Although the summer was nearly at an end, to some degree it felt like the vacation was already over for the two roommates.
For Mikoto, preparing her new sister for admission into a school as prestigious as Tokiwadai threw up a new job almost as soon as the previous one was completed. Although she had the basics of the school uniform, she simply didn't have enough necessary clothing, even if there were precious few occasions where she might be able to wear anything more casual. As it turned out, shopping for clothing even with someone who shared your exact measurements could be incredibly aggravating when the identical other insisted on teasing any hint of childishness… and then turning around and buying said childish item anyway with a flippant "'If onee-sama wishes to buy this for me, then I must accept it' says Misaka, taking the clothing to the register before onee-sama can object."
Then there was the matter of making sure the other girl was familiar with the location of the school and its campus. What should have been a simple task turned into an ersatz stealth mission due to the other Level 5 that attended the school: although the Railgun was immune to her influence, she didn't expect that any of her clones would have the same protection. That the Queen of Tokiwadai would inevitably discover the truth of Miyu's relationship to Mikoto, she wanted to at least try to come up with a plan first.
Even if she had no idea what her rival could possibly be offered if she needed her silence bought.
By far the most tedious part of the preparation was making sure the clone's knowledge was at least approximately up to speed with the curriculum—whilst the Testament machines imparted an astonishing amount of referential knowledge, the purpose of the Sisters had always been for combat. Yet they were still espers, and electromasters at that, so their academic knowledge had to be at least reasonably good. Some of their plans to harm Accelerator relied on such things, too.
Pleasantly, from the perspective of not having to do any tutoring, the knowledge the Sisters had been imparted with was almost overzealously thorough, enough that even Tokiwadai's advanced curriculum should be no problem. It was even annoying, the areas where the other girl clearly knew more than she did, but not so much that it overshadowed the relief of "only" having to spend several days on review.
Kuroko, in contrast, simply had more of her precious free time eaten up by her remedial lessons. The lesson content turned out to be even less onerous than she had been anticipating, being something that she would have liked to do on her own anyway: exercising the limits of her ability and practising further. It made sense, if the school was going to assign students extra lessons; having an esper work on their ability required comparatively little in the way of teacher preparation. It was still unclear for what reason they had chosen to intervene, but it gave the teleporter scheduled opportunities for the practice she wanted.
There had already been some practical benefit to the extra time allotted, even if Kuroko's limits remained stagnant. She couldn't teleport anything further or move more mass at a time, but she had managed to refine the accuracy of her eleven-dimensional modelling, particularly of remote objects. In practical terms, her deviation when teleporting things to a remote location was negligible and, even more importantly, anything Kuroko teleported to herself no longer arrived in motion. Combined, these two factors meant that she could now put her newfound ability to move objects from one place to another to practical use.
Even if onee-sama hadn't appreciated the demonstration of how much faster Kuroko could help her get dressed now. Maybe she shouldn't have forgotten those wretched shorts.
Bureaucratically, it seemed that the expansion to her capabilities came with a reclassification in subtype from Teleport to Move Point, contingent on not forgetting her capabilities by the next System Scan.
By the time the last day of August rolled around, both girls were eager to make use of their time for fun rather than productivity. Mikoto was slightly relieved that Miyu still had hospital appointments to attend—the last thing she wanted was the other girl following her and complaining about her habit of reading manga off the stand. Kuroko simply wanted to hang around, as the teachers were now too preoccupied with preparing for lessons beginning the next day to supervise her.
Another thing that had developed in the past days was how Kuroko would take advantage of the alarm being set for 7AM by obstinately not getting up before that unless the issue was forced. Compared to the many other perverse things the girl could, and did, attempt, this was comparatively harmless… and it was quite comfortable. That, Mikoto thought, was the only reason she put up with it (apart from her own desire to not get up earlier than she had to, of course).
"Do you have any plans today, onee-sama?" the teleporter asked, taking advantage of this brief window before they needed to get up and to breakfast.
This gave her cause for thought. She had managed to squeeze in some reading the other week, and there was a closed-room mystery she wanted to read more of. If it were anybody else asking, anyone except her best friend or that idiot, Mikoto wouldn't say. "I was planning to catch up on this week's manga."
From this angle, she couldn't see the deadpan look that Kuroko gave her, but her chin could feel it. "I couldn't convince you to buy this manga first, could I?"
No, she couldn't, but in the end, Kuroko didn't have anything that she wanted to do today either and this was usually Mikoto's after-school hobby, which would leave them the afternoon to… well, do whatever came to mind when they got there.
They split up during breakfast, the smaller girl not only finishing faster but being pulled away by the Dorm Mistress to help with some minor errand or other as further punishment. One of the trainee maids attempted to enrol Mikoto in an errand to buy some suspicious manga genre or other, to no avail aside from pushing the electromaster to wait outside for Kuroko instead.
Something that she should have known would introduce her to her unwelcome stalker. Although Unabara Mitsuki was perfectly charming about it, every time she had gone anywhere almost since Miyu was released from hospital, he would show up, even if it was only to politely give up and fall back when she headed to the dorms or School Garden where he couldn't follow.
Unfortunately, his persistence even when she had her sister as a tagalong made it clear that "I already have a friend I'm waiting for" would do nothing to get him to go away. If she thought calmly and rationally about it, just waiting for Kuroko would be an escape regardless as nobody could reasonably chase down a teleporter, but patience was not on her side, and Misaka Mikoto opted for the nearest available escape.
Kuroko was not privy to the other girl's thoughts on eliminating the blue-haired piercings boy or the sunglasses-wearing blond from consideration as ways to fob off Unabara. She only, like the others still in the dorm, got to behold what seemed like an announcement of a date with Kamijou Touma.
This, to her, made no sense. Obviously, no such date could have been expected; onee-sama wouldn't so boldly lie to her face about her plans (unless Kamijou had developed the same strange habit of using a shop like a library). Nor had the boy contacted her at any point in the past week… well, there had been an inexplicable prank text asking her if she was the US President, but nothing pertaining to onee-sama. This entire situation was suspicious… and if prior experience with these two had taught her anything, it was that onee-sama would hardly explain clearly, or at all, if directly asked.
That left following from a distance. Fortunately, her task for the Dorm Mistress was now complete. Unfortunately, power use inside the dorm was still banned.
Starting September, jumping out the windows as a fast way to get outside and use your power without breaking the rules was also banned.
Tailing people for an hour on a run across the city was exhausting, even with teleportation to let you do less actual running. It meant having to constantly think about where you might be seen—once might be coincidence, but being spotted multiple times, by anyone that would recognise you, would be a game over. At the same time, you couldn't risk falling too far behind without some clue as to the eventual destination, otherwise you had to catch up with the target once again.
It made for a chase that didn't allow for inattention or zoning out, even with the ability to skip from rooftop to rooftop or appear inside of buildings further along the path. Needless to say, it came as a relief to Kuroko when Kamijou and onee-sama finally stopped running around and headed for hotdogs.
It also made for a relatively easy place to listen in on their conversation, simply by sitting on the other side of the dividing wall. Oh, how she wished she was sat there with them, enjoying the treat of free food from onee-sama… even if it had been so short a time since breakfast, and if Kuroko wasn't particularly interested in hotdogs to begin with.
The more she listened to the conversation, the more frustrating it was, with the curly-haired girl rising to watch them. First, onee-sama had come up with a hare-brained scheme to fake a relationship to dissuade Unabara. That was… Kuroko wouldn't say that it was fine. She obviously took issue with any plan that involved faking a relationship, especially where it was with someone other than herself. But if she wanted to deal with Unabara like this, rather than her indication earlier in the week to just hope he gave up once school prevented him from following any more, the least such a plan needed was to not be one that Kuroko would disprove simply by telling the truth at the wrong moment! Keeping her in the loop was essential to any plan based on romantic deception.
More importantly, however, was Kamijou simply not appreciating how adorable the other girl was being with the hotdogs and mustard! It was a rare, undisguised glimpse of onee-sama's girly side, yet he barely seemed to take any interest in it at all. Even worse, he had no appreciation for why it was important to get the right hotdog, quite unlike herself, who knew exactly which hotdog belonged to whom—
The duo was left temporarily quite confused when the hotdogs they had been about to pick up disappeared entirely, leaving them bereft of their snacks. It was a mystery that solved itself with Kuroko's abrupt appearance, one hotdog held in each hand—and to their previous owners.
"Kuroko!?"
"The correct hotdogs," the girl stated, handing them off, "Honestly, onee-sama, you knew Kuroko was planning to spend the day with you, making me run all over the city to find you was cruel."
That she had never been more than a step or two behind didn't need to come up. Now, at least.
Taking a free seat, Kuroko continued, "As for your solution to Unabara Mitsuki, you should just turn him down directly. Faking a relationship would never dissuade someone so overtly determined."
The look onee-sama gave her was conspicuously unimpressed, for some reason. "A certain other person that could be named doesn't take no for an answer, either."
"A certain other person… Kamijou-san, have you been bothering onee-sama when my back is turned!?"
"What!? No! I wasn't even in the city the past few days!"
Hm, she had no idea who else might be pestering onee-sama like that… she would have to try and keep a closer eye on her until the matter was resolved.
"You were out of the city? That's a pretty rare thing to get permission for," the chestnut-haired girl said.
"It was only while the city cleared up a delinquent problem," he said with a sigh, as if the trip itself had become some unwelcome imposition. Not that she was unsympathetic to being attacked by random delinquents.
"The authorities dealt with it? I thought they just got tired of attacking me and losing," Kuroko said. That possibly explained why it had so abruptly stopped.
In reality, it was less 'stopped' and more 'pointed back towards the Strongest', but none of them were privy to this fact beyond the occasional sounds of violence outside of Kamijou's apartment.
Commiserating over their shared experience of being unable to do as simple a thing as buy a drink without being unexpectedly attacked—although the results of such fights differed wildly, especially when the Railgun was present to deal with them more abruptly—led away from the wild plan of faking a relationship to simple conversation.
Kamijou couldn't, for whatever reason, give an adequate explanation for his bizarre text, nor how anything in Kamigawa Prefecture could possibly make him think that a Japanese schoolgirl had become the leader of a foreign country. The belated apology was welcomed, although talking about foreign countries naturally led to how the Sisters had mostly left the City by this point. Of those that remained, and the Sisters in general, Kamijou was only familiar with 10032, but Miyu was obviously there as well and important to know when they met in future.
19090 and Nunotaba were also around, though beyond the note that there was a long-haired Sister in Lolita fashion somewhere in the city, the girls had no idea where they might be.
That his summer homework could fascinate two rich ojou types so much was nothing but baffling to Kamijou, although as humiliating as getting help from a pair of middle schoolers was, at least it was better than struggling with incomprehensible gibberish.
Having spent the past several days on such basic review, Misaka was the first one to get bored, taking note of Kamijou's dismal expression and dragging him off on a drink-fetching trip.
Onee-sama probably wants to try to convince him to carry on that ridiculous plan, Kuroko thought, looking up from the half-completed old Japanese. While she was less interested in making up for attempting to waste his day, she did feel a need to give him something for his assistance with the Level 6 Shift. The cookies had never been successfully delivered, unfortunately. But even if she was going to more or less complete this homework for him, it would be pointless if Kamijou wasn't here to understand the answers.
This was when Unabara Mitsuki ran past, chasing a dog.
"Can I speak with you, Unabara-san?" In truth, he was even more of a passing acquaintance to Kuroko than he normally was to onee-sama. Beyond introductions in passing, they had never spoken to one another, and the majority of her knowledge was second-hand or from her own investigations.
The handsome boy looked slightly surprised for a moment before giving a congenial smile, "Of course, Shirai-san, wasn't it?"
"As onee-sama's herald, I must ask your intentions."
"Isn't that obvious? I like her."
"And if I were to tell you that she is already seeing someone else?"
"No answer would change what I have already decided."
Sincerity. Regardless of his persistence in trying to bother onee-sama this past week, Unabara was being perfectly honest with his affections and Kuroko could only admire those with such pure intentions towards onee-sama—even as she hated at the same time how anyone would intrude upon what she viewed as rightfully her territory. Particularly someone that was the opposite of everything she had hoped Kamijou Touma might be, aside from the academic dishonesty.
But it also gave her a rare opportunity to talk to someone with similar opinions to herself, and a friendly, likable one at that. One taking an interest in the half-completed summer homework in Kuroko's possession, possibly not realising that Tokiwadai gave out no such thing and that it must be someone else.
"So, I feel Misaka-san should be clearer when saying whether she likes or dislikes someone. Ah, the answer to that question is (3)." Kuroko's eyebrow ticked up a notch at that, marking the question off regardless.
"I cannot deny that it would be convenient if onee-sama were more honest with her feelings, but this childishness of hers is part of the charm. Her electricity is honesty enough for how she feels."
"Is that response not just a cover for shyness? To be honest, I don't think I have ever once heard what she truly thinks. Ah, the answer to that one is (2); (4) looks like a trap."
"Onee-sama wears her heart on her sleeve. It hardly matters if she refuses to say what she means with words." For instance, for all her frustration and objection, it was clear to Kuroko that she held a special place in onee-sama's heart. Perhaps not the place she wished, not yet, but her actions spoke volumes.
"For someone like me, I am forced to keep chasing continuously. I'm being direct, so why can't she be direct as well? Ah, by the way, that answer is (1)."
"You're certain it's (1)? (2) is a very similar character," Kuroko asked, receiving a nod and explanation in return, "Still, I suppose I must commend your bravery. Asking for such a direct response, even knowing that you will likely be turned down in the end…"
"I understand that risk. Even if it would make me unbearably sad to hear refusal, in the end… I can't do something that would make her cry and continue forcing my presence on her. But as long as the chance remains, how can I give up?"
It was a noble attitude. Nobler than Kuroko's own, likely—could she completely cut herself off from onee-sama if rejected as thoroughly as he expected? No. She would keep seeking out what opportunities she could, until the matter was forced.
Still, no amount of noble sentiment would change the current situation.
"If you were anyone else, and your affections were for anyone except onee-sama, I would wish you luck," Kuroko admitted, putting the homework aside. "But you are undoubtedly not Unabara Mitsuki."
It was a shame that she had to waste the element of surprise on clearly identifying herself, teleporting to her feet and making space.
"This is Judgment. Drop your disguise and surrender peacefully."
To his credit, the impostor didn't deny the allegation or ask how Kuroko could have seen through a near-perfect impersonation of Unabara Mitsuki. Very few were aware of the amount of cheating that the Level 4 habitually used to maintain his grades or inclined to investigate how he could pull it off—but Kuroko's devotion to onee-sama's wellbeing was thorough, if somewhat alarming and with a glaring blind spot. A student that only copied the correct answers as needed would never have so easily been able to correctly answer the questions posed whilst holding on another conversation—nor, importantly, would he have the understanding to explain where someone else was wrong: the very reason that Kuroko had filled in nothing herself while waiting for Kamijou to return.
Like any other cornered criminal, this still didn't mean he was coming quietly, whipping out… an obsidian knife? What use could he possibly have for a tool like that? Unless his ability wasn't the disguise, and he actually had a conspirator…
The raised knife was hardly threatening at a distance. Even as evil as it looked, and as sharp as obsidian was, it was still a knife. That's what Kuroko thought.
Until it caught the light.
Beside her, the table, the bench, and even Kamijou's unfortunate sheet of homework were stripped down to their components. Bolts were removed, screws unfastened, and the paper wiped clean of ink or pencil markings. All without warning aside from the action itself. Even Accelerator's touch of death telegraphed what had to be avoided more than that. Wisely, the hotdog vendor took this opportunity to run.
But this bizarre ability had immediately shown its reliance on a physical intermediary. And the former sheet of summer homework was still there.
The impostor's dumbfounded look as his glass blade fell to the ground and shattered, neatly severed by a piece of paper, was nearly as gratifying as having expanded the ability in the first place.
He recovered with remarkable alacrity, going for the only option still available in such a situation: hand-to-hand. Unfortunately, this was a domain where the younger girl had him outmatched, and indeed many in the city, even without the assistance of her ability. She drove an elbow into his back, forcing him to the ground.
This was what she got for leaving the dorm in a hurry this morning; she hadn't even fully dressed and had no needles to pin him with, let alone handcuffs. The metal slats of the bench were much too big to safely use for the same purpose, so she would just have to stall until onee-sama and Kamijou returned to restrain him.
"Why are you impersonating Unabara Mitsuki?"
The boy looked pensive, taking his time deciding whether to answer… and trying to get up, of course, but with Kuroko watching him like a hawk, this only led to being teleported back to the floor an instant later.
"You don't understand how dangerous Kamijou Touma is."
"He can negate any ability, but that hardly makes him dangerous. A pyrokineticist could do more damage."
There was a smirk and a shake of the head. "It's not just what he does, it's who he has on his side. Tokiwadai's most famous Level 5. The Magicians of the Anglican Church, Necessarius. The 103,000 grimoires of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Even yourself."
"I fail to see how knowing sleight-of-hand artists and an outdated list of restricted books threatens anyone."
"Real magicians. Do you think my Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli and disguise are both esper abilities?" They had to be; magic wasn't real. But some sort of light-mediated telekinetic disassembly reliant upon volcanic glass defied any sort of classification that Kuroko might imagine. If his only ability was some sort of metamorphosis, then maybe it was just a signal for his conspirator? But if he was working with someone else, why had their first attack missed, and why were they not coming to the impostor's defence even now?
If Kuroko's primary weakness was rushing in without thinking about her opponent's ability, the second was thinking too much at the wrong time. This normally meant getting hit whilst trying to calculate teleportation, but in this case, it was leaving an opening for whoever-he-was to get to his feet and headbutt her in the face.
"The Science Side and Magic Side couldn't coexist before this," he stated, taking advantage of her lack of balance—and was that blood running down her face?—to attack, although it was little more than wild swinging. Having produced a normal switchblade as backup made it more dangerous, "But Kamijou is building an organisation that incorporates both sides. Almost anyone would see that as a threat!"
Having nothing handy to teleport made for an incredible handicap, to Kuroko. There just wasn't the time while fighting like this to use something remote. She could teleport to a better angle, but unlike the first time, the impostor was fast enough to spin round and nearly scratch her anyway. Fighting a larger opponent with a knife presented fewer opportunities to disarm than she would like, especially with this wild animal-like approach.
It also brought back unpleasant memories, but that was beside the point.
"And that's where you come in?" Kuroko asked, backpedalling for more time—and breath. Her nose was definitely bleeding heavily, getting in her mouth whenever she opened it for deeper breaths.
"My organisation only sent me here to determine if this new group would present a threat to the existing balance," he admitted, lunging forward with the knife again, "But in this past month, he's already destroyed smaller groups, and just last week the two of you defeated Accelerator."
Her attempt to get in close and strike him was warded away again by the knife. As wild as it seemed, Kuroko was starting to suspect he had much better experience with knife-fighting than let on. "And this leads to following onee-sama around?"
"This faction you're in doesn't respond to money or brute force. You know Kamijou, the only thing that matters to him is his own whims." He forced her back once again, denying the time needed to leverage their surroundings effectively. Trying to herd Kuroko back towards the open plaza, even.
She couldn't deny that the boy's soft-hearted nature made such a description wrong, either… nor would it be inappropriate to describe her motivations, or onee-sama's if it came to it. The teleporter would use more appropriate terms to describe it, like morals, but it wasn't wrong to say that none of them were vulnerable to crass bribery. As for force… well, they had fought Accelerator, hadn't they?
"Even so."
"Can't you see how those 'above' would want to quash such a group before it became unstoppable!?"
Then if his target hadn't been Kamijou Touma, but everyone affiliated with them, eliminating this supposed group for his organisation before it could become an entrenched threat… impersonating Unabara Mitsuki made sense. A perfect impostor could become friends or more, break down the bonds between you, and then move on to the next member. Because it was an attack on trust itself, attempts to thwart it would only accelerate its progress.
But most of all, it meant the impostor's plan was a direct attack on her relationship with onee-sama. Hers. That beautiful, irreplaceable thing that made challenging the impossible after a near death experience a sure thing.
Suddenly, the knife didn't seem so threatening.
"What was next, you impersonate onee-sama to get at me!?" Kuroko snarled, diving into his reach. Maybe he got a cut on her arms, despite the sudden movement; it was hardly important compared to driving the breath from his lungs. A short blink behind him, follow it up with a blow from behind. "First a fake relationship with onee-sama, then a fake relationship with me?"
And it would have worked. Even if nobody knew onee-sama as well as Kuroko did, a glimpse of heaven like that…
"No…" he choked out, forcing some space between them with the knife. As willing as she now was to tolerate such insignificant things as cuts, taking a blade to the gut was obviously still too far. In a softer voice he continued, "Can't a fake have those kinds of thoughts? A wish for peace? Does a fake not even have the right of thinking of wanting to protect Misaka-san?"
Maybe it was true. He had seemed sincere earlier, his complaints heartfelt—if it was an act, the impostor was an even better actor than the mere impersonation suggested. Particularly to keep it up whilst bruised, with his cover gone. The peril of method acting and deep cover infiltration both: getting too invested in your role and the mark.
Yet it didn't change the situation one bit. He was still an infiltrator into Academy City, impersonating Unabara Mitsuki, and threatening everything Kuroko held dear. Kuroko vanished from sight, appearing this time not behind him as before and expected, merely a step or two closer, already ducking to sweep the self-proclaimed magician's legs from beneath him. Even as gravity took over, the teleporter disappeared once again, emerging in open space with a dropkick to further slam her adversary into the ground.
Forcing his arm beyond its natural range until he dropped the knife was, from there, simple. The others should be back any minute and then they could contact Anti-Skill—particularly with the injuries caused, it should be easy to keep him imprisoned until the real Unabara Mitsuki was found.
"… a fake could have those feelings, too," Kuroko admitted, letting out the breath she hadn't been aware she was holding.
"Can you not see the problem? I didn't want to harm Unabara," his impersonation needs biological material? "Nobody being hurt is the best outcome in the end, right? I like this city, even if I can never be a part of it."
Now the adrenaline was wearing off, and the cuts on her arms were making themselves more known. Had she really been that reckless? Konori would have her head when she found out. The entire point of the style she was taught was to not use her own strength. "Yes, this city is special…"
The world of the future. Technology thirty years from now. Around every corner, even an ordinary vending machine might supply you with a marvellous surprise, a dish that could be obtained nowhere else—for good or for bad. Streets cleaned around every corner with nary a trace of litter in sight (the security robots aided by Judgment, as she knew too well), and a shocking amount of power provided by naught but the wind itself. The city that promised psychic powers to all children that would study there. The city that Misaka Mikoto called home.
"I guess this is my loss," for some reason, he sounded relieved. Perhaps he had every reason to be: a spy who failed from his own feelings could hardly expect a pleasant reception on returning. This was an escape from the dual binds of obligation and love, a way to neither shirk his duty nor destroy the very thing that had ensnared him.
"But it won't stop here, will it?" The spy sent to inspect the danger Kamijou Touma represented had failed. That alone was grounds to consider him a dangerous enemy, worthy of inspection. Or this was all a delusion born of Unabara Mitsuki undergoing a psychotic break—a theory resting entirely on the real Mitsuki, if one existed, remaining unlocated.
"No. I may receive the same order again," as if he would so easily escape imprisonment for this, "Or my allies may come for Kamijou and Misaka-san, or even you."
Hm, it was quite hot today, wasn't it? She could really use a drink. Kuroko shook her head, clearing it as much as possible. Those cuts were deeper than she thought if the blood-loss was already leaving her lightheaded like this.
"I would rather have asked him," the impostor mused under his breath, drawing her attention again, "At least he can fight both sides."
"Asked Kamijou-san what?"
"Can I ask you to protect Misaka-san?"
As if onee-sama would ever need her protection. She was a Level 5, vastly above Kuroko in both power and scope of ability. But… this was a second time, no? Accelerator's defences thwarted anything the Railgun could do, and no level of power would prevent a dagger in the back from a friend. Even a Level 5 could be vulnerable.
"No matter where, no matter when, no matter who your opponent is, no matter how many times, as long as something like this happens, you'll have to be a hero and go to her side to protect her. Can you promise me this?"
It was a ridiculous promise. Asking a teenaged girl to play a hero at every opportunity, to rush to the damsel's side whenever something seemingly magical or beyond the pale arose. That Kuroko be the Lancelot to Mikoto's Guinevere, the Gareth to her Lyonesse. Or, perhaps more aptly, the Don Quixote to onee-sama's Dulcinea. If she chose to accept that magic might exist, what more was rushing to her defence than tilting at windmills?
Did it matter, though? A question like that could only have one answer. Kuroko gave it.
"Shirai!?"
Kamijou was here at last, drinks and all. Where was onee-sama, though?
It seemed that Kamijou had no better idea where onee-sama had run off to—she had been with him until they came back but had already made herself scarce when he called out. His presence was still immensely useful in collecting evidence—for one, having someone else to hold the impostor down actually let her contact Anti-Skill, even if he made sure to complain about how his homework had been destroyed in the process.
Kamijou's mere touch also helped prove the "impostor" theory, with skin burning away on contact, something that Kuroko made sure to get pictures of as it happened, even if her explanation to the arresting officer was less than helpful—how was she to know why it was coming apart now? It obviously wasn't some esper ability; either the entire transformation would have reverted if the impostor was sustaining it and it became untenable, or it would have reverted when they left range. Piecemeal reversion like this would imply plastic surgery by some low-level Metamorphosis esper whose ability couldn't last, and their actions were tracked for exactly this reason.
It all gave unfortunate credence to the impostor's suggestion that magic was responsible. The only option, then, was to drag Kamijou aside after the arrest was made and force him to explain… over lunch, of course. Although she wanted to have her injuries seen to properly, skipping a meal wouldn't help, and then she would have to track Kamijou down afterwards. And she was somewhat responsible for destroying his homework.
It still sounded too fantastical to believe. Her source was a recent amnesiac, even! But that, in and of itself, leant itself towards the truth of his words. The only other thing that might commit such widespread destruction of a person's memory and sense of self was Shokuhou Misaki, and why would Mental Out be going around destroying the mind of random Level 0's? She may be unpleasant, but nothing in their interactions had suggested she was vindictively destructive. Particularly to unremarkable Level 0's that secretly possessed a remarkable ability.
Either Kamijou was delusional, or magic was real. Espers only had a single ability, no matter how much versatility more powerful espers enjoyed. Looking into the individuals herself on the way to the hospital only reinforced how stark the divide was: Tsuchimikado Motoharu was a Level 0, if he did anything except survive improbable injury, then conventional explanations of esper abilities wouldn't accommodate it. As for anyone else that had been mentioned… Himegami Aisa at least had the ability Kamijou named. With no explanation or relevant information that Kuroko could access.
The others? As far as Academy City's database was concerned, Stiyl Magnus or Kanzaki Kaori didn't exist. Index Librorum Prohibtorum did, but the entry was itself curiously empty beyond a picture—and who would ever have named their child after a list of forbidden reading material? Let alone sent their child to a foreign country, as the western girl obviously had been, without enrolling her in some school.
Anti-Skill's investigation of the crime scene regarding the fake Unabara Mitsuki only supported the magic theory. Nowhere in the environs surrounding the plaza was there any trace of a third party. Camera records didn't show anyone breaking into or leaving the private areas of the local shops, and most of the local vantage points hadn't offered proper line of sight to the destroyed table even if there had been some sign of intrusion.
There were a few options. The first was that Kuroko was the delusional one, ignoring evidence to the contrary and refitting explanations to fit her needs. Maybe her teleportation had gone wrong and destroyed the table. It would make her a true Don Quixote, attacking enemies that only existed inside her own head.
But Kamijou had complained about his homework's destruction. Anti-Skill had accurately described the scene and corroborated her findings. If she was delusional, this level of external consistency and support would make no sense, something ought to be out of place.
The second explanation was Kuroko's preferred choice. Magic wasn't real and they simply lacked information to account for the espers at work. But, the teleporter thought, she had already accounted for the angles a third party might have intervened. The only remaining path was something akin to the Level Upper, yet the impostor had resorted to knife fighting, when literally any ability might be more practical than this. Any other explanation exponentially increased the number of actors required and complexity of their reason to avoid rescuing the impostor… which itself became a magical explanation akin to the requirements Luminiferous Aether had displayed before science refuted it.
That only left magic as a possible theory for the events of the day—and Kamijou's 'prank' text, and the otherwise impossible amnesia.
So, either Kuroko was unable to process reality to a shocking degree despite her functionality or magic was real. To a girl so attached to the scientific world of Academy City, it could still go either way.
Another secret to keep from onee-sama. Kuroko thought, looking at the hospital entrance.
Until she knew what was real, how could she explain it?
AN: Etzali gets to be a knife fighter, because otherwise things get pretty boring. And a weird-ass magical obsidian dagger that might dissemble someone if you hold it wrong is a terrible tool for cutting skin off.
Having read the Railgun anniversary LN this past week, it's pretty amusing that Silent Party is now... probably canon everywhere? Saten's section specifically brings up Janie and Febri, which at least means Silent Party must be canon to the Railgun manga and side stories, and where they don't contradict Index...
I've had another story idea, which might actually get somewhere. Primarily focused around Kuroko (she's just fun to use as a divergence source one way or another), Misaki, and a non-amnesiac Touma. Probably. Misaka's still there, but largely outside of any early plot outlines.