Toaru Tsumi no Kurikaesu

A Certain Repeat of Offences

That night Kuroko dreamed of darkness and honey and thorns. It was an all too familiar dream that she knew could only mean one thing…

The Queen was back.

However this time there was one difference and that difference was enough to give her strength. This time Kuro was with her in the darkness. The black silhouette of her oldest friend was hard to distinguish among the darkness but the white chains which dangled from the executioners axe and bound her otherwise jet black form told Kuroko that she was still there.

There is nothing to worry about Shiro, I am here for you and this time I have power. I will not allow her to take over your mind.

She has done it once already though. She is a level five and I am just a level four. Onee-sama is immune but I am not.

Do not despair. You are strong. The voice was deafening before but it is weaker this time because you are stronger now than before. You will not lose.

The voice may be weak but the hate it is inducing is strong. I am not like you, I can feel and my feelings can be manipulated, whether by the people I care about or the Queen's power. But I will be strong, my love cannot be overpowered by any amount of hate.

At these words of confidence she felt the darkness lift as she was brought to the real world by her Onee-sama's gentle lips upon her own.

She was a little surprised but happy at the same time. Still… the feelings from the dream lingered even as she returned the kiss. When the older girl began to pull away she panicked a little bit and adjusted her grip to pull her Onee-sama closer to her. She channeled her hate and anger into passion and began her assault on her girlfriend's neck, trying to release the pent up emotion.

Misaka tried to get away as she asked, "Are you ok Kuroko?"

"I love you," was her response. She looked up at Misaka with some hate still lingering in her gaze, "do you love me?"

As expected Misaka blushed but she said, "of course."

"Then I'm fine… as long as you love me I'll be fine so keep loving me please." Without her love Kuroko wasn't sure what she would do, what she could do.

"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 got up to change, then she stopped as what happened last night flashed through her head. It was so nice, so pleasant, a dream come true.

Dream… had it really happened? It seemed doubtful so she turned back to the bed and sat down, taking her Onee-sama's hand both to relay the seriousness and for comfort. "Onee-sama… last night… what happened in the shower… did that really happen?" she asked.

"wh-wh-WHAT?!"

That was hardly enough of a reaction to either confirm or deny so Kuroko clarified, more doubt seeping into her gaze, ""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 sighed, she hoped her girlfriend wouldn't consider her too weird for saying what she was about to say, "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."

"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.

Kuroko was happy to hear this but it also frightened her a bit. If what she knew would happen soon happened then all of this would be yanked away…"When you say that it makes me unimaginably happy," 'and all that happiness will be gone', "so if it is unimaginable it must be real right?"

"Right…I guess," the electro-master said.

And if the Queen really did dominate her once again how would Misaka react… she had been so reluctant to shock her recently. Would she hesitate again? Would she refuse to hurt her even if Kuroko was forced to hurt Misaka? Would it be Kuroko's fault that she was hurt? Would she kill the only person she ever loved?

'Perhaps it would be better if I got her used to the idea now,' she thought so she put on her best mischievous grin and said, "Though I was even happier when you were naked…"

"Think about your next sentence very, VERY carefully," the electro-master said. She saw the anger in her eyes and the perfect willingness to hurt her… that was good. Maybe things would actually go well after all.

Still it wouldn't work unless she was actually shocked. So she braced herself and said "your breasts have grown since we first met," that much was actually true, they were about 8.5 millimeters larger, "Though they'd probably grow even faster if you let me massage them."

As expected she was harshly shocked before Misaka stormed off.

Kuroko recovered quickly though and got about her own morning routine. Quickly getting changed and making breakfast for Misaka. Then she began preparing her Onee-sama's lunch. After a second of thought she prepared a second box. She would be visiting Jericho today and she thought she might appreciate it. She would also pick up something for Birdy on the way, probably something sweet or maybe a nice curry bun.

Thinking of visiting friends she realized she had not visited Uiharu yet. She decided to bring it up with Misaka after her breakfast to see if she would go with her.

'It will be nice to s-,' Kuroko began to think then suddenly a blackness passed over her eyes and mind. A singular overpowering urge passed through her, the urge to hurt Misaka, to chuck the knife at the girl who had just come out of the bathroom and sat at the table. It was too strong to resist forever, even holding it in for half a second was straining her. So she took another course of action.

She withdrew. She hid herself in the hiding place in her mind where Kuro had once stayed when she wasn't necessary. All non-automatic bodily functions shut down for the second or two that she remained in there as the powerful rush of hate and anger washed over her.

When she came out again she said a simple confused, "huh?" out of reflex. The action had been disorienting and she was feeling pain for some reason. She looked down to her finger to see that she had plunged the knife into it. By the depth of the wound she must have hit it pretty hard… had her knuckles not been long since replaced with more durable artificial ones it would probably have cut her finger off.

She was still a little confused and wondered what she should do when that question was answered for her by Misaka who stuck her wounded finger in her mouth despite the fact that such an action was hardly sanitary. But the thoughts of how unhygienic it was were quickly replaced by the sensation of the ordeal. The soft, warm, wet pressure eased the pain.

Yet the whole thing was slightly awkward and the fact that she was making her Onee-sama do such a thing to her was a little embarrassing. She blushed as she put aside the knife and began to clean up the blood that had spilled on the cutting board. It took her a while to get up the motivation to speak again.

"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 teleported both of them into the bathroom. Then she began digging around the medicine drawer with her free hand as Misaka continued sucking on her finger, wearing a blush equaling Kuroko's.

She treated the wound and put a band-aid as Misaka said, "that had better be some tasty food." Then the electro-master moved to block the door. "You don't get distracted and you don't have accidents," she said to the younger girl, "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." It was a half-truth but she knew the whole truth would disturb her Onee-sama too much.

"Is that all," the older girl asked and Kuroko nodded in a blatant lie.

They went back to the kitchen and Misaka began eating as Kuroko finished up the boxed lunch, making sure not to pick up the knife again. As she finished working and brought over the electro-master's lunch she brought up what she had been thinking before the "blackout". "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. As expected it would still be several minutes before the beginning of Uiharu's shift and Konori was out on patrol. They were alone together.

They sat on the couch and a few minutes passed without anything of interest happening. Suddenly the same wave of hate and anger as before washed over her, even stronger this time. Again she withdrew into herself riding out the main wave of emotions, but some remained. Again she tried to funnel them into passion and pushed her Onee-sama down onto the couch kissing her.

Misaka tried to push 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.

Any other time she would have agreed but right now she needed to work off this emotion or else she might do something else to Misaka, something that both of the probably would enjoy even less. So she moved her hand to rub the spot on her Onee-sama's back that worked to control her temper and said,"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. Then she continued to kiss her as deeply and passionately as possible, trying desperately to work out that pent up emotion. It worked quite well and by the end it had turned into a considerable amount of happiness.

She only stopped once the hair on the back of her neck bristled warning her to the incoming presence of someone else. She teleported off quickly and into her chair and waited for Uiharu to arrive which happened shortly.

"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 though the teleporter knew she was just finding some excuse to yell at her.

"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.

Behind her Misaka asked, "Saten isn't with you today?" sounding surprised.

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.

"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?"

While this was going on Kuroko teleported to the shop deciding she should pick one up for her Onee-sama. Then she teleported back right onto her lap and said, "Onee-sama, say ahh."

"Stop! Kuroko GET OFF!" she yelled, her voice filled with obvious anger and a less obvious embarrassed plea. Given what she had just done she decided it would be best to at least get some privacy for this part. So she teleported them to the roof and slipped the cake into her mouth along with her tongue so they could share the taste.

Her efforts were almost immediately and completely expectedly met with an immense amount of electricity. Unfortunately Kuroko had not foreseen the fact that her tongue made an excellent conductor. It was much like touching a battery with one's tongue only several hundred times worse. And unlike the rest of her body it was not a place she was accustomed to electrocuting making it even worse. She felt the muscles convulse terribly and felt the flesh scorch as she rolled off the other girl.

The only reason her tongue wasn't completely burned off and instead only suffered a first degree burn was that the shock wasn't as strong as it had been before and it was distributed throughout her whole body.

"We are going to have a long talk later on. Until then I want you to stay away from me..." she heard Misaka say as she walked away. It took her a while to recover enough to stand up and when she did she immediately teleported down to the sink to run her burnt tongue under water in an attempt to soothe the pain. She knew with medication she'd be healed by tomorrow but that certainly didn't make it any less painful now.

Still she couldn't help but speak her mind as 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.

It was not the pain she was worried about though, nor the injuries. She had had more pain and injury in her life than most soldiers suffered through an entire war. However her uniform being damaged was another matter. Uniforms for such a prestigious school as Tokiwadai weren't cheap and she had already gone through two or three this month. "Onee-sama, you'll damage my uniform," she whined. Then she wiped off the blood of her forehead. Though she hadn't lost that much blood she decided to take an extra iron tablet today just in case.

"Are you ok Kuroko?" Misaka 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.

She teleported to a bakery to pick up Birdy's curry bun then went to Itora's residence. She arrived just in time to see Birdy hurrying out the door, a package in her arms, though she did stop and talk to Kuroko, thanking her for the snack and catching up a bit before she hurried off to her delivery.

When that was over she went inside. Itora was nowhere to be seen but another member of the family (by the resemblance she guessed he was actually part of Itora's family) guided her to her white haired friend.

When she arrived she was slightly surprised to see Jericho working on a table that was quite similar to her one at home. She was happy to see Kuroko and told her that she had been taken on as an inventor by Mind Over Matter. Since she was now working for a company instead of freelance she had greater access to resources and was paid a higher and more consistent wage. Not only that but she was even making friends with Birdy. Kuroko was happy for her but at the same time she felt a little empty. When they were kids she had been the one to take care of Jericho, the only one. But now it seemed that Jericho was beginning to become able to take care of herself.

After a short talk / catch up session she told Jericho that she had gathered all the horns. Jericho looked very happy at that and then she took something out of her pocket. It was a small box.

"This is the first thing I ever invented," Jericho said, "it's a music box. I wanted to give it to you to thank you for all your help. Not just now but in the past. Open it."

Kuroko did so and the haunting melody of her lullaby spilled out of the small box. She let it play out then she looked at Jericho. She stepped forward and gave the girl a hug and the other girl sang in her beautiful singing voice that only Kuroko had ever heard, "O shiro tsuki shiro tsuki ikanaide kudasai."

Then she said one more thing, this time in a quiet whisper, "the data for the seventh horn is hidden in a flash drive in the middle, just twist and you should be able to retrieve it. There are similar flash drives in the suit cases with the data. Keep the box but please… if you would, deliver it and the rest of the ones you've gathered to the right people."

"I will," she said, "I'll make sure to visit often too."

Jericho smiled back, "thank you Shiro, thank you for everything."

With a few more parting words she left and picked up the horn she had retrieved last night. Then she went to her secret place where the remaining five horns lay.

Despite what she had said to her friends she was wondering whether to hand it over or not. She had spent so much time retrieving it from people who would abuse it. Would she just be handing it over to more people like that? She had decided at the beginning to destroy them… but that too sounded like a poor alternative. She would be betraying a promise she made to a friend.

She decided that she would research the company that had ordered them to be built first. Until then she copied the data from all of them onto two CD's. One of which she would keep down here and the other would be kept on her person. For a second she wondered about the latter part of that course of action. Why would she want to do something as illogical as keep it on her person?

Still she decided that it couldn't hurt and slipped the completed disc into her pocket. Then she teleported upwards and took a deep breath and thought about what she should do next. She first decided to send a text to Riko telling him the name of the company and asking him to do a bit of research on it, saying she would pay him tomorrow when she came to pick up the results of his findings.

Then she noticed as a man rounded the corner of the alley. He was a large man built like a tank with black leather jacket and pants and short hair in a pseudo-buzz cut In his hands he held a folder. "Are you the one they call the scourge?" he asked.

"Yes… who are you and what do you want?" she said cautiously, her hands resting on the needle bands on her thighs.

"My name is Komaba Ritoku. Tell me… what do you know about the leader of the gang Skill Out?" he asked.

"The current leader of Skill Out is Zangyaku Banko a notoriously ruthless man whose personality fits his name. Why do you ask?"

"Because I have some information for you regarding him and his gang. Something big is about to go down and I don't think Anti-Skill can handle it. You however have proven yourself able to handle things that even they cannot. Not only that but I believe you have had prior experience with what you'll be dealing with. From what I heard you dealt with something similar when you were fighting one particular faction of Skillout known as Big Spider."

A foreboding feeling rose within Kuroko's gut. "Go on..." she said, motioning with her hand.

"From what I hear some of Skill Out recently kidnapped the creator of a device known simply as a Horn of Jericho which functions similarly to the Capacity Down you faced with Big Spider. They attempted to get her to replicate one. While this was a failure as someone, you actually I believe, managed to rescue her before she was able to build another one, the sound of the Horn which they captured and were using as a basis for replication was recorded. This recording was uploaded onto several different trucks which had been previously outfitted with large stereos specifically for Capacity Down. A field test shows it functions at the same level as the original with an even larger effective range. Now Zangyaku is preparing to utilize it in a massive attack against all of this city's ESPers."

"Where did you hear this from," Kuroko asked, surprised at his depth of knowledge.

"My friend is in Skillout and he told me. He didn't want to go to anyone himself but I cannot stand by while so many innocents are hurt," he explained.

Kuroko of course didn't trust him, and in this case it wasn't just paranoia saying that. But she nodded regardless. She teleported a tracker into his thigh (a painless and unnoticeable action to him) and said, "So what do you want me to do about it?"

He held out the file in his hand, "here are the locations of all the vans. They have trackers installed in them so if you pick up the tracker from the main base where most of the vans are still at you can find the ones which have been deployed already. What you do is up to you." Kuroko walked up and took the folder cautiously. And the man turned and left with these parting words, "you are a good person. You protect others regardless of who they are. You will do the right thing."

Even if it was a trap her suit, which she had with her, and her power would allow her to avoid springing it, so she decided that it would be worth checking out at least. She teleported back to her secret spot and changed, retrieving a few things as well while she was there. Then she teleported off to the location of the main base where most of the targets currently were.

Ritoku left the alley and joined his two friends, Hamazura Shiage and Hattori Hanzou, who were waiting for him a short distance away.

"How'd it go?" Shiage asked

"She seemed cautious so she might end up missing the opportunity out of that suspicion. I don't think she will though. Her sense of justice is strong. If all ESPers were like her there wouldn't even be a need for Skillout," Ritoku informed with a sigh.

"Is she capable enough to do it though?" Shiage continued skeptically.

"She managed to defeat so many of the Skill Out members in this region within two days and far more in the past. That was what allowed us to sow the seeds for this little coup in the first place remember? First-hand accounts put her combat prowess at demonic levels. Even adjusting for exaggeration she is still quite talented." In the aftermath of the two days when the scourge had gone on her rampage the members of Skill Out started questioning Zangyaku's ability to protect them as well as his control over the area. He had lost the trust between himself and his subordinates a long time, so that control and ability to protect them was all he had. When that broke down it had been easy to get a large group of loyal and combat trained people on his side and with his two friends he was ready to overthrow him at any time.

Now provided a great opportunity both because the attack would spread Zangyaku's forces thin and allow even his few men to take them out with ease. Not only that but what he had said was true. He could not allow something like this to happen, he could not allow so many innocents to get hurt.

"That wasn't what I meant though. She's still an ESPer, won't she be affected by the Capacity Down trucks like everyone else?" Shiage clarified.

"She's dealt with them before. I'm sure she's smart enough to keep her distance," Ritoku said.

"Even if she doesn't keep her distance," Hattori spoke up for the first time, "I told you what I saw at the parking garage. For some reason she doesn't seem to be affected by the Horns."

"You know you have told us that part but you never did tell us why you didn't attack her…" Shiage queried.

'Because our clans are allies at the moment,' Hanzou though, but he kept this thought to himself and instead said, "Because I saw no reason to. I was unaware at the time that she was the scourge so it just seemed like two girls in the wrong place at the wrong time. None of us are so heartless as to mercilessly attack someone in those situations are we?"

"Course not, that's why we're taking over, to protect the ones who can't protect themselves."

"He who thinks himself above corruption is the quickest to be tainted by it," Hattori said. Once before he had been offered leadership of his clan and he had refused. He would always refuse leadership because of this very reason. He was quick to think himself righteous and knew that that characteristic would make him a poor leader of men and a horrible abuser of power. Ritoku was a man who hated the idea of leadership as well but his reasoning was different. He cared about his subordinates and being a leader would make him personally responsible for the fates of so many, a burden that he was unwilling to bear without incentive. This was what made him the perfect candidate for leadership.

Shiage rolled his eyes, "yeah yeah Buddha, any more Zen crap before we get on to business?"

"Quick to anger slow to think," he snarked at his friend in response.

"Here's a thought for you," Shiage seethed in reply, "I think you're a ba-" He was quickly silenced by a look from Ritoku.

Once he was assured his friends were silent he spoke, "Everything else is in place. Assuming the scourge decides to help I've told the men to begin the attack on the mark. They've been told not to kill so I'm predicting a small mortality rate. Most of them are outnumbered but the ones who are are skilled combatants and should be competent enough to deal with the others, plus they've got the element of surprise. When they're done they've been instructed to call Anti-Skill and report the others then meet back up with us at the secondary base where we're heading to take out Zangyaku."

"What happens if she does more than simply disable the trucks? What if she goes after Zangyaku on her own?" Hanzou asked. The look in the girls eyes last time he had seen her had been that of a fearsome hunter who would never stop until her target had been wiped from the earth and Ritoku was targeting her at Skill Out. It could be that Ritoku had dug their graves with that decision.

"He is at the secondary base and she only knows where the main base is. She won't be able to find him if she tries," Ritoku assured, "now… shall we get on with it?" He asked his friends who nodded in response.

Author's Note: The complete picture is almost completed, next chapter will be the action part of this as well as the aftermath but for now I decided to split the two chapters up, both so I can get this out as soon as possible but also because it would be a huge number of words otherwise and that can get really tedious to read. I try to average 4-5k a chapter, though my previous chapters have been skewing that a bit with their 6-7k word counts.

I hope this isn't too big a violation of canon, but I don't think that Ritoku would be the type to create Skillout. It is more likely that he took over leadership of it. Since this isn't covered in the novels to the best of my knowledge I decided to write one up on my own explanations of the incident.

Also, in response to one guest comment I received, this is set just before the sister arc (and therefore the fight with accelerator) in the timeline but after the Level Upper and Poltergeist arcs as well as after the Index and Deep Blood arcs. Though there are only like 2 days between those in the real timeline those two days are actually 2 months in my canon.