Toaru Yakuza[1] no Shimeshi

A Certain Showing of the Hand[1]

Important Note: There is another chapter after this. Don't start this unless you have time to read them both and don't write me angry reviews until you've done so.

"Well that wraps up the preliminary experiments..." Vyers said with a sigh, "As expected the Cloak of Elijah's brainwave standardization effects extend the abilities of David's Blessing for far longer than the hour the control group could go for with no sign of deterioration after that."

"Then I guess it is time for the last steps. To see if the effects of David's Blessing on our artificial [2] level five ends up over-stimulating the AIM field causing The Queen's own power to rip herself apart. If that doesn't happen we will use The Queen to acquire the hard copy of the Horns of Jericho and battle test an enhanced level five at the same time," Lammington outlined the plan, "The ultimate goal is to see if she is able to bypass Misaka's electrical field and see the degree of control she has over her if the field can be bypassed. Once the data has been compiled I can trust you to handle the rest correct?"

"Of course. My power should easily be able to disable both The Queen, The Railgun, and anyone else they happen to bring. Now shall we go and prepare the Queen for tomorrows experiment?"

"Yes we should get to that immediately. Remember to take the proper precautions so that she does not discover our true intentions."

"No need to worry about me mon ami. Caution is my oldest friend," his statement was met with a skeptical smile, "either way no one is easier to fool than an arrogant illusionist so there's hardly a need to worry."

Lammington shrugged and the two began the final stage of the experiment.

At the moment Kuroko's emotions were somewhat of a jumble. Happiness was inarguably at the forefront but there was sadness and anger in there as well.

And now there was annoyance.

It was the third day since the voice had begun playing. Last time it had taken exactly this long for her mind to be completely taken over so she had decided to put distance between herself and her Onee-sama so at the very least she couldn't be used as a weapon against her.

She had planned to leave the district but she had just received a text from Riko telling her that he had finally got the information she had wanted. While the information on Vulcanus Industries could have waited she had requested a little additional information yesterday, information about the Queen's power that would greatly help her avoid it altogether. If she didn't get it now she might not have a chance later on. Still it was annoying her that she had to risk it.

But had to risk it she did and was soon at the tall skyscraper. By now it was later on in the afternoon, making the risk even greater, so she decided to just finish this as quickly as possible.

So she teleported up to the top floor and knocked on the door, then entered, opening her mouth to speak when she saw Uiharu and Saten standing in the office looking at her while Riko reclined in his chair grinning amused at the chaotic situation he had created.

Uiharu was the first to speak, saying, "Kuroko? What are you doing here?"

The teleporter's face showed only a little of the surprise she felt. "It's a bit of a story. During the street racing case I heard something about Simurgh Industries from one of the people so I decided to investigate to see what exactly it was. Unfortunately I was put on leave before I could completely investigate. However, since I was reinstated today, I decided to continue my investigation." Her lie was quick and well crafted, totally fooling the others, "what about you what are you doing here?"

"It's career day and I'm doing an assignment on what my future aspiration is. Chiko-san is a legend among computer programmers," Uiharu explained. Riko winced and Saten giggled at her words.

"Please," Riko said casually, "no need to be so formal. Just call me Jitsuyo."

"Oh, right sorry," the flower headed girl apologized, "anyway, shouldn't you be in the hospital, you got really hurt yesterday didn't you?"

"I'm fine. They were just training swords," she lied, "They can't actually cut me."

"But your hand was hit and you were bleeding," Uiharu argued. Despite how scary the girl had been acting yesterday it was scarier to think that she was so severly hurt. She had been worried about her all day yesterday afterwards. She had tried to call her but the call hadn't gone through.

Kuroko held up a completely intact and unhurt hand. "I don't know what you saw but my hand is fine." Though the fact that it was fine was surprising even to Shiro. She had always been a fast healer but it had healed before she had even gotten out of the bath without any medicine whatsoever. Her bruises as well had been far less severe than they logically should have been. Kuro had a theory but she kept this from Shiro knowing she would be unlikely to believe her.

"Good to hear you're ok," Saten said casually. She had been as worried as the flower headed girl but she had kept it in so she could comfort her friend. Right now the atmosphere was tense so she tried to say something to lighten the mood, "hey did you know that Jitsuyo-san here is an administrator to my favorite urban legend site?"

"A programmer needs a hobby or else they would quickly go insane," he shrugged, "Now moving on to what we talked about earlier, before your… "leave" did you call it? I have all the information about that particular transaction in my file room over there," he pointed, "it's the one labeled Map Room."

Kuroko simply nodded and went into the pointed out room, leaving Saten to deal with the burning question. "Why exactly is it labeled Map Room?" she asked.

"A wrong label on a program can mess everything up, but in life it doesn't matter nearly as much, so I abuse the ability a little. Or maybe I've just been driven to the brink of insanity by hanging out with computers for so long," he shrugged, "who knows. It's why I was more than happy to accept your request for an interview today." That was of course hardly the real reason. He knew these two were Kuroko's friends so he thought he could have some fun messing with her by getting them to meet up. Of course the fun was somewhat ruined by Kuroko's expert lying abilities but such was life.

In the Map Room file room Kuroko looked over the file that had been left out. It had the information she wanted so she pocketed it and closed it up, putting a few large bills in its place, heading back into the main room afterwards. "It seems like it checks out, sorry for the suspicions,' she said, "I'll be going now."

"Wait," Uiharu interrupted, still worried about the teleporter despite her assurances, "my interview is over now so why don't we leave together?"

Kuroko quickly weighed her options. Given what she had seen when she skimmed over the folder the Queen had a range to her power. Given the locations of where she had been influenced before, along with the fact that there was nothing now, she guessed that she was out of range. So she would be okay for now. She could see her colleagues concern and didn't want to worry her even more so she said "Sure thing," and the three girls left the building together.

They hadn't gotten far before a whisper carried through her head, more powerful than ever before. It was an echo of the past as once again the voice of honey and thorns simply said

They hadn't gotten far before a whisper carried through her head, more powerful than ever before. It was an echo of the past as once again the voice of honey and thorns simply said "You are mine."

The light in her eyes died as her body moved, reaching into the bag that she had with her, taking out a gun that she had not had yesterday, that she had would not normally carry.

She lifted it up to her two friends who had been walking a bit ahead of her. She pointed it at their backs and fired a shot into each of them watching as their bodies hit the ground the next second.

It was easy to tell when Misaka was angry. Her face would always get red, sparks shot from her forehead, her hands were constantly clenched in fists, and her voice rarely fell below a shout.

Based on that Misaka was perfectly calm. Her face was normal, her hands were relaxed by her sides, she was silent, and no sparks were visible.

However it would not be hard to see she was still angry. The fact that any electrical device within five feet of her surged and exploded for apparently no reason would be enough of a tip off for most people.

The reason for her anger was that she had finally managed to tease out of Kuroko the reason for her odd behavior recently through methods that themselves would have been enough of a cause for panic had this particular thing not been immensely more important than worrying about something like that.

The Queen had returned and was again attempting to control Kuroko. If thing were like last time then Kuroko had told her that this was the day she would be controlled.

She had been annoyed when she had found out (at the time annoyance had been all she could muster rather than her usual response given the situation which would have been fury) that Kuroko had been hiding it for so long but she had told her that she didn't want her to worry about her trying to change something that couldn't be changed. It was an internal battle for control, she argued, and the best thing for it was her love which is why she had been so desperate for that very thing.

Now she was gone, trying to distance herself so she wouldn't hurt Misaka while the electro-master searched for the Queen. She was immune to her powers so it was just a matter of finding her.

Of course that was hardly as easy as it sounded. She had no hints, clues, leads, or anything which could help her find out where she was. She churned the problem over and over in her head but she couldn't reason it out either.

The fact that she had waited so long was what made it confusing. Her revenge should have been immediate, but it wasn't. Had it been immediate she could have made a guess as to where she could be, but because it had taken so long she could have been out of the city for all she knew.

'Damnit! This is so frustrating,' she growled in her head as the streetlights shattered around her.

Then suddenly her phone began to ring: Unknown number.

She held it to her ear. "who is it and what the hell do you want?" She said with an immeasurable amount of hostility.

"Tsk Tsk Misaka-chan," a familiar voice said, making Misaka's grip tighten on her cell phone so hard the durable plastic began to creak, "is that how you greet everyone?"

"Misaki," she hissed, "Where are you and what are you planning?"

"Such a harsh tone…" the Queen gasped, feigned hurt dripping from her voice, "and to think that I called to help you out. If I wasn't such a nice person I might refuse to tell you where your friend is for something like that."

"…what…"

"The little teleporter girl you came here with. It seems she's in a bit of trouble. I can't say what happened to the other two who were with her but she seems to be having a hard time at the moment."

"WHERE IS KUROKO!" Misaka demanded.

"A few blocks from you, just turn left and keep on running. But you better hurry, I'm not sure how much longer she'll last."

"I will hunt you down, I will find you, and I will make you pay for this," the electro-master warned, a fiery hate beyond hate in her voice and eyes.

"Good luck with that," the Queen answered, sounding amused as she hung up the phone.

Misaka put her phone in her pocket as she ran to where the Queen had told her Kuroko would be. She got there in seconds and saw Kuroko fighting a massive crowd of people. Several were already unconscious but she was quickly being overwhelmed. It was like a scene out of a zombie movie, with their dead eyes and relentless aggression.

Misaka fired a lightning bolt amongst them, taking all of them out within a second. Then she looked at the teleporter, "are you ok Kuroko?" she asked, taking a step towards the girl. Suddenly she turned around and swiped her hand down through a stop sign. She caught it with her gloved hands before it fell and turned around, swing it down onto her. She was caught by surprise but her lightning-quick reflexes allowed her to roll out of the way just in time.

She was too late. The teleporter's eyes had that same dead expression and cold eyes that she had had the first time. This was what the Queen had wanted. She couldn't hurt Kuroko but she knew she would need to if she wanted to live. Her fists clenched with the difficulty of the decision.

"Caution is not your strong suit is it pereskia?" Kuroko said as she hefted the stop sign back onto her shoulder, revealing the two knife wielding hoodlums that had been behind Misaka ready to stab her. The voice was familiar but not the voice of the teleporter that she knew and loved. This voice was cold and empty as the void of space itself, it was the voice she had heard during the fight yesterday and during a few other occasions, albeit only briefly. Misaka also noticed that her hair was not tied up in its usual pigtails, but rather fell free around her shoulders.

"Kuroko?"

"Close and yet so far," was the reply, "I am Kuro. I hurt people. Granted, not as much as you, but such a feat would be difficult even for someone like me."

"Someone like…. Who are you? What are you?"

"Listening wasn't ever your forte either was it? I told you who I am… as for what I am… I suppose I can be considered something like a spare part, another personality. I usually do not surface, I have no inclination for it. But I can assume control when Shiro is otherwise," she tapped her head, "incapacitated. We have met before but Shiro has been careful to keep my existence a secret so she has not told you about me, but I have been around since she was five years old. It has been only a recent development that I was able to assume full bodily control however, since after the prior incident with the Queen. Before, when she was fighting with you, I could only manipulate her enough to prevent her from using her teleportation to kill you as well as reigning in the strength of her blows to non-lethal levels. Not that you don't deserve some pain and suffering in return, but Kuroko would be devastated if she had been the one to kill you."

Misaka was understandably confused. She remembered hearing the name before… when Kuroko was sick she had called out for someone called Kuro. Was this the same person? Or was it simply more trickery? The Queen could read memories so it was not impossible that she would know that. "How do I know you aren't simply under the Queen's sway and tricking me?" Then another question popped into her mind, "And where are Uiharu and Saten." The Queen had implied that they were in danger as well.

"I tranquilized them earlier and dumped them in an alley. They had been taken over as well and had I allowed them to act as bait instead of myself things would have gone far more poorly for you."

"As for the matter of myself being under the Queen's control... You don't know. I don't either. That is the nature of her power. Perhaps now you understand what Shiro has been going through for the past couple months. It is the curse of insanity, to always doubt what is in front of you, being unable to distinguish illusion and reality, dream and nightmare. You may freely choose what to believe as it has little impact on the situation, you will do as I say regardless of what you believe?"

Misaka's eyes narrowed, "And why exactly would I do that?"

"Because no matter what you do I am planning on hunting down the Queen. The only way you could stop that is the incapacitate me. Otherwise you either accompany me and do as I say or you don't and go another way, leaving me to hunt her down on my own. So let us examine the results of each of those situations."

"One: You don't incapacitate me but you don't go along with me," She began and reached into her bag, "That means I must make my own way to her. The likely result of that is that the Queen uses the same power that she used on this crowd to make everyone around me attack me. Even if I can avoid most of them I cannot avoid all conflict and if an entire crowd attacks me without someone like you who can deal with a large number of people non-lethally I'll be forced to resort to this," She pulled the grenade launcher out of her bag, "The Queen doesn't care about using civilians for her own purposes so I will doubtlessly be forced to fire explosive fragmentation grenades into a crowd of innocent people, likely killing several of them. Considering you had an option to stop me their blood would be on your hands."

"What… you… you can't be serious… Kuroko wouldn't hurt anyone."

"No she wouldn't, but I'm Kuro. I hurt people, it's what I do. Unlike her I do not feel things like empathy or guilt. I have no reservations about hurting or killing others," Kuro noted the sparks that were now flowing from the pereskia's temples, "I see you are considering option number two… incapacitating me and going ahead on your own. You're an electro-master so tell me, have you ever noticed my heartbeat? Do you know what's odd about it?"

The sparks stopped immediately and she cocked an eyebrow. "Yes. The atriums beat isn't synchronous… but how is that relevant."

"Those mistimed beats are the result of an Atrial fibrillation I suffered four months ago, Right when I moved in with you. The fibrillation was caused by a particularly powerful and sustained electric shock. It caused days of pain and by the time I could get to a doctor to look at it the two atriums had permanently fell out of sync. Currently I have an enormous amount of adrenaline running through my veins, making it even worse. An electric shock severe enough to render me unconscious would also cause it to worsen far enough to put my life in severe danger and as much as you are willing to hurt and torture little Shiro I don't think you would be willing to kill her."

"That only leaves option three. You accompany me on my hunt and do as I say. No one dies and all you have to do is suck up your precious little pride."

Misaka was silent; stunned both by the teleporter's sheer gall for saying such a thing and the fact that she honestly couldn't see another option. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place and she was getting angrier and angrier. "You are not Kuroko," she seethed as she glared at the girl in front of her.

Kuro shrugged and put the grenade launcher away, "No. I'm Kuro. She and I are different, but the body is the same so know that every ounce of pain you inflict upon me is inflicted upon her. More than that know that she is scared and suffering in an endless nightmare every second you waste trying to argue rather than swallowing your stupid pride and helping me stop the Queen and save her."

"Fine," Misaka finally decided at her words. As reluctant as she was to do anything this… thing told her to, she was even more reluctant to let Kuroko suffer.

"So you actually care about Shiro after all… kind of surprising actually."

"Who's Shiro?"

Kuro rolled her eyes, "Shiro is the one that you call Kuroko, the main personality. That much should at least have been obvious by context pereskia."

"Why are you calling me that?"

"As much as Shiro loves you I don't like you very much, which also should have been obvious. You are the cause of so much pain for Shiro yet she refuses to do anything about it because she is so enamored by you. A pereskia is a cactus with pretty little flowers on it, the closer you get the more it hurts you."

"Are you going to just keep on insulting me? I thought Kuroko was suffering."

"Very well, lead the way then, you know where she is correct?"

"…don't you?"

"No I do not. I have given thought to the possibilities but there doesn't seem to be any sort of clue."

Misaka considered it again and suddenly had an idea. "this started two days ago right? That was the same day the glowing ESPers first showed up. Yesterday during your fight with that glowing teleporter I saw her wearing a suit that I've seen before. Though the logo was missing from it, it looked exactly like the suits that were created by some company called Vulcanus or something. Maybe they have something to do with this."

Kuro sighed, "This is either serendipity or an unfortunate turn of events but I just so happen to know exactly what you are talking about. The company doesn't really exist in a sense but several documents and deals have their name and logo attached. The newest project is a series of rehabilitation facilities quite a distance from here. If everything is indeed connected there is a chance she is there, the timing fits well."

"So you know where these rehabilitation facilities or whatever are?" Misaka asked, happily surprised that they actually had a lead now.

"Yeah, but they are, as I said, quite a distance. We can assume that the Queen will not halt her attempt to attack us using anyone in the area, so it would be best if we avoided that. If we go by rooftop we can be relatively sure that she cannot catch us."

"Can't you just teleport us there?"

"I am incapable of teleportation actually, so the roofs are our best bet. Just try to keep up. There's a billboard on that building, you can use your power to reach it. I will make my own way up."

Suddenly she was off, running at the building she had pointed out and scaling it with unnatural ease. Misaka joined her, like she had been told, magnetizing herself and the billboard, propelling her towards it but not fast enough for the impact to hurt her. While she did this Kuroko began analyzing a map to discover the best, most efficient but also the stealthiest, route to their destination.

"Got it," she said when she was finished, "Just follow me." She said and she was off in a flash. Misaka was surprised at how quick she was, how far and high she could jump, how fast she could climb and generally move through the city. Even though Misaka was aided by her power, Kuroko still needed to wait for her at times.

Unfortunately the entire city couldn't all be traversed in this manner and eventually they were forced to descend. Before that Kuro put her armor on, changing in front of Misaka, much to the electro-master's embarrassment. She had brought the full suit plus padding but had needed to remove the helmet to make room for the grenade launcher, so she was still vulnerable to attacks to her head.

Once she had put on her armor they descended using the convenient awning that hung over the shop's door. When they went back onto the streets they were met with the expected resistance. Kuro let Misaka take them out while she figured out what to do since the rooftops were not a viable option any more.

"The monorail goes into a tunnel near here, we can use that to avoid the people, unless you don't mind taken out everyone from here to the building. It will be good practice for when you hurt Kuroko later on."

"Shut up!" Misaka yelled at her, tempted to fry her but remembering her words about the shared pain.

The pair walked over to the place where the monorail dipped gradually into the ground just before it became a tunnel. "How exactly do you expect us to get down?" Misaka asked. Kuro answered in action rather than words, grabbing Misaka and jumping down, putting her hand on the wall with the friction pads activated. She had used a similar tactic to save the puppy that had been stuck on the monorail tracks back when she had taken the suitcase from Jango the bounty hunter.

Once they touched the ground she let go of Misaka and they continued walking on in silence.

Soon they reached the other side of the tunnel and were forced to walk through the streets the rest of the way. Misaka took care of any people who attempted to attack them, dealing will all of the easily until an Anti-Skill truck began driving right at them, intent on running them over. Misaka was about to deal with it when Kuroko fired a grenade from her launcher directly at it, obliterating the front engine end causing it to continue skidding towards them, its front end sparking along the ground, until it finally stopped a couple inches away from her feet. The driver was perfectly safe but the van was totaled.

"It seems my skill with this is improving."

"Where did you even get that thing, and what the hell are you doing using it?"

"I confiscated it from a criminal and did not have the opportunity to give it to Anti-Skill yet," It was a half-truth, "And Anti-Skill vans have considerable armoring so I was confident in my ability to destroy it without killing the driver. You meanwhile would have likely failed to deflect it in time." That was closer to a lie than the first one. Misaka would easily have taken care of it, but Kuro was paranoid as well and she didn't like putting her life in the pereskia's hands.

"Whatever, let's just get this over with so Kuroko will come back to me."

"You sound scared."

"I don't want Kuroko to suffer…" she said, sincerity in her voice.

"You will cause her more suffering than anyone. But if you are content being a hypocrite then let us hurry towards the Queen."

Misaka simply nodded, having no counter for that. It was more true than she wanted to think about.

So the two hurried their pace and soon arrived at the buildings they were looking for. It was a large complex that was still under construction. Kuroko led the way, through the unfinished corridors towards the more completed central portions. Finally they arrived to what looked to be the main room. Preparing themselves the two walked in to face the Queen.

Suddenly, as Misaka walked into the room Kuroko was suddenly struck by a hug lightning bolt that seemed to come… from Misaka herself? Her eyes widened as she fell forward, a sizable hole in her chest where her heart should be, and she looked at her hands. She hadn't shot anything had she? She looked towards Kuroko's body and her mouth fell open. What had she done?

Suddenly the room around her was covered in a thick shroud of darkness through which shifting forms were barely visible. She looked around in confusion and saw a massive demonic figure emerge from the cloud, eyes of fire with gnarled horns and blood red skin, covered in spikes and scales. Around its form was a bandolier of human skulls chained together.

Misaka's eyes widened as she attempted to fry it with a lightning bolt, only to realize that her power wasn't working. She tried again and again but nothing worked. The monster grinned as it towered over her.

Then she heard a voice to her right, "Misaka-san! Help!" cried Uiharu. She turned in time to see her and Saten cowering beneath a giant coiled snake comprised of lightning. Before she could do anything the snake struck the two girls who fell to the ground, their entire bodies charred beyond recognition.

Still they spoke. "Why Misaka," said Saten with pain and blame in her voice, "I thought you were a level five, but you can't even protect your friends with all your strength." Then the two girls turned to ash and blew away.

Before she could react another pair of voices called her name, this time in front of her. She looked and saw the demon which now had her mother and father in its grasp. "Help us Misaka! Help," they begged but Misaka was powerless as the demon slammed them into the ground sending blood flying in every direction.

Misaka fell to her knees. What was going on? Why was this happening? Why couldn't she help them? Why was she so weak?

Kuro watched as Misaka fell to the ground eyes wide, face paled, fear apparent in every movement, in every breath. Then she turned to the Queen, who smiled at her from across the spacious white room. The level five stood tall near the opposite wall. She was dressed in a body suit similar to the one that the teleporter from yesterday had worn. In addition to that there was a robotic looking device strapped over her arm. As Kuro had expected a golden yellow glow surrounded her. Unlike the teleporter the glow was massive and powerful, radiating like the sun or an angel.

"You know it might be hard to control you but once I have you produce the most excellent results," she said with a smile, "You brought her here just like I asked, and you even tortured her a little on the way. Really better than I could have asked for. I hope the people along the way didn't give you too many problems, but if she had just been able to walk in then where would be the fun in that? She might have suspected something. Now I take it you have that little disc with you. My newest set of minions tell me that it will make me even more powerful."

Kuro nodded obediently to which the Queen replied happily, "good good, put it in that container over there." she pointed to a small metal box across the room. "After that I'll take my revenge on Misaka-chan and if you behave yourself I might just forgive what you did last time. Maybe I'll even let you become my personal servant when I become the number one ESPer in Academy City."

Kuro glanced at the box and took out the CD case which held the data from the horns of Jericho, the culmination of weeks of hard work and the very thing she had promised that she would never let fall into the wrong hands. And now she was being told to give it to the one person who would abuse it most of all.

"It is not enough to tell whether a person is free or a servant if they are asked to do a task and they do it. What sets them apart is motivation. A servant does it because he was told to, a free man does it because they chose to," she threw the CD case across the room in the opposite direction from the indicated box, "I chose."

The Queen's eyes narrowed, "Even now you defy me?! How?! How are you able to resist, I am powerful enough to reduce the railgun herself to tears you are weak you should be on your knees. I am the Queen of Tokiwadai, Level five ESPer, you are a bug in comparison."

"You are right. My existence is nothing more than a splotch of paint. Ephemeral, of no true substance, a shadow on the wall of a cave. I am nothing but a bug, and that is why I will not kneel. As powerful as you are you cannot control an ant or a bee, their brains are so different from the humans that you can control that you cannot hope to wish to manipulate them. I am beyond your comprehension. Order me if you wish but I will not obey. Try to wipe the pathways to my memories but I will take another route. Flood me and fill me with fear or anger or any emotion you wish but they are not my feelings and will not sway my hand. I am a being who feels nothing and gives only pain. I'm Kuro. I hurt people."

"We'll just see about that," Misaki said as she began her psychological assault.

Kuro took a deep breath as a wave of paranoia and dread flooded over her and past, like water on teflon. "Fear..." she said, "A not unexpected weapon for one called the Queen. Let me ask you a question... are you like me or are you like Shiro? Do you feel nothing? Do you cause suffering without knowledge or regard for what you do? Or do you feel fear and sadness and anger like everyone else? Do you feel it more strongly? Do you understand the suffering you inflict and inflict it regardless?" She looked at the Queen and continued talking before she could respond, confident her words would get an answer without being told, "do you want to know why I chose to come when I could have easily avoided you? I came here to kill you, which is actually why I wanted to thank you. Shiro is so squeamish when it comes to killing. But you've taken care of her for now so I can make your death as horrific and painful as possible. After all, I see no reason why someone who has caused Shiro so much suffering should have a death free from agony. I don't know whether you feel emotions or not but I'm sure you feel pain and I'm sure a live incindiary grenade lodged in one's throat would cause considerable pain when it went off. At least before the inevitable gruesome death."

She slowly walked up to the Queen whose eyes were wide with fear as Kuroko simply continued. She would kill if necessary but she would prefer to break her mind like she had done with Rya, that way she wouldn't need to kill. "And you want to know something else? While I hurt you and torture you and maim you know that I do not hate you. I feel nothing towards you. What I do is for a single purpose. I have existed for one single purpose, to protect Shiro from things she cannot protect herself from. You are an enemy to be eliminated, that is all. You may cry and plead and beg for your life but it will not change that fact. You cannot appeal to emotions I don't have."

She finally reached the Queen who at this point was backed against the wall. "And the most ironic part is that you created me in a way. You pushed Shiro so far that I was forced to step in. It was your power that changed her brain just enough to allow me control of the body. So in a couple seconds when your screams of pain begin filling the air know that you are to blame for everything. With every second of your agony know that your arrogance created the monster who will now rip you apart." She took one final step towards the Queen.

Then something unexpected happened. The Queen fought back. It was a panicked movement, likely more on reflex than anything else, but with her robotically superstrong arm it was enough to crack several ribs on impact and send her flying back at an impressive speed. When she collided with the opposite wall she heard something else break and pure black blood began spilling from her chest

Stunned at the sight, at the action of having done such a thing, the Queen's concentration faltered, freeing Misaka from her nightmaric reverie.

She wished she hadn't been freed as soon as she saw what was behind her. She approached the girl, hoping hard that this was just another illusion, but the heavy scent of blood. She put her hand on the teleporter's shoulders and as she realized she could feel her she confirmed that this wasn't an illusion. "Kuroko…" she said, a fear even greater than before in her voice.

Kuro sat there for a second before realizing that the wound was fatal. She realized this when a tear began to roll down her cheek. She touched the streak of water it left behind and chuckled. "I never thought I'd be the one to cry…" she mused, "I guess this means that it's finally time to give up…"

Kuro touched the necklace that dangled from the electro-masters neck, then she placed her bloodied hand gingerly on Misaka's face and she felt her energy begin to slip away, causing her to feel more and more drained by the second. 'It was such a blur back then. Even with the little bit I kept from yesterday I still don't know if I'm doing this right. Still it is best to try... after all... Shiro would be sad if the pereskia died. Hmm...' She opened her mouth as she thought of Shiro and what she would do if she were here. She spoke to the pereskia softly, the ice in her voice melting away along with her ebbing life force "Shiro would want me to tell you that she loves you." As soon as she said that she lowered her hand and began to lose consciousness. Her last thought before she slipped into the darkness of sleep was, 'I finally remember the words to Shiro's little lullaby...' She hummed the tune and sang it in her head.

O white white moon in a black black sky

With a warm white light to guide me by

Then the warm white light begins to dim

O moon what is wrong you look so thin

O big moon O big moon slow slow slow

O white moon O white moon please don't go

Moon moon my only friend I love you so

The rabbit and his mochi hide away

All your seas are shrinking every day

Now the sphere of white is split in two

Where has the rest gone what do I do?

O half-moon O half-moon slow slow slow

O white moon O white moon don't you go

Moon moon my only friend I love you so

Thin little crescent white barely shown

Now you're gone too you've left me alone

Why have you left? to where have you run?

Why did this happen? What have I done?

Little moon little moon why'd you go?

Moon moon my only friend I loved you so

shiroi shiroi tsuki, kuroi kuroi yozora de,

atatakai hikari de Kuroko wo michibikou,

atatakai shiroi hikari kierihajimeru,

doushite tsuki, sonnani anata ga ususou,

ookii tsuki, ookii tsuki, yukkuri, yukkuri,

O shiro tsuki, shiro tsuki, ikanaide kudasai,

tsuki, Kuroko no yuitsu no tomodachi, aisuru,

ima, tsuki no usagi to mochi ga kakushiteiru,

hinihini, zenbu anata no umi ga chijindeiru,

ima, shiroi tama ga hanbun ni kaketearu,

hoka ha doko ni itta, doko ni,ka shira, Doushio?

han tsuki, han tsuki, yukkuri yukkuri han tsuki,

shiro tsuki, shiro tsuki, ikanaide kudasai,

tsuki, Kuroko no yuitsu no tomodachi, aisuru,

usui yumiharishiro wo karoujite miseru,

ima, itta anata ni mo kuroko ga suterareta,

doushite itta ka shira? Doko ni nigeta ka shira?

doushite okotta no? nani wo kuroko ga shita no?

chiisana tsuki, chiisana tsuki, doushite itta?

tsuki, Kuroko no yuitsu no tomodachi, aishita, [3]

Important note (again): There is another chapter, read that.

[1]: Yakuza, in addition to being the name of the "Japanese mafia", is also the slang term for a particular really bad losing hand (8-9-3) in the card game Oichu-Kabu which is the origin of the gang's name in the first place.

[2]: As opposed to a Gemstone which is a natural ESPer.

[3]: Thanks to EtherealFox for helping to translate my English into Japanese.