faster if you let me massage them."

It took a second to process this impudence in the face of her threat but when she did her eyes narrowed and she pumped the other girl full of electricity. She left the burned paralyzed shell on the bed and got dressed and ready in the bathroom. She took her time, trying to recover from her already extremely stressful morning.

Something was clearly wrong, the older girl knew that. For someone who had just yesterday talked about how she wanted to distance herself from Misaka so she didn't become too clingy. She wondered if it had something to do with what had gone on last night at the Honogun headquarters. She could try asking but she knew how hard it was to extract information from her girlfriend. She would always find a way to move the conversation onwards from topics she didn't want to talk about. The only way that Misaka could think to get anything from her was offering her something in return, like she had done with the story about her martial arts. But was it worth it?

Misaka decided to wait and see if Kuroko would tell her naturally. Then she finished getting dressed and went back out. A plate of hot food was at her place at the table and Kuroko, fully changed and ready, was in the kitchen preparing a bento for Misaka as usual.

Misaka sat down and was about to being eating. As she sat she was watching Kuroko's back as she prepared her food with "care and love" as she put it. Unlike usual there were two boxes which made Misaka happy. She had been worried that Kuroko hadn't been eating recently even though she assured her she had. Then, as Kuroko was cutting up some vegetables to put in the boxes, her back seemed to tense up then relax. Misaka heard the knife come down but didn't hear it hit the cutting board. "huh?" Kuroko said to herself a second later, sounding confused.

Misaka was already halfway there, when she arrived the next second she saw that Kuroko had cut her finger with the knife. The cut girl was just standing there, seeming a little unsure of what to do as blood began to pour out of the deep wound. Immediately Misaka took her hand and stuck the finger in her mouth.

The bitter, unpleasant, coppery taste of blood filled her mouth as it poured in surprising quantities from the severe cut. Misaka cringed but nevertheless she rolled her tongue over the wound like she had heard to do when one's finger was cut. She saw Kuroko look at her than down at her mouth. Then the teleporter blushed. She didn't say a thing just turned away, back to the cutting board. She put the now bloodstained knife to the side and grabbed a paper towel and dabbed away the few drops of blood that had fallen on the wooden surface.

"I'm sorry," the younger girl finally spoke, "I guess I got distracted. I'm going to get this disinfected and put a band-aid on ok?" she said and before Misaka could let her go she teleported both of them into the bathroom and began digging around the medicine drawer with her free hand as Misaka continued sucking on her finger, wearing a blush equaling Kuroko's.

The teleporter got out the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and the band-aids. She took her finger out of Misaka's mouth and poured the disinfectant on it without even a wince. Then she put on the band-aid and put them back in the drawer. The electro-master swallowed the last mouthful of blood and said, "that had better be some tasty food." She needed to get the coppery taste out of her mouth. But rather than going back to the dining room she interposed herself between Kuroko and the door despite knowing that she hardly presented a realistic barrier to the teleporter. "You don't get distracted and you don't have accidents," she said to the younger girl, speaking from experience, "what is going on? What is with you this morning?"

Kuroko looked away, "I'm just a little spacey is all… I didn't get a very good night's sleep yesterday."

"Is that all?" she asked and Kuroko nodded, though she could clearly tell she was lying. She wouldn't be able to get the truth from her as long as she wanted to hide it however so she just gave up. They went back to the kitchen and Misaka ate while Kuroko packed up what she had so far and wrapped the boxes in handkerchiefs and gave one to Misaka. "would you like to go and see Uiharu at Judgment this morning? I haven't seen her in a while so I thought I'd stop in."

"I'm sure she'll like that. Sure I'll go," Misaka decided and the two teleported to the offices only to see that they were empty. Looking at the clock Misaka saw that it would still be several minutes before the beginning of Uiharu's shift. She also saw that Konori seemed to be out on patrol already, so the two of them were alone in the office.

They sat on the couch in a somewhat awkward silence. After a couple of minutes Misaka decided to break it and turned to the younger girl to find something to talk about. But the words died in her throat as she saw that same vacant stare that she had had back in the dorm. The wooden armrest of the sofa began cracking under her white knuckled grip as she completely zoned out. Then suddenly she was back to normal.

Misaka was just about to ask what was going on when Kuroko turned to her and pushed her down onto the couch, kissing her with what felt like… desperation. Misaka pushed the other girl off with a blush, "Kuroko what is going on? What are you doing. We're in public… Uiharu and Saten could walk in any second." She said.

But the anger in Misaka's tone hardly warded Kuroko off. Instead she slid her hand under the electro-master and began rubbing her back in that one spot, immediately dispelling that anger. "We can hear the door downstairs open from here and I'll stop before we get caught," she pleaded, with sorrow clear in her voice. Another kiss silenced any further protests from Misaka.

How long this continued Misaka didn't know. Her head was full of thoughts and the distractions of Kuroko's soft lips and gentle touch hardly helped her concentration. What was with her behavior, and why was she zoning out? The latter could be explained by anemia or something from an improper diet but the former was harder to explain. While the behavior wouldn't look unusual to a casual observer it was clearly different. The restraint that she had been developing the past several weeks had completely shattered and she seemed to act as if... as if she would be leaving soon and this was the last day that she would see her. Then there was her statement this morning. The perversion she showed despite Misaka being ready and willing to shock her.

Were her threats not scary any more? Was she getting weaker? Perhaps she was letting Kuroko get away with too much.

It was times like this that Misaka felt even more like the teleporter's mother rather than her girlfriend. Or maybe it was more like... an older sister... Maybe Kuroko's nickname for her was getting to her.

Despite the fact that it was first intended as an insulting nickname by her back in the days when they clashed it had developed into more of an identity than Misaka liked to admit.

People had always looked up to her as both an Oujo-sama and as a prodigy. Back before she was a level five she was always forced by her friends and classmates and others to be the mature one of the group, the one to break up conflicts and help out the others, the role of a big sister. When the others had started abandoning her as her powers grew and grew the maturity she had developed quickly backfired and turned into her current childlike nature. Though she still tried to hide this side of her from the public.

Kuroko was the first one to know about it and, though she teased her about it, she was the one who talk Misaka that it was ok to be childish. Kuroko had taught her that other peoples opinions on her taste didn't matter and if they complained a couple thousands volts would usually stop that complaining right away, like it did to the teleporter.

But Kuroko's influence hadn't been responsible for just Misaka's violence, it was also responsible for bringing back, if only somewhat, that big sister like attitude. Her room mate was harder to deal with than anyone else she had ever met so learning how to live with her allowed her to make friends with Saten and Uiharu.

Those two were so much easier to handle. They didn't cause problems for her, they didn't do perverted things to her, they listened and liked her without expecting anything, they accepted her and her quirks. And they didn't have enough quirks of their own to make them tough to deal with. Misaka was glad to have met them.

Suddenly Misaka realized that Kuroko had disappeared. She sat up to see the girl sitting in her chair. She had a great big smile on her face that made the electro-master want to punch her to wipe it off. Misaka sat up and was about to speak when she was again interrupted, this time by the door opening and closing as Uiharu walked in. Misaka found it hard to look her in the eye for some reason rhyming with duroko.

"Late as ever eh Uiharu?" Kuroko said, half-scolding but half-affectionate.

"Not everyone can teleport Kuroko, and she lives far away," Misaka defended her, trying to find something to yell at Kuroko for given that she couldn't just blurt out the real reason for her ire.

"What are you two doing here?" the flower headed girl asked.

"Well I decided to check up on how my friend was doing without me. I know you're fully capable so I haven't been worrying too much recently but a visit every now and then can't hurt," the teleporter said sincerely.

Misaka turned to look at Uiharu and was slightly surprised to see that she was alone, "Saten isn't with you today?" she questioned.

The other girl turned and looked around, seemingly as surprised as Misaka was. Then she heard a door open and close and Saten walked up the stairs. "The cake shop down the street was offering free samples of their newest flavor," she said, explaining her absence.

"Oh, really?" Uiharu asked, excited. One of the drawbacks of teleportation as a mode of locomotion is that "the scenic route" didn't exist so this was news to Misaka who wondered if she should go and try it out.

"Well they were," Saten said casually, "I had the last one."

"Oh, really?" Uiharu asked again, this time clearly disheartened, "were they go- "she was about to continue when Saten moved forward towards her.

"Just kidding," Saten said after a couple of seconds, "I made sure to get a sample for you too," she assured the shorter girl "sorry for just shoving it in but the look on your face was priceless when you realized. And I only made a little mess," the long haired girl said as she moved to wipe off a little frosting from the corner of Uiharu's mouth and put it in her own mouth. "Tasty aren't they?"

Suddenly Kuroko appeared on Misaka's lap with a small piece of cake. "Onee-sama, say ahhh," the teleporter commanded.

"Stop! Kuroko GET OFF!" she yelled, her voice filled with obvious anger and a less obvious embarrassed plea. Kuroko seemed to hear it though and apparently she only partially ignored it because the next second she found herself on the roof. The cake was popped in her mouth followed by the other girl's tongue. It took a second to realize what was going on but the moment she did she shocked the teleporter as harshly as possible without risking severe injury. Then she stood up and wiped off her mouth, swallowing the cake. "We are going to have a long talk later on. Until then I want you to stay away from me..." she seethed as she descended the steps and reentered the main office without another word. It wasn't until another half a minute passed that the other girl teleported in, right near the sink, and began immediately running her tongue under cold water. It had just received a severe electrical burn after all.

Still Kuroko was dedicated to being as antagonistic to her as possible today it seemed and she said, "totally worth it," in Russian, a language the two of them knew but their friends did not.

"Shut up," Misaka responded, again in Russian, and fired another lightning bolt at the girl, this one more controlled. It hit her square in the back, scorching the vest of her uniform and causing a sudden muscle spasm that sent the teleporter's head into the metal faucet hard.

The audible thud that echoed throughout the room and the blood that Misaka saw trickling down her forehead where it had hit the faucet caused Misaka to worry. "Onee-sama, you'll damage my uniform," the teleporter whined, disregarding the lightning's effects on her as she righted herself and wiped off the trickle of blood that the impact had caused. But this was usual for the teleporter who always laughed off her injuries, even when they were clearly severe.

"Are you ok Kuroko?" she asked.

"I'm fine," she said then she walked over to Uiharu, "I should probably get going, I have a lot of training to do. I'll be back on the beat on Monday. You'll be fine on your own until then," she spoke the last part as more of a statement than a question, utter confidence in her voice.

"Yep," she nodded with a smile, "I'll see you Monday. Have a nice time until then. Train hard." With that Kuroko left. Konori returned shortly after that and said that it was Uiharu's turn for patrol.

"And you two, try not to distract her this time. Her patrols are taking twice the time that they should," she scolded the others who decided to just head off. As they left Misaka stopped by the cake shop and got a sample.

For some reason it didn't taste as sweet as it had before...

As she was walking with Saten the two began to talk. "I was talking with Uiharu this morning. We were talking about Personal Realities and that practice where you picture your idyllic world," Saten said.

"Oh? What kind of thing did you imagine?" Misaka asked. That particular practice helped most with people who developed their powers later on. Misaka had had her powers since she had gone through the power curriculum program. What she pictured wasn't necessarily her idyllic world, rather what she imagined was a large field stretching for miles all around. It was dark and stormy with gusting winds, torrential rains, and lightning flashing across the sky. To most people it would be quite unpleasant but she loved it... not necessarily the stormy weather but the feeling of control that she had over it. With the tiniest motion she could halt the wind and rain and make lightning strike where she wished.

Once when Misaka was a small child still living at home she had been playing around with her mother's keys and accidentally stuck them into an electrical outlet. The resulting shock had made her terrified of electricity for years. But when she became an electro-master all that fear vanished. She now had complete control of something that had once terrified her and that was an amazing feeling to have.

"Well I kinda had problems with it. My perfect day is just hanging out with my friends. I'm ok with this world you know?"

"That's an optimistic outlook," Misaka said with a smile, "I suppose this world is pretty good… though a little too like an action movie at times."

"I was thinking it was more like a romantic comedy…" she said, "either way I suppose it's better than a drama or," she shuddered, "a soap opera. Those things are so cheesy."

"Or a documentary… think how boring that would be."

"I think it would actually be kind of exciting, having a narrator… maybe Jun Fukuyama? It would be cool having the Code Geass guy narrating our lives wouldn't it?"

"Eh, I don't think I'd like a guy doing it… I think Rie Kugimiya would be better."

Saten laughed in response, "I should've expected that you'd choose the Queen of Tsunderes."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Misaka asked embarrassed, though her embarrassment sounded to all the world like anger. It was a problem that might lead some to mistake her for a tsundere. But she wondered if that was a bad thing. Weren't tsunderes usually the more popular characters in a show? "what's wrong with being a tsundere anyway?" she asked to see if Saten could clarify.

"Well," Saten began, "I have nothing against them personally. They have their reasons and they can actually be kind of endearing, but you have to feel sorry for Saito and Hayate. As durable as they are it can't be easy to deal with a tsundere's rage, especially if they're particularly violent."

A variable montage of images flashed across Misaka's mind, each showing her attacking Kuroko out of embarrassment. She felt some guilt as she realized that she did probably hurt the teleporter a little more than was strictly necessary. Still... "but they choose it… well maybe not those two but Ryujji certainly chose to stay even if Taiga was violent."

"You're right… I guess they're just masochists who deserve anything they get," Saten conceded. Though she didn't mean it she had to admit that Kuroko might actually be a little bit of a masochist… but that was beside the point.

"I'm not saying that," Misaka argued, trying to find some way to state her position, "I'm just saying that it's as much them as Rie's characters. They don't have to stay and they don't have to do the things that make them get hurt."

"True. But you still have to ask if they deserve as much as they get. What they do isn't that bad. They're just trying to show affection."

"They do it wrong. It's only for the perverted things, I don't punish Kuroko for hugs and kisses as long as we're not in public." She said, frustrated as she was reminded of all these mornings interactions. A second past before Misaka realized what she had said. A deep blush overtook her cheeks and she ran off. She didn't know why she did so but her legs just began moving, carrying her away from her friend.

She ran for a while then just began walking. She wasn't sure where she was going so she just wandered around. She had nothing to do really. She stopped and thought about stopping by the park to work out some anger but that plan was interrupted when several large stupid-looking lunkheads approached her.

"Hey there little girly, is it safe for someone like you to be wandering out here alone? Do you want me to help you find your mommy?" one of them asked with a smirk.

She looked at him for a second then sighed and fried him and seven of his nine buddies within the blink of an eye, leaving their charred smoking carcasses on the ground of the alley, proud of herself for not causing a blackout this time. Then she lowered her gaze at the two remaining men. Her gaze was thick with a single thought "I dare you".

Much to her surprise however the others didn't react with anger, in fact they seemed more relieved than anything else. One of them even smiled at her, "thanks," he said, "a little early considering Ritoku's signal hasn't gone off yet but I'm not one to raise a fuss."

This confused Misaka but he didn't seem to want to cause her any trouble so she continued walking on glad to have worked out some of her anger on some people who probably deserved it. So she continued walking on for a while longer.

Suddenly a chill ran down Misaka's spine. Instinct took over for a second and she ducked, narrowly avoiding what looked to be a massive sword. She rolled forward, turning around at the same time to get a view of her attacker.

Standing about 10 meters in front of her was a tall lanky teenage boy with short spiky grey hair. His body was surrounded by a weird greyish blue glow. He was standing next to what probably used to be a stoplight. Now however it was twisted into a giant hinged blade, almost like it had been made of clay.

"ooo very nice. It's good to see that the railgun is more than just talk. You can call me Tetsu, I am the most powerful metal manipulator in the city and I intend to prove it. I think beating you would be sufficient for that don't you? Beating the magnetic master herself?"

"I'd like to see you try," was Misaka's response as she gathered iron sand in her hand.

"There is no try, only will, and I will beat you," he grinned as the blade pointed at her again. Then the tip of it shot forward, a spear as thick as a tree travelling quickly directly at her.

Deflecting it was an easy matter. She twisted blade near the hinge with magnetism sending the spear through a car and into a nearby building instead of into her. Then she sent her iron sand whip-sword directly towards Tetsu.

But he was ready and sent a sheaf of iron from the base of the stoplight coiling around him to protect him from the sand. Now that it was in contact with metal he was touching he gathered the iron sand up into once spot and had the coiled sheaf of iron twist and throw it back like a boulder from a catapult.

The apparent pointlessness of this action was not lost on Misaka who looked to the side just in time to see the almost disregarded tip of the iron spear adjusting itself and forming a mace with the metal from the car it had skewered as well as an iron girder from the building. The giant mace began to make a move to smash her.

Looking behind her for something to use as a shield her eyes fell upon a fire escape which was attached to the building behind her. She ripped the iron structure from the brick side of the building and interposed it between herself and the heavy metal mace stopping it in its tracks. Misaka then ripped off one of the ladders from it and flung it towards Tetsu who only just managed to block it with another nearby car.

"You're better than I thought," he admitted, "but not good enough!" the car absorbed the ladder forming it into another pointed spear as the mace began to absorb the rest of the fire escape fashioning it into large metal spikes on the mace's surface.

'I can't beat him by using metal alone. He absorbs any metal that comes in contact with something he's controlling,' Misaka realized and saw that the other building behind her was made of reinforced concrete. She smiled and gathered all her power to rip the wall from the building and smashed it against the mace, pinning it to the wall. She magnetized the loosened chucks from the wall and sent them sailing into the car, smashing it to pieces and crumpling the flimsy iron of the ladder-spear.

"Had enough?" she asked ready to finish this fight.

"I told you... you can't beat me," he sighed, as if exasperated with a small child. Then he used some of the last remaining iron in the pole, forming it into a rod and sending it into the ground. A second passed and nothing happened... then a massive rumbling came from the road beneath Misaka's feet. Her eyes widened as she managed to dodge just in time to avoid the pipes and wires which were ripping themselves out of the ground. The pipes rammed themselves into the concrete wall, smashing it to pieces and freeing the massive mace.

"damnit" Misaka cursed as she tried to defend or counter or attack. She ripped every piece of metal in the surrounding area up, from fire hydrants to trash cans, to use as weapons but everything was absorbed and Misaka soon found all her paths of escape cut off by a spiked wall that Tetsu had been wrapping around her.

Misaka's mind worked furiously to find a way out. There must be something else she could use around here that couldn't be absorbed... maybe she could magnetically repulse the walls if they got too close... She racked her brain for something, anything. She would not let herself lose this contest.

Tetsu grinned as he saw the trapped level 5, "I've won. This battle is over," he announced.

'Battle...' the electromaster repeated the word in her head. It was then it dawned on Misaka. This wasn't a contest, there was no losing. This was a battle, if she lost she would die. All throughout the fight she hadn't truly taken it seriously. This person had come up to her and challenged her as a manipulator of metal so she had fought as such to defend her pride and honor as a level five. But that was when it had been a contest, when pride and honor were the only things on the line. This was a battle and a battle had no rules... and no limits.

Misaka pointed a finger at the gloating glowing Tetsu and sent a lightning bolt directly into his chest. He convulsed and spasmed and finally fell over, the glow ebbing away with his consciousness.

Despite her victory Misaka frowned. She had been so caught up in proving that she was better than he was at his power that she hadn't taken him out like that at the very beginning like she knew she could have.

She knew it was a problem of hers, her pride. Ever since she had become a level five she had never once fought with her full power unless her friends were in immediate danger. She always held back and the reason wasn't just because her power was dangerous if used in its full capacity, it was more because fights were boring otherwise.

Though she wouldn't admit it Misaka loved fights. They made her heart beat fast and her blood boil with excitement. The feeling was indescribable and the rush of adrenaline almost incomparable. If all her fights were over as quickly as the one against the lunkheads from earlier things would get so boring. So she held back far more than necessary in hopes of dragging fights on for as long as possible and extending that feeling.

So far that hadn't really affected her that much. She was powerful enough that even holding back she was more than a match for almost anyone. She had only lost two fights in her entire life and one of them didn't count because it was against that annoying spikey haired kid and his cheating arm.

The other was actually against Kuroko, long before she was her room mate and girlfriend, back during their second meeting. During their first meeting when Kuroko had tried to arrest her, she had zapped her for her troubles, though it was a considerably more gentle zap than the ones she delivered nowadays. However this earned her the teleporter's ire and during the second meeting She tried to arrest Misaka again. Misaka had not had time to deal with her at the time so she had tried to zap her again only for her to disappear. It was Misaka's first glimpse of her powers, her second came the next second when she was teleported up to her neck into the ground.

Other than those two she had won every fight she had been in and only a few she had ever had could be called "close". The one against Kihara and her robot and the one against the AIM burst. This was, unfortunately, one of those close calls. This Tetsu person was powerful... unnaturally powerful. She wondered what that glow that surrounded him had been. Was it somehow linked?

As she was lost in thought she heard Anti-Skill sirens blaring. She ignored them until she noticed them getting closer. Before she knew it a van had arrived at her location. The agent got out and looked around at the carnage the fight had wrought. She sighed and said, "I don't have time for this," then she looked at Misaka and told her, "you're under arrest for... this" she gestured to the surrounding region and pointed at the unconscious Tetsu.

"What?!" the electro-master protested, surprised, "he attacked me first. I was just defending myself."

"If that's true then it can be verified later," she said, "but right now you're standing amidst a massive amount of damaged property and the only other person is unconscious from what is clearly a lightning bolt making you a very likely suspect. If you're innocent then it can be dealt with peacefully at the station but if you try and refuse then even if you are innocent of the vandalism and assault you will be guilty of resisting arrest."

Despite her anger at the unfairness of the situation she realized that the agent was right and that trying to resist now would probably be a bad idea. So she went peacefully to the station where her inuries were treated in the infirmary and she was questioned about what had happened by an automatic recorder (apparently they were very short staffed at the moment because of some gang violence that was going on).

However an agent did come to talk to her near the end. He sat down in the room. He was tall with a shaved head and a large shiny badge. He smiled as he introduced himself, "hello. I'm Marshall, chief of Anti-Skill. Given today's events it seems I am the only one available to talk to you." He sounded happy as he mentioned "today's events".

"I just defended myself, nothing else. I don't know why I was arrested for that, I never have been before."

"That would be what I wanted to talk with you about. You know of your arrangment with Anti-Skill don't you?"

Misaka's eyebrows furrowed, "arrangment? I wasn't aware I had a particular 'arrangement'."

"Ah! Well... simply put someone has taken responsibility for you. The community service penalty for any crimes you commit are instead shouldered by this person as well as all fines and property damage which you or your parents would otherwise be forced to pay. It is an uncommon practice but it sounded interesting when it was proposed to me so I allowed it. Anyway, you will need to remain in the holding cell until this person comes for you so try not to hurt anyone ok?"

Misaka was confused. She had never heard about this deal before but it did explain how she hadn't been arrested in several months despite what some might consider less than legal activity. Still that left one question, "who is it?"

"A young girl by the name of Shirai Kuroko. Normally she would be considered too young but she does have a level two emancipation so she is considered an adult in most circumstances. Her work in Judgment is considered community service so she has managed to keep up with the surprising amount of that which you would otherwise have accrued but the money is another matter. I wonder if she has enough to pay for this." he smiled, "anyway, follow me to the holding cell," Marshall said as he stood up.

"That makes three out of six successful battle tests of 'David's Blessing'. The remaining three will be completed shortly. The endurance tests have shown the average duration to be an hour of power usage after activation, far less if it is used to a greater degree. If our theory is correct then the 'Cloak of Elijah' which we had those Honogun fellows test for us should increase the duration indefinitely," Vyers reported the results of the day's tests, "As for the last thing we need, the Horns of Jericho. It seems that Kuroko has finally gathered them all and has even secured the seventh from her friend. As the Queen mentioned it is difficult to control her but she says she has managed to subtly influence her enough to ensure that the horns are not destroyed, but rather gathered together."

"Speaking of the Horns... the third battle test seems particularly interesting. The interruption of those Skillout gave us a way to test out the Horn of Jericho's effects on the blessed ESPers before its intended delivery. It seems that, with the 7 stage cycle of interference and amplification, this almost definitively proves the cyclical resonance theory of AIM fields," said Lammington as he got the results of this particular test back. The experimental opportunity had been unexpected but when they had gotten word of Skillout's plan it was a simple matter to move their lab rat to someplace that he would be affected, "Wielhelm would be happy to hear his theory proven right, if he was still alive."

"A hard working lab assistant for the foremost researcher of AIM fields just looking for a bit of recognition, his greatest contribution a theory not even proven until he had already died…" Vyers agreed with sympathy, "Still, cyclical resonance always did make more sense than Douglass's theory, that's why the boss based his 'Call' around it. AIM fields clearly originate from the brainwaves, not the motor neurons. The idea that they were a movement at all makes no sense and yet people accepted it so readily. And the result is that AIM fields are called by such a silly name."

"They can hardly reassign the Nobel prize though and this experiment was secret so even though it has been proven he will still be missing the credit," Lammington reminded his friend who sighed in response.

"I suppose you are right. Still, we know he was right, and a lot of research is based around his theory even if it isn't the generally accepted one. Once AIM field detectors get suitably advanced I'm sure he will receive his due respect," Vyers admitted then he sighed and got onto the more unpleasant business, "by the way, the Queen has requested a physical enhancement, saying that she'd prefer to 'crush Misaka with her own hands'."

Lammington smiled, "this actually provides a good opportunity. You know those robotic limbs used by prisoners for physical labor... give her one of those. It's programmed to be able to shut the wearer down upon command so we can knock her out in a moment if she gets out of hand."

Vyers sighed, "I wait for the day when she gets out of our hands..."

"Soon friend... soon."

Author's Note: I have read one or two angry reviews stating how I am underestimating Misaka. I disagree with this. In fact I think I have expanded her powers in a realistic way (except for the reinforced concrete wall in this chapter... but that was perhaps a little bit of indulgence of fantasy on my part) that makes her potentially more powerful. In the show she has even more moments of weakness and those, along with their rescues, are less realistic. The fact is that getting saved by a teleporter makes sense, it is someone who can appear literally out of nowhere and get you out of a harmful situation instantly.

I have given her enemies with realistic countermeasures for her powers that still leave a way to defeat them (unlike Accelerator who is semi-invincible) which have managed to put Misaka on her toes without utterly overpowering her. But as I show in this chapter they are still easy to take down. If Misaka was willing to kill then any enemy except ultra powerful ones would be killed in three seconds by her railgun.

It's infinitely easier to write about a main character from a side character's perspective than to write about a side character from a main character's perspective. I wanted to continue the trend of the last two chapters but that little caveat along with the fact that I've already done a lot of introspection with Misaka made it more difficult, so I did more of a focus on action.

Coming soon: Frozen hearts and icy glares, a battle as cold as winter.