Toaru Gosa no Risuku

A Certain Risk of Error

Kuroko didn't sleep that night. This was a conscious choice of hers. She didn't want that dream of honey and darkness and thorns. She'd prefer the sweet delusions of wakefulness. After all, in a choice between two fictions wouldn't one choose the more pleasant one?

So she took a few caffeine tablets and some of her other medication and spent the night preparing for the next day, the last day. Tomorrow she would distance herself from Misaka as far as she could and hope that the voice couldn't find her. Even though she knew it was a futile attempt perhaps she could at least put enough distance between herself and Misaka as to make the time it would take to find her not worthwhile.

And since today would be her last day with her Onee-sama for who knows how long she decided to take her out on a date. And not just any date, the best possible date that she could conceive of. She got out her notebook and sat on the floor next to her Onee-sama's bed, holding the electro-master's hand throughout the night with her left hand while the right began jotting down notes. She spent 6 hours planning everything out then popped out to get everything she would need.

She stopped by some various shops, glad as ever for Academy City's 24/7 shopping district, though there was one thing that she would need to get later on since that shop wasn't automated.

After the shops she headed to the tall white, windowless obelisk that was in the middle of the city and she teleported herself up to the rooftop garden. She picked 10 and wrapped them in a ribbon, as a bouquet. As she did she was pricked by one of the thorns causing a minor bleed [1]. She wiped the blood off on her handkerchief, sad that Misaka wasn't there to suck it again. As unhygienic as it was it was not an unpleasant sensation.

With that done she went back home where she began preparing breakfast and lunch. Then she took some stomach medication for the upset stomach that she was sure she would soon have (she always had one after eating solid food after a while of her training diet). After that she began to put her finishing touches on her plan for the day.

Misaka woke up that morning to a delightful smell wafting through the apartment. The smell of Kuroko's cooking. A few more sniffs of the air made her even happier as she detected the delicious aromas of sizzling meats and other delightful things. Normally Kuroko tended to cook healthier meals for her and though they were tasty even her favorite foods made by someone as skilled as Kuroko was better when there was beef instead of tofu. Today, though, it seemed like Kuroko had splurged on some really good stuff.

The electro-master's eyes cracked open to see a hand resting in her own. The arm connected to it stretched across the bed , leading to a mane of pinkish brown hair turned away from her. She reached over with her free arm and began to pet the teleporter's head, "what're you doing on the floor there?"

"Oh, morning Onee-sama," She responded happily, relaxing at the petting, "just some financial stuff don't worry about it."

Misaka looked over at her. She was in the same state as last night, which was to say topless[2]. Next to her was a stack of paper, a few sheets of which she held in her hand. They were covered in numbers. Next to her was a lockbox which was locked shut. The papers vanished from her hand and the pile next to her, assumedly appearing in the box but Misaka couldn't see. Then Kuroko stood up, letting go of Misaka's hand, and put the box on her desk. Then she went to the kitchen.

Misaka joined her and surveyed the food. It looked delicious but something felt like it was missing. She tried to think what it was though she was still hardly awake and her mind was slow. It wasn't until Kuroko looked over to her with a smile on her face that she remembered what it was. She leaned down and kissed Kuroko. This time it was Kuroko who was the one who blushed.

"You never gave me a good morning kiss?" She said, though it was more of an inquiry than an explanation.

"Oh… sorry, I guess I was a little busy. I have some things for you," she said as she walked over to the other counter and picked up a bouquet of flowers and a small box of chocolates and gave them to her.

The flowers were… unique. The thorny stems and velvet soft leaves were a deep crimson purple and looked almost artificial, or at least dyed. The flower itself looked an orchid blossoming within the petals of a lily. The lily petals were pure white while the orchid petals were jet black. Through the middle of every petal, both white lily and black orchid, ran a blood red line that seemed to pool in the very center of the flower.

The chocolates were normal, though exquisite. There was one odd thing about them however, "Kuroko… these chocolates are homemade..." she said. She knew that making chocolates took hours, "how long have you been up?"

Kuroko shrugged and Misaka sighed as she put the flowers in the water filled vase that she was just now noticing had been put onto the table. "Nightmares?" the electro-master asked, concerned.

"No… far from it… I had an extremely pleasant dream…" she explained. There was a touch of sadness in her voice that told Misaka what she meant by that.

"Baka…" she said, annoyed as she moved behind Kuroko and wrapped her arms around the little girl, her hands traced her scars until she reached the teleporter's negligible chest. She grabbed the two little bumps causing another cute squeak to escape the girl's lips, "that wasn't a dream either you idiot," she massaged the teleporter's chest to try to convey the reality of the situation while regaining that feeling of control that she had had last night, "Can't I do a thing for you without you doubting whether you just dreamed it up? Is it really so hard to believe that I am capable of showing affection towards my own girlfriend that you think anything I do is fiction?" more and more annoyance leaked into her voice with every word as the massage got faster and rougher, "it's hard enough doing it the first time and the fact that you doubt it each time is starting to tick me off." By now her increasing irritation had caused small sparks to begin shooting from her forehead and through her hands.

This was the last straw for Kuroko, who until then had taken it like a champ. Her knees gave out from under her and she sank to the floor. "What a wonderful reality," she sighed, lost in ecstasy, "your food's on the counter… I'll join you at the table in a second."

"… are you alright?" She was now slightly concerned.

"I'm fine," the teleporter waved off, "just reveling in a dream come true."

Now it was Misaka's turn to blush as she took the food to the table. "Idiot," she remarked on the way.

"I'm your idiot though." She joined the older girl at the table with her own plate of food.

"Can my idiot put a shirt on?" The girl's bare chest was distracting her from her meal.

"Oh… sorry, sure thing," Kuroko obeyed immediately. As she did Misaka's eyes reexamined the flowers. They really were odd… she had never seen anything like them. "Where did you get these flowers from?" she decided to ask.

"Growing naturally on top of a building," she said, "I don't know much about them but I know that they're pretty and unique, much like yourself although I'd much prefer to look at you than a bunch of flowers."

Misaka grunted in acknowledgement of the compliment. Then she plucked one of the flowers out of the vase and walked over to the other girl who was just pulling her blazer on, "reminds me more of you than me actually..." She tucked the flower in the other girl's hair.

"How so?" Kuroko asked, turning around.

"The whole Shiro-Kuro thing… it goes with your name." she inspected the teleporter and the new addition's impact on her appearance, "looks good on you."

Kuroko blushed a little and sighed, "what is it with you three and having flowers in your hair?" she asked, referring to Misaka's hairpin, Saten's… well… flower, and Uiharu's notorious wreathe. Still, despite her words, she made no move to take the flower out. After that the two girls had breakfast together, chatting about light, inconsequential things.

When they were finished Kuroko asked if Misaka still wanted to go out with her like they had agreed the past Friday. "Sure," she responded, "where did you want to go?"

"Well… there's a toy shop that opened a couple weeks ago in the Garden of Education, we could go there. I hear it even has a station where you can make your own stuffed animal." Misaka's face lit up in response to her idea though her agreement as a more casual, "I guess that sounds ok…" Still, despite trying to sound cool her excitement seeped into her voice as well.

So Misaka got dressed and the two left, walking towards the Garden of Education. A couple minutes into the walk Kuroko attempted to intertwine their fingers but Misaka pulled away. The teleporter was disappointed but did not press the matter. But after a second had passed and Misaka grabbed onto the younger girl's hand in a more friendshippy kind of way so as not to betray that they were a couple. This made Kuroko smile. Everything was going perfectly, even better than she had hoped and planned.

That was until she heard a familiar voice calling out making Misaka break the grip immediately. "Hey Kuroko, Misaka," Saten called out, running up to them, Uiharu in tow.

"Misaka-san," Uiharu began when she arrived, "I heard about what happened with you and Saten yesterday, with the glowing ESPers…"

"Huh? Glowing ESPers?" Kuroko asked, more than a little annoyed at the interruption but curiousity piqued nonetheless.

"Oh I guess Misaka didn't tell yo- ooo nice flower," she said when she noticed it, as distractable as a squirrel with ADHD, "it's pretty. Where'd you find it?"

"Growing on…. What does it matter, what about glowing ESPers?"

"It's kind of a long story… we're off to get some ice cream, you want to come?" Uiharu offered.

"No thanks, we're heading to the garden of education. But it's been great seeing you."

"The Garden of Education," the other two said unanimously, remembering the delicious cakes and generally cool atmosphere from the last time they were there.

"Yeah, we're heading to a…" Misaka began then she amended herself before she said something embarrassing, "I mean we're just walking around. You want to join us." The two hastily agreed and they all began heading off together.

As they began walking and explaining what had happened they began to feel an odd chill in the air, a hanging malevolence filled with ill intent. Had Kuroko not been walking in front they also might have seen the glare she was currently giving the sidewalk in front of her as well, a glare so full of darkness that a demon would turn away.

Distracted as she was with her annoyance she only gave half an ear to their story. "It sounds interesting," she lied when they had finished, by then they had just entered the Gardens of Education, "I think it warrants investigation, but since I'm still on leave until tomorrow that job falls to you Uiharu, don't let us down."

"Eeehhh…" the flower headed girl whined, "but I just got here…"

"She can do that later," Misaka defended, "no need to be so rude..."

"Sorry, I just thought that it was something important... apparently you thought it was important enough to disrupt our plans for..."

"Oh, sorry were we interrupting something," Saten asked, seemingly just realizing.

"Yes," Kuroko said.

"No," Misaka said at the same moment, then she looked at Kuroko menacingly, "you're really pissing me off right now."

"No... I guess you weren't interrupting anything after all," Kuroko relented, her voice flat and neutral as she disappeared.

"Are you two ok? Were you guys in the middle of something? Should we just go?" Uiharu asked, concerned for her friend who had seemed a little... heartbroken.

"Everything's fine, let's just go," Misaka said, anger in her voice both at Kuroko's behavior and at her own. She knew she had been too harsh, and after such a nice morning too... Still the younger girl had been acting like a brat, so she had certainly deserved it somewhat.

For a few minutes they continued onwards in silence, Misaka's hostility slowly building while Saten and Uiharu wondered what they could do to make things better while still avoiding that wrath. Misaka ended up being so distracted that she didn't notice the person walking on the sidewalk in front of her until she bumped into them, and she was so irritated that her response was an aggressive, "watch it," rather than her usual, "sorry".

The other person responded to her irritation by punching her in the stomach. "Running into my fist like that... it seems you're the one who needs to watch it," she responded with an equal amount of irritation.

Misaka's eyes narrowed as she zapped the person into unconsciousness... or would have had they not disappeared. Suddenly she felt her legs being kicked out from under her. "too slow," the person's voice said from behind her, "all you pathetic sloths are too slow." the electro-master attempted to turn around and shock the person behind her but there was no one there, causing her lightning bolt to careen into a nearby lamppost, blowing out the light.

Misaka looked around to see the girl leaning on the side of a building. "What's wrong?" she asked, "are you blind or just stupid? After all you have the accuracy of a third grader huffing paint."

The girl standing in front of her was tall and toned and looked a year or two older than Misaka herself. She had black boyish hair cut short to keep it out of her way. She had a duffel bag slung to her back. But Misaka didn't exactly notice those things, she was too busy noticing the clothes she was wearing, which was comprised of a single, white, skintight suit. She had seen it before... the wearers of the massive robot suits wore the exact same, though the logo was missing from hers. Not only that but surrounding the girl was a light pink glow of the same type, though a different color, as Tetsu's from yesterday.

'Another one of these guys... maybe we can learn a little bit about what's going on...' is what should have been going through Misaka's head rather than her actually thoughts of rage. She lowered her hand and shot electricity out in a cone at the girl making it impossible to escape unscathed. Yet escape unscathed she did, disappearing in an instant and reappearing behind her. 'a teleporter...' Misaka figured out.

"I told you, you're too slow to beat me." Misaka swiveled towards the voice readying her lightning but stopped suddenly as she saw that the girl had reappeared behind Uiharu and was using her as a shield. "speed is distance divided by time. Anything divided by zero is infinity so I am capable of going infinitely fast. Not even your lightning can catch me. And if you can't catch me you can't beat me."

"Who are you and what do you want?" the electro-master asked, unable to do anything as long as her friend was being held hostage.

"Hmm... you three answer first. I'd like to know what level ESPers I'm about to beat to a pulp. Given that that's a Tokiwadai uniform you must be pretty powerful right? Three at least."

"What do levels matter?"

The girl sighed, "I've been looked down upon for a long time for being a level one teleporter. I mean technically the fact that I can teleport myself should mean I'm automatically level four, but apparently I couldn't do it far enough for them. But now I have power and I'm going to prove that I can beat anyone, be they a level two, or three, or four, or even five."

"Even five eh?" Misaka said, "well here's your chance to prove that, just leave my friends out of it."

"Oh... this will be interesting," the girl said with a smile as she drew her arm back then swung it forward, punching at a point in midair, then she suddenly appeared in front of Misaka and the punch instead hit her directly in the stomach, then she drove her fist towards the electro-master's chin in an uppercut. She stumbled back a bit then, as soon as she recovered, attempted to shock the other girl, but she had long since gone.

"Teleportation is great. You can never get hit if you have even an instant of warning, you can go through barriers that other people can't, which happens to be a great tool for robbing places without being noticed. A rich neighborhood like this is a gold mine. It's really the perfect power with no drawbacks whatsoever." She began then disappeared, reappearing behind Misaka and kicking her hard in the back, sending her tumbling forward.

Despite the fact that she had a teleporter for a roommate and was quite familiar with her abilities, she still didn't know how to counter this. If her friends weren't here she could unleash an omnidirectional shock so that it would hit her no matter where she was, unless she teleported behind cover. Kuroko had never run like this, she had never been forced to try and counter her powers. The only time she used them against her Misaka had lost. So Misaka chose defense over offense and surrounded herself with electricity. Then if the other person tried to hurt her they would be shocked instead.

The other girl smiled at this and disappeared, reappearing behind Saten and pushing the girl towards Misaka who quickly turned off the shock field and caught her friend so she wouldn't get hurt. But that action gave the other girl the opportunity to teleport beside Misaka and begin to deliver a punch.

But this time it was her attack which missed as the electro-master and her long haired friend disappeared to be replaced by a shorter girl with pinkish brown pigtails. The girl caught her fist and redirected the movement, throwing her to the ground and pinning her there with her foot. "Another interruption..." she said with a disturbing amount of malice in her voice.

But the girl just smiled, "another teleporter eh... this just became more fun..." she remarked. Suddenly she disappeared, slightly surprising Kuroko who began to turn around to where the other girl had reappeared.

From the sidelines the others watched as the older girl reached into the bag on her back and drew out two short thin katana-like swords. They gasped as she swung them at the younger girl who had just managed to turn around. The swords scored two direct hits on her torso, the fabric being shredded by the twin blades as they dragged across her chest and stomach.

Kuroko teleported away to reassess the situation. The little pain that there was was dampened by medication and with Kuro helping in her calculations it didn't affect her teleportation at all. Kuro's help also allowed her to teleport faster than this girl who only had one mind to process all the complex equations that teleportation required. Unfortunately this hardly gave her the advantage in anything but putting distance between them, something that was unwise to do considering she could go after her friends and her Onee-sama if that happened. As much as it annoyed her she couldn't teleport in this battle.

That didn't mean she couldn't use her powers however.

Kuroko quickly dipped into the splits and ducked her head low avoiding the slashes of the other teleporter as she appeared behind her and swung at her neck and waist. Teleportation could only be done through certain routes and shortcuts in the eleventh dimension and those routes needed to be opened by ESPer powers before teleportation could take place. This allowed Kuroko and other teleporter's to feel teleportation, even if it was not their own, and avoid it, this combined with the fact that the teleporter tended to begin her movements before the teleportation helped Kuroko predict where she would appear and what she would do once she was there.

However the time intervals between the teleportations were unnaturally short, giving Kuroko perhaps half a second of warning before she appeared in front of her and stabbed at her shoulder.

Kuroko leaned to the right to avoid it and rolled sidewise, pushing off the ground just in time to avoid a third sword slash. She got to her feet again and began dodging slash after slash from all directions, hardly getting a tenth of a second of breathing room in between. Still her body moved like water in a way an acrobat would be proud of and even with such little warning she masterfully dodged most of the blows.

Unfortunately in several cases it wasn't enough and rather than dodge she just needed to ensure that her chest got hit rather than her arms or head or legs.

Misaka, Uiharu, and Saten watched in horror as their friend was ruthlessly and brutally slashed again and again by swords. Misaka wondered if she should do something but the girl was teleporting all around, impossible to hit with a focused lightning strike and any unfocused strike would hit Kuroko too. The others could do even less.

As time went on and Kuroko got more and more tired from the dodging it was only a matter of time before she slipped up. Finally it happened as the other girl teleported to her side and swung for her neck. The position she had contorted herself into for her last dodge wouldn't allow her to move out of the way in time. So she took drastic measures and punched the oncoming sword hard with her left fist, successfully diverting the blow at the cost of the skin on top of her knuckles and a considerable amount of pain. She instinctively recoiled causing the other girl to smile.

"End of the line," she said and the others watched as she stabbed Kuroko through the stomach, impaling her in place as she swung her second blade down through her shoulder through her torso finally embedding itself in her heart.

That was what should have happened at least.

What actually happened was quite different. The sword she stabbed did not pierce anything, merely sliding along the same hard surface that her swords had been hitting since the beginning. The sword swung at her shoulder made a direct hit but snapped off instead of embedding itself in her flesh. The end of the flimsy sword sailed through the air where it got stuck in a nearby shop's door.

For a second nothing happened and the two teleporter's simply stood there, the older one confused as to why her attacks hadn't worked. Then the younger one looked up at her making a chill run down her spine as she was met with a glare as cold and heartless as death itself that bored into her very soul.

Kuro made the first move, swinging her hand down and snapping the blade of the other sword from its hilt, the thin and weak metal easily giving way beneath her powerful chop. Then she grabbed onto the older girl's arm with two hands, one above the elbow and one below. She wrenched and twisted her arm, dislocating the elbow joint and disabling her arm. Then she spun around, keeping hold of the other girl's now broken arm, and threw her directly at a nearby expensive sports car. She hit it hard, shattering the windshield and caving in the roof slightly.

Despite being an impact which would have knocked most people unconscious the other girl pushed herself off the hood looking only slightly worse for wear if you disregarded the limp arm.

"Is that all you got? I thought fighting another teleporter would be more fun than this... but you haven't teleported once. Why are you holding back, you can't beat me if you don't go all out you know."

"You say that as if I hadn't already beaten you..." Kuro replied cooly, "I'm not an idiot. Teleportation must be done with forethought and caution especially when another teleporter is the opponent."

"You're just weak! I don't care if you broke my swords I'm still gonna beat you, I'm still better than you!" she roared as she teleported behind Kuro to finish the battle.

Kuro sighed and began to turn around before the other girl had even disappeared. There were only a limited number of paths and given her previous behavior Kuro knew exactly where she would appear. She lifted her arm up as the older girl appeared right in the place she had guessed.

Kuro covered the girl's mouth with her free hand as the other reached up from inside the girl's body and grabbed her heart, squeezing it tightly. The aura surrounding the girl changed from light pink to midnight black as it surged then began to draw into the center, ebbing away.

"You are far too reckless to claim to be better than me. Teleportation is one of the most dangerous powers there is. The injury rate is 60% and the mortality rate is 40%. For teleporters like you and me capable of teleporting their own bodies that doubles to 80% mortality with a 98% injury rate… well I say 98% but now," she explained as she yanked her arm downward out of the black haired girl's chest through the hole that it had created. It was covered in a layer of dark red, almost black, blood, though the blood was not her own, "I say 98% but now I guess it's 99%.[3]" Kuro stated nonchalantly as she took out her cell phone and pressed it to her ear after hitting one of the speed dial buttons. As it began ringing she released her grip on the girl and gently pushed her backwards causing her to fall to the ground on her back and minimize the blood loss, "I need an ambulance at the corner of 8th and Willow. A fragging incident" she said dictating their location and the nature of the emergency. Fragging was a term that teleporters used to describe what happened when an object was teleported another object and it was the number one cause of death and injury among teleporters who, aside from Kuroko, destroyed whatever was teleported into another object rather than the object itself. "a couple pints of blood, unknown type and probably an auto-surgeon." She finished before closing the phone and putting it back in her pocket.

Misaka approached her, slowly, cautiously… as if afraid. The others were far more visible in their fear. She had to admit that the sight probably was scary and Shiro's friends had never seen Kuro's brutality in action firsthand. "Kuroko…" she began.

"You mentioned it yesterday… how I don't have accidents. This is why… this is what happens when I do have one… " It was why she hadn't teleported during the battle. With two teleporters zipping around the chance of fragging was near 100%. "Now I am going home," she said before turning around and walking into an alley. When she was out of sight she began running. Even without her teleportation she knew that no one without super speed was capable of catching her. She quickly transitioned from the alleys to the roofs to avoid any people. Explaining her blood covered arm would be far too difficult.

She made it to the dorm and into her room without any hassle. When she got there she grabbed the flower that the pereskia had put in her hair and threw it back towards the vase, feeling a small prick as she did so. She looked down at the second wound she had received from the flowers that day and sighed, sucking the blood from the comparatively superfluous wound on her finger[4]. As she did she saw the black blood that stained her knuckles from where the skin had been sliced off and was surprised to see that it had already mostly healed. Maybe that wound was more minor than she had suspected as well.

She walked to the bathroom, passing her desk on the way. She looked at the lockbox sitting there. Be angry. A silent voice whispered making Kuro's eyes narrow as the powerful voice began to affect her as well.

A few seconds later she went into the bathroom and began running the water. She washed off her arm and then began drawing a bath, hoping the warm water would alleviate the pain and help heal her newest bruises.

The second Kuroko rounded the alley Misaka had begun to run after her, though she disappeared almost immediately at which point Misaka completely lost her. So with a sigh she decided to just go home, hoping perhaps that Kuroko was there.

When she arrived she saw that Kuroko had clearly been here, though she could not see any sign of the younger girl's presence at the moment.

She sighed as she closed the door behind her. 'The poor girl must be terrified,' she thought. The sight had been horrific and it must have been even worse for Kuroko. "This is what happens when I make a mistake". That was what she had said...

Misaka was immune to her own power as well as electricity in general. Likewise people like pyrokineticists and things like that tended to have ways to avoid being hurt by their own power. Teleporters had nothing of the sort. The ended up killing themselves with their power... frequently if what Kuroko had said was true.

She looked at Kuroko's desk and saw the box from this morning sitting on it. The box's lid had been caved in by what looked like a powerful punch. The lock looked like it had been ripped off.

Misaka, curious, opened the box and saw a pile of notebook paper with writing on it. She took the first sheet and looked at the curved, formal handwriting.

"Rules for my Best Date Ever with Onee-sama

"1: No aphrodisiacs. Even if it ends up working the love won't be real.

"2: No initiating any displays of affection. It is Onee-sama's day and I will not force her to do anything she does not want to do. Initiating hand holding is acceptable however but don't be insistent.

"3: The goal is Onee-sama's happiness so No teasing. As cute as a blushing Onee-sama is, making her uncomfortable would be counterproductive to the goal.

"4: No suggesting any of the places or activities listed on page 17.

"5: Don't expect anything. If she gives me no more than a hug today that will be fine as long as she is happy. If she does more then be happy but do not get your hopes up."

This continued on for the entire page, listing various things not to do or to watch out for. The next page had a rough schedule of the day's events followed by page after page of analysis of which places to go and what to do. One such page detailed the gifts that she would give Misaka.

"Onee-sama likes romantic things so go for the classics, flowers and chocolates."

Then it spent half a page arguing what kind of flowers and chocolates to get, listing tens of possibilities before settling on the ones that she had been given that morning.

The other half detailed the gift that she would give her at the end of the date.

"This is going to be the best date ever so make sure the present is as nice as possible, no matter how expensive."

After several lines of argument about what type of present it would be it finally settled on seemed to have been premade a while ago that she simply referred to as "That".

"Unfortunately the specialty jewelry shop that the particular piece is at isn't open at night so I'll need to pop out during the date... find some excuse to do so and hurry."

'Is that where she went? I thought she stormed off to have a tantrum.' Misaka wondered but lo and behold there was a jewelry box sitting in the box right beside the papers. The logo etched onto the box was unfamiliar but was not the name of one of the larger jewelers in the city. She opened it up to see a beautiful sterling silver chain necklace. The chains were carved in the form of miniature lightning weaving around each other beautifully. Attached were two pendants made of a bluish gem that matched the color of her own lightning shaped like two lightning bolts pointed towards a third pendant in between the two at the center of the necklace. This pendant was made of a red gem and shaped in the form of a heart. She could barely make out some writing on it which said, "my heart beats for you."

She looked at the necklace in her hand then at the piece of paper.

'Date...' She said in her head after seeing the word written at the top of each piece, 'we were on a date?' She drove her forehead into her palm. 'so that was why she was being like that... damn it... I'm such an idiot.' She thought as she imagined what had happened from Kuroko's perspective and began to understand just how bad a day the teleporter must have had. She put on the necklace and looked around the dorm again for some clue as to Kuroko's location. She would need to find her and make things up to her.

Misaka eyes fell on the bathroom door, since the light was on she guessed that Kuroko was in it, sulking. The door was unlocked so she simply opened it and walked in. "Kuroko," she began as she scanned the room for the teleporter only to stop in her tracks and her sentence as she saw the other girl's head peering at her from the bathtub, the rest of her body submerged beneath the water.

"Sorry," the electro-master said quickly turning around and about to leave when she heard Kuroko's voice.

"You opened the box," she stated simply and neutrally. She had seen the necklace dangling from Misaka's neck.

"Uh… yeah. Sorry…" the older girl responded to her roommate, still turned around and away from the naked girl.

"There are a lot of things I have trouble with. I have trouble with restraint, I have trouble with shame, but more than that I have trouble with people in general. I've never been a very social person, people have been hard for me to handle, even… no especially you. Normally it doesn't matter, normally I don't care what people think," Kuro dictated Shiro's thoughts pouring the proper emotions into it. Though she was loathed to be so kind to the pereskia and so self-derogatory she needed to make up for destroying Shiro's lockbox. She stood up and walked over to the pereskia, still dripping wet, "But right now I'm standing on a minefield. I step wrong and everything blows up. Even if I miss the big mines I can still end up getting hurt, in fact I expect to. The only way around this is to try and come up with a plan. A step by step guide that will help prevent me from messing up. I know you better than anyone else, I can easily take your actions into account and even if I miscalculate I always have a few back up plans. But what good is that. Life is like teleportation... a single, tiny mistake is all it takes and everything you've worked for is taken away from you in an instant. So I think to myself that if I prepare and it fails then maybe it wasn't my fault… but in the back of my mind I always think it is…"

She kissed Misaka on the cheek to transfer control and Shiro took over, "I'm such an idiot you know. My plans are stupid... they'll never work out or come true. They're more silly little dreams than a plan. A silly little dream where you and I live together, happily married, with a nice house in the city with a couple of little children. You can choose the childrens' names but I get veto power if you try and name them after a cartoon character or something. They'll have my hair and your eyes. They'll be happy kids and we'll read them bedtime stories every night and then we'll tuck them in tell them we love them and they'll say, 'we love you too. You're the best mommies in the whole world.' Then we'll head to our bedroom and get changed for bed and I'll tease you for still wearing Gekota pajamas and you'll blush and say how nostalgic it is and how it reminds you of the good old days and I'll laugh and kiss you and remind you that it still is the good old days, how every day we're together is a good day and you'll smile and agree and take me in your arms and we'll fall back onto the bed and I'll say 'I love you' and you'll say 'I love you too' and I'll finally feel like I am where I'm supposed to be, where I want to be, and you'll never leave me and I'll never be alone. But that's just a silly little dream. It won't ever come true anyway…" Kuroko said, a few tears escaped the corner of her eyes. She didn't deserve a happy ending. She'd never have a true home or a loving family.

"True," Misaka said, seemingly agreeing with her inner thoughts, "it is kind of ridiculous. Were both girls after all."

'Of course,' Kuroko thought to herself. She knew that that would be the biggest problem with their relationship from the start. As much as she hoped and dreamed she doubted that Misaka's interest in her as a girlfriend would extend beyond middle school. A little schoolgirl crush was something quickly grown out of for most people, even if she knew she would never grow out of hers. Then one day a man would come and whisk Misaka off her feet and she would watch, happy for Misaka whenever she saw that smile or embarrassed blush that played across her face when they were together but slowly dying inside. And when the day finally came for her to marry she would go and support her even as she watched her be snatched away forever because she knew that her Onee-sama's happiness was more important than anything else and anything else was more important than her own happiness. When the wedding was over she would begin teleporting up until she reached the moon and she would spend the rest of her life there with Kuro hoping that the one she loved was happy without her.

"We're both girls so we can't exactly have children together and I doubt any ones we adopted would have our features," Misaka stated.

"We'll try hard and find a way," Kuroko said. She knew it would never happen but she was willing to defend the dream that it might to the death

"Not only that but houses in this city are expensive and I don't plan to live off of my parents forever so what job do you expect me to get to support two children and a house?"

"You can have any job you like. I plan to go into investing so I can spend as much time with the kids as I can. And I'll cook for you and clean for you and greet you every day when you come home from work with a big smile and a warm bath."

A few seconds passed then Misaka asked, "would we have any pets?"

"Of course. I'd go hunting all over the city, over the world if I have to, to find you a cat that doesn't react poorly to your presence for your 19th birthday present. And of course the kids will often find little creatures and bring them home and ask me if they can keep it and I'll say no then they'll go to you and ask you and you'll say yes because you're a softy and you think it's cute too and I'll sigh as I'm outvoted but I'll be upset at how you didn't support me and you'll assure me I'll fall in love with the kids' newest find and then the three of you will all look at me with your best pouts and I'll sigh again and say all right and you'll all hug me and I'll assure you that this will be the last time but I know it's going to happen again and I know that I'm going to fold like I always do because know that the hug at the end makes it worth it."

Misaka laughed, "Sounds like the kids have you wrapped around their finger."

"No… I'll be the strict one. You'll be the nice one who they have wrapped around their finger. But since I'm wrapped around yours I'll end up caving in a lot. Still we'll know when to put our foot down so they won't become entitled brats or anything, though we might spoil them a little bit."

"Rina and Suki," Misaka piped up, "those'll be their names."

Kuroko smiled, her tears beginning to stop, "those are perfect…"

"Tell me more about them," the electro-master requested, finding herself getting lost in the fantasy too.

Kuroko opened her mouth to continue but then she shook her head. "What's the point... as you said it's ridiculous, my dreams won't come true."

"It's ridiculous because two girls can't have babies," the electro-master comforted, "but if you say you'll find a way then I promise I will do everything in my power to help your dreams come true..."

the teleporter looked at the older girl and as she stared into her eyes she felt something like hope stir within her. So she continued her story, telling her Onee-sama about their marvelous future together until...

…

…

[1]: Fun fact! The stem and leaves of this particular plant have a complex network of Mercury Sulfide[HgS] molecules bound to cells and glucate chains making it safe to be around or even eat. However the thorns are made of a grouping of specially evolved cells which have cell walls partially composed of a compound called Dimethylmercury [HgC2H6], making it incredibly lethal to any herbivores attempting to eat the entire plant… or anyone who happens to get pricked by a thorn and happens to put the finger that was pricked in their or someone else's mouth... Not that Kuroko knew that.

[2]: She put a shirt on to go out obviously but she changed out of that when she got back.

[3]: This percentage is both true and false. The likelihood of injury is 98.76% for a teleporter capable of teleporting themselves, but since there have only ever been 30 in the history of Academy City (only 6 of which, as previously mentioned, are still alive) the percent injury was 93.333% before and 96.667% after rather than what Kuroko said, but that wouldn't have sounded as cool.

[4]: If her survival seems inconsistent with what I said earlier then just wait… it will be explained.

Author's Note: Ok. This is the third or fourth to last chapter and the romantic climax as well as the last chapter for what might be a while. I am going to release the next group of chapters out at the same time so you guys don't hate me for what I do next chapter (or the chapter after that depending on how things go, either way it will be the second to last chapter). I'll work hard to get it out as soon as possible which might be less than a week even considering I've already written half of the last chapter.

Oh and sorry to fans of Misaka for having her be rescued again this chapter, but don't worry because the shoe will soon be on the other foot.

Dedications: To continue my tradition of dedicating my chapters to the people who leave reviews, this chapter goes out to , CrossFaded, and, again, EtherealFox

Coming Soon: The hangman's gambit, a lost shepherd a broken knight and shattered hope.