Author's Note

This was written in the same day as the prologue so I decided to release it together with the prologue. Also, more warnings:

Because they're all American (though their families may originate from elsewhere), some names have been changed. For example Sinon's nickname is Shion because it sounds a little less foreign than her real name, Shino (She's a quarter Japanese, so she still has a Japanese name). Female Kirito is still going to have a Japanese name though because she just doesn't care about looking good to other people.

Also, I went for Sinon's GGO hair color and made the excuse that it's dyed. So don't come at me saying "she has black/brown hair!" because I know, I just felt like using her turquoise hair to better contrast Kimiko's black hair.

That's it for now. This chapter makes it seem like things are moving a bit fast, but they'll slow down next time, probably. Just read and you'll see what I mean.

Weapons with Hearts

Chapter One: Meet the Electromancer

FBI agent Shino Asada, age twenty-two, prided herself on never failing an assignment as long as she'd been working for the government. She had initially been a contractor with a similar success record, but after someone working for the Bureau just happened to pass by her target practice (with targets around 2500 yards away – she was in an area with the only sign of human life being a road about twenty yards below her), she was made an offer she couldn't refuse.

The gun she was using (and most .50 caliber firearms) had recently been made illegal for normal US citizens to own, in the past year in fact, as he explained to her. But, as the man said while pointing towards the targets that she knew he couldn't see, the distance between her and her targets (which had been hit dead center multiple times) was impressive. He said he'd used binoculars to find the targets before he approached her.

He told her she had two options. One, he could put her under arrest for owning an illegal weapon. Option number two, she could work for him. No more contracting, just working for him and his team.

She still didn't know how that man who became her boss found out about her job as a contractor. Either he was gifted at gathering intelligence or he was just plain lucky. Either way, she accepted his offer and became the one they called in for assignments where the target was unpredictable and likely to be too dangerous in closer combat. That was how she became a sniper for the FBI.

So imagine her surprise when she received a letter from the army saying she had been chosen as the caregiver of one of those superhuman teenagers she'd heard about in the news. The ones that both started and ended the war on ISIS in less than a week.

They wanted someone who had been killing since pretty much the first time she held a gun to raise a kid? What the hell could they be thinking? Raising a kid, especially a teenager, took a lot of delicacy that, if Shino were honest with herself, she didn't have. All she knew how to do was shoot things, living or otherwise, so how did they expect her to raise someone she wasn't even old enough to be the mother of?

As she would find out upon receiving the debriefing package, however, her proficiency at killing things was precisely the reason she was chosen for this task. The kid they were sending her was already seventeen, but she was not allowed to live on her own even after she came of age. The reason was simple.

She was too dangerous. Out of all the superhuman kids she could have had to take care of, this one was the absolute most dangerous. One of only two surviving teens with all of the "inhibitor genes" or whatever they were called deleted. Not only that, but this one was objectively more dangerous than the other one with all of those genes gone. The information sheets said that both her safety and her usability were a matter of international security after the rest of the world had seen her fight. She had become the US' trump card, their ace in the hole.

In the section of the information sheets that covered her power classified her as an "Electromancer". She had complete control over anything that ran on electricity, and she could move at the speed of a lightning bolt as well as generate electricity with her body. On top of that, she had the ability to deflect bullets using an electromagnetic field to move them around her or even send them right back at the shooter.

This girl was a living weapon. No, not just a weapon – she really was an entire army all on her own.

And from this day forth, Shino had to take care of her.

To say that Shino was nervous would be the understatement of the century. She was waiting in the lobby of the compound where she was to pick up her new charge, Kimiko Kirigaya. She wasn't nervous enough that it interfered with her ability to think rationally, but it was enough to put her seriously off balance.

What would this girl be like? The information she had on her didn't say anything about her personality, so she had nothing to go on other than appearance. And though she hated to admit it, that teen did look pretty cute. But that didn't change the fact that this girl was considered an international threat if she became uncontrollable. The reason they were putting her in Shino's care seemed to be so that she would kill the girl if she went out of line.

But how did they expect her to do that when she could deflect bullets, anyway? She may have never failed an assignment before, but those were all against normal humans, not people with inhuman powers. If it ever came to that point—

"If it'll calm you down, I don't plan to go on a rampage any time soon."

The voice that called out in response to Shino's thoughts was positively beautiful. It conjured the image of a famous singer just by its smooth, low, contralto sound. And yet contrary to the idea that popped into her head after hearing it, the tone of this voice was almost completely monotone, to the extent that it made the FBI agent question whether its owner even had emotions.

"I have emotions, they're just suppressed most of the time," the smooth voice once again responded to her thoughts. "It works better for everyone that way."

Shino finally took the hint and looked up from her uncomfortable wooden seat with annoyingly thin cushions. Standing right in front of her was her new charge, dressed in a dark gray cargo jacket with a silver zipper, a light gray t-shirt that hung rather loosely over everything but her breasts, navy blue loose-fitting cargo jeans, and black combat boots.

Her figure was curvy in all the right places, and Shino admitted with a degree of jealousy that this girl's breasts were bigger than hers. Kimiko had long, lustrous black hair (a stark contrast to the almost neon turquoise-dyed hair Shino had) that went down to her waist and looked smooth enough that even the hardened FBI sniper wanted to run her hands through it.

In summation, she truly was beautiful, even more so than in the photo Shino had seen.

"In case you didn't realize it yet," Kimiko said, her eyes showing no hint of interest in the situation at all. "I can read minds. So you might want to keep thoughts like that to a minimum. At least, that's what everyone else does after they find out I know what they think."

Well, shit. What a terrible way to make a first impression. Really, Shino should have seen it coming after the 'complete control over everything that runs on electricity' bit. But she didn't think about this possibility, and now the girl she had to take care of for the foreseeable future would probably be alienated from her—

"No, not really," the dark beauty once again answered her thoughts. "I don't mind too much. Before they messed with my genes, I was into girls anyway, so I'd be a hypocrite if I judged you for that."

The sound of someone clearing their throat brought the two out of the little world they had entered by themselves. A man standing behind Kimiko, one of a rather unremarkable appearance who sported a white lab coat, held a clipboard out to Shino.

"I just need you to sign this and then you two will be free to go. You'll need to sign page three and page four," he said in a strictly business tone. Compared to the treat of a voice that she had just been talking to, his voice was full and boring, not a single hint of anything interesting, but at the very least, he was pretending he didn't hear our incredibly unprofessional exchange.

Shino accepted the clipboard and pulled the pen out from under the clip, skimming over the document before actually signing it. It just contained a typical confirmation form on the first, second and third pages, one that said she would be Kimiko's legal guardian. She signed that and flipped the page up to see the next page, where something very different caught her eye.

It said that by signing this, she was aware that her actions towards Kimiko could potentially cause an international crisis, and that if such were to happen, she would be held responsible. Shino gulped at the amount of trouble she could find herself in.

"Don't worry about that," Kimiko once again responded to her thoughts in that beautiful yet emotionless contralto. "They're talking about if I were to either go missing or go on a rampage. And believe it or not, I'm one of the more obedient UI, so the risk of either is very low for me."

"UI?" the bright-haired FBI agent couldn't help but query this unfamiliar term.

"It's what we human lab rats with superhuman powers call ourselves," the dark-haired beauty explained, seeming to intentionally talk meanly about herself. "It stands for 'Uninhibited', because varying amounts of our inhibitor genes were deleted. Also, your voice isn't half bad, either. Nice to listen to at least."

"Oh. T-thanks," Shino replied before looking back down at the paper to avoid showing off what she was sure would be a bright blush. She signed the rather daunting sheet, then handed the clipboard back to the man in the lab coat.

"Good. You're free to go, then," he said before turning around to walk away. But then, just before he started moving… "Hey. One more thing, Ms. Asada. You're free to pursue a relationship with her, but you'd be wasting your time. That one's never seemed to care about anything or anyone. She just treats everything with indifference."

With that, he walked away, leaving the two of us to ourselves.

The drive to the FBI agent's home was mostly spent in silence. There were a few attempts at small talk, but they never lasted long. Not because Kimiko didn't respond, but because Shino just kept losing herself in her thoughts.

Then, at around the time they pulled into Shino's driveway, her new charge spoke, this time with a voice that had a tiny hint of unease. "Would you prefer it if I didn't read your mind?"

"Huh?" the turquoise-haired twenty-two-year old woman wondered aloud as they both unbuckled their seatbelts. "Where did that come from?"

"Well, I can turn that specific function off," she explained, looking out the passenger seat's window at the neatly-trimmed lawn out front. "I did that for most of the car ride. I guess I just didn't want you to think bad of me because I kept doing it."

Shino had been worried for nothing at all, it seemed. Kimiko may have been made into a weapon, but deep down, she was still a teenage girl. She still had feelings, she still had a heart. And from the looks of it, a good one, too.

"Hey, look at me for a second," the hardened FBI agent said in a commanding tone. The dark beauty turned to face Shino hesitantly with noticeable fear in her eyes, only to be met with a compassionate gaze. "I wouldn't think you were bad just for using your power. It was a little unsettling at first, I'll admit, but it's probably for the best that you keep it on if you want to. At the very least, it keeps me honest. And if this is gonna work out, that's what we both need to be."

The reaction she got was a bit more than she expected. Kimiko closed the distance between them and latched onto Shino in a fierce hug, burying her face into the older woman's neck. For a second, she didn't react, but just before the teen pulled back, the neon-haired young woman circled her arms around her waist to return the hug.

"You're different from the rest, just like I thought," Kimiko muttered into her new caregiver's neck, and the older girl could feel her smile. "Maybe if it's you…"

"What is it?" Shino said, giving it her all to fight back a shiver from the feeling of the other girl's lips on her neck.

"Don't worry about what that guy said back at the compound," the dark beauty suddenly changed the topic. "I may not have cared about anyone for a long time before this, but if it were you, I don't think I'd be opposed to that sort of relationship."

The seasoned FBI agent was torn between wanting to impulsively kiss the girl currently hugging her and wanting to be the responsible one and stop this conversation dead in its tracks. As the two options waged war on each other in her head, she finally settled on a solution that was in between the other two.

"Let's wait until you're eighteen," Shino said, releasing the younger girl and pulling her back so they could see each other. "In the time between then and now, we can get to know each other and decide whether that's something worth pursuing or not. That okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine," the dark beauty's smooth contralto affirmed as she opened the car door and hopped out. Just before she closed the door to Shino's red SUV, she said one more thing. "But you may want to know that my birthday is in about three weeks. October seventh. So you didn't really give us much time to think it over."

With that and a mischievous smile, she closed the door before Sinon had the chance to change the date.

This would be a long future. A fun one and possibly a hot one, but a long one nonetheless.

Author's Note

Yeah, this is becoming super fun to write. It may end up being longer than I originally planned because it's just so enjoyable for me.

For you gun enthusiasts, yes I know that .50 caliber guns aren't illegal in most states. But this fic takes place four years from now, and with so many people pushing for gun control, I see .50 calibers being the first to go, even if it takes a while. Next will come double action semi-auto guns, I'll bet. I mean, it's pretty much a given that the liberals are going to win this one eventually, they almost always win. I can say that without sounding super prejudiced because I hate both sides equally.

Also, yeah I know this chapter isn't super long like I promised. It is almost double the length of the prologue minus the author notes on each, but it's still pretty short. But what you've gotta understand is that these are the opening chapters, so they set the scenario, not make use of it. They're gonna be shorter in a lot of cases. The average chapter length for this fic after the opening few is going to be three thousand.

Also, the reason things are moving so fast here (they literally just met and they're considering becoming a couple, that's fast) is because of two things: Kimiko's ability to read minds, and the fact that Shino is the first person to be so accepting of her, powers and all. And even so, both of them are just feeling attraction at the moment. It's not love yet. If they started a relationship now it'd be purely physical.

Anyway, that's about it. I'm just about done for now.

See you next chapter!